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use components that are several generations older, alongside memory components with standards that are also somewhat out of date by today's measure.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

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

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

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.

You do also get a pair of integrated speakers but these are typically mediocre – fine in a pinch for an unexpected video call, but not great. Naturally, there's a microphone too, and this is again good enough for video calls. It's not the last word in clarity, but it's useful and perfectly usable.

MSI's on-screen display deserves a mention. A clickable four-way joystick at the rear makes it simple to navigate, and the menus are clearly legible and well laid out. Click the joystick inwards and the full menu appears, but moving it in any of the four directions quickly accesses a selection of preset functions. Delve into the menus, and you can set these quick access functions in the Navi Key section.

The range of preset picture modes are actually quite useful. The User mode is arguably the most color-accurate of the bunch, but the softer, warmer presentation of the Black and White and Anti-Blue modes are great options to have for avoiding eyestrain during the working day. The Black and White mode is self explanatory, but the Anti Blue mode adds a warm orangey tinge to the display, which is quite pleasant in darker environments. One interesting addition is a trio of eye care tests found in MSI's Eye-Q section, which assists you in setting the optimal screen height and provides a couple of visual tests to check for eyestrain or fatigue – it's a really sensible idea.

MSI MP242PMG monitor: Display quality

The most glaring issue with the MP242PMG is the same for any 24-inch Full HD monitor – it's dramatically less crisp than most modern laptop displays or affordable 27-inch QHD displays. Text looks slightly pixellated, and images lack fine detail. That's just the price you pay with a Full HD monitor.

If that's not enough to make you want to upgrade to a QHD monitor, then the overall image quality here is good. Color accuracy in the default sRGB mode is perfectly acceptable – the average Delta E of 1.32 is very respectable for a budget display. The only obvious issue is that the white point is much too warm at 5,887k. This results in a clear orangey tint to whites. The gamma is a bit wayward, too, and this means that some tones look a tad more washed out than they should. In truth, neither will bother users working on non colour-critical desks, but it's worth knowing.

Personally, I preferred the User mode for daily use as this produced an almost perfect 6,445k white point. Color accuracy is a little worse with an average Delta E of 2.07, but this is less noticeable than the sRGB mode's overly warm tint. With User mode enabled, you do still get some over-brightening of tones, but again, for day-to-day work you're not going to notice.

The basics are all fine, though. Brightness tops out around 440cd/m2, which is way brighter than is comfortable for most offices, and contrast is a little bit better than average at 1,617:1. Backlight uniformity is good, too, with no more than a 9% variance in brightness around the panel's edges. For everyday use, the MP242PMG gets a clean bill of health.

Motion handling isn't going to challenge any gaming panels, but it's pretty good for the money. MSI claims a 4ms GTG response time and 1ms MPRT – pretty nippy for a budget display. Bumping up to the maximum Fastest response time caused some ugly overshoot in our testing, so we settled on the Faster setting. This delivers a welcome improvement over the standard Fast setting without the ugly artefacts.

The only thing to reiterate here is that this is an office monitor. Fast-moving action in darker scenes does start to look rather blurry and smeared. And while engaging the MPRT backlight strobing does help to sharpen up detail in brighter scenes, there's a downside: the strobing dramatically reduces overall brightness, so the panel's poor response time in darker scenes becomes even more prominent. My advice would be to leave MPRT off, stick to the Faster response time setting, and engage Adaptive Sync mode for the best clarity.

MSI MP242PMG monitor: Is it worth it?

Prices do tend to fluctuate quite a bit for budget monitors, so there's always an element of selecting a shortlist of competent models and shopping around. Two obvious alternatives are BenQ's GW2490 or GW2490C. Both lack the adjustable stand – and indeed some of the design niceties of the MSI – but if you need USB-C then the GW2490C is a good alternative for around £90. And if you just want a good budget display, the GW2490 often retails for around £75.

At the time of writing, however, the MSI MP242PMG was retailing for £90. At that kind of money, the combination of an adjustable stand, good design, and respectable image quality is hard to beat for the money. If you're looking to fit out a small office with good-quality monitors on a small budget, the MSI MP242PMG is just the ticket.

MSI MP242PMG monitor specifications

The Huawei MatePad Pro Max is coming to the UK. To most of Europe, in fact. And this is great news for those of us who want alternatives to Apple and Samsung. Now, some cynics might see this as just another tech brand adding the same combination of words (Pro, Max) on their device to make it sound bigger and better. But having used the Pro Max for a week, I can honestly say this is a tablet worthy of those titles.

To begin with, it's impossibly thin at just 4.7mm – the thinnest 13in tablet in the world, according to Huawei – certainly slimmer than any recent tablet tested by ITPro. But it's also just simply great to work with. The bright display has Huawei's PaperMatte technology, and with the Huawei M-Pencil, it gives you that true-to-life pencil-on-paper feel.

Huawei aims its MatePads at both consumers and business people, and there is a solid argument that this can be a laptop replacement – particularly as Huawei's actual laptop business has stalled in the Western world. For me, however, this is a bona fide creative powerhouse. That Huawei M-Pen and the GoPaint app make it arguably one of the best around for creators.

Huawei MatePad Pro Max: Design

The MatePad Pro Max is a 13.2in tablet, encased in a very sleek-looking metal body. Our review unit is a soft satin blue with the thinnest of frames (4.7mm) and some of the smoothest corners I've seen on a tablet. It weighs just 509g, feels very comfortable in just one hand, and goes in and out of a rucksack or bag with zero effort.

The back cover has a sort of two-tone finish thanks to nano-level coating on top of its metal body. It creates a pleasing light and shadow effect that allows the features (shiny Huawei logo, camera bump) to stand out. In the top corner is a black camera ring with an 'AI Camera' logo. And at the bottom (in portrait) is a USB Type-C port flanked by two sets of speaker holes. In the same corner as the camera, there is a volume rocker and a power button.

Pogo pins connect the Huawei's NearLink Keyboard, which is connected right out of the box, and there is also a trench to house your M-Pencil. You can also connect the pen to the top of the laptop (in landscape), where there is a small, thin oblong to indicate its docking position. Whether on top or on the keyboard, the pen will charge.

Huawei MatePad Pro Max: Display

By now, we should all know about Huawei's PaperMatte technology, which again features on its premium tablet. For the uninitiated, it's a micro-layer that provides both anti-glare cover and gives that feel of pen on paper – ReMarkable, and its Paper Pro (and Pure) tablets are, in my opinion, the most paper-like, but the Huawei MatePad Pro Max is as close as you can get on a more traditional tablet. Combine that with the Huawei M-Pencil Pro, and you can really create quite striking illustrations (more on this further down).

The 13.2in display is a Flexible OLED panel, with a 3000 x 2000 resolution, and 273 ppi. It's gloriously large and vibrant, and, as I mentioned above, there is hardly any glare on this matte finish. You also get lots of brightness with the tablet peaking at 603.32cd/m2 during my tests. Huawei says it can achieve 16oo nits, which actually suggests it's capable of a lot more.

Colour reproduction is also good. In our tests, the Pro Max produced 98.2% for sRGB gamut color coverage and 100.5% for volume. That's slightly above the M5 iPad Pro for color coverage (97.3%). It just missed out on a good Adobe score, ever so slightly under 70%, which is the threshold for us to recommend it for photography professionals. Though this is perfectly suitable for illustrators and graphic designers.

Huawei MatePad Pro Max: Specs and performance

Much of this quality comes from the powerful processor in the MatePad Pro Max. It features a Kirin T93 Pro, but unfortunately, we can't get a specific benchmark for that as Geekbench isn't available on the Huawei App Gallery. You can, of course, use certain pathways to get Google Apps on Huawei devices. For more, check out our explainer video.

As for the T93 Pro, it appears to be a very smooth CPU, powering a wealth of functions and features with ease. And although we don't have a specific benchmark, the Pro Max is highly responsive, fast through tasks, and works faultlessly through its many pre-installed apps.

On that topic, there are way too many apps installed out of the box, some you will never open, not even for curiosity's sake. But it's getting better and better when it comes to adding your favorites. With each interaction of MatePad, I have found finding and installing Netflix, Spotify, and even Slack a little bit easier.

The battery is fairly decent, too. In our looped video test, the MatePad Pro Max lasted 14hrs and 11min. Which is near enough to the likes of the OnePlus Pad 3 and the Honor MagicPad 4 to be competitive. In real terms, it easily makes it through a working day.

Huawei MatePad Pro Max: Features

In my view, where this tablet has its biggest selling point is the combination of the Huawei M-Pencil Pro, the PaperMatte display, and the GoPaint app – all of which make it a formidable creative hub. With each of those elements, you can really create quite striking illustrations.

The pen feels natural in the hand, it has innovative shortcuts, and pressure-sensitive controls. It both glides across the surface for adding color, but then has slight resistance for sketching.

And the GoPaint app continues to evolve. The sheer number of brush strokes and customizations puts it up there with the likes of Procreate and Sketchbook – but there doesn't appear to be the same monetization behind it. You're not limited to certain tools through different pricing tiers.

If a tablet is going to become your work machine, something that can replicate or replace your laptop, then its keyboard and trackpad need to be pretty good. And the NearLink model on the Pro Max is excellent. The keys are nice and clicky, with decent travel (1.8mm) and fairly large icons. The trackpad is OK, maybe a little on the small side, but nothing you wouldn't expect from a tablet keyboard.

Now I know camera systems on tablets are less interesting than they are on phones, but you get quite a high-spec camera system on the Pro Max. It comes with a 50MP (f/1.8 aperture, AF) rear lens and a 12MP (f/2.4) selfie camera. The rear lens also shoots video at 4K up to 30fps. Admittedly, it was the least used feature during my review, but uploading my sketches on paper was a breeze with the detail the 50MP camera captures.

Huawei MatePad Pro Max: Is it worth it?

The MatePad Pro Max is an excellent tablet, but it isn't going to replace a standard laptop; there are too many limitations here, like the lack of Google. But also, I think you just don't buy tablets for office workers.

You do, however, buy them for creative work. And the MatePad Pro Max is right up there with the best around. The M-Pencil and the GoPaint app are great additions that get better with each new tablet. And the new tablet itself is a phenomenal slab of technology.

Huawei MatePad Pro Max specifications

The Chinese smartphone manufacturer Honor has thoroughly impressed with its selection of smartphones this year – with the Honor Magic8 Pro taking the fight to Samsung and the Honor 600 presenting a brilliant proposition as a mid-range device.

Rather awkwardly sitting somewhere in between these two handsets is the Honor 600 Pro. It's a more affordable alternative to the flagship-class Magic8 Pro (with some admittedly hefty compromises) but still retains plenty of "pro" features to keep businesses interested.

With an £899 price tag, however, many will question whether it offers value for money when you may choose to either go all-out for the most expensive Honor device or save on a few hundred pounds and settle for something a little lighter in nature.

Honor 600 Pro: Design

Parallels in the design of the Honor 600 Series with the iPhone 17 Pro are unavoidable. You can immediately notice the same protruding translucent rear panelling (housing the camera lenses and sensors) as well as the brushed metallic sides with etched grooves.

They even share the same shouty orange primary finish, but we picked up an Honor 600 Pro draped in a sophisticated Golden White coating, which looks clean and sophisticated in its own right. You can also pick up the device in a more generic but safer Black look. The composite fiber material on the phone's rear adds to its premium quality with some much-needed friction while you're holding it, and it's incredibly well constructed overall.

This phone is slightly smaller than the Honor 400 Pro (its predecessor) with a 6.57-inch display versus a 6.7-inch panel; in fact, it uses almost the same shell as the Honor 600 (except a third lens here). With a weight of 195g, it's also one of the lightest devices in this category – and one of the most compact too, thanks to its 7.8mm thickness.

Like the Honor 600, the left-hand side panel features several physical function keys, including volume controls, a power/Gemini button, and the Honor AI button. As with both devices, the display also features rounded corners that taper off far too aggressively, somewhat undermining the large real estate you'd otherwise enjoy.

Like the Honor Magic8 Pro, the device also boasts IP68/IP69/IP69K for dust and water resistance, with the latter certification a new category that means total dust-tightness with protection against pressure and high-temperature water jets. This comes in addition to an SGS 5-Star drop resistance. Hard to think, but this slender device is perhaps one of the most robust you can find right now.

Honor 600 Pro: Display

There's plenty of strength in the Honor 600 Pro's 6.57in AMOLED display – but it's the exact same panel as that used in the Honor 600. Thankfully, it's a good one, with a 2,728 x 1,264-pixel resolution equating to a solid 458 pixels-per-inch (slightly better than the Magic8 Pro) and a super smooth 120Hz refresh rate. There's also basic HDR support, although you're missing advanced standards like HDR10+ or Dolby Vision.

Honor lets you pick from three distinct color profiles that include normal (true-to-life), vivid (enhanced for higher saturation), and professional (suitable for tuning for color-accurate displays). But you can also fine-tune the RGB values – as well as other settings like brightness, contrast, and tint (cool, warm, or a color) – to give you maximum control. The default Vivid setting is best for day-to-day usage, and the colors are fairly balanced to begin with – so very little, if any, tinkering is required. Other settings that you can activate are an eBook mode for a grayscale rendering that's easier on the eyes, as well as AI-powered Super Dynamic Display and Vivid Display, which collectively boost brightness and contrast while helping colors pop a little more.

The screen is dazzling, by the way, with a brilliant maximum brightness of 808nits – although Honor suggests the device can reach a maximum of 8,000nits under certain conditions. There's also Sunlight Mode that can stretch brightness levels – as well as automatic controls that let the phone configure brightness depending on the room you're in. Despite recording fantastic brightness levels with our colorimeter, it was a tad dimmer than the Honor 600's 855nits, although it did outshine the Magic8 Pro's 790 nits (with a peak of 6,000nits).

We must also point out the outstanding color accuracy scores, with 99.9% coverage of the sRGB spectrum (beating the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra), alongside 79.8% coverage of the Adobe RGB spectrum and 92.9% coverage of the DCI P3 spectrum. These are clear of the 70% and 80% required for professional use and slightly higher than the results we registered with the Magic8 Pro.

Honor 600 Pro: Specs and performance

The Honor 600 Pro is fitted with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite. This differs from the 8 Elite Gen 5 fitted into the very newest flagship phones, and is actually the chip that featured in many of 2025's flagships including the S25 Ultra. Honor has paired this with an Adreno 830 GPU (again, slightly weaker versus this year's 840), and you also get a flagship-grade 12GB RAM with 512GB storage.

This is a compelling package that offers almost double the power of the standard Honor 600. We registered 2,933 in single-core testing with Geekbench 6 and 8,738 in multi-core benchmarking, versus the Honor 600's 1,316 and 4,075.

The likes of the S26 Ultra and Magic8 Pro are 50% faster than this yet (we scored 3,671 and 10,722 in the latter, for example), but it suggests you should be comparing its performance with last year's flagships more than this year's mid-budget devices. Interestingly, the iPhone 17 Pro scored 3,778 and 9,816 – so the Honor 600 Pro isn't far away on multi-threaded performance. It's also around the score you'd expect from a mid-range laptop.

The battery life was a little disappointing, by contrast. While 27hrs and 3mins is nothing to be scoffed at, the 6,400mAh battery doesn't last as long as the 7,000mAh battery in the standard 600 – with a stonking lifespan of 36hrs and 12mins. Sitting between these devices is the 31hrs and 42mins the Magic8 Pro lasted. You do, however, get 80W wired and 50W wireless charging – much better than the S26 Ultra's 60W and 25W, but not as good as the Magic8 Pro's 100W and 80W.

Honor 600 Pro: Cameras

The cameras include a front-facing 50MP lens alongside a rear-facing trio of a 50MP periscope telephoto lens, 12MP 112° ultra-wide lens, and 200MP ultra-clear AI main camera lens. This is one more than in the standard 600, and a set of lenses that come close to competing with the Honor Magic8 Pro's incredible setup.

This overall configuration gives you a little more oomph than the standard Honor 600, which excels at point-and-click shooting, with up to 3.5x optical zoom and staggering 120x digital zoom. As with its flagship cousin, you also enjoy CIPA 6.5-stop image stabilization, which is excellent when shooting images or film. The AI-powered Magic Color mode also gives you AI-generated filters if you want to get creative with your photography.

Shooting with video is also excellent, and you can capture 4K footage at up to 60fps and 3.5x zoom, and up to 30fps with 1x zoom using the front camera. There's also a handy Night Video X, which lets you capture footage at 1080p up to 24fps and 2x zoom. Other useful features are an AI button that doubles as a way to zoom if you slide your finger up and down (or click to capture).

Honor 600 Pro: Features and software

With MagicOS 10, powered by Android 16, you ironically get a very iOS-like experience, considering how closely this device resembles Apple's flagship 'pro' smartphone. Unlike this operating system, however, there's so much room to customize it to suit your tastes and preferences, with most of these options overwhelming at first.

On the downside, there are a handful of AI-ready features that feel forced rather than genuinely useful. This is no sin that Honor alone is guilty of, but technology companies the world over are contending with stuffing every new device with as much AI as possible to prove its utility. That said, some are pretty handy.

Downloading a large language model (LLM) allows you to run AI Deepfake & Voice Cloning Detection. This scans video feeds in apps like Google Meet to detect whether you've head-to-head with a deepfake. AI Space also might be useful for those coordinating devices in a smart office. Also, a great tool is the automated transcription feature in the Recorder app.

Less useful is the AI folder on the home screen – which is populated with random apps depending on what you're most likely to use – and Honor AI, which deploys so-called "agents" onto your device to optimize it. We didn't find this feature particularly helpful, with the AI Memories agent, in particular, promising the most and failing to deliver (it's simply another way to manage your screenshots). Although it does come with a handy three-finger-swipe gesture if you can't gel with the conventional physical button combination.

Magic Portal, finally, is another somewhat useful feature that lets you tap into "AI memories" (read: screenshots) to search Google for elements of what's on screen. All you need to do is circle a portion of the screen, and the AI will do its magic. If you're also struggling with drafting documents, AI Writing can help you improve your phrasing and writing style.

The device itself only has room for one physical SIM card and an eSIM. It also ships with a 24-month warranty, including six months of coverage for the charger and removable battery and three months for accessories. This comes alongside seven years of Android maintenance, but there are no specific security-centric plans as you may get with Samsung's Knox Suite Enterprise Plan.

Honor 600 Pro: Is it worth it?

The more time we spent with the Honor 600 Pro, the more value we saw in what it could offer against the broader competition. If you're in the mood for a premium device, but aren't willing to shell out the asking price, a common practice is to look at last year's flagships. Unlike many mid-range or flagship smartphones, the Honor 600 Pro is something in a league of its own – unless you compare it with last year's flagship market.

This smartphone is a device that performs just as well as 2025's best options while also benefiting from a brilliant and color-accurate display, a fantastic iPhone-esque design (with more robust protections), as well as a set of camera lenses on par with the S26 Ultra. For £899, it's also much cheaper than last year's flagship smartphones (somehow) and feels just as fresh as the latest high-end devices launched today.

Sure, there are some bugbears. For instance, its aggressively rounded displays often feel like content is cut off. The battery life is weaker than its counterparts, too. Finally, you don't get some of the most up-to-date display standards (like HDR10+), but there's still plenty here to justify the price tag and a host of new-era AI features that may occasionally offer some use. Overall, for a device that aims to please everyone, it succeeds in many ways.

Honor Magic8 Pro specifications

The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5x Gen 11 is hoping to buck a trend. So far, the launch of Qualcomm's Snapdragon X2 processors has focused on the high-end laptop market. That's not surprising; the flagship Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme is a beast of a chip, combining multi-core performance to match Intel, AMD's, and Apple's best mainstream mobile processors. It's only natural that manufacturers would want to focus on powerful mid-range and high-end laptops built around it.

Yet Qualcomm and its partners had another story to tell with the original Snapdragon X range. There, processors in the Snapdragon X and X Plus lines powered a new wave of affordable thin-and-light devices from the likes of Acer, Asus, HP, Microsoft, and Lenovo, branded under Microsoft's Copilot+ PC initiative. If these laptops didn't always make as big an impact as they deserved to, it had nothing to do with the often great hardware or the underlying tech. Well, now Qualcomm is back for a second try with the Snapdragon X2 Plus, and you couldn't ask for a much better debut for it than the new Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5x Gen 11.

Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5x Gen 11: Design

Lenovo has developed an appealing habit of making laptops that feel premium even though they have a budget or mid-range price tag, and the IdeaPad Slim 5x (Gen 11) is another great example. It comes in 13in and 15in formats, both with elegant and durable all-aluminium bodies. The 13in model we've had in for testing isn't quite in the ultralight class of the Acer Swift Edge 14 AI or the Asus Zenbook A14, but at 1.41kg it isn't exactly a backbreaker, either. With a compact 339 x 236mm footprint and a thickness of just under 16mm, it's an easy fit in most briefcases, bags, and backpacks.

The design feels very similar to the Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14 (Gen 10), only without the distinctive rippled underside. The aluminium doesn't feel wafer-thin, the build is free of sharp corners and rough edges, and it all feels good and solid, as backed up by MIL-STD-810H certification for shock and temperature-resistance. A chunky rubber strip, running almost the whole width of the laptop, raises the keyboard deck slightly and keeps the laptop steady during desktop use.

The connectivity gives you some indication that this isn't a high-end device. There are two USB-C ports on the left-hand side, but they're both 10Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2 spec rather than USB 4, locking you out of faster USB 4 SSDs and docking stations. Still, this isn't a huge concern right now, given the lack of such products on the market. The two USB Type-A ports on the right are even slower, with both stuck at 5Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 1 speeds.

On the positive side, you get an HDMI 2.1 port for connecting external displays, while both USB-C ports can output a DisplayPort 1.4 signal if you're looking for a multi-screen setup. You also have Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 onboard, along with a proper, old-school headphone jack and a handy micro-SD card reader.

The trackpad is positively luxurious for an affordable device, with a reasonably large 120 x 75mm glass surface that feels smooth to the touch and is perfectly responsive in its tracking. And if the keyboard doesn't hit ThinkPad levels of greatness, the large, flat keys with their curved front edges are generously-sized and well spaced out, with a light, if shallow action that won't slow you down while you work. As with most aspects of the IdeaPad Slim 5x Gen 11, it doesn't feel compromised to cut costs.

Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5x Gen 11: Display

Most aspects, but maybe not all. The screen is perfectly good in most respects. It's bright enough for comfortable use in most conditions, with a maximum brightness of 440cd/m2, while it covers the full range of the sRGB colour space, which, if you're not involved in professional creative work, is probably all you need. There's nothing special about a 1920 x 1200-pixel resolution on a 13.3in display, but it looks sharp in everyday use, and there's not too much visible pixelation at a normal viewing distance.

All the same, it's an IPS display, so it can't match the contrast or vibrant colour we've seen from similarly-priced laptops bearing OLED screens. It covers 74.6% of the DCI-P3 colour space, which isn't bad, but colours aren't quite as rich and vivid as they are on the Swift Edge 14 AI, Zenbook A14, or the Chromebook Plus 14 (Gen 10). None of these laptops is hugely expensive, either.

To balance this, the audio is pretty good for a 13in laptop. The sound is clear enough for voice and video calls or meetings, there's a likeable stereo spread, and even music is played with a bit more warmth and detail than we'd expect from an affordable device. Some harshness comes in at higher volumes, but not at the kind of levels you'd use in the office or while working at home. Video captured by the 1080p webcam could be a little cleaner, especially in low-light conditions, but it's fine for everyday meetings, and the IR module and Windows Hello support give you a quick, reliable way to sign in.

Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5x Gen 11: Specs and performance

The Snapdragon X2 Plus X2P-42-100 sits near the bottom of the Snapdragon X2 line, with just six Oryon v3 cores running six threads at up to 4GHz. If you're expecting staggering speeds, you may want to curb your enthusiasm. However, its single-core performance appears to be very good, with its Geekbench 6 single-core score of 3215 beating not just the Snapdragon X Plus in the Zenbook A14, but also a wide range of laptops with Intel Lunar Lake and Panther Lake processors, including the Acer Swift 16 AI and Asus ExpertBook Ultra.

Multi-core performance isn't quite as strong, and the Slim 5x's Geekbench 6 score – 11704 – is a way behind the 8-core AMD Ryzen AI 7 and Panther Lake competition, where you're looking at scores in the 16000s. Its multi-core scores in Cinebench 2024's rendering benchmarks are nothing to write home about, either with a decent 128 for single-core rendering but just 649 for multi-core. Here, the Swift 16 AI scored 943, with the ExpertBook Ultra at 838.

Still, this is a cheaper device, and the difference in multi-core performance isn't something you'll pick up in everyday use with productivity applications or while working across multiple SaaS apps. The IdeaPad Slim 5x feels nippy and responsive even while balancing a dozen browser tabs or a workspace with multiple apps. What's more, its scores with the six-core Snapdragon X2 Plus are better than the Asus Zenbook A14's scores with the eight-core Snapdragon X Plus, showing that Qualcomm has made some significant performance improvements from the previous generation chips.

Just be warned that 3D graphics really isn't the Snapdragon X2 Plus's thing. The Lenovo is faster than the old Zenbook A14 (2025) in 3DMark's Time Spy and Steel, Nomad (light) tests, but a long way behind any Lunar Lake or Panther Lake machine, not to mention the Zenbook A16 with its Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme CPU. The latter has a much more powerful GPU.

Luckily, there's ample compensation in the X2P-42-100's superb energy efficiency. Despite having a rather average 54.7Whr battery, the IdeaPad Slim 5x produced one of the greatest feats of laptop stamina we've ever seen, not just surviving a full 24 hours of HD video playback from a single charge, but an additional three hours on top. A couple of days of light use without a charger shouldn't be out of the question, provided you don't push the brightness all the way up.

Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5x Gen 11: Is it worth it?

The IdeaPad Slim 5x has much to offer businesses, particularly smaller businesses where budgets may be tight. It's a stylish, solidly-built, and very usable laptop that doesn't look or feel inexpensive. All the same, it's fallen victim to the same creeping price increases we've seen everywhere this year, and at just over £900, it's not quite as fantastic a value as it would have been for around £800. As it is, it's going up against laptops with stronger specs and OLED screens, including models that came out in 2025 but still perform well today. The IdeaPad Slim 5x (Gen 11) is definitely a strong option, but you might want to wait for the right deal before you make your move.

Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5x Gen 11 Specifications

The ScanSnap sub-brand has been around for a quarter of a century. Once owned by Fujitsu, and most recently part of Ricoh, it's always been focused on document scanners like the one we're testing here. The Ricoh ScanSnap iX2500 is a compact A4 scanner, designed for desktop use, and capable of a claimed 45 pages per minute (ppm) performance.

While many scanners in this niche make do with a USB connection to a single PC, the iX2500 has both a wireless interface and a large color touchscreen. So equipped, it's suited not just to a single workstation, but as the archival and digitization hub for a small team. You can link this scanner to multiple devices, the users of which can create multiple shortcuts to scan and send jobs where they need them. With internet access, you can even connect to cloud services for easy sharing across teams and users.

There's nothing unusual about the rest of the Ricoh ScanSnap iX2500. Available in black or white, it follows the desktop scanner convention of a robust unit, roughly pentagonal in cross-section, and protected when not in use by its input tray. Unfold this, and the scanner automatically wakes up ready for its next job. You'll still need to withdraw the paper output, which tucks neatly into the unit's base when not needed.

As you'd hope, this scanner's trays feel almost bulletproof. The input in particular is very strong and almost flex-free, with paper guides that move smoothly from business card to Letter width. In contrast, the tip of the output tray does flex all the way down to desk level if you push it, but there's no suggestion it can't take the punishment.

With most day-to-day functions handled by its touchscreen, the iX2500 has just two buttons. One is dedicated to starting a scan, while the other releases the top section, which tilts forward by about 45 degrees. That's comfortably enough to get at any jammed paper, or occasionally blow away dust. After 200,000 images or so, it'll also give you access to replace the roller kit, which costs around £40 (ex. VAT).

Like other desktop document scanners, the Ricoh ScanSnap iX2500 uses dual CIS sensors to capture both sides of each sheet in a single pass. In theory, this means it can capture up to 90 images per minute – quite a bit faster than we'd expect at this price.

Ricoh ScanSnap iX2500 review: Setting up

It should be fairly easy to find space for this small, light scanner on a regular desktop, or on any other bit of free space around the office. It's a compact device even with its trays fully extended – we measured a maximum depth of only 48cm. While you can connect it via USB-C, you'll need to join it to Wi-Fi to get the best out of it: if you're not planning to, consider the otherwise similar ScanSnap iX2400, or the Canon imageFORMULA DR-C350 instead.

Ricoh provides ScanSnap Home software for PCs and Macs, but there are also versions for Windows on Arm, Android, and iOS. Windows and Mac users can also download Tungsten (formerly Kofax) Power PDF editing software.

You'll need to install ScanSnap Home on at least one device to configure and save scanning shortcuts. These appear on the iX2500's touchscreen, from where you can activate them – for cloud destinations you needn't have a host device running when triggering the job. In a multi-user environment you can register the iX2500 to multiple devices: there's an option to enable Privacy mode, using which the shortcuts associated with a device only appear when that device is available.

We elected to join the iX2500 manually to a wireless router connected to our wired network. Ricoh's installer subsequently seemed to suggest we'd need to join our test PC to the wireless network in order to add this scanner, but after clicking Next it found and added it with no issues. After a firmware update – slickly handled as part of the installation – we were ready to go.

ScanSnap Home is – for the most part – a strong software package. You can use it to build straightforward scan workflows, choosing scan preferences and a job destination. These span the usual local suspects, such as a folder on the host device, but you can also save to a wide range of cloud services, including Google Drive and Photos, Microsoft OneDrive, or Dropbox.

At first it feels as though the software has been oversimplified. For example, you choose between normal, better, best, and excellent quality rather than the 150, 300, 600, and 1,200 dots per inch (dpi) that they represent – and we had to look online to even find that out. At the same time, it takes committed digging to find detailed page feed options covering de-skewing and double-feed detection. We couldn't find blank page skip settings at all.

As you'd expect, you get some control over the output quality through adjustable image compression. There's a choice of single or multi-page PDFs, with optional optical character recognition (OCR) for searchable results. Alternatively, you can save your scans as JPEGs, but not in PNG or TIFF formats.

Ricoh ScanSnap iX2500 review: Scanning

Any misgivings about ScanSnap Home were quickly dispelled once we actually started using it. It's responsive and fairly quick to process jobs, managing not to lag significantly behind the scanner itself on our modest test PC. Scanned jobs are displayed in a viewer, using which you can rotate or delete any rogue pages. Once accepted, there's a browser screen in which you can view recent jobs, filtering by document type, scan date, or any tag you've applied – for example, Invoice, Registration, or Remittance.

Whether or not you've enabled OCR for the full document contents, and depending on subject matter, ScanSnap Home attempts to grab enough text from the document to suggest a suitable name. The results here seemed inconsistent enough that we'd prefer to rely on manual or incremental naming to avoid confusion.

As you'd hope, this is a fast scanner. It could capture a single A4 page in less than seven seconds at 200 or 300dpi, but it dispatched a stack of 10 pages in just 18 seconds. It needed only 22 seconds to deal with a duplex scan of 12 pages, a rate of 65 images per minute. Selecting simplex or duplex scans made no difference to the engine speed – pages still passed through at the same rate. More unusually, selecting higher resolutions didn't slow things down by too much: at its 600dpi maximum this scanner captured a stack of 22 6x4" (15x10cm) photos in an incredible 15 seconds – the fastest we've ever timed.

Here, it's worth a direct comparison to Canon's ImageFORMULA DR-C350. This has a slightly faster claimed speed of 50 simplex pages per minute, and sure enough its physical scan times were slightly quicker in all but our photo tests. However, while the Canon required a few seconds' post-scan processing time, the ScanSnap didn't, often meaning that it fully completed jobs a couple of seconds earlier. Either way, the difference wasn't especially significant.

Ricoh ScanSnap iX2500 review: Results

While we needed to tweak some of the Canon ImageFORMULA DR-C350's settings, the ScanSnap iX2500 was bang-on using all its defaults. Scans were sharp and well-exposed, with office documents offering crisp text and graphics against a clean white page. Photos – despite the speed with which they'd been captured – were far better than we'd expect from a document-focused device. While not strong enough for professional imaging use, this scanner could work as a rapid way to digitize a large stack of conventional prints where exceptional quality wasn't the priority.

Just as significantly for a device that's likely to capture many thousands of pages over its lifetime, the ScanSnap iX2500 was absolutely faultless at detecting and correcting issues such as blank pages. While it's odd not to have a sensitivity setting, we found we simply didn't need it. One caveat is that, thanks in no small part to the excellent paper feeding, we didn't experience any crooked page feeding during our tests, so we couldn't test the de-skew feature.

