Category: Electronic Product

Asus RT-AX82U review

Two-minute review

Asus has a very extensive range of networking products, which includes its specialist Republic of Gamers (RoG) brand that offers seriously high-end gaming products, such as its Rapture router, which pushes the envelope at close to $530/£400/AU$700. 

The Asus RT-AX82U isn’t in quite the same league, but this dual-band Wi-Fi 6 router is still far faster than conventional 802.11ac routers and is designed to appeal to a more casual gaming audience, as well as providing additional features for busy households that need fast and reliable Wi-Fi.

You can’t buy the RT-AX82U direct from Asus, and the online pricing seems to be somewhat inconsistent, but Asus says the RRP is £180 ($230/AU$310), so it’s worth taking the time to shop around before buying. 

Asus has clearly got its eye on the latest gaming consoles and mobile devices that support Wi-Fi 6, but that’s still a competitive price for a next-gen router such as this, making the RT-AX82U an affordable upgrade even for non-gamers. 

And, of course, new Wi-Fi 6 routers are also compatible with older devices that still use the 802.11ac version of Wi-Fi, so you don’t have to worry about compatibility problems if you decide to upgrade your router.

Design and features

It may not fall under the Republic of Gamers banner, but the Asus RT-AX82U has certainly got the right look for a gaming router, with a low-profile, sharply angular design and four large antennae stabbing out from the back panel. And, on the front panel, there’s a pair of ‘eyes’ – two small LED panels that glow with smouldering colours. You can even use the Asus app to choose a variety of ‘auras’ that strobe through different colour sequences. 

Gaming gimmickry aside, the RT-AX82U gets all the basics right, offering dual-band Wi-Fi 6 (aka 802.11ax) with a top speed of 5400Mbps (5.4Gbps). 

There are faster Wi-Fi 6 routers – including the RoG Rapture which boasts a massive 11Gbps – but that’s a good speed for a router in this price range. The RT-AX82U doesn’t include a modem, so it provides a dedicated Gigabit Ethernet port for connecting to your existing modem or router in order to use your broadband connection. 

There are also four additional Gigabit Ethernet ports for devices, such as a games console or a smart-TV, that work better with a lag-free wired connection, with one of those being designated as the ‘gaming port and taking priority over devices connected to the other Ethernet ports. And, finally, there’s a single USB 3.1 port for sharing a USB storage device on your home network.

Set-up and performance

The Asus RT-AX82U strikes a good balance between ease-of-use for beginners, and advanced features for gamers and more experienced users. 

The printed manual included in the box gives you two options for setting the router up, with the quick and easy option being the Asus Router app for iOS and Android devices, while a more advanced web browser interface is also available for people who don’t mind delving more deeply into their wi-fi and network settings.

We started with the Asus Router app and were pleased to see that it starts by giving you the option of setting up separate networks on the 2.4GHz and 5.0GHz bands, or merging the two bands together into a single network. 

The only minor oddity here is that the router’s default Wi-Fi network isn’t initially protected by a password, so you need to move through the set-up process and assign a password fairly quickly in order to keep your new network secure.

Most people will find that the basic app provides all the features they need, including the ability to set up a guest network, and extensive parental controls that include content filters for a wide range of unsuitable material. 

There’s also a security feature called AiProtection that monitors your network for malware and hacking attempts from malicious web sites – and, thankfully, this doesn’t require an additional subscription as some routers do.

The Asus Router app provides a Mobile Gaming mode that prioritises mobile devices for maximum performance, but you can also select specific tasks, such as video streaming, that you might want to prioritise as well. And, if you’re prepared to delve into the web browser interface, you can select other devices for gaming priority, and even use that USB port to set up a hard drive for Time Machine back-ups on a Mac.

Performance is also very strong for a mid-price router such as this. Devices in the same room as the Asus RT-AX82U managed to coax our normal 100Mbps broadband connection up to 103Mbps using the Ookla speed test on both the 2.4GHz and 5.0GHz bands, with Steam downloads also impressively steady at 12.5MB/s on both bands. 

Moving further away to a back office didn’t faze the RT-AX82U either, with the 5.0GHz band having no trouble maintaining those speeds, while the slower 2.4GHz band dipped only slightly to 98Mbs on Ookla and 11.7MB/s for Steam downloads. 

It’s hard to fault that sort of performance at this price, and with the Asus app and browser interface providing versatile features and controls that are suitable for both gamers and non-gamers, the Asus RT-AX82U is an excellent option for any household that needs a fast and affordable Wi-Fi upgrade.

Buy it if…

You’re a casual gamer
The competitive price of the Asus RT-AX82U is very much intended to attract casual gamers who enjoy playing on consoles and mobile devices, especially with features such as the ‘Mobile Gaming’ mode that is specifically designed for iOS and Android devices.

You’ve got kids
There are lots of high-speed routers that fall down when it comes to parental controls. However, the RT-AX82U provides good controls for protecting your kids, including content filters for unsuitable material, and a scheduling option to limit the time your sprogs spend online.

You’re getting a new phone for Christmas
Existing devices that use 802.11ac Wi-Fi (aka Wi-Fi 5) will still work with new Wi-Fi 6 routers. However, you’ll need a new smartphone, tablet or other device that supports Wi-Fi 6 in order to get the full speed and other benefits of this next-gen Wi-Fi.

Don’t buy it if…

You’re on a budget
The RT-AX82U is good value for money, but if your broadband connection is less than 100Mbps then you probably don’t need the full speed of a Wi-Fi 6 router. There are plenty of less expensive 802.11ac routers that will handle your home broadband.

You’re not a gamer
Many of the features of the RT-AX82U are specifically designed for gaming. If you just want faster Wi-Fi for watching Netflix or Baby Yoda then a more conventional router – without glowing eyes and lots of pointy antennae – will do the trick.

Your gaming den needs a boost

If you’ve just got one room – such as a bedroom or gaming den – that has weak Wi-Fi then you might not need to buy an entirely new router. An affordable ‘range extender’ can boost your existing Wi-Fi network into an upstairs bedroom or downstairs den for less than $100.

The Asus RT-AX86U Is a Wi-Fi 6 Router That Doesn’t Sacrifice Looks for Power

Wi-Fi 6 has accelerated its creep into mainstream wireless networking, urged along by the similarly accelerating spread of gigabit internet. Until the last few months or so, purchasing a Wi-Fi 6 device has largely been a decision more about future-proofing and less about immediate gain. That’s quickly changing, however, with all manner of wireless device manufacturers releasing products boasting about blazing this and blistering that, and it’s finally time to take a serious look at 802.11ax routers.

