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Jimmy Kimmel Returns as Trump Vows to Further ‘Test’ ABC

Jimmy Kimmel Returns as Trump Vows to Further ‘Test’ ABC

Jimmy Kimmel was back on the air Tuesday night after being suspended last week by ABC’s parent company, the Walt Disney Company, following pressure from President Donald Trump and FCC Chairman Brendan Carr. Kimmel addressed the controversy surrounding his comments a week earlier, denounced political violence, stressed how important it was to stand up for free speech in the U.S., and then went right back to mocking Trump, who tweeted about Kimmel shortly before the episode had even aired.

Kimmel’s monologue Tuesday, which is available on YouTube, struck the right tone in an environment where it was unclear if the late night host would need to show subservience to Trump in order to get his job back. It seems like just about every other high-profile figure with something to lose has bowed down to Trump when it mattered.

Big tech executives recently went around the table praising the vapid authoritarian; Columbia University paid $200 million to make bogus charges of anti-semitism go away; and CBS’s parent company shelled out $16 million in what may as well have been a quid pro quo to get Paramount’s merger with SkyDance approved. It’s all been so undignified.

But Kimmel never kissed Trump’s ass on Tuesday night and didn’t formally apologize for what he said last week, instead explaining that he understood how people could have taken what he said the wrong way. Kimmel was earnest and heartfelt without appeasing the fascists that seem to have infiltrated every corner of Washington D.C. during Trump’s second term.

What was the scandal again?

The supposed “scandal” that started it all was perplexing. It was ostensibly about MAGA influencer Charlie Kirk, who was murdered on Sept. 10 while debating college kids in Utah.

During his show on Monday, Sept. 15, Kimmel said, “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.”

It was the lead-in to a joke about Trump, and you can watch the entire one-minute segment below. But that short line was the entirety of the controversy. And most conservative news outlets talking about Kimmel’s comments didn’t even bother to play the clip for viewers.

We can do this the easy way or the hard way

The comments didn’t really get any widespread notice until FCC chairman Carr appeared on the streaming show of MAGA influencer Benny Johnson two days later. And Kimmel addressed Carr’s mob-like tactics during his own show on Tuesday.

“Brendan Carr, the chairman of the FCC, telling an American company ‘we can do this the easy way or the hard way’ —and that these companies can find ways to change conduct or take action on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead—in addition to being a direct violation of the First Amendment, is not a particularly intelligent threat to make in public,” Kimmel said.

“Ted Cruz said he sounded like a mafioso,” Kimmel continued. “Although I don’t know, if you want to hear a mob boss make a threat like that, you have to hide a microphone in a deli and park outside in a van with a tape recorder all night long. This genius said it on a podcast.”

Kimmel reluctantly gave Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas, some credit for saying that the U.S. government shouldn’t dictate what people are allowed to hear. He also discussed the other late-night hosts, as well as the support he received from people around the world.

On the verge of tears

Kimmel said that he heard a lot of different things about what he was supposed to say in the lead-up to his comeback show, but brushed that off as something that wouldn’t really matter.

“I don’t think what I have to say is going to make much of a difference. If you like me, you like me. If you don’t, you don’t. I have no illusions about changing anyone’s mind. But I do want to make something clear, because it’s important to me as a human. And that is, you understand that it was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man,” Kimmel said, choking up.

Kimmel noted that he posted a message on Instagram the day Kirk was killed, sending love to his family, and also mentioned that he gets death threats and selfishly has every reason not to condone violence.

Kimmel wasn’t ‘back’ for a big chunk of the country

Kimmel also addressed the fact that even though he was back on the air, he wasn’t available everywhere, including markets like St. Louis, Salt Lake City, Nashville, New Orleans, and others. Kimmel’s show also isn’t airing in Washington, D.C., the market where President Television spends most of his time these days.

Why is Kimmel still banned in various cities? Two companies that own local stations across the country, Sinclair and Nextstar, didn’t air Jimmy Kimmel Live on Tuesday as they continue to pretend like Kimmel said something deeply offensive. Combined, the companies own about 22% of all ABC affiliates in the U.S., according to the Wall Street Journal. And it was local broadcasters that Carr said should squeeze people like Kimmel off the air.

It’s unclear how the conflict between ABC and the two media companies will be resolved, but Sinclair has demanded that Kimmel make an apology and a sizeable donation to Kirk’s political group, Turning Point USA. The host didn’t say anything about those demands on Tuesday.

The top fascist weighs in

Trump’s own tweet Tuesday night didn’t even bother to pretend like anything about Kimmel’s situation was really about Charlie Kirk.

“I can’t believe ABC Fake News gave Jimmy Kimmel his job back. The White House was told by ABC that his Show was cancelled!” Trump posted on Truth Social, without explaining precisely the kind of communications that have happened between Trump’s goons and ABC.

“Something happened between then and now because his audience is GONE, and his ‘talent’ was never there. Why would they want someone back who does so poorly, who’s not funny, and who puts the Network in jeopardy by playing 99% positive Democrat GARBAGE,” Trump continued.

Trump allies have repeatedly insisted that Kimmel wasn’t taken off the air at the president’s insistence. But someone should probably tell Trump that. Because he made a very convoluted argument in his tweet Tuesday making it clear that he would continue to go after Kimmel.

“He is yet another arm of the DNC and, to the best of my knowledge, that would be a major Illegal Campaign Contribution,” Trump continued. “I think we’re going to test ABC out on this. Let’s see how we do. Last time I went after them, they gave me $16 Million Dollars. This one sounds even more lucrative. A true bunch of losers! Let Jimmy Kimmel rot in his bad Ratings.”

Trump made a similarly absurd argument about CBS and 60 Minutes giving “campaign contributions” to the Democrats before the company settled with Trump in what was widely viewed as a bribe.

Trump is coming for everybody

Kimmel didn’t publicly comment on anything while he was off the air until midday Tuesday, when he posted a photo of himself with Norman Lear on Bluesky and Instagram, which reads, “Missing this guy today.” Lear was a TV comedy legend who produced hit shows of the 1970s like All in the Family, Sanford and Son, and The Jeffersons. Lear died in 2023.

Kimmel’s social media post didn’t give any hint about how he would treat his suspension when it came time for the broadcast, but he clearly landed in the right place when all was said and done. And he talked a lot about the dangers that were ahead of us, describing how Stephen Colbert had been pushed out at CBS and showed a screenshot of an old Trump tweet explaining that Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers at NBC would be next. In case you forgot, Trump wrote that Kimmel was “next” back in July after CBS said it wouldn’t be renewing Colbert’s contract in the spring.

