If YouTube TV’s latest price hike feels like a breaking point to you, you’re not alone. Over the last week, I’ve heard from a bunch of folks who say the rate hike—from $73 per month to $83 per month, starting January 13, 2025—is the last straw. They’re now seeking alternatives to YouTube TV that will provide comparable channel coverage for less. Unfortunately, that sort of easy escape hatch doesn’t exist. Like every other live TV service (including satellite and cable), YouTube TV keeps raising prices because TV programmers keep demanding more money for their channels. Unless the entire industry embraces cheaper, more flexible bundles, the bill for all of these services will keep going up. The only alternative is to ditch your big pay TV package entirely. While this approach does involve sacrifice, the savings can be significant. Here are your options. This story is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best live TV streaming services. Consider an antenna With an inexpensive over-the-air antenna and good-enough reception, you can watch the big four broadcast channels—ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC—for free, along with PBS and a smattering of rerun-centric subchannels. An antenna won’t entirely replace a bigger bundle, but it’ll give you a big head start. You can even set up an over-the-air DVR to record shows for later. Antennas won’t work for everyone. Roughly speaking, you’ll want to be within at most 30 miles of local broadcast stations to use an indoor antenna, and within 60 miles for an outdoor model. Even then, obstructions and topography can impact the signal. Use the Antennaweb site to look up nearby stations for a sense of what you need, and be prepared for some trial and error. If you’re ready to experiment, we have a list of the best indoor and outdoor antennas available. Stream (some) local stations If an antenna isn’t feasible, you can stream some local stations instead, but it’ll cost you: Paramount+ with Showtime ($13 per month) includes a live feed of your nearest CBS station, including NFL coverage, along with on-demand access to primetime CBS shows. The cheaper Paramount+ Essential tier with ads ($8 per month) does not include CBS, but does offer the NFL games. You can often get Paramount+ for free in one-month increments. Peacock Premium Plus ($14 per month) includes a feed of your nearest NBC station, including Sunday Night Football, plus on-demand access to primetime NBC shows. The cheaper Premium tier with ads ($8 per month) does not include a local NBC feed, but does carry NFL games. The PBS app includes live feeds of local PBS stations for free, along with on-demand PBS programming. An optional $5-per-month “Passport” donation unlocks additional content. You can also use the free NBC and ABC apps to watch some network TV shows without a subscription, while the Paramount+ app offers some CBS programs for free as well. Unfortunately, live feeds of ABC and Fox are unavailable without a large pay TV package, but you can watch primetime shows from both networks on Hulu, which starts at $10 per month. Look for live news The major cable news networks—CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC—are not available without a big pay TV package, but you can access some of their content in alternative ways: Max offers an alternative CNN live feed with much of the same programming, but not in the same order as CNN proper. MSNBC’s website and mobile app offer live audio of the cable network for free. Some primetime Fox News shows are available on-demand via Fox Nation, but there’s no live feed. In lieu of cable news channels, consider the many free options available for streaming the news instead: Local news: Many local stations offer their newscasts for free if you know where to look. Check out NewsOn, Zeam, Local Now, Haystack News, or your local station’s own website. You’ll also find local news via Tubi, the Roku Channel, Amazon’s Fire TV News app, and the free channels on Google TV devices. National and international news: Pluto TV, Tubi, The Roku Channel, Xumo, and Sling TV Freestream, all offer round-the-clock streaming news channels, even from major networks such as CBS and NBC. That may scratch the background TV itch you’d otherwise get from cable news. Find favorite shows elsewhere Outside of news and sports, it’s rare for cable channels to carry exclusive new shows that aren’t available on standalone streaming services. If there’s a show you like on YouTube TV (or cable), sites like Reelgood or MyBundle can tell you where else to find them. And if by chance a show is only on cable—like Yellowstone, whose final season was exclusive to Paramount Network—you can always buy that show individually through stores like Amazon Video, Fandango, or Apple TV. Sort through sports streaming options Sports are where replacing a service like YouTube TV gets tricky. Currently, there’s no way to watch ABC or Fox without a big TV package or an antenna. ESPN isn’t available on a standalone basis either—although that will change in 2025—nor are FS1, FS2, or college conference channels such as SEC Network and Big Ten Network. So what can you get without a service like YouTube TV? Some options: As I mentioned earlier, the ad-free tiers of Paramount+ and Peacock include live feeds of CBS and NBC respectively, including all sports coverage. Max streams all sports coverage from TNT, TBS, and TruTV. This will eventually cost an extra $10 per month on top of a standard Max subscription, but is included at no extra charge for now. Many regional sports networks are now available on a standalone basis. I’ve compiled the options for NBA and NHL teams. MLB TV and NBA League Pass offer games that are not broadcast in your local market. ESPN+ offers the same service for NHL games. NFL+ offers local and nationally-televised football games, but only on a phone or tablet. Amazon Prime, Apple TV+, and even Netflix are picking up more sports programming as well, but their offerings are fairly scattershot. I’ve also compiled some additional tools to help sort through the sports streaming options, particularly if you’re trying to follow a specific team or league. Not ready to unbundle? Some other options: For now, the most complete live TV streaming service that’s markedly cheaper than YouTube TV is Sling TV. It offers a smaller bundle of pay TV channels, but still carries major sports channels, with three available base packages: Sling TV Orange ($46 per month) is currently the cheapest way to access ESPN and other ESPN-owned channels, such as SEC Network. Sling TV Blue ($46 per month) is the cheapest way to access FS1 and FS2. It also includes live access to NBC and ABC in some markets, and on-demand programming from all three channels everywhere. Sling Orange + Blue ($61 per month) combines both of the above packages. Unfortunately, Sling’s local channel coverage is lacking, with ABC, Fox, and NBC available only in select markets, and no CBS anywhere. For that reason, it pairs best with an over-the-air antenna. Hulu + Live TV is also worth a look. While it’s no cheaper than what YouTube TV will soon cost at $83 month, it includes the full Disney bundle (Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu’s on-demand catalog) at no extra charge. If you subscribe to any of those services on their own, you’ll save money by switching from YouTube TV to Hulu + Live TV instead. Lastly, you might take a look at some TV packages that don’t include sports or local channels. Because they omit the most expensive content on cable, their prices are significantly lower: Frndly TV ($7 per month) offers Hallmark Channel and a smattering of other largely rerun-centric channels. Philo ($28 per month) offers entertainment channels with a big emphasis on reality TV, but no sports, broadcast, or major cable news channels. Comcast’s NowTV is a $20-per-month bundle of entertainment channels and Peacock, with an option to add Netflix (with ads) and Apple TV+ for $10 per month extra. It’s available to customers with Xfinity home internet or Comcast’s cheaper Now Internet plans. Spectrum TV Stream is a $40 bundle of entertainment channels that also includes CNN and Fox News, available to Spectrum home internet customers. Just let go If you’re thinking that the cost of a la carte streaming adds up to more than YouTube TV or even cable, you’d be right. This has been the case for years, is not an original thought, and entirely misses the point. Unbundling your TV options does not automatically save you money, but it does let you decide what’s truly worth paying for. For that reason, standalone services are also highly incentivized to offer seasonal sales, comeback deals, and other discounts. These can considerably defray the cost of having a bunch of services at the same time. When you drop a live TV streaming service such as YouTube TV, you’re adopting a different mindset, in which you make peace with not having everything. The sooner you realize you weren’t going to watch it all anyway, the easier unbundling becomes. Sign up for Jared’s Cord Cutter Weekly newsletter for more streaming TV advice. Read...

