The Federal Communications Commission isn’t the only one cracking down on illegal robocalls, as nearly every US state has sued a telecom company accused of allowing over 21 billion robocalls to US telephone numbers, including 7.5 billion that are on the national Do Not Call registry.
The lawsuit was brought by attorneys general of every US state except Alaska and South Dakota along with Washington, D.C. against Avid Telecom for allowing robocalls that misled and scammed recipients of the calls, thus violating consumer protection laws, as Gizmodo reported earlier Thursday.
Avid Telecom is a voice provider that transfers calls to US phone number owners, and the Industry Traceback Group that notifies providers about illegal robocalls coming through their networks notified Avid at least 329 times that it was transmitting said calls. The telecom has “been on notice about this illegal call traffic for many years,” the states claim in the lawsuit.
Of the billions of robocalls, more than 8.4 million “appeared to be coming from government and law enforcement agencies, as well as private companies,” according to a press release from Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry, who is one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. Avid Telecom allegedly allowed robocalls scamming recipients on Social Security, Medicare, Amazon, credit card interest rate reduction, and of course, auto warranties.
The lawsuit is the result of the Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation Task Force of attorneys general from every US state and Washington, D.C., with help from the Federal Trade Commission and Social Security Administration.
The legal action follows the FCC ramping up action on illegal robocalls by making voice providers like Avid Telecom responsible for the scam calls carried through their networks. In addition to setting more restrictive rules, after repeated warnings the agency recently banned a provider from sending calls into the US.
Avid Telecom did not respond to a request for comment by time of publication.
It’s going to cost a bit more to stream Starz beginning late next month. A subscription to the streaming service will go from $9 per month to $10 starting June 26. It’ll be the first price increase for the standalone service since it launched in 2016.
The change will go into effect around the same time as Paramount Plus hikes subscription prices when it integrates Showtime into the service. Disney Plus is also expected to raise the price of its ad-free offering by the end of the year.
Starz’s ad-free subscription will now cost the same per month as Netflix’s Basic ad-free tier, but it’ll still cost less per month than ad-less Hulu, Max and Disney Plus. (Max replaced HBO Max earlier this week, and ad-free streaming is still $16 per month).
Starz offers series like Party Down, P-Valley, The Serpent Queen and Outlander, which is getting a new, two-part season 7 starting on June 16. In her review of Starz, CNET’s Kourtnee Jackson referred to the streamer as “an intriguing alternative to its better-known rivals,” noting that the Starz network promotes diversity and representation in its originals and that its cost is “a low price for a service with Starz’s selection and no commercials interrupting what you watch.”
Manchester United host struggling Chelsea at Old Trafford today in the English Premier League, knowing that a draw will seal qualification for next season’s UEFA Champions League.
Currently three points above fifth-placed Liverpool with a game in hand, United boss Erik ten Hag will be determined to finish off the job here this evening at home and avoid a nervy final game of the season against Fulham on Sunday. A win here would also see them leapfrog Newcastle into third.
With Mauricio Pochettino waiting in the wings to take over as boss at Stamford Bridge in the summer, Frank Lampard will be intent on pulling off a big result here, as he looks to go out on a high after a torrid tenure as interim Chelsea manager.
Below, we’ll outline the best live TV streaming services to use to watch the game live wherever you are in the world.
Erik ten Hag will be keen for his side to seal their place in next year’s Champions League, with Manchester United needing just one point to secure a spot in the EPL’s top four.
Jon Hobley/MI News/NurPhoto/Getty Images
Man United vs. Chelsea: When and where?
Man United host Chelsea at Old Trafford on Thursday, May 25. Kickoff is set for 8 p.m. BST local time in the UK (3 p.m. ET, 12 p.m. PT in the US, and at 5 a.m. AEST on Friday, May 26 in Australia).
How to watch the Man United vs. Chelsea game online from anywhere using a VPN
If you find yourself unable to view the game locally, you may need a different way to watch the game — that’s where using a VPN can come in handy. A VPN is also the best way to stop your ISP from throttling your speeds on game day by encrypting your traffic, and it’s also a great idea if you’re traveling and find yourself connected to a Wi-Fi network, and you want to add an extra layer of privacy for your devices and logins.
With a VPN, you’re able to virtually change your location on your phone, tablet or laptop to get access to the game. Most VPNs, like our Editors’ Choice, ExpressVPN, make it really easy to do this.
