The Defender

The HP Chromebook x2 takes Chrome to the next level Outside the  Pixelbook , most Chromebooks feel like they’ve been cut from the same cloth. There are plenty of  good options , though none that feel all that innovative. That’s all changing, though — and the HP Chromebook x2 is proof. We were sent the $600 version of this detachable tablet, which is well-equipped for a Chrome OS machine with 4GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, and a low-power 7th-gen Intel Core m3-7Y30. Even better, HP includes the keyboard base and active pen, something that competitors like Microsoft sometimes leave out. The Chromebook x2 has some promising components and an interesting design, but is that enough to give it a leg up on an increasingly intriguing crowd of Chrome OS notebooks? AN ATTRACTIVE, WELL-BUILT, AND SLIGHTLY WOBBLY CONVERTIBLE CHROMEBOOK TABLET Pull the Chromebook x2 out of its box, and the first thing you’ll notice is that it doesn’t look like any other Chromebook. First, it’s...

It’s not really a ‘budget’ phone, but the iPhone XR is still a great value Let’s be completely honest — I’m a broke millennial, and don’t have disposable income to splurge on expensive smartphones. But when Apple announced pricing for its new iPhone XS and XS Max, which both broke the $1,000 mark, I didn’t think much of it. Carrier payment plans tend to make every smartphone look less expensive, but then I did the math. The $750 price tag on the iPhone XR has other tech journalists referring to it as the “budget” option of the new   iPhone X lineup , which could easily be misconstrued as translating to mediocre features. In reality, the XR offers a beautiful design, top-tier specs, and most importantly — isn’t all that different from its expensive companions. It’s also the iPhone I’m probably going to buy, and I’m not mad about it. Following last year’s Apple event in September, I preached that customers  should splurge  for the $1,000 iPhone X because the iPhone ...

Huawei could announce a trio of new smartwatches at IFA in late August. The Huawei Watch 2 is one of the  best Wear OS smartwatches , but if Huawei’s latest patent is anything to go by, the company is preparing a new smartwatch — or watches — that seriously steps things up in terms of versatility. Huawei may be on the verge of launching not one but three smartwatches for 2018: the Huawei Watch 3 family. Here’s everything we know about the upcoming Huawei Watch for 2018. NAME For the last few years, the Huawei naming conventions have been pretty predictable. The first year smartwatch was called  the Huawei Watch , while the second-generation 2017 watch was aptly named the  Huawei Watch 2 . We’ve assumed that we will see a Huawei Watch 3, but it looks like things may change in 2018. According to our friends at the Dutch site Let’s Go Digital, Huawei  recently submitted applications  to the European Union Intellectual Property Office to trademark thre...