Sacked in the endzone? Down for the count? Struck out swinging? Go ahead and pick your favorite sport metaphor, but the bottom line is that Venu Sports is done.  In a joint statement, Venu Sports backers Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery announced they are dropping their plans for the ambitious streaming service, which would have bundled some of the most popular sports channels into a single—and somewhat pricey—package.  “After careful consideration, we have collectively agreed to discontinue the Venu Sports joint venture and not launch the streaming service,” the statement says, as reported by Variety.  “In an ever-changing marketplace, we determined that it was best to meet the evolving demands of sports fans by focusing on existing products and distribution channels. We are proud of the work that has been done on Venu to date and grateful to the Venu staff, whom we will support through this transition period.”  The move marks a sudden, decisive end to the Venu Sports saga, made all the more dramatic given that only days ago, it appeared Venu might launch after all.  A joint venture between entertainment titans Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery, Venu Sports was poised to shake up the streaming industry with a $42.99-a-month service that bundled the likes of ESPN, FS1, BTN, TNT, TBS, and other top sports offerings.  Those plans came to a screeching halt last August when streaming service Fubo—a sports-focused live TV service that had a lot to lose if Venu jumped into the game—filed a lawsuit objecting to the deal and a federal judge followed up with an injunction against Venu’s impending launch.  Venu Sports was looking on the ropes (sorry, the sports clichés are just too irresistible), but then a thunderbolt hit earlier this week: Fubo settled its Venu lawsuit after making a deal with Disney-owned Hulu to combine their live streaming TV services.  The end of Fubo’s lawsuit appear to pave the way for a possible Venu Sports revival, although in reality, several hurdles remained. The federal injunction was still in place, the Justice Department had filed an amicus brief in support of Fubo’s previous objections, and other big streaming players—such as DirectTV—made it clear they were still adamantly opposed to Venu opening its doors.  In the end, Disney, Fox, and Warners probably saw too many legal headaches in Venu’s future, and chose—you guessed it—to punt.  So, where does all this leave streaming sports fans? I’m sure our own Jared Newman will share his thoughts soon, but if you were hoping that a Venu Sports bundle would simplify the thicket of sports streaming options, that ain’t happening. Read...

Two major competitors in the race to replace cable bundles have suddenly become partners. This week, Fubo and Disney announced that they will combine their respective live TV businesses. That means Fubo and Hulu + Live TV will become a single entity, of which Disney will be the majority owner. Neither service is going away. While Fubo and Hulu are merging their respective live TV businesses, the actual services will remain separate, offered through their own respective apps. If you’re already subscribed to either Fubo or Hulu + Live TV, don’t expect any sweeping overnight changes. Still, the two companies have already signaled that they’ll launch one—and possibly two—new sports-centric TV packages at lower prices than most live TV streaming services. That could lead to even bigger shake-ups in the pay TV landscape. How this happened The merger stems from a lawsuit that Fubo filed last year against Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Fox, which had planned to launch their own skinny package of sports and broadcast channels. That service, called Venu Sports, would have cost $43 per month and was supposed to arrive last fall. Fubo rightfully saw this as an existential threat. The company has always positioned itself as a sports-centric streaming provider, and in its lawsuit claimed that it’s never been able to offer the packages it’s truly wanted, without the bloat of news and entertainment channels. Fubo accused Venu’s owners of trying to monopolize a new kind of skinny TV bundle, and a federal judge agreed to block the service from launching while the lawsuit played out. The new deal between Fubo and Disney marks the end of that lawsuit, as Fubo has settled with all involved. Fubo is getting $220 million from Venu’s backers, plus a $145 million loan from Disney, and it’ll alternatively get $130 million termination fee if regulators don’t let the deal go through. What the companies do next is where things get really interesting. Fubo’s “Sports & Broadcasting” package As part of the deal, Fubo says it’s secured the rights from Disney for a new “Sports & Broadcasting” plan, which would presumably be cheaper than the bigger bundles that Fubo offers today. Jennifer Press, a Fubo spokesperson, confirmed to me that Fox is on board with the new bundle as well. So as it stands, this package should at least include ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNEWS, SEC Network, ACC Network, ABC, Fox, FS1, FS2, and BTN, along with access to ESPN+. My guess is that Fubo will now try to convince other major sports programmers to get on board, namely Warner Bros. Discovery (which owns TNT), Comcast (NBC), and Paramount+ (CBS). Based on some earlier calculations of mine, this kind of package would be at least $10-per-month cheaper than the current crop of live TV streaming services. What about Venu? The announcement from Fubo and Disney says nothing about the future of Venu Sports. But with the legal hurdles cleared, it’s possible that the service could re-emerge. The runway isn’t entirely clear. As the New York Times notes, the Justice Department previously filed a brief in support of Fubo’s lawsuit, and the consumer advocacy group Public Knowledge is arguing that the deal between Fubo and Disney is bad for competition. But if Venu revives its launch plans, it would offer both Disney’s and Fox’s lineup of sports and broadcast channels along with TNT, TBS, and TruTV from Warner. It would not be a complete solution to all your sports headaches, but it might be a good fit for some cord cutters and would be a welcome alternative to whatever Fubo comes up with. Let more sports bundles blossom The bigger question is how the rest of the TV world will respond. DirecTV already plans to launch its own sports-centric bundle, alongside separate genre-based packages for entertainment and kids/family programming. That plan is the result of DirecTV’s own hard-fought carriage dispute with Disney last year. From there, I’m guessing YouTube TV and Dish (which also operates Sling TV) won’t take kindly to being stuck with bloated bundles while their competitors are allowed to offer just the most valuable sports and broadcast programming. We can expect them to push for their own skinnier sports-centric bundles in response. The result will be a somewhat more confusing live TV streaming landscape, with even more packages to choose from, but also more potential to save money if you’re willing to be choosy. That at least seems better than the status quo. Sign up for Jared’s Cord Cutter Weekly newsletter for more streaming TV insights. Read...

Visitors to the Home Appliances wing of LG Electronics’ vast CES 2025 exhibit will likely be drawn first to the most visually enticing new products: a breakthrough LG Signature Microwave oven, redesigned indoor gardening appliances, and a hyper helpful robot that couldn’t be cuter.  Stuff that makes for cheery Eyewitness TV news coverage and social influencer posts from the giant tech show. But sorry, gang, you’ll really be missing something important if you don’t also pay attention to the modest looking cylindrical object plotzed on an LG booth table. While the LG ThinQ ON home hub is intentionally muted in appearance to blend in with any space and décor, it’s the AI-enhanced, smart home assistant that could prove the most helpful to your home life. What’s so hot about a Microwave? “Not much has changed in microwaves through the years,” noted my seasoned tour guide John I. Taylor, Senior VP of LG Electronics USA, Inc. But the times they are a-changing with the LG Signature Over-the-Range Microwave, which not only excels in cooking and heating food but also delivers an immersive entertainment experience. LG Electronics On command, the glass front of the microwave’s door reveals itself to be a 27-inch wide Full HD (1080P) touchscreen display with a variety of uses. Activating “InstaView” triggers three inside cameras to offer real-time cook monitoring and time-lapse image creation (great fodder for food bloggers.) And should you pair this microwave with the new, likewise camera-fitted LG Signature Slide-in Double Range, that microwave screen can also keep you in the know as things are cooking down below, without the need to stoop or open an oven door. But wait, there’s more. The 27-inch screen also comes with built-in speakers and Wi-Fi connectivity, to bring a variety of entertainment content to the kitchen whilst you’re cooking or eating. The screen likewise offers access to the LG ThinQ Smart Home Dashboard, becoming an oversized smart pad to control all your LG AI appliances and compatible Matter and Thread devices. More kitchen kapers While we’re in the foodie zone, pay attention to the new 36-inch Smart InstaView French Door Refrigerator. Its upgraded, fully transparent T-OLED display embedded in the upper right door functions as both a digital touch interface and a Dual InstaView panel to show what’s inside the fridge without opening the door and letting the chill out. On the kinda wild and weird side, Hologram like visuals can also be activated on said screen, blending the virtual with the real, while music plays from your curated playlist. That refrigerator’s inside camera functions pragmatically, too, with LG’s ThinQ Food management system to automatically recognize stored food items, suggest “will-work-with-that-stuff“recipes and warn when favored items are running low or about to expire. LG Electronics Upgraded proximity sensors are at play in the sleek LG Signature Dishwasher, with a handle that sits flush with the door when not in use then automatically pops out when a hand approaches. And on the laundry front, LG ‘s top washer is exploiting AI DD—Artificial Intelligence Direct Drive 2.0—to recognize and optimize fabric care settings. It’s spooky smart. How does your apartment garden grow? Both functional and decorative, LG’s new-gen, indoor gardening appliances merge an advanced growing system with a spiffy look. Downward-facing lights support optimal plant growth during