All articles tagged with #hands on
In a 30-minute hands-on with the iPhone Duo, Tom's Guide highlights three takeaways photos can’t convey: the device’s heft and grip due to its weight, the inner display’s Nano-texture matte finish that feels premium and is touted for scratch resistance, and the noticeable fingerprints or smudges in use. A full verdict will come after broader testing, but these tactile details stand out beyond pictures.
Apple unveiled AirPods 5 at its Surprise and Shine event in two ANC‑equipped models. The $129 base version ships without a wireless charging case, while the $149 model adds wireless charging and a Find My speaker. Apple says the 5’s ANC is 1.5x better than AirPods 4 with ANC, and the wireless‑charging version delivers about 5 hours of battery life with ANC (one hour more than the base). AirPods 4 cases work with AirPods 5. There’s no Ultra Wideband (no Precision Finding). Sound reportedly has more bass and punchier mids, though a full review is pending; AirPods Pro 3 remains the top choice for best ANC overall.
The Verge’s hands-on with the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max shows a design similar to the 17 Pro but with color-matched glass and four color options (black, silver, glacier blue, burgundy). Key additions include a variable-aperture main camera with four stops (f/1.48, f/1.8, f/2.8, f/4.0) and new pro controls in the native camera app (manual shutter speed, white balance, focus with peaking). The Dynamic Island is smaller and can display three Live Activities at once. Preorders start September 12 ahead of a September 18 release, with prices starting at $1,199 for the Pro and $1,299 for the Pro Max.
A Gamescom 2026 hands-on shows Fable’s combat is dynamic and reactive, blending swords, bows, hammers, and a suite of magical abilities (fireballs, lightning) to create varied takedowns and even dismemberment. The demo uses the linear, instanced quest “Mud and Death” to showcase different loadouts and tactical setups, including AI companion Humphrey, leading to a strong impression of depth and performance that counters early controversy and fuels anticipation for the full game.
Game Informer’s Gamescom 2026 coverage compiles hands-on previews for a diverse slate of upcoming titles—from Remedy’s Control Resonant and Hellraiser: Revival to Persona 4 Revival, Murals, State of Decay 3, and more—highlighting gameplay details, co-op options, art direction, and release windows.
Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip 8 is thinner and lighter thanks to Flex Titanium and silicon-carbon batteries, adds native outer-screen gestures so you can use the closed flip like a regular phone, and keeps the Flip 7's camera setup (50MP main + 12MP ultrawide) with the same 6.9" inner display and 4.1" cover. Priced at $1,199.99, it introduces Now Brief widgets and a built-in app drawer on the exterior, but the author questions whether this more phone-like approach preserves—the foldable charm.
The Verge’s David Imel tests iOS 27’s public beta and the revamped Siri AI, calling it a Snow Leopard–style update focused on fixing bugs and speeding up the OS while introducing an opt‑in Siri that can scan your screen and act across Apple apps. In hands‑on use, Siri can pull WWDC briefings from email and add them to your calendar, answer on‑screen questions without switching apps, and surface data from apps like Mail, Messages, and Reminders. However, outside‑Apple apps aren’t integrated yet, developers must add entities and intents for broad third‑party use, and some commands still misfire. Still, the preview hints at a future where Siri acts as an agent across your digital life rather than a collection of isolated tasks.
Jay Peters spends weeks with Valve’s Steam Machine and finds it surprisingly well-suited to TV gaming: a tiny, silent box that boots quickly and pairs nicely with the Steam Controller, offering a better-looking, smoother experience than consoles. But at $1,049, plus drawbacks like no GPU upgrade and SteamOS limitations, it’s hard to justify over building a faster PC or sticking with the Steam Deck, though he’d buy one today if he could get the waitlist spot.
Dominic Preston reports on The Verge’s hands-on with Trump Mobile’s T1 Phone: a gold, tacky device that arrives with a charger and Truth Social preinstalled; setup is smooth and the fingerprint sensor works, but in the UK it won’t yet connect to LTE/5G, and there’s a tiny pre-existing scratch and a cheap-feeling build, suggesting it’s more novelty than a serious handset—full review coming next week.
The Verge’s hands-on review of Google’s $99 Home Speaker finds surprisingly strong, room-filling audio and reliable wake words, but its minimalist design makes the touch controls and status feedback less intuitive. Built to showcase Gemini, the device can cast, group, and pair with a Google TV, and it supports multi-room audio, yet the experience hinges on Gemini’s broader capabilities and may not replace existing speakers yet.
At Summer Game Fest 2026, the author went hands-on with Ace Combat 8: Wings Of Theve and came away impressed by the aircraft visuals and flight feel, even as the demo posed a challenging, timing-heavy mission sequence; a rocky start gave way to steady progress, and the overall takeaway is that Ace Combat 8 looks set to deliver a strong, long-awaited entry with sharp squad banter and satisfying aerial combat when it launches in October.
A hands-on with Star Fox on Switch 2 shows Nintendo’s new GameChat uses VTuber-style face tracking for immersive pilots; camera quality is mixed, but multiplayer shines and could influence future Star Fox entries if the concept catches on.
Gizmodo’s Ray Wong tested a prototype pair of Google’s screen-equipped smart glasses at I/O, demoing Gemini Intelligence features like real-time translation, weather widgets, music from posters, and a Nano Banana-generated moon selfie. While the on-device tools show potential, the minuscule display underscores limited utility and a sparse third-party app ecosystem. The piece suggests Google may be downplaying the glasses to avoid direct comparisons with Google Glass, implying the device might function more like a smartwatch than a phone replacement, with privacy concerns and a cloudy path to broad adoption.
Google and Xreal's Project Aura are compact XR smart glasses that run Android XR with a neck-worn compute puck, delivering a wide 70-degree spatial field and support for multiple floating app windows; hand tracking works for pinching and dragging but eye tracking is missing, and a few glitches remain. Demos included a Gemini-powered object look-up and a Demeo gaming scenario, plus an external monitor mode via USB-C; while the hardware looks polished for glasses, the experience isn't as immersive as a headset and pricing/release details are still TBA, with a global launch planned later this year.
Hands-on with design dummy units shows a ~25% smaller Dynamic Island (about 14.98 mm) and a thicker camera bump with larger lenses, fueling rumors of a variable aperture for the main 48 MP sensor; the body is slightly taller and wider to accommodate a bigger battery, with existing cases possibly still fitting.