Kimmel stuck the landing

Arguably, the most important aspect of Kimmel’s monologue was that it ended with the same tone as other segments from the comedian in recent years. Which is to say that it was irreverent and made fun of Trump’s most idiotic comments from recent days. Kimmel played a montage of Trump’s press conference from Monday, where he repeatedly told Americans not to take Tylenol and poked fun at the president’s unhinged comments at the United Nations on Tuesday.

Kimmel also had Robert DeNiro appear for a segment where the legendary actor played the FCC chairman. DeNiro adopted the mob-boss swagger that we’ve seen him play in countless movies, and it worked exactly like you’d expect. It wasn’t the funniest thing in the world, but it landed a few punches and succeeded at eliciting some chuckles. That’s what late-night TV comedy has been about since its inception, and Kimmel made it clear that he would keep doing what he does best as long as ABC would let him.

Whether Trump and Carr let him keep at it is another matter. Because this obviously isn’t the end of Kimmel’s battle with censorship, as far as Trump is concerned. The president will continue to harass media companies until they’re sufficiently deferential. And there are no guarantees that Disney will stand up to Trump if push comes to shove in the future.

The Disney boycott and speech in America

At one point, Kimmel made a joke about something Disney was making him read to be allowed back on the air. He pulled out a sheet of paper and told people how to reactivate their Disney+ and Hulu accounts. And while it was clearly a joke, there was probably a lot of truth to what Kimmel was suggesting. Disney almost certainly saw the calls for boycotts and cancellations, as Gizmodo’s comment sections were filled with them. And it seems like a substantial number of people really did make good on the threats to cancel.

Without that massive public pressure, it seems very likely that Disney would’ve pulled the plug on Kimmel for good. Unfortunately, most people who make media aren’t quite as high-profile as Kimmel. And when folks like Rumeysa Ozturk get locked up for simply co-writing an op-ed about human rights, there’s no streaming service we can cancel to show our support.

But we have to take the wins where we get them. And while we don’t know what tomorrow holds, at least Kimmel got a national audience to make his case directly to the American people.

“Look, I never imagined I would be in a situation like this. I barely paid attention in school,” Kimmel said to laughs Tuesday night. “But one thing I did learn from Lenny Bruce and George Carlin and Howard Stern is that a government threat to silence a comedian the president doesn’t like is anti-American.”