The iX2500 was exceptional at dealing with page orientation. We present every document scanner with a torture test comprising a bunch of double and single-sided prints, along with thin and ageing double-sided magazine pages. Deliberately, some of the pages in this are upside down, but the iX2500 became one of very few scanners to consistently correct the orientation for the entire document. While most scanners are caught out by at least one graphics-heavy page, this one had no problems even when we repeated and jumbled the job many times.

Ricoh ScanSnap iX2500 review: Is it worth it?

When testing the Canon ImageFORMULA DR-C350, we complained it was necessary to spend time looking for advanced settings to optimise its performance. At first, it seemed like the Ricoh ScanSnap iX2500 had the opposite problem: that advanced settings weren't even available. It turned out that they were mostly just well hidden, but also that we didn't need them. While we'd rather deal with proper resolutions in dots per inch rather than a nebulous scale where "Excellent" sits above "Best", it turns out that ScanSnap Home is good enough to get away with its simplicity – a trick that rarely comes off.

With straightforward and dependable software, together with a convenient touchscreen and Wi-Fi access, the iX2500 is easy for single users to manage, and incredibly so for a small team that all need a straightforward scanner. Throw in its decent speed, excellent image quality, and reasonable asking price, and it really is hard to find much to criticise.

Ricoh ScanSnap iX2500 specifications

Acer is hoping to turn heads in the workplace with a stylish 32in OLED monitor that's being pushed at a fairly reasonable price. Aimed at creative professionals in particular, but usable by all, the CE320QK X (the European version of the PE320QK X) is engineered to deliver high levels of color accuracy for anybody regularly working with visual media.

On the surface, it certainly looks visually impressive, serving as a departure from dark and moody monitors with thick bezels. With a 4K resolution, quantum-dot OLED technology, and a maximum 240Hz refresh rate, it also competes with some of the best in the business – but also comes with a high-end £899 price tag. But does that mean it'll make a good addition to your workspace?

Acer CE320QK X monitor: Design & Features

Acer has adopted a visually striking design scheme for the CE320QK X, opting for a chic white finish for the monitor's rear, base, and buttons. While standout, the design also comes across as reserved, with this minimalist approach meaning it looks like it barely takes up much space on your desk despite being on the upper end of the spectrum for its screen size.

Putting the monitor together and hoisting it in place is as simple as it is to look at – and there are a number of features that make it an impressive device. For example, the base features a square-shaped swivel that's as smooth as butter with rounded corners and a notch so you can tell precisely how to center it. It's also easily adjustable with a maximum height of 150mm, along with as much tilt and swivel as you may need. This encompasses a tilt of -5° to +25° and a swivel of -178° to +178° alongside a pivot of -90° to +90°; in other words, the CE320QK X is highly flexible for its size.

There is, however, a tiny bit of wobble when you adjust the display, and the plastic finish is perhaps a little too much of a plasticky feel to the otherwise nice-looking white rear. That said, it's almost 2kg lighter than the Dell 32 Plus S3225QS – another 32-inch white monitor – and has far more flex and adjustability. There's also a portrait mode that you can flip the screen into, although there's a degree of stiffness in the rotation along the way.

The display's minimalistic qualities thankfully do not extend to the connectivity options on offer, with a degree of useful ports available. There are two HDMI 2.1 ports and two DisplayPort 1.4 options as well as two USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports, a single USB-B 3.0 port, and a single USB-C port (with DisplayPort 1.4 compatibility and 90W power delivery and KVM support). That comes alongside an Ethernet port. Ideally, we'd have seen a handful more USB-C ports, but we can't complain when the likes of the Dell 32 Plus only have HDMI and DisplayPort 1.4, for instance. All ports are facing outward, rather than down, and are found in a neat row beneath the center of the monitor's rear. There's no cable management system built into the CE320QK X monitor, so you'll have to find custom solutions.

To adjust the display, you'll navigate with a four-way clickable wheel positioned on the bottom-right of the rear just above the power button. The monitor is rather large, so thankfully it's within reach. The menu, which is rather small and localized to the bottom-right of the display, is straightforward enough to follow, and there's no lag while you're using it. You can switch between different display profiles and flick HDR on/off, as well as adjust color spaces and settings like eco mode. As you'd expect with an OLED panel, there's also plenty of care options to reduce the risk of burn-in.

Acer CE320QK X monitor: Display quality

There's ample sharpness in the 31.5-inch panel thanks to a 4K (3,840 x 2,160-pixel) resolution, equating to a very high pixel-per-inch ratio of 140ppi – meaning you can enjoy images and text at utmost crispness. Thanks to a maximum 240Hz refresh rate, scrolling, working, or navigating through menus is utterly delightful and as smooth as silk.

We'd suggest it's difficult to find specifications that beat this Acer monitor for the money you pay – especially considering the (albeit basic) HDR10 support and compatibility with AMD FreeSync Premium (a feature normally used in gaming to reduce input lag). The response time, as a result of the built-in features, is an incredible 0.03ms. As with all OLED displays, you'll benefit from a 0cd/m2 black level as well as an infinity:1 contrast ratio.

The OLED panel offers a little more brightness than the manufacturer suggests, with a peak brightness of 299cd/m2 when HDR is activated (versus a stated 250cd/m2) when running stably and consistently. We say that because brightness is volatile when switching between display modes and inputs, although it settles at this level after a few seconds. Unfortunately, it isn't as bright as we'd have liked to see, with the likes of the BenQ MA320U hitting 527cd/m2 and the Samsung S8 ViewFinity S80D reaching 408cd/m2.

That's the only downside, however, as the color accuracy is excellent. Although the default settings may require some tweaking (with blues and reds slightly oversaturated and greens slightly undersaturated), we recorded a 100% coverage of the sRGB spectrum. This comes alongside an exceptional 93.9% coverage of the Adobe spectrum and 100% coverage of the DCI P3 spectrum – with scores approximately above 80% and 70% making a screen suitable for professional use. As you can see, they surpass that, and some. The average Delta-E color distortion, meanwhile, stands at an outstanding 0.4 with a maximum of 1.37.

Acer CE320QK X monitor: Is it worth it?

This 32in OLED monitor will grant not only creative professionals, but almost all kinds of users, everything they could possibly want from a high-end premium monitor – with a couple of exceptions. Although the color reproduction is brilliant and incredibly accurate, while elements like a really high refresh rate as well as HDR and AMD FreeSync Premium support, make using the monitor incredibly fluid, one more-than-minor grumble is the brightness. With a maximum luminosity of 300cd/m2, the monitor just doesn't reach the same blinding heights as the competition. We can also point out the lack of additional ports that could make life a little easier (say, a couple of USB-C ports), but there's still plenty to work with here. None of these downsides make this device unusable by any means, and at approximately £899, it would still make for a brilliant addition to your workspace, given its elegant frame and large widescreen display that takes up very little space.

Acer CE320QK X monitor: Specifications

Nvidia first announced its DGX Spark mini supercomputer last year – and we've since seen a flurry of machines made by OEM partners hit the market. We've previously reviewed the outstanding Asus Ascent GX10, with a handful of alternatives like Lenovo's ThinkStation PGX and Acer's Veriton GN100. We've currently got our hands on the Dell Pro Max with GB10 – a mini PC designed to seamlessly fit into your existing IT setup.

This machine is designed specifically for what you would ordinarily describe as "power users". These include data scientists, researchers, as well as budding and current AI practitioners who want the freedom and flexibility to experiment with AI deployments within the enterprise, among a handful of other cohorts.

As such, it's powered by a custom Linux distro and hardware specifically – the Grace Blackwell Superchip – configured to let you run meaningful AI workloads on your device, rather than relying on a cloud service or remote communications. That means it's certainly not a device for everyone – and should only be considered for those who plan on making the most of the on-device AI capabilities these machines allow.

While DGX Spark-based systems are all very similar, they look very different and are also priced differently. The Dell Pro Max with GB10 comes in at a hefty price approaching £6,000 in the UK, which is close to £2,000 more than some of devices sold by its competitors. Can it make up for this asking price in other areas?

Dell Pro Max with GB10 review: Build and design

The device itself isn't much bigger than conventional mini PCs and fits snugly on your desk thanks to its standard dimensions of 150 x 150 x 51mm – which is consistent across all DGX Spark systems from partner OEMs. They're all roughly the same weight, too, with the Dell Pro Max with GB10 weighing 1.3kg – versus the Acer's 1.2kg and the Asus' 1.4kg.

Also identical between these machines are the ports you'll find on the rear. These include three USB-C 3.2 Gen 2x2 (20Gbps) ports with DisplayPort 2.1 compatibility, one USB-C Gen 2x2 with PD in, an HDMI 2.1 port, an Ethernet port, and Nvidia's ConnectX-7 SmartNIC port used to run two of these machines in parallel. There is a marked lack of USB-A ports, so you'll need additional dongles or docks to use peripherals, outside of connecting them to a monitor and accessing them through a USB-C DisplayPort setup.

With so little separating the different models, OEMs must make the most of their physical appearance, and Dell has adopted a more understated and neater design outlook than some of the alternatives. The machine's front is covered with a hexagonal honeycomb lattice grill, with Dell's logo centered perfectly. One neat addition is a tiny power LED indicator on the left of the front, alongside an LED built into the USB-C power cable. The rear adopts the same lattice design on the upper half, with the ports laid out in the standard format on the lower half – all of which are flush against the surface.

Overall, it exudes more of an overtly corporate feel – underlined by a relatively uninspiring grey finish. It won't look out of place in any office environment, but it does lack the flair that you might get with the Acer Veriton GN100, for example.

Dell Pro Max with GB10 review: Specs and performance

The GB10 Superchip is the beating heart of the Dell Pro Max, with GB10, and lets users tap into a Grace CPU and Blackwell GPU combined to deliver an efficient setup for AI-centric work. The 20-core Arm processor combines 10 Cortex-X925 performance cores and 10 Cortex-A725 efficiency cores.

Combined with the 5nm GB20B GPU, you'll have the local potency to reach a performance capacity of 1,000 teraFLOPS of AI performance with the learner and more efficient FP4 precision, and a maximum of 170 teraflops with the industry standard FP16 precision. Both are formats for training and inference, with the 4-bit floating point format allowing for lower-precision but accelerated AI performance.

The machine can also support models of up to 200 billion parameters, which is a little more than the size of GPT-3 – but this increases to a maximum of 405 billion parameters if you connect two of these together. Each one is also capped at a maximum power draw of 240W – with a 280W power brick – but you won't encounter it unless pushing the device to its absolute limits.

Comparing DGX Spark systems to conventional machines is hard – because they're a different class of device with specific purposes, which vary from general-purpose PCs designed for almost everyone. However, when testing with Geekbench 6, we registered a massive single-core score of 3,123 and a multi-threaded performance of 19,708. This is in line with similar systems and notably higher than the comparable Framework desktop.

Unscientific testing and experimentation also pointed to easy and quick setup on AI tasks, such as image generation with ComfyUI, with the machine running quietly throughout – while producing very little heat. While not as fast or as powerful as industrial-scale systems or remotely accessible infrastructure, we were impressed with how much you can push a small machine like this.

Dell Pro Max with GB10 review: Features

Setting up the DGX OS platform, which is based on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (for ARM), is an absolute breeze. The overall look and feel of the system closely follows Nvidia's design aesthetic and colour palette, and is fairly intuitive to use. Helpfully, there are a few useful tools that you can use out of the box to get started on running AI tasks.

The best place to start would be Nvidia's playbooks, a web-based platform with different recipes that centre on specific AI-related tasks. For first-timers, this library of tutorials is the best place to experiment with the tools the DGX Spark-based system can let you tap into. This won't be accessible, or even necessary, for the average user – but anybody within an organisation with a willingness to engage in AI will find it an incredibly useful way of getting to grips with what this machine is capable of.

Each recipe includes the core purpose, the practical risks of engaging in the project, and a rough time estimate to get it up and running. Setting up DGX Dashboard, for example, takes roughly half an hour and provides a user interface from which you can manage your system, manage resources, and launch JupyterLab instances. ComfyUI, too, is a great place to start – taking about 45 minutes to build and run your own AI image generator.

Generally, these playbooks are easy to follow – but there's an active community, too, that you can check in with if you run into any trouble. Which you inevitably will if you're just getting started. But the triumph in this setup is the way it democratises AI development – breaking down rather complex and unwieldy processes into digestible and easy-to-follow chunks; that's much like the device itself, which gives a far broader cross-section of the workforce access to tools and capabilities once reserved for only the most technically minded.

Also useful for power users hoping to get more from their machine is the capacity to connect two DGX Spark systems together. Nvidia Sync, which is a new feature, lets you connect your local desktop or laptop with the machine, so you can operate it remotely within the same subnet. You'll be able to run workloads or launch applications remotely and even share the display between your machines. It's a perfect way to offload tasks onto this specialised piece of hardware if you prefer working primarily with your laptop.

Dell Pro Max with GB10 review: Is it worth it?

This new class of machine is the perfect way to get started on your AI experimentation and implementation journey within the enterprise. The systems are incredibly compact, benefit from fantastic specs courtesy of the GB10 superchip, and have a deep pool of 128GB unified memory to dip into, alongside plenty of SSD storage.

Whether the Dell Pro Max with GB10 is worth it depends on how it compares with its counterparts. Admittedly, it's expensive, but it adopts a relatively understated yet mature design, which contributes well to airflow. The power draw capacity is also slightly higher at 280W versus the standard 240W. For AI practitioners and those just getting started, it's a brilliant device – it's just worth weighing up whether the subtle tweaks are worth the additional cost. If you're all-in on the Dell ecosystem, it'll complement your existing setup perfectly, but the budget-conscious would understandably be drawn to the most cost-efficient DGX Spark system out there – which isn't this one based on current retail prices.

Dell Pro Max with GB10 specifications

The Brother MFC-L8970CDW sits at the top of the Japanese manufacturer's updated range of color laser devices for workgroups and small businesses. It's one of three multifunction peripherals in the new 8XXX range – there are also two single-function printers, including the HL-L8570CDW, which we've also reviewed.

The MFC-L8970CDW has an enviable specification. On top, you'll find an automatic document feeder (ADF) that can handle no fewer than 80 sheets. It can duplex (double-side) scan each sheet in a single pass. Just in front of this, there's a color touchscreen so huge it looks like someone's left their tablet behind.

The scanner and display unit sit atop a color laser printer rated at 31 pages per minute (ppm), or 20 images per minute (ipm) when printing in duplex – 20 sides printed onto 10 sheets of paper each minute. This printer combines a 50-sheet multipurpose feed and 250-sheet cassette. That's the only slightly off-note in an otherwise comprehensively well-specced device – at this price we'd expect to be able to load in an entire ream.

Alongside its duplex print, scan, copy, and fax party tricks, this MFP supports 2.4GHz and 5GHz wireless networks, and gigabit Ethernet connection. Its vast screen has plenty of room for mundane setup and operational features, along with space for up to 64 configurable shortcuts – useful if, say, people frequently need to make a double-sided copy of a double-sided original, and want to avoid having to dig around in the copy menu.

While it's a shame the MFC-L8970CDW doesn't have a bigger standard cassette, you can upgrade it to a maximum 1,340 pages with a combination of additional 250 and 520-sheet trays. There's no stapler unit or sorting bin, however, which rules it out of true departmental roles – it doesn't really have the speed for it anyway.

Brother says the MFC-L8970CDW is designed for a recommended 7,500 monthly pages or an 80,000-page maximum. It certainly feels well put together, with sturdy trays and impressively robust-feeling paper stops in the printer and ADF outputs. The usability is good, too, from the large display down to details such as the clearly displayed paper orientation icon in the main tray – helpful if you're reloading paper and need to know which will be the print side.

Things start to get more complicated when you look at consumables. The MFC-L8970CDW supports a dizzying range of no fewer than 16 different toners rated from 1,800 to 10,000 pages, on top of which there are drums and waste toner containers each good for 50,000 pages. Heavily used examples might find themselves needing a new fuser or transfer belt unit, too.

That's a lot to manage, particularly if you're used to competing devices that just take four combined toner/drum consumables. Nobody would blame you for signing up to a managed print service – Brother's start at around £7 per month – but if you are buying consumables and you stick with the biggest 10,000-page toners, you can get running costs down to less than a penny per page of black text, or 6.8p (ex VAT) for color. Factor in all the lifetime consumables, and these still only rise by fractions of a penny.

This isn't a cheap MFP, but it does arrive with XXL toners rated for 7,500 black and 6,000 color pages – these alone are worth a few hundred pounds.

Brother MFC-L8970CDW review: Setting up

This isn't the ugliest laser MFP you'll see, but it has the misfortune to combine a comparatively deep and narrow laser printer with a wide and deep scanner unit. The result is some mushroomy overtones, plus the more practical need for more depth and width on a counter than you might expect. This is compounded slightly by vents on the right side and a USB slot on the left – the latter bizarrely under, and inset from the overhanging touchscreen in such a way that the casual user is unlikely to ever find it.

This device is bulky and heavy enough that it's a two-person lift over any significant height or distance. There's the usual amount of tape to extract, along with some orange plastic spacers for the toner/drum tray. While these were easy to remove on the HL-L8570CDW printer we tested, here the left-hand spacers were reluctant to part company with a metal pin at the front.

With such a large display, it's no surprise that this MFP is easy to join to a wireless network. It's easy to use and configure, too: adding a shortcut is as simple as tapping one of the plus icons and navigating through the menu to the feature you want to access. Overall the menu system feels more like a consumer device than a business-class one, and that's a good thing: too many enterprise printers bamboozle non-technical users with complex control panels.

As you'd expect, the MFC-L8970CDW includes various security features and protocols, including IP filtering, SSL/TLS encryption, secure boot, and user authentication. There's also an NFC reader, configurable for authentication and workflow personalization.

Brother MFC-L8970CDW review: Printing, scanning and copying

At this price, we're slightly surprised Brother hasn't given the MFC-L8970CDW faster print speeds. It's always the case that a range-topping device can seem slow when it shares a print engine with more basic models, but we'd expect more than a modest 31ppm for this money. This is especially the case given this MFP didn't get all that close to Brother's figures, managing only 23.8ppm across 25 pages in our standard black text test. It was slower still on our color graphics test, although here its 21.5ppm is fair – our test document is graphics heavy, and few printers sail through it at top speed.

We often get faster results over long documents, as these minimize the relative impact of the time it takes a PC to prepare and send the job. Sure enough, tested over a 50-page text document, the MFC-L8970CDW hit 30.3ppm – laudably close to Brother's claim. Using the first 10 pages of the same document we timed duplex printing at 10.9ipm.

As we found with the HL-L8570CDW printer, this MFP defaults to 2,400x600dpi Fine print quality. Normal (600x600dpi) is no faster, so we completed our tests with Fine. The MFC-L8970CDW printed six 6x4" photos on three A4 sheets in 32 seconds, and needed 35 seconds to complete two 10x8" images on two pages. From standby it could print a first black or color page in 18 seconds, needing only another 3 seconds if we'd left it unused for an hour first.

This MFP is unusual among office-focused devices in that its scanner goes up to a very detailed 1,200 dots per inch (dpi) -- 600dpi is a more common maximum. It's very quick: we were able to preview an A4 page in just five seconds, and needed only six seconds to scan it at 150dpi. At 300dpi this job still completed in 10 seconds. Even when scanning photos at higher resolution, this MFP didn't hang about. It captured a 6x4" print at 600dpi in 13 seconds. At 1,200dpi the same job needed 52 seconds – that's much more competitive than it sounds.

The Brother MFC-L8970CDW isn't that quick off the mark when copying, returning a single black page in 13 seconds and a color one in 15 seconds. It's much more impressive when using the ADF, completing a 10-page simplex copy in 32 seconds whether in black or color.

This ADF's ability to capture both sides at once ought to make for rapid duplex copying, but the reality wasn't quite so impressive. While our original 10-page, 20-sided document rapidly fed through, the printer didn't kick into action until it had almost finished. There's not much wrong with a speed of 15.4ipm on this test, but it seemed like this MFP should be capable of more.

Brother MFC-L8970CDW review: Results

With so many features to get right, it's not unusual for a multifunction to slip up in at least one area. The happy news here is that the MFC-L8970CDW doesn't, and in several ways it's extremely good. This MFP's main weakness across our tests was murky black photocopies in which darker shades bled together, leading to the loss of detail. We're not sure why, given that color copies were perfectly exposed and quite faithful to the originals.

Elsewhere, text quality was as good as you'd expect from a laser printer, with crisp characters that stood up to close scrutiny – only under magnification could we spot a tiny bit of stepping on some curved outlines. Color graphics were generally very impressive, particularly when it came to shade control: while many lasers struggle to differentiate shades and colors without bands of halftoning patterns, here the content shone through without obvious artifacts.

It is worth noting that this printer has something of a cool color bias, leading to less perky photos than you might get from some rivals. Skin tones could fall victim to this, particularly in illustrations where lighter skin tended to be rendered a little pale. Overall, however, all of our print results were strong.

If a color laser MFP is likely to fall short anywhere, it's in the scanner. But while the MFC-L8970CDW was in a hurry to get the job done, you'd be hard pressed to tell from the results. It captured among the best images we've seen from a business-oriented scanner, with well-judged exposure and sharp focus more than up to the task of archiving everyday office documents. More unusually, it was comfortable scanning photos at higher resolutions, displaying a wide dynamic range that allowed it to capture detail from among the lightest and darkest shades. This scanner managed to distinguish all but the darkest couple of shades on our Kodak Q60 test target – far better than the average for a business device.

Brother MFC-L8970CDW review: Is it worth it?

This multifunction offers a huge range of features, and while it might not have the fastest printer, it's generally quick enough to dispatch all the jobs it will encounter in busy workgroup use. The payoff for your patience is that it'll complete almost anything you want to a very high standard – it offers one of the best scan and print quality combinations we've seen.

On the flip side, a heavily used MFC-L8970CDW fleet might need stock of up to eight different consumables. Even if each is reasonably priced and comes with a long service life, that makes management more of a headache, and suggests this device might be best viewed through the lens of a managed print contract.

It's hard to shake the impression that this MFP might be overpriced. While sharing its print specifications with the HL-L8570CDW, it's twice as expensive -- its scanner and display are both good, but we're not sure they're worth that premium. And while it's good to see the MFC-L8970CDW arrive with such generous inbox toners, remember that the HL-L8570CDW gets those too. Overall, this is a strong MFP, but it might be worth waiting to see if its price drops before buying.

Brother MFC-L8970CDW specifications

With the new EliteBoard G1a, HP has manufactured one of the most interesting bits of kit to hit the corporate world in recent years; it's little surprise that it was an honoree at the CES 2026 Innovation Awards. You can define it in different ways, depending on your perspective. Perhaps it's a mini PC with a keyboard above, or a portable keyboard with powerful components fitted beneath, or perhaps it's even a laptop that's missing a touchpad and screen. Either way, it's highly compelling and guaranteed to turn heads in the office.

Devices like the EliteBoard G1a aren't entirely new – although it's fair to say we haven't seen one like this in a good few decades. It's reminiscent of some of the earliest machines to mark the history of the enterprise laptop, including the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64.

Like these historic machines, the EliteBoard G1a is fitted with components and devoid of a display – relying instead on you to provide an external screen, whether at home or in the office. Unlike these devices, however, it's portable, stylish, and provides a new dimension to mobile working. You can easily draw it from its fabric sheath should you wish to pick up a portable display and pitch up on public transport, and it's especially suitable if hot-desking is the name of the game. But how does it stack up against your go-to laptops, 2-in-1s, and mini PCs?

HP EliteBoard G1a: What's in the box?

There's quite a lot to unpack when you first set up the EliteBoard G1a. The machine itself is snugly tucked into a stylish felt case with a diagonal etching effect and a magnetic clip to securely open and close the flap. Despite being soft to the touch, it's firm and protective, and neatly complements the keyboard's overall design.

You'll also find a USB-C charger with a USB-C cable, a second USB-C cable (with premium threading), and a dongle with HDMI output. This gives you a few options when setting up your device and connecting it with an external display.

Plug-and-play via USB-C (with power draw) is straightforward enough, while opting for HDMI via the dongle means recharging with the separate USB-C charger. There are a few ways of doing this; you can either plug the dongle into your monitor and go from there, or plug all cables directly into its input ports, which include Ethernet, HDMI, and two USB-C ports.

The device also comes with a basic pre-paired mouse that you can connect directly using two Bluetooth channels or a USB-C RF peripheral. It's as easy as switching it on and clicking the button on its rear to cycle between these options as you see fit. It's nothing special – but does the job.

HP EliteBoard G1a: Design and build

HP has put a lot of thought into defining the shape of the EliteBoard G1a, not just in terms of its overall look and feel, but the economics of its sizing. The carbon-colored chassis offers minimalist appeal with office-centric credentials thrust front and center. The keyboard sits atop a sloping base that angles upward to maximize ergonomic comfort – with the hardware crammed in underneath.

The sides are flattened, with an exhaust vent subtly carved into the center of the rear, and the base features an expansive grill overlaying in-built speakers. Two USB-C ports are also on the leftmost side of the rear. There's a high degree of plastic in the machine, especially in the slightly indented keycaps that comprise the near-gapless keyboard, but such is the engineering quality that this remains subtle. The unusual font is also a nice touch and adds much-needed character – with HP taking great care to find the right balance between elegance and showmanship. The only hint of color is in the horizontal blue LED baked into the power button in the top right. Helpfully, this doubles as a fingerprint scanner.

There's almost no room to spare on the keyboard itself. The keys, which are well-sized, are packed neatly alongside one another in a gapless formation. You can't get much more change out of it with dimensions of 358.1 x 118.7 x 17.9, making it eminently portable and much smaller than many full-sized keyboard peripherals. Meanwhile, the felt case that accompanies this 670g (1.47lbs) device is a perfect travel companion, with the parallel diagonal grooves on its front a neat design flair.

HP EliteBoard G1a: Keyboard and mouse

With so much riding on the standard of the keyboard, it's essential that HP nailed the brief – and to some extent it's brilliant for its size, with a few caveats. The low-profile keycaps use silicon dome switches for the mechanisms, which lead to a springy and muted touch-typing experience. There's plenty of force feedback in each rather deep 2mm keystroke to make for a satisfying experience, but you won't by any means recreate the noisy clacking when using a mechanical board.

That's where the good news ends, though. While most keys are firm, a modicum of looseness exists in a handful of the smaller keys, meaning that applying some pressure generates minor wobble. The worst culprits are the arrow and function keys. The sound the plastic makes is also very noticeable, and tapping the smaller keys may often feel hollow and (sometimes) shrill.

As with some HP keyboards, the EliteBoard also suffers from placement issues. The inclusion of PG UP and PG DN directly above the Left and Right arrow keys made for a nightmare for accidental taps while navigating for the first few days. The half-sized Enter key, too, is a little irritating. In all these cases, the sizing is a direct consequence of attempting to fit to the extremely tight specifications. The function keys are broadly useful and include shortcuts for sound controls, screenshot taking, as well as system functions like the Settings menu and Windows Search. There's even a programmable key (F9) that you can assign as a custom shortcut. Directly above the numberpad is a shortcut for the Calculator app – which makes logical sense – but you're unlikely to ever really use it.

The pre-packaged mouse is simple but useful. Clicking feels firm, and moving the cursor is smooth, with some grip, thanks to elevated plastic mounds on the base. Rubbery pads also line either side where your fingertips would rest, which offers comfort while you're working. Scrolling with the mouse wheel lacks bite, unfortunately, while the middle button is a Copilot shortcut – for whatever that's worth to you. Sadly, it lacks physical forward and back buttons, but is otherwise everything you'd expect from a basic peripheral. The best part is how it pairs automatically when you turn it on with the switch at its base and press the button to cycle between channels. Hidden under the plastic cover is a USB-C RF receiver that you can plug into a device, or an external monitor. Set-up is simple, and you need not make adjustments beyond tinkering with the cursor speeds to suit your own preferences.

HP EliteBoard G1a: Performance and battery life

The EliteBoard might raise eyebrows in the office, but what ultimately matters is how it stacks up against PCs, laptops, 2-in-1s, and mini PCs given you're using it as your primary work machine. You may find a variety of configurations on the market. Processors including the Ryzen AI 5 Pro 330, Ryzen AI 5 Pro 340, Ryzen AI 5 Pro 350, and Ryzen AI 7 Pro 350. RAM options, meanwhile, including 16GB, 24 GB, and 32GB, while you can also find units with an attached USB-C cable baked in.

Our review configuration included a six-core AMD Ryzen AI 5 Pro 340 processor with an AMD Radeon 840M Graphics card for company, alongside 32GB DDR5 RAM and a 512GB SSD – so fairly high-end if not the most powerful version of this device. There's also a healthy amount of AI processing power to the tune of up to 50 TOPS. Overall, it's a healthy package that should prove capable for most office-based workloads.

In performance testing with Geekbench 6, we registered a single-core result of 2,739 and a multi-core score of 11,095 – both strong results. For reference, Intel Core Ultra 200 Series processors normally hit the same level for single-threaded performance and between 10,000 and 11,000 for multi-core performance. When you compare it with some workstations, it's also just as competent. The AMD Ryzen AI 7 Pro 360 processor, fitted into the HP ZBook 8 G1ak 14, scored 2,797 and 10,809, for example. You tend to squeeze more juice from MacBooks and Qualcomm-powered machines, but the EliteBoard can hold its own against the competition in the enterprise laptop market.

Unfortunately, the GPU lacks punch and registered an underwhelming 12,859 in our OpenCL benchmark. Today's best entry-level Intel graphics cards are considerably better, with the Intel Arc Graphics card capable of reaching between 20,000 and 30,000. The Radeon 840M Graphics chip is more comparable with integrated Intel Iris Xe. That said, it beats the Radeon 860M Graphics chip fitted into last year's HP EliteBook 8 G1a 16. With this setup, you can sustain mid-intensity workloads without a hitch. When connecting the EliteBoard to an external monitor, we could easily sustain a 4K connection at 120Hz, scaling up to 240Hz if we slashed the resolution to 2,560 x 1,440. HP claims you can connect the machine with up to four 4K displays running at 60Hz.

While a 512GB SSD (256GB models are also available) is smaller than the 1TB minimum you'd expect from a premium enterprise notebook, it's fast enough – with average reads of 5,797MB/s and considerably above average writes of 5,962MB/s.

The device comes with a small 32 Wh battery that can prove useful if you're in a pinch and can't link up with an external monitor via USB-C with power delivery. We ran a looped video playback test on a 4K monitor running at 30Hz at 400 nits brightness on Airplane Mode, and the device lasted 7hrs and 53mins. It's a useful amount of reserve power, which you'll need if you're primarily connecting via HDMI, but with the right setup, you'll never need to worry about power supply.

Generally, the machine performs smoothly, and the fact it's a computer itself is incredibly well disguised. The only giveaways are the surface of the keycaps warming up very slightly after prolonged use, and fans that may whirr up completely unprompted from time to time. It's also more noticeable than a desktop or mini PC, because you're physically closer to your keyboard than you are to the actual machine. But for the most part, it remains idle.

The built-in speakers are sub-par, but not much different from those fitted into most laptops. Audio is muffled and tinny, with bass seriously lacking in punch. The volume, however, can get surprisingly loud, but listening to the noise at these levels is uncomfortable. Depending on the quality of the external monitor you use, you may be better off switching your audio output.

HP EliteBoard G1a: Features

We have mentioned biometric security in the form of a fingerprint scanner seamlessly integrated into the power button, but the machine also comes with HP's standard suite of enterprise tools. Chief among these are its Wolf Pro Security package, which is included. You'll benefit here from full-stack protection (with software and hardware layer protection) as well as features like endpoint isolation to stop malware from spreading throughout an organization's fleet of devices. Our review unit was also packaged up with Office Home and Business 2024, a one-time purchase that would give us access to classic 2024 desktop versions of apps, including Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook, and OneNote.

The machine is also easy to service, thankfully. You may remove the base to get direct access to two DDR5 SODIMM slots, a removable M.2 WLAN module and a single M.2 2280 SSD slot. One disappointment, however, is the lack of physical connectivity beyond one USB-C port that offers 40Gb/s and a USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 port. Both offer DisplayPort 1.4 support and 5V/1.5A power delivery. Yes, you can use the dongle if you want to use other connections, but it's fiddly and native HDMI and USB-A ports would have made the user experience much better. Notable omissions also include an SD Card reader and a 3.5mm headphone jack. There is, however, a security lock slot on the left-hand side of the EliteBoard's chassis. Wireless standards include the very latest Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6.0, so future-proofing is guaranteed.

HP EliteBoard G1a: Is it worth it?

The EliteBoard G1a is certainly the most interesting enterprise device to hit businesses this year, and is fundamentally a space saver as well as being stylish and practical.

HP representatives weren't able to share accurate pricing information ahead of its full launch, but you can seemingly purchase through some channels already. For example, the wired Ryzen AI 7 Pro 350 version (with 32GB RAM and 512GB SSD) is available for $2,269 (approximately £1,700). Given you'll be looking at north of $2,000 for high-end enterprise-facing machines, this feels reasonable.

