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This is what Samsung's Note 9 costs on AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint
Just Buy It: Why Nvidia RTX GPUs Are Worth the Money
2019 Ram 1500 eTorque first drive review: Hybrid help without trade-offs

This is what Samsung's Note 9 costs on AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint

Posted: 24 Aug 2018 08:31 AM PDT

Samsung's new Galaxy Note 9 provides more of everything that fans of big phones want: more battery, more screen, and more power. The phone is now available for purchase in stores now that the preorder period is over. If you snoozed on it until now, you won't get a free set of AKG noise-canceling headphones or a load of Fortnite V-bucks (the popular title's in-game currency).

For those who waited, the offers available at launch aren't bad, however. If you buy the Note 9 from Samsung, you'll get a few accessories for free. It's also supported and available through every carrier in the US, several of which are offering decent trade-in specials that we saw during the lead-in to the Note 9's release.

Samsung

Buy it outright: the base model with 128GB of storage and 6GB of RAM costs $999. The $1,249 option improves on that with 512GB of onboard storage and 8GB of RAM.

Monthly installments: For the 128GB model, it's $41.67 per month for 24 months, which totals to just a few cents over the $1,000 mark. The 512GB model costs $52.08 per month but keeps the same total you'd pay for the phone outright.

Special offer: Buying from Samsung directly will award you a complimentary Duo wireless charger and your choice of a Note 9 case. You can also trade in your current device for up to $300 off the Note 9.

Verizon

Buy it outright: The base model costs $999; the upgraded option costs $1,249.

Monthly installments: Practically the same prices as Samsung, just a penny less per month for the 128GB model. The 512GB model will cost $52.08 per month for 24 months.

Special offer: Verizon offers a "buy one, get one" special for Note 9 phones. If you pay for both upfront, then the carrier will credit you for the second device over a 24-month period.

AT&T

Buy it outright: Standard pricing here: $999 for the 128GB model and $1,249 for the upgraded 512GB device.

Monthly installments: For those on AT&T's Next plan, the Note 9 starts at $33.34 per month for 30 months. AT&T's Next Every Year plan subscribers pay $41.67 per month for 24 months. The cost per month for the 512GB model is $52.09.

Special offer: Like Verizon, AT&T also offers a "buy one, get one" promo for the Note 9, though it is set to end on August 30th.

T-Mobile

Buy it outright: The 128GB model is $999, while the upgraded phone with 512GB of storage is $1,249.

Monthly installments: To finance, T-Mobile requires $279.99 down for the 128GB model, followed by $30 per month for 24 months. If you want more storage and power, the 512GB option is $529 down and $30 per month for 24 months. In both cases, the totals equal the cost if you were to purchase outright.

Special offer: If you have a Samsung device to trade in, you can earn up to $500 in billing credits over 24 months for newer Samsung-made phones, including the Note 5 and the Galaxy S7 series. Anything older may still be eligible for $250 back in credits.

Sprint

Buy it outright: You'll pay $999 for the 128GB model with 6GB of RAM or $1,249 for the top model, which has 512GB of storage and is upgraded to 8GB of RAM.

Monthly installments: Sprint Flex lease costs $20.83 per month for 18 months. Then you're able to buy the phone outright or return it for an upgrade.

Special offer: None, really. Sprint may cost less than the other carrier per month, but you won't save any money if you want to pay for the Note 9 after the term ends.

Xfinity Mobile

Buy it outright: Xfinity charges the standard for both models: $999 for 129GB and $1,249 for the 512GB option.

Monthly installments: For the cheaper model, it'll cost you $41.67 per month for 24 months on Xfinity Mobile's network. The carrier is currently out of stock of the 512GB model, though. The Verge has contacted Xfinity Mobile for details.

Special offer: New customers can earn a $300 credit for opening a line with Xfinity Mobile and porting over your phone number. It doesn't lower the price of the Note 9 at the time purchase, but it's a perk nonetheless.

