Samsung Gear IconX 2018 review

Samsung’s first pair of fully wireless earbuds, the Gear IconX, were a welcome addition to the burgeoning segment when they debuted last year, packing a wealth of features into a sleek and sporty package. But weak-kneed battery life of less than two hours made the IconX all but dead on arrival, leaving Apple’s latecomer AirPods to dominate the market (as per usual).

For the IconX 2018, Samsung has nearly tripled the battery life, while adding new features to compete against the cutthroat throng of competitors vying to usurp Apple. In our Samsung Gear IconX 2018 review, we put Samsung’s latest buds through their paces to find out whether this pair can rise above the pack.

OUT OF THE BOX

The IconX 2018 look almost identical to last year’s pair from the outset, arriving in a nimble, plastic charging case that’s similar in its pill-box size and design to the AirPod case (or should we say that the other way around?). Dual LEDs up front indicate earbud charging status, and more around back indicate the case’s battery level, next to a USB-C port and a Bluetooth pairing button.Samsung’s case is impressively small and light, but it can’t match Apple when it comes to elegance in design or ease of use. While the AirPods slide gracefully in their respective charging stands and the case snaps shut with a nudge of your thumb, the IconX are a bit more difficult to seat, and the case’s light lid is prone to pop open like an over-packed suitcase if you don’t exert some real force. Unlike many other brands, the charging stands lack magnets to secure the buds, making them harder to keep in place.

On the other hand, the IconX are also more fundamentally “earbud-like” than Apple’s golf-tee design, and similar to sportier designs like Bragi’s Dash Pro, they arrive with a welcome selection of tips and earhooks to keep them in your ears in virtually any scenario. Also in the package is a USB-C to Micro USB cable, and two adapters to connect said cable to a phone via USB-C or Micro USB.

SETUP

Setup for the IconX 2018 is a bit more difficult than most true wireless buds, but for good reason. Among their lengthy features set, the buds offer 4GB of internal storage (3.4GBs of which is usable), so you can work out phone-free if you so desire. As such, you must first mount the earbuds in their case and plug it into your Mac or (more likely for Android users) PC via the included cable.

The storage feature mirrors Bragi’s Dash and Dash Pro (and this won’t be the last time we reference them) which also offer 4GB of storage each. Oddly, Samsung’s earbuds show up on on a computer as two separate drives for both the left and right buds, while Bragi’s appear as one.

Photo Credit: Bill Roberson/Digital Trends (top) and Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends (bottom)

It’s here that we encountered our first hiccup with the IconX 2018: After plugging in, we couldn’t eject the drives from our Mac. Every time we tried, the drives would disappear and quickly reappear, and the only way to disconnect was to simply pull the case or the earbuds free, soliciting a “disk not ejected properly” warning. We had no such trouble via PC, though, one of many indications that — as we might have guessed given their pedigree — the IconX 2018 aren’t exactly designed around the Apple faithful. We used an LG V30 for our review to access the Android-only features.

Other than the eject issue, the earbuds are relatively straightforward to set up for the moderately tech-savvy user, instructing you to download Samsung’s Health app and Gear manager, the latter of which walks you through pairing to your phone in seconds.

DESIGN AND CONTROLS

The IconX 2018 come in three colors, including black, grey, and pink (last year’s blue and white models went bye-bye). Our DT colleague thought it would be funny to order up the pink model for a male reviewer, and he was right. But hey, if former NFL running back Chris Johnson can rock a pink Bimmer, we can roll with pink earbuds. Just be warned — this color is not for the timid.Other than the Barbie aesthetic, the IconX 2018 design is similar to a lot of fitness earbuds — though they unfortunately aren’t water resistant like many of their peers. The silicon earhooks and eartips in small, medium, and large sizes are easy to swap out to create a tight and secure fit, but you’ve got to push them in pretty tightly to make sure the sensors on the interior make contact with your ears. As such, wearing them for more than an hour or two can be fairly uncomfortable.

On the exterior of each bud are touchpad controls for everything from summoning voice assistants (compatible with Samsung Voice, Google Assistant, and Siri), to fielding phone calls, accessing fitness features, and, of course, playing music. Like most buds with touchpads, a series of taps moves you through options like play/pause, calling, and song skip, while a swipe up or down controls volume.

