Durabook has launched its latest tablet this month in the form of the R11L featuring an 11 inch display and priced at $1,399. Featuring a three-year accidental damage warranty the R11L fully rugged tablet is powered by a 12th Gen Intel Pentium Gold 8505 processor and features a 10 point capacitive multitouch display offering a […]
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Robot vacuums have come a long way over the past few years. They’re smarter, more powerful and (marginally) better at avoiding chair legs during a cleaning session than they ever were before, and some of them even have built-in mopping functionality and a penchant for pet hair. Plus, you don’t have to shell out as much money to get one either. The space is pretty saturated now, with established names like iRobot and Shark competing with companies like Anker and TP-Link that are not necessarily known for their dirt-sucking tech. With all those choices, deciding which is going to be the best vacuum for you isn’t as simple as it was a few years ago. We tested out many of the newest models available now to see how they stack up against each other and to help you choose the best robot vacuum for your needs. Here are our top picks.
We tackled this question when we reviewed budget robot vacuums and the answer is yes, especially if vacuuming is one of your least favorite chores. Robots take the hard work out of cleaning your floors – just turn the thing on and watch it go. Any robot vacuum cleaner worth buying is semi-autonomous in that it will suck up dirt around your home until its battery is low and then make its way back to its charging dock. Unlike a regular vacuum, you should only have to interact with it to turn it on, empty its dustbin and untangle it if it were to get stuck somewhere.
That’s not to say robot vacuums are perfect. They’re almost always less powerful and less flexible than traditional vacuums. Since most robo-vacs are much smaller than traditional models, they often don’t have the same level of suction you’ll get in an upright machine. Plus, their dustbins are smaller, so they will need to be emptied more frequently. While Wi-Fi-connected robot vacuums give you the flexibility to start a cleaning job from anywhere using an app, targeting a small area of your home can be more complicated. Some robo-vacs have spot-cleaning features that focus the machine’s attention on a specific area, which almost – but not quite – mimics the spot-cleaning you’d be able to do yourself with a regular or cordless vacuum.
As we explained in our budget guide, Wi-Fi connectivity is a key feature for most robot vacuums. Some of the affordable devices aren’t Wi-Fi connected, though, so it’s best to double check before you buy cheap. Wi-Fi lets a robot vacuum cleaner do things like communicate with a mobile app, which then allows you to control the device from your phone.
Suction power is another important factor to consider. Unfortunately, there isn’t a standard power scale that all robo-vacs adhere to, so it’s difficult to compare among a bunch of devices. Some companies provide Pascal (Pa) levels and generally the higher the Pa, the stronger the vacuum cleaner will be. But other companies don’t rely on Pa and simply say their robots have X-times more suction than other robots.
Ultimately, we recommend thinking first about the floors in your home: Do you have carpet throughout, or tile and hardwood floors, or a mix? Robots with stronger suction power will do a better job cleaning carpets as they can get into the nooks and crannies more easily. Some machines have “max” modes as well, which ups the suction power but also typically eats at battery life faster than the “normal” cleaning mode.
Past a certain price threshold, you’ll find advanced perks like home mapping features, improved object detection and automatic dustbin disposal. Home mapping is exactly what it sounds like: The vacuum uses sensors to map your home’s layout as it cleans, allowing you to send it to particular rooms or areas. Most robo-vacs have object detection, but some will be better than others at actually avoiding things like chair legs and children’s toys. Higher-end models like iRobot’s j7 series even go so far as to promise obstacle avoidance to steer clear of things like pet poop that can potentially ruin your machine.
We’re also now starting to see more robot vacuums with mopping capabilities. Machines with this feature have a water reservoir either built into the robot’s chassis or as a separate piece that you swap in for the dustbin when you want to mop your floors. It makes the robo-vac more useful if you have hard floors in your home that you like to keep squeaky clean, but it does require more work on your part. Filling and emptying the reservoir remains a human’s job.
Finally, for peak convenience, consider a robot vacuum that comes with a self-cleaning base. These are basically garbage bins attached to the machine’s docking station. At the end of each job, the robo-vac automatically empties its small dustbin into the large clean base – that means you won’t have to empty the dustbin yourself and you’ll only have to tend to the base once every few weeks. Just keep in mind that most self-emptying bases require proprietary garbage bags – another long-term expense you’ll have to factor in. Also, any vac-and-mop robot with a water tank will not dump its dirty water into the clean base, so you’ll still have to clean up that yourself.
Wi-Fi connectivity: Yes
Floor type: All floor types
Features: Obstacle avoidance, home mapping, LiDAR navigation, Alexa/Google Assistant voice control
Mopping capabilities: No
Self-empty: Yes
Shark’s RV2502AE AI robot vacuum with self-emptying base ticks all of the boxes that a mid-range machine should. It offers reliable cleaning performance, its mobile app is easy to use and it produces accurate home maps. On top of that, its base is bagless, which means you won’t have to spend money on extra bags every few months.
Setting up the Shark is as simple as taking it and its base out of the box, plugging the base in and downloading the companion mobile app to finish things up. The machine connects to Wi-Fi, allowing you to control it via the app when you’re not at home, or using Google Assistant and Alexa voice control. The first journey the Shark makes is an “Explore Run,” during which it produces a map of your home that you can then edit from the mobile app.
The Shark produced a pretty accurate floorplan of my two-bedroom apartment, and I was happy to see a “re-explore” option that I could use if the map wasn’t up to my standards. With a completed map, you’re then asked to label rooms in your home. That way, you can send the Shark to only the bedroom for more direct cleaning jobs, select “no-go” zones and more.
