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According to sources familiar with the matter, Apple is planning to expand its manufacturing facility in Brazil in an attempt to avoid the newly imposed tariffs on China by the Trump Administration. Trump's newly announced tariffs include 34% on Chinese imports and 26% on Indian, two crucial markets for Apple hardware. This means that Apple will be forced to pay higher taxes and transfer that to its customers. To mitigate those high tariffs, the company is considering expanding its assembly facility in Brazil since the country faces only a 10% import tax. Reportedly, Apple started...

I tested this robovac with a pop-up puck, and it could be a game-changer for cleaning under the sofa
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Roborock Saros 10: two-minute review

Launched in January 2025, the Roborock Saros 10 is a premium robot vacuum with some seriously cutting-edge features. Primary among these is a navigation puck that retracts down into the bot when it senses it's entering a low-height space. That, combined with a suspension system that can bounce it over tall thresholds, means this bot can reach places other robovacs can't.

On test, I found that both these features worked reliably well. And while the pop-down puck will only really come into play in homes with furniture that's a quite-specific distance off the floor, if you do fall into this category then this robotic will prove a game-changer. No more shifting the sofa once every six months to find a horrifying amount of dust sitting below it!

I was also impressed with the Saros 10's cleaning powers. Suction is strong enough to pull large volumes of dog hair off carpeted floors without fuss, and the anti-tangle roller does exactly what it's designed to do. Mopping is good, too, with the lowest mopping modes creating only the lightest mop; perfect for floors that are sensitive to too much moisture. On balance, I still think spinning mop pads (such as those that feature on the Saron 10's sister model, the Roborock Saros 10R) do a better job of scrubbing, but I did like how the additional mini side mop on the Saros 10 got right up to the edges of rooms.

I should also give special mention to the impressive hands-off dock, which not only empties dust and charges the bot (in double-quick time), but also dispenses detergent, washes the mop pads with hot water, and dries them with warm air. All this while looking far more stylish than basically any other dock I've seen in all my time reviewing robovacs.

At list price, the Saros 10 is far from cheap, but it's roughly in line with other brands' top-of-the-range models offering similarly advanced features. If you just want decent cleaning and are happy to take care of some of the maintenance tasks yourself, there are cheaper options to be found. However, if you're after an advanced model that makes use of the very latest tech and requires minimal intervention from you, this might be the best robot vacuum for you. Read on for my full Roborock Saros 10 review.

Roborock Saros 10 robot vacuum in its dock, in reviewer's home

(Image credit: Future)

Roborock Saros 10 review: price & availability

  • List price: $1,599.99 / £1,499.99 / AU$2,999
  • Launched: January 2025
  • Available: Worldwide

The Roborock Saros 10 was one of three new Roborock robot vacuums announced at CES in January 2025, alongside sister model Saros 10R and the Saros Z70, which has a mechanical arm.

At list price direct from Roborock, the Saros 10 costs $1,599.99 in the US, £1,499.99 in the UK, and AU$2,999 in Australia. At time of writing, it isn't available via any third-party retailers, but it may come to Amazon at some point.

That price puts it firmly into the premium bracket for robovacs. In fact, it's one of the most expensive models we've tested so far, although its price is roughly in line with many other brands' top-of-the-range models. Build quality, performance and featureset help justify that price somewhat, and I'm not going to score it down too much on price because I'm glad this kind of innovation exists in the robovac world – plus, it's a truly excellent robot vacuum. Having said that, I'd still hold out for a discount (or for the price to come down over time) before buying one.

This is a super-advanced robot vacuum, and you don't need to spend this much to get an appliance that will keep your floors clean. For most people's needs, there are models at even half the price that will do the job – especially if you're willing to sacrifice the mop washing / drying / self-cleaning dock functions, all of which will bump up the price significantly.

Note, however, that there are a couple of ongoing costs to factor in, too. The first is replacement dust bags, although with a 2.5-liter capacity, each bag should last a decent amount of time. The second is floor cleaner: Roborock recommends you use only its own branded detergent, and I'm disappointed to report it's very expensive.

  • Value for money score: 4 out of 5

Roborock Saros 10 specs

Roborock Saros 10 review: design

  • Pop-up navigation puck and bouncy chassis for traversing thresholds
  • Bulky but smart mirrored self-empty dock, with mop cleaning
  • Side mop and brush, and split main roller for directing hair

The bot itself looks similar to your standard disc-shaped robovac, but the main difference here is that rather than having a fixed navigation puck, it has one that can pop up and down. It will generally be up (this allows for better navigation); however, it will retract when the bot is docked and if it senses it's entering a low-height space.

On the front there's also a camera and additional navigation elements. The camera can also be used as a security cam, or to check in on your pets while you're out.

Roborock Saros 10 from the front

(Image credit: Future)

Flip it over and you'll find two chunky wheels and a smaller front wheel, all of which can raise and lower independently to get the bot over tall thresholds. It's designed to be able to traverse thresholds up to a total of 1.6 inches / 4cm in height, including double-step thresholds, using the same AdaptiLift technology included with the Roborock Qrevo Curv. The bot learns the best process for each threshold in the mapped area.

The roller is rather unusual. It combines rubber fins and bristles, and is split in the middle to allow hair to escape into the bin, rather than becoming tangled and requiring you to then manually cut it off.

There's a spinning side brush that tucks itself away when it isn't in use. Again, the design is a little unusual: it has two arms, which sit near each other and extend at a slanting angle, to resist hair from becoming tangled.

Roborock Saros 10 robot vacuum, flipped over to show underside

There's a D-shaped mop pad and anti-tangle roller design (Image credit: Future)

For mopping, the Saros 10 has a fixed, D-shaped mop pad. This has two vibrating zones that are designed to help dislodge dirt, and can also press down on the floor. (It's still not my preferred style – I find dual-spinning discs do a more thorough scrubbing job, which is the reason for docking a half-mark in this section).

There's also a tiny extra side mop designed to get closer to the edges of rooms. Cleverly, if you opt for a mode where the mop isn't needed, it can drop the mop off in the dock, so there's no danger of damp carpets.

Roborock Saros 10 robot vacuum with top plate removed to show onboard dustbin

The onboard dustbin is hidden beneath a magnetic top panel (Image credit: Future)

The panel on the top of the robovac is magnetic, and can be removed to reveal the onboard dustbin. You shouldn't need to access this often – only if the self-empty process fails because something has jammed the mechanism. Presumably there's also a water tank in there, but I couldn't find it.

Dock design

The Saros 10 dock is one of those does-it-all units that not only charges the bot and empties its small onboard dustbin, but does a whole load more besides. It can refill its onboard water tank, disperse detergent, clean the bot's mop pads (at up to 176ºF / 80ºC), dry them (at 140ºF) over the course of a few hours, and also clean itself (at up to 176ºF).

It's designed to be able to recognize what's on the mop and adjust the temperature to suit; so it knows to use hotter water for grease and coffee stains than items such as mashed potato.

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Roborock Saros 10 dock with front door open to show dust bag

The dustbag sits between a press-to-open front hatch (Image credit: Future)
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Roborock Saros 10 dock with top open to show clean and dirty water tanks

Clean and dirty water tanks are beneath another door on top (Image credit: Future)
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Inside the dock for Roborock Saros 10 robovac

The dock has mop cleaning and self-cleaning capabilities (Image credit: Future)

As such, the Saros 10 is fairly bulky. However, it's one of the best-looking docks I've seen, with a smart, mirrored front that simply reflects the rest of your room back at you. So if it looks messy, that's on you.

