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Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos via Getty Images

On today’s episode of Decoder, we’re talking about the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Chevron deference and what it means for the future of the internet.
I’ve been covering the fight over net neutrality for almost my entire career as a tech reporter — over 15 years now. The idea is that internet service providers shouldn’t be able to discriminate between what services you access on the internet: AT&T shouldn’t be able to slow down X and speed up Threads, and Verizon shouldn’t be able to block Zoom because it owns BlueJeans.
It’s pretty basic stuff, and after all this time, the Biden administration’s Federal Communications Commission once again made it the law. But big telecom companies truly hate the idea that anyone would regulate their networks, and they once again filed a lawsuit over it. Until very recently, everyone sort of understood the arguments in a case like that and how they would go — like I said, I’ve been covering this for 15 years now. It felt familiar.

But then, everything changed. In late June, the Supreme Court issued a bombshell opinion in a case called Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which overturned something called Chevron deference — the idea that courts should generally defer to agencies like the FCC when it comes to interpreting ambiguous parts of the law.
That means the net neutrality lawsuit is suddenly very different. It’s now about whether the court thinks the internet should be neutral, not the FCC. And wouldn’t you know it, the Sixth Circuit immediately halted the FCC’s new net neutrality order and asked for briefs on how the Loper Bright ruling would change the case.
I invited Verge editor Sarah Jeong on the show to talk about all of this with me, and you’ll really hear us get into it. I mean, for the last 40 years, judges have basically deferred to federal agencies when it comes to the details of interpreting law because the agencies employ experts and have really deep subject area knowledge.
But now, judges will be empowered to make their own interpretations and throw out old ones. And with a dysfunctional Congress that can barely pass any laws as it is, the Supreme Court’s decision in Loper Bright is a major power grab for the judiciary over the other two branches of government.
It’s a very big deal, with some far-reaching consequences for basically everything, including the environment, labor law, and all manner of regulation. Here at The Verge, our policy team has been tracking this outcome for a long time, so I wanted to have Sarah come on the show to break down how we got here and what it means for the future.
If that sounds really chaotic and unstable to you, well… you’re not wrong, and you’ll hear us discuss that toward the end, when we did our best to put this state of affairs into context and try to figure out what happens next.

Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos via Getty Images

On today’s episode of Decoder, we’re talking about the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Chevron deference and what it means for the future of the internet.

I’ve been covering the fight over net neutrality for almost my entire career as a tech reporter — over 15 years now. The idea is that internet service providers shouldn’t be able to discriminate between what services you access on the internet: AT&T shouldn’t be able to slow down X and speed up Threads, and Verizon shouldn’t be able to block Zoom because it owns BlueJeans.

It’s pretty basic stuff, and after all this time, the Biden administration’s Federal Communications Commission once again made it the law. But big telecom companies truly hate the idea that anyone would regulate their networks, and they once again filed a lawsuit over it. Until very recently, everyone sort of understood the arguments in a case like that and how they would go — like I said, I’ve been covering this for 15 years now. It felt familiar.

But then, everything changed. In late June, the Supreme Court issued a bombshell opinion in a case called Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which overturned something called Chevron deference — the idea that courts should generally defer to agencies like the FCC when it comes to interpreting ambiguous parts of the law.

That means the net neutrality lawsuit is suddenly very different. It’s now about whether the court thinks the internet should be neutral, not the FCC. And wouldn’t you know it, the Sixth Circuit immediately halted the FCC’s new net neutrality order and asked for briefs on how the Loper Bright ruling would change the case.

I invited Verge editor Sarah Jeong on the show to talk about all of this with me, and you’ll really hear us get into it. I mean, for the last 40 years, judges have basically deferred to federal agencies when it comes to the details of interpreting law because the agencies employ experts and have really deep subject area knowledge.

But now, judges will be empowered to make their own interpretations and throw out old ones. And with a dysfunctional Congress that can barely pass any laws as it is, the Supreme Court’s decision in Loper Bright is a major power grab for the judiciary over the other two branches of government.

It’s a very big deal, with some far-reaching consequences for basically everything, including the environment, labor law, and all manner of regulation. Here at The Verge, our policy team has been tracking this outcome for a long time, so I wanted to have Sarah come on the show to break down how we got here and what it means for the future.

If that sounds really chaotic and unstable to you, well… you’re not wrong, and you’ll hear us discuss that toward the end, when we did our best to put this state of affairs into context and try to figure out what happens next.

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Image: Elgato

Elgato is launching two new docks for its Stream Deck Plus device that can add XLR microphone support or a USB hub. The Stream Deck Plus originally launched in 2022 with the usual Stream Deck buttons, a new LCD display, and additional knobs, but these docks extend the functionality even further.
The $119.99 XLR Dock slots into the rear of the Stream Deck Plus and delivers up to 75dB of gain, enough to power Shure’s popular SM7B microphone. Just like Elgato’s dedicated Wave XLR, it even has a headphone jack for zero latency monitoring.
The XLR Dock means you only need a single USB cable routing to your laptop or PC and a single device instead of having to combine an XLR interface and Stream Deck. The knobs on the Stream Deck Plus can control the microphone, and there are plenty of ways to assign mute switches and more on the main Stream Deck buttons, too.

Image: Elgato
The rear of the XLR Dock for the Stream Deck Plus.

Image: Elgato
Elgato’s USB Hub for the Stream Deck Plus.

If you don’t have an XLR microphone, then Elgato is also launching a $59.99 USB Hub that plugs into the back of the Stream Deck Plus. It includes two USB-C ports, two USB-A ports, and an SD or microSD card reader at the side. All four USB ports will deliver up to 5Gb/s of data transfers, so unfortunately, there are no Thunderbolt speeds here.
There is also a 65-watt uplink port that provides enough power to charge your laptop if you connect this hub to an external USB-C power supply. In fact, Elgato recommends using a USB-C power supply with this hub: “Most systems are unable to power both Stream Deck Plus and USB Hub on their own, without causing performance issues. For best results, keep USB Hub connected to a power supply at all times.”
Both the XLR Dock and USB Hub are available immediately from Elgato’s web store.

Image: Elgato

Elgato is launching two new docks for its Stream Deck Plus device that can add XLR microphone support or a USB hub. The Stream Deck Plus originally launched in 2022 with the usual Stream Deck buttons, a new LCD display, and additional knobs, but these docks extend the functionality even further.

The $119.99 XLR Dock slots into the rear of the Stream Deck Plus and delivers up to 75dB of gain, enough to power Shure’s popular SM7B microphone. Just like Elgato’s dedicated Wave XLR, it even has a headphone jack for zero latency monitoring.

The XLR Dock means you only need a single USB cable routing to your laptop or PC and a single device instead of having to combine an XLR interface and Stream Deck. The knobs on the Stream Deck Plus can control the microphone, and there are plenty of ways to assign mute switches and more on the main Stream Deck buttons, too.

Image: Elgato
The rear of the XLR Dock for the Stream Deck Plus.

If you don’t have an XLR microphone, then Elgato is also launching a $59.99 USB Hub that plugs into the back of the Stream Deck Plus. It includes two USB-C ports, two USB-A ports, and an SD or microSD card reader at the side. All four USB ports will deliver up to 5Gb/s of data transfers, so unfortunately, there are no Thunderbolt speeds here.

There is also a 65-watt uplink port that provides enough power to charge your laptop if you connect this hub to an external USB-C power supply. In fact, Elgato recommends using a USB-C power supply with this hub: “Most systems are unable to power both Stream Deck Plus and USB Hub on their own, without causing performance issues. For best results, keep USB Hub connected to a power supply at all times.”

Both the XLR Dock and USB Hub are available immediately from Elgato’s web store.

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Image: Google

Yet another Google Pixel 9 leak has surfaced, and this time, it’s in the form of marketing materials shared with 91mobiles by reliable leaker OnLeaks. The marketing images offer a detailed look at the specs and features that could come with the Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, and the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, leaving us with very little we don’t know about the new devices.
As shown in the leaked images, the base Pixel 9 may feature a 6.3-inch display and 12GB of RAM, while the Pixel 9 Pro may come in 6.3-inch and 6.8-inch sizes with 16GB of RAM. The materials suggest that the Pixel 9 Pro Fold could arrive with an upgraded 6.3-inch display when folded and an eight-inch display when unfolded, along with 16GB of RAM. All devices are expected to come with Google’s new G4 Tensor chip.

Image: OnLeaks via 91mobiles

The camera specs listed in this leak don’t quite line up with the specs Android Authority shared previously, as it suggests the base Pixel 9 will have a 10.5-megapixel front-facing camera and a rear two-camera setup with a 50MP wide camera and 48MP ultrawide lens.
It also shows the Pixel 9 Pro with a 42MP selfie camera as well as a rear 50MP main camera, 48MP ultrawide sensor, and 48MP telephoto lens. Lastly, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold could come with a 10MP selfie camera, 48MP main camera, 10.5MP ultrawide sensor, and 10.8MP telephoto lens.

