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I just tested the first cheap AirPods rival that I didn’t prefer to Apple’s earbuds

7:00 pm | July 22, 2025

Denon AH-C500W: Two-minute review

It’s something of a cliche among tech writers and audio fans to refer to any stem earbuds as a ‘cheap AirPods alternative’, before heaping upon it praise for being just as passable a pair of headphones as Apple’s are, or superior in some arbitrary way. I was almost ready to trot out that same, somewhat tired comparison with the new Denon AH-C500W to be perfectly honest. That was until I realised it was actually incorrect.

Not the part about them being AirPods rivals – you’ve seen the picture at the top of this review, even AirPods’ mom wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between her child and the Denon. And not about them being cheaper either; the AH-C500W do undercut Apple’s options.

No, I’m talking about the new Denon earbuds being superior. The Denon don’t have any unique selling point to beat the AirPods, no untouchable audio quality to keep them competitive, and a price that isn’t actually that cheap, in the grand scheme of things. If you’ve got an Android phone and so can’t use AirPods to anywhere near their full potential, here’s Denon, but if not they’re harder to recommend – and that's coming from me, an AirPods naysayer.

If you’ve not heard of Denon (not to be confused with Danone of yogurt fame), it's a celebrated Japanese audio company mainly focused on larger speakers, soundbars and AV set-ups, but also selling choice premium headphones and earbuds too. In this gilded array the AH-C500W are the odd duck, coming at a much more affordable price point than basically everything else on Denon’s website.

A blast from the past, the C500W use an open-fit ear design. No, not the fully open earbuds that’ve been launching left, right and center throughout 2025, but like AirPods: they sit in your ear but without any tip to wedge it in there. Instead, you cross your fingers and pray to whomever you believe in that they don’t fall out. In my testing the Denon never actually did, but they’d often move around in my outer ear slightly, which would affect music quality – and when I tried to fix it, the oversensitive touch controls would think I’d pressed ‘pause’ and stop my music. Not very handy.

Audio quality is actually fair, at least when you’re at home, but step outdoors into the noisy world and the lack of any kind of noise cancellation will have an audible effect on your listening. Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) isn’t mandatory in earbuds, but open designs block virtually no noise, and I found myself wishing for ear tips to offer some relief from background noise.

Something else missing from the Denon AH-C500W is an app… that does anything truly meaningful. That is to say there is an app, but its only functions are to turn off touch controls or adjust your listening using the most barebones EQ I’ve ever seen.

If there’s anything resoundingly positive to be said for the Denon, it’s the design. AirPods comparisons aside these are sleek-looking, lightweight when in your ear and easy to tote around thanks to the tiny carry case. The latter in particular was a source of joy when going out with the earbuds – sometimes I test buds with huge containers that are a pain to put in my pocket, but not the Denons.

Denon AH-C500W review: Price and release date

The Denon AH-C500W buds next to the case. — (Image credit: Future)

Unveiled and released in April 2025
Costs $99 / £99 (roughly AU$209)
Already available cheaper

The Denon AH-C500W earbuds were announced in April 2025 and went on sale shortly afterwards. They were joined in this release by the AH-C840NCW, a slightly more expensive alternative which comes with ear tips and noise cancellation.

When announced, the buds were given the price of $99 / £99 (roughly AU$209) but three months later at the time of writing this review, the UK price is already down by £10 on Denon’s official website (and not via a sale, but as the default price) so you can pick them up for below RRP very easily.

I’ll save you clicking over to its review; the also-devoid-of-ANC Apple AirPods 4 cost $129 / £129 / AU$219 so they’re only slightly more expensive. That’s not the only competitor at this price point though and the splendid Nothing Ear (a), the Skullcandy Method 360 and Sony WF-C710N all match the Denon (in at least one country each, although in some others they're a hair pricier).

While the Denon AH-C500W are cheaper than the AirPods 4, it wouldn’t be right to refer to them as ‘cheap’ earbuds, and they’d need to cost at least 30% less to be considered budget alternatives.

Denon AH-C500W review: Specs

Drivers	12mm
Active noise cancellation	No
Battery life (ANC off)	7 hours (buds) 25 hours (case)
Weight	4.5g (buds) 50g (case)
Connectivity	Bluetooth 5.3
Waterproofing	IPX4

Denon AH-C500W review: Features

The Denon AH-C500W's bud next to the case with the other bud inside. — (Image credit: Future)

7-hour battery life, 25 with case
No noise cancellation of any kind
App has few features

Pick up the Denon AH-C500W if you think the AirPods 4’s 5-hour battery life is awful – the Denon doesn’t do an awful lot better, but at least it’s not so noticeably below the class-leaders.

According to Denon’s stats – which I’d back, from my experience – the earbuds will last for 7 hours on a full battery. That’s roughly in line with industry standards, but remember that anything that’s average is worse than literally half of all other options. The charging case brings the full figure up to 24 hours which isn’t amazing either, and actually falls short of Apple, possibly because Denon opted to add wireless charging support instead of a bigger battery.

In the ‘Features’ section of our reviews, we generally talk about earbuds’ noise cancellation. The C500W doesn’t have any, something I bring up just in case anyone skipped the introduction to this review (no judgement, I sometimes do the same thing). If you use these, expect to hear what’s going on around you.

For the vast majority of my testing time, I used the Denon without a tie-in app, finding that searching ‘Denon’ in the Play Store brought up an AVR remote, and the buds work just fine without an app. Towards the end of the review period I realised that had I simply scrolled down I would have discovered that there actually is an app, called Denon Headphones, which I missed below myriad other apps from the company.

The Denon AH-C500W next to a phone with an equalizer open. — (Image credit: Future)

Downloading the app didn’t actually make much of a difference to my user experience though, and that’s because it doesn’t really add too many perks and features.

Nowhere is that exemplified more than in the equalizer, a feature which many would argue is all but necessary in earbuds these days. It’s the most barebones music customizer I’ve seen, offering a 5-band EQ and no presents, and I needed to slide each band to its extreme to hear even a noticeable difference.

Beyond that you’ve got a way to turn off and on touch controls, and to change some of the triggers (but not all of them), monitor which devices are connected to the buds and turn on LE Audio. Regarding the middle point, the buds offer Multi-point connection so you can use the Denon alongside two phones, tablets or computers at once, which is useful and becoming an industry standard now. Also, they're Auracast ready, another (hopefully) soon-to-be industry standard perk.

The AH-C500W do have one feature I really liked though. There’s wearer detection which you can customize by bud, so you can set up music to pause if you remove, say, the left earbud but not the right one, or only if you remove both buds. As someone who likes the idea of auto-pausing music but finds it annoying that songs stop if I remove one bud just to readjust it or as a polite gesture, this was a wonderful fix.

Features score: 3.5/5

Denon AH-C500W review: Design

The Denon AH-C500W's closed case. — (Image credit: Future)

Light, compact case and buds
Unreliable fit due to lack of tip
Black or white color options

I loved how small the Denon AH-C500W case is, definitely one of the teeniest carry cases I’ve seen in the wireless earbuds realm. It measures 58 x 48 x 28mm, and weighs 50g.

In a rare diversion from the AirPods playbook it’s a short and wide pebble-style case that opens to reveal the whole bud, not just the top, and I find this kind of design makes it easier to remove the bud. The only feature of note is a USB-C charging port on the back.

You can pick up the Denon in either white or black, and both the buds and case come in your chosen hue.

The earbuds weigh 4.5g and they’re dead ringers for AirPods, from their open design which means they hang (relatively) loose in your ear, to the stem which dangles down from your ear, and even down to the fact that the bud is angled slightly along your cheek.

The Denon AH-C500W buds inside a glass. — (Image credit: Future)

Copying is largely accepted in the tech world, but I wish Denon had copied from another design playbook than the AirPods’, because the AH-C500W carries over all of the design's shortcomings. With that comment I’m largely looking at the open design, which means the body of the bud is wedged in your ear without a silicon tip or sports loop to keep it in place. A replaceable ear tip can offer some insulation from outside sound and keep an earbud from jostling around in your ear. The lack of it also means that the Denon is susceptible to sound leakage (both from outside to the listener, and from the buds to people nearby) and doesn’t sit particularly still in your ear.

The latter point isn’t horrible, and I’ve tested earbuds (even tip-bearing ones) that are worse, but almost every time I took the C500W for a walk I’d find myself fiddling with them to ensure they were sitting in my ear right – and after 10 minutes of walking they’d have shifted, and I’d have to repeat this process all over again.

The Denon have a touch control that you can press several times or hold for different controls, and the lack of a visual or touch indicator as to where this haptic button is means that you have to get used to the design yourself. And do you remember me saying I had to constantly fiddle with the earbuds in the last paragraph? Yeah – good luck doing so without accidentally pressing the enigmatic ‘pause’ button.

The buds have an IPX4 resistance to water, which makes them sweat-proof but not ready to survive jets of water.

Design score: 3.5/5

Denon AH-C500W review: Sound quality

Sole 12mm driver
Detailed sound, if you can even hear it
Lots of distortion in certain genres

The Denon AH-C500W in a man's ear. — (Image credit: Future)

The Denon pack 12mm drivers and 2 microphones each. A more intriguing feature present is called Masimo Adaptive Acoustic Technology or Masimo AAT, which Denon previously used in some other of its wireless earbuds. This is mentioned only on Denon’s website right at the bottom, and not in its app or marketing materials, so it’s hard to know what it actually does. Masimo’s own website suggests that it’s a listening test to create a personal listening profile, but no such feature is present in the app.

The audio quality of the AH-C500W is mixed, but that’s a mix of highs and lows. There’s a lot of quality and detail in music – you can hear the timbre and individual strings of a guitar strum, the bowing of a violin – but then there’s also quite a bit of peaking on instruments like hi-hats, acoustic guitars and percussions.

Your mileage with the buds will vary dramatically based on what kind of music you listen to. Certain genres will feed you a cacophony of hisses and hums, with instruments that the Denon distorts too easily, but when listening to other genres I could go for multiple songs without hearing an issue, and while enjoying top-quality music.

The sound profile of the buds is largely neutral, though there’s a more emphatic and pronounced bass than I was expecting given the form factor. That form factor is, at the end of the day, the biggest issue with the AH-C500W’s music quality. However songs sound in a vacuum (or at home), they sound a lot worse when outside noise is leaking in, or when your buds are constantly slipping in your ear to change position.

Sound quality: 3.5/5

Denon AH-C500W review: Value

The Denon AH-C500W buds in the case, which is open. — (Image credit: Future)

Not amazing value by default
Wait for sales to pick up

When I first saw the Denon AH-C500W – and indeed, for the fortnight of testing before I started writing this review – I thought the buds cost about half as much as they actually do.

That’s because I made an assumption based on the feature set, sound quality and design, comparing it to similar traits in other buds on the market, and I presumed that these would cost about £50 / $70 / AU$100. The fact that they actually cost a lot more probably tells you all you need to about their value as a proposition in a hugely congested market.

If you can find them discounted further, the AH-C500W might be worth buying – you don’t have to wait for them to get as low as my presumed price – but at the original retail price, my verdict is that they don’t offer great value for money.

Value: 3/5

Should I buy the Denon AH-C500W?

The Denon AH-C500W buds in a hand. — (Image credit: Future)

Denon AH-C500W score card
Attributes	Notes	Rating
Features	Passable battery life but not many other features to talk about.	3/5
Design	The buds are lovely and lightweight, though they're just not secure in your ear.	3.5/5
Sound quality	Sound is textured and detailed but it peaks often, and that's only when you can hear it in the first place.	3.5/5
Value	You're not getting amazing bang for your buck when you consider other budget options.	3/5

Buy them if…

You have an Android phone
Apple users can buy AirPods which are better for you, but Android owners need alternatives like the Denon.

