Strangers in black cloaks sneaking around the front door, phantom rodents scurrying around the backyard, threatening figures with black bags and hammers. Scared yet? 

Those are just some of the things that Google’s Gemini have been reporting in its Home Briefs—the summaries it can produce of the daily goings-on detected by Nest security cameras and other connected smart home devices—and some Gemini for Home users say they’re getting thoroughly creeped out by the briefings, particularly with Halloween right around the corner. 

“Throughout the morning, several instances of people in black cloaks or robes were observed standing in the yard,” read a Home Brief screenshot posed by a Google Home user on Reddit. “The unusual presence of individuals in black cloaks or robes continued into the afternoon, with multiple sighting in the yard and approaching the driveway.” 

Talk about a spooky report, but the reality turned out to be pretty innocuous. 

“It’s hilarious, I got this summary today,” the user said. “For the ‘black cloaks or robes,’ I have Halloween decorations that the camera sees.”  

The user allowed that the creepy description was more or less “accurate,” but that another event reported in the briefing (“a person was seen walking by the playset in the Backyard”) didn’t happen: “The person by the playset doesn’t exist, the clip showed nobody.” 

In a similar occurrence, another Gemini for Home users posted a screenshot of a Home Brief report about someone “walking up the driveway carrying a black bag and a hammer.” 

Again, spooky, but no cause for alarm. “We were putting Halloween decorations out yesterday,” the user wrote. “Sounds like we were committing a gruesome crime.” 

Android Authority, which first reported Gemini’s creepy Home Brief summaries, noted that plenty of Gemini for Home users have had good experiences with daily summaries, calling them “spot on” and “quite impressive,” while some of the Home Brief inaccuracies were fairly minor: for example, a car that was “not a Tesla Model 3, it was a Toyota Corolla.” 

But other Gemini for Home users say their Gemini-powered Nest cameras have mistaken cats for raccoons (or the other way around), while one user said their Home Brief warned of a raccoon that apparently wasn’t there: “It said it could not find the video. I said, ‘You’re the one who told me of this raccoon.’ It said something like ‘I know I said that but there’s no such video of the incident.’” 

We’ve reached out to Google for comment. 

Home Brief is a feature included in Google’s $20-a-month Google Home Advanced plan. Once enabled, Home Brief will crank out a daily report of what Gemini for Home has seen and detected around your smart home in the past 24 hours, including events captured by your Gemini-enabled Nest cameras. The feature is intended to give you a quick overview of daily activity without having to plow through a lengthy list of individual smart home updates.  

Google says it’s gone to great lengths to ensure that Gemini for Home’s reports are accurate, while Google’s “Familiar Faces” feature can help to pinpoint or screen out updates about the comings and goings of household members. 

Still, it’s easy to imagine how the hallucinations common to most LLMs could creep into Google’s Home Brief summaries. (I’m still waiting for Gemini for Home access.) That’s probably why Google is taking its time with Gemini for Home’s rollout. A new Google Home Speaker, for example, was announced earlier this month, but it won’t ship until next spring.

This news story is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best security cameras. 

Looking to upgrade your monitor without burning a hole through your wallet? This 27-inch LG UltraGear 1440p gaming display may be just what you need, and now’s a solid time to buy one because we haven’t seen its price this low in almost a year. It’s now on sale for $166.99 on Amazon, which is 33% off its original $249.99—a huge discount!

The LG UltraGear 27GS60QC-B is a stunning 27-inch display that delivers exceptional performance you can rely on. It has a crisp “sweet spot” 2560×1440 native resolution, which is great whether you’re gaming or streaming Netflix. Add in the fast 180Hz refresh rate and 1ms response time and you have a liquidy smooth visual experience that’s lag-free even during the most action-packed scenes and games.

This monitor has a nice 1000R curvature that bends around your vision, easing eye fatigue and making for more comfortable sessions whether you’re gaming, tackling work projects, or just mindlessly browsing the web and doomscrolling on social media. Other nice features include HDR10, AMD FreeSync, and a sleek “borderless” bezel. It also has both DisplayPort and double HDMI ports, plus a 3.5mm audio jack.

Right now, you can grab this 27-inch 1440p gaming monitor for just $169.99, and that’s an excellent deal for an LG display with these specs, so don’t wait and miss this opportunity.

That's a stellar deal for a curved 27-inch 1440p 180Hz monitor

If you’re on the lookout for a powerful charger for your phone and other gadgets, then you’re gonna want to jump on this fast Anker Nano USB-C charging block (which comes with a free cable included) that’s now on sale for just $34.99 on Amazon (was $49.99). That’s a lovely 30% discount on a lovely accessory you won’t regret.

This tiny power adapter features three ports: two USB-C and one USB-A. The USB-C ports are faster, each delivering up to 70W of charging, which will juice up your phone in under an hour and is even fast enough to power many laptops, including MacBooks. That’s only when the USB-C ports are used on their own, though. When multiple are being used, the 70W total gets split up. (The USB-A maxes out at 33W, by the way.)

Apart from being able to charge three devices at once, what I love about this wall plug is that it’s compact with foldable prongs. It fits easily into pockets and bags, and you can take it with you while traveling without worrying that it’ll get damaged or scuff up anything else. And don’t forget that it comes with a free USB-C cable that’s capable of handling the fast charging power of this power block.

This is a must-have for anyone, so don’t miss out on this deal. Get this Anker Nano USB-C charger block with cable for $34.99 before this discount expires! It’s the best price we’ve ever seen for it.

A fast 3-port USB-C charger with a cable for $34.99? That's a bargain!

Ask a bunch of PC gamers what CPU is going in their next desktop build and I’ll bet more than half will mention some variation of AMD’s Ryzen X3D series. With boosted V-cache, it’s proven to give any GPU a helping hand—and that’s why I picked up a Ryzen 7 7800X3D for the desktop I’m using to type these very words. Today, you can get that same chip for just $319.99 on Amazon, a cool $130 off.

The 8-core, 16-thread 7800X3D was the sweet spot for gaming performance and price a couple of years ago, though it’s been superseded by the Zen 5-based 9800X3D (which can be installed in the same AM5 motherboards). That said, the newer chip is $460 from various retailers right now and only about 5 percent faster in higher-end games.

That makes this deal on the older 7800X3D a no-brainer. Put that extra budget towards your GPU or a bigger SSD and your upcoming PC build will be a lot more capable. Oh, and remember that the X3D processors don’t come with coolers—as AMD assumes you’ll want something a little beefier—so make sure to include one in your PCPartPicker list.

Grab the Ryzen 7 7800X3D for $319.99 on Amazon while you still can. There’s no indication of how long this particular deal will last, but Walmart is also selling it on sale, which you can snag if the Amazon deal runs out. (In fact, depending on where you are in relation to the nearest distribution center, you could get the latter for as little as $305.)

This X3D chip with boosted V-cache is a smart CPU for desktop PCs

Roku is jumping onto the AI bandwagon with its next batch of software updates.

In the months ahead, the company will add AI-powered voice search for its smart TVs and streaming players. While Roku’s existing voice search can find specific programs, actors, or genres, the upgrade will allow for more conversational queries, such as “What’s the Barbie movie about?” or “How scary is The Shining.” It will also support follow-up questions.

Other forthcoming Roku features include a “What do you like to watch?” feature to tweak Roku’s home screen recommendations, live scores in the Sports section, and a search function in Roku’s live TV guide. Roku is also updating its recently-launched Streaming Stick and Streaming Stick Plus to support private listening through Bluetooth headphones and earbuds.

TV-focused AI

Unlike rivals Amazon and Google, Roku isn’t trying to launch an all-purpose AI that also happens to work on TVs. Roku doesn’t sell its own smart speakers, and users primarily interact with voice control through the mic button on Roku remotes. The new AI-powered assistant will only respond to entertainment-related queries, Roku says.

“Even in this case, with us evolving Roku voice to now answer entertainment Q&A, we are specializing in a TV-related solution only,” Amit Desai, Roku’s director of product and UX for voice and conversational AI, told reporters. He added that the feature will use a combination of in-house and commercial AI technology.

When users do ask about something entertainment-related, Roku will tailor its responses for the TV, for instance by offering links to the shows being discussed along with related programming.

