Need a great holiday gift? Why not the OnePlus 8? If you know one of your loved ones needs a smartphone upgrade, then you can’t much better than one of OnePlus’s flagships. Available in Interstellar Glow and Glacial Green, you can now pick up this smartphone from the OnePlus Store for $599. This price is $100 off the MSRP of $699!
Why pick the base 8? While our review states that maybe this phone didn’t beat the OnePlus 7T, it’s still a great phone, and if you’re upgrading from an older phone, this is definitely a solid choice. And who doesn’t love the pearl pink-ish color of the Interstellar Glow? You also can’t complain about a Qualcomm Snapdragon 865, a 4,300 mAh battery, and a 48 MP camera!
Additionally, by purchasing the OnePlus 8 via the OnePlus store, you can sign up for 12-month 0% APR financing. You can even trade-in your old phone for more savings! It doesn’t need to be a OnePlus phone, either.
This deal is currently only available at the OnePlus store, so make sure to grab your phone directly from them!
Looking for something a little more powerful? The OnePlus 8 Pro is also on sale! It’s a more powerful flagship than the normal 8, but of course, that comes with a bigger price tag. If you’re interested, though, the OnePlus 8 Pro is available on Amazon for $799.
As for all of these OnePlus deals, they are live for Black Friday, so they should be available until at least then. But why wait and deal with a mad Black Friday rush? Grab your OnePlus 8 today and relax come next week.
As much as I love to play my Nintendo Switch in handheld mode, sometimes it can be a pain. Literally. If I’m playing a game in handheld mode that requires quick button presses, I find that my hand tends to start cramping out pretty quickly. My hands are pretty small, too — anyone with bigger hands is going to have a bad time trying to play games while holding onto the thin console. Some of the Nintendo Switch controller replacements can help with this, but they’re often expensive. Thankfully, there is another solution to this painful issue… Nintendo Switch grips!
Comfort grips for your Switch or Switch Lite can bulk up your system and just make it more comfortable to hold onto for long periods of time. We’ve rounded up the best Nintendo Switch grips, as well as the best Nintendo Switch Lite grips, below!
Nintendo Switch Comfort Grips
If you have an original Nintendo Switch, you’ll likely want a comfort grip that allows you to also take advantage of the Switch’s docked mode… or at least has some other functionality that makes it work putting on and taking off again. Here are six grips to choose from!
If you're looking for a case that works seamlessly with your Switch dock, the Mumba dockable case is perfect for you. Available in five different colors, this case provides bulk where you hold it but also slides into the dock. You can even remove your Joy-Cons!
Why just get a grip, when you can get a grip that does more? YoK's Switch grip allows you to store five Switch cartridges in it. Easily pack your favorites and have them all right at your fingertips! And of course, you also get the added comfort of a grip.
One small problem with Switch grips is that they don't really fit the Switch cases you can buy. Resolve that issue by getting the Satisfye grip and case bundle! The case allows you to store ten extra Switch games while protecting the screen.
Who doesn't love a matching aesthetic? Skull & Co's Switch grip offering allows you to customize the back grips to match your Switch Joy-Cons. So you can hold it comfortably and not spoil your aesthetic, how neat!
Have a special edition Nintendo Switch? Get a special grip to match! The ZenGrip Pro Tropical Edition has the color palette to match the special edition Switch's pastel blue and green Joy-Cons.
Why stop with just getting Switch Grips themselves? Get grips for the console, the Joy-Cons, and even the analog sticks! You'll certainly be ready to go after picking this bundle up.
You can’t use Switch grips with the Switch Lite, due to their different sizes. Here are three Switch Lite comfort grips that are unique to the smaller handheld.
Why just grip when you can also protect your Switch Lite from drops? The Hori Hybrid System Armor comes in Turquoise and Yellow, and will do both. So for the price of one, you can accomplish two tasks.
Insignia's Grip Case for the Switch Lite is slim, but still makes the handheld more comfortable to hold. Additionally, you can store up to four Switch games in the back!
Orzly's grip case is a bulky case for the Switch Lite?Available in ten styles, this case protects against shocks, makes your Switch Lite comfortable, and comes with analog stick grips.
You have the choices, but what’re the best grips to pick up? For the normal Switch, Mumba’s dockable Switch case is definitely the best bet. I don’t see much of a point in a Switch grip case that doesn’t work when putting the Switch into the dock. No one really wants to keep putting the grip on and off again! If you have a Switch Lite, then the Insignia Grip Case is the best choice, especially with the price point. It’s a relatively small grip case, yet it can hold extra games for you!
Microsoft Windows is 35 years old. On the 20th of November in 1985, Windows 1.0 was released, giving IBM-compatibles (what we now just call PCs) their first Graphical User Interface (GUI). At XDA, our relationship with Windows is kind of complicated and has ebbed and flowed with Microsoft’s mobile ambitions. One thing is for certain though. Without Windows, none of us would be here. So let’s take a potted look back at the operating system that shaped the others.