You only listen in one spot
Bobbing up and down while you walk risks dislodging the Denons, but if you're only ever going to listen while seated at your desk, you'll appreciate the music quality.

You want a slender carry case
I've seen some monster charging cases in my time, ones that'll weigh your trouser pockets like rocks. Not here though.View Deal

Don’t buy them if…

You're not sold on the open design
I found the lack of ear tips infuriating, both for allowing in sound and for letting the buds wobble and move so much..

You need noise cancellation
Very few earbuds nowadays outside of true budget options lack active noise cancellation – just AirPods 4 (and even they have an ANC version nowadays).

Denon AH-C500W review: Also consider

	Denon AH-C500W	Nothing Ear (a)	Sony WF-C710N	Denon AH-C840NCW
Drivers	12mm	11mm	5mm	12mm
Active noise cancellation	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Battery life	7 hours (buds) 25 hours (case)	5.5 hours (buds); 24.5 hours (case)	12 hours (buds) 30 hours total (with case)	10 hours (buds) 35 hours (case)
Weight	4.5g (buds) 50g (case)	4.8g (buds); 40g (case)	5.2g (buds); 38g (case)	5.1g (buds) 54g (case)
Connectivity	Bluetooth 5.3	Bluetooth 5.3	Bluetooth 5.3	Bluetooth 5.3
Waterproofing	IPX4	IP54	IPX4	IPX4

Nothing Ear (a)
Released at the same price as the Denons, these buds may have a worse battery life but they have a solid feature set, energetic sound and reliable design. There's a reason we gave them a five-star review.

See our full Nothing Ear (a) review

Denon AH-C840NCW
The AH-C500W's contemporary may cost a little more, but it fixes all of the problems of the cheaper buds. The battery life is better, there's noise cancellation and the buds have tips to stick into your ear well. Our review is incoming – watch this space!

How I tested the Denon AH-C500W

Tested for at least three weeks
Tested at home, in the office and on walks

I used the Denon AH-C500W for at least three weeks before writing this review, and possibly for a month (I didn't keep track religiously). I tested them alongside their contemporary siblings, the AH-C840NCW.

The buds were paired with my Android smartphone for testing and I used them on apps like Spotify, YouTube, Netflix and certain games during the testing period. Spotify was the main one though. Testing was done at home, around my neighborhood and at the gym.

I've been reviewing audio products for TechRadar for years now, including products made by many of Denon's rivals.

First reviewed in July 2025

Read TechRadar's reviews guarantee

I reviewed the Boulies OP300 – and this comfortable office chair is ideal for every professional workspace (and without the premium price tag)

6:41 pm |

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

Boulies EP200: 30-second review

If I asked you to draw a picture of an office chair, I strongly suspect you'd show me something that looked a lot like the Boulies OP300.

To me, it's professional seating well-suited for professional spaces. Now, I’m a big fan of the company’s EP200 office chair (you can read my review here). One of my main issues with it, though, is the limited availability outside the UK. Thankfully, that’s not an issue with the OP300 office chair, which is readily available in both the UK and the US.

With that in mind, I was keen to try out the OP300 - formerly, and briefly, known as the EP300. For what it’s worth, the EP series are for those using an office chair for around six hours a day, while the OP range are aimed at professional settings, gaming, and those using the chair for over eight hours a day. I’m not sure I fully agree with this division. I use the EP200 for at least eight hours a day without fatigue or discomfort. But maybe that’s besides the point.

It’s a smart, all-black ergonomic seat that looks professional and feels comfortable, with plenty of adjustments to find the sweet spot. I spent the last two months trying it out to see how it compares to the best office chairs around.

Boulies OP300: Price & availability

Boulies OP300 on a cyan background in three positions — (Image credit: Boulies // Future)

The Boulies OP300 is priced at $370 / £290 - although at the time of review, it’s on sale for $300 / £260 via the Boulies website in the US (click here) and the UK (click here). I’m also seeing it on Amazon.co.uk, under its original name, for the same cost.

I’d suggest the price is about right for what you get here, putting it roughly on par with the likes of the FlexiSpot OC3 and Branch Task Chair as a mid-range professional seating option.

Boulies OP300: Specs

Price (RRP)	$370 / £290
Seat height	19.5 - 23in / 49.5 - 58.5cm
Seat depth	18.1 - 20.3in / 46 - 51.5cm
Seat width	20.7in / 52.5cm
Backrest height	20 - 21.6in / 51 - 55cm
Recommended user height	5’5” - 6’3”
Max weight load	120kg / 265lbs
Material	Back: Mesh / Padded mesh Seat: Padded foam
Warranty	2 years

Boulies OP300: Design

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Boulies OP300 during our review — (Image credit: Boulies // Future)

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There’s something distinctly functional about the design of the OP300 - and that’s no bad thing. It’s a traditional office chair design that will suit every office environment. One look and you can imagine it parked under a hundred desks in an open-plan office just as easily as in the home office.

The chair itself is available with either a mesh or padded mesh backrest (reviewed here) and a cushioned foam seat. Whichever you choose, this is an office chair Henry Ford would understand - like the Model T, you can choose any color you want, “so long as it is black.” And, again, I don’t consider that a drawback for the types of settings this chair is designed for. In fact, I’d argue that this uniformity is exactly what you’d want in the workplace.

The backrest width isn’t quite as wide as the EP200 (approximately 20in vs 19in), but wide enough - and more importantly, supportive enough - to comfortably fit most body types. As is the seat itself, for that matter, which I think it a nice touch. Around the back is a sturdy Y-shape support where backrest height adjustments can be made and that, again, to my eye, looks functional rather than unnecessarily over-designed.

In use, the casters rolled nicely across both wooden flooring and textured carpeting, and while sitting, it didn’t creak or feel unstable. While the plastic is thin in places (notably on that Y-support), it doesn’t feel cheap or prone to break under use.

Boulies OP300: Assembly

Firstly, it’s worth noting that when disassembled in the box, it’s heavy - I'd strongly recommend having two people carry this to its destination. How my delivery guy managed alone to get this from his van to my door is a testament to his strength and sheer tyranny of will. Once in position, it’s an easy one-person job.

I had no issues putting this chair together, taking me around fifteen to twenty minutes to complete the entire procedure. Instructions were clear to follow. Even if you haven’t assembled an office chair before, it all makes sense and is pretty intuitive anyway.

Boulies OP300: Comfort & adjustability

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I have no problems with the amount of comfort delivered here - like the EP200, the broad seat itself feels at once firm and supportive, even with its foamy cushioning.

Now, that may be a deal-breaker for some who prefer to sink into an office chair like it’s a well-loved couch, but I rather prefer this, and it kept me productive (and less sluggish) throughout my use. Although, saying that, the backrest, which reclines between 85 and 113 degrees, felt soft and breathable, and I found it all too easy to snuggle into it.

Having a lot of adjustability is, I feel, critical for any ergonomic chair worth its salt. So, I was pleased to find loads of options to tweak the seat and find that comfortable sweet spot.

First, you can modify the seat depth to make sure you're firmly ensconced with your back against the rest. The armrests move in three directions - up, down, back and forth, and swivel in and out to suit your seating style. And the headrest can be lightly angled and adjusted up or down. So, those are the basic boxes all ticked.

Beneath the seat to the right (as you’re sitting in it) are three levers to alter the chair’s height and angle, and to lock the recline into place. On the left is the lever for adjusting seat depth. These are all operated by flipping the levers up or down, which I really liked. There’s no need to fiddle here, no pushing and pulling and flipping up or swivelling around three times and performing an awkward rain-dance to get the chair into your chosen position. It’s just simple and effective.

In fact, the only area where the chair isn’t adjustable is the lumbar support. It’s fixed into position. I would’ve liked to see more flexibility here, but I can’t say it’s especially noticeable in use.

Given the backrest can be adjusted between five levels depending on your height, and is already contoured, at no point did I find fatigue setting in or that my lower back wasn’t adequately supported while sitting down during the working day.

Boulies OP300: Final verdict

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One of the reasons I like Boulies office chairs is that they’re generally good all-rounders - and the OP300 is no exception. I’ve used this seat for working, gaming, chilling out, and, when family were over, even eating dinner at my downstairs desk.

With its classic silhouette and all-black materials, the design isn’t especially flashy - quite the opposite, in fact. But to my mind, that makes it ideal, where it won’t dominate the office or home office landscape.

At all times, the OP300 felt comfortable and supportive, which are really the two criteria any good office chair should meet.

Should I buy the Boulies OP300 office chair?

Buy it if…

✅ You want a comfortable, adjustable office chair: I used this chair for hours and hours at a time and felt none of the discomfort I get from cheaper office chairs. I especially like the simple adjustment mechanics.

✅ You want a traditional office chair that won’t break the bank: For what’s on offer, the Boulies OP300 is well-priced. Neither too cheap, nor too expensive, but about right.

Don’t buy it if…

❌ You need adjustable or dynamic lumbar support: While the backrest is height-adjustable, the lumbar support is fixed into place, which some may not like.

❌ You need an office chair with serious style: I can’t emphasise enough how ‘professional’ the stylings of the OP300 are. In terms of design, it’s about as classic an office chair gets.

For more workspace essentials, we tested the best standing desks for the home and office.

Sticky Password Review: Pros & Cons, Features, Ratings, Pricing and more

4:40 pm |

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Pro Security | Comments: Off

Lots of password managers are free, and plenty more only unlock a good range of features if you pay loads of cash – but Sticky Password tries to bridge the gap.

Sticky Password is developed by Lamantine Software, a company that includes some of the original creators of AVG Antivirus.

This app attempts to deliver the best of both worlds by offering a free version with loads of features, including unlimited encryption and storage and biometric authentication – so it’s very capable for lots of people. The paid version is no less impressive, with cloud syncing, secure sharing and emergency access.

Then there’s Sticky Password for Teams, which is a comprehensive password management solution tailored for businesses. It offers all the security features as its consumer variant, alongside administrative controls to help streamline the use of passwords for a team of users.

We’re going to find out if Sticky Password can compete with the best password managers currently available.

Sticky Password: Key Features

Sticky Password offers essential features such as password sharing, password autofill, password generation, automatic syncing, and encrypted storage of credit cards and digital notes.

Sticky Password can generate long, complex password strings up to 99 characters long. You can customize the length and character types, and can combine uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols to maximize protection.

Sticky Password business plan review — (Image credit: Sticky Password)

The app can also help you save lots of time with its automatic form filling feature. You can use it to create and manage identities, and save everything from personal, email, and address details to credit card details, passport information, and more. Besides these, the app also lets you securely save any text with its Secure Memos feature.

Sticky Password also offers a suite of powerful features designed specifically for business. For instance, it allows admins to specify different permissions for different people. This makes it easy for businesses to streamline their password management and reduce points of weakness in the system.

The app also monitors the dark web and will alert you (and the concerned employee) if any of the managed credentials are found in known data thefts or leaks.

As a business product, Sticky Password for Teams has a centralized admin console. You can use it to add or remove users, delegate administrative rights, and more. As an admin you can even manage the entire team's licenses, including renewals and seat allocations, through this interface.

You can also grant, manage, and remove access to shared passwords with specific permissions for different people, to ensure your employees can collaborate securely. You can even earmark individuals who can access critical accounts in case of emergencies.

For this, the app allows you to set the conditions under which access will be granted. The emergency contact will be granted access after sending you a request that you can reject during the waiting period.

The paid version of the app ensures all your passwords, and other encrypted data is synchronized across all devices, including desktops, tablets, and smartphones. It offers multiple options for this purpose, which is one of its best features.

