Tag: tech

Trying to solve the Wordle today? If you’re stuck, we’ve got a few hints that will help you keep your Wordle streak alive.

Trying to solve the Wordle today? If you’re stuck, we’ve got a few hints that will help you keep your Wordle streak alive.

Sony may have whiffed with Concord, but the PS5 had a surprisingly fantastic year otherwise.

It’s been a few years since Samsung took a crack at making a premium Chromebook. In 2020, the company released the first Galaxy Chromebook, a $999 laptop with a gorgeous 4K OLED screen that barely lasted five hours away from a charger. The company fixed some issues with its 2021 model, which had a more pedestrian screen and a thicker design while costing $300 less — a fair compromise given that battery life was significantly better.

Since then, Google has also launched the Chromebook Plus initiative, which aims to standardize Chromebook specs to give people a more consistent experience. And now, Samsung has released its first entry to that lineup: the Galaxy Chromebook Plus. It’s a bit different than most of the other laptops in that space, though, with a large 15.6-inch OLED screen and a design that’s extremely thin and light for its size. It reminds me a little bit of the 15-inch MacBook Air, though its appearance is unmistakably Samsung. The Galaxy Chromebook Plus also has more of Google’s AI capabilities baked into it than any Chromebook thus far, thanks to a new “Quick Insert” key that grants fast access to Gemini.

Finally, it’s one of the most expensive Chromebook Plus options out there at $699. That puts it directly in competition with Acer’s Chromebook Spin Plus 714, my current favorite in the premium Chromebook space. And while it’s refreshingly different from the Acer and Lenovo models I usually use, there are a few quirks here you should know about.

Photo by Nathan Ingraham / Engadget

Hardware and design: Not your typical Chromebook

First, though, the good stuff. The Galaxy Chromebook Plus’ 1080p, 15.6-inch screen is crisp and bright, with excellent viewing angles. Somewhat surprisingly, though, it doesn’t have a touchscreen. Lots of Chromebooks do, as it makes interacting with some Android apps easier. But once I got used to the fact that poking the screen did nothing, I didn’t really miss it. Samsung says it’s the only Chromebook Plus with an AMOLED display, and while I wouldn’t mind a higher resolution, I know that would lead to worse battery life. All told, I think Samsung made the right choice not to go for 4K, especially considering that a computer this thin doesn’t have as much room for a bigger battery.

Speaking of: this laptop is seriously thin. It’s less than half an inch thick (0.46 inches to be precise) and weighs only 2.58 pounds. That’s essentially the same thickness as the 13- and 15-inch MacBook Air, and the Galaxy Chromebook Plus is lighter than both. It’s well-suited to going anywhere without being too much of a burden, not something you get often on a laptop with a large screen. Despite its thin-and-light design, Samsung didn’t skimp on ports here: it has HDMI, two USB-C ports (one of which you’ll need for charging), a microSDXC slot (that I wish was standard microSD), a headphone jack and an old-school USB-A port.

As part of the Chromebook Plus line, this laptop exceeds the minimum spec requirements. It pairs an Intel Core 3 100U processor released earlier this year with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. That’s more than enough power for a Chromebook in this day and age, and I had no qualms with its performance across the board.

While the Galaxy Chromebook Plus is quite svelte, its 15.6-inch screen makes transporting it a little awkward. Thanks to its 16:9 aspect ratio, the laptop has serious surfboard vibes – it’s just very wide, and it’s a tight fit in my bag. Furthermore, the 16:9 aspect ratio makes the screen feel smaller than it really is. The 1080p panel defaults to a scaled resolution that works out to 1,600 x 900, almost 100 fewer vertical pixels than my 14-inch MacBook Pro. I’ve been yelling into the void for years now that the 16:9 aspect ratio is just not ideal for modern computing, given the verticality of basically every web site. I’d be much happier with a smaller panel that offered more vertical pixels, but that’s just me.

