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  • Not Just the iPhone: Google Needs to Push RCS Texting Even Further

    Not Just the iPhone: Google Needs to Push RCS Texting Even Further

    RCS texting is on its way to the iPhone. But Apple’s phones are not the only ones that still lack access to the more modern texting standard.

    Google, which has invested considerably in building up RCS while touting promises of how it could bring typing indicators and higher-quality group chats, spent years pushing for Apple to adopt the messaging standard. It even built features into Google Messages like support for message reactions, in an attempt to make texting iPhone users a little less awful. Finally, by late 2023, Apple announced RCS support would be coming to iOS in 2024, bringing hope that improved texting between Android and iOS, complete with typing indicators and high-quality media, could actually happen.

    But if RCS is truly meant to replace the antiquated SMS and MMS texting that most phones have been stuck with for decades, it needs to arrive on all phones. Not just Android phones, and not just Apple’s iPhone.

    That includes basic phones, like flip phones and other minimalistic feature phones one might turn to for a “digital detox.” That also means apps and services that rely on SMS to text a phone number, some of which Google itself makes, will need to adopt RCS.

    There’s also a world of alternative Android texting apps that haven’t yet been given access to RCS texting.

    It amounts to a lot of devices, services and apps that are still using SMS. But RCS truly needs to be available across all mobile phones and texting apps, not just the iPhone, before we leave old standards like SMS and MMS behind for good.

    Nokia 2780 Flip phone

    Basic flip phones could still use better texting

    Basic phones are having their own kind of moment right now, resulting in retro flip phones and candybar-style phones that have more features than ever. HMD in particular has spent the last few years continuing the Nokia phone line by creating basic phones that run on KaiOS, while also developing branded phones with companies like the recently revealed Heineken Boring Phone and an upcoming Barbie flip phone. The company’s seen enough success with these devices that the analytics firm International Data Corporation reported that HMD held the lion’s share of the feature phone market (30.7% by value and 22.4% by volume) in the third quarter of 2023.

    Some of these HMD-developed phones even support a limited number of web apps and services, like Google Maps and in some cases WhatsApp. For instance, my colleague Jessica Fierro recently spent a week with the Nokia 2780, during which she was able to use it to watch YouTube, get Google Maps directions and use the web browser for most other services. But when it came to texting, the Nokia 2780 was limited to just SMS and MMS.

    Even though basic phones rarely crack the bestselling phone lists that often feature smartphones made by Apple and Samsung, these devices clearly have an audience who could benefit from having access to a more modern texting standard. While basic phones themselves are likely to stay limited to T9 texting because of their numerical keypads, the improved group chat support and typing indicators that RCS brings could be a massive efficiency boost for someone just trying to tap out a short text.

    zoom-logo-laptop-9780

    Online services are still stuck on SMS

    Services that provide virtual phone numbers have been around for a long time, and they are a convenient way of using another phone number without having to purchase a new line from a carrier. They provide features like forwarding calls to any other phone number you would like, enhanced voicemail support and SMS texting. But that latter point is now part of the obstacle that is preventing RCS from supplanting SMS and MMS.

    I personally have been a long-time user of Google Voice, as it provides an unlimited voicemail box for my calls while also providing an alternate phone number to use for any reason I want. I also use Zoom Phone as my work phone number, which lets me take calls either from my laptop or from any phone I happen to be reviewing at the moment.

    Both services fit my needs well… except for messaging. It’s frustrating that these tools are still stuck using SMS and MMS. That’s especially the case with Google Voice, since Google has been leading the RCS push with its Google Messages app. I hope these and similar services can soon get access to RCS, and hopefully get a better texting experience that will make them easier to use.

    Beeper's graphic image featuring multiple texting app icons

    Android texting apps largely don’t have RCS either

    Even though Android has so far been the main phone operating system providing RCS texting, that does not necessarily extend to third-party texting apps. One of the perks of Android is the level of customization it provides. You can swap the launcher if you want better home screen controls, or set up a third-party app store if you need access to a service that’s not natively provided by the Google Play Store.

    For instance, before Google Messages added desktop support over a web browser, my Android texting app of choice was Pulse SMS. It provides broad access to one’s texting app, whether it’s on a phone or over native apps for Mac and Windows, along with web browser support. But Pulse SMS does not currently have RCS support, citing that Google has not yet provided a way for developers to integrate with it.

    Considering Android’s openness, it’s odd that RCS integration isn’t yet available to third-party developers. Google does, however, work with other phone manufacturers when integrating with RCS. For instance, the Samsung Messages app that’s still included as a texting option on Galaxy phones includes support for RCS.

    Beeper, for the time being, supports RCS in its third-party texting app, which relaunched on Android following its attempts to integrate with Apple’s iMessage network. But Beeper had to reverse-engineer its way into integrating with Google Messages in order to make that happen. For now, it appears that Google isn’t going after Beeper for this in the same way that Apple did when shutting off its iMessage integration.

    It’s clear that RCS still has a long way to go before it truly replaces SMS and MMS texting. We’ll get our first look at how interoperable RCS texting really is when Apple’s iPhone starts supporting the standard to share high-resolution photo and video as the company said last year, as well as more reliable group messaging, read receipts and location sharing. Other features like encryption will be dependent on Apple’s work with the GSMA to improve the RCS standard itself, since Apple noted in its RCS announcement last year that the company will not use another company’s encryption protocol — possibly referring to the one Google Messages uses.

    Perhaps since Apple is now working with the rest of the GSMA on the standard, RCS will improve and come to additional phones and services. It could be similar to what we’re now seeing with the Qi2 wireless charging standard, which includes some of the improvements that Apple developed with its MagSafe charging. Yet until we see RCS become truly available across all devices and services, SMS and MMS will remain a dominant, yet antiquated, messaging standard.

