John Higgins is a Los Angeles-based senior reviewer at The Verge covering TVs and audio. Before joining The Verge, he’s been the Senior Editor of AV at Digital Trends and Managing Editor, Tech at Reviewed. During his 20+ year career in publishing, he’s written reviews and features for the New York Times’ Wirecutter, TechRadar, Tom’s Guide, Business Insider, CNET, Sound & Vision, IGN, T3, Projector Central, and Home Theater Magazine, where he got his start in 2003. He is also an ISF Level III-certified display calibrator. Away from his desk, John is a musician with a Masters degree in piano from University of Southern California. He enjoys spending his free time with his wife and son, or playing D&D or video games. Signal: johnhiggins.01
8
Verge Score
Professionals will love the accurate and plentiful reference modes, but far better options exist for the rest of us.
7
Verge Score
The second over-ear offering from Nothing keeps much of what was great about the Headphone 1 for $100 less.
9
Verge Score
The X11L is TCL’s best TV ever, but with RGB LED TVs around the corner, is mini LED a dead end?
Skyworth will make the Panasonic-branded TVs, leading marketing in the US and Europe while Panasonic focuses on development. It’s the second storied Japanese TV company to partner with a Chinese manufacturer in as many months, further highlighting the decline of Japanese TV dominance over the past decade.
The Continuous Audio Connection setting in the tvOS 26.4 beta uses Dolby MAT to reportedly address audio dropout and sync issues when switching formats. Sonos users on Reddit say it also fixes level problems with 5.1 PCM content.
Rollout of Amazon’s Fire TV OS redesign announced at CES begins today for US customers. The update hits the Fire TV Stick 4K Plus, 4K Max (2nd gen), and Omni mini-LED TVs first, expanding to other products later.