I have mixed feelings about the keyboard and trackpad. Since the Galaxy Chromebook Plus is so thin, the keys don’t feel quite as comfortable as those on most other Chromebooks I use, to say nothing of my MacBook Pro. But, they’re not bad at all; nothing like the terrible butterfly keyboards on the MacBooks of the prior decade. They have less travel and are a little clickier than I’d like but still easy enough to acclimate to.

Photo by Nathan Ingraham / Engadget

My real issue is that Samsung chose to include a number pad on the keyboard. This might be my own personal quirk, but I generally can’t stand number pads because I’d much rather have my hands centered below the display. I always feel slightly off-kilter and unbalanced using a laptop with a number pad, and it led to me making far more typos than I usually do. I’m sure if it was my only computer, I’d adjust and get used to it — but I don’t think I’d ever really like it. For me, the tradeoff just isn’t worth the number pad. I also found myself activating the trackpad by grazing it with the side of my palms while typing more often than I’d like. I eventually acclimated to how to type comfortably and avoid the touchpad, but between that and the number pad I found the Galaxy Chromebook Plus’s typing experience isn’t as good as some other Chromebooks I’ve used.

Perhaps the most notable thing about the keyboard, though, is the new Quick Insert key that goes where the traditional search key is. (Chromebooks have always had this instead of a caps lock key.) Quick Insert pulls up a small menu similar in size to what you see if you right-click something. But it gives contextual suggestions based on what you’re doing rather than showing the same options every time. In the very Google Doc where I wrote this review, it suggested various emoji (which would definitely be useful when using a chat app), links to a few Google Drive files it thought were relevant and a “help me write” prompt using Google Gemini. The menu also shows quick links to your Files folder, Google Drive, browsing history and a few other potentially helpful options.

Photo by Nathan Ingraham / Engadget

Samsung moved the traditional launcher key to the bottom row, nestled between Fn and Alt. That key still brings up the app launcher and a traditional search field for things on your computer; you can also easily search Google from here. The trickiest thing about this placement is that some shortcuts I was used to now require me to use the launcher in a new spot instead of Quick Insert. It’s a bit of a learning curve, and the benefit of Quick Insert doesn’t quite outweigh having to retrain my brain on new shortcuts. Hopefully the Quick Insert gets smarter and more useful over time, but right now it’s mostly a shortcut to grabbing emoji quickly. I have zero interest in having Google’s AI help me write anything, so for now its utility is limited.

Photo by Nathan Ingraham / Engadget

ChromeOS and Gemini

That’s the good and bad of the hardware, but that’s only part of the equation. By now, the usual caveats of ChromeOS are well-known: it’s still a primarily web-based system, but Android applications can extend its features. There are also plenty of web apps that are well optimized for ChromeOS, and Google Docs has a comprehensive offline mode at this point. And if you have a recent Android phone, ChromeOS has a pretty robust feature set when you pair it to your Chromebook, including shared notifications and streaming of some apps directly to your laptop.

Google has also added a lot of smart and useful features to ChromeOS over the last year or so that make it more useful. For example, clicking the date in the taskbar brings up your full Google calendar and anything in the Tasks app, making it a quick place to see what you have planned for the day without having to dive into the full Calendar or Tasks experience. There’s also a new “focus” mode for when you want to sit down and concentrate. It turns on Do Not Disturb, sets a timer and lets you pick a YouTube Music playlist or some “focus sounds” like ambient or classical music, or even the sounds of nature. It’s a small thing, but there are a lot of thoughtful tools like that now in ChromeOS that make it feel like much more than just a browser.

Naturally, AI is a bigger part of ChromeOS than ever. In addition to the “help me write” tools and suggestions that show up when you tap the Quick Insert key, Gemini is a click away with an app shortcut in the toolbar by default. There are also a few frivolous AI features thrown in, like a wallpaper generator with eight different categories to choose from (landscape, surreal, dreamscape, classic art and so on). Once you pick one, you’ll get a few more fields you can edit to get a handful of AI creations you can set as your wallpaper. You don’t get full creative control here; generally there are two things you can edit in each prompt. They’re hit or miss, but I did like the “classic art” avant-garde beach scene I created.

