Computing - Organizer

7:57 pm | May 24, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Computers Computing Gadgets | Comments: Off

GMKTec NucBox K9: 30-second review

The GMKtec K9 mini PC targets users seeking the power of a desktop computer in a compact, portable form. Despite its small size, it boasts impressive processing and graphics capabilities.

If you're looking for the best mini PCs, this one is ideal for creative tasks such as video editing, photography, intensive office applications, and gaming. With the ability to expand internal storage and RAM far beyond most competitors, it's a versatile choice for various demanding uses.

One of the standout features of the K9 is its expandability. It includes dual LAN ports and a USB4 port, which allow for supercharging with an eGPU or additional large-format storage. However, it faces competition from the GMKtec K8, a nearly identical machine featuring the AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS (8 cores, 16 threads) and Radeon 780M. The K9 represents the Intel equivalent, mirroring the K8's design but powered by the Intel Core Ultra 5 125H CPU and Intel Arc Graphics.

The K9's build quality is decent, with a silver-coated plastic finish that feels slightly cheap, though the large cooling grates and button detailing add a touch of quality. The internal layout is similar to the K8, offering dual M.2 slots and dual-channel RAM for easy upgrades. The base configuration includes 1TB of storage and 32GB of RAM, but power users can upgrade to 4TB of internal SSD and 96GB of RAM.

Accessing the internal components for upgrades requires prying off the top plate and unscrewing the fan plate, a process that involves some pressure and leverage. Once inside, users can easily add or replace hardware components to enhance performance.

Thanks to the Intel Ultra 5 125H processor, the K9's performance in everyday use is impressive. Office applications run smoothly, and creative programs like Photoshop and Da Vinci Resolve benefit from the system's robust capabilities. However, like most Mini PCs, the K9 struggles slightly with gaming. While it performs well in reduced settings, it doesn't match the graphics power of dedicated desktop PCs.

When comparing the K9 with the K8, the choice boils down to the preference between Intel and AMD. The K8'sgraphics performance edges out slightly, while the K9 excels in processing speed. Both machines are highly powerful and capable, making either a solid choice depending on specific needs and brand loyalty. In summary, the GMKtec K9 is a powerful, expandable, and versatile Mini PC that holds its own in various demanding scenarios, making it a strong contender in the mini PC market.

Check out our GMKtec NucBox K8 review and GMKtec NucBox K6 review to see how the K9 compares.

GMKtec NucBox K9: Price and availability

How much does it cost? From $800
When is it out? Available now
Where can you get it? Directly from GMKtec or Amazon.com

The K9 reviewed starts at $800 with 32GB of RAM and a 1TB HD with Windows 11 Pro pre-installed. Additionally, an Intel i7 13260H option with the same RAM and storage options is available for $100 less. In the UK, the Ultra 5 125H model is priced at £630, while the i7 model costs £551.

You can get it directly from the official GMKtec website by clicking here.

Value: 4 / 5

GMKtec NucBox K9: Specs

GMKtec NucBox K9: Design

There's no doubting the stylish aesthetics of the K9, which are identical to the K8. However, it suffers from the same design issues highlighted in the K8 review. While the design is pleasing, for a machine of this price, a higher specification metal casing would be expected rather than the metallic-finished plastic used. Nevertheless, the overall look and feel are pleasing, albeit slightly cheaper than some competitor models. The big difference between the two machines is the switch from the AMD chipset to Intel.

Access to the inner hardware is relatively straightforward. No tools are required to pry off the top plate, revealing the small cooling fan. The fan plate itself is held in place by four small screws. A slight skirmish is needed to lift this plate away, and the mainboard connector to the fan needs to be unplugged before clear access to the internal components can be properly reached.

Inside, the layout is spacious and neat, allowing plenty of airflow through the system with the two large grilled vents on either side. On one side are the two PCIe 4.0 M.2 slots and SODIMM DDR5 memory slots, which in our review sample featured two 16GB Crucial DDR5 5600 modules, giving a total of 32GB, upgradeable to 96GB—one of the largest capacities of any Mini PC. Opposite the RAM slots are the Dual M.2 slots, with one filled with a 1TB M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 SSD, expandable to two 2TB modules. Under the RAM is the WiFi 6 (2.4GHz/5.0GHz) and Bluetooth 5.2 card, offering upgrade options for future compatibility.

The usual array of ports is on the front and back of the machine. In a slightly odd move, the USB4 port is solely on the front alongside two USB 3.2 Gen 2 and a standard 3.5mm audio port. At the back are a DP v1.4 (4K@144Hz), HDMI 2.0 (4K@60Hz), two USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps), two RJ45 LAN (2.5Gbps), a Kensington lock, and the DC power socket.

The overall design is neat, but it does feel like the power of the chipset and potential of the machine are slightly underplayed, with only a single USB4 port on the front and a less-than-refined route into the machine for upgrades.

Design: 4 / 5

GMKtec NucBox K9: Hardware

The GMKtec K9 Mini PC is designed for power users seeking a compact computing solution with future expandability both internally and through connected hardware. At its core is one of the latest Intel Core Ultra 5 125H processors, boasting 14 cores and 18 threads, capable of reaching up to 4.50 GHz.

Accompanying the CPU is the Intel Arc Graphics 112EU iGPU, built on the 10 nm process and based on the Meteor Lake GT1 graphics processor, supporting DirectX 12. This combination enables users to run demanding applications like video and image editing. Further enhancing the CPU and GPU capabilities is IIntel'sAI Boost technology, which uses both the CPU and GPU depending on the workload. This technology is compatible with OpenVINO, Windows ML, DirectML, and ONNX RT.

For power users, the K9 is equipped with 32GB of DDR5 dual-channel RAM running at 5600MHz, expandable up to 96GB using newly released 48GB RAM modules. The included 1TB M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 SSD offers plenty of storage, with dual slot expansion allowing for a maximum of 4TB internal storage.

Connectivity is robust. The front has a USB4 port, which is Thunderbolt 4 compatible and enables a maximum transfer speed of 40 Gbps. Although the position on the front is slightly odd, it is still functional. Alongside the USB4 port, there are two more USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports on the front and another two on the back.

Networking options are plentiful, with dual 2.5Gbps LAN ports, WiFi 6, and Bluetooth 5.2. The ability to connect up to three displays is a great feature, with the USB4 port offering up to 8K@60Hz, plus DisplayPort and HDMI options. Again, the positioning of the USB4 port on the front rather than the back is slightly unusual.

Features: 4 / 5

GMKtec NucBox K9: Performance

In setup, the GMKtec K9 is a neat machine that takes up a small amount of desktop space or, for the ultimate space-saving solution, can be VESA mounted. While the machine is well laid out for the most part, with plenty of space for cables and useful front-facing ports for quickly attaching drives and accessories, an additional USB4 port at the back would be a good boost to the connectivity performance.

Powering the machine on for the first time requires the usual Windows 11 Pro setup, which takes around five minutes before the full power of the machine can be explored. Starting out with the 1TB internal SSD instantly sets the pace for the machine, with CrystalDiskMark showing read speeds of 7036.31MB/s and write speeds of 6628.35MB/s. These high speeds ensure fast file transfers, especially for large video and 3D files, and also ensure the continued smooth running of the machine.

In GeekBench testing, the K9 achieves a single-core score of 10863 and a multi-core score of 2231. This high single-core performance is ideal for applications that rely on strong per-core processing power, such as Microsoft Office and Adobe Photoshop. Meanwhile, the respectable multi-core score highlights the ability to handle multi-threaded applications like Adobe Lightroom and DaVinci Resolve. When it came to video editing, a Samsung 8TB SSD was utilised to boost the storage and connected through the USB4 with great effect.

The K9 also performs well with the PCMark benchmark, scoring 6410. This score shows the machine's ability to handle multiple applications at once, allowing you to switch between digital content creation, office tasks, and some casual gaming.

CineBench results further show the strengths, with a single-core score of 1703 and a multi-core score of 12685. These scores highlight decent rendering capabilities, which are apparent when editing in DaVinci and bulk exporting from Lightroom.

The 3DMark Fire Strike and Time Spy benchmarks provide insight into the K9'sgraphic performance. The overall Fire Strike score of 6805, with specific scores of 7358 in graphics, 22141 in physics, and 2615 in combined tests, shows that while the K9 is capable of handling modern games at moderate settings, such as Cyberpunk 2077 and Red Dead Redemption 2. Similarly, in the Time Spy benchmark, the K9 scores 3271 overall, with 2945 in graphics and an impressive 8804 in CPU performance. These results show that the K9 can handle graphically intensive tasks and some gaming, which was certainly true in real-world tests.

The Wild Life benchmark score of 18016 supports the Mini PPC's capabilities for video editing and moderate gaming. When it comes to running Windows and associated applications, the Windows Experience Index score of 8.1 shows that this is a decent all-around machine for office and home use.

In real-world use, the K9 performs exceptionally well with a range of software. Microsoft Office applications run smoothly, enabling you to switch from one application to another with ease and no slowdown. Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom handle large files and complex edits without any significant lag, with selections and drawing tools working smoothly. Video editing in Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve is similarly impressive, with the K9 rendering timelines quickly and managing effects smoothly for 4K video. If you're looking to produce longer productions or complex edits, then boosting the internal storage and RAM would be a good idea.

Although not overly resource-intensive, 3D printing applications like Formlabs PreForm and Ultimaker Cura work exceptionally well, and laser-cutting software such as Lightburn runs smoothly. The machine connects to laser engravers with ease.

When it comes to gaming, the K9 delivers good performance with modern titles like Cyberpunk 2077 and Red Dead Redemption 2, albeit at reduced settings. At the same time, the K9 may not compete with the graphics power of dedicated gaming desktops, but it's good enough for occasional gaming fun.

The GMKtec K9 Mini PC is designed as a powerful and expandable Mini PC for the workplace or home office and excels in productivity and creative applications. The ease of expansion also means that it is relatively future-proof and should provide you with years of use. The benchmark scores and versatile performance make it a great choice for most office and creative applications, although the high-end gaming performance is more modest.

Overall, the K9 is a great choice for a wide range of uses, from general computing to creative projects and moderate gaming. When it comes to a side-by-side comparison with the AMD K8, the two machines are closely aligned. The K9 just has the edge when it comes to gaming and Microsoft Office, while the K8 pushes forward with creative tasks such as video, photography, and 3D.

