It’s a great day to be a Switch fan. If you missed Nintendo’s latest Indie World Showcase, the company announced on Wednesday that Rogue Legacy 2 and A Little to the Left would be available to download later today. Both indies came out earlier this year to critical acclaim and are well worth your time if you enjoy smaller experiences. The former is the sequel to 2013’s Rogue Legacyand improves on its predecessor in nearly every way, with a new art style and tighter gameplay. Meanwhile, A Little to the Left is a cozy and relaxing game for those who enjoy tidying up.
Looking to the weeks and months ahead, there are a handful of other notable indie games heading to the platform. At the start of next month, roguelike deck builder Incscryption arrives. It was one of the most critically acclaimed games of 2021. If a card game that’s infused with horror elements sounds appealing to you, I would try to go into Incscryption knowing as little as possible. December will also see the release of Sports Story. The follow-up to the Golf Story was first announced in 2020 and was supposed to arrive on Nintendo Switch that same year. To say fans of the original have been patiently waiting ever since would be an understatement.
In 2023, Switch owners can also look forward to Desta: The Memories Between, the next game from Monument Valley creator Ustwo arriving. Nintendo shared a new look at the turn-based dodgeball game. Between those games and a handful of others, Nintendo Switch fans have a lot to look forward to in the near future.
Netflix has released an interactive experience that you can fire up and play with the trivia-loving members of your family these holidays. It's called Triviaverse, and it was designed to throw rapid-fire questions at you, which you'll then have to answer within a time limit. You can play it alone and contend with three rounds of increasing difficulty per try, but you can also play with a friend in a turn-based bout with two rounds each. The one who's entered the more correct answers within the time limit wins the match.
The company says the show pulls its questions from any topic "you can imagine," from science to history to pop culture, so it would help having a wide variety of interests. You'll unlock badges the higher the score you get, including Bird Brain while you're just starting out. Keep at it for fun or for bragging rights, and you may just get the ultimate Triviaverse God title.
The streaming service has been exploring subscribers' interest in interactive content over the past few years, releasing shows and episodes you can play an active part in, such as Black Mirror: Bandersnatch. Last year, it took a big step towards achieving its gaming ambitions and rolled out games to all Android and iOS users. And just this September, it announced that it's forming an in-house gaming studio in Helsinki, Finland to create original games that don't have ads or in-app purchases.
Netflix already has a trivia game: It launched its first interactive daily quiz show Trivia Quest earlier this year. Triviaverse has a simpler format, however, and seems like something you could do in between tasks or play with friends in between other games. The experience is available in English, Spanish (LatAm), Portuguese (Brazil), French, German, Spanish (Spain), Italian, Korean and Japanese. It's also accessible from all devices that can run Netflix's interactive experiences, including smart TVs, streaming media players, consoles, browsers and mobile devices.
LG Disply has developed a 12-inch stretchable display that can be extended in size to 14 inches, the company announced. The displays could one day be used in materials with irregular surfaces like clothes and wearables to display messages on the uniforms of first responders, for example.
Stretchable displays, or free-form displays as LG Display calls them, can be pulled, bent and twisted. They go a step farther than the flexible displays used in Samsung's Galaxy Fold and other smartphones, which can be folded and bent but not stretched.
To make the display so stretchy, LG Display built the base substrate material from a silicon similar to that used in contact lenses. It also micro-LEDs smaller than 40-micrometers for the light source, allowing for high resolution and durability. And finally, the company used circuits shaped like springs to accommodate bending and folding.
LG Display
"The stretchable display’s revolutionary technology offers next-level versatility for various daily scenarios," LG Display wrote. "Easily attachable to curved surfaces such as skin, clothing, furniture, automobiles and aircraft, this unique innovation expands the potential of the display in various industries including fashion, wearables, mobility and gaming."
We've seen stretchable displays in the past from Samsung and others, but the best you could do with those was put a small dent in them. This one appears to go much farther, showing the potential for displays with real potential for wearables. LG Display has been working on the technology since 2020 in collaboration and the research is expected to conclude in 2024.
YouTube's attempt to mimic TikTok now extends to the living room. The company's vertical Shorts videos now have native support on TVs, with a player that makes better use of all that normally wasted horizontal space. It still feels like utter overkill to watch these mobile-oriented clips on the big screen (unless you have Samsung's rotating TV), but it's still much more elegant than trying to use the standard landscape player.
The feature is rolling out in the next few weeks. It be available on smart TVs made from 2019 onward as well as living room media devices and "newer" game consoles. YouTube suggested in an explanatory video (below) that Shorts might work with older sets, but that compatibility wasn't guaranteed.
