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Noise Luna Ring (Gen 2) review: a subscription-free Oura rival that’s solid but not standout

3:30 pm | December 26, 2025

Noise Luna Ring (Gen 2): One-minute review

The Noise Luna Ring 2 is the second generation of the Luna Ring. I reviewed the original in early 2025 and liked that it felt comfortable, offered solid insights, and was impressively accurate for sleep tracking from a first-gen product.

On paper, the Luna Ring 2 doesn’t sound like a huge leap forward and, visually, you’d be forgiven for not immediately spotting what’s changed. The design tweaks are subtle, and if you already own the first Luna Ring I don’t think this is a must-have upgrade.

But taken on its own, this is a good smart ring. A few pain points have been ironed out. The ring is around 10% slimmer, there’s a new charging case which looks great and stores multiple top-ups, battery performance has improved slightly and the app feels quicker to update. I also felt like sleep tracking was more precise this time round, which is probably due to the improved sensor accuracy.

The main advantage here remains the same as last time round, there’s no subscription here. That immediately makes it more appealing than the Oura Ring 4 (the most popular smart ring) if you’re not keen on adding another subscription to your life, especially if you consider that the Oura Ring 4 is more expensive to begin with.

Personally, the best new feature here is Luna’s circadian alignment tools, presenting guidance about when to get sunlight, drink coffee and exercise throughout the day. It includes a “caffeine window” that tries to stop you sabotaging your sleep with badly timed coffee. These are genuinely useful, presented nicely and feel actionable and meaningful than an arbitrary score.

There are still some things I didn’t like here. The app is pretty information dense and yet again the typography choices feel too small and fussy, which makes daily use less enjoyable than rivals. There’s an AI coach here, but it delivers generic chatbot advice rather than anything helpful. And while battery life here is good, it doesn’t quite make it as long as some rivals.

But the biggest issue here is the market. When I first reviewed the Luna Ring Gen 1, I said one of the main problems wasn’t the ring itself but the competition. That’s even more true now. The Oura Ring 4 still offers the most refined overall experience, the Samsung Galaxy Ring is great as long as you’re not on iOS and the Ultrahuman Ring Air and RingConn 2 Air are strong subscription-free alternatives to both. More and more cheaper alternatives are now entering the market too, like the Amazfit Helio Ring, which isn’t as good but is cheaper.

If you want a capable, subscription-free smart ring with strong sleep tracking and don’t mind that it doesn’t look quite as premium as the big names, the Luna Ring 2 is a good choice. It’s just not the obvious pick and even though I like it I’m not sure there’s anything standout here to recommend it over the competition.

Noise Luna Ring (Gen 2) review: Price and availability

The Luna Ring 2 in sunlit gold against a concrete surface being held between thumb and forefinger — (Image credit: Future)

Price is around $329/£299/AU$510
No subscription fee
Several color options at the same price

The Luna Ring 2 is available for around $329/£299/AU$510. I say around as pricing seems to vary across regions and I’m writing this during sale season when prices are fluctuating.

It comes in a range of finishes, including Sunlit Gold, Stardust Silver, Rose Gold, Midnight Black and Lunar Black – that last one is a matte shade. All of these finishes are the same price, which is good as some rivals charge more for specific colors or materials. Then again, that could explain why the Luna Ring 2 has a less premium look and feel than rivals, but I’ll get to that later.

That puts it below the Oura Ring 4, which typically retails for $349/£349 at full price, though more premium materials and colors can push that up to $499/£499. What’s more, you’ll need an ongoing membership to unlock full insights, which is a further $5.99/£5.99. The Samsung Galaxy Ring was also more expensive at launch at $399/£399/around AU$750, though it’s hard to compare given it’s not for iOS users.

Meanwhile, subscription-free rivals include the Ultrahuman Ring Air at £329 (it isn’t available in the US at the time of writing) and RingConn Gen 2 Air at $299/£280/AU$570 (approx). You can also find the Amazfit Helio Ring for £119.90 as a budget option.

All of this means the Luna Ring 2 is more affordable than the Oura Ring 4 but not a budget pick. The lack of subscription does help it seem better value, but it’s not so cheap that it’s a no-brainer over the rest.

Value score: 3.5 / 5

Noise Luna Ring (Gen 2) review: Specifications

Colors	Silver, Black, Matte Black, Rose Gold, Gold
Weight	3-5g (depending on size)
Material	Titanium
Battery life	Up to 7 days
Connectivity	Bluetooth
Waterproofing	Up to 50m/164 ft

Someone holding the luna ring gen 2 between their thumb and forefinger — (Image credit: Future)

Noise Luna Ring (Gen 2) review: Design

Light and comfortable
Slightly slimmer than first Luna Ring
Can look cheaper than rivals, especially in gold

The Luna Ring (Gen 2) is a light and compact ring, weighing between 3g and 5g depending on the size you need. On paper, that’s a small shift from the Gen 1 ring, and Luna says its Gen 2 ring is 10% slimmer and lighter overall. In reality, the difference is subtle. But the Gen 2 is genuinely very comfortable to wear 24/7.

Sizing runs from 6 to 14 and you get a sizing kit in advance, which works the same way as most smart ring brands. It’s based on standard ring sizes, but I still find that different brands fit slightly differently, so the kit is worth using.

The ring itself is made from titanium with a PVD coating and there’s a non-allergenic and seamless inner surface that sits against your skin. It’s rated 5ATM, which means you don’t need to take it off for showers, swimming or getting caught in the rain. Ideal if you’re trying to build a habit of wearing it constantly.

The Luna ring 2 in gold in its charging case — (Image credit: Future)

As for colors, there’s a nice choice here. Stardust Silver, Rose Gold, Sunlit Gold, Midnight Black and Lunar Black, a matte shade. The marketing images make most of them look shiny, and in real life the Sunlit Gold I tested is particularly shiny. Other brands have glossy finishes too, but here it tips over into looking a bit more like a plastic gold ring rather than blending in to look like jewellery, at least to my eye.

The real star of the design in this newer version isn’t the ring itself, but the new charging case that comes with it. Instead of the little charging plinth that came with the Gen 1 version, you now get a compact case that looks more like the cases you get with earbuds, or the Samsung Galaxy Ring. Not only does it pack in lots of extra charges, it’s one of the nicest smart ring charging solutions I’ve used so far.

Design score: 4 / 5

Noise Luna Ring (Gen 2) review: Features

The Luna Ring 2 in gold on a concrete surface — (Image credit: Future)

Strong core health and sleep data
Circadian alignment tools genuinely helpful
AI integration feels gimmicky

The Luna Ring (Gen 2) follows the familiar smart ring formula, lots of sensors in a tiny band. You get green and red LEDs for heart rate, blood oxygen and skin temperature tracking, photodiodes and a 3-axis accelerometer for movement.

From those, Luna tracks your sleep time, sleep stages and sleep score, resting heart rate and heart rate variability (HRV), respiratory rate and SpO2, temperature fluctuations, stress, activity and menstrual and ovulation tracking, based on temperature and HRV.

There’s automatic detection for walking and running, plus basic workout logging for other exercises. Though, as with most smart rings right now, this isn’t designed to replace a full-on running or fitness watch, but it works well for general movement.

It’s worth noting there’s no VO2 max estimate here, which you’ll find on some rival rings and many of the best smartwatches. If you like that training metric, you might miss it here.

The more interesting additions on the software side are Luna’s “Life OS” platform, which has been updated in this version. It brings new tools like the aforementioned circadian alignment guide and a “caffeine window”. These suggest the best times to get sunlight, eat, exercise and drink coffee based on your patterns, with the aim of nudging you into a more consistent rhythm and protecting sleep.

I found those features genuinely useful and really nicely presented. Even if they don’t transform your sleep overnight, they did gently encourage me to think about my day in a way that’s more aligned with my sleep and rhythms.

There’s also an AI coach here, but I found it quite gimmicky (like most AI integrations these days). It’s essentially a chatbot bolted onto your health data. Now, some people might enjoy asking it questions, but in my testing the nutrition and lifestyle advice felt generic. Responses could be slow and if you already know the basics of health and fitness you might find it a little condescending.

On the integration front, the Luna Ring currently works with Apple Health and Google Fit, which at least lets you pull workouts from other platforms. But there are no deeper third-party integrations yet, so you can’t plug it directly into more specialized training apps or health dashboards, for example.

Features score: 3.5 / 5

Noise Luna Ring (Gen 2) review: Performance

luna ring gen 2 in sunlit gold worn on a hand above a concrete surface — (Image credit: Future)

Sleep tracking feels upgraded
Battery life is good, not class-leading
Good app but a bit cramped

Let’s start with the battery, as that’s been updated over the previous version. Noise says you’ll get between 4 to 7 days, which is quite a broad amount of time. During my testing I consistently got just under 6 days out of it, which I think is good. It’s an improvement over the first ring, which only ever reached 4 days.

The charging case can store around 30 days of power before you need to plug it in, which was really handy. Especially considering the charging case is light, small and looks nice.

For content, the Oura Ring 4 and Ultrahuman Ring Air can deliver six to eight days, while the RingConn Gen 2 Air can stretch to 10 to 12 days. So Luna sits in the good but not outstanding bracket where battery is concerned. Good thing it’s got the charging case this time around, which helps – did I mention I love the charging case?

The Luna Ring (Gen 2) will automatically detect walking and running and in my experience it did this reliably. You’re prompted to confirm detected sessions, which is handy.

For other exercise types, you’ll need to log activities manually and there are lots to choose from, including yoga, treadmill, cycling, bouldering, pilates, even surfing. As with most smart rings, it’s not a hardcore training tool, there’s no GPS or dedicated workout models. Think of it more as an everyday health tracker that handles simple workouts reasonably well rather than something you’d use for serious training.

I have mixed feelings about the Luna app. On the plus side, it’s packed with information and you can dig deeper into information about sleep, readiness, activity, temperature and more. In some places, scores are accompanied by short explanations, which I always appreciate more than a bare number.

The luna ring app — (Image credit: Future)

However, the presentation of the data still doesn’t quite land for me. Fonts are tiny and a lot of elements are tightly packed together. It’s a subjective complaint, sure, but one that does impact on my day to day enjoyment of using it.

Some of the language and flagging around health data also feels more alarming than it needs to be. For example, waking up to a red exclamation mark on my SpO2 with a blunt “Pay Attention” message isn’t in line with how I think wearables should be talking to us about health. The same goes for some of the coaching prompts, they’re technically accurate, but not particularly warm or human.

Sleep tracking is where the Gen 2 shines, it does a great job at picking up on sleep and wake times, even on nights when my sleep was broken. I often wake up around 3am, read for a few hours, then go back to sleep. The Luna Ring 2 picked up this pattern consistently, where in the past other wearables have not detected the break or not detected me falling back to sleep again. It also detected short naps accurately.

You get a full breakdown of your sleep stages, a nightly sleep score and insights into what’s pushing that score up or down. Over time, trends are handy to see.

Screenshots of the circadian alignment feature in the luna ring app — (Image credit: Future)

As for whether those circadian tools I mentioned earlier improve my sleep, that’s hard to say definitively, but having prompts about when to get outside, drink coffee or exercise did make me more intentional about my routine.

Finally, there’s the AI coach. I know other reviewers enjoy this kind of feature, but here it still feels like a very basic chatbot sat on top of your data rather than anything geared to personalized guidance. Generic nutrition tips, slow responses and a lack of nuance mean it’s not something I enjoyed using.

Though I will say one of the suggested prompts was “Which health metric needs my attention today?” which does highlight anything noticeable without digging around. Without that I’d say it was a bit useless.

Performance: 4 / 5

Someone holding the luna ring 2 — (Image credit: Future)

Scorecard

Attributes	Notes	Rating
Design	Light, comfortable and slightly slimmer than Gen 1. The gold color looks less premium than rivals. But the charging case is excellent.	4 / 5
Features	Strong core health and sleep tracking with useful circadian alignment feature. The AI coach and lack of VO2 max are my only bugbears.	3.5 / 5
Performance	Accurate sleep tracking, decent activity detection and good but not class-leading battery. App is overall great but needs a design refresh in my opinion.	4 / 5
Value	Cheaper than some rivals and subscription-free but not cheap enough or polished enough to be a really obvious choice over rivals.	3.5 / 5

Should I buy the Noise Luna Ring (Gen 2)?

Buy it if…

You want a smart ring without an added subscription
Oura is still the most popular choice, but its monthly membership and initial price make it an expensive choice. The Luna Ring 2 is one of several capable subscription-free alternatives.

You want accurate tracking and plenty of data
I’ve focused a lot on rivals in this review, but taken by itself this is a good device with accurate sleep and recovery tracking, and a generous amount of data and trends to explore.

You want strong sleep tracking without bulk
If you mainly care about sleep and general recovery, smart rings are hugely appealing because you can ditch the bulk of a smartwatch at night.

Don’t buy it if…

You want the absolute best tracking and polish
I was impressed by the Luna Ring 2 overall but the Oura Ring 4 will still deliver the most polished experience in terms of design, app refinement and depth of insights.

You care a lot about premium materials and finishes
If you want your smart ring to double as jewellery, Oura’s rings do look and feel more high-end.

You already own the first Luna Ring
This is a nice step up with a better charging experience and extra features. But if you’re happy with the Gen 1 and not itching for a new ring, there isn’t a killer upgrade here.

Noise Luna Ring (Gen 1): Also consider

Oura Ring 4
Still the best all-rounder for design, app experience and depth of data across iOS and Android. More expensive than the Luna Ring 2 and does require a subscription to unlock its full potential. But for some the extra polish and insights will be worth it.
Read our full Oura Ring 4 review

Ultrahuman Ring Air
A strong subscription-free alternative. With a slick design, polished app and good sleep and recovery tracking. It’s widely considered the second best option after Oura.
Ultrahuman Ring Air review

How I tested the Noise Luna Ring (Gen 2)

The Luna Ring 2 worn on a woman's hand against a concrete surface. — (Image credit: Future)

Paired with an iPhone 16 Pro
Wore the ring 24/7
I’ve been testing wearables for 12+ years

I tested the Noise Luna Ring 2 for several weeks, paired with an iPhone 16 Pro. I wore it all day and night, including running outdoors, to gym sessions, during long workdays in coffee shops, evenings at home and, of course, while sleeping. I only took it off to charge it or when showering – yes, it’s waterproof but I never like to risk soap or shampoo messing it up.

Over the past 12 years I’ve reviewed dozens of wearables, including smart watches, fitness trackers and smart rings from Oura, Ultrahuman, RingConn, Motiv, and more. Having got hands-on with so many, I’ve got a strong sense now of what makes a smart ring comfortable, truly useful – from design and comfort to performance, app quality, and long-term wearability – and standout in a busy and competitive space.

First reviewed in November 2025

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I’ve been playing Plants vs Zombies for years, and this remake is the definitive edition — with a catch

2:00 pm |

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Gaming | Comments: Off

Of all the older games getting a reboot, refresh or remaster lately, I didn’t have 2009’s Plants vs. Zombies on my bingo card or wish list. In its original form, it’s a fantastic puzzle-meets tower defence game, where sentient and weaponized plants are used to protect an unseen dweller (the player) of a simple suburban house against an expanding variety of zombies.

With cartoon-like visuals and a simple presentation, there wasn’t much more I wanted out of the original PvZ. It also works very well in mobile form on both Android and iPhone.

But along came Plants vs Zombies: Replanted anyway, and I simply had to give it a go to see if it has stood the test of time, albeit with a lick of paint.

Review info

Platform reviewed: PC
Available on: PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X and Series S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch
Release date: October 23, 2025

Starting with those visuals, from what I can see support for higher resolutions and HD textures do make this version of PvZ look cleaner and sleeker that the 2009 one. But that arguably comes at the cost of a little charm and art direction, with the bold lines and shadows that helped lower-res assets stand out, somewhat flattened and dulled with an HD sheen. This gives the impression of the graphics looking both more and less refined in certain cases, with mild inconsistencies between the seed packets of plants and how they appear when planted.

This extends a little into the menus too, which seem to mix elements from different versions of the game over the years. In general this is fine but they occasionally felt like something was off with them, perhaps throwing too much into the mix compared to the purity of the original PC version.

a screenshot from Plants vs Zombies: Replanted — (Image credit: Future / Roland Moore-Colyer)

A lack of precise refinement might be a bit of a theme here, as various bugs and glitches initially popped up around the release of Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted. Not many stood out to me other than the odd placement of an asset or two (see the screenshot above), but subsequent patches seem to have paved over a suite of these issues; obviously not ideal, but at least PopCap is taking action.

