PC Magazine July 2017

DIGITAL EDITION
JULY 2017

CONTENTS
JULY 2017
COVER STORY
FASTEST MOBILE
NETWORKS 2017
Which network is fastest where you live?
FEATURES
GOOGLE’S AI REWRITE:
BUILDING MACHINE
LEARNING INTO
EVERYTHING
PCMag spent a day at Google’s
headquarters exploring how AI
and ML are finding their way into
everything the tech giant does.

WHAT’S NEW NOW
SAMSUNG DEMOS
STRETCHABLE OLED
DISPLAY
You can change the shape and
size of these panels without
distorting the image.
THE COOLEST
FEATURES IN IOS 11
Not everything can be a
standout—but these are.
BEST OF COMPUTEX
2017
in Taipei this year, we saw the
building blocks of tomorrow’s
technology.
TOP GEAR
What we loved most this month.

REVIEWS
CONSUMER
ELECTRONICS
Motorola Moto Z2
Play
HTC U11
Six Top Smart
Light Bulbs
HARDWARE
Samsung Galaxy
Book (12-inch,
LED)
Motorola Moto Z2
Origin Neuron
SOFTWARE
& APPS
Five Top Photo
Printing Services
KeepSolid VPN
Unlimited (for
Android)
Samsung Galaxy Book
KeepSolid VPN Unlimited

OPINIONS
DAN COSTA
First Word
READER INPUT
MICHAEL MUCHMORE
Can the New IPad Pro Replace
My Laptop? Not Quite.
DOUG NEWCOMB
Who do You Trust More With
Your Safety: Google or Ford?
SASCHA SEGAN
With HomePod, Apple Just
Wants to Shake Things Up
If Watson is so
smart, could it
play the game
of go against
the Google
machine?
JOHN C. DVORAK
Last Word
TIPS & HOW TOS
TIPS
What to Do if Your Laptop Is
Plugged in But Not Charging
WINDOWS 10
How to Sync Notifications
Between Windows 10 and Your
Phone
PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION I SUBSCRIBE I JULY 2017

FIRST WORD
DAN COSTA
My boss recently asked me to to define
what PCMag fights against. This is an
interesting formulation. I spend a lot of
time telling people what we stand for and rallying
the staff around our cause. I also use every
opportunity to present our incredibly useful,
positive, and proactive mission statement. In fact,
let’s review it quickly:
Fighting the
Right Fights
PCMag.com is a leading authority on
technology, delivering Labs-based,
independent reviews of the latest products and
services. Our expert industry analysis and
practical solutions help you make better
buying decisions and get more from
technology.
But I don’t often think about what we are against.
That’s a mistake: Some enemies are worth having,
and some battles reveal who you really are. I am
not talking about the current political landscape,
where we’ve refined the art of talking past one
another. We should be able to debate public policy
with respect, comity, and common purpose. I’m
drawing lines as editor, a publisher, and a
business. I’m talking about PCMag picking the
right fights. So let’s get ready to rumble!
BRAND SPIN
I get the purpose of advertising—and our business
depends on it—but I’m amazed at how different
the products you see in advertisements are from

@dancosta
those same products in the real world. Setting
aside the feel-good, straight-up brand building, a
lot of products just don’t work they way they do in
commercials. Screens are Photoshopped in,
animations replace interfaces, and features are
invented. Vendors also push out an amazing
amount of content every day across an array of
channels. With some exceptions, most of it is
useless at best and at worst, deceptive.
PAYOLA
The FTC is doing its best to crack down on
bloggers who accept gifts, payments, and other
incentives to write about products, but most
payola goes unnoticed. Mediakix recently found
that 93 percent of the top celebrity Instagrammers
did not even disclose their sponsored links.
Interestingly, there are actually fewer restrictions
on professional journalists. But PCMag writers
don’t get paid by vendors, they don’t keep products
they test, and they can’t even own individual tech
stocks (mutual funds are OK).
FANBOYS
Passion is a good thing, and we welcome
technology enthusiasts. That said, slamming the
iPhone because you’re an Android fanboy makes
no sense. The same goes for every platform out
there. There is good traffic to be had stoking these
flame wars and spreading random incendiary
stories, but it ultimately doesn’t help users make
buying decisions and get more from technology.
Let’s argue about tech, but let’s use facts.
HACK JOURNALISM
Journalists don’t get a pass here, either. Plenty of
professional writers publish before checking their
facts or even pretending to offer facts. There’s a

place for opinions in tech publishing, but too many writers pass their biases off
as news. There’s nothing wrong with a hot take, but the vast majority of
PCMag’s resources go into testing products in our Lab, collecting data, and
helping users get more from their technology.
I don’t know if these are all fights we can win, but I’m stepping into the ring. My
first punch will be this month’s cover story, “Fastest Mobile Networks 2017.” I
think it is a haymaker (but not a comeback—this is our eighth year doing the
story.) Organized by Lead Mobile Analyst Sascha Segan, PCMag editors drove
through and between more than 30 cities over three weeks, testing all four
major carriers’ performance. They used identically configured Samsung Galaxy
S8 phones and custom benchmarking software to measure download speeds,
upload speeds, and overall reliability.
“Fastest Mobile Networks 2017” is as good a snapshot as you can get of the
wireless networks in the U.S. right now. If you’ve wanted to find out which is
the fastest carrier in your home town, now you can. And our results are a lot
more trustworthy than the ads you see on TV or the endorsements you see in
your Facebook feed.
If you agree, share the article with a friend. Even better, buy them a
subscription to our ad-free Digital Edition. That way you can join the fight, too.
Is there a fight you think we should be taking up? Let me know on Twitter:
@dancosta.
dan_costa@pcmag.com
PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION I SUBSCRIBE I JULY 2017

READER INPUT
YOUR COMMENTS
Can the
Microsoft
Surface
Laptop
Compete
With
Apple?
PCMag Hardware
Senior Analyst Joel
Santo Domingo
posited that the
Surface has a fighting
chance as a MacBook
competitor. Readers
are (as always) split
on the issue.
Baffling that Apple has abandoned the [MacBook]
Air market. I work with Apple and Surface due to
my job, but I use my Surface more and more. I
wanted to upgrade my Air to something higherperforming
with USB-C and USB 3.x, but Apple
just seems to be out of touch with what their
customers want in a lightweight, highperformance
laptop. I get not using the latest
Intel chips (last year) due to production delays,
but will they recover this year? I can’t see
replacing hundreds of dollars of perfectly valid
USB 3.x devices because of a “fashion statement,”
either. If I didn’t use my Air to back up my phone
and iPad, I could probably sell it and never look
[back]. It’s sad, really, that Microsoft is trouncing
Apple in their former strong suit!
—crdkennon
Relax, Google and Apple. Nothing to fear from a
company that can never deliver hardware that
works right out of the box, or [one that]
constantly delivers software/updates that brick
your computer.
—Jonathan
Hey Apple! Listen to your customers. We love the
Air, but you have not done any real upgrades
since 2016, except for [adding] more RAM. You
can’t afford to lose this part of the market,
especially students. Pros are too expensive, and
the 12-inch is also too expensive. Also, the

MacBook pro keyboard is terrible—too flat. You need a $1K laptop, period!
—Davy
I think the article missed an important feature of this new device: [the] touch screen.
Nothing in Apple’s current stable is close… Apple has not put out anything cool since
Mr. Jobs’ passing. Sad. I am not an Apple fan, but [the company] used to raise the
bar, making everyone try harder. And that Surface Studio! Wow, talk about
understanding what is needed and nailing it.
—photo_ted
Beware of Microsoft sales reps bearing gifts. The annual fees and lock-in don’t come
cheap.
—Robert Fibber
CORRECTION: In our June 2017 issue, the price of the Acer Predator 21 X was
listed as $3,999.99. The actual price is $8,999.99. We apologize for the error.
?
Ask us a
question!
Have a question about a story in
PC Magazine, one of the products we
cover, or how to better use a tech
product you own? Email us at
letters@pcmag.com and we’ll
respond to your question here.
Questions may be edited slightly for
content and clarity.
PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION I SUBSCRIBE I JULY 2017

WHAT’S NEW NOW
NEWS STORY
Samsung Demos Stretchable
OLED Display BY RYAN WHITWAM
Samsung was one of the first manufacturers to make OLED screen
technology a viable option for consumer electronics, and it currently
makes the best panels on the market. The company has been showing
off flexible AMOLED panels for years, but now it’s demoing something new:
stretchable OLEDs. In addition to bending and flexing, you can also change the
shape and size of these panels without distorting the image.
Samsung unveiled the prototype display at Display Week 2017 in Los Angeles.
The OLED panel is 9.1 inches, which is in the size range for a tablet. The larger
size also helps show off the impressive stretching capabilities. What sets this
apart from other flexible displays shown in the past is that it can be deformed in
two directions: It can bend but also become convex or concave.

This panel is elastic enough to recover from repeated
stretching, but it’s important to remember that this is a
demo. A flexible screen you sell to people needs to
remain elastic for years, but this prototype needs to last
only through a week-long conference. In fact, most of
the “flexible” display technology we have now has only
gone toward forming curved screens that don’t bend
after manufacturing.
Samsung currently sells a number of phones with
curved displays, including the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus.
The curved variants of past phones sold better than the
flat ones, so Samsung isn’t even making a flat version of
the GS8. Maybe in the future you’ll be able to get a
Galaxy smartphone that can stretch, too.
In addition to
bending and
flexing, you can
also change the
shape and size
of these panels
without
distorting the
image.
Samsung’s prototype has one interesting bonus that
current curved and flexible panels don’t have — it can
adjust the image to eliminate distortion. This only
works for up to 12mm (about half an inch) of stretching,
after which the image will no longer look “flat.”
Samsung would not comment on how far the display
was capable of stretching, but presumably it’s more
than 12mm.
The hope is that stretchable OLEDs could become
useful in devices where screens need to be compact or
unusual shapes—for example, in wearables and IoT
products. You could also alter interfaces when a display
stretches — like 3D Touch that’s actually 3D. There are
also plentiful gaming applications. Just bear in mind
that it took several years for curved displays to move
from trade show demo to real product, and this
technology will probably take even longer.
PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION I SUBSCRIBE I JULY 2017

WHAT’S NEW NOW
NEWS STORY
The Coolest Features
in iOS 11 BY CHLOE ALBANESIUS
Apple kicked off its annual Worldwide Developers Conference in June
with six key announcements: One was its newest mobile operating
system, iOS 11. Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of
software engineering, promised “hundreds of new features and incredible
updates” for existing iOS apps. The company released a beta version of iOS 11
to developers at the conference and promised a public beta in July for those
who like to tinker with new software. Everyone else will get iOS 11 in the fall,
which is likely when new iPhones will be released.

With hundreds of new features, not everything can be a
winner. A new look for the App Store? Meh. Revamped
Control Center? Better than before, but it looks a bit
cramped. But several things caught our eye and will
likely improve the iOS experience come September.
Here are the features we’re most looking forward to
trying out.
AUGMENTED REALITY
Though some of its biggest rivals have embraced virtual
and augmented reality, including Microsoft’s HoloLens
and Samsung’s Gear VR, Apple has mostly observed
from the sidelines. Last fall, Tim Cook said AR was
“incredibly interesting,” but that’s all we’ve heard from
Cupertino on the matter, even as millions of Pokémon
fans ran around the country last summer catching AR
creatures on their iPhones.
The company
released a beta
version of
iOS 11 to
developers at
the conference
and promised a
public beta
in July.
INSTANT AR
GRATIFICATION
ARKit, a new software
tool from Apple, lets
developers create AR
apps that will work
with current iPhones.
Now it appears Apple is finally ready to embrace
augmented reality with new tools for software
developers that will allow them to bring augmented
reality apps to iPhones and iPads. Using ARKit,
developers will be able to create AR apps that work with
people’s existing iPhones; you won’t need a special
phone to see AR tricks like you do with Google Tango.
Apple just needs developers to start creating.

APPLE PAY PERSON TO PERSON
Apple Pay is cool; I’ve used it to buy shampoo at
Duane Reade and perfume at Sephora. What a world.
It hasn’t allowed for person-to-person money
transfers a la Venmo, though. But with iOS 11, you’ll
be able to send money via iMessages to friends who
also have iOS devices. They can then add the payment
to their Apple account, send it to someone else, or
transfer it to their bank accounts. No more hunting
down friends for that $20 they owe or having to
(gasp!) write a check.
SIRI TRANSLATION
Siri has a lot going for her, but she’s still a work in
progress. At WWDC, Apple touted Siri’s increasing
smarts, including her multilingual capabilities. In iOS
11, Siri will give Google Translate a run for its money
by translating things you tell her in English into
Chinese, Spanish, French, German, or Italian. Apple’s iOS
11 website notes that this feature is in beta, so be prepared for
some iffy answers. If something gets lost in translation, you can always try the
universal language: music. A Personal DJ feature will let you ask Siri to play
something you’d like, which she’ll do based on previous music choices.
MULTITASKING
Microsoft is going after Apple pretty aggressively with its Surface Laptop and
Surface Pro devices, arguing in part that Windows is easier to use for business
types. The company has a point; iOS is beautiful, and the iPad Pro is sleek, but
there are some productivity hiccups.
Apple wants to change that with the multitasking updates in iOS 11 for iPad.
The Files app, for example, lets you “browse, search, and organize all your files
in one place,” Apple says. The Dock from the Mac, meanwhile, is also coming to
iPad for easy access to apps. If you opt for Slide Over or Split View, both apps
will remain active. And the most noteworthy addition? Drag and drop.

MULTI-ROOM AUDIO
Music fans who want to keep the party going from room to room will appreciate
AirPlay 2, which brings HomeKit support to speakers for multi-room audio. So
you can play a song on the Bang & Olufsen speaker in the living room and the
Bose in the kitchen. Or have a playlist play on every connected speaker you have
in the home—including, presumably, Apple’s upcoming HomePod.
APPLE MAPS DO NOT DISTURB
Apple Maps has improved since its disastrous debut, though it’s not quite as
robust as Google Maps. That could change in iOS 11, which adds features
including lane assist, speed limit, and a “do not disturb” mode. With “do not
disturb” enabled, you won’t get any notifications or messages while the car is in
motion. If someone texts you, they’ll get an auto-reply that says you’re driving
and will get back to them at your destination. In an emergency, though, it has
the option to break the “do not disturb.” And passengers can select “I’m not
driving” so they can still peruse Instagram on the commute. Apple also
promised detailed maps of hundreds of airports and shopping centers, for when
you really need to track down that Shake Shack before your flight.
LIVE PHOTOS
Apple’s Live Photos, which arrived with the iPhone 6s lineup, attaches 3-second
videos to your still photos. With iOS 11, Live Photos will add three new tricks:
the Vine-like Loops; the Boomerang-esque Bounce; and a Long Exposure
option, which will make your photos look as cool as the one below.
PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION I SUBSCRIBE I JULY 2017

WHAT’S NEW NOW
NEWS
Best of Computex 2017
BY JOHN BUREK
In 2017, the organizers of the Computex trade show in Taipei—the second
biggest one in the world for tech, apart from the CES bombast in Las Vegas
every January—refocused the annual show on several new axes: among
them were IoT, cloud services, gaming, and VR. The last two fields are tied
closely, of course, to core changes in the PC-component ecosystem. That’s why
we go to Computex every year, and boy, 2017’s show delivered on that front.
Computex is always a showcase for the best new PC tech coming out of Taiwan’s
major PC players, as well as major core-tech anchors such as Intel and Nvidia.
And Asus, Acer, MSI, and others showed off impressive new products, from
budget 2-in-1s to lots of powerhouse gaming laptops. Asus in particular
announced a massive collection of new devices, most of them slimmer and
lighter than ever.

Chip giant Intel took the wraps off what look like its most powerful consumeraccessible
PC processors ever, in the Intel Core X lineup. The nine new CPUs
top out with the Core i9-7980XE, an 18-core, 36-thread monster. This was an
obvious answer to AMD’s impressive Ryzen CPU launch earlier in 2017, and the
imminent Threadripper/X399 platform, which AMD says will include a 16-core,
32-thread CPU to arrive sometime this summer.
Nvidia started off the show not by announcing new GPUs but instead revealing
a more efficient “Max-Q” technology to leverage its existing “Pascal” chips for
laptops. The most impressive of the new Max-Q laptops we saw at the show was
the Asus ROG Zephyrus, a GTX 1080/Core i7 system that’s well under an inch
thick and weighs less than 5 pounds. And while there were no new graphics
chips launched at the show, we were impressed by the Zotac GeForce GTX 1080
Ti Mini, a powerhouse card that’s just over 8 inches long—and overclocked!
But that’s just the crest of the Computex product wave. Here are some of the
best products we saw at the show this year.
BEST NEW GAMING LAPTOP:
Asus ROG Zephyrus
There’s no denying Asus’ ROG Zephyrus has
some design quirks, like its keyboard and
touch-pad placement. But the company worked
with Nvidia and its new Max-Q initiative to
squeeze GeForce GTX 1080 graphics, a 7th
Generation “Kaby Lake” processor, and a
high-refresh-rate screen into a device that’s
just 0.74 inch thick and 4.85 pounds. That’s
impressive from an engineering
standpoint alone, but we also like the
way the laptop looks, with its straight
lines and copper edge accents. The
hinge, notably, is tied into the
ventilation system, with the vents at the back
opening wider when you lift the lid. This may be the most interesting new
laptop we saw, period. It’s going to be expensive with a GTX 1080 at $2,699.
But if you’re willing to step down to a GTX 1070 model, Asus says that version
should run $2,299.

BEST NEW MAINSTREAM OR
BUDGET DESKTOP:
Dell Inspiron 27 7000 AIO
Dell has had an increased presence at
Computex over the last few years, and
it used the 2017 show as a platform to
launch a very special all-in-one PC. It’s
not special because of the design,
though it is quite sleek; it’s special
because it’s built wholly around AMD
core CPU/GPU components—and it’s
not a bare-budget play but a power machine.
The Inspiron 27 7000 will be available in a
number of configurations around full desktop AMD Ryzen processors and
Radeon RX 500 graphics, topping out at the RX 580. With an RX 580 inside,
this AIO will be well capable of powering virtual-reality headsets.
BEST NEW GAMING DESKTOP:
Zotac Mek
Look out, Tiki; look out, Predator; you’re
up against a mech now. Along the same size
lines as the Predator G1 or Falcon
Northwest Tiki, the Zotac Mek goes for a
Tron-like minimalist-cool design and
leverages the company’s strong position in
small video cards. Zotac has pushed out
Mini versions of most of the GeForce GTX
1000-series “Pascal” cards, and the
company says the Mek should debut with a
GTX 1080 plus a Core i7-7700 desktop chip,
quite the power pair. A 450-watt power supply
and a PCI Express NVMe SSD boot drive complete the config, and
it will come in black or white with LED strips down the front. Unlike many of
the company’s Zbox PCs, which tend to ship bare-bones with some parts left to
you to supply, these will be fully configured PCs. No pricing or availability yet,
but this Mek looks ready to do some hurtin’.

BEST NEW MAINSTREAM/BUDGET LAPTOP
OR 2-IN-1:
Acer Spin 1
The Spin 1 is a 2-in-1 rotating
convertible that is all about the
numbers: 1080p, 11.6-inch, 0.55-inch,
$329. Well, it’s also about build quality. For
a laptop this inexpensive, it impressed us with a
nifty metal body. At a 0.55-inch thickness, this is a
lean machine for such a low price, and it weighs just shy
of 2.8 pounds. The 11.6-inch IPS (in-plane switching) panel
provides fine viewing at any angle. The unit’s base specs are
modest but in keeping with the price. Pentium or Celeron chips will be the
order of the day, along with 4GB of RAM and eMMC storage (at 32GB, 64GB, or
128GB). We’d estimate the $329 config would be a 4GB/Celeron/32GB model,
but we’ll have to wait and see. You also get two USB 3.0 ports, plus an HDMI
out. Availability by midyear was Acer’s latest projection.
BEST NEW TABLET OR 2-IN-1:
Asus ZenBook Flip S
Asus Chairman Jonney Shih came out swinging with the first
major laptop announcement of Computex 2017: a wildly skinny
2-in-1, 360-degree convertible. And the ZenBook Flip S
features—surprise, surprise!—support for up to a Core i7 U-series
processor. Why that matters: The chassis, Asus claims, is the
thinnest of any Core-based 2-in-1. The rotating hinge on most
convertible laptops of this kind make these machines thick by
nature. Here, though, the laptop is just 10.9mm thick (well
under half an inch!) and weighs just 2.4 pounds. It’s done
up in milled aluminum and in a choice of blue or grey.
PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION I SUBSCRIBE I JULY 2017

WHAT’S NEW NOW
TOP GEAR
What We Love Most
This Month BY STEPHANIE MLOT
FELIK
This artificially intelligent toy keeps your pets busy when you can’t. From its perch on the
wall or countertop, Felik monitors the room for movement and uses an infrared-sensitive
camera to track your cat or dog. Its AI predicts predatory activity (it knows when the animal
is about to pounce) and prepares to react appropriately. The real selling point is Felik’s ability
to behave naturally, moving the laser to simulate actual prey rather than in the random
directions humans typically aim.
$179 (shipping in November), wwwfelik.net

BIKI
The unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV),
aka the “world’s first bionic robot fish,”
was designed with advanced bionics tech
developed for arctic research. Boasting
automated balance, obstacle avoidance,
and a 4K camera, the fish-like device lets
you “visualize the underwater world from a
completely new perspective.” It offers 90
to 120 minutes of video capture at depths
up to 196 feet. Moving at only 1.12 mph, BIKI
looks and acts like seafood. But instead of
gills, it had a 150-degree wide-angle, 4K
camera lens, able to capture videos and
photos with the press of a remote button.
$1,024 (shipping in September),
www.mybiki.com
RIVE
Tyler Nathan, CEO of RiVE, wants to make
driving safer for everyone with a new set of
hardware and software that “eliminates the
driver’s physical interaction with the phone.”
Simply plug the device into your dashboard
USB hub and attach the charging clip to your
handset, physically blocking the home
button; an accompanying app holds all
notifications while the vehicle is in use. RiVE
still allows access to music, maps, contacts,
and 911; the system aims to prevent
distractions from popping up on screen.
$100 (shipping in November),
www.riveanddrive.com
PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION I SUBSCRIBE I JULY 2017

Michael Muchmore
Can the New iPad Pro
Replace My Laptop?
Not Quite
Apple is slowly coming around to the
realization that touch screens work on
laptops. With iOS 11, its touch-screen
laptop wannabe—the iPad Pro—will get not only
file folders, complete with drag and drop, but
also a macOS-style Dock, Apple’s less-functional
response to the Windows Taskbar.
But these positive moves don’t go far enough. The
most common way to use an iPad Pro—in fact,
the only way I’ve seen them used—is with the
Smart Keyboard, which adds another $159 to
$169 to the tablet’s already-laptop-level price of
$649 to $1,229. If you’re using a keyboard, a
mouse might seem like second nature, but the
iPad Pro doesn’t support them.
The other big lacuna for those using iPad Pros as
laptops concerns windowing. Apple has nudged
the iPad Pro’s windowing forward, but it’s still
limited to a grand total of two. And let’s not even
get started with the abundant multiple virtual
desktops Mac users (and more recently, Windows
10 user) adore. Touch-screen laptops like the
Surface Book even offer touch gestures that let
you switch among running apps and between
virtual desktops.
COMMENTARY
Michael Muchmore is
PCMag’s lead analyst
for software and Web
applications. He got
his start in computing
when he wrote a
BASIC program for a
Radio Shack TRS-80.