The dustbag is hidden behind a front flap that opens when you press it, and two large water tanks (one for clean, one for dirty from cleaning the mop) are housed in the top, again behind a door.

There's a removable ramp up into the dock, and inside you can see the brushes for cleaning the mop pad.

  • Design score: 4.5 out of 5

Roborock Saros 10 review: performance

  • Excellent vacuuming on higher settings; can handle pet hair
  • Mopping also very good on higher settings – edge mop is useful
  • Navigation great but object avoidance unreliable

Setup was painless. I unpackaged the bot, left it to charge on its dock, and then was prompted to complete a quick mapping run. Here, the bot made its way briefly into each room, looked around a bit, then left. It then provided me with a suggestion of what it thought the rooms were, and their floor types.

Roborock Saros 10 navigating around tester's home

By default, the navigation puck is up while the bot is cleaning (Image credit: Future)

I was testing this bot in a town house with multiple levels, so I repeated the process for each floor, carrying the bot up to each level to do so (advanced though this robovac is, it still can't climb stairs).

The initial plans were generally very accurate. After they'd been created, I went back in and corrected room types, removed unnecessary areas (it included the stairs when mapping higher levels, although its cliff sensors reliably prevented it from trying to go down them), and added no-go areas.

Vacuuming

On the vacuuming front, there are five power levels to choose from: Quiet, Balanced, Turbo, Max and Max+ (there's a battery life warning with this mode). You can also opt to clean the space once or twice. I did find this bot a little noisy in vacuum-only mode, but it certainly wasn't any louder than a manual vacuum.

To try out vacuuming, I first set off the Saros 10 to clean each floor of the house, using a mix of different power levels, in vacuum-only mode. After cleaning, and before the bot returned to the dock, I inspected the onboard bin to see what it had gathered collected.

Roborock Saros 10 navigating around tester's home

The Saros 10 did a great job of pulling pet hair from the carpeted rooms (Image credit: Future)

I found Turbo mode was enough to extract plenty of dog hair from carpeted floors, and even more if I amped it up to a higher power mode. I was also impressed that the bot had no trouble auto-emptying, even when full with hair. I could hear the tell-tale "whoomph" sound as the wodge of dog hair made its way from the onboard bin to the dock dustbag.

I was also generally impressed by the roller design – there was next-to-none of my long hair wrapped around it at the end of a vacuuming session. That isn't the case with some of the robovacs I test.

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Carpet with tea and oats sprinkled on it, ahead of suction test

Oats and tea on carpet before the suction test... (Image credit: Future)
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Carpet with tea and oats remaining after one pass with the Roborock Saros 10

... and after one pass with the Saros 10 (Image credit: Future)
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Carpet with tea and oats remaining after two passes with the Roborock Saros 10

... after two passes with the Saros 10 (Image credit: Future)
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Carpet with a tiny amount of remaining tea and oats after four passes from the Roborock Saros 10

... and after three passes, bumped up to Max+ mode (Image credit: Future)

To test how the Roborock Saros 10 handles different kinds of debris, I ran TechRadar's standard suction tests. I sprinkled a teabag of dry tea on the carpet, alongside a handful of oats. I then ran the vacuum over them. On first pass in Turbo mode, the results were a little disappointing – the bot failed to pick much up, and what it did, it spat back out on a different area of carpet.

I ran another spot clean in Max+ mode and was far more impressed. This time, the bot picked up most of the debris, both large and small. To be clear, this is a tricky test. I went back over the tea spillage area with my Dyson Gen5detect vacuum and even that struggled to get the very last specs of tea from the carpet.

It's worth pointing out here that, in general, robot vacuums are designed for maintenance cleans – for deep cleaning, you'll still want to keep one of the best manual vacuums to hand. Among robot vacuums I've tested, the Saros 10's suction performance in general was very good.

Image 1 of 2

Oats and tea on a tiled floor, ahead of suction test

Oats and tea on a tiled floor, ready for the suction test (Image credit: Future)
Image 2 of 2

Saros 10 clearing oats and tea from a tiled floor

The results after one pass with the Saros 10 (Image credit: Future)

I ran the same test with tea and oats on a hard, tiled floor. This time, the bot picked up almost everything first time in Turbo mode, albeit with a fair bit of flicking around of debris. The only remaining bits were in the grouting cracks, and I managed to get those by remote-controlling the bot over the relevant area afterwards.

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Oats and tea on the edge of a tiled floor

Oats and tea sprinkled along the edge of a room (Image credit: Future)
Image 2 of 2

Saros 10 clearing oats and tea from the edge of a tiled floor

The Saros 10 did a decent, but not perfect job of clearing it (Image credit: Future)

To assess this bot's edge-cleaning powers, I sprinkled team and oats along the edge of the tiled kitchen. It did a pretty good job of clearing it, although it did ping everything around a bit, and there were a few remnants left that it was quicker to tackle with a manual vacuum that try and get the bot to handle.

Mopping

There are four mopping levels to choose from – Mild, Standard, Intense and Extreme. These increase not just the amount of water used, but also the enthusiasm of the scrubbing. Standard mode is really very light; I found the floor had almost completely dried by the time the bot had finished cleaning the room.

That's great news if you have floors that are sensitive to too much moisture – wooden floors, for example. However, if that's not the case and you want a more thorough mop, you'll want to deploy one of the higher mopping modes.

Roborock Saros 10 robot vacuum in mopping mode

The Standard mopping mode is quite light (Image credit: Future)

You can choose for the bot to mop only, vacuum first and then mop, or do both at once. I tend to avoid combination mopping and vacuuming since it will often lead to messy rollers and side brushes, due to the combination of water and dry debris. In mop-only mode, the Saros 10 really is extremely quiet.

On test, I found it could take a while for the mop pads to fully saturate, and especially in Standard or Mild modes. Initially, I could see damp streaks on the floor where the bot had cleaned incompletely. However, the tiny extra side mop does a good job of getting right up to the edges of rooms.

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Roborock Saros 10 robot vacuum in mopping mode

Smeared ketchup waiting to be cleaned (Image credit: Future)
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Roborock Saros 10 robot vacuum in mopping mode

After a couple of passes, there was still a little left (Image credit: Future)

For my mopping test, I smeared a tiny bit of ketchup on a tiled floor and left it to dry. After one pass in Standard mode, the Saros 10 had hardly cleaned up any of it. Amping it up to higher mop levels yielded better results.

On balance, while this bot does a good job of mopping, I still prefer the spinning dual disc-shaped mop style when it comes to pure scrubbing power.

The pop-up puck is an interesting one, because in reality it's a very specific situation in which it's actually useful – you need furniture that's taller than 3.3inches / 8.2cm but shorter than 4.5inches / 11.4cm (the height where the puck wouldn't need to retract) off the ground. If you have that, though, it's super useful.

There's only one piece of furniture in my testing house that falls into the correct bracket, and the puck worked exactly as stated here. It also didn't impede navigation at all, although said piece of furniture is quite small, so it probably didn't present the biggest challenge.

I also ran TechRadar's standard obstacle avoidance tests, placing a sock, a charge cable, and a shoe on the floor, spread apart. I also added a box of tissues, for good measure. Results were mixed here.

