ICYMI: We spend a few nights with the Evil Sleepbuds 2

This week, we hired managing editor Terrence O’Brien and senior editor Devindra Hardawar to review a variety of new devices. Terrence, along with senior video producer Brian Oh, tested Bose’s Sleepbuds 2 to see if they could rest better at night. He also picked up Fender’s innovative acoustic hybrid guitar, which can deliver both electric and acoustic sounds. Meanwhile, Devindra liked a lot of Dell’s 40-inch ultra-large monitor, with the exception of its performance during the game. He also tested AMD’s Radeon RX 6700 XT and found it to be ideal for gamers running at 1080p or 1440p (that is, if you assume you can get your hands on one). And for those of you who have your own podcasts, James Trew has listed a number of ways to improve your recording skills with microphones, mixers and kits.

Bose’s Sleepbuds 2 are soft plastic earbuds designed to enhance your sleep by playing soothing sounds and sound clips. However, they do not stream music or podcasts and cannot answer calls – in short, the $ 250 buttons are a one-time device. Terrence O’Brien and Brian Oh both tested the Sleepbuds 2 for a few weeks and both said they were generally comfortable wearing overnight, although they both had problems with the buttons remaining in place. They also said that it can be difficult to find a comfortable place to sleep so that the eyes do not dig into their ears.

The Sleepbuds 2 can play any of the 50 sounds from the Bose library in the accompanying mobile app, ranging from natural sounds to white noise to ambient tracks. Again, it does not stream, so all tracks must be transferred to the device before hitting the bag. Terrence said that while the app is simple and functional, it also lacks a main list or a preview option so you can see what sounds are already on your buttons. He also had issues with the alerts, which would ring when a call was received, but did not ring if he had an alarm on his phone. Overall, Terrence thought the Sleepbuds could be an excellent investment – if it was at least $ 100 cheaper.

Terrence O’Brien admits he was skeptical of Fender’s hybrid Acoustasonic guitar. But after approaching the instrument with an open mind, he says he has a better appreciation for what the company is trying to achieve. Terrence reports that the design won him over quickly and that the material is clearly superior. He adds that it is best to first consider the $ 2,000 guitar as an acoustic thing, which can sometimes strike as an electric clip.

Terrence said that the Acoustasonic is quieter than true acoustics and that it does not have the depth, but that it is an excellent coaching guitar. It has three different electric pickups, which can be combined with the DSP on board to create different acoustic and electric tones. Because the Acoustasonic contains acoustic strings, Terrence reports that it does not play quite like an electricity, but does with great reverb and delays. He still feels that the guitar is a strikingly versatile instrument and that Fender succeeds in pushing boundaries.

In uncertain times for GPU production, Devindra Hardawar admits that it is difficult to review a component that can cause the price and availability to fluctuate. However, he calls AMD’s Radeon RX 6700 XT a capable new entry. The card has 12 GB of RAM, a game clock speed of 2.4 GHz and is capable of solid 1440p speeds. At $ 479, the RX 6700 XT can compete with NVIDIA’s RTX 3070 and RTX 3060 Ti.

While the RX 6700 XT can handle a bit of 4K, it does not fare as well with jet track performance. Because it’s a shorter GPU, it also has only two cooling fans which results in it being on the noisy side – loud enough to interfere with Devindra’s podcast recording. During the test he managed it Destiny 2 in 1440p between 75 and 100 fps, but the GPU struggled while playing Control. Nevertheless, he considers it a sensible choice for gamers who carry 1080p or 1440p screens at a high refresh rate – as long as you do not mind jet lag.

After spending a few months using Dell’s new, $ 2100, 40-inch ultra-wide monitor, Devindra Hardawar was impressed with the beautiful color accuracy, the spacious screen and the sharp resolution of 5K2K. The display can deliver 1.07 billion colors with a 140 ppi pixel density, supports 100% of the SRGB spectrum and, on top of that, comes with 300 net brightness. Devindra found it ideal for full-screen video editing, preparation of long podcast recordings, and full-screen videos.

However, he was less impressed with the game performance in cases where the solution was too much for his system to deliver modern games (despite an RTX 3080 GPU). He was sometimes forced to play at lower settings with black bars on the screen. And the screen size has made things occasionally awkward, such as recording podcasts or balancing a webcam on one side during video calls. Nevertheless, Devindra still felt that the UltraSharp 40 is ideal for professionals who can make good use of its large screen space and impeccable color accuracy.