Gaming laptop deals aren’t what they used to be (stares daggers at RAMageddon), which is why I consider Woot’s deal on a refurbished Alienware 16 Aurora gaming laptop with Nvidia’s RTX 5050 a pretty good deal at $927 for new Woot customers (with code WOOTALIEN used at checkout). It costs $1,029 for returning Woot shoppers, which is a decent discount off the new $1,099.99 price at Alienware’s site. Notably, this refurb unit includes a one-year Alienware warranty.

Alienware 16 Aurora

Where to Buy:

• $1099.99 $927.99 at Woot (refurbished, with code WOOTALIEN)

These days, most configurations with Nvidia’s RTX 5060 GPU sail well over the $1,200 mark, which is just too much if you ask me. If you’re in the market for a relatively speedy and well-designed machine, perhaps this one will be a good fit for your needs and budget. The Aurora has a 1600p 120Hz 16-inch screen, Intel’s capable Core 7 240H processor, 16GB of DDR5 RAM, and a 512GB SSD. Its RTX 5050 GPU likely won’t be able to play most games at max settings, especially at its native 1600p resolution, but you should be able to get respectable frame rates and visual fidelity with some tweaking.

As for its condition, the company says “it’s as close to new as you can get without technically being “new.” The 16 Aurora features two M.2 slots, letting you greatly boost its included 512GB SSD with other drives. It also has two SO-DIMM slots, so you can upgrade the 8GB x 2 (DDR5 5,600MHz) down the line to 16GB x 2 (it tops out at 32GB RAM). If you have other specs you want to dig into, check out Dell’s comprehensive spec sheet within its support site.

Other great Verge-approved deals

• Live in a really small space? Perhaps, an RV or a van equipped with power to run appliances? The Loch Capsule dishwasher that my colleague Thomas Ricker tested is 20 percent off for a limited time through Labor Day. Normally $459.99 for the skinny dishwasher, it’s down to $367.99 with free shipping at Loch’s site. Now, folks with setups large enough to accommodate a bigger dishwasher shouldn’t consider the Loch Capsule. But it might be just what some are looking for. It can clean and dry (even sanitize) dishes and pans in a 20-minute cycle. It doesn’t require plumbing, and its design isn’t an eye sore. If you can look past its flaws (mainly that it’s sort of loud), it’s worth considering during the sale.
• There are no other speakers that look like the Bowers & Wilkin’s Zeppelin. Not only is its design striking, appearing to levitate, but it boasts a powerful sound (ask me how I know — it was the sole speaker used during my wedding’s afterparty). Its Zeppelin Pro is 29 percent off at Amazon in the black color option, costing $639 (originally $899). We haven’t tested this particular model, but it seems impressive, featuring five drivers (one being a six-inch subwoofer), plus Bluetooth, AirPlay 2 and Spotify Connect. It also has an optional downward-firing light that gives it a unique presence in the room.
• You can tell that Samsung is trying to get rid of monitors when it’s selling a whopping 49-inch OLED gaming monitor for $999.99 (originally $1,699.99). That’s how much its ultrawide Odyssey OLED G93SD costs now at Best Buy. Its width is roughly equivalent to sticking two 25-inch 1440p monitors next to other, then curving them inward slightly for a more immersive viewing experience. The full resolution is 5,210 x 1,440 and it features a 240Hz refresh rate. The screen has a 110 pixels per inch density, which isn’t great, though it’s the standard for most QHD OLED gaming monitors. The monitor includes a three-year warranty protecting against defects, however, Samsung’s warranty page doesn’t explicitly mention burn-in.

Sonos unveiled a bunch of new stuff today at its open house event. There’s the $699 Beam Ultra soundbar and the $449 Ace Ultra headphones, plus several under-the-hood app updates (some coming sooner than others). While the show floor was a less than ideal venue to judge audio quality of either new product, a private demo in a smaller room provided a better hint as to what the Beam Ultra soundbar might be capable of.

With the 7.1.2 soundbar about six feet in front of the press, the team ran through a couple demos to show off its range, particularly with Dolby Atmos content. The opening minutes of Widow’s Bay subtly illustrates the Beam Ultra’s enhanced bass, improved vocal clarity and Atmos chops. There are a lot of small details that didn’t get lost in the mix, like walkie talkie chatter, extraneous sound effects that build the world, plus the eerie swelling of the score to amp suspense.

There’s only so much sound that can come out of such a relatively small soundbar, but I was impressed — both at how it sounded and how Sonos found the ideal room to bounce around the sound coming from its side- and top-firing drivers.

Sonos then wirelessly paired two Play portable speakers to the Beam Ultra, then set them behind us as rear channels for a demo with Sinners (the electrifying “I Lied To You” scene). If you have a small-ish living room and don’t want to permanently mount rear satellites, this setup might suffice for you. It’s certainly loud enough. Pairing more speakers seemed to let the Beam Ultra focus more on delivering a balanced, full sound with better directional audio than its predecessor, the Beam Gen 2, which virtualizes its spatial audio effect (as in, it fakes it) due to lacking side- and upward-firing speakers.