The first few times I ran the Shark robot, I had it clean my whole apartment. I was impressed by how quiet it was – or rather, how much quieter it was compared to other robo-vacs I’ve tried. You’ll have to turn up the volume on your TV if it’s cleaning in the same room, but it’ll be hard to hear when it’s sucking up debris down the hallway. It also did a decent job maneuvering its way around the cat toys I left out on the floor. The device’s object detection feature claims it can avoid things as small as four inches, but I found that it was much better at sensing and moving around the three-foot-long cat tunnel on my floor than the many tiny mouse toys.
But even if Mr. Mouse caught the edge of the Shark’s wheels now and then, the robo-vac took it all in stride. One thing I look for when testing robot vacuums is how much attention they need from me during cleanings. The best ones are hands-free and require no extra attention at all – once they start a job, they’re smart enough to putter around your home, move around objects and return to their base when they’re finished. With Shark’s robo-vac, I never had to tend to it when it was cleaning. Now, I did my due diligence and picked up pieces of clothing and charging cables off the ground before running the Shark (ditto for every other robot vacuum I tested), so those things were never in the way. Most companion apps will actually remind you to do this before starting a cleaning job.
This Shark machine comes with an auto-empty station, so it will empty its dustbin after every cleaning run – and also during a job if its bin gets full before it’s done. In the latter situation, the Shark will go back to cleaning automatically after it’s freed up its bin. That’s a great feature, but I found the best thing about the base to be its bagless design. Shark’s device is unlike most other robot vacuum clean bases because you don’t have to keep buying proprietary garbage bags to outfit the interior of the base. When you want to empty the base, part of it snaps off and opens to eject debris, and it easily locks back in place when you return it. Not only is this quite convenient, but it also brings the lifetime cost of ownership down since you won’t be buying special bags every few months.
Its worth noting that Shark has a couple of models that are similar to the RV2502AE that just have a different color scheme, a 30- versus 60-day self-cleaning base capacity and other minor differences. The biggest feature that would impact how you use the machine is the clean base capacity: we recommend springing for the 60-day models if you want to interact as little as possible with your robo-vac.
Wi-Fi connectivity: Yes
Floor type: All floor types
Features: Advanced obstacle avoidance, home mapping, Alexa/Google Assistant voice control
Mopping capabilities: No
Self-empty: No
Not much has changed since Amazon bought iRobot a little while back – the Roomba j7 remains a great option if you want the latest obstacle avoidance technology from the company in an attractive package. The $600 j7 doesn’t come with a clean base, but you can get the same vacuum with one for $200 extra.
The biggest selling point of the Roomba j7 series is its upgraded AI-driven computer vision which helps it detect and move around objects. This includes pet poop – a robot vacuum’s arch nemesis – and iRobot even promises pet owners that it will replace their j7 machine if it runs into pet poop within the first year of ownership.
That’s one feature I was happy I never got to test while reviewing this Roomba, as my cat kept all of her activity to her litter box. Otherwise, the Roomba j7 did a good job sucking up dirt and debris around my apartment and it didn’t make too much noise while doing so. All of the robo-vacs I tested at this mid-range level had roughly the same level of suction, so there wasn’t a big difference between them when it came to cleaning power.
Like other robot vacuums, you can set cleaning schedules in the iRobot mobile app so you never have to start a cleaning job on the fly. The app also has a “favorites” section, which lets you create profiles that you’ll use all the time like “clean the living room and the entryway.” And if you prefer to use voice commands, the robot supports Amazon’s Alexa and the Google Assistant.
The Roomba j7 has Imprint Smart Mapping, but unlike the Shark, it took more than one runthrough of my home for it to create a complete map. iRobot’s app distinguishes between a regular cleaning job and a “mapping run,” so make sure you’re choosing the latter the first few times you run the machine.
I tested the j7+, which means I was treated to the roaring sounds of the machine emptying its dustbin into its base. The emptying process isn’t as simple as an automatically opening flat that shakes dirt from one garbage can to another – the base actually sucks the dirt from vacuum. This was the case for all of the machines I tried that came with self-emptying bases; they’re all quite loud, but the Roomba j7+ was the loudest of them all. The whooshing sounds last for only five to 10 seconds, but it was shocking the first time it happened. Just keep that in mind if you ever decide to run your self emptying robot vacuum at night when others are sleeping.
Wi-Fi connectivity: Yes
Floor type: All floor types
Features: Obstacle avoidance, home mapping, laser navigation
Mopping capabilities: Yes
Self-empty: No
You may be unfamiliar with Anker’s robot vacuums, but they’re often more affordable alternatives to the iRobots and Sharks of the world. The Eufy RoboVac X8 Hybrid isn’t a budget machine by any means, but it’s a solid robot vacuum that offers a few key features that many competitors don’t have. Plus, you can often find it on sale for $549 or even $449.
Unlike our other midrange picks, the X8 Hybrid doesn’t come with a self-emptying base, nor is there one you can purchase separately. It’s just a standalone robo-vac, but the “hybrid” indicates that it’s also a robot mop. It has both a dustbin for collecting debris and a 250-milliliter water tank that you can fill whenever you want to run a mopping cycle. Plenty of other robot vacuums have this feature, and it could be even more useful than a self-cleaning bin if you have lots of tile or hardwood floors throughout your home.
Besides that, I was impressed with how easy it was to set up the X8 Hybrid, how accurate its mapping capabilities were and how many extra features it supports. It has four cleaning modes – auto, room, zone and spot – and four suction levels starting with Pure at the low end and topping out at Max. These features give you a lot of control over where the machine cleans and how powerfully it will do so. The X8 Hybrid was in Pure mode the first time I ran it, and I was surprised by not only how quiet it was but also how thoroughly it cleaned considering it was on the lowest suction setting.
There’s also a “tap and go” feature that lets you pinpoint any spot on your home map in the EufyHome app, sending the robot there to clean. Manual controls are also available, which isn’t something you see on a ton of robo-vacs. This option lets you control the machine almost like a slow and slightly clumsy RC car, giving you more control over where it cleans.
