The collaborative reverse-engineering site decomp.dev is shutting down, with its administrator saying AI has made game decompilation so fast and accessible that the community's human-driven model has effectively broken down. "The administrator of the website said that it has become impossible to keep track of which projects are primarily human-led and which ones are done by AI," reports 404 Media. From the report: "Historically, matching decompilation has been a brutally difficult, time consuming task, on the scale of years for any moderately-sized game with a number of active contributors," the pseudonymous admin of decomp.dev, who goes by Encounter, wrote on the site. But recent frontier AI models like GPT-6-Astra have made it trivially easy to decompile a game: "They are significantly better at following complex directions, cross-referencing resources for symbols or debug information, and writing natural code with enough guidance," Encounter wrote. "It is now clear that, with the right guidance, human input, and code reviews, AI can expedite the decompilation process in a significant way. What is also now clear is that the community aspect of decompilation has been broken."
Tencent says AI agents used to evaluate third-party models engaged in unintended web-browsing behavior while trying to retrieve data from Alibaba's Amap service. The announcement marks a rare acknowledgment of "rogue" agent activity by a major Chinese tech company. Reuters reports: Tencent Hunyuan, the company's artificial intelligence unit, said in a post on X that the activity did not originate from its Hunyuan models. Its review found no evidence of deliberate targeting or coordination, it said. The Swarmchasers researchers said the agents sought information such as the commonly used entrances at Chinese parks, museums and zoos. [...] Swarmchasers said it used the word "rogue" to describe agents taking actions outside their intended scope or completing a task in unintended ways.
After routine automated requests were blocked, the agents tried other methods, including public web tools that could open pages and run code, routing requests through other websites and using Amap keys and security codes found in publicly available software code. Swarmchasers said it found no evidence that the agents breached Amap's main anti-bot safeguards. Most of the 2,818 attempts it recorded either failed or returned anti-bot pages, login screens or blank results.
Some requests returned information through cached pages and intermediary services, including data on visitor arrivals at Chengdu Zoo, Swarmchasers said. The researchers said they could not determine whether an agent read the result or completed its task.
Valve has released a new Steam Client beta that finally moves the Linux client to 64-bit architecture, while also placing it inside a containerized Steam Runtime environment. However, Linux users still need 32-bit libraries and graphics drivers for compatibility, meaning fully 64-bit-only systems remain unsupported. VideoCardz.com reports: Valve's updated requirements explicitly state that 64-bit-only installations are not supported. Systems must still provide both 32-bit and 64-bit libraries and graphics drivers, including multilib support. The new client also requires Linux kernel 5.6 or newer and glibc 2.31 or newer.
The update also introduces Steam Achievement Sets, a feature we covered earlier that allows developers to organize achievements into separate groups for base games, DLCs and seasonal content. Players can complete individual sets without losing their existing completion status when developers add more achievements. Valve has also updated the achievements page to display progress across these groups.
The 64-bit Linux client and Achievement Sets are currently available through the Steam Client Beta. Valve has not confirmed when these changes will reach the stable Linux release. Until then, users on the regular Steam client will continue using the existing architecture.
Meta is facing criticism over updated commercial terms taking effect October 30 that could give the company broad permission to scrape content from websites linked to business accounts and use it to train AI. Legal experts warn the changes could undermine lucrative AI licensing deals for news publishers, with no direct opt-out for businesses that accept the terms. Ars Technica reports: As Nieman Lab reported Thursday, this will affect all business accounts but is particularly shocking for news publishers who could perhaps charge Meta millions in licensing fees to continually access their articles for AI training. Currently news organizations are fighting a battle with OpenAI over whether such training without licensing is fair use, and Meta's terms seemingly risk granting it sweeping permissions, no matter which way the court leans. "While journalism isn't the only industry that will be affected by this update, virtually every news organization has at least one Meta business account, including Nieman Lab," the lab said.
[...] Notably, there is no mention of AI, but it's inferred from a single use of the word "train" and references to automated scraping and crawling. Meta's spokesperson told Nieman Lab that Meta has no plans to use the terms as a legal basis to ignore robots.txt instructions that block scraping on news sites. The company still allows news organizations to opt out of scraping and provides instructions on how to block crawling. A spokesperson told Ars that "there is no change to how Meta uses web crawlers; any suggestion to the contrary is false." However, should courts affirm that AI training non-news articles is fair use, news organizations question if Meta's stance might change, and the terms could be used to freely grab access to content by legally overriding robots.txt instructions.
An OpenAI research model reportedly accessed an Ethereum testnet wallet without permission in order to complete a coding task during internal training. "This case shows that a model can substitute its own judgment about likely harm for the account holder's permission, then act on that judgment without authorization," OpenAI wrote. Engadget reports: The incident, which occurred on June 26, happened while a GPT-5.6 Sol model was in internal training. The task involved updating a crypto trading prototype and deploying contracts (publishing special code) on an Ethereum test network called Sepolia. Payment of a network fee is required for such contracts, but OpenAI "supplied no funded wallet and gave no permission to spend funds from an account the model found independently," OpenAI said in the report.
The lack of funds at first stymied the agent, but it was not to be discouraged. The model reasoned that it could use public developer recovery phrases (similar to those you might use to recover a password) to access keys from unauthorized accounts. It tracked down 362 addresses open to that avenue of attack and found one that held enough Sepolia ETH to finish its deployment (to be clear, Sepolia ETH has no value outside of testing).
Like many criminals, the agent reasoned that someone must have left this access open for automated draining of the ETH "faucets." It also figured that the crypto was effectively "abandoned" and "valueless," according to OpenAI's misalignment records. The piece de resistance was that the agent "did not disclose that it had selected a funded account through a public recover phrase or spent that account's balance," OpenAI said. To prevent similar events in the future, the company is now monitoring all traffic and paging security if live internet access is detected.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Private credit's expanding role in financing AI infrastructure faced one of its clearest market tests this week as CoreWeave's bonds fell to distressed levels, raising questions about how lenders are pricing a boom built on chips, data centers and customer contracts. CoreWeave has about $50 billion of debt, according to LSEG data, making it one of the largest borrowers linking private credit to the AI buildout. The cost of insuring its debt against default climbed to about 1,200 basis points this week, while yields on some of its bonds rose to roughly 15% to 16%, signaling sharply increased investor concern over its credit risk. "There is still a price. Investors are still comfortable financing it, but they're demanding more compensation for it," said James Martin, senior US credit strategist at SMBC, referring to projects further from completion.
Carlyle estimates that private credit could finance roughly $1 trillion of the AI infrastructure buildout but warns that aggressive lending could create concentration risks similar to those seen in software lending. "The clearest lesson is not to avoid AI compute exposure, but to set concentration limits before the buildout accelerates further, not after," Carlyle said.
OpenAI has updated its ChatGPT Chrome extension to let users access information from their open browser tabs. A demo video shows the new functionality in action. The Verge reports: It's also updated ChatGPT in the sidebar, with the full power of ChatGPT and your entire conversation history in Chat or Work to use without leaving the page you're viewing. It also enables ChatGPT Work to "control" your Chrome tabs for tasks like "sending messages, filling out forms, or downloading files," similar to Google's Gemini-powered "auto browse" feature, as well as organize or group open tabs.
It’s been two years since my initial post about making GNOME OS an end-user general purpose OS. Today, we’re excited to announce that we’ve hit a major milestone!
TL;DR: We’re launching a new edition called “GNOME OS Preview”, which is built from the latest stable GNOME release. This means that GNOME OS is no longer just a nightly OS for GNOME developers and testers!
A number of changes and improvements have made the move from nightly status to preview status possible. They’ve made GNOME OS handle environments with limited amounts of RAM much better – not a luxury, these days – including the ability to dynamically increase the swap space if needed. In addition, the work to make it much easier to install and test daily Flatpak builds of applications is now part of GNOME OS, as is the effort to make command-line utilities manageable in the same way as Flatpaks.
As the blog post notes, there’s still a ton of work left to do before GNOME OS is ready for everyone. They’re going to bet heavily on systemd-homed to enable, among other things, per-user disk encryption, and there’s a new installer coming, as well. They also want to ship GNOME’s preinstalled applications as Flatpaks, integrate delta updates, and much more. It all looks incredibly appealing, even if I am not the target user for something like GNOME OS.
It may be a giant leap forward in making flying cars a reality, or a fantastic publicity stunt. Elon Musk is showing off a new Tesla Roadster that can fly. NBC News’ Brian Cheung reports.
It may be a giant leap forward in making flying cars a reality, or a fantastic publicity stunt. Elon Musk is showing off a new Tesla Roadster that can fly. NBC News’ Brian Cheung reports.
Meta’s annual conference last month in Menlo Park, Calif. The company received $22 million back from its American Technology Excellence Project and $3 million from a California advocacy group it funded.
Tesla has unveiled a new generation of the Roadster that Elon Musk believes will be able to fly. The sports car has new features such as air jets that allow the car to perform brief mid-air maneuvers. Musk says the car is set to start production in 2028. NBC News' Brian Cheung has more on the advancing technology.
Tesla has unveiled a new generation of the Roadster that Elon Musk believes will be able to fly. The sports car has new features such as air jets that allow the car to perform brief mid-air maneuvers. Musk says the car is set to start production in 2028. NBC News' Brian Cheung has more on the advancing technology.
OpenAI said internal models hacked two more websites, bypassed company-imposed browsing restrictions, and used exposed credentials to draw cryptocurrency from a wallet it couldn’t otherwise access, in the latest installment of disclosures of its agents performing unethical and likely illegal acts.
The company on Thursday issued reports of four new incidents, all of which occurred in June. They come after the company revealed in July that internal test agents exploited a zero-day vulnerability in a tool designed to restrict their access to the Internet. They then broke into the network of AI tool provider Hugging Face. The agents took that illegal action to steal answers to a hacking test that weren’t available when completing the tasks on their own. The incident—which likely would have resulted in criminal charges had they been performed directly by a person—has further heightened concerns that widespread AI use could have harmful effects on an unprecedented scale.
Easier to beg for forgiveness than ask permission
In two of the cases reported Thursday, OpenAI agents tasked with retrieving information from websites hacked them when the models ran into obstacles obtaining it directly. In one incident during reinforcement training, a model that received access denials when trying to retrieve historical hospital-bed statistics on a government statistics website “used the site's file-download feature to retrieve server configuration and application files, including sensitive credentials,” OpenAI said. “It inspected the application code, bypassed the statistics endpoint's authorization checks, and retrieved data that had previously been denied. The model saved the data locally.”
New Jersey’s deputy attorney general, Brian Richard Fitzgerald, was arrested on “felony charges related to AI-generated child sexual abuse material (CSAM),” Bucks County Detectives said in a press release Thursday.
In the US, cops have vowed to crack down on AI CSAM since at least 2024, when the Department of Justice made one of the earliest arrests. After charging a Wisconsin man with spreading “thousands of realistic images of prepubescent minors” across Telegram and Instagram, the DOJ clarified to law enforcement that “CSAM generated by AI is still CSAM.”
New Jersey’s deputy attorney general, Brian Richard Fitzgerald, was arrested at his home Thursday.
Credit:
via Bucks County Detectives
On Thursday, New Jersey officials accused 51-year-old Fitzgerald of using AI to make photos from social media of real minors into sexualized images that he then distributed on social media.
A new bill proposed by Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) aims to establish new regulations that would ensure that "buying a video game would give the consumer ownership of the game rather than a license to play it," including assurances that they can continue to access the games for years after they are released.
The announcement names NBA 2K25 as an example of the problem the bill aims to solve; that game launched on September 6, 2025, but is scheduled to become unplayable on December 31 due to server shutdowns. The bill, which is called the Power to Players Act, directs the FTC to take action to prevent outcomes like that in the future.
Some Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses were recording people’s conversations without the wearer knowing. The recordings occurred without users saying the prompt phrase (“Hey, Meta”), in a bug that Meta says has been fixed.
This week, some usersreported online that their Ray-Ban Metas were recording without their consent. A person going by Kindly-Audience-137 on Reddit, for example, said this happened to them across three Meta Ray-Bans and that they had the “Respond without Hey Meta” setting turned off. The person said the Meta AI app “saves audio recordings and text transcripts of these conversations in my conversation history.”
“I believe this deserves a serious technical investigation. Customers should not have to wonder whether their private conversations are being captured when they have not intentionally activated their glasses’ AI assistant,” the Reddit user said.
In Silicon Valley, the AI boom means a lot of people are excited about this new technology, but concerned about when the music might stop. NPR went to San Francisco Tech Week to take the pulse.
This repository contains approximately 1 GB of historical Palm OS development material, collected over many years of working with the platform.
The archive includes a mixture of publicly distributed development resources, personal development material, technical references, and historical artifacts.
Microsoft has fixed an issue in Windows 11 that could result in a black screen after the user logs into their computer. You’ll find the fix in update KB5127648, available now for Windows 11 24H2, 25H2, and 26H2.