Performance: 4 / 5

GMKtec NucBox K9: Final verdict

The GMKtec K9 Mini PC is a great machine with plenty of potential. It offers a versatile option if you are looking for a powerful yet compact desktop computer. The K9 features impressive processing power, extensive expandability, and a practical design that make it ideal for a range of applications, from office tasks to creative projects.

However, while this machine is powerful, its gaming performance and plastic build may only satisfy some. Although the plastic build might not feel premium, it still remains robust.

The K9 has many points going for it. At the top of the list are its power and upgradability, which are beyond the scope of much of the competition. Overall, it is a great machine, making it a tough decision between this and the AMD K8 version.

Should I buy a GMKtec NucBox K9?

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Logitech Signature Slim K950 review: a great keyboard that’s ideal for Mac, Windows… or both

4:44 pm | May 23, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Computers Computing Gadgets Keyboards Peripherals & Accessories | Tags: USB | Comments: Off

Logitech Signature Slim K950: Two-minute review

The Logitech Signature Slim K950 is billed as a keyboard that’s equally comfortable at work or at home, with sensible looks, some advanced functionality and plentiful customization options.

Typing is satisfying on the Logitech Signature Slim K950, thanks to the feel of the keys. At first touch, they feel light and tappy due to the plastic material, but the subtle dampening helps to provide more depth to presses. Logitech claims that this is a quiet keyboard, but as the clashing of the plastics generate a high-pitched sound, I would be reluctant to point this out as a highlight, even if it’s still definitely quieter than a mechanical keyboard. Similar to a laptop keyboard, the profile of the keys is low, although the spacing between them is greater – a combination I personally prefer among the many options in the best keyboards.

The default shortcuts that occupy the function keys are well chosen, too. They’re aimed at the modern worker, with hotkeys for muting a microphone or activating a dictation package, as well as for bringing up a calculator app, screenshot tool, and even an emoji menu.

These hotkeys can be modified using the Options Plus software, downloadable from Logitech’s website for free. It’s well designed and easy to use, and while it’s stable enough, I did encounter a few minor glitches and a crash on install, although this was easy to rectify.

Options Plus offers a set list of Windows and macOS system-level functions to choose from when customizing the hotkeys, which include actions such as putting your device to sleep and opening a certain app or file, to name a few. You can also create macros, which Logitech calls Smart Actions. The company provides 30 templates to choose from across a range of scenarios, which can be used as they are or edited to meet your specific requirements. Overall, many of these are well considered, although I did find that some of them failed to work as intended.

One of the new standout features in the Options Plus software is the ability to call up an AI Prompt builder, which essentially opens ChatGPT in a popup window at the press of a hotkey of your choosing. It comes with four default prompt templates for productivity purposes, but you can also create your own.

Depending on how much you use the AI chatbot in the course of your work, this is either a very useful tool or merely a gimmick to have fun with. Still, the integration works well enough, barring a few minor niggles.

There’s very little that the Logitech Signature Slim K950 doesn’t do well when it comes to being a tool for most users. The lack of rechargeable batteries, backlit keys and a few minor bugs are the only real issues with the product itself. The greater concern, though, is the cost: it’s hard to see why it’s almost double the price of its predecessor, the Logitech Signature K650, considering that the K650 offers nearly all the same functions and features, save for easy switching.

Close-up of Logitech Signature Slim K950 keys — (Image credit: Future)

Logitech Signature Slim K950 review: Price & Availability

$79 / £79 (about AU$120)
Graphite and Off-white color schemes
K650 is cheaper and almost as good

The Signature Slim K950 is available now for $79 / £79 (about AU$120). It comes in two colorways: Graphite and Off-white.

If you’re looking for a cheaper option, the Signature K650 is another Logitech keyboard aimed at productivity, but has a larger form factor and includes a built-in wrist pad (although in our review, we noted this as an irrelevance). However, the K650 is currently available for $49 / £49 (about AU$75), which offers a considerable saving over the K950. It doesn’t support easy-device switching, but apart from that, it offers virtually everything else the K950 does.

Although the K950 is a pleasure to use for the most part, if you’re after a supreme typing experience, the Cherry Stream Desktop is a standout choice. Although it lacks many of the advanced features of the K950, the comfort and performance levels elevate it among our best keyboard picks.

Value score: 3 / 5

Close-up of Logitech Signature Slim K950 logo

(Image credit: Future)

Logitech Signature Slim K950 review: Design

Slender profile
Forgettable appearance
No rechargeable battery or USB ports

The K950 doesn’t exactly scream style: the Graphite finish I was given to test was quite austere, and the matte plastic made it look rather anonymous. A simple and small ‘logi’ logo is the only branding that adorns the K950, which at least keeps its aesthetic minimal. The slim profile helps to impart some elegance too.

The entire construction is plastic, with no metal in sight. It feels robust enough, as do the keys themselves. They’re tightly fitted with very little play, and the lettering is ever-so slightly embossed, which I could feel under my fingertips.

The fold-out feet can raise the K950 to an 8-degree incline, which isn’t as steep as other keyboards, and there are no gradients in between. For me, this wasn’t a problem, but if you’re someone who likes a steep typing angle, then this likely won’t be enough for you.

The power switch is located on the top edge of the keyboard and hidden from view, meaning I had to feel for it every time I wanted to turn the K950 on or off. There’s a small LED in the top-right corner to indicate battery level, which flicks on momentarily when you power up the K950 – otherwise, it stays off.

There’s no backlighting for the keys, which is a shame, but does at least save on battery power. The only lights available are one on Caps Lock and three on the easy switching keys, which again only light momentarily when connecting to devices, or blink rapidly when in pairing mode.

Another small gripe I had with the K950 is the lack of LED indication for the FN lock. If you have the optional Options Plus software installed, it will display an on-screen prompt, but only when the lock is toggled. This meant I had no way of knowing if I had it activated or not without having to toggle it again. This is a small point, but one that, if you plan on using this keyboard to streamline your productivity as much as possible, may become a real thorn in your side over time.

Another notable absence is the lack of a rechargeable battery and ports. Instead, the K950 runs on two AAA batteries. Some may consider this to be an advantage, as it keeps costs down. However, it does mean that you’ll need to change the batteries once flat, and you won’t be able to charge and continue typing, as you can on keyboards with inbuilt batteries.

Design score: 3.5 / 5

Hands typing on the Logitech Signature Slim K950 — (Image credit: Future)

Logitech Signature Slim K950 review: Performance

Satisfying typing experience
Nice hotkey selection
Options Plus software is great

Typing on the K950 felt great to me. The keys are clacky and light, but they are also slightly dampened when you press a little firmer, making them suitable for both soft and hard typers alike. Their profile is low, so those who prefer typing on laptops will be right at home here, although the spacing between them is generally bigger compared to most laptop keyboards in my experience – something I personally consider a positive.

Logitech claims that this is a quiet keyboard to type with, but in my experience, I don’t think it’s necessarily quieter than other keyboards in its class. The plastic keys generate a higher-pitched sound, which isn’t exactly loud, but I wouldn’t say they’re dampened enough to eliminate most of the impact; they’re just ‘quiet’ compared to the best mechanical keyboards.

The easy-switching functionality between three devices worked well in my tests, whether it was between macOS, Windows, or Chromebook laptops, or whether they were connected via Bluetooth or the included Logi Bolt USB wireless receiver. I did encounter a hiccup on one occasion, however, when after switching between macOS and Windows devices the hotkeys stopped working on the latter machine. A quick on/off restart of the keyboard fixed the problem, but it’s worth mentioning.

The hotkeys along the top row feature a good selection of productivity-enhancing shortcuts, including window switching, search, mute mic, as well as keys for opening the calculator app, screenshot tool, and a dictation package you have installed. There’s even an emoji menu shortcut – handy for workplace chats.

They can all be customized in the Options Plus software, which is free to download and provides plenty of additional features and functions for the K950. It displays the battery life as a percentage, and has a support menu where you can rate your experience with the app or inform Logitech of any connectivity issues you might be experiencing.

I did experience a few minor glitches with the software. It crashed on first launch after I installed it on Windows 11, but a relaunch fixed the problem. And every time I put my device to sleep, on both Windows and macOS machines, the application would close by itself.

Options Plus also launches in a window which isn’t full size, and it can’t be adjusted, which could be an issue for those who like to have their windows larger for the sake of clarity.

The hotkeys – which occupy the function and navigation keys – can be customized in the software, allowing you to choose what shortcuts they activate from a predefined list. These include simple actions, such as putting your device to sleep, as well as the ability to record keyboard shortcuts. These can be assigned globally or on an app-by-app basis, effectively letting you create profiles for every app you have installed on your device.

You can also record macros via Logitech’s Smart Actions, which again can be assigned to any of the hotkeys. These allow you to create a series of automated actions to perform certain tasks, including opening apps and recording keystrokes. Anyone who has used Apple's Shortcuts app will be in familiar territory here, as it looks and works very similarly.

Logitech has 30 templates to choose from to meet the needs of various users. There are those made for productivity and leisure, and those for developers and designers. There are also others specific to meetings and for using popular AI tools.

Although some of the templates worked well, others that I tested didn’t. For instance, one template is meant to use ChatGPT to reply to an email, by copying text you’ve selected, opening ChatGPT in Chrome, and asking it to draft a reply based on the copied text. The problem I found is that it failed to type in ChatGPT’s prompt box, as it wasn’t automatically selected after opening the page. Since Smart Actions are essentially macros, they can’t account for subtleties such as a dialog box not being selected in a home page, for instance.

Speaking of ChatGPT, one of the new headline features of the Options Plus software is the AI prompt builder. When assigned to a hotkey of your choice, this displays a small window that connects you to ChatGPT, with a selection of ready-made prompt templates (which Logitech calls “recipes”) to query it. These default recipes include drafting emails and rephrasing text. In order to make it work, you need a user account with OpenAI.

You can also create your own recipes, which involves writing a prompt and choosing two parameters from a possible four that modify the output. The four available are: word length, tone, complexity and style.

