LG LSC22991ST

LG LSC22991ST Review:

 PROS / You get a door-in-door capability so you can quickly get your hands on much-used foods or beverages without letting cool air escape from the main part of the refrigerator.

CONS / This fridge has the smallest interior capacity of the side-by-side refrigerators we reviewed.

VERDICT / This refrigerator comes with plenty of organizing bins and boasts a sleek modernistic look, but it is relatively small and costs more to operate than the best side-by-side refrigerators.

The LG LSC22991ST is a stylish and modern kitchen appliance that looks good in any home. This stainless steel side-by-side fridge gives you a number of appealing features, one of the better warranties for compressors and the benefit of door-in-door capability.

This relatively small refrigerator has a total capacity of 21.5 cubic feet, which is the smallest of any of the fridges we reviewed. The refrigerator compartment gives you 14.3 cubic feet of space, while the freezer presents 7.2 cubic feet, both of which are smaller than average.

This fridge is not Energy Star compliant, which means it uses more electricity than many other models on the market. Our checking showed it costs you an estimated $80 per year to run this refrigerator, which is higher than the best side-by-side refrigerators.

For items you store in the main refrigerator area, you get five shelves, three of which are full-sized shelves of spill-proof tempered glass, so cleaning any spills will be a breeze. Four of the shelves are adjustable to handle different sizes and heights of containers.

The refrigerator compartment also is equipped with two humidity-controlled crispers so you can keep fruits and vegetables cool and fresh. You also get a small dairy compartment that has a clear cover, so you can store butter secure in the knowledge that it will not absorb any other odors.

Perhaps best of all, you can enjoy the convenience of the door-in-door function that lets you open a section of the right-hand door for quick access to often-eaten foods, snack items, frequently consumed beverages and more. Besides convenience, this feature also protects the cool interior of the main part of the refrigerator since it can cut air loss by as much as 47 percent.

In all, the door areas of the refrigerator, including the door-in-door section, are equipped with a total seven bins. Two of these are gallon-sized, which are handy if your family drinks a lot of milk or juice.

The internal machinery for making ice is located in the left-hand door, which frees space in the frozen foods compartment. Outside, you have quick access to ice and filtered water for drinking or cooking.

The freezer compartment, although it is small, contains four shelves, two freezer drawers and three bins to organize the various frozen foods you stock.

In addition, this side-by-side refrigerator comes with a child lock, digital controls and a door alarm that lets you know if you have absent-mindedly left the door open, so you can quickly shut it again and avoid any food spoilage.

If you should run into trouble with your LG LSC22991ST, you are covered by a one-year warranty for parts, which is standard in the industry. However, this fridge does come with an impressive seven-year warranty on the sealed system and a warranty of 10 years on the linear compressor, which are exceptional values.

For customer support, you can ask questions of company representatives through email, phone and live chat support. The LG website also offers a "help library," and you can watch video tutorials.

Summary

This handsome refrigerator offers a door-in-door capability, an in-the-door icemaker and good warranties on the sealed system and compressor. However, its comparatively small size means that no matter how well you stack and organize your groceries, you can't store as much food as you can with other fridges. In addition, since this is not Energy Star compliant, it costs more to operate than the best side-by-side refrigerators.

Razer Blade Stealth

Razer Blade Stealth review:

Razer's slick new laptop will make your MacBook Air jealous

THE GOOD: The Razer Blade Stealth is slimmer and lighter than similar laptops from Dell and Apple. Even the base model includes a Core i7 processor and fun Chroma backlit keyboard, and future expansion via an external graphics box for gaming is promising.

THE BAD: Battery life takes a nosedive with the 4K screen. The promised add-on gaming module still has no price or release details.

THE BOTTOM LINE: The Razer Blade Stealth is a rare mix of slick design, great performance and top-notch value in a laptop -- but the great-looking 4K screen on the top-end model takes a major hit on battery life.

After turning heads and garnering accolades at the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show, the Razer Blade Stealth is here. And having spent some quality hands-on time with the final product, it's not hard to see why this slim Windows 10 laptop with a 12.5-inch screen caught so many eyes when it was unveiled in January. Razer, best known for its keyboards and other gaming peripherals, saw a hole in the 13-inch laptop market (which we interpret loosely to include 12.5-inch screens), and drove a very unique matte black truck through it.