The bot tried to eat the sock. It successfully identified and avoided the shoe, and at first also the tissue box, although it then went back and pushed it around a bit.

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Roborock Saros 10 robot vacuum eating a cable

As expected, the Saros 10 didn't spot this cable (Image credit: Future)
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Roborock Saros 10 robot vacuum avoiding a shoe

It did avoid my shoe, but pushed around the tissue box for a while (Image credit: Future)

The Saros 10 also chewed the cable. That isn't a massive surprise, because I've yet to come across a robot vacuum that can successfully spot cables. However, it's something Roborock specifically states the Saros 10 can do, so it's disappointing in this regard.

In general use, however, I found this robovac pretty good at obstacle avoidance. There are various bins, speaker bases and ornaments on the floor that it successfully avoided – but as mentioned, it isn't quite the "exceptional" obstacle recognition and avoidance promised by Roborock.

Advanced features include the ability to use the robot to hunt out, photograph, and even video-call your pet. I did not try these features, because I suspect the dog would find such an intrusion wildly unsettling rather than reassuring.

Any photography and video features are turned off by default. To enable, you have to manually press some buttons on the robot vacuum, and you also have to be the primary account holder.

Battery life

I can't fault the Saros 10's battery. While it's less of an issue with robot vacuums than a cordless stick vacuum – because the bot will automatically return to the dock to charge whenever it runs out of juice, before resuming its cleaning task – it's still helpful for a robot to offer decent runtimes. That's especially true if you're going to use it in a house with multiple floors, where it can't always get back to its charge dock without help.

The Saros 10 managed an impressive amount of cleaning on a single charge. I was concerned that the Max+ mode – which comes with a "battery draining mode" warning – would run the battery down super quickly, but on test it trundled through three complete room cleans in vacuum-only Max+ mode (from a not-full battery in the first place) before running out of juice. Impressive.

Roborock Saros 10 navigating around tester's home

(Image credit: Future)

Roborock also promises fast charging; it claims the dock will take the robovac from flat battery to full in 150 minutes. On test, I found this accurate. I went from 14% battery (at which point the bot told me it needed to return to dock to recharge) to 100% in under two and a half hours. If it goes flat mid-task, the bot will also figure out how much more power it needs to complete the task, and only charge to that point, for maximum efficiency.

Dock performance

Based on a couple of weeks of testing, the dock seems to be performing as stated. I've experienced no issues with the bin failing to empty completely, and the washing function seems to be working as claimed based on how clean the mop pads look and how dirty the water in the waste water tank is.

I'll update this section when I've been using the bot a little longer, and have a more complete view of the dock performance over time.

  • Performance score: 4 out of 5

Roborock Saros 10 review: app

  • Lots of settings for precise control
  • ... but will also figure things out automatically, if you prefer
  • Generally very usable, with a few usability quirks

The Roborock app is well designed and nice and usable, although it can take a little time to learn your options and explore all the settings at first – in part because there are so many of them. There are also a few areas I found unhelpful. For example, to swap between different floorplans in a multi-storey home, you need to go via the "edit map" menu, which feels unintuitive.

Otherwise, mapping is straightforward, and you have the option to set no-go zones and invisible walls, as well as removing sections that are added in error. You can also add furniture, and create cleaning preferences for different rooms and floors.

Strangely, you can't manually select the floor type for each room. You can create "carpet areas", but this is fiddly – no areas can overlap, making things tricky if the plan includes carpet rooms and hard floor rooms. The app will automatically identify floor type, but the areas that have been designated as carpet isn't always clear. I'd prefer to be able to set this as a backup – no one wants a mopped carpet.

Screenshots from companion app for Roborock Saros 10 robot vacuum

Click to open large version (Image credit: Roborock / Future)

A relatively new addition to the setup is SmartPlan 2.0, which uses AI to customize the cleaning route, suction power and mop settings based on the bot's knowledge of its environment and previous use. Roborock says it can even reduce suction power during designated "quiet hours".

In short, you can have as much or as little control as you want here. If you don't want to get involved, you can basically leave the bot to figure out everything on its own, and it will do a very good job. Alternatively, you can really dig into the different features and set up everything exactly as you want it.

  • App score: 4.5 out of 5

Should you buy the Roborock Saros 10?

Buy it if...

You have low-sitting furniture
The retractible puck is a game-changer if you have furniture that's between around 3.3in / 8.2cm and 4.5in / 11.4cm off the ground. It means this bot will be able to successfully clean this space, no shifting of furniture required.

You have tall room thresholds
The Saros 10 can clear thresholds up to 1.6in / 4cm tall, and it will learn the best way to get over each one and replicate it each time, too.

You want a hands-off option
The dock takes care of pretty much all maintenance tasks, from cleaning and drying the mop pads to dispensing detergent. It looks good, too.

You have delicate hard floors
The lighter mop modes are very gentle and use only a little water, making them perfect for hard floors that are sensitive to too much moisture.

Don't buy it if...

You'd prefer no pop-up puck
It worked very well on test, but if you don't like the sound of the retractible puck then Roborock has a couple of models that use a newer navigation approach and don't require a puck at all: the Saros 10R and the Qrevo Slim.

You're on a budget
The Saros 10 doesn't come cheap, and there are plenty of lower-priced options on the market that will work perfectly well for many people's needs – especially if you're not fussed about advanced features such as the retractible puck and in-dock mop pad cleaning.

You want the very best mopping
I found the mopping very good here, but not as rigorous as the dual spinning disc-style mops. We were also very impressed with the roller mop found on the Eureka J20 robot vacuum, which continually siphons off dirty water and replaces it with clean water.

Roborock Saros 10: alternatives to consider

Eufy X10 Pro Omni

At time of writing, this bot sits at the top of our best robot vacuum ranking as the model we recommend to most people. It's significantly cheaper than the Saros 10 but not as cutting-edge. There's no pop-up puck here; threshold clearance is much lower; it can't dispense detergent; plus the dock is significantly less stylish. However, it still cleans extremely well, and the mop is great (it uses the dual spinning pads).

Read our full Eufy X10 Pro Omni reviewView Deal

Roborock Saros 10R

The 10R is the sister model to the 10, and it's extremely similar, except it uses a different navigation method. Rather than the retractible puck, it uses a new form of LiDAR that doesn't need a puck at all. We found it worked extremely well when we tested it. It also swaps the D-shaped mop pad for two spinning discs.

Read our Roborock Saros 10R reviewView Deal

How I tested the Roborock Saros 10

I used the Roborock Saros 10 regularly for two weeks in a four-storey town house that has a mixture of carpeted and tiled floors, and houses a very hairy cocker spaniel. I used it to map and clean each of the levels, exploring the different settings and modes. For a more objective performance review, I ran TechRadar's standard suction tests (using dry tea and oats on hard and carpeted floors), mopping tests (using ketchup and juice on a hard floor), and obstacle avoidance tests (using socks, a cable and a shoe). I compared my experience of the Saros 10 against other robot vacuums I've tested, in terms of both ease of use and cleaning performance.

Read more about how we test robot vacuum cleaners.