My colleague John Higgins will spend a lot more time with the Beam Ultra in an upcoming review. My first impression was good, but that’s how press events usually go. You’re using these products with a pro at the wheel, and sometimes in more ideal circumstances than our homes allow. As someone who bought a Vizio Elevate SE system last year, I was surprised by how punchy the Beam Ultra sounded during the demos. Sometimes, it sounded a little too good, and the presence of Sonos subwoofers and extra speakers in the demo room was tough to ignore, despite the team assuring us they weren’t used. Nevertheless, I’m curious how it holds up in a home environment, and specifically how it sounds across a range of content when it’s the only Sonos speaker you have.

Sitting between the $499 (currently $399) Sonos Beam Gen 2 and the $1,099 (currently $899) Sonos Arc Ultra, the Beam Ultra splits the difference between the two in terms of hardware features. You’ll get a proper taste of Atmos content without spending close to $1,000, and without straying outside of the Sonos ecosystem. The Beam Ultra launches September 29th, and preorders are available now at Best Buy, B&H Photo, Sonos, and Amazon.

Photography by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge

This is a friendly reminder that the Nintendo Switch 2 will jump in price by $50 starting on September 1st. That’s next Tuesday! The company gave plenty of notice, but the time has finally come. The base 256GB model that ships without a game will go from $449.99 to $499.99. Nintendo recently announced two bundles (both well over $500) shipping this fall that include a game with a slight discount.

If you’re on the fence for a Switch 2, now is a pretty good time to buy one — not just because of the upcoming price increase. The game library is stellar and growing quickly, and the console itself is great, too. You’ll need one to play the remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, The Duskbloods, and plenty of other upcoming games.

Nintendo Switch 2

The Nintendo Switch 2 has a 7.9-inch LCD display, magnetically attached Joy-Con 2 controllers, backwards compatibility with most original Switch games, and exclusive titles including Donkey Kong Bananza and Kirby Air Riders. Read our review.

Where to Buy:

• $449.99 at Amazon
• $449.99 at Best Buy
• $449.99 at Target

Not that the Switch 2 was ever cheap, but it was one of a few devices left out there that didn’t quickly get more expensive due to RAMageddon. Alas, no tech product will escape RAMageddon unscathed, especially one like the Switch 2 that has speedy RAM and storage. Almost all competing handhelds cost more than before, too, though Nintendo’s $50 price increase is soft compared to the $200-plus increase for the Steam Deck OLED .

And, in case you were wondering, we’ve tested some great Switch 2 accessories, and have put our favorites into respective articles that deliver multiple options. We landed on the best cases, the best screen protectors, and the best controllers, too.

The embargo has lifted on Google’s Pixel 11 series, as well as for its Pixel Watch 5. Now we get to talk smack — just kidding, the new hardware is good. We have four reviews live on the site that you can peruse at your leisure. We’re giving subscribers a chance to engage with us directly in an AMA later today. I’ll be there (I reviewed the standard Pixel 11) to answer your questions, and so will David “11 Pro” Imel, Dominic “11 Pro Fold” Preston, and Victoria “Pixel Watch 5” Song.

Subscribers, drop in your questions and we’ll begin answering them at 3PM ET. We can’t stop you from asking irrelevant questions, but we’ll be prioritizing ones that are focused on Google hardware and the new features (Camera Looks, Creator Suite, Magic Capture, Proactive Assistance, and so on), our experiences with the products during testing, who they’re for, and who might be able to skip on this year’s models. If you ask us to try Proactive Assistance with a specific example, we might just comply.

It’d be easy to overlook the Pixel 11. Want the best cameras? The Pixel 11 Pro is your answer. Want the best bargain? The Pixel 10A is still a great deal.

But the Pixel 11 might be the sweet spot in Google’s lineup this year. With 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, it delivers the same performance as the base Pixel 11 Pro for $899 — $200 less. And while it’s $400 more than the Pixel 10A, it has a faster processor, more RAM and storage, Qi2 charging, and a telephoto lens.

It’s also the cheapest way to experience what’s actually new about the Pixel 11 series. With the hardware basically unchanged from the Pixel 10 except for new colors and a thinner camera bar, the spotlight this year has shifted to software, specifically features that aim to take full advantage of what most Pixel fans like about their phones: the cameras and special features that make the phones just a bit more helpful.

Last year, we said Google’s Pixel 10 was priced fairly at $799, and that it’d be greedy for buyers to expect more from it. Well, RAMageddon happened, and everyone’s prices went up. The new Pixel 11 starts at $899 and has mostly the same specs. It adds a few exclusive software features that mostly make up for it and doubles the base storage. I guess it’d be greedy to expect much more from this one, too.

Google Pixel 11

Score: 8

Pros	Cons
Great design Wireless charging boosted to 25W Exclusive camera features are mostly fantastic	Very few gen-to-gen hardware improvements $899 is a lot even with double the starting storage Proactive Assistance isn’t worth upgrading for yet

Where to Buy:

• $899 at Amazon
• $899 at Google Store
• $899 at Best Buy

The Pixel 11 looks, feels, and performs similarly to the $1,099 11 Pro. The Pro has a brighter, higher-resolution screen and much more powerful ultrawide and telephoto cameras, but the 11 is just as good in nearly every other way. It has the same Tensor G6 processor, and it even has the same amount of RAM as the base model Pro phone (though the more expensive Pro configurations have 16GB). In day-to-day use, I didn’t notice any performance issues owing to the smaller amount of RAM on the 11, though it’s possible that the newer processor balanced it out.