This is not exactly a slim-at-all-costs high-fashion ultrabook. Nor is it a gaming laptop, despite Razer's years of experience in the PC gaming biz. It's an amalgam of many different ideas about what a high-end ultrabook-style laptop should be, including some wish-list items we've wanted for years -- and a few we never thought to even ask for.

The company's previous laptops have been well-received gaming systems with 17-inch or 14-inch displays, all notable for being reasonably thin and light despite packing in mid- to high-end gaming components. The Razer Blade Stealth keeps much of the look and feel of the previous models, such as the matte-black shell, rigid construction, minimalist design and green snake-like logo. But the most important thing to keep in mind is that this is not actually a gaming laptop.

A Razer laptop without a dedicated graphics card sounds like an Apple product without an app store -- unexpected, and potentially not playing to its maker's strengths. But this is still Razer after all. So while the Blade Stealth is not a gaming laptop by itself, Razer plans for it to eventually become one component of a larger gaming ecosystem. Announced in January at CES 2016 -- but not yet available to even preorder -- is the Razer Core, an external box built to house a single desktop graphics card (for example, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 980), and route its graphics rendering power to the laptop via Thunderbolt-enabled USB-C connection. (That single wire will also handle power duties, too.)

The not-yet-available Razer Core add-on.

Others have gone down this road before, attempting to create an external graphics solution for laptops, but no one has yet cracked the code of balancing price, performance, flexibility, and design. Asus has offered similar products off and on for years, including a new version coming later this year, while Dell attempted to add an external GPU box to its Alienware 13 in 2014, but that product was too expensive and too proprietary to catch on.

At some point later this year, we'll hopefully hook up a Razer Core unit to a Razer Blade Stealth laptop and be able to judge it as a gaming machine. But for now, we're looking at it strictly as a flare-filled ultrabook with an optional 4K screen. If anything, that restriction makes the Blade Stealth even more impressive. It offers a great design and high-end components, plus extras such as the highly programmable and fun to play with backlit Chroma keyboard, all starting at $999 or AU$1,549. There's no separate UK pricing right now, but the US base price works out to around £705.

The base model includes a 2,560x1,440 (QHD) touchscreen display (not 4K, but still pretty good), a current-gen Intel Core i7 processor, 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. Adding more storage and the optional 4K display jumps the price up, and the model reviewed here combines a 4K screen and 256GB of storage for $1,399/AU$2,149.

The upgraded configuration is impressive, but the entry-level model represents an especially good overall value compared to other slim laptops. The Dell XPS 13, one of our current favorites, drops the specs to a 1,920x1,080 nontouch display and a Core i5 CPU for the same $999. The 13-inch MacBook Air also has a lower-res 1,440x900 nontouch screen, Core i5 CPU and only 4GB of RAM for $999. TheLenovo Yoga 900 adds a hybrid hinge, but doesn't even show up to the party until you shell out at least $1,200. Also, the Blade Stealth, at 2.75 pounds and 13.2mm, is a little thinner and lighter than the XPS 13, MacBook Air or Yoga 900.

The most notable upgrade in our more-expensive configuration is the 3,840x,2160 resolution UHD/4K screen. This 4K display is one of the brightest I've seen on a laptop in this class, and it presents 4K video content, games and apps with great detail. But this is no Dell XPS 13, with a razor-thin (pardon the pun) screen bezel. In one of the only concessions to the reality of price and performance vs. design, there's a thick black border around the touchscreen display. It doesn't kill the experience, but it's one of the few things about the overall design that feels less than ideal. The 4K screen can show a full 100 percent of the Adobe RGB spectrum (as does the Dell XPS 15), while the QHD screen (which we have yet to test in-person) hits a still-respectable 70 percent.

A colorful keyboard

The Chroma-branded keyboard is another standout feature, and makes for a fun little show-off demo of the Stealth. It's actually the complete opposite of stealthy, with bright colors, strobing lights and more programmable options than all but the most hardcore of standalone gaming keyboards.

Using the Chroma app, different sections of the keyboard can be programmed to show different colors -- such as highlighting the all-important WASD keys in a different color than the rest of the keyboard. Rather than meticulously programming a unique keyboard light layout, I had a lot more fun just running through the different presets, many of which seem to take advantage of the entire spectrum of 16.8 million possible colors.