Using a VPN to watch or stream sports is legal in any country where VPNs are legal, including the US, UK and Canada, as long as you have a legitimate subscription to the service you’re streaming. You should be sure your VPN is set up correctly to prevent leaks: Even where VPNs are legal, the streaming service may terminate the account of anyone it deems to be circumventing correctly applied blackout restrictions.
Looking for other options? Be sure to check out some of the other great VPN deals taking place right now.
ExpressVPN is our current best VPN pick for people who want a reliable and safe VPN, and it works on a variety of devices. It’s normally $13 per month, and you can sign up for ExpressVPN and save 49% plus get three months of access for free — the equivalent of $6.67 per month — if you get an annual subscription.
Note that ExpressVPN offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Livestream the Man United vs. Chelsea game in the US
This EPL fixture is streaming on Peacock. You’ll need a Peacock Premium or Premium Plus account to catch the game live.
NBC’s streaming service Peacock offers access to plenty of Premier League soccer throughout the season. You’ll need to be signed up with a Peacock Premium or Premium Plus account to stream games live. For a limited time, you can sign up for Peacock Premium at a 60% discount, dropping the monthly cost as low as $2 (or even less with an annual account).
Livestream the Man United vs. Chelsea game in the UK
Premier League rights in the UK are split between Sky Sports, BT Sport and Amazon Prime Video. This game is exclusive to Sky Sports, showing on its Sky Sports Main Event, Premier League and Ultra channels. If you already have Sky Sports as part of your TV package, you can stream the game via its Sky Go app, but cord-cutters will want to get set up with a Now account, and a Now Sports membership, to stream the game.
Sky subsidiary Now (formerly Now TV) offers streaming access to Sky Sports channels with a Now Sports membership. You can get a day of access for 12, or sign up to a monthly plan from 25 per month right now.
Livestream the Man United vs. Chelsea game in Canada
If you want to stream this EPL clash live in Canada, you’ll need to subscribe to FuboTV Canada. The service has exclusive rights to this Premier League season.
FuboTV is the go-to destination for Canadians looking to watch the Premier League this season with exclusive streaming rights to every game. It costs CA$25 per month, though you can save some cash by paying quarterly or annually.
Livestream the Man United vs. Chelsea game in Australia
Football fans Down Under can watch this EPL fixture on streaming service Optus Sport, which is showing every single Premier League game live in Australia this season.
With exclusive rights to screen every EPL match live this season, as well as German Bundesliga and Spanish La Liga games, streaming service Optus Sport is a particularly big draw for Aussie soccer fans.
If you’re already an Optus network customer you can bag Optus Sport for a reduced price, with discounts bringing the price down to as low as AU$7 per month. If you’re not, a standalone monthly subscription to the service starts at AU$25.
Quick tips for streaming the Premier League using a VPN
With four variables at play — your ISP, browser, video streaming provider and VPN — your experience and success when streaming EPL matches may vary.
If you don’t see your desired location as a default option for ExpressVPN, try using the “search for city or country” option.
If you’re having trouble getting the game after you’ve turned on your VPN and set it to the correct viewing area, there are two things you can try for a quick fix. First, log into your streaming service subscription account and make sure the address registered for the account is an address in the correct viewing area. If not, you may need to change the physical address on file with your account. Second, some smart TVs — like Roku — don’t have VPN apps you can install directly on the device itself. Instead, you’ll have to install the VPN on your router or the mobile hotspot you’re using (like your phone) so that any device on its Wi-Fi network now appears in the correct viewing location.
All of the VPN providers we recommend have helpful instructions on their main site for quickly installing the VPN on your router. In some cases with smart TV services, after you install a cable network’s sports app, you’ll be asked to verify a numeric code or click a link sent to your email address on file for your smart TV. This is where having a VPN on your router will also help, since both devices will appear to be in the correct location.
And remember, browsers can often give away a location despite using a VPN, so be sure you’re using a privacy-first browser to log into your services. We normally recommend Brave.
TikTok is the latest tech company to begin work on an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot. The video-hosting company announced Thursday on Twitter that it’s begun a limited test of its AI-powered tool, called Tako, with select users in the Philippines.
“Tako is an AI-powered tool to help with search and discovery on TikTok,” the company tweeted. “No current plans for this beyond these early tests, but we’re excited to hear your feedback!”
2/ Tako is powered by a third-party chat assistant and is designed to help make it easier to discover entertaining and inspiring content on TikTok. No current plans for this beyond these early tests, but we’re excited to hear your feedback!
