As MrMobile I’ve covered electric cars from Tesla to Toyota – and on my last day at CES 2018 I test-drove an EV unlike any I’d seen before. This is the Electra Meccanica SOLO, an electric car built for “the 90% of drivers traveling without passengers.” With a promised range of 100 miles, a top speed of about 80mph and a recharge time of between 3 and 6 hours, the SOLO might just raise some eyebrows in the world of the constant commuter – assuming they’re willing to stomach the price of entry. Join me for my penultimate CES 2018 video, a test drive in the SOLO one-person electric car!

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MrMobile’s CES 2018 coverage is brought to you by Thrifter, a new way to save money by shopping based on value (and not hype). Visit Thrifter for great deals on everything from gadgets to home goods, at http://thrifter.com.

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[ABOUT MRMOBILE’S SOLO EV TEST DRIVE]

MrMobile’s SOLO EV test drive was produced following 30 minutes driving a SOLO EV test car at CES 2018 in Las Vegas, NV. The test car was a preproduction build and differs slightly from production models being delivered to customers in 2018. Final conclusions will wait for a possible future review.

Learn more about the SOLO EV here: https://electrameccanica.com/emv-solo-us/

[MUSIC]

“Robot Town” by Phil Gardiner, available at Premium Beat:
https://www.premiumbeat.com/royalty_free_music/songs/robot-town

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This post may contain affiliate links. See Mobile Nations’ disclosure policy for more details: http://www.mobilenations.com/external-links

The ubiquitous fingerprint sensor: it’s the most convenient way to unlock your smartphone or laptop, but it’s always required its own reserved bastion of space on your device. Always, that is … until now. I’m MrMobile and here at CES 2018 I just went hands-on with the first fingerprint sensor that lives UNDER your phone’s display. The Synaptics ClearID is an optical sensor that sits under the glass of an OLED screen; it’s launching on a Vivo phone this year; and it’s gonna change everything.

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MrMobile’s CES 2018 coverage is brought to you by Thrifter, a new way to save money by shopping based on value (and not hype). Visit Thrifter for great deals on everything from gadgets to home goods, at http://thrifter.com.

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[ABOUT MRMOBILE’S UNDER-GLASS FINGERPRINT SENSOR HANDS-ON]

MrMobile’s Under-Glass Fingerprint Sensor Hands-On was produced following a half-hour with a Vivo demo device at the Synaptics booth at CES 2018 in Las Vegas. As voiceover was recorded on-site, audio quality may differ from the standard MrMobile video.

[MUSIC]

“Green Fever” by Flash Fluharty, available at Premium Beat:
https://www.premiumbeat.com/royalty_free_music/songs/green-fever

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What if your smartphone could become a computer? It’s a question Motorola, Microsoft, HP, Samsung and Huawei have all tried to answer – and now Razer’s getting in on the fun. From CES 2018 in Las Vegas I’m MrMobile and this is a quick look at Project Linda: the latest laptop whose heartbeat comes from a smartphone.

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[ABOUT MRMOBILE’S RAZER PROJECT LINDA HANDS-ON]

MrMobile’s Razer Project Linda hands-on was produced following one hour with a pre-production Razer Project Linda review prototype during a press briefing at CES 2018 in Las Vegas. As voiceover was recorded on-site, audio quality may differ from the standard MrMobile video.

[MUSIC]

“Live Up” by Cymatix, available at Premium Beat:
https://www.premiumbeat.com/royalty_free_music/songs/live-up

“No Major Delays” by Julian Bell, available at Premium Beat:
https://www.premiumbeat.com/royalty_free_music/songs/no-major-delays

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The Lenovo Smart Display is a Google Home with a built-in screen – and that makes it the very first Google Home I might consider buying. While you still control it primarily with your voice, the touchscreen lends much more versatility to the notion of a home assistant: you can check on the Nest Camera monitoring your baby room, start a Duo call with your Pixel-toting friends, or stream the latest video from your favorite YouTuber (ahem). Yes, those are all blatantly transparent house ads for Google’s own products, but more importantly they’re things that are difficult or impossible to do on the Smart Display’s principal competition, Amazon’s Echo Show.

The Lenovo Smart Display with Google Assistant will come in 8″ and 10″ sizes when it debuts this summer, with prices starting at $199 and topping out at $249. Check out the MrMobile hands-on and *Android Central’s own take,* and let me know in the comments if you’d like to see my traditionally mobile-only coverage fleshed out with a Lenovo Smart Display review later in the year!

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MrMobile’s CES 2018 coverage is brought to you by Thrifter, a new way to save money by shopping based on value (and not hype). Visit Thrifter for great deals on everything from gadgets to home goods, at http://thrifter.com.

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[ABOUT MRMOBILE’S LENOVO SMART DISPLAY HANDS-ON]

MrMobile’s Lenovo Smart Display Hands-On was produced following an hour with a preproduction Lenovo Smart Display review device during a press briefing at CES 2018 in Las Vegas. As voiceover was recorded on-site, audio quality may differ from the standard MrMobile video.

