2026 may go down as the year that foldable phones came of age, but it will be worth looking back at the number of quality budget phones that were released. The latest is the Samsung Galaxy S26 FE, the most affordable model of the S26 that often doesn't fall too far behind its premium siblings.

Due to the state of memory chips and the general cost of living at the moment, the term 'budget' might need a rethink, especially as the S26 FE is $699 for the basic model. Which might make it too expensive for a business phone, but still, that's a lot less than any of the premium models.

Samsung Galaxy S26 FE: Design

The Samsung Galaxy S26 FE is, as expected, a condensed version of the Ultra, with some features missing to save costs. However, visually, it's simply a smaller model than the Ultra.

You get a gloriously large 6.7in display, a delicately curved camera bump with three lenses, and it comes in three colors – Blueberry, Graphite, and Pistachio – and all models have a metal frame around the chassis with flat sides. At first glance, it looks exactly like the Ultra, with only the slightly smaller size giving it away.

It's 7.4mm thick, which is 0.5mm less than the Ultra. It still feels quite cumbersome to operate one-handed; my short thumb struggled to reach all of the touchscreen while I was on the move. And I did almost drop it a few times while getting it out of my pocket due to the slippery back cover. But these are things I'm willing to overlook for the use of a 6.7in display.

Samsung Galaxy S26 FE: Display

The screen is a gorgeous Dynamic AMOLED x2, with a 120Hz refresh rate and HDR10+ capabilities. It's seemingly the same display as found in the S25 FE model, and there are no complaints here from us. It's bold, bright, and very crisp. Great for YouTube videos, photos, even some document editing.

In our tests, the S26 FE recorded 100% for sRGB gamut color coverage (115.8% for volume), which is a high score for a budget device. This is the most affordable Galaxy S26 device, but the standard is still high. The S26 Ultra, for instance, hit 96% for color coverage.

The S26FE couldn't really compete with brightness, peaking at 421.72cd/m2 during our tests. That's a little low compared to other S6 models, but it's still bright enough to handle most sunny conditions.

You also get a wealth of modes and controls for the display, though there's no Privacy Display on the FE; that's still exclusive to the Ultra. This isn't much of a surprise as it isn't on the ZFold8 either, but still, once you see the Privacy Display in action, a life without it seems insecure – it's one of the best privacy features we've seen for a while, and it's a shame it's not available on the FE.

Samsung Galaxy S26 FE: Specs and performance

The FE is packing the in-house developed Exynos 2500 chip, which is the same as last year's models. It is a good chip, but it's matched with a measly 8GB of RAM. What's worse, you can only opt for up to 512GB of storage, which is a bit of an issue if you are heavy on downloading files and videos.

In Geekbench 7, the FE came back with 2,048 for single-core and 7,503 for multi-threaded. Neither is particularly groundbreaking compared to the Ultra, but they are good scores. Both scores were nearly double that of our recent review of the Motorola Edge 70 Pro, for example.

The FE has Android 17 out of the box, with Samsung's One UI 9 overlay. And even better, it has a guarantee of up to 7 major OS updates across its lifetime. The best feature here, from our experience, is the split-screen multitasking mode, where you easily switch between apps with just a tap.

As with recent Galaxy S models, the battery lasts well beyond our 20-hour looped video test. The Galaxy S26FE needed two attempts and held out for 28hr, 54min – around 7hrs less than the S26 Ultra. This rings true in real life, as I found on a recent trip to Berlin for IFA; I went two whole working days before needing a charge.

Samsung Galaxy S26 FE: Cameras

Similar to the 25 FE, the 26 FE supports a triple camera setup with a 50MP, f/1.8, 24mm (wide) lens, an 8MP, f/2.4, 75mm telephoto one with 3x optical zoom, and 12MP, f/2.2, 123˚ ultrawide lens. On the front is a 12 MP, f/2.2, 26mm wide camera.

The main 50MP lens is brilliant, captures nice crisp images, particularly in portrait mode where you get a nice differentiation between subject and background. The optical zoom capabilities of the telephoto lens are limited; the closer you get to the limit, the blurrier and grainier it gets. And not everything comes back in focus – I found it hard to get stabilized images and video while walking around IFA.

As with the last few Galaxy smartphones, you get a Pro mode that shoots RAW. You can have a play about with the ISO and shutter speed and get more true-to-life shots. It is, admittedly, quite tricky to find the right balance every time; it's oddly easier on an actual camera, but it is nice to have that option as the point-and-shoot capabilities of the FE can seem a bit too enhanced.

Samsung Galaxy S26 FE: Is it worth it?

For $699 (£699), you may have expected a little more from the S26 FE. It's still using last year's chip, has largely the same display and camera tech as the S25 FE, and Samsung has not installed the privacy display, which will be something businesses want. And that's before we get to the issue of RAM and storage, where only the latter can be boosted, for a price, but only to 512GB.

In many ways, however, the main issue is that the S26 Ultra is just so darn good; it has so many top features, many that will appeal to businesses, that it makes the FE a bigger drop-off in quality, one that's much more noticeable than there was between the S25 and S26 FE. It's worth remembering that the S26 FE is a budget model, but it could have been so much more.

Samsung Galaxy S26 FE specifications

Faster, smaller, more efficient – pick three. That's MSI's proposition for the Cubi NUC AI+ 3MG. With Intel's Lunar Lake generation making way for the new Panther Lake-H chips, MSI has been able to slash the Cubi down in size while boosting performance in the places that matter for business use. Lunchtime gamers might not be so happy – and I'll explain in more detail why later – but for everyone else, this is a big upgrade in a very small package.

MSI has shrunk the 3MG generation right down. Palm-sized might be stretching it a little, but it's not far off: this mini PC measures a few millimetres shy of a 12cm x 12cm square and stands 37.5mm tall.

MSI sent us the top-end model, but naturally there are a variety of pre-built and barebones skus to consider. There are a trio of Panther Lake processors to choose from – the Core Ultra 5 322 (6 core, 6 threads, up to 4.4Ghz, 40+ TOPS), Core Ultra 7 355 (8 core, 8 threads, up to 4.7Ghz, 45+ TOPS) and the flagship Core Ultra 9 386H (16 core, 16 threads, up to 4.9Ghz, 50 TOPS).

IT departments with a healthy supply of DDR5 SODIMMs, M.2 2280 SSDs and spare Windows licenses can select one of the three barebones models which retail for around £460, £550 and £680. Pre-built models start at around £900 for the Ultra 5 322, 16GB DDR5 and 512GB SSD model, with the Ultra 7 355, 16GB, 1TB model pushing up to £1,099 and the Ultra 9 386H, 32GB, 1TB model topping out at £1,400. All ship with Windows 11 Pro.

The 3-year warranty is worth mentioning here, too. That's significantly longer than some rival devices, and if you buy via a B2B supplier you'll be able to upgrade to the Advanced Replacement scheme, which sends out a replacement device the instant your device is diagnosed as faulty.

MSI Cubi NUC AI+ 3MG: Design & connectivity

This compact matte black cuboid fits is nothing much to look at, but practicality is the priority here – it's compact, well connected, and you get tool-free access to the SSD and RAM. Turn the little fingerscrew, slide and pull the little tab, and the latch releases the metal base. It's very neat.

Most users won't need more than the 32GB of DDR5 memory that this review unit shipped with – but you can push it up to 128GB for very specific AI or mini server duties. And the ability to quickly slide in a new PCIe Gen 4 SSD may come in handy, too.

There's a good amount of connectivity here for the size. Up front, you get two USB-A ports – one full-speed 10Gbit port, one limited to USB 2.0 speeds – and a single 10Gbit USB-C port. There are two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports at the rear, and these support up to 98 watts of power delivery for compatible devices. The pair of 2.5GbE Ethernet ports is backed up by an MTK RZ717 chip, which provides Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4.

You can now connect up to four displays – up from the three on the previous generation – which is great for power users: the pair of HDMI 2.1 ports can be used alongside the pair of Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports to power four 4K 60Hz displays. With two discrete Thunderbolt 4 controllers, you can daisy-chain two displays off of a single port and save the other for high-speed external drives or similar.

A single power input accommodates the 120-watt laptop-style power supply, but you don't have to use it – the unit also accepts up to 98 watts of power delivery from a compatible USB-C equipped hub or monitor. The maximum power delivery the MSI itself can generate is 15 watts, though, so it won't fast charge anything bigger than a phone or tablet.

There are compromises. For example, there is no SD card reader, no 3.5mm headphone output, and no rear-facing USB-A ports. It feels like MSI very much intends this mini PC to be used with a docking station – or a well-appointed USB-C monitor which can provide the missing USB and audio connections.

The combined power button and fingerprint reader on the front of the Cubi is rather ingenious – or at least it is, as long as you don't take advantage of the VESA mounting plate in the box. Reaching around the back of your monitor to log in would be marginally less than ideal. In fairness, MSI does supply a short extension cable with a light, plasticky power button backed with a sticky pad for this exact scenario, but you do lose the fingerprint login functionality. It's good to see that a discrete TPM chip comes as standard, though.

MSI Cubi NUC AI+ 3MG: Performance

The range-topping Intel Core Ultra 9 386H in the top-end Cubi 3MG model is significantly more powerful than the previous generation. It doubles the overall core count, taking the previous generation's four performance and four low-power cores and adding a further 8 efficiency cores. AI performance takes a big step forward as a result: Intel's NPU 5 architecture delivers 50 TOPS of AI compute in this high-end chip, a handful less in the slower variants. This combines with the CPU and GPU to generate 100 TOPS of compute. Impressive for a unit that fits in the palm of your hand.

Those upgrades have led to some sacrifices: GPU performance isn't a patch on the previous Lunar Lake generation. With a Mini PC of this size, something has to give. Instead, the Panther Lake generation slashes the GPU core count in half and settles for four of the new Battlemage Xe3 cores. That said, a little lunchtime gaming isn't entirely out of the question. The 3DMark results are similar to the last Lunar Lake generation, but I found that even demanding titles such as Arc Raiders played fine at 2,560 x 1,440 and lowest settings with XeSS Performance mode enabled, with framerates generally hovering between 40fps and 60fps.

This is all the more impressive when you consider that MSI has had to place some tight thermal limits on the Panther Lake chips to prevent the tiny chassis from overheating. The chip simply isn't allowed to boost to its maximum wattage, and sustained workloads are similarly restrained. The flipside here is that, even with sustained heavy gaming or multi-core workloads, the MSI is never excessively noisy. Heavy loads see the fans spin up to a steady white noise, but this is quite easy to ignore – and unlike some mini PCs it's never irritatingly shrill.

The tight power limits explain why the benchmark results aren't universally leaps and bounds ahead of previous-generation mobile chips. For instance, you'd expect the latest architecture to stretch its legs against the two-generations-old 16-core Core 9 Ultra 185H in the Geekom IT13 Max, but it actually performs similarly. This isn't the disappointment it sounds, however: the Geekom is almost twice the size, and it allows its fans to reach higher noise levels to give the chip more headroom.

Despite this, the MSI still gives a good showing as it pushes around 7% ahead in Geekbench 6's single core benchmark, with a result of 2,546, and even edges out a slim 3% lead in the multi-threaded tests with 13,486. Graphics performance drops behind, though, with the MSI falling 43% behind the Geekom. Again, though, even this loss speaks to the efficiency improvements for this generation: the Geekom's Meteor Lake GPU has double the number of GPU cores at its disposal.

MSI Cubi NUC AI+ 3MG: Is it worth it?

The Cubi NUC AI+ 3MG is a great example of a well-engineered mini PC. Some sensibly restrained power limits have allowed MSI to pack considerable capabilities into a tiny, quiet footprint, and the only real disappointment here is that you simply can't eke every last drop of performance from the platform. After all, there's only so much heat that a half-litre chassis can handle.

For many desks, though, a few compromises for quieter operation make a lot of sense. You get the upgradable RAM and SSD options from the older Meteor Lake generation, a big boost in AI compute power, and more than sufficient oomph to handle a wide range of day-to-day workloads. Suffice to say, the MSI Cubi NUC AI+ 3MG is a mini PC with big potential.

MSI Cubi NUC AI+ 3MG specifications

AMD has unveiled a new workstation designed to support developers with local AI inference and agent orchestration.

The Threadripper Halo comes equipped with a 96-core Threadripper Pro 9995WX CPU alongside two MI350P GPUs, with the option to expand this to four GPUs.

Elsewhere, it boasts up 576 GB of HBM3e as well as 2.6TB of combined memory and up to 16.4TB/s of system memory bandwidth, making it a powerful device aimed primarily at running frontier models and fleets of agents.

Announced at IFA 2026, the Threadripper Halo is expected to launch next year and looks primed to compete with Nvidia’s DGX Station. Indeed, the company specifically noted that it boasts 3.4x the total system memory compared to the Nvidia offering.

Exact details on a release timeline or pricing are yet to be revealed.

Speaking at IFA, Jack Huynh, SVP and general manager of AMD’s computing and graphics group, said the new workstation will “redefine personal AI”.

“This is the most powerful workstation in the world, designed and engineered for a complete new era of computing, capable of running AI models with more than a trillion parameters,” he told attendees.

“This is about as close as you can get to a personal supercomputer.”

According to AMD, the Threadripper Halo is catered primarily toward “individuals and small teams doing serious AI work who are currently constrained by cloud access or shared infrastructure”.

This spans AI researchers, engineering teams, model developers, and creators working with large language models (LLMs), the company said.

Local AI in the spotlight

The announcement by AMD comes amidst a sharpened focus on local AI capabilities for enterprises. A host of manufacturers have unveiled PCs and laptops with embedded AI capabilities.

As ITPro previously reported, devices such as the Dell Pro Max range also target local AI inference gains for enterprises.

In the wake of Nvidia GTC this year, IDC highlighted AI-powered workstations as an exciting new growth area for manufacturers.

“Traditional workstations are evolving beyond the familiar tower form factor toward a new class of high-density, near-user AI systems that IDC identifies as part of an emerging “sidetop” category,” the consultancy noted at the time.

The focus on local AI capabilities also looks to tackle rising costs associated with the technology, particularly since the advent of agents.

Token consumption rates – and costs – are now a recurring pain point for enterprises, with research from Gartner showing token costs could exceed developer salaries by 2028.

A key talking point for providers lies in the cost disparity between local agent inference and cloud-based API costs. Separate research from Signal65, for example, found that agentic AI workloads consume up to fifteen-times more tokens compared to traditional chatbot interactions.

Equipping developers with local AI capabilities could reduce costs on this front, Signal65 found. Benchmark tests conducted on Dell Pro Max GB10 and GB300 workstations - equipped with Nvidia hardware - markedly reduced token costs.

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Lenovo is coming to IFA 2026 with a whole new line of Yoga devices, including a new Yoga Tab Plus Gen 2. Naturally, on-device AI dominates the marketing here, as it does with seemingly everything. But look beyond that, and you'll see that what Lenovo has in its Yoga Tab is a tablet that's better than it has ever been.

More specifically, our focus was drawn to its accessories, which left a great first impression during our sneak peek of the Yoga Tab Plus, ahead of IFA 2026.

Lenovo Yoga Tab Plus Gen 2: Design

The Yoga Tab Plus Gen 2 is a generously sized 13in tablet. With the keyboard attached, it has some heft to it, though on its own the tablet only weighs 605g. It's 8.27mm thick, which is considerably more than the Galaxy Tab S11 and the M5 iPad Pro.

The 13in display is crisp and clean, with a 3:2 ratio and a buttery-smooth 144Hz refresh rate. It appears to also be a very bright panel, with the Lenovo drawing app showcasing a luminous white screen when opened.

At face value, the Yoga Pen Pro Gen 2 looks pretty standard, and some of its controls are already in use on iPads and the OnePlus Pad 3. But there are two additions here that really impressed us. The first is the eraser; like a real pencil with a rubber on the end, you can simply turn the Yoga Pen Pro upside down and use the back end of the stylus to erase your work – which is cute and clever.

The second is the haptic feedback. Both ReMarkable and Huawei have produced pens that can almost replicate the feel of a pen on paper. They have the scratch and resistance. Lenovo has gone in a slightly different direction with a Yoga Pen Pro in that it seems to have a little rattle, a little life in it.

It doesn't necessarily give the impression of pencil on paper, but it doesn't slide around the screen either – there's a good degree of control that you don't get with other styluses. In my ten minutes with the Pro, I drew one of the Berlin Bears that was nearby, and it was done with ease. This is something I would be excited to try with the Android Sketchbook app.

Lenovo Yoga Tab Plus Gen 2: Specifications

A Snapdragon 8 Elite chip powers the Tab Plus, and it's paired with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD. You can also expand that up to 2TB with an SD card, which is great for those who will use it for creative purposes, as files eat up storage.

Other features include a USB-C port, Wi-Fi 7, and Bluetooth 6.0. There is an 8MP front camera, and on the rear 13MP and 2MP lenses – we didn't really get much time to test these out, though tablet cameras are largely unnecessary save for video calls. And, out of the box, the Yoga Pad Pro Gen 2 will support Android 17.

Lenovo Yoga Tab Plus Gen 2: First impressions

Admittedly, the tablet's build isn't as impressive as its competitors. It's not particularly slim in comparison to the iPad Pro, or OnePlus Pad 3, or Galaxy Tab S11, but the argument Lenovo can make here is that thinness is not super important. The user experience is. And having used it at IFA, we can say it was a good experience.

The Yoga Pen Pro Gen 2, however, is a joyous little accessory. One we would happily take home and use repeatedly. Once again, Lenovo has shown a different way to look at our everyday technology, and its Yoga Pen Pro is mighty.

Lenovo Yoga Tab Plus Gen 2 specifications

Lenovo has revealed a new family of ThinkCentre desktops to power agentic AI workloads ahead of IFA 2026.

The announcements, made at Lenovo Innovation World, also include new ThinkBook laptops that seek to offer more portability for AI developers.

Lenovo’s ThinkCentre X Ultra desktop, which the company describes as being “built for the agentic AI era”, might be considered a mini PC with its 1.6l form factor. And it’s a powerful one at that, packing an AMD Ryzen AI Max+ Pro 495 chipset.

The X Ultra has a new thermal design to keep it cool and quiet while blazing through AI workloads, according to Lenovo. The workloads themselves run with preconfigured AI tools, models, and workflows over both Windows and Linux through an integration with the AMD Ryzen AI Developer Center.

A cluster-ready architecture allows the X Ultra to connect up to four systems in a unified platform, expanding available compute and memory resources to run larger AI models, support longer context windows, and also multi-agent workflows, according to Lenovo.

Other ThinkCentre releases include the M75s Gen 6, a small desktop with up to 50 TOPS of local AI thanks to a Ryzen AI Pro 400 series chip.

"The value of AI isn't measured by how many features it adds, but by how naturally it fits into the work people are already doing," said Eric Yu, senior vice president of SMB Segment and Commercial Product Center, Intelligent Devices Group at Lenovo.

"Our latest ThinkBook and ThinkPad portfolio brings AI into devices businesses already trust, helping small-and-medium-sized organizations embrace new capabilities without disrupting the way their teams prefer to work."

Lenovo talks up new ThinkBook options

Among the other business-focused announcements, Lenovo also revealed a new ThinkBook 14 Gen 9 and a ThinkBook 14x Gen 2.

The 14 Gen 9 model aims to offer users a balanced performance across AI, efficiency, and mobility, according to Lenovo.

It houses a Snapdragon X2 Plus processor, which delivers 80 TOPS of localised AI performance. All inside a slim 14in chassis.

The 14 X, however, is more focused on mobility, with its ultra-slim 12.9mm thickness and 990g weight – the thinnest and lightest notebook on show at IFA. It boasts an Intel Core 7 processor and an OLED display with an option for an LCD touchscreen.

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IFA 2026 attendees are in for a treat when they come to the Lenovo stand. I know this because I have already been dazzled by the company's new products at its pre-IFA Innovation event in Berlin.

One of the biggest issues with IFA is that it's just a big convention center filled with showrooms. It's not really known for keynotes and presentations. You simply have to go and walk around the show floor to see new products and services.

That doesn't really suit tech companies like Lenovo, with their vast offerings and groundbreaking products.

And so, much like at CES earlier in the year, Lenovo holds its own pre-conference, Lenovo Innovation World, in the same city. Journalists from all over the world are invited to stay in a hotel that also doubles as the event space. We get sneak peeks at the new products being launched, one-to-one time with Lenovo's execs, and also some partner-sponsored events (in this case Intel, AMD, and Nvidia).

But more than that, Innovation World is true to its name. What we get shown is innovative, whether it's colorful consumer laptops (IdeaPad Vibe), AI developer-focused desktops (ThinkCentre X Ultra), or even a stylus with unique controls (Yoga Tab Pro).

As its products show, Lenovo doesn't really like to stand still. Nothing is "business as usual". Everything has some new or untested feature. This doesn't mean it's all good; some of it may never be used again. But it's the bravery to try that makes it so interesting.

And it wouldn't be a Lenovo Innovation World without a proof of concept. For IFA there were two: one is Project Swan, a laptop with an expandable screen. The display slides outwards, growing from 14in to a 17in, similar to the rollable screen showcased at CES earlier in the year.

The other concept, the more groundbreaking one, was Project AeroBlade. Essentially a fanless laptop that uses a vibrating membrane to push air out of the chassis.

Specifically, this is called the 'Active Flow Thermal Solution' and has been developed by a company called AirJet. The AirJet system replaces the traditional spinning blades with a slim 2.65mm chip that has an ultrasonic membrane.

This vibrates and pulls air through the device, and then ejects it through tiny slits at the back of the chassis. Without the need for fans and heatsinks, the AreoBlade is one of the thinnest laptops you will see (Lenovo suggests it is under 10mm thick).

Eric Yu, Lenovo's SVP and GM of its Commercial Product Center and WW SMB Segment, revealed to ITPro that Project Blade will be going into production very soon. Project Swan, however, needs more exploration. Yu explained that his team wants to continue testing its durability and portability.

There is no guarantee that a proof of concept will make it into production, but it's what you need to see from tech companies. Not just run-of-the-mill releases and annual updates of some iconic money-making brand. But ideas (good and bad) being put to the public. To be innovative, one must also be brave, and that is essentially what Lenovo does best.

The word 'vibe' has been somewhat tainted by the technology industry. Whether it's 'vibe working' or 'vibe coding', it's often used incorrectly. So there was some trepidation when Lenovo announced its new colorful laptop range, the IdeaPad Vibe.

What 'Vibe' means in relation to this laptop is a little unexplored. The range of colors it comes in is certainly some kind of vibe, like aura farming in laptop form. But you have to look beyond that and see the specifications – it has a surprising amount to offer underneath the shiny exterior.

Lenovo IdeaPad Vibe: Design

The Vibe is a compact laptop with just a 14.9mm thickness. It's only 313.6mm tall, with a 14in WUXGA OLED display and a standard-sized backlit keyboard. It was no trouble to hold one-handed, either, weighing just 1.3kg. This makes it a great option for remote workers and travelers.

Businesses might not immediately see the Vibe as a work machine, largely because Lenovo is positioning it as a machine for consumers but also because it comes in such a wide variety of colors. And those colors have extravagant names, like 'Spicy Gold' and 'Dreamy Violet'. But there is 'Chill Blue' and 'Lowkey Grey', which seem more like colors businesses opt for. However, 'Zen Green' and 'Radiant Coral' are fairly professional-looking shades.

One thing that was very apparent in our 30 minutes with the device is that it's very easy to use. The lid can be opened with one finger, the keyboard has decent travel (1.3mm), and it has nice bright backlighting. It might not look or sound like a business laptop, but the Vibe has lots for business to like.

