What is the Wacom One 13 Touch? This affordable drawing tablet, released by Wacom alongside a more compact Wacom One 12 and a pair of screen-free Wacom One pen tablets, offers a small upgrade to the 2020 Wacom One – and could make a great starter drawing tablet for an early-career creative.
Yes, that’s a lot of Wacom One’s floating around, but if you’re after the best of the bunch, the Wacom One 13 Touch is the ‘One’ you’re after.
Compared to the previous model, the 13 Touch offers a more compact shape and form factor – utilizing the same display and drawing area, but with less wasted real estate around the screen. That means even though this is a 13.3-inch display, it’s still relatively easy to hold in your lap, at least for short drawing sessions.
The other main upgrade is an optional touchscreen. Rather than simply relying on a pen to navigate the tablet, you can also use a number of gestures (10 total) to scroll, pan, and zoom during the creative process. What’s even better is that you can turn off this functionality with a builtthere are-in toggle, in case you find the added touch sensitivity distracting.
An increase in brightness and contrast, too, means there’s enough reason to upgrade from the older model, even if the stylus offers the same 4,096 pressure levels as before.
Compact, straightforward, and with touch-sensitive gestures baked in, there’s plenty of reasons to give the Wacom 13 Touch a look.
Wacom One 13 Touch review: Price and availability
List price: $579.95 / £579.99 / AU$999.00
The Wacom One 13 Touch retails for $579.95 / £579.99 / AU$999.00. So it’s about 50% more expensive than the previous Wacom One, or the smaller Wacom One 12 – both of which retail for around $399.95 / £399.99 / AU$699.99 and ship without touchscreen functionality. As the flagship model in a budget range, it starts to encroach on mid-tier models, but is still a bargain compared to the $1599 / £1,399 Wacom Cintiq Pro 16.
However, it’s also possible to get a larger drawing tablet, like the XPPen Artist 15.6 Pro, for less cash – alongside a more pressure-sensitive stylus. So that’s something to keep in mind if you’re shopping around for one of the best drawing tablets.
Wacom One 13 Touch review: specs
Wacom One 13 Touch review: design
Slimmed-down casing and reduced weight
Glass screen and multi-touch toggle
No kickstand
The Wacom One 13 Touch looks and feels great to hold, with the satisfaction of knowing it’s made without petroleum-based plastics.
Unlike the previous Wacom One, there’s no built-in kickstand, so you’ll have to figure out a different leaning solution yourself, or buy a separate stand – but for people who prefer to hold a tablet in their lap, or place it flat on a counter, you shouldn’t notice its absence.
The drawing area is 294 x 165 mm, the same as the 2020 model, but the outer casing of the tablet has been efficiently trimmed down – from 443 x 280 x 14.6mm to 336 x 222 x 12 mm – making the 13 Touch lighter, thinner, and more portable than its predecessor. There’s no kickstand in the latest model, mind, meaning you’ll likely have to invest in a separate stand or get used to handling the tablet without one – but for a slimmer profile and reduced weight, the trade-off may be worth it.
On the upper edge, you’ll find two USB-C ports, with included cables. However, you can connect it directly to your laptop with a single cable instead of running two wires (one to the laptop, one to a separate power source) which helps keep clutter to a minimum. There’s also a power button, a toggle for multi-touch capability, a micro HDMI port, and a button for navigating display settings.
Wacom has ditched the plastic surface of the 2020 model for a glass screen, which gives it more of a premium feel even at this price point, and overall it’s hard to tell this is a budget buy at a glance – the screen itself is sleek, while the white casing is understated and less prone to fingerprints than a pricier metal model would be.
Wacom One 13 Touch review: performance
Easy setup
Improved, adjustable brightness
Larger end for a Full HD screen
The Wacom One 13 Touch is beautifully simple to set up. You should make sure to head to the Wacom website and download the driver relevant to your computer’s operating system, and then customize the stylus’ two buttons to your ideal specification, but then you should be ready to go.
The single USB-C connection is brilliantly straightforward, and it’s easy to adjust the display’s brightness and other picture settings. This new model offers a total of 320 nits, compared to the 200 nits of the Wacom One (2020), meaning there’s a meaningful uptick in luminance, correcting one of our main complaints about the older model. Images are decently bright and visible, and the contrast is also up from 1000:1 to 2000:1, ensuring lights and dark stand out clearly from each other, at least for a tablet at this price.
The Full HD resolution is roughly what we’d expect for a budget range, though it’s a shame not to see more detail on a 13-inch screen – considerably less than the 13-inch Macbook Air we’re writing this on. That means the Wacom One 13 Touch is sufficient for simpler sketching, though may not have the pixel count needed for more impressive professional commissions.
Wacom One 13 Touch review: stylus
Wacom’s budget stylus is something of an achievement – a battery-free plastic pen that still offers 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity and looks good doing it.
That latter point is down to the customizable colorways you can choose when buying from the Wacom website – choosing the hue of the pen’s upper half, as well as whether it comes with a small clasp to attach to a pocket. It’s also possible, in all pen models, to tie a thin string or cable through the end of the pen, meaning you can tether it directly to the edge of the tablet and ensure it never gets lost.
The stylus has two configurable buttons along its side, which are handy for activating either the eraser function, a secondary color, or navigating scroll and zoom options during the creative process. The pen comes with a pack of replaceable nibs, for when one starts to blunt after extended use.
It runs easily across the screen, with the ability to tilt and apply more pressure for harder markings; you’ll notice the difference compared to a stylus that supports 8,000 pressure levels, but this should be enough for casual or early-career artists.
The stylus is simple, yes, and not improved over the 2020 model that I can see, but is a straightforward entry point to the world of drawing pens with the added bonus of some color customization.
The XPPen Artist Pro 16 (Gen 2) is an excellent drawing tablet for hobbyists and early career professionals alike. It features an expansive, responsive screen, with a 2.5K resolution and precise brightness control to best match your environment, alongside the sleek accessories and streamlined functionality to let you jump into the creative act with little difficulty – subtly improving both the looks and the function of the first-gen Artist Pro 16.
The revamped stylus is the main event here, boasting an unmatched 16,000 pressure levels for markings that are precisely controlled by your touch; it doesn’t feel much different from the 8,092 levels seen in other leading tablets and may be similar to the 8K or 16K resolution in a high-end TV, which sounds advanced but is barely noticeable. Either way, it’s good to know the finer motions of your hand are being catered to, and the Artist Pro 16 is currently leading the market on this feature.
The tablet is well designed, with an integrated stand that props up the display at a (sadly fixed) 19-degree angle, and a slim wrist support at the base. Inputs are pleasingly minimal in the display itself, with a wireless keydial accessory with customizable shortcuts to help you navigate your creations with ease.
While this 16-inch display will set you back a little more than the Artist Pro 14, the larger screen real estate may be enough to sway you – packing in 2560x1600 pixels compared to the smaller model’s 1920x1200 – just keep in mind that specifications are otherwise almost identical between them.
Artist Pro 16 (Gen 2) review: Price and availability
List price: $599.99 / £529.99 / AU$365.99
The Artist Pro 16 retails for just $599.99 / £529.99 / AU$609.99, which is an astonishing amount considering some of the high-tech features packed into this mid-range drawing tablet – particularly the 16,000 pressure levels in the stylus (included).
The smaller XPPen Artist Pro 14 comes in a little cheaper at $356.99 / £359.99 / AU$559.99, with the same stylus and almost the same specification, if that extra screen real estate isn’t worth the upgrade for you.
Artist Pro 16 (Gen 2) review: specs
(Image credit: Future (Henry St Leger))
Artist Pro 16 (Gen 2) review: design
Integrated kickstand
Wireless shortcut remote
Stylish finish
The XP Pen Artist Pro 16 (Gen 2) certainly looks plush. The second-generation model has ditched the built-in buttons and gray finish for a sleeker, button-free black; even the XP Pen logo has shrunk, allowing the screen itself to sit center stage.
Beneath the screen, you’ll find a wrist support, which doesn’t have the cushioning of an equivalent mousepad but still assists with ergonomics. That said, it doesn’t exactly do much when you’re drawing on the upper half of the screen, given its overall size.
There are two kickstands at the back, integrated into the overall body of the display, which prop up the screen at a 19-degree angle. The previous Artist Pro 16 model did come with an adjustable stand, with a lot more freedom around the precise angle, so it’s worth keeping in mind whether the lack of flexibility is worth it for you.
In-line built-in buttons have been moved to a separate device entirely, packed into a sleek shortcut remote (The ‘X-Remote Control’) about the size of a compact smartphone. It features 10 customizable shortcut buttons and even a circular dial for quickly scrolling through options (we have it set to vary brush size in Photoshop, and it’s a delight). The remote allows you to keep your non-drawing hand consistently occupied in one place, without moving to and from the side of the screen.
There are a couple of inputs snuck into the upper side of the tablet, for power and brightness adjustment, alongside two ports for USB-C to USB-C connections (cable included) or a more complex HDMI 3-in-1 cable (sold separately).
But, of course, the screen is the main event, and what you’ll be mostly concerned with. The Artist Pro (Gen 2) comes with a 2560 x 1600 resolution, which is a decent improvement over the first-gen tablet’s 1920 x 1080 spec, with twice as many pixels and a taller 16:10 aspect ratio compared to the former’s 16:9.
The screen is fully laminated and is said to be free of parallax – meaning the markings on the screen should precisely match the movements of your pen.
(Image credit: Future (Henry St Leger))
Artist Pro 16 (Gen 2) review: performance
Smooth, responsive drawing
Only minor line jitter
Precise brightness control and mostly impressive color
The Artist Pro 16 (Gen 2) is a clear step up from the first-gen model, with a new X3 technology elevating what XP Pen’s range can do – a more sensitive stylus working on a higher-resolution screen for what should be a smoother, more enjoyable experience.
