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Smartwatches are very useful in day-to-day life, from tracking your exercise to delivering glanceable notifications, but they certainly aren’t cheap, especially if you’re in the Apple ecosystem. Fortunately, there’s a big Woot sale running right now on Grade A refurbished Apple Watch models that will net you one for as little as $130. Be sure to grab a deal quickly because even though the deal ends on March 5th, supplies are likely limited and certain models may sell out before then.

Though the Apple Watch Series 4 is the cheapest option in the sale, the most budget-friendly option worth considering in this sale is the Apple Watch SE second-generation which is going for as low as $162, depending on the size. This model has an improved heart sensor compared to the first Apple Watch SE and is water resistant to 50 meters. It is missing a couple of more complex sensors, but all in all, it gives you a solid Apple Watch experience for less.

Of course, if you want something a bit fancier, the Apple Watch Series 7 is a great middle-ground if you don’t want to spend a ton of cash. You can grab this model in both the GPS and GPS and cellular variants for just $206, and that is for both versions, so be sure to grab the cellular-enabled model since it’s the same price while the deal lasts. The Series 7 has all the advanced features you’d find on most Apple Watch models, including the fancier ECG monitor and higher-end workout tracking.

If you want the best of the best, or close to it, you can grab the Apple Watch Ultra, and while it’s the first generation, it’s still one of the best smartwatches out there. The Ultra is designed for those who have very active lifestyles, with a longer battery life and various types of advanced tracking and sensors to keep you going, plus one of the best dive-tracking apps out there. You can get it now for $503 which is a few hundred dollars cheaper than it sold for brand new.

In terms of condition and functionality, Woot’s Grade A rating means that these devices will have minimal cosmetic blemishes and offer like-new functionality. Batteries are guaranteed to hold at least 85% off their original capacity and each device is covered by a one-year warranty.

Of course, if you’d rather go for a new watch, then check out these Apple Watch deals. Or, if you’re not in the Apple ecosystem and want another excellent watch brand, these Galaxy Watch deals are worth looking at.

After Samsung’s surprise announcement of a Galaxy Ring this year, Chinese company Honor said it’ll launch its own smart ring, called the Honor Ring, as early as this year.

“Internally, we have this kind of solution, now we are working on that part, so in the future you can have the Honor ring.” CEO George Zhao told CNBC, which first reported the news, at Mobile World Congress (MWC) on Tuesday.

That future Zhao referred to is coming soon. Honor later told CNET its high-tech ring will be up for sale before the end of 2024. The Chinese company’s upcoming entry into the smart ring business means consumers will have more choices in a wearables category dominated by a few key players. Celebrity favorite Oura, is currently the most prominent player, with new entrant Evie, which focuses in women’s health, vying to grab some market share away.

Samsung’s Galaxy Ring, which was physically shown off for the first time at MWC this week, is rumored to arrive as early as this year. Apple is also rumored to be experimenting with the idea of a smart ring, according to Bloomberg.

Chances are Honor’s ring will follow the lead of smart rings already on the market, and track a wearer’s heart rate, sleep statistics, temperature, exercise, and fitness. The arrival of a smart ring would mark a significant expansion of Honor’s wearable category, which counts smartwatches as its main wearable product offering.

At MWC, Samsung disclosed that the Galaxy Ring will be able track your sleep using four different metrics: heart rate, respiratory rate, night movement and sleep latency, as well as menstrual cycle and fertility tracking. Samsung said the Galaxy Ring will be part of a broader push of its app Samsung Health, where the company intends to have AI analyze health data collected by the Ring or by Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 6.

The Honor Ring will likely follow a similar approach, with Zhao citing AI as an essential tool for providing more personalized health tracking.

“This hardware capability will work together with AI-enabled apps (and) can help you make the professional training course tailored for you because they studied your habits and health data to give you professional suggestions” Zhao told CNBC. “I think AI will transform this kind of applications.”

Apple released the iOS 17.4 RC (release candidate) to public beta testers and developers on Tuesday. This release comes more than a month after iOS 17.3 was released to the general public. The latest iOS RC brings new features, including major changes for people in the European Union and new emoji and bug fixes to the iPhones of some developers and beta testers.

Read more: Why You Should Download iOS 17.3 Now

We recommend downloading the RC on something other than your primary device. Since this isn’t the final version of iOS 17.4, these features might be buggy and battery life may be short, and it’s best to keep those troubles on a secondary device.

