Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR Amazing

As you can see, these are Golf GTI Performance. We're at the race track near Barcelona; the Castellolí track. We're going to do something very cool today. First, we're doing some laps with these GTIs. For those who haven't been here before... I have, with the Seat León Cupra, a long time ago. As you can hear, another car is being driven here. I'm doing laps with that one as well today. Unfortunately, it's raining. We'll have to be careful. I'm going to drive the Golf GTI TCR today. The TCR championship... I'm entering the pit lane. The TCR is a new championship entering its 3rd season. This championship is based on Balance of Performance. 

This means all cars need to be as equal as possible. What brands compete? Volkswagen with the Golf, Audi with the S3, Seat with the León, Lada Vesta, Honda Civic, Opel Astra... Peugeot is testing the 308. They may join the championship as well. All in all, a lot of brands. The first drivers have left the track. The weather is horrible. The Golf Rs are in front with great drivers. Two VW drivers. Benny is a friendly dude, but the other man playing pace car with a Golf R... AWD, so they have an advantage in the rain. He's Hans-Joachim Stuck. If you don't know him, you should work on your general knowledge. He's a legend. DTM champion, Le Mans champion, he was a F1 driver in the '70s. 

Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR

Like he said yesterday: back then racing was still dangerous and sex was safe. It's the other way around nowadays. This Golf is wider than a standard Golf. It has a different rear wing. This rear wing has been changed for the 2017 model. It's lower than last year, which improves the aerodynamics. The car is 15 cm wider. Of course it has a huge roll cage. They removed part of the center console to move the driver to a more central position. This gives him a better feel of the car when driving it on the limit. Of course it has a more aggressive front bumper with a splitter. It looks really nasty and mean. What a car. And I'll be driving it on track. I have my helmet with HANS device and I'm wearing my race suit. It's going to happen. I'm going to hit the track. It's exciting. The track is wet. This is the first time I'm driving a full race car on track. 

There are no assistance systems; no ABS, ESP, etc. I have to do everything myself. I've driven many street cars on tracks, which I was fairly good at, but still. I think it's exciting. We'll see. I'll tell you what's in front of me. A steering wheel with all the basic controls. These are the standard DSG flappy pedals. This car has DSG. That's the cheaper version to buy; 9,000 euros. This is the handbrake. We won't use it. This can change the brake balance. I won't do that either. This is the ignition, etc. It has a standard DSG gear selector. The transmission lasts a long time. One car has 40,000 race km (25,000 miles) with a standard DSG. It still doesn't need an overhaul. There we go. It's tricky. The track is a bit slippery, but it's drying. The car feels great. It's stiffer than a street car because the chassis... It has different shock absorbers, springs, and wheels. The chassis itself is 50% stiffer. Stay off the curbstones and then power! 345 hp and 420 Nm (310 lb ft) torque. 

The DSG was adjusted to shift faster using software and different springs. The rest is the same as a street GTI. I'm struggling with DSG transmissions in street cars. However, I don't misshift with this one. Volkswagen should look at its motorsport devision. For the software they're using, because it's better than the street version. The big handle here isn't for shifting gears. It's the handbrake. On some tracks, such as the Macau street circuit, you need the handbrake to take some corners. Especially last season. The 2017 TCR uses different software for the steering, making it shorter and directer. The handbrake is no longer needed. This is so cool. I could do this all day, but I have to leave the track. Unfortunately, that's it. That was intense. I feel the same tingly sensation as when I got in. This car gives you confidence. This is not a difficult car to drive. 

I expected it to be f*ing tricky. It looks like it's going to eat you. I was afraid it'd be a difficult car to handle in these conditions. However, it's not that bad. It's very accessible. Of course you'll get understeer on the limit. But wow. This is cool. This is f*ing cool. I want one. Can I? I get 2 thumbs up of Hans-Joachim Stuck. I'm having a moment. That's... wow. Did you have some fun as well? I saw you sliding around and all. It's great. This car handles so easy. Way easier. I thought it would be way meaner. You're a good driver. - Thank you. Mr Hans-Joachim Stuck said I'm a good driver. Thank you. Fantastic. That's it. We're done. It was bizarre to see the difference between a street car and a track car on the same platform. It's the same MQB platform and chassis, but reinforced. It's bizarre to see how much tighter and stiffer it is and how much mechanical grip it has. A FWD car. 