Other streaming platforms haven’t quite nailed that experience. You can ask the same questions on a Google TV or Fire TV device, for instance, but you might get a voice-only response with no quick way to access the movie or show in question. (In Google’s case, that’s because it’s using completely different voice assistant technologies for conversation and navigation.)

We’ve yet to see a live demo of Roku’s AI, but it could make for a less frustrating voice control experience if it works as advertised.

More features to come

Along with Roku’s AI voice upgrade, the company announced a slew of other software features and some hardware news:

“What do you like to watch?” This feature will present a series of movie and show tiles that users can mark with a thumbs up. Roku will automatically add suggestions to users’ Save Lists and tweak its home screen recommendations accordingly.

Sports scores and reminders: Roku’s Sports section, which tracks upcoming live events from across different streaming services, will display scores (which can be hidden). Users can also set reminders that will trigger a notification in Roku’s mobile app.

Channel search: Roku will add a search button to its Live TV menu, with a search function in its live TV grid guide to follow.

Trailer links: Trailers that you watch from Roku’s home screen will have quick links in the video player to add the program to your Save List or see where it’s available to watch.

Mobile app updates: Roku’s iPhone and Android apps are getting some quick shortcuts for things like closed captions, sleep timers, the remote finder function. The app will also get links to sections such as TV Shows and Sports, along with an easier way to rate shows or mark them as watched.

More hardware: Walmart will soon sell a $198 portable projector from Vankyo with Roku’s software built-in. It looks pretty similar to the Aurzen model that launched on Amazon last month for $250 (but quickly dropped to $180 as of this writing). The company has also added Pioneer to its stable of brands building Roku TVs.

Streaming Sticks add Bluetooth: It turns out that the Roku’s $30 Streaming Stick and $40 Streaming Stick Plus support Bluetooth after all. A software update will allow them to play TV audio through wireless headphones or earbuds. That’s one less reason to consider the $100 Roku Ultra instead.

It’s unclear exactly when the new software features will arrive, other than in the “coming months.” The updates will likely trickle out to Roku TVs and streamers over time, making it tough to product when you’ll start seeing them on yours.

I spend a lot of time talking about two-factor authentication. Often I wonder if people have a real sense of its usefulness. Yeah, it helps keep hackers out of your accounts if your password somehow becomes compromised, but its usefulness as a security feature can be pretty abstract.

So, instead of talking up 2FA, today I’ll let this cute parrot just show you instead:

^{Original video on Instagram}

Your password is that first food cover. Two-factor authentication is the second. With just one cover, your meal gets eaten by the parrot. With two, your food is still yours to enjoy.

Setting up two-factor authentication can be as easy as dropping that second cover over the dish, by the way. You can use something you already own—your phone or tablet—to set up at least one 2FA method. I recommend using a dedicated app like Bitwarden Authenticator or Authy as the best balance between security and convenience.

That said, with a bird that cute, I’d probably share my food. But it would be my choice rather than the parakeet stealing it.

(Thanks to Instagram user sk_olgapl for sharing Edek’s hijinks!)

Apple on Wednesday announced the launch of its M5 processor, saying the chip “ushers in the next big leap in AI performance for Apple silicon.” The M5 appears in new editions of the iPad Pro, MacBook Pro, and Vision Pro, all of which are available for U.S. and U.K. customers to pre-order as of today.

‘A faster, more efficient, and more capable chip’

The M5, as you would expect, is a higher-performance chip than its M4 predecessor. Although it’s still built using 3-nanometer technology (albeit 3rd-gen, compared to 2nd-gen on the M4), Apple claims substantial improvements in graphical speed in particular.

According to the announcement, the M5’s 10-core GPU architecture, with a Neural Accelerator in each core, delivers “over 4x the peak GPU compute performance compared to M4” as well as “enhanced graphics capabilities and third-generation ray tracing.” Overall, Apple claims, the new chip is capable of up to 45 percent higher graphics performance than the M4.

On the CPU side, what Apple describes as “the world’s fastest performance core” promises a 15 percent bump in multithreaded performance compared to the M4. And unified memory bandwidth has been improved by almost 30 percent to 153GB/s.

All of which sounds good on paper, but what’s all this theoretical power for? Apple makes this very clear: AI. Unlike the M4 announcement in May 2024, which referenced AI only twice in the first seven paragraphs, the M5’s press release mentions the current tech obsession in the headline, the standfirst, the first subhead, the captions of the first two pictures, twice in the first paragraph, twice in the second paragraph, three times in the third paragraph…

So we can expect lots more discussion of Apple Intelligence in the year to come, then. But for now, we can focus on the first three products to feature the M5 chip.

Rival chips inbound: Panther Lake unveiled: A deep dive into Intel’s next-gen laptop CPU and Benchmarked: Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme crushes Intel’s laptop CPUs

New iPad Pro

There’s a new iPad Pro for fall 2025, and the M5 is its main, indeed almost its only, significant upgrade. The M5 Pro is the same size, the same design, available in the same colors, and appears to be otherwise virtually identical to the M4 model in every respect except four: it gets the M5 chip, Wi-Fi 6E has been bumped to Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.3 has been bumped to Bluetooth 6, and there’s a new fast-charging capability.

The M5 is clearly the headline change, and Apple claims this means the new device offers “up to 3.5x the AI performance than iPad Pro with M4 and up to 5.6x faster than iPad Pro with M1.” The last addition on my list could be an appealing upgrade, too, however. Apple says the new iPad Pro can be charged to 50 percent in 30 minutes if you’ve got the right adapter.

There’s one other change, but it only affects the cellular models. They get Apple’s C1X modem that was introduced with the iPhone 17.

The M5 iPad Pro starts at $999/£999 for the 11-inch model and $1,299/£1,299 for the 13-inch model. It’s available to preorder starting today and will go on sale on Wednesday, October 22. For more details about this product, check out our iPad Pro news hub.

New MacBook Pro

As was rumored ahead of the announcement, Apple is only announcing new MacBooks with the standard M5 chip; there’s no sign of higher-end models with an M5 Pro or M5 Max. As before, the M5 laptop is only available in a 14-inch size.

As on the iPad Pro, the MacBook Pro’s main upgrade is the M5 chip. Apple says this delivers “up to 3.5x the AI performance and up to 1.6x faster graphics than the previous generation.” But there’s also an upgrade to battery life (an estimated 24 hours, compared to 22 hours on the 14-inch MacBook Pro with an M4 Pro), and faster SSD performance.

The 14-inch MacBook Pro with M5 starts at $1,599/£1,599. It’s available to preorder starting today and will go on sale on Wednesday, October 22. For more details about this product, check out our MacBook Pro M5 news hub.

New Vision Pro

Finally, the M5 makes an appearance on a second iteration of Apple’s Vision Pro mixed-reality headset. The company says this will mean “faster performance, sharper details throughout the system, and even more battery life, setting a new standard for what’s possible in spatial computing.”

Other than the M5 chip, the new Vision Pro features a new cushioned Dual Knit Band to improve comfort. Owners of the M2 Vision Pro can order a new band for $99.

The updated Vision Pro is available to preorder starting today for customers in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, the UAE, the UK, and the U.S, and will go on sale in those countries on Wednesday, October 22. Other countries will follow.

This article originally appeared on our sister publication Macworld.

Edifier is the go-to choice for “bookshelf” speakers that sit on either side of your desktop PC’s monitor instead of on a bookshelf. The brand knows it’s popular with PC gamers, which is probably why its newest design looks uncannily like a gaming PC itself. The so-called HUAZAI New Cyber Speaker is, well, a speaker… despite featuring a transparent housing and a lot of faux computer parts inside.

Yeah, this is a strange one. In terms of form factor, the whole 2.1 unit is basically a boom box or perhaps an especially large speaker bar. That bottom section houses a pair of 52mm drivers and a 100mm woofer, a 60-watt amp, and a pair of passive radiators. Up top is a 2.8-inch screen over the area where a “CPU” would be if this was a PC (again, this is not a PC), and various blocks and LED-bedecked sections roughly mimic RAM DIMMs, SSDs, fans, and GPUs sitting on top of a motherboard. Those things that look like coolant lines are, allegedly, braided speaker cables.

