Each time Doogee comes out with a new flagship design, it moves the bar for numerous companies in the rugged phone sector.
The new V30 takes features exclusive to premium branded phones only months ago and delivers them in an affordable package for those that work outdoors or yearn to adventure.
Ticking the rugged phone boxes, this is an IP68, IP69K and MIL-STD-810H compliant design that can handle dust and water, including full submersion for limited periods and shallow depths.
But the parts of this phone that will interest the discerning customer are all inside. Specifically, the Dimensity 900 SoC, 8GB of RAM, 256GB of storage and 108MP camera.
These make the V30 a potent and capable phone that can connect using 5G when available and capture the world around it in astounding detail.
On the rear are a 108MP Samsung S5KHM2SP03 main camera (F1.79, 90-degree FOV, PDAF) a 20MP Sony IMX350 night vision camera (F1.8, 70-degree FOV) and a 16MP wide-angle & macro camera (F2.2, 130-degree FOV).
For selfie-takers, the front has a 32MP IMX616-AAJH5-C front camera (F2.0, 90-degree FOV).
Like we’ve seen before with this sensor, the taking of 108MP images negates some of the special features like HDR and Bokeh, but you can get those things in a 12MP mode.
However, other phones don’t offer 4K video capture, and the V30 does, along with lower resolutions.
Viewing those pictures or streamed content is easy on its 6.58-inch IPS 120Hz display with a natural resolution of 2408 x 1080, similar to one of that we’ve seen before on the Ulefone Power Armor 17 Pro.
With a battery capacity of 10800mAh, the V30 should operate for more than three days of normal use without needing a recharge. And, using the included 66W charger, it can recover 50% of its battery capacity from empty in around 30 minutes.
These features and its 5G functionality make the V30 an exceptionally good choice for anything travelling abroad, capturing images and video and then securing them over cellular or WiFi connections.
It might not be the cheapest rugged phone design, but the amount of technology that Doogee shoehorned into it makes it easily worth the asking price.
(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)
Doogee V30 price and availability
How much does it cost? $449.99 / £407.99/ $AU 779
When is it out? It is available now
Where can you get it? You can get it in most regions direct from AliExpress or on Amazon.com
The Doogee V30 costs $449.99 directly from Doogee or $529.99 on Amazon.com for next-day delivery. European costs from online retailers are slightly better, with the Amazon.co.uk cost being just £407.99.
Whereas direct from an Australian online retailer, the V30 costs AU$ 779.
But if you want a real bargain Doogee has this phone at its own outlet on AliExpress, and it costs only £329.16 or $395.24, although delivery might take 30 days or more.
Considering the features of this phone, the price is very competitive.
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Value score: 5/5
Doogee V30 design
Built to last
By-the-numbers buttons
No audio jack
From the outside, there isn’t much radical about the V30, as it falls into the familiar tropes where most large rugged phones fall.
One unique aspect is that the phone's body has a boat-like profile, making it slightly easier to handle than some thicker phone models. Having its sides elevated also helps when picking up, which might otherwise be a challenge.
The construction uses a combination of a milled metal frame covered largely in impact-resistant plastic and dense TPU. This has been texturized for better grip and to match a section of ‘leather’ on the flat underside.
One curiosity is the side panels that have a wood grain finish, although it's hard to determine what they’re actually made from. It all looks nice, and with the ‘Leather’ underside, it gives the phone the feel of a luxury car interior.
Every phone maker seems to be glued to this layout with the thumb-activated power button, and Doogee engineers didn’t buck that trend. It works well for right-handed users and less elegantly for left-handed.
Typically, rugged Chinese-made phones come with a SIM tray that can accept two Nano SIMs and a MicroSD card, but the V30 only supports one Nano alongside the MicroSD or, alternatively, two Nano and no MicroSD.
However, as we’ll cover elsewhere, this phone supports eSIMs, so it can have up to five different numbers and services if required.
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The charging and data port is the USB-C variety placed on the centre of the bottom edge and covered in a rubber plug. We’ve seen designs by Ulefone recently that dispensed with the rubber plug but still offering to waterproof, something Doogee needs to consider offering in its designs.
However, the phone will wirelessly charge at 15W with a suitable Qi wireless charger if repeatedly removing the plug annoys you.
What is missing is any 3.5mm audio jack. Doogee assumes music fans will be using Bluetooth or buy their own USB-C-to-audio adapter, as one isn’t included in the box.
What you get with the phone is a plastic tool to avoid breaking a nail opening the SIM tray, a Euro pinned wall-socket PSU rated to 66W, USB-C to USB-C OTG cable, some screen protecting accessories and a User Manual.
(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)
Design score: 4/5
Doogee V30 hardware
Powerful
High specification
eSIM flexibility
Specs
The Doogee V30 that was sent to us for review came with the following hardware:
CPU: MediaTek Dimensity 900 GPU: Mali-G68 MC4 RAM: 8 GB (15 GB with Memory Fusion) Storage: 256GB (expandable to 1TB with MicroSD) Screen: 6.58" FHD+ 120 Hz IPS waterdrop display Resolution: 2408 x 1080 SIM: Dual Nano SIM (or 1 and MicroSDXC) and eSIM (4) Weight: 376g Dimensions: 177 x 80 x 18 mm Rugged Spec: IP68, IP69K and MIL-STD-810H Rear cameras: 108MP main, 20MP night vision, 16MP ultrawide Front camera: 32MP Networking: WiFi 5, Bluetooth 5.0 OS: Android 12 Battery: 10800mAh
The MediaTek Dimensity 900 is the SoC of choice for flagship designs for those companies unwilling to pay Qualcomm for the latest Snapdragon silicon. We’ve seen it used in the V30 and the Ulefone Power Armor 18T, and it impressed us in both devices.
This is a third-generation MediaTek APU that combines dual ARM Cortex-A78 performance cores with six ARM Cortex-A55 cores for efficiency. Its integrated GPU is Mali-G68 MC4 can handle 4K video encoding/decoding and supports OpenGL3.1 and Vulkan for 3D rendering.
As an SoC and not just a CPU/GPU, this 6nm chip can connect to LPDDR4X or LPDDR5X, and supports UFS 2.1 and 3.1 storage.
In this phone, the memory type is LPDDR4X, and this is one of those designs where the amount of RAM can be expanded by sacrificing some of the storage. This memory fusion mode enables up to 15GB of RAM to be allocated, nearly doubling the amount available for apps.
But it isn’t just the SoC and memory model that is premium on this design. The networking technology is also state of the art, with WiFi 6 (2x2 MIMO), Bluetooth 5.2, and mobile comms for 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G cellular services.
Using the dual SIM mode can choose from physical SIMs and eSIMs, and if the service provider supports the mode, it can communicate over dual 5G links at up to 2.7Gbps download speeds.
Where the eSIM model used in the V30 is truly revolutionary is that the whole process of getting a service can be achieved from the phone. If you imagine wanting to go to a distant country and needing a local number and service, this would normally involve sourcing a physical SIM and paying for that service when you arrive.
Using the pre-installed eSIM store, you can simply select the country and the required data plan, sanction the payment and magically, you’ve now got access to the local service and a mobile number. And, if you are involved in some shuttle diplomacy or the like, it is possible to have four eSIM numbers active at any time.
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The only disappointment in the hardware is that the V30 doesn’t support the Widevine L1 video decryption standard, only L3. With only L3 decryption streaming services like Netflix and Disney+ reduce the best resolution available to just 480p. 1080p playback on YouTube and with capture videos is possible, but not over the mainstream services.
This limitation appears to be the norm among Chinese phones, regrettably.
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Hardware score: 4/5
Doogee V30 cameras
108MP sensor on the rear
Wide-angle, macro and night vision
Four cameras in total
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The Doogee V30 has four cameras:
Rear cameras: 108MP Samsung S5KHM2, 16 MP OmniVision OV16B10 (Ultra-Wide), 20MP Sony IMX350 (Night Vision) Front camera: 32MP SONY IMX616 Sensor (Wide)
We’ve seen the 108MP Samsung S5KHM2 main sensor before on the Ulefone 17 Pro, and it can deliver some amazing resolution images if you need the highest levels of detail.
The trade-off for getting 12000 x 8992 resolution pictures is that it will only do this in a basic snapshot mode, with all the clever Pro and specialist capture being limited to 12MP.
With such a large sensor and all the light it can capture, the 12MP results are excellent, but it would be nice to extract more resolution without losing all the shooting modes.
Where this camera design differs from that in the Ulefone 17 Pro is it uses 8MP supporting wide-angle sensors, while the ones in the V30 are 16MP and 32MP. This results in better close-up and macro results, along with better selfies.
But it isn’t only the supporting sensors that are generally better, but also the way that the main 108MP is exploited is superior in the V30.
We’ve seen designs that use this sensor and then offer only 2K video resolution, but the V30 does offer 3840 x 2160, aka 4K UHD. The screen might not have the resolution to display these capture without scaling, but it can grab video at 4K.
There is still work to be done here, Because irrespective of what video resolution you pick, the only framerate available is 30fps. Not only is this not helpful for those that like 25fps, but it also ignores all the possibilities for slow motion.
That point aside, the results from this camera are outstanding, with exceptionally crisp images and natural colours, and they’re relatively artefact-free.
While I’m sure that the latest Apple or Samsung premium design might be able to do better, there isn’t much that is substandard about the images the V30 can capture.
Camera samples
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Camera score: 4/5
Doogee V30 performance
All-round performer
Strong GPU
Power and efficiency
Benchmarks
This is how the Doogee V30 performed in our suite of benchmark tests:
The performance of this phone is terrific, as across the benchmarks. These results display its superiority to MediaTek Helio series SoCs and the Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G in every test. The Dimensity 900 is equivalent to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 in a few respects, though it is marginally better in many areas.
Where often Octo-core SoCs are good at multi-thread tests but less wondering at single-task challenges, the 2.5GHz Cortex-A78 performance cores deliver excellent single-thread performance. But when two of these are combined with the six Cortex-A55 cores, it can also achieve excellent results in multi-threaded scenarios.
Compared to the MediaTek Helio G99 phones, the V30 is around 30% faster at single-thread tests and up to 25-30% better at multi-threaded. And it entirely crushes lower G and P series SoCs.
The Mali-G68 MC4 is also a dramatic improvement over the Mali-G57 MC2 used in the G99 designs, delivering an improvement of around 40% in most of the 3DMark benches and closer to 80% in Wild Life.
Overall, the performance of this phone is fantastic, as the configuration of the SoC allows for high performance and power efficiency when priorities change.
There is nothing low-budget about the performance of the V30.
Performance score: 5/5
Doogee V30 battery
Good battery size
66W Fast charging
15W Qi charging
When phones get more than 10,000 mAh, they’ve got enough battery for extended use without a recharge, and this one has 10800 mAh of battery inside.
According to Doogee, the V30 should operate for more than three days of typical use without needing a recharge, and it might make it to a fourth.
The included 66W charger can recover 50% of its battery capacity from empty in around 30 minutes, although if you use the 15W wireless charging, it will take four hours to reach the same level.
There are rugged designs that offer more battery, but they trade weight for that advantage, and the physical mass of the V30 isn’t so great that it becomes impractical.
The available capacity is enough for a camping holiday, and the power efficiency of the platform makes the most of it.
Battery score: 4/5
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The V30 is easily the best Doogee phone we’ve tested so far, with many positive aspects and relatively few caveats.
It has a powerful platform, an impressive camera, decent battery life and 5G communications. But the stand-out feature is the inclusion of eSIM technology, which makes international use significantly less of a hassle.
We’d like to see more camera options at 108MP, framerate control on the video, and L1 Widevine decryption, but those things could all be added with firmware and software enhancements.
Doogee has set a new high watermark for rugged phones, and we can’t wait to see how its competitors react.
When you’ve recently reviewed the 16 Pro and then are sent the 17 Pro, it’s not an unreasonable conclusion that the new phone will build on the previous design.
But, the Ulefone Power Armor 17 Pro takes very little, if anything, from its predecessor.
Where that was a super-cheap and heavy, rugged phone with a massive speaker on its back, the 17 Pro is double the cost, significantly lighter and generally has a much better specification.
Where the 16 Pro uses the lacklustre MediaTek Helio G25 SoC, the 17 Pro sports the very pinnacle of the Helio series, the G99. A chip that, in comparison to other SoCs, the G99 is a very powerful ARM processor and offers excellent performance.
The underlying platform allows this phone can handle most tasks with ease while also offering great battery life. Additionally, it supports a wide range of features, such as dual-SIM support, NFC, and Wi-Fi 6. In terms of gaming performance, the Helio G99 is enough power for most games, although it may struggle with more intense titles.
The strengths of this design over other rugged options are that at just 290g it is much lighter than most, and the case isn’t oddly shaped and thickened. That makes it a more practical phone to carry, even if you don’t use the optional protective case and its belt clip.
It also has an impressive 108MP rear camera, along with an 8MP PDFA wide-angle sensor and an 8MP night vision camera, Though even with that massive rear sensor, it still can’t capture 4K resolution video, only 2K.
There are two significant weaknesses in the 17 Pro, and the first of those is a battery capacity of just 5380 mAh, an amount that you would find in any typical mid-priced phone.
The battery can be fast charged, and the phone supports wireless charging, but this isn’t a phone that you would want to take on a long hike away from civilisation.
The second major weakness is that it doesn’t support 5G, making this a 4G phone with LTE support at best. Phones costing this much are starting to come with 5G, but this one doesn’t.
Overall, a phone that is more practical than most rugged designs and an interesting divergence from the previous 16 Pro.
This isn’t an expensive device and has plenty of useful features for the asking price..
(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)
Ulefone Power Armor 17 Pro price and availability
How much does it cost? $340 / £290
When is it out? It is available now
Where can you get it? You can get it in most regions direct from AliExpress or on Amazon.com
Typically, on Amazon or other mainstream online retailers, the 17 Pro costs around $340, but for those willing to wait for AliExpress to deliver, it can be purchased for $60 less.
That still makes it almost twice the cost of the 16 Pro, but the power and performance in this design justifies the additional cost.
Alongside just the phone, the 17 Pro can be bought with an additional protective case, a wireless charging base, a portable Bluetooth speaker, or various combinations of those items. With them all included by AliExpress, it costs about the same as just the phone from Amazon.
Even with the increase over the 16 Pro, this is still one of the cheapest phones built around the MediaTek Helio G99 SoC and more sophisticated than the typical rugged designs.
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Value score: 4/5
Ulefone Power Armor 17 Pro design
Solid construction
By-the-numbers buttons
Dedicated flashlight
Rugged phones tend to fall into two subcategories; chunky or slim. And, the 17 Pro is distinctly in the ‘slim’ category, only 12.5mm thick.
It would be even thinner if the camera cluster on the rear didn’t project outwards.
At just 290 g, this is one of the lightest phones from Ulefone we’ve seen, and unless specifically primed, most people picking up this device would assume it was a regular Chinese smartphone.
That said, there are a few rugged hints, in that the back has a faux carbon fibre finish, and the sides and all the buttons are metal.
The button layout is the de facto standard comprising of the audio rocker and power button (doubling as thumbprint reader) on the right and the custom button and SIM tray on the left.
On the bottom edge is the USB-C charging port and a 3.5mm audio headphone jack, and neither of these is protected by a rubber plug.
Despite the lack of a plug, the phone is rated for IP68 (maximum depth of 1.5 metres up to 30 minutes) under IEC, and it even has underwater camera modes.
Also, in the bottom left corner is a lanyard hole for those wanting to secure the Pro 17 to a strap or belt.
