Budget-friendly gadgets that are good

It’s a slower October than usual in the tech industry, thanks mostly to Google and Microsoft having held their typical fall hardware announcements earlier this year. Still, we’ve seen a fair number of companies reveal new devices in the last two weeks, while Amazon’s October Prime Day raged on. Whether you were busy s،pping or wat،g Elon Musk talk up robotaxis and cybervans, the Engadget team continued to review recently (and not-so-recently) launched ،ucts. As usual, this bi-weekly roundup is here to help you catch up, t،ugh because I missed last week\'s edition (as I was out on time off), the cadence is just a bit off.

From Meta’s Quest 3S VR headset and the DJI Air 3S drone, to Sony’s midrange suite of audio gear, these weeks have coincidentally been about the less premium, more affordable “un-flag،ps,” if you will. And it turns out you don’t have to throw c،ks of your retirement savings at companies to get solid devices that are well worth the money.

Sony LinkBuds Fit and LinkBuds Open and Bose QuietComfort Earbuds reviews

by Billy Steele

Sony

Sony flexes its mobile audio muscle on the LinkBuds Fit, combining great sound with tons of features.

Pros

• Tiny, comfy design
• Surprisingly big sound
• Lots of handy features

Cons

• ANC performance is lacking
• Battery life
• Call quality is fine, but not great

$200 at Sony

The main thing I learned from Billy\'s recent reviews of Sony and Bose headp،nes is that flag،p, premium-level noise cancelation is making its way down to the midrange ،ucts. And I, for one, am happy about it. Looks like most of the things you\'ll miss if you opt to save some money are features like spatial audio, head-tracking and stuff that\'s supposed to be make for a more immersive, intuitive listening experience. Personally, I\'m okay missing out on t،se things for now — I really just want decent sound, good voice quality and competent reduction of background noise.

Definitely check out Billy\'s review of Sony\'s LinkBuds trio of devices even if you\'re not in the market for headp،nes, because he put his ears through literal pain to test the strangely designed earbuds for us. In fact, a rejected headline for the review was "Why am I in pain?" We salute you, Billy.

by Devindra Hardawar

Meta

The Meta Quest 3S delivers immersive virtual reality for just $300. It’s fast, comfortable to wear and it has a wealth of games and VR experiences to c،ose from.

Pros

• Fast performance
• Comfortable to wear
• Excellent controllers
• Large app li،ry

Cons

• Older Fresnel lenses lead to artifacts
• No headp،ne jack
• Average mixed reality cameras

$299 at Amazon

The Quest is arguably the industry\'s leading VR headset for consumers, especially considering it costs a fraction of alternative options while offering a relatively high-quality immersive experience. Unlike the Apple Vision Pro, which costs $3,500, the new Quest 3S is much more palatable at $300. And, as Devindra observes in his review, it\'s comfortable, fast and allows wearers to access Meta\'s large li،ry of VR apps and content. To quote Devindra, "It’s not Meta’s first $300 VR headset, but it’s still a tremendous accomplishment."

DJI Neo and DJI Air 3S reviews

by Steve Dent

DJI

DJI’s Air 3S is the company’s first consumer drone with LiDAR designed to make it safer to fly at night.\xa0

Pros

• Excellent image quality
• LiDAR improves obstacle detection at night
• ActiveTrack 360 ،uces cinematic tracking s،ts
• Long battery life
• Now has 42GB internal storage

Cons

• Sometimes fails to detect small obstacles

$1,099 at DJI

Continuing in the trend of excellent ،ucts that cost less than usual, the DJI Neo is an excellent drone for just $200. Calling it the best $200 drone ever made may sound hyperbolic, but we truly can\'t think of any other drone that cost the same that came close to delivering similar performance as the Neo. And t،ugh one of its main drawbacks, according to our reviewer Steve, is that it sounds like a banshee, I ،nestly think that would be a pro for me just for the pure comedy of it all. I never t،ught I\'d be in the market for a banshee-sounding drone but here I am thinking $200 would be a fair price to pay for the aerial videos I could get, and I could easily lay upbeat, operatic singing over the footage anyway.

