These are the best AMD Ryzen laptops in Summer 2021: Surface Laptop 4, ROG Zephyrus G15 and more

AMD has become quite competitive when it comes to CPUs in the past few years. Not only does it have a solid lineup for desktops, but the company’s mobile processors have proven to be better than Intel on numerous occasions. In fact, the start of 2021 saw a number of laptop manufacturers preferring AMD’s newly launched Ryzen 5000 series mobile processors over Intel. AMD is already ahead of Intel as it has been using the 7nm architecture for a while now, while Intel is expected to finally move to 7nm by the end of 2021. This doesn’t necessarily mean that Intel-based laptops are incompetent. Intel is shipping its new 11th-gen Tiger Lake mobile processors based on the 10nm process. Not only is the new series expected to provide improved performance, but it should also be efficient in terms of battery life and brings the company’s new Xe graphics.

If you are planning to buy a new laptop with an AMD processor at its heart, we have the right ones for you:

• Best 2-in-1 laptop: ASUS ROG Flow X13
• Best budget laptop: Acer Swift 3
• Best gaming laptop: ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15
• Best business laptop: Lenovo ThinkPad X13
• Best premium laptop: Microsoft Surface Laptop 4
• Best overall laptop: ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14

Best 2-in-1 laptop: ASUS ROG Flow X13

ASUS came up with its first 13-inch gaming notebook earlier this year and it’s unlike any notebook you’ve seen in the past. The ROG Flow X13 is a 2-in-1 convertible notebook that comes with the octa-core AMD Ryzen 9 5900HS and a limited ‘Supernova Edition’ that comes with the Ryzen 9 7980HS. These are mighty powerful chips, especially for such a thin and light notebook. In our testing, we found that the Ryzen 9 5900HS propels the ROG Flow X13 to be the most powerful 13-inch laptop on the market, and with the onboard NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 GPU, you can do some light gaming as well. Additionally, the laptop comes with a proprietary connector that can be used to attach an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 GPU using the ROG XG Mobile.

ASUS ROG Flow X13

The ASUS ROG Flow X13 is currently the most powerful 13-inch notebook on the market today powered by the latest AMD Ryzen 9 5900HS and 5980HS.

Buy from ASUS

Best budget laptop: Acer Swift 3

Available for under $700, the Acer Swift 3 is one of the most affordable options. Currently available with either the Ryzen 5 4500U or the Ryzen 7 4700U, the Swift 3 is meant for users looking for a light and sleek machine. The notebook offers AMD Radeon graphics and 8GB of DDR4 RAM, 512GB SSD, and a built-in fingerprint scanner for added security. There’s also support for the Alexa voice assistant allowing you to set reminders, timers, and alarms, create shopping and to-do lists, and so on. The company claims a battery life of 11.5 hours, but practically you should get at least 7-8 hours for your productivity tasks.

Acer Swift 3

Apart from being one of the most affordable AMD Ryzen powered laptops, the Swift 3 from Acer is also one of the lightest and slimmest ones around.

Buy from Amazon

Best gaming laptop: ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15

ASUS introduced an update to the ROG Zephyrus G15 this year aligning it more closely to the Zephyrus G14. It follows the same design philosophy, and while you don’t get the AniMe Matrix LEDs, the lid does come with a neat angular perforation design with a shiny metallic finish underneath. Currently, one of the first laptops to be introduced with new and powerful AMD Ryzen 5000-series mobile processors, the G15 should be your priority if you are looking for the best gaming notebook on the market. You can get the notebook with a Ryzen 9 5900HS which is an octa-core processor clocked at 3.3GHz and a boost of 4.6GHz. The notebook is officially said to support up to 32GB of DDR4 RAM and 1TB of SSD but you can get even more as listed by a seller on Amazon. It is recommended to confirm with ASUS before buying any of these options that are being offered with more memory and storage as listed by the company.

ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15

The new 2021 Zephyrus G15 brings an updated design similar to the G14 along with the latest AMD Ryzen 5000-series processor options.

Buy from Amazon

Best business laptop: Lenovo ThinkPad X13

Lenovo’s ThinkPad lineup is a leader when it comes to business laptops. The Ryzen-powered ThinkPad X13 is a solid contender and offers great performance thanks to the Ryzen 5 Pro 4650U processor. The notebook also comes with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. It isn’t the best-looking notebook but you get military-grade durability, a variety of ports, and an excellent keyboard. Battery life is rated to be around 8 hours in real-world usage, but overall this notebook should not disappoint.