Your mileage may vary with this feature, depending on how much you employ the AI tool in the course of your work, but I found the integration to be responsive, and it functioned well for the most part, aside from a few small annoyances.

When submitting a prompt, you can’t go back to submit another via the recipes list without first closing and reopening the prompt builder menu (if you’d rather not use ChatGPT without going through the prompt builder window, then you can choose to open a window that takes you straight to the main ChatGPT prompt page instead). The prompt window remains on top of all other windows you have open, too, even when not selected.

Performance score: 4.5 / 5

Logitech Signature Slim K950 battery compartment — (Image credit: Future)

Should you buy the Logitech Signature Slim K950?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Logitech Signature Slim K950 review: Also consider

How I tested the Logitech Signature Slim K950

I tested the Signature Slim K950 on Windows, macOS and Chromebook devices for around two weeks. I used it for work, leisure and general productivity, both in the office and at home.

I tried out all the functions and features it had to offer, including the hotkeys and the customization options in the Options Plus software, to see how well it performed on these fronts.

Read TechRadar's reviews guarantee
First reviewed: May 2024

Microsoft Surface Pro: giving the iPad Pro a serious challenge for the first time

10:30 am |

Author: admin | Category: Computers Computing Gadgets Laptops | Tags: Microsoft Surface Pro | Comments: Off

I've been wondering why Apple released its M4 chip in its new iPad Pro earlier this month when it hadn't even announced its M3 Ultra chip, but after attending Microsoft's Copilot+ PC Showcase and playing around with the new Microsoft Surface Pro, it makes a lot more sense.

The Surface Pro is a gorgeous device that can function as both a laptop and a tablet, easily putting it in the running as the best 2-in-1 laptop on the market, and now that it's packing a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite SoC, Microsoft might very well have a device that can take on the iPad Pro in a very real way.

Like the Microsoft Surface Laptop, the Surface Pro runs on an Arm-based processor which looks to be very similar to the Apple M-series of chips, so it's entirely possible that we'll get Apple M-series performance out of these too.

Since Windows wasn't originally built with Arm in mind, and architectural differences translated into poor performance for 'Windows on Arm' in the past, Windows on Arm devices in the past weren’t great - so could this new generation finally change that?

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The Microsoft Surface Pro in tablet mode — (Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

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The Microsoft Surface Pro with the keyboard cover closed — (Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

After my time with the Surface Pro, these problems look like they've been dramatically improved, though it's too soon to say whether they've been properly fixed until I get one in hand for independent benchmarking.

However, with that caveat out of the way, the difference between the new Surface Pro and previous Windows on Arm devices is night and day, which puts the Surface Pro in a very competitive position vis-a-vis the newly released iPad Pro with M4 chip.

For one, the Surface Pro uses a fully-functioning Windows 11 operating system, unlike the iPad Pro, which uses iPadOS, a beefier version of Apple's mobile operating system for its iPhone, but not nearly as capable as macOS. This alone is going to make the Surface Pro a much more compelling device for those who need the robustness of a PC operating system.

The Surface Pro, which is available for preorder now, comes in two versions, one with an OLED display and one without.

There's wiggle room here to configure your RAM and Storage capacities, but just be wary that the price quickly scales up right alongside.

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The Microsoft Surface Pro — (Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

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The Microsoft Surface Pro in Dune colorway — (Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

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The Microsoft Surface Pro in black colorway — (Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

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The Microsoft Surface Pro on a table — (Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

There are also four colorways: Black, Platinum, Dune, and my personal favorite, Sapphire. The Surface Pro is very lightweight and is easy to manage, and it has two USB-C ports.

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A composite image of the top and bottom sides of the Surface Pro — (Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

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A composite image of the long sides of the Surface Pro — (Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

The keyboard docking pins on the tablet's side also take both the new Surface Pro Flex keyboard as well as previous Surface keyboards so if you already have one, you don't necessarily need to upgrade.

There's also the new Slim Pen, which sits in a trough above the key deck, which can be a bit of a pain to dig out, but it's not insurmountable. There are also a few new accessibility features built into the new Flex Keyboard like haptics and better contrasting keycaps.

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The Microsoft Surface Pro Smart Pen docked in the Flex Keyboard — (Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

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The Microsoft Surface Pro Smart Pen — (Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

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The Microsoft Surface Pro with the keyboard cover and smart pen detached — (Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

I wasn't able to do too much performance testing with the Surface Pro, so it's too soon to assess how well Microsoft has done with improving the compatibility and performance of Windows on Arm, but all signs seem to be pointing in the right direction on this front.

I haven't tested the battery life either, but I absolutely believe the claimed battery life of 14 hours, which is very much in line with what an Arm chip is capable of, even with an OLED display, and the LCD version could very well get even longer battery life.

All of that remains to be seen once we get a production unit in hand to put it through more rigorous testing, so stay tuned.

Microsoft Surface Pro: Price & Availability

The new AI-powered Surface Laptop and Surface Pro tablet — (Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

Pre-orders for the Microsoft Surface Pro are live in the US, UK, and Australia, with deliveries starting on June 18, 2024.

Where to pre-order

US Surface Pro pre-orders
UK Surface Pro pre-orders
Australia Surface Pro pre-orders

The Surface Pro with LCD display, Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus, 16GB LPDDR5 RAM, and 256GB PCIe SSD storage. Upgrading to 512GB storage will bring that price up to $1,199.

The base OLED model of the Surface Pro will cost you $1,499.99/£1,549/AU$2,699, and has the more powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite SoC, 16GB LPDDR5 RAM, and 512GB PCIe SSD, but it can be upgraded up to 32GB RAM and 1TB PCIe SSD storage as well.

Microsoft Surface Pro: Early verdict

In the end, how well the Microsoft Surface Pro performs will be the biggest determination of whether this device is worth all of the hype around it, but from what I've seen in my limited time with it, everyone from creatives to office professionals may find a lot to love about it.

If the Qualcomm Snapdragon X chips live up to their promise and Microsoft is able to successfully translate x86 apps through its new Prism emulation layer, the versatility, compatibility, and style of the Surface Pro will absolutely give Apple iPad users a reason to be envious for a change.

Microsoft Surface Laptop: ‘a sea change is in the air’

2:02 pm | May 22, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Computers Computing Gadgets Laptops | Tags: Microsoft Surface Laptop | Comments: Off

The Microsoft Surface Laptop that was shown off at the Microsoft Copilot+ PC Showcase this week might be one of the most important devices of the decade, possibly even more important than the initial M1-powered Apple MacBook Air that launched back in 2020.

That MacBook Air model, which I've long argued is still the best laptop for most people even though it's now nearly four years old, kicked off something of a revolution in interest in bringing Arm processors to PCs. Arm chips, long a staple of mobile devices thanks to their incredible energy efficiency, just haven't been powerful enough for a full laptop or desktop OS.

Nobody knows this better than Microsoft, which has worked to develop Windows-on-Arm into a viable product and has largely struggled to make it competitive even with its more restrictive Windows S-Mode devices, much less a current-gen MacBook running Apple Silicon.

Now, however, Microsoft has co-developed the new Qualcomm Snapdragon X SoC specifically to be the Windows PC's answer to Apple's M-series and finally bring the best Windows laptops up to parity with the best MacBooks in terms of battery life, compatibility, and performance — all while retaining everything that makes Windows the most popular PC operating system in the world.

All of that is going to come to a head in the Microsoft Surface Laptop. This is Microsoft's play at dethroning the MacBook Air — and even the MacBook Pro 14-inch with Apple M3 or M3 Pro — and there are a lot of reasons why it just might succeed. If it does, this will have ramifications that extend for many years and generations of laptops to come.

Microsoft Surface Laptop: Price & availability

The Microsoft Surface Laptop is available for pre-order now, with deliveries starting on June 18, 2024. The starting price for the 13.8-inch model is $999.99/£1,049.99/AU$1,899, which will get you a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus processor with 16GB RAM and 256GB SSD storage. The 15-inch model starts at $1,299.99 and comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite processor, 16GB RAM and 256GB SSD.

There are a number of configuration options available, but the 13.8-inch model maxes out at a Snapdragon X Elite processor, 64GB RAM, and 1TB SSD storage for $2,399.99/£2,049, while the 13.8-inch model maxes out in Australia at 32GB RAM and 1TB SSD for AU$3,399.

The 15-inch model maxes out at 64GB and 1TB in the US for $2,499.99, and maxes out in the UK and Australia at 32GB RAM and 1TB SSD for £2,149/AU$3,699.

This makes it cheaper at the entry-level than the MacBook Air 13-inch with M3, and matches the starting price of the MacBook Air 15-inch. At max spec, the new Surface Laptop will either beat or roughly match the price of the highest-end MacBook Air.

Microsoft Surface Laptop: Design

A Microsoft Surface Laptop being shown at Microsoft's Copilot Plus PC Showcase — (Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

Many of the best Ultrabooks on the market have tried in various ways to copy the refined design of the MacBook Air with varying degrees of success. Having recently spent several weeks benchmarking the most recent MacBook models like the MacBook Air 13-inch, MacBook Air 15-inch, and MacBook Pro 14-inch, I think I've stared at that laptop more than just about any other device.

So it's arresting to look at the new Surface Laptop because even though the similarities are striking enough, so are the differences. For one, it was the best-looking laptop in Microsoft's entire showcase. Secondly, laying eyes on the Sapphire colorway of the 13.8-inch Surface Laptop (and Surface Pro, for that matter) exposes just how badly Apple fumbled the bag with the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro in recent years.

Apple's insistence on sticking with its painfully dull Silver and Space Gray after nearly a decade, while desaturating its Rose Gold into 'Starlight' and introducing an off-black 'Midnight' that is really just Space Gray with the brightness slider pushed deep into the darker side sent me into a hot take tailspin a couple of years back from which I haven't recovered. The 13.8-inch Surface Laptop looks like everything the current MacBook Air design should have been, but isn't.

Besides the Sapphire colorway, you can opt for other colors too, including Dune, Platinum, and Black. The latter two are fairly bog-standard for Windows laptops these days (and are the only two color options for the 15-inch Surface Laptop model, unfortunately). However, the Dune colorway offers a warm, peachy aesthetic to the device that is also attractive and different, while not being as attention-grabbing as the Sapphire is.

It's not all about the color though.