In the beginning…
Before there was Windows, Microsoft already had a firm grip on the PC market, as the designers of MS-DOS, the command language whose distant descendent can still be accessed via the CMD window today. Inspired by the likes of 1973’s Xerox Alto which came with a GUI out-of-the-box, and even earlier examples like 1963’s CAD-based Sketchpad, in 1981, a young Bill Gates began designing a WIMP GUI (Windows, Icons, Mouse, Pointer) to make the fledgling PC market more accessible.
The development cycle was slow, and by the time it came to market, several companies, including Apple, were already running GUIs, but Windows was something new. Apple had already demonstrated that using an operating system with a GUI was ‘democratising’ — the famous Ridley Scott 1984 Mac commercial saw to that, and so for many, the advantages of Windows over MS-DOS were already sold.
By late 1987, Windows 2.0, supporting i286 processors, arrived, and with it, a copyright lawsuit from Apple. Ultimately Microsoft won, given that most aspects of both operating systems came from the same influences. Windows 2.0 was the first version that allowed Windows to overlap, rather than be placed side-by-side in a dashboard formation. Windows 2.1 came in two versions — one for i186/i286 and one for i386 processors.
Third Time’s The Charm
Windows 3.0, released in 1990, was the breakthrough version and introduced virtual memory and allowed programs to reserve memory for specific tasks. Two years later, Windows 3.1 gave a new coat of paint and introduced us to “Windows for Workgroups”, the first edition aimed at allowing peer-to-peer networking in the office. (There was also a Windows 3.2, but it was only released in China).
The first version that most people remember was Windows 95, released in a hail of publicity and Rolling Stones endorsement. As well as looking like “Windows from the future”, it also was the first to allow you to run native 32-bit applications inside the GUI. It also brought plug-and-play, the first time you could add a printer, mouse, etc, without installing the drivers yourself. But the most important change in Windows 95 was the addition of Internet Explorer. Yes, this was Windows for the Internet age.
Windows 98 followed, and in 2000, the last MS-DOS version of Windows was released — Windows ME (Millenium Edition). It was universally loathed and began Microsoft’s cycle of “one good release, one bad release” which served them for the next 15 years.
Kernel Panic
Concurrently to all this, Microsoft had been working on Windows NT, an entirely new version of Windows that didn’t rely on DOS. It was aimed at enterprises, with the DOS version continuing to dominate. It was released concurrently with MS-DOS versions and used the same numbering system, right up until Windows 2000, which, as the name suggests, was released in 2000, alongside Windows ME. So many people chose Windows 2000 that a rethink was called for.
A year later, Windows XP arrived. It was the first unified edition of Windows, offering variants rather than two different versions. This was a game-changer. By this time, most offices were online, and many homes were dabbling with the Internet too. There were versions for servers, for tablets (long before the iPad and about 4 times the size), a media center edition, and an embedded version for specialist devices like ATMs.
At the same time, a separate edition, called Windows CE, was designed for mini-PCs, and it was running on its own kernel. That’s the version that also produced Windows Mobile, which our long-time readers might remember. It’s the operating system that inspired us to start XDA-Developers. Of course, running different kernels meant that the two systems were almost entirely incompatible, something that would plague Microsoft until it gave up on mobile development altogether.
Alter Vista
By the time Windows Vista arrived in 2006, Windows ruled the world. Almost every desk had a PC, and every PC ran Windows XP. So when Vista lumbered onto the scene with its beautiful new design and increased security from Windows Access Control (shudder), it seemed, at first glance, like the OS we’d been waiting for. But remember how we said there was one good version and then one bad version? This was the bad version. It was huge in size, carrying bloated code from the previous 15 years of Windows NT. Its memory footprint was massive, meaning that many older machines couldn’t run it. Drivers for Windows XP were almost completely incompatible with Vista, leaving many devices effectively useless until the manufacturers had rewritten them. Still, it wasn’t all bad. Vista still remains the only version of Windows that allows .mpg files as desktop wallpaper. The only problem was nothing else could run at the same time.
Microsoft tried to turn the tide in 2007 with what it called “The Mojave Project”, offering a focus group who had decided not to upgrade to Vista see “Windows Mojave” which was set to be released in 2008. Of course, it was just Windows Vista, and the whole thing was like mashing up vegetables into a child’s dinner. Vista’s reputation remained in the mud and uptake was limited.
Seven Nation Army
In an attempt to turn the tide, Microsoft released Windows 7 in 2009, which brought back more of the Windows XP experience but in the Vista shell, and with large chunks of redundant code stripped out to make it more agile. Apps and drivers designed for Vista were more or less 100% compatible with Windows 7, and the combination meant that Windows 7 received rave reviews and continued to be the most popular version of Windows by market share long after it had been superseded. It also brought multi-touch support and HomeGroup — a home user version of Workgroups — reflecting the fact that the days of just one device in every home were long gone.
