We liked the RP-BE58 range extender from Asus, which provides dual-band Wi-Fi 7 with good performance at a competitive price. However, most people are still using older PCs and mobile devices that don’t support Wi-Fi 7 yet.
There are also many brand-new PCs and laptops now available that don’t have Wi-Fi 7 either (yes, Apple, we’re looking at you). And, of course, there’s no need to buy a range extender with Wi-Fi 7 if you’re still using an old router that only has Wi-Fi 5 or 6. In that case you might want to look at the Asus RP-AX58 range extender instead, which sticks with Wi-Fi 6 and an even more affordable price.
Admittedly, its dual-band Wi-Fi does run at a relatively modest 3.0Gbps, but that should still be more than adequate for streaming video or gaming in most homes, and the RP-AX58 will be a good, affordable option if you just need to boost your Wi-Fi into an upstairs bedroom or other area that suffers from a Wi-Fi deadspot.
Asus RP-AX58: Price And Availability
How much does it cost? $79.99/£64.99/AU $103.62
When is it available: Now
Where can you get it: US, UK, Australia
Sticking with Wi-Fi 6 means that the RP-AX58 is currently available for a very competitive $79.99/£64.99/AU $103.62.
That makes it one of the most affordable range extenders we’ve seen recently, and it’s considerably cheaper than Asus’ RP-BE58 with Wi-Fi 7, as well as rivals such as TP-Link’s BE3600. It’s available in most regions and, as Wi-Fi 6 is a few years old now, you can find it discounted online quite often if you want to shop around.
Value: 4/5
(Image credit: Future)
Asus RP-AX58: Design
Compact, slimline design
No cables, plugs directly into mains socket
2x internal antennae
The RP-AX58 looks virtually identical to its Wi-Fi 7 stablemate from Asus, with a similar slimline design that hides its two Wi-Fi antennae inside the body of the range extender.
It measures just 150mm high, 72mm wide and 87mm deep and, like most range extenders it’s designed to plug directly into a mains power socket, so its compact design ensures that you can simply plug it into any convenient socket in any room around your home or office.
There’s a Gigabit Ethernet port on the right-hand side of the range extender that can provide a wired connection as well (although the RP-AX58 will still connect to your main broadband router via Wi-Fi).
Design: 4
(Image credit: Future)
Asus RP-AX58: Features
Supports Asus AiMesh technology
Compatible with most routers
App feels a little clumsy
The Asus RP-AX58 provides dual-band Wi-Fi 6, running on the 2.4GHz and 5.0GHz frequency bands, which ensures compatibility with most PCs, consoles, and mobile devices.
Its 3.0Gbps performance isn’t going to break any speed records, but it should be more than adequate for use with most home broadband services, and fast enough to eliminate any Wi-Fi deadspots in rooms or other areas that suffer from poor Wi-Fi. The RP-AX58 will work with broadband routers from most manufacturers, but it also supports Asus’ AiMesh technology, which allows it to act as part of a mesh Wi-Fi network in conjunction with Asus’ own routers or mesh systems.
The Asus Extender app has a few rough edges, though. As I’ve seen before, the opening screen of the app displays some jumbled text on the screen of my iPhone (although that’s not a problem on the larger screen of an iPad).
However, even when the text is clear it’s... well... still a bit unclear. The app tells you to enter the ‘default password’ for the Wi-Fi network created by the range extender, when in fact the network doesn’t initially require a password.
It’s only after connecting the RP-AX58 to your existing Wi-Fi network that the app gives you the opportunity to set a password. You can create an entirely new network name and password just for connecting to the RP-AX58, or if you want to keep things simple you can just tell the app to use the same name and password as your existing Wi-Fi network.
The low price of the RP-AX58 means that there’s not much in the way of additional features, but that’s not a problem as long as it delivers the goods when tackling your Wi-Fi deadspots.
Features: 3/5
(Image credit: Future)
Asus RP-AX58: Performance
Dual-band Wi-Fi 6
3.0Gbps speed
1x Gigabit Ethernet port
The use of Wi-Fi 6 and a top speed of 3.0Gbps seems almost quaint when compared to the blazing speeds of the latest Wi-Fi 7 devices. Yet few people really need multi-gig speeds for their home or office Wi-Fi, so the RP-AX58 should still provide all the speed you need for most home broadband services.
Asus RP-AX58 benchmarks
Ookla Speed Test – 2.4GHz (download/upload)
Within 30ft, three partition walls: 120Mbps / 120Mbps
20GB Steam Download - 2.4GHz
Within 30ft, three partition walls: 120Mbps
Ookla Speed Test – 5.0GHz (download/upload)
Within 30ft, three partition walls: 150Mbps / 150Mbps
20GB Steam Download - 5.0GHz
Within 30ft, three partition walls: 150Mbps
It worked well with my own Wi-Fi deadspot, located in an office towards the back of a building that my normal office router struggles to reach. I installed the RP-AX58 in a hallway just outside that office and immediately said goodbye to the dead zone – and to the PowerLine adaptors that I normally use to provide a wired connection in that room.
My office broadband runs at 150Mbps, and the slower 2.4GHz band provided by the RP-AX58 was able to provide a perfectly reliable speed of 120Mbps in the back office for Steam downloads and the Ookla Speed Test.
Admittedly, the RP-BE58 range extender from Asus ran slightly faster on that frequency band, hitting 135Mps, but the RP-BE58 is more expensive because of its up-to-date support for Wi-Fi 7, and 120Mbps will still be enough to handle web browsing and streaming video with no trouble.
And, as expected, the faster 5.0GHz band delivered the full 150Mbps available with our office broadband for both Ookla and Steam. Owners of newer devices that support Wi-Fi 7 might prefer a more up-to-date router or range extender that can deliver the higher performance of Wi-Fi 7, but if you just need to boost the Wi-Fi in one or two rooms around your home then the RP-AX58 will do the trick without breaking the bank.
Performance: 3/5
Should You Buy The Asus RP-AX58?
Asus RP-AX58 Scorecard
Attributes
Notes
Score
Value
It’s very much an entry-level option, but the RP-AX58 is an affordable option for dealing with Wi-Fi deadspots.
4 / 5
Design
A slimline design that plugs directly into a mains power socket and doesn’t take up too much space.
4 / 5
Features
Entry-level price means entry-level features, but the RP-AX58 does the job of boosting your home Wi-Fi.
3 / 5
Performance
Dual-band Wi-Fi 6 running at 3.0Gbps is far from breath-taking, but it should still be able to handle most online tasks with ease.
3 / 5
Final Score
It’s last-gen Wi-Fi, but still a perfectly good option for those of us that haven’t upgraded to the latest Wi-Fi 7.
3.5 / 5
Buy it if...
You’ve got a deadspot It does what it says on the tin – extending the range of your existing Wi-Fi network to reach into a room that struggles with poor Wi-Fi.
You're on a budget It’s very much a no-frills option, but the RP-AX58 is very good value for money and suitable for use with most home broadband services.
Don’t buy it if...
You’re an early adopter If you own a PC or any mobile devices that already have Wi-Fi 7, then you should probably spend a little extra for a more modern range extender.
You need 'whole home' Wi-Fi Range extenders are great for reaching just one or two rooms, but larger homes with several bedrooms may need a mesh Wi-Fi system with greater range.
Also Consider
If you're undecided about the Asus RP-AX58, I've compared its specs with two other options that might be a better fit.
Asus RP-AX58
TP-Link AXE5400
Asus RP-BE58
Price
$79.99/£64.99/AU $103.62
$139.99/£119.14
$99.99/79.99/AU$150
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi 6
Wi-Fi 6E
Wi-Fi 7
Wi-Fi Speed
3.0Gbps
5.4Gbps
3.6Gbps
Antennae
2 (internal)
4 (external)
2 (internal)
Ethernet ports
1x Gigabit Ethernet
1x Gigabit Ethernet
1x Gigabit Ethernet
Dimensions
150 x72 x 87mm
348 x 106 x 80mm
150 x 72 x 87mm
It’s one of the biggest range extenders we’ve ever seen, but the four antennae used by the AXE5400 provide tri-band Wi-Fi 6E running at a healthy 5.4Gbps.
The Wi-Fi 7 version of the RP-AX58 is a little more expensive, but also a little faster at 3.6Gbps. It also includes Wi-Fi 7 features such as MLO that further help to boost performance.
The Hisense L9Q represents the pinnacle of what Hisense can do for home theater projection. It’s a sizzlingly bright 4K ultra short throw (UST) projector that boasts the wide color gamut of triple-laser projectors alongside the accurate color of Pantone Validated hardware.
The Hisense L9Q is a capable streamer on its own thanks to integrated Google TV, and it has fast-enough hardware to run the operating system smoothly. It can also serve as a hub for various video sources with its multiple HDMI ports and an ATSC 3.0 tuner input – a rare feature on the best projectors. And though it doesn’t include a screen like some earlier Hisense L9 models, this version has a variable focus to let it adapt to different setups.
Where most other projectors settle for two or maybe four speakers, the L9Q packs in a whopping ten Devialet-designed speakers in a 6.2.2 configuration for the most impressive sound I’ve heard from a projector. It may not beat actual surround sound speaker systems, but it’s enough to put even the best soundbars to shame.
The L9Q is even a solid gaming projector with its ability to display 4K 60Hz gameplay with low input lag or switch over to 1080p 240Hz for extra smooth visuals and responsive gaming.
It’s a serious package, but it comes with a seriously high-end price at $5,999 / £3,999. That may seem steep, but considering how quickly the prices of TVs ramp up when you go past 75 inches, the math starts to work in Hisense’s favor. The L9Q can put out a 150-inch picture just as easily as it can do 100 inches, and has flexible setup features to get up and running.
For most people who don’t need the added brightness and already have a good sound system, the $3,499 / £2,499 Hisense PX3-Pro will be a more reasonable option. But if you demand the best, the L9Q delivers.
The Hisense L9Q is available for $5,999 / £3,999. In Australia, the projector comes bundled with a 120-inch screen and sells for AU$9,999. Given that it launched towards the end of 2025, the L9Q is unlikely to see any major discounts until sometime in late 2026.
The Hisense L9Q comes with a full-size remote control and uses the Google TV platform for streaming (Image credit: Future)
TheL9Q has four HDMI ports (1 with eARC and two HDMI 2.1) and supports gaming at 1080p/240Hz (Image credit: Future)
Hisense L9Q Review: design and features
Stunning design
Projector, sound system, and streamer all in one
Plentiful connection options
Hisense here has created what I think is its best-looking UST projector yet. The L9Q borrows some of the ideas from the retro-futuristic PX line to deliver a bronze-kissed work of art. Most of the frame of the L9Q is a little boxy, keeping it simple with clean lines, but the front has small channels with power indicator lights and the top bears a curved sort of wave meant to evoke Roman amphitheaters. That’s not just for style either, as the top integrates several speakers. The front is emblazoned with concentric rings and a grille on the front hides even more speakers. Around the side, there are two discs housing yet another pair of speakers.
While the design is very appealing, it’s also functional. The projector sits on four height-adjustable feet to help you level the projector and get a perfectly square image. Where its Hisense L9G predecessor was designed with specific screen sizes in mind (and included those screens), the L9Q is more flexible, offering adjustable keystone and focus to let you adapt it to your needs. The flip side is that the L9Q does not include any screen, which was an addition worth easily $1,000 on earlier models. Whatever screen you do set it up with, the projector can automatically fit the picture to it, though it's a software solution and will reduce the actual image resolution.
Another set of sensors at the top of the projector helps protect your eyes. When these detect someone is close to the projection, they'll dim the display, and after 5 seconds, turn it off entirely. That's good to have since this projector uses bright lasers, and in my testing, the sensors have been fairly responsive.
Another update with the L9Q is that the throw ratio has been reduced to 0.18:1. This lets you get a big image while getting the projector closer to the wall.
Around back, the L9Q has a good selection of connections. You get four HDMI ports, two of which meet the version 2.1 spec. A separate HDMI offers eARC, so you don't have to use up an HDMI 2.1 port for audio output. There's also an optical digital audio output, an Ethernet input, and an RF input for the L9Q’s ATSC 3.0 receiver. The projector even supports a PVR recording system for broadcast TV using an attached storage device. Three USB ports round out the options, with two offering USB 3.0 speeds, and one of those using a Type-C connection.
Even if you don't connect the projector to an external source, you can stream content on the built-in Google TV operating system. While many projectors include built-in operating systems like this, the L9Q actually has the hardware to run it smoothly. In my time testing, the system remained responsive even as I launched and navigated apps, and I could reliably control the projector at all times. The Wi-Fi 6E connection used by the streaming platform is also robust.
Hisense’s included remote is almost the same as what came with the PX3-Pro. It's a long silver handset made out of plastic with the typical Google TV navigation ring. At the top, it features a handful of shortcuts to streaming apps, including one customizable shortcut. There's also a dedicated input select button, which is always handy to have.
One difference between the remotes is that instead of having a control for brightness, the L9Q remote has a channel select button. This and the volume controls are on tall, pill-shaped buttons that are easy to feel out. One great feature of the remote is that it reacts to movement and will light up many of the controls if you simply move it. This is very helpful in the typically dark home theater environment.
Design and features score: 5/5
Powered by 5,000 lumens, the Hisense L9Q's picture stands out even in bright lighting conditions (Image credit: Future)
Hisense L9Q Review: performance
Wonderfully bright picture with rich color
Support for 1080p/240Hz gaming
Potent 10-speaker Dolby Atmos sound
The Hisense L9Q brings UST projector picture quality to new heights. Hisense already impressed me with earlier models such as the L9G and PX3-Pro, but the L9Q carries the torch even further. It’s their brightest projector yet while still providing the stunning color of Hisense’s RGB laser light engine.
Ultimately, its specified 5,000 lumen brightness may be overstated, as maximum brightness comes via a high-brightness mode that results in some horrible color shift. But even without that, the projector beams a brilliant picture. The vivid colors it is capable of don’t mean a sacrifice in accuracy either, as the L9Q is both Pantone Validated and Pantone SkinTone certified.