The Asus RT-AX88U was an early entrant in the field, and the company now has several follow-ups, including our best gaming router runner-up: the RT-AX86U. There, I gave it credit for being extremely fast and for its restrained physical design. However, I took issue with Asus’s UI decisions. In the end, I concluded that I would recommend it to anyone looking for a good gaming experience. Now I’m taking an even deeper dive to find out: Is this router worth it for just any old person and not just gamers presumably reading this in a hoodie with some kind of RGB lighting and heat vents? I think so, and you should, too.

As far as the design of the Asus RT-AX86U goes, there isn’t much to say, and frankly, that’s a good thing. It’s neither a slab nor a monolith, neither an ancient alien artifact nor an air freshener chic pod (though it can be a Gundam, apparently). It’s black, it stands upright, and it has three stabby, removable, adjustable antennas jutting from the top. It has four outgoing gigabit ethernet ports—one of which is an auto-prioritizing gaming port—in the back, a gigabit WAN, and a 2.5-gigabit LAN/WAN port for those lucky enough to be able to make use of it. Two USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports give you a fast NAS if you’ve got a hard drive lying around.

Getting it set up is a quick process, refreshingly letting me choose up front whether to separate the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands. Knowing that I would need to reconfigure some real dumb smart devices, I opted for separation, and my network was up and running in about five minutes.

But it should be noted there are two ways to handle setup and management. One is via a lovely mobile app, and the other is via the browser, and I hate the browser-based UI of Asus routers. It’s just a weird, unfocused, confusing mess. If you’re the type of person who wants deep, granular control of your home network, but don’t want to shell out for expensive enterprise-grade hardware, you could do a lot worse than Asus, but prepare to hunt for the settings you need to adjust. Trudging through the settings reveals menus and submenus that stretch out seemingly to infinity, with an intimidating depth that would have most people regarding it with narrowed eyes and a feigned understanding, muttering, “Yes, I see,” as they slowly mouse up to click the X button on that tab.

The intro screen has a basic network topology map which gives you a diagram of what all is connected, and a section where you can split out your 2.4 and 5 GHz bands or update your network SSID and password. After that, you get the shiny feature-y stuff, the majority of which, like the specific data-type prioritizing Adaptive QoS, Traffic Analysis, and various media modes and security, is powered by Trend Micro.

Together they offer a host of security features in the AiProtection section, promising to block malicious sites, protect you from Distributed Denial of Service attacks, and network vulnerability attacks like Heartbleed, while also monitoring outgoing traffic for suspicious packets from virus-infected devices. Each tab under this section gives you reports of suspicious network behavior, with downloadable logs for your review. In testing at wicar.org, the router blocked all but two of 10 sites, with Safari catching the last two. It seemed to work well, though the experience is barebones, and unlike the rest of the settings for the router, there are no opportunities for customization, just toggles for each of the three categories of protection. But using this, or a few other key features powered by Trend Micro, will bring you eventually to this EULA notice:

It seems that in order to have access to Trend Micro’s features, you must agree to give them access to all kinds of data, which may include your e-mails or your web browsing history. It’s spooky stuff, as usual, but thankfully all fairly easy to opt in or out of, as well—so long as you can bear the ensuing message about the valuable capabilities you’ll lose out on. So, it’s not quite the deal with Ursula the Sea Witch I initially worried it was, and, in the end, the details in the EULA are perhaps not unexpected for security software like this. I reached out to both Asus and Trend Micro for their input on what sort of data they collect and how exactly it’s used, and we’ll update here when we get a response.

Deeper in the menus, you will find a surprisingly pleasant Open NAT section with pre-configured port reservations for specific games and consoles, and NAS options that include support for Apple’s Time Machine backup software. Most people will go wall-eyed looking at options past these, but it’s worth noting that if you want to use features like OFDMA and MU-MIMO, beamforming, and, I don’t know, the actual Wi-Fi 6 standard, you’ll want to push on into the advanced settings—just don’t expect to understand much of what you are presented with here, unless you have studied networking down to a very specific level. That said, if you have time and sufficient grit, you can sift through it and find some truly powerful options.

Now, for all the shade I throw at the browser interface, Asus actually does a pretty decent job with their mobile app. Appearance-wise, it’s far from the tidy design of most of Asus’s competitors; the app looks the way we might have imagined the UI of the future would in the early aughts or late ‘90s—all sci-fi space controls floating against a star field, complete with animations that are just there to look neat. While very silly, it’s a breath of fresh air after using the web interface, with more of the stuff you would want quick access to right there on the home screen, like Adaptive QoS mode switching, letting you quickly switch priority to games, video conferencing software, media streaming, and more.

While not quite as robust as the browser UI, the mobile app is far more user-friendly, even if it isn’t perfect. I greatly appreciated seeing signal noise shown for individual devices—also an option in the browser—which helps a lot when placing them for the best signal, which is especially important for things like smart speakers, which can be made or broken by your choices regarding network topology.

Looking at the feature list, it’s not unusual to wonder why in the hell you would want to command your router with Alexa. But, in the interest of being thorough, I grabbed my long-banished Echo Dot to test, and I did find some genuinely useful bits here—temporarily activating your guest network, for example, or pausing wifi. Perhaps the most useful of the bunch is the ability to change Adaptive QoS modes without going into the app.

The main shortcoming of Alexa Skills remains: Every command must be prefaced with “Alexa, ask my router…”, followed by a prescribed set of phrases you must memorize (or look up every time, defeating the purpose). The pricier RT-AX88U gives you a small selection of more natural-sounding phrases like, “Alexa, pause my wifi.” I tried anyway; not only did it not work, but Alexa pretended not to know who I was.

The rest of my smart home experience on this router, initial difficulties aside, was a good one—lightbulbs flicked on and off, routines ran, and my chosen smart assistant didn’t hesitate to respond to my requests.

The RT-AX86U is powered by a 1.8 GHz quad-core CPU with 1 GB of RAM and 256 MB Flash memory. Theoretically, it can transmit up to 4804 Mbps on the 5 GHz band, or up to 861 Mbps on the 2.4, but you’ll never see those speeds, nor should you expect them. It has four antennas—one of which is an internal, printed circuit board antenna, and works all the way up to the 160 MHz band, which is a key component of Wi-Fi 6, and necessary to reach the fastest speeds the router is capable of. It has a long list of other terms that describe how powerful it is.

