Wish you could see who’s outside your door from anywhere? Like, even if you weren’t home? Then you need a video doorbell.

The Ring Video Doorbell is down to $50 right now—half off its usual price in this early Prime Day deal—and this popular video doorbell is an excellent way to get that peace of mind. It’s a fantastic opportunity if you’re a Prime member in need of one!

As Prime Day approaches fast, Amazon’s own products are bound to be the first to get their prices slashed, and we’re happy to see this Ring doorbell on the list of early winners.

The Ring Video Doorbell features 1080p HD video with two-way audio so you can see, hear, and speak to anyone who’s at your door directly from your own phone, tablet, or PC. Whether you’re at home or not, you’ll have a way to check in with whoever comes knocking.

This version of the Ring Video Doorbell includes improved motion detection, privacy zones, and better night vision, so you can review your home’s surroundings in the same detail as you see during the day.

You’ll also get mobile notifications whenever someone rings the doorbell and/or triggers the motion sensors.

However, you’ll need a separate Ring Protect Plan subscription if you want recorded videos (which keep as far back as 180 days) that you can review whenever you like. This plan also unlocks Alexa voice announcements on connected Echo and Fire devices.

Now’s the best time to upgrade your doorbell because you won’t always be able to get the Ring Video Doorbell for only $50. Not a Prime member? Start a free 30-day trial! With Prime Day coming up soon, you’ll be able to score all kinds of deals with it.

The Ring Video Doorbell is slashed down to $50 Smart Home

Smart home assistants are fun and they aren’t just for adults. Kids can have just as much—if not more—fun talking to Alexa and doing all sorts of cool stuff around the house. But what if you don’t want your kids to have full rein over Alexa’s capabilities?

That’s where the Echo Dot Kids comes into play—and right now the Echo Dot Kids is down to its best price of $28 for Prime members as an early Prime Day deal. More than half off, this awesome deal is just a foretaste of what you can expect in the upcoming Prime Day sale.

The Echo Dot Kids features a solid speaker that delivers clear vocals and rich, vibrant sound. It comes with a cute owl or dragon design that makes the famous Echo Dot look even more adorable.

The key here is that the Echo Dot Kids is specifically designed for children, making it a safe way for them to interact with smart home technology. Kids can ask Alexa to play music, read bedtime stories, get homework help, and more. You can connect various services for them, including Spotify and Amazon Music.

One of the coolest perks when getting the Echo Dot Kids is free access to Amazon Kids+ for a whole year. Amazon Kids+ is a digital service for kids ages 3 to 12, granting access to all kinds of age-appropriate books, games, and educational Alexa skills.

With the Echo Dot Kids, Alexa is already pre-programmed to provide kid-friendly responses and filter out explicit content, but you can also set daily time limits and review device activity in the Amazon Parent Dashboard.

Oh, and if your kid somehow breaks it, Amazon will replace it for free thanks to the 2-year worry-free guarantee.

Don’t miss this chance to get the Echo Dot Kids for $28, a hot deal that won’t last. Since this is a Prime deal, you’ll need a Prime membership, which you can try free for 30 days. After that, it’s $15 per month and you get tons of benefits, including one-day delivery.

Amazon's Echo Dot Kids is on sale for $28 Amazon Echo

If you want to be competitive in PC games these days, you can forget about using a run-of-the-mill office mouse. Instead, you’ll need a powerful device that’s optimized just for gaming.

Manufacturers go to great pains to design specialist devices that give players an edge, with enhancements like unique body sizes and shapes, customizable weight, and extra grips to increase speed and accuracy. On top of that, the best gaming mice have unique hardware enhancements like highly sensitive sensors and complex button configurations to keep up with fast-paced games.

Deciding on the right mouse is a highly personal decision that needs careful consideration. Factors like the size and shape of your hand, your preferred grip style, the types of games you play, and the number of buttons you need, are all factors in your quest for the best gaming mouse.

Why you should trust us? PCWorld has delivered in-depth product reviews and news going on 40 years now. Our reviewers aren’t just peripheral geeks, they’re also avid gamers on a mission to find the best gaming gear for themselves. Because of that they know the ins and outs of gaming gear, what’s good and what’s not.

Every mouse we review is put through a rigorous testing process by our expert reviewers. We appraise everything from the device’s comfort and reliability, to its performance in games. We also compare each product to competitors to sum up whether or not they represent value for money. See our article on how we test gaming mice for more details.

Updated June 25, 2024 to include the Razer Basilisk Ultimate as an alternative to our Best MMO pick, the Razer Naga V2 Pro. The Basilisk Ultimate’s smooth glide, solid feel, and 11 programmable buttons make it a great option for MMO players that don’t need a side button grid.

How we test gaming mice

To ensure that our gaming mice selections are the pick of the crop, the PCWorld team subjects them to extensive play testing as well as a legion of other tests. We scrutinize everything from how well a mouse perform in games, to the size and shape of it in the hand, to comfort and ergonomics, to customizations. Here are the main categories our tests fall under:

• Gaming performance: At the end of the day it doesn’t matter how a mouse looks; it’s how it performs that matters. To evaluate a mouse’s performance we look specifically at how sensitive and responsive its sensor is and also how well the sensor tracks movement. Precision is also a key consideration, with mice that are more accurate generally scoring better in our reviews than those that aren’t. In wireless mice we also evaluate the speed and strength of the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth signals, keeping a look out for red flags like signal dropouts or interference. Some mice also come with software enhancements that determine the mouse’s lift-off distance, which we also examine in our testing.
• Design and ergonomics: You won’t find another tech device for which design plays a more crucial part of a user’s experience. And, while it’s true that there’s no one shape, size, or configuration that fits every gamer, there’s enough variation out there for every gamer to find their own perfect fit. When looking at design, we consider the size and shape of the device itself and the type of hand it fits. Gamers tend to use one of three common grip types—palm, claw, or fingertip—so a mouse’s compatibility with one or all of those types is a big consideration.
• Software: Being able to tweak settings like your mouse’s DPI and polling rate and create specific profiles for your favorite games can make or break your gaming experience, which is why a mouse’s software support is so important. Our PCWorld reviewers’ focus here is to consider the range and scope of software support and how readily settings can be modified, changed, and saved for future use.

For more details about our testing process, see our article on how we test gaming mice at PCWorld.

Gaming, Mice

Recently Apple reversed a long-standing policy that disallowed retro game emulator apps, so now gamers have access to decades of classic ROMs on the iPhone and iPad without work-arounds. But it appears that tolerance does not extend to emulating classic PC platforms, for games or any other purpose. Developers of DOS and early x32 emulators have been shown the door on the App Store.

According to a report from The Verge, Apple told developers that retro PC emulators run afoul of the App Store’s App Review Guidelines, section 4.7. These are the same rules that have proven so problematic for services that stream games from external servers. Though it now explicitly allows “game emulators” and “retro game console emulator apps,” that privilege apparently does not extend to apps that emulate more utilitarian software like DOS and Windows.

The developers of iDOS 3 and the UTM SE virtual machine both had their app submissions rejected, and social media posts indicate that Apple took exception to the programs specifically because they weren’t “emulators of retro game consoles.” The fact that both of these programs can and often are used to play PC games over 30 years old doesn’t seem to enter into the equation.

Apple was characteristically unhelpful in nailing down the guidelines. Would a Commodore 64 count as a console or a PC? Apparently the former, since C64 emulators are available on the App Store right now, despite the fact that the device was sold as a personal computer and could run a wide variety of productivity programs. As usual, developers are at Apple’s mercy when it interprets its own rules, and won’t find out that their app is in violation of those rules until it’s rejected.

It’s worth pointing out that Google’s Play Store for Android phones and tablets allows more or less any emulation app for any platform, so long as they don’t actually contain copyrighted content in the form of system files or ROMs. Apple seems to have changed its position earlier this year, around the same time that European Union legislators forced the company to allow third-party app stores on iOS, something already possible on Android. Users in the EU may be able to run PC emulators on the iPhone and iOS when this functionality becomes available, albeit without the ease of access granted by the App Store walled garden.

iPad, iPhone

It seems like the cryptocurrency boom has created a never-ending well of hucksters looking to steal your money. It’s scams all the way down.

According to a recent alert from the FBI, a new breed of scam is specifically targeting people who’ve already been scammed, posing as law firms that specialize in recovering funds lost to crypto schemes.

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation’s public service announcement (spotted by BleepingComputer) says that fraudsters will reach out to people who have already been victims of cryptocurrency scams via social media. They’ll pose as a lawyer or a law firm that specializes in recovering assets stolen via crypto scams, sometimes even claiming that they work with the FBI or the separate Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Targeting people who’ve already fallen for a crypto scam seems incredibly scummy… but it makes sense in purely mercantile terms. Such victims have already shown that they’re susceptible to social engineering.

The scammers, who may or may not be the same people who ran the original scam, will claim that they’re actively seeking judgment against the original criminals. That’s the bait. The hook is personal banking information, a straight payment for “services,” or more complicated ruses involving fees or “back taxes.” Once they have enough info to steal your identity or just get paid, they vanish.

The FBI report says that this secondary round of scamming is on the rise, with an estimated $9 million stolen from victims between February 2023 and 2024. That’s a drop in the bucket of the larger cryptocurrency scam cottage industry, where pump-and-dump “rug pulls” and phishing scams to drain crypto wallets are now the norm. But it seems especially despicable to steal from people who’ve already been scammed.

Law enforcement can, on rare occasions, track and recover cryptocurrency to reimburse victims. And it’s certainly possible to pursue legal action against someone who’s scammed you, which means lawyers will be involved at some point. But they don’t typically reach out to victims on social media.

The sad truth is that most people who’ve been victimized by cryptocurrency scams either don’t know the real identities of their scammers or have no real legal recourse against them.

Security Software and Services

Price When Reviewed

$40 for 1 PC license

Best Prices Today: NTI Backup Pro 7

NTI Backup Pro 7 is what one might refer to as the whole enchilada. It offers file backup, imaging/drive backup, continuous backup as well online backup to NTI Cloud (powered by Microsoft Azure). It backs up to and from networks, and is one of the rare backup programs that supports optical discs.

I was psyched at the feature list and assumed that in the 10 years since I last visited NTI’s flagship backup program, it would be finely honed and bullet-proof. In the end, everything worked as advertised, but there were glitches of various types.

Further reading: See our roundup of the best backup software to learn about competing products.

What are NTI Backup Pro 7’s features?

As I mentioned, NTI Backup Now Pro 7 offers file and folder backup, drive and partition image backup, continuous backup, and cloud backup. Continuous backup is file and folder backup where changes are backed up as they occur. Cloud backup is also file and folder backup, but to NTI’s online storage.

The plain file/folder, image, and online backups are stored in proprietary container files (single large files with all the data contained inside), while the continuous backup is a browsable plain file backup. i.e., files are copied as you would using Windows Explorer. Older revisions of files are kept in a separate folder.

The Backup Now Pro 7 interface is very straightforward, though unlike the EZ version, there’s no hand-holding when it comes to selecting data to back up. No biggie, but it could be just a tad friendlier.

The just-mentioned NTI EZ Backup Now 7.5 (which is $10 less per license) has a slightly more intuitive workflow, though the interface is not one of the prettiest. It lacks the Pro version’s continuous backup, but is otherwise roughly feature equivalent.

Back to Pro… There’s granular scheduling (in addition to the continuous, of course) available, as well incremental backups to save space, and automatic maintenance of destination storage by purging older files when necessary. Encryption and password protection are also provided.

An NTI Backup Now Pro 7 feature that I absolutely love is the ability to choose multiple local destinations (a secondary internal drive plus external drive, etc.) for a backup job. It would be nice if you could combine local with network locations and the NTI Cloud, but hey, it’s a start

And yes, the program will back up both to and from network locations. As well as to FTP. And, as mentioned up top, Backup Now Pro 7 even supports optical discs.

How much does NTI Backup Pro 7 cost?

At the time of this writing NTI Backup Now Pro 7 was on sale for $40, down from the normal $60 retail price. The EZ version without the continuous backup was $30, $20 off of full list. The continuous backup-only NTI Shadow program is also $30 on sale.

An NTI Backup Now Pro 7 feature that I absolutely love is the ability to choose multiple local destinations (a secondary internal drive plus external drive, etc.) for a backup job.

NTI Cloud (required for cloud backup) is free for one-month of 16GB, $5 a month for 32GB, $10 monthly for 64GB, $20 a month for 128GB, $40 per month for 256GB, $100 a month for 640GB, and $200 a month for 2TB. My OneDrive subscription is $70 per year for 1TB and includes Office 365.

The math is rather obvious, but OneDrive is less than anything but NTI’s 16GB plan. Google Drive offers 15GB for free. Spelling it out, the NTI Cloud is very pricey and as it’s the only online storage supported, that feature is considerably less attractive than it might be.

Note that you can use just about any backup program with nearly any online storage service by employing a cloud storage manager.

How well does NTI Backup Pro 7 perform?

I ran into issues with NTI Backup Pro 7 right off the bat, with the interface scaling incorrectly on my 4K display. It took a trip to the program file’s Properties/Compatibility/Change DPI settings to select “Program DPI” before the text and icons were large enough that I could use the program. There was more visual sloppiness in spots, which always gives me pause when it comes to software.

The program was also slothful at presenting files and folders. Seemingly, it doesn’t query the file system pre-emptively as is common practice. While all these idiosyncrasies may seem picayune, they add up, and do nothing to reassure me that the actual backup functionality will be bullet proof. As it turned out…

While file/folder and continuous backups to local media went off without unusual glitches, imaging proved an issue — as it turns out, because we remote control the test beds using Microsoft Remote Desktop. Backup Now Pro 7 didn’t like this, cancelling every image job before it was five seconds old.

After over a week of back and forth, and hours of troubleshooting, NTI explained this as a security “feature.” However, the logic behind it escapes me, and it’s hard to consider it a feature when no other program exhibits the same behavior. R-Drive Image, Acronis Cyber Security Home Office, Aomei Backupper, Macrium Reflect Home all backed up without a fuss.

I checked NTI’s EZ Backup Now 7.5 (see above) to see if it suffered the same ‘feature,” and while it failed initially, on the the second try it imaged a partition correctly. Apparently, a partial implementation of said “feature.”

Another annoyance was that choosing to stop a 7GB cloud backup job at 30 percent didn’t stop the backup. I waited a full 10 minutes, then killed the process to cancel the job. Perhaps I was impatient, or perhaps the stop request wouldn’t have been processed until the current 7GB container file was completed — i.e., at 100 percent.

A smaller online backup of the documents, desktop, and downloads folders proceeded without incident, as I’m sure the larger one would have too, if I hadn’t needed to cancel.

On another positive note, creating a recovery disc went without a hitch and booted on both test beds. Restoring the image I was finally able to create was successful as well.

Should you buy NTI Backup Pro 7?

In the end, NTI Backup Pro 7 worked as advertised, but the annoyances I encountered and the super-high cost of the cloud storage left me not completely enthusiastic about the program. Give it a spin and see if it’s right for you, but do the same for the competition.

How I test software

All software is installed on an AMD Ryzen 3700X system utilizing an MSI MEG X570 motherboard with 64GB of Kingston DDR4 memory, and several PCIe 4 NVMe SSDs. The operating system is Windows 11 21H2, to which only security updates are applied to maintain a level playing field over time. The test bed is largely kept off the Internet unless testing the software demands it. All pertinent features are tested and the program rated for stability, suitability to task, ease of use, and feature set.

Should issues arise, all possibly conflicting applications are uninstalled, and if that doesn’t fix the problem, Windows is reinstalled. And as off this writing, controlling the test bed remotely will be checked.

Computer Storage Devices, Storage

On June 25th, Microsoft released KB5039302 for Windows 11, a patch that brings a few small improvements for users, which are fully described in the official changelog.

This patch distinguishes between changes that Microsoft is gradually rolling out to users and improvements that the software company is rolling out to everyone in one fell swoop.

The gradual rollout changes

First up, this update adds a new “Game Pass” recommendation card to the Settings home page. The change affects both Home and Pro editions of Windows 11, but is usually only displayed if you’re logged in with your Microsoft account and actively playing.

Emoji 15.1 support is also a new addition. Windows now supports the Unicode symbol-like shapes for various family constellations, plus several brand-new emojis (namely horizontal and vertical head shaking, phoenix, lime, brown mushroom, and a broken chain).

The “Show desktop” button is also back in the taskbar by default. To change this, right-click on the taskbar and select Taskbar settings to adjust the taskbar behavior.

This patch also incorporates some minor changes to File Explorer. Microsoft writes the following:

You can now create 7-Zip and Tape Archive (TAR) files via the context menu. If you right-click on a file, you can use the Compress to file option to compress it using tools such as gzip, bzip2, and others.

There is also a new compression wizard in the additional options. It helps you to select additional formats and add details. You can use different compression types to add many files to archives in other TAR formats. You can also change the compression level and select the data types to be stored in each archive.

It’s now also possible to copy files from the Windows Share window. Simply click on the new Copy button.

This update also marks the start of the rollout of the new Account Manager in the Start menu. When you sign in to Windows with a Microsoft account, you’ll see an overview of your account benefits. This feature also allows you to easily manage your account settings.

The immediate rollout changes

In contrast to the previous changes, there are a few minor changes that are rolling out right away to everyone who installs the update.

Among other things, Microsoft is fixing a problem with the Snipping Tool, which only recorded distorted sound while recording video. Other bug fixes concern the safe ejection of USB devices.

To install this Windows 11 update, you can select “Check for updates” on your PC or contact the usual Microsoft sharing channels.

Windows

Love grilled foods but hate working a grill? The fully electric Ninja Woodfire Outdoor Grill & Smoker promises to level up your grill game, all without you needing to know how to light a fire.

And the best part? Ninja’s 7-in-1 electric grill and smoker is only $299 right now, down from its usual $370 for a hefty savings.

The Ninja brand is known for its super useful appliances that help you prep and cook delicious food, and this one takes you outside and makes it easy to grill, smoke, air fry, and more.

With Ninja’s Woodfire technology, you don’t actually have to light a fire: it’s entirely electric for heat, while also allowing you to add wood pellets to get that rich barbecue smoke flavor that makes grilling so special.

It gets hot enough to sear and char your meats and vegetables, so it’s the perfect solution for family cooking and get-togethers. And Ninja doesn’t stop there—this thing is also an air fryer, so you can serve up crispy fries or delicious wings in just a few minutes.

Approximately 13 inches tall, 24 inches wide, 19 inches deep, and weighing about 30 pounds, it’s just portable enough to bring out and take back in as you need it. (Note that the power cord is only 4 feet long, so you’ll likely need a 3-prong extension.)

But it’s also weather-resistant, which means you could leave it outside in a safe spot if you wanted to. Keep it on your patio, your balcony, your shed, or anywhere you’d keep a traditional backyard grill.

The Ninja Woodfire Outdoor Grill & Smoker is currently on sale at Amazon and Best Buy for 20% off. With so much summer ahead of us, now’s a fantastic time to grab one of these!

This Ninja grill & smoker is on sale for $299 Smart Appliances

Price When Reviewed

$1,499

Best Prices Today: Dell Inspiron 16 Plus

The Dell Inspiron 16 Plus is a powerful 16-inch laptop with high-end CPU performance, great cooling, and discrete Nvidia GeForce RTX graphics. These are features you’d normally find in a gaming laptop, but the Inspiron 16 Plus is more focused on creative users who need a GPU for their professional applications and GPU-based AI workloads.

At $1,499, this laptop offers a great combination of hardware that’s worth a look. But everything in life involves compromises — especially laptops — and this machine won’t be the right fit for everyone.

Looking for more options? Check out PCWorld’s roundup of the best laptops available today.

Dell Inspiron 16 Plus: Specs

The Dell Inspiron 16 Plus (7640) is a 16-inch laptop available with a wide variety of different hardware options. Our review model came with an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor, but you can also get it with a Core Ultra 5 or Core Ultra 9 CPU. These are Intel Meteor Lake CPUs. (Dell’s specifications sheet says the company also offers this laptop with 13th-generation Intel “Raptor Lake” processors, but we’ll focus on the newer Meteor Lake versions here).

Dell offers this laptop with a variety of graphics options. Our review model included Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 graphics, but Dell also offers GeForce RTX 4050 graphics as an option. They don’t all have discrete graphics, you can also get Intel Arc graphics. Dell isn’t positioning this as a gaming laptop — in fact, Dell says the extra graphics horsepower is for creators. This laptop also has a “GeForce RTX Studio” sticker. But, while it will work well in professional 3D rendering apps and AI applications that need GPU power, the graphics will also let you play games in a pinch, too.

Dell included 16GB of RAM with our review model, but you can get this machine with up to 64GB of RAM. Additionally, there are a wide variety of display options: We had a 16-inch 2560×1600 IPS display without a touch screen, but you can also get this laptop with a lower-resolution 1920×1200 display. A touch screen is available as an option on that lower-resolution model.

This laptop includes Wi-Fi 6E support as standard, but you can also get Wi-FI 7 hardware. On top of that, while our review model had a 90 Watt-hour battery, Dell also offers this laptop with a 64 Watt-hour battery.

This laptop does have a Copilot key on its keyboard, but it’s worth noting that it has an Intel Meteor Lake neural processing unit (NPU.) That means it won’t get the Copilot+ PC features Microsoft recently announced. Those will require next-generation hardware from Qualcomm, Intel, or AMD.

Dell offers this laptop with a lot of different hardware configurations, so be sure to check the specs of the model you’re looking at.

• CPU: Intel Core Ultra 7 155H
• Memory: 16GB RAM
• Graphics/GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060
• Display: 16-inch 2560×1600 IPS display with 120 Hz refresh rate
• Storage: 1TB PCIe Gen4 SSD
• Webcam: 1080p webcam
• Connectivity: 1x Thunderbolt 4 (USB Type-C), 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, 1x HDMI 2.1, microSD card reader, 1x combo audio jack, 1x DC power in
• Networking: Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3
• Biometrics: Fingerprint reader
• Battery capacity: 90 Watt-hours
• Dimensions: 14.05 x 9.87 x 0.69 inches
• Weight: 4.94 pounds
• MSRP: $1,499 as tested

Dell Inspiron 16 Plus: Design and build quality

The Dell Inspiron 16 Plus has a nice-looking and solid-feeling all-metal design. It’s all silvers with a black bezel around the screen. Inside the laptop, the keys are a dark gray with a white backlight. There’s a silver Dell logo on the lid, but otherwise you won’t see a bunch of logos or distracting text elsewhere on the machine.

This laptop has extremely solid build quality, which is no surprise with that all-metal construction. There’s no real flex to the case, even when you pick it up with one hand from a corner.