The touchscreen display, which you can get in either 13.8-inches or 15-inches, is gorgeous to look at, offering vibrant colors thanks to its wide sRGB color coverage. How much of the sRGB gamut it captures won't be clear until we fully test the Surface Laptop, so we'll just have to wait until we can get our hands on it to see for ourselves.

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A Microsoft Surface Laptop at Microsoft's Copilot Plus PC event — (Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

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In terms of ports, this thin-and-light laptop does a reasonable enough job offering two USB 4 Type-C ports with power and display out for up to three monitors running at 4K, a USB 3.1 Type-A port for legacy devices, a headphone jack, and if you opt for the 15-inch Surface laptop, you'll also get a microSD card slot.

As far as portability goes, the 13.8-inch Surface Laptop clocks in at just under 3 lbs (1.4kg) thanks to its anodized aluminum chassis, and is just under a foot long lengthwise, and 0.69-inches tall at its widest point along the back of the laptop. The 15-inch model is slightly heavier, longer, and taller at 3.67 lbs (1.66kg), 12.96-inches (329mm) in length, and 0.72-inches tall at its thickest point.

Opening it up, the keyboard is very similar to a MacBook's, but not in a bad way. It was very comfortable to type on, and the trackpad proved snappy and responsive.

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The webcam is Full HD, though it lacks a physical privacy shutter. This might be the one knock I have on this laptop's design, to be honest. This isn't a small issue: it's now 2024, and this should be a standard feature on any laptop at this point. Still, the image quality is quite good.

It will be very interesting to put the Surface Laptop and the MacBook Air together, as they could be in some stores, to see how the two match up head-to-head.

Microsoft Surface Laptop: Specs

Microsoft Surface Laptop: Performance

There's only so much I can say about the performance of the Surface Laptop, since I wasn't allowed to run any benchmarks or install any apps on the device. However, I did get to play around where I could and the system felt very responsive in a way previous Windows on Arm notebooks didn't.

I also got to try my hand with Microsoft Paint's Cocreator tool to sketch out an image in combination with text prompting. The iterative steps are carried out remarkably swiftly for a laptop without a dedicated GPU, and the output wasn't terrible.

Those who might be looking to illustrate documents or do some graphic design mock-ups will definitely find this feature useful. While I wasn't able to test any of this myself, the claimed 45 trillion operations per second (TOPS) performance of the Hexagon NPU is about 20% faster on paper than the brand-new Apple M4 chip, and 2.5x faster than the Apple M3 Max's NPU.

From what little I could glean from the available demos, on-device AI workloads do feel noticeably faster, but I won't be able to say for sure until we have the Surface Laptop in hand so we can test it.

One thing that did catch my attention was Recall, Copilot's new ability to create a history of your on-device use. When I was fussing around with Cocreator in Paint to try and produce a space illustration with the text prompt "black hole sucking in a space station in a nebula" — along with a very crude sketch — Cocreator did an admirable job and came pretty close to what I was imagining (though it took its own liberties as well).

I clicked on the new Recall icon on the Windows 11 taskbar, which opens up a notification-like window on the taskbar that brings you right into Microsoft's latest tool to backtrack through your computing history. Here you can figure out what you did, what you saw, or what someone sent you, much like a web browser's history tracks the websites you visit for later revisiting if need be.

When I clicked that icon it brought up the Recall panel with the sketch I had put into Paint earlier in the afternoon. Since these were all fresh devices with clean installs, there wasn't a whole lot of other material in Recall just then, but as you use your PC, it'll fill up with snapshots of what you've done in the past, letting you go back through much like your browser history does now, just on a much grander scale.

Now I'm an AI-skeptic for the most part, in that I feel that many of the current AI tools and systems are deeply problematic and unethical, but I actually don't have a problem with Recall.

Yes, it's keeping track of everything you're doing, but it is on-device, and in a lot of ways it's a natural extension of your existing web history, File Explorer history, or any other number of similar tools. Once people get used to this feature, I expect that it will get some very heavy use, and I don't see that this will be as problematic as a lot of critics are making it out to be.

Microsoft Surface Laptop: Early verdict

I haven't been this excited about a laptop in a long time. No one was able to tell me anything about the performance of Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Plus or X Elite chips, and trust me, I asked. I asked them all. But one Microsoft representative at the showcase told me that they aren't just confident in the performance of these chips, they encouraged me to throw everything I had at them to see for myself.

I've heard PR reps say stuff like this before, and it usually comes with a level of bravado that is rather transparent. Everyone says that, even if we both know that it's bluster. That's not the vibe I got when they talked about the Surface Laptop. Not at all. It was something of a challenge or a dare, to me, to take my best shot at proving that the Surface Laptop wasn't as good or better than Apple's M3 or even M4.

The Surface Laptop is more stylish and interesting than anything Apple is doing right now beyond the iMac. It's as comfortable to use as a MacBook, it's as lightweight and portable, too, and it has industry-leading accessibility features built into it from the ground up in ways that Apple has just flat-out ignored in its hardware.

I won't know for many weeks whether Microsoft has managed to pull off all this, and so much will ride on whether it has genuinely fixed all of the issues with Windows on Arm that have prevented it from keeping pace with Apple these past four years, so it's too soon to pass judgment.

But when I was walking out of the press announcement and towards the showcase area on Monday, I passed two Microsoft employees hugging in celebration over this reveal, with one emotionally telling the other that "we finally got here." I keep thinking about that exchange I overheard, and I don't know yet where 'here' is, but I can't shake the feeling that a sea change is in the air.

Linksys Velop Pro 7: A high-speed Wi-Fi 7 router at a more competitive price

4:15 pm | May 15, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Computers Computing Computing Components Gadgets Servers & Network Devices | Comments: Off

Linksys Velop Pro 7: One-Minute Review

Linksys originally announced the new Wi-Fi 7 version of its Velop Pro mesh system back in October 2023, but the final technical details of the Wi-Fi 7 standard weren’t actually ironed out until the official announcement at CES earlier this year.

So, like several other Wi-Fi 7 products, it’s taken a little while for the Velop Pro 7 router to actually go on sale. It’s a welcome arrival, though, as while the Velop Pro 7 isn’t exactly cheap, it’s considerably less expensive than some of the other Wi-Fi 7 mesh systems and routers that we’ve seen so far - ushering in some hope that Wi-Fi 7 is starting to become a little more affordable for ordinary home users.

It’s not a top-of-the-range Wi-Fi 7 system, mind, offering tri-band Wi-Fi with a top speed of just over 10Gbps. That’s actually fairly mid-range for the blazing fast Wi-Fi 7 standard, but it’s still more than fast enough to cope with most domestic broadband services and tasks such as online gaming or streaming 4K video.

Wi-Fi 7 is also backward-compatible with older PCs and mobile devices that use Wi-Fi 5 or 6, so you don’t have to worry about compatibility problems if you decide to upgrade with a Wi-Fi 7 system such as the Velop Pro 7. And, as we’ve seen with previous Velop systems, you can buy either one, two or three Velop mesh routers to suit the size of your home.

Linksys Velop Pro 7: Price And Availability

How much does it cost? $699.99 / £749.99 (around AU$1,060)
When is it available? Now
Where can you get it? Available in the US and UK

Each Velop router unit can cover an area of around 3,000 square feet, so people in smaller homes will probably find that a single router meets their needs perfectly well for a price of £399.99 / $349.99 (around AU$530).

However, the two-piece system that we tested costs £749.99 / $699.99 (around AU$1060), and there’s a three-device option also available for £999.99 / $899.9 (around AU$1,365). The Velop Pro 7 is currently available in the US and UK, although – as we’ve seen with other Wi-Fi 7 products – poor old Australia seems to be a bit of a Wi-Fi deadspot, having only recently caught up with last-gen Wi-Fi 6E.

That’s still fairly expensive, of course, but the Velop Pro 7 is only around half the price of rival Wi-Fi 7 mesh systems such as Netgear’s extravagantly expensive Orbi 970, which costs a hefty £1,499.99 / $1,699.99 (around AU$2,600) for a similar two-piece system - and a whopping £2,199.99 / $2,299.99 (around AU$3,475) for a three-piece system.

Value: 4 / 5

Linksys Velop Pro 7: Design

Slim, compact design
Lots of Ethernet ports
Available with one, two or three routers

The design of the Velop Pro 7 will be familiar from previous Velop models, with each router consisting of a slim white tower, topped off with the Velop’s trademark tapered ‘teardrop’ shape on the top panel.

The router devices are slim and light enough to fit easily onto a shelf or table – although the height of each unit, at 221mm, means they’ll need a bit of headroom if you want to place them on a bookshelf or something similar.

Linksys Velop Pro 7: Specifications

Wi-Fi: Tri-band Wi-Fi 7 (2.4GHz/5.0GHz/6.0GHz)
Wi-Fi Speed: 10.7Gbps
Ports (per router): 1 x 2.5Gb Ethernet (WAN), 4 x Gigabit Ethernet (LAN)
Processor: Qualcomm 1.5GHz, quad-core
Memory: 1GB SDRAM
Storage: Unspecified
Dimensions: 221 x 95 x 95mm, 0.95kg / 2lbs

The Velop routers are identical, so you can connect one of them to your existing router to use your broadband connection, and then place the other router(s) further away to extend the mesh network right across your home or office.

But while the Velop Pro 7 routers look very similar to previous models there are some significant differences. The Velop Pro 6E that we reviewed recently only included two Gigabit Ethernet ports on each router, with one required for the connection to your existing router and only the second port available to provide a wired connection.

In contrast, the Velop Pro 7 routers all have five Ethernet ports – a 2.5G port for a high-speed Internet connection (WAN) and four Gigabit Ethernet ports to provide wired connections for devices such as a games console or laptop.

There are no USB ports, though, which would allow you to connect a hard drive or other storage device to your network, but that’s not likely to be a deal-breaker for most users.

It’s a little odd, though, that Linksys avoids any mention of the Velop’s speed on its website, preferring to simply state that Wi-Fi 7 is a lot faster than Wi-Fi 6 (gosh, really?). After a little digging, we found a reference to a speed of ‘over 10Gbps’ before eventually locating a datasheet that specified a speed of 10,680Mbps (or 10.68Gbps).