As I’ve noted previously, the RT-AX86U is great for gaming. I wanted to take it further, so I decided to stress test the router, streaming music at the highest quality available on multiple devices, watching a 4K nature documentary on Apple TV, which is known for its high-bitrate streaming, conducting a video call with a friend, and playing CS:GO on official servers. This is a realistic scenario in my home, and the RT-AX86U aced it—I saw no sign of buffering or stuttering anywhere, my friend reported clear audio and smooth video, and in-game ping seemed unaffected. In raw numbers, I had to move into my back yard to get anything slower than the max I’m getting from my ISP, finding that I had good, usable internet even at the farthest reaches of my yard, which is about a fifth of an acre.

I tested file transfers with a 734 MB copy of Ernest Saves Christmas—a typical use case for network storage—and found the transfers to be very fast, with the limiting factor seemingly the actual read/write capability of the router. Transfer speeds reached as high as 465.79 Mbps, but averaged between 310 and 350 Mbps, and hardly budged at any distance. Write speeds were about half that.

After determining that the RT-AX86U was gross overkill for my needs, I thought I would look at Asus’s AiMesh, which lets you use multiple Asus routers to create a mesh network. Self-healing and pretty straightforward to set up, an AiMesh network can definitely get you that kind of blanketed internet plants crave.

I tested the mesh capabilities with the addition of an RT-AX82U, and for some reason, setting this up ended up actually being the only way I could finally get my “smart” bathroom light switch to join my new network. I came to this experience with the breezy setup of Eero already in mind and found it similarly easy with Asus. Network performance was as expected, with devices generally connecting to the node closest to them or, at least, with the lowest amount of signal noise, and no real noticeable changeover time. Basically, mesh networking is a revelation to anyone who hasn’t used it, and that much is true here, as well.

In the end, the Asus RT-AX86U is a great router, with speedy performance and easy setup, despite an annoying menu system. Actually getting down and dirty in the settings is a pain, thanks to confusing, incompletely explained technicals and messy organization, but basic and intermediate settings can be easily changed in the mobile app. Security and device prioritization for the router is decent, though I recommend you review the EULA before proceeding to make sure you’re comfortable with the exchange you must make to take advantage. The mesh setup was fairly painless. The RT-AX86U met and, in some cases exceeded, my expectations, at least where it counts. Of course, you’re going to pay for it, at MSRP $250—though you can find decent discounts at the usual online retailers.

Whether you just want lag-free gaming or you need something that can handle a heavy overall load, this router does it with aplomb. We are rapidly approaching the day when recommendations like this one isn’t just about future-proofing, but you will find in the RT-AX86U a router more than capable of meeting the unexpected demands put upon all of us this year. If you’ve got a smaller home that needs a lot of power and would prefer to check out mesh networking at a later date, this is absolutely the router for you.

Bose Sport Earbuds review

Everyone deserves a second chance, or at least Bose hopes you feel that way. The Bose Sport Earbuds are the company’s sophomore true wireless workout earbuds, and are sure to be a mainstay among gym-goers. Did Bose actually make improvements from the original SoundSport Free, or did it just repackage old issues? Let’s find out in our full Bose Sport Earbuds review.

Who should get the Bose Sport Earbuds?

Athletes should get these earphones because they’re IPX4-rated, and can bear even your most demanding workouts.

Anyone can use the Bose Sport Earbuds, because the proprietary ear tips keep the buds in place no matter what. The embedded mics make it easy to take hands-free calls from anywhere, and you can charge them up in a pinch.

Are the Bose Sport Earbuds easy to use?

Bose selected plastic for its Sport Earbuds, which is a smart move since weight and durability are key to great workout earbuds. The earbuds’ design is very plain, but in a modern way. There isn’t a rough edge or corner to be found on the Sport Earbuds. The oblong shape protrudes from the ear, but it doesn’t draw nearly as much attention as the original SoundSport Free true wireless earbuds.

The Sport Earbuds are free of any buttons, and the outside of each housing serves as a touch panel. Controls are very limited: as of the Bose Music app version 4.1.1, you can’t control the volume or skip back a track. You can pause playback by a double-tap of the right earbud, or by removing it. Only the right bud houses a sensor for automatic ear detection, which facilities automatic play/pause functionality. Another thing exclusive to the right earbud is mono listening. If your right ear is hearing impaired, you can’t yet use the left earbud alone, which is a real shame.

The StayHear Max ear tips are one of the best features the Sport Earbuds have to offer. At a glance, the ear tips look intimidating and are much larger than your standard sleeve, but they work wonders. No matter how much I shook my head, the earbuds stayed in place. They’re also extremely comfortable: the wing tips lightly grip your concha, and the ear tips create a relatively pain-free seal to your ear canals. (Ed. note: this won’t be true for everyone. Some people just can’t wear in-ears without some discomfort)

The case isn’t anything special, though it’s much more compact than the one included with the Bose SoundSport Free. Unlike most true wireless headset cases, the Bose Sport Earbuds case doesn’t rely on magnets to keep it shut. Instead, you have to press a button which releases a lever, opening the lid. While it’s not as satisfying to use as something like the Google Pixel Buds case, it’s more functional because it guards against accidental openings anytime you drop it.

Four LEDs line the outside of the case and indicate the remaining battery levels, while a single Bluetooth pairing button rests inside. This is something you’ll end up pressing a bit, because the Sport Earbuds have their fair share of connection quirks.

How to operate the onboard controls

The Bose Sport Earbuds have far fewer onboard controls than the original Bose SoundSport Earbuds. The possible controls for the Bose Sport Earbuds are as follows:

Double-tap the right earbud to pause or resume playback, removing and reinserting it performs the same function.

Double-tap the right earbud to answer or end a call.

Tap-and-hold the right earbud to access your voice assistant. This same gesture lets you decline an incoming call when appropriate.

Double-tap of the left earbud to either skip tracks or check the battery levels. You must use the Bose Music app to customize the left earbud’s function.

Should you get the Bose Music app?

You should get the Bose Music app for firmware updates, and to assign a function to the left earbud, but otherwise it’s pretty useless. You can’t create a custom EQ; instead, Bose champions its Adaptive EQ software, which can’t be disabled. I found Bose’s Adaptive EQ effective, but some tinkerers may be annoyed by this limitation. Another issue that arose with the Bose Music app: it’s buggy. Even when the earbuds were connected to my phone, the app failed to recognize the connection. This forced me to insert the buds into the case, and essentially start the pairing process from scratch.

