The KitchenAid 3.5 cup Mini Food Chopper (it's called the Mini Food Chopper 830ml in the UK) is the smallest appliance in the KitchenAid food processing range. It’s a sensible purchase if you want to chop, mix, or puree small quantities, and don’t want a full-sized food processor taking up precious countertop or cupboard space.
The KitchenAid 3.5 cup / 830ml Mini Food Chopper currently has a list price of $54.99 / £89 / AU$129. This is a little on the expensive side considering it only has one accessory and limited functions, especially as KitchenAid also sells a larger-capacity version, the Food Chopper KFC0516,which comes with an added accessory for only $64.99/ £109 / AU$139.
The 3.5 cup / 830ml Mini Food Chopper arrived ready-assembled, and after washing the work bowl, lid, and multipurpose blade, it was simple to put back together, as there are only four parts. As the name suggests, the bowl has a capacity of 3.5 cups / 830ml. The dimensions of the Mini Food Chopper are 6.9 x 5.6 x 8.7 inches / 178 x 143 x 222mm, and it weighs 2.6lbs /1.2 kg.
There are two speeds to choose from which are engaged by moving the lever on the base unit of the processor to the left to chop, or to the right to puree. One element of the design that may not be a concern for some, but which I wasn’t very fond of, is that there's only one button on the processor that operates the chop, puree, and pulse functions. You press and release the button multiple times to pulse, and press and hold it to chop or puree, using the lever to determine which function is performed.
There's a little drizzle basin in the clear plastic inner section of the lid, which works well when you want to drizzle in liquid slowly while the Mini Chopper is in operation. Another convenient design feature is the spout on the work bowl, which enables you to pour out the finished product or drain off excess liquid.
(Image credit: Future)
The Mini Chopper’s design stays true to the classic KitchenAid aesthetic. The majority of the processor’s body is colored, with a black plastic base section, and a silver KitchenAid band wrapped around. Onyx Black, Empire Red, and Contour Silver models are available in the US, UK, and Australia. There are more colors available – White, Almond Cream, Pistachio, Ice, Blue Velvet, Aqua Sky, and Matte Black – but the availability of these depends on your location. The power cable is on the short side, but due to the chopper's small size and lightweight it isn’t much hassle to move it closer to a plug socket.
The noise level when the Mini Chopper is chopping or pureeing is quite loud. Worse still is the pulse mode. When I chopped some almonds during testing the sound was almost deafening, so this may be one to avoid if you have particularly sensitive ears, or if you plan to chop hard ingredients such as nuts on a regular basis.
Thanks to the minimal number of parts, cleaning up is quick and easy. The work bowl, lid, and blade are easy to hand wash, and they’re top-rack dishwasher safe.
While its functions may be limited compared with larger models like the KitchenAid 7 cup / 1.7L Food Processor, the Mini Chopper does its job well. It was able to turn two slices of wholemeal bread into breadcrumbs in 10 seconds, and made quick work of chopping an onion too, with no oversized pieces remaining. The multipurpose blade had no problems with cutting up carrots and cucumbers either.
(Image credit: Future / Cesci Angell)
Chopping almonds was an unpleasant experience, however. The amount of noise the pulse function makes is already loud, but after adding a bunch of almonds and firing them around a small plastic container, I thoroughly regretted not wearing ear protection. After processing, the sizes of the almond pieces were inconsistent, and there was lots of dust in the bottom of the work bowl, plus a thin layer up the sides of the work bowl and inside the lid. Some dust had found its way inside the fitment ring of the blade as well.
As per our testing protocols, I attempted to combine a pastry mixture. At one stage when mixing the flour, margarine, and water, the mixture stopped combining; after a while it began to mix again, but there was a layer of unmixed ingredients at the bottom. To be fair to KitchenAid, they don’t claim that the Mini Chopper can mix something as dense as pastry dough, so I couldn’t blame it for struggling a little.
The cost of the KitchenAid 3.5 cup / 830ml Mini Food Chopper in the UK and Australia is a little on the steep side. There are cheaper alternatives from other reputable brands; however, they tend to have a capacity of around 1.5-2.5 cups / 350ml-550ml, so you wouldn’t be able to process as much in one go. This chopper lives up to the standard I would expect from KitchenAid – the materials are high-quality, and it feels solid and dependable in use, but with the larger KitchenAid Food Chopper KFC0516 costing just a little more, perhaps you could be getting better value for money.
KitchenAid Mini Food Chopper: price & availability
List price: $54.99 / £89 / AU$129
Currently available in the US, UK, and Australia
The KitchenAid 3.5 cup / 830ml Mini Food Chopper retails at $54.99 / £89 / AU$129. Curiously, the price of the US model is just over half the cost of the equivalent UK and Australian models – this might simply be due to the fact that KitchenAid is a US brand.
Although it's a good-quality appliance and chops ingredients well, the price tag is a little steep considering its limited capabilities. This is especially apparent when you compare it to its sibling, the KitchenAid Food Chopper KFC0516, which only costs $64.99/ £109 / AU$139, and has a larger capacity and additional features.
The Mini Food Chopper is available to purchase in the US, UK, and Australia now. Five color options are available in the UK and Australia, while in the US you can choose from nine colors. I’ll go into the colors available in more detail in the design and features section.
Value for money score: 3 out of 5
KitchenAid Mini Food Chopper specs
KitchenAid Mini Food Chopper: design & features
Compact and lightweight
Single button and lever controls
Useful spout and drizzle basin
I found that it could be a bit fiddly to mount the work bowl on to the base and put the lid on at times, due to the twist-to-lock mechanism, and on occasion the lid would go past where it’s supposed to stop. To be honest, I prefer the one-click system of some of their larger models, such as the KitchenAid 7 cup / 1.7L Food Processor. At this size and price point, however, you can’t expect everything.
At 6.9 x 5.6 x 8.7 inches / 178 x 143 x 222mm, the Mini Food Chopper is compact enough to leave on the countertop without it being obstructive, and small enough to stash away in a cupboard. It weighs just 2.6lbs /1.2kg, so it's easy to lift and move around. The design is simple, but efficient enough. The base unit has a lever that moves from left to right to go into chop or puree mode, and the single button protrudes out from the lid and sits at the top of the work bowl handle.
(Image credit: Future)
One small downside for me is that to chop or puree you need to hold the button down continuously. With this small capacity, I doubt there’s much I’d end up processing that would take long, but I prefer a one-press system over a press-and-hold. The Mini Food Chopper is capable of pulsing too, to use pulse it’s a case of repeatedly pressing and releasing the button until you have the desired result. The two different speed settings and the pulse function mean that it’s possible to chop, mix, or puree ingredients with one small appliance.
The outer edge of the lid is black plastic, with a clear circular middle section that has a built-in drizzle basin. The purpose of the drizzle basin is to allow you to fill it with a liquid, such as oil, so it can slowly incorporate with the ingredients in the work bowl as you continue to process them. Another simple but useful feature is the spout on the work bowl. This allows you to easily pour out what you’ve processed, or remove liquid from the contents of the work bowl.
(Image credit: Future)
There’s no doubt that this Mini Food Chopper is a KitchenAid. There are some attractive color options available, although most of the jazziest colors are only available in the US. Three colors are available whether you’re in the US, UK, or Australia: Onyx Black, Empire Red, and Contour Silver. The other color options are White, Almond Cream, Pistachio, Ice, Blue Velvet, Aqua Sky, and Matte Black, but availability will depend on your region.
I hand-washed the work bowl, lid, and blade multiple times between ingredients while testing, and all of the parts were easy to clean, and they can be placed in the top rack of a dishwasher.
Design & features score: 4 out of 5
KitchenAid Mini Food Chopper: performance
Processes quickly
Made breadcrumbs in seconds
Chopping nuts is unpleasant
The KitchenAid Mini Food Chopper’s capabilities may be limited, but what it can do it does well, and fast. It swiftly processed two slices of wholemeal bread, taking only 10 seconds to create fine breadcrumbs. It happily chopped through carrot, cucumber, and onion, producing fairly consistently sized pieces.
(Image credit: Future / Cesci Angell)
The Mini Food Chopper could also chop up almonds, but I must admit this was a rather unpleasant experience. I found that the chop and puree settings sounded loud compared to other KitchenAid food processors I’ve tested, but the pulse mode was louder still, and I was very much unprepared for the near-deafening sound of pulsing the almonds. I’d suggest avoiding chopping up hard ingredients like this, or if you have to, wear some ear protection. This may sound like overkill, but as someone who has tinnitus, my ears were still ringing over a week later. You have been warned.
To make matters worse, the resulting consistency of the chopped almonds was disappointing. The pieces of almond were inconsistent, ranging in size from large pieces down to dust. This dust also crept up inside the fitment ring of the multipurpose blade, which meant that almond dust got everywhere when I removed the blade as it caught me off guard.
(Image credit: Future / Cesci Angell)
When testing food processors, we use them to perform a variety of tasks, one of which is combining a pastry mixture. This isn’t something that KitchenAid claims the Mini Food Chopper can do, but I thought I’d give it a go. This is not an appliance for pastry-making, but given that fact it didn’t do terribly. At one point, it stopped combining the flour, margarine, and water, as everything stuck to the sides of the work bowl; it began to mix again after a while, but there was a layer of ingredients left at the bottom. It did okay though, all things considered – the motor showed no signs of struggleing, and there were no signs of it overheating, so despite the less-than-perfect results.
If you like the sound of the KitchenAid 3.5 cup / 830ml Mini Food Chopper but would like a slightly bigger capacity, or a bit more versatility, then the 5-cup / 1.19-litre KitchenAid Mini Food Chopper KFC0516 may be more up your street.
Performance score: 4 out of 5
Should I buy the KitchenAid Mini Food Chopper?
Buy it if...
Don't buy it if...
KitchenAid Mini Food Chopper: also consider
How I tested the KitchenAid Mini Food Chopper
I assessed the setup and performance
I processed a variety of ingredients
I checked how easy it was to clean
To put the KitchenAid 3.5 cup / 830ml Mini Food Chopper through its paces, I used the chopping blade and different speed settings to chop carrot, cucumber, onion, and almonds. I also used it to process bread to make breadcrumbs and combine flour, margarine, and water to make pastry. These are the same tests we run for all food processors, making it easy to see how different models compare.
I tested how easy it was to clean the processor parts by hand-washing, and using the dishwasher to establish how well you can clean the parts with either method.
The Samsung Q80D is a reasonably priced TV that inevitably loses the company’s most cutting-edge tech but still has more to offer than most other mid-range TVs in its class. That’s good news because, although Samsung’s various 8K, Quantum Dot OLED and Mini LED TVs for 2024 are undoubtedly impressive and rank among the best TVs, their lofty prices make them merely the stuff of dreams for many households.
The well-built bodywork on the Samsung Q80D plays host to a contrast-friendly VA LCD panel illuminated by LEDs placed directly behind the screen and controlled by Samsung’s powerful Neo Quantum 4 Gen 2 processor driving an impressive local dimming system. This engine also delivers exemplary 4K upscaling and contributes to much richer colours and far greater sharpness and detail than you might reasonably expect with a mid-range TV.
The Q80D’s audio, meanwhile, actually outperforms some of Samsung’s more premium TV options, while smart features are provided by the content-heavy (including a dedicated Gaming Hub) Tizen OS platform.
Pictures need a little attention to get the best from the Q80D, but that best is well worth the effort for gamers as well as movie and TV fans.
The Samsung Q80D's SolarCell (top) and regular (bottom) remote controls (Image credit: Future)
Samsung Q80D TV review: Price and release date
Release date: February 2024
QE50Q80D: £1,099 / $999 (around AU$1,500)
QE55Q80D: £1,399 / $1,199 (around AU$1,800)
QE65Q80D: £1,799 / $1,599 (around AU$2,400)
QE75Q80D: £2,499 / $2,199 (around AU$3,300)
QE85Q80D: £2,999 / $3,299 (around AU$5,00)
The 55-inch Samsung Q80D I tested launched in June 2024 in multiple territories around the world. In the UK it’s already been discounted for £1,199 at the time of writing, and its price has dropped $100 in the US for an asking price of $1,099. The Q80D range, which is available in 50 to 80-inch screen sizes, is not currently being shown as available or coming soon for the Australian market.
The UK and US prices both confirm the Q80D as sitting at the top of the relatively basic half of Samsung’s 2024 TV range. By which I mean that it’s the most premium Samsung TV you can buy this year before you get into the much higher prices demanded by Samsung’s top-tier TV technologies. This positioning potentially makes it a great option for anyone wanting to get (hopefully) plenty of Samsung’s trademark LCD picture quality for much less money than those premium technologies require.
Samsung Q80D TV review: Specs
Samsung Q80D TV review: Benchmark results
The Q80D's side-mounted connections include four HDMI 2.1 ports (Image credit: Future)
Samsung Q80D TV review: Features
4K FALD VA LCD TV
HDR10, HLG and HDR10+ support
Full gaming features across all HDMIs
The Q80D’s position in Samsung’s range means that it gets a 4K resolution rather than an 8K one, uses regular-sized LED lights rather than mini LEDs, and isn’t a Quantum Dot OLED. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t still have anything to get excited about, though.
For starters, it deploys its regular LEDs within a FALD (full array with local dimming) lighting system. This means the LEDs are placed directly behind the screen rather than around its edges, and are divided into what I counted to be 100 (10x10) separately controllable zones. The idea behind this being to enhance the TV’s contrast by allowing different parts of the picture to receive different amounts of light at any given moment depending on the ever-changing needs of the picture.
There are TVs out there these days with far more than 100 dimming zones. Experience has shown, though, that while a high dimming zone count is a good starting point, ultimately it’s not so much how many zones you have as what you do with them that counts.
The Q80D’s panel is a VA rather than IPS type, meaning its pictures may lose a bit of contrast when viewed from an angle but should deliver much better contrast when viewed head-on. Those expectations I will naturally be checking up on in the course of this review.
Driving the Q80D’s lighting engine, 4K upscaling, colour management, motion processing, noise reduction and all the other picture features the TV boasts is the second generation of Samsung’s Neo Quantum 4 processor. This, impressively, is the same processor that’s used on Samsung’s flagship 4K mini LED TVs for 2024, the Samsung QN95D range.
As you might guess from the use of Quantum in the Q80D’s processor name, the set’s colours are created by Quantum Dots. Quantum Dots handle high brightness better than traditional RGB filters, enabling TVs to achieve the bigger colour volumes needed to do justice to HDR footage.
