In addition to a super light laptop, HP also unveiled an intriguing new ultrawide curved monitor today. Creatively named S430c, the 43.4-inch screen isn't the sharpest or most attractive external display I've seen, but it has some compelling features. You can hook up two devices to the S430c at once (via USB-C) and power both their screens side by side, so it's like you have two 24-inch monitors in one. Not only that, thanks to the display's processor and software called HP DeviceBridge, you can also transfer files between the two machines by drag and drop.
Gallery: HP S430c ultrawide curved monitor | 24 Photos
The files will be sent to the respective devices via their USB-C connections to the display, which runs at a 4K (3,840 x 1,200) resolution and 60 Hz refresh rate. It can display up to 99 percent of the sRGB color spectrum, and reaches a brightness of 350 nits. There's also an anti-glare finish that makes the screen easier to look at under harsh lights.
The S430c also comes with a pop-up IR camera that enables Windows Hello logins, as well as two USB C and four USB A ports. There's also an HDMI socket, DisplayPort and an audio jack. Like most modern displays, the S430c can be tilted at a variety of angles, specifically between -5 and 20 degrees.
What truly stands out about the S430c is the file transfer tool and its ability to drive two devices at once, as long as they're running Windows, MacOS, Linux or Android. Sounds like support for iOS isn't available, and neither is the display compliant with HDR. If your workspace often requires you to work on two machines at once and this sounds like a compelling way to manage them from one place, you can get the S430c for $999 from November 4th.
All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
In addition to a super light laptop, HP also unveiled an intriguing new ultrawide curved monitor today. Creatively named S430c, the 43.4-inch screen isn't the sharpest or most attractive external display I've seen, but it has some compelling features. You can hook up two devices to the S430c at once (via USB-C) and power both their screens side by side, so it's like you have two 24-inch monitors in one. Not only that, thanks to the display's processor and software called HP DeviceBridge, you can also transfer files between the two machines by drag and drop.
Gallery: HP S430c ultrawide curved monitor | 24 Photos
The files will be sent to the respective devices via their USB-C connections to the display, which runs at a 4K (3,840 x 1,200) resolution and 60 Hz refresh rate. It can display up to 99 percent of the sRGB color spectrum, and reaches a brightness of 350 nits. There's also an anti-glare finish that makes the screen easier to look at under harsh lights.
The S430c also comes with a pop-up IR camera that enables Windows Hello logins, as well as two USB C and four USB A ports. There's also an HDMI socket, DisplayPort and an audio jack. Like most modern displays, the S430c can be tilted at a variety of angles, specifically between -5 and 20 degrees.
What truly stands out about the S430c is the file transfer tool and its ability to drive two devices at once, as long as they're running Windows, MacOS, Linux or Android. Sounds like support for iOS isn't available, and neither is the display compliant with HDR. If your workspace often requires you to work on two machines at once and this sounds like a compelling way to manage them from one place, you can get the S430c for $999 from November 4th.
All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Redditor LousyTX snapped confirmation of Google's rumored new hue.
Reddit/LousyTX
Rumors of an orange Pixel 4 were confirmed Tuesday when Google took out a massive billboard ad in Times Square to promote the phone's Oct. 15 release. Captured by a Reddit user, the photo is the latest in an ongoing stream of leaks about the new phone's hardware. But it's still unclear whether the color will be available for both the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL.
The Oct. 15 event will be livestreamed and will mark the first Pixel rollout since Google confirmed a change at the top of the Pixel team in August.
Earlier this year, Google CFO Ruth Porat said on an earnings call that Pixel sales had dropped because of "recent pressures in the premium smartphone market."
Other rumored hardware features include a notch, and two speaker grills on the edge on either side of the USB-C port. Volume and power buttons are expected to be on the right-hand side, while the left side will reportedly lack buttons. No fingerprint scanner is expected.
The news about the Times Square billboard was reported earlier by 9to5Google.
Google said on Tuesday it is bringing a set of new features to Android TVs to improve the experience of users who rely on mobile hotspots to connect their giant devices to the internet. The features, developed by Google’s Next Billion Users team, will be first rolled out to users in India and then in other countries, the company said.