[MUSIC]

“Sensational” by Cymatix, available at Premium Beat:
https://www.premiumbeat.com/royalty_free_music/songs/sensational

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The Planet Gemini feels like a device from some alternate universe where the Personal Digital Assistant never died. Its eyeglass-case chassis evokes the old Sony Tablet P, while its miniature QWERTY keyboard suggests a laptop that stumbled into a shrinking machine. But its closest relative is probably the Psion PDA from the 1990s, a device beloved as much for its powerful scheduling software as for its robust physical keyboard.

The Planet Gemini is no mere throwback. It’s available in WiFi and 4G versions (for both GSM and CDMA networks), it dual-boots Android and Linux, and you can even make phone calls on it. Planet says the Gemini is meant for bloggers, longform writers and other creators who live and die by a physical keyboard, and it’s easy to see why it’d be a tempting purchase for such folks. Still, it’s hard to envision many people ponying up for a device that slots in somewhere between the smartphone and laptop, yet professes to replace neither.

Of course, you don’t *need* to imagine it; you can just head on over to Planet’s Indiegogo page (down below) to see how many customers have already devoted their dollars to picking up a Gemini of their own. If you’re keen to join them, the Planet Gemini is available for $299 or $399 in WiFi and 4G versions, respectively, with units already in production. The Planet Gemini ships to early backers later this month; deliveries will continue into the spring, at which point I’ll hopefully follow up with a full review.

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MrMobile’s CES 2018 coverage is brought to you by Thrifter, a new way to save money by shopping based on value (and not hype). Visit Thrifter for great deals on everything from gadgets to home goods, at http://thrifter.com.

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[PRODUCTS IN THIS VIDEO]

Planet Gemini PDA [Indiegogo]:
http://mrmobile.tech/4hy

[ABOUT MRMOBILE’S PLANET GEMINI HANDS-ON]

MrMobile’s Planet Gemini Hands-On was produced following an hour with a preproduction Planet Gemini review device on the show floor at CES 2018 in Las Vegas. As voiceover was recorded on-site, audio quality may differ from the standard MrMobile video.

[LINKS]

Sony Clie footage courtesy Pocketnow:

Psion PDA photos by Snowmanradio via Wikimedia:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Psion_5mx_17o06.jpg

[MUSIC]

“Home Organ” by Zach Nicita, available at Premium Beat:
https://www.premiumbeat.com/royalty_free_music/songs/home-organ

“Urban Odyssey” by Jake Silver, available at Premium Beat: https://www.premiumbeat.com/royalty_free_music/songs/urban-odyssey

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A thought occurred to me as I was reviewing the Galaxy Note 8 last year, and then it popped up again when I took a look at the iPhone X. A lot of people think you need to pay 900 to a thousand dollars for a good smartphone these days. And you know what? You don’t.
For the past few weeks I’ve been using the Honor 7X, HTC U11 Life, and Motorola Moto X4, three midrange smartphones that bring a slew of special features not seen before in this price bracket – which runs from $200 to $400 unlocked. That’s not the most affordable collection of smartphones can get, nor is this roundup at all exclusive – but at the top of 2018, I believe it to be the sweet spot between frugality and a solid Android experience. Join me for The Best Midrange Smartphones at the top of 2018!

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This video brought to you by Thrifter, a new way to save money by shopping based on value (and not hype). The fine folks over at Thrifter have sniffed out a great deal on a first-generation Moto Z for $270, which you can check out here: https://www.thrifter.com/unlocked-moto-z-play-deal. And you can always visit Thrifter for great deals on everything from gadgets to home goods, at http://thrifter.com

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[PRODUCTS IN THIS VIDEO]

Honor 7X:
http://mrmobile.tech/4hu

HTC U11 Life:
http://mrmobile.tech/4hv

Moto X4:
http://mrmobile.tech/4hw

Essential Phone:
http://mrmobile.tech/4hr

Moto G5 Plus:
http://mrmobile.tech/4hs

OnePlus 5T:
http://mrmobile.tech/4ht

[ABOUT MRMOBILE’S BEST MIDRANGE SMARTPHONES 2018 ROUNDUP]

MrMobile’s Best Midrange Smartphones 2018 Roundup was produced following several weeks with an Honor 7X, HTC U11 Life and Moto X4 provided by Honor, HTC and Motorola (respectively). The devices all received software updates during the review process, and were used on T-Mobile, AT&T and Project Fi.

[MUSIC]

“Days and Days” by Eternity Bro, available at Premium Beat:
https://www.premiumbeat.com/royalty_free_music/songs/days-and-days

“Up Top” by Tonemassif, available at Premium Beat:
https://www.premiumbeat.com/royalty_free_music/songs/up-top

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[DISCLOSURE]

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Fun fact: when I was selling mobile phones back in 2004, I would spend the store’s slow days taking online training courses reserved for my employer’s engineers, fascinated by the networks that made mobile phones work. Twelve years (and a change of career) later, my network curiosity still burned strong. So I asked AT&T to let me go hands-on with a cell site – and to my great surprise, the carrier said yes!

Come along as I scope out not one, but two cell sites: one hidden in the steeple of a church, the other perched high atop the tallest mountain in the Northeast. In the process we’ll learn about RF energy, what happens when the power goes out, and why the term “tower” isn’t always accurate.

