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The Asus Zenfone 10 in a variety of colors. [credit: Asus ]
Lovers of small phones: Meet the Asus Zenfone 10, a tiny little device headlined by a 144 Hz, 5.9-inch, 2400×1080 OLED display. For those asking for a one-hand device, this 146.5 mm×68.1mm×9.4 mm phone is one of the smallest on the market, and it has flagship specs. It's not quite the size of the iPhone SE (138.4 mm×67.3 mm×7.3 mm) or the microscopic iPhone 13 Mini (131.5 mm×64.2mm×7.7 mm) but on Android, this is as small as you're going to get.
With those flagship specs, you get a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 gen 2 SoC, a baseline of 8GB of RAM with an option for 16GB, and UFS 4.0 storage options of 128GB, 256GB, or 512GB. The big downside to a small phone is the battery, which here is only 4300 mAh. Asus somehow found room to pack in a 3.5-mm headphone jack, along with 15 W wireless charging (wired is 30 W), stereo speakers, NFC, IP68 dust and water resistance, Wi-Fi 7, and Bluetooth 5.3.
Enlarge (credit: Corey Gaskin)
The Forerunner 955 continues that tradition. It sits atop the Forerunner series as the most feature-packed watch in the bunch, and this year it gains some modern touches like a touchscreen and daily exercise readiness assessments (à la Fitbit's Daily Readiness feature, but free to users), while introducing new features not present on any other Garmin watch. That includes the higher-end Fenix series of watches, from which the Forerunner 955 is also starting to steal some cues, like solar-charging options and multi-band GPS.
We trained with the Forerunner 955 for a few weeks to see how its newest features improve on a platform we already love and to determine just how afraid Garmin should be about Apple or Fitbit catching up.
The Pixel 7 in a lovely "hazel" color. (credit: Google)
We have a smorgasbord of discounts ranging from some of the latest Android smartphones to HP's desktop PCs, as well as savings on solid-state drives, headphones, and more. So whether you need to upgrade your storage, or you want to get a new Galaxy or Pixel phone, there's something in there to help you stay productive and entertained.
Samsung's Galaxy S23 launched not too long ago, and we're starting to see discounts on the company's flagship handset series. The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra promises solid photography capabilities, with Samsung's "Nightography" for low-light images and the controversial 100X Space Zoom. Outside of the bump to a 200-megapixel sensor, this year's upgrades are more modest: You still get a similar design to the prior S22 series, and the faster, more efficient processor is considered a nice quality-of-life update. So while it may not be worth it for someone with last year's flagship to upgrade, if you're coming from an older phone, the S23 promises fast speeds, 5G connectivity, and a great camera experience.
If you prefer Google's Android operating system, the Pixel 7 delivers the purest version of the OS. Though the Pixel 7 doesn't come with the Galaxy's high zoom and megapixel count, Google's investment in AI and computation photography is no slouch, and the Pixel 7 delivers some of the best images captured on a smartphone with its unique camera bar design on the rear, and now you can get all that with up to a 25 percent discount. The larger Pixel 7 Pro has a 5x optical telephoto lens that can capture images with up to 30x Super Res zoom with digital cropping, whereas the non-Pro version lacks the telephoto shooter.
Enlarge / Frostpunk, an alternate history survival city building simulation game. (credit: GOG.com)
Several staff members are big fans of the GOG games marketplace, primarily for two reasons: the games are DRM-free, and there are many classic DOS games from the '80s and '90s.
GOG has been running its annual Spring Sale for a few days now. This time around, we worked with GOG to curate a list of Ars Technica picks. These are discounted games chosen by Ars staffers Samuel Axon and Lee Hutchinson that we think Ars readers might enjoy—assuming you haven't played them already.
If you haven't, discounts during this sale range from 20 percent to as much as 75 or 80 percent. Since most of them are classics, they generally weren't too pricy to begin with.
Enlarge / Orbiting space station from 2001: A Space Odyssey. (credit: Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images)
Off-Earth will amaze you: On nearly every page, it will have your jaw dropping in response to mind-blowing revelations and your head nodding vigorously in sudden recognition of some of your own half-realized thoughts (assuming you think about things like settling space). It will also have your head shaking sadly in resignation at the many immense challenges author Erika Nesvold describes.
But the amazement will win out. Off-Earth: Ethical Questions and Quandaries for Living in Outer Space is really, really good.
Nesvold is an astrophysicist. She worked at NASA; she can easily run the equations to calculate how much fuel we need to get people, life support, and mining equipment to Mars.
Enlarge / Microsoft's Surface Pro 9. (credit: Andrew Cunningham)
If you're in the market for a Microsoft Surface computer or tablet, now's a good time to grab some deals on the lineup.
The Surface Pro 9 is the best tablet-laptop on the market. It succeeds in mixing the best of the tablet and laptop experience, being a tablet PC that runs Windows 11, uses a backlit detachable keyboard cover, and is optimized for use with a digital pen (the Surface Pen). It's lightweight and has a smaller footprint than most 2-in-1 laptops while packing enough power to edit media and handle light gaming at higher configurations.
The entry-level Surface Pro 9 (Intel Core i5, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD) is currently on sale for $900 at Best Buy, down from $1,000, and it comes with a free Surface Keyboard cover, which typically runs you an extra $180. That's $300 less than the entry point for Apple's 12.9-inch iPad Pro, which can't run full programs (only apps) and doesn't include its separately sold Magic Keyboard, which costs $350. This 13-inch Surface Pro model has an Intel i5 processor, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB storage, which is great for those who simply want a device to edit documents and surf the web without sacrificing the ability to use full programs.