    A Nostalgic Look Back at the Hottest Tech the Year the First iPhone Appeared

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  • Shades of Style: My Journey to the Perfect iPhone 15 Pro Max Case

    Shades of Style: My Journey to the Perfect iPhone 15 Pro Max Case

    My iPhone 12 Pro served me well through photographing overnight train trips and journeys through Germany, but its cameras were getting a bit long in the tooth compared to the latest phones. The time was ripe to upgrade to an iPhone 15 Pro Max, so I went to my carrier store and picked one up. But there was a problem. Upon receiving a case that I ordered online, I realized I’d gotten an iPhone in the wrong color. Should be easy to switch it out, right?

    Right?

    On the whole, it took me over a month to swap my phone out for another one in a different color. I drove to multiple stores. I called helplines. I ended up having to ship my phone to a regional warehouse, and then call to see if I could get a new one shipped out. Well, it could’ve been easier if I’d made some different choices.

    In the end, I got what I wanted: an iPhone 15 Pro Max that exactly matched a case with lots of personal meaning. If you could honor your childhood iMac with your stylish case, wouldn’t you? In the hopes you never have to go through something similar, I’ll tell my tale of wrong assumptions and belated discoveries — along with the lessons about the phone industry I learned along the way.

    A blue iPhone wrapped in a blue-green case rests on a wooden table.

    You can have any iPhone color you want, as long as it’s blue

    After using an iPhone 12 Pro for three years, I opted for the iPhone 15 Pro Max, as I wanted its 5x zoom, along with 512GB of storage for plenty of on-device space.

    I’m currently a Verizon plan subscriber, so it made sense to go to one of their stores to get my new Pro. I walked in, chatted with a friendly clerk, and walked out with an iPhone 15 Pro Max in titanium blue, the only color they had with 512GB of storage.

    After that, I ordered a case from Spigen that captured my imagination when I saw it. It was a phone case styled after the iconic “Bondi Blue” iMac G3 from 1998. When it came in the mail, I made a tragic discovery: the phone’s dark blue hue didn’t match the case at all, which had white translucent highlights reminiscent of the classic iMac.

    I could’ve left it. I should’ve left it. But as a mobile reporter, I felt compelled to fulfill my ideal smartphone vision to make 2024 look like 1998 in the best way. All I needed was a white iPhone 15 Pro Max. Unknown to me at the time was that it would take a month to get one — I needed a model with 512GB.

    Side view of four iPhone 15 Pro devices

    Life is easier with lower storage

    The easiest thing to do would be to drive back to the Verizon store and swap it out for a white one. But since I needed a white one with 512GB of storage, I figured I’d call first. After speaking with a helpful employee, I learned that any location should have the configurations on hand.

    Tragically overconfident, I drove out to the closest Verizon store, according to Yelp. Unfortunately it was a third-party store that couldn’t handle my exchange. So I drove to the next-closest official Verizon retail location that had a white iPhone 15 Pro Max but only the 256GB model. The employees there found a store with a 512GB version in white that was another 20-minute drive away.

    Sadly, the inventory software was wrong, I was told. What’s more, the staff there didn’t think Verizon sold white 512GB models in-store. I’d have to special order it — by calling that centralized hotline.

    A few days later, I called the hotline, and a friendly operator helped me order a white 512GB iPhone. But first, I had to ship my current phone back, and that meant swapping service to another phone in the meantime. Luckily for me, as a reviewer, I had a few lying around.

    I hastily agreed to transfer service to another non-iPhone I had on hand (the operator just needed its IMEI number). But I foolishly forgot that that phone was locked to a different carrier. To add insult to injury, I had been calling the operator on my blue iPhone 15 Pro Max, which I didn’t realize would be a problem until the call went dead when she transferred service.

    Phoneless, bereft in a cold and uncaring world, I drove across town to pick up my old iPhone 12 Pro that I’d left with my family to upgrade to from their older iPhone. I can’t remember the last time I went anywhere without my smartphone’s data umbilical to the outside world; it was so surreal and isolating that it forced me to reckon with our modern phone dependency.

    In any case, I drove back to the original Verizon store to help transfer service back to my old iPhone 12 Pro, where I ran into another fun reality of modern smartphone switching: Bridging the world of SIM and eSIM.

    Hand holding the iPhone 14 Pro Max with the home screen active

    The pros and cons of leaving SIMs for eSIMS

    For years, reviewing different phones was as easy as popping out my SIM card and inserting it into the new phone. But in upgrading to the iPhone 15 Pro Max, I surrendered my account identity to the digital world and transferred it to an eSIM — because, in another surrender to trends, the US models of the iPhone 15 series don’t have physical SIM slots, a change that debuted in the iPhone 14.

    The good news is that it was easy for me to walk into a Verizon store and have them swap my service to the eSIM slot on the iPhone 12 Pro (lucky for me, that model was the first to use eSIMs).

    The bad news for us reviewers, and anyone who regularly changes phones, is that it takes a similar interaction with your carrier to transfer your account between different phones’ eSIM slots. Those of us rotating between many handsets find this process gets in the way where physical SIMs did not.

    CNET Senior Editor Lisa Eadicicco had a similar situation years ago when she called her carrier at the end of the workday to switch service to an eSIM on a phone she was reviewing, leaving her to ride the subway home without a phone. But as she explained to me, swapping eSIMs can result in some very strange roadblocks.

    When she switched from an Android device to an iPhone via eSIM last year, she inexplicably lost access to MMS (multimedia messages) between her handset and other Android phone owners. Lots of troubleshooting and even her carrier couldn’t help, but trawling forums revealed an answer: resetting the iPhone’s settings completely.