There’s also a beta test of the “help me read” feature that’ll summarize documents, PDFs and web pages. I made a PDF of this review from Google Docs and had the AI summarize it, which it did with no errors but also with very little detail. I asked it questions about the content of the document and it answered them accurately, as well. And the Magic Editor built into Google Photos on Pixel phones is also available on Chromebook Plus models, letting you alter the reality of your snapshots to your heart’s content. None of this stuff is essential to me, but it’s clearly the way we’re headed, like it or not. One good thing is that Google includes a full year of its $20/month Google One with AI plan to Chromebook Plus buyers, this Samsung model included. That gets you 2TB of Drive storage and access to Gemini Advanced, Gemini in Google Docs and Gmail, as well as a few other AI perks. I don’t think it’s necessary at this point, but getting to try it for a full year is a pretty nice offer.

Finally, there’s the ever-present question of battery life. I’m getting between six and a half and eight hours off the charger, depending on what I’m doing; as usual, video calls really put a hurt on things. That’s not bad, but it’s still pretty far from the 13 hours Samsung claims. I don’t know what I’d have to do to come close to that mark. One day, with concentrated use, I burned through two-thirds of the battery in less than four hours. That’s pretty common for basically all Chromebooks I’ve tested in recent years, and my guess is that with Intel silicon we’re not going to see things improve in any meaningful way.

Wrap-up

Despite some misgivings, I actually enjoyed my time with the Galaxy Chromebook Plus. I probably wouldn’t pick it as my own personal computer, because the number pad I won’t use simply makes things too awkward. But there’s also a lot to like here – it’s so much lighter and thinner than other Chromebooks I usually use that it is a delight to travel with, despite the fact that its width is a bit cumbersome. And while I wish there was more vertical screen resolution, I did enjoy having such a large display combined in a very portable device.

For the right kind of buyer, the Galaxy Chromebook Plus might be just what you’re looking for (especially if the idea of a number pad on the keyboard excites you). For me, though, the slightly more boring but reliable Acer Chromebook Spin 714 Plus remains my favorite premium Chromebook. But Samsung has put forward a solid effort here, and I hope they continue on this path with future Chromebooks – Acer and Lenovo could use the competition.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/samsung-galaxy-chromebook-plus-review-quirky-in-ways-both-good-and-bad-140036965.html?src=rss

It’s been a few years since Samsung took a crack at making a premium Chromebook. In 2020, the company released the first Galaxy Chromebook, a $999 laptop with a gorgeous 4K OLED screen that barely lasted five hours away from a charger. The company fixed some issues with its 2021 model, which had a more pedestrian screen and a thicker design while costing $300 less — a fair compromise given that battery life was significantly better.

Since then, Google has also launched the Chromebook Plus initiative, which aims to standardize Chromebook specs to give people a more consistent experience. And now, Samsung has released its first entry to that lineup: the Galaxy Chromebook Plus. It’s a bit different than most of the other laptops in that space, though, with a large 15.6-inch OLED screen and a design that’s extremely thin and light for its size. It reminds me a little bit of the 15-inch MacBook Air, though its appearance is unmistakably Samsung. The Galaxy Chromebook Plus also has more of Google’s AI capabilities baked into it than any Chromebook thus far, thanks to a new “Quick Insert” key that grants fast access to Gemini.

Finally, it’s one of the most expensive Chromebook Plus options out there at $699. That puts it directly in competition with Acer’s Chromebook Spin Plus 714, my current favorite in the premium Chromebook space. And while it’s refreshingly different from the Acer and Lenovo models I usually use, there are a few quirks here you should know about.

Photo by Nathan Ingraham / Engadget

Hardware and design: Not your typical Chromebook

First, though, the good stuff. The Galaxy Chromebook Plus’ 1080p, 15.6-inch screen is crisp and bright, with excellent viewing angles. Somewhat surprisingly, though, it doesn’t have a touchscreen. Lots of Chromebooks do, as it makes interacting with some Android apps easier. But once I got used to the fact that poking the screen did nothing, I didn’t really miss it. Samsung says it’s the only Chromebook Plus with an AMOLED display, and while I wouldn’t mind a higher resolution, I know that would lead to worse battery life. All told, I think Samsung made the right choice not to go for 4K, especially considering that a computer this thin doesn’t have as much room for a bigger battery.