  • First reviewed March 2025
I reviewed the Samsung QN900F: good enough to sway 8K cynics, and it’s not even Samsung’s most expensive 8K TV
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Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Televisions | Tags: , , , | Comments: Off

Samsung QN900F: Two-minute review

With native 8K content still pretty elusive (though no longer flat out unfindable), buying an 8K TV might not sound like it makes much sense. The new Samsung QN900F, though, builds spectacularly on the successes of 2024’s mind-alteringly brilliant Samsung QN900D 8K range to keep the 8K TV flag flying high.

For starters, at £4,899/$4,299 for the 75-inch version of the Samsung QN900F we’re focusing on here, it’s relatively affordable by Samsung's premium 8K TV standards. It also uses the remarkably effective glare-free screen found in the Samsung S95D OLED, one of the best TVs of 2024; carries no less than 256 neural networks to apply AI enhancements to smart features, picture quality and audio quality; and supports a comprehensive array of gaming features, including support for frame rates up to 165Hz.

The QN900F’s latest (gen 9) Tizen smart system supports a typically huge range of streaming services, as well as offering AI-enhanced systems for finding content tailored to the viewing habits of different members of your household. Its powerful, cinematic multi-channel sound system ups the big screen’s immersive potential substantially, too.

The star of the show, though, is undoubtedly its eye-popping pictures, which combine phenomenal brightness and ultra-vibrant colour with, crucially, a new level of upscaling for converting non-8K sources to the screen’s native 8K resolution. It’s this, in particular, that builds on 2024’s QN900D efforts in making our previous cynicism about 8K TVs a thing of the past.

Samsung QN900F review: Prices and release date

Samsung QN900F showing image of trees

The QN900F's 8K resolution and clean upscaling make pictures look detailed and lifelike (Image credit: Future)
  • Release date: March 2025
  • 65-inch: £3,599 / $3,299 / around AU$5,240
  • 75-inch: £4,899 / $4,299 / around AU$6,825
  • 85-inch: £6,899 / $5,499 / around AU$8,730

The QN900F is at the vanguard of an expansive swathe of TVs Samsung is bringing to market in March 2025. All three screen sizes of the QN900F should be available in the UK and US this month, with launch pricing for each model shown above.

Samsung QN900F review: Specs

Samsung QN900F review: Benchmark results

Samsung QN900F review: Features

Samsung QN900F back panel ports

The QN900F has four HDMI 2.1 ports with 4K 165Hz support (Image credit: Future)
  • 8K FALD VA panel with mini-LED
  • HDR10, HLG and HDR10+ HDR support
  • Gaming support up to 4K 165Hz with VRR

While sales of 8K TVs might not have set the world on fire so far (in fact, Samsung is currently the only brand consistently sticking with them), the QN900F’s 7680x4320 native resolution is undoubtedly its main feature. After all, while true 8K sources are still scarce, Samsung’s upscaling processors can turn any video that comes the TV’s way into 8K, so if that processing is good enough, there’s still scope for the TV’s 8K resolution to count.

Fitting an 8K pixel count into the screen massively reduces the pixel pitch of any resulting images, of course, potentially making for a denser, smoother, more realistic image, especially when you get to screen sizes of 75 inches and up.

The 75QN900F fits its 8K resolution into a VA-type panel, which usually bodes well for contrast, and it lights all those tiny pixels using a mini-LED backlight system driven by 52x28 (1,446) local dimming zones. That’s a very high zone count for what is essentially Samsung’s entry-level 8K TV for 2025, raising hopes of an extreme contrast performance with minimal backlight clouding and haloing interference.

At the other end of the contrast scale, measurements taken using the Calman Ultimate image testing and calibration software and Portrait Displays’ G1 signal generator and C6 HDR5000 colorimeter reveals peak brightness levels as high as 2,350 nits on a 10% HDR test window. That much brightness will surely test the local dimming system, but Samsung has risen to similar challenges before with aplomb.

Potentially further boosting the 75QN900F’s contrast is its glare-free screen filter – something its predecessor lacked. This does an almost uncanny job of suppressing and rejecting reflections from your room.

Colours are delivered by a Quantum Dot system capable of covering a measured 89.28% of the DCI-P3 colour spectrum used in most HDR mastering, and all aspects of the pictures are controlled by Samsung’s latest NQ8 AI Gen 2 processor.

This processor should have a particularly strong impact on upscaling sub-8K content to the TV’s native 8K resolution, but also feeds into features such as a Real Depth Enhancer Pro system for creating a more three dimensional effect, auto HDR remastering for converting SDR to HDR, and an AI Motion Enhancer system. The processor also plays a part in delivering what Samsung claims should be much wider effective viewing angles than you would normally get with LED technology.

The AI features extend to an AI Mode option you can call in for any of the TV’s presets, which analyses the incoming content and ambient room conditions in a bid to constantly optimise the picture and sound quality. The more puritanical AV fans out there won’t like the sound of this at all, of course - but it is all strictly optional. I’ll be looking at how well it works in the next section.

  • Features Score: 5/5

Samsung QN900F review: Picture quality

Samsung QN900F showing image of mountain

High resolution and high brightness combine with powerful contrast in the QN900F's picture (Image credit: Future)
  • High brightness and contrast
  • Vibrant colours
  • Excellent backlight control

The QN900F improves so much over its 2024 equivalent model that it’s hard to believe it isn’t actually Samsung’s flagship TV for 2025. The step-up QN990F series is really going to have to go some to be better than this.

The first thing that hits you like a lightning bolt is how bright the QN900F’s pictures are. This is especially true in the rather OTT Dynamic mode, but also hits home hard in the extremely watchable Standard preset. Even the Filmmaker Mode, though, which is designed to track the UHD Alliance’s preference for accuracy to industry mastering standards and minimal processing, retains a satisfyingly punchy look, with strong HDR highlighting to go with its generally more balanced and nuanced approach.

The extreme brightness is especially effective with aggressively mastered HDR footage, but the screen also adapts itself pretty much perfectly to milder HDR fare. Nothing looks forced or strained. Even SDR footage converted to HDR by the HDR Remaster option enjoys an uptick in light and colour range without looking weird or unbalanced.

At least as important as the QN900F’s impressive brightness, though, is the fact that it’s delivered without the backlight system exhibiting either heavy backlight blooming or any general greyness in dark scenes or dark picture areas. In fact, black levels are nothing short of outstanding for LCD technology, hitting essentially OLED-level black depths during fades to black, and maintaining a surprisingly inky and consistent (as in, cloud- and halo-free) look even with shots that combine lots of very bright and dark elements.

Samsung has managed to accomplish the QN900F’s exceptional LED contrast, too, without pursuing its old habit of dimming down stand-out brightness elements to stop light blooms appearing around them. The level of backlight control achieved by the NQ8 AI Gen 2 processing is so sophisticated and granular that such overt local dimming activity just isn’t needed any more.

Suppressing backlight blooming and greyness as well as the QN900F does hasn’t come completely string-free; there’s some minor crushing of shadow details in the Standard and Movie modes. But this is seldom serious enough to be distracting, and in any case it can be improved by just nudging up the TV’s Shadow Detail setting one or two points.

The QN900F’s high brightness contributes to a gorgeously rich, satisfying colour performance, too. This is most vividly obvious in the Standard preset - so much so that I’d say most QN900F buyers will find this mode irresistible for most day-to-day viewing conditions. Especially as Samsung has clearly worked hard with its latest Standard preset to try and make it deliver much more immersive and consistent pictures than the mode typically has in the past.