It may not have the name recognition that iRobot or Shark do, but the Eufy RoboVac X8 Hybrid is a solid choice nonetheless, especially if you don’t care to add a clean base into the mix. It’s an even more tempting choice if you can snag it at a lower price when it’s discounted.
Wi-Fi connectivity: Yes
Floor type: All floor types
Features: Advanced obstacle avoidance, home mapping, Alexa/Google Assistant voice control
Mopping capabilities: Yes
Self-empty: Yes
Vac-and-mop devices aren’t new, but they are new to iRobot’s lineup and the company made a great one in the Roomba j7+ Combo. This machine offers an elegant solution to what usually is a more manual process of instructing the robot vacuum where to mop and where to actually vacuum. The 2-in-1 version of the Roomba j7+ has a mop pad built in that only flips down when the machine senses that it’s rolling over hard flooring, dispensing water and cleaning solution before lighting scrubbing your floors. When it’s on carpet, it’ll act like a standard robot vacuum.
Arguably the most compelling reason to get a robot vacuum at all is convenience, and iRobot managed to figure out how to incorporate mopping into an already stellar robot vacuum without removing any convenience. Sure, you have to add water and cleaning solution when you want to mop, and dispose of the remnants when it’s finished, but that’s about it. The Roomba has enough smarts to take care of the rest, without accidentally dampening your carpet along the way. The included self-emptying base still comes in handy as it will suck up the vacuumed debris that the robot catches, but just know that it will not take care of excess water for you.
Aside from the adding mopping abilities, the Combo is basically just a Roomba j7+ and that’s not a bad thing. It’s been one of our favorite robot vacuums since it came out thanks to its improved obstacle avoidance, strong suction power, accurate home mapping technology and a decent runtime. The iRobot mobile app, from which you can start and schedule jobs, edit your home map and more, is easy to use, and you can even control the machine using Alexa or Google Assistant commands. The hardest thing to swallow about it (besides how it sounds like a jet engine when emptying debris into the clean base) is its sky-high, $1,100 price tag.
iRobot understood that caveat fairly quickly and recently introduced the Roomba j5 series to remedy it. The Roomba Combo j5 and Combo j5+ machines come in at $600 and $800, respectively, and the biggest difference between them and their j7 siblings is that users will have to swap out their bins when it's time to mop instead of vacuum. The more advanced of the two, the Roomba Combo j5+, can identify no-go zones that you set in the app as areas to avoid while mopping, plus it has advanced obstacle avoidance. We haven't fully tested these yet, but we expect them to perform similarly to the j7 Combo series. So as long as you're ok with a bit more manual work when you want to mop, the j5 Combo series could be a good option if you want to save a bit of cash.
Wi-Fi connectivity: Yes
Floor type: All floor types
Features: Obstacle avoidance, home mapping, LiDAR navigation, Alexa/Google Assistant voice control
Mopping capabilities: Yes
Self-empty: Yes
The main reason why Shark’s machine is our runner-up pick is its more manual nature. It comes with two dustbins, one for vacuuming only and one for vacuuming and mopping that has a water reservoir and a detachable mop pad. You have to switch to the appropriate dustbin when you want to mop your floors, and after each job, the dustbin will not automatically empty into the clean base since it has the reservoir in it. You’ll have to manually empty it instead, but you would have to do that anyway to clean and refill the water tank in preparation for the next job.
Despite being a more hands-on machine, Shark’s robotic vac and mop was a pleasure to review. Setting it up was as quick and simple as one of the company’s standard robot vacuums, and its first run will create a map of your home, which you can then label with room names, edit with no-go zones and carpeted areas and more. You can even choose to have the robot do a dry run first before doing any actual mopping, so you can make sure it doesn’t enter into the carpeted areas you’ve indicated in your home map. In my testing, the robot accurately stayed away from these zones that I set and I actually like having that little bit of extra control over where the machine goes. But of course, that’s just another thing you have to do manually that iRobot’s vac and mop takes care of using built-in tech.
The Shark’s water–and-solution based cleaning abilities are basic but much better than having to schlep out an old-school mop and bucket yourself. My mix of hardwood and tile floors appeared noticeably cleaner after the Shark passed over them with its mopping pad. I know I’ll have to whip out my floor steamer every once in a while to really get a deep clean, but the Shark’s capabilities are more than enough for biweekly runs – and it’s hard to beat the convenience of not having to do it yourself.
Shark’s machine has a few other things going for it, too: the auto-empty station is bagless, which means you won’t have to shell out more money over time for extra bags like you will have to with iRobot machines; its mobile app remains easy to use and one that newbies will be able to pick up quickly; and, maybe most importantly, this device comes in at $700. That’s still a good chunk of change, but it’s a far-cry cheaper than the Roomba j7+ Combo.
Wi-Fi connectivity: Yes
Floor type: All floor types
Features: Obstacle avoidance, home mapping, Alexa/Google Assistant voice control
Mopping capabilities: No
Self-empty: Yes
The Roomba s9+ is admittedly overkill for most people – but it’s nothing if not one of the best vacuums out there. You’ll notice its premium features as soon as you unbox it. The s9+ is the biggest but also the most attractive robo-vac I tried, with a corner-friendly design, copper accents and a 1.5-foot tall self-emptying base. The setup was quick and easy, with the machine taking only a few minutes to connect to my home’s Wi-Fi and the iRobot app.
While the s9+ doesn’t have the Precision Navigation feature that the newer j7 does, it has something called “Careful Driver” that uses a 3D sensor to detect and clean around objects. It seems that the main difference is that the s9+ isn’t specifically wired to avoid pet poop, so keep that in mind if you have furry friends around the house. However, with 40x the suction power of a standard Roomba, the s9+ does a great job cleaning up pet hair.