You can either choose to sync the data over the cloud, which is very convenient if you have employees on the go, or, you can choose to sync over the local Wi-Fi router. Local Wi-Fi sync means that devices on the same network can share encrypted passwords and credentials without this data ever leaving the premises. This is ideal for businesses operating in one primary location because you can share passwords among colleagues in total security.

Importantly though, Sticky Password gives you full control over the devices and the network your data is synced over.

A final security feature we haven’t seen before is Sticky Password’s use of Intel Software Guard Extensions (Intel SGX) to further secure the sensitive data stored on a device. So even if an employee’s computer is stolen, the thief will be unable to access Sticky Password data that is encrypted and stored deep within the device’s CPU chip. Note however that this requires you to have a 7th Gen, or newer processor.

Sticky Password: Security and compliance

Top-notch security protocols are essential for any password manager, and Sticky Password doesn’t disappoint. Sticky Password uses all the industry-standard encryption protocols, and also goes further, offering innovative security features that are perfect for businesses.

Not only does Sticky Password encrypt all data end-to-end with 256-bit AES encryption, but it does not store the master password or the encryption key. Without these, no one, not even Sticky Password, can unencrypt your business’s valuable passwords and data. Elsewhere you’ve got fingerprint scanning, and this software runs portably – so it can boot from USB sticks and memory cards.

To ensure security when transferring passwords, Sticky Password uses the concept of trusted devices. These are devices that have been specifically authorized to access and synchronize your encrypted password database.

Such devices are added to a whitelist on the admin console, after which they can perform synchronization operations. The first device you use with Sticky Password is automatically authorized during the initial setup. Additional devices require individual authorization, which is done by sending a one-time PIN.

For added security, you can also enable two‑factor authentication, which works in conjunction with the Google Authenticator app. Sticky Password can also be made to use biometric authentication. For this, you can verify your identity with a swipe of a finger on Android and iOS devices.

Sticky Password’s storage space and back-end system reside on secure Amazon AWS services (Amazon S3 and Amazon EC2), and according to its Privacy Policy, the app adheres to General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) standards.

Sticky Password: Setup

Sticky Password has native apps for all the popular desktop, and mobile operating systems, including several releases of macOS, Windows, iOS, and Android.

The platform is also compatible with over a dozen of the best web browsers, from popular ones like Google Chrome, Brave, Safari, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Opera, to other more obscure options like Vivaldi, Comodo Dragon and Sidekick.

The apps themselves are easy to download and install. It’s necessary to make an account before logging in, but this simply requires an email and password. We also recommend installing the Sticky Password browser extensions.

While it doesn’t have native Linux apps, you can use it on the best Linux distros like Ubuntu, and Fedora, and even on Chromebooks, through the contactless connect feature. This feature also gives you access to your passwords on shared computers where you can’t install the Sticky Password app.

Using contactless contact involves scanning a QR code with the Sticky Password app on your mobile device. That said, accessing passwords through this feature, while being completely secure, requires a little running around, and isn’t as convenient as using a native app.

Sticky Password: Interface and performance

The Sticky Password desktop application has a pleasing layout and makes it easy for the user to find important information and control their account. The security dashboard is particularly useful for visualizing security weaknesses.

We were impressed with the speed of syncing. Using both a mobile and desktop device simultaneously resulted in a seamless experience. Once we had entered credential information on a desktop site, we could immediately log in password-free on a mobile device.

When setting up Sticky Password for Teams, the first person to activate the team license key on their device automatically becomes the team administrator. Once the admin is set up, you can invite other team members through the admins’ web interface.

Head to My team under the StickyAccount section to add and remove team members.

You can invite users via their email addresses. They’ll then receive instructions on how to install Sticky Password and join the team. Once added, you can also assign (and later revoke) admin rights to other team members.

If your colleges already have a StickyID, you can simply email them the team license key, which they can then plug into their account.

It’s a good idea to check your list of trusted devices from time to time. Head to Dashboard > Trusted devices to see the list of trusted devices, and remove the ones that are no longer in use. Removing a trusted device will also remove the local database and backups created by Sticky Password on this device.

The other tasks can be performed by the team members from their native Sticky Password desktop app. The first thing they should do is head to Menu > Import to import all their passwords in bulk. Sticky Password can import data from all the popular web browsers, as well as from the best password managers such as Bitwarden, BitDefender, KeePass, LastPass, RoboForm, and more.

They can then also navigate to the Web Accounts tab to manually store their usernames and passwords for online accounts and services. Then there’s the App Accounts section where your users can store credentials for any locally installed app, such as for Skype or a remote desktop connection.

Then there’s the Sharing Center where you can share passwords with other Sticky Password users, and manage their access and permission levels. As an admin, you can set individual permissions for each team member, and grant them either limited read-only rights, or full rights. The latter gives them the same rights as you, and they even have the authority to revoke your access as well.

Finally, head to Emergency Contacts under the Sharing Center section to add emergency contacts.

One of the most important sections of the Sticky Password app is the Security Dashboard. From here your users can monitor their password hygiene, and security posture. It helps identify and change weak, expired, reused passwords, and those that were exposed in a data breach.

Sticky Password: Plans and pricing

Sticky Password offers a single Premium plan for businesses, with access to a 30-day free trial first. It costs $29.99 user/year, making Sticky Password more affordable than most of its competitors.

Similarly, individuals also get a single Premium product, which costs $29.99 for a one-year license. However, if you’re sure that you want to stick with Sticky Password for the long haul, the lifetime license for individuals costs $79.99.

Individuals can also use Sticky Password for free, which is meant for users who need to store and access their passwords from a single device, since it doesn’t have any synchronization ability. Also, just like business users, individuals too can take the Premium version for a spin with a 30 day free trial.

Sticky Password: Support

The Sticky Password website has a help center, so most of the time, troubleshooting can be done online without needing to contact the Sticky Password team.

For more complicated issues, businesses have access to online support with an average wait time of fewer than 24 hours. We would like to have seen a more responsive support service, as the lack of phone support might deter some businesses from investing in Sticky Password.

Sticky Password: The competition

While Sticky Password provides an excellent core service, we think businesses might be better off considering a password management solution with greater administrator control over user settings and privacy.

Competitors such as NordPass, LastPass, and RoboForm all provide more advanced analytics that medium and large-sized businesses are likely to appreciate. Although these providers are more expensive, companies that value user management and centralized access control might prefer to consider one of them.

Also note that unlike many other business password managers, you can’t use Sticky Password for Teams to provision users by integrating with in-house or cloud directory servers like active directory, or Microsoft Entra ID.

Sticky Password: Final verdict

Sticky Password is a middle-of-the-pack password management solution. Although it may not be the best password manager available, it is still a highly secure platform with just enough features to please business users.

In particular, we think local WiFi sync and Intel SGX are innovative features that might convince businesses to rely on Sticky Password for their organization. However, the lack of advanced business features like Active Directory integration means the app will only work for small businesses, rather than large companies.

On the flipside, its limited feature set means Sticky Password is also more affordable than many of its competitors. Given the fact that it makes no compromises when it comes to security, Sticky Password manages to successfully position itself as one of the most secure password managers available for small businesses.

We've listed the best password recovery software.

ManageEngine Password Manager Pro Review: Pros & Cons, Features, Ratings, Pricing and more

4:30 pm |

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Pro Security | Comments: Off

The password manager market contains a huge variety of products, from basic individual products to enterprise-level utilities – and that’s where ManageEngine Password Manager Pro comes in.

This tool delivers the kind of features admins need with a business password manager, with rock-solid security, an incredible number of customization options and granular, in-depth options for managing your entire company’s identities and passwords.

It’s no wonder that it’s trusted by more than one million admins and users and has already been deployed by businesses like Walmart, VMWare and NASA. It’s also no wonder that this product is produced by Zoho, as that company has loads of experience producing enterprise software.

After you’ve discovered whether you should roll out ManageEngine Password Manager Pro to your business, head over to our verdict on the best password managers.

ManageEngine Password Manager Pro: Key Features

Password Manager Pro aims to equip admins with enough features and functionality to help transform password management from a security liability into a structured, controlled process.

Being aimed at large enterprises, the platform claims to deliver a complete solution that can help you control, manage, monitor, and audit the entire life cycle of privileged access.

Like all its peers, it offers a centralized password vault where your users can store all their passwords in a secure, encrypted database. As an admin, you can create a hierarchical structure of folders within the vault to organize passwords based on departments, systems, apps, or any other logical grouping.

The platform also enables you to define granular access controls to control who can access specific passwords, and whether users can only view the password, or even change it. They can also set time-based access restrictions, and even force approvals for password access.

Similarly, you can also restrict access based on IP addresses or IP ranges. Admins can also assign ownership of specific password records to other authorized users, allowing for decentralized management, which is especially useful in larger organizations.

Password Manager Pro can store more than just passwords, which makes it pitch itself essentially as a centralized, encrypted repository for business-critical data. You can, for instance, use it to securely house all kinds of documents, images, and files, as well as Windows service accounts, digital signatures, SSL certificates, SSH keys, and more.

The platform also offers password lifecycle management features. You can use it to create and enforce organization-wide password policies. It enables you to specify complexity requirements (minimum length, character types), word usage (password should not contain dictionary words, or login name), password aging (how often passwords must be changed), and password history (preventing reuse of recent passwords).

ManageEngine Password Manager Pro review — (Image credit: ManageEngine)

You can also manually reset passwords for any account in the vault, and also enforce mandatory password resets for users. Passwords can be changed any time on demand, or automatically at periodic intervals. You can also configure passwords to be automatically reset after every usage.

ManageEngine Password Manager Pro also offers several disaster recovery options, including live and scheduled database backups. You can restore the backed up data to the Password Manager Pro database using the provided recovery scripts.

ManageEngine Password Manager Pro: Integrations and Compatibility

As an enterprise solution, Password Manager Pro integrates with your existing Active Directory (AD) and Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) installations. This allows your users to log in to Password Manager Pro using their existing AD or LDAP credentials, eliminating the need for separate logins.

Moreover, when a password is reset in Password Manager Pro, it can automatically update the password in the corresponding AD or LDAP account. Similarly, when users are added or removed in AD or LDAP, Password Manager Pro automatically updates its database to reflect these changes.

Password Manager Pro can also integrate with third-party Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) systems. It also integrates with IT Service Management (ITSM) tools like ServiceNow and Jira to automate password retrieval and management within incident and problem management workflows.

The platform also has plugins for several popular continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) platforms including Jenkins, Ansible, Chef, and Puppet. Thanks to these plugins you can securely inject secrets into your CI/CD pipelines, instead of hardcoding credentials in scripts.

The platform also provides three APIs to enable all kinds of enterprise apps to securely retrieve passwords from ManageEngine Password Manager Pro.

The platform also has a remote login feature that your users can use to securely access remote machines directly from the Password Manager Pro web interface, without needing to manually enter passwords. This comes in handy especially for establishing one-click connections to RDP, SSH, and telnet sessions.

ManageEngine Password Manager Pro: Security and Compliance

Unsurprisingly, ManageEngine Password Manager Pro has faultless security credentials. This software uses dual 256-bit AES encryption, first at application level, and then at database level.

You can also set it up to run in the Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) compliant mode where all encryption is done through FIPS 140-2-certified systems and libraries.

Password Manager Pro also supports smart card authentication. You can further compliment this by various two-factor authentication (2FA) provisions to provide an extra layer of security. The platform supports PhoneFactor, Google Authenticator, Duo Security, YubiKey, and several more 2FA mechanisms.

