The decision to buy any Android Watch is dependent on multiple factors, but in the ZTE Quartz’s case, there are two main ones to consider: Do you need Android Pay? Are you a T-Mobile customer?

If the answers to those questions are no and yes, respectively, then the ZTE Quartz is a no-brainer purchase (assuming it fits your wrist). At just $192, you’re not likely to find a better deal for a 3G Android Wear watch, even if you opt for one of the marked-down first-gen versions. All-day, independent connectivity is quite a feat for a sub-$200 2017 watch, and if that’s one of the features you crave, there’s very little reason reason not to pick one up.

It might not be the flashiest watch around, but with the money you save you can buy a real fancy band to go with it.

Is it the Jelly phone for everyone? We wouldn’t say so, but there is definitely a market for it. Some people do prefer a simpler experience with the ability to download just a few extra applications. It’s kind of like a smart feature phone of sorts… or a good secondary device for the glove compartment. And while it won’t be making anyone jelly, it is probably worth the asking price if its uniqueness piqued your interest.

Void is an independently developed, rolling release Linux distribution. The Void distribution runs on 32-bit and 64-bit x86 processors as well as several ARM boards including the Raspberry Pi, BeagleBone and Cubieboard2. The Void distribution is available in Cinnamon, Enlightenment, LXDE, LXQt, MATE and Xfce editions with some additional desktop environments offered through the project's software repositories. There is also a plain edition which I believe sets up a minimal command line environment.

There are a number of features which set Void apart from most other Linux distributions. Void uses the XBPS package manager for working with source and binary packages. Void was an early adopter of OpenBSD's LibreSSL library which acts as a drop-in replacement for the OpenSSL security library. Further, Void has an init implementation called runit which is unusually small and simple. Another interesting feature of Void is the distribution can use one of two C libraries. Most Linux distributions use the glibc library. Void does provide glibc and also offers installation media with the lightweight musl library.

I decided to download the Void project's MATE edition which is 637MB in size. Booting from the supplied media brings up a screen where we can choose between starting the distribution's live environment or loading Void into RAM and then launching the desktop environment. The latter option uses more memory, but makes the distribution run faster and frees up the drive or port where our installation media is located.

Imagine taking Linux Mint, placing the Cinnamon desktop on it and then theming it to not only to serve as a perfect drop-in replacement for Windows 7 but to be one of the most beautiful Linux desktops you’ve seen in a long while. That’s what Feren OS has managed -- and has done so with aplomb.

Feren OS first arrived in 2015 and recently unleashed their 2017 iteration of the platform...with stunning results. This is truly one of those instances that, upon installation, you’ll find yourself doing a double (or triple) take, asking, “Is this really Linux?” Not that the state of the Linux desktop is behind the competition, in fact, I consider many of the Linux desktops to be light years ahead of other desktops. But, Feren OS has achieved something special; they’ve created a Linux distribution that anyone could use, for nearly any purpose, with zero learning curve.

Let’s take a look at this new(ish) distro to see exactly what makes it special. We’ll also dig deep to see what kind of caveats lay under the polish (if any).