By this time, the market had changed beyond all recognition. Form factors had started to spring up that had never been considered before — smartphones and tablets were becoming the norm, while widespread adoption of Wi-Fi brought us Netbooks and UMPCs. This, in turn, led to the arrival of alternative operating systems. The iPhone and iPad had, in turn, brought more people to Apple’s Macs, whilst Google decided that a small Linux-kernel based mobile operating system called Android would be a good punt.
The problem was that Microsoft was still in denial of this trend. It knew that people had choices beyond Windows, but assumed that it could do no wrong. Windows Mobile has been succeeded by Windows Phone which was based on the Windows NT kernel. Microsoft reasoned that by bringing the desktop and mobile operating systems closer together, it could overcome the threat from Android and iOS. The problem with that assertion was that in doing so, it nullified the entire previous Windows CE Mobile platform and the hundreds of thousands of apps that had been written for it. It was starting again in mobile as a late bloomer. After all — with its dominance of the desktop, what could go wrong?
Start/Stop
Then came one of the biggest missteps of all. Windows 8 brought a change that no one had asked for, and no one liked. It removed the iconic “Start” button, a feature of Windows since 1995. Windows 8 also brought in the “Metro” interface — a skin-on-the-skin that was meant to bring a commonality to all form factors. The problem is, it never worked. Windows Metro (now the Universal Windows Platform or UWP) was another example of Microsoft’s strategy of slashing-and-burning much of what it had done before, and although the original desktop and Win32 compliance remained, it was all fiddly and felt very “bolted on”.
Microsoft released a premature update called Windows 8.1, offered as a free upgrade, that returned much of the lost functionality, but the damage was already done. The last remaining netbook users were moving to Linux-based systems. Windows Phone 8 never captured the imagination and never achieved the interoperability with Windows 8 that had been promised. Android was now the dominant mobile OS, Mac usage was growing, and people could see for the first time that “Computer” didn’t have to mean “Windows”.
Anyone For Ten?
As we come closer to the present day, a complete rethink was required. Satya Nadella was now at the helm of Microsoft at a time when, for the first time in its history, it was no longer the dominant force it had always been.
Windows 10 was the biggest strategic change in Windows history. Windows 9 had been skipped over, presumably with Windows 8.1 meant to serve in its stead. For the first time, Windows was to become “software-as-a-service” with upgrades being offered as a complimentary download. When it was launched in 2015, it was offered as a free upgrade to anyone running Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 (Windows 8 users would need to upgrade to 8.1 first). But that came with its own perils. This was a Microsoft of aggressive updates, with nag screens, pop-ups, and crippled functionality to those who ignored new versions.
The biggest upset came when it was discovered that Windows 10 was downloading in the background on machines that hadn’t requested it, causing people on metered connections to run up huge, unexpected bills. Microsoft initially doubled down on its approach but then calmed down with the pop-ups and added a toggle to mark a connection as metered. It took another few years before it finally allowed users to delay updates until they were ready for them.
Windows Phone had been quietly ditched at this point, with its staff, including thousands who had been brought over from Nokia when Microsoft purchased it to make its branded handsets, redeployed or downsized. Microsoft now uses Android as its mobile partner and released its first Android handset, the Surface Duo, just a few months ago.
And so, as Microsoft Windows drifts towards middle-age, it’s no longer the only game in town. It has had to adopt changes in the way we work, play, and live, at the same time as changing them for us. Sometimes, just sometimes, it gets it wrong because it still tries to lead the consumer rather than follow its direction of travel. But still — Happy Birthday Windows. Because there’s little doubt that without Windows, there’d be no Android. And without Android, there’d be no XDA.
It’s 2020 and everything is smart (I didn’t say everyone). Smartphones, smart fridges, smart earbuds, smart coffee makers, you name it. We’ve even got smartwatches, and that’s what this review is about. The Zepp E is a smartwatch from Zepp, a sister company of Amazfit. It’s a mid-range option, priced at $250 in the US. Is it a good product, though? How well does it do basic watch things, and just how smart is it really? Let’s find out!
Zepp E: Specifications
Spec
Zepp E – Square
Zepp E – Circle
Size
43.3 x 35.7 x 9.0mm
42.2 x 42.2 x 9.1mm
Weight
36g
32g
Material
Stainless Steel
Stainless Steel
Water Resistance
5ATM
5ATM
Display
1.65″ AMOLED @ 348 x 442px
1.28″ AMOLED @ 416 x 416px
Battery Capacity
188mAh
188mAh
Sensors
Heart-rate/SpO2
Accelerometer
Geomagnetic Sensor
Ambient Light Sensor
Heart-rate/SpO2
Accelerometer
Geomagnetic Sensor
Ambient Light Sensor
Bluetooth
5.0 BLE
5.0 BLE
Band
20mm
20mm
About this review: Huami sent me a Zepp E Circle for review, which I’ve been using regularly for over a month. They had no input in this review.
In The Box & First Impressions
If you get the Zepp E, the first thing you’ll probably notice is how long the box is. Seriously, I know it’s a watch, but the bands don’t have to be straight out like they are. It is fairly nice packaging, though. You open the outer box to find an inner box. Open the inner box and there’s the watch. Take out the watch and the separator, and you’ve got another, smaller, box with the manual, charger, and an extra-long watch band in it.
