Latest news with #CameronFaulkner
The Verge
6 days ago
- The Verge
Alienware's AW2725Q 4K OLED gaming monitor is down to its lowest price ever at Amazon
If you prefer gaming on a PC instead of consoles, you should hook it up to a display that can support playing games at higher frame rates for a smoother experience. Most gaming monitors require you to choose between prioritizing resolution or fidelity, but you get both with Alienware's AW2725Q. The 26.7-inch 4K OLED display has a refresh rate of 240Hz, with just .03ms of latency (lag), so fast-paced games should look smooth instead of stuttering — so long as you have the graphics power to support it. The monitor is on sale for $675.84 ($224 off), an all-time low price at Amazon. Verge Commerce Editor Cameron Faulkner tested it and was impressed. Alienware's AW2725Q is a 26.7-inch 4K OLED gaming monitor with a 240Hz refresh rate, .03ms of latency, two HDMI 2.1 ports, one DisplayPort 1.4 port, and support for Nvidia G-Sync and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro. The AW2725Q supports Dolby Vision and VESA DisplayHDR True Black 400, which improve contrast and color accuracy when playing compatible titles. Dolby Vision is pretty common on 4K TVs, but it's not as readily available on gaming monitors. An OLED display can display true black, which makes colors pop even more. An anti-reflective coating on the display also improves its contrast. The AW2725Q supports Nvidia's G-Sync and AMD's FreeSync Premium Pro, technologies designed to reduce instances of screen tearing or other graphical glitches. The monitor has two HDMI 2.1 ports, one DisplayPort 1.4 port, one 5GBps USB-B port, three 5Gbps USB-A ports, and one 5Gbps USB-C port. If you hook your PC up to it using the DisplayPort, it'll leave the HDMI ports open to connect a pair of consoles. Both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X top out at playing 4K games at 120Hz, while the Nintendo Switch 2 supports 4K output at 60Hz, so you can play games at their full resolution and frame rate on the AW2725Q. Sign up for Verge Deals to get deals on products we've tested sent to your inbox weekly. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Brandt Ranj Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Deals Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Gaming Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All PC Gaming Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Tech
The Verge
30-07-2025
- Business
- The Verge
An affordable 4TB PS5-ready SSD, indeed.
Posted Jul 30, 2025 at 7:03 PM UTC An affordable 4TB PS5-ready SSD, indeed. Lexar announced that its Play 2280 SE PCIe 4.0 SSD is available at Costco. New SSDs hit the market all the time, but I'm stunned by how affordable this one is. Costco members can snag one online for $224.99. For context on that price, Samsung's 4TB 990 Pro has never gone below $279.99. The Play 2280 SE supports 7000 MB/s max read and 6000 MB/s max write speeds. That makes it a touch slower than the 990 Pro, but you likely won't notice a difference on your PS5 (we didn't when we tested several options back in 2021). Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates. Cameron Faulkner Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Cameron Faulkner Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Deals Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All News Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Tech
The Verge
29-07-2025
- The Verge
LG's StanbyMe 2 is an unquestionably cool TV at a questionably high price
LG's StanbyMe 2 has all the ingredients of a good follow-up gadget: the display is 1440p instead of 1080p, and instead of being trapped on its rollable stand, the screen is detachable for you to use wherever and however you want. It can hang on the wall if you buy a compatible strap, or you can rest it on its included folio cover, much like you would a tablet. It also has more ports beyond the one HDMI port and one USB-A port in the original model. You'll get USB-C for connecting laptops, too. Its built-in battery can power the screen for up to four hours, and you can recharge it with a power bank so long as it can provide at least 65W charging speeds. We knew earlier this month that the StanbyMe 2 would be coming soon, but LG waited until it was available to share that it costs $1,299.99 — $300 more than its predecessor did at launch. Just as with the original StanbyMe, I have to take a moment to resist the urge to call this a terrible value, since OLED TVs and brilliant monitors are readily available well under $1,000. But for those who were, at least, mildly enthused about a major manufacturer putting a screen on wheels, perhaps the added versatility in the StanbyMe 2 makes it worth actually considering for your home. As if one rolling screen wasn't enough for 2025, LG's Smart Monitor Switch is another option, although it only works while connected to a power outlet. Similarly, it costs $1,299.99, but it has a bigger 31.5-inch 4K IPS touchscreen display, as well as a stand that offers more points of articulation. It's more flush with ports, offering three USB-C ports with 65W Power Delivery, and two HDMI 2.0 ports. A free daily digest of the news that matters most. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Cameron Faulkner Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Gadgets Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All News Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Tech Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All TVs
