Latest news with #VictoriaSong
The Verge
2 days ago
- Health
- The Verge
Fitbit's Charge 6 fitness tracker is at its lowest price ever at Walmart
The Fitbit Charge 6 is one of the best fitness trackers we've tested, and down to an all-time low price of $93 ($66.95 off) at Walmart. The deal includes a six-month subscription to Fitbit Premium, a service that includes guided workouts, a wellness report, and other perks, and usually costs $10 per month or $80 per year. You can get the Charge 6 for $99.95 ($60 off), along with the same six-month subscription, at Amazon. The Fitbit Charge 6 features a haptic side button, an improved heart rate algorithm, turn-by-turn navigation with Google Maps, and the ability to broadcast your heart rate on certain Bluetooth gym equipment. Read our review. The Charge 6 is the only fitness tracker under $200 with an FDA-cleared EKG reader, and it's better at measuring your heart rate than its predecessor. It can also track your blood oxygen level, sleep, and activity. Fitbit made strides to reach feature parity with fitness smartwatches by adding Bluetooth compatibility with exercise equipment and an NFC chip to the Charge 6, which allows you to use Google Wallet. It also has apps for Google Maps and YouTube Music, so you can use those services without reaching for your phone. Verge reviewer Victoria Song's chief complaint with the Charge 6 was that enabling its always-on display reduced its battery life from seven days to two. You'll also need to have an active Google account because Fitbit has migrated away from its own account system. For an in-depth view of the Charge 6, you can read our review. Three more deals we think you'll likeSign up for Verge Deals to get deals on products we've tested sent to your inbox weekly.
The Verge
6 days ago
- Health
- The Verge
The Amazfit Active 2, one of our favorite fitness trackers, is just $79.99 right now
If you're looking for a budget-friendly smartwatch that doesn't skimp on features, the Amazfit Active 2 is one of the best Prime Day deals you'll find. Normally $99.99, it was already a great deal in and of itself, but right now it's practically a steal starting at $79.99 ($20 off) directly from Amazfit and Amazon, which is a new low price. Unlike most budget smartwatches, the Active 2 actually looks and feels premium with its stainless steel case and tempered glass. For an additional $50, you can upgrade to a version with sapphire crystal and an extra leather strap. During testing, my colleague Victoria Song says she received compliments, something she rarely gets for a budget smartwatch. The Amazfit Active 2 delivers outsized value for the price. It looks spiffy and has a wide array of health tracking features, plus built-in GPS and AI chatbots to provide extra context to your data. Read our review. The platform-agnostic watch also offers a number of health and fitness tracking features that are rare to find at this price point, which is why it's one of our favorite wearables. It covers all the basics and then some, ranging from continuous heart rate monitoring and blood oxygen rate to daily readiness scores and detailed sleep tracking. It also supports over 160 activity modes and boasts offline maps with turn-by-turn directions, while providing access to all five major GNSS satellite systems for more accurate location tracking (though not dual-frequency GPS). What also sets the Active 2 apart is its suite of AI tools. The on-device Zepp Flow assistant lets you control settings and ask simple questions, while the optional Zepp Aura AI chatbot ($77 per year) provides personalized insights into your sleep and readiness metrics. There's also Zepp Coach, which can create training plans tailored to your goals. You won't find some advanced health features like EKGs, but still, the Amazfit Active 2 offers far more than you'd expect at this price. For anyone looking for a stylish, feature-packed smartwatch without a premium price, this Prime Day deal is hard to beat. Sign up for Verge Deals to get deals on products we've tested sent to your inbox weekly.