If you switch to a more mild, accurate preset such as Movie or Filmmaker Mode, you won’t get to ogle the most vivid extremes of the QN900F’s colour capabilities, but the wider colour range still plays its part in unlocking both more subtlety and more expressive shading than last year’s equivalent Filmmaker Mode offered.

In other words, no matter what picture preset you like the best, the much more thoughtful colour and light management of the new panel and attendant processing engine means it will look equally fantastic in its own specific way.

Samsung QN900F detail shot of TV frame

The QN900F's thick, chamfered frame lends itself well to displaying art from the Samsung Art Store (Image credit: Future)

While it’s telling that I’ve focused so far on picture attributes that don’t directly relate to its native 8K resolution, this doesn’t mean that resolution doesn’t still matter. It is now possible to find and play native 8K videos on Youtube, and while the quality of these can be variable to say the least (you have to watch out for videos that say they’re 8K in their titles when they actually aren’t, too), the good ones reveal to a wider audience at last what some of us lucky TV reviewer types have known for years: that true 8K looks absolutely spectacular.

That’s partly because 8K looks incredibly sharp and detailed, as you might expect. But more because something about the extra density of the image somehow breaks down the usual sense that you’re watching a picture on a TV, leaving you feeling more as if you’re literally looking at reality. And that’s especially true when an 8K clip features some decent HDR encoding.

Crucially, though, the QN900F not only looks better than 4K TVs with native 8K content. Samsung’s latest 8K upscaling efforts are the best they’ve ever been, managing to make 4K sources look sharper, more textured and more dense than they would in their native resolution, while simultaneously making the upscaled results look more natural and refined than they have been on previous Samsung 8K TVs.

This is chiefly because, I think, the upscaling system has got even cleverer about detecting the difference between noise and actual picture information in a sub-8K source as it goes about figuring out how the millions (and millions) of pixels it needs to add to the picture should look.

Even fairly grubby, compressed HD sources make the journey up to 8K on the QN900F without becoming artificial looking, or suffering with exaggerated source artefacts. SD is a stretch, unsurprisingly - though even here the results only look a bit soft rather than becoming flat out ugly or messy.

Playing around with Samsung’s AI Mode yields some interesting results. Initially I found its picture optimization features a little over the top, causing some distracting processing side effects. Most notably slightly peaky skin tones, slightly forced bright highlights, and some processed-looking motion. Tweaking one or two picture settings to help ‘train’ the AI Mode, though, can help it quickly deliver much smarter results. Ultimately, I wouldn’t say I felt particularly compelled to use the AI Mode picture setting, not least because the TV does such a fantastic job even without the extra AI help. But it’s certainly good enough to at least be worth trying out.

There are a couple of other niggles to report. Default motion settings with 24fps films in the otherwise stunningly watchable Standard mode are a bit of a blunt instrument, generating a few distracting side effects. You can address this problem yourself, though, by choosing a custom setting for the Picture Clarity set of options, and turning noise reduction off while setting the power of the motion and judder reduction elements to somewhere below five each.

The second issue is that while colour saturations and contrast hold up well when viewing the TV from down its sides, the otherwise miraculously well-controlled backlight blooming suddenly starts to become noticeable.

Most of the initial niggles with the QN900F prove ultimately fixable within its menus, though, and anything left is so puny against the picture’s overwhelming strengths that it’s barely worth mentioning, honestly.

  • Picture quality score: 5/5

Samsung QN900F review: Sound quality

Samsung QN900F rear of TV

The QN900F's 4.2.2-channel built-in speakers convey a soundstage with impressive scale (Image credit: Future)
  • 4.2.2 channel speaker array
  • 70W of total audio power
  • Excellent detail placement and soundstaging

Samsung has backed up the QN900F’s stellar pictures with an excellent audio system. Particularly impressive is the scale of the soundstage it produces. Sounds are cast beyond the TV’s physical boundaries to left, right and even, to a more limited degree, upwards, getting a decent multi-channel effect from Dolby Atmos soundtracks that’s taken to another level, too, by Samsung’s Object Tracking Sound system.

This system manages to place sound effects and vocals so that they actually seem to be coming from the correct part of the image – or the correct place just beyond the image’s edges, where appropriate. The OTS system manages to track the motion of multiple noisy objects in an action scene frame, too, so that soundtracks always appear busy and precise – and, as a result, more engaging and clear.

The QN900F’s speakers deliver a decent amount of dynamic range too. Trebles at one end of the spectrum sound crisp and clean but also well-rounded rather than harsh or over-exposed, while bass reaches reasonably low while projecting powerfully enough to stop action scenes from sounding thin or one-dimensional.

Some of the film world’s most extreme and sustained bass rumbles push the QN900F’s speakers right to their limit, so that low frequencies started to sound a little ‘stuck’ inside the TV. But the speakers always just stop short of succumbing to really distracting amounts of bass-induced crackling or distortion.

The sound is powerful enough overall, too, to be able to shift up a few gears as action or horror sequences build towards a climax, without falling away when the going gets really tough. Dialogue is always clear and well contextualised, meanwhile – especially as Samsung’s AI-driven dialogue enhancement system is always ready to lend a vocal-boosting hand if a particular source or ambient noise in your room is making dialogue hard to pick up.

The AI Mode, if you choose it, does a pretty effective job of expanding the scale of the soundstage. This can cost the sound a little bass heft at high volumes, but you can improve this considerably by tweaking the low frequency elements of the TV’s graphic equaliser.

If I had to find a fault, the sound overall doesn’t have quite as much forward impact as you get with the very best sounding rival TVs, but overall the QN900F’s sound is a healthy improvement over many of Samsung’s other recent TVs.

It’s worth adding that the QN900F supports Samsung’s Q-Symphony feature, where its speakers can join forces with those in a Samsung soundbar to deliver a larger, more detailed soundstage.

  • Sound quality score: 4.5/5

Samsung QN900F review: Design

Samsung QN900F support feet

The QN900F's support feet can be set narrow or wide, and there are two different height adjustments (Image credit: Future)
  • Chamfered screen frame
  • Glare-free screen can look like a painting
  • Multi-position feet

The QN900F’s design is quite a change from previous equivalent models, switching from the usual barely-there screen bezel approach to an unusually wide, dark grey chamfered frame that looks more like something you’d find holding a painting rather than a cutting-edge TV screen. Which, actually, is exactly the impression Samsung wants the QN900F to give, as its at the heart of a campaign to expand the sort of design thinking that’s served Samsung so well with its The Serif and, especially, The Frame lifestyle TVs.

Personally, I’m torn over the QN900F’s new look. When you’re watching TV on it, the frame’s width feels a touch too much, and the dark finish lacks the glamour of the gleaming, ultra-slim frames of previous equivalent 8K models. If you’re using the TV’s Ambient Mode abilities, though, where you can play a still photo, gentle video or digitised artwork on the screen as a screensaver, the painting-style frame looks great. Especially with the new matte glare-free screen completing the painting-like impression.

The QN900F ships with a pair of rather spindly looking feet. These feet can, though, be attached in multiple ways: either set quite wide apart or close together, depending on how wide the furniture you’re putting the TV on is, and at two different height levels to potentially provide more space under the screen for a soundbar to sit.

You can also wall mount the QN900F, of course, and the reasonably slender, tiered rear panel lends itself well to this. I can’t help but wonder, though, whether the performance of the bank of eight mid-range speakers built into the TV’s rear might be compromised if the drivers are pressed up against your wall.