Talking of HDR, the Q80D can handle the HDR10, HLG and premium HDR10+ formats, the latter of which adds extra scene-by-scene metadata to the feed to help TVs produce more accurate and dynamic results. Samsung continues, though, not to support the Dolby Vision premium HDR format; anything encoded in Dolby Vision will drop down to its generic HDR10 ‘layer’ (minus Dolby Vision’s extra scene-by-scene data).
As you would expect of even a mid-range Samsung TV these days, the Q80D is equipped with all the tools necessary to have it professionally calibrated. You can even have a go at this yourself thanks to the TV’s Smart Calibration system, which can perform a surprisingly effective auto calibration with no other external kit required than a recent and sufficiently high-quality mobile phone.
The Q80D carries an excellent roster of connections for a mid-range TV, including, most importantly, four HDMI ports able to handle the latest gaming features. (I’ll come back to this in the dedicated gaming section.) One of the HDMIs is also equipped with eARC functionality, to pass lossless Dolby Atmos audio tracks to soundbars and AVRs, while elsewhere there are two USB ports, an Ethernet port, an RF port, a digital optical audio output, and the now ubiquitous Bluetooth (including headphones) and Wi-Fi support.
Features Score: 4.5/5
The Samsung Q80D's picture can lose some contrast and color saturation when viewed from off-center seats (Image credit: Future)
Samsung Q80D TV review: Picture quality
Great black levels and contrast
Vibrant colours
Sharp 4K and HD pictures
The Samsung QE55Q80D immediately addressed my biggest pre-testing concern about its picture quality by delivering an outstanding contrast performance, combining more brightness with deeper, more natural, and more consistent black levels than any other LCD TV I can think of in its class.
The brightness strikes you in two ways. First, the brightest bits of HDR images have a real intensity to them – and for the most part, this intensity doesn’t come at the expense of subtle toning and details in those extreme areas. Second, the screen retains markedly more intensity with bright HDR images that flood the whole screen than most other mid-range TVs. In fact, while more expensive OLED TVs can look more intense still with small light peaks, especially when those peaks appear against dark backdrops, not even the brightest current OLED can get as bright with a full-screen HDR light show as the Q80D.
Measurements confirmed out-of-the-box peak brightness of just over 1,000 nits using 10% and 25% HDR windows – though thanks to the way the local dimming system works, the highest measurements on the 10% window were achieved in Movie and Filmmaker modes, while with the 25% window the highest measurements came with the Standard and (rather over-aggressive) Dynamic picture presets.
On a 100% HDR window, the 55-inch Q80D peaked at just under 700 nits in Standard and Dynamic mode, or around 600 nits in the Movie and Filmmaker Mode presets.
Samsung’s more advanced LCD TVs can, of course, get significantly brighter still than the Q80D. By general mid-range LCD TV standards, though, 1,000 nits is a very good effort. Especially when allied with those inky black levels I mentioned.
Dark scenes really do look fantastically convincing for the most part. The lack of any substantive blue, green or grey wash over areas of the picture that should be black is an awesome find at this level of the TV market. The amount of shadow detail the set reveals, especially in its Movie and Filmmaker Mode presets, is also excellent for such a contrast-rich FALD TV.
Even better, the local dimming system that’s largely responsible for this black level depth works its magic while throwing up impressively few backlight blooming or clouding issues. Even where something like a torch or streetlight shines out against a night sky there’s only the faintest hint of extraneous light leaching into the surrounding darkness.
If you’re watching an HDR film with black borders above and below it in a very dark room you can occasionally see a faint patch of greyness creep into the borders where a particularly bright part of the image appears right up against them. Even in these quite extreme circumstances, though, these slight ‘blooms’ are very faint for such a punchy mid-range TV.
The Q80D also proves actually more subtle than its brighter Samsung LCD siblings in a couple of areas – at least in its agreeably eye-catching Standard preset. You’re much less likely to see the TV sharply adjust its general brightness level during abrupt cuts between dark and bright shots, and bright highlights of mostly dark images don’t tend to dim down as much to prevent blooming artefacts.
I’m not saying the Q80D is totally immune to either of these occasional and short-lived backlight adjustment inconsistencies, but they’re certainly both less common and less aggressively obvious than they have been on some previous Samsung TVs I’ve reviewed.
(Image credit: Future)
Samsung TVs have long tended to thrive on 4K diets, and so it proves again with the Q80D. Native 4K sources look truly pin sharp – breathtakingly so with the best quality sources. Classic 4K showcase minutiae like the weave in clothing, facial pores, individual strands of hair, individual blades of grass in a meadow or grains of sand on a beach are all starkly obvious. As is the enhanced sense of depth associated with a high-resolution screen being able to deliver a more defined draw distance.
All of this is being delivered on a 55-inch screen, remember – hardly the biggest showcase for 4K’s charms by today’s standards. But the difference all those pixels make is plain as day. The Neo Quantum 4 Gen 2 processor proves so good at upconverting HD sources into 4K, too, that the Q80D’s 4K talents remain clear even when you’re not watching a true 4K source.
The Q80D’s colour performance is also (predictably at this point) very good by mid-range TV standards after a touch of tweaking - though it does also give us one of the TV’s main out of the box weaknesses.
At first glance, all seems well. Tones in all modes (though especially the daft Dynamic and very watchable Standard presets) enjoy bold saturations that aren’t in the least bit thinned out by the screen’s high brightness, while the more accurate Movie and Filmmaker Mode settings tone things down for a more balanced, ‘accurate’ look without, still, looking in the least bit thin or muted.
Fine blends are handled without striping, coarseness or blockiness, too, helping colours play their part in creating the image’s three-dimensional feel.
The issue that you gradually start to notice is a slightly artificial pinkish tone creeping into skin tones and some really bright parts of HDR pictures. This is particularly noticeable in the Dynamic and Standard presets, but it’s also slightly present with the more accurate Movie and even Filmmaker Modes.
Our SDR Colour Checker tests using Portrait Displays’ Calman software, C6 meter and G1 pattern generator confirmed this colour issue to some extent, as while the set registered an excellent overall Delta Error 2000 (Delta-E) figure of under three, the consistently largest colour errors came with tones most likely to be found with skin tones and peak whites. Fortunately, running the Q80D’s Smart Calibration feature can improve this problem, as can nudging the TV’s Tint control a couple of points towards green.
Another smallish sign of the Q80D’s mid-range rather than premium Samsung nature is the way the backlight blooming that the set handles so well when viewing it head-on can become quite a bit more noticeable if you have to watch the TV from more than 30 degrees or so off-axis.
Samsung’s default motion processing options for its Standard picture mode also deliver their usual heavy handed mix with 24p services of overly aggressive smoothing and messy processing side effects. So you’ll need to head into the Picture Clarity settings and either turn all motion processing off or, if you find the resulting judder too jarring, establish a Custom mode with blur and judder reduction both set below halfway (I’ll leave it to you to choose the exact settings according to your tastes).
The crucial thing about the Q80D’s main flaws, though, is that all of them, even the colour one, can be avoided or at least improved with a little manual intervention.
Picture quality score: 4.5/5
The Q80D's substantial bodywork helps with its sonics (Image credit: Future)
Samsung Q80D TV review: Sound quality
Large soundstage
Good Dolby Atmos staging
Plenty of well-placed detailing
Experience suggests that the Q80D’s substantial bodywork relative to some of Samsung’s slimmest TV options could be helpful to the set’s sonics. And so, happily, it proves.
Two strengths in particular jump out. First, there’s hardly any of the buzzing, phutting or drop-out distortions when handling bass that I’ve experienced with some Samsung models. And that’s despite bass reaching quite deep and being more readily involved in the audio presentation than it is with many mid-range TVs.
Also strong by mid-range TV standards is the scale of the Q80D’s soundstage. With Dolby Atmos sources in particular, sound mix elements that aren’t directly connected to the onscreen action, such as the score or ambient effects, appear well beyond the TV’s left and right sides without starting to sound thin or incoherent. This draws you into the action and leaves the more central areas of the sound stage with more room to handle more specific sound elements such as dialogue and separate object sound details.
Dialogue appears decently rounded without losing clarity, and the speakers are subtle enough to bring out even the smallest, most quiet effects. High trebles typically don’t sound gratingly harsh, either, and the ‘Lite’ version of Samsung’s Object Tracking Sound system does a decent job of making effects seem as if they’re appearing from the right part of the screen.
The Q80D doesn’t get as loud as some home cinema fans might wish, and the OTS system doesn’t deliver effects as accurately as the more premium versions of the technology you get on Samsung’s high-end TVs, especially when it comes to voices. Overall, though, the Q80D is one of the best-sounding TVs in Samsung’s 2024 range, and a strong general competitor to other examples of the best TVs for sound.
Sound quality score: 4.5/5
Samsung's aluminum pedestal stand for the Q80D (Image credit: Future)
Samsung Q80D TV review: Design
Centrally attached pedestal desktop stand
Not one of Samsung’s super-thin designs
Impressive build quality
Despite not boasting the ultra-thin, futuristic looks of the ‘Infinity’ design applied to Samsung’s high-end TVs, the Q80D still makes an attractive addition to your living space. The silver metallic finish of both its plate-style desktop stand and screen frame/edges looks striking, and is elevated by some impressive build quality by mid-range TV standards.
Neither the frame nor the set’s rear panel are spectacularly thin by modern TV build standards. But that’s not to say the frame doesn’t still look and feel premium, and given that we all spend our lives looking at the front of our TVs rather than the back, I’d rather a FALD TV like the Q80D be given the room for its light system to work properly rather than potentially hurting image quality by trying to make the rear super-thin.
It’s worth pointing out, too, that there are channels on the Q80D’s rear to help keep your cables tidy, and that you can call up photos, videos or even artwork onto the set’s screen rather than having to be left with a big black rectangle in your room when you’re not actually watching TV.
Design score: 4/5
The Q80D's Tizen smart TV interface (Image credit: Future)
Samsung Q80D TV review: Smart TV and menus
Tizen OS carries lots of content
No Freeview Play in the UK
Excellent Gaming Hub feature
The Q80D’s smart features are provided by the brand’s own Tizen OS (also sometimes known as ‘Eden’). This system has undergone extensive changes over the past few years, in particular shifting from a compact interface super-imposed over whatever you’re watching to a full-screen OS.
I still find aspects of the full-screen OS a little daunting in their presentation, and illogical in their navigation. The latest version sported by the Q80D continues to refine things in the right direction, though – especially when it comes to deciding what sort of content is relevant to you (based on analysis of your viewing habits) to highlight on its home screen.
A generally high content level is provided on the Tizen OS, including all the video streaming apps most viewers will ever need. The only exception is that there’s no support for the UK’s Freeview Play system, which brings together all the UK’s main terrestrial broadcaster catch-up apps.
You can control the Q80D to an impressively deep level using just voice commands if you’re okay with talking to your TV, and, finally, there are a couple of great resources for gamers with the Gaming Hub and Game Bar, which I’ll cover in more detail in the next section.
Smart TV & menus score: 4.5/5
The Samsung Gaming Hub interface lets you easily access connected consoles and cloud-based gaming services (Image credit: Future)
Samsung Q80D TV review: Gaming
4K 120Hz and VRR support
All four HDMIs support all gaming features
Gaming Hub and Game Bar menu
Along with being a fine TV, the Q80D is an outstanding gaming monitor. For starters, all four of its HDMI ports can handle 4K 120Hz signals delivered by PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X consoles and premium PC graphics cards – the set doesn’t limit you to just two 4K 120Hz HDMIs like many rival TVs do.
All the HDMIs also support variable refresh rates (including the AMD FreeSync Premium format) and auto game mode switching, and when running in its Game mode input lag drops to an outstandingly low 9.8ms.
The Gaming Hub I mentioned in the previous section is a dedicated screen in the Tizen OS that brings together all your gaming sources, from streamed platforms like NVidia GeForce to connected consoles and PCs. The Game Bar, meanwhile, is an onscreen menu you can call up when gaming that provides at-a-glance details about the graphics feed and quick access to specific gaming features. These include mini-map magnification, a super-imposed crosshair, the option to sacrifice a little response time in return for smoother panning in low frame rate games, and the ability to raise the brightness of just the dark parts of a game to make it easier to spot enemies.
Gaming score: 5/5
The substantial Samsung Q80D seen from the rear (Image credit: Future)
Samsung Q80D TV review: Value
Samsung’s cheapest non-mini-LED or OLED TV
Impressive gaming features for its money
Picture and sound quality both above par for a mid-range TV
In many ways, the Q80D feels like a premium Samsung TV from three or four years ago – which is actually a pretty big compliment. Its FALD LCD display delivers much better all-around pictures than we usually find in the mid-range TV world, and they’re backed up by more than respectable sonics too.
It also ticks more feature boxes than I might have expected of a mid-range TV in terms of its core panel technologies, gaming support and its expansive and unusually intelligent smart TV system.
Value score: 4.5/5
One of many abstract images available in the Samsung Q80D's Ambient mode (Image credit: Future)
Should I buy the Samsung Q80D TV?
Buy it if...
Don't buy it if…
Also consider...
(Image credit: Future)
How I tested the Samsung Q80D TV
Tested over 12 days
Tested with 4K Blu-rays, multiple streaming platforms and resolutions, Freeview HD broadcasts, and HD Blu-rays
Reviewed in both dark and light dedicated test room conditions, and a regular (corner position) living room set up
As a mid-range TV, my starting point with the 55-inch Samsung Q80D was trying to home in on some of the basic qualities of its panel. So I measured its brightness using an HDR window test from the Spears & Munsil Ultra HD Benchmark 4K Blu-ray disc measured with a professional light meter, and also fed the screen various real-world scenes, such as the early party in the mansion sequence in Babylon on 4K Blu-ray, that feature lots of bright highlights against dark backgrounds. This gave me a feel for how good the set’s backlight controls and viewing angles are.
I also used a test screen featuring a small white square tracking around the outsides of the image to count the number of dimming zones the 55-inch Q80D carries.
From here on in, for the ‘test results’ part of my analysis I used Portrait Displays’ Calman Ultimate software, together with the same company’s C6 light meter and G1 pattern generator.
For regular viewing tests, I watched all sorts of content, from HD SDR broadcasts via a Sky Q box to HD SDR streams, 4K SDR streams and 4K HDR streams from a selection of the main streaming platforms.
For more consistently dependable results, I also watched several 4K Blu-ray films that I regularly use for TV testing, such as Babylon, Pan, It Chapter One, and Blade Runner 2049. I also watched these sources in a variety of room conditions, from a blacked-out test room to a sun-drenched living room.
Gaming was tested using both a PS5 and an Xbox Series X, with a Leo Bodnar input lag meter used to measure input lag.
For this review, I tested the UK version. There may be minor differences between different countries' models.
