Articles by Ara Wagoner

While Lenovo, Acer, and ASUS may rule the roost among the best Chromebooks, Dell does offer a small collection of Chromebooks for consumers, businesses, and schools. Dell’s Chrome OS portfolio isn’t as pronounced as other manufacturers, but if Dell is your manufacturer of choice, these are the best Dell Chromebooks available today, whether you need a top-of-the-line, business-grade laptop or a travel-friendly lightweight laptop for vacations and weekends on the couch.

Best Dell Chromebook: Dell Chromebook 3100 2-in-1

This is the oldest Chromebook in Dell’s current lineup, but it’s still the best one for most Chromebook buyers. How is that possible, you ask? The Dell Chromebook 3100 2-in-1 is portable, long-lasting, and affordably priced. While not bleeding edge, Chrome OS runs quite well on the 3100’s hardware, and it’s one of the few 11.6-inch Chromebooks to offer an 8GB RAM option.

8GB of RAM is absolutely an asset worth upgrading for, as Chrome uses a fair amount of RAM, and …

We’ve got a peek at the new UI, but it’s far from complete.

One of the most fun times of the year is the beta period before the new version of Android. The Android 12 beta is one of the buggiest betas we’ve seen in years, likely due to the major UI overhaul that is Material You. We weren’t sure how much of Material You was actually going to show up in One UI this year, but Samsung has indeed taken many of Google’s cues and tried to blend it into a consistent One UI 4.

We also weren’t expecting to see this beta until after the stable release of Android 12, but Samsung pushed ahead with it on Tuesday morning. Like thousands of fellow Samsung users, I was up bright and early, closing and reopening the Samsung Members app until it showed me the registration banner. My coworkers Jerry Hildenbrand, Alex Dobie, and I all managed to get the One UI 4 beta installed on our S21s.

We’ve now spent two days with it, and this is definitely an unfinished build that you should not flash on your S2…

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 is a foldable phone with a lot of promise. S Pen support means this will be great for creators on the go who want to sketch out ideas wherever the muse strikes them, and the improved durability and water-resistance means that you don’t quite have to baby the Fold 3 the way you did the Fold 2 (just don’t take it to the beach or the desert). Of course, you can bolster that protection with a great case, and these are the best Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 cases we’ve been able to find so far.

Get the Note experience

Samsung S Pen Folio Cover

Staff pick

While the Galaxy Z Fold 3 supports the S Pen, it doesn’t have a slot for one like the Notes of yesteryear. That’s okay, though, because you can buy both the S Pen and a Folio case to store it in one easy bundle. This case can feel a bit bulky to some, but for S Pen addicts, this is the case for you.

$80 at Samsung
$80 at Amazon
$80 at Best Buy

Protect everything

Spigen Tough Armor Designed for Galaxy Z Fold …

Whether you pre-ordered a Galaxy Watch 4 on Day 1 (welcome to the club) or you’re just picking one up after hearing how much your friends are enjoying theirs, you’ll find that even after the initial setup, there are quite a few important things to do. Topping that list is finding a way around Samsung’s voice-to-text input.

Samsung’s not giving us a proper choice yet — but when there’s a will, there’s a way

Yes, we can’t switch Bixby out for Google Assistant yet — don’t worry, it’s coming likewise there’s not an option to set a default voice-to-text engine yet. However, hope’s not lost. We can get Google’s dictation through Gboard’s Wear OS keyboard, which offers superior voice recognition and easier editing if Google does mishear you.

I’m really hoping that Samsung will get off its high horse and let other voice-to-text options be set as the default, but until then, here’s our workaround. Because it works through the keyboard, it makes it much easier to edit your commands or r…

While I love my Galaxy Watch 4, my tiny wrist meant that when it came, the first thing I did — before I even turned it on — was swap the watch band. Thankfully, years of quick-release bands have made changing Galaxy Watch 4 bands something you can do in a single commercial break during the morning news.

A cleaner look with less flexibility

I have nothing against Samsung’s bands themselves, per se, but as someone with a small wrist, the in-box band just meant the gaps between the band and the sides of my wrist were just too big. And it wasn’t just me; multiple YouTubers like Thao Hunyh experienced the exact same issue. It comes from the sculpted inner edge where the band meets the watch casing: extra material keeps the band rotating freely to produce a better fit on smaller wrists.