Art style choices aside, in motion PvZ: Replanted looks fantastic in my eyes. The way the ‘peashooters’ – a cute sentient pea plant that fires, you guessed it, peas – bop to the game’s fun, light and a little jingly music still brings a smile to my face. As does the huge creativity of all the other plants at the player’s disposal.

Unlocked as you advance through the game's levels, which take place on from the front and back lawns, and escalate from there, these plants vary from offensive, defensive, support and augmenting variants. All have a unique design that shows off the creative and left-field ideas that smaller developers had a bounty of, and the scope to explore, in the noughties.

The same applies to the zombies, which start off with that classic Shaun of the Dead shambling style and evolve into all sorts of fun, and challenging, variants. Developer PopCap’s sense of humour extends from just the design to a virtual almanac that describes the plants and the zombies, along either their individual personalities, in a very wry and quirky way.

Tower defence with brains

All this means Plants vs. Zombies is a lot of fun today. Not only is the idea of beating back a zombie invasion of a lawn or back yard amusing, it’s rather in-depth too.

Having played PvZ on multiple platforms I’m well-versed at forming established patterns of vegetable, spore, or fruit throwing plants, supported by defensive walls of nut plants, and paid for by carefully laid out grids of sunflowers – sunlight is the main currency of PvZ battles, and needed to fund the deployment of your selected plants.

So far this is all very much the same as the original. And maybe to a fault, as there are the occasional difficulty spikes amid a normally very balanced progression, which I recall being present in the original game.

As an experienced PvZ-er, I’m not against these, and I do enjoy some of the levels that change up how you tackle your defence, such as being given random plants on a conveyor belt rather than pre-selecting them. This injects a dose of chaos, but can fall foul of randomization not landing in one’s favour.

Small changes, like being able to speed up the game’s action can up the challenge, and help speed past the odd slow section where you’re left waiting a wave of zombies but have already got your core defensive lines and sunlight economy sorted. Equally, the light and fun music and just general pleasant vibe of Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted is so nice, I never felt like I wanted to hurry through it.

The meat – or should that be marrow – of Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted lies in how it’s combined all of the content from other versions of PvZ into one. There’s the co-op and versus multiplayer modes of console versions, the option to maintain a plant garden that came with the original, and all manner of mini games.

The latter shine, with one offering bigger sums of sunlight falling from the sky, which means a turbocharged economy and thus a lot more scope to mix up your defences with a host of plants that might be too expensive to use in volume in the standard game mode.

Another mode introduces cloud cover that can reduce the output of your sunflowers or put them to sleep, meaning you need to economise for such eventualities or make use of plants that aren’t directly reliant on sunlight to produce sun. It’s a fun mode that offers a nice challenge for PvZ veterans.

Best bit

a screenshot of Plants vs Zombies: Replanted — (Image credit: Future / Roland Moore-Colyer)

A quirky, creative take on defending against a zombie apocalypse combined with some fun mechanics, means the core Plants vs Zombies experience still impresses today.

All these modes and mini games will keep your attention well after the main adventure part is completed. Some are better than others, but all are worth a quick spin and make Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted a great game to dip into, especially as it even works reasonably well on a Steam Deck.

I still reckon the core adventure mode remains the true highlight, with its charm, style, creativity and well-paced progression on enemies and plant powers.

Part of me wishes PopCap hadn’t played it so safe with a few more fresh nuances to the adventure to really pull back players well-versed in Peashooter placement, even if that extended to refining the visuals that little bit more.

Nevertheless, I think Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted is easily the definitive version of a left-field game that I’ve sunk plenty of time into. And even putting aside nostalgia, it’s a fantastic puzzle and tower defence game that’s so very much worth your time today.

Should you play Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted?

Play it if...

You’re after a brilliant tower defence game
Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted is simply a wonderful and creative take on the tower defence genre, with a dose of puzzling thrown in for good measure.

You want a fun holiday game With levels and mini-games you can simply jump into, Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted is a great game to dip in and out of during the holiday season.

Don't play it if...

You’re a PvZ purist
Changes to the original game’s art style might not appeal to everyone, with visuals looking a tad flat in places.

You have Game of the Year editions of PvZ
Previous versions of PvZ in Game of the Year packages offer nearly as much as Replanted, without the art style changes.

Accessibility

There’s no dedicated accessibility menu in Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted, but you can tweak a few settings like lowering the game’s speed to half speed and opting for a high contrast viewing mode.

As the game is available on multiple platforms, you have the option to play on the platform that most suits you, with PC and mouse control being the one I’d recommend.

How I reviewed Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted

I played some five hours of Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted, getting through most of the adventure mode, which I’ve already finished in previous versions of PvZ, and trying out various mini-games.

I’ve not flirted with the multiplayer options, but they follow the form of previous console releases. I played PvZ: Replanted on my Steam Deck and on my desktop gaming PC, and over that time the game received several updates, which appeared to squash some bugs and refined the remaster. As such, my review covers what I’d consider to be the most complete version of the game.

First reviewed December 2025

Corsair’s new Void v2 MAX Wireless takes one of the best mid-range gaming headsets and makes it even better

9:00 pm | December 25, 2025

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Gaming | Tags: Nintendo Switch, PC | Comments: Off

Corsair Void v2 MAX Wireless review: one-minute review

If you’re in the market for a new headset, you don’t want to sleep on Corsair’s new Void Max Wireless V2. It’s the upgraded version of the Corsair Void Wireless V2, one of the best wireless gaming headsets we’ve tested, adding Sonarworks SoundID through iCue and simultaneous dual connectivity to the mix, to the tune of a small price increase.

It offers solid connectivity, offering both 2.4GHz wireless and Bluetooth across PC, PlayStation 5 (using the dongle), Nintendo Switch 1 and 2, and mobile, with an Xbox version sold separately. Plus, with extensive battery life of up to 130 hours over Bluetooth and up to 70 hours over wireless, the Void v2 MAX is comfortable and performs great on test, making it a fantastic headset for long gaming sessions.

Still, I wish it had a wired option, and perhaps a detachable microphone – that would have perfectly rounded out the feature set in this Max version, for me, but it’s nonetheless a fantastic mid-range option with ample fun and useful features.

Corsair VOID Max Wireless v2 — (Image credit: Future)

Corsair Void v2 MAX Wireless review: price and availability

List price: $149.99 / £119.99 / AU$249
Announced September 2025
Lands in the mid-range of wireless gaming headsets

Sitting comfortably in the mid-range price bracket, Corsair’s Void v2 MAX Wireless justifies its price with a neat design, decent customizability and some great sound smarts, offering a slightly more interesting look and experience than the more budget-friendly alternatives. It skips the deluxe design, features and audio specs from much more pricey options like the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Elite while still hitting the mark on most of the must-haves.

It’s $30 / £20 / AU$60 more expensive than the original Void v2 Wireless released in April 2025, and while it largely offers the exact same experience, the added option for simultaneous 2.4Ghz and Bluetooth connectivity in addition to the Sonarworks SoundID through iCue sweetens the deal.

Corsair Void v2 MAX Wireless review: Specs

	Corsair Void v2 MAX Wireless
Price	$149.99 / £119.99 / AU$249
Weight	10.7oz / 303g
Drivers	Custom 50mm driver
Compatibility	PC, PS5 (with dongle), Nintendo Switch 1 and 2, Mobile. Xbox version sold separately.
Connection type	Simultaneous 2.4GHz and Bluetooth connections.
Battery life	Up to 70 hours (2.4GHz), Up to 130 hours (Bluetooth)
Features	Custom 50mm Neodymium drivers, omnidirectional microphone, RGB lighting, dual connectivity, custom button mapping
Software	Dolby Atmos Spatial Audio (PC), Corsair iCUE (PC), Tempest 3D Audio (PS5)

Corsair Void v2 MAX Wireless review: Design and features

Easy, quick connectivity
Stylish design
Flip-to-mute mic – but it’s not detachable

There are no significant design changes between the standard and Max versions of Corsair’s Void v2 headset. Out of the box, the Corsair Void v2 MAX Wireless comes with just the headset, USB 3.0 dongle, USB 3.0-to-USB-C charging cable, and a QR code to open out the instruction manual.

Available in white and black, the design of these headsets is sleek yet unmistakably gamer-coded headsets thanks to the two slim RGB light strips. The geometric cups are cushioned with breathable memory foam padding, and the adjustable frame ensures a comfortable fit over your head. There are two buttons on the left: one to turn the headset on and off, and the other is customizable to different functions, as well as a small scroll wheel to control the volume on the side.

Corsair VOID Max — (Image credit: Future)

The mic arm can be flipped up to mute input or keep it out of your face when not in use, but it’s a real shame they didn’t opt to make it removable for this more premium option – if they had, these would be more socially acceptable to use in place of the best wireless headphones while you’re out and about. Instead, the Corsair Void v2 MAX Wireless remains confined to my gaming desk. To the same end, I wish they’d offered a dongle adapter with this version; the USB 3.0 receiver feels dated when many consoles and machines are moving towards USB-C.

After charging, it’s simple to set up the headset; if you’re using the dongle, it’ll automatically pair with your headset, or you can pair via Bluetooth by pressing and holding the lower of the two buttons on the left side of the headset. When using the Void v2 MAX Wireless on PC, you’ll want both the Dolby Access app and the Corsair iCUE software; the former allows you to enable Dolby Atmos Spatial Audio, while the latter offers device customisation. When playing on PS5, simply head to the console’s sound settings and enable the Tempest 3D Audio.

Corsair Void v2 MAX Wireless review: Performance

Superb battery life
Lightweight and comfortable in use
Excellent audio performance

As you can expect from Corsair, performance is reliably good across the board. The audio and microphone quality is great, and they’re comfortable to wear, to boot.

I’ve been using the Corsair Void v2 MAX Wireless as my main gaming headset for a month, often playing for hours on end, and I’ve yet to experience any discomfort. Its memory foam cushions, lightweight design and excellent battery life make it a go-to for extended gameplay sessions, whether I’m hooked up to my Nintendo Switch 2, PS5 or my PC.

I’m still not quite over my Baldur’s Gate 3 era, and the Corsair Void v2 MAX Wireless headset was the perfect companion to enjoy the rich audio landscape of the Sword Coast and the lively voice acting of its fantastic cast. The headset’s noise suppression works wonderfully in tandem with iCue software’s EQ, meaning everything was rendered with great clarity and depth. I also spent some time in Valorant on PS5, finding it super easy to pick out environmental cues thanks to the impressive audio clarity and Tempest 3D Audio.

Dual connectivity worked well on test, and came in handy a few times I wanted to answer calls or listen to a podcast on my phone while playing a less audio-reliant game, and when I used the headset to chat with friends over Discord, I received several comments on the solid microphone quality.

Best of all, I could complete most of my testing without ever needing to recharge the headset, because it offers around 70 hours of battery life via 2.4GHz wireless and an impressive up to 130 hours on Bluetooth; based on my testing, that’s an accurate benchmark from Corsair.

Should you buy the Corsair Void v2 MAX Wireless?

Buy it if...

You want long battery life
Offering an impressive up to 70 hours of battery life via 2.4GHz wireless and up to 130 hours on Bluetooth, you can game for days on end without reaching for your charging port.

You want dual connectivity
If you’ve got a burning desire to listen simultaneously across devices or be able to take calls while gaming, this presents an easy option.

You want a great all-rounder
It’s simple to use, comfortable, offers great connectivity, looks great, and performs well on test; what more can you ask for?

Don't buy it if...

You were hoping for Xbox compatibility
Unfortunately, the Corsair Void v2 MAX Wireless isn't compatible with Xbox, although there is a specific model available for Xbox users.

You have a premium headset already
While it’s really impressive for its price point, the Void v2 MAX Wireless isn’t a premium headset-beater, so you’re best off sticking with a pricier model if you already own it.

Also consider...

Still not sold on the Corsair Void v2 MAX Wireless? Here’s how it compares to more of the best gaming headsets.

	Corsair Void v2 MAX Wireless	Razer BlackShark V3 Pro	SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless
Price	$149.99 / £119.99 / AU$249	$249.99 / £249.99 / around AU$510	$349.99 / £329.99 / AU$649.00
Weight	10.7oz / 303g	12.9oz / 367g	11.9oz / 337g
Compatibility	PC, PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, iOS, Android	PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, iOS, Android	PC, PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, iOS, Android
Connection type	Wireless (via USB 3.0 dongle), Bluetooth	Wireless (via USB 3.0 dongle), Bluetooth	Wireless (via base station), Bluetooth, 3.5mm wired
Battery life	Up to 70 hours	Up to 70 hours	Up to 44 hours
Features	Custom 50mm Neodymium drivers, omnidirectional microphone, RGB lighting, dual connectivity, custom button mapping	Razer TriForce Titanium 50mm drivers, advanced passive noise isolation, detachable microphone, dual connectivity	Custom 40mm Neodymium drivers, retractable microphone, rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, dual connectivity, AI-powered noise-canceling mic
Software	Dolby Atmos Spatial Audio (PC), Corsair iCUE (PC), Tempest 3D Audio (PS5)	THX Spatial Audio (PC), Windows Sonic Spatial Audio (PC/Xbox), Tempest 3D Audio (PS5)	360 Sonar Spatial Audio (PC), Tempest 3D Audio (PS5)

Razer BlackShark V3 Pro
It’s a fair bit pricier, but the Razer BlackShark V3 Pro is one of the best gaming headsets we’ve reviewed. Offering much the same features but throwing Xbox compatibility into the mix as well as awesome ANC, it’s a superb set of wireless audio-givers.

For more information, check out our full Razer BlackShark V3 Pro reviewView Deal

SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless
Again, a pricier option compared to Corsair’s Void Max v2, but with a few extra features that sweeten the deal, such as a wireless base station for dual connectivity rather than one through Bluetooth, plus a fully retractable mic that makes it a little more discreet if you want to use them while you’re out and about.

For more information, check out our full SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless reviewView Deal

How I tested the Corsair Void v2 MAX Wireless

Used as my main gaming headset for four weeks
Connected to my Nintendo Switch 2, PC and PS5
Played a variety of games across genres

Typically, I use my iconic Razer Kraken Kitty V2 wired headset, but putting this to one side to try the Corsair Void v2 MAX Wireless granted a better all-round experience and the benefits of dual connectivity. I used it with my Nintendo Switch 2, gaming PC, and PlayStation 5, playing everything from first-person shooters to RPGs like Baldur’s Gate III and Assassin's Creed: Shadows to see how the headset works in different environments.

I used all of the advertised features, and exhaustively used the headset over my four weeks of testing to see what the long-term experience is like and ensure comfort, performance, and software all work as promised.

First reviewed November-December 2025

WiiM Sound: Two-minute review

WiiM has been rapidly building a wireless, multi-room streaming ecosystem that competes directly with Sonos and Bluesound. The WiiM Sound is its first wireless smart speaker – an important milestone – and in typical WiiM fashion, it’s an impressive product with design and performance that rivals the best products in its class. However, unlike its previous products, which delivered these attributes for less than the competition, the WiiM Sound carries a premium price.

It sounds great, with a full, powerful sound signature and tons of EQ settings, and the built-in circular touchscreen is a fun feature. But its lack of a hands-free voice assistant and no support for Apple AirPlay limit its value as a smart speaker – especially for the iOS ensconced.

Is it one of the best wireless speakers we've tested for sound, though? And crucially, is the WiiM Sound the speaker to build a new multi-room audio system with? Read on…

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The WiiM Sound, in a home, on a varnished wooden table, showing the illuminated front panel — (Image credit: Simon Cohen / Future)

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WiiM Sound review: Price & release date

Released October 28th, 2025
Priced $299 / £299 / €349 (AU$499 approx.)

The price of the WiiM Sound is $299 / £299 / €349 (AU$499 approx) and it's not hard to see that its nearest and most relevant rivals are the either the Sonos Era 100, which costs $219 / £199 / AU$319 officially, (though at the time of writing has some tasty discounts – in the UK, it's currently £159) or the more powerful Sonos Era 300, which costs a more substantial $479 / £449 / AU$749.