The Golf R Hans-Joachim Stuck drove was sliding all over the place. He was looking for it, but sometimes couldn't help it. I had more grip than that car, especially in fast corners. It's nice to keep up with a race legend such as Mr Stuck. Fantastic. It was really cool to do. Thank you, Volkswagen. 

Jelly the smallest Smartphone

Camera on the back, display on the front, home key  down below.  Pretty standard.  So, what makes this one special?  Well, this one  fits in your coin pocket.  I'm Mr. Mobile and this is Jelly.  (funky electronic music)  Beyond having the weirdest name since the Veer,  Jelly is tiny.  It's on loan to me from the folks at Gadget Labs,  who claim it's the world's smallest 4G Android smart phone.  And if small is what the folks at UniHertz were going for,  well, mission accomplished.  Similar to its predecessor, the posh MicroX, Jelly is  under a half inch thick, and it masses just 60 grams.  

That means the battery is tiny, too, at under an amp hour.  And heavy use will run it dry in about half a day.  But it is removable so you can carry more than one.  And the display it has to power is also small, less  than two and-a-half inches across.  Jelly does bring some cool stuff to bear despite its size,  like 4G LTE, dual SIM slots, microSD expansion,  and Android 7.  My unit has the March security update, and Google  Play Services are here, too, so you can download your  favorite apps from the Play Store.  But when you're building a phone this tiny, compromises  are unavoidable.  There's no fingerprint sensor, it chargers via older  Micro USB cables, and the spec sheet is entry level,  with some telltale corner cutting in a few of the  onboard apps.  (chuckles) It's still got a headphone jack, though.  

What's it like to use?  Actually a lot of fun.  Broadly, it's no surprise that phones this small  are possible.  I mean, after all, we have had wrist watch phones for  years, now.  Jelly is interesting because it's tiny and it's a fully  fledged phone.  You swipe between home screens to see your apps and  widgets, turn it sideways to watch Netflix, and put it  up to your ear to take calls.  Those are surprisingly clear on my end, though callers  say I sound a little muffled.  And when it comes time to type, well, it's difficult,  but not as much as I expected.  gboard's predictive text has gotten good enough that  it usually corrects me correctly.  The best part of the whole thing?  No super human hand stretch is needed to get to  the notification shade.  Praise Jelly!  The worst part of the whole thing is the camera.  There's no way around it, it's terrible.  Especially when you put Jelly's photos up against  the same shots taken with a Google Pixel.  

There is a front-facing camera, too, though, if you  want to test out Jelly's beauty mode, or try to get  a video call going on Skype.  Just keep in mind that apps are slow to open on  this hardware and many have trouble scaling to  such a small canvas.  That's easy to forgive when you think about the  price point.  Jelly is a Kickstarter project launching April 30 and  early backers will be able to snag it for about  60 bucks.  And even if you're late to the party, it tops out  at $79.  So it's being pitched as a sometimes phone, for workouts,  or a backup communicator, or a phone for kids.  It's definitely not for tech geeks.  I couldn't put up with the slow performance or the jiggly  buttons or the cheap glossy finish.  But some folks still really want a super pocketable phone,  but also need the functions of a smart phone.  

For them, Jelly might be an okay fit at a  compelling price.  Just don't expect it to excel at anything beyond  being tiny, and you stand a pretty good chance of  making your big-phone-toting friends...jelly.  Are you a fan of tiny phones?  Drop a line in the comments.  

Specification:

1.1GHz Quad-Core

1G Ram & 8G Rom

Android 7.0 Nougat

Dual Camera

Dual Sim-Card

2.45'' TFT LCD Screen

AMD RX580 & 570 Strike Back

A long time ago in a fabrication plant. FAR FAR Away well actually it wasn't that far away and it was in June of 2016 that AMD Drop(x3) the RX 480. Codename Polaris in a wild marketing campaign evoking revolution and for a good reason the 400 series performed really well for the price. Although the flagship 480 was quickly overshadowed by Nvidia's 1060. Haha the dangers of shooting first. But after 10 months of reloading AMD is finally ready to fire again with the only question being, what's in the Chamber Firepower or FIRE POOR! Come on. It's okay. maybe it's not funny but it's silly so let's get this out of the way this is still Polaris the same architecture AMD use for their RX 400 series if you were waiting for AMD's highly anticipated Vega GPUs then you'll be disappointed. 

