Whether you’re working away from home or going on a day trip, it can be pretty stressful leaving your fur babies at home alone for hours.

A nifty device like the Petkit automatic pet feeder, however, can help alleviate a lot of that worry—and this thing is currently on sale for $109 (down from its usual $179) if you’re a Prime member. Not a Prime member? Start a 30-day free trial to snag this deal.

If your cat or dog is on a feeding schedule, you don’t want to just leave out a bowl of food and hope they’ll regulate themself. That’s when this automatic pet feeder comes into play.

This Petkit automatic pet feeder features two feed hoppers, allowing you to serve two different types of food or put the same type of food in both hoppers but change the portion sizes of each. It’s especially ideal for gradually transitioning from one food to a new one. When a hopper is almost empty, you’ll get a notification so you can fill it back up.

One cool thing is that you can use the same “meal call” you do when you’re at home by recording a voice message that plays at feeding time. Or you can use the two-way audio via microphone and speaker to talk with your pet when you’re away.

Since no smart pet device is complete without a camera, this Petkit feeder also has one. It captures 1080p HD videos with live streaming, allowing you to monitor as they eat. And it works at night, too!

Make your life as a pet owner easier with the Petkit automatic feeder that’s currently on sale for $109, a significant discount available to Prime members only. Again, you can start a 30-day free trial to snag this deal if you aren’t a Prime member!

This automatic pet feeder is 39% off Gadgets

Price When Reviewed

$179

Best Prices Today: Razer Basilisk Ultimate

The $179 Razer Basilisk Ultimate isn’t the cheapest wireless gaming mouse you can find, but there’s definitely something to be said for enjoying the kind of decadent luxury it provides. A generous 11 button configuration offers plenty of commands for gamers. It also sports a smooth glide, solid feel and precise sensor. That’s gold for anyone wanting optimal performance and genuine comfort for hours on end.

Further reading: See our roundup of the best wireless gaming mice to learn about competing products.

Razer Basilisk Ultimate design and build

But there’s more to the Razer Basilisk Ultimate than just a solid feel and smooth glide. That sense of luxury you get from this mouse is heighted by its 3.73-ounce (106-gram) weight, which bestows a real presence in your grip. Yes, it’s weighty, but it doesn’t feel at all sluggish, I’m happy to report.

The Basilisk Ultimate gives you very precise control of movement. You can shift direction on a whim. It’s nice and grippy thanks to bumpy areas on both its thumb rest and right-hand side. What’s more, there’s virtually no friction thanks to well-placed PTFE feet.

That sense of luxury you get from this mouse is heighted by its weight, which bestows a real presence in your grip.

Being a Basilisk mouse, the Ultimate’s shape resembles the Razer Basilisk V3, which currently has the distinction of sporting the “best mouse wheel” in our PCWorld’s roundup of the best gaming mice. Some gamers may find the Ultimate’s design a bit angular. But I really liked the elevation my index finger had on the left main button — it always felt poised and ready to fire

At first the Ultimate’s scroll wheel felt a little too precise for me. It grinded when I turned it, registering each millimeter. But that was before I discovered a dial on the underside that allowed me to adjust how easily it turned. In the end I found a friction setting that worked nicely for changing weapons and scrolling through my game menus that wasn’t so tight.

The larger dimensions appeal to me a little more than the V3’s smaller size. The mouse measures 5.11 x 2.75 x 1.65 inches. If the V3 is like a Cadillac, then the Basilisk Ultimate is like a spacious Chevy pickup truck that you can stretch out on and adopt a more relaxed grip.

Among the 11 programmable buttons, four are contained in the mouse’s Tilt wheel. Then there’s three buttons on the left and handy DPI up/down switcher buttons behind the mouse wheel. The rest of the buttons can be found on the mouse’s underside.

Razer Basilisk Ultimate connectivity and battery life

The Basilisk Ultimate uses Razer’s Hyperspeed wireless technology for its Wi-Fi connectivity. To that end you get a very small wireless dongle in the box. There’s no Bluetooth connectivity, which is unusual for a mouse of this weight.

There’s not one, but two ways you can store the mouse’s dongle — either in the discreet storage compartment on the underside, or in a slot at the top of the mouse’s charging dock. That dock is a nice and compact size, being only as big as my thumb. It easily fit in a tight gap on my desk.

Charging the mouse was as simple as resting it on top of its dock. Doing so renders it spaceship-like in appearance, which most gamers are going to get a kick out of.

The mouse’s battery life is very good. You can expect it to last approximately 100 hours if you switch off the RGB lighting — otherwise it’ll run 30 to 40 hours with the lighting switched on.

Razer Basilisk Ultimate gaming performance

What kind of gaming does the Razer Basilisk Ultimate excel at? I’d have to say MMO and MOBA games, where I really appreciated its full-handed feeling and thorough selection of commands.

The mouse’s 20,000 DPI Razer Focus+ Optical Sensor is very quick off the mark. It supports a polling rate of 1,000Hz, which isn’t the fastest Razer has to offer, but for MMOs it was more than sufficient in my playtesting for tracking foes and launching spells.

I’ve always found heavier mice ideal for wielding swords and axes in MMOs. Wafery FPS mice just don’t cut it for me, feeling less tangible than heavier mice for that kind of play. But the Ultimate’s weightiness excelled at delivering a feeling of realism to my play.

That was especially the case in Gloria Victis, which not only has plenty of attacks, but also lots of parrying; with the Ultimate in hand, the clink of metal against metal felt palpable, as if I was actually holding them in my palm.

The Ultimate’s main buttons are very soft and quick. Their centers are concave, so they held my trigger fingers better than most mice I know. A slight gradient gave me leverage to pull off some very speedy clicks. However, that speed did occasionally mean I miss-clicked at times — something to watch out for in this mouse.

One really novel feature is the sensitivity clutch near the mouse’s left thumb. It let me switch DPI levels that were stages apart and then return to my DPI starting point without having to cycle back through each DPI setting.

There was very little I didn’t like about this mouse, but one small peeve was that the chassis got a little foggy with fingerprints from time to time. So, you’ll want to keep a cloth handy to keep it smudge free.

Razer Basilisk Ultimate software

The Razer Basilisk Ultimate has five onboard memory profiles, which you can map out in the Razer Synapse app. As well as a top layer of commands, you can program an extra layer to your buttons using Razer’s Hypershift functionality, so you have options galore.

The Basilisk Ultimate can be as flashy as you want it to be thanks to its 14 zones of RGB lighting. These can be tweaked in Razer Synapse, but for a deeper level of personalization, Razer’s Chroma Studio is where to go. Here you can personalize your choice of colors and add cool effects that really liven up your desk.

Should you buy the Razer Basilisk Ultimate?

We all deserve a taste of extravagance from time to time and the Ultimate dishes that out in spades, albeit for a premium price. Its advanced glide, precise movement, and comfortable thumb rest add up to provide a feeling of superior control.

Throw in a precise sensor and functionality that’s supported by an excellent software app, and this mouse is really a no-brainer for gamers that like the finer things money can buy. That’s especially true for gamers that need a mouse with lots of commands.

Mice

One of the smaller, less bombastic stories to come out of Computex is that Nvidia has created a new set of SFF guidelines for graphics cards that can fit within more compact builds. These small GPUs are a big deal for builders put off by the ballooning sizes of modern graphics cards.

Nvidia’s standard keeps the cards under 50mm thick (2.5 slots in case terms), 304mm long, and 151mm tall—and Asus and Zephyr are now showing off the first cards that fit the new standard.

These SFF (“Small Form Factor”) cards still aren’t as svelte as the old one- and two-slot powerhouses from back in the day, but they should open up considerably more options for builders who want to get a polygon-pushing gaming PC into an ITX case like the Fractal Design Terra or Cooler Master NR200P.

Asus showed off a series of SFF cards in the RTX 40 family at the start of this month, but Tom’s Hardware says that at least some models are going on sale via international retailers. That means they should show up in US retail stores soon, too.

RTX 4060 Ti, RTX 4070, and RTX 4070 Super cards (all with base model Prime and slightly boosted Prime OC branding) were shown off. Notably, the 4070 and 4070 Super manage to cram triple-fan coolers into those dimensions. A little measuring in Photoshop says they’re 80mm each.

There’s also a new card from Chinese brand Zephyr of the anime girl GPU designs. This RTX 4070 ITX edition is a teeny, tiny single-fan model in the Sakura series and gets the appealing blue-and-pink-on-white colorway.

According to a post on the Chinese social network Bilibili spotted by VideoCardz.com, the adorable card is just 172mm long and 42mm thick. Sadly, the card isn’t yet on the company’s western-facing storefront… and there’s no indication of whether it might ever come there.

Graphics Cards

Intel has denied a recent news report that it has gotten to the bottom of instability issues with some 13th and 14th Gen desktop CPUs, and continues to search for the “root cause.”

“Contrary to recent media reports, Intel has not confirmed the root cause and is continuing, with its partners, to investigate user reports regarding instability issues on unlocked Intel Core 13th and 14th generation (K/KF/KS) desktop processors,” an Intel spokesman told PCWorld on Friday afternoon. “The microcode patch referenced in press reports fixes an eTVB bug discovered by Intel while investigating the instability reports. While this issue is potentially contributing to instability, it is not the root cause.”

The report Intel is referring to comes from Igor Wallosek of Igorslab.de, who said he had obtained an internal statement indicating that the root cause was an incorrect value in the microcode algorithm associated with the chip’s enhanced Thermal Velocity Boost (eTVB) feature.

eTVB partially to blame

The eTVB feature opportunistically boosts the clock speed of some 13th and 14th Gen desktop chips if the chip senses the thermal headroom is available.

Wallosek said he obtained the internal statement from a source, which apparently required a non-disclosure agreement from the originator.

“Failure Analysis (FA) of 13th and 14th Generation K SKU processors indicates a shift in minimum operating voltage on affected processors resulting from cumulative exposure to elevated core voltages,” Wallosek wrote. “Intel analysis has determined a confirmed contributing factor for this issue is elevated voltage input to the processor due to previous BIOS settings which allow the processor to operate at turbo frequencies and voltages even while the processor is at a high temperature.”

Wallosek’s report continues: “Previous generations of Intel K SKU processors were less sensitive to these type of settings due to lower default operating voltage and frequency. Intel requests all customers to update BIOS to microcode 0x125 or later by 7/19/2024. This microcode includes an eTVB fix for an issue which may allow the processor to enter a higher performance state even when the processor temperature has exceeded eTVB thresholds.”

For non-nerds, here’s what that means: the eTVB bug may be contributing to instability on the highest-end 13th and 14th Gen chips, but unfortunately it isn’t the main cause of some consumers’ issues.

Slipped deadlines, investigation continues

Intel had hoped to have more information on the vexing instability issue by the end of May, but obviously that deadline has slipped.

Intel hasn’t provided any additional forecasts of when it would have more information, but those impacted are likely to be growing impatient by now—and that includes consumers who own the CPUs as well as Intel’s own partners.

Some owners of unlocked, high-performance 13th and 14th Gen “K” series CPUs have reported bewildering stability issues for months, but the problem kicked into high gear when Nvidia said those with game crashes should bother Intel instead.

Popular hardware reviewers Hardware Unboxed published a video at Computex where motherboard partners expressed frustration at the lack of insight into the issue. It hasn’t helped motherboard makers’ reputations, who initially published updated BIOSes only to have to yank them after complaints that they either reduced performance too much or didn’t actually correct the amount of voltage being fed to chips.

Update your BIOS

Meanwhile, system integrator Falcon Northwest posted an update to X (formerly Twitter) that said it has tested an Asus BIOS released on May 31 that it believes is fully compliant with Intel’s baseline recommendations and that Falcon Northwest believes “should prevent CPU wear and may stabilize CPUs while still offering good performance.”

“We recommend this BIOS update,” Falcon Northwest wrote.

Senior Editor Mark Hachman contributed to this report.

CPUs and Processors

Gaming monitors tend to be pricey, but there are some models—especially ones that don’t take over your entire desk—that are more budget friendly. For instance, the 27-inch Samsung Odyssey G55C is now on sale for $215, down from its usual $300.

With its high pixel density and QHD (2560×1440) resolution, the Odyssey G55C delivers detailed, super-sharp images. That’s perfect for pretty much any gaming world you inhabit, with deep colors that’ll help you have a most immersive experience.

This Samsung monitor has a 165Hz refresh rate paired with a 1ms (MPRT) response time, eliminating lag and minimizing blur for a smooth gaming time, allowing you to react faster in action-packed moments.

The Odyssey G5 has a 1000R curved display that matches your viewing angles and depth perception as closely as possible. This not only gives you an advantage when playing (since you’ll be able to see everything on the screen more easily) but also puts less strain on your eyes.

Also, this monitor has an Eye Saver Mode that filters out blue light, keeping your eyes relaxed and comfortable during longer gaming sessions and throughout a full workday.

If you need an affordable curved gaming monitor, now’s a great chance to jump on the Samsung Odyssey G5 while it’s just $215 at Amazon. You can also get the same monitor at Best Buy for $220, if you’d prefer!

The Samsung Odyssey G55C is on sale right now Monitors

VPNs, when managed properly, are a great way to protect your privacy and keep your online activities hidden from prying eyes. But not all VPN services maintain the same security standards or take the exact same approach to user privacy.

How does your VPN handle your data? When the police or governments come knocking, what does your VPN do? The history of law enforcement subpoenas of VPN logs is murky to say the least. Major VPNs can get hundreds of data requests per year, but what they turn over is not so straightforward. I’ll try to clear the water and help you understand how your data is being handled and how safe it truly is.

VPN warrants and data request handling

VPN providers typically receive two different kinds of data requests, those regarding copyright violations through a DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) request or requests from law enforcement or government authorities following up on other possible illegal activity.

By far the most common are DMCA requests, which can oftentimes range in the tens of thousands per month. Law enforcement requests are much less common and may range on average from a few per week to one per day for the largest VPN companies.

We can get a more accurate glimpse of these numbers by looking at each VPN provider’s transparency report (more on those later) posted on their website. Our top pick, ExpressVPN, states that in the period from July to December 2023, they received 194 total “Government and/or police requests” and 152,653 DMCA requests. Another extremely popular service, NordVPN, reports 81 total “inquiries from government institutions” from January to April 2024 and an astounding 2,421,053 DMCA requests — clearly NordVPN is the people’s choice for illegally pirating material. For what it’s worth, both companies state that none of these requests resulted in the disclosure of user information.

Other popular services such as Private Internet Access (PIA), CyberGhost, ProtonVPN, and Surfshark also post this data on their websites. PIA received 161 total “government demands for user data ” in the first four months of 2024, while Cyberghost and ProtonVPN received a fraction of these across all of 2023, a total of three and 60 respectively. Surfshark has unfortunately not updated their transparency report since 2021, but as an interesting aside, they used to break down which specific companies and countries had submitted data requests — a third of which came solely from the U.S.

Most VPN providers claim to have a no-logs policy. What this means is that they do not collect and store user data transmitted through their network. In a perfect world, no data about where you go online, what you download, or what your search for is recorded. Whether or not a VPN lives up to these standards is an issue that warrants its own separate discussion.

Even with these no-log promises, it doesn’t stop law enforcement or other authorities from attempting to subpoena that data when it thinks an illegal activity has been committed over a VPN’s servers. And when they come calling, there isn’t much a VPN can do to stop them.

In 2016, U.S.-based IPVanish was served with a Department of Homeland Security “summons for records” requesting user data about a suspected felony. After initially claiming they had no information to give, the company subsequently turned over some data on that user to the government.

Other documented instances include a data request in 2016 to PIA and a 2017 request for logs from PureVPN, both by the FBI. PIA remained true to their no-logs word by proving they had nothing to give the authorities, while PureVPN went on to secretly work with the FBI to provide an IP address of a user leading to an arrest.

There are also instances where more extreme measures were taken against VPNs. In 2017, ExpressVPN famously had its servers seized by the Turkish authorities. No data was obtained as a result, further bolstering ExpressVPN’s no-logs claims.

While it’s undoubtedly crucial that authorities receive the help they need to capture dangerous criminals, the extent to which VPNs can assist varies widely.

How do you know if your VPN has received a data request from the authorities

The history of law enforcement warrants, subpoenas, and data requests is intentionally opaque. On the one hand, law enforcement doesn’t want to tip their hand to the very people they may be trying to find. On the other, VPNs have an incentive not to disclose these warrants as they could potentially drive paying users away from the service.

However, in recent years we’ve seen VPNs turn a corner towards more transparency. Placing user trust as their highest priority, major VPN services are becoming more open about data requests. 

Gone are the days of hush-hush data seizures. Nowadays, VPNs often employ clever tricks to alert users to requests. Such things as warrant canaries can sidestep gag orders and publishing regular transparency reports detail all data requests over a given time period. These are a welcomed change for many in the user-trust VPN business where privacy is the many selling point.

Warrant canaries

Warrant canaries are intended to alert users to when the VPN service has received a warrant or serious data request from authorities. Typically, a warrant will place a gag order on the company from disclosing the issue or alerting users. Warrant canaries are an attempt to subvert these gag orders.

The way that warrant canaries work is simple. Every few days or so, the VPN service will publish a note stating that the company has not received notices from authorities. If and when a warrant is then received, this will trigger the regular notices to stop updating, indicating to users that something isn’t right and to temporarily proceed in using the VPN with caution.

Transparency reports

A more recent trend for many of the top VPN providers is to switch from warrant canaries to regular transparency reports — usually posted monthly or quarterly. VPN services claim transparency reports can provide details and clarity that are lacking in warrant canaries. The drawback here is that warrant canaries potentially inform users as soon as there is a request from authorities whereas transparency reports will only inform users a month, sometimes many months, after the fact.

Transparency reports will usually display details such as the total number of government and/or law enforcement requests as well as DMCA requests from production companies and law firms. Oftentimes the VPN will also disclose if any of the requests resulted in the disclosure of user-related data.

How to choose a safer VPN

So what does all of this mean for you? Well, it’s a clear sign that choosing the right VPN for your privacy needs is paramount. You don’t want to choose a VPN thinking you know how they’re handling your private data and then come to find out that behind the scenes they’ve been doing something different the whole time.

The fundamental problem with even the best VPN, is that you can only truly take them at their word. All the independent audits and transparency reports in the world are still not enough to completely verify what the VPN is actually doing with your data from moment to moment. This may not be a huge concern for the average user looking to stream out-of-area Netflix, but for journalists, political dissidents, and other high-risk individuals it could be a matter of life or death.

If your main reason for choosing a VPN is privacy, then you’ll want to look for one with a strict no-logs policy. This means checking the company’s Privacy Policy (usually found on their website) for what data they do and do not collect.

Next you’ll want to check to see if that company has completed any independent security audits. These are audits by third parties of a VPN’s servers to confirm that they have no vulnerabilities and verify their no-logs policy claim. Better yet, look for a VPN provider who goes through regular (bi-yearly or yearly) audits to make sure they’re continuing to follow up on their promises.

You’ll also want to look for a VPN that is headquartered in a privacy-friendly country, out of the reach of international intelligence sharing agreements and data retention laws. The company should own its own servers (rather than renting them from a third-party), and those servers should be RAM-only to ensure your data is never stored beyond server reboots.