According to Notebookcheck, the speaker unit can be connected via USB, standard auxiliary cable, or Bluetooth, and it doubles as a USB-C or USB-A charger at up to 35 watts. Set to release in black or white colorways—but only in China for the moment—the New Cyber model will cost 1,499 yuan (about $210 USD at current exchange rates). There’s no indication of when (or if) it will come to other markets.

I guess I could see this working as an accent piece for a “battlestation” setup if you have a gaming laptop but really want something on the side of your desk that looks like a cyberpunk fish tank? But then you’d lose a lot of the separation in a stereo setup, which is pretty important if you’re actually using it for gaming or media. I dunno. It looks cool, or at least interesting, and it’s not ridiculously overpriced for the hardware and bling… though there’s no telling what the price might stretch to in other markets, especially the tariff-wracked US.

Price When Reviewed

$1,695

Best Prices Today: HP EliteBook 6 G1q

The HP EliteBook 6 G1q is a 14-inch Qualcomm Snapdragon X laptop with a killer feature: Integrated 5G connectivity. HP Go is a built-in eSIM solution that delivers multi-network 5G connectivity, so it connects to AT&T, Verizon, or T-Mobile. It automatically switches depending on which one has the best signal, and you never even have to think about it.

It’s a magical experience being able to set up a laptop without connecting it to Wi-Fi, taking it with you in a bag, and taking it out of your bag to use it wherever you want without connecting to Wi-Fi or tethering it to your phone. Being able to pull the laptop out of my bag — in downtown Boston, at the beach, or wherever else — and have an immediate internet connection immediately was magical.

The HP Go 5G experience delivers five stars. This first version is mainly aimed at businesses. HP implied it might be looking to deliver more consumer laptops in the future when I asked.

Unfortunately, the rest of the laptop experience here doesn’t stand out. Our review model had a lower-end Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus chip and a webcam that looked grainy. And the display is on the dim side, which is a real problem for a 5G laptop you may want to use outdoors.

HP EliteBook 6 G1q: Specs

The HP EliteBook 6 G1q is a 14-inch business laptop available in a wide variety of configurations with different Qualcomm Snapdragon X processors. Our review model had a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus X1P-42-100 CPU. The model we reviewed is available from CDW for $1,695.

HP also has a configurator where you can configure options, including buying models without 5G and choosing higher-end Snapdragon processors, but it gets expensive fast. Since this is a business laptop, businesses buying fleets of PCs might end up negotiating pricing closer to the CDW model.

Thanks to the Qualcomm Snapdragon hardware, these are all Copilot+ PCs with a fast enough NPU to run the AI features Microsoft is adding to Windows.

• Model number: HP EliteBook G6 G1q with HP GO 5G
• CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus X1P-42-100
• Memory: 32GB RAM
• Graphics/GPU: Qualcomm Adreno
• NPU: Qualcomm Hexagon NPU (45 TOPS)
• Display: 14-inch 1920×1200 IPS display with 60Hz refresh rate and 400 nits of brightness
• Storage: 512GB PCIe NVMe SSD
• Webcam: 1080p webcam
• Connectivity: 2x USB Type-C (40 Gbps), 2x USB Type-A (5Gbps), 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x combo audio jack, 1x RJ-45 Ethernet, 1x nano SIM slot, 1x security lock slot
• Networking: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, Ethernet, 5G with HP Go
• Biometrics: Fingerprint reader
• Battery capacity: 56 Watt-hours
• Dimensions: 12.54 x 8.83 x 0.43 inches
• Weight: 3.17 pounds
• MSRP: $1,695 as tested

The HP EliteBook 6 G1q delivers 5G connectivity that just works. It transforms how you use a laptop like this one, and I hope to see more laptops delivering seamless 5G out of the box in the future.

HP EliteBook 6 G1q: Design and build quality

The HP EliteBook 6 G1q is a lightweight silver laptop made of a mix of aluminum and plastic, and HP is proud that it includes recycled materials. At 3.17 pounds, this 14-inch laptop isn’t heavy, but it’s not the lightest laptop either. Some thin-and-light laptop designs would shave off a half pound or more here.

The build quality is good but not fancy. This is a business laptop through and through: A design made for corporations to buy in bulk for their employees, not to buy as a premium one-off machine for the CEO. It’s a solid design with a hinge that feels good, and it feels sturdy.

But it doesn’t feel like a premium all-metal machine: When I run my fingers over the edges of the laptop — down from the keyboard tray, over the ports, and then to the underbody, I can feel the edge of where the aluminum keyboard deck meets the plastic bottom. It’s not going to cut me or anything, but every time I pick up the machine, I can feel that metal-meets-plastic feeling. In summary: It’s a workhorse, and not a premium machine. A more premium design would be lighter and have a unibody construction without a seam you could feel.

HP EliteBook 6 G1q: Keyboard and trackpad

The keyboard and trackpad on the HP EliteBook 6 G1q are serviceable. Since this is a 14-inch machine, there’s plenty of space for a large keyboard. The chiclet-style keys don’t feel mushy, but they don’t exactly feel snappy either. Key travel is a little low. That’s a tad disappointing for a business laptop, where keyboards are usually a focus.

The trackpad is also fine. It’s a good size and smooth enough, but it’s not the kind of premium glass surface you’ll find on higher-end business machines. Our review model didn’t have a touch screen, only a few configurations of this laptop do.

This is the kind of business laptop a company can hand out to its employees and know they’ll be able to work everywhere, but not the kind of business laptop an individual seeks out for the best typing experience.

HP EliteBook 6 G1q: Display and speakers

The HP EliteBook 6 G1q has a display that does the job in indoor lighting conditions, but it doesn’t go above and beyond. It’s a 14-inch 1920×1200 IPS panel running at 60Hz and delivering up to 400 nits of brightness. That’s not going to win any awards, but I’m grateful I had the 400 nit display: HP also sells configurations with a dimmer 300 nit panel!

For a 5G laptop, I’d say this is a real problem. The ideal 5G laptop would let me work from anywhere, whether that’s at the beach or on a park bench in downtown Boston (I tested both.) At 400 nits of brightness, this panel doesn’t have enough brightness to compete with the sun on a bright day, making it near unusable in many lighting situations. Many laptops like that, but a 5G laptop — where the goal is to use it on the go — really deserves a brighter panel than this.

The speakers have enough volume, but they didn’t wow me, either. I test all the laptops I review by firing up Spotify and playing both Steely Dan’s Aja and Daft Punk’s Get Lucky. The sound is a little muffled and muddy. Instrument separation in Aja wasn’t particularly clear and bass in Get Lucky wasn’t particularly distinct. These speakers are usable in a pinch, but you’d definitely want headphones for music and media.

HP EliteBook 6 G1q: Webcam, microphone, biometrics

The HP EliteBook 6 G1q has a 1080p webcam, which sounds good on paper. But the webcam was incredibly grainy and washed out in non-ideal lighting, which is a disappointment for a business machine, where nicer webcams are often a feature. It did better in brighter lighting, but it’s not up there with many higher-end business laptop webcams.

HP includes a physical webcam shutter switch you can slide to block the webcam, which is always nice to see.

The microphone sounds reasonably clear with good noise cancellation. I’d say it’s better than the webcam, but neither are particularly impressive. If you need to be visible and audible in an online meeting, this machine will do the job. But it won’t deliver high recording quality.

Our review model had a fingerprint reader for Windows Hello on the keyboard deck. It worked fine. But an IR camera for facial recognition would’ve been a nice option — it does appear like that is an option on some other configurations.

HP EliteBook 6 G1q: Connectivity

The HP EliteBook 6 G1q’s connectivity is its crown jewel. 5G just worked out of the box: I powered on the laptop, set up Windows, and started using the machine without ever connecting it to Wi-Fi or plugging in an Ethernet cable. This also enables better management of a laptop fleet. If a laptop is stolen or lost, a business can track and locate it even if it isn’t connected to Wi-Fi. From an end-user perspective, I never bothered configuring anything. It “just worked” and switched between networks as needed. At a starting price of $19 per user per month for the 5G service, that’s extremely impressive.