Lenovo IdeaPad Vibe: Specifications

For a small laptop, the Vibe sure does cram in a lot of ports; you get two USB-C slots for data transfer and charging, two standard USB-A 3.2 ports, an HDMI slot, an audio jack, and, pleasingly, a microSD card reader – which all us photographers and creators like.

Add to that the fact that it also comes with up to 1TB of SSD, and you have a machine that can store all your images and videos. The only thing that might let it down here is the display, which might not be totally suitable for image editing and color work, but we won't know that until we get one in for testing.

We also can't say which configuration is best, though you'll have a choice between the AMD Ryzen AI 4000 series and the Snapdragon X chip – both have come back with good benchmarks in other devices, so it seems like a good choice either way. And the Vibe will complement both options with a healthy helping of RAM (32GB DDR5-5600 dual-channel).

Other features include Wi-Fi7 and Bluetooth 5.4, as well as a 5MP IR webcam with an optional privacy shutter.

Lenovo IdeaPad Vibe: First impressions

The Lenovo IdeaPad Vibe is a colorful assault on the eyes. But it's best to ignore the bright shades and fancy names, because that will blind you to the actually interesting features, such as the fullness of the port selection and the portability. It's going to be marketed to individuals, but this seems just as good for business as the MacBook Neo – light, efficient, and, crucially, affordable.

Lenovo IdeaPad Vibe specifications

It's become increasingly common to find network connections on relatively affordable document scanners, sometimes even paired with color screens – such as on the Ricoh ScanSnap iX2500 we reviewed recently. The Ricoh SP-2230N is that scanner's more affordable cousin, forgoing the screen and Wi-Fi, but still covering the essentials for reliable business document scanning, and supporting multiple users through a gigabit Ethernet port on the back panel.

This isn't the most sophisticated document scanner around, but it's clearly designed to survive years of fairly intense scanning and archival. Ricoh quotes an expected daily volume of 4,500 sheets – that's about nine every minute over an eight-hour working day. It's built for a range of input media, from regular A4 pages, through register receipts or plastic ID cards, to folded A3 or over-length sheets.

Open up the paper mechanism, and you'll see dual contact image sensors (CIS), meaning the SP-2230N can capture both sides of each page in a single pass. This duplex capability means its 30-page-per-minute (ppm) engine speed translates to 30 images per minute (ipm) in simplex mode, or 60ipm when scanning both sides. A sister model, the SP-2240N, ups those speeds to 40ipm and 80ipm respectively.

This scanner's sturdy paper input tray clips into place and feels almost indestructible. Its long, telescoping output tray is built into the base of the scanner body. This does flex – we got the tip to touch the desktop when pressing down on it – but it doesn't feel at all under strain when doing so. One drawback of the click-in input tray is that it's not designed to fold closed over the input slot, which would help prevent dust gathering in the mechanism. Still, that's not likely to be a big issue on a scanner in daily use.

On the Ricoh SP-2230N's front panel you'll find buttons to cycle the power and start or cancel scanning. There are also three 'Send to' buttons, configurable for different functions depending exactly how you end up using the device. While this is useful, it's not as self-explanatory as the configurable icons on the ScanSnap iX2500's screen, which you can set up to trigger specific scan tasks for multiple users.

Ricoh SP-2230N review: Setting up

This is a compact and lightweight scanner – at 292mm wide, it's only about 3in wider than a sheet of A4 paper, so it's fairly easy to accommodate on a busy desktop. One exception to note is that with both trays fully extended, it's necessarily deep – we measured around 600mm (23.5"), far more than the stated 163mm (6.4"). The SP-2230N uses an external power adaptor, but this is about as small as they come – you can nestle the adaptor in the space between a wall and the rear of the scanner itself.

While an Ethernet port may be less convenient than Wi-Fi for scenarios like a floating reception desk, it does at least mean you don't have to worry about signal quality. It's great to have reliable gigabit speeds, although in our experience 100Mbit Ethernet probably wouldn't be a bottleneck even for 600 dots per inch (dpi) duplex scans.

Ricoh supports this scanner with its PaperStream ClickScan software, which makes it relatively easy to change basic scan settings when you're using the SP-2230N with a PC. It's easy to miss the extra settings icon on the File Format tile – you'll need to go here to enable searchable PDF files, rather than a straightforward PDF or another format. Alternatively, you can configure the scanner in PC-less mode, allowing you to route jobs directly to a network folder or email inbox, for example. Importantly, Ricoh has built in the necessary intelligence for the SP-2230N to run optical character recognition (OCR) onboard, so you can enable it for PC-free scanning – an excellent feature.

With just the three Send to buttons, this scanner isn't as configurable as some we've tested, but that does still allow some flexibility. For example, you could define one workflow to drop searchable PDFs into a network folder, and another to email a particular address with ID card scans. Our one grumble is that there's no easy way to mark which button does what – you'd need staff to remember, or to come up with a labeling system yourself.

Ricoh SP-2230N review: Scanning

We performed our usual suite of timed scan tests from a Windows 11 PC, experimenting with triggering jobs directly from ClickScan's Scan button and from the hardware button on the scanner itself. The SP-2230N almost lived up to Ricoh's stated speeds, hitting a best of 55.4ipm on a 24-side duplex scan at 150dpi. It was only fractionally slower on shorter jobs, completing a 10-page, 20-side duplex scan in 23 seconds – a rate of 52.2ipm. We timed a single page at just six seconds at either 150 or 200dpi, although when stepping up to 600dpi this job took a further second.

These are decent speeds for a document scanner at the affordable end of the spectrum. What's more impressive is that on our reasonably fast host PC there seemed to be no difference in performance between simplex and duplex scanning, and precious little difference whether OCR was enabled or not.

A case in point came with our 10-page, 16-side torture test, a mix of yellowing, tissue-thin magazine pages and poor quality A4 prints, deliberately jumbled up to test automatic de-skewing, page orientation and blank page detection performance. This sailed through the scanner in 22 seconds at 150dpi, or 23 seconds at 300dpi, with the SP-2230N correcting every page and successfully skipping the four blank sides – not always the case among document scanners. With OCR enabled, the same jobs needed just an extra second each.

This scanner tops out at 600dpi, and as we'd expect, this was quite a bit slower than its low-resolution performance. It still scanned 22 15x10cm (6x4") photos in only 45 seconds, though, which is handy enough if you have a stack of snaps that need digitizing. If you do need faster speeds, the ScanSnap iX2500 completed this particular job in an incredible 15 seconds.

Just as we found with the ScanSnap iX2500, the Ricoh SP-2230N performed brilliantly at its default settings. It detected and corrected rotated pages, straightened up skewed ones, and ignored empty sides without slipping up. We didn't experience any misfeeds or damage, even on thin and tired documents that have been through more scanners than we'd care to mention.

That's perhaps the main thing for a scanner that might be capturing contracts, certificates, or other irreplaceable documents, but happily the SP-2230N combined this reliable performance with strong quality throughout. Regular office documents were nicely exposed, with accurate colors, and reasonable crispness even at a relatively low 150dpi. Although backgrounds were whitened to enhance the results, this didn't come at the cost of fidelity – subtle graphics and small pen marks such as checks were retained.

While you'd get better photo scans from a good quality flatbed scanner, the SP-2230N is certainly good enough for archiving company or family snaps. We've seen document scanners that struggle to reproduce the color in photos, lack the necessary sharpness, or simply miss rich details in the shadows or lightest parts of an image. The SP-2230N had none of those problems – its dynamic range in particular was excellent, allowing it to capture photos with surprising fidelity.

Ricoh SP-2230N review: Is it worth it?

Provided you aren't expecting blistering, departmental speeds, the Ricoh SP-2230N offers everything a single user, or even a small office or workgroup could need from a document scanner. It's rugged and was entirely reliable in our tests, producing consistently straight, streak-free and clean documents. Ricoh's software, and the scanner's own onboard processing, means it's well suited to routing documents through a couple of different regular workflows, especially given it can apply OCR without any help from a host PC.

All this makes it a good choice for a front desk, provided it's within reach of a wired Ethernet connection, and that you won't need support for passport scanning. It's also ideal as a cheap document scanner shared within a small team – just find a way to remember what the three buttons do.

Ricoh SP-2230N specifications

Motorola's resurgence continues with the Edge 70 Pro, a top-of-the-line model of its Edge handset that features four 50MP camera lenses and a stunning curved screen.

The Pro model costs £749.99 in the UK and features 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. A mid-level chipset and some plastics used within its build are part of the reasons it's so affordable (compared to other devices).

Motorola Edge 70 Pro: Design

Motorola's Edge 70 Pro feels a little extravagant in a similar way to Huawei handsets in that they're very glossy, delicate builds, with curved chassis and luxurious colors. The Edge 70 Pro review unit we have has a rich burgundy back cover, with a matte finish. Parts of it almost glow pink in the light, particularly around the three camera lenses.

And the curved edge display is a welcome addition; it's very similar to what Samsung Galaxy used to have – almost a throwback, but one that helps it stand out. The subtle bend in the glass is just gorgeous, and you do feel like you're using a screen that's wider than it actually is. And the curved display, chassis, and back cover also make it seem like the whole device is slimmer than it is.

In the US, Motorola is one of the most popular brands, only below iPhone and Samsung. And part of the reason for that is the quality of its handsets – the Edge 70 Pro is as beautifully constructed as anything Samsung and Apple have created over the last few years.

Motorola Edge 70 Pro: Display

The 6.78in display is a P-OLED; the 'P' means there is a flexible plastic layer underneath the main part of the display. It has a 1272 x 2772 resolution and a whopping 144Hz refresh rate.

The default color setting is quite punchy, perhaps more vibrant than it should be – this was because, for us, the default was 'Vibrant'. You can select Natural, which just slightly dials everything back, or attempt to adjust the color temperature with the giant color wheel, but it is very tricky. The other alternative setting is 'Radiant', and it's not particularly impressive or that much different from Natural.

With our colorimeter, the Edge 70 showcased 100% for sRGB color coverage and an impressive 161.1% volume (+ 97% for Adobe) under the vivid setting. Putting it up there with some of the best around.

The phone also achieved a peak brightness of 513.41cd/m2 which is decent. During our time with Pro, it never really needed to be shielded from the sun or even have its brightness tweaked, as the automated settings really do take care of it for you.

Motorola Edge 70 Pro: Specs and performance

Under the hood of the Edge 70 Pro is a MediaTek Dimensity 8500 Extreme with 12GB of RAM. This is a chip found in several mid-range devices, which fits with the pricing of the Edge 70 Pro, though it still somehow manages to underwhelm in benchmarks.

In Geekbench 7, for example, the Pro scored 1,035 for single-core workloads. And then 4,791 for multi-core. Which is rather weak compared to other midrange devices, such as the iPhone 17e and the Samsung Galaxy S25 FE.

In our looped video test, the Edge disappointed further, lasting just 12hrs and 23mins. That was less than the Razr 70 we tested the week before and considerably less than many of the phones the Edge is competing with, such as the iPhone and the Galaxy S26.

For real use, I found the device a little better, lasting well into a second day. This included most of our tests, some work-based use (email, Slack, phone calls), and a fair amount of YouTube viewing.

Motorola Edge 70 Pro: Cameras

Although this isn't a premium smartphone, it does have a premium camera setup; the Edge 70 Pro has triple 50MP rear lenses and a fourth 50MP lens on the front. The back three include a wide and periscope telephoto lens, with 3.5X optical zoom.

Image quality is good on all four lenses. However, there is a fair bit of enhancement going on; for example, it will brighten up a shot automatically, without needing to use the Night Vision settings. Which is not a terrible fault, though it will make it harder to get real-life shots with the point-and-shoot mode. I found a similar issue on the Razr 70 where it did a little too much enhancing.

For video, the Edge can shoot up to 4K at 60fps, and also shoot in HDR10+. Similarly, it offers enhanced results, but the footage we captured was smooth and stabilized.

Motorola Edge 70 Pro: Is it worth it?

The Edge 70 Pro is best described as a mixed bag. It looks the part thanks to that beautifully curved screen and stylish design. The display is pretty, and the camera setup is a lot better than you would expect for the price. But there are two areas where it really lets itself down: the processor and battery.

Admittedly, the low battery benchmark didn't really translate to poor use in real terms, though plenty of phones at this price range can offer more than 15hrs in our tests. And likewise, we didn't see any sluggish performance despite the low Geekbench scores. This is, truth be told, a good business phone. It's just not as good as the competition.

Motorola Edge 70 Pro specifications

Confused by Dell's laptop naming scheme? You're not the only one. Last year, the company scrapped its entire portfolio, including the XPS branding, to release new machines under the Dell, Dell Plus, and Dell Pro labels. Now, XPS is back with a bang, while the Dell Plus laptops have been scrapped – in their place is the Dell 14S and Dell 16S, the latter of which we've gotten our hands on.

These mid-range productivity-centric devices are designed to be everyday workhorses that won't hit the performance heights of the higher-end laptops, but they've still captured that premium essence and will be much more friendly on your IT budget. As such, our 16S has the latest Intel 300 Series processor and an eye-catching shell. Will its £1,500 pricing be enough to tempt you away from the near-double-in-price XPS 16?

Dell 16S review: Design and display

Dell's choice of a clean and crisp Frost Blue chassis coating underlines this laptop's appeal to a more general audience, rather than a high-up executive or power user. While it's also available in a darker, less exciting grey tone, the playful charm and freshness give you a completely different outlook.

That's not to say it isn't as robust as you'd want from a Dell laptop, with its sturdy two-tone CNC-machined recycled aluminum chassis exuding a much-needed sense of durability. A nice touch is the contrast between the clouded, frosty coating on the palm rest, base, and lid against a sharper and reflective metallic lining along the sides – giving it some additional character. While an oddly square-shaped touchpad blends into the chassis, the charcoal-toned keycaps are a contrast too far and clash with the machine's freshness, as does the plastic casing around the display, undermining that premium feel. There's no flex on the lid, thankfully, which means it's at least functionally strong.

The machine's dimensions are about in line with comparable 16-inch laptops, including the HP EliteBook 8 G1a 16, and it's more compact than the Dell 16 Premium, while its 1.77kg weight is around the middle-of-the-road. For a 16in machine, you shouldn't have many portability problems.

While the 2,560 x 1,600-pixel 120Hz IPS display (equating to a below average 189 pixel-per-inch sharpness) is bright enough, registering a decent 352cd/m2 brightness in our display testing, there are a few shortcomings in terms of its color accuracy. While you can expect near-100% (or maximum) coverage of the sRGB spectrum in many modern laptops, the Dell 16S only achieves 89.1%. The results aren't much better for color accuracy for photo or video editing, with 65.1% and 70.1% coverage of the Adobe RGB and DCI P3 spectra. Combine this with a poor black level of 0.3cd/m2 and a contrast ratio of 1,178:1, it's evident that – while suitably bright – the display is among the weakest that we've tested over the course of the previous and current generation.

Dell 1S review: Performance and battery life

With the latest specs, you'd expect the Dell 16S to impress. Our configuration came fitted with a mid-powered eight-core Intel Core Ultra 7 355 processor alongside an Intel Graphics card, 16GB LPDDR5X RAM and a 512GB SSD. Performance is solid in and of its own right and it's about in line with the mobile processors you'd find in the previous generation's cohort.

Benchmarking with Geekbench 6 rendered a decent set of single-core and multi-core results of 2,683 and 11,052 respectively. We'd describe this as solid, if not unspectacular. The chipset is just about on the weaker end of the Intel 300 Series spectrum – and is comfortably outpaced by the best 200 Series chips. Take the Dell 16 Premium (Intel Core Ultra 7 255H), which scored 2,803 and 16,016 – or the Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i Gen 10 Aura Edition (Intel Core Ultra 9 285H), which scored 2,743 and 12,057.

Graphics performance was also respectable, with the Intel Graphics chip scoring 24,616 in our OpenCL benchmark – this is a little under the minimum we'd see with the Intel Arc Graphics chip, which could potentially reach above 30,000. For an entry-level GPU in a mid-range laptop, it's absolutely fine and will support basic-to-moderately intensive tasks without much problem. Where we were extraordinarily disappointed, however, was in SSD write speeds. While the 512GB SSD can read data at an average 5,280MB/s, it reads data at 255MB/s – which is borderline defective. We normally get results in the range of 2,500-6000MB/s.

The Dell 16S' battery life, meanwhile, is slightly better than many 16-inch machines we've tested recently, many of which can only reach 10-11 hours. Lasting 12hrs and 57mins, it's better than either the aforementioned Dell (10hrs and 20mins) and Lenovo (8hrs and 58mins) laptop, for example. There are one or two models that can outrun this; however, the Dell 16S is not able to outlast the AMD-powered HP EliteBook 8 G1a 16 (14hrs and 29 mins), for instance.

Dell 16S review: Features

The keyboard in the Dell 16S offers a bog-standard, solid and satisfying typing experience with minimal complaints. While certainly more generic than the exquisitely designed zero-lattice keyboard you'll find in the XPS or previous-generation Dell machines, there are few complaints about it. The off-centered placement to accommodate a numberpad will take some getting used to if you're used to centrally-aligned typing, but it's otherwise snappy, responsive, and each keystroke has a sufficiently deep travel distance.

The expansive touchpad, on the other hand, is oddly square-shaped rather than the more common rectangular form you'll find in most laptops. Its depth means that you can't perform left- or right-click actions without shifting your hands away from their position on the keyboard, while the button clicks are each a little lightweight. It's suitably responsive, however, and offers the perfect balance of smoothness and friction so that your finger feels comfortable while also not slipping on ice.

Connectivity is very good, meanwhile, with two USB-C ports with Thunderbolt 4 (40 Gbps), one HDMI 2.1 port, and two USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports (one on each side), as well as a 3.5mm headphone jack. There's also a little LED indicator next to the USB-C ports on the left-hand side to indicate when power is connected. We would much prefer a USB-C port on either side, however, to give you more flexibility, and there's no room for an SD Card reader. You'll also get the latest Bluetooth 6.0 and Wi-Fi 7 wireless standards – and they work well with stable connections.

Beyond the usual collection of Windows 11 AI features, thanks to a 49TOPS integrated NPU, there's very little in terms of bells and whistles available. The Dell Optimizer app is a console that lets you manage your device if you want a different skin to Windows Settings, while Dell offers a number of additional optional third-party software upgrades as well as two tiers of hardware support, at an additional cost, during the purchase process.

Dell 16S review: Is it worth it?

We've had a mixed experience using the Dell 16S, with plenty of positives including a fresh design, snappy keyboard, and healthy selection of ports, but there are too many flaws to suggest that it offers value for money at its current price.

The display, for instance, is less-than-ideal if you want to work with media in a professional sense. It's bright and crisp enough for day-to-day usage, but underperformed when we lifted the lid off the hood. Performance, too, is just about fine – but won't really challenge the highest-end machines out there right now. One suitable comparator is the Acer Swift 16 – which is just £300 more but includes an OLED screen, a much better CPU, double the RAM and SSD space.

You can argue it's worth pushing your budget up to £2,000 so you can afford the highest-end 16S, with a monstrous Intel Core Ultra 9 386H processor (slightly better than the Acer's CPU) and 32GB RAM – but you're still stuck with the same display, and for that amount of money you're really looking for something that can dazzle you.

What you're paying for in the Dell 16S is its sophisticated and robust chassis that boasts a strong design and a guaranteed level of physical reliability – while still being enjoyable to work with on a day-to-day basis. While the Dell 16S has ambitions to punch above its weight, it doesn't excel in any single area and doesn't offer the best value considering its underwhelming display.

Dell 16S review: Specifications

For much of the past two decades, conversations about print rarely made it beyond IT, procurement, or facilities teams. Print was viewed as an operational necessity, as decisions centred on devices, consumables, service contracts and cost control. While important, these discussions were largely separate from wider conversations about business strategy.

Today, that distinction is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain.

Hybrid working has exposed weaknesses in how information moves through organizations. Documents, data and workflows now flow across offices, homes, cloud platforms and multiple applications, often relying on systems that were never designed to work together. As a result, businesses are taking a much closer look at the processes that sit behind everyday operations.

Half of UK businesses still rely on legacy workflows, according to our research, while a third struggle to integrate technology into everyday operations.

In many organizations, print, digital workflows and IT systems continue to operate independently of one another, creating inefficiencies, security challenges and limited visibility over how information moves through the business.

It’s no secret that boards are increasingly focused on productivity, resilience, security and return on investment. When information is trapped within disconnected systems, manual intervention increases, slowing down decision-making and making governance more difficult to maintain. What may begin as a workflow issue can quickly become a business performance issue.

The changing customer mindset

Customers are no longer looking solely for technology providers. They are increasingly looking for partners who can help simplify operations and deliver measurable outcomes. The discussion is becoming less about individual products and more about how different technologies work together to support the wider business.

That is particularly evident in hybrid environments. Many of the challenges organizations face today stem from fragmented processes. Employees often move between digital and physical workflows throughout the day, while information passes through multiple platforms, applications and systems. Without integration, inefficiencies can quickly accumulate, critically affecting employee experience, operational efficiency, security, and business agility.

At the same time, customers are placing greater emphasis on demonstrating value from technology investments. Rising operational costs, growing expectations around sustainability and increasing pressure to automate processes are forcing organizations to scrutinise investments more carefully. Technology decisions are being assessed against wider business objectives, whether that is improving efficiency, strengthening resilience or supporting long-term growth.

This is one reason service-led models continue to gain momentum across the channel.

Rather than purchasing individual products and services separately, organizations are increasingly looking for outcome-focused solutions that bring together hardware, software, analytics, support and ongoing optimisation.

Sustainability, operational efficiency, and demonstrating return on investment are all becoming part of the same conversation, creating opportunities for partners to act as trusted advisors rather than product suppliers. Long-term partnerships are particularly valuable in this environment, as customers need ongoing support to navigate changing market conditions, evolving regulations, and shifting business priorities.

To support this, vendors and partners are investing more heavily in market intelligence and education. By working closely with organizations such as Gartner, IDC, and Quocirca, partners can access deeper insight into emerging trends, customer challenges, and best practices, helping them have more informed conversations with customers. In many cases, the role is becoming one of coaching and knowledge-sharing, equipping customers with the information they need to make better decisions and demonstrate value across the business.

The channel and AI

Another factor drawing the channel into board-level discussions is the growing connection between AI, security, and sustainability. Historically, these priorities were often treated as separate initiatives, owned by different teams and managed under different budgets. Increasingly, organizations are discovering that progress in one area depends on progress in another.

AI initiatives rely on access to accurate information and effective governance. Security strategies depend on understanding where information resides and how it moves within the organization. Sustainability programmes require greater visibility into processes, resource usage and operational efficiency. However, businesses cannot automate or improve what they cannot see.

Success is becoming less dependent on individual products and more dependent on understanding customer objectives, identifying inefficiencies, and helping organizations build more resilient operating models. The ability to connect technologies, automate workflows and provide meaningful insight into business processes is becoming increasingly valuable.

Hybrid working may have exposed the weaknesses in disconnected workflows, but it has also created an opportunity.

As customers look for greater efficiency, stronger governance and clearer value from technology investments, the channel has a real chance to play a much broader role in helping organizations achieve those goals.

While tokenmaxxing has taken the tech industry by storm in 2026, it’s time enterprises start ‘storagemaxxing’ to avoid being hit with huge infrastructure costs.

That’s according to David Boland, VP of cloud strategy at Wasabi. Speaking to ITPro, Boland believes that a confluence of industry trends means IT leaders need to sharpen their focus on storage optimization.

Hardware supply chain issues and rising prices are an area of acute concern for IT leaders in 2026 and are forcing some to alter strategies to compensate for growing costs, he said.

“We all know that the supply chain issue for storage is big news,” Boland told ITPro. “It’s really hard for organizations, especially if they don’t have deep pockets or are large, well-known organizations; it’s always difficult for them to get the hardware that they need.”