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#Ninja #Quietly #Drastically #Improved #Slushie #Machineskitchen,shopping,household,food and drink,amazon">Ninja Quietly but Drastically Improved Its Slushie MachinesOther Slushie Machines I LikedPhotograph: Matthew KorfhageGreenPanFrost Slushie MachineThe slushie machine from Belgian-founded wellness brand GreenPan is maybe the only slushie machine I’d describe as being even slightly attractive, or pleasant on a countertop—available in a trendy pistachio color scheme that a 21-year-old co-tester called “cute.” The slush produced by this device also had quite a nice consistency, perhaps due to a tighter auger around the cylinder that roiled the slush a little more. My colleague Martin Cizmar, who also tested this device, was able to recreate a Philly recipe for Italian-style water ice with Meyer lemons, and declared himself an unending fan.The GreenPan slushed admirably, making a full chamber’s worth of spiked slush in about 25 minutes. This is nowhere near as fast as the XL or the Twist on slushing speeds, alas. The fill chamber is a little shallow, which means you have to pour slowly or you’ll make a mess. If you accidentally leave the handle down, you’ll also make a mess. Some reports online of cracks in the cylinder over use are also reason for pause. But if aesthetics are a prime consideration, this will slush handily. And look a little better while doing it.Photograph: Matthew KorfhagePhotograph: Matthew KorfhageThe original Ninja Slushi was quite simply a triumph of industrial design when it arrived in 2024—the machine that managed to bring the cocktail bar or convenience-store slushie to the home kitchen countertop. Among many imitators, Ninja’s original design remained the most user-friendly and reliable until the next-generation Ninjas supplanted it.I’ve made coconut-lime daiquiris for a family of visiting Brazilians, who joked that they planned to take the machine back with them on the airplane. I’ve entertained a party full of children with the nonalcoholic version of slushie. And I’ve made silly frozen cocktails at home, whether lime Jarritos slushies or tamarind michelada slushies. Everything frozen is better, it turns out. Freezing a cocktail adds fun and removes shame.But it’s been replaced. I consider the original Slushi a good value model, but it’s no longer the top of the market. The original Slushi doesn’t slush as well on higher-alcohol slushies as the newer XL and Twist, even for ABV below 16 percent. (Really, with an OG Ninja Slushi, the sweet spot is around 10 to 12 percent ABV if you want good consistency.) Milkshakes/soft-serve are not really feasible on the original Ninja either, always either foamy or ice-gritty.Which is all to say, buy the Slushi when it’s on a good sale at 0 or less—or when it’s updated with a compressor as good as the one on the XL or Twist.Other Slushie Machines TestedEver since Ninja took slushies to the home market, the Amazon directories have filled with newer brands you’ve likely never heard of and whose names sometimes seem subject to a randomizer engine: Inoviva, Chivalz, Vibofrost, Friwest, Aekda, Syintao, Vischic, Ranvaira, Rinvotio, and the list goes on. Most are available at discounts compared to Ninja or other more recognizable brands.I’ve tested three such brands: Chivalz, Invoviva, and Vibofrost. All three have had one form of reliability issue or another: basic design defects, inconsistency of performance, or simply disappearing from the market.Chivalz Slushie Machine (no longer in stock): This was previously WIRED’s budget pick, which my co-tester Kat Merck called, without insult, “a quite respectable Ninja Slushi knockoff.” The device arrived with a welcome digital temp readout and a removable back panel that made cleaning easier on the slush chamber. Performance was comparable to the original Ninja, though the user interface was a bit janky. But since last year, the brand’s slushie machines seem to have disappeared, as the brand’s focus moved to air purifiers and humidifiers.Vibofrost Slushie Machine (5, sold out after Prime Day): This Vibofrost, like the Chivalz, freezes slushies comparably to the original Ninja Slushi. And like the Chivalz, it has a somewhat irritating child-lock feature, and a timed feature that seems of limited utility. Though it will slush within around 20 to 30 minutes, the oddly designed spout can spray wildly if there’s any liquid in the machine, the drip tray does not attach securely, and it kinda moans like a dying tauntaun while in operation.Inoviva Slushie Machine for 0: I tested this Inoviva slushie machine twice. The first time, the device registered much louder than competitors, the drip tray arrived stuck to the machine, and the compressor began to fail after a week’s testing. The second time, it was still loud, and the user interface had a difficult-to-navigate locking feature, but freezing was indeed more consistent. The inconsistency in quality control makes this device difficult to recommend. But maybe you’re willing to brave this for a steeply discounted price. The Inoviva also has one terrific feature: The ability to adjust thickness for each drink setting.AccordionItemContainerButtonMy co-tester Kat Merck (on the now-discontinued Chivalz) and I made so very many slushies with each machine, from dairy to nondairy to coffee slushies to straight-up bottles of wine. Specifically, we tested every version of slush that a machine advertised. If Ninja or GreenPan says a machine can make frappés and milkshakes and frozen juices, we made frappés and milkshakes and frozen juices, tinkering where necessary. I froze orange juice and strawberry juice, slushed a bouquet’s worth of rosé, and made slushies from daiquiri to margarita to whiskey Coke. I slushed tamarind micheladas (an excellent idea) and Twisted Tea (a terrible idea).Photograph: Kat MerckI also raced the freezing capabilities of all three machines by pouring a 16-ounce can of delicious Mango Mike’s Harder Lemonade in each, then seeing which machine was fastest. (For the XL, I used a 24-ounce can.) And I made smooth and dense coconut-lime daiquiris with coconut milk, according to Ninja’s recipe, to test how well each machine’s dispenser handled a genuine dense-textured challenge.How Do Home Slushie Machines Work?AccordionItemContainerButtonThe tech is pretty simple, almost ingeniously so: A beefy cylindrical freezing core in the center of the drink chamber continually cools any liquid in contact with it. It’s encircled by a plastic spiral auger attached to a motor. The auger mixes the drink, keeps it slushing instead of freezing solid, and also pushes the resulting slush toward the dispenser nozzle so you can have some. The resolute simplicity of this design allowed Ninja and others to scale down the commercial slushie maker for home consumers thirsty for frozen treats.The main requirement is that the frozen beverage have more than 4 percent sugar—or between 3 percent and 16 percent alcohol—in order to lower the freezing point of the resulting concoction and make slushing possible. Some slushie machine vendors recommend percentages more like 15 percent sugar, for perfect consistency. But I often balk at this. Coca-Cola and orange juice are each around 11 percent sugar—so that’s very sweet. Some hero of the internet has made a slush calculator for easy reference.A minimum of 16 ounces of liquid is required for most 88-ounce home machines, for simple reasons: The liquid needs to be in physical contact with the core in order to slush up and also to keep ice from forming on the central cylinder’s surface. The Slushi XL requires a 24-ounce minimum, because it’s bigger.Can You Put Diet Soda in a Slushie Machine?AccordionItemContainerButtonNo and yes. Slushies rely on a helpful property of water: Sugar (or salt) dissolved in water lowers its freezing point below 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Why? Solubles like sugar are chaos agents. Sugar molecules move randomly, refuse to dissolve into ice, and interfere with water’s ability to form hydrogen bonds and turn crystalline. Some water molecules freeze, but sugar water doesn’t. Tada! Slush.If you try to make a slushie out of sugar-free soda, or sugar-free anything, ice crystals will instead form easily. The stainless steel freezing core will ice over and scrape on the auger, and ice cubes or hunks will gather mass in the slushie machine. The cylinder will start to shake, then the machine will clunk, then eventually you’ll probably break your machine: Low-sugar fail-safes on these devices have not been overly reliable, alas. So don’t try this at home!This doesn’t mean you’re doomed to massive calories if you want to make a slushie. Not every artificial sweetener lowers the freezing point appropriately, but the one that Ninja recommends for diet slushies is allulose, a rare but naturally occurring sugar that’s 70 percent as sweet as basic sugar but is not metabolized effectively by the human digestive system. This means it’s low in calories and doesn’t cause insulin spikes—but as with a lot of indigestibles, note that side effects can include bloating or GI distress for some.For easiest use in a slushie, buy liquid allulose. Powdered versions also exist, but to use them, you’ll need to make a simple syrup by heating up the powder in water to help it dissolve, then let it cool. If you just try to drop the allulose powder into your machine with some Diet Coke, it might not dissolve, and you might still get ice formation. Or at least, I definitely still got ice formation when I tried this on the OG Ninja, and had to stop my machine.How Can You Stop Milkshakes From Getting Foamy in a Slushie Machine?AccordionItemContainerButtonBet you didn’t expect a lesson in milk proteins today! But here’s the deal: Milk proteins start to separate when agitated. Churning milk is, in fact, how butter gets made. Proteins separate out, and you get butter on the one side and buttermilk on the other. Both are delicious, but neither is wanted in a milkshake.Photograph: Matthew KorfhageIf you try to make a milkshake in a churning slushie machine using just milk, you’ll eventually start to see the effects of these milk proteins separating out from buttermilk—which will manifest first as an undesirable foaminess. To avoid this, Ninja recommends also adding heavy cream or half-and-half to any milkshake recipe. The higher fat content will keep things smoother.Note it’s easiest to use fruit syrups, rather than just juice, and add vanillin, or it’ll be a bit boring: The heavy fat tends to overwhelm any subtle fruit flavors. Another deep secret of the tasty milkshake? Salt. Add a tiiiinny pinch; it’ll help bring out flavor. A 16-ounce McDonald’s milkshake has 260 milligrams of sodium—about 1/16th of a teaspoon of table salt, or approximately the amount that fits between your index finger and your thumb.But temper your expectations here. None of the slushie machines we tested made a texture comparable to a classic milkshake. On most machines, which don’t have compressors as powerful as the new-model Ninjas that are now our top picks, the texture is often a little ice-gritty and not as richly textured or integrated as the milkshake you’ll get from your local burger joint, let alone the soft serve from the famously broken ice cream machines at McDonald’s. Slushie machines also can’t handle chunks of frozen fruit, often the best part of a milkshake.On the newer Ninjas, with their more powerful freezing power, I was able to get the smoothness and freeze I wanted. But because most recipes call for a high-fat mix of 2:1 milk and heavy cream in order ot avoid churning foam and butter, the results still weren’t quite a light milkshake. It was more like a dense, rich, quite tasty soft serve.Now, do I like being able to make 20-minute soft-serve in my home? From milk and heavy cream and sugar and a dash of vanilla? Heck yes, I do.#Ninja #Quietly #Drastically #Improved #Slushie #Machineskitchen,shopping,household,food and drink,amazon

Photograph: Matthew Korfhage

GreenPan

Frost Slushie Machine

The slushie machine from Belgian-founded wellness brand GreenPan is maybe the only slushie machine I’d describe as being even slightly attractive, or pleasant on a countertop—available in a trendy pistachio color scheme that a 21-year-old co-tester called “cute.” The slush produced by this device also had quite a nice consistency, perhaps due to a tighter auger around the cylinder that roiled the slush a little more. My colleague Martin Cizmar, who also tested this device, was able to recreate a Philly recipe for Italian-style water ice with Meyer lemons, and declared himself an unending fan.