So it sits squarely between the two, which is a smart choice. Also sitting here at this price point is the Apple HomePod 2, which is officially $299 / £299 / AU$479. How does the WiiM Sound stack up against the competition? That's precisely what we're here to work out…

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WiiM Sound review: Specs

Speaker drivers	2x tweeters, 1x woofer
Amplification	3x Class D amps
Dimensions	5.7” x 5.7” x 7.5” (146 x 146 x 193 mm)
Connectivity	Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3 (transmit and receive), 3.5mm line-in, 100 Mbps Ethernet
Streaming support	WiiM Home app, DLNA, Google Cast, Tidal Connect, Spotify Connect, Roon Ready
Voice assistant support	Amazon Alexa (via Voice Remote), compatible with Google Assistant
Other features	Room Correction, WiiM multi-room control, WiiM 5.1 home theater, and stereo pair options, hi-res audio up to 24-bit/192kHz

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WiiM Sound review: Features

Very good wired and wireless connectivity, 2-way Bluetooth, but no AirPlay
Built-in 1.8-inch touchscreen display
Room Correction via iOS or Android

I’m not sure why WiiM and Apple don’t see eye to eye, but the WiiM Sound is now the fourth new WiiM product to ship without Apple AirPlay support. Because it has Google Cast (and good native service support in the WiiM Home app), this omission only impacts one type of user: Apple device owners who want to stream Apple Music. If that’s you, there’s always Bluetooth as a fallback, but let’s agree this is much less convenient.

Still, that Bluetooth connection is versatile, letting you stream to the speaker or letting you connect a set of headphones so you can listen to the same audio privately.

As more people become interested in analog formats like vinyl, having a wireless speaker with a 3.5mm AUX input is handy. The WiiM Sound has one (and a dedicated Ethernet jack), something you won’t find on either the Sonos Era 100 (unless you buy an adapter) or on the Apple HomePod 2. WiiM’s feature-filled app even lets you set the pre-amplification level on the aux input so that it’s sufficiently loud for your source, without risking distortion.

The most recognizable aspect of the WiiM Sound is its circular touchscreen. It’s a vibrant gem that looks way better in real life than in these images, and I love the option of having a clock face when the speaker isn’t in use. Design-wise, circles are lovely, but as Apple rightly identified with the Apple Watch, sometimes circles aren’t great for user interfaces.

Album art, the thing most folks will want to display while streaming, is always square, which means some of the image is usually hidden. If you want to display track/album info too, you’ll see even less of that cover art.

As a touchscreen, it’s very responsive and easy to navigate, and yet, unless you place the WiiM Sound on a shelf at shoulder height, it can be awkward to use. Thankfully, all of its functions can be replicated from the WiiM Home app, and the most important controls (volume and playback) are accessible from the top touch controls and the included remote.

Speaking of the remote, WiiM knocked it out of the park with the WiiM Voice Remote 2 Lite, a simple and elegant rechargeable Bluetooth unit that feels great in the hand. Or should I say, Apple knocked it out of the park? The similarity to the Apple Siri Remote for Apple TV is immediately obvious. What’s less obvious is that, unlike Apple’s weighty chunk of aluminium, the WiiM version is much lighter due to its partially plastic construction. If you want more heft, you’ll need to buy the regular WiiM Voice Remote 2.

You don’t need a remote for the WiiM Sound (your smartphone does it all) unless you want to access Amazon Alexa. For reasons known only to WiiM, the WiiM Sound will work as an Alexa speaker, but it can’t hear you unless you talk into the remote’s mic.

Your room and a speaker’s position in it can heavily influence your system’s sound, which is why room correction is becoming a highly sought-after feature. The WiiM Sound’s AI RoomFit isn’t as convenient as the HomePod 2’s automatic system, but it works on both iOS and Android, something that Sonos’ TruePlay tuning still can’t do.

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Three screen-grabs of the WiiM Sound's companion app, showing various features such as room calibration, EQ, setup process and toggles within the app — (Image credit: WiiM )

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Maybe Sonos is right. I used AI RoomFit on an iPhone 16 and a Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, and the iPhone delivered markedly better results, bringing the WiiM Sound much closer to the target EQ curve. Still, even after using the iPhone, the change in equalization in my two test locations wasn’t night and day. The improvements are subtle – a little less boomy-ness, and a less strident upper midrange. Nothing you couldn’t achieve with a few tweaks of your own.

Speaking of Sonos, the WiiM Sound has one of Sonos’ best features: you can use the speaker as part of a stereo pair, or as a surround or center channel in a 5.1 system (when using a WiiM Amp Pro, WiiM Ultra, or Amp Ultra connected via HDMI ARC to your TV).

That’s the kind of flexibility I’ve come to expect from WiiM, and it makes investing in the company’s gear a better long-term play. WiiM hasn’t announced a soundbar product yet, but you can bet it will, and when that happens, I expect the WiiM Sound will be the logical rear speaker companion.

For the sake of brevity, I won’t detail all of the features in the WiiM Home app. Instead, check out my Sonos vs WiiM comparison. But know this: when it comes to software, WiiM is quickly becoming one of the best multi-room systems you can buy…

Features score: 4/5

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WiiM Sound review: Sound quality

Full, rich sound with excellent bass response
Technically a stereo speaker, but you won’t get true stereo sound
Two WiiM Sounds make a great stereo pair or rear 5.1 surrounds

When Audio Pro released its A10 MKII WiiM Edition speaker, I was eager to try it out, hoping that the first WiiM-compatible wireless speaker would be a strong alternative to the Sonos One and Era 100. While the A10 MKII did well with midranges and highs, it felt lacking in the lows – a key strength of Sonos’ smallest speakers.

I was worried the WiiM Sound might suffer from the same issue, but it put my fears to rest as soon as I turned it on. This speaker is everything I’d hoped it would be sonically.

Even before adding EQ tweaks like Bass Booster mode, the Sound delivers a warm resonance that complements acoustic genres like jazz. If a bigger, more bombastic low end is your thing, WiiM’s EQ presets and manual adjustments will happily oblige. It never achieves chest-thumping levels of bass, yet for a speaker of its size, it won’t disappoint. Just be mindful that if you push bass and volume to their limits, there can be some distortion.

Midrange definition and clarity are both very good, and the highs possess a pleasing brightness without becoming sharp or sibilant. One of my favourite test tracks – Birds by Dominique Fils-Aimé – reveals the WiiM Sound’s penchant for balancing subtle vocal details with low-frequency instrumentation.

Given that the WiiM Sound uses a similar acoustic design to the Sonos Era 100, it’s no surprise that these speakers have similar sound quality. However, where the WiiM Sound offers a wider soundstage for a greater sense of immersion, the Era 100 has greater cohesion and definition, especially when you’re listening position is centered on the speaker’s main axis. For more casual listening, or if you’re moving about your space, these two speakers sound very close to one another.

Stereo-pairing a set of WiiM Sounds is a treat, as it almost always is when dealing with great wireless speakers. However, WiiM’s software hasn’t quite caught up to Sonos on this feature. Grouping the two speakers and selecting their left/right channels is a breeze, but if you’ve enabled any kind of EQ tweaks or room correction on these units, there’s no way to synchronize these settings. WiiM says this is coming in the next month or so.

Being able to use the WiiM Sound as 5.1 surround channels is a lot of fun. Using a WiiM Amp Pro, a wired sub, and two bookshelf speakers, the WiiM Sounds provided a flexible and immersive experience, even for downmixed Dolby Atmos soundtracks. The same stereo pairing software caveats apply, however, so care will need to be taken in the settings for each device.

Sound quality score: 4.5/5

WiiM Sound review: Design

Larger than similar speakers
Fun display
Matches most decor

At first glance, the WiiM Sound is immediately recognizable by its built-in circular touchscreen. Now that Bose no longer makes its Home Speaker 500, the WiiM Sound is unique. It’s an eye-catching feature guaranteed to be a conversation piece when friends and family come over. I’m not going to lie: despite the fact that it’s completely unnecessary, I kinda love it.

You get a variety of display choices in the WiiM Home App, with more on the way, like custom wallpapers, and the brightness can be set manually or automatically according to your room’s ambient light. If you’d prefer to go distraction-free, it can also be turned off.

The slightly squarish, fully fabric-wrapped body (available in black, seen here, and white) should work with almost any decor. It's a wee bit taller than the Sonos Era 100, and a full inch taller than the HomePod 2. That shouldn’t be a problem for placement – you’ll likely be able to put it anywhere you’ve got an available power outlet.

Including a 3.5mm AUX input was a smart choice on WiiM’s part, since Sonos didn’t do it on the original Play:1 or the subsequent Sonos One. Even the Era 100, which can support analog, requires an optional adapter. However, I’m less crazy about the port’s placement, which is under the speaker, beside the power and Ethernet jacks. I acknowledge that putting it on the rear of the speaker wouldn’t look as good, but I think it would be worth it for the added convenience.

Most folks will likely use the WiiM Sound on a tabletop or counter, but you can also buy wall-mounts. At publication time, I haven’t seen them yet and don’t know the price.

As I mentioned above, the included remote is a really nice touch and, unlike some other remotes I’ve seen, it doesn’t feel like an afterthought.

Design score: 4.5/5

WiiM Sound review: setup and usability

WiiM Home App is powerful but still missing some features
Touch controls work well
…It's just too bad that voice control needs the remote

Getting the WiiM Sound set up is as easy as opening the WiiM Home app, plugging the speaker into power, and then waiting a few seconds for the app to detect the speaker. Once it has, you’re less than a minute away from being able to stream music from sources like Spotify and Tidal, and it only takes a few extra minutes to add Google Cast and sign into the music services supported within the app.

While music service support is good, it’s nowhere near as comprehensive as Sonos. You get most of the big names: Amazon Music, Tidal, Deezer, YouTube Music, Qobuz, Pandora, plus TuneIn, Plex, BBC Radio, and some lesser-known options. What you don’t get is Apple Music, and Spotify only works when you use the Spotify app (via Spotify Connect).

The app also guides you through the optional RoomFit tuning process and helps you sign into Amazon to set up Alexa on the WiiM Sound. Except for a hiccup on Amazon’s end, it was very straightforward and easy to do.

WiiM’s universal search quickly locates any music you have access to, including your personal collection if you have a DLNA server set up (super easy to do via Plex or Twonky) or a shared folder on a PC or NAS.

On the speaker itself, the top controls illuminate automatically when your hand approaches. That’s a slick feature, and it works well, but it would be nice to have them always on.

Now, about that touchscreen. The reason I said it’s completely unnecessary is that it replicates features that are more easily accessible from the WiiM Home app. It’s easy enough to navigate, but other than changing EQ settings and accessing presets, there isn’t that much you can do. Critically, you can’t browse for something to play – there’s no access to your streaming sources – and WiiM chose not to include the radio shortcut that comes with the WiiM Ultra.

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If you’re using the WiiM Home app to manage a single device, like the WiiM Sound, the features work much as you’d expect: You can control the playback queue, select favorites, and create playlists. WiiM’s presets feature is particularly powerful, letting you not only assign a track, album, or playlist to an available slot, but you can also use presets as shortcuts. For example, if you regularly wanted to play vinyl via the Sound, you could set a preset to switch to the line-in input, enable an EQ preset, and pick a specific volume level that’s different from the Wi-Fi level.

The tricky part comes when you add additional WiiM devices to your system. Each new streamer or speaker is treated individually in the sense that all of your streaming accounts must be added again, Google Cast must be enabled, and if the device supports Amazon Alexa, you’ll need to sign in to use it.

Playlists can also be confusing since, unlike in Sonos, they aren’t universal. In other words, playlists are content-sensitive: Tidal tracks can only be added to Tidal playlists, your personal music can only be grouped with other tracks in your library, and in some cases, like Amazon Music, you can’t save items to playlists at all. The same is true for favourites.

The only place you can mix and match content from different sources is in the presets list for each device, as each preset can trigger any audio accessible from within the WiiM Home app.

While the WiiM Home app may not be as playlist- and favorite-friendly as Sonos, it more than makes up for it with its reliability and huge selection of advanced options for power users. Interactions within the app, like changing volume, grouping/ungrouping of devices, and playing/pausing/skipping of tracks, are all snappy.

If you find that your system isn’t performing as you’d expect, there are adjustments you can make. Mesh Wi-Fi users, for instance, have the option of forcing a WiiM device to connect to a specific access point instead of roaming for signals, which can improve network reliability.

Setup & Usability score: 4/5

WiiM Sound review: Value

More expensive than Sonos
But also more full-featured
Worth it for WiiM fans

At $299, the WiiM Sound is $80 more than the Sonos Era 100, arguably its closest competitor. Given that these two speakers have very similar sound signatures, and both exist as part of a larger, multi-room wireless ecosystem, WiiM’s speaker is a costlier option. Still, WiiM offsets its higher price with more features, like an included remote, a built-in auxiliary analog input, and of course, that eye-catching touchscreen.

For WiiM fans looking to build out their multi-room systems, the WiiM Sound is an excellent choice, with better performance than the similarly WiiM-compatible AudioPro Addon A10 MKII WiiM Edition.

The only thing that keeps this smart speaker from a perfect value score is its lack of on-device, hands-free voice commands, something that most competitive models from Sonos, Apple, Amazon, Google, and Denon offer as a standard feature.

Value score: 4/5

Should you buy the WiiM Sound?

Features	The only thing missing is AirPlay and hands-free voice commands	4/5
Sound quality	Clear, powerful sound with excellent bass response and tons of EQ controls	4.5/5
Design	Simple and elegant, with a gem of a built-in display	4/5
Setup & Usability	A cinch to set up and use, though Sonos fans may find the WiiM Home app lacks some features they’re used to	4/5
Value	As long as you’re not looking for a true smart speaker you can talk to from across the room, there’s a lot here to love	4/5

Buy it if…

You’re looking for a Sonos alternative
It’s no secret that some Sonos users are unhappy with the company’s latest software, and have been looking at WiiM as an alternative. With the exception of the WiiM Sound’s lack of hands-free voice commands and Apple AirPlay, it’s a great way to start a WiiM system.

You’re already all-in on WiiM
If you own one or more of the company’s streamers and have been waiting for a compatible wireless speaker, the WiiM Sound is an excellent choice for expanding your system.

Don't buy it if…

You’re an iPhone-wielding Apple Music user
With no in-app support for Apple Music and no AirPlay, iPhone owners will only be able to stream Apple Music via Bluetooth – a lossy wireless connection. It will still sound good, but that’s not why we invest in Wi-Fi speakers, especially ones capable of 24-bit lossless audio.

You need a true smart speaker
Having a Sonos Era 100 with Amazon Alexa in the kitchen has been super handy. But would I use Alexa if I had to keep reaching for a remote? Nope. And yet that’s how Alexa works on the WiiM Sound. To use the speaker hands-free, you’ll need an Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant speaker somewhere else nearby.

WiiM Sound review: Also consider

Sonos Era 300 competitors
	WiiM Sound	Sonos Era 300	Apple HomePod 2	Sonos Era 100
Price	$299 / £299 / AU$499 (approx)	$449 / £449 / AU$749	$299 / £299 / AU$479	$249 / £249 / AU$399
Speaker drivers	2x tweeters, 1x woofer	4x tweeters, 2x woofers	5x tweeters, 1x woofer	2x tweeters, 1x midwoofer
Amplification	3x Class D amps	6x Class D amps	Not listed	3x Class D amps
Dimensions	5.7” x 5.7” x 7.5” (146 x 146 x 193 mm)	6.30 x 10.24 x 7.28 in / 160 x 260 x 185 mm	5.6 x 6.6 x 5.6 in / 142 x 168 x 142 mm	4.72 x 7.18 x 5.14 in (120 x 183 x 131 mm)
Connectivity	Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3 (transmit and receive), 3.5mm line-in, 100 Mbps Ethernet	Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0, USB-C (3.5mm line-in and Ethernet via adapter)	Wi-Fi (802.11n), Bluetooth 5.0 (not audio)	Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0, USB-C (3.5mm line-in and Ethernet via adapter)
Streaming support	WiiM Home app, DLNA, Google Cast, Tidal Connect, Spotify Connect, Roon Ready	Sonos app, Apple AirPlay 2	Apple AirPlay 2	Sonos app, Apple AirPlay 2
Voice assistant support	Amazon Alexa (via Voice Remote), compatible with Google Assistant	Alexa, Sonos Voice Control	Siri	Alexa, Sonos Voice Control
Other features	Room Correction, WiiM multi-room control, WiiM 5.1 home theater, and stereo pair options, hi-res audio up to 24-bit/192kHz	Dolby Atmos support, Sonos multi-room control, Sonos home theater option, stereo pair option	Dolby Atmos support, Thread/HomeKit smart home hub, auto-calibration, stereo pairing option, Apple TV home theater option	Sonos multi-room control, Sonos home theater option, stereo pair option

Sonos Era 100
The obvious choice for folks who want a great-sounding smart speaker that can work alone or as part of a coordinated whole-home wireless multi-room sound system.
See our in-depth Sonos Era 100 review for more. View Deal

Apple HomePod 2
While not as fully featured or as affordable as the Sonos Era 100, it sounds great and works brilliantly with all of Apple's devices, and of course, Apple Music.
Here's our full HomePod 2 review.