Image: OnLeaks via 91mobiles

The leaked marketing materials also offer a look at some of the features that could come with the Pixel 9 lineup. In addition to Google’s Gemini AI assistant and Circle to Search, the Pixel 9 lineup is rumored to come with a capability that lets you search your screenshots. One image says “Pixel Screenshots” can help you “save info that you want to remember later — like events places and more.”

The leak also indicates that the Pixel 9 will come with emergency SOS with crisis alerts, seven years of security and Pixel feature drop updates, and free access to Google’s AI model Gemini Advanced for one year. You can check out the full set of leaked marketing materials on 91mobiles’ website.
With all this information out in the open, there may be very few surprises at Google’s hardware event on August 13th. After all, Google has already shown off what its new phones will look like following a steady flow of leaks.

Image: Google

Yet another Google Pixel 9 leak has surfaced, and this time, it’s in the form of marketing materials shared with 91mobiles by reliable leaker OnLeaks. The marketing images offer a detailed look at the specs and features that could come with the Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, and the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, leaving us with very little we don’t know about the new devices.

As shown in the leaked images, the base Pixel 9 may feature a 6.3-inch display and 12GB of RAM, while the Pixel 9 Pro may come in 6.3-inch and 6.8-inch sizes with 16GB of RAM. The materials suggest that the Pixel 9 Pro Fold could arrive with an upgraded 6.3-inch display when folded and an eight-inch display when unfolded, along with 16GB of RAM. All devices are expected to come with Google’s new G4 Tensor chip.

Image: OnLeaks via 91mobiles

The camera specs listed in this leak don’t quite line up with the specs Android Authority shared previously, as it suggests the base Pixel 9 will have a 10.5-megapixel front-facing camera and a rear two-camera setup with a 50MP wide camera and 48MP ultrawide lens.

It also shows the Pixel 9 Pro with a 42MP selfie camera as well as a rear 50MP main camera, 48MP ultrawide sensor, and 48MP telephoto lens. Lastly, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold could come with a 10MP selfie camera, 48MP main camera, 10.5MP ultrawide sensor, and 10.8MP telephoto lens.

Image: OnLeaks via 91mobiles

The leaked marketing materials also offer a look at some of the features that could come with the Pixel 9 lineup. In addition to Google’s Gemini AI assistant and Circle to Search, the Pixel 9 lineup is rumored to come with a capability that lets you search your screenshots. One image says “Pixel Screenshots” can help you “save info that you want to remember later — like events places and more.”

The leak also indicates that the Pixel 9 will come with emergency SOS with crisis alerts, seven years of security and Pixel feature drop updates, and free access to Google’s AI model Gemini Advanced for one year. You can check out the full set of leaked marketing materials on 91mobiles’ website.

With all this information out in the open, there may be very few surprises at Google’s hardware event on August 13th. After all, Google has already shown off what its new phones will look like following a steady flow of leaks.

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Image: Disney / Warner Bros. Discovery

The Disney Plus, Hulu, and Max streaming bundle jointly assembled by Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery is now available in the US. Prices start from $16.99 per month for an ad-supported tier (as opposed to the monthly $25.97 price to pay for each service’s ad-supported tier separately), or $29.99 per month to go ad-free (versus $47.97).
Some details about the Disney / Hulu / Max bundle offer were initially revealed back in May, which was followed by Comcast’s announcement of a similar streaming bundle for Xfinity customers that combines Netflix, Peacock, and Apple TV Plus. Disney-owned ESPN is also set to offer a live sports streaming service with Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox later this year.

If large streaming bundles like these prove successful, then we can expect to see more platform combinations offered down the road. Streaming bosses like Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav have said that bundling services “just makes an awful lot of sense.” It’s one of the more popular approaches to tackle the streaming fatigue experienced by consumers and to reduce cancellation rates. Netflix — currently the world’s largest streaming service — believes bundling with smaller platforms is of little benefit to the company itself, however.

Image: Disney / Warner Bros. Discovery

The Disney Plus, Hulu, and Max streaming bundle jointly assembled by Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery is now available in the US. Prices start from $16.99 per month for an ad-supported tier (as opposed to the monthly $25.97 price to pay for each service’s ad-supported tier separately), or $29.99 per month to go ad-free (versus $47.97).

Some details about the Disney / Hulu / Max bundle offer were initially revealed back in May, which was followed by Comcast’s announcement of a similar streaming bundle for Xfinity customers that combines Netflix, Peacock, and Apple TV Plus. Disney-owned ESPN is also set to offer a live sports streaming service with Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox later this year.

If large streaming bundles like these prove successful, then we can expect to see more platform combinations offered down the road. Streaming bosses like Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav have said that bundling services “just makes an awful lot of sense.” It’s one of the more popular approaches to tackle the streaming fatigue experienced by consumers and to reduce cancellation rates. Netflix — currently the world’s largest streaming service — believes bundling with smaller platforms is of little benefit to the company itself, however.

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Image: Team FOLON

It’ll be some time before Bethesda releases a new Fallout game, but in the meantime, some enterprising fans have taken it upon themselves to release a big expansion for Fallout 4. The long-in-development mod Fallout: London is available now to download for free via GOG and is also compatible with the Steam version of Fallout 4. There is a catch, however: you need to be using the version of the game before the recent next-gen update. (A next-gen compatible version is also in the works, though it doesn’t have a date yet.)
In development since 2019, the London mod introduces a new location and story to the postapocalyptic world, complete with fully voiced characters and 200 different quests. There’s an estimated 90 hours of gameplay included. Here’s the official description from the developers at Team Folon:
True to its moniker, Fallout: London takes place in London. From stuffy parliamentary aristocrats to a resurrection of the Knights of the Round Table to an uncompromising cult of revolutionaries (and more!), Fallout: London embodies the history and aesthetics of London and puts an unmistakably nuclear spin on the beloved city.
The mod is coming at a good time, as Fallout is in an especially prominent place thanks to the excellent live-action series on Amazon Prime Video, which is getting a second season. While no single-player Fallout game has been announced, developer Bethesda just released a major expansion for the online spinoff Fallout 76.
Meanwhile, the studio is launching the Shattered Space expansion for Starfield later this year, while a new Elder Scrolls is also in development.

Image: Team FOLON

It’ll be some time before Bethesda releases a new Fallout game, but in the meantime, some enterprising fans have taken it upon themselves to release a big expansion for Fallout 4. The long-in-development mod Fallout: London is available now to download for free via GOG and is also compatible with the Steam version of Fallout 4. There is a catch, however: you need to be using the version of the game before the recent next-gen update. (A next-gen compatible version is also in the works, though it doesn’t have a date yet.)

In development since 2019, the London mod introduces a new location and story to the postapocalyptic world, complete with fully voiced characters and 200 different quests. There’s an estimated 90 hours of gameplay included. Here’s the official description from the developers at Team Folon:

True to its moniker, Fallout: London takes place in London. From stuffy parliamentary aristocrats to a resurrection of the Knights of the Round Table to an uncompromising cult of revolutionaries (and more!), Fallout: London embodies the history and aesthetics of London and puts an unmistakably nuclear spin on the beloved city.

The mod is coming at a good time, as Fallout is in an especially prominent place thanks to the excellent live-action series on Amazon Prime Video, which is getting a second season. While no single-player Fallout game has been announced, developer Bethesda just released a major expansion for the online spinoff Fallout 76.

Meanwhile, the studio is launching the Shattered Space expansion for Starfield later this year, while a new Elder Scrolls is also in development.

Read More 

It’s not so much a standalone health tracker or a smartwatch alternative as an accessory for your Galaxy Watch. Samsung’s Galaxy Ring is not, technically speaking, revolutionary. Smart rings of all sorts have been offering discreet health tracking since 2015. Your smartwatch tracks everything a smart ring can and, in most cases, more. Even so, there’s no denying that the $399.99 Galaxy Ring is the most exciting thing to happen to smart rings in the last five years. Why?
Because it’s Samsung.
Until now, smart rings have pretty much been synonymous with the Oura Ring. That’s the one you might’ve seen on Kim Kardashian, Jack Dorsey, Jennifer Aniston, and Prince Harry. It’s the one that got all the attention at the height of the covid-19 pandemic thanks to collaborations with the NBA and scientific researchers. People like smart rings like the Oura Ring because, in some ways, they are the more convenient 24/7 health and fitness trackers. But despite that success, Oura isn’t a household name.