The GreenPan slushed admirably, making a full chamber’s worth of spiked slush in about 25 minutes. This is nowhere near as fast as the XL or the Twist on slushing speeds, alas. The fill chamber is a little shallow, which means you have to pour slowly or you’ll make a mess. If you accidentally leave the handle down, you’ll also make a mess. Some reports online of cracks in the cylinder over use are also reason for pause. But if aesthetics are a prime consideration, this will slush handily. And look a little better while doing it.

  • Photograph: Matthew Korfhage

  • Photograph: Matthew Korfhage

The original Ninja Slushi was quite simply a triumph of industrial design when it arrived in 2024—the machine that managed to bring the cocktail bar or convenience-store slushie to the home kitchen countertop. Among many imitators, Ninja’s original design remained the most user-friendly and reliable until the next-generation Ninjas supplanted it.

I’ve made coconut-lime daiquiris for a family of visiting Brazilians, who joked that they planned to take the machine back with them on the airplane. I’ve entertained a party full of children with the nonalcoholic version of slushie. And I’ve made silly frozen cocktails at home, whether lime Jarritos slushies or tamarind michelada slushies. Everything frozen is better, it turns out. Freezing a cocktail adds fun and removes shame.

But it’s been replaced. I consider the original Slushi a good value model, but it’s no longer the top of the market. The original Slushi doesn’t slush as well on higher-alcohol slushies as the newer XL and Twist, even for ABV below 16 percent. (Really, with an OG Ninja Slushi, the sweet spot is around 10 to 12 percent ABV if you want good consistency.) Milkshakes/soft-serve are not really feasible on the original Ninja either, always either foamy or ice-gritty.

Which is all to say, buy the Slushi when it’s on a good sale at $250 or less—or when it’s updated with a compressor as good as the one on the XL or Twist.

Other Slushie Machines Tested

Ever since Ninja took slushies to the home market, the Amazon directories have filled with newer brands you’ve likely never heard of and whose names sometimes seem subject to a randomizer engine: Inoviva, Chivalz, Vibofrost, Friwest, Aekda, Syintao, Vischic, Ranvaira, Rinvotio, and the list goes on. Most are available at discounts compared to Ninja or other more recognizable brands.

I’ve tested three such brands: Chivalz, Invoviva, and Vibofrost. All three have had one form of reliability issue or another: basic design defects, inconsistency of performance, or simply disappearing from the market.

Chivalz Slushie Machine (no longer in stock): This was previously WIRED’s budget pick, which my co-tester Kat Merck called, without insult, “a quite respectable Ninja Slushi knockoff.” The device arrived with a welcome digital temp readout and a removable back panel that made cleaning easier on the slush chamber. Performance was comparable to the original Ninja, though the user interface was a bit janky. But since last year, the brand’s slushie machines seem to have disappeared, as the brand’s focus moved to air purifiers and humidifiers.

Vibofrost Slushie Machine ($235, sold out after Prime Day): This Vibofrost, like the Chivalz, freezes slushies comparably to the original Ninja Slushi. And like the Chivalz, it has a somewhat irritating child-lock feature, and a timed feature that seems of limited utility. Though it will slush within around 20 to 30 minutes, the oddly designed spout can spray wildly if there’s any liquid in the machine, the drip tray does not attach securely, and it kinda moans like a dying tauntaun while in operation.

Inoviva Slushie Machine for $120: I tested this Inoviva slushie machine twice. The first time, the device registered much louder than competitors, the drip tray arrived stuck to the machine, and the compressor began to fail after a week’s testing. The second time, it was still loud, and the user interface had a difficult-to-navigate locking feature, but freezing was indeed more consistent. The inconsistency in quality control makes this device difficult to recommend. But maybe you’re willing to brave this for a steeply discounted price. The Inoviva also has one terrific feature: The ability to adjust thickness for each drink setting.

My co-tester Kat Merck (on the now-discontinued Chivalz) and I made so very many slushies with each machine, from dairy to nondairy to coffee slushies to straight-up bottles of wine. Specifically, we tested every version of slush that a machine advertised. If Ninja or GreenPan says a machine can make frappés and milkshakes and frozen juices, we made frappés and milkshakes and frozen juices, tinkering where necessary. I froze orange juice and strawberry juice, slushed a bouquet’s worth of rosé, and made slushies from daiquiri to margarita to whiskey Coke. I slushed tamarind micheladas (an excellent idea) and Twisted Tea (a terrible idea).

Image may contain Cutlery Spoon Indoors Interior Design Cup Jar Floor Flooring Cooking Pan and Cookware

Photograph: Kat Merck

I also raced the freezing capabilities of all three machines by pouring a 16-ounce can of delicious Mango Mike’s Harder Lemonade in each, then seeing which machine was fastest. (For the XL, I used a 24-ounce can.) And I made smooth and dense coconut-lime daiquiris with coconut milk, according to Ninja’s recipe, to test how well each machine’s dispenser handled a genuine dense-textured challenge.

How Do Home Slushie Machines Work?

The tech is pretty simple, almost ingeniously so: A beefy cylindrical freezing core in the center of the drink chamber continually cools any liquid in contact with it. It’s encircled by a plastic spiral auger attached to a motor. The auger mixes the drink, keeps it slushing instead of freezing solid, and also pushes the resulting slush toward the dispenser nozzle so you can have some. The resolute simplicity of this design allowed Ninja and others to scale down the commercial slushie maker for home consumers thirsty for frozen treats.

The main requirement is that the frozen beverage have more than 4 percent sugar—or between 3 percent and 16 percent alcohol—in order to lower the freezing point of the resulting concoction and make slushing possible. Some slushie machine vendors recommend percentages more like 15 percent sugar, for perfect consistency. But I often balk at this. Coca-Cola and orange juice are each around 11 percent sugar—so that’s very sweet. Some hero of the internet has made a slush calculator for easy reference.

