• Apple Watch Series 5 is here! Apple hosted a special event at the Steve Jobs Theatre in its Cupertino, California headquarters on September 10 where the company unveiled watchOS 6-powered Apple Watch Series 5 alongside the iPhone 11 series consisting of the iPhone 11, the iPhone 11 Pro and the iPhone 11 Pro Max.
• "We've seen Apple Watch have a meaningful impact on our customers' lives and we're excited to deliver even more capabilities with Apple Watch Series 5 and watchOS 6," Jeff Williams, Apple's chief operating officer said on the occasion.
• Last year, with the launch of the Apple Watch Series 4, Apple added a bunch of interesting features to its smartwatch lineup. The list included noteworthy features like ECG and fall detection among others. The company also added walkie-talkie like features and Siri shortcuts to its Watch Series giving greater mobility and ease of use to Apple Watch users.
• This year, Apple took this trend a step further and introduced some cool new features that would allow users to use Apple's newly launched Apple Watch Series 5 not just as a smart watch but also as a watch.
• Confused? Take a peek at the features that Apple has introduced in its new Apple Watch:

• A couple of years back Samsung introduced always on display feature on its flagship Galaxy S-series smartphones. Now, why are we talking about Samsung smartphones when theme of the day is clearly Apple? That is because Apple has borrowed a page from Samsung's playbook and introduced one of its most famed features on its smart watch, albiet with a twist.
• Apple has introduced the always on display feature on the Apple Watch Series 5, which apart from displaying the time also displays your vitals your vitals all the time. Apple has introduced a bunch of new watch faces especially for this feature to preserve the battery life. The company has intrduced a new LTPO display along with an ultra-low power display driver, efficient power management integrated circuit and new ambient light sensor that allows the Watch Series 5 to deliver 18 hours of battery life.

• Apple Watches are not only used for monitoring your vitals, tracking your fitness levels and of course checking the time but also for navigation through the unknown roads and highways. But this can get confusing at times, especially if you don't know which direction you are facing. To solve this issue, Apple has introduced a built-in compass in the Apple Watch Series 5. This compass syncs with the new compass app to give users details such as the direction where they are heading, inclination, latitude, longitude and current elevation. Users can also add one of three new Compass complications to their watch face to see direction at a glance.

• Another utilitarian feature that Apple has added to its Watch Series 5 is the ability to make international calls. Now, before you jump on to the conclusion that you will be able to call your friends and family while travelling abroad, then let me clear your confusion - you won't. But on the flipside if you are in trouble when you are on a foreign trip, you will be able to call emergency services using the new Apple Watch Series 5. This feature, the company says, will work regardless of the place where you purchased your Apple Watch or if your international roaming plan has been activated or not. Simply said, help will come to you when you need it.
• Notably, the International emergency calling feature will also works with fall detection to automatically place an emergency call if your Apple Watch senses that you have taken a hard fall and haven't moved for about a minute. But you will need to activate this feature first.

• While the above mentioned features are the biggest updates coming to the Apple Watch Series 5 this year, the company is also introducing some other, probably less fancy, features its newly launched smart watch.
• Apple is including a new Cycle Tracking app in the Watch Series 5, which gives customers (read: women) the ability to log important information related to their menstrual cycles and see predicted timing for their next period and fertile windows. In addition to that Apple has also introduced a new Noise app in its new smart watch that will help users understand the ambient sound levels which indeed would help them understand how certain sounds are having a negative impact on their hearing.

Now comes the most important aspect of the Apple Watch Series 5 -- price, availability and variants. Apple has introduced the Apple Watch Series 5 a bunch of new variants this year. The list includes:

• Brushed finish variants: Titanium brushed finish and space black brushed finish
• Stainless steel variants: Gold, Silver and Space Black
• Aluminium case variants: Silver, Gold and Space Grey
• Special Editions: Ceramic case edition
• Apple Watch Nike Edition: Windrunner jacket design, Nike Sport Band and reflective Nike Sport Loop
• Apple Watch Hermes Edition: Block band in Della Cavalleria print and all-black version with Hermès gradient watch face.

Now comes the price. Apple introduced the Apple Watch Series 5 starting at $399 in the US. Check out the India pricing here:

• Apple Watch Series 5 (GPS) costs Rs 40,900 in India.
• Apple Watch Series 5 (GPS + Cellular) costs Rs 49,900 in India.