The result, according to Boland, is that they “need to look elsewhere” for alternatives or maximize the use of their existing infrastructure.

With AI in the equation, this adds a new layer of complexity to storage optimization, Boland noted. Simply put, there are a “ton of different storage options out there” yet each AI use case has different requirements from a storage perspective.

“Whether it’s inexpensive, long-term storage for compliance and regulatory reasons, or in the training process or the preparation process, [such as] storing checkpoints of training,” he explains. “Each one of these, let’s call them phases, in the AI lifecycle have a different storage need.”

Given the varied storage requirements when it comes to AI data sets, Boland said that some enterprises find their existing infrastructure isn’t compatible.

“Some high performance, expensive storage is not a great fit for your long term archiving, so therefore knowing where to put your data at which phase of that AI pipeline helps you maximize your investment or maximize the amount of money you spend.”

Storagemaxxing explained

Storagemaxxing is essentially a term designed to “give some new life” to traditional storage optimization processes, Boland said, and one that is inspired by various social media ‘maxxing’ trends.

We’ve all seen them online: ‘looksmaxxing’, ‘tokenmaxxing’, even ‘hobbitmaxxing’.

With storagemaxxing, this is primarily about streamlining storage to accommodate for various stages of the AI lifecycle, be that from data collection to training, deployment, and retention.

The aim here is to ensure that data stays “AI-ready, secure, cost-predictable, and free to move between cloud and compute providers as workloads change”, Boland noted in a recent blog post.

Notably, this has a critical impact on both AI and cost efficiency. AI tools need swift access to the data that feeds them. Ensuring seamless access by optimizing storage also reduces the strain placed on infrastructure.

Costly changes

Being “free to move” data between cloud and compute providers is an area Boland said many enterprises have been caught off guard with in recent months.

Many enterprises didn’t anticipate certain costs associated with storage, he said – be that storing data on the wrong platform or in the wrong cloud tier.

This has a direct impact on costs, he said. Even simply accessing that data or moving it can incur further charges due to egress fees. Indeed, Wasabi’s 2026 Cloud Storage Index survey found 48% of storage costs now go toward fees rather than actual capacity.

As ITPro reported at the time, this is severely impacting IT budgets and forcing a rethink of storage strategies.

“Being locked into a storage solution because you can't afford to move that data out, either through egress charges or retrieval fees, is an issue,” he said.

“I see that becoming more of an issue in the AI space. What's nice about hyperscalers is they have a broad range of services that go from GPU to CPU to high-performance storage to low-cost object storage,” Boland added.

“If there comes a point when a customer wants to move that data to another provider for either a better GPU cost or for availability of services, then they get hit with fees that they don't anticipate.”

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One of the most sought-after form factors on the market is the humble miniature desktop PC, with a wide range of manufacturers competing to produce the most appealing mini computer. Most of these are cheap and cheerful entry-level devices that suit office workers running simple daily tasks. These include the Geekom Air12 2026 Edition and Acemagic Vista Mini V1, among many others.

A handful of machines aim to punch up a level, including Acer's Revo RB-102. Launched last year, this alluring felt-topped mini PC looks the part and features an Intel Core Ultra 100 Series chipset with a modest amount of memory and storage. Priced at a not-inexpensive £589 – similar in value to the middling Acemagic Kron Mini K1 and more expensive than the excellent Acemagic Matrix Mini M1 – does Acer's compact desktop machine do enough about it to convince you to depart from the entry-level options?

Acer Revo RB-102 review: Design

Mini PCs look very similar, barring the chassis color, some detailing, and the placement of ports. Otherwise, you get a box that's usually black, grey, or silver with a tiny bit of flourish.

Yes, there are some exceptions – the DGX Spark devices, for example, adopt the same form factor across manufacturers, inviting very interesting designs to help each one stand out. In the entry-level market, price is king, so designs are minimalist and construction materials are usually cheap. To distinguish the Revo RB-102, Acer has swapped the hard top casing with something a lot closer to carpet.

This fabric-adorned black-shaded box looks fantastic on your desk and does wonders to add a little softness to your office setup, where alternatives would simply serve to harden the overall feel of your workspace. For that reason, you're unlikely to want to hide it by mounting it to the back of your monitor – so bear that in mind. There's nothing distinct about its fairly average size (131 x 131 x 43mm) and weight (449g) otherwise, making it suitably portable if you need to transport the device. Should you need smaller or lighter devices, they certainly exist, but the difference would be negligible.

While we love the overall design, its functionality is a mixed bag. First, let's get the Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 out of the way – although not the very latest standards, they're an acceptable compromise at this price point.

We were, however, disappointed with the fact that there's only one USB-C port and it's on the front – with no near alternative. This sits alongside a Kensington lock slot, two USB-A 3.2 ports and a 3.5mm audio jack. On the rear, we get two additional USB-A 3.2, DisplayPort 2.1, and HDMI 2.1 ports alongside an RJ45 Ethernet port. There's no room for an SD Card reader, which some devices fit on the side, however. It's certainly usable, but with such a need for USB-C, we'd have loved the flexibility of at least an additional port.

Acer Revo RB-102 review: Specs and performance

The 12-core Intel Core Ultra 5 125U processor is a low-power mobile processor based on the Meteor Lake architecture, with a small capacity for AI workloads thanks to an integrated 11 TOPS NPU. The key appeals here are low power draw, support for multiple displays, and efficiency. This was fitted alongside an Intel Graphics chip, as well as a minimal 8GB RAM and 512GB SSD.

Given this machine's pricing, we wouldn't expect fireworks. Still, performance benchmarking with Geekbench 6 rendered a modest single-core result of 2,093 and a multi-core performance of 6,869. These aren't poor results in isolation – outperforming the comparably priced the Kron Mini K1 (Intel Core i5-12600H) on multi-threaded performance (5,508) but underperforming on competency running the simplest tasks (2,233). Compare it with the excellent Matrix Mini M1, however, with its Intel Core i9-13900HK (14-core) and 32GB RAM producing results of 2,806 and 8,912; this machine is priced at roughly £150 less. Generally, during our experience, the machine ran a little noisy, and navigating across menus and applications wasn't as buttery smooth as we'd have liked.

Similarly, the Iris Xe Graphics chip in that Mini M1 scored 13,514 in our OpenCL test compared with the Acer's 11,029. However, the latter result is respectable and comes in higher than many of the entry-level and even a couple of the mid-range mini PCs we've tested in recent years. Its SSD read and write speeds are also just fine – coming in line at 3,278MB/s and 2,301MB/s respectively. This isn't the quickest but more than passable.

Acer Revo RB-102 review: Is it worth it?

The mid-range market is an incredibly tough nut to crack, with the approaches to both pricing and hardware varying between options.

Instead of opting for a higher-end chip from a few generations ago, as the Acemagic Matrix Mini M1 has done, Acer chose a relatively recent Intel CPU from the first generation of NPU-supported processors to squeeze the smallest amount of AI functionality. So you get features like Windows Studio Effects. But the price is a little higher – and that's despite raw performance coming in relatively cool. That's partially because it's fitted with just 8GB RAM. While it's the latest standard (DDR5 SDRAM vs the DDR4 SDRAM you'll find in most other mini PCs), we'd loved to have seen at least 16GB – but such is the way of the world.

If you can't be swayed by the outstanding Mac Mini, which is supremely more powerful and roughly the same price, the Acer Revo RB-102 is a reasonable Windows mini PC that looks a cut above the rest – and can hold its own against the competition. Chief among its rivals is the lesser Air12 2026 Edition, which the Acer outpaces while offering a bit of AI sauce if you need it. If not, however, you're best looking at the Acemagic Matrix Mini M1, which is cheaper and more powerful.

Acer Revo RB-102 review specifications

Hello Moto; there is a big slice of nostalgia to be had when unfolding the Motorola Razr 70. From its initial greeting to the sheer joy of having an early noughties-style flip phone brought back as a touchscreen, the Razr 70 fills that role very well.

The 70 is the budget or mid-range model to the 70 Ultra. At face value, it might seem a little expensive for a budget phone, but £799.99 is quite cheap when compared to other foldable devices – the new ZFlip8, for example, is over £1,000.

Motorola Razr 70: Design

Folded or unfolded, the Razr 70 is a beauty. That's particularly true in the jade green color that our review unit came in. The curved edges make it appear slimmer than it actually is; it's 7.3 mm thick when unfolded and a whopping 15.9mm when folded, but it really feels and looks a lot less than that.

Unfolded, the back cover is made up of a textured panel, with a two-tone Motorola logo and a Razr one along the bottom. The top portion is the front screen. When folded, a small bar protrudes, with no insignia, creating a nice, understated design.

Occasionally, I would pull the device out of a pocket and open it in one hand, only to realise it was upside down, but you do get it right after a while. Your fingers learn where the cameras are on the external screen, and that is the best way to guide you.

When it is folded, however, it is just the perfect size for seemingly any pocket. I even carried it in a shirt pocket. And this is one of the best reasons to go for a flip phone, rather than a standard foldable, as it just becomes completely portable and accessible.

We must talk about the crease on the internal display, as it is hard not to see. It catches the light, you can feel the bump as you move your finger down the screen, and in some cases you can see a little warping of graphics. Text bubbles, for example, have a slight curve that shouldn't be there.

Motorola Razr 70: Display

You get two displays on the Razr 70; a tall 6.9in main display and a square 3.6in one on the outside. The external screen is an AMOLED display with a 90Hz refresh rate. You can tap this awake and see various notifications, the time, and also take square photos with the handset still folded.

The internal display is tall and thin, which is easy to navigate with one thumb and operate one-handed. It's an LTPO panel with an adaptive 120Hz refresh rate and HDR10+ capabilities.

With our colourimeter, the Razr's internal display showcased 98.8% for sRGB gamut coverage and 188.8% for volume. Generally, a score above 96% for coverage is good; having over 98% puts the Razr up there with non-foldable phones, like the iPhone 17 and the Galaxy S26. And its brightness peaked at 488.40 cd/m2, which is not super bright. Our recent Fairphone 6 review offered up significantly more, but the Razr didn't struggle in our experience, regardless of the sunshine.

The aspect ratio, however, is merely ok. There are times when it clips content. I notice this a lot on Instagram and YouTube, where text or the sides of videos have been cut. This is something Samsung has tackled with its passport-sized ZFold8.

Motorola Razr 70: Specs and Performance

The Razr 70 packs a Mediatek Dimensity 7450X chipset and 8GB of RAmM (which you can boost to 12GB). As a mid-range flip phone you shouldn't expect too much from the 70 and the 7450X, and that is highlighted in its Geekbench scores.

For single core, it only managed 822 in Geekbench 6. The 3,135 multithreaded score is much better, but still off the likes of the ZFlip8. It looks poor on paper, and maybe doesn't do the Razr justice, as it does feel quite snappy to use.

In our looped video test the Razr lasted 13hrs 59mins which is, again, merely OK. Other devices are pushing well beyond 15hrs in the same test. Standard foldables are getting more by adding additional batteries. But the Razr just packs the one and doesn't really compete. In every day terms, the phone lasted a full day before needing a charge, but any excessive use and it was struggle to get through a working day.

Motorola Razr 70: Features

The camera setup on the Razr 70 is impressive. You get a 50MP f/1.7, wide lens on the rear and also a 50MP f/2.0, ultrawide lens. On the front, where the external display is, you have a 32 MP lens with a f/2.4 aperture that shoots wide.

The selfie camera creates warm and bright images. Colors look more vibrant than they actually are, admittedly, which suggests excessive AI enhancements. But for capturing details its remarkable. Similarly, the Night Vision setting on the main 50MP lens also captures more vibrancy than is apparent – perhaps overcompensation for the dark. My shots appear almost neon, but there is no faulting the amount of detail it finds.

For video, the detail capture and the overly enhanced quality are the same, but I was able to create really good footage for reviews. The Razr is quite versatile with its different modes and settings and shoots at 4k up to 60 fps. This could well be a good option for content creators, particularly as it's oh-so portable. It packs a surprising amount of quality in its small stature.

Motorola Razr 70: Is it worth it?

So the Motorola Razr 70 is a super flip phone full of little nostalgic hits. But the tall and thin internal display makes it a little difficult to recommend as a business phone.

I really struggled to use it for work, whether that was messaging on Slack, looking at documents, or even sending emails. The screen is just not the right aspect ratio.

What I did find it useful for was image and content creation, making videos for reviews and filming myself. It was very strong on both counts. And the compact size is great. It's easily the most portable device around.

Motorola Razr 70 specifications

As print infrastructure extends across multiple sites, home offices, and hybrid workplaces, maintaining oversight of device fleets has become significantly more complex. Managed Service Providers (MSPs) are under growing pressure to deliver reliable support while controlling costs and maintaining service quality.

At the same time, organizations are under pressure to monitor and secure expanding device networks against a backdrop of rising cyber threats. Recent research highlights the scale of this challenge, with 56% of organizations reporting a print-related data breach in 2024-2025.

Without timely insight into device health and performance, IT teams are forced into a reactive approach, responding to faults only after they disrupt workflows, and requiring engineer visits that could potentially have been avoided.

These pressures have accelerated the shift towards smart services. By combining intelligent monitoring, predictive insights, and AI-powered capabilities, partners can identify and resolve issues earlier, improve fleet reliability, strengthen security, and provide customers with greater visibility and control across increasingly complex print environments.

Why reactive support is no longer enough

Historically, service success was often measured by how quickly someone could arrive on-site to resolve an issue, with engineers responding when faults are reported and once disruption has already occurred.

These traditional service models built around reactive intervention are struggling to keep pace with how organizations operate today. Now, customers expect issues to be resolved quickly with minimal disruption and downtime, and for every connected device to be properly maintained to avoid faults in the first place.

For MSPs, relying solely on reactive intervention makes it more difficult to scale operations efficiently, maximize engineering resources, and maintain healthy service margins. Instead, long-term value increasingly depends on proactive service models that keep print ecosystems online.

For channel partners, the challenge is adapting.

How smart services are transforming support

Importantly, proactive smart services are not about removing engineers entirely from the process.

Across the channel, condition monitoring and remote access are allowing service teams to assess whether issues can be resolved remotely before allocating resources, while predictive monitoring helps identify components that are likely to fail, enabling preventative maintenance before disruption occurs.

The result is improved first-time fix outcomes, increased operational efficiency through greater uptime, and fewer unnecessary on-site visits, allowing engineering resources to be deployed more effectively.

For partners, this is enabling a shift from interrogating the customer to interrogating the device, ensuring partner-customer relationships are maintained, and ensuring engineers have the time to focus on resolving more complex issues and delivering effective long-term support.

Creating long-term value through smart services

Across the print channel, value is increasingly being demonstrated through services rather than hardware alone. The strength of a partner relationship is not defined by technology alone, but by the trust and expertise that support it over time.

As AI moves from experimentation to application, the real opportunity lies in practical deployment. The focus shifts from headline innovation to operational value that helps partners support customers more effectively.

Smart services are intended to sit within that space. Not as a silver bullet, and not as a standalone answer, but as a structured approach to making device support more intelligent, more connected, and more aligned with how businesses now operate.

In a market that is becoming more connected and more demanding by default, expanding customer relationships beyond reactive support is central for partners to strengthen long-term customer relationships and create sustainable recurring revenue opportunities through higher-value services.

The Fairphone Gen 6+ is one of those handsets that should really appeal to businesses that are in the market for mobiles. A modular phone, with additional parts for fixes and upgrades that are affordable.

It helps with sustainability goals, and it's oh so simple to fix and replace parts thanks to its uncomplicated build and mini tools. Everything you need is either in the box or findable on the Fairphone website.

The '+' is important, as this is not merely the Fairphone 6. It's an upgraded version of that model, which is available in the US for the first time. The initial cost is €649 in Europe and $649.99 in the US, and most of the accessories and replacement parts are between $25 and $50.

Admittedly, there is a lack of sparkle here, and it's underwhelming compared to other phones. But for a business phone, it's a super solution.

Fairphone Gen 6+: Design and display

The handset is quite thick at 9.6mm. It looks far bigger than most devices on the market. But it feels solid and well constructed. There are two screws to open the back and access the insides, and you have some options within the box to change your back cover. Our unit came with an option that has a card holder and a lanyard.

Another difference from the standard 6 is the new Cobalt Blue, which is bold and harks back to the company's origins. It includes a little vibrant yellow clicker on the side above the volume and power buttons.

You have two camera lenses and a sensor on the back – it's not a triple-lens setup despite its appearance. There's a USB Type-C port at the bottom with speaker holes on the left and a slight dip where you find a non-obtrusive 'Fairphone' logo along the bottom in black.

On the other side, there's a lot to like about the 6.31in P-OLED panel on the Gen 6+. It uses LTPO technology, which is good for saving power. It has an adaptive refresh rate that goes up to 120Hz. And it uses a 20:9 aspect ratio. The panel is also incredibly bright, peaking at 745.12 cd/m2 in our tests.

For color coverage, the Gen 6+ is very strong, showcasing 95.2% of the sRGB gamut color space and 95.6% for volume. Maybe not the level of an iPhone or Honor's 600 model, but a decent score nonetheless. In my experience, the Gen 6+ was bright and vibrant across all types of content.

Fairphone Gen 6+: Specs and Performance

You get a Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 in the 6+, as opposed to the Gen 3 in the standard 6. This is paired with a bigger slice of RAM, with the 6+ able to use 12GB of DDR5 compared to the minuscule 8GB in the 6.

Its Geekbench scores are true to its mid-range level, with just 1,284 for single-core and 3,661 multithreaded performance. This is slightly below the Honor 600 on both scores, which retails at a similar price.

In our looped video test, the Gen 6+ lasted 15hrs and 45mins which is a good score. You will, after all, be able to upgrade this battery, and while some devices can boast over 20hrs in our test, they arguably won't be able to keep that up over their lifetime and will end up being replaced entirely.

Fairphone Gen 6+: Features and cameras

The Gen 6+ has two rear cameras: a 50MP main lens and a 13MP wide one. There is also a 32MP front camera. The rear shoots video at 4K at 30fps with the main lens and 2K at 30fps with the selfie lens.

Images are crisp and full of detail, while video is nice and smooth with the 'anti-shake' feature. There are lots of options for slow-motion shots, time-lapse images, and also a very cool 'Super Night' setting, which works surprisingly well. There's hardly any blurriness, and you don't need to keep the phone still for long to capture images.

Feature-wise, the yellow toggle button on the side is the standout addition – not new to this version, but a great inclusion. With this, you can switch between normal and focus modes, and in a much quicker way than most other brands, like iPhone.

You can customize it and even give it a name. I set mine up to just receive work emails and Slack messages, and instantly felt more productive and less stressed.

Fairphone Gen 6+: Is it worth it?

The Fairphone Gen 6+ is a superb, modular smartphone that's both affordable upfront and cost-effective in the long-run. A lot of work has gone into making it more competitive; the screen is bigger and brighter, the camera setup is very high quality, and the overall experience is good

By and large, consumers might want more glitz on the outside, and the battery didn't last as long as other phones in this price bracket, but there is nothing else as modular as this. And that toggle to focus is simply superb.

Fairphone Gen 6+ specifications

OVHcloud CEO Octave Klaba has urged customers to brace themselves for potential price hikes as cloud providers continue battling surging hardware costs.

In a social media post on 10 August, Klaba noted that the "significant impact" of RAM and storage costs could mean cloud prices rise by as much as 87%.

Klaba has previously warned that price rises were incoming due to rising component costs, but at the time estimated cost increases in the range of 5-10%.

"It is very frustrating to raise prices for a company like OVHcloud, because we make tremendous efforts to be as competitive as possible on pricing," Klaba said, in a statement translated from French by X.

"But the global context imposes very strict discipline on us to, quite simply, continue delivering new orders. Indeed, the real risk is not being able to fulfill your orders and making your expansions overly complex."

OVHcloud isn't the first company to react to the market this way. Back in March, Chinese giants Alibaba and Tencent increased cloud prices in response to surging hardware costs.

In February, German cloud leader Hetzner raised prices by 50% on some products. In June, AWS boosted the price of one key AI cloud service, EC2 Capacity Blocks for Machine Learning.

Rising prices at OVHcloud

Klaba said OVHcloud was struggling to limit unit price increases, noting that the company's prices were shifting from three times cheaper than rivals to just two times.

"In July and August, we received the latest details on RAM and disk prices for T3/Q3 2026, which now allows us to finalize the price impacts for new Public Cloud and bare metal orders, as well as for a recent portion of equipment already in production based on the latest generation of DDR5 RAM," Klaba said.

"The exercise remains a tightrope walk: we need to place the right volume of orders, month by month, over 12 months, with no guarantee on purchase prices and no way of knowing what our customers' real demand will be," he added in the translated post.

The price rises will start on new orders from the beginning of September, and equipment already in production from October.

Older generation systems, dating to 2024, will see smaller or no increases. Equipment from this year, meanwhile, will see an 87% price increase for the Game setup, 49% for "Advance" users, 40% for "Scale" users, and up to 59% for those under "High Grade" plans.

"That's +28 % on average for Gen 2024, and +51 % for Gen 2026," Klaba noted.

For public cloud, prices won't be changing directly, though there will be alterations to how companies are billed, which could boost costs by up to 22%, Klaba said.

The CEO added that he expected RAM and storage prices to continue to drive up cloud prices in 2027 and 2028, with a "return to normal hoped for in 2029."

The memory crisis continues

The memory crisis has rocked a host of industries over the last 12 months, with consumers and enterprises alike facing steep price hikes.

As ITPro reported earlier this year, budget devices are among the worst hit by the price surge, with device manufacturers switching their focus toward high-end premium devices.

PC shipments have fallen for the first time in more than two years, according to research from IDC. Analysis from the consultancy found global PC shipments slid 4.9% on year in the second quarter of this year to 68.2 million units, down from 71.7m in the same quarter last year.

That isn’t slowing down provider profits, however. IDC noted that PC makers have reported revenue growth, highlighting that the cost of the crisis is being passed onto consumers and businesses.

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Dell's culling of the XPS moniker in 2025 as part of a massive product refresh underscored one of the most befuddling branding decisions in hardware history. The name recognition alone is worth its weight in gold, not to mention the XPS' history of elite performance and exquisite design. More than a year on, and here we are. Dell's mea culpa is clear and contrite, evidenced by the choice to scrap the iconic 'DELL' logo from the chassis of three new models and instead brandish them with 'XPS' alone.

We've got our hands on a mid-powered XPS 14 (fitted with an Intel Core Ultra 5 300 Series processor), a laptop that feels just as premium as you'd expect but perhaps a bit friendlier on your budget given the toned-down configuration. Dell's high-end enterprise lineup was a little lost in the XPS' absence, with the Dell 14 Premium (its spiritual successor) proving a pale imitation of the once great enterprise laptop. Can the new XPS 14 show that it's more than just a change of logo, and once again transcend the ordinary for a new generation?

Dell XPS 14 review: Design and display

You should look at an XPS laptop and be overcome with an immediate feeling that it's a premium machine that's a cut above the rest. Dell failed to capture that exact mood with the most recent handful of generations of XPS machines – but absolutely achieves that with this resurrected model.

The graphite-shaded Storm-colored chassis adopts a new unibody structure that combines premium CNC aluminum with a Gorilla Glass 3 layer atop the palm rests for a cool and comfortable touch. There are several lovely touches to its overall design, including minimalist parting lines to denote the touchpad, as well as an outer raised lining to the chassis so that the pristine gapless keyboard doesn't make contact with the outer fabric of the display. The display is baked into the lid, and the bezels are as minimal as you'd expect, barring a little extra room atop the lid to make way for a webcam. Given how robust it feels too, this is a phenomenal effort and one worthy of the XPS moniker.