If you’re a developer or public beta tester, here are some of the new features you can find in the iOS 17.4 RC. There’s no word on the public release for iOS 17.4 just yet, but Apple has indicated it’ll likely be in March.

Downloading other app stores in the EU

Apple introduced a significant change to Safari, the App Store and iOS with iOS 17.4 beta 1, but only for people in the EU. With iOS 17.4 beta 1, people in the EU can download an alternative app store and apps from outside the App Store. According to CNET’s Katie Collins, this marks one of the largest changes to the App Store since its inception in 2008. People in the EU will also be given new default app controls, giving them more ways to customize their iPhone experience.

Apple made these changes, which were announced Thursday, to comply with the EU’s Digital Markets Act. The company said these changes will go into effect once Europeans download iOS 17.4 in March or later. There’s no word on whether these changes will be available globally.

Read more: Apple Will Allow Installation of Rival App Stores On iPhones In Europe

More options for in-app payments

Apple introduced more ways to make in-app payments with the first iOS 17.4 beta. If you go to Settings > Privacy & Security, you’ll see an option called Contactless & NFC, or near-field communication. If you tap the new option, you’ll be taken to a mostly blank page that has a small disclaimer that says the page will show apps that have requested the ability to use contactless and NFC payments in the future. Apple announced these options alongside the changes for people in the EU, and there’s no word on whether this will be utilized by apps outside that region.

At least 100 new emoji

Apple introduced over 100 new emoji to iPhone users with the first beta of iOS 17.4. Those emoji include heads shaking up and down as well as left and right, a phoenix emoji and a slice of lime. These emoji were announced in 2023, and some Android devices, including the latest Samsung phones, already have them.

Improved iMessage security against future threats

With iOS 17.4, your iMessage chats will get a security boost to protect them from cyberattacks that involve quantum computing. According to CNET’s David Lumb, Apple said it hasn’t seen these kinds of cyberattacks yet, but the company wants to get ahead of the potential threat now.

Read more: Apple’s Next iOS Update Protects iMessage Against Future Quantum Computing Attacks

Podcasts can now show transcripts

In the first iOS 17.4 beta, you can read the transcripts of your favorite podcasts as you listen to them. To see the transcripts, go into the Podcasts app and start listening to a show, then tap the show’s banner across the bottom of your screen. Look at the bottom of the show’s title card and you’ll see a new button in the bottom left corner that looks like a speech bubble with quotes inside it. Tap this button and you’ll see the transcript of the show you’re listening to.

You can search within the transcript, too, so if someone mentions a book or movie title and you only remember part of it, you can search the part you do know and find the whole title.

Read more: Apple Music Launches Monthly Version of Replay

Virtual card numbers come to Apple Cash

Your Apple Cash gets an upgrade with the latest iOS 17.4 beta, too. Now you can have a virtual card that can access your Apple Cash. This card comes with its own number, expiration date and three-digit security code, like a physical card. You can also easily request a new card number if you think your card has been compromised.

This feature is helpful if you want to use your Apple Cash at an online store that doesn’t accept Apple Pay.

Another digital clock widget

In the second iOS 17.4 beta, Apple introduced a new digital clock app widget called City Digital. This widget displays the time as well as a set location as opposed to wherever your iPhone is at the moment. This can be helpful if you’re traveling or live far from family and friends but want to keep in touch without waking them up in the middle of the night.

Apple introduced the digital clock widget to iPhones with the release of iOS 17.2.

More Stolen Device Protection options

With iOS 17.4 beta 1, Apple introduced a few new options in Stolen Device Protection. The new options let you choose whether you want to always require a one-hour security delay to access certain settings or make changes, or to only require the delay when you’re away from a familiar location like your home.

Apple introduced Stolen Device Protection with iOS 17.3, and the intent of the feature is to protect some of your data if your device is stolen or falls into nefarious hands. The feature doesn’t protect all your data, but Apple still recommends everyone turn it on.

New Battery Health readout for iPhone 15 models

With iOS 17.4 beta 4, if you go to Settings > Battery there is a new Battery Health readout in the iPhone 15 models which tells you the status of your battery’s health in a word, like Normal or Service. You can also tap this option for more details about your battery, like its cycle count and maximum capacity. Before, your iPhone would show a percentage in relation to your battery’s health without any indication of what it means.

