Logitech is squarely targeting Microsoft's wrist-friendly Surface Ergonomic Keyboard with the Ergo K860 ($130). It's the company's first keyboard in years to feature a split design, wherein the entire layout is cut in half and the keys are angled to align with your wrists. While it may look a bit odd, there are significant health benefits to this design. There's less strain on your wrists and forearms, and consequently it makes your hands, neck and shoulders more relaxed. It's the ideal companion to the company's ergonomic MX Vertical mouse. The Ergo K860 is so comfortable to use, it makes me wonder why more companies haven't pushed back against the standard QWERTY keyboard design.
You'll notice plenty of similarities between the K860 and the Surface Ergonomic. They both feature a prominent empty space (shaped like an upside-down V) between their two sets of keys, and they have pillowy soft wrist pads. The K860 includes three layers of material to cushion your wrists: a dense foam core, memory foam that contours to your wrists, and smooth fabric that's easy to clean. Logitech's keyboard is also slightly curved, like Microsoft's, which makes the keys easier to reach without much effort.
It's not as if Logitech completely copied Microsoft, though. The Ergo K860's keys are a bit lighter to the touch, thanks to the same mechanism used in its MX Keys and Craft keyboards. There's less travel when compared to the Surface Ergonomic, but the typing experience is still very responsive and enjoyable. Logitech's layout also works with Macs, thanks to shared labeling across the start and alt keys, and you can pair the keyboard with three separate devices. So you could, for example, easily hop between a laptop, tablet and even phone.
There are also two pairs of palm lifts below the wristpad, which can angle the keyboard up by two levels. That helps the Ergo K860 match your posture no matter how you sit or stand to type. And yes, there's a number pad too, as you'd expect on a full-sized keyboard. As for connectivity, the Ergo K860 works wirelessly over Bluetooth, or with Logitech's bundled Unifying Receiver (which can also pair with the company's other accessories).
Logitech
As a longtime ergonomic keyboard evangelist, I didn't have much trouble adapting to the Ergo K860's layout. I hop between the Surface Ergonomic at work, and the MX Craft at home, so my fingers are already used to split designs. If you've only ever used a standard QWERTY keyboard though, I'd say it would take a few weeks of typing to really get a handle on ergonomic layouts. The benefits are worth the effort: my fingers and wrists never feel stressed when typing on split keyboards, making them perfect for intense work sessions. My only complaint? I wish the keys were backlit, as it was sometimes difficult to see what I was pressing in a dark room.
While the Ergo K860 doesn't exactly reinvent the keyboard, it's nice to see Logitech finally jump back to a split design after the Wireless Comfort Desktop, which was released way back in 2004. (It also came with a combo USB/PS/2 receiver. Those were the days!) Now you've finally got another option besides Microsoft's for a mainstream keyboard that's easier on your wrists.
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Logitech has been making its way into the ergonomic mouse space for a while now, with hardware like the MX Ergo and MX Vertical mice. Now it’s looking to expand its ergonomic accessories into the keyboard space with the launch of the split Ergo K860 keyboard.
Logitech says that the Ergo K860’s design “reduces muscle strain on your wrists and forearms” compared to traditional keyboards due to the wrist rest and split-key, curved design.
Much like how Logitech’s Craft and MX Keys keyboards are meant to be the natural counterparts to its MX Master 3 mouse, the Ergo K860 is designed to pair with the company’s MX Ergo and MX Vertical mice. Like those other ergonomic products, the goal of the Ergo K860 is to offer a product with comfort and stress reduction in mind that still looks and feels like a high-end, professional product.
The integrated wrist rest is made up of three layers of material: one of high-density foam, one of memory foam, and the last of an “easy-clean” coated fabric (that cleaning part is important, since the wrist rest isn’t removable). Instead of an adjustable stand at the back of the keyboard, the Ergo K860 features hidden pop-out clips at the base of the palm rest to lift the front of the keyboard higher, with two angle settings.