Apple hasn't announced the price of its special edition watches yet. The company also hasn't announced as to when the Watch Series 5 will be available in India. The company says that the new Apple Watch is coming to the authorised Apple resellers in India soon.
In addition to launching the Watch Series 5, Apple has reduced the price of its Apple Watch Series 3. Here are the new prices:

• Apple Watch Series 3 (GPS) costs Rs 20,900 in India
• Apple Watch Series 3 (GPS + Cellular) costs Rs 29,900 in India.

Asus ROG Phone 2 review

• The Asus ROG Phone 2, the successor to the gaming-centric ROG Phone from last year, is here. The first iteration was as great a gaming phone as it was a regular handset, but the ROG Phone 2 is bigger and packs in more power than ever.
• While the jury is still out on whether we actually need gaming smartphones, coupled with the slow development in the mobile gaming industry, the Asus ROG Phone 2 continues to cater to the existing niche.
• It's not just the ROG Phone 2 itself either, as the smartphone comes with a bunch of cool accessories aimed squarely at enhancing the gaming experience by a huge margin over rival handsets such as the Razer Phone 2 or Red Magic 3.
• We got to try the Asus ROG Phone 2 before its official launch and here’s what we think about it.

Price and Availability  

• Asus ROG Phone 2 in India starts at Rs 37,999 for the base variant with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage. Whereas the maxed-out version with 12GB RAM and 512GB storage has been priced at Rs 59,999.
• Asus will ship an 18W Quick Charge 4.0 adapter with the base variant of the ROG Phone 2 along with the Aero case. Buyers who go for the top-end model will be provided with a 30W ROG fast charging adapter, Aero case and AeroActive Cooler II in-the-box.
• What's a gaming phone without some complimenting accessories? Thankfully, Asus has made sure that its bunch of accessories will further elevate the gaming experience of the users.
• The TwinView Dock II comes with a secondary screen which is the same as that on the ROG Phone 2. It has a dedicated turbo-fan cooling system and is powered by a 5,000mAh battery. It can be used with the Kunai Gamepad and is priced at Rs 19,999.
• Asus ROG Kunai Gamepad is a modern take on gaming controllers. It consists of three parts: bumper case, Kunai controllers and holder. Now, users have two choices here-- either attach the controllers to the holder to use it as a gamepad or put on the bumper case on the phone and attach the two controllers to the sides. This is priced at Rs 9,999.
• In addition, Asus also offers a Mobile Desktop Dock for extended functionality with USB and HDMI inputs and is priced at Rs 12,999. There's an AeroActive Cooler II being offered by Asus which adds a dedicated fan cooling system to the ROG Phone 2. It is priced at Rs 3,999.

Display: Smooth gets a new definition 

• While the design hasn't seen an evolution in the ROG Phone 2, the display surely has. Oh yes, that too a big one. Last year's model had a 90Hz panel and Asus could have continued with that for this year as well. But 90Hz is so 'last year' and someone at Asus thought - let's go bonkers smooth with a 120Hz AMOLED panel.
• And boy this screen is so smooth. At 6.5-inches, the display is huge and the Full HD+ resolution doesn't pose any challenge in terms of sharpness. The panel supports HDR10 colours and whatever you are doing on this phone, it will look amazing. The colours are bright and vibrant with high contrasts and wide viewing angles. I would have liked the display colour pop like Samsung panels but it's alright given that the refresh rate is extremely smooth.
• The 120Hz refresh rate makes every animation and video look fluid. If you were impressed by the 90Hz screen on OnePlus 7 Pro, the screen on this one will simply blow you away with its smoothness. I played a couple of games supporting 120Hz refresh rate and all of them feel naturally smooth. The 240Hz touch refresh rate with 1ms response time make for extremely high sensitivity and that helps a lot while gaming. Alto's Odyssey feels like a dream whereas the benefits of a faster display are pronounced in Shadow Fight 3.
• That said, the in-display fingerprint sensor isn't as fast as the best in business as it does need more than a single attempt quite often to unlock the device. Thankfully, the face unlock is fast and work most of the times, except for the dark conditions.