There are redeeming qualities to the app, since it can be used to switch between paired devices. Alternatively, you can just use your smartphone’s Bluetooth settings and disable call and audio streaming, but that is a little more involved than the Bose Music app options. You can also enable or disable the Bose voice prompts, if you find them redundant. The app also displays clear battery readings, and lets you customize the name of the earbuds. I don’t really care for the latter feature, but Bose does have some creative name options.

Do the Bose Sport Earbuds stay connected?

The Bose Sport Earbuds operate via Bluetooth 5.1 firmware. When indoors, I walked around within the nine-meter wireless radius, no problem. The story changed when I took the earbuds outside, because connection hiccups occurred anytime I walked five meters from my Samsung Galaxy S10e. Interestingly, these issues only arose when both my smartphone and the earbuds were outside. The earbuds stayed connected within the designated range anytime my phone was inside but I was outside.

The earbuds didn’t always reconnect to my smartphone, even when I manually selected the Sport Earbuds from my phone’s Bluetooth menu. This didn’t happen often, but no one wants to re-do the pairing process a handful of times per week. While these connection issues are annoying, you can find solace in the great possibility that this will be remedied with a firmware update.

Both the SBC and AAC Bluetooth codecs are supported, which is good news for iPhone owners since AAC plays well on iOS. If, however, you have an Android phone, your handset may have trouble maintaining high-quality AAC streaming to the Bose Sport Earbuds. If connection issues become too egregious, sometimes the best option is for you to force SBC streaming from the developer settings of your smartphone.

How is Bluetooth 5.1 different from Bluetooth 5.0?

Bluetooth 5.1 has more advanced location features than Bluetooth 5.0, in that it can pinpoint the directionality of your peripheral’s location, relative to its source device (e.g., the distance and direction between your earbuds and smartphone). Bluetooth 5.1 can improve the accuracy of features like “find my earbuds,” which isn’t supported by version 4.1.1 of the Bose Music app.

The 5.1 firmware has a revamped caching system which makes it even more energy efficient than Bluetooth 5.0. You can expect a minor bump in battery life between 5.1 and 5.0 Bluetooth devices. With this new caching system comes the ability to make faster connections, so automatically connecting to a smartphone should be near instantaneous, though it isn’t quite perfect with these earbuds. It also makes it easier to broadcast the Bose Sport Earbuds connection status if you’re trying to pair it to a device.

Bluetooth 5.0 and Bluetooth 5.1 both fall under the Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) standard; they are not a part of LE Audio. LE Audio will initially be supported in Bluetooth Core Specification version 5.2, which we likely won’t see in consumer earbuds for quite some time.

How long does the battery last?

We subjected the Bose Sport Earbuds to a constant 75dB output, and they lasted 5 hours, 17 minutes before the batteries depleted. This is above average for true wireless earbuds, and you can always fast charge them when in a bind: 15 minutes in the case provides two hours of playback. It takes two hours to fully charge the earbuds, and three hours for the case. The Bose Sport Earbuds case doesn’t support wireless charging, so you can keep that Qi charging mat tucked away.

Do true wireless earbuds have battery problems?

Unfortunately, true wireless earbuds are subject to physical limitations which directly affect battery life and product longevity. See, your earbuds house tiny lithium-ion battery cells, much like your smartphone, and these degrade over time. More often than not, you use earbuds for one hour, maybe two, at a time before you place them in the case to be topped up completely. This constant partial-depletion, full-charge cycle hastens battery degradation, and results in earbuds that may be unable to hold a significant charge past the two-year mark.

Not all hope is lost, though. Apple is the first of its cohort to try and remedy the issue of short-lived true wireless earbuds. With the release of iOS 14, Apple made great improvements to the AirPods and AirPods Pro battery management. Instead of subjecting the earbuds to the typical charging cycle, software learns your habits, so the case can refrain from charging the earbuds to 100% capacity, unless necessary. The software takes a while to learn your daily schedule (e.g., a regular, weekly commute when you listen to music), but once it does, charging won’t exceed 80% until it anticipates your use of the headset. This should yield a longer life cycle for true wireless earbuds at large, if other companies choose to follow suit.

How do the Bose Sport Earbuds sound?

The Bose Sport Earbuds feature a tame frequency response for workout earbuds, and they reproduce vocals and string instruments accurately. Typically, anything billed as a workout headset receives a hefty dose of bass emphasis, but here, bass notes sound only slightly louder than mids. This makes it a bit easier to hear low-end sounds like a kick drum, without introducing much auditory masking. Bose cranked up the upper-midrange note loudness, which makes it easier for you to perceive harmonic resonances from your music. This is a pleasant frequency response for most consumers, though some may prefer louder bass.

Isolation performance isn’t excellent, or even good, really. It’s clear that Bose prioritized comfort and stability with its ear tips over blocking out all the external noise it could. This is actually a good thing in the context of workout earbuds, because it allows you to remain aware of your surroundings. Even if you exercise at the gym instead of outdoors, it’s important to be aware of what your fellow gym mates are doing, and could save you from injury.

Lows, mids, and highs

The song July For the Whole Year by Devon Cole opens with a C-E-Am-F chord progression, which is produced to sound quiet and distorted. While these chords are strummed, finger snaps ring through clearly, thanks to the exaggerated upper-midrange response. Cole begins the chorus at 0:42, which happens to be when the initial bass drops. Despite Cole’s high vocal range, her vocal resonances remain audible on the downbeat. A great example of this is when she sings the phrase, “and the days got colder,” at 2:35.

During the final chorus, Cole harmonizes with herself while singing the lyrics, “July for the whole year.” Her background vocals are easy to hear, even amid the din of the song’s outro, which is an impressive feat for workout earbuds. Again, the bass notes may feel a bit underwhelming for your taste, but to get the best bass response, all you have to do is find the best-fitting ear tips.

Can I use the Bose Sport Earbuds for phone calls?

The Bose Sport Earbuds have a four-microphone array, which is impressive, but it’s still an embedded microphone system. Low-frequency sounds are heavily attenuated to reduce the proximity effect, but it’s taken to an extreme and can make those with moderately and extremely low voices sound “off.” Bose deserves credit where credit is due, though: the mics do a great job at reducing predictable, low-frequency background noise like the hum of a microwave or refrigerator as heard in the audio sample below.

Bose Sport Earbuds vs. Bose SoundSport Free

The Bose Sport Earbuds make huge improvements over the Bose SoundSport Free, but they’re far from perfect. Now, the SoundSport Free struggle to establish and maintain a connection in nearly every instance, but remnants of that issue follow the Sport Earbuds.

