fri
I personally use two pairs that satisfy most of your criteria:
- Jabra Elite 85t. You switch between ANC/passthrough by double-clicking the right bud; it doesn’t need the app to do that. However, if your 12 h requirement is about consecutive hours, they won’t work (buds last about 5 h, plus 20 h from the case). They’re pretty compact and the case is magnetic, which I really like (coming from 65t model).
- Sony WH1000XM5. Insanely good ANC and nice battery life. There’s a physical button on the left cup to toggle between modes, which I believe are set to ANC/passthrough by default. The app lets you add a third mode (off), so you don’t need it at all.
I had a similar approach about headphones as you had - I only planned to use them for work, specifically Teams meetings in a loud office. But XM5s have such great ANC and sound quality that I now commute and travel with them.
For gaming, I’m using HyperX Cloud Alpha Wireless. They have an unbelievable 300 hours battery life and decent passive noise canceling, though no ANC. They’re using a proprietary wireless connection, making them fit for gaming without noticeable lags (Bluetooth sucks in this regard, I can’t play with 300 ms audio delay). Not sure if you can connect them to a phone.
I didn’t test most of these personally on a touch screen, but they seem like good candidates to check:
- Pawnbarian
- Osmos
- Hexcells (+ Hexcells Plus + Hexcells Infinite)
- Frog Detective (+ 2 + 3)
- The Witness
- Taiji
- shapez
Her Storysorry, it needs a keyboard- Eufloria
- KAMI
- Hook (+ 2)
- The Pedestrian
- Subsurface Circular
- Dorfromantik
- Polychromia
- Hidden Folks
- Cogs
It’s GTA V. Stop the clickbait.
It’s GTA V. Stop the clickbait.
I got my Deck around May, and yesterday I’ve finished 18th game this year, played exclusively on Valve’s handheld. 2 games last week, since it was a holiday break.
I’ve finished Wall World + DLC, Spyro 1 (and started 2), Tunic, Contrast, A Short Hike, Cloudpunk, Assemble With Care, Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog, Vampire Survivors, Webbed, The Last Campfire, and Sable. Replayed older games like Linelight, Expand, Scrapland, MDK 2, and Gift. Started Obra Dinn, Grim Fandango, Dome Keeper, Gunpoint, Ctrl Alt Ego, and Zelda BOTW.
This device is such a delight. It plays overwhelming majority of titles out of the box, while older titles like Gift and MDK 2 only require a few minutes of tinkering to get right, plus maybe adjust the control scheme for gyro aiming the sniper mode in MDK.
I wouldn’t get even close to this number of titles on a classic PC. My gaming computer is at the same desk where I work from home, creating this unpleasant mental image that I’m still “at work” when gaming - so having an external device that handles AAA games like Hogwarts Legacy with ease is a godsend.
My desktop PC was down for two weeks due to fried motherboard. I connected the Deck via a simple JSAUX cable that has HDMI out and USB-C for charging, paired a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard, and it worked perfectly as a replacement. I could play Soldat 2, design in Figma, and watch movies - because it’s a regular PC, just in an unusual form factor.
I’m definitely getting a SD2 when it comes out in a few years.
I will be window shopping.
I got my S23U a few months ago and couldn’t be happier. The battery life and performance of a Snapdragon chip is miles ahead of Exynos, which my region used to be sentenced to before.
Now, there are rumors of Samsung going back to Exynos (or “Dream Chip”, as rumored) in the usual regions. Hopefully they stick to Snapdragon with the Ultras at least…
With how great my Ultra is, and how little changes there will apparently be, and downgrades from 10x to 5x, I really see no issue in waiting 1-2 more years before starting to consider an upgrade. Any AI chip buzzwords don’t work on me - and even if they would, it would be one of the first generations of such, so waiting is even more advisable.