The Nutribullet Magic Bullet Portable Blender (known as just the Nutribullet Portable Blender in the UK and Australia) is a compact and convenient blender if you want or need to make drinks on the go. It weighs just 1.5lbs / 710g and measures 10.7 x 3.2 x 3.7" / 27.2 x 8 x 9.5cm, which means it fits easily inside a backpack or gym bag. It has a 0.5qt / 475ml cup, which comes with a leak-proof flip and sip lid and carry handle.
The blender is compatible with any USB-C charger, and ships with a USB-C cable as standard. Nutribullet claims you can get around 15 cycles per charge of the Portable Blender but I averaged between 18-20 and a single charge lasted me almost two weeks.
Despite its smaller size and lower, 100-watt power compared with other Nutribullet models, as well as the majority of best blenders on the market, the Portable Blender makes smoothies and drinks with speed and ease. It only offers a 60-second blending cycle which, in my experience, is more than adequate for most drink preparations but feels a little restrictive if you're looking to blend tougher ingredients or make more complex recipes.
Speaking of complex recipes, while the blender’s performance with smoothies was impressive, it struggled with making hummus. It also failed to crush ice evenly. What's more, trying to clean the blender after attempting to make the hummus was tricky. The blade is fixed into the base and you can't wash it under a tap or similar because the base also houses all the electronics. The only way to clean it is to run a cleaning cycle, but then you're using up the already limited battery life. Thankfully, you can remove the cup and lid and put them both on the top-drawer of the dishwasher so at least that's something.
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Aesthetically, the Portable Blender comes in a great range of vibrant colors: black, light blue, magenta, navy blue, purple and white. I love this variety, but the plastic build of the blender does look a little cheap.
In summary, the Nutribullet Magic Bullet Portable Blender is ideal for people needing a quick, portable, and efficient way to make smoothies on the go, or for people with limited kitchen space. I wouldn't recommend it if you're looking for more heavy-duty blending or complex recipes, but it excels in its intended use case. Read on for my full Nutribullet Portable Blender review.
If you hadn't guessed from its relatively low-power, 100-watt motor and its equally low $39.99 / £39.99 / A$79.95 price, the Nutribullet Magic Bullet Portable Blender – known as just the Nutribullet Portable Blender in the UK – is cheap and cheerful. It's the latest entry-level model in a range that also includes:
Nutribullet still sells its portable GO blender but it appears to have been discontinued because stocks are low and the blender is no longer available across a majority of retailers.
Aside from the extra power you get the further up the range you go, little separates the blenders themselves. They all look and work in a similar way. The 600 Series has a 0.75qt / 700ml tall cup, and a 0.56qt / 550ml short cup; the Pro 900 comes with a tall, and 1qt / 909ml oversized cup. The 1200 Pro+ and Ultra both ship with two cups – 0.75qt / 700ml, and 0.94qt / 900ml. By comparison, the Magic Bullet Portable Blender's cup holds 0.5qt / 475ml.
While it lacks the power of its siblings, the Nutribullet Magic Bullet Portable Blender does come in the widest range of colors of any Nutribullet blender, past and present. This includes: black, light blue, magenta, navy blue, purple and white. What's more, the whole blender is portable, not just the cup, and it comes with a carry handle and charging. This vastly adds to its appeal and versatility.
The closest like-for-like portable blender to the Nutribullet is the Ninja Blast. It launched in 2023, costs $59.99 / £49.99 / AU$99.99 and comes with the same sippy cup lid, carry handle and battery-powered, portable design. It’s available in Denim Blue, Black, Cranberry, Forest Green, Passion Fruit and White colors. The biggest differences between the two are that the Ninja model is a lot less powerful – 14.4-watts vs the Nutribullet's 100-watts – and it comes with a 30-second cycle, versus Nutribullet's 60-second one. The cup is larger on the Ninja, at 0.56qt / 550ml however you can only fill to the maximum 0.5qt / 475ml line, which gives the two blenders the same capacity.
Nutribullet suggests you replace the extractor blades on all of its blenders every six months. These cost around $15 / £10 / AU$20 but even with this additional price factored in, the Magic Bullet Personal Blender is still great value for money.
Value for money score: 5 out of 5
Nutribullet Portable Blender review: design
Simple press-to-blend design
Wide range of brightly colored finishes
Carry handle and USB-C charging point
Dishwasher safe BPA-free cup
Until the launch of its Magic Bullet Portable Blender, the majority of personal blenders in the Nutribullet range looked largely the same. They all have a slightly industrial aesthetic, usually consisting of a silver and black finish. Their bases have curved edges, and you attach the cups upside down. In almost stark comparison, the Portable Blender looks more like a Bluetooth speaker or water bottle, than a blender. Its tall and thin, measuring 10.7 x 3.2 x 3.7" / 27.2 x 8 x 9.5cm, and is made of plastic. It weighs 1.5lb / 710g.
The blender is designed to be used and stored as a single appliance. It has a compact motor base with a power button and USB-C charging port on the front. The blade assembly sits on top of this detachable base. The power button is fitted with an LED status light that indicates when the blender is running, when it's fully charged and when it's running low on battery. Nutribullet promises around 15 blending cycles per battery charge and the Portable Blender only offers a single, 60-second cycle. It automatically stops blending after the 60 seconds are up.
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The cylindrical, 0.5qt / 475ml cup screws into the base, and has a leakproof flip and sip lid with a carry handle at the top. This lip is secured into place using a locking latch, and removed via a release button.
I reviewed the navy blue model and the color is vibrant and eye-catching, if slightly childish. This blender certainly doesn't have the premium aesthetic of Nutribullet's champagne-colored or metallic models. It looks as you'd expect, given its cheap price. The plastic is easy to clean, though, and it's incredibly easy to store in a cupboard or carry in a bag.
While the blender ships with a USB-C cable, it's only 1.6ft / 0.5m long and doesn't have a plug. This makes the cable easy to pack or store, but means you will need a spare plug to use it. Fortunately, because USB-C is increasingly the standard for appliances and gadgets, you can charge the Portable Blender with any of your existing chargers.
On the wider Nutribullet range, the blade is fitted inside a lid that attaches to the cup before screwing into the base. This makes it easy to remove and clean. Due to the fact the blade is built into the Magic Bullet Portable Blender's base, and this base contains all of the electrics, it's a pain to wash. You can, of course, run a blending cycle using soapy water but as every cycle drains the battery slightly, this isn't an ideal design. At least the cup and lip are detachable and dishwasher-safe, although you do need to make sure they're on the top shelf of your dishwasher to avoid damage.
I always use the same methodology and recipes when testing blenders. That way I can make like-for-like comparisons between the various models I review. These tests include making a kale and blueberry smoothie, making hummus and crushing ice cubes. It became immediately clear, however, that the Magic Bullet Portable Blender is simply not built for this range of tests.
The hummus barely blended. The ingredients were flung to the edges of the cup and I had to repeatedly stop the cycle to push them back down towards the blades. Even then, it never fully blended the chickpeas or garlic and I had to abandon the whole thing.
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Chickpeas and garlic in the Nutribullet Magic Bullet portable blender for making hummus (Image credit: Future)
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Poorly-made hummus in the Nutribullet Magic Bullet portable blender (Image credit: Future)
If I'd persevered with multiple cycles, the results may have improved but Nutribullet doesn't advise using the blender for more than 60 seconds. (It also warns about not using hot ingredients in the blender, too). What's more, the thick hummus clung to the inside of the blender and because you can't put the blades in the wash, it took a while to get it properly clean.
The blender's performance during the ice test was better, but not brilliant. There were still a few lumps of ice left in the bottom of the blender, and the ice that was crushed wasn't uniform in size of texture.
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Ice cubes in the Nutribullet Magic Bullet portable blender (Image credit: Future)
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Result of using the Nutribullet Magic Bullet portable blender to crush ice cubes (Image credit: Future)
Finally, the smoothie was the best performing test. During the blender's 60-second cycle, it created a smooth and thick drink that tasted great. There were flecks of kale and blueberry skin left in the liquid, but they were so small you couldn't taste them and they didn't interfere with the texture.
It feels a little unfair to judge such a low-power, affordable blender on tasks that are designed for more complex machines. It's clear – given its marketing and design –that the Portable Blender is for drinks and drinks only. And this was where the blender came into its own. Making drinks and smoothies is likely how the majority of people shopping for a portable blender will use it.
The limited, 60-second blending time is a little restrictive but is more than adequate for making smoothies and drinks. It makes the blender incredibly easy to use, too. I like the fact you get a warning, in the form of an LED indicator, when the battery is running low and in my experience, you still get two to three additional blending cycles even when this light comes on.
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Speaking of blending cycles, the promises made by Nutribullet regarding ~15 cycles per charge sell the blender a little short. I got an average of 18 cycles per charge during my review period, although a frustrating number of those were cleaning cycles. It also only takes around an hour and a half to get the blender back to full charge again.
The Nutribullet Portable Blender is almost whisper-quiet, running at an average of just 65dB when making a smoothie. It did soar to 106dB when I first added the ice during the ice crush test but it almost immediately dropped back to a level in which I could have a conversation with my partner easily.
Given its price, the Portable Blender performed as I'd expected. It didn't blow me away, and it's not ideal for anything other than smoothies and drinks but it does do what you need it to do. And it does that very well. I've used it to make my protein shakes at the gym, and to make smoothies for a quick breakfast and I'm willing to lose some power and versatility for its increased portability and lower price.
Keen on the Nutribullet brand, but not sure which model is right for your needs? Here's a quick run-down of the differences between them...
Should I buy the Nutribullet Magic Bullet Portable Blender?
There's a lot going for the Magic Bullet Portable Blender. If you're looking for a blender you can take to the gym for protein shakes, or for making smoothies on the go, I can barely fault it. It's an excellent choice in terms of convenience, and for space-saving. Its also quick and simple to use and comes with a budget-friendly price, adding to its appeal.
However, it does have some limitations. Its lower power means it may struggle with tougher ingredients, and its smaller cup size may not meet the needs of people who want to blend larger quantities. The short blending cycle can be restrictive, and the plastic construction, while lightweight, lacks the premium feel of other blenders.
Additionally, the blender is primarily designed for making drinks and smoothies, so it may not be versatile enough for more complex recipes or food preparation tasks. If you need a portable and affordable blender for simple tasks, the Magic Bullet Portable Blender will be a great choice. If you require a more powerful and versatile appliance, you might want to consider investing in a higher-end model.
Buy it if...
Don't buy it if...
Should I buy the Nutribullet Magic Bullet Portable Blender?
For the duration of the review period, the NutriBullet Portable blender replaced my favorite Braun TriForce blender. I used the portable blender to make a range of smoothies, hummus, and crushed ice as well as making protein shakes for going to the gym. It was a great substitute for the shop-bought shakes and drinks I buy throughout the week and I was able to use it to make protein shakes on the go, and quick smoothies for breakfast. For these smoothies I experimented with green, fibrous veg as well as soft fruit to see how well the blender’s single setting handled each.
This Garmin Vivoactive 5 review has found this latest sports and health tracking wearable a contender among the best running watches, placing it against the Garmin Venu 3 and even punching up at some of the Forerunner options. The Vivoactive 5 is cheaper than many a Forerunner, but still offers a stunning AMOLED display and over 30 sports tracking options, plus sleep and stress tracking, to name a few health options.
All that places the Vivoactive 5 as an excellent watch for those with an active lifestyle, who might not be power users or marathon runners. It's certainly vying for a spot as one of the best fitness trackers, and thanks to notification functionalities, its pebble-style design and of course that rich display, it even starts to make a play as an Apple Watch competitor.
While this model doesn't feature solar charging and sits at a very slim 11mm thin, making it smaller than the Vivoactive 4, it actually offers a more efficient 11-day top-end battery life. Slimmer and longer-lasting? A great sign for a sequel, especially when you consider the Vivoactive 5 retains a lot of the top-end fitness tracking, GPS-powered workout stuff that makes the best Garmin watches great.
You might also find the older models in the range suit your needs just fine (and will save you money too, compared to picking up a brand new model), so a look at our guide to Garmin Vivoactive 3 vs Garmin Vivoactive 4 might help you choose.
Garmin Vivoactive 5: Specifications
Garmin Vivoactive 5: Price and availability
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£259.99 in the UK
$300 in the US
AU$499 in Australia
The Garmin Vivoactive 5 was launched on September 20, 2023 with availability to buy beginning in December, worldwide.
It was priced at $300 (£259.99 in the UK, and AU$499 in Australia) at launch, but can now be snapped up for around $249, at time of publishing. That’s a little less than the Garmin Forerunner 645 Music, and loads less than a Fenix 7 or Garmin Forerunner 965.
The Vivoactive 5 is a decent way to get Garmin watch tracking without costing you too much. If you want a more affordable alternative, you could opt for the Vivoactive 4.
Value score: 4/5
Garmin Vivoactive 5: Design and screen
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Dimensions of 42.2 x 42.2 x 11.1 mm
5ATM water resistance
1.2-inch AMOLED display
Gorilla Glass 3 screen protection
The Garmin Vivoactive 5 hasn't changed much in form since a few models back but that is largely thanks to it being a very efficient and effective design that just works. You have a slimmer body than ever now at just over 11mm and it comes in a single 42mm size.
The screen is protected by Gorilla Glass 3, meaning you won't need to worry too much about scratches, despite that slightly raised glass finish – which looks great but leaves it more exposed to damage.
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The Vivoactive 5 is a little smaller, as well as slimmer, than its 45mm predecessor. But with that stunning high-res screen and longer battery life, it's a welcome change. The small watch itself combined with a silicone band makes for a barely noticeable wrist partner, which is great for sleep tracking and wearing overnight as well as all-day wear. While a Forerunner might feel a little more premium compared to the lighter finish here, with more plastic buttons, the trade-off for lighter watch which is less noticeable on your wrist is perhaps worth it.
Thanks to that 5ATM water resistance, you don't even need to take the watch off in the shower and can use it for swim tracking, in pool or sea as needed.
The Garmin Vivoactive 5 has a 1.2-inch AMOLED screen, upgrading the previous MIP display. This is a really bright and colorful display, which means clarity in direct sunlight as well as in use underwater. Crucially, this display is also more efficient, meaning it actually saves battery compared to the MIP display while looking better than ever.
The resolution is high, so you can read a lot of text on that small screen with ease. The colorful finish makes details clear and brighter, while also giving Garmin the chance to enhance its layout. The new layout makes it easier to read notifications without having to reach for your phone than a lot of other Garmin watches, even the ultra-premium ones.
