You've had to be part of a very exclusive club to try Xbox One features in their rawest form -- so exclusive the criteria has been "closely guarded," Microsoft said. Now, though, the company is loosening its restrictions ever so slightly. The Xbox Insider unit is inviting more people to join the Alpha Skip Ahead ring so that it can expand testing for key updates. If you see this before September 23rd at 2:59AM Eastern (11:59PM on September 22nd), you can use the "report a problem" feature in the power menu, choose "add new problem," pick "future build" and then make a case for why you should be included in the Alpha Skip Ahead program.
You'll know if you get in through an Xbox Live message formally inviting you to the test ring.
This isn't for the faint of heart. Alphas are rough by their very nature, and Microsoft warned that the current Alpha Skip Ahead build has bugs that can prevent the home dashboard from loading or prompt you for a passcode even if the feature is turned off. You may only want to sign up if you're determined to try new features and feel that even beta tests are too slow.
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The iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro boasts a 20% faster processor on paper, but how does that translate into real-world use? Not great at least running iOS 13.0 when compared to the iPhone XS.
App launch speed tests aren’t the be all and end all, but they give a reasonable stress test overview that it is at least less synthetic than Geekbench scores. In EverythingApplePro’s video, the iPhone XS actually beat the iPhone 11 Pro by thirty seconds …
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The app launch speed test standard, which has become ever so popular on YouTube these days, is to launch a series of apps in succession. Then, repeat for a second round opening each app again. The first round tests raw power and the second round highlights how well the phones can keep apps alive in memory. If a phone can keep all apps in RAM at once, it speeds through the second round. Otherwise, it has to launch them all over again.
In this instance, EverythingApplePro compared the iPhone 11 Pro next to the iPhone XS and the iPhone X. For the first run app launch test, the X unsurprisingly lagged behind but the iPhone 11 Pro edged out only a 1-second lead over the iPhone XS. By the end of round two, the XS actually managed to keep more apps alive in RAM. This meant it finished in 5 minutes, 21 seconds. The new iPhone 11 Pro finished in 5 minutes, 49 seconds. iPhone X came in at 7 minutes, 27 seconds.
Remember, that the iPhone XS and iPhone 11, Pro or non-Pro, share the same amount of RAM: 4 GB. So why did the XS manage to keep more apps in memory at a time? The answer isn’t clear but there are likely software bugs in iOS 13.0 that are impacting the 11’s performance.
EverythingApplePro’s test includes opening the Apple Camera app, which has been redesigned for the iPhone 11 exclusively. It’s possible that the iPhone 11’s Camera app uses a lot more memory than earlier versions, causing additional memory pressure. I noticed this too with my iPhone 11 Pro.
With better optimization, the 11 should easily win a speed test fight with the XS as the underlying processor is about 20% faster. Hopefully, Apple can improve iOS with forthcoming software updates to make it at least rival the results of the year-old XS. On that note, iOS 13.1 ships on Tuesday which is expected to include a lot of bug fixes.
LG Z9 88-inch 8K HDR OLED TV review: The future of television
“The LG Z9 is the most beautiful TV we've ever seen”
Superb picture quality
Excellent upscaling to 8K
Full HDR support
Low input lag
Extremely expensive
There’s no 8K content to watch. Let’s just get that out of the way right now. But that doesn’t mean 8K TVs aren’t worthwhile. That’s especially true for the LG Z9.
What we have here (again) is a classic chicken-or-the-egg-scenario. Which should come first? The 8K content, or the TV to watch it on? If the path 4K took nearly 8 years ago is any indication, the TV must come first.
Hollywood, along with production houses like Netflix, HBO, and many others, need some convincing. Moving to 4K was a hard sell several years ago (though HDR gathered support relatively easily), but selling 8K is a steep uphill battle for TV makers. Is there a benefit to the viewer? Is 8K that exciting?
I’m willing to bet that if any TV can convince Hollywood skeptics to invest millions of dollars into bringing us 8K content, it’s the LG Z9.
What’s so great about this TV?
The LG Z9 is, first and foremost, an OLED TV, and that fact alone makes it stand out. For now, OLED is the prettiest display technology you can realistically put in your home.
It’s got the best back levels, more than adequate brightness, awesome color, killer response time, low input lag for gamers (similar to the C9 at around 13ms), HDMI 2.1 for future-proofing, variable refresh rate, auto low latency mode, excellent upscaling, and a whole litany of other reasons why anyone who has ever seen an OLED TV thinks it’s the cat’s pajamas. Take the 9-point score we gave to the LG C9 OLED earlier this year and push that up to 11 for the Z9.
Dan Baker/Digital Trends
Yes, there’s new TV tech on the horizon which could give OLED a run for its money. But for now, OLED TVs hands-down have the best picture quality you can get, and the Z9 is the pinnacle.