The tap controls for the IconX are generally pretty accurate, but we went through waves in which they had trouble registering volume swipes. One solution is to simply move your head up and down instead of your finger, but the buds still ended up reading our swipes as taps about a third of the time.

BATTERY UPGRADE

With around 4 to 5 hours per charge for Bluetooth streaming, and as much as 7 hours for onboard music playback, the GearX now stand toe-to-toe with peers like the Dash Pro, AirPods, and Jabra Elite Sport. To get there, Samsung dumped the heart rate monitor, but we’d say that’s a fair tradeoff.Unlike the above choices, however, Samsung’s wireless charging case curiously offers just a single recharge on the go, totaling up to 10 hours. Nearly every major competitor offers more, including up to 29 hours of total playback time for the AirPods. It’s not a deal breaker, however; the case will quick-charge your buds for an estimated hour of juice in 10 minutes, and The Headphone from Bragi nabbed the top spot in our Best True Wireless Headphones list without a charging case. Still, we wish the IconX 2018 aimed a bit higher there.

Interestingly, we also noticed battery life doesn’t drain equally between earbuds, running out more quickly on the right bud, which we selected as the primary bud for fitness tracking and also used most often for control taps. That appears to be part and parcel with the IconX design, as it’s shown the same way on Samsung’s IconX webpage.

NEW FEATURES

Along with the battery boost, the IconX offer some other new features — mostly for Android users — that you won’t find on more basic options like The Headphone and the AirPods. For instance, a personal “Coach” will help Android users through workouts like a 30-minute brisk walk, in which a female voice gives you encouragement: “Way to pick up your stride!”

The Gear app tracks metrics like workout duration and steps taken thanks to the buds’ built-in accelerometer, and the data can then be synced with Samsung’s Health app for long-term tracking. While it can be difficult to actually quit a workout early via the buds alone, requiring an extra-long hold on the touchpad, the features work well overall and should appeal to runners — especially those who need some extra motivation.

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

As mentioned, you can also upload music to your IconX from either your Mac or PC, or your Android phone via the included cable — a nice convenience for runners who don’t have room for a phone on the path. New this year, you can also transfer tracks from your phone via Bluetooth. It takes around 30 seconds per track, however, and there’s no batch transferring so the feature is really only good for a song or two when you’re on the move.

The IconX 2018’s Ambient sound feature, which allows you to listen to the outside world while you jam out, was greyed out from within the Gear app when we first tried to use it. We finally realized our left ear wasn’t quite making contact with the sensor on the earbud’s inner wall, and after forcing it in deeper, finally got the feature working. Frankly, we’re usually less than impressed with such features in wireless earbuds anyway, and engaging it here elicited a distinct whistling noise and a severe delay in audio especially notable indoors that made it annoying to use. Samsung claims this may be an issue with our review unit, and is sending another pair – we’ll update this space if that bears out.

Sony WH-1000xM2 review

When the box for the WH-1000xM2, the second generation of Sony’s top-tier wireless noise-canceling headphone line, materialized for review, we began asking a rare question: Can you make the best headphones even better?

After weeks of testing, we are happy to share that the follow-up to Sony’s outstanding MDR-1000x has answered that question with a resounding, “Yes.” We can’t say we’re surprised. The WH-1000xM2 retain the same plush comfort, near-perfect noise-canceling, and detailed sound signature that we adored on the original model, but add in 10 hours of extra battery life and even more tech features, all while lowering the list price $50.

In terms of sequels, the added tech and lower price help these feature-packed Bluetooth over-ears rank somewhere among The Empire Strikes Back and The Godfather: Part II, easily earning the company the first back-to-back five-star reviews we have ever issued for headphones.

OUT OF THE BOX

Once you dig into the box containing the WH-1000xM2 headphoens, you’ll see a leather-lined hard case with the Sony logo embossed on the lower portion, as well as a micro-USB charging cable and 3.5mm headphone cable. Below the case is a Blueprint-like manual with big visual instructions on how to operate the headphones — perfect for those who are tired of thick, non-intuitive instruction manuals.

Once we dug in to the zippered case we discovered our review units were a beautiful grey-black, but the WH-1000xM2 also come in a beige-gold colorway. Tucked in with the headphones was an airline adapter – handy for flights on older planes, especially common on international flights.