We do understand how tempting it is to compare it with laptops and see it through the prism of what you're losing out on rather than what you're gaining. You'll cut out the screen and touchpad for not much of a pricing differential – but there's a cohort of users out there for whom the laptop screen is far less useful than a single or dual monitor setup alongside keyboard and mouse peripherals. Things get a little rosier when you compare it with a desktop computer or a mini PC – and much of that is thanks to some clever engineering and a keyboard that, thankfully, is very enjoyable to use, barring some minor spacing issues.

For the first device of its kind, the EliteBoard G1a offers an excellent blueprint for a different way to approach mobile working. There are, of course, improvements that HP may wish to make in future generations, including a variety in the hardware you can pick up (such as a choice between Intel, Qualcomm, and more advanced AMD chips), or even more ports so you can take advantage of more options for how you work. That said, in its current guise, the HP EliteBoard G1a looks the part, packs a hefty punch, and would make for a fantastic addition to the workplace.

HP EliteBoard G1a: Specifications

The Samsung Galaxy Book6 Enterprise Edition is a business-focused update of the Galaxy Book models that debuted at MWC 26. This isn't the premium models, to be clear, the Pro and Ultra are the more powerful devices, but the Enterprise Edition goes in a slightly different direction, with features and capabilities to make laptop deployment easier for IT departments.

It comes in either 16in or 14in, and only one gray color option. And it starts at £2,049 for the lowest configuration (16GM RAM, Intel 5). But, as with all of Samsung's Enterprise Edition devices, the real benefits are in setup and security...

Samsung Galaxy Book6: Design

Although this is an 'Enterprise Edition', the outer design of the Galaxy Book6 is the same as the standard model with two size options (14in and 16in) and just a 0.64 lbs difference between those. The 16in model we have is just 14.6mm when closed, giving it a moderately thin profile.

The laptop comes only in gray – 'Mocha' gray, according to Samsung – which gives it a serious, but unremarkable look. It's squared with little rounded edges and a minimalist Samsung logo on the lid. The result is that the Galaxy Book 6 doesn't really stand out in the crowd – we've seen more striking Windows machines recently, such as the Asus ZenBook 16A, or the HP EliteBook 8, or even the MSI Prestige 16 AI+.

Configurations start at 16GB RAM and 256GB SSD, but can be ramped up, like our machine to 32GB RAM and 1TB of storage. And for the Enterprise Edition, there are three Intel options: either the Core Ultra 5 325, Core Ultra 7 365 vPro or the 355 – like our review unit.

Samsung Galaxy Book6 Enterprise Edition: Display

The Enterprise Edition of the Galaxy Book6 has a 16-in IPS panel with a wide-screen WUXGA (1920 x 1200) resolution by default. At face value, it's not the most impressive screen – certainly not compared to the Pro and Ultra models – and it's clear that the focus here is productivity rather than immersive graphics.

So the Enterprise Edition is slightly duller – its peak brightness is only 350nits, according to Samsung. The Pro model can reach 1,000nits, so there is a gulf in quality. In our own tests, with our colormieter, the Enterprise Edition peaked at 354 cd/m2, which is on the low side; certainly not up to Samsung's lofty standards.

But we have to remind ourselves that a laptop aimed at enterprises doesn't necessarily need to have a fancy display, just a practical one. The 16in screen is nice and big, there's next to no glare, and it does a fairly decent job with colors. Nothing mind blowing, but equality is neither over-saturated nor poor.

Samsung Galaxy Book6 Enterprise Edition: Keyboard and trackpad

One reason to opt for the 16in Galaxy Book6 is the inclusion of a numberpad. That is, of course, if you like/need one. So that's data entry workers and number nerds. For the rest of us, you just get a bigger typing space and more area to rest your palms.

On the business of typing, however, the keys feel quite shallow. There is only 1.33mm travel, and I did feel I was basing the bottom, a lot, at full typing speed. They do look smart and level, and they make a nice clicky sound. However, the space bar has a slight rattle to it.

There is a medium-sized trackpad (approximately 4x3) with a fairly good range and nice click action. The only issue here is its position, just off-center (presumably due to the number pad). I constantly hit the right-click button by accident when not looking down, which caused no end of frustration.

Samsung Galaxy Book6 Enterprise Edition: Specs and performance

Our review unit came with an Intel Core Ultra 7 355 (Panther Lake) chip, 32GB of RAM, and 1TB of SSD. As mentioned above, you can opt for a lower Core Ultra 5 325 model or a vPro. Though all three are suitable for most business needs, aside from heavy AI workloads.

In Geekbench 6, the Enterprise Edition came back with a score of 2,671 for single-core workloads and 6,846 for multithreaded, which are both good scores. You're not looking at a MacBook Pro replacement here, but it does hold up well against Windows machines with a similar score to the Asus Zenbook A16.

And, it lasts. Samsung's estimates for battery life say it can run for 24hrs in an office setting. In our looped video test, the Galaxy Book 6 lasted 17hrs, 38mins. Which is short of that expectation, but we have to add that our tests are intentionally intensive. In real use, we found the Galaxy Book6 lasted well into a second day of work.

Samsung Galaxy Book6 Enterprise Edition: Features

The Enterprise Edition, as its name suggests, is about making the setup and management of work machines as seamless as possible, while also keeping security tight. So the Galaxy Book6 can be prepared before deployment with a few customizations, like BIOS settings and asset tagging. There's also Windows Autopilot, which IT admins can set up before the device reaches its user.

These pre-customizations also extend to security, with Samsung's Knox platform deeply embedded in the Galaxy Book6. This includes the standardized configurations that we are all familiar with, like biometric authentication (fingerprint sensor, facial recognition). And also some data protection at the firmware level with a discrete Trusted Platform Module with cryptographic capabilities.

There is a wealth of connections on both sides of the machine. Two USB-C ports, two USB-A, an HDMI slot, one for a microSD card, an RJ45 Ethernet port, a security slot, and a headphone jack.

Samsung Galaxy Book6 Enterprise Edition: Is it worth it?

While it may lack the gloss of rival laptops (or even other Galaxy Book models) the 6 is a solid choice for a business. A quality build with a smart look, a fast processor, and a long battery life. Just what you need for an office of knowledge workers or even entry-level ones.

Price may be a sticking point; there are similar devices for less than £2,000, but the question is, do they also come with Knox-level security, or even the breadth of controls and capabilities for IT departments?

Samsung Galaxy Book6 Enterprise Edition specifications

Brother recently launched a new range of business color laser printers aimed at demanding workgroups and small businesses. The 8XXX range comprises three multifunction peripherals and two single-function printers. Here we're reviewing the HL-L8570CDW printer, which sits above the HL-L8430CDW. Both have a decent specification, centered around a 31 pages per minute (ppm) print engine also capable of 20 images per minute (ipm) duplexing.

Both single-functions in the 8XXX range come with a 6.8cm (2.7") color touchscreen and a USB slot for direct printing. This being 2026, both support both 2.4 and 5GHz wireless networks, or you can just connect them up via the gigabit Ethernet ports at their rear.

With many core specifications in common, the HL-L8570CDW is chiefly distinguished from the HL-L8430CDW by a wider range of consumables and expansion options. Neither printer's standard paper handling is exceptional out of the box, with a main cassette holding 250 sheets supplemented by a 50-sheet multipurpose feed. You can expand the HL-L8430CDW to an 800-page maximum by adding up to two 250-sheet cassettes – less convenient than a single 500-sheet unit. The HL-L8570CDW we're reviewing is more impressive, accepting 520 or 250-sheet cassettes up to a potential 1,340-sheet total.

It's a similar story with consumables. The HL-L8430CDW arrives with a fair 3,000 pages of black toner and 1,800 in color. It accepts replacements up to 7,500 black and 6,500 color pages. That's not bad, but the HL-L8570CDW turns up with these XXL consumables in the box – a generous starting allowance even at this price. It also accepts larger replacements rated for 10,000 pages of black or color.

While competing printers from the likes of Canon or HP tend to stick with a limited consumable set, that of the Brother HL-L8570CDW is truly staggering. It supports no fewer than four different toner sizes: standard, XL, XXL, and the super-jumbo 10,000-page items. In addition, there's a waste toner bottle and drum kit, each rated for 50,000 pages. As if that wasn't enough, you can also buy a replacement fuser unit and transfer belt – both nominally good for 100,000 pages. It's unlikely you'd need to replace any of these on a lightly used printer, and even a busy one might not need the fuser or transfer belt, but managing them all could be a pain. On the flip side, the fact that they're available may help extend a heavily used printer's life.

Many buyers of the HL-L8570CDW will opt for a managed print contract, but if you are buying consumables, stick to the biggest available. Do that, and you can expect toner costs of 0.9p (ex VAT) per black page, or 6.8p in color. Even with all the lifetime consumables priced in, per-page costs rise to 1p in black and 7.1p in color – competitive in this class, and significantly less than you'd pay with a cheaper workgroup printer.

Brother HL-L8570CDW review: Setting up

Brother says it's reduced the size of this range by up to 30% compared to the previous generation, but it's still not exactly svelte. The HL-L8570CDW weighs 21kg, and is significantly bulkier than a consumer-level printer. It feels nicely made, though: its main paper cassette slides on robust rails, and the paper guides within it feel like they're there for the long-term: not always an impression we've had from cheaper Brother printers.

We're not sure why Brother has put this printer's USB slot on its left-hand panel. Quite apart from the fact that it hides it away from those who might want to use it, it also means you can't place the printer snugly against a wall or cubicle divider on that side. You can't on the right, either, as there are two vents towards the back.

As with most printers, you may need access to the back of the Brother HL-L8570CDW to get at any paper jams in the duplexer, but most of the day-to-day features are at its front. The front panel pulls forward to form the 50-sheet multi-purpose input. Pressing a button on the top panel releases a bigger front section, allowing you to access the toner and drum assembly.

Business and enterprise printers are sometimes cursed with complex or unwelcoming interfaces – a mistake given the bulk of their users aren't likely to be technical. Fortunately, Brother's touchscreen menu mirrors its consumer printers with straightforward language and a sensible layout. One oddity is it doesn't support swipe gestures, but it's nice and responsive to taps.

Brother's software package for this printer installs a full-featured PC driver, supporting useful features such as watermarking and password-protected secure prints. Administrators are more likely to be interested in the wide range of wired and wireless network security features, and additional settings, including IP filtering and Active Directory/LDAP authentication.

Brother HL-L8570CDW review: Printing

This printer's 31ppm claimed print speed isn't exceptional for a workgroup laser, and it's towards the low end for a busy enterprise device. Good thing, then, that it didn't fall too far away from it in our tests. The Brother HL-L8570CDW delivered a first page of black text within 12 seconds of us clicking Print, although it needed a further nine seconds to warm up if it had first been idle for an hour. It went on to complete 25 copies of a formal letter in 56 seconds, a rate of 26.8ppm.

Our tests include the time taken to spool and start printing a job, which has less impact over longer jobs. We timed a 50-page text document at 101s – at 29.7ppm this was only fractionally below Brother's stated speed.

The HL-L8570CDW was a little slower when working with complex color graphics. Its 16 seconds time-to-first page reflected the additional processing time taken to prepare our graphics-rich 24-page document, and partially accounted for a slower 21.2ppm performance. That's still OK, but perhaps not on days where speed is everything.

This printer takes an unusual approach to duplexing, seemingly pulling two sheets of a job in to have their reverse printed, rather than one. Accordingly, it's some time before the first duplex page lands in the 150-sheet output tray, and paper stops being picked a couple of pages before the job itself is done. It didn't seem to harm the speed too much, with the HL-L8570CDW managing a fair 11.3ipm when printing a 10-page color document onto five sheets of paper.

We normally print our photo tests using a printer's best quality, which in this case is a claimed 2,400x600dpi. When we came to select Fine mode, we discovered this is in fact the default setting. Hopeful that dropping to 600x600dpi might result in quicker everyday prints we re-tried our text job, but the speed was identical regardless of setting. Using Fine, we timed two 10x8" photos printed onto A4 paper at 28 seconds. Six 6x4" photos on three A4 pages completed in 33 seconds.

Brother HL-L8570CDW review: Results

What this printer lacks in outright speed, it makes up for in quality. Text was about as good as you'll see, with characters across our tests showing neat outlines all the way down to tiny 5pt. Only under magnification was a tiny amount of stepping visible on curved lines, and even then, this only really showed up on bold characters.

This printer tended towards undersaturating photos, reproducing clear skies with a shade too much blue, and removing the zing from one test photo of brightly colored Australian currency. In illustrations this showed up as slightly pale skin tones.

This aside, the Brother HL-L8570CDW was great at printing photos and graphics. Illustrations were detailed and sharp, while color fills were uniform and mostly bold. This printer excelled with the shade progressions on our test presentation slides, smoothly transitioning across blue and red shades without obvious stepping as it moved through the dither patterns used to recreate them. Even color text – often a challenge – was crisp and neat. Here, this printer's extremely fine halftoning helped avoid the impression of jagged outlines, improving legibility in smaller color fonts.

Brother HL-L8570CDW review: Is it worth it?

This isn't exactly a printer to get excited about. While swift, it isn't fast, and while it's durable and maintainable, keeping a heavily used example running could involve the complicated juggling of consumables and accessories. Here, a managed print contract would undoubtedly help – Brother's own offerings start for less than £7 a month.

With the complicated consumables dealt with, the HL-L8570CDW quickly begins to look more appealing. It's reasonably specified out of the box, and can be upgraded to store a handy amount of paper – good for businesses juggling plain and header paper, or simply those trying to minimize the hassle of loading media. Ultimately, however, its strongest suit is its print quality. If you want good results at a fair pace, without punitive running costs, the Brother HL-L8570CDW is a strong option.

Brother HL-L8570CDW specifications

The Dell UltraSharp U3226Q is not your everyday QD-OLED monitor. It's a self-calibrating 32-inch 4K professional display that's purpose-built for content creation duties. It's highly color accurate out of the box, and the integrated colorimeter means that it can test and calibrate itself automatically to maintain that performance day in, day out.

And yes, it's reassuringly expensive. That said, £2,500 is a mere snip in the realms of professional displays. So, if a true five-figure reference monitor is out of scope, and high-end models from rival manufacturers are stretching your budget, you'll probably want to know more.

Dell U3226Q monitor: Design

The centrepiece of the U3226Q is a 4th-generation Samsung QD-OLED panel. At first, you might not notice what all the fuss is about: 4K monitors are ten a penny, and the 120Hz refresh rate is a fraction of cheaper gaming OLEDs. Delve into the details, however, and there are plenty of interesting features.

Color accuracy is the first string to its bow. Dell claims 99% coverage for DCI-P3 and Display P3, and an impressive 94% of Adobe RGB. Those claims go hand in hand with a wide selection of factory-calibrated modes for DCI-P3, Display P3, sRGB, BT.709, BT.2020, and Adobe RGB with both D50 and D65 white points. HDR support is equally comprehensive with DisplayHDR True Black 500 certification and support for Dolby Vision (Bright and Dark modes), HDR 10, and HLG.

Dell claims impressive levels of color accuracy straight out of the box: an average Delta E of less than 1 for the DCI-P3, Display P3, sRGB, and BT.709 modes. In my testing, it also managed a very respectable 1.6 in the Adobe RGB mode. That's a good showing from the off.

Self-calibration is the next party trick. Select the relevant option in the menu, and the display runs through the validation or calibration process – and you can choose between Express and Comprehensive calibration modes depending on how accurate you want the process to be.

It's also possible to set up your own specific display profiles. Basic settings for these can be tweaked in the monitor's on-screen display, and if you need deeper customization, you can build your ideal display profile in Dell's Color Management software – or import one from a Calman profile – and upload it to one of the three CAL profiles on the monitor.

Both calibration and validation can be scheduled to run automatically. These can be performed together or individually on a schedule ranging from daily to quarterly, or after every 200 hours of operation. These can take place while the monitor is in standby, or you can ask to be prompted before each run.

The monitor's on-screen display relies on the usual four-way joystick hidden behind the lower right bezel, and this works well. Interestingly, though, Dell has also added a trio of touch-sensitive buttons, which it calls Direct Keys. Bring your finger close to the monitor's lower left bezel, and three little LEDs illuminate to help you locate the three buttons. The buttons default to selecting Color Space, HDR modes, and Input sources, but you can customise these to access other functions in the OSD.

The array of connectivity is equally helpful. The primary upstream USB-C port supports Thunderbolt 4 and offers 140 watts of power delivery. Alongside, a downstream Thunderbolt 4 USB-C port allows for daisy chaining a second display. This gives you the latitude to run two 4K 120Hz displays simultaneously, but bear in mind that your GPU will need to support Display Stream Compression (DSC). There is also a single DisplayPort 1.4 input and two HDMI 2.1 inputs.

An upstream 10Gbps USB-C port gives the option to connect a second PC or laptop, and the integrated KVM switch allows you to share devices connected to the U3226Q's other ports. A further two 10Gbps USB-A ports are located on the rear panel in addition to 2.5GbE Ethernet. Around the front, a little panel drops down from just underneath the monitor's front left bezel – this reveals two 10Gbps USB-C ports and a single 10Gbps USB-A port.

As ever, Dell hasn't forgotten the more practical aspects of the design. The stand provides 150mm of height adjustment, rotates into portrait mode in either direction, and has ample tilt and swivel. The cutout at the bottom of the stand does a neat job of cable management, too – it's not high tech, but it works. You also get a monitor hood in the box to minimise any glare from overhead lighting. This clips on magnetically and stays put even when you move the monitor.

If there's a complaint to be made here, it's that the build quality could be better. Reach out and adjust the monitor with a single hand, and the panel moves smoothly enough, but the hollow feel of the monitor's body and light creaks don't exactly match the sleek charcoal grey look. Compared to pricier professional panels we've handled, the U3226Q feels rather lightweight.

Dell U3226Q monitor: Display quality

The U3226Q looks great where it matters, though. This is in no small part due to Dell's decision to use an AGLR (Anti-Glare Low-Reflectance) screen coating to banish glare. With sunlight streaming in through a skylight, there was none of the usual magenta tint exhibited by other QD-OLED monitors I've seen recently. Blacks still aren't as deep and punchy as the best glossy WOLED panels, but the lack of tint and overall glare suppression is really impressive. What's more, there's still plenty of punch despite the matte anti-glare finish – it's more semi-matte than the grainier full matte coatings you may have seen on some LCD displays. For a professional monitor, it's a great fit.

Another routine complaint levelled at OLED monitors is text clarity – or more specifically, the lack thereof. This is caused by OLED panels having unusual subpixel arrangements – something which can cause fringing and fuzziness around text. Technically speaking, the 4th-generation QD-OLED panel in the U3226Q uses a far tighter subpixel arrangement. Practically speaking, the result is that text clarity is vastly improved. Set side by side with a previous generation panel, even image clarity looks very slightly more 'in focus'.

The subjective impression is that of a supremely color-accurate display. Colors look super saturated yet natural, and this was borne out by all of my testing. The average Delta E in the sRGB, Display P3, and DCI-P3 modes was less than 1, as claimed, and it reproduced the far larger Adobe RGB palette with an average Delta E of 1.6. If you need accurate results in SDR, the U3226Q delivers.

HDR looks great, too. Highlights have oodles of punch, and we recorded a maximum brightness of around 1,030cd/m2 on a small 2% window. This drops to around 550cd/m2 once you get to a 10% window, but this is still a very solid performance. Bear in mind that you'll need to use the standard HDR 10 or Dolby Vision profiles to achieve maximum peak brightness, however – as its name suggests, the DisplayHDR TrueBlack 500 mode limits peak brightness to 500cd/m2.

Uniformity is near perfect. Brightness and contrast varied by no more than 1.5% across the whole display. This is an order of magnitude better than LCD-based displays. Given that the colorimeter is measuring only one tiny spot on the bottom of the panel, it's reassuring to know that the panel response is so consistent from corner to corner.

You might think that motion clarity would suffer given the mere 120Hz refresh rate, but the U3226Q puts in an impressive performance nonetheless. There isn't the silky smoothness of displays with 240Hz refresh rates and black frame insertion features, but motion looked markedly cleaner and smoother than other 120Hz QD-OLED panels I've had on the desk. It is a shame there isn't an official AMD FreeSync or Nvidia G-Sync certification, but VRR is still there if you want it. Frankly, though, given the presence of VRR flicker, you may want to leave it off. Even with framerates remaining well above 90fps, I found the flickering distracting enough to prefer it disabled.

Dell U3226Q monitor: Is it worth it?

It's all a question of priorities. For more casual use, there's no two ways around it: something like Dell's £600 S3225QC provides a similarly large 32-inch 4K canvas, and its 3rd generation QD-OLED panel is color accurate enough for most users – amateur content creators included. If it's an affordable taste of QLED and Dolby Vision HDR you're hankering for, that's a great option.

What cheaper displays like the S3225QC don't do, however, is promise to maintain that out-of-the-box color accuracy over time – and this is where displays such as the UltraSharp U3226Q justify the outlay. The self-calibrating design offers a level of set-it-and-forget-it simplicity, which means you can just turn it on, get to work, and trust what you're seeing, day after day, year after year. If that level of accuracy matters to you or your business, then it's safe to say that the UltraSharp U3226Q is worth the investment.

Dell U3226Q monitor specifications

Honor is taking the fight to Samsung and Apple with its latest flagship smartphone, hoping to attract consumers and enterprises alike. Rather than being a transformative upgrade on last year's excellent Honor Magic7 Pro, the Magic8 Pro offers some much-needed refinements.

For instance, the device is marginally trimmer and lighter, with a slightly smaller screen, while its camera lenses see minor improvements. There's also a larger battery capacity and a slightly improved chipset. On the flipside, there's a lot of on-device AI to wade through as we try to determine how useful these applications actually are, and whether the incremental upgrades are worthy of the premium price tag.

Honor Magic8 Pro: Design

The biggest change you'll see between the Magic8 Pro and its predecessor is one you'll barely notice, a slight reduction in the display size – and consequently an ever-so-slightly smaller frame. The thickness, for example, has reduced from 8.8mm to 8.4mm – but you'd otherwise be forgiven for believing they were the same device.

The Magic8 Pro features the same rounded glass display as in the Magic7 Pro, placed atop a smoothened brushed metal chassis with squared sides and rounded edges, and a silky frosted metallic rear. On the left-hand side, lined up are the volume, power/Gemini, and Honor AI button (more on that later). One thing we were a little disappointed with was just how rounded the corners were; it feels like the content you view is ever-so-slightly cut off.

It's a beautiful construction otherwise, with just the right amount of grip to feel sturdy when held. The device is also available in the same Black finish as its predecessor, as well as two new colors; a more muted Cyan replaces Breeze Blue, and Sunrise Gold subs in for the jazzy Lunar Shadow Grey.

An Apple-style floating island hosts two front-facing cameras on the top of the display, while a robust glass wheel houses the three rear lenses on its rear. This is slightly larger than in the Magic7 Pro, and you won't find much joy standing the device vertically due to the weight. On that subject, it's ever-so-slightly lighter at 219g (versus 223g) – but the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra is lighter still at 214g. This device is also slimmer, with a depth of 7.9mm. But the Honor Magic8 Pro is a little more compact in terms of its width and height.

As with last year's device, the NanoCrystal Shield glass on the front and rear boasts SGS 5-StarDrop Resistance. The dust and water resistance is also excellent, with ratings of IP68/IP69/IP69K, with the latter a new tier of protection that even the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra lacks (only limited to IP68). IP69K is completely dust-tight and offers protection against high-pressure and high-temperature water jets. If you find yourself using the device in harsh terrains, it's as rugged as you can get for something so slender.

Honor Magic8 Pro: Display

You should expect the absolute best from the display in a flagship smartphone, and Honor delivers with its 6.71in LTPO OLED display (a reduction from the 6.8in display in its predecessor) with a smooth 120Hz refresh rate and HDR10+, Dolby Vision, and HDR Vivid support. Its 2,808 x 1,256 resolution is sharp but offers a slightly weaker pixels-per-inch ratio than the 6.9in S26 Ultra (456 versus 498), but falls in line with the iPhone 17 Pro (460).

You can pick from three distinct color profiles: normal (true-to-life), vivid (enhanced for higher saturation), and professional (suitable for tuning for color-accurate displays). Beyond that, however, you may tweak the red, green, and blue settings, alongside factors like hue, saturation, brightness, contrast, and sharpness. There's also the option to set a default, cool, or warm color tint – or pick from a color wheel. It's an incredible array of customization. We found Vivid (default) is your best bet for day-to-day usage, given the way that colors pop, but Normal might be best if you want a more organic representation of the world when shooting video or taking photos.

Honor claims that the smartphone can hit 1,800cd/m2 under High Brightness Mode (HBM) – with a peak luminosity of 6,000cd/m2. That's considerably higher than the S26 Ultra's 2,600cd/m2 and the iPhone 17 Pro's 3,000cd/m2 maximum. These levels are normally temporary and require exceptional conditions, like direct sunlight, with Automatic Brightness turned on. When we measured the device under manual settings and all automatic settings turned off, we measured a peak luminosity of 790cd/m2 – which is a fantastic base level, and a little higher than the S26 Ultra.

Color accuracy was also outstanding, with 99.9% coverage of the sRGB color spectrum – a notch higher than the S26 Ultra's 96%. This is outstanding, and was complemented with 79% coverage of the Adobe RGB spectrum and 92.3% coverage of the DCI P3 spectrum (where above 70% and 80% is viable for professional use).

Beyond standard settings like Light and Dark mode toggles and refresh rate adjustments are options to adjust the screen resolution (including a power-saving Smart Resolution mode that does so automatically when battery life is under strain), as well as eBook mode, which renders the display in black and white to aid with reading. The phone also lets you toggle two AI-powered enhancement options, including Super Dynamic Display (which adjusts brightness and contrast) and Vivid Display (which adjusts video clarity and colors). Admittedly, it does make a small difference, helping video footage pop from the screen. However, depending on your circumstances, the original image quality is already strong, and it may be worth turning off to preserve battery life.

Honor Magic8 Pro: Specs and performance

You'll find the outstanding Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 platform in the Honor Magic8 Pro, alongside an Adreno 840 GPU, 12GB RAM, and 512GB storage. The differences between this chipset in the Magic8 Pro and the S26 Ultra are minimal, but performance in the latter just about edges it.

The Magic8 Pro hit 3,671 for single-core workloads and 10,772 for multi-core workloads, which is a tad lower than 3,671 and 11,307 in the S26 Ultra. While not quite eclipsing the power of its direct rival, it packs more of a punch overall than the iPhone 17 Pro Max, which scored 3,790 and 9,844 via public testing information, respectively. Still, a score like this outpaces many premium laptops, meaning the Honor Magic8 Pro can certainly make a strong case for a device that can allow high-powered mobile working.

With its huge 6270mAh battery, Honor's flagship phone can certainly last well into two days. In our looped video playback test, the Honor Magic8 Pro lasted 31hrs 42mins – it's a staggering result and certainly more than enough. This is a lifespan that's four hours less than the S26 Ultra, despite its larger capacity and silicon carbon technology (as opposed to Samsung's persistence with Lithium-ion). The Honor Magic8 Pro also supports 100W wired charging and up to 80W wireless charging, as opposed to the S26 Ultra's 60W and 25W.

Honor Magic8 Pro: Cameras

The selection of cameras in the Honor Magic8 Pro is outstanding, both front and back. The front-facing camera comprises two lenses, including a 50MP lens and a 3D depth-sensing lens. On the rear is a 50MP Ultra Night Main Camera, 50MP Ultra Wide Camera and a stonking 200MP Ultra Night Telephoto Camera.

This collection of lenses is as good as you may find in a flagship device – and features a host of software-powered enhancements that add to the sense that you're working with professional-lite hardware. One of the Magic8 Pro's main selling points is its ability to shoot at night, and it really does excel in this department -- flooding your frame with light thanks to the combination of the 200MP lens as well as some AI support courtesy of AiMAGE.

This layer also adds a Stabilization Engine – which Honor suggests is an industry-first CIPA 6.5-stop image stabilizer – and a Portrait Engine that helps you focus on individual subjects and make them stand out. The Magic Color mode is also a fun photo-level feature that lets you add AI-generated filters and color palettes to whatever you're shooting. You can even upload one of your previous photos and use it to generate an original filter.

The Honor Magic8 Pro allows up to 3.7x manual zoom and up to 100x digital zoom – and you can cycle between lenses depending on how you'd like to frame your subject. Shooting while zoomed into something at extreme levels works surprisingly well, with little to no shake, and AI augmentations like colorization and sharpness enhancing the finished product.

Shooting with video is also stellar. While you'll sadly lack the 8K offered by the S26 Ultra and OnePlus 15, you can shoot 4K footage at up to 120fps/3.7x zoom with the rear camera and 60fps/2x zoom with the front-facing lenses. The frame rate is limited to 60fps if you're shooting in HDR and 24fps if you're activating Super Night Mode. There's also fantastic image stabilization, as we've covered. Handily, you can run your finger along the AI button while you're aiming to zoom in and out, and tap it to take your photo or start shooting.

Honor Magic8 Pro: Features and software

The inclusion of a true 3D facial recognition system in the front-facing lenses is fantastic – making authentication a little easier – while a fingerprint scanner fits neatly beneath the surface to cater to those who'd rather avoid scanning their face. Another curious addition is the Infrared Remote Control that lets you activate a range of devices, including displays and air conditioners. You can also benefit from PC Data Sync if you install HonorSuite on your smartphone, although Windows 11 now includes excellent smartphone syncing features.

The MagicOS 10, powered by Android 16, is largely clean and straightforward to navigate – very much resembling Apple's iOS environment – but allows for a massive degree of customization. You'll spend most of your time at first, however, wading through a half-dozen AI-enabled apps and features that you may or may not find useful.

To begin with, there's an AI Suggestions folder on the home screen that offers a collection of four apps that rotate in and out depending on what the device expects you'll need. We found this unhelpful, as long as you've organized your folders and apps to suit your own muscle memory navigation. You can expand this folder to six apps – or remove it.

AI Space can, in theory, be useful for coordinating all the devices in a smart home office, with the IR blaster and Bluetooth letting you add devices to your Space that you can then control with your phone.

Then there's Gemini, which is fairly self-explanatory. Honor AI is another one that offers three "agents" – one for settings, one for photos, and one for memories. The first two seem fairly straightforward, where a certain degree of automation will take over how you control settings and edit photos, but the third is more intriguing.

By swiping three fingers down on your screen, your device will capture the content on your screen, perform some kind of "analysis", then store it for later reference in a dedicated app that appears on your home screen. Frankly, this feature appears indistinguishable from just taking screenshots.

Some more useful features include the AI-powered real-time transcription and translation through the Recorder app. The Magic Portal also threatens to be useful; by holding the AI button, you can tap into AI Memories or Circle to Search, which lets you capture portions of text or images by circling it with your finger before you Google it. If you want to work on your phrasing and writing, you can activate the AI Writing feature, too, to

For the security-conscious among you, AI Deepfake & Voice Cloning Detection can help you perform scans while using compatible apps, including Google Meet and Phone, to detect whether you've come up against a deepfake. Those who need to swap between SIM cards can also load one physical SIM and an eSIM. Finally, the device comes with a one-year replacement service (including a one-time screen replacement service), a two-year warranty, and up to seven years of Android maintenance. There are no device-specific packages, however, like Samsung's Knox Suite Enterprise Plan, available.

Honor Magic8 Pro: Is it worth it?

This Honor Magic8 Pro is a simply outstanding flagship smartphone that offers plenty of value in its price category. Its main competitor is undoubtedly the S26 Ultra – and it goes head-to-head in several key areas – not quite eclipsing it in a few key quarters like performance and battery life, but eclipsing the South Korean manufacturer's own flagship device when it comes to screen brightness and the camera array.

For businesses keen on offering employees high-end on-device AI functionality, alongside plenty of photo and video shooting power, the Honor Magic8 Pro is an excellent proposition. That's even more the case when you consider its up-to £1,090 price tag versus the S26 Ultra's £1,279.99 valuation. You do, however, miss out on the use of a stylus, and you may well prefer the S26 Ultra's design and build, especially given the Honor's comically protruding camera array. Put simply, however, it's a potential S26 Ultra killer that packs plenty of high-end features at a reasonable price.

Honor Magic8 Pro specifications

Zyxel is rapidly becoming the go-to place for Wi-Fi 7 access points as it offers a remarkable range of solutions with a sharp focus on performance, features, and value. The NWA240BE on review is the latest to join the club and stands out for its meaty BE15000 rating and competitive price.

The NWA240BE presents eight spatial streams, with two each for the 2.4GHz and 6GHz radios and four handed to the 5GHz radio. Its BE15000 rating claims maximum speeds of up to 688Mbits/sec for 2.4GHz, a stonking 8,646Mbits/sec for 5GHz, and 5,764Mbits/sec for 6GHz.

The NWA model designation indicates it's designed to offer SMBs a more affordable solution with a reduced feature set. It can be managed in standalone mode or using Zyxel's Nebula Cloud Control (NCC) portal, but unlike the WBE models, the price doesn't include a 1-year NCC Pro Pack license.