A minimum of 16 ounces of liquid is required for most 88-ounce home machines, for simple reasons: The liquid needs to be in physical contact with the core in order to slush up and also to keep ice from forming on the central cylinder’s surface. The Slushi XL requires a 24-ounce minimum, because it’s bigger.

Can You Put Diet Soda in a Slushie Machine?

No and yes. Slushies rely on a helpful property of water: Sugar (or salt) dissolved in water lowers its freezing point below 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Why? Solubles like sugar are chaos agents. Sugar molecules move randomly, refuse to dissolve into ice, and interfere with water’s ability to form hydrogen bonds and turn crystalline. Some water molecules freeze, but sugar water doesn’t. Tada! Slush.

If you try to make a slushie out of sugar-free soda, or sugar-free anything, ice crystals will instead form easily. The stainless steel freezing core will ice over and scrape on the auger, and ice cubes or hunks will gather mass in the slushie machine. The cylinder will start to shake, then the machine will clunk, then eventually you’ll probably break your machine: Low-sugar fail-safes on these devices have not been overly reliable, alas. So don’t try this at home!

This doesn’t mean you’re doomed to massive calories if you want to make a slushie. Not every artificial sweetener lowers the freezing point appropriately, but the one that Ninja recommends for diet slushies is allulose, a rare but naturally occurring sugar that’s 70 percent as sweet as basic sugar but is not metabolized effectively by the human digestive system. This means it’s low in calories and doesn’t cause insulin spikes—but as with a lot of indigestibles, note that side effects can include bloating or GI distress for some.

For easiest use in a slushie, buy liquid allulose. Powdered versions also exist, but to use them, you’ll need to make a simple syrup by heating up the powder in water to help it dissolve, then let it cool. If you just try to drop the allulose powder into your machine with some Diet Coke, it might not dissolve, and you might still get ice formation. Or at least, I definitely still got ice formation when I tried this on the OG Ninja, and had to stop my machine.

How Can You Stop Milkshakes From Getting Foamy in a Slushie Machine?

Bet you didn’t expect a lesson in milk proteins today! But here’s the deal: Milk proteins start to separate when agitated. Churning milk is, in fact, how butter gets made. Proteins separate out, and you get butter on the one side and buttermilk on the other. Both are delicious, but neither is wanted in a milkshake.

Image may contain Cream Dessert Food Ice Cream Soft Serve Ice Cream Frozen Yogurt Baby and Person

Photograph: Matthew Korfhage

If you try to make a milkshake in a churning slushie machine using just milk, you’ll eventually start to see the effects of these milk proteins separating out from buttermilk—which will manifest first as an undesirable foaminess. To avoid this, Ninja recommends also adding heavy cream or half-and-half to any milkshake recipe. The higher fat content will keep things smoother.

Note it’s easiest to use fruit syrups, rather than just juice, and add vanillin, or it’ll be a bit boring: The heavy fat tends to overwhelm any subtle fruit flavors. Another deep secret of the tasty milkshake? Salt. Add a tiiiinny pinch; it’ll help bring out flavor. A 16-ounce McDonald’s milkshake has 260 milligrams of sodium—about 1/16th of a teaspoon of table salt, or approximately the amount that fits between your index finger and your thumb.

But temper your expectations here. None of the slushie machines we tested made a texture comparable to a classic milkshake. On most machines, which don’t have compressors as powerful as the new-model Ninjas that are now our top picks, the texture is often a little ice-gritty and not as richly textured or integrated as the milkshake you’ll get from your local burger joint, let alone the soft serve from the famously broken ice cream machines at McDonald’s. Slushie machines also can’t handle chunks of frozen fruit, often the best part of a milkshake.

On the newer Ninjas, with their more powerful freezing power, I was able to get the smoothness and freeze I wanted. But because most recipes call for a high-fat mix of 2:1 milk and heavy cream in order ot avoid churning foam and butter, the results still weren’t quite a light milkshake. It was more like a dense, rich, quite tasty soft serve.

Now, do I like being able to make 20-minute soft-serve in my home? From milk and heavy cream and sugar and a dash of vanilla? Heck yes, I do.

#Ninja #Quietly #Drastically #Improved #Slushie #Machineskitchen,shopping,household,food and drink,amazon">Ninja Quietly but Drastically Improved Its Slushie Machines

Other Slushie Machines I Liked

Photograph: Matthew Korfhage

GreenPan

Frost Slushie Machine

The slushie machine from Belgian-founded wellness brand GreenPan is maybe the only slushie machine I’d describe as being even slightly attractive, or pleasant on a countertop—available in a trendy pistachio color scheme that a 21-year-old co-tester called “cute.” The slush produced by this device also had quite a nice consistency, perhaps due to a tighter auger around the cylinder that roiled the slush a little more. My colleague Martin Cizmar, who also tested this device, was able to recreate a Philly recipe for Italian-style water ice with Meyer lemons, and declared himself an unending fan.

The GreenPan slushed admirably, making a full chamber’s worth of spiked slush in about 25 minutes. This is nowhere near as fast as the XL or the Twist on slushing speeds, alas. The fill chamber is a little shallow, which means you have to pour slowly or you’ll make a mess. If you accidentally leave the handle down, you’ll also make a mess. Some reports online of cracks in the cylinder over use are also reason for pause. But if aesthetics are a prime consideration, this will slush handily. And look a little better while doing it.

  • Photograph: Matthew Korfhage

  • Photograph: Matthew Korfhage

The original Ninja Slushi was quite simply a triumph of industrial design when it arrived in 2024—the machine that managed to bring the cocktail bar or convenience-store slushie to the home kitchen countertop. Among many imitators, Ninja’s original design remained the most user-friendly and reliable until the next-generation Ninjas supplanted it.

I’ve made coconut-lime daiquiris for a family of visiting Brazilians, who joked that they planned to take the machine back with them on the airplane. I’ve entertained a party full of children with the nonalcoholic version of slushie. And I’ve made silly frozen cocktails at home, whether lime Jarritos slushies or tamarind michelada slushies. Everything frozen is better, it turns out. Freezing a cocktail adds fun and removes shame.

But it’s been replaced. I consider the original Slushi a good value model, but it’s no longer the top of the market. The original Slushi doesn’t slush as well on higher-alcohol slushies as the newer XL and Twist, even for ABV below 16 percent. (Really, with an OG Ninja Slushi, the sweet spot is around 10 to 12 percent ABV if you want good consistency.) Milkshakes/soft-serve are not really feasible on the original Ninja either, always either foamy or ice-gritty.