The keyboard itself can connect to a Mac or Windows PC either through a direct Bluetooth connection or through an included USB dongle, with support for up to three devices at once. The Ergo K860 also supports Logitech’s Flow software for changing between multiple devices easily, assuming you’re using a compatible mouse (like any of Logitech’s matching MX series devices).
Logitech says that the Ergo K860 should get up to two years of battery life from a pair of AAA batteries, which highlights the keyboard’s biggest downsides: there’s no rechargeable battery and no integrated backlight for the keys, two things which are disappointing to see missing from a $130 keyboard.
The Ergo K860 will be available this month for $129.99 on Logitech’s website and Amazon, with retail availability planned for February.
I'll be frank: I wasn't particularly interested in the Galaxy Note 10+ when it debuted four months ago. But once I started using the phone, I was immediately hooked. The Note 10+ doesn't have a 90Hz panel or any groundbreaking new camera features, with Samsung choosing to focus on fast charging and design.
The gradient pattern makes the Note 10+ immediately stand out — it's one of the prettiest phones Samsung has made to date — and the 45W fast charging combined with a massive 4300mAh battery lets you use it for longer. The S Pen has also picked up new features, and overall you get the best hardware money has to offer.
Samsung has delivered the Android 10 update to the phone at the end of December, bringing its latest UI refresh, One UI 2.0. The interface has meaningful updates that make it even better, and it's astonishing to see how far Samsung has come in this area in the last two years. Here's what I think of the Galaxy Note 10+ after four months of usage.
Bottom line: The Galaxy Note 10+ has all the features you care about. The large AMOLED panel sets the standard for the industry, the internal hardware is rock-solid, and you get reliable cameras, all-day battery life, and 45W fast charging. Combine that with regular software updates and new feature additions and it's easy to see why the Note 10+ is one of the best phones around.
The Good
Exquisite display
Gorgeous design
Powerful innards
Outstanding battery life
Reliable cameras
Regular software updates
The Bad
60Hz panel
Power button continues to be annoying
Galaxy Note 10+ What has held up
Source: Harish Jonnalagadda/Android Central
One of the main reasons I use a Samsung flagship year after year is the AMOLED display. Like I said with the Galaxy Note 8 and last year's Galaxy Note 9, Samsung continues to make sizeable gains in display quality with its Note series.
Sure, Samsung played it safe this year by going with a 60Hz panel instead of a 90Hz screen, but in terms of panel quality, there isn't a phone today that comes close to the Note 10+. Interacting with the display on a day-to-day basis is an absolute delight — you get incredibly vibrant colors, excellent contrast levels, and great viewing angles. I'm not exaggerating when I say that this is the yardstick for mobile displays.
Samsung delivers an outstanding display year after year, and the Note 10+ continues that legacy.
Samsung also made significant changes to its design language with the Note 10+. Previous devices in the Note series leveraged Samsung's industrial design, but they never really stood out. That isn't the case with the Note 10+, with the Aura Glow edition one of the most vibrant designs you'll find anywhere today.
The U.S. market doesn't get the crazy designs that are common in Asia, but Samsung has done a masterful job with the gradient pattern on the Note 10+. The mesmerizing colors immediately grab your attention, and while they may not be to everyone's tastes, I love what Samsung has done here. The Note 10+ is the widest and tallest phone I've used in a long time, and while it took a while to get used to the bulk, I liked using the giant 6.8-inch screen.
Another positive design change is the positioning of the front camera cutout. The Note 10+ has a single camera at the front, and the fact that it is centered makes it far less distracting. The positioning of the cutout also ensures that the status icons are no longer pushed to the right. It may not seem like a big deal, but it makes a huge difference in day-to-day usage. The cutout on the S10+ was plain distracting, and that's not an issue on the Note 10+.
The Galaxy Note 10+ may not have many groundbreaking features, but Samsung's ability to iterate and deliver marginally better features with every generation means you're getting a robust phone here. There are no glaring hardware issues like you get on the Pixel 4 XL, and Samsung has made huge gains on the software front in 2019.