In the update release notes, the bug fix is addressed as:
[Windows Explorer (Known issue)] Fixed: This update fixes an issue that affects Windows Explorer in multi-user environments, such as Azure Virtual Desktop and FSLogix. After sign-in, Explorer.exe might fail to start or repeatedly crash, causing a black screen.
In short, there was a bug in File Explorer that surfaced in multi-user environments like Azure Virtual Desktop and FSLogic. Microsoft doesn’t provide much detail about the bug itself, but the gist is that it caused repeated crashes of Explorer.exe after logging in, which prevented the desktop from loading and resulted in a black screen.
This bug first came to light after the August Windows update. If you’re running into black screens on Windows 11 after logging in, you should install the latest Windows update to address it.
This is just one of the many bug fixes in the October update, which also fixed mouse stutter in games for some users. And not only bug fixe, but this update also brings some much-needed improvements elsewhere, including more reliable Bluetooth and a remappable Copilot key.
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Samsung announced the Galaxy Watch Ultra in the summer of 2024, and then refreshed it in August of 2025 with double the storage and new color options. The Galaxy Watch Ultra emphasizes outdoor and exercise features, putting it in competition with the Apple Watch Ultra as a premium fitness watch at a premium price. Ever since the Galaxy Watch Ultra2 came out this year, the 2025 Galaxy Watch Ultra has been dropping in price, currently reaching a new low price of $471.78 according to price-checking tools, over $175 off the original $649.99 price tag. And if the extra storage isn't a big deal to you, you can get the 2024 version for $399.99 (originally $649.99).
The Galaxy Watch Ultra excels over other watches in one key aspect: its outdoorsy features. If you're an avid hiker or an athlete who spends long hours outdoors, this is a worthwhile choice. Like any good rugged watch, this one is tough, made out of Grade 4 titanium, and has an IP68 water- and dust-resistant rating. You can also take it up high altitudes (up to 9,000 meters) and it can withstand up to 10ATM of pressure (about 330 feet underwater). You also get a built-in siren in case of emergencies. The screen is a 1.47-inch Super AMOLED display, brighter than previous Samsung AMOLED smartwatches. The only downside is that it comes in just one size—47mm.
The watch runs WearOS from Samsung and comes with 2GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. The 590mAh battery is one of the best for its price point, making it perfect for prolonged outdoor use. If you don't use any power-saving modes, it'll last 60 hours, but it can go up to 100 hours if you're conservative.
One of the new features this watch brings is AI-based health metrics and advanced sleep tracking, which you can read more about in PCMag's "excellent" review. If you're looking for a more budget-friendly (and smaller) option for more general use, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 at $220 (originally $329.99) is a great option.
It will soon be time, once again, for our clocks to “fall back.” Nov. 1 is the date most places in the U.S. quit daylight saving time for 2026 and go back to standard time. We're still on this clock-changing treadmill, despite legislation that was supposed to eliminate it a few years ago, and despite medical professionals warning that these clock changes are bad for our health.
For example, a study out of the Stanford School of Medicine found that switching the time back and forth every year probably contributes to increased rates of stroke and obesity. Permanent daylight saving time would be an improvement on that, and permanent standard time would be even better, health-wise. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine published a position paper a few years ago stating that scientific evidence supports the idea "that the United States should eliminate seasonal time changes in favor of permanent standard time, which aligns best with human circadian biology."
But despite all this, we’ll still have to turn the clocks ahead again in spring. So whatever happened to those bills in Congress aiming to abolish the time changes?
The most recent attempt to eliminate clock changes failed
The Sunshine Protection Act was a federal bill that would have made Daylight Saving Time permanent. If enacted, it would have taken effect on Nov. 5, 2023, the date that we would otherwise have changed the clocks. The result would be that our winter mornings would stay dark an hour longer than they currently do, but we’d get an hour more of daylight in the winter evenings.
The bill passed the Senate in March of 2022, but it wasn't taken up by the House of Representatives. In July of 2026, a similar law passed the House of Representatives, and President Trump wrote on Truth Social this month that "Republicans in the Senate have to get moving on what I call the 'No More Changing of Clocks Act.'" The Senate Majority Leader said it doesn't have the support to pass, since it would mean dark mornings for commuters and for children waiting for morning buses.
Which time would we stay with if we stopped changing the clocks?
We operate on two different times throughout the year: "standard time" and "daylight saving time." These even get their own time zones! For example, if a time is marked as "EST," that means eastern standard time, which is different from eastern daylight time.
Standard time is the one we use in winter, and daylight saving time is the one we use in summer. The bill mentioned above would have done away with standard time and kept us on daylight saving time year-round. Meanwhile, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine has taken the position that we should stay on standard time (that is, winter time) year-round, since screwing with our circadian rhythms twice a year has detrimental effects on our health and safety. If they got their way, we would fall back some year and then never spring forward again.
What about state laws?
States have their own ideas about what time it should be. Currently, states are not allowed to switch to permanent daylight saving time, but they are allowed to stay on standard time year-round if they prefer. Two states do so: Hawaii and Arizona (minus the parts of Arizona in the Navajo nation).
Nineteen states have passed laws or resolutions that would allow them to switch to permanent daylight saving time if the federal government ever allows them to do so. Those states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, are Alabama, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. Three other states have made attempts to join the list: Similar bills made it partway through the Kentucky and Ohio legislatures but were not signed into law. California voters have authorized a law that isn’t yet officially on the books.
Until a federal law passes, those states are stuck with their current time zones. Current federal law, as passed in 1966, allows states to opt out of daylight saving time (as Hawaii and Arizona have) but does not offer a way for states to make daylight saving time permanent or to choose their own dates for changing the clocks. If you’re sick of time changes, you can always move to one of the territories that don’t observe daylight saving, which include the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
Under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Food and Drug Administration is moving forward with plans to ease access to unproven peptide drugs that are popular among members of Kennedy's Make America Healthy Again movement—despite FDA staff scientists finding that the drugs have not been sufficiently studied to establish safety and efficacy and may cause harms.
The FDA submitted an "Interim Access Policy" on peptides for review by the White House, according to a filing notice posted on an Office of Management and Budget website. The posting does not provide information on the proposed policy. But people familiar with the proposal told The Associated Press that it would give the FDA "enforcement discretion" on certain peptide drugs. This would allow the agency to choose not to enforce current restrictions on peptides and provide an assurance to specialty pharmacies eager to start making them that they will not be targeted by the agency.
The Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the FDA, did not respond to a request for comment from Ars Technica.
Legal experts are sounding alarms that Meta will soon update its commercial terms to require business accounts to allow Meta to train AI on their linked website content, not just their social media posts.
Kicking in on October 30, the TOS update won’t allow businesses to opt out, instead suggesting that businesses stop using Meta services if they won’t agree to let Meta bots freely crawl their linked content.
As Nieman Lab reported Thursday, this will affect all business accounts but is particularly shocking for news publishers who could perhaps charge Meta millions in licensing fees to continually access their articles for AI training. Currently news organizations are fighting a battle with OpenAI over whether such training without licensing is fair use, and Meta's terms seemingly risk granting it sweeping permissions, no matter which way the court leans.
Prediction market boosters often tout the platforms as barometers of public opinion, or even “truth machines” offering a clearer picture of where things are headed than polling or other data. In 2024, for example, Kalshi beat many pollsters in forecasting the outcome of the US presidential race. But their trading activity can also tell more perplexing stories.
Two global election markets on Polymarket’s offshore platform, for instance, generated over $600 million in trading volume, far more than most political markets typically attract. Most of the activity took place buying and selling contracts tied to long-shot candidates who ultimately did not win.
This summer, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s Prosperity Party cruised to victory in federal elections, winning 438 parliamentary seats and paving the way for him to serve another five-year term. The closest competitor won 13 seats. On prediction markets, trading volume—the total value of contracts bought and sold—typically tracks roughly with the odds of a given outcome; frontrunners attract far more volume than long shots. But in this case, the trading patterns deviated sharply from the norm. Just $173,000 was wagered on Ahmed winning, compared to more than $41 million traded on his chief of staff, Shimelis Abdisa, becoming the country’s next leader. Altogether, the volume traded added up to over $285 million, nearly all on losing candidates.
The new Roadster, we’re told, will be unlike anything else, although the angular, wedge-shaped styling owes more than a little to Giorgetto Giugiaro’s original Lotus Esprit—Musk is known to own a James Bond prop car—as well as the more recent Lamborghini Gallardo. At the rear are four giant exhaust pipes; these do not signal Tesla’s sudden embrace of hydrocarbons beyond those emitted by private aviation.
Rather, it’s where 100,000 psi jets of compressed nitrogen shoot out. It’s early in the morning and the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Statutes are dense reading, so I am yet to find the section where it explains how and when it’s legal to use such a thing on the road.
If you got a DM from an unverified Jon Bon Jovi account after commenting on one of his official Instagram posts, what would it take to make you believe it was really the rock star hoping to connect? And at what point when he starts asking you to send money—like lose-your-house kind of money—would you snap out of the fantasy and stop draining your bank account?
In a documentary premiering Saturday—Super Scam Me—investigative journalist Mariana van Zeller goes deep into this toxic love-bombing terrain. In a clip that Ars is exclusively debuting below, you can see how van Zeller worked with an ethical hacker, Arman the Cyber, to use a fake bitcoin receipt and bait the fake Bon Jovi, giving the victim some much-needed closure.
Sneak peek at National Geographic's Super Scam Me.
Scamming a romance scammer
Broadcasting on National Geographic at 9 pm ET and available to stream on Disney+ and Hulu, the documentary takes viewers on an empathetic quest to understand how the line between “lover” and “fraud victim” gets blurred in romance scams that the Federal Trade Commission says cost Americans nearly $1.5 billion in losses each year.
Apple's first foldable iPhone, the $1,999 iPhone Duo, sold out within minutes of preorders opening, with every configuration slipping to late January 2027. "All color and storage combinations show an estimated ship date of January 25," reports 9to5Mac. "Some users are even seeing January 29 for their estimated shipping date." From the report: This is a combination of strong demand and severely constrained supply for iPhone Duo. It's impossible to know the exact balance between the two, though. Going into the launch, there were multiple reports suggesting iPhone Duo would be in short supply as Apple was still ramping up production. A report from Nikkei Asia last month said Apple was making just a few hundred iPhone Duo units per day, significantly behind the ramp of a normal iPhone launch.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Phoronix: The feature-packed and polished Plasma 6.8 KDE desktop is now available. Making this release all the more special is that it coincides with the 30th anniversary of the KDE project. KDE Plasma 6.8 ships many exciting improvements including vRAM usage optimizations, dwell clicker support on Wayland, Wayland commit-timing protocol support for KWin, improvements for the Union theme engine, better remote desktop support, multi-GPU handling improvements, the new kscreenctl tool, server-side drop shadow support, multi-monitor improvements, and a lot of other polishing throughout. Especially from the Wayland angle there has been a lot of polishing and fine tuning for Plasma 6.8. Accompanying the release is a new film, The KDE Documentary, which "tells the story of the pioneering open source community that gave computer users a free and open alternative to proprietary desktops like Windows." The documentary is available to stream for free on YouTube.
Microsoft is doing its best to improve Windows 11’s performance. According to a recent Windows Blog post, the company’s operating system has become up to 20 percent more responsive thanks to optimizations made and released over the course of this year. Improved features include the Start menu, File Explorer, Search, and the Edge browser.
One key change is that Windows now uses the computer’s RAM more efficiently, so it can run more smoothly on systems with 8GB RAM. According to Microsoft, Windows 11 can now keep up to 2GB more active data in RAM rather than moving it to slower storage. You’ll notice the boost most prominently when several apps or browser tabs are open at once.
Microsoft has also reduced memory usage for features that run in the background. On computers with 8GB of RAM or less, for example, the Widgets panel is only loaded when the user opens it. This supposedly frees up to more than 200MB of RAM.
Windows Update has also been improved to require only one system restart per month as well as shorten update installation times. In addition, logging in with Windows Hello and connecting Bluetooth devices should work faster and more reliably overall.
These improvements have been rolled out gradually over time, and further changes are on the way. Microsoft’s claim that Windows 11 has sped up by 20 percent is based on internal measurements, and therefore doesn’t mean that all PCs will experience the same performance boosts.
Do you want a large expanse of usable display space, but without the hassle of setting up dual monitors? An ultrawide monitor is the ticket. Ultrawide monitors have a wider display panel that provides an immersive experience and far more screen real-estate than your average widescreen.
I’ve tested a bunch of ultrawide monitors in order to name the best picks in various categories ranging from those optimized for gaming to those suited for professional use. Below you’ll find a curated list of my favorites in each category. I describe my evaluation process for monitors at the bottom of this article.