Lenovo ThinkPad X13

We recommend the ThinkPad X13 by Lenovo if you are looking for a business notebook powered by AMD's powerful Ryzen processor. It offers an excellent keyboard, sturdy build quality and a good array of ports.

Buy from Amazon

Best premium laptop: Microsoft Surface Laptop 4

The combination of a Surface notebook and AMD’s Ryzen processor is unheard of, but that’s exactly what Microsoft did last year with the Surface Laptop 3. This year, Microsoft introduced an update with the Surface Laptop 4 which looks exactly the same as last year but is now available with the custom Ryzen 5 4680U and Ryzen 7 4980U processor options. Unlike last year, Microsoft is offering the new AMD chips on both the 13.5-inch and 15-inch models, thus giving an option to customers. Apart from that, you can get up to a whopping 32GB of LPDDR4x RAM, 1TB of SSD, and if you want more information, check our review of the Surface Laptop 4.

Microsoft Surface Laptop 4

The new Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 has been updated with the new custom AMD Ryzen Microsoft Surface Edition processor available on both 13.5-inch and 15-inch models.

Buy from Amazon

Best overall laptop: ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14

I repeatedly suggest the ROG Zephyrus G14 by ASUS for a reason. Apart from offering respectable performance, this notebook is also one of the best of the best ultraportable notebooks of all time. It might not offer you fancy RGB lighting, but the lid comes with white LEDs that act sort of like a retro secondary 8-bit display that you can fully customize. ASUS updated the G14 earlier this year and is now offered with the latest AMD Ryzen 5000-mobile processors with the latest NVIDIA GPU, the RTX 3060.

While overall the design is the same, you now get the option of an updated display that offers 1080p at 144Hz and 1440p resolution display with 120Hz refresh rate and even 144Hz in certain markets. The notebook is powered by the 8-core Ryzen 5900HS processor and is offered with up to 32GB of DDR4 3200MHz RAM, and 1TB M.2 NVMe PCIe Gen 3 SSD. As per a listing that we’ve seen, a seller is offering a third-party updated version of the notebook with up to 40GB of memory and 8TB of storage. It’s recommended to check with ASUS for compatibility before opting for anything above the officially listed specifications.

ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14

The ROG Zephyrus G14 offers an excellent blend of performance and a unique design language. This laptop is great for gaming as well as creative professionals who want a sleek looking machine.

Buy from Amazon

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As with the new ASUS ROG Zephyrus lineup, we’re expecting more laptop options from other manufacturers with the new AMD Ryzen 5000-series mobile processor to hit markets very soon. Also, check out our list of the best laptops to buy in 2021, or if you want to stick to something cheaper, check out the best Chromebooks around in 2021.

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Mysterious ASUS phone pops up with Qualcomm’s “Snapdragon” branding

ASUS recently added two new flagships to its arsenal with the launch of the ZenFone 8 and ZenFone 8 Flip. But it seems the company could be working on yet another powerhouse of a device.

A new ASUS phone has stopped by China’s TENAA certification site, which in turn has revealed key details about this upcoming smartphone, including some of its specifications, design, and model number. The model number ASUS_I007D matches the device code-named VODKA that we spotted inside the kernel source code of the ASUS ROG Phone 5 in March. Alongside VODKA, we had also discovered two new devices codenamed SAKE and PICASSO, which later launched as the ASUS ZenFone 8 and ZenFone 8 Flip, respectively. This leads us to believe that VODKA (ASUS_I007D) could be part of the ZenFone 8 series. But there’s a possibility this device could also turn out to be the rumored Qualcomm-ASUS gaming phone.

 

As you can see in the renders below, the phone has a prominent Snapdragon logo and branding right in the middle, which we don’t usually see on a smartphone. To recall, a report from DigiTimes last year reported that Qualcomm and ASUS had joined forces to develop a gaming-centric smartphone and that it would be powered by Snapdragon 875 SoC (do note that Snapdragon 875 later launched as Snapdragon 888). As per the report, this jointly developed gaming phone was supposed to debut by the end of 2020 and start shipping in 2021. We never heard anything about this gaming device after that report, but it’s possible what we’re looking at in this TENAA listing could be the jointly developed gaming phone from Qualcomm and ASUS. One possibility for the odd Snapdragon branding on the back is that ASUS might have used a prototype device for certification.

