Motorola introduced the Moto G24 last week, and today, the brand announced the Power version, which is basically the Moto G24 with a bigger battery, faster charging, and a higher-res selfie camera.
The Motorola Moto G24 comes with a 5,000 mAh battery, 15W charging, and an 8MP selfie camera, while the Moto G24 Power packs a 6,000 mAh cell with 30W charging support and sports a 16MP selfie shooter.
The rest of the specs remain the same across both models, meaning you get the Motorola Moto G24 Power with the Helio G85 SoC, a 6.56" 90Hz HD+ LCD, and two rear cameras - 50MP primary and...
Samsung announced the Galaxy S24 trio two weeks ago, and the devices are now available for purchase. Open sales began today with the Galaxy S24, Galaxy S24+ and Galaxy S24 Ultra available for immediate pickup in Black, Gray, Violet, or Yellow colors from carriers and retailers.
Samsung is also selling the devices on its website in some markets, where the trio is offered in three more exclusive colors – Orange, Green, or Blue.
US
Galaxy S24
Galaxy S24+
Galaxy S24 Ultra
8/128GB
$800
-
-
8/256GB
$860
...
The Samsung Galaxy S24 series unveiled over a week ago comes with Galaxy AI - the Korean brand's generative AI service powered by Google Cloud. Samsung already confirmed Galaxy AI will come to older models in H1 2024, and now TM Roh, President and Head of MX business, Samsung Electronics, has said the company is committed to bringing Galaxy AI to about 100 million Galaxy mobile devices worldwide this year.
Roh also told ET Telecom that despite the costs involved in developing Galaxy AI, the features will remain free to use until 2025. However, the brand is yet to decide what happens...
vivo's very slow international rollout of its X100 Pro flagship smartphone continues. This phone was announced for China in November, where it promptly launched that same month, then it made its global debut in mid-December, then it launched in India earlier this month. And now it's finally almost available in Europe.
It's still not listed on any of vivo's European websites, but the company did announce the pricing at least. The X100 Pro will go for €1,199, which might be more than you were expecting considering that its Indian price translates into approximately €998. Those are the weird...
Apple made the Vision Pro headset official last June, following years and years of rumors about such a product. On January 19, the company finally started taking pre-orders, with initial shipments scheduled for February 2. In the meantime, however, the shipping estimates have slipped into weeks, given the headset's popularity - it's estimated that over 180,000 units have been pre-ordered.
So clearly, people are intrigued by the Vision Pro. While it may not be a mass-market product yet, with its price and convoluted ordering procedure, it's definitely making a lot of people interested. Now...
The Tecno Pova 5 Pro came out last August, and its successor is already on the way. According to Tecno itself, the Pova 6 Pro will be made official at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona at the end of next month.
It will be the first Tecno phone to come with support for Dolby Atmos, following Tecno and Dolby Laboratories signing a partnership deal for this exact purpose. It's not just the Pova 6 Pro - other, yet-unnamed members of the upcoming Pova 6 series will get Dolby Atmos too, along with all future Camon and Phantom series devices.
Tecno says this will provide its users with "a...
The latest phone to go through our battery testing cycle is the Galaxy S24 – Samsung’s 2024 compact flagship offering. Armed with a 4,000 mAh battery, this year’s smallest S-series phone managed an impressive 12:07-hour active use score which positions it ahead of its predecessor. Our review unit is equipped with Samsung’s Exynos 2400 chip for what it’s worth, but we'll try and procure a Snapdragon unit for comparison purposes when we get the chance.
Breaking down the scores by category, S24 posted a 23:26-hour talk time endurance which falls short of the Galaxy S23 and S23 FE models....
I love a good ergonomic chair. I've been able to test dozens of chairs, yet I still enjoy it. There is something about unboxing new gear, getting to try it out, and customizing it to what I like that I cannot get enough of.