Enlarge (credit: Corey Gaskin)
It seems like every company makes a fitness tracker these days. Even Amazon has created one—and that’s in addition to the seemingly endless stream of no-name brands offered on its website. Aside from some major names like Fitbit and Garmin, though, most consumers are unaware of what all is out there.
Smaller names like Oura and Whoop have drummed up some buzz for themselves by eliminating screens entirely and focusing on very specific metrics, while the line between smartwatches and most other fitness trackers has become increasingly blurry.
I’ve strapped on just about every fitness tracker available, and I've sweated out at least my own weight-testing them. Below is the list of trackers worth your consideration, whether you’re just starting your fitness journey or you're well along your way.
It's time for another end-of-the-week Dealmaster. In this week's roundup of the web's best tech deals, we have a $100 gift card offer for preordering the just-announced OnePlus 11 smartphone, record lows on Google Pixels, and a handful of Amazon tablets and e-readers matching their own record low prices.
The OnePlus 11, based on specs alone is a serious bargain. It outclasses the latest base model Samsung Galaxy S23 on the spec sheet at the same price, matching closer to the $1,200 Galaxy S23 Ultra. (Both of those phones are also on sale for preorder from Amazon with a free $100 gift card incentive, just like the OnePlus 11.) The OnePlus 11 totes a 6.7-inch screen, 5,000 mAh battery, a 50 MP main camera, and Wi-Fi 7 support.
It also has the fastest charging apparatus available for smartphones in the U.S., with an 80-watt charger that juices the phone from zero to 100 in a zippy 30 minutes. It's not a perfect spec sheet though, and we've yet to try one, but some compromises to note are a lack of wireless charging and IP64 water and dust resistance (meant mostly to protect from splashes) versus the industry standard IP68 which protects against submersion. OnePlus 11s will also receive security updates every other month, as opposed to monthly like on Google Pixels, for instance.
Enlarge / Two 2021 MacBook Pro models, side by side. (credit: Samuel Axon)
Over the past two years, Apple has completed an overhaul of its entire laptop lineup. That means it’s as good a time as any to dive in for people who have been holding out on upgrading an older MacBook.
But which MacBook is the best one to pick up? That depends a lot on your specific use case, and that’s what we’ll explore here today.
Typically, buying guides pick the diamonds out of the rough—the “rough” being hundreds of subpar products. But when recommending a MacBook, it’s a simpler affair. There aren’t that many of them to pick from. But because they typically cannot be upgraded, there are some consequential choices you’ll need to make before buying.
We tested iDrive with its free Basic tier, which offers 10GB of storage. [credit: Jim Salter ]
If there's one rule of computing every system administrator preaches, it's to always back up important data. Unfortunately, even among sysadmins, this rule is often preached more than it is practiced—backups tend to be slow, cumbersome affairs that are ignored for years until they're (desperately) needed, by which time it's often too late to get them right.
Fortunately, backups don't need to be tedious—and there are plenty of relatively low-cost, consumer-friendly cloud services that make protecting your data easy. The five services we discuss in this article—Carbonite, Arq, iDrive, Spideroak One, and Backblaze—are cloud-based and inexpensive, and they operate seamlessly in the background.
For a backup service to work, it needs to be easy to install and use. Beyond ease of use, our preferred solution needs to be affordable and have a simple billing model. It also needs to operate reliably in the background, offer easy recovery, and provide archive depth—meaning you'll have backups to previous versions of your files in addition to the current saved copy.
Another weekend, another Dealmaster. In this week's roundup of the best tech deals on the web, we have deals on a range of Apple computers―desktops and laptops alike. Co-headlining the Apple computer sale are the just-released 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros and the 2021 iMac.
We recently reviewed the new MacBooks and dubbed them "the best laptop[s] you can buy today by almost any measure." Aimed at power users who demand muscular performance and easy, varied, built-in port selection, the 2023 MacBook Pros only improved on an already impressive pair of laptops in the previous generation. If you already have one of those, there's no pressing need to upgrade. However, if you were on the fence or waiting for the next generation, you can snag the new laptops for $50 off full retail price and gain even more improved M2-Pro-powered chips.
Also on sale is the 2021 iMac. Perhaps most easily thought of as a MacBook Air in all-in-one desktop form, it provides plenty power for most users. It's not the Mac you want if you're going to be gaming, editing video, or creating much beyond documents. Still, it's a good-looking, nostalgic, simple, albeit brightly-colored desktop computer that will absolutely crush Zoom calls with great audio and video capture, and look good doing it. With a $150 discount, the iMac is a bit more attractive at $1,099 than its typical $1,250 price.
It's the weekend, and that means another Dealmaster. In this week's roundup of the best tech deals on the web, we have Fire HD and Kindle tablets from Amazon, some solidly-discounted computer peripherals, and even Apple's just-announced MacBook Pros have a price cut.
Amazon's Kindle Kids e-reader is down to a record-low of $85 (typically $120). It's the same device as the latest Kindle ($100), but it comes with a case, two-year warranty, and one-year subscription to Amazon Kids+. All of that typically costs $20 more than the regular Kindle device, but this sale price now makes the Kindle Kids version less expensive.
In our review, we mention that the latest Kindle and Kindle Paperwhite are neck-and-neck as two of Amazon's best low-end Kindles. They have few frills and do what they're meant to well: help you consume books textually or audibly. We also note that it's particularly great for kids even without the kids version perks because of it's size and ability to play audiobooks. The added value of the kids version makes it a great buy for all ages.
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