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Chuwi LarkBox S mini PC review
5:02 pm | December 14, 2024
Author: admin | Category: Computers Computing Gadgets | Tags: , , , | Comments: Off

Chuwi LarkBox S: 30-second review

Picking up the LarkBox S, you can instantly tell that it’s a little different from your standard entry-level mini PC. Firstly, the build quality of this small machine is extremely high, with a mix of plastic and metal used for the outer casing, which instantly positions it at a much higher price level than it actually is.

Looking over the casing, everything is nicely finished, with four rubber feet on the base, a good selection of ports on the front and back, and plenty of ventilation for the i3 processor. As a mini PC, its looks and specifications mark it out as a perfect option for most offices or day-to-day home use. Even on a generous day, this won't be the best mini PC for heavier workloads. With its basic entry-level Intel i3 processor, it has enough power to handle all Microsoft Office apps as well as a little bit of multimedia production, as long as you don’t push it too hard.

In use, the LarkBox S proves to be decent enough at running all office applications. Excel loads quickly, and handling large but not overly complex documents is not an issue. Likewise, opening Edge and browsing, with a bit of streaming highlights how well it can handle 4K video streaming without issue. Additionally, connectivity through Wi-Fi and Bluetooth is fast enough to keep up with demands.

Surprisingly, for this level of machine, even loading up DaVinci Resolve and working with some standard H.265 footage from a Sony Alpha 7 Mark IV was manageable for basic edits. However, output render times were quite significant for a 10–15 minute edit. Then as effects or more complex edits are applied, the machine begins to struggle.

Returning to the design, there are a few interesting highlights, such as the discreet graphic design on the top case and the LED light array that surrounds the front ports. These features are more common with gaming mini PCs than office PCs but are a nice touch and add a sense of fun.

Overall, as an office machine or one to use for day-to-day admin tasks at home, the LarkBox S is an extremely good option. The build quality is well above that of most entry-level PCs, and the choice of the internal hardware is pretty decent for non-intensive applications.

Chuwi LarkBox S: Price and availability

  • How much does it cost? From £250 / $250
  • When is it out? Available now
  • Where can you get it? Directly from Chuwi.com or Amazon.com

While the LarkBox S is directly aimed at the entry-level market, it isn’t the cheapest option available. This is reflected in the quality of the build as well as the higher-end components used. It retails for around $250 / £250 and is available directly through the CHUWI website or major online retailers such as Amazon.

  • Value: 4 / 5

Chuwi LarkBox S

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

Chuwi LarkBox S: Specs

  • CPU: Intel Core i3-1220P (10 Cores, 12 Threads, 12 MB cache, up to 4.4 GHz)
  • Graphics: Intel UHD Graphics
  • RAM: 16GB DDR4 3200MHz (Dual-channel SO-DIMM Slots, Expandable up to 64GB)
  • Storage: 512GB PCIe 3.0 SSD (1× M.2 2280 PCIe 3.0 SSD Slot, Expandable up to 1TB)
  • Rear Ports: 2× USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A Ports, 2× USB 2.0 Type-A Ports, 1× HDMI 2.0 Port, 1× HDMI 1.4 Port, 1× 1000Mbps LAN Jack, 1× DC-In Jack
  • Front Ports: 1× Full-featured Type-C Port, 1× USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C Port, 1× 3.5mm Audio Jack
  • Connectivity: Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.1
  • Audio: 3.5mm Audio Jack
  • Camera: Not specified
  • Size: 118 × 118 × 41.3 mm
  • OS installed: Windows 11 Home
  • Accessories: 1× LarkBox S Mini PC, 1× VESA Mount, 6× Screws, 1× Power Adapter, 1× User Manual, 1× Warranty Card, 1× Inspection Report

Chuwi LarkBox S: Design

The LarkBox S is an entry-level mini PC, and its design style is both minimalistic and compact. Compared with other mini PCs, it is just a touch smaller at 118 × 118 × 41.3mm and weighs only 478 g. While most entry-level mini PCs are quite lightweight and plasticky, there’s absolutely nothing plastic-feeling about the LarkBox S.

The outer casing is made of a robust mixture of plastic and metal, giving it the durability to withstand the occasional knock during transport.

The satin effect finish is another really nice touch, reinforcing a slightly premium feel for what is essentially a relatively inexpensive machine. Similarly, the quality of the inlay around the ports, both front and back, shows that the machining and moulding are about as good as it gets for mini PCs.

Chuwi LarkBox S

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

While the design is stylish and understated, it’s interesting to note the inclusion of subtle inlay graphics on the top of the casing. These add a touch of design flair, visible only when the light catches them. Additionally, there’s an LED array on the front that changes colour as it operates. This is reminiscent of many gaming PCs but is more of a fun, decorative touch on what is otherwise aimed at office use which is a bit odd.

The general layout of the machine is well thought-out. On the front, there's a 3.5 mm audio jack, two USB Type-C ports, two USB Type-A ports, and the power button. Both sides feature plenty of venting, as does the back, which houses the AC input, two HDMI ports, a LAN port, and two additional USB Type-A ports.

One of the standout features of this mini PC is the ability to upgrade both the RAM and SSD. For RAM, it uses DDR4 dual-channel SO-DIMM slots, supporting up to two 32 GB sticks, and it comes with 16 GB as standard. Storage-wise, as an entry-level machine, the hard drive is relatively modest at 512 GB. This is a PCIe 3.0 SSD, but if 512 GB feels too small, it can be upgraded with an M.2 2280 PCIe 3.0 SSD of up to 1 TB, so still not huge.

  • Design: 4.5 / 5

Chuwi LarkBox S

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

Chuwi LarkBox S: Features

Starting with the size, this small machine measures 118 x 118 x 41.3 mm, making it one of the smaller mini PCs out there, although it’s relatively heavy at 478 g, which just reinforces the fact that it is made of high-quality materials.

When it comes to the internal hardware, there's an Intel Core i3-1220P with 10 cores, 12 threads, 12 MB of cache, and up to 4.4 GHz. This is supported by standard Intel UHD graphics and 16 GB of DDR4 3200 MHz RAM. The motherboard is dual-channel, so if you want to upgrade that RAM, then you can install two 32 GB sticks as mentioned before, taking you up to 64 GB, which will be useful if you are thinking about doing any multimedia editing. When it comes to storage, this is limited to a 512 GB PCIe 3.0 SSD, and again there's only a single slot for this on the motherboard. You can install an M.2 2280 PCIe 3.0 SSD, and that's expandable up to 1TB.

As an entry-level machine, it comes with Windows 11 Home installed, which will give you all of the normal functions and features. It also supports Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth 5.1, so it is not the latest technology, but it still offers good, solid performance. There is also an Ethernet option if you are using a wired network that supports up to 1000 Mbps.

When it comes to ports, you have one full-feature Type-C port, one USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C port, two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports, two USB 2.0 Type-A ports, one HDMI 2.0 port, one HDMI 1.4 port, one 1000 Mbps LAN port, one 3.5 mm audio jack, and the DC-in.

Even as an entry level machine you can connect up to three displays through the two HDMI ports alongside one of the USB Type-C ports, which is the fully featured port. From the USB Type-C, you can run one 4K resolution monitor at up to 144 Hz. Through the HDMI 2.0 port, you can run one 4K monitor at up to 60 Hz, and through the HDMI 1.4 port, you can run a monitor at 4K up to 30 Hz.

As one final point on the feature set, as is now standard with most mini PCs, the computer also comes with VESA support, so if you do want to mount it on a wall or behind your monitor, then that is perfectly possible.

Chuwi LarkBox S

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)
  • Features: 4 / 5

Chuwi LarkBox S: Performance

The design of the LarkBox S makes it extremely quick and easy to get started, with the ports on the back being easily accessible for plugging in the HDMI and the two USB Type-As to connect monitor, keyboard, and mouse. Pressing the power button boots up into Windows 11 Home, and you can run through the usual setup process, which takes about 5 to 10 minutes.

While the processor and GPU are relatively low-powered, they are more than sufficient to handle Windows 11 Home, providing a smooth experience from the outset, even when connected to a 4K monitor. Once Windows has finished the set-up, you can proceed to install the applications you need. For us, this included benchmarking software, a few games, Microsoft Office, and multimedia tools such as DaVinci Resolve for video editing and Adobe Photoshop for photography.

Starting with general admin use of the machine, it quickly becomes apparent that it has been finely tuned for day-to-day office use. The LarkBox S handles Microsoft Office and Microsoft Edge (or other browsers) well enough. One minor issue we did have was the LED light array at the front, which, while aesthetically pleasing, it can become a little distracting over time. However, it is possible to turn it off via the firmware settings, though this does require a bit of technical know-how.

Pushing the machine to a higher level of demand, we loaded up DaVinci Resolve to edit some 4K video shot on the Sony Alpha 7 Mark IV in the H.265 file format. Surprisingly, the machine handled this with relative ease for a simple 10-minute video edit. The project included multiple tracks with little grading and no effects applied. However, as soon as text or effects were added to the footage, the machine began to struggle. That said, you could still manage a 10 to 15-minute edit without too much trouble. The main point where the machine struggled was during export, as it took a significant amount of time to render the video into a file ready for upload. Still, for small video projects, this machine should suffice.

Switching to Adobe Lightroom and loading a few images, the machine performed well and was more than capable of handling basic edits to enhance your imagery for print or online use. Moving on to Photoshop with high-resolution files from the Sony A7 IV, the performance remained impressive for basic edits. The only noticeable slowdown occurred when using the brush tool for dodging and burning highlights and shadows. As layers accumulated, the processor and GPU began to struggle, revealing the machine's limitations.

The final test was to assess gaming performance. For this, we selected Tekken 8 and Hogwarts Legacy. It quickly became apparent when loading Tekken 8 that the machine was going to struggle graphically. While this program is often manageable on entry-level machines, the LarkBox S couldn't quite handle the demands. Once in the game (which took some time), even with settings reduced to a minimum and resolution down to Full HD, gameplay was possible but far from a good experience. With Hogwarts Legacy, the game was simply beyond the machine's capabilities and could not run effectively. However, less graphically and processor-intensive games, such as Portal 2 or the legacy Tomb Raider series, ran smoothly and without issue.

  • Performance: 4 / 5

Chuwi LarkBox S

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

Chuwi LarkBox S: Final verdict

Chuwi LarkBox S

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

Taking a look at what’s on offer here with the LarkBox S, you essentially have an entry-level machine with a premium build quality and very stylish, if discreet, looks. It also has an edge of flair about it with the LED lighting array at the front, which could easily lead you to mistake it for a gaming mini PC. In reality, this is an office machine ideally suited to everyday work with Word and Excel, as well as browsing the internet and a little bit of light multimedia editing.

While the processing and graphical power of the machine isn’t huge, as a day-to-day machine that is built to a high standard and quality, it should last you for a good number of years. The LarkBox S is a great option. Alongside the quality build and relatively decent feature set for the price, there’s also the ability to upgrade the internal SSD and RAM. While the storage capacity upgrade is limited to a maximum of 1 TB, the fact that you can upgrade the RAM to 64 GB gives you a little more flexibility for multimedia editing and handling larger Excel documents.

Overall, the LarkBox S is a great option for any business looking for a compact mini PC for office administration work. Its compact size, durability, and design mean it will fit nicely into any environment. It’s a shame that it comes with Windows Home rather than Windows Pro, but you can always upgrade if needed. As a solid, well-rounded machine with a quality build and finish, the LarkBox S is a worthwhile option that justifies the extra cost over some cheaper alternatives.

Should I buy a Chuwi LarkBox S?

Buy it if...

You want a high-quality build

If you’re looking for a machine that will withstand more than the occasional knock or can be used for van life or in a workshop, the high-quality casing and solid build should meet your needs.

You need plenty of connection options

Across the front and back, there are plenty of connection options, enabling you to connect up to three monitors as well as external hard drives and other accessories neatly and easily.

Don't buy it if...

You need large internal storage

The internal hardware used means that it’s limited to just one terabyte of internal storage with the upgrade, which isn’t a great deal. If you’re looking for a machine for video editing or multimedia, you might want something with more internal storage potential.

You want to play games

Even if you’re a casual gamer and want the option to play some of the latest games, even at reduced resolution, this machine and its integrated GPU will struggle.

For productivity desktops, we reviewed the best business computers.

Intel Arc B580 review: A spectacular success for Intel and a gateway to 1440p for gamers on a budget
5:00 pm | December 12, 2024
Author: admin | Category: Computers Computing Computing Components Gadgets | Tags: , , , | Comments: Off

Intel Arc B580: Two-minute review

When I reviewed the Arc A770 and A750, I said that these Alchemist GPUs were impressive first efforts for Intel's Arc range, but not yet at the level that they needed to be to compete with the likes of Nvidia and AMD in discrete graphics.

Well, with the release of the new Intel Arc B580 (2nd-gen Battlemage), there's no doubt that Intel has produced one of the best graphics cards of this generation, and given gamers on a budget an absolute gift just in time for the holidays.

For starters, let's talk about the price of this GPU. At just $249.99 / £249.99 / AU$439, the Arc B580 undercuts both Nvidia's and AMD's budget offerings, the RTX 4060 and RX 7600, while offering substantially better performance, making its value proposition untouchable at this price range.

While I'll dig deeper into the performance in a bit, I'll cut to the chase and point out the simple fact that neither the RTX 4060 nor the RX 7600 can game at 1440p without severely compromising graphics quality. Not only can the B580 perform this feat, it does so brilliantly.

This comes down to some very straightforward spec choices that Intel made with its Battlemage debut that, especially in hindsight, make Nvidia and AMD's respective decisions even more baffling. First, with a VRAM pool of 12GB, the B580 can hold the larger texture files needed for 1440p gaming, whereas the RTX 4060 Ti cannot, due to its 8GB VRAM loadout.

Then there's the B580's wider 192-bit memory interface, compared to the RTX 4060 Ti's and RX 7600 XT's 128-bit. While this might seem like an obscure spec, it's the secret sauce for the B580. This beefier interface allows it to process those larger texture files much faster than its competitors, so this GPU can fully leverage its bigger VRAM pool in a way that Nvidia and AMD's competing cards simply can't, even with larger VRAM configurations.