Samsung’s decision to make a smart ring gives legitimacy to a niche wearable — and if the demand is there, that opens the door for Apple and Google to potentially jump on the bandwagon. But after spending some time with the Galaxy Ring, I wouldn’t say that Samsung’s completely upended the smart ring category. Rather, I’d say it’s proposing that it’s the ideal accessory for your other gadgets.
Slim, comfy, and discreet
There’s one thing the Galaxy Ring shares with every other smart ring I’ve tested: no one will notice you’re wearing it. I say that with full confidence because, these days, I’m decked out like a mafia don wearing six smart rings and five regular rings. I’ve gone to family events, parties, the grocery store, and the office. Only one person has ever asked if any of my rings were smart rings. Even colleagues who know I’m actively testing the Galaxy Ring were unable to distinguish it from the rest.

Quick: which one is the Galaxy Ring? You have one second to guess.

You can take that as a good or bad thing. Good, because it means the Galaxy Ring is discreet and versatile. The nondescript design fits any wardrobe and is appropriate for any occasion. Bad, because, for $400, you just bought a piece of high-tech jewelry that doesn’t necessarily feel quite so luxe.
While I’d love more visual flair, comfort is a must with wearables. And of all the smart rings I’ve worn, the Galaxy Ring is the thinnest and most comfortable. Its dimensions are smaller than most smart rings at 7mm wide and 2.6mm thick, but the concave shape also visually creates a slimming effect. The ring’s concavity also means the sides don’t protrude into your neighboring fingers — a problem I’ve had with other smart rings. It’s a subtle tweak, but I notice it’s much more comfortable whenever I make a fist or grab a dumbbell.

While the Galaxy Ring is noticeably bigger than my regular rings, the bigger size doesn’t translate to a heavier ring. The Galaxy Ring weighs between 2.3 and 3g, depending on the size. My size 9 ring weighs 2.7g, which is roughly on par with my engagement ring.
Apart from the ring itself, Samsung cleverly opted for a charging case, which I much prefer to the puck-shaped dock Oura and Ultrahuman use. For one, it keeps the ring secure while charging. I can’t tell you the number of times my cats have knocked the Oura Ring charger off my nightstand, sending me on a hunt under the bed for the ring itself. Even if you don’t have demon cats, a case is much easier to stash in a bag, and you can charge on the go. The only thing I dislike is that the case only holds 1.5 times the charge. Most other charging cases hold at least two charges.

The case is a smart design choice. It also lights up to tell you how much charge it has left.

Judging by hardware alone, I’d say the Galaxy Ring is the best smart ring I’ve tested. Unfortunately for Samsung, hardware is only half of the equation.
Health tracking is a mixed bag
Like the Oura Ring, the Galaxy Ring is primarily a health tracker. You can track your sleep, blood oxygen, skin temperature, heart rate metrics, and activities. Based on that data, you can get a daily sleep score, access to sleep coaching, and a new Energy Score that parses how well you’ve recovered overnight and whether you should push yourself or take it easy. As far as more advanced health tracking goes, you’re limited to high and low heart rate notifications. FDA-cleared sleep apnea detection and irregular heart rhythm notifications are exclusive to the Galaxy Watches.
As a sleep tracker, the Galaxy Ring is decent. The data I got about my sleep stages was roughly similar to the Oura Ring, which studies have shown is about 79 percent as accurate as the gold standard polysomnography lab test. However, as in the past, Samsung’s blood oxygen data is wonky. My nightly averages ranged from the low 80s to the high 90s. Anything in the low 80s is a reason to go to the ER, so I chalk this up to me being a side sleeper — a known obstacle for accurate blood oxygen readings on wearables.

The concave design makes for a comfortable ring.

The new Energy Score is also broadly accurate, though the AI-powered insights for it are hit or miss. After a punishing long run in 90-degree heat, my Energy Score dipped 18 points the next day. I was told I needed to rest. That night, I went to bed at 8:30PM for a blessed nine hours of sleep, and voila — my score jumped 16 points. Except I was also told my sleep was compromised and to stop drinking alcohol or late-night eating to ensure quality sleep. I don’t drink and my last meal was at 6:45PM.
Activity tracking is also a mixed bag. My daily overall step count was fine, if a bit inflated by a couple hundred steps compared to my Apple Watch Ultra 2. That’s to be expected with smart rings, however. Heart rate data also roughly correlated for sleep and walks. Running is where the Ring fumbled. The other day, I went on a two-mile run. The Galaxy Ring, which autorecorded the workout, reported a 30-minute duration, 2.37-mile distance, a 15-minute, 16-second pace, and an average heart rate of 125 beats per minute. The Galaxy Watch Ultra recorded a more accurate duration of 24 minutes, a 2.05-mile distance, an 11-minute, 54-second pace, and an average heart rate of 162bpm.

I found the Energy Score feature broadly accurate, but the AI insights were hit or miss.

That was the most egregious example, but all of my Galaxy Ring-recorded runs were wildly off for pace and average heart rate. This is likely because I relied on autorecording for runs and walks instead of manually starting a workout on my phone. However, the whole point of a smart ring for health tracking is to be as unobtrusive as possible. If I wanted to manually start every exercise, a smartwatch is a much better option. For instance, I take weekly Pilates classes where phones are banned inside the studio. If all I had was the Galaxy Ring, I’d have to manually start the workout on my phone before entering the studio. With a smartwatch, I can start recording inside the studio when class actually begins.
All of this can be overlooked if all you want is a big-picture idea of your activity and sleep. But if you want more granular workout data, you’re going to need a smartwatch, too.
Better in Samsung’s galaxy
There’s no point in beating around the bush. The Galaxy Ring is made with Samsung users in mind. You can use it with a non-Samsung Android phone, provided it supports the Samsung Health app. You just won’t get everything the ring is capable of.

You’ll get the best battery life if you use it with a Galaxy Watch.

For example, if you have a Galaxy phone, you can use Samsung Find to make the ring’s LED lights flash while you dig between couch cushions. Tough noogies if you have any other phone. Likewise, insights for the new Energy Score feature aren’t available on non-Galaxy phones. The cool double pinch gesture, where you can use the Galaxy Ring to control your phone’s camera or dismiss alarms? That’s a Z Flip 6 or Z Fold 6 exclusive right now. (I was told at a hands-on event that it’ll be coming soon to the S24, but it’s not available as of this writing.)
You can really see this ecosystem bias in action with battery life. When you use the ring on its own, you get between six and seven days of battery life. (Six days for ring sizes 5–11 and seven for sizes 12–13.) When you use it with a Galaxy Watch, you can stretch that out by an extra 30 percent.

This is because the Samsung Health app can prioritize which device’s sensors to pull data from. If your Galaxy Watch battery is low and you plop it on the charger, it’ll pull data from the Galaxy Ring. Conversely, if your Galaxy Watch is better suited toward capturing exercise data, the Galaxy Ring’s sensors take a back seat. That helps optimize battery life.
That extra 30 percent makes a big difference. Most of the other smart rings I’ve tested need to be charged every two to four days. In the 12 days I’ve been testing the Galaxy Ring, I’ve had to charge it once at the 7.5-day mark — about 36-ish hours longer than my ring’s six-day estimate. For example, I left the Galaxy Watch off one night and the 24-hour drain amounted to 22 percent. With the Galaxy Watch on, I average about 15 percent per day. I’ll have to do further testing to see how the battery degrades over time. But so far, color me impressed.
A pricey accessory for your Galaxy Watch
All of this perfectly captures why the Galaxy Ring isn’t really a device made to be used on its own. Its full potential requires other Samsung products. You’ll have an easier, more accurate health tracking experience when you use it with a Galaxy Watch. You’ll get better battery life if you use it with a Galaxy Watch. You’ll get more features if you use it with a Galaxy phone.
In other words, it’s less of a Galaxy Watch alternative — it’s an accessory for it.

The Galaxy Ring will survive a brief tussle with your cat’s fangs and claws, but it’s in your best interest to distract them with Churu.

If the Galaxy Ring cost $250, I’d say Samsung was a diabolical genius company. But at $400, it’s asking a lot for what amounts to a secondary device for your smartwatch. It’d be smart if Samsung offered Galaxy Watch and Ring bundles to bring the overall cost down, but so far, that’s not the case. At least there’s no additional monthly subscription, as with the Oura Ring. But right now, there’s no real reason to pick the Galaxy Ring over the cheaper Ultrahuman Ring Air unless you’re already ensconced in the Galaxy ecosystem.
Ultimately, I don’t think Samsung ever intended on making a smart ring that’s good for everyone. Rather, I think the Galaxy Ring is a test to see whether there’s an appetite for this kind of multiwearable ecosystem — and whether its most loyal customers will buy in. That remains to be seen, but if successful? I think we’re in for a whole new wearable era.
Photography by Victoria Song / The Verge

It’s not so much a standalone health tracker or a smartwatch alternative as an accessory for your Galaxy Watch.

Samsung’s Galaxy Ring is not, technically speaking, revolutionary. Smart rings of all sorts have been offering discreet health tracking since 2015. Your smartwatch tracks everything a smart ring can and, in most cases, more. Even so, there’s no denying that the $399.99 Galaxy Ring is the most exciting thing to happen to smart rings in the last five years. Why?