(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)
As with most modern phones, the standout feature is the display. It’s a 20:9, 1080 x 2408 FHD+ screen, offering 6.58‑inches of touch panel that even those with big fingers should be able to operate. It’s bright and colourful and has a decent resolution for viewing captured images and video. The refresh rate is 120Hz, enough to avoid screen tearing when rapidly scrolling images.
In the centre of the back are the cameras, in a generally good position for those that often accidentally put their fingers on the edge of their photos. This is a triple-sensor cluster with the top sensor offering an amazing 108MP resolution. The two other sensors are one for wide-angle work (8MP) and a night vision camera (also 8MP).
To provide flash illumination, three conventional LEDs and two IR LEDs are also part of the rear camera cluster.
The 16MP selfie camera on the front is centrally mounted in a cutout at the top of the display. Normally the loss of a part of the panel to this feature would annoy us, but the screen here has extra pixels to avoid this being a factor in presenting video or images.
Overall, the Pro 17 is a good example of a new generation of ruggedized designs where its ability to withstand the environment and a few hard knocks hasn’t compromised it as a phone in any substantial way.
(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)
Design score: 4/5
Ulefone Power Armor 17 Pro hardware
Low spec platform
Decent battery size
Endoscope option
Specs
The UleFone Power Armor 17 Pro that was sent to us for review came with the following hardware:
CPU: MediaTek Helio G99 GPU: Mali-G57 MC2 RAM: 8GB LPDDR4X Storage: 256GB eMMC 5.1 Screen: 6.58-inch IPS LCD Resolution: 2408 x 1080 SIM: Dual Nano SIM (+microSDXC up to 128GB) Weight: 405g Dimensions: 172.7 x 80.4 x 12.5 mm Rugged Spec: IP68, IP69K and MIL-STD-810H Rear cameras: 108 MP, f/1.9, (wide), 1/1.52”, 0.7µm, PDAF 8 MP, f/2.2, 119˚, (ultrawide), 1/4”, 1.12µm 8 MP, (night vision), 2 infrared night vision lights Front camera: 16 MP, f/2.2, (wide), 1.0µm Networking: Wi-Fi 5 dual band, Bluetooth 5.2 OS: Android 12 Battery: 5380 mAh
The Mediatek Helio G99 is a mid-range mobile system on a chip (SoC) released in 2021. It is based on the 12nm fabrication process and is the successor to the Helio G90T. The Helio G99 is an 8-core CPU with 4 ARM Cortex A-76 and 4 ARM Cortex A-55 cores. This package includes a Mali-G57 MC2 GPU for graphics and support for up to 8GB of LPDDR4x RAM and UFS 2.1 storage.
In this design, 8GB of memory is combined with 256GB of main storage, providing enough space for most use profiles. But this is also one of the new designs where some of the main storage can be reallocated to RAM, boosting the amount available by up to 5GB. But, the maker warns that not all Android software is compatible with this Virtual Memory Expansion feature.
While this chip doesn’t compete with some of the latest Snapdragon designs, it’s an excellent all-around performer and allows the 17 Pro to deliver impressive benchmark scores.
An SoC of this performance level is critical when you have a camera capable of 108MP images in the system for the post-processing of that data.
One contradiction of this design is that the screen has a resolution of 2408 x 1080, providing more space than a 1080p video requires to be fully represented without scaling.
However, the Pro 17 doesn’t support the Widevine L1 video decryption standard, resulting in streaming services like Netflix and Disney+ reducing the best resolution available to just 480p. It is possible to get 1080p playback on YouTube and with capture videos, but not over most streaming services.
This limitation appears to be the norm among Chinese phones, and it may be to do with the additional cost of getting L1, over the L3 decryption many come with.
While still image capture can be made at crazy resolutions, even with a 108MP sensor, the Pro 17 can only offer 2K recording at 30fps, with no 4K options.
While there may be good reasons for avoiding 4K, why they didn’t include faster frame rate versions of 1080p, 720p and 480p is a mystery. They’re all locked at 30fps.
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For western buyers, the lack of 5G comms might be an issue, depending on the locale, but it does offer a pervasive selection of 4G LTE frequencies (FDD and TDD) alongside support for 3G and 2G legacy services.
One curiosity is that this design supports simultaneous dual SIM support, allowing both connections to be active. However, the support of two 4G connections to a single device depends on the local telecom operator and if they allow this on their service.
When you see the Samsung HM2 108MP sensor on this phone, one is immediately drawn to conclude that this might be a good phone for pictures, and it is.
However, the 108MP mode that captures whopping 12000 x 8992 resolution images isn’t the one that most people will use. Because none of the ‘Pro Mode’ features exists at this level of detail, and with the exception of 4X digital zoom, there are no options.
The standard resolution for pictures is only 12MP, or 4000 x 2992, or about 12% of the sensor area.
Admittedly not as impressive as 108MP, but the lower quality setting gives full control over ISO, aperture and speed, resulting in much better quality results.
It’s also worth considering that the typical size of a 108MP image is between 20MB and 25MB, whereas a 12MP is usually below 10MB. It takes longer to take 108MP images, you have less control, and they take up excessive space.
Usually, we might complain that RAW isn’t supported, but 108MP RAW images would be exceptionally large and probably not practical on this platform.
It’s tempting to think that the 108MP is just a hook to get customers who want the best pictures, but it’s more complicated than that due to the results of using a 108MP sensor to take 12MP images.
These pictures are predictably good, display relatively few artefacts and chromatic aberrations, and are well colour balanced even with everything set to auto.
It would have been nice to have a 24MP or 56MP mode which had all the controls of 12MP, but it is possible to get some excellent results out of the Pro 17, just not by using 108MP.
Camera samples
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Camera score: 4/5
Ulefone Power Armor 17 Pro performance
Performance powerhouse
GPU isn’t the very quickest
Benchmarks
This is how the Ulefone Armor 17 Pro performed in our suite of benchmark tests:
These results are right up with the very best we’ve had from rugged phones, bettered only by those powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 900 SoC or Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G.
And, even those devices only make a handful of score points more, and not across all benchmarks.
To underline this, the Passmark score of 9359 is one the highest we’ve tested from a rugged phone, and only Dimensity 900-powered devices did better.
The only weakness we noticed is that the Mali-G57 MC2 isn’t as quick as the Mali-G68 MP4 that the Dimensity 900 SoC uses, delivering 1359 on the Wild Life test on this phone, but more than 2000 on the Doogee V30 and Ulefone Power Armor 18T.
That makes the G99 a little less suitable for gaming, but not by an amount most players would immediately notice.
What is more likely to be noticeable is the amount of battery capacity.
Performance score: 4/5
Ulefone Power Armor 17 Pro battery
Small capacity for rugged design
66W super fast charging
Qi charging and MagSafe
The elephant in this powerhouse is the battery, or more specifically, the 5380 mAh battery Ulefone blessed the 17 Pro with.
By rugged phone standards, that’s not huge, and while it is bigger than the 4,323mAh that Apple gives the iPhone 14 Pro Max, we typically see phones with 10,000 or more mAh in this sector.
The available capacity has a quoted standby of 294 hours and a talk-time of 29 hours, but realistically most phones don’t run out of power on standby or while being used as a phone.
With a smaller battery, Ulefone did make some effort to enable the phone to charge quickly, and with a suitable charger like the one included with the phone, it can handle a 66W fast charge. Due to the flattened back, this design can also wireless charge up to 15W using Qi charging pad (not included). It will also wireless reverse charge to another phone with Qi.
Its final trick is that it can also magnetically wireless charge in much the same way as a recent iPhone, allowing it to be used with a magnetic wallet. Included in the box is a soft magnetic wallet that doubles as a phone stand, conveniently.
While the 17 Pro might not have the battery capacity of the 16 Pro or 18T, it does have a few other neat charging features that go some way to balance this equation. The smaller battery positively impacts the phone's overall weight, importantly.
Battery score: 3/5
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There are many things to like about the 17 Pro that address some of the issues with the 16 Pro and also offer a hint at where Ulefone is likely to go with future rugged designs.
Instead of emulating spare parts from a transformer, the Pro 17 offers a large but not excessively sized phone that is robust and protected from the environment without resorting to shipping container aesthetics.
The MediaTek Helio G99 SoC gives plenty of processing performance, and the 108MP camera sensor delivers excellent photo capture. The only real caveat is the limited battery capacity, making it less than ideal for long adventure holidays away from mains power.
It might cost nearly double the cost of the 16 Pro, but the 17 Pro is a lot more phone for the cash and probably better value on the investment.
The Xbox Series S is a far more affordable alternative to the Series X, and despite its smaller size it still boasts some incredibly impressive capabilities without breaking the bank. Due to this, it's a fantastic gateway into current-gen gaming without costing anywhere near as much as you might expect.
The Xbox Series S is designed to take the same generational leaps as the Series X, such as being capable of ray tracing, sporting lightning-fast load times, and showcasing higher frame rates, yet it remains to be significantly cheaper than its competitor, but there's certainly a hit to overall power and features.
The Xbox Series S is praised for its digital-only build, but surprisingly there is significantly less storage than the Xbox Series X. The console also targets a 1440p resolution rather than 4K, with the opportunity to upscale when connected to an Ultra HD display. But the console is designed to run optimally at lower resolutions. So you should take your display setup into account when thinking of purchasing the Series S.
Microsoft's more affordable Xbox also does away with the 4K HD Blu-Ray drive of the Xbox Series X, making this a digital-only affair. If you've amassed a large library of the best Xbox Series X games over the years, this alone could be a deal-breaker and means you're at the mercy of Microsoft's store pricing when it comes to buying new titles.
Xbox Series S one year on
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We've updated our Xbox Series S review to reflect our impressions after using the console for nearly two years. Microsoft has rolled out a few welcome improvements to the Series S, and we now finally have exclusive titles that take full advantage of the hardware's power like Halo Infinite and Forza Horizon 5.
These cutbacks might be too much for some users, then, but it makes the Xbox Series S a much cheaper and less hefty device as a result. Crucially, it's still capable of playing new-gen games, making this a great entry point into the Xbox ecosystem.
Each one impressed us, with smoother frame rates, increased resolutions (when compared to Xbox One, and Xbox One S), and faster load times, even if the games didn't look quite as pretty as they did running on the Xbox Series X. But that's mostly due to Xbox Series S targeting a lower resolution.
That said, for gamers who have no qualms about buying games digitally, or subscribing to Xbox Game Pass, you’re getting the full suite of next-gen features on Microsoft's cheaper console: Quick Resume, Auto HDR, 120Hz, you name it. The Xbox Series S is a great option for those wanting to experience new-gen gaming, without the sizable financial outlay required to own a full-blown console.
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As we've alluded to already, there are drawbacks to consider. If you prefer to purchase games physically, or have amassed a large collection of Xbox One games over the years, the Xbox Series S's lack of disc drive may put you off.
You only get a 512GB SSD, too, as there's no higher-capacity option. And while the console's SSD is dramatically faster than the old mechanical drives in the Xbox One X and Xbox One S, it can fill up fast. The five games we mentioned above almost took up the entire 512GB SSD on our review unit (you only get 364GB of usable space), leaving us with just 30GB of storage to play with.
That means if we wanted to install a game of that size to the system's internal drive, we'd likely have to delete something first (or additionally purchase the Seagate Xbox storage expansion card, which costs nearly as much as the Xbox Series S itself).
Xbox Series X review
(Image credit: Future)
The Xbox Series X utilizes its powerful specs to significantly reduce load times and increase overall game performance and visual fidelity. But, while features such as Quick Resume, Smart Delivery, and backward compatibility give it that extra boost, it's hard to deny that it’s lacking in key areas, notably significant UI improvements and captivating exclusive launch titles.
What may deter people from buying Microsoft's more affordable Xbox is the fact that it outputs at 1440p for gaming. This lower resolution is a firm favourite in the PC gaming space due to the superior image quality it provides over 1080p, and the lower amount of graphical grunt it requires from developers to achieve. This has allowed Microsoft to create a lower-spec machine that still boasts next-gen features.
If you own an Xbox One X, the drop to 1440p from native 4K can be noticeable. The Xbox One X could deliver games like Forza Motorsport 7 at 4K/60fps and is still capable of some sumptuous visuals. It's easy, then, to think that the Xbox Series S is a step back – however, it's capable of a lot more than Microsoft's aging Xbox One X, even if it doesn't always beat it in terms of resolution.
Looking at the system internals, the Xbox Series S separates itself from the One X with its vastly more powerful CPU and more technically capable GPU, courtesy of AMD's RDNA 2 architecture which enables cutting-edge features like ray tracing. Yes, the Series S has fewer teraflops than the Xbox One X (four compared to six), but teraflops are no longer the defining factor in how GPU power is determined.
For Xbox One owners looking to upgrade without breaking the bank, the Xbox Series S is a great option, if you can accept what it's been designed to achieve. If you've already got the Xbox One X and a 4K display at home, however, we suggest considering the Xbox Series X instead. Read on for our full Xbox Series S review.
Considering the bigger sibling? Check out our Xbox Series X video review below.
Xbox Series S: price and release date
Xbox Series S release date: Out now (released November 10, 2020)
Xbox Series S price: $299.99 / £249.99 / AU$499
Can be bundled with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for $24.99 / £20.99 / AU$33 a month
The Xbox Series S is available now for $299.99 / £249.99 / AU$499 and was released on November 10, 2020. That's the same release date as the Xbox Series X, though the price is significantly cheaper than the Series X's price of $499 / £499 / AU$749. Thankfully, Xbox won't follow PlayStation with price hikes, so while Xbox doesn't rule out future price hikes just yet, this isn't changing anytime soon.
Keep in mind however that, without a disc drive, you won't be able to buy used games or trade games with your friends: you're dependent on the Xbox Store for any purchases, which means you won't always get the best deal.
That issue is negated somewhat if you subscribe to Xbox Game Pass (a separate expense, but exceptional value nonetheless), or if you only buy the occasional game at full price around launch. Still, it's not ideal for those who rely on physical game sales or trade-ins to fund their favorite pastime.
Xbox Series S is also available on Microsoft's Xbox All Access subscription service in select regions, including the US, UK, and Australia. Xbox All Access bundles the console with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate on a 24-month plan (giving you access to the latter for the duration) for $24.99 / £20.99 / AU$33 a month, with no upfront costs – that's a good deal which proves cheaper than buying the console and 24 months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate separately.
Of course, Microsoft isn't the only one with newer hardware out. Sony released the PS5 and PS5 Digital Edition soon after the Xbox Series S and Series X dropped, so if you're still on the fence then it's worth checking out our PS5 review before committing.
(Image credit: Future)
Xbox Series S review: design
Looks great when placed horizontally or vertically
Can comfortably fit into any setup
The console and controller look great in white
While the hardware powering the Xbox Series S is brand-new, the Xbox Series S design is reminiscent of the now-discontinued Xbox One S All-Digital Edition.
The Xbox Series S has a distinctive black fan vent, almost like a speaker grille, on the top that breaks up the swathe of white which encases the rest of the console, and it's where the majority of heat is exhausted. It's the smallest Xbox that Microsoft has ever made, with a plain front face that sports a single USB port and a power button. It's a clean, understated, and functional design.
For ports, you’ll find an HDMI 2.1 output, two USB 3.2 ports, an Ethernet port, a storage expansion slot, and an AC input. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Xbox Series S doesn't have a port for Kinect, Microsoft's now-defunct motion-sensing camera, or a HDMI input for cable boxes. However, that the Xbox Series S only ships with a High-Speed HDMI cable, not an Ultra High-Speed HDMI cable.
