That's Them is a people search engine that compiles publicly available data, creating detailed profiles of individuals.
However, its operations raise significant privacy concerns, so this article will explore how That's Them works, the types of information it collects, the sources of its data, and the potential implications for users.
We will analyze the platform's ability to aggregate personal details, including addresses, phone numbers, relatives, and other sensitive information.
Additionally, the article will assess the accuracy of the data provided and the challenges individuals face when trying to remove their information from the site.
Lastly, we will address the ethical considerations surrounding such services and discuss steps individuals can take to safeguard their online privacy amid the growing accessibility of personal data.
Plans and pricing
That’s Them primarily focuses on providing free access to aggregated data, distinguishing it from many other people search engines.
Unlike services that require subscriptions or payments for detailed reports, That’s Them allows users to access basic personal information at no cost. This includes details such as names, addresses, and phone numbers.
While they do offer some premium services aimed at businesses - typically involving bulk data access or API integration - the core individual search functionality remains largely free.
This service is supported by advertising and possibly the sale of aggregated data to third parties.
This free model contributes to its widespread use and concerns regarding the accessibility of personal information.
Therefore, although enterprise-level paid options are available, the primary purpose of That’s Them is to provide free access to publicly available information.
How it works
That's Them operates by gathering publicly available data from various online sources. It acts as a data broker, collecting information from public records, social media platforms, online directories, and other accessible databases.
The data it collects includes names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, details about relatives, and even past and present business affiliations.
The service compiles this varied information into individual profiles, making it searchable for anyone who visits the site.
When a user searches for a person on That's Them, the platform queries its database and displays the aggregated information it has collected.
Instead of creating original content, it organizes and presents existing data in one central location.
This process relies heavily on automated data scraping and indexing, enabling the service to gather and organize information quickly.
While this ease of access and aggregation makes the service powerful, it raises concerns about privacy and data use.
Features
That's Them's core feature: its ability to aggregate and present publicly available information about individuals in a centralized and easily searchable format.
Users can search for people using various criteria, such as names, phone numbers, and addresses, making it a versatile tool for casual users and professionals.
The platform compiles available data and displays information, including current and past addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, known relatives, and associated businesses.
This comprehensive approach allows users to build a more detailed profile of an individual, which can be beneficial for various purposes, such as reconnecting with old friends, conducting background checks, or gathering insights for business leads.
A notable aspect of That's Them is the free access to essential information, which sets it apart from many competitors that often require subscription fees or payment for detailed reports.
This accessibility makes it easier for a broader audience to utilize the service without financial barriers. Users can obtain essential details without incurring costs, fostering a more open environment for information gathering.
In addition to individual searches, That's Them offers bulk data access and API integration, making it suitable for businesses that require large-scale data analysis.
This functionality allows users to integrate the collected data into other systems, enhancing their operational capabilities.
For example, marketing professionals can tap into this data for lead generation, while private investigators can utilize it for more thorough investigations.
The user interface is straightforward and designed for ease of use. However, the platform's strength lies in its comprehensive data collection and organization.
It aggregates information from myriad public records, including court filings, property records, and social media accounts, creating a vast repository of information.
However, it’s important to note that the accuracy of the displayed information can vary as it is sourced from diverse public records.
The lack of robust verification processes means that errors may occur, so users should approach the data critically and consider verifying details through other means when necessary. This caveat is essential for ensuring responsible platform usage, especially in sensitive contexts such as background checks or legal inquiries.
The competition
When analyzing the competitive landscape of That's Them, it's important to note that it operates in the people search engine sector.
This means it competes directly with well-established companies that provide similar information retrieval services. Key competitors include:
WhitePages.com: A long-standing leader in offering contact information, addresses, and background details.
AnyWho.com: A prominent platform that provides people search and reverse phone lookup capabilities.
SearchPeopleFree.com: A site that focuses on free people search services.
Additional competitors include sites like Truecaller, and other people search websites.
These competitors share similar functionalities, such as retrieving contact information, addresses, and background details.
The competition in this sector is intense, with companies striving to deliver accurate and comprehensive data while addressing privacy concerns.
The factors that differentiate these services include the depth and accuracy of their databases, user interface, and the availability of free versus paid features.
Final verdict
Whether to use That's Them or any similar people finder service depends on your specific needs and ethical considerations.
These services can be helpful for locating lost contacts, verifying information, or reconnecting with others.
However, it is essential to recognize the significant privacy risks involved, as the information on these sites is often aggregated from public records, which means your own data could be accessible without your explicit consent.
Before using That's Them or a competitor, carefully weigh the potential benefits against the ethical implications and possible misuse of the information.
If you have legitimate reasons for needing to find someone, and you are comfortable with the associated privacy trade-offs, these services may be useful tools.
Always use the information responsibly and respect the privacy of others. If you are concerned about your own information appearing on these sites, consider looking into the opt-out procedures that are typically available.
If you want to dip your toes into the smart ring space with a no-frills, affordable option then the RingConn Gen 2 Air is the best smart ring for you.
Yes, it lacks the sleep apnea tracking and charging case of its fully fledged sibling – the RingConn Gen 2 proper – but it makes up for that with a $120 price cut, and in other areas it performs just as well as the competition.
It can handily track your steps, your sleep patterns, your heart rate and stress levels, and a few other key health metrics, and it comes in a sleek gold- or silver-colored package. What’s more, the stainless steel band is durable – I’ve been wearing it for a few weeks and it looks just as pristine as the day I received it, plus with its IP68 water and dust-proof rating I know it’ll stand up to being underwater for a while.
There are some issues with this smart ring. The charging stand isn’t as useful as the portable charging case you’ll get with the non-Air RingConn Gen 2, and like some other smart rings this one isn’t a great fitness tracker.
It’s too easy to forget to manually start a workout in the app, and currently it only tracks walking, running and cycling, and for the most in-depth tracking you’ll need to take your phone with you. Plus, if you forget your phone not only have you not tracked your run but your stress stats will be affected, as the ring will interpret your elevated heart rate as a negative indicator of how you’re feeling mentally.
Those niggles aside, the RingConn gen 2 air is an excellent budget smart ring, and the one I’d recommend to people who want to see what all the fuss around smart rings is about, but who aren’t, for now, bothered about the bells and whistles you’ll get with pricier options.
RingConn Gen 2 Air: Price and availability
(Image credit: Future)
The RingConn Gen 2 Air is available for $199 (about £150 or AU$320) from RingConn’s official website, which not only makes it cheaper than RingConn’s Gen 2 ring, which costs $299 (about £230 or AU$475) but also one of the cheapest smart rings out there.
And despite the lower cost you’re not missing out on any essential tracking tools beyond sleep apnea and sophisticated fitness tracking (though those features are absent in a fair few smart rings that cost more anyway).
Value score: 5/5
RingConn Gen 2 Air: Design
Comes in gold or silver, sizes 6 to 14
IP68 water and dust-proof rating
No charging case
The RingConn Gen 2 Air, like pretty much every other smart ring out there, looks almost exactly like a normal ring. It's perhaps a little thicker but not noticeably so, and at around 2.5 to 4g it’s not distinctly heavier than other smart rings either.
Moreover it shares a lot of design similarities with its sibling, the RingConn Gen 2, although there are a few notable differences.
Starting with similarities, it comes in sizes 6 to 14, in a gold or silver colored stainless steel casing, and with an IP68 dust and waterproof rating. As for differences, it lacks the Gen 2 proper’s black and Rose Gold color options (but comes with seven colors of protective shells including green, pink and black), and boasts a shorter 10-day max battery life, compared to the Gen 2’s 12 days.
(Image credit: Future)
This battery-life difference was certainly the most noticeable. I wore both rings all the time (one on each index finger) with the same settings, and I had to charge the Gen 2 Air more often, though once every 10 days isn’t too annoying.
My only gripe with the charging process is that the Air swaps the Gen 2’s sleek charging case for a stand. The case is ideal for traveling, as it can hold up to 150 days of extra charge without needing to be plugged in, and it also offers a secure place to store the ring when you aren’t wearing it. The Air’s stand, on the other hand, must be plugged in to charge the ring, and doesn’t feel as secure as a storage spot.
Design score: 4/5
RingConn Gen 2 Air: Features
24/7 heart rate monitoring, and step counting
Basic fitness tracking
No sleep apnea tracking
Features-wise the RingConn Gen 2 Air, as you’d expect, is almost identical to the regular RingConn Gen 2.