The Verge
08-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Verge
A quest for the best headphone mics
We've all had it happen. You slip on a trusty pair of headphones, hop on a call, and your friends, family, and coworkers say, 'What?!' Cue your own personal reenactment of the classic 'Can you hear me now?' commercials from Verizon. On this episode of The Vergecast, we kick off Hot Girl Vergecast Summer with a classic Vergecast segment: the mic test. Guest host Victoria Song is joined by Vergecast producers Andru Marino and Erick Gomez to see how the Nothing Headphone 1, Sony WH-1000XM6, Apple AirPods Max, and Bose QuietComfort Ultra hold up against what's possibly the noisiest street in Brooklyn. Subscribe: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Overcast | Pocket Casts | More After that, Victoria is joined by Ladder CEO Greg Stewart to talk about what it takes to build a successful strength training app — especially for people just starting out. As it turns out, it's quite challenging, between curating playlists, accommodating users' different access to equipment, skill levels, and preferences for coaching styles. (And maybe, some occasional beef with Peloton?) Lastly, we answer a question from the Vergecast Hotline (call 866-VERGE11 or email vergecast@ about AI fitness summaries, whether people actually like them, what's frustrating about them, and what scenarios they might actually be useful for. Want to learn more about the topics in this episode? Here are some handy dandy links for your reference:
The Verge
08-07-2025
- The Verge
OnePlus launches five new products, including Buds 4 and smaller Watch 3 for the US
OnePlus has launched five new products today, including the midrange Nord 5 phone and a smaller version of its Watch 3 wearable. The 43mm version of the Watch 3 and the new Buds 4 earbuds are the only new products launching in the US, with the others going on sale in Europe and India. The Watch 3 43mm is exactly what it sounds like: a more compact version of the existing OnePlus wearable, which only launched in a single 47mm option. That was my colleague Victoria Song's 'big design gripe' with the original Watch 3, so a fix is certainly welcome. The new version is not only much smaller, but also drops the angular elements around the rotating crown and button for a simpler, circular design that's less distinctive, but which I certainly prefer. The compact design comes at a cost to battery though. OnePlus says the new Watch 3 is 7 percent thinner and 28 percent lighter than the original, but it has just 50 percent of the battery life. That's still 60 hours on typical settings, but a far cry from the 120-hour battery life that was a key selling point first time round. That's despite using a much less bright display, with 1,000 nits of peak brightness, down from 2,200 in the 47mm model. As before, it runs on Wear OS and is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon W5 Gen 1 chipset, with a second low-power chip to help with battery life. There are some new features too, with reproductive cycle tracking, and an updated version of its 'Wellness' score that claims to use the watch's barometer to measure your fatigue levels and show you a corresponding emoji as a result. The Watch 3 43mm is available from the OnePlus website from today for $299.99 — $100 less than the larger model — and will arrive on Amazon and Best Buy in August. In Europe it'll set you back €299 / £269. The other US release is the Buds 4, a new pair of affordable earbuds. Available in green or gray, these support both Hi-Res and spatial audio, powered by dual 11mm and 6mm drivers in each bud. I'm a fan of the slightly concave touch controls, which make it easier to feel where you're meant to swipe and tap. They cost $129.99 in the US, and €119 / £119 in Europe. The Nord 5 is the star of the other launches, though it won't come to the US. This midrange phone launches in Europe for €449 / £399, powered by the Snapdragon 8S Gen 3. There's a clear gaming focus, with a 144Hz OLED display, but also an unexpectedly capable 50-megapixel selfie camera. This one's for the kids, I guess. It's a big phone, with a 6.83-inch display, but it's relatively slim and light, so doesn't feel too bulky from my time testing the phone so far. It also follows the Asia-only OnePlus 13S (known as the 13T in China) in dropping the company's classic Alert Slider in favor of a new button, the Plus Key. This is fully customizable, but by default triggers (you guessed it!) AI stuff. I'm reviewing the Nord 5 right now, so we'll have a full verdict on the phone soon. It's joined by the Nord CE 5, a €349 / £299 handset that looks similar but makes compromises across the board. It's a hair smaller, with a 6.77-inch screen, and drops to a slower MediaTek Dimensity 8350 Apex chipset. The screen has a lower resolution, refresh rate, and peak brightness, and the camera specs are less impressive too, though at least it includes the same 5,200mAh battery and 80W charging speed as the Nord 5, and a similar promise of four years of OS updates. I'd pay a little more for the Nord 5 if you can afford to. Finally, the Pad Lite is a cheaper take on the OnePlus tablet line-up. I'm disappointed to see it uses the ugly circular camera design of the older Pads (since changed on the recent Pad 3), but otherwise there's a lot to like for the price. It has an 11-inch, 2K display (though only at 90Hz), and a decently sized 9,340mah battery. It's just €229 / £199, but an extra €30 / £30 will net you more RAM, double the storage, and LTE support, which sounds like a bargain.
The Verge
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Verge
Casio's Ring Watch is available online after being sold out for months
Casio's $120 CRW001-1 (AKA the Ring Watch) is back in stock on Casio's website for the first time since it launched — then swiftly sold out — in December. The Ring Watch was released to commemorate the 50th anniversary of its original digital watch. While it may look like a novelty, the fully-functional watch impressed The Verge's Victoria Song as both a fashion statement and a practical gadget. The silver ring has a sub-inch screen and comes in one ring size: 10.5. However, Casio includes 16 and 19 millimeter spacers to accommodate smaller fingers. A ring-sized, full-metal version of the Casio watch. The Ring Watch's LCD screen can display six digits, and be set to standard or military time. The three buttons around its face can start a stopwatch, display the date, or show the time in a different timezone. An alarm function will flash in the corner of its screen when the counter is complete. Sign up for Verge Deals to get deals on products we've tested sent to your inbox weekly.