Michael Muchmore
Dragging files onto an email to create an
attachment is cool, but you’ve been able to do that
on the Surface or any PC with a touch screen for a
while. In fact, none of the iOS 11 improvements
for iPad Pro users represent things you can’t
already do on a Windows tablet. And with those,
you can use a mouse and have lots of windows
and virtual desktops. Then there’s the issue of an
OS that uses mobile device app icons on a nearly
13-inch screen, which would be fine if you could
use a mouse to open them.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m a believer that all screens
should be touch screens. I love being able to poke
the occasional OK button and swipe through
photos and adjustment sliders, even on my 23-
inch all-in-one PC screen. I disagree strongly with
Apple spokespeople who contend that touch on a
laptop is absurd and will cause your arm to fall off
after a day’s use. That said, I like having the
option to switch to a mouse. (Note that I’m not
talking about pen or pencil input here, which I
applaud on both the iPad Pro and the Surface
Pro. It’s just not something in my wheelhouse
when it comes to productivity computing.)
The iPad is an awesome device. It’s light, fast,
reliable, and offers every kind of useful and fun
app you can think of. I use one nearly every day—
as a tablet. For any kind of productive activity, I
need a real computer. And with no mouse, no
more than two Windows open, and an interface
that’s first and foremost tailored to smartphone
and tablet usage, iOS 11 doesn’t fill that bill.
michael_muchmore@pcmag.com
@mikemuch
PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION I SUBSCRIBE I JULY 2017

Doug Newcomb
Who Do You Trust More
With Your Safety:
Google or Ford?
A
decade ago, it would have been
unimaginable that a tech company like
Google could successfully challenge
automakers, that Tesla would be worth more
than Ford, or that ridesharing firms would be
major players in personal transportation.
Fully autonomous vehicles (AVs) are expected to
massively disrupt the car industry, but who will
win the hearts and minds of consumers and the
inevitable self-driving car war: automakers, tech
giants, or ridesharing companies? It’s “a new
battleground,” according to Bob Pishue, a senior
economist at Inrix.
In a recent survey, Inrix polled about 5,000
people from five countries who had purchased a
new vehicle in the last four years. Respondents
were asked which kind of company they would
trust most to build an AV: traditional automakers
(such as BMW and General Motors), established
tech giants (such as Apple and Google), newer
carmakers (such as Tesla and Fisker Motors),
ridesharing companies (such as Uber and Lyft),
trust all equally, or none of the above.
COMMENTARY
Car tech expert Doug
Newcomb has
written for Popular
Mechanics, Road &
Track, and other
publications, and is
the author of Car
Audio for Dummies.

Doug Newcomb
The level of trust varied by region. For example,
respondents in the U.S. were slightly more
trusting in tech powerhouses such as Google and
Apple than automakers to build AVs (27 percent
versus 23 percent, respectively).
This outlook shifts significantly in Germany,
where nearly three times as many respondents
trust traditional car makers most to build AVs.
But in all the countries surveyed (France, Italy,
and the U.K. were also included), fewer than 4
percent of respondents had confidence that
ridesharing companies will get robo-rides right.
Despite Americans’ marginally higher faith in
tech providers over automakers, the survey found
that car companies have a distinct advantage in
several respects. “With unknown and potentially
unproven technology such as autonomous
driving, consumers may default strongly to
trusted brands such as the traditional car
manufacturers,” Inrix stated. “It will be important
for car manufacturers to demonstrate that they
can develop successful high-tech products.”
My cynical side says, good luck with that, since
automakers have had a difficult time successfully
integrating smartphone interfaces into cars,
allowing Apple CarPlay and Google Android Auto
to gain traction.
@dougnewcomb
But building a smartphone interface—or a
smartphone—is nowhere near as complex as
manufacturing a car, and this is where tech
companies could falter and consumer confidence
waver. “A problem that new entrants like Google,
Apple, and Uber may face in convincing
consumers to use AVs they manufacture is that

Doug Newcomb
they have no experience or familiarity of these
brands in this space,” Inrix stated.
As car owners become more familiar with semiautonomous
driving technologies such as Volvo’s
Pilot Assist, this could help automakers keep
consumers in the fold in a future of autonomous
driving. The survey also says that “familiarity
with these emerging technologies and their
benefits will be central to winning customers,
especially early adopters of AVs.”
While it’s inconceivable that some automakers
could be sidelined within a decade, history
hasn’t been kind to incumbents in the tech space
and is littered with once-prominent pioneering
brands such as Kodak, Atari, and Palm. Car
companies at least have a potential head start in
the AV race.
doug_newcomb@pcmag.com
History hasn’t
been kind to
incumbents
in the tech
space and
is littered
with onceprominent
pioneering
brands.
PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION I SUBSCRIBE I JULY 2017

Sascha Segan
Apple’s HomePod speaker is a depth
charge dropped into the ocean where
Google Home and Amazon Echo sail. At
$349, it’s not going to dominate the voice
assistant world. But for Apple to achieve its
goals, the HomePod just has to keep the waters
rough enough to make its competitors seasick.
There are a bunch of weird things about Apple’s
HomePod announcement. First, Apple doesn’t
like to announce products six months in advance.
And while the iPhone and iPad are expensive,
they’re not double the prices of rivals. The
HomePod is also being sold as a music device
above all else rather than virtual assistant.
COMMENTARY
With HomePod, Apple
Just Wants to Shake
Things Up (for Now)
Sascha Segan is the
lead mobile analyst
for PC Magazine. His
commentary has
also appeared on Fox
News, CNBC, CNN, and
various radio stations
and newspapers
One interpretation is that Apple isn’t going after
competing voice assistants but the midrange,
wireless multi-room speaker market—the domain
of companies including Sonos, Bose, and
Logitech. Yes, those companies have $200
options, but the Sonos Play:3 costs $299, and the
Bose SoundTouch 20 costs $350. Those
companies have been slow to adopt the kinds of
flexible voice capabilities we’ve seen on Echo and
Google Home, and they tend to appeal to a
higher-end consumer who thinks the Amazon
and Google products look and sound cheap.

Sascha Segan
But I think Apple’s strategy is a little trickier than
that. The midrange speaker market is in fact ripe
for disruption, and I think Apple’s correct to
assume that people who have expensive speakers
probably also have an iPhone. But by announcing
the HomePod six months in advance, Apple’s also
trying to draw developer attention away from
Alexa and Google Home, making sure that it’s in
second, not third place, in the eventual war of the
voice assistants.
Second place is a very comfortable place for
Apple, because it’s focused on profit share rather
than market share. In a battle between Apple and
Amazon, it’s easy enough to see a repeat of the
iOS/Android war, where Echo speakers eat up the
bottom end of the market while Apple reaps
profits at the top. Amazon actually wouldn’t mind
this, as (like Google with Android, but not like
Android phone makers) its business isn’t
dependent on making a profit from hardware.
DEVELOPERS CAN HANDLE ONLY TWO
PLATFORMS
Platforms need developers, and we’ve seen over
and over that the tech world is capable of
supporting two platforms in most areas.
@saschasegan
On the desktop, it’s Mac and Windows, not Linux.
On phones, it’s Apple and Android, not
BlackBerry 10 or Windows Phone. On high-end
tablets, increasingly, it’s Windows and iOS, with
Android shunted down to the low end. Sure, the
third platform often manages to hang on as a
niche, but the two major ones dominate the
market. Developers just don’t seem to have the
resources to split their attention more broadly.

Sascha Segan
Right now there are three players in voice
assistants: Apple, Google, and Amazon. Apple is
coming late to the game, but it understands the
value of not being third. And as it implied by
focusing on music in its presentation, SiriKit is
way behind the competition in attracting
developers right now.
Apple needs to get SiriKit into the conversation
and to make sure Google and Amazon don’t lock
down voice-assistant developers, which could
definitely happen in the next six months. By
announcing the HomePod now, Apple throws a
bit of confusion into that community; should
developers keep their powder dry?
Google is likely to suffer more than Amazon from
this, because Amazon has a lot of third-party
partners and an already vibrant developer
community. Look at the list of Alexa skills versus
Google Home voice actions: Google is just getting
started here. Google’s speaker also sounds
better—and costs more—than Amazon’s hotselling
Echo Dot, putting it in a little more danger
from Apple’s higher-end product.
This doesn’t mean that Apple’s HomePod is going
to be a best-seller. Sure, it could be the next Apple
Hi-Fi, an expensive audio accessory that ends up
being overlooked for better third-party products.
But it keeps the waters roiled and keeps the
Google-Amazon duopoly from fixing in place.
When developers can only focus on two
platforms, that means at least Apple has a chance.
sascha_segan@pcmag.com
PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION I SUBSCRIBE I JULY 2017

REVIEWS
CONSUMER ELECTRONICS
Moto Z2 Play: Modular
Design, Solid Performance
New aspect ratios, curved displays, and iris
scanners—manufacturers have spent the past
six months doing just about everything to
make their phones stand out from the crowd. The
unlocked Moto Z2 Play, on the other hand, builds on a
concept Motorola established last year: It has a unique
design that works with Motos Mods, useful modular
back panels that bring new functionality. It also has
snappy performance and great battery life, and it’s
compatible with all major U.S. carriers. And unlike the
Z Droid, it even has a headphone jack. That makes the
Z2 Play a great phone for anyone who’s sold on the
modular build. Otherwise, the ZTE Axon 7 gets you a
bit more power for less money.
Motorola Moto
Z2 Play
$499.00
L L L l m

A SLIM, SMOOTH, FAMILIAR DESIGN
Available in black, blue, gold, and gray, the Moto Z2
Play is largely the same phone as the Moto Z Droid and
Play Droid in terms of design. The svelte device is
ringed by a band of metal along the sides, with a set of
clicky volume buttons and a ridged power button on the
right. The back panel is made of matte metal and
features a protruding camera bump and a row of
magnetic attachment pins for Moto Mods (more on
those later).
Measuring 6.1 by 3.0 by 0.2 inches (HWD) and 5.1
ounces, the Z2 Play is identical to the slim Z Droid in
dimensions, but it manages to include a headphone jack
on the bottom. That said, it’s quite a bit bigger than the
Samsung Galaxy S8 (5.9 by 2.7 by 0.3 inches, 5.5
ounces) and the LG G6 (5.9 by 2.8 by 0.3 inches, 5.8
ounces), which feature new aspect ratios to
accommodate taller, thinner displays. There’s a sizable
bezel above and below the display, making the Z2 Play
hard to reach across with your thumb and difficult to
operate with just one hand, especially when you’re
using a thick Moto Mod.
Motorola Moto
Z2 Play
PROS Useful modular
design. Current
software and virtually
no bloatware.
Compatible with all
major U.S. carriers.
Long battery life.
CONS Difficult to use
with one hand. Tinny
speaker. Slightly
pricey for the specs.
EASY ON THE EYES
The Moto Z2 Play
features a 5.5-inch,
1080p AMOLED
display. Colors are rich
and saturated, and
blacks are dense and
inky.

There’s a USB-C charging port on the bottom with the
aforementioned headphone jack next to it. The top has
a combined SIM/microSD card slot that worked fine
with a 256GB card. The phone has a water-repellent
coating to help resist splashes, but it’s not IP-rated in
any way, so keep it dry when possible. If you want a
waterproof handset, the Galaxy S8 is rated IP68 for
water protection (and is also significantly more
expensive).
The phone’s 5.5-inch, 1,920-by-1,080 AMOLED display
is easy on the eyes, with 401 pixels per inch. While it’s
not as sharp as the Quad HD S8 (580ppi), G6 (564ppi),
or Axon 7 (538ppi), it’s crisp enough that you won’t
notice any pixelation. Colors are deep and saturated,
and blacks are perfectly inky, only lighting up pixels as
needed. Screen brightness is almost blinding at
maximum, and viewing angles are excellent, so you’ll
have no trouble using the phone outdoors. The phone
also has a Night Display mode that automatically
adjusts color temperature to warmer tones to help you
sleep better at night.
CHARGING MOD
The Style Shell is a
Moto Mod that
combines an
attractive wooden
back cover with
support for Qi and
PMA wireless
charging.

TWIST IT, BOP IT, SPLIT IT, SWIPE IT
Using the preloaded Moto app, you can enable Moto Actions. These include
gestures such as twisting the phone to launch the camera app, chopping it twice
to trigger the flashlight, and swiping down to shrink the screen for one-handed
use. The most useful feature is Split Screen mode: Holding down the Recent
Apps button allows you to divide the screen and run two apps side by side.
Moto Display works similar to the always-on display on the Galaxy S8 to show
you notifications without you needing to press a button or unlock your phone.
Instead of being continuously on, however, the screen lights up only when you
reach for the phone. Simply extending a hand toward the Z2 Play will bring up
the time, date, battery percentage, music controls (if music is playing), and
notifications. You can set the display to fade in and out, so even when you
trigger it accidentally, it won’t drain too much juice.
Moto Voice lets you control the phone with voice commands. You can have the
phone speak calls and texts out loud and ask questions using the trigger words
“show me.” For instance, “show me the weather” will bring up the forecast, and
“show me the calendar” will pull up your schedule and upcoming events. But
ultimately, this doesn’t provide much functionality beyond what Google
Assistant already offers, and I prefer using the latter for its deeper Google
integration and AI-assisted capabilities.
ONLY THE APPS
YOU WANT
The phone comes
running a nearly
stock version of
Android 7.1.1 Nougat
with no bloatware.

Enabling One
Button
Navigation lets
you use the
fingerprint
sensor to
perform various
on-screen
functions.
Like the Moto G5 Plus, the Z2 Play supports One Button
Navigation. Enabling it lets you use the fingerprint
sensor to perform various on-screen functions. Swiping
to the left takes you back, swiping right brings up recent
apps, touching the sensor once unlocks the phone,
touching it again lets it function as a home button, and
holding it down brings up Google Assistant. This is a
simple and intuitive way to interact with your phone: It
also spares your thumbs from reaching around so much
and frees up some screen space.
A TRULY MODULAR EXPERIENCE
Along with its predecessors, the Z2 Play is among the
few truly modular smartphones. Unlike LG, which
abandoned its Friends accessories, Motorola has not
only stuck with Moto Mods but has also opened the
door to third parties. The sky’s the limit, which is part
of what makes Moto Mods so fun and flexible. You can
add such components as a wireless charging and
backup battery, a projector, or just a simple, stylish
back cover. The best part is that they’re perfectly
streamlined: Snap on the magnetic back, and your
phone instantly recognizes which Mod you’ve attached,
shows you how much battery power it has, and turns
the Mod on automatically.

Several new Mods launched with the Z2 Play. We tested the JBL SoundBoost 2
($79.99), a compact but powerful speaker with a kickstand, a splash-proof
coating, and 10-hour battery life. There’s also the Moto TurboPower Pack
($79.99), a snap-on battery pack with a 3,490mAh cell that can add an extra
day of battery life and fast charge your phone at 15W speeds. The Moto Style
Shells ($39.99) offer attractive designs and add support for both Qi and PMA
wireless charging standards at 10W speeds with minimal bulk, but you’ll need
to buy a wireless charging pad separately.
Don’t worry if you already own earlier Mods—the Z2 Play is fully compatible
with them. The Moto Insta-Share Projector ($299.99) and Hasselblad True
Zoom Camera ($299.99) both worked seamlessly with the phone.
NETWORK PERFORMANCE AND CONNECTIVITY
The Z2 Play supports CDMA (850, 1900MHz), GSM (850, 900, 1800,
1900MHz), UMTS (850, 900, 1700, 1900, 2100MHz), and LTE bands (1/2/3/4
/5/7/8/12/13/17/20/25/26/28/29/30/38/41/66). It’s the same set you’ll find
on the G5 Plus, allowing the phone to work on all major U.S. carriers, including
AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon. We tested it on T-Mobile in midtown
Manhattan, where we recorded solid network performance with top speeds of
14.3Mbps down and an unusually high 17.6Mbps up.

FAST, LONG-
LASTING POWER
The Z2 Play comes
with a Turbo Power
adapter, which
supports fast
charging. And battery
life is excellent; the
phone lasted 8 hours
18 minutes in our
rundown test.
Other connectivity protocols include dual-band Wi-Fi (2.4GHz and 5GHz),
Bluetooth 4.2, and NFC, allowing you to use Android Pay.
Phone calls are decent but nothing to write home about. Transmission clarity is
fine, but voices have a rasping, robotic edge. Noise cancellation is good at
blotting out background sounds, and we didn’t have any trouble carrying on a
conversation in a noisy environment. The earpiece is loud, which is good
because it also serves as a speaker. That makes it great for phone calls, but
subpar for music. Then again, you can always use the Soundboost 2 Mod.
PLENTY OF POWER
The phone is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 626 processor clocked at
2.2GHz. It’s a solid chipset, scoring 68,040 on the AnTuTu benchmark, slightly
edging out the 625-powered G5 Plus (63,845). It can’t match the powerful
Snapdragon 820 processor in the Axon 7 (141,989) or the top-of-the-line
Snapdragon 835 in the Galaxy S8 (158,266), but testing ran without a hitch.
The combination of a lightweight Android skin and 4GB of RAM under the hood
is more than enough to handle all of your multitasking needs. We were able to
play demanding games like GTA: San Andreas and Injustice 2 without a single
stutter.
Battery life is excellent. The phone clocked 8 hours 18 minutes in our battery
rundown test, in which we stream full-screen video over LTE at maximum
brightness. That’s nearly an hour longer than the G5 Plus (7 hours, 35 minutes)
and significantly better than the S8 (5 hours, 45 minutes). With average use, it’s
more than enough juice to get you through the day. If you want even more
power, the aforementioned TurboPower Pack Mod will give you a nice boost.
The included Turbo Power adapter supports fast charging.

SOLID SHOOTING
The Z2 Play has a 12-megapixel rear camera that takes crisp pictures in well-lit
settings. It can’t quite match higher-end phones, but we were impressed by the
accurate color reproduction and the fast-focusing laser autofocus. Shots of
detailed objects such as plants and buildings showed little to no noise, and
clarity was good. That said, the Z2 Play does lean heavily on post-processing,
and shots taken on a cloudy day looked over-processed and a little artificial.
The phone’s camera performed reasonably well in low lighting. Some pictures
taken indoors were noisy, and autofocus didn’t lock on as fast, but that’s the
case with most phones. We were still able to get some solid low-light shots by
using manual controls to adjust exposure and shutter speed. You can also tweak
white balance, ISO, and focus to improve picture quality. The Z2 Play can
record 4K video at 30fps. Recordings are crisp and fairly stable. Generally, we
found the phone to be a better shooter than the G5 Plus but unable to compete
with the S8.
The 5-megapixel front camera is also solid. Pictures are sharp and detailed, and
objects in the background come across clearly. Low-light shots can be a little
grainy, but there’s a dual-LED flash on the front and support for HDR, so we
were usually able to take clear photos.