It's not surprising that YouTube poured so much effort into adapting Shorts for TVs. TikTok's own TV app launched in November last year — this gives YouTube an answer to a major competitor. There's a significant audience for Shorts, too, with over 1.5 billion monthly active users as of this spring. And while TikTok is theoretically behind with 'just' 1 billion users (as of the third quarter of 2021), the gap is narrow enough that even a slight advantage in viewership could give one of them the lead.
Rivian impressed car reviewers (and us) with its R1T pickup, and its R1S electric SUV is no different. The slightly smaller vehicle continues the automotive startup’s trend of building no-compromise electric vehicles meant for outdoor adventure.
Living the life of an extreme camper, kayaker or cyclist doesn't come cheap: The R1S has a bank-busting price tag starting at $78,000. It might not be the most efficient EV on the market, but it has a healthy range of up to 316 miles, which should be enough to satisfy those looking to go outdoors with a vehicle that’s solidly built. The R1S also now ships with a new Camp Mode feature that levels the cabin so overnight stays can be a bit more comfortable.
Designing a desirable EV is not something Rivian has struggled with to date, though: its real issue is mass-producing cars to keep up with orders. Watch the video below for the full story.
The impact of Japanese RPGs on pop and gaming culture cannot be overstated. From Final Fantasy and Phantasy Star to Chrono Trigger, NieR, and Fire Emblem — JRPGs have spanned console generations, bridged the Japanese and North American markets, spawned entire universes of IP and delivered critical commercial hits for nearly four decades. Modern gaming simply wouldn't exist as it does today if not for the influence of JRPGs.
In his newest book, Fight, Magic, Items: The History of Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and the Rise of Japanese RPGs, Aidan Moher takes a wondrous in-depth look at the history of Japanese role playing games, their initial rise in the East, the long road to acceptance in the West and ultimate cultural impact the world over. In the excerpt below, Moher explores how Pokemon grew from Gameboy screens to become a multi-billion dollar entertainment juggernaut.
Though it takes many cues from Japanese games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Genshin Impact was developed and published by Chinese developer/ publisher miHoYo. Thanks to gorgeous visuals, free-to-play accessibility, multi-platform release, and easy-to-pick-up-impossible-to-put-down gacha-based gameplay, it took the gaming world by storm after its 2020 release.
Game Boy not only provided greater access to video games thanks to its low price, but it subsequently changed the way we play games. About the size of a mass-market paperback novel, and just barely pocketable, the Game Boy leaned heavily on Nintendo franchises, including Mario and Donkey Kong, and—equally important for a device marketed for children—a ton of tie-in games for popular television shows and movies like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Jurassic Park, and Star Trek.
The appeal for kids? Gaming where mom and dad couldn’t see the action — a private world of adventure. The appeal for adults? Appealing puzzle games, fewer back spasms from sitting cross-legged on the floor two feet from the TV, and a smaller, quieter way to keep the kids distracted before dinner.
“Game Boy had the advantage of being the first on the market before other major competitors,” explained Smithsonian Magazine. Though Sega and Atari soon followed with their own consoles, complete with color screens, they faced an uphill battle against Nintendo’s aggressive strategy of leaning into tech that was older, but also more efficient, affordable, and reliable. Like many ’90s kids, my first game console was the Game Boy. I was a computer game fiend, and we’d rent a NES with a couple of games now and then, but those were ephemeral promises of living room gaming that wouldn’t become reality for a few more years.
After its debut, the Game Boy was rife with puzzle games and character platformers, but by 1993, it had blossomed into a full-fledged adventuring machine thanks to familiar franchises like Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and even Wizardry. The game that really sold the system’s capabilities, however, was a new entry in Nintendo’s ambitious The Legend of Zelda series. And, like many others, I was already a big Zelda fan by the time Link’s Awakening released in August 1993 thanks to its Super NES predecessor The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.
What living room game consoles offered in scope, visual pop, and impressive technology, portables matched with their flexibility, bite-sized content, and on-the-go possibilities. Every morning, my friend and I would meet under a blanket of dew at our elementary school. Sitting side by side for warmth, Game Boys clutched in chilled fingers, we’d explore Koholint Island on individual journeys to waken the Wind Fish. The intimacy of this youthful bonding cemented Link’s Awakening as a core gaming experience in my life, all made possible by the Game Boy.
Though A Link to the Past and the entire Legend of Zelda series no doubt influenced a lot of JRPGs, especially puzzle-based games like Wild Arms or Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals, its categorization as a JRPG is debatable. Personally, I don’t quite consider it a JRPG due to its lack of customizability, but there’s definitely enough overlap in mechanics, pacing, story construction, and so on to create an overlapping Venn diagram of fans.