Zyxel NWA240BE review: Build and design

Tipping the scales at 848gms, this hefty lozenge is very well built from high-impact plastic and has an embedded 4G/5G interference filter so it can coexist happily with cellular networks. It can be mounted on the wall or ceiling, and the kit includes a universal mounting plate with an optional 5-pack of T-rail clips costing around £17.

All of its performance potential is unleashed by a fast 10GbE multi-Gig uplink port, and the AP can be powered over 802.3at PoE+ or 802.3bt PoE++ without any restrictions. The AP also offers a USB-C port, which can be used to power it with an appropriate 2A USB PD 15 supply.

The rear panel has plenty of ventilation slots, which work well, as we didn't find the AP getting overly hot during testing. There isn't much to see at the front with the single multi-color LED showing AP, boot, uplink, plus wireless status, and if wireless clients are connected.

Zyxel NWA240BE review: Standalone mode

Installation is helped along by the AP's web console wizard, which starts by offering two choices for standalone or cloud management. After selecting the former, we were guided through changing the default admin password, setting the country of operation, creating our first SSID, choosing the active radios, and accepting the offer of an automatic firmware upgrade.

The AP supports up to eight SSIDs, which are created using a combination of profiles and objects. It takes a little while to get the hang of their relationships, but AP management objects use radio profiles to define their active bands, operating mode, and channel width.

Each object references SSID profiles, which control the active radios and can be used to apply upload and download rate limits, QoS (quality of service) for prioritising voice or video traffic, and a time schedule that controls when the SSID is active. Each SSID profile is also assigned a security profile, which sets the encryption method.

MLO (multi-link operations) is supported in standalone mode, but you won't find a toggle switch in the web console for it. Setting the operating mode for the radios to 11be brings Zyxel's auto-MLO into play, which will enforce the mandatory Enhanced Open, WPA3 Personal, or WPA3 Enterprise encryption.

Zyxel NWA240BE review: Cloud management

Swapping the NWA240BE to our NCC account was a breeze as we used the Nebula iOS app on an iPad to scan the QR code on its base and choose the site it should take its settings from. The portal presents an informative dashboard with customisable widgets showing the status of all Zyxel cloud-managed devices, total wireless traffic, APs by usage, all connected wireless clients, along with their detected OS and PoE consumption for our Zyxel switch.

As with standalone mode, up to eight SSIDs per site are supported, and tags can be applied so they are only broadcast by APs that have a matching tag. For guest wireless networks, you can present custom captive portals with your own logos and messages, use a variety of authentication methods, including 2FA with Google Authenticator, and enforce L2 isolation so guests only get internet access.

Network coverage can be easily expanded as the NWA240BE supports Zyxel's Smart Mesh technology, which uses the 5GHz or 6GHz radios as backhaul connections between a root and repeater APs. Upgrading devices managed by NCC with a Plus Pack enables features such as 7-day logging, topology views, and scheduled firmware updates, while a Pro Pack adds client diagnostics, Wi-Fi health reports, remote SSH, and a 1-year report history with Broadbandbuyer, showing a Pro price of around £27 per licence.

Zyxel NWA240BE review: Wi-Fi 7 performance

For performance testing, we connected the NWA240BE 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.

The TP-Link Wi-Fi 7 adapter supports MLMR (multi-link multi-radio) and can combine the 2.4GHz band with either the 5GHz or 6GHz bands. With 11be enabled on all three radios, Windows 11 confirmed an MLO link using the 2.4/6GHz bands and an aggregated connection speed of 6,453Mbits/sec.

To test maximum speed, we used the excellent 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 superb close-range upload and download rates of 378MB/sec and 483MB/sec.

Real-world SMB tests using 25GB file copies between the client and server returned average sustained close-range speeds of 280MB/sec. With the AP moved 10 metres away and into an adjoining room, we saw this drop to a respectable 243MB/sec.

The NWA240BE also performed very well over a 2.4/5GHz MLO connection. OpenSpeedTest reported back with top upload and download rates of 353MB/sec and 321MB/sec.

Zyxel NWA240BE review: Is it worth it

Absolutely. Available at Broadbandbuyer for £192 excluding VAT, Zyxel's NWA240BE will appeal to SMBs seeking an affordable upgrade to full Wi-Fi 7 services. This well-built tri-band AP is easy to deploy, delivers outstanding performance and supports standalone and cloud management.

Zyxel NWA240BE specifications

You can always rely on Acer's TravelMate family of enterprise notebooks to offer reliable performance at more affordable prices. While they won't look as flashy as an ultraportable or pack as much punch as a workstation, these machines are a prudent choice for employees who won't need to push a machine to its limits while still taking advantage of basic AI functionality.

The Acer TravelMate X 14 AI is a mid-range enterprise machine that offers all the above at a fairly reasonable price of under $1,500. With that, you'll pick up a lightweight and versatile machine powered by an Intel Core Ultra 5 Series 200 processor, with a 120Hz HD display. But does this machine offer good value for money, and how does it compare with similar machines in this bracket?

Acer TravelMate X 14 AI: Design and display

There's very little surprising or unexpected about the way that Acer has designed this enterprise-facing laptop. Its basic chassis combines plastic and metal with ports on either side slightly indented, and the display is depressed within the casing. The rear features two bars that, while allowing the machine to benefit from more airflow while stood on your desk, feel very uncomfortable when resting it on your lap.

Its gray finish, meanwhile, is pretty bland and doesn't catch the eye in the same way that plenty of Dell or HP laptops might. The inclusion of the Acer branding in a box on the lid does offer contrast in an otherwise uninspired design, but it's a little jarring.

You likely won't be in this for the looks, but the machine's build quality isn't of the highest quality either. Heavy plastic inclusion gives way to a lightweight feel (not in a good way); you'd be forgiven for fearing it's a little flimsy at times – although it's certainly not the case, having passed MIL-STD 810H benchmarks. There are some positive aspects, however. Rubber pads on the bezels on either side of the display means the keyboard won't leave impressions or marks on the screen.

More encouragingly, the machine's 1.27kg weight is on the lighter side, and it's in line with machines like the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 (1.24kg), Lenovo ThinkPad X9 14 Aura Edition (1.24kg), and Acer Swift Go 14 AI (1.32kg). The thickness is also decent (15.9mm) considering the nature of the ports included in this machine, including HDMI and Ethernet.

The 14-inch display doesn't seem appealing at first glance, but it still has plenty of positive points, like a 120Hz refresh rate. It's not incredibly sharp, with a weak 162 pixels-per-inch ratio for its 1,900 x 1,200-pixel aspect ratio. It also feels much dimmer than average to the naked eye, which we confirmed in testing with a display calibrator, registering a maximum luminosity of 267 cd/m2 (much lower than the roughly 330 cd/m2 that we'd consider a decent level). The color accuracy isn't fantastic either, with the display registering a 96.6% coverage of the sRGB gamut. On the other hand, it scored well in terms of coverage of the Adobe RGB and DCI-P3 gamuts with 70.9% and 84.1%, respectively. Also decent is a black level of 0.19 cd/m2 and a 1,376:1 contrast ratio. Finally, color distortion scores of an average of 0.52 and a maximum of 1.58 are very strong. So, overall, the display is fairly mediocre, but we've seen aspects that are much worse in more premium machines – and it's about in line with what we would have expected from a mid-range machine.

Acer TravelMate X 14 AI: Performance and battery life

Given the pricing of this machine, and the components fitted into it, the Acer TravelMate X 14 AI punches above its weight; it nears (but doesn't meet) the standard often seen in higher-end laptops.

The eight-core Intel Core Ultra 5 226V processor is the beating heart of this machine, and this is partnered with an Intel Arc Graphics chip and an integrated NPU that can hit 40 TOPS. While not as strong as the roughly 50 TOPS you'll see in the higher-end counterparts, it's plenty of AI firepower and enables core AI functionality. Memory options include 16GB LPDDR5x RAM as well as 512GB SSD.

Benchmarking the machine with Geekbench 6 produced a respectable single-core result of 2,453 – what we'd normally expect across Lunar Lake processors -- and a multi-core score of 9,334 – which is actually just shy of what we've sometimes seen in Intel Core Ultra 7 200 Series chips. For instance, the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V CPU scored 10,021 in the Acer TravelMate P6 14 AI. That said, the mid-range Snapdragon X Plus-powered Acer Swift Go 14 AI scored 2,364 and 11,044, respectively, with Qualcomm's processors generally offering more juice.

It's a symptom of the Lunar Lake CPUs, in that the difference between different models, and between this generation and the Meteor Lake chips, is slight. While older processors may offer similar performance levels, they come without the AI or graphics firepower. For instance, the excellent entry-level Intel Arc Graphics chip scored 25,514. While higher-end models hit closer to 30,000, previous-generation Intel machines may score well under 20,000.

We were equally impressed with the machine's battery life, with the Acer TravelMate X 14 AI lasting 14hrs and 37mins in our looped video playback test. Anything below by today's standards would be a little disappointing, considering plenty of machines are capable of reaching more than 20 hours. Again, however, for a mid-range machine, it's a strong result and in line with plenty of higher-end machines. In a similar vein, there's no reason to be displeased with the SSD -- with range-topping reads of 6,706MB/s and writes a little more sluggish at below average speeds of 3,644MB/s.

Acer TravelMate X 14 AI: Features

The TravelMate's keyboard is balanced well and enjoyable to use. Keys have a moderately deep travel distance, and they're well spaced. There's enough snap and bite with each keystroke so that it feels punch while you're using it, but with a mutedness that means you can touch type without feeling you're up against much resistance. There aren't many surprises with the function keys, or complaints more generally. Handily, you can use the Acer MyKey to choose from a selection of frequently used apps to open on command.

The touchpad, meanwhile, is well-sized and perfectly sensitive – but its surface feels slightly uncomfortable if you apply too much pressure while navigating. Both the left-click and right-click buttons are positioned well, although there isn't much feedback, and clicking feels hollow.

The machine offers a great amount of connectivity, with the left-hand side of the laptop featuring an HDMI port, USB-A port, and two USB-C ports with Thunderbolt 4. On the right, you'll have an Ethernet port, USB-A port, and 3.5mm headphone jack, alongside a security lock slot. The only thing missing, you could argue, is an SD Card slot -- but otherwise it's an impressive complement of physical connectivity options. You'll also benefit from up-to-date wireless standards in Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 – ensuring a degree of future-proofing.

Elsewhere, you can take advantage of several AI-powered features baked into Windows 11, including Cocreator, Recall, and Live Captions. The manufacturer has also developed PurifiedView 2.0 to improve framing and image clarity in video calls, as well as PurifiedVoice 2.0, which uses AI-powered noise reduction and a three-mic setup to make sure you can be heard when you speak up.

Acer also claims the stereo speakers benefit from AI magic to generate 200% more sound output with 70% less vibration. Anecdotal, the sound is clear, and there's plenty of treble but about as much bass as you'd expect from a laptop. In fairness, playing music on full blast was louder than we expected – and while we could experience vibrations, they were within reason.

As for security, the laptop incorporates a webcam shutter for privacy as well as facial recognition with Windows Hello – but there's no fingerprint scanner, unfortunately.

Acer TravelMate X 14 AI: Is it worth it?

For a sub-$1,500 price tag, the Acer TravelMate X 14 AI offers plenty of value, and there are very few reasons to avoid it if you're on a tight budget. If you can look past a bland and generic corporate-feeling design – as well as a screen that won't threaten to dazzle you – you'll be able to enjoy solid and reliable performance alongside great quality-of-life features. The keyboard, for example, is excellent and makes typing very enjoyable. We also found the Acer MyKey hotkey a tiny, but really useful, shortcut.

Performance also reaches heights in a similar ballpark to higher-end Intel-powered counterparts, with very few, if any, compromises when it comes to the AI functionality, thanks to 40 TOPS of power and a decent entry-level graphics output too.

The chassis itself, despite feeling a little tacky at face value, does hold up against the stresses and strains of day-to-day mobile working. It's also compact and light – especially given the excellent array of physical ports you can take advantage of – with a decent battery life. Overall, these qualities make the Acer TravelMate X 14 AI a very strong candidate to be your next mid-range travel companion.

Acer TravelMate X 14 AI review: Specifications

Dell makes some bold promises for the Pro 34 Plus P3425WE. It claims that the 34-inch, 3,440 x 1,440 resolution will enable you to "focus like never before" – something that will no doubt appeal strongly to the easily distracted – and that the IPS panel will make your work look better than ever. Unless your work happens to be solely spreadsheets or text documents, in which case they'll probably just look, well, wider.

Bold claims then, but the specifications for this business-focused ultrawide monitor do seem to pack in all the essentials. You get an adjustable stand and USB hub alongside 90 watts of USB-C power delivery and a handy KVM switch, and the display specifications look quietly promising. The whole package retails for a reassuringly expensive £440 at Dell UK, so the big question here is whether it justifies the relatively high price.

Dell P3425WE monitor: Design & Features

Turn the P3425WE on, and it's refreshing to find an on-screen display that immediately attempts to be helpful. It checks whether you want to enable always-on USB charging (and warns about the increase in power consumption), and also offers to guide you through the process of connecting two machines and setting up the KVM switch. Even if you don't want to do it right away, you can hop into the menus by pressing the four-way joystick at the rear and selecting the Show KVM Setup Guide option.

As usual, the menus are all fairly self-explanatory. If you need to adjust settings, then the controls are simple, and menu layout is logical. As usual, a quick click of the joystick in any direction brings up a handy quick menu which gives rapid access to the main features. Click upwards again, and you can delve into the menus proper.

One other option, however, is to install the Dell Display Manager (DDM) software, which is available for both Windows and macOS. This provides a useful added level of control and makes it much easier to both set up and use the KVM and various Picture-in-Picture and Picture-by-Picture features. It also adds a variety of quality-of-life and management features for good measure. It provides more flexibility in how you snap applications across the ultrawide panel, allows you to select specific color modes for specific applications, and you can set keyboard shortcuts to adjust monitor settings. Remote management is another plus point for IT teams, too, as it makes it easier to manage a fleet of compatible Dell monitors across the network.

In terms of looks, the P3425WE is classic Dell. That is to say, if you've seen any Dell Pro or UltraSharp monitor in recent years, you know what to expect here. The silver stand contrasts smartly against a black (or perhaps dark charcoal grey, depending on the lighting) rear panel, and the bezelless design looks clean and crisp, too. The Dell branding is subtle – there's a small logo on the bottom bezel and a slightly more prominent silver one on the rear of the panel. Build feels fine for the money, too. The rear panel feels a little rattlier than I'd like for a £400 monitor, but it's nothing serious.

The adjustable stand works well. There's 150mm of height adjustment, ample amounts of side-to-side swivel and fore and aft tilt, and the only obvious omission is a pivot mode for portrait operation – something which just isn't very likely for a 34in ultrawide panel. The stand moves fairly smoothly throughout its range of motion, and you'll only need one hand to make adjustments as the wide, flared base keeps the monitor safely planted even at full extension.

Connectivity covers all the essentials. All the ports are downward-facing, and you get HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 1.4, and an upstream USB-C port that carries DisplayPort Alt video inputs, data, and 90 watts of power to compatible devices. There's also a USB-B upstream port for connecting a second machine, and both upstream ports are able to share the four downstream USB ports. You'll find a pair of 5Gbps USB-A ports at the rear, and a single USB-C and USB-A port are hidden in the little drop-down panel underneath the monitor's lower bezel. Click it, and the panel drops down into view.

Dell's stand includes some basic cable management. All of the P3425WE's connectivity can be routed through the oval cutout in the stand, and as this is angled downwards to the rear, it does a good job of allowing the various cables to slide through without getting pinched when you adjust the stand. The only slight moan here is that you may struggle to fit all the cables through – and if you need to swap the mains cable, you'll need to remove the other cables to slide the IEC plug through.

Dell P3425WE monitor: Display quality

One key difference worth noting here is that the P3425WE's panel opts for a noticeably shallower curve than some rivals. The 3800R curve is very gentle and gives a far less pronounced wraparound effect than monitors with more aggressive 1500R and 1800R curves. This makes the P3425WE a little more flexible when it comes to positioning. Where more aggressive curves work well for sub-1-metre viewing distances and deliver greater immersion in games, you may – like me – prefer a shallower curve for everyday work. With the P3425WE mounted at my usual 1.2 metre viewing distance, the P3425WE does feel a tad more at home.

The P3425WE is aimed purely at a work audience, so it's no surprise to find a fairly modest set of specifications. The IPS panel promises a sensible 99% of sRGB coverage, a contrast ratio of 1,500:1, and a maximum brightness of 350cd/m2. The 100Hz refresh rate is a pleasant upgrade over the standard 60Hz, though – it's not going to excite gamers, but the extra fluidity is noticeable even when scrolling up and down documents. Set side by side with older 60Hz displays, it's also easier on the eye for all-day work, too. And the same goes for the matte anti-glare coating, which, in my very bright office with two skylights (and some unseasonably summery UK weather), did a great job of minimising reflections.

As ever, it's reassuring to find that image quality looks 'right' straight out of the box. Brightness is set to 75% by default, which equates to around 200cd/m2, and this is a little bright for office lighting, but about right for brighter rooms. Crank it to maximum, and it reaches just shy of its claimed 350cd/m2. Contrast is clearly a cut above basic IPS panels – measurements put it at around 1,400:1 in my tests – and colors look natural to the naked eye.

In our tests, the panel covered around 94% of the sRGB color gamut, but the panel is actually capable of reproducing a range of greens, yellows, and reds that are outside of the usual sRGB palette – and that means that the color reproduction isn't strictly accurate. It doesn't put in a bad performance overall, though. Greyscales look clean, and the measured white point of 6,412k is so close to the ideal 6,500k that whites look nice and pure, too. The issue is that a wider color palette means that some tones are a little brighter than they should be, and this makes for a slightly underwhelming average Delta E of 2.3. It looks good in everyday use, but perfect it is not.

This might not be a gaming display, but the P3425WE handles movies and games with aplomb. Crank the overdrive settings up from the default Normal to Fast, and the result is much cleaner detail on fast-moving objects. That does also adds a little inverse ghosting in some conditions, but it's nowhere near as intrusive as we've found on some other models. If it's the odd lunchtime game of Arc Raiders you're after, then the P3425WE will multitask with ease.

Dell P3425WE monitor: Is it worth it?

Value is the only major issue for the P3425WE. With prices varying between £410 and £450 at the time of writing, the P3425WE is substantially pricier than less fully featured 34-inch ultrawide monitors. The USB-C connectivity and KVM switch adds a hefty premium. If you have a tight IT budget to manage, you'd be advised to spend substantially less on a model from any of the big brands.

For users and desks that will benefit from the P3425WE's talents, however, it's a much more attractive prospect. The combination of an ultrawide format with a softer curve is a natural fit for work, and the image quality is more than good enough for all but the most colour critical desks. It even manages to put in a good performance outside of work hours, if that's a consideration. If that sounds like the position you're hiring for, then the Pro 34 Plus P3425WE is a safe pair of hands.

Dell P3425WE monitor specifications

TP-Link has traditionally offered an extensive range of discrete wall-mounted wireless access points (APs), and the EAP775-Wall is its first tri-band Wi-Fi 7 model. Aimed at environments such as meeting rooms and hotels looking to provide in-room network services, it offers plenty of connection options, along with a main 2.5GbE multi-Gig port at the rear. It has another 2.5GbE plus three Gigabit downlink ports in its base.

These add extra versatility as the first two ports offer pass-through services for networking other devices, while the last two Gigabit ports can both provide PoE or one can offer PoE+, allowing the AP to power extra in-room devices such as IP phones. The AP also has Bluetooth 5.3, which is used for quick provisioning of the AP using TP-Link's mobile app.

This BE9300-rated AP offers two spatial streams each for the 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz bands and claims maximum speeds of 688Mbits/sec, 2,882Mbits/sec, and 5,765Mbits/sec, respectively. The US version has a higher BE11000 rating as it supports the 5GHz 240MHz channels, which are not cleared for use in the UK and EU.

Management options are abundant as the EAP775-Wall can be deployed in standalone mode and configured from its own web console. TP-Link's Omada cloud service will appeal to businesses and hotels with multiple APs and sites as they can keep a close eye on them all, along with Omada-enabled switches and routers, from one central web portal.

TP-Link Omada EAP775-Wall review: Design and build quality

Measuring slightly less than 42mm thick, the EAP775-Wall is clothed in a sturdy polycarbonate casing with an aluminium inner shell. The AP ships with a removable and paintable cover that slips over the main unit, and for those that don't have in-wall cabling, there's a small knock-out panel at its base to feed a network cable through.

The kit includes a steel wall mounting plate, and TP-Link takes a leaf from Ubiquiti's book as it provides a cardboard template with a spirit level. The plate has three mounting lugs, and when you slide the AP down over them, an anti-theft latch in its back locks it in place so it can only be removed with the included metal L-shaped key.

Think carefully about your proposed PoE provisioning, as the type of supply will affect a number of features. Giving it the full 802.3bt PoE++ will enable PoE-out on both Gigabit ports and Bluetooth, 802.3at PoE+ will disable PoE-out but leave Bluetooth enabled, while basic 802.3af PoE disables everything - including all three radios.

TP-Link Omada EAP775-Wall review: Standalone mode

The AP is simple to deploy in standalone mode with its web console wizard requesting a new username and password, tightening security by deleting the default admin account and checking for firmware upgrades. Up to eight SSIDs per radio are supported, and the wizard offers the option of configuring one for each radio and providing encryption keys.

The device status page provides plenty of information about the AP, including bar charts of CPU and memory utilisation. Move to the wireless page, and you can see all SSIDs along with details on their associated radios, security, and guest networks, with another view showing all connected clients.

Creating new SSIDs is as swift as selecting a radio, providing a name, and choosing an encryption scheme. Basic captive portals can be assigned to specific SSIDs, although authentication is restricted to a global password or an external Radius server. When guests connect, you can apply a redirect URL and present them with a web page and AUP (acceptable use policy) message they must accept to continue.

TP-Link Omada EAP775-Wall review: Wi-Fi 7 performance

We hooked the EAP775-Wall up to the lab's Zyxel XMG1930-30HP switch, which confirmed a 2.5GbE connection and a PoE++ draw. For Wi-Fi 7 performance testing, we used a Lenovo desktop client running Windows 11 Pro and equipped with a TP-Link Archer TBE550E Wi-Fi 7 PCIe adapter.

To gauge raw TCP performance, we used Microsoft's NTttcp utility, which reported reasonable upstream and downstream speeds of 302MB/sec and 235MB/sec between the client and a server on the 10GbE LAN. Our real-world large file copies between the client and server averaged close-range speeds of 235MB/sec, dropping to 190MB/sec with the AP moved 10 metres away and into an adjoining room.

The AP supports MLO (multi-link operations) for all three radios, and after our client connected using the 2.4/6GHz bands, Windows 11 reported an aggregated connection speed of 6,453Mbits/sec. Subsequent NTttcp tests revealed improvements in upstream speeds to 310MB/sec but no increases in downstream rates.

TP-Link Omada EAP775-Wall review: Cloud management

TP-Link's Omada cloud service will be the preferred choice for most businesses as they can monitor and manage all their APs and other Omada-enabled switches and routers from one central web portal. There are plenty of choices as TP-Link offers four OC-series hardware or free self-hosted software on-site controllers.

Cloud-based controller options see big improvements as TP-Link's Omada Central provides a single platform for network and surveillance management, while Omada Cloud focuses on network devices. Even better, TP-Link offers free Central and Cloud Essentials versions, which provide base sets of management and monitoring features for smaller businesses.

To add the EAP775-Wall to our licensed Omada Cloud Standard account, we scanned its bar code using the Omada iOS app, and once adopted, it took all its settings from the cloud controller and broadcast our predefined SSIDs. Usefully, the AP's downlink ports can be enabled or disabled from the standalone web console or cloud portal, and on the last two, you can remotely control PoE services.

The Omada Network 6 update presents a radically redesigned portal interface with multi-tab dashboards for quick access to topology, WiFi, traffic, and client activity views. It also introduces a network health scoring system in the Overview tab that evaluates all devices and clients to help locate potential performance issues.

Not available in the Omada Essentials edition, the RF scanning service is accessed from the statistics tab in the AP management screen and provides charts of RF scan results for each radio, while interference scans discover all other APs in the vicinity.

TP-Link Omada EAP775-Wall review: Is it worth it?

Available for £146 excluding VAT at Broadbandbuyer, the EAP775-Wall looks comparatively good value. It's very well constructed and delivers a reasonable Wi-Fi 7 performance with a good range that should cover most hotel and meeting rooms.

The extra downlink ports make this AP very versatile although you will need to provide a PoE++ source to get the best from it. It's simple to install and TP-Link offers an impressive range of smart cloud management services with the free editions having particular appeal to smaller businesses.

TP-Link Omada EAP775-Wall specifications

Geekom is among a cohort of increasingly prominent Chinese manufacturers building a diverse collection of snug and supercharged miniature computers that threaten to replace conventional desktop machines. The manufacturer's AMD-based mini PCs have excelled under scrutiny, including the outstanding Geekom A7 Max, while ITPro also described the Geekom A5 2025 Edition as the best mini PC on the market at the time of our review.

Both these machines are aimed at users with higher demands, but the Geekom Air12 2026 Edition is more in line with the Beelink Mini S13 or Acemagic Vista Mini V1. These are relatively stripped-back mini PCs and aren't suitable for the intensive or graphics-based workloads their weightier cousins are; rather, they're largely for day-to-day performance. With a basic Intel Pentium chipset alongside 8GB RAM, and an attractive £299 price tag (if you can find the device on sale), can this compact and affordable mini PC turn heads for those seeking an entry-level option?

Geekom Air12 2026 Edition: Design

Fewer PCs out there are more compact than the Geekom Air12 2026 Edition, with the manufacturer claiming it's the thinnest mini PC ever. That's due to its incredible slenderness, with dimensions measuring 117 x 112 x 34.2mm. Whether or not this is accurate depends on your parameters, however. For instance, the Acemagic Vista Mini V1 boasts a depth of just 32mm – but it isn't currently available.

Its 460g weight is also slightly below average, but it's twice as heavy as the Beelink (275g) and the Acemagic (245g). Nonetheless, this pocket-sized device is delightfully compact and impressively robust, with the chassis able to withstand up to 200kg of pressure. The weight isn't a huge problem at all, given it's light enough to begin with.

The two-toned gray and black chassis gives the device some character, while the four rubber feet handily let it rest on any surface without causing marks or scratches, and subtly rounded corners take the edge off. The look, similar to that of the A5 2025 Edition, is certainly a lot more subtle than a handful of devices out there. The Lenovo ThinkCentre M70q, for instance, is much louder.

There's a decent array of connectivity options with this device, too. The wireless compatibility standards of Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 – entirely standard for this power class – won't offer that much future-proofing. Otherwise, you'll benefit from a slew of options front and back. On the face of the device is one USB-C port and one USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 port, as well as a 3.5mm headphone jack and a power button (with a useful LED indicator). On the rear is a DC in, mini DP 1.4, Ethernet port, two USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 ports, HDMI 2.0 port, and a USB-C port with DP 1.4 Alt Mode. On the left-hand side is an SD card slot, and on the right a lock slot. It makes for a very strong collection of ports and connectivity options.

Geekom Air12 2026 Edition: Specs and performance

Fitted into the Geekom Air12 2026 Edition is a five-year-old Tiger Lake-U processor created initially for budget notebooks. The Intel Pentium Gold 7505 CPU is as entry-level as you can get, with the 10nm chip featuring two cores with a base frequency of 2GHz and a turbo capacity of 3.5GHz. Geekom has paired this with an Intel UHD Graphics chip, 8GB DDR4 SDRAM, and a 256GB PCIe Gen 3 SSD. By today's standards, you shouldn't ever consider a configuration weaker than this – and even this is hard to justify for anything beyond basic performance, unless you can't stretch your budget beyond £300.

The late-2020 CPU featured in this mini PC has been designed for efficiency and better performance in simple, single-core tasks rather than competence in multi-core processing. This is reflected in our testing with Geekbench 6, with the Geekom Air12 2026 Edition registering a single-core result of 1,460 and a multi-core result of 2,823. Performance is generally in line with Intel Processor N150-fitted mini PCs.

The Beelink Mini S13 Mini PC, for instance, registered 1,242 and 3,029 while the AceMagic Vista Mini V1 scored 1,278 and 3,169. Both these models are a tad cheaper at the time of writing, so evaluating performance depends on how you plan on using these machines. Given they're suited for workloads that utilize just one core, the Geekom Air12 may have the edge with its slightly better single-core performance.

An OpenCL score of 7,807 for GPU performance, meanwhile, is weak – especially when you compare it with the Acemagic Kron Mini K1's result of 9,630 with the same graphics chip. Finally, we should note the pretty poor SSD speeds of 557MB/s for reads and 480MB/s for writes. This is in line with what we saw from the Beelink's 510MB/s and 480MB/s, but considerably less than speeds of at least 3,000MB/s and 2,000MB/s for reads and writes in mid-range and higher-end mini PCs (that, admittedly, cost double the price).

Geekom Air12 2026 Edition: Is it worth it?

Price is king with entry-level mini PCs, and whether the Geekom Air12 2026 Edition is worth it depends on how good a deal you can get. We simply wouldn't consider anything higher than £299 – which is even slightly pricier than the Beelink Mini S13 Mini PC and the Acemagic Vista Mini V1. But its form factor is delightfully miniature and robust, its single-core performance is marginally better thanks to the Intel Pentium Gold CPU, and you can take advantage of a useful selection of ports for all contexts.

The simple fact is that your money will only get you so far in this power class. Increasing your budget by even just £100-£200 suddenly opens the door to modern hardware, better SSD speeds, and higher hardware standards. But if you're operating under a strict and limited budget, the Geekom Air12 2026 Edition is a solid entry-level mini PC, especially if you can bag a good bargain on one.

Geekom Air12 2026 Edition specifications

When we reviewed the 2025 MSI Prestige 16 AI, we declared it to be "one of the best business laptops on the market". Reading back over our review, that's an opinion we stand by.

The new 2026 model differs in some important ways. The IPS screen has been replaced by OLED, the AMD chipset has been replaced by one from Intel, the weight and thickness have both dropped, and the price. The quality of the sound system and the battery life have both gone up.

That's the good news. The bad news, such as it is, is that the numeric keypad has disappeared, and performance levels are lower. Does that make the new machine a better buy? If you can't be bothered to read the entire review, the short answer is yes.

MSI Prestige 16 AI+: Design

Compared to the 2025 model, the new Prestige is an altogether more curvaceous affair. Out have gone the flat slab-sides to be replaced by a much more rounded profile. At 1.59Kg and 13.9mm, the new model is considerably lighter and thinner than the 2025 model. Despite that, the new Prestige is still an all-metal build and is still impressively solid with very little flex to be felt in either the body or lid.

The new model is again MIL-STD-801H resistant to various degrees of vibration, temperature change, humidity, dust ingress, and shock. There's still only one colorway, a rather dour affair which MSI calls Platinum Grey, though to our eyes it's more silver. The new cursive logo script etched on the lid is a nice design touch. Whatever the aesthetic qualities of the exterior, it does a good job at keeping greasy fingerprints at bay, which, in our opinion, is more important than a snazzy paint job.

For such a slender machine, there's a solid selection of ports. On the left, there are two Thunderbolt 4 ports and an HDMI 2.1 video output, while on the right, there are two 5Gbps USB-A ports and a 3.5 combo audio jack. Some might argue that the USB-A ports should be faster, but it's hardly a deal-breaker. One thing the 2025 model had that the new one doesn't is a memory card slot, which we think is a shame. The Intel Killer BE1775 modem is bang on the money, though, supporting Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth v6.0.

Getting inside the Prestige is a straightforward operation, but once in, all you can do is swap out the M.2 2280 SSD, remove the battery, and blow dust out of the fans. The RAM and wireless card are all fixed in place, and there's no space for a second SSD. Speaking of SSDs, the 1TB Phison drive in our test machine performed decently enough, recording sequential read and write speeds of 4,761MB/s and 2,808MB/s respectively.

MSI Prestige 16 AI+: Keyboard, touchpad, and webcam

Some users will bemoan that MSI has ditched the numeric keypad, but given that it felt just a little cramped and offset the touchpad, we think MSI has made the right call. Physically, the new keyboard is difficult to criticise. The base is solid, the typing action perfectly weighted, the keycap graphics are models of clarity, and the three-stage white backlight that shines through the translucent walls of the keys is ideal, no matter what level of ambient light you find yourself working in.

Dead centre below the keyboard sits a large 160 x 100mm Mylar touchpad. It's a mechanical affair but none the worse for that. The click-action is light and clean, if just a wee bit on the noisy side.

The touchpad supports what MSI calls Action Functions. So a double-tap in the top right opens the MSI control centre, and one on the top left opens the calculator. Swiping up and down along the left edge adjusts the display brightness, do the same on the right and the volume changes.