the day while upward-facing mood lighting illuminates the crop and creates a calming ambiance in the evening. These mini arborteums have smarts, of course, automatically dispensing the right amount of water (from a 1.5 gallon tank) and nutrients to care for the specific number and variety of plants being grown, even when users are away for extended periods (up to a week.) Forthcoming in both a floor lamp standing model and in a side table styled design, users can use the companion ThinQ app to control the lighting settings, monitor growth, and manage cultivation schedules from across the room or halfway around the world. Say hey, hubbie LG has coined its deployments of AI as “Affectionate Intelligence.” And nowhere is that more evident than in its (tentatively named) Q9 Self-Driving AI Home Hub: a home agent that moves freely around the premises, interacts with the residents and recognizes situations and context to trigger appropriate actions of ThinQ connected appliances. LG touts this two-wheeled bot as “the first product to realize the concept of providing ‘care services’ in the smart home domain by actively controlling appliances, saving energy, and offering care through a combination of IoT, appliance data, user conversation context, and lifestyle patterns. “ LG Electronics If Q9 sees the cat knock over its food bowl, the hub will send a message to your robot vac to clean up the mess. And when it hears “It’s kinda chilly in here,” it’ll tell your smart thermostat to crank up the furnace or heat pump. And if you slip and fall and can’t up, you could ask it to summon help. LG’s John Taylor is most taken by this companion device’s charming ability to concoct a story from drawings and/or to read a book out loud .“You just put the page or image in front of the camera at the top of the display, and it will extract the text or dream up a story  from the drawing, then voice and act it out with various expressions and motions.“ While LG is touting this AI skill as primarily for children, the LG exec thinks “it could also be quite helpful for any one with impaired vision.” Also coming to everyone’s rescue—Q9 will provide GPT-4o-generated answers to questions practical, mundane, or far-fetched without ever complaining “stop pestering me.” Saving the best for last While the maker might wish you would only buy LG appliances that are remotely controllable via its ThinQ OS and app, they’re cognizant that users have also invested in appliances and Internet of Things (IoT) devices operating on a variety of other platforms. To serve as a peace maker, help them all work and cooperate from a single app, it’s soon to bring us ThinQ ON, a smart home hub product that applies generative AI to the task of home management. LG Electronics ThinQ On is largely based on the Homey Pro smart hub from Athom, a Dutch company that LG took a majority interest in (an 80 percent stake) in July, 2024. More than a decade in development, the current Homey Pro can connect to more than 50,000 devices, load up with apps from an options list numbering near 1,000, including standard protocols such as Matter, Thread, and Zigbee; plus, connection methods defined separately by each manufacturer. Adding disparate products and platforms via an on-screen menu is reportedly straightforward and easy, according to most reviewers. One differentiator from Homey: the ThinQ On hub will offer onboard voice activation with that Affectionate Intelligence:“Our secret sauce,” says Taylor. Operation entails using a large language model and the ThinQ platform to understand the user’s context, enabling natural conversation for the operation of home appliances and home IoT devices. It identifies the users’ intention, suggests routines appropriate to the situation and can juggle multiple issues when necessary. Ask it to start the washing machine, unaware that the detergent dispenser is empty, and ThinQ On will first alert you of that situation and hold off starting the cycle until the dispenser has been filled. If it knows (from a connected smart watch) that you were exercising earlier the same day, it will pre-set the wash cycle for “active wear.” The beauty of this computerized hub is that it functions locally, independent of the internet except for software loading/updating. Local control delivers enhanced privacy, and eliminates dependence on your home’s connection to the internet. That’s quite from the cloud-based, cross-platform schema in development by the Home Connectivity Alliance, an organization similarly “dedicated to the development and promotion of safe and secure interoperability across long-life appliances, HVAC systems and TVs within the connected home ecosystem.” LG is a member of that alliance, which was supposed to deliver the goods by the end of 2024. But you what happens to the best-laid plans. Also prepped to offer smart speaker entertainment thrills (music, news, and weather on demand) , the ThinQ On hub will first appear for sale later this year in Korea, LG’s home territory and primo R&D stomping ground, we’re told. Same goes for the Q9 Self-Driving AI Home Hub. Those new kitchen and laundry appliances should all be circling the globe in due course in 2025. Prices have yet to be announced on any of the products but for the smart hub curious, we can take some guidance from the current $399 price tag on the Homey Pro and the $199 asking price for the soon-to-come, less-powerful Homey Pro mini. Read...

Asus has fronted CES 2025 in Las Vegas with a strong lineup of Vivobook laptops, once again making its presence known in the lightweight and portable laptop category for creators, gamers, and casual users. The lineup includes refreshed models featuring new Qualcomm, AMD, and Intel processors that put AI power as well as power efficiency on display. Power efficiency being a strong presence in these laptops’ chips, they’re likely to propel battery runtimes to the forefront of our PCWorld laptop performance stats in 2025. 2025 Asus Vivobook 14 and 16 models Asus’s Vivobook 14 and 16 laptops will come in Qualcomm Snapdragon X and AMD Ryzen AI 300 flavors in 2025, with five configurations on offer. Asus is really talking up its Qualcomm models, which comprise a single 14-inch (X1407QA-BS56) and corresponding 16-inch model (X1607QA-DS54). As well as benefiting from a high 45 NPU TOPS AI processing power, these laptops deliver a 44 percent performance boost over previous generations and long 19.8-hour battery video runtimes, according to Asus’s own tests. Both models also boast Qualcomm Adreno graphics, 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM, and 1920x1200p resolution IPS-grade LCD displays, as well as FHD 1080p IR webcams for enjoying clear and smooth video conferencing. On the connectivity side, they both support Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity. Additional support for Microsoft Phone Link allows users to filter notifications, receive calls, and use phone apps on their PC. Zooming in on the essential facts, the Vivobook 14 model weighs 3.06 pounds and measures 0.70 inches thick. It’s available in Cool Silver for an MSRP of $699.99 as of January 27th this year. The 2025 Asus Vivobook 14 in Cool Silver color. Asus The Vivobook 16 model is slightly heavier and thicker at 3.88 pounds and 0.78 inches, but with an MSRP of $749.99 it costs only slightly more than its stablemate. It’s available in Quiet Blue and ships January 20th, 2025. The Vivobooks 14/16 with AMD’s Ryzen AI 300 processors are no less impressive. They consist of one 14-inch configuration and two 16-inch configurations, with either an AMD Ryzen AI 5 340 or AMD Ryzen 7 350 processor and AMD RDNA 3.5 graphics. Prices start at a MSRP of $749.99 with the first of these laptops expected to ship March 3rd, 2025. All of these new Vivobook 14 and 16 laptops will feature enhanced AI tools for enhancing productivity and creativity. Two of them include Asus’s StoryCube app, which allows users to automatically categorize files based on their content and Live Captions, which provide subtitles in real time. The Vivobook Pro 15 gets a Core Ultra 2 makeover This year’s Vivobook Pro 15 looks to be as versatile as previous generations for creative work and gaming. Although it drops a GPU tier from last year’s Nvidia RTX 4060 to an Nvidia RTX 4050 GPU, its GPU pairs with a powerful Intel Core Ultra 9 285H processor, which means users are still likely to enjoy efficiency gains. Could we see the Pro 15 last more than the 20-hours for light use? Here’s hoping! Other notable features include its 24GB of LPDDR5X RAM, a 15.6-inch Asus Lumina 120Hz OLED display, and 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD storage. This laptop once again sports an Asus DialPad, which creators will find useful for more easily navigating apps and shortcuts. Creators are also going to really dig the generous port offerings on offer, which includes four USB ports, an HDMI port, and an SDcard reader. It ships February 17 with an MSRP of $1,399.99. Four new Vivobook S configurations The Vivobook S is Asus’s sleek laptop designed for on-the-go productivity and entertainment. This year the S Series features 14-inch and 16-inch configurations, ranging in price from $1,099 to $1,299.99. Vivobook S laptops in 2025 specifically boast refreshed Intel Core Ultra Series 2 and AMD Ryzen AI 300 chips which, along with their high capacity, the 75Whr batteries should deliver noticeable year-on-year power and efficiency benefits for users. The lightest and most portable of the Series is a single 14-inch configuration (model M5406WA-BS99) powered by an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor and AMD RDNA 3.5 graphics. It weighs just 2.87 pounds and is 0.63 inches at its thickest point – so it’s remarkably portable and lightweight. The 2025 Asus Vivobook S 16 laptops boast either Intel Core Ultra Series 2 processors or AMD AI 300 Series processors.  Asus This laptop also sports a 14-inch 1920x1200p 60Hz OLED display, 32GB of LPDDR5X onboard RAM, and a 75Whr battery. It ships for $1,099.99 on February 25th, 2025. The cream of the crop of the larger 16-inch Vivobook S configurations is the Vivobook S 16 (model S5606CA-DS99). This laptop boasts an Intel Core Ultra 9 285H processor, Intel Arc graphics, a 16-inch (2880×1800) 120Hz Asus Lumina OLED display, and 32GB of LPDDR5X onboard RAM. It’s available come February 11th for an MSRP of $1,299.99. All Asus Vivobook S Series laptops also come with the company’s IceCool thermal technology, which includes dual 97-blade fans that work in conjunction with two air vents to cool the machine. Harman Kardon-certified speakers with Dolby Atmos will deliver the laptops’ immersive audio as well. Read...