BUT if you were waiting for Polaris enhanced with a more mature 14 nanometer FinFET process and tighter voltage and frequency regulation translating into better power efficiency and higher clock speeds then you and all the other holdouts with R9 285 or R9 380s should be amped as hell Right about now. Well hold on a second here, Linus. Is this just a shinier 480 Why is this even worth a video and where is VEGA?!? Great question. RX 570 and 580 then presumably due to slumping RX 480 4GB sales AMD' these partners will be putting more emphasis on the top tier 8GB version this time around though that won't have much of an impact on you the consumer and pricing looks to be well basically the same with RX 570 coming in ten dollars cheaper on average than the 480 edit replaces in other news AMD's slide deck also had prominent mentions of both the RX 550 AND RX 560. the former but of which is brand new silicon. 

But we don't have those yet so all we can say for now is that apparently the RX 550 is better than an integrated GPU at 80$ And I would sure as hell hope so and the 560 is a 460 but with a ten dollar price drop and since enthusiasts were running around unlocking extra compute units with bios tricks AMD went ahead and enabled those right out of the factory and I guess there's some software news as well as of the RX 500 series launch AMD's radeon driver for every card from 7000 series onward includes what they're calling Radeon chill a configurable frame limiter that improves thermals and power draw when enabled you can specify a minimum and maximum frame rate and radeon chill will keep your game running within that window eSports titles for instance are designed to be easy to run and for that reason they're notorious for ultra high frame rates that go way beyond what a typical or even very high-end monitor would be able to display so what this translates to for users is lower noise and more consistent performance without adding any input lag and in some cases they claim even improving it pretty cool right. 

Yeah call me when it's in a notebook you guys also a bigger supported games list would be swell so to AMD's credit the big eSports titles are mostly covered here alright Ben Linus enough stalling tell us how they are X 580 and 570 perform you guys are so demanding sometimes you know okay so we tested our shiny new cards on both our Intel test bench and our Ryzen AMD test bench along with equivalent last gen cards from both AMD and NVIDIA now since AMD doesn't have reference boards for the 500 series they actually sent us factory overclocked cards to test so shout-out to asus nvidia who provided us with some factory overclocked cards for the greenside to level the playing field somewhat before you ask by the way we did try overclocking these cards further but neither of them achieved a core overclock of more than 50 megahertz over what they already shipped with so then as we can see in our performance testing obvious things are indeed obvious in fact we've got a measurable if not earth shattering performance bump over the RX 400 series DirectX12 and Vulkan both show us a wider improvement than DirectX11 thanks to those APIs more efficient rendering pipelines that favor AMD's GCN architecture although again the difference isn't that massive and also of note here is the utterly uninteresting differences in performance between the cards across Intel and AMD CPU platform so. 

Sorry conspiracy theorists but the rumors of NVIDIA's drivers crippling rise and performance seem to have been greatly exaggerated. So the TL:DR then is that in a big surprise to no one we're looking at a higher clocked our RX 480 and 470 for this release AMD chose to iterate on their existing polaris architecture cards in order to address some of their short comings against Nvidia's mid-range and budget line up. Have they achieved that? Well as far as performance is concerned yes yes they have when it comes to power consumption the story does fall apart a little bit particularly with these factory overclocked cards though it should be noted that we didn't use Radeon chill for our testing because it makes apples-to-apples comparisons go sour so then if you're an AMD fan desperately waiting to upgrade your high-end Hawaii or Fiji based GPU then you get to keep waiting but if you're more of a mid-range buyer who didn't know enough lawns last summer for a 470 or a 480 then great news because you get a little bit more for your money this year so rock on you sexy gardening beast you. 

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GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 Movie Review

Captivating new characters, another awesome mix tape, and a generous helping of heart are just some of the things waiting for you in the bundle of fun that is Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers, it's Jan here! Just before I kick off my review proper. As the insect-like alien, Mantis, Pom Klementieff is a simply perfect addition to this universe, and gives a charmingly subtle performance that really highlights her character's innocence, good nature, and humour, and her scenes with Drax, in particular, are an utter joy. 

