1. ONEPLUS 7 PRO
CNET called the OnePlus 7 Pro the best Android phone value of 2019. The list of features is long, and at $669 it will save you $80 over the closest Samsung and iPhone competitors. The curved edge-to-edge 6.67" AMOLED display has a resolution of 1,440 pixels and a very fast refresh rate of 90 frames every second. And there’s no cutout for the camera because it pops up. An in-display fingerprint reader unlocks the screen, or you can use facial recognition or a PIN to get started. On the back, there are three cameras—an ultra wide-angle, a telephoto, and a standard 48MP main lens. The telephoto has a 3x optical zoom, and there’s a 10x digital zoom as well. The front-facing camera pops up at the top. The 4,000 mAh battery can be charged in 20 minutes with its Warp Charge 30. The computing capacities include up to 12GB of RAM, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Mobile Platform, and up to 256GB of internal storage. A liquid cooling system keeps it from overheating even when gaming. The dual stereo speakers are powered by Dolby Atmos. www.oneplus.com
2. iPHONE XR
Apple’s iPhone XR (pronounced 10R) is the economical model in the line that includes the XS and XS Max. It retails at $749, and at last look, it’s outselling its two premium siblings here in the United States. What you don’t get with the XR is an OLED display or dual rear cameras, but most of the other features are there along with an even better battery than the XS models (11.5 hours per charge). The 6.1" display is an LCD and the single rear 12MP camera has a digital rather than optical zoom. The processor is the A12Bionic with a neural engine capable of real-time machine learning and augmented reality (AR). Its memory ranges from 64GB to 256GB. The glass back comes in black, white, blue, yellow, coral, and red with matching colors for the aluminum bands on the sides. www.apple.com
3. REMARKABLE DIGITAL NOTEPAD
When we first reviewed the 10.3" reMarkable e-Ink writing tablet two years ago, it was a digital writing pad that recreated the experience of writing with a pencil on paper. The tablet had unlimited pages, pressure sensitivity for drawing, and the ability to store and read your notes, PDFs, and e-books—no glass, no lighting, and no distractions. Now with a number of significant software improvements delivered through a series of updates, you can do much more. In your saved notebooks you can move, reorder, add, or duplicate pages, and there’s handwriting recognition to convert your notes to text. Apple and Microsoft finally came around to building note-taking functions for glass pages on their tablets, but they’re very different. The reMarkable is unique and worth a second look. www.remarkable.com
4. BROTHER MONOCHROME COMPACT PRINTER
The Brother Monochrome Compact laser printer HL-L2350DW offers wireless, automatic two-sided printing from your desktop, laptop, smartphone, or tablet. You can print up to 32 pages per minute, and the recommended monthly print volume up to 2,000 pages makes it suitable for home or small office use. Flexible paper handling includes a 250-sheet paper tray and a manual feed slot that accepts a variety of paper types and sizes. The standard yield cartridge provides 1,200 pages, while the high-yield cartridge prints 3,000. A compact 14.2" × 14" × 7.2", the printer weighs 15.9 lbs. It’s available on Amazon for $110. www.brother.com
August 2019