Additionally, a little research about a VPN provider’s history will help you better understand their privacy track record. The incident in 2017 with ExpressVPN is a great example. The Turkish authorities came up empty-handed, further bolstering the company’s no-logs reputation. No VPN is perfect, but by taking these safety measures you can feel more confident that your data remains as private as possible.

See PCWorld’s list of the best VPN services for our recommendations.

VPN

Price When Reviewed

2TB: $85 I 4TB: $135 I 5TB: $150 I 6TB: $185

Best Prices Today: WD My Passport, Works with USB C

Full confession. I still use hard disk drives for archiving data despite having a boatload of SSDs. Why? Because HDDs, such as the one in this review, offer a lot of capacity in a single unit for less than half the price-per-terabyte of SSDs.

Alas, I hate to be the one to break the spell created by WD’s tortuously (for writers) long-winded name, but the My Passport, Works with USB-C isn’t a Type-C drive, as might be surmised by a quick glance of the package.

It actually sports the traditional SuperSpeed Micro-B connector and WD bundles a Type-A to Type-C adapter (hence the “works with”) for the Micro-B to Type-A cable.

What are the WD My Passport’s features?

For simplicity, let’s call it the My Passport going forward. The drive is a 5Gbps, external 2.5-inch USB hard drive that’s available with up to 6TB of capacity. It measures approximately 4.2-inches long, by 2.95-inches wide, by 0.8-inches thick, and weighs 7.7 ounces sans cable.

I’ll now point out that a Type-A to Type-C adapter costs around $4 and will make any drive “Work with USB-C.” If you’re looking for a true Type-C HDD from WD, look for “Ultra” in the name. But really, WD? SEO with product titles?

The drive is a great deal, nevertheless, and a good performer for its ilk, and while I’m giving WD a hard time about the awkward name, it’s not a lie, just possibly misleading.

How much does the My Passport cost?

The My Passport is available in 2TB/$85 ($42.50 per TB), 4TB/$135 ($33.75 per TB), 5TB/$150 ($30 per TB), and 6TB/$185 ($30.83 per TB) flavors. That makes the 5TB model the sweet spot in price per terabyte, but unlike with some of WD’s pricier external HDDs, just barely. Go for the 6TB.

By way of comparison, current pricing for even the cheapest external SSD is around $65 to $70 per terabyte, and performance with those can drop to almost HDD-like speed during long writes. Also, note that the WD My Passport Ultra series with actual Type-C ports is no faster than this drive, and a bit pricier.

If you need a lot of portable space for backup, or storing a multimedia collection, you won’t find a better deal than the My Passport, Works with USB-C.

How fast is the My Passport?

As mentioned, the My Passport hard drive is a 2.5-inch model. While 3.5-inch hard drives can sustain transfers at around 250MBps, 2.5-inch models, especially those in external USB enclosures, generally deliver about half that. You want speed? Get an SSD. You want cheap capacity, get an HDD and live with the performance you see documented below.

All three of the drives in the chart are WD 6TB units, hence the almost identical scores, though 2.5-inch external HDDs in general read and write between 110MBps and 140MBps.

The G-Drive ArmorATD displayed a slight advantage in all the tests, but not enough to concern yourself about. On the other hand, it’s ruggedized and IP65-rated.

The 4K random reads weren’t actually zero, but so slow (0.3MBps to 0.4MBps) that they rounded down to that non-number. CrystalDiskMark 8 is slanted towards modern SSDs, but still valid for HDDs.

The My Passport was faster than the My Passport Ultra for Mac, but fell behind the G-Drive ArmorATD in the 48GB transfers.

The story was much the same with the 450GB write, though the difference is minimal: All three took 75 minutes plus a few seconds. This is why we recommend using HDDs for background tasks.

In the end, the My Passport is nearly as fast as the true Type-C G-Drive ArmorATD and faster than the Type-C My Passport Ultra for Mac by a very slim margin, and noticeably cheaper.

Should you buy the My Passport, Works with USB-C?

I say why not? If you need a lot of portable space for backup, or storing a multimedia collection, where speed of transfer isn’t that important, then you won’t find a better deal than the My Passport, Works with USB-C.

As to my confession up top… The HDDs I use primarily are 16TB 3.5-inchers in my NAS boxes, with 2.5-inch USB types hanging off the back of the NAS for backup. Occasionally, however, I do back up my main computer using 2.5-inchers. I do it overnight — it takes a while.

How we test

Storage tests currently utilize Windows 11, 64-bit running on an X790 (PCIe 4.0/5.0) motherboard/i5-12400 CPU combo with two Kingston Fury 32GB DDR5 4800MHz modules (64GB of memory total). Both 20Gbps USB and Thunderbolt 4 are integrated to the back panel and Intel CPU/GPU graphics are used. The 48GB transfer tests utilize an ImDisk RAM disk taking up 58GB of the 64GB of total memory. The 450GB file is transferred from a 2TB Samsung 990 Pro which also runs the OS.

Each test is performed on a newly NTFS-formatted and TRIM’d drive so the results are optimal. Note that in normal use, as a drive fills up, performance may decrease due to less NAND for secondary caching, as well as other factors. This is less of a factor with the current crop of SSDs with their far faster NAND.

Caveat: The performance numbers shown apply only to the drive we were shipped and to the capacity tested. SSD performance can and will vary by capacity due to more or fewer chips to shotgun reads/writes across and the amount of NAND available for secondary caching. Vendors also occasionally swap components. If you ever notice a large discrepancy between the performance you experience and that which we report, by all means, let us know.

Computer Storage Devices, Storage

Your antivirus will protect you from many online threats, but no antivirus is perfect. Truth is, your PC can still be hacked even if you’re using reputable security software with a solid track record.

When we talk about your computer possibly being “hacked,” that’s exactly what we mean: a cybercriminal has gained access to your PC and compromised it in some way.

The hacker in question may be a criminal organization that’s installing malware on millions of PCs (e.g., to spy on you and steal your credit card numbers), or the hacker may be an individual using a remote access Trojan (RAT) to personally spy on you through your webcam.

Here some common warning signs that your PC might’ve been hacked, exposing your personal data and system resources.

Is something fishy? Run an antivirus scan

First things first: If you’re concerned that your computer has a virus or another type of malware, you should run a scan with an antivirus program—ideally one of our recommended antivirus software picks.

You should also consider using the free Norton Power Eraser (or a similar tool). Tools like this will reboot your PC into a special scanning environment outside of Windows so they can spot and remove malware like rootkits that normally evade detection.

Perhaps you’ve already run a scan. If your scan didn’t find anything wrong but you’re still concerned, I recommend getting a second opinion.

Beyond that, let’s dig into the actual signs you may have a problem with viruses, worms, rootkits, keyloggers, Trojans, crypto-miners, ransomware, or other dangerous malware on your Windows computer.

More like this: What to know about ransomware before it’s too late

1. Antivirus warnings and other messages

Warnings from your antivirus—whether that’s the Windows Defender antivirus built into Windows itself or another antivirus you’ve installed—can be a sign that an attacker has gained access to your PC.

If you see lots of notices about a virus or other malware being detected, that’s a real sign that something is wrong. Even if your antivirus continues to insist that the malware was removed, if it keeps happening over and over, you should be suspicious.

It’s possible that your antivirus is only doing a partial cleanup. Whoever has hacked your system may have a foothold on your system that your antivirus software isn’t catching.

Meanwhile, strange messages saying that your antivirus is disabled are also a problem. An attacker who hacked your PC may have disabled your antivirus to stop it from getting in the way.

2. Webcam light mysteriously on

If your computer’s webcam light is ever on and you don’t know why, that’s a big problem and you should find out why. If you can’t pin down the cause, a hacker may be involved.

If someone is using a remote access Trojan (RAT) or some other kind of malware that spies on you through your webcam, you’ll usually see a webcam light indicating the camera is in use. (Some laptops and PCs don’t have webcam lights, but they may still show you that your webcam is in use with a system tray icon.)

You may be able to see which application is using your webcam from your PC’s Settings app, but, unfortunately, malware can hide from this list.

It’s also possible that you’ve left a video conferencing app running in the background, of course—and that’s also something you’ll want to know about! Here’s a guide for taking control of your webcam privacy.

3. Unusually slow performance

If your computer was hacked and malware is running on it, you may see slow performance. Applications may take a long time to open, web pages may take a long time to load, and things may just feel sluggish.

This can happen if a lot of malware is running on your PC or if you have a specific type of malware that’s draining your system resources. For example, crypto-mining malware may use all your CPU and GPU resources to mine cryptocurrency, slowing everything to a crawl.

You can dig into the Windows Task Manager to see exactly what’s consuming resources, but Windows has a lot of legitimate background processes that could be using lots of system resources. For example, things can slow down while installing updates.

So, if performance seems low and your computer is crunching away on something in the background, it may not necessarily mean you have malware—but it’s definitely worth looking into.

4. Computer freezes and application crashes

If Windows keeps freezing or your apps keep crashing, that’s another sign that something isn’t quite right.

Malware that digs deep into the Windows operating system may install drivers or interfere with the Windows kernel, which can cause system instability in the form of blue screens, crashes, and freezes. It may also interfere with the applications you use, causing them to crash.

This isn’t foolproof evidence of your computer being hacked, though. Blue screens can be caused by hardware problems and application crashes can be due to the application itself. But if you can’t figure out the root cause, malware should be on your radar.

5. Strange applications and popups

If you’re getting a lot of weird popups (like browser popups) or other weird, unexpected applications showing up, that could be a sign someone with access to your PC—or just malware running in the background—is installing that junk on your PC.

Of course, even this isn’t a way to know for sure. PCs often come with a lot of manufacturer-installed applications you may not recognize, and some applications you use may create popups.

Popups of a text-mode Command Prompt window quickly appearing and vanishing should be suspicious, but some legitimate applications create popups like this one when they install updates.

6. Changes to browser home page, search engine, or extensions

Adware, spyware, and other “junkware” (junk software) have historically been known to take over web browsers.

When they do, these nasty forms of malware may change your browser home page and default search engine to capture more advertising revenue. They may also install browser extensions to spy on your web activity, capture information, and insert more ads into web pages.

If your browser has strange changes like these, that’s a sign your computer may be compromised in some way. You can reset your browser, but it’s also a good idea to run a deeper scan to root out the malware.

7. Odd emails being sent and received, password changes, and more

Hacks aren’t just about access to your computer. Hackers also want access to your various online accounts.

One of the most common ways accounts are “hacked” doesn’t even involve hacking a computer at all. The attacker may discover a password you use—possibly a password that you re-use everywhere, which ended up leaked in a data breach somewhere.

Then, the attacker uses your username and password combination to see if they can gain access to your other accounts. If the service allows the attacker in with your leaked credentials, they’ve essentially hacked your account. That’s why re-using passwords is so dangerous and why enabling two-factor authentication is so helpful.

If you see strange emails being sent and received, or if your account passwords are suddenly reset, it could be the result of a hack. Someone with access to your computer (or someone who knows your passwords) may have gained remote access to your accounts.

If malware scans come up clear and your computer seems secure but you still see strange things like this, it’s a good idea to change your passwords just in case.

Be on alert and trust your gut

To be clear, this isn’t an exhaustive list. There may be other warning signs of hacks and/or malware. What’s even scarier is that a particularly well-executed hack may not leave any signs at all.

A sophisticated attacker doesn’t want to be noticed at all. They want to quietly spy on you and steal important data, and they’re going to do their best to ensure their hack doesn’t affect your PC in any noticeable way so they can remain undetected. That’s a big difference from the bog-standard malware that will be happy to waste your PC’s resources just to mine some cryptocurrency.

Ultimately, the best answer is to trust your gut. If something seems wrong, run scans with the various antivirus programs we recommend.

If nothing comes up and you’re still concerned, consider resetting your PC. This is basically like reinstalling Windows—you’ll get a “factory default” setup and you can set everything up again. This process will remove any malware or other hacker tools that could be lurking on your system, but you’ll have to reinstall the programs you use and set things up again afterward. Still, that’s a small price for peace of mind.

Want more PC advice? Subscribe to my free Windows Intelligence newsletter to get all the latest tips, tricks, and news sent straight to your email inbox.

Antivirus, Security Software and Services

Everybody needs cloud storage these days, but nobody wants to shell out an arm and a leg every month. So, why not lock in all of your storage needs for a one-time price? Right now, you can get a lifetime subscription to a FolderFort storage plan for a big discount.

FolderFort is a high-speed, intuitive cloud storage service that’s accessible from any modern browser, PC, Mac, or mobile device without any installation needed. It’s an organization-focused cloud storage platform, giving you support for unlimited workspaces and users so you can seamlessly collaborate with others, manage your files and folders, and more. It’s easy to restrict files and folders or grant quick access to anyone, and everything is secured by BackBlaze for elite encryption and speeds. If you ever need more (or less) space, you can always change your plan with ease.

Lock up your cloud storage needs for life. Right now, you can get a lifetime subscription to a FolderFort plan.

• Get a 250GB storage plan for 62% off $107 at just $39.99.
• Get a 500GB storage plan for 66% off $179 at just $59.99.

 

FolderFort 250GB Storage Plan Lifetime Subscription – $39.99

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Storage

Humans are terrible at passwords. Simply put, we suck at creating them, we can never remember them, and we share them way too freely. Indeed, the very thing that can ensure our online security has become our biggest obstacle to it. And if you think you have good reasons not to use a password manager, here is why you’re wrong.

The best password managers relieve you of the burden of two of these problems—having to create and then memorize unique, complex logins on your own. Sharing your passwords is on you. Plus, these applications protect your passwords by encrypting your login info in a virtual vault—either locally or in the cloud—only allowing access with a single master password. So, if you’re looking to step up your security game, a password manager is one of the best ways to do it. And sure, web browsers are starting to offer password management features, but they’re not yet good enough. 

All of our top picks for password mangers support a variety of operating systems such as Windows, Mac OS, Android, and iOS, as well as the major browsers. And all will let you sync your data across multiple devices, though you may have to pay extra for that privilege. Once you’ve found the right password manager for your needs, head over to our guide on mastering your password manager to make sure you’re getting the most from your software.

Update June 14, 2024: Invested deeply in Apple’s ecosystem? Its password management is about to get a major upgrade, as per a recent announcement at WWDC. You can read more about the Passwords app on our sister site, Macworld.

What to look for in a password manager

At their most basic, password managers capture your username and password—usually via a browser plugin—when you log in to a website, and then automatically fill in your credentials when you return to that site. They store all your passwords in an encrypted database, often referred to as a “vault,” which you protect with a single master password.

Of course, most password managers do much more than this and many extend protection beyond your login credentials to other types of personal data. We narrowed it down to a few essential features that we looked for and you should too:

Password generation

You’ve been reminded ad nauseam that the strongest passwords are long, random strings of characters, and that you should use a different one for each site you access. That’s a tall order. This is what makes password generation—the ability to create complex passwords out of letters, numbers, and special characters—an indispensable feature of any good password manager. The best password managers will also be able to analyze your existing passwords for weaknesses and upgrade them with a click.

Autofill and auto-login

Most password managers can autofill your login credentials whenever you visit a site and even log you in automatically. Thus, the master password is the only one you ever have to enter. This is controversial, though, as browser autofill has long been a security concern, so the best managers will also let you toggle off this feature if you feel the risk outweighs the convenience.

Secure sharing

Sometimes you need to share a password with a family member or coworker. A password manager should let you do so without compromising your security.

Two-factor authentication

To an enterprising cybercriminal, your password manager’s master password is as hackable as any other password. Increasingly, password managers support multi-factor authentication—using a second method such as a PIN, a fingerprint, or another “trusted device” for additional verification—to mitigate this risk. Choose one that does.

Protection for other personal data

Because of how frequently we use them online, credit card and bank account numbers, our addresses, and other personal data can be securely stored in many password managers and available to autofill into web forms when we’re shopping or registering an account.

No online security measure is 100 percent foolproof, but most security experts agree that password managers are still the safest way for people to manage their myriad logins, and we agree that the benefits far outweigh the risks. Just choose your password manager carefully after researching all the options starting with this guide.

Editor’s note: Because online services are often iterative, gaining new features and performance improvements over time, our reviews are subject to change in order to accurately reflect the current state of the services.

Professional Software, Security Software and Services

Life is about growth, and one of the best ways to grow is to invest in your own learning. When you’re out of school, it’s not the easiest thing to do. But that’s why an app like Headway Premium is so valuable. This app gives you unlimited access to more than 1,500 book summaries to give you easier access to the world’s greatest knowledge. Right now, a lifetime subscription is $240 off.

With Headway, you’ll have lifetime access to nonfiction bestsellers that have been distilled into just 15-minute reads. Every month, you’ll get 30-50 new summaries covering topics from personal development and business to health and wellness, science, and more. The entire process is personalized and gamified, making it more fun to check in every day to learn something new and earn some achievements.

Find out why Headway has been an Apple App of the Day four times in a row and recognized as an Apple Editors’ Choice winner. Right now, you can get a lifetime subscription to Headway Premium for 80% off $299 at just $59.99.

 

Headway Premium: Lifetime Subscription – $59.99

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Accessories

We’ve tested a lot of internal SSDs over the last decade or so, and the improvement to the technology has been astounding. The ongoing advancements in SSDs keep us on our toes and our testing methodology has evolved accordingly. Here’s how it stands at the moment.

What hardware does PCWorld use for testing internal storage?

Our current test platform features all of the latest transport technologies: USB 3.2×2 (20Gbps), Thunderbolt 4, PCIe 5.0. There is no discrete USB 4 port, so we test that using the Thunderbolt 4 ports, which do support that protocol.

The operating system is Windows 11 (22H2) 64-bit (updates are disabled) running on an X790 (PCIe 5.0) motherboard/Core i5-12400 CPU combo with two Kingston Fury 32GB DDR5 modules (64GB of memory total). Intel integrated graphics are used rather than a discrete GPU card.

An ImDisk RAM disk using 58GB of the 64GB total system memory is used for the 48GB transfer tests and is allotted 58GB of the 64GB total system memory. The operating system runs off of a Samsung 990 Pro 2TB, which is also the source for larger test files.

While we rarely cover internal hard drives these days, when we do, the same basic test methodology is employed.

What tests does PCWorld run on internal SSDs?

The synthetic benchmarks we consistently employ are CrystalDiskMark 8 (64GB data set) and AS SSD 2 (10GB data set). These have delivered the most consistent results over the years, plus we have a huge library of results that can be directly compared. However, we will also run ATTO and/or IOmeter to check vendor claims of optimization for certain workloads.

The issue with synthetic benchmarks is that, as of late, the numbers they spit out far outstrip anything you’ll see in the real world. That’s not to throw shade on these worthy tools; it’s simply that they do their own I/O. In real life you’re stuck with what Windows provides — which is comparatively primitive in not taking advantage of NVMe’s advanced features such as multiple queues.

So, to mirror what users will see in the progress bars while copying data, we transfer a 48GB set of files and folders as well as a single 48GB file to and from the drive we’re testing. The aforementioned RAM disk is employed as the source for writes and the destination for reads to minimize lag impact on the results.

Alas, NVMe SSDs are approaching the point where they’re almost as fast as main memory, so how much longer a RAM disk will be useful is a concern.