Because it’s Samsung.

Until now, smart rings have pretty much been synonymous with the Oura Ring. That’s the one you might’ve seen on Kim Kardashian, Jack Dorsey, Jennifer Aniston, and Prince Harry. It’s the one that got all the attention at the height of the covid-19 pandemic thanks to collaborations with the NBA and scientific researchers. People like smart rings like the Oura Ring because, in some ways, they are the more convenient 24/7 health and fitness trackers. But despite that success, Oura isn’t a household name.

Samsung’s decision to make a smart ring gives legitimacy to a niche wearable — and if the demand is there, that opens the door for Apple and Google to potentially jump on the bandwagon. But after spending some time with the Galaxy Ring, I wouldn’t say that Samsung’s completely upended the smart ring category. Rather, I’d say it’s proposing that it’s the ideal accessory for your other gadgets.

Slim, comfy, and discreet

There’s one thing the Galaxy Ring shares with every other smart ring I’ve tested: no one will notice you’re wearing it. I say that with full confidence because, these days, I’m decked out like a mafia don wearing six smart rings and five regular rings. I’ve gone to family events, parties, the grocery store, and the office. Only one person has ever asked if any of my rings were smart rings. Even colleagues who know I’m actively testing the Galaxy Ring were unable to distinguish it from the rest.

You can take that as a good or bad thing. Good, because it means the Galaxy Ring is discreet and versatile. The nondescript design fits any wardrobe and is appropriate for any occasion. Bad, because, for $400, you just bought a piece of high-tech jewelry that doesn’t necessarily feel quite so luxe.

While I’d love more visual flair, comfort is a must with wearables. And of all the smart rings I’ve worn, the Galaxy Ring is the thinnest and most comfortable. Its dimensions are smaller than most smart rings at 7mm wide and 2.6mm thick, but the concave shape also visually creates a slimming effect. The ring’s concavity also means the sides don’t protrude into your neighboring fingers — a problem I’ve had with other smart rings. It’s a subtle tweak, but I notice it’s much more comfortable whenever I make a fist or grab a dumbbell.

While the Galaxy Ring is noticeably bigger than my regular rings, the bigger size doesn’t translate to a heavier ring. The Galaxy Ring weighs between 2.3 and 3g, depending on the size. My size 9 ring weighs 2.7g, which is roughly on par with my engagement ring.

Apart from the ring itself, Samsung cleverly opted for a charging case, which I much prefer to the puck-shaped dock Oura and Ultrahuman use. For one, it keeps the ring secure while charging. I can’t tell you the number of times my cats have knocked the Oura Ring charger off my nightstand, sending me on a hunt under the bed for the ring itself. Even if you don’t have demon cats, a case is much easier to stash in a bag, and you can charge on the go. The only thing I dislike is that the case only holds 1.5 times the charge. Most other charging cases hold at least two charges.

The case is a smart design choice. It also lights up to tell you how much charge it has left.

Judging by hardware alone, I’d say the Galaxy Ring is the best smart ring I’ve tested. Unfortunately for Samsung, hardware is only half of the equation.

Health tracking is a mixed bag

Like the Oura Ring, the Galaxy Ring is primarily a health tracker. You can track your sleep, blood oxygen, skin temperature, heart rate metrics, and activities. Based on that data, you can get a daily sleep score, access to sleep coaching, and a new Energy Score that parses how well you’ve recovered overnight and whether you should push yourself or take it easy. As far as more advanced health tracking goes, you’re limited to high and low heart rate notifications. FDA-cleared sleep apnea detection and irregular heart rhythm notifications are exclusive to the Galaxy Watches.

As a sleep tracker, the Galaxy Ring is decent. The data I got about my sleep stages was roughly similar to the Oura Ring, which studies have shown is about 79 percent as accurate as the gold standard polysomnography lab test. However, as in the past, Samsung’s blood oxygen data is wonky. My nightly averages ranged from the low 80s to the high 90s. Anything in the low 80s is a reason to go to the ER, so I chalk this up to me being a side sleeper — a known obstacle for accurate blood oxygen readings on wearables.

The new Energy Score is also broadly accurate, though the AI-powered insights for it are hit or miss. After a punishing long run in 90-degree heat, my Energy Score dipped 18 points the next day. I was told I needed to rest. That night, I went to bed at 8:30PM for a blessed nine hours of sleep, and voila — my score jumped 16 points. Except I was also told my sleep was compromised and to stop drinking alcohol or late-night eating to ensure quality sleep. I don’t drink and my last meal was at 6:45PM.

Activity tracking is also a mixed bag. My daily overall step count was fine, if a bit inflated by a couple hundred steps compared to my Apple Watch Ultra 2. That’s to be expected with smart rings, however. Heart rate data also roughly correlated for sleep and walks. Running is where the Ring fumbled. The other day, I went on a two-mile run. The Galaxy Ring, which autorecorded the workout, reported a 30-minute duration, 2.37-mile distance, a 15-minute, 16-second pace, and an average heart rate of 125 beats per minute. The Galaxy Watch Ultra recorded a more accurate duration of 24 minutes, a 2.05-mile distance, an 11-minute, 54-second pace, and an average heart rate of 162bpm.

I found the Energy Score feature broadly accurate, but the AI insights were hit or miss.

That was the most egregious example, but all of my Galaxy Ring-recorded runs were wildly off for pace and average heart rate. This is likely because I relied on autorecording for runs and walks instead of manually starting a workout on my phone. However, the whole point of a smart ring for health tracking is to be as unobtrusive as possible. If I wanted to manually start every exercise, a smartwatch is a much better option. For instance, I take weekly Pilates classes where phones are banned inside the studio. If all I had was the Galaxy Ring, I’d have to manually start the workout on my phone before entering the studio. With a smartwatch, I can start recording inside the studio when class actually begins.

All of this can be overlooked if all you want is a big-picture idea of your activity and sleep. But if you want more granular workout data, you’re going to need a smartwatch, too.

Better in Samsung’s galaxy

There’s no point in beating around the bush. The Galaxy Ring is made with Samsung users in mind. You can use it with a non-Samsung Android phone, provided it supports the Samsung Health app. You just won’t get everything the ring is capable of.

For example, if you have a Galaxy phone, you can use Samsung Find to make the ring’s LED lights flash while you dig between couch cushions. Tough noogies if you have any other phone. Likewise, insights for the new Energy Score feature aren’t available on non-Galaxy phones. The cool double pinch gesture, where you can use the Galaxy Ring to control your phone’s camera or dismiss alarms? That’s a Z Flip 6 or Z Fold 6 exclusive right now. (I was told at a hands-on event that it’ll be coming soon to the S24, but it’s not available as of this writing.)

You can really see this ecosystem bias in action with battery life. When you use the ring on its own, you get between six and seven days of battery life. (Six days for ring sizes 5–11 and seven for sizes 12–13.) When you use it with a Galaxy Watch, you can stretch that out by an extra 30 percent.

This is because the Samsung Health app can prioritize which device’s sensors to pull data from. If your Galaxy Watch battery is low and you plop it on the charger, it’ll pull data from the Galaxy Ring. Conversely, if your Galaxy Watch is better suited toward capturing exercise data, the Galaxy Ring’s sensors take a back seat. That helps optimize battery life.

That extra 30 percent makes a big difference. Most of the other smart rings I’ve tested need to be charged every two to four days. In the 12 days I’ve been testing the Galaxy Ring, I’ve had to charge it once at the 7.5-day mark — about 36-ish hours longer than my ring’s six-day estimate. For example, I left the Galaxy Watch off one night and the 24-hour drain amounted to 22 percent. With the Galaxy Watch on, I average about 15 percent per day. I’ll have to do further testing to see how the battery degrades over time. But so far, color me impressed.

A pricey accessory for your Galaxy Watch

All of this perfectly captures why the Galaxy Ring isn’t really a device made to be used on its own. Its full potential requires other Samsung products. You’ll have an easier, more accurate health tracking experience when you use it with a Galaxy Watch. You’ll get better battery life if you use it with a Galaxy Watch. You’ll get more features if you use it with a Galaxy phone.

In other words, it’s less of a Galaxy Watch alternative — it’s an accessory for it.

If the Galaxy Ring cost $250, I’d say Samsung was a diabolical genius company. But at $400, it’s asking a lot for what amounts to a secondary device for your smartwatch. It’d be smart if Samsung offered Galaxy Watch and Ring bundles to bring the overall cost down, but so far, that’s not the case. At least there’s no additional monthly subscription, as with the Oura Ring. But right now, there’s no real reason to pick the Galaxy Ring over the cheaper Ultrahuman Ring Air unless you’re already ensconced in the Galaxy ecosystem.