All of that is delivered with strong contrast. The black levels aren’t so low that letterbox bars disappear completely, especially in darker movie scenes, but when the projector is beaming bright, the bars become hard to see thanks to the projector’s contrast.
The L9Q’s black levels and contrast aren’t quite on the level of the Sony Bravia Projector 7, but it gets closer than most projectors I’ve seen, and it manages it with more vivid color and higher brightness. Not to mention that the L9Q is almost half the price of Sony’s projector.
With most picture presets, you’ll be facing some unfortunate motion smoothing, though, since the projector’s SDR and HDR picture profiles default to using motion smoothing. This has its benefits for some content by smoothing out camera pans and moving objects, but it adds a soap opera effect to movies. The “Film” setting avoids these unsightly artifacts while still keeping judder subdued, however.
The L9Q delivers good focus from corner to corner with manual setup, making the most of its 4K resolution. And the amount of detail you can see with the picture stretching up to 100 inches or larger is exceptional.
Gamers can get plenty from the L9Q as well. Even when it’s beaming a 4K 60Hz picture, it’s able to keep the input latency low enough to make for a fairly responsive experience. Like the Hisense PX3-Pro, the L9Q can drop down to 1080p and crank its refresh rate to 240Hz for super smooth gaming (just make sure to set the HDMI input source to Enhanced Pro or it will top out at 120Hz). I took it for a few runs in Hades, and it was stunningly smooth with virtually no detectable lag.
Though the L9Q did a good job of hiding the rainbow effect most of the time, it is susceptible to it like many other DLP projectors. I didn’t notice it much when watching 4K content, where it only occasionally cropped up and was most visible on white areas of the image. It was also more noticeable while running the projector at 1080p/240Hz.
The projector’s very robust speaker system was an extra pleasant surprise. It uses a total of 10 speakers in a 6.2.2-channel configuration. Four of those speakers are in the front, two on the sides, with four more positioned along the curved top. It’s not as engrossing as a proper surround system or as booming as a double-sub setup (nor is it hitting deep sub-bass), but the sound is weighty, loud, and presents a surprisingly wide soundstage for such a small unit.
With Dolby Atmos audio piping out of the speakers during Star Wars: The Force Awakens, blaster shots seemed to come out from different points in space, there was some height to the TIE fighters flying over, and explosions were properly booming. Ultimately, it’s worth pairing a projector of this quality with an external sound system, but if you don’t, there’s a lot to get from the built-in speakers.
Performance score: 4.5/5
The L9Q has a very appealing, yet functional design (Image credit: Future)
Hisense L9Q Review: value
High price
Extra value as an all-in-one system
No projector screen included in US and UK
The Hisense L9Q is a serious piece of kit, and it has the price to match. At $5,999 / £3,999, you have to expect a lot from this home theater projector, and for the most part, it delivers. Its picture is bright and color-rich, it has powerful built-in sound, and it has Google TV for streaming. But for most people, the $3,499 Hisense PX3-Pro is going to be the more sensible option, since it offers much the same experience but without quite the same brightness, audio power, or extensive connectivity options.
It's kind of a shame that the L9Q doesn't come bundled with a projector screen in the US and the UK, but its flexible lens control means you can pair it with whatever screen you want for the most part. Hisense had offered pre-order customers the option of either a free screen or its HT-Saturn sound wireless speaker system, both of which would have made this an astounding value, but that deal appears to have since expired.
Value score: 4/5
French speaker and amplifier manufacturer Devialet designed the L9Q's built-in audio system (Image credit: Future)
Hisense L9Q
Notes
Rating
Design and features
The Hisense L9Q is gorgeously designed and feature-packed. It has the most robust sound system I’ve heard built into a projector, it offers bright and flexible projection, and it has Google TV and plenty of ports for other video sources.
5/5
Performance
The L9Q’s picture is gorgeous. This projector beams bright, has a wide color gamut, strong contrast, and great clarity. It works well for movies and games alike. And that picture is paired with impressive speakers. Even the operating system runs smoothly, which is not always the case with projectors running Google TV.
5/5
Value
The Hisense L9Q packs a lot into one package. Its price isn’t surprising for even just its projection, but the speaker system makes it even more reasonable. It’s just too bad Hisense isn’t throwing in a screen as well.
4.5/5
Should I buy the Hisense L9Q?
(Image credit: Future)
Buy it if...
You want the ultimate UST projector
The Hisense L9Q beams bright pictures and has powerful audio. It plays twitchy video games just as well as it can play cinema masterpieces. And it’s got all the ports you need plus Google TV built-in.
You want powerful built-in audio
The L9Q's speaker system is far more robust than what you’d get from its competition. If you’re looking for a projector that can stand on its own without needing to be connected to an external sound system, this is your best bet.
You need a projector for brighter rooms
Almost no projector is going to look great in a bright room, but there’s a big difference between a 1,000-lumen and a 5,000-lumen projector where viewability is concerned. The L9Q’s high brightness is a big advantage it has over the competition.
Don’t buy it if…
You plan to always watch in the dark
A huge part of the package here is the brightness. If you’re always going to be watching in a dark home theater, the L9Q’s 5,000-lumen brightness is likely going to be over the top. Better to instead buy the PX3-Pro and apply those savings to a quality screen and sound system.
You want a sub-100-inch picture.
The L9Q can support a smaller picture, but it’s almost unfeasible to get one. With a 5.4-inch gap between the projector and your wall, you’ll get a 100-inch picture. At 2.2 inches, the picture size will be 80 inches.
You won’t use a screen and have imperfect walls
As great as the L9Q itself is, its picture is dependent on other factors. It will look best with a screen, though it can still look great on a bare wall. But due to the extreme angle of UST projection, anyimperfections in your wall — warping, pits, texture — will have an easier time showing up in the picture.
While it’s no match for the color or audio provided by the L9Q, Epson’s EpiqVision Ultra LS800 can get close to its brightness, offering a picture that works well in brighter rooms. Its use of 3LCD technology also avoids rainbow artifacts, and the projector is a good deal cheaper.
The Xgimi Aura 2 is a competent alternative with a quality picture that also benefits from a wide color gamut. It has an elegant design and a similar throw ratio to the Hisense. It’s not nearly as bright and doesn’t have the same gaming capabilities, but if you’re looking for a sleek UST home theater projector, it is a strong option.
If you’re not sure you need the L9Q's high brightness or powerful built-in speakers, then the PX3-Pro is the way to go. It uses similar underlying technology to give you a gorgeous, colorful picture and has the same 240Hz gaming prowess. It’s also a bit smaller. More importantly, it’s substantially cheaper, giving you extra room in your budget for a sound system and quality screen.
Tested at home in multiple, real-world viewing conditions
Presented the display with a variety of media and formats
I have tested numerous projectors and displays over the last half-decade
I tested the Hisense L9Q at home, in real-world conditions. This saw it faced with ambient light coming in from numerous windows, in-room lighting, as well as ambient noise that both the projector and speaker systems had to overcome. The projector was tested both against a bare, white wall and an Akia Screens CineWhite screen. It was presented with streamed content, HDR and non-HDR, and PC gameplay.
My testing evaluates the projector’s performance with respect to its price and competition from other models that my colleagues and I at TechRadar have tested.
I have been testing projectors since 2021 and displays for even longer.
Samsung is finally bringing the Galaxy A17 5G to the US. This phone was launched elsewhere in August. Joining it is the Galaxy Tab A11+, which was initially released in early November in other markets.
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The Galaxy A17 5G will become available on January 7 for $199.99 at AT&T, T-Mobile, Metro by T-Mobile, Verizon, and Samsung Experience Stores. It will be offered in black, blue, and gray. Samsung is selling the model with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of expandable storage in the US.
The phone has a 6.7-inch 1080x2340 Super AMOLED touchscreen with 90Hz refresh...
Cuisinart is a renowned brand in the kitchen appliance space, and the Cuisinart FlexPrep 1.1L Food Processor proves why. This food processor appliance offers a 1.1L capacity, providing a reasonable amount of space for everyday use without occupying a large amount of storage space. But don’t let its compact size fool you, this is a powerhouse of an appliance.
The FlexPrep 1.1L Food Processor comes with three attachments: a reversible shredding disc (offering fine or medium shredding/grating), a whipping disc for creams, and a sharp chopping blade, which can also be used to purée and emulsify foods or for tasks such as combining pastry. Shredding and chopping take mere seconds, depending on the food type, while this food processor also saves time (and energy) on more tedious tasks, including whipping double cream or blending nuts into butter. We found minimal food to be left unprocessed at the end, or stuck under the disc/blade. Handwashing was fairly easy, too, especially given that the attachments and bowl are dishwasher safe.
(Image credit: Future)
However, results aren’t always even. While this is largely a minor issue, with carrot or courgette gratings being of varied sizes (though still grated), it was more apparent with a couple of tests/ We found that chopping almonds resulted in some being left whole, while others were almost a powder, while puréeing the almonds into a butter results in half of the nuts (those on the bottom half) being more processed than the other.
The power this food processor packs seems to be part of the issue, as its speed can let down its precision at times. You have little control over this power, too, as the FlexPrep 1.1L Food Processor only comes with two main functions: on and pulse. Pulse gives you a bit more control, but we’d have loved to have had the option to increase or decrease the power level as needed. We’d also have liked the inclusion of a slicing attachment, which we’ve seen with similar products, such as the Magimix 4200XL.
These issues are relatively minor, however, and the Cuisinart FlexPrep 1.1L Food Processor is overall a superb kitchen appliance. And, with a £70 price tag, you’d be hard pressed to find a food processor that offers as high quality for such good value.
Cuisinart FlexPrep 1.1L Food Processor: price and availability
£70 at Cuisinart UK or $89.95 for US model (FP-5)
Unavailable in Australia
Available at third-party retailers, including Amazon and Lakeland
Regular discounts can see it dropped to around £50
The Cuisinart FlexPrep 1.1L Food Processor (Model FP5U) is available in the UK for £69.99 at Cuisinart UK, while the US equivalent model (FP-5) is $89.95. Unfortunately, at the time of writing, this food processor isn’t available in Australia.
This places this food processor firmly in the budget range, and the quality on offer for that price tag is exceptional, especially considering that there are regular discounts on this appliance. It doesn’t offer the variety of functions we see with some of the premium products on our best food processors list, such as the Breville the Paradice 16 ($699.95 / £579.95 / AU$899) or Nutribullet Triple Prep System ($244.99 / £229.99 / AU$349.95), but it’s considerably more affordable.
So, if you want one of the food processors that does the basics well, you can’t go wrong with the Cuisinart FlexPrep 1.1L Food Processor. If you need a slightly larger capacity, but don’t want to fork out for a premium appliance, it’s worth considering the Cuisinart Easy Prep Pro FP8 food processor, priced at £125/ $99.95.
5.9in (D) x 13.3in (W) x 8.1in (H) / 150mm (D) x 338mm (W) x 206mm (H)
Dishwasher-safe
Yes (on top rack only)
Guarantee
3 years
Cuisinart FlexPrep 1.1L Food Processor: design
Storage hub for chopping blade
BladeLock system for safe handling
Compact size
No control over power
No slicing attachment
Out of the box, the Cuisinart FlexPrep 1.1L Food Processor comes with a compact, silver housing base, a 1.1L work bowl, a lid featuring a feed tube, a pusher for that tube, a stem adapter, a metal chopping blade, a reversible shredding disc (for fine and medium shredding), a whipping disc, and a storage hub for the blades. On the outside of the base are two black buttons: on and pulse/off.
What’s immediately striking is how compact the appliance is. As such, it doesn’t offer a huge capacity, but plenty for those preparing smaller batches of food. The appliance is fairly straightforward to assemble, with the work bowl locking into the base, and then your disc or blade locking into the accompanying stem adaptor, which is then locked into the work bowl. Cuisinart’s BladeLock system ensures the blade or disc remains locked in place when processing or pouring, offering an extra layer of safety. The lid then locks into the work bowl, with the pusher slipping easily (but tightly) into the lid’s food tube.
(Image credit: Future)
Our main issue with the setup was that, while the accompanying user manual is quite thorough, it’s mostly text-based, with very few images, making it initially challenging to ensure we’d set up the appliance correctly before its first use, which is critical when sharp blades are involved. We appreciated the storage hub that allows you to safely store the chopping blades and stem adapter, and fits into the workbowl but wish it could fit the discs, too.
The Cuisinart FlexPrep 1.1L Food Processor’s two buttons make it easy to use, with Pulse used for short bursts of power and On for consistent processing. However, this food processor packs a punch, so while your food can produce results quickly, there’s a fine line between it potentially becoming overprocessed. At one point in our testing, the machine began shaking back and forth on our countertop with the power, and some grated carrot jumped out of the feeding tube as we tried to add more.
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(Image credit: Future)
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It’s also incredibly loud; we found it registered a 99 decibel reading when chopping onions, comparable to the volume of a boiler room. We also wish a slicing attachment were included, as this is a common function for food processors and would have offered slightly more variety.
Overall, we found this to be a safety-conscious food processor that is easy to use, has a sleek and compact design, and values basic practicality over extra bells and whistles.
We began testing using the chopping blade to chop a medium-sized red onion. While the user manual includes a user guide for different food types, suggesting the tool, function, and directions to use for each, it offers few instructions for vegetables, bar a suggestion to cut raw ingredients into even, 1cm pieces before inserting them into the work bowl. This user manual also doesn’t suggest optimal quantities of food (or any quantities).
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(Image credit: Future)
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We were taken aback by how quickly the appliance chopped the onion in its consistent On mode. It took a few seconds (less than 10) for the onion to be entirely chopped, with no unchopped ingredient left under the blade, and the result was largely even cuts, with some outlying larger pieces – though not enough to present an issue. The speed was impressive; however, the power means you should use the Pulse feature for chopping, to have more control and prevent overprocessing.