With weight and size, the Xbox Series S measures in at 6.5 x 15.1 x 27.5cm and 4.25 pounds (around 2kg). Its size should ensure it easily fits into most entertainment center cabinets and on TV stands, and it's light enough to pack up and bring to a friend's house or take with you on vacation.
As we mentioned above, the Xbox Series S is smaller than the Xbox One S. That's an impressive feat considering that it’s packing a 4 TFLOP GPU and an octa-core Custom Zen 2 CPU that needs to be cooled.
While some might not like the way Microsoft has aped its own design from the last generation, we're okay with it. It's nice to have some continuity, especially in products that are advertised as a family of devices, although it is fairly straightforward and industrial-like in its appearance.
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Xbox Series S review: performance
Upscaled 4K looks great, and native 1440p is a nice compromise
Offers smooth and fluid 120fps gameplay
Xbox Velocity Architecture is fast… but not instantaneous
The Xbox Series S's strong suit is its value proposition – it's a compact powerhouse. It can offer either upscaled 4K gaming, native 1440p resolution, or a 1080p picture.
Its GPU, while not as powerful as the one in the Xbox Series X, can upscale games to 4K (in a similar way to the Xbox One S) and still run games at 120fps at 1440p, but you'll need a HDMI 2.1-compliant TV if you want to keep the resolution at 1440p. It's also capable of ray tracing, and loads games faster than ever, thanks to Microsoft's Xbox Velocity Architecture.
Combine Velocity Architecture with the 10GB of GDDR6 memory and built-in SSD, and you’ve got all the makings of a powerful console. Better still, Microsoft recently gave a performance boost for Xbox Series S games, which frees up hundreds of additional megabytes of memory. Crucially, this should help improve graphics performance.
Xbox Series S specs
CPU: 8-core 3.6GHz (3.4GHz with SMT) custom AMD 7nm GPU: 4 teraflops at 1.565GHz RAM: 10GB GDDR6 Frame rate: Up to 120fps Resolution: 1440p with 4K upscaling Optical: No disk drive Storage: 512GB NVMe SSD Usable storage space: 364GB
But do you actually need a 4K TV? And furthermore, do you need one that supports HDMI 2.1 for its 120Hz refresh rate? Let’s walk through all the scenarios.
If you're using a 1080p TV, the Xbox Series S uses a technique called supersampling to create better-looking images, even on less-capable displays. Supersampling is a complex process, but the basic idea is that the game is rendered at a higher resolution, and then the console downscales the image to match the output of your TV.
The end result is a noticeable boost in image clarity and anti-aliasing (the removal of jaggies and pixelated edges) and means that gamers who aren't using a 4K or 1440p -capable screen will still benefit from improved image quality from the Xbox Series S.
Most folks though, we expect, will be pairing the Xbox Series S with a 4K HDR TV – potentially one with a 120Hz native refresh rate, although the majority of displays sold over the last few years are likely to only support 60Hz at 4K and 1440p. If you do have a capable display, here's how to enable 120Hz on Xbox Series S.
Hook the Xbox Series S up to a 4K panel, and the console uses a technique called upscaling to convert a non-native 4K signal to 4K. While there's a stark difference between rendering in 4K, and rendering in 1440p and then upscaling to 4K – especially if you've got a keen eye for detail – it still makes games on the Xbox Series S look better than if the console was locked to a 1440p output.
It's worth noting that the Xbox Series S can render some games in native 4K if a developer chooses to enable that option. Just be aware it's done on a game-by-game basis, and isn't something you’re going to see on every game on the system.
The upshot here is that the console can utilize HDR (high dynamic range), which enables a wider color palette, higher peak brightness, and better contrast levels. Skies look bluer, the grass looks greener and colors pop in every scene. If you haven't had the opportunity to game in HDR yet, you're in for a treat.
If you are fortunate enough to have a display that's compliant with HDMI 2.1, you can enable 120fps at 1440p without having to drop down to 1080p resolution. To enable 120fps, simply pop into the console's audio and visual settings, where you can choose from various frame rate and resolution options.
It's pretty straightforward, but it's worth noting that not all games can hit 120fps, though Microsoft has amassed a handsome collection of titles since launch including Halo Infinite, Gears 5's multiplayer, and Call of Duty: Vanguard. Check out the full list of Xbox Series S games with 120fps support.
Even if you don't invest in a new TV, you're still going to see the benefits of the new SSD and Microsoft's Xbox Velocity Architecture. The latter is a multi-step solution that combines the Series S's custom NVMe SSD, hardware-accelerated decompression blocks, a brand-new DirectStorage API layer, and Sampler Feedback Streaming (SFS).
That's a lot to parse, but the gist of it is that data is stored in a more efficient way, and can be loaded into memory faster thanks to both the physical storage medium and the software algorithms that Microsoft has implemented to load the data.
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The result is significantly faster load times compared to Xbox One X – we're talking about games that now load in a matter of seconds. The SSD also enables features like Quick Resume, which we’ll get to shortly. Of course, the one area that's less impressive here is the meager 512GB of storage capacity, which most people will fill up fast.
While 500GB was sufficient early on during the last console generation, game file sizes have expanded exponentially in the years since, making anything less than 1TB of storage seem like a raw deal. It gets worse when you realise that you can't access the full 512GB of storage. The system OS takes up 148GB of space, meaning you've only got 364GB of usable storage to play with from the outset.
By the time you've installed four or five games, you'll need to start thinking about what to uninstall, which is never a fun experience. While Microsoft claims that games on Xbox Series S will be up to 30% smaller due to not having 4K texture files, this won’t stop the system's internal drive from rapidly filling up.
The good news is that Microsoft has released an add-on storage solution at launch, in partnership with Seagate, that can add 2TB, 1TB or 500GB of extra storage if you run out of room. The bad news? The 1TB Seagate Storage Expansion Card costs $219.99 / £219.99 / AU$359 – money that could be spent on buying an Xbox Series X instead, which has 1TB built-in storage and better 4K support.
Xbox Series S review: controller
More tactile than before thanks to careful refinement
Triggers are shorter, controller is easier to grip thanks to new textured finish
Share button is a welcome addition, and the 360-degree D-pad feels great
Still uses AA batteries, unfortunately
Coming from the Xbox One Controller, you'd be forgiven for thinking that the Xbox Wireless Controller for Series X/S isn't that different. However, it's now more comfortable and easier to use than ever before, due to subtle changes in the controller's ergonomics.
Its overall dimensions have been tweaked ever so slightly, reducing the size of the controller as a whole, but not to the point where it's noticeable to the average user. It means more hand sizes can use the new Xbox pad comfortably. Other changes include a textured and matte finish on the handles, triggers, and bumpers, that help you get more purchase on the controller during tense gaming sessions.
Probably the biggest change for the controller itself, though, is the new D-pad, which has been revised to be a full 360-degree pad that feels great on the thumb. Each direction clicks with a satisfying sound and tactile feedback (though some might find it noisier than they'd like). Its smooth finish makes pulling off half-circle sweeps in fighting games a real pleasure.
Another minor change is that the triggers have been shortened to make them more accommodating for smaller hands. These triggers still have haptic feedback in the form of rumble motors, but it's not the same as the adaptive triggers in the PS5 DualSense controller, which can change resistance on the fly.
The new Share button does exactly what you'd expect – it captures and shares moments in your game for posting in your Xbox Feed or on social media. One click takes a snapshot, while holding the button down longer captures a 15-second video (you can adjust the duration in the Capture settings).
It's much easier than on the Xbox One, where you had to press the home button twice and then X or Y, but it takes some getting used to if you’re accustomed to the old way.
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Overall though, it's mostly what you remember, with two asymmetrical analog sticks, the menu and view buttons that fill in for start and select, and the four face buttons (A, B, X, Y).
The Xbox Series S controller keeps its 3.5mm audio jack and expansion port at the bottom, but it now uses a USB Type-C charging port instead of microUSB. You'll also find the pairing button at the top, which you use to sync the controller to the console, or for pairing when using Bluetooth.
The new Xbox pad is still a comfortable controller to play with, but its biggest weakness is the fact that it still uses AA batteries. That's instead of a rechargeable lithium-ion cell like the Xbox Elite Wireless Controller or Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2 houses. We found a pair of AA batteries lasted for around 10 days or so of heavy gaming.
If you're appalled by the idea of a controller using AA batteries in 2020, you can also pick up Microsoft's play-and-charge kit, which comprises a rechargeable battery and USB-C cable, for $24.99 (£20.99 / AU$29.95 ) to save you money in the long term (you can also use rechargeable AAs).
While the kit is obviously an extra expense that may irk some, there's an element of flexibility at least – and you're also not at the mercy of a lithium-ion cell battery, which can degrade over time, and which is more costly to replace should anything go awry.
Our advice? Pick up rechargeable batteries, or Microsoft's play-and-charge kit, if you plan on doing more than 40 hours of gaming a week.
Xbox Series S review: features
User interface feels a bit overcrowded and, in some places, slow
Quick Resume feels really cutting-edge
Smart Delivery ensures you get the best possible version of a game
Good selection of streaming apps, plus Dolby Vision and Atmos support
If it's been a few years since you bought an Xbox console, and you're worried that the process of setting it up might be confusing, don't be. Setting up the Xbox Series S proved to be a streamlined process, thanks in no small part to the new-and-improved Xbox app for Android and iOS. We've even seen Discord become available for all Xbox Series S players.
You’ll need to download the Xbox app from the App Store for iOS or Google Play Store on Android devices, and log in to your Microsoft account. Once you're in, power on the console and type in the code you see in the app, which appears on your TV screen – this pulls in all your data without you having to type it all in. You'll still need to enter a few details via the console, like Wi-Fi password, but then you're off to the races after waiting for an update to land.
The UI that greets you when you’ve finished setting up the Xbox Series S will be instantly familiar to anyone who's used an Xbox One in the last three months. The 'new' Xbox Dashboard rolled out in August 2020, and is the same across both Xbox Series X and S and the older hardware. It isn’t the most intuitive of interfaces, though.
There's a lot of information on display at once, and it's fair to say there's a small learning curve when it comes to figuring out how to navigate the UI effectively. The downside to the new consoles having the same user interface as the One series is that the Xbox Series S doesn't feel any different right away. It doesn't feel that new, even if navigating the dashboard feels snappier than before thanks to the extra power underneath the hood.
Moreover, the new UI still presents some of the same problems we've noticed in the past with Xbox One's interface: some images on the screen take a few seconds to load as content is pulled from the internet, and it's generally a bit too busy for most tastes, with far more information on the screen than you actually need at one time. Look past the UI, however, and you'll begin to see some areas where the Xbox Series S really innovates, though they're admittedly more subtle.
We can expect further changes to come for the UI, too. If you're an Xbox Insider, Microsoft recently rolled new Xbox Series X homepage layouts but fans aren't happy. While this introduces some quality of life changes, some players weren't so keen on the "tile clutter" this introduced, while others aren't fond of ads still taking up homepage space. As a feature currently in beta testing, this could change, so we'll keep this updated as we learn more.
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Smart Delivery from the Xbox Store means you'll always get the best possible version of a game when you download it, or if it's upgraded in the future. Your save data also carries over seamlessly, even if you jump back and forth between your old Xbox One / One X / One S and new Xbox Series S. It's simultaneously backward and forward compatibility, which is reassuring.
Jumping between multiple games is now possible thanks to Quick Resume, a new feature that allows the Xbox Series S to hold multiple game states in the memory at one time, so you can jump back and forth between games without having to reload them.
The number of games that can be suspended varies – we had as many as eight in rotation at one point – and it won't work with every title, especially those with ever-changing online worlds, like Sea of Thieves. It's a handy, time-saving feature that's only possible thanks to the console's SSD, and game states are preserved even if the console is completely powered down.
Lastly, we have to talk about the console's multimedia capabilities. As a streaming device, the Xbox Series S carries most major services. That goes between Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney Plus, and others that are available on existing Xbox One consoles, plus some that are new to the platform, including Apple TV Plus. There's also region-specific apps such as Hulu in the US, and Sky Go in the UK.
Accessing these requires navigating to the Apps section of your library. Or, if you frequently use particular apps you can pin them to the home screen or create a specific group that can be accessed from the Xbox guide. We noticed that, like games, apps stayed in a suspended state when we flicked between them.
It's important to note that while the Xbox Series S only outputs at 1440p resolution when you're gaming, the console is capable of displaying streaming apps in 4K HDR. That means the likes of Netflix, Disney Plus and Apple TV Plus will output in 4K if you're using a compatible display.
As on the Xbox One X, some of these services are available in Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, giving you access to advanced HDR and 3D surround sound respectively, but you may have to pay for a higher subscription tier in order to access those formats.
Xbox Series S review: game library
Scarce launch lineup with few exclusives
Backwards compatibility with three generations of Xbox consoles
Xbox Game Pass is a great way to instantly build up your library
We won't mince words here: the Xbox Series S's game library got off to a bad start. With the delay of Halo Infinite, there weren't any first-party exclusives available at launch on the Xbox Series S, other than titles that have previously been available on Xbox.
More third-party and first-party exclusives have since arrived like The Medium and Microsoft Flight Simulator, but Microsoft's first-party output is slowly catching up. Halo Infinite, Forza Horizon 5, Psychonauts 2, Grounded, and As Dusk Falls are all now available.
Instead of releasing new experiences on day one, Microsoft mainly opted to improve the existing library of games via Xbox Series S optimizations. Games like Gears 5, Forza Horizon 4, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, and Sea of Thieves have all been optimized to either increase their base resolution or frame rates or to offer greater visual fidelity.
If you want to quickly see which games have been optimized for the Xbox Series S, head to 'My Games & App' > 'Games' > and then select 'Group by console type'. You can then see all the games optimized for Xbox Series X/S at a glance.
If you're someone who loves having access to the entire library of Xbox games past and present, the Xbox Series S will be appealing because it supports four generations of Xbox titles, stretching all the way back to the original Xbox. Being able to jump back and forth between Xbox 360 classics like Viva Piñata and Red Dead Redemption to more modern-day blockbusters is comforting.
It's nice not having to break out the old hardware or track down an old CRT TV but the caveat here is big. Because the Xbox Series S doesn't have a disc drive, you'll need digital versions of those older games in order to play them – and for that reason alone, Xbox Game Pass is great.
On it, you'll find over 100 games available to download on the Xbox Series S, with a mix of new first-party titles like Halo: The Master Chief Collection, Gears 5, and Forza 7, and some indie gems from the Xbox 360 era. If you're someone who loves the Xbox Games with Gold program but wished you had a few more options to download, Game Pass is really satisfying.
While Game Pass can't make up for that lack of exclusives, it does enable you to pad out your library and gives you a chance to see some of the best previous-gen games in a new light. You also get access to all of Microsoft's first-party games the day they release, which represents a huge long-term saving in itself.
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers can also stream games via Xbox Cloud Gaming. It means that rather than take up storage space, you can play games instantly without having to wait. This is a great option if you simply want to try something out, but we still prefer gaming natively as opposed to via the cloud due to increased input latency and some image issues that can occur.
If you're hoping to get Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for an even cheaper price, we've got good news. While this is currently being trialled in just the Republic of Ireland and Colombia, Microsoft is looking to launch an Xbox Game Pass family plan, allowing you and four players to jump in for a monthly cost of €21.99 – which comes to around $21.99 / £19.99 / AU$32.99
• Original review date: December 2022
• Launch price: $650 (around £530 / AU$955)
• The Acer Chromebook 516 GE is still available, and a new model hasn't been announced as of September 2024
Update – September 2024: The Acer Chromebook 516 GE, one of the first gaming-oriented Chromebooks to hit the market, is still available. Its successor hasn't been announced, though it's unlikely any time soon since the specs for this device are still about as good as you can hope for in a Chromebook at this price.