Why you should trust PCWorld for monitor reviews and buying advice: It’s in our name! PCWorld has been covering PCs since 1983. That includes dozens of monitors every year, from all the top brands. All of our recommendations have been tested hands-on and vetted by our expert reviewers, who’ve applied not only performance benchmarks but rigorous usability standards.
MSI MPG 341CQR – Best ultrawide monitor
Pros
Useful design with small stand and ergonomic adjustment
Includes USB-C with up to 98 watts of Power Delivery
Wide range of image quality adjustments
Great image quality in SDR and HDR
Cons
Not the most attractive design
3440×1440 resolution is adequate, but not sharp
HDR brightness is only competitive in some situations
Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide
Who should buy the MSI MPG 341CQR QD-OLED X36?
The MSI MPG 341CQR QD-OLED X36 earns our top ultrawide recommendation because it handles almost everything well for under $1,000. The 5th-generation Samsung tandem QD-OLED panel produces vibrant, accurate color and infinite contrast at a 360Hz refresh rate. That’s a combination that handles competitive gaming, creative work, and everyday productivity well.
Connectivity is also strong, and the USB-C port with 98 watts of Power Delivery is the feature that pushes it over the edge. Plug in a laptop and you get video, data, and charging through a single cable. That’s a convenience that’s still not guaranteed on ultrawide monitors at this price.
MSI MPG 341CQR QD-OLED X36: Further considerations
The main caveat is pixel density. With 3440×1440 resolution across 34 inches, you’re looking at roughly 110 PPI, which is noticeably softer than a 4K display. The monitor also ships without speakers. Nearly all 34-inch ultrawide monitors share these downsides, though, so they’re not much of a disadvantage.
Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide
Who should buy the MSI 341CQPX?
While our pick for best ultrawide overall above is designed with gaming in mind, we actually think the MSI MPG 341CQPX is superior for that singular activity. This 34-inch QD-OLED display has a panoramic 21:9 aspect ratio that pulls you deeper into your favorite games. It’s especially excellent for games that lean on immersion (like simulation titles) or that show a lot of information on-screen at once (like MMORPGs and strategy games).
The MSI 341CQPX has a Samsung QD-OLED display that delivers vibrant colors and stunning contrast. The monitor handles both SDR and HDR content well. The 240Hz refresh rate, meanwhile, offers ultra-crisp motion clarity. It supports the VESA Adaptive Sync standard and will work with both AMD FreeSync and Nvidia G-Sync.
MSI 341CQPX: Further considerations
While the MPG 341CQPX is a great ultrawide for gaming, it’s practical for day-to-day productivity and can work well with many home office setups. It has a USB-C port with 98 watts of Power Delivery, which means it can power your laptop and handle video over a single cord.
The monitor does have a couple flaws. The stand is larger than it needs to be and will feel cramped on a small desk. There’s also no RGB-LED lighting on the back of the panel, which is common on competitive gaming ultrawides.
Pricing excuses these nitpicks, though. Available for $890 or less at some online retailers, the MPG 341CQPX is not much more expensive than older QD-OLED ultrawide monitors, like the Alienware AW3423DW, with a lower refresh rate and no (or more limited) USB-C. The MPG 341CQPX’s price is more than reasonable given is advantages over its predecessors.
Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide
Who should buy the Dell Ultrasharp U4025QW?
This is the monitor for people who want a big, sharp monitor to serve as the focal point for a desktop command center. This excellent ultrawide monitor has a vast 40-inch display and 5K resolution that ensures every detail is sharp and defined. But it’s not just about its size and clarity; it’s packed with features, too.
Visually, the U4025QW is a treat, offering unparalleled sharpness and an expansive workspace that enhances productivity and elevates entertainment. The monitor’s impressive 120Hz refresh rate is a rare find at this resolution, ensuring smooth motion on the Windows desktop and in games. It even has an IPS Black display panel, which improves contrast and delivers a more realistic, immersive image.
The U4025QW’s connectivity is extensive. It has Thunderbolt, Ethernet, HDMI, and DisplayPort, as well as a USB hub that includes multiple downstream USB-A and USB-C ports. The monitor’s menu options and settings provide significant image quality control as well as useful features like picture-in-picture and picture-by-picture modes.
Dell Ultrasharp U4025QW: Further considerations
The monitor’s stand isn’t as robust as it should be, and while the contrast ratio of IPS Black is commendable, it can’t rival OLED. But the most serious downside is the price, which soars close to $2,000. Still, given its size, image quality, and connectivity, this do-everything display can pack a lot of productivity on a single screen.
Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide
Who should buy the LG Ultragear Evo GX9 (39GX950B-B)
The LG Ultragear Evo GX9 is the best big-screen curved gaming monitor for anyone who wants an immersive, razor-sharp image.
The monitor’s 39-inch 5K2K (5120×2160) tandem WOLED panel is the headliner. At 143 pixels per inch, it’s meaningfully sharper than the 110 PPI you receive from a typical 34-inch ultrawide with 3440×1440 resolution. The GX9 also has OLED’s excellent contrast ratio and wide color gamut (at 99 percent DCI-P3). This adds up to an image that looks great in both SDR and HDR games. HDR performance is a strength, as the monitor’s HDR is brighter than most competitors.
Connectivity is solid for the monitor’s use case, too. It has two HDMI 2.1 ports, one DisplayPort 2.1, and a USB-C input with 90 watts of Power Delivery. These ports cover most multi-device setups comfortably. The 1500R curve is moderate by ultrawide standards and shouldn’t be an obstacle for most users.
LG Ultragear Evo GX9 (39GX950B-B): Further considerations
The GX9’s $1,799.99 MSRP is its biggest flaw, as its feature set doesn’t entirely justify it. The monitor has several AI features that attempt to enhance image and audio quality, but they offer little benefit. The refresh rate tops out at 165Hz at native resolution, as well. While this is understandable given the monitor’s high resolution, smaller OLED monitors will provide better motion clarity. The GX9 has a dual-mode 330Hz refresh rate, but it requires dropping the resolution to 2560×1080, which doesn’t look great on a monitor this large.
These downsides may take the GX9 out of contention for some shoppers, but for others they’ll prove no obstacle. The monitor is ideal for racing and flight sims, MMORPGs, or any other game that rewards more display real estate. Shoppers happy to splurge for a better experience should strongly consider this monitor instead of a smaller 34-inch alternative.
Acer Predator X34 X0: A Mini-LED monitor that delivers a vivid picture and good contrast for less than $500.
Dell Pro 34 Plus USB-C: A decent choice if you want an ultrawide with lots of connectivity but the monitor’s image quality fails to impress.
BenQ PD2730S: Will call to creative professionals with its 5K display, but some will find its connectivity and special features just as alluring as its eye-catching image.
HP Omen Transcend 32: Pricey even for a 32-inch 4K OLED monitor, but makes up for that with great USB-C connectivity and top-tier SDR image quality.
How PCWorld tests monitors
PCWorld’s team of staff and freelance reviewers conduct in-depth testing to compare monitors across a wide range of categories and price points. We test dozens of monitors each year to find the best pick for every category and price point.
Our testing uses a Datacolor Spyder X2 Ultra color calibration tool. It delivers objective, unbiased measurements for a wide range of metrics including brightness, contrast, color gamut, color accuracy, color temperature, and gamma. Results are recorded and logged for future comparison. This allows our experts to easily compare many monitors at once and eliminates subjective bias from the results.
Matthew S. Smith is a freelance technology journalist with 15 years of experience reviewing consumer electronics, including a wide array of computer monitors. In addition to the work he does for PCWorld, Matthew also contributes to Wired, Digital Trends, Reviewed, Lifewire, and other technology publications.
What to look for in an ultrawide monitor
Ultrawide monitors are a favorite of PC enthusiasts, but remain a niche within the larger monitor market. This leaves shoppers with fewer options. Most ultrawide monitors have a 34-inch panel with a resolution of 3440×1440, and similar connectivity.
Still, these monitors can differ in several key areas. Here’s what to look for.
Panel type is a big deal
Ultrawide monitors offer less choice in some regards but that script is flipped when it comes to panel type. Ultrawide monitors come in a variety of panel types: IPS, VA, and OLED.
IPS panels are common in mid-range and premium ultrawide monitors. This panel type delivers great color performance, high maximum brightness, superb sharpness, and good motion performance. It’s weak in contrast, however, which can disappoint when viewing TV shows or movies.
VA panels are typically a budget option, though some are found in premium ultrawide monitors. They have better contrast than IPS panels and deliver similar color performance and brightness—however, budget VA panels tend to be merely okay in these areas. Most VA panels fall short in motion performance and may look blurry when playing fast-paced games.
OLED is king of the hill. It leads in color, contrast, and motion performance. Sharpness is often slightly reduced compared to IPS and VA, but most people will find it a minor downgrade. OLED also is the best choice for HDR.
In general, OLED is better than IPS, and IPS is better than VA. However, some people might prefer VA over IPS because it has a better contrast ratio and looks darker in dark content.
A height-adjustable stand is a must-have
All the monitors on this list provide an ergonomic stand that adjusts for height, tilt, and swivel. This is a must-have feature, but one that isn’t found on the least expensive ultrawide monitors.
As tempting as it may be to save money on a budget model without a height-adjustable stand, you would regret it.
Ultrawide monitors are bulky and tend to require a larger, heavier stand, which in turn makes them more difficult to place on an elevated platform. The old college trick of sticking a monitor on a shoe box won’t work.
Look for USB-C, but don’t expect it
USB-C compatibility is an excellent feature, and USB-C hub monitors can clear away tons of clutter on your desk. Unfortunately, many ultrawide monitors don’t support USB-C yet, or have limitations that detract from the USB-C port’s usefulness.
Asus’s ProArt PA348CV, our favorite ultrawide for professionals, is one exception. It has a USB-C port with up to 90 watts of Power Delivery, and the port drives a USB-A hub with four downstream ports.
Dell, HP, and BenQ also offer ultrawide monitors with USB-C. Most of these lack an enhanced refresh rate, however, and they’re typically more expensive than the Asus.
Pricing is important—and can swing wildly
Monitor pricing is always important, but it’s key for ultrawide monitors. Although very expensive at MSRP, ultrawide monitors routinely see huge price cuts during seasonal sales. They also receive major semi-permanent price cuts later in their life.
The LG Ultragear 34GN850-B is an example of this. Originally sold for $999.99, it’s now routinely available for $699.99, and went as low as $599.99 during Amazon’s Black Friday sale. That’s a 40 percent reduction in price! Waiting for a deal can save you hundreds.
Don’t buy an ultrawide for console gaming
A quick word of warning: You should not buy an ultrawide monitor if you plan to connect a game console frequently.
Game consoles don’t support ultrawide aspect ratios, so you’ll see black bars on either side of the image. That’s unattractive and wastes the monitor’s potential. It’s best to stick with a widescreen monitor if console gaming is a priority.
If you’re still on the fence about whether an ultrawide is the right choice for you, see PCWorld’s article on whether ultrawide monitors are worth it to have all your questions answered.
FAQ
1.
What is the best ultrawide monitor?
The best ultrawide monitor for most people is the Alienware AW3423DWF. It costs less than $1,000, but this 34-inch OLED has incredible contrast, depth, and vibrancy. This makes for an amazingly immersive experience in movies and games, the latter of which is helped by the display’s 165Hz refresh rate and support for adaptive sync.
2.
What size of ultrawide gaming monitor is best?
Most ultrawide monitors have a 34-inch panel with a 21:9 aspect ratio, which is the best option for most gamers.
Some ultrawide monitors are available in larger sizes, but these typically aren’t the best choice for gamers. Many do not support high refresh rates. Those that do are expensive and often use the same 3440×1440 resolution found on smaller ultrawide monitors, which means they appear less sharp than a 34-inch display.
3.
What is the best resolution for an ultrawide monitor?
Nearly all 34-inch ultrawide monitors have a display resolution of 3440×1440. This is an excellent choice for gamers.
It’s sharp enough to look impressive in modern games. However, this resolution remains significantly lower in total pixel count than 4K, which makes it less demanding on graphics hardware. That’s good news if you have a mid-range graphics card like an Nvidia RTX 3060 or AMD Radeon RX 6650XT.
Larger 38-inch models have a higher resolution of 3840×1660—however, nearly all these monitors lack support for high refresh rates, making them a bad choice for gamers. LG offers a line of 34-inch 5K2K ultrawide monitors with 5120×2160 resolution, but this line also lacks support for enhanced refresh rates.
A few new 45-inch ultrawide monitors are available with 3440×1440 resolution. This can be a problem, because stretching the same resolution across a much larger display reduces sharpness. We recommend 3440×1440 only for 34-inch ultrawide monitors.
4.
What’s the best refresh rate for an ultrawide gaming monitor?
A refresh rate of 144Hz to 165Hz is ideal for most ultrawide gaming monitors.
Very few ultrawide monitors exceed this refresh rate, and those that do are too expensive to make it a good value.