Ultimately, I don’t think Samsung ever intended on making a smart ring that’s good for everyone. Rather, I think the Galaxy Ring is a test to see whether there’s an appetite for this kind of multiwearable ecosystem — and whether its most loyal customers will buy in. That remains to be seen, but if successful? I think we’re in for a whole new wearable era.

Photography by Victoria Song / The Verge

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Image: Abigail Bassett

When you think of the Cannonball Run, you probably think of a group of people making the trip from New York’s Red Ball Garage to the Portofino Hotel in Redondo Beach in the shortest (and usually most dangerous) amount of time. Police encounters, lack of sleep, zero rest stops, a spare fuel tank or two, and gallons of energy drinks are usually what fuels these attempts to make the roughly 3,000-mile route in record time.
But something was lacking in the most recent successful attempt: conventional gasoline. That’s because speed wasn’t the aim of the three friends who built and drove a solar-powered car across the country in a record-setting 13 days, 15 hours, and 19 minutes.
While that’s more than 300 hours longer than the 25-hour record set in 2020 in a modified internal combustion vehicle, it’s the first time that a solar-powered car has completed the route. Meet the Cannonball Sun, a project that four young engineers from Michigan decided to take on this summer.

Image: Abigail Bassett

“Nobody’s ever done it before. It was a challenge for everybody involved,” Danny Ezzo, a student at Michigan Tech and one of the engineers who helped build and drive the solar vehicle, said after arriving in Redondo Beach on Sunday night.
This isn’t the first time that Will Jones, Kyle Samluk, and Danny Ezzo have built a solar car together, nor is it the first time they’ve tried to complete the NYC-to-LA route in such a vehicle. The three young engineers tried to do the Cannonball Run in 2021, but a motor controller failure forced them to cut their trip short in Logansport, Indiana — 2,284 miles short of their goal.
Jones and Samluk had previously built and competed in the Solar Car Challenge together in high school, and the two met Ezzo at college while competing in cross-country running. Jones kept chasing the sun while at the University of Michigan. Over fall break in 2023, they all decided to attempt another Cannonball Run, despite the fact that they were all going to school eight hours apart. “All it took was a little convincing and some pizza,” Jones said.
“Nobody’s ever done it before”
The team took lessons from their failed attempt to make it from NY to LA in a solar car in 2021 and made significant changes to the new vehicle. Ezzo says they used more efficient components to make the vehicle 48 percent lighter and did a 600-mile road trip around their homes in Michigan to shake out any issues. “From the time we decided to do it to the time we were in NYC with a running, driving, solar car was five months, so the timeframe was super crunched,” Ezzo added. “We were crazy ambitious and maybe a little naive.”
The result was a vehicle they took to calling Sunstrider. It was comprised of welded-together tubing, corrugated plastic (also known as coroplast), various 3D printed parts, a homemade 320-cell battery pack, three motors (which were down to 2.5 working motors by the end of the trip), and eight solar panels that were donated by HighTec Solar, a solar panel manufacturer in Michigan.
The three wheels (two in the back and one in the front) are actually bicycle wheels, a choice the team says they’d rethink if they did a long-distance run again because the spokes kept breaking.

Image: Abigail Bassett

The cockpit that the team designed was made to fit the tallest driver, and the position is laid back like a recumbent bike. There is an accelerator pedal and front brake pedal, but most of the braking was handled by a pair of mountain bike brakes that went to the rear wheels. Everything is mechanically connected. There’s no steering wheel, but rather a set of handlebars inside to steer the Sunstrider.
“We were crazy ambitious and maybe a little naive”
I got a chance to take the vehicle for a very short spin in the parking lot of the Portofino Hotel before the team loaded it back into the trailer for the long trip back to Michigan, and while it had a gigantic turning radius, it was easy to see thanks to the clear plexiglass bubble and precise steering. From the cockpit, the solar car is about as wide and long as a Ford F150 but only weighs in at 560 pounds. To turn through sharper corners, the young men had to get out and push the vehicle into position.

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The Sunstrider is registered as a motorcycle in Michigan, so it was fully road-legal, though the team wasn’t able to drive it on major highways because it couldn’t physically go faster than 55mph. On the downhill run along Angeles Crest toward the Pacific, the team said they saw a max speed of 51mph. All in, the team says the vehicle cost them around $12,000 to build, and 90 percent of it was funded with their own money. They crowdsourced funds to cover room and board as they made their way across the country and accepted sponsors for other incidentals.

Image: Abigail Bassett

The team battled high heat in the desert and had to replace the charge controller when it broke in Desert Center. They also had to suffer through temperatures as high as 128 degrees inside the car without any air conditioning. They brought along another friend, Brett Cesar, who helped Samluk and Jones build their first solar car in high school, to be a fourth driver. In good weather, the team rotated driving stints about once every two hours. Through the desert, the team had to swap out in 30- to 45-minute increments to avoid heat stroke and dehydration, while other members followed in a chase vehicle.
Jones’ father, Brian, drove the car trailer and ensured that the team was hydrated, fed, and housed for the trip. They took to calling him “Solar Dad.”
It wouldn’t be a Cannonball Run without having to explain yourself to the law, and the team got pulled over twice in Ohio, both times for going too slowly. Ezzo said that one officer took some photos of the car and told them to speed up because they were impeding traffic, even though they were going the speed limit. Neither cop ticketed them.

Image: Sarah Fairfield

On the road, people gawked, took photos, and honked at the spacecraft-shaped vehicle, according to the team. One guy even rolled his window down as the team was coming to the finish line to ask about their project. When they told him they were doing the Cannonball Run, he cheered them on and honked as he went past.
Overall, Ezzo and Jones say they learned a lot from their successful cross-country run. They may try driving a new solar-powered car on a route through Alaska or along the Pan-American Highway next, but real life may get in the way. Jones has a job lined up at SpaceX, Samluk has one lined up at Ford, and Ezzo is still a student at Michigan Tech.
“It means a ton to us as a team,” Ezzo said about being the first solar-powered car to complete the Cannonball Run. “All the 100-hour weeks, skipped family gatherings, and sacrifices we’ve made were all worth it.”

Image: Abigail Bassett

When you think of the Cannonball Run, you probably think of a group of people making the trip from New York’s Red Ball Garage to the Portofino Hotel in Redondo Beach in the shortest (and usually most dangerous) amount of time. Police encounters, lack of sleep, zero rest stops, a spare fuel tank or two, and gallons of energy drinks are usually what fuels these attempts to make the roughly 3,000-mile route in record time.

But something was lacking in the most recent successful attempt: conventional gasoline. That’s because speed wasn’t the aim of the three friends who built and drove a solar-powered car across the country in a record-setting 13 days, 15 hours, and 19 minutes.

While that’s more than 300 hours longer than the 25-hour record set in 2020 in a modified internal combustion vehicle, it’s the first time that a solar-powered car has completed the route. Meet the Cannonball Sun, a project that four young engineers from Michigan decided to take on this summer.

Image: Abigail Bassett

“Nobody’s ever done it before. It was a challenge for everybody involved,” Danny Ezzo, a student at Michigan Tech and one of the engineers who helped build and drive the solar vehicle, said after arriving in Redondo Beach on Sunday night.

This isn’t the first time that Will Jones, Kyle Samluk, and Danny Ezzo have built a solar car together, nor is it the first time they’ve tried to complete the NYC-to-LA route in such a vehicle. The three young engineers tried to do the Cannonball Run in 2021, but a motor controller failure forced them to cut their trip short in Logansport, Indiana — 2,284 miles short of their goal.

Jones and Samluk had previously built and competed in the Solar Car Challenge together in high school, and the two met Ezzo at college while competing in cross-country running. Jones kept chasing the sun while at the University of Michigan. Over fall break in 2023, they all decided to attempt another Cannonball Run, despite the fact that they were all going to school eight hours apart. “All it took was a little convincing and some pizza,” Jones said.

The team took lessons from their failed attempt to make it from NY to LA in a solar car in 2021 and made significant changes to the new vehicle. Ezzo says they used more efficient components to make the vehicle 48 percent lighter and did a 600-mile road trip around their homes in Michigan to shake out any issues. “From the time we decided to do it to the time we were in NYC with a running, driving, solar car was five months, so the timeframe was super crunched,” Ezzo added. “We were crazy ambitious and maybe a little naive.”

The result was a vehicle they took to calling Sunstrider. It was comprised of welded-together tubing, corrugated plastic (also known as coroplast), various 3D printed parts, a homemade 320-cell battery pack, three motors (which were down to 2.5 working motors by the end of the trip), and eight solar panels that were donated by HighTec Solar, a solar panel manufacturer in Michigan.

The three wheels (two in the back and one in the front) are actually bicycle wheels, a choice the team says they’d rethink if they did a long-distance run again because the spokes kept breaking.