PURE ANDROID (ALMOST)
The Z2 Play comes with Android 7.1.1 Nougat, the same up-to-date build you’ll
find on the Google Pixel XL and essentially stock, aside from some special
Motorola flavoring (the aforementioned Moto Actions, Moto Display, and Moto
Voice). Motorola has a respectable track record with updates, so there’s a good
chance you’ll see Android O on the Z2 Play in the near future.
The phone is free from bloatware aside from two preinstalled apps from
Motorola. One is the Moto app that allows you to configure gestures and voice
controls. The Moto Mods app doesn’t do much aside from take you to the
Motorola website; all the functionality that recognizes when a new Mod has
been attached and gives you configuration options is built right into the Settings
menu, so this app seems superfluous.
Out of the 64GB of internal storage, the phone has 48.68GB free for use. That’s
a decent amount of space, but if you need more for apps, games, or 4K video,
you can always use a microSD card and format it as internal storage.
CONCLUSION
The Moto Z2 Play is yet another solid modular phone from Motorola. On its
own, it offers respectable performance, long battery life, and compatibility with
all major U.S. carriers. It pulls ahead of some of the competition when you start
snapping on Moto Mods, offering a unique level of flexibility you don’t get with
the G6, the S8, or any other non-Motorola phone, for that matter.
That said, the Z2 Play doesn’t have the fastest processor or the highestresolution
screen you’ll find in this price range. The ZTE Axon 7 may be nearly a
year old, but it gets you a higher-resolution display, a more powerful processor,
and consistent software updates for $100 less than the Z2 Play. If you’re willing
to spend more, the Galaxy S8 is the best Android phone we’ve tested, with a
sharper display and the fastest processor you can get. And if you’re looking to
save money and Moto Mods aren’t of interest to you, the Moto G5 Plus remains
a perfectly solid option.
AJAY KUMAR
PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION I SUBSCRIBE I JULY 2017

REVIEWS
CONSUMER ELECTRONICS
HTC U11 Phone Faces the
Music
HTC’s passion for sound has come through in
its phones for years, and I hear it again in the
U11 for Sprint, a shimmery slab of audio
excellence. There’s a lot more going on with the U11,
however. It’s also the first U.S. phone with always-on
Alexa support, and it’s potentially Sprint’s fastest LTE
phone yet. But if you’re going to pick one reason to buy
it right now, it’s the sound. Otherwise, the Galaxy S8
remains a slightly more well-rounded device and our
Editors’ Choice.
HTC U11
$696.00
L L L l m

MODELS AND DESIGN
HTC offers two U11 models: one for Sprint and an
unlocked model (available for $649 from HTC.com)
that will work on the three other major U.S. carriers.
We reviewed the Sprint unit. Many of the other reviews
you see out there will be for the unlocked unit, which
has slightly different firmware.
The first thing you notice about the phone is the design.
The U11 is gorgeous. It comes in black or silver, but the
color you really want is the deep, automotive-paint
blue. There’s a big price to pay for the baked-in,
unscratchable color, though: The phone is a fingerprint
magnet, and it’ll be perpetually greasy unless you go for
a (clear, please) case.
I’ve been very spoiled by narrow phones such as the
Samsung Galaxy S8, the LG G6, and the BlackBerry
KeyOne recently. At 6.07 by 2.99 by 0.31 inches and
5.96 ounces, the U11 is a standard size for a 16:9, 5.5-
inch phone, but it still feels too wide in my hand. The
sleek back turns slippery quickly, and especially when
you’re trying to squeeze the edges of the phone, it feels
like you can drop it.
HTC U11
PROS Excellent audio
quality. Useful
squeeze sensor.
Gigabit LTE. Fast
processor. Alexa
compatible.
CONS Camera
doesn’t measure up
to its marketing. No
headphone jack. Back
panel attracts
fingerprints.
SHIMMERY AND
GORGEOUS
The U11 comes in black
or silver, but the color
you really want is the
deep, automotivepaint
blue.

The 2,560-by-1,440 Super LCD 5 is visible outdoors and
in and looks razor sharp. Below it is a fingerprint sensor/
home button flanked by two fixed, capacitive keys. On
the sides of the phone, invisible, is the innovative
“squeeze” section, a pressure sensor that can launch the
camera, flashlight, or any other app.
The phone is IP67 water-resistant, which means it can be
dunked in up to three feet of water for 30 minutes.
HTC’s previous generations of phones weren’t waterresistant,
but competing flagships from other
manufacturers tend to be now.
You’ll find a
dramatic
improvement in
Sprint coverage
in weak signal
situations when
you compare the
U11 with older
phones.
NETWORKING AND BATTERY
The U11 is billed as Sprint’s first gigabit LTE phone. It’s
the first phone with 4x4 MIMO on Sprint’s Band 41,
completing the trio of technologies that should allow it to
get the fastest possible speeds on Sprint’s network. We
tested it against a Samsung Galaxy S8 using our field test
software, though, and didn’t see the difference, at least
not yet. Comparing three locations with good Sprint
signal in Manhattan, we got an average of 29.2Mbps
down on the S8 as compared with 23.6Mbps on the U11.
That said, you’ll find a dramatic improvement in Sprint
coverage in weak signal situations when you compare the
U11 with older phones. The U11, like the Galaxy S8 and
LG G6, has HPUE (high performance user equipment),
which we’ve seen improve Sprint signal in several
different tests.
Performance on other U.S. carriers with the unlocked
model should be very good but will probably fall short of
the Galaxy S7 and S8, as the U11 lacks the 4x4 MIMO
antennas for other carriers’ bands. It has all of the bands
T-Mobile and Verizon use, but it lacks AT&T’s
supplementary bands 29 and 30, which help in hightraffic
areas.

Battery life on the 3,000mAh cell was good, at seven hours and one minute of
LTE video streaming with the screen on full brightness. The phone supports
Qualcomm’s Quick Charge technology but not wireless charging.
ANDROID AND PERFORMANCE
The U11 runs Android 7.1 with HTC’s relatively aggressive skin. The skin doesn’t
hold back performance: With the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor
platform on board, we got absolutely terrific benchmark scores and all-around
smooth performance. The phone has 64GB of storage, 11.54GB of which is taken
up by system files, plus room for a microSD card in the nano SIM card slot.
The most exciting new feature, of course, is the squeeze sensor, which HTC calls
Edge Sense. A sensor area about two-thirds of the way down the sides of the
phone can be calibrated to your liking when you set the phone up. Then when
you squeeze it, it’ll launch the camera or the flashlight. The sensor is completely
customizable—you can actually use it to launch any app, and HTC says it will
release an app that lets the Edge Sense hook into other apps on your phone, as a
click action within the apps.
Yes, it’s a gimmick. It’s not going to change your life. But it’s a useful gimmick,
much like Motorola’s twist-to-camera feature. I
ended up using it less than I thought I would,
though, because I found the U11 to be a little
uncomfortably wide to securely grip and
squeeze in my hand. Folks with larger hands
will likely get more use out of it.
HTC’s most imposing change is to put
NewsRepublic news headlines on
your lock screen. Turn it off, and
you’ll still get aggressive
NewsRepublic alerts in your
notifications. Fortunately, you can
disable NewsRepublic entirely.
You’ll still see news headlines in
Blinkfeed, the Flipboard-like page
found to the left of the main home
screen.

There’s also the mystery that is HTC’s Sense
Companion. It’s supposed to suggest local attractions to
you, and things like when to recharge your phone, but I
didn’t get any suggestions from it during my test period.
It may simply need more time to work.
Other bloatware on the phone: UA Record, a fitness app
that’s part of HTC’s deal with UnderArmour; Viveport,
HTC and Valve’s VR app store; Boost, a memory
optimization app; and HTC’s Zoe video editor. In
general, though, HTC managed to hold off from adding
too many redundant apps. The browser is Chrome, the
photo app is Google Photos, and the music app is
Google Play Music.
The most
exciting new
feature, of
course, is the
squeeze
sensor,
which HTC
calls Edge
Sense.
HEY, ALEXA!
One of the U11’s most interesting features cannot be
tested right now: It’s the first “dual wake word” phone.
That means you can say “OK Google” to get the Google
Assistant or “Alexa” to wake up Amazon’s voice
assistant. You can even switch back and forth, query by
query, depending on which one tends to give the best
responses.
This isn’t a mandatory feature. Alexa will be a
downloadable add-on you’ll be able to get later this
summer. And HTC has some potential kinks to work
out: You’ll probably have to set all of your Amazon Echo
devices to a different wake word, or the phone and your
Echos will fight over your query.
But with the growing popularity of Alexa, it’s worth
keeping an eye out for this feature. No other carriersold
phone in the U.S. lets you holler “Alexa!” to wake
up Amazon’s assistant. And for what it’s worth, “OK
Google” works fine, just as it does on other leading
Android phones.

A SOUND CHOICE
The HTC U11 for
Sprint is the best
music phone around,
and its unusual
squeeze sensor is a
fun new way to
interact with a
mobile device. It
features Gigabit LTE
and a fast processor,
and it’s Alexacompatible.
A MARVELOUS MUSIC PHONE
The U11 is the best music phone we’ve tested. Start with the speakers. In
speakerphone or music playback mode, HTC uses a speaker on top as a
“tweeter,” while the main speaker, on the bottom, is a more powerful “woofer.”
The top speaker basically offers a little bit of high-end enhancement, but the
overall effect is more than the sum of its parts—a noticeably richer sound than
on most other phones.
The included earbuds are a treat. HTC includes special Usonic USB-C
earphones that work only with this phone. They use a sonar-like technology to
map your hearing and equalize the phone’s sound to compensate. It’s an
especially effective technology for older ears like mine: With Usonic, I got to
hear a lot more high-end than I usually do, because that part of my hearing is
shot. The earbuds also do a little bit of active noise cancellation when they’re
playing music, but it isn’t active when music isn’t playing.
The U11 has no headphone jack, but HTC supplies a special dongle with a DAC
(digital to analog converter) inside. Paired with super-high-end headphones, I
could hear the difference when compared with the otherwise excellent Galaxy
S8: The U11 has more detailed highs, better texture and shape to sound, and
longer decay. This is the first convincing argument I’ve heard for using a dongle.
One exception to the U11’s audio excellence is that if you rely on wireless
headphones, the phone doesn’t stand apart. It’s even a step behind the Galaxy
S8. With Bluetooth 4.2 rather than Bluetooth 5.0, it can’t do the new trick of
playing to two sets of headphones at once, and the sound quality of Bluetooth
audio is dependent on the encoding scheme, not the phone’s own amp.

PHOTOS AND VIDEOS
The U11 has a 16-megapixel front-facing camera and a
12-megapixel rear camera. The phone records “3D
audio” surround stereo using its four microphones.
Still-camera quality wasn’t quite up to the fearsome
standards of the Galaxy S8 in testing. This is an area in
which my results differ from other early reviews, and
the difference may be that my phone is using Sprint
firmware while other reviewers are using international
units. HTC told me that the international models have a
newer version of the camera software than the Sprint
units do.
That said, the U11 took slightly washed-out photos in
which the blacks weren’t as deep and true as on the S8.
In low light, the U11 managed to eke images out of even
very dark surroundings, but at the cost of some blur and
precision.
The front-facing camera gave me a lot of pixels, but in
dimly lit scenarios, the images were aggressively filtered
and sharpened. HTC says camera upgrades will come.
PHOTO PROOF
People may be a little
skeptical considering
HTC’s heavy photo
focus in its marketing,
but the proof is in the
images above. The
left one was taken
with the U11, the right
one with the S8.

Video recording tested better than still photos. Videos
in both 1080p and 4K were smooth and clear, and
stabilization is available on the 1080p clips.
CONCLUSIONS
HTC has spun out a confusing and unconvincing set of
phones so far this year. Seeing the U11, which is clearly
HTC’s flagship, I wonder why the HTC U Ultra and
HTC U Play came out at all—although they didn’t fully
come out in the U.S., as neither phone got official
carrier support.
We’ll take
another look
in the months
ahead to see
whether this
promising
phone
evolves into a
winner.
Also, the HTC U11 has a lot of unrealized promise—
features we couldn’t quite test. Alexa integration, for
instance, sounds great but isn’t here yet. Sense
Companion doesn’t seem to do much. Gigabit LTE
could pull the U11 ahead on network speeds later this
year. And HTC is promising camera software upgrades
to fix the image issues we saw during testing.
The U11 is the best competition for the Galaxy S8 on
Sprint. We’re going to keep our Editors’ Choice with the
S8 for its superior camera and network performance in
our tests; even though the U11’s spec sheet says
differently, we have to go by our results. But while the
U11 doesn’t outpace the S8, I’d suggest it to audiophiles
for whom music and speakerphone are primary uses.
We’ll take another look in the months ahead to see
whether this promising phone evolves into a winner.
SASCHA SEGAN
PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION I SUBSCRIBE I JULY 2017

REVIEWS
CONSUMER ELECTRONICS
Six Top Smart Light Bulbs
Light bulbs have grown exponentially smarter in recent years. You can
now replace your standard incandescent bulb with a variety of
connected solutions you can control with just a few taps on your
smartphone or tablet. But with so many options flooding the smart-home
market, which one is right for you? We’ve rounded up our highest-rated smart
bulbs, along with some points to consider while shopping.
PRICE
Smart bulbs use light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and a variety of technologies to
work, so they are more expensive than traditional bulbs. That’s important to
keep in mind, especially if you want to upgrade your entire house. But smart
bulbs also use less energy and last a lot longer, meaning you can save money in
the long run. And as you can see, most of the options on this list fall well below
$100, so the price of entry isn’t as steep as it used to be even a year ago.

COLOR AND LUMINANCE
Some of the bulbs on this list are just white, while
others have the ability to take on any color of the
rainbow. Color is a fun way to add atmosphere to your
home but often results in a pricier bulb.
Most of the smart bulbs we review are marketed as
equivalent to 60-watt incandescent models, which
sounds self-explanatory—but some bulbs are brighter
than others. To see just how bright a light is, you need
to look at the lumens it puts out: the more lumens, the
brighter the light. Even then, the light can disperse in a
narrow beam or distribute brightness in a wide swath,
so make sure to read the reviews to find out how each
bulb works.
Since you’ll
mostly be
controlling
these lights
from your
phone or tablet,
you want to
make sure that
it’s easy to do.
Another factor to keep in mind is color temperature.
Higher temperatures, like 8,500K, look like harsh office
lighting, which is fine for staying awake or working.
Lower temperatures, like 2,500K, translate to a cozy,
warm glow that’s perfect for relaxing.
CONTROL
Since you’ll mostly be controlling these lights from your
phone or tablet, you want to make sure that it’s easy to
do. If you have multiple bulbs, for instance, you’ll want
a companion app that lets you easily arrange them in
groups and adjust the brightness or color of an entire
group at one time. Do you have an Amazon Echo at
home? Look for a bulb that works with Alexa so you can
control it with your voice.
Of course, any bulb plugged into a socket can always be
turned on or off by just flipping the switch. We pay
close attention to how each app works and provide a
detailed overview in each review.

FEATURES
Smart bulbs offer a degree of control and interactivity you just can’t get with
traditional bulbs, including scheduled timers and remote control options.
They’re also more convenient; it’s easier to tap on a smartphone screen than to
get up and trudge over to a wall switch.
Most of the bulbs we’ve reviewed can be scheduled or controlled remotely,
which is great if you want to save on energy costs or you often forget to turn off
the lights before leaving the house. Some bulbs use geofencing, which means
they work with the GPS in your smartphone to pinpoint your exact location and
can automatically turn the lights on or off when you reach a certain point.
Color-changing bulbs are great for mood lighting, and some can even sync up
with certain movies and TV shows.
As we mentioned, some bulbs hook up with Amazon’s Alexa, Apple HomeKit, or
Google Assistant, so you can control your home lighting with your voice. You
can also integrate some of the bulbs on this list with security cameras,
thermostats, and other smart home devices. If This Then That (IFTTT)
compatibility lets you create recipes that automatically cause your lights to react
to certain triggers, like phone notifications or changes in weather.
We don’t currently recommend bulbs that do double duty as speakers, as we
haven’t found any particularly good ones in testing.
DO YOU NEED A HUB?
One more important factor to keep in mind is that many smart bulbs need to
connect to your smartphone through a home automation hub such as the Wink
2. Other bulbs cut out the middleman and connect to your phone or tablet
directly via Wi-Fi, including the LIFX models. Others connect with Bluetooth,
but in that case, you’re limited to control only within Bluetooth range, which
means you can’t change the lights when you’re away from home. A hub also
means spending more money and adding another step to the installation
process. But based on the bulbs we’ve seen so far, the best ones use hubs.
With all that in mind, we’ve gathered the best smart bulbs we’ve tested in this
roundup. Depending on your needs, any of these options is a good place to get
started in connecting your home lighting to more than just a wall switch.

Philips Hue White Review
$14.95
EDITORS’ CHOICE
L l l l m
For anyone looking to get into smart lighting (not to mention existing
Hue users), the Hue White is an excellent option. It’s affordable
enough that you can add multiple bulbs around your home without
taking out a second mortgage, and the Hue ecosystem simply has
more features, support, and versatility than any other smart bulb line
out there.
Philips Hue White and Color
Ambiance A19 Starter Kit Review
$199.99
EDITORS’ CHOICE
L l l l m
$200 for the White and Color Ambiance A19
Starter Kit and $50 per additional bulb is quite
expensive for the average consumer. If price isn’t an issue, however, the Hue White and Color
Ambiance are the smart bulbs we recommend. They’re easy to install, customize, and control
remotely, and they integrate with many other devices and services you probably already use.
Despite the intimidating start-up cost, they are shining examples of what smart bulbs should
be and our Editors’ Choice.
C by GE Starter Pack Review
$50.00
L l l l m
As the name suggests, the C by GE Smart Bulb
Starter Park is an excellent way for smart lighting
newbies to jump right in. There are some caveats,
such as the lack of Android support and advanced
scheduling options, as well as the inability to
integrate the bulbs with other smart home
ecosystems. But if this is your first smart bulb set, there’s
no better option besides the TikTeck Smart LED, which costs $9.99. GE has a better app and
brighter light, but the TikTek bulb changes colors and works with Android out of the box.

Cree Connected LED Bulb Review
$14.97
L l l l m
If you’re looking to make the jump to connected lighting,
but you don’t want to spend well over a thousand
dollars to outfit your entire home, you can’t go wrong
with the Cree Connected LED. It’s simple to set up and
control and casts a very pleasant white light.
GE Link Connected LED Review
$14.97
L l l l m
All told, the GE Link is pretty much interchangeable with the Cree
Connected Bulb, The GE Link has a nicer design, but when powered
on, we prefer the way the Cree bulb diffuses light. For the (same weirdly
specific) price, you really can’t go wrong with either one.
LIFX Color 1000 Review
$59.99
L l l l m
The LIFX Color 1000 bulb is brighter than the Philips Hue and just as
easy to control. And aside from HomeKit support, it nearly matches
the Hue ecosystem in terms of big-name third-party integration. But
$60 is a lot to pay for a single bulb, especially when you’re planning to
put a bunch of them around your house. But if you’re looking to give Wi-Ficonnected
lighting a try without investing in a hub, the LIFX Color 1000 is a
solid option.
ALEX COLON, TIMOTHY TORRES
PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION I SUBSCRIBE I JULY 2017

REVIEWS
HARDWARE
Samsung Galaxy Book:
Gorgeous Screen, but Pricy
The Samsung Galaxy Book is a 2-in-1
detachable-hybrid tablet running Windows 10.
It’s Samsung’s answer to the Microsoft Surface
Pro 4, our current top pick. Because of their included
hardware keyboards, 2-in-1 laptops are better bets for
productivity than slate tablets. (Ever tried editing a
long Word document on an iPad?) The Galaxy Book
packs a brilliant Super AMOLED screen, LTE
connectivity, and an impressive 14 hours of battery life,
which help it stand out in a crowded field. The
downside: You get only 4GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD,
and at this price, you should get at least double that.
Samsung
Galaxy Book
(12-inch, LED)
$1,127.99
L L L m m

THE SCREEN IS THE STAR
The Galaxy Book’s 12-inch touch-enabled 2,160-by-
1,440-resolution Super AMOLED display very well may
be the main reason to buy this tablet. Images are crystal
clear, and colors pop. The screen is accurate and a good
match when you use programs such as Adobe
Lightroom CC for organizing and proofing photos. The
display on the Galaxy Book looks brighter, has better
black levels, and shows more details than the In-Plane
Switching (IPS) displays on the Huawei MateBook and
Surface Pro 4.
Samsung
Galaxy Book
(12-inch, LED)
PROS 14 hours of
battery life. Very thin
and light. 2,160-by-
1,440 Super AMOLED
screen is sharp and
brilliant. 4G LTE
connectivity.
Keyboard cover and S
Pen are bundled.
CONS 4GB of RAM
and 128GB SSD. Lacks
a kickstand. USB Type
A adapter is not
included. Pen storage
is flimsy. No Windows
Hello or fingerprint
security support.
STANDOUT
FEATURES
The Galaxy Book has a
brilliant Super
AMOLED screen, 14
hours of battery life,
and LTE connectivity.
Bundled with the Galaxy Book is Samsung’s excellent S
Pen stylus. The size and shape of a regular ink pen, it
has 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity, and it doesn’t
need an AAAA battery like the Surface Pen or to be
periodically charged like the Apple Pencil. The stylus
supports Windows Ink and full-brush tilting in
programs such as Adobe Photoshop, which makes it a
useful tool for digital artists.

The pen is responsive in use, but because it is passive, it
functions a little differently than active styli, including
the Surface Pen and the Active Pen for the Lenovo Miix
510. A button on the side of the S Pen controls erase
functions, but it has no right-click or shortcut options,
both of which would require powered Bluetooth. The side
button also invokes Air Command, Samsung’s overlay
that acts as an alternative to Windows Ink. Air Command
lets you use the pen to mark up the screen and create
sticky notes.
The S Pen comes with a plastic loop that sticks to the
keyboard cover for storage. It seems secure, though I’m
not sure how long the adhesive will last before the pen
loop falls off. I prefer the way the Surface Pen sticks to
the side of the Surface Pro 4 or the Surface Book with
magnets, or the combination of magnets and a tether line
used by the Dell Latitude 5285 2-in-1.
The tablet’s 5-megapixel webcam is fine for selfies and
Skype calls, and the 13MP rear-facing camera is adequate
for snapshots, although it could use a flash for low-light
shots. Stereo speakers vent out of the left and right sides
of the tablet and can fill a small- to medium-size room
with sound. You’ll hear more treble than bass, but that’s
not uncommon for tablets and ultraportable laptops.
KEYBOARD INCLUDED
Detachable hybrid tablets like the Galaxy Book give you
the option of using a lighter slate-like tablet when you
want to sketch a quick drawing or read an ebook, but they
also let you clip on a keyboard when you need to type
more than 140 characters. Unlike the Apple iPad Pro and
the Surface Pro, the Galaxy Book is bundled with a
keyboard case. The keyboard is a must for working in a
desktop operating system such as Windows 10.
S PEN
It’s the shape of a
regular ink pen and
doesn’t need an
AAAA battery or to be
charged, as
competitors do.