Setup is easy enough, once you’ve downloaded the correct driver from the XP Pen website, configured your pen and X-Remote Control to your desired specification, and got some kind of drawing software up and running on the tablet. (It’s worth noting that our review of the XPPen Artist Pro 14 (Gen 2) saw the reviewer facing some lag and driver issues, though they seemed resolved by the time this larger model got sent to me.)
Drawing is smooth and responsive across the screen, while the shortcut remote and stylus allow you to cycle quickly between fast, efficient functions. There’s no parallax here, and only a small amount of line jitter, making it easy to stay in control of your cursor mid-creation.
The screen doesn’t quite have the pen-to-paper feel of some more advanced devices, even with the felt nibs included in the pen case. Generally, the Artist Pro 16 (Gen 2) excels in presenting itself as a high-range model, with a few great specs to back that up, but there’s no doubt that the interaction between the pen and the screen could be more impressive.
The screen is capably bright, while the 2.5K resolution ensures images stay crisp as you delve into them. The brightness control is pleasingly precise, too, on a 100-point scale, which let me carefully calibrate the output as sunlight vanished throughout the evening. The color gamut is also impressive for the price, but a little less vivid than I might have hoped, with hues a little diminished compared to my laptop screen – something to keep in mind for professional illustrators.
However, the ability to turn off the display, and use it as a screen-less drawing tablet is a welcome boon, and means this particular tablet should suit a wide variety of sketchers and illustrators working in very different ways. It’s just a shame that the built-in stand doesn’t offer any adjustment, and you’re pretty much stuck drawing at the angle that it gives you, unless you find something else to lean it on – though for quicker sessions, as more amateur or early career artists may generally do, this might not become much of an issue.
(Image credit: Future (Henry St Leger))
Artist Pro 16 (Gen 2) review: performance
16,000 pressure levels
Eight included nibs and sleek case
Handy eraser
The stylus is the main selling point for the XPPen Artist Pro 16 – but how does it hold up?
This updated stylus boasts 16,000 pressure levels, which is roughly double the 8,192 seen in the first-gen Artist Pro 16 stylus, and therefore double what almost any comparable drawing tablet is offering these days. It’s a little hard to tell the difference at this amount, given that 8,192 levels are still pretty extensive, but I found the stylus brilliantly responsive, and you’ll be safe in the knowledge that your drawing pen is futureproofed for the next few years as other tablets attempt to catch up.
The stylus’s rubber grip is tactile, with a good amount of friction to stop it slipping from your fingers, while two built-in buttons can be customized for a multitude of functions. At the other end is a rounded edge that acts as a digital eraser, which I found hugely useful in touching up my creations on the go.
The stylus is presented in a sleek black case: just push in the drawer from one side and it will release, revealing the stylus and eight additional nibs for you to occasionally replace – four standard nibs, and four felt alternatives for (hypothetically) a more on-paper feel.
The case also includes a USB-A Bluetooth connector, for linking your laptop/desktop to the shortcut remote, though I found I could connect it directly to my computer’s Bluetooth with little issue.
For image editing, the market leader for decades has been Adobe Photoshop. However, PaintShop Pro has been around for almost as long and has grown to include a nearly identical feature set.
The main Complete workspace will serve anyone wanting a Photoshop alternative well, with almost everything looking and feeling very familiar. There's also a dedicated Photography workspace, designed for use on a touchscreen, with a minimal design and tools that are essential rather than comprehensive. Its biggest frustration is that the look and feel are so different from the Complete workspace that it can be jarring. The same can also be said for the raw image editor.
As with all new software, there are AI tools. However, these tools are similar to those Adobe has been using for years, even back when AI was just a scary buzzword. Some of the AI tools do an excellent job of masking images or reducing noise; they just don't seem as precise and intelligent as Adobe offerings. And there's no Generative Fill - the real cherry on the Photoshop cake.
It feels like Corel is trying to pack as much as possible into PaintShop Pro without really thinking about how it all works together, and that is perhaps its biggest weakness.
The tools are all there, and anyone looking for a budget Photoshop alternative would do well to consider PaintShop Pro. It is excellent value and great for those who don't want to sign up for a subscription.
(Image credit: Future)
Corel PaintShop Pro 2023: Pricing & plans
Available as Standalone software with Pro and Ultimate Versions
Pro - $79.99 / £69.99 / AU$83
Ultimate - $99.99 / £89.99 / AU$104
Regular offers and discounts
Unlike Adobe Photoshop, Corel PaintShop Pro is a subscription-free image-editing suite and comes at a very affordable price. We've tested the Pro version in this review, but there's also an Ultimate version that includes extra software packages, but in our eyes is far from essential.
In addition to the tools mentioned in this review, the Ultimate version adds Corel Mutilcam Capture 2 for recording from a screen and webcam simultaneously, Highlight Reel, which lets you create short highlight videos, and the Sea to Sky workspace, that's designed for use with underwater and drone images. There's also Photo Mirage Express for creating animated versions of your images, Corel Painter Essentials 8, 50 free fonts, and a Corel Creative Collection that includes new backgrounds, paintbrushes, and textures.
Again, most photographers and graphic artists will need nothing but PaintShop Pro, but PaintShop Ultimate may be useful for the Sea to Sky mode if you regularly shoot drone or underwater images and wish to speed up your editing.
Upgrade pricing is available for those who already own PaintShop Pro or Ultimate. Best of all there's a 30-day free trial so you can give the software a try and see if it meets your needs.
Pricing & plans score: 4/5
Corel PaintShop Pro 2023: Interface
A variety of different workspaces for different types of users
Dedicated Photography workspace designed to be used with touchscreen devices
Since its creation, originally by Jasc software, PaintShop Pro has always had a very familiar interface. Initially, it resembled an advanced version of Microsoft Paint, with tools for beginner and advanced image editors. As Adobe Photoshop became the industry-leading image editor, PaintShop Pro gradually adopted more and more of Photoshop's features. Now, it's one of Photoshop's main competitors on Windows computers, which is most likely why you're reading this. But how close is it to Adobe Photoshop, and how user-friendly is it for those who don't need all of Photoshop's often intimidating advanced features?
When you first load PaintShop Pro, you're asked which workspace you want to use - Complete, Essentials, or Photography (and even within these, there are sub-workspaces, depending on the task you're performing).
The first workspace is the Complete workspace. It's best to consider this your all-in-one image-editing space; it's where you want to go for a Photoshop-esque experience.
(Image credit: Future)
Everything in the Complete workspace is very familiar, down to the color scheme and choice of iconography for the tools. There's a Tool palette, Layers panel, and Materials panel - featuring color swatches and a Filmstrip bar at the bottom where you can see thumbnails of library images. The language of the user interface is familiar and understandable, and anyone with knowledge of Photoshop or similar image editing software will be able to jump right in. If you're a beginner, there's a Learning panel that outlines everything in easy-to-understand language.
At the top of the Complete workspace are the sub-workspace options of Edit and Manage. Selecting Manage opens an Adobe Bridge-style experience for viewing and organizing your image. However, in the Edit workspace, you can add an Organiser panel that's effectively a filmstrip bar for easy search access to images you may need. You can switch individual panels on or off, or move them around to customize the workspace.
Without going into every menu item and aspect, enthusiast image editors should be able to find everything they need. There are Selection and Masking tools, including Smart and Auto selection options, and the usual text and brush tools. Everything may have slightly different names or sit in different places, but all the essential tools exist. Layers can be created with various opacity, masking, and blending options. And within the Effects menus are a vast number of image editing effects. Those used to Photoshop will need to grab a coffee and have a play around but should be able to easily work out where everything they're used to can be found.
(Image credit: Future)
Those wanting a more simplified experience can opt for the Essentials workspace, which does what you'd expect to. Gone are the vast majority of the panels; instead, there's a simple Tools Panel and a Materials Panel. You can do some basic image editing in this space, and it's still customizable, so if you find you need a few of the advanced tools, you can add them to the Tools Palette or add something like the Layers palette back into the workspace.
Then there's the Photography workspace. This is designed for touchscreen devices, and it declutters the space with large, clear icons and a simplified menu system – basically, it looks like an app. All the standard photo-editing sliders you'd expect to find are here: Brightness and Contrast, White Balance, Sharpening, Fill Light, and Clarity. However, it is very basic – don't expect to see histograms or be able to work with individual color channels in this workspace.
(Image credit: Future)
There's also an AI button in this mode. It allows you to apply Instant Effects to an image, such as an Aged Effect or Watercolour. On double-clicking to apply the AI-powered effects, the screen is overlaid with 3D Mesh grids twirling around, implying that some AI power is going on in the background. However, these seem to be no more AI-powered than any of the effects that other software uses. There are sliders to make adjustments, and I can't tell where the AI comes into play. It seems more like an algorithmic application of an effect without any scene or object recognition that we'd associate with AI. And the results certainly don't appear to offer any advantage over any other effect.
Interface score: 3/5
Corel PaintShop Pro 2023: Raw photo editing
Three different ways of editing and converting raw images
Aftershot Lab is a Camera Raw style editor, lacking more advanced options such as selective adjustments and masking
Photographers wanting to edit raw files are better taken care of with three different options. The Aftershot Lab is reminiscent of Adobe Lightroom but lacks any of Lightroom's organization or output options. It also lacks a lot of the more advanced color and retouching tools; it's simply image-adjustment software, with noise, sharpening and lens correction, plus other essential tools. The Camera RAW Lab option streamlines this further and works within a floating window. However, it looks very dated and even advertises the company's AfterShot Pro 3 software, its raw photo management and editing software package (when advertised to me within the software, it cost £54.99). The third option is that Paintshop Pro can automatically apply a default decoding of the raw image and open it directly in Paintshop Pro for editing.