While wearing the ring the Gen 2 Air can track all various health and fitness stats – your heart rate is monitored 24/7, alongside your steps, your stress ( based on how your heart rate fluctuates), and your SpO2 levels, and it also offers menstrual cycle tracking.
You can also use the ring as a basic fitness tracker, if you remember to start your workout manually in the RingConn app, and your exercise takes the form of walking, cycling, or running. And through the RingConn app you can also access an AI-powered health program. Admittedly it’s a little basic right now because it’s in beta, but it’s a helpful tool to keep on top of your daily health targets.
The biggest difference between the Air and the full-on RingConn Gen 2 is the lack of sleep apnea tracking on the cheaper model. This kind of downgrade is to be expected given the lower price, and while the feature is certainly handy to have on a sleep-focused tracker, it’s also the feature I miss the least – though I say that as someone who doesn’t have, nor is currently concerned that they might have, sleep apnea.
Features score: 3/5
RingConn Gen 2 Air: Performance
App tracks your sleep and vitals
Includes an AI fitness plan, though it's basic right now
Can track fitness, if you remeber to manually set it up
The RingConn Gen 2 Air performed well in my tests, with it being as good a tracker as my RingConn Gen 2 proper in the stats that both smart rings measured.
(Image credit: Future)
It’s a solid step counter, it did a good job tracking my heart rate levels, and it was able to give me informative insights into my sleeping patterns every night so I can continue to build better bedtime habits. I also found the overall wellness balance the app provides to be super-handy as it allows me to get a quick recap of my health across the four main categories the app monitors.
The only disappointment in the tracking department is fitness. It’s not a terrible tracker as long as you have your phone on you, as it can provide some basic insight into your runs and walks, like tracking where you went and your heart-rate zones, but it’s too easy to forget to manually log it before you begin.
Not logging even walks can then affect your stress monitoring, as the ring can believe your elevated heart rate is due to something stressful and not because you’re out being active.
So if you’re after a fitness tracker, this isn’t the one. But for more general healthy habits this smart ring is a fine choice.
Performance score: 4/5
Should you buy the RingConn Gen 2 Air?
Buy it if…
You want a budget smart ring It’s not as feature packed as the alternatives, but it’s nevertheless a strong budget option that offers good bang for your buck.
You hate the look of smartwatches and fitness bands Smart rings are ideal for folks who want to track their health stats but who would also rather wear an analogue watch than a smart watch or fitness band.
You want a sleep tracker With a 10-day battery life, smart rings like this are excellent for sleep tracking.
(Image credit: Future)
Don’t buy it if…
You want a fitness tracker RingConn’s smart rings are lacking in the fitness-tracking department. It’s helpful for step counting, but not that much else given that it’s easy to forget to manually log the few workouts it supports.
You want sleep apnea tracking The RingConn Gen 2 Air forgoes sleep apnea tracking in order to hit its lower price point compared to the full-fat model – so if that’s a feature you want you’ll need to pick up its sibling.
You lose things easily It’s very easy to lose smart rings if you aren’t careful, given how small they are, so if you’re the kind of person who tends to mislay items then maybe consider a different gadget.
Also consider
RingConn Gen 2 The full-fat RingConn Gen 2 is pricier but comes with a charging case, sleep apnea tracking, and more base color options. Read our RingConn Gen 2 review
Samsung Galaxy Ring With excellent software and no monthly payments (like RingConn), the Galaxy Ring is our pick for the best smart ring you can buy. It's a lot pricier, but its extra features could be enough to sway you. Read our Samsung Galaxy Ring review
Oura Gen 4 Oura is pretty much synonymous with smart rings, and its latest gen 4 model proves why. While it's more expensive (especially when you factor in the subscription), those interested in buying a smart ring should certainly check it out before they buy something else. Read our Oura Ring 4 review
How I tested the RingConn Gen 2 Air
To put the RingConn Gen 2 Air through its paces I wore it night and day for a few weeks. I also wore it at the same time as the RingConn Gen 2 (I had one on each index finger) so I could directly compare the two models.
I took the Air with me when I travelled, wore it whenever I did a workout, submerged it in water to check the waterproofing claims, and made sure to let the battery run as long as possible between charges so I could could see for myself how long it can last, and how it stacks up against the RingConn Gen 2 proper.
This review first appeared in issue 352 of PC Pro.
SMBs invested in Microsoft Teams and looking to improve their employees’ meeting room experience will find the Epos Expand Vision 5 Bundle a worthy contender. This well-specified room bar solution can swap between Android-powered Microsoft Teams Rooms and bring your own device (BYOD) modes in seconds, while the Expand Control touchscreen tablet provides easy meeting management.
The Vision 5 video bar provides a solid foundation with its combination of a Sony 4K UHD camera and wide 110° horizontal field of view (FoV), dual speakers and quad beamforming MEMS microphones. It employs digital pan, tilt and zoom (PTZ) functions for automated framing and speaker tracking, while noise reduction is handled by its integral Epos AI feature.
An embedded 8-core Qualcomm 800-series Snapdragon CPU plus 4GB of memory look after the certified Microsoft Teams Rooms on Android app. Also certified for Teams Rooms, the Expand Control tablet sports a large 10.1in colour LCD touchscreen and uses its embedded 6-core ARM CPU and 4GB of memory to run the Android OS.
The Expand Control tablet makes meeting management easy(Image credit: Future)
Setup is a smooth process, but you should first decide whether you want to run your Epos kit as a locally managed system or add it to the free Epos Manager on-premises or cloud service. Larger businesses will prefer Epos Manager as it provides company-wide status views of all their registered Epos devices, along with central management, firmware updates and extensive device and room usage analytics.
The Expand Control tablet requires a network connection with a power over Ethernet (PoE) source. From its onscreen wizard, we used the unique code it generated to assign it to our Microsoft 365 account, where it appeared in our Teams admin interface as a touch console.
After networking the Vision 5 over Ethernet or Wi-Fi 5, you follow the same registration process. Once it appears as a new Teams Rooms on Android device, you pair it with the tablet using the 6-digit code it presents on the camera’s screen. Our Teams admin console showed both devices as online and confirmed that the touch console was paired, after which the tablet shifted all Teams meeting controls from the camera’s screen to its own display.
We had no problems creating and joining Teams meetings using the tablet’s touchscreen, and remote participants thought that the camera’s video quality was excellent. The image is sharply focused and we noted that Epos has improved its backlight compensation feature.
Tracking worked well, with the camera taking no more than a couple of seconds to locate the active speaker and smoothly follow them as they moved around the meeting room. The twin speakers were found wanting in the bass department, but voices are clear and we found a volume level of 80% was enough to fill our 24m2 meeting room.
During the pairing process all camera controls are ported over to the tablet. The intelligent framing feature can be enabled or disabled, and in manual mode the camera places a video view over its Teams interface so you can use a combination of 4x digital zoom and mechanical pan/tilt to move it to the required position.
A smart feature is the video bar’s ability to swap effortlessly between Teams and USB host modes. The process is automatic as the Vision 5 swapped to host mode when it sensed a USB connection and returned to Teams automatically when we removed the cable.
The Expand Vision 5 Bundle is a great choice for SMBs seeking an affordable Microsoft Teams Rooms solution with seamless BYOD support. Video and audio quality is good, speaker tracking is smooth and the Control tablet makes meeting room management a breeze.
This review first appeared in issue 352 of PC Pro.
Biamp recently made a splash in the video bar market with its stunningly good Parlé VBC 2500, but its main focus has always been the professional audio-visual (AV) space. It has a solution for every room size, with the MRB-M-X400-T kit on review providing all the audio components for a medium-sized meeting room with up to 11 participants.
The Biamp kit comprises a TesiraFORTÉ X 400 digital signal processor (DSP) unit, a Tesira AMP-450BP speaker amplifier, a Parlé TTM-X beam tracking table microphone with expansion box, two Desono C-IC6 ceiling speakers and plenty of plenum-rated Cat5e cabling to connect it all together. Biamp has its own range of VC cameras and supplied us with the Vidi 250, which has a 120° field of view (FoV) and digital pan, tilt and zoom (PTZ) functions.
The Biamp kit provides everything you need for a medium-sized meeting room(Image credit: Future)
A full room installation will need to be done by professional fitters, but we had a basic configuration created in the lab in an hour. A handy feature is that power only needs to be supplied to the DSP unit as its four gigabit ports deliver 30W PoE+ services over Cat5e cables to all other components. The low–profile speakers will fit in most drop ceiling spaces and their 130° coverage is designed to accommodate low ceilings. The AMP-450BP amplifier unit can be concealed in the ceiling using the speaker’s “backpack” brackets, and it has four RJ-45 ports so you can add two more speakers.
