Leica’s latest, D-Link’s fastest, Plantronics’ most surrounding, and a review of the all new Xbox One X. This is The Wrap.
Transcript
For the last Friday in November, this is The Wrap, Australia’s fastest look at the world that was in technology, and this week, that world was one truly taken over by adjectives. From big to small to surrounding to booming to fast and, well, quite fast, the news this week jumped all over the place in the world of adjectives, as descriptions came at us fast.
Take the release of D-Link’s Cobra, a snake-named NBN-ready ADSL2 modem router that offers what is easily amongst the fastest wireless activity on offer at home, delivering three bands of WiFi and a staggering 5.3 gigabits of bandwidth to share around the home on the fast 802.11ac connection.
Simply put, that is a tremendous amount of bandwidth, and one that comes packing in a very unique triangular router, offering a quad-core processor, technology to support lots of devices, and a whopping eight antennas, giving you an idea of just how meaty the D-Link Cobra is.
There’s only one catch: while the Cobra looks fast — and we’re testing it now, with a review on its way — it is certainly not cheap, attracting a price of $750.
Mind you, it’s not the most expensive device we’ve heard of this week.
No, that might go to Leica’s latest, a mirrorless camera grabbing a 24 megapixel sensor and a look less like a modern camera and more like an old school one.
It’s called the Leica CL, and while it takes the same mirrorless system Leica has been working on in the TL range, this is built more like an older camera, ideal for folks who like the Leica cameras, but prefer a slightly less expensive and more modern design, not to mention modern parts, including support for 4K and WiFi.
While the camera is different from the other Leica digital rangefinders, the price is still relatively sizeable, though not as much as other Leica models, fetching a tag of $3700 without the lens, or from $5200 with it.
That’s a specific type of camera buyer who would be looking at this one, particularly folks who want a Leica sensor more than say the Huawei-Leica combo sensors found in the Mate phones, but don’t look forward to spending around $10K minimum for the privilege.
Kind of like folks who consider Atmos-enabled headphones instead of buying Atmos-enabled speakers and an Atmos-ready amplifier for 3D sound.
While Dolby’s Atmos is still relatively new, the technology is rolling out to more devices, namely computers and video game consoles, offering 3D sound to more ears provided they have the goods.
If you haven’t gone out and bought a 3D speaker system, though, we’re beginning to find Atmos’ 3D sound in headphones, too, and Plantronics joined this week with three of them, offering a trio of Dolby-enabled headphones built for gaming.
Part of Plantronics’ “Rig” series, they’re made for 360 audio, and basically offer the choice of wired or wireless through the Rig 400, 600 and 800LX headphones, built especially for Windows 10 and the Xbox One.
They’re available now, just like the new Xbox One, which we’re checking out in a review.
Yes, there’s a new Xbox available, and while it’s called the Xbox One X, it’s also known as “Project Scorpio” if you happen to be a bit of an Xbox fan person.
If you’re not, don’t worry, because Scorpio isn’t really anything you need to remember. Instead, you might just want to focus on what it is and what it has, because both of those are important.
First there’s the box, which is still plastic, but smaller, thinner, and yet heavier, now packing more hardware goods, processing power, and a water cooling system, because why not?
The most important part of the package is the hardware, and while that’s heavily increased, it’s not without reason, capable of playing back 4K games and indeed 4K movies, making the Xbox One X an entertainment box for folks with one of those new or fairly recent 4K Ultra HD TVs.
In fact, that’s primarily the point of this thing, boasting improved graphics hardware to make for games with better resolution, or movies with better resolution. Really, it’s about power and resolution, and it’s a console our game-loving review Rhys really got into, though he did say that if you don’t have a 4K TV, it might not be worth it.
For gamers, though, with a keen interest in having the best resolution out there, not to mention the eventual compatibility for your gaming collection, the Xbox One X makes total sense, even if will set you back a good $650 for the privilege.
Which is more than you had to pay for our free little show, which is unfortunately over.
For now, you’ve been listening to The Wrap, Australia’s fastest serving of technology wrapped into one neat little package. Get it? Wrap? Wrap? We thought it was funny.
We will be back next week, though, with more news and a review or two, as we delve deep into the world of what’s new in technology.
Until then, be sure to have a great week, fantastic weekend, and all that jazz. We’ll see you next time on The Wrap.