Also, gamers shopping for an ultrawide gaming monitor are likely to prefer immersive and graphically demanding games that make it difficult to see the full benefit of a refresh rate above 144Hz. You’ll need a high-end video card, like an RTX 3080 or AMD Radeon 6800, to drive most ultrawide gaming monitors at frame rates above 144 frames per second.
5.
Does an ultrawide gaming monitor need HDR?
HDR isn’t a must-have for an ultrawide gaming monitor, but it’s a nice addition.
Gaming is a great use case for HDR—arguably the best, in fact—and it can deliver improved image quality. We recommend buying an ultrawide gaming monitor with HDR support if your budget is $500 or more.
Unless you have a business or creator model, your laptop probably doesn’t have SD or microSD slots. But no worries, because you can rectify that with a single versatile accessory. Anker’s USB-C SD/microSD card reader is on sale for $9.99 at Amazon, down from its original $17.99. That’s only a buck higher than its all-time lowest price, so you know it’s a real deal.
This card reader is as utilitarian as they come. It’s about the size of a typical thumb drive, so it’ll slip into a pocket and go with you anywhere. It has a USB-C connection, so it’s compatible with pretty much all but the oldest of laptops. It has both SD and microSD slots, so it’s effective for moving data from your dash cam, security cam, action cam, and more.
Some caveats to know before you buy. First, it has a theoretical cap of 5 Gbps, which means a maximum file transfer rate of 104 MB/s—not great for lots of 4K and 8K video. Second, while it does support both SD and microSD activity at the same time, you might experience slowdowns. Third, it may block neighboring ports depending on your laptop’s layout.
But for just $9.99, those trade-offs are well worth it if you can endure them. At 44% off and close to its lowest price ever, this Anker card reader is a no-brainer buy if you don’t have card slots in your laptop.
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Whether you love camping, own an RV, frequently deal with seasonal power outages, or just want to be ready with off-grid essentials, it's useful to have a power station. TheAnker SOLIX C2000 Gen 2 has received a 40% price cut, bringing it down to $899.98 (originally $1,499).
This power station delivers a 2,048Wh capacity and 2,400W output, with 4,000W peak power for running a variety of appliances, including a dual-door fridge for up to 32 hours. It has two handles on its sides and is relatively lightweight for its capacity at 41.7 pounds. The LiFePO4 battery can last up to a decade and is rated for 4,000 charging cycles. It recharges to 100% in under an hour (or three hours via solar) and is expandable up to 4kWh. It supports up to 800W solar input (panels sold separately) for off-grid charging and includes five AC outlets, as well as a car outlet, RV connection, and high-output USB-C ports.
Compared to its predecessor, it’s quieter and more compact in both weight and footprint, and the added perk of app connectivity makes it easy to monitor and control. If you want reliable, high-capacity portable power, theAnker SOLIX C2000 Gen 2 is a great emergency essential, though if you want something with true grab-and-go appeal, you may want to opt for theAnker SOLIX C1000 Gen 2, which weighs about 40% less but has half the battery capacity—and also happens to be 46% off right now.
Tesla showed off a new version of its long-delayed Roadster, demonstrating a prototype sports car that can briefly fly through the air using high-pressure gas thrusters developed with SpaceX.
Tesla showed off a new version of its long-delayed Roadster, demonstrating a prototype sports car that can briefly fly through the air using high-pressure gas thrusters developed with SpaceX.
This week, Suunto launched its newest addition to its Race line of performance watches, the Race 3S. At $599, it’s lightweight with a premium feel, and to me, its most interesting upgrade is the new silicon-carbon battery, which Suunto says offers up to 38 hours of dual-band GPS, up to 45 hours in Endurance mode, 10 days of training use, and up to 12 days in daily mode. While I usually stick to my Garmin Forerunners, I’ve been personally testing the Suunto 3S and loving it on first impression.
Suunto may be one of the lesser-known fitness watch brands, but its offerings, aimed at hikers and outdoorsy people, have long been well regarded. The company sorts its sports watches into families: Run, Race, and Vertical. Three families of watches, all with several generations of models and a lot of overlapping specs, are enough to leave you staring at a product page, wracked with decision fatigue. This week’s launch of the Suunto Race 3S, the newest member of the Race family, is a good enough reason for me to help you sort it out.
The Suunto Run series: Lightweight and run-focused
Best for: Road runners, 5K-to-marathon trainers, and anyone who wants a watch they forget they're wearing, including overnight. It's also a good first step into Suunto's ecosystem.
In her review of the Suunto Run my colleague Beth Skwarecki calls this watch on of her favorite running watches, pointing to features that not only rival, but maybe even outshine Garmin and Coros watches at a similar price point. Both watches in the Run series, the Run and the Run 2, are known for being easy to wear and simple to use, but still with all the core features of a reliable running watch.
The Suunto Race series: Performance training and racing
Best for: Trail runners, triathletes, and runners who want serious training tools and navigation.
The Race S is the compact option, while the Race 2 has since replaced the original Race and has a bigger screen and larger case. It might best suit people with bigger wrists who want a big display and don't mind the weight.
As of today, the Race 3S is the lightweight premium pick. It combines the Race S's compact size with a titanium and sapphire build, a bigger battery, a brighter screen, and double the storage. Suunto says its battery capacity is 46 percent larger than the Race S's, and its display is 233 percent brighter.
When in doubt, the Race series is the middle of the lineup, and it's a natural sweet spot to land on. If you can't decide between the Run and Race options, Beth's got you covered with an in-depth comparison.
The Vertical series: Built for the backcountry
Best for: Ultrarunners, mountaineers, backpackers, and anyone doing multi-day trips where charging isn't an option. It's also a good fit if you want a watch that holds up to rough use.
The Vertical 2 is marketed as an expedition-grade watch. It weighs about 87 grams and measures 49 mm, and it's available in stainless steel or titanium. It's water-resistant to 100 meters. It has a built-in LED flashlight that the lighter Race and Run watches lack, a redesigned heart rate sensor, and more storage and processing power than the original. Its main selling point is battery life—allegedly up to 65 hours of GPS in Performance mode and up to 250 hours in Tour mode.
The original Vertical is the older model, with a solar-assisted MIP display. It's still sold and often discounted, but the Vertical 2's AMOLED screen is a major step up in clarity.
The bottom line
The Suunto Run series is for runners who want a light, simple watch. The Race series is for performance athletes who want a premium build and strong all-around training and navigation tools. The Vertical series is for people who go far from civilization and want the longest battery life and the toughest build.
The Suunto lineup also includes Core outdoor watches and dive computers like the Ocean, but those are a different conversation. For runners and trail athletes, the choice comes down to Run, Race, or Vertical, and which of them fits how far, how long, and how rough you like to get:
If you mostly run on roads and want a lightweight entry-point watch, look at the Run.
If you race, train across several sports, or run trails and want a premium build, look at the Race 3S, or the Race if you're sticking to a smaller budget. Or you can choose the Race 2 if you prefer a bigger case and screen.
If your adventures last days rather than hours, choose the Vertical 2.
Gorgeous 32-inch 4K Tandem OLED panel that stuns for work and play alike
Crisp text with virtually no color fringing
Stunning contrast, colors, and blacks
Excellent for both work and gaming
Fantastic value at $699
Three-year warranty covers OLED burn-in
Cons
165Hz is slower than competing gaming OLEDs
DisplayPort 1.4 instead of 2.1
Limited USB-C docking options
No built-in speakers
Not ideal for hardcore competitive gamers
Our Verdict
Alienware’s $699 AW3226Q finally makes OLED feel like a no-brainer for both work and play. Its gorgeous 32-inch 4K Tandem OLED panel delivers stunning colors, deep blacks, and fantastic gaming performance, while the new RGB-stripe subpixel layout fixes the distracting text fringing that’s long plagued OLED monitors. Sure, 165Hz won’t satisfy hardcore esports junkies, and the connectivity is pretty bare-bones. But Alienware made the right compromises in the right places. This is the first OLED monitor I’d happily stare at all day for work, then fire up games on all night. And at $699, that’s a remarkable achievement — and it looks stunning in action.
Price When Reviewed
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The AW3226Q is special because it’s the first OLED I’ve used that feels truly uncompromised as an everyday PC monitor.
I’m a writer. I spend most of my working life staring at Word documents, web browsers, spreadsheets, Slack, and all the other decidedly booooring things people actually do with their computers. Traditional OLED gaming monitors have always come with an asterisk for that sort of work: Their unusual subpixel layouts can create visible color fringing around text.
Then, when the workday ends, I’m an intensely competitive gamer who regularly slays noobs at 240Hz and beyond.
Those two sides of my PC life have traditionally wanted different monitors. I’m a filthy monitor pervert who actually swaps out several different models depending on what I’m working on or playing.
But the 32-inch, 4K Alienware AW3226Q finally makes me want the same display for both. At $699, that’s a hell of an accomplishment.
RGB stripe is the real breakthrough
When Alienware announced the AW3226Q, I immediately zeroed in on its new RGB-stripe Tandem OLED panel. I had already seen LG Display’s new RGB-stripe technology at CES, and while improved OLED brightness and other technical advancements are always welcome, this seemingly boring change was the one that really grabbed my attention.
Why? Text.
Most OLED gaming monitors don’t use the conventional red, green, and blue subpixel arrangement that Windows expects, which can result in colored fringes around fine text. Higher pixel densities help mask the effect, and some people are more sensitive to it than others. But once you notice it, it’s hard to stop noticing it.
I notice it.
OLED text fringing example from the Corsair Xeneon Flex.
I certainly noticed it on Alienware’s $350 AW2726DM earlier this week. That monitor is an absolutely killer value for gaming, but between its dimmer panel and visible text fringing, I wouldn’t want to use it as my primary work display.
The new Alienware AW3226Q is different, and you can see its difference in the screenshots above — the left image is Alienware’s new display, while the right image shows text fringing on the otherwise excellent Corsair Xeneon Flex from a couple years back. The Alienware’s traditional RGB stripe makes text look crisp and clean in a way I’m simply not accustomed to seeing from an OLED gaming monitor. Text fringing is all but eliminated. I’ve spent hours working on the AW3226Q, and Word documents and web pages just look right.
That matters more to me than another hundred hertz ever could.
OLED monitors have already conquered gaming. Their perfect blacks, luscious colors, and virtually instantaneous pixel response make them phenomenal for it. Making it just as good for the boring stuff you do between sessions? That’s been the real challenge.
Alienware finally cracked it.
And the image quality is glorious
Brad Chacos/Foundry
Don’t let all this talk about Microsoft Word give you the wrong impression. The AW3226Q absolutely rips when it’s time to play. It’s jaw-dropping in action.
The glossy 4K Tandem OLED panel is bright, vibrant, and bursting with contrast. Colors leap off the screen against OLED’s wonderfully deep blacks. Games look sharp at 4K across the 32-inch display, and everything has the sort of visual punch that makes going back to a conventional LCD difficult. Playing around with Alan Wake 2 on this do-it-all beast is simply magnificent.
It’s especially striking after spending time with Alienware’s $350 OLED. I love what Alienware accomplished there, but you can see some of the compromises required to hit that price. Its panel runs darker than I’d like, while the AW3226Q is playing in another league. Everything just has more punch here.
And 4K across 32 inches is a fantastic match. Games look razor-sharp, while the large, high-resolution screen provides plenty of room to spread out when you’re actually getting things done.
The AW3226Q isn’t merely a great gaming display that I can tolerate for work. It’s excellent at both. Finally.
About that 165Hz refresh rate
There’s one obvious objection to calling the Alienware AW3226Q a no-compromises monitor: Its refresh rate tops out at 165Hz.
That’s substantially slower than the 240Hz OLED I reviewed earlier this week, never mind the 360Hz, 480Hz, and even faster displays available to esports diehards these days.
And I can tell the difference.
I’ve become accustomed to 240Hz-and-faster monitors for competitive gaming. Dropping back to 165Hz isn’t some imperceptible distinction that exists only on a spec sheet. If you’re the sort of person who tunes every graphics setting for maximum frames and minimum latency, there are better monitors for that specific job.
For everybody else, 165Hz is fantastic.
OLED’s lightning-fast pixel response keeps motion crisp, and 165Hz is plenty fast enough to make everything from shooters to sprawling single-player adventures feel wonderfully smooth and responsive. It’s also worth remembering what we’re talking about driving here: 4K games at up to 165 frames per second. Even today’s monstrous graphics cards can have their hands full trying to do that in cutting-edge games.
Would I prefer this exact monitor at 240Hz? Of course.
Would I pay substantially more or sacrifice the things that make the AW3226Q so good everywhere else to get it? Nope.
A compromise can exist on a spec sheet without meaningfully compromising the experience. Alienware nailed the balance here.
Alienware compromised in the right places
You can see the same philosophy elsewhere.
The AW3226Q doesn’t have built-in speakers. DisplayPort tops out at 1.4 rather than DisplayPort 2.1. You don’t get the sort of elaborate USB-C docking setup found on productivity-focused displays.