One last design point to mention is Samsung’s Art Store. Originally designed for Samsung’s lifestyle TVs, this service allows people who subscribe to it to choose from a library of thousands of digital and digitised artworks to use as screen savers in the TV’s Ambient Mode.

  • Design score: 4/5

Samsung QN900F review: Smart TV and menus

Samsung QN900F Tizen smart interface home screen

The QN900F's Tizen 9.0 smart interface (Image credit: Future)
  • Tizen 9.0 smart system
  • Extensive voice control support
  • Dedicated Gaming Hub menu

The QN900F uses Samsung’s own Tizen platform to deliver its smart interface and services, which is mostly very good news. What was once a rather over-complicated interface with some questionable content prioritisation decisions has gradually morphed into a sophisticated and helpful interface, bolstered by the introduction of handy new shortcut options, one of the most intuitive and in-depth voice recognition systems in the TV world (including a far-field mic), and some really impressive AI-driven talents when it comes to both recommending content based on the viewing habits of different members of your household, and advanced content searching.

New AI-driven features added to Tizen for its latest generation include an AI To Search feature that identifies which actors are in what you’re watching and does in-depth searches across all its available sources to find other films or TV shows those actors are in; a Live Translate feature that translates foreign language dramas with real-time subtitles; and a new Generative Wallpaper feature that can conjure up screensaver images to suit your described mood.

The Tizen menu system now features an attractive and usefully organised home menu that becomes more useful over time as the QN900F learns your viewing habits. The home screen also provides a link to a dedicated Gaming Hub page, which I’ll go into more in the next section, while the app support includes pretty much every streaming service anyone could ever want. The only significant absentees in the UK are Freeview Play and Freely – but you can access the individual catch up services for all of the main UK’s key terrestrial broadcasters. The QN900F also features an ATSC 3.0 tuner for receiving Next-Gen digital TV broadcasts in the US.

  • Smart TV & menus score: 4.5/5

Samsung QN900F review: Gaming

Samsung QN900F remote control held in hand

Samsung includes its Solar Cell rechargeable remote control with the QN900F (Image credit: Future)
  • Gaming Hub menu
  • Game Bar menu with multiple gaming aids
  • 4K 165Hz gaming support

The QN900F is a beast of a gaming display that ticks all the feature boxes you could want from the best gaming TVs. All four of its HDMI ports can support high frame rate 4K gaming feeds. Those high frame rates can stretch to 165Hz this year (up from 144Hz in 2024) for anyone with a PC powerful enough to take advantage of that, and variable refresh rates are supported right up to this eye-catching new frame rate peak. The VRR support is available in the AMD FreeSync Premium format as well as the basic HDMI format, too.

Gaming HDR is supported in the HDR10+ and HGiG approaches as well as basic HDR10, and low lag gaming modes are available for all those HDR options. This lag reduces to a fantastically low (especially considering the QN900F has to upscale graphics to the screen’s 8K resolution) 10ms with 60Hz sources with the TV’s Game mode in play. There are also options, though, to increase this lag slightly in return for mild motion smoothing processing with low frame rate titles that aren’t particularly dependent on fast reaction times.

There are also sophisticated options for magnifying and even repositioning a game’s mini map, brightening dark picture areas without affecting bright areas to make enemies lurking in the shadows easier to see, and calling up an onscreen target reticle to give you an aiming edge over your rivals.

Finding game sources is a doddle, too, as the Tizen interface provides a clearly labelled dedicating Gaming Hub, which brings together all your HDMI inputs that have gaming sources attached alongside every gaming streaming service Samsung TVs now have access to.

The QN900F’s OTS audio system proves very useful for gaming thanks to the accuracy with which it places sound effects around the TV’s frame, and finally, best of all, graphics look fantastic on the QN900F’s screen.

The TV’s brightness and colour punch are beautifully to the fore, backed up by more inky black levels and a breathtaking level of sharpness and detail that constantly reminds you this is an 8K TV. The high and variable frame rate support delivers all these pixels of gaming beauty with outstanding fluidity and responsiveness, too.

There’s a touch more backlight blooming in Game mode than you get with video content, perhaps. But I only really noticed this in menus, where there can be bright text appearing against a dark backdrop; it seldom bothered me during game play.

I know pro-grade gamers will always want to play fast-response games, at least, on a small monitor. But the vast majority of more casual gamers will struggle to go back to a small screen if they get to experience the gaming joys of the QN900F.

  • Gaming score: 5/5

Samsung QN900F review: Value

Samsung QN900F rear corner detail

The QN900F's thick frame bucks the trend of Samsung's previous ultra-slim Neo QLED TVs (Image credit: Future)
  • More expensive than 4K equivalent
  • Upscaling of 4K and lower-res content adds value
  • Substantially cheaper than flagship QN990F series

The QN900F series isn’t cheap compared with even Samsung’s most premium 4K TVs. So you certainly can’t say that 8K doesn’t still attract a substantial premium, especially now that Samsung has ditched its previous, more affordable QN800 and QN700 8K ranges.

There is at least a small amount of native 8K content available on YouTube now with which to unlock the full 8K capabilities of 8K TVs, though, and Samsung’s upscaling is now so good that even 4K footage consistently benefits from being translated into 8K.

It’s also worth saying that the QN900F is substantially more affordable than Samsung’s flagship 8K TV for 2025, the QN990F series. Those models - which ship with external wireless connectivity, support ground-breakingly high frame rates and carry even more powerful sound systems - go for £4,999 / $5,499 for the 65-inch, £6,499 / $6,499 for the 75-inch, and £9,499 / $8,499 for the 85-inch.

  • Value score: 4/5

Should I buy the Samsung QN900F?

Samsung QN900F showing image of cupcakes

Dual bass drivers on the TV's rear convey the ".1" subwoofer channel in Atmos soundtracks. (Image credit: Future)

Buy it if...

You want a truly next-gen picture quality experience
The QN900F backs up its core 8K resolution with all the colour range and subtlety, sharpness and contrast it needs to fully unlock that resolution’s potential.

You’re a gamer
The QN900F’s response time, eye-catching picture attributes, impressive game-friendly connectivity and support for ultra-high frame rates make it a fantastic gaming display.

You want a TV that turns into a painting when you’re not watching it
The QN900F’s anti-glare matt frame, wide chamfered screen frame and extensive collection of digital artworks really can turn it into a work of art when you put it into its Ambient mode.

Don't buy it if…

You can’t afford it
Samsung and other brands sell some excellent 4K TVs for substantially less than the QN900F costs. So while the QN900F justifies its price, it’s probably not worth getting yourself into debt for!

You want Dolby Vision
Samsung has never supported Dolby Vision HDR on its TVs, so it can’t always take in the very best version of every source you might feed it.

You’re not prepared to tweak a few settings
Getting the best out of the QN900F means making a few tweaks to things like noise reduction and motion processing. So if you’re not prepared to do that, even for a TV as deserving of your time as this, maybe you should go for a cheaper, more basic model instead.

Samsung QN900F review: Also consider...

TCL 98Q9BK
If you want to base your home cinema thrills more on screen size than resolution, TCL’s 4K-resolution 98-inch 98Q9BK delivers startlingly bright, colourful and contrasty pictures at a truly epic scale, as well as delivering strong gaming capabilities. All for substantially less money than the QN900F costs.