Speaking of: this laptop is seriously thin. It’s less than half an inch thick (0.46 inches to be precise) and weighs only 2.58 pounds. That’s essentially the same thickness as the 13- and 15-inch MacBook Air, and the Galaxy Chromebook Plus is lighter than both. It’s well-suited to going anywhere without being too much of a burden, not something you get often on a laptop with a large screen. Despite its thin-and-light design, Samsung didn’t skimp on ports here: it has HDMI, two USB-C ports (one of which you’ll need for charging), a microSDXC slot (that I wish was standard microSD), a headphone jack and an old-school USB-A port.

As part of the Chromebook Plus line, this laptop exceeds the minimum spec requirements. It pairs an Intel Core 3 100U processor released earlier this year with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. That’s more than enough power for a Chromebook in this day and age, and I had no qualms with its performance across the board.

While the Galaxy Chromebook Plus is quite svelte, its 15.6-inch screen makes transporting it a little awkward. Thanks to its 16:9 aspect ratio, the laptop has serious surfboard vibes – it’s just very wide, and it’s a tight fit in my bag. Furthermore, the 16:9 aspect ratio makes the screen feel smaller than it really is. The 1080p panel defaults to a scaled resolution that works out to 1,600 x 900, almost 100 fewer vertical pixels than my 14-inch MacBook Pro. I’ve been yelling into the void for years now that the 16:9 aspect ratio is just not ideal for modern computing, given the verticality of basically every web site. I’d be much happier with a smaller panel that offered more vertical pixels, but that’s just me.

I have mixed feelings about the keyboard and trackpad. Since the Galaxy Chromebook Plus is so thin, the keys don’t feel quite as comfortable as those on most other Chromebooks I use, to say nothing of my MacBook Pro. But, they’re not bad at all; nothing like the terrible butterfly keyboards on the MacBooks of the prior decade. They have less travel and are a little clickier than I’d like but still easy enough to acclimate to.

Photo by Nathan Ingraham / Engadget

My real issue is that Samsung chose to include a number pad on the keyboard. This might be my own personal quirk, but I generally can’t stand number pads because I’d much rather have my hands centered below the display. I always feel slightly off-kilter and unbalanced using a laptop with a number pad, and it led to me making far more typos than I usually do. I’m sure if it was my only computer, I’d adjust and get used to it — but I don’t think I’d ever really like it. For me, the tradeoff just isn’t worth the number pad. I also found myself activating the trackpad by grazing it with the side of my palms while typing more often than I’d like. I eventually acclimated to how to type comfortably and avoid the touchpad, but between that and the number pad I found the Galaxy Chromebook Plus’s typing experience isn’t as good as some other Chromebooks I’ve used.

Perhaps the most notable thing about the keyboard, though, is the new Quick Insert key that goes where the traditional search key is. (Chromebooks have always had this instead of a caps lock key.) Quick Insert pulls up a small menu similar in size to what you see if you right-click something. But it gives contextual suggestions based on what you’re doing rather than showing the same options every time. In the very Google Doc where I wrote this review, it suggested various emoji (which would definitely be useful when using a chat app), links to a few Google Drive files it thought were relevant and a “help me write” prompt using Google Gemini. The menu also shows quick links to your Files folder, Google Drive, browsing history and a few other potentially helpful options.

Photo by Nathan Ingraham / Engadget

Samsung moved the traditional launcher key to the bottom row, nestled between Fn and Alt. That key still brings up the app launcher and a traditional search field for things on your computer; you can also easily search Google from here. The trickiest thing about this placement is that some shortcuts I was used to now require me to use the launcher in a new spot instead of Quick Insert. It’s a bit of a learning curve, and the benefit of Quick Insert doesn’t quite outweigh having to retrain my brain on new shortcuts. Hopefully the Quick Insert gets smarter and more useful over time, but right now it’s mostly a shortcut to grabbing emoji quickly. I have zero interest in having Google’s AI help me write anything, so for now its utility is limited.