“We’re always exploring new technologies that add value to our community,” a TikTok spokesperson told CNET in an email. “We look forward to learning from our community as we continue to create a safe place that entertains, inspires creativity, and drives culture.”
According to the tech research firm Watchful.ai, Tako can recommend content to watch and users to follow based on what you’ve watched and questions you’ve asked it. A screenshot of Tako posted by the firm says the chatbot can answer questions and have a conversation with you, but Tako’s responses might not be true and shouldn’t be relied upon.
Other tech companies, like OpenAI, Google and Snapchat, have rolled out AI chatbots to people. Microsoft has also integrated AI into its Bing search engine.
TikTok is seemingly late to the game by those standards, but some major tech companies, like Apple, haven’t made any announcements concerning AI features or tools yet.
Editors’ note: CNET is using an AI engine to create some personal finance explainers that are edited and fact-checked by our editors. For more, see this post.
DirecTV is keeping NFL Sunday Ticket… at least for bars, restaurants and other “commercial venues.” The new multiyear deal, which begins with the 2023 football season, was announced Thursday by the satellite company and EverPass Media, the NFL’s new media platform for handling the distribution of “live sports and entertainment content” to businesses.
The new deal is for commercial use only and not for consumers who subscribe to DirecTV’s satellite TV service or its internet-based Stream TV offering. DirecTV says its commercial unit consists of over 300,000 locations and also includes casinos, hotel lounges and shops.
NFL Sunday Ticket was a long-time DirecTV-only product for both businesses and consumers, but the consumer version has now become exclusive to Google’s YouTube TV. The streaming TV service has already begun taking preorders for the football package, with discounted pricing running until June 6 that charges YouTube TV subscribers $249 for the full NFL season. The price jumps to $349 after that date. Non-YouTube TV users can get Sunday Ticket as well through YouTube Primetime Channels, but they will need to pay a higher rate.
Financial terms of the new deal were not disclosed. While it will include all out-of-market NFL games on Sundays, it was not immediately clear if this version of Sunday Ticket would include the NFL’s popular RedZone channel.
When DirecTV offered the full Sunday Ticket package, it produced its own version of RedZone separate from the option that was more broadly available to other TV providers.
For DirecTV, the move to keep Sunday Ticket follows its other deals with streaming services to continue to air sports for businesses, even as the games themselves increasingly become streaming-only for users. The satellite giant has previously struck deals with Amazon (for Thursday Night Football) and Apple (Friday Night Baseball and MLS Season Pass) to air their respective streaming-exclusive games on its traditional satellite network for its commercial customers.
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Apple’s upcoming iOS 17 software update for iPhones could come with a feature that lets you view more items on your locked phone screen, Bloomberg reported Wednesday. The smart display would reportedly show things such as calendar appointments, weather and notifications.
The display would appear horizontally and resemble a smart home display like those sold by Amazon and Google while your phone is locked and lying unused on your desk or nightstand, Bloomberg said, citing unidentified sources. It’ll have a “dark background with bright text,” the report says, so that you can easily read the information.
A similar horizontal smart display would reportedly come to iPads at a later date.
The PlayStation Vita is long gone, but Sony is making a return to gaming handhelds — in a sense. At Sony’s latest PlayStation gaming showcase on Wednesday, the company teased a surprise new device that should be coming later this year. Called “Project Q,” it looks very much like a giant display fused with a DualSense controller.
The handheld, which should play all PlayStation games over Wi-Fi, has an 8-inch HD LCD screen and a controller that Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan promised will have all the features of the DualSense that’s standard on the PlayStation 5.
Watch this: Sony PlayStation Unveils Project Q Gaming Handheld
01:10
The price of this screen-equipped Wi-Fi streaming handheld is unknown, and it’s unclear how Sony will position this device. Is it, as a colleague noted, something like a Wii U tablet for the PS5? Is it a home-based local Wi-Fi companion for the console? Can it be used on the go? And can it essentially also double as an everyday DualSense controller with second-screen benefits, like Nintendo’s Wii U once did?
According to a source that leaked the news of this handheld originally, the release date could be late November this year.
Streaming handhelds are a definite trend now, with Android devices like Logitech’s G Cloud and the Razer Edge. It’s unclear how or if Sony’s new handheld will work offline at all, but it’s clearly being pitched as a second screen and a mobile play option for the PS5. Meanwhile, the Backbone One game controller, which has a PlayStation partnership and works with phones to play PS5 games wirelessly via streaming, just announced an Android-compatible model.