This machine also has a lot of ports: On the left side, two USB Type-C (40Gbps) ports, one USB Type-A port (5Gbps), HDMI 2.1 out, and a combo audio jack. On the right side, a second USB Type-A port (5Gbps), an RJ-45 Ethernet jack, a security lock slot, and an optional nano SIM slot for models with cellular connectivity.

This machine has both Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. So the connectivity is incredible: Multi-network 5G, Wi-Fi 7, and wired Ethernet all in one machine.

HP EliteBook 6 G1q: Performance

The HP EliteBook 6 G1q ran cool and quiet, delivering reasonable desktop performance. The Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus X1P-42-100 hardware here is some of the slowest hardware HP could choose, however. It’s the slowest Snapdragon X Plus chip you’ll find. The only thing slower is the Snapdragon X X1-26-100, which doesn’t even get a “Plus” in its name. It does the job for basic productivity tasks: A web browser, office tools, and communication apps.

As always, we ran the EliteBook 6 G1q through our standard benchmarks to see how it performs. We normally start with PCMark 10, but it doesn’t yet run on Arm laptops like this one.

First, we run Cinebench R24. It’s available as a native Arm program, which lets us compare performance across laptops. CPUs with more cores do better on this multi-threaded benchmark. The Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus X1P-42-100 is an eight-core CPU, so it won’t keep up with CPUs with more cores on multithreaded tasks.

With a multi-threaded score of 759, the CPU here was definitely behind AMD’s Ryzen AI HX 300 series hardware, but it delivers better performance than many lower-tier power-efficient Intel chips.

Second, we run a graphical benchmark. This isn’t a gaming laptop, but it’s still good to check how the GPU performs. We run 3DMark Time Spy, a graphical benchmark that focuses on GPU performance. This particular benchmark is written for traditional x86 versions of Windows and runs through the Prism translation layer, so you’ll get an idea of how traditional GPU-accelerated apps (and games) will perform on this machine.

With a 3DMark Time Spy score of 1,066, this machine just isn’t suitable for GPU-accelerated workloads or gaming. Even the Qualcomm Hexagon GPUs in higher-tier Snapdragon X SKUs are significantly faster.

We also run 3DMark Night Raid. This benchmark does have a native Arm version, so we can compare the Qualcomm Hexagon GPU here and see how fast it runs when it isn’t being held back by the Prism translation layer here. The score here gives you an idea of how well the GPU will perform in apps written for Arm hardware.

With a score of 16,819 on the Night Raid benchmark, this machine closes some of the gap with Intel and AMD systems. The translation layer isn’t slowing things down, but it’s still far behind other machines in GPU performance.

Overall, the HP EliteBook 6 G1q we reviewed delivers serviceable performance for lightweight desktop PC tasks while running cool and quiet. But it’s no speed demon, and it will be quickly outpaced even by laptops with higher-end Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite CPUs.

HP EliteBook 6 G1q: Battery life

The HP EliteBook 6 G1q has a 56 Watt-hour battery. That’s low for a laptop that weighs over three pounds. The Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus hardware here is power-efficient, so it’ll get you through a workday. But I didn’t see the kind of extremely long battery life — 24 hours — that I did on Snapdragon X laptops with larger batteries.

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

The HP EliteBook 6 G1q lasted for 983 minutes on average. That’s over 16 hours. It’s a lot, probably more than most people would need, but the battery size has it behind many competing Snapdragon laptops. It’s another way the laptop cuts a corner and doesn’t aim for the high-end premium experience crown. It’s a shame because long battery life matters even more on a 5G laptop, which could be used in locations far from Wi-Fi and power outlets.

HP EliteBook 6 G1q: Conclusion

The HP EliteBook 6 G1q delivers 5G connectivity that just works. It transforms how you use a laptop like this one, and I hope to see more laptops delivering seamless 5G out of the box in the future. For businesses, it also makes their fleet of laptops remotely trackable and manageable just like a cellular-connected phone or tablet is. The way HP has delivered multi-network 5G you don’t even have to think about is technically impressive.

Unfortunately, the rest of the laptop experience is a lower-end Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus machine. A company that wants to deliver a fleet of connected-but-mid-range laptops to a large number of employees will love these. But I bet the CEO will use a different machine.

Unless you’re always working away from home, you probably don’t need a laptop—and that’s good news because you can get a much more powerful device for the same price (or even less!) if you opt for a mini PC instead. This Geekom AX8 mini PC is amazing for home offices, and right now it’s on sale for just $499 on Amazon. That’s a massive 33% discount from its original $749 and an excellent price for a powerful machine!

This Geekom mini PC comes with an AMD Ryzen 7 8745HS processor and an impressive 32GB of DDR5 RAM. That’s a solid combo that will not stumble over any task. There’s also a speedy 1TB SSD on board, as well as Radeon 780M integrated graphics that can handle modest gaming with pretty good performance. It’s seriously robust and will last you for many years as long as you aren’t doing super-intensive stuff.

The Geekom AX8 is especially good for multitaskers because it supports a quadruple 4K setup. Between the two USB4 ports (up to 8K@30Hz) and two HDMI ports (up to 4K@60Hz), you can run several high-def displays for tons of screen real estate. It’s the perfect solution whether you’re reading dozens of documents, researching numerous browser tabs, streaming movies or playing music, meeting on Zoom, etc.

A laptop with these kinds of specs could easily cost you twice as much, so why waste the money? Get this Geekom AX8 mini PC for $499 while this limited-time Amazon deal is still around!

Save $250 on this Ryzen 7 mini PC with 32GB RAM and quad 4K support

Microsoft’s Xbox brand is not doing great. Despite being a pillar of the modern gaming landscape, it seems like Xbox consoles are inconsequential thanks to stiff competition from within and without. Nintendo and Sony are playing to their strengths, and Microsoft itself seems more interested in pushing a platform and subscription than in maintaining its shrinking portion of the market. Add to this huge price increases, for both consoles and the lynchpin Xbox Game Pass itself, and it’s not exactly happy days in Redmond.

Into this fractious and uncertain landscape lands the Asus ROG Xbox Ally handheld, and its more souped-up version, the ROG Xbox Ally X. Launching later this week at $600 and $1,000, respectively, these gadgets are some major firsts for Microsoft. They’re the first Xbox portable devices, even if their claim to being “Xboxes” is mostly a matter of marketing. They’re the first post-Steam Deck portable gaming PCs made explicitly in cooperation with Microsoft and Xbox, though Asus has made two generations before them. And they’re the official debut of the Xbox Fullscreen Mode, Microsoft’s answer to the Steam Deck user interface.

Asus asked me to check out the new Ally hardware at a pre-release event, which was my first chance to go literally hands-on with the device just a week or so before they land on shelves. And while the handhelds themselves are impressive, I don’t think they’re such a huge step forward that they’ll convince anyone who wasn’t sold on the concept already. And the new, semi-exclusive interface is pretty good, certainly an improvement over the pain point of running Windows 11 on smaller handheld devices, but it still needs work even as it’s preparing for a full retail release.

PC gamers who are already fans of this form factor might find a new front-runner in the Xbox Ally, and maybe even the first true rival to the Steam Deck. But combined with the woes of the Xbox platform itself, and a pretty high price tag even if you don’t want the $1,000 upgraded X model, I don’t think this is the Xbox hit that Microsoft has been waiting for.

Fill your hands

The most striking difference between the older ROG Ally design and the ROG Xbox Ally is those highly visible handles, now distinctly jutting from the device’s body instead of smoothly integrated. And it’s no surprise that these are the biggest change in actually using the handheld, too. Gripping onto the gadget was instantly familiar — I could close my eyes and imagine I really was holding an official Xbox controller, as I’ve done for thousands of hours before. It’s comfy is what I’m saying here, and the familiar staggered control layout might be a huge improvement if you have medium or small hands and the Steam Deck’s interior thumbsticks are a pain point.

The more solid grip on the device makes it feel lighter, despite looking considerably chunkier, if only because my muscle memory makes it seem like I’ve held it so often before. This is an impressive trick, since the base model (the one in white) is almost exactly the same weight as the 2024 Ally X. The ROG Xbox Ally X (upgraded, in black, God these names are awful) is a few grams heavier, and feels it. But it needs a bigger, 65-watt battery to handle its more powerful and higher-wattage processor, 35W versus 20W. Even then, I didn’t feel uncomfortable holding it — though I never got to do so for more than about 10 minutes at a time.