Design: 4 / 5

Linksys Velop Pro 7: Features

Ports of the Velop Pro 7 — (Image credit: Future)

Tri-band Wi-Fi 7
App feels a little unfinished
Parental controls are still in beta

As mentioned, the Velop Pro 7 provides tri-band Wi-Fi 7, using the 2.4GHz, 5.0GHz and 6.0GHz frequency bands, which will be more than fast enough to cope with most home and office broadband connections.

Getting started is fairly straightforward, although the process is a little cumbersome at times. There’s a QR code printed on the base of each router, but this didn’t allow us to automatically connect to the Velop network, as is the case with many rival mesh systems.

Instead, we had to write down the network name and password that were printed on the base of the router and enter these by hand, before subsequently changing the network details and creating a new name and password of our choosing.

You also have to start the setup process with the two Velop routers placed close to each other while you create your new network, and then move the second router – referred to as a ‘node’ - to another location once that’s done. And, oddly, the app told us several times that we had no internet connection - even though we were already streaming the BBC News channel on an iPad using the Velop network.

The app continues to be something of a mixed bag later on, as well. It creates a single network that combines the three frequency bands, which does keep things simple for new users - but more advanced users might prefer to have greater control over the network settings.

The app does include features such as a guest network, and the option to create a schedule to control your children’s internet access. However, the parental controls are a work in progress, with the app’s ‘Safe Browsing’ mode still being labeled as ‘beta’. This provides content filters that can block unsuitable material, although this feature isn’t clearly explained in the app. Furthermore, at present it seems to block content for all devices on your network, rather than allowing you to create different profiles and settings for children of different ages.

Features: 3.5 / 5

Linksys Velop Pro 7: Performance

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Performance in action — (Image credit: Future)

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Velop Pro 7 performance — (Image credit: Future)

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Linksys Velop Pro 7 — (Image credit: Future)

Top speed of 10.68Gbps
Good performance and range
Zaps through walls and other barriers

The Linksys app may be a little rough around the edges, but we didn’t have any complaints about the performance of the Velop Pro 7.

Our aging office router can’t even handle the full 150Mbps provided by our broadband connection, and even devices that are in the same room rarely get more than 100Mbps for either Steam downloads or the Ookla speed test. We also have a room at the back of the building that our office router can barely reach at all, forcing us to rely on Powerline adaptors to provide a wired connection for our office computers in that room.

Therefore, we set up the Velop Pro 7 with the first Velop unit connected to our normal office router, and the second Velop ‘node’ placed in a hallway just adjacent to that tricky Wi-Fi deadspot in the back office.

Linksys Velop Pro 7 benchmarks

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

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

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

20GB Steam Download - Single merged network

Within 5ft, no obstructions: 150Mbps

Within 30ft, three partition walls: 150Mbps

Unsurprisingly, the Velop easily hit 150Mbps for both Steam downloads and the Ookla speed test when connecting to devices in the same room. And, more importantly, the Velop’s far-reaching network didn’t bat an eyelid as we picked up our laptop and wandered along the corridor to that back office, continuing to maintain a speed of 150Mbps the whole time.

Performance: 5 / 5

Should You Buy The Velop Pro 7?

Linksys Velop Pro 7 lifestyle — (Image credit: Linksys)

Buy the Linksys Velop Pro 7 if...

You’re An Early Adopter
It’s still early days for this new technology, but PCs, laptops and mobile devices that support Wi-Fi 7 are already starting to appear, so upgrading to a Wi-Fi 7 router or mesh system is a good way of future-proofing your home or office network.

You Have A Large Home
You can buy a single Velop Pro 7 router on its own, but it’s really intended as a mesh system that uses two or more routers to cover a wider area, up to 6,000 square feet or more.

Don’t buy it if...

You’re On A Budget
The Velop Pro 7 is one of the most affordable Wi-Fi 7 systems we’ve seen, but it’s still pretty expensive. Most domestic broadband services just don’t need the sheer speed of Wi-Fi 7, so most of us can stick with more affordable routers that use Wi-Fi 6 or 6E.

You Only Have A Couple Of Bedrooms
Mesh systems like this are very much designed for larger homes and offices. If you only have a small family home, or share an apartment with friends, then a single, conventional router will be all you really need.

Velop Pro 7: Scorecard

Velop Pro 7: Also Consider

First reviewed: May 2024

Mozilla Monitor Plus data removal service review

7:19 pm | May 14, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Computers Computing Gadgets Software | Comments: Off

Mozilla Monitor Plus, and its Mozilla Monitor sibling, are two of the best data removal services currently available in 2024 to keep your data safe across the web.

In the age of data brokers and social media, making sure that the wrong people can't access sensitive, personal data is really important, and a whole industry has sprung up to tackle this very problem.

Mozilla makes the ever-popular Firefox browser, one of the best web browsers out there right now, so you know you can trust them, especially as a lot of the recent feature releases for Firefox have been about avoiding cookie tracking and other invasive ad delivery methods.

Sign up to Mozilla Monitor

In terms of Mozilla Monitor, the main goals are to help users see whether their data has become ensnared in a data breach and to then fix any exposures that occur. According to Mozilla, over 10 million people use the service in 237 countries.

Mozilla Monitor Plus, which is sadly only available in the US, takes things further by offering the ability to remove data from data brokers for $8.99 per month (around $108 per year), as part of the overall Mozilla suite of apps.

Let's dive into our Mozilla Monitor Plus review to find the best data removal services.

Mozilla Monitor Plus: Pricing and plans

As mentioned above, Mozilla offers the most basic version of the service, Mozilla Monitor, for free to anyone: just access the website, type in your email, and Mozilla will perform a free scan. Users can also then sign up for breach alerts.

Mozilla Monitor Plus costs $8.99 per month, available only in the US, and performs the same scanning function at the start and then at monthly intervals, to help keep your data safe from breaches and data brokers.

The company also offers other services, like the Mozilla VPN, which costs $4.99 per month and compares favourably to the best VPNs right now. You can read our Mozilla VPN review, too.

On top of the VPN, Mozilla Plus is just one of Mozilla's nine services, meaning you can be assured that Plus isn't going anywhere in a hurry. The others include email, calendar, and contact app Thunderbird and online shopping tool Fakespot.

Best web browser of 2024

Mozilla Monitor Plus: Features

One of the best places to start with Monitor Plus is by watching Mozilla's helpful YouTube video showing the tool's various features and capabilities.

Once the initial (and free) scan has been completed, covering up to 190 data brokers, Mozilla shows you how often your email address, phone number, physical address, the names of family members, and more is with each broker, even breaking that down by specific brokers.

Usefully, you can view your data on each specific website, including the personal profile these companies have built. It's a somewhat spooky process, so be warned.

From here, Monitor Plus gives users the option of removing the data automatically or removing the data manually, both of which then bring up a specific guide on the next steps for online peace of mind.

Mozilla gives a specific timeframe for how long each data removal step takes (such as four minutes remaining per site) and the ability to change specific settings to tailor the removal to your needs. Monitor Plus also offers some helpful tips on email security, including showing in which data breaches your email has ended up.

After all of these steps, Mozilla will then keep your updated via a dashboard that displays different information, including which data removals have been completed (and whether they were manual or automatic) and the details of removals at each data broker.

Best data recovery software of 2024

Mozilla Monitor Plus: Working with Mozilla

One of the big things that Monitor and Monitor Plus have going for them is being within the overall Firefox ecosystem, meaning users who fully buy into Mozilla's suite can access a reliable password manager alongside the aforementioned products.

While many people are big fans of the Apple ecosystem, Mozilla offers something specifically focused on privacy, which is a rare commodity in the online world. Features like Firefox Focus, Firefox Relay, and Mozilla VPN are all very handy.

Whether this integration matters depends on your stance on privacy and how locked into other ecosystems you are – Google, with Gmail, Chrome, and Android, is a very powerful and attractive option on the other side.

But it's definitely worth mentioning, and Mozilla being involved in so many privacy-first initiatives is a reason to trust the company and, as such, trust Monitor Plus.

Best broadband deals for May 2024

Mozilla Monitor Plus: Support

Mozilla offers a comprehensive support website that covers pretty much every feature for Monitor and Monitor Plus, from getting started to how monitoring works to specific accounts information.

More broadly, Mozilla also offers a forum for asking questions to other users and to company employees, to help with those annoying, specific problems.

Overall, the level of support is fine, especially as the tool itself is relatively straight forward and explains a lot of the features from within its dashboard and user interface.

Best open source software of 2024

Mozilla Monitor Plus: The competition

Mozilla Monitor Plus has a range of competitors in the space, and we recommend checking out each one to make sure that your specific needs are being met. Of course, many of them offer the same basic features of data broker removal, but some extend beyond that and cover social media and other web spaces.

One of the stand out options is DeleteMe, one of the longest running data removal services in the game having been launched in 2011. Some of the more advanced DeleteMe plans cover up to 750 data brokers – and even more on request – making it a very well-featured offering.

We also recommend checking out the data removal services from the likes of Kanary, PrivacyBee, IDX, Aura, and Surfshark Incogni.

The best cheap VPN service in 2024

Mozilla Monitor Plus: Final verdict

Mozilla is a respected and long-standing brand, and one with clear associations with the preservation of online privacy and standing up to its larger and more data hungry rivals, who shall remain nameless.

While there are a plethora of data removal services out there right now, Mozilla Monitor and Monitor Plus are more than capable and $8.99 per month is a pretty reasonable fee all things considered.

We'd like to see the data broker coverage extended beyond the 150 that Monitor currently can remove from, but that's a small gripe when many of the top data brokers are represented in those ranks, and the process is largely autonomous.

If you're already in the Mozilla ecosystem, or are looking for alternatives to rivals like Google and Apple, then Mozilla Monitor Plus is the ideal data removal service, and make sure to get Mozilla VPN too for extra secure browsing across the web.

How we test, review and rate on TechRadar

Alienware Pro Wireless gaming mouse review: a right-handed pro gamer’s dream

6:00 pm | May 12, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Computers Computing Gadgets Peripherals & Accessories | Comments: Off

Alienware Pro Wireless gaming mouse: Two-minute review

Along with the gaming keyboard comes the Alienware Pro Wireless gaming mouse, which has been specially developed and tested with professional gamers in mind to make it one of the best gaming mice available – and possibly one of the best mice in general. It's a massive upgrade from the Alienware AW720M with reduced weight, better feet, and improved specs.