The extra band is actually a nice touch. The one that the Zepp E comes with is too small for me, so it was nice to immediately be able to replace it with a longer version that fit my wrists better.
Moving onto the charger, I have to say I was kind of disappointed. Instead of using Qi charging, the Zepp E has one of those proprietary magnetic pogo-pin chargers. If you forget this charger at home, you won’t be charging the watch. Other than being proprietary, though, it’s pretty nice. It’s just a USB-A cable anchored to the charging base, so it’s easy to carry around and doesn’t require a special power supply.
Now for actually using the watch. It seems like Huami just can’t figure out how to make an easy pairing/setup process for its devices. When I reviewed the Amazfit PowerBuds, it took multiple tries to get them paired and set up in the app, and it was the same story with the Zepp E. And once I did finally get it paired, the out-of-the-box firmware update got stuck and failed multiple times before finally completing.
But once I actually got set up and got to use the Zepp E, my first impressions of the software were pretty good. It’s nothing fancy, and it isn’t standard software like Wear OS or Tizen, but it works pretty well. The custom software also means Zepp was able to give the watch an incredibly long battery life, which I’ll talk more about later.
The Zepp E Circle has a nondescript, nice and thin design
And finally, let’s talk about how the watch looks. The Zepp E is pretty nondescript. It’s not particularly flashy, nor is it ugly. I personally like it. The design for the round variant is just a simple circular stainless steel body with some glass on the front and some brackets for the watch band. It’s nice and thin, too, so if you’re reaching into a tight space, it’s less likely to get in the way. The Zepp E does have a pretty large diameter, though, so if you have a smaller wrist, it might look or feel a bit large.
That’s pretty much it for this section. In true Huami fashion, the initial setup is terrible, but once you get past that, the product itself seems to work pretty well. Of course, I’ll get into more detail later on, but my first impressions of the Zepp E were pretty good.
Zepp E Circle: Display
The Zepp E is a smartwatch, so of course, it has a display. This isn’t a boring old monochrome LCD, though. It also isn’t one of those fancy double-displays that are both OLED and basic LCD. The Zepp E has a nice 1.28″ middle-ground AMOLED display. And it’s a pretty nice display, too. With a pixel density of 326 PPI, it’s up there with much more expensive watches like the Galaxy Watch Active 2. Unless you’re really looking for it, you’re generally not going to see the pixels.
The Zepp E also gets plenty bright. Even in direct sunlight, I haven’t really had issues seeing it. Since the Zepp E comes equipped with an ambient light sensor, you’ll never have to worry about manually cranking up the brightness outdoors, or being blinded at night because you forgot to turn it back down.
So we’ve got high-res and high-brightness. What else? Well, 1.28″ is a nice diameter for a round display. It isn’t ridiculously large, but there’s still a lot of room to show dense information and make swiping around the UI easier.
Finally, a slight negative. While the display has a pretty high pixel density, and you usually don’t see the pixels, when you do, it’s a little easier than I’d like. There’s either some weird pixel layout here, or the software isn’t doing a very good job of anti-aliasing because sometimes things just look weird. It’s not a big deal by any means, but it is there.
Zepp E: Software
It wouldn’t be a smartwatch without some software, and this wouldn’t be a smartwatch review without talking about that software. So let’s talk.
The Zepp E comes with its own custom operating system. You won’t find WearOS or Tizen here. But, depending on both what you want in a watch, and how well the software is made, a custom system isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Unfortunately, Zepp’s software has a lot of negatives. There are some positives, too, but I’m a pessimist, so I’m starting with the bad stuff.
Notifications
First up, app notifications. One of the best features in any smartwatch (in my opinion) is the ability to see your phone’s notifications right from your wrist. While the Zepp E has a notification mirroring system, it’s really not that great.
By default, there are no apps enabled for receiving notifications, so you have to go in and enable the ones you want. There’s also no (de)select-all system, so if you want notifications from most of your apps, you’re going to be tapping for a while. On top of that, any new apps you install won’t automatically be enabled.
Once you finally get your notifications situation all set up, though… it’s still bad. The Zepp E ignores notification importance levels. So if you get a silent notification on your phone, the watch will still vibrate.
It doesn’t end there, though. When the notification pops up, it doesn’t actually tell you the name of the app. It does give you the icon (sometimes), and the notification title, but it’s not so easy to tell at-a-glance which app any notification is from. And if you actually want to read what the notification says? Good luck. Sometimes there’s text, sometimes there isn’t.
Next up, clearing notifications. When a notification pops up, you can’t clear it from there. You have to first back out with the single hardware button, then swipe up into the notification center, and then scroll down to the bottom to tap the “clear all” button. You can’t just dismiss one. And that button isn’t always there. It just randomly disappears.