We also write a much larger 450GB file; that’s to see how the SSD behaves when it runs out of cache. That my friends, requires a bit of explaining.

How does SSD technology affect PCWorld’s testing?

To comprehend why testing SSDs isn’t as straightforward as kicking the tires of traditional HDDs, tape, optical, etc., you need to understand a bit about the medium.

All SSDs use NAND non-volatile memory to store data. This started as simple on/off SLC (Single-Level Cell) NAND with only one voltage level per cell (charged, not charged). However, to increase storage density, NAND evolved to MLC (Multi-Level Cell/2-bit) with four possible voltage levels, then TLC (Triple-Level Cell/3-bit) with eight possible voltage levels, and now sometimes QLC (Quad-Level Cell/4-bit) with 16 possible voltage levels.

The issue with multiple voltage levels is that it takes far longer to make sure the correct voltage was indeed written. This error checking makes denser NAND slow if you write at its native bit depth.

To circumvent this performance road block, SSD controllers will instead allot (fixed or on the fly) a certain portion of NAND to be written as on/off SLC. The SLC blocks are later rewritten natively to other NAND as MLC/TLC/QLC when the drive has time.

How this secondary caching (many drives use DRAM, and more recently system memory, as primary caching) is handled determines how well an SSD will perform under a heavy load.

As mentioned, this is the reason we write a 450GB file to the SSD — to run it out of secondary cache, or see how well it allots more on the fly. If the write rate never drops during the 450GB write, we’ll write another 900GB file immediately after to get to the actual native write rate.

This is somewhat of a tempest in a teapot for the average user who will rarely write enough data to experience the slowdowns we’re talking about. But it is a key differentiator for users who bang hard on their SSDs all day long, such as videographers and the like.

Comparisons and ratings

Generally, our charts will feature the drive being reviewed, and a few carefully chosen competitors with similar components. However, we do maintain a master spreadsheet with the results of every drive we’ve tested on the current test bed. Our overall rating is derived from a combination of a drive’s placement in the benchmark (CrystalDiskMark and AS SSD) and real-world transfer results, weighted slightly towards the latter.

We only publish AS SSD results if there’s an aberration with CrystalDiskMark 8. This is for brevity and consistency so readers can compare results across reviews more quickly and easily.

As we rate on only a 10-point system (half stars up to 5), it’s not always possible to differentiate between a great product and an almost-great product using that alone. Therefore, you should take a look at the actual results charts, and read the review in its entirety before making a buying decision.

Or, you can just look for the Editors’ choice label, which indicates what we’d buy — all things being equal. Often price will be your deciding factor among the SSDs that receive a 4.5 or higher rating.

Computer Storage Devices, Storage

Whether you’re traveling to a foreign country this summer or you’re just interested in acquiring a new skill, learning a language is a smart investment. It’s good for your brain and it can help you navigate the world far more easily. With Babbel Language Learning, you can become conversational in a new language in as little as 30 days of consistent study, and it’s on sale for $450 off this week only.

Babbel has more than 10 million users worldwide who have helped drive it to a 4.5/5-star rating on the Google Play Store and 4.6/5-star rating on the App Store. Through bite-sized lessons designed to fit into a busy schedule and a focus on practical vocabulary, you can hone your skills in 14 different languages at your own pace.

Ready to learn a new language? Now through 11:59 pm PT on 6/17, you can get a lifetime subscription to Babbel Language Learning for just $149.97 (reg. $599).

 

Babbel Language Learning: Lifetime Subscription (All Languages) – $149.97

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Entertainment

Need a reliable workhorse of a monitor for your workstation? The 24-inch Samsung ViewFinity S60A is currently on sale for $180, its lowest-ever price on Amazon, down from its usual $280.

The ViewFinity S60A is an excellent choice because it has an IPS panel that delivers WQHD (2560×1440) resolution with HDR10 support for fantastic images. Whether you’re using it for work, peering at spreadsheets, editing photos, or watching videos, it’s pretty great.

It’s also quite versatile thanks to its ability to orient however you want, all without any extra gear. Switch between horizontal and vertical as needed, complete with its height-adjustable stand that allows you to freely swivel, tilt, and pivot.

This monitor also has several connectivity options: one HDMI port, one DisplayPort port, one USB 2.0 port, and three USB 3.0 ports. With these, you can connect a variety of devices, charge your phone, and so on. You can have your laptop, desktop, and gaming console all hooked up to this monitor without constantly swapping out cables.

Overall, it’s super slim, minimalistic, and borderless, which makes it sleek enough for any desk. If you’re in need of a monitor, you can’t go wrong with the 24-inch Samsung ViewFinity S60A for just $180.

This is a limited-time Amazon deal Monitors

“The desktop PC is dying.” It’s something we’ve been hearing for decades—hell, at this point there might even be writers covering desktop PCs who’ve heard it their entire lives.

But Qualcomm’s push for Arm hardware and Intel’s somewhat frantic defense of the x86 has lots of people repeating it again. At Computex, Adam picked the brain of Steve from GamersNexus on this topic.

In the consumer market, standalone desktop PCs are going to remain a small slice of the pie compared to laptops. But what’s prompted this speculation is Qualcomm’s latest generation of Snapdragon chips and Microsoft’s wholehearted embrace of Arm-based hardware.

The Surface line’s latest refresh is chock-full of it, and plenty of other OEMs are onboard. What does this mean for desktop PCs and the enthusiasts, like us, who love to tinker with them?

Assuming the entire market doesn’t switch over to Arm hardware overnight—and give Intel’s board simultaneous heart conditions—Steve is most concerned about the idea of a split market.

“If it’s not a better thing for desktop, the thing that I would consider a challenge is, suddenly you’re splitting development support, like with software and some extent hardware. What’s that gonna translate to for the smaller market, like enthusiast DIY?”

The prospect of desktop PC hardware—and user-accessible x86 hardware in general—becoming an isolated sliver of the market is a grim one.

We’ve all but abandoned the idea that laptops can have their memory upgraded, with the latest Intel processors baking it right into the processor package with an upper limit of just 32GB. The thought of that happening to desktop PCs, or the category becoming so isolated that it slides into irrelevance, isn’t something us nerds would welcome.

But we’ve seen the writing on this particular wall before. Intel and AMD continue to release more and more powerful hardware, with the latter even dedicating entire sub-categories to gaming desktop PCs.

Steve says the song sounds familiar: “…But this has been a topic forever, right? ‘PCs dying?’ I guess the question I would have is like, is it different this time? Or is it just another, ‘Here’s a different reason it’s dying.'”

And there’s always the prospect of a market-wide shift to Arm, in which desktops just follow along. In that case, there’s nothing stopping manufacturers from keeping hardware modular and upgradeable… assuming they think that market is worth it. For more chin-scratching on the future of the PC, subscribe to PCWorld on YouTube.

Desktop PCs

Whenever we see one of our favorite keyboards on sale, we consider it our duty to share the good news with you.

Now available at its best-ever price of $80, the Logitech MX Keys Mini is on sale at Amazon and Best Buy—possibly the sign you needed to add one of these bad boys to your setup.

The Logitech MX Keys Mini is a minimalist yet powerful keyboard that’s especially useful if you frequently switch between multiple devices (e.g., laptops, desktops, tablets, even phones).

This wireless keyboard also comes with low-profile keys that are designed to fit the shape of your fingertips, improving the tactile experience and making it more comfortable to type.

It also has nifty shortcut buttons for: activating voice-to-text dictation, muting and unmuting your microphone, quick access to emojis, and more. Not to mention the backlighting, which automatically turns on when your hands approach and adjusts to ambient brightness.

As its name suggests, the Logitech MX Keys Mini is super compact and portable—you can easily toss it into your backpack and take with you for working on the go. (But it lacks a numeric keypad, so consider whether you can live without one before pulling the trigger on this.)

My favorite feature is that the Logitech MX Keys Mini can connect to up to three devices via Bluetooth Low Energy and seamlessly switch between them. It supports Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, and Linux, so it’ll work with nearly any modern device.

This wireless keyboard has a built-in battery that recharges with a USB-C cable and lasts up to 10 days on a single charge. If you disable the backlighting, it can go for months.

While we didn’t review this exact model, our very own Michael Crider tested the Logitech MX Keys S and found it great enough to warrant 4 out of 5 stars. According to him, the MX Keys is “still one of the best non-mechanical keyboards on the market.”

Tired of your keyboard taking up so much space? Need a portable keyboard that’s easy to carry around? Now’s your chance to jump on this Logitech MX Keys Mini, on sale at Amazon and Best Buy.

The Logitech MX Keys Mini, now lowest price Keyboards

Scoring the perfect gaming monitor is imposs… wait, that can’t be true because this 27-inch LG UltraGear is 34% off right now on Amazon, bringing the price down to a stellar $657.

That’s a significant discount, saving you $343 off its list price of $1,000—and while it isn’t its best price ever, it’s still pretty darn close considering there’s no a major sales event right now.

There are so many cool things about this LG UltraGear, starting with its 27-inch OLED display and QHD (2560×1440) resolution. With its vibrant and life-like colors, the games you play, the movies you watch, and anything you work on will look absolutely gorgeous.

One of this monitor’s core features is its super-fast 240Hz refresh rate, ensuring you get to experience smooth gameplay whether you’re in the midst of a tight action scene or flying through whatever gaming world you’re hooked on right now.

The near-instantaneous 0.03ms (GtG) response time gives you that extra competitive edge by further reducing lag and ghosting.

This gaming monitor has several bells and whistles, too, including a 1.5M:1 contrast ratio, one DisplayPort and two HDMI ports, and compatibility with Nvidia G-Sync and AMD FreeSync.

So, if you want a great gaming monitor for a great price, this LG UltraGear OLED monitor is just $657 on Amazon right now.

This 27-inch LG UltraGear monitor is 34% off Monitors

Microsoft has decided to pull its controversial Recall feature from the initial wave of Copilot+ PCs and fully test it via the Windows Insider program before it lands on customer PCs.

According to a June 13th update to a blog post Microsoft originally published on June 7th, Recall will now be released as a preview to the Insider program “in the coming weeks.”

“We are adjusting the release model for Recall to leverage the expertise of the Windows Insider community to ensure the experience meets our high standards for quality and security,” the blog post, originally authored by Microsoft vice president of Windows and Devices Pavan Davuluri, now reads.

Recall, launched in conjunction with the first wave of Copilot+ PCs, was the flagship feature of the Windows 11 update that accompanied the new devices. Using the NPUs found on the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite processors and subsequent chips from Intel and AMD, Recall was a search engine of sorts for your own PC. Recall was a great concept in theory, but stored required large chunks of storage. Opponents pounced on the fact that Recall was on by default, as it constantly took snapshots of your PCs desktop and then stored them in easily accessible locations on your PC.

Microsoft then said it would turn Recall off by default, require Windows Hello to use Recall, and also use just-in-time-decryption to secure the stored data further. Microsoft used that opportunity to backtrack from Recall and the latest update moves it further back.

Microsoft said that it still plans to “make Recall (preview) available to all Copilot+ PCs coming soon.” But, the company added, “this decision is rooted in our commitment to providing a trusted, secure and robust experience for all customers and to seek additional feedback prior to making the feature available to all Copilot+ PC users.”

Unfortunately, Microsoft has probably only succeeded in making everyone unhappy: those who hoped to test and try out Copilot+ — including those who preordered Copilot+ PCs — won’t be able to access it and those who still hate the concept are still fuming that Recall will eventually become another headache to manage.

Windows

Everyone knows the CAPCHA tests on websites where you either have to click on numerous pictures of cars, traffic lights, or bicycles, enter confusing combinations of numbers and letters or simply click to confirm that you’re not a robot. There used to be so many of these tests that it was downright annoying, especially if you needed several attempts.

But have you ever asked yourself whether a robot or an AI could also pass these tests? How does the CAPTCHA know that it was filled in by a human? And what does the term even stand for? Let’s clear up this mystery.

What does CAPTCHA stand for?

The word CAPTCHA stands for “completely automated public Turing Test to tell computers and humans apart” and is therefore a term for an automated, public Turing Test to distinguish humans from computers.

The term Turing Test was coined by Alan Turing, a British mathematician and computer scientist who wanted to use certain methods to test whether machines can think and act like humans. Turing tests can also be used to test AIs for creativity and awareness.

CAPTCHAs have been around since 2000 and are deliberately designed to sound similar to “capture,” as they are primarily used to intercept and filter out bots on websites, for example to avoid spam or prevent automated purchases by bots.

How does a CAPTCHA test work?

CAPTCHAs are usually quite simple, but always require you to fulfil a task. Sometimes you have to recognize certain letters and numbers that have been distorted and enter them manually. In other cases, you have to recognize certain patterns on pictures such as the existence of traffic lights, bridges, or animals.

The tests are always randomized. After reloading the website, a different task should appear each time. This is intended to avoid repetition, which would make it easier for bots to circumvent the system.

It used to be difficult for computers to solve CAPTCHAs, as certain algorithms had to be built in to reliably recognize patterns. However, the constant progress in the use of artificial intelligence has now made it possible for bots to solve these tests easily.

So, how does Captcha know that I’m not a robot?

This brings us to the previous question of how CAPTCHAs can still work today, even if they’re generally used less frequently than in the past.

There’s a simple solution to this: moving the mouse. Modern CAPTCHAs use movement tracking to track the movement of the cursor. When a person moves the mouse, the route of the cursor is practically never the same. The movement is never the same speed. Bots, on the other hand, automatically click on CAPTCHA boxes or images in a perfect straight line (for example, from bottom to top directly to the box). Websites can recognize this and block access.

Occasionally, you may have to click on a box that says “I am not a robot” and then solve a more complex CAPTCHA with images again. This is because your mouse movement might’ve been more “robotic.” So next time, try a little more swerving to make it clear that you’re a human.

Science & Technology

Price When Reviewed

250

Best Prices Today: Logitech G Pro X 2 Lightspeed

I really liked the Logitech G Pro X Lightspeed for its high-fidelity audio and snug comfort. The Pro X 2 Lightspeed is a chip off that winning headset’s block for comfort, but with new 50mm graphene audio drivers on board, its sound is even more impressive. Indeed, with the detail I’m getting in the soundscapes of my favorite RPGs, I’m wanting to replay them all.

The Pro X 2 Lightspeed also benefits from a very defined 3D spatial surround sound courtesy of DTS Headphone: X 2.0, which is truly immersive. A longer battery life of up to 50 hours is also a win. There’s no simultaneous audio or ANC to speak of, but an excellent level of personalization in the headset’s companion app helps balance the scales in favor of the Pro X 2.

Further reading: See our roundup of the best gaming headsets to learn about competing products.

Logitech G Pro X 2 Lightspeed design and build

When you pull the Pro X 2 Lightspeed out of the box you notice two things right away: It resembles its predecessor the Logitech G Pro X Lightspeed with oval-shaped earcups, thick leatherette earpads, big, dominant Y-shaped aluminum yokes, and a sturdy steel frame.

Second, the earcups are about as big as an adult fist (3.9 x 3.1 inches), and just cover my ears for a snug fit. They move vertically and horizontally too, so I can move my head and neck around quite well. Curly cords up near the top of the yokes are in danger of breakage, however, so you’ll want to keep this headset cased when not in use.

You can change the volume of each of the seven directional points in G Hub, to emphasize or soften sound originating at each, which is something I’d recommend you work into presets for specific FPS maps…

The left earcup houses almost all the controls except for the 3.5mm auxiliary-in jack, which you can find over on the right. They include an on/off switch, volume wheel, mute mic button, USB-C port for charging the headset’s onboard battery, and a Bluetooth button. All up, and with the 2.4GHz Wi-Fi, you get three connectivity types, which is quite generous.

That let me connect to a smattering of my devices, including my PC, smartphone, Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation 5 console — so I didn’t have to change headsets.

In the box you get a USB-C to USB-A cable and a long 3.5mm audio jack. Two spare earcup covers are a softer velour material so you have the option of swapping the leatherette ones for cooler, more breathable ones when things heat up.

As to comfort, it’s top notch. The default leatherette on the cups is soft and the cushioning is deep. A moderate clamp pressure didn’t squeeze my ears. The headset’s 12.2-ounce weight was never a burden; it has a presence on your head, but not enough of one to make you sore.

Lastly, the headset comes with a soft storage case. I would have preferred a hard case with compartments, if just to prevent accessories rolling around and scratching up its gorgeous facade. Still, a case is better than no case at all.

Logitech G Pro X 2 Lightspeed performance

No matter whether you’re using 3.5mm auxiliary-in, Bluetooth, or Wireless connectivity, these cans sound amazing. The 50mm graphene audio drivers are the reason. They can pick up the smallest of vibrations, so the Pro X 2 has an excellent frequency response and low distortion.

Music, games, and movies sounded equally impressive in my testing. In games, though, two things stood out: the high level of detail in the soundscape and the audio clarity.

Indeed, in RPGs like Elden Ring I relished hearing hard-to-notice atmospheric sounds like the game’s background drone, the bleating of sheep, and the rustle of grass.

The audio clarity too had me stopping at times to just soak it all up. The mid tones sounded natural and crisp, as well, and the treble tones held their shape without irksome tinniness or twanginess. But the bass impressed me the most; this is definitely a headset that pushes lows to the foreground for maximum impact.

Indeed, that bass isn’t just commanding — which is where most gaming headsets would be happy to leave off — it’s exceptionally smooth too. I never had that uncomfortable pressure cooker-like feeling on my ears that I sometimes get with really bassy headsets, which is a rare thing I savored.

That bass is impressive even in default mode, before you’ve even activated the Bass Boost preset in the Logitech G Hub companion app, so if you wish, you can switch it on for even more impact.  

The left earcup also houses a discreet slot for the headset’s 6mm detachable cardioid boom microphone. The mic is flexible and also comes with a neat pop filter on the end. The mic did a great job making my voice sound clear and warm. The filter minimized pops and hisses in my Discord chats too.

The surround sound was also a pleasure to game with, so I kept it on most of the time. It proved effective at helping me pinpoint player footfalls in games like CounterStrike 2. I could change the volume of each of the seven directional points in G Hub, to emphasize or soften sound originating at each point, which is something I’d recommend you work into presets for specific FPS maps.

I had a lot of fun with the microphone settings in G Hub too. Applying presets to my voice using Blue Vo!ce allowed me to enhance its quality. My go-to of these was “Broadcaster,” which bestowed my voice with an authoritative quality, and “Crisp and Warm,” which did exactly what its namesake suggests.

Another great feature in G Hub is “Sampler.” Here you can create your own macros or random expressions to use in your games. A list of ready-made expressions come in a variety of languages, so they can be a fun ice breaker if you’re playing on overseas servers.

That’s some of the key functionality you can tweak. There’s more I wished the headset had, especially since it costs a whole $250 at checkout — namely Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) and simultaneous audio, but the Pro X 2 has neither.  

You can still access your different audio sources separately, though. A simple button press switches you between Bluetooth and Wi-Fi modes, which I found was very handy when I wanted to use the headset between multiple devices in one sitting.

Should you buy the Logitech G Pro X2 Lightspeed?