In any case, the TENAA listing reveals that this upcoming ASUS phone measures 172.92 x 77.33 x 9.55mm in size and weighs 217.7g. It features a 6.78-inch OLED display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chipset, a 3840mAh battery (1920mAh x 2), 16GB of RAM, 512GB flash storage, a triple rear camera setup comprising a 64MP and 12MP shooters, a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner, and runs Android 11.

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Thanks Wichaya Poka for the tip!

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Here are the best 4G laptops you can buy in June 2021: Lenovo, Dell, Microsoft, & more!

Traditional laptops are good at many things, but on-the-go connectivity isn’t one of them. Whether you are a mobile professional or a regular user, you need to connect to the internet to get things done. To do so, you can either use public WiFi or smartphone tethering. But both these options come with their own set of issues. Using public WiFi poses a major security risk, and smartphone tethering can prove to be a bit finicky. On top of that, tethering can take a toll on your phone’s battery life which could leave you completely disconnected after just a couple of hours. This is where 4G laptops come into play.

These always-connected laptops let you access the internet using a built-in modem. This means that you can stay connected to the internet when you’re out and about, without dealing with the aforementioned issues. But choosing the right 4G laptop can be a difficult process, as most manufacturers offer the built-in modem as an optional upgrade. To tackle this problem, we’ve created this list of the best 4G laptops that you can buy in 2021.

Navigate this guide to the best 4G laptops:

• Top pick: Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon Gen 9
  • Also great: Dell Latitude 5520
• Most affordable: Microsoft Surface Go 2
• Best battery life: Dell Latitude 7420
• Best 2-in-1: Microsoft Surface Pro X
• Best thin and light: Samsung Galaxy Book Flex 2 5G

Top Pick: Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon Gen 9

The Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon Gen 9 is our new top pick for the best 4G laptops you can buy right now. It’s an upgraded version of our previous recommendation — the Thinkpad X1 Carbon Gen 8 — that features the latest Intel processor, faster RAM, and better connectivity options. The laptop offers all the great features found on the previous model, including an excellent keyboard, a great 14-inch display, and various configuration options.

You can equip the laptop with an Intel 11th-Gen Core i5-1135G7, Core i5-1145G7, Core i7-1165G7, or Core i7-1185G7 chip, up to 32GB of LPDDR4x 4266MHz RAM, up to 1TB PCIe solid-state storage, and Intel Iris Xe graphics. The 14-inch display on the laptop can also be configured based on your requirements, with display options ranging from an FHD+ IPS anti-glare panel to a UHD+ IPS HDR certified panel.

Lenovo now also offers a couple of options for 4G connectivity, and you can choose either a Quectel EM120R-GL 4G LTE CAT12 modem or a Qualcomm Snapdragon X55 5G Modem-RF System. The Quectel modem will offer 4G connectivity with 600Mbps peak download and 150Mbps peak upload speeds, while the Snapdragon X55 modem offers 5G connectivity with up to 7Gbps download and 3Gbps upload speeds.

Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon Gen 9

The Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon is my top pick for the best 4G laptop that you can get right now. It offers a fantastic keyboard, durable construction, and a minimal design. It even comes with the option to upgrade to a 5G modem for faster connectivity.

Buy from Lenovo

Also great: Dell Latitude 5520

If you’re looking for a 4G laptop that packs the latest specs and you’re fine giving up on the thin-and-light aspect of the ThinkPad X1 Carbon, then the new Dell Latitude 5520 is another great option. It can be configured with 11th-Gen Intel Core i5 and i7 processors, up to 64GB of DDR4 non-ECC RAM, and up to 2TB of M.2 PCIe NVMe storage.

Much like the ThinkPad X1 Carbon, Dell offers plenty of customization options to let you decide exactly what you need on your laptop. Along with configurable RAM and storage options, the Dell Latitude 5520 can be configured with either a 15.6-inch FHD non-touch display or a 15.6-inch FHD touch display, both a backlit and non-backlit keyboard, either a 63Whr 4 cell or a 42Whr 3 cell battery, and more.

For 4G connectivity, the Dell Latitude 5520 features Intel’s XMM 7360 LTE-Advanced Pro modem, which offers peak download speeds of 450Mbps. The laptop works with Sprint, AT&T, and Verizon, and you can even get an unlocked model that will work with other carriers.

Dell Latitude 5520

The new Latitude 5520 is one of the latest 4G LTE laptops from Dell that packs 11th-Gen Intel processor and offers a ton a customization options.