While some may prefer the more futuristic touch controls found on the Sport Earbuds, they’re far more limited than the SoundSport Free’s buttons. The company’s debut true wireless earbuds let you control playback, access your smart assistant, and control the volume. Now, the Sport Earbuds have automatic ear detection in the right bud, which automatically pauses and resumes music accordingly, but I’d rather have more comprehensive controls at the expense newer, less functional tech.

Neither headset’s app supports any kind of EQ, so the sound profile Bose provides is all that you get. The earphones have very similar sound profiles. If you like how the older model reproduces your favorite songs, you’ll be pleased with the Sport Earbuds. Bose’s Sport Earbuds are the better overall headset, despite the few onboard controls. Don’t forget that there are plenty of attractive alternatives like the Jabra Elite Active 75t.

Should you buy the Bose Sport Earbuds?

The Bose Sport Earbuds go unchallenged as the most comfortable workout earbuds you can buy. Bose’s proprietary StayHear Max ear tips create a secure fit, without causing any discomfort from a strong suction-like sensation.

Even though Bose’s earbuds are very good, the company shouldn’t grow complacent: there are plenty of improvements it can make to its earphones via firmware update. We’ve seen other companies release big feature drops after the initial release of a product, so it seems within the realm of possibility that Bose will improve connection stability and perhaps even microphone quality. I hope to see an EQ module added to the Bose Music app for these earbuds, which seems quite likely given how the company added one for the Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 at the behest of its users.

Though there’s plenty of room for improvement, there’s a lot to love about Bose’s second-generation totally wireless workout earphones. If you want a versatile pair of earbuds that sound very good, you might want to snag these on promotion.

PlayStation 5 Won’t Support Native 1440p Resolution After All Says Sony

When the subject of next-gen console resolution come up, we hear a lot about 4K, but what about 1440p? Obviously the Xbox Series S will support 1440p, as it’s been specifically designed around that resolution, and Microsoft has said the Series X will support it as well, but what about the PlayStation 5? Sony has remained rather quiet on the subject. Previously, monitor manufacturer BenQ hinted the PS5 would support 1440p, but it seems they were mistaken.

According to IGN Italy, representatives from Sony have officially confirmed that the PS5 doesn’t support 1440p natively. Now, you’ll still be able to connect a 1440p screen to your PS5 and play games, but what you’ll most likely be getting is a 1080p signal upscaled to 1440p, which doesn’t always look great. This isn’t anything new – surprisingly, the PS4 Pro also only supported 1080p and 4K natively even though, functionally, a large number of its games ran at around 1440p.

So, why does this matter? Well, if you’re strictly a couch-and-TV gamer, it probably doesn’t. The vast majority of TVs are either 1080p or 4K, with 1440p screens being exceedingly rare. That said, 1440p screens are popular amongst a subset of PC gamers, so those looking to play their PS5 games on their monitor may be in for a less-than-optimal experience. Of course, Sony giving PC gamers the cold shoulder isn’t terribly surprising – they’ve started to allow some of their games like Horizon Zero Dawn to be ported to PC, but they’re still primarily about the console-TV experience.

The PlayStation launches on November 12 or November 19, depending on whether you live in North America/Australia or Europe. So, what do you think? Does a lack of 1440p support matter to you? Or do you plan to play your PS5 on a regular TV and thus only care about 1080p and 4K?

This Smartwatch Has a Baffling Price

Your average smartwatch brand usually puts out at least two types of watches: a premium flagship smartwatch, and a more cost-conscious alternative with about 75% of the flagship’s features. Samsung does it (Galaxy Watch 3 and the Galaxy Watch Active2), Fitbit does it (Fitbit Sense and Versa 3), and now with the Apple Watch SE, Apple has also gotten on board. So it’s not really surprising that Huami, a company that pumps out a lot of surprisingly stylish and affordable smartwatches, is also looking to do the same with the Zepp E, which is far more premium than the company’s other offerings.

If you aren’t familiar with Huami, let’s rewind a little. Huami is the parent company of Amazfit, which makes wearables like the Bip S. It also partnered with Timex for its Ironman GPS R300 and the Metropolitan R smartwatches. In general, it’s known for budget smartwatches that deliver a lot of functionality at a very attractive price point. I was more or less expecting the same from the Zepp E, but what I got was a watch that delivered budget functionality at a price that didn’t make sense.

The Zepp E costs $250, and to be fair, it’s a nice-looking watch. It comes in two variations: a round version, which I reviewed, and a square one that looks like an Apple Watch knock-off. I’ve spilled a ton of words on why Apple Watch clones need to die, so we’ll skip past that one, but the round version is quite sleek on the wrist. The 1.28-inch AMOLED display is crisp and easy to read notifications on. Colors are bright, and while you can see some pixelation if you squint, I never felt it was so bad that it detracted from watch faces or text. It’s also only 9mm thick, which is thinner than most flagship smartwatches out there. (The Apple Watch, for instance, is 10.4mm.) Huami describes it as “3D curved bezel-less glass” and while that’s marketing schlock, I will say it does look and feel like it belongs on a premium watch. I didn’t love the texture of the “moon gray” leather band they sent me, but it looked chic with the gold case and, for once, wasn’t pink.

But while the design seems like it would belie a premium watch, the features are lacking compared to other watches in this price range.

The Zepp E has a couple of features that other premium smartwatches have, such as an on-demand SpO2 app—much like the one on the Series 6 and the Galaxy Watch 3—and stress-tracking. It also offers continuous heart rate-monitoring and the typical sensors we’ve come to expect from smartwatches, like an accelerometer and ambient light sensor. You also get sleep-tracking, an estimated seven days of battery life, and with 5 ATM of water resistance, it’s safe for swimming. What you don’t get is NFC payments, built-in GPS, digital assistant, or cellular connectivity. I wouldn’t necessarily expect all of those things on a sub-$300 smartwatch. The Fitbit Versa 3, for instance, may not have cellular capability, but it does get you Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, built-in GPS, Fitbit Pay, and SpO2 monitoring for $230. The Apple Watch SE starts at $280, but you get Apple Pay, Siri, built-in GPS, and you can upgrade to a cellular model. The Samsung Galaxy Active2 also starts at $280, also has a cellular version, Bixby, Samsung Pay, and adds ECG. When you consider how much you can get for under $300, the Zepp E’s feature set feels a bit incomplete. The advanced features the Zepp E does have—an SpO2 app and stress-tracking—feel sort of tacked on, and lack some of the context provided on other, competing smartwatches.