Elizabeth Debicki, who you'll have seen in The Man From UNCLE and alongside Tom Hiddleston in the TV series The Night Manager, gives a superbly stately and condescending turn which fits her character wonderfully as she plays Ayesha, the High Priestess of the ever-so-arrogant alien race, the Sovereign. And Kurt Russell is just fantastic as Ego in all his forms, managing to make this crazy character believable, and also establishing a great on-screen rapport with Chris Pratt's Star-Lord. Just like the first film, there's plenty of irreverent humour in Vol. 2, a lot of which lands very well, and there's a good chunk of fun and thrilling action too, however this time, there's also more emotional weight given to the Guardians' story, with an emphasis placed on family, whether that's the family you were born into or the people you meet along the way. 

And having got to know his main cast and their characters well over the course of filming the first movie, it feels like writer-director James Gunn has honed this script so it pretty much plays to each actor's particular strengths. The fact that Drax has a love of the literal as well as about as much tact as a ton of bricks means that Dave Bautista gets a mass of marvellously funny lines, which he nails thanks to his great comic timing and delightfully deadpan delivery. And then there's that hilariously hearty laugh Bautista does as Drax which never fails to put a smile on my face and you'll hear plenty of throughout the film. As Peter Quill, aka Star-Lord, Chris Pratt showcases a range of humour, action, and more heartfelt, dramatic moments. While Zoe Saldana and Karen Gillan get some cool action and the chance to peel back the layers of Gamora and Nebula's backstory. 

And Michael Rooker certainly makes the most of the increased screen time Yondu gets this time around, adding extra depth to his character. As for Baby Groot, he's a mix of ultra-cute adorableness and a seething stack of rage, and the VFX guys have done superb job injecting this tiny tree creature with a real sense of soul and personality. I also really like Bradley Cooper's Rocket, who gets a nice emotional arc this time too. Yes, there were odd moments of his humour that didn't work for me, but he does still get lots of great moments and I love Rocket in all his fast-talking, sass-mouthed glory. As was the case with the first movie, the soundtrack for Vol. 2 is a gorgeous mix that I'm looking forward to listening to again and again. 

And as far as the movie's concerned, each track gels beautifully with the scene it's in, taking the on-screen visuals to another level. Speaking of visuals taken to new heights, the production design for this movie is out of this world! From the Sovereign's planet, which is all Art Deco-style lavishness to Ego's home, which perfectly reflects who his character is, the work of the movie's art, design, and VFX teams really shines. And, as you'd expect from a movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there are post-credits scenes, five to be precise, so it's definitely worth sticking around until the very end of the film. Plus, there are also plenty of easter eggs and references in the movie too. 

And I'll be making videos about those various post-credits scenes and their significance in the MCU as well as the movie's easter eggs very shortly. To sum up: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 is entertainment of cosmic proportions, or to put it another way, it was a pleasure to watch. Writer-director James Gunn blends plentiful laughs with an emotional kick in the gut and a galaxy of scene-stealing performances from cast old and new. And I cannot wait to see what Gunn has up his sleeve for Vol. 3! But in the meantime, I'm looking forward to watching Vol. 2 again! Now, what are you looking forward to about Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2? And who are your favourite characters in the Guardians movies? Don't forget to comment and subscribe for a chance to win one of several Guardians prizes. 

I've got two awesome hardback books from DK, Guardians of the Galaxy: The Ultimate Guide to the Cosmic Outlaws, which takes an in-depth look at iconic characters, issues and storylines from the comics. And I've also got a selection of three very cool Guardians Funko Pop vinyl figures. The giveaway will run for two to three weeks on all my Guardians Vol. 2 videos and I'll announce the winners on a new video after that.

Mechanical Keyboard Wrist Rests Glorious PC Gaming Race Unboxing & Review

Today we’re going to get into wrist rests for mechanical keyboards, but I guess it also applies to other boards. We’ve got some wrist rests from Glorious PC Gaming Race. They come in these simple black and white boxes. And we have 2 soft foam ones, and 1 wooden one. Plus they come with these nice logo stickers. Ok so first of all, I haven’t really been a wrist rest type of guy. Mainly because it takes up space on my desk, and gets in the way when I like have papers in front of me and I need to write or draw something. So I don’t have the most experience, but I have used my homemade one on and off. One of the main aspects of ergonomics is the natural positioning of the body. And what wrist rests aim to do is to provide a more natural position for the wrists. And this is where wrist rests are a kind of compromise. 