Swiping along the top edge fast forwards and rewinds video, doing the same on the bottom flips through pages. You can also set custom actions or app launches when you swipe inwards from centre left, centre right, and centre top. It's a rather handy feature.

There's no want of biometric options with the webcam supporting Windows Hello IR facial recognition and the power button housing a fingerprint scanner. The webcam itself is nothing out of the ordinary, and the best it can do in terms of video is 1080p and 30fps, but it's bright and colorful and reacts well to changes in ambient light. We've seen a lot worse on laptops costing a lot more.

MSI Prestige 16 AI+: Display and speakers

The 2,880 x 1,800 120Hz Samsung-made OLED display may not be the brightest we've encountered, peaking at 385cd/m2 in SDR mode and 635cdm/2 in HDR, but it is very colorful with gamut volumes of 164.9% sRGB, 116.8 DCI-P3, and 113.6% Adobe RGB.

Using the MSI Centre S control panel, you can lock the display to the Display P3, Adobe RGB, and sRGB profiles, and doing so returns very good average Delta E variances of 0.6, 1.3, and 1, respectively.

That's by some margin the best color accuracy we've seen from a laptop with this sort of price sticker. There's also a Movie profile, which maximises color saturation, and two settings designed to reduce eye strain called Anti-Blue and Office.

Is the OLED display in the 2026 model better than the IPS panel in last year's model? The IPS display is faster at 165Hz and brighter, but we think 120Hz is more than adequate, and we prefer the sumptuous colors of an OLED panel and the superior HDR performance (the screen is VESA DisplayHDR True Black 600 certified), so we'd have no hesitation answering "yes".

The screen has a gloss finish that can be a little too reflective in some circumstances, especially when outside in sunlight, but that's a price worth paying for the immersively pellucid images that a glossy OLED display can deliver.

Traditionally, speaker systems have been something of an Achilles' heel for MSI's business machines, but the new Prestige is much improved. The sound system consists of two 2W woofers and two 2W full-range drivers.

Despite being all buried deep inside the casing and firing downwards, they produce a detailed and punchy soundscape with a useful amount of low-end bass. The clarity and volume pay dividends in Zoom and Teams calls, and the overall sound quality makes listening to music a rather enjoyable experience.

MSI Prestige 16 AI+: Specs and performance

Inside the Prestiage 16 AI+, you'll find an Intel Core Ultra 7 355. This sits toward the top of the lower half of the Panther Lake hierarchy and has 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 soldered LPDDR5x RAM.

That's a combination that quite clearly is not going to deliver the sort fort of performance we saw from the Core Ultra X7 385H and Arc B390 combo in the Acer Swift 16 AI, which boasts 16 CPU cores and 12 Xe GPU cores.

In our Handbrake-based 4K multimedia benchmark, the MSI scored 238 points to the Acer's 486, the difference mainly attributable to the superior graphics performance of the Arc integrated GPU.

For basic productivity, there's nothing at all wrong with the MSI's performance, it's 4K score is on a par with the likes of the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s (255) and M4 MacBook Air (247).

However, machines like the new M5 MacBook Air and the Qualcomm Snapdragon X2-powered Asus Zenbook A16 (which scored 325 and 375, respectively) have the legs on the new MSI, though both are considerably more expensive if you match the storage and RAM.

In the Geekbench 6 tests, the MSI scored 2,715 in the single-core test, 11,422 in the multi-core test, and 23,606 in the OpenCL GPU test. Again, for comparison, the Acer scored 2,836, 15,936, and 55,780, proving, if proof were needed, that there just ain't no substitute for more cores.

The difference in the graphics performance is underlined by the speed at which MSI ran the SPECviewperf 3dsmax 3D modelling benchmark: 18fps compared to 36fps on the Acer.

It's also worth pointing out here that the 2026 Prestige is less powerful than the 2025 model, with its AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 and Radeon 880M underpinnings. That scored 437 points in the 4K benchtest.

MSI's international website alludes to a 2026 model with the Intel Ultra X9 388H CPU and Arc B390 GPU, which would no doubt at least match the 2025 model, but at the time of writing, we've no details regarding UK availability or price.

In the new MSI machine's favour, it can run flat out without even a hint of thermal throttling, produces very little fan noise, and barely gets warm to the touch even around the vent grille on the underside. You could almost be forgiven for thinking the Prestige 16 AI is passively cooled.

The upside of running a more modest chipset is longer battery life. In our standard battery test, which involves looping a video in VLC with the display set to 170cd/m2, the 81Wh battery inside the MSI kept the lights on for 17 hours and 45 minutes.

That's 2 hours 30 minutes better than the M5 MacBook Air, 2 hours and 15 minutes better than the Acer Aspire, and the same, give or take two minutes, as the Asus Zenbook A16.

MSI Prestige 16 AI+: Is it worth it?

For £1,250, the new MSI Prestige 16 AI is nigh on impossible to criticise. The screen and speaker system are definitely a step forward from the 2025 model, and though you no longer get a MicroSD slot, there's an extra USB-A port to make up for it. The keyboard and touchpad are both top-notch, and the battery life is excellent.

The only area where the new Prestige lacks is in graphics performance when compared to the Radeon 880M-equipped 2025 model and the Arc B390-equipped Panther Lake competition. But of course, the new MSI is quite a bit cheaper than all those alternatives.

Hopefully, MSI will release the Intel Ultra X9 388H / Arc B390 model in the UK to satisfy those who want to run demanding graphics jobs or play a little surreptitious Cyberpunk 2077 at lunchtime, but for everyone else, this model will do very nicely indeed.

MSI Prestige 16 AI+: Specs

Chinese manufacturer LincPlus started life producing budget-priced and aesthetically pleasing laptops and tablets, and moved its focus onto the NAS market a couple of years ago. Its first product in 2024 was the LincStation N1, which boldly claimed to be the world's first six-bay all SSD appliance, followed by the N2 the following year, which employed the same compact chassis and delivered a big performance boost.

In this review, we look at the LincStation E1 – a table-top NAS which teams up two LFF/SFF SATA hot-plug drive bays with a pair of M.2 NVMe SSD slots. Recently launched on the Kickstarter crowdfunding platform, its biggest claim to fame is its very low price, with the first 200 units going at a super-early-bird price of €129, followed by an early-bird price of €149 and then a regular price of €219, which pans out to around £190.

Perhaps the biggest change is in software; unlike the N1 and N2, which both employ Lime Technology's Unraid software, the E1 introduces LincPlus' very own LincOS operating system. Unraid is undoubtedly a powerful OS with plenty of features, but it isn't the easiest to configure, and LincOS aims to deliver a more user-friendly experience.

LincPlus LincStation E1 review: Design and hardware features

The E1 employs a solidly constructed plastic chassis with the two telescopic tool-free hot-swap drive carriers accessed by removing the magnetic upper cover. In the base, you'll find a non-magnetic cover with the two M.2 NVMe slots behind it and a single fan sitting directly on top of them.

It's all change in the CPU department as LincPlus moves away from Intel, with the E1 receiving a quad-core 2GHz Rockchip RK3568 SoC sporting an ARM Mali G52 GPU and a 1TOPs NPU (neural processing unit). Memory is the DDR4 variety with the 4GB soldered on the motherboard and not upgradeable.

There was some confusion when the appliance was first launched, as its KickStarter project page showed the network port as Gigabit, and LincPlus initially confirmed that the 2.5GbE port in our early pre-launch model had been dropped down to Gigabit on production models. We were subsequently advised that this was incorrect and that production appliances will have a 2.5GbE port.

There are plenty more hardware features, along with integrated dual-band Wi-Fi support, you have a USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 USB port at the front and two more USB-A 2.0 ports at the rear. The HDMI 2.1 port alongside receives 4K 60Hz video from the SoC's GPU.

LincPlus LincStation E1 review: Swift deployment

For testing, we fitted two 4TB Seagate IronWolf NAS HDDs, added a couple of Kingston M.2 NVMe SSDs, and made sure the NVMe bay cover had been pushed forward until it was locked in place. The appliance was then hooked up to the lab's Zyxel XMG1930-30HP multi-Gig PoE++ switch, which confirmed a 2.5GbE connection speed.

Multiple deployment options are available, as you can attach an HD monitor, keyboard, and mouse to the appliance and use the desktop user interface. The easiest method is to install the LincStation Windows, iOS, or Android client apps, which run a wizard for registering the appliance and setting up an admin account.

To create storage spaces, you select the Profile/My Device/Storage Management option from the client and choose your drives with RAID0, 1, 10, 5, and 6 arrays supported. We created separate RAID1 mirrored storage spaces for the HDDs and NVMe SSDs. The appliance doesn't support SSD caching in the traditional sense, but you can use NVMe SSDs as a fast repository for file sharing and downloads.

LincPlus LincStation E1 review: LincOS features

LincOS is easy to use, and we found all features can be accessed directly from the client apps, which open with quick access links to personal storage spaces and a collection of apps for file sharing, multimedia services, remote downloads, and more. The client Profile menu offers a desktop mode, which presents the same graphical interface as a locally attached monitor.

The admin user can load a basic web UI from the client with access to personal spaces for viewing, creating, and sharing folders, monitoring upload tasks, loading a recycle bin, creating encrypted spaces, and managing share spaces. New users are created from the client, and they can log in from their choice of client and use the web UI for accessing their personal space, task monitoring, and a recycle bin.

The Backup Disk tool secures PC and mobile data to the appliance, where you choose local folders, an appliance storage space, the file types to be backed up, and whether to use WiFi only or any network. The Sync Disk tool keeps selected folders on the local device and NAS in step, and in both cases, the processes are automated with an option to run jobs on demand as well.

The Secure Space feature allows users to create hardware-encrypted, password-protected areas in storage spaces for private data. Folders in this space cannot be shared, and the client provides an option for admins to back up encryption passwords for all user accounts for disaster recovery purposes.

Multimedia services are extensive as LincOS has music and video centre apps, a smart album for photos, and Photo Frame for creating slideshows. The smart album's local AI-powered photo image and facial recognition work well, while the smart library AI document centre provides full text search facilities for all file content.

LincPlus LincStation E1 review: Gigabit performance

With a share on the appliance's HDD RAID1 storage space mapped to a Dell PowerEdge Windows Server 2025 host on our 10GbE LAN, Iometer recorded uninspiring sequential read and write rates of 216MB/sec and 131MB/sec with the Windows client app showing CPU utilisation of up to 80%.

Real world numbers also failed to impress with 25GB file copies between the NAS and server delivering average read and write rates 170MB/sec and 112MB/sec while our 22.4GB backup test folder with 10,500 small files was secured using drag and drop at 66MB/sec.

Moving to a share on the RAID1 NVMe SSD mirror saw minor performance improvements with Iometer recording sequential read and write rates of 225MB/sec and 139MB/sec. Read and write speeds for our large file copies stepped up slightly to 174MB/sec and 117MB/sec while our backup test mustered 71MB/sec.

LincPlus LincStation E1 review: Is it worth it?

The KickStarter campaign ends at the start of June, and with a projected regular price of around £190, the LincStation E1 is probably the lowest-cost 4-bay NAS on the market. Performance over 2.5GbE is below expectations, but it should satisfy the target market of home and small business users.

A standout feature is the new LincOS software, as even though it's still in development, it already offers a good range of storage features with the smart LincStation clients making light work of configuration and management. LincPlus advised us that the next LincOS update will add an improved web GUI, a new task manager, drag and drop support for the cloud drive module, a redesigned music module, and the LincClaw AI assistant.

LincPlus LincStation E1 specifications

Conventional enterprise laptops can often feel bland and stuffy, but the HP EliteBook X Flip G1i offers something a little different. The Lunar Lake-powered 2-in-1 hybrid adopts a sleek and stylish design aesthetic while packing plenty of the same enterprise features you would expect from the Elitebook series – namely, it's similar to the clamshell HP EliteBook laptops.

The key difference here, of course, is the 360-degree hinges that can transform your device into a tablet at a moment's notice, whether you want to use it as a touchscreen or a second display in your setup. Helpfully, it's also a little lighter and trimmer, making it a great option for mobile working, especially for those working with sensitive material. Questions remain as to whether its display is strong and vibrant enough to justify being used as a tablet and whether its battery life offers more than the clamshell version, so you can rely on this 2-in-1 when away from the desk.

HP EliteBook X Flip G1i: Design and display

HP's design aesthetic for its EliteBook family is clean and sophisticated, and the manufacturer brings the same minimalist look and feel to the EliteBook X Flip G1i. It's practically indistinguishable from its cousins, including the likes of the EliteBook 8 G1i or the EliteBook X G1i. Although you aren't likely to stand out from the crowd, there's no reason to be disappointed with a clean and elegant overall look. The silver aluminum chassis exudes freshness, while its rounded corners give it a softer and more accessible feel – akin to that you might feel when using a MacBook.

Its dimensions are consistent with what we'd expect from a machine like this, and impressively, it's even thinner than the Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Gen 10 Aura Edition (which doesn't feature an HDMI port). But its weight is on the heavy side at 1.4kg. For instance, Lenovo's 2-in-1 is 1.32kg, and the HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 is 1.34kg.

Generally, the device is well constructed and robust, which is the least you could ask for. That's the case whether you're using it as a laptop or if you bend the display back and use it in a variety of tablet modes. The one element that's a bit of a letdown is that the display does feel a tad loose when you tap it too firmly. This is still within the bounds of acceptability – and it's certainly an issue in most 2-in-1s – but firming this up would have given the EliteBook that extra edge.

The display itself isn't completely flush against the lid and instead features a plastic outline that protrudes slightly. Although visually unappealing, it's smart in the sense that it prevents the screen from being marked by the keyboard when shutting it – which it does with a firm snap thanks to the magnetics. Another oddity is that the end of the lid and the main body don't fully line up. It's a minor, and mostly visual, complaint, rather than a functional one, but it stood out nonetheless.

Our feelings about the display itself are generally mixed. The review unit we tested featured an entry-level 1,900 x 1,200 IPS screen with HDR and a 60Hz refresh rate – although you can also buy this laptop with a 2.5K (2,560 x 1,600-pixel) panel with a much smoother 120Hz refresh rate. Both are stated to be 400 nits bright (a little above average), but we imagine the user experience differences are stark, with added sharpness and smoothness rendering it a much better proposition.

The version of the display that we tested, however, only reached 316 cd/m2, which is a little below average. Color accuracy had a better showing with an excellent 100% coverage of the sRGB gamut, backed up by an excellent 76.4% and 88.1% coverage of the Adobe and DCI-P3 gamuts, for photo and video editing, respectively (where scores above 70% and 80% indicate adequacy for professional color work). This pairs with an outstanding 0.18 black level and relatively high 1,694:1 contrast ratio (great results in a non-OLED screen). Capping this off is a 0.29 average Delta-E result and a maximum of 1.05, generally in line with the best laptop displays.

HP EliteBook X Flip G1i: Performance and battery life

Powering the HP EliteBook X Flip G1i is an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V processor and an Intel Arc Graphics chip alongside 32GB LPDDR5X RAM and a 1TB SSD. The integrated NPU can also squeeze out a decent 47 TOPS, which is enough to power most innate AI workloads. Unfortunately for the Lunar Lake generation, power is a little compromised for the sake of efficiency – and that's something we certainly noticed in testing this 2-in-1.

Testing this machine using Geekbench 6 produced a single-threaded result of 2,464 and a multi-core score of 10,239. It's not much of a leap from machines built in 2023 and beyond. For example, the last HP Spectre x360 14 scored 2,110 and 10,480 with the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H chip. But this model only offered 11 TOPS of AI power and a comparatively weak GPU. By contrast, the EliteBook X Flip G1i's graphics card scored a solid 28,966 – which is more than usable for visual workloads. Other 2-in-1s that we previously tested hit scores a little higher, including the Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Gen 10 Aura Edition (30,830) and the HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 (33,349).

On the other hand, this machine's battery life puts it in a much better light, having lasted 16hrs and 27mins in our looped video playback test. It's a decent score compared with the average machine featuring the same Intel chipset. It's roughly an hour longer than the Yoga 2-in-1, for instance, and an hour shorter than the OmniBook Ultra Flip 14. In today's market, anything above roughly 14-15 hours can be considered a good battery life, although there are a handful of machines out there capable of beating 20-plus hours.

The SSD speeds are slightly below average at 5,152MB/s and 4,505MB/s for reads and writes – which is much lower than we would normally see in HP machines, which usually score close to 7,000MB/s for reads and more than 5,550MB/s for writes.

HP EliteBook X Flip G1i: Features

We generally enjoyed using the HP EliteBook X Flip G1i's keyboard. The travel distance is a little on the shorter side, but not as short as some of the consumer-grade devices, and there's a huge amount of snappy force feedback with each keystroke. There's also the downside of a higher resistance with such heavy feedback, meaning it becomes harder to get into a proper touch typing flow. That said, it's still eminently enjoyable to use. We appreciated the inclusion of a full-sized Enter key, but were disappointed that the PG UP and PG DN keys were crammed just above the Left and Right arrows. There are no surprises otherwise, with the Function keys giving an array of useful toggles – including F2 to activate the screen guard that dims the display and decimates the viewing angle in such a way that prevents shoulder surfing and ensures privacy on the move. There's also a shortcut with F11 that opens the MyHP control dock. The EliteBook touchpads are perfectly sized, well-positioned in the center of the machine, and look far better than most you'll find in laptops. But they suffer from a glassy surface that's far too slippery and doesn't offer enough friction for more precise cursor movements. Left-clicking and right-clicking, however, is perfect with plenty of travel distance and feedback.

You'll also benefit from a full complement of ports – which is hard to pull off in a 14-inch machine. The ports include HDMI 2.1, two USB-C ports with Thunderbolt 4 and 3.5mm headphone jack on the left-hand side of the chassis, another USB-C port and a USB-A port, in addition to a Nano lock slot and a SIM slot for mobile communications on the right-hand side. Wireless options include Bluetooth 5.4 and Wi-Fi 7 connectivity. Other than a lack of an SD card slot, there's pretty much everything you would need in this impressively compact device.

As with HP's EliteBook family of security-centric laptops, you'll get access to the HP Wolf Security suite alongside a one-year subscription, alongside a plethora of apps like HP Sure Start, Sure Run, Sure Recover, Sure Click, and Sure Admin. Thanks to a 5MP AI infrared camera, you can benefit from facial recognition with Windows Hello, onlooker alerts (notifications that warn you when you're being watched), and presence sensing (meaning the machine can sleep or wake depending on your proximity). There's even a fingerprint scanner built into the power button.

HP also claims that the firmware is protected against quantum computing hacks thanks to the HP Endpoint Security Controller – an isolated, dedicated microprocessor that protects the BIOS. Chances are you aren't going to face those in the wild for a good few years. But it's better to be safe than sorry.

HP EliteBook X Flip G1i: Is it worth it?

You're going to be drawn to a machine like this if you're a professional who needs to work on the move and finds value in the configurable form factor – whether you're presenting, viewing content, using it as a secondary display, or just want the option. Although a little on the weighty side, it's a compact and sufficiently stylish device with an excellent build quality and premium feel. Thankfully, if you're working in sensitive areas in particular, the mobility that this machine encourages is also met with a raft of protective and safeguarding features that tries to give you the freedom and peace of mind to work confidently and capably while on the move, without looking over your shoulder; indeed, there's a feature for that.

The display that we tested (a basic 1,900 x 1,200-pixel panel) punched above its weight, so we'd expect good things if you wanted to upgrade to the higher-quality version. The hardware, however, is a little bit of a letdown. That's common with mobile Lunar Lake processors, but the trade-off is better power efficiency with a battery life that will last a full working day, and then some. Overall, there's nothing particularly standout – but nothing particularly worrisome about this solid and sophisticated enterprise laptop that will put even the most paranoid professional's mind at ease.

HP ZBook X G1i review: Specifications

Windows All-in-One PCs are among the most difficult devices to get excited about. Designed and built to a price and aimed primarily at the most utilitarian end of the corporate computing market, they are the ultimate white goods of the PC world.

It thus came as something of a surprise when Medion's UK PR team sent over the press release for its latest Signium 27 A1 AIO. Here was a device that looked rather smart and stylish despite being aggressively priced at around £750, which undercuts the likes of the MSI Pro AP242P 14M and the Lenovo ThinkCentre M90a Gen 5.

Medion Signium 27 S1: Design

Windows' AIOs are usually boring black blocks of plastic with all the design interest of a suburban bus shelter. Credit then to Medion for cooking up something just a little different. The Signium 27 is still made of plastic, but the matte silver paint finish matches the elegant metal stand, giving the impression of something beyond call-centre utilitarianism. At first sight, you'd be forgiven for thinking it's made from aluminium rather than plastic.

It's impressively svelte, too. The screen bezels are just 15mm wide at the top and bottom, and a little over half that at the sides. The base of the stand is a compact and narrow affair that takes up a minimum of desk space, and the whole assembly only weighs 3.8Kg

Under the centre of the screen are three LED-lit squidgy rubberised buttons. The larger middle one is a simple on/off button, while the smaller one to the left opens a simple menu to switch inputs between the PC and the HDMI-in port and adjust the brightness when used in monitor mode. The right button disables the webcam, which seems like overkill given that there's also a manual privacy shutter.

Adjustment is very limited, with nothing available in terms of height or rotation. What you can do is tilt the screen forward and back between -20 degrees and +40 degrees. To further limit the positional possibilities, the two-piece metal stand doesn't feature anything in the way of a VESA attachment, so fixing it to a monitor arm is impossible without some sort of adapter.

Medion has equipped the Signium with a decent range of ports. On the right-hand side of the unit, for easy access, there are two 5Gbps USB ports: one Type-A and one Type-C.

Around the back, there are another three more USB-A ports, two 480Mbps 2.0 and one 10Gbps, and a second Type-C port, this time supporting 10Gbps data as well as DisplayPort video and PowerDelivery charging. Accompanying those data ports is a gigabit RJ-45 LAN port, two HDMI 1.4 ports, one in and one out, a 3.5mm combination audio jack, a Kensington lock slot, and a DC-in jack for the 120W power supply.

Wireless communications come courtesy of an Intel AX211 card, which supports 6GHz Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3. Neither of those protocols is the latest thing, but we wouldn't have been that shocked if the Medion had only supported 2.4/5Ghz Wi-Fi, so it's still a win in our book.

The bundled mouse and keyboard look rather more desirable than they are, thanks to a smart black and silver livery.

Both work well enough, though the keyboard lacks a backlight, has a rather shallow key action, and there's nothing in the way of angle adjustment. The mouse is too flat for our tastes.

On the plus side, the layout of the keyboard is good, there's a full-size numeric keypad, a wide range of status lights, and full-sized left/right arrow keys.

Both the keyboard and mouse feature a MicroUSB port for recharging duties. Thankfully, Medion includes a short charging cable. Rather than depending on Bluetooth, the mouse and keyboard connect via a 2.4Ghz wireless dongle.

Undo two Philips screws on the rear, and you can slide off the panel that covers the internal components. Not only is there space for a second M.2 2280 SSD and easy access to both SODIMM slots, but there is also space for a good old-fashioned 2.5in SATA3 HDD. This level of upgradability was wholly unexpected but most welcome.

Medion Signium 27 S1: Display, audio & webcam

Windows AIOs tend to come with very basic displays, but the Medion is just a little better. Granted, it's a standard IPS affair, and with a 1,920 x 1,080 matrix spread over a 27-inch diagonal, it's not the sharpest display around with a pixel density of just 82dpi.

Peak brightness is also nothing to write home about: 240cd/m2, though that is adequate for indoor use. There's rather more color on offer than with the likes of the MSI Pro AP242P and the Lenovo ThinkCentre M90a, with color gamut volumes of 126.5% sRGB, 89.6% DCI-P3, and 87.2% Adobe RGB.

For comparison, the MSI display only covers 92.7% sRGB, 65.6% DCI-P3, and 63.8% AdobeRGB, respectively. The Lenovo is better at 104.7% sRGB, 74.1% DCI-P3, and 71.2% Adobe RGB, but still can't match the Medion.

Combine that with a contrast ratio of 978:1, a Delta E color variance of 2.64 against the sRGB profile – just below 3, at which point the more acute observer will start to notice color deviations – and you get a screen that looks nicely colorful and natural to the naked eye.

On a more mundane level, the screen has an effective matte anti-reflective finish, so you don't need to worry about reflections from bright lights. Unsurprisingly, there's no support for HDR content, and the refresh rate is effectively limited to 60Hz at 1,920 x 1,080.

We say effectively because you can actually push the refresh rate to 75Hz, but when you do, the resolution drops to 1,080 x 720. Increase the resolution back to FullHD, and the refresh rate defaults back to 60Hz.

Buried in the bottom left and right corners of the Medion's cabinet are two loudspeakers of unstated output and dubious origin. They are better than nothing, but not by a wide margin.

Peak volume is a lowly 69dBA as measured against a pink noise source at a distance of 1m, and the sound they produce is constrained, muddy, brittle, devoid of bass, and generally tiresome. For a casual Zoom call, they'll do, but for anything else, you'll need headphones or remote speakers.

The 1080p webcam also belongs in the category of better than nothing, but only just. The images it produces are drab and extremely fuzzy, so fuzzy in fact that we at first assumed the lens was smeared in something and broke out the cotton wool buds to clean it. Alas, that was to no avail; the webcam is just plain bad.

For the record, the camera doesn't support Windows Hello facial recognition, and it also lacks the Windows Studio suite of filters and augmentations, though that's more down to the absence of an NPU on the chipset to support Windows local "AI" functions than the camera hardware.

Medion Signium 27 S1: Specs and Performance

Given the cost, the internal specification of the Signium 27 is pretty solid with a 10-core Intel Core 7 240H CPU, 32GB of dual-channel DDR4 RAM and a 1TB SSD. There's no way of accessing the internal parts of the system, so there's no way to add more storage or RAM.

The 240H processor inside the Signium is a Raptor Lake Refresh laptop chip with a 5.2GHz turbo boost speed, 6 performance cores, and Intel's basic integrated UHD Graphics GPU.

In our bespoke 4K Handbrake-based multi-media benchmark, the Signium scored 221 points. That's quite a bit behind the MSI Pro AP242P's 329, though, given that it runs a 20-core Core i7-14700, it is hardly a surprise.

The Medion's performance is more in line with what you'd expect from the likes of a 2023-era M2 MacBook Air (220) and not too far adrift of more modern Windows laptops like the Geekom X14 Pro (267) or the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (245).

In simple CPU performance, the Signium performed very similarly to the Acer TravelMate P6 we tested recently, with its Intel Core Ultra 7 258V chipset. The Medion scored 2,605 and 10,341 in the GeekBench 6 single and multi-core tests compared to 2,483 and 10,021 for the Acer laptop.

Turning to graphics performance, the Medion did rather better than expected Intel UHD Graphics 770 iGPU, which boasts 64 execution units, double that found in the MSI Pro AP242P's UHD Graphics 770 GPU chip.

The SPECviewperf 3dsmax 3D modelling benchmark scored 15fps on the Medion. That compares to 12.5fps on the MSI. Naturally, you'll get much better results from the latest generation of Arc integrated GPUs (the Intel Arc B390 can run the same test at 35fps, the Arc 140V at 25fps), but the Medion has nothing to be ashamed of.

The Signium, then, is no powerhouse, but performance across the board is more than adequate for the sort of general computing tasks you'd buy a machine like this for.

When placed under maximum stress, the single cooling fan was easily able to prevent any thermal throttling and allowed both the CPU and GPU to run at 100% utilisation for prolonged periods. The fan was also impressively quiet, even when running at full speed.

The PCIe 4 M.2 SSD (and the RAM sticks) in our review sample are made by a company called Yclongsto. That's a new name to us, but the drive performed well enough, returning consecutive read and write speeds of 3,855MB/s and 3,027MB/s which is more than adequate for basic productivity tasks.

The Signium ships with Windows 11 Home rather than Pro, but if you fancy ditching Windows altogether, then you're in luck because Ubuntu 24.04 runs perfectly with everything, other than the pointless 75Hz/720p overdrive, working as it should right out of the box.

Medion Signium 27 S1: Is it worth it?

For the asking price, the Signium 27 S1 is a very attractive package. You certainly get a lot for your money, and once set up, you won't need to buy any accessories, even if the webcam and speakers leave rather a lot to be desired in terms of quality.

Performance levels are more than adequate, the display is rather more colorful than those you'll get with some of the more expensive competition, and you can use it as a monitor thanks to that HDMI input.

The fact that it comes with a 1TB SSD and 32GB of RAM as standard is another bonus, as is the ease with which you can add even more RAM and storage.

The Signium also looks rather less utilitarian than much of the competition, which could be a valuable feature if you want your office to look just a little less workaday.

Medion Signium 27 S1 Specifications

ReMarkable is back with a new e-ink tablet, the ReMarkable Paper Pure. And it comes with a wealth of new upgrades and integrations that push the company closer towards businesses.

To be clear, this isn't an upgrade of the Paper Pro (or Paper Pro Move). It's a different line altogether that's more affordable. So it loses some premium features, looks less stylish than the Pro, and doesn't offer colors. But it opens the ReMarkable experience up to more customers (potentially).

What's more, the launch of the Pure will see a software upgrade pushed out to all ReMarkable devices that makes them ultimately better, which I will explain later in this review.

ReMarkable Paper Pure: Design

There's nothing else on the market quite like the ReMarkable Paper Pure, except maybe the Paper Pro. It's not like any tablet I've seen, nor does it share any resemblance to other e-ink devices. The brown casing and chassis don't sound particularly appealing, and yet it's quite distinctive. The indented reMarkable logo on the back adds a touch of class, and the 6mm thinness almost makes it feel like it isn't a piece of technology at all.

The first change I noticed was the wider bezel on the left of the tablet – like a sort of inside margin where you might hold it if you're standing. I don't particularly like it. I wasn't keen on the Paper Pro having something similar along the bottom either. However, it's a necessary inclusion as that's where the main circuitry is. Which is part of the reason it's so thin, so I can't complain too much.

Once again, the display is powered by 'canvas' technology, though without the inclusion of color. That, for me, is a real loss. But also, why this tablet is both more affordable and feels more serious. It's just 10.3in, so noticeably smaller than the 11.8in Pro. But still just as responsive and comfortable. No other tablet gives you that feel of pencil on paper quite like reMarkable.

You get a USB Type-C slot in the bottom left corner and a power button at the top left. Those corners are also subtly rounded, and the chassis has two groove lines that run right around the whole device. There are also bumps on the back cover at each corner. One thing that is missing, which was on Pro, is a night light for the display. So this is decidedly a device that needs sunshine or your big light being on.

As with the Pro, the Pure has accessories; you get an all-black marker and folio case. You need to pay a little extra for the case, which comes in red, blue, and a sort of minty green. The case is very sturdy, but it doesn't clip onto the tablet. You have to pull the reMarkable out fully to use it.

ReMarkable Paper Pure: Specs and Performance

Once again, we can't really benchmark a ReMarkable device; you can't download apps or play videos, so that rules out Geekbench and our in-house battery test. So we are going by feel, and it feels, to me, to be faster than previous models. The screen responds quicker, there's less lag to the applications, and it has only the briefest of flashes as it registers ink.

Much of this is down to the new 1.7 GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A55 chip on the inside. And much more is down to an improved operating system and in-house software. What Remarkable has done to the Linux base to create and improve the ReMarkable OS is highly impressive. The simplified layouts, the new templates, the integrations, it's all an improvement on previous generations and significantly better than all e-ink tablets around.

Without a specific battery test, I was left with just regular use of the device, and in the two weeks I used the Paper Pure – which was primarily for work, taking notes, doodling, and editing documents – I didn't need to charge it once. As I write this review, there is still 14% of battery left.

ReMarkable Paper Pure: Features

An update is coming for all ReMarkable tablets, and the Pure is a kind of testbed for them. There is a delicate balance being struck here. ReMarkable sells its products as a distraction-free devices that aid productivity and clear thinking. But you need some link to the internet to get work done or even share your ideas with the rest of your team. And, in my experience, ReMarkable has found that balance in a brilliant way.

You can now link your ReMarkable tablet to Google Calendar or Microsoft Outlook. Here, it can create meeting notes, share ideas with other members of the team (if they also have ReMarkable devices), and convert documents from Microsoft Word, Google Drive, or even Dropbox. ReMarkable has its own in-house formatting system, which allows you to pull documents in – I've used this for editing Google Docs, and even whole webpages, which even includes the images of said pages.

There are also minimal connections to Slack, where you can convert and share handwriting and sketches. This is largely where AI is used by ReMarkable, and thankfully, it hasn't made that the main selling point. You can also search your handwriting and typed notes, making it easier to find what you've written.

I fell in love with the ReMarkable Paper Pro last year, but if you were to ask me what I didn't like, it would be the lack of integrations and connections that have now been solved by the Paper Pure. I still have a distraction-free tablet, but I can add it into my workflow, share it with teammates, and realistically use it every day for work. And, brilliantly, this update goes to other ReMarkable devices.