You will likely be able to use this fuctionality for more features in future, like Ring doorbell alerts. To be clear, you'll need the Venu 3 for that right now, but a Garmin software update is all it could take to get the Venu 3's Ring doorbell interaction on the Vivoactive 5 in future, thanks to that do-it-all display.
Design score: 4/5
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Garmin Vivoactive 5: Features
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Attractive and clear layout
Useful shortcuts
Two hardware buttons
The Vivoactive range only has two buttons, unlike the Forerunners or Fenix, which have five. This means touchscreen is the main interaction point and that works very well, with minimal smudges and marks on that resistant glass.
Touch a button to start or stop a workout, while the other can be used to track laps or workout segments. It's simple but works well, with the touchscreen during exercise reserved largely for flicking between data screens.
You have access to over 30 sports tracking options from the get-go, plus this uses the Garmin Connect IQ store for even more health and smart app options available from third-party developers. Although it's worth noting these can be a bit flakey at times, you can't judge the Vivoactive 5 as a unit on the merits of third-party app developers. Besides, I think it's quite charming, like using the internet in the nineties.
Long-press the buttons for shortcut access to useful features like watch controls or clocks and settings. These can be edited too so you do feel in quick control without much menu diving needed.
Features score: 4/5
Garmin Vivoactive 5: Performance
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As previously mentioned, the Garmin Vivoactive 5 offers over 30 exercises to track, all with clear data screens that you can edit as you need. From the basics like running, cycling and swimming, to slightly more esoteric activities like golf, yoga and SUP – this has more than enough for most needs.
What makes the metrics really useful, aside from accurate GPS and HR monitoring, is the data on health. Pulse OX looks at your oxygen levels and Respiration monitors breathing rate which is helpful in periods of rest, sleep or during yoga. Body Battery is a tried-and-true Garmin Watch metric used to offer a window into how hard you're pushing yourself. That said, there is no Performance Condition or Training Readiness Score here, which is a shame, but you can still use Body Battery to get a good idea of when to rest and push.
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It's worth noting that this is a very impressive sleeper entry into the best golf watch ring. You can even connect to club sensors for super-rich data metrics in addition to the wealth of health tracking options on offer here.
The lack of Training Load is a shame, as this metric places your exercise into context and really helps when training hard, so you can see when to push yourself and what type of exercise will benefit your training – aerobic versus anaerobic, for example. Also having a number of hours to rest is a helpful figure to work with – and lets you feel you've earned a rest. This is all sadly lacking in the cheaper Vivoactive range, and available on more premium Garmin watches.
The GPS acquisition is definitely slower than on the Forerunners. That said, after an initial connection in a location taking over a minute, it was faster during subsequent tests at under 30 seconds. Accuracy was high once out and training, with HR and GPS both performing comparably to the Forerunner 965 when tested side-by-side. The Vivoactive 5 features the same Elevate V4 heart rate sensor, also on the 965, it would have been nice to see the more advanced V5 found on the Venu 3. Still, these omissions help keep the cost down, eliminating barriers to entry.
The screen offers lots of data options while training and thanks to the clarity of the AMOLED screens, these are genuinely useful, flitting between them all by using the touchscreen. However, the swimming workout profile locks the touchscreen down to avoid water-based touchscreen inaccuracies. On that subject, swimming lengths were measured very accurately, even when I changed between stroke types every few lengths.
For the price point, the fact this features an SpO2 oxygen saturation monitor is impressive. This is able to track two sets of data at once, using green and red lights, making it a lot more data-rich and accurate in other extrapolated metrics than lower-end watches.
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There is a lack of altimeter and metrics to count the number of floors climbed which isn't a deal breaker, although that floors climbed alert is missed when you lose it as a daily measure of active movements.
Sleep data is helpful with REM, deep sleep and light sleep stages, along with pulse oximeter and breathing data for that night. All of that adds up to a competitive offering that gives lots of insight into sleep each morning. I enjoyed the Morning Report which showed changes if I had a poor night's sleep, had drank alcohol or was feeling under the weather.
Having music onboard the watch is a real appeal, as it means going out for exercise without your phone as you connect Bluetooth headphones directly to the watch.
While you can store music onboard, realistically most people will prefer to use Spotify or Deezer and simply save playlists offline on the device. You need a paid subscription to the streaming service in question for these features and the controls aren't great, but it does work and is welcome at this price point.
The Vivoactive 5 initially lacked Garmin Pay in the UK, but that has now rolled out so you can tap to pay and truly explore phone-free.
Notifications from your phone apps work well, with WhatsApp allowing you to read messages as you go without the phone being opened. The options are minimal so it's not an Apple Watch competitor in that way, but is useful enough to stop you reaching for your phone as much.
Apps offer some useful information on your wrist like the weather or sunset times or useful surf data. It's all basic but can be genuinely useful.
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The Garmin Vivoactive 5's layout is modular, like other Garmins, so you can arrange to sort your most-used training profiles to the top of the menu, making getting started easy. But it can get cluttered with automatic recommendations, so it's best to put some time into tidying every now and then to make sure it's running at maximum efficiency.
Garmin says the Vivoactive 5 gets you 11 days on a charge, or six hours of GPS tracking with music or 18 hours without. In real world use that worked out to about a working week's worth of use with several GPS-tracked sessions, without music. That means going away for a weekend, with plenty of training, should mean you won't need to charge the watch until the middle of the following week. That's exactly what you want at this price point.
This is not the best Garmin for battery, by a long shot, but it does the job more than well enough while remaining extremely compact.
The charger uses a proprietary charger, which fits most Garmin devices and plugs into a USB-C port for a full charge in about an hour.
Performance score: 4/5
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Garmin Vivoactive 5: Scorecard
Garmin Vivoactive 5: Should I buy?
Buy it if...
You want a bit of everything
The Garmin Vivoactive 5 is great for an all round measure of health, fitness and lifestyle. This gives more than enough data to keep you healthy without overcomplicating things.
You're on a budget
The Garmin Vivoactive 5 is really affordable when you take into consideration how much you get for your money here, including that stunning AMOLED display.
Don't buy it if...
You have sports specific goals
If you want to drill into data to make sports progress using metrics then the Forerunner or Fenix series might serve you better, especially with Training Readiness features.
You want longer battery life
This does offer a powerful battery performance but there are far longer life options, some using solar, if that's your need.
Garmin Vivoactive 5: How we tested
Our reviewer wore the Garmin Vivoactive 5 as his primary smartwatch for over two weeks, and it accompanied him on some trips as well as during regular workouts. It was paired to a iPhone 15 Pro Max for the majority of the testing.
The tracking results were compared to historical results from the Garmin Forerunner 965 and Wahoo Tickr, as well as the built-in step counter on the smartphone to assess accuracy.
Garmin Vivoactive 5: Also consider
Garmin Vivoactive 5 just one of many considerations for you? Here's a trio of suggestions to look into:
Polar Vantage V2
A great multi-sport option perfect for runners. It doesn't hold music, but it can offer very sophisticated metrics and boasts an advanced suite of running features.
The more entry-level, cheaper Forerunner in Garmin's stable offers a great package of its key running features, plus one of it holds music. A great alternative for serious runners.
JBL may not be a brand best known for its microphones and streaming kit, but they are a hardy brand with an excellent reputation. The brand’s Quantum Stream Studio is one of its first stabs at a premium streaming microphone for you to shout into, and by and large, it’s a solid option that’s well-priced and specced. It looks great with an entirely integrated design and thoughtful touches such as an integrated mute button, on-board gain control with LED lights for gain and monitoring volume, and a choice of four polar patterns.
Elsewhere, the Quantum Stream Studio performs well with a clear, well-rounded pickup with both a fair bit of low-end and excellent clarity. Those four polar patterns make it versatile too, as it can be used for single-person recording, as well as in one-on-one interviews, or when recording in a group. Not many other microphones for streaming and gaming offer this function in 2024, so it’s a welcome addition to JBL’s option.
However, the Quantum Studio has a couple of shortcomings compared to more established options, such as its sub-par noise rejection. The software here, while functional, is also on the basic side, sticking with options also found physically on the microphone’s control panel, such as gain control and choice of polar pattern.
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JBL Quantum Stream Studio: Price and availability
$149.99 / £129.99 / AU$199.95
Available in the US, UK and Australia
Solid value for money
In the context of premium mics for content creators, streamers, and that kind of audience, the price tag of the JBL Quantum Stream Studio is decent and offers robust value. Against some of our favorite streaming microphones, JBL’s option retails for slightly more than the Blue Yeti in the USA, but identically in the UK, while also being comparable to options from audio giants Audio Technica and its AT2020 USB-X with its $149 / £116 price tag.
With this in mind, the Quantum Stream Studio is also much more affordable than premium choices such as the SteelSeries Alias, which goes for $179.99 / £179.99. In Australia, JBL’s mic becomes even better value than SteelSeries’ option, given its price is half - it’s AU$199.95 against the Alias’ AU$399. Across the board, the Quantum Stream Studio represents solid value for money with its feature set.
JBL Quantum Stream Studio: Specs
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JBL Quantum Stream Studio: Design and features
Sleek, cylindrical chassis
Intuitive controls
Simple connectivity and lighting
Compared to some of the more avant-garde designs seen more recently with microphones such as the SteelSeries Alias, the JBL Quantum Stream Studio sticks to something more conventional. Its main body is cylindrical, with a tall stature that carries presence when plonked on a desk, while there is a mute button on top and convenient controls on the front fascia.
The pop filter on the Quantum Stream Studio is integrated, meaning there aren’t any unsightly protrusions here, keeping JBL’s microphone looking clean. The chassis here is almost entirely metal too, exuding a high-quality finish that matches the price tag.
Elsewhere, JBL’s mic also comes with a small stand, which echoes the marvelous quality found elsewhere. It carries plenty of heft and keeps the Quantum Stream Studio in place well, although allows for some movement out of the box. This can be alleviated by tightening the dials on each side, as well as on the base. The underside of the stand also provides a strip of non-slip rubber to prevent the Quantum Stream Studio from sliding around unnecessarily on a desk. It worked well both on a desk and on my mousepad in testing.
The controls on the Quantum Stream Studio are wonderfully simple to use and easy to access, being contained on the front panel or on the top and bottom sides of the cylinder. The front panel is home to a dial, giving you quick access to gain control or monitoring volume if you’ve got headphones plugged into the mic’s 3.5mm jack on the back. You can also choose between a balance of the two by clicking the dial-in until it reveals a half-and-half pattern. The dial also has a small LED which can be used to monitor levels without trawling through software, which is nifty.
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Also contained on the front panel are four white LED lights at the bottom which allow you to pick between the different polar patterns that the Quantum Stream Studio has, much like the Blue Yeti can do. These are accessed with a button on the bottom side of the mic, marked with a P. Click it in, and it’ll change the pattern with ease.
On the top of the Quantum Stream Studio’s chassis is a big mic mute panel, which operates as more of a pad than a button. Press on the mic mute icon, and the LED on the top changes from green to red, giving you a convenient visual indication that no one can hear you. You do have to be quite precise with your finger placement to ensure the microphone mutes, as pressing anywhere but directly on the mic mute icon does nothing.
The back side is home to a USB-C port for connectivity, as well as that 3.5mm jack for monitoring. Interestingly, the Quantum Stream Studio itself doesn’t have a thread mount for putting elsewhere other than the desktop mount. However, the base of the desktop mount unscrews for putting into a standard boom arm mount. Nifty.
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JBL Quantum Stream Studio: Performance
Clear, full-bodied pickup
Versatile with four pickup patterns
Basic software configuration
Out of the box, the Quantum Stream Studio offers reasonably solid pickup with decent clarity and body. The default cardioid pickup pattern is best suited for vocals and instruments and provides good comms in both chatting with friends over Discord, in-game chats on Counter-Strike 2, and when testing in Audacity for recording my own dulcet tones.
The initial thesis with the cardioid pickup pattern is that with it picking up noise solely from the front, it should reject noise from the back and sides. However, at least in this pattern, the noises of my custom mechanical keyboard a few inches away from the back of the microphone were picked up. The distinct lack of any form of noise cancellation or rejection is a shame, especially when other premium streaming microphones offer much better performance in this particular area.
The other polar patterns are less useful for individual recording, but they are useful if you’ve got multiple people involved to huddle around one microphone. The omnidirectional pattern means the Quantum Stream Studio will pick up sound from all directions, making it ideal for podcast recording with a singular microphone. It essentially opens up the soundstage, and isn’t the best for single-person recording, picking up a lot more background noise.
(Image credit: Future/Reece Bithrey)
There's also a bidirectional pattern, where the microphone captures inputs from the front and back - ideal for one-on-one interviewing. This option did a solid job of isolating noise elsewhere than the front and back in testing. The final pickup mode is arguably the most interesting, as the Quantum Stream Studio has a stereo mode, which can be used for recording instruments or if you’ve got two people on the same side of the microphone.
The mic’s software comes in the form of the Windows-only JBL Quantum Engine, which installs automatically when you first plug the Quantum Stream Studio in. As opposed to offering a plethora of customization with its own mixer, as SteelSeries’ GG does, the Quantum Stream Studio’s software is a bit more basic.
Quantum Engine allows for on-the-fly adjustment of the levels of gain and monitoring, as well as allowing you to choose the polar pattern. You can also customize the color of the lighting for the mic’s built-in level indicator which shows around the volume wheel on the front so you know you can be heard without being too loud. Otherwise, that’s pretty much it, apart from a cool graphic of the mic’s outline itself which rotates around in the bottom right corner.
(Image credit: Future/Reece Bithrey)
Should I buy the JBL Quantum Stream Studio?
Buy it if...
You want the flexibility of multiple pickup patterns Not many microphones offer the convenience of multiple pickup patterns these days, and the feature has almost gone out of fashion. If you want a mic that offers it in 2024, the Quantum Stream Studio is an excellent one.
You want a mic that’s simple to use The Quantum Stream Studio is one of the simplest mics to use in its price range, with it requiring no assembly or poking around online for software installation, and will be up and running shortly after being plugged it in.
Don't buy it if...
You want more advanced software JBL’s option lacks more advanced and granular control within its software, which is a shame if you’re looking to really adjust every minute detail or option. If you’re after more in the way of configuration, you’ll want to look elsewhere.
You want class-leading noise cancellation In all of its four pickup patterns, the Quantum Stream Studio lets in a fair amount of background noise which is a consideration for those looking for quality sound isolation and rejection.
Also consider...
If you’re still not sold on the JBL Quantum Stream Studio, here’s how it stacks up against two similar options.