It’s also louder than the j7 when it’s cleaning, but not irritatingly so, and I noticed a deeper clean in my carpets thanks to the extra suction. And it changes its cleaning mode automatically when transitioning from, say, carpeting to a hardwood floor.
Even this $1,000 robot vacuum bumped into a few table legs while cleaning, but it was noticeably better than other machines at navigating around my furniture and correcting itself when it got stuck. It also moves faster than the j7, so it was able to cover a bit more of my apartment before it had to return to the base for charging after about one hour of cleaning. I was also pleasantly surprised to find that the s9+ wasn’t nearly as loud as the j7 vacuum when emptying its dustbin into the clean base.
With the iRobot app experience being the same across all Roombas, the s9+ stands out for its subtle premium features like its elegant design, elegant-looking clean base, superior cleaning intelligence and top-of-the-line suction power. Aside from the extra suction, those are all nice-to-haves rather than must-haves, so most people – including you! – probably don’t need the Roomba s9+. It’s the fanciest robot vacuum iRobot has to offer, but you’ll get a similar level of quality with the Roomba j7 while spending a couple hundred bucks less.
Wi-Fi connectivity: Yes
Floor type: All floor types
Features: Obstacle avoidance, home mapping, LiDAR navigation, Alexa/Google Assistant/Siri voice control
Mopping capabilities: Yes
Self-empty: Yes
Roborock’s high-end S7+ deserves a mention for its cleaning power and number of additional features that many other competitors don’t have. First, the S7+ is a vac-and-mop combo, and its mopping map automatically lifts itself out of the way when the machine reaches the carpet. That means you can have it clean your whole home, vacuuming and mopping in the right spots, without you giving it any extra attention (besides filling its 300ml water tank at the start).
The expensive machine has a longer setup process because its self-emptying base comes in two pieces. You must attach the bottom of the base, where the robo-vac charges, to the garbage-bin upper portion using a few screws and a tool that attaches to the bottom of the base. Roborock provides everything you need to do this in the box, so while it takes a bit more time, it’s still an easy process.
What wasn’t so easy for me at first was connecting the S7+ to the Roborock app. The vacuum had trouble connecting to my home’s Wi-Fi network, but I was able to connect it to the Mi Home app, which is Xiaomi’s main smart home companion app (Xiaomi is an investor in Roborock). There aren’t a ton of differences between the two apps when it comes to robo-vac controls, but the S7+ is designed to work with Roborock’s program. After troubleshooting with a Roborock representative, I was able to fix the problem by factory resetting the vacuum and that allowed me to connect it to the Roborock app properly.
That said, the Roborock app isn’t nearly as polished as those from iRobot, Shark and others. The main page shows your home’s map along with the battery level, cleaning time, cleaning area in feet, and buttons that let you quickly start a cleaning job and empty the dustbin. You’re also able to select specific rooms or zones to clean, but the rest of the control options live in the menu accessible by the three-dot icon at the top-right corner of the app. Things are a little buried, and that might make the S7+ harder for robot-vacuum newbies to use.
When it comes to cleaning performance, the Roborock S7+ did a great job sucking up dirt around my home. In addition to the usual features like cleaning schedules, zone targeting and others, the vacuum also has things like child lock, which will disable the physical buttons on the machine; different auto-emptying settings to choose from; “pin and go,” which lets you tap on your home map to send the robot to a specific location; and manual direction controls so you can move the machine like a toy car. This isn’t the robot vacuum to get if you want the most polished experience – and you may very well want that if you’re dropping $1,000 on one – but it remains a powerful vac-and-mop machine with a handful of extra perks.
iRobot’s $279 Roomba 694 is a good robot vaccum option for most people thanks to its good cleaning power and easy-to-use mobile app. We won’t get too deep into it here since we have a whole guide to cheap robot vacuums with additional recommendations. But suffice to say, the 694 gives you all the essentials you’d expect from a robot vacuum, along with all of the convenience that comes with iRobot’s mobile app.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/best-robot-vacuums-130010426.html?src=rss
If you are searching for a way to enjoy additional immersion when using augmented reality or virtual reality experiences. You may be interested to know that HaptX is now taking pre-orders for its latest generation of haptic gloves. The G1 haptic gloves are available to pre-order in pairs individually priced at $5,495 or in sets […]
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Currently, few things make people's eyes roll harder than the metaverse. As someone who grew up reading sci-fi novels and dreaming about what virtual worlds might look like in the future, that's kind of sad, but I get it. Mark Zuckerberg is so thirsty to make those dreams a reality that he’s betting billions of dollars and the survival of his company on the metaverse being The Next Big Thing. Meanwhile, the average person is still wondering what the point of having a VR headset really is, aside from maybe smashing some polygons in Superhot or Beat Saber.
However, even though it feels like VR headsets have been around forever, we're still very much in the early days of virtual reality. It was only a couple of years ago when the company previously known as Facebook brought VR to the masses with the Quest 2. And now with the Quest Pro, Meta is trying to foster a new baseline level of tech designed to make digital worlds feel more lifelike, intuitive and immersive. And honestly, I think Meta has done it, because while its $1,500 price is hard to justify, it’s easy to see the potential of what this hardware can support.
Packing a Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2+ chip, 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, the Quest Pro delivers 50 percent more performance than the Quest 2, according to Meta. However, the real challenge in designing this headset was blending its standalone design with something that's simple and comfortable to wear, and I think Meta has struck an almost ideal balance.
By switching to new pancake lenses, the company was able to reduce the thickness of the headset while still delivering a relatively high resolution of 1,800 x 1,920 pixels per eye. For comparison, that's higher than what you get from the Valve Index (1,440 x 1,600 per eye) but a bit less than the Vive Pro 2 (2,448 × 2,448 per eye). Though topping out with a 90Hz refresh rate, the Quest Pro’s visuals aren’t quite as fast as most of its high-end PC-based rivals. For me, that hasn't been a huge deal, as graphics and gameplay have been smooth and stutter-free. But I should mention I've never really had problems with VR-related motion sickness, so your experience may vary.