The DPI is still at 26,000, mainly because there is little point in increasing such an absurdly high spec. However, it features both 4KHz wireless and 8KHz wired polling rates, 0.25ms and 0.125ms response time, respectively, which is a significant leap over the 1KHz polling rate (1ms response time) of the Alienware AW720M.

The PFTE feet are additive-free and attract far less debris while moving much smoother. It still retains the previous model's ability to move over a wide variety of surfaces, which is something plenty of other gaming mice can't achieve.

An odd change is the removal of the 3D-sculpted thumb grips from the AW720M. With both sides being completely smooth now, the Alienware Pro mouse is much more susceptible to sweat, which makes it slippery during intense gameplay or if your hands sweat easily. Another odd change is the removal of the magnetic charging adapter, which was a much simpler option for recharging your mouse.

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Alienware Pro Wireless gaming mouse — (Image credit: Future)

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It features magnetic-force keyplates that prevent the keys from sticking, which is absolutely vital for pro gamers who rely on button accuracy and performance during intense competition. Thanks to its much-improved weight, now just under 0.13 pounds, combined with higher polling rates, the mouse responds much faster and with much less effort required to move it.

There is one glaring downgrade between the Alienware AW720M and the Pro Wireless, though. The latter lacks buttons on the right side, which means the Pro Wireless is no longer ambidextrous, excluding an entire market of people who would be able to use it.

Ambidextrous mice are already difficult enough to find, and the AW720M was an excellent option. But the Pro Wireless removes that option, adding plenty of quality-of-life improvements but essentially gatekeeping them from left-handed gamers. This also has the drawback of removing buttons that the Pro Wireless sorely needed.

As for battery life, according to Dell, it's 32 hours at 4KHz polling or 120 hours at 1KHz polling. That is impressive, but it's a downgrade from the AW720M's 140 hours at 1KHz polling. And like the previous mouse, this one has an indicator that signals when the battery is low. The AW720M featured an Alienware logo on the front, but, the Pro Wireless moves it onto the side as a tiny light. Moving it was a good call, as your hand can no longer cover it, but the light is so small it's difficult to notice.

Alienware Pro Wireless gaming mouse: Price & availability

How much does it cost? $149.99 / £149.99 including VAT / AU$248.60
When is it available? Available now
Where can you get it? Available in the US, UK, and Australia

The Alienware Pro Wireless gaming mouse is very expensive, costing a whopping $149.99 / £149.99 including VAT / AU$248.60. This is a price increase of at least $20 from the Alienware AW720M - understandable considering the work developing it and all the new features it comes with. And the fact that this is a premium gaming mouse for professional gamers.

However, the pricing does make other mice more appealing, like the Razer Deathadder V3 Pro or MSI Clutch GM51. The former is $149 (around £149 / AU$279), and the latter is $99.99 (around £83 / AU$148), both much cheaper while offering solid gaming performance in their own right. The Deathadder V3 Pro in particular is easily one of the best gaming mice on the market.

The Alienware Pro Wireless, like most Dell products, has excellent availability. It's available in the US, UK, and Australia, as well as several other regions.

Alienware Pro Wireless gaming mouse: Specs

Should you buy the Alienware Pro Wireless gaming mouse?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

You're left-handed
Unfortunately, this mouse shed its two right buttons, making it completely inaccessible to left-handed gamers.

Alienware Pro Wireless gaming mouse: Also consider

How I tested the Alienware Pro Wireless gaming mouse

I spent about a week testing this mouse
I tested it for gaming and productivity work
I used it extensively in both a home and office environment

I tested the Alienware Pro Wireless gaming mouse both at home and in an office environment, seeing how well it functioned in gaming and productivity. Its gaming performance is especially important, so I used a wide variety of genres to see how reactive it is. I also carried it around in various bags to test its portability.

The Alienware Pro Wireless is a gaming mouse that's meant for extensive use over the years. I made sure to quality-test it to see if it held up to those standards while maintaining maximum comfort levels.

I've tested a wide range of mice, mainly gaming, and understand how to properly rate and test them out to ensure that they reach a certain level of quality.

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.

Alienware Pro Wireless gaming keyboard: Two-minute review

Alienware has released its Pro line of both gaming keyboards and mice, focusing on making it as appealing as possible to professional gamers. In fact, they were both tested by pro gamers Team Liquid to ensure just that. The Alienware Pro gaming keyboard truly feels like a product made for such a demographic, thanks to its much smaller yet sturdier body and high-quality switches.

Like many of Alienware's other accessories and PCs, the Pro gaming keyboard comes in two colors: Dark Side of the Moon and Lunar Light. While the black keyboard is surprisingly beautiful thanks to the RGB lighting, the standard is the white model that not only stands out aesthetically but is truly enhanced by the LED lighting. The Alienware Command Center software is easily accessible and can be used to customize the color effects and most other keyboard settings.

Unlike other Alienware keyboards, which tend to be lighter, this one is much heavier and sturdier, weighing nearly two pounds. It's shocking, considering it's made with 47% post-consumer recycled plastics. It also has a long silicone strip on the underside of the chassis, which prevents it from moving around. You really have to use significant force to do so, which is ideal for intense gaming sessions.

Due to its status as a professional gaming keyboard, I tested it out in a wide variety of genres, including first and third-person shooters, platformers, action, RPGs, and more. It's incredibly stable, the keys are responsive with a good travel distance, and the switches are easy to activate.

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closeup of Alienware Pro Wireless gaming keyboard keys — (Image credit: Future)

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back of Alienware Pro Wireless gaming keyboard — (Image credit: Future)

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Alienware Pro Wireless gaming keyboard — (Image credit: Future)

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closeup of Alienware Pro Wireless gaming keyboard — (Image credit: Future)

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One of the standout features of the Alienware Pro Wireless gaming keyboard is that it no longer features Cherry MX mechanical switches. Instead, Dell has developed its own switches specifically for this Alienware keyboard. The switches are hot-swappable 5-pin PCBA and are compatible with most other 3 and 5-pin switches - in case you want to switch them out for other brands.

The actuation force is only 40g, which is quite light and well-suited for hardcore and especially professional gaming, as it puts almost no strain on your fingers to press down on each key. The stem is also made of POM (Polyoxymethylene) material, meaning you avoid the often grating sound of keys rubbing against each other, adding to that extra light and almost floaty feeling when typing. Thanks to the sound-dampening silicone layers, the clean clicking sound of the switches is enhanced even further.

It's shocking how high-quality these switches are - Dell has truly knocked it out of the park. The efficiency of this TKL design is also a pleasant surprise as it manages to fit in media and arrow keys in a compact size.

The keyboard's connectivity is also great, with three ways to connect it: Bluetooth, 2.4GHz wireless, and USB Type-C wired. Having these options is incredibly important depending on your needs for the keyboards, with wired the best option for hardcore gaming with no latency, while wireless and Bluetooth are solely for portability.

Battery life is also pretty solid, with about three days of life using the RGB lighting and, according to Dell, up to 798 hours with lighting turned off on 2.4GHz wireless.

Alienware Pro Wireless gaming keyboard: Price & availability

How much does it cost? $199.99 / £190 including VAT / AU$328.90
When is it available? Available now
Where can you get it? Available in the US, UK, and Australia

The Alienware Pro Wireless gaming keyboard is incredibly expensive, costing a whopping $199.99 / £190 including VAT / AU$328.90. Of course, considering that this is a premium keyboard developed for professional gaming, the pricing makes sense. That said, this is not the keyboard to get if you don't need top-of-the-line quality and performance.

Compared to cheaper mechanical keyboards like the MSI GK50 Elite TKL starting at 64.99 (around £55/AU$100), there are other solid options for those who need it. There's also the Razer Huntsman V2 TKL, which will set you back $160 / £160 / AU$260. It's a great and slightly cheaper option as well if you're not in the market for keyboards tailor-made for professionals.

The Alienware Pro Wireless, like most Dell products, has excellent availability in the US, UK, Australia, and several other regions.

Alienware Pro Wireless gaming keyboard: Specs

Should you buy the Alienware Pro Wireless gaming keyboard?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

You need a more budget-minded keyboard
Bottomline, this keyboard is extremely expensive. If you need anything cheaper, it's best to wave goodbye and let it pass.

Alienware Pro Wireless gaming keyboard: Also consider

How I tested the Alienware Pro Wireless gaming keyboard

I spent about a week testing this keyboard
I tested it for gaming and productivity work
I used it extensively in both a home and office environment

I tested the Alienware Pro Wireless gaming keyboard in a home office environment, seeing how well it functioned in gaming and productivity. Its gaming performance is especially important, so I played a wide variety of genres to see how reactive it is. I also carried it around in various bags to test its portability.

The Alienware Pro Wireless is a gaming keyboard meant for extensive use over the years. I made sure to quality-test it to see if it held up to those standards while maintaining maximum comfort levels.

I've tested a wide range of keyboards, including mechanical and membrane ones, and understand how to properly rate and test them out to ensure that they reach a certain level of quality.

Corsair One i500: Two-minute review

The Corsair One i500 isn't necessarily the most powerful gaming PC out there, it's not very upgradeable, and in terms of style, it's the kind of product that will inspire some very strong opinions — including my own.

Its specs are such that it is an easy contender for the best gaming PC of 2024 just in terms of performance, and its price is absolutely in line with the kinds of gaming rigs I've seen running Core i9-14900K and RTX 4080 Super or RTX 4090 GPUs.

Starting at $3,599.99 / £3,499.99 (about $5,220), this isn't a cheap gaming PC, but for what you're getting in terms of specs, you'd normally be getting a standard mid-tower PC case, usually in black, with large RGB fans with a tempered glass side showing off even more RGB trim, and you'd still be paying nearly $3,500 or more for the privilege.

That is to say, most gaming PCs today lean so heavily on RGB to define their style, that 'style' isn't really even a factor when considering which one to buy. The cases might vary, they might have a wraparound glass panel to show off the insides more fully, but the fundamental design principle of 'show off the components', which are lit up like a carnival, remains the same no matter what PC you buy.