Here's our full TCL 98Q9BK review

LG G4
As well as giving you a couple of inches more picture, the LG G4 uses OLED technology rather than LCD, meaning every pixel produces its own light and colour for an exceptionally precise image. The G4’s micro lens array technology helps it deliver good brightness for OLED, too - but it’s only a 4K resolution screen.

Here's our full LG G4 review

Samsung QN900D
If you’re quick you can still pick up Samsung’s 2024 8K QN900Ds for a few hundred pounds less than the 2025 QN900Fs cost. Though the QN900Fs do deliver a few very worthwhile picture quality and smart feature advances over their predecessors, of course.

Here's our full Samsung QN900D review

How I tested the Samsung QN900F

  • Tested over 16 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, on its feet in both corner and flat wall positions

Not least because we needed to test it out with our collection of native 8K test material and the small collection of 8K YouTube videos that are now available on top of all our usual 4K test sources.

Those 4K sources, which included 4K Blu-rays and streams, needed to be scrutinised with the TV’s 8K upscaling in mind, too. As did the collection of varying quality HD and SD sources we cruelly also decided to push the QN900F hard with!

The TV was tested in a variety of locations, including 10 days in a regular living room environment in both corner and mid-wall placement positions, and in a wide range of ambient light conditions, from total black out to all the curtains open on a bright sunny day. The majority of the really critical testing was done in a darkened room with 4K and HD Blu-rays, to ensure source and environmental consistency with our other tests.

Finally, as ever we put the QN900F through a barrage of objective tests using Portrait Displays’ Calman Ultimate analysis software, G1 signal generator, and newly released C6 HDR5000 light meter.

You can read an in-depth overview of how we test TVs at TechRadar for more information.

ChatGPT Plus is free for a limited time, but only for these folks
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Author: admin | Category: Mobile phones news | Comments: Off

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has announced that ChatGPT Plus, which costs $20/month, is free to use until the end of May 2025. However, it's not available for free to everyone. The offer is valid only for college students in the US and Canada. With ChatGPT Plus, you get access to everything available in the free plan with extended limits in messaging and access to deep research and multiple reasoning models. You can check the image below for a comparison of ChatGPT's free and Plus plans. ChatGPT Free plans vs. ChatGPT Plus plan How to get ChatGPT Plus for free? If you are a full or...

I love the sound quality of the Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 3, but a few drawbacks stop it from being a true standout
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Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Gaming | Comments: Off

Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 3: two-minute review

The Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 3 is a wireless gaming headset compatible with numerous platforms, thanks to its Bluetooth integration and two USB dongles.

While it’s largely free from the typical gaming accouterments – there’s no RGB lighting, for instance – it still cuts a conspicuous figure thanks to its ultra-wide drivers, so this isn’t exactly a headset you can travel around with. Virtually all of the best PC gaming headsets out there have a lower profile than this.

Thankfully, it’s not as heavy as it looks, although some gamers might prefer something lighter. Personally, I didn’t have an issue with this aspect of the Stealth 700 Gen 3. What bothered me more was the lack of headband padding, which resulted in an achy head even after short sessions.

The comfort around the ears is much better, though. The earcups provide plenty of padding, and glasses wearers shouldn’t have a problem either. My only gripe is that they’re very large, and the fit wasn’t snug enough to secure them in place when I moved around more emphatically. For normal head movements, though, the Stealth 700 Gen 3 stay in place just fine.

The general build quality is good too, even if the materials used in its construction aren’t always the most premium. The foldable microphone is a nice touch, and feels equally well made, with an easy opening mechanism and plenty of stability when down.

There are four buttons on the Stealth 700 Gen 3, allowing for plenty of on-the-fly adjustments. There are also three scroll wheels, with two for controlling the volume from Bluetooth and transmitter sources independently, meaning you can realistically listen to music or take calls on your phone at the same time as receiving game audio from your PC or console.

Further tweaks are possible using Turtle Beach’s Swarm 2 peripheral software (on PC), allowing for some detailed output and input configurations, as well as reassignment options for the Mode button and one of the wheels, although these are limited.

The sound is great for both gaming and other forms of entertainment, including listening to music and watching content. All frequencies are clear and well-balanced, while the Bass Boost mode imparts a noticeably fuller low-end without diminishing overall quality, although small amounts of distortion can intrude with higher volumes. The microphone is less impressive, but it offers enough clarity to get by and the noise gate works well to block unwanted sounds from being picked up.

The Stealth 700 Gen 3 connects quickly via the wireless transmitter and over Bluetooth, and both work in tandem well. However, I did experience occasional dropouts on PC; whether the issue was with the headset or my particular setup is hard to tell, but if the former, hopefully, this is something that can be fixed with an update.

Battery life is excellent and seems in line with Turtle Beach’s 80-hour claim, as after a couple of days of use via Bluetooth and the transmitter across multiple platforms, it only dropped by between 5-10%.

It sits in the middle of the market in terms of price, costing about the same as the Razer BlackShark V2 Pro, which is one of the best wireless gaming headsets around. However, this headset packs in more features than the Stealth 700 Gen 3, as well as excelling in virtually every other area. There’s also the Epos H3, which is one of the best cheap gaming headsets around, although you will have to settle for a wired connection.

While both these gaming headsets might offer better value, the Stealth 700 Gen 3 isn’t far behind. It puts in an admirable effort at this price point, with sound quality that punches above its class. There are a few comfort and usability issues, but I don’t think they’re dealbreakers at this price.

Close-up of controls on Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 3

(Image credit: Future)

Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 3 review: price and availability

  • $199.99 / £179.99 / AU$399.95
  • Available now in three color options
  • Mid-lane pricing for a gaming headset

The Stealth 700 Gen 3 costs $199.99 / £179.99 / AU$399.95 and is available now in three colorways: Black, White, and Cobalt Blue. There are models with various compatibility options for Xbox, PlayStation, and PC, although all cost the same.

The Razer BlackShark V2 Pro, one of the best wireless gaming headsets in our view, is the same price (and even slightly cheaper in the UK). This headset has great output and input quality, formidable build quality, and more tweaks and customizations than the Stealth 700 Gen 3, such as THX Spatial Audio compatibility. Battery life is also great, making it a tough headset to beat at this price point.

If you want to spend a lot less on a gaming headset, then the Epos H3 is one of the best wired gaming headsets around and can be found at a significant discount from its original price. We think this headset offers superb sound and great levels of comfort for the price. A wireless variant is also available, although this is quite a lot more expensive.

Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 3 review: Specs

Close-up of left driver on Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 3, with microphone folded out

(Image credit: Future)

Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 3 review: design and features

  • Very bulky
  • Plenty of physical adjustments
  • Some useful features and customizations

The Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 3 maintains a rather muted appearance, steering clear of the gamer gaudiness afflicting some other gaming headsets; there’s not even any RGB lighting. It is, however, quite bulky, with extremely wide drivers – perhaps the widest I’ve seen on a gaming headset – so it still isn’t what you’d call discreet.

It feels well-made, though. It might not employ the most premium materials, but they feel relatively solid and are put together well. The fold-away microphone is also a nice touch, with its hinge mechanism offering a smooth operation, while at the same time providing plenty of stability once done. However, while the Stealth 700 Gen 3 isn’t as heavy as you might imagine, those who are sensitive to weighty headsets should still take heed that it’s heavier than some others in this sector.