The machine's dimensions are compact, and a touch smaller than many 14-inch laptops out there. Our model, which has an IPS display, had a 15.2mm thickness – but the OLED version is even thinner at 14.6mm, with uniform height across the entire chassis. Its 1.36kg weight is also slightly lighter than many others, but doesn't hold a candle to the sub-1kg featherweights.

The display is easily the machine's poorest quality, however. While we imagine the 2880 x 1800-pixel OLED version offers a level of crispness and clarity, the 1,920 x 1,200-pixel non-touch IPS display does not. Although it still has a smooth 120Hz refresh rate, its 162 pixels-per-inch ratio is definitely on the low side. You don't get the sharpness that you'd want from a premium laptop. This feeling extends to the results we obtained with our display calibrator. A brightness of 320cd/m2 is certainly below average – but the screen also has an overly yellow tint by default, with the white balance way off. Further examination revealed a relatively poor base color accuracy of 90.7% of the sRGB spectrum. We say this because so many machines on the market can now hit 99-100% without difficulty. The Adobe RGB result was 66.2% (average around 75-80%), and DCI P3 color accuracy was 70% (average roughly 80-85%). It also had a low black level of 0.18cd/m2 and a reasonably high contrast ratio of 1,784:1.

The IPS version of the XPS is certainly far from the best quality screen you'll find out there. There are no major red flags – and you can tweak the color balance to your liking – but for the amount you're paying, if screen quality is important, then you may be tempted to either upgrade to the OLED version or look at similarly-priced machines with much better displays.

Dell XPS 14 review: Performance and battery life

Our review unit is the entry-level XPS 14, with an eight-core Intel Core Ultra 5 325 processor and an Intel Graphics card with 16GB LPDDR5X RAM and a 512GB SSD.

This configuration packs a punch for what it has, with Geekbench 6 benchmarking producing a strong 2,552 single-threaded score and a multi-threaded result of 10,470, which is about in line with the previous-generation Intel Core Ultra 7 Series 200 mobile processors. In a similar vein, the Intel Graphics chip is slightly under par if you compare it with the Intel Arc Graphics chip – registering 23,208 in OpenCL testing versus between 25,000 and 30,000. Disappointingly, despite very fast read speeds of 6,989MB/s, the 512GB SSD has very slow writes of 1,813MB/s – we had to run the test several times, given it's approximately two to three times slower than average.

One highlight that we need to stress is just how incredible the battery life is. The XPS 14 lasted 28hrs 13mins in our looped video playback test – which is simply a phenomenal result. Dell has a reputation for building laptops with incredibly long battery life, and this is the longest we have recorded yet. Most comparable machines will last between 12 and 18 hours in the same test.

Dell XPS 14 review: Features

The gapless zero-lattice keyboard in the XPS 14 is simply outstanding, and looks just as well as good as it feels to use. Unlike the keyboard in the Dell 14 Premium, the travel distance is slightly shorter – 0.8mm vs 1mm – and it's significantly less than the roughly 1.5mm travel distance you'll normally find. However, a huge bite with every key push means your fingers bounce right off, offering a deeply satisfying experience while touch typing. The touchbar is also gone, thankfully, meaning physical buttons are back – and the overall look and functionality of this machine is all better for it.

Unlike the faux-infinite touchpad in the XPS 14's predecessor, this one has a couple of parallel grooves to outline very subtly where the sensitivity ends. It's a very nice design touch and incredibly helpful when you're attempting to navigate or click without looking, as you can feel exactly where the limits are without undermining the sophisticated design principles that led to the removal of the touchpad in the first place. The engineers have learned from the user feedback, refined on their design, and produced something truly stellar. The glass surface is a touch smoother than we'd like, but not as slippery as we've seen in other models. Clicking, too, feels a little lighter and hollower than we would have liked – lacking the punch you get while typing. It's not too bad overall, though.

Connectivity is, as usual, limited in Dell's 14in machine – with just three USB-C ports with Thunderbolt 4 support as well as a 3.5mm audio jack. You do also get Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6.0 support. The machine is somewhat light on software features, but it does come with a healthy amount of built-in security features, including Dell SafeBIOS, hardware-level BIOS protection, and Dell SafeID with a discrete TPM – a dedicated security chip that keeps credentials hidden from malware. ProSupport also uses AI to give you a heads-up on issues that may unfold, letting you anticipate issues that users may encounter. You'll also benefit from both facial recognition and a fingerprint scanner baked into the power button.

Dell XPS 14 review: Is it worth it?

Dell has finally brought back the XPS 14, and it's the best version of this machine that it's manufactured in years – but with several important caveats. In some ways, using this specific configuration feels like buying a Ferrari and finding a Toyota engine inside. Sure, it's incredibly reliable, but the internals don't quite match up with the high-end exterior.

We loved the refined design and highly sophisticated build quality, but the screen was disappointing, and while the performance is reasonable – when you pay nearly £2,000, you really do want something that blows you away. Given how much the entry price is, we would struggle to recommend this particular unit given the value-for-money factor.

Paying a little extra, however, means massively upgrading your processor, doubling the memory you can use, and transforming your display from an underwhelming IPS screen to a 2.8K OLED touchscreen. The battery life on this machine, however, is extraordinary and could be worth the price alone if that's your main priority.

For those looking to buy a fleet of high-end, premium machines with a reasonable display, outstanding battery life, and extremely satisfying overall user experience, the XPS 14 is a great choice. We would, however, recommend considering the upgraded versions to maximize that premium factor.

Dell XPS 14 review specifications

If Minisforum is a new brand to you, don't look away yet. We're quite familiar with its mini PCs, which have been known to see off pricier models from big-name competitors in the past. The N5 Max is something different; effectively a standard NAS enclosure powered by a very powerful, AI-optimiszed mini PC. It's a bold device for a small, specialist brand to launch, so it's breathtaking that it should come so close to being brilliant.

This NAS' hardware specification underlines the point that it's not just aimed at storage. It's powered by an AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 processor, a 16-core beast that integrates Radeon 8060S graphics. This potent chip is optimised for AI workloads, and partnered here with 64GB of unified memory. While it might lack the outright grunt of a dedicated GPU with VRAM, it should offer greater headroom to run more complex models than possible even on a 32GB card.

Minisforum hasn't overlooked the storage part of this NAS. In a neatly packaged device it's provided five slots for 3.5" SATA disks, along with five M.2 slots for NVMe SSDs – one of these is already occupied by a factory-fitted system disk. Around the case you'll find two 10GbE Ethernet ports and a collection of USB sockets that includes two 80Gb/s USB 4 connectors.

Minisforum N5 Max review: Setting up

While this NAS doesn't have the quality feel we've seen from rivals, particularly UGREEN, it's still an impressively packaged and seemingly well-made device. The one exception to this might be its lockable disk caddies, on which the snap-in rails feel a bit reluctant to come out. Worse, when removing one caddy, its release lever snapped under very little force, subsequently leaving it hard to fit and remove.

Elsewhere things are more impressive. The SSD slots and other hardware are all contained in a compute module that slides entirely out of the NAS. Somehow Minisforum has found room for an onboard power supply and some impressive cooling hardware, although you need to unscrew half of it to add SSDs. Overall this is a strongly packaged system, combining lots of storage and processing with a power supply in a unit little bigger than a conventional four-bay NAS. For our storage testing we fitted five 2TB WD Red Plus disks and created a RAID 5 array. We also fitted two SSDs in a RAID 1 array – later we retested using one SSD as a read cache for the disks.

Minisforum N5 Max review: Features and apps

Unfortunately, this NAS arrives pre-installed with Minisforum's proprietary Miniscloud operating system. This feels very much like an early release – which it is – and lacks the polish you'd want from an expensive device to which you might be entrusting valuable data. One major annoyance is that you can't use it to administer the N5 Max via a web interface, instead needing to install the Miniscloud app.

If you're familiar with NAS operating systems, you'll know that mature ones such as Synology Disk Manager offer a good balance between built-in features, expansion through apps, and further customisation through containerised servers. At the time of our review, Miniscloud had no app ecosystem and lacked even some basic features such as config backups and restore. SMB access used different user accounts from other remote features, and the whole environment felt a bit haphazard. While we were able to test storage and AI performance in Miniscloud without major issues, we didn't fully grow to trust it, and experimented with both TrueNAS and Open Media Vault as a replacement.

Whatever operating system you're using, you'll need to configure an environment to run local AI models. We used an Ollama container optimised with the ROCm backend, which would in theory make the most of the onboard GPU. We recreated this across Miniscloud, TrueNAS and OMV, while also installing the AMD-backed Lemonade environment on OMV. This allowed us to explore local models optimised for this processor's NPU, which itself offers 50 trillion operations per second – exceeding the qualification for a Microsoft Copilot+ PC. We also used Lemonade to compare a Vulkan back end, which in some cases may be faster even for AMD chips.

Minisforum N5 Max review: Storage performance

This NAS is all about performance, and for the most part the news is very good. We tested it using a 10GbE QNAP switch, although the 5GbE port on our test PC acted as a bottleneck. Even so, it managed a peak score of 843 in PCMark10's Data Drive benchmark, significantly more than we saw from the impressively fast UGREEN DXP4800 Plus.

We also measured strong scores on the ATTO disk benchmark. Under Miniscloud, this NAS could almost saturate our test PC's 5GbE interface from 64KB file operations or above, managing data transfers above 590MB/s. One oddity was that it was consistently slightly slower to read, topping out at around 560MB/s.

This NAS' disk and SSD volumes could read and write data to and from a Windows PC at around 145MB/s – much more impressive than it sounds given that our test data set contains around 11,000 tiny files alongside a few hundred medium and very large ones. The speeds we measured edged up to 165MB/s when repeated for a disk volume with SSD caching.

These results were impressive enough, but this NAS was even faster when reinstalled with TrueNAS. It became the first device we've tested to write our entire 11GB dataset to disk in less than a minute, with the disk volume hitting a massive 202MB/s even without SSD caching. We couldn't detect any impact on storage performance from AI workloads, suggesting the powerful processor would more than cope with a busy multi-user environment.

Minisforum N5 Max review: AI Performance

You won't buy this NAS just for its storage performance, but its AI behaviour takes a little more unpicking. We found that it was broadly impressive on lightweight generative models such as Llama 3.2 3b, and even more so on mid-weight mixture of experts (MoE) models, optimised to provide fast performance on systems with constrained memory bandwidth. That fits this setup perfectly, as – while fast – its 8533 MT/s DDR5 memory is no match for dedicated VRAM.

This comparative bottleneck means that the Minisforum N5 Max's Strix Halo architecture isn't so well suited to dense models. Midweight dense models including Gemma 4 31b ran much more slowly than their nearest MoE equivalents – in this case Gemma 4 26b. We test all AI models with the same prompt: an instruction to write a technical feature covering benchmarking. Using Ollama and GPU acceleration, we recorded around 44 tokens per second (T/s) for Gemma 4 26b, but only around 9T/s for Gemma 4 31b.

Our Llama 3.2 3b results provide a good comparison with dedicated graphics hardware. We recorded around 72T/s on the N5 Max, and just under 30T/s on a reference PC with a high-end processor and integrated graphics. We also ran this model on a gaming PC with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 graphics card, which delivered a result at 316T/s.

While that shows the advantage of a powerful GPU with video RAM, it also reveals its major limitation: with just 6GB of VRAM, our gaming PC wouldn't run the midweight models without offloading much of the work to the CPU, which is much slower. In practice, the N5 Max would show them a clean pair of heels.

With 64GB of unified RAM, one of this NAS' major advantages should be that it can run larger models with GPU acceleration when compared to a high-end graphics card with 32GB of VRAM. Unfortunately, it's not quite that straightforward. By default, its BIOS imposes a GPU memory ceiling of around 30GB. You can increase this only up to a maximum 48GB, which in practice made it challenging to run models like Llama 3 70b with 4-bit quantisation – which requires around 45GB or more once you factor in context memory and other overheads. We'd hope this might change with a future BIOS update, but there wasn't one available at the time of our testing.

We achieved our most interesting results using gpt-oss 20b, a MoE model with strong reasoning and tool use, aimed at consumer hardware. This delivered a rapid 40+ T/s with GPU acceleration using the ROCm backend. We retested it under Lemonade with NPU acceleration, but it only reached 18.9T/s. Finally, we tried a version with MXFP4 quantisation on the Vulkan backend, getting a huge performance jump to 72.9T/s.

We didn't see a similar jump for other models, tested in the same environment, that used the more common Q4_K_M quantisation rather than MXFP4. The likely explanation is that Vulkan's current llama.cpp implementation has a mature, native compute path for MXFP4, whereas Q4_K_M reportedly still requires an extra conversion step before the GPU can use it, slowing the inference down.

Minisforum N5 Max review: Is it worth it?

This final AI test served as a reminder that local AI environments are far from mature, and that it can take determined testing, tweaking, and comparison to get the best performance from even straightforward hardware – let alone a NAS with high-end specs.

That sums up our experience with the Minisforum N5 Max – it feels like a great idea that's come too soon. While it packs strong enough hardware to back up its promise of big AI and storage performance, it comes with an under-baked operating system, and invites you into an ecosystem that still feels fragmented, technical and at times downright confusing.

If you're highly technical, or already quite experienced with configuring local AI environments, the Minisforum N5 Max might be very useful as an always-on, fairly capable AI workhorse. It's an impressive performer if you need it for storage, too. However, given our experience, we'd be inclined to either spend the money on a PC setup with a mid-range 32GB graphics card, or wait for Miniscloud and the wider local AI environment to grow into something more polished.

Minisforum N5 Max specifications

AMD CEO Lisa Su has hailed the company’s record second quarter earnings as revenue surged 50% at the chipmaker.

Figures from AMD’s quarterly earnings report show revenue at the firm reached $11.54 billion, a sharp increase on the $7.69bn recorded in the same period last year.

“We delivered an excellent quarter, with record revenue and profitability as data center revenue more than doubled year-over-year,” Su said in a statement.

A key factor in this growth, the company noted, lies in surging data center hardware sales. Figures show revenue from its data center segment reached $6.7 billion, marking a 107% year-on-year increase.

“Revenue increased 50% year-over-year to a record $11.5 billion, driven by continued strength in our Data Center business, which represented 58% of company revenue in the quarter,” said Jean Hu, AMD’s executive vice president and chief financial officer (CFO).

This revenue growth comes as the firm begins the roll-out of the Helios system, AMD’s first rack-scale AI architecture. The system combines Epyc CPUs, Instinct GPUs, Pensando networking, and Rocm software, and competes directly with Nvidia’s Vera Rubin rack.

As ITPro reported at AMD Advancing AI last month, a host of big tech companies including Microsoft, OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, and Oracle have confirmed plans to purchase the system. AMD expects to ramp up shipments of Helios in the fourth quarter of 2026.

Advancing AI 2026 also saw the firm launch the new Instinct MI400 Series GPU family, as well as the sixth-generation Epyc CPU range.

AMD chief executive Lisa Su said the company expects continued demand for Helios as well as its flagship CPU and GPU ranges across the rest of 2026.

“We enter the second half with strong momentum as Epyc demand accelerates, Instinct deployments scale and Helios begins to ramp,” she said.

“More broadly, AI is driving a significant expansion in demand for compute across all of our markets, and our leadership portfolio and growing customer visibility position us exceptionally well to capture this expanding opportunity and deliver substantial revenue and earnings growth in the years ahead.”

AMD expects further data center growth

In an earnings call, Su told analysts the firm projects data center sales to double in 2027, with server revenue expected to surge around 80% in the second half of 2026.

“Demand for both accelerators and CPUs is growing well above our prior expectations,” she said. Demand for Epyc CPUs is also growing, with hyperscale providers flocking to the processor series.

“Hyperscalers continued expanding Epyc across their internal infrastructure and public cloud offerings, including AWS, Microsoft, Google, Oracle, and others,” Su added.

The AMD chief noted that heightened interest in Epyc processors has enabled the firm to capture market share from Intel, a key competitor on this front.

CPUs have become increasingly important for AI inference, particularly since the advent of agentic AI. As ITPro previously reported, GPU demand surged during the early days of the generative AI boom, powering AI training processes.

However, the processing demands placed on infrastructure by agents means CPUs and other specialized chips, such as application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), have grown in popularity.

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Try and keep it on the down low, but the MSI Stealth 16 AI+ isn't what you'd normally call a business laptop. Sure, it has the charcoal grey metallic exterior of the kind of laptop you'd normally see in boardrooms or executive lounges, but it's no slim-and-light executive toy, or even a portable workstation. Instead, the Stealth 16 AI+ is primarily a gaming laptop that happens to be disguised as a professional device. It might be low on massive vents or glowing, rainbow-colored LED bars, but inside it has the kind of spec that's built to run AAA titles at 120Hz frame rates with all the latest ray-tracing, frame-generating, upscaling tech. It also has a gorgeous, high-refresh rate OLED screen to match.

Curiously, this makes it a good buy for some business use cases too. Why? Well, the specs, the screen, and excellent usability make it a strong option for creative users. It'll run Adobe Photoshop and Premiere as capably as it will Doom: The Dark Ages, and it's a natural for 3D design apps, video-editing apps and more. It can even work with NVIDIA's Studio drivers where compatibility and reliability trump raw performance. With its Intel Core Ultra 9 processor and 16GB RTX 5080 graphics card, it's also a very capable AI machine, with the power to run small and many large language models locally for inferencing, or even fine-tune and refine models. It's too big and way too expensive for your average user, but could easily make sense as a power-user's main machine.

MSI Stealth 16 AI+: Design and usability

This is a large and heavy laptop, nearly 20mm thick and weighing in at close to 2kg. Yet there's something quite elegant about it, especially in comparison to many gaming and creator laptops, with its almost black finish, set-back hinge, concealed vents and etched patterns on the aluminium lid. There's barely any flex anywhere in the likewise aluminium chassis, and while there's some fan noise while running intensive apps (or games), it's practically silent in general use. The fans push heat out from the rear, with vents on the base, below the hinge and just above the keyboard, though some warmth builds up in the base over time. Shorts and skirt-wearers take note.

The keyboard features pulsing rainbow backlighting by default, but five minutes work with the MSI Center utility is all it takes to switch this to a more sedate solid color of your choice. Beyond that, it's a top-quality keyboard, with large, flat keys, a quiet but springy action, and a spacious layout, made more so by the fact that there's no numeric keypad squeezed in. I could moan about the undersized function keys at the top and small Ctrl key, but there's not much else wrong with it. MSI even shows attention to detail by placing the power key to the left of the Delete key, so that the latter stays just where your fingertips expect it.

This is another 16in laptop with an absolutely whopping touchpad, measuring 160x100mm. This makes sense with the screen size on a laptop where you're likely to be running creative applications, giving you more space for detailed selections or moving objects around the on-screen workspace. There's no sense that it impedes you when you're typing, and it's super-smooth and responsive while in use.

The size and thickness of the chassis means there's ample space for ports and sockets, and you have two Thunderbolt 4 ports, both with DisplayPort and USB-PD power delivery, on the left-hand side, plus a single USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type A. There's one more of those on the right, along with an audio jack, an HDMI 2.1 output and a 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet port. That should cover you for desktop setups and even multiple displays, while you have Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 for wireless networking, mice and headphones on the move. What looks like a third USB-A port on the left-hand side is nothing of the sort; it's the input for the power supply. Still, it's a lot more solid than the usual barrel-pin connection, so who's complaining?

MSI Stealth 16 AI+: Display

Whether you're gaming, streaming video or editing and color-grading footage of your own, the screen on the Stealth 16 AI+ is just superb. It's bright, reaching 468cd/m2 in SDR mode, and the combination of OLED contrast and the 2560 x 1600 pixel OLED touchscreen makes for a spectacularly sharp and detailed image. It's VESA DisplayHDR True Black 600 certified, so perfectly capable of showing a full range of HDR tones, while its color depth is hard to fault. It covers 100% of the sRGB gamut with a 149% volume, and 99% of DCI-P3. Color accuracy is equally strong, with an average Delta-E of just 0.81.

The size, clarity and squarer 16:10 aspect ratio lends itself well to complex creative apps and in-depth image editing, while HDR video and games look just as good as you could hope for.

The speaker system is well above average, too, with two down-firing woofers to deliver a thumping low-end and two upfiring speakers either side of the keyboard providing mid-range and high-end detail and a wide stereo spread. It's great for soundtracks and background music, but also clear and directional in meetings. However, while the 1080p camera captures decent well-exposed video in bright conditions, the output can be blurry or subject to smearing in low or artificial light. Still, we'll forgive it this one weakness, if only because the IR sensor allows for quick and flawless Windows Hello sign-in.

MSI Stealth 16 AI+: Performance

With a 16-core Panther Lake Core Ultra 9 386H CPU and the RTX 5080, there are no questions at all around the Stealth 16 AI+'s performance. Geekbench 6 puts it slightly behind devices based on the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme for single-core and multi-core performance, with scores of 2793 and 15802, but otherwise it's right up there with the fastest laptops we've tested. It's an absolute monster on 3D rendering tasks, with scores of 120 (single-core) and 1215 (multi-core) in Cinebench 2024. Only the Asus Zenbook A16 with the X2 Elite Extreme has demonstrated more number-crunching power.

But it's the GPU performance that's really compelling. We don't review gaming laptops, so there's not a huge amount of competition, but this is the fastest laptop we've seen in 3D Mark's Steel Nomad test by some margin, with a score of 4367 where previous contenders scored in the mid 2000s. And while this matters for gaming (this thing roars in Doom: The Dark Ages) it also has a huge impact on AI performance.

It's comfortably ahead of anything we've tested in Geekbench AI's GPU benchmarks, and it delivered impressive scores in the more advanced Procyon AI benchmarks, with a score of 2494 in the AI Image Generation test running Stable DIffusion 1.5, a score of 25367 in the same benchmark with the Stable Diffusion 1.5 Lite model, and a score of 3303 in the AI Text Generation test running the Phi 3.5 Mini model. We've yet to run these tests on enough devices to make meaningful comparisons, but the average score for the SD 1.5 Lite image generation benchmark on an NPU is between 3000 and 5200. The Nvidia GPU is an AI powerhouse, and it has the 16GB of video RAM to run worthwhile large language models as well as enterprise-tailored small language models. Also, don't forget there's a 50 TOPS NPU there for processes where energy efficiency matters more than raw compute grunt.

The one area where the Stealth 16 AI+ doesn't triumph is battery life. In our standard test, with video playing and the display set to 170cd/m2, the battery lasted 10 hours and 2 minutes before giving out. This is pretty standard or even above average for a laptop in this class, and given that you want it plugged in to get the best performance, shouldn't be considered a deal breaker.

MSI Stealth 16 AI+: Is it worth it?

Here we come to the biggest question mark over this machine. While there's a version available with a 12GB RTX 5070Ti for around £2600, our review spec comes in at £3349 inc VAT. It's hard to blame MSI when it's facing the same supply chain issues and RAM costs as the rest of the PC industry, but that price tag is going to put this high-spec, high-performance laptop out of reach for many buyers, and even the most demanding power users might struggle to make their case. Yet in the current climate, this is still an exceptional laptop with enough CPU, NPU and GPU speed for any application. It's a big investment, but it could still be worth it for the right use case.

MSI Stealth 16 AI++ (B3WI-033UK) specifications

With so many entry-level mini PCs on the market, Geekom has turned its attention to those looking for a bigger dose of power from their miniature desktop companion. Most mini PCs are explicitly aimed at the budget-friendly market, with most typically available for around the $500/£500 mark or under, thanks to the fact they often use components that are several generations older, alongside memory components with standards that are also somewhat out of date by today's measure.