A glimpse of the handheld next to the PS5 for comparison.
Sony Interactive Entertainment
Sony’s had a lot of pricey PlayStation 5 accessories debut this year. The PlayStation VR 2, a $550 VR headset that’s tethered to the PS5 with a cable, almost seems like an opposite proposition to what Project Q offers. Sony also has the expensive DualSense Edge, a $200 customizable pro controller.
Sony’s second-screen PS5 game handheld does look exciting, though the price isn’t known. A screen that large could make games look great and a full-featured controller would make everything feel as responsive, possibly, as playing on the PS5 itself. Maybe, just maybe, Sony might consider a new Vita someday, too?
You can jumpstart a fresh wellness regimen without spending big bucks. How? Turn on your TV to stream a free online fitness class that allows to work out from the comfort of your own home.
Do you have a preference? You can exercise with equipment, skip weight-lifting routines, bend into some yoga or train for a mini marathon — all without driving anywhere. Here are a few of the best places to start ramping up your wellness goals — without touching your bank account.
YouTube is the most obvious stop for fitness content. You’ll find a variety of styles, trainers and niche fare; whether you’re looking for weightlifting instruction, dance, yoga, full body workouts or cycling, there’s something for everyone on YouTube. To help you navigate the scene, we suggest a few channels to check out here.
Visit channels like The Yoga Room or Yoga with Adriene for beginner yoga techniques, Grow with Jo for walking routines, Fitness Blender for multiple intensity levels, and Chloe Ting, Simeon Panda and others for a variety of workouts. Stream YouTube on your smart TV or cast it to your TV screen from your phone.
Launched in 2019, FitOn offers hundreds of free on-demand and live streaming workouts that include strength training, HIIT, cardio, yoga, walking, dance, prenatal and circuits. Home to an array of high- and low-impact sequences, the app has routines that are tailored for individuals or entire families. You have the option to choose your intensity level, session length or target body area.
Follow along with professional trainers or celebrity instructors like Gabrielle Union,Jonathan Van Ness or Jeanette Jenkins to experience HIIT workouts, yoga and body sculpting drills. And each day, FitOn offers live group classes that you can attend without anyone seeing you. New classes are added to the app each month. You can cast workouts to your TV or stream them on Fire TV, Google TV, Roku and Apple TV.
DoYogaWithMe has a TV app with 10 free yoga classes, suitable for any level. You can stream the app on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and Android TV.
If you want more, you can visit the website and get a basic membership that grants access to more than 500 free classes for yoga, meditation and breathwork. You can choose from different yoga styles such as vinyasa, hatha, chair yoga or prenatal yoga.
Prime Video members have access to Amazon’s free library of exercise videos covering Pilates, yoga, strength training, weight-lifting and other practices. The platform’s Exercise & Fitness section houses fitness content for all ages. Among the highlights: You can stream workouts from Maggie Binkley or do a 10-day yoga challenge with Chelsey Jones.
Fawesome is known for being a streaming service that offers movies and TV shows, but the app also has dedicated fitness content on its Healthy Living channel. You can stream videos for barre, cardio, yogalates, kettlebell, full-body sequences and more. And most of the workouts are short and sweet. Stream the Fawesome app on Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV or your smart TV.
Looking for more? Netflix makes it easy to exercise with its new Nike Training Club lineup, or practice mindfulness with its Headspace content. Samsung’s new smart TVs have a wellness hub, and Tubi users can tap into more than 100 free fitness videos (including Jane Fonda classics). You can also hit the ground running with these paid subscription services for your workouts.
Nothing distinguishes it apart from it competitors
The Motorola Edge Plus is the latest premium smartphone aimed at the US, and an all-around upgrade on last year’s Edge Plus. With its big battery and competitive price, Android fans have another top-tier contender to consider when phone shopping.
Motorola has refined its premium phones over the years, adding some features and taking others away in an effort to find the right combination that will appeal to top-tier phone buyers. The newest Edge Plus is the best combination so far. But it’s also not exactly the same phone sold around the world, since Motorola releases slightly different versions in different regions. For instance, the Edge Plus available in the US is virtually identical to the Edge 40 Pro in Europe and elsewhere, but has a larger battery and more modest recharging speed.