Boiling all this down, you end up with a budget-class GPU that can get you fast 1440p framerates the likes of which we haven't seen since the RTX 3060 Ti.

Even more impressive, in my mind, is that I did not encounter a single game where there was some kind of quirk or hiccup caused by the driver. With the Arc Alchemist cards last year, there were issues with some games not running well because of inadequate driver support, or a game's reliance on an older version of DirectX that the Alchemist GPUs weren't optimized for. I didn't encounter any of those problems this time around. The Intel graphics team's long, hard work on getting Arc's drivers up to par has definitely paid off.

If there's a criticism I can make of this graphics card, it's that its creative performance isn't as good as Nvidia's. But given the entire creative world's reliance on Nvidia's bespoke CUDA instruction set, neither Intel nor AMD were ever really going to be able to compete here.

Fortunately, the Intel Arc B580 is a graphics card for gaming, and for any gamer looking to play at 1440p resolution on the cheap, the B580 is really the only graphics card that can do it, making it the only GPU you should be considering at this price point.

Intel Arc B580: Price & availability

An Intel Arc B580 resting upright on its retail packaging

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

The Intel Arc B580 is available in the US, UK, and Australia, and has been from December 13, 2024, starting at $249.99, £249.99, and AU$439 respectively. Third-party graphics card partners like Acer, ASRock, and others will have their own variants of the B580, and their prices may be higher, depending on the card.

The closest competition for the Arc B580 in terms of price are the Nvidia RTX 4060 and AMD RX 7600, both of which have a $20-$50 higher MSRP. And while Nvidia and AMD are preparing to roll out their next-gen graphics cards starting next month, it will still be a few months after the initial flagship launches before either company's budget offerings are announced. So, the B580 is the only current-gen GPU available for under $250 / £250 / AU$450 at the moment, and will likely remain so for many months to come.

  • Value: 5/5

Intel Arc B580: Specifications

The video output ports on the Intel Arc B580

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

Intel Arc B580: Architecture & features

A masculine hand holding up the Intel Arc B580

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

The Intel Arc B580 is the first discrete GPU from Intel based on its new Xe2 graphics architecture, codenamed Battlemage, and there are a lot of low-level changes over the previous-gen Intel Arc Alchemist. Many of these are small tweaks to the architectural design, such as the move from SIMD32 to SIMD16 instructions, but when taken together, all of these small changes add up to a major overhaul of the GPU.

That, in addition to using TSMC's 5nm process, means that even though the GPU itself has become physically smaller in just about every measure, it's much more powerful.

The B580 has a roughly 17% reduction in compute units from the Arc A580 and about 10% fewer transistors, but Intel says that its various architectural changes produce about 70% better performance per compute unit (or Xe core, as Intel calls it). I haven't tested or reviewed the Intel Arc A580, so I can't say for certain if that claim holds up, but there has definitely been a major performance gain gen-on-gen based on my experience with the higher-end Arc Alchemist cards. We also can't ignore the substantially faster boost clock of 2,850MHz, up from 1,700MHz for the A580.

Outside of the GPU architecture, there is also a smaller memory bus, with the A580's 256-bit interface dropping down to 192-bit for the B580, but the B580 features a 50% increase in its video memory pool, as well as a faster memory clock.

  • Specs & features: 4.5 / 5

Intel Arc B580: Design

The brand marking on the Intel Arc B580

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

The Intel Arc B580 Limited Edition reference card is what you'd call the 'base' version of this GPU, but don't call it basic.

Despite its all-black-with-white-accent-lettering appearance, this is a good-looking graphics card, much like the initial Arc Alchemist GPUs before it, thanks to its matte, textured black shroud, dual-fan cooling, and rather understated aesthetic.

In a PC component world full of ostentatious, overly aggressive and flashy designs, there is something almost respectable about a graphics card in 2024 that presents itself without gimmicks, almost daring you to underestimate its capabilities due to its lack of RGB.

That said, there is one noticeable difference with this graphics card's design: the open 'window' over the internal heatsink to help with airflow and cooling. Unfortunately, the HWInfo64 utility I use to measure temperature and power draw for the GPUs I review couldn't read the Arc B580 during testing, so I can't tell you how much of a difference this window makes compared to something like the Intel Arc A750—but it certainly won't hurt its thermals.

Beyond that, the card also sports a single 8-pin power connector, in keeping with its 190W TBP, so you can pretty much guarantee that if you already have a discrete GPU in your system, you'll have the available power cables from your PSU required to use this GPU.

It's also not a very large graphics card, though it is larger than some RTX 4060 and RX 7600 GPUs (it's about 10.7-inches / 272mm), though third-party variants might be more compact. In any case, it's a dual-slot card, so it'll fit in place as an upgrade for just about any graphics card you have in your PC currently.

  • Design: 4.5 / 5

Intel Arc B580: Performance

An Intel Arc B580 running on a test bench

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

OK, so now we come to why I am absolutely in love with this graphics card: performance.

Unfortunately, I don't have an Intel Arc A580 card on hand to compare this GPU to, so I can't directly measure how the B580 stacks up to its predecessor. But I can compare the B580 to its current competition, as well as the Intel Arc A750, which prior to this release was selling at, or somewhat below, the price of this graphics card, and has comparable specs.

In terms of pure synthetic performance, the Arc B580 comes in second to the Nvidia RTX 4060 Ti, performing about 10% slower overall. That said, there were some tests, like 3DMark Fire Strike Ultra, Wild Life Extreme (and Wild Life Extreme Unlimited), and Time Spy Extreme where the extra VRAM allowed the Arc B580 to pull ahead of the much more expensive Nvidia RTX 4060 Ti. The Arc B580 did manage to outperform the RTX 4060 by about 12%, however.

Creative workloads aren't the Arc B580's strongest area, with Nvidia's RTX 4060 and RTX 4060 Ti performing substantially better. This might change once PugetBench for Creators Photoshop benchmark gets updated however, as it crashed during every single test I ran, regardless of which graphics card I was using.

Notably, the Intel Arc B580 encoded 4K video to 1080p at a faster rate using Intel's H.264 codec in Handbrake 1.61 than all of the other cards tested using Nvidia or AMD's H.264 options, so this is something for game streamers to consider if they're looking for a card to process their video on the fly.

But what really matters with this GPU is gaming, and if you compare this graphics card's 1080p performance to the competition, you'll have to go with the nearly 40% more expensive Nvidia RTX 4060 Ti in order to beat it, and it's not a crushing defeat for Intel. While I found the Arc B580 is about 17% slower than the RTX 4060 Ti on average at 1080p (with no ray tracing or upscaling), it's still hitting 82 FPS on average overall and actually has a slightly higher minimum/1% FPS performance of just under 60 FPS.

The AMD RX 7600 XT, Intel Arc A750, and Nvidia RTX 4060 don't even come close to reaching these kinds of numbers, with the Arc B580 scoring a roughly 30% faster average 1080p FPS and an incredible 52% faster minimum/1% FPS advantage over the Nvidia RTX 4060, which comes in a very distant third place among the five GPUs being tested. All in all, it's an impressive performance from the Intel Battlemage graphics card.

Also worth noting is that the Intel Arc B580's ray-tracing performance is noticeably better than AMD's, and not that far behind Nvidia's, though its upscaling performance lags a bit behind AMD and Nvidia at 1080p.

Even more impressive, though, is this card's 1440p performance.

Typically, if you're going to buy any 1440p GPU, not even the best 1440p graphics card, you should expect to pay at least $400-$500 (about £320-£400 / AU$600-AU$750). And to really qualify as a 1440p GPU, you need to hit an average of 60 FPS overall, with an average FPS floor of about 40 FPS. Anything less than that, and you're going to have an uneven experience game-to-game.

In this regard, the only two graphics cards I tested that qualify are the Nvidia RTX 4060 Ti and the Intel Arc B580, and they are very close to each other in terms of 1440p performance. (I can give an honorable mention to the Nvidia RTX 4060, which almost got there, but not quite).

While Nvidia has certain built-in advantages owing to its status as the premiere GPU brand (so pretty much any game is optimized for Nvidia hardware by default), at 1440p it only barely ekes out a win over the Intel Arc B580. And that's ultimately down to its stronger native ray-tracing performance—a scenario which pretty much no one opts for. If you're going to use ray tracing, you're going to use upscaling, and in that situation, the RTX 4060 Ti and Arc B580 are effectively tied at 1440p.

And this 1440p performance in particular is why I'm so enthusiastic about this graphics card. While this is the performance section of the review, I can't help but talk about the value that this card represents for gamers—especially the growing number of 1440p-aspiring gamers out there.

Prior to the Intel Arc B580, gaming at 1440p—which is the PC gaming sweet spot; believe me, I've extensively tested nearly every GPU of the past four years at 1440p—was something reserved for the petit bourgeois of PC gamers. These are the folks not rich enough to really go in for the best 4K graphics cards, but they've got enough money to buy a 1440p monitor and a graphics card powerful enough to drive it.

This used to mean something approaching a grand just for these two items alone, locking a lot of gamers into incremental 1080p advances for two successive generations. No more.

Now, with an entry-level 1440p monitor coming in under $300 /£300 / AU$450, it's entirely possible to upgrade your rig for 1440p gaming for about $500 / £500 / AU$750 with this specific graphics card (and only this graphics card), which is absolutely doable for a hell of a lot of gamers out there who are still languishing at 1080p.

Ultimately, this, more than anything, raises the Intel Arc B580 into S-Tier for me, even though Nvidia's $399.99 RTX 4060 Ti GPU gets slightly better performance. The Nvidia RTX 4060 Ti just doesn't offer this kind of value for the vast majority of gamers out there, and even with its improved performance since its launch, the 4060 Ti is still very hard to recommend.

The Nvidia RTX 4060, meanwhile, can't keep up with the B580 despite being 20% more expensive. And with the AMD RX 7600 XT, laden with its $329.99 MSRP (about £250 / AU$480 RRP), falling noticeably behind the B580, the RX 7600 (which I haven't had a chance to retest yet) doesn't stand a chance (and has a slightly more expensive MSRP).

And, it has to be emphasized, I experienced none of the driver issues with the Intel Arc B580 that I did when I originally reviewed the Intel Arc A750 and Arc A770. Every game I tested ran perfectly well, even if something like Black Myth Wukong ran much better on the two Nvidia cards than it did on Intel's GPUs. Tweak some settings and you'll be good to go.

This was something that just wasn't the case with the previous-gen Arc graphics cards at launch, and it truly held Intel back at the time. In one of my Intel Arc Alchemist reviews, I compared that generation of graphics cards to fantastic journeyman efforts that were good, but maybe not ready to be put out on the show floor. No more. Intel has absolutely graduated to full GPU maker status, and has done so with a card more affordable than the cheapest graphics cards its competition has to offer.

Simply put, for a lot of cash-strapped gamers out there, the Intel Arc B580's performance at this price is nothing short of a miracle, and it makes me question how Intel of all companies was able to pull this off while AMD and Nvidia have not.

Even if you don't buy an Intel Arc B580, give Intel its due for introducing this kind of competition into the graphics card market. If Intel can keep this up for the B570, and hopefully the B770 and B750, then Nvidia and AMD will have no choice but to rein in their price inflation with the next-gen cards they plan to offer next year, making it a win-win for every gamer looking to upgrade.

  • Performance: 4.5 / 5

Intel Arc B580: Should you buy it?

A masculine hand holding an Intel Arc B580

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

Buy the Intel Arc B580 if...

You want an extremely affordable 1440p graphics card
A 1440p graphics card can be quite expensive, but the Intel Arc B580 is incredibly affordable.

You're looking for great gaming performance
The Intel Arc B580 delivers incredible framerates for the price.

Don't buy it if...

You're looking for a budget creative GPU
While the B580 isn't terrible, if you're looking for a GPU for creative work, there are better cards out there.

You want a cheap GPU for AI workloads
The Intel Arc B580 might have dedicated AI hardware, but it still lags behind Nvidia by a good amount.

Also consider

Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060
The Nvidia RTX 4060 is a better option for a lot of creative tasks on a budget, though its gaming performance isn't as strong despite the higher price.

Read the full Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 review

Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Ti
If you want a strong 1080p and 1440p gaming GPU, but also need some muscle for creative or machine learning/AI workloads, this card is what you'll want, so long as you're willing to pay the extra premium in the price.

Read the full Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Ti review

How I tested the Intel Arc B580

The backplate of the Intel Arc B580

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)
  • I tested the Intel Arc B580 for about three weeks
  • I used my updated suite of graphics card benchmark tests
  • I used the Arc B580 as my primary work GPU for creative workloads like Adobe Photoshop, as well as some in-depth game testing
Test System Specs

Here are the specs on the system I used for testing:

Motherboard: ASRock Z790i Lightning WiFi
CPU: Intel Core i9-14900K
CPU Cooler: Gigabyte Auros Waterforce II 360 ICE
RAM: Corsair Dominator DDR5-6600 (2 x 16GB)
SSD: Crucial T705
PSU: Thermaltake Toughpower PF3 1050W Platinum
Case: Praxis Wetbench

Over the course of about three weeks, I used the Intel Arc B580 as my primary workstation GPU when I wasn't actively benchmarking it.

This included using the graphics card for various creative workloads like Adobe Photoshop and light video encoding work.

I also used the B580 for some in-depth game testing, including titles like Black Myth Wukong, Satisfactory, and other recently released games.

I've been doing graphics card reviews for TechRadar for more than two years now, and I've done extensive GPU testing previous to that on a personal basis as a lifelong PC gamer. In addition, my computer science coursework for my Master's degree utilized GPUs very heavily for machine learning and other computational workloads, and as a result, I know my way around every aspect of a GPU. As such, you can rest assured that my testing process is both thorough and sound.

  • Originally reviewed December 2024
Adobe Photoshop CC (2024) review: the best photo editor gets even better
12:00 pm | December 8, 2024
Author: admin | Category: Computers Computing Creative Software Gadgets Software | Tags: , | Comments: Off

Adobe Photoshop CC 2024: two-minute review

Photoshop has long been our benchmark for what a photo-editing app should be capable of, and that doesn’t change with the 2024 edition. Whether you work with graphics or photographs, it’s a comprehensive solution for manipulating images in pretty much any way you can think of.