Chopping bread with this blade, too, produced excellent results. As the user manual suggested, we tore three slices of multi-seed bread into pieces before using Pulse (for just one second) three or four times, before setting the processing to On. It took between five and 10 seconds to produce evenly chopped bread crumbs, with no bread caught underneath the blade.
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Chopping almonds, however, produced less consistent results. We added 250g of whole almonds to the work bowl before using the Pulse setting to break up the nuts. It took around 25 one-second pulses to break up the almonds, but we found that while some of the almonds were chopped well, others in the same bowl were either a powder-like consistency or still whole.
After checking the consistency, we pressed the On button to continue processing to make almond butter. In around 10 seconds, the chopped almonds transformed into almond flour, but it took around six minutes to produce butter. The issue with this was that the bottom half of the work bowl’s produce had become butter, but the top half hadn’t, and wasn’t getting access to the blades as evenly, even when we used a spatula to scrape down the edges (when the appliance was off). The result was very hard butter at the bottom, with smoother butter nearer the top.
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We did, however, find the Cuisinart FlexPrep 1.1L Food Processor a dream when combining shortcrust pastry with this chopping blade. After adding our flour and butter to the bowl, we pulsed the mixture around 20 times before adding a couple of tablespoons of water and setting it to On.
It took around 45 seconds for the pastry to come together, resulting in perfectly mixed pastry. You need to keep a close eye on the appliance when using it for this task, however, as the speed and power of the machine means it your dough can quickly become overworked.
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We next tried the reversible shredding disc, which offers two options: fine shredding or medium shredding. You choose your shred by inserting the disc with the corresponding side (there is small writing that indicates which side is which) facing upwards. We started with a standard courgette on the fine shredding side. A full courgette wouldn’t fit through the feeding tube, so we sliced it vertically down the middle to fit. With the food processor on, we were able to slowly insert the courgette through the tube and into the spinning shredding disc.
The appliance shreds quickly, but you don’t feel it pulling the ingredients in at an unsafe speed. Instead, the pressure you apply feels largely in your control. In less than 20 seconds, or courgette was shredded. While the result was well-shredded pieces, with minimal residue left on the lid, the pieces weren’t all evenly sized: some pieces were shorter and others longer.
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Our results with shredding carrots on the medium shred blade were similar. Again, we had to cut our two carrots down the middle vertically to fit them in the tube, but they grated in less than 20 seconds – though some carrot pieces shot out of the tube as we added more. The carrot was grated well, but again, the pieces weren’t consistently even with each other. Much like with the courgette, this isn’t a huge issue in the cooking process, but it is something we’ve seen achieved by competitors.
Finally, we tested the whipping disc with 240ml of double cream. Whipping cream can be a real chore, but this food processor produced perfectly whipped cream (that we could hold upside down without drippage) in around 40 to 50 seconds. While some residue was stuck under the blade and not entirely mixed in, we were pleased overall with the results.
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Overall, the Cuisinart FlexPrep 1.1L Food Processor offers high-quality results, but not necessarily precision. Its power is its greatest strength, as it offers tremendous speed, but it is also its biggest weakness, as it can easily overwork foods if you’re not careful.
Performance score: 4.5/5
Should you buy the Cuisinart FlexPrep 1.1L Food Processor?
This food processor may not come with the variety of functions seen with premium products, but offers high quality for a budget price tag.
5/5
Design
Its compact size means this food processor won't need a lot of storage room. It's also incredibly easy to use, but we do wish we had more control over its power levels.
4.5/5
Performance
This is a powerhouse food processor, shredding, whipping, and chopping with impressive speed, but this does come somewhat at the cost of precision.
4.5/5
Buy it if
You want a quality, budget food processor
For its budget price tag, this food processor offers quality results. While it can only perform a handful of (fairly basic) functions, it offers excellent value for those who want an affordable food processor to handle day-to-day food prep.
You value speed over precision
This food processor offers a huge amount of power, which means it produces its results with impressive speed. The pieces may not always be even, and you need to keep an eye on it to ensure it doesn’t overwork your food, but if speed is the most important factor to you, this is a great option.
You want to save on storage space
The Cuisinart FlexPrep 1.1L Food Processor is surprisingly compact, taking up minimal room. So, if you’re struggling for storage space, this is an excellent choice.
Don't buy it if
You want a wide variety of functions
The Cuisinart FlexPrep 1.1L Food Processor can shred, purée, chop, whip, and emulsify, but doesn’t come with some of the functions we’ve seen in competitors, such as slicing. If you want an all-singing-all-dancing food processor, this may not be the one for you.
You want control over power levels
While this is a powerful appliance, it can be too powerful at times, and there’s little control over it. If you want a food processor that has more options for power levels, therefore giving you more control over the final results, then you may be better considering an alternative.
You need a large capacity food processor
This food processor’s 1.1L work bowl offers decent capacity for smaller households or for those who plan to use it for smaller batches of food prep, but if you have a bigger household or need to make larger batches, we advise considering a food processor with a larger capacity bowl.
Cuisinart FlexPrep 1.1L Food Processor: also consider
If the Cuisinart FlexPrep 1.1L isn't quite the right food processor for you, here are two alternatives that are worth considering:
Breville The Paradice 16
This premium food processor delivers the precision that the Cuisinart FlexPrep lacks, albeit for several times the price. It's incredibly well made and has an attachment for virtually every kitchen job, from peeling to whisking and everything in between. Highly recommended if your budget will stretch this far.
Three appliances in one (a food processor, jug blender, and smoothie maker) for much less than buying them separately. Works particularly well for larger quantities, but not so well with small servings, and the pitcher's blades can't be removed for cleaning, which is a shame.
With the Ninja name comes an expectation of quality. From air fryers and coffee machines to blenders and ice cream makers, Ninja kitchen appliances are among the most popular on the market – with several of their products topping our buying guides lists. The Ninja Foodi PossibleCooker MC1101UK offers the level of quality you’d expect while combining the power of multiple appliances into one compact package. This multicooker offers the capabilities of a rice cooker, slow cooker, steamer, and hob in one appliance, helping reduce your need for kitchen storage space and the amount of washing up after a meal.
The PossibleCooker offers eight main functions: sear/sauté, slow cook, white rice, brown rice, pasta (without drainage), porridge, steam, and keep warm. During our testing, we found results were consistently excellent. The 6L cooking pot offers plenty of space, while the appliance itself isn’t as bulky as you might imagine. And, thanks to a thorough user manual and clear markings inside the pot, it’s easy to ensure your liquid-to-oat/rice ratio is accurate with every cook.
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While this multicooker will likely become a firm favourite in your household, it’s not flawless. Some cooking functions, like rice cooking, take longer than they maybe would on the hob, though the results are worth the wait. And while using the appliance is straightforward, its small digital display is quite basic, indicating a preheating function only via symbols and offering no timer for rice cooking functions.
We also found that the non-stick coating on the inside of the pot began chipping away within a week of testing, despite carefully following the cleaning instructions. Ninja says the cooking pot and lid are dishwasher-safe, but we’d recommend handwashing where possible, especially as it’s easy to do even with stubborn residue.
Overall, for £119.99 ($129.99 / AU$249.99 for non-UK models), the Ninja Foodi PossibleCooker is an excellent value multicooker for households big and small who want more efficiency in the kitchen.
Ninja Foodi PossibleCooker: price and availability
MC1101UK model costs £119.99 at Ninja UK
MC1101 model available for $129.99 in US, and AU$249.99 in Australia
Available at third-party retailers like Amazon, John Lewis, and Staples
Regular discounts at Ninja and third-party retailers
The Ninja Foodi PossibleCooker MC1101UK (which is the model I tested here) retails for £119.99 at Ninja UK, while non-MC1101UK models are available in the US and Australia for $129.99 and AU$249.99, respectively.
Considering the quality of the results, the pot’s 6L capacity, and the functions on offer, we believe it‘s excellent value for money. Especially when you consider what buying a dedicated rice cooker, steamer, and slow cooker would cost combined.
What’s more, we regularly see discounts on this appliance at Ninja and third-party retailers, so keep an eye out for these to pick it up for even less.
Value score: 5/5
Ninja Foodi PossibleCooker: specifications
Review model
MC1101UK
Color
Midnight Blue
Number of baskets
1 cooking pot
Number of cooking functions
8 cooking modes
Cooking functions and modes
Sear/Sauté, Slow Cook, White Rice, Brown Rice, Pasta, Porridge, Steam, Keep Warm
280mm (H) x 420mm (W) x 290mm (D) / 11in (H) x 16.5in (W) x 11.4in (D)
Dishwasher-safe
Yes (but we don't recommend it)
Guarantee
2 years
Ninja Foodi PossibleCooker: design
6L capacity cooking pot
Fairly compact and quiet
Minimal effort needed to clean
Non-stick coating on pot can easily come off
Digital display can be confusing
Out of the box, the Ninja Foodi PossibleCooker MC1101UK comes with a silver main unit (with a black control panel), a 6L midnight blue cooking pot, a glass lid, a rice cup, a rice spoon, and a steam rack, plus a thorough user manual and recipe booklet.
Immediately, we were surprised by how compact the appliance is, given its capacity. When assembled, the PossibleCooker takes up less than one kitchen counter space, making it a great choice for those with fewer storage options or a smaller kitchen work surface.
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On the main unit is a fairly straightforward control panel, listing the eight cooking functions on the left, beside a small digital display. On the right-hand side are arrow buttons for function, time, and temperature, alongside a start/stop button.
The cooking pot has a black non-stick coating inside, with clear lines indicating where to fill up to with water for white rice, brown rice, and oats, corresponding to the number of cups you’ve added. The included recipe booklet provides more thorough instructions on this in its grain and pasta chart, which covers a variety of rice types (and certain pasta), alongside handy cooking tips. So, if, like me, you struggle to get your ratios right, keep it near. This recipe manual also offers guidelines for commonly slow-cooked meats and steamed vegetables, plus some recipes to get you started. We did, however, find the recipes weren’t as flavoursome as they sound, and some of the instructions aren’t particularly clear.
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Using the Ninja Foodi PossibleCooker is straightforward, but we highly advise reading the user manual first to understand how each cooking function works. Though the advice given in the manual can sometimes contradict the recipe book: for example, in the manual it advises to keep the lid on during cooking, while the recipe book recommends removing it after boiling.
To use the appliance, turn it on, use the function buttons to navigate to the relevant function, and then (where applicable) adjust the temperature and timing settings before pressing start. Some functions kick in straight away, while others have a preheat period. This preheat period is indicated by progress symbols (lines) in the display window, but the user manual doesn’t make the preheating process particularly clear, or how long it will last. For searing/sauteéing, these progress symbols are followed by the instruction to add food, but for other functions, this isn’t the case. After several uses, we got to grips with this feature, but it can be confusing initially.
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When running, the PossibleCooker is quiet, but lets out a loud beep when cooking is complete. The appliance has markers indicating which parts will get hot during the process (and not to touch with bare hands), and the user manual makes it clear, too. So, if you’ve got little ones, we advise moving it away from the edge of your counter and ideally positioning it near or under an extractor fan (it gets steamy).
After letting the appliance cool down, the main unit can be wiped down with a cloth, and you can hand-wash the cooking pot with ease – though avoid using anything abrasive on its non-stick coat. However, despite carefully following the instructions, the coat began to chip off around the rim of the pot, possibly due to wear from the lid, within a week. So, while Ninja claims the pot is dishwasher safe, we advise (as we do with any non-stick coated appliance) to only hand-wash for longevity.
Design score: 4.5/5
Ninja Foodi PossibleCooker: performance
Eight cooking functions, including rice and slow cooking
High quality results across all modes…
But expect a wait for some products
Medium slow cook temperature would be beneficial
We started our testing of the Ninja Foodi PossibleCooker MC1101UK by using its white rice function. Cooking perfect rice every time is no mean feat, and this reviewer regularly gets the ratios wrong. Fortunately, the rice chart made it easy. We added two cups of long-grain white rice to the cooking pot and filled it with water to the corresponding mark.
It’s initially a bit unclear whether the appliance is on. Following the progress symbols, the display doesn’t show anything, so you’re left in the dark about how long the rice will actually take to cook. On average, it can take around 30 to 40 minutes to cook this amount of rice. We, however, waited slightly longer.. The result was perfectly fluffy rice, but it took around 40 to 50 minutes. We will caveat, however, that you can expect this wait with some other rice cookers.
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We had the same results with brown rice, which has its own function. This time, we tried the Cajun Dirty Rice recipe from the booklet, which first requires you to cook 360g of brown rice (two cups) using the corresponding function. The booklet suggests this will take approximately 50 to 60 minutes, but we found it took 75 minutes altogether. Brown rice typically takes longer to cook than white, and you may wait longer than the booklet suggests, but the result was perfectly cooked grains once again. Well worth the wait, as long as you expect it. If speed is your priority, though, this may not be the appliance for you.
The Cajun Dirty Rice recipe allowed us to test efficiency and the multi-functionality of the PossibleCooker. After removing the rice, we easily cleaned out the inside of the pot with a cloth, ensuring it was dry before the next use. When you use more than one function of this multicooker for a recipe, expect extra waiting times for the pot to cool enough to be cleaned. Fortunately, the pot was quickly washed up, and I selected the sauté function (which requires a preheat) for the next section: browning off pork and beef mince.
The cooking pot essentially acts as a pot or pan on a hob when this function is selected, though the controls only let you select High, Medium, or Low temperature (giving you less control over the heat). It works a treat, though, and the digital display shows how long the pot has been heated for, so you can easily keep track of your timings. After cooking my minced meat, followed by my veg, I added stock and brought the pot to the boil before folding in the brown rice. The recipe itself was a bit flavourless, but the result was perfectly cooked rice, meat, and veg.
This multifunctionality is also useful when slow-cooking. Rather than the abundance of pots and pans I usually use for my go-to beef stew recipe, we were able to soften the veg in the pot using the sautée function before adding liquid and beef. After four hours at High temperature, we were thoroughly pleased with the results: the beef was tender, the vegetables soft but not mushy, and the sauce reduced and flavoursome without being watery or congealed.