There’s no need to worry about sound configuration, as Biamp’s Launch process does it all for you. Press the Launch button on the DSP unit and the system measures the meeting room’s acoustics by emitting a series of eerie sounds that reminded us of the 1956 Forbidden Planet sci-fi movie.
(Image credit: Future)
The DSP analyses the audio feedback, configures all the components to your environment and presents a Launch report card in its local web interface. The bottom line is that you may need help fitting the kit but you won’t need an audio expert to fine-tune it.
For the full audio/visual meeting experience the simplest solution is to connect the DSP’s USB port to a room PC with a Full HD monitor where the mic and speakers appear as speakerphone devices. Add the Vidi 250 camera to the host as a separate USB device and it will use its integral auto-framing functions.
The camera reacts quickly with delays of no more than three seconds as it tracked speakers moving around our meeting room. Video quality is great, with the camera presenting a sharply focused image and efficient backlight compensation.
The microphone’s beam tracking technology uses four 90° zones to track voices and allow speakers to roam freely but still be heard clearly. In practice, this works extremely well, and the speakers also receive our accolades for their exceptional sound quality, natural-sounding voices and warm bass.
The Vidi 250 camera delivers great video quality(Image credit: Future)
Another scenario is to connect the kit to a UC compute device, and for this Biamp provided Lenovo’s ThinkSmart Core+Control product. Just plug in the DSP and camera to its USB ports, add an external monitor, connect the Control tablet and you’re ready to go.
It runs Windows 10 IoT and we used its setup wizard to select Teams operations (Skype for Business is also supported). After logging into our Microsoft 365 account it appeared as a Teams Rooms on Windows device and we could use the tablet to swiftly schedule and join meetings.
The Biamp MRB-M-X400-T is a great choice for businesses that want to transform their meeting room into a professional conferencing space. All the components are surprisingly easy to deploy, Biamp’s Launch feature provides slick automated room configuration and the Vidi camera delivers great video quality.
This review first appeared in issue 352 of PC Pro.
The AT-AR4050S-5G from Allied Telesis targets SMBs and remote offices seeking a single solution that combines tough network perimeter security with total WAN redundancy. This desktop firewall appliance sports dual 5G SIM slots and offers WAN failover services for businesses that cannot tolerate any internet downtime.
You can add two 5G SIMs, which are automatically configured as primary and backup mobile network connections, and the appliance supports cards from different carriers. You can also use one of the appliance’s wired WAN ports as the primary internet link and back it up with a 5G connection.
The appliance teams up its dual gigabit WAN ports with an eight-port gigabit network switch for LAN systems. It has plenty of power on tap, with its quad-core 1.5GHz CPU claiming a maximum raw firewall throughput of 1.9Gbits/sec, dropping to 750Mbits/sec with the intrusion prevention service (IPS) enabled.
The appliance’s base license enables an SPI firewall with deep packet inspection and includes IPS, web filtering, built-in application controls, bandwidth management and support for IPsec and SSL VPNs. Free central management of five Allied Telesis TQ series of wireless access points is included, with a feature license extending this to 25.
Two optional security licenses are available, but you can only choose one as they can’t be run together. An advanced firewall option activates more extensive application and web controls, while the advanced threat protection version adds tougher IPS and IP reputation services, with each costing £521 per year.
The appliance has two gigabit WAN ports and an eight-port gigabit network switch(Image credit: Future)
Our system came with a Vodafone 5G SIM and we used this as the backup connection with the first gigabit WAN port providing the primary connection. Deployment is simple: the appliance’s browser interface provides a quick-start wizard that runs through choosing the primary WAN connection and assigning a DHCP server to the default LAN subnet.
In dual 5G SIM deployments, you set a failover interval in seconds for the primary SIM and, if it fails, the appliance automatically swaps over to the backup SIM. To test wired WAN redundancy, we removed the network cable but found the backup SIM would only step in after the appliance was rebooted, although we did note that after reconnecting the network cable it reverted back to this without any intervention.
The web console’s widget-based dashboard shows a graphic of the appliance along with tables and graphs for traffic activity, appliance hardware utilization, security service activity and the top applications. A minor complaint is that the graphic only shows active LAN ports and doesn’t highlight which Ethernet WAN ports and SIM slots are active.
The web console provides a traffic activity overview(Image credit: Future)
The appliance uses entities to define a logical map of the network, which can be zones, networks and clients. Top-level zones describe boundaries such as the WAN, LAN and DMZ, with each containing networks of IP subnets and addresses while clients are individual systems.
These come into play when you create firewall rules as they comprise a source and destination entity and an action that blocks or permits traffic between them. You can also add rules to manage bandwidth usage for specific applications and assign them to entities.
The advanced threat protection license enables IP reputation lists and stronger IPS courtesy of ProofPoint’s ET-Pro ruleset. The web console has options for anti-malware and antivirus, but we were advised that these Kaspersky-managed services are no longer available.
The built-in application library contains around 200 signatures, and the advanced firewall license activates the Procera app visibility library, which increases the signature count to nearly 2,000. Likewise with URL filtering, as the integral OpenText list can be upgraded to the Digital Arts service which offers around 100 web categories.
The AT-AR4050S-5G neatly integrates advanced network perimeter security with redundant 5G mobile connections. Failover for wired WAN connections isn’t perfect and some security features are no longer available, but this appliance will appeal to businesses and remote offices in rural areas with limited broadband services, and it’s offered at a very competitive price.
The JLab JBuds Open Sport are affordable wireless earbuds that, as the name implies, offer an open-ears design. What this means in practice is that unlike in-ear buds, they don’t have tips that block your ear canal, instead leaving your ears free to hear the world around you. That makes them a great option if you prefer to be able to hear oncoming cars on your daily run, or if you hate having to stop your music simply to hear what someone’s saying.
For such affordable buds, the JLab JBuds Open Sport offer genuinely decent features. Not only does their app offer a couple of sound profiles to amp up treble and bass, but it also includes a 10-band EQ, something that even more premium products don’t offer. While not necessarily essential, hearing protection features and ambient sound generators for relaxation are definitely nice to have.
According to JLab, these buds should last you a full nine hours off a single charge, with the case bringing this up to a combined 26 hours. Wanting to put this to the test, I drained the buds from 100% to 0% by streaming music continuously until they died – I found JLab’s prediction was pretty much bang on. So the Open Sport should easily see you through a full-day's use before needing to be put back in the case.
The JLab JBuds Open Sport aren’t a huge departure from the template adopted by many of the best open-ear headphones – they’re made of smooth matt plastic with a flexible hook that holds them in place in front of your ear canal. But they certainly do the trick: they’re secure, even if they wobble a little during vigorous exercise, and their open-ear design meant I could hear oncoming traffic even when running along busy roads. In addition, their IP55 water-resistance means you don’t need to worry about a bit of sweat or the occasional shower.
Unfortunately, their sound does display some compromises. The Open Sport’s soundstage was genuinely impressive; listening to Grown by Kiasmos, the track’s shimmery trebly synths swayed noticeably from left to right, while the strings had a decent width. But I found their balance across the frequency range a bit uneven: treble occasionally gets a little brittle, while mids didn’t really have enough room to breathe, forcing some elements to compete for your attention. It isn't bad per se, but you are sacrificing some fidelity on the altar of situational awareness, so it’s worth being aware of this.
Ultimately, opting for cheap open-ear buds such as the JLab JBuds Open Sport will involve some tradeoffs. To get a pair of earbuds that not only leave your ears open but that also come in at a budget price, you’ll likely have to drop your expectations when it comes to sound. If you do, you’ll find these buds do a perfectly adequate job. But if you’d rather not scrimp on audio quality, paying more for a pair of open-ear buds such as the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds or opting for a closed-ear pair from the best wireless earbuds might suit you better instead.
(Image credit: Future)
JLab JBuds Open Sport review: specs
(Image credit: Future)
JLab JBuds Open Sport review: features
Decent EQ settings and listening modes
Good, if average, battery life
Not a huge fan of the controls
Getting started with the JLab JBuds Open Sport is straightforward, even if the process is a little idiosyncratic. Triggering pairing mode is as simple as removing the buds from their case: their lights will immediately begin flashing, allowing you to connect them with your prime device. However, utilizing their multi-device connectivity is more unorthodox – to retrigger pairing mode, you’ll need to switch off Bluetooth on your prime device and then once the JBuds are paired with your second device, you can you reactivate the first. It’s an odd dance to have to sashay your way through, but it works and connectivity seems stable.