As we covered in our in-depth Adobe Photoshop CC 2023 review, the last edition of Photoshop introduced a range of significant AI-powered upgrades. Those included generative features for creating visual assets using simple text prompts, as well as object-selection and removal tools supercharged by AI.

The 2024 version of Photoshop is an evolution of last year’s release. Rather than introducing any groundbreaking features, it builds on the existing toolkit to offer users an even more polished, accessible and powerful editing app.

Adobe sticks with a proven interface, and Photoshop CC 2024 will feel familiar to anyone who's used an older version of the app in recent years. The useful Contextual Task Bar returns, now with enhanced support for the transform, shape and gradient tools. Nothing is dramatically different, and the app is all the better for it.

Chief among the updates is Adobe’s Firefly Image Model 3, which drives the generative AI tools in Photoshop CC 2024. The net gain here is more realistic and consistent AI imagery from text-based prompts. Photoshop’s AI is far from infallible, but its best output is significantly more believable and convincingly integrated when compared to Photoshop CC 2023.

New generative tools help in this regard. Generate Similar allows you to create further variations based on your favorite of three generated images, letting you get closer to a visual that fits. When you find one that does, the Enhance Detail option boosts detail in a generated image for better clarity.

It’s all very effectively executed. You’ll still encounter errant output, sometimes to a laughable degree, and an eagle-eyed inspection will still pick up inconsistencies and smudginess in the best of Photoshop’s efforts. But if you want to incorporate generative AI into your workflow, Photoshop CC 2024 has the most complete set of tools to let you do so.

That includes a new Selection Brush option, which allows you to more easily make selections using a hybrid of the brush and lasso tools, as well as an Adjustment Brush for selectively applying granular tweaks to parts of an image.

Further refining the formula is the Distraction Removal tool, which can automatically detect, select and paint out people and wires from your photos with remarkable effectiveness.

With more updates in the pipeline, including a Generative Workspace that’s currently available in Photoshop Beta, Photoshop continues to set the standard for photo-editing apps in 2024. Adobe’s payment model might not be popular with everyone, but we think a Creative Cloud subscription offers a lot of value.

If you need an all-in-one image-editing solution with the latest generative AI features implemented to genuinely useful effect, Photoshop CC 2024 is the app to beat.

Adobe Photoshop CC 2024: pricing & plans

  • Available as part of an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription
  • From $22.99 / £21.98 / AU$32.99 per month for the Photoshop plan
  • From $19.99 / £9.98 / AU$28.59 per month for the Photography plan

As with all Adobe apps, Photoshop is only available to use via a Creative Cloud subscription. There’s no option to buy a one-off license, so you’ll need to keep paying for this subscription to maintain your access. You can sign up for plans on a monthly or an annual basis, with significant savings offered if you pay for the full year up front.

Photoshop is also available as part of several Creative Cloud plans, including the All Apps bundle. You can also choose to take out a single-app subscription for Photoshop alone, but this isn’t actually the most cost-effective way to access the app. Strangely, you’re better off with the Photography plan, which combines Photoshop and Lightroom, together with 20GB of cloud storage

Adobe Photoshop CC 2024 review: Interface

Screenshot showing the Adobe Photoshop Contextual Toolbar

(Image credit: Future)
  • Interface largely unchanged from Photoshop Creative Cloud 2023
  • Contextual Task Bar supports more shape, transform and gradient settings

Photoshop’s interface has undergone iterative refinements over the years, but it remains fundamentally familiar for anyone who’s used a version of Photoshop – or, indeed, any desktop photo editor – in the past. Tool shortcuts reside in a vertical column down the left-hand side, while panels on the right are where you’ll find layers, image adjustments and color controls. Granular settings for your chosen tool can be found in the options bar along the top of the workspace.

The interface is largely unchanged from Photoshop CC 2023. Seasoned users won’t notice any major changes, which is the kind of consistency that keeps people paying for a Creative Cloud subscription. It does also mean that the same learning curve is present in 2024, with a degree of tuition required to fully get to grips with everything that Photoshop has to offer. It’s not the most beginner-friendly photo editor, but that’s inevitable when you’re dealing with such a capable and comprehensive piece of software.

Returning in Photoshop CC 2024 is the Contextual Task Bar, which floats at the bottom of the workspace. It can also be dragged around, pinned in place or disabled if you don’t need its input. Wherever you place it, the Contextual Task Bar displays shortcuts relevant to your current task or selection, genuinely streamlining editing workflows.

The Contextual Task Bar has been improved for 2024 to support fill and stroke settings for shapes, rotate and flip tools when transforming objects, as well as the ability to change color, opacity, type, and presets when working with gradients. These aren’t groundbreaking additions, but they are genuinely useful refinements that contribute to a slicker user experience.

Screenshot of the Generative Workspace in Adobe Photoshop (Beta)

(Image credit: Adobe)

That user experience is going to evolve in future iterations, and you can get a preview of this by downloading the Photoshop Beta version through Creative Cloud. Choose Generative Workspace from the welcome screen and you’ll find a space where you can create visual assets from text prompts and browse through previously generated elements. You can have several prompts running simultaneously, and everything is saved to a timeline, which allows you to go back and add variables.

Photoshop’s Generative Workspace is not dissimilar to the interface used by some of the best AI image generators. In our experience, it adds a useful cataloging function to Photoshop’s AI toolkit, allowing you to easily generate, manage and build on a library of generated creative assets in real time.

  • Interface score: 4.5/5

Adobe Photoshop CC 2024 review: generative AI features

  • Generative features powered by Firefly Image Model 3 for greater realism
  • New Generate Similar feature lets you create more image variations

One of the most significant additions to Photoshop CC 2023 was its suite of generative tools, which use Adobe’s Firefly Image Model to drive AI-powered image generation. We covered the effectiveness of these features at length in our review of Photoshop 2023, and they return with even greater potential in 2024.

Generative Fill and Generative Expand are now driven by the latest version of Adobe’s Firefly Image Model. The tools themselves still function in the same way: Generative Fill creates AI imagery in a selected area based on a descriptive text prompt, which can include adding and removing objects, while Generative Expand allows you to increase the dimensions of an existing image using generated content.

Screenshot showing an AI-generated peacock in Adobe Photoshop

(Image credit: Future)

What the upgrade means for Photoshop users is more realistic generated imagery, complete with enhanced control over detail and composition. This bears out in practice: while Photoshop’s generative tools aren’t perfect, results in the 2024 edition are consistently more believable. We encountered far fewer uncanny effects, particularly when text prompts included living creatures.

In our review of Photoshop CC 2023, we commented that the unreality of AI-generated imagery could be spotted fairly easily upon closer inspection, particularly when larger objects were added or generative adjustments were made to bigger areas of an image. These issues have been significantly improved in the 2024 version.

We still encountered smudging of detailed textures, as well as warped edges and occasional freakish shapes, particularly in mixed lighting. It also struggles with reflections. Certain prompts simply produce hilarious results, like when we tried to change a blue-sky background for a fiery one over a volcano. On the whole, though, we were very impressed with the realism of generated elements in Photoshop CC 2024.

Screenshot from Adobe Photoshop showing the Generate Similar feature

(Image credit: Future)

What struck us is that when we compared the ‘best’ result from the same prompt in the 2023 and 2024 versions, we had to look much closer in the latest edition before spotting any telltale signs that AI was involved. Everything from shadows and tone to general detail is more consistent – and that’s particularly the case if you hover over the thumbnail of a generated variation in the Properties panel and hit the Enhance Detail icon, which boosts detail further.

The Generate Similar option also allows you to refine generated content by choosing the best variation and generating more iterations from it. Say you prompt Photoshop to create a red truck – it will give you three variations to begin with. Pick the one of these that best fits your vision, click the three dots icon on the Contextual Tool Bar and select Generate Similar. You’ll then get three more images based on that variation, allowing you to steer the AI model towards what’s in your mind’s eye.

  • Generative AI features score: 4.5/5

Adobe Photoshop CC 2024 review: selection

Screenshot of the selection tool in Adobe Photoshop

(Image credit: Future)
  • Selection Brush is a hybrid of Brush and Lasso tools
  • Adjustment Brush applies non-destructive edits selectively

Photoshop already has some of the most powerful selection features of any photo editor, including the AI-driven Object Selection Tool and ‘select subject’ shortcut found on the Contextual Task Bar. While some tidying up is often still required when using these tools to mask off parts of an image, they can significantly accelerate workflow and, depending on the object you’re selecting, can sometimes automate it entirely.

Photoshop CC 2024 doesn’t introduce any groundbreaking selection features, but there are a few new and improved tools which enhance the existing offering. First is the enhanced Selection Brush Tool, which is designed to simplify the selection process for trackpad users. It’s really a combination of masking and lasso tools, executed in a more user-friendly way.

Choose the Selection Brush then simply paint over an area as you would when masking. You can adjust the brush hardness, opacity and color from the toolbar, as well as toggling between add and subtract modes to amend your selection. Switch to another tool and your selection will change from a pink overlay to a classic ‘marching ants’ outline, as if you’ve lassoed your way around the object. Both visually and practically, it’s an effective change that’s genuinely useful.

Screenshot showing the adjustment brush in Adobe Photoshop

(Image credit: Future)

Joining it is the Adjustment Brush tool, which allows you to apply non-destructive edits to specific areas of an image. Select the tool, then use the Contextual Task Bar to select the kind of adjustment you want to make. You can then paint over part of your image or select ‘Apply to object.’ You can change the hardness and size of the brush, as well as subtracting from your selection. You can then make granular changes to that new adjustment layer in the adjustments panel.

Again, this isn’t a groundbreaking feature. Instead, it’s one more way in which Adobe is making Photoshop more intuitive and accessible, through new applications of existing editing mechanics. While seasoned users may prefer to stick with traditional selection and application techniques, we think these brush tools tools will be easier for beginners to grasp. The good thing about Photoshop is that the choice is yours.

  • Selection score: 5/5

Adobe Photoshop CC 2024: Removal tools

Screenshot of the background removal tool in Adobe Photoshop

(Image credit: Future)
  • Distraction Removal automatically takes away distracting elements
  • Generate Background Tool can simulate photorealistic settings

We talked extensively about the effectiveness of the Remove Tool in our review of Photoshop CC 2023. In short, it’s a powerful feature that’s able to make unwanted elements disappear from your images in just a few clicks. Paint over anything in your image that you want gone and Photoshop will replace it with AI-generated pixels which, more often than not, blend effortlessly into the existing scene as if the original element was never there.

This feature returns in Photoshop CC 2024, with added functionality. Rather than manually painting over unwanted wires and people in your image, you can now use the Distraction Removal Tool to detect and remove them with a couple of clicks.

Select the Remove Tool from the sidebar, then select ‘Find distractions’ from the toolbar at the top. Here you can select ‘Wires and cables’ or ‘People’. Choose the former and Photoshop will try to remove all telephone and power lines from a scene. Select the latter and it will highlight all the people it can find, giving you the option to deselect any that you want to keep in the image.

Screenshot showing the Distraction Removal tool in Adobe Photoshop

(Image credit: Future)

When it works, it’s an impressive feature that genuinely saves time. We found it incredibly effective for removing wires and cables, even where these run across different backgrounds. For example, in an image in which multiple cables were running away from the camera, in front of several buildings and the sky, every single wire was seamlessly removed, and it wasn’t possible to trace where they’d been.

People selection is also powerful. Even out-of-focus figures in the background were picked up by the tool, and it was also able to detect people walking side-on to and away from the camera, only once missing someone with their back turned. The effectiveness of the actual removal depends on the given scene, with complex textures resulting in a few floating faces. Nevertheless, it’s a useful and convincing enhancement to Photoshop's object removal arsenal.

Firefly improvements are also evident when using the Generate Background Tool. Background removal was another big introduction in Photoshop CC 2023. After removing a background, the Generate Background tool lets you swap in a completely different setting which matches the position and lighting of the subject. Once again, it isn’t faultless by any means, but in our tests we did find it a particularly effective shortcut for changing the background of product shots and flatlay photography.

  • Removal tools score: 4.5/5

Should you buy Adobe Photoshop CC 2024?

Buy it if...

You want the latest generative AI tools
Powered by Firefly Image Model 3, the generative tools in Photoshop CC 2024 are at the cutting edge of what AI can do, creating realistic visuals from short text prompts.

You want powerful removal tools
Complementing the Remove and Background Removal tools, Photoshop’s new Distraction Removal feature uses AI to instantly and seamlessly remove unnecessary elements from your compositions, as if they were never there.

You want a complete image editor
From adjustment presets to comprehensive layer tools, Photoshop is the most complete image editor available. Whether you’re working with graphics or photographs, Photoshop is the ultimate all-in-one app.

Don't buy it if...

You like to own your apps outright
As with all Creative Cloud apps, Photoshop is only available as part of a subscription, and you’ll need to keep paying to maintain access to the software. If you prefer to pay a one-off fee you’ll need to look elsewhere.

You only need to make basic edits
Photoshop is an incredibly powerful app with a learning curve and price tag to match. If you only want to make simple adjustments to your images, there are cheaper and easier-to-use software options out there.

You don’t have a modern computer
Because of its powerful feature set, Photoshop demands a pretty significant amount of computer processing power. Even some relatively recent models don’t officially meet the spec benchmark specified by Adobe, so do check that your hardware is up to the task.

Adobe Photoshop CC 2024: Also consider

Serif Affinity Photo 2022
It might not have the cutting-edge features of Photoshop, but if you want a solid set of photo-editing features at a very fair price Affinity Photo is a great desktop alternative that’s available for a one-off fee.
Read our Serif Affinity Photo 2022 review.

Corel PaintShop Pro 2023
A comprehensive image editor with a generous set of tools to rival Photoshop's, PaintShop Pro is a reasonably priced option to consider if you don’t need the generative AI features offered by Adobe’s app.
Read our Corel PaintShop Pro 2023 review.

How I tested Adobe Photoshop CC 2024

Screenshot of Adobe Photoshop

(Image credit: Future)
  • I tested it for more than three months
  • I used it as my primary image-editing app
  • I created a range visuals in different styles

As I regularly edit images for work, Photoshop was already an important part of my visual toolkit. Having updated the app to version 26, I continued to use it as my primary editing tool for both photo and graphics work. Because I’m familiar with the software’s interface and capabilities, I was able to focus on the new features and compare these to previous versions.