Ahead of its yearly event in New Delhi on Thursday, where the company is expected to make a number of announcements, Google said it has identified and addressed a problem faced by millions of users: Their TVs are not connected to the internet through Wi-Fi or wired/ethernet line.
Instead these users rely on hotspots (local network) created through their smartphones or tablets. “But that presents problems,” wrote Joris van Mens, Product Manager at Google’s Next Billion Users team, in a blog post. “Watching HD TV on a mobile data connection can quickly drain your daily data plan.”
To address this, Google says it is introducing a feature called ‘data saver’ to Android TVs that would reduce the data usage on mobile connections by up to three times, thereby allowing users to consume more content on their TVs. It is also introducing a ‘data alerts’ feature to help users better monitor how much data they have consumed watching TV.
The data saver feature will be optional to users
Another feature dubbed ‘hotspot guide’ will allow users to set up their TV with their mobile hotspot. And last, Google is introducing the ability in its Files app to allow users to cast video files locally stored on their phones to the TV without using internet data. Files app, which Google launched two years ago, allows users to easily free up content on their phones. The company said last month that Files app had amassed over 100 million users.
These four features will roll-out to Android TV devices starting with those manufactured by Xiaomi, TCL, and Marq by Flipkart, Google said. The company expects to rollout the features globally soon.
At an event in Bangalore on Tuesday, Xiaomi unveiled a new lineup of TVs that will support Netflix and Prime Video. The Chinese electronics giant, which is the top smartphone vendor in India, confirmed that its new TV models will support Google’s ‘data saver’ feature.
Later this week, Google is expected to make a number of announcements around its payments app and other services in its yearly Google for India event. Indian newspaper Economic Timesreported this week that one of those announcements could be the launch of Kormo, a job discovery app that is currently available in select developing markets, in India.
5G describes the next-generation data network that wireless carriers and handset makers have already begun to use. This technology promises to supercharge phone speeds from anywhere between 10 and 100 times today's fastest 4G speeds, letting you download and upload large volumes of content in a fraction of the time. (Its uses extend beyond phones, too.)
One day, 5G will become the new standard for data speeds, but for now, growth is slow and the coverage sporadic and limited. While Samsung says it already sold 2 million 5G phones, roadblocks litter the way between early adoption and mass use.
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The 5 biggest Apple iPhone 11 letdowns
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Which is why when 5G was a no-show at Apple's big unveiling on Tuesday, it wasn't that big a deal. Here's why Apple's delay to 5G may not drastically hurt the iPhone's reputation.
Although phone sales are softening for the industry as a whole, Apple has been able to keep the iPhone's cult mystique alive, and people who have waited three to four years to upgrade probably aren't going to wait.
We tested 5G networks all over the world, from London to Sydney to LA. Even in the best circumstances, faster 5G speeds worked within one neighborhood, or perhaps the city center. In the worst, we saw incredibly high fast speeds one intersection at a time, and only outdoors, with 5G frequently falling back to 4G.
5G carrier networks are a work in progress that wireless providers are improving every day. But if you can't reliably tap into ultrafast speeds wherever you are, then 5G doesn't hold much meaning beyond bragging rights against your 4G neighbor.
SK Telecom's peak speeds in our downtown Seoul tests.
Robert Rodriguez/CNET
You won't have to pay a 5G premium on your bill
It isn't just the parts that make 5G phones expensive. Your monthly 5G data plan is also expected to cost you.
Verizon temporarily waived its initial $10 monthly surcharge, and there's hope that at least some networks worldwide are bundling 5G pricing into a package deal. Yes as much as we want 5G to be free -- or at least included in the phones' price -- you should at the very least expect to pay for an unlimited data plan.
So even if you're spending a small fortune on that iPhone 11 Pro Max with 512 gigabytes of storage, at least you won't pay that monthly 5G fee.
The Samsung A90 5G is one of four 5G phones for Apple's arch rival.
Chris Monroe/CNET
5G network technology is a tangled mess
The way smartphones tap into 5G networks -- a least early on -- is convoluted.
Phones need to have a 5G-capable chip and a matching 5G modem to connect to the network (right now they're separate, and that takes up space). And each phone model only works with a specific network's bands, so you can't take your 5G phone from one carrier to another.