Buy from Dell

Most affordable: Microsoft Surface Go 2

Although the Lenovo X1 Carbon Gen 9 is a great 4G laptop, it is admittedly a bit pricey. In case you aren’t comfortable spending well over $1,500 on a laptop, then you can consider the Microsoft Surface Go 2. Although the device isn’t as powerful as the previous option, it’s certainly capable enough for Microsoft Office or browser-based workloads.

The convertible is powered by Intel’s Core M3-8100Y chip, coupled with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of onboard storage. It features a 10.5-inch FHD display, with a built-in webcam. But sadly, it doesn’t come with a Surface Go Type Cover in the box and you’ll have to purchase one for an additional $99.99. Despite the additional cost though, the Surface Go 2 is still the cheapest 4G “laptop” you can get in the market right now.

For 4G connectivity, the Surface Go 2 makes use of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X16 modem, which is capable of 1Gbps peak download speeds and 150Mbps peak upload speeds. The Surface Go 2 supports both physical SIM cards and eSIMs.

Microsoft Surface Go 2

If you want a 4G laptop that doesn't break the bank, then the Microsoft Surface Go 2 is a great pick. Although it's not as powerful as some of the other devices on this list, it's capable enough to get most of your basic work done while you're on the go.

Buy from Amazon

Best battery life: Dell Latitude 7420

In case you’re often in situations where you don’t have a charging point close to you for hours on end, then the Dell Latitude 7420 will be the best pick for you. The laptop can be configured with up to a 63Whr battery that not only lasts quite long but also features fast charging support to help you quickly charge your laptop back to full whenever you do find a charging port.

Much like the Latitude 5520, the Latitude 7420 can be configured with Intel’s 11th Gen Core i5 and Core i7 processors, coupled with 16GB of DDR4 RAM, and up to 1TB of PCIe NVMe storage. The Latitude 7420 is also a great option for those of you who plug in a lot of accessories on your laptop, as it offers a great selection of I/O ports. Its only downside is its 14-inch FHD display, which isn’t as bright as some of the other devices on this list. However, that plays a big role in the laptop’s great battery performance, so it’s kind of a necessary evil.

For connectivity, the Dell Latitude 7420 makes use of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X20 LTE modem, which supports Verizon, Sprint, and AT&T. The modem is capable of peak download speeds of 1.2Gbps and peak upload speeds of 150Mbps. The modem is an optional purchase that will run you up an additional $140.

Dell Latitude 7420

If you often find yourself in situations where you don't have access to a wall outlet for hours on end, the Dell Latitude 7420 is the best 4G laptop for you. It offers the best battery life out of all the Intel-based laptops on this list, but it's a bit pricey compared to the other options.

Buy from Dell

Best 2-in-1: Microsoft Surface Pro X

The Microsoft Surface Pro X is unlike any of the aforementioned laptops on this list, as it isn’t an Intel-based system. Instead, the device makes use of Microsoft’s SQ2 chip, which is based on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 platform. The processor is paired with 16GB of RAM and up to 512GB of storage for snappy performance.

The 2-in-1 device features a 13-inch PixelSense touchscreen FHD display with a peak brightness of 450 nits. It features an integrated webcam and a decent selection of ports to connect your peripherals, external storage drives, or even a display. But much like the Surface Go 2, it doesn’t come with the Surface Pro X keyboard in the box. For that, you’ll have to shell out an additional $139.99.

For 4G connectivity, the Surface Pro X features Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X24 modem. The modem supports peak download speeds of 2Gbps and peak upload speeds of 316Mbps. The device supports both physical SIM cards and eSIMs. The only downside of the Surface Pro X is its software. The device runs Windows 10 on ARM, which still doesn’t support all the apps you might use on your regular Windows 10 PC. But it should be good enough for most basic tasks.

Microsoft Surface Pro X

The ARM-based Microsoft Surface Pro X is another great 4G capable 2-in-1 device, which offers better performance and battery life than the Surface Go 2. But it may not be the best pick for power users as you might face some compatibility issues with certain Windows 10 apps.

Buy from Amazon

Best thin and light: Samsung Galaxy Book Flex2 5G

The new Galaxy Book Flex2 5G is the best thin-and-light 5G/LTE capable you can get right now. The convertible notebook packs Intel’s 11th Gen Core i5-1135G7 processor with Intel Xe graphics, a 13.3-inch FHD QLED display with touch/S Pen support, 8GB of LPDDR4x RAM, and 256GB NVMe SSD storage.