The Corsair One i500, meanwhile, doesn't even have Corsair iCue, the company's proprietary RGB control software. It does have RGB, namely in the two trim lines that flank the case's wooden front panel, but it's limited compared to other gaming PCs. Instead, the Corsair One i500 uses a wooden front panel and fabric side panels to define its aesthetic, along with the aluminum case underneath that comes in either black or silver.

Depending on the case color, you'll get a different wooden front panel (a walnut color for the black case and a pine color for the silver), and both cost the same, so you won't have to pay a premium for one over the other. The PC also comes with a headphone hanger attachment that can fit onto either side of the case, and there are more than enough ports for whatever peripherals you have.

More than anything, this PC reminds me of the Atari 2600 from my childhood, equipped as it was with a wooden panel along the top edge like everything else was in the early 1980s. That quickly gave way to hard black plastic in later models and soon consoles and later PCs left behind natural textures for futuristic flash and forms that persist up to the present. It's in this milieu that the Corsair One i500 feels like something dropped into the gaming PC market out of a flying Delorean. After so many years of RGB and aggressive gamer aesthetic, it's still shocking how something as simple and retro as a wood panel on the front can feel so refreshing.

It's not all positive, though. If there is anything that can be considered a negative with this PC, it's its lack of easy upgradability. The small form factor case is going to limit what you can fit in it, but the GPU AIO cooler also means that any GPU upgrades in the future are not going to be as simple as dropping in a new graphics card in a few years. You can more easily upgrade the SSD and RAM, however.

But this isn't really a gaming PC for builders or tinkerers. This is much more a gaming PC for those who want the best without messing with the cables and components, but who also want their new gaming PC to reflect their significant investment. In that, the Corsair One i500 is unmatched.

Corsair One i500: Price & availability

A Corsair One i500 on a desk — (Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

How much is it? Starting at $3,599.99 / £3,499.99 (about $5,220)
When is it available? Available May 6, 2024
Where can you get it? You can get it in the US and the UK at launch, with Australia availability in June 2024.

The Corsair One i500 is available in the US and UK now, starting at $3,599.99 and £3,499.99, respectively. It will be available in Australia in June, but official pricing hasn't been released for the APAC region yet.

Both configurations available at launch come with an Intel Core i9-1400K processor and 2TB NVMe storage, and the base configuration comes with an Nvidia RTX 4080 Super and 32GB DDR5 RAM, while the max configuration comes with an Nvidia RTX 4090 and 64GB DDR5 RAM for $4,699.99 / £4,699.99.

This is more expensive than something like the current Alienware Aurora R16, which maxes out at an Intel Core i9-14900KF, RTX 4090, 64GB DDR5 RAM, and 2TB PCIe NVMe storage for $4,049.99 / £3,919. In Australia, the Aurora R16 maxes out at AU$5,772.80 for an Intel Core i9-14900KF, an Nvidia RTX 4080 Super, 64GB DDR5 RAM, and 2TB storage.

Other gaming PCs like the Acer Predator Orion 7000 and HP Omen 40L will sell for roughly the same as the Aurora R16, so the Corsair One i500 is going to be more expensive than the competition, but its competition also features much of the same style as every other gaming PC you've seen in a Best Buy or Curry's for the past decade. Whether the Corsair One i500's style is worth the extra premium will be up to you, but after all the gaming PCs I've reviewed over the years, I believe it's absolutely worth the premium.

Value: 4 / 5

Corsair One i500: Specs

Up to an RTX 4090 with AIO liquid cooling
Not easily upgradable

Specs: 4.5 / 5

Corsair One i500: Design

Gorgeous small form-factor case
Ample cooling fans
Fabric side panels might get grimey over time

The Corsair One i500's biggest appeal is its style.

I haven't seen a wood-paneled gaming device since the Atari 2600, and that device was released when I was a toddler. That's been enough time, I think, for a wood-paneled device to be cool again, and given the state of PC gaming hardware for the past several years, seeing something new is more than just refreshing.

I can't say that the Corsair One i500 will transform PC gaming culture to move beyond its decade-old Decepticon-inspired PC cases with over-the-top RGB lighting, but I hope it inspires a new paradigm for what companies can do with a gaming PC. The market desperately needs it.

In terms of specific design notes, this is technically a small form factor gaming PC, though it is bigger than something like the Asus ROG G22CH. Taller than it is wide or deep, this is more like a gaming console than a traditional gaming PC. If you've been looking for a living room PC, this will fit right in with a living room aesthetic.

If you spend this much money on a gaming PC, you should hopefully be able to upgrade to an Nvidia 5000 series graphics card in a few years, but the small form factor case is going to limit what size GPU you can fit.

On top of that, the graphics card in this case is unshrouded, relying on an AIO GPU cooler to manage heat dissipation. You could obviously take all of the fans and heatsink off of any future graphics card you buy and fit it into this PC, but understandably, this is a fairly advanced modification for a GPU.

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On top of the internals, there are a number of distinct design features that you won't really find anywhere else.

First, the side panels are covered in a soft, breathable fabric. This creates a very cool look to the PC, but fabric in tech devices tend to discolor and gunk up over time, especially if they cover a fan blowing dust out of a PC case.

Still, the fabric panels are a beautiful design touch. Another very cool feature is the tap-to-activate light on the backside of the case, which you can tap to light up the backports while you're plugging in peripherals and other cables. It's a small touch, but given that the backside of a gaming PC can often be cast in shadow, having an easy way to illuminate the area in question is incredibly useful.

Taken all together, the Corsair One i500 is the coolest prebuilt gaming PC I've ever used, and it's all the more impressive given how far it stretches past the 'accepted' gamer aesthetic into something new. I'm sure a lot of people won't like the design of this PC, but I don't care. The fact that Corsair took the risk to make a dramatically different kind of PC earns five stars in my book.

Design: 5 / 5

Corsair One i500: Performance

Fantastic gaming 4K performance
You can probably get the same kind of performance for cheaper if you don't mind less appealing aesthetics

Now, as good as the Corsair One i500 looks, this is a gaming PC, so its performance matters as much as — if not more than — its aesthetics. In this regard, you won't be disappointed with this PC.

Its starting GPU, the RTX 4080 Super, is one of the best 4K graphics cards on the market, second only to the Nvidia RTX 4090, which is an optional upgrade for the Corsair One i500. So no matter which GPU you get, you'll be able to get 4K@60FPS on just about any title on the market, especially if you enable Nvidia's DLSS 3 in games like Cyberpunk 2077 and any game that features ray tracing.

The RTX 4090, however, is the only graphics card I've ever tested that can get you close to 60 FPS in Cyberpunk 2077 with ray tracing maxed out without upscaling, so if you're looking to play 4K at native resolution, you do at least have the option of going with the RTX 4090.

Given the hardware here, this is also a very competent creative performer, so those who like to get some work done will like what's on offer here, but I wouldn't call this the best workstation PC going. This is a gaming PC through and through, and it's here that this PC excels.

Performance: 4.5 / 5

Should you buy the Corsair One i500?

Buy the Corsair One i500 if...

Don't buy it if...

First reviewed May 2024

MSI Titan 18 HX review: a gaming colossus

8:52 pm | May 2, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Computers Computing Gadgets Gaming Computers Gaming Laptops | Tags: Battery Life, Far Cry, LED, Tomb Raider | Comments: Off

MSI Titan 18 HX: Two minute review

The MSI Titan 18 HX returns in 2024, reclaiming its title as the best gaming laptop for those looking to splurge on the most over-the-top desktop replacement money can buy.

The Titan 18 HX, like its 2023 predecessor, the MSI GT77 Titan HX, is a $5,000 desktop PC masquerading as a gaming laptop. Clocking in at just under 8 lbs/4kg, you're going to feel this one if you ever have to actually carry it anywhere, and most backpacks out there won't even fit it. This laptop, then, will be relegated to your desk with the occasional trip to another room at most.

While it sacrifices portability, it does come with some absolutely bonkers hardware, including a 175W RTX 4090 mobile GPU, a 95W Intel Core i9-14900HX processor, up to 128GB DDR5 RAM, and up to 4TB SSD storage, with one of its three M.2 SSDs slots being a PCIe 5.0 interface for the best SSD speeds possible (though it doesn't come with a PCIe 5.0 drive, you'll have to provide that yourself). Throw in the world's first 18-inch 120Hz 4K+ mini LED display with 120Hz refresh and HDR1000 certification, and you have the most decadently specced gaming laptops I've ever tested.

And before you say it, mini LED isn't an OLED, I know, but I honestly prefer mini LED displays on gaming laptops, and this one can get you 112% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, so video editors and other creative pros might want to take note of this one as well.

Design-wise, this laptop is an improvement over its predecessor in a number of ways, not the least of which is that it does introduce some grey into the chassis to help break up the super-aggressive gamer black styling of the GT77 Titan HX (and even adds some light blue accent touches to the rear), as well as introducing a seamless trackpad and more refined curves into the keydeck.

The Titan 18 HX's mechanical keyboard, meanwhile, features Cherry MX ultra low-profile switches that are a dream to type on, and the seamless trackpad is adequate for basic use; but as with any gaming laptop, you'll probably want to use the best gaming mouse you have handy while actually gaming.

Given the laptop's size, MSI was able to pack in some powerful speakers that provide a much more immersive audio experience than you'll find on a lot of other laptops. Of course, you'll have to turn the volume up to drown out the whine of the laptop's cooling system, which can get noticeably loud under strain. You can adjust this in the MSI Center, though it will come at the cost of performance.

Speaking of performance, gaming on this laptop is an absolute joy. The very best PC games run buttery smooth at max settings, and while enabling ray tracing at the laptop's native 3840x2400p resolution on some titles will require you to use DLSS upscaling to get a playable framerate at 4K, that's the case with even the best graphics card in a desktop PC.

Still, for the amount of money this laptop will cost you, you could also be forgiven for asking if it's really worth the price. If you're the type to ask such a question, don't worry, it's an easy question to answer: this laptop isn't for you. If you want the absolute best gaming performance in a theoretically portable form factor and money isn't an object for you? Well, you are exactly the person this laptop is designed to cater to, and you won't find many, if any, better gaming laptops on the market than the MSI Titan 18 HX.