The LG Z9 is also the world’s largest OLED TV. LG likes to use that as a marketing phrase, but it’s true, and making a huge OLED panel is no easy task. It took a lot of investment, research, and development to make an 88-inch OLED panel, let along an 8K version.
The Z9 is a beautiful TV, especially considering how large it is. The stand upon which it sits is composed of sleek brushed aluminum and has just the right amount of sheen to it. There is some hardware housed in this stand, and the stand pulls a third duty by porting sound from the Z9’s down-firing speakers out toward the listener. Side note: The TV sounds very good, though I can’t imagine not surrounding the Z9 with a killer home theater audio system.
The LG Z9 is, presently, the finest technical execution of an 8K TV on the market today.
Finally, the LG Z9 is, presently, the finest technical execution of an 8K TV on the market today, if one believes in things like imaging standards — which I do.
Uhhh … imaging standards?
I need to take a side-step from the standard review format and make a special note about a topic LG has been aggressively preaching about in the tech space. It’s called “contrast modulation” and it has to do with how a TV handles its pixels. You might have seen something about this in the news, but you may have quickly forgotten about it because it hasn’t been reported on very well. I’m going to try to fix that here, but in the end, LG says that contrast modulation has everything to do with whether an 8K TV is really 8K or not.
Dan Baker/Digital Trends
I predict LG will make a big marketing push behind this concept of “real 8K,” and the company would love it if I acted as a megaphone around this topic. While I’m loathed to oblige anything on the marketing effort, I do think this topic is worth discussing because TV tech can get deep, and at the end of the day, it does affect what we buy and how we watch. So let’s do this right, shall we?
What in the hell is contrast modulation and does it really make this TV better?
At its most basic, contrast modulation is a TV’s ability to distinguish one pixel from another. According to the International Committee for Display Metrology (ICDM), contrast modulation is more important than pure pixel count in qualifying a TVs resolution because if you can’t distinguish one pixel from another, then you don’t have fully resolved, independent pixels.
Take a look at the two pictures below. On the left is a close-up of a TV’s pixels with poor contrast modulation. On the right is a picture of LG’s 8K Nanocell 8K LED TV, which has excellent contrast modulation (the Z9 8K OLED is even better, as you may imagine). See the difference? One TVs pixels look like a smeared mess while LG’s pixels look very clean and distinct.
1.
Competing 8K LED TV
2.
LG Nanocell 8K TV
Honestly, I’m not yet convinced that the human eye can distinguish between a display that has a paltry 12 percent contrast modulation and one that has 90 percent. I mean, the principles and math seem right, and the bigger number seems a lot better, but until I can put one TV against another and spend hours analyzing the real-world differences I’m not going to make an official call. Still, I like pristine definition, and LG has a compelling argument.
The battle over what is “real 8K” continues. As I wrote this review, the Consumer Technology Association — you know, that huge organization that puts on the biggest tech show in the world known as CES? — launched an 8K Ultra HD display definition and logo program that leans heavily on the standards defined by independent authorities like the aforementioned ICDM, ANSI, and others. Guess what? LG’s 8K TVs far exceed the standards for contrast modulation. Most of LG’s competitors? Not so much.
There are over 33 million tiny pixels, yes, but it’s the work those pixels do that’s meaningful.
Again, it would be easy to write this off as a swipe at Samsung, but when international and U.S.-based standards organizations align with the CTA and make a call, it’s hard to ignore.
Is there anything not great about this TV?
Aside from the price ($30,000) making it unattainable for most of the world’s population?
There’s just a touch of tint shift when you view an LG OLED at extreme angle. I noticed a slight magenta and green coloration in different areas of the screen when well off to the side. Still, OLED’s overall off-angle viewing quality still blows away every LED/LCD TV I’ve seen.
Dan Baker/Digital Trends
Also, the TV doesn’t support a wall mount. The aforementioned stand is too integral to the TV to be separated. LG says it could be done, but the solution would not be elegant and the company would not endorse such a move.
But there’s no 8K content!
This is mostly true. There’s a selection of 8K content on YouTube, but to watch it in 8K you have to download it and play it through a special decoder box which LG provides with the purchase of this TV. Besides the hassle, who wants to watch 8K nature videos all day?
Dan Baker/Digital Trends
For now, 8K TVs need to be awesome upscalers until native 8K content is being made and can be feasibly delivered to us (expect to need at least an 80Mbps downstream internet connection for streaming) Thankfully, the Z9 is an outstanding upscaler. In our A/B comparisons between 4K and native 8K versions of the same content the visible differences were minimal. That begs the question. How would an 88-inch 4K OLED look compared to this 88-inch 8K OLED? We’ll probably never know, since LG has no intention to make a 4K version of this massive OLED TV.