The hinge feels extremely solid, too — and it’s interesting in another way. You can keep pushing the screen back, and this will raise the back of the keyboard, pushing it upward toward you. It works nicely, and the action feels great. You can only push it back so far, however — this laptop will not lie flat. (Of course, that’s fine! It doesn’t need to.

This laptop is 4.94 pounds. For a 16-inch laptop made of metal with a huge battery and a discrete Nvidia GPU, that’s a reasonable weight.

Dell Inspiron 16 Plus: Keyboard and trackpad

The Dell Inspiron 16 Plus has a full-size keyboard with white backlighting. The keyboard is plenty response and fast to type on. To me, the key travel is a little on the shallow side and the action doesn’t feel as snappy as it does on some of the most premium keyboards like a ThinkPad keyboard or a mechanical keyboard. Still, I wouldn’t describe it as mushy. It’s a fine keyboard.

The fingerprint reader at the top-right corner of the keyboard is also a power key, and it works well. I’m not a huge fan of the layout of the up and down arrow keys, though — Dell chose to use full-size left and right arrow keys, with half-height up and down arrow keys stuck in the middle.

The trackpad is centrally positioned below the keyboard and works well. The surface is smooth, the action is responsive and the feel of the click is pleasantly clicky. The palm rejection works well, too.

Dell Inspiron 16 Plus: Display and speakers

The Dell Inspiron 16 Plus has a nice-looking display. Our review model had a 16-inch 2560×1600 IPS display. The 120 Hz refresh rate makes for a nice smooth experience. It’s in a convenient 16:10 aspect ratio, giving you plenty of vertical space for getting work done.

You can also get this laptop with a lower-resolution 1920×1200 display, and that resolution is available with a touch screen option — but this higher-resolution model isn’t available with a touch screen.

At 300 nits of brightness, it’s not the brightest laptop screen out there. But this isn’t a gaming laptop — it’s a workstation. The anti-glare screen looks nice — it’s not super glossy and reflective — and the choice of display is likely a big factor in the laptop’s energy efficiency. If this laptop offered a high-resolution OLED display option, that would probably cut deep into the battery life.

When it comes to speakers, this system once again offers multiple options. If you have a version with Nvidia GeForce graphics — like our review unit — you get four speakers (two upward firing speakers above the keyboard and two downward firing speakers below the laptop). If you have a version with integrated Intel graphics, you just get the two speakers in the speaker grill above the keyboard.

The audio sounds alright, but. While speakers can deliver loud sound, but the bass is a little lacking. That’s normal for almost any laptop — you have to really look for a high-end gaming laptop to start getting serious bass.

Dell Inspiron 16 Plus: Webcam, microphone, biometrics

Dell includes a 1080p webcam with its Inspiron 16 Plus laptop. The webcam also includes a physical privacy shutter, which is a great privacy feature often found on business laptops.

The webcam looks decent, although I’ve seen sharper image quality from some of the business laptops I’ve tested lately. Thanks to the neural processing unit (NPU) in Intel’s Meteor Lake, this laptop also gives you access to Windows Studio Effects, allowing you to fake eye contact and blur your background.

The microphone is also decent, although I don’t think it’s quite as clear and crisp as the built-in microphones on many of the business laptops I’ve been reviewing. It picked up a little bit of background noise, even in a fairly quiet room. It’s not bad — it’s good — but this isn’t the absolute best webcam and microphone setup for online meetings.

This laptop doesn’t offer facial recognition sign-in with Windows Hello — there’s no IR camera here. However, this laptop does include a fingerprint reader at the top-right corner of the keyboard, above the Backspace key. (This pushes the Delete key slightly to the left.) The fingerprint reader works well, and it scanned my fingerprint and signed me into Windows quickly. Some people will prefer fingerprint login to facial recognition, although I like the way facial recognition instantly signs me in as soon as I open a laptop. Facial recognition is just more convenient if you’re looking for biometrics.

Dell Inspiron 16 Plus: Connectivity

The Dell Inspiron 16 has a decent selection of ports overall — aside from the Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) ports. It offers just a single USB-C port — which it also uses for charging with the standard USB-C charger Dell ships with the laptop.

On the left side, you’ve got a single Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) port along with an HDMI 2.1 port and a power jack.

On the right side, you’ll find an SD card reader, a combo audio jack, and two USB Type-A ports (USB 3.2 Gen 1.) Note that the versions of the laptop with integrated Intel Arc graphics have a standard sized SD card reader while the versions of the laptop with discrete Nvidia graphics have a microSD card reader.

The Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) port situation is the issue. USB-C charging is fine, and it works well here. The problem is that this laptop just has that single USB-C port. While this laptop does have a more traditional barrel charger port as well, it normally comes with a USB-C charger. So, if you want to plug something else into that USB-C port while the laptop is plugged in, you’ll need a Thunderbolt Dock that the laptop can charge through.

Out of the box, with the standard laptop configuration, there’s no way to actually use that power jack unless you hunt down a charger that doesn’t come with the laptop.

At least, that was the situation on our review unit. Dell told us that the base model of the laptop could ship with a traditional barrel charger. But, Dell also said that this laptop wouldn’t qualify for Intel’s Evo Edition sticker without USB-C charging.

If a manufacturer is going to use USB-C charging these days, they should provide more than one USB-C port. A second USB-C port would be a big help.

This machine includes Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 hardware. You can get a version of the laptop with Wi-Fi 7 support, too — Intel made that an extra add-on that doesn’t come standard with Meteor Lake-powered laptops like this one. While it’s fine to have Wi-Fi 6E because Wi-Fi 7 isn’t widespread yet, we’re getting to the point where it would be nice to see laptops support Wi-Fi 7 out of the box.

Dell Inspiron 16 Plus: Performance

With its Intel Core Ultra 7 155H CPU, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 graphics, 16GB of RAM, and 1TB of solid-state storage, the Dell Inspiron 16 Plus naturally delivered excellent performance in day-to-day desktop usage. This laptop comes with an “Intel Evo” sticker, too.

Of course, we ran the Dell Inspiron 16 Plus through our standard benchmarks to see how it performs.

First, we run PCMark 10 to get an idea of overall system performance. While this is designed as an overall system benchmark, the CPU performance is a big factor in the results.

The Dell Inspiron 16 Plus delivered an overall score of 7,101. That’s a great score. It’s competitive or better than the other modern laptops with Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processors we’re comparing this machine against.

Next, we run Cinebench R20. This is a heavily multithreaded benchmark that focuses on overall CPU performance. It’s a quick benchmark, so cooling under extended workloads isn’t a factor. But, since it’s heavily multithreaded, CPUs with more cores have a huge advantage.

This 16-inch laptop delivered excellent performance with a multi-threaded score of 6,924. That’s noticeably faster than some 14-inch laptops we compared it to here.

We also run an encode with Handbrake. This is another heavily multithreaded benchmark, but it runs over an extended period. This demands the laptop’s cooling kick in, and many laptops will throttle and slow down under load.

The Dell Inspiron 16 Plus completed the encode in 957, which is about 16 minutes.  That’s a solid score and it shows the machine is doing a good job of staying cool and not throttling due to heat under extended workloads, like the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus clearly is.

his machine did complete the encode more slowly than the HP Pavilion Plus with its previous-generation Intel Core i7-1355U Raptor Lake processor, however. Intel’s Meteor Lake hardware just comes up a bit shorter than the previous-generation hardware in CPU performance. Intel’s Lunar Lake hardware should hopefully fix this, beating Meteor Lake on power efficiency while also delivering more performance than Raptor Lake.

Next, we run a graphical benchmark. While this isn’t a gaming laptop, it does have a discrete Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPU. To benchmark the GPU, we run the 3DMark Time Spy graphical benchmark.

With a score of 8,735, the RTX 4060-powered variant of this laptop delivered much better graphical performance than an Intel Arc-powered Dell Inspiron 14 Plus, which delivered a score of 3,493.

Overall, the Dell Inspiron 16 Plus delivered excellent performance with strong cooling and without noticeable thermal throttling slowing things down under load. Bear in mind that your performance will vary depending on the configuration — Dell offers a variety of different CPU and GPU options. In particular, the Intel Arc variant will be much farther behind on the 3DMark Time Spy benchmark.

When we reviewed the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus, we found that its vents didn’t seem to be doing anything. I tested. I verified that the vents here are definitely working — which is no surprise, considering how well this laptop’s cooling helped its benchmark scores.

Dell Inspiron 16 Plus: Battery life

The Dell Inspiron 16 Plus packs either a 90 Watt-hour battery or a 64 Watt-hour battery. Our review unit had a 90 Watt-hour battery. That’s a nice big size and nearly as big as it gets — if a battery is 100 Watt-hours or larger, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration won’t allow it onto an airplane

To benchmark the battery life, we play a 4K copy of Tears of Steel on repeat in the Movies & TV app on Windows 11 with airplane mode enabled until the laptop suspends itself. We set the screen to 250 nits of brightness for our battery benchmarks. This is a best-case scenario for any laptop since local video playback is so efficient, and real battery life in day-to-day use is always going to be less than this.

In our benchmark, the Dell Inspiron 16 Plus lasted for an average of 1,022 minutes. That’s just over 17 hours — a very good score for a 16-inch laptop. The large battery certainly helps matters, and the display is likely pretty power efficient. (Those OLED displays tend to drain more battery power).

This should be all-day battery life, depending on what you do — but you’ll need to plug this laptop into an outlet to really take advantage of the power of its Nvidia GPU. (Unfortunately, if you have the laptop’s normal USB-C charger, you won’t be able to connect other devices to it while charging unless you get a dock or dongle).

As usual, though, the devil is in the details: If you pick a variant of this laptop that comes with a smaller battery, for example, you won’t get anywhere near as long from it.

Dell Inspiron 16 Plus: Conclusion

The Dell Inspiron 16 Plus is a nice machine. It’s a 16-inch laptop with excellent performance, long battery life, high-quality cooling, an all-metal build, and even discrete graphics for gaming and other professional tasks. At $1,499, that’s not bad — remember that you’re getting the kind of GPU you would often have to get a more expensive gaming laptop for.

Dell told me that this particular configuration was on sale for $1,299 right before we reviewed it, and it was once again discounted to  same price while we were wrapping up our review. In general, laptops frequently go on sale — and you might be able to scoop up this one for hundreds of dollars off if you want for the right time. That’s a good price.

On the other hand, there are some reasons you may not want to buy this laptop: You may want a free USB-C port while charging, facial recognition, a brighter screen, or a more vibrant OLED display. Or you may just want to wait for a laptop that will get those Copilot+ PC AI features later this year. Every machine has trade-offs.

Still, this is a nice machine — especially at that sale price, if it goes on sale for a few hundred dollars off again. On the other hand, laptops like this one will offer even better battery life and performance when Intel’s Lunar Lake hardware arrives later this year. And Intel will require all Lunar Lake laptops to have at least two Thunderbolt 4 ports, which will ensure future laptops don’t end up with a charger that hogs their single USB-C port.

Laptops

Price When Reviewed

245.79

Best Prices Today: Xiaomi Curved Gaming Monitor G34WQi

Xiaomi is best known for smartphones (in North America, at least), but the company is making inroads into PCs with a handful of inexpensive laptops and monitors. The Xiaomi Curved Gaming Monitor G34WQi is the company’s latest budget ultrawide, and don’t let the price fool you: It’s an attractive display.

Xiaomi Curved Gaming Monitor G34WQi specs and features

The Xiaomi Curved Gaming Monitor G34WQi’s specifications are nearly identical to dozens of ultrawide monitors from competitive brands like Gigabyte, AOC, and Spectre (to name a few). It has a 34-inch Vertical Alignment (VA) panel with 3440×1440 resolution. Only the refresh rate stands out: It supports up to 180Hz, which is a tad higher than competitors at 120- to 160Hz.

• Display size: 34-inch ultrawide
• Native resolution: 3440×1440
• Panel type: Semi-gloss curved VA-panel with LED backlight
• Refresh rate: Up to 180Hz
• Adaptive sync: Adaptive Sync, AMD FreeSync Premium
• Ports: 2x DisplayPort 1.4, 2x HDMI 2.0, 1x 3.5mm audio jack
• VESA mount: 75x75mm
• Speakers: Yes, 2x 3-watt stereo speakers
• Price: $289.99 MSRP, $260 typical online retail

The G34WQi carries an MSRP of just $289.99 and often receives a small discount off. That makes the G34WQi an alluring option, though it does face many similarly priced competitors.

Further reading: See our roundup of the best gaming monitors to learn about competing products.

Xiaomi Curved Gaming Monitor G34WQi design

The Xiaomi Curved Gaming Monitor G34WQi doesn’t make much of an impression out of the box. It’s clad in matte and semi-gloss black plastic that looks and feels fine but unexceptional. The only design highlight is the stand neck, which is svelte and has a piano black glossy finish to add a touch of class. An RGB-LED accent light is included, but it’s rather dim.

The monitor has an aggressive 1500R curve, meaning that the radius of the curve would be complete if the monitor were 1500mm wide. In other words, a smaller curvature number actually translates to a more aggressive curve. Most people will appreciate the immersion a curved screen can provide, but it slightly distorts the image (a straight line rendered across the display will appear curved, not straight), which could annoy content creators who need an accurate image.

A small, flat stand keeps the monitor secure on your desk and keeps the monitor’s footprint to a minimum. That’s important: Many budget ultrawides, like the Gigabyte GS34WQC, have oversized stands that take up a lot of desk space.

The stand provides adjustments for height, tilt, and swivel, and connects to the monitor with a 75x75mm VESA mount, allowing you to attach a third-party monitor stand or arm. The stand base doesn’t have a tool-less design though, so some assembly is required. A screwdriver is included, and assembly takes no more than two minutes, but more expensive monitors have a tool-free mechanism that’s easier to assemble and disassemble.

Xiaomi Curved Gaming Monitor G34WQi connectivity and menus

The Xiaomi Curved Gaming Monitor G34WQi’s connectivity is basic but expansive. It has two DisplayPort inputs and two HDMI inputs for a total of four video inputs, which is more than usual for a budget monitor.

However, the monitor lacks any form of USB connectivity, so it can’t be used as a USB hub to connect wired gaming peripherals. This is true for many budget ultrawide monitors, though most competitors with USB ports, like the LG 34BQ77QB, have a lower refresh rate or resolution. A 3.5mm audio out jack rounds out the connectivity.

The monitor’s on-screen menu system is controlled with a joystick located on the rear side of the lower right-hand bezel. It is responsive, easy to control, and navigates through Xiaomi’s well-labeled menus. The menus offer a fair bit of image quality customization, including several gamma presets that target specific numerical values, multiple color temperature presets, and settings for color hue and saturation.

Strangely, the monitor has a separate set of image quality settings for the standard and game modes, which are adjusted independently. That can prove confusing as certain settings, like the monitor’s response time modes, can’t be changed without first activating game mode. On the plus side, this provides an easy way to calibrate the display’s settings differently for work and play.

Xiaomi throws in a few extra features, including several picture-by-picture modes and a black equalizer to elevate the black levels of the display and make enemies more visible in games. These features are appreciated but also available in most competitive monitors.

The monitor lacks speakers, so you’ll have to rely on external speakers or a headset. That’s typical for a budget ultrawide monitor. The few competitors that do offer built-in speakers deliver a sub-par experience that’ll quickly have you looking for an upgrade.

Xiaomi Curved Gaming Monitor G34WQi SDR image quality

The Xiaomi Curved Gaming Monitor G34WQi has a Vertical Alignment (VA) display panel paired with a conventional LED backlight. It’s a common combination for a budget ultrawide monitor, but effective, and the G34WQi’s SDR image quality holds up well.

Xiaomi scores a win in brightness, as the Curved Gaming Monitor G34WQi achieved a maximum sustained SDR brightness of 435 nits. That’s an excellent result for a budget monitor and beats many competitors by 25 or 30 percent.

A brightness of 435 nits isn’t required for typical use, of course, but it’s good news if you want to use the monitor in a brightly lit room or a room with sun-lit windows and poor light control. The G34WQi can easily compete with a room’s ambient light.

Contrast is another win for the G34WQi. The monitor achieved a contrast ratio of 4110:1, which is towards the upper end of what’s available from a budget ultrawide with a VA panel, and much better than what’s available from monitors with an IPS panel (like the HP Omen 27qs and Asus ROG Strix XG27ACS).

A higher contrast ratio translates to an image with more depth and immersion. Bright content seems to pop from the display and darker content shows detail that might be obscured on a less capable display. The monitor’s minimum luminance isn’t perfect, so it can still appear a bit hazy or gray when viewed in a darkly lit room, but this is less noticeable than with most budget monitors.

The G34WQi posted another strong result with a color gamut that spans 100 percent of sRGB, 94 percent of DCI-P3, and 89 percent of AdobeRGB. These are excellent results for a budget display and more than enough to deliver a saturated, vivid image for gaming and Netflix. It’s also sufficient for many content creators.

With that said, the G34WQi ties competitors like the Gigabyte G34WQC. And some IPS panel monitors, like the HP 27qs, can provide a wider DCI-P3 color gamut. Xiaomi scores well here but it doesn’t stand out from the crowd.

The same is true of color accuracy. The G34WQi’s color error is low enough that most people, myself included, won’t notice an issue. Videos, photos, and games look realistic and immersive. Still, the monitor’s out-of-box color accuracy is not remarkable and doesn’t beat competitors.

One problem I found noticeable was the monitor’s out-of-box color temperature of 7200K, which was significantly off the target of 6500K. The image seemed too cool and sterile when compared to that target. Color temperature can be adjusted with the monitor’s settings, and the ideal value can vary based on your preference. Still, 6500K is a common target, and most monitors come closer to it.

Gamma, on the other hand, was strong with an on-target gamma curve of 2.2. That means content viewed on the monitor generally looked as bright as it should and provided detail in both bright and dark areas. The curve can also be adjusted in the monitor’s settings, which is helpful for people who need (or prefer) a different gamma curve.

Sharpness was adequate. The G34WQi’s resolution of 3440×1440 works out to roughly 109 pixels per inch, which is identical to a 27-inch monitor with 2560×1440 resolution. Small fonts and high-contrast edges can appear slightly pixelated, and the Windows desktop lacks the absolute clarity of a 4K monitor, but it still looks rather sharp. Very few 34-inch ultrawide monitors offer a higher resolution, and those that do are much more expensive, so the G34WQi’s clarity is on par with its competition.

The Xiaomi Curved Gaming Monitor G34WQi’s SDR image quality is excellent for the price and competitive with some more expensive monitors, like the Asus ProArt PA348CGV. It also comes out a tad ahead of the Gigabyte G34WQC, another budget ultrawide I liked. Better monitors are available, of course, but you’d need to leap to a QD-OLED monitor like the Alienware AW3423DWF to see a massive improvement.

Xiaomi Curved Gaming Monitor G34WQi HDR image quality

The Xiaomi Curved Gaming Monitor G34WQi supports HDR but doesn’t list an official HDR certification (like VESA DisplayHDR 400). That’s just as well because, like most budget monitors, it fails to deliver a good HDR experience.

Brightness is part of the problem. The monitor’s maximum brightness of 435 nits in HDR is precisely the same as its maximum brightness in SDR. That’s not enough to do HDR content justice, and bright portions of a scene lack the detail available on more capable HDR monitors.

Contrast is also an issue. The G34WQi’s conventional LED backlight can’t increase brightness in any single portion of the display without increasing brightness across the entire display. As a result, HDR content will often show less depth than SDR, especially in scenes that combine a few bright highlights with a mostly dark background.

None of this is unexpected. Good HDR performance is out of reach for most budget monitors with the rare exception of new budget Mini-LED monitors like the AOC Q27G3XMN. Those looking for better HDR performance from an ultrawide will need to step up to an OLED or Mini-LED display.

Xiaomi Curved Gaming Monitor G34WQi motion performance

The Xiaomi Curved Gaming Monitor G34WQi’s specifications are promising. It has a maximum refresh rate of up to 180Hz and claims a minimum pixel response time of one millisecond. The benefits of these features were obvious when playing games. Quickly panning the camera revealed that significant detail remains visible and small, fast-moving objects are easy to see. It’s a huge upgrade from a 60Hz monitor.

With that said, gamers should keep the monitor’s price tag in mind. Motion clarity is good but nowhere near what’s available from more expensive displays. Competitive gamers who want great motion clarity at this price point should instead look towards 27-inch 240Hz widescreen monitors like the LG UltraGear 27GR38Q-B.

Adaptive Sync is supported for smooth, tear-free gaming, and the monitor is AMD FreeSync Premium certified (though only when connected over DisplayPort). Nvidia G-Sync should work with the monitor, as it’s compatible with Adaptive Sync, but the lack of official support means you’re out of luck if it doesn’t work as expected.

Should you buy the Xiaomi Curved Gaming Monitor G34WQi?

The Xiaomi Curved Gaming Monitor G34WQi is an outstanding budget ultrawide monitor that should work equally well for home office, gaming, and entry-level content creation. It provides strong contrast, a wide color gamut, high maximum brightness, and respectable motion clarity for less than $300.

Xiaomi faces a lot of competition, as many competitors sell ultrawide monitors with identical specifications at a similar price. Still, the G34WQi stands out in a few ways. It’s among the least expensive monitors, it has a compact yet functional ergonomic stand, it has four video inputs, and its maximum refresh rate of 180Hz is higher than most alternatives. These traits make the G34WQi a good choice, and it’s especially appealing when on sale for below MSRP.

Monitors

Avoiding data breaches is all but impossible these days. You can’t control a company’s data security policies—you can only filter what information you share with them and mitigate the potential fallout. But don’t assume that once your personal info is on the dark web, it’s over and done. Unfortunately, we all still need to stay informed about the latest data breaches and leaks. 

Why? They keep you from falling for opportunistic scams.

Further reading: Best password managers 2024: Protect your online accounts

Let’s say you were affected by one of the latest breaches—perhaps as one of the potentially 500,000 Ticketmaster users or unknown number of Tile owners. But you don’t pay attention to the news, so when you get an email saying your credit card transaction failed for your ticket purchase (or a recall is in effect for your Tile device with serial number ending in XXXX), you click the link. 

What happens next could be one of a few bad outcomes. Perhaps you get subjected to drive-by malware. Or maybe you end up sharing or indirectly revealing more personal details an attacker needed to commit identity theft.

If you paid attention to the latest security reports, however, you might be more suspicious of messages related to Ticketmaster, Tile, or any other recent data leak. You’d be more likely to avoid clicking directly on links and you’d lean on your good security practices like accessing an official website directly. Scams rely on people reacting first and then thinking about the situation later on (if at all). If you’re already aware that someone could try to exploit your trust, you’ll be more careful about giving it.

