Latest news with #DigitalTrends'
Yahoo
24-03-2025
- Yahoo
Samsung expands monitor line with Odyssey 3D, OLED G8 and new ultrawide Odyssey G9
Samsung will happily tell you that it's the top choice monitor for gamers, thanks in no small part to the performance of the Odyssey line-up. These premium monitors have pushed design, specs and performance, now updatied for 2025 – including a new addition. The Odyssey 3D (G90XF) offers a glasses-free viewing experience, supported by eye-tracking tech and a lenticular lens to ensure you get a great experience. We first laid eyes on this model at CES 2025 where Digital Trends' Jacob Roach was impressed with its performance. It's a 27-inch monitor, but it's not limited to showing 3D content: it can also convert 2D into 3D, so it's more versatile than some competitor screens. Elsewhere it's a capable gaming monitor supporting 165Hz refresh rates, 4K resolution and support for AMD FreeSync Premium and Nvidia G-Sync to deliver an optimal experience. It's a flat IPS panel with a 16:9 aspect, while connectivity runs to two HDMI 2.1, one Display Port 1.4 and USB ports. There are also a pair of speakers built in. There's RGB lighting to illuminate around the display, which sits on a height adjustable stand. Currently Samsung is inviting pre-registration in some regions, with sales starting in Korea: priced at KRW2,490,000, it could be around $1,700 when it lands in the US on April 8. If 3D isn't your bag, then there's a good chance that the Odyssey OLED G8 (G81SF) will be. This is one of the most popular gaming monitors, with the 2025 model expanding on its forebears and coming in 27 and 32-inch sizes. It's a 4K monitor, with Samsung boasting that the 27-inch model has the highest pixel density (166ppi) for a 240Hz monitor. For many it will be the OLED panel that's attractive, delivering jaw-dropping quality and wonderfully rich visuals, but also supporting a 0.03 gray-to-gray response speeds. There's Display Port 1.4, two HDMI 2.1 and USB connections. There are no speakers here, but you do get illumination on the rear and a premium silver design, with the stand supporting height, pivot and tilt. You can expect to pay around $1,000 for the 27-inch model or $1,200 for the 32-inch, but again, US prices are still to be confirmed. The Odyssey OLED G8 will likely be a great gaming monitor, but it's an expensive choice for sure. Samsung knows how to impress and there's nothing quite like the Odyssey G9. This is one of the widest displays on the market, with a huge 49-inch diagonal measurement. The new model is the G91F and note that this isn't the OLED model, it's the LCD version. What you're effectively getting here is two QHD displays side-by-side and if you've not had the chance to play with one, that's also the option to to view two different sources simultaneously, with picture-by-picture or picture-in-picture modes. It has a 32:9 aspect ratio, with a 1000R curve, which feels like it wraps around you when you're sat at your desk. The actual resolution is 5120 x 1440 pixels and it's a VA LCD display supporting up to 144Hz, and certified for VESA Display HDR 600 standards. The converted prices for the new Odyssey G9 come in at about $900, substantially less than you'll pay for the OLED G9. As I said, full details about these models in the US should land on April 8.
Yahoo
18-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Jacob Elordi plays a WWII prisoner in The Narrow Road to the Deep North trailer
Jacob Elordi plays a soldier held captive as a prisoner of war in the trailer for The Narrow Road to the Deep North, an upcoming Australian drama series on Prime Video. Dorrigo Evans (Priscilla's Elordi) is an Australian doctor who became a Far East prisoner of war during the construction of the Burma Railway in World War II. Told over multiple periods, Dorrigo once embarked on a passionate love affair with his uncle's wife, Amy Mulvaney (Odessa Young), that changed his life. In the present, an older Dorrigo (Ciarán Hinds) reflects on his life as a war hero with much sadness and grief. 'We all left a part of ourselves in that jungle,' Hinds' Dorrigo says in the trailer. 'Memory is the only true justice.' The Narrow Road to the Deep North's ensemble includes Olivia DeJonge, Heather Mitchell, Thomas Weatherall, Show Kasamatsu, and Simon Baker. The Narrow Road to the Deep North is based on Richard Flanagan's 2013 novel of the same name. Shaun Grant wrote the show for television, and Justin Kurzel directed the series. Grant and Kurzel have previously collaborated on 2011's Snowtown, 2020's True History of the Kelly Gang, and 2021's Nitram. Kurzel directed 2024's The Order, a thriller about an FBI agent's mission to stop a white supremacist group from overthrowing the government. In his review, Digital Trends' Alex Welch wrote, 'The Order is a gripping, haunting, and unfortunately necessary true-crime thriller.' The Narrow Road to the Deep North is a five-part series that will debut on April 18 on Prime Video in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. The BBC will air the show in the U.K. Sony is still looking for a distribution deal in the U.S.