Which is all to say, buy the Slushi when it’s on a good sale at $250 or less—or when it’s updated with a compressor as good as the one on the XL or Twist.

Other Slushie Machines Tested

Ever since Ninja took slushies to the home market, the Amazon directories have filled with newer brands you’ve likely never heard of and whose names sometimes seem subject to a randomizer engine: Inoviva, Chivalz, Vibofrost, Friwest, Aekda, Syintao, Vischic, Ranvaira, Rinvotio, and the list goes on. Most are available at discounts compared to Ninja or other more recognizable brands.

I’ve tested three such brands: Chivalz, Invoviva, and Vibofrost. All three have had one form of reliability issue or another: basic design defects, inconsistency of performance, or simply disappearing from the market.

Chivalz Slushie Machine (no longer in stock): This was previously WIRED’s budget pick, which my co-tester Kat Merck called, without insult, “a quite respectable Ninja Slushi knockoff.” The device arrived with a welcome digital temp readout and a removable back panel that made cleaning easier on the slush chamber. Performance was comparable to the original Ninja, though the user interface was a bit janky. But since last year, the brand’s slushie machines seem to have disappeared, as the brand’s focus moved to air purifiers and humidifiers.

Vibofrost Slushie Machine ($235, sold out after Prime Day): This Vibofrost, like the Chivalz, freezes slushies comparably to the original Ninja Slushi. And like the Chivalz, it has a somewhat irritating child-lock feature, and a timed feature that seems of limited utility. Though it will slush within around 20 to 30 minutes, the oddly designed spout can spray wildly if there’s any liquid in the machine, the drip tray does not attach securely, and it kinda moans like a dying tauntaun while in operation.

Inoviva Slushie Machine for $120: I tested this Inoviva slushie machine twice. The first time, the device registered much louder than competitors, the drip tray arrived stuck to the machine, and the compressor began to fail after a week’s testing. The second time, it was still loud, and the user interface had a difficult-to-navigate locking feature, but freezing was indeed more consistent. The inconsistency in quality control makes this device difficult to recommend. But maybe you’re willing to brave this for a steeply discounted price. The Inoviva also has one terrific feature: The ability to adjust thickness for each drink setting.

My co-tester Kat Merck (on the now-discontinued Chivalz) and I made so very many slushies with each machine, from dairy to nondairy to coffee slushies to straight-up bottles of wine. Specifically, we tested every version of slush that a machine advertised. If Ninja or GreenPan says a machine can make frappés and milkshakes and frozen juices, we made frappés and milkshakes and frozen juices, tinkering where necessary. I froze orange juice and strawberry juice, slushed a bouquet’s worth of rosé, and made slushies from daiquiri to margarita to whiskey Coke. I slushed tamarind micheladas (an excellent idea) and Twisted Tea (a terrible idea).

Image may contain Cutlery Spoon Indoors Interior Design Cup Jar Floor Flooring Cooking Pan and Cookware

Photograph: Kat Merck

I also raced the freezing capabilities of all three machines by pouring a 16-ounce can of delicious Mango Mike’s Harder Lemonade in each, then seeing which machine was fastest. (For the XL, I used a 24-ounce can.) And I made smooth and dense coconut-lime daiquiris with coconut milk, according to Ninja’s recipe, to test how well each machine’s dispenser handled a genuine dense-textured challenge.

How Do Home Slushie Machines Work?

The tech is pretty simple, almost ingeniously so: A beefy cylindrical freezing core in the center of the drink chamber continually cools any liquid in contact with it. It’s encircled by a plastic spiral auger attached to a motor. The auger mixes the drink, keeps it slushing instead of freezing solid, and also pushes the resulting slush toward the dispenser nozzle so you can have some. The resolute simplicity of this design allowed Ninja and others to scale down the commercial slushie maker for home consumers thirsty for frozen treats.

The main requirement is that the frozen beverage have more than 4 percent sugar—or between 3 percent and 16 percent alcohol—in order to lower the freezing point of the resulting concoction and make slushing possible. Some slushie machine vendors recommend percentages more like 15 percent sugar, for perfect consistency. But I often balk at this. Coca-Cola and orange juice are each around 11 percent sugar—so that’s very sweet. Some hero of the internet has made a slush calculator for easy reference.

A minimum of 16 ounces of liquid is required for most 88-ounce home machines, for simple reasons: The liquid needs to be in physical contact with the core in order to slush up and also to keep ice from forming on the central cylinder’s surface. The Slushi XL requires a 24-ounce minimum, because it’s bigger.

Can You Put Diet Soda in a Slushie Machine?

No and yes. Slushies rely on a helpful property of water: Sugar (or salt) dissolved in water lowers its freezing point below 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Why? Solubles like sugar are chaos agents. Sugar molecules move randomly, refuse to dissolve into ice, and interfere with water’s ability to form hydrogen bonds and turn crystalline. Some water molecules freeze, but sugar water doesn’t. Tada! Slush.

If you try to make a slushie out of sugar-free soda, or sugar-free anything, ice crystals will instead form easily. The stainless steel freezing core will ice over and scrape on the auger, and ice cubes or hunks will gather mass in the slushie machine. The cylinder will start to shake, then the machine will clunk, then eventually you’ll probably break your machine: Low-sugar fail-safes on these devices have not been overly reliable, alas. So don’t try this at home!

This doesn’t mean you’re doomed to massive calories if you want to make a slushie. Not every artificial sweetener lowers the freezing point appropriately, but the one that Ninja recommends for diet slushies is allulose, a rare but naturally occurring sugar that’s 70 percent as sweet as basic sugar but is not metabolized effectively by the human digestive system. This means it’s low in calories and doesn’t cause insulin spikes—but as with a lot of indigestibles, note that side effects can include bloating or GI distress for some.

For easiest use in a slushie, buy liquid allulose. Powdered versions also exist, but to use them, you’ll need to make a simple syrup by heating up the powder in water to help it dissolve, then let it cool. If you just try to drop the allulose powder into your machine with some Diet Coke, it might not dissolve, and you might still get ice formation. Or at least, I definitely still got ice formation when I tried this on the OG Ninja, and had to stop my machine.

How Can You Stop Milkshakes From Getting Foamy in a Slushie Machine?