Of course, a lot of us are busy and don’t have time to keep up with security news. You can lean on services to keep you appraised—in addition to regularly browsing technology websites (hello), you can subscribe to Have I Been Pwned as well as lean on any subscriptions you have (like a good paid antivirus suite, Microsoft 365, or Google One) that offer dark web monitoring. If you end up relying on a service, I’ve found it helpful to use more than one since the notifications don’t always cover the same breaches.

And yes, having to be so vigilant is a little depressing. Almost hard to remember that once upon a time, during the early days of the Internet, people would openly share their personal details with full trust in others’ goodness.

Antivirus, Security Software and Services

Marvel fans take note. Right now, you can get Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy on Steam for just $23.99! 

In this action-adventure game, you play as Star-Lord, the “leader” of the Guardians of the Galaxy. Now, it’s your responsibility to lead Gamora, Rocket Raccoon, Groot, and Drax on a series of adventures to help avoid a massive interplanetary meltdown. You’ll use any means necessary to save the galaxy as you play along the exciting story mode and rock out to iconic ’80s hits along the way.

It’s all an original story but with all kinds of familiar characters grappling for the fate of the universe.

IGN writes, “Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is yet another convincing example of how much fun a linear, no-frills, single-player campaign can be.”

You are Groot. For a limited time, you can get Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy on Steam for 60% off $59 at just $23.99.

 

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy on Steam – $23.99

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StackSocial prices subject to change.

Gaming

The ability to learn new things is one of our most powerful assets. But finding time to invest in one’s own learning can be exceedingly difficult in our fast-paced world. With HappyLife Knowledge Summaries, however, you just need 15 minutes to get to the main idea of some of the world’s most important nonfiction books, podcasts, and Ted Talks.

This app’s massive library includes thousands of summaries, spanning topics from personal development to business, creativity, and much more. The app gamifies your learning, helping you reach streaks and claim achievements to make learning something new daily fun. It will give you personalized recommendations based on your interests to keep exploring new ideas and give you the power to delve deep into all kinds of new topics.

Invest in yourself. For a limited time, you can get a lifetime subscription to HappyLife Knowledge Summaries for 73% off $149 at just $39.99.

 

HappyLife Knowledge Summaries Lifetime Subscription – $39.99

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StackSocial prices subject to change.

Accessories

While you drive, there’s a lot happening, so a second pair of eyes can help you stay safe. A dash cam provides this extra vigilance and helps give you peace of mind while out on the road. The best dash cams monitor in high-res video what’s happening while you’re behind the wheel, with timestamps and GPS coordinates. They can even record while your car is parked, helping you keep tabs on your car while you’re away.

When choosing the best dash cam for your needs you should first consider if you want a front, front/interior, or front/rear model. Additionally, you’ll want to decide on how wide a viewing angle you’ll need. Then there are special features to take into account, such as voice control or parking assist. Since there are a number of reasons to use a dash cam, we understand that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all model. With that in mind, we’ve curated a list of the best dash cams of all types with various features and prices below.

For even more information on what to look for when buying a dash cam, scroll to our buyer’s guide under our best picks. And after you’ve bought a dash cam, save yourself some time and frustration by reading our guide on how to install a dash cam.

Updated June 18, 2024 to add the Viofo VS1 Mini 2K to our list of recommendations as the best tiny dash cam. Read our summary below to find out why this petite, front-only 1440p cam with the minimalist styling has won us over.

What to look for in a dash cam

We’ll step you through what to think about when you’re shopping for a dash cam, from video capabilities, recording options, power connections, and more. 

Video capabilities

• Dual-channel support: This is what you’ll need if you want to run both front and rear, or interior (cabin-view) cameras. Interior cameras are generally situated on the dash cam, but rear cameras are separate and require additional cabling. 
• A decently wide field of view: You’ll see cameras with as little as 90-degrees field of view, but you’ll catch more of what’s around you if you go for 120 to 140 degrees. Some cameras offer 160- to 180-degree lenses. Note that the wider the field of view, the more fish-eye distortion there is, and more processing is involved to compensate.
• Day and night video recording (night quality is a big variant)
• Infrared lighting is important if you want to assure good captures of nocturnal events inside the cabin of your vehicle.
• HDR (high dynamic range) isn’t necessary, but it does make for more detailed video because of better contrast. It also generally indicates richer color.
• WDR (wide dynamic range) is much like above, except it usually refers to only color and not contrast.
• Do you need 4K UHD? It’s easy to fall victim to the specsmanship of a higher-res image. In our tests, the gain in detail from 4K video (2160p) can vary, but the storage investment is consistently heavy: four times the storage of 1080p, or around 1GB for every three minutes of video. For most purposes,1080p is the more frugal everyday choice. Don’t avoid 4K UHD—which is a feature in our best overall picks—but read the reviews first so you know whether the cost is justified.

Recording options

• Continuous loop recording to minimize storage requirements. Video is recorded, then immediately overwritten at a specified interval unless saved. Video is saved (protected from overwriting) automatically when an incident is detected. Most dash cams will overwrite older recordings when they run out of space. 
• Cloud storage is available with a few dash cams. Uploading to the cloud in real time is a nice hedge against damage and theft—assuming the thief isn’t smart enough to kill the dash cam immediately. It’s handy for those managing fleets of vehicles, too, as incident videos are safely stashed online.
• Self-powered recording when power fails, so that you can be sure to capture all of an incident. This requires a battery or large super-capacitor (see below in “Power connections”). The camera should have a setting that allows you to specify how long the camera runs off 12-volt before shutting down. 
• Incident recording triggered by impact (G) sensors, or when in parking mode (see below), by motion detection.
• MicroSD card storage. Pricier dash cams bundle a storage card. Some come with larger cards, and some budget models come without. There are often bundles available with the card. Some cameras opt for hard-wired internal storage, like the Miofive 4K.

Power connections

Something most people don’t consider before they buy is that dash cams connect to a power source in your car via a physical cable. That cable can sometimes be tucked out of the way, but more likely than not you’ll have loose cable hanging somewhere. You can sometimes fix this with a longer or shorter cable (or a professional installation). Keep that in mind as you consider your power options:

• Auxiliary 12-volt power (adequate): Most vendors have stuck with powering their dash cams via the auxiliary 12-volt power socket (also known as the cigarette lighter) and USB cables. It can lead to an unsightly cable run, and the power disappears when you turn off the car, but it’s universal and easy.
• Hard-wired 12-volt power (better): Most vendors offer kits that connect the dash cam directly to a constant 12-volt source in your wiring harness behind the dash. This provides always-on power, but it isn’t particularly easy to install.
• OBD-II 12-volt power (better): Outliers like the Owl and PureCam use the OBD-II connector for constant 12-volt power. OBD-II-to-USB power cables are now available separately (as an alternative to hardwiring kits that draw constant 12-volt power from the wiring harness). I recommend one with a USB Type-A port, which will accommodate any dash cam. Most of those with captive cables I’ve seen are mini-USB. The only downside is a long cable run, as the OBD-II port is usually next to the driver’s left knee, under the dash.
• Rearview 12-volt power (better): Another option that features a super-short cable run is powering your dash cam using your auto-dimming rearview mirror. You can find adapters for this at Dongar Technologies. If your car qualifies, this is by far your best option.
• Battery (or super-capacitor) power: Many dash cams come with super-capacitors, which allow the dash cam to operate for a brief period after losing regular power—such as during a collision. They don’t record for very long though, and sometimes not at all. A battery gives you a better chance of recording an entire incident, even when 12-volt power is lost. If run time is sufficient, it also allows you to record for a while with the car turned off. 

Other handy features

• Phone connectivity is not essential, but can make offloading video and configuring the dash cam easier. We’ve noticed just recently (12/15/2020) that phone apps are starting to require later versions of Android. If you’re rocking anything older than 8, keep that in mind.
• GPS: This feature could be the tipping point if you use your captured video to resolve a dispute. Watermarking the video is common, but when embedded into the video, GPS info is also immensely useful for mapping your travels. GPS will also automatically set the time in better cameras.
• Parking monitoring: This can mean two things. Running the dash cam continuously in low frame-rate mode to save card space and battery, or running in standby mode and awakening when motion or g-forces are detected. We’ve reviewed cameras that have a battery large enough to monitor the car with the 12-volt turned off for several days, but most cameras require a constant 12-volt source.

How we test dash cams

Few people are as well situated geographically as I am to test dash cams. Within two blocks there are major four- and six-lane thoroughfares, numerous bike lanes, joggers, dog walkers, oblivious ear-budded pedestrians, and a major bus nexus serving both public and private coaches. The opportunities for near-accidents are endless.

For every dash cam, I mount it in my car, judging the ease and convenience of doing so. Tip: Many dash cams rely on adhesive for mounting to your windshield. Hot conditions can make it next to impossible to remove the film that protects the adhesive. Remove the film in a cool environment, or place it in the fridge for a minute or two before installing it.

I put each dash cam through several days’ and nights’ worth of driving, recording video and judging the image quality. All the dash cams I’ve reviewed in the last couple of years take good daytime video. However, night video is often plagued by murky shadows and headlight flare. That said, quality is improving rapidly with the introduction of new sensors. Take a close look at the night shots in each review. 

I try all the features: Buttons, display controls, apps. Aside from rear-view support and GPS, the most salient differences between the products are the interface controls and extra features, such as the lane departure and collision warnings that you get with some models. I try them…and I turn them off. In practice, they usually tell me I’m changing lanes, in heavy traffic, or have just been cut off. I know that. Additionally, the collision warnings generally come too late to do anything but distract you at exactly the wrong time. 

Note that the one thing I can’t relate to you is the longevity of any dash cam, as my testing occurs over a relatively short amount of time. Please check user reviews on various sites and pay attention to the warranty.

Dash Cams

Microsoft has made a questionable change in Windows 11 that takes away your freedom of choice for OneDrive backups.

Without prior notice or explanation, Microsoft now force activates the automatic folder backup with OneDrive feature when you set up a new computer, all without asking you for permission.

When you set up a new Windows computer while connected to the internet and using a Microsoft account, you usually see OneDrive on your desktop. The app synchronizes data from folders—such as images, documents, music, and videos—which can be useful in certain cases.

Related story: Microsoft blocks popular method to install Windows 11 without an account

In the worst-case scenario, however, you may set up Windows and immediately be confronted with a desktop that’s cluttered with files and folders. This is likely to cause all kinds of frustration.

Previously, you had to explicitly activate automatic folder backups, and Microsoft would ping you with recurring notifications to remind you of the feature if it wasn’t enabled.

Now, however, Microsoft seems to have assumed that everyone wants OneDrive backups activated by default, thus forcing it on without exception. You may not even realize it until you set up a new computer and suddenly see all your old files again.

How to deactivate OneDrive backups

If you don’t want your Windows computer to back up everything on your desktop—or in other folders—to OneDrive, you can deactivate it:

Right-click on the OneDrive icon at the bottom right of your taskbar notification area. (If you can’t find the icon directly, you may need to expand the field by clicking the little arrow.) Then, go to the settings gear icon and select Settings.

Click the Sync and backup section in the left sidebar, then select Manage backup. Now deactivate all the folders that you don’t want backed up to OneDrive, then confirm the changes.

If you have an older version of OneDrive with the classic tabbed interface, go to the Backup tab and click Manage backup and then Stop backup. You will need to confirm the setting again.

Alternatively, you can uninstall OneDrive altogether if you don’t want to use automatic backups at all. This would be the simplest solution, but Microsoft might not like it at all.

More on this: The best Microsoft OneDrive tricks you should know

Windows

In September 2023, Microsoft announced the surprising end of their free text editing program. For many, WordPad was a simple but useful alternative to Microsoft Word—but it will no longer be offered in future versions of Windows.

Windows 11 24H2 will mark the final end for WordPad, as the AI features of that Windows version will delete legacy features like the free text editors. The update is due to be released this fall.

You’ll likely be better off switching to other free apps such as LibreOffice, but it just won’t be the same. If you find that you still prefer WordPad and want to keep using it, here’s a method you can use.

How to get WordPad back in Windows 11

It’s not that difficult to bring WordPad back to Windows 11. All you need is the appropriate files from an older version of Windows before 24H2, one that still supports WordPad. (The folder for WordPad should still be present in 24H2, but without the wordpad.exe.)

On a Windows computer of your choice with Windows 11 version 23H2 or older, enter this file path in the address bar of Explorer:

C:\Program Files\Windows NT\Accessories

Here, you’ll see three things: WordpadFilter.dll, wordpad.exe, and a localization folder (e.g., en-US).

Copy all three to a USB stick or external data drive. Take it to the computer that no longer has WordPad, then paste everything into any folder. It doesn’t matter where, but we recommend choosing a permanent location and creating a new folder called WordPad.

After everything is pasted, right-click on the wordpad.exe file in the folder and select Show more options. Go to Send to and then Desktop (create shortcut) to create a shortcut.

Copy the newly created shortcut and go here in Explorer:

C:\Program Files\Data\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Program Files

Paste the shortcut there and rename it if necessary.

Next, open the Start menu, click All apps, and scroll down to find WordPad. Now you can pin it to the Start menu or the taskbar. (This last step is necessary because WordPad won’t appear in the search results if it was installed this way.)

You should also specify in the app settings that WordPad can be used to open documents. To do this, go to Settings > Apps > Default apps and select WordPad from the list. For example, you can open all RTF documents with WordPad.

Further reading: The best open source apps for Windows

Is this method safe for WordPad in Windows 11 24H2?

Installing WordPad in Windows 11 is safe because you’re using official Microsoft files. However, you should be aware that WordPad won’t receive any feature or security updates in future versions of Windows.

So, if the app becomes buggy or incompatible with other elements over time, you will have no choice but to give up WordPad. It’s also possible that documents from newer Microsoft Office versions will no longer be able to be opened with WordPad at some point.

Until then, however, you can at least keep using and making the most of this free text editor for now with this method.

Keep reading: These Windows features are disappearing soon

Windows

Amazon’s Summer Prime Day sale is happening once again on July 16 and 17, and as always, you’ll need to be a Prime member to partake of the deals. Prime is Amazon’s $139-per-year service that provides two-day shipping on all orders, as well as a ton of extras like the Kindle lending library and Prime Video. (See our rundown of the top 10 Amazon Prime benefits to learn more.)

The good news is that you may not need to pay for membership at all if you just want it long enough to take advantage of Amazon’s annual shopping extravaganza. Here are a few ways to get a short-term Prime membership to cash in on the savings.

Method One: The standard 30-day free trial

If you’ve never tried Amazon Prime or haven’t tried it in a while, you may be eligible for a free, 30-day trial. After the 30 days, Amazon will charge you for the membership—either $15 per month or $139 per year—so don’t forget to cancel before the trial is up. (Set a calendar reminder if you have to!)

Figuring out if you’re eligible is simple. Just sign in to your Amazon account and visit the Prime membership landing page. If you see a button that says Try Prime, click it to sign up. If the button says Get started, then you’ve been to the well one too many times recently, and you’ll have to wait to become eligible again.

Method Two: Prime Student 6-month free trial

Amazon has a student program that offers both a free trial that lasts for six months and 50 percent off the regular price for Prime membership. If you’re in college, Prime Day could be a great time to gear up.

To qualify for Prime Student, you need to be enrolled in at least one course in an institution in the United States or Puerto Rico, provide proof of enrollment if requested, and a valid .EDU email address. To get started, go to the Prime Student landing page and click Start your 6-month trial.

After your trial is up, Prime Student costs $7.50 per month or $69 per year. Make sure you mark the end date on your calendar (or just cancel any time after Prime Day), and your membership will continue to the end of the trial period. The Prime Student discounted rate is good for up to four years.

Other avenues for free Amazon Prime

There are other ways to get Prime for free as well, but they’re not as straightforward. You can, for example, open a new account with a different email address, and then try Prime on that new account. Keep in mind, however, that means you have to secure another account containing all your payment information.

If someone in your house is already subscribed to Prime, they can share it with your account. Amazon allows you to share a Prime membership with other members of your household, including one other adult and up to four kids aged 13 to 17. Teen accounts don’t get to share Prime exclusive deals, but the second adult account does. This is only an option for family (or trusted friends), as both adult accounts must agree to share the same payment details. 

You can also sign up for Prime and apply for the Amazon Prime Rewards Visa card, which gives you 5 percent cash-back on Amazon and Whole Foods purchases. If you’re already buying at least $2,400 per year from Amazon and Whole Foods combined, this is an easy way to have your credit card benefits pay for your Prime membership.

How to cancel an Amazon Prime free trial

Some of you might love Prime or Prime Student so much that you stick with it to get that free shipping and other perks. But if you’re a hardcore deal hunter who just wants to bail from Prime when the deals are gone, here’s what to do.

The standard way to dump Prime is to hover over your account name in the upper-right corner of any Amazon page, and then select Your Prime Membership from the drop-down menu. You can then cancel on the next page.

An easier way, however, is just to go straight to this Amazon help page and click End Membership. Regardless of how you begin the cancellation process, it’s straightforward—you’re free and clear once you’ve done it.

Editor’s note: This article was last updated in June 2024 to reflect the latest dates for Prime Day.

Consumer Electronics, Online Services

Amazon recently announced that this year’s Prime Day will take place on Tuesday, July 16 and Wednesday, July 17. Prime Gaming members can once again look forward to a number of offers.

But there’s already a lot to get in the run-up to Prime Day. With Prime Gaming, you can get a total of 15 PC games completely free of charge from now until July 16.

Here’s an overview of all the free titles with their respective launch dates:

• Deceive Inc – available now
• Tearstone: Thieves of the Heart – available now
• The Invisible Hand – available now
• Call of Juarez – available now
• Forager – from June 27
• Card Shark – from June 27
• Heaven Dust 2 – from June 27
• Soulstice – from June 27
• Wall World – from July 3
• Hitman: Absolution – from July 3
• Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood – from July 3
• STAR WARS™: Knights of the Old Republic™ II – The Sith Lords – from July 3
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge – from July 3
• Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX – from July 3
• Samurai Bringer – from July 3

Which Prime Gaming titles are worthwhile?

Which of these games are worthwhile depends on your own taste, of course. Hitman is always a fun, murderous puzzle!.

The action game Soulstice could also be worthwhile. Even though the title was somewhat under the radar at the time of its release, you get action-packed battles and an exciting setting in which two sisters have to prove themselves in boss battles against fantasy creatures.

For fans of the old school, there’s also Call of Juarez and Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood. The acclaimed game series from Techland delights with an intense western experience, including duels with classic shooting irons.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II is also highly recommended if you like old-school role-playing games. The ‘Star Wars’ setting is of course also a plus point, as you can wield a lightsaber as a Jedi or alternatively attack your enemies with laser pistols.

How do I get the free games?

To get all the free games, you need a Prime subscription that is valid for this period. (Head here for a free 30-day Amazon Prime trial.) Then all you have to do is go to the Prime Gaming page and pick up free codes for the titles shown until the end of the promotion.

You can then redeem the codes on popular gaming platforms such as Steam, Epic, or the Amazon Games app.

Gaming

You should always have a few things in your home in case of emergency, and a powerful light source is high on that list. With this battery-powered LED lantern on sale right now for just $20, now’s the perfect time to grab one for your home if you don’t have one already.

In fact, it’s so reasonably priced that you may want to grab a few. Why not keep one at home, one in your car, and one to take with you when you go camping? It’s a versatile lantern with plenty of uses.

The LE 1000LM offers high brightness and dimmable lighting, making it suitable for various situations. With a long press of the button, you can adjust the brightness up to 1,000 lumens, able to illuminate an entire campsite or dim down just enough to read a book.

It can switch between daylight white and warm white, and it also has a flashing mode to help you be seen in emergency scenarios.

You’ll need three D alkaline batteries to power up this lantern, and it’ll last for up to 12 hours at the highest brightness. So, if you’re going camping, make sure to take a bunch of spare batteries with you.

The IPX4 water resistance rating means this lantern can withstand splashes of water from any angle, making it suitable for use in rainy or snowy conditions. It’s also not very large, measuring 7.24 x 3.46 inches, so it won’t take up a lot of space.

Whether you’re planning an outdoorsy adventure or prepping for a power outage that you hope never comes, you don’t want to miss out on this deal. At just $20, this battery-powered LED lantern is worth it.

This LED lantern is only $20 right now Lighting

I used to worry constantly about my laptop and phone running out of battery while I’m out, but that anxiety disappeared after I got myself a good power bank—like one by Baseus.

This particular Baseus power bank is just $42 right now if you clip the 25% Amazon coupon and apply the 5% promo code. Down from its normal price of $80, that’s a real bargain!

With a substantial 65W Power Delivery output, this power bank can charge your laptop or your phone via USB-C, making it incredibly versatile. Whether you’re juggling work on your laptop or just need a quick boost for your phone, this power bank has you covered.

The colossal 20,000mAh capacity means you can fully charge your phone roughly three times or your laptop about once. It’s perfect for extended travel where access to outlets might be limited (e.g., flights).

The power bank has one 65W PD USB-C port and two 30W QC USB-A ports. (Technically, you can charge three devices simultaneously, but you won’t get the same speed you would with only one device plugged in.)

You don’t want to miss this deal for a $42 Baseus Power Bank! And don’t forget to clip the on-page Amazon coupon and use the special promo code (44P53777) at checkout to get the best price.

The Baseus power bank is only $42 right now Mobile Phone Chargers

I’ve reviewed several Logitech gaming keyboards and I usually come away less than impressed. The company tends to bank on its brand and legacy to sell high-priced hardware, while falling far short in features and especially software.

Which is why the new Logitech G515 Lightspeed TKL keyboard intrigues me by the simple fact of it being reasonably priced.

At $140 for a wireless gaming keyboard, the G515 is decidedly average as a value play—but it’s nearly $100 cheaper than the G915 TKL, a design that’s years old and far from competitive even when it came out, so someone at Logitech is paying attention to the larger market.

With a low-profile build and switches compatible with low-profile keycaps on the Cherry-style stem, it offers at least some options for customization. Logitech also built in some RGB lighting and topped it off with high-quality PBT keycaps, a feature that even some premium gaming keyboards omit. (Lookin’ at you, Razer BlackWidow.)

The G515 is a bit chunky for “low-profile,” but then again it doesn’t take much to feel skinny next to most of the gaming keyboards on the market, which might be charitably called “big-boned.”

Despite the skinny dimensions, the proprietary GL switches feature 1.3mm of travel, which is less than half of a standard MX switch but far more than most of the trendy thin keyboards and laptop-style designs.

The G515 includes Logitech’s standard—and very good—tri-mode wireless with Bluetooth and a 2.4GHz dongle plus multi-device support. Battery life is rated at “up to 36 hours,” though that’s presumably with the full light show active. If you can resist the RGB bling, it should go for weeks or months.