The 5G-ready notebook comes with a built-in S Pen slot, an understated design, a unique 13MP camera on the keyboard deck, a 720p webcam, and a long-lasting battery. It even features a fingerprint sensor for Windows Hello biometric authentication, stereo speakers tuned by AKG, and a decent I/O selection for a laptop this size.

While Samsung doesn’t specify the modem on its product page, the company claims that the Galaxy Book Flex2 5G supports Sub-6GHz 5G, download and upload speeds should be comparable to other LTE laptops on this list. Samsung will soon offer a cheaper LTE variant of the Galaxy Book Pro in the US, so you may want to wait for it if you’re not willing to spend as much on a 5G-capable laptop.

Samsung Galaxy Book Flex 2 5G

The Samsung Galaxy Book Flex2 5G is the latest 5G-capable 2-in-1 notebook from the South Korean manufacturer that offers premium performance in a compact form factor.

Buy from Samsung.co.uk

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That wraps up our list of the best 4G laptops that you can buy right now. As I’ve mentioned already, the Lenovo X1 Carbon Gen 9 is my top pick because my work involves a lot of typing and it features the best keyboard out of the lot. And it’s not just the keyboard that makes the X1 Carbon a great pick, which is why it has also secured a spot on our list of the best laptops you can buy in 2021. But if I had to pick a different option, I’d probably go with the Microsoft Surface Pro X simply because it’s the future of always-connected Windows laptops.

While we’re on the topic of the future, you can also consider getting a 5G-capable laptop, like the Dell Latitude 9510 or the Lenovo Flex 5G, and future proof your purchase. Alternatively, if you already have a perfectly good laptop lying around and you don’t wish to spend thousands just to get LTE connectivity, you can get this portable LTE hotspot instead. While it isn’t the most convenient solution, it gets you 4G connectivity on your laptop for cheap. Also, make sure you check out our list of the best Chromebooks you can buy in 2021 as it includes a couple of 4G-capable Chromebooks that may be more suited to your needs.

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Google Photos prepares for Material You with larger text in the image library and other changes

At Google I/O last month, Google unveiled the third major iteration of its design language. Material You brings an updated look and feel to Android and other Google-developed platforms. The new design emphasizes customization, rounded corners, and big header text. We caught an early glimpse in the Android 12 beta at how Google is tweaking Android’s design to be more one-handed friendly, and now we’re seeing evidence that the same design principles are being extended to the Google Photos app in subtle ways.

An APK teardown can often predict features that may arrive in a future update of an application, but it is possible that any of the features we mention here may not make it in a future release. This is because these features are currently unimplemented in the live build and may be pulled at any time by the developers in a future build.

Tipster @damned_im reached out to us stating that they spotted a new design in version 5.43 of the Google Photos app. In the screenshots they sent us, we could see that Google made the header text for the date much larger. The images reminded us of the new Settings app in Android 12, but interestingly, our tipster was running Android 10 on a first-generation Pixel. It shouldn’t be too surprising to see a Material You-redesigned app on an older Android version, though, since it’s just a new design language and not actually part of the latest OS version. The only aspect of Material You that’s limited to Android 12 is the updated color extraction algorithm used for theming the system and apps based on your wallpaper, but even then, less robust color extraction APIs exist in older OS versions. (Of note, the actual theme generation algorithm is proprietary to Google.)

In any case, with a bit of effort, we were able to enable the Google Photos redesign that our tipster showed off. Apart from making header text much larger, there are also a couple of functional changes. For example, when you zoom in and scroll through the image library, the date the current set of images was taken on is persistently shown on the top left (second image below). Over the past few weeks, Google Photos has added a bunch of new memories featured at the top, but the app is also preparing to show these memories in-line with the image library (third and fifth images below). If you created an album of images on a certain date, that album may also be shown in-line when you scroll through the image library (fourth image below). Finally, the Photos app is also testing an overflow menu that, when tapped, shows a “select” button. If all images on a given date were taken at a recognized location, then the overflow menu may also show a “view on map” button that quickly takes you to the app’s map view.

New design

Old design

Google Photos is the first major Google app that we’ve spotted a Material You-esque redesign for. There are hints that Google Chrome is getting a big redesign, but the changes we’ve seen so far have been subtle. We’ll keep an eye out for more tweaks in the Photos app, since we’re still not seeing one of the most anticipated changes: support for “monet.”

Google Photos (Free, Google Play) →

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Thanks to PNF Software for providing us a license to use JEB Decompiler, a professional-grade reverse engineering tool for Android applications.