My one nitpick is that I wish the Quest Pro's 96-degree vertical field of view was a little bit taller. I've found that due to the headset's visor-like design and its FOV, you tend to always have a bit of the real world peeking in across the bottom of your eye line. Thankfully, its 106-degree horizontal FOV is pretty much as good or better than all of its rivals except for the Vive Pro 2's 116 degrees.
Elsewhere, the Quest Pro features 10 sensors on the interior and exterior of the device. The five outward-facing cameras support full-color passthrough, hand-tracking and stuff like scene understanding without the need for additional external sensors. Meanwhile, the five inward-facing sensors track eyes and face movements for features like foveated rendering and enhanced avatar animations, but more on that later.
To balance the trade-off between power and fit, Meta cleverly used a curved battery built into the back of the headset, so there's no need for wires or a belt-mounted power cell. And when combined with a soft forehead cushion and a handy dial for adjusting the headband, you get a headset that's extremely easy to put on and wear. Further adjustments are provided via a small dial in front that changes lens distance, while IPD (interpupillary distance) adjustment is handled by simply moving each eyepiece left and right as needed. All told, it's an incredibly straightforward setup, and thanks to the Quest Pro's fit calibration feature, the headset can remind you to adjust your settings if it notices things aren't quite right. And when it comes to sound, you get speakers that support spatial audio built into the arms of the headset, though if you prefer to use your own headphones, there’s a 3.5mm jack too.
That said, even with all the attention Meta paid toward creating a comfortable and balanced headset, the Quest Pro's heft can still be a bit of an issue. If you're hopping in and out of VR, you might not notice much. But with a weight of just over a pound and a half, in longer sessions, I noticed my forehead sometimes got a bit sore. Usually fiddling around with how the Quest Pro sat on my head was enough to relieve excess pressure. But I also wouldn't be surprised if this setup gave some people a low-grade headache during extended use. And I'd also be remiss not to mention the sweat factor, as the leather forehead pad can get damp depending on your activity, and sometimes I wonder if having active cooling on a VR headset is what we need. Heck, developers could even use fans to mimic a breeze in a game or movie, which could be kind of nice.
The other big part of the headset's kit is the new Touch Pro Controllers. Meta is using the same basic design as what we got on the Quest 2. The big difference this time is that instead of relying on a big light ring with LEDs, the controllers now have their own built-in sensors for both hand and finger tracking. Not only does this help streamline their design, but I also found a noticeable upgrade in accuracy and responsiveness.
The controllers also have much-improved haptics that adds an extra level of immersion, especially in apps where you can flip the controllers over to use as a stylus. For example in Painting VR, brushes use a variety of rumbles and vibrations to convey a sense of size and weight. The overall effect feels much like HD Rumble on the Nintendo Switch's Joy-Con, but with even better fidelity for force feedback.
I also appreciate the controller’s subtly textured rubberized grips that make things feel secure even in the heat of virtual battle. However, I kind of miss the hand straps Valve uses on the Index controllers which allow you to quickly switch between buttons and finger or hand gestures without needing to set the controllers down.
Of course the real magic happens when hardware meets software, and at least out of the gate, the Quest Pro offers some pretty impressive performance. The headset’s optics are sharp while eliminating nearly any hint of the screen door effect. Text is also very legible and I had no trouble writing part of this review in VR. Next, when my colleague Cherlynn Low visited my virtual office in Horizon Workrooms, I think the combination of Quest Pro’s eye and facial tracking to deliver more lifelike expressions on my avatar might have been convincing enough to get her to spend more time in VR. And on my end, support for spatial audio makes working in VR feel less like floating in a simulation and more like actually working in an office with someone else.So even though Cherlynn was sick that day, we were able to collaborate without me risking catching what she had, and it felt kind of heartwarming in a weird, nerdy way.
On top of that, a lot of tent-pole features like Meta's scene understanding just kind of work, at least most of the time. I found that the Quest Pro was pretty good at automatically detecting the position of floors and walls, so I didn't have to constantly redraw the boundaries for my room-scale guardian. It even automatically detected some objects like my desk (and remembered them in subsequent sessions), which makes it easier to set up a virtual workspace that mimics what I have IRL. Though I did notice in rooms that were more cluttered, things didn't always work quite as smoothly.
The Quest Pro's full-color passthrough is also really impressive. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still not as good as using your eyes to navigate meatspace. But it's more than accurate enough to let me walk from room to room to grab a glass of water without taking off the Quest Pro or bumping into anything.
In apps like Cubism, I had a blast positioning blocks to solve puzzles in three dimensions and in I Expect you to Die I got to live out my childhood fantasy of being a secret agent. And in Tribe XR, I was able to enjoy the basics of mixing and beat-matching while using the same equipment pro DJs use, at least virtually. The improved three-window multitasking in the Quest Pro’s desktop mode even makes it easier to switch between apps and stay connected while you're in VR. Or, well, it would be if there was a wider availability of 2D apps.
And that kind of brings me to the big issue with the Quest Pro: there just aren't a lot of optimized apps that really take advantage of its upgraded capabilities. For traditional 2D apps, while important stuff like Slack is supposedly on the way, there isn't even support for messaging software like WhatsApp. So if you're like me and aren't a frequent user of Instagram or Facebook Messenger, things can still feel a bit disconnected.
But perhaps the more telling thing is currently how few apps there are in the Quest Pro section of the store. Titles like Nanome, which lets you view molecules in VR are really neat and interesting, but rather niche. I don't know about you, but I don’t really spend a ton of time staring at various compounds and conformations in my free time – and I was a bio major in college.