Enter the Geekom IT13 Max, a device that seeks to stand above the crowd with a (relatively) modern chipset and a healthy chunk of memory to help with your modern computing needs. In many ways it's comparable to the outstanding Geekom A7 Max and, on paper, it boasts comparable performance levels to workstations like the HP ZBook Power G11, but at an aggressive price point of under $1,000. Could this be enough to tempt you away from some high-end alternatives?

Geekom IT13 Max (2026) review: Design

The Geekom IT13 Max resembles the Mini IT13, which follows the design language of a long series of machines that the manufacturer has made in the last few years. You have an array of ports on the front with an LED-lit power button, with grills on either side, and even more connectivity options available on its rear. Four rubber feet raise the IT13 Max slightly above your surface to aid with airflow. The black finish, meanwhile, gives it an air of corporate (albeit bland) sophistication that deviates from the playful and lighter silver finishes out there.

Its chassis, however, doesn't give the premium aesthetic we think Geekom has been trying to exude thanks to a primarily plastic casing – and that's despite a metal inner frame and metal bottom cover. That said, this also means it's as light as you'd want, weighing just 380g – which is considerably lighter than many comparable machines. Among devices we've reviewed recently, only the Acemagic Vista Mini V1 is lighter at 245g.

Geekom also claims the IT13 Max can withstand pressure of up to 200kg with robust protections. It does, however, occupy a little more real estate on your desk, with dimensions of 136 x 132 x 54mm – certainly the largest among most mini PCs. Only the Lenovo ThinkCentre M70q is larger, with dimensions of 175 x 180 x 35mm.

Connectivity options on this device, meanwhile, are outstanding. Wireless options include the latest Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 standards, while you can enjoy a whole host of ports to suit all possible uses. There are six different USB-A slots, including four on the front alongside a 3.5mm audio jack. There are a further two USB-A slots on the rear as well as two USB-C slots, two HDMI ports and two Ethernet ports. On the left-hand side you'll find an SD Card 4.0 slot, and there's a Kensington Lock Slot on the right. Frankly, this is hard to beat if you're looking at the latest crop of mini PCs.

Geekom IT13 Max (2026) review: Specs and performance

Most Intel-powered mini PCs are fitted with processors that predate the 2023 Meteor Lake CPUs that kicked off the new AI PC era – and you can tell based on their performance metrics. That said, it's appropriate given most of these are deemed budget-friendly.

The Geekom IT13 Max, on the other hand, risks eating the mid-market's lunch as it's powered by a high-end Intel Core Ultra 9 185H (16 cores). This is two generations behind the latest Intel chips – so it only lets you tap into 11TOPS of AI power courtesy of the integrated NPU, but it matches up with plenty of workstations released in recent years. It's also partnered with an Intel Arc Graphics chip.

The memory you get, meanwhile, is excellent, with a whopping 24GB DDR5 RAM and 512GB PCIe Gen 4 SSD. Most mini PCs only have DDR4 and PCI 3.0 data storage units – so you'll get a slight bump in performance and bandwidth if undergoing more intensive media-intensive tasks. With prices surging, it also offers very good value.

Considering its approximate £750 price tag, if you find the right deal, it's an incredibly compelling package. Beneath the bonnet, our test results show that performance levels provide more than exceptional value.

Testing with Geekbench 6 showed the Intel processor achieved 2,373 in single-threaded performance and 13,068 in multi-core performance, which is a set of results that comfortably outpace all other Windows mini PCs we've tested in recent years. Only the Mac Mini, which scored 3,496 and 14,505, has beaten it. In fact, this mini PC even beats the HP ZBook Power G11 mobile workstation (fitted with the same chip), which scored 2,397 and 11,906 respectively. It even outpaces the Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i Gen 10 Aura Edition, which featured last gen's Intel Core Ultra 9 285H CPU, and registered 2,743 and 12,057.

The Intel Arc Graphics chip, meanwhile, registered 33,670. This is a simply outstanding result for an entry-level graphics card and the highest we've registered for this GPU in the machines that we've tested so far. It's roughly on par with the AMD Radeon 880M Graphics chip or slightly weaker than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060, by way of comparison. SSD speeds, meanwhile, hit strong reults of 5,290MB/s for reads and 3,229MB/s for writes, which is the highest among the mini PCs we've tested.

Performance was flawless when we tested the machine against a range of different workloads, although you should note that the fans are pretty much overactive nearly all the time. Geekom says it's got an upgraded "silent" fan that combines with all-copper cooling modules and an independent copper plate for cooling CPU modules. While these technologies aim to keep temperatures under control, you can hear the fans whirring pretty much at all times – during light and heavy usage.

Geekom IT13 Max (2026) review: Is it worth it?

Geekom may have outdone itself with its latest high-end mini PC that's aimed at business users who want more flexibility and capabilities in their portable computers. It's comparable with the outstanding Geekom A9 Max, which probably remains the best Windows mini PC we've reviewed – but the IT13 Max comes in at a much more attractive price point, and its components are only slightly weaker in this device.

Coming in at a tier just below its A9 Max, the Geekom IT13 Max certainly threatens to eat the lunch of the mini PCs in the mid-range market. For only a few hundred pounds more, you get a device that's got much newer components that outpace many of last generation's most powerful Intel laptops, as well as connectivity standards (both wired and wireless) that are as new as you can get. If you can get past the noisy fans, this device is simply outstanding and offers tremendous value if you're looking for a small but capable desktop companion.

Geekom Air12 2026 Edition specifications

Razer is first and foremost a maker of high-end gaming PCs and accessories, but in recent years its laptops have increasingly taken on the status of wolves in sheep's clothing or gaming laptops that look more like high-end creative and enterprise machines than traditional, demonstrative gaming notebooks.

The Blade 16 is thus now more properly considered a direct competitor for the likes of the MacBook Pro 16 or Asus Pro Art 16, workstation powerhouses with potent graphics performance, rather than for the likes of anything with a ROG Strix or Predator badge on it.

The 2025 Blade 16 was a thorough redesign of the 2024 machine and built around AMD's AI 9 Strix Point CPUs and Nvidia Blackwell GPUs. For 2026, the basic design hasn't been tinkered with, but the CPU now comes from Intel's latest Panther Lake stable. As we'll see, that delivers improved performance and battery life. Other changes include faster ports and improved display performance.

As ever, buying Razer is not the most affordable path to tread, with prices starting at £3,499 for the RTX5070Ti model with 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD and rising to £5,499 for the RTX5090 machine with 64GB of RAM and 2TB of storage. In between sits a model built around the RTX5080 GPU.

Of course, context is everything: the most affordable 16in MacBook Pro with the M5 Pro CPU will set you back £2,999 while matching the highest Blade 16-spec with the M5 Max processor will push the price to £5,399. As ever, quality never comes cheap.

Razer Blade 16: Design

The chassis and body for the Blade 16 are made from CNC-milled aluminium, making it a very stiff and solid laptop. Despite that, Razer has managed to keep the weight and thickness down: at 2.14Kg and 17.4mm at the most, it's similar to the 16in MacBook Pro.

The design is rather angular and borders on the industrial-minimalist, but that's something that found favour in the ITPro office. The only nod towards Razer's gaming heritage is the green backlit logo on the lid. The logo looks rather low-rent and out of keeping with the rest of the design, but at least you can turn the backlight off.

There's only one colorway, and that's black. It's very smart, but the matte paint finish is a little susceptible to picking up greasy fingerprints, especially on the lid. Take a look at the side of the new Blade 16, and you'll find a comprehensive range of ports.

On the left side, there are two 10Gbps USB-A ports, a Thunderbolt 5 (120Gbps) port, a 3.5mm audio jack, and the proprietary power jack for the 280W power brick. On the right, there is a third 10Gbps USB-A and a second Thunderbolt 5 port as well as an HDMI 2.1 video output and an SD card reader.

As you'd expect for this sort of money, the WLAN card is right up to date, the Intel BE213 card supporting both Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6.0.

Opening up the Blade 16 is straightforward, and while you can't add more memory, you can add a second M.2 2280 SSD. The Lexar 2TB SSD in our review machine performed well, recording sequential read speeds of 5,512MB/s and write speeds of 4,416MB/s respectively.

Razer Blade 16: Keyboard, touchpad, and webcam

The Blade 16's keyboard is a high-quality and solid chicklet affair. The whole assembly is very well-engineered, and the 1.5mm of key travel feels perfect, as does the crisp and cleanly defined endstop.

The keyboard comes with a full per-key RGB lighting system that you can modify via the Razer Chroma app, so, for example, you can set up the WASD and arrow (only half-height in the case of the up/down) keys to glow a different colour from the rest of the deck.

The speaker grilles that flank the keyboard preclude a numeric keypad, but there is a useful column of five customizable macro keys on the far right below the power button.

The touchpad is large at 150 x 95mm and has a glass surface that offers excellent sliding characteristics. The click-action on the lower part of the pad is as crisp and quiet as one could hope for.

There's no fingerprint scanner, but the webcam does support Windows Hello IR facial recognition.

The 1080p webcam itself rather lets the side down. There's nothing actually wrong with it, but for a laptop this expensive it's a rather run-of-the-mill affair and isn't overly quick in dealing with changes in ambient lighting. We've encountered more capable 1440p webcams on laptops costing less.

There's also nothing in the way of a privacy shutter, either manual or electronic. Given the price, this is something Razer should attend to.

Razer Blade16: Display

The Blade 16's display is still a 2,560 x 1,600 OLED Samsung-made affair with a 240Hz refresh rate and wide-gamut support covering 162% of the sRGB color space and 115% of the DCI-P3 space.

Compared to the 2025 model is display is significantly brighter, peaking at 480cd/m2 in SDR mode (up from 402cd/m2) and 1060cd/m2 in HDR mode (up from 630cd/m2).

It's impressively accurate too, with a Delta E variance of just 0.74 vs the sRGB gamut profile, 0.92 vs DCI-P3, 1.03 vs REC709 and 1.1 vs AdobeRGB, which are the color profiles you can switch between in the Synapse app. That makes the Blade 16 perfect for color-critical work.

With a 0.2ms grey-to-grey response time, a 240Hz refresh rate and the minimal levels of ghosting inherent in OLED technology, the display delivers superb levels of motion fidelity which makes it ideal for animations and 3D modelling.

The Blade 16 also features Nvidia's Advanced Optimus automatic multiplexer switch, which connects the Nvidia GPU directly to the display. This delivers all the benefits of a manual MUX switch without the inconvenience of having to reboot Windows when you want to connect directly to the discrete GPU.

A feature that hasn't been added for 2026 and is still conspicuously absent is a touch interface.

Razer Blade16: Specs and performance

Hauling the coal inside the 2026 Blade 16, you'll find a 16-core, 4.9GHz Intel Core Ultra 9 386H and a 175W TGP Nividia RTX5090 GPU with 24GB of vRAM. That's a potent combination with enough power to chew through even the most demanding of tasks without getting short of breath, let alone breaking into a sweat.

In the broad-spectrum PCMark10 benchmark, the new Blade scored 9,776 while in the Geekbench 6 CPU tests it scored 2,945 single-core and 17,626 multi-core.

One of the most powerful Windows laptops we've tested recently is the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395-powered HP ZBook Ultra G1a, which scored 7,944 in the PCMark10 test and 2,905 and 18,083 in the Geekbench 6 tests. The Intel processor gives a little away in multi-core performance, but the difference is minimal.

For a wider comparison, the 18-core Qualcomm Snapdragon X2-powered Asus Zenbook A16 scored 3,724 and 21,914 in the Geekbench 6 tests while the, again 18-core, M5 Pro-powered MacBook Pro 16 scored 4,268 and 28,101.

All four of those results, from the premier processors from Intel, AMD, Qualcomm and Apple, are amongst the highest scores you can expect from a laptop.

Of course it's in graphics performance that the new Razer really shines: The Blade 16 ran the SPECviewperf 3ds Max 3D modelling benchmark at a blistering 211fps, which is amongst the fastest we've ever seen on a laptop. The 3DMark Time Spy score of 22,064 was similarly impressive.

In the GeekBench 6 OpenCL test, the Blade 16 scored a mighty 226,646. That's 2.5 times the score from either the MacBook Pro or the ZBook Ultra and well and truly redresses their advantages in CPU performance.

Gaming performance is beyond our remit here at ITPro, but in case you're interested in how the Blade 16 handled titles like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and Black Myth: Wukong, they both ran like greased lightning with the detail and lighting effects turned up to 11 and looked and sounded superb.

All that performance would count for little if it were delivered in an uncivilised way, but the Blade 16 kept its composure even under heavy demand. Under prolonged stress, both the Intel CPU and Nvidia GPU continued to run at 100% utilisation while drawing an average of 175W between them, though power use did peak as high as 200W.

As you'd expect, this was accompanied by some fan noise (55.2dBA by our measurements), but the noise never became too intrusive and, in terms of temperature, the most the area around the vent in the baseplate ever reached was 52 degrees centigrade (125.6 Fahrenheit), which is more warm than hot in our book.

Battery life has taken a significant step forward, proving that while AMD rather fumbled the ball with Strix Point, Intel is running for the try line with Panther Lake.

Despite using the same 90Wh battery, the 2026 Blade ran for 14 hours and 18 minutes in our standard video rundown test. That compares to 9 hours 30 minutes from the 2025 model, a 50% improvement.

Granted, you'll get at least another 3 hours from a MacBook Pro, but over 14 hours is still rather impressive for such a powerful Windows laptop.

Razer Blade16: Is it worth it?

Few laptops look, feel and perform to the manor born whether it's in a smart enterprise environment, an intensive creative milieu or a hardcore gaming scenario as the new Blade 16. It really does excel at all the tasks that can conceivably be thrown at it with little, if any, compromise.

The 2026 update could have been a little deeper: the option to specify a touchscreen wouldn't have gone amiss, nor would the option to have a higher-resolution, if slower-refreshing, screen, but the much-improved battery life, brighter display and transition to Thunderbolt 5 are all very welcome updates.

For the sort of money that Razer is asking for the new Blade, the 16in MacBook Pro is a very alluring alternative, especially for professional creatives, but for those who want or need Windows and who would prefer a machine that can also run the latest games or need a very potent discrete GPU for modelling work, the 2026 Razer Blade is state of the art.

Razer Blade16 specifications

A monitor does not need to be cutting edge to be brilliant – and the MSI Modern MD342CQPW is a perfect example. This is an entirely unremarkable ultrawide monitor in almost every way, but it's sensibly designed, well connected, and delivers solid image quality in all the ways that matter for around £250. For many buyers, that's reason enough to hit the buy button.

The focal point of the MD342CQPW is its curved 3,440 x 1,440 VA panel – a good fit for an everyday productivity monitor. MSI has combined a 1500R curve with a matte anti-glare finish so it's well suited to office work, and it doesn't skimp on the essentials such as USB-C connectivity, 98 watts of power delivery for modern laptops, and an adjustable stand. In short, there's a lot to like.

MSI Modern MD342CQPW monitor: Design & Features

The MSI's all-white matte body is all plastic and unsurprisingly rather hollow-feeling, but build quality is good for the price. The wide oval base screws to the stand with a captive thumbscrew, and it does a great job of keeping the monitor firmly planted to the desk. There is a little wobble at the stand's maximum 110mm extension, but it's not a problem for anything other than the most heavy-handed typists. There's plenty of swivel adjustment, a limited amount of tilt, and understandably there's no pivot mode at all.

The connectivity here isn't generous, but it strikes a useful balance. You get a single DisplayPort input alongside a pair of HDMI inputs, and the USB-C input ferries data, video, and audio as well as 98 watts of power delivery. There's a 3.5mm headphone output, too. It's a shame that MSI had to resort to an external power supply, though – you'll have to find somewhere to hide the chunky 180-watt brick.

The presence of a basic KVM switch is welcome. Connect one laptop to the USB-C port, and you can connect a second computer to the USB Type-B input and share the pair of 5Gbps USB-A ports at the rear. Switching between machines can be done via the monitor's NaviKey shortcut button, or you can install the MSI Productivity Intelligence software and swap machines with a keyboard shortcut.

The on-screen display is fine. The menu layout is easy to understand, the text is big enough to be nice and legible, and the features are easy to find. In fact, the only negative here is the controls: the old-school strip of buttons side by side does make it fiddlier than the clickable joystick on newer designs. Adjust the brightness, for instance, and if you accidentally hit the left-hand button rather than the right, it cancels the adjustment and forces you to repeat the process – this is mildly irksome.

MSI Modern MD342CQPW monitor: Display quality

We weren't hugely impressed by the MD342CQPW at first. The Windows taskbar and icons looked washed out compared to other recent LCD and OLED-based monitors that we've reviewed. Switching from the standard Eco mode to the sRGB or User modes didn't seem to improve matters, either. Then we raised the monitor a few centimetres: suddenly the taskbar icons regained their usual vibrancy.

This issue is something that's common to monitors which use VA panel technology. The curvature of the panel here does a fantastic job of hiding it, but if the screen is too high or too low – or you're viewing it away from head-on – you'll notice that contrast falls rapidly and colors start to look very washed out.

Get the height just so, however, and the MSI delivers a really pleasant image. Text is dramatically more crisp than on OLED displays with a similar pixel density, and it produces a pleasingly wide range of color. You can leave it in the factory-supplied Eco mode, or switch it to the User or sRGB picture modes depending on whether you prefer more saturated colours, or a more muted sRGB presentation.

The User mode allows the monitor to produce the widest palette of colors. Measured against a Display P3 target, it achieved a very respectable average Delta E of 1.98 and covered 86% of the DCI-P3 color space. That's a fair amount less than the claimed 95%, but it's fine for a panel of this calibre. That missing 14% means that there are some inaccuracies across certain shades of color, some of which it simply can't reproduce, but it's not going to be noticeable in daily use.

And especially not given that the rest of the results are really very good. Whites look natural thanks to the 6,441k white point, and the 1,758:1 contrast ratio – while not class-leading – means that blacks don't look as washed out as they can on cheaper panels. The overall image here really is very nice indeed.

The sRGB mode is slightly more accurate again. The average Delta E of 1.61 is respectable, and the panel only exceeds a Delta E of 3 in the most saturated red tones. Again, contrast is good at 1,716:1.

Both of these picture modes are preset to a brightness of around 170cd/m2. Raise the brightness control from the default 70 to the maximum 100, and the peak brightness reaches a modest 314cd/m2. It goes a little higher in HDR mode, with a peak brightness of 364cd/m2, but that's still not enough to make the HDR mode worth using as it simply can't get bright enough to reveal all the detail in the highlights.

One thing worth knowing is that several of the other user modes automatically enable the monitor's Image Enhancement feature at varying levels of intensity. This just adds a coarse, ugly sharpening effect to the image, so it is best avoided. If you like the image quality in these modes, you'd be advised to delve into the menu and enhance the image by disabling the 'enhancement' features.

Motion clarity is really very respectable for a non-gaming monitor. The 120Hz refresh rate adds some very welcome smoothness to the Windows desktop, and is easier on the eye than 60Hz alternatives. Switch tempo with a fast-paced action game and the MSI's combination of balanced color reproduction, ample brightness and respectable response time makes for a really enjoyable experience.

Motion isn't as crisp as faster gaming panels, but it's more than adequate in most scenarios. We say most because darker scenes remain a bugbear for VA panel technology: you can see the clarity degrade as you move into the shadows. Our advice is to bump up the response time to its Fastest setting and put up with a very clear halo of visible overshoot, or leave it on Faster where the overshoot is less noticeable.

There is also an MPRT backlight strobing mode in addition to AMD Freesync Premium support. The former requires a rock-steady framerate to prevent ghosting, and brightness drops right down to 130cd/m2, so you'll need to drop the lighting to make it usable – whether the clarity increase benefit is worthwhile is something to experiment with on a game-by-game basis. Similarly, there is some VRR flicker evident if your framerates are unstable, so it's well worth tweaking the game settings to achieve the most consistent performance possible.

MSI Modern MD342CQPW monitor: Is it worth it?

The MSI Modern MD342CQPW monitor is a dependable jack-of-all-trades. The negatives are mostly minor inconveniences rather than ever-present irks – the external power supply and rubbish speakers – and even the mediocre viewing angles aren't a problem for most users. As someone who spends most days with an OLED somewhere on the desk, we were more than happy to keep the MSI centre-stage for daily use – the image quality and motion clarity here treads an almost perfect line of good enough.

And that's before you even consider the benefits of an ultrawide format display. The extra desktop space is invaluable during working hours, and it does really add an extra level of immersion to games, too. Suffice to say, if you're seeking an affordable ultrawide monitor that's a great all-rounder, then the MSI Modern MD342CQPW deserves your attention.

MSI Modern MD342CQPW monitor specification

The Prestige 16 AI+ we reviewed recently was one of the most convincing and appealing laptops to come from MSI in quite some time. A solid, affordable, and well-specified general-purpose machine; the only reason to not buy one would be if you wanted something smaller and lighter.

MSI has now addressed that issue by releasing a 13.3in version, called the Prestige 13 AI+. Built around the same Intel Panther Lake processor as the Prestige 16 AI +, it offers similarly good value for money and can be picked up for between £1,249 and £1,299 depending on where and when you look.

MSI Prestige 13 AI+: Design

In the world of superlight laptops, weight is everything. Or rather, the absence of it is. Here, MSI has hit a solid six with the Prestige 13 AI+, tipping the scales at just 830g, some 69g less than the advertised weight.

That's an impressive achievement when you consider that a 13.6in MacBook Air weighs over 1.2Kg. The new MSI is even a few grams lighter than Asus' feather-light Zenbook A14.

At 299 x 210 x 15.9mm this new Prestige is also usefully small. For comparison, both the 13.3in Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5x Gen 11 and 14in Lenovo ThinkPad T14s are both heavier and larger.

Making a laptop as light as a feather is easy if you don't mind sacrificing solidity, but the body of the Prestige 13 AI+ is made from an aluminium-magnesium alloy and is impressively robust and stiff.

The Prestige is also rated MIL-STD-810H/G-resistant to the slings and arrows of outrageous misuse such as extreme vibration and changes in pressure and temperature.

It's a handsome little machine too in its fingerprint-resistant Platinum Grey colorway with MSI's new script logo etched on the lid. The slightly too-thick 11mm plastic bezel above the screen does detract from the looks, but at least the space is used to house a webcam privacy shutter and the IR gubbins for Windows Hello. On the subject of the lid, we like the way it rotates downward at the back when opened, thus adding around 8mm to the height of the deck at the back. That makes for a more agreeable typing angle.

With the likes of Apple and Dell embracing an all-Type-C philosophy when it comes to ports, we're happy to see MSI buck the trend. With two Thunderbolt 4 ports, two 5Gbps USB-A ports, an HDMI 2.1 video output, a 3.5mm audio jack and a MicroSD card reader, the little MSI is actually better equipped than its big brother, which lacks a card reader. Over-the-air connectivity is provided by an Intel Killer BE1775 WLAN card, which supports Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth v6.0.

Getting inside is no problem, but once in, all you can do is swap out the 2280 SDD, replace the battery, and blow dust out of the single fan. Everything else is fixed firmly in place, and there's no room for a second SSD,

MSI Prestige 13 AI+: Keyboard, touchpad, and webcam

Squeezing a full-size keyboard into the footprint of a 13.3in laptop is never the recipe for a spacious layout, but MSI has done a decent enough job of putting a pint into a half-pint bottle.

The only part of the keyboard that looks and feels rather cramped is the bottom-right corner, where the half-height arrow keys, half-height page-up and page-down keys, and the half-width Copilot and forward-slash/pipe keys all jostle for space.

On a positive note, by moving the forward-slash key to the right of the space bar, room has been made for a double-width left shift key, which, on balance, we think is a good compromise.