    “My experience was annoying, and it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what happened and why,” Eadicicco said.

    After my own eSIM trouble, I got my old iPhone 12 Pro back, shipped out my blue iPhone 15 Pro Max, and… waited. I wasn’t exactly sure when it would get to a Verizon warehouse. A week or so later, I called the customer support hotline and asked them if they’d received the phone (they had), if my account was credited (it was), and if I could then order the phone I wanted in white (I could). After a $50 restocking fee was debited, the phone was on its way.

    When I opened up the white 512GB iPhone 15 Pro Max and slapped that case on, all was well. And I came away with some lessons from the ordeal, too.

    A white iPhone wrapped in a blue-green case on a wooden table.

    The takeaways of torturing myself

    Unless you’ve done this carrier retail store rodeo before, you probably don’t know that it can be tricky to get the right color and storage configuration. Most people, myself included, usually pick from what they have available. I just happened to have a specific (and glorious) vision for how I wanted my phone and case to look.

    It was a surprise to discover that, at least in my area, Verizon stores don’t have every single color and storage configuration. If you want one that wasn’t normally sold in-store, you have to order it from a regional warehouse. Not a big deal on the whole, but interesting to see presumed market forces decide in-store options. Most buyers are probably fine with the titanium blue color for the iPhone 15 Pro series, since the other choices are white, black and the gray-tan “natural titanium.”

    I could’ve made my life a lot easier if I had just bought the iPhone 15 Pro Max through another retailer or via Apple itself, simply returning and exchanging it for the proper color and configuration. But not every online or in-person retailer has financing options like a carrier, nor would they have the same trade-in deals that might be more generous at carriers running promotions.

    An iPhone in a bright blue case sits below a bondi blue iMac G3.

    Making my 2024 iPhone recall the wonder of my 1998 iMac

    It’s easy to forget that the iPhone in my pocket is a modern miracle, especially compared to the tech I had as a kid. That’s why I found it so delightful to symbolize that quantum leap when decorating my phone. Growing up, my family had an Apple Macintosh IIsi. It was compact and had a user-friendly experience that ran Kid Pix and word processing. But one day late in the ’90s, my family upgraded from its yellowed desktop to something truly next-generation: the original iMac.

    With a teardrop shell of striking Bondi Blue-and-white plastic, the 1998 iMac G3 was the future — streamlined, stylized and ready for something brand-new to our house called the internet. That revolution was encased in bright, translucent blue-green plastic that rode the wave of see-through consumer tech, which packs a lot more personality than today’s era of black or silver gaming consoles, laptops and desktop PCs. Phone manufacturers get a bit more color into their lineups, but they still feel like the same glass-and-metal rectangles released year after year.

    When I saw Spigen’s case, my silly nerdy heart was yanked back in time to when products felt tactile in a way that stays with me — I can hear the iMac’s disc drive pop out after pushing its central button and feel the infamous puck mouse under my hand.

    Admittedly, I’ve spilled a ton of digital ink inadvertently shilling for a phone case. But it speaks to a personalization and sense of belonging that I want from the things in my life, especially the glass rectangle in my pocket that serves as my gateway to the outside world. When I’m typing Slack messages to colleagues or work emails to sources, I can look at my case and be brought back to the days when everything in the future was bursting out of Bondi Blue plastic.

    But if you ever find a phone case that’s bottled some of your childhood, I hope you take my story to heart and avoid a month-long odyssey in realizing your smartphone dream.

    iMac throwback: Apple’s candy-colored history, from 1999 to 2021

    See all photos

  • Dell XPS 16 9640 Review: A Big, Bold and Brawny Creator Laptop

    Dell XPS 16 9640 Review: A Big, Bold and Brawny Creator Laptop

    Our Experts

    Written by

    Matt Elliott
    Matt Elliott Senior Editor
    Matt Elliott is a senior editor at CNET with a focus on laptops and streaming services. Matt has more than 20 years of experience testing and reviewing laptops. He has worked for CNET in New York and San Francisco and now lives in New Hampshire. When he’s not writing about laptops, Matt likes to play and watch sports. He loves to play tennis and hates the number of streaming services he has to subscribe to in order to watch the various sports he wants to watch.
    Expertise Laptops, desktops, all-in-one PCs, streaming devices, streaming platforms
    Why You Can Trust CNET
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    Years of Experience

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    Hands-on Product Reviewers

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    Sq. Feet of Lab Space

    CNET’s expert staff reviews and rates dozens of new products and services each month, building on more than a quarter century of expertise.

    8.4/ 10
    SCORE

    Dell XPS 16 9640

    $1,899 at Dell

    Pros

    • Striking design and solid build quality
    • Strong overall performance
    • Long battery life
    • Big and beautiful OLED display
    • Quad speakers produce great sound

    Cons

    • Function row is less functional without physical keys
    • HDMI and USB-A connectivity requires a dongle
    • Upgrades can quickly get expensive

    When I last looked at Dell’s largest XPS laptop, it offered a traditional design centered on a 17-inch display powered by a 13th-gen Intel processor and RTX graphics. With this year’s update, Dell has introduced a radical new design while slightly shrinking the display and making the requisite update to Intel’s current Core Ultra CPUs.

    The Dell XPS 16 9640 features a 16.3-inch display that feels every bit as spacious as the previous 17-inch XPS 17 9730’s while saving you a bit of travel weight. A bigger departure is the minimalistic design that features a borderless touchpad, a nearly flat keyboard with little to no spacing between the keys and a Function row that consists not of physical keys but touch-sensitive icons.