In its purest form, you could say the G Pro X 2 really capitalizes on what matters the most for most gamers — audio quality, comfort, and connectivity.

The fact that it dispenses with ANC and simultaneous Bluetooth functionality, might seem a bit of an oversight for a headset that costs $250. But, with such amazing audio fidelity and features like DTS Headset: X 2.0 surround sound, even those omissions seem forgivable.

Indeed, I’m enjoying all the detail I can now hear in the soundscapes of my favorite RPGs — details which have brought them to light in new and engrossing ways

Headsets

Windows Recall is probably the most exciting new feature that Microsoft presented at its event in May (alongside Copilot+ PCs). This new tool runs locally on your computer (provided it has an NPU and is therefore a Copilot Plus PC) and logs everything you do on your computer with regular snapshots so that you can search for and retrieve all the content you’ve interacted with.

Microsoft describes the Recall function as follows:

“While you are using your PC, Recall takes snapshots of your screen. Snapshots are taken every five seconds while the content on the screen differs from the previous snapshot. Your snapshots are then saved locally and analyzed locally on your PC. Analyzing Recall allows you to search for content, including images and text, in natural language.”

This should enable you to find everything again. Recall should therefore become a kind of “photographic memory” for your PC and be able to remember everything you have done on it. Recall will also be available for German-speaking PCs at launch.

Further reading: Microsoft is killing a huge AI feature in Copilot Pro

You can start Recall either by pressing the Windows key + J or by clicking on the Recall icon on the taskbar.

However, Recall has been criticized from the onset due to potential data privacy issues. So, if you don’t want to be monitored by Windows around the clock, you only have one option: switch off Recall.

How to switch off Recall

If you want to switch off Recall completely, go to Settings > Privacy & security > Recall & snapshots in Windows and deactivate the Save snapshots option by moving the slider to the Off position.

Alternative: Only allow recall to record certain activities

If you want to leave the function switched on, take a moment to configure which apps and websites are allowed and which are blocked. Chrome and Firefox users should also switch on the automatic blocking of private browser windows (only Edge’s InPrivate windows are excluded by default).

Microsoft has published detailed instructions on how you can customize Recall to your wishes.

Switch off Recall for a short time

You can also quickly switch off Recall for a short time period. To pause Recall, click on the Recall icon in the taskbar and then select Stop/pause until tomorrow option. Snapshots are paused until they’re automatically resumed at 12:00 noon.

Windows

Modern gaming laptops are technological modern marvels. The amount of hardware packed into a small form factor can outpace even the best desktops of years past. With such stringent high-performance and tight tolerances, the right suite of software programs can have a surprising impact on your usability. While gaming laptops have specific software built-in from the manufacturer that you should be acquainted with, there’s plenty left to explore.  

We’ll take you through some of the basics you should be aware of with modern gaming laptops. These programs not only will add to your experience, but many of them are also free. Performance monitors, CPU tweaks, and utility programs augment the already impressive capabilities of your machine. These can help you understand the performance under the hood, a critical tool for future upgrade decisions.

Further reading: Best gaming laptops 2024: What to look for and highest-rated models

Built-in software 

Our first stop is the built-in suite of software your gaming laptop comes with. These programs will often give you fine-tuning control of power profiles and fan speeds at a minimum. RGB controls and even CPU or GPU overclocking tweaks are often be included, too. 

With the advent of AI technologies coming in the next generation of laptops, many of these tasks will be improved with new software. 

Laptops tend to have a more closed-off ecosystem, compared to enthusiast grade-desktops. Manufacturer installed software will often be the primary way that you will interact with the core functions. 

On laptops such as the Alienware M16, you’ll have access to Alienware Command Center. Here you’ll find the basic performance overlays for monitoring your CPU and GPU. Furthermore, overclocking profiles are also available with a variety of presets. 

You’ll often find the function row of your keyboard embedded with useful shortcuts that are connected to the included software. The Alienware M16 has a button to change performance profiles mapped to the F1 function key, for example.

The ASUS ROG Strix 16 laptop has a similar function row with RGB and power adjustments. It also includes a top row that controls volume and fan profiles. You can open the Asus Armoury Crate software, too.

On most gaming laptops, noise is often an issue with high-performance. To reach a comfortable noise level, you can choose power settings between balanced or varying performance modes. This in turn will allow you to keep fan speeds under control with thermals in check. 

AlienFX is the nomenclature for RGB controls and setting key binds. This suite also includes more niche features such as AlienVision to turn off monitor overlays and fine-tuning for gaming. 

Other brands such as Asus, MSI, and Gigabyte have similar software utilities that perform similar functions. 

Driver and BIOS updates are also found within these software suites, facilitating the process and reducing time browsing websites. 

Razer Synapse laptop software with CPU Overclocking.

Some will allow for more fine-tuning such as Razer’s Synapse. You can make CPU specific-performance tweaks here, avoiding a trip to the BIOS. 

Utility programs  

There are a few essential programs that accentuate the built-in software experience for many gaming laptops. 

Nvidia app

If your gaming laptop contains an Nvidia GeForce RTX GPU, you’ll find some very useful features.  The new Nvidia App is in Beta and is an update to the GeForce Experience. It allows for quick Game Ready driver downloads for your GPU. You can also select Studio Ready drivers if you’re using your laptop for productivity. 

The Nvidia app can also perform game optimizations, by adjusting best use settings for your hardware based on personalized data. The Nvidia Overlay allows you to monitor both GPU and CPU metrics, along with frame rates. As for Nvidia Shadow Play, this feature helps you capture game footage. In fact, it will record the last 30 seconds of gameplay. Screenshots are included in this feature as well.

AMD Radeon GPU laptop owners, on the other hand, will find the AMD Adrenalin software, which has metrics and other fine-tuning capabilities. 

Intel driver update utility

If your laptop has an Intel CPU, this utility can help you keep your drivers up to date directly from the manufacturer. While it’s often best practice to get drivers from the manufacture of your laptop, sometimes the pipeline for those updates can be slow. Alternatively, using the built-in driver updater in your laptop software can be sufficient. 

Steam, Epic Game Store, Xbox app

Don’t forget the essential game library programs that give you access to all the PC games your heart desires. 

Of special interest is Xbox PC Game Pass with the Xbox app. This gives you access to numerous great gamers for one monthly fee. The newly added titles can often be great as well, and a good way to experience many games without having to purchase individual titles. 

OBS Studio

Recording your game play or streaming are common use cases for laptop owners, and OBS Studio is a great way to do it. Allowing various methods and codecs, it’s a flexible way to share your gaming experience. 

Microsoft

Don’t forget to occasionally check your Windows updates and your Microsoft Store update tab. This can often be how many programs are updated on laptops, including some built-in software by the manufacturer. There are other useful programs on here too such as Dolby Access for audio settings if your laptop’s software does not support such a feature. 

There’s also a Windows HDR Calibration utility for configuring your monitor if its HDR capable such as the Razer Blade 16 with its Mini-LED display. This can be a useful program to get the most out of your HDR capable display. 

Overclocking and monitoring programs  

Gaming laptops are not as open-ended for enthusiast tinkering as a PC desktop, but some units do allow for a reasonable degree of overclocking. The MSI Titan series of laptops are famous for pushing its CPU limits with a more unlocked BIOS, for example. 

These types of programs can certainly be for more advanced users. Novice users, however, should stick to the preset overclocking profiles in their laptop provided software for the safest use. There’s a further set of options in many BIOS setups for enthusiast laptops when it comes to CPU overclocking as well. 

Some laptops, such as the ASUS ROG Strix 16, received BIOS updates during their lifecycle, allowing more options such as CPU undervolting to be applied.  Even if you’re not overclocking, monitoring system performance during gaming can be fun and help you learn about the technology. 

Intel’s extreme tuning utility

Intel’s XTU allows for fine-tuning of your CPU’s various parameters. You’ll need an unlocked Intel CPU such as the Core-i9 13900HX. This should be done by experienced users only, and only some laptops will be unlocked enough to allow any changes in Intel XTU. When done correctly, it can help unlock CPU power and help to reduce power draw to keep thermals in check. 

Gaming laptops depend on cooling. A monitoring program can help keep it under control.

Hardware Monitor or HWinfo64

Gaming laptops can have temperamental thermals and thermal throttling. The best way to check it is with one of these programs that can monitor your system vitals. From making sure temperatures are within spec to monitoring how certain games use the CPU more for performance, these can often come in handy. It allows you to make the best use of your overclocking and testing suite of software, too. 

MSI Afterburner overlay in the top left.

MSI Afterburner

While support for this program has been in doubt lately, enthusiasts can still benefit from the overlay features and performance-in game monitoring. Most users should use built-in monitoring, which you can find on Nvidia’s software. Always make sure downloads are directly from MSI to avoid any potential fake versions. 

Cinebench R23

You should be acquainted with Cinebench R23 for checking CPU single-core and multi-core performance. It pairs well with many of the hardware monitoring programs mentioned here, to test your CPU limits. 

This program will allow you to compare scores with similar hardware configurations to ensure all is functioning correctly. It can also stress test your CPU and help with thermal analysis. It’s a good way to measure any overclocking changes for performance and stability, too. 

When I tested an Alienware laptop with Cinebench R23, lower scores indicated a configuration issue with power limits in the BIOS. This helped me find the problem, fix it, and later re-check to see the expected higher score. If you want to verify that your gaming laptop is performing up to par, performance benchmarks are essential.

Want to test if your laptop cooling pad is working optimally? Run Cinebench R23 and try different positions for your cooling pad to see what works best. 

CrystalDiskMark

Gaming laptops can come with fast RAID 0 NVME configurations or single NVME ultra-fast drives. This utility can help you benchmark the speed of your drives and factor in a potential future upgrade if warrantied. Laptops typically have NVME drives that are upgradable, with multiple slots in higher-end laptops. Along with RAM, these are the only two user-friendly upgrades in most laptops. 

3DMark

This suite of benchmarks has an expansive set of tests that can stress, test, and compare scores for your CPU and GPU. Popular laptop benchmarks include 3DMark Time Spy and a DirectX12 test that runs the CPU and GPU. Time Spy Extreme brings it up a notch to 4K resolution. Testing Nvidia’s DLSS and AMD FSR are now available as well. Even ray tracing tests are available in this fully featured suite. 

PCMark10

To complement 3DMark, this suite will test the productivity aspects of your laptop and compare to industry standards. Performance and battery tests can help those who use these gaming laptops for work, such as digital content creators. It can also help in targeting where upgrades might prove beneficial, such as RAM or storage upgrades.  

Built-in game benchmarks

Many titles have useful built-in game benchmarks that can help you see performance metrics and resource use. You’ll find these benchmarks in games like F1 2023, Cyberpunk 2077, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Hitman 3. They’ll show you how your laptop performs in a specific title and even guide you to add more upgrades such as RAM if you hit a bottleneck. 

Conclusion 

Gaming laptops can be just as powerful as enthusiast-grade gaming PCs. With the right set of programs, you can unlock even more tinkering and power benefits from most units. You can also streamline your experience with items such as the Nvidia App for downloading drivers and the various monitoring programs to insure you are working with a top-spec unit. Laptops pack powerful hardware in a small space, so keeping track of what your hardware is doing is essential to get the most potential and longevity out of your machine.

Laptops

When you’re traveling, you likely spend some time on public WiFi, whether you’re at the airport or on the plane. That carries risks, and while VPNs can help mitigate that risk, they’re a less cost-effective solution than the Deeper Connect Air Portable VPN Travel Router.

This ingenious hardware device plugs into your laptop, instantly delivering military-grade encryption to protect your data, the ability to bypass geographic restrictions, and more cool VPN features without the annoyance of a monthly subscription fee.

It’s really as simple as plug-and-play and you’ll have access to Deeper Connect’s Decentralized VPN (DPN), ad blocking, and cybersecurity features for up to five devices simultaneously. It won’t throttle your browsing speeds, as it supports up to a 300 Mbps connection, and it’s even Web3 ready so you can go virtual with added peace of mind.

Beat the VPN subscription fees and protect your connection. Right now, you can get the Deeper Connect Air Portable VPN Travel Router for 27% off $219 at just $159 using coupon code: CONNECT.

 

Deeper Connect Air Portable VPN Travel Router – $159

See Deal

StackSocial prices subject to change.

VPN

Any monitor can be used for PC gaming, but a display built for productivity will likely leave you underwhelmed. Limited contrast, blurry motion, and slow refresh rates still hold basic productivity monitors back in games. Fortunately, there’s no shortage of excellent gaming monitors available at a wide range of price points—and the best of them embrace cutting-edge technology unavailable in any other PC display. 

Here are the best gaming monitors of 2023 so far. If you aren’t sold on a gaming monitor, check out our recommendations for the best monitors overall or our roundup of the best 4K monitors for additional options.

Updated June 14, 2024 to include the Asus ROG Strix XG27AQDMG as the best gaming monitor for HDR. This WOLED display is a viable alternative QD-OLED monitors, and has the distinct advantage of delivering higher HDR brightness and coming at a competitive price. See our summary below to learn more.

What to look for in a gaming monitor

Gamers have unique needs that exceed an average user. Here’s what PC gamers should look for in a gaming monitor.

Resolution

Most widescreen gaming monitors have a resolution of 1920×1080 (1080p), 2560×1440 (1440p), or 4K (3840×2160). A higher resolution improves sharpness and clarity, which helps games look more detailed and lifelike. Increasing resolution also increases demand on your video card, however. Gamers with less powerful hardware may want to avoid 4K. 

Refresh rate

A higher refresh leads to smoother motion by increasing the number of frames that can appear each second. It also reduces input lag, as each frame appears more quickly. A 144Hz refresh rate is a big improvement over the standard 60Hz, and 240Hz is better still. The improvement becomes more difficult to notice after 240Hz, but 360Hz monitors exist for those who want the lowest input lag possible.

DIsplayPort and HDMI 2.1

DisplayPort is the best connection for PC gaming. Even DisplayPort 1.4, which is rather old, can support 4K at 144Hz. HDMI 2.1 can handle 4K at 120Hz and is an acceptable connection for PC gaming, though most gamers will use it for a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X|S game console.

How we test gaming monitors

We test all monitors with a Datacolor Spyder X2 Ultra calibration tool. This tool can report objective measurements for brightness, contrast, color gamut, color accuracy, color temperature, gamma, and other metrics. 

Our results are recorded and compared to the results for past monitors. Though we rely on our eyes for initial impressions, comparing objective results lets us evaluate monitors against hundreds of older models from past reviews and testing. 

We examine motion clarity by quickly moving the camera across the map in Civilization VI, playing a round of Rocket League, and panning the camera across the landscape in Final Fantasy XIV—among other games. Finally, we use the popular UFO Test for an apples-to-apples comparison between displays.

In addition to gaming prowess, we consider a monitor’s on-screen menu, ergonomic stand (or lack thereof), and overall build quality—all important qualities irrespective of use case.

Monitors

We’re just a few weeks away from yet another Amazon Prime Day—or, as we like to call it, Black Friday in July. From the latest tech we love, to the cool gadgets we wished we had bought but didn’t, Prime Day is packed with some really great deals.

Whether you’re new to Amazon’s Prime Day event or you’ve been through it multiple times, it always pays to have the best information. Without further ado, here’s everything we know about the next big sale event. Or if you just want to see the deals already on sale, jump straight to early deals.

What is Prime Day?

Prime Day is an annual shopping event that first kicked off in 2015. Back then, it was created to celebrate Amazon’s 20th anniversary. The event started as a big sale for only Amazon Prime subscribers, and, in many ways, it remains that way to this day.

Since 2015, Prime Day has grown into a massive event that covers multiple countries where Amazon is present. And instead of 24 hours of sales, we now get 48 hours to shop the deals, which should be more than enough time to get all the cool gadgets you’ve been dreaming of.

When is Prime Day 2024?

Well, we don’t have anything official quite yet, but we can guesstimate the date for Prime Day 2024. First off, Prime Day usually takes place on a Tuesday and Wednesday in July.

The chosen dates for 2023 were July 11th and 12th, while in 2022, the event took place on July 12th and 13th.

Considering all this and checking out the calendar for this year, we have a couple of options if Amazon sticks to tradition. Prime Day 2024 could be on either the Tuesday-Wednesday pairing of July 9 and 10, or one week later on July 16 and 17.

Unless Amazon decides to switch things up and pick other days of the week, or shoot for later in the month, these are the best bets until we get an official announcement. We’ll update this article as soon as Amazon confirms the timing.

Deals usually kick in at midnight EST, so make sure you’re ready. Of course, in the days leading up to the event, you’ll see more and more discounts specifically reserved for Prime members. We’ll cover those here too!

Will there be another Prime Day in October?

Since we don’t have any official information on the July Prime Day event, we definitely don’t have any information on the October event. However, we can again speculate that Amazon will indeed create a new big sale event dedicated to Prime members in October.

The main reason we believe we’re getting a new Prime Day in October is the fact that Amazon has been pretty consistent with its scheduling. You can also pretty much expect to get another weird name for it. Who remembers “Prime Big Deal Days” from last year? It’s likely we’ll just be calling it “October Prime Day.”

Do I need to be an Amazon Prime member to shop the deals?

As the name suggests, Prime Day is an event dedicated to Prime members. The monthly subscription costs $14.99 per month, or you can pay $139 for the whole year. If you haven’t been a Prime member before, you can sign up for a 30-day free trial to score the Prime Day deals.

The subscription comes with loads of perks, including free speedy delivery, access to Prime Video and Music Prime, cool books and podcasts, and much more.

However, do keep in mind is that many discounts available during Prime Day are not necessarily marked as such and are available to all buyers. Most deals, however, are marked accordingly, and only Prime members can access them.

How to find the best Prime Day deals?

Finding the coolest Prime Day deals is super easy—you only need to check in here at PCWorld. We’d also suggest following us on social media because we’ll definitely be pushing our favorite discounts there.

What types of products do we expect to go on sale?

First of all, we expect to see loads of Amazon’s own products available for sale. From Kindles to Echo devices, security cameras from Ring and Blink to Fire TVs and soundbars, and all those nifty little tablets, we’re expecting to see great prices for all of these. Older products will likely get new best prices during the Prime Day event, so we’ll definitely be looking for those specifically.

Second, other brands are certainly going to join in the fun: Samsung, Apple, Dell, Lenovo, and so on. We expect to see great deals for massive monitors, large smart TVs, speedy laptops, fantastic headphones, smartwatches, smartphones, cameras, keyboards, storage devices, and plenty more.

Of course, the deals aren’t tech-exclusive, but we’re definitely going to focus on those at PCWorld.

Do other retailers run sales during Prime Day?

Like with any sale event, there’s nothing stopping other retailers, like Best Buy, Walmart, Target, and so on, from running their own deals during Amazon’s Prime Day.

So, yes, you could find similar prices elsewhere without even having to pay for a Prime subscription. In many of our Amazon deal round-ups, we note deals from other retailers as well.

Best Amazon deals already on sale

Amazon runs deals every day, so we’ll be updating this list on a regular basis. Bookmark this page!