What's more, the Connect for Business subscription service just adds further evidence that ReMarkable makes work devices. It gets that we still need the space and tools to think freely. But adds business-focused features like device management and enterprise single sign-on.

ReMarkable Paper Pure: Is it worth it?

ReMarkable Paper Pure is available now in two bundles, one that's for the device and the marker for £359, and another that also includes the Sleeve Folio for £399. Both options are significantly cheaper than the Paper Pro, which was around £500 at launch.

So the Pure is a more affordable version of ReMarkable's e-ink range and perhaps a more business-focused one. However, its main features will come to all reMarkable devices via an update. So I will say I do like the Pure, but I much prefer the Paper Pro; it's a much better device in terms of looks and features (I love the colors).

ReMarkable Paper Pure specifications

The BenQ RD280UG is the second generation of BenQ's RD280U programming monitor. That may, admittedly, sound torturously dull to some readers, but wait – don't click the back button quite yet. Even if you don't count coding amongst your talents, the RD280UG's very particular set of skills makes it a superb monitor for serious work.

This 28.2-inch monitor has a 4K+ (yes, 4K 'plus') resolution with an unusually square 3:2 aspect ratio, and if your idea of perfection is superlatively crisp text, rich colors, and a smooth 120Hz refresh rate, as well as useful USB-C connectivity, then this unconventional display may be just what you've been waiting for. It's rather brilliant in its own unique way.

BenQ RD280UG monitor: Design & Features

Within a few seconds of turning the RD280UG on, it's quite clear that it isn't your average PC monitor. The large 28.2in panel's 3:2 ratio brings back memories of square, old-school CRT monitors, and that, combined with the 3,840 x 2,560 pixel resolution, makes for a wonderfully large, crisp desktop.

The 163ppi pixel density makes all the difference here, but BenQ has also used a more upmarket IPS panel with a claimed 2000:1 contrast ratio. It lacks the IPS Black label of similarly specified monitors, but it does the same job: black looks much less grey than it does on lower contrast IPS panels.

This combines with rich, saturated colors and an effective matte anti-glare coating, which adds just a slight subtle grain to the image. The result, though, is a monitor that's great for poring over text. Characters are perfectly crisp and precise – almost like perfect print on a page – and if you do need to work with images, the high pixel density provides oodles of crisp detail.

It's the extra vertical resolution which is most prized by programmers – more vertical space means more room for code – but the combination of a 4:3 panel and a high pixel density means that it's a great fit for productivity-focused and creative desks, too. Personally, I loved the ability to pin desktop browser windows to each side of the screen – it's like having two pixel-dense portrait displays side by side, as it's perfect for editing and writing documents on one side while researching and checking over test data and reports on the other.

In the world of programming, choosing the right monitor can allow you to work longer without risking eye strain. BenQ's RD family goes a little further than most, however, with a handful of picture modes designed to maximise text and code legibility, which work in tandem with various features designed to boost eye comfort for long days in the saddle.

Some are pretty familiar: the Low Blue Light mode softens the white background to a gentle yellowish shade, the Eye Reminder feature can be set to tell you to take a break from the screen in 30, 45, or 60-minute increments, and the Color Weakness option dials up the red or green bias to better suit the user's specific red-green color blindness.

The most unusual addition here is BenQ's MoonHalo. This ring-shaped LED light illuminates the rear wall behind the monitor – a technique known as bias lighting. This both helps to reduce eye strain from sudden brightness shifts on the monitor and also serves to boost the monitor's perceived black depth. For monitors or TVs with limited contrast, it can make a huge difference – and it's more comfortable for working late nights or (very) early mornings, too.

The MoonHalo works in tandem with the RD280UG's light sensor. The sensor detects both the ambient light levels and the color temperature of the surrounding light, and this allows the RD280UG's Visual Optimiser feature to automatically adjust both the brightness and color temperature of both the display and the MoonHalo light.

The Night Hours Protection feature also harnesses the brightness sensor and, when enabled, automatically dials the screen brightness right down when it detects low light conditions. Use this alongside the Local Contrast feature, which raises the brightness of darker tones to boost legibility, and this makes it possible to use the RD280UG at far lower brightness levels than most monitors. If you prefer working in very low light conditions, then this works really well in tandem with the MoonHalo light providing a gentle glow at the monitor's rear.

Our one piece of advice here is to turn off the color temperature control in the Visual Optimiser settings. The automatic color temperature adjustment seems to just dial up the low blue light mode, so makes the onscreen image look too yellow during daylight hours. Thankfully, it's not a global on or off control for Visual Optimiser, so you don't need to be constantly turning it on and off: you can enable or disable it on each of the monitor's picture modes if you prefer to set the brightness and MoonHalo color temperature manually.

It sounds a tad silly, but one of our favourite features of the RD280UG is a single button – BenQ calls it the hotkey. Just like the previous RD280U model, a little glossy function bar sits on the bottom bezel. Prod the embossed hotkey at the centre of the bar, and a quick menu pops up on screen to show you the current picture mode settings, and little backlit icons on the bar itself indicate which of the current Eye Care features are active. Press the hotkey again, and it cycles through the four picture modes, allowing you to quickly and lazily flit between picture modes for daytime and low-light coding, the paper color mode for reading, and the more vibrant, color-accurate User mode.

Connectivity is slightly improved over the RD280U. The DisplayPort 1.4 input remains the same, but you now get an HDMI 2.1 port which, with the appropriate hardware, is able to deliver the panel's full 3,840 x 2,560 resolution at 120Hz. The upstream USB-C port still supplies 90W of power and supports DisplayPort Alt mode, so you can pass video and power via a single cable. The downstream USB-C port now supplies 15 watts of power – double the previous model – and also supports daisy chain operation so you connect a second monitor up to the full resolution and refresh rate of the RD280UG.

As before, you also get an integrated KVM switch. Connect a laptop to the primary USB-C port, and another PC or laptop to the USB-B input, you can share the peripherals connected to the RD280UG's USB ports.

It is a bit of an odd choice not to put more of these ports at the rear of the monitor, though. BenQ has opted to keep them more accessible by placing the two USB-A ports, single USB-C port and 3.5mm headphone output underneath the panel's front edge, too. This is handy, but the positioning may prove awkward for more unusual setups.

For instance, if you have your monitor raised up on a stand, you won't be able to lower the monitor to its lowest height as the cables will hit the monitor's base. And if you're using the ports to connect a mouse and keyboard, we do wonder why they need to be positioned where they are – surely a couple of ports at the rear of the monitor for peripherals and a couple of quick access ports at the front would make more sense.

BenQ RD280UG monitor: Display quality

The RD280UG takes everything people liked about the previous model and adds a variety of upgrades across the board. At the heart of the RD280G is an upgraded IPS panel. It lacks the LG-specific IPS Black trademark, but touts a similar upgrade in contrast over standard IPS panels – a claimed 2,000:1, which is a sizable jump from the 1,200:1 of the RD280U. The refresh rate has doubled to 120Hz, too, and this is why the RD280UG now comes with a prominent AMD FreeSync Premium logo on the box.

Other specifications are identical. You still get a claimed maximum brightness of 350cd/m2 (or nits, if you prefer) in SDR; a DisplayHDR 400 certification; a panel which reproduces 95% of the DCI-P3 color palette; and a 5ms response time. The screen still sports BenQ's Nano Matte anti-glare coating, too, and this is no bad thing. It does a great job of controlling glare in even the brightest rooms, and unlike some more aggressive anti-glare coatings, it only adds a very slight grain to the image.

The RD280UG might seem more focused on legibility and eye-comfort than eye-popping visuals, but it's capable of delivering bright and fairly color-accurate images if you want it to. The BenQ didn't match its claimed 95% DCI-P3 coverage in our tests – we saw a coverage of 87.5% – but its overall performance is still respectable.

If you want to take advantage of the RD280UG's wider color palette, then you can leave it in User mode. Tested against a Display P3 target, this achieves an average Delta E of 1.8 which is fairly middle of the road for this price point. It does ultimately look pretty accurate to the naked eye, but the low gamma (around 2.1 rather than the ideal 2.2) means that colors often look a little lighter and more washed out than they should. The 6,345k white point is a little closer to the perfect 6,500k, though, and the 1,829:1 contrast ratio gives a bit more punch than cheaper IPS panels. Brightness tops out around 345cd/m2, although you're unlikely to leave this anywhere near maximum for its intended usage.

Switch over to the panel's sRGB mode, and you'll see a very slightly more refined performance. The average Delta E drops slightly to 1.48, and the white point of 6,400k is closer again to the ideal 6,500k. Contrast and brightness are almost identical, but so too is the slightly low gamma. Again, colors look just a tad more washed out than they should, as a result – we do mean a tad, though. This is not something that most users will even notice.

HDR is an option, but the RD280UG's static backlighting and IPS panel aren't capable of showing it at its best. In truth, the DisplayHDR 400 certification isn't really worth the cardboard it's printed on, as it tells you that the monitor manages a peak brightness of just over 400cd/m2 (or nits) – and with most HDR content mastered with 1,000 or 4,000nit peaks in mind, the BenQ just can't get bright enough to do it justice.

We are really pleased to see that the RD280UG has upgraded to a 120Hz refresh rate, though. This is arguably slightly easier on the eye than 60Hz panels, and it also makes scrolling and window animations far smoother and more fluid.

Games get a welcome performance boost, too, and while the panel isn't anywhere near fast enough to rival dedicated gaming monitors, it's quite usable once you turn the overdrive up. By default, the RD280UG's AMA overdrive circuit is set to the High mode, one step up from off. This is a good do-it-all setting – and most users can leave it there – but gamers would be advised to crank it up to the maximum Premium setting to tease out a little more detail on moving objects. It does add a tiny little bit of inverse ghosting, but it's very subtle – and that's an acceptable price to pay for the extra clarity.

BenQ RD280UG monitor: Is it worth it?

The RD280UG is not a monitor for everyone. With £600 to spend, you can choose from a wide variety of more traditionally proportioned monitors. If you're on a budget, then a much cheaper 27in 4K display will provide the same pixel density, and similarly priced rivals deliver a wider color palette and greater accuracy.

The clincher for the RD280UG, however, is how elegantly it ties together all of its talents. The pin-sharp text clarity, the ever-handy hotkey, the automatic brightness sensor, and helpful connectivity are all huge plus points. The 3:2 ratio is a breath of fresh air, too, both for coding, document-based work, and video or audio production. If those strengths appeal to you, then the RD280UG isn't just a brilliant alternative to a more conventional monitor – it's pretty much one of a kind.

BenQ RD280UG monitor specifications

The launch of the Honor 600 series rounds off a stellar year, so far, for the Chinese company. From capturing mass attention with its RoboPhone at MWC, to a slate of critically acclaimed devices, the company has yet to miss in 2026.

Its new mid-range devices, the Honor 600 and 600 Pro, are both signs of a smartphone manufacturer that has hit a groove. I have been using the standard 600 for a couple of weeks, and it has impressed me in so many ways.

Honor 600: Design and display

Honor has largely done a splendid job with the designs of its most recent handset. It can occasionally go too far towards the ostentatious – like the Magic V6 – but the 600 series is both neat and distinctive without being too flashy. The handset has smooth, rounded edges, a matte metal chassis, and a composite fiber back cover, with a sort of translucent camera bump that houses two lenses. It does resemble the iPhone 17 Pro in the Orange, but we have it in a cool white finish.

The screen is 6.75in, and has a small circle at the top for the selfie cam, and very little in the way of bezels. Overall, the device is just 7.8 mm thick and weighs just 185g (190g for the EU edition). It's comfortable in the hand, but more importantly, it feels like a premium device.

The 600 series has a 6.75in AMOLED display, with 120Hz refresh rate, vivid HDR capabilities, and can hit 8000 nits in brightness, according to Honor. With a colormeiter, I recorded 855.75cd/m2, which is crazy bright. You also get a 'Sunlight mode' which allows for extended high brightness; like all modern smartphone displays, the 600 has an automatic control that adapts brightness, so I am puzzled why the Sunlight mode is even needed.

Other modes include normal, vivid, and professional colors. Normal and vivid are, but now, self-explanatory, whereas 'Professional' seems somewhat confusing. It takes the blue out of the screen when you initially turn it on, and doesn't seem to make anything improve. Overall, the display is crisp, and colors are largely true to life, particularly in photos and streaming.

Honor 600: Specs and performance

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 4, which is developed with a 4nm process, also gives the illusion of a premium device as it powers a wealth of top-tier features for AI and camera enhancements – not to mention long battery life (more on that below).

With Geekbench 6, the 600 notched 1,316 for single-core and 4,075 for multithreaded workloads. These are just benchmarks, and they don't come near any iPhone or the top Samsung scores. But what these scores don't really tell the whole story; the phone is zippy, goes through an awful lot of web searches, intensive usage (mainly social media), and lasts and lasts.

As is slowly becoming the norm, we needed to play our looped video test to deplete the Honor 600's 640mAh battery. In total, it lasted 36hrs and 12mins, putting it on par with the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra and the iPhone.

Honor 600: Cameras

The standard model of Honor 600 comes with a 200MP, f/1.9, wide lens (with the night vision technology), and a 12MP, f/2.2 ultrawide lens. The front camera is a 50 MP, f/2.0 wide one. If you opt for the Pro model, you get an extra 50MP rear lens, but from my experience, the standard model is a superb system for point-and-shoot needs, video capture, and low-light shots.

It begs belief that this is a mid-range device when it comes with such high-quality camera technology. The 200MP sensor, in particular, is as premium as they come – the night images I captured are stunning (and I recently reviewed the S26 Ultra). What's more, it captures images more quickly than you would expect, and not too much holding still while it creates the image.

Video is also good; you can shoot 4K up to 30 fps or up to 60fps with a lower resolution (720p). I used this for recent ITPro YouTube content and found it to be crystal clear and steady, even without my gimbal.

Honor 600: Is it worth it?

The Honor 600 is a £549 smartphone. Having used it for two weeks, I feel that the price should be higher; its camera system is as good as most premium models. Its screen is nice and bright. And the battery goes on and on. All powered by a decent Snapdragon processor. It is, arguably, the best budget phone around.

Honor 600 specifications

Ugreen is rapidly gaining a strong reputation in the NAS market with its ever-expanding range of desktop appliances. And the latest DXP4800 Pro focuses on demanding home and small office users who want plenty of power and performance for their money. Stepping up as Ugreen's flagship 4-bay appliance, it takes everything we liked about the two-year-old DXP4800 Plus and gives it a performance boost.

The Gen12 5-core Intel Pentium Gold 8505 CPU in the Plus model gets replaced with a more modern Gen13 6-core Core i3-1315U offering four efficient plus two multi-thread performance cores and a top Turbo frequency of 4.5GHz. Memory stays the same at DDR5, but those with deep pockets can upgrade the base 8GB to 96GB – the maximum supported by this CPU.

Along with four front drive bays, you have a pair of M.2 NVMe SSD slots lurking in the base, and it's worth noting these are the faster PCIe Gen4 variety. Network port choices remain the same, although these are superior to a lot of the competition as the appliance sports 2.5GbE and 10GbE multi-Gigabit ports.

Ugreen NASync DXP4800 Pro review: Build quality and hardware features

No cheap plastic chassis here as the DXP4800 Pro is clothed in a sleek and sturdy aluminium alloy shell. SATA hard disks slip easily into the clever telescopic tool-free carriers, which also have mounting holes for SFF SATA SSDs.

The two M.2 slots are easy to access as the cover is spring-loaded, and you'll find two SO-DIMM slots next to them with the base 8GB of memory provided on one stick. General cooling is handled efficiently by a big rear 14 cm diameter fan behind a magnetic dust cover, and we found the appliance to be pleasingly quiet.

The appliance offers plenty of other interfaces with 10Gbps USB-C 3.2 and USB-A 3.2 at the front next to an SD Card reader slot. A peek around the back reveals one 5Gbps USB-A 3.2 and two USB-A 2.0 ports, while 4K 60Hz video from the CPU's embedded Intel UHD Graphics GPU is piped through to an HDMI 2.0 port.

We don't often comment on packaging, but Ugreen gets praise for all the extra bits and prices it includes in the box. The external PSU comes with a UK plug lead, and the accessory box contains two Ethernet cables, a screwdriver, and a full set of screws for SFF drives, two carrier locking keys, two adhesive silicon heat pads for M.2 devices, and even a Ugreen-branded HDMI cable.

Ugreen NASync DXP4800 Pro review: Deployment and UGOS apps

For testing, we fitted four 4TB Seagate IronWolf NAS HDDs, which were accepted without any problems, as unlike Synology, Ugreen doesn't have any drive restriction policies. Installation is a breeze as Ugreen's discovery web portal found the appliance on our network, initialised it, and downloaded the latest UGOS software.

The UGOS web console is nicely designed and aids storage pool creation by offering sage advice on the various RAID options. We chose the recommended RAID5 volume and were prompted to create personal and shared folders and configure remote access, which creates a unique Ugreenlink ID and secure web link.

During volume creation, you can choose from the Ext4 and Btrfs file systems, with the latter the preferred choice if you want snapshots, storage space quotas, and higher levels of data integrity protection. We also noted that the Samba file sharing service is disabled by default, which we think is a good security measure.

UGOS is light on apps as it only offers 29 for the DXP4800 Pro – well short of the huge range offered by Qnap and Synology. Data protection features start with the Snapshot app, which supports manual and scheduled snapshots on user and shared network folders stored in Btrfs volumes, but Ugreen has yet to update this to support iSCSI LUNs.

The Sync & Backup app secures local data to a remote Ugreen NAS and vice versa, and also supports Rsync-compliant servers. The app has a download link for Ugreen's NAS Windows and macOS desktop tool for creating sync tasks that secure selected data to a shared folder and update it in real time, while the Cloud Drives app provides file syncing for seven cloud storage services, including OneDrive and Google Drive.

The Security Manager app provides real-time and scheduled anti-malware protection with quarantining. Virtualization is on the menu with the Docker app running lightweight containers and the Virtual Machine app providing full hypervisor services.

Ugreen NASync DXP4800 Pro review: 10GbE performance

For performance testing, we hooked the NAS up to the lab's 10GbE network and mapped a share to a Dell PowerEdge Windows Server 2025 host. UGOS now supports 9000-byte Jumbo frames, and with these enabled, we saw good NAS speeds with Iometer reporting sequential read and write rates of 9.2Gbits/sec and 8.1Gbits/sec

For our real-world tests, copies of a large 25GB test file between the appliance and server delivered sustained read and write rates of 3.2Gbit/sec and 2.7Gbits/sec while backing up a 22.4GB folder with 10,500 small files averaged a reasonable 1.5Gbits/sec. Ugreen added the SAN Manager app a while ago, and moving to IP SANs saw a 500GB iSCSI target deliver Iometer read and write rates of 9.2Gbits/sec and 7.5Gbits/sec.

For cache testing, we fitted two 480GB Kingston M.2 NVMe SSDs and assigned them to our data volume as a mirrored read/write cache. This made noticeable improvements to random write operations with our NAS share and iSCSI LUN, seeing respective speed increases of 123% and 120%.

Ugreen NASync DXP4800 Pro review: Is it worth it?

With Ugreen currently offering the NASync DXP4800 Pro for £620 including VAT, it compares very well on value with the competition. Synology's DS925+, for example, costs a shade under £600 but only supports DDR4 memory, has dual 2.5GbE ports, is powered by a pensionable AMD Ryzen 1500B CPU, and doesn't offer a 10GbE upgrade option.

Ugreen's build quality is also vastly superior, but there's a lot of work to be done with the UGOS software before it can match the incredible range of apps, services, security, and data protection features offered by Synology's DSM and Qnap's QuTS Hero. The DXP4800 does deliver an impressive hardware package for the price, though, and if you can cope with the basic range of apps, is a great choice for home and office users seeking a powerful NAS appliance with great 10GbE performance.

Ugreen NASync DXP4800 Pro specifications

Acemagic's emergence as a solid mini PC manufacturer is underlined by a handful of solid machines in recent months, including the decent budget-friendly Vista V1 Mini PC and the higher-end Matrix Mini M1. Although they're both at opposite ends of the pricing and performance spectrum, the Chinese-made mini PCs share a few things in common, including good value for money as well as a sturdy, portable, and attractive chassis.

The Kron Mini K1 is a new model that is nearly identical to the Matrix Mini M1 but fitted with the four-year-old, mid-range Intel Core i5-12600H processor (or the three-year-old AMD Ryzen 5-7430U). However, at a steep retail price of £559 for the base model with 16GB RAM – or $559 in the US, reduced to $359 – this cosy desktop companion will need to do a heck of a lot of work to justify its worth considering over alternatives with newer hardware.

Acemagic Kron Mini K1 review: Design

We love the overall design aesthetic of Acemagic mini PCs; this is more or less consistent across all its models. The rounded corners contribute to a simple yet refreshing design, almost resembling the stunning Mac Mini. It's identical in every way to the Matrix Mini M1 – apart from a much more appealing silver finish versus the oppressively corporate gray.

Certainly, it'll fit into your home office or desk setup without standing out. Plenty of mini PC makers opt for bolder and louder design choices, like aggressive grills, hardened edges, and metallic flourishes – but the Kron Mini K1's stripped-back design choices neatly reflect its simplicity as a plug-and-play machine. This may not necessarily be the sort of mini PC to suit the personality of a power user, but it doesn't look too out of place on a tidy desk. You can also mount it onto a compatible monitor with brackets provided in the box.

Its similarities to the Matrix M1 Mini include its 128 x 128 x 41mm dimensions and a weight that's just 5g lighter (515g). Although Geekom's units are a tad deeper (49mm), they tend to be a little smaller, measuring 117 x 112mm wide and deep. They're also roughly 130g heavier at 652g. While there's no beating the Vista Mini M1 for portability – with this entry-level machine measuring 100 x 100 x 32g and weighing more than half (245g) of the Kron Mini K1 – all these mini PCs are plenty compact and light enough for daily transport.

On the front, you'll find the sole USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 port alongside two USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 ports for company, as well as a 3.5mm headphone jack. On the rear, however, you'll benefit from a plethora of additional ports, including four USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports, an HDMI 2.0 port, a DisplayPort 1.4b, an Ethernet port, and a DC input.

While we question the need for six USB-A ports over one USB-C port, they're arranged smartly overall. We would also bemoan the lack of an SD card reader, meaning you'll likely need a dock or converter if you need to transfer media files. There's only support available for Wi-Fi 6, rather than Wi-Fi 6E (which is found in most new mini PCs), as well as Bluetooth 5.2 – a couple of generations below the up-to-date 5.4 standard

Acemagic Kron Mini K1 review: Specs and performance

Despite a pretty lofty price tag for a mini PC, the Kron Mini K1 doesn't include the very latest hardware. Alongside 16GB DDR4 RAM, integrated Intel UHD Graphics, and a 512GB SSD, it features the 12-core Intel Core i5-12600H processor. This is an Alder Lake processor first released in January 2022, and was originally optimized for high-performance graphics at a reasonable budget. By today's standards, however, it's well behind the curve.

In our performance testing with Geekbench 6, it registered a single-threaded score of 2,233. This, admittedly, is not a bad result. It's slightly below average when compared with modern CPUs and enough to handle simple, day-to-day tasks. The multi-core performance, however, was abysmal compared with the 2026 norm, registering 5,508. By way of comparison, the Acemagic Matrix Mini M1 features the Intel Core i9-13900HK (14-core) and registered 2,806 and 8,912 for each result, respectively – and it retails at the same price.

Its GPU was also underwhelming, registering 9,630 in our OpenCL test. This isn't as bad a result, considering it beats the Lenovo ThinkCentre M70q's result of 7,995 (also featuring integrated Intel UHD Graphics). The Matrix Mini M1, however, scored a much healthier 13,514 with its Intel Iris Xe Graphics chip. Overall, it's a middling result – but perhaps more in line with the price you pay for this device. The SSD speeds, meanwhile, are slightly below average for mini PCs, with reads of 3,368MB/s and writes of 2,538MB/s.

Acemagic Kron Mini K1 review: Is it worth it?

We simply don't believe the Kron Mini K1 represents value for money, considering its surprisingly high retail price point. At £559, the device is approximately £150 more expensive than the Acemagic Matrix Mini M1, which is better in every respect, apart from its less appealing gray finish.

The device itself looks nice and is incredibly portable. Beyond that, its connectivity options are broadly useful – if you could forgive Wi-Fi 6 instead of 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 versus 5.4. But these qualities are sadly not enough to make up for the out-of-date hardware fitted within the body. If you're looking for something that can handle multiple workloads at once, it won't meet the standard you'd expect from modern devices based on our benchmarking tests. That said, it's more than enough for a mini PC that you could deploy for simple, day-to-day tasks – but we can't justify recommending this at the current retail price tag. If you find the Kron Mini K1 available at a discount, then it might be worth considering for an entry-level device. But that discount would have to be significant.

Acemagic Kron Mini K1 review specifications

Fast-growing businesses seeking a tower server that can keep up with them will find HPE's ProLiant Compute ML350 Gen12 a worthy partner. Stepping up as HPE's most powerful tower yet, it supports dual Xeon 6 P-Core CPUs up to 86 cores plus a massive 8TB of DDR5 memory and presents a wealth of storage permutations.

The ML350 Gen12 looks capable of turning its hand to a multitude of tasks as its modular chassis offers an expansion potential that defies belief. Along with SMBs, HPE is targeting this server at a range of other scenarios, including ROBOs, edge deployments, and retail outlets, along with enterprise workloads such as IT infrastructure, data management, VDI, and ERP/CRM.

There's more, as it can handle up to eight single-width or four double-width Nvidia GPUs. These attributes make this server a fine choice for demanding AI, machine learning (ML), and database analytics tasks.

HPE ProLiant Compute ML350 Gen12 review: Design and expansion

Make no mistake, this server is big with the chassis measuring 46.2cms high, 71.2cms deep and 17.4cms wide, which equates to an internal volume of just over 57 litres. Build quality is impressively sturdy, with even the base model tipping the scales at a hefty 24kgs. HPE also offers a conversion kit that transforms it into a 4U rack server, which occupies 5U of rack height.

Slipping the lockable side panel off shows HPE had made excellent use of the server's voluminous interior. Behind the front storage bays is a full-height cooling fan array with base systems coming with three NHP (non-hot-pluggable) modules included.

The assembly has room for up to eight fans and the dual 2.5GHz Xeon 6730P CPUs in our system, and their 250W TDPs dictate that we need a full house of hot-plug modules. CPUs over 225W also require the high-performance heatsink kits, which extend large radiators into the fan array for maximum cooling and work extremely well, as our system was whisper-quiet.

Expansion potential is impressive as further back are two riser cages, each with up to four full-height, full-length PCIe Gen5 x16 slots. The quad-slot riser has on-board connectors providing backup power for HPE's storage controllers, while the dual-slot risers also have GPU sideband and auxiliary power connectors.

HPE's tool-free design comes into play as the two main riser cages can be easily released with just a flick of the wrist. The motherboard has two edge connectors for PCIe Gen5 OCP cards, and the standard PCIe slot count can be pushed to ten, as there's even space for a tertiary dual-slot riser in front of the upper PSU bays.

HPE ProLiant Compute ML350 Gen12 review: Storage features

As you'd expect, there's plenty of room at the front for storage, and the smart triple box design makes the server very flexible. Depending on your choice of backplane, each box supports four LFF SAS/SATA, eight SFF SAS/SATA/NVMe, or twelve EDSFF E3.S NVMe storage devices, and you can mix and match them as required.

The motherboard has Intel's Virtual RAID on CPU (VROC) for HPE ProLiant Servers Gen12 embedded, which is specifically for NVMe SSDs with direct to CPU connections and supports software-managed stripes, mirrors, and RAID5 arrays. For all other storage devices, there are HPE's Gen11 hardware RAID controllers with a choice of three OCP and three PCIe versions – we have the MR408i-o OCP card, which supports all the usual RAID array suspects and comes with 4GB of Flash-backed cache.

We also have HPE's NS204i-u V2 boot optimised storage device accessible at the rear and fitted with dual 480GB mirrored M.2 NVMe SSDs. If you want it hidden away from wandering fingers, you can have it front-mounted so it's behind the lockable bezel.

HPE ProLiant Compute ML350 Gen12 review: Remote management

The server comes with HPE's excellent iLO7 remote management controller, although, unlike most of the Gen12 rack servers, this is not implemented as an OCP-compliant DC-SCM (data center secure control module) board but embedded on the motherboard. No matter, as it provides all the same top-notch security features.

Platform security and supply chain integrity are assured, and the iLO7 silicon root of trust (RoT) digital firmware fingerprinting is future-proofed against next-generation quantum computing threats. It also includes HPE's patented Secure Enclave – a physically tamper-resistant security processor for storing sensitive data such as encryption keys, passwords, and security configurations.

The iLO7 web interface is designed around workflows, with the customisable home page dashboard presenting up to six cards for views of key areas such as host health and security issues. Colour-coded icons are provided on each card for at-a-glance status views, and you drill down into each one for more detailed information.

We run HPE's OneView in the lab on a Hyper-V host and had no problems importing the ML350 Gen12. The free OneView Standard licence supports server inventory and monitoring, with the Advanced licence offering OS deployment tools plus server, firmware, and power management services.

Enterprises will love HPE's GreenLake Compute Ops Management (COM) cloud service as it connects directly to the iLO7 controller and, unlike Dell's AIOps, doesn't require an intermediary app running on the local network. COM presents a complete overview of your server estate and provides tools for server deployment and management, automated system lifecycle compliance, and AI-powered insights.

HPE ProLiant Compute ML350 Gen12 review: Is it worth it?

Yes, very much so. We can see from HPE's One Config Simple portal that prices for base systems start at around £6,800, which gets you a 12-core Xeon 6505P CPU, 32GB of DDR5 Smart Memory, a four LFF drive box with two 8TB SATA drives, an MR408i-o OCP RAID card, and dual 800W PSUs.

The ProLiant Compute ML350 Gen12 offers a lot of tower server for your money and delivers an expansion potential that makes it incredibly versatile. Clearly capable of handling a diverse range of workloads, it's an ideal choice for businesses that want a high expansion and plenty of growth potential.

HPE ProLiant Compute ML350 Gen12 specifications

Many conventional notebooks and ultraportables are being branded as AI PCs, despite their powers being limited by an integrated NPU that limits them to built-in Windows 11 features and OEM bloatware. The Nvidia DGX Spark is a different beast entirely. This specialized miniature workstation, powered by the GB10 Grace Blackwell Superchip, can tap into supercomputing-level performance.

Unlike conventional desktop PCs and mini PCs, this Linux-operated machine is a new class of machine designed for power users, AI developers, and software engineers, packing in a host of premium Nvidia components to deliver enterprise-grade performance to users who want to build and run their own models and workloads locally.

With Nvidia partnering with a host of OEMs for manufacturing and release, there are plenty of variants that you can choose from, including the excellent Asus Ascent GX10, Lenovo's ThinkStation PGX, and the Dell Pro Max with GB10, among others. These machines all adhere to the same dimensions and specs – but there will be slight differences in the build quality, overall design, thermal management, and pricing. Presently, we've got our hands on the Acer Veriton GN100 – a potent-looking machine that's priced at £3,999.99 in the UK.

Acer Veriton GN100 review: Build and design

With clearly defined dimensions (150 x 150 x 51mm), OEMs will chiefly lean on the design of these machines to help their own stand out. Acer's design is incredibly sharp, with a set of vertical metallic grills cut with a horizontal bar, and beneath it, a protruding accent line running from left to right and dipping in the middle to give way for the logo.

The machine itself looks great on your desk and evokes an air of sophistication. For what it's worth, it's also one of the lightest DGX Spark iterations, weighing 1.2kg versus the Asus' 1.4kg. It's certainly a far cry from the machine this was based on – the 2016 DGX1, which cost $130,000 and weighed 61kg.

On the rear, you'll find the standard set of ports fitted into this class of mini workstation, arranged in a standard configuration beneath a stack of ventilation grills flush against the device's metallic surface. The ports include three USB-C 3.2 Gen 2x2 (20Gbps) ports with DisplayPort 2.1 compatibility, one USB-C Gen 2x2 with PD in, an HDMI 2.1 port, an Ethernet port, and a specialist Nvidia ConnectX-7 SmartNIC port that's used to link two of these mini workstations together for double the potency. You'll also benefit from wireless connectivity in the form of Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 courtesy of a MediaTek card. We do lament the lack of additional ports like USB-A or an SD Card reader, but you can certainly connect peripherals to this machine with a dock or through a monitor.

Acer Veriton GN100 review: Specs and performance

Powering the Veriton GN100 is Nvidia's monstrous GB10 Superchip, which combines a 20-core Arm processor (10 Cortex-X925 performance cores and 10 Cortex-A725 efficiency cores) with a Blackwell GB20B GPU. This is a 5nm graphics card designed for specialized or low-power AI applications. Also included is 128GB LPDDR5x unified memory and a 4TB PCIe Gen5 NVMe SSD that offers the memory capabilities to support large language models and generative AI workloads. This is the same set of components you'll get in all Spark DGX machines, regardless of the OEM Nvidia has partnered with.