FEATURES AND DESIGN

The WH-1000xM2 will look right at home in the business-class section of your next flight, just like the original MDR-1000x, with subtly-styled earcups and a tasteful metal accent on the headband. Sony’s logo remains the flashiest design element, located just above each earcup, but even the company’s moniker has been implemented is done in muted gray.

Plus, puffy leatherette still surrounds each earcup and the upper part of the headband, combining with the headphones’ perfectly adjustable suspension system to continue the prior model’s rein as among the most comfortable headphones on the market. Just like their predecessor, the WH-1000xM2 avoid the top-of-head pressure we often feel after a few hours wearing large, over-ear headphones. The lack of on-head fatigue is further aided by the headphones’ weight, which comes in at a feathery 9.7 ounces — somehow identical to the original model despite a considerably improved battery life (more on that later).

On the bottom of the left earcup, you’ll find a 3.5mm input jack for the provided cable, along with power and ambient audio adjustment buttons outfitted with two differently sized plastic nubs on each button to make them easy to distinguish while the headphones are on your head. The ambient audio button lets you turn noise canceling on and off, and holding it for two seconds will launch an audio optimization feature to customize the sound for your unique ears.

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

The bottom of the right earphone features a micro-USB charging port — just four hours of charge time fuels the WH-1000xM2 with an astonishing 30 hours of battery life, a full 10 hours more than their predecessor’s already impressive 20 hours. The headphones also have a quick-charge feature that allows you to squeeze 70 minutes of play time out of a brief ten-minute charge. Even with the quick-charge option, the real convenience of a 30-hour battery life can’t be understated. We tested the WH-1000x for several weeks and only ran out of juice twice.

Underlying the classy exterior of Sony’s flagship wireless headphones is the company’s touch-control technology. The entire exterior surface of the right earcup supplants physical controls: A double tap plays/pauses music or answers/terminates calls; a swipe up and down adjusts volume; a swipe left or right skips tracks.One still-awesome feature that holds over from the previous model is the fact that you can cup your right ear to temporarily lower the volume of music and let in outside noise, allowing you to leave your headphones on when a flight attendant or coworker needs to talk to you for a moment, or when you need to hear an announcement on public transit. We did occasionally notice sluggish responses to touch commands on the WH-1000x, but still found the controls more convenient than hard-to-remember buttons on competitors like the Bose QC35.

Speaking of Bose’s industry-leading noise-canceling headphones, the WH-1000xM2 also have two sets of microphones for each ear — one interior and one exterior — allowing for the same excellent noise reduction. While the QC-35 retain a slight edge overall in terms of outright noise-canceling ability, this generation of 1000x nips even closer at Bose’s heels, providing better reduction of voices, but muting ambient sounds like keyboard clicks and the low whir of HVAC systems slightly less. That said, these are top-tier noise-canceling headphones by any measure, and music and movie sounds easily drowned out the outside world.

Xbox One X review

When Microsoft unveiled the Xbox One X, an upgraded version of the Xbox One with an intimidating $500 price tag, it claimed the new hardware would be “the most powerful console ever made.” Five months later, with the console in hand, we can confirm that the Xbox One X makes good on that promise. Yet power doesn’t always translate to improvements. Both loyal Xbox fans and potential PS4-owning converts are itching to know – does the new Xbox truly improve games new and old?

Short answer? It does.

Every game we played, whether it had received an “Xbox One X Enhanced” patch or not, delivered a noticeable performance boost over the Xbox One and Xbox One S. It does this regardless of your setup — though the gain is most noticeable if you have a 4K HDR10 TV.

While games look and run better, though, the differences are not so great that you can’t live without them. Like its PlayStation counterpart, the PS4 Pro, its caters to gamers who simply can’t tolerate a second-best experience. Still, the Xbox One X is now the best console for most multi-platform games.

INSIDE THE BLACK BOX

The Xbox One X is a refinement of the Xbox One design. It is, as Microsoft has pointed out many times, 40 percent smaller than the original Xbox One. It’s roughly the same size as the Xbox One S, albeit a bit denser at 8.4 pounds. Don’t let the “40 percent smaller” figure fool you, though. Sony’s PlayStation 4 Pro is about the same size, and the PS4 Slim is smaller still.