• Amazon eero Max 7 mesh wifi router – $510 (15% off at Amazon)
• Logitech MX Keys Mini keyboard – $80 (20% off at Amazon)
• Sony SRS-XP700 X-Series Wireless Portable Bluetooth Speaker – $398 (28% off at Amazon)
• Soundcore Motion 300 Wireless Hi-Res Portable Speaker – $64 (20% off at Amazon)
• Ring Video Doorbell – $60 (40% off at Amazon)
• Anker Outlet Extender and USB Wall Charger – $16 (36% off at Amazon)
• Samsung ViewFinity S60A 24-inch – $180 (36% off at Amazon)

Accessories, HDTVs, Laptops, Smart Home, Storage

It might be surprising, but free VPNs are no longer just for PCs. You can also use them to help easily boost your security and privacy game on an Android device. Whether you want extra security while using a public Wi-Fi network, or to get around geo-restrictions for most of your favorite streaming services, a free VPN can help you do it without having to pay for anything.

The problem when looking for a good free VPN, though, is that there are a large number of them available on the Google Play Store. So how do you determine which ones are worth your time? Our experts here at PCWorld have tested a slew of VPNs, both for PCs and Android devices, and have curated a list of the best free options you can feel confident in using. Check out our top picks below.

Why you should trust me: Here at PCWorld we’ve been testing computer hardware, software, and services since the 1980s. As the VPN reviewer, I’m continually testing all of the major VPNs on the market and many lesser-known services in order to curate a list of the very best VPNs across a variety of categories. For a more in-depth guide, you can check out my article on how we test VPN services at PCWorld. Below you’ll find my favorite free VPNs, and below that, helpful advice about what to look for when choosing a VPN for your Android device on your own.

And if you’re looking to further upgrade your Android phone’s security, which I highly recommend, be sure to look at PCWorld’s recommendations for the best free antivirus for Android as well. Additionally, you can check out my guide to the best VPNs covering multiple devices.

Updated June 13, 2024: Check out my latest review of Windscribe Pro VPN. The premium and free version of this VPN both shine, and it continues to be one of my top picks on this list thanks to its unlimited device connections and good speeds.

What to look for in a free VPN for Android

This will follow a lot of the advice I’ve already given for free stuff when it comes to Android. Google is doing a better job than ever at keeping harmful apps out of the Play Store, but there is still a chance of some random VPN app having malicious intent. Another problem is that even if the app is fine, the service itself may be up to no good.

For those reasons I always advise going with a well-known VPN service provider to reduce your chances of running into security issues.

Next, you want a free app that is truly free. Not some 7- or 30-day trial that will automatically start charging the card connected to your Play account after the trial period. You should also read over the privacy policy to make sure there’s nothing there you’re going to have a problem with.

Finally, you want to make sure the VPN has data limits that suit your needs.

How I tested

I judge VPNs on a variety of criteria including server network, connection speeds, privacy protections, ease-of-use, additional features, and cost. For a more detailed guide on how I test, check out PCWorld’s comprehensive guide on how we test VPN services.

Speed tests are kept as simple as possible. I average the connections between different global locations for any given VPN and then compare them to a baseline internet speed to get a good picture of the overall connection speeds. I thoroughly research and analyze the privacy policies and histories of each VPN and note any outstanding discrepancies or data collection issues.

Experience and ease-of-use are subjective, but I try my best to give an accurate representation of how it feels to work with the VPN. Since you don’t have to pay for a free VPN, the value will be contingent upon the trade-offs you’ll need to make and the restrictions it has in place.

Free VPNs aren’t a top recommendation, but if you’re going to go that way I’d strongly suggest the VPNs mentioned above.

Android, VPN

A video doorbell isn’t just a gimmick—it’s a practical security measure that offers peace of mind and stored footage when something happens.

Don’t have a video doorbell yet? You can snag one right now for a sweet discount as the Google Nest Doorbell is $50 off at Amazon, which means you can get it for just $130 (down from $180).

The Google Nest Doorbell is a fantastic purchase if you want to remotely monitor who’s at your door without even getting up from the couch, or when you’re away from home.

It’s wire-free and battery-powered, so you can set it up to work with any door you have in mind. The battery lasts from 1 to 6 months on a charge, depending on how often recording events are triggered. You can recharge it by unclipping it and plugging it into an outlet. (Alternatively, you can hook it up with existing doorbell wires.)

This video doorbell doesn’t just give you access to footage when someone’s at the door, but it also comes with artificial intelligence. It can send notifications, telling you exactly what triggered the message, whether it’s sensing a person, package, animal, or vehicle.

Our favorite feature is its two-way audio, allowing you to chat with whoever’s at your door. Whether you need to give instructions to a delivery person or tell a visitor you’ll be down in a minute, it’s a convenience you’ll wonder how you lived without.

The doorbell’s camera captures HD video 24/7 and even comes with decent night vision. You can also check out three hours of event video history. (If you need more, you can get a Nest Aware subscription that provides up to 60 days of history.)

The Google Nest Doorbell is compatible with both Google Nest and Amazon smart displays and speakers, so you can easily integrate it into your burgeoning smart home.

If you’ve been waiting to jump on the video doorbell trend, now’s a great time to do so. The Google Nest Doorbell is on sale for just $130, the best price you’ll get for this outside of huge sale events.

The Google Nest Doorbell is $50 off now Smart Home

What makes a great PC case? If you ask ten different computer nerds, you’ll get ten different answers. But if you ask Nick Cole of the Gear Seekers YouTube channel, you’ll get answers that come with some incredible experience and insight.

Adam took some time off at Computex in Taipei to interview Nick, and they discussed the important factors in choosing a new case.

Nick reckons that the first thing you have to nail is the price. After all, if your budget is $50, then the case you can find for $50 is the best one for you. But if you can afford to open up your options, you’ll want to look at aesthetics, features (like how many fans are included), and performance. Of course, your mileage may vary.

Leo Waldock of KitGuru crashes the interview—we love you Leo, crash away—to talk about backsides. That’s backside connectors on motherboards and cases, get your mind out of the gutter.

But the real showstopper for Gear Seekers is the case collaboration they’re doing with MonTech for a custom version of the King 95 Pro.

The pre-production version of the new Ultra Gear Seekers Edition case was shown off at Computex, and it’s a head-turner.

With Mac-inspired silver aluminum coloring, a new metal I/O panel on the front, and the original design’s gorgeous curved glass now available with a super-dark tint, it’ll certainly be at the top of many PC gamers’ lists when it comes out in September.

We’d love to tell you the price, but Nick says that even he doesn’t know just yet. (The original version goes for $160 at the moment.) For more looks at the best PC cases around, including full-length live builds, be sure to subscribe to PCWorld on YouTube.

Computer Components

Laptops have been getting slimmer and lighter, but that’s come with a cost: recent laptops don’t have enough ports anymore.

Thankfully, you can expand your laptop’s connectivity with a USB hub—and the Mokin 6-in-1 USB-C Hub is just $34 right now. Down from its MSRP of $50, it’s a great deal if you need a hub for your laptop.

Mokin’s USB-C hub plugs into your laptop’s USB-C port and transforms it into a bunch of other ports: two HDMI ports (4K@30Hz), one USB-A 3.0 port, two USB-A 2.0 ports, and one USB-C 100W Power Delivery (PD) port. No need to install any extra drivers or software. Just plug and play.

With the ports available on this hub, you can set up a triple display configuration—your laptop plus two external monitors via HDMI—which is nice because most cheaper USB hubs only have a single HDMI port.

The dual HDMI ports on this hub can be used simultaneously, supporting resolutions up to 4K@30Hz. It’s pretty awesome, enabling you to view your work and apps on larger, sharper screens.

And while the two USB 2.0 ports can be used for connecting external peripherals or charging your phone, the USB 3.0 port ensures fast file transfer speeds up to 5Gbps.

Overall, if you need a USB hub with dual HDMI support and don’t want to spend much, the Mokin 6-in-1 USB-C Hub is a fantastic choice at $34. It’d be hard to find a similar pick at this price.

The Mokin USB-C Hub is just $34 right now Docks and Hubs

Shopping for a graphics card on a budget is often a study in compromises, and video memory is usually the first thing to get cut.

The Radeon RX 6500 XT launched at $200—a pittance in today’s market of four-figure “enthusiast” graphics cards—but did so with just 4GB of GDDR6. Asrock is giving it a boost with double the memory, at a price tag that’s still less than it was at launch.

The new version of the Phantom Radeon RX 6500 XT debuted at $170 on Newegg (spotted by Tom’s Hardware), a modest $30 bump over the 4GB version that’s been available for two years. It’s otherwise identical to the older design, including the same dual-fan cooler, one HDMI port, and one DisplayPort port. The clock on the 8GB card is ever-so-slightly faster at 2420MHz base and 2825MHz boost.

The extra gigs of memory will surely be welcomed by gamers on a budget, but keep in mind that the RX 6500 XT’s 64-bit memory interface is still in place, putting a fairly low ceiling on total performance.

At a glance, I’d say that the new version of the card will be better and faster for games that use huge and complex environments, but not that much more powerful that it could push AAA games up from 1080p to 1440p at the same settings.

You can check out our exhaustive review of the original 4GB version of the RX 6500 XT for all the technical details, as well as our breakdown of how much memory your GPU needs. Plus, our roundup of the best graphics cards on the market. (Consider the more powerful RX 6600, also with 8GB, if your budget can stretch just a little higher.)

Graphics Cards

Making the switch from the office to working from home has become the new normal, but some users might feel like their setup is not as well-appointed or productive as at the office. It’s time to change that. With the proper equipment and gear, you can turn your boring-old home setup into a workstation powerhouse — ensuring you’ll never need to return to the office again.

At PCWorld, we’ve had to adjust to remote work just like the rest of the world. Our staff has spent countless hours testing and reviewing hardware, which means we’ve been lucky enough to find the best gear and accessories available. Below you’ll find our favorite work-from-home essentials.

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Look sharp during Zoom meetings: Logitech C920e Business Webcam

Working from home means you’ll have video meetings. Lots of them. And those low-quality webcams that ship with most laptops won’t show your brightest side. So opt for a new webcam with high-quality resolution such as the Logitech C920e Business Webcam. It captures 1080p HD resolutions, a 78-degree field of view, and comes with great perks such as autofocus and light correction.

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Bring stability and comfort with a laptop stand: Lamicall Adjustable Laptop Stand

A good laptop stand will do wonders for your comfort and health. Not only can a stand keep you in a good ergonomic position, but it will keep your laptop safe and secure on your desk. Plus, a stand makes using a mouse and keyboard with your laptop a lot easier.

You don’t need to drop a ton of money on anything expensive, either. A solid lightweight aluminum stand such as the well-liked Lamicall Adjustable Laptop stand will do just fine. It’ll support almost any laptop, from 10 inches up to 17.3 inches. It allows you to adjust both tilt and height and comes with ventilation holes to help dissipate heat from your laptop.

Store your important files for easy on-the-go access: Crucial X6 USB SSD

Sure you might work at home, but you might need something to transport your work files for those occasional trips into the office or just a quick and convenient way to take your data on the go. External drives are a great way to store and back up your files, and their ever-decreasing size means you can now conveniently transport mass amounts of storage anywhere you go.

The Crucial X6 USB SSD is small enough to fit in your pocket, but capable enough to be your main external drive. It’s also one of the most affordable SSDs on the market and comes with up to 4TB of storage capacity. It comes with USB-C connectivity and includes both Type-C-to-Type-C and Type-C-to-Type-A adapter cables so you’ll have no issue connecting it to whichever computer you’re connecting to.

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Block out background noise to help you focus: Wyze Noise-Cancelling Headphones

While products from the likes of Bose and Sony are great, they are also incredibly expensive. Enter Wyze Labs. The company has created a good pair of over-ear noise-cancelling headphones for a surprisingly affordable price. While the audio quality might not be able to compete with the more expensive brands, the noise-cancelling is still top-notch. If you’re looking to block out background noise at your home office or while working in a busy café, these headphones will do the trick just fine.

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Get every answer with a smart display: Google Nest Hub

Marrying Google’s ever-helpful voice assistant to a 7-inch touchscreen, the Nest Hub smart display is much more than a device to control your music playlist or play ambient white noise (though both use cases can make working from home more pleasant). You can also use the Nest Hub to run fact-checks (“When did Musk become the CEO of Twitter?”); get direct spellings of words that elude spellcheck; verify the dates of important trade shows and other events; set workday alarms and reminders; and pretty much search everything on Google hands-free, receiving both audio and video results on a separate, independent display. Once you start exploring the work-from-home benefits of a smart display, you’ll never stop.

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Protect your devices with a surge protector: TP-Link Kasa Smart Wi-Fi Power Strip

Many people take for granted the vulnerability of their electronic devices to power spikes. Unfortunately, after your equipment gets fried is the worst time to realize your mistake. By purchasing a surge protector, you’re only paying a little amount of money to help ensure the safety of your much more expensive electronics. The TP-Link Kasa Smart Wi-Fi Power Strip goes above and beyond a normal everyday surge protector by offering six outlets that can all be controlled and scheduled individually with a mobile app or voice commands, and three USB charging ports. The scheduling system is robust and allows for ultimate flexibility in choosing when to power your devices on and off automatically for any kind of routine or travel need.

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Create a full-on workstation: Kensington SD5500T Thunderbolt 3 Docking Station

Your ultraportable laptop may be perfect for commuting to and from the office, but when you’re working from home you want a dedicated workstation with the ability to connect all of your peripherals. A Thunderbolt dock will help you expand your laptop’s capabilities and allow you to connect to a larger monitor and a full-sized keyboard. You’ll increase your productivity and your body will thank you for the ergonomic upgrade. We’ve tested a ton of Thunderbolt docks and the Kensington SD5500T is our favorite. It gives you the reliable Thunderbolt 3 standard, a pair of DisplayPort ports, and 60W of laptop charging power all for a relatively affordable price.

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Or opt for a less expensive USB-C hub: Hiearcool USB-C Hub

If you don’t want to drop the cash on a Thunderbolt dock, you should at least consider getting a USB-C hub. Modern laptops tend to lack all of the ports you need to connect peripherals and that’s where a USB-C hub comes in. They are cheap and they allow you to significantly expand your port options. We recommend the Hiearcool USB-C Hub as it gives you a variety of USB-A as well as USB-C ports and microSD and SD card slots, all for around $25.

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Clean up your act: Simplehuman Cleanstation phone sanitizer

Your phone is dirty. That’s because your hands are dirty, your keyboard is dirty, and the poop bag you handled on your 10am dog walk is dirty. All our WFH germs get on our phone case, so that’s why our editor keeps the Simplehuman Cleanstation on his home office desk. Just drop your phone into this gadget and 30 high-intensity UV-C LED lights will kill 99.9 percent of the phone’s surface germs in less than 30 seconds.

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Don’t skimp on your screen: Asus ProArt PA348CGV

Working from home is all about productivity, and one of the best pieces of hardware to boost productivity is a great monitor. The Asus ProArt PA348CGV is an ultrawide monitor with plenty of horizontal screen space so you can view all of your apps and documents spread out at the same time. It sports excellent image quality, a wide color gamut, and good connectivity options.

There are a ton of great monitors out there, but the Asus ProArt PA348CGV has an excellent mix of features for anyone who has basic needs but wants a premium experience.

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Upgrade that new screen’s ergonomics: Ergotron LX Premium Monitor Arm

A good monitor arm is one of the best upgrades you can make to your home office setup. It’ll open up way more options to move and position your display around your desk and it frees up precious desktop space as well.

The Ergotron LX Premium Monitor Arm is our favorite monitor arm for a reason. It’s sturdy, practical, and can pair with almost any monitor around. The LX Premium is designated as an “entry-level” model, but it comes with specs that you’d expect from something much more expensive. It can support monitors up to 25 pounds and comes with 75 degrees of tilt, plus 360 degrees of rotation and pan.

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Consider ergonomics: Logitech Lift & Keychron Q8 keyboard

If you’re working from home all day, you need to be comfortable and a standard mouse and keyboard just won’t cut it. Focusing on ergonomics, the Logitech Lift mouse and Keychron Q8 keyboard were built to help keep your hands and wrists in a more comfortable and less injury-prone position.

The Lift mouse can be purchased for either left or right hands and comes in a variety of colors. It’s also wireless, which helps you minimize desktop clutter. The Keychron Q8 keyboard is a bit pricey, but gives you the satisfying feel and dependability of a mechanical keyboard while the curved design allows your wrists to rest in a more natural and comfortable position while typing.

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Go wireless: Logitech MK540 Advanced Wireless Keyboard and Mouse Combo

If you don’t want to spend big on a mouse and keyboard, you can find a more affordable alternative in the Logitech MK540 Advanced Wireless Keyboard and Mouse combo. Coming in at an affordable $50, the keyboard is surprisingly snappy and has a pleasant tactile experience without too much noise. The mouse provides smooth and reliable use and has a few programmable gestures you can set for your convenience. Both are wireless, so you can do away with all of those annoying cables cluttering your desktop.

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Backup software is a must: iDrive Online Cloud Backup

Many people neglect to consider backup when working from home, but if your IT department isn’t covering you and your data, it’s something that needs to be addressed. Luckily there are relatively inexpensive services such as iDrive Online Cloud Backup that make it simple to do. iDrive is comprehensive and versatile and allows you to set up and use the backup service without any fuss. It’s a one-stop shop to help keep your valuable data safe and secure.

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So is a robust PDF editor: Adobe Acrobat Pro DC

PDFs are a staple of any modern digital workplace, but they aren’t always the easiest to edit. There are a ton of great PDF editors out there, but Adobe Acrobat Pro DC has been, and continues to be, the reigning champ. There is no other software that combines the same features for creating, editing, reviewing, and securing your PDF documents. Plus, the subscription-based format means that you’ll always have access to the latest version and won’t need to continually buy new software every year.

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Ease eye-strain: BenQ ScreenBar

To save space on your desk and reduce eye-strain there is no better option than a screenbar — a USB-powered desk lamp that attaches to the top of your monitor. When BenQ debuted its ScreenBar it had us wondering why no one had thought of this extremely practical solution before. It’ll save you desk space and keep you from going cross-eyed from squinting through the reflections on your monitor all day. Admittedly, it’s a bit pricey, but your eyes will thank you in the long run.

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The conventional desk lamp option: IKEA Forså

If you don’t want to shell out the money for a screenbar or it just isn’t your style, then the tried-and-true desk lamp can be a great alternative. At just over $30, the IKEA Forså provides form and function to help keep your desk looking chic and well lit. 

It comes with excellent adjustability, a cool old-school chrome design, and a straightforward on/off switch to keep things dead-simple.

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Keep upright: Jarvis Bamboo Standing desk

When working from home you have a tendency to stay seated for long periods of time even more so than working in an office. And no matter how comfy that fancy ergonomic office chair is, sitting in it all day isn’t ideal. The best way to keep your body happy while working at a desk is to switch to an electric height-adjustable standing desk. 

The Jarvis Bamboo Standing desk not only looks nice with its clean bamboo top, but it’s practical too. It comes with an impressive height adjustment range, solid stability (even when maxed out), a great warranty, and decent customization options — it ticks all the boxes for things you want in the perfect standing desk.

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Set the mood: Lutron Diva Smart Dimmer

A smart light switch isn’t an obvious necessity, until you have one. Being able to control the lighting system in your home office via voice controls, motion detection, or your smartphone is a simple luxury that can pay dividends — both in your mood and in your energy bill.