MSI Titan 18 HX: Price and availability

An MSI Titan 18 HX on a table — (Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

How much is it? Starting at $4,999.99 / £4,379.98 / AU$6,999
When is it available? It is available now.
Where can you get it? You can get it in the US, UK, and Australia

The MSI Titan 18 HX is available now in the US, UK, and Australia, starting at $4,999.99 / £4,379.98 / AU$6,999. All configurations come with an Intel Core i9-14900HX processor and 4K+ mini LED display, and the US has two configurations on sale right now. They both feature an Nvidia RTX 4090 mobile GPU and 4TB storage, with the only difference being a choice between 64GB or 128GB RAM.

In the UK, the Titan 18 HX starts with an Nvidia RTX 4080 GPU, 64GB DDR5 RAM, and 2TB PCIe 4.0 storage, and goes up as high as an RTX 4090 with 128GB RAM and 4TB storage. In Australia, the Titan 18 HX starts with an RTX 4080 GPU, 32GB RAM, and 2TB storage, and goes up to an RTX 4090, 128GB RAM, and 4TB storage.

In no universe is this a cheap gaming laptop, and it's challenging to think of another 18-inch laptop that goes quite this hard on the specs. Even the Alienware m18 R2 pulls back from a full 4K display, much less 4K+, and tops out at 64GB RAM. Even upping the m18 R2's storage to 8TB with everything else maxed out doesn't even bring you up to the MSI Titan 18 HX's starting price.

Again, I can't stress this enough, only those with the deepest pockets need consider this one.

Value: 2.5 / 5

MSI Titan 18 HX: Specs

This is easily the most obscenely configured gaming laptop I've ever laid hands on, and I wouldn't be surprised if you could still play the latest AAA games at max settings at 4K for the rest of the decade. The hardware will likely physically fail on you before this thing is rendered obsolete when it comes to gaming or high-end performance.

Specs: 5 / 5

MSI Titan 18 HX: Design

Gorgeous mini LED display
Improved chassis aesthetics
Ports galore
Low-profile mechanical keyboard with Cherry MX switches

The MSI Titan 18 HX introduces several improvements over last year's Titan, while generally keeping the fairly Decepticon-like aesthetic that the Titan is known for.

Starting with the sheer size of the thing, it's slightly bigger than its predecessor, a feat I didn't think possible. It also adds about 0.5 lbs to its weight, making it by far the heaviest laptop I've used in at least a decade or more.

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Opening it up, you'll find a low-profile mechanical keyboard with Cherry MX switches for some seriously smooth typing. The trackpad has gone seamless, as well, offering a glassy but responsive surface for your palms and fingertips to glide over. The trackpad itself is responsive, with good feedback, though a gaming mouse or controller is recommended for higher-level precision.

The Titan 18 HX comes loaded with 4x2W up-firing speakers on either side of the keyboard, as well as 2x2W subwoofers for extra bass, all of which work together to create some very rich sound, at least as far as laptop speakers go.

The IR webcam also gets an upgrade over last year's model, now at full HD as opposed to 720p, and features a physical privacy shutter, which you always love to see on a laptop.

The display though is the big feature here with a speedy 120Hz refresh rate on a 3840x2400p mini LED panel that is bright and vibrant. It also has VESA DisplayHDR 1000 certification for a fantastic color contrast with deep blacks, and covers 112% of the DCI-P3 color gamut according to our tests.

In terms of ports, having a chassis this big means you can cram in a lot of ports, and the Titan 18 HX does not disappoint. You get three USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 ports, two Thunderbolt 4 ports with DP output (with one featuring PD3.1 certification for fast charging devices), one HDMI 2.1 port that can push 120Hz video at 4K, an SDCard slot, an RJ45 ethernet port, and a 3.5mm combo jack. You even get a Kensington lock slot for good measure.

Overall, this is one of the best-looking MSI gaming laptops I've seen this year, and its wealth of features, ports, and more make it a standout device before we even get to its performance.

Design: 4.5 / 5

MSI Titan 18 HX: Performance

Best-in-class performance
Able to hit 60 FPS at 2400p on most games without upscaling
Upscaling can get you 60 FPS or better in games with ray tracing turned on

This gaming laptop absolutely puts some of the best gaming PCs to shame with its performance. Its 2400p resolution understandably taxes the hardware when playing high-end games at its native resolution at max settings, but in titles like Assassin's Creed Mirage, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and Far Cry 6, the Titan 18 HX is easily able to clear 60 FPS at 4K on its highest settings, and that's not even factoring in any graphics upscaling.

Turn upscaling on, where available, and you can push the limits of the display's refresh rate on most games. If you factor in ray tracing, though, you can get in the neighborhood of 60 FPS or higher with appropriate upscaling, and on games like Cyberpunk 2077, it's an absolute necessity if you want to max everything out and get a better-than-just-playable frame rate.

Looking at its competitors, though, among the other 18-inch gaming laptops we've tested in our labs so far this year, none can match what the MSI Titan 18 HX brings to the table in terms of performance. The fact its competitors are all limited to 1600p QHD+ displays means that if you want the absolute bleeding edge of what laptop gaming can deliver in terms of 4K visual spectacle, the Titan 18 HX is really your only option.

Performance: 5 / 5

MSI Titan 18 HX: Battery life

Terrible battery life, but it'll rarely be on battery power anyway
Charging to full will take you a couple of hours

Understandably, battery life is not this laptop's greatest strength, but to call it a weakness is a bit unfair. This is not the kind of laptop you'll use unplugged for any length of time, as you would one of the best ultrabooks or a MacBook Pro.

This is a desktop replacement, so even though its two hours and 40 minutes of battery life while surfing the web is a pretty funny data point for a $5,000 laptop, you'll never actually use the Titan 18 HX this way outside of extremely rare instances. Its bulk will make it difficult to bring it anywhere period, much less somewhere that doesn't have an available wall outlet.

Still, compared to other 18-inch gaming laptops, the Titan 18 HX's battery performance still falls about 20% below the class average of three hours and 27 minutes. That means it doesn't get a total pass from me on battery life, but it is hardly a factor anyone should realistically consider for a laptop like this.

Battery Life: 2.5 / 5

Should you buy the MSI Titan 18 HX?

Buy the MSI Titan 18 HX if...

Don't buy it if...

Also consider

If my MSI Titan 18 HX review has you considering other options, here are three other laptops to consider:

How I tested the MSI Titan 18 HX

I spent about a month testing the Titan 18 HX
I used our standard suite of benchmark tests
I primarily played games on the Titan 18 HX, though I also used it for general computing and content creation

I spent about a month with the MSI Titan 18 HX, using it as an everyday work machine at home while gaming at night once work was done. I also used it for content creation work with Adobe Photoshop.

This is a gaming laptop, first and foremost, so I tested it with our standard battery of gaming benchmarks and other benchmarks that check for CPU, GPU, and overall system performance.

I've been reviewing laptops for TechRadar for nearly half a decade now, and as a lifelong PC gamer, I know how games should run on given hardware, and how much that hardware should cost you to maximize the value to the consumer. I also have a Master's Degree in Computer Science, so I'm able to really dig in and analyze the nitty-gritty of the hardware in a way many other reviews can't.

First reviewed May 2024

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GMKTec NucBox K9: 30-second review

GMKtec NucBox K9: Price and availability

GMKtec NucBox K9: Specs

GMKtec NucBox K9: Design

GMKtec NucBox K9: Hardware

GMKtec NucBox K9: Performance

GMKtec NucBox K9: Final verdict

Should I buy a GMKtec NucBox K9?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

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Logitech Signature Slim K950: Two-minute review

Logitech Signature Slim K950 review: Price & Availability

Logitech Signature Slim K950 review: Design

Logitech Signature Slim K950 review: Performance

Should you buy the Logitech Signature Slim K950?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Logitech Signature Slim K950 review: Also consider

How I tested the Logitech Signature Slim K950

Microsoft Surface Pro: Price & Availability

Microsoft Surface Pro: Early verdict

Microsoft Surface Laptop: Price & availability

Microsoft Surface Laptop: Design

Microsoft Surface Laptop: Specs

Microsoft Surface Laptop: Performance

Microsoft Surface Laptop: Early verdict

Linksys Velop Pro 7: One-Minute Review

Linksys Velop Pro 7: Price And Availability

Linksys Velop Pro 7: Design

Linksys Velop Pro 7: Features

Linksys Velop Pro 7: Performance

Should You Buy The Velop Pro 7?

Buy the Linksys Velop Pro 7 if...

Don’t buy it if...

Velop Pro 7: Scorecard

Velop Pro 7: Also Consider

Mozilla Monitor Plus: Pricing and plans

Mozilla Monitor Plus: Features

Mozilla Monitor Plus: Working with Mozilla

Mozilla Monitor Plus: Support

Mozilla Monitor Plus: The competition

Mozilla Monitor Plus: Final verdict

Alienware Pro Wireless gaming mouse: Two-minute review

Alienware Pro Wireless gaming mouse: Price & availability

Alienware Pro Wireless gaming mouse: Specs

Should you buy the Alienware Pro Wireless gaming mouse?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Alienware Pro Wireless gaming mouse: Also consider

How I tested the Alienware Pro Wireless gaming mouse

Alienware Pro Wireless gaming keyboard: Two-minute review

Alienware Pro Wireless gaming keyboard: Price & availability

Alienware Pro Wireless gaming keyboard: Specs

Should you buy the Alienware Pro Wireless gaming keyboard?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Alienware Pro Wireless gaming keyboard: Also consider

How I tested the Alienware Pro Wireless gaming keyboard

Corsair One i500: Two-minute review

Corsair One i500: Price & availability

Corsair One i500: Specs

Corsair One i500: Design

Corsair One i500: Performance

Should you buy the Corsair One i500?

Buy the Corsair One i500 if...

Don't buy it if...

MSI Titan 18 HX: Two minute review

MSI Titan 18 HX: Price and availability

MSI Titan 18 HX: Specs

MSI Titan 18 HX: Design

MSI Titan 18 HX: Performance

MSI Titan 18 HX: Battery life

Should you buy the MSI Titan 18 HX?

Buy the MSI Titan 18 HX if...

Don't buy it if...

Also consider

How I tested the MSI Titan 18 HX

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