Once you’re set up, most of the features you’ll access will be through the JLab app, which offers a decent selection of settings, even if it isn't quite as comprehensive as you’d expect from a more premium pair of earbuds.
First off, the app offers access to the JBuds’ EQ settings. This comprises two preset profiles: Balance, which lightly boosts the bass and treble; and the more aggressively sculpted JLab signature, which ducks frequencies around 500Hz – 2,000Hz to significantly boost bass. You also get a single custom profile – while that doesn’t sound like much, it’s a full 10-band EQ, something even some pricier buds don’t offer. There’s also a couple of dedicated listening modes bundled in – Music mode and Movie mode – that further tweak the sound to suit your source.
There’s some more unusual features bundled in the app as well. Safe Hearing mode allows you to set limits on playback volume according to the World Health Organization’s recommendation of 85dB (for a max listening time of eight hours) or 95dB (max listening time of one hour). As someone who has already ruined his hearing attending many clubs and gigs, I appreciate the thought here. The app also offers an Ambient Sounds mode, where you can choose to play anything from bird song to fan noise. Admittedly, this isn't anything you can’t find on most streaming services these days, but I welcome not having to do all the legwork in finding decent quality soundscapes.
Each of the Open Sport buds has only a single-touch capacitive button on it, meaning that control is through tapping out those morse code rhythms to play / pause music, increase and decrease volume, skip tracks or adjust EQ. I’ve been upfront about this before: I'm not the biggest fan of these kinds of control systems, as I think it’s too easy to mis-tap and I hate skipping tracks when I just wanted to crank up the volume. However, the Open Sport soothe my ire somewhat by allowing you to customise which functions are programmed to a single-, double- and triple-tap or a long press, making it marginally easier to set them up in a way that suits me.
JLab estimates the JBuds Open Sport’s battery life to be nine hours in the buds and over 26 hours in total with the case. My battery tests seemed to bear this out – playing music continuously until the battery dropped from 100% to 0% took nine hours and four minutes, which is pretty spot on. It's notable that the right earbud actually died sooner, at around eight and a half hours, leaving lefty to struggle on alone; but I imagine this is more down to quirks related to the battery’s first few cycles rather than a persistent issue.
Features score: 4 / 5
(Image credit: Future)
JLab JBuds Open Sport review: sound quality
Provide great situational awareness
Wide-open soundstage
Relatively humdrum sound
Let’s start with the obvious. The JLab JBuds Open Sport don’t offer any sound isolation by design – their key feature is their ability to leave your ears clear of obstructions and let outside sounds in. So if you’re going to be using them in an office environment, you better be relaxed about hearing every tap of your co-workers' keyboards or their Severance fan theories. On the flip side, when I used the Open Sport while out on a run, the buds allowed me to hear the noise of oncoming cars and the hollered instructions of maintenance workers on the roadside. However, this awareness does come at a cost: the Open Sport can’t really compete with the volume of traffic, so running alongside roads I often found that tunes were drowned out by the thunder of vehicles.
A less predictable benefit of the JBuds open design is their soundstage. Playing Diamonds On the Soles of Her Shoes by Paul Simon, I was immediately struck by how open the buds’ stereo field is – in particular, Ladysmith Black Mambazo’s choral style vocals bounce from left to right with impressive accuracy.
However, where things start to come undone is the expression of individual instruments. During St. Thomas by Sonny Rollins, I found that the bass, piano and sax were constantly competing with each other for prominence. While they sounded clear enough during solos, when all three were playing at once, they all somehow amounted to less than the sum of their parts.
It’s only really by probing the sonic balance further that I came to understand what was going on. Listening to Nothing Left To Lose by Everything But the Girl, there’s definite crispness to that saw-edged bass, but unfortunately, the sub that gives it that cocoa-on-a-cold-day resonance was lacking. Conversely, treble is occasionally bright, and I mean that to a fault: Young Blood by The Naked and Famous actively hurt my ears, with the bouncy, distorted melody off its synth quickly grating and making for an unpleasant listening experience.
You’d think that anything that doesn’t sit toward one of these two extremes would fare better; but, if anything, the opposite is true. While I Want You by Moloko at least displayed enough bass and treble to give it some presence, the mids felt severely neglected. Elements such as the strings, rapid guitar strokes and vocals felt cluttered in a way that I'm not used to: like an hourglass, the Open Sport’s sound is pinched tightly in the middle, meaning every instrument is forced to compete for attention, harming overall cohesion.
Fortunately, the Open Sport’s EQ modes can mitigate some of the worst of this, but we're talking more about damage control rather than adding real polish. Listening to Otomo by Bonobo on the buds’ flat profile left me pretty disappointed – it came across as rather tinny, while the spectral profile of the tribal chorus was so strident it almost scintillates in an unpleasant manner. Enabling JLab Signature performed a quick nip-tuck to suture up some of the flabbiest areas of this sound, ducking the problem frequencies around 1kHz to 2kHz and boosting the bass to compensate. This is definitely a blunt tool, but it does the trick of compensating for some of the inevitable aural shortcomings of open-ear buds.
Given you’re likely to use these buds when out and about, you may well be wondering how their microphones fare in noisy settings. Well, when recording a voice note while streaming the sound of a Delhi traffic jam in the background, I was impressed with how well the mics filtered out the background noise – although they did lose some of the treble of my voice, making the final result a bit muddier than I’d expect. Conversely, when making some trial phone calls not far from a busy road, my long-suffering girlfriend reported my voice came across perfectly clear.
Sound quality: 3.5 / 5
(Image credit: Future)
JLab JBuds Open Sport review: design
Comfortable to wear
Decent dust- and water-resistance
Secure, but not always stable, fit
When it comes to looks, the JLab JBuds Open Sport are fairly conservative. Compared to the more outré designs adopted by some open-ear buds, these aren’t that distinguishable from many of the best workout headphones – you’re not getting the square-bracket shape of the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds, or earring-aping form factor of the Huawei FreeClip. Instead, they offer a traditional hooked design with a rectangular driver unit that’s positioned just in front of your ear canal. It’s practical yet entirely unexciting, like a pair of sweatpants for your ears.
If I’m being honest, I’m pretty hook agnostic when it comes to workout earbuds – I’ve never found that I struggle to keep in-ear buds wedged in place. But with buds that don’t enter your ear, some kind of hook or band is essential. And even though the Open Sport aren’t really my thing, I found the hooked design here to be pretty comfortable, allowing me to wear them for multiple hours without discomfort.
Ironically, though, given hooks are supposed to keep your earbuds secure, I did find they sometimes felt less stable than I was used to. Using them on runs, they wobbled more than I was prepared for – I couldn’t stop myself from periodically repositioning them just to make sure they were still on right. However, I don’t think they’d actually come loose and without being anchored in your ear, I guess it’s natural that open ear buds are going to shift around a little as you move.
On the plus side, they should be hardy enough to survive most workouts. Not only does their construction seem solid – the matt black plastic they’re constructed of is hard enough to resist marks and scratches yet the earhooks are flexible enough to make them easy to slip on – but their IP55 rating should see off dust, sweat and even a bit of rain. Of course, we don’t just take brands at their word at TechRadar, so I put these claims to the test, liberally flicking them with water from our testing tank until they’d had a thorough sprinkling. They shrugged off this spritzing like champs and, once dry, there was no impact on their performance or sound. So, while they won’t survive you dropping them in a puddle, neither perspiration nor precipitation should cause them too many problems.
Design score: 3.5 / 5
JLab JBuds Open Sport review: value
Affordable price
Better sound will definitely cost you more
While I’ve made no bones about the fact the JLab JBuds Open Sport have some shortcomings, there's one factor that should probably recontextualize everything you’ve read above: their price. Premium open-ear buds massively outstrip their MRSP – for example, the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds go for a hefty $299 / £249.95 – and even mid-market brands such as Shokz can range from the $119.95 / £94 OpenFit Air to the $179.95 / £129 OpenFit 2. So at $49.99 / £79.99, these are firmly priced at the budget end of the market.
Viewed through this lens, some of the Open Sport’s weaknesses become more palatable. Making open-ear buds sound unimpeachable is a much bigger technical challenge compared to buds with either passive sound isolation or active noise cancelling – and, inevitably, you'll need to spend premium prices to get premium results. As such, if your biggest priorities are situational awareness and an affordable price, these buds are a wise investment. But if you value sound quality above all else, you may need to spend a fair bit more or go for a closed-ear design.