That’s a shame because, for the most part, the Zepp E is a good, basic smartwatch.

For notifications, I found the Zepp E was pretty capable, though you’ll have to manually configure which alerts you receive in the Zepp app, under the Zepp E’s individual settings. That’s not uncommon—you have to do it for Fitbits, too—and personally, I like that you have more control over what does or doesn’t make your wrist buzz. It lacks a built-in music player, which isn’t the worst thing. You can control your music over Bluetooth, but if you want Spotify or Pandora on your wrist, you’re out of luck here.

In terms of interface, the Zepp E is similar to Wear OS. You basically swipe left and right to view widgets for things like weather and activity, and you can press the button on the right side to access a scrolling menu for your apps. Swipes were easily registered, and thankfully, I didn’t experience any latency.

The battery on the Zepp E is pretty solid. I got about 6-7 days of typical use on a single charge without the always-on display enabled. With it on, I got about three days, but to be fair, I logged more than two hours of activity-tracking during that time. Connected GPS doesn’t drain the battery as fast as built-in GPS does, but I had a setting toggled on to increase how often the Zepp took heart rate measurements during recorded exercise. That would also deplete the battery faster than on days with lighter activity. Depending on the options you choose for how often the watch measures your heart rate and how often you exercise, your mileage may vary.

The Zepp app is also decent, though not as slick as some other smartwatch apps. You can see basic tiles with information like heart rate, workouts, and sleep score in an easily understood layout. But it’s not what I’d call perfect. There are some wonky translations here and there, but nothing that’s incomprehensible. For non-metric users, there are times where the Zepp app will revert to metric units even if you have your settings on Imperial. For example, in my outdoor running activities, my split times are per kilometer even though I’m tracking my distance in miles. (I wish I was running 6’24” per mile, but alas, that’s my pace per kilometer.) And while you can view your long-term data, it’s not presented in an intuitive way in the app. For instance, to see all my workout records, I can’t just hit the activity tile. I have to tap the teeny menu that says All Records in the upper right corner of the tile, which is simple enough once you know where it is, but I tripped up enough times that it was annoying.

The Zepp E is best when it comes to health-tracking, but you’re not really getting anything here that you can’t get elsewhere. Sleep-tracking was accurate compared to my Oura Ring; both consistently logged the same hours slept per night, gave me similar sleep quality scores every night, and roughly corresponded when it came to sleep stages. Unlike the Bip S, the Zepp E also correctly noted when I woke up in the middle of the night. The Zepp E also has a beta “sleep breathing quality” metric, but I didn’t consider it particularly useful, because the description didn’t really explain how it was measured or what it meant for my overall health. I assume the feature relies on the SpO2 sensor, because that’s what other smartwatches use to give comparable analysis, but again, it wasn’t explained in the app, and the tips for improving were things you could easily Google: don’t drink before sleeping, lose weight, and exercise more.

Activity-tracking was also decent. The Zepp E doesn’t have built-in GPS, which means it relies on your phone. That’s disappointing in the sense that phone-free runs aren’t an option if you want accuracy. When running with my phone, the Zepp E reported distances that were generally within 0.5 miles of the MapMyRun app. For instance, on a 3.1-mile run logged by my phone, the Zepp E reported 3.08 miles and the Apple Watch SE recorded 2.98 miles. This was roughly the same for the seven test runs and the two test walks I did with the Zepp E, Apple Watch, and my phone. There was, however, one exception. During one test run, the Zepp E failed to find GPS—which was odd given my phone was on me—and logged a 3.06-mile run as 2.29 miles. That is just wildly incorrect and makes me think if you did leave your phone at home or if you’re a treadmill runner, you might get wonky results.

Heart rate-tracking, however, was more reliable. The Zepp E was generally within 5 beats per minute of both the Apple Watch SE and my Polar H10 chest strap. That said, during my runs, I noticed the occasional lag when it came to reporting my heart rate. I’d lift my wrist and it’d take a second for my metrics to update. Not a huge deal, just kind of annoying if you’re the type that frequently checks in mid-run.

I tested the SpO2 app against the Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 and my partner’s Apple Watch Series 6. They all gave me similar numbers (96%, 95%, and 96%), and are equally annoying in that you have to sit really still to get measurements. There’s no real flashy feature that utilizes SpO2 sensor yet, so the fact the Zepp E has it is sort of…useless. In the app itself, there’s no real context of how your SpO2 results relate to the rest of your health. There is a short explanation about how it can be used to monitor respiration, but no context for why you might care about that. In the app, it’s buried in several menus and not easily accessible from the home screen. It’d be one thing if it was factored into a recovery or “readiness” score, but that’s nowhere to be found.

In the same vein, I didn’t really get much out of its stress-tracking. In a week, my stress levels, which are based on my heart rate variability measurements, ranged from 11-96. Meaning, sometimes I was very chill and sometimes I was extremely not chill. I can tell you that without a smartwatch, and this feature didn’t help me understand my HRV any better. Like the SpO2 app, stress-tracking is also buried in a secondary menu, and it would be extremely easy to miss completely if you didn’t know it was there. For what it’s worth, the Fitbit Sense also tracks stress, but in a much more holistic, meaningful way.

One thing the Zepp E does have going for it is the PAI metric. Old Mio users might be familiar with it, as that’s where it comes from. (Huami acquired Mio in 2018.) For the uninitiated, PAI stands for Personal Activity Intelligence, and it’s a score that tries to simplify whether you’re getting the appropriate amount of activity per week—sort of like Fitbit’s Active Zone Minutes. The idea is to have 100 PAI over a 7-day period, and how many PAI you’re awarded for an activity is supposedly personalized based on your demographic data. It’s a bit hokey, but as far as metrics go, it’s a more useful measure than just going off steps alone. That said, you’d get this from any Huami wearable. The Bip S also uses it, so it’s not as if this is specific to the Zepp E.

That’s the problem with the Zepp E. You’re effectively paying $250 for a nice design and multi-day battery life. It’s not that the Zepp is a bad watch. It’s that you can get that and more for a similar price elsewhere. While I prefer the size of the Zepp E’s display, the Samsung Galaxy Active 2 is the better overall value given the wider feature set, especially if you like pretty, round watches. If you don’t mind square displays, the Apple Watch SE and Fitbit Versa 3 are more feature-rich, aren’t hideous, and are around the same price. Even Huami makes pretty compelling alternatives with the Amazfit GTS and GTR, which cost around $130 on Amazon and have built-in GPS.