(Image credit: Future)
Raw Editing score: 3.5/5
Corel PaintShop Pro 2023: AI Portrait mode
AI Portrait mode recognizes subjects and creates a selection
It allows for backgrounds to be blurred to create a shallow depth-of-field effect
It lacks AI effects such as changing facial features or applying makeup
AI Portrait Mode is the one that most users will head towards, and it's at least straightforward to use. All the AI tools are found within the Adjust Menu, with a sub-menu revealing the four tools. However, there are no facial adjustments, skin smoothing, AI makeup, or any other effects than the ability to blur the background. The artificial intelligence part of Portrait Mode is actually image recognition; the first stage of the software presents you with a cutout area of the image that it detects as people.
The cutout is good but far from perfect. Edges that were quite clear in some of the images that I tried it with, such as a mid-length portrait against a red curtain backdrop, still showed too much of the background. Hair is always the most significant challenge with a portrait cutout, but even with slick black hair against the red background, the software showed significant parts where it had either masked some of my hair or left apparent areas of the background. Photoshop's AI tools produced a much cleaner result with the initial selection.
Users can adjust the mask. There are standard options to paint on areas to add and remove, as well as being able to expand the border and feather the edge, which is helpful with curly hair. If you want perfection, you'll be using these tools a lot. For the average user just wanting to blur the background a little for a social media post, the cutout will probably be okay, although it's a little obvious if you are looking at it.
(Image credit: Future)
The next stage is to blur the background around the subject. You can adjust the strength of the blur, and you can even change the shape of the aperture, which can be fun if you have specular highlights and want a more hexagonal-shaped bokeh. The range of the focus can also be changed, which adjusts the strength of blur, but seemingly only over the face. There doesn't appear to be any form of AI depth map creation, except for knowing where the edges of the face are and increasing the blur towards them appropriately. Then there's the feather edge, which changes how quickly the edge of the face drops off into the blur of the background.
Again, you can achieve reasonable results – with some work. My main problem with the Portrait Mode is that, as something advertised as 'AI,' a lot of user input is needed.
When nearly all premium smartphones have Portrait Modes that use depth effects and very simple settings to increase or decrease the strength, I don't think Paintshop Pro does any better, especially considering the effort involved.
AI Portrait Mode score: 3.5/5
Corel PaintShop Pro 2023: AI Background Replace
Utilizes portrait recognition to mask subjects
There's a range of backgrounds to choose from or you can use your own images
Image 1 of 2
Corel PaintShop Pro AI Background replace tool (Image credit: Future)
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A screen of Adobe Photoshop showing how Generative Fill has been used to replace a background (Image credit: Future)
Using much of the AI Portrait Mode is the AI Background Replace tool. This uses the same cutout technology found in AI Portrait Mode but allows you to add a background. Corel provides a handful of backgrounds, or you can use your own.
Again, the tool is dependent on how good the initial selection is, so Adobe Photoshop has the advantage. In addition, the Generative Fill tools in Photoshop allow you to simply describe the background that you want and it will create it. This allows for a lot of flexibility and creativity compared to what is basically adding a layer below a portrait cutout, which is what PaintShop Pro is doing.
Overall, Corel PaintShop Pro AI background replacement does a reasonable job of cutting out a portrait and changing the background, but it lacks the power and finesse of Adobe Photoshop's AI tools.
Background Replace score: 4/5
Corel PaintShop Pro 2023: AI Denoise and Artifact Removal
Removes noise using AI
Automated artifact removal gets rid of artifacts with a single click
Also within the AI menu are AI Denoise and Artifact Removal. Of these two simple tools, Artifact Removal is simply a button that automatically analyses the image and reduces artifacts. I found a slight difference in JPEG artifacts, but you can't see any difference unless you look at pictures at a very high magnification. As a single button press, there's no preview option to see the side-by-side changes.
AI Denoise, on the other hand, does have a preview window. There are three different options for the severity of the removal, and I found it best to use the highest setting, which did an excellent job of reducing both luminance and color noise. However, in some cases, you'll want to add a touch of a film grain effect for a little texture.
One confusing thing is that there's also a Digital Noise Removal Tool, a one-step noise removal tool - that removes noise with a single click, as well as an Add/Remove Noise menu option with several different options, such as Despeckle and a Salt and Pepper Filter. This is without mentioning the noise removal options within the raw conversion options.
(Image credit: Future)
AI Noise removal score: 4/5
Corel PaintShop Pro 2023: AI Upscaling
AI-powered image upscaling up to 10,000 pixels along the longest edge
Automated noise reduction with three strength options can be processed at the same time
Lurking within the Photography Editing workspace is also an AI-powered upscaling tool. The tool is straightforward and has Photorealistic or Illustration options to help you decide how to render the upscaled image. You can also reduce noise while upscaling, with a slider giving you control over the strength. A slider also allows you to select the size of the increase up to 10,000 pixels along the longest edge.
I compared it to Adobe Camera Raw's new Enhance feature, which allows resolution to be increased by 100%. I also ran the image through Topaz AI with the default image settings.
The quick comparison of the image shows that Topaz AI has a clear advantage, though as a standalone piece of specialist software, this is expected. Adobe Camera Raw's Enhance produced a surprisingly similar result, which, with some tweaking in Camera Raw, could probably match Topaz, or at least not be far off. The result from PaintShop Pro 2023 was a good starting point but would require some work to make it match Photoshop or Topaz AI. Once again, though, AI Upscaling is another useful feature in Corel's affordable and comprehensive photo editing software suite.
For Windows users, Corel PaintShop Pro is one of the most comprehensive image editing solutions and an obvious alternative to Adobe Photoshop. Photoshop is the king of image editors for good reason, and you can read our full review of Photoshop 2023 to see what the latest incarnation brings. However, Photoshop is subscription-based, which can put some users off. It can also be overwhelming for new users.
Luminar Neo is another option that takes a middle path. An AI photo editor with a suite of intelligent tools, it costs $11.95 per month, $99 per year, or $149 every two years. Alternatively, you can purchase it outright with a one-time payment of $249. It can’t match Photoshop for sheer versatility, but if you want affordable access to automated edits and quality results, it’s worth considering.
Whether you’re a digital nomad or a hybrid worker, not everyone has the time, patience, or interest in meticulously crafting their at-home desk space - and that’s where Logitech Casa comes in.
Logitech makes some of the best mice and best keyboards, but it’s exciting to see something a little different from the brand. This handy little bundle of peripherals is perfectly designed to slip into your bookbag or discretely sit on your bookshelf when you don’t need it, but opens out to reveal a comprehensive mobile workstation. The set is split into three parts; the Casa Book (convertible case/laptop stand), Casa keys, and the Casa touchpad.
It comes in three stylish colorways; forest green and black, lilac and white, and pink, and it’s available in the UK and AU for £179.99 / AU$289.95. At the time of writing, there’s no confirmed US release date, but I’d be surprised if it doesn’t make it stateside at some point.
From the outside, it’s unassuming, masquerading as a simple fabric-covered book with a thick silicone belt to keep the Casa stand securely closed - but inside is where this foldable kit gets interesting.
Open it up and you’ll find the Casa Touchand Keys, as well as a small compartment for holding wires and other desktop necessities. Then, simply press on the bottom of the keyboard and touchpad in their compartments and the peripherals will pop out of the Casa Book’s base, lift the plastic lining from the lid’s underside and connect it to the magnetic strip at the front of your Casa Book, and voila; you’ve got your new mobile workstation in just four steps.
Once the novelty of this admittedly inventive idea is lost, however, some cracks begin to show. There are lots of strengths and many great reasons to buy the Logitech Casa, but it’s grossly overpriced for the quality of the results.
(Image credit: Future)
Logitech Casa review: price and availability
List price: £179.99 / AU$289.95
US launch TBC
Released in August 2023, the Logitech Casa will set you back £179.99 / AU$289.95, and it’s available directly from Logitech or from retailers like John Lewis in the UK.
There are no two ways about it - that’s a lofty price tag for something so simple and, at times, flawed. You could easily get an affordable but good quality portable laptop stand, keyboard, and mouse for less than £75 / AU$125; and you could even kit yourself out with a Logitech K380 keyboard (£44, AU$79) and Logitech Pebble Mouse 2 (£24.99, AU$54.95) if you want Logitech products specifically - and that would still be more affordable than the Logitech Casa.
What you’re really paying for is the convenience of everything being all-in-one, which may just have landed if the Logitech Casa had been released three years earlier during the pandemic. At this point, it’s a gimmick; a useful one, but not something I’d pay much more than £100 / AU$150 for.
Granted, the touchpad also contributes to this price inflation, and it’s difficult to find a standalone trackpad for less than £50 / AU$80. However, there’s not a huge demand for these; I certainly would almost always choose a regular mouse unless I’m using creative software or want to benefit from touch gestures.
Value: 3/5
(Image credit: Future)
Logitech Casa review: design
Not very ergonomic
Clever, albeit flawed convertible design
Slim and lightweight peripherals
Let’s first dive in further to the Casa keys. Minimalist in design and petite at 1.7 x 11.2 x 28mm, this compact and programmable keyboard features a full row of 12 function keys; apart from its square keys, it’s almost identical to the Logitech K380. There’s no kickstand, and only a very slight wedge shape, meaning it’s not great ergonomically - I found my hands got sore within a few hours of using it.
Also featured in the function keys are three customizable hotkeys, which can be adjusted using the Logi Options+ application.
The Casa Touch is pretty simple design-wise; it’s also slightly wedge-shaped, but (again) not ergonomically so. Otherwise, it’s much as you’d expect - a rectangular trackpad measuring 1.4 x 8.8 x 12.5mm.