Image: Abigail Bassett

The cockpit that the team designed was made to fit the tallest driver, and the position is laid back like a recumbent bike. There is an accelerator pedal and front brake pedal, but most of the braking was handled by a pair of mountain bike brakes that went to the rear wheels. Everything is mechanically connected. There’s no steering wheel, but rather a set of handlebars inside to steer the Sunstrider.

I got a chance to take the vehicle for a very short spin in the parking lot of the Portofino Hotel before the team loaded it back into the trailer for the long trip back to Michigan, and while it had a gigantic turning radius, it was easy to see thanks to the clear plexiglass bubble and precise steering. From the cockpit, the solar car is about as wide and long as a Ford F150 but only weighs in at 560 pounds. To turn through sharper corners, the young men had to get out and push the vehicle into position.

The Sunstrider is registered as a motorcycle in Michigan, so it was fully road-legal, though the team wasn’t able to drive it on major highways because it couldn’t physically go faster than 55mph. On the downhill run along Angeles Crest toward the Pacific, the team said they saw a max speed of 51mph. All in, the team says the vehicle cost them around $12,000 to build, and 90 percent of it was funded with their own money. They crowdsourced funds to cover room and board as they made their way across the country and accepted sponsors for other incidentals.

Image: Abigail Bassett

The team battled high heat in the desert and had to replace the charge controller when it broke in Desert Center. They also had to suffer through temperatures as high as 128 degrees inside the car without any air conditioning. They brought along another friend, Brett Cesar, who helped Samluk and Jones build their first solar car in high school, to be a fourth driver. In good weather, the team rotated driving stints about once every two hours. Through the desert, the team had to swap out in 30- to 45-minute increments to avoid heat stroke and dehydration, while other members followed in a chase vehicle.

Jones’ father, Brian, drove the car trailer and ensured that the team was hydrated, fed, and housed for the trip. They took to calling him “Solar Dad.”

It wouldn’t be a Cannonball Run without having to explain yourself to the law, and the team got pulled over twice in Ohio, both times for going too slowly. Ezzo said that one officer took some photos of the car and told them to speed up because they were impeding traffic, even though they were going the speed limit. Neither cop ticketed them.

Image: Sarah Fairfield

On the road, people gawked, took photos, and honked at the spacecraft-shaped vehicle, according to the team. One guy even rolled his window down as the team was coming to the finish line to ask about their project. When they told him they were doing the Cannonball Run, he cheered them on and honked as he went past.

Overall, Ezzo and Jones say they learned a lot from their successful cross-country run. They may try driving a new solar-powered car on a route through Alaska or along the Pan-American Highway next, but real life may get in the way. Jones has a job lined up at SpaceX, Samluk has one lined up at Ford, and Ezzo is still a student at Michigan Tech.

“It means a ton to us as a team,” Ezzo said about being the first solar-powered car to complete the Cannonball Run. “All the 100-hour weeks, skipped family gatherings, and sacrifices we’ve made were all worth it.”

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The first true Steam Deck competitor has arrived. The Asus ROG Ally X is the best a Windows gaming handheld has ever been. It’s got the most comfortable grip, the smoothest gameplay, and the longest-lasting battery — three of the elements that make a PC gaming experience truly portable for me.
Most of this is no surprise: It’s smooth because Asus makes the only handheld that pairs AMD’s powerful Ryzen chips with a variable refresh rate screen, which better syncs up with your game. It’s got longer battery life because Asus now stuffs an 80-watt-hour pack in there, the biggest we’ve seen in a handheld to date. The battery’s so big, you can keep that AMD chip humming at higher power levels for higher framerates.
But what might surprise you is this: the Ally X is the first handheld I can recommend alongside my gold standard for handhelds: the Steam Deck OLED. That is, if you’ve got a few extra bills burning a hole in your pocket, don’t mind wrestling with Windows, and trust that Asus has actually learned its customer support lesson.

My ROG Ally X review unit arrived just before I went on vacation — the perfect opportunity to test its massive 80Wh battery. As of today, I’ve spent more than 24 hours playing actual games on the Ally X.
At first, the battery life didn’t seem like anything special. When I navigated the Japanese high school demon drama of Persona 3 Reload at maximum brightness in the car and on the beach, I got 2.5 hours per charge. That’s not enough to last the drive from Northern California to Southern California, at least not without an external battery. I did get an entire additional hour in Dave the Diver compared to the Lenovo Legion Go, but my total runtime of 3 hours, 19 minutes still paled in comparison to the Steam Deck OLED’s total of 4 hours, 42 minutes.
But when I fired up more demanding games, the Ally X pulled far ahead. I got nearly an entire extra hour of Armored Core 6 (2h59m) and an extra half-hour of Shadow of the Tomb Raider (2h41m) at 720p and medium spec, using the Ally X’s default power mode. That’s the best I’ve seen handheld for games that intensive!

Then, I played two full hours of one of the most demanding PC games currently in existence: Alan Wake II.
Technically, the ROG Ally X is the first handheld that even begins to meet Alan Wake II’s system requirements. It wants 16GB of system memory and 6GB of VRAM, and it’ll throw errors at launch if you’re short; on the original ROG Ally and Steam Deck OLED, which have to share 16GB between system memory and GPU, the game is a choppy mess.
But the ROG Ally X has a full 24GB of shared memory, and it shows! At a 540p render resolution, upscaled to 1080p with AMD’s FSR 2.1 tech, I could actually delve through the game’s lush, eerie forest without wanting to throw my handheld against the wall. The game did dip as low as 29fps in combat, but I saw a smooth 35–45fps just running around.
It felt playable enough that I finally sat down and beat the game on Ally X — and I had enough battery to do so for two full hours using the Ally X’s 25W “Turbo” mode.

Enhance Ally X. Enhance OG Ally.

As you can see in my comparison screenshots, the game’s only running 5fps faster on the Ally X when Saga’s standing still over this corpse. But when we’re playing a game that would dip below a smooth 30fps if not for that boost — on a handheld with VRR and Low Framerate Compensation that works right down to 30fps — it makes all the difference in the world.
In game after game, benchmark after benchmark, the Ally X produces the smoothest gameplay I’ve seen from any handheld, even in the valleys and caves of Shadow of the Tomb Raider where the Legion Go technically produces more frames per second. That’s because Asus’ screen is dynamically working to smooth things out. (Even the Steam Deck OLED’s brighter, more colorful, and faster-responding OLED panel can’t match it there.)
Speaking of benchmarks, Alan Wake II isn’t the only game where the Ally X pulls ahead. Despite having the same AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme chip as the original ROG Ally, the faster memory, more efficient cooling, and power tweaks make their mark.

While you should note that the Ally X now defaults to a new 17W “Performance” mode rather than 15W, I’m getting better numbers in almost every game with the newer handheld, regardless of wattage.
See how Returnal is now hitting 38fps in my 720p benchmark in the 25W “Turbo” mode, up from 33 with the original Ally? Like Alan Wake II, I bet that means it’s finally enjoyable on a handheld.

Photo: Sean Hollister / The Verge
The ROG Ally X’s massive 80Wh battery is bigger than that of most laptops. It’s also easy to remove: four Philips head screws, no glue.

But again, power is only half the performance story. A year ago, the original ROG Ally drained its 40-watt-hour battery pack at 40–50 watts in Turbo mode, meaning you’d get less than an hour of gameplay if you ran the Ally that fast away from a charger. With the Ally X, I’m draining an 80-watt-hour battery pack at 33–40 watts in Turbo mode, generally giving me two full hours in a worst-case scenario.
I’m not even seeing any slowdown as the battery reaches empty — it’s good all the way down to the 3 percent mark, when it puts itself in hibernation, and I can begin playing again at full speed almost as soon as I plug into the wall.
Even configured to its lowest wattage of 7W TDP, the Ally X isn’t as power-hungry as the original. Balatro gave me over eight hours of magic roguelike poker at 50 percent brightness, by draining under 10 watts the whole time. So far, my best result was total battery drain of 7 watts in Slay the Spire, down from 9 watts with the OG Ally. At that rate, the Ally X should be able to play for 10 entire hours before shutting down.

The ROG Ally X is still easy to repair — though slightly harder to pop open — and Asus tells me it’ll offer spare parts this year. More insides here.

I’m not going to rehash everything I already told you about the ROG Ally X in my early hands-on — there are so many substantive little changes they deserve their own story, and I’ve already written that one. But I suspect you may have three distinct questions that deserve answers here:

How are the revised ergonomics and other physical changes?
Can Windows really be so bad that you’d choose a Steam Deck with worse performance?
Why trust Asus when it dodged our SD card reader defect questions and its customer support reputation is in the toilet?

I find the ROG Ally X so much more comfortable to hold than the original, despite its additional weight. The meatier grips, triggers, and pebble-shaped omnidirectional back buttons no longer have any protrusions to get in the way. The joysticks and bumpers feel tighter and more premium, the face buttons have a deeper (though noisier) throw, and the D-pad has gone from meh to quite decent — though I am already getting an annoying squeaky sound when I press the down arrow. The fan is also genuinely quiet, not that it was an issue with the original.

