Editor's Choice | The Verge

Editor’s Choice: iPad mini 2019

2019-05-13T09:40:00-04:00

Apple's decision to upgrade the iPad mini for the first time since 2015 was surprising for a product line that many had assumed was dead. Conventional wisdom states that smaller tablets have died out as phone screens continue to grow in size. But having just returned from a two-week trip around Europe where I used the 2019 mini as my only computer, my only question is: what took Apple so long? It's a wonderful product without parallel.

The iPad mini is the perfect vacation computer. My trip involved a lot of low-cost carrier flights with strict baggage limits, so I was traveling super light, and I always appreciated the minimal impact. I ne …

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Editor’s Choice: Asus ROG Swift PG279Q gaming monitor

2018-08-10T09:18:27-04:00

Is there a more painful sphere of technology to shop in than computer monitors? It's an endless checklist of specs and standards that no one product ever seems to meet in full, all for a higher price than you feel like you should be paying. And the situation is even worse with gaming monitors. The focus on cutting-edge performance places their relative deficiencies into even starker relief.

I strongly believe that if you have a high-end PC but don't have a good gaming monitor, you are wasting your hardware. However, there is one - and only one - gaming monitor that I can wholeheartedly recommend. It's called the Asus ROG Swift PG279Q, it wa …

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Editor’s Choice: LG G7 ThinQ

2018-07-20T09:00:04-04:00

My favorite phone released this year doesn't have the fastest performance, doesn't have the best camera, and has worse than average battery life. It also has a superfluous button for a virtual assistant that I can't reprogram to something more useful and has the worst name for a phone I've seen in years. It's not a phone that I recommend most people should buy. But LG's G7 ThinQ (I told you it has the worst name) is my favorite phone right now because it meets my specific set of wants and needs better than anything else at the moment.

The primary reason why I like the G7 so much is that it's the Android phone that best mimics the iPhone X's …

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Verge Editor’s Choice: Roccat Kone Pure

2018-01-30T09:30:18-05:00

Roccat Kone Pure.

Wired gadgets are in a weird spot these days: they don't get much time in the spotlight, but they're still the stuff most of us buy most often. To correct that dissonance between hype and reality, let me tell you about my favorite wired thing. It's a thoroughly affordable, albeit obscure little mouse that has become indispensable to my desktop computing, and it's called the Roccat Kone Pure.

Roccat is a German gaming peripherals maker that might be best known for a partnership it struck up for its gear to be bundled with Alienware PCs. I like the company's keyboards, and I'd recommend them ahead of more popular brands like SteelSeries and C …

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Editor’s Choice: Kindle Voyage

2017-11-13T09:00:06-05:00

I have been waiting for a waterproof Kindle since, well, since the very first one was released 10 years ago. Amazon finally made the new Kindle Oasis that Casey Newton just reviewed, and I fully expected to buy it immediately. But then a weird thing (for me, anyway) happened: I didn't. After using it for just a few minutes, I knew it wasn't for me.

Instead, I'm sticking with my favorite Kindle, the slightly overpriced, three-year-old Kindle Voyage. In fact, the power button on my Voyage is starting to act up after three years, and when it finally fails, I expect I'm going to go ahead and buy another Voyage, not an Oasis. You know you like s …

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Verge Editor’s Choice: HTC U11

2017-09-11T09:00:09-04:00

HTC U11 | Photo by Vlad Savov / The Verge

I need to get this out there before the new iPhones and, especially, the new Google Pixels shake my confidence: the HTC U11 is my phone of the year. The red U11, in particular. I've been using that device for over a month now, and having relied on it to get through the rigors of the IFA tech exhibition in Berlin, I can confirm my initial feelings about it. The U11 is the phone with the most good things about it.

Here's what the U11 gave me during my time in Germany, in ascending order of importance: casually glorious looks that attracted compliments from strangers, rock-solid battery life that got me through long days of intense work, and u …

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Verge Editor’s Choice: Garmin Fenix 5S

2017-08-18T08:00:03-04:00

The Garmin Fenix 5S isn't the sports watch for everyone, given how expensive it is and how granular its activity-tracking features are. But for people looking for a specific kind of smartwatch - one that's more focused on fitness than literally any other feature - it's the best one out this year.

The Garmin Fenix 5S is as notable for what it isn't as for what it is. It's not a massive, overbearing, tactical-looking thing like the Fenix watches of Garmin's past. With the Fenix 5 series (there are three models in this series; I wore the 5S), Garmin managed to shrink them significantly from the previous line, the Fenix 3. And the 5S is the sma …

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Verge Editor’s Choice: Amazon Echo Dot

2017-08-01T12:00:07-04:00

Of all the voice-controlled, virtual assistants I have access to across the various devices I own and use, I converse with Amazon's Alexa the most. Alexa wakes me up in the mornings, turns my lights on and off, lets me know when my pasta is cooked, keeps tabs on my grocery list, and tells me what tomorrow's weather is going to be like when I'm planning my outfit. It's not that Siri, Google Assistant, or Cortana can't do the same things - they certainly can - it's that Alexa is the most accessible of the voice assistants. And, in my home, that makes it the most used.

Welcome to Editor's Choice, where the reviewers of The Verge choose th …

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Verge Editor’s Choice: Peak Design Everyday Backpack

2017-07-26T11:30:01-04:00

If you want to call it peak hipster, I won't argue with that. I won't argue and I won't care. The Peak Design Everyday Backpack expresses an opinion that not everyone will agree with, but that's why I like it so much. This backpack's designers believe in a sort of stylish modularity that sacrifices maximum space efficiency for the sake of better access to your stuff and, in all honesty, sharper looks.

Is it vain that my top choice of backpack is motivated in part by the way it makes me look? Yes. And it's also real. As with the majority of other everyday gadgets and items, we're long past the stage of merely utilitarian concerns when pickin …

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Verge Editor’s Choice: Nintendo Switch

2017-07-24T10:00:09-04:00

I have a PlayStation 4 Pro and an Xbox One S attached to my oversized 65-inch 4K television. I haven't touched either of them since I got my Nintendo Switch.

At this point, it seems silly to enumerate all of the reasons why the Switch is great. It's not just that it's the best way to play the biggest game of the year, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, it's that it's designed to play it anywhere and everywhere. Although the Switch is admittedly nowhere near as powerful as other gaming consoles, it is by far the best portable gaming console you can get.

I didn't realize how much portability mattered to me until I had the Switch. Befor …

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