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Just Buy It: Why Nvidia RTX GPUs Are Worth the Money

Posted: 24 Aug 2018 05:22 AM PDT

New technology usually gets cheaper if you wait long enough. So, inevitably, when a game-changing component or device hits the market, many will urge you to stay away until prices drop or a new standard gets wider adoption. That's why, this week, so many users, including our own Derek Forrest, are advising shoppers to hold off on buying one of Nvidia's new RTX graphics cards.

However, what these price-panicked pundits don't understand is that there's value in being an early adopter. And there's a cost to either delaying your purchase or getting an older-generation product so you can save money. While we don't have final benchmark results, the new features and enhanced performance of the Turing cards make them worth buying now, even at sky-high prices.

The Real Cost of Buying Outdated Tech

Let's say you are building a new system or planning a major upgrade and you need to buy a new video card this fall. You could buy the last-generation GTX 1080 Ti for as little as $526, but if you do, you won't be able to take advantage of key RTX features like real-time ray tracing and great 4K gaming performance until your next upgrade.

Real-Time Ray-Traced Image

Unless you plan to upgrade your GPU every year, you're going to be stuck with technology that looks much more outdated in 2019 and 2020 than it does in 2018. Yes, there are only 11 announced games that support ray tracing and only 16 that support DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling), but there will be a lot more in the months and years ahead. Do you want to put yourself behind the curve?

When your whole life flashes before your eyes, how much of it do you want to not have ray tracing?

At Nvidia's conference, CEO Jensen Huang described real-time ray tracing as the "holy grail" of graphical computing. While that statement might be hyperbole, ray tracing is a big deal, because it makes games look and feel much more life-like. The holy grail of gaming is a photorealistic play experience and ray tracing gets us much closer to that goal. It's not just about light, shadow and reflections; it's about immersion.

Benefits of RTX Cards

This week, Nvidia showed a demo of Battlefield V where you can see a muzzle flash from another part of the world reflected in a soldier's eyes and the fire from an explosion reflected off of the glossy finish of a car. That's what you'd see if you were actually there and participating in the fight. And you'd also see the world in high resolution, not just 1080p.

According to Nvidia's own numbers, the RTX 2080 delivers between 35 and 125 percent better performance on 4K games than the GTX 1080. The percentages were between 40 and 60 percent for games that did not have special optimizations for the new cards. In other words, you should be able to play existing 4K games smoothly that were either unplayable or choppy on 10-series cards.

When you’re among the first to purchase a new architecture like Nvidia's RTX cards, you take the risk that the technology won't work as well as advertised right away, that you won't find a ton of titles that support its special features and that the price will drop, making you feel like you wasted your money. However, when you pay a premium for cutting-edge components, you're also buying time, time to enjoy experiences.

Life is short. How many months or years do you want to wait to enjoy a new experience? You can sit around twiddling your thumbs and hoping that an RTX 2080 gets cheaper, or you can enter the world of ray-tracing and high-speed, 4K gaming today and never look back. When you die and your whole life flashes before your eyes, how much of it do you want to not have ray tracing?

Video card companies know that people are willing to pay a premium price for RTX cards.

The 15-inch Apple Studio display, one of the first flat panel monitors, cost $1,999 when it came out . . . in 1998. Today, you can get a used one on eBay for under $50 or a new 24-inch monitor for under $150, but if you bought one at the time, you had the opportunity to use a fantastic new technology when others didn't.

Why the RTX Prices Won't Drop Anytime Soon

Yes, Nvidia's cards are extremely expensive. To pre-order the high-end RTX 2080 Ti card, you'll spend either $1,199 for the first-party Founders Edition or around the same price for a third-party card (Nvidia initially said that partner cards would start at $999, but every listing we see is at least $1,149). To get the RTX 2080, you'll pay around $799 while the RTX 2070, which is due out later than its sibling, is $599 (we haven't seen third-party 2070s for sale yet).

By way of comparison, the GTX 1080 Ti carried an MSRP of only $699, $500 less than its successor, when it launched in 2017. In 2016, the Founders Edition GTX 1080 was also $699, $100 less than the RTX 2080.

However, if you think the cards are going to drop significantly in price anytime soon, you're going to be disappointed. There are several good reasons why the RTX cards cost so much more than their predecessors.