Flexispot C7: Unboxing and First Impressions
The Flexispot C7 fits this category beautifully with its impressive customization and highly comfortable sitting experience. Having hand-tested many of the best office chairs, I can say this is one I would happily pick up for an entire day of use. Further, I'd be ok with this being my only chair if I had only one. Ergonomic chairs, as a whole, are vital to a healthy working experience if that work is at a desk. If you spend long hours sitting at a desk or in front of a computer, finding a supportive chair that prevents back pain and doesn't encourage slouching is crucial. This will make you more comfortable and help maintain your overall health.
I set up straight away after the delivery man dropped off my chair. The unboxing was simple; I could set everything up, even with two toddlers dancing around me. After only 10 minutes of build time, I had the chair fully assembled, and I was on to adjustments. I could have easily spent a solid 20 minutes fine-tuning every adjustment feature, but I was pretty happy after just 5 minutes of twisting and turning some adjustment levers and knobs.
Specs
Dimensions: 28 x 30 x 47-56in
Maximum Load: 300 lb
Colors: Black or grey + black
Warranty: Up to 10-year warranty
A few key features help make this chair stand out as a great ergonomic chair. First, the adjustable lumbar support for personalized back comfort is an obvious win. This self-adaptive back support moves with me even with the most minute movements to continue to support my lower back. Second, the breathable mesh back has allowed me not to overheat, as I have experienced in other non-mesh back chairs, nor bunch up and feel uncomfortable.
The mesh back has enough balance between support and give that I can sit without feeling like I need to adjust constantly. Next, I can move the 4D armrests to match my needs perfectly. I am 6'1" with broad shoulders. With these 4D armrests, I can easily adjust each armrest to support my arm for my current task. Lastly, the reclining feature in this chair is excellent. I chose not to do the footrest of this chair, as I have it on my OdinLake Ergo Plus 743 and only occasionally use it for work. However, this chair's 90 to 128-degree recline range is insane and is excellent for all working positions.
(Image credit: Collin Probst // Future)
Flexispot C7: Design and Build Quality
Flexispot has always impressed me with its build quality. I have reviewed several from the company's range over the years, and every time I have picked up their newest item, I have been thrilled to see their craftsmanship and build quality continues to stay high. With the C7 Ergonomic Office Chair, I love how modern and straightforward this chair looks. I have never been a fan of the flashy gamer chair look, so a sleek and minimalist office chair is much appreciated. This chair could be in a home office, a board room, a professional cubicle, or an executive office.
As mentioned, the overall construction is excellent. I don't hear any creaking when I move, I don't feel anything catching or slipping when I adjust or recline, nor do I feel any concern that this chair won't last me years of daily use. Flexispot's chairs, much like their desks (like the Flexispot E7 Pro), are fantastic all around.
(Image credit: Collin Probst // Future)
Flexispot C7: In use
I have enjoyed using this chair over the last several weeks. In this line of work, I have become accustomed to high-end ergonomic chairs and fancy gear. The C7 from Flexispot does not disappoint when it comes to my expensive and high-functioning taste.
(Image credit: Collin Probst // Future)
The Flexispot C7 is comfortable. I have been sitting in this chair for my entire working day for about eight workdays in a row now, and I have not noticed any pinch points or pain in my back. Usually, in lower-quality chairs, I need to adjust, stand up, or change chairs altogether due to lower back pain.
With the C7, I haven't had to do that at all. Now that I have dialled into how I want it for my body, I have not had to adjust it. The lumbar support helps promote better posture for me. Looking at the design, I thought I'd be slouching to sit in the chair upright. However, the lower back portion helps support me, while the upper back area gives tension without pushing me where I don't want to go. All of this, of course, can be adjusted for different weights, heights, and use cases. Compared to other mid-tier ergonomic chairs, I have yet to see a ton with this level of customization. You can adjust the chair's many areas to make it a perfect, custom fit.