I like that you can activate the back buttons from practically any angle. The ROG microtexture is neat, too.

It’s also nice to have twin USB-C ports for charging and peripherals, even if I haven’t yet been able to hook up a Thunderbolt eGPU (Asus tells me there’s a driver issue with AMD eGPUs at the moment).
But I vastly prefer the Steam Deck’s symmetrical analog sticks, which always lie right under where my thumb naturally lands, instead of the Ally’s offset right analog stick that makes me uncomfortably shift my grip. I miss the larger screen I get on other handhelds and their less cramped 16:10 aspect ratio.
And I cannot stand that Windows still cannot reliably make a gaming handheld Go the Fuck to Sleep and reliably wake up again. The Nintendo Switch does it perfectly, and the Steam Deck does it nearly perfectly, but I couldn’t keep track of the number of times Windows decided it could no longer recognize my fingerprint on the sensor or black-screened my game, or the Ally X simply woke up again the moment I set it down, or Asus’ Armoury Crate settings app simply forgot my choices (like whether to turn on my joysticks’ RGB lights) on wake.

Windows is still lurking under the surface.

I’m happy to say that Armoury Crate has actually improved tremendously over the past year — the game launcher now intelligently sorts my games, lets me easily map buttons and gyro controls for fine aiming, and seamlessly downloads updates (including BIOS updates) without navigating to a website or separate app.
But it’s nothing compared to the ease of use of SteamOS and its compatibility with generations of older PC games thanks to community support — and Windows itself is more of a pig than ever. I spent nearly 45 minutes waiting for mandatory updates and clicking through unwanted offers for various Microsoft products before I could use the Ally X for the first time.
Did I get a joystick-navigable virtual keyboard or PIN screen or a pre-mapped Alt-Enter shortcut for my trouble? Nope — instead, Asus added a Copilot shortcut, there’s a copy of Outlook sitting on my taskbar, and OneDrive is on by default. The only mercy is that Microsoft Teams doesn’t launch on startup this time.
As far as the whole SD card situation, Asus has only told me that it’s not the same reader as the old one that it won’t admit has an issue — it’s the one it uses on laptops. That’s somewhat reassuring, I guess. I haven’t yet had issues playing games from SD after a week of play, in case you’re wondering.
The ROG Ally X doesn’t check all the boxes I personally need in a handheld. The one-two punch of performance and battery life is tempting, but not tempting enough to steer me away from a $549 or $649 Steam Deck OLED that will play my legacy library of Steam games more easily, then reliably go to sleep when I want to put it away. The customer support controversy is just one more reason to hesitate.
But if you must have Windows or play the latest games on the go, the Ally X is the best Windows handheld yet. I hope it normalizes bigger batteries and VRR screens, and I hope Asus will seriously consider a SteamOS version, too. I hope to test it with Bazzite, an unofficial SteamOS clone, later this year.
Photography by Sean Hollister / The Verge

The first true Steam Deck competitor has arrived.

The Asus ROG Ally X is the best a Windows gaming handheld has ever been. It’s got the most comfortable grip, the smoothest gameplay, and the longest-lasting battery — three of the elements that make a PC gaming experience truly portable for me.

Most of this is no surprise: It’s smooth because Asus makes the only handheld that pairs AMD’s powerful Ryzen chips with a variable refresh rate screen, which better syncs up with your game. It’s got longer battery life because Asus now stuffs an 80-watt-hour pack in there, the biggest we’ve seen in a handheld to date. The battery’s so big, you can keep that AMD chip humming at higher power levels for higher framerates.

But what might surprise you is this: the Ally X is the first handheld I can recommend alongside my gold standard for handhelds: the Steam Deck OLED. That is, if you’ve got a few extra bills burning a hole in your pocket, don’t mind wrestling with Windows, and trust that Asus has actually learned its customer support lesson.

My ROG Ally X review unit arrived just before I went on vacation — the perfect opportunity to test its massive 80Wh battery. As of today, I’ve spent more than 24 hours playing actual games on the Ally X.

At first, the battery life didn’t seem like anything special. When I navigated the Japanese high school demon drama of Persona 3 Reload at maximum brightness in the car and on the beach, I got 2.5 hours per charge. That’s not enough to last the drive from Northern California to Southern California, at least not without an external battery. I did get an entire additional hour in Dave the Diver compared to the Lenovo Legion Go, but my total runtime of 3 hours, 19 minutes still paled in comparison to the Steam Deck OLED’s total of 4 hours, 42 minutes.

But when I fired up more demanding games, the Ally X pulled far ahead. I got nearly an entire extra hour of Armored Core 6 (2h59m) and an extra half-hour of Shadow of the Tomb Raider (2h41m) at 720p and medium spec, using the Ally X’s default power mode. That’s the best I’ve seen handheld for games that intensive!

Then, I played two full hours of one of the most demanding PC games currently in existence: Alan Wake II.

Technically, the ROG Ally X is the first handheld that even begins to meet Alan Wake II’s system requirements. It wants 16GB of system memory and 6GB of VRAM, and it’ll throw errors at launch if you’re short; on the original ROG Ally and Steam Deck OLED, which have to share 16GB between system memory and GPU, the game is a choppy mess.

But the ROG Ally X has a full 24GB of shared memory, and it shows! At a 540p render resolution, upscaled to 1080p with AMD’s FSR 2.1 tech, I could actually delve through the game’s lush, eerie forest without wanting to throw my handheld against the wall. The game did dip as low as 29fps in combat, but I saw a smooth 35–45fps just running around.

It felt playable enough that I finally sat down and beat the game on Ally X — and I had enough battery to do so for two full hours using the Ally X’s 25W “Turbo” mode.

As you can see in my comparison screenshots, the game’s only running 5fps faster on the Ally X when Saga’s standing still over this corpse. But when we’re playing a game that would dip below a smooth 30fps if not for that boost — on a handheld with VRR and Low Framerate Compensation that works right down to 30fps — it makes all the difference in the world.

In game after game, benchmark after benchmark, the Ally X produces the smoothest gameplay I’ve seen from any handheld, even in the valleys and caves of Shadow of the Tomb Raider where the Legion Go technically produces more frames per second. That’s because Asus’ screen is dynamically working to smooth things out. (Even the Steam Deck OLED’s brighter, more colorful, and faster-responding OLED panel can’t match it there.)

Speaking of benchmarks, Alan Wake II isn’t the only game where the Ally X pulls ahead. Despite having the same AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme chip as the original ROG Ally, the faster memory, more efficient cooling, and power tweaks make their mark.

While you should note that the Ally X now defaults to a new 17W “Performance” mode rather than 15W, I’m getting better numbers in almost every game with the newer handheld, regardless of wattage.

See how Returnal is now hitting 38fps in my 720p benchmark in the 25W “Turbo” mode, up from 33 with the original Ally? Like Alan Wake II, I bet that means it’s finally enjoyable on a handheld.

But again, power is only half the performance story. A year ago, the original ROG Ally drained its 40-watt-hour battery pack at 40–50 watts in Turbo mode, meaning you’d get less than an hour of gameplay if you ran the Ally that fast away from a charger. With the Ally X, I’m draining an 80-watt-hour battery pack at 33–40 watts in Turbo mode, generally giving me two full hours in a worst-case scenario.

I’m not even seeing any slowdown as the battery reaches empty — it’s good all the way down to the 3 percent mark, when it puts itself in hibernation, and I can begin playing again at full speed almost as soon as I plug into the wall.

Even configured to its lowest wattage of 7W TDP, the Ally X isn’t as power-hungry as the original. Balatro gave me over eight hours of magic roguelike poker at 50 percent brightness, by draining under 10 watts the whole time. So far, my best result was total battery drain of 7 watts in Slay the Spire, down from 9 watts with the OG Ally. At that rate, the Ally X should be able to play for 10 entire hours before shutting down.

I’m not going to rehash everything I already told you about the ROG Ally X in my early hands-on — there are so many substantive little changes they deserve their own story, and I’ve already written that one. But I suspect you may have three distinct questions that deserve answers here:

How are the revised ergonomics and other physical changes?
Can Windows really be so bad that you’d choose a Steam Deck with worse performance?
Why trust Asus when it dodged our SD card reader defect questions and its customer support reputation is in the toilet?

I find the ROG Ally X so much more comfortable to hold than the original, despite its additional weight. The meatier grips, triggers, and pebble-shaped omnidirectional back buttons no longer have any protrusions to get in the way. The joysticks and bumpers feel tighter and more premium, the face buttons have a deeper (though noisier) throw, and the D-pad has gone from meh to quite decent — though I am already getting an annoying squeaky sound when I press the down arrow. The fan is also genuinely quiet, not that it was an issue with the original.