If the Zepp E wants to be a premium smartwatch, it needs to at least have built-in GPS, NFC payments, or something to set it apart from budget watches. That could have been SpO2 and stress-tracking, but in both cases I found these seemingly premium features to be half-assed, and they weren’t meaningfully featured in the Zepp app’s health dashboard. For basic fitness-tracking and design, hybrid analog watches deliver the same kind of connected GPS-tracking and metrics, and they’re often less than $200. Many are also quite fetching on the wrist.

The Zepp E has budget features in a premium body. If you can find it on sale for under $200 (ideally $180 or under), I’d say the Zepp E is a watch you should consider. But at full price? Honey, you can do better.

Nikon Z6 II Autofocus Test: A Solid Improvement Over the Z6

Wedding and event photographer Taylor Jackson has been shooting with the original Nikon Z6 pretty much since it came to market. So when the Nikon Z6 II came out promising improved autofocus, TWO image processors, better video, and a battery grip, he jumped on it.

In the video, Taylor wanted to specifically test out the autofocus: a common (if not entirely fair) complaint about the Nikon Z series that should be much improved given the extra processor that’s packed inside the Mark II. So… can we change that “should” to a “has?” According to Jackson, absolutely.

“The Z6 II represents a really solid improvement on the original Z 6. Everything autofocus has been updated,” Jackson tells PetaPixel. “And with the addition of a second processor in the camera I think that, similar to how we saw the Z6 autofocus evolve in firmware, this is just the start of the runway for the Z 6 II.”

In each of his tests—which begin around the 6 minute mark—Jackson saw an improvement over the already-capable Z6 (running the latest firmware). He goes over all of the most important AF settings for someone photographing people: from regular Face/Eye Detection, to the new Wide-Area Face and Eye Detect mode, to the standard Subject/Object tracking. You can see some relevant screenshots from his testing below:

It’s important to note that all of this was done with a pre-production model of the Z6 II, so it’s possible (if not likely) that there are a few bugs left to work out. That said, as Jackson points out, the AF performance was still noticeably improved “across the board.” From low light, to the new modes, to focusing-while-moving, to the camera’s ability to interpret the scene without jumping to the “wrong” object, Jackson was generally impressed.

Even beyond AF, he mentions a couple of “easter eggs” and shares some custom-button settings that you should definitely take advantage of.

To see all of this in action for yourself, check out the full focus test up top. And if you want to see more about the Nikon Z6 II from Jackson, subscribe to his YouTube channel where he’s promised to upload a “full, in-depth review” of a production model just as soon as he can get his hands on one.

LG unveils the first Tone Free wireless earphones with ANC

LG’s latest Tone Free wireless earphones have a more useful feature to go along with the bacteria-killing UV charging case: active noise cancellation. Each earbud has three microphones that monitor and cancel out sound waves from all directions, letting you hear details in music without cranking up the volume.

The design is similar to the last FN6 model, including the twist fit “vortex ribs” that promise a tighter in-ear seal to maximize passive sound reduction. With that and the ANC, LG promises that external noises are “almost completely neutralized.”

The buds also come with Meridian Audio’s digital signal processing that delivers a soundstage-like experience of full loudspeakers and high voice clarity. You can also customize the EQ settings via LG’s Tone Free app on Android or iOS devices, with natural, bass boost or treble boost settings.

Of course, you’ll be able get them with the UVnano case that can supposedly kill 99.9 percent of E. coli and S. aureus bacteria on the inner mesh of the buds. The FN7 buds are launching in South Korea today, but will arrive in North America, Europe and elsewhere in Asia starting sometime in the fourth quarter of 2020.

AirPods Pro 2 price and features just leaked — and there’s bad news

Apple released the AirPods Pro last October, improving on the standard AirPods with features like active noise cancelation, water resistance and silicon tips. Apple is now tipped to be working on an AirPods Pro 2 with even better features, but a new leak suggests that the new earbuds might not be the upgrade you want. 

The information comes from LeaksApplePro over on Twitter, who claims that the second-generation AirPods Pro will have better battery life, improved noise cancelling, ambient light sensors, and the same $249 price tag as the current AirPods Pro.

If this leak is accurate, it means there isn’t a huge amount of difference between the two types of AirPods Pro. Better battery life and noise cancelling are always welcome though, especially when they don’t come with a price increase.

The light sensors are a bit of an odd choice, and it’s not clear what those are for. In the past it’s been rumoured that light sensors may appear in AirPods, possibly to track things such as your heart rate or other health statistics. It’s not beyond the realm of possibility, given Apple’s increased focus on health and fitness features in recent years, and we’ve already seen other wireless earbuds read heart rate using a similar method.

By adding fitness tracking into the AirPods it also means that the Apple Health app could more accurately track your workouts, especially if you’re not interested in buying an Apple Watch.

Other rumours claim the AirPods Pro 2 may come with air-gestures, though optical sensors wouldn’t be particularly effective in that capacity. If true, that suggests Apple has much grander plans for the future of AirPods, and a lot more functionality than this leak lets on.

Unfortunately this leak predicts a Q4 2021 or Q1 2022 release date, which means the AirPods Pro 2 are at least a year off. Apple’s next big audio release will likely be the AirPods Studio, a set of premium over-ear headphones that could compete with the likes of Bose and Sony as soon as this fall.

Finally, an Affordable Wireless Mechanical Keyboard for Macs

Apple may have done away with godawful butterfly switches earlier this year, but I legitimately cannot stand the Magic Keyboard. It’s so…flat. I’m not super swole but I know I can snap that thing in two over my knee. It somehow costs $100. And while the scissor switches are fine on my actual MacBook Pro, I prefer mechanical keyboards for long typing sessions at my desk. The only problem is most mechanical keyboards that don’t cost a fortune are optimized for Windows.

It fucking sucks, and I’ve put up with it for years. I’ve tried workarounds, like remapping keys via third-party software or even just trying to memorize the differences when that felt like “too much” work. It’s not that mechanical keyboards for Macs don’t exist—they do. It’s not that wireless keyboards don’t exist for Macs—they do. It’s finding the perfect wireless and mechanical keyboard that doesn’t cost $100 or more. After all, there’s plenty of affordable, sub $100 mechanical keyboards, wired and wireless, for Windows users and gamers.

Around Christmas last year, a keyboard enthusiast friend of mine recommended the Keychron K2 Version 1. Wireless? Check. Mac keyboard layout and media keys? Check. Tenkeyless? Check. Under $100? Check. My eyes bugged out of my skull. There was only one hitch. It was sold out everywhere. Then earlier this summer, I saw Keychron had put out a second version of the K2. I pounced.