Aside from the adjusted ergonomics, the physical experience of the device feels very familiar. With a 7-inch ,1080p IPS display it’s neither the biggest nor the sharpest screen available in a PC handheld. But it’s plenty smooth at 120Hz, and 500 nits of brightness should keep it visible in almost any situation. The only other big shift is a dedicated Xbox button, conspicuously hanging out near the left analog stick. The upgraded black model also gets haptic feedback in its triggers, though I didn’t play any game that seems to take advantage of it — this is still a rare find on PC games since it’s mainly a PS5 feature.

So if you’re already comfortable with any given 7- or 8-inch PC gaming handheld, I think you’ll find the Xbox Ally easy to pick up, literally. It’s impressively comfortable, sacrificing only a little extra space (about half an inch wider than the original Ally and a bit thicker). But given that you’ll need either a full bag or a dedicated carrying case for it anyway, I don’t think you’re giving up too much…and it’s still not as wide as the Steam Deck.

Performance

To be honest I’m not in a position to gauge minute differences in performance between the various flavors of PC gaming handhelds on the market right now. For that, be sure to check out Adam Patrick Murray’s coverage over on the PCWorld YouTube channel — he’s a fiend for these things. Both these devices are based on AMD APUs, with integrated graphics that are nonetheless tuned for impressive gaming performance given their size and power limitations. The white Xbox Ally has a Ryzen Z2 A with 4 cores and 16GB of memory, the Xbox Ally X gets a top-of-the-line Ryzen Z2 Extreme with 8 cores and a maximum speed of 5GHz, plus 24GB of memory.

2D games like Hollow Knight Silksong (and those that mix a lot of low-poly 3D, like Hades) seem more than comfy running smoothly on the hardware, with no gaps or stuttering. That’s hardly surprising, since even the low-priority integrated graphics on budget laptops can handle these games with few, if any, issues. The more interesting question in this application is how long the battery can last while intelligently giving the game just enough juice to keep it stable.

More strenuous games were a different story. Playing the graphically intense but well-optimized Forza Horizon 5 on the Xbox Ally X was a treat, with smooth racing at 60-80fps and plenty of graphical extras…let down by a very obvious dip in 1 percent frame rate lows every 30 seconds or so. This is, to my mind, perfectly acceptable — despite years of optimizations, we’re still talking about chips that were originally designed for laptops without discrete graphics cards. If you demand uninterrupted 4K/240Hz brilliance, you’re not playing on a handheld anyway (or you’re streaming from something more powerful).

But let’s say you’ve got a hankering for more power, and you also have a massive budget. Asus is also launching the latest generation of its XG Mobile dock along with the new Xbox Ally. These docks come with discrete laptop GPUs (Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti and 5090 for the newest versions) and a Thunderbolt 5 port. Not only will this max out the connection with the Xbox Ally, it’s compatible with almost any recent laptop or gaming handheld, granting them the boosted power too. This is a marked difference from the original XG design, which needed a proprietary connection designed only for ROG-branded laptops, tablets, and (later) the ROG Ally.

The combination of an explicitly portable device with an extra sizeable hunk of electronics to make it more powerful might seem strange. But Asus representatives told me that the ROG Ally family is the device most frequently paired with the XG dock, despite it being initially marketed as a companion for laptops and Surface-style tablets. Trying out the hardware at the event, I was impressed with the combination of the Xbox Ally X and the 5090-equipped dock, connected to a 4K display and running Gears of War Reloaded at full resolution and its maximum settings. While it wasn’t breaking any records, it consistently hit 80 frames per second at 4K.

We’re also talking about a pricey combination of hardware here. The ROG Xbox Ally X is $1,000, and the 2025 version of the XG Mobile dock with an RTX 5090 laptop card is $2,500. (The 5070 Ti version is a more palatable $1,300.) So $3,500 all-in, not counting the monitor, keyboard, and mouse. That doesn’t mean it’s a direct comparison with a $3,500 laptop — the combination setup is more portable (arguably), and that dock can work with almost any modern Windows-based device. But it’s a lot to ask for in any case.

Windows on handhelds still needs work

The most interesting aspect of the Xbox Ally to me is the new “Xbox Fullscreen Experience,” Microsoft’s answer to the Steam Deck’s software advantage. For the unaware, the Steam Deck runs on a custom Linux-based SteamOS, using the Proton compatibility layer to play Windows-based games when no Linux build is available. It also has a fully custom user interface, adapted from Steam’s Big Picture Mode. That should mean that Windows-based handhelds have an advantage running native software…but the overhead of Windows 11, not to mention its pain points on devices with screens as small as 7 inches, means these more expensive machines are often slower and more cumbersome.

The Xbox Fullscreen Experience is the solution, or at least it hopes to be. Not only is it offering a more focused, console-style browsing interface, with a unified library from the biggest Windows game stores, it helps the performance side of things by not loading the Windows taskbar, desktop, and various other behind-the-scenes stuff. This should be a one-two punch for the ROG Xbox Ally, making it feel like a much more integrated experience that’s been lacking for Windows handhelds. The Xbox Fullscreen Experience is coming to other devices in 2026, though it’s possible to test it out now if you put in a little elbow grease.

The system is getting something similar to Valve’s Steam Deck Certified program, too. Microsoft calls it the “handheld compatibility program.” Games labelled “Optimized” are good to go with no changes, while those marked “Compatible” might need a few settings tweaks or the occasional touchscreen input, but should run acceptably. A Microsoft representative said of the games tested so far (presumably mostly Game Pass titles), 85 percent fell into one of those two categories. Expect the program to be expanded to more hardware, just like the UI.

This new approach to handheld gaming is an improvement, to be sure. Focusing on the combination of controller-style navigation and touchscreen makes the device feel a lot more complete and natural. If you told me this really was a portable Xbox, instead of a partnership device running on Windows, I might believe you…until I saw that you can still get to the full desktop if you want to.

And that’s where the cracks started to show. When I first tried to launch Forza, it did so in a strange minimized floating window. That’s not unheard of for a game running on Windows, but it’s annoying, and a clear indication that yeah, the familiar and often clunky Windows 11 is still underneath all this nice UI. It might be smoother and faster than, say, the third-party launcher programs from Asus and Lenovo, but it’s still there. I had to manually close the game and launch it again to try it out.

Being mindful of this, I tried to launch the standard Windows interface, which was easy enough. When I tried to switch back to the Xbox Fullscreen Experience, the Ally warned me that I should restart to get the intended performance boost. I thought this might mean restarting Explorer.exe or something similar…nope. It reboots the entire device, which takes a solid three minutes or so. Whatever tweaks are being made behind the curtain to keep this thing running smoothly, they aren’t evident in the startup time.

I think that getting a unified, gaming-focused interface, provided and supported by Microsoft, is a great idea. (In fact I asked a Microsoft representative if it was coming to desktops and laptops anytime soon…no comment.) But while I’m sure that both Microsoft and Asus have put a lot of work into this, it seems pretty clear that there are a lot of kinks left to work out, and a lot left to do when this thing gets in the hands of end users.

Ouch, that price tag

Speaking of which…that price. Oof. $600 for a portable machine is a lot, albeit not in the context of Windows-powered handheld PCs launching this year. At that price the ROG Xbox Ally is competing not with the base model Steam Deck, but its OLED upgrade, $550 at the time of writing. And Asus said it intends this version of the device to be for “casual gamers.” Okay…but surely if someone considers themselves “casual,” they’re fine with their phone or tablet, or the console they already own. You can find an original Switch for half that much.

The upgraded ROG Xbox Ally X costs $1,000 USD, which easily makes it the most expensive Xbox ever, if you want to call it that. And it’ll land somewhere between the Series S and Series X consoles in terms of its graphical power. Granted, the Windows OS gives it far more flexibility, to say nothing of the option of throwing it in your bag without needing to lift with your legs. And let’s face it, there’s no major game coming out on Xbox that isn’t also coming to Windows at this point.