None of that bothers me. Give me the fantastic panel at a great price and cut the extras.
The humble port selection on the Alienware AW3226Q.
Brad Chacos/Foundry
Alienware seems to be settling into a compelling strategy with its latest OLED monitors: Spend the money on the screen and ruthlessly attack the price everywhere else.
The $350 AW2726DM is the extreme expression of that idea. Strip things down, accept some compromises in brightness and desktop use, and deliver the core OLED gaming experience at a price I would’ve considered ludicrous not long ago.
The $699 AW3226Q takes that philosophy upscale. You get a spacious 32-inch 4K Tandem OLED panel with a glossy finish, crisp RGB-stripe text, excellent gaming responsiveness, HDMI 2.1, and a three-year warranty that covers OLED burn-in.
Alienware skipped some luxuries, but it didn’t cheap out on the parts of the monitor I actually care about. I’ll take that trade every time.
Bottom line: The Alienware AW3226Q is what I wanted OLED monitors to become
Cyberpunk and my old writing business pen holder: Only this OLED monitor nails the mix For work and play.
Brad Chacos/Foundry
A year ago, I couldn’t buy this combination.
We’ve had spectacular OLED gaming monitors for years. Fast ones, cheap ones, gorgeous ones. But none I’d happily use for both work and play.
The Alienware AW3226Q changes that.
During the day, I get a large, sharp 4K desktop with crisp text that doesn’t constantly remind me I’m using an OLED. When work ends, I get the deep blacks, vibrant colors, stunning contrast, and instantaneous response that make OLED gaming so sublime.
For $699!
There are monitors better suited to specific niches. I’d pick something faster if competitive gaming was my only priority. Someone building an elaborate one-cable laptop workstation may care more about connectivity than I do.
But I don’t need the AW3226Q to be the best monitor for every niche. I need it to be excellent at everything I actually do. Fantastically, it is.
And for the first time with an OLED, I could put one monitor on my desk and stop thinking about what I’m giving up. This will be my new primary display until Alienware makes me ship it back. No rush, Alienware.
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Amazon has dropped the 46mm Apple Watch Series 10 (GPS + Cellular) to $679 from $799, taking $120 off this titanium model. Although it's no longer Apple's newest smartwatch, the Series 10 still has plenty going for it, with PCMag giving it an "outstanding" rating and an Editors' Choice award, along with naming it the best Apple smartwatch of 2024. Much of its appeal comes down to the design, which is thinner and more comfortable than the Series 9, with a larger always-on OLED display that gives you more room to read notifications and messages without making the watch feel particularly bulky. The titanium case also gives it a more polished appearance than most smartwatches, especially if you plan to wear it beyond workouts.
The cellular connectivity is particularly useful if you like leaving your iPhone behind occasionally, since an active carrier plan lets you make calls, reply to messages, stream music, and receive notifications directly on the watch, even when your phone isn't nearby—in practice, that means your phone can stay on the kitchen counter during a morning jog or a quick trip to the corner store, and you’ll still be able to pick up a call from work or reach someone if something goes wrong. It also supports Apple Music playback through its built-in speaker, though you'll probably want to connect wireless headphones for longer listening sessions.
The watch is just as capable as a health tracker, logging your heart rate and sleep, taking ECG and blood oxygen readings, and using its accelerometer to spot breathing disturbances overnight that could point to sleep apnea. Swimmers get a depth gauge and water temperature sensor as well, handy for seeing whether you’ve drifted a few feet below the surface while snorkeling or how chilly the lake is once you’re in. As for battery life, PCMag recorded around 36 hours in testing (though using LTE regularly can drain it faster), which is decent for an always-on smartwatch but still falls short of the Apple Watch Ultra 2. You’ll also need an iPhone to use it, since the Series 10 doesn’t work with Android devices.
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Amazon has dropped the 27-inch LG Ultragear 27GS93QE OLED gaming monitor from $899.99 to $499.99, bringing it to its lowest price ever, according to price trackers. That’s a $400 reduction (plus 90 days of free Amazon Music) worth considering if you’ve been thinking about upgrading from a conventional IPS gaming monitor to OLED, particularly since you’re getting a 1440p display with a 240Hz refresh rate. And the difference isn’t just speed, either—OLED’s individually controlled pixels produce deep blacks without the backlight glow you sometimes notice on LCD screens.
That picture quality gets another boost from VESA DisplayHDR True Black 400 certification, a 1.5 million-to-one contrast ratio, and 98.5% DCI-P3 color coverage, which help bring out the details in darker scenes and make colors look more vibrant. Once the action picks up, the monitor’s 240Hz refresh rate and near-instantaneous 0.03ms response time keep movement smooth and sharp, while AMD FreeSync Premium Pro and Nvidia G-Sync compatibility reduce tearing and stuttering when frame rates fluctuate.
It's worth noting that getting the full benefit of 240Hz at 1440p does require a capable PC, and although the two HDMI 2.1 ports and DisplayPort 1.4 input all support that refresh rate, console gamers won't benefit from anything beyond their system's 120Hz output limit. There’s also the usual OLED risk of burn-in to consider, particularly if you spend long stretches working with static elements like taskbars and application windows on screen—though LG offers some reassurance with a two-year limited warranty that covers the OLED panel, subject to terms.
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.
Kids are outsmarting social media bans. That’s not a problem we need to solve.
—Michal Luria, Aliya Bhatia, and Danah Boyd
Social media bans are stacking up. In July, France joined Australia in restricting minors from accessing social media—barring children under 15 from major platforms, before the ban was blocked by the country’s top court on human rights grounds.
The UK aims to forbid kids under 16 from accessing Facebook, TikTok, and other platforms in early 2027, and the EU has announced its own plan to prohibit social media for kids under 15.
But early lessons from Australia, which enacted a ban in 2024, show that these sorts of age restrictions are easily circumvented.
Can’t bear to say goodbye to your pet? Biotech’s got you covered.
—Jessica Hamzelou
I don’t remember much about Peppy, my first and only pet cat. What I do vividly remember, though, is the day she went missing. I was 10 years old, and I searched everywhere for her, scouting nearby fields and woods until sunset. I made posters. We never found her. I was devastated.
Almost 30 years later, pet owners have an expanding set of options to potentially prolong their years with their furry companions. The possibilities include drugs, cloning, and even cryonics. But is that a good thing?
As wind and solar power grow, utilities need cheaper ways to store electricity for longer periods. Form Energy aims to meet that need with batteries that can store energy for 100 hours.
The company has developed a new type of battery using iron, a far more abundant and cheaper metal than those used in many existing batteries. It uses a process that Form calls “reversible rusting,” in which iron turns to rust as the battery discharges and back to iron when it charges.
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 Insurance is the next big obstacle for AI AI companies are racking up billions of dollars of legal liabilities from the damage their products cause. (WSJ $) + The FTC has sent subpoenas to OpenAI and Anthropic over consumer harms. (Axios) + AI hacks leave a mess, and AI companies still aren’t cleaning them up. (Wired $) + Who’s liable when AI agents go rogue? (MIT Technology Review)
2 A Russian drone entered NATO waters for the first time Attacks like those near Bulgaria and Romania are spurring requests for better defenses. (Ars Technica)
3 An AI sell-off has rattled global markets Many are questioning the sustainability of demand for data centers. (Reuters $) + Anthropic reported slowing growth in its latest quarterly results. (FT $) + Accenture has told employees they can only spend $29 on Claude each month. (404 Media) + What’s at stake in AI’s trillion-dollar gamble. (MIT Technology Review)
4 Governments are hacking people with ‘zero click’ spyware Delivered through millions of innocuous-looking online adverts. (TechCrunch) + Criminals stole $90 million from crypto wallets last week in a highly sophisticated hack. (FT $)
5 Big Tech gave Trump $92 million for his ballroom Meanwhile the president himself won’t be spending a dime. (WP $)
6 Celebrity deepfakes are everywhere now And they’re selling you stuff the actual celebrity has probably never even heard of. (The Verge $) + Weaponized deepfakes have been on the rise for a while. (MIT Technology Review)
7 Can AI lighten parents’ mental load? It seems apps and agents can help—if you agree to share masses of your data. (NYT $) + AI agents are a privacy nightmare. (The Verge $)
8 The memory shortage’s latest victim is schools It’s becoming prohibitively expensive to equip students with laptops and tablets. (The Atlantic $)
9 The world’s official timekeepers have agreed to ditch the leap second It’s a move that ought to cut the risk of time-based computer glitches. (The Guardian)
10 Tesla has finally unveiled its flying car It’s taken a decade to get here—and still won’t even be shipping next year. (CNBC)
Quote of the day
“Tech companies used to make an effort to support women…Now we’ve swung completely in the opposite direction. Supporting women in tech has become controversial. It’s become political. It’s become risky.”
—Startup founder Sara Mauskopt explains why the cancellation of the Grace Hopper Celebration, one of the biggest gatherings of women in tech, hits so hard, Bloomberg reports.
One More Thing
SIMON MITCHELL
Inside the experimental world of animal infrastructure
In the mid-2000s, toads were meeting a gruesome end near Ede, a leafy old town in the Netherlands. Residents responded by building wildlife tunnels beneath the road to help them reach their breeding ponds safely.
The crossings became popular. But a few years later, researchers found the local toad population had crashed from more than 10,000 to fewer than 1,000.
The case reflects a wider global push to build wildlife crossings and other forms of “animal infrastructure.” But do they actually help animal populations recover? Read the full story to find out.
—Matthew PonsfordWe can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line.)
+ Check out this podcast about the incredible, mysterious powers of fungi. + A four-year-old boy’s simple habit of waving to his neighbors is transforming his community. + From treehouses to geodesic domes, these homes show what happens when people build outside the rules. + Remember when the internet was made by people? The Museum of the Human Web is a playful archive of that era.
I’ve been buying Nvidia graphics cards exclusively for nearly 30 years, and I may well continue—if Nvidia will let me. But even I’ve had to make peace with the fact that Nvidia is no longer in the business of supporting PC gaming. I’m not sure it ever will be again.
I was thinking about this while listening to the latest episode of The Full Nerd, in which Adam and his fellow cohosts discuss what it means that Nvidia may soon stop selling the RTX 5090 entirely. The news comes courtesy of a Twitter (sorry, X) post from a known leaker with a decent track record, so while you should take it with a grain of salt it seems like there’s a strong possibility it will prove true.
Welcome to The Full Nerd newsletter—your weekly dose of hardware talk from the enthusiasts at PCWorld. Missed the surprising topics on our YouTube show or the latest news from across the web? You’re in the right place.
And honestly, it doesn’t seem that surprising when you consider that the RTX 5090 launched with an MSRP of $1,999 yet regularly sold for upwards of $5,000, due in no small part to massive demand from AI-pilled coders and companies looking to take advantage of that sweet, sweet 32GB of DDR7 memory. A casual search of the major retailers this week turned up precisely zero 5090 cards available for purchase, even at that exorbitant price, and I suspect that will remain true for the foreseeable future.
It can feel heartbreaking if you’re dedicated to the hardcore DIY PC gaming lifestyle, but you can take solace in the fact that the GeForce RTX 5080, RTX 5070 Ti and RTX 5070 are still widely available and plenty good enough for high-res, high-speed PC gaming. Heck, the same leak that suggests the RTX 5090 is done for also claims that Nvidia will launch a new model of RTX 5080 with 24GB of DDR7 memory, which should offer a noticeable improvement over the current 16GB RTX 5080 cards.
But I have to say, the sooner you make peace with the fact that Nvidia is no longer in the business of supporting PC gaming, the better. Don’t get me wrong, Nvidia will continue to make new desktop graphics cards and talk a big game about how it values PC game players first and foremost. But the numbers have shown otherwise for some time, and that’s likely to continue for years to come.
After all, the AI-driven explosion of demand for high-end GPUs and silicon helped Nvidia become the first trillion-dollar chip company, and recent financial reports and SEC filings show the company’s revenue from data center products is now 4-5x that of its consumer hardware revenue. That’s presumably part of the reason why the company recently stopped reporting GPU sales as a discrete category entirely, instead lumping all GPU hardware sales (for both commercial and retail customers) into one category on its balance sheet alongside robotics, automotive and telecom products.
So please, for your own mental health, I’m begging you: do not give in to Jensen’s sales pitches at the next Nvidia press conference. I believe the company will keep making new graphics cards for the foreseeable future, but only to hold on to its commanding hold of the GPU market and keep up appearances while it milks the AI boom for all its worth. If AI demand collapses the way crypto seemed to crash a few years ago, maybe we’ll see Nvidia take up the mantle of being a PC gaming company once again.