Password Manager Pro can also be configured to detect and send alerts when it detects passwords that violate your organization's IT policy, or have expired. Alerts can also be generated when users request access to specific passwords or resources.

When it comes to auditing, the platform gives you as admins access to detailed audit logs that track all activities performed within Password Manager Pro. This covers events like password access, modifications, policy changes, user logins, and administrative actions.

All events are reported together with timestamps and user details. These logs will help with security analysis, incident investigation, and compliance reporting. Password Manager Pro also lets you grab compliance reports for PCI-DSS, NERC-CIP, and ISO/IEC 27001 standards.

To ensure that none of its logs can be tampered, in addition to restricting access, the platform ensures they are encrypted with AES-256 encryption.

The platform can also record videos of sessions initiated through Password Manager Pro for RDP, SSH, telnet, and remote database connections. The videos include everything the users see on their screen, along with all the actions they perform during the sessions.

These videos help organizations meet audit requirements, and help comply with regulations like PCI-DSS, FISMA, and HIPAA.

Remember though that recording sessions can be resource-intensive in terms of storage space. Also, depending on the number of concurrent recordings, and the resources of the Password Manager Pro server, there might be a slight performance impact on user sessions.

ManageEngine Password Manager Pro setting up — (Image credit: ManageEngine)

ManageEngine Password Manager Pro: Setup

Unlike many of its peers, Password Manager Pro is a self-hosted, on-premises password management solution. You can set it up on top of a Windows or a Linux machine, as it offers 64-bit installers for both platforms.

Before installing it, make sure the machine has at least a Dual Core or Core 2 Duo processor, with no less than 4GB of RAM. The product itself needs about 200 MB of disk space, and recommends earmarking 10GB at the minimum for the database.

The disk space requirements vary on usage, and you’ll need a lot more if you’ll be recording sessions regularly.

Besides this, you’ll also need an external mail server that Password Manager Pro can use to send emails and notifications to users. It can work with both your own in-house SMTP server, or a publicly available one.

Once that’s done, you can access ManageEngine’s settings through a web portal. At this point you’re going to get lost unless you’re an IT admin or someone with plenty of technology experience. This is a powerful tool, but that means you will be confronted with lots of different menus.

ManageEngine Password Manager Pro: Interface and performance

By default, Password Manager Pro has five predefined roles that come with a specific set of permissions. Administrators can set up, configure, and manage the platform, while Privileged Administrators can additionally configure privacy and security controls.

Then there are Password Administrators who can perform resource and password-related operations, while Password Auditors can also access all audit reports. Finally, there are Password Users who can view (and optionally modify) only those passwords that are shared with them by the Administrators and Password Administrators.

You’ll most likely login as an admin, which gives you extensive control over the platform. You can, for instance, perform bulk actions on password records, which helps save significant time and effort when managing a large number of passwords.

Indeed, the ManageEngine interface is not one for beginners. Its Dashboard has options for configuring mail servers, adding users and managing your company’s data, and the Dashboard also provides a quick overview of your password conflicts and violations – and how users across your whole network are managing passwords.

Go beyond the Dashboard, and in sub-menus, you’ll find in-depth areas for managing resources, groups, connections, certificates and SSH keys.

There’s lots going on here and you’ll have to know plenty about system administration to find your way around, but the interface is straightforward and unfussy – so it’ll fit right into your workflow.

ManageEngine Password Manager Pro: Plans and pricing

ManageEngine Password Manager Pro is a complex, technical product designed for medium business, large companies and huge enterprises, so its pricing structure is necessarily complex – and it’s not exactly a cheap bit of software.

As we’ve said before, Password Manager Pro has five predefined roles, and the licensing restricts the number of administrators as a whole. That said, there is no restriction on the number of Password Users and Password Auditors.

The Standard edition starts at $595 / £550 / AUD$ 900 for a year-long license for two administrators, and prices rise if you add admins. The Premium software starts at $1,395 / £1,250 / AUD$ 2,000 for a five-admin, one-year deal, and the Enterprise edition costs $3,995 / £3,800 / AUD$6,000 for a ten-user package. It’s also possible to buy perpetual licenses, although prices obviously rise further.

The Standard Edition has all the basic features to store your passwords and selectively share them among users. The Premium Edition adds more enterprise-class password management features such as remote password resets, session recording, IP restrictions, privacy settings, and more. To access every feature though you’ll need the top of the line Enterprise Edition.

Importantly though, you get support for adding unlimited resources and for managing an unlimited number of users, with each plan.

It’s also possible to add SSL/TLS certificate discovery, CSR, public CA integration and several other extra features to your package with the Key Manager Plus add-on. And while this is all very complex, ManageEngine’s enterprise-level feature set does mean that you’re able to contact the company for a customized quote too.

ManageEngine Password Manager Pro: Support

You get plenty of support options if you fork out the cash for ManageEngine Password Manager Pro, with toll-free phone support, email forms, direct email addresses and active user forums all available. Suffice to say that you will be able to get help if you need it, no matter the time.

ManageEngine Password Manager Pro: The competition

ManageEngine has plenty of strong competitors in the enterprise and big business password management space. Parent company Zoho has its own Vault password management system, and it’s worth exploring that product if you’d like a password management product that can be integrated with wider CRM, workplace and finance products.

Beyond Zoho and ManageEngine, we’d also recommend N-Able Passportal, which deploys a top range of impressive, high-end features for enterprise-level password management. It’s a great standalone product, although N-Able doesn’t have the same broad packages you’ll get with Zoho or ManageEngine.

ManageEngine Password Manager Pro: Final verdict

We’ll say this right away: ManageEngine Password Manager Pro is not the tool to buy if you want small business password management or a family product. It’s a high-end tool for enterprises and large businesses, and both its price and feature set reflect that status.

If you’ve got the budget and you need a high-end password management tool, though, there’s not much better than this. It’s just as good as its rivals, and you only need to consider which product has the features and integrations that your organization needs.

We've listed the best password recovery software.

The Ugreen M571 wireless vertical mouse changed the way I work at my desk and it’s a fantastic cheap alternative to premium options

7:49 am |

Author: admin | Category: Computers Computing Gadgets Mice Peripherals & Accessories | Tags: DPI, US, USB | Comments: Off

Ugreen M571 Vertical Ergonomic Mouse: two-minute review

Ugreen M571 Vertical Ergonomic Mouse from the side — (Image credit: TechRadar/Max Delaney)

The Ugreen M571 Vertical Ergonomic Mouse is an attractive, affordable alternative to more expensive options from brands like Logitech, making it a compelling option for those seeking ergonomic benefits without the price tag.

In contrast to traditional mice that often compel the wrist into a pronated (or palm-down) position, this model boasts a 57º near-vertical angle to it's 'sail'. This design encourages a neutral, handshake-like wrist position that I found significantly more comfortable when using a mouse for extended periods.

While the Logitech Lift is considered the best vertical mouse on the market, this Ugreen model offers a key point of differentiation – its size. Many vertical mice, including the Lift, have a small frame. I have bigger mitts, and my pinky finger is often sliding around on the desk with the mouse, rather than resting on it.

The Ugreen M571 offers a much wider base and larger frame overall, very reminiscent to the Logitech MX Vertical. This allows for stable movement across a wider range of hand sizes, as your entire hand, including your little finger, remains on the pointer. This Ugreen model's overall larger size doesn't make it unsuitable for smaller hands, though, as the main grip area is shaped to accommodate almost any hand size.

Ugreen M571 Ergonomic Mouse in-hand — (Image credit: TechRadar / Max Delaney)

From unboxing (where you'll find little more than the mouse itself and a warranty booklet) to daily use, the experience with using this mouse is simple and straightforward. For me, that was a good thing. However, for those that do require more advanced functions, like the ability to customize their mouse for keyboard-free use, this will be a significant downside.

When I'm not tapping away on the keyboard, I generally only need my mouse for the most basic of uses and I found the M571 to be fantastic for my needs. Ugreen boasts that the mouse offers "99% silent click and scroll" and, while neither the clicks nor the scroller are truly silent, they are heavily subdued. It’s also incredibly easy to scroll and left or right click without changing the position of your hand or fingers, maintaining that ergonomic posture.

One key negative regarding its design is its cheap feel. Made entirely of hard plastic, this is most noticeable in its palm grip, which features only a rippled design instead of the rubberized grips found on some more expensive competitors. While it's not slippery, it's the same material as the rest of the mouse and I found this grip area could become greasy after long periods of use. I imagine this would become even more of an issue for those living in warmer climates.

Beyond its core ergonomic feel, the particular model of M571 I tested for this review (SKU number 55916) is a slightly cheaper option that only connects via the wireless USB dongle. Spending a bit more can get you a version with both Bluetooth and 2.4GHz wireless, which could be a must-have for anyone planning on using it with a laptop – particularly MacBook owners, which no longer have the necessary USB-A port you’d need to use the included 2.4GHz wireless dongle.

The underside/battery compartment of the Ugreen M571 Vertical Ergonomic Mouse — (Image credit: TechRadar / Max Delaney)

Convenience aside, I found the 2.4GHz connection to be reliable and, even in a busy tech-focused office space filled with dozens of wireless devices, I didn’t experience any interference with connectivity.

The mouse is powered by a single AA battery and after using it for several hours a few days a week for two months, I've seen no signs of depletion. This suggests the mouse should last for months of daily use before the battery will need to be replaced.

A slightly confusing design choice with the Ugreen Vertical Mouse is that it offers a dedicated mode for both Windows and Mac systems. This is toggled via a switch on the bottom of the device, and the changes affect the two side buttons that sit above the thumb rest. In Windows mode, those buttons control your browser’s forward and backward functions, but on Mac they switch applications. I tested exclusively on a Mac and found this feature quite useful for quickly switching to Slack to reply to teammates, though it still seems like a potentially unnecessary addition.

When it comes to the feel of the buttons, I found the main left and right clicks were soft and quite sensitive, although I could still lift and move the mouse without accidentally clicking. I personally liked their feel, despite them not providing a lot of tactile feedback.

The two thumb-side buttons are similar; they offer a satisfyingly deep press without feeling mushy. The scroll wheel is also slightly notched, rather than completely smooth, making it both harder to slip off and easier to control when making shorter scrolls that require a touch more accuracy.

The M571’s optical sensor offers up to 4,000 DPI tracking, making it suitable for any regular application and even arguably providing high enough sensitivity for fast-twitch gaming. You can also reduce the DPI to three levels (1,000, 1,600 or 2,000) for times when different levels of accuracy are required. This is easily done with one press of the middle button that sits below the scroller.

Using the M571 ergonomic mouse with my MacBook — (Image credit: TechRadar / Max Delaney)

While I had no issues during my review period, the M571’s all-plastic construction and light weight do suggest that heavy daily users might see wear and tear sooner than with a more robust, pricier alternative. Witnessing the minimal wear on my colleagues' more expensive Logitech Lift, it’s clear that high-quality materials can be more important for a mouse than one might think. The M571’s finish could also get grimy after intense work or play sessions that result in sweaty fingers.

However, given its affordable price, it's hard to complain too much about these shortcomings. The M571 is an excellent option for those looking to try a vertical mouse for the first time without spending three or four times its price on a top-tier option. Costing just a fraction of the Logitech Lift, it offers fantastic value for some small concessions.

Ugreen M571 Vertical Ergonomic Mouse review: Price & availability

The face of the Ugreen M571 Vertical Ergonomic Mouse — (Image credit: TechRadar / Max Delaney)

Cheapest model: AU$34.99 for the 2.4GHz wireless via USB dongle
£22.99 / AU$39.99 for the more advanced dual-connectivity model
Similar model available in the US for $29.99

The Ugreen M571 Vertical Ergonomic Mouse is an incredibly affordable option, making it an excellent entry-level choice for those new to vertical mice. I personally prefer its feel compared to a regular mouse, though it won't be for everyone.

