5 of the Best New Gadgets This Week — That Aren’t the iPhone 13

Apple’s iPhone 13 event on Tuesday made a lot of headlines as it always does, including here on Gear Patrol. If you somehow haven’t heard about it, you can catch up on all the important bits about the iPhone 13, Apple Watch Series 7, and new iPads here.

Read More

• 

  Everything Apple Announced at Today’s Big iPhone Event
• 

  New Macs are Coming Today: Here’s What to Expect
• 

  The iPhone 13, Apple Watch Series 7: When You Can Buy Them and When They’ll Arrive

But! Apple products weren’t the only things to come out this week! Here are five noteworthy announcements and releases that snuck under the radar, and which you’ll want on yours.

Sonos Beam (Gen 2)

On Tuesday, Sonos announced the second generation of its Sonos Beam soundbar, notable for being a Dolby Atmos capable soundbar that comes in under the $500 mark at just $449. At half the price of the flagship Sonos Arc (which is now $900 after a price hike that affected a number of Sonos speakers), the Beam makes for a relatively affordable entry into Dolby Atmos for the relatively budget conscious, or those with small rooms to fill. Without the upward-firing drivers of the Arc, it won’t have quite the same quality (or quantity) of sound, but it’s definitely a worthwhile addition to many a Sonos system for its size and price.

Price: $449

LG’s 325-inch DVLED TV

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If you’re looking for a home theater without restraint, look no further than LG’s latest behemoth display that really puts the “theater” in home theater. Less a series of discrete products and more of an option to order custom displays, LG’s Direct View LED Extreme Home Cinema Displays range in resolution from 2K to 8K and size from 108 inches to 325 inches — that is to say, 9 feet to just over 27. How much does it cost? Well, if you have to ask…. (A little over a mil and a half.)

Price: Honestly, too much.

Xiaomi 11T Pro

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You won’t have an easy time putting your hands on Xiaomi’s latest flagship if you live here in the States, but it’s worth highlighting if for no other reason than to talk about the way it charges. The 11T Pro comes with a 120W charger that Xiaomi says can charge the phone’s 5,000 mAh battery from 0-100 in about 17 minutes. For reference, Apple’s MagSafe chargers pump power at a rate less than a tenth of that: 15W, at the high end.

Now, do you need your battery to go from 0-100 in 17 minutes? Probably not. Is it good for the battery? Also probably no. Is it impressive as hell? Well duh.

Price: $768+

Canon EOS R3

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No, it’s not for normies, but Canon’s new sports-focused not-quite-flagship EOS R3 is one impressive bit of specialist photography kit. The high-end full-frame mirrorless EOS R3 sports a 24MP CMOS sensor, but its main attraction is probably Canon’s Dual Pixel AF system with automatic tracking for humans, animals and more paired with the ability to shoot up to 30 frames per second (RAW!) with the electronic shutter.

Price: $5,999

GoPro Hero 10 Black

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GoPro’s latest action cam packs a new, homegrown GP2 processor which is the follow up to the GP1 chip the company rolled out in 2017. GoPro credits that upgrade for the Hero 10 Black’s ability to shoot 5.3K at 60 frames per second, 4K at 120 frames per second and 2.7K at 240 frames per second. Another key part of the release is the Hero 10 Black’s cloud capabilities: when connected to power, the GoPro can automatically upload your footage to a cloud account — if you’re paying $5 per month or $50 a year for a subscription. If you buy it from GoPro, you can get it for $400 with an included one-year subscription to get you hooked. Or you can go without a sub and get it for…$100 more. Yeah, it’s weird.

Price: $400 with subscription, $500 without

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