Our Take
The LG Z9 88-inch 8K OLED TV is a straight-up “shit-your-pants TV,” because it performs at an incredible level of unexpected excellence.
There are over 33 million tiny pixels, yes, but it’s the work those pixels do that’s meaningful. From what I was able to see, the pixels were doing outstanding work. The pixels are also brushed on a large, impressive canvas. In many ways, the LG Z9 is one of the most outstanding displays I’ve ever seen and is currently the best-looking TV you can buy.
Also, if you do buy this TV, please invite me over to your house for movie night. I can’t wait to see the LG Z9 in action again, and you, Mr. or Ms. Moneybags, might be my only hope.
Is there a better alternative?
Practically speaking, virtually any other TV is a better choice for most folks given the Z9’s $30,000 price tag — one could do very well with LG’s own 75-inch 8K 75SM9970 at $5,000 or Samsung’s 82-inch Q900R at $7,000. One could also do very well with a 65-inch4K Sony A9G OLED or a 77-inch 4K C9 OLED for $5500. Technically speaking, though, the Z9 is in a class all its own.
How long will it last?
The LG Z9 has full-spec HDMI 2.1 ports onboard and very advanced chipsets, making it as future-proofed as a TV gets these days. I’d expect to get a solid 7 to 8 years out of this TV at the least.
Warranty
One year parts and labor when purchased from an authorized retailer.
Should you buy it?
Yes, with the obvious caveat of “if you can afford it.” At $30,000 it’s an incredibly expensive television that’s not aimed at the average living room, but it does deliver a glimpse at what the future of television will look like.
Also, if you do buy this TV, please invite me over to your house for movie night. I can’t wait to see the LG Z9 in action again and you, Mr. or Ms. Moneybags, might be my only hope.
Apple says the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro feature the “toughest glass in a smartphone” and yesterday we saw the first drop test videos emerge. Now, PhoneBuff has shared a new video pitting the durability of the iPhone 11 Pro Max vs the Galaxy Note 10+.
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In the test, the Galaxy Note 10+ and iPhone 11 Pro Max are put through a series of drop tests from varying angles. After the first drop, from around 3.2 feet high, the iPhone 11 Pro Max’s glass back is almost completely shattered. The Galaxy Note 10+ fares slightly better, but it too is cracked.
In the second test, both phones are dropped on their sides, and the iPhone 11 Pro Max fares much better than the Note 10+. This is because the iPhone 11 Pro features stainless steel edges, while the Note 10+ edges are aluminum.
The third test is a face drop from 3.2 feet high, and both phones crack immediately. The Note 10+, however, does much better than the iPhone 11 Pro Max, which cracks across the entire display.
Also today, CNET has shared its own iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro drop test video. In this test, the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro were put through four drops from heights as high as 11 feet. In the end, they came out unscathed in terms of cracking, but the iPhone 11’s rear camera stopped sourcing:
Again, the glass did not break on either of the two phones — on the front or back. The iPhone 11’s rear camera stopped working altogether and just showed a black screen when I opened the Camera app, although the TrueDepth camera was fine.
More than anything, these drop tests really reinforce that durability can vary wildly on a case-by-case basis. For instance, the two drop test videos we covered yesterday yielded very different results. Whether or not your iPhone 11 will break when you drop it depends on many different factors, and sometimes, pure luck.
Check out the iPhone 11 Pro Max vs Galaxy Note 10+ drop test video below and let us know what you think of it down in the comments.
Amazon Prime members are getting another perk, and it's something mobile gamers would appreciate. The e-commerce giant is making free mobile game loot a part of its subscriber offerings, starting with exclusive in-game items for Tencent's popular battle royale game PUBG Mobile. It has already dropped the Infiltrator Mask, which will be available until October 3rd, and will release more items one by one in the coming weeks. The other items in the Prime exclusive set are the Infiltrator Jacket, Shoes and Pants, as well as the Epic Level Gun and Magma Parachute.
Amazon told TechCrunch that it will roll out more mobile gaming content for different titles in an ongoing basis. It already has a list of future partners, including EA, Moonton, Netmarble and Wargaming Mobile, so subscribers can expect to get goodies for those companies' mobile titles in the future.
Prime members already have access to gaming-related perks, such as free games and a year of Switch Online, via Twitch Prime. It focuses more on PC and console gaming, though, which is why Ethan Evans, the VP for Twitch Prime, said in a statement: "Now, no matter what platform you play on -- whether console, PC, or mobile -- there are Prime game benefits for you." He added: "We're starting with exclusive content for PUBG Mobile, one of the biggest mobile games in the world, and in the coming months, we'll roll out benefits for some of the most popular mobile games across many favorite genres."
PUBG Mobile players with Prime subscriptions can claim their free items by going to Amazon's official page for the campaign using an Android or an iOS device.
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