Photo by Nathan Ingraham / Engadget

ChromeOS and Gemini

That’s the good and bad of the hardware, but that’s only part of the equation. By now, the usual caveats of ChromeOS are well-known: it’s still a primarily web-based system, but Android applications can extend its features. There are also plenty of web apps that are well optimized for ChromeOS, and Google Docs has a comprehensive offline mode at this point. And if you have a recent Android phone, ChromeOS has a pretty robust feature set when you pair it to your Chromebook, including shared notifications and streaming of some apps directly to your laptop.

Google has also added a lot of smart and useful features to ChromeOS over the last year or so that make it more useful. For example, clicking the date in the taskbar brings up your full Google calendar and anything in the Tasks app, making it a quick place to see what you have planned for the day without having to dive into the full Calendar or Tasks experience. There’s also a new “focus” mode for when you want to sit down and concentrate. It turns on Do Not Disturb, sets a timer and lets you pick a YouTube Music playlist or some “focus sounds” like ambient or classical music, or even the sounds of nature. It’s a small thing, but there are a lot of thoughtful tools like that now in ChromeOS that make it feel like much more than just a browser.

Naturally, AI is a bigger part of ChromeOS than ever. In addition to the “help me write” tools and suggestions that show up when you tap the Quick Insert key, Gemini is a click away with an app shortcut in the toolbar by default. There are also a few frivolous AI features thrown in, like a wallpaper generator with eight different categories to choose from (landscape, surreal, dreamscape, classic art and so on). Once you pick one, you’ll get a few more fields you can edit to get a handful of AI creations you can set as your wallpaper. You don’t get full creative control here; generally there are two things you can edit in each prompt. They’re hit or miss, but I did like the “classic art” avant-garde beach scene I created.

There’s also a beta test of the “help me read” feature that’ll summarize documents, PDFs and web pages. I made a PDF of this review from Google Docs and had the AI summarize it, which it did with no errors but also with very little detail. I asked it questions about the content of the document and it answered them accurately, as well. And the Magic Editor built into Google Photos on Pixel phones is also available on Chromebook Plus models, letting you alter the reality of your snapshots to your heart’s content. None of this stuff is essential to me, but it’s clearly the way we’re headed, like it or not. One good thing is that Google includes a full year of its $20/month Google One with AI plan to Chromebook Plus buyers, this Samsung model included. That gets you 2TB of Drive storage and access to Gemini Advanced, Gemini in Google Docs and Gmail, as well as a few other AI perks. I don’t think it’s necessary at this point, but getting to try it for a full year is a pretty nice offer.

Finally, there’s the ever-present question of battery life. I’m getting between six and a half and eight hours off the charger, depending on what I’m doing; as usual, video calls really put a hurt on things. That’s not bad, but it’s still pretty far from the 13 hours Samsung claims. I don’t know what I’d have to do to come close to that mark. One day, with concentrated use, I burned through two-thirds of the battery in less than four hours. That’s pretty common for basically all Chromebooks I’ve tested in recent years, and my guess is that with Intel silicon we’re not going to see things improve in any meaningful way.

Wrap-up

Despite some misgivings, I actually enjoyed my time with the Galaxy Chromebook Plus. I probably wouldn’t pick it as my own personal computer, because the number pad I won’t use simply makes things too awkward. But there’s also a lot to like here – it’s so much lighter and thinner than other Chromebooks I usually use that it is a delight to travel with, despite the fact that its width is a bit cumbersome. And while I wish there was more vertical screen resolution, I did enjoy having such a large display combined in a very portable device.