The keyboard deck itself is solid with little flex evident even under hard pressure, and the typing action is nigh on perfect: light, precise and with a well-damped end-stop.

The three-level white backlight shines through the translucent side walls of the keycaps as well as the white graphics on the top, which is a design that always finds favour in the ITPro office.

We're not massive fans of the position of the power/fingerprint scanner button, which sits inboard of the Delete key. Granted, it's recessed, but it's still a little too easy to press it accidentally while aiming for the Delete button.

The 120 x 75mm Mylar touchpad isn't the largest around, but it works reliably, interpreting all the swipes, taps and gestures we threw at it correctly, and the click-action is light, crisp and quiet.

The 1080p webcam is pretty standard fare, but it's bright and colorful and not thrown off its stride by sudden changes in ambient lighting. The physical privacy shutter next to the lens is a welcome feature, as is support for Windows Hello facial recognition as a biometric partner to the fingerprint reader.

MSI Prestige 13 AI+: Display

With a 2,880 x 1,800 matrix squeezed into a 13.3in panel, the Prestige 13 AI+'s OLED screen is as sharp as they come, with a pixel density of 255ppi, better even than the 224ppi of the 13.6-inch MacBook Air.

The Samsung-made panel registered a peak brightness level of 390cd/m2 in SDR mode and 630cd/m2 in HDR and certainly qualifies as wide-gamut with color space volumes of 160% sRGB, 113.8% DCI-P3 and 110.7% Adobe RGB.

The screen has what we'd describe as an anti-reflective but still semi-gloss finish. It does a decent but not perfect job of keeping reflections at bay, but it's not quite good enough, nor is the display quite bright enough, for easy use outdoors in sunlight.

The display is, however, accurate enough for those professionally concerned with such matters, returning sound Delta E color variances of 1.03 against the Display P3 profile and 1.18 vs the sRGB profile. The refresh rate is capped at 60Hz but for a compact productivity laptop that's a minor annoyance rather than a deal breaker.

MSI Prestige 13 AI+: Specs and performance

The Prestige 13 AI+ is built around the same Intel Core Ultra 7 355 CPU as the Prestige 16 AI+. This is a 4.7GHz Panther Lake CPU with 8 cores, 4 of which are deemed Performance and 4 Low Power Efficient. The chipset also features the Intel Graphics iGPU with 4 Xe cores, a 49 TOPS NPU, and 32GB of fixed quad-channel LPDDR5x RAM.

In the Geekbench 6 tests, the baby MSI scored 2,680 in the single-core test, 10,939 in the multi-core test, and 23,498 in the OpenCL GPU test. Those CPU numbers are not too shabby, but the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5x Gen 11 has them beaten (3,215 single-core, 11,705 multi-core), as does the M5 MacBook Air (4,199 and 17,213).

The difference isn't something you'll notice in everyday use running basic productivity applications or while jumping between multiple SaaS apps in browser tabs; in those circumstances the Prestige 13 AI+ never feels less than slick and responsive.

Where the Core Ultra 7 355 (and Core Ultra 5 325) chipsets stumble is with graphics performance. That's because they make do with a 4 Xe core iGPU rather than the 10-core Arc B370 or 12-core B390 iGPUs that partner the more powerful Series 3 Core Ultra CPUs.

The difference in graphics performance is shown in stark relief by the Geekbench OpenCL test scores. The M5 MacBook Air scored 47,627, double the MSI machine, while laptops using the Arc B390 iGPU can easily top 55,000.

The little Prestige ran the SPECviewperf 3ds Max modelling benchmark at 18.7fps which is around half the speed you'll get from a B390 GPU.

Even if it's no stump-puller, the chipset at least goes about its business without drama. Even in Performance mode, both the CPU and GPU ran at near full utilisation for extended periods, and the single fan never generated more than a gentle whisper.

You could easily flog this little MSI like the family mule in a quiet library and rest easy knowing that you won't get admonishing stares from the person sitting at the next desk.

In our standard battery test, which involves looping a video in VLC with the display set to 170cd/m2, the 53.8Wh battery inside the MSI kept the lights on for 15hrs and 6mins.

That's within a margin of error the same as the 13.6-inch M5 MacBook Air but a country mile off the very best, such as the 27-odd hours we got from the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5x Gen 11, which runs on a Snapdragon X2 platform.

As little as a year ago a 15-hour runtime from a Windows laptop would have been regarded as top-notch. How times have changed. That said, the Prestige 13 AI+ will still easily get you through a long day at work, or an even longer flight, without the need to recharge.

MSI Prestige 13 AI+: Is it worth it?

MSI's new baby business laptop makes a very strong case for itself. The price is certainly right given that you are getting a high-quality 2.8K OLED screen, 32GB of RAM, and a very good selection of ports into the bargain.

It's also one of the smallest and lightest compact laptops on the market, and it's been made thus without sacrificing an ounce of usability or practicality.

What issues we have with the MSI Prestige 13 AI+ are down to its Intel chipset. At the highest end, we've been impressed by the performance of Panther Lake silicon, but at the lower end it's being shown a clean pair of heels by the latest ARM chipsets from Apple and Qualcomm, with the latter also delivering far superior battery run times.

For general-purpose computing, then this baby MSI can be thoroughly recommended, but if you need rather more in the way of graphics power it might be worth looking at the ARM-powered alternatives from Apple and Lenovo listed above.

MSI Prestige 13 AI+: Specs

AMD has expanded its Rocm software stack with a new AI-native component, Rocm.ai.

Rocm.ai, announced at AMD Advancing AI 2026, combines AI-assisted development, intelligent deployment, and AI-powered software optimization.

AMD claimed that AI software development is becoming increasingly agent-driven, with developers using AI coding agents and natural language processing to build and deploy software. AMD believes that Rocm.ai – and in particular the inclusion of AMD Skills in it – will reduce the barriers to adopting AMD Rocm and also reduce the amount of document crawling needed for set-up.

Speaking at AMD’s annual Advancing AI conference, Vamsi Boppana, SVP of AI at AMD said: “Rocm.ai … brings the capabilities of AI-assisted GPU programming to developers. It starts with a simple idea of giving developers access to the power of an AI ecosystem through the AI coding agents they already use. Whether you are using Cursor, Cloud, [or] Codex, Rocm.ai helps those agents understand AMD platforms, understand Rocm, and helps [developers] build and optimize [their] workloads.”

“In other words, we’re making those popular coding agents into Rocm superusers – you should be able to describe the workload you want to run, the performance target you want to hit, and then let the agents help you get there,” he said.

Breaking down Rocm.ai

Drilling down into what actually constitutes AMD Rocm.ai, there are three main components: Rocm CLI, AMD Skills, and Hyperloom.

Hyperloom is an AI-assisted optimization system that can, according to Boppana, analyze workloads, choose configurations, select and choose kernels, adjust parallelism strategies, and initiate towards performance goals.”

Boppana gave the example of a lead developer he recently spoke to who “pushed through a suite of 14,000 models through Hyperloom, optimizing them and creating valuable insights”.

“This would have been impossible to imagine, even with a large team of developers, before,” he said.

Rocm CLI, meanwhile, provides a unified command-line for installation, validation, servicing, updating, and troubleshooting of AI workloads on AMD platforms. AMD Skills integrates AMD-authored expertise into coding assistants like Claud, Cursor, and Codex.

“Let me make this concrete for you,” Boppana said on stage. “Imagine you’re a developer who wants to optimize Vmax… with PLLM on MI355s. Today, there are many things you need to get right. You need the right PLLM optimizations, the right model recipes, the right environment variables. You may need to write new kernels or optimize kernels – and then you need to tune all of this.

“With Rocm.ai, this interaction becomes much simpler. You can say ‘optimize Vmax entry with Hyperloom’ [hit] enter and behind the scenes, the agent does what an expert would do: pulls a known good recipe, runs and profiles the workload, creates and tests a bunch of kernel and runtime configurations, and it keeps iterating towards target.”

“Developers shouldn’t have to manually reason through every layer of model architecture, kernel selection, prompt strategy, and rack-level deployment,” said Boppana. “AI is transforming this experience and that’s a very, very big shift for AMD hardware and software.”

Rocm.ai be available from August 2026.

Samsung has revealed three new foldable models, including the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, and an all-new shape for the standard Z Fold 8.

The Galaxy Unpacked launch, which also included a new Flip 8, included many new features, such as a new durable titanium structure and more on-device AI tools and capabilities.

Of the three new models, the Z Fold 8 Ultra is the biggest and highest-spec'd. Folded, it looks like a standard phone thanks to an ever-decreasing thickness (5.9mm folded, 4.1 mm unfolded).

It has a 6.5in cover display and opens up to an 8in main display, which is essentially two 6.5in screens side by side.

On first impression, the Z Fold 8 Ultra is better in every way than before. It's slightly thinner and somehow stronger.

This is thanks to a new titanium structure beneath the display that includes a panel and plate that reinforce the folding mechanisms and make it stronger and more durable than before, while maintaining its thin, streamlined look.

Beneath those titanium additions is a 5000mAh battery that promises 27 hours of video playback and 45w fast charge with 67% in just 30 minutes.

You get five camera lenses on the 8 Ultra, with a 10MP selfie lens on the cover display, a 10MP lens on the main display, and then three cameras on the rear of the device: A 200MP wide lens, a 50MP ultrawide one, and a 10MP telephoto lens.

From our brief experience ahead of its launch, we found the camera setup on the Fold 8 Ultra to be very crisp and dynamic.

Powering all of this is the Qualcomm Snapdragon Elite 8 chip (CPU, NPU, GPU), and that is the case for all three new models. It's also been customised for Samsung's OS to provide more on-device AI tools, like the new 'Now Nudge' feature, which is like an information overlay that was launched in beta on the S26.

It takes contextual information from apps and offers suggestions via the keyboard – similar to predictive text. It can appear across multiple parts of the screen or in a more subtle way called 'Ambient Nudge ' or simply 'Notification Nudge'.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Galaxy Z Flip 8

Now Nudge is also on the new Z Fold 8, which comes in a distinctive new shape. It's a slightly wider, more square design compared to the Ultra. Similar to Huawei's Pura X smartphone, but much bigger.

When unfolded, it has a 4:3 aspect ratio (3:4 in portrait), which is more suited to the types of content we consume, according to Samsung. So reels and scrolling video content can be viewed in their entirety.

Folded, the 8 has a 10.16in cover display and looks very square. And it unfolds to a 7.6in main display – almost an inch smaller than the Ultra, but arguably a more content-friendly size.

The other differences from the Ultra are a slightly smaller battery at 4,800mAh, and no telephoto lens. Instead, you have a pair of 50MP lenses, one wide and the other ultrawide. It still promises 26 hours of video playback.

As with the most recent Galaxy S26, video stabilization is a big feature on the Z Fold 8. This is best used in the My Fan Cam feature, which allows for instant cropping of video.

You can select a subject from a 16x9 video and have it cut to a vertical shot – you can even select an object or person, regardless of where they are in the frame, and have them as the main focus within a crop.

There is also a new Flip 8, though this is of the least business interest. It's lighter than before and thinner too (180g, 6.1mm thick, when folded).

You have a 50MP main camera and an intuitive Flex Window on the cover display that offers suggestions and automations for you to operate the phone quickly without opening it up every time.

The latest version of Acer's Swift Go 16 AI (model number SFG16-A71-R6PQ) joins the fray of big-screen laptops aiming to mix performance and all-day usability with easy portability. Like the MSI Prestige 16 AI+, the Asus Zenbook A16 and Acer's own Swift 16 AI, it packs a 16in display into a laptop under 1.6Kg in weight and 16mm thick.

In terms of style, it's very similar to the existing Swift 16 AI, down to having a larger-than-average trackpad. But if the hardware is familiar, the same can't be said for the internal spec. Where the MSI and the Swift 16 AI are built around Intel's Panther Lake CPUs, with the Zenbook using Qualcomm's Snapdragon X2 processors, the new Swift Go 16 AI is a showcase for AMD's newest Ryzen AI 400 series processors.

It's been an interesting year for mobile processor tech. With stronger multi-core and GPU performance than last year's Lunar Lake tech, Panther Lake has been Intel's best mobile chip in years. Meanwhile, Qualcomm's Snapdragon X2 CPUs have demonstrated the potential of ARM technology on Windows, again with big improvements over the previous generation. AMD has some fantastic mobile processors, but its biggest advantages – multi-core speeds and GPU muscle – are now being matched by the competition. The Ryzen AI 445 in our test Swift Go 16 AI is a mainstream chip rather than a flagship CPU, but it could still do with showing that AMD is maintaining pace.

Acer Swift Go 16 AI (2026): Design

Acer is sticking to a consistent design language for this year's Swifts, and the Swift Go 16 AI doesn't shift from it in any noticeable way. Its 356 x 251mm footprint is slightly larger than the Swift 16 AI's. It's one millimetre thicker and a few grams heavier, but the wedge-shaped profile, and angular bevelled edges are much the same. It has the same laser-etched lid as recent Swift models, with the same geometric patterns, and the same all-aluminium construction. There's some flex in the lid, but the rest feels bulletproof, down to the sturdy hinge which allows the screen to fold right back flat against the desktop.

The MSI is slimmer, but broadly similar in terms of size and weight, while the Asus Zenbook A14's 1.2kg weight almost puts it in a different class. Yet the Swift Go 16 achieves much the same mission, giving you the ergonomic advantages of a 16in laptop without the usual weight and bulk.

Such advantages include a full-sized keyboard, complete with slim numeric pad. The feel is soft and quiet, but not in any way floppy or spongy, and it doesn't take long to adjust and reach a decent typing speed. It's a shame that the Shift, Ctrl, and Fn keys on the left are normal-sized and not wider, but there's not much to complain about the layout otherwise. While the sheer size of the touchpad means there's a much smaller palm rest on the left-hand side than on the right, this doesn't make your typing position feel off-balance, as was the case with the Samsung Galaxy Book 5 Pro.

The touchpad on the Swift Go 16 was one of its high points; large and sensitive enough to make light work of accurate tracking and selection on the 16:10, 16in screen. The same is mostly true here, with a whopping 150 x 100mm surface, though it isn't completely faultless when it comes to gestures. Every now and then, it missed a tap or a two-fingered scroll.

Connectivity is roughly the same as on the Swift 16 AI, though, being an AMD device, you have two USB 4.0 Type-C ports rather than two Thunderbolt 4 ports on the left-hand side. There you'll also find a USB 3.2 Gen 1 port and an HDMI 2.1 output, while there's a second Type-A port, a 3.5mm audio socket and a microSD card slot on the right. This means there's no socket for the USB-C power supply on the right, but otherwise you've got enough for a basic desktop setup, plus Wi-Fi 7 for networking and Bluetooth 5.4 for your peripherals.

Acer Swift Go 16 AI (2026): Display

This is a mid-range rather than a premium laptop, and there's no bigger indication of this than the screen. It's a 16in OLED panel, which is great, but it has a baseline 1920 x 1200 resolution and a 60Hz refresh rate. Even more noticeably, it's not particularly bright.

The resolution doesn't look bad on a 16in screen, but the 2880 x 1800 panels on the Zenbook A16 and Prestige 16 AI+ look substantially sharper. What's more, the 304cd/m2 maximum brightness is fine indoors in most lighting, but pretty much unusable outside on a vaguely sunny day. HDR video content doesn't look as punchy or as vibrant as on brighter screens. It's not all bad news, though. The Swift Go 16 AI's panel still covers 100% of the DCI-P3 colour spectrum as well as 100% of sRGB, and even stretches to 94% of Adobe RGB. Color accuracy isn't quite good enough for color-critical design work, but it's not going to be a problem for presentations, photo-heavy reports or the kind of thing you'd put together in mainstream office productivity apps.

The nicest way to describe the audio is that it's very clear, with a wide stereo output which works well for online meetings. However, it's also very thin, with no real bass and precious little warmth or body, making some headphones a must for background music or video streaming. The 5MP camera captures detailed video with a likable portrait blue if you're using Windows AI-powered Studio effects. However, the exposure seems to creep up and down quite a lot as you move or light levels change, which can be distracting.

Businesses buying the Swift Go 16 AI might want to do a little tidying before their laptops are rolled out. Acer's own utilities are reasonably useful, but the laptop came with links to online games, a Dropbox promotion, and Booking.com on the taskbar, which you could easily do without.

Acer Swift Go 16 AI (2026): Performance

This is a mid-range device with a mid-range Ryzen 7 AI 455 processor, featuring two Zen 5 cores and four Zen 5c cores running 12 threads at a maximum 3.4Ghz to 4.6Ghz. In some respects, this CPU is inferior not just to the previous-generation Ryzen 7 AI 350, with its four Zen 5 and four Zen 5c cores, but even the Ryzen 5 AI 340, with its three Zen 5 and three Zen 5c cores running at higher speeds. The Ryzen 5 AI 340 even has more onboard L2 and L3 cache.

This is a little bewildering, as AMD appears to have rebranded an entry-level to mid-range CPU as a higher-level part. Worse, this is reflected in the performance. Geekbench 6 scores of 2611 (single-core) and 10651 (multi-core) are closer to what we saw from the last-generation Lunar Lake and Snapdragon X tech than this year's Panther Lake and Snapdragon X2 technology. The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5x (Gen 11) with its entry-level Snapdragon X2 Plus delivered better results. The MSI Prestige 16 AI+, with a lower-end Core Ultra 7 355, also scored higher for both single-core and multi-core performance, and we didn't exactly rate that model as a powerhouse.

It's a similar story with the Cinebench 2024 3D rendering benchmark, where the Swift Go 16 AI still falls behind the Lenovo and most recent mainstream laptops, with a single-core score of 106 and a multi-core score of 646. The IdeaPad Slim 5x scored 128 and 649. The Swift 16 AI, with its mid-range Core Ultra X7 358H, scored 123 and 943. The Asus ExpertBook P3, with the previous-generation Ryzen AI 7 350, scored 115 and 784.

It's only in 3D graphics benchmarks that the Swift Go 16 AI puts in a competitive performance. With four RDNA 3.5 cores to play with, its integrated Radeon 840M GPU scores 2013 in the 3DMark TimeSpy test and 1635 in Steel Nomad Lite. That's better than the ExpertBook P3 (1894 and 1478) and the Lenovo (1846 and 1596), though still a way behind the Panther Lake and Snapdragon X2 Elite devices we've seen recently. Even the MSI Prestige 16 AI+, with its cut-back four-core Intel Graphics GPU, beats it on 3D performance.

This isn't really Acer's fault. You can buy the Swift Go 16 AI with faster Ryzen AI processors, up to the 10-core Ryzen AI 9 465, and you will get significantly more speed. What's more, we didn't find the Swift Go 16 AI slow or grindy during everyday use running mainstream productivity apps. All the same, there's a sense that AMD is promising next-generation Ryzen 7 levels of performance from what's effectively last year's Ryzen 5 chip. Unsurprisingly, this doesn't work out.

Still, there's a silver lining when it comes to energy efficiency. Running our standard HD video rundown test with the brightness set to 170cd/m2, the Swift Go 16 AI lasted 18 hours and 21 minutes, beating the Zenbook A16, the Prestige 16AI+, and a wide range of other 16in laptops, though not the Swift 16 AI. Qualcomm seems to be pulling ahead on battery life, but this AMD-powered system can still get you through a working day and more without a recharge.

Acer Swift Go 16 AI (2026): Is it worth it?

The Swift Go 16 AI could be described as slightly disappointing. Its processor doesn't live up to AMD's billing, while the screen lacks the brightness and resolution we've seen on Acer's best OLED displays. However, at £1249 inc VAT it's still decent value. The MSI Prestige 16 AI+ is better, with more performance, more RAM, and a higher-resolution screen for the same money, but if you can get a good deal on the Acer, it could make a solid and versatile workhorse laptop with the advantages of a big display.

Acer Swift Go 16 AI Specifications

As rugged tablets go, the Lenovo Think Tab X11 is as tough as they come. The first Android-based rugged device from Lenovo, this is a chunky yet capable business buddy that can keep you connected when you're out in the field.

It's a rugged tablet for frontline workers – in the box, you get a thick tablet, an even thicker case with a port for the Tab Pen XE, and a battery that's separated from the device. The back of the tablet pops off with a bit of effort (we used a tool to pry it off as it was quite tough), and the battery simply slots in.

Lenovo Think Tab X11: Design

The Think Tab X11 is not your everyday tablet. It's a rugged model (with its own sturdy case) built to withstand life out in the real world. So frontline workers, wherever their front line is, be that a construction site, a remote wilderness location, or a busy retail environment. This is the first Android-powered rugged tablet for the Think brand, and it's got MIL-STD-810H certification, with a Snapdragon 7s chip.

You get a 10.95in display, a rather thick chassis (9.93mm), and dual USB ports. It's also quite heavy at 650g, but that's what rugged devices tend to be. As such, it is a hefty slab to hold – you definitely need two hands to take steady photos with the 13MP camera. And you might get an aching hand if you hold it for too long. What this already really means, though, is that you will not once be concerned about it breaking when you're on site.

Lenovo Think Tab X11: Display

The 10.95in display is a 2,5k IPS LCD panel with a 90Hz refresh rate. The screen is reinforced with Corning Gorilla Glass and, much like the rest of the device, feels very sturdy. The display also supports glove and wet-touch input, which is a great addition as there's nothing worse than having to take a glove off in the freezing cold. And also, some workspaces will make glove-wearing mandatory.

As always, an OLED panel might have been a good option, as you just get better quality – brighter colors and truly inky blacks – but the IPS panel here is fairly good. You get a nice, rounded balance of colors, and the panel itself is very bright, peaking at 538.13 cd/m2 in our test. An OLED panel might have also driven the price up.

Lenovo Think Tab X11: Specs and performance

The Think Tab X11 houses a Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 (4nm), which is paired with 8GB of RAM. The 7s is a mid-range chip that is meant to bridge the gap between affordability and premium features, so it aims to bring generative AI and the like to a cheaper smartphone or tablet. And it largely does that on the Think Tab X11.

In Geekbench 6, for example, the Tab scored 1,163 for single-core and 3,356 for multi-threaded performance. Admittedly, there isn't a great deal between the two, but this is a capable tablet, and we didn't notice any lag in its performance or any sluggishness with apps and features.

In our looped video test, the Think Tab's 10,200mAh battery lasted 14hrs and 29mins. However, that test is intentionally intensive, and our own experience of using the Tab X11 was more impressive. Without charge, the device lasted two full working days, with just 5% left when clocking off.

So this isn't going to set the world alight or break any benchmarks. But for a rugged workplace device, it more than holds its own. You will not be caught short in the middle of nowhere – the X11 won't let you down.

Lenovo Think Tab X11: Features

The Tab X11 has a full set of very standard features – fingerprint sensor, Wi-Fi6E, Bluetooth 5.4 – but also a few more unusual features that make it so great for use out in the real world. Features such as dual USB ports, which are very unusual for a tablet. These are both USB Type-C 3.2, with one just simple for power and the other having data transfer. You also have a headphone jack and a microSD card reader on the Think Tab X11, which makes it one of the best-connected tablets ITPro has seen in a long while.

There are also management features that set this apart from your average tablet. With the Lenovo Vantage Pro, you can enrol the device remotely, add all your necessary apps and settings, and monitor it in real time – which is great for rugged tablets as they can be a risk if lost on site. IT teams can enforce security policies and wipe them, if needed, from a single dashboard.

Another unusual addition, largely due to how it looks, is the Tab Pen XE. ITPro is rather more used to an artistic stylus, and the Pen XE is very much a rugged pen. But it's easy to use, comfortable in the hand, and highly capable. You're not going to be making detailed works of art here, but you can quite easily make technical sketches, detailed notes, and simple annotations out in the field. It's also unmistakably Lenovo with a red circle at the top. You need to connect the rugged case to house the stylus with the pen.