Since the real focus of this device is to empower cloud gaming services through Nvidia GeForce Now, this Chromebook is as good today as it was when we reviewed it in December 2022.
Original review follows.
Acer Chromebook 516 GE: Two minute review
The Acer Chromebook 516 GE claims to be the world’s first gaming Chromebook, which is a title that is both technically true and utterly meaningless. With game streaming services like Nvidia GeForce NOW, any Chromebook with a solid internet connection can be a gaming machine, and that’s precisely how the 516 GE functions as of now, since the ChromeOS Alpha that would allow for Steam compatibility isn’t out yet.
That being said, this is a great Chromebook. Its performance is excellent, efficient and speedy in a way that belies its specs, and when you have a high-speed internet connection it streams games without a single hitch. Its airflow is great as well, as even playing demanding titles like Cyberpunk 2077 or Dying Light 2 for extended periods of time only makes the machine run slightly warm. And its superior performance extends to productivity, as it easily handles conference calls, web browsing, video streaming, spreadsheets, and more with no hiccups or slowdown.
The benchmarks back up these claims, as the scores for each test are much higher than most other Chromebooks. And supporting such great performance is the HD 2560 x 1600 display, and 120Hz refresh rate. However, there is one aspect that underwhelms: the sound quality. To put it bluntly, it’s really bad. At normal volume levels it’s just fine but as you raise the volume the sound quality becomes more congested. This is also a noticeable issue when gaming, which means you’ll have to invest in some gaming headsets to offset this.
The port selection is quite good for a Chromebook with two Type- C USB ports, one USB Type-A USB port, one Ethernet port, one combo jack, and one HDMI 2.0 port. You have something for all your needs, much like a dedicated Windows gaming laptop. It also has an excellent battery life, lasting seven hours on average during both normal and gaming use. Most other gaming machines can’t even come close to those numbers, which makes the 516 GE worth investing in alone.
Its pricing, $650 (around £530 / AU$955), is a little steep for a Chromebook and the availability is not too great either, being nearly impossible to find outside the US. Within the US, there’s only a single model that has 8GB of RAM and 512GB of storage space, as well as a Core i5-1240P CPU and Iris Xe Graphics GPU. It would be nice to see improved availability and options in the future, to better suit a wider variety of needs.
Acer Chromebook 516 GE: Price and availability
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How much does it cost? The single available model is $650 (around £530 / AU$955)
When is it out? It's out now
Where can you get it? In the US only
Acer Chromebook 516 GE Key Specs
Here is the Acer Chromebook 516 GE configuration sent to TechRadar for review:
CPU: Intel Core i5-1240P Graphics: Intel Iris Xe Graphics RAM: 8GB Screen: 16" WQXGA (2560 x 1600) 16:10 120 Hz Storage: 512GB Optical drive: None Ports: 2 x Type- C, 1 x USB Type-A, 1 x Ethernet, 1 x combo jack, 1 x HDMI 2.0 Connectivity: Wireless Wi-Fi 6E AX211, Bluetooth 5.2 Camera: 720p Weight: 3.75 lbs Size: 14 x 9.8 x 0.84 inches (W x D x H)
The price is more than right for the Acer Chromebook 516 GE that’s currently selling for $650 (around £530 / AU$955), an absolute steal for a gaming laptop. Of course, it has much more limited utility than the best gaming laptops running Windows, as it currently doesn’t have Steam available for download and can only game through Nvidia GeForce NOW, but gaming through the streaming service offers performance just as solid as through normal means.
Unfortunately, the availability of this Chromebook is already pitiful in the US, with just a single model available for purchase. And if you want this laptop in other regions like the UK or Australia, then you’re completely out of luck. In the US though, you may be able to save via the Acer promo codes currently available so remember to look.
Value: 3.5 / 5
Acer Chromebook 516 GE: Design
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Lightweight with a solid chassis
Great keyboard but no numlock
Bad sound quality
The first thing you’ll notice about the Acer Chromebook 516 GE is that it’s huge for a Chromebook, which makes sense since it’s built for gaming. It’s not exactly sleek looking either, with a plain black chassis that’s more round than slender. But it’s still pretty lightweight despite it all.
Though the chassis is light, it doesn’t feel nearly as flimsy as many Chromebooks tend to, though it doesn’t have the same hardy weight and build as your average Windows gaming laptop. It works to the 516 CE’s advantage, making it far more portable and easier to carry around than said laptops.
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The keyboard functions well, with nice-sized keys that avoid excessive typos and a solid, responsive touchpad. It also comes with RGB backlighting, which makes it well-suited for late-night gaming sessions as well. We wish it had a numlock pad, which would have been super convenient for both gaming and any productivity work you might want to do. Instead, there are two speakers built-in on the sides, similar to the Alienware x15 R2, which should mean better sound quality, right?
Except that the sound quality is pretty bad. Even just listening to regular music on YouTube produces a very tinny, muddy sound quality with too much congestion, let alone how poor it sounds when gaming. You’ll definitely need to pick up one of the best PC gaming headsets for this laptop for your more serious gaming sessions and streams.
The port selection is pretty solid as well with one HDMI port, an Ethernet LAN port, two USB 3.2 Type-C ports, and a USB 3.2 Type-A port. Though I wish we had another Type-A port, there’s plenty going with a wide variety of ports for many different tasks and uses.
Design: 4 / 5
Acer Chromebook 516 GE: Performance
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Excellent performance
Can't run Steam on its own
The display is surprisingly great for a Chromebook, sporting a QHD panel with a 16:10 aspect ratio, 100 sRGB color reproduction, solid maximum brightness, and a 120Hz refresh rate. All this means is that games will look and run well onscreen, which is vital for more hardcore gaming sessions featuring fast-paced high-end PC titles.
Running a streaming service like Nvidia GeForce NOW, the Acer Chromebook 516 GE performs quite well. We tried it out using titles like Dying Light 2 and Dirt 5, which often have tons of objects or enemies on screen and would serve as a solid stress test for the Chromebook.
Even using the basic streaming plan that offers a strict time limit and no frills like a more powerful graphics card, we rarely experienced any framerate drops and the graphics were quite good. The RTX 3080 tier, which is the highest possible tier for the GeForce NOW service, is where the 516 GE shines. The graphics and framerate are incredible, to the point that you forget you're even playing on a Chromebook in the first place. Of course, this all depends on the strength of your internet connection, so it's also best to invest in a high-speed connection.
We used the Kraken Javascript, Jetstream2, and Speedometer benchmarks to test the Acer Chromebook 516 GE. The first one tests general performance speed using real-world applications and libraries, the second tests the performance of browsers, and the third one measures the speed and responsiveness of a browser.
Benchmarks
Here's how the Acer Chromebook 516 GE performed in our suite of benchmark tests:
Compared to other similar Chromebooks, the 516 GE Kraken Javascript benchmark is much faster than most other Chromebooks on the market, some by over a thousand milliseconds or more. The same goes for its Jetstream 2 benchmark scores, which are much higher than most other Chromebooks. Finally, the 629 score for Speedometer is incredibly high, over double the 300 score that’s already considered solid by testing standards. This Chromebook is a performance beast and is tailor-made to support any game streaming.
An important caveat to note, however, is that this Chromebook currently can’t run Steam on its own. According to Acer, this model is set to soon have the ChromeOS Alpha available, allowing the storefront to run properly. But even when that first launches, it’s still an alpha build which means bugs, instability, performance issues, and more will be waiting for you until the final version is hashed out. So don’t go buying this Chromebook unless you’re prepared to only invest in the Nvidia GeForce NOW or Amazon Luna streaming service subscriptions.
Performance: 5 / 5
Acer Chromebook 516 GE: Battery life
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Amazing battery life for a gaming machine
Charges fast thanks to the Type-C charger
Unlike most gaming laptops, the Acer Chromebook 516 GE has a great battery life, which is one of the defining features of the best Chromebooks, generally. In our movie test, which involved looping a dynamic, 1080p video until the battery gives out, The 516 CE lasted on average above seven hours, and for around the same amount of time for everyday use.
When gaming, the battery lasts just a little less than that, which is phenomenal for any gaming machine. If you’re in need of a quick gaming session and can’t get to an outlet, the 516 GE has your back. And it charges quickly thanks to the USB Type-C charger, so even a limited window of time (about an hour) will net you nearly a full charge.
We pride ourselves on our independence and our rigorous review-testing process, offering up long-term attention to the products we review and making sure our reviews are updated and maintained - regardless of when a device was released, if you can still buy it, it's on our radar.
• Original review date: April 2023
• Launch price: Starts at $1,299 / £1,299 / AU$2,599
• Target price now (updated model): $999.99 /£1,049.99 / AU$1,899.99
Update – August 2024: The Surface Pro 9 5G was a venerable device, but it now lies defeated; completely superseded by the new Microsoft Surface Pro 11, which is a superior device in virtually every way thanks to the powerful new Snapdragon X Elite chip powering it.
It's not exactly hard to find the Surface Pro 9 5G model these days, but pricing is completely all over the shop - and frankly, there's zero reason to recommend it now that the Pro 11 is here, and cheaper for the base configuration to boot as you can see from the above pricing.
The Pro 9 5G failed to make the list of our best ultrabooks due to compatibility issues with Windows on Arm (since it used a Microsoft SQ chip rather than a conventional x86 or x64 processor), but with the advancements made in the WoA space thanks to Qualcomm's new Snapdragon chips, that's no longer such a concern - and the new model absolutely rules.
Original review follows.
Microsoft Surface Pro 9 5G: Two-minute review
You don't review a laptop such as the Microsoft Surface Pro 9 5G (or indeed any product) in a vacuum. You have to look at it from the perspective of what came before, what else is available in the market, your experience with the product, and, in our case, our long-time association with Surface gadgets.
This reviewer has been using Surface devices since Microsoft introduced them a decade ago. It's been a journey of mostly (but not always) incremental changes, many of which ensured that legacy users wouldn't be left behind. Even when Microsoft unveiled the mold-breaking Surface Pro X, it kept the OG Surface design chugging along with the Surface Pro 7.
That changed with last year's Surface Pro 8, which adopted the Pro X look for the Intel platform and was Microsoft's first USB-3-free Surface Pro device.
Microsoft's Surface Pro 9 5G takes the strategy a step further by applying the Pro brand to an ARM-based system while retiring the Pro X line. It also makes a further break with the past by dropping the 3.5mm headphone jack (a moment of silence, please).
In general, this is a winning formula. Microsoft has all but perfected the Surface Pro X design for a wider Pro-grade audience. It's a thin and sturdy Windows tablet with an expansive screen that provides all the space and visual performance you need for productivity, creativity, and consumption (it's a nice Netflix screen).
As a 5G system, the Surface Pro 9 5G stands ready to keep you connected at home and on the go without the need for a Wi-Fi connection.
The ARM system brings some neural engine-based tricks you won't get with the Intel model, such as eye tracking, gaze correction, noise suppression, and better background blurs that can blur multiple people at once. It's all mostly trouble-free, but there were hiccups, including a complete collapse of our Adobe Creative Cloud Photoshop and too many Microsoft Edge crashes.
You will pay dearly for Microsoft's most road-ready Surface Pro. The Microsoft Surface Pro 9 5G starts at $1,299.99 and that's without the Surface Pro Signature Keyboard and Slim Pen 2, which we consider critical additions to the Surface Pro 5G package and that will add another $279.99 to the package.
Ultimately, there is a lot to love about the Microsoft Surface Pro 9 5G but inconsistent operation and an eye-popping price might keep it off of our Best Laptops list.
Microsoft Surface Pro 9 5G: Price and availability
$1,899 Microsoft SQ3 5G Platinum, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD
When is it out? It is available now
Where can you get it? Surface Pro 9 went on sale on October 25th in the US, Canada, and China, with additional markets to follow in the coming weeks. Check Microsoft.com for updates on local availability.
Microsoft Surface Pro 9 5G specs
Here is the Microsoft Surface Pro 9 5G configuration sent to TechRadar for review:
CPU: Microsoft SQ3 3.00 GHz Graphics: Adreno™ 8CX Gen 3 RAM: 16GB DDR4 RAM Screen: 13″ 2880 x 1920 PixelSense Flow Display Storage: 256 GB Ports: 2 x USB-C® with USB 4.0/ Thunderbolt™ 4, Surface Connector Port; Surface Type cover port Connectivity: WiFi 6E, Bluetooth v5.1 Camera: Front-facing 5MP Camera with 1080P full HD video, 10MP read camera with up to 4K video support OS: Windows 11 Home Weight: 883 g (1.95 lbs) Size: 209 x 287 x 9.3mm (W x D x H) Battery: 47.7Whrs with 65W AC Adaptor
Microsoft's Surface line has never been what you might call an affordable option. That probably didn't matter much as Microsoft was leading the PC industry out of the wilderness to new design and market opportunities. Things are a bit different now, with many of the biggest names in PCs producing beautiful convertibles that either reflect or outdo what Microsoft has to offer. Plus, there's the cost-of-living crisis to consider. Who will be willing to splurge nearly $1,500 for a laptop?
The base Surface Pro 9 starts at $999 / £1,099 / AU$1,649 (without the Surface Pro Signature Keyboard and Slim Pen 2 - another $279). The Surface Pro 9 5G, which adds mobile connectivity and some cool neural-powered capabilities, starts at $1,299.99 / £1,299. In Australia, the Surface Pro 9 5G starts with more RAM (16GB, AU$2,599).
That's quite a premium for what may not be that much more utility. It really depends on how deeply you cherish constant connectivity and some AI capabilities. Plus, that has to be balanced with a subsystem that may or may not fully support your business-class software.
Value: 3.5 / 5
Microsoft Surface Pro 9 5G: Design
(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)
Lightweight aluminum casing
Smarter placement of buttons
Two high-speed USB-C ports
No 3.5mm headphone jack
For those who spent the better part of a decade using various Surface Pro devices, the Surface Pro 9 5G (and Surface Pro 8 before it) is a mix of mostly good news and a little bad.
The good news is that the 13-inch screen is significantly larger than that of, say, the Surface Pro 7, which measured 12.3 inches. However, the redesign of the Surface Pro series has resulted in a larger and slightly heavier device.
Its 287mm x 209mmx 9.3mm aluminum (formerly magnesium) body is wider and thicker than the Surface Pro 7 (292mm x 201mm x 8.5mm). And, at 878g, it's 13 grams heavier.
None of this is particularly noticeable and we'd suggest the minor bulk increase is well worth it, considering the more expansive screen.
It's a similar design to the last model, with a kickstand that can smoothly rotate until it's almost flat against the upper half of the convertible. That smooth motion makes it easy to find a perfectly "lappable" position.
The differences between the Surface Pro 9 and Pro 9 5G chassis that we're testing are minimal, but worth nothing. Whereas the Intel model has actual vent holes in the uniform ventilation channel running around the body, the fanless SQ3 model only has the channel. While there was no indication of our system overheating, the back of the Surface Pro 9 5G did get noticeably warm to the touch during normal operation.
Microsoft Surface Pro 9 5G USB-C ports (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)
Microsoft has shuffled the buttons and ports a bit since the Surface Pro 8. There's no more 3.5mm headphone jack, which may bother some who invested in either affordable earbuds or more expensive over-the-ear headphones that still use the port.
The system's two USB ports have shifted from the same side as the Surface Connector power port to the opposite side of the unit, where they have the space to themselves. Microsoft smartly repositioned the power sleep button from the side back to the top of the Surface Pro 9 5G (a space it occupied on all previous Pros up to the Surface Pro 8) and next to the volume rocker button.