Flexispot C7: Final verdict
I really like this chair all around. It's minimalist, can blend in without being overly flashy, can adjust to my back, fits my tall frame, is comfortable to sit in all day, and doesn't cost as much as a car. This chair is an excellent solution for office managers looking for a quality ergonomic office chair for their employees; it's great for home office use, for your office, cubicle work, and more.
After all, if you are going to spend your working hours, which is a large portion of your day, sitting in a chair to get your job done, which is your livelihood, it's worth investing in a quality chair that will help support you throughout the day and not leave you exhausted, in pain, and wishing you had a better chair.
If I have learned anything in my professional career, choosing the right gear, only sometimes a bit more expensive, is always worth the return. This doesn't mean I endorse spending the most money possible and buying the most expensive gear, but splurging a little, like on this C7 chair, will leave you thrilled that you did so.
Kitting out the office? See the best standing desks as tested by TechRadar Pro
If you came here looking to buy into hi-res audio for a song, you’ve come to the wrong place. This may be Astell & Kern’s most affordable digital audio player, but the A&norma SR35 nevertheless represents a significant investment – and, what’s more, an investment that strongly suggests you should spend pretty big on headphones too.
The good news, though, is that it’s completely worth it. The A&norma SR35 is easily one of the best MP3 players on the market (and in terms of file support, even to call it such a thing is to do it a disservice). From the understatedly lavish nature of its build and finish to the in-no-way-understated nature of its specification, there seems no apparent compromise where the SR35 is concerned.
Quite obviously, Astell & Kern set out to wipe the floor with any and all price-comparable competitors when the SR35 is considered as an overall package – and that’s what it’s done.
This player is nice to hold, simple and logical to operate, and a pleasure to listen to. Sonically, it’s very accomplished indeed, with the sort of all-court game that not only makes your smartphone sound like someone playing music in the next train carriage, but puts some quite well-regarded (but inevitably less expensive) dedicated digital audio players into sharp perspective too.
If the slanted screen doesn't bother you, there's so much to love (Image credit: Future)
Astell & Kern A&norma SR35: Price and release date
Priced $799 / £799 / AU$1,299
Released May 2023
The Astell & Kern A&norma SR35 is on sale now, and in the United Kingdom it will cost you £799. It’s yours for $799 in the US, while in Australia you’ll need to part with AU$1,299.
Only in Astell & Kern-land can this be considered ‘entry-level’ – being one of the company's most affordable products in a range is not the same as being authentically ‘affordable’.
For context, the company's flagship offering, the fabulous A&ultima SP3000, will set you back an eye-watering $3,699 / £3,799 / AU$5,499. At the other end of the scale, itsNovember 2021-issue excellent Astell & Kern A&norma SR25 MKII is now available for a little less than the newer SR35, at around $749 / £699 / AU$1,099. The difference in ticket price is negligible, especially when you factor in the age of the SR25 MKII.
All of which is a roundabout way of saying that the SR35 had better be something pretty special to justify that price-tag…
As with the SR25 MKII, there's a 4.4 balanced headphone jack for extra connectivity (Image credit: Future)
Astell & Kern A&norma SR35 review: Features
Quad Cirrus Logic CS43198 DACs
64GB of internal memory
Three headphone sockets
Like I said, it’s only possible to describe the A&norma SR35 as ‘entry level’ when you’ve digital audio players costing the thick end of four grand in your line-up. Because make no mistake, Astell & Kern has specified this player well in excess of what you might reasonably expect of the ‘entry level’.
Amplification, for instance, is provided by a new in-house A&K design called ‘New Generation AMP’. Digital-to-analogue conversion is handled by no fewer than four Cirrus Logic CS43198 DAC chips – and if you’re trying to eke out battery life, or listening to less than fully hi-res content, the SR35 can run in ‘dual-DAC’ mode instead. This hardware is part of Astell & Kern’s ‘Teraton Alpha’ platform, designed to minimise noise, maximise performance and offer what the company casually calls ‘ultimate sound’. ‘Teraton Alpha’ has featured in Astell & Kern players before now, but only the much more expensive ones.