Bet you didn’t expect a lesson in milk proteins today! But here’s the deal: Milk proteins start to separate when agitated. Churning milk is, in fact, how butter gets made. Proteins separate out, and you get butter on the one side and buttermilk on the other. Both are delicious, but neither is wanted in a milkshake.

Image may contain Cream Dessert Food Ice Cream Soft Serve Ice Cream Frozen Yogurt Baby and Person

Photograph: Matthew Korfhage

If you try to make a milkshake in a churning slushie machine using just milk, you’ll eventually start to see the effects of these milk proteins separating out from buttermilk—which will manifest first as an undesirable foaminess. To avoid this, Ninja recommends also adding heavy cream or half-and-half to any milkshake recipe. The higher fat content will keep things smoother.

Note it’s easiest to use fruit syrups, rather than just juice, and add vanillin, or it’ll be a bit boring: The heavy fat tends to overwhelm any subtle fruit flavors. Another deep secret of the tasty milkshake? Salt. Add a tiiiinny pinch; it’ll help bring out flavor. A 16-ounce McDonald’s milkshake has 260 milligrams of sodium—about 1/16th of a teaspoon of table salt, or approximately the amount that fits between your index finger and your thumb.

But temper your expectations here. None of the slushie machines we tested made a texture comparable to a classic milkshake. On most machines, which don’t have compressors as powerful as the new-model Ninjas that are now our top picks, the texture is often a little ice-gritty and not as richly textured or integrated as the milkshake you’ll get from your local burger joint, let alone the soft serve from the famously broken ice cream machines at McDonald’s. Slushie machines also can’t handle chunks of frozen fruit, often the best part of a milkshake.

On the newer Ninjas, with their more powerful freezing power, I was able to get the smoothness and freeze I wanted. But because most recipes call for a high-fat mix of 2:1 milk and heavy cream in order ot avoid churning foam and butter, the results still weren’t quite a light milkshake. It was more like a dense, rich, quite tasty soft serve.

Now, do I like being able to make 20-minute soft-serve in my home? From milk and heavy cream and sugar and a dash of vanilla? Heck yes, I do.

#Ninja #Quietly #Drastically #Improved #Slushie #Machineskitchen,shopping,household,food and drink,amazon

TL;DR: The LG 27GX790B-B 27-inch UltraGear OLED gaming monitor is on sale for $699.99 at Amazon, down from its $999.99 list price.


$699.99 at Amazon
$999.99 Save $300

OLED gaming monitors are rarely where you go looking for budget upgrades, but Amazon’s latest LG UltraGear deal gives you a pretty serious price cut on one of the fastest 27-inch screens in LG’s current lineup. 

As of June 30, the LG’s 27-inch UltraGear QHD OLED gaming monitor (the 27GX790B-B model) is on sale for only $699.99 at Amazon — with a limited-time deal cutting $300 from its $999.99 list price. 

Shipped and sold by Amazon directly (instead of a third-party seller), free delivery is set for July 5 at the time of writing, or as soon as July 2 for Prime members. Amazon also shows a used “Like New” option for $664.99 through Amazon Resale, if you want to save as much as possible. Anyone wanting the new model directly from Amazon will want to stick with the $699.99 listing. 

This UltraGear is built around a 27-inch QHD OLED panel with a 2560×1440 resolution, giving you a sharper picture than 1080p without asking your PC to push full 4K. If you’re either new to PC gaming or upgrading from a much older rig, this is a very nice middle ground. 

If you’re the type who plays a lot of competitive games, you’ll be a big fan of LG’s Dual Mode: letting you switch between QHD at up to 540Hz or HD at up to 720Hz, depending on whether you care more about sharpness or pure reaction time. Add in the 0.02ms gray-to-gray response time, and games like Counter-Strike 2, Rocket League, Fortnite, and Valorant should feel seriously quick.

The OLED panel should also help with more cinematic games and streaming, with LG listing 335 nits of typical brightness, DisplayHDR True Black 500, UL Verified Perfect Black, and a 1.5M:1 contrast ratio.

That means if you’ll be playing Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced or Grand Theft Auto VI in the future, you’ll be getting richer blacks, stronger contrast, and better detail in darker scenes than you’d expect from a more standard gaming monitor. 

For keeping frames extra smooth, the monitor also supports NVIDIA G-SYNC compatibility and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro. DisplayPort 2.1, dual HDMI 2.1 ports, USB-C, three USB ports, DTS Headphone:X support, and height, tilt, swivel, and pivot adjustments round out the package — so you have all the versatility you need to complete your new immersive setup and then some. 

If you fancy an extra QHD monitor, the 27-inch Odyssey G5 is now only $149.99 at Amazon. As for OLEDs, you can still grab the Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 curved gaming monitor for its lowest-ever price. 

#gaming #monitor #deal #Dual #Mode #27inch #UltraGear #OLED #Amazon">Best gaming monitor deal: Dual Mode 27-inch LG UltraGear OLED is 40% off at Amazon
                                                            TL;DR: The LG 27GX790B-B 27-inch UltraGear OLED gaming monitor is on sale for 9.99 at Amazon, down from its 9.99 list price.
    
    
    
        
                                        
                                        
                    
                                                    9.99
                                                             at Amazon
                                                        9.99
                                                                                         Save 0
                                                                        
                
                                        
                    
        
    

OLED gaming monitors are rarely where you go looking for budget upgrades, but Amazon’s latest LG UltraGear deal gives you a pretty serious price cut on one of the fastest 27-inch screens in LG’s current lineup. As of June 30, the LG’s 27-inch UltraGear QHD OLED gaming monitor (the 27GX790B-B model) is on sale for only 9.99 at Amazon — with a limited-time deal cutting 0 from its 9.99 list price. Shipped and sold by Amazon directly (instead of a third-party seller), free delivery is set for July 5 at the time of writing, or as soon as July 2 for Prime members. Amazon also shows a used “Like New” option for 4.99 through Amazon Resale, if you want to save as much as possible. Anyone wanting the new model directly from Amazon will want to stick with the 9.99 listing. This UltraGear is built around a 27-inch QHD OLED panel with a 2560×1440 resolution, giving you a sharper picture than 1080p without asking your PC to push full 4K. If you’re either new to PC gaming or upgrading from a much older rig, this is a very nice middle ground. If you’re the type who plays a lot of competitive games, you’ll be a big fan of LG’s Dual Mode: letting you switch between QHD at up to 540Hz or HD at up to 720Hz, depending on whether you care more about sharpness or pure reaction time. Add in the 0.02ms gray-to-gray response time, and games like Counter-Strike 2, Rocket League, Fortnite, and Valorant should feel seriously quick.The OLED panel should also help with more cinematic games and streaming, with LG listing 335 nits of typical brightness, DisplayHDR True Black 500, UL Verified Perfect Black, and a 1.5M:1 contrast ratio. That means if you’ll be playing Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced or Grand Theft Auto VI in the future, you’ll be getting richer blacks, stronger contrast, and better detail in darker scenes than you’d expect from a more standard gaming monitor. 
        