Soon, though, new chips are coming that will combine the parts into a smaller package that could make 5G phones thinner and cheaper. And multimodal modems will mean that a single phone could potentially hop networks.
By waiting longer for the technology to mature, Apple sidesteps this early tangle of which phone works in which place when. It's just the latest example of the company swooping in late with a polished version of technology pioneered by its Android rivals.
But longer battery life is one theme of this year's iPhone 11 haul. The most entry-level model among them is designed to last up to an hour longer than last year's iPhone XR, with the 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max set to run up to four and five hours longer than the iPhone XS and XS Max, respectively.
Perhaps by the time the first 5G iPhone comes along, the choice won't be as blunt.
Blue’s latest USB microphone, the Yeti X, is aimed directly at streamers, podcast hosts, and other content creators. The most visible upgrade: real-time LED metering on the microphone itself, letting you know when the gain is too quiet (or in the red) during your recording.
The big knob on the face of the new mic is its command center, and you’ll probably use it a lot to adjust levels and switch between its three modes. In addition to displaying the metering, the knob can turn up the gain on the microphone, and as you might expect, it’ll mute if you click it inwards.
You can also cycle between two other modes by holding the knob in for two seconds. One controls the volume, and the other is blend mode, which lets you find the perfect balance between, say, your gameplay audio versus your commentary. Blend is perhaps the most useful and welcome feature on the Yeti X, since that usually requires software or a separate hardware audio mixer, though it may still not be enough to tempt existing Yeti owners to upgrade.
Logitech’s new Blue Voice software (previously spotted on the Logitech G Pro headset) also lets you tweak the EQ of your voice, then save it to a preset. The software offers several pre-made options, but you can also customize them, then swap when the situation calls for a different sort of vocal style.
Like Blue’s previous microphones, you’ll find another knob on Yeti X’s rear that changes how it records sound. This model has four mic capsules arranged inside, up from three, and you can turn the knob if you’d like to switch from recording just yourself to recording a group of people surrounding the mic. Here’s more about the four modes, as detailed by Blue:
Cardioid mode captures sound sources that are directly in front of the microphone, omni mode picks up sound equally from all around the mic, bidirectional mode records from both the front and the rear of the microphone while rejecting the sides, and stereo mode uses both the left and right channels for capturing immersive audio experiences.
The Yeti X is compatible with Windows and macOS computers, as well as most Android phones via a USB-C adapter, says Blue. With 24-bit/48kHz resolution and no analog XLR connector, it’s not quite as versatile as Blue’s $250 Yeti Pro, but it also doesn’t cost quite as much. It’ll launch in October for $169.99.
After months of leaks and teases, Vivo’s Nex 3 is finally official. As expected, the headline feature is its “Waterfall FullView” OLED display, which spills over the sides of the Nex 3 and which Vivo claims gives the device a screen-to-body ratio of 99.6 percent.
The 6.89-inch 1080p screen’s curvature is so extreme that there’s no room for buttons on the side of the phone. Instead, Vivo is adding virtual buttons called Touch Sense that work alongside a haptic feedback system, similar to the port-less and button-less Apex 2019 concept phone we saw earlier this year.
The Nex 3 isn’t quite as futuristic as that device, but it’s still about as technically advanced as Android phones get today. Vivo is releasing 4G and 5G versions, both of which run on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 855 Plus processor and have a vapor chamber cooling system. The battery capacity is 4,500mAh and supports Super FlashCharge 44W fast charging. As with pretty much every Vivo phone these days, there’s an in-display fingerprint sensor.
On the back there’s a circular triple-camera module that Vivo calls the Lunar Ring, in a throwback to last year’s Nex Dual Display. There’s a 64-megapixel primary camera, a 13-megapixel ultrawide, and a 13-megapixel telephoto. Vivo is also returning to pop-up selfie cameras with a 16-megapixel module on the Nex 3.
Vivo hasn’t yet provided pricing or release information for the Nex 3, only saying that it will be “available in the coming months in Asia Pacific, Southeast Asia and other markets.” We’re looking forward to seeing the Nex 3 for ourselves soon — both previous Nex phones have been nothing if not ambitious, and the latest entry is very much in that spirit.
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