Finally, the notification center itself on the watch. You enter it by swiping up from the bottom of the display, and it’s fine. It displays a list of notifications it’s received since you last cleared it. You can tap an individual notification to see more details about it (if they’ve been recorded). But it’s pretty basic. Like I said earlier, you can’t individually dismiss notifications, and the button to dismiss them all doesn’t always work.
When you do dismiss all the notifications, it doesn’t sync that state to the phone, or vice-versa. The Zepp E’s notification system is pretty separate from the phone’s. You may like this behavior, but personally, I think it’s annoying.
So that’s a lot of negatives about notifications, right? Yeah, it is. Needless to say, you probably shouldn’t get this watch if you’re looking for a convenient way to receive notifications.
Units
Continuing on with the negatives, it’s time to talk units. In case you don’t know, there are two major units systems in use in the world: metric and imperial. Since I grew up in the United States, I’m used to the imperial system. Yes, I know it’s objectively worse in most cases compared to metric, but it is what it is.
So because I’m in the US, the Zepp E automatically set itself to use the imperial system… sort of. While all of the numbers are imperial, the unit labels are still in metric. So my 8-mile bike ride is recorded as 8 kilometers, and the current temperature as I write this is apparently 50˚C. I’ve tried switching the units to metric and back a few times, but it hasn’t changed anything. I’ve even gotten a few firmware updates during this (long) review period, but none of them have fixed this issue, either.
Obviously, once you realize that this issue exists, you can automatically switch the units in your head. After all, the numbers are right. But it’s still a weird oversight and one that I’ve reported to Zepp without a resolution so far.
Usage
OK, it’s time to get more general. And less negative! Instead of complaining about specific problems in the software, it’s time for general complaints and praises. Again, the negatives are going first.
The Zepp E only has a single hardware button, so it relies a lot on swipes to navigate around the software. For the most part, it’s OK, but it’s not always intuitive. Swipes sometimes have different actions depending on which part of the software you’re currently in, and sometimes those swipes are just replaced with buttons to tap.
It’s just not always obvious what you’re supposed to do, like when exiting a workout. My instinct was to press the hardware button, but you’re actually meant to swipe in from the left of the screen and tap the stop button there. There’s no indicator that there’s a control panel there. You’re just supposed to know it exists.
Thanks to the way the display is designed, though, without any protruding bezel, the swipes are easy enough to perform. There’s no fighting with a lip to reach the edge of the display or anything.
But remember when I said this was going to be less negative? Well, that’s where this next bit comes in.
Overall, Zepp's software is pretty fluid
Overall, Zepp’s software is pretty fluid. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it freeze or stutter, and it’s always responsive to taps and swipes. The animations aren’t exactly fancy, and they run at a pretty low frame-rate, but they’re consistent when they play. That’s more than I can say for my Galaxy Watch Active2. While the animations there run at much higher frame-rates, I constantly notice them stuttering and I’ve had the watch freeze a few times with a blank home-face.
Features & Customization
Now for another less-negative segment: this one!
Since the Zepp E has its own custom software, customization is limited to what Zepp gives you. Luckily, they give you quite a bit.
In terms of watch faces, there are lots of choices. You can go for a simple time-only face with a customizable background image, or you can go for an information-dense face with the time, weather, fitness details, and more. There are also plenty of styles in each category and level of complexity. So while there may not be third-party options, you’ll probably be able to find a watch face that works for you.
But what about apps? Unfortunately, there’s no app store for the Zepp E. The apps already on the watch are all you get. There are plenty of apps, though, mostly fitness-focused, like measuring your stress or SpO2 level or starting a workout. There are also a few non-fitness apps, like a compass and a to-do list.
While you may not be able to use the Zepp E to navigate through the city, there’s still plenty it has to offer in terms of functionality.
Zepp App on your smartphone
And now something that’s technically software, but not really the watch software: the phone companion app. Previously known as the Amazfit app, the Zepp app lets you do quite a few things involving a connected Zepp E.
On the home page, the Zepp app gives you a summary of all things fitness: step count, heart-rate, goal tracking, etc. Tap a card or tile to see more details about it. Over on the “Enjoy” page, the Zepp app lets you set various options, like choosing what your watch should do when you’re getting a call, setting up an alarm clock, finding the device, and a whole lot more. And finally, the Profile page. This is where you can see your connected Amazfit or Zepp devices, and change advanced options. You can check for firmware updates, take a customer satisfaction survey, and do some more random things.
Overall, the Zepp app is actually pretty nice. It’s lacking polish in some areas, and I’ve never had very good luck with the initial pairing process or firmware updates, but once it’s working, it works pretty well.
Zepp E: Fitness
The main focus of quite a few smartwatches is fitness, and the Zepp E is no different here. But how many fitness features are there, and how well do they work?
Workout Tracking
Like any fitness-focused watch, the Zepp E has workout tracking. You can choose from a whole bunch of different workouts, including running, walking, cycling, swimming, climbing, hiking…. even skiing is an option. And of course, there are the standard gym-related tracking options for the elliptical and other activities.