Denon Home 150
Less expensive than the WiiM Sound and a fair bit older, yet it's chock full of features including hi-res audio, built-in Amazon Alexa, USB storage access, and an analog input.
Consult our Denon Home 150 review to see if it's right for you. View Deal

WiiM Sound review: How I tested

Received two review samples
Tested individually, in a stereo pair and with the WiiM Amp Pro
Tested using calibration software – and without it

I received two WiiM Sound speakers and set them up as individual units, as well as in stereo-pair and surround sound configurations with a WiiM Amp Pro. I calibrated both speakers using the WiiM RoomFit tuning feature and compared the before and after results.

I tested both the top touch controls and the circular touchscreen for responsiveness and ease of use.

I streamed audio to them from third-party apps including Tidal, Qobuz, and Amazon Music to test features like Tidal Connect and Google Cast, and I also signed into these services from inside the WiiM Home app to see how they performed when used natively. I used the WiiM Home app on both iOS (iPhone 16) and Android (Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra).

During these sessions, I sampled a variety of genres, such as jazz, rock, classical, and hip-hop, and then repeated the process on the Sonos Era 100 and Apple HomePod 2 to hear how the WiiM Sound compared.

When using the WiiM Sound in surround mode, I played a variety of test clips in 5.1, stereo, and Dolby Atmos to hear how the speakers handled immersive rear channel effects.

You can read TechRadar's review guarantee here.

First reviewed: December 2025

WiiM’s first ever wireless speaker hits (almost) all the right notes

5:30 pm |

Author: admin | Category: Audio Computers Gadgets Hi-Fi Multi-Room Speakers Wireless & Bluetooth Speakers | Comments: Off

WiiM Sound: Two-minute review

Is it one of the best wireless speakers we've tested for sound, though? And crucially, is the WiiM Sound the speaker to build a new multi-room audio system with? Read on…

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WiiM Sound review: Price & release date

Released October 28th, 2025
Priced $299 / £299 / €349 (AU$499 approx.)

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WiiM Sound review: Specs

Speaker drivers	2x tweeters, 1x woofer
Amplification	3x Class D amps
Dimensions	5.7” x 5.7” x 7.5” (146 x 146 x 193 mm)
Connectivity	Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3 (transmit and receive), 3.5mm line-in, 100 Mbps Ethernet
Streaming support	WiiM Home app, DLNA, Google Cast, Tidal Connect, Spotify Connect, Roon Ready
Voice assistant support	Amazon Alexa (via Voice Remote), compatible with Google Assistant
Other features	Room Correction, WiiM multi-room control, WiiM 5.1 home theater, and stereo pair options, hi-res audio up to 24-bit/192kHz

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WiiM Sound review: Features

Very good wired and wireless connectivity, 2-way Bluetooth, but no AirPlay
Built-in 1.8-inch touchscreen display
Room Correction via iOS or Android

Still, that Bluetooth connection is versatile, letting you stream to the speaker or letting you connect a set of headphones so you can listen to the same audio privately.

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Features score: 4/5

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WiiM Sound review: Sound quality

Full, rich sound with excellent bass response
Technically a stereo speaker, but you won’t get true stereo sound
Two WiiM Sounds make a great stereo pair or rear 5.1 surrounds

I was worried the WiiM Sound might suffer from the same issue, but it put my fears to rest as soon as I turned it on. This speaker is everything I’d hoped it would be sonically.

Sound quality score: 4.5/5

WiiM Sound review: Design

Larger than similar speakers
Fun display
Matches most decor

Most folks will likely use the WiiM Sound on a tabletop or counter, but you can also buy wall-mounts. At publication time, I haven’t seen them yet and don’t know the price.

As I mentioned above, the included remote is a really nice touch and, unlike some other remotes I’ve seen, it doesn’t feel like an afterthought.

Design score: 4.5/5

WiiM Sound review: setup and usability

WiiM Home App is powerful but still missing some features
Touch controls work well
…It's just too bad that voice control needs the remote

On the speaker itself, the top controls illuminate automatically when your hand approaches. That’s a slick feature, and it works well, but it would be nice to have them always on.

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The only place you can mix and match content from different sources is in the presets list for each device, as each preset can trigger any audio accessible from within the WiiM Home app.

Setup & Usability score: 4/5

WiiM Sound review: Value

More expensive than Sonos
But also more full-featured
Worth it for WiiM fans

For WiiM fans looking to build out their multi-room systems, the WiiM Sound is an excellent choice, with better performance than the similarly WiiM-compatible AudioPro Addon A10 MKII WiiM Edition.

Value score: 4/5

Should you buy the WiiM Sound?

Features	The only thing missing is AirPlay and hands-free voice commands	4/5
Sound quality	Clear, powerful sound with excellent bass response and tons of EQ controls	4.5/5
Design	Simple and elegant, with a gem of a built-in display	4/5
Setup & Usability	A cinch to set up and use, though Sonos fans may find the WiiM Home app lacks some features they’re used to	4/5
Value	As long as you’re not looking for a true smart speaker you can talk to from across the room, there’s a lot here to love	4/5

Buy it if…

Don't buy it if…

WiiM Sound review: Also consider

Sonos Era 300 competitors
	WiiM Sound	Sonos Era 300	Apple HomePod 2	Sonos Era 100
Price	$299 / £299 / AU$499 (approx)	$449 / £449 / AU$749	$299 / £299 / AU$479	$249 / £249 / AU$399
Speaker drivers	2x tweeters, 1x woofer	4x tweeters, 2x woofers	5x tweeters, 1x woofer	2x tweeters, 1x midwoofer
Amplification	3x Class D amps	6x Class D amps	Not listed	3x Class D amps
Dimensions	5.7” x 5.7” x 7.5” (146 x 146 x 193 mm)	6.30 x 10.24 x 7.28 in / 160 x 260 x 185 mm	5.6 x 6.6 x 5.6 in / 142 x 168 x 142 mm	4.72 x 7.18 x 5.14 in (120 x 183 x 131 mm)
Connectivity	Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3 (transmit and receive), 3.5mm line-in, 100 Mbps Ethernet	Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0, USB-C (3.5mm line-in and Ethernet via adapter)	Wi-Fi (802.11n), Bluetooth 5.0 (not audio)	Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0, USB-C (3.5mm line-in and Ethernet via adapter)
Streaming support	WiiM Home app, DLNA, Google Cast, Tidal Connect, Spotify Connect, Roon Ready	Sonos app, Apple AirPlay 2	Apple AirPlay 2	Sonos app, Apple AirPlay 2
Voice assistant support	Amazon Alexa (via Voice Remote), compatible with Google Assistant	Alexa, Sonos Voice Control	Siri	Alexa, Sonos Voice Control
Other features	Room Correction, WiiM multi-room control, WiiM 5.1 home theater, and stereo pair options, hi-res audio up to 24-bit/192kHz	Dolby Atmos support, Sonos multi-room control, Sonos home theater option, stereo pair option	Dolby Atmos support, Thread/HomeKit smart home hub, auto-calibration, stereo pairing option, Apple TV home theater option	Sonos multi-room control, Sonos home theater option, stereo pair option

WiiM Sound review: How I tested

Received two review samples
Tested individually, in a stereo pair and with the WiiM Amp Pro
Tested using calibration software – and without it

I tested both the top touch controls and the circular touchscreen for responsiveness and ease of use.

When using the WiiM Sound in surround mode, I played a variety of test clips in 5.1, stereo, and Dolby Atmos to hear how the speakers handled immersive rear channel effects.

You can read TechRadar's review guarantee here.

First reviewed: December 2025

The Cosori 5L Rice Cooker review is a multifunctional appliance that delivers mixed results

4:00 pm | December 24, 2025

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Home Multi Cookers Small Appliances | Tags: Australia, Best Buy | Comments: Off

Cosori 5L Rice Cooker: one-minute review

Nowadays, rice cookers aren’t simply rice cookers. Many double as multicookers, offering a multitude of cooking functions that make them multifaceted kitchen appliances. The Cosori 5L Rice Cooker is one such rice cooker, offering more than 10 cooking modes that cover sautéeing, steaming, and even jams and cakes. However, this appliance falls short in what it should do best.

During our testing, we found the rice results to be overly dry, with clumps of overcooked grain. Far from inedible, but not the quality you’d expect from a rice cooker of this price range. The Cosori Rice Cooker’s other cooking functions present mixed results, too. In some cases, the results were excellent.

When it comes to making cakes, compotes, boiled eggs, and porridge, the quality is extremely high. However, we found its Slow Cook function a tad disappointing, and we wish we had more control over the temperature of some of the modes available.

Overcooked white rice prepared using Cosori 5L Rice Cooker — (Image credit: Future)

The design of this rice cooker is top-notch, however. It’s exceptionally easy to clean, compact for its 5L capacity, and the digital touchscreen display is a joy to use. It’s not overly pricey either, at £119.99 / $99.99 (about AU$150).

If you don’t mind experimenting a bit to get optimal results, the Cosori 5L Rice Cooker is well worth considering. But we can’t help but compare it to similarly priced competitors offering higher-quality results.

Cosori 5L Rice Cooker: price and availability

$99.99 / £119.99 at Cosori
Sold at Ubuy and Amazon in Australia for between AU$197.57 and AU$249
Available at third-party retailers like Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy

At $99.99 / £119.99 (about AU$150), the Cosori 5L Rice Cooker is a budget-to-mid-range appliance. You get extra value for your money here, as it also doubles as a multi-cooker. While it’s not the best Instant Pot alternative we’ve tested, it’s more affordable than the likes of the Instant Pot Pro ($129.99 / £149.99) and the Instant Pot Duo Crisp ($229.99 / £229.99)

However, when stacked against the likes of the Ninja Foodi PossibleCooker, which is another rice cooker that doubles as a multicooker and falls in a similar price range at $129.99 / £119.99 (about AU$200), there’s no contest. While the Cosori Rice Cooker has its benefits, performance isn’t as consistent, nor its results as high quality, as the Ninja.

Value score: 4/5

Cosori 5L Rice Cooker: specifications

Review model	CRC-R501-KUK
Number of baskets	1 cooking pot
Number of cooking functions	10+
Cooking functions and modes	White Rice (Long Grain, Short Grain, Quick), Brown Rice (Short Grain, Long Grain, Quick), Grains (Quinoa, Porridge, Mixed), Steam, Slow Cook, Soup, Sauté, Jam/Sauce, Cake, Keep Warm, Delay Timer
Accessories	Soup ladle, measuring cup, 3L steam basket, and standing rice paddle
Smart control	No
Rated power	970W
Capacity	5L
Time range	Up to 24 hours on Slow Cooker/Keep Warm modes
Dimensions	12.3in (D) x 10.6in (W) x 9.2in (H) / 312mm (D) x 269mm (W) x 234mm (H)
Weight	9.81lbs / 4.45kg
Dishwasher-safe	Yes (but we don't advise it)
Guarantee	2 years

Cosori 5L Rice Cooker: design

5L capacity cooking pot
Large, touchscreen buttons
Easily clean pot and accessories
Lines in pot indicating required water levels

Out of the box, this Cosori rice cooker comes with a black, silver-topped main base, a 5L non-stick cooking pot, a soup ladle, a measuring cup, a standing rice paddle, and a 3L steam basket. Assembling the appliance is straightforward thanks to its thorough user manual, though you may find its inner lid and steam cap a tad confusing to insert the first time.

This rice cooker isn’t overly chunky, taking up less than one kitchen counter space, and its modern matte black base, silver-topped design means it shouldn’t look out of place, no matter your kitchen’s style.

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Cosori 5L Rice Cooker display — (Image credit: Future)

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Grain cooking options on Cosori 5L Rice Cooker — (Image credit: Future)

When on, the touch-screen digital display on the front of the rice cooker lights up, displaying the rice preset options, a Keep Warm button, and a Mode button, allowing you to access other cooking functions such as Sauté and Steam. The touchscreen is easy to use, with the large buttons and digital timer display (which is even bigger) clear to see, even from a few feet away.

To open this rice cooker, you simply click the silver button on its top, and the lid springs open, revealing the heating plate and temperature sensor inside. The 5L non-stick-lined cooking pot effortlessly inserts into the space and provides a decent capacity for small to medium households. Inside the pot are lines on either side indicating where to fill the pot with water when steaming or cooking white rice, brown rice, etc., corresponding to the number of cups of grain you’ve added. These lines, when combined with your measuring cup and the user manual’s quick reference chart, make it easier to balance your water-to-grain ratio when cooking.

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Measurement lines inside Cosori 5L Rice Cooker — (Image credit: Future)

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Cosori 5L Rice Cooker with steam basket inserted — (Image credit: Future)

This non-stick pot was probably the easiest cooking pot we’ve cleaned in our time testing appliances. By filling the pot with warm soapy water and wiping it with the soft side of a sponge, we found rice, porridge, and even compote residue could be removed with minimal effort. While Cosori says the pot and accessories are dishwasher safe, we don’t advise cleaning anything with a non-stick coating in a dishwasher, as it could damage the non-stick lining.

Just ensure you also clean the inner pot lid and its steam cap after each use. This has a few more crevices, and the lid needs to be disassembled for proper cleaning, but the process is, again, pretty easy. The same can be said of the inside of the base, which can be easily wiped with a cloth.

The accompanying 3L steam basket neatly fits into the inner pot, but we wish it had some non-metallic handles to make removal after cooking easier (and safer).

Cosori 5L Rice Cooker grain cooking chart — (Image credit: Future)

In addition to its user manual, the Cosori 5L Rice Cooker comes with a quick reference guide that includes tips for cooking, the grain chart, and a quick rundown of how to set up the appliance and cook white/brown rice. This is handy if you don’t want to flick through the user manual. The rice cooker also comes with a recipe book featuring global recipes that utilise its various functions. We always love the flavour of Cosori recipes, so we highly recommend trying these out.

Cosori 5L Rice Cooker: performance

Variety of cooking modes and rice presets
Rice was overcooked
No control over temperature
Cake function is excellent

The Cosori 5L rice cooker is positioned first and foremost as just that: a rice cooker. Unfortunately, we found its rice cooking capabilities to be lower quality than its other cooking functions.

This appliance has several presets for rice and grains. For white and brown rice, you can specify short grain, long grain, or quick cook (which takes less time but results in harder rice, according to the user manual). We added two cups of washed, long-grain white rice to the pot, filled it to the respective line in the pot, and selected the White Rice/Long Grain option, which takes 50 minutes. This is in line with some rice cookers, but slightly longer than cooking on the hob.

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White rice in Cosori 5L Rice Cooker with liquid filled to line — (Image credit: Future)

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Clump of overcooked rice prepared using Cosori 5L Rice Cooker — (Image credit: Future)

When running, the rice cooker is surprisingly quiet, registering around 32 decibels (about the volume of a whisper), but when cooking is complete, it lets out several loud beeps that you can easily hear from another room. After using the rice paddle to fluff the rice, we found clumps of overcooked rice in the batch, and the results were, overall, quite dry. In case it was an error on our part, we tried again with the Quick Cook option, which takes 39 minutes. While the dry clumps were less prevalent, there were still enough to make the results less than ideal.

We had the same issue with long-grain brown rice. On the relevant preset, it took 75 minutes, much longer than on a hob, even though brown rice takes longer to cook. Again, we found the results to be overcooked and quite dry, with several clumps of chewy grain. Edible, but not the high quality we’d expect.

Dry brown rice prepared using Cosori 5L Rice Cooker — (Image credit: Future)

It’s disappointing, as the Cosori 5L Rice Cooker’s other functions work pretty well. We tested several recipes from the Recipe Booklet, which utilises the different cooking functions, and were generally impressed by the results (though it was a mixed bag).

Following the Spiced Carrot & Lentil Soup recipe, we used the sautée function (accessed through Modes) to sauté onions and cumin seeds to perfection. Our only gripe here was that the pot gets very hot, and there seems to be no control over its temperature settings, so you need to be careful not to overcook in this mode. After sautéeing, we were able to seamlessly move to the Soup function, and after 45 minutes, we had a lovely chunky soup with soft carrots ready for blending.