The Verge
29-07-2025
- The Verge
Sony's DualSense Edge is $30 off for a limited time
If you spend a lot of time gaming on the PlayStation 5, you may want a controller that can offer more customization than the standard DualSense. The pro-style DualSense Edge is worth considering, especially now since it's currently down to $170 ($29.99 off) on the PlayStation website with the code EVO2025 through August 4th. The same code can be used on a variety of PS5 accessories, including the Pulse Elite wireless headphones. Sony's pro-style controller, the DualSense Edge, might suffer from shorter battery life than the standard DualSense model, but it features great software integration with the PlayStation 5 and plenty of customizable components. While the DualSense Edge looks and feels similar to the DualSense controller, it offers a number of notable upgrades. For starters, its deep software integration with the PS5 allows you to create up to four profiles, each offering customization for button mapping, stick sensitivity, and assigning commands to the rear buttons. You can swap between these profiles on the fly without having to leave your game. Sony makes it just as easy to swap out stick modules, too, in case one ever stops working. Additionally, the DualSense Edge features toggle switches that give you the option to shorten the pull distance of either trigger. This is great if you prefer a hair-trigger feel for shooters and other fast-paced competitive games. These features can, if you'll excuse the pun, give you an edge when playing your favorite titles. However, the controller isn't without its faults, some of which are easier to forgive considering this temporary price drop. Despite its high price, the DualSense Edge has worse battery life compared to the standard DualSense controller. In his review, The Verge's Cameron Faulkner confirmed that its battery life lasts only about eight hours on a full charge. It's a small consolation that Sony includes a lengthy USB charging cable, which also has a handy locking mechanism so it doesn't accidentally come unplugged (very handy during tournaments when disconnecting is unacceptable). With games like Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, Silent Hill f, and Ghost of Yōtei all on the horizon, there will be no shortage of games to use this controller with this year. And, thanks to the $30 discount, it's a good excuse to start getting used to the controller's features. Sign up for Verge Deals to get deals on products we've tested sent to your inbox weekly. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Brandon Russell Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Deals Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Gaming Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All PlayStation Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Sony Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Tech
The Verge
29-07-2025
- The Verge
What's on your desk, Cameron Faulkner?
Cameron Faulkner describes himself as 'a New York City transplant who's lived in Brooklyn since 2012.' He continues, 'When I'm not at work, I try to get as far away from my computer as I can (I don't always succeed), spending time with my wife, 15-month-old son, and two cats. I enjoy walking around, playing video games, drinking coffee, and keeping myself busy with a never-ending list of tasks.' He is currently commerce editor at The Verge, where he helps other commerce writers find good deals, edits their work, and writes about gaming accessories, monitors, and other fun gadgets worth knowing about. He is also the first Verge staffer to be featured twice on What's on Your Desk — and here's why. When you first talked to us about your home office space, it was 2021 and you were working out of a studio apartment. What's changed? Yep, we upgraded to a space where I have my own office that isn't five feet away from my bed. Now it's 10 feet away. A studio apartment is like a furnace to forge your relationship and your organizational skills. While I succeeded at the relationship part, it was always a challenge to live minimally enough so as to keep things relatively clutter-free, especially since we also had two cats in the mix. Needless to say, I don't particularly miss it — though my desk setup is close to the previous one as it was before. Could you tell us about your desk and chair? The desk that I'm using is a Fully Jarvis Bamboo Standing Desk, and it's the kind of thing that I love because I never have to think about it, or clean it often. I encourage anyone who's curious about a standing desk to give it a shot. There are some days / weeks / seasons when I use it while sitting, but it's nice to have the flexibility to stand if I want to keep my blood flowing. I bought this desk from Fully before that company was acquired by Knoll, which was later acquired by