    The invisible touchpad is a cool trick, and thanks to its accurate and lively haptics, it’s as fun to use as it is to look at. I’m less sold on the touch-sensitive yet haptic-less Function row, but I must say the XPS 16 9640’s overall look is indeed unique and rather stunning. And I was pleased to see that Dell has an OLED display option, which wasn’t available for the XPS 17 9730. Add in strong overall performance and surprisingly robust battery life, and the Dell XPS 16 9640 checks a lot of boxes for creatives who are looking for a big-screen laptop and are willing to spend a pretty penny to get it.

    Dell XPS 16 9640

    Price as reviewed $3,399
    Display size/resolution 16.3-inch 3,840×2,400 90Hz OLED
    CPU Intel Core Ultra 7 155H
    Memory 32GB DDR5 SDRAM
    Graphics Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070
    Storage 1TB SSD
    Ports 2x Thunderbolt 4 USB-C, USB-A 3.2 Gen 2, microSD card, combo audio
    Networking Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4
    Operating system Windows 11 Home 23H2
    Weight 5 pounds (2.3 kg)

    Our Dell XPS 16 9640 test system includes significant upgrades that nearly double its price from the baseline $1,899 to a lofty $3,399. The base model features an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor, 16GB of RAM, Intel Arc graphics, a 512GB SSD and a 1,920×1,200-pixel IPS display. Our test model offers 32GB of RAM, RTX 4070 graphics, a 1TB SSD and a 4K OLED display. For the case, you can choose between a creamy silver that Dell calls platinum or a matte black the company dubs graphite.

    There are a few other customization options not included on our test system: a Core Ultra 9 185H CPU, RTX 4050 and 4060 GPUs, and up to a 4TB SSD. You can also opt for vPro, which delivers remote-management features for IT departments in charge of a fleet of XPS 16 machines.

    The Dell XPS 16 9640 starts at 1,849 in the UK and AU$2,798 in Australia.

    Dell XPS 16 9640 in black in front of a yellow wall

    The XPS 16 9640’s performance was on par with that of other laptops we’ve tested with the Core Ultra 7 155H processor and RTX graphics. It’s a versatile performer, offering strong application performance as well as graphics performance. It posted solid framerates on our 3D gaming tests, but its RTX 4070 is set to run at a maximum of 70 watts, so it’s not quite at gaming laptop levels with a full-throttle RTX 4070 such as the Alienware m16 R2. With minimal venting and a compact chassis, the XPS 16 9640 does produce a fair amount of fan noise under heavy load, but it’s relatively quiet during normal operation.

    Perhaps the most impressive result is its showing on our battery test. A 4K OLED display might be crisp and beautiful, but that combination of a high pixel count and OLED technology usually has an adverse effect on a laptop’s runtime. Dell outfits the XPS 16 9640 with a robust six-cell, 99.5-watt-hour battery, and it lasted more than 11.5 hours on our online streaming battery drain test, which is a positive result for any laptop and an outstanding outcome for one with a large 4K OLED display.

    Big and bold

    The most striking part of the XPS 16 9640’s design is its apparent lack of a touchpad. I can assure you, it’s there. It just lacks borders and blends seamlessly into the wide wrist rest. The invisible touchpad sits centered below the display and is large enough that I didn’t find myself clicking on an area outside of its haptics. The haptic feedback is excellent and customizable, so you can dial in how lively you’d like the click response to be.

    The touchpad lacks borders, and the keyboard lacks space between the keys. The latticeless design looks different than the typical island-style keyboard that provides some separation between the keys, but I found typing on the XPS 16 9640’s keys to be no different than using a more traditional keyboard design. The keys offer shallow travel and a slightly mushy response. If I could change one thing about the keyboard, it would be firmer feedback with each key press and not the key spacing.

    Dell XPS 16 9640 borderless touchpad

    The third component of the laptop’s streamlined design is eschewing a traditional row of Function keys for a strip of touch-sensitive icons. As I discussed in my previous review of the Dell XPS 14 9440, I’m not a fan. I didn’t enjoy my MacBook Touch Bar years, and I don’t like this row of icons that lack haptic feedback and feature always-on LEDs. I get that physical Function keys would detract from the overall design; it’s nice that the icons can flip between media and function keys. But the loss of physical keys I can feel myself pressing is not a trade-off I’m willing to make for the sake of design.

    Dell’s focus on keeping the look of the XPS 16 9640 as minimal as possible results in neither a notch nor a cut-out area on the laptop’s front edge that would aid in raising the lid. This arrangement made opening the XPS 14 9440 laptop needlessly difficult, but I didn’t have nearly as much trouble on this larger model despite each sharing the same design. It’s not quite as easy as other laptops that give you a way to get a better grip on the front edge of the display to lift it, but I was still more successful than not in opening the XPS 16 9640 with one finger.

    Dell XPS 16 9640 flat keyboard in black

    The above design elements give the XPS 16 9640 a unique and minimalistic design, but it’s not just surface looks — this is a solidly put-together laptop. The machined aluminum chassis feels rigid and doesn’t creak or flex. The display bezels are incredibly thin to keep it about as compact as a 16-inch laptop can be. It weighs 5 pounds, which is appreciably lighter than the 5.5-pound XPS 17 9730 but negligibly heavier than other 16-inch models, including the 4.8-pound Dell Inspiron 16 Plus 7630 and 4.7-pound Apple MacBook Pro 16. Lighter still are the Acer Swift X 16 and HP Spectre x360 16, with each weighing just 4.3 pounds.