Read more: iOS 17.4’s New Tool Shows if Your iPhone 15’s Battery Health Is Normal

New Home button in the Music and Books apps

Apple introduced a Home button in Apple Music with iOS 17.4 beta 1 and in the Books app with iOS 17.4 beta 2. If you open either app and look at the bottom of your screen, the Home button is in the far-left corner. This button replaced Listen Now in Apple Music and Read Now in Books.

If you’re an Apple Music subscriber and tap the button, you’re taken to a page that shows you menus, like Recently Played, and recommendations based on artists you’ve listened to. If you tap this button in the Books app, you see menus like Current Bestsellers and Start Reading for Free.

Previous iOS updates brought Home buttons to the Podcasts and Apple TV apps, so this change is likely Apple trying to apply some uniformity across its apps.

Siri can send messages in more than one language

In the first iOS 17.4 beta, Apple gave Siri the ability to send messages in multiple languages. If you go to Settings > Siri & Search, you’ll see the option Messaging with Siri, which replaced Automatically Send Messages. Tap Messaging with Siri and you’ll see Add Language. If you tap this, you can have Siri send messages in other languages, like Arabic, Spanish and Thai. Apple writes that Siri will also read messages using the languages in this list, but choosing one from this list won’t change the primary language Siri listens and responds in. Prior to this, Siri could only send messages in English.

New Apple CarPlay and Maps experience in certain vehicles

With the fourth iOS 17.4 beta, if you use Apple CarPlay with Maps in certain supported vehicles, you’ll see a new instrument cluster.

“With supported CarPlay vehicles, Apple Maps will present a new instrument cluster experience with information about upcoming maneuvers,” Apple wrote online. “Users will be able to swap the desired display type between the main and instrument cluster screen by tapping the map configuration button on the upper right of the Maps main screen.”

However, Apple didn’t write which vehicles support this new feature, and the company didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Here are the full release notes for the iOS 17.4 RC.

Emoji

New mushroom, phoenix, lime, broken chain, and shaking heads emoji are now available in the emoji keyboard.

18 people and body emoji add the option to face them in either direction.

Apple Podcasts

Transcripts let you follow an episode with text that highlights in sync with the audio in English, Spanish, French and German.

Episode text can be read in full, searched for a word or phrase, tapped to play from a specific point and used with accessibility features such as Text Size, Increase Contrast and VoiceOver.

This update includes the following enhancements and bug fixes:

Music recognition lets you add songs you have identified to your Apple Music Playlists and Library, as well as Apple Music Classic.

Siri has a new option to announce messages you receive in any supported language.

Stolen Device Protection supports the option for increased security in all locations.

Battery Health in Settings shows battery cycle count, manufacture date, and first use on iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro models.

Call Identification displays Apple-verified business name, logo and department name when available.

Business updates in Messages for Business provide trusted information for order status, flight notifications, fraud alerts or other transactions you opt into.

Apple Cash virtual card numbers enable you to pay with Apple Cash at merchants that don’t yet accept Apple Pay by typing in your number from Wallet or using Safari AutoFill.

Fixes an issue where contact pictures are blank in Find My.

Fixes an issue for Dual SIM users where the phone number changes from primary to secondary and is visible to a group they have messaged.

Some features may not be available for all regions or on all Apple devices. For information on the security content of Apple software updates, please visit this website:

https://support.apple.com/kb/HT201222

Those are some of the new features developers and beta testers will see in the iOS 17.4 RC. That doesn’t mean these are the only features coming to the next iOS update, or that these changes will stick when iOS 17.4 is released to the public. As of right now, there’s no exact release date for iOS 17.4, but Apple has indicated it might be released in March.

For more on iOS 17, check out all the new features that were included in iOS 17.3 and iOS 17.2. You can also check out our iOS 17 cheat sheet.

T-Mobile has long offered an MLB.TV subscription for free to its users now we know when the recent tradition will continue. The carrier revealed today in its T Life app that it will once again be offering free baseball streaming to its customers starting on March 26.

To get the deal, users will need to use the T Life app (formerly T-Mobile Tuesdays) and claim the free subscription between March 26 and April 2. T Life is T-Mobile’s new all-encompassing app that incorporates its T-Mobile Tuesdays freebies, its new Magenta Status perks as well as being the place to manage services like home internet.

Read more: Best phone plans

Normally $150 for the regular season, MLB.TV allows baseball fans to stream out-of-market games (those not airing on TV in your local city) to a variety of devices including phones, tablets, computers and connected devices like game consoles or smart TVs through the MLB app.