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Onions sauteed using Cosori 5L Rice Cooker — (Image credit: Future)

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Soup cooked using Cosori 5L Rice Cooker — (Image credit: Future)

The Jam/Sauce mode is impressive, too. We followed the Strawberry-Thyme Compote recipe, which requires the lid to be open, and had a delicious compote after 15 minutes: soft chunks of strawberry, plenty of tang, and just the right consistency.

This (perhaps minus the thyme) pairs well with porridge. We were surprised that, despite the rice cooking issues, the Porridge preset (under Grains) provided excellent results. We added two cups of rolled oats to the pot and filled the pot to the corresponding water/liquid line for porridge. While it took 30 minutes to get there, the porridge consistency was spot on.

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Cooled fruit compote prepared using Cosori 5L Rice Cooker — (Image credit: Future)

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Porridge cooked using Cosori 5L Rice Cooker — (Image credit: Future)

The Steam function, too, provided great results. For steaming, you add water to the steam line in the pot, then place the steam basket into the pot. We followed the recipe for a soft-boiled egg, adding two eggs to the basket. For steaming, there’s some preheating required. While it doesn’t tell you how long preheating takes, the digital display shows when the rice cooker is preheating and beeps when finished. We were concerned this preheat time would impact cooking, as the eggs were in the basket during that time, and it wasn’t accounted for in its six minutes of cooking time, but the results were excellent. The egg yolk was runny and yellow, the white cooked but not overdone.

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Boiled egg prepared using Cosori 5L Rice Cooker — (Image credit: Future)

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Slow cooked pasta sauce prepared using Cosori 5L Rice Cooker — (Image credit: Future)

Again, following a recipe from the provided book, we made the Slow Cooked Sunday Sauce, which utilises the Sauté and Slow Cooker modes. We found the pot’s width to be somewhat of a restriction here. The recipe advises cooking your meat in batches, and we did, but there wasn’t a huge amount of room to ensure our chuck beef could layer along the bottom without several batch cooks.

The pot prioritizes depth capacity, so don’t expect it to act as a de facto hob in Sauté mode. After sautéeing our meat and veg in several batches and adding the necessary ingredients, we set the appliance to Slow Cook for four hours. After four hours, the sauce itself was delicious. However, the fat on the beef chuck hadn’t rendered, despite braising, and we were left with inedible, chewy fat on our meat. It’s a shame, because the meat was otherwise cooked well, though not necessarily melt-in-your-mouth.

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Slice of frosted chocolate cake baked using Cosori 5L Rice Cooker — (Image credit: Future)

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Unfrosted chocolate cake baked using Cosori 5L Rice Cooker — (Image credit: Future)

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Frosted chocolate cake baked using Cosori 5L Rice Cooker — (Image credit: Future)

The best results we got by a mile, however, were for cake. Of all things. We were understandably very sceptical of a rice cooker’s ability to bake a cake. We followed the Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting recipe in the book, which requires making the batter separately before pouring it into the greased inner pot and selecting the Cake mode. After 70 minutes, we had a (slightly oddly shaped) chocolate cake that was delicious. The cake was moist but not wet and somehow light. In my husband’s words: “It’s the best chocolate sponge I’ve ever had.”

The Cosori 5L Rice Cooker is a mixed bag when it comes to performance, but we’re particularly disappointed in its rice-cooking abilities. You potentially could, with some experimentation (like adding more water than suggested), get better results, but if you want a rice cooker that makes perfect, fluffy rice each time, this may not be the appliance for you.

Performance score: 3.5/5

Should you buy the Cosori 5L Rice Cooker?

Cosori 5L Rice Cooker: score card
Attribute	Notes	Score
Value	This rice cooker is good value for what it offers, but competitor products offer better performance for the same price range.	4/5
Design	A dream to clean and use, this appliance is quiet and easy to use.	5/5
Performance	We had subpar results with rice cooking and a mixed bag when it came to other cooking modes.	3.5/5

Buy it if

You will use its various cooking functions

This rice cooker offers a multitude of cooking functions, covering sautéing, steaming, and even cooking cakes or jams. If you like to cook a range of dishes in your kitchen, or just experiment with new things, it's worth considering this appliance. Not sure where to start? We highly recommend trying the recipes in the accompanying recipe book.

You're looking for a budget-to-mid-range multicooker/rice cooker

Considering this rice cooker doubles as a multicooker, its £119.99 / $99.99 price tag is good value, especially compared to the $200+ price tag of some multicookers. So, if you’re on a budget, it’s worth considering if you think you’ll make the most of its various functions.

You want an easy-to-clean appliance

This is probably the easiest-to-clean appliance I've ever tested. Whether you’re dealing with porridge or compote residue, minimal elbow grease is needed due to the cooking pot’s exceptional non-stick coating.

Don't buy it if

You want effortless, perfect rice every time

As we’ve said, we found this appliance’s rice-cooking capabilities subpar. With some experimentation, you may be able to achieve optimal results, but if you want perfect fluffy rice every time, with minimal exertion, you may be better off considering an alternative.

You won't use all its functions

If you simply want a rice cooker – nothing more, nothing less – then this may not be the appliance for you. There’s no point getting an appliance that doubles as a multicooker if you won’t use its multi-cooking functions. Instead, you can purchase a quality rice cooker, with no extra bells and whistles, for less than $100.

You want consistency across all cooking functions

While we were hugely impressed by several of the Cosori 5L Rice Cooker's functions, others didn't quite hit the mark. So, if you want exceptional quality across the board, it's worth considering an alternative, such as the Ninja Foodi PossibleCooker.View Deal

I played Yakuza Kiwami on Nintendo Switch 2, and the Dragon of Dojima’s debut feels as good as ever

2:00 pm |

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Gaming | Tags: Nintendo Switch, RPG | Comments: Off

The Dragon of Dojima has smashed his way onto the Nintendo Switch 2 once again – this time with a port of Yakuza Kiwami – a remake of the first game released in Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio’s iconic series. This excellent action role-playing game (RPG) has landed on Nintendo’s latest console almost ten years after its initial release on PS3 and PS4, so does it hold up?

Review info

Platform reviewed: Nintendo Switch 2
Available on: Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC
Release date: November 13, 2025 (Switch 2 version)

Well, before I answer that and get into the nitty-gritty, allow me to set the scene.

Yakuza Kiwami follows the story of Kazuma Kiryu – a yakuza who is expelled from the Tojo Clan after being accused of murdering his patriarch, Sohei Dojima. After spending ten years in prison, Kiryu is forced to find his feet in truly chaotic circumstances. His childhood friend, Yumi, has gone missing. His sworn brother Nishiki is spiralling after being appointed as a yakuza boss. And the Tojo Clan is frantically searching for 10 billion yen, which has seemingly been stolen. The story is compelling as ever, and kept me engaged from start to finish.

I’ve spent more than 15 hours playing through the main and side stories in Yakuza Kiwami for Nintendo Switch 2. And as someone who played – and thoroughly enjoyed – the PS4 version of this remake, my hopes were pretty high. Here’s how it stacked up against my expectations.

Making the Switch 2 a new console

Kiryu attacks a ruffian in Yakuza Kiwami — (Image credit: Sega)

Good news, Yakuza fans, this is a very strong port of Kiwami. First of all, the game runs at an impressive 60fps, which is the same as the PS4 version. I was glad to see that the framerate rarely ever dropped with my Switch 2 docked or in handheld mode, keeping the action flowing when it mattered most.

There was the very occasional drop during heat actions, but this was minor and had no impact on gameplay whatsoever. The title also displays at 1080p, meaning you get very solid performance, all things considered. Of course, as a port of a decade-old game, the visuals aren’t the flashiest, but Kiwami certainly looks as good as you’d hope on Switch 2.

Other than one cutscene in Chapter 1, which appeared to be a little low-res, in-game movies also looked as good as they did on PS4. The murkiness of 2005 Kamurocho, the vibrancy of yakuza fashion, and the character animations all look as character-filled as I’d hoped.

Another good thing about the Switch 2 version is that load times have been kept nice and brief. So, whether you’re heading into a fast food joint or going to the Serena bar, transitions feel swift and seamless.

Best bit

Kiryu attacks Majima with a human-sized cone in Yakuza Kiwami — (Image credit: Sega)

Majima just loves getting beaten up by Kiryu. Only to help the Dragon of Dojima ‘get stronger’, apparently. Anyway, I found him hiding under a giant cone and then used it to crush him in combat. The sheer creativity of this series never fails to wow me.

Yakuza Kiwami isn’t only nice to look at and smooth performing, but it’s also a joy to control on Switch 2. I mainly played through it with the Joy-Con 2 controllers, piecing combos together, switching into different battle styles, and general movement feels just like it should.

There are a few small options that also help to make this a great port. For instance, you can carry over data from the original Nintendo Switch version of the game, straight onto Switch 2 if you’re mid-way through your adventure, say. There are also more text languages available than in the PS4 version, for example, which is a nice touch. And obviously, being on Switch 2, you can also play on the go, which is a key reason to pick this edition over home console alternatives.

Overall, this is a great way to play Yakuza Kiwami – an awesome game in its own right. Speaking of, let’s talk a little more about the game itself, which has been a favorite of mine for a number of years.

KIRYU-CHAN!

Majima in a police uniform in Yakuza Kiwami — (Image credit: Sega)

Yakuza Kiwami’s story covers some pretty heavy ground. Kiryu aims to help a vulnerable child find her mother; he has to survive in an increasingly hostile Kamurochō, and the internal politics of the Tojo Clan leave him in some extremely precarious situations. But the heaviness of Kiwami’s story is weighted against some truly bizarre – oftentimes hilarious – sub-stories and events.

Perhaps the most obvious example I can think of is just about every interaction with Goro Majima, who is nicknamed ‘The Mad Dog of Shimano’. This troublemaker has a sadomasochistic obsession with Kiryu and will fight you at every turn through a battle system called Majima Everywhere. He claims this is to revive the ‘true’ Dragon of Dojima – the full-strength Kiryu that existed before spending a decade imprisoned.

Usually, you’ll just have a scrap in the streets of Kamurochō, but some of your encounters are phenomenally bizarre. Majima will dress up as a police officer, hide in a comically oversized traffic cone, and even get into drag. All with the purpose of fighting you. There are so many hilarious moments, and these episodes will make it clear why Majima is such a fan favorite.

As you continue to battle it out and improve your Majima Everywhere rank, you’ll unlock skills for the Dragon combat style. This is a bit different, as you simply spend EXP to gain proficiency in the other styles: Brawler, Rush, and Beast. I’d argue that the pure volume of fights required to advance the Majima Everywhere plotline and gain all of the Dragon skills is too high, and can grow tiresome after a while. But still, there are a lot of brilliant moments sprinkled throughout this segment of the game.

My Judgement

Two policemen tell Kiryu to 'freeze' in Yakuza Kiwami — (Image credit: Sega)

I mentioned EXP earlier, which you gain through beating street punks, defeating bosses, eating food…you name it. This can be spent on upgrading health, learning combat skills, and the like. The way your power scales as the game goes on feels fitting for a yakuza who’s been long out of the game, and adding new moves into the mix as you become more familiar with the combat system is a strong design choice.

And speaking of combat, it’s seriously addictive. The various battle styles are well-differentiated, piecing together combos feels satisfying, and building up your heat gauge to unleash powerful – and sometimes zany – finishing moves is seriously gratifying. You’re not getting the most complex or deep action mechanics ever, but that’s honestly not a flaw – the fact that the simplistic combat feels this rewarding is a feat in itself.

Before I come to my conclusion, I have to mention that the story is executed very well overall. There are plenty of twists and turns, plenty of emotion-filled moments, and a wonderful cast of characters. You’ll have the odd errand to run in the main story, and this can slightly disrupt the pace of the adventure, but aside from these occasional bumps in the road, Kiwami is a real blast to play through.

There are also some funny, action-packed, and plot-enriching sub-stories to explore. Most of these are non-essential, but you can get some amazing rewards if you take the time to see them through. You’ll hear a ton of groovy and heartfelt tracks throughout these substories, and just in Kamurochō generally, which I regularly come back to listen to.

All in all, Yakuza Kiwami is great on Nintendo Switch 2. This version runs smoothly and looks very good for the most part, although the game does, of course, show its older-gen roots. Load times are short, everything feels easy to control, and the game itself is strong in terms of its narrative, gameplay, and soundtrack. If you haven’t played Yakuza Kiwami yet, then it’s all too easy to recommend it on Nintendo Switch 2.

Should you play Yakuza Kiwami on Nintendo Switch 2?

Kiryu stands beside a dog in Yakuza Kiwami — (Image credit: Sega)

Play it if...

You want to enjoy Yakuza on the go
This is a smooth-performing and good-looking version of Yakuza Kiwami, whether played in docked mode or handheld mode. Being able to take Kiryu’s journey on the go is a massive plus, and the Switch 2 version is a very solid one indeed.

You’re looking for a more digestible RPG
Sure, if you were to take on all of the substories, you could probably spend more than 80 hours in Yakuza Kiwami. However, players taking on the main story and a small bit of side content can expect to see the adventure through in around 20-25 hours. If you want a shorter action RPG to blast through, Kiwami is a nice choice.

Don't play it if...

You’re new to the series
It may seem counterintuitive, but the first game in the series isn’t the best to start with, in my view. For Switch 2 players, I’d recommend picking up Yakuza 0 Director’s Cut first. This is a prequel to Kiwami and takes you through the backstory of Kiryu and Majima, and even touches on how their paths intersect.

You’re expecting real next-gen magic
This is a port of an almost decade-old remake, so if you’re expecting some flashy next-gen magic, you may be disappointed.

Accessibility features

There are quite a few options available in the settings menu, like camera control customization, subtitles in a range of languages, different difficulty and gore levels, and the choice to toggle display tips on or off. Unfortunately, there’s no colorblind mode, though, which would’ve been a nice touch.

How I reviewed Yakuza Kiwami on Nintendo Switch 2

Kiryu stands outside a fast food joint in Yakuza Kiwami — (Image credit: Sega)

I spent more than 15 hours playing through the main story and a handful of side stories in Yakuza Kiwami on Nintendo Switch 2. I usually played in docked mode, with my Switch 2 console connected to the Sky Glass Gen 2 TV and Marshall Heston 120 soundbar. However, I did play in handheld mode on occasion, where I usually listened to in-game audio with my Sony WH-1000XM6 headphones.

I’ve played Yakuza Kiwami on the PS4 before, and spent in excess of 50 hours on the game. As a result, I had a strong understanding of what would make this a successful port. I’m also a big fan of the Yakuza series in general, with Yakuza 0 standing as my favorite game in the franchise.

More generally, I’ve been a Nintendo Switch 2 owner from launch, and have reviewed a wide range of games for the console. This includes other RPGs like Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake and Raidou Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army, but also titles from other genres, like Kirby Air Riders and Drag x Drive.

First reviewed December 2025

SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7P Gen 2 review: a highly versatile headset that’s become my daily driver

1:00 pm |

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Gaming | Tags: EQ, Google Pixel | Comments: Off

SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7P Gen 2: two-minute review

If you’re looking for a PS5 headset that boasts unrivaled customization options, the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7P Gen 2 is an endlessly versatile wireless gaming headset option. And while it is indeed a tweaked version of the multiplatform model, one that swaps out the control wheel on the right earcup for one that dials in sidetone, this headset can be used on a whole host of platforms to great effect.

After using the headset for 100 hours, I’ve found myself keeping it on for music listening and work calls throughout the day. It’s a Gen 2 version of an existing headset, with a larger battery that I’ve found to be good for just over 50 hours, and a few extras in terms of software compatibility. Having also used a SteelSeries Arctis Nova 5 review, I can say with confidence that this is a big step up in terms of user experience and comfort.

All in all, the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7P offers everything I want from a PS5 headset, and I’ve been impressed by the custom audio profiles for games like Fortnite and Alan Wake 2. While the Arctis app is easy to use on mobile, some features, like creating custom EQ profiles, are locked to the desktop app. I’d love to see full functionality on the mobile app, as having to jump between devices to use the full suite of features is a little frustrating. Similarly, you have to use the desktop app to update firmware.

Audio quality for the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7P is great across the board and has held up while I’ve been testing the headset with gaming, work calls, and music listening sessions.

There’s a handful of music EQ profiles to play around with, and they offer the usual Bright, Heavy, Bass Boost options you’ll find on most EQing programmes these days. I love the fact that Side Tone is controlled via a wheel on the right ear cup, as it allows me to dial it up for online, voice-chat heavy games, and then back down for when I’m playing a single player title.