The G515 is available in black or white, with linear (smooth) or tactile (slight bump) switch options. Sadly, there’s no hot-swap capability. The keyboard should be showing up in online and brick-and-mortar retailers very soon.

Keyboards

If you frequently travel or work from coffee shops, the Uperfect 2K Portable Gaming Monitor is a game changer because you can be more productive. Now available for just $144 at Amazon, down from $240, this monitor offers a blend of high performance and portability.

The Uperfect monitor features a stunning 2K resolution (2560×1600) and a 120Hz refresh rate, making this monitor suitable for more than just work—a solid option for all but the most hardcore of gamers.

This 16-inch display is surprisingly slim at just 0.4 inches thick and weighs only 1.7 pounds, which means you can easily slip this into a bag with your laptop without much of a fit issue.

One really cool thing about this monitor is that it has an IPS matte screen with a high contrast ratio, delivering rich colors and great picture quality. You’ll also get decreased reflections and fingerprints with this type of panel, a definite win since you’ll be handling this one a lot.

Another thing we love about it is that you don’t have to use it as a portable monitor if you don’t want to. It has a VESA mount, so you can just set it up at home on your wall or on a monitor arm.

Equipped with two full-featured USB Type-C ports and one Mini HDMI port, a single USB-C cable is all you need for power supply and display signal transmission. It also has built-in speakers and a 3.5mm audio jack.

Uperfect's 2K portable monitor is just $144 Monitors

Smartphones are a great convenience and all. But sometimes it’s a hassle to have to juggle activity on both your phone and your PC. Fortunately, Windows allows you to access your phone’s display on your computer monitor and interact with it in real time, so you only have to keep your eyes on one screen. Here’s how.

Further reading: The best monitors

1. Activate wireless display

The first step is to prepare the Windows computer for wireless transmission. To do this, open the search by clicking on the magnifying glass icon in the taskbar.

Next, type optional features into the search field, and click on the match to open the Settings app. There, click on the “View features” button in the top right-hand corner.

2. Install the required feature

Then tick the “Wireless display” checkbox and confirm the process by clicking the “Next” and “Add” buttons.

3. Establish connection

Then start the newly added “Connect to a wireless display” application. You can use the Windows search again to do this. In the “Settings” app, click on the “Connect” button on the right next to “Connect to a wireless screen.”

If this function does not appear for you, check whether your PC and smartphone are in the same WLAN.

4. Start mirroring on the smartphone

While the “Connect” app remains open on the Windows PC with a large, blue background, switch to your Android device. Swipe down from the top of the screen to open the quick access bar.

The menu item for mirroring the smartphone display has different names depending on the manufacturer and Android version. The function may appear as “Transfer” or “Transfer screen,” but also as “Smartview,” “Screen Mirroring,” or “Screencast.”

If you do not see a corresponding option in the quick access bar, you can also find it in the settings under “Display.” As soon as you have activated the function on your mobile device, the Windows computer will appear in the list of display devices.

Select it with a tap to establish a connection. An icon in the status bar then indicates that the screen content is being transferred. As long as the screen is mirrored, you will see the content of your Android device in the “Connect” app on the Windows PC.

Smartphones

Price When Reviewed

$11.99

Best Prices Today: HMA VPN

HMA VPN — aka Hide My Ass! — has seemingly been around forever. Founded in 2005, by a high-school tech wiz who just wanted to game at school, it has since grown into a successful premium VPN service.

HMA now offers a sprawling network of over 1,100 servers across 297 country locations. That’s a far cry from the single URL-based VPN it used to be. But can this old ass learn new tricks? I pin the tail on this VPN to see if it really does live up to its humorous name.

HMA VPN in brief:

• P2P allowed: Yes
• Simultaneous device connections: 5
• Business location: London, United Kingdom
• Number of servers: 1,100+
• Number of country locations: 297
• Cost: $11.99 per month or $59.88 for one year

Further reading: See our roundup of the best VPN services to learn about competing products.

What are HMA VPN’s features and services?

When you first open up HMA VPN you notice right off the bat how simple it all looks. That’s simple in a good way, I mean. There is a large on/off switch in the middle with another large button to choose your location. There is also an animated hipster-looking donkey at the top — it’s an ass for “Hide My Ass!”, get it? Clever. Anyways, that’s basically it. The whole app is extremely easy to use and straightforward. It’s a refreshing change of pace from the overly complicated interfaces of other VPNs that seem to want to bombard you with as much data as possible.

There is a More button that brings up a side menu with, as you guessed it, more info about your connection. This includes up and down data traffic and connection preferences for kill switches and the auto-connect feature.

Click on the gear icon at the top left of the home screen and it brings up the settings menu. Here is where simplicity turns into inadequacy. There aren’t many features to speak of, especially for a premium VPN that charges what HMA does.

You do get comprehensive kill switch functionality. There is both an overall kill switch to restrict all traffic to your device should your VPN connection cut-out, as well as an app kill switch to choose only specific apps to restrict after an unexpected disconnection.

Other advanced features are available on different OS platforms, as well. For example, Android users will have access to a split tunneling feature, which is unavailable for PC users. Split tunneling is a useful feature that allows you to designate which apps will use the VPN connection and which will stay separate. I’m surprised and a little frustrated that HMA only supports the feature for Android users, as most premium VPNs nowadays offer it for multiple platforms.

One unique feature that HMA does include is an IP shuffler. This periodically randomizes and changes your IP address so that it’s harder for anyone to track your location. I actually really like the idea of this extra security measure and used it without issue during my entire testing process. You can customize the randomization time periods from daily all the way down to 1 minute.

Despite these nifty extras, it does feel as if HMA VPN is lacking some key VPN features. The absence of multi-hop, ad- and tracker-blocking, and split tunneling for all platforms is a letdown. Also, power users will be disappointed that there aren’t more tweakable configuration options or things such as Smart DNS and dedicated IP.

In regards to servers, HMA VPN comes with a decent, if unexceptional 1,100 plus total servers. What’s quite nice, however, is the server country spread. It provides a mixture of physical and virtual servers across 297 country locations, spanning most of the world. So even if you’re a Gibraltarian wanting to connect to your home country, there’s a server for you. And if you happen to be the Pope, there’s a Vatican server for you, as well.

One unique feature that HMA includes is an IP shuffler that periodically randomizes and changes your IP address so that it’s harder for anyone to track your location

How much does HMA VPN cost?

HMA offers its VPN subscription in monthly, one-year, and three-year plans. The monthly plan starts at $11.99 per month, which is admittedly expensive for what you’re getting. Similarly priced top VPNs such as NordVPN ($12.99 per month) and ExpressVPN ($12.95 per month) give you much more in regards to extra features and OS availability.

However, switch to the annual plan for $59.88 per year, or $4.99 per month, and things become a lot more affordable — roughly in line with most other premium VPN services. If you decide to opt for the three-year plan it gets even cheaper at $107.64, or $2.99 per month. Three years is a long commitment though, especially in the fast-moving VPN market. If you just want to get your toes wet to see how you like HMA VPN, it does offer a 7-day free trial, as well.

It’s worth noting that all of these subscription prices come with five simultaneous device connections. If you wish for more, every subscription tier also offers the option for 10 connections for a little bit less than double the price.

Payments can be made with a credit card and PayPal.

How is HMA VPN’s performance?

When testing a VPN’s speeds I measure connection speeds across its servers in six different countries around the world and then compare them to my baseline internet speed.

HMA VPN’s speeds were passable. During the tests, HMA VPN was able to maintain 55 percent of the base download speed and 54 percent of the base upload speed. That puts it right in the middle of the pack, but well shy of the fastest VPNs.

I noticed that HMA’s speeds were markedly better for servers located physically closer to me than those further away. That may seem like an obvious outcome, but the differences were quite drastic. Servers in my same country maintained speeds well in excess of 80 percent of my base speeds while far-away servers in countries such as South Africa and Australia were dramatically slower — both countries’ servers clocked in below 20 percent of the base.

Of course, physical distance is just one of many factors that can lead to different speed outcomes. Others include: time of day, server load, server architecture, fluctuations in your own home connection, etc. It’s best to take not just these results, but all VPN speed results with a grain of salt. I simply include them here to help give some guideposts as to what you might expect. Overall, I believe that HMA’s speeds are just fine for most users.

When it comes to streaming, I can’t recommend HMA VPN as a good way to unblock geo-restricted content. I couldn’t get U.S. Netflix to work no matter how many different U.S. servers I tried. I was able to very occasionally access Disney Plus and Amazon Prime, but I had to dig around to find a server that worked. Other streaming services such as Hulu and HBO Max were all unsuccessful as well.

How is HMA VPN’s security and privacy?

HMA VPN uses industry-standard AES-256 encryption and the Windows app has access to the WireGuard, OpenVPN, and its own proprietary Mimic protocols. The Android app only comes with OpenVPN.

HMA’s Mimic protocol was developed by parent company Avast RSO (makers of the Avast antivirus software) as a way to bypass VPN restrictions. As the software is closed-source and I am not currently located in a country that has restricted internet usage, I couldn’t truly put it to the test. However, I always recommend WireGuard as my go-to protocol due to its open-source nature and excellent mix of speed and security.

When it comes to user privacy, HMA VPN has made huge strides in recent years. Prior to major updates to its privacy practices in 2019, HMA was criticized for dubiously storing user data such as IP address, connection timestamps, and some online activity. After the changes, the company switched to a no-logs policy, which it then backed up with an independent audit conducted by VerSprite a year later. 

That audit confirmed that HMA does not collect any data logs on users. According to the new privacy policy, it only keeps data regarding account information for billing and customer service purposes, approximate individual bandwidth usage to assist with network capacity improvements, and anonymous error reports.

While the switch over to a no-logs policy was a necessity, the independent audit was a welcomed addition. However, it has now been four years since that audit took place and I’d like to see the service undergo more regular audits in the future. Similarly, I’d like to see HMA VPN make the switch to RAM-only diskless servers, which are much safer and quickly becoming an industry standard among top VPNs.

HMA is owned by parent company Avast Group, and is headquartered in London, United Kingdom. The country unfortunately has mandatory data retention laws and is a member nation of multiple signals intelligence sharing agreements such as Five, Nine, and 14 Eyes alliances. Thankfully, the company’s no-logs policy mitigates the chance for user data to be collected by these governments.

Is HMA VPN worth it?

The rebranding to a more corporate sounding name doesn’t take away from the charm of the HMA VPN service. It has a well thought-out and friendly interface, making it quick and easy to get connected. There are also plenty of country locations to choose from and the speeds across most servers is above average.

The bones for a great VPN are here, but without meatier features such as split tunneling and multi-hop across all apps, it simply can’t compete against the best services such as ExpressVPN and NordVPN. Hopefully parent company Avast continues to improve upon this time-honored VPN service in the future.

Editor’s note: Because online services are often iterative, gaining new features and performance improvements over time, this review is subject to change in order to accurately reflect the current state of the service. Any changes to text or our final review verdict will be noted at the top of this article.

VPN

Microsoft, Qualcomm, and their PC-manufacturing partners are seriously hyping Copilot+ PCs. They’d have you believe that these “next-generation AI laptops” are packed with AI smarts and useful features.

But, while the hardware for AI tasks is ready in these laptops, the actual features built into Windows aren’t making full use of it.

We’re in a weird position. We’re excited about these laptops because they’re the first seriously impressive Windows on Arm laptops. We’re excited about long battery life with snappy performance. And we’re excited that next-generation Intel Lunar Lake hardware is looking like a huge leap for traditional x86 laptops.

But we’re not excited about all these at-launch AI features being pushed by marketing campaigns. Snapdragon X Elite-powered PCs might be intriguing, but if you’re excited about an immediate AI upgrade to your Windows experience, you’re going to be disappointed. Here’s why.

Further reading: Microsoft Surface Pro 7 review: A new long-lasting, Qualcomm-powered era for Windows laptops

Copilot+ PC? More like Copilot- PC

The name “Copilot+ PC” conjures to mind a kind of PC with extra features relating to Microsoft’s Copilot AI chatbot. After all, “Copilot Pro” is a paid subscription that upgrades the Copilot chatbot experience.

That’s not the case at all. A Copilot+ PC offers no extra Copilot upgrades. You get a Copilot key on the keyboard, which first-generation “AI laptops” with Intel Meteor Lake hardware have been offering for many months now. That’s it. Copilot doesn’t run offline or use the new integrated neural processing unit (NPU) hardware to do anything at all.

In fact, the situation is much more dire than that. These machines ship with a new Copilot app experience—it’s no longer a sidebar, but rather a normal floating desktop window. That’s fine. But, as Tom Warren noted for The Verge, the new Copilot app experience is a step back. You can’t tell it to “turn on Dark Mode” or “empty the Recycle Bin” anymore.

Microsoft may eventually improve the Windows integration in this new Copilot app. And, even if not, this new Copilot experience will eventually come to all Windows 11 PCs. But, at launch, Copilot is surprisingly less powerful on a Copilot+ PC than it is on a standard Windows 11 PC.

It also doesn’t have those fancy GPT-4o features that Microsoft showed off, where it can see your screen and talk you through Minecraft gameplay, for example. Those features will arrive at some point in the future—but when they do, they won’t need Copilot+ PC hardware. That impressive demo will work on all Windows 11 PCs.

AI image generation needs a Microsoft account and internet connection

A Copilot+ PC has some extra AI image generation tools integrated into various apps throughout Windows:

• Paint has a Cocreator tool that can generate an image as you draw, modifying it to fit your drawing.
• Photos has a Restyle tool that will let you use generative AI as a “filter” for your image. For example, taking a photo and making it look like it was a watercolor painting.
• Photos also has an Image Generator feature that generates images to match your text prompts.

Here’s the thing: While these tools all use the NPU inside a Copilot+ PC, none of them work offline. They require a Microsoft account and an active internet connection to work. Why? To check your images for “AI safety” before showing them to you.

Without getting into whether that’s necessary or not, one thing is clear: There’s no point to running these tools on your computer’s hardware if they also require a cloud service to function. You might as well use a cloud-based AI image generation tool running in a powerful data center somewhere. You’ll get better, more realistic results.

The introduction of these new tools has muddied the AI experience on Windows 11. All of the above tools sit alongside other AI image generation tools that do use Microsoft’s cloud servers. For example, the Image Creator in Microsoft Paint uses the cloud, while the Image Creator in Photos uses your PC’s local hardware.

On a Copilot+ PC, Windows contains a confusing mishmash of AI features that may or may not use the PC’s hardware and may or may not use Microsoft’s cloud services.

Live Captions gains some tricks, but already runs on all Windows 11 PCs

On any Windows 11 PC, you can open the Live Captions app from your Start menu to get AI-powered captions for speech. It uses Microsoft’s cloud servers to generate live captions in real time from any audio—audio in a video file, audio in an online meeting, or even audio being picked up by your PC’s microphone.

On a Copilot+ PC, Live Captions gets a little more powerful: it can now work entirely offline (unlike Microsoft’s AI image generation tools) and it can now translate speech from 44 different languages to English.

That’s a nice upgrade that some people will find very valuable. But if you don’t already use Live Captions, or if you do and you wish you had real-time translation or offline support, would that be enough reason to warrant buying a new Copilot+ PC? Likely not.

Windows Studio Effects are fine, but not much is new

Microsoft has been talking up Windows Studio Effects as one of the big AI features for Copilot+ PCs. These are real-time webcam effects that use the computer’s NPU to change how your webcam looks in any app.

I like them, really. You can enable fake eye contact or blur your background in any app, for example. And, because it uses the NPU, it’s a power-efficient way to do webcam effects. You won’t be wasting CPU or GPU power in an online meeting.

However, this isn’t exactly new. Windows Studio Effects is the one AI feature that functioned out of the box on first-generation “AI laptops” with Intel Meteor Lake hardware. You don’t need a Copilot+ PC for them.

There are some extra effects: you can use effects like “Animated,” “Illustrated,” and “Watercolor” to change how you look on your webcam in real time. It’s a nice idea, but I find the effects to be very subtle.

Do I really look “illustrated” in the screenshot above? A little bit! Is that worth buying a Copilot+ PC for? Well, I don’t know about that…

Recall would have been the big feature

Recall will take screenshots of your PC’s display every five seconds, create a big database of your PC activity, and then let you search through it with plain language queries—just like when you talk to an AI chatbot.

Unlike the Copilot AI chatbot or AI image generation features, it will work entirely offline. That’s what Microsoft said when it announced Recall.

It’s clear why Microsoft made such a big deal about Windows Recall when it announced Copilot+ PCs. Without Recall, there’s a distinct lack of a centerpiece AI feature that really sells these PCs. Instead, it’s just a collection of little tech demos that shows off what the NPU can do.

But when Microsoft faced serious blowback regarding privacy and security concerns over Recall, it decided to pull Recall before launch and spend a few more months working on it before release.

Ultimately, this means none of the included “AI” software featured in Copilot+ PCs at launch is particularly exciting.

With Copilot+, you’re buying into a promise

I’m calling these features “tech demos” for a reason. They feel like they exist to demonstrate the power of the neural processing unit and the Windows Copilot Runtime that Microsoft is offering to developers.

The vision of a Copilot+ PC isn’t that Windows will totally transform itself. The vision is that third-party application developers will leverage this hardware to add AI features into their own applications.

It’s early days, for sure. If you’re excited about a Copilot+ PC because of the AI features, I recommend you slow down before buying one because you may be disappointed, especially without Recall.

I always recommend buying hardware for what it can do today, not based on what it might do in the future. (Already this year, buyers of first-generation AI PCs got burned for buying into a vision too early.)

But if you’re mainly excited about the battery life and performance promises of Copilot+ PCs? That may be a good reason to buy one! I’ve been very impressed with the battery life and snappy performance so far. I wish Microsoft and Qualcomm were talking more about that than AI with this debut Snapdragon X Elite laptops.

Let’s stay in touch! Sign up for my free Windows Intelligence newsletter—I’ll send you three things to try every Friday.

Laptops, Windows

Microsoft, Qualcomm, and their PC-manufacturing partners are seriously hyping Copilot+ PCs. They’d have you believe that these “next-generation AI laptops” are packed with AI smarts and useful features.

But, while the hardware for AI tasks is ready in these laptops, the actual features built into Windows aren’t making full use of it.

We’re in a weird position. We’re excited about these laptops because they’re the first seriously impressive Windows on Arm laptops. We’re excited about long battery life with snappy performance. And we’re excited that next-generation Intel Lunar Lake hardware is looking like a huge leap for traditional x86 laptops.

But we’re not excited about all these at-launch AI features being pushed by marketing campaigns. Snapdragon X Elite-powered PCs might be intriguing, but if you’re excited about an immediate AI upgrade to your Windows experience, you’re going to be disappointed. Here’s why.

Further reading: Microsoft Surface Pro 7 review: A new long-lasting, Qualcomm-powered era for Windows laptops

Copilot+ PC? More like Copilot- PC

The name “Copilot+ PC” conjures to mind a kind of PC with extra features relating to Microsoft’s Copilot AI chatbot. After all, “Copilot Pro” is a paid subscription that upgrades the Copilot chatbot experience.

That’s not the case at all. A Copilot+ PC offers no extra Copilot upgrades. You get a Copilot key on the keyboard, which first-generation “AI laptops” with Intel Meteor Lake hardware have been offering for many months now. That’s it. Copilot doesn’t run offline or use the new integrated neural processing unit (NPU) hardware to do anything at all.

In fact, the situation is much more dire than that. These machines ship with a new Copilot app experience—it’s no longer a sidebar, but rather a normal floating desktop window. That’s fine. But, as Tom Warren noted for The Verge, the new Copilot app experience is a step back. You can’t tell it to “turn on Dark Mode” or “empty the Recycle Bin” anymore.

Microsoft may eventually improve the Windows integration in this new Copilot app. And, even if not, this new Copilot experience will eventually come to all Windows 11 PCs. But, at launch, Copilot is surprisingly less powerful on a Copilot+ PC than it is on a standard Windows 11 PC.

It also doesn’t have those fancy GPT-4o features that Microsoft showed off, where it can see your screen and talk you through Minecraft gameplay, for example. Those features will arrive at some point in the future—but when they do, they won’t need Copilot+ PC hardware. That impressive demo will work on all Windows 11 PCs.

AI image generation needs a Microsoft account and internet connection

A Copilot+ PC has some extra AI image generation tools integrated into various apps throughout Windows:

• Paint has a Cocreator tool that can generate an image as you draw, modifying it to fit your drawing.
• Photos has a Restyle tool that will let you use generative AI as a “filter” for your image. For example, taking a photo and making it look like it was a watercolor painting.
• Photos also has an Image Generator feature that generates images to match your text prompts.

Here’s the thing: While these tools all use the NPU inside a Copilot+ PC, none of them work offline. They require a Microsoft account and an active internet connection to work. Why? To check your images for “AI safety” before showing them to you.

Without getting into whether that’s necessary or not, one thing is clear: There’s no point to running these tools on your computer’s hardware if they also require a cloud service to function. You might as well use a cloud-based AI image generation tool running in a powerful data center somewhere. You’ll get better, more realistic results.

The introduction of these new tools has muddied the AI experience on Windows 11. All of the above tools sit alongside other AI image generation tools that do use Microsoft’s cloud servers. For example, the Image Creator in Microsoft Paint uses the cloud, while the Image Creator in Photos uses your PC’s local hardware.

On a Copilot+ PC, Windows contains a confusing mishmash of AI features that may or may not use the PC’s hardware and may or may not use Microsoft’s cloud services.

Live Captions gains some tricks, but already runs on all Windows 11 PCs

On any Windows 11 PC, you can open the Live Captions app from your Start menu to get AI-powered captions for speech. It uses Microsoft’s cloud servers to generate live captions in real time from any audio—audio in a video file, audio in an online meeting, or even audio being picked up by your PC’s microphone.

On a Copilot+ PC, Live Captions gets a little more powerful: it can now work entirely offline (unlike Microsoft’s AI image generation tools) and it can now translate speech from 44 different languages to English.

That’s a nice upgrade that some people will find very valuable. But if you don’t already use Live Captions, or if you do and you wish you had real-time translation or offline support, would that be enough reason to warrant buying a new Copilot+ PC? Likely not.

Windows Studio Effects are fine, but not much is new

Microsoft has been talking up Windows Studio Effects as one of the big AI features for Copilot+ PCs. These are real-time webcam effects that use the computer’s NPU to change how your webcam looks in any app.

I like them, really. You can enable fake eye contact or blur your background in any app, for example. And, because it uses the NPU, it’s a power-efficient way to do webcam effects. You won’t be wasting CPU or GPU power in an online meeting.