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We had similar results with a Beef Tinga recipe, a Ninja recipe accessed via the QR code on the appliance’s box. This one didn’t require using the sautée function, but allowed us to test the slow cooking function’s capabilities on the Low temperature setting. After adding all the ingredients to the pot and setting the time to eight hours, the meat was melt-in-your-mouth, but the recipe was (again) a bit bland. Our main takeaway here is that the functionality of the appliance is great, but maybe use it for your own recipes.
The steaming and pasta functions are perhaps the only ones that we had a couple of issues with. Following Ninja’s guidelines, we chose to steam 200g of Tenderstem broccoli. The guidelines tell you the amount of water to add to the pot. You then place the provided steaming rack inside the pot and place the broccoli in a single layer across it before placing the lid on top. The digital display, again, showed the progress bar indicating preheating, but it’s not entirely clear what the appliance is doing at that time. Building up its steam?
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Either way, this heating time isn’t taken into account when you set your timer. So, for example, we set our timer for eight minutes as recommended, but the preheating/presteaming process wasn’t accounted for in those eight minutes, so you may need to account for that when cooking. We also found water bubbled around the lid of the pot during steaming, with a little water coming out the top. Overall, the broccoli was steamed well: with a slight crunch but not too floppy. It may have been easier to steam it the old-fashioned way, however.
Pasta, too, offered mixed results. The guidelines in the recipe book recommend the amount of water to add for the weight of pasta you’re using (the lines in the pot don’t apply to this). The booklet advises adding the pasta first, followed by the water, and then select the function. The pasta function seems to work more like the rice function, not giving you control over (or insight into) temperature or time, but telling you when it’s done.
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The draw of the pasta function is that it allows you to cook pasta without needing to drain the water, but the time it takes almost makes it not worth it. After preheating for about six to nine minutes, it’s meant to take around 18 to 20 minutes to cook (again, it’s unclear if preheating is taken into account), but the appliance didn’t beep for over 22 minutes, at which point we stopped the cooking because the pasta was starting to make a skin on the bottom of the pot. While the timings were questionable, and the skin gross, the actual resulting pasta was perfectly al dente. And, in fairness, we didn’t have to drain any water.
Overall, the Ninja Foodi PossibleCooker's results are excellent, but you may need to wait a little longer than you expect from some cooking functions – and spend some time getting used to its quirks.
Performance score: 5/5
Should you buy the Ninja Foodi PossibleCooker?
Ninja Foodi PossibleCooker score card
Attribute
Notes
Score
Value
This is a budget to mid-range appliance that's well worth its value when you consider the price of purchasing individual appliances and the quality on offer.
5/5
Design
Compact, quiet, but with a 6L capacity, this appliance is a great fit for bigger and smaller kitchens – and it looks pretty sleek, too.
4.5/5
Performance
While you may need to be patient with some of its functions, this multicooker provides consistently excellent results across its eight cooking functions.
5/5
Buy it if
You want to save kitchen space
If you’re struggling to fit a steamer, rice cooker, and slow cooker in your kitchen cupboard, this multicooker could help you save some space by combining these appliances into one, fairly compact package – without sacrificing capacity.
You want a quality, multi-functional cooker that won't break the bank
The Ninja Foodi PossibleCooker provides excellent results across its eight cooking functions, but at £119.99, it is much more affordable than other premium instant cookers. It’s great value for money considering the quality and multi-functionality on offer.
You suck at making rice
If, like me, you struggle cooking perfect rice every time, it’s well worth considering this appliance. With a handy ratio guide that covers everything from white rice to sushi rice, the PossibleCooker makes rice cooking easy – even if you have to be a bit patient.
Don't buy it if
You'll only use one cooking function
While the PossibleCooker is great value for money, you need to actually get your money’s worth. If you want to use just one of its functions, and don’t care much about the others, you might be better off buying an appliance solely dedicated to that cooking function.
You're impatient
This multicooker provides great results, but you may need to wait a little longer for them. We found that two cups of brown rice took over an hour to cook, pasta took over 20 minutes, and white rice took over 40 minutes. If you can’t be bothered waiting, you may be better with a stove.
You want an multicooker with a pressure cooker built in
If you're not swayed by the PossibleCooker's functions, and would prefer a similarly priced instant cooker with pressure cooker capabilities, we highly recommend the Instant Pot Duo Plus, which retails for $119.99/ £99.99. Instant Pot is the go-to name in instant cookers, and this one has some excellent cooking functions, including pressure cook, slow cook, sous vide, yogurt, and sauté, without breaking the bank.
What makes a great sequel? Across film, gaming, and indeed smartphones, the best follow-ups carry forward and amplify the good things while dialing down any pretension. In the phone world, this means zeroing in on the features and functions that give a phone its purpose.
That’s exactly what Oppo has done with the Find X9 Pro. It takes everything great about last year’s Oppo Find X8 Pro and dials it up to 11, while ditching the idea that this is anything other than an iPhone 17 Pro Max for Android lovers. It's both simpler and somehow more obscenely powerful than its predecessor, and I, for one, love it.
Now sporting a drastically simplified flat-edged design, flat display, and top-left-mounted square camera housing, the Find X9 Pro resembles an iPhone more than any other Oppo phone before it, but the Chinese tech giant is banking on the idea that if you’re willing to spend pro-flagship prices on an Android phone, that’s not too big a deal.
For all its cool designs over the years, the Find X series has always been defined by hardware power – and more recently, extremely powerful camera systems – so it’s quite something that the Find X9 Pro still managed to surprise me with its specs sheet. The phone is one of the first to ship with the MediaTek Dimensity 9500 chipset, alongside a healthy 16GB of RAM, and a ludicrously large 7,500mAh silicon-carbon battery with 80W wired charging. It's almost excessively performant, but can get a bit hot in even moderate use.
But what about that camera system? The Oppo Find X9 Pro has a 50MP main camera, 50MP ultra-wide camera, and – brace for impact – a 200MP telephoto camera with 3x zoom. That super-high-res sensor allows for a 50MP crop at 6x, which helps make up for the loss of the dedicated 50MP 6x camera from last year’s model, and a 12MP crop at 13.2x zoom. And that’s not even mentioning the detachable 10x zoom lens – you’ll have to read on for my thoughts on that.
In adequate lighting, the main camera defaults to 50MP shots rather than binning to 12MP as most phone cameras do, and a special mode allows for 200MP full-res shots with the telephoto camera. The capability here is immense, but unfortunately, Oppo’s post-processing is still a bit too aggressive, sometimes veering into AI-flavored reconstruction.
For the Star Wars fans out there, the Oppo Find X9 Pro is the Empire Strikes Back of smartphone successors – bigger, brasher, and close to objectively better than last year’s Oppo Find X8 Pro. Yes, polishing the experience has buffed out some of the quirky charm of last year’s model – I especially miss the vinyl-like rear panel, which has been replaced with glass – but the final product is so much greater than the sum of its parts that this simply ceases to matter.
This is a superb phone that would immediately rank amongst the best phones on the market, were it not for its tragically limited availability. As with previous Oppo phones, no US release is expected.
Oppo Find X9 Pro review: Price and availability
The Oppo Find X9 Pro in the Oppo Aramid Fiber Case (sold separately) (Image credit: Jamie Richards / Future)
Not available in the US
Costs £1,099 / AU$2,299
One configuration with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage
Despite launching “globally”, the Oppo Find X9 Pro is unavailable through official channels in the US. It is, however, available in the UK and Australia, where it competes with and slightly undercuts other large pro-grade flagship phones when it comes to price.
The Oppo Find X9 Pro costs £1,099 / AU$2,299 for its single configuration. For that, you get 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage.
At face value, that price is about right for a large Pro-labelled camera phone, but as usual, Oppo is actually offering great value for money. Compared to the iPhone 17 Pro Max – an obvious analogue to the Find X9 Pro, not to mention an influence – the Find X9 is £100 less with double the storage in the UK. In Australia, the Find X9 Pro comes in at AU$300 cheaper than the iPhone 17 Pro Max with 512GB of storage.
Let’s keep it real: the Oppo Find X9 Pro isn’t cheap, but it's a pretty good deal compared to its plus-sized, Pro-powered camera phone contemporaries. It’s a shame it’s not more widely available, which will probably keep it off our lists of the best camera phones, best AI phones, best Android phones, and more. I’d expect to see it top our list of the best Oppo phones soon, though.
Oppo Find X9 Pro review: Specs
In this review, I’ll go through the Oppo Find X9 Pro’s features and capabilities in detail, but if you just want an overview of the phone’s key specs, check out the handy table below.
Dimensions:
161.3 x 76.5 x 8.3mm
Weight:
224g
Display:
6.78-inch AMOLED
Resolution:
1272 x 2772 pixels
Refresh rate:
120Hz
Chipset:
MediaTek Dimensity 9500
Rear cameras:
50MP main + 50MP ultra-wide + 200MP telephoto (3x)
Front camera:
50MP
Storage:
512GB
RAM:
16GB
OS (at launch):
Android 16 with ColorOS 16
Battery:
7,500mAh
Charging:
80W wired, 50W wireless
Value score: 4 / 5
Oppo Find X9 Pro review: Design
(Image credit: Jamie Richards / Future)
Comes in two colors – Silk White and Titanium Charcoal (named as such despite the phone containing no titanium)
Flat edges, flat display, flat rear panel
Square camera housing
With its flat edges, rounded corners, and almost square camera housing in the top-left corner, there are no prizes for guessing where Oppo got its inspiration for the Find X9 Pro's design. This is probably as close as a phone maker can legally get to the iPhone before Cupertino starts asking questions.
Specifically, the Find X9 Pro resembles last year’s iPhone 16 Pro Max. Its Snap Key and Quick Button are echoes of the Action Button and Camera Control and serve similar, if not identical, functions, and the curvature and overall ergonomics of the phone are reminiscent of last year’s Apple flagship (why the "Snap" key doesn't control the camera is lost on me).
As on OnePlus phones, the Snap Key replaces the ringer switch from last year’s model. While I was a fan of the convenience of the ringer switch, the modularity of the new button helps to make up for it. It's set to the new AI Mind Space feature by default, but I mostly had it set to control the flashlight.
The Find X9 Pro is beautifully made. My review unit came in the striking Silk While finish with a matte glass rear panel and satisfyingly bold aluminum rails. I’m a big fan of how subtle the branding is, too. The Oppo logo and Hasselblad icon on the camera housing only show up as light hits them, which gives the phone a sense of prestige.
As for the front panel, the 6.78-inch screen is surrounded on all sides by 1.15mm bezels that barely feel present during use. A punch-hole selfie camera sits at the top of the display. There’s also the standard power and volume buttons on the right side of the phone, and a USB-C port on the bottom edge by the main speakers. Unfortunately, I noticed some wobble in the buttons after just a few weeks of use, which isn’t the most encouraging thing to see.
At 8.3mm, the Find X9 Pro is barely thicker than last year’s Find X8 Pro, but feels a lot heftier due to its flattened sides. I think this makes the phone easier to take photos with, considering the location of the Quick Button, but I’ve got large hands – your mileage may vary. Overall, the Find X9 Pro is a good-looking phone, but doesn’t leave as much of an impression as the marbled design of the Find X8 Pro or the faux-leather body of the Find X6 Pro before that. It trades originality for subtlety, and I’m not sure that’s an equivalent exchange.
Design score: 3 / 5
Oppo Find X9 Pro review: Display
(Image credit: Jamie Richards / Future)
6.78-inch display
1272 x 2772 resolution
120Hz refresh rate with 3600 nits of peak brightness
The Oppo Find X9 Pro’s display is second only to its camera system in the list of its best features. This is a huge, bright, sharp, and immersive panel that makes photos, videos, and games look vivid while providing plenty of room for browsing, scrolling, and even multitasking.
The Find X9 Pro’s display feels truly immersive. At 6.78 inches, it’s almost as large as the iPhone 17 Pro Max or Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, which have 6.9-inch panels, though to be honest, the Find X9 Pro is about as large as I’d want a phone to be. Its flat edges make the panel feel much more present and consistent than last year’s Find X8 Pro, but make using the phone a touch less comfortable, especially when dragging in gestures from the edges.
At a resolution of 1272 x 2772 pixels and a pixel density of 450ppi, the Find X9 Pro’s display is sharp and detailed, and its maximum typical brightness of 1800 nits is plenty bright for indoor or outdoor use (brightness peaks to 3600 nits for HDR media). It also gets down to a single nit at its minimum brightness – handy for use at night or in darker environments.
The display cycles at a static 120Hz, which works synergistically with ColorOS’ brilliant animation processing to offer a super-smooth UI experience. The display is unfailingly bright. Colors may be a touch less saturated than other flagship handsets, but not to a problematic degree. The settings app has a full section dedicated to color balance, too, so you can fine-tune the visuals to your liking.
The Find X9 Pro’s display is calibrated for balance out of the box, but the settings app is rich with color and brightness settings.
Display score: 5 / 5
Oppo Find X9 Pro review: Cameras
(Image credit: Jamie Richards / Future)
50MP main camera
200MP telephoto camera with 3x zoom
50MP ultra-wide camera
50MP selfie camera
The Oppo Find X9 Pro has one of the most powerful camera systems you’ll find on any phone. Its 50MP main camera with a large 1/1.28-inch sensor picks up an excellent amount of light and detail. Its 200MP telephoto camera, with 3x relative optical zoom, can take full-resolution photos and reach into double-digit zoom lengths with a solid amount of detail. Its 50MP ultra-wide camera is sensibly relegated to third place but still produces great pictures in good conditions, and its 50MP selfie camera is a real step up from the Find X8 Pro’s 32MP sensor.
Taking photos is comfortable and enjoyable with the Find X9 Pro. I’m a big fan of the Quick Button, Oppo’s answer to the iPhone’s Camera Control, which is easy to work with thanks to the phone’s general bulk and flat aluminum chassis. The camera app is clean and keeps all the important settings within immediate reach or under a single menu, while the large display makes for a great viewfinder. As for video, the Find X9 Pro can shoot at a maximum of 4K at 120fps, or 1080p at 240fps.