I’ve mostly used the Zepp E to track cycling, and at least compared to my Galaxy Watch Active 2, it does pretty well. All the metrics, like average heart rate, distance, and the path taken, all match almost exactly. The only problem I’ve had is the occasional notification about losing GPS, but it doesn’t really seem to affect anything.
One notable omission from the Zepp E’s fitness tracking, though, is automatic tracking. The Galaxy Watch Active 2, for example, is able to detect when you’re doing a certain known workout and automatically track it. This has been useful for me since I tend to forget to manually start the workout. It’s not exactly a big issue, but it would have been nice to have.
Sensors
But how does the Zepp E track workouts? Well, for things like position and speed tracking, it uses the Bluetooth link to your phone. For everything else, there’s a set of sensors on the back.
To give you better workout data, the Zepp E is able to track and record your heart-rate and SpO2 level. It can also use that data to do things like tell you how well you sleep or how stressed you are. I don’t really have any way to check the accuracy of the SpO2, but the measurements I’ve gotten aren’t in the 80s, like a certain Samsung watch.
Interestingly, there’s also an ambient light sensor on the Zepp E. I don’t know where it is, but I do know that moving the watch under a bright light will cause the screen to smoothly brighten and vice-versa. This is definitely a nice feature, and one I’m not sure even the Galaxy Watch Active 2 has.
If having auto-brightness on your watch isn’t enough, how about a compass? The Zepp E has a geomagnetic sensor in it, along with a simple compass app. So if you’re stranded in the middle of the woods somewhere, remember to bring your Zepp E.
Now, as far as I know, the Zepp E doesn’t have a built-in GPS. If you’re going to use it to track your workouts, it’ll need to be connected to your phone. Of course, Zepp doesn’t really seem to be marketing this as a standalone watch, so that makes sense.
Extra Features
This is going to be a short section. While the Zepp E has most of the basic features you’d expect in a fitness-focused smartwatch, it doesn’t really have much extra. The only potentially notable feature is the inclusion of a vibration motor. There’s no speaker or microphone, but you can still get alerts with a virtual tap on the wrist.
Zepp E: Battery & Charging
One of the major limitations of smartwatches seems to be battery life. It’s not hard to find $1000 watches that only last a day or two at most on a charge.
Well luckily, the Zepp E isn’t $1000. Also luckily, it lasts a really long time. Even with workout tracking, it should easily last at least five days before it needs to be charged again. At that point, charging speed doesn’t really matter. Just charge it over the weekend or put it on the charger for a bit when you can.
Even with workout tracking, the Zepp E lasts at least five days before needing a charge
It’s a good thing that the battery life is so good, too, because the Zepp E uses one of those proprietary magnetic pin chargers. The charger is a simple cable with a USB-A plug on one end and the charging interface on the other, so it’s small, light, and easy to carry, and will work with any 5V USB socket.
But if you forget the charger, you’re not going to be topping up your watch. The Zepp E doesn’t have any form of wireless charging, Qi, Samsung, Apple, or otherwise.
Zepp E Circle: Comfort & Fit
When it comes to something you’re supposed to wear on your wrist all day, it’s pretty important that it’s comfortable, whether that concerns how the watch itself feels on your wrist or how good the stock band is.
My review unit of the Zepp E came with Zepp’s 20mm leather band, and unfortunately, it’s not very comfortable. The edges of the band are kind of sharp, and it digs into my skin, which isn’t really that fun. Luckily, it’s just your standard 20mm watch band, and can be replaced with any other standard 20mm watch band.
Since I’d already replaced the band on my Galaxy Watch Active2, I just put Samsung’s stock silicone band on my Zepp E. While it’s not perfectly comfortable, it’s definitely better than the leather one. Zepp does also provide metal and rubber bands, but I don’t have them so I can’t say how good they are.
Aside from the band issues, though, the Zepp is plenty comfortable. It’s much thinner than my Galaxy Watch Active2, so it’s even harder to notice. I have no problem wearing it for a day and occasionally through the night.
Conclusion
The Zepp E is a pretty solid smartwatch
Overall, the Zepp E is a pretty solid watch. You’re not getting some of the more fancy features you see from Samsung or Apple, such as ECG and automatic tracking, and there are currently no third-party apps or watch faces available, but seeing as the Zepp E Round costs $250 in the US, I’d say there’s some justification.
There are even places where the Zepp E does better than its more expensive competition, like in battery life. Apple and Samsung can’t even hope to get 5 days normal usage from their watches. If you want a featured smartwatch with good battery life, you’ve found it here.
The only real complaint I have with the Zepp E is the software quality. Like I mentioned earlier, the setup process just doesn’t work well at all. And little quirks like it showing the wrong units for measurements aren’t terrible, but it does show lack of attention to detail.
In the end, though, I do like the Zepp E. It’s a solid product, and it’s good to see some midrange options for smartwatches.
If you’re interested in buying the Zepp E, you can grab it on Amazon in the US for $249.99.