Performance: Fast and Furious 

• Whenever I try out a gaming phone, I end up writing the same stuff - this phone is extremely fast and smooth. And it's true for every phone these days with a Snapdragon 855 chip and above. Hence, whether you are playing games or multitasking a lot, any flagship phone will feel fast these days.
• How does the ROG Phone 2 differ? Hardware-wise, there's a Snapdragon 855 Plus chipset that's paired with UFS 3.0 type storage. This already makes a lot of difference as compared to a phone like Asus 6z in terms of speed. The chip offers greater graphics performance and the faster storage aids faster app load times. The newer chip is also more power-efficient and, trust me, it manages heat quite efficiently as never did I found the games to suffer from frame drops after an hour of intense gaming. The extra graphics performance over the regular Snapdragon 855 chip is visible while playing resource-intensive games such as PUBG MOBILE, Asphalt 9: Legends, Fortnite, F1 Mobile Racing and Real Racing 3.
• This also shows that Asus' custom cooling solutions work as promised in the background. The massive vapour cooling chamber along with the heat vent on the side does help to keep the temperatures low. Even the glass body never warmed up enough to make it uncomfortable while gaming.
• This though is all the hardware stuff that Asus is good at. Where the ROG Phone 2 differs from other Asus phones is the presence of the ultrasonic Air Triggers that make for customizable touch buttons. You can customize these triggers for certain functions in games to get a gamepad-like experience. Honestly, though, I have been used to on-screen controls and it took me time to get used to these triggers. But once accustomed, these triggers do help in a big way to make for easy gameplay.

Battery: It takes a lot more than gaming to Kill it 

• Yes, if the subheading baffles you, we weren't surprised. The ROG Phone 2 has a monstrous 6000mAh battery, which is one of the biggest batteries a smartphone has to offer in 2019. Paired with the efficient Snapdragon 855 Plus chipset and the smart ZenUI, the ROG Phone 2 is easily a 2-day phone. And when I say it's a 2-day phone, I include two hours of gaming in total along with all the usual phone stuff. Get this - On an average, I played a lot of PUBG and Fortnite throughout the day, texted a lot on WhatsApp, made a couple of calls, watched a lot of YouTube videos and some occasional photography - the ROG Phone 2 ended the day with almost 50 per cent juice left.
• Sadly with the base version, you only get the 18W fast charger which does over two hours to fill up the massive battery. The 30W ROG charger is only present with the top-end variant and you will have to buy one if you opt for the entry-level variant.

• If you want the verdict quick, I will cut the crap - the ROG Phone 2 is the most powerful Android phone you can buy right now. If you love gaming on your phone and want something that doesn't hinder your gameplay skills, this is a phone that will support instead of asking you to adjust accordingly. It's silly fast and smooth as well. The 6000mAh battery makes for reliable battery life and the audio through the speakers is impressive. What else do you need from a gaming phone?
• However, the ROG Phone 2 is more than just a gaming phone now. At Rs 37,999, the ROG Phone 2 competes directly with the recently launched OnePlus 7T, the Asus 6z and the Xiaomi Redmi K20. All these are extremely impressive phones as everyday premium flagships. Does the ROG Phone 2 get on this list? In many ways, it surely does. The design may not appeal to fashionistas but apart from that, this phone has everything going for it. You have top-notch performance, a great and one-of-its-kind 120Hz display, an outstanding battery life, good cameras and a clean software experience. Someone at Asus was thoughtful with the ROG Phone 2.
• Hence, the ROG Phone 2 is highly impressive as both a gaming phone and regular flagship phone. If you want a true all-rounder under Rs 40,000, I think there's no other phone, save for the OnePlus 7T, in this category. Asus finally has a phone that delivers what we want. 

• The refreshed MacBook Air (2019) is here after a tumultuous few years for Apple’s thin and light MacBook. The MacBook Air used to be the most affordable way to get a MacBook, but then it seemed to fall out of favor when Apple positioned the 12-inch MacBook as both the slimmest and cheapest of its laptops.
• But then, in a rather unexpected move, Apple abandoned its 12-inch MacBook line while rolling out a refreshed MacBook Air for 2019 at the same time.
• With the MacBook Air back in what many people believe is its rightful place as the most affordable Apple laptop, will this year’s model triumph in bringing Apple’s vaunted design and build quality to a new audience who are put off by the MacBook Pro’s hefty price?