Naturally, our wrists should be something like this. And if you hover when typing, then you’re set. And that’s the recommended position for typing. However due to laziness, many of us just rest our wrists on the table when typing. However probably the main factors that encourage this behaviour is the height of your table and the height of your chair. We’ve all seen these types of diagrams. And this is all dictated by the furniture being used. So if our table is too high, we’re more likely going to position our wrists on the table. If it’s at the correct height, it’s just naturally easier to hover. And that’s the compromise. I’ve seen people completely dismiss the ergonomic value of wrist rests, because it does discourage hover typing. However on the other hand, it’s a good thing for people who don’t correctly type. So therefore it’s a good thing, since it completely changes the angle of your wrist from a very bent position, to a more natural position. 

glorious pc gaming race keyboard

Another thing I thought I should bring up are the flip up feet. These basically make it easier to reach the top keys, however this is only the case when your wrists are planted. But as we can see, it just worsens the angle of our wrists, so this is considered as an ergonomic no no. So I’ll start with the foam ones. The ones that I have here are full sized lengths for standard 100% keyboards, but they do also come in a tenkeyless version, and a compact 60% / 75% version. These have a smooth cloth surface exterior, with a foam core interior, which they describe has a medium firmness. And I guess that’s accurate, and I like the feel of it. It shouldn’t be too soft and spongy or your wrists will sink too low. And it just provides that nice soft support under your wrists, instead of the usual hard surface of your table. There’s a stitched frame to prevent the cloth from fraying, and it’s lined with a rubber base to keep it steady on the desk. Plus we also get the somewhat large branding on the right hand side. The build is what you expect. It’s just foam with cloth around it, but it’s done cleanly. 

They do state that it does require a week or two of use to break in. When I first got them they were bowed, and still after like 3 weeks they’re still quite bowed. These come in 2 heights which is an important factor. We have the thick one which is 25mm thick. And the thin one is about half that at 13mm, but I measured to be at least 5mm thicker than that, but I guess it still has to be broken in more. First thing we have to take into consideration is the keyboard itself. First of all, if it’s not mechanical, then it will most likely be quite thin, so perhaps the thin version would be better. At first I found the thinner one to be more comfortable. It provides a slightly elevated platform, which eases the wrists a bit. Plus the softness added to the comfort. But also I think I found it comfortable because it wasn’t too far from my normal position without a wrist rest, so the change wasn’t drastic. The thicker one at first felt too high for me, and was a drastic change. But the more I used it, the more I appreciated that extra height. It does make for a much more neutral position for the wrists, being also higher than the wooden wrist rest as well. But it does take a bit of time, because my muscles were just too used to slouching back down. 

However I do feel that the positioning of the keyboard is more important. If we’re resting our arms on the table, the greater height of the wrist rest is kind of sudden, and the the keyboard goes downwards after that. With the thinner version, it’s more gradual, and was easier to get used to. But I think it’s worth putting in the time to adapt to the thicker one. Now to the wooden one. This also comes in the various lengths, however this is the only thickness it comes in. It’s made from American white ash which is a cheap and common hardwood, and it naturally looks something like this. But it comes in 2 different coated colours. This one is the onyx black colour, which is a very dark brown, and there’s also golden oak which is more orangy and shows off the grains more. And I just much more prefer the look of wooden wrist rests in comparison to foam ones. In the bottom corner their logo seems to be laser etched, and this time they didn’t put the text there. 

The wood grain does make it look a bit weird, but of course every wooden wrist rest is different. The wrist rest is nicely made. The finish is smooth, but we can still feel the grains of the wood. The edges are only slightly rounded, so perhaps it should have been just rounded a touch more. The rear edge is chamfered quite a bit, and I guess it more easily matches different keyboards, since they’re all different heights. On the bottom we have these channels. And this is just because wood expands and contracts in different weathers. We also get 2 large rubber feet that are actually quite thick at 3mm. So there’s basically 3 main shapes for wooden wrist rests. First is just a flat profile. Then we have an angled single line profile. Then we have this, which is a combination of both. This type of shape allows for a steeper angle. It’s a very comfortable shape, where that slope grabs the bottom half of the palm. While comfortable, there is still some bending of the wrist, but it’s definitely reduced. The angle change halfway isn’t obtrusive to me. It’s right at the spot where you don’t really feel it. 