    We received the display upgrade to a 4K OLED panel. It adds $300 to the bill and provides a crisper picture and superior contrast. In testing, it offered good color coverage with 100% sRGB, 89% AdobeRGB and 99% P3. It hit a peak brightness of 382 nits, which, with its stellar contrast, is ample for nearly every environment, with the exception of working outside in direct sunlight. You can save $300 by stepping down to the RTX 4060. If choosing between the two equal options, I’d opt for the OLED powered by an RTX 4060 rather than the baseline IPS and an RTX 4070.

    The OLED panel can operate at a refresh rate of 90Hz for smoother movement or at 60Hz to help extend battery life. Unfortunately, the refresh rate isn’t dynamic, so you’ll need to dig into settings to change it if you go from, say, watching or editing video or gaming at 90Hz to unplugging and working on battery power and downshifting to 60Hz.

    Dell XPS 16 9640 speakers on the side of the keyboard

    Along with strong visuals, the XPS 16 9630 boasts impressive audio output. This is one of the few laptops that had enough of a bass response that music playback was actually enjoyable. Granted, I experienced this joy while seated in a small room directly in front of the laptop, but at this very same desk in this very same room, I’m usually somewhere between underwhelmed to sorely disappointed by a laptop’s audio. The XPS 16 9640 features a total of 10 watts of output by way of a pair of 3-watt main speakers and a pair of 2-watt tweeters. Most laptops offer only two 2-watt speakers.

    Another upgrade the XPS 16 9640 received from the previous XPS 17 is a 1080p webcam. It’s hard to give Dell kudos for this move since the 720p camera was already outdated on last year’s XPS 17. The camera produces images nearly free of the graininess of a 720p camera, with accurate colors and skin tones. You’ll appear clearly on video calls. And you can use the camera with Windows Hello for easy, secure logins via facial recognition. The power button also doubles as a fingerprint scanner if you’d prefer to go that biometric route.

    Dell XPS 16 9640 has a Thunderbolt 4 port and microSD card slot on its right side

    Ports are minimal but should suffice for most users, with two Thunderbolt 4 ports and a USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 port along with a headphone jack and microSD card slot. The two biggest missing items are an HDMI output and a USB-A port, but Dell includes a dongle for each of those connections.

    At $3,399, our XPS 16 9640 test system costs less than the $3,999 configuration of the mostly maxed-out MacBook Pro 16 we tested at the end of last year but is still at the high-end of the premium laptop class. It offers the design and performance that’s befits its price, however, and Dell’s numerous customization options mean you can likely land on a configuration that meets your needs and budget.

    Geekbench 6 (multicore)

    Apple MacBook Pro 16 (M3 Max, 2023) 21482Dell Inspiron 16 Plus 7630 13250Dell XPS 16 9640 12855Alienware m16 R2 12793Acer Swift X 16 12473HP Spectre x360 16 11459
    Note: Longer bars indicate better performance

    PCMark 10 Pro Edition

    Acer Swift X 16 7645Dell Inspiron 16 Plus 7630 7071Dell XPS 16 9640 6667HP Spectre x360 16 5789
    Note: Longer bars indicate better performance

    Cinebench R23 (multicore)

    Apple MacBook Pro 16 (M3 Max, 2023) 24056Alienware m16 R2 18404Dell Inspiron 16 Plus 7630 17167Acer Swift X 16 16689Dell XPS 16 9640 14014HP Spectre x360 16 8096
    Note: Longer bars indicate better performance

    3DMark Fire Strike Ultra

    Alienware m16 R2 7073Dell Inspiron 16 Plus 7630 5443Dell XPS 16 9640 5239Acer Swift X 16 4406HP Spectre x360 16 3669
    Note: Longer bars indicate better performance

    Online streaming battery drain test

    Apple MacBook Pro 16 (M3 Max, 2023) 1263Dell XPS 16 9640 702HP Spectre x360 16 637Dell Inspiron 16 Plus 7630 608Alienware m16 R2 602Acer Swift X 16 257
    Note: Longer bars indicate better performance

    Guardians of the Galaxy (High @ 1,920×1,080)

    Dell Inspiron 16 Plus 7630 144Alienware m16 R2 134Dell XPS 16 9640 124Acer Swift X 16 117HP Spectre x360 16 85
    Note: Longer bars indicate better performance

    Shadow of the Tomb Raider (Highest @ 1,920×1,080)

    Alienware m16 R2 143Acer Swift X 16 119Dell XPS 16 9640 109Dell Inspiron 16 Plus 7630 109HP Spectre x360 16 71
    Note: Longer bars indicate better performance

    System configurations

    Dell XPS 16 9640 Microsoft Windows 11 Home; Intel Core 7 Ultra 155H; 16GB DDR5 7,467MHz RAM; 8GB Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070; 1TB SSD
    Acer Swift X 16 Microsoft Windows 11 Home; AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS; 16GB DDR5 6,400MHz RAM; 6GB Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050; 1TB SSD
    Alienware m16 R2 Microsoft Windows 11 Home; Intel Core 7 Ultra 155H; 16GB DDR5 5,600MHz RAM; 8GB Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070; 1TB SSD
    Dell Inspiron 16 Plus 7630 Microsoft Windows 11 Home; Intel Core i7-13700H; 16GB DDR5 4,800MHz RAM; 8GB Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060; 1TB SSD
    HP Spectre x360 16 Microsoft Windows 11 Pro; Intel Core Ultra 7 155H; 16GB DDR5 RAM; 6GB Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050; 1TB SSD
    Apple MacBook Pro 16 (M3 Max, 2023) Apple MacOS Sonoma 14.1; Apple M3 Max (16-core CPU, 20-core GPU); 48GB unified memory; 1TB SSD

  • Today’s Wordle Hints and Answer: Help for April 28, #1044

    Today’s Wordle Hints and Answer: Help for April 28, #1044

    Today’s Wordle answer shouldn’t be too hard, and it has a commonly known meaning — or, really, several meanings. But scroll on if you need help.

