We review the affordable HTC U11 Life smartphone, Hennessey aims for 300mph with the Venom F5, Roku’s latest bit makes streaming even easier.
Maybe you should just get a Life
After the avalanche of press halo phones like the Apple iPhone Ten and Samusung Galaxy S8 get, it’s sometimes easy to overlook some other great phones out there that cost a whole lot less, and still do… most of the things those super-spendy handset can do. We just got through reviewing the quite capable HTC U11 Life device, which is a slightly smaller, slightly lighter and a bit less expensive version of the new U11.
While the U11 Life makes do without the currently fashionable “bezel-less” screen thing, it does boast a true HD LCD display that gets the job done. Inside, there’s 3gb of RAM, a Snapdragon 630 ticker, and 32 gigs of space. There’s also a micros SD slot for up to two more terabytes of storage, if and when such a thing ever gets made. It runs on Android 7 dot one, with HTC’s Sense interface stretched tightly over the top. There’s also a 16-mgapixel rear camera.
Like a lot of new phones, it doesn’t have a headphone jack, but HTC includes a set of noise-cancelling USB-C earbuds in the box, so that’s a nice touch. Price? Just $350, quite a bargain, really.
Watch for low-flying supercars
Supercar maker Hennessy’s follow-up to the iconic and record-holding Venon GT is finally here, and it’s called the Venom F5.
Screaming yellow is probably a good choice of colors for the crazy car from Texas, which is packing 1600 horsepower under the hood. Why so much juice? Hennessy is hoping all those ponies will help the F5 break their own 270mph speed record, and maybe even get it past the now-magical 300 mile an hour mark, something no production car has really come close to. So is it a hybrid? All wheel drive? Affordable?
No, no, and that depends on what you call “affordable.” The F5 is powered solely by a twin-turbocharged V8 which routes all that power to the rear wheels only. And while other supercars cars cost a lot more that the F5’s $1.6 million price tag, none will likely be able to touch it in terms of speed, which includes going from zero to 186 miles an hour in under ten seconds. Yeah, so sorta fast. They’re only making 24 of them, so you might want to reserve yours now.
Hello, cable company?
Attention all cord cutters: If you’ve been looking for a streaming option that includes all the good stuff, the new Roku Streaming Stick Plus is about as good as it gets. Once it’s powered up, you’ll be glad you spent all of $70 on it as the specs include 4K HDR video, surround sound decoding including Dolby Atmos, a slick and speedy interface, and all your favorite streaming apps.
The remote gets an upgrade too, including automatically figuring out what TV you are using so it can control that, too. Pretty slick. DT A/V Club president Caleb Denison put on his best fall sweater for the review, so check out all the features… of the streaming stick.
We’ve got more news on our Facebook page and YouTube channel, and be sure to tune in to this week’s DT podcasts: Trends with Benefits (general tech shenanigans) on Thursdays, and Between the Streams (movie and TV topics) every Friday.
