John Higgins is a Los Angeles-based senior reviewer at The Verge covering TVs and audio. Before joining The Verge, he’s been the Senior Editor of AV at Digital Trends and Managing Editor, Tech at Reviewed. During his 20+ year career in publishing, he’s written reviews and features for the New York Times’ Wirecutter, TechRadar, Tom’s Guide, Business Insider, CNET, Sound & Vision, IGN, T3, Projector Central, and Home Theater Magazine, where he got his start in 2003. He is also an ISF Level III-certified display calibrator. Away from his desk, John is a musician with a Masters degree in piano from University of Southern California. He enjoys spending his free time with his wife and son, or playing D&D or video games. Signal: johnhiggins.01
7
Verge Score
At $99, Nothing can get away with some minor flaws, especially when the earbuds look this good.
The best (and my favorite) high-res audio player has improved its UI. The Qobuz player has more targeted recommendations, dynamic lyrics that follow along as you listen, and expanded song information. I’m loving the improvement so far, and find it’s also more intuitive to change bitrate and audio output.
9
Verge Score
The Bravia 9 II is the best RGB LED TV available with game-changing features, but I’d still buy an OLED.
The Mini LED Quantum is the cheapest quantum-dot TV you can get, but Walmart’s tracking is worrisome. Luckily you can avoid it.
The redesign, which is a huge improvement, was announced at CES this past January and has been slowly rolling out across devices. It’s now on Ember TVs, the Fire TV 4K Select, and Fire TV Cube. Partner TVs from Hisense recently got the update, with additional manufacturers’ TVs being added later this summer.
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0The Strato E combines the convenience of streaming and the quality of Blu-ray without discs — at a high cost.
Earbuds come and go in the life of a reviewer, but these three have earned permanent spots in my life.