However, this isn’t exactly new. Windows Studio Effects is the one AI feature that functioned out of the box on first-generation “AI laptops” with Intel Meteor Lake hardware. You don’t need a Copilot+ PC for them.

There are some extra effects: you can use effects like “Animated,” “Illustrated,” and “Watercolor” to change how you look on your webcam in real time. It’s a nice idea, but I find the effects to be very subtle.

Do I really look “illustrated” in the screenshot above? A little bit! Is that worth buying a Copilot+ PC for? Well, I don’t know about that…

Recall would have been the big feature

Recall will take screenshots of your PC’s display every five seconds, create a big database of your PC activity, and then let you search through it with plain language queries—just like when you talk to an AI chatbot.

Unlike the Copilot AI chatbot or AI image generation features, it will work entirely offline. That’s what Microsoft said when it announced Recall.

It’s clear why Microsoft made such a big deal about Windows Recall when it announced Copilot+ PCs. Without Recall, there’s a distinct lack of a centerpiece AI feature that really sells these PCs. Instead, it’s just a collection of little tech demos that shows off what the NPU can do.

But when Microsoft faced serious blowback regarding privacy and security concerns over Recall, it decided to pull Recall before launch and spend a few more months working on it before release.

Ultimately, this means none of the included “AI” software featured in Copilot+ PCs at launch is particularly exciting.

With Copilot+, you’re buying into a promise

I’m calling these features “tech demos” for a reason. They feel like they exist to demonstrate the power of the neural processing unit and the Windows Copilot Runtime that Microsoft is offering to developers.

The vision of a Copilot+ PC isn’t that Windows will totally transform itself. The vision is that third-party application developers will leverage this hardware to add AI features into their own applications.

It’s early days, for sure. If you’re excited about a Copilot+ PC because of the AI features, I recommend you slow down before buying one because you may be disappointed, especially without Recall.

I always recommend buying hardware for what it can do today, not based on what it might do in the future. (Already this year, buyers of first-generation AI PCs got burned for buying into a vision too early.)

But if you’re mainly excited about the battery life and performance promises of Copilot+ PCs? That may be a good reason to buy one! I’ve been very impressed with the battery life and snappy performance so far. I wish Microsoft and Qualcomm were talking more about that than AI with this debut Snapdragon X Elite laptops.

Let’s stay in touch! Sign up for my free Windows Intelligence newsletter—I’ll send you three things to try every Friday.

Laptops, Windows

Price When Reviewed

Starting at $999.99, as-tested $1999.99

Best Prices Today: Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 (13.8″)

It’s a new era for Windows PCs.

The latest Microsoft Surface Laptop (alongside the revised Surface Pro) ditches Intel and AMD hardware for Qualcomm chips. This isn’t a first, as previous Surface devices like the Surface Pro 9 5G also used Qualcomm. But those devices were introductory sideshows to the main event.

The new Surface Laptop is available only with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite chip. No Intel or AMD variants are available or planned. This bold move helps the Surface Laptop achieve strong performance and outright spectacular battery life in a thin laptop, in addition to standing as Microsoft’s debut AI-infused Copilot+ PC.

Looking for more options? Check out PCWorld’s roundup of the best laptops.

Microsoft Surface Laptop 7: Specs and features

The Microsoft Surface Laptop’s most intriguing hardware is, of course, the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite chip. It’s a system-on-a-chip that pairs up to 12 CPU cores with Qualcomm Adreno integrated graphics. Entry-level Surface Laptop variants have a 10-core processor, but the one I tested had the 12-core upgrade.

• CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite (12-core)
• Memory: 32GB LPDDR5x
• Graphics/GPU: Qualcomm Adreno integrated graphics
• Neural Processing Unit (NPU): Qualcomm Hexagon
• Display: 13.8-inch, 2304×1536 resolution, 3:2 aspect ratio, 120Hz IPS-LED touchscreen
• Storage: 1TB PCIe Gen 4 solid state drive 
• Webcam: 1080p with dual-mic array
• Connectivity: 2x USB-C, 1x USB-A, 1x Surface Connector, 1x 3.5mm combo audio
• Networking: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4
• Biometrics: Windows Hello facial recognition via webcam
• Battery capacity: 54 watt-hours
• Dimensions: 11.85 x 8.67 x 0.69 inches
• Weight: 2.96 pounds
• MSRP: $999.99 to start, $1999.99 as-tested

Processor aside, the Surface Laptop was well-equipped with 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. These upgrades run up the price, though, which doubles from the entry fee of $999.99 to an as-tested price of $1999.99. That’s rather expensive, though comparable to other premium portable laptops like the Dell XPS 14 and Lenovo ThinkPad X1.

Microsoft Surface Laptop 7: Design and build quality

It’s easy to mistake the new Surface Laptop for an older model at a glance—and I mean that as a compliment. The new Surface Laptop, like its predecessors, has a sleek aluminum body that looks luxurious and feels rigid. It favors a minimalist look with no badging aside from the glossy Windows logo on the display lid.

Look closer, though, and a few details stand out. The display bezels are much smaller than prior Surface Laptop models, and they’re now rounded at the corners for a more organic, approachable look. The edges taper more aggressively than before, too, which makes the new laptop feel thinner in-hand. The new Surface Laptop is technically thicker than its predecessor, but feels more nimble.

The Surface Laptop weighs 2.96 pounds. That’s a bit heavier than competitors like the Apple MacBook Air 13 M3 and Dell XPS 13, both of which weigh 2.7 pounds. Though the difference seems trivial on paper, I did notice it. In fact, the first thing I said while unboxing the Surface Laptop was, “Wow, this feels a bit chunky.” Once placed in a backpack or bag, however, the Laptop’s extra ounces fade away.

Microsoft continues to stick with an unusual display aspect ratio of 3:2, which is far closer to square than the more common 16:9 or 16:10 aspect ratios. As such, the Surface Laptop feels a bit boxier than competitors and it might not fit in some sleeves meant for a 13.3-inch widescreen laptop, as its dimensions are different from the norm.

But the 3:2 aspect ratio is an advantage if you frequently work with text documents or web pages, as you can see more vertical space at once. (In fact, the 13.8-inch Surface Laptop’s vertical display height is identical to a 15.6-inch laptop with a 16:9 aspect ratio.)

Microsoft Surface Laptop 7: Keyboard and trackpad

The new Surface Laptop’s keyboard doesn’t live up to expectations. It has a roomy layout with large palm rests, which makes it comfortable to use, but key feel is an issue. Keys activate with a mushy, quiet, ill-defined action that lacks feedback.

Don’t get me wrong: it’s usable. But I don’t like it as much as the prior Surface Laptop (I own a Surface Laptop 4) or the keyboards found on competing laptops, like the Dell XPS 14 and Asus Zenbook 14 OLED.

A keyboard backlight comes standard—as is typical for a laptop in this price bracket—and offers three levels of brightness. It’s a bit dim even at maximum brightness, so the backlight isn’t easily visible when used in a bright room. However, the backlight’s minimum brightness is very low, which is preferable if you use the laptop in a nearly pitch-black space.

While the keyboard is a miss, the touchpad is solid. It measures roughly five inches wide and a bit more than three inches deep, which is comparable (or smaller) than other Windows laptops. But the touchpad felt extremely smooth and responsive.

It also handled multi-touch gestures with ease. Fans of Windows’ pinch-to-minimize (and other more complicated multi-touch gestures) will be pleased. It also supports haptic feedback, which convincingly emulates the feel of a mechanical button when the touchpad is tapped.

Microsoft Surface Laptop 7: Display and audio

As mentioned earlier, the Surface Laptop has an unusual 13.8-inch display with a 3:2 aspect ratio. It also has a unique resolution of 2304×1536, which works out to a pixel density of 200 pixels per inch.

That’s a bit less than 14-inch competitors with a 16:10 aspect ratio and a resolution of 2880×1600, which hits about 242 pixels per inch. It’s also less than a MacBook Air M3 13.6-inch, which delivers 224 pixels per inch. These numbers aren’t as meaningful as they seem, though, because all three pixel densities look sharp in the real world. Still, the Surface Laptop is at a slight technical disadvantage as far as sharpness.

The Surface Laptop also continues to lag in display technology, as it sticks to an IPS-LED display without a dynamic backlight. That’s bad news for the laptop’s contrast ratio, which is far less impressive than competitors with an OLED display panel or Mini-LED display backlight.

It’s not a problem when working in Word or Adobe Acrobat, but it’s easy to notice when playing games or watching movies, especially in a dark room. The Surface Laptop looks less immersive and engaging than competitors like the Dell XPS 14 and Asus Zenbook 14 OLED.

That said, Microsoft strikes back with a 120Hz touchscreen that feels snappy. Many Windows laptops have abandoned the touchscreen, and others that offer touch—like the Dell XPS 14—stick to a lower refresh rate that feels less responsive. Plus, the Surface Laptop’s traditional clamshell design isn’t well-suited to touch input (the hinge doesn’t even fold back 180 degrees), but if you like to smudge up the screen, the Surface Laptop has you covered.

The 120Hz refresh rate can also, in theory, deliver a more fluid experience while playing PC games. However, the Surface Laptop’s gaming performance and support isn’t great, so finding titles that can run at up to 120 frames per second will be a struggle.

Audio performance is good, if not amazing. The Surface Laptop’s speakers are extremely loud at maximum volume and sound good with less-complex content, like podcasts. Throw a bass-heavy track at the Surface, though, and the speakers become muddy and harsh.

The speakers are above-average for most 13- to 14-inch laptops, but still behind audio leaders like the Dell XPS 13 and Lenovo Yoga 9i.

Microsoft Surface Laptop 7: Webcam, microphone, and biometrics

A 1080p webcam is packed into the Surface Laptop’s thin top bezel. It provides acceptable video quality straight away, which is improved by AI-powered Studio Effects filters (a feature the Surface Laptop shares with other Copilot+ PCs). The filters add background blur, automatic framing, and real-time effects that, in practice, add up to decent video quality.

Microphone quality is great. It picked up my voice with excellent volume and easily filtered out background noise, including persistent noises (like a fan) just a few feet away from the laptop.

Biometric login is supported through Windows Hello facial recognition. It worked well in my testing and, because it uses an IR camera instead of the primary sensor, it’s reliable in both very dark and bright rooms. Many competitive laptops support the feature, but it’s good to see it included.

Microsoft Surface Laptop 7: Connectivity

The bulk of the Surface Laptop’s wired connectivity comes from a pair of USB-C ports on the laptop’s left flank. Both ports support USB4, Thunderbolt 4, DisplayPort, and can accept up to 65 watts of Power Delivery. There’s also a single USB-A 3.1 port for older devices and a 3.5mm combo audio jack for headphones, headset, or microphone.

Microsoft’s Surface Connect is back. It’s a proprietary data and power connector that magnetically attaches to the right flank. The bundled 65-watt power adapter uses Surface Connect instead of USB-C but, as mentioned, the USB-C ports support Power Delivery and can be used to charge and power the laptop as well.

Dedicated video-out (in the form of HDMI or DisplayPort) is missing, which might be annoying if you want to connect an older monitor or a modern TV. There’s no wired Ethernet, either. You’ll need a USB-C adapter, hub, or dock if you want to use the Surface Laptop with devices that require these ports. Though a tad disappointing, it’s typical for a portable Windows laptop.

Wireless connectivity is excellent, with support for both Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. Wi-Fi 7 is the latest wireless internet standard. It’s so new, in fact, that very few people even have a Wi-Fi 7 router. Still, I think it’s the right move to make Wi-Fi 7 standard. (Anyone willing to pay almost $2,000 for a well-equipped Surface Laptop is likely to be an early adopter of Wi-Fi 7, after all.)

Microsoft Surface Laptop 7: Performance

Microsoft’s Surface Laptop is one of more than a dozen new Copilot+ PCs with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite chip. The Snapdragon uses the Arm instruction set instead of the x86 instruction set that’s common to Intel Core and AMD Ryzen processors.

Laptops with Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite processors, like the new Microsoft Surface Laptop, promise better battery life and efficiency. However, Arm and x86 aren’t natively compatible, which means Windows apps coded only for x86 won’t run on Arm.

To solve that, Microsoft has aggressively urged software partners to develop new Arm-compatible software, meanwhile providing an emulation layer (called Prism) that can run x86 software on Arm hardware.

What does that mean for performance? Let’s dig in.

Note: The Surface Laptop I tested had the 12-core Snapdragon X Elite, an upgrade over the 10-core chip in entry-level configurations.

Cinebench R20

First up is Cinebench R20, a heavily multithreaded CPU benchmark. This version of the benchmark doesn’t support Arm, so the new Surface Laptop uses emulation to run the benchmark. The emulation’s stability was perfect in this test, with no crashes or bugs.

The Surface Laptop is certainly slower than the x86 competition in this test, but it’s not a bad result for software that runs under emulation. The performance of both the Surface Laptop and Surface Pro creeps close to the Dell XPS 13, which has an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor.

Handbrake

Next up is Handbrake. Though it does have an Arm version available, that version is much newer and not comparable to the version of the software we typically use. Because of that, this benchmark runs under emulation.

And here, unlike Cinebench, the Snapdragon X Elite has problems. The benchmark was stable but required a dreadfully long time to finish. Clearly, emulation has met its match with this test.

Geekbench 6

Next up is Geekbench 6. This synthetic benchmark isn’t part of our normal test suite, so we have less data on laptops using it. It has an Arm native version, however, so no emulation is required. 

And what a difference it makes! The Surface Laptop hits an impressive multi-core score of 12,988. That edges out the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED (which itself is among the more capable laptops with an Intel Core Ultra processor) and easily defeats the OneXPlayer X1 (a Windows tablet forced to fit Intel’s Core Ultra in a tight wattage envelope).

And the new Surface Laptop is roughly twice as fast as Microsoft’s Surface Pro 9 5G. Launched in 2022, the Surface Pro 9 5G has a custom chip—the Microsoft SQ3—which was designed in collaboration with Qualcomm and based on the Snapdragon 8cx. Clearly, Qualcomm’s performance has improved since then.

3DMark

The Snapdragon X Elite’s processor performance looks good, but what about the integrated GPU? 

Qualcomm and Microsoft have spent less time marketing the performance of Qualcomm’s Adreno graphics, aside from a demonstration at Microsoft Build 2024 that showed games like Borderlands 3 and Baldur’s Gate 3 running through Prism emulation.

3DMark’s Time Spy and Night Raid tests provide a lot to dig into. Time Spy does not run native on Arm, but Night Raid does, and that has obvious implications for performance.

The Surface Laptop lags far behind Intel Iris Arc and AMD Radeon 780M integrated graphics in Time Spy. In Night Raid, however, Qualcomm’s Adreno powers the Surface Laptop to a respectable score of 23,348, which trades blows with Intel and AMD’s best integrated graphics.

Does Snapdragon X Elite work in the real world?

The Microsoft Surface Laptop’s benchmark results look solid on paper. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite is on par with, or slightly quicker than, Intel and AMD alternatives when apps have native Arm versions available. Performance under Prism emulation varies but, at its best, it doesn’t inflict a terrible penalty.

But a benchmark suite can only represent a small slice of apps, and my day-to-day experience was simultaneously worse than and better than these benchmarks suggest.

First, the bad news: I don’t think gaming is viable at launch. Microsoft knows this because, during the Reviewer’s Workshop held to answer questions from reviewers about the laptop, the company downplayed the laptop’s gaming performance. (Microsoft Devices VP Pete Kyriacou also told PCWorld that the Snapdragon X Elite-powered Surfaces will excel in productivity, not games.) Microsoft said Qualcomm chips don’t support discrete GPUs or external GPUs, so there’s no way to upgrade performance or side-step Qualcomm’s Adreno graphics.

These problems aren’t just in demanding games, like Cyberpunk 2077 or Total War: Warhammer III. I was surprised and disappointed to find that recent indie favorite, Halls of Torment, failed to play smoothly… despite the fact it relies entirely on 2D graphics. PCWorld will have more to report on the Surface Laptop’s gaming performance in an upcoming article, but for now I caution gamers to sit on the sidelines.

If you want a laptop for productivity and content creation, though, the Surface Laptop holds promise. The apps I use for professional work include the Microsoft Office suite (for writing, editing, and time tracking), GIMP (for photo editing), and Wondershare Filmora (for video editing).

While I expected Office to work without flaws, I was surprised to find that both GIMP and Filmora support Windows on Arm. Both apps worked flawlessly, and the Surface Laptop performed well enough when I opened the Filmora project file for my 43-minute-long video about the development of Baldur’s Gate 2. The timeline took a moment to fully load when flipping back and forth, but the video played in the editor without dropping frames. Cutting, moving, and copying clips were all smooth.

The list of productivity apps with Arm support is decent and growing. Notepad++, Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom, and DaVinci Resolve 19 all support Arm (though, in some cases, the Arm version is still in beta). Adobe Premiere Pro, Illustrator, InDesign, and After Effects will receive Arm updates this year.

Just want to browse the web and watch Netflix? You’re unlikely to run into issues. Most web browsers, streaming platforms, and video conferencing software support Windows on Arm. Apps that don’t support it yet should still run well under emulation. And while I can’t guarantee every app will work perfectly, I didn’t see problems in my testing. Aside from games, every app I used launched, and none crashed in my time using them.

A note about Copilot+ PCs

The Surface Laptop, like other Copilot+ PCs, has an integrated neural processing unit (NPU) that can handle up to 45 trillion operations per second, and it was meant to highlight Windows 11’s AI features. Instead, the Copilot+ PC launch is a public relations disaster.

The flagship feature, Microsoft Recall, is indefinitely delayed over security and privacy concerns. Microsoft has reeled in the features of Windows’ Copilot app, too. Earlier preview versions could adjust settings and search files, but the version currently available lacks those features. 

Microsoft Surface Laptop 7: Battery life

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite is quick, to be sure, but power efficiency is the chip’s real claim to fame. Microsoft says the Surface Laptop can provide up to 20 hours of video playback, a promise it easily fulfilled. 

Real-world battery life lived up to expectations set by the benchmark. I often used the laptop for several hours at a stretch, yet saw the battery reduce by no more than 10 percent. My use is light (mostly web browsing and writing in Word or Google Docs), but the Surface Laptop’s endurance is much better than usual for a Windows laptop.

These results are even more remarkable given the Surface Laptop’s modest 54 watt-hour battery. Many competitors with AMD or Intel hardware, like the Lenovo ThinkBook 13x and Asus Zenbook 14 OLED, have a battery capacity above 70 watt-hours.

Still, the Surface Laptop’s battery life is spectacular. In fact, I’d say it’s the most significant threat to alternatives with AMD and Intel hardware. Battery life like this fundamentally changes how the device is used, providing peace of mind when leaving the house without a charger.

Microsoft Surface Laptop 7: Conclusion

Microsoft’s Surface Laptop is a success, though not without its issues.

After years of misfires, Arm on Windows is finally a viable option. With it comes access to new hardware, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite, which proves an alluring alternative to Intel and AMD devices. Qualcomm’s chip isn’t a good choice for gaming, but it’s great for battery life and it scores well in CPU benchmarks with native Arm support. 

These traits make the Surface Laptop a solid choice for people who travel frequently or just don’t like to worry about battery life.

Laptops

The cloud is great for storing excess files that you can’t keep on your laptop. But it’s also a vulnerable online space and it’s possible your data could be hacked or stolen. A safer solution for your most important files (and the ones you’d prefer to keep handy without having to re-download from the cloud) is an external hard drive. Right now, you can get this 1TB Slim Portable USB 3.0 External Hard Drive for $50 off.

This handy drive is extremely slim and lightweight, made to fit easily in your everyday carry. It has a cutting-edge USB 3.0 interface that supports up to 120Mbps read speed and 104Mbps write speed, allowing you to easily transfer data to and from devices. You can store up to 1TB of photos, videos, music, documents, and other files in a secure drive that only you will have access to.

Keep your most important files safe and handy. Right now, you can get this 1TB Slim Portable USB 3.0 External Hard Drive for 45% off $109 at just $59.99.

 

Slim Portable USB 3.0 External Hard Drive – 1TB – $59.99

See Deal

StackSocial prices subject to change.

Accessories

On June 28th, residents in Indiana, Idaho, and Kansas are set to wake up and find that they can no longer access the adult site Pornhub. Due to newly passed age verification laws designed to prevent minors from viewing adult content, Pornhub will begin blocking access to users in these states in protest.

This is following a trend that has seen more than half a dozen states lose access to the incredibly popular NSFW site. A similar ban occurred in March of this year when access was blocked to residents in Texas. 

This is certainly inconvenient for age-appropriate residents of these states who want to access the site (which, it must be stated, receives First Amendment constitutional protection). Fortunately, there’s an easy fix: using a VPN. Just download and install your preferred VPN, connect to a server in a state that isn’t blocked, and enjoy the content.

Below you’ll find my top picks for VPNs to access Pornhub if you’re in states where Pornhub has blocked access. For even more great services, check out our list of the best VPNs overall.

ExpressVPN – Best overall

ExpressVPN is my overall top pick for VPNs no matter the intended use. It packs a ton of great features including wide-device support, ad- and tracker-blocking, and plenty of domestic and international servers.

It also boasts great speeds, meaning you won’t need to downgrade your video quality to something that makes it look like the important bits are blurred on purpose. ExpressVPN even supports just about every device you could imagine so not only will you be able to access Pornhub, you’ll be able to view the content on any device you wish as well.

NordVPN – Runner-up

NordVPN is a close second to ExpressVPN, only losing out due to a slightly more complicated interface and a more expensive long-term price. Let that not take anything away from how great this service is as well.

It’s consistently the fastest VPN I’ve ever tested, so you can stream in HD to your heart’s content. Plus, it comes with even more built-in security features than ExpressVPN.

Mullvad – Best for privacy

Depending on what you’re looking for from a VPN, Mullvad might actually be your best option. Not only is it in our top five services for overall speed, it more importantly earns top marks for privacy.

Mullvad takes every effort it can to know as little about its users as possible. It doesn’t ask for an email address or name and it even accepts payments via mailed cash if you want. Plus, it costs just $5 per month regardless of the plan you choose.

ProtonVPN – Best free VPN

While I don’t usually recommend that anyone use a free VPN due to their proven security and privacy risks on certain devices, ProtonVPN is one of the exceptions. This service from Swiss-based Proton, has a spotless track record for user privacy. It’s also mercifully free of ads.

Just like all free VPNs there are limitations, but thankfully ProtonVPN keeps them relatively tame. For no cost whatsoever you’ll get a one-device connection limit and access to five servers located in different countries around the world (including the U.S.). It doesn’t impose any speed or data limitations on these free servers as well—something that is nearly unheard of with other free VPNs.