The Lutron Diva Smart Dimmer is built to work with the Lutron Caséta ecosystem, but it also provides broad compatibility with different smart products and systems such as Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and many others. It also has a minimalist design that doesn’t draw attention to itself.

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Stay warm: Vornado VH200 Heater

In those cold months of winter you need a way to keep warm and comfortable while you work at home. A space heater such as the Vornado VH200 Heater is a great way to keep your energy bill down while still warming a specific area. The Vornado is small enough that it won’t take up too much room in your office, but powerful enough that it can heat an entire room by itself. It’s also extremely quiet, meaning you can focus on your work without being distracted by an overly noisy fan.

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Say no to cables: Anker Magnetic Wireless Charging Stand

A clean desktop can help you stay productive and focused while working at home. One of the best ways to reduce your cord clutter is to switch to a wireless phone charger. It’s also one of the most convenient and hassle-free ways to charge your mobile devices.

Right now there’s no better wireless charger than the Anker Magnetic Wireless Charging stand. It’s the fastest Android charger we’ve ever tested, it has a clean, minimalist look, and the magnetic stand keeps your phone securely upright, making checking notifications a breeze.

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Get some computer speakers: Creative Pebble

A full, booming 7.1 surround-sound speaker setup might be great for watching movies and playing games, but for work you don’t need anything nearly as fancy. If you’re working at home you just want something that will produce clear audio during meetings or while listening to some background LoFi beats to help keep you focused. Save yourself some money and go with the Creative Pebble speakers, which for only $40 produce deep and rich audio that you would expect from something two or three times the price. Plus they don’t take up much space and look really good on a desktop.

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Do-it-all productivity: Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 9

You need a laptop while working at home and there are none more suited to the task than the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 9. It sports great performance thanks to its Core i7, integrated Iris Xe graphics, and 16GB of RAM. It will not only handle any word processing and spreadsheet work you throw at it, but it can also handle web-browsing while you’re on your “lunch break.” It has a spacious 16:10 aspect-ratio screen, which is ideal for viewing documents, and a comfortable keyboard for marathon typing or coding sessions.

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Back to basics: Chromebook Spin 713 CP713-3W-5102

If you want something a little more portable (or affordable) than a full-fledged productivity machine like the Lenovo ThinkPad, then look no further than the Chromebook Spin 713. It has fast performance and a versatile 2-in-1 form factor. Meaning you can either use it as a regular laptop or flip the screen around and use it like a tablet. At just under three pounds, it’s also portable enough to take to the coffee shop when you need a change of scenery. So long as you don’t need Windows while working, the Spin 713 is a great everyday option.

Keyboards, Laptops, Monitors

Framework is gaining lots of applause for its uniquely modular laptop designs, and the larger 16-inch model turned heads by adding a discrete graphics card option. Now you can customize it even more—because the company has published open-source Computer Aided Design (CAD) files. Modders, warm up those 3D printers!

The idea is to get independent creators and engineers on board, expanding on the company’s already extensive list of interchangeable parts and modules available for direct sale. With all the data on the chassis and other hardware available, anyone with the know-how can customize pretty much anything they want.

Framework has already done the same for its 13-inch laptop (likewise posted to Github and spotted by Liliputing), which has already born some interesting fruit. Examples include this built-from-scratch Windows-powered tablet and Cooler Master’s $40 case that turns an older Framework motherboard into a tiny, upgradeable desktop PC.

Theoretically, the Framework Laptop 16 offers even more options, thanks to additional room for the AMD discrete mobile graphics card (currently a Radeon RX 7700S, possibly more options in the future) and extra input modules around the keyboard. We’ll have to wait and see what the community cooks up.

Laptops

If you’re sick of AI being shoved into in more and more consumer electronics, then you’re in good company: I’m sick of writing about it. But Google most decidedly is not sick of it.

In fact, Google is trying to inject its own AI into every one of its products. That includes both Android and ChromeOS, which are getting a little closer to each other to achieve this end goal.

According to the latest Chromium blog post, the Google-developed laptop and desktop system will be “embracing portions of the Android stack, like the Android Linux kernel and Android frameworks, as part of the foundation of ChromeOS.” The point is to iterate and deliver more Google AI features, and to do it faster than could be possible if the mobile and laptop platforms remained as distinct.

Why exactly is this necessary? That isn’t clear. The blog post is light on technical details, though it does say we won’t see any big changes hit consumer hardware for “quite some time.”

Even in their current iterations, Android and Chrome are hardly strangers. Plenty of Chromebooks run on Arm-based processors. Some (but not all) Android apps on the Google Play Store can be downloaded and run on Chromebooks with ease. They even share some internal code, like a unified Bluetooth stack.

Google is all-in on its generative AI plans, with the Google I/O showcase being wall-to-wall AI and new features for the more premium Chromebook Plus sub-category announced last month. The more advanced version of Google’s Gemini AI assistant (née Bard) is bundled with two terabytes of Google Drive cloud storage for $20 per month, competing directly with Microsoft’s Copilot Pro system.

Chromebooks

It’s easy to manage all your smart home devices with this $20 Amazon Echo Pop smart speaker. Usually available for $40, the Echo Pop is now half-off—a fantastic price point for such a nifty device.

Voice control options give you access to Alexa, who will do whatever you command it to do: toggle lights, play music, read out audiobooks, run special routines, tell you about the weather, etc.

And this smart speaker promises great sound, no matter what you’re listening to. It’s a great choice whether you’re leaving music on in the background or getting Alexa to walk you through a recipe.

Plus, the Echo Pop’s compact size makes it suitable for any room, including your bedroom or kitchen. You can show it off as a centerpiece or tuck it away for minimal impact.

While we didn’t review this particular model, nearly 50,000 people have left reviews on Amazon with an average rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars. Folks love the size of the device and its sound quality.

Frankly, it’s $20 well-spent! At this price, you can affordably pop (pun intended) one of these in every room of your house and have quick access to Alexa from anywhere. Grab the Echo Pop while it’s on sale because it won’t stay this price forever.

The Echo Pop is just $20 right now Alexa, Amazon Echo, Smart Speakers

Here we will go through how Excel is structured, where you will find important and smart functions, and various peculiarities you should know. In short, we’ll show you how to make the program work for you, so to speak, to ensure a smooth user experience.

An introduction to Excel’s interface

To work effectively in any program, you need to have an idea of what functions are available and where to find them. Excel is a sophisticated program with hundreds or even thousands of functions. But of course they are not all in a row; by learning the structure, you can find more functions when you need them.

Like Word, Excel uses a layout where many, if not most, functions are located in the so-called Ribbon: the toolbar at the top of the program window, divided into tabs such as Home, Insert, and Data.

Unlike Word, you don’t necessarily have to rummage around in these tabs, and many users have barely looked in tabs other than Start and Insert. However, there’s a lot to pick up if you start exploring them.

• Home: Basic formatting and shortcuts to commonly used functions like AutoSum and Filter.
• Insert: When you want a chart, table, image, or text box.
• Page Layout: Only if you are going to print.
• Formulas: One of Excel’s most important features is all the built-in mathematical formulas, and this tab helps you find formulas based on areas such as finance, text, and math.
• Data: Mainly for connecting to external data sources such as databases, but also has some features useful to anyone.
• Review: Is someone other than you going to work in a document, or will you continue to use the same document for a long time? Then comments and tracking are very useful, and you can find them here.
• View: In addition to previewing for printing, you can lock the first row and/or column, which can be very useful in a large table. There are also settings here to display the open spreadsheet in multiple windows so you can look in several places at once.

What we think you’ll notice as you become more familiar with Excel, however, is that you’ll rarely need to leave the Home tab. Almost all the functions in the other tabs either have keyboard shortcuts or are formulas you can learn.

Rearrange the menus

Do you find the order of commands in the menus impractical, or are you missing some handy feature? Excel has great options for setting what to include and in what order.

Right-click in a blank space anywhere in the Ribbon and select Customize Ribbon, or select File > Options and click on Customize the ribbon.

On the right side of the dialogue box, you will find the existing content and layout of the Ribbon. There you can add new tabs and groups inside tabs, but also reorder what is already there. For example, say you are not using Styles-functions in the Home tab very often, but you do use the Editing functions like AutoSum and Sort and Filter. Then you can simply grab and drag Styles so it is last in the list under Home. Press OK and Excel will save the change.

In the list on the left you will normally find Popular Commands but if you’re looking to add handy features that are not there you can select Commands not in the Ribbon in the drop-down menu under Choose commands from.

Spreadsheet

The bulk of the work in Excel is done in the grid of cells in rows and columns that make up the spreadsheet itself. This is where you build tables, fill in formulas, and rearrange, sort, and make sense of data. Make friends with this grid — it makes everything easier.

The grid starts at the top left with row 1, column A. You don’t have to start there, you can put numbers and other things in any cells you like. New documents are created with a blank sheet called Sheet1 — you add new ones by pressing the plus button at the bottom left of the program window. Each sheet can handle a maximum of 1,048,576 rows and 16,384 columns. Each cell can contain a maximum of 32,767 characters and 253 line breaks. You always have plenty of room, to say the least.

Wherever you are in the grid, you can see row and column numbers, and these have several important functions.

Right-click on one of these row or column numbers. For example, in the context menu that appears, you will find the functions Insert and Delete. Insert adds a new row or column above or to the left of what you clicked on, and moves all content one step down or to the right. Formulas that reference a particular cell are automatically changed when you do this — you don’t need to go in and change anything yourself.

If you have copied or cut one or more cells before right-clicking, Insert is replaced by Paste copied/cut cells. Depending on how you copied, this may move only some rows/columns or all of them.

Click on one of the numbers and the whole of that row or column will be selected. You can use this to copy all the content in it, for example, or to change the format of the content. A typical use is when you want to paste numbers, text, and dates into a column and don’t want Excel to format these differently but just as plain text.

How number formats work in Excel

A cell in Excel can contain different kinds of data, which in turn can be formatted in different ways. You can see what format a cell has by selecting it and looking in the Numbers section in the Home tab. It is important to understand the difference between what the content looks like and what it actually is.

Take dates, for example. When you enter a date in a blank cell that has the number format General, Excel recognizes it and automatically changes the number format to Date. Select the cell and click on the drop-down menu where it now says Date. You can see here that if you switch to the Text format, the content will be displayed as a number. 25 March 2020, for example, becomes 43915.

This is because dates are internally stored as numbers where “1” means 1 January 1900. You cannot use dates earlier than that in Excel, so genealogists and others will have to work around it by, for example, using text format instead of date format. You can still sort in date order as long as you follow the ISO standard of year-month-day, but you cannot use such cells in calculations of, for example, the number of days between two dates. Such problems can also be overcome, but it is too advanced for this guide.

Formulas

You can of course use Excel only to manually enter text, dates, and numbers in tables. But the usefulness of the program comes from writing formulas that retrieve data from other cells, perform calculations of various kinds, and put the results in their cell.

As long as you don’t create circle references (where the contents of one cell depend on the contents of a cell whose contents depend on the contents of the first cell), you can have formulas that reference formulas that reference formulas — and so on. Make a change at the beginning of the chain and the results change all the way to the last step.

A formula always starts with an equal sign. After that, you do not write mathematical formulas according to Excel’s special syntax. It’s similar to regular math, but it’s still its own thing.

=PMT(B6/12;B8*12;B4)
=OM(H8>250000; (H8-250000)*0,05; 0)+OM(H8>175000;OM(H8>

References to cells are written with the letter of the column followed by the row number, for example B6 or H8. An important thing to learn is the difference between a relative reference and an absolute one.

Say you are building a table with prices, quantities, and costs: For example, Cucumber – $1/piece – 3 pieces – $3. You might fill in the first three columns manually, but the last one is suitable for a formula. If it says Cucumber in A2, $1 in B2, and 3 in C2, you can fill in the following formula in D2: =B2*C2.

If you then fill in A3: Tomatoes, B3: $2/pound, C3: 2.5 pounds, you can copy D2 and paste it into D3 and Excel will automatically fill in the correct formula: =B3*C3. This is called a relative reference.

By placing dollar signs on both sides of the column letter (for example $B$2), the reference becomes absolute. This means that if you copy the formula and paste it into another cell, that reference will still be to the exact same cell. For example, this could be a cell where you enter an interest rate to be used in many places in a table. You can mix relative and absolute references in a formula.

We can go a bit deeper into how to use advanced math in Excel, for example to calculate with roots and exponents, which are common in economics. A simple example: Calculate what the daily interest rate is if the annual interest rate is 2.5 percent using the formula =(1+A1)^(1/365)-1 (in A1 you have filled in 2.5% or 0.025).

How to use data from Excel in Word documents

Excel has its own functions for simple layout, but if you are writing a report or similar and want to use data from large Excel tables, it’s easy to link the two Office programs.

If you have very simple data or simply prefer to format tables in Excel, you can select what you want and simply paste it into Word. However, this means that you will have to make any changes manually in Word. If you want to be able to have up-to-date figures and charts, it’s much more practical to link or embed.

1. Start by selecting what you want to paste into Excel.
2. Open the Word document and place the pointer in the right place.
3. Select the Paste > Paste special.
4. Select the As: Microsoft Excel spreadsheet object.
5. Select either Paste or Paste link on the left.

The former means that a copy of the content is inserted directly into Word and you can edit it there. The latter means that you create a link to that part of the Excel sheet and to make changes you have to do it in Excel.

Linked content can be very useful if you have a large, complicated spreadsheet in Excel and want to paste just the result of all the calculations, either a table or a chart. Then you can go in and add, delete or change data in Excel and get updated results in Word.

Learn keyboard shortcuts

Excel is full of keyboard shortcuts and if you watch a veteran user work, you’ll probably find that they very rarely reach for the mouse. You can do almost anything you can think of with the keyboard alone, and it’s often quicker than rummaging through menus with the mouse.

We don’t have space to go through all the handy keyboard shortcuts, but here’s a small selection of the most useful commands that are unique to Excel (copy, paste, select all, and the like you probably already know):

• Tab – when you start filling in a formula, Excel displays a list of suggestions. Use the arrow key to select the right one and press Tab to fill it in. For example, you can type a long formula name like NET WORKING DAYS faster.
• F4 – toggles between relative and absolute references for the cell reference you have the pointer in, so you don’t have to type dollar signs. The order is relative -> absolute row and column -> absolute row -> absolute column.
• F2 – edit the selected cell.
• Alt-Return – insert row break in a cell.
• Ctrl-D – first select a number of cells in one or more columns. Ctrl-D then copies the contents of the topmost cell of each selected column to the selected cells below it.
• Ctrl-Home followed by Shift-Ctrl-End – select the entire used area of the open sheet.
• Ctrl-arrow key – jump to the last cell with content before an empty cell, in the direction the arrow points.
• Shift-Ctrl-arrow key – select all cells with content starting from the cell you have now selected, in the direction of the arrow.
• Ctrl-H – open Find and Replace where you can quickly replace, for example, incorrect periods with commas and the like. Select a number of cells, rows, or columns beforehand to limit the function to these.

There are hundreds more. When you hover over a function in the menus, you can see that function’s keyboard shortcut, and you can also check out Microsoft’s list here.

This article was translated from German to English and originally appeared on pcforalla.se.

Business, Personal Software, Professional Software

Nowadays, using a VPN is a great way to keep your data safe and hidden from prying eyes while browsing online. NordVPN is one of my favorite VPNs and it’s currently running a can’t-miss deal — especially for travelers. 

Right now, the company is offering its two-year subscription plans for 72 percent off, plus if you sign up soon, you’ll also get up to 20GB of eSIM data from Saily as a bonus. Say goodbye to roaming charges on those summer travels abroad.

NordVPN’s two-year subscription plan comes with a host of great privacy and security features. You’ll also be able to connect up to 10 devices to the VPN at the same time. Plus, by signing up for Nord’s Plus or Complete plans, you gain access to malware protection, an ad- and tracker-blocker, and password manager. All great security tools that, on top of the VPN, will make sure you’re fully protected online.

With this deal, Nord’s basic plan is marked down by 59 percent to $81.36 for two years, or $3.39 per month, and you’ll receive 1GB of Saily eSIM data. Its Plus plan, which I personally use, is going for only $105.36 for two years, or $4.39 per month. That’s a hefty 68 percent discount, and on top of it you’ll get 3GB of Saily eSIM data. The most bang for your buck, however, can be found in its Ultimate plan. For $153.36 for two years, or a mere $6.39 per month, you’ll get all of the above features, plus 1TB of encrypted cloud storage and a generous 20GB of free Saily eSIM data.

To be eligible for this package deal, you’ll need to make sure that you sign up for a two-year NordVPN subscription. Once you sign up, you’ll receive a voucher for your free eSIM travel data. Simply download and install the Saily app and enter the coupon code to claim that sweet, sweet free travel data. Then go forth and use it to enjoy roaming-free data on your next getaway.

VPN

Your PC is capable of running not one, but two Windows apps designed to protect you and your system against online threats: Windows Security and Microsoft Defender.

Telling them apart can be tricky, though. Thanks to a few name changes, what’s old sounds new and what’s new sounds old. If you haven’t kept up with the updates, it may not be clear which one you want — or if you actually prefer to run both. 

To help you decide, I’ve broken down what each app does. Let’s dig in.

What is Windows Security?

Previously known as Windows Defender, Windows Security is the most current name for the app that ties Microsoft’s basic antivirus and network protections together. Similar to third-party antivirus software, you get a unified interface to make changes to the app and access manual scans. Separate tabs break out various settings:

• Virus & threat protection: From this tab, you can run manual scans (Quick, Full, Custom, or Offline), change how your system screens for threats, and set up more stringent ransomware defenses.
• Account protection: Guard the Microsoft account tied to your PC, as well as strengthen Windows’ login process.
• Firewall & network protection: Refine your settings in order to tailor screening of incoming and outgoing traffic.
• App & browser control: Adjust how Windows screens apps for suspicious behavior, and if Edge runs in an isolated, sandboxed environment.
• Device security: Get information about your PC’s deeper security protections in Windows — core virtualization, security processor (TPM), and secure boot.
• Device performance & health: See a quick overview of the general “health” of your PC with regard to software issues or storage drive issues.
• Family options: Filter viewable content for users on the PC, as well as see breakdowns of device usage. You can manage your family group through the web portal.

^{Click on the arrows (desktop) or swipe (mobile) to see each tab in the Windows Security app.}

What is Microsoft Defender?

Confusingly, the Microsoft Defender app shares its name with the antivirus engine powering Windows Security’s malware protection — but they’re not directly tied. Instead, the Defender app offers additional defenses against online threats for Microsoft 365 Personal or Family subscribers. It works equally with either Windows Security (including the Microsoft Defender Antivirus engine) or third-party antivirus software.

• Privacy protection: You can funnel your online traffic through Microsoft’s encrypted VPN service whenever you’re on a network connection, like public Wi-Fi you don’t trust. You get up to 50GB of data per month.
• Identity theft monitoring: Through a partnership with Experian, Microsoft Defender will alert you to data breaches and any fraudulent activity on your credit reports. The service also provides up to $1 million in restoration costs and $100,000 in lost funds if you are a victim of identity theft.
• Device protection: You can watch to see if your devices (up to four) or those linked through your Microsoft Family Group have any suspicious activity occurring and be notified through this app. Notifications will be sent through Windows’ notification system, and you can also view them through the Defender app.