Blue Yeti If the JBL Quantum Stream Studio isn’t for you, then the Blue Yeti makes sense. It’s a veteran of the mic world, and our current top ranker with its four polar patterns, sublime pickup and versatile colour choices. You may not get RGB, and it is only a single mic setup internally, but the Blue Yeti is excellent
HyperX DuoCast The HyperX DuoCast is also a solid alternative to JBL’s mic, netting a position as the best USB mic we’ve tested for the purpose of podcasting. This is not only because of its excellent pickup across both its cardioid and omnidirectional pickup patterns, but also because it comes with a shock mount and boom arm adapter included, meaning you’re ready to go right out of the box. While the software can be a bit finicky, the DuoCast is an excellent plug and play option for podcasters.
I used the JBL Quantum Stream Studio as my main microphone for two weeks. I tested it with both Audacity for test recordings, as well as when chatting with friends over Discord and in games such as Counter-Strike 2 for in-game chats. I also made sure to install the additional software to best test its functionality on Windows.
This model has slightly different names and product codes in different territories:
US: KitchenAid 7 Cup Food Processor KFP0718 UK: KitchenAid Food Processor 1.7L 5KFP0719 AU: KitchenAid 7 Cup Food Processor KFP0719
The products with 719 in their codes have extra accessories, specifically a thick-slice disc, and a plastic dough blade. For this review, I tested the UK model. There may be minor differences between different countries' models.
The KitchenAid 7 cup Food Processor (known as the KitchenAid Food Processor 1.7L in the UK) is compact, thoughtfully designed and has proven to be a great time saver when meal prepping.
Something to mention straight off the bat is that the UK and Australian models have a couple more accessories than the US model, which is reflected in the price. At the time of writing, the 7 cup / 1.7L Food Processor is on sale for $84.99 / £143.65 / AU$219, while the list price is $99.99 / £169 / AU$299. The US model KFP0718 is essentially the same as the UK and Australian KFP0719 models, with all models coming with a multipurpose stainless steel blade and a reversible slicing and shredding disc, but only the UK and Australian models coming with a thick-slice disc and a plastic dough blade. For this review, I tested the UK version of the KitchenAid Food Processor 1.7L.
(Image credit: Future)
Setting up the KitchenAid 7 cup / 1.7L Food Processor was straightforward. All of the accessories were neatly stored inside the work bowl, which is a convenient feature, saving you from cupboard-diving each time you want to process something. And the accessories fit into place with ease: there are markers on the top of the disc and the drive shaft to ensure you place it in the correct position for either processing or storing.
The 7 cup / 1.7L Food Processor is available in a range of colors that will fit in with most kitchen decors. It doesn’t take up unnecessary space, measuring 9.7 x 7.7 x 15.4 inches / 245 x 195 x 390mm and weighing just 6.6lb / 3kg. The work bowl easily clicked into place every time thanks to its convenient twist-free design, and although I had the occasional issue putting enough pressure on the lid to get the latch to shut, the lift-out design of the hinge made it simple to remove. One downside with the design, however, is that the work bowl handle can only be positioned on the right-hand side, which could prove inconvenient for some users.
(Image credit: Future / Cesci Angell)
Using the two feed tubes and pushers was easy, but the bigger feed tube still isn’t big enough for larger-diameter fruit and veg, so if you want large, neat circles of sliced cucumber, you may be out of luck. If you get into the habit of buying slimmer cucumbers though, you’ll probably be fine.
There are two speed settings labeled 1 and 2 on the easy-to-press buttons, with one being low speed, and two being high. There is also a Pulse button. Speed one and two aren’t overly noisy, but the noise level was uncomfortably loud when using the Pulse function, especially when chopping almonds.
Everything but the base unit is top-rack dishwasher-safe, which proved to be a great time saver. These parts were easy to hand wash too, although removing pastry from tight areas proved difficult. At the end of the testing, I put the work bowl, lid, and accessories in the dishwasher. Everything came out fine, although the work bowl did show some water marks.
(Image credit: Future / Cesci Angell)
The performance of the KitchenAid 7 cup / 1.7L Food Processor was adequate. For my tests, I used it to slice or chop carrots, onion and cucumber, as well as whizzing bread into breadcrumbs, finely chopping almonds and combining the ingredients for pastry. It managed all these tasks quickly and with no trouble.
However, the consistency of the processed foods wasn’t the best. There is only one grade of shredding, which seems to be somewhere between fine and medium. For example, the processed carrot looked somewhat unappealing; it certainly wouldn’t have fared well if subjected to a Rate My Plate jury. A fair amount of carrot also ended up inside the lid, which wasn’t ideal. When chopping the almonds the results were inconsistent, with pieces that ranged in size from large to dust. There were also occasions where ingredients such as breadcrumbs, almond dust, and pastry mixture migrated inside the fitment ring of the chopping blade, which proved tricky to remove when hand washing.
(Image credit: Future)
Overall, there are a few issues with the KitchenAid 7 cup / 1.7L Food Processor, like that smaller feed tube and the uneven shredding, which may mean it doesn't quite stand up against the best food processors on the market. However, if you want something that is compact for the capacity available, has convenient accessory storage, and has a no-twist design, then this is a food processor to consider. The consistency of the processed food may not be Instagramable, but it’s the taste that counts, right?
KitchenAid 7 Cup Food Processor: price & availability
List price: $99.99 / £169 / AU$299
Often available for cheaper
Currently available in the US, UK, and Australia
The KitchenAid 7 cup / 1.7L Food Processor is currently on sale at $84.99 / £143.65 / AU$219, (usually $99.99 / £169 / AU$299). If you’re querying why the US model is cheaper than the UK and Australian models, it is because it comes with fewer accessories. I will elaborate further on the accessories in the Design and features section below.
The 7 cup / 1.7L Food Processor isn’t the cheapest. There are similar products on offer from our pick of the best food processors. These include the Cuisinart Easy Prep Pro FP8 food processor, which is slightly lower in price and comes with two reversible shredding and slicing discs, plus a small bowl add-on to use when the large work bowl feels excessive for the task. Or, you could spend just a little extra for more versatility with the Ninja 3-in-1 Food Processor with Auto-IQ, which is currently on sale for $179.99 / £169. The KitchenAid 7 cup / 1.7L Food Processor has some innovative design features and performed adequately during testing though, so it’s still worth considering.
The KitchenAid 7 cup / 1.7L Food Processor is available now, on the US, UK, and Australian KitchenAid websites as well as various third party retailers.
Value for money score: 3.5 out of 5
KitchenAid 7 Cup Food Processor specs
KitchenAid 7 Cup Food Processor: design & features
Feed tube could be larger
Fixed handle position
Different accessories per region
Setting up the food processor was quick and easy. All the parts and accessories were stored inside the work bowl, so it was a simple case of removing them, before washing them along with the work bowl, lid, and food pushers. After this step was completed, I had to place the drive adapter on the drive pin in the center of the work bowl. Installing the different cutting accessories was also a straightforward process, which I was thankful for, as it avoided any unnecessary delays when I was working through lots of different types of food.
The food processor doesn’t take up a load of unnecessary worktop space, the cable length is adequate at 35 inch / 90 cm, and the work bowl easily attaches to the base (a useful design feature that I much prefer to the twist-to-secure designs that are often used with some other food processors). Additionally, the lid catch is easy to unclip, and once the lid is in an upright position, the hinge design means that you can easily lift it off.
On replacing the lid, slotting it into the hinge side was no issue, although sometimes I needed to put a fair amount of pressure on the lid to get the latch to close again.
(Image credit: Future)
Due to the way the work bowl sits on the base, the handle placement is somewhat limiting, as it can only be on the right-hand side. This was frustrating enough for me, as I like to hold the handle in my left hand while using a utensil to get the ingredients out with my right – but it could really make this product less accessible for people who aren’t able to use their right hand.
KitchenAid is known for having some enticing color options. In the 7 cup / 1.7L Food Processor’s case though, the color range is somewhat basic, with glossy-finished Onyx Black, and Empire Red available in the UK, US, and Australia, plus additional color variants including Contour Silver, Almond Cream, White, and Matte Black, depending on your region.
There is a 2-in-1 feed tube on the top of the work bowl lid, with a two-piece plastic food pusher. Together, they can be used to push in wider ingredients, or the inside section of the pusher can be removed to enable you to accurately feed in slimmer food items such as celery. Unfortunately, the bigger feed tube was not wide enough for a larger-diameter cucumber, so it needed to be cut down. Therefore if you want neat, round slices of cucumber this may not be the processor you’re looking for.
(Image credit: Future)
There are three operational buttons on the front of the 7 cup / 1.7L Food Processor’s base: setting one (lower speed), setting two (higher speed), and a pulse mode. You don’t need to worry about getting tired fingers with the two speed settings, as you don’t need to hold the button down for the processor to operate. It takes one press to set them off, and a second press or a press on the O/Pulse button to stop the processing.
There are two design features that I found particularly useful. Firstly, the lid, work bowl, and accessories are all dishwasher-safe when washed on the top rack.
I also hand-washed all of these components repeatedly in-between ingredients during testing. All parts were easy to clean and dry; however, I did find that small amounts of the ingredients would easily end up inside the fitment ring of the multipurpose blade, so I had to pay particular attention to this area.
Secondly, the accessories can easily be stored inside the work bowl when the food processor isn’t in use, saving cupboard space and preventing you from wasting time trying to find the desired accessory.
(Image credit: Future)
The 7 cup / 1.7L Food Processor doesn’t come with as many accessories as larger models such as the KitchenAid1319, but it is perfectly adequate for day-to-day food prep. Please note that some accessories are not included with the KFP0718 model, which is sold in the US. This model comes with a multipurpose stainless steel blade and a reversible slicing and shredding disc. The KFP0719 models, sold in the UK and Australia, include these accessories, along with a thick-slice disc and a plastic dough blade.
Design & features score: 4.5 out of 5
KitchenAid 7 Cup Food Processor: performance
Shredded and chopped effortlessly
Some waste carrot from shredding
Consistency of processed food varied
The KitchenAid 7 cup / 1.7L Food Processor performed well during testing. I tested its ability to slice, chop, mix, and grate a variety of foods. I used the shredding side of the reversible slicing and shredding disc to grate some carrots, running it on speed setting two as per the user manual. While it managed the job in a matter of seconds, the result was finer than I would have liked – some other models, such as the KitchenAid 13 cup / 3.1L Food Processor, have dedicated grating discs with fine and coarse options that give a more desirable result. Due to how fine the shredding was, the results were a little on the wet side, and a lot of carrot shot into the lid during processing.
(Image credit: Future / Cesci Angell)
Next I used the slicing side of the reversible slicing and shredding disc to slice a cucumber on speed setting one. Because the diameter of the cucumber was too large even for the larger feed tube, I had to manually cut a slice off of the side of it to enable it to be fed into the processor. The machine sliced the cucumber quickly, with next-to-no remnants left on the disc or in the lid. The slices were fairly even, although some were slightly wedge-shaped, thicker at the rind, and thinner where the cucumber was sliced down to fit.
(Image credit: Future / Cesci Angell)
I used the multipurpose stainless steel blade to chop onions, almonds, and to make breadcrumbs from slightly stale wholemeal bread. The onions and almonds were chopped using speed setting one. The food processor had no issues chopping up a large onion that I’d cut into quarters: it quickly chopped it into fine pieces and while the pieces weren’t that even, none of them were overly large. When I pulsed the almonds for 10 seconds, the result was again pretty uneven, with larger pieces, smaller pieces, and a fair amount of almond dust. Upon removing the accessories, I found that some of this dust had made its way inside the plastic cutting blade ring.
(Image credit: Future / Cesci Angell)
When making the breadcrumbs, I used speed setting two to blitz two slices of bread. In just 45 seconds the processor had turned them into fine breadcrumbs with an even consistency, and no bread was left under the blades.
I also used the multipurpose stainless steel blade, using the lowest speed setting to combine flour, margarine, and water for pastry. At first, the ingredients didn’t mix evenly – a layer of flour remained at the bottom and didn’t begin to mix in until water was added and the mixture started to form a proper dough. Apart from that detail, the processor combined the pastry ingredients easily, it didn’t rock about on the work surface, or overheat, both of which can happen with food processors that don’t have strong enough motors for pastry making.
(Image credit: Future)
While conducting the tests, I found that settings one and two were not overly loud; however, the pulse mode may make your ears ache if you need to use it for a long period of time. At no point during testing did I encounter issues with ingredients getting stuck under the blade or disc inside of the work bowl – I did however find that ingredients would end up on the inside of the fitment ring of the multipurpose stainless steel blade that sits on the drive adapter. This was particularly evident when chopping the almonds, and combining the pastry ingredients. There was a layer of pastry mixture coating the inside of the blade's plastic ring, which was tricky to clean out.
Performance score: 3.5 out of 5
Should I buy the KitchenAid 7 Cup Food Processor?
Buy it if...
Don't buy it if...
KitchenAid 7 Cup Food Processor review: also consider
How I tested the KitchenAid 7 Cup Food Processor
I assessed the setup and performance
I ran our usual series of chopping, grating, and combining tests
I checked how easy it was to clean
I spent time getting the KitchenAid 7 cup / 1.7L Food Processor setup, read the instruction manual, and assessed the design and accessories.
To put the KitchenAid 7 cup / 1.7L Food Processor through its paces, I used the chopping blade and reversible slicing/shredding disc to shred carrot, slice cucumber, chop onion, and almonds. I also used it to process bread to make breadcrumbs and combine flour, margarine, and water to make pastry. These are the same tests we run for all food processors, making it easy to see how different models compare.
I tested how easy it was to clean the processor parts by hand-washing, and using the dishwasher to establish how well you can clean the parts with either method.
It's no secret that I'm not fond of the Microsoft Surface Laptop series, so even with the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite chip and all the new Copilot+ AI bells and whistles attached to the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7, I wasn't expecting much of an upgrade. But to my surprise, it's quickly turning into one of the best Windows laptops and best laptops of the year thanks to a sleek design, solid battery life, and excellent performance.
One of the most consistent aspects of the Surface Laptop series is its design. The chassis is always sleek and lightweight yet sturdy, there's a nice variety of colors to choose from, and the keyboard feels snappy and responsive while typing. Thankfully, the Laptop 7 doesn't change on that front but instead embraces its positives while focusing its efforts on enacting improvements it actually needs.
(Image credit: Future)
The Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 boasts a 13.8-inch (2304x1536) HDR-supported display with a high refresh rate of 120Hz - especially high for a non-gaming laptop. It weighs less than three pounds, ensuring its super portability - an absolute gem for any office worker or student who needs to transport it around between home and work offices or to and from school. I wish it also featured an OLED screen option but omitting it keeps the cost down, so it makes sense.