While wood is of course harder than the foam, it’s not a hard surface, where the smoothness of the finish contributes to the softness. So out of the three, which one do I like the most? I much more prefer the look of the wooden wrist rest, and the golden oak one looks quite nice. However the thick foam one grew on me, in how it really does put my wrists higher, making it very similar to a hovering position. If you have several boards of varying sizes, then it would probably make sense to go for the compact 60% one, since that’s where we use the keyboard mostly anyway. Overall, I’m a believer in dedicated wrist rests. I’m now using them in an on off kinda situation, where if I’m just typing, I’ll bring it out, because I do value my desk space. I guess it depends on how you’re positioned relative to your keyboard, and how you type. So it’s good for some, and bad for others. Regardless, they’re a cool looking accessory to complement your mechanical keyboard. 

SONY Z9D REVIEW: Is a $9,000 4K HDR TV Worth It?

If you thought LCD TVs were dead in the water as far as picture quality and top-of-the line features go, then you haven't seen the Sony Z9D. Now you'll rarely ever hear me utter the phrase game-changer, but that's exactly what Sony did here with this Z-series television. So as you can see I've got the Sony Z9D here in the studio and specifically this is the 75-inch Sony XBR 75Z9D. This is the 75-inch model of the Z9D series which retails for about $9000. And yes, that is fairly expensive. But Sony does also make a 65-inch version of the same model and that one retails for about 5500, shaving off about 10 inches of screen size and saving you $3500 in the process. 

But the question quickly becomes what makes the Sony Z9D series worth that kind of cash and should you spend your money on one if you're looking to upgrade your home theater? So let's jump into my thoughts starting with design. Looking at the Z9D from the side you'll quickly realize that it isn't one of those crazy thin TVs you've probably been hearing about. And typically those thin TVs are either super high-end OLEDs or they're super thin LCD TVs that aren't worth a second look if you're trying to go high-end since those are typically edge-LEDs. The Z9D on the other hand weighs just a hair over 91 pounds when attached with stand or 71 pounds if you get the 65-inch version. And it's thick because it needs the room for its intricate and complex backlighting system. And that's actually the magic behind this TV. 

Sony did do a great job with the rear of the Z9D giving multiple places to connect and route your wires and cables along with panels that keep them out of view. After you get everything connected and covered up you get a nice clean, consistent look around back. And since I don't like wall mounting my TVs, I use the stand for set-up, which I personally think looks great. The Z9D uses a single stand centered under the display, which I prefer over other TVs that use a pair of feet that go on either side of the display which pretty much limits the type of stand you can use. But obviously it's not the physical look of the Z9D that matters, it's the display and picture that comes out of it and in a word, it's incredible. 

So what is it about the Z9D that makes it, in my opinion, the best looking LED LCD TV on the market today? It goes back to that backlighting system that I mentioned earlier. The Z9D has 630 individual zones of LED backlights. And we've seen this kind of architecture before on other TVs, other backlighting systems, but typically they have 12 zones, or 32 zones, 36 zones. I think one of them got crazy and had 64 different backlighting zones but 630 zones on a Z9D just blows everything else away. Basically every LED here is its own zone and that means that the processor in the TV can control the brightness and darkness on the display at an extremely precise level. And the result is incredible contrast with blacks that are better than any other LCD HDTV out there. And it even rivals the best OLEDs. 

And where it outshines every other TV is in peak brightness. This TV can go up to 1600 nits of brightness. When playing HDR content you get a jaw-dropping image thanks to the increased dynamic range and high color gamut. The high peak brightness even works great when you're watching non-HDR content giving it an almost HDR-like feel. And in all honesty, I was actually a little concerned that the TV would be too bright, especially for use in a dark room but it's really well managed and those 630 zones make it so that only what needs to be super bright can be super bright while the rest of the image on the display can remain dark. So for example if you have a sunset, just the sun will be super bright but everything else will look naturally lit. It's really impressive. Pair this TV up with an ultra-HD Blu-Ray with a great master like Planet Earth 2 and it becomes hard to take your eyes away from the screen. Now if I had to ding this TV for anything, it would actually be for the Smart TV interface. 