The other difference between the Surface Pro 9 and its 5G counterpart is the antenna cutouts, which are at roughly 1.5-inch intervals to enable mmWave 5G.
Microsoft Surface Pro 9 5G buttons (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)
Even though the Microsoft Surface Pro 9 5G doesn't ship with the Surface Pro Signature Keyboard Cover and Slim Pen 2, we're reviewing them as a package. As such, we'll talk about the combined design of the tablet, keyboard, and pen here. As we noted above, the keyboard and pen combo list for $279 / approximately £294.28 / AU$386.95.
For us, the Signature Keyboard Cover is an indispensable companion for the Surface Pro 9 5G package.
Microsoft Surface Pro 9 5G Signature Type Cover and Slim Pen 2 (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)
At 10.75 inches wide, the keyboard is essentially full-sized and offers comfortable spacing between the keys plus 1.5mm of travel on a per-key basis for a satisfying type feel. The Alcantara cover makes for a comfortable palm rest and below the keys is a thumb-reachable and expansive 4-inch wide touchpad.
Microsoft re-engineered the type cover attachment system with the Surface Pro X to create a craftily hidden cubby for the Slim Pen 2. Instead of the pen using strong magnets to hug one side of the Surface Pro, this Pen has its own magnetized recharging bed that's hidden away when a half-inch of the type cover hugs the bottom of the Surface Pro 9 5G screen. The two components marry along the bottom edge of the Surface Pro 9 5G, which features a Surface Type Cover port.
To reveal the pen, we just pull the keyboard away from the screen and pluck out the Pen. It's always fully charged and ready to use with a pen-friendly display.
Overall, this is a more elegant and secure way to manage the pen.
Design: 4.5 / 5
Microsoft Surface Pro 9 5G: Cameras and Audio
Great camera for video conferencing
Unlock with your face
Good-enough rear camera
Great mics
Good audio
Microsoft Surface Pro 9 5G camera (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)
One thing Surface Pro devices have long excelled at is video conferencing, not least because they had 1080p-capable front-facing cameras long before the competition. This author often got complimented on the quality of his video feed on Surface Pro 6 and Surface Pro 7. The Surface Pro 9 5G is no exception.
The front-facing camera is still 1080p and does an even better job of making you a video call champ. On this SQ3-based model, the AI, if you enable Windows Studio Effects, keeps you in the frame by shooting wide then moving the frame around to keep you in the picture. It also makes your eyes appear as if they are still focused on the camera even when they're not, and offers better bokeh effects that can keep multiple people in the frame unblurred.
What's more, it's also supported by dual far-field microphones, which means no one will have any trouble hearing you, while the SQ3's neural engine brings special background noise-canceling capabilities.
Next to that camera is the Windows Hello camera, which we recommend setting up. It lets you unlock your computer with your face and is highly secure (it can't be fooled with a picture).
The rear of the device offers the same 10MP shooter as the last model. It creates decent if unexceptional images. It can also shoot 4K video, though we wonder how often people are shooting hand-held video with their Surface laptops.
There are also a pair of 2W Dolby Atmos-supporting stereo speakers that provide robust, clear sound. They're good for meeting audio. If you're not working, the speakers provide an excellent aural companion to any action-packed Netflix video.
Cameras and Audio: 4/5
Microsoft Surface Pro 9 5G: Display and Pen
Increasingly classic LCD screen
Good for touch and pen
13-inch is the just-right size
An excellent, ergonomic pen
Even though Microsoft has yet to upgrade its PixelSense screen technology to OLED or MicroLED, the screen is undeniably one of the better mobile work and design displays in the business.
That's because, despite that lack of core tech change, this screen offers dynamic 120Hz and a high resolution of 2880 x 1920 (267 ppi), among other things. To put that in perspective, the mini-LED-based Liquid Retina XDR display found on the Apple iPad Pro 12.9, which is also capable of 120Hz, has a resolution of 2732 x 2048, and offers a slightly lower 264 ppi.
When it comes to brightness and contrast, the Surface Pro 9 5G doesn't compare favorably to the aforementioned iPad Pro 12.9. It has a max brightness of 450 nits (iPad Pro 12.9 has a max of 1,600 nits) and a contrast ratio of 1200:1 (iPad Pro 12.9 promises 1,000,000:1).
The relative lack of brightness means that the Surface Pro 9 5G might not be the best outdoor work companion, but at home and in the office, you probably won't notice that difference any more than you will the contrast ratio differences. Naturally, some of these specs might give creative professionals pause. Even so, drawing, editing, browsing, and working in production apps never suffered during our testing.
Of course, it also has the benefit of being both a touch- and pen-friendly screen.
Microsoft Surface Slim Pen 2 (Image credit: Future)
We've long become accustomed to occasionally tapping the screen to select something on a Surface device and highly recommend picking up the Slim Pen 2 for both artistic and note-taking pursuits.
Not only does it look as if black ink is flowing out of the tip of the beautifully designed Slim Pen 2 and onto the screen, but the latest Pen offers even more precise haptic feedback to make it feel as if you're scratching a pencil across real paper.
Microsoft worked to move the digitizing panel as close to the surface (get it) as possible. The result is that it looks like digital ink is flowing out of the Slim Pen 2 tip. (Image credit: Future)
Aside from that haptic tweak, the Slim Pen 2 is no different than the one found on the Surface Pro 8, and that's fine with us. We like the drafting pen design, which is lightweight, comfortable to hold, and never slips from your grip.
Unlike an Apple Pencil 2, Microsoft's Slim Pen 2 makes use of both ends of the digital writing implement. There's the business side, which is as useful for drawing in Sketchable as it is for journaling in Journal, and then there's the eraser side, which is both a button and a digital eraser. There's also a button along the pen body that you can use to activate various features in a number of apps. In Sketchable, for instance, it can be used to quickly access the eye-dropper color picker.
Drawing on Microsoft Surface Pro 9 5G is fun. Here, we're using Sketchable (Image credit: Future/ Lance Ulanoff)
Display and Pen: 4/5
Microsoft Surface Pro 9 5G: Windows 11
Microsoft Surface Pro 9 5G running Windows 11 (Image credit: Future)
The news on Windows 11 running on the ARM-based SQ3 is mostly but not all good.
Microsoft's Surface Pro 9 5G is an excellent home for Windows 11, which is unsurprising considering that Microsoft designs both the platform and these computers. In general, it's a stable environment for the 37-year-old OS. However, there are some persistent reminders that Windows is not running on an Intel X86 platform.
During normal use, we encountered a number of bugs. Some were small (weird screen glitches) and others hampered our productivity. Microsoft's own Edge browser had a habit of crashing and wouldn't run smoothly until we rebooted our system. And, yes, we updated the OS.
More worrisome, though, was an Adobe Creative Cloud bug that is now preventing Adobe Photoshop CC 2023 from running on the Surface Pro 9 5G. When we looked up the bug on Google, we found that this was an issue first seen with the ARM-based Surface Pro X. It's disappointing that this issue has somehow carried over to Microsoft's latest SQ3-based Surface Pro 9.
Obviously, thin and light systems such as the Surface Pro might not be a creator's first choice and you may never personally run Adobe Photoshop on a Surface Pro 9 5G. However, we've been doing just that on Surface Pro devices for years, and think it's fair to expect that any system with the "Pro" name should be able to do so.
These are not deal breakers, as we were eventually able to stabilize Edge (it may have been a mid-review Edge update that did it) and there are other image editing options including Window's own Photos. Still, it's a reminder that this isn't your grandparents' Windows system with that trusty, always-compatible X86 underneath. Then again, ARM compatibility is a thousand times better than it was when Microsoft tried this with one of the earliest Surface systems and Windows RT.
Amazon App Store on Surface Pro 9 5G (Image credit: Future)
One benefit of having an ARM-based CPU is that you can easily run mobile apps on the desktop platform - you just have to choose from the Amazon App store's somewhat narrow list.
Microsoft has not given anyone a clear explanation for why we still can't get Google Play on its SQ3-based Surface. We have nothing against Amazon's App store, the same one you'll find on all its Fire Tablet devices, but it is not the full Android store.
To access these Android Apps, you have to run the awkwardly-named Windows Subsystem for Android. Fortunately, that only needs one activation and, after that, you go direct to Amazon App Store for the Android apps.
Amazon App Store on Microsoft Surface Pro 5G: Playing Angry Birds 2 (Image credit: Future)
The App store takes almost a full minute to launch and the list of apps is mostly of the Candy Crush variety, However, we did find a few that we liked, including Among Us, Hill Climb Racing 2, and Angry Birds 2.
Game performance ranges from just OK to good. We saw some stuttering and had a few issues with audio (as in, no audio at all).
We did eventually get our games running smoothly and especially enjoyed tearing around and completing tasks in Among Us.
For now, the ability to run Android apps on a Windows platform remains little more than a curiosity, but that is set to change as Google Play Games is finally coming to Windows 11. It was not ready in time for this review, though.
Windows 11: 3.5 / 5
Microsoft Surface Pro 9 5G: Performance and Battery
Microsoft Surface Pro 9 5G power port (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)
3DMark Time Spy: 913; Fire Strike: 2,940; Night Raid: 13,013 GeekBench 5.4: 1,125 (single-core); 5,849 (multi-core) Handbrake (ARM native): 12:58 Handbrake (ARM emulated): 8:40 Battery Life: 10 hours and 41 minutes
Despite the lack of full support for some of the PC world's most powerful apps, this is generally a well-performing system that never makes you feel like you're carrying a phone in PC's clothing.
We had multiple apps and many browser tabs open while driving a second HD screen and never saw a performance issue.
Benchmark numbers, especially on Geekbench, fall nearly in line with Apple's best mobile silicon, the A16 Bionic. As expected, the ARM-based system was bested across virtually all benchmarks save battery – where the Surface pro 9 5G got almost an hour more Wi-Fi-based web surfing. Microsoft promises 19 hours. Anecdotally, we got almost 16 hours of battery life with mixed-use. As always, your battery mileage will vary depending on core use.
As the 5G in the name denotes, the Microsoft Surface Pro 9 5G is always ready to connect. We didn't get a pre-paid plan for it and had no opportunity to test out its 5G capabilities. That said, we used it with a variety of WiFi networks and tethered it to our 5G phones. In all cases, it performed well.
Performance and Battery: 4/ 5
If you put battery life and versatility at the top of your Windows 11 PC wishlist, there are few better-positioned systems than the Microsoft Surface Pro 9 5G.
It's a tablet with phone-like battery life and a touch screen. It's a big-screen laptop with exquisite Slim Pen 2 compatibility. It's a productivity maven when you pay that extra $279 for the Surface Signature Keyboard and Slim Pen 2 combo. It's got at least 10 hours of battery life (and maybe a lot more if you manage it right) and is ready to connect to your nearest 5G network.
Microsoft Surface Pro 9 5G: Report card
Should you buy a Microsoft Surface Pro 9 5G?
Microsoft Surface Pro 9 5G (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)
• Original review date: November 2022
• Launch price: Starting at $999 / £999 / AU$1,699
• Target price: $599 / £499 / AU$899
Update – August 2024: I won't lie, when this laptop was released and reviewed in 2022, it really wasn't good enough to warrant serious consideration for our best laptop list.
Its performance, port selection, and battery life were all significantly underwhelming, and that's even more true when factoring in the recently released Microsoft Surface Laptop 7, which is an absolutely stellar device that starts at the same launch price as the Surface Laptop 5 did.
If you're in the market for a Surface Laptop, I strongly suggest you buy the latest model with Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus or X Elite processor, even at full price. Only really consider the Surface Laptop 5 if it is aggressively discounted on the clearance shelf, otherwise, it just isn't worth it with the Surface Laptop 7 widely available.
Original review follows.
Microsoft Surface Laptop 5: Two minute review
The Microsoft Surface Laptop 5 is a middling laptop... possibly as middle of the road as you can get. While it’s technically functional and isn’t awful, there’s very little actually going for this machine, especially at this price. The market is simply too competitive for a mediocre option such as this to be worth buying.
At first glance, the price isn’t too steep, with the cheapest configuration being $999 / £999 / AU$1,699. But that’s for an Intel Core i5, 8GB RAM, and 256GB SSD, which is pretty bad. For that amount you could nab the far superior MacBook Air M1 (2020) instead, or even the recent M2 MacBook Air. If you want something decent – like an i7, 16GB RAM, and 512GB SSD – be prepared to spend about $1,700 / £1,700 / AU$2,700, which is right at Ultrabook prices. At least it’s readily available in the US, UK, and Australia.
Though it’s refreshing to see several colors available for the laptop, they all end up looking drab and washed out, with the exception of the gorgeous Sandstone. The design itself is also rather dated.
Then there are the performance issues. As it turns out, there are a lot of background processes going on while the Microsoft Surface Laptop 5 is running. This not only slows you down whether browsing the internet or working on a spreadsheet, but also has the added effect of crashing random programs if they take a certain threshold of memory to run. In fact, we experienced it during one of the benchmarks we tried to run, PC Mark 10.
Nor is the battery life the 18 hours that was claimed during the October Surface event. In fact, the final scores show a battery life of half of that, with productivity work running down the laptop after around 10 hours while movie streaming will give you just seven and a half hours. It does charge quickly, but the Surface Connect port seriously needs to go by the wayside to make room for Thunderbolt 4.
On the plus side, though, the keyboard and trackpad are quite lovely to use and the touch screen is also sensitive and responsive. We also welcome the newly added features plus a true revamping of the accessibility options, which are now easy to activate across all your apps.
It’s a shame that so much care was taken to make these accessibility and productivity features work, because they do - and well. But when you slap them on a laptop with so many issues, it’s hard to appreciate them.
Microsoft Surface Laptop 5: Price and availability
(Image credit: Future)
How much does it cost? 13.5-inch starting at $999 / £999 / AU$1,699, 15-inch starting at $1,299 / £1,299 / AU$2,149
When is it out? It's out now
Where can you get it? In the US, UK, and Australia
Microsoft Surface Laptop 5 Key Specs
Here is the Microsoft Surface Laptop 5 configuration sent to TechRadar for review:
CPU: Intel Core i7-1255U Graphics: Intel Iris Xe Graphics RAM: 16GB Screen: 13.5-inch PixelSense Display, 2256 x 1504 Storage: 512GB LPDDR5x Optical drive: None Ports: 1 USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, 1 Thunderbolt 4 port, 1 3.5mm combo audio jack, 1 Surface Connect port Connectivity: Wi-Fi 6: 802.11ax, Bluetooth 5.1 Camera: 720p Weight: 2.8 lb Size: 8.8 x 12.1 x .57 inches (W x D x H)
Though the starting price for a 13.5-inch version of the Microsoft Surface Laptop 5 is $999 / £999 / AU$1,699, the configuration TechRadar received costs $1,699 / £1,699 / AU$2,699. And honestly, it’s difficult to justify that price when you consider how barebones the laptop’s specs are.
Availability is excellent, however, with the laptop readily available not only in the US but in the UK and Australia too - and in almost every configuration you could hope for.
Value: 2 / 5
Microsoft Surface Laptop 5: Design
(Image credit: Future)
Thin and light form factor
Outdated look
Bad port selection
The Surface Laptop 5 is a very thin and light laptop, weighing just 2.8 lbs. for the 13.5-inch model. And for those sticking with that size, there are four colors to choose from: Sandstone, Platinum (which features an Alcantara fabric), Matte Black, and a new Sage color, which is the one we received. The Sage version isn't bad per se, but it's a bit underwhelming due to its muted nature.