Black headphones from the side, with a retractable microphone extended — (Image credit: SteelSeries)

Battery life was pretty much bang on the 54 hours claimed by the manufacturer (my estimate was 52 hours following a full charge), though I did find that the battery drained a little quicker when using both the Bluetooth and 2.4Ghz functions simultaneously. As such, I never actually ran out of battery (besides the testing for battery life), as a quick charge at the end of the day would boost the headset up enough to last comfortably more than the following day’s usage.

Retractable microphones are my preference in a gaming headset, and I’ve really appreciated being able to neatly slot away the microphone while I’m using the headset for music or single-player games. Other gaming headsets I’ve owned have had detachable microphones, and sooner or later, they get misplaced, rendering the device useless for certain kinds of games. The red light that indicates muting is a nice touch too, giving me a clear signal that, yes, I am indeed muted on a call once again.

I’ve unfortunately also had two instances requiring me to hard-reset the device. This seems to happen due to an endless cycling of the Bluetooth pairing when connecting and reconnecting between multiple devices. To reset the headset, you have to remove the foam from one of the earcups and then use a pin to poke down into a very tiny hole.

This isn’t ideal, and particularly frustrating when you don’t have the right tool on hand to initiate the fix. I’ve kept the headset’s firmware updated throughout this review, so for now, I’m unable to say whether this issue is something that’s prevalent and planned to be fixed.

Black headphones resting on a green surface — (Image credit: SteelSeries)

SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7P Gen 2: price and availability

List price: $199 / £179.99 / AU$399
More expensive than the Gen 1 version at launch, which was $179.99 / £174.99 (about AU$310)
Competitive pricing with a great feature set that matches rivals

The SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7P launched in October 2025. It’s positioned somewhere in the middle of the mid-range premium gaming headsets in terms of cost, and it’s in-line, though slightly more expensive than the Gen 1 version due to its refreshed and updated feature set.

At $199 / £179.99 / AU$399, the headset has a number of competitors like the Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 3. It’s exactly the same price as the Stealth 700 Gen 3, and shares many of the same features, though the Turtle Beach has the SteelSeries beat on battery life by a considerable margin.

Then there’s the Razer Kraken V4, a cheaper alternative ($179 / £179 / AU$329) to the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7P. You get a little less battery life and THX Spatial Audio, which really improves the audio experience. Unfortunately, this THX Spatial Audio is only available on PC, so if you’re a console gamer, you may find the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7P’s suite of software features a lot more useful in your setup.

For the price, the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7P does offer great value for money in terms of build quality and features. It doesn’t have Active Noise Control (ANC), though you can’t find another headset that does in this price range. In fact, ANC is very uncommon in the gaming space as of yet, so for now at least, the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7P feels fully featured.

It’s also worth mentioning that, despite having launched in October of this year, there have already been deals and discounts for Black Friday that brought the headset down by $20 on average. Even if you can’t find a deal on the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7P headset, it’s still great value for money for what you’re getting.

Black headphones resting on a black stand, against an orange and green background — (Image credit: Future)

SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7P Gen 2: specs

	SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7P Gen 3
Price	$199 / £179.99 / AU$399
Weight	11.5oz / 326g
Drivers	40mm carbon fiber with brass surround
Compatibility	PS5, PS4, Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, PC, Mac, Mobile
Connection type	Wireless (2.4Ghz via dongle), Wired (audio jack), Bluetooth
Battery life	54 hours
Features	Retractable boom noise-cancelling microphone, Simultaneous wireless and Bluetooth audio, AirWeave memory foam ear cup material, Fast Charge (6 hours in 15 minutes).
Software	SteelSeries GG/Sonar, SteelSeries Arctis Companion App (iOS & Android)

SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7P Gen 2: design and features

Comfortable and lightweight design that feels sleek and unobstructive
Simultaneous 2.4Ghz wireless and Bluetooth audio is a real winner
Three cleanly designed colorways

The SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7P comes in three colors: Black, White, and Pink, though the design largely follows the same of other Arctis Nova headsets. Comparing it to my own SteelSeries Arctis Nova 5, the 7P is noticeably improved in build quality. It’s slightly heavier, and the headband is a PVD (Physical Vapour Deposition)-coated steel that’s much more sturdy. At a glance, however, this is the same design we’ve seen from other SteelSeries gaming headsets, just a little bit more premium-feeling.

In comparison to the weight of competitors like the Turtle Beach Stealth 700 (14.3oz / 408g) and the Kraken V4 (12.3oz / 397g), the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7P is noticeably lighter (11.3oz / 326g). I often find gaming headsets too bulky and heavy for extended use, though the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7P has been superbly comfortable to wear all day. I was given the Black color variant for review, and it’s a big upgrade on the White model I’ve used for the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 5 (which discolored and yellowed a little after a few months of use).

Another thing I like about this headset is the retractable microphone. It slots neatly into the left earcup and can be pulled out and replaced smoothly. There’s even a small red LED on the tip of the microphone to indicate when the device is muted. Personally, I need a little bit of Side Tone in my gaming headsets, which usually plays back a bit of my speech audio into the headset while using the microphone. The 7P version here has an adjustable dial on the right earcup to adjust Side Tone, a nice feature that’s exclusive to the PlayStation-centric version I’ve been testing

A small black USBC dongle — (Image credit: Future)

There’s a mute button, a volume wheel, and two pairing buttons that activate Bluetooth and 2.4GHz connections, respectively. These all feel solid, though there’s nothing particularly interesting to report about them. Other headsets might use a click here and there on their volume wheels, but I can’t say I was left wanting with the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7P’s more straightforward offering.

This 7P variant is multiplatform across PC, mobile, Mac, PS5, PS4, Nintendo Switch 2, Meta Quest 2 and Quest 3, and Nintendo Switch, as are the 7 and 7X variants. The difference between the models is that in the 7, the right ear cup has a chatmix volume wheel (tailored for PC functionality), rather than the 7P and the 7X’s Side Tone wheel. The PS5 doesn’t use chatmix, so the Side Tone wheel is more useful if you’re primarily playing on PlayStation. If you want proper Xbox compatibility, the 7X is the headset that’ll connect to Xbox devices. The 7 and 7P will not.

Having separate buttons for each connection type works like a charm, and they even have slightly different sound effects upon activation. This streamlines a potentially finicky process that can often crop up with simultaneous connectivity devices like this.

Black headphones on a black headphone stand against an orange background — (Image credit: Future)

SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7P Gen 2: performance

Fantastic sound across gaming, music, and work calls
Arctis app’s custom game profiles truly make a difference
Comfortable and versatile enough to become a daily driver

The SteelSeries Arctis 7P excels in audio quality, mostly leaning on the Arctis app to offer a deep level of customization in how your in-game audio is mixed. I’ve played hundreds of hours of online games like Fortnite, Battlefield 6 and Arc Raiders using the headset, and found in-game audio to rise to the occasion, regardless of what I’m playing. I often chose to use the headset without the companion app, instead relying on default settings to play a whole host of games. I found the audio to be well-balanced and with adequate levels of bass without needing to tweak things in-game.

Similarly, the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7P will perform great when streaming music, though it’s not really positioned as a music-first product, lacking noise cancelling and the clarity you’ll get from a dedicated set of more audio-focused headphones.

Generally, the headset features solid audio quality and performance in default settings, with very few issues with stuttering or streaming, whether connected to Bluetooth or 2.4Ghz signals. I had quite a few problems with the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 5 in this respect, frequently finding that my audio would glitch or cut out entirely from time to time. Whatever’s been finetuned for the 7P model has ironed out these issues completely, and I’ve had a very smooth experience switching between Bluetooth and 2.4Ghz modes so far.

A huge plus point of the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7P is its compatibility with the companion Arctis app, which adds flexibility and features. You can download the Arctis app on your phone, and from there you can tweak the Bluetooth audio, the 2.4Ghz audio, and microphone profiles on the fly. It’s a robust app that has custom profiles for games like Battlefield 6, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, and Fortnite.

Black headphones on a black stand, on a green surface — (Image credit: Future)

In online competitive titles, enemy footsteps are bumped up in the EQ mix, and the difference is stark. Having spent around a hundred hours playing Arc Raiders on the headset with the “FPS Footsteps” custom profile enabled, I’ve been able to hear enemies sneaking up behind me, saving me from a potential ambush.

Unfortunately, custom EQ settings are locked to the desktop app, so if you want to make your own audio profiles, you’ll need to load up another device. I’d like to see this compatibility added to the mobile app, as having to open up my laptop and connect my headset to a separate platform really complicates what should be a simple process.

Microphone quality isn’t perfect out of the box, but after some tweaking in the Arctis app, it sounds great when playing online with other players. At this price point, the audio quality from the microphone is standard, but nothing to write home about, though I’ve had reports from my regular gaming group that the microphone sounds noticeably better than on my SteelSeries Arctis Nova 5.

All in all, however, I have very few gripes with how the Steel Series Arctis Nova 7P performs day to day. The simultaneous Bluetooth and 2.4Ghz connections have made the headset a staple for me, whether I’m gaming, working, or chatting to pals on Discord.

Black headphones on a headphone stand, next to a blue product box. — (Image credit: Future)

Should I buy the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7P Gen 2?

Buy it if...

You want a comfortable and light gaming headset
The Steel Series Arctis Nova 7P is the most comfortable gaming headset I’ve reviewed so far. It’s noticeably lighter than its direct competitors, while still having great build quality and a sturdy headband.

You want custom audio profiles for games like Fortnite
Arctis offers custom audio profiles specifically tailored for a whole host of games. Some amplify enemy footsteps, while others bump up the high-end to do justice to soaring orchestral soundtracks.

You want to run two audio streams simultaneously
The SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7P offers simultaneous Bluetooth and 2.4GHz wireless audio streams. This means you can run your Discord chat over Bluetooth, and your game audio through 2.4Ghz. This is seamless and very easy to manage on the fly.

Don't buy it if...

You want to make your own EQ profiles easily
Unfortunately, you’ll need to use a desktop app to create and manage EQs you’ve made yourself. This is frustrating, as the mobile app has every other piece of functionality covered. Still, this is a niche issue, and most won’t need to open their desktop even once.

SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7P Gen 2: Also consider

Still not sold on the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7P? Here are two competitors that might better fit your needs.

	SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7P Gen 3	Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 3	Razer Kraken V4
Price	$199 / £179.99 / AU$399	$199.99 / £179.99 / AU$399.95	$179 / £179 / AU$329
Weight	11.5oz / 326g	14.3oz / 405g	12.3oz / 350g
Drivers	40mm carbon fiber with brass surround	60mm Eclipse™ Dual Drivers	Razer TriForce Titanium 40mm Drivers
Compatibility	PS5, PS4, Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, PC, Mac, Mobile	PC, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, Android, iOS	PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Steam Deck, Android, iOS
Connection type	Wireless (2.4Ghz via dongle), Wired (audio jack), Bluetooth	Wired (USB-A), Wireless (2.4GHz, Bluetooth 5.2)	Wired (USB-A), Wireless (Bluetooth 5.3, 2.4GHz USB dongle)
Battery life	54 hours	80 hours	Up to 50 hours
Features	Retractable boom noise-cancelling microphone, Simultaneous wireless and Bluetooth audio, AirWeave memory foam ear cup material, Fast Charge (6 hours in 15 minutes).	Flip-to-mute mic with AI noise reduction, CrossPlay Dual transmitters, remappable Mode button, and wheel	Razer HyperSpeed Wireless technology, Retractable Razer HyperClear Super Wideband Mic, THX Spatial Audio
Software	SteelSeries GG/Sonar, SteelSeries Arctis Companion App (iOS & Android)	Swarm 2	Razer Synapse

Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 3 Wireless
The closest competitor to the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7P is the Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 3. It’s exactly the same price, but it does have more battery life. It’s also much heavier, however, and overall has a much more bulky design.

For more information, check out our full Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 3 review.View Deal

Razer Kraken V4
The Kraken V4 is a slightly cheaper alternative here. It has more bespoke technology applied to its microphone and audio drivers, with particular care taken to ensure the microphone quality punches well above its weight. The battery life is only slightly less than the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7P’s, and it similarly features a retractable design for its microphone.

For more information, check out our full Razer Kraken V4 review.View Deal

How I tested the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7P Gen 2

Tested daily for a month, between gaming and work sessions
Used primarily on PS5 Pro, but also on my MacBook Air, and Google Pixel 7
Compared directly to the Steel Series Arctis Nova 5, which I’ve now used daily for over a year

The SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7P has become my daily driver for the last month or so. I’ve been using it as my main gaming headset, playing Arc Raiders and Fortnite with pals online. I’ve also used the headset for work, joining meetings and presentations, and using the microphone to speak. I’ve regularly had both audio streams running simultaneously using the Bluetooth and 2.4Ghz wireless functions, especially while gaming.

On my PS5 Pro, I’ve tested the custom audio profiles in the Arctis app. Audio for Fortnite, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and Battlefield 6 all offered distinct differences when paired with their respective custom profiles. Primarily, I’ve played around 60 hours of Arc Raiders, a game where audio is particularly vital. The FPS Footsteps profile saved my life a bunch of times by lifting low-end audio and making enemy footsteps clear and pronounced.

On my MacBook Air, I used the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7P to listen to music, and applied some of the dedicated music profiles from the Arctis app to test audio quality. During my testing, I was able to compare the headset to the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 5 and noted the upgrades offered by the newer version. I also paired the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7P to my Google Pixel 7 to test calls, Discord Mobile audio, and to access the Arctis app’s full suite of features.

First reviewed October-December 2025

Eufy E25 Omni: two-minute review

Hybrid robot vacuum-and-mops have come a long way in the last few years, and the Eufy E25 Omni is the latest example of bots that are capable of tackling both tasks to a high standard. I tested one for two weeks to see how it compares to the rest of the best robot vacuums on the market, and I was generally very impressed.

The E25 Omni offered solid performance in my vacuuming tests and was especially efficient at clearing fine dust. However, despite the squared-off shape and dual side sweepers, the edge cleaning wasn't the best. The AI-based automatic adjustment failed to recognize my spillage and bump up mop settings to clear it, but with manual tweaking to Max mode, this bot delivered some of the best mopping I've seen.

Navigation was reliable, as was obstacle avoidance. However, the E25 Omni proved a little fussy when it came to the initial mapping stages – I had to clear my floors to achieve a complete map. Meanwhile, the app is intuitive to use and offers a range of ways to operate the robot, including scheduled cleans, zone cleaning and the ability to change the intensity of vacuuming or mopping.

At full price it's expensive, but regular deals take the price down and deliver better value for money. That's the short version; read on for my full Eufy E25 Omni review.

Eufy E25 Omni robot vacuum in its dock — (Image credit: Future)

Eufy E25 Omni review: price & availability

List price: $1299.99 / £849 / AU$1799.95
Launched: May 2025
Availability: Worldwide

Officially, the E25 Omni is a premium robot vacuum, costing $1299.99 / £849 / AU$1799.95 at sticker price. However, you shouldn't read too much into that list price – the manufacturer offers regular, steep discounts and the Amazon price history shows it is rarely full price. With an average price of around US$750 it's still not cheap, but it does compare well with equivalent flagship hybrids like the Roborock Qrevo Curv or the Ecovacs Deebot X11 Omnicyclone.

In terms of value for money, the E25 is a very good robot vacuum and it does a lot to justify its high price point. However, it's worth considering the ongoing costs too. Replacement dust bags and floor cleaning solution are available from Eufy, with dust bags costing US$16.99 for 3 and the solution $20.99 a bottle. Third party dust bags are available for cheaper, although I can't confirm their compatibility.

Value for money score: 4 out of 5

Eufy E25 Omni specs

Max suction:	20,000 Pa
Robot size (L x W):	12.8 x 13.7in / 32.6 x 34.8cm
Robot height:	4.4in / 11.2cm
Dock dimensions (W x D x H):	14.6 x 19.1 x 17.3in / 37.2 x 48.4 x 43.9 cm
Mop type:	Roller
Max threshold clearance:	Not stated
Dust bin volume (onboard):	Not stated
Dust bin volume (base):	3L
Water tank volume:	2.5L (clean), 1.5L (dirty)
Base functions:	Self empty, refill water, clean and dry roller mop

Eufy E25 Omni review: design

Rounded square with two side sweepers, spit main roller and roller mop
Relatively compact dock takes care of a range of maintenance tasks
Dock has a useful transparent water tank

The Eufy E25 is a rounded square robot vacuum with a raised nodule housing the LiDAR for navigation. Flip it over and you'll find a roller that's equipped with bristles and rubbery fins, and is split in the middle to try and combat hair tangling, plus two spinning side sweepers. The main central suction are is really quite small in proportion to the size of the robot.