On the top left of both the keys and trackpad are the power switches, and both devices offer the ability to switch between Bluetooth profiles, so you can connect it to three different devices, and switch between them quickly. On the keyboard, you can switch between these using the F1-3 keys, and on the underside of the trackpad, there’s a button to switch between them.
When in its laptop stand configuration, the Casa Book is fairly robust, though there is some wobbling. Still, through all of my testing, the magnetic strip kept it in its upright position, and I didn’t feel like my laptop was at any peril - Logitech says the Casa can hold devices weighing up to 7.5kg and between 10 and 17 inches in size. Two rubber grips hold the laptop in situ, and a rubber circle in the middle of the plastic backing to the stand keeps the underside of the laptop from slipping - a thoughtful inclusion.
Frustratingly given its price, the Logitech Casa has some pretty fundamental flaws. The fabric Casa covering is easily smudged and dirtied, but not easily cleaned (despite supposedly being wipeable), some of the plastics used in construction feel quite tacky and, despite being an ingenious idea for digital nomads, the entire setup is pretty heavy at 1.2kg / 2.65lbs.
It also irks me that there’s only one viewing angle for the stand, and while it’s undeniably better than using a laptop below eye level, it’s still not particularly high, and can’t be adjusted for different needs.
Design: 4/5
(Image credit: Future)
Logitech Casa review: performance and features
Programmable keys
Not the most comfortable
Excellent battery life
In use, the Logitech Casa is pretty satisfying for the most part, but once again there are definitely some sacrifices made at the behest of the innovative design.
There are some things I love about the Logitech keys in particular; the programmable keys, the size, and weight all lend themselves to increased productivity even when working in a smaller space. They’re wonderfully quiet to work on, too, which is great for me as someone who regularly works in public spaces.
I also found the three Bluetooth profiles supported across the Casa Keysand touch immeasurably useful; I regularly switch between my drawing tablet, work laptop, and iPad, and being able to seamlessly transition between these devices is super useful. The Casa peripherals are also compatible with phones, PCs, and Apple TV; the latter makes good use of the 10m (33ft) Bluetooth range afforded by the devices, too.
Aside from the lack of ergonomic features in both the stand and peripherals, my greatest bugbear is the trackpad. I just don’t think there’s any good reason not to at least offer the option of a slimline mouse with the Casa, and the fact I experienced some (albeit very mild) lag when scrolling only further sours me on this particular choice by Logitech. As a MacBook user, I do like that you can use Logi Options+ to enable Apple’s gestures, but it’s woefully apparent how subpar the Logitech touch sensitivity and accuracy are versus Apple’s in-built and standalone trackpads.
The peripherals do, however, have incredible battery life - a quality we’ve come to expect from Logitech’s devices. According to Logitech, the battery life of the keyboard will last up to five months, while the Casa Touchlasts for up to three weeks. I used the setup for several months and only very recently had to charge up the touchpad for the first time, and my keyboard still has charge!
Performance: 4/5
Specs table
Should I buy the Logitech Casa?
Buy it if...
Don't buy it if...
Also consider
How I tested the Logitech Casa
I used the Logitech Casa for several months
I tested it with a variety of compatible devices
I used the Logi Options+ software to customize the devices.
As a very regular PC user and tech reviewer for the last three years, I’ve developed an understanding of what makes a good, well-rounded device. For several months, I used the Logitech Casa for work and play, both at home and while away to see how well the setup performed in different environments. I observed how well the device travelled, how easy it was to set up and use, and how robust all of the components were.
I typed on the keyboard and used the trackpad, comparing them both to my in-built laptop controls, Apple peripherals, and HyperX gaming peripherals, considering everything from how quickly my hands developed symptoms of fatigue to lag and accuracy.
I also used Logitech’s Logi Options+ software to see how easily and successfully the devices could be customised and tested various setups to see how they impacted my user experience.
Amazon Echo Frames (3rd Gen) from the back (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)
Wearable technology rides a fine line between utility and aesthetic pleasure. There's no question the small device can accomplish myriad tasks but if it looks bizarre on your body, it's destined for the trash heap. That's probably why I like Amazon Echo Frames (3rd Gen), the wearable smart glasses that by not trying to do too much don't overwhelm the essential glasses-ness of the frames.
Amazon Echo Frames 3rd generation shows how Amazon's years of effort in crafting and fine-tuning the smart glasses design has paid off. From the front these look almost like regular (maybe slightly oversized) glasses. Even from the side, it's hard to tell that I'm wearing a smart companion on my face.
That, by the way, is what it's like to wear Amazon Echo Frames. They can be standard glasses but Alexa is always waiting in the wings – or beside your ears – ready to jump in with a song, a podcast, the audio from your phone, a notification, an answer to a question, or an action in your smart home. Wearing them is a little like having a secret superpower.
Design-wise, I ended up with the "Superman-style" Black Rectangle, which I believe most resembles my current frames. "Resemble" might be a generous word. They're noticeably larger and my wife couldn't decide if she loved or hated them on me. I wore them while walking across Manhattan and didn't get a single weird stare (or any more than I usually get). I was a little concerned that someone could hear my podcast leaking from the stem-based speakers but I didn't get any dirty looks, either.
One thing I did notice is that if I put a knit cap over my ears, the sound improved dramatically, a clear sign I am losing some audio to the environment.
The frames have a few buttons I can use to, for instance, pause audio and raise and lower volume but I found it was more efficient to ask Alexa to manage these tasks. I tried to not feel too self-conscious when people spotted me speaking to my Echo Frames. At least the microphones are sensitive enough that I can almost speak in sotto-voice to activate an Alexa command (provided I'm in a semi-quiet environment).
The lens I'm wearing will run you $269 (they're only available in the US for now) but there's currently a $75 discount for early adopters bringing the price down to $194.99. Either way. decent eyeglass frames can run you well over $200. If you also need prescription lenses, which these frames can hold, they might cost you another $200. Of course, you could also just opt for the sunglass models which start at $329.99. They also have an introductory price of $254.99
Setup is easy enough and pretty much matches what you'd do for any other Echo device. The Alexa app discovers the glasses, you pair them and then their part of your Alexa ecosystem. The only part of the setup that I did not like was charging up the glasses. Echo Frames ship with a custom charge platform and instead of, say, lining smartglasses charge pads or a port with the base, you fold the glasses and then insert the stems into the gap with the lenses facing up toward you. An indicator light lets you know if you got it right. It's a bit of a tight squeeze and I managed to get it wrong once and, naturally, the frames didn't charge. I worry consumers will make the same mistake.
One caveat about my review. I have not had them long enough to get prescription lenses for my Echo Frames, so I could not wear them as often as I do my regular glasses. But I did my best to work with them, commute with them, and wear them when I didn't need to see where I was going.
Amazon Echo Frames (3rd Gen): Price and availability
No one in the city seemed to notice I was wearing smart glasses. (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)
The Amazon Echo Smart Frames (3rd gen) , which Amazon announced in September of 2023, are available in a prescription-ready model, as sunglasses, and in a more expensive blue light filtering model. There are five styles, including Blue Round, Black Rectangle (my review unit), Brown Cat eye, and Gray Rectangle.
While the smart glasses were set to retail for $269.99, Amazon is currently offering a $75 discount, which brings them down to $194.99. Amazon has yet to say when the "introductory period" ends.
Blue light filtering models will start at $299.99 but with the introductory discount will run you $224.99.
The sunglass model is set to retail for $329.99 but comes in at $254.99 with the introductory discount.
If you demand even more style, you can opt for the Carrera Smart Glasses with Alexa, which starts at $314 with the discount. They will eventually retail for a more eye-watering $389.99 (ah, the price of fashion). The Carrera models do not support subscription lenses.
While none of the Echo Frames ship with a power adapter (just the cable), you do get a very chic, collapsible case. The case would be even cooler, though it it could hold a little battery charge.
All of these frames are set to ship on December 7. For now, they're only available in the US.
Value score: 4/5
Amazon Echo Frames (3rd Gen): Design
Nearly normal eyeglass looks
Lightweight and comfortable
4 hours of battery at max volume
With the Echo Frames (3rd Gen), I think Amazon got the brief: do as much as possible to make these smart glasses look and feel like normal, analog eyeglasses.
I purposely started wearing them without warning my wife who did a double-take and asked me what I was wearing. She quickly gleaned they were smart glasses because, what else would I be wearing, and walked away shaking her head. An hour or so later she looked at me again and seemed to reconsider, telling me that she could no longer decide if she liked them on me or not. I consider this progress.
Sure, the stems, which house the mics, speakers, buttons, processor, and batteries are easily twice as thick as the stems on my traditional glasses, making it nearly impossible to fold them fully flat, but the front of the frames is indistinguishable from dumb glasses. Button placement, which puts a volume rocker on one stem and a pair of pause, play, and skip action buttons on the other is inconspicuous enough. Still, I soon found it more efficient to use Alexa for controlling things going volume, play, pause, etc. Pressing both Action Buttons also powers up the frames and prepares them for pairing
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Before I could wear and use the Echo Frames, I had to charge them. The smart eyewear ships with a custom USB-C-based charger which is probably the weakest link in this package (Amazon supplies the USB-C cable but does not supply a charge adapter). It requires folding the glasses closed (an act that automatically shuts them down, just as opening them, turns them on) and jamming the stems into a narrow channel with the lenses facing up. There is nothing intuitive about this and I am certain consumers will get it wrong (as I did on one occasion) and end up not charging their Echo Frames. There's an indicator light on the stand that tells you when the frames are fully charged.
The frames charged pretty quickly (once I properly seated them on the charging base). After that, I powered them up and paired the frames with the Alexa App on my iPhone 15 Pro Max (the Echo Frames will work with any Android phone running Android 9.0 or higher and any iPhone running iOS 14.0 or higher).