Its keyboard is also just as snappy and responsive as you'd expect, though the touchpad has minimal response issues that need to be rectified by adjusting the sensitivity settings. The webcam is the standard 1080p fare, nothing too shabby, but it lacks a physical shutter which for its price point is an oversight worth mentioning.
Port selection isn't the worst, as it comes with two USB Type-C ports, a USB Type-A port, and a combo port. But it's certainly not well-balanced either, with it missing several important ports like ethernet, SD card reader, and an HDMI. Even worse, Microsoft still insists on that abysmal Surface Laptop connect charging port, which only serves to take up space that could have been given to literally anything else.
It has a solid sound quality as well, with instruments sounding clear and distinct from each other. Bass isn't too shabby as well, which is always surprising when it comes to a non-Ultrabook or gaming laptop.
(Image credit: Future)
Another defining feature of the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 is its AI Copilot+ integration, including the Copilot key that Windows AI laptop keyboards are now outfitted with. As of now, however, the Copilot key simply doesn't work and there's no way to reprogram the key to make it work either.
Microsoft Surface Laptop 7: Benchmarks
Here's how the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 performed in our suite of benchmark tests:
The Copilot feature does work and quite well I might add. I tested out the Copilot chatbot on all three levels - creative, balanced, and precise - and it performed quite well on all three. The answers, ranging from basic math to a mock interview to an outline for a novel, were well thought out and well sourced. You can also enable various plug-ins for more types of conversations or to help with shopping for a variety of products.
I also tried out two other features included in Microsoft Paint called Cocreator and Image Creator, both powered by AI model DALL-E. The former transforms your own drawing into an AI-generated picture, and you can choose between several styles as well as the level of 'creativity' (aka how much of the finished product is from you versus the AI). Unfortunately, Image Creator uses a credit system, in which you're awarded 50 credits when you sign up for the service and each image generation costs one credit, so you'd need to pay for additional images after you run out of credits.
(Image credit: Future)
There was one feature that I couldn't test out, the infamous Windows 11 AI Recall. Set to launch alongside Windows AI PCs, it was kicked back to the Windows Insider Program when its numerous security issues came to light.
Basically, Recall takes screenshots every few seconds, building up a library of images you can search via AI. But the issue is that the Recall database, which contains all the data from those screenshots and the history of your PC usage, is stored in plain text (in an SQLite database).
This makes it light work for hackers to obtain highly sensitive information like finances, passwords, work data, and more. So as of right now, Recall is not available for me to test out, and until Microsoft works out the safety issues it shouldn't be.
The Microsoft Surface Laptop 7's benchmark results are quite impressive, especially compared to its competition. Even without a GPU, the CPU does an incredible job of maintaining a high level of performance no matter which and how many tasks you're currently balancing. These benchmarks prove that the Laptop 7 can handle productivity work, conference calls, streaming, and more.
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(Image credit: Future)
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(Image credit: Future)
The Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 I tested featured a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite CPU and boy does it make all the difference. A common denominator between the past Surface Laptops is their poor performance, as they juggle a massive amount of tasks behind the scenes that result in major slow down, freezes, and even the aptly named 'Blue Screen of Death.'
But the Laptop 7's Qualcomm chip rounds out and fills in the numerous issues. It starts up and runs quickly, it's responsive when it comes to loading video websites as well as AI tools, and programs run as smoothly as they can. The latter is especially important as one of the biggest drawbacks was constant crashing when certain large programs booted up, including benchmarks like PCMark 10. But since I've been using it, there have been no performance hiccups in the slightest - in fact, I genuinely enjoyed my time with this laptop and would jump at the chance to make it my official work machine.
(Image credit: Future)
The battery life has also been rejuvenated, with an absolutely incredible 15 hours of off-AC power when it comes to regular use and just over ten hours with the TechRadar movie test. It's rare to find a laptop with that kind of lasting power outside of MacBooks these days, and coming from a Windows laptop it's even more unbelievable.
Another improvement is the ventilation system, as I never experienced any overheating even when the Laptop 7 had been running for several hours without break. Better vents also lead to better performance and less risk of crashes, going hand in hand with its superior battery life.
Microsoft Surface Laptop 7: Price & availability
How much does it cost? starting price is $999.99 / £1,049.99 / AU$1,899
When is it available? Available now
Where can you get it? Available in the US, UK, and Australia
The starting price for the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 13.8-inch model is $999.99 / £1,049.99 / AU$1,899, netting you a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus processor with 16GB RAM and 256GB SSD storage. The 15-inch model starts at $1,299.99 and comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite processor, 16GB RAM, and 256GB SSD.
It's cheaper than the entry-level M3 MacBook Air 13-inch and matches the starting price of the M3 MacBook Air 15-inch, while the highest configuration roughly matches the price of the highest configuration of the MacBook Air.
Microsoft Surface Laptop 7: Specs
The Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 13.8-inch model starts with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus processor with 16GB RAM and 256GB SSD storage. The 15-inch model starts out with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite processor, 16GB RAM, and 256GB SSD.
Should you buy the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7?
(Image credit: Future)
Buy the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 if...
You want solid productivity performance This laptop can handle plenty of productivity work including video calls, documents, web surfing, and more while never sacrificing performance on any level.
You’re on a budget
This laptop is quite affordable, beating out other laptops with similar or worse performance and specs. If you're on a budget, this is an excellent choice.
Don't buy it if...
Microsoft Surface Laptop 7: Also consider
If my Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 review has you considering other options, here are two more laptops to consider...
How I tested the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7?
I tested the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 for a week
I tested it using productivity and creative applications
I stress-tested the battery using the TechRadar movie test
First, I tested the general weight and portability of the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 by carrying it around in a laptop bag. After I set it up, I ran several benchmarks to thoroughly test out the new Qualcomm processor. Finally, I used a variety of programs and applications to test out both battery life and general performance during work-like conditions.
The Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 is meant to be a portable laptop with a thin and light chassis. I had to spend a good amount of testing not only on performance issues but also looking for any ventilation issues. I also tested out battery life to see how long it could last off AC power.
I've tested plenty of gaming PCs and laptops, making me more than qualified to understand benchmark test results and how to properly stress test machines to see how well they perform as a work machine.
The 32-inch Aorus FO32U2P “Tactical” gaming monitor has a fast, 4K third-gen Samsung QD-OLED panel, some nifty design elements and is the first I’ve tested that has DisplayPort 2.1 connectivity. It’s in a crowded market, so how competitive and compelling will it be?
First up, it’s worth noting that there’s very little benefit to having DP 2.1 right now. Only AMD’s top-end workstation cards currently support it and there’s likely little real-world visual difference compared to DP 1.4 anyway. Still, it may be attractive to those seeking future-proofing.
The monitor is easy to assemble thanks to its three-piece-one-screw stand design. The panel itself is incredibly thin and all core electronics are isolated in a box at the back where it attaches to the stand. It's generally quasi-aggressive in terms of styling and includes an RGB strip at the rear – although you’ll likely never see it. A cool, rainbow-iridescent logo catches the light at the base, but all other design elements are geometric in nature.
While early QD-OLED panels struggled to display text without turning it spidery, this was practically banished when second-gen screens appeared and now there’s no problem at all. It uses the same anti-reflective coating we've seen on previous QD-OLEDs and this does a fine job of eliminating the black-mirror effect when viewing dark content – unless you have a bright light source behind you. The main downside of the coating is that it can slightly wash out OLED’s inherent true-black performance but it’s really not by much and I, for one, am OK with the trade-off.
The on-screen display (OSD) is operated by a small joystick button at the base that provides low-lag access to numerous standard display options, plus OLED care settings and game-boosting functionality – the latter includes on-screen crosshairs and contrast-equalization that stops enemies jumping out of shadows and bright lights.
The numerous anti-burn-in features still highlight the QD-OLED technology’s potential flaw (for use as computer monitors) – static images like toolbars risk burning into the screen if you regularly use them for work. Fortunately there’s a three-year anti-burn-in warranty to provide peace of mind.
A ‘tactical’ switch next to the joystick button can be programmed to do things like drop the screen size to 24 inches for competitive FPS players and also to activate, change or deactivate the crosshair.
As for gaming performance, the fast pixel response time marries with the fast 240Hz refresh rate to produce impressive ghost-free motion performance. It’s not as blur-free as 360Hz or pro-grade TN (twisted nematic) technology panels, but only some pro FPS players might grumble.
Multimedia performance is impressive, especially when Windows HDR is activated. Bright lights shine out of the screen and details are retained in dark shadows. Both colorful and monochromatic gradients are impressively smooth and designers will like that it supports 99% of the difficult DCI-P3 color gamut.
There are two 5W speakers that get loud but don’t provide much in the way of bass-heavy punch, but it's still handy to have them for casual video watching.
(Image credit: Future)
Gigabyte Aorus FO32U2P: Price and availability
$1,299 / AU$2,199; UK price TBC
Available in US and Australia, UK availability TBC
This is far from a cheap monitor and it’s difficult to find outside of Asian markets right now. There are plenty of high-performing gaming monitors that rival many of the specs here, but the combination of QD-OLED, a UHD resolution, a 240Hz refresh rate and DisplayPort 2.1 really bumps the price up. Rivals with similar specifications (though without DP 2.1) can be found from MSI and Asus, but their availability and price also varies from region to region.
Value score: 3 / 5
Gigabyte Aorus FO32U2P: Specs
Gigabyte Aorus FO32U2P: Design and features
Easy to build
Packed with future-proof features
Some features not totally necessary right now
The Aorus FO32U2P has a very thin screen that’s mounted to a two-foot stand and has only minor decorative elements when compared to some bling-laden gaming beasts. It’s simple to fit together using the screen’s clip and a single finger screw (at the base) and, after construction, you’re left with a smart-looking gaming monitor that’s got a discreet (nay, hidden) RGB strip on the back and some ‘aggressive’ geometric lines.
The stand affords plenty of adjustments: there’s +20° to -5° of tilt, +20° to -20° of swivel, 90° of clockwise pivot and a generous 130mm of height adjustment.
There’s also one of the most impressive complements of ports I’ve come across on a monitor, even though some are so new (and expensive) that I’m questioning the value of their inclusion in the current market.
(Image credit: Future)
Indeed, if the 48Gbps bandwidth of HDMI 2.1 has felt constrictive for you(!), the Aorus FO32U2P supports DisplayPort 2.1 UHBR20 connectivity that goes up to 80Gbps for a potentially completely uncompressed 240Hz UHD image. For most people this will be a bit like Spinal Tap going up to 11, as the existing image is excellent and looks far from compressed. Still, when compatible consumer graphics cards appear, image quality might suddenly improve – to some extent – and I might be eating my words. That’s hard to imagine on a 32-inch screen, though I’d expect it to be more apparent on massive 4K and 8K TVs.
Right now DP 2.1 UHBR20 only works on Radeon Pro (workstation) graphics cards anyway. Also be aware that the supplied DP cable is relatively short, so might not reach if your PC isn’t on your desk.
A joystick button provides access to the OSD where the usual preset display settings (plus HDR additions when turned on) live, along with the option to activate FreeSync Premium Pro.
There’s Picture-in-Picture and Picture-by-Picture that can be made use of via the two HDMI 2.1 ports, a USB-C port (with 65W PD charging) and the two main DisplayPorts (one is miniDP). There’s also a DisplayPort out for daisy chaining. Note too, there are dual 3.5mm audio jacks that will please/annoy those with (in)compatible headsets.
A Game Assist menu enables you to display a timer and the monitor refresh rate. There are also various styles of onscreen crosshairs (great for CoD Hardcore) and an Eagle Eye (sniper) mode that zooms in on a moveable area of the screen so you can cheat get better headshots. To be frank, if you can succeed using such a distracting feature, then good for you.
(Image credit: Future)
You can also activate a Dashboard that provides an on-screen system status (CPU, GPU and frame rate) list.
A Resolution Switch mode transforms the display into a virtual 24-inch screen – gimmicky but potentially attractive to e-sports players who require a smaller screen with a more eye-friendly field of view.
An OLED Care menu monitors how long you’ve been using the screen and provides numerous burn-in tools like Pixel Clean, Static Control, Pixel Shift and (zoned) screen dimming. While burn-in on QD-OLED panels is still a heated issue, Gigabyte offers a three-year burn-in warranty for peace of mind.
A Tactical Button next to the joystick can be configured to instantly drop the resolution, activate the crosshair, enable an OLE-care cleaning cycle or mute the speakers.
Ultimately, it’s a good-looking and very well-specced monitor with few missing features and additional future-proofed, high-bandwidth connections.
Design and features score: 5 / 5
(Image credit: Future)
Gigabyte Aorus FO32U2P: Performance
Vibrant colors
Impressively fast in use
Built-in speakers are good but not great
The Aorus FO32U2P’s colors are as vibrant as I’d expect from a QD-OLED screen and both monochromatic and colorful transitions are smooth when Windows HDR is turned on.
Contrast is excellent, with details remaining visible in bright and dark areas alike. The 250 nit SDR brightness might seem low but it's uniform and well suited to gaming and day-to-day use. HDR brightness can hit 1000 nits on 3% of the screen – enough that all but larger highlights really pop. You can also butcher it with Aorus’ Black Equalizer 2.0 settings to stop enemies hiding in shadows and jumping out of the sun.
The 240Hz refresh rate marries well with the super-quick 0.03ms (stated) pixel response time. You can get faster screens but only super-fussy pro e-sports players might grumble at the minuscule blur on show.
(Image credit: Future)
Another potentially contentious issue with monitors using this third-gen Samsung QD-OLED panel is that it’s not quite true black. An anti-reflective coating does a very impressive job of banishing reflections (even in dark scenes) and despite this being a great trade-off, some multimedia purists might hate having ever-so-slightly washed-out blacks.
A less contentious issue concerns the QD-OLED’s spidery text problems from its early days. It was almost perfectly fixed on second-gen panels and I didn’t have any issues on this third-gen display.
The twin 5W speakers get loud and offer a bit of punch. However, there’s not much bass to speak of and fidelity suffers in the mid-range when at high volume. Still, I like having them as sometimes you want to watch a quick video without dealing with headphones.
Performance score: 5 / 5
(Image credit: Future)
Gigabyte Aorus FO32U2P: Score card
Should I buy the Gigabyte Aorus FO32U2P?
Buy it if...
You want an uncompromising gaming monitor
Having a 240Hz refresh rate on a UHD-resolution QD-OLED panel ticks my three core features of a dream monitor, and this Aorus has them all.
You want DisplayPort 2.1
There are few actual benefits to having this technology but, if you’ve been hanging out for huge video bandwidth, then this is the first monitor to provide it.
Don't buy it if...