Value score: 4.5 / 5
(Image credit: Future)
Should I buy the JLab JBuds Open Sport?
Buy them if…
You need to hear your surroundings If you cycle along busy roads, need to stay aware at work or just like to be able to eavesdrop on strangers’ conversations, these buds won’t stifle your hearing, making it easier to be conscious of what’s going on around you.
You don’t want to spend too much At $49.99 / £79.99, these are seriously affordable as open-ear buds go. There are even more bargain-priced buds out there, but they’re unlikely to have quite as decent features.
Don’t buy them if…
Sound quality is your top priority The Open Sport buds sound okay, given their open-ear design. But you can get much better performance if you spend more or switch to some closed-ear buds of a similar price.
You want rock-solid fit These earbuds definitely won’t fall off, but they’re not completely immune to wobbling during a vigorous workout either. If you hate feeling your buds trembling while you bounce about, an alternative with a neck band might suit you better.
JLab JBuds Open Sport review: also consider
Shokz OpenFit Air The Shokz OpenFit Air cost a little more than the Open Sport but, in return, offer more reliable sound, with bass in particular getting a significant boost. They’re also nice and light, and are comfortable to wear once you’ve positioned them correctly. Unfortunately, their battery doesn’t last quite as long as the JLab: they’ll only give you seven hours playback before needing to be popped back in the case. Read our full Shokz OpenFit Air review.
Bose Ultra Open Earbuds If you can stretch to spending a fair bit more, the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds are the ones to choose. They sound fantastic – even when compared to closed-ear rivals – and even more impressively offer truly immersive spatial audio. They’re also comfortable to wear and intuitive to use. Really their only drawback is their high price, but you absolutely get what you pay for here. Read our full Bose Ultra Open Earbuds review.
How I tested the JLab JBuds Open Sport
Tested them for two weeks
Trialed them in a range of quiet and noisy settings
Assessed their water resistance by spraying them with water
I tested the JLab JBuds Open Sport over a period of two weeks. I used them to listen to a wide array of music, not only listening to the TechRadar testing playlist multiple times, but also trialing them on some of my own go-to testing tracks. I also tested out their microphones by recording voice notes accompanied by background noise and making multiple calls outside in an urban environment.
I also tried them out in a range of settings, listening to them everywhere from a busy office environment to traveling alongside congested main roads. I made sure to test out their fit and comfort by using them during several runs, while I tested their water-resistance by lightly spraying them with water and monitoring whether this had any impact on their performance.
Having spent more than a decade writing about tech, I have a lot of experience when it comes to weighing up the efficacy of different gadgets. Additionally, as an audiophile and music producer, I have a lot of experience assessing the performance of speakers and headphones, while my regular workout regimen means I’ve used a lot of different earbuds for exercising over the years.
This review first appeared in issue 353 of PC Pro.
Zyxel has been steadily building up an extensive range of 5G NR mobile routers, and the FWA510 is one of its most versatile yet. This desktop unit takes everything we liked in Zyxel’s NR5101 and claims a doubling in Wi-Fi 6 performance, adds essential 2.5GbE multi-gigabit network ports and teams up its four embedded omnidirectional antennas with an option to add four TS9 external aerials for improved reception.
The FWA510 is slightly larger than the NR5101, and the status LEDs have been moved from the front of the unit to the sloping upper surface. These will prove useful as they alert you if an SMS message has been received, use a multicolored LED to show cellular signal strength and provide visual cues for internet connectivity and wireless status.
The rear interface panel has also been redesigned and now has a faster USB-A port for sharing storage devices. The second multi-gig port can function as a LAN or WAN interface and, if you choose the latter, it takes precedence over the cellular connection, which drops back to standby mode for automatic failover services.
There are four embedded antennas, with an option to add four external aerials(Image credit: Future)
The FWA510 is easy to install, with its local web interface provides a wizard to get you up and running. Our unit was supplied with a Vodafone 5G SIM snuggling in the 3FF slot in the base, which provided instant cellular internet access.
The web interface presents a dashboard showing the status of local and internet connections, cellular status and details of wireless networks. A default SSID is provided for both radios and, although it uses the weaker WPA2 encryption, you can easily swap to the more secure WPA3.
Four SSIDs are supported, with three guest wireless networks already configured. These can be modified to suit, with the Guest WiFi tickbox enabling L2 isolation so users on these SSIDs only get internet access.
General network security is good. An integral firewall offers three protection levels that you choose using a slider bar, and you can add custom firewall rules that comprise protocols and port numbers, plus access control list (ACL) entries to control connections for source and destination IP addresses and services.
The FWA510 can be cloud-monitored from Zyxel’s Nebula Control Center(Image credit: Future)
So far, so good, but we came across an issue with the router’s wireless services. Zyxel claims it delivers up to 2,400Mbits/sec on the 5GHz radio (hence the AX3600 rating), but to achieve this it must support the high-speed 160MHz channels.
At present, the web console’s wireless settings for the 5GHz radio offer a 20/40/80MHz option, so our test clients could only connect at 1.2Gbits/sec. Consequently, copies of a 25GB test file between a Windows 11 Pro workstation equipped with a TP-Link Archer TXE75E Wi-Fi 6/6E adapter and a server on our 10GbE LAN maxed out at 108MB/sec at close range, dropping to 86MB/sec with the router ten meters away in the next room – only marginally faster than the AX1800-rated NR5101.
The FWA510 can be cloud-managed from Zyxel’s Nebula Control Center (NCC), and we added it to our account by scanning its QR code from an iPad running the Nebula iOS app. A status widget can be added to the NCC site dashboard, and selecting it provides more hardware details along with views of WAN and cellular status, 24-hour traffic graphs and information about wired and wireless clients.
Unlike Zyxel’s fully compliant Nebula wireless APs, the FWA510 doesn’t broadcast the cloud SSIDs as these must be configured from its own web interface. Upgrade to an NCC Pro Pack license and the remote configurator tool can load this directly from the NCC portal and will also increase traffic monitoring to 30 days.
Zyxel’s FWA510 and its 5G NR support will appeal to home workers in rural areas and remote offices that demand always-on internet access. It’s easy to use and can be cloud-monitored but, unless a firmware upgrade materializes, its Wi-Fi 6 services are no faster than the NR5101 it’s replacing.
This review first appeared in issue 353 of PC Pro.
Best known for its excellent security appliances and endpoint protection services, Sophos makes its first foray into Wi-Fi 6E territory with the AP6 420E access point. It teams up the 2.4GHz, 5GHz and Wi-Fi 6E 6GHz bands, supports 5GHz and 6GHz high-speed 160MHz channels and can be standalone or cloud managed.
The AP6 420E presents six spatial streams – two each for 2.4GHz, 5GHz and 6GHz, with claimed top speeds for each radio of 600Mbits/sec, 2,400Mbits/sec and 2,400Mbits/sec respectively. For a tri-band AP it’s pleasingly compact and yet manages to squeeze in two omnidirectional aerials for each radio and a 2.5GbE multi-gig network port that requires a PoE+ power source.
Small businesses that only want one AP will find it easy to deploy as it defaults to standalone operations. Security is tight: its browser interface insists you change the admin password and gets you started with a preconfigured SSID that presents all three radios and applies a unique key using the AP’s serial number.
There’s a lot to play with here: you can create up to eight SSIDs for each radio and select WPA2 or the mandatory WPA3 encryption for Wi-Fi 6E networks. All radios support opportunistic wireless encryption (OWE), which allows you to present a safe open public network that encrypts all endpoint traffic but doesn’t require authentication.
The AP6 420E squeezes six aerials into its compact case(Image credit: Future)
Other features include client isolation, walled gardens and captive portals with custom landing pages, URL redirects and authentication using AP-generated daily, weekly or monthly passwords, vouchers, and Facebook and Google logins. Traffic shaping is extensive as different upload and download limits can be applied to each radio, selected SSIDs or their associated clients. The AP also supports SNMP v1/2/3 monitoring and can run packet capture sessions and save their output as Pcap files.
Sophos delivered good results in our real-world performance tests where we used a Dell Windows 11 Pro workstation with a TP-Link Archer TXE75E Wi-Fi 6/6E PCI-E adapter. With the 160MHz channels enabled on the 6GHz radio, large file copies between the workstation and a Windows server on our 10GbE LAN averaged 210MB/sec at close range, dropping to 183MB/sec with the AP moved ten meters away and into an adjoining room.