    Every day, we’ll post hints and then the answer for the current day’s Wordle, just in case you need it.

    Today’s Wordle hints

    Warning: If you keep reading, you’ll see the Wordle answer for Sunday, April 28, No. 1044. That could be a devastating spoiler for some players. But if you just need the answer — maybe you’re on your last guess and just don’t want to see an 800-game streak go poof — keep reading.

    Wordle hint No. 1: Vowels

    There are two vowels in today’s Wordle answer.

    Wordle hint No. 2: No repeats

    No letters are repeated in today’s Wordle answer.

    Wordle hint No. 3: Starting letter

    Today’s Wordle answer begins with the letter P.

    Wordle hint No. 4: Meanings

    Today’s Wordle answer has multiple meanings. One is a food. But it also describes something gardeners do.

    Wordle hint No. 5: Joking around

    There are plenty of jokes about today’s Wordle answer, many relating to the food being eaten by older people.

    TODAY’S WORDLE ANSWER

    Here comes the spoiler: Today’s Wordle answer is PRUNE, a dried plum that’s recommended for constipation and the subject of many jokes about older people eating them. Of course, it’s also a gardening term, meaning to cut off unwanted branches.

    Yesterday’s Wordle answer

    Yesterday’s answer, No. 1043, April 27, was GLEAM.

    Past Wordle answers

    April 23: No. 1039: ROVER

    April 24, No. 1040: OVERT

    April 25, No. 1041: INTRO

    April 26, No. 1042: VAPID

    Everyday Wordle tips

    I’ve written a lot about Wordle — from covering its 1,000th word to my list of the best starter words to a helpful two-step strategy to news about controversial word changes. I’ve even rounded up what I learned playing the hit online word puzzle for a full year. So if you’re rethinking your need for the actual answer, you might try tips from one of those stories.

    Still need a starter word? One person told me they just look around and choose a five-letter object that they’ve spotted to use as their starter word — such as COUCH or CHAIR. I tend to stick to starter words that have the most popular letters used in English words. I like TRAIN as a starter, though I have a friend who uses TRAIL. I’ve read that people use the financial term ROATE, but I like to use words I actually know.

    What is Wordle?

    If you read this far, you know how to play. You have six chances to guess a five-letter word, and the game gives you feedback as to whether the letters you’ve guessed are in the puzzle, and if they’re in the same spot where you guessed they are. The New York Times bought the game from creator Josh Wardle for seven figures in 2022. Wardle famously created the game for his partner, and let her narrow down the 12,000 five-letter words in the English language to just 2,500, creating the database of answers. It was convenient, too, that he has a name that plays off “word.”

    A Times spokesperson told me it lists the very first Wordle as appearing on June 19, 2021, and the paper celebrated the game’s 1000th word on March 15. Spoiler: That 1000th word was ERUPT. As in, “Dad will erupt if the Wordle is so tough he loses his streak.”

    There are other fun games in the Times Games stable. My latest addiction is Connections, which I think is trickier than Wordle. This is the game where you look at a grid of 16 words and try to put them into four groups of related words. Sometimes the relationships between the words are pretty out there — like the time when it was four words that all began with rock bands, such as “Rushmore” and “journeyman.” (Connections got a little sassy on April Fools’ Day with an all-emoji puzzle. Some gamers did NOT find that funny.)

    Spelling Bee is a popular Times game too. And there’s a new game that’s still in beta, Strands, which I’m trying to master.

  • 10 of the Best Sci-Fi Movies to Stream on Max Right Now

    10 of the Best Sci-Fi Movies to Stream on Max Right Now

    Are you partial to stories about time travel, superhuman abilities or parallel worlds? Max offers a quality selection of sci-fi movies that span decades and subgenres. From blockbusters like James Cameron’s Avatar films to animated flicks that take you into fictional universes or virtual realities, these picks are just a click away on the platform.

    Keep scrolling to see our lineup of some of the best sci-fi movies you can stream today on Max.

  • Best Buy’s Massive 3-Day Sale Has Deals on Top Tech, Major Appliances and More

    Best Buy’s Massive 3-Day Sale Has Deals on Top Tech, Major Appliances and More

    Best Buy has officially launched its new three-day sale, with tempting deals on tech gadgets, home goods and more. If you’re in the market for a device upgrade or a fresh set of appliances, now’s a fine time to shop. With Apple, Samsung, LG, Whirlpool and many more in the mix, it’s an opportunity to score savings on items from big-name brands, too. This event runs from April 26 through April 28, so be sure to nab anything you want before prices go back to normal.

    To lend a hand, we’ve gone through the sale and picked out some of the best offers. We’re also rounding up the top TV deals from the Best Buy sale. Just keep in mind the April 28 expiry date and finalize your purchases before then.

    More great deals at Best Buy:

    Some of the items listed may have additional discounts available for My Best Buy Plus or Total members, so if you’ve been considering signing up, now might be a great time to do so. While those subscriptions are paid accounts, the money you make back in exclusive savings during this event or throughout the year can be worth it, especially if you shop at Best Buy regularly. There are some other perks too, such as free two-day shipping with no minimum amount and extended return windows.

    For more device savings, we’ve rounded up the best phone deals, laptop deals and TV deals to help you keep more money in your pocket.

  • Everton vs. Brentford Livestream: How to Watch English Premier League Soccer From Anywhere

    Everton vs. Brentford Livestream: How to Watch English Premier League Soccer From Anywhere

    After a famous win over Merseyside rivals Liverpool in midweek, Everton could round off a memorable seven days by ensuring their English Premier League status with another victory at home to Brentford on Saturday.