We prefer the matte black finish of the Xbox One X to the white Xbox One S, which tends to show more wear over time. We also prefer its fan placement. The sides of the device are covered with small, subtle air holes, as opposed to the One S, which had numerous large fan holes over half of its casing. That should make the Xbox One X easier to stack with other devices without restricting airflow.

Les Shu/Digital Trends

You’re not going to buy the Xbox One X because of how it looks, though. As you may have read already, the Xbox One X has the most impressive console hardware to date. It features an 8-core 2.3 GHz x86 CPU, a custom AMD GPU that can crank out 6 teraflops, and 12 GB of DDR5 RAM. Even compared to the PS4 Pro, that’s a lot of graphics processing power. The Pro, which is far more powerful than the standard PS4, has a GPU that computes 4.2 TFLOPS and “just” 8GB of RAM.

The only disappointing hardware in the Xbox One X is its terabyte hard disk drive. Having double the space of the standard Xbox One model is an improvement, but it’s still not enough storage for anyone buys games online frequently. Even if you’re just downloading the Xbox Live “Games with Gold” the publisher provides every month, most players will fill that hard drive up in no time. Worse, 4K assets and uncompressed audio files can inflate the file sizes of games — we’ve recently seen some PC games breaking the 100GB mark — so it’s fair to say that a few big games will eat up that drive space pretty quick.

STILL A SOLID HOME THEATER DEVICE

The One X keeps all the ports from the Xbox One S, and for players who prefer to buy games at the store, it has a 4K UHD Blu-Ray player. The console has HDMI in and out, in case you want to filter your TV service through the Xbox and use Cortana to change channels instead of your remote. This feature works exactly as it does on the One S – and we still prefer a remote. You’ll also find three USB 3.0 ports — two in back, one in front — which may come in handy if you want to take advantage of the console’s recently added mouse and keyboard support or connect an external hard drive to store more games. Lastly, there are IR-out and S/PDIF ports for advanced surround sound setups and, of course, a good ol’ fashioned Ethernet port.

XBOX ONE ENHANCES, BUT SOME GAMES MORE THAN OTHERS

What does all the power do to make your video games better?

First thing’s first; the games that show the most improvement are those where developers put in extra time and optimized for the hardware. These games, which Microsoft brands as Xbox One Enhanced, show off the console’s maximum potential. Primarily, that means running at 4K resolution in high-dynamic range without any toll on the game’s framerate. All the Xbox One Enhanced Games we played showed large improvements in visual fidelity, and a smoother framerate. At a time when it feels like bugs and performance issues are dragging games down, seeing games run better than before is gratifying.

Les Shu/Digital Trends

Microsoft has announced over 100 current and upcoming games that have, or will have, Xbox One X Enhanced patches. While we have a handy list of Enhanced games that are already out, Microsoft allows you to filter your games list to just show your Xbox One X Enhanced games. It may not help you decide what to play, but it’s a nice touch, especially for new owners who want to put the console through its paces.

While playing Gears of War 4, one of a few games we had access to that received an Xbox One Enhanced patch ahead of the console’s launch, we found that the game looked considerably sharper on the One X, even compared to the 4K upscaling of the Xbox One S. We found that non-essential details in the environment, including brick walls and trees, retained their sharpness even when we weren’t near them. JD Fenix’s face, which normally features tremendous detail in cutscenes and when seen up close, retained its definition in combat sequences, where the game’s camera pulled further away.

Super Lucky’s Tale, an Xbox One console exclusive adaptation of the Oculus Rift’s 3D platformer that launches alongside the One X, does not feature a high level of detail, but simply runs sharp with an incredibly high and smooth framerate. It runs the way all games should run, without any hitching, stuttering, or quirks. To be fair, part of this is simply that the game is well-made. Is isn’t as if there were substantial issues on other Xbox One models — rather, the One X maximizes the game’s colorful, cartoon aesthetic.

The new console’s increased fidelity can change how you experience games in unexpected ways. In one section of Gears 4, we looked up at the moonlit sky and noticed that not only was the moon brighter and more detailed than it was on the Xbox One S, but we could see wisps of light and energy around it. The Gears of War franchise takes place on a fictional, Earth-like planet called Sera. When we played the game for the first time, we paid no attention to that fact — but with the increased fidelity of the Xbox One X, the game felt more like a fully realized world.