Imagine the giddy power rush of being a kid with a whole universe in your pocket, out of sight of parents and siblings, with no lobbying for TV screen time required. At first blush, the handheld’s small screen might be considered a flaw, but the paradoxical reality was that the smallness leant to the understanding that it was a personal-sized portal to another world. Only room for one. Plus, you could pop in the cheap Nintendo-provided headphones and the world outside disappeared entirely.
Link’s Awakening was a revelation, a journey into the unknown that belonged only to me.
Wake up.
A dream.
Wake up.
It was euphoric.
Wake up.
And then . . . there was Pokémon.
In a video review of Final Fantasy Mystic Quest (discussed in Chapter 6), YouTube channel Austin Eruption examined Square’s failed attempts at catalyzing the Western JRPG market during the early ’90s. “The concept of the entry RPG would be more successful . . . not with Square, but with Nintendo’s wildly popular Pokémon,” they said. “It turns out kids are super down to play RPGs, they just gotta have cute and cool monsters to collect.”
In 1996, Japanese schoolyards were buzzing thanks to the new Game Boy game published by Nintendo called Pocket Monsters. Kids traded tips, creatures, and blows across Game Boys connected by a link cable. These newly trained Pokémon trainers, as they’re called in the game, couldn’t get enough of the 151 unique, cute, and catchable creatures.
Before it was about catching monsters, however, Pocket Monsters was conceptualized by its insect-obsessed creator, Satoshi Tajiri, as a bug-catching simulator. Known to his classmates as “Mr. Bug,” Tajiri spent his childhood dreaming of becoming an entomologist and studying bugs for a living . . . that is until he discovered arcade games like Space Invaders. Though his professional ambitions shifted focus to bits, bytes, and programming scripts, his love for bug collecting remained, and at just twenty-four years old he came up with the idea for what would eventually become Pocket Monsters.
Before his buggy dreams became a reality, Tajiri founded Game Freak in 1989 with Masuda and artist Ken Sugimori, and released his first game, Mendel Palace, the same year. A grid-based puzzler, this game was completely unlike Pocket Monsters, but its success encouraged Tajiri and helped solidify Game Freak. The following year, Tajiri saw two Game Boys tethered by a link cable, and his concept for a bug-catching simulator sprang to life. He saw opportunity not only for players to be able to share and collect bugs, but to competitively face off against one another on their linked Game Boys.
It took over two years after its Japanese release for Pocket Monsters to reach western shores, finally releasing in September 1998 as Pokémon. With its release on the ten-year-old handheld and with the more powerful Game Boy Advance on the horizon, Nintendo released Pokémon on a whim, expecting the series to arrive as a chunky, but relatively unnoticed, oddity before the Game Boy Advance took over. Then, to everyone’s surprise, the weird little Japanese phenomenon appealed to kids in the West just as much as it had to children in its home country. Playgrounds across the United States and Canada were suddenly crawling with kids obsessing over Pikachus, Charmanders, and Mewtwos.
“Although it was made in Japan,” wrote culture writer Matt Alt for the BBC, “for a moment at the turn of the 21st Century, no corner of the world was immune from what came to be called ‘Pokémania.’” Scrambling in the wake of this unexpected success, Nintendo quickly localized the anime spinoff for an American audience to further capitalize on the video game’s hype. A short year later, the follow-up movie adaptation was so popular that phone boards were overwhelmed as tens of thousands of parents and fans sought tickets.
Pokémon’s defining feature was its dual-cartridge release: PokémonRed Version and PokémonBlue Version. The catch was that while each version had most of the same Pokémon available to catch, there were a few dozen available only in one version or the other. To “catch ’em all,” as the game’s tagline implored young Pokémon trainers, you had to find another player who owned the other cartridge. I chose PokémonBlue, and with a set of fully charged AA batteries powering my Game Boy, I started a new game and settled on Bulbasaur as my starting companion. What followed was an experience that made Link’s Awakening feel like The Hobbit—and now I was playing Lord of the Rings. I soon caught more Pokémon for my party: a cute bird called Pidgey, a caterpillar that ensnared foes in silk webbing, and a bucktooth rodent known as Rattata. By the end of my first play session, these little critters became so much more than characters in a game; they tapped into that Tamagotchiesque sense of ownership and quickly became as beloved as my childhood pets.
This wasn’t a party of adventurers; it was a family.