Lenovo Think Tab X11: Is it worth it?

If you're out on site or you have teams in remote locations that need touchscreens, then the answer here is resoundingly yes. The Think Tab X11 is small but mighty, with its brick-like build and reinforced structure. The touchscreen is decent, and the Pen XE is also highly capable.

There are some good additions as well, like the 13MP camera, the optional case, and the enterprise-grade remote controls and protocols. It's as good a rugged tablet as ITPro has ever reviewed. And, although the battery is a little bit of a chore to get into the machine, the fact that you can is great for longevity and sustainability.

Lenovo Think Tab X11 specifications

Channel partners are increasingly adapting infrastructure strategies to help customers navigate hardware pricing volatility and component shortages, according to new research from Westcon-Comstor.

The distributor found that 87% of channel partners have already taken action to reduce the impact of supply constraints on customer projects, with project delays identified as the single biggest risk created by ongoing pricing pressure and hardware availability issues.

The findings are based on a survey of more than 100 members of Westcon-Comstor’s global Tech Xpert community, comprising technical specialists and decision-makers from resellers, systems integrators, and managed service providers across EMEA and APAC.

According to the research, partners are responding to these challenges by improving infrastructure planning and adopting managed services, while some are even switching technology vendors.

“Hardware pricing volatility and supply constraints are reshaping customer buying decisions and having a profound impact on the IT channel,” commented Callum McGregor, chief operating officer and chief financial officer at Westcon-Comstor.

“In response, partners are helping customers plan earlier, adapt architectures and stay flexible so they can keep projects moving despite uncertainty.”

Adapting mitigation strategies

In terms of mitigation strategies, improved infrastructure capacity planning was found to be the most common, cited by 60% of respondents.

Meanwhile, almost a third (29%) said they had already switched vendors or platforms in response to hardware availability constraints.

Meanwhile, 27% of partners said they were using storage tiering or caching to reduce reliance on memory-intensive workloads, while a quarter (25%) reported moving workloads or infrastructure components to managed services.

Evolving buyer behavior

The research also highlighted a shift in buying behavior, with 75% of respondents reporting some form of change.

More than half (52%) said either they or their customers had accelerated hardware purchases to reduce the risk of future shortages or price increases – although almost a quarter (23%) reported delays or cancellations as organizations weighed up growing uncertainty.

The distributor revealed that hardware availability is also influencing infrastructure decision-making, with 45% of partners stating that supply chain constraints had accelerated cloud adoption among customers and 7% reporting a shift back to on-premises infrastructure.

A balancing act for partners

According to McGregor, the ability to balance immediate performance with long-term requirements is becoming “increasingly critical” in order for partners to maintain success in the current climate.

“It also demonstrates the strategic role that channel partners, supported by distribution, can play in building resilience and helping customers navigate the pressures that have quickly become a systemic feature of the market,” he added.

Elsewhere, Westcon-Comstor’s research found that 39% of partners identified technical challenges – including performance instability, operational complexity, and reduced resilience – as key risks linked to hardware shortages.

Around one-quarter (24%) also said supply constraints were limiting their ability to scale infrastructure capacity.

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Geekom's new M16 shares one key feature with the impressive X14 Pro we reviewed earlier this year. Namely, even if you want one, you won't be able to buy one unless you live in or are visiting the USA or Germany, because those are the only two markets where Geekom currently sells its laptop range. That means it's not just a matter of laying hands on one, but having to live with a keyboard tailored to the USA or German market.

We here at ITPro think that's a bit of a shame, because like the X14 Pro, the new M16 offers rather more for the money than you might expect. At the time of writing, the M16 is on sale for $799 or €799, including a $/€100 launch discount.

As usual, Geekom has advised us of a discount code for 8%, which should work on Geekom's US selling page and the US Amazon page. The code (IPGBM168) should be valid until the last day of 2026.

Geekom M16: Design

A smart and solid aluminium alloy affair, the M16 looks and feels like it should cost considerably more than it does. Available only in silver, the M16 is perhaps a rather anonymous design, but the anodised finish is very good at resisting fingerprints, which is more important than aesthetics.

The hinge assembly that joins the lid to the body feels well-engineered, and you can easily open the lid with one finger. That lid is surprisingly stiff despite not having a laminated glass screen glued to it to add rigidity.

At 1.73Kg and 355 x 250 x 13.9mm, the M16 is par for the full-sized 16-inch laptop course. Slipping it into a backpack and carrying it around all day is no hardship. The bundled one-piece 100W USB-C charger is impressively petite.

It's impossible to complain about the M16's I/O port selection. On the left side, you'll find two USB-C ports, one USB-C 4.0 spec and one USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 spec (so that's 40Gbps and 10Gbps data speeds respectively).

Both USB-C ports support charging from the bundled 100W charger and DPAltMode video output. Between the two Type-C ports sits an HDMI 2.1 video port. We're fans of Geekom's decision to put a decent gap between the two Type-C ports; it makes accessing the second one when the other is occupied much easier.

On the right side, there are two USB-C ports, both 3.2 Gen 1 or 5Gbps spec, and a 3.5mm audio jack. That's a pretty comprehensive selection, and the USB-C 4.0 port was unlooked for at the price point.

Usefully, Geekom bundles a USB-C dock which adds an RJ-45 Ethernet connector, two USB-A ports and a second HDMI output to the party. Wireless communications are handled by a MediaTek MT7922 card, which supports 6GHz Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.4.

Getting inside the M16 is straightforward, and the base panel comes away easily once you've removed the nine Torx screws that secure it in place. The M16 has two SSD slots, one occupied by a 2280 format drive and one empty and ready for a 2230 drive. The RAM and WLAN are fixed in place.

Geekom M16: Keyboard, touchpad, and webcam

No part of the M16's user interface is going to win an award for innovation, but that's not to say that everything doesn't work well. It does.

The keyboard is well laid out, the keycap graphics are clear, and the four-stage white backlight has you covered no matter what ambient light you find yourself working in.

Deserving of particular plaudits is Geekom's decision to make the keypad and arrow keys the same size as the rest of the keys. Too many laptop makers reduce the size of those keys even when there's clearly room for full-sized alternatives.

We also like the way the power button-cum-fingerprint scanner sits above and separate from the keyboard proper, removed from the likelihood of accidental presses.

The typing action is light but crisp, and the end-stop is well damped. The central part of the keyboard is a little more bouncy than we'd like, though, with a fair amount of flex apparent if you press down hard around the T-H-M diagonal.

At 135 x 90mm, the Mylar touchpad is more than large enough to accommodate multi-fingered gestures, and it reacts reliably and consistently to taps and swipes. The mechanical click-action is precise and not overly loud.

The 1080p webcam is another solid performer. It's not the most colourful when it comes to image capture, but it does well in low-light environments. Thanks to the flacid NPU, you have to do without Microsoft's Studio webcam enhancements. There's no support for Windows Hello facial recognition, but there is a manual privacy shutter above the lens.

Geekom M16: Specs and performance

Inside the M16, you'll find the same Intel Core Ultra 9 185H Meteor Lake CPU that Geekom puts in the X14 Pro. The last word in modernity it is not, having now been superseded both by Intel's second-generation Arrow Lake and third-generation Panther Lake processors.

That's not to say it lacks vim, though. With 16 cores, 6 of which are deemed Performance, and with a boost from Geekom's Dynamic Tuning Technology, which means it can run at a sustained 55W TDP, it's a more than decent performer.

In the GeekBench 6 CPU benchmark test, the CPU scored 2,426 single-core and 12,262 multi-core, while in our 4K multimedia benchmark, which is built around Handbrake, it scored 370 points.

Those numbers indicate a base level of performance way beyond what you'd usually expect from a laptop in this price bracket. The MSI Prestige 16 AI we tested recently scored 238 in the 4K multimedia test, while Lenovo's ThinkPad T14s scored 255.

The integrated Intel Arc GPU is of the older Alchemist type, so despite having 8 Xe cores, it can't match the performance of the 140T Arc iGPU that comes paired with Intel's Arrow Lake CPUs.

The GeekBench 6 OpenGL benchtest score of 30,285 and 25,449 in the 3DMark Nightraid benchmark proves the point: both are quite unremarkable.

That said, it doesn't do badly in the real world, grinding through the SPECviewperf 3dsmax 3D modelling benchmark at 19fps and easily running the 2018 Doom reboot at an average of 50fps at FullHD.

It is worth mentioning that initially, the M16 refused to run several graphics tests and crashed Windows. Downloading Microsoft's 'OpenCL, OpenGL, and Vulkan Compatibility Pack' fixed this problem in a trice.

While the chipset does have a dedicated NPU, it's only rated at 11 TOPS, which limits its ability to run local Windows AI jobs that demand a more potent NPU. This includes Windows Studio webcam filters and effects.

Despite Geekom's fettling, the chipset didn't misbehave under stress, nor did it tax the cooling of the system. After an hour of stress testing, the CPU and GPU settled down to 82% and 100% utilisation, respectively, and while the fans could certainly be heard, the noise wasn't what we could describe as intrusive.

The 512GB Kingston SSD proved usefully sprightly, returning sequential read and write speeds of 4,865MB/s and 3,555MB/s, respectively.

The M16 arrives pre-loaded with Windows 11 Pro, but Geekom boasts of full Linux support. Booting into Ubuntu 26.04 proved that it's no idle brag, with everything working from the get-go.

Geekom M16: Display and speakers

Laptops in this sort of price range often come with screens which only offer 45% NTSC gamut coverage (around 65% sRGB), but the M16's 16in 1,920 x 1,200 IPS panel covers 70% NTSC, or 100% sRGB.

That makes for nicely colorful images that don't look as dreary or washed-out as they do on many budget laptop displays with an even narrower gamut.

Maximum brightness measured at 298cd/m2, which is fine for indoor use but can leave you wanting more when you're outdoors in sunlight.

The contrast ratio of 1,113:1 is more of a product of the rather lowly maximum brightness than the black luminance level, which was a perfectly respectable 0.27cd/m2. Obviously, there's no support for HDR content.

The matte finish on the display does a good job of keeping reflections in check, but it can only do so much. Viewing angles are robust with no sign of chromatic shift at extremes.

Moving away from colourimeter results, we watched a selection of upcoming movie trailers on the M16, and they looked nicely vivid and colorful. Some budget laptops make poor multimedia machines, but watching YouTube and Netflix on the M16 is a pleasant experience.

Color accuracy was reasonable with an average Delta E of 2.9 vs the sRGB profile. Over-saturated blues seemed to be at fault, but that shouldn't be an issue for anyone who's not professionally concerned with color accuracy, and the M16 is not really targeted at such people.

The speaker system, however, is another matter. The sound from the two-speaker setup is most impressive. Not only is there plenty of volume, 78.6 dBA as measured against a pink noise source at a 1m distance, but the soundscape is wide, detailed, distortion-free, and sonorous.

Impressive though the speakers are, battery life is the strongest card in the M16's hand. Given that the 185H is hardly a byword for efficiency by modern standards, we were not expecting much, but thanks to a capacious 99.9Wh battery the M16 ran for 24 hours and 13 minutes in our video loop test.

That means the M16 has the latest MacBook Pro beaten by nearly five hours and the new Snapdragon X2-powered Asus Zenbook A16 by nearly 7 hours. That is no small achievement given how much more expensive both of those machines are.

Geekom M16: Is it worth it?

For the money, the Geekom M16 has a lot going for it. Pride of place goes to the long battery life and tuneful speaker system, though special mention must also be made of the 40Gbps USB-C port and free space for a second SSD.

The CPU may not be the latest thing, but it's more potent than what you generally find in cheaper laptops, and the display is also a step above the bargain-basement components typical at this price level.

Geekom is really missing a trick by not making the M16 more widely available. If it were available in the UK for £800 or less, we'd describe it as the best value 16in laptop in Blighty, and by some margin.

Geekom M16 specifications

The Microsoft Surface Laptop is back with an 8th edition for 2026. It comes with some great features and, due to the ongoing issues with RAM supply, a bigger price tag.

We have the 'For Business' model of the Laptop 8, which can be purchased in 13in, 13.8in, and also 15in. While the 13in is the most compact Surface Laptop yet, our review is focused on the 13.8in model with the Intel Core Ultra X7 368H chip.

Microsoft Surface Laptop 8: Design

Much like last year's Surface Laptop 7, the 8th edition is a handsome beast. It keeps the same design as the 15in model ITPro tested last year, with a minimalist look. It has a compact chassis with a sleek black finish and a nice, light aluminium body, which is around 1.35kg. The business model that we have is made with a minimum of 61.9% recycled materials, including 100% recycled aluminium alloy and 100% recycled rare earth metals.

The standard Laptop 8 comes in Platinum, Jade, Dune (a sort of sandy orange), and Black. But this is the for-business version, so we have it in black. You also get a serious but reflective Windows logo on the lid and a notchless design with specific balancing on the lid that allows you to open it with one finger.

On the left-hand side, the Laptop 8 features a headphone jack, a USB-A (3.1), and two Thunderbolt 4 ports for charging and data transfer. On the right, there is just a magnetic Surface Connect port. HDMI and some form of memory card would have been nice, though you do get a MicroSDXC Express card reader on the 15in model.

Microsoft Surface Laptop 8: Display

As mentioned, our review unit has the 13.8in display: much like last year, it has a PixelSense HDR LCD panel, with 2304 x 1536 resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate. It also boasts a ten-point touchscreen, though our 13.8in model has a matte finish – so there is next to no glare.

Visibility won't be an issue for the Surface Laptop 8. Much like Samsung's Galaxy S26, the Laptop 8 comes with a privacy display, which is activated via a button on the function row. Once this is on, no one will be able to see your display from the side – though it is still oddly visible from above.

In our tests, it hit a peak brightness of 444.08 cd/m2, which is actually lower than the Surface Laptop 7 we tested. But it's still very bright and punchy. Similarly, its colors are glorious. It showcased 99.7% for sRGB gamut color coverage (144.5% for volume). It also scored high in Adobe sRGB with 86.6% for coverage and 99.6% for volume -- Those are great scores, and I did find it good for photo editing.

I also did some video editing on the Surface Laptop 8, and while it might not have the biggest display, it is highly capable. The touchscreen element is very useful here, though it can be fiddly when tweaking volume levels with fingers – a job best left to the trackpad.

Microsoft Surface Laptop 8: Keyboard and trackpad

The keyboard on the Surface Laptop 8 is smart and professional-looking, color-matched to the rest of the build, and has nice-sized keys. The volume keys are on the left-hand side of the function row, and F1 is for the all-new privacy display.

I found typing really smooth on the keyboard as it has plenty of travel. Unless you type with the brute force of Erling Haaland, you won't hear much noise from the Surface Laptop's keyboard. Just a faint muffled clack. I could hardly hear it over my desk fan, for instance. It's both really good and slightly unsettling.

There are little tweaks on the touchpad that make a big difference to the user. The haptic feedback, for example, has been subtly improved or increased. You just get a little bit more feel for clicking and closing applications – it's very nice.

Microsoft Surface Laptop 8: Specs and Performance

There are Snapdragon models of the Surface Laptop 8, though the business variants are Panther Lake affairs. Specifically, the 13.8in model we have is sporting the Intel Core Ultra X7 368H chip and 32GB LPDDR5x RAM.

I can't complain about the performance or really compare it to the Snapdragon models, though it is worth noting that the Laptop 7 did seem to be stronger and smoother with Snapdragon.

In Geekbench 6, our Panther Lake mode hit 2,764 single-core workloads and 14,485 for multi-threaded. Both scores are high, maybe not M5 MacBook Pro high, but high nonetheless. Though it is worth pointing out that the multithreaded score for the 8 was slightly lower than the 15in Laptop 7. But only slightly.

In our looped video test, where we play 20 minutes of Spider-Man 2 with the display set to 170cd/m2, the Surface Laptop 8 lasted 18hrs 43mins. That's over ten minutes more than our Surface Laptop 7 review. In real terms, it never let me down. I took it out into the world for a day and didn't need a charge. It has staying power.

Microsoft Surface Laptop 8: Features

The 8 comes with a 1080p Surface Studio camera (Full HD) with support for Windows Studio Effects. So you get automatic eye framing, blurred backgrounds, and facial recognition with Windows Hello. From my own personal use, the webcam is very crisp, and there's a lot of artificial touching up – I've never looked better in work meetings.

Much of this is down to the on-device AI, powered by the Intel AI Boost NPU (48 TOPS). So you have AI shortcuts with the Copilot button, image enhancements, and the now-usual generative AI shortcuts for summarization and text generation. It's all very flashy, but not incredibly useful.

Microsoft Surface Laptop 8: Is it worth it?

There's lots to love on the Microsoft Surface Laptop 8; its battery life is great, the keyboard and touchpad are excellent, the display is bright and beautiful, and you get some privacy, provided no one simply looks over the top of the screen. All in all, it's a solid business machine.

Pricing might be its biggest issue (£1,599.99), but given the global state of RAM, that can be said for most premium laptops. So, taking that into account, there is generally some value for money here.

Microsoft Surface Laptop 8 specifications

PC shipments have fallen for the first time in more than two years, hit by the memory supply crunch caused in part by the rise of AI.

Recent analysis from IDC found global PC shipments slid 4.9% on year in the second quarter of this year to 68.2 million units, down from 71.7m in the same quarter last year.

The figures mark the first decline in the market after nine quarters of growth, and that’s largely down to continued memory shortages.

IDC noted, however, that the situation has been exacerbated by supply issues with storage and other components, as well as what the company referred to as "geopolitical issues".

The massive AI infrastructure build-out has led to a shortage in memory, spurred on by manufacturers pivoting to produce more lucrative data center components rather than those for consumer products.

That RAM shortage has led to a sharp decline in lower cost devices, with Gartner predicting earlier this year that PC sales will drop by 10%.

Consumers picking up the bill

IDC said that while units shipped slid, PC makers reported growth in revenue, showing how the cost of such challenges are being passed on to consumers and businesses.

"The real story here is the disconnect between units and dollars: shipments are falling, but revenue is climbing because vendors are pushing through price increases faster than demand is dropping," said Jitesh Ubrani, research director for consumer devices at IDC.

That's not likely to change anytime soon, Ubrani warned.

"Given worsening macro conditions and a memory shortage that isn’t expected to ease until early 2028, we don’t expect another round of inventory pull-forward, which points to a sharp slowdown in growth rates in the second half of 2026," he added.

"Vendors are bracing for further price hikes into 2027, and channels are already flagging concern about elevated inventory at these higher price points."

A host of device manufacturers have raised prices in response to the spiralling memory crisis. Outgoing Apple CEO Tim Cook said last month that the company would raise prices due to the issue.

"There's less supply at a time when consumers want devices and the memory guys are passing along huge price increases," he said at the time.

Apple wins with MacBook Neo

The increased pressure on brands could lead to vendor consolidation of market share, IDC warned. The consultancy noted that larger brands such as Apple, Dell, or Lenovo can use their scale across different product lines – be it smartphones or servers – to access memory supply.

The result here is that smaller rivals could be left in the dust and scrambling for what supplies are left.

"As market conditions continue to worsen… supply chain management and capabilities are increasingly important," said Jean Philippe Bouchard, vice president for consumer devices at IDC.

"The largest vendors, with their buying power and long-standing supplier ties, are best positioned to take share from smaller rivals."

Compared to the second quarter in 2025, the big three PC makers – Lenovo, HP, and Dell – were largely flat in terms of market share, though all three saw single-digit decreases in shipments, with HP in particular down 9%.

Apple, however, grew market share from 8.5% to 9.9%, with shipments up 10% from 6.1m to 6.7m in the second quarter of this year versus 2025.

"Apple’s share gain coincided with its latest product launch, the MacBook Neo, and while the company did raise prices in line with the broader market, it still remains well positioned against rivals facing the same cost pressures," added Bouchard.

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As an early entrant into the business Wi-Fi 7 market, EnGenius now boasts an extensive portfolio of access points (APs) suited to a wide range of environments and budgets. The only space it hasn't focused on a great deal is wall plate APs as up until now, its only offering has been the ECW215 Wi-Fi 6 model.

The ECW515 improves the situation as it delivers Wi-Fi 7 services to target markets such as the hospitality, classroom, meeting room and multi-tenant sectors. It may only be a dual-band AP, but has the hardware to handle a high demand as it sports the same powerful Qualcomm Networking Pro 1220 platform and quad-core ARM Cortex-A73 CPU as Engenius' flagship APs.

This BE3600-rated AP offers two spatial streams each for the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands and claims maximum speeds of 700Mbits/sec and 2,900Mbits/sec respectively. It offers plenty of connection options as along with a main 2.5GbE multi-Gig port, it has a built-in quad-port Gigabit switch with the fourth port (LAN5) providing an 802.3af PoE feed for powering in-room devices such as IP phones.

EnGenius ECW515 review: Hardware features

The ECW515 is one of the smallest wall plate APs we've yet seen as it measures a mere 110 x 42 x 130mm (WDH) and weighs only 328gms. It has a metal chassis and polycarbonate cover and presents the main 2.5GbE port at the rear with the four Gigabit ports in the base.

The box includes a solid metal mounting plate which the AP is clipped on to and secured with one screw. A single orange status LED is located on the side which shows cloud connection status and flashes when the AP is booting or receiving a firmware upgrade.

If the AP is powered over 802.3at PoE+, the LAN5 port will supply 7W to a powered device (PD). Using an optional external 54V DC supply will boost this to 15W.

EnGenius ECW515 review: Cloud management

EnGenius offers two types of wireless AP and all ECW models can only be cloud managed. The Wi-Fi 6 EWS Fit6 models are aimed at small businesses with limited on-site IT expertise and can be standalone or cloud-managed from the free FitXpress web portal.

For testing, we connected the ECW515 to the lab's Engenius ECS2512FP 2.5GbE PoE+ switch. The AP presents a local web interface but this only displays an overview of LAN, internet and cloud connection status.

Assigning the AP to our cloud account was easy as we used the Cloud To-Go iOS app on an iPad to scan its QR code. Once we had added the AP to our chosen site, it received a firmware upgrade and started broadcasting our predefined site SSIDs.

The cloud portal dashboard provides details on all APs, switches and wireless clients with graphs below for wireless throughput plus the top APs, clients and SSIDs. Enable the application control service on your SSIDs and the dashboard populates a table below with the top ten apps and their bandwidth usage.

Up to eight SSIDs per radio are supported and for each one, you can choose the active radios, apply an encryption scheme, enable L2 isolation and turn on MLO (multi-link operations) with the console warning you that legacy clients that don't support WPA3 will be excluded. The drop-down menu at the top offers plenty of other useful features including assigning download and upload rate limits for the entire SSID or per client and adding captive portals, hotspot services and basic firewall rules.

The four Gigabit ports are remotely controlled from the portal so you can enable or disable any of them as required. A smart feature is 'SSID on LAN' as this allows you to bind a selected SSID to them and apply wireless VLAN, security settings and captive portals to wired devices.

Adding a Pro licence to your portal account enables enhanced features such as a 30-day log retention period, network topology views and 7-day timeline charts of the APs a client connected to, the authentication methods in use and details of association errors such as incorrect passwords. Prices are quite reasonable with 1-year and 3-year subscriptions costing £57 and £136 per device respectively.

Captive portal features are good as you can present wireless guests with custom splash pages created using the portal's integrated HTML editor toolbox. Standard authentication methods include local user accounts, Radius servers and vouchers with a Pro licence enabling LDAP, Active Directory, Google LDAP and Azure AD.