At the same time, I was wondering why the name Keychron seemed familiar. As it turns out, the K2 isn’t Keychron’s first Bluetooth mechanical keyboard for Mac computers. That was the K1, a $74 mechanical keyboard that got its start two years ago on Kickstarter. It looked fine, but perusing the Kickstarter listing reminded me why I’d passed on the K1 at the time. It was limited to Blue switches, which I’m not a fan of, and the flat low-profile keys hewed a bit too close to the Magic Keyboard for my liking. Since then, Keychron’s been busy—in addition to the K1 and K2, there’s also the K4, K6, K8, and a forthcoming K3.

The main difference between all these keyboards is size, keycaps, and which keys are included or omitted. The Keychron K2 Version 2 is a compact, 75% tenkeyless keyboard with 84 keys. The keycaps have a height of 30mm in the front, and 41mm in the rear. You can use it wired or with Bluetooth, and by default, it comes with a Mac layout and Mac-specific media controls. It does come with Windows keycaps and a keycap puller as well—so if you dig the look but are on PC, or if you switch between Windows and Mac, you can still use this thing on up to three devices. There’s even a small toggle on the left side that lets you switch between PC/Android and Mac/iOS.

For switches, you can choose between Gatreon red, blue, and brown. You also have options between lighting options. If you opt for only white backlighting, it’s a bit cheaper at $70 on Keychron’s website, while the RGB version costs $80. If you want the RGB version with an aluminum frame, that goes for $90. If you don’t like the available key switches here’s also a hot-swappable version for either $80 or $100, depending on if you want RGB. You’ll have to provide your own switches, but you won’t have to solder them onto the board. In any case, whatever you pick will be either cheaper or on par with Apple’s Magic Keyboard.

I’ve been testing the K2 for about two months now and I’m a fan. I opted for brown switches, which are appropriately tactile but not so loud as to annoy my husband. (Loud, clicky keyboards are officially banned from our apartment.) One thing that I really appreciate is, as you’d expect, the layout. I no longer have to readjust every time I switch from typing on my laptop to typing on the keyboard. It sounds like a small thing, but it makes a difference—especially since I fucking hate the TouchBar and the Houdini act it does on function keys. I love that I have a specific screencap button. It comes in handy, especially when I’m covering fast-paced events.

Also, I like that this keyboard comes with several RGB lighting options that don’t require me to download extra software. This is more common for gaming mechanical keyboards, but I’ve yet to enjoy the process of customizing my dumb rainbow lights with proprietary software. The lighting effects themselves are pretty standard. You have your typical color wave and breathing effects, as well as more static backlighting. Still, there’s enough variety that you should find something you like and not get bored. You can also just disable lighting entirely, if for some reason you have no soul and hate RGB.

Which brings me to another thing. Because the Keychron K2 is compact, it’s not going to satisfy people who absolutely need a num pad. Though you do get the arrow keys at least. (If you really need a num pad, Keychron’s K1 Keyboard has one and is only $2 more expensive; their K4 Keyboard also has one, albeit in a more compact form factor, and ranges from $64-$84, depending on materials and types of backlighting.) You’re also not going to get extra programmable macro keys here, so if that’s an absolute must, you’re out of luck. Keychron also doesn’t have an official program to remap keys, but you can use other third-party software like Karabiner for Windows and Sharp Keys for Mac.

For the most part, the lack of native software isn’t a huge deal. There’s just a bit of a learning curve when it comes to remembering shortcuts. While there’s a specific lighting key, you have to press fn and either the right or left arrow key to change colors. The same is true for Bluetooth pairing—you have to hold fn + 1, as well as switch a toggle on the left side to Bluetooth. You can also press fn + X + L for four seconds to switch between function and multimedia keys. There are shortcuts for things like turning off auto-sleep mode, switching between paired devices, factory resets and turning off backlighting. None of this is hard, but I personally had to write some of them down on a sticky note for reference.

In terms of Bluetooth connectivity, I was pleased. I had no problems with pairing, and never had to re-pair the keyboard to my MacBook Pro, which I sometimes have to do with other Bluetooth peripherals. For battery life, the K2 is packing a 4,000mAh rechargeable battery with an estimated 240 hours of typing time with the backlighting off. With it on, you can get anywhere from 68-72 hours. How much you get out of a single charge will depend on how you use it. That said, I used the keyboard with RGB lighting and set to automatically sleep after 10 minutes of inactivity—and I got a little over two weeks of daily use before needing to recharge. It’s a lot better than what I got with the Razer Pro Type keyboard, which only got about 12 hours with LED lighting and required nightly charging. There’s an indicator light that lets you know when you’re at 15% battery or lower, but otherwise, there’s not really a good way to know how much battery you’ve got left.

For the price and feature set, the Keychron K2 offers up great value, particularly if you’re not too picky or new to the world of mechanical keyboards. Sure, it’s way more expensive than a wireless membrane keyboard, but as far as Mac-specific mechanical keyboards go, it’s pretty dang affordable. It’s also much, much, much more enjoyable to type on than the Magic Keyboard—throw that flat piece of overpriced trash in the fiery pits of hell. And while some keyboard snobs might turn their nose up because the K2 isn’t the fanciest keyboard around, I frankly do not give a damn. I’m not one of those mechanical keyboard enthusiasts who would willingly plop down over $300 for the perfect keyboard. I am unapologetically cheap and don’t like keyboards that much. I’m just someone who wants a reasonably priced, non-mushy wireless keyboard for my Mac—and the Keychron K2 is perfect for that.

Canon’s PowerShot Zoom is like a pocket telescope that takes photos

Canon has announced the PowerShot Zoom, an unusual camera that’s more like a digital monocular than a point-and-shoot. The company has been showing off the idea for a while and recently crowdfunded it in Japan; now it’s coming to the US.

The PowerShot Zoom is a tiny device with an electronic viewfinder, a 1/3-inch 12-megapixel sensor, and two switchable equivalent focal lengths of 100mm and 400mm with a digital zoom up to 800mm. The lens is f/5.6-6.3, so this probably isn’t well-suited to low-light use. Image quality in general is not really the focus.

Canon says the product has been designed for people who enjoy outdoor activities like birdwatching and hiking, however, and it could be a useful accessory for spectators at sports events like the Olympic Games — if they actually go ahead. The camera charges over USB-C and saves images and video to a microSD card, plus you can transfer images to a smartphone over Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

The PowerShot Zoom will go on sale in the US late next month for $299.99.