Articles by Harish Jonnalagadda

Looking for the best wireless earbuds for the Galaxy S21? You’ve come to the right place. The Galaxy Buds Pro launched alongside the S21 series, and they perfectly complement the phone. You’ll also find great options across various price segments, so let’s take a look at the best wireless earbuds for the Galaxy S21.

The new standard

Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro Bluetooth Earbuds

Staff Pick

With the Galaxy Buds Pro, Samsung is taking things to a new level. The earbuds offer active noise cancelation on par with the best Sony and Bose deliver, and you get a secure fit with excellent sound quality, wireless charging, IPX7 resistance. These buds also last eight hours on a full charge.

$190 at Amazon

Also great

Samsung Galaxy Buds Live True Wireless Earbuds

The Galaxy Buds Live launched with the Note 20 series, and they continue to be a solid alternative, particularly at the discounted price. They also have active noise cancelation, a unique design that provides a tight fit, a…

The X3 Pro sets a new standard for performance in the budget segment.

POCO burst onto the scene three years ago with the POCO F1, with that phone offering a value package that is yet to be matched. The F1 wasn’t a perfect phone by any measure — it had display and build quality issues, and it had plenty of software buds — but the fact that you could get flagship-tier performance from a phone that retailed for under $300 immediately endeared the enthusiast community to the F1.

POCO is now trying to recreate that with the X3 Pro. The phone is a turbocharged version of the POCO X3 that debuted at the end of last year, and the key highlight is that it is powered by a Snapdragon 860 — a higher-clocked version of the 2019 flagship Snapdragon 855+ chipset.

The flagship chipset immediately makes the X3 Pro stand out. The phone is available in India for just ₹18,999 ($260) and is set to go on sale globally for under $300, and there aren’t any other phones in this category that come …

Rooting isn’t as popular as it used to be, but there’s still a vibrant community of modders involved in launching new ROMs. If you’re just getting started or are looking to delve back into the world of modding, the OnePlus 8T is our favorite pick. We’ve included other top-notch options as well, so you have the best phones for rooting and modding to choose from.

Tinker away

OnePlus 8T Android Smartphone

Staff Pick

The OnePlus 8T is a solid choice in 2021. You get excellent hardware, a flat 120Hz AMOLED display, 65W fast-charging, and reliable cameras. The phone is the ideal canvas for rooting and modding, and OnePlus makes it as straightforward as possible to unlock the bootloader and install custom ROMs.

$590 at Amazon $600 at OnePlus

The 5G option

OnePlus 9 Android Smartphone

If you’re looking for a more recent option, the OnePlus 9 is a great choice as well. The phone has outstanding cameras thanks to the new Hasselblad partnership, and you get the latest internal…

LG decides to call it quits after failing to turn a profit with its mobile unit.

What you need to know

LG has confirmed that it is exiting the smartphone segment.
LG is currently the ninth-largest smartphone manufacturer in the world, but the South Korean brand failed to make a profit in the last five years.
LG says it will focus its efforts on 6G, EV tech, IoT, robotics, and AI.

After nearly six years of continual losses, LG has pulled the plug on its smartphone unit. The South Korean manufacturer made some of the best Android phones over the years, but devices like the LG Wing failed to make any headway.

LG sold a total of just 24.7 million phones last year, less than a tenth of its South Korean rival Samsung. With the unit posting losses of $4.4 billion over the last five years, LG has officially announced that it is exiting the mobile business. The brand will continue to sell its current inventory, but it will no longer produce phones.

LG said last year that it was open t…

Looking for the best wireless headphones for your Galaxy S20? We review dozens of wireless earbuds every year and are here to assist you in selecting the right option for your needs. Samsung ditched the 3.5mm jack starting with the Galaxy S20, so the default option to listen to music on your new phone is through Bluetooth. Thankfully, there are excellent choices available right now. Here are our picks for the best wireless headphones for the Galaxy S20

1. Samsung Galaxy Buds+: Best Overall

If you don’t want over-ear headphones and are looking for a true wireless option, the Galaxy Buds+ are the obvious pick. Samsung overhauled the earbuds’ sound profile, adding a secondary driver in each earbud to deliver much better sound quality. There’s also Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity, three microphones, and fast pairing.

Another area that saw a massive change is battery life. The Galaxy Buds+ feature an 85mAh battery, and they manage to deliver 11 hours of battery life between charges, nearl…

If you’re not using Duo for video calls, you’re missing out.