Its affordability makes it an even more attractive prospect, allowing users to try a vertical mouse before committing to a more expensive alternative. And, it's available to users across the world thanks to its wide availability on Amazon.

However, do note that the $29.99 model available in the US differs slightly from the model I tested, the Bluetooth-enabled version of which is available in both the UK and Australia. While it boasts the same specs – with both Bluetooth 5.0 and 2.4GHz connectivity – it features ridges in the thumb area that the others lack.

Ugreen M571 Vertical Ergonomic Mouse review: Specs

The battery compartment of the Ugreen M571 Vertical mouse — (Image credit: TechRadar / Max Delaney)

Specifications
Interface	2.4GHz wireless via included USB dongle (other versions offer Bluetooth, depending on your region)
Ergonomics	57° vertical angle, right-handed ergonomic design
Buttons	5 (two main, two thumb and DPI control + scroller)
DPI	Up to 4,000 (four levels)
Power	1 x AA battery
Weight	106g tested (130g with AA battery)

Should you buy the Ugreen M571 Wireless Vertical Mouse?

The thumb rest on the M571 Vertical Ergonomic Mouse — (Image credit: TechRadar / Max Delaney)

Attributes	Notes	Rating
Value	Whether you opt for this dongle-only model or its Bluetooth-enhanced sibling, the value is undeniable. Offering solid connection, quiet clicking and excellent speeds for the price of a few coffees.	5 / 5
Design	Ergonomically, the design of this mouse was excellent. However, its larger frame might make it better suited for medium to large-sized hands and it's made with cheap material.	4 / 5
Perfomance	Offering 4 different DPI levels up to 4,000, this mouse is able to handle some fast-paced gaming as well as day-to-day work.	3.5 / 5
Overall	The Ugreen M571 Vertical Ergonomic Mouse is very good for its price, but it lacks features like remappable buttons, and its inexpensive build means it likely won't stand the test of time. Still, it excels as an entry point to using vertical mice.	4 / 5

Buy it if...

You experience wrist strain

I found the 57º vertical angle of this mouse genuinely effective at promoting a natural hand and wrist position, significantly reducing discomfort during long hours of use. It's well worth a try if you struggle with normal mice.

You're on a tight budget

This mouse offers excellent ergonomic benefits and versatile connectivity at a fraction of the cost of premium alternatives. Even if you don't necessarily want a vertical mouse, its value is hard to ignore.

You have larger hands

While I've used the Logitech Lift and other vertical mice with little issue, this mouse is made for medium to large hands, and I found it very comfortable to hold and use.

Don't buy it if...

You want a more versatile mouse

This is a very simple device, offering only the bare minimum functions while better situating your wrist for long sessions of use. However, some people may prefer to spend more on a mouse with additional buttons and functionality.

You require high-end durability

The plastic build, while contributing to its low price, may not hold up to years of heavy daily use as well as some higher-priced alternatives. It could be worth spending more upfront if you're confident a vertical mouse is suitable for you.

You prefer a rechargeable mouse

This mouse uses a single AA battery, meaning you'll need to keep spares or factor in replacements. However, the alkaline battery we tested with did last fantastically well.

Also consider

Logitech Lift

If your budget allows, the Logitech Lift offers a similar ergonomic vertical design with a more premium feel, a rechargeable battery and potentially better software customization for advanced users. It's often lauded for its comfortable fit for smaller to medium hands.

Read our full Logitech Lift Ergonomic Vertical Mouse review

Logitech MX Vertical Wireless Mouse Ergonomic

Yes, Logitech boasts another vertical mouse in its arsenal. It's a little long in the tooth, but this 2018 model is still an ergonomic mouse worth considering thanks to its comfortable design, multiple connection options and built-in four-month battery.

Read our full Logitech MX Vertical review

Logitech MX Master 3S

While not a vertical mouse, the MX Master 3S is a top-tier ergonomic mouse for productivity, featuring a sculpted design that supports the hand, an exceptional MagSpeed scroll wheel and extensive customization options. It's a pricier mouse, but offers a more feature-rich experience for those prioritizing productivity and advanced functionality.

Read our full Logitech MX Master 3S wireless mouse

The GameSir T7 Pro Floral is another solid controller from the brand, but I’d still recommend other gamepads instead

10:00 pm | July 21, 2025

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Gaming | Tags: Final Fantasy, Forza Horizon, PC | Comments: Off

GameSir T7 Pro Floral: one-minute review

The GameSir T7 Pro Floral comes from a third-party controller brand I rate very highly, and one I put right up there with the likes of 8BitDo and Victrix. Many of GameSir’s controllers feature in our buying guides, too, including best Xbox controllers and best PC controllers.

But that doesn’t mean every single one of the brand’s controllers are out-and-out bangers. While I like the GameSir T7 Pro Floral, I certainly prefer and would be more likely to recommend other pads from the brand, including the GameSir Kaleid and GameSir Tarantula Pro. Not because the Pro Floral is bad, far from it. It’s more that GameSir has put out so many quality pieces of hardware that this gamepad comes across as just a little less impressive.

It certainly doesn’t disappoint when it comes to looks, though. I’m a child of the early noughties, so eye-catching gaming hardware designs that look good enough to eat are right up my alley. Case in point, the GameSir T7 Pro Floral’s translucent icy blue finish - emblazoned with flowery imagery - is utterly stunning.

It’s helped by reactive RGB lights, too, which move around the controller depending on the direction of the sticks or which face buttons you press. GameSir always finds a way to include nice little aesthetic flourishes like this, and that’s no different on the Pro Floral.

Otherwise, the Pro Floral plays all the GameSir hits. It packs Hall effect sticks, a pair of remappable buttons on the pack, as well as trigger locks that let you swap between analog and digital presses. Said trigger locks can be a bit inconsistent, as the digital trigger presses didn’t register in some games I tested, but when they do work, they’re a welcome inclusion.

GameSir T7 Pro Floral review: price and availability

$49.99 / £49.99 / AU$89
Available on GameSir's website
Cheaper than the Xbox Wireless Controller

The GameSir T7 Pro Floral is available now for $49.99 / £49.99 / AU$89, and can be purchased directly from GameSir’s website. It’s similarly priced to other GameSir controllers such as the GameSir Kaleid ($49.99 / £59.99) and cheaper than the official Xbox Wireless Controller ($64.99 / £59.99). If you’re after a cheaper Xbox alternative, then I can definitely recommend checking out the Pro Floral, so long as you don’t mind the lack of wireless connectivity.

GameSir T7 Pro Floral review: Specs

Price	$49.99 / £49.99 / AU$89
Weight	7.7oz / 217g
Dimensions	5.71 x 3.66 x 2.32in / 145 x 93 x 59mm
Compatibility	Xbox Series X\|S, Xbox One, PC
Connection type	Wired (USB Type-C)
Battery life	N/A

GameSir T7 Pro Floral review: design and features

As I mentioned at the top, the standout design choice of the GameSir T7 Pro Floral is its aesthetics. I’m a huge fan of the semi-translucent shell, and the icy blue buttons, thumbsticks, triggers, and d-pad complement the white gradient really nicely. The RGB lighting here is another excellent, if subtle, touch; different sections of the controller light up depending on stick direction, or which buttons you’re pressing. Something you probably won’t notice while gaming, sure, but I love the detail here.

There are some neat design flourishes for the buttons, too. The triggers, d-pad, and rear remappable buttons are fully transparent, while the sticks and face buttons are a pleasing light blue hue. The overall look here is a lot more carefully considered than cheaper pads that might just splash some artwork across the front and call it a day.

Otherwise, there’s not a ton to report in terms of design and features. The Pro Floral’s silhouette is almost identical to that of the Xbox Wireless Controller, and also features a 3.5mm headphone jack at the bottom of the pad. Meanwhile, those aforementioned trigger locks are located on the back, just above the two remappable buttons.

The Pro Floral does feel a good bit lighter than the Xbox Wireless Controller, though this may be because it’s not housing a pair of AA batteries or the Xbox Play & Charge Kit. While lightweight, it’s thankfully not flimsy or listless in the hands, still offering firm placement thanks to its textured grips.

GameSir T7 Pro Floral review: Performance

In terms of actually using the GameSir T7 Pro Floral for gaming, it doesn’t really put a foot wrong outside of one key area, but I’ll get to that soon. It’s otherwise a very capable gamepad that provides longevity thanks to its drift-resisting Hall effect thumbsticks. Plus, the addition of two remappable buttons and trigger locks grants you some customizability for button shortcuts or if, say, you prefer instant digital trigger presses over a more fulsome analog squeeze.

I played a wide variety of games over my two weeks of testing the controller, including some of the best fighting games like Street Fighter 6 and Tekken 8, racing games like Forza Horizon 5, and action titles like Lies of P, Nioh 2, and popular MMORPG Final Fantasy 14 Online.

Now, while the trigger locks are a nice addition, I did find them to be pretty inconsistent, even when compared to other GameSir pads like the Tarantula Pro. They worked where it mattered; I prefer digital presses for Final Fantasy 14 Online, for example, as it lets me access my secondary hotbar abilities faster. However, some titles did not register the presses while in digital mode at all, including Elden Ring Nightreign, and Hades 2. It’s worth noting that your mileage may vary here, but these are not the most reliable trigger locks out there.

Otherwise, the last thing you’ll have to contend with is the lack of wireless connectivity. This isn’t necessarily a complaint, as plenty of excellent GameSir controllers opt for a wired-only connection. It’s more a matter of preference; if you prefer going wireless, you might want to consider a controller that supports that, such as the GameSir Tarantula Pro or even the cheaper GameSir Nova Lite, which also works on PC.

Should I buy the GameSir T7 Pro Floral?

Buy it if...

You want a gorgeous controller
The Pro Floral brings one of the nicest-looking controller chassis I’ve seen in a while. The blue-to-white gradient is lovely, and that titular floral pattern isn’t something you see much of among game controllers. Its looks are a real winner.

Don't buy it if...

You want more reliable digital triggers
The biggest weakness of the Pro Floral is its trigger locks. While analog presses work just fine across the board, digital trigger presses are inconsistent and didn’t work in some games for me.

GameSir T7 Pro Floral review: Also consider

You should consider the following two similarly priced GameSir alternatives if the T7 Pro Floral controller isn’t quite what you’re looking for.

	GameSir T7 Pro Floral	GameSir Kaleid	GameSir Nova Lite
Price	$49.99 / £49.99 / AU$89	$49.99 / £59.99 / AU$109	$24.99 / £19.99 / AU$39
Weight	7.7oz / 217g	7.5oz / 213g	7.2oz / 205g
Dimensions	5.7 x 3.7 x 2.3in / 145 x 93 x 59mm	6.1 x 4.21 x 2.4in / 156 x 107 x 60mm	6.1 x 4.1 x 2.4in / 155 x 104 x 61mm
Compatibility	Xbox Series X\|S, Xbox One, PC	Xbox Series X\|S, Xbox One, PC	Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, PC
Connection type	Wired (USB Type-C)	Wired (USB Type-C)	Wireless (2.4GHz, Bluetooth), Wired (USB Type-C)
Battery life	N/A	N/A	10-15 hours

GameSir Kaleid
One of the best, most affordable Xbox controllers on the market. I love the feeling of its microswitch face buttons, which provide tactile and instantaneous presses. A pair of RGB strips flanking the controller is also an eye-catching flourish. It’s one of my go-to Xbox controllers, and I would recommend it over the Pro Floral if you’re torn between the two.