If you’re still looking at handheld PCs as an accessible way to get into the latest games, or even at consoles as a more affordable alternative to high-powered PC gaming, the new “Xbox” portables just don’t make sense as a value proposition. Of course there are plenty of people who see no problem dropping more than a grand on a handheld device — our own Adam Patrick Murray is one of them. But looking at the ROG Xbox Ally as a major hope for Microsoft’s gaming ambitions, I can’t help but think it’s underwhelming. And that was before both the Xbox consoles and Game Pass became much more expensive.

Even if the price isn’t a problem for you, I’d wait until you can get your hands on it to put some money down. Especially if you’re torn between the ROG Xbox Ally X and Lenovo’s alternative, the Legion Go 2, which should get that upgraded Windows interface at some point. There are plenty of options from other suppliers too, albeit less likely to show up on a retail shelf. With something this expensive, and with a satisfaction this dependent on how it physically feels, I’d make liberal use of a Best Buy demo unit if I had the option.

Our data is a precious commodity, not only to us but to the many potential customers of data brokers who collect and sell it without our knowledge. Once obtained the information can then be used to market products at us, assess our suitability for jobs or financial services, and even whether we qualify for certain healthcare coverage. The worst part is that we’re often unaware of the data being amassed and sold, as it all happens behind our back. Thankfully, you don’t have to be at the mercy of these practices, as there are services that can help you have your data removed and then prevent it from being collected again. So, if you want to keep your information secure, you’re going to need a little help.

What are data brokers?

As we’ve already outlined, data brokers collect information from websites, services and other companies, then package it to be sold to the highest bidder. It’s a legal practice, but not one that feels fair to consumers or in their best interests.

There are two main types – public and private. You may have seen public ones, as they come in the form of people search sites where you can look up a surprising amount of information about individuals – often including their address and contact details.

Then there are the private brokers. These collate the personal information of people and offer them to range of sectors, including marketing, risk-mitigation (for insurance companies, healthcare, etc.), recruitment (providing background information on candidates), and financial (data on whether you should be offered accounts, loans or other services).

A report from the BBC, including video footage obtained from a call centre in India, showed the scammers that worked there laughing about their victims in the UK and USA. One recounted how he’d forced a woman to hand over her last $100, leaving her in tears. How does this relate to data brokers? The truth is that scammers don’t pick phone numbers at random. They buy your data from brokers. Once your data is out there, it’s not just calls. It’s phishing, impersonation, and identity theft.

How can I stop data brokers selling my information?

This is no easy task, as there are many private brokers and obviously your data is part of their business model. So, getting them to remove your information can be difficult. That’s where Incogni can give you a massive advantage, with its deep knowledge of the industry and how it works.

Incogni specialises in helping customers regain control of their personal data by automatically removing listings from over 420 data brokers, both private and public. On its Unlimited plan, customers can also send custom removal requests in additional to the standard ones, where they point out particular websites and Incogni handles the removal of the data. With over 1,000 unique sites already addressed on behalf of customers, alongside the 420+ standard scans, plus over 245 million successful data removal requests so far, you know that Incogni is a company you can trust to get the job done. This is borne out by the fact that it’s also the first data removal service to have its commercial claims verified by a Big Four auditing service.

The process of removing data is very simple. After setting up an account on the Incogni site, the service will run a scan on people search sites to find your personal information, then send removal requests. Next, requests are sent to the private brokers (something which is not always offered on other services without upgraded to a higher tier).

If needed, follow up requests are sent after 60 days (public brokers) or 90 days (private brokers), with Incogni boasting an impressive 99% confirmation of removal requests. The company then re-scans the sites and sends fresh requests so that customers won’t have their data collected again. While this is going on, Incogni keeps you up to date with individual progress reports.

The approach of constant monitoring and recurring removal requests prevents brokers from sneakily re-adding your information again. This means that even if it does reappear, Incogni’s on-going process will take it down again, keeping your privacy safe.

Invest in your privacy with Incogni

The cost of having your data sold can be high but protecting it is very affordable with Incogni. Prices start at $7.99/£5.99 p/m and there are also plans for up to 5 people if you want to protect the privacy of your family. There’s a 30-day money back guarantee and you can cancel at any time.

To celebrate Cybersecurity Awareness Month in October, Incogni is running special promotions with major discounts off its subscription prices. So, be sure to check the site throughout the month to grab a fantastic deal.

Don’t let secretive companies track and report on you to make themselves money. Instead, take control again with Incogni. After all, data brokers can’t sell what they don’t have.

As you browse the internet and sign up to sites or services, you’re actually leaving behind a trail of personal information. This can then be packaged up and sold to various parties, with results that can impact applications to jobs, financial services or even healthcare. Just try Googling your name and you may find a shocking amount of data about you that’s available to anyone for free or at a small cost.

So, is this just the price of using online services, or should you be worried about how this information could affect your life?

How does your personal data become available?

One of the main currencies of the internet is information. This means that when you join a new site or service, there’s a good chance that elements of the data you provide could be sold to data brokers. These companies can then put together the information they glean from various sources to build a profile on you, which is then either made available on people search sites or sold to a range of interested customers.

What harm comes with having personal data online?

Not only does this have potential risks to your privacy and safety, as anyone could get access to things like your phone number, businesses you own, or other contact details.  But it could also work against you in a number of ways.

Data brokers can sell your data to financial bodies such as banks and insurance companies, who might decide that you’re too much of a risk for loans, credit cards or mortgages.

Recruitment consultants can go to brokers for background checks on potential employees, all without your consent.

Healthcare providers can also approach brokers as part of their risk-mitigation, which could result in you being refused treatment or cover.

The problem is that the information they are using to appraise you might not be accurate or at least could be missing the context in which it would make more sense. But you never see it and wouldn’t even know that the checks had taken place.

How to I remove my personal data from the web?

To protect yourself from this scary situation it’s best to employ the services of a professional data broker information removal service. These have the best resources, knowledge of the industry, and know what legal and procedural approach to take when getting your data erased.

One of the leading companies in the field is Incogni, with over 245 million successful data removal requests executed so far. Its streamlined service makes the whole experience effortless. All you do is sign up for an account, ask Incogni to run a scan, then it takes care of the rest.

The service automatically removes your data from over 420 brokers (both private and public), then regularly re-scans the sites to ensure that your information doesn’t get added again. If it does, then Incogni removes the information can remains vigilant on your behalf. This constant monitoring and removal means you can feel safe that your data isn’t going to reappear the moment your back is turned.

If you use the Unlimited plan, then there’s the option to create custom requests, pointing Incogni to specific sites that host your data so it can be removed. Over 1,000 unique websites have already been addressed in this way, and Incogni constantly works to increase its scope in order to protect customers’ data.

Incogni never sells, trades or shares customer information, and it’s the first data removal service to have its commercial claims verified by a Big Four auditing service. This means you can trust Incogni to work on your behalf.

Keep your personal data private

Signing up to Incogni only costs $7.99/£5.99 p/m for a single account and there are also plans available for up to 5 people. Plus, there’s a 30-day money back guarantee and you can cancel at any time.

To celebrate Cybersecurity Awareness Month in October, Incogni is running special promotions, with large discounts on its normal subscription prices. So, keep an eye on the Incogni site throughout October if you want to pick up a bargain. 

Don’t let that job, loan or health cover get away because of information about you that you can’t control. Instead, let Incogni clean up your online presence so you can take back your privacy once more.

If you’ve only just adopted Windows 11, one of the things that will jump out at you is the placement of the Start button on the desktop. It’s now towards the middle of the screen.

I actually like it in the center position, because it’s easier to orientate my searches without having to drag my mouse pointer all the way to the side of the screen. That said, not everyone feels the same way. It bugs some long-time users of Windows 10 who are used to the far left-hand side placement. But fret not, because you can change it back to the left in just a few clicks.

What to do:

• Right click on the taskbar and select Taskbar settings.
• Find the submenu “Taskbar behaviors” and click the dropdown arrow next to it.
• Now next to “Taskbar alignment” change Center to Left. Close the window and watch your taskbar magically shift position.

And voila! Your taskbar should be back in left-hand placement. Don’t worry if you’re not sold on it being there, because you can always change it back again in a jiffy. If you’re coming to Windows 11 due to Windows 10’s end of support, you can find more helpful tips like this in our Windows 11 guide for Windows 10 refugees.