The port selection remains pretty weak, with one USB Type-C, one USB Type-A, an audio jack, and a Surface Connect port that should have gone to the wayside ages ago. At least Microsoft kept the Type-A option, but the number of ports should be higher considering how much it costs.
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(Image credit: Future)
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(Image credit: Future)
The bezels on the screen are a little on the thick side, which is why it’s perplexing that the webcam is still 720p. At times, said camera has surprisingly clear picture quality due to auto-correcting capabilities that fix any white balance issues, but in anything other than good lighting the image looks a bit pixelated.
Though the laptop and keyboard function just as they should, there’s an oddly artificial feeling to them; they bring to mind the plasticky older MacBook models from the mid-2000s. Plus, the shape of the laptop itself is outdated, which lends itself to a boring and drab look. Thankfully the touchscreen itself is great, hitting the right blend of sensitivity and responsiveness, though the panel itself looks rather dim as it's not OLED.
Design: 3 / 5
Microsoft Surface Laptop 5: Performance
(Image credit: Future)
Sound quality is top-tier
Great new features that utilize the touchscreen
Terrible performance all around
Performance on the Microsoft Surface Laptop 5 is a mixture of the good, the bad, and the ugly. Let’s deal with the good first - namely the expanded accessibility options and productivity features.
First is the Focus function, which locks out notifications for a certain period of time so you can focus on productivity. Another addition is Snap, which allows you to divide your screen into various areas, then place windows into those sections for easy multitasking.
File explorer is another quality-of-life change in which you can open multiple tabs of computer file folders in the same window. The Start menu itself also houses some quality-of-life changes, including being able to organize apps within folders, as well as scroll through recommended apps.
You can also activate a host of accessibility options within Windows 11. This has the benefit of automatically working across 20,000-plus apps, avoiding the need for you to make changes within individual programs.
Sound quality is also excellent - in fact, this is one of the best non-gaming laptops we've ever heard. Music is clear enough that you can hear every instrument and voice in a single track, yet loud enough to blast said song from the rooftops. It's everything you could ever want from a laptop's sound system.
Finally in terms of positives, the touchscreen is impressively responsive, especially when using a stylus. Too bad said stylus isn't included out of the box but instead is an add-on.
Benchmarks
Here's how the Microsoft Surface Laptop 5 performed in our suite of benchmark tests:
3DMark: Night Raid: 16,871; Fire Strike: 4763; Time Spy: 1793 Cinebench R23 Multi-core: 8499 points GeekBench 5: 1674 (single-core); 8709 (multi-core) Battery Life (Web Surfing): 9 hours and 50 minutes Battery Life (TechRadar movie test): 7 hours and 38 minutes Civilization VI (1080p, Ultra): 42 fps; (1080p, Low): 55 fps
However, both the bad and ugly rear their ugly heads once you delve into the Surface Laptop 5’s performance. While the benchmark testing places it squarely at its market average, actually using the laptop is its own issue.
In the first screenshot below, you can see how many processes are running in the background, which is a staggering 43. That's after we installed all current Windows 11 updates as well as the benchmark programs.
(Image credit: Future)
Here's the second screenshot, which shows how many programs are running in the background, which is an unbelievable 57. And this is just after we fully wiped the PC, without any updates or program installations.
(Image credit: Future)
As you can imagine, this much going on in the background has a profound effect on how well the Microsoft Surface Laptop 5 runs. We could not run PC Mark 10 in the slightest, for instance. No matter how many times we uninstalled, reinstalled, and reset the laptop, it would instantly crash the moment we tried to do anything. And at one point it even crashed Geekbench.
Keep in mind this is a laptop with a Core i7, 16GB RAM, and 512GB SSD of storage. And it's perplexing, because Google Chrome and other browsers ran without crashing, even when displaying tabs full of YouTube videos. However, we did notice some slowdown when running more taxing productivity tasks.
For the price, these performance issues are absolutely unacceptable.
Performance: 3 / 5
Microsoft Surface Laptop 5: Battery life
(Image credit: Future)
Battery life isn't bad but not great
Charges decently fast
Microsoft claims “up to 18 hours” of battery life for the Surface Laptop 5, but in our testing we achieved nothing like that. When web surfing, the laptop lasted for nearly 10 hours, while our movie test netted a battery life of seven hours and 38 minutes. At least it charges decently fast.
Still, the Surface Laptop 5 should last long enough for a full day’s work, unless you plan to stream a movie during your lunch break. This is an acceptable result, albeit a little disappointing considering there’s no OLED screen or HDR draining power.
We pride ourselves on our independence and our rigorous review-testing process, offering up long-term attention to the products we review and making sure our reviews are updated and maintained - regardless of when a device was released, if you can still buy it, it's on our radar.
• Original review date: October, 2022
• Newer models have since released
• Dell XPS 13 (2024) is shaping up to be an excellent laptop
Update: August 2024
Since we reviewed this version of the XPS 13 back in 2022, Dell has released several new models, as well as relaunching its XPS 14 lineup. This means that the 2022 model is no longer easy to buy. Retailers that do stock this older model may be offering it for a steep discount, which makes it a good budget choice, though if you can afford a newer model, such as the Dell XPS 13 Plus (2023), then you'll get a much more future-proof laptop. Our Dell XPS 13 (2024) review is almost finished and - spoiler alert - it looks like it could be one of the best laptops yet.
Dell XPS 13 (2022): two minute review
The Dell XPS 13 (2022) has huge shoes to fill, but while it does what it sets out to do very well, there are going to be those who are going to be sorely disappointed by some of the changes Dell makes to the XPS 13, and some of these are going to be absolute deal breakers.
But the XPS 13 (2022) deserves to be judged on its own merits, rather than solely in comparison to the Dell XPS 13 (Late 2020), this model's immediate predecessor. This is especially the case since that model is arguably the best laptop in its class, even though it is not a couple of model generations behind the latest Dell laptops.
Still, while we'll get around to weighing the XPS 13 (2022) objectively a bit later, it is important to acknowledge that the new Dell XPS 13 comes with a pedigree and that can't be ignored. In this regard, the XPS 13 outperforms the model it's replacing in some key areas, but it falls short in others. How you're going to feel about the new XPS 13 is going to depend entirely on where your concerns fall between the two, whether or not some of these are entirely in Dell's control.
What is in Dell's control is the design of the XPS 13, and this is where most of the controversy is going to be. The Dell XPS 13 (2022) is a gorgeous laptop, through and through, from the thinness of its form to its featherweight portability and beautiful display. These come at a cost though, namely in terms of ports, and the two, solitary USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports are going to mean you'll have to juggle some dongles. Fortunately, Dell includes some of them with the laptop itself.
The biggest change though is the absence of the carbon fiber palm rests, which still remain on the Dell XPS 15 (2022) and Dell XPS 17 (2022), in favor of a more svelte aluminum keyboard deck. There is also the new color option, Umber (a bluish-purple), in addition to Sky, which is the standard silver color for the XPS laptop line.
The carbon fiber palm rests are one of the things about the last XPS 13 that we fell in love with, so we're sorry to see them go, but on its merits, the keyboard is still spectacular to use.
The sound still sucks, but all of the best ultrabooks have terrible audio, thanks to underpowered down-firing speakers. It's the tradeoff you have to make for the form factor, so the XPS 13 was never going to break free of that fate.
Overall, the performance of the XPS 13 (2022) was excellent for everyday use and productivity work, making it one of the best thin and light laptops for professionals who find themselves constantly on the go. Unfortunately, this is also where we run into the XPS 13 (2022)'s major failing: battery life.
While the battery life on the new XPS 13 does last longer than most Intel Alder Lake-powered laptops, it is still a noticeable downgrade from the last XPS 13, which was Intel Evo certified. This, though, isn't in Dell's control as Alder Lake chips just guzzle the juice with wanton abandon and with no consideration for your needs or convenience. You'll be getting close to all-day battery life with the XPS 13 (2022), but it's not the all-day-plus battery life some might be expecting from an XPS 13.
Still, the XPS 13 (2022) absolutely holds its own as an ultrabook, and it does so at a price far below what came before it. Of all the ultrabooks we've tested this year, the XPS 13 (2022) is the closest competition to the new MacBook Air (M2, 2022) on the market right now, which is great for someone looking for an Air-like appeal from a Windows laptop - making it a great choice of laptop for students.
Are some of us shaking our fists at Dell-shaped clouds over the redesign? Of course, but change is inevitable, and with a genuinely appealing design, the Dell XPS 13 (2022) shines just as bright as the rest of the XPS lineup, even if it blazes a different trail all its own.
Dell XPS 13 (2022): Price and availability
(Image credit: Future)
How much does it cost? Starting at $899 / £854 / AU$1,898
When is it out? It is available now
Where can you get it? You can get it in the US, UK, and Australia
Dell XPS 13 (2022) Key Specs
Here is the Dell XPS 13 (2022) configuration sent to TechRadar for review: CPU: Intel Core i5-1230U Graphics: Intel Iris Xe RAM: 16GB LPDDR5 Screen: 13.4 FHD+ (1920 x 1200) InfinityEdge Non-Touch Anti-Glare 500-Nit Display Storage: 512GB PCIe SSD Ports: 2 x Thunderbolt 4
Connectivity: Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2 Camera: 720p at 30fps, no privacy shutter Weight: 2.59 lb | 1.17 kg Size (W x D x H): 11.63 x 7.85 x 0.55 in (295.4 x 199.4 x 13.99 mm) Battery: 51WHr
The Dell XPS 13 (2022) – also called the Dell XPS 13 (9315) by some retailers – is available now in the US, UK, and Australia, starting at $899 / £854 / AU$1,898. The entry level configuration will get you an Intel Core i5-1230U with integrated Iris Xe graphics, 8GB LPDDR5 RAM, and a 500-nit, 13.4-inch, FHD+ (1920 x 1200p) display. In the US, the minimum storage option is 512GB SSD, while the UK and Australia start out with a 256GB SSD.
The best configuration will get you a Core i7-1250U with Iris Xe graphics, 32GB LPDDR5 RAM, 1TB PCIe SSD, and a 500-nit, 13.4-inch, FHD+ (1920 x 1200p) display with anti-reflective coating, and costs $1,549 / £1,754 / AU$3,441.
The configuration we tested was one step removed from entry level, with 16GB RAM rather than 8GB, and it costs $1,049 / £1,004 / AU$2,299.
This XPS 13 model is more oriented towards value rather than performance (which would be the Dell XPS 13 Plus), and so the processors aren't powerful enough really to manage the kind of heavy duty workloads that would necessitate more than 16GB RAM or 512GB storage, and most people will do just fine with the starting configuration so few people will ever need to spend more than $1,000 / £1,000 / AU$2,000 to get one of the best Dell laptops on the market.
This is in stark contrast with the last XPS 13 model from late 2020, which had a starting price of $1,499 / £1,399 / AU$2,399. This is a substantial price cut for a laptop that will give you more or less the same level of performance.
Compared to the rest of the market, the XPS 13 (2022) is positioned squarely in the sweet spot in terms of price and performance. The other obvious comparison to make is with the MacBook Air. Compared to the MacBook Air with M1 from 2020, the Dell XPS 13 is very competitive, matching the MacBook Air on price, though it won't get you nearly as much battery life. The new MacBook Air with M2, however, is more expensive, and while its performance is outstanding, it still doesn't blow the XPS 13 out of the water beyond having better battery life.
All told, the Dell XPS 13 (2022) is one of the best, if not the best, value on the market among the best Windows laptops, and other than a few of the best Chromebooks out there, there is little that can really compete with the XPS 13 (2022) on this front. If you're looking to save on the laptop, you can check out our list of the best Dell coupon codes to see this month's best discounts.
Value: 5 / 5
Dell XPS 13 (2022): Design
(Image credit: Future)
Redesigned for 2022, like it or not
Beautiful display
Serious lack of ports
The Dell XPS 13 (2022) is going to split the entire tech reviewer community in two over its design, with defenders and haters making valid points on each side. But consumers don't buy a new laptop every 18 months, so for everyone else, this is still an absolutely gorgeous laptop, though there are some functional issues that will be a problem for many.
First, the XPS 13 is very lightweight, and its slim dimensions make it an easy laptop to toss in a bag as you head out the door. The exterior is little changed from its predecessor and features the XPS line's brushed aluminum chassis, with the biggest change being the option to get it in a purplish-blue color option, Umber.
Opening it up, however, and the redesigned interior removes the carbon fiber keyboard palm rest and replaces it with a sleek aluminum that let the hands glide over its surface with ease. The keys and trackpad are also well positioned and spaced to allow for fluid and comfortable typing, even for many hours at a time.
The display is a full HD+, meaning its a 1920 x 1200p resolution at the 16:10 aspect ratio, and it can get as bright as 500 nits. It's not an OLED display, so it's not going to have the kind of vibrant colors that you get with the Asus ZenBook S 13 OLED, but it is more than clear enough to see everything you need to see at this size.
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The down-firing speakers are audible, but they will hardly fill a room, even if you have it sitting on a hardwood desk. The 16:10 display is beautiful and very easy to work with, though a 13-inch laptop is not nearly big enough to be using multiple windows at once.
The webcam is the basic 720p@30fps that you see on nearly every other ultrabook on the market, so don't expect much from its image quality. One thing that is lacking is a privacy shutter for the webcam, something many of the best HP laptops and best Lenovo laptops have featured for a long time now. Dell really does need to get with the program on this, in our opinion.
Finally, the biggest issue with the XPS 13 (2022) is the derth of ports. There are just two Thunderbolt 4 ports, that's it. While both are capable of charging the laptop, having it plugged in means that you're now down to a single USB-C port, so any peripherals you have with you either have to be triaged for the most important one, or you're going to need a dock for more than two items.
And since they're USB-C ports, any USB-A or other types of input will need a converting dongle to work. Dell includes a couple in the box with the XPS 13, a USB-A to USB-C and a 3.5mm audio jack to USB-C, but you'll likely need more, which can really cut into the laptop's portability.
Cinebench R23 Multi-core: 5,478
3DMark Time Spy: 1,068; Fire Strike: 3,100; Night Raid: 10,272
GeekBench 5: 1,629 (single-core); 6,546 (multi-core)
PCMark 10 (Home Test): 4,324
PCMark 10 Battery Life: 7:31
Battery Life (TechRadar movie test): 9:17
The Dell XPS 13 (2022) is designed to be an affordable, ultraportable laptop that can do what most people need it to do: some web browsing, video streaming, and maybe messing around with a couple of spreadsheets for work or writing reports on an airplane.
It does all of these very well, and it has decent enough processor benchmark scores for a laptop priced as it is. The biggest problem you'll find is if you try to run any resource-heavy apps on the XPS 13, such as Adobe Premiere Pro, Blender, and Photoshop.
On these points, it will be able to complete most tasks, but expect it to take a lot longer than it would on a more professional workstation like the MacBook Pro 13-inch (M2, 2022), if it finishes them at all and doesn't simple stall or crash. This is a laptop for light to medium work at most, and the more you can use cloud apps like Google Docs and Google Sheets, the better.
We could also have run a number of games on it to see how they fared, but after the first test with Civilization VI, run on the lowest possible settings, scored a paltry 18 fps, we called it a day and spared the XPS 13 any more gaming embarrassment. A candidate for the best gaming laptop of the year, this is not.
Considering that you can get one of the best Chromebooks on the market and it will perform about as well on cloud-based apps, the performance of the Dell XPS 13 on its own might not be enough to justify the relative premium you're pay for it. If all you're going to be doing is running Google Chrome and listening to Spotify or watching Netflix, definitely consider saving yourself some serious money and give Chromebooks a look before you make the jump on a nearly $1,000 Windows laptop.