Money is an issue
It’s a very expensive display and you can get non QD-OLED variants that have similar headline specs for much less money.
Thoughts of QD-OLED burn-in gives you anxiety
There are many anti-burn-in technologies in the Aorus FO32U2P (plus a three-year warranty), but you’ll be thinking about it a lot – especially if you’re planning on working with a fixed Windows Taskbar on a day-to-day basis.
Also consider
Gigabyte Aorus FO32U2
The non-P version of this monitor doesn’t have DisplayPort 2.1 (or DP daisy chaining) and its USB-C port isn’t as powerful (18-Watt PD), but this can save you some money. However availability is not great in all regions.
Gigabyte M32UC
Gigabyte’s non-QD-OLED 4K gaming monitor packs in the features and still manages to offer a 144Hz refresh rate. It also costs one-third of the price!
For the review, I tested the Aorus FO32U2P over the course of a month by using it as my work-from-home monitor, which I also use for gaming. That means I regularly use all Microsoft and Google Office applications, Adobe photo and video editing applications, social media and YouTube.
In order to test the overall image quality I focus on real-world tests and a few technical tests. For multimedia performance I use UHD video clips (HDR where possible) on YouTube to establish color vibrancy and accuracy, smoothness (and noisiness) of chromatic and monochromatic gradients, plus contrast range and true-black performance.
For speed and gaming performance I predominantly focus upon CoD MWIII and PCars 2 for fast-and-frantic motion smoothness. I also look at the TestUFO technical motion test.
For physical attributes I check reflectivity of the screen and speed/intuitiveness/features of the OSD.
I’ve been reviewing computers, peripherals and components for over 20 years for multiple titles in the UK, Australia and internationally.
Motorola has done it. If you’re sick of the same old smartphone, the Motorola Razr Plus 2024 is your cure. The Razr Plus is the flip phone that should be the envy of boring slab phone owners everywhere. It’s bright and colorful in every way, inside and out, screens and shell. This Razr is completely different in (mostly) the best ways.
I didn’t think last year’s Motorola Razr Plus needed much improvement, but Motorola has improved it anyway. The best flip-phone cover display, larger and more versatile than the file-folder window on Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 6, is even bigger and brighter this year than before. It fills the phone and gives you a miniature window into all of your apps. Apps become more useful than ever when you use them on this palm-sized marvel.
The Razr Plus 2024 also gets a welcome durability upgrade, and it’s now water resistant enough to take a dunk. Motorola’s vegan leather, with a new suede feel, replaces the glass on the back of the Razr Plus. The result is a colorful finish that feels great to hold, giving the Razr a unique look all its own. It also won’t slip off your desk.
No branding on the spine, unlike Samsung's Z Flip (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)
Has Motorola avoided the latest smartphone AI fads? Or has it crammed AI onto the new Razr 2024 phones? Unfortunately, it’s the latter. Motorola has run with the crowd and pushed half-baked AI onto its new Razr Plus, with predictably bad results that may only get worse.
The Razr Plus 2024 has Moto AI tools that highlight the worst stereotyping tendencies of generative AI. Moto AI produces results that seem racist, misogynist, ageist, and anti-Semitic. The AI tools on the Razr Plus 2024 show how AI is not ready for retail. Tools like this should not be part of a consumer device, especially an expensive smartphone. It’s embarrassing, and the Moto AI image generator needs to go.
Kind of a bummer, right? I was excited for the new Motorola Razr Plus 2024, with its new colors and bigger cover display, but the offensive AI quelled my excitement. Even worse, Motorola promises that even more intrusive AI features are coming. Right now, the bigotry is confined to the wallpapers, but soon Moto AI will be listening to all of your phone calls and conversations. Ugh.
Frankly, you can ignore these new AI features on the Razr Plus 2024. This phone is still very good without the AI gimmicks. The improved hinge on the Razr Plus 2024 snaps open and shut with more aplomb. You can take a group photo and watch people smile when they see themselves on the cover screen.
All of the Motorola Plus 2024 color options (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)
Nasty AI can’t make this phone less cool, right? It comes in Hot Pink! Can AI ruin Hot Pink? No, nothing can ruin Hot Pink.
For now, I’d take a wait-and-see approach to buying the Motorola Razr Plus 2024. If the price drops, or if Motorola cleans up its AI act a little bit, this will be an easier phone to recommend. However, if you’d rather not endorse Motorola’s vision of a mobile AI future, I would avoid it and look for a future that’s a little less cool.
Razr Plus 2024 review: Price and availability
(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)
Available to pre-order for $999.99 / £999.99 / AU $1,699
256GB storage in US; 512GB storage in UK and Australia
Called Motorola Razr Plus 2024 in the US, Motorola Razr 50 Ultra everywhere else
The Motorola Razr Plus 2024 starts around $1,000 / £1,000 / AU$1,700, which puts it in the same price range as the Google Pixel 8 Pro and the Apple iPhone 15 Pro.
To Motorola’s benefit, Samsung raised the price of its flip phone by $100 / AU$150 (the Z Flip’s price is unchanged in the UK), making the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 more expensive than the Razr Plus 2024 in those regions.
That’s a lot of competition at this price, but Motorola loves to offer discounts, so I would wait for a good deal if you don’t need to buy this phone right away. The Razr Plus 2023 saw fantastic deals throughout its first year on the market, including a perpetual $300 discount in the US.
Will the new Razr Plus 2024 get the same deals? Only time will tell, but the improvements here aren’t so groundbreaking that a price cut is out of the question. The cover display is a bit larger, and the phone is now officially water resistant, instead of just unofficially splashproof.
This phone would be an easier choice if it cost less, but at this price I worry that it competes poorly on cameras, long-term software support, and overall durability – aspects that make a smartphone worth keeping for longer. If Moto dropped the price by 25% or more, I wouldn’t care so much.
Value score: 3 / 5
Razr Plus 2024 review: Specs
Motorola Razr Plus 2024 (left) and Razr 2024 (right) (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)
Motorola only offers one configuration for the Motorola Razr Plus 2024 in the US, and another in the UK and Australia – you get 12GB of RAM wherever you are, with 256GB of storage in the US and 512GB in the UK and Australia. Don’t worry, US fans; that’s enough space, especially if you use cloud storage for photos and videos.
The Razr Plus 2024 doesn’t skimp on specs when it comes to its two displays: each screen refreshes at a blazing fast 165Hz, and brightness levels are exceptionally high.
The Motorola Razr Plus 2024 is the first phone with the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chipset that was announced earlier this year. It’s a step down from the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor found in phones like the OnePlus 12, but Qualcomm says it can still handle more AI tasks than older Snapdragon platforms. I found performance to be acceptable for non-AI tasks, and battery life was excellent on this new platform.
Razr Plus 2024 review: Design
(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)
Bigger cover display than any other flip phone
Stylish color options available
Cameras sometimes get in the way
The Motorola Razr Plus 2024 is the coolest phone you can buy, and Moto has clad it in some fabulous colors, including the Spring Green of my review sample and a Hot Pink that’s a throwback to 2005’s pink Motorola Razr V3. Motorola has found its audience for this phone – people who hate boring slabs of glass and metal, even if the metal is titanium.
Everything about the design is thoughtful and slick, from the ‘vegan leather’ back that shows off the Peach Fuzz paint job nicely, to the humongous cover display that the twin camera lenses float in like lily pads in a pixel pond. The foldable inner screen lays so flat you have to concentrate to feel the crease.
Sometimes it doesn't matter if the cameras are in the way (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)
That folding mechanism is improved as well. It snaps open and shut in a much more satisfying way than on the Razr Plus 2023, and flicking the phone open and slamming it shut is a joy that becomes addictive; I may need to start making more phone calls so I can answer and hang up more often. The Razr Plus 2024 is also more durable, with an IPX8 rating ensuring that it can take a dunk under water without issue. It’s not all perfect. Sure, the cover display is amazing, wrapping around the camera lenses like pixel magic, but some important buttons on my apps were obscured by those lenses, and while you can resize apps to fit better, it’s a chore. On Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 6, the cover display is smaller, but it isn’t blocked by the lenses. Samsung may be onto something here.
I also take issue with ‘vegan leather,’ but only because ‘vegan’ gets confused with ‘environmentally friendly.’ Vegan leather is plastic. It’s very nice plastic, and Motorola says it won’t fade or stain, and it’s still good for vegans because no animals were harmed in its production. Other benefits seem purely aesthetic, not environmental. Whatever, aesthetic is in.
If you want a phone that’s cooler than what everybody else is carrying, get the Razr Plus 2024. Watch eyes widen when you fold it in half and tuck it away. Check the smiles on your cover display as you take a group photo.
This is a phone for showing off, and my biggest design complaint is that I can only choose one color. Check back around the new year, as well, because Motorola has partnered with Pantone for two years straight to launch Razr phones in Pantone’s Color of the Year.
Design score: 5 / 5
Razr Plus 2024 review: Display
(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)
Wow and wow: both the inner and outer displays are excellent
Interior screen is humongous
Both displays are super-bright, maybe too bright
The Motorola Razr Plus 2024 has a larger cover display than last year’s Razr Plus, and though it didn’t need the upgrade, the bigger outer screen cements Motorola’s dominance in flip phones. This is how a flip smartphone should look. Once you’ve used it, with its dominating cover display, you’ll see that no other flip phone comes close.
Both screens on the Razr Plus 2024 are incredibly bright. The big interior screen can hit 3,000 nits peak brightness, according to Moto, and the cover display can go to 2,400 nits. That’s too bright for a phone I leave next to my bed – checking messages late at night, I blasted myself in the face with bright light more than a few times.
The cover screen wraps around the camera lenses for a signature Motorola look that Samsung hasn’t aped for its Galaxy Z Flip series. Sometimes those lenses get in the way, as on my Roku TV remote app, where some buttons are hidden. I still think it’s a better look than the cutout that Samsung uses; I just wish developers accounted for apps being shown on a smaller, squarish screen.
Sometimes those cameras block important buttons (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)
The foldable inner display is flatter than ever – I can’t see the crease unless I hold the phone at an angle to the light. I can hardly feel the crease either, even if I flick my finger back and forth.
Display score: 5 / 5
Razr Plus 2024 review: Software
(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)
A light touch on Androi… wait, is that AI? Oh no
Motorola makes the huge AI mistake we’ve been hoping it would avoid
I’ll get the basic Motorola Android software out of the way first so I can rant about my huge problems with Moto AI. I was hoping that Motorola would stay away from AI – OnePlus has mostly managed to avoid the topic – but unfortunately, Moto ventures into dangerous AI territory, and the results are sadly predictable.
Ignoring Moto AI, the Motorola Razr Plus 2024 is a solid Android phone. Motorola’s version of Android looks a lot like Android on the Google Pixel 8. Moto doesn’t brand its interface; it’s just Android 14. It also doesn’t promise five years of software updates, so don’t expect to run Android 19 on this phone, like you will (hopefully) with the Samsung Galaxy S24 and Google Pixel 8 phones.
(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)
Motorola has added useful shortcuts to its phones. I love the camera gesture: you twist your wrist a couple of times to launch it. I found this even more fun and reliable than double-pressing the power button, which is the shortcut on most Android phones. You can also ‘chop’ the phone twice to toggle the flashlight on and off.
Both of these shortcuts also work when the phone is closed, which makes taking selfies on the cover display even easier, with a quick double twist of my wrist. The Razr Plus is also the best flashlight phone I’ve ever used, since it’s so easy to hold when it’s closed.
This butterfly background was made with Moto AI (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)
Okay, enough compliments – let’s talk about AI. Motorola has added some AI features, with more on the way. I’ll start with AI wallpaper, because it’s emblematic of the larger problem.
The Motorola Razr Plus 2024 has an AI wallpaper generator, but it’s nothing like the AI wallpaper you’ll find on the Google Pixel 8 and Samsung Galaxy S24, both of which use AI as a tool to produce stylish and unique wallpapers.
The Motorola Razr Plus, on the other hand, produces images that often cling to stereotypes, with repeated results that are racist, misogynistic, and bigoted. I wish I were joking.
On the Pixel 8, the AI wallpaper is limited. You choose a look such as ‘Soft-focus,’ and then you fill in some blanks: “A soft-focus photo of ________ with ________ hues.”
You can’t fill the blanks with any word you choose – there are options to pick. For the first blank, there are eight choices, including Butterflies, Flowers, and Fireflies. There are nine options for the hues, including Red, Cream, and Natural. It’s limited, but you get 72 different options, and the phone creates four images each time you generate a wallpaper from a phrase. So that one ‘Soft-focus’ scene results in 288 wallpapers. You can ask the phone to generate new wallpaper again and again based on the same phrase, so the choices are limited, but there are infinite possible results.
If the Pixel 8 seems too constrained in this respect, and you’d like the option to submit open prompts, as you’ll find on Midjourney and other AI image-generation tools, I have good news and bad news.
Moto AI created this happy, furry lighthouse wallpaper for me (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)
The good news is that the Motorola Razr Plus 2024 has an AI wallpaper feature that can generate anything you can imagine (with some limits); the bad news is that the generative AI image tools are so bad that they're offensive.
How is the Razr Plus 2024 offensive? That depends on what a happy person looks like. Or a successful person. A happy person could look like anybody! So, how does an AI generate an image of a happy person? What image does it create, drawing upon its understanding of a successful person?
(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)
I asked the Razr Plus 2024 to make me a wallpaper image of “a happy person.” I asked 10 times. Eight of the images were young, white, blond women smiling. Another image was a young, white man smiling, and the last was a dark-haired, young, white woman.
I tried the same test for a number of terms, and the results were strikingly similar. If you ask the Moto AI wallpaper tool to create an image of “a successful person,” I’ll bet you $1,000 that person will be young, male, and white.
It’s a huge problem when your AI has been modeled to understand that only young white people can be happy or successful, but if you think that’s bad, buckle up.
Can you guess what I asked for when I got this result? (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)
I asked the Razr Plus 2024 to make me a wallpaper of “a Jewish person.” I asked 20 times. I got 20 white men. Not a single woman, nor any other skin tone. Almost all the men were wearing hats, beards, and payes, the long locks that Orthodox Jews grow at their temples. There was nobody who might not be an Orthodox Jew, even though Orthodox Judaism accounts for only one in seven Jews in the world. I asked for “a Palestinian person” and I only got men with beards.
When an AI has been modeled to understand that all Jewish people look the same, or that all Palestinian people look the same, to the exclusion of women, then that AI will generate images that support stereotypes including anti-Semitism, misogyny, and other forms of bigotry. That’s what I see happening with Moto AI, and I have a huge problem with this.