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For keeping frames extra smooth, the monitor also supports NVIDIA G-SYNC compatibility and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro. DisplayPort 2.1, dual HDMI 2.1 ports, USB-C, three USB ports, DTS Headphone:X support, and height, tilt, swivel, and pivot adjustments round out the package — so you have all the versatility you need to complete your new immersive setup and then some. If you fancy an extra QHD monitor, the 27-inch Odyssey G5 is now only 9.99 at Amazon. As for OLEDs, you can still grab the Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 curved gaming monitor for its lowest-ever price. 

                    
                                            
                            
                        
                                    #gaming #monitor #deal #Dual #Mode #27inch #UltraGear #OLED #Amazon

$699.99 at Amazon, down from its $999.99 list price.


$699.99 at Amazon
$999.99 Save $300

OLED gaming monitors are rarely where you go looking for budget upgrades, but Amazon’s latest LG UltraGear deal gives you a pretty serious price cut on one of the fastest 27-inch screens in LG’s current lineup. 

As of June 30, the LG’s 27-inch UltraGear QHD OLED gaming monitor (the 27GX790B-B model) is on sale for only $699.99 at Amazon — with a limited-time deal cutting $300 from its $999.99 list price. 

Shipped and sold by Amazon directly (instead of a third-party seller), free delivery is set for July 5 at the time of writing, or as soon as July 2 for Prime members. Amazon also shows a used “Like New” option for $664.99 through Amazon Resale, if you want to save as much as possible. Anyone wanting the new model directly from Amazon will want to stick with the $699.99 listing. 

This UltraGear is built around a 27-inch QHD OLED panel with a 2560×1440 resolution, giving you a sharper picture than 1080p without asking your PC to push full 4K. If you’re either new to PC gaming or upgrading from a much older rig, this is a very nice middle ground. 

If you’re the type who plays a lot of competitive games, you’ll be a big fan of LG’s Dual Mode: letting you switch between QHD at up to 540Hz or HD at up to 720Hz, depending on whether you care more about sharpness or pure reaction time. Add in the 0.02ms gray-to-gray response time, and games like Counter-Strike 2, Rocket League, Fortnite, and Valorant should feel seriously quick.

The OLED panel should also help with more cinematic games and streaming, with LG listing 335 nits of typical brightness, DisplayHDR True Black 500, UL Verified Perfect Black, and a 1.5M:1 contrast ratio.

That means if you’ll be playing Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced or Grand Theft Auto VI in the future, you’ll be getting richer blacks, stronger contrast, and better detail in darker scenes than you’d expect from a more standard gaming monitor. 

For keeping frames extra smooth, the monitor also supports NVIDIA G-SYNC compatibility and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro. DisplayPort 2.1, dual HDMI 2.1 ports, USB-C, three USB ports, DTS Headphone:X support, and height, tilt, swivel, and pivot adjustments round out the package — so you have all the versatility you need to complete your new immersive setup and then some. 

If you fancy an extra QHD monitor, the 27-inch Odyssey G5 is now only $149.99 at Amazon. As for OLEDs, you can still grab the Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 curved gaming monitor for its lowest-ever price. 

#gaming #monitor #deal #Dual #Mode #27inch #UltraGear #OLED #Amazon">Best gaming monitor deal: Dual Mode 27-inch LG UltraGear OLED is 40% off at Amazon

TL;DR: The LG 27GX790B-B 27-inch UltraGear OLED gaming monitor is on sale for $699.99 at Amazon, down from its $999.99 list price.


$699.99 at Amazon
$999.99 Save $300

OLED gaming monitors are rarely where you go looking for budget upgrades, but Amazon’s latest LG UltraGear deal gives you a pretty serious price cut on one of the fastest 27-inch screens in LG’s current lineup. 

As of June 30, the LG’s 27-inch UltraGear QHD OLED gaming monitor (the 27GX790B-B model) is on sale for only $699.99 at Amazon — with a limited-time deal cutting $300 from its $999.99 list price. 

Shipped and sold by Amazon directly (instead of a third-party seller), free delivery is set for July 5 at the time of writing, or as soon as July 2 for Prime members. Amazon also shows a used “Like New” option for $664.99 through Amazon Resale, if you want to save as much as possible. Anyone wanting the new model directly from Amazon will want to stick with the $699.99 listing. 

This UltraGear is built around a 27-inch QHD OLED panel with a 2560×1440 resolution, giving you a sharper picture than 1080p without asking your PC to push full 4K. If you’re either new to PC gaming or upgrading from a much older rig, this is a very nice middle ground. 

If you’re the type who plays a lot of competitive games, you’ll be a big fan of LG’s Dual Mode: letting you switch between QHD at up to 540Hz or HD at up to 720Hz, depending on whether you care more about sharpness or pure reaction time. Add in the 0.02ms gray-to-gray response time, and games like Counter-Strike 2, Rocket League, Fortnite, and Valorant should feel seriously quick.

The OLED panel should also help with more cinematic games and streaming, with LG listing 335 nits of typical brightness, DisplayHDR True Black 500, UL Verified Perfect Black, and a 1.5M:1 contrast ratio.

That means if you’ll be playing Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced or Grand Theft Auto VI in the future, you’ll be getting richer blacks, stronger contrast, and better detail in darker scenes than you’d expect from a more standard gaming monitor. 

For keeping frames extra smooth, the monitor also supports NVIDIA G-SYNC compatibility and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro. DisplayPort 2.1, dual HDMI 2.1 ports, USB-C, three USB ports, DTS Headphone:X support, and height, tilt, swivel, and pivot adjustments round out the package — so you have all the versatility you need to complete your new immersive setup and then some. 

If you fancy an extra QHD monitor, the 27-inch Odyssey G5 is now only $149.99 at Amazon. As for OLEDs, you can still grab the Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 curved gaming monitor for its lowest-ever price. 

#gaming #monitor #deal #Dual #Mode #27inch #UltraGear #OLED #Amazon

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