VPN

External USB/Thunderbolt drives are a super-convenient way to quickly back up your important files, as well as store any data that you don’t need on your computer’s internal storage. They’re also an extremely handy way to transport data between locations and devices.

While any of these would be a great reason to pick up an external drive, the advantages of having reliable backup is the number-one reason your setup isn’t complete without one. Why? Chances are you have important data on your PC that you can’t afford to lose. To protect that data you’ll want to do two things: store it off-site on the cloud if possible and back it up to an external drive. This way you ensure your data is completely safe should anything go wrong with your computer.

While we highly recommend that you consider cloud storage as a backup option, restoring from local storage is generally far, far faster than pulling your data down from the cloud. Therefore, an external drive should be your primary hedge against disaster.

Why you should trust us: We’re PCWorld. We’ve been putting computer hardware through its paces for decades. We’ve seen it all and we know how to root out a drive’s strengths and weaknesses, using a combination of rigorous benchmark testing and real-world hands-on use. Below we offer our expert recommendations on the best external drives for everything from blazing-fast performance, to budget options, to portability, and more.

Updated June 24, 2024 to include a new recommendation for portable hard drive: the WD My Passport, Works with USB-C. Let’s face it, there are use cases where a high-capacity hard drive makes a lot of sense — for backups or a media server, for example. Read our summary below to find out why we’d choose this great drive for those purposes.

Our latest external drive reviews

• Teamgroup PD20M: This lightweight drive is a great travel companion, complete with carrying case — but only recommended for light-duty chores, as this 20Gbps drive slows considerably when writing more than 20GB of data.
• Adata SD810: This is a solid 20Gbps drive, as long as you aren’t in the habit of writing very large amounts of data to it on a regular basis, because in our tests, the drive slowed down considerably in that scenario. That being said, the 4TB capacity is a particularly good value at just $300.
• Lexar SL500: A stablemate of the Lexar SL600 — our pick for best 20Gbps external drive — the SL500 stands out for its very slim and attractive form factor. It has almost identical performance to the SL600, with the exception of performing slower than its sibling in our 48GB file writes.
• Corsair EX100U: This handsome drive, which could easily slide into a pocket, isn’t a great all-around performer, but if you’re mostly concerned with light workloads it will handle those tasks capably. On sale, it could easily earn its keep in that regard.

What you need to know before you buy

Capacity versus price

For most consumers, the primary shopping criteria for external storage are capacity and price. However, while you might think that the lowest-cost drives provide the most value–they don’t. In fact, dollar for dollar, cheaper low-capacity drives have always been the worst deal in terms of price per terabyte.

You can see the phenomena in the charts below where we compare the popular WD Elements desktop hard drive’s available capacities and prices. You’re paying more than twice as much per terabyte for the lowest-capacity drive versus the next step up. It’s almost as bad on the WD Elements Portable drive.

The best “value,” as you can see, typically means the most capacious hard drives. But it also means higher total cost, and not everyone needs maximum capacity.

How much capacity do you need?

So how much storage do you actually need? For backup, we recommend a drive that’s at least twice the capacity of the total amount of data residing on your PC’s internal storage.

If you have 1TB of storage in your PC, a 2TB drive allows you to make a full backup while keeping previous versions, as well as additional differential and incremental backups. I.e., the larger the capacity, the more backups over a longer period of time you can keep, or the more PCs you can back up to the same drive.

While a desktop hard drive (read 3.5-inch) provides far more capacity (up to 26TB currently if you’re a data center), it also requires a power cable, weighs more, and generally won’t be as shock resistant as a portable 2.5-inch hard drive. The latter is designed to take bumps in a laptop, even when powered up. Then again, if you really want rugged–go the SSD route.

Interface

The vast majority of external drives today are USB drives. However, USB comes in many speeds: 5Gbps, 10Gbps, 20GBps, and—eventually with USB4—40Gbps as with Thunderbolt 3/4. Ignore the version number (3.x) and look for the speed.

The USB Forum has changed its nomenclature to indicate throughput speed—SuperSpeed USB 5Gbps (formerly USB 3.x gen 1), SuperSpeed USB 10Gbps (formerly USB 3.x gen 2), and SuperSpeed USB 20Gbps (formerly USB 3.2 2×2). For the sake of brevity (and our sanity), we generally shorten those to, for example, USB 10Gbps, 10Gbps USB, 10Gbps etc.

All USB hard drives use a slower standard, typically USB 5Gbps. No hard drive, unless combined with other drives in RAID 0 or above, can saturate even the 5Gbps interface (roughly 500MBps real-world after overhead). Because of that, you’ll never see one rated higher.

Where SuperSpeed 10Gbps/20Gbps, USB4, or Thunderbolt are of value is with the aforementioned RAID hard drive setups, or more likely—an SSD. USB 10Gbps is fast enough for most users, and getting cheaper by the week. A 10Gbps Samsung T7 Shield can be had for $80 in a 1TB capacity.

Faster USB 20Gbps (Gen 2×2) basically doubles speed but moves you into a higher-price bracket, with the Seagate Firecuda Gaming SSD costing $100 for only 500GB of storage. Although far faster than 5/10Gbps, there still aren’t a lot of USB 20Gbps/USB4 ports out there.

Thunderbolt 3 and the newer Thunderbolt 4 (almost exactly the same thing with stricter implementation requirements) are the highest-performing interfaces for external storage. The key negatives are the premium pricing and a general lack of compatibility with the far more popular USB.

That said, there are dual Thunderbolt/USB SSDs available such as the Sandisk Pro-G40. The G40 is pricey at $160 for 1TB, but a fantastic drive for those who can afford it. Pure Thunderbolt external SSDs can be even pricier, as they’re almost all sold by Mac-oriented boutique vendors such as OWC and Sabrent.

Ports

External drives come with a variety of ports, though they’re gradually (and thankfully) consolidating on the orientation-agnostic Type-C connector. Here’s the list of connectors you might see on your drive:

USB 3 Micro-B — This wider, flatter port is still very common on many lower-cost portable and desktop external hard drives. It’s actually the same Micro USB port used on your phone, but with more data lines to hit USB 3.0 speeds. It’ll do 5Gbps and is fine for hard drives and SATA (internally) SSDs. Micro-B cables are generally Type-A on the PC end.

USB 3 Type-B is the larger, squarer version of USB 3.0 Micro B. Type B ports are becoming rare, though you might find one on older 5.25-inch enclosures, printers, and scanners. It supports speeds up to 5Gbps and cables are generally Type-A on the PC side. 

USB Type-C or simply Type-C is the latest USB connector and the one the world is standardizing on. It’s small, easy to insert, and you don’t have to worry about which side faces up as with Type-A.

Keep in mind that Type-C refers only to the connector itself. What is carried over the wires varies greatly: USB 2.0 High Speed (480Mbps) to USB 3.2 SuperSpeed 20Gbps, as well as USB4 and Thunderbolt 3 and any combination of them.

USB Type-A You won’t find this familiar rectangular port on any drive, but you will still find it on plenty of PCs and laptops as well as the male version on the other end of most Type-B and Type-C adapter cables.

Thunderbolt 2 is dead at this point. It’s found on older Macs, but even Apple put it out to pasture in 2017. There’s no need to invest in a Thunderbolt 2 drive unless it’s for legacy support issues. That said…

…Apple sells a bi-directional Thunderbolt 1/2 to 3 adapter if you need to connect the one generation to the other. The adapter does not, however, carry power, so bus-powered external drives (no power jack) will require a powered dock.

eSATA is another legacy port that’s disappeared from newer tech. Created for attaching external storage to your computer’s SATA bus, eSATA was a cheap way in its day to move beyond the toddling 60MBps performance of USB 2.0.

5Gbps USB 3.0 put the last nail in eSATA’s coffin. As with Thunderbolt 2, the only reason to invest in an eSATA drive is for use with older computers.

Two drives for backup?

There’s a fundamental maxim in backup, appropriately named the Rule of Three. It states that you should always maintain three copies of your irreplaceable data: the original data, a backup, and a backup of the backup.

Preferably, the two backups are kept in separate locations, one being offsite (online, or another location). Keeping a copy online is great for smaller amounts of data and certainly meets the offsite criteria.

However, for vast photo, audio, and/or video collections, external drives in pairs (or more), are a far faster solution. Especially with most broadband still being relatively limited in upstream speed.  

For guidance on building out the best backup plan possible, see our roundups of the best cloud backup services and best Windows backup software.

How we test

Some of the older reviews you might find here feature results gathered on an Intel Core i7-5820K/X99 motherboard with 64GB of Kingston DDR4 memory running Windows 10. A discrete Gigabyte Alpine Ridge Thunderbolt 3 card and Ableconn USB 3.2 2×2 20Gbps card (Asmedia 2142 controller) were used for connecting the external drives. An Asus USB 3.1/10Gbps (Asmedia 1142 controller) card was employed for some of the really old drives on the chart. 

Subsequently, drives were tested using Windows 11 64-bit running on an MSI MEG X570/AMD Ryzen 3700X combo with four 16GB Kingston 2666MHz DDR4 modules, a Zotac (Nvidia) GT 710 1GB x2 PCIe graphics card, and the Asmedia ASM3242 USB 3.2×2 card. Copy tests utilize an ImDisk RAM disk using 58GB of the 64GB total memory.

Currently, we’re using Windows 11 64-bit running on an X790 (PCIe 4.0/5.0) motherboard/i5-12400 CPU combo with two Kingston Fury 32GB DDR5 4800MHz modules (64GB of memory total). Both 20Gbps USB and Thunderbolt 4 are on the board and Intel integrated graphics are employed. The 48GB transfer tests utilize an ImDisk RAM disk taking up 58GB of the 64GB of total memory. The 450GB file is transferred from a Samsung 990 Pro 2TB which also runs the OS.

We run various synthetic benchmarks including Crystal Disk Mark 6/7/8, AS SSD 2, and Iometer. We also perform real-world transfer tests using a 48GB batch of small files and folders, as well as a large 48GB and 450GB files. The testbed boots from a NVMe drive, but the real-world (Windows) file transfers are performed to and from a 58GB RAM disk.

Note that all review charts feature results garnered from the same test bed.

Business, Storage

Anyone who’s an avid Kindle reader is gonna want this tiny page turner for Kindle devices—and right now you can get it for just $15 if you’re an Amazon Prime member (or $18 if you aren’t).

This nifty gadget is a total game changer if you love reading ebooks but hate having to tap the screen all the time. You know, like when your Kindle is mounted on a stand (also on sale) and you don’t want to reach out to turn the page every time. Or when it’s winter and you want to keep your arms under the blankets while reading.

With the Inncarvs remote control, you can turn ebook pages with the click of a button. It’s not complicated to set up and doesn’t require Bluetooth—simply clip the device to your Kindle and you’re good to go.

This remote page turner works with most Kindle devices (excluding 8th generation Kindles), but it also works with Kobo e-readers, Apple iPads, Android tablets, smartphones, and more.

That means you can use this for more than just page turning. For example, use it with an onscreen camera app to snap photos from afar. It’s compatible with nearly any device that’s less than 0.46 inches thick. (If you have a case on your device, you may need to take it off.)

You don’t need batteries for this because it recharges via USB-C, and the battery life is pretty good. If you read for an average of two hours per day, the page turner will last about a month on a full charge and the remote itself will last about two months on a full charge.

This gadget will seriously upgrade your digital reading experience without breaking the bank. Again, Prime members can snag it for $15. If you aren’t a Prime member, sign up for a 30-day free trial to claim this deal and a bunch of other Prime-only deals.

This Kindle page turner is just $15 Gadgets

Who doesn’t love a good deal? If you’re in the market for an ultrawide gaming monitor with a vibrant OLED flair, here’s a solid one for you: Today’s favorite find is this 34-inch MSI ultrawide OLED gaming monitor that’s now down to $740 at Amazon. Save $160 now and swap out your traditional dual-screen setup for this ultrawide winner.

The 34-inch ultrawide display has a 21:9 screen ratio for a 3440×1440 resolution, which is more than enough for an immersive gaming experience. Whether you’re into shooters or traveling through vast MMORPG worlds, it’ll change the way you game.

It has a smooth 175Hz refresh rate and a near-instantaneous 0.03ms (GtG) response time for minimal lag.

It also looks great! This monitor has an 1800R curved screen (easier for your eyes to see from one edge to the other), narrow “frameless” bezels (for a sleek appearance and minimal distractions), and HDR capabilities (delivering high clarity and details for the best experience).

Connectivity is well-covered in this MSI model: two HDMI 2.1 ports, one DisplayPort 1.4 port, one USB-C DisplayPort port, two USB-A ports, and even a USB-B port in case you need it. It’ll work with pretty much any device you have, from PCs to gaming consoles to peripherals.

This is a fantastic opportunity to upgrade your gaming setup with a high-performance ultrawide monitor for just $740. If you’re willing to spend just a teensy bit more, you can also check out the 34-inch Samsung Odyssey G8, which is also on sale at Amazon right now.

This 34-inch ultrawide MSI monitor is on sale! Monitors

Are you always on the move and need a reliable way to keep your phone, earbuds, and other devices charged? A good power bank is the ideal travel companion, ensuring you’ll never run out of battery.

And if you need a power bank, good news: the Anker 313 PowerCore 10K is now available for just $18 at Amazon, a superb price for an everyday gadget that’s so useful to have on you.

At 10,000mAh, the PowerCore 10K can fully charge a modern powerhouse phone at least one full time, while older phones with less capacity might even get two complete charges. It comes in super handy when your phone’s battery life isn’t what it used to be.

This Anker power bank is super slim, lightweight, and fits into any bag or even your pocket. It’s about the size of a smartphone and it weighs about 7.5 ounces, so carrying it around should be no problem.

It has two input options for charging the power bank: a USB-C port and a microUSB port. (Only one can be used at a time.) It has a single USB-A output port, with PowerIQ and VoltageBoost technology that detects what it’s charging and delivers up to 12 watts.

While we haven’t personally reviewed this particular power bank, the device has over 102,000 reviews on Amazon with 4.5 out of 5 stars, which is basically the next best thing.

Don’t miss out on this fantastic deal! For just $18, this slim power bank buys you peace of mind when you’re out and about. (Don’t forget to clip the Amazon coupon to get the best price.)

This slim Anker power bank is only $18 Mobile Phone Chargers

Did you know that it’s entirely possible to use Windows 11 with a local-only account, the way it worked way back when computers still used floppy drives?

You’d be forgiven for not knowing, because it seems like Microsoft is going out of its way to hide this option from you, hoping to push you onto a connected Microsoft Account instead. In fact, they’re straight-up erasing information that might tell you otherwise.

Microsoft keeps a pretty sizable collection of short, to-the-point guides for some of the most frequently searched functions on Windows. For example, this page tells you how to move from a local-only, non-connected user account to a full-on Microsoft Account.

But that page used to say a lot more. Tom’s Hardware discovered that the most recent version of the page has deleted information on how to go in reverse, to transition from a Microsoft Account to a local account. The change was made last week, just as the newest Surface devices hit the market. The original version of the page is still visible via the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.

It’s disheartening, but not surprising. Microsoft has been incorporating more online, always-connected features into Windows for decades (including several unwelcome pushes to buy Microsoft Office or switch to the Edge browser). And this push only seems to be accelerating as Microsoft bets big on generative AI with Copilot, even going as far as offering a paid upgrade for more functionality.

It’s still possible to operate Windows 11 as a local user, only logging into Microsoft services via web browser like in ye olden days. But you have to set up an account first, then manually move yourself off of it.

Microsoft appears to be increasing that difficulty with intention. The recent changes to the Windows 11 setup process—and now yeeting instructions off its own support page—show that Microsoft wants every user to send over data constantly.

Windows

Price When Reviewed

$219

Best Prices Today: Keychron Q1 HE keyboard

Keychron is one of my go-to recommendations for keyboards. The company makes a ton of high-end mechanical boards that are both accessible and customizable, at a price well below those of the competition. With its apparent desire to fill every single possible niche, it was inevitable that the company would try its hand at adjustable actuation. So here we are with the Q1 HE.

The Q1 HE is a keyboard with magnetic hall-effect switches, meaning you can adjust the point at which they activate — how hard or soft you need to press the keys. It’s also the first adjustable actuation keyboard on the market with hot-swap switch sockets, something I’ve previously said is essential. That’s an impressive milestone, and the Q1 HE keeps up Keychron’s great build and feature set.

But because of the lack of options for switches, and a lack of one crucial feature for gamers, I’m not sold on this design. The Q1 HE does do what it says on the box, but its advantages over the Q1 Max are slight, and you give up a much wider selection for customization. It only makes sense for a tiny sliver of potential buyers.

Further reading: See our roundup of the best mechanical keyboards to learn about competing products.

Keychron Q1 HE design and features

From the outside the Q1 HE looks more or less like every Keychron Q keyboard, just with a snazzy red accent for the Enter and Escape keys. If you’ve been following the keyboard world for the last couple of years, you know the look: 75 percent layout, high-profile keycaps, big chunky aluminum case, and a volume knob. It ain’t broke, and Keychron ain’t fixing it.

I’ll spare you the breakdown of all of Keychron’s features, and just say that the HE has everything that the Q Max series (which I’ve already reviewed) does. That includes the above metal case and knob, plus:

• High-profile PBT keycaps
• Hot-swap switch sockets
• RGB lighting
• Multiple internal layers of foam and padding
• Triple-device Bluetooth
• 2.4GHz wireless dongle with 1,000Hz polling mode
• Screw-in stabilizers
• Gasket mount PCB
• Programming with QMK and the Keychron web tool

It’s hitting all the right notes for a high-priced mechanical keyboard. Purists might bemoan Keychron’s gasket quality and stabilizers compared to boutique designs. But we’re talking about a relatively small subset of users who will either build their own keyboard, or pay someone else $400+ to do it. For a high-quality, customizable board you get out of a box, Keychron remains damn hard to beat.

The big differentiator in the HE model is those magnetic switches, allowing for adjustable actuation. For why this is important (and why you might care about it), check out my breakdown of adjustable actuation keyboards. Tl;dr, you can adjust how hard or light you need to press each key, which gives you one more degree of customization, and opens up some interesting options for the most demanding PC gamers.

Keychron takes this feature one step further than competitors like Razer, Corsair, and Wooting by adding in the option to swap out the switches. Adjustable actuation is complex whether you’re doing it with light or magnets, so previous designs simply omitted this option. On the Q1 HE, like most of Keychron’s premium designs, you can remove the switches in every socket and install alternatives.

But there’s a pretty big caveat here. Due to the way these magnetic switches work, they’re still incompatible with switches that use the standard Cherry MX format and far simpler electrical circuits. So while you can swap them out, you can’t replace them with almost any other switch on the market. At the time of writing the Gateron Nebula purple switches can only be replaced with other Gateron switches conforming to this specific standard, with just two other choices: Dawn yellow and Aurora green. All three choices are linear, pre-lubed switches with the only difference being their spring stiffness. So if you want a clicky or tactile switch in this board, you’re out of luck.

Granted, that’s two more choices for switches than you get on any other adjustable actuation keyboard. But it’s an extremely specific and still limited option. Gateron may make more switches in this series in the future, but at the moment the biggest differentiator between the Keychron Q1 HE and its competition is barely a difference at all. Fortunately the switch stems are still standard, so custom keycaps will work just fine.

How is the Q1 HE for typing and gaming?

As I said earlier, the Q1 HE is almost identical to the Q1 Max, and that means it’s a very good keyboard. The fit and finish for this hunk of heavy metal is as good as anything else on the market, and its expanded wireless options (Bluetooth for flexibility, 2.4GHz USB dongle for reliability and speed) mean it’ll fit into just about anyone’s workflow. The 1,000Hz wireless option with the dongle even makes it suitable for gaming, though it doesn’t boast the same customization options as a dedicated gaming keyboard.

Using the Q1 HE as my primary board for a few weeks left me with no complaints…except two. One, Keychron’s big flagship designs still don’t have adjustable feet. You’re stuck with the same typing angle for all of them, and it’s a bit lower than I prefer. I’ve taken to buying these stick-on rubber feet specifically to alleviate Keychron’s deficiency. Other all-metal designs have feet options, and dammit, I’m tired of telling Keychron that they’re missing out here.

The other quirk of the HE versus the Max series is that it appears to be very power-hungry, presumably because all those magnetic sensors are suckin’ down juice. To address this, Keychron made the HE particularly aggressive in terms of battery saving for wireless mode. While Max keyboards will automatically wake up with any key press, the HE needs you to press and hold the space bar for a second or so if you leave it unattended for 30 minutes or more.

This can be finicky, and it feels like about half the time the keyboard just won’t wake up. This meant I needed to toggle the wireless switch to “Cable” and back to dongle mode in order to reboot and reconnect. I updated the firmware twice in the course of this review, and the problem persists, forcing me to do this cumbersome move two or three times a day. It’s a drag.

Other than that, the typing and user experience on the HE is excellent. It’s notably stiffer than other Keychron boards — either the gaskets aren’t as springy or the magnetic sensors are really weighing down the PCB. But that doesn’t really affect things for me, and the smooth, lubed switches are above average, as are the latest revisions in the stabilizers.

Note that because of the metal case and linear switches, the Q1 HE is pretty noisy as mechanical keyboards go, even though it has internal foam padding. And with only three extremely similar linear switch choices, there’s no way to go with a “silent” switch upgrade. If you’re concerned about disturbing others around you with typing noise, this isn’t the keyboard for you…though neither are any of the other adjustable actuation boards on the market.

New software

One of Keychron’s signature features is compatibility with QMK and VIA tools for programming. The Q1 HE still works with QMK, the more finicky and difficult option. But in place of VIA, Keychron now has its own self-branded tool available via the browser. In an impressive show of backwards compatibility, it should also work with most of the programmable keyboards they’ve released in the last few years, as well. I tried it out with my own personal K9 Pro, and it booted right up even without a firmware upgrade.

Keychron’s self-branded tool is good. It hits all the necessary points that VIA does, without the somewhat cumbersome need to import a custom profile (if the board isn’t already in VIA’s database). It’s also more straightforward, immediately applying changes as they’re made over a wired connection. And once identified, it dynamically added the “HE Mode” menu relevant to the Q1 HE’s adjustable actuation.

This includes setting custom actuation distance, short or deep, for keys individually or in groups. You get all the usual goodies: rapid trigger mode, analog-style input for individual keys, and the option to activate multiple keys or macros at different depths. In fact Keychron enables four different functions on one key, if you somehow have the superhuman dexterity to precisely depress a 4mm switch to that many places.

It’s easy, it works, and it’s straightforward. Overall, it’s a great addition to Keychron’s products. So it’s a shame that in one particular area, it doesn’t go far enough.