Pokémon put players in the role of a newly minted trainer named Red. (Or anything else they chose to name him within the seven-character limit. My first name fit with room to spare.) Alongside rival Blue, Red arrives at Professor Oak’s Pokémon lab to choose one of the three starter Pokémon: the aforementioned Bulbasaur and Charmander, and the terrapin-like Squirtle. New Pokémon in tow, you leave your hometown on an adventure through Kanto region—a fictional game universe based loosely on Japan’s own Kanto region. With the goal of becoming the region’s greatest Pokémon trainer, you visit Kanto’s eight gyms, wherein you challenge their leaders, powerful Pokémon trainers who focus on particular types of Pokémon, like water-type or electric-type, to earn badges. Conquering the gym leaders then gives you the right to challenge the Elite Four. Defeat them, and the title of Pokémon Champion awaits.
Pokémon combined the sprawling adventure of the JRPG with a narrative focused on personal conflict and growth—not the end of the world. If anything, Kanto felt idyllic, a Star Trek–esque utopia where humans had moved beyond such pettiness as war or raising vengeful gods to destroy their enemies. With nothing else to do, Kanto’s inhabitants could spend their days training the critters crawling through tall grass, prowling in dark caves, and lurking beneath the waves.
Link’s Awakening felt like a limitless adventure at the time, but in reality, there was one critical path to victory, and each player solved the game by following the same steps in roughly the same order. Pokémon was different. Placing the player in a vast world populated by 151 collectable Pokémon, it created an experience that was as unique and individualized as each of its players. Love cute Pokémon and want to fill your team with Pikachus and Eevees? It’s possible. Want to overpower your starter Pokémon, grind your way through the game, and defeat the Elite Four through brute force? Go for it. Obsessed with Psyduck? Um, sure. I guess.
Pokémon offered so much variety and customization for how the player approached building and training their team that each kid could play it in their own way, opening the door to a new style of accessibility lacking in similar games. Kids cared for their Pokémon, and being able to show off a rare or powerful catch on the playground was a badge of honor. And because of its portable nature, Pokémon was able to experience the same social dynamics that drove other popular schoolyard phenomena. It was like Tamagotchi—without the midnight wake-up calls. While other JRPGs gave the player some customization options for their party characters, it was nowhere near the endless possibility of Pokémon’s gotta-catch-’em-all depth.
Black Friday doesn't officially arrive for a few more weeks, but we're already starting to see retailers run early holiday sales on several gadgets we recommend. Roku's Streaming Stick 4K, for instance, has fallen to a new low of $25, while Sony's WH-1000XM5 headphones are back down to the price we saw during Amazon's Prime Early Access Sale last month. There are offers on Amazon and Google devices beyond that, plus discounts on Roombas, MacBooks, Logitech gaming mice, and Samsung storage gear, among others. Here are the best tech deals from this week that you can still get today.
Roku Streaming Stick 4K
Roku
This drop to $25 represents a new low for Roku's Streaming Stick 4K, which is currently the top streaming stick in our guide to the best streaming devices. The streamer has normally retailed closer to $40 in recent months. While it's not as luxurious as a new Apple TV 4K, the Streaming Stick 4K still gives you the essentials in a more affordable package. It's fast enough, it supports all the major streaming services (apart from Twitch), and it works with the big HDR standards (Dolby Vision, HDR10, HDR10+ and HLG). Its tile-based interface is relatively basic and not devoid of ads, but it remains dead-simple to navigate and not as intense about pushing you toward certain services as other streamers. The device also works Apple's AirPlay protocol, so you can beam video to it straight from an iPhone or iPad.
Note that Roku also sells a Streaming Stick 4K+ with an upgraded remote that adds hands-free voice search, a built-in headphone jack for private listening, a rechargeable battery and a lost remote finder function. That device retails for $70, however, and it's not on sale as of this writing. You can still use the Roku app for private listening with the non-Plus model, too. If you prefer a set-top box design and need an Ethernet port, the Roku Ultra is currently discounted to a new low of $70 from its usual $95. And if you prefer the more personalized interface and (far) superior search capabilities of Google's 4K Chromecast, another streamer we recommend, that one is still on sale for $40.
Sony headphone sale
Billy Steele/Engadget
Sony has discounted a number of its most popular wireless headphones ahead of Black Friday, including deals on its best noise-cancelling and true wireless models. Perhaps most notably, the Sony WH-1000XM5 are back down to $348. That's a roughly $50 discount, matching the lowest price to date for what we consider the best wireless headphones you can buy. We gave that pair a score of 95 in our glowing review, but if you want something a bit more affordable, the older but still-capable WH-1000XM4s are available for $228, which also matches an all-time low. (Yes, the names of these things still aren't great.)