That’s all for this Try This. If you want more tips like this one sent to your inbox each week be sure to sign-up to our PCWorld Try This newsletter.

No operating system is without its merits, and that includes Windows 11, even as much as I complain about Microsoft’s latest operating system. Its handful of useful features continues to grow as time goes on, with more and more being rolled out every year.

But with helpful utilities and settings trickling out slowly, it’s easy to miss a few here and there, especially when the flashier features hog the news headlines. We’ve pulled out 10 features that we don’t think get enough love—if you’ve heard of them and haven’t tried them yet, now’s the time.

Further reading: The Windows 11 survival guide for Windows 10 refugees

Notepad tabs

Notepad actually predates Windows, but it’s still fully relevant (and useful!) today. The streamlined app lets you open a window to make quick notes. And in Windows 11, you can now manage and navigate between open files in a single window, thanks to the addition of tabs. It’s far tidier than opening a new instance of Notepad for each file—and combined with the new dark mode, it makes the app look and feel modern.

Widgets

Windows 11 makes a wealth of info available with just one mouse click (or quick tap of Win + W). Right now you can get weather, stock prices, sports updates, and entertainment news, and those cards are slowly being joined by new additions, like for Xbox Game Pass. It’s a much easier way to stay up to date than fully shifting to a browser and poking around in your tabs.

Screen recording

Previous versions of Windows had a Snipping Tool app, but you could only take screenshots. In Windows 11, screen recording finally gets added—and unlike Windows’ Xbox Game Bar’s recording feature, you can use it to capture specific parts of your screen. If you serve as informal tech support for family and friends, this feature can make your life a lot easier when explaining how to tinker with an app or in Windows. (Note: You’ll have to open the full Snipping Tool app for screen recording—it doesn’t appear in the Win + Shift + S keyboard shortcut overlay.)

Quick Assist

If your loved ones can manage unfamiliar but basic interactions with a PC, a Windows Pro license isn’t necessary to provide them remote support. You can have them fire up Quick Assist instead. (Remember this app from Windows 10? It’s still around in Windows 11.) Once in the program, they’ll log in to their Microsoft account, and then generate a six-digit code to send to you. You’ll input that code into Quick Assist on your PC, at which point you can then see what’s happening on their end, and even request full control of their PC.

Clock info

If you’ve needed more precision in your clock readout on the Windows 11 taskbar, you’re in luck. You can now add seconds to the display—but you’ll have to head to taskbar settings to flip it on, rather than your date and time settings. Under Taskbar behaviors, scroll to the bottom of the list and check the box for Show seconds in system tray clock.

File Explorer tabs

Microsoft didn’t just add tabs to Notepad. File Explorer got the upgrade, too. You no longer need third-party software to enable the feature (like Stardock’s excellent Groupy). All your numerous Explorer windows can now be grouped as tabs in a single container. Just click the “+” button in the top-most menu bar (or hit Ctrl + T on your keyboard)—each new tab will appear along the top of the window, just like a web browser.

Fast Snap Bar access

Snap is one of our favorite features in Windows—being able to automatically resize and align windows saves time and makes working a lot easier. And not only do you get more layouts to choose from in Windows 11, but you can access them faster, too. Just hover your mouse over the maximize button in the upper right-hand corner of any window. A small pop-up menu will appear showing six different template options. Roll your cursor over any of the grids, and your current window will get sent to that position. Keyboard users can instead tap Win + Z, then the number of the layout they want.

Further reading: 12 handy Windows shortcuts you probably don’t know

Power savings

Energy costs keep climbing—and in some parts of the world, they’re still at record prices. While you can of course switch your power plan in Windows to something lighter, Windows 11 has a few specific settings you can turn on to reduce idle power consumption. (After all, why pay for the higher electricity use when you’re not active on the PC?) You’ll find these under Settings > System > Power & battery > Energy recommendations. You can then turn on one or more of the suggestions. These more stringent settings will help extend battery life on laptops, too.

Virtual desktops

This feature might be one of the most underrated in Windows. Virtual desktops, which first launched in Windows 10, let you spread your active apps and windows among different home screens—it reduces clutter and makes your primary desktop less overwhelming. Some people use their virtual desktops to separate out work from play (or research from daily tasks), while others separate programs by category or function. Navigating between your desktops is as fast as clicking on the Virtual Desktop taskbar icon or tapping Win + Ctrl + Left/Right Arrow.

Clipchamp

Davinci Resolve is great if you need deep video editing capabilities, but Microsoft has an alternative free option that’s easier to jump into. Clipchamp can handle quick cuts, fades, and media insertions with ease, and the interface is far less intimidating. It also handles direct uploads to services like YouTube and TikTok, as well as cloud saves for OneDrive, Google Drive, and Dropbox. Combine this program with the built-in recording features in Windows (i.e., Xbox Game Bar or Snipping Tool) and you can be on your way to internet fame quickly.

It’s been a few months since I started using Starlink for home internet. And apart from some minor flaws and complaints—like weak upload speeds and the occasional global service outage—I have to admit it’s generally better than I expected it to be.

One of the best things about Starlink is how normal it feels. Once you get it set up, it behaves just like regular internet: it’s fast, effective, and perfectly suitable for gaming and other latency-sensitive tasks.

No, Starlink isn’t right for everyone. But it is good for what it is! In fact, here are some of the ways I find it even better than conventional home broadband internet (including ADSL, cable, and fiber).

TL;DR: Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2019 for Windows is just $19.97 (MSRP $229) through October 19 only — one payment, no subscription fees, all the essential apps you already use every day.

Why rent MS Office every month when you can just own it? For $19.97, you can score a lifetime license to Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2019 for Windows. That gets you Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Publisher, Access, and OneNote, forever, no ongoing subscription fees required.

This is one of Microsoft’s most widely used Office versions for good reason. It’s stable, streamlined, and packed with the features that everyday users, business owners, freelancers, and spreadsheet wizards rely on.

Whether you’re managing invoices, writing your next pitch deck, editing a résumé, or organizing your inbox like a boss, Office 2019 is built to make your life easier.

Once installed on your Windows PC, it’s good to go with—no recurring costs, no cloud dependency (thank goodness), and no fuss.

Plus, this version’s got some sweet upgrades: better inking across apps, more data analysis in Excel, improved email handling in Outlook, and sleek new transitions in PowerPoint.

Don’t miss getting lifetime access to Microsoft Office 2019 while it’s just $19.97 (MSRP $229) until October 19 at 11:59 p.m. PT. No coupon is needed.

Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2019 for WindowsSee Deal

StackSocial prices subject to change.

When I build a PC, I like it to look like a stylish little refrigerator, or possibly a mid-century speaker with wood paneling. But just because I don’t do the RGB-bedazzled, action-figures-behind-the-tempered-glass thing for myself doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate it when I see it—and this new Cooler Master case might be perfect for such a build.

The Cooler Master MasterFrame360 isn’t exactly new. We spotted a version of it at Computex 2025, showing off PC guts from almost every angle. But Cooler Master is now selling a limited edition, pre-configured PC with a Ryzen 9800X3D and RTX 5080 setup, and according to a leak from Hardware & Co via VideoCardz, the company is preparing to sell the ATX case on its own very soon. That means it’s time to dust off your most impressive and most financially devastating Gundam showpiece and stick it right in that featured front compartment.

The MasterFrame 360 will reportedly come in three flavors: the fully transparent “panorama” edition we saw at Computex, a “Stage Mirror” version with a more standard black enclosure, and a “Stage LCD” version with a big 15.6-inch screen backing the “stage” area. Whatever you’re showing off on that front shelf—I’m picturing Hatsune Miku with the LCD-bedecked version, specifically—it’ll be lit up by dedicated RGB spotlights. A transparent front panel appears to be optional if you need some extra space for, say, protruding plastic guns or wings.

Aside from the stage, it looks like a fairly standard case design, with an included GPU riser and a triple-slot area for dedicated vertical mounting. It can handle cards up to 430mm long.

Reportedly, pricing will be $200 USD for the transparent and mirror versions and $300 for the LCD-packing edition, with shipping planned for later this year… which should give you juuuuuuust enough time to finish up that MG Epyon EW Special Coating and track down all the matching Asus parts you can.

