ICYMI: We spent a few nights with Bose Sleepbuds 2

This week, we put editor-in-chief Terrence O’Brien and senior editor Devindra Hardawar to work on reviewing a variety of new devices. Terrence, along with senior video producer Brian Oh, tested Bose’s Sleepbuds 2 to see if they could help them rest better at night. He also took Fender’s innovative hybrid acoustic guitar, which can produce both electric and acoustic sounds. Meanwhile, Devindra has found a lot to like Dell’s 40-inch ultra-wide monitor, with the exception of its gaming performance. He also tested AMD’s Radeon RX 6700 XT and found it ideal for players running at 1080p or 1440p (that is, assuming you can get your hands on one). And for those of you who have your own podcasts, James Trew has listed several ways to hone your recording skills with microphones, mixers and kits.

Bose Sleepbuds 2 are soft plastic headphones designed to improve your sleep by playing soft sounds and audio tracks. However, they do not broadcast music or podcasts and cannot answer calls – in short, the $ 250 buds are a one-time gadget. Terrence O’Brien and Brian Oh tested Sleepbuds 2 over a period of a few weeks and both reported that they were generally comfortable to use at night, although they both had problems with the buttons remaining in place. They also said that it can be difficult to find a comfortable sleeping position, so that the buttons do not burrow into your ears.

Sleepbuds 2 can play any of the 50 sounds from the Bose library in the complementary mobile app, ranging from sounds of nature to white noise and environmental ranges. However, again, it is not transmitted, so all tracks need to be transferred to the device before you leave. Terrence said that although the app is simple and functional, it also lacks a main list or a viewing option so you can see what sounds are already on your buttons. He also had problems with the alerts, which would ring if an incoming call was received, but would not ring if he had alarms set on his phone. Overall, Terrence felt that Sleepbuds could be a big investment – if they were at least $ 100 cheaper.

Terrence O’Brien admits he was skeptical when it came to Fender’s hybrid acoustic guitar. But after approaching the instrument with an open mind, he says he has a better assessment of what the company is trying to accomplish. Terrence reports that the design won him over quickly and the materials are clearly premium. He adds that it is better to think of the $ 2,000 guitar as an acoustic first, which can occasionally be an electric blow.

When playing it offline, Terrence said that the Acoustasonic was quieter than a real acoustic and lacked a little depth, but it was a great technical guitar. It has three different electric pickups, which can be combined with the integrated DSP to create different electrical and acoustic tones. Since Acoustasonic comes with acoustic strings, Terrence reports that it doesn’t exactly play like an electric, although it pairs with great reverbs and delays. He still felt that the guitar was a remarkably versatile instrument and that Fender is managing to push the envelope.

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

Although the RX 6700 XT can handle a little 4K, it doesn’t do so well with lightning tracking performance. In addition, as it is a shorter GPU, it has only two cooling fans, which results in a noisy side – loud enough to interfere with the recording of the Devindra podcast. During the test, he managed Destiny 2 at 1440p between 75 and 100 fps, but the GPU had difficulties during the game To control. However, he considered it a sensible choice for players running 1080p or 1440p screens with high refresh rates – as long as you don’t mind beam tracking.

After using Dell’s new $ 2,100 40-inch ultra-wide monitor for a few months, Devindra Hardawar was impressed by the incredible color accuracy, generous screen space and sharp 5K2K resolution. The screen can render 1.07 billion colors with a pixel density of 140ppi, supports 100% of the SRGB range and achieves 300 nits of brightness. Devindra found it ideal for full-screen video editing, preparing long podcast recordings and full-screen videos.

However, he was less impressed with the game’s performance in cases where the resolution was too much for his system to render modern games natively (despite an RTX 3080 GPU). He was sometimes forced to touch lower settings with black bars on the screen. And the size of the screen sometimes made things weird, like recording podcasts or balancing a webcam on one side during video calls. Despite this, Devindra still thinks the UltraSharp 40 is ideal for professionals who can put their vast screen space and impeccable color accuracy to good use.