Set the entire keyboard to "spectrum cycling," and the keys fade new colors in and out in unison, just slowly enough to not be overly distracting. "Reactive" leaves a trail of lit keys in your wake as you type, like a fading echo. "Ripple" sends a burst of a single color expanding outward, away from each individual key press. Hitting keys slowly, one at a time, has a Matrix-like effect of lit up letters and numbers; using it while typing causes random explosions of color all across the keyboard. For a demo that will amuse friends and family, set the keyboard to "Wave," and a rainbow of colors will move rapidly left to right (this movement is also adjustable) across the entire keyboard. It's all a bit silly but offers a degree of personalization that other ultrabooks don't come close to matching.

Razer Blade Stealth review:

Razer's slick new laptop will make your MacBook Air jealous

By: Dan Ackerman

Reviewed: February 24, 2016

Press down the Fn key, and any keyboard lights are muted, except for the top row of function keys, which are now highlighted. That's handy for adjusting volume or screen brightness on the fly, but it's a shame the actual icon images of the corresponding function for each F-key isn't also backlit -- you'll just have to remember that Fn+F1 mutes the speakers, for example.

Command and control

Of course, all of this fun comes at a cost -- and that cost is battery life, which is especially important when driving a UHD display and a Core i7 CPU. The included Razer Synapse settings app allows for battery-saving preferences, such as setting the keyboard backlight to be dimmer, or off entirely, when running on battery power. The Synapse app allows for easy access to many system tools, such as keyboard and touchpad settings, system lights and programmable macros. If allowed to, it will also record heatmaps of gameplay using data from your mouse.

The only odd note is that the Synapse app insists on registering you via an email address and logging you in to use it, which is exactly the kind of over-the-top personal information gathering that so many consumers are rebelling against in the age of data security paranoia. Put another way, why does Razer need my email address to allow me to change my keyboard preferences?

Besides playing with the keyboard colors, I also used the Synapse app to quickly get to the Windows 10settings menus for the touchpad. At its default settings, it felt too sluggish moving across the 4K display, or when using multitouch gestures to scroll down long Web pages and documents. Cranking up the sensitivity for both helped, but no Windows laptop has managed to come close to the gesture control and ease of use of Apple's MacBook touchpads. The keyboard is also not among the best we've used for everyday typing, and it suffers from very shallow keys. It's not as shallow as the 12-inch MacBook, but for fans of a deep, satisfying click from each key press, there's a learning curve to getting comfortable with it.

Connectivity consists of a pair of USB 3.0 ports, an HDMI output and Thunderbolt 3, which is routed via a USB-C connection. This small, reversible plug type is only found in a handful of newer laptops, such as the 12-inch Apple MacBook. Like the MacBook (but unlike most of the other small handful of USB-C laptops), the USB-C connection here works for both data and power. When using the not-yet-released Core unit for external graphics, the Core connects at Thunderbolt 3 speeds through the USB-C connection. For now, USB-C is still uncommon enough that it's handy to have the traditional rectangular USB-A 3.0 ports as well.

Performance and battery

Because even the base model has a current-generation (Skylake) Intel Core i7-6500U, performance will be more than powerful enough for everyday tasks no matter which configuration you get. In our benchmark tests, it was faster than the MacBook Air, HP Envy 13 and Lenovo Yoga Y900 in some tests, but closely matched in others. Keep in mind the chip here is a low-voltage dual-core Core i7, versus the quad-core Core i5 and Core i7 chips found in many midsize laptops. In the low-voltage "U" series of current-gen Intel processors, i5 and i7 chips don't always have a ton of performance daylight between them.

Even though this isn't a gaming laptop, and won't be until that Core accessory is available, that doesn't mean you'll never play a game on it -- this is a Razer laptop after all. The combination of Core i7 CPU and built-in Intel 520 graphics works surprisingly well, even on some newer games. The main points to keep in mind are dropping the game resolution to 1,920x1,080 and keeping in-game detail settings to low/medium. By doing that, I was able to easily play the new puzzle game The Witness at 1,920x1,080 and medium settings, and my old standby, BioShock Infinite, at the same resolution but low graphics settings.

But all this good stuff -- performance, design, cool keyboard, reasonable price -- has to come at a cost. And in this case, it's battery life. It's already known that a 4K display on a laptop is a battery killer, and this is no exception. Streaming HD video nonstop, but keeping the Chroma keyboard lights turned off, the Razer Blade Stealth ran for 3:12, far shorter than other 12- and 13-inch laptops. That's not entirely unexpected, and the QHD version with its lower screen resolution should run for at least a few hours more.