The machine is capable of reaching a petaFLOP of AI performance with FP4 precision (the 4-bit floating point numerical format for accelerated training and inference). This drops to 170 teraFLOPS with FP16 precision – the conventional standard for AI training and inference. Incidentally, these kinds of workloads typically require 37GB of memory bandwidth, which would more than blow out consumer-grade GPUs and render local AI practically impossible on standard machines. Indeed, this device presents a far higher ceiling for AI workloads than any conventional desktop PC or enterprise-grade workstation.

The machine also draws a maximum of 240W of power, but you're more likely to draw far less than that most of the time, unless you really push it to its upper performance limits.

Standard PC benchmarks are fairly irrelevant, offering a dim picture of what the machine is capable of. But, for what it's worth, testing via Geekbench 6 generated a staggeringly significant result of 3,106 for single-core performance and 19,192 for multi-core performance – roughly in line with the 3,104 and 20,048 we registered with the Asus Ascent GX10.

Anecdotal testing showed how you can run generative AI workloads, including image generation via ComfyUI and others, within minutes. Throughout usage, the machine barely made a sound and ran at a comfortable temperature – incredibly impressive for a device that's as capable and as compact as this is.

Acer Veriton GN100 review: Features

As you would expect with all variations of Nvidia's mini AI workstations, the Acer Veriton GN100 runs on the DGX OS platform, an Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (for ARM) Linux-based system. Compared with the vanilla version of Ubuntu, Nvidia has customized the overall look and feel to suit its unique design, color, and font scheme – and has packed the machine with plenty of out-of-the-box apps and services to get you started in running AI tasks.

From the desktop, you can easily seek out resources and links to Nvidia's library of AI 'playbooks', which are step-by-step guides that walk users through the purpose, setup, and best practices of running their own AI workloads. While a certain degree of technical knowledge is essential, these are fairly straightforward to follow – even if you've never used a Linux machine before – and make AI far more friendly and accessible to workers who may have never interfaced with custom-built generative AI before.

Ultimately, however, a machine like this is designed for power users who are keen to experiment with AI trials and deployments within their organizations, run local generative AI-based tasks without external connections, and create AI agents (and so many other uses). There are plenty of applications, from image generation and media manipulation to running VS Code or even building multi-agent chatbots. The playbooks are essential to the democratization of AI within the workplace, and really do help bring all workers up to speed.

The new Nvidia Sync feature also helps you connect your local desktop or laptop with the DGX Spark so you can operate these machines remotely within the same subnet – or via an IP address. You can launch applications remotely and share the display, while also accessing monitoring tools and other applications.

Acer Veriton GN100 review: Is it worth it?

This new class of AI-powered mini workstations is a game-changer for AI deployment within the workplace. In that spirit, the Nvidia-powered Acer Veriton GN100 is an exemplary machine that shows just how quick and easy it is to get started on running and experimenting with AI workloads.

We should note that this is not a machine for the conventional user, with Nvidia stressing that there's really no point in picking one up unless you plan on tapping into enterprise-grade performance levels courtesy of the GB10 Superchip. In many ways, this mini workstation will feel inaccessible or frustrating to those who predominantly work with conventional applications in Windows environments or have no need to develop and deploy AI tools.

For approximately £4,000, it's slightly cheaper than speccing out larger desktops like the Dell Pro Max Tower T2. That said, heads may be turned with the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395-based systems (codename Strix Halo), which run Windows 11 (a plus point for non-power users keen to learn how to use AI) and are available for a little less. However, the Acer Veriton GN100 is still a great system that serves as a fantastic entry point into the world of localized AI deployment.

Acer Veriton GN100 specifications

HP is putting security front and center in the EliteBook 8 G1a 16 – a stylish and compact 16in business laptop that caters to enterprise users who could specifically benefit from tight security measures as well as top-of-the-line hardware.

Powered by an impressive AMD chipset, you would expect performance and battery life to match the best machines on the market – especially at a premium £2,277.50 retail price – alongside plenty of AI power to run native workloads. But the most appealing part of this machine is the security-centric software and hardware protections that come with it.

Given its relatively sleek dimensions and lightweight frame, this machine is also in with a shout of being one of the best 16in machines to work with on the move. Question marks remain over a fairly basic IPS display and a processor that might not live up to the highs of some of its counterparts.

HP EliteBook 8 G1a 16: Design and display

The EliteBook fits the mould of a modern business-centric notebook to a tee; it's designed to feel fresh and compact, thanks to its sharp silver finish, while remaining minimalist enough in nature to avoid drawing too much attention in a busy office environment. The lightweight chassis, made from a combination of aluminum and magnesium, is sturdy and well constructed – it feels comfortable when you're resting your palms against it and feels incredibly robust, especially when manipulating the lid.

It's also among the lightest 16in business machines out there, weighing 1.69kg, which is just as light as the Dynabook Tecra A65-M while exuding a much more premium feel. It's also on the thinner side, with a height of just 15.5mm. The Dell 16 Premium, by contrast, weighs 2.11kg and has a height of 16.7mm, while the Dynabook is much bulker at 19.9mm. Overall, this is as small and compact of a 16in laptop as you'll find.

One of the downsides comes in the way the display is slightly recessed and encased with plastic bezels. While they're fairly narrow bezels, the overall look spoils the otherwise sleek design aesthetic. Our disappointment with the display extends to the quality of the screen overall.

Although HP fits some of its higher-end machines with outstanding displays, including those with OLED technology, the HP EliteBook 8 G1a 16 features a fairly uninspiring panel that lacks the flair you'd expect to pay for at this price point. The 1,900 x 1,200 IPS screen is the same used in the HP ZBook Power G11 – and it's limited to a basic 60Hz refresh rate and poor 140.45 pixels-per-inch sharpness. It's also on the dimmer side; we measured a peak luminescence of 319 nits using a display calibrator (less than the roughly 350 to 400 nits average); anything less than 300 nits would be a noticeable problem, so thankfully, this model falls just on the right side of the line.

If you can put up with a display that isn't the brightest available, you'll find that its colors are at least accurate for professional usage, boasting a solid 99% coverage of the sRGB spectrum, as well as 74.7% coverage of the Adobe RGB spectrum and 81.4% coverage of the DCI-P3 spectrum (above the 70% and 80% that we're looking for). The screen also boasts an impressive 0.16cd/m2 black level (excellent for an IPS screen), corresponding to a 1,960:1 contrast ratio. The downside is a horrible maximum delta-E figure of 15.21 (where under 6 is considered a decent result) – translating to a heavy propensity for color distortion against the norm. We'd say this rules out any prospect for using this machine for accurate visual-based work, despite a good set of color accuracy results.

HP EliteBook 8 G1a 16: Performance and battery life

For a more-than-£2,000 machine, you should expect high-end performance – but the HP EliteBook 8 G1a 16 sadly doesn't quite hit the mark. Our review unit was configured with an AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 350 (8 cores) processor and AMD Radeon 860M graphics card, alongside an impressive 1TB SSD and 64GB RAM. The processor also includes an integrated NPU with 50 TOPS of AI power to make the most of the features available natively on AI PCs.

For a configuration like this, our benchmarking results were a letdown. When testing the machine with Geekbench 6, we registered a single-threaded score of 1,639 and a multi-core result of 9,659 – which are collectively well below average compared with the current generation of laptops. We would expect single-threaded performance of above 2,000 at a minimum – while multi-core performance of under 10,000 puts this alongside processors from at least one or two generations ago. The same processor fitted into the Asus ExpertBook P3 scored 2,659 and 11,004, while the Intel Core Ultra 7 255H in the Dell 16 Premium, by contrast, scored a huge 2,803 and 16,016. Overall, the EliteBook isn't as convincing for users who want to take advantage of maximum power.

The machine's capacity for graphics power is respectable, on the other hand, with a 20,855 score in the OpenCL test. That makes it good enough for basic-to-mid-level graphics-based workloads, but it's a little weaker than the Intel Arc Graphics GPU, as well as the same AMD Radeon 860M Graphics chip we tested in the HP ZBook 8 G1ak 14, which scored 22,153.

It's worth noting, however, that HP tends to fit its devices with faster-than-average SSDs, and that's certainly true for the EliteBook, with the 1TB SSD hitting read and write speeds of 7,041MB/s and 5,841MB/s respectively – comfortably above average.

Where the hardware comes to the rescue is the machine's battery life, with a lifespan of 14hrs and 29mins a very good result for a 16in machine, thanks to the chipset's efficiency. Many 16in laptops, by comparison, can't last beyond 12hrs in the same test – with the exception of the HP ZBook Power G11, which lasted more than 17hrs.

HP EliteBook 8 G1a 16: Features

The full-sized keyboard in the HP EliteBook 8 G1a 16 is a mixed bag, but pleasant overall. The keys are incredibly firm to the touch and snappy – perhaps giving too much bite with each keystroke – but satisfying while touch typing, given the deep travel distance and audible snap with each push. Our only major issue was the lamentable inclusion of PG UP and PG DN keys above the Left and Right arrow keys -- meaning it's a recipe for jaunty button taps. There's also, bizarrely, a shortcut to open the Calculator app. While useful to some extent, it would have been much better to turn this into a configurable hotkey that opens an app of the user's choosing. The touchpad, meanwhile, is almost perfect if it weren't for the slight lack of friction that might see your fingers slipping a tad too much if you are trying to be precise. Otherwise, it's large enough, and there's a healthy amount of force feedback with each click.

The connectivity options in this machine are satisfying – with the variety, modernity, and distribution of ports exactly what you would expect. On the left-hand side, you'll find two USB-C ports with Thunderbolt 4 (40Gbs), an HDMI 2.1 port, and 3.5mm headphone jack. On the right, you'll find another USB-C port (10Gbps), a USB-A port (5Gbps with power delivery), and a security lock slot. You'll also get access to Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4, futureproofing this machine. Unfortunately, there's no room for an SD card slot, but it's otherwise a decent array.

One of the biggest selling points of this machine is its security features. The most noticeable is a display that guards against shoulder-surfing. The viewing angle, however, is incredibly restricted – meaning you'll need to look at the screen from a specific angle to see visuals at their brightest and most color-accurate, but it's a price worth paying for safety while working on the move. Otherwise, this laptop ships with the HP Wolf Security suite and a one-year subscription, alongside a host of additional features including HP Sure Start, Sure Run, Sure Recover, Sure Click, and Sure Admin. With 50 TOPS of AI power at your disposal, you can also tap into a collection of HP-developed and Windows 11-based AI tools. Among the most useful ones are meeting-based tools like Poly Camera Pro (compatible with the 5MP IR AI camera) that improves your backgrounds and focus during video calls, as well as a color tuning feature that adjusts your image based on the ambient light. Alongside facial recognition, there's also a fingerprint scanner built into the power button.

HP EliteBook 8 G1a 16: Is it worth it?

There's plenty of positives to find in this machine – but we can't help but feel its hardware and screen lets it down. The build quality is fantastic, with its weight and size lending it well to working with on the move – underlined by an impressive battery life for a 16-inch machine. The sturdy and robust chassis also exudes freshness thanks to its sharp silver finish. The security features included in this machine, meanwhile, make it ideal for anybody working with sensitive material – or anybody advised to take as many precautions as possible against information security threats and cyber attacks.

We can't help but feel let down by the hardware, however, with middling performance levels that don't hit the mark we'd expect from high-ticket items. We also wanted more from the screen, with a basic IPS display lacking sharpness and brightness, while also registering an outrageously high maximum Delta-E score, suggesting it's not fundamentally reliable for visual workloads despite otherwise strong color accuracy results that we gleaned in testing.

Whether we'd recommend this machine comes down to pricing. Our configuration with 64GB RAM is heavily overpriced, but you can sometimes find the same machine with 32GB RAM available at a discounted rate of £1,600, which would make it a solid pick for deployment in the enterprise.

HP ZBook X G1i review specifications

If you're tight on space in your office or home, then don't feel that you have to clear your desk to squeeze in a 27in or 32in monitor. Smaller models such as the Dell Pro 24 Plus P2425DE offer a compact and perfectly usable middle ground.

Take a good quality 24in IPS panel, sharp QHD resolution, a generous amount of connectivity, and 90W of USB-C power delivery, and you have the makings of a great business monitor with a dainty footprint. As long as you don't mind a slightly smaller portion size, you genuinely can have your cake and eat it.

Dell P2425DE monitor: Design & Features

If you've seen any of Dell's recent Pro series of monitors, then you know what to expect. Matte silver plastics contrast against understated charcoal grey, and the design is smart without being showy. If you have an open plan arrangement, the P2425DE looks good from any angle.

The P2425DE's smaller 24in panel means that it has a smaller footprint than its larger stablemates – and that works in its favour. It doesn't take up much room at all on a desk. You still get a fully adjustable stand with 150mm of height adjustment, plenty of tilt and swivel, and a smooth feeling 90 degrees of pivot in either direction. In our opinion, the P2425DE makes more sense in a portrait orientation than larger-panelled monitors – it's a brilliant size for a smaller secondary monitor dedicated to document editing.

If there's a complaint to be made here, it's that the monitor is a bit prone to wobbling. There's a bit too much flex in the head of the stand, so overenthusiastic keyboard bashing elicits a subtle wobble, which you may or may not find mildly annoying.

The rear panel feels more plasticky and hollow than I'd like, too, but that is nitpicking. Unless – like me – you're going to spend time tapping or grappling with your monitor, you'll be unlikely to care.

Indeed, you're far more likely to be pleased about the connectivity on offer. You do lose the KVM switch functionality from Dell's larger, pricier models, but you get full-sized HDMI and DisplayPort inputs, and a USB-C input which supports DisplayPort Alt and provides 90 watts of power delivery.

You also get a GbE Ethernet port, which supplies the USB-connected device with networking, which is handy for slimline laptops, and the USB hub gives you access to a pair of 5Gbps USB-A ports at the rear and a further USB-A port and USB-C port, which pop out from underneath the monitor's bottom left bezel.

It's good to find a bit of basic, elegant cable management, too – a small cutout in the stand guides the cables neatly down and behind the desk.

The on-screen display is similar to most of the recent Dell models, which is no bad thing. It's a sensible layout, and there's plenty of useful adjustability. The clickable four-way joystick at the rear is easy to get to grips with, too.

The issues with the OSD are twofold. The text in the menus is quite small and blocky, which makes it a little hard to read. It's a shame you can't increase the text size. One other issue is that the controls do feel a tad laggy, and this means you may have to prod the joystick a couple of times to get the desired response. It's not something we've noticed on other recent Dell models, so it is possibly just our specific review unit, but it's worth mentioning all the same.

Dell P2425DE monitor: Display quality

Despite the P2425DE's relatively dainty 23.8in panel, it packs in a 2,560 x 1,440 resolution. This makes for a relatively high pixel density of 123ppi. That's markedly higher than the 109ppi of a 27in QHD display and not far off the 138ppi of a 32in 4K display. This means that images and text look almost as crisp and sharp as a far pricier 4K panel – if you demand crisp text and image clarity but haven't got room for a larger monitor, it's a great combination.

The specifications are promising, too. The IPS panel offers a quoted 1500:1 contrast ratio, a maximum brightness of 350cd/m2, and 99% sRGB coverage. There's no HDR mode, nor any support for FreeSync or similar, but that's no loss for a monitor with its sights set on productivity.

In our tests, the P2425DE more than lived up to its claims. The Standard picture mode served up a maximum brightness of 365cd/m2, a contrast ratio of 1,509:1, and an sRGB coverage of 98%.

Image quality and color accuracy are good, too. The average Delta E of 1.78 isn't class-leading, but it's good enough to ensure that most colors look faithful to the sRGB standard. The panel doesn't quite cover the most saturated blues and cyans, hence the slight inaccuracy in blue tones, but you're unlikely to notice this just by looking. The overall image is bright, natural-looking, and there's enough contrast to give a nice punchy look.

Motion clarity is really quite good. The 100Hz refresh rate helps keep moving objects looking sharp, and with the panel's response time dialled up to Fast, everything looks pleasingly crisp and fluid. If you do intend to play the occasional game, the 100Hz refresh rate and decent response time combine to provide a big, noticeable boost over and above a standard 60Hz panel.

Even the backlighting – a common weak point for some panels – is acceptable for the money. The brightness drops by around 10% in the corners, and you can see that it's noticeably dimmer around the periphery of the screen if you're looking out for it, but it's not going to ruin your enjoyment. Or lack of, depending on what you're using the P2425DE for.

Dell P2425DE monitor: Is it worth it?

The Pro 24 Plus is a really good option for smaller desks. For £260, you get a compact 23.8in monitor that provides crisp, bright, and reasonably color-accurate images, and the ample connectivity seals the deal. If you're looking for a perfect partner to a port-starved ultraportable, and you either don't have the room, budget, or desire for a larger panel, it's a dependable and capable option.

Dell P2425DE monitor specifications

Honor is having quite the moment. From dominating MWC as the most talked-about brand, thanks largely to the RoboPhone, but underneath that, launching a succession of high-quality tablets, laptops, phones, and more, the company has been both commercially and critically successful.

And that even includes foldable phones. And, following on from its V5, the Honor Magic V6 is further indication that the company that once operated under the banner of Huawei is a smartphone giant in its own right.

Although I have the Honor Magic V6 in hand, at home, and have been using it for a week, Honor has requested that we save our full benchmarks for when it becomes available in the UK. So this is a hands-on review that we will update when the device is fully available.

Honor Magic V6: Design

As with the MagicBook 14 Pro we tested earlier in the year, the design of the Honor Magic V6 is ostentatious. Our review unit has a very flashy gold chassis and back cover. Foldable devices already have a somewhat expensive look (they are also expensive), so the addition of gold makes the V6 look even more like a luxury. You can also get it in white, red, and black, though none of those options seems to make it look any more professional.

This is not to bemoan the quality of the V6, which is a superbly designed foldable. It's just 4.1mm thick when unfolded and only 9mm when folded up – that doesn't include the large octagonal camera bump, though. The back has a shimmery Honor logo, two volume buttons on the side, and a power button that doubles as a fingerprint sensor.

You will still notice an indent in the display where the two screens meet. However, this is only apparent when it catches the light. There's also only a slight bump when you run a finger over it.

The hinge is sturdy and tough. It doesn't seem to have any set positions, so if you only bend the phone slightly, it will snap back open. You can bend it halfway and have it sit on a surface (like all other foldables), which is great for selfies, timed photos, and videos.

Honor Magic V6: Displays

As with most foldables, you get two displays: a smaller one that you use more traditionally, and then the foldable screen. The smaller, outer screen is 6.52in, which is a slight increase in size from the 6.43in on the V5. It's an LTPO2 OLED display, with a 1080 x 2420 resolution and 406 ppi. It also has an Honor Anti-scratch NanoCrystal Shield.

However, open the Magic V6 up, and it reveals the main screen, a 7.95in LTPO2 AMOLED, with a 120Hz refresh rate. Without being able to test, we can only go by the naked eye, and we are not disappointed. The V6's foldable display is big, bold, and bright. Although the most pleasing aspect is the very skinny bezels, which give you such an immersive screen.

One argument for foldable displays is that you can see more with them, so spreadsheets and so on, but I often find that the best use case for them is news websites, social media, and comics books – you just get more space and screen for panels. On the V6, I can't say it was that handy for editing documents for work, as it is still just a bit too awkward. Though you do get a better view of that type of content.

Honor Magic V6: Specs and Performance

Inside the V6 is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, which can be paired with up to 16GB of RAM. Without going into any benchmarks, the device is rapid and smooth with its transitions into front and internal screens – though you did get an annoying sound effect for it.

The Elite 8 Gen 5, however, is Snapdragon's latest chipset built on 3nm fabrication process. It promises super clock speeds (4.6Hx) and plenty of processing power for on-device AI (more on that in a moment). We can't benchmark the V6 as yet, but previous benchmarks for the Elite 8 suggest a strong-performing device.

AI enhancements are all over the V6, but what's most interesting is the Gemini co-pilot mode, where you can converse with Google's AI assistant about what's on the opposite screen. You can also take notes with AI Meeting Agent, or identify speakers and pull out bits of information.

All that extra AI is heavy for the processor, but thankfully, you gave a larger pair of batteries in the device; two 3,300mAh ones (6,660mAh in total), which is a big jump on the V5 and somewhat more than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7. Honor suggests this will allow the V6 to run for 24 hours, which is bold, as claims go, but not implausible.

On the rear of the Magic V6, inside the octagonal camera bump is a 50 MP wide lens (f/1.6, 23mm), a 64 MP periscope telephoto lens (f/2.5, 70mm) that has a 3x optical zoom, and a 50 MP ultrawide (f/2.2, 13mm) lens. There's also a 20 MP wide selfie lens (f/2.2) and a 20 MP cover camera that's also wide (f/2.2).

You get more versatility with foldable phones when it comes to the camera. Not just in how it can be used to take and record video without you holding it, but also the views you get. I could bend the screen in the camera mode and have the camera view and two of my most recent shoots on display. One shot in the Pro mode and one with the standard camera settings.

Honor Magic V6: Is it worth it?

Honor has found a knack for making high-quality handsets with all the things people really want. Long battery life, super camera systems, easy to use interfaces. And, with the Magic V6, it's done all that in a foldable, without any of the regional issues that have stopped UK and European consumers from getting their hands on the Huawei and Samsung models.

There is still a little wait for the Honor Magic V6. We will update this review with benchmarks and full opinions when it comes out fully. But our first impression is that this will likely be the best foldable device around.

Honor Magic V6 specifications

Display 7.95in Foldable LTPO2 AMOLED, 120Hz, 4320Hz

CPU Qualcomm SM8850-AC Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 (3 nm)

RAM up to 16GB

Storage up to 1TB

Cameras Rear: 50 MP, f/1.6, 23mm (wide), 64 MP, f/2.5, 70mm (periscope telephoto) with 3x optical zoom, 50 MP, f/2.2, 13mm (ultrawide). Front: 20 MP, f/2.2, (wide). Cover camera: 20 MP, f/2.2, (wide)

Connectivity Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6.0

Dimensions Unfolded: 156.7 x 145.6 x 4.0 mm. Folded: 156.7 x 74.5 x 8.8 mm

Weight 219g

Operating system Android 16 – MagicOS 10

The Dell Tower Plus is a desktop PC that will be whatever you want it to be. That's because there are nine distinct configurations you can opt for – each appealing to a different kind of end user, from day-to-day office bees to power users. As with most Dell products, you can also fully customize your own version of this unit.

Our review unit was configured to represent the most powerful version, with this Dell Tower Plus featuring among the best components out there right now, including an Arrow Lake Intel Core Ultra 9 200 series processor and a 5000 series Nvidia graphics card. Although the simplest configuration starts at £999, our specific combination is available at the sizeable retail price of £3,369.

This model is a direct replacement for the Dell XPS Desktop, which the company last manufactured in 2024. In truth, it's largely the same machine with a lick of paint and a hardware refresh. Although the XPS branding is returning, it's only for a new line of business-oriented laptops – with the Dell Tower Plus still the go-to desktop PC for users looking for a reliable desktop PC with the best specs.

Dell Tower Plus EBT2250: Design

The Dell Tower Plus is pretty much identical to the 2024 Dell XPS Desktop in its dimensions and weight, with a 372.9 x 173 x 426.9 mm chassis equating with an approximate volume of 27.5 litres. The weight also ranges between 8.62kg and 12.94kg, according to Dell, based on your configuration and manufacturing variability.

The one difference between the Dell Tower Plus and the Dell XPS Desktop is a slightly lower maximum weight, with the latter reaching up to 13.34kg. Overall, it's relatively convenient – and much smaller than, say, the Dell Pro Max Tower T2 – which occupies a 32L chassis size and boasts a huge 23kg weight.

Aesthetically, the Tower Plus desktop PC is very simple in nature, which may be favourable to most users. A ventilation grill occupies the lower half of the front of the chassis, with a clean space above and ports lining the right-hand side. You could have easily fit a disc drive in the space here, but few Dell desktop PCs now include one anyway – and you'll likely need a separate plug-in expansion unit.

The only finish this machine is available in is graphite, which is a little bland and uninspiring. This is fairly conventional, however, and won't stand out in a busy office environment – if blending in the ideal scenario. We'd have liked the option of a far fresher silver chassis coating, as was available with the old XPS desktop, but it's far from a dealbreaker.

Dell Tower Plus EBT2250: Connectivity and Features

Unlike the Pro Max Tower T2, there's very little room for customizing the ports available to you. But why would you need that? There's almost everything you could ask for already included with the Dell Tower Plus.

On the front, you'll find three USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports (5Gbps) and a USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 port (10Gbps), alongside an SD card slot and a 3.5mm audio jack, all lined up in a neat row an inch or two beneath the power button. These 'essentials' are useful for quick access.

The party is really happening at the rear, however, with an additional four USB-A 2.0 ports (480Mbps) – mostly useful for peripherals – as well as two additional USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 (5Gbps) ports for even more connectivity. You'll find this alongside a USB-C port with Thunderbolt 4 (40Gbps) and an HDMI port. You also have access to an RJ45 Ethernet port (2.5GbE) as well as A/V options in the form of an S/PDIF Optical port to transfer digital audio signals to a soundbar or receiver and 2x Sterio Audio Line in/Lind Out for stereo sound. There's also a Kensington Lock Slot for additional peace of mind.

In terms of wireless connectivity, the Intel Wi-Fi 7 BE200 (2x2) 802.11be chipset grants access to the latest Wi-Fi standards, with support for Bluetooth 5.4 also available.

Our configuration ditched one of the expansion bays in favour of an additional HDMI port and three DisplayPort slots. In total, there are several expansion slots available. There's space for two M.2 SSDs, two 3.5in HDD bays, and three PCIe expansion slots of x4, x4, and x16. You can also expand your RAM with two slots supporting up to 64GB DDR5 memory.

Dell Tower Plus EBT2250: Performance

The Arrow Lake-based Intel Core Ultra 9 285K is the beating heart of the highest-end Dell Tower Plus configuration – with 24 cores and a 3.7GHz clockspeed with turbo up to 5.7GHz. The other options available include Intel Core Ultra 5 225, Intel Core Ultra 7 265, Intel Core Ultra 7 265K, and Intel Core Ultra 285 processors.

Our graphics card was the high-end Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080, with 16GB GDDR7 memory – although you can also pick up this machine with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5050, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 Ti, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti GPUs, or integrated Intel UHD Graphics.

These components were included alongside 32GB DDR5 RAM and a 2TB SSD. There is as little as a 512GB SSD and up to 4TB SSD storage available in the most expensive configuration, and between 16GB DDR5 and 64GB DDR5 memory. The price of the machine, of course, varies wildly depending on which CPU, GPU, and memory options you select, with your choice of graphics card offering the biggest swings.

The performance in our configuration was exceptional, as determined through testing with Geekbench 6, with a single-core score of 2,914 and a multi-core score of 19,697. However, it's worth mentioning that it's a little less than we registered with the same CPU in the Dell Pro Max Tower T2 – with scores of 3,202 and 22,583. That's likely due to the higher power and cooling proficiency in this desktop. That said, it's still a result that trounces many other modern CPUs – and you won't find similar performance in a laptop. You are, however, able to find a handful of AMD processors that eclipse its performance, especially in the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO series.

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 GPU is everything you could ask for, with our OpenCL benchmarking producing a brilliant result of 272,793 – putting it near the top for current desktop-grade GPUs and about 1.5 times more powerful than the same GPU you'll find in laptops. For performances much better than this, you're effectively looking at finding a workstation or desktop PC with workstation-grade performance.

There's nothing especially standout about its SSD performance, with great reads and writes of 7,044MB/s and 6,130MB/s respectively. They are, however, a lot slower than the extraordinary performance of the Dell Pro Max Tower T2's 12,008MB/s and 12,674MB/s.

Dell Tower Plus EBT2250: Is it worth it?

There's something for almost everybody in the Dell Tower Plus. But we should first highlight the elements that are consistent across all versions, including its excellent 27.5L size and under-13kg weight, alongside a great build and clean, minimalist design. Apart from the lack of a CD/DVD drive, there are plenty of ports that you can take advantage of, too.

Whether it represents value for money, however, comes down to the variations and which end of the spectrum you're coming from. For entry-level users needing a basic desktop PC that can handle the lightest, day-to-day tasks, it might be worth considering the Dell Tower Desktop – available from £599. For power users hoping for workstation-grade performance, it's worth considering an upgrade to a machine like the Dell Pro Max Tower T2 desktop PC, which offers much more juice. You can also choose from a far broader range of components to tailor your machine to the specific workloads you want to run, rather than stock options.

Our configuration was a little expensive for what it was, but not overpriced to the point we wouldn't recommend it – you're just more likely to get the best value if you're a mid-range user. In isolation, however, it's a brilliant desktop PC with a clean design and a small, lightweight frame that will please almost all users.

Dell Tower Plus EBT2250 specifications

The BenQ GW2490 was a great budget monitor. It partnered a basic Full HD panel with good image quality and some useful features. The new GW2490C retains everything we liked about the GW2490 – mostly its price and decent image quality – and adds a USB-C input as well as an upgraded 144Hz panel. On paper, that looks like a great recipe for a budget business monitor.

BenQ GW2490C monitor: Design & Features

It's worth knowing that the GW2490C is one member of a small family. This model upgrades the old GW2490, but you can now also find the GW2490TC, which adds a height-adjustable stand and the ability to supply 20W of USB-C power delivery for about £20 more. As we'll explain later, our recommendation is to pick whichever is selling for the most appealing price.

The GW2490C makes do with a simple plastic stand with 25 degrees of tilt. The stand is a touch wobbly, but it's not terrible. There is a standard VESA 100 x 100mm mount at the rear, too, which gives you the option to use a monitor arm instead.

Around the back, you get one HDMI input, one DisplayPort input, and one USB-C input, which supports DisplayPort Alt. There's no power delivery here, though, and no USB hub. Still, it's nice to see that there's a 3.5mm headphone output – you'll want to use this as the tinny pair of internal speakers are best kept for emergency usage. It's also good to find that BenQ has used rear-facing ports, as this makes it far easier to slot cables in – and especially so in hot-desking scenarios where the cables often go walkabout. It's a shame that there's no cable management clip, though.

It's also worth reiterating that the USB-C port only supplies a small amount of power. With little more than 7.5 watts at its disposal, our laptop did show that it was connected to a power source, but it discharged faster than it could charge. With the laptop closed, however, it does trickle charge very slowly.

The on-screen display and controls are simple and well thought out. The buttons are all mounted under the panel's front edge, and the power button is backlit so you can tell when the monitor is plugged in or in standby mode. A little clickable four-way joystick navigates through the menus, and a further blue button toggles the automatic brightness sensor and automatic colour temperature settings on and off – you simply press the button, and it cycles through the various modes quickly.

Click the joystick, and a little mini menu lets you quickly switch between picture profiles, adjust brightness, dial up the low blue light mode, adjust the volume, or switch between the three video inputs. Scroll to the bottom of the mini menu, and you can access the full menu.

The main menus offer little more than useful day-to-day adjustments – you can't adjust contrast, RGB values, or fiddle with settings to subtly tweak the image quality. That's no bad thing, though. Instead, you can toggle the various Visual Optimiser settings, adjust the display to compensate for red or green color deficiency, and enable or disable features such as FreeSync, as well as cycling through the three overdrive modes.

BenQ GW2490C monitor: Display quality

No one is expecting miracles from a 24in Full HD monitor, but the GW2490 puts in a solid showing. Subjectively speaking, you will notice the drop in text clarity and image detail if you've spent any time with a 27in QHD monitor or any display with a higher pixel density. But that's not to say that the GW2490C is bad: it produces a very usable image for both productivity and entertainment duties.

It's nice to have a black and white ePaper mode for reading – this softens the white background to a warm pale sepia, which is much more comfortable for working on documents. We found it useful for reading, editing, and typing out this review under low-light conditions. It's easy on the eye after a long day.

For pure productivity, the narrow gamut panel is a good fit. We measured it as covering around 98% of the sRGB colour gamut – which is the palette of colors used across the internet, games, and SDR video content. It's relatively accurate, too, and despite a tendency towards slightly oversaturated reds, you're unlikely to spot the discrepancy without a colorimeter to hand.

The IPS panel delivers a clean set of results. Brightness peaks a little higher than its predecessor, with a maximum of 267cd/m2, and contrast is slightly improved, too, at 1,386:1. These are good figures for a budget panel, and they go hand in hand with natural-looking color reproduction. The white point is a touch too warm at around 6,100k, but both gamma and greyscales are reasonably accurate, and the average Delta E of 1 indicates very respectable colour accuracy.

In our testing, we tended to prefer the Game mode as it gave a more accurate white point – 6,381k – which translated into a more natural-looking image. Technically, color accuracy was worse with an average Delta E of 2.1, but this isn't noticeable for casual usage.