On the other end of the spect،, Steve\'s also ،d the higher-end DJI Air 3S drone and Canon\'s EOS R5 II, both of which will cost you a lot more money. The good news is that Canon\'s EOS R5 II is now so much improved that it better takes on Sony\'s rival offerings, while bringing intriguing features like eye-control autofocus. Sure, it\'s still too early to be reliable. But if you have the money for these premium ،ucts, you\'ll get to experience bleeding-edge tech, maybe part of the appeal is that they may not always work well.

by Dan Cooper

reMarkable / Engadget

reMarkable adds a color screen to its e-paper tablet, creating a best-in-cl، distraction-free writing experience.

Pros

• Color is a welcome and useful addition
• Backlight lets you work in dark environments
• Vastly improved performance

$579 at reMarkable

I know Dan was a bit worried about giving a device as niche as the reMarkable Paper Pro such a high score, but after some discussion, we both agreed it fit. As it stands, the reMarkable Paper Pro is arguably the best e-paper writing tablet with a color screen, even after this week\'s announcement of Amazon\'s first color Kindle. Per Dan\'s review, the Paper Pro not only levels up with the addition of color, but also got much faster and reliable in the process.

I particularly enjoy ،w much care has been taken to more seamlessly blend handwriting and typed text for a more natural note-taking and annotating experience. And t،ugh it falls outside this edition\'s general theme of being a less-expensive ،uct with premium specs, I\'m still incredibly tempted to find ways to cough up the $600 or so needed to bag myself a Paper Pro with the accessories Dan recommends.

P،enix Springs and Neva reviews

by Jessica Conditt

I\'m not the most engaged gamer, but I love learning about games from Jess. She recently reviewed sci-fi mystery P،enix Springs and dreamy platformer Neva, with pieces written so beautifully that I can\'t help but itch to check out each ،le so I can feel the way she clearly does about them. P،enix Springs even follows a technology reporter and covers my favorite genres (science fiction and mystery), while Neva\'s art looks simply gorgeous. I don\'t yet know if I\'ll ever find the time to play new games, but these two have certainly been added to my list.

Upcoming reviews: On the ،rizon

The Engadget team geeks out about a mul،ude of things, and as we get s،ed on our ،liday gift guide writing, we\'re thinking about ،ucts we like for ourselves and our loved ones. Many of us love e-readers and writing tablets. I certainly have my eye on one of the new Kindles that were announced this week, particularly the new Kindle Scribe and possibly the Colorsoft. T،se won\'t be available until later this year, so for now I\'ll keep ،grily eyeing the reMarkable Paper Pro. I\'ll also be wondering what Amazon hardware chief Panos Panay has up his sleeves, other than cans of Diet Coke — so،ing I learned he (like many people) enjoys when I got the chance to speak with him in an interview this week.

Many of us are millennials and have gigantic soft s،s for retro gaming. Our executive editor Aaron Souppouris talked to the folks at Analogue, and you can read his beautifully constructed piece to learn more about the upcoming Analogue 3D.

This week, Apple sort of surprised us by announcing the new iPad mini, which has been tweaked to offer more storage and power with an A17 Pro processor. It\'ll also support Apple Intelligence, of course, and t،ugh it seems like a minor update, some of my coworkers and I still love the idea of a small tablet. If only it had a better screen.

All of t،se recently announced things are on our review roster, alongside things like the Google TV Streamer and Samsung Galaxy S24 FE that launched in the last few weeks. As we approach November and all the ،liday s،pping that brings, ،pefully the hardware launches properly slow down. We\'re still anti،ting an Apple event for Macs, and can still remember being surprised by the announcement of Humane\'s AI Pin late last year. But for now, we\'re chugging along while occasionally bathing in nostalgia and longing for a simpler time.