For the right kind of buyer, the Galaxy Chromebook Plus might be just what you’re looking for (especially if the idea of a number pad on the keyboard excites you). For me, though, the slightly more boring but reliable Acer Chromebook Spin 714 Plus remains my favorite premium Chromebook. But Samsung has put forward a solid effort here, and I hope they continue on this path with future Chromebooks – Acer and Lenovo could use the competition.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/samsung-galaxy-chromebook-plus-review-quirky-in-ways-both-good-and-bad-140036965.html?src=rss

One of the highlights from The Game Awards last night was the moment Breaking Bad star Aaron Paul and voice actor Laura Bailey took the stage to reveal Dispatch. Set to arrive in 2025, the narrative game is from AdHoc Studio, founded by former Telltale Games developers, and features a stacked cast including Paul, Bailey, Jeffrey Wright, Erin Yvette, Jacksepticeye and others — a mix of A-list Hollywood talent and top-tier game voice actors. 

The toon-style Dispatch offers narrative, dialogue-driven gameplay in the same vein as Telltale. According to the Steam page, you play as “Robert Robertson, AKA Mecha Man, whose mech-suit is destroyed in a battle against his nemesis, forcing him to take a job at a superhero dispatch center: not as a hero, but a dispatcher.” 

There’s more in the official synopsis, which explains that Dispatch is “a superhero workplace comedy where choices matter. Manage a dysfunctional team of misfit heroes and strategize who to send to emergencies around the city, all while balancing office politics, personal relationships, and your own quest to become a hero.”

AdHoc sprung up in 2019, when former Telltale devs joined forces to continue Telltale’s adventure game legacy, after the Walking Dead studio laid off most of its staff in 2018. A rebooted Telltale worked with AdHoc on The Wolf Among Us 2, but last year, the developer announced that it had laid off most of its team. However, it recently said that The Wolf Among Us 2 has not been cancelled. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/dispatch-is-a-new-narrative-game-from-ex-telltale-developers-133031972.html?src=rss

One of the highlights from The Game Awards last night was the moment Breaking Bad star Aaron Paul and voice actor Laura Bailey took the stage to reveal Dispatch. Set to arrive in 2025, the narrative game is from AdHoc Studio, founded by former Telltale Games developers, and features a stacked cast including Paul, Bailey, Jeffrey Wright, Erin Yvette, Jacksepticeye and others — a mix of A-list Hollywood talent and top-tier game voice actors. 

The toon-style Dispatch offers narrative, dialogue-driven gameplay in the same vein as Telltale. According to the Steam page, you play as “Robert Robertson, AKA Mecha Man, whose mech-suit is destroyed in a battle against his nemesis, forcing him to take a job at a superhero dispatch center: not as a hero, but a dispatcher.” 

There’s more in the official synopsis, which explains that Dispatch is “a superhero workplace comedy where choices matter. Manage a dysfunctional team of misfit heroes and strategize who to send to emergencies around the city, all while balancing office politics, personal relationships, and your own quest to become a hero.”

AdHoc sprung up in 2019, when former Telltale devs joined forces to continue Telltale’s adventure game legacy, after the Walking Dead studio laid off most of its staff in 2018. A rebooted Telltale worked with AdHoc on The Wolf Among Us 2, but last year, the developer announced that it had laid off most of its team. However, it recently said that The Wolf Among Us 2 has not been cancelled. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/dispatch-is-a-new-narrative-game-from-ex-telltale-developers-133031972.html?src=rss

New iPhone 16 owners can pick up an Apple charger for cheap right now. The latest, more powerful MagSafe charger has dropped to as low as $30. You’ll get that price on the 1m (3.3 ft) model, but the better discount is on the 2m (6.6 ft) model, which is 29 percent off and on sale for $35. That’s a return to the same low price we saw for the accessory during Black Friday.

Apple refreshed its MagSafe charger alongside the iPhone 16 lineup this fall. Provided you own an iPhone 16 and an adapter that offers at least 30W of power, the charger reaches charging speeds of up to 25W. According to Apple, that’s enough to allow iPhone 16 Pro users to charge their device to 50 percent in 30 minutes. With older iPhones and Qi-compatible accessories, power delivery speeds are limited to 15W. 