And I can't really fault Sony for this because they decided to go with Android TV from Google. So Android TV is what powers the Smart TV features here on this display but what it is mostly is inconsistent. Sometimes it's super slow, sometimes it's fast, sometimes it's just okay, sometimes it starts out fast then it slows to a crawl then it like catches up again. I've often found it easier and faster to just use one of my connected set-top boxes like an Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Apple TV, TiVo BOLT Plus, and just use the built-in apps there rather than relying on the apps built into the TV. 

So right now that's a shame but hopefully, I mean Android TVs should be getting regular updates. Hopefully a future update means that this TV will be able to be used on its own without set-top boxes without you having to schedule time in your calendar in order to go through all the menus. So the question becomes who is the Z9D for? Again, obviously we know it's a fairly expensive television. This is definitely one of the highest-end TVs on the market right now and so therefore it's obviously targeting the high-end buyer. Someone who's looking for a really impressive TV to be the centerpiece of their home theater viewing experience. It sits right up there with the latest LG OLED models in terms of picture quality and price tag. And ultimately 

I think the buyer of the Sony is the person who cares more about brightness, including peak brightness, whether watching standard or HDR content. And those who prefer absolutely perfect blacks and want that individual pixel-mapping will be more inclined to buy an OLED TV instead. And hey, Sony's actually about to jump into the OLED market as well looking to corner the market at both ends of the game. But now I want to hear from you guys. What do you think of the Sony Z9D? Is it something you'd ever entertain buying? Do you not really care about high-end displays or are you a videophile? Let me know in the comments down below. I'll meet you down there for further discussion. 

Guys we have some really cool stuff coming up very soon. Be sure to stay locked in here on this channel. In fact, if you haven't already, please do hit the thumbs up if you enjoyed this one and don't forget to click or tap on my face when it appears here at the bottom of the video in order to subscribe for free to stay up-to-date on all new content release. And if you wanna be one of the first to know when I release new video, go ahead and click or tap on the bell button after you subscribe and that'll send a notification to your device whenever I drop a new video. Until next time thank you so much for watching as always guys I appreciate your support. 

Microsoft Surface Studio Hands On Review

I'm geeking out right now at Adobe Max, the greatest creative conference in the world, and there's a lot cool things here, including the Microsoft Surface Studio. This thing is amazing, this thing is baller. It's probably the greatest piece of creative tech that I've seen thus far. And so I wanna show you guys my first-hand experience with the Microsoft Surface Studio. And it really is an all-in-one studio, guys. You gotta check this out. So, let's go ahead and hop into it. (upbeat music) Hey everybody, it's Roberto. So, I've got the Microsoft Surface here. I'm gonna get hands on, I'm gonna just play with this. Steve showed me how it works. I'm gonna geek out with you guys over this and I'm just gonna play around. It's like, I don't really 110% know where I want to start. But this is just so cool to be using this. 

     I think I'll start simply with like the fact that it can tilt up like this. We've got the palm projection features, we've got everything. Let's go ahead and try to actually do something interesting here. So I'm gonna find myself a pencil. And I'm just gonna try to mess around with this a little bit you guys and just see what someone like me might do with this. It's not my traditional mode. I'm not a digital illustrator by trade, but I'm just gonna play around and we'll see what happens. So, just gonna put this space down, then I'll work on this, kind of like how I would if I were sketching something at home. I'm gonna do something I haven't done in a long time. I'm gonna actually sketch an original character of mine. We're zoomed in a lot here. We're zoomed to 1,800%, so let's go ahead and put the Microsoft Surface dial on here, let push in and let's go to the zoom. So we got the zoom selected. So I'll use this dial to zoom out. Alright, so I've got more of the canvas here, zoom out some more. (upbeat music) So guys, I don't know if you can see what's going on here but I'll show you guys with the zoom feature. So I zoom in a little bit. And so you can see I'm going back on line. 

     This is amazing and the Surface dial actually works even off screen. You can zoom in here. Again, this is like super super rough sketching. And pressure-sensored so you can put your pen in place I do like the Surface pen. In my mind, it's actually easier to control than the Apple pencil. So I'm really digging that. (upbeat music) Yeah, let's see if I can get one of these, guys. Microsoft's willing to give me one of these, even if it's a loan, that'd be amazing. But in the meantime, I'm getting hands on with it and I've gotta say, I really dig what it is. It is gonna get me into doing like sketchbook stuff in Photoshop, even beyond what a tablet at home lets me do because it's just so convenient to just have it. Just like this and just be able to work. And to work on it just like it's an easel, just like it's a real sketchbook. And that's what it feels like to me. It just feels like I'm working in my art pad. It feels like I'm working on an easel and that's just incredible. - [Man] So he'll be out in a little bit. - Okay, that's cool. 