Not enough for gamers

The Keychron Q1 HE’s box advertises it as a keyboard “for peak gaming experience.” The website mentions gaming five times, including competitive gaming. And it makes sense. While normal users might appreciate the ability to adjust how light or hard you need to press your keys, the real benefits are for gamers, and gamers who are far more intense and customize to a much deeper degree than most of us.

So I have to evaluate the Q1 HE as a gaming keyboard. And even with the great new programming tool, it falls at the same hurdle as Keychron’s Lemokey L3: There’s no way to assign per-game custom profiles or activate them upon game launch. Keychron representatives tell me this feature is in the works, but I’m not sure it’s even possible with a web-only programming tool. And as always, I can only review the hardware in the state it’s in at the time — a product can’t get extra credit for what it might be later.

The tool does give you three different profiles to customize, but they need to be manually selected in the browser. This might be enough for most gamers, but that lack of auto-launching functionality inevitably makes it less useful than competing gaming keyboards. And you still need to have the Q1 HE connected via USB to use the tool, undermining its excellent wireless features.

Should you buy the Keychron Q1 HE?

As I wrap up my time with the Q1 HE, I find it difficult to recommend for almost all users. For anyone who wants a high-end mechanical keyboard, the Q1 Max (or any of the Max series keyboards) will offer all of the same features minus adjustable actuation, at a slightly lower price. And they’re compatible wth hundreds and hundreds of different Cherry MX-style switches, not just three interchangeable linear-only options.

If you really do want that adjustable actuation function, it’s available elsewhere, with software that includes the crucial ability to set and auto-launch per-game custom profiles. The only way Keychron beats out offerings from Razer and the like is in its excellent wireless setup. Only SteelSeries also offers adjustable actuation in a wireless package, and it’s not a particularly good one…but it can still handle different game profiles.

So the vast majority of people interested in the Q1 HE should go for either a Q Max keyboard, or Razer’s Huntsman V3 Analog at around the same price. Only if you love Keychron’s premium designs, want adjustable actuation, you’re okay with only three switch choices (at the moment), and you’re okay with just one layout setting most of the time, does the Q1 HE make sense versus the alternatives.

Between that tiny slice of potential users and the annoying battery and wake issues, the Q1 HE is a rare miss for Keychron. I hope they can bring both this and their other gaming-focused boards up in the future.

Keyboards

Microsoft’s Arm-powered Surface Pro tablet and Surface Laptop are the next big thing in PC hardware, but what happens when they break? That’s when you head over to iFixit, search for a repair guide, and maybe even look for replacement parts.

As they’ve done for several years, iFixit has torn down the latest Microsoft Surface hardware to see how easy they are to fix.

Microsoft has been pushing devices that can be repaired by end users (or, at least, by someone who knows their way around a Torx screw). And according to iFixit’s presenter Shahram Mokhtari, the latest devices live up to that even though it seemed as if the Qualcomm Snapdragon-based hardware would make it a harder job.

The new Surface Laptop is extremely accessible when it comes to its main compartment, with just four screws under the removable laptop feet and a few magnets holding the bottom cover in place. From there you just need to remove a few screws with a 3IP Torx driver to get the battery out.

The rest of the components are mostly simple, too, at least as far as mobile electronics go, Microsoft even includes “wayfinder” guides printed on the parts, plus a QR code linking to repair guides on its site.

The only major bummer is that the RAM is soldered into place next to the Snapdragon processor, though that’s hardly a surprise. Maybe a CAMM2 infusion can help address that in the future.

The Surface Pro tablet is much harder to repair, given its more dense arrangement and the fact that you need to remove the display first to access anything except the M.2 storage drive. (The drive can come out without even opening the case, as seen on previous models.)

Even so, it’s remarkably repairable for a tablet, with most of its components coming out without any glue or just a few flexible thermal shields covering them.

iFixit is giving both the new Surface Laptop and Surface Pro tablet an 8 out of 10 provisional repairability score, a big win for Microsoft. For sake of comparison, the entirely modular Framework Laptop gets a 10 out of 10, while the most recent iPad Air (which shares some Arm DNA with the Surface Pro) gets just 3 out of 10.

Microsoft is getting even more brownie points for posting the service manuals for both new Surface devices on day one.

Laptops, Tablets

You could once count on privacy as given. Even when PCs first became widespread in homes, they could serve as tools for this purpose. You could anonymously answer your most embarrassing questions using a digital encyclopedia or early online database.

But as internet usage rose, control over our personal information began to plummet. Now we’ve reached a stage where no one has complete say in the details shared about us—and more and more, tech products and services don’t just spill the beans, but they’re also digging deeper into our lives.

Further reading: Best VPN services 2024: Top picks for speed, price, privacy, and more

Take Microsoft Recall—a new feature with the potential to save hours of headache. When active, Windows captures screenshots of everything you do, then leans on AI to comb through that data when you want to find the recipe you looked at last week, or a message your coworker sent a few months ago. Essentially your PC surveils you, but for your benefit. And as announced, Microsoft Recall was on by default (for compatible PCs) and stored the data in a way that could’ve still allowed hackers to see all your activity if your system gets compromised. (Make sure you’re always running an active antivirus, folks.)

After fierce blowback, Microsoft quickly retooled Recall. The company set it to be off by default, required Windows Hello for use, and switched to decrypting the files only when accessed (aka just-in-time decryption). The speed of response was commendable, but also suggested Recall could have been announced in this incarnation from the start.

And so I’ve wanted to know why that didn’t happen—especially given how AirTags showed the dangerous ways that tracking technology can be used. Microsoft had the opportunity to learn from Apple’s slow reaction to the use of AirTags for stalking and then layer in the extensive knowledge it already has about online threats and data security. It chose not to.

Thirty years ago, the buoyant optimism of technology made sense. The world was less interconnected; access to the internet was new. Innovation could focus on the best-case scenarios. Much like small towns where front doors can be left unlocked, you could release fresh features with little concern that someone was going to exploit them.

Times have changed. I know the big tech companies are aware, as I’ve spoken to several recently about security. I’ve also talked with them about their efforts to broaden the voices at their tables and include more viewpoints. But inclusion isn’t just identity, but a diversity of experiences too. And either the design teams are lacking wide perspective or it’s being overridden, and that’s a shame.

Tempering optimism with realism doesn’t make for a weaker product. It broadens the appeal. Personally, I’m much more likely to try Microsoft Recall in its current form (whenever it launches, anyway). If a company takes clear steps to show they truly understand all the nefarious ways a technology can be used and have added in protections, I’m far more likely to try it.

Sometimes, it feels like the internet is now a sprawling metropolis—a place where you not only have to lock your front door, but sometimes add an iron gate in front of it (and perhaps over your bottom-floor windows, too). Any tech product or service that even touches on that connectivity is like a car that gets you around. But the people selling those cars don’t seem to listen when city folk tell them to empty their interiors before parking. Instead, they just add a steering wheel lock and are surprised when no one wants a car with broken glass.

Further reading: Windows includes built-in ransomware protections. Here’s how to turn it on

Security Software and Services, Windows

Price When Reviewed

$499.99

Best Prices Today: Acer Aspire 3 (2024)

Budget Windows laptops in crisis. 

Buying a laptop for $500 is as easy as ever in 2024, but most that dart beneath that price do it with outdated processors that come paired with truly terrible integrated GPUs. 

The Acer Aspire 3 exemplifies the problem. It’s a capable laptop for basic tasks. But if you can stretch your budget to $700 or $800, you can snag a laptop that’s at least twice as quick and a much better value for your money.

Looking for more options? Check out PCWorld’s roundup of the best laptops under $500.

Acer Aspire 3: Specs and features

The Acer Aspire 3’s most prominent specification is the AMD Ryzen 5 7520U processor. It’s a relatively basic AMD CPU with a total of four processor cores and eight threads as well as a cut-back version of Radeon integrated graphics.

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 7520U
• Memory: 16GB LPDDR5
• Graphics/GPU: AMD Radeon 610M
• Display: 15.6-inch 1920×1080 IPS non-touch 60Hz
• Storage: 1TB PCIe Gen 4 solid state drive 
• Webcam: 720p with dual-mic array
• Connectivity: 1x HDMI, 1x USB 3.2 Type-A, 1x USB Type-C, 3.5mm combo audio, barrel plug power adapter
• Networking: Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.1
• Biometrics: None
• Battery capacity: 50 watt-hours
• Dimensions: 14.3 x 9.4 x 0.79 inches
• Weight: 3.8 pounds
• MSRP: $499.99

Acer doesn’t skimp on memory or storage, as the Aspire 3 has 16 gigabytes of memory and a terabyte of PCIe Gen 4 SSD storage. Many competitors, including Lenovo, Dell, and HP, offer similar RAM and storage for around the same price, but it’s still good to see these specifications aren’t sacrificed to stay below the five-hundred-dollar price point.

Acer Aspire 3: Design and build quality

The design of Acer’s Aspire lineup is well-established, with a basic silver-on-silver that lacks distinctive badging, patterns, or textures. It’s boring, to be honest, but that’s not unusual for a budget laptop.

Plastic is the material of choice, but the laptop is reasonably stiff and rigid. The display doesn’t show much flex when it’s opened and it feels rigid when moving it in and out of a backpack. It’s not an Apple MacBook or Razer Blade, but the Acer Aspire 3 feels well put together, especially for the price. 

Unfortunately, the Aspire 3 I received rattled when the laptop was picked up and even when typing on the keyboard. The culprit seemed to be a spring or component near the touchpad. It’s not a functional problem, but did make the laptop feel a bit cheaper than it otherwise would have. 

On the plus side, the Aspire 3 is portable for a budget 15.6-inch laptop. It’s a bit wide at 14.3 inches but only 0.79 inches thick and weighs a mere 3.8 pounds. It can easily fit in most bags meant to accommodate a laptop, and it’s light enough that it won’t feel tiring to haul around campus or between meetings.

Acer Aspire 3: Keyboard, trackpad

A spacious keyboard, which includes a number pad, stretches across the Acer Aspire 3’s interior. It has plenty of room to provide large keys, except for the left-side tab, caps lock, and shift keys, which are slightly undersized. The numpad keys are shaved down a hair but remain comfortable and easy to find.

Key feel is mixed. There’s enough travel for a good tactile sensation, but I found the action of each key was a tad too springy, and the rattle I mentioned earlier gave the keyboard an unpleasant sound.

A keyboard backlight is absent, making the laptop difficult to use in dimly lit rooms. While not unusual for a laptop around $500, this is a price point where keyboard backlights are available, and it would’ve been a nice feature to include.

The touchpad is a highlight, measuring over 5 inches wide and about 3 inches deep. It can’t compare to the size of touchpads on more expensive laptops but provides enough room for Windows’ multi-touch gestures. It also felt responsive and didn’t pick up any unintended inputs during my time with the laptop.

Acer Aspire 3: Display, audio

Acer ships the Aspire 3 with a non-touch IPS display boasting a resolution of 1920×1080. It’s an acceptable display though, perhaps unsurprisingly, far from the best available.

The display makes a good first impression. Spreading 1080p resolution across a 15.6-inch display works out to a pixel density of 141 pixels per inch. A 27-inch 4K monitor has 163 pixels per inch, so the Acer’s display isn’t far behind and, in many cases, will look just as sharp. It’s also fairly bright with a maximum measured brightness of 324 nits. That could be higher, to be sure, but it’s acceptable for a budget laptop. 

However, the Aspire falls back in color performance and contrast. It can look dull or washed-out, especially when viewing darker movies and games, like The Batman or Resident Evil 4. It’s also not the best choice for content creation due to both its resolution and color performance. Video and photo editors, digital artists, and other creative workers are going to need to buy a more expensive laptop.

But it’s difficult to find a better display at this price. The display is comfortable to use for hours at a time in both brightly and dimly lit rooms. That’s not a high bar, but it’s one not all budget laptops can jump. The Acer Aspire 3 is up to the task.

The built-in speakers, on the other hand, are inadequate. They’re not loud even at maximum volume and often sound muddy or unclear, especially when bass is required. They also fire downward, which means audio performance worsens if the laptop is placed on a surface that absorbs sound (like, say, your lap). It’s not a great experience. 

Acer Aspire 3: Webcam, microphone, biometrics

A basic 720p webcam is squeezed into the Acer Aspire 3’s top bezel, and it’s bad. The webcam’s image quality is fuzzy, dull, and lacks both contrast and color. None of this is unusual for an inexpensive 720p webcam, but it remains a huge step down from the 1080p webcams that are now common in more expensive laptops. It’s ok for casual video calls, but that’s about it. 

The microphone performs better. It picks up good volume and filters out some annoying background noise, like the sound of a space heater or a dog barking outside. Recorded dialogue tends to sound distant and tinny, so I wouldn’t recommend recording a podcast, but the microphone is more than adequate for most voice and video calls.

Biometrics login isn’t available on the Acer Aspire 3. That’s not a surprise, as nearly all laptops sold below $600 omit this feature.

Acer Aspire 3: Connectivity

The Acer Aspire 3’s connectivity, though basic, should be enough for most people. It has two USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports and one USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 port. The USB-C port also supports DisplayPort and USB-C Power Delivery, so it can be used to connect a monitor and/or charge the laptop (Acer doesn’t ship the laptop with a USB-C charger, however, and instead uses an old-school barrel plug). A 3.5mm combo audio jack and HDMI 2.1 port rounds out the options.

That covers most devices a typical owner will want to connect. The only port missing is Ethernet, which is a shame, because there’s enough room on the laptop’s flanks to accommodate it. Ethernet connections are possible, but you’ll need to use a USB-C to Ethernet adapter or a USB-C hub with an Ethernet port.

Wireless connectivity is a bit behind the curve. The laptop supports Wi-Fi 6, which is now a couple generations out of date; Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7 can offer better performance. Bluetooth 5.2 is available, too. 

Acer Aspire 3: Performance

The Acer Aspire 3 is powered by AMD’s Ryzen 5 7520U, an entry-level mobile processor launched in September of 2022. Its modest specifications include four processor cores, eight threads, and a maximum boost clock of 4.3GHz. It also has a rather low default thermal design power of 15 watts. None of this is great news for the laptop’s performance.

PCMark 10, a generalized system benchmark, puts the Acer Aspire 3 off to a lackluster start with a score of 4,115. That’s not great, as it positions the Acer Aspire 3 far behind many other laptops we’ve tested recently. 

Clearly, the step down from a laptop with a current generation mid-range mobile SoC (like the Intel Core Ultra 5 125H or AMD Ryzen 7 8840HS) to the older AMD Ryzen 5 7520U is steep.

Cinebench, a heavily multithreaded short-duration CPU benchmark, puts the Acer Aspire 3 in an even less favorable position. Core count is important in this test, so it’s not surprising to see the quad-core Ryzen 5 7520U fall behind more expensive alternatives with at least twice as many cores. 

Intel’s Core i3-N305 is the only recently tested processor that’s slower. It’s actually an eight-core CPU, but doesn’t support hyperthreading and relies entirely on Intel’s Alder Lake E-Cores, which aren’t nearly as quick as the P-Cores found in more expensive Intel processors. 

Still, this again is a steep step down. It suggests that laptops priced around $800 to $1,200 are more than twice as quick in bursty multi-threaded workloads, which brings the Aspire 3’s value into question.

Handbrake, a heavily multithreaded long-duration CPU benchmark, doesn’t change the story. The Ryzen 5 7520U is much, much slower than more modern Intel Core Ultra and AMD Ryzen 8000-series CPUs. 

Next we get into graphics performance—and this is where the Acer Aspire 3’s stumble turns into a gnarly face-plant. 

The AMD Ryzen 5 7520U has Radeon 610M integrated graphics with just two (yes, two!) graphics cores. By comparison, the new AMD Ryzen 7 8840HS has Radeon 780M graphics with 12 graphics cores.

The Acer Aspire 3’s IGP severely underperforms most laptops we’ve tested in the last few years, aside from those with similar entry-level AMD Ryzen 3 and Ryzen 5 processors. Even the Acer Aspire Go 15, which has a cut-down version of Intel’s aged UHD Graphics, scores a small victory over the Aspire 3 in 3DMark’s Time Spy benchmark. 

While the Aspire 3’s CPU and integrated GPU fail to impress, the laptop offers 16GB of RAM and a 1TB solid state drive. That’s a lot of capacity for a $500 laptop, and it goes a long way towards making the laptop feel snappy and useful in typical day-to-day use. Despite its lackluster performance, it often feels as quick as far more expensive laptops—if you stick with less demanding applications like web browsers and office suites.

Acer Aspire 3: Battery life

At a glance, the Acer Aspire 3’s mediocre performance would seem to hint at excellent battery life. However, as noted, it uses an older version of AMD’s Ryzen mobile processor line which isn’t as efficient as more modern architectures. The laptop also makes do with a 50 watt-hour battery, which isn’t large for a 15.6-inch laptop in 2024 (many have 60 to 70 watt-hours, or more).

That has a consequence for battery life. While Acer says the laptop could achieve over 18 hours of battery life in a best-case video rundown scenario, our standard video rundown test (which loops a 4K file of the short film Tears of Steel) drained the battery in roughly six hours and 45 minutes. 

General use didn’t sway my opinion. Using the laptop to write in Google Docs and browse the web sucked the battery at a rate consistent with six to eight hours of battery life. It’s not terrible for a budget Windows laptop, but certainly behind the curve. 

Acer Aspire 3: Windows 11 Home S

The Acer Aspire 3 is shipped with Windows 11 Home S mode enabled. Owners can upgrade to Windows 11 Home at any time, for free, and Acer sent the review laptop with this upgrade installed. 

Haven’t heard of Windows 11 Home S mode? It’s a mode found on some budget Windows laptops that locks app installation to those available on the Microsoft Store. The mode also locks the default browser to Microsoft Edge.

That’s not great. Swapping out of Home S mode is simple and free, but it’s an annoying extra step that might surprise users less familiar with Windows 11. 

Acer Aspire 3: Conclusion

The Acer Aspire 3 is a competent budget laptop with a decent display, lots of RAM, and spacious storage, but its lackluster CPU and GPU performance bring its value into question. 

The Aspire 3’s MSRP of $500 is extremely affordable, but spending a few hundred dollars more can snag you a laptop that’s roughly twice as quick in CPU benchmarks and over six times quicker in GPU benchmarks. It’s an acceptable choice if $500 stretches your budget to the limit, but it’s otherwise not the best value.

Shoppers considering this laptop may want to step down to an even more basic model, like the Aspire 3 A315-24PT-R288 or a Chromebook. That might seem strange, as those laptops are even less capable. But they’re also sold for as little as $300—and I don’t think the Aspire 3 can handle much they can’t. 

Laptops

With tweaking tools such as WingetUI or Microsoft PC Manager, you can not only improve settings in Windows 10/11, but also fix problems. This often works faster and more effectively than with manual changes to the registry or other system files.

In this article, we will show you some of the best tweaking tools currently available for Windows, which are also available free of charge. Some of the tools are portable, i.e. you do not need to install them, but can simply start them, even from USB sticks.

Further reading: Supercharge Windows with Microsoft’s free PowerToys

NetAdapter Repair – fix network problems

If Windows can no longer communicate properly with the network or the internet, the open source tool NetAdapter Repair is an ideal tool. Once started, various buttons are available to repair individual areas in Windows that are causing problems with the network.

Inexperienced users in particular can use it to fix problems that otherwise only experienced users would dare to tackle. In addition to simpler problems, such as deleting the DNS cache, retrieving a new IP address, or cleaning up the hosts file, you can also repair VPN settings, reset the Windows firewall, and much more.

The routing table can also be repaired in this area. It’s also possible to select and start several tasks at once at this point. The “Run All Selected” button is available for this purpose. To be able to perform all actions, you should start NetAdapter Repair with admin rights. On the right-hand side, you can also see the external IP address of the internet access and the IP settings of the computer.

The tool therefore provides information on the network settings and the option to rectify errors at the same time.

Microsoft PC Manager helps to clean up Windows

With the free Microsoft PC Manager tool, users can very easily clean up and optimize their PC and search for errors.

The tool can perform a health check and a deep cleanup. Autostart programs can also be cleaned up. The tool also helps to block pop-ups and much more.

PC Manager helps to clean up the system and can delete files that are no longer needed.

AutoPowerOptionsOK and saving energy

The small AutoPowerOptionsOK tool helps with the management and use of power options. The tool extends the standard options and integrates itself directly into the tray area of the taskbar. The tool can be used to access the Windows energy settings and further options are available via the context menu.

AutoPowerOptionsOK is therefore an ideal tool for notebooks or for computers where optimum power settings are important.

Winaero Tweaker is the top dog

WinaeroTweaker is one of the best-known tweaking tools on the market and can change a whole host of settings in Windows. Winaero Tweaker can also be extracted as a portable version during installation. The tool supports numerous settings that can be implemented with just a few clicks. In addition to Windows 10 and Windows 11, Winaero Tweaker can also customize settings in Windows 7 and Windows 8.1.

Winaero Tweaker enables the activation of complete context menus without the entry “Show more options” and the restoration of the classic taskbar and ribbon design in File Explorer. In addition, the position and size of the taskbar can be changed, all background apps can be deactivated simultaneously, and there are shortcut tools to start applications as an administrator without UAC confirmation or to open system folders and settings directly.

Users can create shortcuts to the classic shutdown dialogue and remove unwanted overlay icons from shortcuts. The tool makes it possible to restore the classic search in File Explorer, use the classic Windows photo indicator and the classic volume control, and permanently deactivate Windows telemetry, Windows Defender, and Windows Update.

Adverts and unwanted apps can be blocked, the integrated administrator account can be activated, and automatic registry backups can be set up. Further adjustments relate to drag-and-drop sensitivity, deactivating notifications, and the Action Center as well as resetting the icon cache and all Group Policy options. Network options, such as changing the RDP port and making network drives accessible to elevated applications, are also available.

Customization of the Windows interface includes personalizing folders in Explorer, increasing taskbar transparency, displaying seconds in the taskbar clock, and disabling blurring on the logon screen. Winaero Tweaker also allows you to add useful context menus, hide unwanted entries, and customize default apps for image editing contexts.

These comprehensive functions make Winaero Tweaker an indispensable tool for in-depth customization and optimization of Windows systems.

TweakPower – The Windows Cleaner

Another tweaking tool for Windows is TweakPower. After installation, numerous setting options are also available here. The tool primarily helps with cleaning up Windows and optimizing the operating system.

TweakPower can be used to replace system and desktop icons, optimize network properties and memory, and adjust drive and security settings. The program allows you to clean the hard drive, split and encrypt files, and delete data irrevocably. Users can customize Windows to their liking by changing settings for the system, input devices, drives, and applications.