BenQ claims a 5ms GtG response time, and that seems just about on the money. And it's good to see that you get basic VESA MediaSync support for basic adaptive refresh rate support with Nvidia and AMD GPUs.

Motion clarity is very impressive for the money. At the panel's maximum 144Hz refresh rate and with overdrive set to its fastest Premium setting, games look crisp and clear. There is some inverse ghosting, but it's not horribly intrusive, and while the motion isn't as smooth as some of the Fast IPS panels we've seen in budget gaming monitors, it's more than good enough.

The backlighting is exactly what you'd expect for the money. The sides of the panel look a little dimmer than the centre once you start to pay attention, and in our testing were as much as 13% dimmer than the centre. That's nothing unusual nor particularly intrusive, though.

BenQ GW2490C monitor: Is it worth it?

If you're wondering why the GW2490C has only received 4 stars rather than 5, then the answer is simple: there's a lot of competition around the £100 mark.

For instance, its own stablemate, the GW2490TC, was retailing for £115 at the time of writing – and £15 is a small price to pay for an adjustable stand and 20 watts of USB-C power delivery. And then, once you're spending that much, it's only another £15 or £20 to upgrade to a budget 27in QHD monitor.

Admittedly, it's those small incremental price rises that can easily break IT budgets when you're buying in bulk. And if your budgets are tight, be in no doubt – the GW2490 is a good budget business monitor. It offers respectable image quality, useful productivity-focused features, and is versatile enough to flit between productivity and gaming without skipping a beat. For around £100, it's a dependable choice.

BenQ GW2490C monitor specifications

The Asus Zenbook A14 was one of last year's finest laptops; slim and impossibly light, highly capable and surprisingly affordable. The new Zenbook A16 takes it to another level. It shares aspects of its smaller sibling's elegant design and lightweight construction, its Copilot+ PC AI skills and branding, and its use of a Qualcomm Snapdragon arm processor. But this time, Asus has addressed one criticism of the A14 – its limited processing power – by basing the A16 and a revamped A14 on Qualcomm's cutting-edge Snapdragon X2 architecture, and the top-of-the-range X2 Elite Extreme.

Paired with up to 48GB of RAM, this makes for a laptop that's incredibly powerful for something that almost anyone could heft around single-handed. It's also made it rather less affordable, but then that's a bit of a 2026 theme. Even if it might be too expensive for some budgets, the Zenbook A16 is a low-weight, big-screen laptop to be reckoned with.

Asus Zenbook A16: Design

In most respects, the Zenbook A16 looks like a scaled-up version of the 2025 A14, down to its attractive but durable Ceraluminium chassis. The matte, stain-resistant finish comes in two tones, Zabriskie Beige and Iceland Grey, and while there's some flex in the lid, the actual shell feels solid and robust.

Even with ultra-slim bezels left and right, this is a noticeably larger laptop, with a 353.5 x 242mm desktop footprint, and rising from 13.8mm to 16.5mm thick in profile, where the old model was just over 13mm. However, it's still only 1.2Kg in weight, which isn't much for a 16in device. Even the similar-looking Acer Swift 16 AI SF16-71T came in at 1.55Kg. There's only just enough weight in the body to hold it down when you open up the lid, though you can still do so one-handed.

The deck is dominated by the keyboard, but also by the unusually large trackpad, measuring 150 x 98mm. It's not quite as big as the 175mm-wide trackpad on the Acer, but this gives you a little more space to rest your wrists while typing, and it's still very smooth and sensitive. With the pointer speed ramped up in Windows from the default, it's relatively easy to navigate complex interfaces or make accurate selections without reaching for a mouse.

As for the keyboard, it's another solid job from Asus. There's plenty of travel, the feel is consistent across the deck, and the layout is sensible and spacious. A full-sized return key without the tilde and hashtag split-key would have been welcome, as would larger Ctrl and Shift keys on the left, but at least Asus hasn't stuck the Power button in the top row where you'd normally expect the Delete key, or tried to cram in a numeric pad. There's nothing cramped about this design, yet it's not too spaced out for comfort, either.

Connectivity is also well considered, with the exception that both USB 4.0 ports are on the left-hand side. You'll need one periodically for charging, and having one on either side gives you a little more flexibility. Beyond these, you have an HDMI 2.1 port and a headphone socket on the left and a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port and a full-sized SD card slot on the right. That's enough to cover most needs without a separate dock, and you have Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 to cover networking and wireless peripherals.

Asus Zenbook A16: Display

Big-screen usability and entertainment is the name of the game here, with a stunning 16in OLED display with a 2880 x 1800 QHD+ resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate. To our mind, this is the sweet spot for laptop screens if you're working all day long, giving you more space for complex apps and multi-tasking, great clarity and definition, but not a massive desktop footprint. It's bright, reaching 504.8cd/m2 with standard SDR content, and boosting up to nearly 1100cd/m2 peak brightness for HDR. It even has the TrueBlack 1000 DisplayHDR certification to prove it.

As always with OLED, you get deep blacks, subtle, darker shades, and heaps of contrast, plus extremely vivid color. In tests, the Asus's screen covers 100% of the sRGB color space with a 165% gamut volume, plus 93% of Adobe RGB and 99.9% of DCI-P3. There's a sense that a display this brilliant is wasted on Word, Excel, and Google Workspace, but it's perfect for image-editing, streaming video, or other apps where it gets a chance to shine. 4K movies and trailers look fantastic. They also sound more than decent, thanks to a six-speaker Dolby Atmos audio system, which can dish out a clear, beefy, and surprisingly immersive sound at low to medium volumes, though the output can sound harsh at higher levels.

The 1080p webcam is a little basic for a laptop at this price point, capturing good, well-exposed footage in daylight and artificial light, but struggling slightly with noise in gloomier conditions. Still, it's fine for video calls and meetings, where the built-in mic does a decent job of capturing your voice without picking up unwanted sounds or music in the background.

Asus Zenbook A16: Performance

The Zenbook A16 is a debut for the Snapdragon X2 family, specifically the high-end X2 Elite Extreme (surely the one hyperbolic suffix would have done the job). The variant here is the X2E-94-100, featuring 18 of Qualcomm's new Gen 3 Oryon 3nm cores running at 4.45GHz with a boost to 4.7GHz, with an eight-core Adreno X2 GPU running at up to 1.85GHz. The Qualcomm Hexagon NPU has also been upgraded, providing 80 TOPS of AI processing instead of 45.

The X2 Elite Extreme is paired with 48GB of RAM, installed within the same chip package. This means there's no scope for upgrades, but that's not much of an issue when there's so much bandwidth (228GB/sec) and when 48GB is enough to cover anything from video editing to running local LLMs.

The Snapdragon X Elite was the first ARM64 processor for Windows that could go toe-to-toe with Intel and AMD's best chips, but the X2 Elite Extreme is an even more fearsome contender. In Geekbench 6, we recorded a single-core score of 3724 and a multi-core score of 21914, making mincemeat of the 2900 and 16920 delivered by the Intel Core Ultra X9 in the Asus Zenbook Duo (2026), and beating the mighty HP ZBook Ultra G1A with its 16-core Ryzen Max+ 395 on multi-core performance. The HP scored 2905 and 18083 in the same tests. This is a thin and light, energy-efficient laptop pushing ahead of a workstation-class device. It's extremely impressive.

We still can't run PCMark10 on ARM64 laptops, but we can run Cinebench 2024 in order to test their compute-heavy 3D rendering performance. Here, the Zenbook A16 scores 149 for single-core performance and 1433 for multi-core. The Zenbook Duo scored 127 and 929 in the same tests, and even the Asus ProArt P16 creator laptop, with its 12-core Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 could only hit 117 and 1156.

There's stiffer competition from the M5 MacBook Pro, which scored an incredible 4248 for single-core performance, but the Qualcomm CPU still pulls ahead on multi-core, as the M5 tops out at 15234. It's a similar tale in Cinebench 2024, where the M5 wins on single core with a score of 201, only to fall behind on multi-core, with 1179.

This is a phenomenal result for Qualcomm and the A16, but the good news doesn't stop there. If the last-gen Snapdragon X processors had a failing, it was that GPU performance lagged behind AMD and Intel's latest integrated GPUs. The Adreno X2 is a big improvement. The Zenbook A16 scores 5351 in 3DMark's Steel Nomad (Lite) test and 1022 in the tougher Steel Nomad. That's not far behind the 5498 and 1343 scored by the Zenbook Duo with its Core Ultra X9 388H, and you'd really have to look to AMD's Ryzen Max+ 395 to see significantly faster integrated graphics.

It's also worth noting that these performance figures are with pre-release firmware and drivers. Qualcomm has claimed that launch drivers and firmware (unavailable at the time of writing) will boost benchmark figures even further. What's more, the A16 still runs quietly. We noticed some fan noise while running Cinebench 2024 or 3D games, but it's close to silent when running mainstream business apps.

Of course, performance was a moot point in the days when ARM64 CPUs struggled with compatibility issues and relied mostly on emulation to get Windows apps to run, but the situation has changed dramatically since the Snapdragon X series launched. There are native ARM64 versions of most of the big hitters, including Microsoft and Adobe's key apps, and the only real caveat is that some app versions lag behind the Windows and MacOS versions, causing trouble if, say, you're working on Adobe InDesign files across a team running different hardware. Meanwhile, Microsoft's PRISM emulation layer does a solid job of covering where there's no native app.

You'll still find some peripherals without working ARM64 drivers, but as someone who uses a Snapdragon X Elite laptop as a daily driver, we'd say that it's not a massive issue. Even games are running these days. You might find problems with some recent releases, such as Doom: The Dark Ages or Crimson Desert, but we had Resident Evil: Village and A Plague Tale: Requiem up and running on the Zenbook A16, and they were perfectly playable on low to medium graphics settings, and still looked great.

Energy efficiency has been another key focus for Qualcomm, and while we couldn't match the 21 hours plus of use on a single charge that Asus claims in its marketing, we still got 17 hours and 43 minutes of HD video playback with the brightness set to 170 nits. That's in line with what we've seen from recent 16in laptops, though a little short of the 20 hours and 6 minutes we had from the Acer Swift 16 AI and the nearly 21 hours we saw from Asus's ExpertBook Ultra. Both of these used Intel's Panther Lake chips.

If the battery life is more solid than outstanding, the Zenbook A16 is no slouch when it comes to charging. Plugged into its 130W charger, the Zenbook A16 can recover 52% of its battery in 30 minutes.

Asus Zenbook A16: Is it worth it?

Yes. With the Acer Swift 16 AI, we were impressed with how a 16-in laptop could deliver great performance and big-screen usability in such a slim and light package. Asus's new rival gives you even more power on tap in an even slimmer, lighter body. The screen is incredible and the sound impressive, and there's little reason for business users to avoid the Snapdragon architecture these days unless they're running legacy software or specific hardware that needs an x86 processor to run. Games may be a different story, but for professional purposes, the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme does an outstanding job.

In fact, the only reason to hold back is the price. £2099 is reasonable for a laptop with these capabilities and this performance, not to mention the generous 48GB of RAM, but that price point moves the Zenbook A16 out of the more affordable market segment of the original A14. Next to the Acer Swift 16 AI, it might look pricey. Given the performance and all-around quality, the A16 justifies the extra, and this is the top-of-the-range spec. Less expensive versions should be coming down the line.

Asus Zenbook A14 Specifications

The Geekom A5 Pro is, in simple terms, a cheaper and pared-down version of the A8. By buying the A5 Pro, you will save around £150, depending on the offers Geekom has running on the two machines at the time.

At the time of writing, you can pick the A5 Pro up from Amazon for £424 and the A8 for £568, a saving of £144. You can also pick it up directly from Geekom in the UK and the USA, where the code ITPROA5PRO should get you a 7% discount. The Amazon USA sales page is here.

Naturally, that saving means you are going to lose out on some of the A8's features, so you have to make do with a 6-core 4.5Ghz AMD Ryzen 5 7530U CPU and basic Radeon graphics rather than an 8-core 4.9GHz Ryzen 7 8745HS CPU and Radeon 780M graphics.

You'll also miss out on support for 6GHz Wi-Fi; the A5 Pro's MediaTek RTL8852 wireless card only supports 2.4/5GHz signals. And the main SSD interface is PCIe 3.0 rather than 4.0, as in the A8. Other than that, the two machines are so difficult to tell apart that you'll be forced to flip them over and see what's written on the underside.

Geekom A5 Pro: Design

Externally, the A5 Pro is a dead ringer for the A8. They are the same size, same weight, give or take a few grammes, made from the same materials, and have the same physical array of ports. That means you are getting a smart, solid, and compact little metal box that's easy to hide away or hook behind a monitor using the bundled VESA bracket. Other than said bracket, the only other accessory in the box is an HDMI cable.

Mirroring the A8, the front panel of the A5 Pro is home to the on/off button, two 10Gbps USB-A ports, and a 3.5mm audio jack. On the right side, you'll find an SD card slot, while at the rear, there are two more USB-A ports, one 10Gbps, one 480Mbps, two 10Gbps Type-C ports, two HDMI 2.0 video outputs, and a 2.5GbE RJ45 jack.

While neither Type-C port is USB4-Compliant, both can output DisplayPort video. Neither can be used to power the system, though. For that, you must rely on the 65W rat-and-tail DC power supply. There's nothing in the way of a Kensington lock, which is a bit of an oversight on a device that costs more than £400, is not much larger than a packer of cigarettes, and only weighs 375g.

Getting inside the A5 Pro involves prising the four rubber feet off the base, removing the four Philips screws beneath, removing the plastic base, and then removing the four more Philips screws and the metal shield plate.

There is a single antenna cable connecting the wireless card to the plastic base, but it's long enough to give full access without having to disconnect it, unlike the A9 Max, A8 and A7 Max. Having to reconnect the wireless antennas in all three of those machines is a major pain in the backside, as we can testify firsthand.

Once you've removed the metal shield, you'll find two SODIMM mounts and two SSD mounts, one occupied 2280 PCIe 3.0 (no surprise given that this is the best the chipset supports) and one unoccupied 2242 SATA3.

It's worth recalling here that the A8 doesn't have a second SSD slot, so when it comes to storing shedloads of data, the cheaper A5 Pro has a distinct advantage. The 1TB Wodposit SSD in our review unit delivered decent sequential read and write speeds of 3,131MB/s and 2,983MB/s, respectively. For a general-purpose box like the A5 Pro, that's good enough, but the A8 can do significantly better here and in wireless data speeds thanks to its support for 6GHz Wi-Fi 6E.

Geekom A5 Pro: Specs and Performance

There's only one version of the A5 Pro available, and it's built around the 6-core, 12-thread AMD Ryzen 5 7530U CPU, a low-power processor launched back in early 2023. Graphics are provided by a Radeon (originally called the Radeon RX Vega 7) integrated GPU, a component with performance levels broadly similar to Intel's basic mobile Integrated Graphics solution.

The A5 Pro ships with two 8GB RAM sticks, a preferred option compared to the single 16GB stick you get with the A7 Max. Granted, it means you end up with a spare stick if you want to add more, but in our view, that's outweighed by the benefit of getting the performance boost from dual-channel RAM in the first place, especially with after-market RAM costing what it does at the moment.

Even a casual glance at the specification sheet shows that the AMD chipset in the A5 Pro is no stump-pulling powerhouse, and testing bore this out. In the GeekBench 6 CPU test, it scored 1,977 and 6,859 in the single and multi-core test, while in ITPro's bespoke Handbrake-based 4K multi-media test, it scored 178.

We've got a 2020 vintage M1 MacBook Air lying about the office that returns very similar scores. For a more relevant comparison, the A8 scored 2,568 and 12,842 in the GeekBench test and 363 in the 4K multimedia. Clearly, there is a world of difference in CPU performance between the two Geekom boxes, even when allowance is made for the fact that the A8 had 32GB of RAM in it.

The same is true when it comes to graphics. The new A5 Pro scored 15,059 in the GeekBench 6 OpenCL test to the A8's 30,455, and in a more practical test, the A5 Pro ran the SPECviewperf 3dsmax 3D modelling benchmark at 15fps, to the A8's 40fps.

It's fair to say that in all meaningful ways, the A8 is twice as powerful as the A5 Pro. If all you need is a box for light productivity and media serving, the A5 Pro is a good alternative, but if you want something for demanding work, intense graphics jobs, and light gaming, the A8 is most certainly worth the extra money.

Neither the A8 nor the A5 Pro has anything in the way of an NPU, the former because the chipset was originally a China-only component and they have rules about such things, the latter because its chipset predates the AI fad. This means there's no support for Windows' CoPilot AI features like Recall or generative fill in Paint.

If you want those features, you'll need to look at something like the Geekom A9 Max or the MSI Cubi NUC AI+ 2MG, both of which are built around more modern chipsets with 50 TOPS (well, 47 in the case of the Intel-powered MSI) NPUs.

The low-power chipset doesn't cause any problems for the A5 Pro's single fan. Even under maximum stress, both the CPU and GPU run continuously at 100% utilization, with the fan making little more than a low whisper.

The A5 Pro is only available with Windows 11 Pro preloaded. Still, Geekom advises that it will work with Ubuntu and Fedora, and it proved true: both Ubuntu 24.04 LTS and Fedora 43 ran perfectly out of the box.

Geekom A5 Pro: Is it worth it?

At the risk of stating the blindingly obvious, whether you should choose the A5 Pro or A8 AI depends entirely on what you plan on using your mini PC for.

The A5 Pro's natural habitat is basic productivity and media serving, jobs that won't tax the rather gutless chipset but will take full advantage of the facility to add a second, albeit SATA3, SSD.

For anything more demanding, especially on the graphics front, the A8 is a better choice. If you want a box to run programmes like Adobe Photoshop or other GPU-intensive apps, the Radeon 780M is by far the better option.

Geekom A5 Pro Specifications

Acer's TravelMate line of enterprise-forward devices are generally more affordable than some of the most premium machines from OEMs like Dell or HP, while offering comparable performance and – most importantly – reliability and versatility.

The Acer TravelMate P6 14 AI, released in 2025, offers sufficient power thanks to the latest high-end business hardware – underlined by an Intel Core Ultra 200 Series CPU and an Intel Arc Graphics GPU – in a package that weighs just under 1kg. With plenty of features and connectivity options, we expect this AI-powered laptop to fuel the day-to-day needs of most professionals.

Acer TravelMate P6 14 AI review: Design and display

Aesthetically, the Acer TravelMate P6 14 AI ticks every box you'd expect from an enterprise notebook. Its black matted chassis gives off professional albeit bland business-focused vibes, paradoxically straddling the midpoint between being sophisticated and undistinguished. This may sound harsh – but we mean quite the opposite; at the sight of many enterprise notebooks that try too hard to transcend beyond their lane, this inoffensive and minimalist look is something users may relish.

Looks aside, there's plenty of praise to lavish on its multi-textured MIL-STD 810H certified chassis. The magnesium-aluminum alloy surface isn't particularly smooth or overtly 'metallic' as you commonly associate with high-end machines, but the near-rubbery texture actually feels more comfortable when you're resting your palms on its surface. The temperature, too, is just right during usage.

The top cover is made from carbon fiber which also serves to get the overall weight right down to 0.96kg. That's just as light as the Dynabook Portégé Z40L-N and a little lighter too than the Lenovo ThinkPad X9 14 Aura Edition (1.24kg). Its dimensions are comparable to both machines, although it's slightly thicker at 16.7mm than the Lenovo's 13mm – despite both machines including HDMI ports. The Dynabook, on the other hand, is a much thicker 18.7mm.

The 82% screen-to-body ratio is much smaller than the Lenovo's 90.9% – but thanks to the black chassis, the moderately-sized bezels aren't obstructive or visually distracting. The 14-inch screen itself is good enough that it doesn't really matter an awful lot. We were impressed with the sharpness of the 2,880 x 1,800-pixel (translating to an excellent 237.76 pixels per inch) alongside its 120Hz refresh rate, making scrolling and navigation very smooth.

Its 339cd/m2 brightness is fine for day-to-day usage – falling below the approximate 400cd/m2 average for notebooks but still above the 300cd/m2 floor for acceptable usage. That said, it's not as bright as the ThinkPad's dazzling 470cd/m2 OLED screen. Otherwise, its credentials are certainly more than good enough – with a 99.9% coverage of the sRGB gamut. Combine this with 78.6% coverage of the Adobe RGB spectrum and 87% of the DCI P3 spectrum, and you have a machine accurate enough for professional photo and video-based work. This is compounded with an excellent 0.52 average Delta-E score (with a maximum of 1.15), alongside a brilliant 0.25cd/m2 black level and 1,301:1 contrast ratio – simply outstanding for an IPS HDR display.

Acer TravelMate P6 14 AI review: Performance and battery life

Fitted into the TravelMate P6 14 AI is an eight-core Intel Core Ultra 7 258V mobile processor, alongside an Intel Arc Graphics card (with a 48 TOPS integrated NPU), 32GB LPDDR5X RAM, and a 1TB SSD – making for an overall package that's typical for most portable 14-inch enterprise notebooks. While you get a decent jolt of power, it's a little less than if you found an ultrabook fitted with the Intel Core Ultra 7 256V CPU – and the machine also suffers from a generally lower battery lifespan too. Nonetheless, it's the same hardware that also featured in the aforementioned Dynabook and Lenovo ThinkPad machines.

Performance testing with Geekbench 6 rendered a single-threaded score of 2,483 and a multi-core result of 10,021. While trouncing the same chipset in the Dynabook, it fell short of the Lenovo's scores of 2,718 and 10,684. Another machine, the hybrid Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Gen 10 Aura Edition, registered 2,656 and 10,984. By way of comparison, the higher-end Intel Core Ultra 200 Series chips hit a multi-core score between 13,000 and 16,000 – as do Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite CPUs.

That said, its GPU scored much better in our OpenCL benchmark – with a range-topping score of 29,309 versus the Dynabook's 26,960 and the ThinkPad's 23,033. This nearly hits the 30,830 highs of the Yoga 2-in-1 – the highest score we've registered for the Intel Arc Graphics chip. It's slightly less powerful than dedicated GPUs from the previous generation – meaning it's a decent budget-friendly alternative for creatives and visual or small-scale AI workloads.

As we previously mentioned, this particular chipset lends itself to a less-than-ideal lifespan. The TravelMate lasted 11hrs and 57mins in our looped video playback test, which is marginally longer than the ThinkPad's 11hrs and 51mins. Although objectively fine – plenty of Windows laptops can last longer than 15hrs these days. We note the Dynabook Portege Z40L-N's 18hrs and 55mins lifespan, but you can even find machines that last more than 25hrs – including the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6, which lasted 26hrs and 9mins. Also disappointing were very poor SSD speeds – a decent speed of 4,369MB/s for reads and a paltry 2,584MB/s for writes – putting you at a slight disadvantage if you frequently need to move around tonnes of files between storage systems.

Acer TravelMate P6 14 AI review: Features

The keyboard and touchpad are both fantastic – delivering exactly what you would want without any fuss. Each keystroke is firm, springy, and snappy, giving you a fairly deep travel distance combined with tangible force feedback that makes rapid touch typing a pleasure. There are no spacing or placement issues. We also appreciate the full-sized Enter key and directional arrow keys. There's also an Acer key that, if you tap it, opens the TravelMateSense dashboard. This is an app that helps you manage system information like RAM usage, component temperature, performance modes and charging rate – while also letting you tap into some AI features like image generation.

The touchpad is completely flawless; it's perfectly sized, well-positioned, feels great to navigate with, and the left-click and right-click functions both give you a decent amount of feedback. This machine, like many Acer notebooks, also features the gimmicky light-up activity indicator when you're using AI features. We honestly can't see the point, unless you're in the office and need to performatively demonstrate to your colleagues and/or managers that you're tapping into AI in some capacity – and you can turn this off anytime.

The machine offers plenty of physical connectivity options, including an HDMI 2.1 port, two USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports (one on each side), two USB-C ports with Thunderbolt 4, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a Kensington lock slot. On the right-hand side of the chassis, there are also two LED indicators – one to show if the laptop is on/off and the other to show it's charging. There's no SD Card reader or Ethernet port, and we much prefer there to be a USB-C port on both sides of the chassis, but the machine offers almost everything you would otherwise expect. With Wi-Fi 7 support and Bluetooth 5.4 connectivity, the machine also offers everything you'd need with some future-proofing too.

The security features include facial recognition via the 5.2MP webcam (alongside a physical privacy shutter) and a fingerprint scanner folded into the power button. Beyond the in-built AI features accessible through the TravelMateSense app, including Acer PurifiedVoice 2.0, you also benefit from the full range of Windows 11 features, including Studio Effects and Windows Copilot.

Acer TravelMate P6 14 AI review: Is it worth it?

The Acer TravelMate P6 14 AI ticks plenty of boxes for us – and its manufacturer has special attention to not just nailing the basics but allowing these areas to contribute to substantial quality-of-life benefits that make this a compelling proposition.

Firstly, it's optimized to be portable, reliable, and versatile thanks to its excellent build quality using lightweight materials and a plethora of physical and wireless connectivity options. The keyboard and touchpad are outstanding, and the IPS display is incredibly strong – with fantastic sharpness and smoothness, not to mention professional-grade color accuracy for creative work – despite a brightness level that doesn't quite hit the mark that most others do.

Its graphics performance is great for a basic GPU, and its CPU performance is good enough for the vast majority of workloads. The near-12-hour battery life is also reasonable, but not as high as some competitors that can last more than 15 hours and longer. All that to say, there are few genuine areas of weakness. Priced at £1,699 RRP (but discounted to £1,399 at the time of writing), it's also about what you'd expect – if not slightly more affordable than many alternatives.

The Acer TravelMate P6 14 AI may not be suitable for power users who either need the best-in-class in any or all aspects (whether that be performance, display or battery life). But if you manage to pick up this laptop at a reasonable price – which seems eminently doable – there are few business-forward machines we'd recommend above it for the vast majority of regular users who lack especially intensive requirements, or those who just need a reliable travel companion.

Dynabook Tecra A65-M review: Specifications

Sometimes it's not enough for a PC monitor to be big. Sometimes it needs to be beautiful and well-connected, too. And that's before you even consider the key elements such as image quality or color accuracy. HP's latest 32-inch business monitor, the Series 7 Pro 732xk, isn't content to simply tick every one of these boxes – this is one of the best value monitors I've seen in recent years.

Aside from a few quibbles, which will mostly irk the lunchtime or post-work gaming crowd, the spoiler here is that HP has done an amazing job. It delivers all the essentials and also goes above and beyond in one key way: it supports hardware calibration. For around £700, that's unheard of, and it allows you to calibrate and maintain its color-accurate performance for the entirety of its working career.

HP Series 7 Pro 732xk monitor: Design & Features

The 732xk is a 31.5in monitor with a standard 4K, 3,840 x 2,160 pixel resolution. The panel of choice is an IPS Black variant with a matte anti-glare coating, and this, according to HP, promises a peak brightness of 450cd/m2 in SDR mode, a 2,700:1 contrast ratio, and an unusually broad color coverage of 99% for both DCI-P3 and Adobe RGB. It also gets a VESA DisplayHDR 400 certification, which, as per usual, suggests that HDR is present, but the panel doesn't get bright enough to do anything exciting with HDR content. Still, for around £700 – these kinds of panel specifications are about as good as it gets.

It's really quite a striking model, too. The heavy metal base slots elegantly into the slender black and silver stand, and the panel itself both feels really solid and looks great. The acres of brushed silver, gentle curves, and relatively slender profile make for a really good-looking monitor. For the money, it's probably one of the prettiest we've had on our desk to date.

The adjustable stand is superb, too. It moves through its 150mm range of height adjustment smoothly, and you only need a single hand to get it just so – there's no wobble or unsteadiness at all. There's plenty of scope for tilt and swivel, and the panel rotates around into portrait mode in either direction. Even the cable management – a traditional afterthought for many manufacturers – is good. It's just a simple square of plastic though, which you have to slot the cables, but unlike other designs that snag or pinch the cables when you try to move the panel to the extent of its adjustment, this just works. Kudos, HP.

HP has more than just image quality on its mind with the 732xk, however. Connectivity is top of the agenda, and that's why you'll find a healthy supply of ports around the back in addition to a built-in KVM switch. All of the ports are rear-facing, so there's no scrabbling around – just rotate the monitor around a touch, find the port you're after, and slot the cable home.

The HDMI 2.1 and full-sized DisplayPort 1.4 inputs are flanked by a DisplayPort output for daisy-chaining a second monitor, and there's also a Thunderbolt 4 USB-C input, which supports DisplayPort Alt video inputs, Thunderbolt 4, and also provides 100W of power delivery. You also get a secondary Thunderbolt 4 USB-C port for daisychaining duties. A secondary upstream USB-C connects to a second computer, and both of the upstream USB-C ports power up 4 USB-A ports at the rear, and a single USB-C port.

It's good to see PBP and PIP functions, too. These make life easier when using two machines side by side – or just keeping up with the football while you work on a particularly pressing presentation.

The on-screen display is a really good example, too. The menus use simple, sensibly-sized light grey text on a dark background, and the directional buttons at the rear make it easy to delve through the menus and adjust the features as required. There's no show or pizzazz, just useful features and key information – current resolution, refresh rates, and enabled modes – exposed in a sensible menu system. There's lots of fine adjustability, too.

Install the HP Display Center software – this is Windows-only at the time of writing – and you can adjust the 732xk's features and swap between color modes without having to reach around behind the monitor and prod buttons.

It's here that you can also recalibrate the various factory presets or create up to three of your own. It's worth noting that this feature didn't work during our testing, but this is almost certainly because we use an OEM X-Rite i1Display colorimeter. We encountered similar issues with BenQ's calibration software, and support was added in a recent software update. We've emailed to check whether support is planned.

HP Series 7 Pro 732xk monitor: Display quality

The Series 7 Pro 732xk more than lives up to its quoted specifications. And in terms of color accuracy, it puts in an excellent performance. If you can't be bothered to read the whole of this section, then all you need to know is that the 732xk produces images that are sharp and color accurate in both SDR and HDR.

Turn on the monitor, and the default color space is Display P3 – but you can use the menus to quickly switch to any of the factory-calibrated color modes. HP provides Display P3, sRGB, and Adobe RGB. There's no DCI-P3 mode, but that will be no great loss for most users.

Gamut coverage is excellent. We tested the monitor in each of its factory-calibrated modes, and our colorimeter showed 100% Adobe RGB coverage, 96% P3, and 100% of sRGB.

Image quality is excellent across the board, too. The IPS Black panel keeps contrast over 2000:1, and color accuracy is excellent with an average Delta E of 1 or less in all of the factory-calibrated modes. Brightness tops out around 400cd. This is as good as we've seen from a sub-£1,000 monitor in recent times.

Backlight uniformity is a regular bugbear for these types of edge-lit IPS monitors, and the HP is no exception. We measured the panel's brightness and contrast across 25 points on its panel, and the result was that the panel's lower left corner dropped below the recommended tolerance levels. Look closely, and you can see that the lower left and right flanks of the monitor are dimmer than the central section. Even here, though, the deviations are relatively well controlled: brightness dips by no more than 12% in those areas, and that's better than some similarly priced monitors we've seen.

In terms of HDR performance, the VESA DisplayHDR 600 certification suggests that the 732xk might actually do a passable job with HDR – and it does. The lack of Mini-LED or full-array local dimming means that there isn't the dynamic range of pricier panels, but the 732xk offers a decent-looking HDR image nonetheless. Brightness peaked at around 670cd/m2 for smaller highlights, and combined with the panel's wide color gamut and accuracy, it produced a really watchable rendition of HDR content.

If there's a chink in the 732xk's armour, it's motion clarity – this just isn't a strong point of the IPS Black panel. It's the price you pay for the increased contrast ratio and improved overall image over standard IPS panels. That said, it's not something that will bother most users for everyday use – or for watching video content. Fire up a game, however, and the detail on moving objects is smeared and blurry even with the panel at its maximum 120Hz refresh rate.

Increasing the panel's overdrive settings does provide a subtle improvement, but in contrast to most overdrive settings we've seen on rival monitors, the 732xk's four settings only make a very subtle difference. This is sensible. HP has provided a maximum overdrive setting that doesn't absolutely destroy the image quality by adding lots of inverse ghosting – instead, it provides a usable range of overdrive settings that don't introduce excessive visual nasties. Kudos.

HP Series 7 Pro 732xk monitor: Is it worth it?

This is not a cheap monitor by any stretch, but the Series 7 Pro 732xk more than justifies its price. The only sticking point here is the motion clarity – but unless gaming is high up your list of priorities, you'll be unlikely to care. And if it's just for the occasional bout of casual gaming, you still may not be too bothered.

For the money, though, the overall balance here is incredibly well-judged. Balancing big-screen productivity needs with superb image quality, oodles of connectivity, and ample adjustability in a downright gorgeous package is no mean feat. HP has made it look easy.

HP Series 7 Pro 732xk monitor specifications