     So I think if you are a traditional artist, I think if you're a comic book person, that this is game changing for you. I can see myself using it in that capacity. I can also see from a design standpoint using this a lot for digital painting, for doing a lot of photo retouching, photorealistic stuff. I think that would be fantastic. But using it completely from a drawing perspective, it's just been a lot of fun. I'm really enjoying that. And again, just messing with this, it made me revisit something that I haven't in a while. I mean, I grew up doing illustration and just messing around, and doing it myself for fun. And this is something that could make me do that. Would I wanna pay four, five grand just for a nice digital sketchbook? No. But I think in general, that this proves kinda the point that Microsoft Surface line in general, in terms of the Surface studio, the Surface Pro, and the Surface Book, I think that it just kinda proves that if can have a digital art studio with you at all times, how valuable that could be. From a design standpoint, this is amazing. Microsoft hit it out of the park. Everything as far as the guts of your machine is right down here. It's a fantastically intuitive device. I love using the Microsoft pen, it's intuitive. I love that it erases, unlike the Apple pencil, this actually functions like a pencil so you can use it in that capacity. So I really dig that. Pressure-sensitivity works fantastic. If I do this harder, I get a darker line. Thinner, I get a lighter line. It does everything that you would imagine. 

     It functions really intuitively and that's why I'm able to feel very comfortable sketching with it here, much the same way that I would on pencil and paper, so I'm really digging that. So guys, getting hands on with the Microsoft Surface Studio is fantastic. And I really dig what's going on with it. I love the job Microsoft did both from a design and functionality standpoint, I think that that's incredible. Just being able to get back into the idea of just doing art right here digitally, much in the same way that I would with a traditional pen and paper deal and being able to know that I can erase, I can do everything intuitively the way that God intended. So that's just amazing, and again, I don't sketch in Photoshop at all because I haven't had a tool like this. I haven't done digital illustration and Photoshop in the longest time, simply because I didn't have a tool like this. So is it worth it? Absolutely, in my opinion, if you're a traditional illustrator, if you're someone who does photo manipulation on an advanced level, if you are a studio or an agency, I think this is the go-to tool, I think this is an ultimate solution and I definitely recommend picking one up. I know they won't be out until 2017, but it's worth the wait, the best things are. So that's my hands-on first impressions of the Microsoft Surface studio. I've loved geeking out over it. I think it's incredible. I love the Surface dial and the pen is intuitive, it's fantastic. So this has been a lot of fun. (upbeat music) So there you have it. My own first-hand experience with the Microsoft Surface Pro Studio. I mean, the Surface Studio is amazing. It's an amazing piece of tech, it is an engineering marvel, it's designed beautifully. 

     Apple, you've lost, my friends. As far as cool stuff for creatives, Microsoft's crushing it right now. I don't know what Apple is doing as far as the hardware. I guess they're all in on the mobile devices. I still love my Apple mobile devices, you guys know I just caught the new Apple watch, so it's not like I'm an Apple hater. I just am a big fan of what Microsoft is doing with innovation because that's what creatives care about. We care about innovation, we care about great aesthetic and design, and we care about things that let us do our work easier. So I think this is great. I think that if you're someone who wants something less cumbersome than having your desktop and a Wacom Cintiq, then this is ideal and I loved it. So I definitely encourage you guys to check this out if it's in your budget, which it may not be, you should definitely get one. I'm going to find a few high-priced clients, charge them as much as possible, and I'm gonna get one of these in the new year. That's what I'm gonna do. So anyway, thanks you guys so much. Leave me your questions about the Surface Studio or any other of the Microsoft Surface products in the comments section. I definitely encourage you to check out the links in the description. Guys, this is just amazing and I love it, I'm in love with it. I wanna get one. Alright, so anyway, remember go out there, create something awesome today. I'm just gonna keep geeking out over this awesome gear. Take care, you guys.