I switched away from the Note 10+ to use the Pixel 4 XL for a month, and returning to Samsung's flagship it was easy to make out the hardware differences. When you're spending this much money for a phone, you'd want a device that delivers when it comes to the basics. That's absolutely true here: with 12GB of RAM as standard and 256GB of UFS 3.0 storage, the Note 10+ is a much better long-term investment. I was never anxious about the storage running out — which wasn't the case with the Pixel 4 XL.
Continuing on the hardware theme, the in-screen fingerprint reader is great and I didn't have any issues with it. It is fast to authenticate and reliable in day-to-day usage, and works well in conjunction with face unlock. Elsewhere, the stereo sound makes it highly enjoyable to play games and watch videos on the phone. The Note 10+ works particularly well for multimedia playback thanks to the large screen and vibrant colors.
Yes, you're paying a premium for the Note 10+, but you're getting the best hardware that's available in the industry. With that comes the peace of mind that you're getting a phone that will last several years with ease.
Samsung rolled out the Android 10 update to the Note 10+ at the end of December, introducing a few new features and subtle tweaks to the user interface. One UI 2 is definitely a move in the right direction, and it's great to see Samsung take user feedback seriously and make tangible gains in this area.
Samsung invested in its own gesture navigation system, and with One UI 2.0 you get the option of choosing between three styles: the legacy three-button layout, Samsung's One UI 1.0 gestures, or the new Android 10 gestures. There's also a native screen recorder, and Samsung is now using Android 10's native system-wide dark mode, ensuring more apps work in dark mode automatically.
It took Samsung a few months to roll out the Android 10 update, but it has done a great job delivering monthly security updates and bug fixes.
Source: Harish Jonnalagadda/Android Central
The differentiator for the Note series has been the S Pen, and on the Note 10+ the stylus has picked up even more features. I'll be honest here; I didn't use the S Pen with any regularity over the last four months. My usage was limited to two things: using it as a remote shutter button and switching between the front and rear cameras, and taking handwritten notes during product briefings. In both scenarios, the S Pen has worked flawlessly.
Another area that I haven't had any issues with is battery life. The Note 10+ continues to deliver over a day's worth of use without fail, and battery life, in general, has been reliable enough that I never had any anxiety about the device running out of juice before the end of the day. What's particularly great is the fact that it now has 45W fast charging, and even though I routinely used 25W chargers with the phone, I was able to charge the device from flat to 100% in just over an hour, and that was more than enough for my use case.
Rounding out the hardware features is Samsung Pay, which is still the most seamless mobile payments service around. I particularly like the fact that it works with point of sale machines that don't have NFC, and I routinely miss the feature when switching away from a Samsung phone. Samsung should really license out the feature to other manufacturers, but that isn't likely given its unique hardware requirements (there's a specialized coil at the back of the Note 10+ that allows Samsung Pay to use MST).
Finally, we get to the camera on the Note 10+. Samsung hasn't made any changes from the S10 series, and while the overall image quality isn't quite as good as the Pixel 4 XL, nor is it as feature-rich as the P30 Pro, it is a reliable workhorse.
Galaxy Note 10+ What isn't so great
Source: Harish Jonnalagadda/Android Central
With even Google switching to 90Hz panels, Samsung missed the boat by using regular a 60Hz screen on the Note 10+. A high refresh rate 90Hz panel would have made the device even better, but it looks like we'll have to wait until the Note 11 for that particular feature to show up.
Samsung needs to stop messing with basic hardware features and leave the power button where it should be: on the right side of the phone.
The only other issue that I have when it comes to the hardware is the positioning of the power button. I finally got used to the button being on the left side, but then I switched to the Pixel 4 XL and it took me a week to realize that the phone doesn't turn on by hitting the volume down button. I switched back to the Note 10+ and I'm once again realizing just how irritating it is to find the power button on the wrong side of the phone.
I'm also annoyed at the fact that the Note 10+ doesn't have a 3.5mm jack. Don't get me wrong; Samsung is far from the only manufacturer that is doing this, but the Note series has always been catered to power users. It is the phone that is meant to have all the features, and it doesn't make sense for Samsung to omit the analog jack.