I spent a lot of time exploring the capabilities of Firefly Image Model 3. This included making adjustments to a range of photos, as well as removing objects, to see how Photoshop’s updated generative tools could streamline my workflow. I also tested these extensively with a wide range of text prompts, to assess how realistically and seamlessly Photoshop was able to integrated generated content into compositions.

First reviewed: December 2024

GMKtec Nucbox K8 Plus mini PC review
10:42 am | December 7, 2024
Author: admin | Category: Computers Computing Gadgets | Tags: | Comments: Off

GMKtec Nucbox K8 Plus: 30-second review

Every Mini PC is trying to make its mark, and now the focus seems to be on high-powered machines with mass appeal. The GMKtec NUC Box K8 Plus is an interesting option, with a spec sheet that pitches it at the mid to higher end of this style of machine. Inside, the AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS CPU and AMD Radeon 780M graphics provide ample processing and graphical power to handle day-to-day tasks, as well as a decent level of creative work such as high-resolution photo and video editing. That combination will also see you through mid-level gaming, although a few settings may need slight reductions. 

However, then you come to the build quality. The main metal casing, finished in matte black, initially gives you a good impression of the machine and the high-quality. However, the transparent twist off top adds little to the design, and if anything cheapens and otherwise stylish mini PC. What this design does allow, however, is easy access to the inside in case you need to upgrade the RAM or SSD. 

The outside of the machine is similarly designed with ease of use and functionality at its heart, featuring plenty of ports and even the Oculink PCIe 4.0 on the front, which enables you to plug in an eGPU to boost the graphics processing and overall performance of the machine. This makes the NUC Box K8 Plus a very different proposition from many of the best mini PCs we've reviewed and, at the price, makes it an absolute bargain. What GMKtec has done is balance absolute performance with cost, resulting in a mediocre-looking machine, due to that transparent top, that can actually hold its own against machines almost double its price.

GMKtec Nucbox K8 Plus: Price and availability

  • How much does it cost? $424.97
  • When is it out? Now
  • Where can you get it? Widely available

The GMKtec Nucbox K8 Plus is widely available and can be purchased directly from the GMKtec for £424.97

  • Value: 5 / 5

GMKtec Nucbox K8 Plus

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

GMKtec Nucbox K8 Plus: Specs

GMKtec Nucbox K8 Plus: Design

The design of the NUC Box K8 Plus is understated, featuring the usual compact, box-like form that makes it easy to position on a desk or take with you when you need something small and portable, that has more ports and expansion options than your average laptop. 

The build quality is solid, with a metal casing that gives the machine a premium feel. The transparent top, which cheapens the design, covers the large Hyper Ice Chamber 2.0 cooling system—essentially a large top and bottom fan with a copper base—that helps to keep heat in check. The transparent top is positioned slightly above the body of the machine to enable airflow. While the dark grey transparency could add to the aesthetics, it seems to lack impact here.

In terms of size, this Mini PC is about average, measuring 127 mm x 132 mm x 58 mm and weighing 640g. This compact size makes it easy to position on your desk or mount using the included VESA mount. Its weight and dimensions also make it perfectly portable for users who need a machine on the go and makes it a great Van life option.

GMKtec Nucbox K8 Plus

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

The rest of the machine is neatly laid out. At the back, you'll find a good range of ports, including 2 x USB 2.0, HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 2.1, 2 x RJ45 2.5G, USB4.0 Type-C, and a Kensington Lock for security. Below these ports is additional venting, highlighting GMKtec's focus on effective cooling. More vents appear on either side of the machine, further aiding airflow.

At the front, there's the signature green GMKtec power button, an Oculink PCIe 4.0, USB4.0 Type-C, 2 x USB3.2, and a 3.5mm audio-out for headphones. The most impressive design feature is the inclusion of the Oculink display port. While this might not be the most intuitive display connector out there, the port does offers performance and reliability that few other connectors can match, making it perfect for those working with 4K or 8K video or high end gaming where the connection of a powerful eGPU can be used.

  • Design: 4 / 5

GMKtec Nucbox K8 Plus

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

GMKtec Nucbox K8 Plus: Features

Mini PCs have recently leapt forward in performance and features, and again here, the GMKtec NUC Box K8 follows this recent trend with an AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS CPU with 8 cores, 16 threads, 54W TDP, 16MB L3 Cache and 4nm processor tech. This is coupled with AMD Radeon 780M graphics which seems to be the choice for high performance mini PCs. While this mini PC is priced in the mid-range, the performance, components and features all seem to hit well above its weight. The CPU and GPU are joined by PCIe 4.0 M.2 2280 SSD, and a nice feature here is that there are dual slots, which will enable you to maximise the internal storage with the ultrafast SSDs to a maximum of 8TB, 4TB in each. Alongside the ROM is a DDR5 5600MHz SO-DIMM dual channel, which means that you could potentially increase the RAM to 96GB, which is again impressive for a small machine. Our review sample came equipped with a 1TB SSD and 32GB of RAM.

One of the big features of the machine is the ability to connect up to four displays, two from the USB4.0 ports and one each from the HDMI 2.1 and DP (2.1). While this would have been unusual in the past, it's a feature that is becoming progressively more common. Although, it's worth noting that while three of the ports are at the back of the machine, the fourth is the USB4.0 on the front.

Connectivity for the machine is a big feature, with Intel i226V dual 2.5G LAN ports, WiFi 6, and Bluetooth 5.2 offering plenty of connection options for both networks and gaming.

One of the issues with all this power in a small box is inevitably heat, and here is the GMKtec Hyper Ice Chamber 2.0, which is all part of the cooling system. This sees a mini fan at the top which vents air under the twist top and draws heat away from the main components, then under the main board is a larger cooling fan with a heat sink that pulls heat away from the base of the motherboard and the CPU and GPU. This cooling is essential for the smooth running of these compact machines.

When it comes to power draw, the small machine can actually be quite power-hungry in comparison with some of the latest mini PCs. However, you do have the option to adjust the power draw with different performance settings, with the sleep mode consuming 35W, compared with full performance at 70W. This makes it a great solution if you need to manage your power consumption out in the field, and it will enable you to balance computer use with performance.

If you're looking for a machine for gaming or higher-end video work, then the addition of the Oculink port is really exciting. The nature of the port means that it's more complex to use than a standard HDMI, DP or USB4.0, but the quality of the connection, as well as its versatility, is a step up. To make use of the port, however, you will need the correct type of eGPU, and while these are less common than your standard eGPUs, they are generally cheaper and easy enough to set up.

GMKtec Nucbox K8 Plus

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)
  • Features: 5 / 5

GMKtec Nucbox K8 Plus: Performance

Considering this is a mid-range mini PC with the AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS CPU, the performance of this small machine is outstanding. When the demands on the machine increase, such as rendering 4K video in DaVinci Resolve, you can hear the fans fire up, and things start to slow slightly. However, considering how much this mini PC costs, the performance is exceptionally well-balanced and pretty close to far more expensive models. 

Starting with a few easy tests, the Microsoft Office suite was loaded, and documents from Word and Excel were opened, edited, and saved. The power of this PC is more than enough to handle large multi-sheet spreadsheets with calculations without issue. Likewise, opening large Word documents as well as working on PowerPoint presentations was well within its abilities. The benchmark Windows Experience score of 8.2 mirrors the smooth use of the machine for day-to-day admin.

Digging a bit deeper into the higher-end performance and starting with the SSD: as standard, there's just one SSD installed used for the OS and base storage, and a second SSD can be added. Checking the results of the SSD and CrystalDiskMark results in scores of 5190.23MB/s for read and 4741.77MB/s for write, which demonstrate the speed at which data is accessed from the drives and made available to the applications. In DaVinci Resolve, this presented itself with fast loading times for video within the timeline along with fast render speeds, especially when converting MXF video ready for use within the application. This speed from the SSDs was apparent throughout the test.

Taking a look at the processing power, we noticed that in applications for editing video and images, the machine handled higher-resolution files with relative ease. In Photoshop, the machine didn't have an issue with applying brushes and filters as being able to handling multi-layer files. Likewise, all options in Lightroom ran smoothly. In DaVinci, scrubbing through 4K footage and editing it on the timeline was again surprisingly smooth for edits up to 10 minutes without too many graphics, text, or effects applied. When it came to more complex tasks such as applying effects and rendering videos, the multi-threads worked well, and again, while there is a bit of a wait for renders, the speeds are surprisingly fast considering the pricing of the machine.

Switching to gaming to push the abilities of the GPU, the results were interesting. In Hogwarts Legacy, with the resolution set to 1080p and medium-to-high settings, the gameplay was excellent with steady frame rates, although ray tracing was reduced. In Cyberpunk 2077, this was also playable at 1080p with low-to-medium settings without ray tracing. Finally, in Tekken 8, again at 1080p and high settings, smooth frame rates and excellent gameplay were achieved. Increasing the resolution of these games to 4K showed the system beginning to struggle. Hogwarts Legacy required all settings to be reduced, and the same was true for Cyberpunk 2077 However, both games were still very playable, while Tekken 8 ran without issue!

  • Performance: 5 / 5

GMKtec Nucbox K8 Plus

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

GMKtec Nucbox K8 Plus: Final verdict

GMKtec Nucbox K8 Plus

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

The performance of the NUC Box K8 Plus for general day-to-day tasks is exceptional, handling Microsoft Office apps effortlessly, as well as browsing the internet and most other office-based applications. Taking a look at applications that require a little more processing power, the compact K8 Plus was able to handle the additional load from creative application with ease. Editing in DaVinci Resolve or Photoshop proved just how powerful this machine is. As long as you're sensible about its abilities, it packs in more than enough power for everyday editing of short-form high-resolution video. However, some render times may take a while.

When used for gaming, the performance is impressive again, with all games tested running well at 1080p and only starting to struggle as the resolution was boosted to 4K and the settings increased.

Overall, considering the price, the NUC Box K8 Plus is an exceptional machine with the bonus that the USB4.0 and Oculink ports enable a huge amount of flexibility when it comes to the upgradability of this machine.

Should I buy a GMKtec Nucbox K8 Plus?

Buy it if...

You want a machine you can upgrade

This is one of a new breed of machines that enables not just the standard upgrades of ROM and RAM but also connected devices such as eGPUs and hard drives, vastly expanding its potential.

You like the idea of Oculink

HDMI or other display ports are more complex, but what you sacrifice in convenience, you more than makeup for in performance.

Don't buy it if...

You're on a restricted budget

While the machine itself is relatively affordable, once you start to look at the upgrade and expansion options, the price will quickly rise. What initially looks like a budget-friendly option might not remain so in the long run.

It would help if you had a tidy machine.

The upgradability and expansion of this machine are key features, but this does mean it will become the heart of a larger system of connected boxes. If you prefer a neat setup, this is for someone else.

Looking for something larger? We've tested the best business PCs around.

SteelSeries Apex Pro TKL Gen 3 review: a super-solid analog gaming keyboard with top performance
5:40 pm | November 27, 2024
Author: admin | Category: Computers Computing Gadgets Keyboards Peripherals & Accessories | Tags: | Comments: Off

SteelSeries Apex Pro TKL Gen 3: one-minute review

The Steelseries Apex Pro TKL Gen 3 is a premium gaming keyboard with analog switches, designed to provide the most accurate and tweakable gaming experience possible.

It certainly looks the part: its understated appearance doesn’t scream gaming prowess, but when you peer further, the quality is evident from every angle.

The chassis is relatively thick but not as weighty as you might expect, and it feels solid and expertly put together, easily among the best gaming keyboards around. The same is true of the wrist pad and the stock double-shot PBT keycaps, which have a slight but smooth texture that’s satisfying to touch.

The inbuilt Smart Screen sits in the top right corner, and can be used to select profiles, change the global actuation point and toggle Rapid Trigger. It can also be customized to display information pertaining to your system or popular games and apps. You can even upload your own images and GIFs too.

Further customizations can be made via Steelseries peripheral software, GG. Here, you can tinker with the actuation points further, on a global or key-by-key basis. You can also set functions to trigger on press or release, and add two binds to a single key, with each triggered at different actuation points of your choosing.

It’s a shame, though, that GG provides no visual feedback when making such adjustments, and there’s no option to emulate the joysticks or triggers of a controller, as can be done on some other analog keyboards, such as the Turtle Beach Vulcan 2 TKL Pro.

However, the gaming performance of the Apex Pro makes up for this omission. The switches are extremely responsive yet offer enough feedback to make hitting actuation points easy. The relatively compact layout also makes the bottom row accessible, as does the sloped nature of these keys. All keycaps are also nicely indented, making for secure presses. The only gripe I have is with the short, flat wrist rest, which caused my palm to hang off the edge when in the WASD position.

I didn’t find the Apex Pro to be as amenable for typing. However, I generally prefer shallow keycaps to glide around on, so those who prefer thicker keycaps may have no issue here.

The Apex Pro is expensive, costing the same as the Razer Huntsman V3 Pro, another analog offering. But with the high price tag comes supreme build quality and performance, and although it misses out on a few analog tweaks, it’s still well worth your consideration.

Close-up of SteelSeries Apex Pro TKL Gen 3

(Image credit: Future)

SteelSeries Apex Pro TKL Gen 3 review: price and availability

  • $219 / £209 (about AU$336)
  • Available now in black
  • Same price as Razer Huntsman V3 Pro Tenkeyless

The Apex Pro TKL Gen 3 costs $219 / £209 (about AU$336) and is available now. It comes in one colorway, black. It also includes a wrist rest and a keycap puller, with Steelseries selling replacement keycaps on its website.

Unsurprisingly, it’s less expensive than the wireless variant, which costs $269 – but as well as ditching the wires, that model offers multiple connectivity modes, meaning you can easily switch it between multiple devices.

The Apex Pro is certainly towards the top end of the wired gaming keyboard market. It’s the same price as the Razer Huntsman V3 Pro Tenkeyless, for instance, which uses Hall-effect analog technology as well. That board can also be tweaked using Razer Synapse, the brand’s excellent, feature-packed peripheral software.

If you’re after a more budget-friendly analog keyboard, then the Turtle Beach Vulcan 2 TKL Pro is a possible contender. Unlike the Apex Pro, it offers controller emulation, although its switches aren’t as precise as we would’ve liked for this purpose. Even though it has its issues, it’s still one to consider.