Beyond a constant connection to your Frames, the Alexa App provides several other features and customizations. If I set location tracking to stay on constantly for the app, I could use it to find my Amazon Echo Frames.
Even without the app, pairing the Echo Frames with my iPhone turned them into the default Bluetooth speakers, which meant whatever I played on my phone would playback through the Echo Frames.
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Design score: 4/5
Amazon Echo Frames (3rd Gen): Specs
Amazon Echo Frames (3rd Gen): Audio
Clear, head-filling audio
No real bass to speak of
No one notices you're listening to something (unless you turn the volume way up)
Environmental sounds overcome audio
There is something nice about having music and podcasts ready to go even if I'm not wearing my best AirPods Pro or some other in-ear audio. By melding high-quality audio with the glasses I'd wear every day, there's one less thing for me to carry and worry about. To Amazon's credit, the stereo audio quality coming from the two micro speakers positioned in the stems and near each temple is clear, warm, and can get quite loud.
I enjoyed listening to tracks selected for me by Amazon Music, podcasts, news reports, TikToks, and Alexa's answers to my numerous queries.
Still, these aren't true over-the-ear speakers which means they'll struggle to produce any kind of bass beat. White Stripes Seven Nation Army sounded particularly hollow. Obviously, if you care about true audio fidelity, these frames are not for you.
For as good as the audio is in relatively quiet environments like my house, the bustling Manhattan streets almost completely overwhelmed the micro speakers and I could not yell loud enough for Alexa to hear me through the far-field microphones.
Despite being smart frames, there isn't much that's smart about the audio. There are no noise cancellation abilities, which I really would not expect here. However, I am bothered that the Echo Frames can't use its quad of far-field microphones to detect when someone is speaking to me or I start speaking and automatically mute.
Finally, I was surprised to see that Echo Frames don't know when they are on or off my face, In other words, I expected that removing the frames from my face would pause the audio. it does not. At least they instantly pause if you fold them closed.
Audio score: 3.5/5
Amazon Echo Frames (3rd Gen): Battery
4-to-6 hours of battery life
Turns out it was easy to test Amazon Echo Frames' battery life since they will happily continue playing even if you don't keep them on your face. In my test, I pushed the volume to 100% (which eventually got me a warning from Apple that I had exceeded the recommended limit for audio exposure) and just let the Frames play a series of podcasts.
At full volume, I got a solid 4 hours of battery life. They're rated for 6 hours at 80% volume, which tracks with my testing. If you play the less frequently and only talk to Alexa a few times a day, you might get even better battery life.
Even so, this does not compare to your best Bluetooth headphones and if you run out of battery life, you'll have to return the eyeglasses to their charging base, there's no juice-filled case for you to drop them into and charge up for another few hours of playback.
Battery score: 4/5
Amazon Echo Frames (3rd Gen): AI
Alexa responds quickly to most queries
Alexa's data, which is accessed through my iPhone and the cloud, is generally timely and accurate
I wish it would stop asking me to unlock my iPhone
Having Alexa on my face is cooler than I thought it would be. In my house, I would whisper, "Alexa, turn on First Plug" to light up my Christmas tree, or quietly ask it for the weather or news about George Santos' status as a member of Congress. Sometimes, I'd have Alexa read my latest notifications.
Alexa is also a much more effective way of changing songs and controlling the audio volume than using the physical buttons.
Amazon's digital assistant was up for pretty much anything, except when I wanted something that could only be accessed by me unlocking my phone. That was annoying and defeats to the purpose of a hands-free wearable assistant.
Generally, I was pleased that I could have this quiet little relationship with my wearable Alexa and, for the most part, no one was the wiser, or at least no one felt comfortable calling me out for talking to my eyeglasses.
AI Score: 4/5
Should I buy the Amazon Echo Frames (3rd Gen)?
Buy them if...
Don’t buy them if...
Also consider
How we test
To test the Amazon Echo Frames (3rd Gen), I wore them as often as I could: at work, at home, during my commute. I spoke to Alexa whenever I could and listened to a lot of music, podcasts, TikTok, and other audio. Due to time constraints, I did not get prescription lenses put in.
I've been testing and writing about technology for over 30 years.
This SpatialLabs variant of the Acer Predator Helios 300 is by far one of the strangest recent additions to Acer’s popular Predator line of high-end gaming hardware.
Taking a good all-round gaming laptop and slapping on an expensive glasses-free 3D SpatialLabs display is certainly one way to make a machine that stands out from the crowd, but it's hard to not wonder whether such a device was really necessary.
This is one of the very first glasses-free 3D gaming laptops on the market, a fact that sadly seems to be the root cause of many of its shortcomings. As is the case with being an early adopter of almost any new tech, you’re paying a prohibitively high price to get in on the action first while it's in its most unpolished state.
(Image credit: Future)
As you’ll see below, the glasses-free 3D is impressive when it works, but there are a raft of obvious teething issues to contend with. This includes a strange matrix of visible dots that spoil an otherwise excellent display in 2D mode, utterly atrocious battery life, and poor gaming performance whenever the 3D is turned on.
These problems will surely be ironed out with future iterations but, for the moment, it's disappointing to see consumers being sold a product that feels a little too much like a prototype.
In spite of this, sharing a lot of characteristics with the design of the regular Acer Predator Helios 300 means that there is still a solid gaming laptop beneath it all. The materials are sturdy and the specs, while unimpressive for the price, are perfectly adequate for playing most modern games in 2D.
Will these strong foundations save the Acer Predator Helios 300 SpatialLabs Edition from becoming nothing more than an amusing novelty? If not, what options should you consider instead? Let’s take a look.
How much does it cost? $3,499.99 / £3,299.00 / around AU$4,300
When is it available? Available now
Where can you get it? Available in the US, UK, and Australia
The Acer Predator Helios 300 SpatialLabs Edition is available for $3,499.99 in the US, £3,299.00 in the UK, and roughly AU$4,300 in Australia. These prices, however, seem to vary dramatically between retailers - so it's well worth taking the time to shop around to make sure that you are getting the very best deal.
There appears to be only one configuration on the market which, like our review unit, sports an RTX 3080 and a 12th-gen Intel i9 processor. These specs are enough to comfortably tackle most recent games at 1080p, but do seem rather outdated for the price
Obviously, it's reasonable to expect the unique SpatialLabs display to comprise a fair chunk of the cost here, but these specs sting when you can easily find laptops with the slightly more powerful RTX 4070 and comparable 13th-gen Intel processors being sold for significantly less.
As I mentioned above, the Acer Predator Helios 300 SpatialLabs Edition we tested came packing an RTX 3080 and 12th-gen Intel i9 processor. Here’s the lowdown on everything else under the hood:
My first impressions of the Acer Predator Helios 300 SpatialLabs Edition were positive, not too unexpected given that it shares a lot in common with the excellent design of the preexisting Acer Predator Helios 300.
Taking it out of the box, I was immediately struck by just how sturdy everything felt. The laptop’s body is constructed with a pleasant matte plastic and the lid has been fitted with a robust metal cover. This cover not only looks suitably premium but should help prevent any unfortunate scratches when the laptop is inevitably chucked in a bag without a case - at least, if you’re anything like me.
The keyboard is a highlight too, with good spacing and bright RGB lighting that can be fully customized with the included PredatorSense software. There is no noticeable flex when typing and I found the smooth travel of each key to be satisfying and efficient. The trackpad, on the other hand, is not quite as strong thanks to its slightly mushy clicks.
(Image credit: Future)
This is by no means the thinnest laptop on the market, but this bulk does allow for a fantastic selection of ports. You have easy access to three USB 3.2 Type-A ports for any gaming peripherals and one additional USB Type-C Thunderbolt 4 port on the rear - perfect for hooking the laptop up to an external monitor or dock.
In terms of video output, there’s also an HDMI 2.1 port and a Mini DisplayPort 1.4. The Kensington Lock is also a welcome inclusion at this price, adding some additional physical security should you need it.
The built-in speakers are one area for definite improvement, though, as they lack bass. This can detract from the enjoyment of some games, especially first-person shooters where I found that more powerful weapons like DOOM’s BFG 9000 just didn’t feel quite the same without that added oomph.
(Image credit: Future)
Where things really start to take a turn, however, is with the display. This is a 15.6” IPS 4K UHD screen which, thanks to its 3D features, lacks some expected niceties like a high refresh rate, G-Sync, or HDR.
While the picture is perfectly crisp and its colors very vivid, the entire screen is covered in an array of tiny dots. This is, presumably, something that is necessary to accomplish the 3D effect but it makes the display unpleasant to use for the vast majority of 2D applications. If you spend a lot of time word processing or browsing the internet, you’re probably going to want to plug in an external monitor as soon as possible.
Thankfully these dots become invisible when you enable the 3D mode, your first introduction to which is likely to be the pre-installed 3D model viewer. Although the resolution takes a noticeable hit when you start the program, the results were striking enough to elicit an audible “wow” from me, a handful of colleagues, and several family members.
The full effect is most easily compared to watching a 3D movie at the cinema, with a real sense of depth but without the need for any awkward plastic glasses. Better yet, the full eye-tracking allows the 3D image to convincingly follow your gaze. It can feel a tad uncomfortable, though, straining your eyes over periods of extended use.
The performance of the Acer Predator Helios 300 SpatialLabs Edition is best approached in two distinct halves: 2D performance and 3D performance. With the formidable power of the RTX 3080 and i9-12900H, it’s no surprise that the 2D performance is impressive.
Although our 3DMark benchmark results were on the lower end of the expected range, this was likely due to interference from the SpatialLabs software (necessary for the function of the 3D screen) which cannot be disabled easily and runs in the background at all times. Performance was excellent in the games themselves, however, with Cyberpunk 2077 running consistently above 30 fps on its Ultra Raytracing preset at 1080p.