There really isn't any reason for Samsung to remove the jack here; it has been offering water resistance with the jack intact for years, and the battery isn't significantly larger to warrant the move. But the industry as a whole seems intent on making the switch to Bluetooth, and Samsung is following the pack here. What this means is that if you want wired audio, LG is really the only brand left, but that doesn't seem like a decent option anymore.
Galaxy Note 10+ Four months later
Source: Harish Jonnalagadda/Android Central
I ended up using a lot of phones in 2019, and four devices have stood out: the Oneplus 7T, Galaxy S10+, P30 Pro, and the Galaxy Note 10+. It's hard to pick just one, but the fact that Samsung has two devices on the list illustrates just how dominant its phones have become. There was a lot to like both on the hardware and software side of things, and while features like a 90Hz panel would have made it an even more compelling device, the sheer quality of the display makes up for that particular omission.
The Note 10+ is the default option if you're looking for a flagship in the U.S. Huawei's current situation with the U.S. government is unlikely to change anytime soon, and Google's misadventures on the hardware front make the Pixel 4 XL a non-starter. If you want a high-end phone with robust hardware and exquisite display, you'll have to pick up the Note 10+. One UI 2.0 is the icing on the cake, with Samsung offering exciting new features while making further refinements to its user interface.
4out of 5
Four months later, the Galaxy Note 10+ is one of the best phones available today. The phone has a stunning AMOLED display with vibrant colors, powerful internal hardware combined with generous memory and internal storage, all-day battery life, and fast charging. Then there's Samsung Pay, the S Pen, biometrics that just work, reliable cameras, and regular updates.
The Galaxy Note 10+ has all the features you care about. The large AMOLED panel sets the standard for the industry, the internal hardware is rock-solid, and you get reliable cameras, all-day battery life, and 45W fast charging. Combine that with regular software updates and new feature additions and it's easy to see why the Note 10+ is one of the best phones around.
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It's the end of the road for Windows 7. After 10 years of support, Microsoft is ending security updates for the operating system today. This means that if you're still using it you'll be vulnerable to bugs, and any problems that arise won't be fixed (unless you're part of a company that's paid for extended support, in which case you're good until 2023).
So to make sure you've got adequate protection, you need to upgrade your OS. Back in 2015 Microsoft made upgrades from Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 free for the first year, but while it officially ended the Windows 10 free upgrade offer in December 2017 there is a loophole that means you can still get your hands on it for nothing -- providing you have a legit Windows 7 or 8.1 license.
As reported by Windows Latest, users can download and run the Media Creation Tool, and then enter their existing product key if prompted. Once upgraded, you'll have a digital licence to Windows 10 that will be verified when you connect to the internet. Over on Reddit, a self-proclaimed Microsoft engineer stated that the original free upgrade deal was "fully marketing fluff," and that Microsoft would rather folk upgrade via the loophole than not at all, because then they'll at least have an up-to-date OS -- and subsequently, better protection.
So it seems that Microsoft is not particularly troubled by the loophole. However, as Windows Latest reiterates, a successful activation of Windows 10 is not the same as a legal license, so you could technically be violating licensing agreements by using a Windows 7 product key for Windows 10.
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Today is a big day for Windows. Microsoft is dropping support of Windows 7, nearly 11 years after first launching the operating system with a flashy New York City marketing campaign. “I’m a PC and Windows 7 was my idea,” was the message back then, a clear nod to the fact it was designed to fix the Windows Vista failure. Windows 7 certainly did fix things, with its new taskbar, Aero window management, file libraries, and much more.
Windows 7 became so popular, in fact, that it took Windows 10 nearly four years just to pass it in market share. Even today, millions of PCs are still running Windows 7, and the operating system still runs on a massive 26 percent of all PCs according to data from Netmarketshare. Microsoft spent years trying to get people to upgrade to Windows 10 free of charge, but tens of millions of PCs will now be left vulnerable to exploits and security vulnerabilities.