For more than three decades, the TrackPoint’s iconic red rubbery nub has been a staple of IBM and Lenovo ThinkPad laptops. But now, no longer. Lenovo has removed its famous TrackPoint from its latest ThinkPad laptops, calling it time for a change. Does that mean the TrackPoint is dead? No, thankfully. It will still appear in the other ThinkPads made by Lenovo, said a company spokesman. But for the 14- and 15-inch ThinkPad X9 Aura Editions launched at CES 2025 in Las Vegas, the TrackPoint has been removed entirely. The idea is that certain laptops — let’s say the Dell XPS — have managed to transcend the consumer, prosumer, and small business markets, and the TrackPoint is a legacy design, according to Lenovo. “That doesn’t resonate with all demographics, so to speak,” said the company’s spokesman. “That was cutting-edge technology at one time. But clearly, it’s a touchpad world.” In the past, Lenovo had defended the TrackPoint as a reason to avoid using the trackpad itself. The TrackPoint debuted with the IBM ThinkPad 700, which launched in 1992. Then, in a 2017 TechRadar interview, Lenovo’s chief design officer David Hill described the TrackPoint as a way for a user to access a pointing device without the need for the user’s hands to leave the keyboard’s home row. Lenovo’s ThinkPad X9 Aura Edition.Mark Hachman / IDG But he also foreshadowed Lenovo’s choice to remove the TrackPoint, too. “It’s a little bit like an automatic transmission versus a stick shift. If you know how to drive a stick, you don’t want an automatic transmission,” Hill said back then in the interview. “If you don’t drive a stick shift, you’re not going to buy a car that’s got one.” Features and specs for Lenovo’s new ThinkPad Aura Editions Lenovo’s new ThinkPad X9 14 Aura Edition ($1,399 and up, shipping in Feb. 2025) and the ThinkPad X9 15 Aura Edition ($1,549 and up, shipping in Feb. 2025 as well) are both laptops built around the vPro versions of the Intel Core Series 2 “Lunar Lake” mobile processor. Neither ships with discrete graphics, relying on Intel’s Arc Xe integrated GPU. Mark Hachman / IDG However, it’s lovely to see that Lenovo is moving premium display technologies mainstream. The 14-inch offers a choice between a 1920×1200 400-nit 60Hz OLED or a 14-inch 2880×1800 500-nit 120Hz OLED. The 15-inch model offers just the latter option, with an average HDR600 capability on top. Up to 32GB of LPDDR5X memory and 2TB of a PCIe Gen 4 SSD are also included. These are Thunderbolt 4 laptops with two ports, as Intel doesn’t offer integrated Thunderbolt 5 solutions quite yet. Underneath the laptop is what Lenovo calls an “engine hub” that houses the critical components, with the Thunderbolt ports sprouting from both sides. Lenovo says that this engine hub will be serviceable by a trained repairperson. Wi-Fi 7 is also included and the laptop is also MIL-SPEC 810H qualified. Lenovo Lenovo isn’t specifying battery life quite yet, though with a battery-sipping Lunar Lake processor inside, it should be fantastic. The 14-inch model includes a 55Wh customer-replaceable battery, for a total weight of 2.74 pounds. The 15-inch includes a whopping 80Wh battery, for a total weight of 3.19 pounds. Lenovo used over 50 percent recycled aluminum in the aluminum chassis and various levels of recaptured plastics in other components. By contrast, the similar Asus ZenBook S 14 includes a Lunar Lake processor alongside a 72Wh battery and a 14-inch 2880×1800 touchscreen 120Hz OLED, which yielded over 17 hours of simulated work in our laptop battery tests. Lenovo’s AI Now adds smart modes We’re always on the lookout for applications that can take advantage of localized AI. With the Aura Edition laptops, Lenovo has provided two sets of such features: the Lenovo Aura Edition features on the one hand, and what Lenovo is calling Lenovo AI Now on the other. Lenovo’s AI Now offers both local and cloud-based AI.Lenovo Lenovo Aura Edition includes “smart modes” that allow users to switch between optimized device configurations like “Attention,” “Power,” and “Wellness.” They sound like they’re designed a bit like the optional Windows configurations, emphasizing entertainment, for example. Smart Care connects users to device diagnostics and 24/7 live agent support. Smart Share is a Lenovo-branded version of Intel’s Unison technology for sharing information between Android and iOS devices. Lenovo AI Now is an optional LLM that’s based on Meta’s Llama 3.0, which processes all data locally using the integrated Lunar Lake NPU. Lenovo also promises new features coming soon: multilingual support, searching across the PC as well as the tablet, plus improved capabilities to extract data from documents, images, or even portions of the two. Lenovo’s USB-C travel dock.Lenovo Lenovo also promises new peripherals to go along with the new laptops, including $49 TWS Earbuds (X9 Edition) with Bluetooth 5.3; a 65W GaN Nano Adapter; a $99 X9 Charging GaN Dock with a 4K60 HDMI port, SD card reader, and USB-A/C ports; and a $59.99 X9 Edition of a wireless mouse that includes a dedicated AI Now button. The earbuds and adapter are available now and the dock will ship in June 2025. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Fabric cover converts into stand that supports landscape and portrait orientation USB-C ports deliver up to 65 watts of USB Power Delivery Touchscreen feels responsive in general use Passive stylus is included Cons Touchscreen latency is noticeable when using the stylus Color performance doesn’t stand out Sticks to 60Hz refresh rate, doesn’t have Adaptive Sync Our Verdict The Viewsonic TD1656-2K is a portable touchscreen monitor with a sharp image and included passive stylus, but it’s better in Excel than your favorite photo editor. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Viewsonic TD1656-2K Retailer Price $349.99 View Deal Viewsonic $349.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket I don’t know about you, but I always prefer my computer to have a touchscreen. While I don’t constantly reach up and touch the monitor, there are situations where it’s a handy alternative to using the mouse. The ViewSonic TD1656-2K tries to fill that role, offering a portable touchscreen monitor compatible with both Windows and MacOS. ViewSonic TD1656-2K specs and features The ViewSonic TD1656-2K’s display panel specifications aren’t unusual for a 16-inch portable monitor. It has a 16:10 aspect ratio, a native resolution of 2560×1600, and an IPS LCD display panel with a refresh rate of 60Hz. There’s no adaptive sync and HDR is not supported. Display size: 16-inch 16:10 widescreen Native resolution: 2560×1600 Panel type: IPS LCD 8-bit Refresh rate: 60Hz Adaptive sync: None HDR: No Ports: 2x USB-C with DisplayPort Alternate Mode and up to 65 watts Power Delivery VESA mount: No Speakers: 2x 2-watt speakers Price: $349.99 MSRP Dig into the details though, and the display’s purpose stands out. It has a capacitive 10-point multi-touch screen, which you can manipulate with your fingers or with the passive stylus that is included in the box. The monitor also has two USB-C ports, both of which support video input and up to 65W of Power Delivery in both directions. The TD1656-2K lists support for both Windows 11 and Mac. I spent most of my time with it connected to a PC laptop but also connected it to a Mac Mini to confirm that the touchscreen functioned (it did). Further reading: See our roundup of the best portable monitors to learn about competing products. ViewSonic TD1656-2K design The ViewSonic TD1656-2K’s design is familiar from the front, with slim bezels on three sides and a slightly thicker chin on the bottom. Around the back you’ll find an expanse of silver metal. The shade of silver used by ViewSonic is arguably a bit too light to follow current trends (gunmetal and black shades seem in vogue right now), but it looks professional. A fabric-covered display stand and cover ships with the monitor. Like the display itself, it looks professional but not trendy. It’s a semi-rigid cover that provides good protection from scratches or moderate falls. It doesn’t fully enclose the monitor, however, so it may still allow objects to wedge in between the case and the display. When it comes time to use the monitor, you’ll have to fold the display stand into a desired position