T-Mobile has been giving away MLB.TV subscriptions for years as part of its partnership with MLB. Last year the carrier struck a new deal with the league to continue offering free subscriptions through 2028.

The Dodgers and Padres will open the 2024 baseball season on March 20 and 21 with a two-game set in Seoul, South Korea, though those games will air nationally on ESPN (which makes it unavailable on MLB.TV). The rest of the league will begin regular season play on March 28.

Hi, Barbie! This is Journalist Barbie reporting live from MWC in Barcelona, Spain, about the best day ever.

It turns out we, the Barbies, are getting our own phone. It’s pink and sparkly and it has our name on it. The Barbie Flip Phone will be made by HMD — the company responsible for breathing new life into Nokia phones — as the first in a series of brand partnerships it plans to announce over the coming year.

Read more: Best Phone to Buy for 2024

HMD is collaborating with Mattel on our phone, which should be available from July. We don’t know exactly what it’ll look like at this stage, but it promises to embody the vintage chic of our brand heritage, which as you all know stretches back to 1959.

“Barbie, she could have made her own phone by now, but we’re leaving it to HMD” said Isabel Ferrer, Mattel’s EMEA marketing director as she announced the phone on Sunday.

We know that the device will be a flip phone that’ll offer an updated-feature-phone experience, rather than a smartphone experience. This is in line with HMD’s commitment to encourage us to jump on the digital-detox trend. The company says that with the Barbie Flip Phone, it’s providing a new option to Gen Z and millennial phone users who are increasingly looking for ways to stay connected while protecting their peace by spending less time on social media.

When HMD talked about the idea of a phone that would allow people to disconnect, Mattel was “really intrigued,” said Ferrer. “The solution of a flip phones to meet consumers where they are together with the icon of Barbie sounded like a perfect match.”

The last year has seen so many Barbie brand partnerships that it feels impossible to keep track of them all. From Xbox to Airbnb, products and services are desperate to flaunt our name. It’s very flattering, but at the same time we’re being used to sell an awful lot of stuff — stuff that not everyone needs.

Bearing this in mind, I can’t keep out the big thoughts, like: Is the Barbie Phone in some way commodifying our resistance to doomscrolling? Is there a contradiction in HMD touting sustainability as a core company value while at the same time trying to capitalize on a potentially lucrative merchandising partnership that may well feed into the rampant consumerism that’s harming the Earth?

I don’t have all the answers. As Journalist Barbie, I’m just here to ask the questions. So I did. I spoke with HMD’s chief marketing officer, Lars Silberbauer, who told me that the Barbie phone won’t simply be a toy that doesn’t fulfill its purpose. It will be a fully functioning feature phone that will meet your core connectivity needs, so you can call all the other Barbies, or Ken, or even Allan (probably not though).

One of the biggest issues causing the accumulation of e-waste (more than 5 billion “dormant” phones are sitting unused in people’s drawers around the world) is that many devices aren’t built to last. That isn’t the case with the Barbie Flip Phone, Silberbauer said. “It’s going to last a long time,” he said.

Many phone companies, he added, still push people to upgrade on a yearly basis, which fuels consumerism. Conversely, the Nokia devices that HMD is known for making are durable and “very difficult to kill.” Those same standards will apply to the Barbie Flip Phone.

As a journalist who’s been writing about tech for some time now, there’s also part of me that wonders whether we Barbies really need pink, sparkly phones. It’s not that I don’t like pink, or sparkles (you should see my dream house). It’s just that not so long ago, it was a struggle to get technology companies run by boardrooms full of men to take women’s tech needs seriously. They used a strategy known in the advertising world as “shrink it and pink it” as a way to take a product that was already appropriate for both men and women and use gendered marketing to sell it to women — often charging more in the process.

Silberbauer quite fairly pointed out that there’s nothing to say that the Barbie phone is only for women. “It’s for any kind of fan of Barbie,” he said. The phone will pay tribute to the “great style” that Barbie has shown over the years, with the Mattel and HMD design teams working together to make it into the best possible product for the people who love Barbie.

As we know, everyone is a fan of Barbie, so that’s a lot of people. But for people who are also fans of other things, HMD promises there are more exciting partnerships in the pipeline, with the next collaboration coming this spring.