Businesses and education Windows 7 users will be able to pay for extended security updates, but it could be a costly venture for some. Extended updates for Windows 7 Enterprise is approximately $25 per machine, and the cost doubles to $50 per device in 2021 and again to $100 in 2022. It’s even worse for Windows 7 Pro users which starts at $50 per machine and jumps to $100 in 2021 and $200 in 2022. These costs will naturally vary depending on the volume of PCs in use at a business, but they’re still going to be substantial for larger firms.
Microsoft is easing these costs with a free year of post-retirement updates to Windows 7 customers with active Windows 10 subscriptions. That hasn’t made a big dent in Windows 7 market share recently, though.
Microsoft has been notifying Windows 7 users throughout 2019 about today’s end of support, so people still stuck on the OS can’t say they haven’t been warned. A full-screen notification will appear for Windows 7 users on Wednesday, warning that systems are now out of support. Microsoft is trying to convince existing users to upgrade to machines running Windows 10, a trend that caused the global PC market to have its first year of growth since 2011.
Despite the end of support, Windows 7 looks like it has some life left in it yet. It could take another year or two to get Windows 7 firmly below 10 percent market share, especially when Google is committing to support Chrome on Windows 7 until at least the middle of 2021. That presents Microsoft with some headaches for ongoing support. We’ve already seen the software giant break with tradition multiple times for Windows XP, issuing public patches for the operating system after its end of support date. Given the increases in ransomware attacks in recent years and their devastating effects, it’s likely we’ll see public Windows 7 security patches in the future.
The vast majority of these support headaches will come from businesses that don’t always upgrade to the very latest Windows releases. Windows Vista and Windows 8 weren’t exactly solid in-between releases you could reliably upgrade to, and that left most businesses running Windows XP or Windows 7 to avoid software issues and incompatibilities. Windows 8 won’t have the same issues when its support ends in 2023, as it’s only running on less than 5 percent of all PCs.
Windows 10 has also attempted to combat this end of support problem with Microsoft’s big “Windows as a service” push. Businesses and consumers were given 18 months before they need to move from a major Windows 10 update to another, and Microsoft has been releasing two big updates per year. That’s led to some complaints from businesses, so Microsoft has now slowed the pace to 30 months of support for each big September update, and 18 months for the March ones. This won’t affect consumers, who will only be supported for 18 months per release but these machines typically upgrade automatically to the latest Windows 10 release and aren’t the source of Microsoft’s support woes.
We’ve already hit multiple end-of-support dates for various Windows 10 releases without any major hiccups, and three versions are set to reach end of service this year alone. If businesses keep upgrading regularly, then Windows 10 may have truly solved some of Microsoft’s support headaches for the future.
Windows as a service does present interesting questions about PC sales over the next decade, though. Windows 7 end of life has helped the PC market bounce back in 2019, but with no “Windows 11” in sight the PCs that businesses are purchasing now could last longer than ever before. Microsoft, Intel, and PC OEMs will be hoping that Surface and the constant push to improve hardware will convince businesses and even consumers to upgrade. That didn’t happen immediately with the “PC Does What?” marketing campaign four years ago, which aimed to get people with older Windows 7 PCs to upgrade to new hardware. There are probably still millions of consumers holding on to Windows 7 machines simply because they continue to work fine for the basics.
Microsoft, Intel, and others are now focused on foldable and dual-screen laptops for 2020 and beyond. Microsoft is building out its Windows 10X variant for this new hardware, and we’ve started to see some target devices announced at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) last week. It’s still early days for this type of hardware, and Windows 10X will have to do a lot of work to make these devices shine.
We’ll likely never witness another giant release of Windows like we’ve seen with Windows 10 or Windows 7 in the past, even for foldable devices. Microsoft’s priorities have certainly shifted under CEO Satya Nadella. “The operating system is no longer the most important layer for us,” explained Nadella at the launch of new Surface devices last year. Windows is still a significant part of Microsoft’s business, but it’s not the future of it. Microsoft is embracing Android, cross-platform software and services, and the cloud. It’s a company that increasingly embraces competitors like Amazon, Samsung, Sony, and Google to transform its own business.