The keyboard has a magnetic stand that clips on to the back of the tablet and
gives you four usable angles, from near flat to standing straight up. It works well
but is ultimately less convenient than the continuously variable angle available
from kickstands on the Dell Latitude 5285 2-in-1, the HP Spectre x2, the Lenovo
Miix 510, or the Surface Pro. The omission keeps the tablet slim at 7.87 by 11.47
by 0.29 inches (HWD), and light (1.66 pounds; 2.57 pounds with the case). But
this also means you’ll need to carry the case with you, since the tablet can’t
stand up on its own.
The backlit keyboard built into the case is comfortable to use, with a full
keystroke, but it flexes when you press hard on the keys around its midsection.
(That’s pretty common among keyboard covers, with the exception of the metalbound
keyboard case on the HP Spectre x2.) The one-piece touchpad is smooth
and reacts quickly to inputs. It doesn’t have a two-stage latch, so you can’t tilt
the keyboard as you can on the Surface Pro and most competitors.
SPARSE (BUT SMART) CONNECTIVITY
The Galaxy Book has two USB-C ports on its right side, double the number
found on the Samsung Galaxy TabPro S and the Huawei MateBook. That’s
important, because it means there’s a free port when you’re charging the tablet
with the included USB-C cable and quick charger. The only other I/O port is a
headset jack, also on the right side. Notably, the Galaxy Book doesn’t come with
a USB-C-to-Type-A adapter, which is included with the HP Spectre x2.
Even though you can buy one for less than $10 on Amazon, the omission is
disappointing, considering that the system costs $1,300. You’ll need this
adapter to connect older hard drives, flash drives, and other peripherals.
QUITE ADAPTABLE
Detachable-hybrid
tablets like the
Galaxy Book let you
clip on a keyboard
when you need to
type more than 140
characters.

Wireless is handled by 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.1,
and there’s also a 4G LTE radio in this Verizonexclusive
model for always-available connectivity. You’ll
need to sign up for an LTE data plan, but that’s easily
done online or in person at a Verizon store. You can
easily switch between Wi-Fi and 4G LTE networks
when you’re in range of a hotspot. LTE is an option in
tablets including the HP Spectre x2 and the upcoming
2017 version of the Microsoft Surface Pro but not in the
Surface Pro 4.
The keyboard
has a
magnetic
stand that
clips on to the
tablet’s back
side and gives
you four
usable angles.
SHORT ON STORAGE, MEMORY, SECURITY
The $1,129.99 base model and the LTE-equipped
version of the Galaxy Book come with 4GB of RAM and
a 128GB SSD. While that’s usable, a Windows 10 tablet
should really come with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD,
especially at this price. You can purchase a version of
the tablet with those specs for $1,329.99, but you won’t
get an LTE radio. The Surface Pro 4 comes with 8GB of
RAM and a 256GB SSD for $1,299, though you’ll have
to purchase its $129 Type Cover separately. The main
concern is that you can’t upgrade the memory postpurchase,
so you’re stuck with what you get when you
open the box. On the bright side, the Galaxy Book, the
HP Spectre x2, and the Surface Pro 4 all give you the
option of adding up to 256GB of storage with a microSD
card (in the case of the Galaxy Book, the card slot on the
left side).

Security features are lacking compared with similar models. Many high-end
tablets come with Windows Hello (including the Dell Latitude 5285), which
uses an IR Camera to log you in without a password, or a fingerprint reader (the
Huawei MateBook), or both (the Microsoft Surface Pro 4). The Galaxy Book
supports neither of these biometric-based security features. Instead, it comes
with Samsung Flow, which lets you log into your tablet using the fingerprint
reader on your Samsung Galaxy phone. The catch is it won’t work if you use
another brand of Android phone or an Apple iPhone. Samsung covers the
Galaxy Book with a one-year warranty.
DECENT PERFORMANCE, FORMIDABLE BATTERY LIFE
Under the hood is an Intel Core i5-7200U processor with integrated Intel HD
620 graphics, which helped the Galaxy Book eke out a win over the Surface Pro
4 on the PCMark 8 Work Conventional (2,906 points), Handbrake (2:16), and
CineBench (318 points) tests. The Dell Latitude 5285 was the overall winner on
these three tests, thanks to its faster Core i7 processor. The Surface Pro 4 aced
Photoshop test with the Galaxy Book coming in a distant third (4:07). The
Galaxy Book, the Latitude 5285, and the Surface Pro 4 were faster across the
multimedia tests than the HP Spectre x2 and Huawei MateBook, both of which
use low-powered Core m processors. None of these tablets produced playable
scores on our 3D gaming tests, though the Latitude 5285 came the closest.
JUST OK FOR
WORK
You’ll be able to get
your work done, but
it will feel slower,
and storage will fill
quicker than it
would with some
competitors.

At 14 hours, 6 minutes, the Galaxy Book excelled on our
battery rundown test, outlasting the Latitude 5285
(11:09), the Surface Pro 4 (10:19), the Spectre x2 (9:38),
and the Huawei Matebook (6:19). With a fully charged
battery, you can watch locally stored movies on the
Galaxy Book for an entire trans-Pacific flight from San
Francisco to the Philippines. Using the Wi-Fi or the 4G
LTE connections will sap the battery faster, but it’s fair
to say that the Galaxy Book will make a good travel
companion if you’re going to be away from a power plug
for an extended period of time.
STELLAR SCREEN, BUT WITH SHORTCOMINGS
The Samsung Galaxy Book has a top-notch screen and
category-leading battery life, but several shortcomings
hold it back. There is no excuse these days for 4GB of
RAM and a 128GB SSD when you’re paying more than
$1,000 for a Windows PC. You’ll be able to get your
work done, but it will feel slower, and storage will fill
quicker than it would with competitors such as the
Microsoft Surface Pro 4 and its upcoming successor, the
Microsoft Surface Pro. The Surface Pro 4 remains our
top pick for high-end tablets, the Dell Latitude 5285
2-in-1 is your bet for business, and the Lenovo Miix 510
will save you some money.
With a fully
charged
battery, you can
watch locally
stored movies
on the Galaxy
Book for an
entire trans-
Pacific flight.
JOEL SANTO DOMINGO
PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION I SUBSCRIBE I JULY 2017

REVIEWS
HARDWARE
Origin Neuron: A Stellar
Gaming Machine
EDITORS’
CHOICE
Consumer gaming and 3D performance are
being pushed to absurd new heights on the
back of Nvidia’s Pascal graphics architecture
and Intel’s latest generation of processors.
Both of these platforms are on full display in
the Origin Neuron, with dual GTX 1080 Ti graphics
cards and an overclocked Core i7-7700K processor.
These components help the Neuron blow past
competitors in our gaming tests; it’s also speedy with
productivity pursuits and comes with a huge amount of
storage to boot. This configuration is expensive, but for
what you get and relative to the Editors’ Choice Digital
Storm Velox, the pricing is fair. Given its superior
performance and overall execution, the Origin Neuron
is our new top pick for high-end gaming desktops.
Origin Neuron
$964; $3,900 as
tested
L L L l h

FORM, FUNCTION, AND MORE
Built into Phanteks’ Enthoo Evolv mATX case, the
Neuron is relatively unassuming when you look at it
head on. But there’s a lot to like inside, once you start
poking around. Its black aluminum frame stands 17.8
by 9 by 15.7 inches (HWD) with tempered glass panels
on both flanks. The left side is nearly a full window,
while the right is backed with aluminum and has a
small cutout window for the SSDs. The case isn’t a
small-form-factor design, but it’s on the smaller side for
traditional towers. For size comparison, the Velox
stands 22.2 inches tall, 9.25 inches wide, and 19.5
inches deep, taking up much more space.
Origin Neuron
PROS Extraordinary
gaming proficiency.
Plenty of storage plus
speedy M.2 SSDs.
Stylish, relatively
compact tower. Easy
access for
maintenance and
upgrades.
Customizable case
and RAM lighting.
CONS Pricey as
configured.
TAKE A LOOK
INSIDE
The Neuron’s black
aluminum frame
stands 17.8 by 9 by 15.7
inches (HWD) and has
tempered glass
panels on both flanks.
The panels on either side are actually doors on rear
hinges, held closed magnetically toward the front. They
both swing open easily, making for one of the most
accessible cases I’ve seen in a while. This lets you in to
either side of the tower, which is good for swapping out
components and cable and storage management
beneath the motherboard. Having such easy access to
the space with no screws or removable doors makes it a
breeze to pop open and work in the case despite the
size, and everything is organized neatly within. This
includes neatly cut and routed cables, which are clipped
together and funneled behind the motherboard.

The CPU cooler stands vertically along the front panel
and vents out the front, with a rear case fan in the back
and slits along the top panel for more ventilation. The
top panel lifts away if you remove one rear hand screw,
though there’s not much reason to take it off. The
bottom of the case is raised about 2 inches by front and
back feet, so most of the bottom is above surface level.
This allows the bottom vent more room to breathe, and
a removable filter over it keeps out dust and debris. The
front panel pops off, revealing case fans behind another
removable dust filter.
Since the case on our review unit is all black, the only
color comes from an array of LED lights. The
customization is handled through the included Asus
Aura software, for which there’s a slight learning curve.
It’s not immediately clear where each setting is (and the
arrow to switch between each lighting element is
particularly small), but once you spend some time
poking around, you should get the gist of it. The color
and effects of an interior LED light strip, the RAM, the
LED ring around the power button, and a slim strip on
the front panel can all be changed.
Given its
superior
performance
and overall
execution, the
Origin Neuron is
our new top
pick for highend
gaming
OOH, SHINY!
The left side of the
Origin Neuron is
nearly a full window,
allowing you to look in
at the components
and show off the
lighting.

The RAM in our unit is G.Skill TridentZ RGB, which is illuminated in
customizable segments. You can change the colors of five discrete sections of
each stick, which can lead to some cool designs and color combinations or make
lighting “flow” down each stick in conjunction with the case lighting, which is a
really cool effect. All of the lighting can also fade in and out slowly, or you can
have the LED strip and RAM alternately strobe on and off.
The case is not only well designed for maintenance but is also packed with the
high-end components you’d hope for at this configuration’s price. Everything is
powered by an 850W EVGA SuperNOVA G3 power supply, which can run the
demanding dual graphics card setup (two Nvidia GTX 1080 Tis in SLI), and the
wattage leaves you some headroom. A lightning-fast Intel Core i7-7700K
processor, overclocked to 5.0GHz out of the box, serves as the heart of the
system. To supplement that are 32GB of the 3,000MHz G.Skill memory in our
model, and since it’s set up as four 8GB sticks, the system has no free DIMM
slots.
Storage comes in the form of two 250GB Samsung 960 EVO NVMe M.2 SSDs in
a RAID 0 array, along with two 2TB Seagate Firecuda hybrid drives—a one-two
punch that delivers a massive amount of storage and a super-fast boot drive. It
adds to the price for sure, but if you do a lot of media work, you’ll appreciate the
added speed, and there’s more than enough room for many projects and games.
As configured, two 2.5-inch and two 3.5-inch storage bays are still free.
CONNECT UP
The rear panel has a
USB-C port, a USB-A
port, four USB 3.0
ports, two USB 2.0
ports, and the seven
DisplayPort
connections and 3
HDMI ports from the
graphics cards.

The Neuron won’t leave you wanting for connectivity
options. At first glance, it doesn’t seem as though the
case has any front-facing ports, but a small panel at the
top retracts to reveal two USB 3.0 ports as well as a
headphone jack and a mic jack. The top panel has no
ports, just the LED-ringed power button. The rear panel
holds the vast majority of connections: a USB-C port, a
USB-A port, four more USB 3.0 ports, and two USB 2.0
ports. Via the graphics cards, you get a total of seven
DisplayPort connections and three HDMI ports. The
system also has built-in Bluetooth and dual-band
802.11ac wireless. Origin includes lifetime 24/7 support
and free lifetime labor, alongside a one-year partreplacement
warranty.
Gaming
and 3D
performance
are where the
Origin Neuron
really
separates
itself from
the pack.
INSANE POWER FOR GAMING AND
PRODUCTIVITY
With such premium parts, it’s no surprise that the
Neuron is a performance dynamo. When you’re paying
for a dual 1080 Ti desktop, you should expect no less
than top-end speed, which it delivers across all tests. In
terms of general productivity, the Neuron was one of
the fastest computers we’ve tested. Its PCMark 8 Work
Conventional score beat all comers, including the
Digital Storm Velox, the 2016 Falcon Northwest Talon,
and the Maingear Rush X99 Super Stock. In the
multimedia test results (timed Photoshop and
Handbrake tests, plus the CineBench score), the
Neuron didn’t lead the pack in such dominant fashion,
but it was right up there with the best of the category.

Gaming and 3D performance are where the Origin Neuron really separates itself
from the pack. The competitors are all fast desktops, many of which are
equipped with GTX 1080s in SLI, but the 1080 Ti upgrade pushes the Neuron to
the front. It scored a category-best 21,481 points on 3D Mark’s Fire Strike
Extreme test. Its Cloud Gate score is on the top end, as well. I should note that
in real-world use, the Falcon Northwest Talon’s dual Pascal Titan X cards
should provide more power, which doesn’t fully translate on the synthetic tests,
but the Talon configuration we tested rings north of $9,500.
The Heaven and Valley gaming tests tell the same story of the Neuron’s
capabilities. Set to Ultra quality and 1080p resolution, the Neuron averaged 278
frames per second (fps) on Heaven and 175fps on Valley. When it’s cranked up
to 4K, the desktop averaged 95fps and 113fps on these same tests, proving it’s
more than capable of smooth 4K gaming. I further confirmed this by playing
Doom in 4K at maximum settings; the in-game frame counter hovered around
100fps or higher for most of the time I was playing. I also played The Witcher 3:
Wild Hunt in 4K with all the settings and effects on Ultra, and I had a similar
smooth experience.
A CLEAR LEADER IN DESKTOP GAMING
Sure, the Neuron is more expensive than single-GPU desktops such as the
Gamer Master Ultra, but you get what you pay for. It’s still thousands of dollars
less than other high-end systems, including the Falcon Northwest Talon and
Maingear Rush X99 Super Stock (though those PCs do come with their own
top-end advantages), and the stylish but functional case provides a great home
for the premium hardware.
If you can afford the high-end components, it’s tough to beat the power, design,
and organization offered by the Origin Neuron. For its design, pricing, and
impressive gaming capability, the Origin Neuron is our new Editors’ Choice for
high-end gaming desktops.
MATTHEW BUZZI
PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION I SUBSCRIBE I JULY 2017

REVIEWS
CONSUMER ELECTRONICS
Five Top Photo Printing Services
Sure, you can always hold your phone up to someone’s face to show
them snapshots of your baby niece. But you can’t really mount your
phone on a wall or stash it in your wallet for anytime viewing of a
favorite shot. Even though it seems like we’ve moved past printed matter,
printing your most prized photos still has value, and there are plenty of
services that can do it for you.
Here’s what you should consider when you need to create physical mementos
from your digital memories.

FIRST AND FOREMOST: PRICING
It turns out that you can get hardcopy keepsakes of your visual memories
without breaking the bank. Some services we tested, including Snapfish and
York Photo Labs, produce 4-by-6-inch prints for just 9 cents apiece, and those
two services have offers that get you the first 100 and 20 prints free,
respectively, not including tax and shipping. Surprisingly, Walgreens Photo is
the most expensive service when it comes to 4-by-6 prints, charging 29 cents
each. But you pay for the convenience of local pickup, and after 50 prints, that
price drops to 20 cents per 4-by-6. The next-priciest 4-by-6 photos among the
services we tested were from Nations Photo Labs, at 27 cents each, but the
company provided the best image quality and paper. In the middle is
Shutterfly’s 15-cent 4-by-6 prints.
Even when you want enlargements at popular sizes such as 5-by-7 and 8-by-10,
you don’t have to spend a lot. Snapfish offers 5-by-7 prints for just 69 cents
each, and Nations Photo Labs produces excellent-quality 8-by-10 photos for a
mere $1.90 each. That’s the best price we found for 8-by-10 prints; most
competitors charge a still-reasonable $2.99 to $3.99. For wall-art size prints, of
course, you’ll pay more, but it’s still not exorbitant: All of the services sell 16-by-
20 prints for under $20, and most charge closer to $15.
PLASTER YOUR PICTURES ANYWHERE
Why stop at ordinary photo prints when you can have your pictures grace mugs,
playing cards, and even pillows? The services reviewed here offer a remarkable
assortment of objects that you can personalize. All offer greeting cards,
calendars, and photo books. Most offer phone cases, blankets, and drinkware.
Shutterfly offers the largest selection of photo gifts, including flower pots,
blankets, phone cases, pillows, shower curtains, and even pet-food bowls. But
York Photo Labs is the only service we found that can sell you a necktie featuring
your picture.
EDITING, ORDERING, AND SHARING
When you’re ordering photos online, it helps if the service has a friendly,
navigable website. For example, most services, including Snapfish, let you
simply check off all the sizes you want on a single-page grid. Others make you
select a size for printing before choosing the images you want; you then must
start over again if you want prints in other sizes.

The services offer good photo-editing tools, letting you brighten or darken an
underexposed or overexposed shot, for example. Many services automatically
apply color correction. Nations Photo Labs offers high-level photo editing for a
price premium, but we didn’t see a big difference in our test prints between
premium color-corrections and standard prints.
Online sharing is offered by some services, and Shutterfly is particularly strong
in this capability, even letting you create online mini-websites for your photos.
Snapfish and Walgreens Photo let you share online galleries that can be viewed
as full-window slideshows. York Photos shared galleries are little more than
batches of thumbnails, and Nations Photo Lab doesn’t get involved in online
gallery sharing.
MOBILE APPS
The most popular camera these days is one that’s always with you: your phone.
And smartphones have come a long way in terms of image quality; some
capture images with more than 20 megapixels of resolution. With most photos
now being taken by phones, it only makes sense for a photo printing service to
offer a mobile app to get the images straight from your phone to the print
service. York offers a very basic app that lets you only upload and order prints.
Shutterfly adds the ability to order photo gifts, and Snapfish and Walgreens
Photo’s apps can import photos from social networks, perform some editing,
and share photos with friends. Nations is the only service in this group with no
mobile app.
DELIVERY
When you want your pictures pronto,
Walgreens Photo is the way to go. (Look
for upcoming reviews of Walmart
Photo and CVS Photo, which
also let you pick up prints
locally.) In our testing,
Walgreens Photo didn’t provide
the best enlargements in terms of
image quality, but its smaller
prints were perfectly acceptable.

When you can wait a few days or you want special
options not available with local pickup, such as matte
finish, mail order is provided by all the services tested.
None of them took an inordinate amount of time, and
shipping costs for our order of 22 photos of various
sizes ranged from $2.34 for York Photo Labs to $7 for
Nations Photo Lab—but the reason for the difference
was stark. York packaged the photos in a thin, standard
large envelope, while the carefully protected Nations
order arrived in multiple layers of cardboard and clear
plastic envelopes.
Need faster delivery? Most services offer second-day
and overnight shipping, but keep in mind that the
products still have to be produced, so that doesn’t mean
your photos will arrive the day after you order them,
necessarily, even if you pay the $15 for overnight
shipping. But it may mean your pictures arrive four
days earlier. In practice, none of our test orders, for
which we used the lowest-cost shipping options, took
more than five days to arrive.
With most
photos now
being taken by
phones, it only
makes sense for
a photo
printing service
to offer a
mobile app.
PRINT QUALITY
For us, this is the most important factor when ordering
prints: how accurately the photos reproduce the images
you shot. Most of the prints I received, especially at the
smaller 4-by-6-inch size, revealed acceptable image
quality. When you get to enlargements, however, the
differences became far more apparent. In particular, we
found that the Walgreens Photo prints exhibited
discoloration and lost detail, while the Nations Photo
Lab prints showed the best image quality. In one
mountain photograph we had printed, the sky in the
Walgreens Photo picture had a pinkish and purplish
tinge that wasn’t in the original, and some cloud detail
was lost to white.

Images from Nations Photo Lab, on the other hand, looked natural and showed
the truest black in a portrait with a black backdrop. Nations is also the only
service that uses the truly professional-quality Kodak Endura paper.
Here are our evaluations of five photo services. (Prices are for one 4-by-6 print.)
Snapfish
$0.09
EDITORS’ CHOICE
L l l l h
You might think there’s no difference between the two big names in online photo-print
ordering services, Snapfish and Shutterfly, but I was surprised and impressed at the striking
difference. Snapfish not only uses a more modern and powerful web interface, it also delivers
better-looking images at lower prices. In fact, its prices were the lowest among the services I
tested, and you even get the first 100 4-by-6 prints free. For value and website design,
Snapfish earns our Editors’ Choice, but the slightly more expensive Nations Photo Lab, also an
Editor’s Choice, offers slightly better image quality and packaging.
Nations Photo Lab
$0.27
EDITORS’ CHOICE
L l l l m
Buying prints from Nations is a bit less streamlined than with the
bigger consumer-targeted services like Shutterfly and Snapfish, but
the results are worth it. Not only did my test prints reveal the best
overall image quality, but they were shipped in the most protective packaging. And pricing is
very reasonable. Nations Photo Labs is PCMag’s Editors’ Choice for photo printing services for
its top image quality, joining Snapfish, which is our top pick for best value in the category.
Shutterfly
$0.15
L l l h m
Shutterfly has a few feathers in its cap, but overall, it’s a middle-of-the-road service.
Print and image quality is average, pricing is average, and the website experience is
neither wonderful nor terrible. The feathers: Packaging is excellent, online galleries are
shareable, and the service prints the filename or photo title on the back of photos.
If those things are paramount to you, then Shutterfly is worth a look. For the best image quality,
however, look to Nations Photo Lab, and for the best value, look to Snapfish.