The cloud management option will appeal to businesses invested in Sophos as all APs and wireless networks are managed from the same Sophos Central web portal. Onboarding isn’t as smart as other wireless vendors that provide mobile apps and QR code scanning, as you enter the AP’s serial number or bulk-provision up to 30 at a time using a CSV file.
Standalone mode and cloud management are both supported(Image credit: Future)
The Sophos Central portal has been refreshed, with all the main menu options moved to the top for easier access. Selecting the wireless page presents a dashboard with status charts for all APs, alerts and the number of connected devices. The usage insights chart shows traffic categories for all clients, but this isn’t currently supported for any AP6 model – and neither are rogue AP detection and roaming assist for sticky clients.
All other features present in standalone mode are available from the portal, however, so you can create the same number of SSIDs on all radios each with their own security settings. For easier fleet management, the portal also allows you to create different sites with associated maps and floor plans, with each assigned a set of APs.
The AP6 420E is comparatively expensive and a number of features for AP6 devices are yet to be implemented in the Sophos Central portal. That said, it delivers good overall performance and is a natural choice for businesses that already rely on Sophos for their network security.
The XPPen Magic Note Pad aims to deliver the best of both worlds – a digital writing pad that’s easy on the eyes while also functioning as a true productivity tablet running Android 14. It claims to be the first of its kind, being a digital note pad with an X-Paper display featuring three modes: Ink Paper, Color Paper and Regular.
While other brands have provided similar functionality (like TCL's Nxtpaper series), I think XPPen's first foray into writing tablets is a home run. From the moment I unboxed and powered it on, I was hooked to its paper-like color tablet. While it might be a notepad first, my initial download was the Kindle app and my favorite comics were its first test.
I’ve had plenty of experience reading on tablets before, from cheap Android ones to an iPad Pro, and while the experience is fine, it can get tiring on the eyes after a while. With this tablet – which happens to use TCL's Nxtpaper screen technology – you can use the Regular display mode, which I found less harsh than other LCD displays, you can easily switch to color ink at a moment's notice. Of course, the colors aren't as vibrant when switching because of the filters on the screen, they're a lot better than when using a color ereader like the Kobo Libra Colour or the Kindle Colorsoft.
Reading comics in the Magic Note Pads 'regular' display mode (Image credit: Future)
This tablet sports a 10.95-inch display, offering what I think is the sweet spot in terms of portability for a digital slate, but adding in the extra dimensions of the chassis itself makes it a cumbersome device to hold in one hand.
Still, using both mitts, or resting it on your lap while cradling it with one hand is a small price to pay for the brilliant and versatile reading experience, although XPPen is keen to tell you that this is a secondary use case. It wants to be a writing tablet first.
And that's where it's caught me hook, line and sinker because now I don't ever forget to carry a notepad when I need to jot something down and I don't lose the pen I need to do said writing.
Making notes on the Magic Note pad (Image credit: Future)
The X3 Pro Pencil 2, which ships in the box, sticks to the tablet via a strong magnet, stronger than any writing e-paper tablet I've seen.
While the industry-leading 16,384 pressure levels might seem an unnecessary gimmick in what is predominantly a writing tablet – 8,000 is agreed to be enough even for artists – there's no doubting its superb writing experience with soft nibs. There's even a helpful shortcut button on the stylus that can open the native notes app when the tablet is sleeping, or it can take a screenshot when you're reading something, then promptly take you to the notes app for marking up the image it just took.
Writing and drawing feel effortless, even with light pressure. It may not perfectly replicate the feel of pen on paper, but it comes very close and offers a different, equally satisfying experience.
I'm not much of an artist, but given how easy it is to write from even considerably tilted angles, and how precise the Pencil is, this tablet is certainly one that artists not only could consider, but should.
It's not just a writing, drawing and reading machine either. The 3-in-1 versatility of this tablet means it's a viable option for watching your favorite content on the best streaming services, too. It's not the greatest viewing experience, given the lamination on the screen and the 1920 x 1200 resolution of this device, but I still found it easy to watch, even in bright ambient conditions. It's not the main reason to buy this tablet, but in terms of added versatility, it's hard to beat.
Watching Avengers: Infinity War (Image credit: Future)
Further, the XPPen Magic Note Pad aims to boost efficiency in both work and creative expression. That's why this tablet includes a 13MP front camera and dual microphones that ensure you can easily pop into any meeting or online class. Plus, with multi-window display support, you can write notes and video chat at the same time.
Just 7mm thick and weighing 495g, the XPPen Magic Note Pad is incredibly easy to fit into any bag, even with the included magnet folio that increases its size considerably. And, in comparison to other writing tablets, it's well priced.
XPPen Magic Note Pad review: Price and availability
Launched globally on March 19, 2025
List price of $439.99 / £399.99 / AU$629.99
Available directly from XPPen and will be sold via authorized retailers
The XPPen Magic Note Pad launched in the United Kingdom, United States, and Australia on March 19, 2025 with a launch price of $439.99 / £399.99 / AU$629.99. At the time of writing, it seems like UK customers are getting short-changed as that £400 price tag is about $520 / AU$815 at the current conversion rate.
Still, I think it's competitively priced for what it offers and potential US buyers will benefit from an additional 10% early-bird discount, bringing the price down to just $395.99 at launch.
To put that price into perspective, e-paper writing tablets like the Amazon Kindle Scribe (2024) and Onyx Boox Go 10.3 will also set you back $399.99 / £379.99 / AU$649 and $379.99 / €419.99 (about £355) / AU$699 respectively, but you won't get the versatile screen on offer on the XPPen. Investing in a budget Android tablet might save you money, but you'll lose out on the writing and sketching features available natively here.
Value score: 4/5
XPPen Magic Note Pad review: Specs
XPPen Magic Note Pad review: Display
10.95-inch X-Paper display
1920 x 1200 resolution and 90Hz refresh rate
Low blue light
Opening up a book in Regular mode (Image credit: Future)
It's rare to find a product that feels unique in a very crowded tech market, but the Magic Note Pad's color display does. Admittedly it's not the first of its kind – we saw the tech in our TCL Nxtpaper 10s review – but it is the first such device to offer three screen modes: Ink paper, color paper and standard tablet modes.
The tablet comes with TÜV SÜD certifications for low blue light and paper-like display standards, and features a respectable 1920 x 1200 resolution with a not too shabby 90Hz refresh rate.
While the Magic Note Pad aims to be a versatile device, its core strength lies in writing and XPPen has done a fantastic job optimizing the screen for that main purpose. I thoroughly enjoyed writing on this tablet, jotting down a to-do list, taking notes during a documentary, or brainstorming article ideas. The included X3 Pro Pencil 2 delivers an incredibly responsive and fluid feel, with even mimics the noise of a pen on paper.
The 90Hz refresh rate ensures minimal latency, making handwriting appear almost instantaneously on the screen. With 16,384 pressure levels – well beyond the 8,000 levels considered sufficient for most digital artists – the stylus allows for a wide range of strokes, from light scribbles to heavy, bold lines.
Writing comparison with heavy and light pressure (Image credit: Future)
Writing remains smooth across all display modes, though the viewing exprience changes significantly. The XPPen Magic Note Pad includes a Reading Mode designed to reduce eye strain, but I found this feature to have minimal impact as the tablet's lamination (aka filters) already improves readability.
The paper modes are best for reading, though not quite on par with the best ereaders. For example, my Onyx Boox Page truly mimics paper, whereas the XPPen Magic Note Pad still feels like a tablet that's imitating an ereader as it's a modified LCD display and not an E Ink screen, but the black-and-white Ink Paper mode comes close to the ereader effect.
The color-paper and standard modes shine when reading comics or other image-heavy content. The color-paper mode is less saturated, making it easier on the eyes over long periods and the standard mode delivers vibrant, detailed colors you'd expect from a traditional tablet.
The display also handles video playback well. The eye-protecting screen lamination slightly affects viewing angles, but this has little impact on everyday use. Watching content ranging from Avengers: Endgame to Daredevil: Born Again, Moana 2 and Dune, I found the visuals impressive. The display doesn’t deliver deep blacks, but that’s expected given its nature.
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Comparing the XPPen Color Paper mode in Kindle to the Onyx Boox Page (Image credit: Future)
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Watching Invincible in Color Paper mode (Image credit: Future)
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It won't be used often by most people, but the paper-like modes do support video playback. While unconventional, I found the color-paper mode provided an unique and unexpectedly enjoyable experience while watching Invincible – though it took some time to adjust.