Performance: 3 / 5
Dell XPS 13 (2022): Battery life
Not great, but decent enough for an Alder Lake laptop
Charges from 0% to full in about two hours
The battery life on the Dell XPS 13 (2022) is not great, if we compare it to its predecessor. On our PCMark 10 battery test, it lasted on average about seven hours and 31 minutes. It did better on our looped video test, managing an average nine hours and eight minutes.
The XPS 13 (late 2020) managed a battery life of nearly 12 hours, so the XPS 13 (2022) has definitely regressed in this regard, but that has been the case with Alder Lake laptops across the board. They just consume too much power and we've seen many ultrabooks last between six to seven hours on average, so the XPS 13 (2022) is at least ahead of its competition on that front.
We pride ourselves on our independence and our rigorous review-testing process, offering up long-term attention to the products we review and making sure our reviews are updated and maintained - regardless of when a device was released, if you can still buy it, it's on our radar.
• Original review date: August 2022
• Launch price: Starts at $799 / £799 (around AU$1,120)
• Target price now (updated model): Starts at $999 / £899 (around AU$1,490)
Update – August 2024: The HP Pavilion Plus 14 might have missed out on a spot amidst our ranking of the best laptops when we originally reviewed this model, but two years on, I've got good news and bad news.
The good news is that an updated model featuring the new Intel Core Ultra 5 chip is now available, which (while I haven't personally tested it) should provide better battery life than previous iterations thanks to that chip's improved power efficiency. The short battery life was the main failing of the Pavilion Plus 14 when we reviewed it, and some quick online research shows that reviewers concur that battery performance is a lot stronger in the new model.
The bad news is that this new model is unfortunately a bit more expensive - although you can still find older models with Intel Core i5 or AMD Ryzen chips for under $800 in the US. Sadly for our friends down under, it appears that the Core Ultra model is not available at all in Australia at the time of writing - so Aussies may be better off looking for something different.
Original review follows.
HP Pavilion Plus 14: Two-minute review
The HP Pavilion Plus 14 is an upgrade from the original Pavilion 14 and is meant to be a decently priced low-ranged laptop for those who need a dedicated work machine.
It comes with a pretty solid screen size, which is complemented by the thinner bezels that give you more screen real estate. Its OLED touchscreen display is responsive and features an impressive picture quality that makes anything displayed through it crystal clear and sharp, which alone is worth the slightly higher price tag.
This feature shines when paired with the webcam, which is crisp and clean when sitting through Zoom meetings, but it’s a shame the webcam doesn’t come with a mechanical privacy shutter though, since nowadays its pretty much a necessity.
The keyboard and touchpad are quite good as well, one of the few work laptops that have wide keys suited for those with thicker fingers or shaky hands. We found it extremely rare to have typos thanks to the wide spacing between keys, and the touchpad provides you with more than enough space to comfortably move around, making it very accessible for those who might have more limited mobility or coordination in their hands.
Thanks to the 12th-gen Intel Core i7 CPU, the HP Pavilion Plus 14 has some impressively high performance compared to many other budget-to-midrange laptops, consistently outscoring them by sometimes wide margins.
It’s an incredibly fast laptop that balances multiple CPU-intensive tasks like a champ. It even ran Sid Meyer’s Civilization VI benchmark well, netting over 60 FPS on the highest settings. Of course, it won’t be able to play titles like Hitman 3 smoothly but you’re not buying this laptop for that purpose anyway; as a general performance machine, this might have easily qualified as one of the best HP laptops going – or even one of the best Ultrabooks overall.
However, the worst aspect of this laptop by far is the battery life, and it absolutely drags this laptop down. At most, while running our HD movie test, it lasted just under 5 hours, and lasted a little while longer in our productivity test. For a gaming laptop this would be ok, but for a low-end machine whose job it is to last a full day of work or school? This is atrocious, especially considering that for the price, we're expecting something far more substantial.
HP Pavilion Plus 14: Price and availability
Despite itself, the HP Pavilion Plus 14 is not bad at playing casual or light-duty games – just make sure to leave it plugged in. (Image credit: Future)
How much does it cost? MSRP is $799 (about £640 / AU$1,120)
When is it out? It is available now
Where can you get it? You can get it in the US, UK, and Australia, though not all configurations are available in all regions.
The HP Pavilion Plus 14 is available now in the US, UK, and Australia and starts at $799 / £829 in the US and UK, and at AU$2,699 in Australia.
HP Pavilion Plus 14 Key Specs
Here is the HP Pavilion Plus 14 configuration sent to TechRadar for review:
CPU: Intel Core i7-12700H Graphics: Intel Iris Xe Graphics RAM: 16GB Screen: 14-inch diagonal, 2.8K (2880 x 1800), OLED, 90 Hz Storage: 1TB PCIe SSD Ports: 2 USB Type-A ports, 2 USB Type-C, 1 headset (headphone and microphone combo) port, 1 HDMI 2.1 port, 1 SD-card slot Connectivity: Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2 Camera: HP True Vision 5MP Weight: 3.09 pounds (1.4 kg) Size (W x D x H): 12.34 x 8.83 x 0.72ins | 313.4 x 224.3 x 18.3mm Battery: 51WHr
The entry-level configuration for the US will get you an Intel Core i5-1240P processor with integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics, 8GB RAM, 256GB PCIe NVMe SSD storage, and a 14-inch 2240 x 1400p IPS display, with a max brightness of 300 nits. The UK starting configuration is essentially identical, though it gives you a 512GB PCIe SSD.
The starting configuration in Australia, which is also the only configuration, is identical to the one we reviewed, specs listed at right. It will set you back $1,219 in the US and AU$2,699 in Australia.
The highest-spec configuration costs $1,329 in the US will get you an Intel Core i7-1255U, an Nvidia RTX 2050 GPU with 4GB dedicated video memory, 16GB RAM, 1TB PCIe SSD and a 2.8K OLED display with 400 nits brightness and Wi-Fi 6E instead of Wi-Fi 5 or Wi-Fi 6.
In the UK, the highest spec is slightly different, in that it reduces the SSD to 512GB and, strangely, comes with Windows 11 Home in S Mode.
For the hardware on offer, this is pretty decent, especially at the low end, though the more expensive OLED display, as pretty as it is, is a big driver of the increase in price here. HP's main rival, Dell, has a new Inspiron 14 Plus that comes in at $1,299 (about £1,040 / AU$1,820), and it has more or less the same specs as the HP Pavilion Plus 14 model we reviewed.
There are some key differences, though, in that it comes with a 2240 x 1400p IPS display instead of an OLED panel and only has 512GB SSD storage. What it does have over the Pavilion Plus 14, though, is a 64WHr battery, which means that it will likely get a much longer battery life than the Pavilion Plus 14 — especially if it doesn't have an OLED panel to power — though we haven't reviewed the Inspiron 14 Plus so we cannot say for certain.
That said, the HP Pavilion Plus 14 would seem to win out on specs here, making it a pretty decent value, but as we'll get to later, the battery life is really this laptop's Achilles' heel and keeps it from competing with the best laptops on the market. While you're weighing up costs, consider how HP promo codes can help you save.
Value: 3.5 / 5
HP Pavilion Plus 14: Design
The HP Pavilion Plus 14 is light and thin, just one of its many design successes. (Image credit: Future)
Fantastic OLED screen
Excellent, wide keyboard
Great port selection
The chassis is lightweight but feels surprisingly sturdy for a lower-end work laptop, and reasonably has some heft to it despite the lower weight. It’s still thin and light enough to be comfortably portable in most bags. The silver color is common among even the best laptops these days but is still appealing and sleek.
Opening it up, the OLED screen really shines, giving anything displayed through it a gorgeous high-quality picture. This makes sense, since it complements the 2.8k display and even sports some nice and thin bezels that grant some roomy screen real estate.
(Image credit: Future)
Its port selection is quite good, with two USB Type-C and two Type-A ports, an HDMI 2.1 port, an SD card slot, and one headset jack. The HDMI 2.1 is a pleasant surprise in particular, as normally it’s a 1.4 on work machines. The HP Pavilion Plus 14 is clearly a well-balanced machine that can handle most tasks and connect to a wide range of devices.
The keyboard is rather comfy since the keys are well-spaced. (Image credit: Future)
It even enhances what would be an otherwise average webcam image, pairing well with the program that augments your image based on lighting. The latter is a handy little feature that lets you adjust how you look through the webcam in real-time, a feature that we didn’t know we needed until now.
The keyboard is one of our favorites so far in a work laptop, with a well-sized trackpad and wide and well-spaced out keys that make typing a breeze with barely any typos. There’s also a toggle for backlighting, another great feature for those late-night work sessions. It was a joy using it and having to switch back to normal-sized keys felt like a huge downgrade.
Design: 4 / 5
HP Pavilion Plus 14: Performance
This laptop isn't Intel Evo-certified, which is otherwise known as a red flag for battery life. (Image credit: Future)
Great for work and casual-to-light gaming
Sound quality is fine
The HP Pavilion Plus 14 is in a very weird niche, as it functions incredibly well as a work machine. It has an excellent screen that’s perfect for video calls, a great roomy keyboard and trackpad, all complemented by the powerful i7 CPU and 16 GB of RAM that supports it.
Benchmarks
Here's how the HP Pavilion Plus 14 performed in our suite of benchmark tests:
3DMark Night Raid: 14,892; Fire Strike: 4,201; Time Spy: 1,690 Cinebench R23 Multi-core: 12,430 points GeekBench 5: 1,741 (single-core); 8,856 (multi-core)
PCMark 10 (Home Test): 5,641 points Battery Life (TechRadar movie test): 4 hours and 34 minutes PCMark 10 Battery Test: 5 hours and 10 minutes Civilization VI (1080p, High): 67 fps; (1080p, Low): 22 fps
But these same features also make it well-balanced for some casual gaming, at least with lighter games. When running various benchmarks, we found that this laptop scores higher (sometimes significantly higher) than other similar laptops in its class running comparable hardware. For a dedicated work machine, the Pavilion 14 Plus clearly has the chops to game in a more-than-normal capacity for this sort of computer.
When we ran the Sid Meier's Civilization VI benchmark test, we found the game ran at an impressive 67 FPS on max settings. Playing it, the title ran incredibly smooth with no noticeable hiccups or hangs. Other casual-to-light-duty games ran just as well, making it a work laptop well-suited for play at the end of the day.
The CPU can also adjust itself to the task that needs the most attention. While we didn’t always explicitly notice the switch in performance between every single task, it did feel like every task was optimized.
The sound quality for the HP Pavilion Plus 14 is good but not great, despite the fact that it comes with dual speakers. Still, it’s quite good for the kind of laptop it is, though it doesn’t have the most complex sound. But when it comes to voice and video chat, the sound quality is more than high enough. Ventilation is a bit below average; it tends to warm up quickly but the heat doesn’t progress into an uncomfortable range.
Performance: 4.5 / 5
HP Pavilion Plus 14: Battery life
That fancy OLED is a massive power-hog, as is Intel Alder Lake, so not a good matchup against a 51WHr battery if you want to work away from an outlet for more than a few hours. (Image credit: Future)
Absolutely terrible
Rival laptops in its class last much longer
This battery is the worst battery we’ve tested for a work laptop in a long time. As we said before, the HP Pavilion Plus 14 has unusually high benchmark scores compared to its competitors and even performs well with some modern games.
But it seems that this tricked the Pavilion Plus into thinking it’s a gaming laptop or something and so it spiked its own battery life in response. This battery cannot last past the four-and-a-half-hour mark in our HD movie test, and PCMark 10’s battery test showed a five hour and 10 minute result, which makes it extremely difficult to perform as a work laptop unless you keep it charged up at an outlet regularly.
This is owing to the two-fold problem of high-end hardware, like an OLED display and Intel Alder Lake Core i7, and its rather meek 51WHr battery, which is almost guaranteed to run dry in no time flat.
Sacrifices have to be made for price, size, and weight, sure. But a work laptop is supposed to last, and this one does not. Having such a poor battery life for a machine that’s meant to carry you through a work day is rather inexcusable.
We pride ourselves on our independence and our rigorous review-testing process, offering up long-term attention to the products we review and making sure our reviews are updated and maintained - regardless of when a device was released, if you can still buy it, it's on our radar.
• Original review date: August 2022
• Launch price: Starting at $1,200 (about £960 / AU$1,740)
• Target price: Starting at $700 / £700 / AU$1,000
Update – September 2024: The Acer Predator Helios 300 from 2022 is a lot less available than it was when it launched, but you can occasionally find a few configurations online.
While the Predator Helios 300 from 2022 was one of the best gaming laptops going when it was released, there are definitely better option available with more updated specs that are cheaper, like this Acer Predator Helios 16 available at Amazon for less than $1,000.
As such, this model will only be worth picking up if it is well below $1,000/£1,000/AU$1,500, but if you can find it for a great price, this is still one of the best laptops for gaming on a budget that you'll find.
Original review follows.
Acer Predator Helios 300 (2022): One minute review
As far as more premium options go, the Acer Predator Helios 300 (2022) embodies most of what you’re looking for in a gaming laptop. It’s simple yet has a well-designed chassis, with gorgeous RGB keyboard backlighting, outfitted with some strong tech, and even comes with a Turbo button.
It’s a hefty fellow, though, with a weight of five and a half pounds. It’s not the heaviest gaming laptop out there but it’s one that’s difficult to carry around.
Its price reflects its quality, but it’s worth splurging on if you have the money since this is definitely one of the best Acer laptops for gaming, and Acer has a few excellent gaming laptop lines, honestly, so there's stiff competition.
The inside tech proves its quality, with the model we received sporting an Intel Core i7-12700H CPU and an Nvidia RTX 3070 Ti GPU, though you can upgrade it even further. So not only will it run any of the best PC games you throw at it, but it will run them well at fast frame rates on the highest settings.
Naturally, there’s a tradeoff for such excellent graphics and that’s the absolutely abysmal battery life, which barely lasts three hours. This is definitely a laptop that you need to keep plugged in, especially for intense gaming sessions.
The selection of ports on both sides and on the back of the laptop is one of the best we’ve seen. There are four USB ports alone, with several other mainstays such as the HDMI port, an SD card reader, an audio jack, and even a Kensington Slot for added security.
Opening it up reveals a gorgeous QHD panel display that doesn’t disappoint, with each game looking its absolute best between the vibrant colors and crystal clear display. And the 240Hz refresh rate certainly doesn’t hurt either.
Its bezels are nice and thin, giving us some significant screen real estate, though there’s no manual webcam shudder to cover it up when not in use. The keyboard is nice and roomy, includes a numlock pad, has plenty of key space to avoid most typos, and the RBG backlight is positively stunning as it changes colors on the fly.
All in all, this isn't as cheap as the best cheap gaming laptops, but it's not so premium a piece of kit that it is out of reach of most people, especially with the starting configurations. This might be a gaming laptop you end up saving up for over the next few months, but in the end you won't be disappointed with the performance, even if there are some more affordable options that might provide a better value.
Acer Predator Helios 300 (2022): Price and availability
The Acer Predator Helios 300 (2022) is definitely the kind of gaming laptop that will really appeal those who love the Gamer™ aesthetic. (Image credit: Future)
The price can get pretty steep as you improve the specs
Limited availability outside of US and UK
The Acer Predator Helios 300 is a fairly premium gaming laptop that starts out pretty affordable at $1,200, with the rig we received priced at $2,100 (about £1,760 / AU$3,091). The laptop does come with a lot of features and some excellent specs, especially as you move up the configuration stack, making it more than worth the cost. And honestly, compared with the best gaming laptops it's competing against, this pricing isn’t actually very steep. It could be more affordable once you factor in any eligible Acer promo codes around right now.