Likewise, Dirt 5 on its Ultra preset could achieve an admirable 50 fps, while the less intensive strategy title Total War: Warhammer III was comfortably in the 90s. With specs this powerful, you’re unlikely to run into any major issues playing most recent games at 1080p and, even when you crank things up to 4K, careful use of Nvidia’s DLSS allows you to achieve very smooth performance.
(Image credit: Future)
While the fans do become loud very quickly, the thermals remain impressively consistent too. A quick tap of the turbo button (located above the keyboard) can also substantially boost your overall performance by overclocking the fans, CPU, and GPU.
In Cyberpunk 2077, I was able to achieve an average 53.2 fps running the same Ultra Raytracing 1080p benchmark with turbo enabled but, as it can only be used while plugged in and raises the already loud fans to such a level that headphones become a necessity, it’s not something that you’re going to want to have switched on all of the time.
(Image credit: Future)
Unfortunately, the performance absolutely tanks once you turn the 3D on. Limited software compatibility is an obvious weakness too and there are just under 100 titles that support 3D at the time of writing. The vast majority of these are older games and, jumping into a fresh playthrough of Wolfenstein: The Old Blood, it quickly becomes clear why.
The use of stereoscopic 3D requires two separate 1920 x 2160 images to be rendered simultaneously - a very graphically intensive task. On its medium preset, Wolfenstein: The Old Blood hovered around 50 fps with frequent stutters. 3D performance in the small number of more recent supported games like Forza Horizon 5 is a similar story as that title specifically can barely scrape above 40 fps.
Low-intensity compatible indies like Abzû, a diving exploration game that was greatly enhanced by the charming impression of fish swimming out of the screen, fare much better - but such poor performance in the library’s bigger titles is a huge shame.
The uneven frame rates even seem to exacerbate the existing feelings of discomfort generated by the display. Your mileage may vary, but I was shocked to feel a nasty headache and motion sickness coming on after only 40 minutes of use in such games.
Performance score: 2 / 5
Acer Predator Helios 300 SpatialLabs Edition: Battery life
The battery life is just awful
Really heavy power brick
As noted in our review of the 2022 Acer Predator Helios 300, this model already suffered from extremely poor battery life and the addition of a new 3D display only seems to have further exacerbated this issue.
The Acer Predator Helios 300 SpatialLabs Edition was unable to clear 3 hours in the 3DMark office battery benchmark - an incredibly poor result. Taking the laptop out and about, I frequently found myself completely running out of juice after just a couple of hours of light browsing. If you throw some 2D gaming into the mix, you’re going to find yourself looking for a power socket considerably sooner.
(Image credit: Future)
Believe it or not, this terrible battery life somehow becomes even worse when you’re doing anything with the 3D enabled. Be prepared to drag the laptop’s hefty power brick around with you at all times.
Battery score: 1/5
Should you buy the Acer Predator Helios 300 SpatialLabs Edition?
Buy it if...
Don't buy it if...
Acer Predator Helios 300 SpatialLabs Edition: Also consider
This might have been one of the first glasses-free 3D gaming laptop on the market but Acer also offer a handful of machines with SpatialLabs displays geared towards content creation. If you’re solely interested in using the glasses-free 3D features for 3D modelling or video editing consider buying a specialist laptop like the Acer ConceptD 7 SpatialLabs Edition instead.
If you want to game, however, you’re probably better off without the (literal) headache caused by a 3D screen. Here are two strictly 2D alternatives that offer more bang for your buck…
How I tested the Acer Predator Helios 300 SpatialLabs Edition:
Replaced my everyday system for two weeks
Used for gaming and document editing
I used the Acer Predator Helios 300 SpatialLabs Edition as my main machine for just over two weeks. This included a mix of productivity tasks (including the writing of this review) and some gaming. Given the limited number of supported titles, I predominantly played older games that were compatible with the glasses-free 3D screen. This included a full playthrough of Wolfenstein: The Old Blood (broken up into half hour chunks to avoid discomfort) and the opening hours of Abzû.
I also experimented with a handful of more recent additions to the glasses-free 3D catalogue like Forza Horizon 5. In terms of 2D gaming, I played a game of Total War: Warhammer III and wandered around the open-world of Cyberpunk 2077 to soak in the sights of Night City after the latest update. To test the battery life, I lugged the Predator Helios 300 SpatialLabs Edition around with me for a few days and used it in various public settings. The patrons of my local library really didn’t appreciate the loud fans.
To say the Hyte Y70 Touch is the culmination of a major PC building trend we've seen over the past few years feels like it doesn't do this case justice.
Back in ye olden dæges, even the best PC case was just an aluminum box with a panel that would open up to let you dig into the guts of your computer. But like every other kind of electronic device, it was purposefully designed to hide everything on the inside. After all, who wants to look at printed circuit boards, soldered ICs, and maybe a dusty fan mounted onto the CPU that 95% of people never bothered to clean?
We've come a long way since then, and as PC enthusiasts and gamers invest serious money into their builds, the impulse to show it all off became too great to ignore. We've since introduced plastic side panels, then tempered glass, and in the last five or six years, we've started to see cases that resemble the kind of glass housing once reserved for museums so builders could show off their hard work.
What they haven't really done before, however, is have an off-the-shelf case that integrates functionality into this cutaway case design, since glass is glass and it's only really good for looking through and providing a small measure of physical protection.
Hyte, on the other hand, decided to swap out the corner panel of its already excellent Y60 PC case for a 4K interactive touchscreen that has literally stopped several of my coworkers in their tracks this past week so they could gawk at the video wallpaper, clock, and Twitch chat window embedded into the touchscreen along the corner edge of the Y70.
To be fair, they weren't around to watch me stumble through the process of setting up the touchscreen, since it's really just a second Windows display like any one of the best monitors you'll find, though its 1100x3840p resolution makes it a meh-level second display without Hyte's Nexus software.
Once you install and run the software, it will do all the hard work of actually configuring the display to embed widgets, system information like CPU temperature, and even app shortcuts to put your favorite software a quick touch away.
Of course, to get the case's display to work, it needs to be connected to your graphics card via a DisplayPort connection, so you'll need a graphics card capable of multimonitor support as well as a free DisplayPort output. Nearly all of the best graphics cards, and even most of the best cheap graphics cards, will come with at least two DisplayPort connections, but if you're already running a multimonitor setup, you will likely need to do some cable juggling to make sure your graphics card can run the touchpanel.
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As for what you can do with the touch panel, there's actually quite a bit, including adding widgets for quicker access or displaying system information, or possibly taking a break from playing the best PC games to play a Tetris-style brick dropper instead.
And while this might feel a bit gimmicky, the program shortcuts are an absolute lifesaver as someone who has dozens of windows open on my desktop at any given time.
Finding the shortcut to launch Photoshop on my desktop comes in varying degrees of difficulty depending on how much junk I've dropped onto my desktop over the past few weeks. Being able to turn slightly and touch the Hyte Y70 Touch's display to bring up photoshop is the kind of small thing that adds up to minutes and hours of reclaimed time over weeks and months of use.
(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)
The Nexus software is more or less fine, and it comes with a number of presets that you can run as live backgrounds on the display. One thing to note is that you need to use this software to setup the touch display properly, so once you've built the PC and have successfully booted it up, download and install the software before you do anything else and work through Hyte Nexus.
It's through this software as well that you can build up pages of widgets, turning the Hyte Y70's front-corner panel into something with a smartphone-like interface, making it about as intuitive as it gets.
(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)
When it comes to actual hardware, the case doesn't come with any fans, but it has room to install up to 10 chassis fans, as well as a 360mm long x 125mm thick radiator on the side and another 360mm long x 68mm thick radiator along the top. You have a lot of options for cooling the rig, but definitely focus on intaking air from the bottom and back of the case, as the front and side walls are glass, so you'll have to be conscientious about proper airflow.
Fortunately, as a dual-chamber case, many of the hottest components are separated to allow for easier cooling and air circulation. The biggest and most obvious way this is done is through the vertically mounted GPU thanks to an included riser. It doesn't hurt that it also shows off your GPU.
In terms of rear capacity, there are two internal drive bays that can fit a pair of the best hard drives at 3.5-inches, or up to four 2.5-inch SATA SSDs. The PSU bay is roomy as well, making cable management easier than with a tighter mid-or-full tower case, which can jam even the best PSUs.
There's more than enough room in the front chamber, so whichever of the best graphics cards you install, the Y70's 16.6-inch GPU clearance is more than enough. It is also able to vertically mount up to a four-slot card, so if that Nvidia Titan RTX refresh ever comes along, you just might be able to fit it in here.
This extra capacity also makes cable management a much easier problem to solve, and even though this is a very premium PC case, it's incredibly user-and-newbie friendly. You'll still have to know where and how you should install various case components like fans and lighting, but the easy-open case gives you all the room you need to work, even if you barely know what you're doing.
And while I am going to rave about this case from here to CES and beyond, it's not all lovely touchscreens and roomy interior. If there's one complaint I have with this case, it would be its price. Coming in at $359.99 / £349.99 (about AU$560), this is significantly more expensive than the Hyte Y60 or Lian-Li O11 Vision, which comes in at just $139.
Of course, none of those cases have a 4K touchscreen interface built-in, so the price isn't unreasonable for what you're getting, but this is a premium case nonetheless, so those on a budget might want to shop around for something more in line with their budget.
Hyte Y70 Touch: Price & availability
How much does it cost? $359.99 / £349.99 (about AU$560)
When and where can you get it? Available in US right now, with UK and Australia availability coming in December
The Hyte Y70 Touch is available in the US right now for $359.99, with a December launch planned for the UK and Australia. The UK retail price will be £349.99, and should sell for about AU$560 in Australia.
This is a roughly 80% price increase over the Hyte Y60, though that case does not include a touch display.