York Photo Labs Review
$0.09
L l l h m
York Photo Labs is a member of the exclusive 9-cent-per-print
club, along with Snapfish, but its website and packaging don’t
quite match up. Print quality isn’t bad at all, and in fact, it’s nearly
identical to that of Shutterfly. But for the best print quality, check
out Nations Photo Lab, and for the best value, Snapfish delivers.
Walgreens Photo Review
$0.20
L l l m m
If you need your photos today, Walgreens is a viable option, though you
won’t get the best color rendering or quality paper. And it’s not the
cheapest. You can save money by ordering from Snapfish or Nations,
our top picks for value and print quality, respectively.
MICHAEL MUCHMORE
PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION I SUBSCRIBE I JULY 2017

REVIEWS
SOFTWARE
An Affordable Android VPN
with Extra Protection
EDITORS’
CHOICE
To keep your information safe and your
privacy protected, even on an Android device,
you need a virtual private network (VPN). The
KeepSolid VPN Unlimited app secures your
web activity from prying eyes and offers
several advanced tools to keep you safe. The service
stands out with an excellent mobile interface and a
robust network of international servers, and it even
blocks ads—and all that is offered at an exceedingly
reasonable price. It joins Private Internet Access, with
its unmatched network size, and the versatile, powerful
NordVPN as an Editors’ Choice winner for Android
VPN apps.
KeepSolid VPN
Unlimited
(for Android)
$6.99 per month
L L L l h

WHAT IS A VPN?
When you’re connected wirelessly to your home router,
you can be reasonably certain that it’s safe. Out in the
wild, it’s a different story. It’s very difficult to tell if
you’re actually connected to the Starbucks Wi-Fi or to a
malicious network being run by a data-hungry
scammer. With a VPN, you can be assured that no
matter where you go and no matter what networks you
connect to, your data is always secure. The VPN
software creates an encrypted tunnel to a server the
company controls, meaning that anyone snooping on
your traffic will see only unreadable ciphertext.
KeepSolid VPN
Unlimited
(for Android)
PROS Fast and
affordable protection.
Simple, well-designed
app. Includes
advanced features,
like granular Wi-Fi
reconnection
settings. Stealthy
VPN option. Ad and
tracker blocking.
CONS No free version.
Once you’re online, advertisers can track your
movements among websites with sophisticated cookies
and trackers embedded in ads, associating your traffic
with your known IP address. But with a VPN, you can
rest assured that your privacy is respected. That’s
because instead of seeing the actual IP address of your
mobile device, the advertisers see only the IP address of
the VPN server to which you’re connected.
When you’re away
from your relatively
safe home Wi-Fi, it’s
difficult to tell if
you’re actually
connected to the
Starbucks Wi-Fi or to
a malicious network
being run by a datahungry
scammer.

When you’re connected over a cellular network, the situation is a little different.
The 3G and LTE bands are encrypted and considered fairly safe. But a dedicated
hacker can use a Femtocell, basically a portable cell tower, to offer up an
unsecure 2G network and then jam the higher bands, forcing you to fail over to
the unsecure network. A VPN can help protect against this kind of sophisticated
attack too, though it’s worth noting that the chance of coming up against such a
sophisticated cell hacker is very small. They’re far less common than the
garden-variety Wi-Fi snooper.
PRICING AND FEATURES
A month-long subscription with VPN Unlimited costs only $6.99, making it
quite affordable as VPNs go. It’s just 4 cents more expensive than Editors’
Choice winner Private Internet Access. You can also choose to pay $39.99 for a
year or a 100-year plan for $499 (on sale for $149 at the time we wrote this), if
you plan on doing some serious web browsing over the next century.
Those are the plans listed on the site, but you have a lot more flexibility once
you create an account with KeepSolid. There is, for example, a three-month
subscription for $14.99 and a one-week subscription for $2.99. I really like
KeepSolid’s pricing, especially the super-short plans. It’s perfect for when you’re
traveling abroad, where you’re likely to be subject to all kinds of attacks.
You can pay even less for a VPN. TunnelBear, for example, offers an excellent
free VPN option. With a free account, you get 500MB of data across all your
TunnelBear devices, and can earn additional data by Tweeting about the
company. Unfortunately, there aren’t many other free VPN services
for Android.
If you already use KeepSolid VPN Unlimited on
your desktop, don’t worry; you don’t have to pay
extra for mobile devices. They do, however, count
toward your five simultaneous connections. That’s
an average number of devices for a VPN
subscription, and it’s surprising how fast these
add up. If you need more devices on your plan,
you can add one for 99 cents per month, five for
$2.99 per month, or 10 devices for $5.99.

You also get access to the service’s 1,200 servers across 80 global locations.
That’s not as many as Editors’ Choice winner NordVPN, which boasts hundreds
of servers, or the thousands of servers available with Private Internet Access,
but it’s not bad. While companies often spin servers up and down as needed,
these are important figures to keep in mind. The more servers a company offers,
the less likely it is that you’ll have to share precious bandwidth with other users
on the same server. The more server locations there are, the more likely it is
you’ll find one nearby. A good rule of thumb is that the closer the server is to
your actual location, the better speed and performance you’ll have. (And many
server locations give you more options when spoofing your location.)
If you’re traveling (or living) in a country with restrictive information policies,
you can also use KeepSolid Wise, a feature that trades speed for a stealthier
connection that disguises your VPN connection as normal HTTPS traffic. This
feature is available on Android and is best used when connecting in countries
that frown on the use of VPNs.
As with the desktop version, the Android app uses the OpenVPN protocol. I
appreciate it when services embrace this newer open-source protocol, which
gets frequent updates as needed. Some companies offer one set of protocols
with the desktop app and a different set with the mobile version, an approach I
don’t favor.

Recently, KeepSolid added a collection of new features.
The Censorship Test automatically detects when any of
a set list of sites is blocked on your network, and you
have the option to send the results to KeepSolid in
exchange for an extra day added to your subscription
for free. The DNS Firewall is actually a collection of
tools, including malware detection, tracker blocking,
and ad blocking. I’m really glad to see these features
included, but don’t mistake them for perfect protection.
Instead of scanning for threats, these are blacklists
maintained by KeepSolid. It’s a good start but hardly
complete protection.
The
Censorship
Test
automatically
detects when
any of a set list
of sites is
blocked on
your network.
HANDS ON WITH KEEPSOLID VPN UNLIMITED
KeepSolid sticks with its clean, minimalist desktop
design for its Android app. At the center is a map
showing your current location. Tap the green bar at the
top, and you can select the server of your choice,
although the app recommends what it thinks is best
based on your location and the traffic already flowing
through its other servers. I particularly like that the app
shows you which servers are the most crowded and
which allow torrenting. You can search for servers at
the top and favorite servers for later use.
KeepSolid’s app reminds me of NordVPN quite a bit,
with its large map at the center. But I prefer a few
things about NordVPN, such as specialized servers for
connecting to Tor and double encryption. KeepSolid has
added a specialized video streaming server, which I
appreciate.
A toggle switch at the bottom of the screen switches the
VPN on and off. You can also do this from a panel in the
notifications pull-down menu. When connected, the
Android OS shows a little key next to the time at the top
of the screen.

THE INTERFACE
KeepSolid VPN
Unlimited secures
your traffic and
offers additional
protection to boot. It
offers good speeds
and a strong server
selection, making it
an excellent choice.
By default, the app always reconnects if it loses communication with the VPN
server. But you can choose to have it reconnect only when you’re using Wi-Fi or
to reconnect only when you’re using an unsecured network. That kind of
granular control is great when you’re on a mobile device. It’s a feature I like, and
I am disappointed that I have yet to see it become commonplace among other
VPN apps.
If lots of settings and features are what you need in a VPN, KeepSolid will get
you most of the way there, but Private Internet Access has still more going on.
With that service, you can select which apps must use the VPN and which don’t
have to, giving you total control of how your data moves. TunnelBear VPN also
offers this feature.
When I reviewed the company’s VPN service for PCs, a company representative
confirmed KeepSolid’s zero-logging policy. That means it retains little
information about users, ensuring your privacy. The company is also located in
New York, meaning that it’s not subject to specific data-retention laws. Also,
KeepSolid does not inject ads into your web browsing experience, as some lessreputable
VPNs have been known to do in the not-so-distant past.
SPEED TESTS
No matter which VPN service you choose, it will have an impact on internet
connection performance. Generally, it’s not a good one, although my work
testing desktop VPN apps has revealed that the fastest VPNs can sometimes
improve performance.

When I test mobile VPN apps, I aim for a best-case scenario. First I deactivate
mobile data, and then I connect to our super-fast FiOS Wi-Fi network. That’s
because a Wi-Fi network offers more repeatable test results than a cellular
network can, and because insecure or malicious Wi-Fi networks are a much
more prevalent threat than complex cellular attacks.
I then compare the average results with the VPN enabled to the average results
without the VPN and work out the percent change. I measure the speeds using
the Ookla Speedtest.net app. (Note that Ookla is owned by Ziff Davis, which
also owns PCMag.)
In my testing, I found that VPN Unlimited increased latency by 131.3 percent.
That might seem like a lot, but we’re talking milliseconds here. TorGuard had
the smallest impact on latency I’ve yet seen, increasing it by only 12.5 percent.
In the download test, VPN Unlimited reduced speeds by 35.32 percent. That’s
an improvement over the last time I tested KeepSolid’s Android app. It’s also
the second-best score I’ve recorded so far. VPN Unlimited still trails Private
Internet Access, however, which showed a remarkable 10.3 degradation in
download speeds.
In my testing, I found that with KeepSolid, upload speeds fell 18.8 percent.
That’s one of the best scores for this test, but it’s still behind Spotflux VPN,
which actually improved upload speeds in my testing.
A EXCELLENT CHOICE
Along with its core VPN technology, KeepSolid VPN Unlimited comes with a
few other tricks up its sleeve to keep you safe. It also performed well in my
speed tests and offers a robust global infrastructure to secure your web traffic
no matter where you are. Best of all, it has the most comprehensive and flexible
pricing of any VPN I’ve yet reviewed, making it an excellent purchase. For all
that, it takes an Editors’ Choice award for Android VPN, along with NordVPN
and Private Internet Access.
MAX EDDY
PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION I SUBSCRIBE I JULY 2017

FEATURES
BY SASCHA SEGAN

Verizon Wireless remains America’s fastest mobile network by a nose in
our closest Fastest Mobile Networks race ever. In our tests across the
U.S., Verizon offered the most reliable and consistent high-speed
network overall, but it split our 36 cities and rural regions three ways with
AT&T and T-Mobile—the first time we’ve seen that kind of even divide.
Clearly, all three carriers are pushing hard to improve their networks. No
matter where you live, they’re all great choices. Although Verizon is the fastest
mobile network, AT&T has the fastest average download speeds in the nation,
and T-Mobile can cost less than Verizon while offering very close to the same
performance.
For our eighth annual test, we spent most of May driving within and between
30 cities, with Samsung Galaxy S8 phones continually running speed tests
based on a customized version of Ookla’s Speedtest.net software. We collected
more than 124,000 data points and then balanced downloads, uploads, latency,
and reliability to create our Speed Score.
AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon all offer strong performance this year, but they
don’t each offer strong performance everywhere. For example, AT&T is weak in
New York City but strong in Indianapolis, and T-Mobile is the other way
around. So it’s important to check our individual city results when you’re
making a carrier choice.
Sprint seems to have hit a roadblock after vaulting hugely forward between
2015 and 2016. While we saw the same spectacular peak speeds on Sprint that
we got on the other carriers, they were far less consistent: Sprint’s speeds would
shoot up and then plummet within cities more often than speeds of other
carriers, creating lower averages.

This is a snapshot of network performance from May 1 to 23, 2017. Networks
can, will, and should change as the year goes on.
ALL CARRIERS ARE THESE CARRIERS
We test the four big nationwide carriers, but these results also apply to most of
the other brands available in the U.S. That’s because most other big names—
except for U.S. Cellular, which runs its own, predominantly rural network—just
borrow and rename one of these networks. For instance, Cricket is AT&T;
MetroPCS is T-Mobile; Virgin and Boost are Sprint; and Google Fi is a mix of
Sprint, T-Mobile, and U.S. Cellular. TracFone can be any one of the four major
networks depending on what kind of SIM card you have.
If you aren’t using one of the big brands, though, you may not get top speeds.
For instance, Verizon throttles other brands’ customers to 5Mbps. But our
study’s data on reliability and latency still apply. For more information on
which low-cost brands use which networks, see our story, “The Best Cheap Cell
Phone Plans You’ve Never Heard Of” at PCMag.com.
EIGHT YEARS OF FASTER NETWORKS
When we started Fastest Mobile Networks, the speeds we’re seeing today were
absolutely unheard of.
Fastest Mobile Networks 2010 was our first report, and at the time, Verizon was
running a slow 3G data network. Sprint was on WiMAX, a now obsolete
technology that claimed to be 4G but ended up as a dead end. No carrier
averaged over 5Mbps.

Verizon introduced LTE by 2011. AT&T followed that lead a year later, and then
T-Mobile and Sprint did the same. But speed increases weren’t steady. AT&T’s
network plummeted under a heavy load in 2013, and Verizon’s network suffered
the year after.
The gains we’ve seen over the past few years show no sign of stopping. There’s a
2X jump in maximum download speeds every two years or so—from 50Mbps to
60Mbps in 2014, to 120Mbps in 2016, and this year to 200Mbps.
LTE has more to give. A well-designed gigabit LTE network, such as Telstra’s in
Australia, can deliver 400Mbps to 450Mbps on a regular basis. In 2018 and
2019, we’re hoping to see those speeds from carriers here in the U.S.
By 2020 and 2021, we’ll have 5G phones. Demos I’ve seen at Qualcomm have
shown the potential for speeds of 4 gigabits and up to each device. That will
potentially enable real-time group VR and other science fiction–like
experiences. We’ll keep testing, just to make sure.
GIGABIT LTE ISN’T JUST THE FUTURE
AT&T is evolving. So are T-Mobile and Verizon. All three carriers have
introduced “gigabit LTE,” a mix of three new technologies that can really
accelerate your wireless speeds. No, gigabit LTE won’t give you actual gigabit
speeds, but our tests show it can double your download speeds from previous
network generations.

AT&T has branded its gigabit LTE
network “5G Evolution” (it isn’t 5G)
and said it’s coming to at least 20
cities this year. Its first two cities
are Austin and Indianapolis, and
true to its word, AT&T won both of
those cities. It would have done
even better in Indianapolis if we
were measuring speeds only within AT&T’s network rather than going out to an
external speed-test server. After several years of flat or declining speeds, AT&T
rocketed ahead this year with its new initiative.
T-Mobile has also leapt forward with both speed and coverage. The carrier is
clearly installing gigabit LTE technology and has broader rural and suburban
coverage than we’ve seen in previous years. Any lingering ideas about T-Mobile
as a discount, cities-only carrier should be dispelled.
Given how loud AT&T and T-Mobile have been about their gigabit evolutions,
Verizon turned out to be the quiet surprise this year. The company has
confirmed that it’s installing all three of the gigabit technologies—it’s just not
being so loud about it.
If you don’t see these speeds, you might not have a gigabit LTE phone. We used
the Samsung Galaxy S8, the nation’s first gigabit LTE device. In the section of
this story called “Why You Need a Faster Phone,” we show the huge advantage
the S8 has over its competitors, especially the notoriously slow Apple iPhones.
The HTC U11 and Moto Z2 Force also have gigabit LTE, and we expect to see it
in more flagship phones throughout the year.
While the Galaxy S8 has gigabit speeds on three networks, during our testing,
there was no gigabit phone available that was compatible with Sprint. That
might help explain Sprint’s weaker performance. But it also shows a habitual
problem Sprint has: Because the carrier has a unique radio network, device
manufacturers have to go out of their way to optimize their phones for it. The
HTC U11 is Sprint’s first gigabit phone.

LOOKING FORWARD TO 5G
This is our eighth year running Fastest Mobile Networks and
our first looking only at LTE networks. Pretty soon, though,
we’ll be looking at 5G.
4G LTE speeds will continue to advance over the next year.
T-Mobile will fill in its rural coverage gaps with its new
deployment of 600MHz spectrum starting this fall. Sprint is
working on its urban coverage gaps with its new Magic Box
micro-cell units; if you have an issue with Sprint coverage,
you should get one.
The next great leap forward will be 5G. And we don’t mean
AT&T’s “5G Evolution” (again, it’s not 5G; it’s 4G) or the
pre-5G home internet systems AT&T and Verizon are setting
up this year.
This is our
eighth year
running
Fastest
Mobile
Networks and
our first
looking only
at LTE
Real 5G will arrive at the end of 2018. It’ll require new
phones—but it won’t just be for phones. With very low
latencies, 5G will be a major technology in self-driving cars.
Coming at a very low cost, it’ll enable a wide variety of
cheap, connected sensors; T-Mobile’s COO told me it’ll let
you “Lo-Jack everything.”
On your phone, 5G will push augmented and virtual reality
experiences. It’ll probably also blur the difference between
home and wireless internet, letting you have one
subscription or service plan for both. For people who don’t
use the most data-hungry services, it will hopefully bring
down costs.
After watching the growth of LTE through Fastest Mobile
Networks, though, we can theorize that it’s going to be a long
time before 5G is dominant. We tested our first 4G LTE
networks in 2011, but only now, six years later, are we finally
casting off 3G testing. 4G will probably be the backbone of
mobile data service for the next five years or so, as 5G
networks spread and develop new features.

Carrier and Network Profiles
AT&T
The carrier is this year’s big surprise. The company has been
doing fine but not great since 2013. This year, though, it leapt
forward with a massive increase in speed based on its poorly
marketed 5G Evolution plan. 5G Evolution is really just
gigabit LTE, the same cocktail of 4G technologies that the
other carriers are installing.
But AT&T is doing a good job of it, and the company is only
getting started. We saw in Indianapolis, for instance, that AT&T has industryleading
speeds out to the internet, and speeds to a server within AT&T’s
network were absolutely blistering. As the carrier further builds out
connectivity, we expect speeds will get even higher.
AT&T also may be benefitting from a dramatic loss in customers over the past
few years. Millions of AT&T smartphone subscribers have been decamping to
other carriers, replaced on AT&T’s network by smart cars and Internet of
Things devices that use less data. That’s made its network less congested and
has probably helped contribute to its excellent results this year.
SPRINT
Sprint made a great leap forward between 2015 and 2016, becoming
competitive for the first time in years. It couldn’t keep up the momentum this
year, though—its average speeds stayed pretty much the
same as in 2016 while other carriers advanced. That doesn’t
match up with Sprint’s rhetoric, but I have some ideas as to
why we’re seeing this result.
Sprint made the conscious decision to privilege downloads over
uploads on its network, with the justification that because people
mostly download, network speeds should reflect that. The
argument would hold up better if Sprint showed spectacular
download speeds, but its peak speeds only match the
competition—they don’t exceed it.

Sprint also struggled with severe variability within cities. The carrier relies on
2.5GHz signal for its best speeds, and that spectrum doesn’t travel well. The
Samsung Galaxy S8’s High Performance User Equipment feature is supposed to
extend 2.5GHz coverage, but we didn’t see that happening enough in our
nationwide tests to fill in Sprint’s gaps.
A few moves later this year should help Sprint’s performance. The HTC U11 and
Moto Z2 Force phones have 4x4 MIMO (multiple input, multiple output)
antennas for Sprint’s 2.5GHz spectrum, which will improve both coverage and
speeds. And Sprint’s innovative “Magic Box” micro-cells could really improve
the evenness of its network if they’re deployed broadly in major cities.
T-MOBILE
It’s the nation’s number two wireless network, no question about it. The carrier
has improved by leaps and bounds in the past few years—first on speed and now
on coverage.
T-Mobile’s download and upload speeds have been on a steady upward climb,
aided by Gigabit LTE technologies we saw in the Galaxy S8. The carrier’s major
improvement this year is in coverage. Just a few years ago, we had to disqualify
T-Mobile in some rural areas because of an utter lack of 4G. Now, having built
out its “extended range” 700MHz network, T-Mobile can actually duke it out on
coverage with Verizon and AT&T in states including North Carolina, Georgia,
and Utah.
T-Mobile’s coverage is only going to get better, especially in the west. The
company just bought a huge amount of 600MHz spectrum nationwide, which is
very good for covering rural areas. Much of it is currently occupied by TV
stations, which have to vacate it within the next three years, but T-Mobile has
said it’ll start building out in available areas this year. Of course, you’ll need a
new phone to get that even-better coverage—Galaxy S9, anyone?

VERIZON
Verizon doesn’t put out as many press releases and social
blasts as T-Mobile does, but it’s matching T-Mobile
upgrade for upgrade. The carrier has confirmed, often
quietly, that it’s installing all three of the Gigabit LTE
technologies across its network, and our tests bear that
out. We’re seeing better results on the (gigabit) Galaxy S8
than the (non-gigabit) S7, and we think the gap between
those two devices will grow.
Verizon has been building that speed on top of the nation’s most reliable
network, which has the broadest existing LTE coverage. This doesn’t make a
huge difference in highly populated cities any longer, especially where T-Mobile
has installed building-penetrating 700MHz LTE. But out in Wyoming, Verizon
clearly still has a rural advantage.
The next stop for Verizon is 5G. The carrier is taking a detour into home
internet by launching a pre-spec home 5G system later this year. That will give
Verizon the option to sell home-and-mobile internet bundles that may make its
network an even easier choice for subscribers.
WHAT ABOUT OTHER BRANDS?
We tested only the four major nationwide networks. There are smaller carriers
that we didn’t test, as well as many “virtual” operators, or MVNOs, that rent and
resell capacity from the big four networks.
U.S. Cellular is the fifth-place provider in the U.S., with five million customers.
We don’t evaluate it because its primarily rural coverage isn’t compatible with
our metro-centered testing.
Small regional providers also may offer great rates, such as C Spire in the
Southeast, Cellcom in Wisconsin, Appalachian and Bluegrass in Kentucky, and
Union and Viaero in Wyoming and Colorado. These tiny local companies run
their own networks and usually roam on one of the nationwide providers
outside their coverage area.

