Image rights from left: Anker, Western Digital Corporation.
Resembling the AirPods, Anker’s take on the true wireless
theme isn’t as smart, but it’s cheaper. They’re a little larger
too, but are lightweight and comfortable in the ear. When
not in use, they sit in the pill box–shaped battery case, which
itself is rechargeable, re–juicing the buds between sessions.
The pairing process is simple — once the initial setup is
complete, they’ll automatically reconnect to each other,
and your device, when taken out of their box. The buds
wkhpvhoyhv#kdyh#wkh#fdsdflw|#iru#Ľyh#krxuv#ri#sod|edfn/#
while the case stores enough power for a further three
charges, for a maximum playback time of 20 hours.
With an IPX5 rating, the Liberty Air Buds are protected on
a sweaty jog, but won’t survive a swim or a shower.
Audio is good, with a high level of bass and nice detail,
though they struggled with distortion at high volume.
Though they feature active noise cancelling, the buds
passively block external sound well already.
THE BOTTOM LINE.#D#vrolg#dqg#dļrugdeoh#rswlrq#iru#wuxh#
wireless headphones. CLIFF JOSEPHThe Armor ATD rugged portable hard drive is
quite bulky, but has triple–layer shock resistance
for the internal shock mounts, an aluminium
enclosure and a protective rubber bumper, making
the drive valid for drops of up to 4ft on a carpeted
concrete floor.
It’s available in 1TB, 2TB and 4TB versions, and
comes with a USB–C cable and a USB–A adapter.
The internal hard drive has a 5,400RPM
spinning speed and 8MB cache. Performance is
average: ATTO benchmarks yielded read/write
speeds of 165 and 140Mbps respectively, while
Crystal Disk Mark notched 100 and 129Mbps.
There’s no bundled software and no freebies.
The drive is backed by a three–year warranty and
unlimited technical support. It would have been
reasonable to expect a free subscription to
Upthere, WDC’s cloud storage — a shame.
THE BOTTOM LINE. A fairly average ruggedized
external hard drive with a fairly premium price
tag. DESIRE ATHOWAnker Soundcore
Liberty Air
Affordable true wireless headphones
$79.99 From Anker, anker.com
Features Bluetooth 5.0, IPX5 waterproof, charging caseG–Technology
Armor ATD
Rugged & big, but is it good?
$89.99 From G–Technology, g-technology.com
Features USB–C; rain, dust, crush, shock resistantANKER SOUNDCORE LIBERTY AIR
Comfortable in ear
Decent sound quality
Pocketable battery case
Can distort at higher volume
GOODG–TECHNOLOGY ARMOR ATD
Good exterior protection
Three–year warranty
Average performance
Expensive
SOLIDTough testing, trusted ratings
maclife.com SEP 2019 51