There are wired and wireless connectivity options here, of course. Wireless stuff runs to dual-band wi-fi (handily, the SR35 is ready to download and run numerous music streaming service apps like Apple Music, Qobuz and TIDAL – and it’s Roon Ready too) and two-way Bluetooth 5.0 (with aptX HD and LDAC codec compatibility). The USB-C socket on the bottom of the chassis can be used to transform the SR35 into a DAC (if you want to use it to deal with content stored on, for example, a laptop computer), as well as being the way to charge the internal battery.
Battery life is very dependent on how you’re using the player. Listen to 16bt/44.1kHz CD-standard content at moderate volume using wired headphones, and you should expect 20 hours or so of playback. Switch up to some properly high-resolution stuff, at big volumes, using wireless headphones, and that figure will reduce by over 50 percent. Charging from ‘flat’ to ‘full’ takes around two-and-a-half hours.
Wired headphones can be plugged into one of the three headphones sockets on the player’s top edge. There’s an unbalanced 3.5mm output, of course, and there are 2.5mm and 4.4mm balanced alternatives – because, as I said, this device is only nominally ‘entry level’.
Internal memory is 64GB. The operating system eats into this just a little, of course – and if you’re loading in big high-resolution files, it’s not going to be long before that’s all used up. There’s a microSD card slot next to the USB-C on the device’s base, though, and it can accept cards of up to 1TB. Which should last you a little longer.
Features score: 5/5
Astell & Kern A&norma SR35 review: Design
108 x 64 x 16mm (HxWxD)
184g
Angular and aluminum
No, at 108 x 64 x 16mm (HxWxD) this isn’t the smallest digital audio player you’ver ever seen, and at 184g it’s far from the lightest around. But believe you me, by Astell & Kern standards the SR35 is compact and lightweight.
Some of this is explained by everything that’s going on inside, of course. But it also doesn’t do to understate Astell & Kern’s desire to ‘design’ all their products to within an inch of their lives. The SR35 is built mostly of aluminium, and its chassis is so complicatedly angular that the device’s 3.6in touchscreen has to sit at an angle to fit between all the pointy edges.
It’s equally true to say that A&K doesn’t compromise when it comes to build quality either, though. The A&norma SR35 is beautifully made, impeccably finished, and has genuine credentials as a ‘luxury accessory’ almost as obvious as it does as a ‘very nice digital audio player’.
Design score: 5/5
An unmarked quartet of brutalist black buttons. But once you know, you know (Image credit: Future)
Astell & Kern A&norma SR35 review: Sound quality
Lovely tonal balance
Scale and dynamism to spare
Iron fist and velvet glove in equal measure
You may own some downloaded audio files you wish to load onto the SR35’s internal memory. You may be a top-tier subscriber to a properly worthwhile streaming service like Qobuz or TIDAL (or both). You may be the owner of some similarly expensive and appropriately talented headphones. If you are, then you’re good to go.
And with everything I’ve already said about battery life (and how to maximise it) taken into consideration, it’s nevertheless safe to say you’ll end up needing to recharge the SR35 more often than you anticipate. This is one of those audio devices that will steal your time away, making even the most perfunctory ‘quick listen’ into a long and pleasurable session.
Even though the SR35 thrives on the best standard of content, it’s more agnostic than many alternative players. So while you should ideally be loading up on stuff like a 24bit/192kHz FLAC file of David Bowie’s Word on a Wing via TIDAL, the Astell & Kern is perfectly happy to tolerate a 320kbps Spotify stream of We’re in Love by Boygenius. In both cases, the sound this player makes is deft, musical and entertaining like you wouldn’t believe.