X GONNA’ GIVE IT TO ‘YA

Every game runs at least a little better on an Xbox One X. Even games that weren’t Xbox One X optimized, running at 1080p on a non-UHD monitor, ran a little better on the One X than the One S. You might think that’s obvious, but it’s far from a given. Even with its general “boost” mode, which was added months after launch, the benefit of the PS4 Pro is largely relegated to games optimized for the platform, and often those benefits are most visible only on a 4K screen. The Xbox One X does what most players expect from a more powerful device. It automatically uses that power to run games better.

Les Shu/Digital Trends

There’s a catch, though. The way a games’ performance improved, especially when playing on a 1080p TV, varies from title to title. For example, DOOM featured slightly improved visuals, and featured almost imperceptibly shorter load times. Yet even on a monitor without HDR, the colors and lighting in Destiny 2 showed brighter, highlighting details on my ship more clearly. Destiny 2 also featured a smoother framerate on a 4K TV, compared to the 4K-upscaled visuals of the Xbox One S. Most games we tried featured one or two of the following – sharper visuals, an improved framerate, or slightly improved load times.Simplicity is both a blessing and a curse. If you have a 4K HDR10 TV with a 60Hz refresh rate, the console will automatically detect and adjust your settings. On a system level, though, there are no options to adjust or optimize how the console uses its extra power. Especially for non-4K players, the ability to choose between improving fidelity, smoothing out a framerate, or minimizing load times, would be extremely helpful.

Since the PS4 Pro launched in 2016, some games have added additional options like these. None of the 10+ games we played on the console showed such options, though not all of them had received “Xbox One X Enhanced” patches, which would presumably add those features.

This brings us to another contentious issue: As of November 2, 2017, a large number of previously released games that are expected to receive Xbox One X Enhanced patches, including Middle Earth: Shadow of War, Assassin’s Creed Origins, and Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, have not received them yet. Some publishers have confirmed to Digital Trends that their patches will launch shortly before or on launch day, but there has been no overall guarantee these games will fully support the Xbox One X when they hit stores. This potentially adds another layer of research for players to do before picking up a game, especially if they have a PS4 Pro and an Xbox One X.

4K VIDEO CAPTURE IS POSSIBLE, NOT EASY TO SHARE

In addition to playing games, the Xbox One X allows you to capture screenshots and record 30-second video clips in 4K. While it’s a nice touch, the functionality feels extremely limited. Video clips taken in 4K show up at a lower resolution when you post them to Xbox Live. You can set your screenshots and videos to record directly to an external hard drive, but the drive must be NTFS formatted, which means you cannot store your clips and videos on the same external that you’d use to store additional Xbox One games.

Amazon Cloud Cam review

With a line of home-centric devices like the iconic Echo speaker and Fire TV, it was only a matter of time until tech giant Amazon dipped a toe into home security. Turns out that Seattle’s tech giant has bypassed the toe dip and dove right in with the release of the Amazon Cloud Cam, an indoor security camera available Wednesday. We had a chance to test out an early review unit to see if its night vision, two-way audio, and smart motion detection can stack up to more expensive cams.

At $119, the Cloud Cam directly competes with the likes of the $199 Nest Indoor Cam in the increasingly crowded smart security camera market. It can stand alone as a camera, or you can spend an extra $20 on a version that works with Amazon’s new Amazon Key service, through which Amazon delivery drivers can deliver packages inside your house. Amazon hasn’t opened the Key system for testing just yet (truth be told, some of us are a bit afraid to), nor can you buy one just yet,  but you can purchase a Cloud Cam now, then integrate it with Amazon’s Key service later if you purchase this replacement power cable, which Amazon says is the only difference between the $120 stand-alone Cloud Cam, and the Cloud Cam that comes as part of the Key bundle.

OUT OF THE BOX

As with all Amazon gadgets, the Cloud Cam arrives in efficient, hassle-free packaging. In the box you’ll find the Cloud Cam itself, a USB wall adapter, nine-foot USB power cable, a mounting plate, and wall-mount hardware.With a line of home-centric devices like the iconic Echo speaker and Fire TV, it was only a matter of time until tech giant Amazon dipped a toe into home security. Turns out that Seattle’s tech giant has bypassed the toe dip and dove right in with the release of the Amazon Cloud Cam, an indoor security camera available Wednesday. We had a chance to test out an early review unit to see if its night vision, two-way audio, and smart motion detection can stack up to more expensive cams.