and attach the monitor to the stand magnetically. I found it a bit confusing at first, as it’s not immediately clear how the display should fold, and the manual offered no help. Once I was comfortable using it, however, I discovered the stand works well. It supports several different viewing angles, from nearly upright to significantly reclined, and can also be used in portrait orientation, which is not common for any portable monitor stand. Matthew Smith / Foundry Matthew Smith / Foundry ViewSonic TD1656-2K connectivity The ViewSonic TD1656-2K relies on two versatile USB-C ports. Both support DisplayPort, which means either can be used to connect a PC to the portable monitor. The USB-C ports also support up to 65 watts of Power Delivery in both directions. This is an uncommon feature for a portable monitor, as most only support enough Power Delivery to power the monitor itself. It opens up some new connection options. When using the TD1656-2K with a laptop, for instance, you can connect USB-C power to the monitor and then connect the monitor to the laptop to charge the laptop while it inputs video to the monitor. That’s not possible with many portable monitors, since their Power Delivery is limited. ViewSonic TD1656-2K features Touch is, of course, the ViewSonic TD1656-2K’s headline feature. It has a 10-point capacitive touchscreen layered beneath a smooth, glossy panel. The touchscreen felt responsive and showed no issues with mistaken or missed inputs. I found the touchscreen especially useful with multi-touch gestures, like Windows’ five-finger pinch to close all apps. The monitor also ships with a passive stylus. The stylus is stubby, and the tip is curved with a plastic protector that prevents it from scratching the display’s surface. Even so, I found it comfortable to hold and use. It doesn’t need power, so it’s light and never needs to be charged. The ViewSonic TD1656-2K’s pair of 2-watt speakers can fill a small office with sound and audio quality, though modest, is clear and mostly avoids distortion. While the touchscreen does work well in general use, it’s not perfect for creative work. The passive stylus felt comfortable in my hand, but touch input includes some latency. Though not readily noticeable when using touch to navigate apps with your fingertips, it’s obvious when using the stylus to draw in Affinity Photo, Photoshop, Paint, and similar apps. There are also no buttons or extra features. It’s a simple, passive stylus, and that’s it. Even so, the stylus is fine for less demanding users. I prefer to use a touchscreen, when it’s available, for some photo touchups. The ViewSonic TD1656-2K felt like a good fit for my occasional editing needs. If you’re an aspiring or professional digital artist, however, the latency could be frustrating.  Matthew Smith / Foundry The on-screen menu is controlled with the power button and volume buttons on the monitor’s right flank. The text is small, but the controls are easy to use. That, however, is in part because of the lack of options. Users can adjust brightness, contrast, volume, the audio mode, and that’s about it. Speaking of audio, the monitor has a pair of 2-watt speakers that perform better than most. Maximum volume is high enough to fill a small office with sound and audio quality, though modest, is clear and mostly avoids distortion. There’s no bass, so the speakers are a bad choice for entertainment, but they work for listening to a podcast or having chill tunes on in the background. That’s more than can be said for most portable monitors. ViewSonic TD1656-2K SDR performance The ViewSonic TD1656-2K’s $349.99 MSRP is towards the upper end of pricing for portable monitors, but most of the added cost goes towards the touchscreen and USB-C connectivity with up to 65 watts of Power Delivery. The display panel itself is a 16-inch IPS display with a 16:10 aspect ratio and resolution of 2560×1600. Matthew Smith / Foundry ViewSonic comes out swinging with a maximum brightness of 381 nits. That’s much higher than typical for a portable monitor, and it helps the display remain usable in a wide variety of situations, including rooms with bright lighting that can’t be dimmed or turned off (like, say, a corporate bullpen). The display is glossy though, so glare can still be an issue. Matthew Smith / Foundry Contrast is also a strength for the TD1656-2K, though it depends on your perspective. Most portable monitors have a similar IPS display panel. Compared to such peers, the TD1656-2K’s measured contrast ratio of 1620:1 is better than average and provides an attractive image. However, as the ViewSonic VX1655-4K-OLED shows, OLED portable monitors are in a different league. They provide a more immersive image with better depth and shadow detail in dark scenes. To be fair to the TD1656-2K, however, only a few portable OLED touchscreens exist, and they’re very expensive (around $500).    Matthew Smith / Foundry Color gamut unfortunately proves a problem for the TD1656-2K. It delivers just 99 percent of sRGB and 76 percent of DCI-P3. These are low figures, coming ahead of only the Azorpa A1 Gamut, a budget portable monitor that’s often sold for less than $150. The TD1656-2K’s modest color gamut means it literally displays fewer colors overall, and that results in a less alluring look. It’s not really a problem if you’re in Excel or browsing Threads, of course, but more obvious if you want to edit photos or watch YouTube. Matthew Smith / Foundry Color accuracy works more to Viewsonic’s favor. While the TD1656-2K’s color accuracy is not the best we’ve tested, it’s certainly more than enough to deliver a lifelike, realistic image. The TD1656-2K also did well enough in gamma and color temperature. It achieved a gamma curve of 2.3, which is slightly off our target of 2.2. This means the image appears a tad darker than it should, but not by much. Color temperature came in at 6400K, off the target of 6500K, which means the image is ever-so-slightly warmer than ideal. Sharpness is a strength. The TD1656-2K’s resolution of 2560×1600, which works out to around 189 pixels per inch (PPI). That’s better than a 27-inch 4K monitor, which provides 163 PPI, and competitive with most high-end Windows laptops. The monitor looks sharp even when viewing small, high-contrast text. The ViewSonic TD1656-2K’s overall image quality is fine but has caveats. It’s not competitive with most portable monitors sold in the same price bracket, though it makes up for that by including a touchscreen ViewSonic TD1656-2K HDR performance HDR is not supported on the ViewSonic TD1656-2K. While that might seem a bit disappointing, it’s for the best, as portable monitors have limitations that make them a bad fit for HDR. It mostly comes down to brightness. Higher brightness means higher power draw, which isn’t a great fit for a portable monitor’s use case. ViewSonic TD1656-2K motion performance Motion performance isn’t a priority for the ViewSonic TD1656-2K, either. It has a refresh rate of 60Hz and does not support Adaptive Sync for smooth frame pacing. That makes the monitor a bad choice for fast-paced games, as significant motion blur can detract from the action, and you’ll need to use V-Sync to avoid unsightly frame tearing. While I understand the TD1656-2K is not meant for gaming, I find the lack of a higher refresh rate a bit frustrating. A portable touchscreen monitor is arguably an ideal use case for a 120Hz refresh rate, as it will help the display look and feel more responsive. Sticking with 60Hz is a minor disappointment forgiven only by the fact most other portable touchscreens make the same choice (though a few companies, like Uscreen, offer both). Should you buy the ViewSonic TD1656-2K? Buying the TD1656-2K nets you a bright display, a responsive touchscreen, an acceptable stylus, and a semi-rigid fabric cover that doubles as a stand and supports use in both landscape and portrait orientation. The monitor also includes two USB-C ports with up to 65 watts of Power Delivery, which provides extra flexibility in how the monitor is connected. The monitor’s color performance disappoints, however, and its motion performance is a poor fit for gaming.  Ultimately, the ViewSonic TD1656-2K is a portable touchscreen monitor that’s better in a corporate bullpen than a home office or studio. Read...