With excellent writing responsiveness, resistance to accidental touches, and enjoyable reading and viewing experiences, the only drawbacks in the display are expected of a device with this kind of screen technology. The XPPen Magic Note Pad stands out as a compelling choice for writers, artists, and casual readers alike, offering an outstanding writing display with solid versatility.
Display score: 5/5
XPPen Magic Note Pad review: Design
Ships with the X3 Pro Pencil 2
No rear camera bump (flat back)
Easily portable
Magic Note Pad saying hello, with the stylus laying on the desk (Image credit: Future)
At first glance, the XPPen Magic Note Pad doesn’t stand out. Sure, it’s a nice-looking device, but there’s nothing particularly striking about it.
That said, XPPen highlights its 7mm thickness – or thinness – but several tablets on the market are slimmer, including the 13-inch iPad Pro at just over 5mm. Perhaps what makes it feel so thin is the absence of a rear camera bump (or any rear camera whatsoever), creating an exceptionally flat surface made for writing on.
And, while the front and sides feature sleek, metallic silver bezels, the back panel is a letdown. The matte white material feels cheap compared to the rest of the design.
The device has a USB-C charging port at the bottom alongside stereo speakers, while all the buttons are positioned on the top-right. The volume buttons sit on the right side, with the power button and Nxt Paper Mode button – used for display mode options – on top.
Holding X3 Pro Pencil 2 (Image credit: Future)
The real star here is the X3 Pro Pencil 2, and it's a pleasure to use. Powered by the X3 Pro smart chip, it requires no charging or Bluetooth pairing – ready to go straight out of the box. Its magnetic attachment is impressively strong too; there were a few accidental knocks that I thought would send it flying, yet it remained securely in place.
I’ll dive deeper into the pen’s performance in the software section, but as a physical tool, it’s fantastic. Lightweight, comfortable to hold and equipped with gel pen-inspired soft nibs, it provides an excellent writing experience. And it has some physical controls of its own
In the XPPen Notes app, the pencil’s down key – used for shortcuts outside the app – functions as an eraser. Positioned right where my thumb naturally rests, I frequently pressed it by accident. Fortunately, the eraser only removes what the pen has touched on-screen, so I never lost significant work. Still, when focused on taking notes, it became a considerable frustration, although it was easy to avoid once I was aware of it.
All said and done, while the Magic Note Pad might not have tickled my fancy from a design perspective, it does look nicer than some premium e-paper writing tablets (I'm looking at you, Kobo Elipsa 2E) and I can wax lyrical about the stylus because it's one of the best I've used on a digital display.
Design Score: 4/5
XPPen Magic Note Pad review: Software
Runs Android 14
Minimal bloatware
Time-saving shortcuts
Homepage, app icons and the X3 Pro Pencil 2 in its magnetic holster (Image credit: Future)
Running Android 14, the XPPen Magic Note Pad will feel familiar to anyone who has used Android devices in the past. The most striking thing upon booting it up though, was the minimal amount of natively available applications, something I absolutely appreciate after coming off doing the Poco F6 Pro review.
The only apps I would consider bloatware are Facebook, Booking.com and Adobe Acrobat. Otherwise, all that's downloaded is the Google suite of apps, YouTube (Music and Kids), WPS Office, Google Play Store and necessary apps like Settings and Camera.
Opening up the settings, you can change the wallpaper as well as the colors of icons, text and backgrounds. You can also edit the lock-screen shortcuts.
The true customization is less about aesthetics, and more about how you like to use the tablet. On top of the three display modes – Regular, Color Paper and Ink Paper – you can also upgrade the Regular mode with image, video and game enhancement, as well as reading, eye comfort and sunlight display modes.
One of the things I really liked was the ability to hold the down key on the stylus and quickly tap the sleeping screen to immediately open the XPPen Notes app. It's a small gesture, but it was considerably faster than the alternative.
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Display customization (Image credit: Future)
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Settings menu (Image credit: Future)
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X3 Pro Pencil 2 settings and customization (Image credit: Future)
Holding the down key and tapping the screen can also create a screenshot of whatever you are reading, then immediately open it up in the notes app for you to doodle on or mark up. You can change this button's function to go back, go to the home screen, recents or the shortcut panel. I also found the ability to screenshot by swiping down on the screen with three fingers helpful versus pressing the power and volume buttons simultaneously.
Also worth noting is the shortcut panel which can be hidden or left floating on-screen. Within, you can quickly open notes, screen record, write an e-signature, make a handwritten GIF and more.
The XPPen Notes app deserves its own special mention, too. The custom-designed application has more than enough tools for any writing scenario, from a 15 second purge of your thoughts to a dedicated list of lecture notes with dozens of formats across seven categories. You can even add your own images from the Gallery or via PDF.
With three pen types – fountain, ballpoint and pencil – an eraser and highlighter, you can do a heck of a lot within the native notes app but, since it runs Android 14, you can download your preferred application (like OneNote) if you wish. Personally, I found no need for any other.
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Shortcut panel (Image credit: Future)
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Additional tools within the XPPen Notes app (Image credit: Future)
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Document options in XPPen Notes (Image credit: Future)
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Drawing and colouring (badly) (Image credit: Future)
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Homepage in Ink Paper mode (Image credit: Future)
There's a built-in AI assistant that can answer questions and read your document, as well as immediately convert your messy handwriting into text for a more orderly list of notes. I found the handwriting-to-text conversion inconsistent, but it usually got the gist of what I was writing – and my handwriting is messier than most.
Clean, easy to traverse and offering personalization that ranges from the quirky to seriously productive, the XPPen Magic Note Pad is a joy to use. I'd recommend reading the user manual though, as I found it quite complicated to figure out all the possibilities provided by the tablet and its stylus.
Software score: 4.5 /5
XPPen Magic Note Pad: Cameras and audio
13MP front camera, but no rear lens
Dual speakers and mics
XPPen Magic Note Pad's front camera (Image credit: Future)
Admittedly the Magic Note Pad wasn't decided to take photos, but it does have a 13MP front-facing camera for video calls (and the odd selfie maybe). With a target audience of professionals and students who a versatile digital notepad, that's more than enough to meet the usual needs.
Sure, a rear camera would be nice, it would also be near impossible to write on – so the 13MP front camera is just fine for getting through online uni classes and your weekly 9am team meeting. The camera quality is clear, and the dual speakers and precision microphones made certain I could both clearly hear and be heard on the rare occasion when I wasn't using headphones.
And, while I would prefer to have used headphones in most scenarios, the dual speakers performed more than adequately when watching content.
It won't be competing for any prizes in the camera and audio category, but it wasn't designed to either.
Camera score: 3/5
XPPen Magic Note Pad review: Performance
MediaTek MT8781
Struggles with heavy loads
Smooth regular daily use
The XPPen is not going to replace your laptop and handle your entire workload, but it's plenty powerful for what it aims to do.
Powered by the MediaTek MT8781 8-core processor, the Magic Note Pad was fast and smooth when I indulged in some light gaming, watched YouTube videos, wrote notes, reading or did several of them simultaneously when in a video call. It did struggle a little when it was multitasking, but it's not an iPad or Samsung Galaxy Tab S series to take a whole lotta load.
In the 3D Mark Wildlife test, which tests graphic performance, the XPPen Magic Note Pad scored 1244 at 7.45fps. For reference, the Lenovo Yoga Tab 11 and Alldocube iPlay 50 Pro, two cheap tablets, as well as the Huawei MatePad Paper, boast higher scores.
I used the Geekbench 6.2.2 benchmark to test the Magic Note Pads CPU performance for everyday tasks, and XPPen's latest tablet scored 728 (single-core) and 1949 (multi-core). These scores place it well behind even a tablet like the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 (1,198 / 3200).
Still, I didn't feel any performance issues in my time with the XPPen Magic Note Pad, and across writing, reading, watching and calling, you're not likely to. This XPPen tablet runs multiple apps with ease and lets you seamlessly write notes while on a call or watching a video, nailing everything a writing-focused productivity tablet should at this price range, but there are certainly similar, more powerful devices on the market.
Performance score: 4/5
XPPen Magic Note Pad review: Battery
20W charging
21% charge in 30 minutes
9+ hours video playback at high brightness
Charging port and speakers (Image credit: Future)
Boasting an 8,000mAh battery, the XPPen Magic Note Pad has a greater battery capacity than some other tablets, like the 2021 iPad and ReMarkable 2, which has only a 3,000mAh battery. It's certainly not large for a tablet though, with big-screen devices like the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 boasting capacities that far exceed 10,000mAh.