Conclusion

For use as a travel laptop, I'd lean towards that QHD model, as the resolution is still more than high enough for something this size, plus it costs less and promises better battery life. With a QHD display and 128GB of storage, it's a fantastic value if you're looking to hit that magic $999 number, and likely will run for significantly longer per charge, based on our previous experience with 4K vs. non-4K laptops.

But the 4K display and added storage space make the higher-end configuration tested here are worthwhile upgrades, too, and the extra-bright display is really a joy to watch. While we're eager to see if Razer can pull off the Core add-on and its promise of high-end slim laptop gaming, the Stealth is a fantastic highly portable laptop all on its own.

For another option in a 12.5-inch 4K/Core i7 laptop, Toshiba has dropped the price of its similar-on-paper Radius 12 from $1,599 to just $1,199, but that system had so many ergonomic and usability issues that it failed to impress. Plus, you can't set it in a dark room and have it cycle through a trippy rainbow of keyboard colors until your eyes bleed.

Parrot Bebop Drone 2

Parrot Bebop Drone 2 review:

Better than the original, but still shy of greatness

THE GOOD: The Parrot Bebop Drone 2 is small enough to stick in your average backpack, but sturdier than the original with about twice the battery life. Its propellers stop the instant they're obstructed, easy barrel rolls and flips and new banked turns capability makes it more fun to fly, and it's stable indoors or outside. It can be piloted with third-party Bluetooth controllers.

THE BAD: It's pricey when bundled with the massive Skycontroller remote control, and its video quality hasn't improved much from the first-gen Bebop. In-app purchases are required for features other drone makers include. Its control range is dependent on your mobile device and flight conditions. It's limited to 8GB of internal storage for photos and video.

THE BOTTOM LINE: The Parrot Bebop 2 definitely improves on the original and remains a good choice for its portability and safer design, but stiffer competition and merely good image quality limit its overall appeal.

Maybe it's the design, or its size and weight, or that you're just as likely to find it sold as a phone accessory as you are in a toy store or camera department of a big-box retailer, but Parrot's Bebop 2 is one of the least intimidating camera drones you'll find. Even less so than most toy drones, since it takes off and lands on its own and has no trouble hovering in place indoors or outside.

The fact that it's controlled with a phone or tablet certainly helps. Flying by touchscreen isn't the best experience, but honestly handing someone a regular remote control for the first time arguably isn't any better. Instead of sticks and switches and buttons, you're tapping on a screen and sliding your thumbs around or simply tilting your phone in the direction you want it to fly. The mobile app is free, but you can make a $20 in-app purchase to unlock more advanced flight-plan capabilities, letting you set waypoints for the Bebop 2 to follow among other things.

The quadcopter is small enough to slide into an average backpack and at just over a pound (500 grams), it's easy to travel with. Aside from the propellers there are no moving parts, which helps its chances of surviving a crash. The ABS body is reinforced with glass fiber to toughen it up even more. It's also one of the safest drones you'll find with flexible plastic propellers that stop the second something hits them.

The Bebop 2 is primarily flown with a smartphone or tablet.

Because of these things, the Bebop 2 perhaps comes off as more of a toy and less of a serious camera drone like the DJI Phantom 3 Standard, which currently shares the Bebop 2's $500 price tag. (The Bebop sells for AU$900 in Australia and £440 in the UK, while the DJI is AU$859 and £449.) And frankly, if high-quality aerial photos and video are what's most important, you're better off with the Phantom 3 Standard. (Similar flight plan capabilities to the Bebop's don't cost more with the Standard, either.)

Consider the Bebop 2 if you want something more family-friendly. One that you won't panic as much about when you turn over the controls to a friend for their first time flying. A camera drone that can get decent video and photos for sharing, but also survive crashes and do flips with a couple taps on screen.

The Bebop 2 is piloted with a smartphone or tablet, but just how far depends on the conditions.

I actually tested two different Bebop 2s. The first was a preproduction unit that, like the original Bebop I reviewed, occasionally dropped its wireless signal in flight. Not really something you want to have happen when it's hundreds of feet in the air or out over a body of water. Parrot said this was a fault in the early models and not a typical experience.

