It’s a slower October than usual in the tech industry, thanks in large part to Google and Microsoft making their typical fall hardware announcements earlier this year. Still, we’ve seen quite a few companies unveil new devices over the past two weeks, as Amazon’s Prime Day continued into October. Whether you were busy shopping or watching Elon Musk talk about robotaxis and cybervans, the Engadget team continued to review recently (and not so recently) launched products. As usual, this bi-weekly roundup is here to help you catch up, but since I missed last week’s edition (because I was on free time), the cadence is a little off.
From Meta’s Quest 3S VR headset and the DJI Air 3S drone to Sony’s midrange audio gear, these weeks happened to be about the less premium, more affordable ‘non-flagships’, if you will. And it turns out you don’t have to throw chunks of your retirement savings at companies to get solid devices that are well worth the money.
Sony LinkBuds Fit and LinkBuds Open and Bose QuietComfort Earbuds reviews
by Billy Steele
Sony
Sony flexes its mobile audio might on the LinkBuds Fit, combining great sound with tons of features.
- Small, comfortable design
- Surprisingly big sound
- Many useful functions
- ANC performance is lacking
- Battery life
- Call quality is fine, but not great
$200 at Sony
The biggest thing I’ve learned from Billy’s recent reviews of Sony and Bose headphones is that flagship, top-of-the-line noise cancellation is making its way into the mid-range products. And I’m certainly happy with it. It seems like most of the things you’ll miss out on if you choose to save some money are features like spatial audio, head tracking, and things that should make for a more immersive, intuitive listening experience. Personally, I’m okay with missing those things for now – I really just want decent sound, good voice quality, and competent reduction of background noise.
Be sure to check out Billy’s review of Sony’s LinkBuds trio of devices even if you’re not looking for headphones, because he literally hurt his ears testing the oddly designed earbuds for us. A rejected headline for the review was: “Why Am I in Pain?” We salute you, Billy.
by Devindra Hardawar
Meta
The Meta Quest 3S delivers immersive virtual reality for just $300. It’s fast, comfortable to wear, and offers a wealth of games and VR experiences to choose from.
- Fast performance
- Comfortable to wear
- Excellent controllers
- Large app library
- Older Fresnel lenses lead to artifacts
- No headphone jack
- Average mixed reality cameras
$299 at Amazon
The Quest is arguably the industry’s leading consumer VR headset, especially considering it costs a fraction of alternative options while providing a relatively high-quality immersive experience. Unlike the Apple Vision Pro, which costs $3,500, the new Quest 3S is much more palatable at $300. And, as Devindra notes in his review, it’s comfortable, fast, and gives wearers access to Meta’s large library of VR apps and content. To quote Devindra, “It’s not Meta’s first $300 VR headset, but it’s still a great achievement.”
DJI Neo and DJI Air 3S reviews
by Steve Dent
DJI
DJI’s Air 3S is the company’s first consumer drone with LiDAR, designed to make it safer to fly at night.
- Excellent image quality
- LiDAR improves obstacle detection at night
- ActiveTrack 360 produces cinematic tracking shots
- Long battery life
- Now has 42 GB of internal memory
- Sometimes it is not possible to detect small obstacles
$1,099 at DJI
Continuing the trend of excellent products that cost less than usual, the DJI Neo is an excellent drone for just $200. Calling it the best $200 drone ever made may sound hyperbolic, but we really can’t think of any other drone that does the same cost and came close to comparable performance to the Neo. And while one of the main drawbacks, according to our reviewer Steve, is that it sounds like a banshee, I honestly think this would be an advantage for me just for the sheer comedy of it all. I never thought I’d be in the market for a banshee-sounding drone, but I figure $200 would be a fair price to pay for the aerial videos I could get, and I could easily make a cheerful opera anyway sing over the images.
At the other end of the spectrum, Steve also tested the more expensive DJI Air 3S drone and Canon’s EOS R5 II, both of which will cost you a lot more money. The good news is that Canon’s EOS R5 II has now been improved so much that it can better hold its own against Sony’s rival offerings, while offering intriguing features such as eye-control autofocus. Of course it is still too early to be reliable. But if you have the money for these premium products you will experience the latest technology, perhaps part of the appeal is that they don’t always work well.
by Dan Cooper
remarkable / Engadget
reMarkable adds a color screen to its e-paper tablet, creating a premium, distraction-free writing experience.
- Color is a welcome and useful addition
- The backlight allows you to work in dark environments
- Greatly improved performance
$579 at reMarkable
I know Dan was a little concerned that a device as niche as the reMarkable Paper Pro would get such a high score, but after some discussion we both agreed it fit. As it stands, the reMarkable Paper Pro is perhaps the best e-paper writing tablet with a color screen, even after this week’s announcement of Amazon’s first color Kindle. According to Dan’s review, the Paper Pro not only takes it to the next level with the addition of color, but also becomes much faster and more reliable in the process.
I especially like how much care has been taken to seamlessly combine handwriting and typed text, for a more natural note-taking and annotation experience. And while it falls outside the general theme of this edition, which is that it’s a cheaper product with premium specs, I’m still incredibly tempted to find ways to cough up the $600 or so it takes to get one. Paper Pro with the accessories Dan recommends.
Phoenix Springs and Neva Reviews
by Jessica Conditt
I’m not the most involved gamer, but I enjoy learning about games from Jess. She recently reviewed the sci-fi mystery Phoenix Springs and the dreamy platformer Neva, with pieces so beautifully written that I can’t resist checking out each title just so I can feel her clarity on them. Phoenix Springs even follows a technology reporter and covers my favorite genres (science fiction and mystery), while Neva’s art just looks beautiful. I don’t know yet if I’ll ever find the time to play new games, but these two have definitely been added to my list.
Upcoming reviews: on the horizon
The Engadget team covers a wide range of things, and as we get to work on writing our holiday gift guide, we’re thinking about products we love for ourselves and our loved ones. Many of us love e-readers and writing tablets. I definitely have my eye on one of the new Kindles announced this week, specifically the new Kindle Scribe and possibly the Colorsoft. Those won’t be available until later this year, so for now I’ll continue to hungrily eye the reMarkable Paper Pro. I’m also wondering what Amazon hardware chief Panos Panay has up his sleeve, other than cans of Diet Coke — something I learned he (like many people) enjoys when I had the chance to speak with him in an interview this week.
Many of us are millennials and have huge soft spots for retro gaming. Our Executive Editor Aaron Souppouris spoke to the folks at Analogue, and you can read his beautifully constructed piece to learn more about the upcoming Analogue 3D.
This week, Apple surprised us a bit by announcing the new iPad mini, which has been tweaked to offer more storage and power with an A17 Pro processor. It also supports Apple Intelligence, of course, and while it seems like a minor update, some of my colleagues and I still love the idea of a small tablet. If only he had a better screen.
All of these recently announced things are on our review list, alongside things like the Google TV Streamer and the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE that launched in recent weeks. As we approach November and all the holiday shopping that brings, hopefully hardware launches are slowing down quite a bit. We’re still looking forward to an Apple event for Macs and remember being surprised by the announcement of Humane’s AI Pin late last year. But for now we chug along, occasionally bathing in nostalgia and longing for a simpler time.