The active noise cancellation on both pairs is still among the most effective you can buy, and both headsets come with useful features like a "Speak to Chat" function that automatically pauses your music when you start speaking to someone. The battery on both headphones lasts around 30 hours per charge, which is good, and the two each come with a fun, bass-heavy sound profile out of the box that can be adjusted to something more neutral through an EQ in Sony's companion app.
That said, the XM5s are generally more comfortable to wear for extended periods, and they have a better microphone for making calls. We also found the newer pair to be a bit better at muting out higher- and mid-range noises like human voices, though some may not like that its automatic adjustment system — which re-optimizes the headphone's ANC profile based on your surroundings — can't be turned off. If you prefer physical control buttons to touch inputs or a more neutral default sound, we'll also note that the similarly comfortable Bose QuietComfort 45 is still on sale for $250, though that pair trades away some battery life and extra features by comparison.
If you're looking for noise cancellation in a true wireless form factor, the WF-1000XM4 are available for $178, which again matches the lowest price we've tracked. While Bose's QuietComfort Earbuds II have this pair beat when it comes to raw ANC strength, Sony's earbuds are still far from ineffective, and our review found them to be more well-rounded when it comes to overall features and sound quality. Plus, the Bose earbuds cost $300, and we don't expect them drop this low for Black Friday. Sony's LinkBuds S, meanwhile, are on sale for an all-time low of $128; that model's ANC is a step down from the others noted here, but its design is lighter and more comfortable in the ear.
At $75, this isn't the all-time lowest price we've seen for Amazon's 10.1-inch tablet — the device briefly dropped to $55 at Target earlier this year — but it does match the deals we saw during last year's Black Friday sales and this year's pair of Prime Day events. Discounts on the Fire HD 10 haven't been uncommon over the past year, but most of those sales have dropped the device to either $100 or $110.
When it's discounted to this extent, the Fire HD 10 is a strong value for those who just want a competent tablet for media consumption on the cheap. Amazon's Fire OS still omits access to the Google Play Store and heavily steers you toward the company's own services, but the Fire HD 10's general performance and 1920 x 1200 resolution display are perfectly solid for the money. The device gets a good 12 or so hours of battery life per charge, and a useful "Show Mode" feature lets it double as an Alexa smart display if desired. This deal comes as part of a wider sale on Amazon slates, but of those, the Fire HD 10 should provide the best blend of price and performance for most people.
Apple iPad Air (2020)
Dana Wollman/Engadget
The 256GB variant of Apple's fourth-gen iPad Air is currently on sale for $499 at Walmart, which marks the lowest price we've seen. Now, hear us out on this one. If money is less of a concern, then no, you shouldn't get the 2020 iPad Air when the 2022 model is right there (and still on sale) with its faster M1 chip, upgraded camera, and improved USB-C port. The entry-level 10.2-inch iPad is still a better value for those who just want the essentials, too. However, if you were specifically thinking of getting the new 10th-gen iPad, the last-gen Air packs the same A14 Bionic chip and a nearly identical design (save for a camera on the landscape edge) without giving up support for the second-gen Apple Pencil or a laminated display with a wide color gamut.
The 256GB version of the 10th-gen iPad is priced at $599, so if you must have more than the base 64GB of storage and you can't afford to step up to the current Air, this last-gen model is the better buy despite being two years older. Just note that this deal only applies to certain colorways. Since this looks to be an inventory-clearing situation, we wouldn't be surprised if stock runs dry sooner rather than later, either.
Samsung storage device sale
Samsung
If you're running out of space on your PC, game console, camera or whatever else, Amazon is still running a sale on various Samsung storage devices. Not every deal in the sale is a winner, but the highlights include the 1TB T7 Shield, a ruggedized and water-resistant version of the T7 portable SSD we recommend, marked down to a new low of $90. Though Samsung recently launched a faster 990 Pro internal SSD, the prior 980 Pro is still a fine PCIe 4.0 drive for newer PCs or a PlayStation 5 (with a heatsink), and it's back down to a low of $120 for 1TB. If you need a speedy microSD card, meanwhile, the 256GB Evo Select is a decent buy at $23; that doesn't quite match the all-time low of $20 we saw earlier this year, but it's the best price we've tracked otherwise.
Though no cloud gaming service feels quite as fluid as playing a game locally, NVIDIA's GeForce Now is one of the better takes on the concept, particularly if you already own a hefty library of games on PC. Right now, NVIDIA is running a promotion that doles out a six-month subscription of the "Priority" tier of the service for $30. Normally, that would cost $50. NVIDIA says the deal is only available to new members, free-tier members, Priority members currently on a 1-month subscription plan and "users on an active promotion or gift card," so the idea is to upsell customers who aren't on one of the service's higher-end plans already. This promo is set to run through November 20.