The earpads are very thick, which helps make the headset comfortable to wear. Turtle Beach specifically mentions the Stealth 700 Gen 3 as being glasses-friendly, and I can say I found this to be the case, as I experienced no aches or fatigue from wearing them over the arms of my frames.

These pads are also uniquely shaped, vaguely following the contours of an actual ear lobe, which I found worked quite well in my case, although they were perhaps a little too large for me; since the headband is quite wide too, they don’t fit as snuggly as those on other headsets, although this is only a problem with more vigorous head movements. The large opening also means that it should accommodate most ear shapes and sizes.

Driver-height adjustments are easy to make yet hard to move accidentally. The drivers also rotate ninety degrees, allowing you to comfortably hang them around your neck. The headband, however, is less comfortable. While the padding looks soft and plush, it compresses far too easily, meaning the harder material inside pressed onto the top of my head, causing aches even after short periods of time.

Close-up of inside of driver of Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 3, leaning on plinth on desk with pink background

(Image credit: Future)

There are various buttons on both drivers: the CrossPlay switch is used for toggling between the two transmitters (one for Xbox and one for other platforms), a Bluetooth button, and a Mode button for cycling sound profiles – although unfortunately, the voice prompt doesn’t tell you which mode is currently selected, which some Razer headsets do.

The power button can also be tapped to toggle the Superhuman Hearing mode, although on occasion this failed to work, requiring me to power off and power on the headset to make this button operational.

Oddly, there are three scroll wheels on the Stealth 700 Gen 3: one is for mixing game and chat levels, while two are for volume – one for Bluetooth sources and the other for transmitter sources. This may seem like overkill, but it helps to allow for the Stealth 700 Gen 3 to showcase one of its unique features: simultaneous playback from Bluetooth and transmitter sources, with the ability to control the volume of both independently.

It does mean you’ll have to learn the positioning of each wheel when you want to make adjustments on the fly. Thankfully, though, each wheel is small enough to prevent the layout from feeling cramped, and they’re easy to operate once you’re able to locate them, providing smooth yet controlled adjustments.

Only one of the wheels can be reassigned using Turtle Beach’s Swarm 2 software, with options to adjust the levels of the mic monitoring, chat, bass boost, treble boost, or the noise gate of the mic.

Swarm 2 offers further customizations and tweaks. The aforementioned Mode button can be reassigned too, although the only optional function besides its default is toggling the noise gate.

Various sound presets are available in Swarm 2, including Bass Boost, Bass and Treble Boost, and Vocal Boost. You can tinker with each of these presets – or create a custom preset – by cutting or boosting 10 different points across the frequency band by 9dB, ranging from 32Hz to 16kHz. This means you have plenty of scope to tailor the audio to your preferences.

There’s also a setting called Superhuman Hearing, which is designed to elevate certain in-game sounds, such as footsteps and gunshots. As for mic settings, you can adjust the sensitivity for pick-up, the monitoring level, and the noise gate, all of which are useful input settings to be given.

Close-up of driver hinge on Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 3, leaning on plinth with pink background

(Image credit: Future)

Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 3 review: Performance

  • Impressive sound
  • Passable microphone
  • Some connectivity issues

I was generally impressed with the audio of the Stealth 700 Gen 3. All frequencies are clear and balanced, while the Bass and Treble Boost mode considerably enhances the low end without being overbearing, and is great for both gaming and listening to music. This mode can introduce distortion when you crank the volume up, but it's easily tamed by lowering the volume slightly. I found the Vocal Boost less usable, as it significantly reduces overall fidelity.

The Superhuman Hearing mode was somewhat useful in certain scenarios, but I ultimately preferred leaving it off. When playing Counter-Strike 2, the footstep setting did make such sounds more prominent, but at the cost of noticeably deteriorating the overall audio quality. The same can be said for the gunshot setting, which also didn’t seem to make gunshots easier to discern either. Having Bass and Treble Boost turned on provided the best experience for me, providing clear audio with plenty of impact and fullness.

For an integrated microphone, the quality is passable, although it doesn’t provide the greatest vocal clarity. The noise gate feature, though, is useful and does indeed block unwanted sounds from coming through.

Connecting to a PC via the USB transmitter is as simple as plug-and-play. The same is true of when connecting to consoles, being as easy as the best PS5 headsets and best Nintendo Switch headsets. Bluetooth was also easy to set up with my phone, and I couldn’t detect any discernible difference in sound quality. I had no issues playing games on my PC (via the dongle) and listening to music from my Google Pixel 7a (via Bluetooth) at the same time either.

However, the Stealth 700 Gen 3 can take a couple of seconds to reconnect to a PC when powering it back on after sleep, and I experienced a few unsolicited disconnects from my PC after a bleep from the headset that I couldn’t explain.

It’s possible the issue lies with my PC rather than with the Stealth 700 Gen 3, although I haven’t experienced this issue with other gaming headsets. Thankfully, I was able to get the sound back quickly, and hopefully a firmware update will fix the issue if it is indeed a fault with the headset.

On a more positive note, the battery life of the Stealth 700 Gen 3 is great, with the 80-hour claim made by Turtle Beach appearing to hold true, as it only dipped between 5-10% after a few days of varied use.

Drivers and microphone of Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 3, along with USB dongles and USB cable on desk, with pink background

(Image credit: Future)

Should I buy the Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 3?

Buy it if...

You want great gaming audio
The sound from the Stealth 700 Gen 3 is clear and impactful, making it great for gaming and music listening, and the Bass Boost improves the sonics further.

You want plenty of physical adjustments
With four buttons and no less than three scroll wheels, adjusting various settings while gaming is easy.

Don't buy it if...

You have a sensitive head
While I found the earpads perfectly comfortable, the headband doesn’t have enough cushioning, resulting in aches.

You want a low profile… in every sense
The Stealth 700 Gen 3 is about the chunkiest gaming headset I’ve ever used, so if you want something sleek and discreet, this isn’t it.

Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 3 review: Also consider

Razer BlackShark V2 Pro
The Razer BlackShark V2 Pro is one of the best gaming headsets around, as it barely puts a foot wrong in any aspect: It’s comfortable, well-built, has great sound and features, and has a long battery life to boot. It’s the same price as the Stealth 700 Gen 3, and since it’s slightly more well-rounded, it might just have the edge.

Read our full Razer BlackShark V2 Pro review

Epos H3
If you’re on a serious budget, then the Epos H3 is the best wired gaming headset in our view, thanks to its superb sound and comfort levels that punch above its low price. There’s also a wireless variant available, although naturally, it’s more expensive.

Read our full Epos H3 review

How I tested the Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 3

  • Tested for several days
  • Used on multiple platforms
  • Extensive gaming experience

I tested the Stealth 700 Gen 3 for several days, during which time I used it for gaming, listening to music, and watching video content. I tried it with numerous devices, namely a Windows 10 PC, a PS5, and a Nintendo Switch. I connected to these systems via the wireless USB transmitter and Bluetooth where I could.

I played games such as Counter-Strike 2 and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, where detailed sound and vocal clarity are of the utmost importance. I also recorded my own voice to test how the microphone sounded.

I have been gaming for over 20 years, and during that time I have experienced numerous headsets from a wide range of brands and across various price points. I have also reviewed multiple gaming headsets previously.

  • First reviewed February 2025.
  • Read more about how we test
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