It’s also nice to have twin USB-C ports for charging and peripherals, even if I haven’t yet been able to hook up a Thunderbolt eGPU (Asus tells me there’s a driver issue with AMD eGPUs at the moment).

But I vastly prefer the Steam Deck’s symmetrical analog sticks, which always lie right under where my thumb naturally lands, instead of the Ally’s offset right analog stick that makes me uncomfortably shift my grip. I miss the larger screen I get on other handhelds and their less cramped 16:10 aspect ratio.

And I cannot stand that Windows still cannot reliably make a gaming handheld Go the Fuck to Sleep and reliably wake up again. The Nintendo Switch does it perfectly, and the Steam Deck does it nearly perfectly, but I couldn’t keep track of the number of times Windows decided it could no longer recognize my fingerprint on the sensor or black-screened my game, or the Ally X simply woke up again the moment I set it down, or Asus’ Armoury Crate settings app simply forgot my choices (like whether to turn on my joysticks’ RGB lights) on wake.

I’m happy to say that Armoury Crate has actually improved tremendously over the past year — the game launcher now intelligently sorts my games, lets me easily map buttons and gyro controls for fine aiming, and seamlessly downloads updates (including BIOS updates) without navigating to a website or separate app.

But it’s nothing compared to the ease of use of SteamOS and its compatibility with generations of older PC games thanks to community support — and Windows itself is more of a pig than ever. I spent nearly 45 minutes waiting for mandatory updates and clicking through unwanted offers for various Microsoft products before I could use the Ally X for the first time.

Did I get a joystick-navigable virtual keyboard or PIN screen or a pre-mapped Alt-Enter shortcut for my trouble? Nope — instead, Asus added a Copilot shortcut, there’s a copy of Outlook sitting on my taskbar, and OneDrive is on by default. The only mercy is that Microsoft Teams doesn’t launch on startup this time.

As far as the whole SD card situation, Asus has only told me that it’s not the same reader as the old one that it won’t admit has an issue — it’s the one it uses on laptops. That’s somewhat reassuring, I guess. I haven’t yet had issues playing games from SD after a week of play, in case you’re wondering.

The ROG Ally X doesn’t check all the boxes I personally need in a handheld. The one-two punch of performance and battery life is tempting, but not tempting enough to steer me away from a $549 or $649 Steam Deck OLED that will play my legacy library of Steam games more easily, then reliably go to sleep when I want to put it away. The customer support controversy is just one more reason to hesitate.

But if you must have Windows or play the latest games on the go, the Ally X is the best Windows handheld yet. I hope it normalizes bigger batteries and VRR screens, and I hope Asus will seriously consider a SteamOS version, too. I hope to test it with Bazzite, an unofficial SteamOS clone, later this year.

Photography by Sean Hollister / The Verge

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Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

I have six Amazon Echo smart speakers in my house, and I’ve tested more, but my favorite is the Echo Dot with Clock. I love how the fabric-covered LED dot matrix display makes time unobtrusively accessible, beaming its gentle white light from my dresser across my blackout-curtained dark bedroom. (It definitely beats asking Alexa the time.)
So I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news: Amazon has discontinued the Dot with Clock in favor of a more expensive, less eye-pleasing model.
“You can check the product page for the latest device availability, but once inventory of this generation Echo Dot with Clock is sold through it will not be restocked,” Amazon spokesperson Liz Roland tells The Verge.
Amazon didn’t tell us why it’s going away. At first, I mistakenly thought it might be due to hidden defects — my own Echo Dot with Clock began mysteriously freezing a few weeks back, completely unresponsive to voice commands and with images stuck on its display. Multiple resets didn’t help.
But after I successfully argued for Amazon to credit me for a replacement Echo, it began working again. (I had to hard reset it, then go through the setup process multiple times in the Alexa app to get it working.)
When I went looking for a replacement $60 Echo Dot with Clock, I was surprised to find Amazon didn’t stock it anymore — only refurbished models were available when I checked, even though the blue model is available again at Amazon and Target today. So instead, I took a chance on the company’s spiritual successor: the $80 Echo Spot, which replaces the dot-matrix display with a screen.
But despite being more expensive, I’m finding the Spot inferior for my purposes. While its screen isn’t too bright for a dim bedroom, it’s not what I’d call visually pleasing. It never lets me forget I’m staring at a cheap screen. Plus, the whole screen is tilted upwards, presumably for nightstand use, not my tall dresser. I have no nightstands in my bedroom.

Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge
The Echo Dot with Clock and the Echo Spot, flanked by other small smart displays.

My colleague Jennifer Pattison Tuohy is currently working on a full review of the Echo Spot, and she likes it a good bit better than me!
But she says it doesn’t sound quite as good as the Dot either (though audio’s more directional), and it still doesn’t let you do anything as basic as setting an alarm with touch like you can with other smart displays. The main benefits are music playback controls and the ability to display time, date, temperature, and the weather simultaneously.
Now that my Echo Dot with Clock is working again, I’ll be returning the Spot — and the money that Amazon credited me.

Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

I have six Amazon Echo smart speakers in my house, and I’ve tested more, but my favorite is the Echo Dot with Clock. I love how the fabric-covered LED dot matrix display makes time unobtrusively accessible, beaming its gentle white light from my dresser across my blackout-curtained dark bedroom. (It definitely beats asking Alexa the time.)

So I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news: Amazon has discontinued the Dot with Clock in favor of a more expensive, less eye-pleasing model.

“You can check the product page for the latest device availability, but once inventory of this generation Echo Dot with Clock is sold through it will not be restocked,” Amazon spokesperson Liz Roland tells The Verge.

Amazon didn’t tell us why it’s going away. At first, I mistakenly thought it might be due to hidden defects — my own Echo Dot with Clock began mysteriously freezing a few weeks back, completely unresponsive to voice commands and with images stuck on its display. Multiple resets didn’t help.

But after I successfully argued for Amazon to credit me for a replacement Echo, it began working again. (I had to hard reset it, then go through the setup process multiple times in the Alexa app to get it working.)

When I went looking for a replacement $60 Echo Dot with Clock, I was surprised to find Amazon didn’t stock it anymore — only refurbished models were available when I checked, even though the blue model is available again at Amazon and Target today. So instead, I took a chance on the company’s spiritual successor: the $80 Echo Spot, which replaces the dot-matrix display with a screen.

But despite being more expensive, I’m finding the Spot inferior for my purposes. While its screen isn’t too bright for a dim bedroom, it’s not what I’d call visually pleasing. It never lets me forget I’m staring at a cheap screen. Plus, the whole screen is tilted upwards, presumably for nightstand use, not my tall dresser. I have no nightstands in my bedroom.

Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge
The Echo Dot with Clock and the Echo Spot, flanked by other small smart displays.

My colleague Jennifer Pattison Tuohy is currently working on a full review of the Echo Spot, and she likes it a good bit better than me!

But she says it doesn’t sound quite as good as the Dot either (though audio’s more directional), and it still doesn’t let you do anything as basic as setting an alarm with touch like you can with other smart displays. The main benefits are music playback controls and the ability to display time, date, temperature, and the weather simultaneously.

Now that my Echo Dot with Clock is working again, I’ll be returning the Spot — and the money that Amazon credited me.

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Image: Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images

FBI director Christopher Wray said on Wednesday that the person who attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump searched the web for “How far away was Oswald from Kennedy?” one week before the rally shooting, as reported by the The New York Times.
Investigators recovered the search from a laptop linked to 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, which refers to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy by Lee Harvey Oswald. “That’s a search that’s obviously significant in terms of his state of mind,” Wray said during a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee. “That is the same day that it appears that he registered for the Butler rally.”

As reported by the NYT, Wray said Crooks visited the site of the Butler, Pennslyvania rally two times on the morning of July 13th. During his second visit, the shooter appears to have flown a drone around the showground for about 11 minutes. The drone was made by DJI, according to a report from CNBC.
The FBI also broke into the shooter’s phone last week, but his motive remains unclear. “A lot of the usual repositories of information have not yielded, anything notable in terms of motive or ideology,” Wray said.

Image: Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images

FBI director Christopher Wray said on Wednesday that the person who attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump searched the web for “How far away was Oswald from Kennedy?” one week before the rally shooting, as reported by the The New York Times.

Investigators recovered the search from a laptop linked to 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, which refers to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy by Lee Harvey Oswald. “That’s a search that’s obviously significant in terms of his state of mind,” Wray said during a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee. “That is the same day that it appears that he registered for the Butler rally.”

As reported by the NYT, Wray said Crooks visited the site of the Butler, Pennslyvania rally two times on the morning of July 13th. During his second visit, the shooter appears to have flown a drone around the showground for about 11 minutes. The drone was made by DJI, according to a report from CNBC.

The FBI also broke into the shooter’s phone last week, but his motive remains unclear. “A lot of the usual repositories of information have not yielded, anything notable in terms of motive or ideology,” Wray said.

Read More