However, it’s rather difficult to purchase it outside the US or the UK, as the laptop isn’t currently available in Australia and other regions. Those living in territories that don’t have this laptop may have to import it from the US or UK, which would bump up the price of an already expensive gaming laptop quite a bit.
Value: 4 / 5
Acer Predator Helios 300 (2022): Design
(Image credit: Future)
Sleek and sexy
Great port selection
Amazing display and keyboard
The Acer Predator Helios 300 is the kind of gaming laptop that looks and feels like what you’d imagine one to be. Though it’s admittedly much sleeker and sexier than the bulky and boring budget laptops, it’s still weighty and thick — not the type of machine you can haphazardly sling over your shoulder in even the best backpack.
Spec Sheet
Here is the Acer Predator Helios 300 (2022) configuration sent to TechRadar for review:
CPU: Intel Core i7-12700H Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti RAM: 16GB DDR5 Screen: 15.6-inch, QHD IPS, 240 Hz Storage: 1TB Ports: 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C, 1 x Thunderbolt 4, 1 x power port, 1 x HDMI 2.1, 1 x SD Card Reader, 1 x Combo Jack, 1 x Kensington Slot Connectivity: Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2 Camera: 1080p Weight: 5.51 pounds | 2.5 kg Size (W x D x H): 14.1 x 10.9 x 1.02 inches | 36 x 28 x 2.6 cm
Its port selection is excellent, with three USB 3.2 Type-A ports, a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C that doubles as a Thunderbolt 4, an additional power port with a charger that comes with it, an HDMI 2.1 port, an SD card reader, a combo jack, and a Kensington Slot which should honestly be a security standard for any gaming laptop. No matter what your specific needs are, the Acer Predator Helios 300 has it covered.
The display is just as impressive as you’d expect for a modern gaming laptop, as it’s a QHD IPS screen with a 2560 X 1440 resolution and 240Hz refresh rate. You can see the quality while playing graphically demanding games, as gameplay is buttery smooth and the vibrancy of the colors is as clear as can be, making this one of the best 15-inch laptops for gaming that you're going to find.
This also translates to the webcam, which also offers full HD resolution — perfect for streaming gaming sessions. Unfortunately, there’s no mechanical blind to cover said webcam which is a little disappointing but nothing close to a deal-breaker.
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The keyboard is well-built as well, with keys that have good width and are spaced out enough to avoid accidental typos and double-key presses. The trackpad is also a nice size, though it could stand to be a bit bigger. But the real showstopper is the RGB lighting that’s integrated into each key and allows for some incredible light shows on your keyboard, and you can customize the lighting as well if you prefer something more solid over the default rainbow colors.
Design: 5 / 5
Acer Predator Helios 300 (2022): Performance
The Acer Predator Helios 300 can chew through nearly any game you throw at it with ease. (Image credit: Future)
Top-shelf gaming performance
Excellent air circulation
Turbo button instantly activates overclocking
For a premium gaming laptop, performance is king, or why else would you spend the big bucks for one in the first place? And the Acer Predator Helios 300 absolutely blows nearly every benchmark out of the water, nearly matching or even surpassing most of the other premium laptop models including top-tier picks from the likes of Alienware.
3DMark: Night Raid: 36,199; Fire Strike: 20,334; Time Spy: 10,263 Cinebench R23 Multi-core: 16,497 points GeekBench 5: 1,763 (single-core); 12,231 (multi-core)
PCMark 10 (Home Test): 7,704 points PCMark 10 Battery Life: 3 hours and 5 minutes Battery Life (TechRadar movie test): 2 hours and 41 minutes Total War: Warhammer III (1080p, Ultra): 76 fps; (1080p, Low): 212 fps Cyberpunk 2077 (1080p, Ultra): 51 fps; (1080p, Low): 92 fps Dirt 5 (1080p, Ultra): 44 fps; (1080p, Low): 175 fps
This is due to its excellent specs including a 12th-gen Intel Core i7 and RTX 3070 Ti, as well as DDR5 RAM. And with the ability to step up to an RTX 3080, you’re getting some top-tier specs like those we saw in our a Razer Blade 15 review but at a much better price point.
If the standard performance isn’t good enough, the Helios 300 (2022) also supports G-Sync and, thanks to its Nvidia Ampere mobile GPU, ray tracing and Deep Learning Super Sampling. There’s even a special Turbo button above the keyboard which can be activated at any time and which puts both the fans and GPU and CPU into overclocked mode.
This works along with the PredatorSense software that’s automatically included with the laptop and which lets you customize RGB lighting, overclocking settings, and fan settings.
The Turbo button is especially useful as it allows you to instantly improve the already impressive air circulation and near-instantly cool down an overheated laptop, while simultaneously bumping up its performance.
Ultimately, no matter how graphically intense or poorly optimized your AAA game of choice is, the Helios 300 (2022) will chew it up and spit it out with ease.
If you need it to also balance non-gaming tasks for work or school, this is absolutely a solid choice for that as well. It's not going to have the portability of the best student laptops out there, obviously, but it'll be great for those who need some downtime after long nights writing up papers in the library.
Its powerful specs are more than sufficient for juggling multiple tasks like movie streaming, video calls, editing documents, and more, and the dual speakers deliver superb sound quality that’s perfect for listening to Spotify or your music streaming service of choice while working on an assignment.
Performance: 5 / 5
Acer Predator Helios 300 (2022): Battery life
Aaaaaand this is where the Helios 300 gets tripped up. (Image credit: Future)
Terrible battery life
Charge time is average at best
With all the positives of the Acer Predator Helios 300, there has to be at least one real negative, and in this case, it’s the battery life.
As powerful as this gaming laptop is, it shows in the absolutely abysmal battery life, which is almost a throwback to the desktop replacements from five or six years ago that wouldn't last an hour idling away from an outlet.
While not quite that bad, the Helios 300 (2022) scrapes by just to reach three hours in the PCMark10 battery test but falls even shorter than that disappointed timein our looped HD movie test. This is one laptop that must be plugged in at pretty much all times, which means if you’re carrying this around you cannot be far away from an outlet, adding even more weight to your backpack from the sizeable power adapter.
Battery Life: 1 / 5
Should you buy an Acer Predator Helios 300 (2022)?
As far as gaming laptops in this class go, the Acer Predator Helios 300 (2022) absolutely runs with top contenders. (Image credit: Future)
Update: January 2024. The model we reviewed here is almost two years old now, but it still remains one of the best laptops you can buy. This is because its powerful components are still very good, and the slim and light design remains one of the best you'll find on a 17-inch laptop, which can often be big and bulky due to their larger screens. This particular model is no longer sold directly by Dell, but can be found at other retailers, often with a nice price cut that makes it better value. Dell has also released more modern models of the XPS 17, so if you fancy getting this larger laptop with even more powerful components, you've got that option as well. The rest of this review remains as previously published.
Dell XPS 17 (2022): Two minute review
If the Dell XPS 17 looks familiar, that’s because it is. Physically, this revised 2022 model is a dead ringer for last year’s XPS - and the one from 2020, too. But that’s no bad thing given this is one of, if not the slickest and sleekest laptops around.
What actually is different can be found inside, most notably Intel’s latest 12 Gen CPUs. Our review unit is rocking the Intel Core i7-12700H, which packs six performance cores plus eight efficiency cores and turbos up to 4.7GHz.
Honestly, it ought to be enough CPU for even the most demanding users, making it one of the best laptops around for productivity and business users. But if you really insist you can pay extra - and an awful lot extra because the upgrade typically forces more expensive components in other areas - for Dell to stick in a Core i9-12900K, which has the same core count but peaks at 5GHz. We wouldn’t bother, since you’ll barely feel the difference, if at all.
Dell XPS 17 (2022) Key Specs
Here is the Dell XPS 17 (2022) configuration sent to TechRadar for review: CPU: Intel Core 17-12700H Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 RAM: 32GB DDR5 Screen: 17-inch 3,840 x 2,400, 500 nits Storage: 512GB NVMe SSD Ports: 4 x USB-C with Thunderbolt 4, 1 x 3.5mm combo jack, 1 x SD card reader
Connectivity: Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2 Camera: 720p with IR Weight: 4.79 lbs | 2.17 kg Size (W x D x H): 14.74 x 9.76 x 0.77 ins (375 x 248 x 20 mm) Battery: 97WHr
Elsewhere, one thing the XPS isn’t is an out-and-out gaming laptop. Our configuration runs an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 GPU with 4GB of graphics memory. It’s dandy for a spot of casual gaming and will also add some welcome grunt to GPU-accelerated productivity and content creation apps. But it’s not a 4K powerhouse, nor is the RTX 3060 chip offered as an upgrade, which it ideally would need to be given the specification of the XPS’s screen.
Indeed, we’ve got the optional upgrade panel which packs 3,840 by 2,400 pixels - more than standard 4K thanks to the taller 16:10 aspect ratio. It’s a stunner of a screen rated at a punchy 500 nits and with 100 percent coverage of the Adobe RGB gamut, so it’s fully capable of content creation workflows. It also supports HDR, but isn’t a new-fangled mini-LED panel, so keep expectations in check. The HDR experience is OK rather than eye-popping.
The screen looks all the better thanks to those signature Dell XPS slim bezels on all four sides. It’s a design feature that keeps this two-year-old design looking bang up to date, and also minimizes the laptop’s overall footprint. It’s not just the screen that stands out, so does the sound quality. The XPS 17 really packs an audio punch, with remarkably dynamic sound including decent bass, good stereo separation and strong volume.
Rounding out the best bits of this revised 2022 model of the Dell XPS 17 is battery life of over 10 hours during light workloads, which is outstanding for this big a beast. On the other end of things, this isn’t anywhere close to being as portable as the best Ultrabooks, but no 17-inch laptop will ever score very highly in that regard.
But if you do take it with, you can genuinely get a day’s work done away from the mains, which makes it one of the best student laptops for anyone about to head off to uni in a couple of months.
So whether you're a student, a content creator, or just want a gorgeous device, the Dell XPS 17 (2022) retains its place as possibly the best Dell laptop ever made that's not called the XPS 13.
Dell XPS 17 (2022): Price and availability
(Image credit: Future)
Starting price looks appealing
Quickly gets pricey with options
The Dell XPS 17 (2022) kicks off at $1,749 in the US, £2,099 in the UK and AU$3,999, the apparent discrepancy outside of the US accounted for by a higher spec base CPU. Anyway, if that’s not exactly cheap, things only get worse when you add upgrades.
The gorgeous UHD+ touchscreen, for instances, adds $300 / £300, doubling the RAM to 32GB will sock you for $150 / £200 and the 1TB SSD costs an extra $100 / £100. All told, as configured here, you’re looking at $2,749, £2,599 in the UK and AU$4,798 down under.
Value: 3.5 / 5
Dell XPS 17 (2022): Design
(Image credit: Future)
Super slim bezels
Gorgeous build quality
The design of the Dell XPS 17 (2022) is a dead ringer for last year’s model and the year before, but we're grateful for that.
The XPS is super sleek and beautifully built, with the main chassis and screen cover in machined aluminum and the palmrest in carbon fiber. It still looks modern too, thanks to ultra-slim bezels on all four sides of the display. And that despite still squeezing in a 720p webcam up top with Windows Hello facial recognition support.
The chassis is very solid and the keyboard bed fairly stable, though a little flex is present. The large trackpad is about as good as it gets on a Windows laptop. Only Apple’s MacBooks do trackpads better.
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Of course, this is still a big machine weighing in at well over 2kg and measuring in excess of 14 inches across, but that's the case with all of the best 17-inch laptops; they're simply never going to be compact. That said, the slim bezels ensure about as small a footprint as possible and ensures that if you've got to have something this large you at least get the absolute most out of its size.
The XPS 17 is about as haulable as 17-inch laptops get, with the possible exception of the featherweight LG Gram 17, which is slightly wider in terms of footprint but much lighter at 1.35kg.
If we do take issue with the XPS’s proportions, it’s how they map to the port selection. On the one hand, the quartet of USB-C ports all support full Thunderbolt 4 functionality with power delivery and DisplayPort alt mode, which is great.
There’s also a full-sized SD card slot and an audio jack. But that’s it. There’s no USB Type-A, no full sized HDMI socket nor a LAN port, but that's the price you pay for the slick looks and chiselled chassis sides.
Design: 4.5 / 5
Dell XPS 17 (2022): Performance
(Image credit: Future)
Grunty 12th Gen Intel CPUs
Good cooling
Not a true gaming laptop
With six performance cores and eight efficiency cores, the XPS 17’s Intel Core i7-12700H has as many cores as the top Core i9 processor from Intel’s latest 12th Gen Alder Lake CPU family. It just runs at slightly lower clockspeeds, but not that you’d notice.
As CPU performance goes, this laptop has everything you could ask for. It’ll tear through everything from video encodes to 3D renders with ease. Alder Lake’s world-beating single-core performance also guarantees that this laptop feels snappy in day-to-day tasks like web browsing.
Indeed, with fully 32GB RAM, you’re rarely going to run out of memory, which makes multi-tasking a breeze. With that much RAM, swapping application data to the SSD will hardly ever happen. Even if it does, there’s a fast PCIe Gen 4.0 SSD ready to minimise the performance hit of disk swapping. Overall, it really is a very speedy machine, this XPS 17.
3DMark Night Raid: 27,398; Fire Strike: 11,908; Time Spy: 5,439 Cinebench R23 Multi-core: 17,747 GeekBench 5 Single-core: 1,682; (Multi-core) 13,725 PCMark 10 (Home Test): 6,810 Battery Life (Techradar movie test): 10:14 Total War: Warhammer III (1080p, Ultra): 48 fps; (1080p, Low): 121 fps Dirt 5 (1080p, Ultra): 44 fps; (1080p, Low): 96 fps
If there is an exception, it involves graphics performance and gaming. As tested, our review unit runs Nvidia’s GeForce RTYX 3050 mobile GPU with 4GB of video memory. It is a big step up over plain old integrated graphics, to be sure. As our benchmarks show, you can get playable frame rates at 1080p in modern games. But only just. It’s not a truly high performance gaming GPU.
You can optionally go for the RTX 3060, which will improve your frame rates. But even that GPU isn’t nearly powerful enough to play games at the XPS’s native 4K-plus screen resolution. Even Nvidia’s fastest mobile GPU, the RTX 3080 Ti, is only just capable of that.
Anyway, the point is that the XPS is certainly up for some casual gaming. But if gaming is one of your top priorities and you can afford this class of laptop, we’d recommend going with one of the best gaming laptops instead with at least an RTX 3070 GPU, something which is certainly available at this price point.
Performance: 4 / 5
Dell XPS 17 (2022): Battery Life
Impressive battery life for a large machine
Full workday battery life is doable
Large powerful laptops like the Dell XPS 17 (2022) used to be nailed-on certainties for awful battery life. Not these days. In light workloads like watching video and web browsing, you can expect over 10 hours of battery life. That’s true all-day performance.
Admittedly, if you do anything remotely demanding, that number will tumble dramatically, despite its ginormous 97WHr battery. But this certainly isn’t one of those old-school desktop replacement rigs that had you worrying about battery life the moment you unplugged from the outlet. This thing has legs.
We pride ourselves on our independence and our rigorous review-testing process, offering up long-term attention to the products we review and making sure our reviews are updated and maintained - regardless of when a device was released, if you can still buy it, it's on our radar.