This is sort of to be expected, as it's going to take a while for developers to take advantage of the Quest Pro's new features. This headset kind of feels like the Nintendo Switch at launch but without a tentpole game or app like Breath of the Wild to pair with it. Sure, you can go back and enjoy all the old Quest apps, as the Pro is fully backward compatible with existing software. But when you're spending $1,500 on a VR headset, you kind of want something you can lose yourself in for the next month or more.
My other gripe is that, while a lot of the big-ticket features work surprisingly well, a lot of the finer details seem half-baked. For example, it took almost an hour for Cherlynn to successfully visit my office in Horizon Workrooms. Because this is VR, you can't just send a link to a meeting like you would in Zoom, which meant she had to bounce back and forth between her headset, phone and laptop just to find where to accept my invite. And when I wanted to upload an image to pin on my virtual whiteboard, first I had to go back to my fake chair at my fake desk just to upload something, before needing to move back to the whiteboard again to post it. That's just convoluted, and that’s even with my having already set up Meta’s Remote Desktop app. And while Meta says it's working on it, there are other little frustrations like being limited to a single virtual desktop (which you can’t even move by the way, at least not right now) when connected to a Windows PC while Mac users get three.
While Meta doesn't provide official battery life claims for the Quest Pro, I've found that you're looking at between two and a half and three and a half hours on a charge, depending on the use case. This is typically longer than I want to be in VR in a single sitting, but if you need to be jacked in for extended periods, the Quest Pro also comes with a six-foot USB-C cable you can use to keep it running.
Other bundled accessories include a protective silicone cover and two light blockers that attach magnetically to the side of the headset, which helps cut down on potential distractions from the physical realm. But if you really want that complete VR-dive experience, you'll have to shell out $50 for Meta's Full Light Blocker. Or you opt for the low-tech solution and just move to a dark room. You also get two Quest Touch Pro controllers along with two wrist straps and stylus nibs that can be attached to the bottom of the gamepads to suit your needs.
When it comes to keeping everything juiced up, there's a really handy wireless charging dock that holds both the headset and the controllers. Admittedly, getting the controllers to sit properly in the dock is a bit tricky at first. But the secret is holding them as if you're using them, before twisting your wrists inwards and then dropping them on the dock. If you did it right, you'll feel a little rumble and see the tiny indicator lights fire up. There's also a dedicated cable for charging the controllers, but you only get one. So if you're traveling with the Quest Pro and you leave the dock at home, you'll need to charge the controllers one at a time.
Look, trying to review a next-gen VR headset feels kind of like evaluating a Mars colony based on the spaceship that takes you there: Ultimately the Quest Pro is a vessel to experience fancy new software that doesn’t exist yet. And right now, there just aren't enough apps to really say if that colony is a utopia or Autobot city after Megatron attacks – burned down and wasted.
But if we can ignore that issue for a minute, at least on a hardware level, there's a lot to like about the Quest Pro. It offers similar or, in some situations, better performance than other high-end consumer headsets — all without the need for wires or a beefy PC. You can switch between controllers and hand gestures at a whim, while the plethora of sensors makes the headset a really great standalone device. You get sharp visuals, a streamlined design and surprisingly good battery life — not to mention a really handy charging dock.
But for now, we're going to have to wait for the headset’s software and experiences to catch up, which is a lot to ask when it costs this much to strap on the goggles. Purchasing a Quest Pro, at least for now, is something you do on faith, because you believe in the promise of VR and where it might go in the not-too-distant future. So while the Quest 2 can handle basic VR, the Quest Pro adds power and finesse in a way that could unlock how people explore virtual worlds. The tech is there but are you willing to fork over big money to try it?
Currently, few things make people's eyes roll harder than the metaverse. As someone who grew up reading sci-fi novels and dreaming about what virtual worlds might look like in the future, that's kind of sad, but I get it. Mark Zuckerberg is so thirsty to make those dreams a reality that he’s betting billions of dollars and the survival of his company on the metaverse being The Next Big Thing. Meanwhile, the average person is still wondering what the point of having a VR headset really is, aside from maybe smashing some polygons in Superhot or Beat Saber.
However, even though it feels like VR headsets have been around forever, we're still very much in the early days of virtual reality. It was only a couple of years ago when the company previously known as Facebook brought VR to the masses with the Quest 2. And now with the Quest Pro, Meta is trying to foster a new baseline level of tech designed to make digital worlds feel more lifelike, intuitive and immersive. And honestly, I think Meta has done it, because while its $1,500 price is hard to justify, it’s easy to see the potential of what this hardware can support.
Packing a Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2+ chip, 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, the Quest Pro delivers 50 percent more performance than the Quest 2, according to Meta. However, the real challenge in designing this headset was blending its standalone design with something that's simple and comfortable to wear, and I think Meta has struck an almost ideal balance.
By switching to new pancake lenses, the company was able to reduce the thickness of the headset while still delivering a relatively high resolution of 1,800 x 1,920 pixels per eye. For comparison, that's higher than what you get from the Valve Index (1,440 x 1,600 per eye) but a bit less than the Vive Pro 2 (2,448 × 2,448 per eye). Though topping out with a 90Hz refresh rate, the Quest Pro’s visuals aren’t quite as fast as most of its high-end PC-based rivals. For me, that hasn't been a huge deal, as graphics and gameplay have been smooth and stutter-free. But I should mention I've never really had problems with VR-related motion sickness, so your experience may vary.
My one nitpick is that I wish the Quest Pro's 96-degree vertical field of view was a little bit taller. I've found that due to the headset's visor-like design and its FOV, you tend to always have a bit of the real world peeking in across the bottom of your eye line. Thankfully, its 106-degree horizontal FOV is pretty much as good or better than all of its rivals except for the Vive Pro 2's 116 degrees.