City Results
ATLANTA: T-MOBILE
This year’s test in Atlanta turned out to be a very close battle between Verizon,
which won last year, and T-Mobile. T-Mobile pulled it out, primarily thanks to
faster average download speeds, although we’d like to note that Verizon was
more consistent and reliable.
We’re talking about two very good networks here, and if we’d weighted our
score differently, the win could have gone to Verizon. All four networks
acquitted themselves well, actually, with peak speeds approaching 150Mbps and
few really slow spots. Sprint’s lower score is partly due to the fact that at one
test spot, in a parking lot right on the Emory campus, our Sprint phone dropped
to 3G for the duration. That just shouldn’t happen in a major city in 2017.
T-Mobile showed one spectacular test result, right on the Little Five Points bar
strip, where we saw an average of 124Mbps down(!) and 21Mbps up. It’s safe to
say that if you’re chronicling your late-night drunken escapades in Little Five
Points, T-Mobile has you covered.
AUSTIN: AT&T
Along with Indianapolis, Austin is one of AT&T’s first 5G Evolution (gigabit
LTE) cities. And make no mistake: AT&T absolutely smokes it in Austin.

Along with our own tests to external servers, we did some tests within AT&T’s
network. The results were even faster, with a maximum download speed of
221Mbps and an average of 44Mbps, but we didn’t see the kind of dramatic
difference we did in Indianapolis. That may mean the Austin network is slightly
more mature.
Where AT&T wins, in this case, Verizon loses. But Verizon’s loss isn’t as
dramatic as the average speed numbers make it out to be. Our consistency
number is measured as the percentage of downloads over 5Mbps, and Verizon
has the most consistent network across the city. While AT&T users will have the
fastest connections by far, Verizon customers will still be able to plug along at
decent, reliable speeds.
BALTIMORE: VERIZON
Verizon showed the best overall speeds in Baltimore, a town full of surprises.
Wireless carriers once used Baltimore as a test site, because it has a variety of
terrains: hills, flat land, water, tall buildings, and low-slung residential areas. It
can be a tough city to cover. Verizon managed speeds topping 100Mbps both at
Patterson Park and by Lexington Market, but AT&T’s network was stronger and
faster near the Johns Hopkins campus. Verizon took the crown as a whole by
offering much better balanced upload speeds as well as fast downloads.

Sprint really struggled in Baltimore at multiple
locations, with average download speeds under 10Mbps
at three of our test sites. T-Mobile did well, but not as
well as in some other Northeastern cities, mostly
because it hit a slow spot in our Druid Hill Park test but
also because it never achieved the spectacular peak
speeds we were seeing from Verizon and AT&T.
BOSTON: AT&T
Last year’s race in Boston was tight. This year, AT&T
pulled ahead with the fastest and most consistent
downloads in the city by a sizeable margin. It’s also
worth noting that in our Suburban/Rural Northeast
area, which includes our drives through Connecticut
and Rhode Island, AT&T also triumphed.
Sprint and Verizon both suffered a bit with consistency
at our Boston test sites. Verizon had issues at the Back
Bay train station and by the airport. Those are busy
areas, which tells us that the problems probably result
from network congestion.

Boston may be a metro area where AT&T’s recent loss in customers has been to
its advantage. AT&T has dropped millions of subscribers in favor of T-Mobile
and Verizon over the past few years. A less congested network is a more reliable
network, and a shift of customers from AT&T to Verizon in the Boston area
seems to have changed network conditions to AT&T’s advantage.
CHARLOTTE: AT&T
AT&T has done well in the Carolinas for several years, and it maintains its lead
in Charlotte. While we saw some variability citywide, AT&T managed to
maintain very respectable download speeds of 50Mbps to 60Mbps through
several of our tests, outpacing its competitors, although Verizon had slightly
higher peak speeds.
This wasn’t a good city for T-Mobile or Sprint. T-Mobile’s network was reliable
and usable, but it couldn’t keep speeds high enough to compete against AT&T
or Verizon. Sprint’s network guttered out at several locations and doesn’t come
off as a reliable choice across Charlotte.
CHICAGO: AT&T
AT&T won Chicago by having the most consistent high-speed network citywide.
Verizon offered higher average upload and download speeds, but AT&T edged it
out in terms of the percentage of tests with downloads over 5Mbps. Reliability is
as important an aspect of perceived speed as the maximum speed you get in a
city, so AT&T’s slightly more reliable network tipped the balance. Although
Chicago is one of AT&T’s upcoming 5G Evolution (gigabit LTE) cities, we didn’t

see the huge difference from its competitors we saw in
Austin and Indianapolis, so the upgrades must not be in
place yet.
All of the carriers performed well in Chicago. Even
Sprint, the slowest of the four, showed a more
consistent experience than it did in other major cities,
making it an acceptable choice. Although AT&T was
consistent citywide, Verizon and T-Mobile both had hot
spots where they showed spectacular speeds.
In Verizon’s case, it was right behind the Merchandise
Mart, with 127Mbps average speeds. Motorola is based
in the Merchandise Mart, so maybe its employees
should yoke their new Z2 Force phones to Verizon. For
T-Mobile, stellar speeds erupted at Union Station.
Reliability
is as
important
an aspect of
perceived
speed as the
maximum
speed you
get in a city.
DALLAS: T-MOBILE
Dallas has always been a strong spot for T-Mobile. The
city was the home of MetroPCS, which T-Mobile bought
a few years ago, and as a result T-Mobile has a deep
bench of spectrum and strong coverage throughout the
Dallas Metroplex.

Verizon really gave T-Mobile a run for its money, though, as we’ve seen in many
other cities. The constant back-and-forth dueling is what put them so close in
our national results. T-Mobile primarily won in Dallas because of better upload
speeds, which are important now that many people are uploading videos to
social media. T-Mobile’s reliability is also now within one percent of Verizon’s
and AT&T’s in the Dallas area.
As we saw elsewhere, Sprint achieved very good peak speeds but was hit by
consistency issues. Sprint lacks low-band spectrum, which fills the gaps
between high-frequency hot spots. In Dallas, Sprint stalled out at South Beacon
Street and Lindsley Avenue, and our phone dropped off the LTE network
entirely on one of our downtown tests. Sprint needs to fill in these gaps.
DENVER: T-MOBILE
With the fastest download and, especially, upload speeds, T-Mobile is the clear
choice in Denver. The biggest difference we saw between the winner and the
competition in Denver was on uploads. That’ll matter quite a lot when you have
your GoPro live streaming through your phone on the ski run, when you’re
trying to broadcast tasty videos of your pot edibles, or when you’re doing any
other task that involves content creation and cheap Denver stereotypes.
Digging a little deeper, Sprint fell back this year because of consistency issues.
All the carriers hit soft spots, but a third of our test locations were tough for
Sprint, which dragged down both its overall averages and its consistency score.
We didn’t see spectacular speeds in Denver all around.

T-Mobile’s network stayed solid from Denver up through Fort Collins; its
coverage has improved a lot in the past year or two. If you regularly go to
Wyoming, though, you need Verizon. All the other carriers dropped to 3G or
worse on our trip through Wyoming. We also hit a deer.
DETROIT: VERIZON
Detroit was almost a three-way tie between AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon. But
Verizon just nabs it, according to our testing methodology. Verizon had by far
the highest peak LTE download speeds and the best average upload speeds,
although AT&T beat it on average download speeds.
Verizon’s gigantic 150Mbps peak was a bit of a fluke in a city that, all around,
was not one of our fastest. But the carrier didn’t hit any noticeable slow spots,
while speeds on T-Mobile and Sprint varied sharply from test site to test site.
HOUSTON: T-MOBILE
Houston delivered fast speeds on all four major carriers, with everyone peaking
over 100Mbps. It was also Sprint’s fastest city and one of a very few cities where
Sprint had the fastest average download speeds.
T-Mobile won by pairing fast download speeds with equally excellent upload
speeds, for a network that’s enjoyable for both content creators and consumers.
T-Mobile’s network was also more consistent than Sprint’s, offering fewer ups
and downs as we traveled around the city.

AT&T also did well in Houston, and that carrier might be the best choice for
people who travel more widely around Texas. While T-Mobile’s coverage in
Houston was excellent, we got the occasional dead spot around smaller towns
including Columbus and La Grange. AT&T maintained coverage a bit better
between Austin and Houston.
INDIANAPOLIS: AT&T
Indianapolis is one of AT&T’s 5G Evolution markets, and we saw the carrier’s
speeds rocket upward this year—enough to easily take the crown. But our
official results tell only half the story in Indy.
Along with our own tests, we ran a set of backup tests to servers that were often
within their carriers’ networks. We didn’t use those download speeds in the
official results, because we think that most of the data you’re downloading is
from outside your carrier’s network. But those results show that AT&T’s
maximum speed shoots up to 196Mbps and its average download speed rockets
to 59Mbps. That’s the biggest difference between on-carrier and off-carrier
connections we saw nationwide.
What’s happening is that AT&T’s gigabit LTE network is mid-build. It’s built out
the radio connections but may not have linked it up fully to the rest of the
internet yet. As AT&T finishes its buildout in Indianapolis this year, expect
speed and performance to grow by leaps and bounds. AT&T will be an even
stronger choice in the city as time goes on.

Indianapolis is also one of T-Mobile’s weakest cities. T-Mobile has had historic
problems here based on a lack of broad, deep spectrum lanes in Indiana and
Ohio. Hopefully, it can close the gap over the next few years.
KANSAS CITY: AT&T AND VERIZON (TIE)
We saw some of our highest Sprint speeds nationwide in Kansas City, the
carrier’s hometown. And yet AT&T and Verizon share the crown here—AT&T
for spectacular download speeds and Verizon for consistency and low latency.
Sprint’s problem was all about consistency. Throughout our Kansas City tests,
we saw our Sprint devices shoot up to spectacular speeds, then plummet to very
low speeds at a different location an hour later. While that doesn’t show up in
our download averages, Sprint really took a hit in our measurement of the
percentage of tests above 5Mbps.
Building a uniform network has been a problem for Sprint, because the carrier’s
spectrum is predominantly high-band and thus short-distance. The Galaxy S8’s
HPUE (high performance user equipment) feature should have extended the
reach of Sprint’s spectrum in Kansas City, but it doesn’t seem to have done
quite enough.
Let’s note that KC was one of the fastest cities we saw overall. All of the carriers
are powerful choices here, and it’s one of the few Google Fiber cities. Kansas
City is growing as a Midwestern tech hub, and it appears to have the
infrastructure to suit.

LAS VEGAS: VERIZON
When the going gets tough, Verizon keeps going. We’ve seen this phenomenon
before in Fastest Mobile Networks: When we encounter a city where, for some
reason, speeds are low all around, Verizon tends to do well.
Such is the case in Las Vegas this year, where the average speeds are half what
we saw in some other cities. T-Mobile, especially, guttered out across Vegas,
although it picked up wins in the next two cities on this drive route, Salt Lake
City and Denver.
None of the carriers in Las Vegas had what we’d call strong, consistent
showings. That’s in line with my experience on many trips to Vegas, where tall
buildings on the Strip and downtown tend to create reflections and canyons that
can bedevil wireless signal. Our driver is a Vegas local, though, and we got slow
speeds in places including Warm Springs and Enterprise, where signal should
be just fine.
AT&T had a strong second-place showing, which is a leap forward for a carrier
that we hadn’t considered to be a major player in the city for a while. As Sprint
and T-Mobile have won Vegas in previous years, it’s clear that this is a
competitive market where any carrier can win if they get lucky.
LOS ANGELES: VERIZON
Verizon repeated its dominance of Los Angeles with the fastest upload and
download speeds, although T-Mobile really gave it a run for its money. AT&T’s
recent network improvements paid off with high peak speeds, but that highspeed
network hasn’t been laid out all around the LA metro area, as AT&T’s
lower consistency score shows. Verizon offered the best overall experience
across our 14 test locations.
MIAMI: T-MOBILE
T-Mobile crushed the competition in Miami. The carrier got a perfect score by
dominating or tying every one of our assessment categories. No matter what
aspect of your Miami experience you want to make wireless—uploads,
downloads, Snapchat major key alerts—T-Mobile will serve you best across the
metro area.

Verizon also did pretty well in Miami. Sprint suffered from the same
inconsistency issues we saw in many other cities. While it’s doing well on peak
speeds, its average speeds were just too variable from test spot to test spot for it
to succeed this year. That’s not all bad news for Sprint subscribers. The
company’s new “Magic Box” micro-cell units can help smooth out coverage, and
if you’re having issues with Sprint speed, we suggest you get one.
NEW ORLEANS: VERIZON
New Orleans could have been Sprint’s big win this year. This should be Sprint’s
first gigabit city, where it tried out its fastest LTE technologies during a demo in
March. But Sprint suffered in our ratings because of its lopsided network.
Although it had the highest peak and average download speeds in New Orleans,
it had very low upload speeds, which will make it a more frustrating network for
content creators and Snapchatters.
Verizon, our winner in New Orleans, won because of a balanced network. Its
fast download speeds were very consistent across our test locations, and it had
the best average upload speeds of any carrier. AT&T came a close second, but
Verizon takes the crown here.
NEW YORK CITY: VERIZON
Verizon and T-Mobile are the best choices in New York City, as they have been
for the past few years. Verizon has a near-perfect network in the five boroughs,
with breathtaking speeds and relentless consistency across all of our test sites.
It’s a carrier that New Yorkers can truly rely on.

While AT&T did very well in much of the rest of the country, New York City is
the carrier’s weakest major market. AT&T has struggled in New York for years,
and our tests showed surprisingly low upload speeds and less consistency than
we expected.
OKLAHOMA CITY: T-MOBILE
T-Mobile’s LTE network stayed solid all the way from Kansas City to Oklahoma
City and then remained rock steady down into Texas. In Oklahoma City and
Moore, meanwhile, T-Mobile hit it out of the park, with upload and download
speeds that simply scorched competitors—all this without its 700MHz
“extended range” LTE.
T-Mobile achieved just about 100Mbps in Midtown OKC, while AT&T hit
100Mbps or more by the 40/44 junction. Sprint, as we saw in several other
cities, was handicapped by very inconsistent performance. In four out of our 12
test locations, Sprint showed very low speeds, while it hit peaks of nearly
100Mbps elsewhere. The carrier needs to get a handle on its coverage issues in
the Oklahoma City area.
PHILADELPHIA: T-MOBILE
We didn’t see very fast speeds in Philadelphia all around. T-Mobile takes the
crown for having a symmetrical, reliable network with a great balance of
uploads and downloads across the city.

Fastest Mobile Networks isn’t just about downloads—average download speeds
are only 20 percent of the score. While Verizon had faster average downloads
than T-Mobile, T-Mobile had more consistently reliable broadband upload and
download speeds, as well as faster overall uploads. That makes for a better,
broader LTE experience.
PHOENIX: VERIZON
Verizon took the crown in Phoenix with the fastest average download and
upload speeds. We tested across the sprawling Phoenix metro area, including
Chandler, Mesa, and Scottsdale, to make sure that we collected the best possible
data on coverage and speeds.
Both Sprint and T-Mobile showed some interesting results. Sprint had very
good but inconsistent download speeds and very poor upload speeds. This is a
choice that Sprint has made, preferring downloads over uploads in a big way.
We agree that people download more than they upload, but we think Sprint has
gone a bit overboard with the weighting.
T-Mobile had very good upload and download speeds, but it got socked on
consistency because of slow results at two of our 12 test points. Verizon
delivered fast speeds at more places across the Phoenix area.

PORTLAND: T-MOBILE
T-Mobile’s home is in the Pacific Northwest, and it’s by
far the fastest carrier in both Portland and Seattle. For a
Northeasterner like myself, it’s surprising to see a
region where Verizon doesn’t do all that well. But
T-Mobile has clearly poured network resources into
Portland, giving it the fastest uploads and downloads in
the city, as well as excellent coverage.
One thing that jumps out is how much more consistent
T-Mobile’s Portland network is at delivering broadband
speeds than the other carriers. Using our measurement
of the percentage of tests over 5Mbps, we see that
T-Mobile just didn’t hit any weak spots around the city,
while the other carriers each had a soft spot or two. That
makes T-Mobile the best choice in the Portland area.
T-Mobile has
clearly poured
network
resources into
Portland, giving
it the fastest
uploads and
downloads in
the city.
RALEIGH-DURHAM: AT&T
It’s been true for a few years now that if you want great
service in the Carolinas, you go with AT&T. The former
Southern Bell(e) racked up wins in both the Triangle
and Charlotte areas with download speeds noticeably
faster than the competition.

In the Raleigh-Durham area, we tested in Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, and
even Apex. (Why Apex? One of our readers asked us to test there, and we do our
best to accommodate.) Verizon scored some excellent peak speeds, but AT&T’s
downloads were faster at more locations.
We got especially spectacular speeds on both AT&T and Verizon in central Cary,
at Walnut Street and Buck Jones Road. At that location, both carriers pushed
100Mbps down.
I have family in the Raleigh-Durham area, and I know they’ve been hesitant
about considering T-Mobile as a choice, especially considering the carrier had
poor coverage in North Carolina as recently as two years ago. The good news is
that T-Mobile’s coverage has really shaped up. Our T-Mobile device almost
never dropped off the LTE network.
ST. LOUIS: VERIZON
Both of our Missouri test cities showed excellent performance. In St. Louis,
Verizon took the lead with faster uploads and downloads than any of its
competitors, although they all turned in very respectable speeds.
If you travel a lot in the St. Louis area, you may also be interested in our results
from our Missouri and Illinois drive corridors. Verizon did best on the Illinois
side of the border, while Verizon and T-Mobile shared the honors in Missouri. If
you’ve been concerned about T-Mobile’s coverage, think again. Our T-Mobile
device didn’t drop LTE signal all along the I-55 and I-70 corridors.

SALT LAKE CITY: T-MOBILE
It’s T-Mobile by a nose in Salt Lake City, and I’m going to go as far as to say it’s
T-Mobile with a big asterisk. T-Mobile barely won over Verizon, according to
our methodology, because of much faster uploads and, surprisingly, better
reliability in the urban Salt Lake area. T-Mobile has also dramatically improved
its coverage in recent years, and we had solid LTE signal all the way down the
I-15 corridor, including in Provo.
But Verizon showed higher download speeds and better coverage in severely
rural areas, which don’t factor into our SLC city score. If you go to Wyoming, for
instance, you need Verizon. Ultimately, we recommend T-Mobile for the
content-creating, urbanized Silicon Slopes set churning out videos in Salt Lake’s
new tech hubs, and Verizon for people going to the actual slopes.
SAN DIEGO: AT&T
AT&T commanded some absolutely slamming download speeds in San Diego
this year, showing a dramatic improvement over last year. Seriously, AT&T’s
average speeds more than doubled from previous San Diego tests, letting it pull
ahead of Verizon and a somewhat congested T-Mobile network to nab the win.
I suspect these speeds are part of AT&T’s 5G Evolution plan, which is otherwise
known as gigabit LTE. That means that for the best AT&T performance in San
Diego, you’re going to need a Samsung Galaxy S8, an HTC U11, or another
rumored future phone, such as the Motorola Z2 Force, that can handle gigabit
LTE. AT&T customers in the San Diego area should definitely switch phones
before they think of switching carriers.
Sprint was very weak in both San Diego and Tucson.

SAN FRANCISCO: AT&T
Every year, we pick one city to go deep on, doing twice the number of test sites
we normally hit. This year we decided to focus on the home of the U.S. tech
industry—the San Francisco Bay Area. The Bay Area is a huge sprawl, but we
tried to get to the cities of San Francisco and San Jose as well as key points in
the East Bay and on the peninsula.
The old Pacific Bell, San Francisco’s local phone company, AT&T did
spectacularly well in our tests around the Bay Area. None of the carriers did
very badly here—even Sprint had solid speeds. But AT&T distinguished itself on
all of our measures.
That being said, if you don’t have the best experience with AT&T in the Bay
Area, try getting a new phone with a Qualcomm X16 modem, such as the
Samsung Galaxy S8 or HTC U11. The terrific performance we saw, with peak
speeds over 200Mbps, is probably in part thanks to new technologies in our
Galaxy S8 test devices.
Verizon was no slouch either, with an amazing 215Mbps peak speed at one
point and consistent speeds around 173Mbps in south San Jose. The carriers are
clearly pouring capacity into the nation’s tech center.
T-Mobile and Sprint both suffered a little bit from lack of consistency. In
T-Mobile’s case, we hit a soft spot in the Mission that weakened its score a bit.
In Sprint’s case, the network’s choice to greatly privilege downloads over
uploads hurt it.

SEATTLE: T-MOBILE
In our tests in Seattle, Redmond, and Bellevue, the hometown hero did best.
T-Mobile proved itself to be Seattle’s best carrier with a peak speed of just about
200Mbps and average upload and download speeds that were better than the
competition’s.
No carrier did badly in Seattle, and it was one of Sprint’s stronger markets. We
were surprised to find that Sprint had faster and more consistent downloads
than Verizon did, although we dinged Sprint for its slower upload speeds, which
are a choice that the carrier has made (to focus on downloads) rather than a
flaw in its network.
TAMPA: VERIZON
Verizon absolutely destroyed its competition in our tests across Tampa, St.
Petersburg, and Clearwater. The win isn’t even because Verizon was
spectacularly fast—it’s that the other carriers were surprisingly slow. And it
wasn’t just about one bad location, either; AT&T, for instance, was reliable and
consistent but just slow across the whole metro area.
Some of the issue may be which carrier has the best connectivity in the Tampa
area beyond its own network. Testing entirely within the T-Mobile network, for
instance, showed better results than going out to external servers on the
internet. (People using the consumer Speedtest.net app often see results from
those in-network servers.) But web users roam far and wide in the virtual world,
and Verizon therefore offers the best experience for them.