At $119, the Cloud Cam directly competes with the likes of the $199 Nest Indoor Cam in the increasingly crowded smart security camera market. It can stand alone as a camera, or you can spend an extra $20 on a version that works with Amazon’s new Amazon Key service, through which Amazon delivery drivers can deliver packages inside your house. Amazon hasn’t opened the Key system for testing just yet (truth be told, some of us are a bit afraid to), nor can you buy one just yet,  but you can purchase a Cloud Cam now, then integrate it with Amazon’s Key service later if you purchase this replacement power cable, which Amazon says is the only difference between the $120 stand-alone Cloud Cam, and the Cloud Cam that comes as part of the Key bundle.

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Everything in the box feels especially well made, right down to the USB power cord, which is stout and outfitted with a 90-degree micro-USB connector to ease any strain on the Cloud Cam’s power port. The Cloud Cam itself is lightweight, but feels solidly constructed, thanks in part to a strong and nimble ball joint which affords flexible camera placement and a generous amount of pivot and tilt for the perfect aimAmazon’s Cloud Cam captures a wide 120-degree view with a sensor that records 1080p resolution at 30 frames per second. For the overwhelming majority of our testing, the Cloud Cam delivered pristine video – but it depends on conditions. In our testing studio with ample daylight and office lights blazing, the video quality was excellent. But do how often do burglars barge into fully fluorescent-lit rooms? At dusk with only a few lamps on, the Cloud Cam’s frame rate and resolution dropped, resulting in somewhat blurry images when people moved quickly across the room. In total darkness, night vision delivered surprisingly crisp results, with faces and patterns on clothing clearly distinguishable. We wish this mode kicked in at slightly less dim levels.

Audio

The Amazon Cloud Cam offers two-way audio, meaning it not only records, it lets you speak to people on-camera from afar using the app. We spooked one of our kids as we caught him in the act of trying to sneak too much Halloween candy — you can only imagine how surprised he was to hear a voice of warning. Of course, Amazon probably has more conventional scenarios in mind, like talking to an Amazon delivery driver as they enter the home to drop a package (“Please don’t let the cat out!”).

The Cloud Cam’s microphone is surprisingly sensitive, and picked up raised voices from across our small home while delivering crystal clear audio for even low-level in-room conversations. Its speaker isn’t nearly as advanced, but it’s fun to use.

PAY TO PLAY

Out of the box, the Cloud Cam stores up to 24 hours of footage, but you’ll need to subscribe to a premium tier to unlock more storage and a number of vital functions. Basic, Extended and Pro plans boost your storage to 7, 14, and 30 days, for $7, $10 and $20 a month, respectively. They also unlock some important features, like person detection to cut down on unwanted alerts from pets, zones for blocking out motion triggers like a car driving by an open window, and perhaps most importantly, the ability to download videos.

ALEXA VOICE CONTROL

As an Amazon device, the Cloud Cam can be controlled by Alexa. In this case, that means the video feed captured by the Cloud Cam can be fed to a TV via an Amazon Fire TV, or directly to a Fire Tablet, Echo Show, or Echo Spot. Simply say, “Alexa, show me Living Room (or Bedroom, or Kids room)” and the live feed from a given Cloud Cam will appear almost instantly. You can do this using the remote for a Fire TV, or any number of Echo devices, so long as there’s a Fire TV connected to a television in your home.

OVERALL PERFORMANCE

While we wish downloadable video clips were available for non-subscribing Cloud Cam owners, that is our singular complaint. The Cloud Cam performed almost flawlessly during our evaluation, providing crisp video, two-way audio communication, highly customizable settings, and a fun user experience. Though video quality faltered in that awkward region between low-light and darkness, this is par for the course with security cameras, and doesn’t affect our opinion of the device, or our score.

WARRANTY INFORMATION

A one-year limited warranty and service are included. Optional one-year, two-year, and three-year extended warranties are sold separately (only to U.S. customers) for $12, $15, and $18, respectively.