If you need to rectify this particular problem, we have several great Galaxy Watch 4 bands to choose from, and I recommend the EverAct pack listed at the bottom of this guide, as it’s what I’m using…

The best Chromebook can provide a top-notch computing experience today and for years to come. They’re perfect for students, grandparents, and anyone looking for a trouble-free laptop with long battery life. We’ve reviewed and rated the absolute best Chromebooks so that you can find the best value at any budget.

Our buyer’s guide will help you find the perfect Chrome OS laptop or tablet if you’re switching from a Windows or Mac or if you’re buying your first laptop entirely.

What are the best Chromebooks you can buy today?

The beauty of the Chromebook market is that there are so many options to choose from. If you want something specifically for portability and battery life, there are numerous dependable choices. Similarly, if you don’t plan to move it from a desk and would prefer a big, beautiful display and plenty of CPU power to back it up, there are lots of options for you, too.

Our top pick is the Lenovo Flex 5 Chromebook, which hits all of the right markets for a laptop, inc…

This is when things start getting interesting for Chrome tablets.

What you need to know

Lenovo is launching several new products at its Tech World event on Wednesday.
The Chromebook Duet 5 and Tab P12 Pro are among the new tablets Lenovo unveiled at the event.
Lenovo also revealed new wireless earbuds and a 5G model of the Tab P11 tablet.
The new Chromebook Duet 5 and Tab P12 Pro start at $450 and $610, respectively.

Lenovo Tech World today is showing off the latest and greatest from one of the largest manufacturers in the world. While the PCs and USB-C Monitors are all well and good, what faithful readers of this site will really be looking forward to are its Chrome and Android offerings. The Lenovo Chromebook Duet 5 goes on sale next month, and here’s why it’ll absolutely earn its $450 price tag.

Far and away, one of the best Chromebooks of 2020 and one of the most important was the Lenovo Chromebook Duet. It was the first Chrome OS tablet that felt like a full, well-rounde…

This watch needs a bit more finessing than your last one.

Get a watch face like CEED by Almarinov from Facer for $1.99.

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 has quickly become the best Android smartwatch, bringing the best of Tizen and Wear OS together in one watch. While there are still rough edges to work out, it’s the best wearable experience we’ve seen in the Android ecosystem to date.

After getting the watch paired to your phone and logged in to both your Samsung and Google accounts, there are some hidden and not-so-hidden Galaxy Watch 4 settings you’ll want to fix to give you the proper experience. Do one or do all — but at least do the first of these; it’ll make replying to messages or using voice input in apps much easier.

Jump to:

Turn on Google Speech
Set your double-tap shortcut
App installation
Sort your app drawer
Find a Complicated face
Adjust heart-rate tracking
Set screen timeout
Disable its ability to take phone calls

Set the Text-to-speech engine to Google Speec…

Chargers always seem to be getting faster and smaller. With such a wide adoption of the Power Delivery (PD) standard, one high-powered PD charger can serve all the gear in your life, from your power-hungry laptop to your phone, power bank, and even your battery-sipping headphones. There are quite a few 60 to 65W wall chargers out there we trust with our gear, but the iSmart 61W GaN Charger charger is the best for size, adaptability, and reliability.

Best overall: iSmart 61W GaN Charger

High-capacity chargers don’t get any smaller than this right now, and iSmart’s top-quality charger is actually one of the more affordable in the lineup. That adds to the hands-down best single-port 60W charger on the market, especially when you add in the excellent build quality and responsive customer service.

You might need to flip this charger over to be completely sure the second plug on your wall outlet isn’t obscured, but iSmart has the smallest footprint and is the easiest to pack up and po…

We can go beyond Pixel’s one-note icons and do it for free.

While Android 12 will be arriving soon, the most striking visual change will be Pixel-exclusive at launch. While Material You as a whole will be part of Android 12 and can be implemented by all Android manufacturers, but the Dynamic Color picker is limited to the Pixel line. Dynamic Color is the algorithm that will analyze your wallpaper then pick complementary colors to tint system elements and your app icons, and even if we can’t get Google’s super-secret color formula, we can still get app icons that change with our wallpapers easily using Icon Pack Studio and one of the best Android launchers.

Icon Pack Studio allows you to craft custom icon packs, that can then be exported and applied like any third-party icon pack. However, you won’t need to re-export and re-apply each time you change your wallpaper if you use Smart Launcher 5. The Smart Launcher team built Icon Pack Studio and integrated it into its launcher, so you…