Elsewhere, the Quest Pro features 10 sensors on the interior and exterior of the device. The five outward-facing cameras support full-color passthrough, hand-tracking and stuff like scene understanding without the need for additional external sensors. Meanwhile, the five inward-facing sensors track eyes and face movements for features like foveated rendering and enhanced avatar animations, but more on that later.
To balance the trade-off between power and fit, Meta cleverly used a curved battery built into the back of the headset, so there's no need for wires or a belt-mounted power cell. And when combined with a soft forehead cushion and a handy dial for adjusting the headband, you get a headset that's extremely easy to put on and wear. Further adjustments are provided via a small dial in front that changes lens distance, while IPD (interpupillary distance) adjustment is handled by simply moving each eyepiece left and right as needed. All told, it's an incredibly straightforward setup, and thanks to the Quest Pro's fit calibration feature, the headset can remind you to adjust your settings if it notices things aren't quite right. And when it comes to sound, you get speakers that support spatial audio built into the arms of the headset, though if you prefer to use your own headphones, there’s a 3.5mm jack too.
That said, even with all the attention Meta paid toward creating a comfortable and balanced headset, the Quest Pro's heft can still be a bit of an issue. If you're hopping in and out of VR, you might not notice much. But with a weight of just over a pound and a half, in longer sessions, I noticed my forehead sometimes got a bit sore. Usually fiddling around with how the Quest Pro sat on my head was enough to relieve excess pressure. But I also wouldn't be surprised if this setup gave some people a low-grade headache during extended use. And I'd also be remiss not to mention the sweat factor, as the leather forehead pad can get damp depending on your activity, and sometimes I wonder if having active cooling on a VR headset is what we need. Heck, developers could even use fans to mimic a breeze in a game or movie, which could be kind of nice.
The other big part of the headset's kit is the new Touch Pro Controllers. Meta is using the same basic design as what we got on the Quest 2. The big difference this time is that instead of relying on a big light ring with LEDs, the controllers now have their own built-in sensors for both hand and finger tracking. Not only does this help streamline their design, but I also found a noticeable upgrade in accuracy and responsiveness.
The controllers also have much-improved haptics that adds an extra level of immersion, especially in apps where you can flip the controllers over to use as a stylus. For example in Painting VR, brushes use a variety of rumbles and vibrations to convey a sense of size and weight. The overall effect feels much like HD Rumble on the Nintendo Switch's Joy-Con, but with even better fidelity for force feedback.
I also appreciate the controller’s subtly textured rubberized grips that make things feel secure even in the heat of virtual battle. However, I kind of miss the hand straps Valve uses on the Index controllers which allow you to quickly switch between buttons and finger or hand gestures without needing to set the controllers down.
Of course the real magic happens when hardware meets software, and at least out of the gate, the Quest Pro offers some pretty impressive performance. The headset’s optics are sharp while eliminating nearly any hint of the screen door effect. Text is also very legible and I had no trouble writing part of this review in VR. Next, when my colleague Cherlynn Low visited my virtual office in Horizon Workrooms, I think the combination of Quest Pro’s eye and facial tracking to deliver more lifelike expressions on my avatar might have been convincing enough to get her to spend more time in VR. And on my end, support for spatial audio makes working in VR feel less like floating in a simulation and more like actually working in an office with someone else.So even though Cherlynn was sick that day, we were able to collaborate without me risking catching what she had, and it felt kind of heartwarming in a weird, nerdy way.
On top of that, a lot of tent-pole features like Meta's scene understanding just kind of work, at least most of the time. I found that the Quest Pro was pretty good at automatically detecting the position of floors and walls, so I didn't have to constantly redraw the boundaries for my room-scale guardian. It even automatically detected some objects like my desk (and remembered them in subsequent sessions), which makes it easier to set up a virtual workspace that mimics what I have IRL. Though I did notice in rooms that were more cluttered, things didn't always work quite as smoothly.
The Quest Pro's full-color passthrough is also really impressive. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still not as good as using your eyes to navigate meatspace. But it's more than accurate enough to let me walk from room to room to grab a glass of water without taking off the Quest Pro or bumping into anything.
In apps like Cubism, I had a blast positioning blocks to solve puzzles in three dimensions and in I Expect you to Die I got to live out my childhood fantasy of being a secret agent. And in Tribe XR, I was able to enjoy the basics of mixing and beat-matching while using the same equipment pro DJs use, at least virtually. The improved three-window multitasking in the Quest Pro’s desktop mode even makes it easier to switch between apps and stay connected while you're in VR. Or, well, it would be if there was a wider availability of 2D apps.
And that kind of brings me to the big issue with the Quest Pro: there just aren't a lot of optimized apps that really take advantage of its upgraded capabilities. For traditional 2D apps, while important stuff like Slack is supposedly on the way, there isn't even support for messaging software like WhatsApp. So if you're like me and aren't a frequent user of Instagram or Facebook Messenger, things can still feel a bit disconnected.
But perhaps the more telling thing is currently how few apps there are in the Quest Pro section of the store. Titles like Nanome, which lets you view molecules in VR are really neat and interesting, but rather niche. I don't know about you, but I don’t really spend a ton of time staring at various compounds and conformations in my free time – and I was a bio major in college.
This is sort of to be expected, as it's going to take a while for developers to take advantage of the Quest Pro's new features. This headset kind of feels like the Nintendo Switch at launch but without a tentpole game or app like Breath of the Wild to pair with it. Sure, you can go back and enjoy all the old Quest apps, as the Pro is fully backward compatible with existing software. But when you're spending $1,500 on a VR headset, you kind of want something you can lose yourself in for the next month or more.