Apple’s official MageSafe charger is one of our favorite iPhone accessories. Even at full price, it’s a great purchase for getting a little more out of your new smartphone. With Amazon’s current discount, there’s no reason not to buy one if you prefer wireless charging.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/apples-updated-magsafe-wireless-charger-is-on-sale-for-35-154041854.html?src=rss

New iPhone 16 owners can pick up an Apple charger for cheap right now. The latest, more powerful MagSafe charger has dropped to as low as $30. You’ll get that price on the 1m (3.3 ft) model, but the better discount is on the 2m (6.6 ft) model, which is 29 percent off and on sale for $35. That’s a return to the same low price we saw for the accessory during Black Friday.

Apple refreshed its MagSafe charger alongside the iPhone 16 lineup this fall. Provided you own an iPhone 16 and an adapter that offers at least 30W of power, the charger reaches charging speeds of up to 25W. According to Apple, that’s enough to allow iPhone 16 Pro users to charge their device to 50 percent in 30 minutes. With older iPhones and Qi-compatible accessories, power delivery speeds are limited to 15W. 

Apple’s official MageSafe charger is one of our favorite iPhone accessories. Even at full price, it’s a great purchase for getting a little more out of your new smartphone. With Amazon’s current discount, there’s no reason not to buy one if you prefer wireless charging.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/apples-updated-magsafe-wireless-charger-is-on-sale-for-35-154041854.html?src=rss

With over 60 million PS5s sold, Sony is so far dominating this generation of game consoles. Four years since the PlayStation 5 debuted, the company has rounded out its gaming lineup with the refined PS5 Slim (both with and without a disc drive) and the more powerful (and expensive) PS5 Pro.

At possibly the console’s midlife, up against the Xbox Series S and X, ever-increasingly powerful gaming PCs, and Nintendo’s Switch, it’s a good time to reassess what the PS5, in pole position, is doing to hold gamers’ attention spans and why the PS5 Slim is probably the right way to dive into Sony’s rich gaming selection.

Hardware

Photo by Mat Smith/Engadget

The PS5 Slim looks very similar to the original design but it’s noticeably (thankfully!) smaller. In fact, it’s 30 percent smaller by volume. Let’s be honest, it’s still big, but the PS5 Slim fits into the shelf in my home entertainment sideboard – the original PS5 did not.

Sony has kept the weird finned design of the original here, so there’s a shared aesthetic across all the PS5 consoles. In the box, there are also two transparent feet to mount the console horizontally. It’s a simpler, more subtle way to lift the console than the original’s awkward plinth with plastic hooks. The PS5 Slim can stand vertically on its own, but it might be worth getting a vertical stand for peace of mind, which unfortunately means laying down an extra $30.

Inside, it’s largely the same technical specs of the launch console: an AMD Zen 2 CPU, RDNA 2 GPU, 16GB of GDDR6 RAM, and both Wi-Fi 6 and gigabit ethernet. (Technically, the Xbox Series X packs more power and if you want more power, please see the PS5 Pro). The PS5 Slim, however, comes with a 1TB SSD, offering 25 percent more usable storage than the 825GB SSD inside the original PS5.

Having said that, at a time when a AAA game install can circle 150GB, we’d advise preparing yourself to add further storage, especially if you get the majority of your games through the online store. Fortunately, it’s easy to install an extra SSD (most of the best options have a preinstalled heatsink) and the prices for bigger storage have tumbled since 2020.

If you’re a disc-based gamer, the PS5 Slim has both a digital-only ($450) and disc model ($500), but you can ‘upgrade’ to a disc drive for an $80 premium. (It’s the same drive that PS5 Pro users will have to pick up, if you’re wondering why it’s been recently sold out everywhere.)

Even if you decide to add the disc drive, it’s been designed to keep within the smooth lines of the console, if leaving it a little lop-sided. Curiously, Sony demands you connect the console to activate the drive, something to be aware of if you’re planning to gift the console and want less stress.

Sony also swapped around the port options, shifting to a USB-C duo, instead of a single USB-C port and a USB-A port. Given that the latter maxed out at 480Mbps speeds, it’s another upgrade. (There are still two USB-A ports available on the back for older accessories.)