    After a club record 13-game winless run, Everton boss Sean Dyche appears to have steadied the ship, with the Toffees having claimed three wins from their last four games to steer themselves eight points clear of the relegation zone.

    Having had their own flirtation with the drop zone, Brentford are almost mathematically safe. However, they face a side that have beaten them in their previous two meetings, and come into this clash with a number of injury concerns. Key striker Ivan Toney is among those that are doubtful for the Bees.

    Below, we’ll outline the best live TV streaming services to use to watch the game live wherever you are in the world.

    Everton striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin celebrating, with his right hand clinched and his left hand pulling the front of his shirt.

    Everton vs. Brentford: When and where?

    Everton host Brentford at Goodison Park in Liverpool on Saturday, April 27. Kickoff is set for 5:30 p.m. BST local time, which is 12:30 p.m. ET or 9:30 a.m. PT in the US and Canada, and 4:30 a.m. AEST on Sunday, April 28, in Australia.

    How to watch the Everton vs. Brentfordgame 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. So if your internet provider or mobile carrier has stuck you with an IP address that incorrectly shows your location in a blackout zone, a VPN can correct that problem by giving you an IP address in your correct, non-blackout area. 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.

    Livestream Everton vs. Brentfordin the US

    Saturday’s Everton vs. Brentfordmatch is streaming on Peacock. You’ll need a Peacock Premium or Premium Plus account to catch the game live.

    Can I livestream the Everton vs. Brentford game in the UK?

    Premier League rights in the UK are split between Sky Sports, Amazon Prime Video and TNT Sports (previously known as BT Sport). Everton vs. Brentford 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.

    Livestream the Everton vs. Brentfordgame in Canada

    If you want to stream Everton vs. Brentfordlive in Canada, you’ll need to subscribe to Fubo. The service has exclusive rights for this Premier League season.

    Livestream the Everton vs. Brentfordgame 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.

    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.
  • Aston Villa vs. Chelsea Livestream: How to Watch English Premier League Soccer From Anywhere

    Aston Villa vs. Chelsea Livestream: How to Watch English Premier League Soccer From Anywhere

    Aston Villa will be hoping to move one step closer to UEFA Champions League qualification as they go in search of a win at home against Chelsea on Saturday in the English Premier League.

    The hosts glided to a 3-1 win over Bournemouth last week to plump up a 6-point cushion between them and fifth-placed Spurs. They will be confident of increasing that advantage here today.

    Chelsea, meanwhile, come into this game off the back of a chastening 5-0 defeat against title-chasing London rivals Arsenal. Despite that result, the Blues remain in contention for a top-seven spot, thanks largely to the coruscating form of Cole Palmer, who could be welcomed back for this clash.

    Below, we’ll outline the best live TV streaming services to use to watch the game live wherever you are in the world.

    Cole Palmer of Chelsea looking to his right.

    Aston Villa vs. Chelsea: When and where?

    Aston Villa host Chelsea at Villa Park in Birmingham on Saturday, April 27. Kickoff is set for 8 p.m. BST local time, which is 3 p.m. ET or 12 p.m. PT in the US and Canada, and 7 a.m. AEST on Sunday, April 28, in Australia.

    How to watch the Aston Villa vs. Chelseagame 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. So if your internet provider or mobile carrier has stuck you with an IP address that incorrectly shows your location in a blackout zone, a VPN can correct that problem by giving you an IP address in your correct, non-blackout area. 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.

    Livestream Aston Villa vs. Chelsea in the US

    Saturday’s Villa vs. Chelseamatch is streaming on Peacock. You’ll need a Peacock Premium or Premium Plus account to catch the game live.

    Livestream the Aston Villa vs. Chelsea game in the UK

    Premier League rights in the UK are split between Sky Sports, Amazon Prime Video and TNT Sports. The Aston Villa vs. Chelsea game is exclusive to TNT Sports — showing on its TNT Sports 1, TNT Sports 1 HD and TNT Sports Ultimate in 4K.

    Livestream the Aston Villa vs. Chelseagame in Canada

    If you want to stream Aston Villa vs. Chelsea live in Canada, you’ll need to subscribe to Fubo. The service has exclusive rights for this Premier League season.

    Livestream the Aston Villa vs. Chelseagame 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.

    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.
  • T-Mobile Adds Subscribers as It Grows Wired Internet Business

    T-Mobile Adds Subscribers as It Grows Wired Internet Business

    T-Mobile continued growing its customer base in the first quarter of 2024, adding 1.2 million net customers across its phone and internet businesses in the immediate wake of a pair of acquisitions, the company said during its Q1 earnings call Thursday.

    The first acquisition was the long-awaited $1.35 billion deal to purchase prepaid operator Mint Mobile, which the US Federal Communications Commission approved yesterday, finalizing a process that began a year ago when T-Mobile announced it. The carrier also announced yesterday that it has entered a joint venture with investment organization EQT to spend $950 million acquiring Lumos, a fiber internet provider, to get access to its network reaching 320,000 households on the US East Coast with wired and Wi-Fi service.

    Read more: Best Cellphone Plans of 2024

    The acquisitions expand T-Mobile’s investment in two areas: prepaid phone subscriptions and wired internet, the latter of which the carrier had largely ceded to rivals Verizon and AT&T in the past. To wit, Verizon ended the first quarter with 7.2 million wired broadband subscribers, while AT&T ended the same period with over 8.5 million. To catch up, T-Mobile will invest another $500 million between 2027 and 2028 to expand the Lumos network to 3.5 million total households by the end of the latter year, the carrier said in a blog post.