There's also a tube-shaped mop, which applies downward pressure to dislodge dirt. It's fed with clean water as it rolls around, while the dirty stuff is constantly siphoned off.

Eufy E25 Omni robot vacuum flipped over to show underside — (Image credit: Future)

The all-black design is minimalistic – which, for a functional product is definitely preferable to trying to do something a bit more eccentric. It is able to fit under objects 4.4in / 11.18cm off the ground, and through gaps of 12.83in / 32.58cm wide.

The dock is pretty inoffensive looking, and compared with some hybrids vac-mop options, feels relatively small. It's all black, with a view to blending into its surroundings, which is definitely a plus in my view. In terms of functions, it'll take care of emptying the bot's onboard dustbin, washing its mop pads and drying them with hot air, draining the onboard dirty water tank and refilling it with clean water, and dispensing detergent.

The water tank is transparent, so you can visually see when it is starting to run low. This feature is surprisingly rare, but useful. There's also a white ring light, which will turn red if either water tank isn't correctly installed.

The fact that the robot sits on a ramp outside the body of the dock, rather than slotting inside, helps keep the dock size down. As with most robot vacuum docks, you're technically meant to leave a wide margin of clear space all around (1.6ft / 0.49m either side and 4.9ft / 1.49m in front), but experienced owners will know it's possible to get away with far less than this.

Design score: 4 out of 5

Eufy E25 Omni review: performance

Strong obstacle avoidance but initial mapping can be hit-and-miss
Tendency to return to dock mid-clean, extending overall task time
Solid vacuuming and excellent mopping on the highest settings

It was fairly straightforward to get the Eufy E25 Omni set up, although I found the mapping task less forgiving than some rival models. Specifically, it's worth ensuring all obstacles are out of the way before attempting mapping.

You can control the E25 through the Eufy companion app or a smart home system. Both methods are fairly straightforward, although I found starting a specific room clean could be a bit hit-and-miss when I tested it using Amazon's Alexa. It would sometimes work, even with rooms where I'd used custom names, but half the time it would just start a whole house clean – a major hazard in a household like mine when another room's floor may be littered with Lego.

Eufy E25 Omni robot vacuum on a tiled floor — (Image credit: Future)

In terms of navigation, I found coverage of the rooms was good, with E25 taking a systematic path that didn't leave any patches uncleaned. It also did a good job of detecting different floor surfaces, reliably lifting the mop when it reached carpet to ensure it didn't get it damp, and upping the suction intensity on deeper carpet.

When given a cleaning task the E25 returned to its dock periodically to empty the dust container, clean the mops and recharge the battery. This did extend cleaning times a bit, but for an area of around 700 sq ft with mixed floor material, it generally took an 1hr 30mins, or a little bit under, to complete the clean.

Vacuuming performance

I ran a series of dedicated tests to access the Eufy E25's vacuuming performance of both fine dust (a mix of flour and cookie crumbs) and chunkier particles (dry rice). On hard floors I found it vacuumed fine particles well, picking up all the material in my test in one pass.

It didn't do as well with larger debris, with the side brushes pushing a few grains of rice into areas where the robot had already cleaned. It did eventually manage to pick up almost everything, though. On mid-pile carpet the E25 performed perfectly, picking up both fine and chunky debris in a single zone clean, although on higher pile it did leave a few grains of rice.

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Pile of dry tea and rice on tiled floor before the vacuuming test — (Image credit: Future)

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No ketchup remaining on tiled floor after the mopping test — (Image credit: Future)

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Pile of dry tea and rice on low-pile carpet before the vacuuming test — (Image credit: Future)

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No dry tea or rice remaining on low-pile carpet after the vacuuming test — (Image credit: Future)

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Pile of dry tea and rice on deep-pile carpet before the vacuuming test — (Image credit: Future)

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No visible dry tea or rice remaining on deep-pile carpet after the vacuuming test — (Image credit: Future)

Like many robot vacuums, cleaning performance around the edges of rooms isn't great. (It's this that really keeps it from being a vacuum that could fully replace a manual – as well as it not being able to vacuum stairs.) In my tests, the E25 worked its way around walls and objects but didn't get close enough for a really thorough edge clean.

Even on the highest vacuuming intensity I round this robot relatively quiet, although the auto-empty function in the dock is louder as the dock sucks the dust from the small onboard bin.

Mopping performance

On first look the mopping performance wasn't great. It did well at clearing a fresh liquid spill, leaving no more water on the surface than regular mopping would, but it struggled with tougher dirt. To test this, I smeared a small amount of ketchup on a hard floor and left it to dry.

I then sent the bot out to mop, leaving it to use its own AI features to work out which mop setting to use. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to make a dent in the dried up ketchup at all. For a second pass, I toggled the settings manually to the highest mop mode, and during this run the robot did seem to identify the stain and focus on it. It took a few passes but eventually managed to remove it completely.

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Ketchup smear and water spillage on tiled floor before the mopping test — (Image credit: Future)

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Remnant of ketchup on a tiled floor during the mopping test — (Image credit: Future)

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While the Eufy E25 omni does lose some points for needing a manual tweak of the settings, this is still some of the best mopping performance I have seen from a robot vacuum-mop.

Object avoidance

I also ran tests to assess how accurate the Eufy E25's object avoidance was. Here it performed very well, not only spotting and avoiding the objects I'd laid out, but even identifying them on the map and correctly labelling them as a power cable, a shoe and clothing (in the case of the sock). It managed to repeat this flawlessly twice in testing. However, in everyday use it did on occasion drag a charging cable around a room, so I'd still recommend keeping these out of reach as much as possible before starting a clean.

Eufy E25 Omni surrounded by obstacles on a carpeted floor — (Image credit: Future)

Maintenance

Cleaning and maintenance of the robot itself is low-effort. Like most robot vacuums, it will auto-empty dust from the small onboard bin into a larger bag within the dock. Emptying the dirty water tank is straightforward – it's easy to lift it out of the dock and unclip the top lid.

This robot's side sweeper brushes are angled to prevent hair tangling, and even after extended use I didn't have to remove any manually. If you do need to clean the main brushroll, the cage is easily removed and both halves of the roller can be popped out slightly to help you get at anything stuck inside.

Dirt collected in entrance to Eufy E25 Omni dock — (Image credit: Future)

The only part of the setup that needed a bit of attention was the part of the dock where the mop is cleaned. I found debris could collect here, although it was cleared easily enough using a regular vacuum with a crevice tool, or a brush.

Performance score: 4 out of 5

Eufy E25 Omni review: app

Simple setup and easy to use, with an editable, 3D map
Can store multiple maps for different floors
Naming inconsistency can cause confusion

The Eufy Clean app is easy to use and offers clear instructions to pair to the device and start mapping. Once you've completed mapping you are given a 3D map you can rotate, tilt and edit to divide, merge and rename rooms. From this you can then start cleaning either individual rooms or square zones that are defined on the map.

Using these zones you can isolate specific parts of a room, such as around a dining table for a quick post-dinner clean. If these are cleans you are going to be doing often you can also use the 'Common' section to define these regular tasks to make them easy to start or schedule.

Eufy E25 Omni — (Image credit: Screenshots from Eufy app)

When choosing an area you can define different features of the clean or leave it to the AI agent to select the best option for the room type and floor material. Options include cleaning intensity, water level, suction power and whether you want the robot to make 1 or 2 passes of the area.

As well as using the app to launch a clean, you can also schedule cleans, either as a one-off or a recurring event. Scheduled cleans can be set to whole home, specific rooms or scenarios. My only tiny gripe is that these 'scenarios' are the common tasks mentioned above, and it would be clearer if Eufy used a consistent name for the function in the app.

If you want to use the robot over multiple floors, you can also save multiple maps within the app. Just bear in mind you'll have to carry the robot up and down the stairs – potentially multiple times, because this robot likes to return to its dock to empty, clean its mop and top up its battery mid-clean.

The Eufy E25 Omni integrates with smart home systems and is compatible with the Matter standard so will work with Amazon Alexa, Google Home and Apple's Siri.

You can set 'Do not disturb' periods where the robot won't clean. If it's halfway through a clean when one of these kicks in, it will return to the dock, and resume once the designated quiet time has passed. If you are planning on having the base station in a bedroom it is worth considering that even during 'Do not disturb' hours the dock will continue to dry the mop, which is just about audible, although no more than a low-level hum.

App score: 4 out of 5

Should you buy the Eufy E25 Omni?

Attribute	Notes	Rating
Value	Premium, but regularly discounted. Decent value when on sale.	4 / 5
Design	No-nonsense robot vacuum with roller mop and two side sweepers. Relatively small dock for a hybrid cleaner.	4 / 5
Performance	Good vacuuming and excellent mopping on the highest settings. Strong obstacle avoidance, but initial mapping is unforgiving.	4 / 5
App	Easy to use, with plenty of options. Some inconsistency in names.	4 / 5

Buy it if...

Your priority is mopping

Although it did take a manual tweak of settings to get there, this robovac's mopping is some of the best I've seen.

You want a robot that doesn't need intervention

Some robots need regular saving after getting trapped on obstacles but the Eufy mostly managed to keep itself out of trouble.

Don't buy it if...

You don't need mopping

If all your floors are carpet there's no point paying the premium for mopping functionality.

You're worried about damp carpets

Although the Eufy E25 Omni reliably detected carpet and avoided mopping, other bots have the ability to leave their mop pads in the dock when they're not required – that's not an option here.

You want efficient cleaning

The Eufy E25 Omni regularly returned to its dock to empty its bin or top up its charge mid-clean, which did extend how long it took to complete tasks.

How I tested the Eufy E25 Omni

I tested the E25 over two floors of my home with mixed surfaces for a period of a few months. I performed specific tests to assess how well it picked up fine particles and larger debris on hard floors, low pile and high pile carpet. I also tested mopping performance on hard floors, testing how well it dealt with a dried ketchup stain and a fresh spill.

The robot was put through two obstacle avoidance tests and I tested the custom tasks and scheduling functions, as well as how well it worked with smart home integrations by operating it through Alexa to start whole home and zone cleans.

Read more about how we test robot vacuum cleaners

First reviewed December 2025

I reviewed the Oppo Find X9 Pro, and it’s the maximized flagship for Android lovers

3:02 pm |

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Oppo Phones Phones | Tags: AI, RAM, US | Comments: Off

Oppo Find X9 Pro review: Two-minute review

Oppo Find X9 Pro against a forest background — (Image credit: Jamie Richards / Future)

What makes a great sequel? Across film, gaming, and indeed smartphones, the best follow-ups carry forward and amplify the good things while dialing down any pretension. In the phone world, this means zeroing in on the features and functions that give a phone its purpose.

That’s exactly what Oppo has done with the Find X9 Pro. It takes everything great about last year’s Oppo Find X8 Pro and dials it up to 11, while ditching the idea that this is anything other than an iPhone 17 Pro Max for Android lovers. It's both simpler and somehow more obscenely powerful than its predecessor, and I, for one, love it.

Now sporting a drastically simplified flat-edged design, flat display, and top-left-mounted square camera housing, the Find X9 Pro resembles an iPhone more than any other Oppo phone before it, but the Chinese tech giant is banking on the idea that if you’re willing to spend pro-flagship prices on an Android phone, that’s not too big a deal.

For all its cool designs over the years, the Find X series has always been defined by hardware power – and more recently, extremely powerful camera systems – so it’s quite something that the Find X9 Pro still managed to surprise me with its specs sheet. The phone is one of the first to ship with the MediaTek Dimensity 9500 chipset, alongside a healthy 16GB of RAM, and a ludicrously large 7,500mAh silicon-carbon battery with 80W wired charging. It's almost excessively performant, but can get a bit hot in even moderate use.

But what about that camera system? The Oppo Find X9 Pro has a 50MP main camera, 50MP ultra-wide camera, and – brace for impact – a 200MP telephoto camera with 3x zoom. That super-high-res sensor allows for a 50MP crop at 6x, which helps make up for the loss of the dedicated 50MP 6x camera from last year’s model, and a 12MP crop at 13.2x zoom. And that’s not even mentioning the detachable 10x zoom lens – you’ll have to read on for my thoughts on that.

In adequate lighting, the main camera defaults to 50MP shots rather than binning to 12MP as most phone cameras do, and a special mode allows for 200MP full-res shots with the telephoto camera. The capability here is immense, but unfortunately, Oppo’s post-processing is still a bit too aggressive, sometimes veering into AI-flavored reconstruction.

For the Star Wars fans out there, the Oppo Find X9 Pro is the Empire Strikes Back of smartphone successors – bigger, brasher, and close to objectively better than last year’s Oppo Find X8 Pro. Yes, polishing the experience has buffed out some of the quirky charm of last year’s model – I especially miss the vinyl-like rear panel, which has been replaced with glass – but the final product is so much greater than the sum of its parts that this simply ceases to matter.

This is a superb phone that would immediately rank amongst the best phones on the market, were it not for its tragically limited availability. As with previous Oppo phones, no US release is expected.

Oppo Find X9 Pro review: Price and availability

The Oppo Find X9 Pro in Oppo's Aramid Fiber case — The Oppo Find X9 Pro in the Oppo Aramid Fiber Case (sold separately) (Image credit: Jamie Richards / Future)

Not available in the US
Costs £1,099 / AU$2,299
One configuration with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage

Despite launching “globally”, the Oppo Find X9 Pro is unavailable through official channels in the US. It is, however, available in the UK and Australia, where it competes with and slightly undercuts other large pro-grade flagship phones when it comes to price.

The Oppo Find X9 Pro costs £1,099 / AU$2,299 for its single configuration. For that, you get 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage.

At face value, that price is about right for a large Pro-labelled camera phone, but as usual, Oppo is actually offering great value for money. Compared to the iPhone 17 Pro Max – an obvious analogue to the Find X9 Pro, not to mention an influence – the Find X9 is £100 less with double the storage in the UK. In Australia, the Find X9 Pro comes in at AU$300 cheaper than the iPhone 17 Pro Max with 512GB of storage.

Let’s keep it real: the Oppo Find X9 Pro isn’t cheap, but it's a pretty good deal compared to its plus-sized, Pro-powered camera phone contemporaries. It’s a shame it’s not more widely available, which will probably keep it off our lists of the best camera phones, best AI phones, best Android phones, and more. I’d expect to see it top our list of the best Oppo phones soon, though.

Oppo Find X9 Pro review: Specs

In this review, I’ll go through the Oppo Find X9 Pro’s features and capabilities in detail, but if you just want an overview of the phone’s key specs, check out the handy table below.

Dimensions:	161.3 x 76.5 x 8.3mm
Weight:	224g
Display:	6.78-inch AMOLED
Resolution:	1272 x 2772 pixels
Refresh rate:	120Hz
Chipset:	MediaTek Dimensity 9500
Rear cameras:	50MP main + 50MP ultra-wide + 200MP telephoto (3x)
Front camera:	50MP
Storage:	512GB
RAM:	16GB
OS (at launch):	Android 16 with ColorOS 16
Battery:	7,500mAh
Charging:	80W wired, 50W wireless

Value score: 4 / 5

Oppo Find X9 Pro review: Design

The Oppo Find X9 Pro's right side — (Image credit: Jamie Richards / Future)

Comes in two colors – Silk White and Titanium Charcoal (named as such despite the phone containing no titanium)
Flat edges, flat display, flat rear panel
Square camera housing

With its flat edges, rounded corners, and almost square camera housing in the top-left corner, there are no prizes for guessing where Oppo got its inspiration for the Find X9 Pro's design. This is probably as close as a phone maker can legally get to the iPhone before Cupertino starts asking questions.

Specifically, the Find X9 Pro resembles last year’s iPhone 16 Pro Max. Its Snap Key and Quick Button are echoes of the Action Button and Camera Control and serve similar, if not identical, functions, and the curvature and overall ergonomics of the phone are reminiscent of last year’s Apple flagship (why the "Snap" key doesn't control the camera is lost on me).

As on OnePlus phones, the Snap Key replaces the ringer switch from last year’s model. While I was a fan of the convenience of the ringer switch, the modularity of the new button helps to make up for it. It's set to the new AI Mind Space feature by default, but I mostly had it set to control the flashlight.