The Find X9 Pro will default to taking full-resolution photos with its 50MP main camera, as long as the phone judges there's enough light around. That leads to more detailed photos, but it also takes up more storage. Similar is the new 4K motion photo capability, which ups the resolution of the video clip taken with each image, but again takes up more space.
So far, so good, but there is unfortunately a catch – Oppo has filled its image processing pipeline with what appears to be some pretty aggressive AI, which is hard to anticipate and impossible to switch off. At all ranges, there's a chance your image may become a mess of swirls and smudges as the AI image signal processing tries to replicate what you saw through the viewfinder. This seems to happen whether the AI Telescope Zoom feature is turned on or off.
Shooting on the Find X9 Pro is a joy, but aggressive post-processing can make it hard to predict how the final image will look. (Image credit: Jamie Richards / Future)
That means that photography on the Find X9 Pro is intermittently transcendent and frustrating. When it’s good, the Find X9 Pro captures brilliant photos that contend with those taken on the best camera phones – dynamic, rich in detail, and naturally vivid. But every now and then, you’ll scroll through the gallery and find something that looks like it came straight out of the early days of Dall-E mini. It’s not too common, but it is unpredictable, which is almost worse.
In terms of photo-focused accessories, the Oppo Find X9 Pro launches alongside the Oppo Hasselblad Teleconverter Kit, which requires the Aramid Fiber Photography Case. The kit centers on an attachable telephoto lens that extends the reach of the telephoto camera to 10x, resulting in genuinely breathtaking images. It’s a beautiful and confusing thing to capture this much detail with a phone camera system.
However, the teleconverter kit isn’t available in the UK or Australia, so it doesn’t impact the score here – you can read my Oppo Find X9 Pro camera impressions for more on that. Still, even without a huge attachable zoom lens, the Find X9 Pro’s camera system is brilliant – yet I can’t ignore how much its aggressive post-processing annoys me.
Oppo Find X9 Pro Camera Samples
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Camera score: 4 / 5
Oppo Find X9 Pro review: Software and AI
(Image credit: Jamie Richards / Future)
Android 16 with ColorOS 16
Possibly the smoothest Android wrapper
AI Mind Space is well executed
The Oppo Find X9 Pro ships with ColorOS 16, built on Android 16, and like ColorOS 15, it’s a smooth and well-formatted Android wrapper that takes obvious influence from iOS. You’ll notice Liquid Glass-style transparency effects, rounded square app icons, and a near-identical control center to the one found on an iPhone. But the outsider Oppo Find X9 Pro isn’t trying to compete with the iPhone – it’s trying to provide an alternative for Android enthusiasts, and under that lens, the aesthetic choices make sense.
If it seems like I’m being lenient on Oppo for jacking Apple’s style, it’s because I can’t get over how well ColorOS 16 runs. ColorOS (and by extension OxygenOS, the OnePlus equivalent) is the most performant and smoothest-running Android wrapper I’ve ever used. Thanks to parallel processing, several UI animations can run at the same time, and I like the way app windows and other elements react to your inputs.
This is the other end of the scale from the stiffness of Samsung’s One UI, and while some may find ColorOS feels a bit loose, for me, it’s the perfect way to keep things feeling fast and reactive.
That’s not to say ColorOS is perfect; there are some quirks. The one that appears most often is the Snap Key triggering things on screen – it seems the software registers a long press as some kind of input – not a dealbreaker by any means, but a strange oversight for a premium phone. And the Find X9 Pro comes with the usual folders of suggested apps (read: advertisements) and a handful of preinstalled bloatware apps, which is completely unacceptable on a phone that costs £1,099.
Unfortunate bloatware aside, the big-ticket software item on the Find X9 Pro is AI Mind Space, a transplant of OnePlus’ AI Plus Mind feature that launched earlier this year. The concept is a good one – a dedicated space for your various notes, screenshots, and digital ephemera that uses AI to pick out the important stuff.
AI Mind Space is bound to the Snap Key by default, with a short press taking a screenshot and scanning for information, and a long press recording an audio message. AI Mind Space can also be paired with Google Gemini to merge your assorted memories with the phone’s onboard Google AI tools. Even as an AI skeptic, I like AI Mind Space – it’s an intelligent and well-presented home for the disparate notes, screenshots, and audio recordings I make on a daily basis. You can also add your own notes to each memory, which is useful for context that the straightforward AI screenreader can’t gather.
It’s also worth giving O+ Connect a mention, Oppo’s app for cross-platform file management and remote control, specifically with Mac computers. It’s no replacement for AirDrop, but it is nice to have the option of easier cross-platform collaboration if you need to send something to a Mac-wielding friend or, like me, run a hybrid Android/MacOS everyday carry.
Software and AI score: 4 / 5
Oppo Find X9 Pro review: Performance
(Image credit: Jamie Richards / Future)
MediaTek 9500 chipset
16GB of RAM
Performs admirably in a variety of tasks
The Oppo Find X9 Pro is one of the first phones in the world to launch with the MediaTek Dimensity 9500 chipset. Taiwan-based chipset manufacturer MediaTek has been a growing name in the mobile industry for a while, and the Dimensity 9500 delivers. The Find X9 Pro is fast and fluid in pretty much any scenario, and even with multiple apps open and on-screen I couldn’t find a way to slow it down.
For web browsing and social media, using the Find X9 Pro is like driving to the grocery store in a tank, but when things heat up, that extra power really comes in handy. Things do literally heat up, though, as I noticed the Find X9 Pro getting a bit toasty at times – understandable during long gaming sessions or when pushing the camera system, but a little puzzling when swiping through Instagram.
As for memory, the Find X9 Pro comes in a single configuration, with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, and both feel plentiful. That large RAM budget gives the phone flexibility when it comes to multitasking and AI – I noticed that I rarely had to reload pages or apps. And 512GB of storage is, in my opinion, more than enough for any smartphone – though the camera’s high-resolution imaging modes will fill up that space pretty quickly.
Everything about the Find X9 Pro is just fast. The in-display fingerprint scanner is basically instant. Installing and opening apps is painless; I can hop into Call of Duty or Fortnite or Capcut and trust things will just work, which, to me, is the ideal phone experience. Accessing the camera is fast thanks to the Quick Button. And thus far, I haven't encountered any crashes or experience-breaking glitches. The phone does get hot intermittently, which I’m keeping an eye on, and if I can get really nitpicky, the speakers are a little too sibilant for my preference. Otherwise, the Find X9 Pro excels.
Performance score: 4/5
Oppo Find X9 Pro review: Battery
(Image credit: Jamie Richards / Future)
7,500mAh silicon-carbon battery – almost as large as an 11-inch iPad
80W wired charging
50W wireless charging
The Oppo Find X9 Pro has a 7,500mAh silicon-carbon battery. There are no adjectives I could use to accurately convey how huge that is, so let’s get into some comparisons.
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra has a 5,000mAh battery, and the iPhone 17 Pro Max with e-SIM has a 5,088mAh battery. These are considered excellent battery capacities by phone standards.
The Oppo Find X8 Pro managed an impressive 5,910mAh, while the OnePlus 13, which we showered with praise for its fantastic battery life, has a 6,000mAh battery. That’s quite a bit larger than the average phone battery already, but the Oppo Find X9 Pro blows both of these flagships out of the water.
The Find X9 Pro’s battery is so large that it makes more sense to compare it to tablets. According to PhoneArena, the 2025 base-model iPad has a 7,698mAh battery, which is fractionally larger than the battery in the Oppo Find X9 Pro. Holding the two devices side by side makes this feel physically impossible, but Oppo has leveraged the energy density and capacity benefits of silicon-carbon technology to make it so. It’s a serious engineering win that other phone makers should look to for inspiration.
As you might expect, battery life is unfailingly excellent. I frequently got one and a half or even two full days of use from the Oppo Find X9 Pro, and support for 80W SuperVOOC charging (that’s proprietary Oppo charging tech, so not all high-wattage chargers will deliver it) meant top-ups were pretty swift too. I would often plug in the Find X9 Pro to charge, look away for what felt like no time at all, and come back to an additional 40% charge, and topping up from empty to full took no more than an hour.
Battery score: 5/5
Should you buy the Oppo Find X9 Pro?
Oppo Find X9 Pro score card
Attributes
Notes
Rating
Value
The Oppo Find X9 Pro isn't cheap, but it steadily undercuts its closest mainstream competition
4 / 5
Design
Without the quirky materials and curved frame of last year's model, the Find X9 Pro is left feeling a little unoriginal. Superb build quality, though.
3 / 5
Display
A terrific display made all the more immersive by new flat edges and a sharp resolution.
5 / 5
Software
Bloatware is inexcusable at this price point, and there are a few quirks to smooth out, but, damn, ColorOS 16 is just so smooth.
4 / 5
Camera
The Find X9 Pro comes equipped with an overpowered camera system that opens a world of photo possibilities. Aggressive post-processing adds annoying guesswork to shoots.
4 / 5
Performance
Oppo has done its thing and equipped the Find X9 Pro with a handful of very powerful internal components. No complaints other than a bit of occasional heat.
4 / 5
Battery
A 7,500mAh cell means the Find X9 Pro is in a league of its own when it comes to battery life. Charging is quick, considering the massive capacity.
5 / 5
Buy it if
You want a powerful camera phone
If you can bear with its occasionally aggressive post-processing, the Oppo Find X9 Pro's camera system is one of the most powerful on the market, and takes fabulous photos. View Deal
You want a huge battery
The Oppo Find X9 Pro's battery is so large it'll make you rethink the way you approach charging, and how much battery life is enough for a day's use. Ludicrously good. View Deal
Don't buy it if
You want something familiar
Oppo has created a powerful phone with a great software experience, but it'll be harder to find others using the same platform if that matters to you. View Deal
You don't need loads of power
Despite offering pretty good value for money, the Find X9 Pro is mighty expensive. If you're not a power user, there are cheaper and more suitable options, such as the OnePlus 13R listed below. View Deal
Also consider
iPhone 17 Pro Max
The Oppo Find X9 Pro takes so much inspiration from the iPhone 16 Pro Max that anyone who isn’t a diehard Android fan should give the latter’s current-gen counterpart some consideration. Apple’s latest big flagship is the company’s best camera phone ever, and it produces excellent photos despite boasting lower-resolution sensors than the Find X9 Pro. You also get access to the App Store and easier networking with MacBooks and other Apple devices.
Want a beastly Android camera phone but need a more familiar interface and a more developed ecosystem than Oppo can offer? The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra could be for you. Its quad-camera setup is one of the best on the market, while the 6.8-inch display and built-in S Pen make it a great productivity tool.
The Oppo Find X9 Pro is a heavyweight, both in its build and its ability. If you’d rather have something a touch lighter in the hand and on the pockets, the OnePlus 13R is a great choice. With the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, 12GB of RAM, and a genuinely great camera system, the OnePlus 13R is a cheaper flagship with few compromises.
I used the Oppo Find X9 Pro over the course of a month, putting it through daily use and a number of specific performance and charging tests. I made and received calls, chatted over SMS, WhatsApp, and social media, took plenty of photos and videos, and played games like Fortnite and Call of Duty Mobile. I also tried out AI Mind Space.
Before completing this review, I adopted the Oppo Find X9 Pro as my daily driver, then combined my experience with the phone with my journalistic training and knowledge of the phone industry to provide an accurate assessment.
The Narwal Freo Z10 Ultra is a feature-packed combination robot vacuum and mop, paired with a comprehensive base station. In theory, it should deliver an almost completely hands-off cleaning experience; everything you could want from one of the best robot vacuums. However, the performance was somewhat mixed during testing.
Narwal Robotics has been around since 2016, with a primary focus on developing innovative robot vacuums. The Freo Z10 Ultra is the latest flagship model of the Z-series lineup. It's an updated version of the Freo Z Ultra, which offered impressive mopping but struggled with carpets. The Z10 Ultra delivers higher suction power (18,000Pa) and adds edge-reaching technology to the mops. For a slightly more affordable option, there's the Freo Z10.
I tested the Narwal Freo Z10 Ultra over a couple of weeks, and when it comes to everyday vacuuming tasks, I was impressed. It did a solid job of clearing most particles – including dog fur, pine needles, and excessive amounts of crumbs – from both hard flooring and carpet in my home. However, edge vacuuming wasn't a strong suit (which was especially apparent under my kitchen cabinets) and it also struggled to clear larger spillages, even when using the highest suction level.
Mopping on the Narwal Freo Z10 Ultra was up there with the best I've seen. There's no water tank on the robot itself; instead, the two triangular, microfiber mops are loaded with hot water and detergent at the base before being sent out to clean. Admittedly, this made the cleaning longer and required the water tank to be refilled more often, but the results were worth it.
Beyond consistently mopping up mud puddles left by my dog and small food spills, the mops successfully cleaned a large, dried ketchup spill when using the wettest mopping level. With the Freo Z10 Ultra's edge-reaching technology, the mops even extended right up against walls, getting into places other robots often miss. The dock's mop maintenance features also worked extremely well.
I was equally impressed with the Narwal Freo Z10 Ultra's navigation and obstacle avoidance. Dual AI cameras and a LiDAR sensor enable it to avoid furniture, cables, shoes, and other clutter.
Unfortunately, the Freo Z10 Ultra is far from the most reliable bot to control. On many occasions, I would send the robot to complete a task, and it would either skip entire selected rooms or roll out of the base and return without doing anything at all. A "smart" AI cleaning mode, which should adjust cleaning settings based on dirt levels and floor type, only exacerbated the problems.
No matter which settings I used, I couldn't get the bot to auto-empty consistently. I suspect this issue is to do with a unique feature where both the onboard dustbin and the dust bag in the dock are dried to prevent bacterial growth. I'd argue this feature is unnecessary in the first place.