Low frequencies are authentically deep, loaded with texture and alive with variation, and so very well controlled that rhythmic expression is as natural as can be. At the opposite end, treble sounds bite and crunch with real purpose – but they carry plenty of substance along with them, so they’re never splashy or hard even if you like to listen at big volumes. In between, the soundstage the Astell & Kern generates is such that voices in the midrange have an absolute stack of space in which to stretch out and express themselves – and detail levels are such that every facet of a vocal performance, its attitude and intention, is made completely plain.
The tonal balance is every bit as pleasant; it’s natural and convincing, and utterly smooth in its emphases from the bottom of the frequency range to the top. Detail retrieval is little short of epic, and the SR35 is able to identify and accurately contextualise even the most minor, most transient occurrence in a recording. It has the sort of barrel-chested dynamism that means the quietest moments in a recording contrast with the loudest in the same way night contrasts with day. And it’s just as attentive to the spaces and silences in a recording as it is to the sounds themselves – and it makes sure the silences are pitch-dark, too.
‘Musical’ may seem like a redundant term when talking about a digital audio player, but not every DAP deserves the description. This one, though, is musical and then some.
Audio performance score: 5/5
The rotary volume dial: still a winner (Image credit: Future)
Astell & Kern A&norma SR35 review: Usability and setup
3.6in 720 x 1080 hi-res touchscreen
Adapted Android interface
A few physical controls too
The A&norma SR35 sees the first appearance of Astell & Kern’s new crimson-and-black user interface – and the company is right when it says it’s easier on the eye and more straightforward to understand than the rather more sudden interface it replaces. And that’s just as well, because at 3.6in this is far from the biggest touchscreen around; users with fingers like His Royal Highness will need to be very careful indeed.
Astell & Kern is to be congratulated for not just porting over the full Android interface – after all, why take up valuable memory and processing power duplicating functions your smartphone is perfectly capable of dealing with? So this interface is familiar, but far more focused on what’s actually important.
This means that as well as the nuts-and-bolts of installing your preferred music streaming services, you can adjust the player’s audio output via a 20-band equaliser. You can rearrange the layout of playback controls. You can adjust screen brightness, set a volume limit, and toggle the USB mode between ‘media player’ or ‘DAC’. You can audition four different DAC filters and a few amp settings. And you can do plenty more besides – so if you’re the sort of end user who likes to get fully involved, the SR35 has you covered.
There are a few nicely implemented physical controls here too. The top right of the chassis features Astell & Kern’s trademark jewel-like volume control – it moves with very pleasing weight and resistance. On the top left, meanwhile, four little buttons take care of ‘power on/off’, ‘play/pause’, ‘skip forwards’ and ‘skip backwards’. A&K doesn't mark these buttons, that would upset the aesthetic. But you'll be listening so often, you'll soon get the hang of it.
Usability and setup score: 5/5
Astell & Kern A&norma SR35: Value
A&K's entry-level player – but 'entry-level' is questionable at best
Tech from models much higher up the food chain
A&K's premium players cost quadruple the price, but still
In absolute terms, the A&norma SR35 represents, at best, questionable value for money.
That it is well-made and sounds excellent is not up for question, and it’s hard to argue with the user experience it offers too. But there’s no doubt you’re paying a premium for the industrial design that always sets Astell & Kern products apart.
Value score: 4.5/5
Astell & Kern A&norma SR35: Should you buy it?
This plucky player was driving the huge, open-back FT5 headphones at the time and – doing a marvellous job (Image credit: Future)
Buy it if...
Don't buy it if...
Astell & Kern A&norma SR35 review: Also consider
Astell & Kern A&norma SR35: How I tested it
Myriad styles of music
Lots of different file types and sizes
A long listen (although not as long as I would have liked)
I plugged balanced and unbalanced headphones into the A&norma SR35, as well as wireless alternatives, and I used both in-ear and over-ear models. I listened to music from Arvo Pärt to Aretha Franklin and all points in between, and I listened to big, uncompressed FLAC files as well as indecently compressed stuff from Apple Music.
Overall, I listened for what must have been a week or so – although it seemed much less than that when the time came to return the player to Astell & Kern…