Google Duo has been around now for several years, and during that time, it has become one of the most feature-rich video calling services available in the market. Duo launched alongside Allo as Google tried to simplify its messaging strategy — offering one app each for text messaging and video calling — and while Allo was waylaid in 2019 over low usage figures, Duo has grown from strength to strength. The service has amassed over a billion downloads and is now pre-installed on all new Android phones.

Here’s everything you need to know!

Jump to:

Duo is easy to use
You can make audio-only calls
Link Duo with your Google account
There’s finally a web client
Knock Knock live previews
End-to-end encryption is the default
Make group calls with up to 32 people
Send video and voice messages
It works with Smart Displays
Data saver lets you save bandwidth

The new standard

Google Duo

Free at Play Store

Video call…

OnePlus 8T

Everything you need

$590 at Amazon

Pros

Sublime 120Hz AMOLED display
Android 11 out of the box
65W wired charging
Snapdragon 865 with 5G connectivity
12GB RAM and 256GB storage by default

Cons

No wireless charging
No IP rating
Average camera

The OnePlus 8T delivers the latest hardware you can buy today. The phone is powered by the Snapdragon 865 chipset and has 5G connectivity, and you get a flat AMOLED display with 120Hz refresh rate, 12GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, and insane 65W fast charging. Add the fact the phone runs Android 11 out of the box and you get a great overall package.

OnePlus 8 Pro

All the extras

$699 at OnePlus

Pros

Stunning 120Hz AMOLED display
Exciting cameras
30W wired and wireless charging
IP68 water resistance
Snapdragon 865 chipset with 5G
Now on Android 11

Cons

No 3.5mm headphone jack

The OnePlus 8 Pro takes things to the next level with a curved QHD+ AMOLED 120Hz refresh rate screen, cameras that take great photos in an…

The best network attached storage (NAS) for Plex lets you easily stream your media library on all devices across your home network. The DiskStation DS220+ illustrates this point perfectly — it transcodes content so that any device can play back any file without running into issues, and doubles up as a reliable solution for backing up photos and videos from your connected devices.

1. Synology DiskStation DS220+: Best Overall

Right now, the DiskStation DS220+ is the best NAS you can buy for Plex streaming. The NAS is powered by an Intel Celeron J4025 chipset and comes with 2GB of RAM — with the ability to add another 4GB — and there are two drive bays that can hold 16TB of storage each, taking total storage to 32TB. The DS220+ has two Gigabit Ethernet ports at the back with Link Aggregation, and you can just bridge these ports and double data transfers. There are two USB 3.0 ports as well, and overall, the DS220+ is the best NAS for home use, particularly if you want a robust…

OnePlus 9 Pro

Camera king

$969 at OnePlus

Pros

QHD+ 120Hz AMOLED LTPO display
Latest internal hardware with 5G
Outstanding cameras
Bloat-free software with fast updates
65W wired / 50W wireless charging
IP68 dust and water resistance

Cons

Sub-par battery life
Limited 5G connectivity in the U.S.
Expensive

The OnePlus 9 Pro offers key upgrades in all areas from last year. Up front is a 6.7-inch QHD+ 120Hz AMOLED that uses LTPO tech for dynamic refresh, and you get the latest internal hardware with 65W wired and 50W wireless charging. But the biggest upgrade is at the back: the OnePlus 9 Pro has one of the best cameras you’ll find on any phone today, and if you take a lot of photos, you should upgrade.

OnePlus 8 Pro

Still going strong

$700 at Amazon

Pros

Vibrant 120Hz AMOLED display
Rock-solid internal hardware with 5G
Bloat-free software with fast updates
30W wired and wireless charging
IP68 dust and water resistance

Cons

Cameras not anywhere as good as 9 Pro
U…

The Galaxy A32 has lots of exciting upgrades, but it misses out in terms of value.

Samsung makes the best cheap Android phones, with the Galaxy A lineup selling tens of millions of units every year. The South Korean manufacturer got rid of the Galaxy J series two years ago and folded those devices into the Galaxy A lineup as well, and as a result, it now includes options that cost under $100. At the other end of the price bracket, you’ll find robust mid-range options like the Galaxy A71.

The Galaxy A series has taken on an increased significance over the last year as potential buyers switched to the Galaxy A51 or A71 in place of the Galaxy S20 series as a way to save some cash. With the Galaxy A32, Samsung is adding a few exciting features: there’s now a 90Hz AMOLED screen and 64MP camera at the back, with Samsung positioning the high refresh rate as a differentiator for the device.

The Galaxy A32 also has updated hardware, and while it gets a few things right, it doesn’t quite of…