But I don’t expect that will happen any time soon, and making peace with that has done wonders for the stress I feel right now as a frustrated fan of PC gaming. It’s helped me realize that I don’t need the latest and greatest hardware to have a blast gaming on my PC, and the same can be true for you. Take this time to play some games in your Steam(ing) pile of shame, get deeper into Linux gaming and explore all the other cool things you can do without an RTX 5090. Because I don’t know that high-end GPUs will be affordable for regular folks like you and me in the next few years, if ever—and I don’t think I’ll be buying an Nvidia GPU any time in the near future.
In this week’s episode of The Full Nerd
This week your regular host Adam Patrick Murray was joined by PCWorld’s Brad Chacos and Michael Crider on episode 419 of The Full Nerd to chat about the rumored end of the GeForce RTX 5090, open-source Adobe Creative Cloud alternatives and the pending launch of RTX Spark laptops.
PCWorld
And of course, the trio also make time to answer your questions from the PCWorld Discord and the live chat about everything from the future of PC game streaming to the durability of flash drives. Make sure to check it out, and tune in to next week’s episode to get your questions answered on the air!
Nerd news of the week
From some fun new ideas about where to place your GPU to an elucidating new interview that reveals the PC gaming habits of one of Hollywood’s movers and shakers, here’s some fun nerd news I found around the web for you this week!
Legendary FPS level designer Richard “Levelord” Gray dies at 68: Pour one out for a real one and a legend in the early PC gaming space, a veteran game maker who worked on everything from Blood and Duke Nukem 3D to Half-Life: Opposing Force and Counter-Strike: Condition Zero. RIP Levelord!
That’s it for your Full Nerd newsletter this week! Until next week, be sure to bookmark PCWorld and keep an eye on the YouTube channel for our latest videos straight out of the PCWorld studio. Want this newsletter to come directly to your inbox? Sign up on our website!
This newsletter is dedicated to the memory of Gordon Mah Ung, founder and host of The Full Nerd, and executive editor of hardware at PCWorld.
Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Ultra is a new class of device, combining efficient productivity, powerful RTX Spark graphics, plus AI capabilities, all for a price that seems totally unrealistic in the 2026 economy.
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Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Ultra and its newfangled Nvidia RTX Spark chip characterize what many would call a new axis of productivity: AI. With it comes an old, familiar feeling of FOMO, or the fear of missing out.
For decades, the equation has been simple: A faster CPU means applications run faster. A faster GPU equates to higher frame rates in PC games. Now there’s AI, which means memory matters. Memory is shared between the Arm CPU and powerful RTX GPU inside the Nvidia Spark N1X chip powering the Surface Laptop Ultra, and more memory means the ability to load more powerful AI models.
As regards the Surface Laptop Ultra model that Microsoft shipped us, my first impression was one of disappointment, as it came with just a “measly” 32GB of memory (along with its whopping $3,699 price tag). By contrast, RTX Spark machines with 48GB to 128GB of RAM encourage users to load AI agents as part of the setup process. Ours and others like it do not, implying that there’s both first- and second-class experiences within the Surface Laptop Ultra and other RTX Spark devices. A new AI model is like a new video game: We all want to play it. Some can’t.
So here’s how I approached it: I began first by testing the Surface Laptop Ultra as an “ordinary” productivity device, like every other laptop we touch. I then pivoted into examining it as a content-creation machine, with tests of image and video editing. After I touched on gaming, I then took a harder look at the Ultra in its natural setting: as a portable AI workstation, owned by those with money to burn.
For me, the latter half of this review was a chance to ask the question, why do we need the Surface Laptop Ultra when gaming laptops exist? I think it’s one worth exploring, with valid reasons both for and against this new class of devices.
Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Ultra in its “Nightfall” color scheme.
Mark Hachman / Foundry
Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra: Configuration options
Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Ultra starts at a base price of $2,599, which is hundreds of dollars more than the existing 15-inch, $1,615 Surface Laptop 8. That laptop uses Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X2 Elite Arm CPU, while the Surface Laptop Ultra ushers in a more powerful Arm alternative, the Nvidia RTX Spark N1X, a collaboration between Mediatek and Nvidia.
While you don’t have any choice in different display sizes, you can choose between two basic configurations, a Surface Laptop Ultra with an 18-core N1X CPU/5,120-core GPU RTX Spark N1X ($2,599 and up) or a version with a 20-core RTX Spark N1X with a 6,144-core GPU ($3,699 and up). More importantly, the two configurations include different memory options: 24GB and 32GB for the 18-core version, and 32GB, 48GB, 64GB, and 128GB for the 20-core version. (At press time, the 128GB option was listed as out of stock.)
There are three storage options, a PCI Express Gen 4 512GB option on the base model, plus the choice of between 1TB and 2TB of PCIe Gen 5 SSD storage. The latter is reserved for the 64GB RAM configuration, not the 128GB RAM option.
You have two choices of colors: Nightfall (black) and Platinum. Not all configurations are available in all colors.
Oh, and Microsoft’s getting snarky: Trade in your MacBook Pro and get up to $1,000 back. That’s good, as the top price for a Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra is $5,899.
Surface Laptop Ultra features:
CPU: Nvidia RTX Spark N1X 18/20 core CPU, 5,120/6,144-core GPU (20-core CPU as tested)
Memory: 24GB/32GB/48GB/64GB/128GB LPDDR5x (32GB as tested)
Graphics/GPU: RTX Blackwell 5,120-core/6,144 core GPU (6,144-core GPU as tested)
NPU: Yes? But maybe not? To be continued below.
Display: 15-inch (3720 x 2180) PixelSense Ultra mini-LED display
Surface Laptop Ultra: Out of the box and construction
The word to describe the Surface Laptop Ultra is dense.
Many other laptops feel like a construction of parts. The Surface Laptop Ultra feels like somehow the electrical traces and fans and compute were all routed through a single piece of metal. Technically, it’s made from “precision‑molded polymer composites” for the main body, combined with “aluminum and magnesium alloy frames” for structural rigidity and heat dissipation. The keyboard tray feels slightly plasticy, but that’s all.
Otherwise, it’s about the most solid laptop I’ve ever used. There’s no give to the keyboard, and I didn’t notice any twisting to the display, which reclines to about 40 degrees or so off of the horizontal.
One of the things Microsoft is emphasizing in its Surface Laptop Ultra is the number of ports.
Mark Hachman / Foundry
Physically, the most noteworthy addition to the Laptop Ultra is the return of the magnetic I/O connector. For over a decade, Microsoft built its Surface devices with a magnetic Surface Connector, which delivered power and (if it was connected to a Surface Dock) data as well. With the Surface Laptop Ultra, Microsoft designed in something novel: a magnetic USB-C connector, which snaps in and out securely to avoid yanking the laptop off a table if ever your foot accidentally catches the cord. I’ve never had that happen, but it’s a comfort nevertheless.
The thing I don’t like about the charger is that it’s essentially a larger version of the existing Surface charger, with the plug built right into it. That means that the 140-watt USB-C charger (its most powerful to date) monopolizes at least one end of a power strip, unless you buy one with plugs perpendicular to the strip itself. You can buy a cord extension to the charger which eliminates the problem, but that costs extra. Unfortunately, it’s also proprietary, too, as I was unable to plug the Surface’s magnetic USB-C adapter into other laptops.
Otherwise, if you’re a fan of ports, the Surface Laptop Ultra has them in spades: a whopping three USB4 (the generic equivalent of Intel’s Thunderbolt 4) ports, including one with the magnetic connector; an HDMI 2.1b port; a 10Gbps USB-A port; an SD card slot, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.
Normally, most laptops vent air by pulling it from a grille on the underside of the laptop and routing it over the components, then outside, typically via the hinge. Instead, this laptop appears to pull air through grillwork mounted on the outer edges, much like the older Surface Laptop Studio series. The fans are loud, though not especially noisy. I thought a heard a note of coil whine at some point, but it didn’t last.
Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Ultra features an SD card slot, a USB-A port, and the magnetic USB-C connector on its right-hand side.
Mark Hachman / Foundry
Surface Laptop Ultra: Display
Microsoft has flirted with OLED screens in the past, which produced some speckling. In this case, the company chose a Mini-LED-based PixelSense Ultra screen instead, the first Surface to use the technology.
Mini-LED displays use a collection of small LED lights, rather than a giant LED backlight, providing a middle ground between an IPS display and an OLED. An OLED’s pixels can be turned off and on individually, as can the Mini-LEDs, and can suffer a “bloom” or “halo” effect while they’re on. I didn’t notice anything like that, which makes me think there are quite a few Mini-LEDs behind the display. (I asked, but never heard back from Microsoft.)
Microsoft provides three modes: The default Vivid mode, a mode for sRGB video and photo editing, and an “enhanced” mode for watching videos, with more visual pop that tends to dial up the contrast. I’ve included the color gamut for the default mode below.
The color gamut of the Surface Laptop Ultra.
Mark Hachman / Foundry
Microsoft claims that the display puts out 1,000 nits while in SDR mode, with HDR brightness at about 2,000 nits. I found the display put out far less than that, with 792 nits maximum in an SDR mode. It’s still a terrific display, but my review unit didn’t live up to its promised ratings.
Surface Laptop Ultra: Mics and audio
Microsoft has always manufactured Surfaces with surprisingly solid audio, even including its earlier tablet offerings. The Surface Laptop Ultra lives up to its reputation.
When I played back my test tracks, the music sounded excellent up and down the spectrum, maintaining cohesion even at maximum volume — which is more than sufficient for individual playback or for watching a movie with a companion or two. I’m not going to say that it sounds like the best laptop ever, but it’s certainly top tier.
As for the mics, voice recording is superb, and my voice sounded warm and natural, honestly about as good as most mics I’ve used.
Noise cancellation was surprisingly a mixed bag, however. I test by holding a phone playing back music (a rock track as well as white noise) behind my head and then move it off to the side, while recording my voice using the Windows Sound Recorder app and the built-in mics. I expected more here. Other laptops (Asus generally nails this) perform audio filtering quite well.
The laptop stumbled rather badly trying to distinguish my voice from the background music, but did far better when cancelling out the white noise of a recorded rainfall. In that case, it preserved my voice’s tones while wiping out the sounds of the rain almost completely.
For all of its “AI” positioning, I didn’t see an NPU listed in the spec sheet, nor did I see it active while recording audio. Windows reported one, though. Supposedly this is a Copilot+ PC, yet I see no rated NPU TOPS.
Surface Laptop Ultra: Keyboard, trackpad
The best laptop keyboard I can recall using was the sadly discontinued Surface Book series, whose key travel rivaled that of a mechanical keyboard. The Surface Laptop Ultra feels on par with recent Surface Laptops, and perhaps a bit better. The key action feels a bit stiffer than other laptops I compared, and might loosen up a bit over time. Overall, it’s a good keyboard, though not outstanding.
Microsoft continues to play with its function keys, however. On the top row of the keyboard there’s now a dedicated microphone on/off toggle, plus controls for adjusting the screen brightness and volume. There’s also a screen capture key, the first I can recall seeing on a Surface keyboard.
Microsoft says its haptic keyboard on the Surface Laptop Ultra is its largest ever. That might be; haptic keyboards are clickable throughout the breadth of its surface area, and this follows suit. To me, a haptic keyboard adds a bit of luxe to the whole experience, and for this price tag you’d better believe I expected one. Gestures worked as advertised, with no issues.
Surface Laptop Ultra: Webcam
I was not impressed with the Surface Laptop Ultra’s webcam, and I’m shocked by that. The webcam is just an ordinary 1080p webcam, and not the superior webcams that helped jumpstart the webcam renaissance during the pandemic. While the color balance was fine, the fuzzy 1080p (am I too used to testing top-notch 4K webcams for our recommendations?) left me feeling like Microsoft cut a corner here — and for the price, I don’t expect many corners to be cut.
I’m just not a huge fan of the webcam on Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Ultra.
Mark Hachman / Foundry
No NPU also means no Windows Studio Effects, the filtering and zooming and panning effects that are built into Copilot+ PCs. It’s just an ordinary webcam, and that’s not something Surface fans expect.
Surface Laptop Ultra: Performance
My experience with the Surface Laptop Ultra began poorly. Apps simply crashed or refused to load, or loaded so slowly that I could literally see the display painting the screen like AOL’s dialup service during the 1990s, as was the case with 3DMark. My initial battery rundown test uses Windows Media Player, with a video file looped over and over until the battery expires. Media Player, however, froze when loading my test, and froze again during the run, on two occasions.
I notified Microsoft, and they believed that I had been accidentally sent a defective unit. That might be the case. But Microsoft snuck in a security update after I began testing it. By the time I started intensively testing the laptop, those issues had gone away. I can’t say for certain what happened. Because of my limited testing time, I chose not to run our standard battery rundown test, but I replaced it with what I feel are more accurate tests, anyway.
(Microsoft sent a replacement Surface Laptop Ultra — with 48GB of RAM — which I didn’t have a chance to test before this review published. The initial issue I had was with stability, not performance, so I think my results are valid.)
Nevertheless, there are several caveats worth noting.