My other gripe is that, while a lot of the big-ticket features work surprisingly well, a lot of the finer details seem half-baked. For example, it took almost an hour for Cherlynn to successfully visit my office in Horizon Workrooms. Because this is VR, you can't just send a link to a meeting like you would in Zoom, which meant she had to bounce back and forth between her headset, phone and laptop just to find where to accept my invite. And when I wanted to upload an image to pin on my virtual whiteboard, first I had to go back to my fake chair at my fake desk just to upload something, before needing to move back to the whiteboard again to post it. That's just convoluted, and that’s even with my having already set up Meta’s Remote Desktop app. And while Meta says it's working on it, there are other little frustrations like being limited to a single virtual desktop (which you can’t even move by the way, at least not right now) when connected to a Windows PC while Mac users get three.
While Meta doesn't provide official battery life claims for the Quest Pro, I've found that you're looking at between two and a half and three and a half hours on a charge, depending on the use case. This is typically longer than I want to be in VR in a single sitting, but if you need to be jacked in for extended periods, the Quest Pro also comes with a six-foot USB-C cable you can use to keep it running.
Other bundled accessories include a protective silicone cover and two light blockers that attach magnetically to the side of the headset, which helps cut down on potential distractions from the physical realm. But if you really want that complete VR-dive experience, you'll have to shell out $50 for Meta's Full Light Blocker. Or you opt for the low-tech solution and just move to a dark room. You also get two Quest Touch Pro controllers along with two wrist straps and stylus nibs that can be attached to the bottom of the gamepads to suit your needs.
When it comes to keeping everything juiced up, there's a really handy wireless charging dock that holds both the headset and the controllers. Admittedly, getting the controllers to sit properly in the dock is a bit tricky at first. But the secret is holding them as if you're using them, before twisting your wrists inwards and then dropping them on the dock. If you did it right, you'll feel a little rumble and see the tiny indicator lights fire up. There's also a dedicated cable for charging the controllers, but you only get one. So if you're traveling with the Quest Pro and you leave the dock at home, you'll need to charge the controllers one at a time.
Look, trying to review a next-gen VR headset feels kind of like evaluating a Mars colony based on the spaceship that takes you there: Ultimately the Quest Pro is a vessel to experience fancy new software that doesn’t exist yet. And right now, there just aren't enough apps to really say if that colony is a utopia or Autobot city after Megatron attacks – burned down and wasted.
But if we can ignore that issue for a minute, at least on a hardware level, there's a lot to like about the Quest Pro. It offers similar or, in some situations, better performance than other high-end consumer headsets — all without the need for wires or a beefy PC. You can switch between controllers and hand gestures at a whim, while the plethora of sensors makes the headset a really great standalone device. You get sharp visuals, a streamlined design and surprisingly good battery life — not to mention a really handy charging dock.
But for now, we're going to have to wait for the headset’s software and experiences to catch up, which is a lot to ask when it costs this much to strap on the goggles. Purchasing a Quest Pro, at least for now, is something you do on faith, because you believe in the promise of VR and where it might go in the not-too-distant future. So while the Quest 2 can handle basic VR, the Quest Pro adds power and finesse in a way that could unlock how people explore virtual worlds. The tech is there but are you willing to fork over big money to try it?
The fourth and final season of the Apple TV’s original horror series Servant will premiere early next year, once again starring Lauren Ambrose, Toby Kebbell, Rupert Grint and Nell Tiger Free. The psychological horror story follows on from the previous three seasons and revolves around a Philadelphia couple who hire Leanne Grayson to be the nanny […]
The post Servant final season premieres January 2023 on Apple TV+ appeared first on Geeky Gadgets.
ASUS has introduced a new addition to its range of gaming keyboards with the launch of the new Falchion Ace. Designed to provide Esports deemers with a compact 65% gaming keyboard the design features fast-actuating ROG NX mechanical switches and ROG-tuned force curves. The ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) Falchion Ace gaming keyboard is available […]
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As you probably already know the latest 5G cellular network connection standard offers a much faster connection speed to mobile users when compared to previous generations such as the 4G and 3G standards. 5G is currently available in selected areas worldwide, but predominantly available in large cities at the current time. Providing users with a […]
The post How to turn off 5G on iPhone to optimize your battery appeared first on Geeky Gadgets.
Ever since I started working on a Macbook, I have barely used a mouse. But I’ve seen how it can be inconvenient and non-ergonomic at times for my friends who still need to use it. This particular device hasn’t had much innovations over the past years so it’s always interesting to see product designs that seek to bring something new to the market. For mouse devices, what users are looking for of course are ones that are ergonomic, tailor-made, and can bring new features to the table.
Designer: Swift Creatives Studio
The SliderMouse Pro is a “tailor-made” mouse concept that brings an innovative and ergonomic design to your typical device. It’s not just the usual wired or wireless mouse with the round shape but it actually looks like a keyboard itself. The sleek design and wireless interface will make it easier for you to use it and its contoured shape and comfortable grip brings an ergonomic element to something that you probably use more than four hours every day.
The device has a sliderbar so your cursor control is freer than if you’re using a regular mouse and you won’t have to move your hands or wrists unnecessarily. It also has a large scroll wheel with smart buttons around it for things like copy pasting as well as forward/backward navigation. There’s also a wrist rest which is something that computer users need especially if they spend most of their working time using a screen, keyboard, and mouse. The wrist reests are detachable and customizable and can be tailor fit to the hand size of the user. It comes in light grey fabric, dark grey fabric, or sustainable bamboo.
The SliderMouse Pro is a pretty unique and useful design for a mouse. However, if you have a small table, it will probably not work since it takes up a lot of space and is almost as big as a keyboard. But if your concern is more about the functionality and the ergonomics of a mouse, then this should be perfect for your needs. Well, if it becomes an actual device someday.
The post This rollable mouse has ergonomic design and innovative features to tackle wrist pain first appeared on Yanko Design.
Apple has released a new trailer for its upcoming new children’s TV series Circuit Breakers which will be premiering on the companies streaming service next month and available to watch from November 11 2022 on Apple TV+. “In the future, technology will be able to make the lives of every kid easier. See what happens […]
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