Value: 3 / 5

SteelSeries Apex Pro TKL Gen 3 review: specs

SteelSeries Apex Pro TKL Gen 3 with wrist rest on desk

(Image credit: Future)

SteelSeries Apex Pro TKL Gen 3 review: design and features

  • Superlative build quality
  • Useful inbuilt screen
  • Some analog tweaks missing

The Apex Pro is a fairly imposing slab, with a thick yet sleek chassis, and its muted looks belie its gaming intentions; the RGB lighting is about the only giveaway in this regard.

The build quality is where the Apex Pro really stands out, though. It’s quite weighty, although not as heavy as you might expect, but every material and joint is exquisite. There’s also a handy compartment underneath housing the keycap puller, with a rubber flap to close it that works well.

The double-shot PBT keycaps feel premium to the touch, with a slight yet smooth texture. The overall layout is reasonably compact, but I didn’t have any issues with mispresses.

The Apex Pro also features Steelseries’ own modifier key, called the Meta key. This allows you to perform various shortcuts, such as adjusting the actuation point and selecting profile slots.

Such alterations can also be made via the Smart Screen. This uses a black and white OLED display, with navigation controlled via a scroll wheel and a small button below – both of which are just as well engineered as the rest of the Apex Pro.

You can set the global actuation point from anywhere between 0.1mm and 4mm, and toggle Rapid Trigger. The Smart Screen can also be used to display certain system information, including workloads for the CPU, GPU and RAM, which is very useful. In-game information can be displayed too, with many popular games having their own default layouts, including those for Counter-Strike 2, Minecraft, and League of Legends. You can even upload your own images and GIFs to display.

Rear of SteelSeries Apex Pro TKL Gen 3

(Image credit: Future)

Further actuation settings can be adjusted in SteelSeris’ GG software. You can change the actuation of individual keys, and set keys to trigger on press or release. There’s also a dual actuation mode, letting you bind two functions to a single key, each triggered at certain actuation points of your choosing.

Other rebinding options include those for common shortcuts, media playback and system-level functions, although there aren’t as many on the latter front as some other peripheral tools offer. You can also customize the information the Smart Screen displays with a pleasing amount of depth and detail, selecting the timings for when certain information is displayed and what triggers it.

In Counter-Strike 2, for example, you can view your health, as well as your K/D ratio at the end of each round. As well as games, some apps are also integrated, such as Discord, which can display messages.

Overall, GG is easy to navigate and responsive. One aspect that is disappointing, though, is the lack of visual feedback when adjusting settings, which would’ve been useful when setting actuation points to see how your inputs actually translate in real time.

Design & features: 4 / 5

SteelSeries Apex Pro TKL Gen 3 review: performance

  • Excellent keycaps and switches
  • Actuation points easy to hit
  • Wrist rest issues

Put simply, the Apex Pro is a joy to use. The damping of the switches is superb, feeling incredibly satisfying to use while still being snappy enough for fast movements. The indentations of the keycaps also makes them secure and easy to use, and the bottom row is easy to hit with your thumb and little fingers, thanks to the slope of these keys and the aforementioned compact layout.

Hitting certain actuation points is also much easier than I’ve experienced with other analog keyboards, as there’s enough feedback to get a good feel as to how far down you’ve pressed. Rapid trigger also works brilliantly, letting you make those twitchy movements even quicker, by dynamically raising the actuation point when repeated presses are registered.

Keycap puller compartment underneath the SteelSeries Apex Pro TKL Gen 3

(Image credit: Future)

My chief nag from an ergonomic standpoint, though, is with the wrist rest. Given the aforementioned thickness of the Apex Pro’s chassis, I found the rest was definitely needed. However, since it’s quite short and provides very little slope, I found that the edge of my palm would hang awkwardly off the end when in the WASD position.

Also, when it comes to typing, I didn’t find the Apex Pro to be easiest to use. However, I should say that I mostly prefer shallow, laptop-style keyboards, as I find them easier to glide around on, which the stock keycaps on the Apex Pro are not particularly conducive to. But if you’re someone who prefers thicker keycaps for typing, then you’ll likely not have an issue here.

Performance: 4.5 / 5

Should I buy the SteelSeries Apex Pro TKL Gen 3?

Buy it if…

You want precise analog control
The analog switches are a dream, providing plenty of feedback for accurate actuation-point hitting.

You want the best gaming performance
Aside from that analog control, the switches are snappy when needs be, so there’s no gaming situation that catches it out.

Don’t buy it if…

You want to use it with multiple devices
Since there’s only a wired connection, you can’t easily hotswap between multiple devices, as you can with the wireless variant.

You want to emulate a controller
Despite the analog switches, you can’t emulate controller joysticks or triggers (not natively anyway).

SteelSeries Apex Pro TKL Gen 3 review: also consider

Razer Huntsman V2 Analog
If you have your heart set on an analog keyboard, then the Razer Huntsman V2 Analog is a worthy choice (it’s our pick as the best gaming keyboard around, after all). With its excellent performance and myriad of customization options courtesy of Razer Synapse, you can’t go far wrong with this board. And since the release of version 3, the V2 can be found for a good price. Read our Razer Huntsman V2 Analog review.

SteelSeries Apex Pro TKL Wireless Gen 3
For $50 more, you can get the wireless version of the Apex Pro TKL, which helps to eliminate the clutter from your desk, and allows you to do some sofa gaming too. And since it features Bluetooth and wired options in addition to the 2.4GHz dongle, you can use it with multiple devices and switch between them with ease.

How I tested the SteelSeries Apex Pro TKL Gen 3

  • Tested for several days
  • Used for gaming, work, and general use
  • Over 10 years of PC gaming experience

I tested the Apex Pro for several days and used it to game, work, and browse. I used both with and without the included wrist rest.

I played games such as Counter-Strike 2, which is a great test for a keyboard’s responsiveness and accuracy. I also made sure to try out as many features as possible, and tinker with as many settings as I could using the GG software.

I have been PC gaming for over a decade, and I have used plenty of keyboards during that time. I have also reviewed a number of keyboards with varying price tags, sizes, and switch types.

  • First reviewed November 2024
  • Read more about how we test
Keychron Q6 Max review: Quality control
2:15 am | November 23, 2024
Author: admin | Category: Computers Computing Gadgets Keyboards Peripherals & Accessories | Comments: Off

Keychron Q6 Max: Two-minute review

The Keychron Q6 Max mechanical keyboard against a blue background.

(Image credit: Future)

The Keychron Q6 Max is a premium mechanical keyboard that doesn’t come cheap. But nor should it, considering how many high-quality features Keychron has managed to cram into it. You’ll pay a pretty penny, but this is a board that will give you years of typing satisfaction.

From the rock-solid aluminum construction and ear-pleasing acoustics to the superb typing feel and hot-swappable switches, this is a keyboard made for those who want the best. Its large size isn’t for everyone, but chances are you’ll love it.

While there are a few drawbacks – aside from the price, its software quirks and phenomenal weight are worth considering – they’re not enough to do any serious damage to our final assessment. This is one of the best mechanical keyboards you can buy right now.

Keychron Q6 Max: Price & availability

  • How much does it cost? $219 / £193 / $349 AUD
  • When is it available? Available now
  • Where can you get it? Available globally

The Keychron Q6 Max costs $219 (£193 or $349 AUD). It’s undoubtedly expensive, but this is an unashamedly premium board. You can buy it from Keychron’s website, Amazon, and other third-party retailers.

Keychron Q6 Max: Design

The Keychron Q6 Max mechanical keyboard against a blue background.

(Image credit: Future)

Let’s get straight into the first thing you’ll notice about the Keychron Q6 Max upon unboxing it: this thing is built like an absolute tank. Its chassis is made from heavy, dense aluminum, weighing in at 4.85lbs (2.2kg) on my scales. It’s far too heavy to sling around in a backpack, and I’m honestly not sure if it would be more accurate to characterize it as a keyboard or an offensive weapon. All that weight isn’t necessarily a bad thing, though, as it feels incredibly well made and is a far cry from the cheap plastic builds of more affordable keyboards.

Its quality is felt in other ways. The keycaps are made of double-shot PBT plastic, which gives them a subtle texture and means that the legends will never rub off. They come in an absolutely gorgeous off-white and navy blue “Carbon Black” design with teal highlights on the Esc and Enter keys (there’s a creamy gray alternative color scheme, but I only have eyes for Carbon Black). It looks even better with the south-facing RGB enabled, which comes with 22 different lighting styles.

This is a full-size keyboard, which means there’s a numpad and four macro keys on the right-hand side. This is ideal if you work with data or just like having the numbers close to your mouse hand, but it can get in the way, especially during gaming.

The Keychron Q6 Max mechanical keyboard against a blue background.

(Image credit: Future)

Nestled at the end of the function key row is a control knob. By default, turning it adjusts your computer’s volume and pressing it in mutes or unmutes your sound. Its function can be adjusted using Keychron’s Launcher web app, which I’ll come back to in the Performance section.

Around the back are two switches: one to flip between Bluetooth, wired or 2.4GHz connectivity, and another to change from Windows to macOS keyboard layouts (there are also Windows and macOS-specific keycaps in the box). These switches are quite stiff, and the former is particularly problematic because it’s very difficult to find the middle (wired) position. They would also be easier to access if they were on the side of the keyboard, as is the case with some of Keychron’s other products.

There aren’t many other things to criticize about the design, but a wrist rest would be a welcome addition (you can purchase a Keychron wrist rest separately, but none come included with the Q6 Max). You also can’t adjust the height of the board, and I had to wedge a thin book underneath to get it to the height I’m used to. With its current weight, perhaps it’s no surprise that the Q6 Max lacks height-adjustable feet or stands.

Keychron Q6 Max: Performance

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The Keychron Q6 Max mechanical keyboard against a blue background.

(Image credit: Future)
Image 2 of 2

The Keychron Q6 Max mechanical keyboard against a blue background.

(Image credit: Future)

One of the most important aspects of any keyboard is the way it feels to type on, and the Q6 Max is excellent in this regard. My review unit shipped with Gateron Jupiter Brown switches, which provide a tactile bump without being loud and clicky. They feel brilliant to type on all day long. I also didn’t find any issues with key ghosting in my testing.

As for gaming, the Q6 Max performs pretty well here too. The Jupiter Brown switches are fast enough in FPS games for all but the most hardcore of pro gamers, while remaining comfortable during long sessions. The main issue, though, is the numpad, which can get in the way of your mouse from time to time.

The Q6 Max has hot-swappable switches that can be quickly and easily replaced thanks to the included keycap/switch puller. My review unit came with a set of tactile Gateron Jupiter Banana switches as well as the Browns, and they feel firmer to the touch and require a little more force to press. They also produce a very slightly deeper, more “thocky” sound. Keychron says the Q6 Max will work with almost any 3-pin and 5-pin MX-style switches on the market, giving you a great deal of flexibility and customization.

The Keychron Q6 Max mechanical keyboard against a blue background.

(Image credit: Future)

Aside from feel, how does the keyboard perform acoustically? Well, the good news is that the Q6 Max sounds fantastic in use. Keychron has built in a double-gasket mount and stuffed the board with acoustic foam, and the result is a soft, clacky acoustic profile that is satisfying to the ear without driving your coworkers mad.

Keychron has a Launcher web app that taps into the board’s QMK compatibility and is used to adjust backlighting, create macros, change key bindings, and more. It requires the keyboard to be in wired mode and only works in Chromium based browsers like Chrome and Edge, which is less than ideal. You can also use the VIA web app to perform many of the same tasks. While these web apps are powerful and straightforward, they feel like a half-baked solution compared to a dedicated desktop app.

For instance, these web apps can’t display the keyboard’s battery life, so you have to look elsewhere for that. You’ll find it on the system Bluetooth settings page in Windows and macOS, or by pressing Fn+B, which lights up the numbers one to zero to indicate battery level (each key represents 10%). Having to open a different app to find out your battery status feels sub-optimal, although the keyboard shortcut is a neat trick.

Should you buy the Keychron Q6 Max?

Image 1 of 2

The Keychron Q6 Max mechanical keyboard against a blue background.

(Image credit: Future)
Image 2 of 2

The Keychron Q6 Max mechanical keyboard against a blue background.

(Image credit: Future)

Buy the Keychron Q6 Max if…

Quality is all-important to you

Everything from the keycaps to the internal structure screams premium quality, and you’re rewarded with a brilliant all-round package.View Deal

You’re a fan of customizable keyboards

With QMK/VIA compatibility and hot-swappable switches, there’s a lot of room to make this device your own.View Deal

You appreciate keyboard acoustics

Keychron has worked hard to ensure that using this keyboard doesn’t just feel great – it sounds excellent too.View Deal

Don’t buy it if…

You travel a lot

This keyboard is big, heavy, and simply isn’t built for travel.View Deal

You need height adjustment

With no height-adjustable feet or stands, you’ll be relying on DIY solutions to raise the keyboard’s typing angle.View Deal

You frequently switch connectivity methods and operating systems

The switches on the back of the Keychron Q6 Max are very stiff and a little awkward to reach.View Deal

Keychron Q6 Max: Also consider

Razer Pro Type Ultra

Razer is best known for its gaming peripherals, but this keyboard is aimed squarely at typists. There’s a lot to love about it, from its responsive switches to its long-lived battery. It offers plenty of value for the price, too.
Read our full Razer Pro Type Ultra reviewView Deal

Das Keyboard 6 Professional

With a supreme typing experience and premium touches everywhere you look, this board is tailor made for professional users. It’s wired only, but that just means you don’t have to worry about the backlighting draining your battery.
Read our full Das Keyboard 6 Professional reviewView Deal

How I tested the Keychron Q6 Max

I spent a week with the Q6 Max, using it as my daily driver for everything from writing articles to playing games. I changed out its switches to see how easy the process was, and tested Keychron’s web app and QMK/VIA functionality.

First reviewed November 2024

Netgear Nighthawk RS200 review: Netgear’s latest Wi-Fi 7 router is competitively priced – but makes compromises to get there
12:51 am | November 13, 2024
Author: admin | Category: Computers Computing Gadgets Internet Wi-Fi & Broadband | Comments: Off

Netgear Nighthawk RS200: One-minute review

Netgear Nighthawk RS200 router on a table

(Image credit: Future / Cliff Joseph)

Netgear has always been happy to sit up at the more expensive end of the networking market but, following a management shake-up earlier this year, we’re pleased to see that it finally seems to be taking a more competitive approach with its pricing. The new Nighthawk RS200 is certainly the most affordable Wi-Fi 7 router that it’s released so far - although that low price does mean that it lacks some key features that most of its Wi-Fi 7 rivals take for granted.