USB or ‘Universal Serial Bus’ is one of the oldest and most popular interfaces today. While it was initially introduced as a computer port, it is now seen on almost every single piece of tech including smartphones, gaming consoles, cameras, etc. in some form or the other. The main objective of making USB was to provide a standardized connection of peripherals to PCs. Today, USB stands true to its name, thanks to the wide acceptance and a broad variety of supported hardware and software. Let’s take a look at the brief history of USB as well as list all the various types of connectors and standards.
How did USB come into existence?
The development of USB began in 1994 with the aim to make a single connector that could basically replace a number of connectors seen on PCs. The purpose of USB was also to bring a more simple software configuration of all devices that could connect through USB, to allow faster data rates for external devices, and to address the usability issues of existing interfaces. USB was not a one-man invention though. It was a group effort that included a total of seven companies namely Compaq, DEC, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, NEC, and Nortel. The team led by Ajay Bhatt worked on the standard at Intel and the first integrated circuits supporting USB were produced in 1995.
USB 1.0
The first specification called USB 1.0 made its debut in January 1996 offering data transfer speeds of 1.5 Mbps (Low Speed) and 12 Mbps (Full Speed). The decision to add two-speed configurations was taken so that it could support both high-speed devices like printers and disk drives as well as low-cost peripherals like keyboards and mice. USB 1.1 was actually the first widely used specification as it made its first appearance on the Apple iMac in September 1998. A variety of manufacturers followed Apple and started producing legacy-free PCs with USB ports.
USB 2.0 and USB 3.0
In April 2000, the USB 2.0 specification was announced after getting consent from the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF). It was made available in 2001. Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Lucent Technologies (Nokia), NEC, and Philips pushed for higher data transfer rates, where the new standard brought speeds of up 480 Mbps. We then saw USB 3.0 publish on 12 November 2008 to further increase data transfer speeds to up to 5 Gbps, which was also called SuperSpeed. The new standard also focused on decreasing power consumption, increasing power output, and provided backward compatibility with USB 2.0. The first set of devices featuring USB 3.0 came out in January 2010.
USB 3.1 Gen 1 and Gen 2
The USB 3.1 specification was first announced in July 2013 and this is where things started to get a bit confusing. It was launched in two versions, USB 3.1 Gen 1 and USB 3.1 Gen 2. While the first one retained USB 3.0’s 5 Gbps (SuperSpeed) transfer mode, Gen 2 introduced SuperSpeed+ transfer mode with maximum data signaling rate to 10 Gbps. In September 2017, the USB 3.2 specification was published which yet again brought a change in the naming scheme. USB 3.2 Gen 1 was actually the same as USB 3.1 Gen 1, USB 3.2 Gen 2 was the new USB 3.1 Gen 2 and USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 was the newest and fastest offering speeds at up to 20Gbps.
USB 4
The latest standard is called USB 4 which was announced last year by the USB Promoter Group. The new USB 4 standard will offer 40 Gbps maximum speed similar as well as compatible with Thunderbolt 3, DisplayPort Alt Mode 2.0, and better resource allocation for video. Devices with USB 4 are expected to arrive by next year. Additionally, USB 4 will also be optimized for Thunderbolt 4, which was announced at the beginning of this year.
Thunderbolt
Unlike the USB standard which prides itself upon universality and acceptance as a “standard”, Thunderbolt is a standard that is developed and licensed by Intel. It doesn’t form part of the history of USB as it does not succeed or precede any USB standard, but it bears mentioning just to clear up any confusion. It is a cross-platform data and power transfer standard, but devices need to be certified for use with this standard. The protocol is often found in laptops and PCs and can be used to connect DisplayPort-compatible devices including external monitors as well as PCI Express (PCIe) peripherals including external graphics cards, hard drives, Wi-Fi or Ethernet connectors, over a USB-C port. The current generation of the protocol – Thunderbolt 3 – supports upstream or downstream bandwidths of up to 40Gbps and serves as the basis for USB 4 specifications. The new Thunderbolt 4 standard is expected to bring additional features over Thunderbolt 3.
USB Connectors and Ports
Before we talk about the various types of USB ports and connectors, let’s talk about the difference between the connector and the port. The port is what you have on your device like a smartphone or PC. It is where you plug in a cable or external device, say a thumb drive. The connector is usually seen on the cable itself that plugs into the port. This means you need a matching port for the connector to plug-in. One also needs to understand that a USB standard relies on the connector and port combination. The newer the port/connector, the newer standard it can usually adopt. Having said that, there are cases where manufacturers implement older USB standards to newer ports/connectors to save costs.
Image credits: Wikipedia
USB-A
The very first flat, rectangular connector is still a common sight on devices like PCs, gaming consoles, TVs, etc. It has served well over the years to transfer data and power efficiently and currently offers the USB 3.2 standard. It has seen upgrades in terms of bus lanes and transfer speeds but overall, the design has remained the same.
USB-B
USB-B is not that common anymore but you might still see this port on large devices, like scanners or printers as well as on certain audio devices. The port has a squarish look while the other side of the cable would most likely have a USB-A port to connect to a PC.