^{Click on the arrows (desktop) or swipe (mobile) to see the different sections of the Microsoft Defender app.}

Windows Security vs. Microsoft Defender

Windows Security and Microsoft Defender are complimentary apps, rather than competing. 

Windows Security defends against online threats, including ransomware, and it’s included for free with a Windows license. (Heads-up: If you ever see a popup notification telling you to call a phone number or pay to renew, you’ve either visited a compromised website or your PC has been directly compromised — time to run an antivirus scan ASAP.)

Microsoft Defender then rounds out those protections by letting you shield your online activity from other users on the same network, keeping you informed of data leaks and credit fraud, and monitoring your devices for vulnerabilities. 

Should you use Microsoft Defender?

If you’re already a Microsoft 365 subscriber, having both Windows Security and Microsoft Defender set up and active is comparable to a very simple third-party antivirus suite subscription — and you don’t have to pay extra.

However, if you’re not yet a paid Microsoft 365 user, want additional integrated features (like a password manager), or prefer a different interface, independent antivirus software will be a better fit for your needs. You can check out our top recommendations in our best antivirus software roundup, which covers all types of plans.

Antivirus

Price When Reviewed

$2,761

Best Prices Today: Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 is a 14-inch 2-in-1 premium business laptop from Lenovo, complete with a 360-degree hinge and optional stylus. This is part of the legendary ThinkPad line of laptops, so it’s a high-end machine – with a high-end price, too.

If you want a ThinkPad and you want it to be a 2-in-1 machine with a touchscreen and a stylus, this is definitely the laptop for you. It delivered serious battery life in our benchmarks, but it’s not a performance-focused beast of a machine.

Here’s the inconvenient thing about this PC: A potential future version of this laptop with Intel’s upcoming Lunar Lake hardware should have even better battery life and improved performance — and it would support all those Copilot+ PC features Microsoft just announced, which this laptop (and other Meteor Lake-powered laptops) will never get. Now that Intel has announced Lunar Lake hardware coming later this year, battery-life-focused laptops with Meteor Lake hardware already feel a little dated.

Further reading: Best laptops 2024: Premium, budget, gaming, 2-in-1s, and more

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1: Specs

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 (Gen 9) is a 14-inch laptop that comes with an Intel Meteor Lake CPU. This is a 2-in-1 laptop with a touchscreen and an optional pen. Our review model had an Intel Core Ultra 7 155U CPU, but you can also configure this laptop with an Intel Core Ultra 5 125U, an Intel Core Ultra 5 135U, or an Intel Core Ultra 7 165U processor.

Either way, you’re getting an Intel Meteor Lake CPU, so it has more of a focus on power efficiency than Intel’s previous Raptor Lake CPUs. However, it looks like Meteor Lake pales in comparison to the Lunar Lake hardware that’s right around the corner. This laptop also comes with an “Intel Evo” badge.

This machine uses Intel graphics – not the higher-end Intel Arc graphics, which means it’s not great for gaming, even by integrated laptop graphics standards. Our review model included 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM, and you can get up to 64GB of RAM – but the memory is soldered to the motherboard. Our review model had a 1TB SSD, but you can configure this laptop with up to 2TB of storage.

Since this is a Meteor Lake laptop with a Meteor Lake neural processing unit (NPU,) it will never run any of those new Copilot+ PC features. You should wait for a Lunar Lake laptop if those are important to you.

• CPU: Intel Core Ultra 7 155U
• Memory: 16GB LPDDR5X
• Graphics/GPU: Intel graphics
• Display: 14-inch 1920×1200 IPS touch screen with 60Hz refresh rate
• Storage: 1TB M.2 PCIE 4 SSD
• Webcam: 1080p webcam
• Connectivity: 2x Thunderbolt 4 (USB4 with DisplayPort 2.1 Alt Mode and Power Delivery 3.0), 2x USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A, 1x HDMI 2.,1, 1x combo headset jack, 1x Kensington nano security slot
• Networking: Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3
• Biometrics: IR camera for facial recognition and fingerprint sensor
• Battery capacity: 57 Watt-hours
• Dimensions: 12.3 x 8.6 x 0.6 inches
• Weight: 2.98 pounds
• MSRP: $2,761 as tested

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1: Design and build quality

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 has great build quality. That’s no surprise: Lenovo uses the prestigious ThinkPad name for its high-end business laptops. Of course, they also come at a high-end price compared to Lenovo’s ThinkBook line of laptops.

The laptop is made of metal – aluminum and magnesium – and it’s all grays and silvers with a black bezel around the screen. In the center of the keyboard, you’ve got that classic red TrackPoint “nub,” which you can use to move the cursor around.

The “communications bar” containing the webcams and microphone at the top of the display juts out a bit and sticks out on the back. On the lid of the laptop, the dot at the top of the “i” in “ThinkPad” lights up red when the laptop is on.

It’s a great, business-like look. The metal makes it feel premium to touch, and the build quality is great with no creaking bits. The hinge works smoothly and solidly, which is obviously critical for a 2-in-1. At a hair under three pounds, it’s not as lightweight as a ThinkPad X1 Carbon with that carbon fiber, but it’s a good weight.

This is a 2-in-1 laptop, so it has a touch screen and a 360-degree hinge that lets you rotate the laptop into a variety of shapes, lying it flat, using it in “tent mode,” or rotating it all the way so that the keyboard is at the back of the screen and turning it into a tablet. The screen also has a digitizer that works well with the Lenovo Slim Pen, which is an optional accessory our review model included.

Lenovo chose not to have the ThinkPad’s optional pen – the Lenovo Slim Pen – insert into a slot on the laptop for storage. Instead, it attaches magnetically to side of the ThinkPad X1 2-in-1. Lenovo says that it it is larger and “attaches to the side of the keyboard frame magnetically, so it’s always at arm’s reach.” Some people will prefer this approach to storing the pen. Although the magnetic attachment is strong and the pen does attach securely to the laptop, it’s also easy to see how the pen could get bumped and become detached in a bag.

While the pen connects to the laptop magnetically for storage, it doesn’t charge wirelessly from the laptop. You will have to plug a USB-C cable to a port under the cap on top of the pen to charge it.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1: Keyboard and trackpad

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 has a great full-size keyboard that feels pleasantly snappy. There’s nothing “mushy” about the keys here. I also like some of the little touches, like the “Delete” key at the top-right corner of the keyboard being wider than other nearby keys.

There’s also the red TrackPoint “nub,” of course – this is a ThinkPad – but the ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 also has a solid touchpad. Our review model had a touchpad with three physical buttons above it, but you can also get a haptic touchpad with customizable haptic feedback. The touchpad was nice and response to the touch, the click action felt good, and you have those three physical mouse buttons above the touchpad if you want them.

Of course, this is also a touch screen laptop, so you have the full touchscreen experience available to you. And that optional Lenovo Slim Pen seems like a great stylus, too. I’m no artist, but it offered a responsive experience when writing notes in OneNote.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1: Display and speakers

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 offers a variety of 14-inch display options. Our review model had a 1920×1200 IPS display with a touch screen, a 60 Hz refresh rate and 400 nits of brightness. It looks good and has a nice anti-reflective coating that doesn’t produce as much glare in direct sunlight as I see on some laptops.

The ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 is also available with a 2880×1800 OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate.

I’d recommend the lower-resolution display. It delivered amazing battery life in our benchmarks (and normal computer usage,) while the choice of an OLED display dragged down the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon in our battery benchmarks. Yes, the OLED display is probably beautiful – the OLED display on the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon certainly was when I reviewed it. But, for a machine like this, all-day battery life is probably your priority.

This laptop’s speakers are decent and can put out surprisingly loud audio with clear sound. As usual with thin-and-light laptops — or most laptops of any weight — the speakers are lacking bass. Everything else sounds good, though — and you can make it quite loud, if you like.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1: Webcam, microphone, biometrics

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 has a high-quality 1080p webcam. For a business laptop like this one, that’s table stakes – you don’t want to spend this much only to drag a low-resolution 720p webcam into meetings! The webcam looks good and worked well both indoors and outdoors, and you also have access to Windows Studio Effects for tricks like faking eye contact and removing your background on the fly thanks to the neural processing unit (NPU) included with Intel’s Meteor Lake platform.

In addition, the webcam includes a nice physical price shutter on the communications bar itself. Just slide the shutter closed with your finger and you’ll physically block the webcam for added privacy.

The microphone setup also works nicely, picking up your voice clearly. Between the webcam and microphone, this is a capable laptop for online meetings.

This laptop includes both an IR camera and fingerprint sensor, so you can use Windows Hello to sign in with either facial recognition or your fingerprint. Facial recognition worked well in a variety of lighting conditions, and the fingerprint reader also does a good job. It’s located to the left of the arrow keys on the keyboard.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1: Connectivity

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 offers a decent selection of ports for a laptop this size. You get two Thunderbolt 4 (USB4 Type-C) ports on the left side of the laptop – but bear in mind you’ll use one of them to charge the laptop.

In addition, you get two USB Type-A ports – one on the left side of the laptop, and one on the right side. On the right side, you also have HDMI 2.1, a combo audio jack, and a Kensington nano security slot.

You’re not getting a microSD card reader of any sort, so you’ll have to connect a dongle if you want to access an SD card, connect to Ethernet, or do anything else these ports don’t offer. For the size, it’s a good selection of ports – although some people might want a third USB Type-C port or an SD card reader of some sort.

This laptop also includes Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 radios. That’s not the end of the world as Wi-Fi 7 routers aren’t widespread yet, but there’s a reason the next-generation Lunar Lake hardware will come with Wi-Fi 7 support as standard. Now that we’re getting into the middle of 2024, it would be nice to have. You can get Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4, if you like – but that’ll cost you extra.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1: Performance

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 delivered solid, speedy performance in day-to-day work tasks like browsing the web with a lot of tabs open and working with Microsoft Office documents. That’s table stakes these days for a laptop with an Intel Core Ultra CPU, 16GB of RAM, and fast solid-state storage.

As always, we ran the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 through our standard benchmarks to see how it performs.

First, we run PCMark 10 to get an idea of overall system performance. The ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 delivered an overall score of 6,226, in the middle of the pack. It’s not quite as fast as a ThinkPad X1 Carbon, and interestingly enough Lenovo’s dual-screen Yoga Book 9i actually beats it on performance in this benchmark, despite both systems having the same CPU. However, this ThinkPad did deliver stronger performance than the HP Spectre x360.

That’s a surprise because that HP 2-in-1 has an H-series chip, which should deliver higher performance than the U-series ship in this laptop, which is more focused on power efficiency. It’s another reminder that the specs sheet isn’t what’s important — HP’s Spectre x360 is likely being constrained by its thermals (cooling performance).

Next, we run Cinebench R20. This is a heavily multithreaded benchmark that focuses on overall CPU performance. It’s a quick benchmark, so cooling under extended workloads isn’t a factor. But, since it’s heavily multithreaded, CPUs with more cores have a huge advantage.

The ThinkPad’s score of 2,915 was in the bottom of the pack here. That’s not a huge surprise because this has a U-series Core Ultra chip from Intel, which is more focused on long battery life than performance. However, it’s interesting to see that Lenovo’s dual-screen Yoga Book 9i — which has the same CPU — beat the ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 on performance again.

We also run an encode with Handbrake. This is another heavily multithreaded benchmark, but it runs over an extended period of time. This demands the laptop’s cooling kick in, and many laptops will throttle and slow down under load.

The ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 completed the encode process in an average of 1,902 seconds — that’s nearly 32 minutes. It’s a long time in comparison to other laptops with more performance-focused CPUs. This laptop isn’t optimized for delivering sustained power in heavy workloads like this — it’s more focused on power efficiency and battery life than computing performance.

Next, we run a graphical benchmark. This isn’t a gaming laptop, but it’s still good to check how the GPU performs. Professional 3D rendering applications that use the system’s GPU will also benefit from a good score here. We run 3Dmark Time Spy, a graphical benchmark that focuses on GPU performance.

With a score of 2,169, the Lenovo ThinkPad 2-in-1 was in the bottom of the pack as far as Intel Meteor Lake-powered laptops. That’s because the U-series processors come with the lower-end “Intel graphics,” which isn’t as fast as the Intel Arc graphics you can get with Intel H-series CPUs.

However, this machine’s integrated Intel graphics were still much faster than the previous-generation Intel Iris Xe graphics found in the older Asus ZenBook 14 Flip OLED we compared it to.

Overall, the results paint a clear picture. This laptop isn’t a speed demon, and if you’re looking for a machine to run heavy computing workloads, this is the wrong system for you. Its hardware is optimized for long battery life and power efficiency. Luckily, as we saw in our battery life benchmark below, this machine delivers.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1: Battery life

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 includes a 57 Watt-hour battery. That feels like it’s a little on the low side, so it’s extra surprising that the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 delivered amazing numbers in our battery life benchmarks. Yes, this looks like it should deliver all-day battery life – thank the display. If you opt for a model with an OLED display, bear in mind you won’t get the same battery life results.

To benchmark the battery life, we play a 4K copy of Tears of Steel on repeat in the Movies & TV app on Windows 11 with airplane mode enabled until the laptop suspends itself. We set the screen to 250 nits of brightness for our battery benchmarks. This is a best-case scenario for any laptop since local video playback is so efficient, and real battery life in day-to-day use is always going to be less than the number you see here.

In our video rundown benchmark, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 lasted for an impressive 1055 minutes before powering itself off. That’s seventeen and a half hours, and it outshined all the other laptops we compared it against. We benchmarked a ThinkPad X1 Carbon with an OLED display, so keep that in mind when you look at the results here — the ThinkPad X1 2-in-1’s OLED display option will likely cut hours off your battery life, although I imagine it looks stunning.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1: Conclusion

ThinkPads aren’t targeted at the average PC user. They’re premium business laptops, and Lenovo gives them a price that matches – thankfully, Lenovo also gives them a premium build quality. (But ThinkPads also go on pretty deep sales sometimes – especially previous-generation ones. You may be able to find this PC at quite a large discount someday).

At $2,761, our review model is seriously expensive for a laptop, especially one that trades so much performance for battery life. However, it also does have serious battery life. For people who use a computer for light tasks rather than heavy local computing workloads — and who want a pen with their high-end business laptop — this is a good option.

After considering the benchmarks above, you should have a pretty good idea of whether this machine is for you. Other 2-in-1 options include Lenovo’s Yoga Book 9i, which takes the concept even further, delivering two separate displays – at a lower price, but without the ThinkPad branding and with much lower battery life. (After all, it’s powering two separate screens). Or you could go for a competing 2-in-1 like the much less expensive HP Spectre x360, although it doesn’t have anywhere near the battery life and its performance was inconsistent in our benchmarks. Plus, none of those are competing laptops are ThinkPads. That lineage and high-end design is important to a lot of people.

If you don’t need a laptop right now, you may want to wait for the next generation. Intel’s Lunar Lake hardware sounds like it will be a huge leap over Meteor Lake and deliver much more power efficiency along with improved performance – and it will support all those Copilot+ PC features Microsoft announced, which laptops like this one won’t receive. From what Intel is saying, that next-generation hardware will be a big upgrade to battery life-focused laptops like this one.

Laptops

The cost of airfare has risen tremendously over the past few years. Travel has always been a luxury, but today it is more unattainable than ever. Fortunately, there are ways to save, and one of them is Matt’s Flights. This premium flight service scours the web for airfare deals and, this week only, you can get a lifetime subscription for an extra $10 off.

Matt’s Flights has been covered by The New York Times and Thrillist because it’s an intuitive, simple way to save on airfare. Just choose your departure airport and Matt’s Flights will automatically send you deals on flights to destinations all over the world. With a Premium Plan, you can put in an unlimited number of custom search requests to find discounts on flights to specific destinations, and you’ll also receive five times as many deals as standard customers.

Fight back against rising airfare. From 6/11 through 11:59 pm PT on 6/17, you can get a lifetime Matt’s Flights Premium Plan for just $79.97 (reg. $1,800).

 

Matt’s Flights Premium Plan (Lifetime Subscription) – Save up to 90% on Domestic & International flights – $79.97

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StackSocial prices subject to change.

Accessories

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• Learn at your own pace, with personalized review sessions and a curriculum built to adapt with you.
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• Find out why The Wall Street Journal writes that Rosetta Stone “may be the next best thing to living in a country.”

Learn a new language this summer! From 6/7 through 11:59 pm PT on 6/16, you can get a lifetime subscription to Rosetta Stone for just $151.99 (reg. $399) with code ROSETTA.

 

Rosetta Stone: Lifetime Subscription (All Languages) – $151.99

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StackSocial prices subject to change.

Entertainment

Mediatek could be the next entrant into the Windows on Arm processor space, according to a new report.

Reuters is reporting that one of the more well-known rumors in the chip space—that Mediatek is making an Arm processor for PCs—is real. The wire service says that Mediatek is set to announce its chip in late 2025, according to multiple sources.

Microsoft signed an exclusivity deal with Qualcomm to design Arm chips for PCs that’s set to expire sometime this year, according to sources. That deal hasn’t been officially confirmed. (Arm chief executive Rene Haas, whose company licenses its processor technology to firms like Qualcomm and Mediatek, also referred to the deal as a rumor in PCWorld’s interview at Computex.)

Mediatek already develops processors for Chromebooks, known as the Kompanio lineup, which competes directly with Qualcomm in that space. John Solomon, the vice president at Google in charge of ChromeOS, told PCWorld that he expects to “have more Arm in [the Chromebook] portfolio going forward.”

In some sense, this is old news. In 2021, Mediatek first began talking about its plans to enter the Windows on Arm market. In 2022, Mediatek spelled out its PC plans a bit more.

“We absolutely believe in the long-term potential of Windows on Arm,” Mediatek’s Adam King, the vice president of Mediatek’s client computing business, said then. “We think that the market will over the long term transition to Arm-based processors. Because of the power and area efficiency that I described. It’s not inevitable—it requires lots of work and lots of barriers to be overcome. But the benefit is clearly there. I can say that we’re working on plans today. I just can’t share them with you yet.”

Mediatek’s presence in Chromebooks wouldn’t preclude Mediatek from shipping a version of the Kompanio processor for the PC. Mediatek also has a relationship with Nvidia, with whom it has co-developed an Arm chip for the automotive space. (Reuters noted that Nvidia is reportedly working on an Arm chip for PCs, but the company hasn’t confirmed that either. Nvidia’s Jensen Huang was asked about such a chip at a press conference at Computex in Taiwan, but declined to comment.)

Arm’s Haas also told Reuters that he predicts more than half of the world’s PCs will run Arm by 2029, rather than the x86 chips manufactured by AMD or Intel.

So far, all of the upcoming moves by Arm vendors in the PC space are occurring beneath the surface. But if these ripples come to pass, expect them to begin building into waves.

CPUs and Processors

Father’s Day 2024 falls on Sunday, June 16 and is a great opportunity to find bargains on the best tech and general “Dad stuff.” Time is running out, so we’ve rounded up the best last-minute deals you can quickly get your hands on.