Read our full GameSir Kaleid review

GameSir Nova Lite
Single-handedly the best budget controller out there, the Nova Lite isn’t compatible with Xbox, but can be used on Switch, Switch 2, and PC. Wireless connectivity is also supported here in both 2.4GHz dongle and Bluetooth formats. And yes, it still packs a pair of Hall effect sticks despite the low price.

Read our full GameSir Nova Lite review

How I tested the GameSir T7 Pro Floral

Tested across a period of two weeks
Played a wide range of games in that time, on both Xbox and PC
Compared to the Xbox Wireless Controller and GameSir Kaleid

I tested the GameSir T7 Pro Floral over the course of around two weeks. In that time, I played a wide variety of my favorite games on both Xbox Series X Digital Edition and PC. These include Tekken 8, Final Fantasy 14 Online, and Lies of P.

I went back and forth testing the Pro Floral against some of its contemporaries, including the Xbox Wireless Controller and the brand’s own Kaleid. I ended up preferring the Kaleid overall, thanks to its more tactile-feeling buttons. But if you’re an aesthetically minded player, then the Pro Floral’s lovely design might just do it for you instead. I can wholeheartedly recommend both at the end of the day.

First reviewed July 2025

Zoner Studio: Pricing & plans

Zoner Studio is available for a monthly subscription of $5.99, or $59 for the year. A family plan, letting two or more users in the same household use the app, is available for $9.98 a month or $98 a year.

For me, the pricing here is a big plus. There may not be a free version available (although there is a welcome free trial), but the cost is low, especially when compared to Adobe’s Creative Cloud suite of apps. The Photoshop and Lightroom Photography plan is currently priced at $22.99 a month. Your other option would be a tool like Affinity Photo, which has a one-off cost of $70.

The main differences between Zoner Studio and its rivals is that Zoner is only available on Windows machines, and it leans slightly more towards entry-level and intermediate users compared to Affinity Photo and Photoshop’s professional-grade photo editor.

You can check out Zoner Studio by clicking here.

Zoner Studio: First impressions

Zoner Studio during our review — (Image credit: Zoner // Future)

Minimum requirements

Operating system: Windows 10 or Windows 11 64-bit

Processor: Intel or AMD CPU 64-bit with SSE 4.2 support

RAM: 8GB

Storage space: 2GB

Screen resolution: 1280 × 800

If you’re familiar with photo editing software, you’ll have no problems navigating Zoner Studio. And, if you’re not, it’s not especially tricky to figure out - for me, that’s part of the appeal of the app, making it pretty welcoming to new users who want to do more with their photographs.

The main part of the screen is devoted to your selected image, with files and folders beneath, which can be scrolled through with your mouse. It’s a nice touch, making navigation that much easier.

Where new users may come unstuck are the five options to the right of the screen. Manager, Develop, Editor, Print, and Video (ok, those last two are self-explanatory). So, a little exploration wouldn’t go amiss - Zoner does at least feature non-destructive editing, letting you experiment with new tools without irretrievably modifying the original file.

Basically, Manager is for organizing and tagging photos. Develop is Zoner’s take on Lightroom, where you can edit RAW images, and Editor is for all other tweaks you want to make to your media, like adjusting the color temperature, or sharpening images. It’s all nicely laid out and generally easy to find what you’re looking for - and most options are also replicated in menus along the ribbon, which contextually change depending on which mode you’re in.

Zoner Studio: In use

Using Zoner Studio isn’t especially tricky, but it may still feel a little overwhelming if you’re new to image editing given the sheer amount of options available here. I’d also advise beginners to hover over the side-panel icons - there are a lot here, and not all of them are especially intuitive, so hovering your mouse will serve up a name and brief description of each.

Your photos automatically appear in Zoner, since there’s a file explorer tab to the left of the screen (there is an import function along the ribbon, too, but I never found the need to use this). These will appear on a timeline at the foot of the main panel. When you’ve selected your image, it can then be edited and adjusted via the Editor tab.

All the familiar tools are here, from cropping and rotating to adding watermarks or directional blurring. As expected, then, there are heaps of tools for toying with the exposure (shadows, contrast, and so on), white balance (temperature and tint), and color (like saturation). I also like the addition of the tone curve, as you’d find in Lightroom, for lightening or darkening an image, or bringing specific color channels to the fore.

There’s also a Quick Edit option, which populates the panel with the core tools most photographers and designers use without needing to fumble through the menus. The editing process can further be streamlined with the likes of Quick Fix and, ideal for social media, Quick Filters. All of these work instantly, just a press of the button.

The software includes some AI-powered tools, all of which deliver good results impressively quickly. This includes AI Masking, found in the Develop tab. Choosing this gives you the option to let Zoner automatically select the photo’s subject, background, objects, or sky for fine-tuning. For anyone looking to streamline the workflow, these are must-use tools, and I was pretty pleased with the speed and accuracy here.

One of the stand-outs for me is the AI Background Remover, which I found generally works very well. Once completed, I could then add a color background or create a transparent one for compositing into other images. Occasionally, the process removed elements of the image subject - typically when on darker or a similarly colored backgrounds - but on the whole, I had no serious complaints with this one-click background removal tool.

Perhaps the biggest issue, at least for those looking to make the switch away from Photoshop, is the lack of support for .PSD files. Instead, the software uses its own .ZPS files, which functionally work the same with layers and effects. But there’s no way to import or export Photoshop files into the app.

Overall, Zoner Studio packs in a wealth of tools for photo editing. It will take some getting used to if you’re new (and absolutely no time at all if you’re familiar with any of the best photo editors). But if you don’t need .PSD file support, there’s plenty to like here, especially for the price.

Should I buy Zoner Studio?

Buy it if...

You’re new to photo editing: This is a great place to start if you’re new to editing images but want a good amount of powerful tools for bringing out the best in your photos.

You don’t want to spend too much: Zoner Studio is a lot cheaper than Adobe Photoshop or similar pro-grade packages.

Don't buy it if...

You want a basic app: If you’re just looking to crop or brighten images, you’ll find plenty of other options that won’t overwhelm.

You want a professional-level app: Similarly, if you want a pro-level software that delivers the very best results, you’ll get better results from the likes of Photoshop and Lightroom.

Fast Fusion is a real technical showcase for Switch 2, but one that won’t live long in the memory

6:00 pm |

Author: admin | Category: Computers Consoles & PC Gadgets Gaming Nintendo | Comments: Off

Review information

Platform reviewed: Nintendo Switch 2
Available on: Nintendo Switch 2
Release date: June 5, 2025

Even though I didn’t love anti-grav racer Fast Fusion as much as I wanted to, I still think you should absolutely buy it. Its $14.99 / £13.49 price tag on the Nintendo eShop is quite frankly a steal, and a very fair price considering what you’re getting from this Switch 2 launch game. There’s not a metric ton of content here, and it is an experience you can get the most out of in around 10-12 hours, but that low cost of entry is worth it for the presentation alone.

Fast Fusion is arguably the best-looking Nintendo Switch 2 launch game. It might not have the artful whimsy of Mario Kart World, but in terms of sheer graphical fidelity, developer Shin’en Multimedia has delivered in spades. To me, that comes as no surprise; I maintain that 2019’s The Touryst (also by Shin’en) is one of the most visually impressive games on modern hardware, and that’s definitely the case with Fast Fusion, too.

Another reason to buy the game is that its performance is basically bulletproof. Its Quality graphical setting, which I used for the majority of my play time in docked mode, holds 4K resolution at 60 frames per second (fps) at all times, even with some light ray-traced reflections enabled.

But even though Fast Fusion is certainly a looker, it unfortunately falls short as a racing game. While tracks look beautiful, they don’t offer much in terms of variety, usually boiling down to a handful of obstacles and one or two alternate shortcuts. AI drivers also employ an absurd amount of rubber-banding, sticking to your tail like glue even after an extended period of boosting.

I’m also not a fan of how the game handles progression, as unlocking new cups can require huge sums of currency. This has improved since launch, with patches increasing the amount of money you can earn in a championship, but you’ll still find yourself having to grind out an extra run or two just to have enough to unlock the next set of races.

Overall, Fast Fusion is a beautiful, ‘fun while it lasts’ racing game. A lack of online play definitely hurts its longevity, but given how cheap the game is at retail price, I can’t fault it too much for a lack of content, and I did have a decent time with it regardless. It's certainly not one of the best Switch 2 games, but it's hard to argue with the value on offer.

Double or nothing

Fast Fusion is a futuristic, anti-gravity racer, inspired by subgenre legends like F-Zero and Wipeout. The goal is simple: enter a championship, drive faster than your opponents, get money for more vehicles and events, rinse and repeat.

Your vehicle is capable of boosting and jumping - the latter to avoid obstacles and grab boost tokens floating in the air. Said tokens fill up your boost meter, so collecting them throughout a race is imperative - especially as they also increase the amount of in-game currency you have.

The swap mechanic from Fast RMX also returns, which lets you change between blue and orange forms in order to make use of the same-colored boost pads littered throughout each track. Finally, boosting into an opponent who isn’t boosting will cause them to spin out, hampering their race and netting you some more tokens.

While content in Fast Fusion is light overall, there’s still a decent amount of it to check out. The main championship mode features five cups of three races, split across three speed classes. Local multiplayer (including GameShare) and time attack modes are featured, too.

There’s also Super Hero Mode, which is an additional challenge mode that mimics the F-Zero series’ style of play. Here, your boost gauge is also your health bar, and crashing or running out of health retires you from the race. It’s a pretty thrilling side mode and quite challenging, adding some much-needed replayability to Fast Fusion.

Two become one

Easily my favorite part of Fast Fusion is its titular fusion mechanic. By accessing the Fusion Shop from the main menu, you can not only unlock new vehicles with currency, but also choose two to fuse together into one super-powered machine.

Every combination is accounted for, leading to an extremely impressive array of vehicles. They all have unique looks, liveries, and name amalgamation depending on your chosen two. Not all are made equal, though; the game will let you know how powerful the fusion is on a grading system. For example, a lower rank ‘C’ fusion will have worse stats, but cost less to fuse. Meanwhile, an ‘A+’ beast can get close to maxing out in performance, but will naturally cost more.

Best bit

I love the titular ‘fusion’ mechanic in Fast Fusion. Combining two vehicles into one for a more powerful craft, it’s always interesting to see the results. Especially when it’s an amalgamation of both crafts, complete with a livery change and a hybridized name. There’s loads to see here, and experimentation is practically necessary in order to beat the more challenging championship events.

You’ll need to rely on the fusion system when tackling the game’s hardest speed classes, too. Not only do AI drivers rarely make mistakes, but they have some of the most egregious rubber-banding I’ve seen in a racing game in quite some time. You can fully maximize a track, hit every shortcut, and spend most of your time boosting, and you’ll still get at least two AI drivers zooming past you on the final lap.

And as I mentioned earlier, racing in general, despite being a futuristic anti-grav racer, feels disappointingly grounded. Vehicles are extremely grippy, and hitting a wall has practically no negative impact. Track design also plays it rather safe - there’s very little in the way of demanding corners like hairpins, meaning braking and tilting rarely get used outside of the final speed class. It’s a far cry from Wipeout or F-Zero GX, where you often really have to wrestle your machine around corners and you are heavily punished for colliding with walls.

Should you play Fast Fusion?

Play it if...

You want a real showcase of the Switch 2’s graphical chops
Fast Fusion is stunning to behold, sporting a high level of graphical fidelity, rock-solid performance, and convincing motion blur and incredible weather effects. The low price of admission is worth it for all those ‘wow’ moments, especially if you own a 4K display.