Mini-USB
Now, this was a smaller port but it was based on the USB-B port. It was primarily used for charging and transferring data from devices like cameras and MP3 players, although it isn’t very common anymore. There was a Type-A version as well, but both were soon taken over by a smaller version, the micro-USB.
Micro-USB
Micro-USB was one of the most popular USB ports thanks to the adoption in smartphones, tablets, and a variety of other portable gadgets and accessories. While it is being phased out in favor of the USB-C port, you can still find a variety of devices that still rely on the port.
USB-C
This is the current standard and is finally the first USB port that you can plug correctly in one go as it is reversible. Apart from offering faster data and power delivery speeds, it also offers display connectivity making it the perfect universal port. You can see this port on almost every new-age device from smartphones, laptops, tablets, headphones, and so on. It has the potential to deliver 100w of power, making it suitable for charging a wide range of devices including laptops. This is also the new-age connector for the Thunderbolt standard offering 40 Gbit/s and 4K video output.
Power Delivery
Now apart from transferring data, USB has been used for charging devices as well. Up until USB 3.1, the maximum power one could get was 5V/900mA over USB Type-A. This was followed by USB Fast Charge, a new standard that increased speeds to 5V/1.5A. These charging speeds were suitable for small devices and certain smartphones as well. However, with the improvements in technology and a requirement for much higher battery charging speeds, the USB Implementers Forum introduced USB Power Delivery. It has become an industry-standard open specification that can provide high-speed charging with a variable voltage of up to 20V and 5A at 100W depending on the device. This can be used to charge anything from smartphones to laptops using the USB-C connector on both ends.
The USB port is finally living up to its name. After going through various revisions over the year in terms of hardware and software, we can now say that the USB (thanks to the Type-C) is indeed a universally accepted standard. Not only can it deliver data and power at fast speeds, one can even use it to input or output video. No wonder even Apple is slowly moving away and replacing its Lightning connector with USB Type-C.
Happy Black Friday! Wait, that’s next week? You could have fooled me, as many retailers have begun their big holiday sales a week early (and some even earlier than that). Verizon is one of those retailers, and they have a lot of really good deals this year if you’re switching from another carrier. This isn’t shocking, considering the number of promotions they usually have, but these Verizon Black Friday deals are really on another level!
This year, if you switch to Verizon, sign up for a Play More, Do More or Get More Unlimited plan, and trade-in your old phone, you’ll be eligible for a whole bunch of deals, including:
12 free months of both PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now
Up to $1,350 off a 5G capable phone
Free Verizon Stream TV
There are a couple of things to keep in mind, however. First, the amount you get off with your new 5G phone will depend on the model, so make sure to check and see how much your chosen smartphone will be off when you decide. Next, the 12 months of PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now are only for new lines, which makes sense if you’re switching from another carrier. If you’re just upgrading your phone and are already a Verizon customer, you get 3 months of both services instead. Finally, Verizon Stream TV only works for new accounts–if you had it in the past for some reason or another, you can’t get this service again for free.
Got all that? Then get to shopping, and maybe our round-up of best Verizon phones can help you out!
But, that’s not all. Verizon’s Black Friday deals also include some incentives to switch to Fios, the company’s internet service. Available in 200 Mbps, 400 Mbps, and a 1GB connection, you can choose the Fios speeds that work best for you and are in your area. If you sign up before November 30, you get a lot of extra goodies, too:
12 free months of both PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now
Amazon Echo Dot and Smart Plus (with 200 Mbps sign-up)
Amazon Echo Show 5 (with 400 Mbps and 1GB sign-up)
Amazon Ring Stick Up (with 1GB sign-up)
Verizon Stream TV (with 1GB sign-up)
It’s certainly a lot, and these speeds are better than most of the other services in my area, at least. Check out availability in your area!
Get some of the fastest internet in the country with Verizon Fios. You'll also get free Amazon smart home devices and a free 12 months of PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now.
Google Chrome support for Windows 7 was supposed to end summer of 2021, but because of challenges presented by COVID-19, Google has announced an extension.
The search giant revealed Chrome is extending support for Windows 7, including security and productivity benefits, until at least January 15, 2022. That’s a six-month extension from the original target date. Google said it will continue to “evaluate the conditions our enterprise customers are facing, and communicate any additional changes in the future.”
This year has presented a lot of challenges for organizations of all sizes. Facing difficult business and technology decisions, supporting a challenging work environment, and navigating uncertainty are among just a few of the issues IT leaders have faced over the course of 2020.
Google came to the decision to extend support after soliciting feedback from enterprise customers. Apparently, a lot of organizations planned to migrate to Windows 10 this year — 21 percent of organizations surveyed, Google said — but those plans were put on hold following the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s one less thing to worry about for everyone, making the transition a little less stressful.
Google said that by extending Chrome support for Windows 7, enterprise customers have “the flexibility they need to continue supporting their workforce.”
On the consumer side, Google recently introduced a massive update to Chrome that features significant speed improvements and other helpful features, like tab searching.