First, let's consider that the 10-series cards remain on the market and, apparently, because of decreased demand from the crypto miners who were hoarding GPUs earlier this year, there's excess inventory. The prices of these older cards are dropping, but in order to sell them off, Nvidia and its partners need to make sure that there's a significant price delta between 10-series and 20-series.

"If there is a significant amount of series 10 cards floating around, they would want to at least draw that down somewhat," NPD Analyst Stephen Baker told us.

Second, video card companies know that people are willing to pay a premium price for RTX cards. If you look on Amazon, Newegg or Nvidia's own store, you'll see that many of the cards are already sold out. There's no lack of demand.

Third, these cards probably cost more to manufacture than their predecessors.

"These giant (and they are really big) chips cost a lot to make and test, and the huge amount of memory is expensive plus the cooling systems - just [cost of goods]," Analyst Jon Peddie told us. "There's no rip off here, no conspiracy."

Bottom Line

If you can possibly afford one of the RTX cards -- even if it's not the most expensive model -- there's plenty of reasons to pull the trigger now. The time you spend waiting and complaining about it being overpriced is time you could be gaming with the most realistic user experience available.

This article appears to continue on subsequent pages which we could not extract

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2019 Ram 1500 eTorque first drive review: Hybrid help without trade-offs

Posted: 23 Aug 2018 09:01 PM PDT

Ram launched its 2019 1500 pickup earlier this year, and we've tested the Hemi-powered truck both on and off road. But arguably the most noteworthy piece of the new truck's puzzle is the eTorque mild hybrid system, and that's what brings me to Lexington, Kentucky this week. From crowded streets through small towns to wide-open highway runs, the Bluegrass State is a perfect place to test out the Ram's new hybrid hardware.

Behind the scenes

The 48-volt mild hybrid system doesn't hinder the Ram 1500's on-road manners. Some regenerative braking systems are abrupt in engagement, making for jerky stops, and I've tested many a stop-start system with noticeable harshness during engine restart. But none of these are an issue in the Ram. Brake force is progressive, the regen helpful in recharging the 430 watt-hour lithium-ion battery pack, and the stop-start system works with the 48-volt belt-drive motor generator instead of a traditional starter, for quick, seamless power-on transitions.

On the expressways outside Lexington, cylinder deactivation is also mostly imperceptible when cruising at a steady 70 miles per hour. There's still a slight shudder when the Hemi V8 switches back and forth between eight- and four-cylinder modes, but active frame-mounted dampers absorb most vibrations and noise cancellation snuffs out the majority of the audible racket inside the cabin. Really, Ram's integration of the hybrid system is excellent and most people likely won't know it's working away behind the scenes.

The new Ram 1500 eTorque has arrived, offering more efficiency and performance.

Jon Wong/Roadshow

Don't need V8 power? Ram has you covered. The base 3.6-liter Pentastar V6 comes standard with eTorque, putting out 305 horsepower and 269 pound-feet of torque, and able to tow a respectable 7,750 pounds. A very brief drive in the V6 again impresses with the hybrid integration, mirroring the experience in the V8 with normal brake pedal behavior and brisk engine start-ups. On the road, the V6 eTorque behaves a lot like the V8, in that you don't really notice it all that much. There is a clear power difference between the two models, of course, but the V6 is by no means slow.

What's the primary goal of all the eTorque mild hybrid sorcery? Efficiency, of course. According to EPA estimates, the eTorque system is good for a 2-mpg improvement in the city cycle with the V8, for 17 mpg, compared to 15 mpg in the standard Hemi model. On the highway, the Hemi by itself returns 22 mpg with two-wheel drive and 21 mpg with four-wheel drive, but with eTorque increases those figures to 23 mpg and 22 mpg, respectively. Official fuel economy numbers aren't available just yet for the V6, but Ram engineers say the eTorque setup should result in a small bump over the 2018 Ram 1500 V6's 17 mpg city and 25 mpg highway EPA ratings.

The eTorque system adds 130 pound-feet of additional launch torque to the Hemi V8.