Yahoo
15-02-2025
- Yahoo
I've found a perfect use for the Galaxy Ring, but I can't recommend it
People seem to have polar reactions to smart rings. Some love them, like Digital Trends' Andy Boxall. Others, like former Digital Trends contributor Joe Maring, found that they simply couldn't abide wearing one all the time. So when I decided to buy the Samsung Galaxy Ring for a number of reasons, I alays knew it would really be an experiment with whether I would take to wearing a ring or not. The results are in, and I am firmly in the camp of those who don't really get smart rings. For the last few months, my Galaxy Ring has largely found itself relegated to its charging box. I say 'largely' because it's actually been in there less than I had assumed when I gave up wearing it full time. And that's because I've found a whole new use for it, which fits my life perfectly. Only, it's not a use I really recommend for anyone. Here's why. I should have known from the start that wearing a smart ring wouldn't really be my jam. I don't wear rings, I've never worn rings, and even if I get married, I don't plan on wearing a ring. So why would a smart ring be any different? Well, dear reader, it's because I'm an enormous stooge for technology. Want me to do an unpleasant task? Strap a piece of smart tech to it and tell me it'll track my stats. It's how I was tricked into taking up running, and it'll doubtless work again in the future. My early days with the Galaxy Ring were good. I loved the convenience, the battery life was great, and I loved the gold finish. Despte the color, it was subtle, and often people wouldn't even realise I was wearing it. I took to wearing a normal watch again. Life was good. Only, it wasn't. A few small things kept bugging me. One of them was the design. The Galaxy Ring has a slight concave design that dips in the center, and flares out towards the edge. Except the flared edges tend to catch on things, which isn't a huge concern — except when it catches on the back of my newborn daughter's head. Feeling a ring scrape along the back of a beloved child's head is not an experience I wish on any of you. It didn't really seem to bother her, but the feeling haunts me to this day. But even worse than baby-scratching was what it did to my love of stats and data. It killed it stone dead. The Galaxy Ring is a very smart little doohickey. It collects a lot of data — and not the scary data that Google collects. No, it's the nice data that tells me how well my ticker is ticking, how slothily I slumbered, and how fast I run when I really want donuts before the stores close for the day. I like those stats, and the Galaxy Ring collects a lot of those. So it collects a lot of data and stats — but it doesn't feel like it does. I never glanced at my ring and thought 'hm, I should see how many steps I've walked today' or 'when was the last time I exercised, because that brisk walk almost killed me'. Smartwatches give me that compulsion, and while it might not be an entirely healthy compulsion, it's one that justifies the data collection. I'm not sure why the Galaxy Ring doesn't trigger it, but it may be the lack of a screen meant I didn't feel the need to go digging. The need to find the Samsung Health app was enough of a barrier to stop me from looking at my activity stats. And really, if I wasn't looking at that, what was the point of wearing the ring? I took it off the day I came to that realization, and went back to a smartwatch. But I did look back, and that's because of the shortcomings of the device I wore instead. The Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic is a fabulous smartwatch. It's easily still one of the best smartwatches you can buy, despite having been superseded by the Galaxy Watch 7. It looks great, feels even better to use, and serves as a perfect complement to my Galaxy Z Fold 5. But it doesn't suit my nighttime adventures. If you're sleeping through the entire night, then the Galaxy Watch's sleep mode works fine. It closes down the display, preventing accidental touches and stopping it from lighting up like a Christmas tree at 3am. But when you're awake feeding a baby at midnight, and you flick your wrist up to see what time it is — sorry, you need to press a button, or whirl the rotating bezel. And even then, it just asks you if you want to turn off sleep mode. Do I want to turn off sleep mode? Quite frankly, no. I'd much rather I was in sleep mode myself. It's patently obvious I'm not asleep, I just want to know what the time is — just let me see the time. I came to the conclusion that it was better to not have the watch on, rather than have something that would actively infuriate me. But on the flip side, I want to continue tracking my sleep, because lord knows, I'm not getting enough of it. The Galaxy Ring was the obvious solution. It's small, convenient, lacks the temptation of a display, and tracks everything I want tracked. Not being reminded to view my data isn't an issue because I'm, well, asleep, and in the morning, I strap my watch back on and slip the Ring back into its case. It's also solved a few other problems I had with the Galaxy Watch. I no longer need to find time to charge it, for instance. My wrist gets chance to breathe. Heck, it just gives me a rest from constantly wearing it. It's a win-win. Wearing a smartwatch during the day and a smart ring at night has balanced the issues I've had with the both of them, and it's become the perfect way to add the Galaxy Ring back into my life. But really, I can't recommend this method to anyone. There's a fly in this ointment, and it's a big one; money. The Samsung Galaxy Ring costs a princely $400 before any trade-ins. That puts it on the more expensive side for a wearable, even if you're using it all the time. A comparable smartwatch can set you back much less, and offer more on top, since there's room fro a display, and more advanced features. A dedicated sleep tracker, like the Withings Sleep, costs only $130. Sure, the Galaxy Ring is a lot more flexible, but is it $270 more flexible? I'm not so sure. Ultimately, the Galaxy Ring is a lot of money to spend on a sleep tracker. Instead, this is very much a recommendation for people like me; anyone who took the plunge on a smart ring and discovered, to their accountant's horror, that it simply doesn't work for them. I've been in that exact position, and honestly, it doesn't feel good, even if you've bought the device in question for work. But all is not lost, as my discovery has proven. The Samsung Galaxy Ring makes an excellent sleep tracker. I feel like Mr. Moneybags saying this, because I've effectively spent $400 to track my sleep in a more convenient fashion, and it's for that reason I can't recommend you buy one for that reason. However, if you have found you simply don't gel with a smart ring, try wearing it at night. You may find it works better.