The Narwal Freo app isn't the most intuitive, either, due to the excessive number of settings and customizations. I've tested numerous robot vacuums, and still had to resort to Reddit on several occasions to figure out how to adjust certain settings, such as getting the robot to do basic things like vacuum carpets.
Clearly, not everything on the Narwal Freo Z10 Ultra is perfect, but when I got it to do what I wanted, the results were very solid. If you have the patience and experience, this robot vacuum is great for larger homes with average cleaning needs. Some flaws could even be overlooked if you're able to snag it on sale, which it often is.
Availability: Widely, including US, UK, and Australia
The Narwal Freo Z10 Ultra launched in September 2025. It's available in the US, UK, and Australia, with a list price of $1,299.99, £1,299, or AU$2,499. While the initial price tag might seem eye-watering, I've never seen this robot vacuum available for full price, at least in the US. In fact, it's often $400 or more off. Unfortunately, I haven't seen these deals in the UK or Australia. Chances are good you'll find decent savings during seasonal sales like Black Friday or Amazon Prime Day.
Even with a discount, the Narwal Freo Z10 Ultra sits on the premium end of the robot vacuum market. However, with features including dual AI cameras and mops equipped with edge-reaching technology, plus a base station that self-empties and hot water washes the mops, its price aligns with other higher-end robot vacuums. Based on the feature list it seems like solid value for your money, but unfortunately not all those special features behave as they should in practice.
Beyond the robot vacuum, base station, and a couple of replacement parts that come in the box, Narwal also offers the option to purchase the "Advance Kit". For an additional $259.99, you'll receive all the accessories needed to use this vacuum for years, including an extra main brush roller, side brushes, mopping pads, floor detergent, dust bags, and more. It's not cheap, but buying these items separately can add up quickly, too (just two mopping pads will set you back $20, while the kit comes with six). The UK and Australia offer similar accessory packs for £119.99 or AU$399.99, respectively.
Value for money score: 3.5 out of 5
Narwal Freo Z10 Ultra specs
Max suction:
18,000 Pa
Robot size:
14 x 13.8 in / 35.5 x 35 cm
Robot height:
4.3in / 11cm
Dock dimensions (W x D x H):
17 x 18.2 x 15.2in / 43.1 x 46.2 x 38.8cm
Mop type:
Dual spinning triangular discs
Max threshold clearance:
Not stated
Dust bin volume (onboard):
0.48L
Dust bin volume (base):
2.5L
Water tank volume:
4.5L (clean) / 4.1L (dirty)
Base functions:
Charge, empty dust, wash mop pads with hot water, dry mop pads, dry dust bag
Runtime:
~2.5 hours (tested)
Recharge time:
~3 hours (tested)
Sensors:
Dual AI Cameras, LiDAR 4.0, and side sensor
Narwal Freo Z10 Ultra review: design
Stylish but bulky base station with a wide range of features
Spinning mop pads deliver up to 8N of pressure and extend to reach edges
Anti-hair wrap technology on the main brush and side brushes
Like most robot vacuums with an auto-cleaning base station, the Narwal Freo Z10 Ultra arrived in a massive box that weighed over 44lbs (20kg); it's best to have an extra set of hands to help get it inside.
After lifting out all the box's contents, including the bulky base station, which had handles to make life easier, I found that there were absolutely no instructions aside from the plentiful stickers on the different components. I've set up my fair share of robot vacuums before, so it's second nature to me, but for those new to robot vacuums, it was a glaring omission. You can find instructions online, but it's still not ideal.
(Image credit: Future)
The lack of instructions aside, the setup was fairly straightforward. All I had to do was install the side brushes, add the included detergent for the mops, fill the clean water tank, and connect to Wi-Fi. Also, be sure to remove the cover on the front camera sensor of the robot vacuum. I missed this step, and as a result my floor map on the app wouldn't save. I eventually resorted to Reddit to figure out the problem. Again, physical instructions would've prevented this problem.
Robot design
Once I had everything together, I was impressed with how well this bot blended into my room. Most robovacs / docks come in white or black, but this model is a stylish gray. This was a nice change of pace and it happened to perfectly match the walls in the room.
The circular design is typical of most robot vacuums, while on top is your traditional LiDAR puck, which spins inside its casing to help with mapping. Unfortunately, that sensor makes the robot vacuum a little too tall to fit under lower furniture, something other robot vacuums have addressed – models like the Roborock Qrevo Slim and Dreame X50 Ultra have retractable pucks that tuck in when the bot enters low-height areas. Within Narwal's own range, the higher-end Narwal Flow has its LiDAR module mounted within the body of the robot rather than sitting on top.
Other sensors include dual 136-degree cameras with dual AI chips, located at the front of the robot. These cameras also take pictures of obstacles or can be used to scan your space, similar to a security camera. The bot also comes kitted out with a bright light that automatically activates for navigation and obstacle avoidance in darker spaces. There's a further sensor on the side for even more assistance in navigating spaces.
(Image credit: Future)
Flip the robovac over and you'll find the main roller, with rubber fins and short bristles suitable for both carpets and hard flooring. This also incorporates anti-hair wrap technology – given that I have a fluffy Keeshond constantly leaving clumps of hair around, this is a huge boon. The side brushes also feature detangling technology and have more movement than typical side brushes.
However, the most notable feature is the two triangular microfiber mops that velcro on. These mops spin at 180RPM, applying up to 8N of mopping pressure, and can also extend out to get into corners, edges, and hard-to-reach places.
Controls on the robot vacuum are minimal: on the top you'll find Start/stop and Return to dock buttons. Voice control can also be used to manage cleaning – Alexa, Siri, and Google Home are all supported. But like all robovacs, you'll probably be mainly controlling it using the Narwal app.
(Image credit: Future)
An easily liftable magnetic cover hides the onboard dustbin. This is an average size for robot vacuums and can easily be removed for manual emptying if required. Rather unusually, it features a special insert to separate wet and dry debris.
Also unusual is the fact that this robot vacuum doesn't have a water tank on board. Instead, the mops are loaded up with warm, soapy water at the base station, and a consistent amount of water is spread about the floor during the cleaning.
Base station design
Moving on to the base station. This is large, occupying a considerable amount of space, but I loved the space gray finish and soft, rounded edges. A special ionized water feature bubbles and illuminates a little bar when cleaning the mops, adding a nice space-age touch.
The Freo Z10 Ultra base station is packed with features. On top is a flip-to-open hinged lid featuring a tiny LCD that allows you to send the vacuum out without using your phone. It can turn the AI-powered "Freo Mind" mode on/off, recall, start/stop, and start mop washing/drying. However, I reviewed the Narwal Freo in 2023, and that older model's touchscreen was easier to use and allowed you to do far more. I was disappointed by the downgrade, but it's still a unique feature that I've only ever found on Narwal's robots.
(Image credit: Future)
Once you open that lid, the clean and dirty water tanks with handles are revealed and simple to take out for filling or emptying. Around front is an easy-to-remove magnetic cover that reveals the dust bag and detergent mopping solution (you can still use the mops without the detergent installed).
(Image credit: Future)
In the bottom compartment, where the robot vacuum resides and charges, is a mop washing station. AI detects the type of dirt on the mop and cleans it at different temperatures. After cleaning the mops, hot air drying helps prevent bacterial growth. Another unique feature is pre-drying, where the vacuum's dustbin content is dried before being emptied into the dust bag in the base station, preventing odors and bacterial growth. The dust bag in the dock can also be dried. It's a cool addition, but not a feature that I personally care about (or even think about) when it comes to my robot vacuums.
Design score: 4 out of 5
Narwal Freo Z10 Ultra review: performance
Sold vacuuming for everyday use, but struggles with large spills
Excellent mopping but uses a lot of water
Doesn't reliably follow instructions, and "smart" features make things worse
Similar to just about every robot vacuum I've tested, you must start by mapping your space. That means connecting to the Narwal Freo app and Wi-Fi. The app guided me through the connection process, and although it failed to connect on the first attempt, the robot was ready to proceed after the second try.
I sent it out to create a map of my space, and it took about 10 minutes. However, upon return, the map wouldn't save. It appeared to navigate my space with ease, avoiding furniture, obstacles, and even a step into the family room. I did the process over and over again. Eventually, resorting to a handful of problem-solving techniques, like restarting it, changing base station positions, and more.
Little did I know that a cover over the dual cameras with AI chips would prevent the map from saving. After finally coming to this realization (with some research help from Reddit), the robot vacuum went out for a final time; it took about 15 minutes, and the map was finally saved.
I was impressed by how accurate the map was. While it didn't divide all the rooms perfectly, almost every space in the lower floor of my home was included, noting some furniture, obstacles, and even floor types. It missed a small bathroom, but I believe that was due to a fluffy rug blocking its path. The family room was also not included, as a step down was required to access it. Luckily, you can save multiple maps, so in addition to the lower level, I created maps of the upper level of my home and the family room. To clean these spaces, I had to move the robot vacuum to a specified starting point since the base station was inaccessible.
I learned the hard way about an extremely frustrating setting regarding the maps: you must adjust settings to vacuum on carpeting and rugs. I failed to do this, and the robot would literally just go over the carpet or rugs during vacuuming tasks without vacuuming them. Even massive area rugs and the carpet that covers nearly the entirety of the upstairs would be ignored during vacuuming. I had to go through and individually change the settings on all the rugs and carpets on the app's map to actually get them vacuumed. This is not something I've experienced with any other robot vacuum.
The Narwal Freo app has a menu of different cleaning options: Mop, Vacuum, Mop & vacuum, or Mop then vacuum. With each of those cleaning options, it's possible to select a specific mode. "Freo Mind" intelligently adjusts the cleaning parameters based on the floor type and dirt levels, while "Customize" allows you to fine-tune suction levels, mopping water levels, coverage precision, and more myself. You can either select rooms or highlight zones for the robot to clean.
Navigation and obstacle avoidance
During my average, everyday cleanings, the Narwal Z10 Ultra easily navigated my space. The lower level of my house consists of hardwood, tile, and laminate flooring, along with numerous medium-pile rugs, as my dog is afraid to walk on hard flooring.
Even on rugs that were accidentally lifted, the robot managed to move around the obstacle and continue the task. Rescuing was only required a couple of times, which is impressive given the clutter in my home. The map on the app even noted the obstacles encountered during a cleaning, taking pictures of items in the way. I have shots of shoes, cables, and a few hilarious candids of my dog being a little too curious.
(Image credit: Future)
I also ran a special test for object avoidance. During these, the vacuum successfully went around a sock, but then managed to vacuum up a shoelace and a charging cable simultaneously, despite having already noted these obstacles on the map. I'm not sure what happened, and I was disappointed by the results.
This test was likely a fluke. I never had a problem during my regular cleaning tasks, during which the bot successfully avoided multiple shoes, cables, and a whole host of other items. The Freo Z10 Ultra also navigated around larger furniture and bigger obstacles like a champ.
In fact, my only real complaint about the obstacle avoidance was that it was sometimes a little too meticulous. Specifically, I had an issue with mopping around rugs. The robot consistently lifted its mops when going over a rug and never got any rugs wet, but it also left a large, unmopped margin around the perimeter of each rug. If two rugs were situated close together, it wouldn't mop the area between them at all.
Also, the robot struggled to detect when a rug had been removed. So even when I wanted it to mop an area where the rug used to be, it would still skip that spot and leave it uncleaned.
Mopping performance
Aside from being over-zealous about avoiding rugs, in general the mopping performance was surprisingly good, and especially effective when it came to tackling cleaning edges and corners. The lack of edge mopping was a notable issue on the Narwal Freo Z Ultra that TechRadar reviewed in 2024. However, the new extension feature managed to get into those harder-to-reach places, such as under kitchen cabinets.
Due to the lack of an on-robot water tank, the robot would frequently return to the base station for mop cleaning, adding to the total cleaning time. Luckily, the vacuum had an impressive battery runtime; it lasted nearly 2.5 hours before reaching 15% power and needing to return to the base station to recharge. That was plenty of time to vacuum & mop the bottom floor of my house. Recharging back to 100% only took about 3 hours, which is far faster than other robot vacuums I've tested.
The mops really had their work cut out for them, too. During my review period it was snowy where I live in western New York, and my dog was constantly traipsing mud and snowballs all around the house. The mops easily picked up the muddy spots and wet puddles left in her wake. It also had no trouble tackling everyday messes including coffee drips, dried yogurt, and other smaller food spills. When emptying the dirty water tank on the robot, I could see just how well the mops were doing their job.
(Image credit: Future)
I also put the mops through more intensive testing. I poured a big puddle of water on the tile in my corridor, and sent the robot out to 'Vacuum & mop' that exact zone using the Freo Mind mode. Unfortunately, the robot didn't detect the water and simply ran right through the puddle, failing to activate the mops and instead spreading the water all around.
Sending the robot out to just 'Mop' rather yielded much better results, as the water was spread evenly around the floor, allowing the puddle to dry faster than it would have done. However, this wouldn't be ideal if the spillage had been, say, milk rather than water.
For a second test of the mops, I spread ketchup on the kitchen laminate and allowed it to dry. Using the Freo Mind and 'Mop' settings, I sent the vacuum out to clean up. While Freo Mind mode is meant to detect messes, analyze dirty water at the base station, and adjust accordingly, it didn't seem to notice the ketchup, mopping up only a small amount before calling it quits and returning to the base station after just one pass.
I sent the robot out a second time, but this time I used 'Customize' mode rather than Freo Mind, and selected the highest mopping level – 'Wet mopping'. The result was significantly better. Almost all the ketchup was removed in the first pass-through, while the second pass got the rest of the ketchup off the floor.
Vacuuming performance
After I'd figured out how to get the bot to actually clean my rugs, the Freo Z10 Ultra's everyday vacuuming performance was generally great. It did a solid job of clearing most light debris, such as dog hair, crumbs, and pine needles, from both hard floors and medium-pile rugs. Not every speck of dirt was gone every time, but it definitely performed better than some other robot vacuums I've tested.