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In previous years, it’s been tough to recommend the Edge Plus series over similarly priced (or even cheaper) Samsung rivals. But with its $800 price tag, which is $200 cheaper than its predecessor, the new Edge Plus is a decent alternative to the $800 Samsung Galaxy S23, and lands right in-between the $600 Google Pixel 7 and $900 Pixel 7 Pro.
That doesn’t mean that the Edge Plus is the absolute best value. It’s pricier than the $700 OnePlus 11, though its base model packs more onboard storage. And like other higher-end Android handsets, the Edge Plus faces stiff competition from the $500 Pixel 7A, which has most of its pricier Pixel sibling’s features.
The Motorola Edge Plus looks and feels premium with a sharp display featuring waterfall-style curved edges. That screen along with nearly top-of-the-line specs, like a big battery and truly fast charging speeds, make the Edge Plus a suitable option for anyone who doesn’t need the Galaxy S23’s zoom photo capabilities or the Pixel 7’s AI-powered photo editing. But aside from its tremendous battery life, there isn’t much else that distinguishes the Edge Plus from other premium phones.
The Edge Plus’ display curves over the side of the phone.
David Lumb/CNET
Good battery life, great recharge speeds
The new Motorola Edge Plus has a 5,100-mAh battery, which is 300 mAh more than its predecessor. In practice, the phone easily survived media-heavy everyday activities. When I put the Edge Plus through CNET’s intensive-use media test — which includes streaming movies, playing games, scrolling social media, and joining video calls for a total of 45 minutes — the battery dropped 8%.
That’s comparable to the battery drain on the Galaxy S23 and Pixel 7A in the same test, and a little worse than the Galaxy S23 Plus and Galaxy S23 Ultra. Based on my early testing, the Edge Plus simply lasts longer than many other phones, especially when watching videos and playing games. The battery made it through a full day of use and then some, though it likely won’t be able to last two full days without a recharge.
The Edge Plus’s fast charging outperforms some of its peers. It may not have the ridiculously fast 125-watt charging of the European Edge 40 Pro, but the 68-watt charger included in the box is more than enough. When my test unit was down to 3% battery, a 30-minute recharge juiced it back up to 80%. Compare that to the 25-watt max charging on the standard Galaxy S23 or 45-watt charging on the S23 Plus and Ultra, and the Edge Plus has, well, the edge.
The Edge Plus’ charging doesn’t beat some phones with high-wattage chargers, like the OnePlus 11 with a 100-watt charger that juiced up a phone from zero to fully charged in 26 minutes. In addition to 68-watt wired charging, the Edge Plus has 15-watt wireless charging and can charge other devices at 5 watts.
The Edge Plus has a matte-finish metal back.
David Lumb/CNET
The best-looking Motorola phone yet (come at me, Razr fans)
Motorola’s premium phones have been on a journey since the brand released the Edge Plus debuted in 2020. The original had an attractive device, and its display edges curved down to abruptly meet the phone’s rear metal plate with such a severe edge that I still remember it biting into my hand as I gripped its sides. The next Edge Plus in 2022 did away with the waterfall-style edges in favor of a standard flat screen, which was less painful but also less stylish.
The latest Edge Plus is a return to form with carefully curved display edges that smoothly meet the polished metal frame. The back is a matte metal with a slight texture, like fine-grain sandpaper, that gives it a refined look and contrasts against the glossy Motorola logo. The smoky glass-covered square camera block is a serious upgrade over the somewhat cheap-looking camera oval on last year’s model. Overall, it’s a phone that would look professional being held up to your ear, if we ever raised our phones like that anymore.
The Edge Plus’s 6.7-inch, 2,400×1,080-pixel OLED display has sharp and clear visuals and supports HDR10 Plus. It has a 165Hz refresh rate, which is technically faster than the last Edge Plus’s 144Hz refresh rate screen. While I could barely tell the difference between the phone’s maximum 165Hz refresh rate and the 120Hz step down setting, the higher refresh rate did look slightly smoother when scrolling through the operating system animations or browsing the web. It also has an under-display fingerprint sensor for security, as well as facial recognition to unlock your phone with your mug.
The display has a hole-punch cutout for the selfie camera.
David Lumb/CNET
Specs keep up with the competition
The Edge Plus packs a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, the top-tier premium silicon from Qualcomm, 8GB of LPDDR5 RAM and either 256GB or 512GB of storage, though it lacks the option for expandable storage via microSD card. This is a bit of a step down from last year’s model, which came in both 8GB and 12GB of RAM configurations, but I didn’t feel the new Edge Plus was let down without the additional memory.