You want a cheap game that’s actually worth it
The Nintendo eShop’s relationship with cheap games is a sloppy one, but Fast Fusion proves you can still offer a very compelling experience at a budget price.

Don't play it if...

You were hoping for bags of content
Overall, Fast Fusion will probably last you around 10-12 hours if you’re planning on doing absolutely everything. While that’s expected for the price, it certainly doesn’t have the longevity of F-Zero GX or Mario Kart World.

You want a true anti-grav racer
The vehicles in Fast Fusion may as well have wheels, given how overtly grippy they are. The ships all look very cool, but their handling doesn’t exactly scream ‘anti-gravity’.

Accessibility

There isn't much in the way of accessibility settings in Fast Fusion. You can fully rebind controls in the options menu to suit your preferences, as well as enable tilt controls via gyro aiming should you prefer. However, don't expect anything in the way of colorblind settings or other visual options.

How I reviewed Fast Fusion

I played 10 hours of Fast Fusion on Nintendo Switch 2, clearing all Grand Prix and Super Hero Mode content across the three speed classes, while also unlocking most vehicles and playing around a good bit with the fusion system.

I primarily played the game in ‘Quality’ mode, which offers 4K 60fps performance while docked, as well as some basic ray-traced reflections. I also tried out the ‘Ultra Quality’ mode, which increases fidelity further at the cost of a 30fps frame rate. While this mode does look utterly stunning, I much preferred the smoother performances offered by other graphics modes.

For gameplay, my gamepad of choice was the Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller, while also using the Joy-Con 2 controllers while playing in handheld mode.

I’ve spent 40-plus hours punching Nazis, deciphering puzzles, and platforming with my bullwhip in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and can safely say the PS5 version is the definitive way to play the game

4:00 pm |

Author: admin | Category: Computers Consoles & PC Gadgets Gaming Playstation | Tags: Indiana Jones | Comments: Off

Released at the tail end of 2024 on Xbox Series X|S and Windows, action-adventure game Indiana Jones and the Great Circle quickly established itself as not only one of the year's best games, but an incredibly immersive, cinema-rivaling romp that perfectly captured the spirit of Spielberg's beloved trilogy. Surpassing expectations, the first-person game didn't deliver the Uncharted or Tomb Raider rip-off many assumed we'd get. Nor did it turn out to be a shooter similar to developer MachineGames' successful Wolfenstein games.

Review information

Platform reviewed: PS5 Pro
Available on: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC
Release date: April 17, 2025

While either of those approaches probably would have worked just fine, the Swedish studio and publisher Bethesda Softworks went off the beaten path – much like Dr. Henry Jones Jr. himself – to produce an ambitious, story-driven, sublimely satisfying experience that's on par with the archeologists' best big screen adventures. As a result, it's now one of the best PS5 games and best PS5 Pro games you can play.

A thrilling ride worthy of the films

For those yet to don the fedora, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle spins an original canon yarn set in 1937, between the events of Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade (remember, Temple of Doom serves as a prequel to Raiders). The globe-trotting tale finds Indy exploring the likes of Vatican City, Thailand, Egypt, and beyond in his quest to uncover the secrets and mysteries behind the titular Great Circle.

For fans, this means participating in plenty of relic-hunting, puzzle-solving, and Nazi-pummeling antics across incredibly detailed, semi-open world maps. But it's the deft pacing and organic implementation of these various elements that make the game shine brighter than the Ark of the Covenant. Puzzles hit the sweet spot between being challenging but never to the point that frustration overshadows the fun, while the combat – which sees you fighting fascists with everything from fly swatters to frying pans – is a visceral blast.

Best bit

It feels fantastic wielding Indy's signature whip and pistol, but beating up baddies with every random object – from spatulas and brooms to candlesticks and various musical instruments – is a surprisingly satisfying way to thin the Third Reich's ranks, especially with the DualSense's bells and whistles upping the immersion.

On the subject of putting Hitler's heavies in their place, the game, of course, arms you with Indy's trusty pistol and bullwhip. But rather than regularly relying on these items, you use them smartly and sparingly, supplementing them with lots of sneaking around, stealth takedowns, and improvisational melee combat. Seriously, breaking a mandolin over a baddie's head never gets old.

This sort of balanced, organic approach also translates to puzzle-decryption and environmental exploration, as you'll rarely find yourself simply mimicking on-screen prompts, chasing down shiny symbols, or following icons. Instead, you'll rely on Indy's intuitive camera and info-packed journal to naturally progress through objectives.

And while the critical path will keep you busy, the expansive sandboxes are brimming with optional collectibles, secrets, and surprises worth seeking out. On that note, expect to discover plenty of manuals that help you upgrade Indy's abilities, an especially cool feature that forgoes the usual, game-y skill trees in favor of a leveling system that more naturally suits the character.

Whether you're cracking ancient conundrums or Nazi skulls, the game offers an absorbing visual and audio experience that seamlessly blends its first and third-person perspectives. Most of the action unfolds from the former, while the latter perfectly frames some platforming sequences – like climbing and swinging – as well as cutscenes. Toss in some epic set pieces and Troy Baker's spot-on Harrison Ford performance, and the Great Circle puts the whip in your grip like never before.

PS5 fortune and glory

All that said, the game's original release did suffer from some graphical and performance issues, especially on the Xbox Series S. With this PlayStation 5 version - particularly when played on a PS5 Pro - however, those problems have been squashed like a crypt-inhabiting creepy crawly beneath Indy's boot.

Where many titles on both the standard PS5 and Pro consoles offer a choice between Performance and Fidelity modes, the Great Circle ditches those options for a beefy default that delivers both native 4K resolution at 60fps. Supported by advanced ray tracing tech – putting some of the prettiest lighting and reflection effects I've ever seen on screen – the result is an absolutely stunning, incredibly sharp visual presentation complemented by performance that feels as smooth as a poison-dipped date.

Of course, the PS5 release also cranks the immersion through the DualSense controller's nuanced haptic feedback, adaptive triggers, LED lighting, and touchpad effects. Whether feeling the building rumble of Raiders' iconic boulder trap, splintering a guitar over a goose stepper's head, or pulling your whip as it wraps around a foe's limbs, you'll never experience the same tactile sensation. Smaller touches, like the LED light flashing green when you apply a life-saving bandage, further make you feel like you're actually under the hat.

More than a mere port, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on PS5 is easily the definitive version of the game, thanks to the various features, upgrades, and enhancements that this version built for Sony’s consoles brings to the adventure.

Should you play Indiana Jones and the Great Circle for PS5?

Play it if...

You love the Indy films
Highly evocative of Indy's Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade era, The Great Circle offers an incredibly immersive action-adventure romp that's as close as you'll come to a playable Indiana Jones movie. A must-play for fans of the franchise.

You have a thirst for adventure
While the Great Circle puts you under the hat like never before, you needn't be an Indy nerd to enjoy it. The rewarding mix of deep exploration, puzzle-solving, collectible-gathering, and improvisational combat will satisfy any fan of the genre’s thirst for adventure.

You've been waiting for the best console version of the game
PlayStation owners may not have gotten Indy's latest interactive adventure when it arrived late last year, but the wait was worth it. While the Great Circle impressed on Xbox platforms, its PS5/PS5 Pro release is the prettiest, most immersive console version of the game.

Don't play it if...

The content didn't get you cracking the whip the first time
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle receives notable graphics and performance upgrades on the PS5/PS5 Pro, but its content is identical to that of the Xbox and PC versions released last year. If you're looking for different or new content – like the upcoming Order of Giants DLC – you won't find it here.

Accessibility

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle goes pretty deep in terms of accessibility features, offering a solid suite of options for those looking to tweak and tinker. Both the size and color of the user interface elements can be adjusted, while subtitles and closed captions can also be personalized to your preferences. Camera modes, like motion blur and screen shake, can also be turned on or off.

There are also protanopia, deuteranopia, and tritanopia color filter modes for color blind players, as well as various HUD adjustment settings. The game also offers a number of difficulty settings for both its action elements, which can tweak enemy quantity and behavior, as well as adventure aspects, which can adjust puzzle difficulty and toggle objective markers.

How I reviewed Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

I played Indiana Jones and the Great Circle for over 40 hours, with about a third of that time invested in optional activities and additional exploration. I reviewed the game on the PlayStation 5 Pro, but also put several hours into the Xbox Series X version to compare the visuals and performance. I also tested all the new DualSense-specific features. I played on my budget model TCL 4K display with HDR enabled. For audio, I used my television's onboard stereo speakers, but also tested with PlayStation's Pulse Explore earbuds.

First reviewed May-June 2025

There are plenty of expensive SSD NAS, but I tested the TerraMaster F4 and it might deliver exactly what many people want from this technology

2:11 pm |

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

TerraMaster F4: 30-second review

Terramaster has effectively carved out a niche in the NAS world with a combination of well-constructed hardware that supports a feature-rich environment and is aggressively priced.

As a result, it has attracted many home and small business customers who wouldn’t pay Synology, Asustor, or QNAP prices, but wanted solid equipment to manage and distribute data.

The F4 SSD isn’t the first SSD-based NAS that TerraMaster has produced, but it immediately stands out as something distinctly mainstream, significantly cheaper than the majority of products in this sector.

This small box can mount four PCIe Gen 3 NVMe drives, providing a total capacity of 32TB, and then distribute them over the network using a 5GbE LAN port.

The core of this solution is an Intel N85 processor, and it comes with 8GB of DDR5 memory, which is easily upgradable to 32GB by the user.

It utilises TerraMaster’s own TOS 6.0 operating system, although you don’t invalidate your hardware warranty if you use a third-party NAS OS, such as TrueNAS SCALE, Proxmox, etc.

With all this flexibility for a modest price, what’s the catch here?

The issue with this system is that the CPU’s power is on the low side, and therefore, it wouldn’t be ideal for running multiple simultaneous applications, Docker containers, or virtual machines.

At best, this hardware is best for primary tasks with perhaps a secondary role, but accept that file serving will take much of the power in this machine.

However, even with those limitations, this is a neat and helpful platform for those who want a tiny, silent and efficient NAS solution.

TerraMaster F4 SSD NAS — (Image credit: Mark Pickavance)

TerraMaster F4: Price and availability

How much does it cost? From $400/£380
When is it out? Available now
Where can you get it? Direct from the makers or through an online retailer

Unlike some brands, TerraMaster is widely available and also sells its hardware directly from its website.

The asking price for the only available SKU is $399.99 on Amazon in the United States and £379.99 on Amazon in the United Kingdom. That’s $200 less than the larger F8 model, and half the price of the F8 Plus.

That’s dramatically cheaper than the Ugreen NASync DXP480T, which costs about double this and still only takes four NVMe drives. However, that machine has a much more powerful i5 platform, a 10GbE LAN port and Thunderbolt.

The Asustor Flashstor 6 FS6706T is slightly more expensive, offering a six-drive option with increased processing power and dual 2.5GbE LAN ports, but it comes with only 4GB of memory.

Closer to the Ugreen option in price is the QNAP TBS-464-8G for $589.99 from Amazon, powered by the Intel Celeron N5105/N5095. The downside of that option is, other than the price, that the 8GB of RAM is not upgradable.

However, not all competitor devices are sold as NAS. One competitive alternative is the Minisforum MS-01-S1260 Mini Workstation, a mini PC that utilises the Core i5-12600H processor, supports three M.2 2280 drives, and features dual 2.5GbE LAN ports and USB4.

In a barebones configuration where the customer must provide an operating system, RAM, and storage, the MS-01-S1260 can be purchased for just $399.99 on Amazon, and there are SKUs that feature more powerful Core i9 CPUs.