The pace of smart home innovation hasn’t slowed a whit in 2024, with new products such as the Amazon Echo Show 21 being unveiled just this week. The better news is that the smart home is no longer a niche market appealing only to enthusiasts willing to tolerate steep learning curves. In other words, the water’s fine! Come on in! We are, however, still living in a world of smart home silos; namely, Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, and Google Home. The increasingly important Matter standard will unify those ecosystems one day, but that won’t happen until Matter incorporates every smart home category. Today, for example, it doesn’t account for security cameras or video doorbells. Considering that, we’ve picked more than one product in several categories, based primarily on which silo your smart home is in. As in years past, the products we’re awarding best-of-the-year status weren’t necessarily introduced in 2024, they are the best products in their category regardless of when they were first brought to market. As for what’s on the horizon, artificial intelligence is poised to radically change what it means to live in a smart home, but it’s much to early to pick winners on that front. Best video doorbell for Alexa users: Ring Battery Doorbell Plus Best Prices Today: Retailer Price $99.99 View Deal Dell Home $129.99 View Deal $149.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket $99.99 at Best Buy$129.99 at Dell Home$149.99 at Amazon Ring invented the video doorbell business, and Amazon snapped the company up in a $1 billion deal in 2018. The Ring Battery Doorbell Plus isn’t Ring’s absolute best doorbell, but it is the one most Alexa users should buy. It’s reasonably priced–especially when it’s on sale–and it’s loaded with features, including a 150-degree field of view (horizontal and vertical), package detection, and a 1:1 aspect ratio that shows your visitors from head to toe in 1536 x 1536-pixel resolution with high dynamic range (HDR). The camera can discern between the movement of people and other things, such as animals and bushes, ignoring the latter. The Ring Battery Doorbell Plus is very easy to install and set up, and it can operate on either battery or low-voltage power if you’re replacing an old-school doorbell. Stay tuned for our hands-on review of the cheaper Ring Battery Doorbell. which retains that 1:1 aspect ratio, albeit at a slightly lower resolution of 1440 x 1440 pixels, but has a fixed battery that requires the entire assembly to be dismounted for charging. Read our full Ring Battery Doorbell Plus review Best video doorbell for Apple Home users: Aqara Smart Video Doorbell G4 Best Prices Today: Retailer Price $95.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket $95.99 at Amazon If you’ve used other video doorbells, you might find the Aqara Smart Video Doorbell G4 a little quirky. It runs on battery power, but not a rechargeable battery–it comes with half-a-dozen disposable AA cells. Alternatively, you can connect it to a low-voltage power supply. While its camera’s video resolution is a pedestrian 1920 x 1080 pixels and it lacks high dynamic range (HDR), it can be trained to recognize familiar faces. It also comes with plug-in chime with a microSD card slot that can host cards with up to 512GB of memory. But for Apple users, the Aqara Smart Video Doorbell G4’s most attractive feature will be its support for Apple’s HomeKit Secure Video. You’ll need Video privacy is one of the chief benefits of Apple’s Secure Home Video service. You’ll need an Apple HomePod, HomePod mini, or Apple TV on your home network, as well as an iCloud+ subscription, but you’ll be able to store the camera’s recordings in Apple’s cloud with end-to-end encryption. We’re also working on a review of the wired Ecobee Smart Doorbell Camera, so we’ll update this space when that’s finished. Best video doorbell in the Google Home ecosystem: Nest Doorbell (Battery) Best Prices Today: Retailer Price $99.98 View Deal $141.99 View Deal Dell Home $179.99 View Deal Google $179.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket $99.98 at Best Buy$141.99 at Amazon$179.99 at Dell Home Like the Nest Cam, the Nest Doorbell (Battery) came to market way back in 2021. And like that product, this one remains best in its class—provided you define that class as doorbells in Google’s smart home ecosystem. Don’t let its name fool you. Like the Ring product discussed above, the Nest Doorbell (Battery) can run on either its internal battery or the wiring your existing doorbell uses. And like the Nest security cam that came out the same year, Google’s doorbell performs its image processing on the device itself, instead of compromising your privacy by uploading video to the cloud. It can recognize familiar faces, discern between people, animals, and vehicles, and it can alert you to the presence of packages on your doorstep. Read our full Nest Doorbell (Battery) review Best smart display for Alexa users: Amazon Echo Show 8 Best Prices Today: Retailer Price $84.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket $84.99 at Amazon The third-generation Echo Show 8 was introduced in late 2023, but it remains our top pick in this category by virtue of its ability to perform as a Matter-compatible smart home hub. Equipped with a Zigbee radio and a Thread border router, it can control a wide range of smart home devices and stream video feeds from many brands of home security cameras and video doorbells (remember, Matter has yet to take security cameras into account). It can also make video calls with its integrated camera, and like all Echo Show devices, it can act like a Fire TV device to stream video entertainment, including live TV. Also worthy of mention: The 3rd-gen Echo Show 10, with its pivoting display, and the wall-mountable Echo Show 15. And for those looking for a smaller wall-mountable screen, don’t overlook the Amazon Echo Hub, especially if you’re using a Ring Alarm system. Amazon has also announced a 2nd-generation Echo Show 15 and the gargantuan Echo Show 21. Read our full Amazon Echo Show 8 (3rd Gen, 2023) review Best smart display for Google Home users: Google Nest Hub Max Best Prices Today: Retailer Price Google $229 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket $229 at Google Five years is an eternity as far as the smart home goes, yet 2019’s Nest Hub Max still ranks as the best smart display for Google Home users. Despite its age, the Nest Hub Max still boasts cutting-edge features, including the ability to identify nearby faces as well as answer queries without the wake word when you’re looking at the screen. It’s also kept up with the times, acting as a Thread boarder router for Matter devices, and it will eventually host a more “fluid,” Gemini AI-aided version of Google Assistant.   Read our full Google Nest Hub Max review Best smart speaker for Alexa users: Amazon Echo Spot (2024) Best Prices Today: Retailer Price $44.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket $44.99 at Amazon The second-generation Echo Spot is a fantastic smart speaker with almost the perfect combination of features (it supports Matter over Wi-Fi, but it doesn’t have a Thread radio). It’s a great clock—and an even better alarm clock—and it can also report current weather conditions as well as the day and date on its 2.83-inch touchscreen. You can of course control any Alexa-compatible device with a voice command, but the speaker’s ultrasonic motion detection can trigger an Alexa routine, so you don’t need to utter a word. When we think of smart speakers, we typically value their smart home features much more than their audio performance. Putting both in the same box necessarily increases the price tag. If you want both smart home control and high-fidelity audio, consider something like the JBL Authentics 300 or the Sonos Era 100 instead. Read our full Amazon Echo Spot (2024) review Best smart speaker for Apple Home users: Apple HomePod mini Best Prices Today: Retailer Price $99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket $99 at Apple The Apple Home ecosystem feels like it’s on the edge of something big, with word that Apple may be close to unveiling a touchscreen home hub that can be wall-mounted or docked in a speaker stand. At the same time, Apple’s existing HomePods—the full-size, second-generation HomePod, and the more affordable HomePod mini—have been left behind in terms of Apple Intelligence support. Given the uncertainty, those who want to invest in Apple’s smart home hardware now should hedge their bets with the HomePod mini, which offers the same smart home connectivity as the pricier second-gen HomePod—including Thread and Matter support—for a fraction of the price.  Read our full Apple HomePod Mini review Best smart speaker for Google Home users: Google Nest Audio Best Prices Today: Retailer Price $49.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket $49.99 at Best Buy Only a year younger than the aging Nest Hub Max, the Nest Audio remains a swell-sounding smart speaker, complete with great low-frequency response, detailed highs, and an overall smooth, rich sound. You can pair two Nest Audios for stereo sound, and if you’ve grown weary of stilted Google Assistant conversations, don’t worry–a more “fluid” conversational style is coming to the assistant, courtesy of Google’s Gemini. If you want a higher-fidelity smart speaker, consider the exceptional JBL Authentic 300. Best smart lighting ecosystem overall: Philips Hue Best Prices Today: Retailer Price $43.99 View Deal $49.97 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket $43.99 at Best Buy$49.97 at AmazonNot Available at Adorama With its robust ecosystem, which now extends into security cameras, as well as a terrific app, Philips Hue remains the undisputed leader when it comes to smart lighting. Yes, you’ll need to pay a premium for Hue lights, lamps, and other Hue accessories, but the extra cost is worth it—just ask anyone who’s sunk cash into a cheaper smart light only to watch it drop its connectivity for no apparent reason. Best of all, Hue lights work with all the big smart home platforms, including Matter (if you use the optional but highly recommended $60 Hue Bridge). The simple White Ambiance bulb is the natural entry point, but the White and Color Ambiance model adds the fun of color. Read our full Philips Hue White and Color Ambiance A19 (Bluetooth + Zigbee) review Best lighting-control system overall: Lutron Caséta Best Prices Today: Retailer Price $69.95 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket $69.95 at Amazon Smart bulbs are the smart-home entry point for many people, but enthusiasts will tell you that having smart switches and dimmers in your walls is even more convenient. And having one doesn’t preclude having the other. Despite being a member of the consortium behind Matter, Lutron apparently has no plans to make its awesome Caséta smart lighting ecosystem compatible with it. And that’s just fine with us. Devices like the Lutron Diva Smart Dimmer shown here are already so broadly compatible with other smart home products—from the likes of Amazon Alexa, Apple Home, Google Home, Ring Alarm systems and security cameras, to even Sonos multi-room audio systems—that Matter compatibility just doesn’t, uh, matter. Read our full Lutron Diva Smart Dimmer review Best smart thermostat overall: Ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium Best Prices Today: Retailer Price $215 View Deal $249.99 View Deal Dell Home $249.99 View Deal Lowe’s $249.