Overall the Edge Plus performs well. I didn’t experience any slowdown or delays transitioning between apps or doing light tasks. The phone kept up with more process-intensive tasks like gaming and fiddling with video, like switching between horizontal and vertical video orientations.
For raw stats, the Edge Plus kept up with its rivals scoring similar benchmark test results to its premium handsets peers. Take a look at Geekbench 5 results below.
The Edge Plus runs Android 13 with a mostly stock version of the operating system and will get three years of Android updates and four years of twice-monthly security updates, which is encouraging for folks who want to keep their phones for longer. Though with Android 14 expected to launch in October, Motorola’s phone won’t be on a par with other leading Android phones for that long. Samsung still leads the pack with a guaranteed five years of major Android updates and security updates.
The Edge Plus also retains Motorola’s small suite of beloved gesture control shortcuts like the chop-chop to turn on the flashlight and the double-twist to open the camera app.
The Edge Plus has triple rear cameras.
David Lumb/CNET
Cameras are good, but not the best
The Edge Plus has a triple rear camera consisting of a 50-megapixel, f1.8 main shooter, a 50-megapixel ultrawide and a 12-megapixel, 2x optical zoom camera that extends to 16x digital zoom. Given last year’s Edge Plus lacked a telephoto lens, this alone makes the new model superior to its predecessor.
Edge Plus main camera
David Lumb/CNET
Photos taken with Motorola phones have never reached parity with those shot and processed on premium Apple and Samsung phones, and while that’s still the case, Motorola is catching up. In side-by-side comparisons of the same photos taken on an iPhone 12 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra, the Edge Plus’s photos have slightly more saturated colors but lack detail in shadows.
Edge Plus main camera (portrait)
David Lumb/CNET
This leads colors to streak into uniform hues rather than dappled with subtle differences from angled light, moisture or some other factor. It’s not too noticeable unless you look closely.
Edge Plus main camera
David Lumb/CNET
Edge Plus main camera
David Lumb/CNET
Edge Plus telephoto camera (2x zoom)
David Lumb/CNET
Edge Plus telephoto camera (16x digital zoom)
David Lumb/CNET
The Edge Plus’ 2x telephoto works well and compares favorably with an iPhone, though the premium Galaxy phones still take far clearer photos out to a distance. The ultrawide camera has a narrower field of view, capturing less area than either Galaxy or iPhone.
Edge Plus main camera (portrait)
David Lumb/CNET
The Edge Plus’s cameras take capable portrait photos, and while the saturation is a bit much for normal photos, it actually pops nicely against the added depth. At night, photos capture a good amount of light, preserving detail of subjects if losing out on some shadow and texture.
Photos from the 60-megapixel, f/2.2 front-facing shooter have an impressive amount of detail and color, though come out a bit more vibrant than they should. The phone can record 4K video in 60fps with the main and ultrawide cameras.
The Edge Plus’ camera app.
David Lumb/CNET
Should you buy a Motorola Edge Plus?
Motorola made the right tweaks with the Edge Plus, with a snazzier design and slight upgrades everywhere else to make it better than its predecessor. While its cameras and software still don’t produce photos that truly top those coming out of Samsung or Apple phones, they get close, producing good shots in dark and light settings.
But it’s the Edge Plus’s $800 price that makes it a true competitor to the Galaxy S23 and other premium phones. So long as you don’t need extensive zoom photo capabilities or Google’s line of photo software tricks. The new Edge Plus’s large battery and fast charging should make it a consideration among top-end Android devices.
How we test phones
Every phone tested by CNET’s reviews team was actually used in the real world. We test a phone’s features, play games and take photos. We examine the display to see if it’s bright, sharp and vibrant. We analyze the design and build to see how it is to hold and whether it has an IP-rating for water resistance. We push the processor’s performance to the extremes using both standardized benchmark tools like GeekBench and 3DMark, along with our own anecdotal observations navigating the interface, recording high-resolution videos and playing graphically intense games at high refresh rates.
All the cameras are tested in a variety of conditions from bright sunlight to dark indoor scenes. We try out special features like night mode and portrait mode and compare our findings against similarly priced competing phones. We also check out the battery life by using it daily as well as running a series of battery drain tests.
We take into account additional features like support for 5G, satellite connectivity, fingerprint and face sensors, stylus support, fast charging speeds, foldable displays among others that can be useful. And we balance all of this against the price to give you the verdict on whether that phone, whatever price it is, actually represents good value.