Google didn’t hold back any of the software features from this model, either. As someone who doesn’t upgrade their phone unless they have to (I’m still very happy with my Pixel 9 Pro), I was skeptical that some of the phones’ most intriguing new camera features — Camera Looks and Magic Capture — would be enough to tempt me. Unfortunately for those like me who are holding off on upgrading for as long as possible, both features are rad. 

Like last year, the 11 has a 48MP main camera, 13MP ultrawide, and 10.8MP 5x telephoto, all of which are smaller and lower resolution than the sensors on the Pro phones. My Pixel 9 Pro’s wide and ultrawide lenses are roughly on par with the 11 Pro’s, and quite a bit more capable than the Pixel 11’s. But in the past week of testing, I don’t miss them as much as I thought I would. Camera Looks in particular helped me have more fun shooting with a Pixel than I have in years. It’s satisfying to quickly swap between different sensor-level presets, and they can make a big impact on how a photo turns out.

I’ve been a Pixel user since 2017, going from the 2 to the 3 to the 6 to the 9 Pro, almost entirely because of the cameras. I trust them to take great shots quickly and with little effort. I even brought the Pixel 2 on my honeymoon trip instead of a DSLR, and no, I don’t regret it all these years later. If you’re a serious phone photographer who spends time composing every shot, you’ll probably want to go for the Pro, but for more casual photographers like me, the quality difference isn’t that noticeable, especially with Camera Looks applied. Camera Looks has even encouraged me to slow down sometimes to put a little more effort into my composition.

Camera Looks seems like Google’s realization that the Pixel’s default vibrant HDR-drenched look isn’t the best choice for every photo. Now, it’s easy to switch to the bold, slightly more muted “Digi” or the black-and-white “Black Tie” styles when you want to take a more impactful photo. If you like one of the looks enough to make it your default shooting style, you can lock it in. And it’s easier to make adjustments on the fly, thanks to the new quick access dials you can pin to the viewfinder. You can add dials for exposure, color temperature, and shadows. 

Magic Capture — another camera feature exclusive to the 11 series — is genuinely useful. The hybrid camera mode records a video and intelligently plucks hi-res photos and video clips from it, and I used it to capture a bunch of little moments with our two-year-old at the beach and at parks. It’s convenient to have a setting that can capture the unexpected without missing a beat. You can also manually capture photos while it’s recording. However, the photos are the highlight, not the video. (The resulting video looks choppier than a standard video, as if it lacks image stabilization; it doesn’t seem like it’s meant for consumption.) I’m more the type who’d like to shoot individual photos, as it feels great to happen upon a spectacular shot. But the AI does a good enough job at capturing little moments in the action.

Another new software component available only on the Pixel 11 lineup is Gemini’s Proactive Assistance feature. It’s meant to handle more of the grunt work of using a phone for things like managing calendars, making reservations, and buying groceries. To actually have it do things for you, you need to give the agentic AI permission (it’s not on by default) to make changes within an array of apps, ranging from Google’s productivity suite to apps like OpenTable, Instacart, Google Messages, and more. It’s partially helpful, but like an intern that gets just enough wrong that you just feel better doing it yourself.

In my back-and-forth text-a-thon with David Imel, who reviewed the 11 Pro, Proactive Assistance was more miss than hit. One of the features Google advertises is an OpenTable integration that pops up a Gemini chip to book a restaurant reservation if it sees a relevant message. We could only get it to work by being as specific and formal as possible, including the restaurant’s full name and the specific day and time. That’s not how most people type to each other. 

Here’s another example of Proactive Assistance in action: I was able to order groceries through my grocery list in Google Keep, but only after I figured out some unstated rules. After I enabled access to both Google Keep and Instacart in Gemini’s settings, I had to adjust the title of my Google Keep list to include “Instacart” (so much for being able to use natural language). Afterward, the feature quickly connected me with a list of nearby retailers that could fulfill my order, just like it does in the Instacart app. Proactive Assistance is intriguing, but I hope it gets better. You can read more about the feature’s quirks in David’s review; for now, it’s not worth upgrading for. 

When I bought the Pixel 9 Pro two years ago, I picked the Pro because it was much better. It had a telephoto camera, more RAM, and more special features than the standard model. And its price came in under $1,000.

This year, that’s all changed. The standard Pixel 11 now has a telephoto lens and just as much RAM as the $1,099 Pro, it’ll get all the same software features, and it’s now the one with a price under four digits.

If you’re serious about phone photography, the 11 Pro is probably worth it for the bigger camera sensors. However, as someone who bought the Pixel 9 Pro two years ago, the Pixel 11’s blend of good-enough hardware and compelling software feels Pro enough to me.

Photography by Cameron Faulkner/ The Verge