That’s all for now, Barbie! Stay tuned for more (non-Barbie) phone updates all this week from Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Read more: MWC 2024 Tech You Can Actually Buy Right Now

First published Feb. 24, 2024 at 4 a.m. PT.

There are few things more irritating on the day-to-day than losing your keys. Maybe losing your wallet comes close, but if you’ve ever found yourself taking your sofa apart to find your erstwhile car keys you know exactly what we mean. Thankfully, technology has taken away plenty of irritations and it can help here as well — Apple’s AirTags can ensure that you need never go hunting for anything ever again.

AirTags are some of our favorite item trackers and now you can pick up a pack of four for just $78. That’s a full $21 off the usual $99 asking price and just $3 more than the all-time lowest price we’ve seen for the set. There are no coupons or discount codes, but we don’t know how long we should expect this deal to last which means placing an order sooner rather than later is the best way to make sure you don’t pay more later.

Apple’s AirTag trackers work seamlessly with your iPhone and the Find My app, with a simple one-tap pairing process. You can then throw a tracker into a pocket as it is, or grab an AirTag accessory to clip them to keys, hook them onto a bag, stick them to your bike or attach them to anything else you want to keep tabs on.

Once set up, the AirTags will show up in the Find My app and display your items on a map so you can easily find them. If an item is in your vicinity, you can use the app to play a sound on the AirTag’s tiny speaker to help you find it and use the Precision Finding feature to be guided to your lost possession. This is handy if you’re just looking for your keys or wallet around the house, for example. If you lose an item farther afield, you can put it in Lost Mode, which will then ping you if the AirTag is detected on the Find My network and allow you to add a message and include your phone number or email address.

Read more: Have Apple AirTags? 5 Unexpected Places to Put Them

Each AirTag is powered by a CR2032 coin battery, four of which are included with your purchase. The batteries last around a year before you need to replace them. AirTags are IP67 water- and dust-resistant too, so you don’t have to worry about them getting damaged if exposed to the elements.

For more savings on top-rated Apple products, check out our roundups of Apple Watch deals, MacBook deals and iPhone deals currently available.

Microsoft’s Office suite of apps includes probably the most widely used programs in the world. As such, it’s no surprise that Microsoft introduced a subscription for it, and while it may be worth it for those who use it regularly and need all the latest features, for others the $7 a month adds up really quickly. But you don’t need to sign up for another monthly bill with this deal from StackSocial that nets you a lifetime license to Microsoft Office 2019 for just $30, which is a whopping 86% discount on the usual $229 price tag. This deal is good for both Windows and Mac, although you’ll have to take advantage of it quickly since the deal ends soon.

There are actually two versions of Office here. Mac users will get the basic Home and Business suite of apps, which includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams and OneNote, while Windows users will get the Professional Plus version with more apps. Just note that you won’t get Microsoft Teams here.

This isn’t the latest version of Office, but compared to signing up for the Microsoft 365 subscription suite, which costs $7 a month or $70 a year for individuals, StackSocial’s offer is a great deal. There is a free online version of Microsoft Office out there that you can use, but it lacks several features, so this may be a better option. Apple users should note that Outlook is now available as a free app for the Mac.

Some important things to note: You’ll get a one-time use code for a single computer, which means you won’t be able to download these apps on multiple devices. That does mean that if you upgrade to a new computer or your current one dies, you likely won’t be able to transfer the suite. These licenses also lack some of the added conveniences you’ll get with a 365 subscription, including OneDrive cloud storage and cloud-based AI features, including Microsoft Copilot. Additionally, these apps should work for as long as your computer does, but the Mac license has reached the end of its lifecycle, which means Microsoft’s support for this version of Office has ended. Windows users will have extended support through Oct. 14, 2025. There is also a risk that Microsoft could terminate the license at any time, but we’ve been running other versions of Office from StackSocial since early 2022 and have yet to encounter a problem.

Now that you have some sweet new software you might need a computer to go with it. Make sure to check out our regularly updated list of the best laptop deals to make sure you don’t overpay.

Travel can get really expensive, especially if you’re throwing airfare into the mix. And that cost can rise even higher if you’re booking international or long-distance flights. There are resources online to help you search for flight deals to help with the cost, but searching for bargains yourself can take up a lot of time and energy. And if you’re not familiar with the destination, it can be challenging to figure out which offers are actually solid deals. Investing in a Dollar Flight Club subscription can spare you the trouble, because DFC finds the best deals and sends alerts when great fares hit, helping you snag a cheap flight without the hassle.