Most notably, the RS200 is a dual-band router, which transmits a Wi-Fi signal on the 2.4GHz and 5.0GHz frequency bands – whereas most Wi-Fi 7 routers are ‘tri-band’ devices that can also transmit on the 6.0GHz band as well (as do previous generation routers with Wi-Fi 6E too). Some people might argue that this omission means that the RS200 doesn’t even qualify as a true Wi-Fi 7 router at all, but there are other technical features within Wi-Fi 7 that enable the RS200 to squeeze better performance out of the 2.4GHz and 5.0GHz bands. This ensures that it can outperform many of the older dual-band routers that are still in use in many homes, so it may be worth considering as an upgrade for people who are still using an old Wi-Fi 5 or Wi-Fi 6 router that was provided by their ISP.

Netgear Nighthawk RS200: Price and availability

  • How much does it cost? $229.99/£199.99/AU$449.00
  • When is it available? Now
  • Where can you get it? Available in the US, UK, Australia

A price of $229.99/£199.99/AU$449.00 means that the RS200 is one of the most affordable Wi-Fi 7 routers we’ve seen so far – although, of course, Netgear had to omit support for the high-speed 6.0GHz band in order to achieve that price. However, its top speed of 6.5Gbps should still be adequate for most domestic broadband services. Netgear also states that it can connect to 80 different devices at the same time, and can cover homes up to 2,500sq.ft in size (although regions outside the US may quote that figure at 2,000sq.ft due to differences in national regulations).

  • Value: 3.5/5

Netgear Nighthawk RS200: Specs

Netgear Nighthawk RS200: Design

Netgear Nighthawk RS200 router's side profile

(Image credit: Future / Cliff Joseph)
  • Tower design provides 360-degree Wi-Fi
  • 4x Ethernet ports for wired connections
  • USB for network storage

I still miss the streamlined design of the original Nighthawk routers, with folding wings that made it look like Darth Vader’s shuttle craft. But, like other new Nighthawk models since the introduction of Wi-Fi 7, the Nighthawk RS200 has a more upright design, looking like a tall, black obelisk that stands a full 249mm high. You’ll need to give it plenty of room when first setting it up, but this design does allow the router’s four internal antennae to more effectively transmit the Wi-Fi signal through 360-degrees all around, in order to achieve the high speeds that are provided by Wi-Fi 7.

Netgear Nighthawk RS200 router's backside ports

(Image credit: Future / Cliff Joseph)

And, despite the low price, the RS200 provides wired good connectivity too, with a 2.5Gbps Ethernet port for a high-speed fibre or cable broadband connection. There’s another 2.5Gbps port to provide a wired connection for a PC or games console, and three Gigabit Ethernet ports for additional connections. It’s also possible to ‘aggregate’ – or combine – two of those Ethernet ports to provide a faster connection if required. There’s even a USB-A (3.0) port that will allow you to connect a USB storage device to your network, so that you can share files with other people at home or in an office.

  • Design: 4/5

Netgear Nighthawk RS200: Features

Netgear Nighthawk RS200 router head-on

(Image credit: Future / Cliff Joseph)

There’s no getting around the fact that omitting the 6.0GHz frequency band is an odd decision for a Wi-Fi 7 router, as anyone who has a shiny new PC or smartphone that supports Wi-Fi 7 will want all the speed they can get from it. However, a speed of 6.5Gbps is still more than adequate for most home users, and many business users too, and the RS200 does include Wi-Fi 7 features – such as reduced latency – that still give it an edge over older dual-band routers.

The Nighthawk app is well designed too, and makes it easy to set up your new network in just a few minutes. There’s a QR code printed on top of the router, and you can just scan this code and then leave the app to set everything up for you automatically. You can simply use the default network name and password if you want, but the app allows you to create a new name and password for extra security. The only thing that slows you down is the need to create a Netgear account in order to keep using the app after the initial installation.

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Netgear app home page

(Image credit: Future / Cliff Joseph)
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Netgear app Traffic Meter

(Image credit: Future / Cliff Joseph)
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Netgear app Security page

(Image credit: Future / Cliff Joseph)

To keep things as simple as possible, the Nighthawk app combines the two frequency bands into a single network and automatically connects your computers and other devices to the fastest band available in that particular location within your home or office. But while the app is very easy to use, it doesn’t offer many additional features.

You can create a guest network, and there are tools for running a speed check and monitoring network traffic to ensure that everything is working properly. However, the app’s parental controls are very basic, simply allowing you to pause Internet access for individual devices. There are no weekly scheduling controls, or content filters to block web sites that might be unsuitable for children.

If you do want those additional features then you’ll need to pay a subscription fee for Netgear’s Smart Parental Controls service. There’s a 30-day free trial available, but once the trial ends you’ll need to pay $7.99/month or $69.99/year to continue the service. The same thing applies to Netgear’s Armor security service, which also provides a 30-day trial, but then costs $99.99 per year.

As we’ve said – many a time in the past – there are rival routers that provide better parental controls free of charge, so parents that do need these features may want to consider alternative routers.

  • Features: 3.5/5

Netgear Nighthawk RS200: Performance

  • 6.5Gbps speed
  • Dual-band Wi-Fi 7 (2.4GHz/5.0GHz)
  • 4 internal antennae

The lack of support for the 6.0GHz frequency band is clearly disappointing – and for some users it may well be a deal-breaker. Even so, the improved performance of the Nighthawk RS200 still allows it to beat the aging dual-band router in our office, which was provided by our ISP.

Our office broadband runs at 150Mbps, but our old router can normally only manage a top speed of 120Mbps even when connecting to devices that are close by in the same room.

Netgear Nighthawk RS200: Benchmarks

BENCHMARKS:

Ookla Speed Test – Single merged network (download/upload)

Within 5ft, no obstructions: 150Mbps/150Mbps

Within 30ft, three partition walls: 150Mbps/150Mbps

20GB Steam Download - Single merged network

Within 5ft, no obstructions: 150Mbps

Within 30ft, three partition walls: 150Mbps

We also have an office at the back of the building that our old router struggles to reach at all, forcing us to rely on PowerLine adaptors to provide a wired network connection instead. In contrast, the RS200 immediately hit the full 150Mbps speed that was available when connecting to devices in the same room for both the Ookla Speed Test and for large file downloads on Steam.

That speed did dip slightly as I picked up my laptop and wandered along the hall to the back office, but the RS200 took just a few seconds to roll up its sleeves and bump the speed back up to 150Mbps once more, and eliminate the need for those PowerLine adaptors. If you already own an expensive laptop or iPhone 16 that has full support for tri-band Wi-Fi 7 then it probably doesn’t make much sense to compromise on an entry-level router such as the RS200 that doesn’t support the 6.0GHz band. However, the RS200 can still provide a fast, reliable upgrade for people who are using an older dual-band router that is past its sell-by date.

  • Performance: 4/5

Should you buy the Netgear Nighthawk RS200?

Buy it if...

You Need An Affordable Upgrade

The dual-band Wi-Fi of the Nighthawk RS200 certainly isn’t state-of-the-art, but it can still provide a good upgrade for people who are using an old dual-band router provided by their ISP.

You’re A Network Newbie

Netgear’s Nighthawk app is a little basic, but it’s quick and easy to use. All you have to do is scan a QR code to set up your new network and then create a Netgear account to get started.

Don't buy it if...

You’re A Speed Demon

The relatively low price of the Nighthawk RS200 means that it’s limited to dual-band Wi-Fi using just the 2.4GHz and 5.0GHz bands. Owners of new computers and mobile devices that support Wi-Fi 7 will be better off with a tri-band router that also supports the high-speed 6.0GHz band.

You Want Parental Controls

Netgear charges an additional subscription fee for its Smart Parental Controls service. There are rival routers that provide content filters and other parental controls free of charge.

Also consider

Netgear Nighthawk RS300

Owners of computers and mobile devices that already support Wi-Fi 7 may want to step up to the Nighthawk RS300. It’s 50% faster than the RS200, and also supports the high-speed 6.0GHz frequency band too.

Read our full Netgear Nighthawk RS300 review

Asus ROG Rapture GT-BE98

From the affordable to the outrageous – the GT-BE98 from Asus is an all-out speed demon. Designed for gamers, it provides quad-band Wi-Fi 7 with a top speed of 24.4Gbps, and 10Gbps Ethernet for high-speed broadband connections.

Read our full Asus ROG Rapture GT-BE98 review

BenQ Mobiuz EX321UX review: performance matches the price
9:36 pm | November 11, 2024
Author: admin | Category: Computers Computing Gadgets | Comments: Off

BenQ Mobiuz EX321UX: Two-minute review

BenQ has built a strong reputation for delivering great monitors that cater to creators and gamers. Supporting both ends of the spectrum is the BenQ Mobiuz EX321UX. One of the finest 32-inch mini-LED displays released this year, this 4K monitor is highlighted by an IPS panel that features a peak brightness of 1,000 nits and DisplayHDR 1000 certification. Offering a fantastic contrast ratio of 1000:1, there are 1,152 local dimming zones with a color gambit covering 99% Adobe RGB and 99% P3.

That alone would make this a fine monitor for creatives who stream or edit photos and videos. Meanwhile, PixSoul Engine does a fantastic job of making game visuals top-tier by using BenQ’s Game Color Database for advanced game-specific color modes. It also incorporates AI calculations for real-time adjustments of brightness and contrast, meaning regardless of what style of games you’re into, the visuals will look fantastic.

Performance-minded gamers needing a competitive edge have much to appreciate about the EX321UX. Paired with the respectable 144Hz refresh rate, the EX321UX also has a 1ms response time and FreeSync Premium Pro capabilities. Then there are various graphic overlays for both frame rate counters and crosshairs as well. Outside of PC gaming, there are enough ports to satisfy streamers and multi-platform gamers alike. As with most higher-end BenQ monitors, the EX321UX comes with an intuitive remote control, which makes applying various settings an easy task.

Those ports also allow for KVM, letting you use a set of keyboard and mouse inputs on two video import devices. This is great for streamers who use one PC for gaming and another for streaming with software like OBS. On the sound side of things, an eARC HDMI port gives 7.1 channel audio support for your choice of speakers.

The EX321UX could be considered the best mini-LED display in the 32-inch space now if a few things didn’t hold it back. The most notable aspect is the high $1,199 price point, which, when compared to the rest of the best 4K gaming monitors available that offer similar performance, might be a bit too much. Then again, the image quality alone is worth the price of admission.

The other issue is that the focus on adding eARC compatibility means this monitor doesn’t have a built-in speaker system. If money isn’t a problem and you have a nice speaker or headset system ready for use, the EX321UX is an absolute must-buy.

BenQ Mobiuz EX321UX: Price & availability

A BenQ Mobiuz EX321UX monitor on a table

(Image credit: Future / Ural Garrett)
  • How much does it cost? $1,199/£ 1,099.99/ AU $2,199
  • When is it available? Available now
  • Where can you get it? Available in the US, UK, and Australia

The BenQ EX321UX is now available in the US, UK, and AU territories for $1,199, £1,099.99, and AU $2,199 respectively. Potential buyers across those countries can buy directly from the manufacturer’s online store or various retailers like Amazon. For an IPS mini-LED panel, the cost may seem like a lot compared to other 32-inch 4K gaming monitors. However, the 1,000 nits brightness, HDR, PixSoul AI Engine, and 99% P3 and Adobe RGB makes this one of the best looking gaming monitors available. That doesn’t even count the loads of extras from eARC HDMI and KVM capabilities to the selection of ports and overlays.

If that’s a bit much, the Gigabyte M32UC is a wonderful alternative for around $450 and comes with built-in speakers. One would say that for the $1,199 price range, potential buyers could move into the OLED realm through outstanding gaming monitors like the Samsung Odyssey OLED G9.

  • Value: 4.5 / 5

BenQ Mobiuz EX321UX: Specs

BenQ Mobiuz EX321UX: Design

A BenQ Mobiuz EX321UX monitor on a table

(Image credit: Future / Ural Garrett)
  • The overall design is more in line with function over form
  • Features remote control and loads of ports

Weighing in at around 16 lbs, the BenQ Mobiuz EX321UX is easy to control during setup. There’s an attached screw at the base that connects to the neck which is then linked to the display’s back panel. Once that’s done, you can adjust for height, tilt, and swivel. Going for more of a three-leg base means that the front legs aren’t obtrusive and won’t take up much space.

When it comes to the visual design on the EX321UX, it’s definitely more function over form. The front looks pretty boring - but who cares when the image quality is that beautiful? Having an all white back panel does offer a slight amount of aggressive flair, and you won’t find customizable RGB lighting.

Power comes from a standard power port that connects to a brick adapter before the power socket. The power port sits next to a large number of ports that allow you to connect various video and audio outputs alongside features like KVM capabilities. Outside of the singular eARC HDMI port, there are two standard HDMI 2.1 ports and a singular DisplayPort 2.1. Then there are three USB-C connections for various usage in addition to three USB-A ports. Rounding out the ports is a 3.5mm headphone jack so you can connect one of the best gaming headsets available to make up for the lack of built-in speakers.

On the bottom center is the power button, thumbstick for settings navigation, and quick switch button. These do a good enough job of changing various options, but the included remote comes in pretty handy, too. Navigating menus to change settings such as audio, video, and feature settings or even just turning it on and off was a breeze.

  • Design: 4 / 5

BenQ Mobiuz EX321UX: Features

A BenQ Mobiuz EX321UX monitor on a table

(Image credit: Future / Ural Garrett)
  • PixSoul Engine provides great image enhancement
  • eARC HDMI allows great audio experiences
  • KVM and various overlays significantly add to the total package

As mentioned previously, the highlight of the BenQ EX321UX’s outstanding image quality is an accumulation of its mini-LED IPS panel, high brightness, and 1,152 local dimming zones with a color gambit covering 99% Adobe RGB and 99% P3. Taking things over the top is the PixSoul Engine, which utilizes BenQ’s Game Color Database for game-specific color modes and integrated AI algorithms for real-time adjustments of brightness and contrast. This does a fantastic job of making games look better while providing necessary visual information and avoiding damage to the immersive experience. Though the pre-selected image filtering looks great, the default Display HDR mode is simply wonderful in terms of image quality.