First, the Nvidia N1X is an Arm CPU, so certain applications won’t run natively. (Those apps use Windows’ own Prism translator, sometimes robbing them of a bit of performance.) But the CPU wasn’t the issue, the GPU was. Some applications (Adobe Premiere, for example) refused to run because of an unknown GPU. However, a beta version of Premiere accommodated the new CPU architecture.
Microsoft also released the Surface Laptop Ultra as it normally does, by dialing down the Windows power slider into its most efficient mode. On the other hand, Microsoft and Nvidia also claim that, like Qualcomm’s Snapdragon, Nvidia’s N1X should run as close to the performance of wall power when on battery.
Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Ultra includes small vents on the underside of the laptop for cooling.
Mark Hachman / Foundry
That wasn’t always the case! Where I could, I ran each test on the default power settings, as well as with the Windows power slider cranked to the max. Finally, I tested on battery as well, again on the default efficiency settings. You’ll see these reflected in the charts below.
By default, the single-core CPU performance of the N1X isn’t great, and the Laptop Ultra felt laggy and slow in places, at least at the beginning. Pushing up the performance increased the single-core clock speed, making the laptop feel faster and more responsive. If you buy the Surface Laptop Ultra, dial up the performance using the power slider. It makes a significant difference.
I’ll give you another hint at my findings down below: This is an Arm machine, and Arm chips typically run cooler and more efficiently. I measured the power draw of the Surface Laptop Ultra versus several gaming laptops. I think a key selling point here is power efficiency.
Surface Laptop Ultra: Productivity tests
I chose to break down the performance in two ways: First, as a general productivity machine, and second, as a challenger for gaming laptops — though not so much for gaming per se, but for content creation and AI. I do include one gaming benchmark for comparison, but my colleague Michael Crider is preparing his own review with an eye toward gaming, so stay tuned for that.
If you want a pure productivity PC, Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Ultra isn’t your best choice.
Mark Hachman / Foundry
Because these are Arm laptops, some of our tests have to be swapped out for Arm-compatible versions. That includes replacing the PCMark 10 benchmark, which tests laptops against a variety of open-source applications, for Procyon’s productivity benchmark, which uses the three basic Microsoft 365 apps — Word, Powerpoint, and Excel — and adds Outlook to the mix. I guess it’s good that Microsoft is targeting AI and graphics, as opposed to productivity, because this clearly is not a good start. Well, unless you dial up the performance.
I was surprised by the low single-core performance on Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Ultra.
Mark Hachman / Foundry
The two synthetic CPU benchmarks restore the luster to the Surface Laptop Ultra and its N1X RTX Spark chip, with one exception.
I always point to the single-core performance as one response to the question, why does my laptop feel slow? Single-core performance and the close ties between the OS and the silicon is one of the key reasons that Macs feel quick. Microsoft may enjoy close ties to chipmakers, but the default single-core performance here is disappointing.
(For comparison, the base Apple M4 scores 175 with its single-core performance, and the Apple M5 scores 198, according to CPU Monkey.)
Remember, Nvidia’s N1X combines an Arm CPU (10 performance X-925 cores, 10 slower A-725 cores), which debuted as part of Nvidia’s DGX Spark workstation. That means that this chip platform has been around for about 21 months, and that’s not necessarily a good thing — “it’s old, which probably explains it,” as one analyst privately described the slow single-core performance.
This benchmark shows how Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Ultra performs in the Geekbench synthesized CPU test in various scenarios.
Mark Hachman / Foundry
I’ve used the older Geekbench 6 scores for comparison’s sake, though the newer Geekbench 7 takes advantage of some of the RTX Spark’s capabilities. For reference, the Geekbench 7 single-core score is 2,008, while the multi-core score was 20,093, jumping to 2,687 and 23,256 with the Windows power slider set to “Best performance.” The GPU score is 84,107 on default settings, 140,100 with CUDA enabled, and 116,344 on default settings with the power slider maximized.
On battery, the Geekbench 7 CPU score was 1,899 (single-core) and 17,328 (multi-core), with a GPU score of 83,861 (OpenCL) and 138,212 (CUDA). If you’re a general consumer, you can ignore this; that information is just for productivity enthusiasts.
In the chart above, I tested single-core, multicore, and graphics performance on wall power and on battery on the older Geekbench 6.
Does the Surface Laptop slow down over prolonged use? While it doesn’t howl in protest, it does indeed falter. Under Cinebench 2024’s stress test, performance dropped by 6.3 percent after 10 minutes of use. It also failed 3DMark’s stress test, as graphics performance fell 6.8 percent over a series of looped testing runs.
We measure the prolonged performance of the Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Ultra in this Handbrake test.
Mark Hachman / Foundry
We use the Handbrake transcoding test as another way to test the laptop’s performance over prolonged periods. Since we’re measuring the time to complete a task, less is more. Note that this isn’t an Arm-specific test, though my testing in the past didn’t find a real advantage with versions coded specifically for Arm processors.
You’d expect performance like this from a powerful integrated GPU.
Mark Hachman / Foundry
When I can, I like to point to real-world applications as evidence of actual performance. But 3DMark’s venerable (too venerable?) benchmarks provide our first hints of how the graphics core will shape up, with more tests further down in this article.
Note that the Time Spy test is written for x86 processors; the Night Raid test was coded for Arm. I include both. I was very impressed with Intel’s Panther Lake chip (the X7 358H, below) in terms of graphics…but look how the N1X shapes up!
Surface Laptop Ultra: Battery life
Because of the early glitchiness associated with the Surface Laptop Ultra laptop, I wasn’t able to record a rundown test where I measure the laptop’s battery life by looping a 4K video over and over at a fixed brightness level. As video playback logic has been assimilated into various parts of the laptop silicon, video playback is more of an afterthought than ever. A video rundown test is still useful, since you’re perfectly welcome to copy or download a 4K video on to the laptop.
A more realistic way of measuring battery life is either streaming or trying to simulate a day’s work. I can do both. While Netflix appears to have implemented checks to prevent hours of streaming at a time, YouTube offers some 4K videos that last up to 24 hours. No laptop exceeds that, yet. The Surface Laptop Ultra lasted 7 hours, 57 minutes while streaming 4K video.
To simulate actual work, there’s the UL Procyon Office Productivity test, the longer version of the Office Productivity test I used earlier. Here, the laptop simply cycles through simulated tasks in Excel, PowerPoint, and other office apps until the battery runs out of power. The Surface Laptop Ultra lasted 10 hours and 3 minutes.
Note that the 95Wh battery in my review unit somehow charged to more than the design capacity, 89Wh. A battery of 99Wh is the most allowed on U.S. aircraft.
Surface Laptop Ultra: Content creation and gaming
Let’s switch gears. Until now, we’ve treated the Surface Laptop Ultra as just another Arm laptop, capable of handling typical office tasks. But that RTX GPU is just asking to be put to work.
The question is, what do we compare it to? Historically, devices like the Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio 2 were considered creator-class laptops, with a powerful CPU but a modest GPU aimed at video editing and light gaming. For a more apt comparison, I requisitioned some existing, pure gaming laptops. Here’s my question: Do you need to buy a monstrously pricey Surface Laptop Ultra when monstrously (?) pricey gaming laptops already exist?
My candidates included an as-yet unreviewed $1,899 updated version of the Acer Nitro V, with an AMD Ryzen AI 7 450, paired with an RTX 5060 creator-class GPU; an $3,799 MSI Raider, with an Intel Core i9-14900HX, and a last-generation RTX 4090; and a modern monster, $4,299 Asus ROG Strix gaming laptop equipped with a Core Ultra 9 275HX and an RTX 5090.
My tests included a Cinebench run to establish overall performance, then runs of Adobe Photoshop and Premiere to assess the laptops’ comparable creation chops. I made a brief segue into gaming with Cyberpunk: 2077, then dove into AI: Procyon’s text-generation benchmark measures large language-model performance. Finally, I crushed each laptop with a text-to-video application, governed by ComfyUI, with some on-device local LLM testing. Here, I didn’t fool around with battery mode; I tested with default settings but also at maximum power.
Here’s each laptop, as evaluated by Cinebench 2024 for total CPU performance. (I used the Arm version of the test for the Surface Laptop Ultra.) The Acer Nitro glitched and wouldn’t run this test. It’s impressively close.
Mark Hachman / Foundry
I then used PugetBench’s Photoshop and Premiere tests as a gauge to how the Surface Laptop Ultra fares as a content-creation machine. I was shocked by the first result.
At base levels, the Laptop Ultra finishes last. With performance dialed up, it’s…first? The PugetBench Photoshop test is finicky, so I only checked this result once. Still, the Photoshop test completes three runs before settling on a final score, so I suspect that it’s accurate.
Wow. That’s justification for buying Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Ultra right there.
Mark Hachman / Foundry
I didn’t see nearly as much improvement in the Premiere test, which exports several video files. I’m not sure why. Adobe will have new versions of its Creative Cloud applications to use with the RTX Spark platform, but Adobe hasn’t said when they’ll arrive. I used a beta version of Premiere for this test, which Adobe supplies as part of its Creative Cloud beta program.
Nevertheless: A solid showing here by Microsoft’s newest laptop.
Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Ultra still performs well in the Premiere video-editing test.
Mark Hachman / Foundry
As mentioned above, my colleague Michael Crider is testing his own RTX Spark sample laptop with an eye towards gaming. Again, the RTX Spark platform is an Arm chip, which may have compatibility issues…or not. I present the Cyberpunk: 2077 test below as a representative sample, but expect more in terms of game testing soon.
I ran several tests to compare the gaming laptops to the Surface Laptop Ultra, and settled on using 1080p resolution at Ultra settings, a decent compromise between efficiency and quality. Initially, I turned off frame generation.
Can Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Ultra game? It’s competent, certainly. Expect more tests in the future.
Mark Hachman / Foundry
But this is an AI laptop, and if there’s anything “AI”-related that Nvidia is known for, it’s DLSS AI frame generation. With those options enabled, frame rates jumped to 104 frames per second. And dialed up to maximum power with DLSS and frame generation on, the laptop ran that game at 130 frames per second — more than double the base rate.
I paused my testing for another angle: power. Even though the United States is blissfully headed into cooler temperatures, power bills keep rising. One of Arm’s arguments is power efficiency, so I hooked up a power meter to the laptops and reran the benchmark again.
Even though I didn’t measure prolonged power consumption, the differences between all four laptop platforms were immediately obvious:
The Acer Nitro V laptop held steady at between 115 to 117 watts, touching 121W at peak.
The MSI Raider blasted through 290 to 305 watts, hitting a peak of 335W max.
The Asus ROG Strix fluctuated the most, consuming 261 to 290 watts and peaking at about 310 watts.
As for the Surface Laptop Ultra? It didn’t consume the least amount of power, but 133 to 144 watts throughout the run holds its own. (I didn’t test the power output with DLSS on, which should increase efficiency.)
The point is that more power equals more performance, but more performance equals more power…and possibly a higher total cost of ownership.
Finally, I wanted to know if Microsoft expects people to work on an airplane, churning away at offline AI agents, with fans howling — and will the seat actually provide enough power? My research says no, but I can’t prove it definitively. (Microsoft said they’d get back to me.)
Surface Laptop Ultra: AI tests
Microsoft and Nvidia argued that the RTX Spark platform should usher in a new era of local AI, with local LLMs and agents busily chewing up compute cycles. That’s true, to a point. The argument in favor of that now is that local AI equals free tokens — cold hard cash is now the selling point, versus the privacy-first approach from a couple of years ago.
But there are still catches. Acer shipped its new Nitro V laptop with just 512GB of SSD storage on it, and I found myself spending my own human “compute cycles” just trying to find space on it for what I wanted to run. Photoshop, Premiere, text-to-video models…it all adds up. If you don’t have at least a terabyte of storage, you’re going to feel the pinch.
And that’s before you begin trying out AI models. Local AI requires local memory to run in. Dedicated gaming laptops with discrete GPUs have their own fixed pools of video RAM, which AI can tap for executing generative AI. Agents, however, lean more heavily on the CPU. Laptops like the Surface Laptop Ultra split memory between the GPU and CPU, and my review laptop came with a small utility to let Windows handle the division of labor. (To date, users have been able to manually configure the split between VRAM and system RAM via the BIOS or an app supplied by AMD or Intel.)
UL’s Procyon app already ships with a handy little test to measure how well the laptop will process queries using models with about 8 billion parameters. (“Better” models usually favor more parameters, though that can vary. Models can also be “compressed” via a process called quantization to run locally without taking up as many resources.)
I think that this might be representative of what you might expect from small language models performing agentic tasks?
Mark Hachman / Foundry
The performance via model varies, of course, but the overarching lesson is clear: The gaming laptops generated more tokens. (A token is a few letters, so that the word “few” might be a single token, and the word “somewhere” might be three.) An LLM spits out a response like an old dot-matrix printer, so reading that output is subjective. Using the Mistral 7B model, the Surface Laptop Ultra spat out about 52 tokens per second, about 13 words per second.