That transformation is ongoing, and Microsoft is increasingly looking at the web to work its way onto rival platforms. The end of Windows 7 is simply another milestone in the history of Windows. It comes at the start of a new decade, and marks the end of an era when Windows ruled everyone’s computing experiences. How Windows adapts over the next decade could be the most significant change for Microsoft in its 44-year history.
We've been hearing that Samsung may double its flagship phone displays' refresh rate since last fall, when the option to switch between 60Hz and 120Hz was discovered in a hidden menu of the OneUI 2.0 beta update.
Since then, we've been on an emotional will-they-won't-they rollercoaster on the issue, especially when pertaining to the upcoming Galaxy S20 series flagships. Leaked firmware code tipped 120Hz for the Galaxy S20 displays indeed, but was subsequently dropped, at least as far as the full resolution of the displays was concerned.
Now, however, the leakster that stirred the most controversy on the matter, claiming 120Hz for all Samsung flagship phone fans, and then tipping that it may only apply at the virtual 1080p resolution that Samsung applies as default, seems to have made up their mind in the negative direction.
The Galaxy S20 series, it turns out, may have indeed ditched the option for 120Hz refresh at the full display resolution and left it for the default one that Samsung's high-end phones usually ship with out of the box, and the option switch may look like this.
Notice the warning about the negative impact on battery life from a screen constantly refreshing at 120Hz? Well, that might be one of the reasoning behind such a move by Samsung, even though the graphics subsystem still has to refresh the same physical number of pixels regardless of what the virtual resolution is.
We'll see if this no-120Hz-at-full-resolution restriction pans out very soon, not that this is something that will bother the average user anyway. We ran a test and the uninitiated couldn't really tell the difference between 60Hz and 90Hz in regular usage though with 120Hz they might be a bit more pronounced.
XDA Developer's Max Weinbach has scored the first in-person photos of Samsung's next flagship smartphone. We previously only saw the phone in renders, so there are a few things to go over.
Since the Galaxy S10 came out last year, we've been calling Samsung's next phone the "Galaxy S11" because we're great at math. But this year, it seems the S series is getting a new numbering scheme, and, according to the boot screen, this device is the "Galaxy S20+." With the S20 in 2020, apparently Samsung has decided to number these things like they're the latest installment in an EA Sports video game franchise.
The front is right in line with Samsung's last phone, the Galaxy Note 10, with a centered cutout for the front camera. XDA says the display sides are "much less curved than before. Our source said [the display] felt flat." Samsung has been pushing curved display sides for years, but the feature has never offered any usability benefits—it just distorts the sides of the screen and makes it easier to accidentally touch the sides of the display. Seeing a sensible return to flat displays would be great.
The back shows off the expected larger, rectangular camera bump, and on this version the camera lens arrangement is a simple grid. The camera block has six spots, sporting four cameras, an LED flash, and a tiny hole in the bottom right that Weinbach says is a microphone hole.
The full name on the boot screen is the "Samsung Galaxy S20+ 5G." This is yet another confirmation that most flagship smartphones will have 5G in 2020. 5G is actually mandatory for devices with Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 865 SoC, so manufacturers (and consumers) don't really have a choice. The Snapdragon 865 with 5G requires more components than last year's Snapdragon 855 with 4G, so it would not surprise us to see phones that are more expensive and power-hungry. The dramatically faster form of 5G, mmWave 5G, probably isn't available in your area, either. The report mentions that there will be some 4G variants of the Galaxy S20, but those are most likely using Samsung's Exynos SoC and meant for international markets.
The Galaxy S20+ is actually not the highest-end version of the Galaxy S20. There is expected to be an even higher-end version, called the "Galaxy S20 Ultra," which should feature even more cameras and might be even larger than the S20+.
The Galaxy S20 will be fully unveiled at Samsung's show on February 11, alongside a new, vertically folding smartphone.
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