Not many gaming displays feature eARC HDMI as many gamers usually use headphones anyway. However, having the port that supports 7.1 channel audio on hand is something special for video editors and gamers who don’t want to put on a headset. Of course, video content through YouTube or streaming services like Netflix could benefit from the capability if you’re fine with using supported speakers.

KVM capabilities are perfect for streamers who offset the heavy computing of games on one computer with high-fidelity video streaming on another device. It works pretty simply and switching between devices takes roughly as long as switching between video inputs. Finally, there are various overlays for frame rates and crosshairs for shooter fans. All of these features are controlled through the in-display thumbstick or handy remote control.

  • Features: 4.5 / 5

BenQ Mobiuz EX321UX: Performance

A BenQ Mobiuz EX321UX monitor on a table

(Image credit: Future / Ural Garrett)
  • Image quality is outstanding and enhanced by PixSoul
  • Game performance sets the standard for high-end gaming monitors

Modern PC gaming benchmarks of visual fidelity look amazing on the EX321UX, such as Cyberpunk 2077, Hellblade II: Senua’s Sacrifice, Alan Wake II, and more. The 1,000 nit brightness and 1,152 local dimming zones allow for bold, crisp color and incredibly deep blacks. HDR capabilities further enhance visuals without the brightness making images look flat. This even applies to more general computing tasks like web browsing where font reading is a pleasurable experience. Color accuracy is fantastic thanks to its high color gamut which many Adobe Suite users will appreciate.

Gaming performance is pretty top tier as well. The max 144Hz refresh rate allows for buttery smooth gameplay while the 1ms response time allows for lag-free tracking of on-screen elements. Holding all of that together to prevent screen tearing is FreeSync Premium Pro compatibility. Some of the games we tested, such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, Forza Motorsport (2023), and Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon, proved that the EX321UX can handle fast-paced, twitch leaning gameplay. Add various overlays like crosshairs and competitive gamers will definitely have an edge with this display.

  • Performance: 5 / 5

Should you buy the BenQ Mobiuz EX321UX?

Buy it if...

You want fantastic gaming performance

Aspiring esports gamers or gaming enthusiasts are going to appreciate the 144Hz refresh rate, 1ms response time, and FreeSync Premium Pro.

You need outstanding image quality

The excellent image quality of this 32-inch mini-LED 4K gaming monitor is due to its 1,000 nits brightness, DisplayHDR 1000 certification, PixSoul AI Engine, and 99% DCI-P3 and Adobe RGB color coverage. This makes it ideal for gamers and creatives.

You want a lot of extra features

KVM and various screen overlays from frame rate counters to crosshairs are met with the fantastic PixSoul AI Engine.

Don't buy it if...

You need something affordable

$1,199 is likely out of the price range for more budget-minded consumers.

You want built-in speakers

Having a headset and eARC HDMI means users will be taken care of audio-wise, but other monitors for the same price offer in-display speakers.

Also consider

Gigabyte M32UC

Though the brightness and HDR doesn’t match the BenQ EX321UX, the $450 Gigabyte M32UC is more than serviceable for gamers in need of a 32-inch 4K gaming monitor.

Read the full Gigabyte M32UC review

Samsung Odyssey OLED G9

Paying over $1,000 for a gaming monitor with an IPS panel may not make much sense when OLEDs are making waves. For example, the ultrawide Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 could be something potential buyers can consider.

Read the full Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 review

How I tested the BenQ Mobiuz EX321UX

The BenQ Mobiuz EX321UX was tested over a two-week period. During the day, tasks primarily involved using Google Chrome and Slack. This included working with Google Docs, project management software Asana, and social media management tools like Hootsuite.

Slack was also used extensively for communication across different channels, providing an opportunity to test the monitor's performance during general everyday use. Additionally, Adobe Suite software, including Premiere Pro and Photoshop, was used to evaluate color accuracy on the monitor.

To assess overall image quality, games such as Alan Wake II, Forza Motorsport (2023), and Hellblade II: Senua’s Sacrifice were played, focusing on technical visual details and art direction. Performance and game enhancement features were tested with games like Fortnite and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III. Other games played included Starfield and Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon.

I have spent several years covering monitors and other PC components for TechRadar. In addition to gaming, I have over a decade of experience with Adobe Suite.

  • First reviewed November 2024
AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D review: a gaming dynamo with new, unexpected suprises
8:24 pm |
Author: admin | Category: Computers Computing Computing Components Gadgets | Tags: , , | Comments: Off

AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D: Two-minute review

This generation of processors has been a mixed bag at best (and disappointing at worst), so it makes sense that Team Red would go all out to ensure the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D delivered something that exceeded expectations.

In that regard, the 9800X3D is a smashing success, delivering substantially better gaming performance than the AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D that it replaces, though at a slightly higher $479 / £449.99 (about AU$700) price point. For gamers though, most will happily pay a bit more for a roughly 15% increase in gaming performance on average.

The chip isn't without faults, though. It isn't the absolute best processor for gaming in terms of framerates (that title belongs to the Intel Core i9-14900K over several games, averaged out), but where the last-gen Intel flagship simply threw raw wattage to get to the top, AMD's latest gaming processor uses substantially less power to come within 6% of the 14900K's overall gaming performance, a difference that is so close to being within the margin of variance and test setups that if I reran all my tests next week, the 9800X3D might beat it outright.

But, honestly, it doesn't need to do that. Intel's 14900K is overkill for anyone not running creative workloads like video editing, and the power cost is simply too high to justify getting an extra 6% overall gaming performance in synthetic tests. The Ryzen 9800X3D, meanwhile, will get you effectively identical actual performance and at a lower cost, both in MSRP terms, but also reduced power consumption and indirect savings like not needing to shell out for a 360mm AIO cooler to get the most out of the chip.

For that, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D is indisputably the best processor for gaming you can buy right now, and it cements 3D V-Cache as the second most impressive innovation for gaming hardware after AI upscaling and it's something that Intel just doesn't have an answer for it.

AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D: Price & availability

An AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D in its retail packaging

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)
  • How much is it? Its MSRP is $479 / £449.99 (about AU$700)
  • When is it out? It went on sale November 7, 2024
  • Where can you get it? You can get it in the US, UK, and Australia

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is available now in the US, UK, and Australia for $479 / £449.99 / AU$799, respectively.

This is a bump up from the price of the Ryzen 7 7800X3D it replaces, which launched at $449 / £439 / AU$779. I would have loved to see the price remain the same, of course, but the last-gen chip wasn't exactly a cheap processor to begin with, and both chips are very much targeted at an enthusiast market where the price bump here isn't exactly going to be a dealbreaker—so long as the performance increase justifies the bump in price.

In terms of Intel's competing offerings right now, on the performance side, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K (and Intel Core i9-14900K, for that matter) is $110 / £100 / AU$300 more expensive to get the same kind of gaming performance. As for in-class silicon, the 9800X3D is about 15-20% more expensive than the competing Intel Core Ultra 7 265K, and is roughly 33% more expensive than the AMD Ryzen 7 9700X.

Essentially, the 9800X3D is a specialist chip for gamers, and while it isn't a performance slouch, at this price it's really only for PC gamers who want the best overall gaming processor and don't much care about stellar performance elsewhere. For those who need more than just a gaming chip, other options from AMD and Intel will be a better fit for the price.

  • Value: 3.5 / 5

AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D: Specs

AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D: Features & chipset

A mockup of the design of AMD's 2nd-generation 3D V-cache

(Image credit: AMD)

The fundamental specs of the 9800X3D aren't much different from the 7800X3D. They both sport the same 8-core/16-thread setup as the AMD Ryzen 7 9700X, but like the 7800X3D, the 9800X3D has an additional 64MB L3 cache while the Ryzen 7 9700X only has 32MB L3 cache.

This 3D V-Cache in the Ryzen 7 9800X3D has been redesigned from the previous two generations of AMD X3D chips. This second-generation 3D V-Cache, as AMD calls it, fundamentally changes how the 3D V-Cache die interfaces with the main processing die, which addresses some of the main complaints of the previous two generations of X3D chips.

In the first iteration of 3D V-Cache, the extra cache die was stacked on top of the main processing cores, but with 2nd-generation V-Cache, the extra cache die is underneath the main die, leaving the main processing cores free to directly interface with the CPU cooler.

This is a big deal, since the processing cores are where all the heat is being generated, so having an extra layer of silicon between it and the CPU cooler had a lot of implications for what the chip could do. Thermals had to be carefully managed, so clock speeds had to be kept in check and there was no ability to overclock the chip.

By moving the 3D V-Cache die underneath the main processor core complex, the thermal restraints around clock speeds and voltage no longer apply, so the 9800X3D is the first 3D V-cache chip to feature full overclocking support, allowing precise voltage controls at the same voltage limits as the rest of the Ryzen 9000-series lineup.

Compared to the AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D, then, the 9800X3D benefits from noticeably faster base clock and boost clock speeds out of the box, and overclockers can now tinker with their CPUs without too much concern that they'll brick the chip (though with overclocking, that is always possible and can void your warranty, so use caution).

Beyond that, the only major change from the previous generation is faster DDR5 memory support, from 5200MHz with the 7800X3D to 5600MHz with the 9800X3D, though both chips support AMD EXPO memory overclocking for even faster memory speeds.

  • Features: 4 / 5

AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D: Performance

At the end of the day though, all that fancy new tech wouldn't amount to much if the chip's performance didn't deliver, and thankfully, it does - though not universally.

In the synthetic benchmarks, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D showed very strong single-core performance on par with the rest of the Ryzen 9000-series lineup. The Ryzen 7 7800X3D, meanwhile, lags behind its Ryzen 7000 siblings noticeably, owing to the need to control thermals by limiting clock speeds. The Ryzen 9800X3D does not have this problem. Likewise, its multi-core performance is also unconstrained, running ahead of the Ryzen 7 9700X across the board.

On the creative front, this is generally not going to be a chip for creatives to concern themselves with - though there is one exception. If you're a photographer or graphic designer who does a lot of work in Adobe Photoshop or its alternatives, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D's extra cache is going to be a serious benefit for your workflows, beating out even the Intel Core i9-14900K in PugetBench for Adobe Photoshop be a few hundred points.

Everyone else though, this chip is not going to do much for you.

On the gaming side, this is where the 9800X3D really shows off, though there's a bit of a caveat to that. In games where the main CPU bottleneck is game logic, such as Total War: Warhammer III or Civilization VI, the extra 3D V-Cache isn't necessarily going to help your game performance. In that instance, you're going to want something with the fastest clocks possible to plow through all those AI decision trees or physics calculations before a game frame is even drawn.

As such, Intel's last-gen (and even current-gen) chips have an advantage in some games like Returnal (where complex bullet and geometry physics are the main CPU workload) or Total War: Warhammer III (where a lot of individual actors need to have their logic calculated quickly) because these gaming workloads benefit from faster clock speeds.

Where 3D V-Cache really benefits gaming is when there's data being communicated from the CPU to the GPU, like texture files or model geometry, and that additional cache memory can retain these smaller-but-not-tiny files in the fastest possible memory that can hold it. This mitigates the latency introduced when drawing a new game frame when the CPU has to go back to RAM to fetch a file because it didn't already have it in its much closer cache memory.

Games like F1 2023 and Tiny Tina's Wonderland benefited mightily from the extra available cache. In the case of the former, the Ryzen 9800X3D just wallops the Intel Core i9-14900K, and in the case of the latter, runs a very close second to it.

Taken all together, the Intel Core has a slight advantage just given the mix of games I used to test these chips, but for most gamers, the odds are good that the thing you're going to be looking for is a processor that works with your graphics card the best most of the time, and in this case, that'll be the Ryzen 7 9800X3D.

Overall, then, with performance that comes in neck-and-neck with the best Intel processors in gaming workloads on average, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D would already be an incredible chip.

But I simply can't get over the fact that the 9800X3D can do this with just 53% of the power of the Core i9-14900K. Add to that the Ryzen 7 9800X3D's impressive single- and multi-core performance, surprisingly great Photoshop performance, and gen-on-gen performance gains at very little power or monetary cost, and the Ryzen 7 9800X3D is easily one of the best AMD processors ever made.

  • Performance: 5 / 5

Should you buy the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D?

An AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D in a masculine hand

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

Buy the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D if...

On balance, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D is as good a gaming processor as you'll ever need.

Unlike its predecessor, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D can keep up with its peer class in general performance as well, not just gaming.

Don't buy it if...

If you're looking for more of a general-purpose processor, this chip isn't really for you.

The Ryzen 7 9800X3D isn't cheap, and for those on a budget, there are good processors out there that will get the job done.View Deal

Also consider

The Intel Core i7-14700K is still my favorite processor for its incredible performance at an accessible price.

Read the full Intel Core i7-14700K reviewView Deal

  • Originally reviewed November 2024
Apple iMac 24-inch M4 (2024) review: the best, and most colorful, all-in-one computer levels up
5:09 pm | November 7, 2024
Author: admin | Category: Computers Computing Desktop PCs Gadgets Macs | Tags: , , | Comments: Off

Apple iMac 24-inch (M4) Review: Two-minute review

The iMac has been the all-in-one computer to beat since the jump to Apple silicon and a well-received redesign. MacOS teamed with an Apple-made processor make for an excellent experience, and with an iMac you get everything you need to get off to the races in the box.

The 2024 iMac doesn’t majorly depart from this working formula – but three changes, err four, if you’re willing to spend a bit more, make one of the best gadgets around even better. First, Apple has dropped the price by $100 / £100 / AU$200, setting it at $1,299 / £1,299 / AU$1,999. For that, you get an M4 chip, 16GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage – that’s better specs than the M3 version, so you're getting good value here.

The design is identical to the previous model from a year ago and the M1 iMac, which arrived in 2021. It’s an excellent-looking machine that can fit in almost any space – be it a proper desk, a kitchen counter, or even a shelf. It still only comes in one size – 24-inch – which might be a deal-breaker for some, but it appears that Apple wants those folks to get a Mac mini and pair it with a display.

