#battery-life

#battery-life

The M1 chip is the real MVP here. I can hop between Slack, Google Docs, Spotify, Zoom, and an embarrassing number of Chrome tabs without a single hiccup or buffer wheel. It's also genuinely shocking how quiet this thing is. There's no fan, so it stays completely silent, even when I'm running big files or editing photos. And the battery? I'm convinced it runs on magic because this MacBook Air easily lasts me through an entire workday.

The sound engineering that went into this small speaker is all about getting bass response that usually needs much bigger drivers and enclosures. JBL tuned the parts inside to make what they call "punchy bass" which means that you can feel the low-end frequencies instead of just hearing the tinny mids and highs. A single driver and passive radiators in the speaker boost the bass without needing extra power or space.

Anker's seriously small Soundcore Sleep A20 sleepbuds can be nabbed for $108 right now at Amazon, their best price since they launched on Kickstarter at $90 last year. They normally sell for $179.99, making this a standout deal for a pair of ultra-tiny sleep buds that I barely notice as I drift off to the soothing sounds of rain or birdsong.

Meta may have just released the Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 2) at the end of October, but they're not significantly different from the last-gen model introduced in 2021. The overall experience is very similar, which is why the original Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses remain a great buy, especially now that they're on sale for an all-time low of around $238.99 ($60 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target for Black Friday.

You can pick up the base 12/256GB unit for $700 and the upgrade to 16/512GB is $100 more. Even though it is a previous gen chip, the Snapdragon 8 Elite is still one of the fastest around and the 6.82" 1440p+ LTPO OLED is great. The phone is equipped with three 50MP cameras on the back, including a main with a 1/1.43" sensor and a 3x/73mm periscope. This part is arguably better than the OnePlus 15.

The Surface Laptop is more than capable of powering through a 12-hour day and handling typical productivity tasks with ease. The laptop offers impressive standby times, too, while the quiet, tactile keyboard is a pleasure to type on, and some might even prefer it to the MacBook Air's. The mechanical trackpad isn't haptic, but clicks still feel surprisingly well-defined and crisp. You also get a sharp 1080p webcam, two USB-C 3.2 ports, and one USB-A 3.1 port.

Nintendo released the follow-up to its massively successful Nintendo Switch console, earlier this summer. Now for the holidays, you can jump in and grab yourself the new Nintendo Switch 2 for $450. However, if you missed out on the Switch generation, picking yourself up an older model may not be the worst idea. Right now, Amazon has the Nintendo Switch OLED on sale for 10% off. That brings the price down

It was only just a couple of weeks ago that Apple's AirPods 4 dropped to a new low price; however, if you missed out on the former deal, you now have a chance to snag the excellent entry-level earbuds for even less. Right now, the AirPods 4 are on sale for around $69 ($60 off) at Amazon, Walmart, and Target in the lead-up to Black Friday, which is nearly a 50 percent discount.

In a video posted on Weibo, Huawei reveals that the Mate 80 series will introduce a new battery-saving feature called 'Outdoor Mode', which promises to extend battery life for several days. Huawei claims the new mode can deliver up to 14 days of use on a full charge.

As an avid iPad user, I'm all too familiar with the internal struggles that course through me when the battery is about to die. I love using either the iPad 11 or iPad Air to write and work, but I also use it to stream content, play games, and browse the internet after work. This makes me appreciate the iPad's long battery life, yet my anxiety grows when I start getting 'low battery' alerts without a charger nearby.

I'm always excited when I get a new power tool; I feel like a kid at Christmas. I can't wait to take it out of the box and start working. Of course, I need to be more restrained when testing a product, but my enthusiasm stays the same. The latest addition to my collection is the Black & Decker 18V Brushless Angle Grinder (available from Argos). Having previous experience with Black + Decker tools, I expected this device to be reliable.

Most premium headphones feature gyroscopes or motion detection systems that enable their wear detection capabilities. Wear detection pauses audio content when the headphones detect that you've removed them from your head, and resumes content when you put them back on. Apple's AirPods Max and Bose's QC Ultra 2 perform this feature best by pausing content when you remove the headphones and disconnecting them from your phone's Bluetooth. This allows you to switch audio from the headphones to your phone without pressing a button.

A solid gaming mouse should give you improved precision, faster response times, and just enough customization to make your entertainment experience better without overcomplicating things. The Razer Orochi V2 mobile wireless gaming mouse offers all that, and you can now grab it without paying the full price. On a regular day, this mouse would run you around $70, which is already quite affordable considering all the features you get.

Companies like Samsung, Tecno, Honor, and Apple are actively locking horns here, shaving off precious millimeters off their phones to make them slimmer and sleeker, without really any strength tradeoff. The iPhone Air is a legitimately strong phone, and took over 200 lbs of pressure to break according to JerryRigEverything's strength test. The problem, however, with a slim phone isn't bendability or breakability... it's battery capacity.

You can either hold out until then to find some good tech deals for all your gift shopping needs, or if you look in the right places, you can find some great tech deals right now. Amazon happens to have the Beats Studio Buds earbuds on sale for almost half off right now. For a limited time, you can grab these noise-cancelling earbuds for a 47% discount, bringing the price down from $149 to just $79.

Your Galaxy Watch is not so different from your phone or even a messy room. When put to great use, it, too, gets cluttered. By continually using your Galaxy Watch, regularly switching between apps and functionalities, or running too many apps at the same time, you're bogging it down with data that clutters it and slows performance. This results in slower performance, frozen screens, and an annoying user experience.

Motorola is ending the year strong, unveiling two new budget-friendly smartphones for people who want big screens, better cameras, and an all-day battery life. Meet the 2026 Moto G and Moto G Play. Earlier this year, I reviewed the 2025 Moto G and was impressed by the value it packed into a $200 device. It seems to me that this experience will carry over to the upcoming devices.

If you've been on the lookout for a reliable option with a bright screen, sleek design, and useful features, we recommend checking the Amazon Fire Max 11 tablet out, especially now that it's going at a discount on Amazon. The retailer is currently offering it for $189, which is a 32% discount on the retail price of $279. This version does not include lockscreen ads so you can enjoy a distraction-free, clean experience.

Choosing the right laptop can feel overwhelming -- even for someone like me, who has lived and breathed laptops for years. You get all these options, configurations, and feature lists that it's impossible not to know which is up and which is down. To make things easier for you, I'll break down laptops and their essentials into three broad usage categories: school, work, and gaming.

The good news is, these sound way better than the previous generation of Pixel Buds Pro, with upgraded drivers and better processing. They have a wide soundstage, particularly for wireless earbuds, that our reviewer Parker Hall says provides an energetic and joyous listening experience and handles a variety of genres with grace. Google made some big improvements to the active noise-canceling as well, boosting it to levels that almost match Bose and Sony, the current top tier of ANC.