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Google Play Services prepares to let you stream apps to your Chromebook

Earlier today, Google Play Services version 21.21.12 started rolling out to users. The last beta release was version 21.18.14, so we’re expecting there to be a bunch of changes under-the-hood. While we haven’t spotted many interested changes from a cursory glance, we did find further evidence that Google will soon let users stream apps from their phone to a connected Chromebook.

An APK teardown can often predict features that may arrive in a future update of an application, but it is possible that any of the features we mention here may not make it in a future release. This is because these features are currently unimplemented in the live build and may be pulled at any time by the developers in a future build.

The following strings explicitly say that you’ll be able to streams apps to your Chromebook, however they don’t provide any details on how the feature works:

<string name="apps_stream_enabled_description">Stream apps to your Chromebook</string>
<string name="apps_stream_enabled_title">Apps</string>

The feature isn’t available yet on my Pixel 4 running the latest Google Play Services release. However, we’ve been expecting this feature to land thanks to Chromium code hints back in February. At that time, we learned that Google is preparing to extend Chrome OS’ new Phone Hub feature with app streaming. In the future, Chromebooks will add a System Web App (SWA) that syncs video and bidirectional data over WebRTC. It’s believed the feature will be exclusive to Pixel phones, though we haven’t found any information about device availability from a preliminary look at the latest Play Services release.

One feature that has been enabled in this release is a toggle to disable Cast device discovery. Toggling this will prevent nearby Cast devices from being discovered. Google Play Services can discover Cast devices that are connected to the network, but until now, you couldn’t turn this off.

We’ll continue digging into this release for more features.

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Google’s wireless Pixel Buds are now on sale for $80 off

Google released its first true wireless earbuds in 2019, the second-gen Pixel Buds (the first generation had a cord between the earbuds). They were successful enough that Google is working on a sequel, but in the meantime, the current Pixel Buds are back on sale. Now you can get them for $99.99 from Verizon’s website, a savings of $80 over the original price — almost half off.

The Pixel Buds are true wireless Bluetooth earbuds, with an in-ear design and support for Android Fast Pair. They don’t have active noise cancellation, but the Adaptive Sound feature adjusts volume automatically as you move from a quiet to a noisy environment. There are three eartip sizes in the box, and the IPX4 rating means the earbuds won’t break from light rain or sweat. You can also charge them wirelessly on any Qi charging pad.

Google Pixel Buds

These are true wireless earbuds with Android Fast Pair support, automatic volume adjustment, easy access to Google Assistant, and more.

Buy at Verizon

Google has updated the Pixel Buds several times since release. They started working with Google’s ‘Find My Device’ feature in August 2020 (alongside all other Fast Pair-compatible audio devices). Later that month, attention alerts, bass boost, and transcribe mode arrived in another software update.

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Apple TV is now available on Android TV

The fact that Apple even has a video streaming service, Apple TV, is often forgotten by users outside of Apple’s own ecosystem. There, it’s displayed prominently, and it’s available on most Apple devices. But the Cupertino-based giant has also started slowly rolling out the service on competing platforms as well. If you actually like the content that’s available there, Apple TV is one of the best-priced alternatives in the video streaming space: a flat $4.99/mo fee gives you full unrestricted access to all content in the platform, even undercutting alternatives that were considered cheap on their own like Disney+. Now, you can now enjoy the service in your Android TV-powered streaming stick/box or TV.

This was originally announced by NVIDIA together with other announcements of their own, including the long-awaited debut of the RTX 3080 Ti and RTX 3070 Ti graphics cards, but the announcement then was that the service would be becoming available on the NVIDIA SHIELD TV. As it turns out, though, 9to5Google reports that it’s not actually exclusive to NVIDIA devices: the Apple TV app is fully available to all Android TV devices.

Despite Apple fiercely competing with Google in the mobile operating system space, with iOS and Android putting up the fight for dominance, Apple actually does make some of their in-house services available in competitor platforms, most notably, Apple Music, which is not just available on Android but it actually works decently. The availability of Apple TV on Android TV means that users who own an Android TV-powered set-top box, Chromecast, or TV, will be able to enjoy Apple TV to its full potential, including their exclusive shows.

As we said before, Apple TV is available for $4.99 a month, but if you’re part of the Apple ecosystem, then it becomes way more compelling: Apple gives users 1 free year of Apple TV when buying a new iPhone or Apple device, while you can also get it as part of Apple One, Apple’s all-in-one subscription service that also includes Apple Music and Apple Arcade as well as expanded iCloud storage.

Check it out now!

Apple TV (Free, Google Play) →

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