As a refresher, "Priority" is GeForce Now's middle tier: you don't get the 4K/120 fps support of the pricier "RTX 3080" subscription, but you can still stream in resolutions up to 1080p and frame rates up to 60 fps. You're also allotted up to six hours per session instead of the one-hour session length of the service's free tier. (The RTX 3080 tier, meanwhile, allows up to eight-hour sessions.) It's also worth remembering that GeForce Now doesn't follow the same model as other cloud services like Google Stadia (RIP) or Microsoft's Xbox Cloud Gaming: The idea is that you bring games you already own on platforms like Steam or the Epic Games Store, then GeForce Now will let you stream them elsewhere when you're away from your gaming PC. Just make sure enough of your games are actually supported before you take the plunge, and note that your subscription will be set to auto-renew by default.
Google Pixel 6a
Engadget
A quick PSA for anyone looking to buy a good Android phone on a budget: the unlocked Google Pixel 6a is still on sale for $299, which matches the lowest price we've tracked. The handset has a list price of $449, but we've typically seen it float between $350 and $400 over the past few months.
We recommend the Pixel 6a in our best smartphones guide, and we gave it a review score of 89 back in July. Like past Pixel phones, the main perks here are stellar camera performance and a clean take on Android, with OS and security updates guaranteed into 2025 and 2027, respectively. The first-gen Google Tensor chip and 6.1-inch OLED display compare favorably to most phones in this price range, and while its back is made of plastic, the design doesn't look cheap. It's also IP67-rated for dust and water resistance. The 6a isn't without flaws: There's no headphone jack or wireless charging support, the display is limited to a 60Hz refresh rate, and the battery life, while good, isn't top-of-the-line. Still, for less than $300, it's difficult to do better.
Amazon Echo Show 5
Nicole Lee/Engadget
It's a good week to be in the market for a smart display, as nearly all of Amazon's Echo Show devices are on sale. Among the highlights, a two-pack of the diminutive Echo Show 5 is down to $60 when you use the code SHOW52PK at checkout. That's about a $20-25 savings off a two-pack's usual street price in recent months. Individual models are on sale for $35, which is a price we've seen a handful of times lately but still a solid value. We gave the 5.5-inch display a review score of 85 last year: You won't want to use it for more involved smart home tasks or video calls, but it works particularly well when used as a smarter alarm clock.
If you'd prefer something bigger and faster, both the 10.1-inch Echo Show 10 and 15.6-inch Echo Show 15 are still available for a low of $170, though our reviews for those devices had a few more reservations by comparison. If you prefer to use the Google Assistant instead of Alexa, meanwhile, Google's seven-inch Nest Hub also plays nice on a bedside table, adding a modicum of sleep tracking functionality and removing any built-in camera. We gave that one a score of 89 last year, and it's currently back to its usual deal price of $50.
At $179, this deal matches the best price we've seen for iRobot's Roomba 694, the top pick in our guide to the best budget robot vacuums. We've seen this price a few times over the course of the year, though over the past few months the device has retailed closer to $225 on average.
We've found the Roomba 694 to be a dependable and easy-to-manage robovac, with decent battery life of at least 45 minutes per charge — and potentially longer depending on the mix of surfaces in your home — and a sturdy design that'll survive its inevitable bumps into your furniture. Since it's WiFi-enabled, you can turn it off and on, and set cleaning schedules, through the iRobot app. You still get what you pay for: Pricier robovacs will be more robust at cleaning larger spaces, and they'll do so in a more orderly fashion than the semi-random, "bump and run" style of the 694 here. (A couple of higher-end Roombas are also on sale as of this writing.) If you only need to clean a smaller area, though, or if you're willing to trade some cleaning smarts for something a bit more affordable, the 694 should do the job at this deal price.
Logitech G Pro X Superlight
Igor Bonifacic / Engadget
Logitech's G Pro X Superlight is a high-performing gaming mouse we like for both work and play, and right now it's down to its all-time low of $110, or about $25 off its usual street price. That's still not cheap, but G Pro X Superlight stands out for being exceedingly light (at roughly 63 grams), quick to glide (with its PTFE feet), and consistently responsive in faster-paced games. It has a particularly comfortable scroll wheel, too. You only get a couple of customizable shortcut buttons, and the whole thing only connects over a USB dongle, not Bluetooth. Still, we've found the design comfortable for most hand sizes and grip types. You should still only get a mouse like this if you're serious about PC gaming, but if that's the case, this one should serve you well in and out of those twitchy FPS games. Note that this discount is just one of a handful of deals currently available for mice we recommend.