TUCSON: AT&T
Tucson wasn’t one of our fastest cities, but AT&T
separates itself from a tight pack with a noticeable lead
on download speeds. We saw 100Mbps maximums in
the city, while some other places showed 200Mbps. But
AT&T users won’t have a problem: It got an average of
34Mbps down with solid consistency across the city.
Verizon came in second with equally solid reliability.
Sprint had a tough time in Tucson. Its performance was
so poor that we double-checked to make sure our test
server selection wasn’t a problem; performance was just
as bad to a different server. We can’t recommend Sprint
in Tucson at this time.
T-Mobile’s
network blazes
in the nation’s
capital, with
the highest
upload and
download
speeds and the
lowest latency.
WASHINGTON, DC: T-MOBILE
T-Mobile’s network blazes in the nation’s capital, with
the highest upload and download speeds and the lowest
latency of any carrier. That makes it by far the best
choice for Washington area residents.
Sprint, as we saw elsewhere, just got socked by the
variability of its network. While Sprint’s maximum
speeds are nothing to be ashamed of, it couldn’t keep
those speeds up across our ten test sites. Our test sites
at Courthouse in Arlington and just south of the
Smithsonian especially suffered. A new technology
called HPUE (high performance user equipment) in the
Galaxy S8 is supposed to help smooth out those peaks
and valleys, and we saw that in our initial Galaxy S8
review, but it didn’t bear out on the streets of DC.
Verizon and AT&T both managed to occasionally reach
some spectacular speeds. Verizon blew past the
competition near American University with average
speeds over 100Mbps. But T-Mobile takes the day
across the metro area as a whole.

RURAL/SUBURBAN NORTHEAST: AT&T
Our drive through the Northeast took us down from Boston diagonally across
Connecticut to New York, down the Garden State Parkway in New Jersey to
Atlantic City, then through Amish Country and York, PA to Baltimore. In
Virginia, we took a long amble off the interstates and along side roads down to
North Carolina. (We consider Virginia part of our Northeastern journey because
the Washington, DC metro area extends into it. Also, that lets us draw a line
across the country that matches up with the bottom of Missouri.)
AT&T had the best overall performance along this drive route, although no
carrier was perfect, and they all hit dead zones. While AT&T and Verizon both
did very well through New England, and Verizon was superior in the immediate
New York metro area, AT&T was clearly faster through rural Virginia.
There’s a big asterisk on that, though. As we drove down Route 20 from
Charlottesville to Hampden-Sydney, for instance, both our AT&T and Verizon
phones would drop to 3G or sometimes drop out entirely. Rural coverage still
isn’t perfect.
T-Mobile and Sprint coverage in most of the Northeast is much, much better
than it used to be. They’re both basically reliable in the suburban Northeast, but
they got hit pretty hard on that rural Virginia drive, with T-Mobile dropping out
entirely for a while south of Charlottesville. AT&T is the most reliable choice
there, as well as the fastest.

RURAL/SUBURBAN SOUTHEAST: AT&T
Our drive through the Southeast took us from the
Triangle to the Triad, down 85 to Charlotte and Atlanta
with a stop in Greenville, down 75 to Orlando, over to
Tampa, and then back across on FL-70 to West Palm
Beach and Miami.
As we saw in the Northeast, AT&T did the best on our
Southeastern segment, in this case with the best upload
and download speeds. Verizon, long renowned for
excellent coverage, was a close second.
But in my mind, the big news here is that T-Mobile is
now a viable player in North Carolina, where it
struggled with coverage for a while. T-Mobile was in the
green all through our NC drive, but Sprint coverage
dropped a few times north of Charlotte.
Verizon may be a better choice than AT&T in Florida
because of coverage. AT&T’s LTE network struggled a
bit on our cross-Florida drive, with dropouts in the
swampy middle of the state along FL-70. Verizon kept
on truckin’ with LTE the whole time.

RURAL/SUBURBAN NORTH CENTRAL: VERIZON
This drive took us from Detroit down past Toledo, then on state highways
through Ohio and Indiana to Indianapolis, up to Chicago, down to St. Louis on
I-55, stopping in Springfield, across Missouri on I-70, and then down through
Kansas on I-35, stopping in Emporia and Wichita.
Verizon outpaced AT&T primarily because of the weight we give to uploads and
reliability. On our whole trip, Verizon’s network dropped only once, briefly, in
the middle of Missouri. AT&T didn’t do that much worse, but it hit weak spots
on and off in Kansas.
Sprint is based in Kansas City, and coverage varied sharply depending on which
state we were in. In Illinois, Missouri, and eastern Kansas, it’s great, but the
carrier really struggled in Indiana. Sprint’s score mostly got socked for having
slow uploads, though.
For those in this region, I’d like to throw in one more option out of left field:
Google Fi. It combines Sprint, T-Mobile, and U.S. Cellular, a predominantly
rural carrier we don’t test but which has very good coverage in rural Illinois,
Wisconsin, Kansas, and Missouri. Combining the three less-expensive carriers
will give you a better experience than running with just one of them.

RURAL/SUBURBAN SOUTH CENTRAL: AT&T
AT&T’s traditional strength in Texas gave it a solid win
in our South Central drive, which took us down I-35
from Oklahoma City to Dallas and Austin, and then
across primarily on I-10 to Houston and New Orleans.
We made extra stops in Purcell, OK, Temple, TX, and
Lake Charles, LA.
AT&T had the fastest download and upload speeds in
Texas and Oklahoma, making it an easy pick. The biggest
surprise here, meanwhile, was when Sprint did very well.
87Mbps and 113Mbps downloads in Temple? Yes, please.
Sprint’s wobblier coverage on the Texas-Louisiana
border prevented it from scoring better, though.
RURAL/SUBURBAN NORTHWEST: VERIZON
Our Northwest driving segment included the I-5 corridor
from Seattle to San Francisco, I-15 through Utah, I-80
through Wyoming, and I-25 from Fort Collins to Denver.
Verizon won by a landslide here because of its superior
coverage. It’s the only nationwide carrier with a solid
LTE network through both Utah and Wyoming. AT&T
had surprising coverage drops in both Utah and
southern Oregon.

T-Mobile also failed in Wyoming, but it was a pleasant
surprise in Utah, where it rarely dropped. T-Mobile won
most of our Northwest cities, and for those who spend a
lot of time in western Washington or the more
populated parts of Utah, it’s a very good choice.
RURAL/SUBURBAN SOUTHWEST: T-MOBILE
Our Southwest drive took us along the I-5 corridor in
California, I-8 across to Tucson, and Route 93 up to Las
Vegas. T-Mobile’s surprise win speaks to its
dramatically improved rural coverage over the past few
years. The carrier did especially well in southern
California, with good speeds and few dropped
connections. T-Mobile has also focused on building out
popular corridors, so it’s very solid along the Tucson-
Phoenix corridor and between Las Vegas and Boulder
City, Nevada.
Verizon had the
most consistent
network in
extremely rural
areas such as on
I-8 west of the
Sonoran Desert
National
Monument.
That said, if you’re going to be way out in the desert,
note that Verizon had the most consistent network in
extremely rural areas such as on I-8 west of the Sonoran
Desert National Monument. AT&T had the highest
download speeds on this route overall but dropped to
3G through almost all of our drive through northern
Arizona, which really hurt its reliability score.

REGIONAL AND NATIONAL
WINNERS
NATIONWIDE: VERIZON WIRELESS
It’s Verizon, by a nose. The three leading carriers evenly
split our 36 cities and rural areas this year, but when we
averaged it all out nationwide, Verizon came out ahead.
Verizon understands that it isn’t quite enough just to
install fast LTE technologies. You have to have the
nation’s most reliable 4G network as well, and that’s
where the company came out ahead.
That said, this was the tightest contest ever. T-Mobile
has largely closed its coverage gap with Verizon within
metro areas, making it an excellent lower-cost choice.
And AT&T sprinted ahead this year, especially in the
Southeast and Midwest. Sprint seems to have hit a
speed bump, mostly in terms of consistency, but it’s also
much more competitive than it was two years ago.

NORTHEAST: T-MOBILE
T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T all won cities in the Northeast, and as you can see
in the chart below, the decision between T-Mobile and Verizon was as close
regionally as it was nationwide. Verizon showed some spectacular peak speeds,
but lower latency and greater reliability (!) pulled it out for T-Mobile.
SOUTHEAST: T-MOBILE AND VERIZON (TIE)
There’s always one result every year that’s a little weird, math-wise. In this
region, AT&T takes the Carolinas, T-Mobile has Atlanta, and Florida belongs to
Verizon. The way weighted averages work, T-Mobile’s lower latency outweighs
Verizon’s other advantages in our Speed Score equation. That means this
region’s results are a tie.

NORTH CENTRAL: VERIZON
Verizon and AT&T split the wins in Michigan, Illinois,
Indiana, and Missouri, with Verizon taking the regional
crown thanks to a balance of uploads, downloads, and
low latency. Give AT&T a few months, though, and its
steadily improving Indianapolis network could change
things. T-Mobile shows great promise in Chicago and
St. Louis but still has issues in Indiana and Ohio.
SOUTH CENTRAL: AT&T
AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon all notched wins in
Oklahoma, Texas and Louisiana, and even Sprint
marked excellent speeds in Texas. AT&T won this
region by a hair thanks to a reliable network with low
latency, which the company has said is a priority.

NORTHWEST: T-MOBILE
T-Mobile won four out of our five Northwestern cities,
and its coverage has improved quite a lot in
Washington, Oregon, and Utah over the past few years.
The carrier’s one loss is in the San Francisco Bay Area,
where AT&T has clearly put a lot of effort in and come
out on top.
SOUTHWEST: VERIZON
Verizon’s coverage advantage played out in the
Southwest, where it achieved a better reliability score
than its competitors. AT&T and T-Mobile also did well,
but the Southwest was Sprint’s weakest region.

WHY YOU NEED A FASTER PHONE
Annoyed by your phone’s data speeds? Your phone may be the problem.
Driving around the country for Fastest Mobile Networks, we used the fastest
phone in America, the Samsung Galaxy S8. It’s the first phone with the
Qualcomm X16 modem, which brings together three key technologies—threecarrier
aggregation, 256 QAM encoding, and 4x4 MIMO antennas—to offer
what carriers call “gigabit LTE.” (It isn’t truly gigabit, but that’s the brand.)
Using Ookla’s Speedtest Intelligence tools, we dug into a huge, crowdsourced
data set to see how much a faster phone matters. It matters a lot: The Galaxy S8
has double the download speeds of the Apple iPhone 6 on AT&T, Sprint, and
T-Mobile. Remember, this is data from the same day—the major variable is the
phone the testers are using.

The cutting-edge Galaxy S8 won’t be alone in the gigabit
sweepstakes for long: It will soon be joined by the HTC
U11, Moto Z2 Force, and other rumored phones later
this year, such as the OnePlus 5, the LG V30, and the
Google Pixel 2.
Meanwhile, it’s clear that if you want the fastest LTE
connections, you shouldn’t buy an iPhone. Apple
typically trails by a year or two when it comes to LTE
technology, and you can see in our chart that the iPhone
7 is noticeably slower than the Samsung Galaxy S7 on
every network, even though the Galaxy S7 came out
earlier in the year.
To make sure
that iPhones
have
consistent
speeds, the
Qualcomm
iPhones will
probably be
kneecapped.
We expect that the same thing will happen with this
year’s iPhones, because of Apple’s ongoing war with
Qualcomm. Apple is now splitting its modem purchases
between Qualcomm and Intel. Qualcomm has a gigabit
LTE modem this year; Intel does not. So to make sure
that iPhones have consistent speeds, the Qualcomm
iPhones will probably be kneecapped down to the speed
of the Intel devices. The difference isn’t as sharp on
upload speeds, but it’s still noticeable.
If you want the best network speeds, you have to get the
fastest phone. For now, that’s one with the Qualcomm
Snapdragon 835 platform and X16 modem, such as the
Galaxy S8. It makes a real difference.

TESTING METHODOLOGY
For Fastest Mobile Networks 2017, we used custom field-test software designed
by Ookla, the creator of Speedtest.net. The software was loaded onto sets of four
Samsung Galaxy S8 phones. We chose the S8 because it was, at the time we
tested, the only device able to access new “gigabit LTE” networks at full speed.
Three sets of phones were driven around the country in rental cars: one down
the east coast, one down the center of the country, and one down the west coast.
The software runs tests every 90 seconds. We measured uploads and downloads
to a neutral, non-carrier server as well as pings to the nearest server in Ookla’s
network. Over the course of driving, we tested downloads from 160 different
servers and pings to 407 different servers.
We stopped at between 12 and 15 locations, for at least 15 minutes each, in each
of 30 cities. We averaged the data in each location, then averaged the locations
together for an overall city result. The aggregated data from traveling between
the test locations counted into the overall averages as two more locations. As we
are testing LTE networks, we did not average in speeds on non-LTE networks.
If a phone dropped off an LTE network, it was treated as though the test failed.

Along with our 30 cities, we reported on suburban/rural areas, which are
summaries of the drives between the metro areas. Our six regional scores are
averages of the five cities in each region, plus the suburban/rural score. Our
national score is an average of the 30 cities and six suburban/rural regions.
We tested mostly during business hours, from May 1 through May 22, 2017. We
visited different cities on different days. We ended up with about 124,000 data
points, which we processed through a MySQL database and summarized on an
Excel 2016 spreadsheet.
THE PCMAG SPEED SCORE
The PCMag Speed Score is a weighted average that looks at six components of
the mobile data experience. We used the same speed score methodology as we
did last year, for consistency. It takes into account downloads, uploads, latency,
reliability, and consistency.
Since most mobile Internet usage is web page downloads and small-screen
video streaming, it’s just as important to have a consistent experience as a fast
one. Smartphone users may not be able to see the difference between 20Mbps
and 100Mbps, but they can definitely feel the difference between 2Mbps and
5Mbps. So we created a “threshold score” showing the percentage of downloads
over 5Mbps and the percentage of uploads over 2Mbps.
To create our reliability score, we counted the number of tests and divided by
the number of non-zero LTE uploads and downloads. Stalled tests and areas
without LTE coverage received reduced scores.
Here’s how it all comes together:
AVERAGE DOWNLOAD SPEED (20 PERCENT)
DOWNLOADS OVER 5MBPS THRESHOLD (20 PERCENT)
AVERAGE UPLOAD SPEED (10 PERCENT)
UPLOADS OVER 2MBPS THRESHOLD (10 PERCENT)
PING TIME (20 PERCENT)
RELIABILITY (20 PERCENT)

CROWDSOURCING VS. DRIVE TESTING
There are a lot of “fastest” awards. They’re all correct, according to their own
testing and methodology, and they all have something interesting to say.
In testing, the main division is between crowdsourcing and drive testing.
Crowdsourcing, which is done by Mosaik/Sensorly, Nielsen, Ookla Speedtest,
and OpenSignal, relies on users to run speed tests on their own devices. With a
big enough crowd, you can get a good picture of a network.
Crowdsourcing is always happening, so it’s up to the minute. And it uses a great
range of devices, so you can tell the difference between them. We use Ookla’s
crowdsourced data in our analysis showing how the Galaxy S8 is faster than
earlier phones, for instance.
But crowdsourced apps often can’t tell whether a test is indoors or outdoors,
which make for very different results. They may not do a good job of finding
dead zones, if their users don’t run tests in places which obviously have no
signal. They may have bigger crowds with some carriers or in some cities. And
they leave open the possibility that people using one carrier might be using
better phones, in better weather, on a less congested day than people on
another carrier.
Drive testing is what we do, along with Root Metrics and P3. This kind of testing
lets us compare carriers using the same device, in the same place, at the same
time. In this way, we can eliminate variables and map out coverage on our
route. It lets us make sure we have as much data as we want in each city, so we
feel confident in our results.
But drive testing takes enough work that it isn’t happening continuously in
every city. It won’t show you the performance of phones you don’t drive with.
And it can cover only the routes you drive along.
Methodology-wise, we balance six different elements for our speed score. Other
studies may focus on downloads, use a different measurement of latency, or (in
Nielsen’s case) use a totally idiosyncratic attempt to measure the speeds coming
into various mobile apps. We think our balance makes the most sense, but we
also respect the different decisions others have made.
PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION I SUBSCRIBE I JULY 2017

FEATURES
GOOGLE’S AI
REWRITE:
BUILDING MACHINE
LEARNING INTO
EVERYTHING
BY ROB MARVIN

Makoto Koike is a cucumber farmer in Japan.
He’s a former embedded systems designer
who spent years working in the Japanese
automobile industry, but in 2015 he returned home to
help out on his parents’ farm. He soon realized that the
manual task of sorting cucumbers by color, shape, size,
and attributes such as “thorniness” was often trickier
and more arduous than growing them. Inspired by the
deep learning innovation of Google’s artificial
intelligence (AI) software AlphaGo, he set out to
automate the task.
Businesses are beginning to implement practical AI in
all sorts of ways, but it’s safe to say that no one saw
Koike’s cucumber-sorting solution coming. Koike had
never worked with AI techniques before, but using the
open-source TensorFlow machine learning (ML)
library, he started inputting images of cucumbers.
Thanks to computer vision algorithms for recognizing
objects and deep learning to train TensorFlow on the
nuances of cucumbers, Koike realized it could identify
and sort the vegetables with a high level of accuracy.
Then, by using nothing but TensorFlow and a cheap
Raspberry Pi 3 computer, Koike built his automated
sorting machine, which the farm still uses today.
Using the
open-source
TensorFlow
machine learning
(ML) library,
he started
inputting
images of
cucumbers.
Makoto Koike’s
cucumber-sorting
machine makes use
of computer vision
algorithms and
deep learning to
identify and sort the
vegetables.

TensorFlow is one of the many open-source algorithms
and tools revolutionizing what businesses and
developers can solve using AI. The company expanded
on its mission to “bring the benefits of AI to everyone”
with the release of Google.ai at its Google I/O
conference, bundling all its AI resources together into a
unified platform. Google is also incorporating these
techniques and application programming interfaces
(APIs) into everything it does, baking ML into its
products and fundamentally redefining how its software
works in the process.
PCMag visited the Googleplex and spoke to executives
from G Suite, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and the
company’s Machine Learning Advanced Solution Lab
(ML ASL) about how Google is rebuilding itself with AI.
Google
pulled back
the curtain
on how ML
algorithms
analyze text
and images
to make this
happen.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE EVERYWHERE
Let’s say one of your customers is having an issue. An
agent from your company’s helpdesk department is in a
live chat with the customer through a chat app that
stores data on Google Cloud Platform. To help resolve
the issue, the user needs to send the agent some
sensitive personal data. Now let’s say that customer is
your grandma. The customer service rep asks grandma
for a few pieces of data, but instead, grandma sends way
more information than she needs to when she uploads a
picture of her social security card to the chat.
Instead of Google archiving that personally identifiable
information (PII), the picture shows up with the social
security number and other PII automatically redacted.
The agent never sees any information he doesn’t need,
and none of that data goes into Google’s encrypted
archive. During a demo of the DLP API technology at
Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., the
company pulled back the curtain on how ML algorithms
analyze text and images to make this happen.

Rob Sadowski, trust and security marketing lead for Google Cloud, explained
that the automatic redaction is powered by Google’s data loss prevention (DLP)
API working under the surface to classify sensitive data. The algorithm does the
same thing with data such as credit card numbers, and it can analyze patterns to
detect when a number is fake. This is but one example of Google’s subtle
strategy of weaving AI into its experiences and giving businesses and developers
such as Koike the resources to do the same.
Google is far from the only tech giant that’s building a connective intelligence
layer into its software. But along with Amazon and Microsoft, Google has
arguably the most widespread breadth of cloud-based intelligence tools and
services available. Breaking down the company’s products, you can find Google
Assistant and various machine learning and computer vision APIs in use just
about everywhere.
Google Search uses ML algorithms in its RankBrain AI system to process and
refine queries, re-ranking and aggregating data based on a host of changing
factors to continually improve the quality of search results. Google Photos uses
computer vision to stitch related photos together into memories and combine
multiple shots of the same location into panoramas. Inbox gives users autogenerated
Smart Replies to choose from and surfaces relevant emails by
bundling similar categories together. The company’s new Google Allo chat app
comes with Google Assistant built in. The list goes on.

All of these apps run on Google’s cloud infrastructure, and the company is even
applying ML in its data centers to reduce power consumption by adjusting
cooling pumps based on load and weather data. Sadowski said this also serves as
the final layer of defense in Google’s security strategy, where the company uses
machine intelligence and risk scoring within its security stack to determine
whether a system is compromised using predictive analytics.
“Google takes all these ML and AI models we’ve developed and tunes them for
security,” Sadowski explained. “Security changes a lot more radically than most
sectors of IT. Products that were the core of your security infrastructure three or
four years ago, like firewalls and endpoint protection, are still important, but we
want to provide defense in depth, at scale, and by default over a multi-tenant
infrastructure with millions of daily active users.
“It starts with the underlying data center hardware [such as the newly
announced Titan chip],” Sadowski continued. “On top of that is application
services and authentication with fully encrypted data and communication. On
top of that is user identity. And the last layer of defense is how we operate with
24/7 monitoring, detection, and incident response. It’s how we solve for things
like secure remote access with the identity aware proxy. It’s the programmatic
DLP service finding and preventing data leaks and helping with data governance
as well as security. We aim to make these capabilities easy, consumable, and get
them working at scale.”
A SMARTER G SUITE
Machine learning is also embedded throughout Google’s G Suite productivity
apps. Allan Livingston, director of product management for G Suite, broke down
some of the ways AI is making G Suite smarter and more contextual without
users even realizing it.
“Think about how G Suite brings all
these applications together in a
naturally integrated way,” said
Livingston. “You start your work in
one of them and flow through as
appropriate. You open a Gmail
attachment in Drive, and that takes
you into Docs; it’s really automatic.