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket $215 at Amazon$249.99 at Best Buy$249.99 at Dell Home If you don’t buy any other smart home product, an investment in a smart thermostat will pay dividends in energy savings, convenience, and sheer comfort when you’re home. The Ecobee Premium is not only the best product in its class, but it can also function as the hub of an entire home security system. Ecobee also has its own excellent indoor camera and a wired video doorbell we’ve been meaning to review for months (both are also Apple Home compatible). But you don’t need to be an Apple user to like this thermostat, it’s compatible with Google Home, Alexa, and Apple Home, too (its onboard smart speaker can answer to either the Alexa or Siri wake words). Best smart thermostat for Google Home users: Nest Learning Thermostat (4th gen) The headline above is probably sells the Nest Learning Thermostat (4th gen) a bit short. Because it’s a Matter-certified device, you can integrate this absolutely beautiful smart thermostat into any smart home ecosystem. Matter compatibility is the biggest advantage it has over Ecobee’s best thermostat, although some would say Nest’s offering is also prettier. Nest has a long tradition of building smart home devices that are supremely easy to install and use on a daily basis, and that’s certainly the case here. Nest’s Dynamic Foresight technology that changes the information displayed on the thermostat based on how close to the thermostat you are is pretty cool, too. And if you’re a dyed-in-the-wool Google Home aficionado, there’s nothing wrong with looking for purity in your smart home life. Best smart lock overall: Level Lock+ Best Prices Today: Retailer Price $349 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket $349 at Amazon If you’ve held off on installing a smart lock on your door because you’re put off by the image of hulking slabs on both sides of your entry door, you need to consider a Level Lock+. We called it “the closest thing to a perfect smart lock” in our review, and it’s only gotten better since then with the activation of its previously dormant Thread radio. In addition to looking no different than an ordinary deadbolt—on either side of your door—it can be opened with a touch, a smartphone app, an iPhone Home Key, or an NFC card—including one you can put on a keychain. Level also offers a numeric keypad accessory you can mount next to your door, so you don’t need to carry anything with you when you go out for a run. If you’d prefer to retrofit the deadbolt you already have, take a look at the Level Bolt, which has all the same features (That lock’s Thread radio will be activated soon.) Read our full Level Lock+ (Level Connect bridge included) review Best home security camera overall: Arlo Pro 5S 2K Best Prices Today: Retailer Price $99.99 View Deal $142.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket $99.99 at Best Buy$142.99 at Amazon No security camera beats the Arlo Pro 5S 2K in terms of performance, quality, and with a 2024 firmware update, its compatibility extends to Apple Home (note that you’ll also need an Arlo Base Station or Arlo SmartHub for that). This camera also works in the Amazon Alexa and Google Home ecosystems, so you can stream its feed to those companies’ smart displays as well as to an Apple TV. This camera captures video in 2K resolution with HDR, and it has an onboard spotlight to capture nighttime scenes in full color. It has a 160-degree field of view, an integrated siren, and it operates on batteries (or solar or AC power, with accessories), so you can install it anywhere within range of your Wi-Fi network. Speaking of networking, where most of its competitors can only join crowded 2.4GHz Wi-Fi networks, the Arlo Pro 5S 2K can also operate on the less crowded 5GHz frequency band. If you want all your security cameras to be in one family, there’s a complete range of other Arlo cameras, including battery- and AC-powered floodlight models. The Arlo Home Security system is pretty great, too. Read our full Arlo Pro 5S 2K (model number VMC4060P) review Best home security camera for Alexa users: Ring Stick Up Cam Pro Best Prices Today: Retailer Price $179.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket $179.99 at Amazon If your smart home revolves around Alexa, the Ring Stick Up Cam Pro remains the best security camera to keep an eye on your property, indoors or out. Available in battery, solar-powered, or plug-in configurations, it can be deployed almost anywhere, but radar motion detection is its biggest selling point. It will trace the path an intruder took as they approached the camera, but the pre-roll feature that captures them even before the camera alerts you to their presence is even better. You’ll also get color night vision, an onboard siren, and dual-band Wi-Fi support. If you also have a Ring Alarm Pro system, you can store video recordings locally on a microSD card. Ring has shipped other security cameras since this one came out–including the Ring Pan-Tilt Indoor Cam–but nothing as excellent as this. Read our full Ring Stick Up Cam Pro review Best home security camera for Google Home users: Nest Cam Best Prices Today: Retailer Price $154.99 View Deal Google Nest $179.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket $154.99 at Amazon$179.99 at Google Nest Google’s Nest Cam (battery) hails from the department of Oldies but Goodies. Yes, this indoor/outdoor camera still rocks despite its coming to market way back in 2021. Everything about the hardware feels designed to make things easy for the homeowner, including the magnetic mounting system makes placement, aiming, and removal a breeze. This was one of first security cameras to be capable of not only distinguishing between people, animals, and vehicles but to recognize familiar faces. And while its 1080p resolution might seem pedestrian now, its support for high dynamic range (HDR) helps it capture clear images even in bright sunlight. Read our full Nest Cam (Battery) review Best floodlight camera overall: Eufy Floodlight Cam E340 Best Prices Today: Retailer Price $219 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket $219 at Amazon The Eufy Floodlight Camera E340 is tops in its class, with dual cameras capturing both high-res wide-angle and telephoto views simultaneously. The cameras are mounted to a motion-tracking pan/tilt motor, so they can track a person’s path through your property. The floodlight element, meanwhile, consists of a pair of dimmable LED light panels that can produce up to 2,000 lumens of white light. Those panels can be programmed to turn on at sunset and off at sunrise. Up to 128GB of video recordings can be stored on an onboard microSD card slot. You can also opt for one of Eufy’s network-attached storage solutions, such as the HomeBase 3, or store video in the cloud with a subscription. Read our full Eufy Floodlight Cam E340 review Best smart home hub overall: Samsung SmartThings Station Yeah, Samsung has integrated its SmartThings into many of its home appliances and smart TVs, but anyone serious about building out a smart home will want a purpose-built device; namely, the Samsung SmartThings Station. And yeah, it doesn’t look like much, but this little box packs everything you need to build out a modern and Matter-compatible smart home, including a Zigbee radio and a Thread border router. And if you don’t know what those things are, it doesn’t matter. Just buy Matter-certified devices when you go shopping and they’re guaranteed to work. When you’re ready to install them, just tap the “add device” button and scan the device’s Matter QR code. The app takes care of the rest, and the device is immediately available for control via SmartThings. Read our full Samsung SmartThings Station review Best DIY home security system overall: Ring Alarm Pro Best Prices Today: Retailer Price $249.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket $249.99 at Amazon We reviewed the Ring Alarm Pro way back in November 2021, and it remains our favorite DIY home security system. It incorporates an Eero Wi-Fi 6 mesh router, with battery and cellular back-up in case of power and internet outages. It’s equipped with a Z-Wave radio to support motion, door/window, water-leak, and other types of sensors, as well as certified third-party Z-Wave smart home products participating in the Works with Ring program. That list includes smart deadbolts, garage door openers, smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, and more. You can add Ring home security cameras and Ring doorbells, of course, with local processing and storage of those cameras’ video recordings on a microSD card. Alternatively, a new feature enables 24/7 camera recording to the cloud for certain wired Ring cameras. Finally, the Ring Alarm Pro also serves as a Wi-Fi bridge for Ring’s smart lighting products. While you can self-monitor a Ring Alarm Pro system, many of its most important features require a subscription. And most people will want professional monitoring that can dispatch first responders to their home in the event of an emergency. Ring recently renamed, restructured, and increased the prices of its subscription services, ultimately resulting in a $10-per-month increase for those who want everything. There are other good home security systems, including the Arlo Home Security System we reviewed earlier this November, but if we had to pick a runner-up in this category, it would be Ring’s simpler Ring Alarm (2nd gen). Read our full Ring Alarm Pro (8-piece kit) review Best smart delivery box: Loxx Boxx Classic Best Prices Today: Retailer Price $294.74 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket $294.74 at Amazon Tired of porch pirates absconding with the goods that were just delivered to your house? A smart delivery box will solve that problem, and the Loxx Boxx Classic is the best one we’ve found yet. Fabricated from steel, the box connects to your home Wi-Fi network and logs every delivery when the driver enters the last four digits of the package’s tracking code. Cloud-to-cloud connections to Amazon, DHL, FedEx, UPS, and USPS help you track, trace, and log every delivery. The box runs on battery power–you can buy a solar panel to keep it topped off–so you don’t need to worry about having an outdoor outlet, and there’s an LTE option if you can’t connect it to your Wi-Fi network. Read...