The Find X9 Pro is beautifully made. My review unit came in the striking Silk While finish with a matte glass rear panel and satisfyingly bold aluminum rails. I’m a big fan of how subtle the branding is, too. The Oppo logo and Hasselblad icon on the camera housing only show up as light hits them, which gives the phone a sense of prestige.

As for the front panel, the 6.78-inch screen is surrounded on all sides by 1.15mm bezels that barely feel present during use. A punch-hole selfie camera sits at the top of the display. There’s also the standard power and volume buttons on the right side of the phone, and a USB-C port on the bottom edge by the main speakers. Unfortunately, I noticed some wobble in the buttons after just a few weeks of use, which isn’t the most encouraging thing to see.

At 8.3mm, the Find X9 Pro is barely thicker than last year’s Find X8 Pro, but feels a lot heftier due to its flattened sides. I think this makes the phone easier to take photos with, considering the location of the Quick Button, but I’ve got large hands – your mileage may vary. Overall, the Find X9 Pro is a good-looking phone, but doesn’t leave as much of an impression as the marbled design of the Find X8 Pro or the faux-leather body of the Find X6 Pro before that. It trades originality for subtlety, and I’m not sure that’s an equivalent exchange.

Design score: 3 / 5

Oppo Find X9 Pro review: Display

Oppo Find X9 Pro, display on, lock screen visible — (Image credit: Jamie Richards / Future)

6.78-inch display
1272 x 2772 resolution
120Hz refresh rate with 3600 nits of peak brightness

The Oppo Find X9 Pro’s display is second only to its camera system in the list of its best features. This is a huge, bright, sharp, and immersive panel that makes photos, videos, and games look vivid while providing plenty of room for browsing, scrolling, and even multitasking.

The Find X9 Pro’s display feels truly immersive. At 6.78 inches, it’s almost as large as the iPhone 17 Pro Max or Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, which have 6.9-inch panels, though to be honest, the Find X9 Pro is about as large as I’d want a phone to be. Its flat edges make the panel feel much more present and consistent than last year’s Find X8 Pro, but make using the phone a touch less comfortable, especially when dragging in gestures from the edges.

At a resolution of 1272 x 2772 pixels and a pixel density of 450ppi, the Find X9 Pro’s display is sharp and detailed, and its maximum typical brightness of 1800 nits is plenty bright for indoor or outdoor use (brightness peaks to 3600 nits for HDR media). It also gets down to a single nit at its minimum brightness – handy for use at night or in darker environments.

The display cycles at a static 120Hz, which works synergistically with ColorOS’ brilliant animation processing to offer a super-smooth UI experience. The display is unfailingly bright. Colors may be a touch less saturated than other flagship handsets, but not to a problematic degree. The settings app has a full section dedicated to color balance, too, so you can fine-tune the visuals to your liking.

The Find X9 Pro’s display is calibrated for balance out of the box, but the settings app is rich with color and brightness settings.

Display score: 5 / 5

Oppo Find X9 Pro review: Cameras

Oppo Find X9 Pro camera module with Hasselblad logo

(Image credit: Jamie Richards / Future)

50MP main camera
200MP telephoto camera with 3x zoom
50MP ultra-wide camera
50MP selfie camera

The Oppo Find X9 Pro has one of the most powerful camera systems you’ll find on any phone. Its 50MP main camera with a large 1/1.28-inch sensor picks up an excellent amount of light and detail. Its 200MP telephoto camera, with 3x relative optical zoom, can take full-resolution photos and reach into double-digit zoom lengths with a solid amount of detail. Its 50MP ultra-wide camera is sensibly relegated to third place but still produces great pictures in good conditions, and its 50MP selfie camera is a real step up from the Find X8 Pro’s 32MP sensor.

Taking photos is comfortable and enjoyable with the Find X9 Pro. I’m a big fan of the Quick Button, Oppo’s answer to the iPhone’s Camera Control, which is easy to work with thanks to the phone’s general bulk and flat aluminum chassis. The camera app is clean and keeps all the important settings within immediate reach or under a single menu, while the large display makes for a great viewfinder. As for video, the Find X9 Pro can shoot at a maximum of 4K at 120fps, or 1080p at 240fps.

The Find X9 Pro will default to taking full-resolution photos with its 50MP main camera, as long as the phone judges there's enough light around. That leads to more detailed photos, but it also takes up more storage. Similar is the new 4K motion photo capability, which ups the resolution of the video clip taken with each image, but again takes up more space.

So far, so good, but there is unfortunately a catch – Oppo has filled its image processing pipeline with what appears to be some pretty aggressive AI, which is hard to anticipate and impossible to switch off. At all ranges, there's a chance your image may become a mess of swirls and smudges as the AI image signal processing tries to replicate what you saw through the viewfinder. This seems to happen whether the AI Telescope Zoom feature is turned on or off.

The Oppo Find X9 Pro shooting a photo — Shooting on the Find X9 Pro is a joy, but aggressive post-processing can make it hard to predict how the final image will look. (Image credit: Jamie Richards / Future)

That means that photography on the Find X9 Pro is intermittently transcendent and frustrating. When it’s good, the Find X9 Pro captures brilliant photos that contend with those taken on the best camera phones – dynamic, rich in detail, and naturally vivid. But every now and then, you’ll scroll through the gallery and find something that looks like it came straight out of the early days of Dall-E mini. It’s not too common, but it is unpredictable, which is almost worse.

In terms of photo-focused accessories, the Oppo Find X9 Pro launches alongside the Oppo Hasselblad Teleconverter Kit, which requires the Aramid Fiber Photography Case. The kit centers on an attachable telephoto lens that extends the reach of the telephoto camera to 10x, resulting in genuinely breathtaking images. It’s a beautiful and confusing thing to capture this much detail with a phone camera system.

However, the teleconverter kit isn’t available in the UK or Australia, so it doesn’t impact the score here – you can read my Oppo Find X9 Pro camera impressions for more on that. Still, even without a huge attachable zoom lens, the Find X9 Pro’s camera system is brilliant – yet I can’t ignore how much its aggressive post-processing annoys me.

Oppo Find X9 Pro Camera Samples

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A view from a hill at sunset — (Image credit: Jamie Richards / Future)

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A view of London from a dark park — (Image credit: Jamie Richards / Future)

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A view from a park hill — (Image credit: Jamie Richards / Future)

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A bridge in a forest — (Image credit: Jamie Richards / Future)

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A pub lit up at night — (Image credit: Jamie Richards / Future)

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A forest path — (Image credit: Jamie Richards / Future)

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Red leaves and tree branches on a blue sky — (Image credit: Jamie Richards / Future)

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A view down a street at night — (Image credit: Jamie Richards / Future)

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A tree on a blue sky — (Image credit: Jamie Richards / Future)

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A church at dusk — (Image credit: Jamie Richards / Future)

Camera score: 4 / 5

Oppo Find X9 Pro review: Software and AI

The Oppo Find X9 Pro home screen — (Image credit: Jamie Richards / Future)

Android 16 with ColorOS 16
Possibly the smoothest Android wrapper
AI Mind Space is well executed

The Oppo Find X9 Pro ships with ColorOS 16, built on Android 16, and like ColorOS 15, it’s a smooth and well-formatted Android wrapper that takes obvious influence from iOS. You’ll notice Liquid Glass-style transparency effects, rounded square app icons, and a near-identical control center to the one found on an iPhone. But the outsider Oppo Find X9 Pro isn’t trying to compete with the iPhone – it’s trying to provide an alternative for Android enthusiasts, and under that lens, the aesthetic choices make sense.

If it seems like I’m being lenient on Oppo for jacking Apple’s style, it’s because I can’t get over how well ColorOS 16 runs. ColorOS (and by extension OxygenOS, the OnePlus equivalent) is the most performant and smoothest-running Android wrapper I’ve ever used. Thanks to parallel processing, several UI animations can run at the same time, and I like the way app windows and other elements react to your inputs.

This is the other end of the scale from the stiffness of Samsung’s One UI, and while some may find ColorOS feels a bit loose, for me, it’s the perfect way to keep things feeling fast and reactive.

That’s not to say ColorOS is perfect; there are some quirks. The one that appears most often is the Snap Key triggering things on screen – it seems the software registers a long press as some kind of input – not a dealbreaker by any means, but a strange oversight for a premium phone. And the Find X9 Pro comes with the usual folders of suggested apps (read: advertisements) and a handful of preinstalled bloatware apps, which is completely unacceptable on a phone that costs £1,099.

Unfortunate bloatware aside, the big-ticket software item on the Find X9 Pro is AI Mind Space, a transplant of OnePlus’ AI Plus Mind feature that launched earlier this year. The concept is a good one – a dedicated space for your various notes, screenshots, and digital ephemera that uses AI to pick out the important stuff.

AI Mind Space is bound to the Snap Key by default, with a short press taking a screenshot and scanning for information, and a long press recording an audio message. AI Mind Space can also be paired with Google Gemini to merge your assorted memories with the phone’s onboard Google AI tools. Even as an AI skeptic, I like AI Mind Space – it’s an intelligent and well-presented home for the disparate notes, screenshots, and audio recordings I make on a daily basis. You can also add your own notes to each memory, which is useful for context that the straightforward AI screenreader can’t gather.

It’s also worth giving O+ Connect a mention, Oppo’s app for cross-platform file management and remote control, specifically with Mac computers. It’s no replacement for AirDrop, but it is nice to have the option of easier cross-platform collaboration if you need to send something to a Mac-wielding friend or, like me, run a hybrid Android/MacOS everyday carry.

Software and AI score: 4 / 5

Oppo Find X9 Pro review: Performance

The Oppo Find X9 Pro running Call of Duty Mobile — (Image credit: Jamie Richards / Future)

MediaTek 9500 chipset
16GB of RAM
Performs admirably in a variety of tasks

The Oppo Find X9 Pro is one of the first phones in the world to launch with the MediaTek Dimensity 9500 chipset. Taiwan-based chipset manufacturer MediaTek has been a growing name in the mobile industry for a while, and the Dimensity 9500 delivers. The Find X9 Pro is fast and fluid in pretty much any scenario, and even with multiple apps open and on-screen I couldn’t find a way to slow it down.

For web browsing and social media, using the Find X9 Pro is like driving to the grocery store in a tank, but when things heat up, that extra power really comes in handy. Things do literally heat up, though, as I noticed the Find X9 Pro getting a bit toasty at times – understandable during long gaming sessions or when pushing the camera system, but a little puzzling when swiping through Instagram.

As for memory, the Find X9 Pro comes in a single configuration, with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, and both feel plentiful. That large RAM budget gives the phone flexibility when it comes to multitasking and AI – I noticed that I rarely had to reload pages or apps. And 512GB of storage is, in my opinion, more than enough for any smartphone – though the camera’s high-resolution imaging modes will fill up that space pretty quickly.

Everything about the Find X9 Pro is just fast. The in-display fingerprint scanner is basically instant. Installing and opening apps is painless; I can hop into Call of Duty or Fortnite or Capcut and trust things will just work, which, to me, is the ideal phone experience. Accessing the camera is fast thanks to the Quick Button. And thus far, I haven't encountered any crashes or experience-breaking glitches. The phone does get hot intermittently, which I’m keeping an eye on, and if I can get really nitpicky, the speakers are a little too sibilant for my preference. Otherwise, the Find X9 Pro excels.

Performance score: 4/5

Oppo Find X9 Pro review: Battery

Oppo Find X9 Pro USB-C port — (Image credit: Jamie Richards / Future)

7,500mAh silicon-carbon battery – almost as large as an 11-inch iPad
80W wired charging
50W wireless charging

The Oppo Find X9 Pro has a 7,500mAh silicon-carbon battery. There are no adjectives I could use to accurately convey how huge that is, so let’s get into some comparisons.

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra has a 5,000mAh battery, and the iPhone 17 Pro Max with e-SIM has a 5,088mAh battery. These are considered excellent battery capacities by phone standards.

The Oppo Find X8 Pro managed an impressive 5,910mAh, while the OnePlus 13, which we showered with praise for its fantastic battery life, has a 6,000mAh battery. That’s quite a bit larger than the average phone battery already, but the Oppo Find X9 Pro blows both of these flagships out of the water.

The Find X9 Pro’s battery is so large that it makes more sense to compare it to tablets. According to PhoneArena, the 2025 base-model iPad has a 7,698mAh battery, which is fractionally larger than the battery in the Oppo Find X9 Pro. Holding the two devices side by side makes this feel physically impossible, but Oppo has leveraged the energy density and capacity benefits of silicon-carbon technology to make it so. It’s a serious engineering win that other phone makers should look to for inspiration.

As you might expect, battery life is unfailingly excellent. I frequently got one and a half or even two full days of use from the Oppo Find X9 Pro, and support for 80W SuperVOOC charging (that’s proprietary Oppo charging tech, so not all high-wattage chargers will deliver it) meant top-ups were pretty swift too. I would often plug in the Find X9 Pro to charge, look away for what felt like no time at all, and come back to an additional 40% charge, and topping up from empty to full took no more than an hour.

Battery score: 5/5

Should you buy the Oppo Find X9 Pro?

Oppo Find X9 Pro score card
Attributes	Notes	Rating
Value	The Oppo Find X9 Pro isn't cheap, but it steadily undercuts its closest mainstream competition	4 / 5
Design	Without the quirky materials and curved frame of last year's model, the Find X9 Pro is left feeling a little unoriginal. Superb build quality, though.	3 / 5
Display	A terrific display made all the more immersive by new flat edges and a sharp resolution.	5 / 5
Software	Bloatware is inexcusable at this price point, and there are a few quirks to smooth out, but, damn, ColorOS 16 is just so smooth.	4 / 5
Camera	The Find X9 Pro comes equipped with an overpowered camera system that opens a world of photo possibilities. Aggressive post-processing adds annoying guesswork to shoots.	4 / 5
Performance	Oppo has done its thing and equipped the Find X9 Pro with a handful of very powerful internal components. No complaints other than a bit of occasional heat.	4 / 5
Battery	A 7,500mAh cell means the Find X9 Pro is in a league of its own when it comes to battery life. Charging is quick, considering the massive capacity.	5 / 5

Buy it if

You want a powerful camera phone

If you can bear with its occasionally aggressive post-processing, the Oppo Find X9 Pro's camera system is one of the most powerful on the market, and takes fabulous photos. View Deal

You want a huge battery

The Oppo Find X9 Pro's battery is so large it'll make you rethink the way you approach charging, and how much battery life is enough for a day's use. Ludicrously good. View Deal

Don't buy it if

You want something familiar

Oppo has created a powerful phone with a great software experience, but it'll be harder to find others using the same platform if that matters to you. View Deal

You don't need loads of power

Despite offering pretty good value for money, the Find X9 Pro is mighty expensive. If you're not a power user, there are cheaper and more suitable options, such as the OnePlus 13R listed below. View Deal

Also consider

iPhone 17 Pro Max

The Oppo Find X9 Pro takes so much inspiration from the iPhone 16 Pro Max that anyone who isn’t a diehard Android fan should give the latter’s current-gen counterpart some consideration. Apple’s latest big flagship is the company’s best camera phone ever, and it produces excellent photos despite boasting lower-resolution sensors than the Find X9 Pro. You also get access to the App Store and easier networking with MacBooks and other Apple devices.

Read our full iPhone 17 Pro Max reviewView Deal

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra

Want a beastly Android camera phone but need a more familiar interface and a more developed ecosystem than Oppo can offer? The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra could be for you. Its quad-camera setup is one of the best on the market, while the 6.8-inch display and built-in S Pen make it a great productivity tool.

Read our full Samsung Galaxy S25 UltraView Deal

OnePlus 13R

The Oppo Find X9 Pro is a heavyweight, both in its build and its ability. If you’d rather have something a touch lighter in the hand and on the pockets, the OnePlus 13R is a great choice. With the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, 12GB of RAM, and a genuinely great camera system, the OnePlus 13R is a cheaper flagship with few compromises.

Read our full OnePlus 13R reviewView Deal

How I tested the Oppo Find X9 Pro

I used the Oppo Find X9 Pro over the course of a month, putting it through daily use and a number of specific performance and charging tests. I made and received calls, chatted over SMS, WhatsApp, and social media, took plenty of photos and videos, and played games like Fortnite and Call of Duty Mobile. I also tried out AI Mind Space.

Before completing this review, I adopted the Oppo Find X9 Pro as my daily driver, then combined my experience with the phone with my journalistic training and knowledge of the phone industry to provide an accurate assessment.

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