After watching Avengers: Endgame and Deadpool & Wolverine back-to-back at 83% brightness – that's almost 5.5 hours – the XPPen Magic Note Pad was still at a very healthy 40% battery. That means you'll see at least 9 hours of screentime before it taps out, and plenty more than that when just reading or writing on a lower brightness.
In fact, XPPen states that you'll get as much as one week of usage out of the Magic Note Pad with a daily usage of 3 hours at 50% brightness. In my experience, reading on the way to work, making a few notes throughout the day and even hopping into a quick online meeting or watching some YouTube, that approximation seems about right.
Watching movies in Regular mode (Image credit: Future)
I also found that battery consumption is different depending on which display mode you're in and the activity being performed. I had assumed that paper modes required less battery, and this did seem to be the case, even if the difference was negligible during regular use.
Interestingly, I did find one hour of video in Ink Paper Mode used 13%, compared to 8% in Regular Mode – though these tests were done at different times and battery percentages.
Whether or not it lasts a week without charging isn't really the sticking point, though. As a work and study-focused tablet, it needs to be able to last the six to 10-hour days at work or school when it's needed. And, while battery drain will depend on what activities it's used for, it should have no issue doing so.
If you are planning on being a heavy user of this tablet though, draining the battery on a daily basis and requiring regular charging, you'll want to do so overnight. From dead, the device charges just 3% in five minutes, sitting on 21% after 30 minutes – putting a full charge at around 2.5 hours.
Battery score: 3.5/5
Should I buy the XPPen Magic Note Pad?
Buy it if...
You want a digital note pad and more The Magic Note Pad is first and foremost a digital writing tablet that can also perform as a regular one and an ereader. If you want that kind of versatility, this one's for you.View Deal
Your eyes struggle with blue light With a main focus on reducing eye strain, the XPPen Magic Note Pad is a must for those who find themselves having to step away from the computer. With three display modes and several eye-friendly settings, it's a great option.View Deal
You want to read and write in color Whether you're an avid comic book reader or just want to be able to write, highlight and brainstorm in color, the Magic Note Pad is for you. Both the color paper mode and regular mode offer excellent color options in very different ways.View Deal
Don't buy it if...
Reading is your main focus While this tablet performs well as an ereader, and could happily be used as such by owners who bought it for its overall performance, I wouldn't recommend purchasing this device as a reader first and tablet second.View Deal
You want a drawing tablet While you can write, draw and sketch accurately until your heart is content on this tablet, if art is your main focus, you might be better off splurging on a larger screen with a higher resolution might be better, like the XPPen Artist Pro 16.View Deal
Your viewing experience is your main concern While it certainly performed well enough for watching, if your main reason for buying a tablet is to watch content on the go, there are better tablets available without the layered screen.View Deal
XPPen Magic Note Pad review: Also consider
ReMarkable 2 If you're looking for an e-paper display to write on first, and read on second, there is no better device on the market. It's more expensive and lacks the Magic Note Pad's color display options, but for writing there is nothing better and it's cheaper than the color reMarkable Paper Pro. Read ourfull ReMarkable 2 reviewView Deal
Apple iPad 10.2 (2021) The cheapest iPad that we still feel comfortable recommending, if you're looking for an affordable device to watch and read on, this iPad is a viable option. You won't get the paper modes or eye protection of the Magic Note pad, but not everyone will want or need that. Read our full Apple iPad 10.2 (2021) reviewView Deal
XPPen Artist Pro 16 If you're an artist, this tablet offers 16k pressure levels with the X3 Pro Pencil and a textured surface and colorful display, as well as the ability to act as a true laptop replacement and drawing pad. It costs quite a bit more than the XPPen Magic Note Pad, though. Read our full XPPen Artist Pro 16 reviewView Deal
How I tested the XPPen Magic Note Pad
Review test period = Two Weeks
Testing included = Regular daily use, writing, reading and watching content, video calls
Tools used = 3D Mark, Geekbench 6.2.2, built-in Android tools
The XPPen Magic Note Pad was my new best friend for two weeks, coming with me everywhere I went. From making notes in the morning and reading on the way to work to watching YouTube while working and joining online meetings with it, it was a crucial addition to my daily life.
To test it, I purposefully ran multiple apps during work meetings, multitasking and scribbling gibberish (and actual notes) during the meeting. I ran movies for hours on end and played mobile games like Clash Royale, Marvel Snap and Hearthstone.
I also used the 3D Mark Wildlife and Geekbench benchmarks to put a number to how the tablet was performing, and how it compared to other tablets on the market. I did all this while keeping in mind that this tablet is priced very fairly, aiming to help students and workers with productivity.
Belkin BoostCharge 3-Port USB-C Wall Charger with PPS 67W review
If you’ve ever wished you could charge multiple devices simultaneously, the Belkin BoostCharge 3-Port USB-C Wall Charger with PPS 67W (I know, quite the name) is a practical solution.
This charger packs in three USB-C ports, a maximum output of 67W and Programmable Power Supply (PPS) tech, which adjusts the model’s power automatically to fit the needs of your devices, enabling an “optimum” charge. That’s a pretty comprehensive package, especially given this model has a fairly moderate list price of $44.99 / £39.99 /AU$89.95. Some may still want access to a USB-A port, but fear not, there are alternatives – see the ‘Also consider’ section for more.
For reference, this charger can supply 67W charging in single-port mode, 45W from Port 1 and 20W from Port 2 in double mode, and 25W from Port 1 as well as 20W from remaining ports when triple-charging. That will likely be enough for most people, but there are some devices, like the OnePlus 13 phone, for instance, that support 80W charging – so make sure 67W will be enough juice to go around for your phones, laptops, tablets and more.
Unfortunately, though, I did have to use my own cables to charge my devices. There are no USB-C cables included in the box for UK buyers – something you get with a handful of similarly priced models. And although this is still a solid-value charger overall, that really would’ve taken it up a notch for me.
One more thing I would’ve liked to see from the Belkin BoostCharge 3-Port is foldable prongs – at least for the UK model. The US model has this, so if you’re on the other side of the pond, expect ultimate portability. But the lack of foldable prongs in the UK is a little frustrating, as if you want to slide the charger into your pocket, for example, it might end up poking into you. Ultimately, it is still very small though, making it ideal for use in tight spaces – a huge plus in my book.
Otherwise, the design is solid here. This Belkin charger doesn’t do anything fancy, there are no exciting colors like you’d get from the Anker Nano USB-C Wall Charger (30W) and no display. Still, its tiny form, elegant finish and curved look makes it a hit, all things considered. And overall, I’d say this is a good multi-port charger, worth your consideration. The lack of a USB-C cable and foldable prongs is a bit of a blow, but otherwise, this model’s small size and strong performance had me feeling satisfied.
Should I buy the Belkin BoostCharge 3-Port USB-C Wall Charger with PPS 67W?
Buy it if…
You’re on a budget Thankfully, this Belkin charger isn’t too expensive considering its tri-port configuration. If you wanted the slightly fancier UGreen Nexode Pro 65W, for instance, you’d have to shell out $55.99 / £44.99 – ouch!
You’re working with a tight space Thanks to this charger’s small size, it can easily slot into those small spaces behind desks, drawers, beds, shelves…OK, you get the idea. Considering its 67W max power output, this is a pleasingly compact charger – especially when you compare it to the likes of Apple’s 70W USB-C power adapter, for instance.
Don't buy it if…
You need bags of power If you need tons of power for charging the latest MacBook and smartphone at once, for example, this model might not cut it. For me, though, 67W was enough to charge the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE and another device, like my Soundcore Space One Pro headphones or LG Tone Free T90S earbuds.
You’re short on USB-C cables Unfortunately, there’s no USB-C cable included in the box with this Belkin charger, at least in the UK. That’s a bit of a shame, especially if you’re someone that is yet to amass three cables already. Sure, you can purchase some at a fairly low price, but there are alternatives, like the Anker charger listed below, that sort you out with a fresh new cable from the offset.
Belkin BoostCharge 3-Port USB-C Wall Charger with PPS 67W: Also consider
Anker 335 Charger (67W) If you want a slightly cheaper alternative to this Belkin charger that also boasts three charging ports and 67W of power, the Anker 335 Charger (67W) is the ideal option for you. I tested the UK edition out and loved its foldable prongs, speedy performance and inclusion of a USB-C to USB-C cable – it’s a great value product. It does swap out one USB-C port for a USB-A port – which may not be for everyone. It’s also chunkier than this Belkin charger. But all in all, it’s still an alternative well worth considering. Read our full Anker 335 Charger (67W) review.