Hyte Y70 Touch: Specs
(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)
Should you buy the Hyte Y70 Touch?
Buy the Hyte Y70 Touch if...
You want an absolute showpiece The Hyte Y70 Touch will draw a crowd if you let it. I know from personal experience.
You want to have a host of functions and apps at your fingertips
The 4K touchscreen on the Y70 makes it easy to pull up apps, track Twitch chat, and monitor system conditions with ease.
Don't buy it if...
You're on a budget
This is a very premium PC case, so if money's tight, forget about the touchscreen and opt for the Hyte Y60 instead.
You have limited desk space
This is a honking big PC case. If your desk looks like the aftermath of Verdun, you might want to go for something with a smaller footprint.
Hyte Y70 Touch: Also consider
If my Hyte Y70 Touch review has you looking for other options, here are two more PC cases to consider...
We pride ourselves on our independence and our rigorous review-testing process, offering up long-term attention to the products we review and making sure our reviews are updated and maintained - regardless of when a device was released, if you can still buy it, it's on our radar.
The Seagate FireCuda 540 is one of the first high-profile Gen 5 NVMe SSDs to hit the market for those who are running one of the best processors for gaming and best motherboards that are PCIe 5.0 compatible.
It’s more than just a successor to the widely popular Seagate FireCuda 530 from a couple of years ago, though, it’s a drive that shows you exactly what the next generation is capable of, but at a cost.
The greatest cost will be to your wallet, because this flagship Gen 5 NVMe SSD carries a particularly high MSRP regardless of where you are in the world. That’s because current motherboard support for Gen 5 NVMe SSDs is limited to the most recent AMD CPU generation with socket AM5 and the current crop of Intel LGA 1700 options. You’re paying a pretty penny to be an early adopter without factoring in the cost in, ultimately.
Speaking of cost, the Seagate FireCuda 540 currently retails for $189.99 (around £150 / AU$300) for 1TB and $319.99 (approximately £260 / $AU$500) for 2TB which is far from cheap.
For context, you can currently find Gen 4 alternatives such as the aforementioned FireCuda 530 and the excellent Kingston Fury Renegade SSD for a fraction of the price for around a 30% performance reduction. That’s long been the case with early adoption, however, you’re paying a premium to be on the bleeding edge, and the results do speak for themselves.
That’s because the Seagate FireCuda 540 absolutely lives up to its claims of 10,000 MB/s sequential performance with both its reads and writes when plugged into to a Gen 5 compatible NVMe M.2 port. The question remains of whether you need this level of sequential performance right now, or if you just want to be ready for when some of the best PC games will take advantage.
Considering just how slow the adoption of Gen 4 SSDs were to the mainstream, having launched in 2019 before being adopted in 2020 and 2021 for PC and PS5, we could be waiting a couple of years to really see software push this hardware in any meaningful way. Still, the Seagate FireCuda 540 is undoubtably a top contender for best SSD of 2023, even if it still feels a bit ahead of its time.
(Image credit: Seagate)
Seagate FireCuda 540: Price & availability
How much does it cost? Starting at $189.99 (around £150 / AU$300)
When is it available? Available now
Where can you get it? Available in the US, UK, and Australia
The Seagate FireCuda 540 is currently available in the US, the UK, and Australia with a starting price of $189.99 (around £150 / AU$300) for 1TB and $319.99 (approximately £260 / $AU$500) for 2TB.
For contrast, that’s a similar price that you will expect to pay for Gen 5 offerings such as the Corsair MP700 which carries an MSRP of $179.99 (about £147.99 / AU$280) for 1TB and $284.99 (around £230 / AU$430) for 2TB. Simply put, these Gen 5 drives are by no means cheap and you are paying a premium when getting in on the ground floor.
Seagate FireCuda 540: Specs
Seagate FireCuda 540: Design & features
Things are kept simple in terms of the physical and visual design of the Seagate FireCuda 540, and that’s for the best considering it will live under a motherboard heatsink from the second it’s installed into your PC. A simple sticker covers the controller and the DRAM with the company’s logo and the name of the drive itself on one side and that’s your lot.
More interesting is the choice of controller itself. That’s because the Seagate FireCuda 540 is running the Phison E26 controller, which is significantly faster than the already excellent Phison E18 controller as featured in many of the best M.2 SSDs to hit the market over the last four years. That’s only one side of the story, though, because further adding to the lightning-fast performance here is the 232-Layer Micron TLC flash memory on board coupled with LPDDR4 DRAM cache for short term memory reads, as many top-end drives include.
While this is a Gen 5x4 drive through and through, it’s also backwards compatible with older 4x4 NVMe slots as well and will cap the performance out at around 7,300 MB/s read and write respectively, however, if you don’t own a PCIe 5.0-ready motherboard then you’re burning money buying one of these to serve for this reason. The rated write endurance is also solid and roughly works out blow-for-blow with the capacity itself. Our review unit is rated at 2000TB for 2TB, however, the 1TB variant is good for 1000TB which is pretty decent overall.
(Image credit: Seagate)
Seagate FireCuda 540: Performance
It may cost a pretty penny but there’s no denying that the Seagate FireCuda 540 absolutely excels as at the top-end of what NVMe drives are physically capable of in 2023. In our industry-standard tests, such as with CrystalDiskMark 8, the drive was absolutely able to hit the quoted performance caps by delivering 10,092.67 MB/s read and 10,144.55 MB/s writes respectively which absolutely blows even the leading Gen 4.0 models out of the water.
This is further compounded by the random 4K read and writes as well as the Seagate FireCuda 540 offered up 625.68 and 476 read and write respectively, which is among the best I’ve personally seen from an NVMe SSD in all my years of testing. AnvilPro further highlighted the finesse of this drive with a total overall score of 30,163.68 which I hadn’t personally seen go so high in all my many reviews of NVMe hardware. Generally speaking, a top-end Gen 4 drive would output around 25,000, so that’s a good 20% increase straight out of the gate.
Furthermore, in our in-house 25GB file transfer test, the Seagate FireCuda 540 further shined with a time of just 16 seconds which comprised a total of 3,716 files including documents, videos, photos, and programs. That’s seriously fast, and goes to show the power of the Phison E26 controller in tandem with the 232-Layer Micron TLC flash memory.
In terms of real-world file transfer times, from a Gen 4 NVMe drive over to the Seagate FireCuda 540 is equally impressive. This can be evidenced with Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s mammoth file size of 158.78 GB transferring to the Gen 5 model in just 58 seconds. Similarly, smaller titles such as Deathloop with its 30.98 file size made the jump in only 11 seconds which works out to around 3GB/sec. That’s blisteringly fast, and further cements the sequential prowess of this drive in action.
There is a caveat, though, and that’s the fact that no PC games right now are really optimized for blisteringly quick sequential performance on offer right now. That isn’t to say that future releases won’t be able to take advantage, but games don’t even need a Gen 4 yet to run optimally barring a small list of exceptions. What you’re ultimately buying is futureproofing and insurance so that bigger games that benefit from an SSD will run flawlessly for extra overhead instead of being an essential purchase right now.
(Image credit: Seagate)
Should you buy the Seagate FireCuda 540?
Buy the Seagate FireCuda 540 if...
You want a futureproofed machine By purchasing a Seagate FireCuda 540 with a PCIe 5.0 motherboard, you’ve guaranteeing your system will be able to run the future of titles which may need a faster drive than what’s available to most users.
You want leading sequential performance from your NVMe SSD
The Seagate FireCuda 540 is unrivaled in its sequential performance excelling up to 10,000 MB/s read and write respectively which few NVMe drives can boast right now.
You want good value for money While incredibly impressive, the Seagate FireCuda 540 isn’t exactly an essential purchase for anyone on PC right now apart from enthusiasts. No software really needs or benefits from 10,000 MB/s right now, but that could change in the near future.
Lenovo’s first foray into the AR glasses market could easily be one of the best smart glasses, with a great balance between design and functionality. They look similar enough to other AR glasses on the market, all-black, and mostly sleek sunglasses. There is a bulkiness that comes from the built-in lenses, which does make them jut out from your face a bit, and the optional lenses that can be slotted behind the main ones don't help with that either.
Those spare lenses have a purpose, however, as those who wear corrective lenses can have them made out in our prescription. But having to pay for extra lenses on top of shelling out over $300 for the Legion Glasses is a tall order, which is why I appreciate the modified nose guard that allows you to wear your glasses under them.
Lenovo had warned me about them not fitting every pair of glasses and I personally experienced the awkwardness of trying to shift them to stay on properly, which took a bit to master. But once I found the sweet spot, they stayed in place surprisingly well around my large plastic frames. Not the best look, however, so if you care about aesthetics you may want to splurge for the prescription lenses.
Compared to other AR glasses like the Xreal Air AR which only offers the corrective lens option, or the Rokid Max AR which offers the corrective lens option plus myopia adjustment wheels for each eye, the Legion Go offers the simplest yet most effective method out of them.
The build quality of these glasses is quite premium – it has a sturdy yet light form factor with glass lenses and a solid frame. These are glasses clearly built to last. Not to mention that it comes with spare nose guards and a spare pair of anti-slip adapters for when wear and tear happens.
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I also love the buttons in front of the speakers, two on each side, as they activate several useful features depending on whether you short or long-press them. You can increase or decrease brightness, enable Low Blue Light Mode, control volume, and toggle the display off and on.
As for performance, the Lenovo Legion Glasses work exactly as promised, which is to say, quite well. I extensively tested it out with a wide variety of devices that feature USB Type-C ports including videos on the best smartphones, the Lenovo Legion Go, the best gaming laptops, the best gaming PCs, and more.
Even though it only states that the Legion Glasses works with Android, iOS, and Windows, it also works perfectly with the Steam Deck as well. And it works equally well with all of them, though I wish there were more connection types other than Type-C, however, I can understand the rationale behind it.