• Apple’s announcement of a new MacBook Air (2019) was great for several reasons. First of all, we weren’t really anticipating a refresh. And second, the entry-level MacBook Air (2019) not only got that refresh, but also a price cut to $1,099 (£1,099, AU$1,699).
• Undeniably, it’s still far from budget territory. Nonetheless, this move makes the MacBook Air more affordable than ever, and seeing prices go down with updates – rather than up – is always a nice welcome. For comparison’s sake, the MacBook Air (2018) started at $1,199 (£1,199, AU$1,849) when it was released.
• The base model of the MacBook Air (2019) is equipped with a 1.6GHz dual-core 8th-generation Intel Core i5 processor with Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz, 8GB of LPDDR3 RAM, 128GB storage and Intel UHD Graphics 617.
• You can also get a model with the same specs, but with twice the storage at 256GB, which will cost you $1,299 (£1,299, AU$1,999).
• That basically means you’re getting 128GB more for $200/£200/AU$300, a pretty costly upgrade. It’s a bit frustrating that Apple has kept that large leap in price for a fairly small amount of additional storage space. Meanwhile, you can double your iPhone XR storage for another $50/£50.
• It makes much more financial sense to get the 128GB version, and then either buy an external hard drive (check out our pick of the best external hard drives for Macs for options), or use cloud storage like iCloud to save your files.
• As is unfortunately standard with Apple’s hardware, there’s no easy way to open up the MacBook Air yourself and upgrade the SSD.
• Therefore, while we’re happy to see the price drop for the MacBook Air, shipping a premium – and while the Air is the most affordable MacBook, at this price it’s still premium – laptop with just 128GB of storage seems pretty mean in 2019 – particularly when Apple charges so much for a storage upgrade.
• One of the main threats to the MacBook Air (2019) is that Windows laptops are now even slimmer and more powerful than ever. Apple no longer has the monopoly on thin and light laptops, and there are a number of Windows-based Ultrabooks that come with similar (or even better) specifications for the same price. And, you can guarantee that they all have bigger hard drives than 128GB. For example, the HP Spectre x360 (2019) is around the same price, but with 256GB storage and a much faster processor.
• The lower entry price of the MacBook Air (2019) is definitely welcome if you’re set on getting a MacBook. However, some of Apple’s not so attractive habits are still evident, and with increased competition from Windows laptops, there are better value alternatives available.

• Like with the new MacBook Pro (2019), Apple didn’t change the external look of the MacBook Air (2019) from last year’s model.
• This is great news if you’re already in love with the design of the MacBook Air, but not so if you craved a more substantial update.
• This also means that you end up with the same thin laptop with dimensions of 11.97 x 8.36 x 0.61 inches (30.41 x 21.24 x 1.56cm) and a weight of 2.75 pounds (1.25kg). It remains astonishingly lightweight, and while it’s not as mind-blowingly light as competitors like the Acer Swift 7, the Apple MacBook Air (2019) is a device you can easily carry around in a bag or backpack.
• Despite being thin and lightweight, it does feel solid and durable, so you don’t have to worry about bends and dents. This is thanks to the MacBook Air being made out of an aluminum alloy that looks great and feels robust. By keeping the same design as last year’s model, the new MacBook Air (2019) is once again made out of 100% recycled aluminum, which means that no new metal has been mined to build this device.
• That’s a brilliant selling point for anyone who is environmentally-conscious, and something we commend Apple for.
• However, by keeping the same design, it means this year’s model still has the same elements as the 2018 model which fall short of our expectations.
• The fact that the MacBook Air only comes with two Thunderbolt 3 ports is disappointing though understandable, considering the slim design of the laptop. However, Apple’s choice to put both ports on the left-hand side puzzled and frustrated us – and it continues to do so in the 2019 model.
• If one port had been put on each side, it would have allowed people a bit more flexibility when charging the MacBook Air. Instead, you always need to sit in a certain position with the power adapter plugged into the left of the laptop.
• It also makes the MacBook Air seem a little cluttered – and slightly lopsided – if you plug in two (or more if you have an adapter) devices into the Thunderbolt 3 ports.

• Apple, that creature of habitual mystery, has been coy about the changes it's made to the 2019 Air's keyboard, and about whether or not it's different from the keyboard in the 2019 Pro - the firm refers to it only as "the latest-generation keyboard". This has left prospective buyers wondering if Apple has managed to fix the numerous problems that have bedevilled the keyboards on all three MacBook models in recent years.
• The trackpad is immense - 8.2 x 12cm - and offers the additional benefits of Force Touch, meaning you can do deep presses to trigger secondary functions such as dictionary lookups on words. It should also be more reliable than a conventional trackpad because it has fewer moving parts: it doesn't actually click downwards, instead simulating a click with a small haptic buzz.