Apple’s only big change with the design is new colors, and I love them. These new shades are more vibrant and match Apple’s other products better, and the finishes can vary depending on how the light hits them. You can get the M4 iMac in Purple, Blue, Green, Orange, Yellow, or Silver, and you’ll get color-matched peripherals – a Magic Keyboard with a Magic Mouse or Magic Trackpad – which all finally feature USB-C ports. However, Apple didn’t see fit to redesign the Magic Mouse; the port is still on the bottom.

Under the hood, the M4 chip outpaces the M3, and delivers noticeable improvements over the M1-powered or previous Intel-powered iMacs. Applications open swiftly with no noticeable lag, and you can do much more on this iMac than on an iMac from years ago. MacOS Sequoia, complete with some early Apple Intelligence features, is preloaded.

The built-in FaceTime camera has also been upgraded with a higher megapixel count and Center Stage functionality to automatically keep you in the frame during video calls – you'll still be in the shot if you like to circle while talking.

So between a lower price for the entry model, the arrival of the M4 chip, and a swap in FaceTime cameras, there is a whole lot to like here, especially if you’re after a Mac – or a computer in general – that's ready to go out of the box. Further, though, if you want to ensure that you can use the screen in any lighting conditions, and plan to place it in a room where you can’t really control the lighting, the new nano-texture option does an impressive job of blocking reflections.

Between the new colors and the improved performance, the latest iMac is again the best all-in-one computer, and the complete package. If you have an M3 iMac or even an M1, I don’t think you need to run out and upgrade, unless you’re hitting a performance roadblock (which is unlikely); but if you have an older model you’ll be in for a treat. And, again, the colors are a delight.

Apple iMac 24-inch (M4) Review: Pricing and Availability

  • How much does it cost? Starts at $1,299 / £1,299 / AU$1,999
  • When is it available? Up for order now, with shipping from November 8

Along with the new Mac mini, 14-inch MacBook Pro, and 16-inch MacBook Pro, the iMac with M4 is up for order now, and begins shipping on November 8. The M4 iMac isn't only a better-specced machine than the M3; it's also cheaper. For $1,299 / £1,299 / AU$1,999, you get the 24-inch M4 iMac with an M4 chip (8-core CPU, 8-core GPU, and 16-core Neural Engine), 16GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage. You also get your pick of color, and you no longer need to spend more to get the shade you want.

The step-up model gives you a better M4 chip with a 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU, and 16-core Neural Engine for $1,499 / £1,499 / AU$2,399. That is paired with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, and a gigabit ethernet port. The top-of-the-line iMac, which we tested, costs $2,699 / £2,699 / AU$4,199 and comes with 32GB of RAM and 2TB of storage. You can opt for the nano-texture display for an extra $200.

Apple iMac 24-inch (M4) Review: Specs

Apple iMac 24-inch (M4) Review: Design

Apple's 24-inch iMac M4 in Purple.

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)
  • The same design as the previous two models
  • New colors look great
  • Magic Keyboard and Magic Mouse finally get USB-C

When Apple likes a design, it tends to stick with it, and it's done so here. The new iMac with the M4 chip looks nearly identical to the M3 iMac, and even the M1 model that ushered in the all-new look in 2021.

Aside from an ever-so-thin build that will take up minimal space on a desk (it weighs in at under 10lbs / 4.5kg), the main feature here is the 24-inch Retina 5K display. I’ll touch on this a bit more below, but for now know that it’s a vibrant and visually rich viewing experience.

The screen offers a 4480 x 5250 resolution with 218 pixels per inch, and maxes out at 500 nits of brightness. Perhaps the most meaningful addition here is a new Nano Texture option, a coating that enables you to place the iMac in almost any space and be able to see the screen clearly – including a room with massive windows throwing sunlight directly on it. Yes, it’s an extra expense, but it adds to an already rich Retina viewing experience, with support for the Wide Color P3 gamut and Apple’s True Tone technology, which adjusts the brightness to make viewing the screen easy on your eyes.

As on the M3 and M1 models, the 24-inch screen is wrapped in a white border all the way around. On a potentially very colorful all-in-one, this is a sensibly neutral choice that allows you to focus on the screen. Tucked above the display is the most welcome addition, a new 12-megapixel ultrawide camera with support for Center Stage. This not only provides better visual for calls or photos but also offers a wide shot, and thanks to some smart software it will automatically keep you in the frame. That means if you squat down, it pans down, or if you jump up, it pans up, and if another person walks into the shot it will center you both. Very handy.

Apple's 24-inch iMac M4 in Purple.

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

The new iMac still has a chin on the bottom, but I don’t think most folks will mind, especially since it’s color-matched to whatever shade you choose. And it's no longer the case that you might need to pay more to get the color you want, as all seven shades are available in any configuration of the iMac. I’ve been testing the new iMac in Purple, which perfectly matches the latest iPad mini and new AirPods Max – a lovely, light, and airy hue, with a lilac feel on the front and a deeper purple on the back and the accompanying stand. Apple also offers the iMac in Pink – the pink of your dreams, it looks stunning – Green, Blue, Yellow, Orange, and Silver.

As with previous models, a Magic Keyboard and Magic Mouse or a Magic Keyboard and Magic Trackpad color-matched to the iMac are included in the box. The colors are most visible on the keyboard, where the white keys are set on top of the colored aluminum and on the Touch ID rim.

Apple's 24-inch iMac M4 in Purple.

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

The other big change is that Apple’s accessories have finally switched to USB-C. So we can finally say bye-bye to Lightning, at least for the Magic Keyboard, Magic Trackpad, and Magic Mouse. With the latter, you might assume that Apple also swapped the port, but it did not. The USB-C port still lives on the bottom of the Magic Mouse, just as with the previous Lightning port, so when it comes time to charge your mouse, once you've plugged it in you won't be able use the mouse until it’s charged. Maybe next year. A positive is that you get a color-matched braided USB-C to USB-C cable in the box.

Like the M3 iMac and the M1-powered edition, the higher-end iMac I reviewed has four Thunderbolt 4/USB-C ports on the rear right when looking at it from the front. These are great spots to connect peripherals, and the power button is on the other side. The base $1,299 iMac comes with two Thunderbolt 4/USB-C ports, and both models feature a headphone jack on the left-hand side.

Apple's 24-inch iMac M4 in Purple.

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

If you opt for the iMac to have a gigabit Ethernet port, it’s found on the power brick. You’ll connect the iMac to the power center on the back with a proprietary circular connector.

To keep the design here so thin, there isn’t much room for other ports. Many of the actual components live in that chin on the bottom of the iMac. The stand is quite small at just 5.8 inches but it supports the iMac well, and thanks to some articulation you can tilt the display vertically up or down for the perfect viewing angle. The overall dimensions and weight are the same as the previous version as well – 54.7 x 46.1 x 14.7cm (21.5 x 18.1 x 5.8 inches) and 9.74lbs / 4.42kg, or 9.79lbs / 4.44 kg for the more expensive models. Even so, four USB-C ports, even on the base $1,299 configuration, would have been a welcome addition.

While you won’t physically see them, Apple has also built in a six-speaker system with force-canceling woofers that support Spatial Audio, and a three-microphone array – both are unchanged year on year, and audio playback for music and videos sounds rich. I also found the onboard speakers great for video calls, ensuring clear audio and blocking out any reverb when speaking.

As a whole, Apple’s iMac is still the best-looking all-in-one on the market. While it’s similar to two previous editions, the new colors – especially the more vibrant shades – ensure it provides a refreshing experience in use. It also looks simply stunning in any space.

  • Design score: 4.5/5

Apple iMac 24-inch (M4) Review: Display

Apple's 24-inch iMac M4 in Purple.

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)
  • 24 inches is plenty of room for multitasking
  • Display gets vibrant, but is only 60Hz
  • Nano texture option is impressive at blocking reflections

Just like the new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro with M4 or the iPad Pro with M4, the iMac now comes with the option of a Nano-texture glass finish. It costs an extra $200, but it drastically reduces visible reflections from light or other sources. Apple includes a special ‘polishing cloth’ for the finish in the box.

My apartment’s living room has a lot of windows, and gets direct sunlight for almost the entire day, so it was the perfect spot to put the Nano-texture to the test – I frequently have to move around when using a MacBook Air or Pro to reduce reflections. Thanks to the special coating I was able to keep the iMac on my kitchen counter and sit on a barstool, regardless of whether the light, whether natural or artificial, was reflecting on it. Yes, if it’s super bright you’ll notice it to a degree, but it usually diffuses quite naturally and lets you work in very bright environments.

Basically, it can cut down most glare, be it from natural or environmental sources, and if you’re already investing in a new iMac it will make it that bit more versatile. Regardless of whether you opt for Nano-texture, you still get a Retina 4.5K display with a 4480 x 5250 resolution aat 218 pixels per inch. It’s still only a 60Hz display, which is a bit disappointing, but if you’re not coming from a display with a higher refresh rate I think you’ll be right at home.

The display is excellent for daily web browsing, FaceTime calls, and other productivity use cases. I noticed inky blacks and crisp letters while writing this review and with emails. Streaming movies or TV shows on the display is a real treat, and might be a true use case if you use this in a family room or as the main device in an apartment. I could also easily edit photos in Photos, Pixelmator, or Photoshop, and even tackle video edits in Final Cut Pro.

While not as rich and with fewer contrast points, the iMac can be used to game comfortably compared to a MacBook Pro. The M4 chip does support dynamic caching and ray tracing, so titles like Resident Evil 2 were enjoyable here.

The one issuse I could see carried over from the previous models, and for new folks, is that the iMac only comes in one size – 24 inches. There are no longer 21.5-inch and 27-inch options, as there were when Apple offered Intel iMacs. I recommend getting a Mac mini and the display of your choice if you want a bigger or smaller screen.

  • Display score: 4/5
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Apple iMac 24-inch (M4) Review: Performance

  • M4 chip provides plenty of power
  • The iMac can handle work and play, including AAA gaming titles
  • Apple Intelligence features – like Writing Tools and Image Playground – run well here

Apple's 24-inch iMac M4 in Purple.

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

There are two main configurations of the iMac with M4, depending on the type of M4 chip you want. The entry-level model should be just fine for most folks, thanks to Apple upping the base RAM to 16GB. That configuration includes an M4 chip with an 8-core CPU, 8-core GPU, and 16-core Neural Engine. You can pay a bit more, starting at $1,499, for an M4 Chip with a 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU, and a 16-core Neural Engine – the price will get higher as you up RAM and storage. The base configuration tops out at 24GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, while the higher-end versions go up to 32GB of RAM and 2TB of storage.

I’ve been testing the iMac with the 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU, and 16-core Neural Engine M4, and 32GB of RAM and 2TB of storage. Out of the box the new iMacs come with macOS Sequoia 15.1, and with it you're getting the first Apple Intelligence features like Writing Tools, a redesigned Siri with a rainbow glow, Clean Up in Photos, and Notifications in summaries, as well as general OS improvements like iPhone Mirroring, which is both super-handy and a little addictive.

In my daily testing, I could have Safari and Google Chrome both open with upwards of 20 tabs, as well as Slack, Messages, Pixelmator, Preview, Calendar, a couple more apps, and iPhone Mirroring open without the iMac losing speed. This was on the top configuration for the iMac, so your mileage might vary a bit, but as with most Apple silicon Macs should should find the iMac zippy, and be hard-pressed to get the onboard fan to kick in.

Benchmarks

Here's how the iMac with M4 (2024) performed in our TechRadar and Future Labs benchmarks:

Geekbench 6.3 Single-Core: 3,646

Geekbench 6.3 Multi-Core: 14,724

Apple's 24-inch iMac M4 in Purple.

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

With so much power packed inside a modern, sleek build, this is a versatile machine that will be at home in a range of setups. It might be ideal for a shared computer amongst a family – macOS supports multiple profiles, and you’ll find parental controls. It has more than enough horsepower for casual mail and web browsing, and plenty of power for word processing or creating a PowerPoint. Similarly, it could be used for businesses that can load massive, thousand-row spreadsheets in Excel or Numbers and other more specific applications. You can also power through creative tasks like a large Logic file with several dozens of tracks and AI session players.

Even with AI or ML tasks, the iMac did quite well – I could ask for a summary of a lengthy and messy meeting recap in Notes, see a list of bullets in just a few seconds, and remove unwanted people from a group photo in seconds. I could perform a super-resolution boost to up the quality in Pixelmator Pro, and easily make automatic edits in LightRoom, all without a long wait time.

I also spent a few hours with the latest beta of macOS Sequoia 15.2 and its Apple Intelligence tools on the iMac with M4. Making custom visuals in Image Playground or my creative emojis in Genmoji is a lot of fun on this all-in-one. We can expect these features, alongside other new Apple Intelligence ones, to arrive before the end of 2024.

The iMac with M4 doesn’t disappoint on performance, and while the scores aren’t dramatically better than the M3 variant, those with an M1, especially if it's Intel-powered, will be ripe for an upgrade, and will reap the benefits in terms of speed. And considering the price drop of $100 / £100 / AU$200, it's kind of a steal for a brand-new Apple product.

  • Performance score: 4.5/5

Should you buy the Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch M4 (2024)?

Buy it if...

You want the best all-in-one computer

With tremendous performance, a vibrant screen, and a modern build, the M4 iMac stands out from other all-in-one computers – and it's cheaper than the previous model.View Deal

You want a colorful and sleek desktop computer

With a sleek and impressively thin build, the iMac has long looked the part, and with the M4 chip inside it offers plenty of power. And the new colors are delightful. View Deal

Don't buy it if...

You want the most powerful Mac

With the Mac mini and MacBook Pro supporting up to M4 Pro and M4 Max chips, you'll want to look to those for maximum power.View Deal

You want a bigger screen

24 inches might not be enough real estate for your needs, and if so you might want to get a Mac mini and pair it with a larger screen.View Deal

How I tested

After receiving the new iMac from Apple for testing, I unboxed it and then set it up as a new machine. I used the M4-powered iMac for seven days as my daily driver for work, general productivity, and play. I ran through all of my daily tasks in myriad applications like Safari, Google Chrome, Slack, and Pixelmator Pro, among others, and I also edited photos and videos, and played some AAA titles.

First reviewed November 2024

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