The main brush and side brushes feature anti-tangle technology, and it worked wonderfully. All the brushes had virtually zero hair wrap at the end of my testing period. That's a huge feat considering my dog and my own long hair.
(Image credit: Future)
It's not quite perfect, though. When traversing rugs on its way back to the base station, the Freo Z10 Ultra would occasionally spit out some of the debris it'd just cleaned.
I also found it wasn't amazing at vacuuming the edges of rooms, especially around the kitchen cabinets, where the robot was just a little too tall to fit under the overhang. Those spots were still littered with crumbs and debris even after multiple cleanings.
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Just like the mops, I performed more intensive testing of the vacuum functionality. One test used a mix of ground-up biscuits and flour to represent dust and fine particles, and another used oats to represent larger debris. I spread the messes out in a one-meter area of the hard floor and on medium-pile carpet, setting each area as a 'zone' for the vacuum to clean using the app.
The vacuum struggled to pick up the biscuit and fine particle mess from the hard floor. At the lowest setting, 'Quiet', it picked up about half, and spread the rest of the mess around, causing it to end up well beyond my outlined cleaning area. Even with three passes using the highest setting ('Vortex'), the mess wasn't completely removed. That's not great – you don't need much suction to clean hard flooring.
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Luckily, the robot vacuum's performance with oats on hard flooring was much better – even in 'Quiet' mode, it picked up almost all the oats. I noticed that the side brushes weren't moving, which helped keep the mess contained. However, the smaller, dust-like oat particles weren't as easily cleaned up. Still, after deploying the most powerful suction level, nearly everything was cleared up.
These same tests yielded similar results on carpeted floor, except here the fine biscuit and flour mixture ended up ingrained into the rug. The side brushes also kicked the oats around more than they had on hard flooring, which was a surprise.
In the end, I had to grab my upright vacuum to clean up the mess on both types of floors. While these test results might not seem ideal, a robot vacuum would rarely be required to vacuum up such a concentrated level of debris. When it came to general vacuuming performance, I still found it to be above average for robot vacuums, particularly when cleaning rugs and carpeting.
Dock performance
When it comes to maintenance, upkeep is effortless. The base station washes and hot dries the mop to prevent bacteria and odor. Even after a couple of weeks of use, the mopping pads had no odor and looked almost as good as new. Just note that this base station appeared to guzzle water, and I regularly had to empty the dirty water tank and top up clean water.
(Image credit: Future)
Like many robovacs, the Freo Z10 Ultra has the ability to auto-empty its onboard bin into a larger bag in the dock (which should hold around 120 days' worth of dust). To start with, I used the "Smart empty" mode where the robot should figure out when it needs to empty itself.
However, in practice the bot didn't always empty when it needed to. In fact, even after toggling settings in the app so it would empty after every clean, it remained hit-or-miss whether the auto-empty would kick in.
This could be due to the – in my opinion, unnecessary – dustbin/bag drying and disinfecting happening in the base station. Bacterial growth has never even been a concern when using robot vacuums, and this disinfecting process took more than five hours to complete. At least when the self-emptying did happen, it worked efficiently, with all the contents of the onboard bin being removed.
(Image credit: Future)
Smart feature performance
Overall, I've found the Freo Z10 Ultra's 'smart' features to be more of a hindrance than a help. Beyond the not-so-smart auto-emptying, the Freo Mind mode would often lead to entire rooms or zones being skipped during cleaning, even when I specifically selected to have these spaces mopped and/or vacuumed. I also found that bigger messes didn't get the extra attention required, even though this mode is designed specifically for that situation.
Even without Freo Mind mode activated, the vacuum would sometimes fail to complete tasks. On multiple occasions, I sent the vacuum to clean a room, and it would only clean a small area before returning and claiming the "task completed". Sometimes, it would just roll out of the base station and immediately return. It was extremely frustrating to deal with.
(Image credit: Future)
Not all the added features were flops. I appreciated the video mode that lets you use those dual AI cameras like a security camera. The robot vacuum can be controlled similarly to a remote control car, traversing your space, and allowing you to spy on your home. It was great for checking in on my dog when I was out of the house.
Noise levels
As someone sensitive to noise, I found the sound levels on the robot vacuum to be tolerable, averaging 60dB when vacuuming and mopping. It's significantly quieter than an upright vacuum, sounding more like a wall unit air conditioner. However, the base station's emptying is much louder and always surprised me when it happened, reaching nearly 80 dB. Luckily, when drying/cleaning the mops and dustbin/bag, the base station was extremely quiet, blending with other house noises.
Performance score: 3 out of 5
Narwal Freo Z10 Ultra review: app
Ample customization options can be overwhelming
Some basic features are hard to find, even for an experienced user
Saves multiple, easy-to-edit maps for multi-story homes
The Narwal Freo app has a lot to offer, but it isn't as intuitive as I would've liked. I found all the different functions, features, and customizations overwhelming – and I imagine even more so for robovac novices. Even after several years of testing robot vacuums, I still had to resort to Reddit to figure out how to change certain settings (like carpeting vacuuming) – some features are buried deep within the app and easy to miss.
As I noted, the combination of a LiDAR scanner and AI cameras on the vacuum created a decently accurate map of my space. Within the app, it's easy to merge rooms, split rooms, rename rooms, update floor material, set no-go zones, and more. Other furniture, rugs, and obstacles can be marked, but it's hard to get the position of these items 100% accurate – and not really necessary. A 3D map is available, but I've never found these maps useful. I also saved multiple maps for different levels of my home, a huge boon for those in multi-story houses.
(Image credit: Narwal / Future)
Adjustments to cleaning parameters, such as suction level, mopping humidity, coverage precision, and the number of passes, are all fairly straightforward. Theoretically, the Freo Mind mode should take care of making those decisions for you, but in testing, this mode didn't perform as expected, and I found manual selection was by far the best option.
It's possible to create cleaning schedules or provide shortcuts on the main homepage. I loved setting the cleaning sequence of rooms or specific zones to be cleaned – I could ask it to target the areas my dog likes to hang out in while we're out, and then focus on rooms like the study or dining room. During cleaning, the map on the app shows real-time updates of where the vacuum is in the cleaning process and notes obstacles in its path (with photos). It's even possible to receive phone notifications. Cleans are logged so you can check out the full cleaning history.
(Image credit: Future / Narwal)
If you're looking for smart home integration, Siri, Google Home, and Amazon Alexa are all supported. The app features a dedicated 'Third-Party Controls' section to set the robot vacuum to respond to voice commands. There are plenty of other settings too, including accessory management, base station adjustments, and a 'Family with pets' toggle for extra caution when navigating, and that's just scratching the surface.
App score: 3.5 out of 5
Should you buy the Narwal Freo Z10 Ultra?
Attribute
Notes
Rating
Value
Premium-tier, and packed with features to justify the higher price tag – although they don't all work as intended. Often significantly discounted.
3.5 / 5
Design
Stylish yet bulky base station packed with features. Bot has extendable mopping pads, anti-hair wrap, and dual AI cameras. Strangely, no onboard water tank.
4 / 5
Performance
Solid vacuuming, great (if water-intensive) mopping, and strong obstacle avoidance. However, often fails to do as it has been told, and the "smart" features make things worse.
2.5 / 5
App
Overwhelming app filled with all the functions, settings, and customizations one could ever need or want. Allows for easy editing of multistory mapping.
3 / 5
Buy it if...
You have mostly hard floors
The mopping here is a cut above average, with especially good edge cleaning. Beware, though, it does use a lot of water.
Your house is cluttered
This robot vacuum reliably avoided my dog, cables, furniture, shoes, and decor that were littered throughout my home during testing.
You spot a great deal
The unreliable behavior might be a deal-breaker, but if you spot a big discount you could potentially get a strong featureset for your money.
Don't buy it if...
Your home is mostly carpet
A highlight feature of the Narwal Freo Z10 Ultra is its mopping abilities, and you're paying for the impressive 8N pressure, edge reach technology, and hot mop washing base station. If you don't have many hard floors that require mopping, you'll get much better value from a vacuum-only robot.
You're a first-time robovac owner
This robot vacuum has numerous settings and customizations, making it a bit overwhelming. Additionally, certain features don't always work as intended or are difficult to adjust within the app. These quirks will be extremely frustrating.
You're tight on space
If you live in a smaller apartment or house, this robot vacuum will likely be overkill for your cleaning needs. The base station is also bulky, occupying a significant amount of valuable wall space.
How I tested the Narwal Freo Z10 Ultra
I tested the Narwal Freo Z10 in my family home for just over two weeks during the holiday season. It's a two-story home with a sunken family room and almost fully carpeted upstairs. Most of the testing was conducted on the bottom floor, which consists of hardwood floors, vinyl, tile, and tons of medium-pile rugs. A fluffy Keeshond also resides here, leading to excess amounts of fur, debris, and snow in my home.
Beyond sending the robovac out to do everyday vacuuming and mopping tasks, I put it through more rigorous tests. For the vacuum, I spread oats and a flour/biscuit in a one-meter area on both hard flooring and carpet, observing the pickup at different suction levels. To test the mops, I spread a generous amount of ketchup on the floor, letting it dry before sending the robot out to clean. I also observed the mop's ability to pick up a bigger water spill. As for obstacle avoidance, I placed a small charging cable, a floor-matching sock, and a sneaker in a room to observe how well the vacuum navigated around them.
I also experimented with the Narwal Freo app, adjusting settings on both the robot and base station. A decibel meter app on my phone was used to measure noise levels.
The Competitor is an Xbox and PC-compatible controller from manufacturer Hyperkin that adopts a DualSense-like appearance and symmetrical thumbstick layout. While it does feature niceties like drift-resistant Hall effect sticks and triggers, I’ve found it to be a blissfully simple controller.
The Competitor has no fancy RGB lighting, no gyro sensors, no trigger locks, no wireless connectivity options, and no supporting apps or software. It’s also impressively cheap, has a nice design, and a great idea or two of its own. Its straightforward nature serves it well, and it’s one reason why it’s one of the best Xbox controllers I’ve tested in quite a while.
Some of my favorite controllers in recent years have been the likes of the Razer Wolverine V3 Pro and GameSir Tarantula Pro - both gamepads that are stuffed with desirable features that definitely make their price tags trend upward. The Competitor’s stripped-back, simplistic nature is actually quite refreshing in comparison, and is a staunch reminder that controllers don’t need to be a smorgasbord to remain appealing in the contemporary market.
There are some slight missteps. I’ve never been a fan of the PlayStation-style D-pad adopted here, the Menu and Share buttons are rather awkwardly-placed, and - while this is certainly personal preference and not indicative of The Competitor’s quality - it lacks wireless connectivity. Though at its relatively low price point, it’s easy to forgive these shortcomings.
(Image credit: Future)
The Competitor review: price and availability
List price: $49.99 / £39.99 (around AU$74.95)
Available from most major retailers in the US and UK
Compares in price to similarly cheap controllers like the GameSir Kaleid
You can get The Competitor today for $49.99 / £39.99 (around AU$74.95), making it one of the cheaper Xbox and PC controllers that’s actually worth recommending. Readily available at Amazon in the US and the UK, you’ll also likely find it at your local retailers of choice, including Best Buy in the US and Argos in the UK.
The cheaper Xbox controller spectrum has gotten broader in recent years, with pads like the GameSir Kaleid ($49.99 / £59.99) and 8BitDo Pro 2 ($44.99 / £39.99) also coming in at similar price points. The Competitor, rather fittingly, has some tough competition in the space, then, but I’d definitely say it’s comparable in quality to those aforementioned pads.
The Competitor review: Specs
Price
$49.99 / £39.99 (around AU$74.95)
Weight
7.1oz / 200g
Dimensions
6.2 x 5.0 x 2.5in / 158 x 127 x 64mm
Compatibility
Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, PC
Connection type
Wired (USB-C)
Battery life
N/A
(Image credit: Future)
The Competitor review: design and features
The Competitor differs from most Xbox controllers in its symmetrical thumbstick layout and design that’s practically identical to that of the DualSense Wireless Controller. You’ll find the same boomerang-esque shape here, with similarly designed D-pad and face buttons.
I wouldn’t say build quality is luxurious, certainly not up to the DualSense standard, but it does the job at its price point. That is to be expected, though, given the lower price. Otherwise, nothing about the controller screams cut corners or lazy design; it’s an extremely tight ship. Usually, you’d expect one or two blemishes to stand out on budget-friendly controllers.
But my only issues, really, are the slightly awkward placement of the central Menu and Share buttons, as well as the spongy-feeling PlayStation-style d-pad. However, the latter comes down to personal preference more than anything else.
The color scheme of The Competitor is quite pleasing, too. It sports a black and white aesthetic in a sort of ‘X’ pattern across the front of the pad. The face buttons and d-pad have a translucent, glossy finish that feels quite nice against your thumbs, too.
(Image credit: Future)
The Competitor review: Performance
The Competitor is a strictly wired controller. However, that’s not strange at its relatively low price point, so easy to forgive. That said, if you’d prefer a wireless model, you may be better off checking out similarly priced gamepads like the Xbox Wireless Controller or 8BitDo Pro 2.
What isn’t a guarantee for cheap controllers is the inclusion of drift-resisting Hall effect thumbsticks, but they are here on The Competitor. The sticks themselves feel great, too, with solid responsiveness and a rugged textured finish around the edges.
The Competitor features two remappable buttons on the rear of the controller. And these are easy enough to customize by holding the mapping button on the back, in conjunction with one of these rear buttons and one of the main ones on the front.
These remappable buttons are assigned by default, which I typically find a touch annoying. However, this is alleviated by a handy feature you don’t see on all that many controllers. There are lock switches for both remappable buttons, which can prevent them from being pressed in entirely. It’s arguably a bit of a workaround to keep them unassigned, but I welcome the ability to manually enable or disable them in such a way.
(Image credit: Future)
Should I buy The Competitor?
Buy it if...
You want an affordable, effective controller The Competitor simply does what it says on the tin (or, um, the cardboard box, I suppose). It’s a straightforward gamepad with no obvious flaws, available at a fittingly competitive price point.