• Finally, the Touch Bar still hasn't made its way across from the MacBook Pro but there is a Touch ID fingerprint sensor next to the F12 key (again, this is not a new feature for the Air line). This is terrifically useful for login, as ever, with one extra benefit that you wouldn't experience with Touch ID on iOS devices: you are automatically logged in to the correct user account when you tap down a finger.
• However, we haven't yet been able to replicate an additional neat feature that we observed on the 2018 Air and, previously, on the 2016 Pro. On those devices, if you tried to tap in straight after startup, or at any other time when a password rather than a fingerprint was required, Touch ID would do the next best thing - it would bump you to the password-entry field for the correct account. That doesn't appear to work on our 2019 Air.
• We've dropped Apple a line to see if something's up, and will update this review once we know more.
• The company has confirmed that the 2019 keyboards contain "new materials", but this is a tweak to the butterfly mechanism rather than the wholesale return to the old scissor switch style that has been predicted for the near future. The scissor keys take up more space but have deeper travel and better feedback when typing.
• The irritating tappy noisiness of past generations has been noticeably toned down, and (presumably linked to this) the keys feel softer to type on. Whether the modifications will translate into a cure for the ddouble-lletter inaccuracies that users reported with previous generations remains to be seen, but our sample at least has shown no signs of the issue during our time with it. And it's reassuring to note that Apple has extended its keyboard repair program to include the 2019 MacBook Pro and, now, the 2019 Air.
• On the down side, we will note that the arrow keys are still squeezed into a tiny space, with almost no space between the keys to guide the fingers (and literally none between the up and down keys!). We sorely miss the more spaced-out arrows on our 2015 MacBook Pro. The keyboard in general is quite cramped and typing accuracy is poorer than on a more expansively laid-out keyboard, although this gets a little better with practice.

• At last! We've found a substantive and quantifiable difference from the previous generation. The 2019 MacBook Air gets Apple's adaptive True Tone technology, which adjust the screen's intensity and colour output to account for ambient lighting conditions and should mean your subjective experience is consistent regardless of daylight, electric lighting and so on.
• We're big fans of True Tone in general, having grown particularly fond of it on the iPad and iPhone range - although it may be worth pointing out that the the more portable a device is, the more likely it is to be used in a wide variety of lighting conditions. The Air is more portable than most computers, of course, but will still be toted about less than a phone.
• And funnily enough we didn't totally love the True Tone experience on this machine. Sitting in front of the 2019 Air and a 2017 12in MacBook in the gathering dusk, it occurred to us that the orangey tint of the machine with True Tone might be more restful than the stark white one without, but it's also a bit, well, sleepy. That stark whiteness feels a lot clearer to use... although it's probably saturating our brains with sleep-ruining blue light, and that will serve us right.

• Perhaps the most notable change in the MacBook Air (2019) is the screen, which now boasts Apple’s True Tone technology.
• The True Tone feature automatically adjusts the color temperature – usually whites – shown on the display, depending on the ambient light you’re MacBook Air is in. It can have a pleasing effect, especially on your eyes – when you first start the MacBook Air (2019), you can toggle the setting on and off to experience the difference. And, while this setting may not be for everyone, we have found it does quite an effective job of making colors look more natural.
• True Tone has been included in MacBook Pros for a while now, and we’ve often thought that it wasn’t for everyone. MacBook Pros are often used by photographers, video editors and digital creatives who need accurate colors – something that True Tone messes with. However, with the MacBook Air, which is aimed at more casual laptop users who aren’t as worried about color accuracy, using this feature makes much more sense.
• It’s a nice addition, but probably not one that would make you want to swap your 2018 model for this year’s.
• Elsewhere, the screen is the same – a 13.3-inch Retina display with 2,560 x 1,600 resolution that delivers crisp and rich colors. Last year’s model introduced remarkably thin bezels around the display, making the screen span almost the entire width of the MacBook Air. The display has long been one of the MacBook Air’s best qualities, so we’re delighted that – True Tone aside – Apple stuck with that winning formula.