We've seen Apple's M1 MacBook Air fall to $799 a few times in recent weeks, but if you missed out before, this is still a nice opportunity to save on what remains a commendable laptop for lighter work and casual use. The average street price for this SKU has sat around $920 in recent months.
If you can afford to step up to the newest MacBook Air model based on Apple's M2 chip, you still should: it packs a refreshed design, a bit more performance, a vastly superior webcam and speaker system and a brighter display, among other upgrades. But if you could use the savings, the M1 chip in found in the 2020 MacBook Air is still plenty performant for most tasks, while the notebook's battery life, keyboard, trackpad and overall build quality remain excellent. The 720p webcam, on the other hand, is a disappointment, and the 8GB of RAM and 256GB of SSD storage in this specific SKU aren't well-suited to heavier-duty work. But for everyday browsing, streaming and word processing, the M1 Air remains a solid value at $799.
48-inch LG A2 OLED TV
LG
The 48-inch version of LG's A2 OLED TV is still available for $570 at Best Buy, which is the best price we've tracked and matches the lowest price we saw for last year's A1 model in the same size. This is LG's entry-level OLED TV, so it's limited to 60 Hz and lacks gaming-friendly features like a variable refresh rate or HDMI 2.1 ports. If you're looking for a secondary TV away from the living room, though, the A2 still gets you the deep contrast, vibrant colors, and wide viewing angles you'd expect from a good OLED TV. Best Buy is advertising this offer as part of an ongoing "early Black Friday" sale, so we'd expect this to be the lowest price we'll see for this model over the holidays. If you're willing to trade some picture quality for a more striking design, meanwhile, we're still seeing sales on Samsung's The Frame TVs as well.
I’ve reviewed consumer tech professionally for a little over a decade now, and in that time I’ve worn hundreds of headphones. I’ve tested reference pairs that cost as much as $4,000, played with tons of gaming headsets, and seen firsthand (first-ear?) as the industry has shifted toward wireless models with increasing computer-like functionality.
And yet, for people who real5ly care about how their music sounds, the easiest recommendation I can give is still a 17-year-old pair of wired “clip-on” headphones that cost $20 and look like something you’d get for free on a flight in the ‘90s. I purchased my first pair of Koss KSC75s many years ago, but for my money, they remain the best-sounding audio thing you can buy for $20. In a market that regularly uses the power of #branding to get you to pay more for basic functionality, the KSC75 are an honest anomaly. They promise quality sound at a consumer-friendly price and nothing more, and they deliver on that.
A brief history lesson: The KSC75 arrived in 2005 as a more affordable follow-up to the Koss KSC35, a similar set of ear-clip-style headphones that launched in 1995 and cost $45. Wisconsin-based Koss has long held a reputation among audio enthusiasts for good value plays, specifically with a series of headphones all based around the same 60 ohm driver, which the company has produced for decades. The most well-known of these is probably the near-40-year-old Koss Porta Pro — which still holds up itself, but is pricier and a bit flimsier in design — though other retro-style pairs like the Sporta Pro and KPH30i are built around it as well. The KSC75 (and a few others) use a version of the driver coated in titanium, however; this, combined with their lightly-clamping fit and open-back design, gives the KSC75 their own sort of sound by comparison.
And that sound is great. The emphasis here is on the midrange, which largely comes off as balanced and natural. There’s a bit of extra brightness to the treble, but not so much that higher-frequency sounds are overly sharp. The open nature of the design lends everything a pleasing sense of space, and the various elements of a given track generally always sound like they’re in the right place. The design does mean there’s practically zero sub-bass, so you don’t get any of that feel-it-in-your-chest thump from lots of hip-hop or dance tracks, but the upper-bass range that is present has enough juice to keep most songs from sounding too thin.
Jeff Dunn/Engadget
All told, this is an agreeable sound, one that’s ideal for those looking to get into more critical listening. The KSC75 doesn’t go all-in on the bass like many popular headphones these days, and while it’s a pleasure with all types of music, it plays especially nice with folksy rock or richer recordings. Beyond that, its light weight and emphasis on the vocal range makes it a natural option for podcasts and audiobooks. When I’m not in a party chat, it’s also my go-to for gaming, since its balanced tuning and wide soundstage are ideal for, say, accurately locating other players in an FPS like Overwatch or Halo.
Now, I don’t want to sound naïve. There’s a perfectly decent amount of detail here, but a good set of modern, higher-end headphones will still pick up more of a track’s nuances. And again, the utter lack of sub-bass should make it a no-go for bassheads.
Plus, since this design was something of an outlier even in 2005, it forgoes basically all of the conveniences of a modern headphone. There’s no microphone, no built-in controls, and no sweat resistance rating. Because the design is open, it blocks next to no outside noise, and everyone around you will hear whatever you’re listening to if you turn things up to even a moderate volume. None of this is ideal for travel or working out.