Right now, you can grab a lifetime Premium Plus subscription from StackSocial for just $60, which is a massive discount on the usual $99 annual price, especially when you consider you won’t be hit with recurring fees. But this offer is set to expire March 1, so be sure to get signed up sooner rather than later if you don’t want to miss out.

The Dollar Flight Club Premium Plus plan gives you access to savings on flights in business, premium economy and economy seating, and includes both domestic and international deals. Once you sign up and add your home airports (choose up to four departing airports) you’ll get instant alerts via email and can book whenever and wherever using the web or the app, which is available for iOS and Android devices.

Plus, you can get perks and discounts of up to 50% off from various partners, including Babbel, Acanela Expeditions and Huckberry, as well as access to a variety of travel tips from DFC experts to help you plan your next adventure. If high flight prices have been stopping you from booking the vacation of your dreams, now’s the time to invest in a service that can help you find the best discounts, curated and delivered directly to you.

StackSocial is also offering a lifetime Dollar Flight Club Premium subscription for just $40, which is a pared-down version that has access to around 70% of the deals and you can set a start and departure point.

Read more: Best Luggage Deals

From chocolate phones to handheld batteries that throw a phone into them, this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona is serving as a showcase for how unique phones are still possible — even after years of touchscreen slabs running iOS and Android.

And this year it’s not just phone-inspired creations. Robot dogs and electric cars are also making the show floor their home this week, combining for an eclectic mix of technology to check out.

Here are the most attention-grabbing sights that we’ve seen so far at this year’s Mobile World Congress.

Motorola’s chocolate Razr

Sometimes, when attending a press event, tech companies putting on demos will provide various refreshments. Motorola decided to re-create its Razr phone in chocolate as its own snack for visiting journalists.

This edible edition of the Motorola Razr 40 Ultra — otherwise known as the Razr Plus in the US — shows off the “phone” in mid-fold with a display coated in the Peach Fuzz shade that debuted late last year.

The phone’s specs are otherwise just chocolate (aka cocoa butter and sugar instead of Snapdragon chipsets and lithium-ion batteries). And if you try to text on it, the bar might start to melt.

Energizer battery puts a phone inside

We’ve seen lots of phones advertise big battery life. But we don’t usually see a battery that advertises how it can be a big phone. But at Mobile World Congress, the company Avenir has developed an Energizer branded device that theoretically keeps going and going with a 28,000mAh battery. For comparison, a 5,000mAh battery is considered a large for a phone.

The Energizer Hard Case P28K’s battery comes with a 6.78-inch display, a 60-megapixel main camera, IP69-rating for water and dust resistance and a three-year warranty.

Unlike a lot of the concepts we’re seeing at MWC, Avenir reportedly does plan to sell this battery-with-a-phone. It’s said to go on sale this October for $300.

Motorola and Samsung’s wearable phones

Both Motorola and Samsung brought out phones that you could strap right onto your wrist like a watch. The Samsung Cling Band concept and Motorola’s similar concept device both can be used as a standard candybar phone — but that’s not what’s fun about them.

Both devices have screens that can bend backward, and it does so far enough that you can them curve it around your wrist. While neither company is announcing plans to develop these concepts into future products, it does signal a possible future for a smartwatch that could also literally be your phone.

Honor Magic 6 Pro lets you ‘tap’ with your eyes

The Honor Magic 6 Pro is offering a different way to control your phone. It uses artificial intelligence to track your eye movements, allowing you to open and interact with apps without needing to tap your screen.

We’ve seen phones sense eyes in the past, but mainly in limited uses like assisting with screen unlock or to play and pause media. While we haven’t yet tested the eye tracking itself, a demo video showing it off reminds me of using the since-retired Xbox Kinect camera. You use your eyes to focus on areas of the display, and after a few seconds the option gets selected.

While whether eye tracking becomes a practical way to use a phone isn’t yet known, after years of scrolling and swiping it’s nice to see new ways to control our mobile devices.

Barbie as a minimalistic phone

HMD has previously reinvented Nokia-branded basic phones with MWC debuts, but in 2024 the company plans to do the same with Barbie. The company announced that a Barbie-branded minimalistic flip phone is in the works, debuting sometime in 2024.