The picture quality and brightness are superb, living up to its micro-OLED HD visuals and more. My only real complaint in that regard is the image can blur around the edges a bit and obscure any UI, especially if the glasses aren't fitted properly to your head. Sometimes you have to readjust them to hit that sweet spot, and then the visuals are great. Accompanied by excellent visuals are equally excellent built-in speakers, which are so robust that I forgot I wasn’t playing video games on a gaming PC. That also carries over to music and movie streaming, delivering great audio quality on those fronts.
Something that often isn't mentioned with AR and VR tech in general is how they can affect more sensitive people, such as myself. Normally I have sensitivity issues with 3D, VR, and some AR technology ranging from watering and burning eyes, headaches, and nausea to name a few symptoms. But I've found that prolonged use of the Legion Glasses doesn't affect me in the slightest.
Lenovo Legion Glasses: Price & availability
(Image credit: Future)
How much does it cost? Starting at $329.99 / £329 / AU$599
When is it available? Available now
Where can you get it? Available in the US, UK, and Australia
The Lenovo Legion Glasses is a pricey gadget at $329.99 / £329 / AU$599, though it’s still more affordable than some of its competitors like the Xreal Air AR and Rokid Max AR, making it a much better deal by comparison. And if you're investing in a pair of AR glasses, you're most likely already prepared to spend a sizable amount of money so that shouldn't be much of an issue.
It’s also available for shipping in the US, UK, and Australia from the Lenovo storefront, which is great news for those in regions outside the US.
Lenovo Legion Glasses: Specs
Should you buy the Lenovo Legion Glasses?
Buy it if...
You want good-quality AR glasses The build quality is extremely good with a nice weight and sturdy form factor. The lenses being made of thick glass also help.
You want a clear picture quality The display is made of dual micro-OLED HD screens for each eye and the result is a bright and clear picture quality.
Don't buy it if...
You're on a budget Though it should be expected for AR glasses, you're going to be paying quite a bit of money for them.
You want a completely clear image Though it's usually not an issue, sometimes the edges can blur a bit which is exacerbated by misaligned glasses.
Lenovo Legion Glasses: Also consider
How I tested the Lenovo Legion Glasses
I spent about a week testing these AR glasses
I tested it with a wide variety of screens
I used it extensively in different environments with different lighting
I tested the Lenovo Legion Glasses keyboard in a home office environment, seeing how well it functioned in both productivity work and gaming. I also carried it around in various bags to test its portability.
The Lenovo Legion Glasses is a pair of AR glasses that's meant as an alternative screen for a wide variety of devices. I made sure to quality-test it to see if it held up to being able to work on nearly any device with a USB Type-C port.
I've tested a wide range of accessories and these in particular I've tested for well over a year at different stages of completion, becoming familiar with its features and improvements.
We pride ourselves on our independence and our rigorous review-testing process, offering up long-term attention to the products we review and making sure our reviews are updated and maintained - regardless of when a device was released, if you can still buy it, it's on our radar.
There's no sense beating around the bush; the Yunzii AL71 is exceptional. Whether you’re looking for something to add to your mech keeb collection or just a reliable keyboard, this might be the best mechanical keyboard and the best wireless keyboard available.
That’s saying a lot, considering the sheer number of great mechanical keyboards currently on offer, but the Yunzii AL71 delivers in every way that counts. It’s incredibly robust, delivers a fantastic performance and typing experience, and comes with a slew of features, some of which you’d be hard-pressed to find in other similarly priced models.
In other words, it’s the complete package. No, scratch that, it’s more than the complete package, with Yunzii throwing in thrills like RGB lighting that syncs up to the audio your PC is playing and seven different colorways. So, not only is it incredibly reliable for both typing and gaming, but it’s also loads of fun. It's one of the best keyboards I've ever tested.
(Image credit: Future / Michelle Rae Uy)
The fun starts in the design, of course. While you can get the Yunzii AL71 barebones to mod it the way you want, it also comes in silver, black, red, pink, purple, green, and blue colorways. My purple unit came with a set of purple, lavender, and green keycaps because, honestly, a single-color keycap set is kinda boring these days. You even get an extra set of keycaps beyond the 71 that the keyboard requires so you can mix and match when you feel like it.
That’s right, this keyboard is a compact one. Not so compact that you’re missing out on dedicated arrow keys, but the 68% form factor is compact enough to save considerable space. Unfortunately, due to its full aluminum case, it’s on the heavy side – too heavy to just toss in your backpack and take with you during commutes or when traveling.
(Image credit: Future / Michelle Rae Uy)
The upside to that though is that it is incredibly robust. The CNC aluminum case means it's also corrosion- and oxidation-resistant, so it’ll last you for years to come. And as an added bonus, it will weigh it down and keep it steady on your desk. You don’t have to worry about this keyboard moving around as you’re button-mashing or typing up long documents. I even tried lightly pushing it around and it would not budge.
It also has a garage for the USB dongle so you don't have to worry about losing it. Next to the garage are two switches, one for changing connections and another for switching between Mac and PC, and the USB-C port.
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Adding to its fun element is its RGB lighting, which has several aspects to it. It illuminates through the two windows on either side of the case for some ambient lighting. And while the accompanying keycaps have printed legends and aren’t transparent, Yunzii designed the keyboard so the RGB lighting illuminates between the keycaps, creating a vibrant glowy effect. The result, I think, is a stunner.
There are, of course, multiple – 14 to be exact – RGB lighting effects that you can cycle through on the fly using the pre-set keyboard shortcuts. If you download the Yunzii app from the Yunzii website, you can further customize them, effectively creating your own RGB lighting design.
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Something fun that many keyboards don't have, though, is the ability to synchronize the RGB lighting to your audio. It’s a nice little surprise that lets you set your RGB lighting to one of 10 available light patterns that move based on the audio that’s playing on your computer. I prefer going with one of the regular lighting effects, but this is still a nifty feature, and I found it works pretty well. Each pattern is customizable as well.
You will, however, need to install the app to access this, as well as the ability to program macros.
Even without the app, you’re getting a feature-rich keyboard. It comes with three types of connection: 2.4GHz wireless, Bluetooth, and wired. The cable-free connections are very reliable – impressively fast with no noticeable lags, even when the keyboard is waking. The keyboard also lets you quickly switch between connections on the fly, thanks to its FN shortcuts. And when it’s run out of juice, the convenience of being able to use it while it’s charging is a much-appreciated treat.
What’s more, the AL71 has multi-platform compatibility. You can now only use it with MacOS and Windows devices, but iOS, iPad OS, and Android ones too. So, if you’ve got a multi-device setup, this one’s a no-brainer.
(Image credit: Future / Michelle Rae Uy)
The feature set and design already make it well worth your money, but Yunzii doesn’t stop there. The true test of a mechanical keyboard’s worthiness is in its performance, and I’m happy to say that the Yunzii AL71 passes with flying colors.
In fact, it only really took a day for this keyboard to impress me. Available in Crystal White and Peach V2 switches, both of which are linear and quiet, typing on it is an absolute joy. I got the Crystal White Switch, which isn’t as quiet as the Peach V2, but I do like a little bit of a satisfying clack – one that’s not so loud that it’s distracting everyone else in the room with me. To be very honest, I prefer a thocky keyboard, but a clacky one, which this keyboard is, comes in a close second.
Luckily, this one comes with pre-lubed stabilizers, which help reduce noise as well as enhance the typing feel. That’s made better by the gasket mount inside, which gives it a slightly more cushioned feel. That helps with reducing finger fatigue, especially for someone like me who spends most of her workday tapping away at the keys. There’s a fine line there, I think. I absolutely hate keyboards that have too much cushion, but this one gets it just right.
Due to its fast wireless performance, I have no problem gaming on this keyboard. Testing it with my current favorites, Kena: Bridge of Spirits and Hogwarts Legacy, I found it to be on par with some of the gaming keyboards I’ve tested from top brands. And while Yunzii hasn’t specified some of the important specs for gaming, it does come with N-key rollover, which helps when you have to press several keys almost all at once.
Yunzii AL71: Price & availability
How much does it cost? $159.99 / £129.30 / AU$245.64
When is it available? Available now
Where can you get it? Available in the US, UK, and Australia
The Yunzii AL71 bears the price tag you’d expect for a great-quality keyboard. However, at $159.99 / £129.30 / AU$245.64, I would argue that it's actually more affordable than other keyboards in its class. Or at least, it offers much better value considering the robust feature set on top of its excellent performance and solid design.
The Yunzii AL71 is a fantastic keyboard that delivers on performance, design, and features.
You want the best value for your money
Compared to other keyboards in its class, it's packed with features you won’t find in pricier keyboards.
Don't buy it if...
You are on a tight budget
If your budget is under $100/£100, this might be a little too much for your wallet.
You prefer a clicky keyboard
This is a clacky keyboard so if you personally prefer the clicky sound, you might not like it.
Yunzii AL71: Also consider
How I tested the Yunzii AL71
I tested the Yunzii AL71 for two weeks
I used it for work and gaming
I put its features through their paces
Making the Yunzii AL71 my main keyboard for two weeks, I used it every day for work, writing articles, emails, and more with it. At night, I used it as my gaming keyboard to play Kena: Bridge of Spirits and Hogwarts Legacy. On top of testing its performance, typing feel, and wireless connectivity, I also put its specific features to the test to make sure that they work as expected.
I've been testing gaming keyboards and other PC gaming peripherals for about 10 years. As a keyboard enthusiast, I also have a collection of mechanical keyboards that I've amassed over the years.
We pride ourselves on our independence and our rigorous review-testing process, offering long-term attention to the products we review and making sure our reviews are updated and maintained. Regardless of when a device was released, if you can still buy it, it's on our radar.