Beyond any physical changes, since its launch, Sony has fed through some notable technical upgrades to PS5 through software updates. For one, catching up to the Xbox with support for TVs with variable refresh rates, dynamically syncing the (HDMI 2.1) display’s refresh rate to the PS5 console’s graphical output. This means games should output more smoothly and reduce the chances of screen tearing when your TV and PS5 aren’t entirely in sync. The PS5 Slim also supports 1440p resolution screens, a middle option between 1080p and 4K.

Photo by Mat Smith/Engadget

Sony added more features like personalized 3D audio profiles for gamers using headphones and Party Share, where you can transmit gameplay in real time. There’s also Remote Play, available on iOS and Android, as well as the company’s standalone streaming device, the PlayStation Portal. When it comes to Remote Play, there haven’t been any major changes since the PS4 iteration, but it does seem like the service is more stable in recent years.

There have been changes to how PlayStation’s separated out its subscription service. Starting with PlayStation Plus Essentials, $10 a month, this opens up access to online multiplayer, at least two free games each month, discounts, cloud storage and Share Play.

PlayStation Plus Extra ($15 per month), adds a bigger library of PS5 and PS4 games for free, while PlayStation Plus Premium ($18 per month) adds cloud streaming functionality, so you can play PS5 games without having to use your PS5. You can also play a collection of PS4 games (and even older games from the OG PlayStation onwards) without having to download the game. 

Having said that, Xbox’s Game Pass offers a bigger selection of games, and often includes first-party Microsoft games available to play on release day. PlayStation, unfortunately, doesn’t do the same, and its biggest exclusive releases often only arrive free on PS Plus years later. Which tier is right for you will depend on how much you play, and whether you’re regularly trying to game away from wherever your PS5 is. It’s worth getting into PS Plus Essentials just for the dripfeed of free games.

Since launch, the PS5 has picked up plenty of other small improvements too, like dimmable power indicators for the PS5’s glow, and adaptive controller charging which should extend the battery life of your DualSense by optimizing charge time. A quick note to say that the DualSense remains the most comfortable, innovative controller that Sony has ever made – but the battery life is pretty appalling. Expect to plug it in pretty regularly.

Software

Photo by Mat Smith/Engadget

The PS5’s interface has also evolved since launch, with increased priority given to the customizable Welcome Hub, where you can choose the background, widgets and prioritze the games and features you’re using most. It’s also worth noting that the UI itself is far snappier and more responsive than it was at launch.

While you won’t get the back catalogue sharpening of the Pro console, the PS5 Slim will happily play most PS4 games, too. It’s a double-edged sword, however, with both PS4 and PS5 versions of games clogging up PlayStation’s online store.

And the games! It indicates a great problem to have: so many strong titles, both internally and from third-party publishers. God of War Ragnarok, Spider-Man 2, and Astro Bot have all been platform exclusives, while long-running series like Final Fantasy have landed on PS5 first, with other platforms getting the game much later. Then, there’s the likes of Elden Ring, Baldur’s Gate 3 and anything on PSVR2 – not that there’s all that much for the headset.

Sony is now drip-feeding its games to PC, but it detracted from the console’s exclusive grasp on its flagship games. So far, there have been lengthy multi-year gaps between a game launching on PlayStation consoles and its arrival on PCs. God of War took four years to move from PS4 to PC, while Horizon: Zero Dawn took three years. That could change in the next few years, however. Earlier this year, Sony launched Helldivers 2 on PS5 and Windows at the same time, and Lego Horizon Adventures was released on PS5, Windows and Switch simultaneously last month.

Wrap-up

Photo by Mat Smith/Engadget

The PS5 Slim is the new normal for PlayStation gamers. It’s smaller without being small and packs in many small improvements in specs and software-based features. Anyone craving more power (or bragging rights over their Xbox Series X-owning friends) can go for the PS5 Pro, but that demands a $200 premium. For most of us, this is the PlayStation we’ll be playing for however many years it takes for the PlayStation 6 to appear.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation-5-slim-review-131542271.html?src=rss