You’re looking for a drift-beating option with light features Hall effect sticks and two remappable buttons are present here. It’s on the lighter side in terms of features, but it’s really all a controller at this price needs to stand out.
Don't buy it if...
You want a more robust D-pad Some game genres, like fighting games and platformers, benefit from a more well-rounded d-pad than the one on The Competitor. I actually love the circular design of the Xbox Wireless Controller's d-pad, and would recommend it over The Competitor if that's something that will be important to you.
You’re on PS5 The Competitor isn’t compatible with PlayStation hardware, despite the DualSense-looking design. Consider checking out our best PS5 controllers guide if you’re shopping for a Sony gamepad instead.
The Competitor review: Also consider
If The Competitor isn’t quite competitive enough for you, here are a couple other options very much worthy of consideration.
The Competitor
Xbox Wireless Controller
GameSir Super Nova
Price
$49.99 / £39.99 (around AU$74.95)
$59.99 / £54.99 / AU$74
$44.99 / £49.99 / AU$89
Weight
7.1oz / 200g
8.5oz / 241g
9.3oz / 263g
Dimensions
6.2 x 5.0 x 2.5in / 158 x 127 x 64mm
5.9 x 4.1 x 2.4in / 150 x 105 x 60mm
6.1 x 4.2 x 2.3in / 156 x 106 x 59mm
Compatibility
Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, PC
Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, PC
PC, Switch, Switch 2
Connection type
Wired (USB-C)
Wireless (Xbox), Wired (USB-C)
Wireless (Bluetooth, 2.4GHz USB dongle), Wired (USB-C)
Battery life
N/A
Varies, around 20-40 hours
15 hours
Xbox Wireless Controller Always an incredibly solid choice, the official Xbox Wireless Controller isn’t big on bonus features, but it offers incredible reliability and is available in countless color options these days.
GameSir Super Nova While losing Xbox compatibility, this is a fantastic and affordable wireless controller for PC and the Switch family of consoles. I’d go for this one if you’re after a PC controller and interested in a budget-friendly wireless option. Oh, it comes with a charging dock and some lovely color options, too.
I tested The Competitor over the course of about a week, putting the wired wonder through its paces primarily on a gaming PC with my Steam library. All my go-to games were present here, including Final Fantasy 14 Online, Tekken 8, Elden Ring Nightreign, and Tokyo Xtreme Racer.
Given the shape and feel of the controller, I tried to compare the experience of playing with The Competitor to that of the DualSense Wireless Controller. Obviously, the PlayStation controller is more feature-rich, with bespoke haptic feedback and adaptive triggers, as well as its touchpad. Build quality isn’t quite as strong with The Competitor, in comparison, but it’s certainly not miles off, given the price.
The OnePlus 15, which was unveiled in October in China, made its international debut over a month ago, but its US launch was delayed due to the government shutdown. The OnePlus 15 went on pre-order in the US earlier this month, and it's now available for purchase through OnePlus' official website and Amazon.
The OnePlus 15 comes in Infinite Black, Ultra Violet, and Sand Storm colors in the US with two memory options - 12GB/256GB and 16GB/512GB, priced at $899.99 and $999.99, respectively. However, at the time of writing, only the Infinite Black model is available in both memory...
More of a purpose-built living room toy box, the Nex Playground is quick to set up, easy to understand, and designed to get bodies moving immediately. Yes, you’ll notice the technical ceiling in visuals and occasional frame stutters, and the Play Pass model won’t work for everyone. But as a family-friendly, camera-controlled alternative that’s safe, approachable, and surprisingly versatile, from party chaos to light fitness, it delivers on its core promise: making play feel effortless for all ages.
The console has carved out a rare lane in gaming, so much so that it reportedly outsold both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series gaming consoles during one week in November 2025. That outcome isn’t hard to understand: as development budgets climb, hardware R&D gets pricier, and tariffs add pressure, mainstream gaming has become an increasingly expensive form of entertainment. At the same time, the motion-control boom of the mid-to-late 2000s, the massive growth of mobile gaming, and the rise of free-to-play games have expanded the audience, making it easier than ever for anyone to pick up a controller.
Spending over a year with the Nex Playground, I’ve realized that this small cube-shaped gaming console is the little engine that could. On a surface level, this device feels like an extension of what Nintendo did with the Wii. Outside of an included remote to select games alongside managing settings and your account, the 40+ games available are all controlled through an ultra-wide camera that sits on the console’s front panel.
All of that comes at a cost of an MSRP of $249 (around £188 / AU$380 - worldwide availability TBC), despite a handful of retailers selling the Nex Playground at a sale price of $199. This definitely places it as a cheaper alternative to more mainstream consoles. When it comes to games, users of the console are provided five games to start with: a full-scale version of Fruit Ninja, Whack-a-Mole, Goal Keeper, mini-game-centric Party Fowl, and rhythm title Starri. They all do a great job in setting the tone for what the Nex Playground is actually capable of.
(Image credit: Future)
Anyone looking to go deeper into the console’s library of games will need the Play Pass subscription service, which opens users up to over 40 games that, unfortunately, can’t be purchased individually. Some folks may also have an issue with the service only being available in three-month $49 and one-year $89 intervals.
Regardless, the variety of games does offer something for everyone, with age ranges split between preschool level to around 10 years old. It also helps that the Playground is kidSafe+ COPPA certified and lacks any online play capabilities. So games are family-friendly, lacking mature or inappropriate content here.
Alongside fun games like Tennis Smash and Arrow Party, there are more action-oriented options like Sword Slash Adventure, which has some clever RPG elements, alongside Aeon Guard. There are also various licensed IP games, including Bluey, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Miraculous, Barbie, and Peppa Pig, among others. There is also a fitness section featuring games such as Nex Fitness and Zumba Fitness. These games control fairly well and are definitely fun in short bursts or at parties.
Most of the games outside a handful lack depth, length or visual fidelity compared to what’s coming out of mainstream consoles, and many have some performance issues. In fact, many look like games that would be either on the Wii in 2006 or early 2010s mobile games. That’s because the Nex Playground isn’t that powerful when it comes to performance specs.
What’s packed into this small cube is run by an Amlogic A311D2-NOD CPU, Mail-G52 MC4 GPU, and 16GB LPDDR4X RAM. That’s enough to play these games at 4K resolution and up to 120 frames per second. With the specs, that trade means very low poly models, unsophisticated lighting and lack of post-processing effects. So don’t expect anything like Ray Tracing and the likes. When it comes to storage, there’s 64GB of SSD storage, which is fine, as many of the games don’t get any larger than a few gigabytes anyway.
Nex Playground review: price and availability
List price: $249
Available now in the US, worldwide availability to be confirmed
Available through the Nex Playground store alongside other retailers, including Amazon and Walmart
Currently available in the US, the Nex Playground can be purchased right now through the manufacturer’s online store or through other retailers, including Amazon and Walmart. It's available at a retail price of $249, though some retailers occasionally have it listed at an introductory sale price of $199.
Though it’s not directly available in the UK and Australia, individuals in those territories can still purchase the device from the US storefront through services like Big Apple Daddy or Amazon. The price alone places the Nex Playground below mainstream consoles, including the Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, and both Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S.
In a modern world where development costs are pushing price points of games to nauseating degrees, the Nex Playground comes packed with a five-game starter pack.
Buyers looking for a bigger selection will need the Play Pass subscription. That’ll run users $49 for three months or $89 for a year. And the catalog of around 40 games has been steadily growing as well. Out of all of the games I played, more than half of the 40+ games provide adequate levels of entertainment. Regardless, for what users pay for the console and the subscription service, it’s definitely worth it.
Nex Playground review: Specs
Price
$249 (around £188, AU$380)
Weight
14.2oz / 403g
Dimensions
5 x 5 x 5in / 127 x 127 x 127mm
CPU
Amlogic A311D2-NOD
GPU
Mail-G52 MC4
RAM
16GB LPDDR4X
Frame rate
Up to 120fps
Resolution
Up to 4K
Optical
N/A
Storage
64GB SSD
(Image credit: Future)
Nex Playground review: design and features
The Nex Playground is beautiful with its yellow and teal accents at the top and off-white on everything else. With dimensions of 5 x 5 x 5 inches (127 x 127 x 127mm) and an overall weight of 0.89lbs / 14.2oz (430g), it’s impressively portable, and there’s a handy carrying case available for purchase through the Nex Playground site for $24.97.
Outside of the ultra-wide camera on the left side, the right side features a small horizontal LED bar that lights up when the device is switched on. On the bottom side, panels are small holes for ventilation purposes. The back panel is where the HDMI and USB-C power port are located. The USB-C power cord also has a string connected to the magnetic camera cover. It connects and disconnects fairly easily from the ultra-wide camera. This will give parents a sense of relief in terms of privacy concerns.
The Nex Playground is an incredibly simple machine and one that’s very easy to set up, then. Just plug in the HDMI cord alongside the power adapter, and users are ready to go.
Also included is a Roku-sized remote to move the on-screen cursor, make selections, return to previous menus, or go to the Home screen. Users initially will use the remote for the simple start-up screen, which also requires a phone to create a Nex Playground account for various settings. After that, the setup is complete, and you’re good to go.
(Image credit: Future)
Nex Playground review: Performance
As mentioned previously, the specs lean more toward a lower spec Android TV boxes include popular options like the Beelink GT King II, the Khadas VIM4 SBC, and a range of generic streaming players from brands such as SZ Tomato through its Amlogic A311D2-NOD CPU, Mail-G52 MC4 GPU, and 16GB LPDDR4X RAM.
Don’t expect anything on the level of Cyberpunk 2077 or even Super Mario Odyssey. The visuals here will remind many of something one would play on a smartphone in the 2010s or a higher-res Nintendo Wii game. Expect simple texture, animation, and lighting work all around that does exactly what it’s supposed to do.
To put things into perspective, Fruit Ninja made its debut in 2010 for iOS devices. Seeing it on the Nex Playground is fine as it runs great, but it’s just Fruit Ninja in 4K. Some games can rely on cool visual design that makes up for the lack of visual fidelity, such as Sword Slash Adventure and Aeon Guard.
Though it’s worth noting that some games I played had performance issues, with some going below 30fps. For example, when too many explosions and effects are happening in games like Arrow Party and Kart Racer Miniacs: Steering Madness, there are noticeable dips in frame rate.
One thing for sure is that the performance of the ultra-wide camera and AI-motion engine is top-notch when it comes to actually controlling games. If there’s an outstanding example of how well camera-based controls have evolved over the decade, the Nex Playground’s catalog of software is definitely it. Pulling an imaginary arrow with a friend feels really good in Arrow Party, and moving side to side while trying to serve in Tennis Smash does feel like an evolution of Wii Sports' Tennis.
(Image credit: Future)
Should I buy the Nex Playground?
Buy it if...
You need an affordable gaming console Not only is the Nex Playground currently available at a $249 MSRP, but the cost of its Play Pass is also affordable.
You want an attractive, compact console that’s simple to set up Setup is effortless; just connect the HDMI for video, plug it into a power outlet, and you’re ready to go. The process is simple enough that even kids or individuals who aren’t technologically savvy can jump in and start playing with ease.
You want a nice amount of games available that work really well Several dozen games are available on the console, and most of them are fun to play solo or with friends. Most importantly, there’s a little something for everyone.
Don't buy it if...
You want games that offer significant amounts of depth and length Most of the games offered on the Nex Playground are more for short bursts than anything incredibly deep.
You want to avoid subscriptions and buy individual games Outside of the five games that come with the Nex Playground, the other several dozen games require a Play Pass service subscription that can only be purchased in three-month or one-year intervals. This also means that users can’t buy games individually.
You want cutting-edge graphics The price and form factor alone should let anyone know that this isn’t going to be a graphical powerhouse. Most of the games on the Nex Playground are definitely mid-range mobile phone or Wii era visuals.
Nex Playground review: Also consider
The Nex Playground is certainly for a specific niche, so here are a couple of other console options worth considering, too.
Nex Playground
Nintendo Switch 2
Xbox Series S
Price
$249 (around £188 / AU$380)
$429.99 / £395.99 / $AU699.95
$399.99 / £349.99 / AU$599
Weight
14.2oz / 403g
18.8oz / 535g
68oz / 1,920g
Dimensions
5 x 5 x 5in / 127 x 127 x 127mm
10.7 x 4.5 x 0.6in / 272 x 114 x 15mm
10.8 x 5.9 x 2.6in / 275 x 151 x 65mm
Connection type
Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB-C, HDMI Output
Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB-C, HDMI output (in TV mode)
Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB-A, HDMI output
Battery life
N/A
2-5 hours
N/A
Features
Ultra wide Camera control, Nex AI-Motion Engine, Remote Control
8-inch OLED multi-touch display (1080p resolution), 256GB internal storage, improved stereo speakers, next-gen dock with 4K output and integrated LAN port, reinforced adjustable kickstand
512GB Storage, Xbox Game Pass
Nintendo Switch 2 Users looking for a more traditional console that’s more family-friendly can look to the Nintendo Switch 2, which provides a wide variety of games that appeal to all age groups. Not only can you get more traditional first-party and third-party games, but the hybrid form factor lends to good portability.
Xbox Series S If a simple box and controller setup is what you’re looking for, then the Xbox Series S has a large library of modern games, backwards compatibility with previous Xbox generation titles, and is ideal for the Xbox Game Pass subscription service as well.
Played a large share of the games including the starting five pack
Experienced the games included with the Play Pass subscription
I’ve owned the Nex Playground for about a year, which gave me plenty of time to really learn the ins and outs of this unique console. Beyond the five games included out of the box, my Play Pass subscription opened up access to more than 40 additional games.
The games that came closest to a traditional console experience were Sword Slash Adventure (RPG), the Wii Sports-inspired Tennis Smash, Arrow Party, and Aeon Guard. Together, they made it easy to see how well the ultra-wide camera and AI-powered motion engine work in tandem.