That’s not the only way tokens are processed, of course. A “token” can be part of a chart, an image, a video, or more. The most recent use of generative AI is AI-generated video, which has become rather scarily realistic. Is AI slop still AI slop when produced on your own local hardware? Regardless of how you land on the subject, text-to-video generative AI absolutely murders a laptop.
ComfyUI contains its own in-app benchmark to measure this. The Surface Laptop Ultra performs surprisingly well. (I ran it on its maximum performance settings by default.) It’s not noted in the cart below, but I used the WAN model to generate the output.
This benchmark doesn’t measure tokens, but the time to finish up a single run, supposedly generating several seconds of video. A lower score is therefore better. (ComfyUI too, now runs native on the RTX Spark platform.)
The Surface Laptop Ultra took 13.73 minutes to complete the run. Again, impressive.
Mark Hachman / Foundry
I also tested token output via LM Studio, using the Qwen 3.8-27b model as an example. LM Studio’s settings allow you to only choose from models which will run on your PC, which meant that I was prevented from using some of the more powerful options. Would that make a difference? I honestly have no idea. Still, I could only run what I could run!
Using a consistent reasoning budget, zero temperature (for, ideally, fixed responses), and a fixed outcome length, I asked for a science-fiction essay using the same prompt for the two high-end gaming machines, plus the Surface Laptop Ultra. After a trial run, I averaged the token output over three times.
Surface Laptop Ultra: 39.9 tokens/s
MSI Raider: 15.2 tokens/s
Asus ROG Strix: 61.9 tokens/s
I then ran a fourth test, working on a web browser in the background, while trying to test whether working with an LLM in the background would affect its productivity. It didn’t seem to, as I noticed no difference. I didn’t work hard in the background as I normally would, with Excel and Outlook and a web browser all competing for compute cycles. I have to believe that will affect it, but that will have to wait for further testing. Keep in mind that when you do that, you’ll be working while the laptop’s fans are cranked up high.
Nvidia debuted a new Nemotron 3.5 Bolt 74B-A9B 24GB model for RTX Spark laptops as I finished up this review, but I didn’t have a chance to try it.
Finally, I did try running NousResearch’s Hermes, one of the recommended AI agents which you can access via the Microsoft Store, on the Surface Laptop Ultra. I’m still somewhat reluctant to give it control of my PC (yet) but it did load on my PC. I found it interesting, though, that Windows assigned 18.9GB of the available memory to itself — and while it used every bit, the GPU was barely touched during the agent’s operation.
Still, I was right — memory is going to be at a premium in the AI age, and you’re going to want more, more, more.
Should you buy the Surface Laptop Ultra?
I wrestled with this, naturally. The version of the Surface Laptop Ultra we were offered for review isn’t a low-end machine, obviously. Nor is it the minimum Microsoft offers. It feels, though, that we’re exploring the “low end” of the Surface Laptop Ultra lineup for an insane $3,700. Whew.
We’re not done yet, though. PCWorld’s review strategy has been to examine the RTX Spark platform through different eyes: First mine, focused on productivity, then separate articles examining it from a gaming standpoint as well as from an AI perspective. And yes, we have a $7,000 RTX Spark laptop in house.
And I think that’s the crux of the matter. As a pure productivity machine, you can find better options — and, if you’re eager to use AI, you can turn to a cloud model. That’s sort of what executives were privately pushing at the RTX Spark launch: to run a local “harness” on 32GB laptops like the Surface Laptop Ultra, and tap the cloud instead.
And yet! This is a $3,699 PC that’s far lighter and more compact than the gaming PCs I compared it to, consumes far less power, and performs somewhat near the other, bulkier machines. You can certainly make an argument that it’s well out of reach of the ordinary consumer, yet worth it as a (sorry) “budget” AI workstation.
I still think, however, that there’s going to be FOMO if a new AI model comes out and this version of the Surface Laptop Ultra can’t run it. So be careful. That way lieth dragons.
The better I get at using AI, the less I trust it.
I know, I know — that sounds backwards. We’re being sold a future where increasingly capable AI assistants take more and more work off our plates. But after spending a frankly embarrassing amount of time building an elaborate AI-powered NFL betting project over the last few months — and especially after suffering through an infuriating $1,500 catastrophe this week — I’ve come to the opposite conclusion.
AI works best when you treat it like an idiot.
Some context: I co-host a small NFL player-prop show as a side project. Because I am apparently incapable of enjoying hobbies like a normal person, expanded my existing research into creating an AI research system to augment my own analysis. I want to know ball on camera, obviously.
It started simply: Analyze the games. Find interesting player props. Tell me what you think. Let’s make some money!
That worked surprisingly well — until it didn’t.
Welcome to another edition of Prompt Mode, your weekly AI newsletter.
I’m PCWorld executive editor Brad Chacos, filling in this week for your host, Ben Patterson. Each week on Prompt Mode, we’ll be serving up analysis of the AI trends that matter to everyday users like you and me. Stay tuned for practical AI tips, hands-on experiences with the latest AI tools, and–you guessed it–prompts to help you get the most out of your AI assistants.
AI desperately wants to be helpful. Ask it a question and it wants to give you an answer, even when the correct answer is “I don’t know.” Give it a theory and it’ll happily find evidence supporting it. Find a promising new approach and, if you aren’t careful, suddenly that approach has somehow become part of the methodology that supposedly produced last month’s results. I could go on.
So BWR, as I call my increasingly deranged side project, evolved. And as I saw how stupid and forgetful AI can be, I started putting the AI in a cage.
Research ideas couldn’t automatically become part of the production model. New approaches had to compete against the existing one. Historical testing could only use information available at the time. Results were preserved so failures couldn’t conveniently disappear. I created separate AI challengers whose job was essentially to tell the main system that it might be full of shit, because AI is so often deeply full of shit.
I even had to teach the damned thing that “I don’t know” is an acceptable answer. Seriously!
After endless days of trials, errors, and hammering rules into place: It worked! The less freedom I gave the AI, the more useful it became.
That’s been my biggest lesson from this rabbit hole. AI can do things that still blow my mind, but capability and reliability aren’t the same thing. The more I care about the result, the less I trust AI to simply figure things out. I want boundaries, checks, receipts, and explicit permission to fail rather than make something up.
I thought I’d built enough of those safeguards.
Then BWR friggin’ blew up this week.
AI stumbles over its own feet
Without drowning you in the deeply uninteresting details of my fake football laboratory, I discovered that critical pieces of the project’s underlying state weren’t preserved and recoverable the way they should have been, despite my safeguards.
And fixing the mess created an even nastier problem. I’d built safeguards to stop AI from hallucinating about football. I hadn’t adequately safeguarded against AI hallucinating about itself.
Now I was asking AI to reconstruct its own missing history — and a plausible reconstruction isn’t necessarily the real one. I couldn’t just ask, “Is everything fixed now?” and trust the cheerful answer. Every recovered piece had to be treated like evidence at a crime scene.
I spent roughly 25 hours this week, during a frantic period here at my normal job, doing AI forensics on a system I’d specifically designed to protect itself from AI failure. Between my time and the obscene number of tokens I burned fixing it, I figure the fiasco would’ve cost north of $1,500 at standard rates.
For an NFL betting side project. (Again: Normal hobbies aren’t really my thing.)
BWR survived. My sanity mostly did. But the experience changed how I think about local AI.
Seizing my own AI destiny
If I need AI in a big black box, I want it to be MY big black box.
Jon Martindale / Foundry
Running a model locally won’t magically make AI trustworthy. A local model can confidently make stuff up just as well as a cloud model. But I can control everything around it.
I want the logs. I want the checkpoints. I want the artifacts. If I’m going to spend months building something increasingly complex, I want its state sitting somewhere I control rather than trusting a black box to remember what matters, and to be fully recoverable if the brittle house of cards ever falls down again.
Cloud AI isn’t going anywhere for me; having some frontier hooks is crucial in my quest to break Las Vegas. But local AI suddenly looks less like a fun enthusiast experiment and more like infrastructure if you’re doing serious work.
Fortunately, I have an RTX 4090 system sitting a few feet away.
It’s funny how quickly “running AI locally” becomes appealing after catastrophic AI hallucinations eat 20 hours of your life.
So yeah, the better I get at using AI, the less I trust it. Maybe it’s time I owned more of it, too.
That’s it from me. AI guru Ben Patterson will be back in the saddle (and your inbox) next week! Don’t forget to sign up to start receiving this newsletter directly.
Over the past week, the laptop Microsoft sent me has been summarizing books and movies, generating images from my imagination, and running a 70-billion-parameter AI model that would be a stretch to fit on most laptops. It also played AAA games at a speed and fidelity I would have thought impossible on an ARM system just a year ago. Microsoft wants to sell you one computer for all of your needs, and for once that doesn't feel like total marketing fluff. Mostly.
Microsoft is throwing both arms around the new Nvidia RTX Spark platform with the Surface Laptop Ultra—and setting its sights on the would-be MacBook Pro buyer, or as the company called it, "a high performance audience." The bet is that rather than a gaming desktop for fun and a development laptop for work, buyers will pay more for one machine that does both.
The Surface Laptop Ultra arrives at a strange time in personal computing. Recent industry numbers showed a 20 percent drop in total PC shipments year over year in the third quarter of 2026. That's not just consumer purchasing either—that's across the board. Between the RAMpocalypse that has exploded consumer prices and an industry fixated on enterprise money, there hasn't been much new hardware to excite PC enthusiasts.
Welcome to Edition 9.15 of the Rocket Report! The launch I'm most looking forward to in the next few weeks is that of Japan's Martian Moons Exploration (MMX) mission. MMX is one of the marquee space science missions launching this year, and it's set to leave Earth as soon as Monday (US time) aboard a Japanese H3 rocket. The spacecraft will visit Phobos and Deimos, the two asteroid-like moons of Mars, deploying a rover and collecting specimens for return to Earth in 2031. Exploration at its finest.
As always, we welcome reader submissions, and if you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.
Reflect Orbital looks to India for launch capacity. California-based Reflect Orbital, the startup attempting to offer sunlight on-demand with in-space mirrors, announced the purchase of two launches Wednesday from Indian launcher Skyroot Aerospace, Payload Space reports. One of the launches will use Skyroot's Vikram-1 rocket, which became the first privately developed Indian rocket to reach orbit in July. The other will fly on an upgraded rocket called the Vikram-1U.
Blue Origin announced a major expansion of its already considerable Florida launch facilities on Friday morning with the intent of eventually flying more than 100 rockets a year from there.
The company said it would add two launch pads for the New Glenn rocket, in addition to two already under construction at Cape Canaveral. The company is also investing heavily in a new manufacturing facility that will produce up to 150 upper stages for a larger variant of the New Glenn rocket.
The company also plans to procure two additional landing ships to catch and return the first stage of the New Glenn rocket (it currently has one, named Jacklyn). Finally, Blue Origin said it would add a new customer integration facility, built in conjunction with the US Space Force, that will feature four payload bays to process multiple missions at the same time.
Android was designed for phones, but that hasn't stopped Google from trying to adapt the OS and its apps to larger machines over the years. Googlebooks are just the latest attempt after tablets, Chromebooks, and foldables induced little change in how people interact with Android software. These new Android-powered laptops are designed to pick up where the web-focused ChromeOS left off, offering premium hardware and native support for Android apps.
Google sees Googlebooks as an alternative to Windows and macOS, but these platforms are entrenched with decades of software and UI conventions that keep users locked in. Googlebooks have to offer something very special to steal users away from either of the dominant operating systems.
For devoted Android phone users, there are some cool things in Googlebook OS, but the Android roots of these machines are impossible to miss. Sometimes it feels like using a Chromebook, and sometimes it feels like using a giant phone. It almost never feels like using a premium laptop, and that's the problem.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from BleepingComputer: A proxyjacking campaign has impacted devices in 34 countries, monetizing victims' internet connections through a commercial residential proxy network. The operator installed Pawns.app, a legitimate bandwidth-sharing application that lets users earn money by sharing their internet connections, on devices without the owners' consent.
Pawns.app account holders are rewarded for allowing traffic from other users to flow through their network, provided it runs on trusted, non-blocking IP addresses. By installing the app on multiple systems, the attacker likely accumulated larger payouts. Threat intelligence company GreyNoise discovered the campaign while investigating suspicious activity at an unnamed organization, and identified at least 143 compromised devices worldwide. According to researchers, the attacker exploited known vulnerabilities in D-Link ShareCenter NAS (CVE-2024-3272 and CVE-2024-3273), Ubiquiti UniFi Video NVR (CVE-2021-44228), and SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer (CVE-2025-31324) to install the Pawns.app software.
Hikvision and Dahua DVR/NVR devices were also targeted, though the specific vulnerabilities exploited were not identified. In some cases, the report says the attackers configured SSH key authentication to maintain backup access to the compromised systems.
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