Don't look close or you may barf (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)
Also, it’s just weird. I asked for “friends having fun at the beach” and I only got groups of young, white people, mostly wearing string bikinis. AI doesn’t do good string bikinis, and the photos were monstrous, like a horror movie. I asked for “a strong person” and I got impossibly muscle-bound men, often only a view of bodies from the bulging neck to below the bulging crotch. I’m not joking.
How did this make it into a final product? This is entirely unacceptable. Moto AI isn’t an AI wallpaper generator. It’s an AI stereotype generator. It needs to be removed.
If Motorola isn’t taking this seriously, maybe it will if one of its execs asks its own AI for an image of “a cool smartphone.” I got pictures of an iPhone Pro, with its characteristic triangle camera layout. I got no pictures of a Motorola Razr.
That's no six pack. How many packs is that, 8? 12? (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)
Before this review, I took the unusual step of telling Motorola that I had serious concerns about the AI image tool, and asked if they had any response. I shared the results of my queries, and the conclusions I was drawing. At press time, Motorola had no response.
If you do use the Moto AI wallpaper generator, despite all of the above, be warned that there’s a monthly limit to how many images you can create. You can’t buy more images, so you just have to wait until the first of the next month.
Software score: 1 / 5
Razr Plus 2024 review: Cameras
(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)
Image quality is good, but still not great
Taking photos and video is much more fun with a Razr
Photographers say the best camera is the one you have with you; I carry two or three phones at a time, so I would say that the best camera is the one I like using the most. Whether or not the Motorola Razr Plus 2024 takes the best photos, it is the most fun camera to use in almost every situation.
Video shooting is especially clever with the Razr Plus. The camera automatically recognizes ‘camcorder mode,’ when you bend the screen halfway and aim the camera at the action. The Razr Plus will start recording video automatically, and you can stop with a tap anywhere on the bottom half of the screen.
Shooting selfies is ridiculously fun. There’s no need to open the phone – I just give my wrist a twist (or tap the Camera app) and the cover display shows what the camera sees. Instead of using the selfie camera, the higher-quality main cameras can take selfies and portraits. Holding the folded Razr Plus is easier than trying to hold a large smartphone for selfie shots, and people loved seeing themselves on the cover display as I lined up group photos.
The Razr Plus has even more creative shooting options. You can fold the phone in a variety of ways to make it stand on its own. If you want a selfie when the phone is aiming up from the ground, just raise a palm and the camera will start a countdown. It works very nicely. There’s also a Photobooth mode that will take four shots in a row and post the quad-photo composite to Google Photos.
Images from the Razr Plus 2024 look good, and photos are definitely helped by whatever AI tools Motorola is applying. Colors look very saturated in most shots, although photographs seem to lack a sense of depth and life. In photos with a blurred bokeh background, the blurring looks very artificial and digital, and not smooth like you’d get from a better camera.
The camera also had trouble focusing, especially for close-ups. It never seemed to get exactly what I wanted in the sharpest plane of focus, even if I tapped on my subject on the screen before taking the shot.
I also had some trouble with the digital level that you can use on the camera screen to ensure that your photos look straight. My landscape photos often seemed crooked, even though I followed the level until it turned green.
Camera score: 3 / 5
Razr Plus 2024 camera samples
Here are samples taken in New York City and the surrounding suburbs
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Razr Plus 2024 review: Performance
(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)
Mid-range Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 3
Performance was smooth until the AI needed to talk to the cloud
The Motorola Razr Plus 2024 is the first phone launched with the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chipset, and the ‘s’ apparently stands for ‘slower.’ In Future Labs’ benchmark tests, the Motorola Razr Plus 2024 landed closer to the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5, which uses a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, than the Galaxy S24, which has the more powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy. We’re still putting the new Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 through testing, but it has the same processor inside as the Galaxy S24.
Still, I had no trouble running any of my apps on the Motorola Razr Plus 2024, and the interface was smooth and snappy. Even fancy tricks like opening the camera with gestures, or moving an app from the big internal display to the smaller cover screen, worked with no delay. The phone also did a great job playing games and movies, including high-resolution, multiplayer games like Call of Duty: Mobile.
My only setback came when I was using the new AI features. I have Google Gemini loaded on the phone, and I subscribe to Gemini Advanced, so I enjoyed using Gemini on the Moto Razr Plus cover display – you can’t do that on the Galaxy Z Flip 6. However, most AI features were very laggy, especially compared to the performance of similar features, like the AI writing tools and AI wallpapers, on the Pixel 8 Pro and Galaxy S24. Whether I was generating a new wallpaper or just revising some text, I had to wait for a connection to Motorola’s cloud, and this added a long delay.
In fact, often the AI features would simply fail to connect, seemingly for no reason. I could make 10 successful requests in a row, then all of a sudden the AI would stop working for the next request. It would usually work again if I changed one word slightly, but there was no apparent problem with my choice of words; it just stopped working, then started again.
Performance score: 3 / 5
Razr Plus 2024 review: Battery
(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)
Excellent battery life beats the competition
Fast charging is nice, but no charger included
That mid-range Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 processor on the Razr Plus 2024 pays off in battery life, if not in performance. The Razr Plus has a 4,000mAh battery that is only 7.5% larger than the 3,700mAh cell in the Galaxy Z Flip 5, but it delivers almost 50% more battery life in our tests. We saw less than 10 hours of screen time on the Z Flip 5, but we regularly topped 14 hours of use with the Motorola Razr Plus 2024. The Galaxy Z Flip 6 has a 4,000mAh cell, and we’ll publish detailed comparisons once we’re done testing Samsung’s latest flip phone.
The Motorola Razr Plus offers fast 45W charging, but you need to buy a special charger to use the 45W capabilities. There’s no charger included in the box, and if you’re upgrading, especially from an iPhone, your charger probably tops out at 25W or less. It’s worth buying a newer charger, because that fast charging speed can give you extra hours of phone time if you top up in the 10 minutes you spend getting ready for an evening out.
I had a weird charging glitch with the Razr Plus 2024 as well as my Motorola Razr 2024 review sample. As I was charging the phones, they would frequently wake up and flash the charging percentage on screen, as if I had just plugged in the power cord. They would each do this repeatedly, no matter which USB-C cord I used.
Even worse, when I put the phones on a wireless Qi2 charger, they did the same thing. The phones still charged, but the display lit up in an annoying way to report their progress every few seconds.
I was expecting a software update during my two-week review period, but it never arrived. I’m hoping Motorola’s first update for the Razr 2024 family fixes this glitch.
Battery score: 4 / 5
Should you buy the Motorola Razr Plus 2024?
(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)
Buy it if...
You want the coolest-looking phone around
The Motorola Razr Plus 2024 is the coolest phone you can buy right now, with snazzy color options and unbeatable features that show what a flip phone can be in the age of smartphones.
You want two devices in one
The Razr Plus 2024 has such a large cover display that it’s almost like getting two devices – a pocket-sized communicator that opens up to reveal a massive smartphone inside. It’s a totally new experience.
You don’t want the phone everybody else has
The Razr Plus 2024 is drawing iPhone fans away from Apple, according to Motorola, and it’s easy to see why. Motorola does everything Apple won’t, from foldable screens to bright colors to open AI features.
Don't buy it if...
You need a really good camera
The camera on the Motorola Razr Plus has gotten undeniably better, but it still can’t match the best camera phones you can buy, and doesn’t have the lenses and features of other phones in this price range.
You’re worried about bad AI features
The Motorola Razr Plus makes a major misstep with its AI image generator tool that creates stereotyping images and results that feel racist, misogynist, and possibly anti-Semitic. Yes, it’s that bad.
You can wait for a good discount The Motorola Razr Plus 2024 launches at a good price, comparable to Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip, but Moto put last year’s Razr on a perpetual sale that dropped the price by hundreds. If you can wait, you might save big.
Razr Plus 2024 review: Also consider
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 The Galaxy Z Flip 6 is like a Motorola Razr Plus with more power and less cover screen. Samsung is more conservative with its outer display, but the Z Flip packs more features, and is a professional flip phone, not a party trick.
Apple iPhone 15 Pro For the same price as the Razr Plus 2024 you can have an iPhone 15 Pro, which not only has much better cameras, but will also give you Apple’s (hopefully) more refined Apple Intelligence AI features in the next year or so.
Motorola Razr 2024 The base-model Motorola Razr this year has a slower processor, but a much bigger cover display than before, more like last year’s Razr Plus. For the incredibly low price it may be worth suffering the weird AI, and you can get it in orange.
How I tested the Motorola Razr Plus 2024
I tested the Motorola Razr Plus 2024 for two weeks before starting this review. I received the Razr Plus 2024 and the Razr 2024 together, and I used the Razr Plus as my only smartphone for work purposes. I checked messages, managed my calendar, wrote stories, and edited photos on the display. I also used the phone as a primary personal phone: controlling my smart home devices, playing games, and managing my social life.
I tested the durability of the phone thoroughly. Every time I opened and closed the phone I did so with deliberate force. I used the phone in the bathtub, and washed it in the sink. I dropped it a few times onto the pavement. It still looks just fine.
To test the AI features, I used a standard prompt list that I always use with AI image-generation tools to prove that they resort to common stereotypes. I ask every AI tool for the same images, 10 times for each prompt, and sometimes more if results are interesting or inconsistent. I ask for images that test stereotypes on race, religion, ethnicity, culture, gender, socio-economic status, and other criteria.
I tested the Motorola Razr Plus 2024 with a variety of accessories, including the Pixel Buds Pro earbuds, a Pixel Watch 2, and my Bluetooth car receiver. I used an Xbox One gaming controller, in addition to a variety of charging devices, especially my Anker 737 battery, which can charge the Razr Plus at full speed.
The GameSir Kaleid fixes one of the few problems I had with its predecessor, the GameSir T4 Kaleid (for the sake of simplicity, I’ll refer to it as the ‘T4’ from now on): it lacked compatibility with Xbox consoles, despite having the console’s ‘ABXY’ face button layout.
Now, GameSir has released a version of one of the best PC controllers that's compatible with Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, and PC. However, the Kaleid does lose the Nintendo Switch compatibility enjoyed by the T4, so it isn’t the definitive option if you have to choose between the two based on your console of choice.
The GameSir Kaleid is identical to the T4 in almost every way. If you’re familiar with the T4 and its excellent micro switch buttons and Hall effect thumbsticks, you’re getting those same features here. The only notable differences are the darker translucent shell, a mildly improved D-pad, and a slightly higher price tag.
(Image credit: Future)
Price and availability
$49.99 / £59.99
Pricier than the T4 Kaleid ($41.99 / £41.99)
US and UK availability (not currently available in Australia)
The GameSir Kaleid launched on May 30, 2024, and can be bought either from GameSir’s website or the brand’s Amazon store page. It’s priced at $49.99 / £59.99, which is a good bit more than the T4 in the US ($41.99), and significantly more than in in the UK (£41.99). Overall, it’s similarly priced in comparison to the Xbox Wireless Controller ($59.99 / £54.99), though the GameSir wins out here in terms of overall features and customizability.
It’s worth noting that if this will be your first time purchasing a GameSir product, you can pick up the Kaleid from the brand’s official website with an 8% discount as a new customer. This brings the price of the Kaleid down to $46.99 / £56: a small saving, but noteworthy all the same.
Specs
(Image credit: Future)
Design and features
The new GameSir Kaleid is practically identical to the T4 in terms of features. That includes Hall-effect thumbsticks to practically eliminate the risk of drift, plus welcome ancillary features like remappable rear buttons, and a central multi-function button useful for adjusting trigger stop distance, the brightness of the controller’s RGB effects, overall RGB patterns, thumbstick dead zones and button layout profile creation.
Yes, that delightful RGB lighting remains in the new Kaleid. And despite the darker translucent shell, the lighting still manages to shine brightly. In fact, I think the subtler translucency helps the RGB effect stand out much more effectively here; it looks great encased in that darker shell.
Otherwise, this is, by and large, the same controller as the T4, albeit with Xbox console compatibility in place of Nintendo Switch. This nicely positions it as a top contender for one of the best Xbox controllers in its price range.
The new Kaleid retains that same Xbox Wireless Controller-adjacent build and button layout, and the central GameSir-branded Home button is replaced with the official Xbox logo. And yes, the Kaleid features the ‘Designed for Xbox’ seal of approval, meaning it’ll work with Xbox consoles out of the box with no fuss.
(Image credit: Future)
Performance
The T4 is one of my favorite PC controllers and my go-to controller for fighting games in particular, owing to its snappy micro switch buttons and drift-resistant Hall effect thumbsticks. Both of those are found here and feel just as excellent to play with.
One thing of note is that the new Kaleid’s D-pad is a step up from the T4's. Like the face buttons, it’s now micro switch-based, feeling much more tactile and responsive as a result. All other modules, meanwhile, including the shoulder buttons, triggers, sticks, and central Home and sharing buttons, feel practically identical. It also shares the T4’s lack of wireless functionality, unfortunately, so you’ll be relying on a wired USB-C connection (a cable is included in the box). This may be a dealbreaker if you typically prefer wireless play.
It’s also worth noting that you can further customize the Kaleid with the GameSir Nexus app, available on PC and now Xbox consoles as well. The dedicated controller software is genuinely excellent, allowing you to adjust thumbstick dead zones, RGB lighting patterns and brightness settings, trigger sensitivity, and map the functions of the extra rear buttons. Much of this can also be done via the controller’s multifunction button, by holding it down and referring to the button inputs found in the included manual. However, I preferred having a visual guide for my changes via the app, making it much easier to fine-tune my controller’s setup.
(Image credit: Future)
Should I buy the GameSir Kaleid?
Buy it if...
Don't buy it if...
Also consider...
If the GameSir Kaleid isn’t quite what you’re looking for, consider the following two options, which we believe are strong alternative picks.
(Image credit: Future)
How I tested the GameSir Kaleid
Tested nearly every day for a week
Tested with Xbox and PC games
Compared with other recommended and affordable Xbox controllers
I tested the GameSir Kaleid over a week, starting on Xbox Series X with titles including Halo Infinite, Elden Ring, Sea of Thieves, and Forza Horizon 5. I downloaded the GameSir Nexus app on the console and created numerous custom profiles based on a variety of game genres for an enhanced experience with each. I also tested the controller in conjunction with similarly excellent Xbox gamepads, such as the Xbox Wireless Controller and the Victrix Gambit.
Moving over to PC, I tested the GameSir Kaleid with a range of Steam titles, including Elden Ring once again, Final Fantasy 14 Online, and Tekken 8. My experience here was largely similar to that of the T4, given that they are, by and large, identical. As such, less testing was required here as it provided a similarly high-quality experience overall.