Having a Barbie phone itself — specifically as a minimalistic device — raises some interesting questions about what it could be like once we do learn more about it. Will it try to re-create the early 2000s flip phone aesthetic while providing access to essential communication apps like WhatsApp? Or will it dive into an even more simpler experience enriched by the Barbie brand while having more in common with an e-Ink device like the Light Phone 2.

What we do know for now is that Barbie can be anything, and HMD Chief Marketing Officer Lars Silberbauer said, “It’s for any kind of fan of Barbie.” We’ll find out more as the year continues, with the Barbie Flip Phone expected to debut in July.

One of our favorite projectors of the past year has been the BenQ HT2060. It offers excellent performance for the money, but on the downside it’s not as bright as some projectors, and it’s “only” 1080p. Enter the BenQ TK860i, which seems to be the result of someone asking “Yes, but what if more?”

The specs list certainly reads like a beefed-up version of the HT2060. It sports 3,300 claimed lumens, a nearly 50% increase from the HT2060, as well as 4K resolution. Like the HT2060, and unlike many similar projectors, the product does include a lens shift (though not a lot). The projector also has built-in streaming, which in this case is a bundled Android TV dongle.

Not surprisingly, it’s also more expensive. List price is 80% more expensive than the HT2060, at $1,800. After testing and comparing, the TK860i definitely offers enhanced detail over the HT2060, and is a great-looking projector. It’s not “80%” better, but if the extra money doesn’t hurt your wallet, this is a worthy step up.

Starting with specs

• Resolution: 3,840×2,160 pixels
• HDR-compatible: Yes
• 4K-compatible: Yes
• 3D-compatible: Yes
• Lumens spec: 3,300
• Zoom: 1.3x
• Lens shift: +10% (vertical)
• Lamp life (Normal mode): 4,000 hrs

The TK860i is a 4K, HDR-compatible projector. While no projector can fully take advantage of HDR or wide color gamut, it doesn’t have any notable issues playing back HDR content. BenQ claims a brightness of 3,300 lumens. I measured an impressive 1,942 in Bright mode, and 918 in the more accurate Cinema mode. (To put that in perspective, the brightest projector we’ve ever tested put out only slightly more lumens, at 2,098.) The contrast ratio was approximately 551:1, which is a little below average for DLP projectors, but better than LCD projectors in this price range.

While the amount of lens shift is small, only +10% vertically, that’s still more than most cheaper DLP projectors have. That, paired with a 1.3x zoom, should let the TK860i fit fairly easily in most rooms. I would have hoped for a bit more zoom and shift for the price, but that’s a big ask for this technology in this price range. If you need to mount or place the projector especially close to or far from the screen, this isn’t the projector for you.

The TK860i uses a traditional lamp, no LEDs or lasers here. In its Normal lamp mode, it’s rated to last 4,000 hours. At 4 hours of use a night, that’s about 2.5 years before you need a new $149 lamp. The ECO mode drops the brightness by about 35%, but increases lamp life to 10,000 hours. The SmartEco mode changes the lamp’s brightness depending on the brightness of the video, dimming for darker scenes, and extends lamp life to 15,000 hours, or approximately 10 years.

Inputs and dongles and ports, oh my

• HDMI inputs: 3 (1 with eARC)
• USB port: 3, +1 for service
• Audio output: Analog (3.5mm), Optical
• Internet (dongle): 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax 2.4GHz/5GHz
• Remotes: Backlit (1), not backlit (1)

Like many new projectors, the TK860i comes with a dongle for streaming, in this case one that uses Android TV. The dongle does not come preinstalled. Worse, you need a screwdriver to open the case to install it. That’s not a huge deal, but it’s definitely annoying. Also similar to other projectors that include dongles, there are two remotes. One is just for the projector, the other controls the streaming stick. Oddly, only the projector remote is backlit.

On the back of the projector there are a lot of inputs. I understand the need for manufacturers to include more features to justify higher prices, but I’m at a loss when someone would need three HDMI inputs on a projector. If you have that many sources you should be using a receiver or separate HDMI switcher. Don’t run three (long) HDMI cables to a projector. There are analog and digital audio outputs and both RS-232 and a 12v trigger for control. Two of the USB connections are on the back, one is inside to power the dongle.