EnGenius ECW515 review: Wi-Fi 7 performance

For our performance tests, we used a Lenovo Windows 11 Pro desktop client equipped with a TP-Link Archer TBE550E Wi-Fi 7 PCIe adapter and a Dell PowerEdge Windows server connected to one of the switch's 10GbE fibre ports. We enabled MLO on our WPA3-protected SSID and saw the Windows 11 client create an aggregated link using both radios and report a link speed of 3,570Mbits/sec.

To test maximum speed, we used the OpenSpeedTest HTML5-based tool and ran the server component of our Windows Server host. On the Windows 11 client, we pointed a browser at the OpenSpeedTest server address and port and watched it report back with close-range upload and download rates of 169MB/sec and 200MB/sec.

Moving the AP 10 metres away and into an adjoining room with a wall in the way saw it deliver upload and download speeds of 137MB/sec and 174MB/sec. Use the application analysis service with caution as this will hit performance with further tests showing it can drop wireless speeds by up to 10%.

EnGenius ECW515 review: Is it worth it

EnGenius has a very limited number of UK resellers and the only vendor that could provide us with a price for the ECW515 was Solwise with it quoting £187 including VAT. This is a little pricey as the TP-Link EAP775-Wall we recently reviewed only costs around £13 more and delivers tri-band Wi-Fi 7 in-room services.

The ECW515 is very easy to deploy though, and its dual radios deliver a performance that should satisfy the target market of hotel guests and meeting room participants. The cloud portal offers a good range of remote management services and the smart SSID on LAN feature allows you to secure access to the four Gigabit ports.

EnGenius ECW515 specifications

Ergonomics is a word that gets thrown around a lot when we talk about peripherals like a keyboard or mouse – but what does this actually mean? The layout and shape, for starters, should adjust to the body's natural position, and these devices should be engineered to reduce any strains or pains that might arise from prolonged use.

Logitech is no stranger to incorporating ergonomic design into its long history of products, but the Signature Comfort Plus Combo – a Bluetooth-powered keyboard and mouse set – takes this a step further by putting your comfort front and center. Designed for prolonged use, these chic and sophisticated peripherals introduce additional padding and softer buttons. Functionally, Logitech is also aiming to increase productivity with customizable buttons. But how do these peripherals cope with the daily workplace or home office grind?

Logitech Signature Comfort Plus Combo: Unboxing and setup

Open up the rather large rectangular packaging, and you'll find the keyboard and mouse both tightly and securely fitted side by side, wrapped in a soft white protective fabric. You'll find some documentation – but that's it. Both devices are pre-installed with batteries (AAA and AA for the K880 keyboard and M850 L mouse, respectively), and both are designed to be used wirelessly via Bluetooth only – so there is no additional cabling. This is quite surprising, given the additional flexibility USB-C ports might offer if, say, you prefer a wired connection, or there's something amiss with your Bluetooth.

Nevertheless, we're happy that setup is thankfully painless. First, switch both devices on using the physical switch, located on the rear right of the keyboard and the base of the mouse. Getting the mouse connected is straightforward – press the button to choose your input, and you're good to go. Above the navigation keys (Insert, Home, Page Up) on the keyboard, you'll find physical buttons to switch between inputs. All three have separate LEDs that indicate the status of your connection. Hold one of these buttons down and follow the instructions in the Bluetooth settings menu.

Logitech Signature Comfort Plus Combo: Design

Logitech has adopted a standard charcoal-esque Graphite colour for both the keyboard and mouse, although a brighter off-white finish is also available. Both are strong in isolation (with Off White winning out marginally for looking a little more interesting), but it's important to have the optionality to aesthetically complement the devices you already own. Each has complementary design features; for example, the grooves on the padded palm rest mirror the ridges on the thumb rest on the side of the mouse, and there's a similar darker tone for the padded regions on both devices.

The keyboard itself is really large – with plenty of room for a full array of keys you'd expect from a conventional full-sized device, including a Function row and a number pad. Each key is slightly indented to cup your finger, with the 3D quadrilateral shape meaning the base of each key is gapless while there's plenty of room between each surface.

The shape also flows like a wave, rising then falling from left to right, which is great for angling either hand slightly outwardly as you're typing with it. Beneath the keys, this flowing motion is reflected in the curved palm rest with rows of circular contours running in the opposite direction. It's a triumphant design scheme overall. There's also room for the pairing buttons, a customizable function key, and little extras like video conferencing shortcuts. Beneath, there are two kickstands (four degrees and eight degrees) that let you alter the angle depending on what works best for you.

Where we felt the K880 lacked was in the cheapness of the sticker effect of the key labeling, as opposed to a seamless translucent effect that would disguise this. Secondly, there's no backlighting or underlighting, sadly, so using the peripherals in a darkly lit room may not be such a great idea unless you can touch-type with near-perfect precision.

The M850 L mouse is a small, compact, and simple device with one unusual feature that sets it apart from the crowd: a palm rest. Although the keyboard palm rest makes sense, we weren't sure there was much of a point in the inclusion of one here, given the plastic feels fairly soft to begin with – and there's a certain firmness to the palm rest, and you'll only feel its efficacy if you push down in an unnatural way. In addition to the two main left-click and right-click buttons are a mouse wheel, a function key beneath it, and Forward and Back buttons above the thumb rest.

Incidentally, Logitech says both devices are made from 49% recycled plastics as it strives to incorporate sustainability into its engineering. Despite that, the build quality of both is excellent, and there's no sense of frailty while you're using either.

Logitech Signature Comfort Plus Combo: K880 keyboard

Typing with the K880 keyboard is superb, and we could feel just the right amount of feedback in each keystroke – with enough mid-pitched noise to satisfy those who need audible feedback as well as that sensory punch. Keystrokes are deep, too, for a membrane keyboard, and while it won't give you the depth of a true mechanical machine, it's a brilliantly simple setup that means you can touch type for extended periods of time without discomfort or disquiet. The only oddity is that the padded palm rest can warm up, retaining your body heat during usage – but this isn't excessive and doesn't spoil the overall typing experience.

There's one minor grumble, however, which is that the feedback in each key is not consistent; most keys behave the same way when pushed, but a small handful, including the column featuring the Backspace and Enter keys in particular, have muted and understated reactions. This is, perhaps, one casualty of the elevated contour design, but it affects only a small handful of keys in that column arrangement, with the Enter key being the least satisfying to tap.

Using the keyboard itself on a day-to-day basis is made simple and effective thanks to the specific function keys that Logitech has baked into it. The brightness functions, for example, are a nod to the fact you'll likely be using a laptop for the most part, while the videoconferencing keys – including the mic and camera activation toggles – are useful shortcuts for remote and hybrid workers. We also love the inclusion of functions to control audio volume and playback – important for those who want ultimate control as well as those who love listening to music while they work.

The most useful features, however, are the ways you can customize certain keys. The AI key, for example, can be assigned to your preferred agent, application, or chatbot. The circular action key above the number pad, meanwhile, is a great tool that you can configure to your whim with the Logi Options Plus app. Smart Actions let you perform actions with a single key press, letting you chain different apps, perform specific actions (like AI replying to emails or changing your interface into a focused work mode), or even create new functions yourself. This freedom and flexibility – especially the power to chain together several functions and applications – was a great one-tap way to save ourselves time and get into a groove with a simple automation.

Logitech Signature Comfort Plus Combo: M850 L mouse

There's an elegance in the simplicity of the M850L mouse, but there are still enough interesting details in the design and functionality of this peripheral to feel far from boring and plain. The sharp ergonomic curve on the left, where you place your thumb, for instance, adds to the sense of comfort you get from using this combo, and the device itself is suitable for larger hands despite being relatively compact. The strong grip also makes the mouse feel as if it's an extension of you as you're working on a day-to-day basis – giving you precision in every movement.

There's a little strangeness in that each type of physical key has a completely different physical sensation when you're using it. The left-click and right-click buttons are muted so heavily, with a quiet click the only indication you've used either, beyond the effect on-screen. There's little force feedback either, which makes for an understated and fuss-free experience – but you may want a little more bite. The Forward and Back keys offer a bit more of a punch, but again, this is on the softer side. You get the same sensation clicking the button below the mouse wheel (which controls cursor speed), and the mouse wheel itself is more akin to a conventional one – with hefty bite and satisfying rubberized grip as you scroll up or down. You can scroll horizontally by tapping either the Forward or Back buttons, then scrolling with the mouse wheel as normal.

Logitech Signature Comfort Plus Combo: Is it worth it?

Logitech has set out to design a keyboard and mouse set steps beyond simple ergonomics to give you maximum comfort, letting you work for hours on end without pain or strain thanks to a softer and rounder design language and plenty of padding. For the most part, the Logitech Signature Comfort Plus Combo is a triumph – and you'll find yourself not only giving your home office setup, or workplace desk space, a visual boost but a functional one too.

Both devices are expertly crafted and complement each other well from a looks perspective, but the thought that's gone into functionality and day-to-day usage also pays off tremendously. We are, however, concerned about one or two bugbears that prevent this from being an outstanding proposition – one being inconsistent keystroke sensations down one portion specifically, the lack of backlighting, and the absence of a biting feedback in left- and right-clicking. These minor grumbles aren't enough to discount what's otherwise an excellent pair of peripherals.

Available in the UK for £99, it's on the pricer side when you consider Logitech's other basic combo sets – the MK250 Compact Bluetooth Wireless Combo is available for £19.99, for example – but given it's a full-sized keyboard with plenty of productivity-centric customization, as well as the additional comfort and ergonomic elements, we reckon it's worth every penny

The Balance Phone has arrived during a significant moment, particularly in the UK and Europe, where there is a swelling of anti-social media sentiment. People are claiming back their attention spans, parents are worried about screen time, and even politicians are making moves towards legislation.

Driving much of this is a big community on social media (ironically). Marketing for Balance has been phenomenally successful at using the power of that space in its attempt to take you off it.

It promises to get you down to just 1 hour and 30 minutes a day of phone use – we will be adjusting that somewhat as I use my phone for work, and this is, above all, a review of a phone for work purposes. However, this is not simply a review of a device but a review of my relationship to phones in general. The way the Balance Phone is presented, and even designed, is to be an antidote to digital procrastination. That's the biggest reason you will buy it. So there is going to be a significant amount of navel-gazing here.

In the five days I used my iPhone before switching to the Balance phone, I had a daily average of seven hours of use. I picked up my phone on average 65 times per day – total pickups for the week were 259 times. Most concerning, I racked up over seven hours on Instagram – I'm an addict. That's over 28 hours of screen time in less than a week, and that doesn't take into account TV, tablet, laptop, and any other devices I encounter.

Balance Phone: Design

When ordering a Balance Phone, you have three options. There's a standard model, which is the Samsung A16 (£269). This is a budget model you would likely give your children as a first device. Or you can buy a 'Pro' version that's a Samsung Galaxy S25 (£679/$813). Or you can simply subscribe to their service and have it installed on your Samsung device of choice (£69/$99 per year). A word of warning here: if you opt for the subscription, you won't be able to change your phone back once the OS is installed.

I was sent the A16 model and, admittedly, most of the negatives in this review are due to the fact that it's a low-spec device, rather than any issue with Balance itself. I like premium features and top camera specs, and I felt a little limited with the A16. This also became a slight issue for work, which I will explain further down.

How does Samsung fit in? Well, the premium quality of its hardware is a big factor, but also its strong security controls through the Knox platform. The Balance team did initially seek to make their own hardware, but found it difficult to come up with something that competes with what is already available. So rather than spend more time and money on a development that might not work, they partnered with one of the world's biggest smartphone makers.

With the A16, you get a 6.7in Super AMOLED display, 1080 x 2340 resolution, and a 90Hz refresh rate, which isn't so important without social media and infinite scrolling. It's powered by a 6nm MediaTek Helio G99 processor. There is only 4GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. It runs Android 16 out of the box and then a Balance OS overlay.

You also get facial recognition and fingerprint sensors. The latter is on the home button and doesn't always work – particularly in a sweaty heatwave. But this is more of an issue for the Samsung model rather than Balance.

For the camera, you have a 50MP wide lens, a 5MP ultrawide one, and a 2MP macro sensor on the rear. The front-facing camera is 13MP, also wide. Both sides shot 1080p video at 30fps – which is significantly less than the standard S25 offers. Worth bearing that in mind if you need the camera system for your job.

Balance Phone: Operating system

As mentioned, Balance is merely an operating system, or more accurately, an overlay. When you set up your phone, you'll notice it has a basic Android background and user interface. Before long, you'll have a pop-up that leads you through the setup process for Balance. This will ask you to allow notifications and permissions for Balance so that it can help you if your usage spikes.

One of the first things you'll need to do is select eight apps or features to appear on your home screen. This will be a minimalist black screen with the names of each app in white, listed down the center. It's quite clever in that it looks less cluttered than your usual phone screen, which is just all your apps spread over many pages. It's both instantly calming and very memorable. It unintentionally stands out from every other phone available, just by being stripped down and basic.

If you want to access something other than the eight apps selected, you use the search bar at the bottom. Which can get annoying if you need something you only use infrequently – say, the app for your weekly shop. But overall, you only really use a selection of apps daily, and that should be fewer than you think without social media.

The OS was initially an app, available via the Google Play Store. It was also briefly a hardware concept, with models designed in China, but their idea is more about software, anyway.

The name is key; it strikes a balance through app categories - mainly anything that offers an infinite scroll. The company defines this via five categories: social media, streaming, gaming, gambling, and porn. Admittedly, email and instant messaging can be classed as infinite, so to speak, but there is more caution here. Telegram, for instance, is straight-up banned because it isn't as safe and has a known problem with illicit content. WhatsApp, on the other hand, is allowed because, to quote the company, it's simply too big not to include.

When it comes to news apps, there is more leeway, but they're working on features that can help you curb your news usage. Though this will be more of a guide, you'll likely have notifications that warn you how much time you've spent doomscrolling.

My first impression of the Balance Phone is one of calm. It's very easy to get distracted once you pick up your phone. Whatever your initial reason for unlocking your device can be lost as you see notifications, other apps, and horrible news stories. When I opened the device to check email and Slack for work, that is generally where I went. So there was a feeling it was doing its job from the start.

Balance Phone: Apps and features

What about the delicate balance between useful apps and procrastination? Well, work apps and necessary utilities are all available – as far as my own needs go. Banking, messaging, Uber, and even Alexa are all present. Google Search is installed, but it isn't available; it's merely kept in place to support other services on the device. You can only use Chrome or Ecosia.

Apps like Netflix and YouTube are blocked from being downloaded, which is generally the case for all streaming apps. Even BBC iPlayer and ITVX, which were a struggle not to have during a World Cup. Strangely, YouTube Music is available, as is Spotify. The latter has a scroll feature, but music has a therapeutic quality and can also aid productivity, so it makes sense for it to be a part of the Balance-approved apps.

Some apps, however, regardless of the infinite scroll/social aspect, are just not available. The Blackmagic camera app, for example, which has become the creator's best friend, could not be added to my Balance Phone. This is largely down to the model of phone and not the Balance Phone criteria. Either way, it would be something that informs my choice when buying a Balance Phone.

Balance Phone: Is it worth it?

There is definitely something to be said about the lower quality of the Samsung A16. The OS doesn't feel particularly fast or responsive, particularly in apps. I noticed lots of sluggishness in Slack when iterating in channels or leaving them. The fingerprint sensor hardly worked. And there is a slightly glitchy action in Spotify and Gmail. One would assume this is not a problem for the S25 model and its higher-powered chipset.

As for Balance itself, it does indeed do what it promises. You will not use social media – largely as it doesn't let you. But beyond that, the way in which the interface looks and operates does appear to be a better way to use phones for work. You're not lost among pages and pages of apps; instead, you're forced to be more organized, and you can do the task at hand quicker, with less distraction. This is the true meaning of work-life balance.

Balance Phone (Samsung A16 model) specifications

Zyxel offers an impressive range of business Wi-Fi 7 access points (APs), and the tri-band WBE665S signals a concerted move into enterprise territory. Designed to deliver stable and reliable wireless connections in demanding environments such as warehouses, large-scale retail, cold storage, manufacturing, and stadiums, the WBE665S looks capable of handling everything the great outdoors can throw at it. Largely because this massive, ruggedly built AP has a high IP67 rating.

It's also built for performance as it presents 12 spatial streams spread equally across the three radios and has a huge BE22000 rating. This allows it to claim maximum speeds of up to 1,376Mbits/sec for 2.4GHz, 8,646Mbits/sec for 5GHz and a whopping 11,530Mbits/sec for 6GHz.

The AP can be managed in standalone or cloud mode using Zyxel's Nebula Cloud Control (NCC) portal. The WBE model designation means it can also be locally managed from Zyxel's USG Flex WLAN controllers, and the price includes a 1-year NCC Pro Pack license, which enables Zyxel's SecureWiFi, CDR (collaborative detection and response), and the AI-powered WiFi Aid and Wireless Health troubleshooting tools.

Zyxel WBE665S review: Build quality and design

Measuring 410 x 410 x 110mm and weighing nearly 5kg, the WBE665S is easily the largest Wi-Fi 7 AP we've yet seen. The sturdy metal chassis and thick polycarbonate shell are built for outdoor action as the AP has 6kV lightning protection and can operate between -40 and +70 degrees C, while its IP67 rating means it's fully dust-tight and can handle temporary immersion in water.

The WBE665S puts its extreme size to good use as it incorporates a 120-degree ultra-wide smart antennae array which dynamically optimises its patterns and signal directions to the RF environment in real time. All of its performance potential is unleashed by a fast copper 10GbE multi-Gig uplink port, which requires an 802.3bt PoE++ source for all features to function.

For those that want a connection distance of more than 100 metres, there's a 10GbE SFP+ fibre port and a 24-48V DC input. All ports are arranged neatly under the chassis at the rear, and the box includes waterproof cable glands and an industrial-strength aluminium pole mount kit.

Zyxel WBE665S review: 6GHz restrictions

Due to potential interference with weather radars, the radio astronomy service (RAS) and satellite links, Ofcom currently restricts standard Wi-Fi 7 6GHz usage in the UK to indoors only. It does permit VLP (very low power) usage, but this is strictly limited to the lower 5925-6425MHz band and 25mW levels.

Furthermore, outdoor VLP usage will only be permitted when the device is under the control of a third-party AFC (automated frequency control) system. AFC may also, at first, be used to control access to the upper 6GHz band, but this is currently under consultation with a decision not expected until later this year.

Zyxel has come up with a nifty workaround, as you can set the WBE665S to indoor mode, which enables the 6GHz radio. Or use the outdoor mode, which disables it. It's available as a single toggle switch in both the standalone web console and NCC portal. However, you'll need to ensure you don't accidentally set the AP to indoor mode when deploying it outside.

Zyxel WBE665S review: Cloud management

Standalone mode is easy to use as the AP's web console offers a quick start wizard, but we'll focus on cloud management as this is likely to be the preference for most businesses. Adding the WBE665S to our NCC account was easy, as we used the Nebula iOS app on an iPad to scan the QR code on the box and choose the site it should take its settings from.

The NCC portal is well designed and offers menu options at the top to choose an organisation and the sites it manages. Down below is an informative dashboard offering an at-a-glance site status overview along with customisable widgets for all Zyxel cloud-managed devices, APs by usage, connected clients and their detected OS, total wireless traffic, and PoE consumption for Zyxel switches.

As with standalone mode, up to eight SSIDs per site are supported, and you can create custom captive portals for guest wireless networks. Each can have its own logo and message, a choice of authentication methods including 2FA with Google Authenticator, and L2 isolation to stop guests from seeing each other.

A key feature of all the latest Zyxel APs is their auto-MLO feature. Set the radios to 11be operations, apply Enhanced Open, WPA3 Personal, or WPA3 Enterprise encryption, and any MLO-capable client device will automatically create an aggregated link.

The indoor and outdoor settings are accessed in the NCC portal by selecting the AP and choosing the installation environment mode from its status screen. In standalone mode, the local web console has a dedicated section for this in its configuration menu.

Zyxel WBE665S review: 5/6GHz performance

For performance testing, we hooked the WBE665S up to the lab's Zyxel XMG1930-30HP multi-Gig PoE++ switch, which confirmed a 10GbE connection and a PoE++ power draw. Our test hosts were a Lenovo Windows 11 Pro desktop client equipped with a TP-Link Archer TBE550E Wi-Fi 7 PCIe adapter and a Dell PowerEdge Windows Server 2022 host connected to the switch over 10GbE.

Starting with 6GHz testing, we set the AP to indoor mode after which our Windows 11 client created a 2.4/6GHz MLO connection with an aggregated link speed of 6,108Mbits/sec. We used the OpenSpeedTest HTML5-based tool to measure raw performance and watched it report back with stunning close-range upload and download rates between the client and server of 538MB/sec and 445MB/sec.

After swapping the AP to outdoor mode from the NCC portal, our Windows 11 client automatically reconnected with a 2.4/5GHz MLO link and a link speed of 3,570Mbits/sec. Close-range performance looked good with OpenSpeedTest recording close-range upload and download rates of 353MB/sec and 317MB/sec.

Moving the AP 10 metres away and into an adjoining room with a wall in the way saw it deliver very respectable 2.4/6GHz upload and download speeds of 378MB/sec and 300MB/sec. Swapping back to outdoor mode returned 2.4/5GHz distance speeds of 275MB/sec and 211MB/sec.

Zyxel WBE665S review: Is it worth it

With prices in the £1,000-£1,200 range, the WBE665S compares well on value with the competition in this market sector. This huge Wi-Fi 7 AP delivers a lot for your money as its ruggedized build quality is exemplary and the mighty BE22000 rating delivered a superb 5/6GHz performance in our lab tests.

It's easy to deploy and management options are very versatile as it supports standalone, appliance or NCC cloud modes. The smart Indoor/Outdoor operational modes ensure compliance with local regulations and it's ready for 6GHz outdoor operations whenever Ofcom permits it.

Zyxel WBE665S specifications

They say that time is money. So, if you're keen to make the most of your limited budget for both, I'll say it up front: the MSI MP242PMG is a great value office monitor. It's nothing fancy, but it ticks all the boxes – and a few besides – for a budget model.

In fact, it's a box ticker's dream come true. The 24-inch Full HD panel sits atop a sturdy fully adjustable stand, and the 120Hz refresh rate both minimises eyestrain and boosts motion clarity for gaming. There's even a basic Full HD webcam and a two-port USB 2.0 hub.

With that specification list, the RRP of £130 sounds very reasonable indeed. With current street pricing putting it below the £90 mark, this is a budget office monitor that demands to make your shortlist.

MSI MP242PMG monitor: Design & Features

If you're expecting a cheap, nondescript display, then the MP242PMG may give you a pleasant surprise. This is a sturdy-feeling monitor with a solid stand and a thoughtful, understated design. It's all black plastic, granted, but I've handled monitors at five times the price that have felt more hollow and plasticky than this.

The essentials are all present, too. The adjustable stand has a nice, wide base that keeps the monitor steady even with one-handed adjustments, provides 130mm of height adjustment, and ample tilt and swivel. It also rotates into portrait mode in either direction.

There are other thoughtful little touches, too. A little cutout along the front of the monitor's base gives room to stow something useful – a thumb drive, pen, or office pass; maybe some snacks – and another oval cutout in the monitor's stand does an excellent job of keeping cables neat and tidy.

The webcam is on top of the panel, and this has a privacy shutter ready to go. It doesn't support Windows Hello, and in honesty, it's pretty terrible in low light, but with decent lighting, the Full HD sensor produces the kind of image quality that is perfectly serviceable for video calls.

Connectivity is great for the money. The major absentee is USB-C, but everything else is covered. Video inputs include HDMI, DisplayPort, and – in a rather quaint twist – VGA. The single USB-B input at the rear powers up the pair of USB-A ports at the rear and provides a connection for the integrated webcam. A 3.5mm audio output is present, too.