To confirm this, I tested a second unit and, in fact, did not experience any dropouts while testing it. That may have been because of its newer firmware, or there was something actually wrong with the first drone, or maybe both. All I know is the second Bebop 2 I tested performed just fine.

Parrot claims it's possible to fly the Bebop 2 up to 300 meters away (about 985 feet) using a mobile device. That's an average, too, so it can potentially go even further or fall short of that mark. The distance is going to vary depending on everything from trees and buildings to other wireless signal traffic to the device you're using. Even how you hold the device can determine signal quality.

That in mind, I tested using the latest firmware installed (version 3.2.0) with an iPad Air 2 in an open field surrounded by trees in a heavily populated area (i.e. with a lot of wireless signals) and was able to get it out to more than 200 meters before the video cut out. Could it have flown farther? Probably, and I might have even gotten the video feed back. But I played it safe and called it back using the automatic Return to Home option. The point is, how far you'll be able to fly the Bebop 2 is dependent on your environment and your device.

Parrot's Skycontroller increases the Bebop's flight range, but also empties your wallet.

For the best range and physical controls, you can spend a couple hundred dollars more for Parrot's huge and awkward Skycontroller. It has full controls for the drone and an amplified Wi-Fi radio on top allowing you to fly up to 1.2 miles (2 kilometers), assuming conditions are absolutely perfect. The FreeFlight mobile app is installed on it though, so you don't need to pair it with a mobile device to fly. It also has a full-size HDMI output on the side lets you connect an external display to see what the camera sees and also supports headsets for completely immersing you for first-person-view (FPV) flight.

The Skycontroller isn't your only option for physical controls, though. You can pick up a Bluetooth gaming controller and use that to pilot via your tablet or phone. Parrot has a tutorial on how to set it up and some suggested controllers.

The Bebop 2's camera is essentially the same as the original's, which wasn't great.

Though its camera has a new design for its lens covering making it dust-proof and a wider aperture, it is otherwise unchanged, featuring a 14-megapixel sensor with a wide-angle lens that covers a 180-degree field of view. That is, for me, what's most disappointing about the Bebop 2.

For capturing cool video from the sky for sharing online or viewing at small sizes on a phone or tablet, you'll probably be pretty happy with what you get from the Bebop 2, especially if you're flying in full daylight. Compared to the DJI Phantom 3 Standard, though, it misses the mark.

Instead of the motorized gimbals found on many other camera drones, the Bebop 2 uses three-axis digital stabilization for smooth video results. It works really well, all things considered, eliminating shake. Parrot also handles panning and tilting digitally allowing you to "move" the camera without it actually moving. It's clever, but it's done by using only certain areas of the sensor and lens, so you can end up with a black area from the fish-eye lens as well as rolling shutter artifacts. If you stick to using the center of the lens and avoiding the extreme corners, this isn't an issue.

Parrot BEBOP 2

In the sample video above, you can see some of the tearing from the digital tilting, in addition to a lack of fine detail such as the mushy trees, and buildings and other structures just look painterly. There's edge crawl and aliasing artifacts, too.

Basically, while the video quality isn't fantastic, it's fine for casual use, which at the end of the day is what this quadcopter is for.

Everything gets stored to 8GB of internal flash storage and there's no microSD card slot for expansion. Getting photos and movie clips off the drone can be done either by slow wireless transfer to your mobile device, or by running a Micro-USB cable from the Bebop to a computer. It's a bit of a pain especially since you have to have the drone turned on the entire time.

Battery life is improved for the Bebop 2.

What did get fixed from the original is battery life, mainly because the body supports a larger pack. Gone is the flimsy connector and Velcro strap. Instead you get a 2,700 mAh battery that slides on back and locks into place. Parrot says it can get up to 25 minutes, but you can expect more like 20 minutes -- less if you're moving fast or doing flips. (By the way, the app lets you set maximum tilt for faster flying as well as maximum vertical speed and other flight parameters with simple sliders.)

Extra batteries (about $70 each) are available and should you damage a component, Parrot has madereplacement parts available -- from props to the camera to the GPS module -- for you to buy and install yourself. Even if you don't crash, you'll probably want to buy another battery or two and some extra propellers.

The Parrot Bebop 2 definitely improves on the original and remains a good choice for its portability and safer design, but stiffer competition and merely good image quality limit its overall appeal.