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[ABOUT THIS VIDEO]

MrMobile’s Tower Tour was produced based on a pitch by MrMobile to AT&T in the Spring of 2016. To make this video possible, AT&T provided access to two cell sites and several network engineering personnel. AT&T also reviewed MrMobile’s final script for technical accuracy, but no editorial changes were made as a result of the company’s input. Travel expenses were entirely paid by MrMobile/Mobile Nations, and there was no consideration paid to MrMobile by AT&T for the production of this video.

[FURTHER READING]

AT&T Network videos [YouTube]:
https://www.youtube.com/user/ShareATT/search?query=network

This Is How AT&T Covers 19,000 People Under One Roof [Pocketnow]:
http://pocketnow.com/2012/05/21/this-is-how-att-covers-19000-people-under-one-roof

AT&T Disaster Recovery Team [Pocketnow]:

Inverse Square Law [HyperPhysics]:
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/hframe.html

Mount Washington History:

Mount Washington State Park Blog Post: Friday January 13th, 2012

Mount Washington New Lowest-Temperature Record:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/12/28/washington-summit-breaks-daily-record-low-temperature-wind-chill-reaches-minus-degrees/iste1AC0wDUnrOcmpujUtI/story.html

[MUSIC]

“Sensational” by Cymatix, available at Premium Beat:
https://www.premiumbeat.com/royalty_free_music/songs/sensational

“Green Fever” by Flash Fluharty, available at Premium Beat:
https://www.premiumbeat.com/royalty_free_music/songs/green-fever

[SOCIALIZE]

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[DISCLOSURE]

This post may contain affiliate links. See Mobile Nations’ disclosure policy for more details: http://www.mobilenations.com/external-links

People have been asking me to review the Dell XPS 13 for as long as I’ve been looking at laptops. So when Dell offered to loan me the latest version of its nearly bezel-less notebook, equipped with the newest 8th-generation Intel Core i7, I jumped at the chance. What I found was a laptop with a surprisingly conservative design – but enough power (in the processor and the battery) to see me through the longest of workdays. The Dell XPS 13 is a workhorse in the truest sense, and because of that I can’t help but respect it. Join me for MrMobile’s Dell XPS 13 Review, and be sure to check out Windows Central’s take as well in the links below!

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[PRODUCTS IN THIS VIDEO]

Dell XPS 13 [Dell]:
http://mrmobile.tech/4hk

Dell XPS 13 [Amazon]:
http://mrmobile.tech/4hl

[ABOUT MRMOBILE’S DELL XPS 13 REVIEW]

MrMobile’s Dell XPS 13 Review for 2017 was produced following two months with a Dell XPS 13 review device provided by Dell. The review device was running Windows 10, powered by an Intel 8th-generation Core i7 and equipped per the spec sheet found in the video.

[FURTHER READING]

Dell XPS 13 Review [Windows Central]:
https://www.windowscentral.com/dell-xps-13-late-2017

TechRadar Dell XPS 13 [2018] Preview:
http://www.techradar.com/news/the-next-dell-xps-13-gets-teased-way-ahead-of-ces-2018

[MUSIC]

“A New Departure” by Vincent Tone, available at Premium Beat:
https://www.premiumbeat.com/royalty_free_music/songs/a-new-departure

“No Major Delays” by Julian Bell, available at Premium Beat:
https://www.premiumbeat.com/royalty_free_music/songs/no-major-delays

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[DISCLOSURE]

This post may contain affiliate links. See Mobile Nations’ disclosure policy for more details: http://www.mobilenations.com/external-links

The Movado Connect is, hands-down, the most beautiful smartwatch I’ve ever worn. It’s the kind of perfectly-proportioned, well-balanced wristwatch you expect from a 136-year-old company, with a stock watchface modeled on a design that first saw the light of day in 1946. Even the band, made of a humble soft silicone, manages to come off as somehow fancier than it really is.

Yes, everything about the Movado Connect oozes sleek sophistication … which is why it’s going to break my heart to return it, as I’ll probably end up doing. Find out why in MrMobile’s Movado Connect First Look – and let me know whether you’d keep it or toss it back, in the comments below!

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[PRODUCTS IN THIS VIDEO]

Movado Connect Smartwatch [Movado]:
http://mrmobile.tech/4hj

Movado Connect Smartwatch Ion-Plated Stainless [Amazon]:
http://mrmobile.tech/4hi

[ABOUT MRMOBILE’S MOVADO CONNECT FIRST LOOK]

MrMobile’s Movado Connect First Look was produced following a day with a Movado Connect review device purchased by Mobile Nations. The device was paired with a Pixel 2 XL and received one update during production, to Android Wear version 2.7.0.178645119.

[MUSIC]

“E-Business” by Olive Musique, available at Premium Beat:
https://www.premiumbeat.com/royalty_free_music/songs/e-business

“Live Up” by Cymatix, available at Premium Beat:
https://www.premiumbeat.com/royalty_free_music/songs/live-up

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This post may contain affiliate links. See Mobile Nations’ disclosure policy for more details: http://www.mobilenations.com/external-links