Picture quality comparisons

I compared the TK860i to two of our favorite projectors, BenQ’s own HT2060, and the Epson HC2350. The HT2060 is much cheaper; it’s less than $1,000. I was curious to see what the extra money compared to the HT2060 would get you. Is the HT2060 great, or great for the money? The HC2350 is closer in price to the TK860i, $1,300 as of this writing, and closer to the BenQ’s claimed brightness (2,800 vs. 3,300). It’s also 4K. However, it’s LCD — and an extra $500 isn’t nothing. For some reason, the Epson doesn’t play well with others when connected to a distribution amplifier (DA), so it got its own source, while the BenQs shared a signal via the DA. I swapped source material so as not to bias the results, and viewed them all side-by-side on a 102-inch 1.0-gain screen.

Not surprisingly, there was no loser here. These are three great projectors. They each have their strengths, while the TK860i had the fewest weaknesses overall.

Color-wise, the TK860i is a little less accurate than both the HT2060 and HC2350. Those two are standouts in terms of the field, though. The colors don’t look wrong, even in the less accurate Bright mode, but both the Epson and the HT2060 just look a little more realistic. Grass is a little too green, for instance, on the TK860i. It’s better in the dimmer Cinema mode, but even still, the other two just look a little better in this regard. I wouldn’t call this a weakness per se, as the color isn’t bad, but it’s definitely the weakest aspect of the TK860i’s overall performance.

In terms of brightness, the Epson and TK860i were very close. I measured roughly 100 lumens less from the BenQ, but watching actual video the difference was negligible. Meanwhile, the HT2060 was noticeably behind here, not surprising given its 30% lower lumen claims, though in my testing I measured about 50% less. Still plenty for a 100-inch image, but the others pop a lot more.

When it comes to contrast ratio, one of the most important aspects of performance, the TK860i lands mid-pack. The HT2060’s contrast ratio is roughly 2.5x the TK860i’s, an average of 1,380:1 to the TK860i’s 551:1 (for more about how we measure this, check out How We Test Projectors). The TK860i’s impressive brightness does offset this somewhat, so side-by-side, the difference is less noticeable than you might think. However, the HT2060’s blacks are much deeper. Letterbox bars on 2.35:1 movies, for instance, are far less noticeable on the HT2060. There is more apparent depth to the HT2060’s image, but the TK860i doesn’t seem washed out. The Epson comes in a distant third, at 348:1. Its letterbox bars are gray and quite noticeable. Its image does appear more washed out than the other two. While the measured difference between it and the TK860i doesn’t seem huge, it’s quite noticeable in person.

Detail is an outright win for the TK860i. Not too surprising compared to the HT2060, which is 1080p. Side-by-side this is most noticeable in things like face wrinkles, textures in fabrics, and so on. The HT2060 doesn’t look soft, but definitely soft-er. The Epson is closer to the TK860i, but still a little softer. Neither projector has 3,840×2,160 pixels on their imaging chips, but the BenQ’s DLP pixel shifting looks a little sharper. A lot has been written about 4K vs. HD, but in practice it’s not as important as it seems. Yes the extra detail is nice, but this aspect is last in importance because if the TK860i didn’t do the rest right, the extra detail wouldn’t matter.

So where does the TK860i falter? Well, not in its performance, which is great. It’s the price.

Conclusion

The TK860i is a fantastic projector. It’s bright, has a decent contrast ratio, and sharp detail. Its color reproduction isn’t amazing, but it’s at least average for bright projectors. The question is the price. We’ve long held that $1,000 is the sweet spot for home theater projectors, offering the best combination of performance and price. Sure, you can spend more, but there’s diminishing returns as you spend more. As good as the TK860i is, it maintains that theory. Is it a better performer than the HT2060? Yes. It is a step up in detail, with a slight hit on contrast ratio that’s at least partially offset by the far greater brightness. Is it better than the HC2350? Also yes, but the resolution is closer, as is the brightness. The TK860i’s contrast ratio is much better, though. If you were considering the Epson at that price, the step up to the TK860i is even easier.

If you were to draw a line between the HT2060 at $1,000 and Epson’s LS11000 at $4,000, there isn’t linear performance improvement to go with the increase in price. The LS11000 isn’t four times better. The TK860i isn’t 80% better than the HT2060, nor is it 45% of the performance of the LS11000. Which is to say, if you’re willing to pay for incremental improvements, there are definitely improvements. If you want (or need) to save money, you don’t need to spend more.

As of this writing, the TK860i is $1,600, which makes this math a little easier. If that’s not a lot of money for you, the choice is easy: the TK860i creates a beautiful image. If that extra $600, or $800 at its MSRP, is a lot, the cheaper HT2060 is a fantastic projector.