The wild success of K-entertainment - from pop hits to mushy dramas - has been in the making for years. Read...

It’s fashionable these days to complain about the state of streaming, and for understandable reasons. Over the past year, many streaming services have raised prices or introduced commercials, and some are trying to stop folks from sharing passwords, even among close family members. Streaming devices have stagnated as well, with device makers focusing less on innovative ideas and more on finding new spots for advertising. But it’s tradition around here to find things to celebrate each year, and we can still make it work in 2024. Here are the best streaming devices, most useful streaming services, and otherwise notable happenings that made the past year in cord-cutting memorable: Best new streaming device: Walmart Onn Google TV 4K Pro Walmart keeps putting out surprisingly great streaming boxes under its Onn brand, and the Onn Google TV 4K Pro is its best one yet. For $50, you get a speedy streaming box with Dolby Vision HDR, Dolby Atmos audio, and a generous 32GB of storage. The remote control shines as well, with backlit keys, a remote-finder function, and loads of useful shortcuts. No other streaming player offers this much for this little. Read our full Walmart Onn Google TV 4K Pro review Best streaming device overall: Apple TV 4K (3rd-generation, model A2737) Best Prices Today: Retailer Price $123.49 View Deal $124.50 View Deal $129 View Deal $139.49 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket $123.49 at Best Buy$124.50 at Adorama$129 at Apple$139.49 at Amazon Apple didn’t release a new streaming device this year—or last year, for that matter—but the late 2022 Apple TV 4K is still the best example of what a high-end streaming box should be. While other platforms keep sticking obnoxious banner ads in more places, Apple’s tvOS interface remains refreshingly clean and useful (especially if you follow my setup advice), and it’s still the most responsive streaming box around. Apple also introduced some thoughtful updates this year, including machine learning-powered dialogue enhancement and a separate home screen row for shows you’ve bookmarked for later. If cost isn’t an issue, this $129 box is still the one to get. Read our full Apple TV 4K (3rd-generation, 2022) (64GB, model A2737) review Best streaming service that didn`t raise prices in 2024: Netflix For all the talk of streaming TV price hikes, Netflix’s Standard tier has held at $15.49 per month for nearly three years now, with the last hike dating back to January 2022. Of course, the company found other ways to boost revenue since then, including an ad-supported tier ($6.99 per month), stricter rules around password sharing, and the elimination of its single-stream Basic tier. But none of those moves detract from the value of a regular Netflix plan, whose steady price deserves credit in an increasingly expensive world. Best free streaming service: Philo Lots of streaming services offer free, ad-supported content now, but Philo is the rare one that actually lets you skip the ads. Philo’s free tier, which landed earlier this year, includes a 30-day DVR that can record an unlimited number of shows, and once you’ve made a recording, you can fast-forward through the commercial breaks. (Philo’s paid version, which includes a bundle of sports-free cable channels, costs $28 per month.) The only other free streaming service with DVR is Sling TV’s Freestream, but it has a much stricter 10-hour recording limit. Read our full Philo review Best new use of streaming: The Olympics on Peacock Best Prices Today: Retailer Price Peacock $7.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket $7.99 at Peacock Peacock’s coverage of the 2024 Paris Olympics was the perfect example of what streaming can do. Instead of offering the bare minimum, Peacock turned the games into an interactive affair, with multiview feeds that let you zoom into individual matches or highlight them to hear the corresponding audio. Combine that with whip-around “Gold Zone” coverage, a slew of alternate live feeds, and a vast replay library, and the whole affair felt like a choose-your-own Olympics adventure, one that every sports streamer ought to replicate. Unholiest streaming alliance: Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery To fund their forays into streaming, TV programmers blew up the cable bundle model, forcing ever-higher prices for increasingly hollowed-out channels and driving valuable customers away in the process. Unfortunately for them, the streaming subscribers they traded for are more fickle, and have learned to cancel services they no longer need. All of which helps explain the unlikely alliance that emerged this year between Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery. The two companies are now offering all of their streaming services—Disney+, Hulu, and Max—in one big bundle starting at $17 per month, in hopes that customers will be less likely to drop any one of them individually. Bundles like this won’t be worthwhile for everyone, but they’re an easy way to save money if you were subscribing to everything already. Unexpected slayer of bloated bundles: DirecTV Standing up to Disney isn’t easy given that ESPN carries some of the most sought-after sports on television, but that’s what DirecTV did when it was time to negotiate a new carriage agreement this year. The satellite provider refused to accept another bloated channel lineup at higher prices, and demanded that Disney accommodate more smaller, more flexible packages. And it worked. After a two-week blackout, DirecTV and Disney emerged with a new agreement that will split the latter’s channels into three packages around sports, entertainment, and family programming. Those options are not yet available, and it’s unclear exactly what they’ll look like, but they could forever transform the pay TV bundle as we know it. In memoriam: Google Chromecast Chromecast helped usher in the streaming age in 2013, offering a cheap way to play videos on your TV using a phone as the remote. But 11 years later, Google has retired the Chromecast brand and discontinued the last of its Chromecast dongles. Casting still lives on as a standard feature of Google TV devices, but it goes by “Google Cast” now, and Google has pulled out of the cheap streaming dongle business in favor of the pricier Google TV Streamer box. Even if little has changed on a practical level, it still feels like the end of an era. Cord-cutting MVP: The U.S. government No, seriously. Every year we cap off these awards by honoring an entity that’s helped make cord-cutting easier or better. In 2024, it’s hard to think of better recipients than the current FCC and FTC. The FCC’s Broadband Facts mandate, for instance, requires internet providers to prominently disclose their regular, non-promotional rates along with expected speeds, data caps, and equipment fees. The FCC also approved “all-in” price disclosure rules for cable and satellite TV providers, effectively killing the “broadcast TV” fee that cable providers love to omit from their advertised prices. Both rules will help cord cutters comparison shop for internet and TV service. Meanwhile, the FTC has approved “click-to-cancel” rules, which say that if you sign up for a subscription online, you should be able to cancel it online just as easily. That means no more drawn-out customer-service calls from your cable company, full of upsells for unrelated services. A Republican-led FCC and FTC could always unwind these rules, which both commissions’ Republican members opposed. But for now, let’s just enjoy this little moment, in which cable companies have been forced, kicking and screaming, into doing the right thing. Sign up for Jared’s Cord Cutter Weekly newsletter for more streaming TV insights. Read...