Chris Welch

Former Senior Reviewer

Google delays its upgraded, more expansive Find My Device network

Chris WelchJul 27, 2023

Sony brings head-tracking spatial audio to its 1000XM5 headphones

Chris WelchJul 26, 2023

Sony claims its new earbuds won’t suffer battery drain problems like the WF-1000XM4

Chris WelchJul 25, 2023

Verge Score

Sony WF-1000XM5 noise-canceling earbuds review: better in every way — for now

Sony’s latest flagship earbuds are excellent on multiple fronts, but the lack of an ecosystem will hold them back in the not-too-distant future.

Chris WelchJul 24, 2023

The Nothing Phone 2 is mostly fine on Verizon — if you’ve got good 5G coverage

Chris WelchJul 23, 2023

Chris WelchJul 21, 2023

Guess which screen on Motorola’s Razr Plus breaks in a durability test. Nope, not that one.

As we roll onward with hot foldables summer (with some big announcements near), Zack Nelson put the Motorola Razr Plus through his signature durability test. Is the Razr the most promising flip-style phone we’ve seen yet? Yes. Is it still quite fragile? Also yes.

But surprisingly, it’s not the inner display that died. It turns out there’s some empty space behind the Razr’s outer screen, and that gap was enough for it to crack and cave inward with some force applied.

(I still want one of these things all the same.)

Verge Score

Beats Studio Pro headphones review: leaning on a legacy

They look like a lazy refresh from the outside, but the noise-canceling Studio Pros include a ton of new features like transparency mode and lossless USB-C audio. And they solidify Beats’ unique appeal as a dual-ecosystem brand.

Chris WelchJul 19, 2023

Beats’ new Studio Pros are its first flagship headphones since 2017

Chris WelchJul 19, 2023

Chris WelchJul 14, 2023

Nothing draws a crowd at its one-night-only NYC pop-up.

Nothing is orchestrating some pop-up “drops” in a few cities to celebrate the release of its new Phone 2, and I stopped by the one in NYC’s Meatpacking District last night. Despite it being a humid evening with temperatures hovering around 85 degrees, the drop attracted a decently long line.

CEO Carl Pei was on hand to greet and chat with customers. He asked many Phone 2 buyers what phone they were switching from — I saw plenty of Android devices and a couple iPhones come through — and about what features are most important to them.

As for me, I couldn’t avoid feeling a little déjà vu.