    During the earnings call, T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert lauded the Lumos management team for its “years of experience building fiber in an efficient, cost-effective and targeted build model. We’re really excited to be able to accelerate what Lumos has already been doing to reach more and more households in the years ahead.”

    This expansion came alongside more conventional growth in the categories T-Mobile has been traditionally competitive in, like mobile. The carrier added 532,000 postpaid net customers (down a slight 6,000 from the first quarter of 2023), a metric the industry uses to denote success and dependable revenue. During the call, the president of T-Mobile Consumer Group, Jon Freier, noted that though people are holding onto their phones for longer, leaving only around 2.4% of customers upgrading their devices over the quarter, they were leaving their subscriptions at the lowest rate in T-Mobile’s history.

    “It’s really kind of the best of both worlds when you have customers that are staying at incredible rates, record low rates, and not staying for free devices exclusively,” Freier said. “They’re staying for this differentiated value proposition, the network and the overall experience.”

    Read more: Tale of Tints: My Odyssey to Find the Right Color iPhone 15 Pro Max

    Sievert added that 75% of postpaid customers had 5G phones and were thus able to experience the best the network had to offer without needing to upgrade. “So the impetus when you’re having a fantastic experience on your phone, to prematurely swap it out, just isn’t there,” he said.

    The carrier reported losses of 48,000 prepaid net customers (inclusive of phone and internet) over the quarter, an overall 74,000 customer decrease compared with the 26,000 added in the same period last year. That’s still lower than the 216,000 prepaid phone losses suffered by Verizon and 132,000 prepaid phone losses by AT&T.

    Sievert acknowledged the continued growth of its fixed wireless access base despite sunsetting the promotions from the service’s launch era by “attracting customers at our nominal price points.” T-Mobile added 405,000 FWA customers, down from the 523,000 it added in the first quarter of 2023. The carrier ended this current period with 5.2 million total customers for its internet service.

    T-Mobile reported $16.1 billion in revenue over the quarter, up 4% from the same period last year. This broke down to $2 earned per share, a 27% growth over the $1.58 per share in the first quarter of 2023.

    Shares of T-Mobile slightly dropped, by 0.05%, by the end of the day.

    The Samsung Galaxy S24 and S24 Plus Looks Sweet in Aluminum

    See all photos

  • Reduce Your Screen Time by Hiding Apps on Your iPhone

    Reduce Your Screen Time by Hiding Apps on Your iPhone

    The average person spends more than 3 hours a day looking at their mobile device, according to a report from Exploding Topics. And checking your smartphone can give you an adrenaline rush, which raises your heart rate, muscle tension and pulse, according to the University of Colorado Health. But hiding apps on your iPhone can help reduce your screen time since you won’t be able to quickly open them at a moment’s notice. Don’t worry, though — these apps will still be in your App Library if you want to use them later.

    CNET Tech Tips logo

    Apple introduced the App Library with the release of iOS 14 in 2020. This feature organizes your iPhone’s apps into categories, like Social and Entertainment, and keeps them off your home screen. However, note that your iPhone organizes these categories on its own, and you can’t reorganize your apps if you don’t agree with where they are placed.

    Here’s how to hide apps from your iPhone’s home screen and how to access the App Library.

    Hiding apps on your iPhone

    1. Tap and hold the app on your home screen until a menu appears.
    2. Tap Remove App.
    3. Tap Remove from Home Screen.

    Now the app won’t be visible on your home screen, but it’ll still be accessible in your App Library. You can also hide multiple apps in quick succession. Here’s how.

    1. Tap and hold on an unoccupied portion of your home screen until your icons start to jiggle.
    2. Tap the minus symbol in the corner of an app you want to hide.
    3. Tap Remove from Home Screen.

    Then, repeat the second and third steps until you’ve hidden all the apps you want to hide, and tap Done in the top right corner of your home screen.

    Now that your apps are off your home screen, there are a few ways to access them. Here’s how.

    How to access your hidden apps

    The fastest way to find a hidden app is to tap Search near the bottom of your home screen to use the Spotlight search feature. Then, type in the name of the app you’re looking for in the search bar and the app should appear above the search bar.

    iPhone 15 Pro Max

    You can also swipe right on your home screen until you open the App Library on the final screen. Here, you can view the different categories your iPhone has organized your apps into, and you can search the App Library by tapping the search bar near the top of your screen.

    And if you want to add a hidden app back to your home screen, go to the App Library by swiping right, tap and hold the app and then tap Add to Home Screen.

    Clean up your home screen without hiding your apps

    If you want to tidy up your home screen but don’t want to hide your apps in the App Library, you can create folders full of apps on your home screen. You can name these folders whatever you want, and organize your apps how you want to, giving you more control over where your apps are as opposed to the App Library.

    Here’s how to create folders on your home screen for your apps.

    1. Tap and hold on an unoccupied portion of your home screen until your icons start to jiggle.
    2. Tap an app and drag it onto another app, and a gray square will surround the two apps.

    An app folder on iPhone marked Utilities. Some of the apps in the folder include Voice Memos, Compass and Measure

    If you tap outside of the gray square, you’ll go back to the home screen so you can drag more apps into your new folder if you want. Once you’re finished, tap Done in the top right corner of your home screen.

    Now, your apps aren’t hidden and you don’t have to search for them in the App Library or with Spotlight and your home screen is much neater. Plus, you can place all your social media apps or games in one spot without worrying your iPhone will misplace them.

    For more on iOS, check out what features your iPhone could get with iOS 17.5 and our iOS 17 cheat sheet. You can also check out what to know about Apple’s upcoming surprise event in May.