Herman Miller. That said, the Jarvis bamboo standing desk is still available to buy through Herman Miller, but I'm not sure if its build quality and feature set are the same. As if I haven't already said Herman Miller enough, the chair is the Sayl from that company. It's breathable and comfortable. Here's the long one: tell us about the various tech devices you're using. (And please be specific about the model, etc.) My tech setup has changed a bit since my last WOYD appearance in 2021, but mostly in incremental ways. I have the same dual monitor setup (the 27-inch Acer Nitro XV272U and the 27-inch LG 27GL650F-B). My webcam got a big improvement. It's the Insta360 Link. I reviewed it for The Verge back in 2022, but the one I have is personally owned. I don't take advantage of the gimbal or gesture-based controls as much as I thought I would — I just think it produces a nice, clean image. I also got a set of Kanto YU2 desktop speakers that have just the kind of minimalist design that I'm looking for. Those connect to my computer via USB, but also have speaker cable inputs for use with a receiver or a record player. Fun fact: they also connect via USB to my Nintendo Switch 2, and I enjoy listening to game audio through them when I'm having a quick handheld gaming session at my desk. Do you prefer the split keyboard? I'll never go back to normal keyboards after buying this split ergonomic model from Kinesis. It's a gaming keyboard, technically, so it has mechanical key switches and programmable LEDs under each key. I couldn't find another split keyboard suitable for gaming at the time when I bought it (at least, not one with a design that didn't look atrocious), and I've been happy with this model. The downside is that it's now a lot tougher for me to find merit in laptop keyboards, since they quickly give me wrist pain. Initially, most people I talk to about these keyboards are of the opinion that they'd never figure out how to use one, and that anyone who does is not from this planet. It does look strange, I'll give them that. But I think that they're a more natural way to type, since you can hold your arms and wrists more comfortably instead of contorting them unnaturally to type on a row-based keyboard. I love that grouping of tchotchkes: the little plastic eggs, the 1960s-style timer, the sand art ornament. Welcome to the fidget corner of my desk. The blue sphere that looks a little bit like the old AT&T logo spins around on a base. It's so satisfying to hold and tinker with. The red egg is none other than Silly Putty, which I'm frequently molding into various shapes off-camera during calls. The timer is a Pomodoro timer, and I use it when I need some uninterrupted time to focus on a task (all thanks to this 2022 piece from Victoria Song that inspired me to buy one). Lastly, the sand art display was a gift during Polygon's 2024 secret santa extravaganza. We all got together over Zoom and had a gift exchange. We had a lot of fun over there. Anyway, the sand art display is so soothing, and I love rotating it to see how the specks fall differently every time. It's simple, yet beautiful. Tell us about the poster with the two people (you and your wife?) walking by a decorated wall. I realized at some point in the last few months that I have an abundance of open wall space and a bunch of photos that I love to look back on. So, why not put more memories up on the wall? The one that I chose here is a photo from our engagement shoot, which was taken in front of a graffiti-covered building that has since been bulldozed. I just thought it was a nice photo back in the day, but it has evolved into a reminder that things can change around us, and sometimes within us, but that we're committed to walking together throughout the journey. I'm really glad that I get to look at it every time I walk into the office before work. I understand there's a great story behind the coin / currency collection that you keep in your desk. Yes! My grandfather gave me his coin collection before he passed, and it's one of those things where I wish I would have asked what made him take it up as a hobby, and how he obtained some of this stuff. I know he never went on the internet (bless his heart), and he never mentioned going to shops or auctions to look for obscure Buffalo nickels from the early 1900s. Based on how comprehensive it is, it's clear to me that he really loved doing it. Now, I keep it near my desk to pull out and examine any time I need to lose myself in history, or in thinking about my grandfather. I wonder about all of the hands throughout time that these coins and bills passed through. Conceptually, I hate money and all of the power that billionaires who have a lot of it can wield (often to negative effect), but I really enjoy handling this old currency. It's lost to time and is no longer accepted as legal tender in society, but it still holds a lot of value to me. Photographs by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Cameron Faulkner Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Barbara Krasnoff Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Tech Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All What's on your desk?