They can also customize the appearance of Windows by changing colors, icons, the Start menu, and other visual elements. TweakPower tidies up your PC by removing unnecessary files, cleaning the registry, and deleting internet traces. The security features protect the PC by managing firewall settings, automatic updates, and user account control.

Data can be securely deleted and encrypted to protect privacy. Economy Mode reduces power consumption and extends battery life, while Game Mode disables unnecessary processes to improve performance when gaming and streaming.

System maintenance includes managing autostart programs, fixing hard drive errors and typical Windows problems, and creating restore points and backups. Add-ons such as the file splitter and the defragmentation function improve file management and system performance, while the Task Manager provides control over active programs. The performance index evaluates the computer’s hardware components and displays the overall performance.

TweakPower supports multiple languages and is compatible with different versions of Windows, making it a valuable tool for system optimization.

Improve data protection in Windows 10/11

Windows 10 and Windows 11 are data octopuses when it comes to data protection. The small, free tool W10Privacy puts an end to snooping with just one click. The tool can also be used as a portable version during installation. Some virus scanners report a false-positive malware infection of the tool, mainly Microsoft Defender. However, if you download W10Privacy from the developer’s website, you will not catch a virus.

Consumer Electronics

What’s more horrific than having your laptop die midway through your morning commute or flight when you’re in the middle of a project? Maybe the fear that your work didn’t save, striking feels like the ending of the Titanic.

If you don’t want to experience that terror, you need a reliable backup battery like this power bank that has 30W PD and QC charging and 50,000mAh capacity, now $39.99 (reg. $59.99)—save 33% here.

That’s enough resurrection juice to power compact laptops like the Dell XPS, Acer Swift, Google Pixelbook, Chromebooks, and the newer MacBook Airs. It might also power modes with bigger batteries—Lenovo Yoga, Microsoft Surface, and Dell Latitude, among others—just at a slower rate.

The power bank has three USB-A ports for bringing more of your devices back to life while you’re out and about this summer. 50,000mAh capacity is enough to revive an iPhone 14 eleven times, an iPad five times, and AirPods forty times. 

Don’t carry your lifeless devices in your arms—just get this 50,000mAh power bank for $39.99 (reg. $59.99).

 

50000mAh Portable Power Bank With PD 30W and QC 4.0 Fast Charging – $39.99

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StackSocial prices subject to change.

Accessories

It’s easy to think that all USB-C cables are the same, and that manufacturers are only claiming to be superior in order to jack up the price. After all, it’s just a cable, right?

That’s completely understandable, but not always accurate. We at PCWorld have tested a ton of USB-C cables and can say with certainty not all of them are made the same. In fact, there can be huge performance differences among cables when it comes to both charging and transferring data.

Hands-on evaluation of numerous cables ranging from the biggest, most-recognizable brand-names to the cheapest of the cheap has revealed some clear winners, which I highlight below.

Why you should trust me: PCWorld has been testing hardware since the 1980s and I’ve been poking and prodding PC components since I cracked open my Commodore VIC-20 in junior high school to see why it stopped working (who uses aluminum-coated cardboard that frays as an RF shield? Commodore, that’s who). I’ve also been a professional journalist for more than three decades and started my stint at PCWorld as an intern in 1993.

For my USB-C cable reviews, I don’t rely on consumer reviews like some “reviewers” — I purchase the cables retail and personally test each one of them, examining the resistance, how they are physically wired, and query the embedded eMarker (if it has one), and then performance test them where appropriate for charge rates, transfer rates, and display support. My picks are separated into two groups to avoid any confusion: USB-C cables that are best for charging, and those best for both charging and fast data transfer.

For more information you can refer to our guide on how to buy a USB-C cable on Amazon without losing your mind, and you can find out more about how I test cables below my picks. 

Updated on June 24, 2024: We’ve all been there. Trying to figure out why our USB-C device isn’t charging. Before you resort to bashing the device, or your head, against a wall, check out these USB-C troubleshooting tips. It could save you time, and your sanity.

Best USB-C cable for charging

For most people the above cables are what you’re looking for: reliable and fast charging (when paired with a good power bank). For those who also want to transfer data or connect a monitor though, these are our picks:

Best USB-C cables for charging and transferring data

Compared to our picks above, we wouldn’t advise purchasing any of the other USB-C cables we tested. Why settle for something inferior? But we understand some will want to see which cables didn’t make the cut and why.

USB-C cables that didn’t make the cut

How we test USB-C cables

For this roundup, we purchased retail USB-C cables for our testing. We physically measured and weighed each cable and examined each connector. A proper USB-C cable should use a one-piece shell rather than a folded shell with a visible seam in it. None of the cables we purchased used the lower-strength folded shells.

We do want to point out that weight does tend to matter. All cables are essentially tiny metallic wire strands bound together with insulation. Sure, the connector, housing,  braiding, and outer shell all factors in its weight, but lighter-duty cables literally have fewer wires and are far lighter. For example, the Cable Matters high-performance USB 4 cable is 32-inches long and weighs more than the Amazon Basics low-performance USB 2.0 cable, which is more than twice as long.

That’s not always better though, as a cable with more wires that are a heavier gauge—or thicker—are less pliable and also take up more space in your bag.

Are they all wired correctly?

You’d think you could tell whether a cable is USB-C 2.0 cable by looking at the wires in the connector but that’s not the case. Some cables use connectors with pins that aren’t hooked up to anything.

To check each cable, we use a BitTradeOne USB Cable Checker 2.0 to first see what actual wires are inside of the cable and whether they are hooked up correctly and what they do. For example, a USB-C cable that is fine for charging but a dog in data transfer   will show up as being wired only for USB-C 2.0, as you can see below by the green LEDs. The “CC” LED indicates the Cable Configuration channel is wired up correctly. 

A full-featured USB-C cable has additional wires to carry higher-speed data and the USB Cable Checker 2.0 shows this Cable Matters USB 4 cable in the picture below with the correct wiring all available. The small LED display also tells us that the cable has an ID e-Marker chip, the shell is properly grounded to the cable, and it does a quick resistance test too. The cable tester also checks to see if the metal shell of the cable is grounded to the ground wire of the cable, which is required by spec. Every cable here was properly grounded.

Resistance is futile

The resistance check from our cable checker is quick and dirty, so we augmented that by also measuring the resistance of the cable’s ground wire and vbus wire using a milli-ohm meter connected via a pair of USB-C breakout boards. The breakout boards at both ends add about 30 mohms to the total. By spec, a USB-C cable should not exceed 83 mohms on the ground wires and 167 mohms on the voltage bus.

Many of the cables we tested were within spec or close enough that it didn’t matter, since there’s likely even more resistance we’re not able to account for with our method. We definitely could tell which cables used heavier-gauge or thick wires with less resistance to restrict the flow of electricity, and which ones cheaped out.

What did the e-Marker say?

Since each of the more advanced cables carries an e-Marker that tells the computer what the cable can do, we noted that and the validity of the e-Marker’s claims. All but one of the cables met those claims, but the one that was wrong was way, way wrong. It claimed USB 3.2 10Gbps transfer speeds and a 1-meter length, when it literally didn’t have the wires for the faster transfer speeds and was actually 2 meters long.

We then looked at how fast the cable would charge and transfer data, and whether it supported an alternate mode to run a monitor, using real-world hardware.

For charging speeds we recorded the maximum wattage at which the cable could charge an Asus ROG Strix 15 gaming laptop over its USB-C port using USB-Power Delivery with an Aukey 100 watt USB-PD charger as the source while the laptop was under load. USB-PD today is limited to 100 watts (with a 240-watt spec on the way). Any USB-C to USB-C cable should handle 3 amps at 20 volts, or 60 watts. All of the USB-C to USB-C cables fell into the standard 60-watt or 100-watt camps.

We didn’t test the temperature of each cable’s housing, but we did test the cheapest cable by running it at 5 amps and 20 volts for an hour. The housing heated up by 50 degrees Fahrenheit, and the cable itself became relatively warm (see the thermal image below). Not ideal, but it did this without failure. We subjected other cables to two-hour loads without failure, as well.

For one final charge test, we tasked each cable with a 20 volt, 3 amp and 20 volt 5 amp load (for the 5-amp rated cables) and measured the voltage delivered at the end of the cable using our CT-3 meter.

The cables with the thinnest-gauge wires add more resistance, which in turn reduces the voltage delivered to your laptop, tablet, or phone.

For data transfer, we measured the speed using Crystal Disk Mark 8 while plugged into the USB-C/Thunderbolt 4 port of an MSI Prestige 14 Evo laptop. Since the cables can also be used to transfer data from a Thunderbolt storage drive, we measured how fast that happened using a high-speed SSD-based SanDisk Professional Thunderbolt G-Drive. We found three transfer modes among the cables tested: Thunderbolt 20Gbps performance, Thunderbolt 40Gbps performance, or zero performance because the cable would not work at all with a Thunderbolt drive.

Our last test looked at each cable’s capability running an Asus ROG Strix 17.3-inch portable gaming monitor. The monitor is a high-performance gaming monitor with a resolution of 1920×1080 and refresh rate of 240Hz—which is basically the same bandwidth requirements of a standard 4K 60Hz display.

Accessories, Power

Your TV is a centerpiece in your living room, but when you’re not using it, it’s just a big black space. When you’re entertaining or relaxing without watching TV, that’s a missed opportunity. But you can take it back with Dreamscreens, the innovative program that turns your TV into a digital art gallery.

Dreamscreens is a simple USB drive that plugs into your TV, giving you instant access to more than 500 4K renderings of some of the world’s most iconic paintings. From Van Gogh’s Starry Night to Michelangelo’s The Creation of Adam, there’s a wide range of works from different eras and movements. Simply plug it in and play, and you can choose to stay on one painting, shuffle through a slideshow, or play as a video with background music. It all depends on the mood you’re in.

Turn your living room into an art gallery. From 6/18 through 11:59 pm PT on 6/26, you can get Dreamscreens for just $31.97 (reg. $49).

 

Dreamscreens: Turn Your TV into a 4K Digital Art Gallery – $31.97

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Accessories

New cars today almost always have a central display with a backup camera and Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility. You don’t have to get a new car to enjoy that hands-free convenience, though. Instead, you can get the 6.8″ Foldable Touchscreen Car Display with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto Support for a fraction of the price.

This foldable touchscreen display is compatible with both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto so you can connect quickly and access your apps hands-free. You can use Google Assistant or Siri to make calls, navigate, do more hands-free, and stay safer while driving. Connect via Bluetooth, FM transmitter, or AUX jack — whatever works best for you.

Drive safer and keep your phone out of your hands. From 6/18 through 11:59 pm PT on 6/26, you can get this 6.8″ Foldable Touchscreen Car Display with Apple CarPlay & Android Auto Support for just $89.97 (reg. $159).

 

6.8″ Foldable Touchscreen Car Display with Apple CarPlay & Android Auto Support – $89.97

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StackSocial prices subject to change.

Accessories

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Microsoft continues to roll out new test versions of Windows 11 with useful features. Recently, the “jump lists” feature from Windows 10 were reintroduced and now the company has launched the slightly smaller Windows 11 Build 26241 beta, which makes it easier to move files around in Explorer.

With the new feature, you can simply move files around on your computer by dragging them to the address bar or “breadcrumbs” in Explorer. For example, if you are browsing My Computer > Local Disk (C:) > Users > Your Name > Documents, you can simply drag the files to one of the folders in the address bar.

Windows 11 Build 26241 should also fix some small bugs, but the new feature in Explorer is the main novelty of the new beta. Build 26241 has also started rolling out to members of Microsoft’s Windows Insider program.

Windows

Modern external computer data storage technologies (DAS, or Direct Attached Storage) run the gamut from USB hard drives, to optical discs (yes, still), to USB thumb drives, to the latest, greatest NVMe SSDs in high-speed Thunderbolt or USB 4 enclosures.

PCWorld has been reviewing external storage since the 1980s and the era of floppy drives, though these days we stick with SSDs and the occasional hard drive. Everything else seems, well… quaint. Not to mention, drearily slow.

What does PCWorld look for in an external storage device?

Capacity

Generally speaking, more capacity is better, but determining capacity takes no effort on our part — it’s generally written plainly on the box. Capacity by itself doesn’t score a lot of points unless it’s a jump from the norm, however…

Price

…the cost per gigabyte counts heavily in our evaluations. That said, the star rating is weighted more toward the quality of the product, not how much it costs. But all things being equal, the cost per gigabyte can tip the scales.

Performance

Basic performance obviously depends on the technology involved: HDDs, SSDs, USB, Thunderbolt, etc… We run benchmarks and perform real-world operations to determine its speed relative to others of the same ilk. Performance relative to a device’s peers as well as in the grand scheme counts greatly in the final rating. There’s far more granular info on our testing methodology and consideration below.

Durability

Of course, speed is nothing if a device gives up the ghost in six months. HDD failure has become progressively rarer since the bad old days when up to 15 percent of hard drives failed per year. Early SSDs also had their issues, but the only problem we’ve heard of recently was with the SanDisk Extreme Pro line. Every SSD we’ve tested is still going strong, as are all the hard drives from the last five years or so.

That said, SSDs are still a relatively young technology, and NAND blocks/cells can only be written to so many times. We make special note of the TBW ratings for SSDs. That’s an acronym for terabytes written, or the number of terabytes that may be written before a drive runs out of replacements (overprovisioning) for worn-out cell blocks.

MTBF (mean time before failure) ratings for HDDs are a guess at best, and rarely accurate or provable, so we generally don’t pay attention them.

Given the limited time we have between testing and publication, 100 percent accuracy on long-term reliability is impossible. We keep our test units in service, but it can take years for a problem to crop up.

One thing we can check is how well an external device sheds heat — the general enemy of electronics. If the temperature of an SSD gets too high, the controller will slow down/throttle operations to reduce said temperature to avoid damage to the components.

We also check the quality of construction and the materials used. With SSDs, shock mounting and shock resistant silicone covers are plusses, but with HDDs they’re an absolute must.

Many devices are IP rated — i.e., designed and tested to ward off dust and liquids. We’ll always discuss this with any ruggedized device, and it does score brownie points.

Portability

When it comes to portability, smaller is obviously better. Thumb drives are generally the smallest and most portable. Their integrated Type-A or occasionally Type-C connector eliminates the need for an additional USB/Thunderbolt cable or power adapter, which takes up space and which you must remember to bring with you. If a device is designed to be portable, the overall ease of transport is obviously considered.

Devices designed for your desktop might be portable to a degree, but a bit of size and heft is in order. Anyone who’s ever inadvertently sent a small, light drive flying across the table (or room) understands. It’s especially true for 2.5-inch external hard drives, which can’t absorb nearly as many G’s as an SSD. With desktop drives, we also rate such stability — i.e., we check for non-skid feet, etc.

Power requirements

AC adapters are required with 5.25-inch hard drives (still the only way to get more than 8TB in a single unit!), and with very large-capacity USB 3.x SSDs. Single, external 2.5-inch hard drives rarely require an AC adapter; however, some RAID units with more than one drive will. At least non-Thunderbolt types.

Speaking of which, both USB 4 and Thunderbolt deliver more power over their connections than older USB 3.x, which is why you generally won’t need external power unless, as mentioned, there’s more than one drive in the enclosure.

One exception to this is when using Thunderbolt generational adapters (Thunderbolt 2 to Thunderbolt 3/4), which may not pass through power. In that case, external power, or a dock with power, may be required.

How does PCWorld test external storage?

Connectivity/bus speed considerations

Connectivity, i.e. the transport protocol or bus type, is the essential indicator of expected performance and compatibility and obviously the first thing we consider. Highly compatible 5Gbps USB SSDs will max out somewhere south of 500MBps, while also highly compatible 10Gbps USB SSDs top out at around 1GBps.

20Gbps USB 3.2×2 drives can reach 2GBps, but only on the still somewhat-rare 3.2×2 connector or USB 4. But even that’s not a given. While Macs (and many PC Thunderbolt ports) support USB 4 20Gbps, they only support 10Gbps when using USB 3.2×2 SSDs. Why? Don’t know. USB 4 and Thunderbolt 3/4 SSDs can operate at 40Gbps, or around 4GBps.

In USB 4 and Thunderbolt 3’s case, it’s not actually specified that they support anything greater than 20Gbps. Yeah, it’s a mess of a “standard,” but we always test drives on their native bus at their highest possible speed. Note that the Thunderbolt 4 ports on our test bed also support all flavors of USB, including USB 4.

All USB drives are backwards compatible to at least USB 2.0, but they’re always limited to the speed of the bus they’re on.

Generally speaking, though faster is always better, we compare external storage devices with their technology peers: 10Gbps USB to 10Gbps USB, Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 3, hard drive to hard drive, etc.

Internal technology considerations

The technology inside a device (SATA, NVMe) also has a lot to do with its expected performance. For instance, a SATA SSD will never go much faster than 500MBps even across USB 4 or Thunderbolt 3/4. SATA HDDs rarely top 250MBps (3.5-inch) or 120MBps (2.5-inch).

NVMe on the other hand is fast enough that the bus is a major limiting factor. For example, the fastest internal PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSD we’ve tested clocked almost 15GBps, while the fastest Thunderbolt SSD could muster only 4GBps.

All HDDs to a small degree, and SSDs to a large degree write slower as they fill up so the benchmark numbers we publish are best case. Drive slowdown is why we recommend that you always buy at least twice the SSD capacity that you might think you need. This is not generally necessary with HDDs, but a good idea.

Again we generally compare similar internal technologies in our reviews: SATA vs. SATA, 20Gbps USB vs. 20Gbps USB, etc.

NAND and SSD design considerations

When it comes to testing, SSDs have “special needs.” Mostly because of the way they cache data to achieve and maintain best performance. Primary caching is either done with onboard DRAM, which offers the fastest random performance, or in the case of cheaper Host Memory Buffer (HMB), your device’s system memory. Recent implementations of the latter have turned in startlingly good numbers with sequential transfers.

But the primary cache is generally a relatively small amount. A couple of gigabytes with DRAM and 58/64MB with HMB. Hence SSDs use another method as secondary caching.

A controller can write 3-bit (Triple Level Cell/TCL) or 4-bit NAND at either their native bit depth or, far faster, as on/off 1-bit SLC. This single-bit writing is used for secondary caching. Data is later rewritten at the greater bit depth to reclaim the lost space.

The reason writing at greater bit depths is slower is due to the error-checking required to determine if the correct voltage (one of 8/16 levels with TLC/QLC) was written to a cell, rather than the simple charged/not charged binary of 1-bit SLC.

How vendors handle this secondary caching technique mostly affects performance during very long writes. Some fix the amount of NAND that can be used for secondary caching, while some allocate it dynamically. We often have to rewrite the 450GB file several times, depending on the capacity of the SSD, before the drive will drop to its native 3-bit/4-bit write speed, which can vary anywhere from 150MBps (slow QLC) to nearly 1GBps (faster TLC).

Note that as a drive fills up, performance may suffer as there is less NAND available to allot as secondary cache. We test with empty drives but warn users that performance may degrade over time. It’s also why we recommend that you overbuy in terms of capacity.

Many NMVe SSDs use DRAM for primary caching and some use your computer’s own memory as cache (Host Memory Buffer/HMB). The former greatly improves random performance, while the latter can actually improve sequential performance.

The number of chips on an SSD can also affect performance, as the more chips there are, the more data paths there are to shotgun data over. This is, again, why we warn you in each review that our results apply only to the capacity SSD we tested.

All these factors must be accounted for and inform our modus operandi when it comes to testing SSDs.

Further reading: Best external drives

What tests does PCWorld run to determine how fast an external storage device is?

Benchmarks

NVMe SSDs, as they have matured, have broken the nearly 1:1 ratio of benchmark to real-world transfer performance that existed right up through SATA SSDs — drastically, when it comes to internal SSDs, and to a lesser, but still noticeable extent with bus-constrained external SSDs.

The benchmarks aren’t errant, they simply use their own I/O, which has matured to take advantage of NVMe’s unique capabilities such as multiple threads and queues.

Operating systems, and the vast majority of software have not. For example, Windows Explorer never uses more than a single queue or thread. Hence our test transfers proceed at a far slower pace than what’s actually possible, and spoken of by the benchmarks. A drive capable of reading at 15GBps in benchmarks, will barely manage 4GBps under Windows.

We benchmark using CrystalDiskMark 8 and AS SSD 2.0. There are other perfectly valid benchmarks, but these are two whose results have consistently matched the level of the technology involved over the years.

Also, we have a huge set of results from years past to compare. On occasion, at vendor request we will run other benchmarks such as ATTO or IOmeter to simulate a particular workflow that a drive has been optimized for.

Real-world tests

To augment the benchmarks and give users an idea of what they’ll actually see under Windows, we perform a series of real-world transfers. Firstly, a 48GB folder full of smaller files and folders, and a single 48GB virtual hard drive (VHD) written to and read from the device. The second drive is actually a 58GB RAM disk that is faster than the fastest NVMe SSD we’ve tested to date. But it’s getting to be a close contest, so we may have to come up with other means in the near future.

Our final test is writing a single 450GB VHD file to the drive. This is not to measure performance as such, but to test the secondary caching. See above.

Note that both our 48GB and 450GB VHD files are filled with data, to minimize the impact of any compression techniques. Some controllers can compress all zeros with lighting speed, which throws a monkey wrench into the results.

What hardware does PCWorld use to test external storage devices?

We test all storage products on a dedicated X790 (PCIe 5.0) motherboard/i5-12400 CPU combo with two Kingston Fury 32GB DDR5 modules (64GB of memory total). The Intel integrated graphics are used as well as Windows 11 (22H2) 64-bit. The 48GB transfer tests utilize an ImDisk RAM disk taking up 58GB of the 64GB total memory. The 450GB file is transferred from a Samsung 990 Pro 2TB, which also contains the operating system.

On occasion, should any aberrations arise on the main test bed, we also test on our older AMD test bed. This consists of an MSI MEG X570 motherboard socketing an AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 8-core CPU and 64GB of Kingston DDR4. The same software is used as on the Intel platform. This machine is also the software test platform.

For Mac-oriented products or those tested for Macworld, a first-gen Mac Studio M1 Max with 32GB of memory and a 1TB internal SSD is employed. This system has the aforementioned interesting limitation common to all Apple Silicon Macs — it supports USB 4 20Gbps, but does not support USB 3.2 2×2 20Gbps. Sigh.

How does PCWorld determine an external storage device’s rating?

As noted, our overall ratings reflect a lot of factors, but the performance/cost ratio carries by far the most weight. And with only a 10-level system (five full stars, five half stars), the star ratings aren’t particularly nuanced.

Therefore, it’s important to actually read the reviews for the particulars, and at least the pros/cons to see the major strengths and weaknesses when trying to decide which storage device you want to buy.

Computer Storage Devices, Storage