Jon Wong/Roadshow

The other benefit of eTorque is, well, torque: 130 pound-feet of additional electric launch thrust, though the truck itself has a total output of 395 horsepower and 410 pound-feet. That means this 5,300-pound pickup is no slouch off the line, and the Ram has no problem getting up to speed in a hurry.

Comfortable and capable

In addition to the slick drivetrain, my 1500 Limited test truck features luxury-level ride comfort on its standard air suspension system that's optional on lower trim levels. It also takes corners with competence -- for a big truck, anyway -- with controlled body roll, good grip on the 275/55R20 Bridgestone Dueler H/L tires and satisfying steering heft and response.

The cabin is incredibly spacious, with the cab length growing by 4 inches for this generation Ram 1500, with 3 of those inches benefiting rear passengers. Speaking of back-seat riders, they can now enjoy a flat floor and seat backs that recline up to 8 degrees. Storage certainly isn't in short supply, with cubbies and pockets in the doors, and a center console that's configurable in 12 different ways, depending on what you need to stash. The interior is nice and quiet, too, thanks to the Ram's improved aerodynamics, acoustic windshield and front side glass and active noise cancellation, which is all the better to enjoy in the Limited's comfy leather seats.

At the foundation of it all is a new frame constructed from 98 percent high-strength steel that's 100 pounds lighter and more rigid to help improve handling and all-out capability. Max payload for the Hemi eTorque model stands at 2,300 pounds and max towing increases to 12,700 pounds.

Gold star tech

While the 1500's hybrid technology is mostly unnoticeable, the interior's Uconnect 4infotainment tech, with an available 12-inch configurable touchscreen, is impossible to miss. The gigantic screen is intuitive to work through with large icons, crisp graphics and immediately reacts to commands. In my Limited tester, the Uconnect system controls a 19-speaker Harman Kardon audio system, navigation with 3D map imagery, a Wi-Fi hotspot, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. On lower trim levels, Uconnect 4 works with an 8.4-inch display, while Uconnect 3 is the base level system with a 5-inch screen.

Charging options are plentiful with three USB ports, a 115-volt plug and optional wireless charging pad up front, while there are an additional two USB ports and a standard plug on the back of the center console. Four of the five USB hookups are Type C/A ports, allowing for quicker charge times. No phone or tablet in the Ram 1500 should ever go dead.

The Uconnect 4 infotainment system can be optioned with a massive 12-inch touchscreen.

Jon Wong/Roadshow

The safety tech menu is also extensive with adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning with lane-keep assist, rear cross-traffic alert, 360-degree camera and forward collision warning with automatic emergency braking and blind-spot monitoring, all of which work as advertised.

V8s now and V6 later

The all-new 2019 Ram 1500 begins at $33,390, including $1,695 destination, for the V6 model that still doesn't hit dealerships for another couple of months. If you're one of the many people who don't want the V6 and prefer the big 5.7-liter Hemi V8, that'll cost you an additional $1,195 and going all out for the V8 eTorque tacks on yet another $1,450. Ram 1500 production has been off to a rocky start, but V8 models are in showrooms now.

Like every full-size pickup, the price tag can climb at an alarming rate; my very heavily optioned, range-topping Limited test truck comes in at $68,340. That sounds like a lot, but is right in line with the full-zoot Ford F-150 Limited 4x4 that begins at $66,280.

Like most trucks, the 1500's price tag can climb quickly depending on trim level and options.

Jon Wong/Roadshow

The pickup wars are fierce, with the Ram facing stiff competition from the aforementioned F-150, not to mention the completely redesigned Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra. But no other truck offers electric assist right now, and that might be enough to give Ram a bit more competitive edge in this highly competitive segment.

Editors' note: Roadshow accepts multi-day vehicle loans from manufacturers in order to provide scored editorial reviews. All scored vehicle reviews are completed on our turf and on our terms. However, for this feature, the manufacturer covered travel costs. This is common in the auto industry, as it's far more economical to ship journalists to cars than to ship cars to journalists.

The judgments and opinions of Roadshow's editorial team are our own and we do not accept paid editorial content.

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