Excluding mini-computers overlapping NAS territory, the TerraMaster F4 is the cheapest mainstream branded SSD NAS around, and represents excellent value for money.

But, only if the use case doesn’t require significant amounts of processing power.

Value: 4 / 5

TerraMaster F4: Specs

Item	Spec
CPU:	Intel N95 (4 cores, 4 Threads)
GPU:	Intel Graphics (16EU)
RAM:	8GB DDR5 expandable to 32GB
SATA Storage:	N/A
M.2 Storage:	4x M.2 NVMe PCIe 3.0
Ports:	2x USB3.2 Gen2 USB-A (10Gbps)
	1x USB3.2 Gen2 USB-C (10Gbps)
	1x HDMI 2.0b
Networking:	1x RJ45 5GbE LAN
OS:	TOS 6.0
Maximum Capacity:	4x 8TB M.2 NVMe (32TB)
RAID Modes:	TRAID, TRAID?, Single, JBOD, RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID5, RAID 6, RAID 10
PSU:	12V 4A 48W
Dimensions:	138 x 60 x 140 mm (LxWxH)
Weight:	600g

TerraMaster F4: Design

Chimney layout
Easy access
Simple and silent

The design and layout of this machine seem vaguely familiar, as it employs a concept similar to that of the Beelink Me mini system I recently reviewed.

What they share is a cooling solution where the case acts as a chimney, drawing cool air from below, gathering heat as it rises over the motherboard and M.2 storage before being expelled out of the top.

In the F4, the air is propelled by two almost silent 50mm fans on the bottom, and the book-like form factor is arranged with the M.2 slots on one side and the processor and memory on the other.

What’s slightly different is that the front face of the unit, where it says TerraMaster F4, is clearly not the end that should be facing you. As all the ports and the power button are at the opposite end, which is the rear.

What’s great about this unit over some other NAS is how easy it is to get inside to add drives and upgrade memory. A single thumbscrew on the rear releases the outer skin, allowing it to slide off easily.

With this plastic shell removed, the M.2 slots and the memory are available, and this doesn’t require any tools. However, TerraMaster does include a screwdriver, which is useful for those easy-to-misplace M.2 screws, and thankfully, some spares are included in the box.

I’m surprised that the designers didn’t use a sprung plastic retainer, like those on the Asustor Flashstor 6 FS6706T, as it would have made this design entirely tool-free.

According to TerraMaster, the M.2 slots are designed for up to 8TB drives, and there is sufficient room for modules with integrated heatsinks to be used. What I recommend is that if you use any double-sided modules, you should add a heatsink to them, as there’s no thermal pad connecting them to the case, which is mostly made of plastic.

For those wondering what the best drives to use are, TerraMaster has a good selection of approved brands and models in stark contrast to the own-brand path that Synology has recently taken.

Interestingly, I used an idiosyncratic mix of brands in my testing, some of which weren’t on this list, but I didn’t have any issues. The only ones the makers suggest to avoid are S500PRO modules by Fanxiang, and that’s across all their NAS boxes that can accept M.2 modules.

The only limitation on physical size for the F4 is that all drives must be NVMe and 2280, as there are no retainer positions for 2260, 2242, or 2230 drives.

If I were deploying one of these on a budget, I’d be considering using a drive like the Crucial P3, where the 4TB model can be found for under $220. Using these, a system with 16TB of storage can be constructed for close to $ 1,200, and as SSD NAS go, that’s cheap.

The strength of this design lies in its relatively low power consumption and vertical tube topology, which make for a simple-to-deploy and nearly silent NAS.

For those who would like a small NAS to sit on their desk, perhaps to keep a live backup of a running system, the F4 is ideal in many respects.

Design: 4 / 5

TerraMaster F4: Features

Intel N95 CPU
No ECC memory
Only 9 PCIe Lanes

When Intel first introduced the Atom series of processors, many wondered why customers would purchase such low-power systems. These days, platforms that are scaled back to run 24/7 or deliver just enough performance for the primary task are common.

The Intel N95 is where low-power computing took Intel, and it’s not anything you would ideally wish to use on a desktop computer.

While it does have an integrated GPU with sixteen execution units, this processor is more limited by its four-core CPU, which doesn’t support hyperthreading. Four cores on Windows 11 would be a nightmare, but for the custom Linux platform of TOS 6.0, it is sufficient. Additionally, with 8GB of RAM, expandable to 32GB, it is also more than enough for file-serving duties.

However, the wall and running into that barrier are never too far away with the N95, and this isn’t a system that would enjoy being pre-loaded with demanding applications. Those who put Plex on it don’t expect it to do that and also run a torrent client, a mail server and three Docker containers, because it won’t be smooth sailing.

Precisely where the N95 runs out of road entirely depends on how demanding the apps are, but if you want to run many applications, then there are alternatives that use more powerful Intel and AMD processors that will be better choices.

The other limitations of the N95 are that it can only address a single memory module and has limited PCIe Express lanes. There is only one memory channel, and thankfully, TerraMaster engineers used a DDR5 module on it to maximise bandwidth.

Intel claims it can address up to 16GB, while TerraMaster says 32GB, but whichever is correct, they both agree it doesn’t support ECC memory, unfortunately.

I believe, and this may be misinformation, that the standard memory model of the N95 allows only 16 GB. The additional 16GB of memory can be used for things like virtual machines.

If you don’t intend to use VMs, then putting more than 16GB in the F4 is probably pointless.

Even 16GB is a good amount of memory for a small server, especially when you consider that the drives in this unit don’t require much caching to perform well.

A bigger issue is the PCIe lanes, since these dictate exactly how much data can flow through the system and to externally connected devices.

With only nine PCIe 3.0 lanes, there isn’t enough bandwidth for the SSDs to have the full X4 lanes that modern NVMe drives are designed for. Two of the slots have been downgraded to X2, while the other two remain at X1. Therefore, it’s a futile exercise to populate these slots with modules meant for PCIe 4.0, since they will be downgraded to PCIe 3.0 by the system.

Being pragmatic, achieving 1GB/s from two drives and possibly 2GB/s from two others is still well beyond the performance required to saturate the 5GB/s of the single LAN port fully.

As there were no PCIe lanes left to add a card slot, the only way to get more network bandwidth is by using USB adapters. There are relatively inexpensive 5GbE adapters that can utilise USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports, but I cannot personally confirm whether they would work on this platform.

Again, if you want better than a single 5GbE LAN connection and more PCIe lanes for faster drives, then this probably isn’t the NAS for you.

Overall, the F4 makes the most of its hardware, but this machine won’t break any records for having excess performance on tap or for its responsiveness.

Features: 3 / 5

TerraMaster F4: Software

TOS 6.0
Applications
Yes to TrueNAS and UnRaid

For those who started with TerraMaster early on, and I’m happy to say that includes me, the evolution of the TerraMaster OS, or TOS, has been impressive.

Now in its sixth incarnation, this is a pretty mature platform that offers a wide range of functionality and applications.

While it doesn’t quite reach the levels of polish that Synology prides itself on, the feature set of TOS 6.0 ticks plenty of boxes.

One interesting change of direction that TerraMaster isn’t unique in taking is a shift away from first-party applications to those that are installed either as Docker-packaged containers or as virtual machines. Some compiled TOS apps, such as Qtorrent and Plex, are available on the TerraMaster application store. However, you can install later versions of these tools by finding the Docker container and using it instead.

While TerraMaster isn’t competing with the likes of QNAP and Synology for the number of available apps on its platform, there is more than enough for the majority of customers, and it isn’t a closed environment that requires approved tools.

TOS 6.0 isn’t for everyone, but TerraMaster is one of those NAS makers that is entirely customer-focused and is happy for their hardware to be used with TrueNAS Scale, UnRaid, Proxmox, or any other NAS OS the owner wishes. You won’t receive software support from TerraMaster if you opt for this approach, but hardware issues are still covered during the warranty period.

It’s interesting to see that TerraMaster and Ugreen are both pitching the ‘NAS-your-way’ approach, whereas other brands seem less confident about allowing alternatives into their playgrounds. This direction appears opposed to where Synology is heading, where the turnkey solution comes with much stricter limits on what you can and can’t do.

This is certainly more customer-friendly, but will it lead to a future where NAS makers no longer bother with a branded OS and instead offer a pre-loading service of a popular third-party OS? Only time will tell.

In short, TOS 6.0 offers a plethora of features that cover the majority of tasks that NAS commonly use, and if these don’t quite match your needs, the ability to run Docker containers and VMs is a viable answer.

Software: 4 / 5

TerraMaster F4: Final verdict

There are good things about the F4, and some other things that aren’t wonderful.

Unless you kludge a NUC into a mini server, this is undoubtedly one of the most affordable SSD NAS options available. However, being realistic, the cost of the F4 is likely to be dwarfed by that of the M.2 modules unless you only install 1TB or smaller drives in it.

If you can afford to populate this with 8TB modules, or even 4TB, then you might get more performance in return by investing in an Asustor or Ugreen SSD NAS.

The other issue here is that the Intel N95 limits the system’s capabilities somewhat, as it lacks the performance to handle multiple apps or Docker containers. It also dictates that there is no USB4/Thunderbolt, which on other systems can be used to locally network to a host PC while the LAN ports support other users.

The natural space this device occupies is either as a network location for live synchronisation or as a directly connected external storage system. In both these scenarios, the 5GbE LAN port can deliver and retrieve data at over 500MB/s, making it as fast as a USB 3.2 Gen 1 attached SSD. The lure is that it can offer capacities much larger than even the biggest USB-connected SSDs, which typically only offer 8TB as their largest option.

Outside of this use, justifying the investment becomes tougher, since this doesn’t have the power to be an all-purpose NAS or the LAN connections to handle a 10GbE network.

Should I buy a TerraMaster F4?

Value	Inexpensive, if you ignore the M.2 modules	4 / 5
Design	Elegant chiney cooling and easy access	4 / 5
Features	5GbE LAN, 8GB of RAM, but only a four-core CPU	3 / 5
Software	TOS 6 has plenty to like	4 / 5
Overall	Some improvements, removed features at twice the price	4 / 5

Buy it if...

You need a live local backup
With a 5GbE LAN port and up to 32TB of local storage, this could be the perfect device for live synchronising files from a desktop or workstation PC. The only caveat is that the unit must be either directly connected or used with a 5GbE network infrastructure.

You need a flexible solution
The app selection on ADM 5.0 is extensive and covers all the possible requirements, and for specialist user there are always Docker containers or VMs.

Don't Buy it if...

You need massive capacity
Even using 8TB SSDs, the four slots limit the practical space this NAS can have. If you use redundancy, that could be 24TB or less. Since a single conventional hard drive can have that much, this isn’t ideal for those with large datasets.

You need a flexible solution
The app selection on ADM 6.0 is extensive and covers all the possible requirements, but with only four cores running, more than a couple of demanding tasks isn’t a realistic option. If you want a more flexible NAS, then there are more powerful systems.

Also Consider

Asustor Flashstor 12 Pro FS6712X
An older Asustor machine that can take twelve M.2 drives, giving a maximum potential of 96TB, should you have the funds for that many 8TB drives.

What this unit lacks is processing power, as it's powered by an Intel Celeron N5105. That chip also means it only offers USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports for connecting external storage.

Read our full Asustor Flashstor 12 Pro FS6712X review

Ugreen NASync DXP480T Plus
A beautifully engineered NVMe NAS that takes 2280 drives of all sizes in its four slots.
Twice the cost of the F4, it features an integrated heatsink design, a single 10GbE LAN and Thunderbolt 4.0 ports.
Given its feature set, this is a viable alternative, admittedly with the same potential capacity.

Read our full Ugreen NASync DXP480T Plus review

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