The KSC75’s clip-on shape is light and comfy to my ears, but it won’t be for everyone. (Lots of people buy these earpads from Japanese company Yaxi to heighten the comfort, but I wouldn’t say they’re necessary for most.) The build mostly consists of cheap silver plastic, and there are many stories of its non-detachable cable breaking over time. (Though Koss’ lifetime limited warranty effectively lets you replace them ad infinitum for $9 a pop.) These are also wired headphones in a world that is actively eradicating the headphone jack, so if you want to use them on the go, chances are you’ll need a dongle.
But that $20 price goes a long way. Saying the KSC75 is a great value is practically a meme among audio enthusiasts at this point — not in the “lol funny photo” sense, but in the “symbolic idea that spreads and embeds itself within a culture” way. Still, it’s true: the KSC75’s sound quality is practically unmatched in its price range and competitive with many headphones that cost $100 or more. They’ve gotten me through many hours of working from home. If all you want is an affordable headphone that helps you better savor your music, I bet you’ll enjoy them too.
Sony's latest flagship noise-canceling headphones and their predecessors, along with their earbud counterparts, are on sale right now on Amazon. Some of them are even back to their old Prime Day pricing, while others are down to a new all-time low. The WH-1000XM5, which we think are the best headphones you can buy right now, are probably the crowning glory of this sale. They're back to their Prime Day and all-time low pricing of $348, or $52 less than their retail price. We gave the headphones a score of 95 in our review and praised Sony for giving their exterior a big redesign that massively increased their comfort.
Sony has upgraded sound quality for the new flagship headphones and made bass punchier, gave it more depth and more clarity. Everything seemed more immersive as a result. The company has doubled the number of processors and the number of microphones for noise canceling, as well, making the model better at blocking higher frequency sounds, such as voices.
If you're looking for something a little more affordable, Sony's previous flagship headphones are also on sale for $228. That's how much the WH-1000XM4 went for during Amazon's Prime Day sale in July, and that represents 35 percent or $122 in savings. While we believe the WH-1000XM5 are the best headphones you can get at the moment, the WH-1000XM4 were our top pick before their successor came out. We praised them for having powerful ANC, immersive sound, automatic pausing when you speak and multi-device connectivity.
Sony's WF-1000XM4 earbuds are also on sale, in case you're looking for in-ear headphones instead. They're down to a new low of $178 or 36 percent lower than their retail price. The earbuds come with Sony's Noise Isolation Earbud Tips made of spongy foam instead of silicone, which never felt quite comfortable for us. That said, we found the earbuds to have great sound clarity and praised them for having wireless charging and support for high-res audio.
Outside of Sony's high-end models, Amazon is also selling Sony's WH-XB910N ANC headphones for $123 or 51 percent off their retail price of $250. They're not quite as advanced as the company's flagship models, but they're a solid noise-cancelling headset with extra bass. Need something even cheaper? The WHCH710N wireless noise-canceling headphones are now available for only $68, as well. That 55 percent lower than their typical price. Finally, the LinkBuds S are now being sold for $128, which is a new low for the mid-range ANC earbuds that typically go for $200.
Now that AMD has unveiled Radeon RX 7900 GPUs that can output 8K video at high refresh rates, gamers will need displays that can handle them — and Samsung is happy to oblige. The company has teased a new generation of its Odyssey Neo G9 that will supposedly be the first 8K ultrawide gaming monitor. You won't see a full launch until CES in January, but you'll need a DisplayPort 2.1-capable video card to help that screen reach its potential. We'd also add that AMD bills the 8K as "horizontal only," so you may not get as many vertical pixels as you might like.
Other high-res DisplayPort 2.1 monitors are coming from Acer, ASUS, Dell and LG starting in early 2023. AMD unfortunately didn't share more details.
This will likely be an expensive monitor when the previous-gen Odyssey Neo G9 currently sells for $2,200 with 'just' a 5,120 x 1,440 resolution and a 240Hz refresh rate. However, the bigger cost may be the PC attached to that 8K panel. On top of one of the new Radeons, you'll need a CPU that won't create a bottleneck for the graphics hardware.
There's also the question of content. Even many recent games can struggle at 8K, and older titles won't benefit much. Do you really need to play CS:GO at that resolution? AMD has promised that some games will run well on its cards with the help of upscaling, such as Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Death Stranding, Modern Warfare 2 and Uncharted, but it's not clear how well native 8K will perform just yet. Samsung's monitor may be more of an investment in the future than instant gratification.