“We’re trying to take thinking out of it for the user, and that also involves
machine learning. We started with smart replies in Inbox, and we’ve had good
success with Gmail, and that has led to the Explore feature in Docs, Sheets, and
Slides,” he said.
Rolled out last fall, Explore applies natural language processing (NLP) to the
in-app productivity experience. In Docs, Explore gives you instant suggestions
based on the content in your document and automatically recommends related
topics and resources. In Slides, it generates design suggestions to cut down on
presentation formatting. The most interesting use case, however, is in Sheets.
Livingston explained how Explore uses ML to simplify data analysis and
business intelligence (BI) insights.
“A lot of users don’t know what something like a pivot table is or how to
use it to visualize a sheet of data,” Livingston explained. “Let’s say you’re
dealing with sales data for a customer, where each row is an item that has
been sold. Explore lets you type in natural language queries like, ‘What’s
the top item on Black Friday?’ and spits out a response like, ‘You sold 563 pairs
of pants.’ We’re addressing data analysis in a way that saves time in making
data-driven decisions, using machine learning to improve a common problem
in a natural way.”
According to Livingston, Google plans to expand this kind of ML-driven cloud
search to third parties and to start building an ecosystem around it. The
overarching idea is a common theme in practical AI: automating manual
processes to free users up for more creative work. That idea is at the heart of
most apps of ML apps: to automate repeatable business processes and everyday
tasks, including cucumber sorting.
“In business and with consumers, users have these natural interaction patterns.
The shift to the cloud and to mobile productivity are really changing the way
people work, and these applied machine-learning techniques are fundamental
to it,” said Livingston. “Because of our strength in machine learning, because of
our products serving as a base, because of all the data in our cloud, we’re in a
unique position to apply that and scale infinitely.”

POWERING A MACHINE-LEARNING
REVOLUTION
The foundation of everything Google does around AI is
rooted in its APIs, algorithms, and open-source tools.
The company’s TensorFlow library is the most widely
used ML tool on GitHub, spawning apps such as Koike’s
cucumber sorter. The suite of APIs underlying Google
Cloud — algorithms spanning computer vision, video
intelligence, speech and NLP, prediction modeling, and
large-scale ML through the Google Cloud Machine
Learning Engine — is the technology powering every AI
feature integrated into Google’s apps and services and
now the Google.ai platform as well.
The foundation
of everything
Google does
around AI
is rooted
in its APIs,
algorithms, and
open-source
tools.
Francisco Uribe, product manager for Google Cloud’s
AI/ML team, works at the heart of the engine that’s
rewriting how Google works. Uribe oversees Google’s
aforementioned ML ASL, a lab with an immersive
program in which Google ML experts work directly with
enterprises to implement AI solutions. By using
Google’s APIs and the Cloud ML Engine, the lab works
with businesses to train and deploy their own models
into production.

Uribe has worked in the AI space for more than a
decade. He founded BlackLocus, a data-driven startup
that built an automated pricing engine for retailers,
which was acquired by Home Depot in 2012. After that,
he joined Google and worked for four years on the
Search Ads team applying ML to improve the ad
experience. In 2016, he moved into a research role
running the ML ASL and acting as a mentor in Google’s
Launchpad Accelerator. Uribe said he’s continually
surprised by how businesses and developers are using
Google’s tools.
“We’ve seen use cases across the board — from
healthcare and finance to retail and agriculture,” said
Uribe. “We’re trying to help customers improve
perception capabilities. Speech translation, image
analysis, video APIs, natural language: they’re all part of
democratizing access to machine and deep learning
algorithms, which have finally entered applicability.”
‘We’ve seen
use cases
across the
board — from
healthcare and
finance to
retail and
agriculture,’
said Uribe.
The ML ASL has worked with HSBC Bank plc, one of
the largest banking and financial services organizations
in the world, on ML solutions for anti-money
laundering and predictive credit scoring. The ML ASL
has also worked with the United Services Automobile
Association (USAA), a Fortune 500 financial services
group of companies, to train the organization’s
engineers on ML techniques applied to specific
insurance scenarios. eBay used Google’s tools to train
its ShopBot digital assistant. When the ML ASL works
with a company, Uribe explained the four pillars that
make up the process.
“You need a strong compute offering to deal with the
extreme requirements of ML jobs, and GCP’s
distributed fiber-optics backbone moves data from node
to node very efficiently,” said Uribe. “We have the Cloud

Machine Learning Engine to help customers train models. We help customers
execute on data with access to Kaggle’s community of 800,000-plus active data
scientists. Finally, you need the talent to be there, so on the research side of
things, we have the Brain Residency Program to train engineers on complex ML
curriculum. We see these as the building blocks to help customers build
intelligent applications.”
This all feeds into the open-source community and third-party ecosystem that
Google is building around its AI technology. The company even announced a
ML startup competition earlier this year, which awards up to $500,000 in
investment to ML startups. Uribe talked about some of the innovative
applications he’s already seen of Google’s technology and where other
possibilities might lie.
“Let’s say you’re a customer service analytics company. Think about a speech
API to transcribe the content of calls and then sentiment analysi s to improve
the quality of your customer service,” said Uribe. “Use the vision API to take a
photo of a street sign in a foreign country and then the translation API to
translate that content in real time through an app experience. It’s not just about
increasing efficiency; it’s about creating new and unique user experiences.”
Uribe sees tools such as TensorFlow as the great enabler for large-scale ML
adoption in the marketplace. Not only have these technologies become core to
what Google is and how it approaches product development, but also, Uribe
believes, widely available ML technology will help optimize businesses, open
new revenue streams, and invent a new class of intelligent apps.
“Think of it like a new industrial revolution,” said Uribe. “We’re seeing these
tools enable orders-of-magnitude increases in efficiency and experiences you’ve
never seen before. It’s amazing to see how startups are applying it. Look at the
cucumber farmer in Japan. He used TensorFlow to build a model for classifying
and sorting cucumbers based on patterns, size, textures, etc., and then built
specialized hardware to execute it. That level of democratization is incredible to
see, and we’ve barely scratched the surface.”
PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION I SUBSCRIBE I JULY 2017

TIPS & HOW TOS
TIPS
What to Do if Your Laptop Is
Plugged In But Not Charging
BY BRIAN WESTOVER
When you plug in your laptop, you usually find yourself greeted with
a cheerful chirp from your PC, a new glowing LED indicator light,
and a display that perks up and beams a bit more brightly.
At least, that’s what’s supposed to happen. Sometimes, though, you connect the
AC adapter—usually because the battery is nearly drained—and you get nothing.
No chirp, no lights, and no brightened display. And no battery charging. What
went wrong, and what can you do about it?

Between the wall outlet and your battery are several
steps and parts that can all fail. Some are easy to fix
yourself with a software tweak or a new battery, but
other problems may require a visit to a repair shop or
even a full-blown system replacement. Knowing which
is which can save you hours of frustration and hundreds
of dollars in repairs. By taking an inside-out approach,
you can quickly narrow down where the problem
originates and find the most economical solution.
1. Are You Plugged In?
It sounds silly, but you need to make sure the laptop is
actually plugged in. No software tweak or hardware
repair can make a disconnected laptop magically power
on. So before you do anything else, ensure that the AC
outlet and laptop plugs are firmly seated.
No software
tweak or
hardware
repair can
make a
disconnected
laptop
magically
power on.
Check the AC adapter brick and verify that any
removable cords are fully inserted. Next, make sure that
the battery is properly seated in its compartment, and
that there is nothing wrong with either the battery or
laptop contact points. Finally, find out whether the
problem doesn’t lie with the laptop at all: Try plugging
the power cord into a different outlet to see if you’ve got
a short or a blown fuse.
At this point, we’ve determined that it’s not just user
error causing the problem. There is a real issue with
powering the laptop; now it’s simply a matter of figuring
out where the problem may be. That begins with
eliminating where it isn’t. We’ll start with the most
common and easy-to-address issues.
2. Lose the Battery
A simple way to check the integrity of the battery is to
remove it entirely and try plugging in the laptop. If the
laptop powers on properly, the problem is likely a bum
battery.

3. Make Sure You’re Using the Right USB-C Port
USB-C is a popular cross-platform standard for charging, peripherals, and data
transfer. The new standard allows for thinner devices but might also cause some
confusion. Some manufacturers have opted to make USB-C ports data-only—so
those ports can’t be used to charge your device.
For example, the new Huawei MateBook X has two USB-C ports: one that can
be used for charging or data transfer and one that is designated only for data
transfer or connecting to a dock. If you run into a non-charging issue, make
sure you are connected to the correct USB-C port.
4. Breaks, Burnout, and Shorts
Feel along the length of the power cord, bending and flexing as you go, to check
for kinks or breaks. Check the ends for broken connections, such as plugs
pulling loose or spots that may have gotten chewed by a pet or caught in a
vacuum cleaner. Inspect the AC brick. Is it discolored? Are any parts warped or
expanded? Give it a sniff—if it smells like burnt plastic, that’s likely where the
trouble lies.
5. Check the Connector
When you plug in the laptop’s power connector, the connection should be fairly
solid. If it’s suddenly wobbly or loose, or if the receiving socket gives when it
should stay firm, the power jack may have broken inside the chassis. Are there
discolorations or any sort of burning smell? If there seems to be any damage to
the power connector, repairs will be in order.

6. Beat the Heat
A non-charging battery can sometimes be caused by an overheating laptop. The
system is shutting down to prevent overheating a battery and perhaps causing a
fire, so the problem is actually two-fold. Also, as the temperature rises, the
battery sensor may misfire, telling the system that the battery is either fully
charged or missing completely, causing the charging problems.
These problems become far more likely with older laptops, which don’t have the
quality of cooling technology used today, or when you’re using the laptop on the
couch or in bed with a blanket or pillow covering the cooling vents. Let the
system cool down and take the time to make sure that the air vents are clean
and unobstructed.
GET OUT OF BED!
It might be cozy, but if a
blanket covers your laptop’s
cooling vents, the machine
could overheat and shut
itself down.
7. Swap Out the Cord and Battery
These are the cheapest and easiest-to-swap parts on the laptop. A replacement
power cable can often be had for under $10 on Amazon, and replacement
batteries can be picked up for under $100.
Replacement cables are most easily found by searching under the model name
of the laptop, while batteries often have their own model numbers. Look for a
replacement that matches the voltage specifications of the equipment your
laptop came with, and be aware that cheap replacement parts from third-party
manufacturers may not have the quality of the originals.

At this point, we’ve eliminated the problems caused by kinked cords or
environmental causes. If you still find yourself powerless, the problem lies
within the computer itself, either a software issue or faulty hardware. Let’s start
by looking at the settings and software.
8. Check Your Settings
Windows laptops: In the Control Panel, open up Power Options. Open the plan
settings and visually check that all are properly set. Be on the lookout for
incorrect settings for the battery, display, and sleep options. For example, your
battery settings may cause trouble if you set the computer to shut down when
the battery level drops too low or set the low battery level at too high a
percentage.
You can also assign actions including sleep and shutdown when your lid is
closed or the power button is pressed. If these settings have been changed, it’s
easy to suspect a power malfunction even though there’s no physical problem
with the battery or charging cable. The easiest way to make sure that your
settings aren’t causing problems is to restore the power profile to default
settings.
Mac laptops: In System Preferences, select the Energy Saver pane and review
your preferences. Mac settings are adjusted with a slider, letting you select the
amount of time the computer can sit idle until it goes to sleep. If the interval is
too short, you might suspect battery issues when settings are the true culprit.
And don’t forget to check these settings for both battery power and wall power.
You may want to revert back to the default settings to see whether a change in
settings is causing the problem.

9. Update Your Drivers
Windows laptops: Open the Device Manager. Under “Batteries,” you should see
three items: one for the battery, another for the charger, and a third listed as
“Microsoft ACPI Compliant Control Method Battery.” Open each item, which
will bring up a Properties window. Under the “Driver” tab, you’ll see a button
labeled “Update Driver.” Go through the driver update process for all three.
Once the drivers are all up to date, reboot the laptop and plug it in again. If this
doesn’t resolve the problem, uninstall “Microsoft ACPI Compliant Control
Method Battery” completely and reboot.
Mac laptops: On a Mac, you’ll need to try resetting the System Management
Controller (SMC). For laptops with removable batteries, this is as simple as
shutting down power, removing the battery, disconnecting power, and pressing
the power button for 5 seconds. Reinsert the battery, reconnect the power, and
fire up the laptop.

For newer Macs with batteries sealed into the chassis,
shut down the computer but leave the power adapter
connected. With the power off, press and hold the
power button while pressing the Shift-Control-Option
keys on the left-hand side of the keyboard. Release the
keys and power button simultaneously, then attempt to
power on the laptop.
10. Call In Outside Assistance
If you haven’t already, this is probably a good time to
contact tech support. Your particular make and model
of laptop will likely have unique issues, and a seasoned
tech-support operator will have seen all of them. He or
she will likely walk you through many of the steps
outlined above but will also be aware of software and
hardware issues specific to your configuration, such as
which hardware commonly fails.
Your make and
model of laptop
will likely have
unique issues,
and a seasoned
tech-support
operator will
have seen all of
them.
11. Problems Inside
When all your options are exhausted—you’ve tried other
power cables and batteries, you’ve checked and
rechecked your settings, you’ve fixed any potential
software problems—the problem is likely found inside
the machine. Common culprits include a faulty
motherboard, wonky logic boards, damaged charging
circuits, and malfunctioning battery sensors.
Like a sick person consulting a doctor, you need to see a
specialist. Contact your manufacturer about what repair
options are covered under your warranty or call up a
local computer repair shop.
PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION I SUBSCRIBE I JULY 2017

TIPS & HOW TOS
WINDOWS 10
How to Sync Notifications
Between Windows 10 and
Your Phone BY LANCE WHITNEY
You’ve just set up an appointment in Windows 10 via the Cortana voice
assistant. The only problem is that you may not be in front of your
Windows 10 computer when the alert goes off telling you the
appointment is due.
No problem. You can set up the same notification so it also appears on your
smartphone. The key here is Cortana. By installing Cortana on your
smartphone, you can share reminders and other notifications between your
phone and your Windows 10 device. And this process works on iPhones,
Android phones, and Windows Phone handsets. Here’s how.

First, install the mobile Cortana app on your iOS or Android device if you
haven’t already done so. Apple iPhone and iPad users can download Cortana
from Apple’s App Store. Android users can download Cortana from the Google
Play store. Cortana is built into Microsoft Windows Phone handsets, so there’s
no need to download it separately.
On your iPhone, enable Notifications for the Cortana app, which you’ll be asked
to do when you install the app. If you didn’t do so during the installation, follow
these steps.
On your iOS device, tap
on Settings >
Notifications. Scroll
down the list until you
see Cortana. Tap on the
entry for Cortana and
then turn on the button
to Allow Notifications.
Open the Cortana app
on your iPhone and sign
in with your Microsoft
account.
On your Android device,
tap on Settings >
Notifications. Tap on
the entry for Cortana
and turn on the button
to “Display
notifications.”
Open Cortana and sign in with your Microsoft account. Grant Cortana access to
your location and various media. Tap on the account icon in the upper-right
corner and tap on the entry for Settings. At the Settings screen, tap on the
option to “Sync notifications.” Turn on the buttons for all three settings—
Missed call notifications, Low battery notifications, and App notifications sync.

Tap on “Allow” to the
question “Allow
notification access for
Cortana?” Return to
the previous screen and
tap on the command
“Choose which apps to
sync.” You can leave all
of the apps turned off,
and the notifications
will still work. But you
may want to also turn
on synchronization for
certain apps, such as
Calendar, Contacts,
Email, and Photos.
Next, on your Windows 10 device, click in the Cortana search field at the bottom
of the screen where it says “Ask me anything.” Click on the Settings icon (the
one that looks like a gear). Scroll down the pane until you see the section called
“Send notifications between devices.” Make sure that setting is turned on. Then
click on the button that says “Edit sync settings.” Make sure the options to “Get
notifications from this PC on my phone” and “Upload notifications from this PC
to the cloud” are both turned on.
Now type or speak your reminder to Cortana on your Windows 10 device. For
example, you can say to Cortana: “Set up an appointment with Mary for 3 p.m.
on Tuesday to discuss next week’s presentation.” When your notification comes
due, you’ll see and hear it on your phone as well as on your Windows 10 device.
As long as you have one or the other with you, you’ll be sure to get the virtual
tap on the shoulder for your appointment.
PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION I SUBSCRIBE I JULY 2017

LAST WORD
JOHN C. DVORAK
Was anyone surprised that Google’s
AlphaGo program, developed as part
of its DeepMind operation, defeated
the world’s best go player? IBM’s Deep Blue beat
Garry Kasparov, and Watson prevailed on
Jeopardy! It’s time we stopped pitting computers
against people; there’s no point.
Forget Man
vs. Machine:
It’s Time for
Computer
vs.
Computer
It’s great that one computer can house the entire
Library of Congress. But until an artificial
intelligence system can synthesize an actual new
idea from the knowledge contained in those books,
these machines are still nothing more than
grandiose, soulless adding machines.
Now that doesn’t mean the game-playing
machines can’t provide interesting entertainment,
especially if you rethink playing the games and add
some new twists. We already have computer
programs that can play bridge, for example. Step it
up by having them face off against bridge
superfans Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. This
twosome would love to take on this challenge and
might even finance the whole thing. Bridge-playing
computers win a lot of championships and would
probably beat Gates and Buffett. Let’s find out.
Computer versus man chess matches go back to
the 1950s. It has improved the programs over
time, but how about someone laying down a cool
$1 million and having computers play against
computers? Anyone who likes chess would love to
see how new strategies might evolve.

@ THErealDVORAK
Man versus machine is fun but futile and proves
nothing. There have been computer versus
computer showdowns, but not with big stakes; not
enough to encourage new developments. How
about machine versus machine in other arenas? If
Watson is so smart, could it play the game of go
against the Google machine? I’d love to see how
that showdown goes. How about Watson versus
Deep Blue?
The games would be played at breakneck speed;
thousands might be played in a few minutes and
end up in all stalemates. Final matches between
two fabulous chess-playing machines might run
for months before a victor appeared. Then what
would happen if you had to win two out of three? I
think a lot of people would find this a lot more
interesting than computers versus humans, over
and over.
john_dvorak@pcmag.com
PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION I SUBSCRIBE I JULY 2017

MASTHEAD
EDITORIAL
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, PC MAGAZINE NETWORK Dan Costa
MANAGING EDITOR, DIGITAL EDITIONS Carol Mangis
SENIOR PRODUCER Mark Lamorgese
PRODUCTION DESIGNER José Ruiz
NEWS & FEATURES
EXECUTIVE EDITOR Chloe Albanesius
FEATURES EDITORS Evan Dashevsky, Eric Griffith
SENIOR FEATURES WRITER Chandra Steele
NEWS REPORTERS Tom Brant, Angela Moscaritolo
REVIEWS
EXECUTIVE EDITOR Wendy Sheehan Donnell
MANAGING EDITORS Sean Carroll (software, security), Alex Colon (consumer electronics, mobile), Jonathan
Rougeot (hardware)
LEAD ANALYSTS Michael Muchmore (software), Neil J. Rubenking (security), Joel Santo Domingo
(desktops, laptops), Sascha Segan (mobile)
SENIOR ANALYSTS Jim Fisher (digital cameras), Will Greenwald (consumer electronics), Tony Hoffman
(printers, scanners), Jeffrey L. Wilson (software)
ANALYSTS Max Eddy (software, security), Ajay Kumar (mobile), Victoria Song (consumer electronics)
JUNIOR ANALYST Matthew Buzzi (hardware)
INVENTORY CONTROL COORDINATOR Alice Newcome-Beill
BUSINESS
EDITOR Oliver Rist
MANAGING EDITOR Suzanne Kattau
SENIOR EDITOR Juan Martinez
ASSISTANT EDITOR Rob Marvin
ART, MEDIA & PRODUCTION
DIRECTOR OF PRODUCT MANAGEMENT Sarah Shaiq
PRODUCER Gina Latessa
COMMERCE PRODUCER
Arielle Rochette
SENIOR DESIGNER James Jacobsen
STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Paul Maljak
VIDEO MANAGER Jonno Hill
SENIOR VIDEO PRODUCER Weston Almond
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Tim Bajarin, John R. Delaney, Jill Duffy, John C. Dvorak, William Fenton, Tim Gideon,
Bill Howard, Edward Mendelson
PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION I SUBSCRIBE I JULY 2017

MASTHEAD
CORPORATE
ZIFF DAVIS INC.
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Vivek Shah
CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER Steven Horowitz
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Brian Stewart
CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER Joseph Fortuna
CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER James Yaffe
GENERAL MANAGER, ZIFF DAVIS TECH/COMMERCE Mike Finnerty
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, CONTENT Dan Costa
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Anurag Harsh
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, SALES AND MARKETING Eric Koepele
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT AND GENERAL MANAGER, ACCOUNTING Fredrick Rolff
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, COMMERCE Jason Steele
GENERAL COUNSEL Stephen Hicks
VICE PRESIDENTS Frank Bilich (media sales), Melissa Hart (marketing), Diane Malanowski
(human resources), Jennifer Riccio (FP&A), Archer Rosenblum (technology), Suzanne
Sypulski (Operations)
THE INDEPENDENT GUIDE PC Magazine is the Independent Guide to Technology. Our mission is
to test and review computer- and Internet-related products and services and report fairly and objectively on the
results. Our editors do not invest in firms whose products or services we review, nor do we accept travel tickets or
other gifts of value from such firms. Except where noted, PC Magazine reviews are of products and services that are
currently available. Our reviews are written without regard to advertising or business relationships with any vendor.
HOW TO CONTACT EDITORS We welcome comments from readers. Send your comments to pcmag@pcmag.com
or to PC Magazine, 28 E. 28th St., New York, NY 10016-7940. Please include a daytime telephone number. PC
Magazine’s general number is 212-503-3500. We cannot look up stories from past issues, recommend products, or
diagnose problems with your PC by phone.
PERMISSIONS, REPRINTS, CONTENT, AND TRADEMARK RIGHTS For permission to reuse material in this
publication or to use our logo, contact us at Brand_Licensing@ziffdavis.com. Material in this publication may not be
reproduced in any form without written permission. Copyright © 2017, Ziff Davis Inc. All rights reserved.
Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION I SUBSCRIBE I JULY 2017