And these don’t even have to be for your father. Whether you’re a son, daughter, father or mother, you may want to snag some deals for yourself.

Apple AirPods (Gen 2) with Lightning Charging Case

Whether you’re listening to music, podcasts or phone calls, Apple AirPods are always fantastic choices, and they’ll make a great gift for Father’s Day. Usually available for $129, you can snatch the AirPods for a mere $80 right now, the best price we’ve seen thus far. Add in the fact that you get a total of 24 hours of listening time with the charging Case and easy access to Siri, and you have a great gift any iPhone user will love.

Hanycony Surge Protector Power Strip

Yes, we are recommending a surge protector—because we all need more, and this one has a super versatile design, and costs only $12.33 on Amazon. It has eight widely spaced AC outlets and four USB ports, including two USB-C. Even though it’s packed with outlets, this isn’t a large power strip because it comes with a three-sided layout. The outlets are also big enough not to block adjacent outlets, which is always good to consider.

Journey ALTI Wireless Charging Desk Mat

The reversible ALTI desk mat—20% off for father’s day with code “GIFT20″—features a built-in wireless charging panel that fast-charges your smartphone and earbuds at the same time. Pull open the ALTI to stow paper and notes, removing clutter even further. It works with Android phones, iPhones and earbuds that support wireless charging. It’s down to $104 with the code!

Gerber Gear Utility Pocket Knife with Money Clip

One thing every dad will love is the Gerber Gear Utility Pocket Knife with Money Clip, which is now on sale for Father’s Day at $14, down from $18. This is a super versatile tool that comes with a sharp utility razor blade, perfect for everyday tasks. Obviously, you can replace the blade when it goes dull. The knife is compact and will neatly fit into a pocket (no more losing that utility knife!). It even has a money clip, so Dad doesn’t even have to carry his wallet when he’s out and about.

Ember Smart Mug 2

Everyone enjoys a hot coffee in the morning, right? The Ember Smart Mug 2 is now on sale for Father’s Day at $103.95, down from $129.95. This innovative mug will keep drinks warm to the perfect temperature for up to 80 minutes on a full charge, or all day if sat on the charging coaster. You or dad can use the app to choose temperatures between 120°F and 145°F, making for a custom experience.

GoPro HERO10 Black

Snag a top action camera at nearly half price. If you’re going on any fun adventures this summer, you’ll want to make sure you can record them in fantastic quality—5K video capture at 60fps. What better way to capture those adventures than with the GoPro HERO10 Black? It’s down to $229 from $450, making for an impressive 49% discount on Amazon. It’s a fantastic purchase for adventure enthusiasts and extreme sports fans alike.

Char-Broil Electric Grill

The Char-Broil Electric Grill is now on sale for Father’s Day at $170, down from $250—a 32% discount. This electric grill offers the convenience of grilling without using gas or charcoal. Just pop this in an outlet, and it will reach the necessary high temperatures super fast. The grill has a special cooking technology that seeks to create juicy and evenly cooked food. So, if your father’s tired of using the same old grill every time, this Char-Broil is a good option, especially as the 320 square inches of cooking space can fit about 12 medium-sized burger patties.

ASUS ProArt Display 23.8-inch Monitor

Fantastic monitors are hard to come by in the sub-$200 price range. And yet, here’s the Asus ProArt Display PA247CV, down by 27% to $145 on Amazon. This is a fantastic price for a 24-inch, 1080p, IPS monitor, and one of the best prices we’ve seen for this model.

Wyze Cam v4 2K HD Wi-Fi Smart Home Security Camera

With an MSRP of $35.98, the Wyze Cam v4 may be just what you need to keep an eye on your home, pets, and kids. The 28% discount on Amazon makes this camera an even more enticing purchase at $26. With the Wyze Cam v4, you won’t need any subscriptions to view your own recordings—just add in a microSD card of up to 512GB and record 24/7 locally. For just $26, this camera is a steal (pun intended).

23andme Ancestry Service (US)

Get $20 off on 23andme’s basic DNA kit. After testing at home, you will receive 50-plus reports including Ancestry Composition, Ancestry Detail Reports, Maternal & Paternal Haplogroups, and Neanderthal Ancestry. It’s only $99, down from $119 on 23andme. Bonus idea: Buy one for yourself and compare dad’s DNA to yours!

Gerber Gear Dime 12-in-1 Mini Multi-tool

At just $25 on Amazon, this compact multi-tool offers 12 essential functions, including needle nose pliers, wire cutters, tweezers, a bottle opener, a package opener, a plain edge blade folding knife, scissors, small and medium flat head drivers, fine and coarse files. That’s a long list, but we’re sure you or dad will find use for at least one of them every day.

PCWorld’s deals section is also full of the latest and greatest tech deals, and we’ a’re always on top of the best laptop deals and desktop deals picked by the PCWorld team. If you’re an iPhone or Mac user, check out Macworld’s iPhone user gift guide and Mac user gift guide.

Other retailers offering Father’s Day deals

Many retailers are offering discounts for Father’s Day, including Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy. Check out Zagg for power and protection gadgets and accessories, Chipolo for AirTag Bluetooth tracker alternatives, Casely for Phone cases and chargers with code SPF25, 23andme has 35% off its popular DNA kits, and Thermoworks, where you can find the best thermometer deals for helping with barbeques and smart home devices.

Accessories, Laptops, Monitors

Want to turn your lone laptop into a full-blown workstation, complete with multiple monitors? If your laptop only has a single HDMI port, that can be a tricky limitation to get around.

Unless you use a docking station! A docking station is like a USB hub, except more powerful and less portable.

The Dell WD19S is on sale for a record-low price of $135, down from its list price of $310. That’s a 56% savings, making this a phenomenal deal for one of the best docking stations available today.

I personally use this exact docking station myself, and even though I paid full price for it, I have no regrets. It’s been super helpful for expanding my laptop’s connectivity and improving my productivity.

This powerful docking station can boost your PC’s power up to 130W with Dell ExpressCharge, allowing you to charge up to 80% in just one hour. Since you’ll be sticking this one in the same USB-C port you’d use to charge your device, it’s a great thing that it’s a speedy charge.

If you’re a multitasker like me and you need multiple displays, this dock supports up to 4K resolution at 60Hz on two displays or QHD at 60Hz on three displays. That’s a lot of screen real estate!

But there’s more because the dock offers a variety of interfaces. It comes with two DisplayPort ports, one HDMI 2.0 port, and a USB-C Multifunction DisplayPort port. Plus, two USB-A 3.1 Gen 1 ports for connecting with mouse, keyboard, and external drives. Finally, a Gigabit Ethernet port for fast, reliable internet access.

The Dell WD19S is an incredible deal at $135 and the best way to turn any laptop into a power user’s workstation. It’s never been this heavily discounted before, so you’ll want to hop on it before it’s gone.

This Dell docking station has never been cheaper Docks and Hubs

Feel like your laptop doesn’t have enough ports? Then the Anker 553 USB-C Hub is just what the doctor ordered. And since orders must be respected, you should place yours as soon as possible because this hub is down to $50 right now (from its usual $70).

The Anker 553 plugs into one port but provides eight more. The only caveat is that you have to plug the hub itself into a USB-C port. Here’s what $50 will get you:

• 1 x USB-C port
• 2 x USB-A data ports
• 2 x HDMI ports
• 1 x Ethernet port
• 1 x microSD card reader
• 1 x SD card reader

The dual HDMI display capability is one of the coolest things about this model, making it possible to stream content to one display at 4K@60Hz or connect two displays at 4K@30Hz.

You can also use this hub to charge your devices. The USB-C port supports Power Delivery, providing high-speed pass-through charging up to 85W. (Note: A 100W PD wall charger is needed for this, and Anker says this hub isn’t suitable for pass-through charging of mobile devices.)

The Anker 553 is pretty small, considering all that it can do. Measuring just 4.65 x 2.17 inches and weighing less than 4 ounces, the Anker 553 fits easily into any bag and serves as the perfect accessory for when you’re working on the go (like at a coffee shop).

For just $50, you can expand the capabilities of your laptop in ways you didn’t think you could. Make your life easier with the Anker 553 USB-C Hub and don’t look back.

Anker's 8-in-1 hub is $20 off today Docks and Hubs

When it comes to gaming laptops and the hardware that powers them, the GPU and CPU are often the focal point for overall performance. Although the GPU and CPU are no doubt important, there’s one vital component that you should consider: the system memory (AKA RAM).

RAM, when paired with VRAM (aka graphics card memory), can bottleneck your system. RAM often comes in the following capacities: 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB. However, it’s not always clear which amounts are optimal for gaming, so we’ll provide a number of practical examples below. Read on to learn more.

Further reading: Best gaming laptops 2024: What to look for and highest-rated models

RAM: 8GB, 16GB, or 32GB?

Most reasonable gaming laptops of the existing generation will come with a modest 16GB of RAM. We can eliminate 8GB of RAM for any serious gaming on current laptops, as that will quickly bottleneck in all but the lightest of games. Apple infamously still includes an 8GB MacBook Pro base model, but that won’t cut it in a gaming laptop.

When I turned on the Alienware M16 to play Hogwarts Legacy, I figured the Intel Core i9-13900HX with 16GB of RAM was ideal. The Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 GPU with 12GB of VRAM also would make easy work of its 2560×1600 display.

When turning settings to Ultra, including ray tracing, I quickly realized I had a bottleneck in the pipeline. No, it wasn’t the CPU or GPU as you would normally expect.

Laptop memory is the most upgradable component along with NVME drives.

The 16GB of RAM was just not cutting it, constantly hitting its limits. A few screws later, an upgraded 32GB kit of memory improved the performance drastically. I would consistently see usage of RAM well above 20GB, making 16GB suboptimal.

Hogwarts Legacy Minimum Requirements are 16GB of RAM and 32GB for Ultra.

Reading the Hogwarts Legacy PC requirements confirmed my findings. Minimum or low specs recommend 16GB while Ultra settings will require the 32GB of RAM to function properly.

Later tests with 64GB of RAM were diminishing returns. The 32GB proved to be more than sufficient. 64GB of RAM therefore can be eliminated for gaming and relegated to productivity and professional users who may require it.

Does that mean that 16GB of RAM is too low? In this case, it was. This amount bottlenecked a high-performance laptop in a memory-hungry game. It’s the minimum amount you should consider, period.

Gaming laptops with a 4K screen should likely have 32GB of system RAM at a minimum for gaming. Likewise, 2560×1600 resolution high-end laptops packing an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 GPU or RTX 4090 should similarly carry the same 32GB of RAM to avoid bottlenecks.

Sony’s minimum PC requirements of 16GB for Horizon: Forbidden West.

While 16GB of RAM is often the recommended minimum for most games, 32GB is quickly becoming relevant for new titles. What’s clear is that 8GB is vastly outdated in 2024.

When Sony released the PC requirements for the original Horizon Zero Dawn in 2020, the minimum PC specs called for 8GB of RAM with a recommend 16GB for Very High settings.

Fast forward to the new Horizon Forbidden West and that 8GB minimum has been replaced entirely by 16GB. While 32GB is not listed for this title as the Very High recommendation, 16GB continues to be present.

Many titles, such as Blizzard’s Diablo IV, may still support 8GB of RAM for the absolute minimum. They recommend 16GB for medium settings, however. Ultra 4K settings get the 32GB recommendation here for best performance.

Over 19GB of RAM used in Hogwarts shows how 32GB is beneficial.

Get 32GB of RAM if you’re an enthusiast, as that’s quickly becoming the new standard. 16GB can still be considered a reasonable minimum for most games, however.

Hogwarts Legacy at 4K: Over 23GB of system RAM and over 12GB of GPU VRAM allocated.

VRAM: What’s enough?

After you’ve settled on your RAM, another crucial piece to be aware of is in graphics card VRAM. Not to be confused with RAM, VRAM plays a crucial role. With mid-to-high resolution gaming, high or ultra textures, and ray tracing, it will have an impact.

For years, GPUs with 8GB of VRAM has been touted as the minimum on desktop PCs, with 12GB of VRAM recently becoming more prevalent.

A laptop with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 GPU and 16GB of VRAM is currently the top available amount. Likewise, the AMD Radeon RX 7900M also has 16GB of VRAM. The RTX 4080 follows closely with 12GB of VRAM, but most other laptop GPUs still fall squarely in the 8GB of VRAM realm.

Technologies such as Nvidia’s DLSS 3 with frame generation can help RTX 40 Series laptops punch above their weight and reduce GPU VRAM requirements somewhat. Combined with VRAM-hungry settings such as ray tracing, utilizing these on supported hardware can help to mitigate some performance penalties on demanding games while still enjoying the visuals.

Due to the very nature of laptop configurations, a modern gaming laptop should have a minimum of 8GB of VRAM for its GPU. This will include products such as the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPU and the RTX 4070 laptop GPUs.

Redfall on Ultra staying under 16GB of RAM and under 12GB of GPU VRAM.

While prices for laptops with Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 4090 can be high, the second-best choice will be the 12GB VRAM 4080 laptops. Many games will easily surpass the 8GB VRAM limit and even gobble up 12GB of VRAM with high textures and ray tracing.

Therefore, while the recommended minimum is 8GB of VRAM, if your budget allows a laptop upgrade, the sweet spot will be 12GB VRAM in the RTX 4080 models.

Go ahead, open it up and add more RAM!

Conclusion

A modern gaming laptop should have a minimum of 16GB of RAM and an 8GB VRAM GPU to play smoothly.

Those laptops with higher specs should target 32GB of RAM and 12GB VRAM GPUs such as the RTX 4080 to play the latest titles with all the eye candy turned on. 64GB of RAM will mostly be for content creators, as games tend to do fine with 32GB of RAM even on the high-end.

With the future being heavily influenced by AI, including in gaming laptops, the current recommended specifications are bound to change as new requirements are put in place. Thankfully, gaming still does not require absurd amounts of RAM. GPU VRAM is another issue entirely, with ray tracing and high textures keeping gamers always on the prowl for more GPU potency.

Laptops

Good Lord, gaming monitors are getting cheap these days. Dell’s selling them so cheap they’re basically giving you money to buy one. Take this 27-inch, 1440p IPS model for example. It’s already $100 off on Dell’s store and you can take an extra $20 off with a coupon code for a final price of $179.99. But if you jump through some hoops, you can also get $50 off another Dell purchase.

Props to the deal-sniffing users of the SlickDeals forums on this one, who both found the deal on the G2724D monitor and the Dell Cash rebate offer for joining the free Dell Rewards Members program. Granted, you don’t really need to do that if you don’t care about a future purchase from the Dell store — sadly there’s no way to apply that $50 rebate to the initial monitor purchase. In either case, be sure to apply the promo code MONITORS10 (that’s one and zero on the end) to get that extra $20 off.

The G2724D was already an Editor’s Choice in the PCWorld review for being a great, no-frills gaming monitor at the full $300 price. In fact, it’s our selection for the best budget gaming monitor. The 2560×1440 resolution gives you an extra boost of sharpness over 1080p, the 165Hz refresh rate is plenty for fast-paced games, and the IPS panel has color accuracy good enough for photo or video editing. It doesn’t have any USB extras, but that’s more than okay at this price.

Frankly it’s a great deal for a 27-inch IPS screen even if you never plan to do any gaming. Dell sales tend to stick around for a while, but this is also a pretty popular model. I’d get an order in quickly if you’re ready to buy.

Get an Editor's Choice Dell gaming monitor for $120 off Monitors

There’s no such thing as memory that’s too fast, especially when it comes to games. That’s why manufacturers stick memory right on the graphics card, and why it’s specifically optimized for visual applications.

GDDR6 (that’s “Graphics Double Data Rate Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory version 6”) has been around for seven years, and now it looks like the next revision is right around the corner.

SK Hynix, one of the “Big Three” memory manufacturers alongside Samsung and Micron, says it’ll be ready to mass produce GDDR7 modules beginning in the first quarter of 2025. That’s what they told AnandTech at Computex, anyway.

There they showed off 16GB and 25GB module capacities with 40Gbps (40 gigatransfers) speed and 160GB/s bandwidth. That’s approximately double the speed of GDDR6 modules in current graphics cards.

Samsung and Micron are both on even faster timelines, reportedly planning to get GDDR7 modules out the door before the end of this year. That means that new graphics cards—or at least the most powerful and most expensive of new models—could have the new GDDR7 memory in place and ready for store shelves as soon as mid-2025.

Of course, there are several variables at play in this equation, and it’s not as if we’re desperate for more graphics power at the moment.

Nvidia could probably keep selling its current high-end chips and cards for AI data centers until the cows come home, feeling no need to innovate with the presumptive RTX 50 series of cards for the sake of consumers. AMD and Intel might feel compelled to capture those consumers in a stale market… or just follow the leader for fear of losing hold of the sliver of market share they still have.

To sum up, I’m no Nostradamus (and even he was a hack), so take all these projections with a healthy dose of skepticism.

Graphics Cards

Cloud storage is great and all, but it’s still important to keep your own copies of files and photos on physical storage devices.

The SanDisk Professional 2TB PRO-G40 SSD is now on sale for $251, a significant markdown from its list price of $450. This is its best price since Black Friday and a fantastic deal if you need durable, high-speed storage—making now the best time to grab one.

This compact device has super-fast transfer speeds of up to 2,700MB/s read and 1,900MB/s write via Thunderbolt 3. You could theoretically move over 100GB of data in one minute if all goes well.

The Pro-G40 SSD is also rugged enough to withstand being knocked around in a bag or pushed off your desk by your cat. In fact, SanDisk says the SSD can survive 3-meter drops and has a 4,000-pound crush resistance. It also has IP68 dust and water resistance.

You can’t find external SSDs of this size and speed at this price, so don’t miss this chance to grab the SanDisk Professional 2TB Pro-G40 SSD for just $251. It’s speedy, it’s rugged, and it can host a ton of your files.

This SanDisk SSD is 44% off right now Computer Storage Devices

If you want an absolute rocket of a laptop, then the Dell G16 may be the right one for you. This gaming laptop is now down to an incredible price of $1,300 (that’s 24% off its MSRP of $1,700).

This deal will give you access to a high-performance machine for the cost of a business model. Sure, $1,300 isn’t exactly cheap, but the bang for your buck here is undeniable given its configuration.

Here’s what you get with this Dell G16 gaming laptop: a 13th Gen Intel Core i9-13900HX processor with 24 cores and up to 5.40GHz Turbo. This powerhouse promises smooth multitasking and speedy app loading.

Not impressed yet? There’s also an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 graphics card, easily one of our favorites. This means stunning visuals in pretty much any game on the market right now, and you’ll have a machine that will stay relevant for many years to come.

The 16-inch QHD+ display (2560×1600 resolution) features an ideal-for-gaming 240Hz refresh rate and 100% DCI-P3 color accuracy.

As for memory and storage, this model might only have 16GB DDR5 RAM, but you can expand it up to 32GB if you want. There’s also a lightning-fast 1TB PCIe NVMe SSD.

For $1,300, you can enjoy almost any game for years to come with graphics cranked up high, and you’ll also be able to edit high-res videos with ease, work productively, and browse smoothly. The Dell 16 is a total steal at this price—grab it before this deal expires.

The Dell G16 is $400 off right now Gaming Laptops