Mozilla is testing a free, integrated VPN service within Firefox that will complement its existing paid Mozilla VPN service.

A support page from Mozilla reveals that the company has been working on an “IP concealment” technology for over two weeks. However, Mozilla has since renamed the page “Firefox VPN” to show off the new experimental, beta feature present in the browser. Mozilla says that the technology will be free, but it’s only being offered to a small, randomly chosen set of test users.

The free VPN service will apparently complement the paid Mozilla VPN service that Mozilla already offers. Our tests, however, found Mozilla’s paid VPN service somewhat wanting.

Integrating a VPN service into the browser has been a feature of niche browsers for years — including Mozilla. In 2019, Mozilla began testing the Firefox Private Network, a VPN-like service that obscured the user’s IP address. The trial was part of a beta program, and the technology was never really commercialized. Opera, too, launched a more sophisticated integrated VPN service. In March, Vivaldi teamed up with Proton for an integrated VPN into the browser, as well.

Mozilla’s VPN effort will route your web traffic through Mozilla-managed VPN servers, and you’ll need a Mozilla account to access it. “Web traffic originated in Firefox will be routed through the most performant VPN location available, within the United States,” Mozilla says, and the feature can be toggled on and off.

Firefox says that it hasn’t assigned any usage limits to the new feature, and that it won’t affect your browsing speed, either. If you do subscribe to the paid Mozilla VPN service, however, you should delete the free VPN option to avoid duplication, the company says.

As for data collection, Mozilla says that it collects only the technical data needed to keep Firefox VPN reliable and secure,” it said. “For example, we may log whether a connection succeeded or failed, or record that your account used 2GB of data on a certain day.”

After three months, logs linked to your account are deleted. However, Mozilla said that it will never log the sites you visit or keep track of the content you download.

GHacks was among the first to report the new Mozilla feature.

You’ve installed a camera to keep an eye on your front door. One afternoon a package goes missing, so you check the footage. Sure enough, someone walks up, grabs the box, and disappears. But as you scrub through the video, something else jumps out—a private moment in your neighbor’s yard. Through a narrow gap in the fence, your camera has captured them having a heated argument. Or maybe something more personal.

In one 30-second clip, you’ve caught someone breaking the law–but you might also have broken one yourself.

Smart cameras are everywhere now—mounted on porches, tucked under eaves, perched on fences, and watching over driveways, garages, and balconies. They’re cheaper, easier to install, and produce sharper video than ever. But with that convenience comes a degree of legal uncertainty. Can you record anything your camera sees? What about what it hears? Can a neighbor make you take it down? And what if you rent instead of own?

We’ll break down what the law actually says about surveillance at home—what’s legally allowable, where things get complicated, and how to protect your home without accidentally violating someone else’s privacy.

Video vs. audio: Same camera, very different laws

Your security camera might look like a single device, but the law treats it as two. One set of rules for video, another for audio. And the difference can get you into trouble if you’re not familiar with both.

There’s no single federal law that spells out where you can and can’t point a security camera. Instead, video recording is governed by a mix of state voyeurism statutes and civil privacy claims such as intrusion upon seclusion. The key principle courts use when deciding if surveillance crossed a legal line is the “reasonable expectation of privacy.”

If someone can be seen from the street—in your driveway, porch, or front yard—you’re usually fine recording it. But if your camera peers through a window into a bedroom, bathroom, or anywhere else in the interior of a neighboring home–or even into its fenced-off yard–that’s where the law says people have a right to privacy. Courts have allowed claims in these situations, and state laws–like this one in California–are often written to enable such claims.

Audio is much more clear-cut because it’s covered by federal and state wiretap laws. At the federal level, the Wiretap Act (18 U.S.C. § 2511) bans secretly intercepting conversations but follows a one-party consent rule: if you’re part of the conversation, or one particpant agrees, it’s legal.

Eleven states—including California, Florida, and Massachusetts—go further with all-party consent laws. In those places, recording without every participant’s knowledge is illegal. That means your doorbell camera could be breaking the law just by picking up porch chatter.

What about neighbors and shared spaces?

Just because your camera can see into your neighbor’s yard doesn’t mean you’re breaking the law. Again, if the area is plainly visible from your porch, deck, or upstairs window, it’s generally fair game to capture it incidentally. The key word there is incidentally.

The trouble starts when cameras are purposely aimed at private spaces, like a backyard hot tub, a bedroom window, or a fenced-in patio. If it looks like you’re using a security camera to monitor someone else’s life, not your own property, you could face legal pushback.

Shared spaces get even murkier. If you and your neighbor use the same driveway, walkway, or fence line, recording those areas could land you in a gray area. Technically, it might be legal, but it depends on local laws and on whether your camera becomes a source of tension. In some cities and states, nuisance or harassment laws can apply even when surveillance is otherwise allowed.

So, if a neighbor raises concerns, don’t brush them off. You might be within your rights, but it’s often easier to shift a camera angle than start a feud.

Apartments and multi-unit dwellings

Things get trickiest when you don’t control the entire property. In apartments, condos, or duplexes, shared spaces come with shared rules and you can’t just stick up a camera wherever you want.

Generally, you can’t install personal security cameras in common indoor areas like hallways, laundry rooms, or lobbies without permission from the landlord or homeowners’ association. Even doorbell cams can be a problem if they capture too much shared space or record audio.

If you’re a renter, check your lease. Some spell out what kind of equipment is allowed, if any. Others ban cameras altogether in shared zones, especially if audio is involved.

That said, landlords and HOAs can legally monitor common areas if they give proper notice. Posted signs that say something like “This area is under video and audio surveillance” typically reduce legal risk and might satisfy notice requirements in many states.

Tips for legal, respectful surveillance

If you’re going to use security cameras, use them smartly. Most of the legal trouble people get into isn’t because they intended to break the law, it’s because they didn’t give enough thought to where they were putting the camera. These quick dos and don’ts will help you stay on the right side of the law and your neighbors.

Do:

• Keep cameras visible. Hidden cameras feel sneaky and can raise legal red flags, especially indoors.
• Post a sign. Some camera manufacturers like Ring offer branded signage, but if yours doesn’t, you can buy generic “Audio and Video Recording in Use” signs online or at hardware stores. A simple notice can defuse tension and in some states, help with legal compliance.
• Point your cameras where they belong. Stick to your own entryways, driveway, and yard. Avoid anything that could be considered a private space.
• Know your state’s audio laws. If you live in an all-party consent state, disable audio recording unless you have clear permission.
• Use your camera’s privacy features to block your neighbors doors and windows.
• Consider showing your neighbor the view from your camera if their property is in its field of view. Point out the privacy screens you’ve put in place.
• Remind a neighbor who objects to your camera because their property is in its field of view that the camera could capture an intruder lurking around their home as well yours.

Don’t:

• Spy on your neighbors. Even if you think it’s harmless, courts might not agree.
• Share clips of other people without consent. This is particularly true for recordings that capture private conversations.
• Install cameras in shared spaces without written permission. For renters, that includes common areas such as hallways.

Lock it down

• Use strong passwords, enable two-factor authentication, and keep your camera firmware up to date.
• A hacked camera doesn’t just compromise your security, it could end up leaking footage that gets you sued.

The surveillance age needs boundaries

Smart cameras are now as much a part of home security as locks and porch lights. But having the ability to record everything doesn’t mean you should. The line between safety and snooping usually comes down to common sense: Why are you recording? Where is the camera pointed? Do people know it’s there?

When you’re not sure where the boundary is, here’s a simple gut check: Would I be okay being recorded in this exact situation?

If you’re not, then the person on the other side of the lens probably isn’t either.

Google Search is a prime example of a service that was once the best in the world but has since been bled by a thousand cuts into something that’s more frustrating than useful. It seems that somebody at Google got the message, because the company now says it’s working on making its all-pervasive search advertising a little less annoying.

It doesn’t say so in as many words, of course. According to the Google Ads & Commerce Blog (spotted by PCMag), it’s a move meant for “improving navigation and introducing a new control.” The new look groups all of the text-based links that are paid for into a single “Sponsored results” section, which can be collapsed by clicking or pressing a button. The new look is coming to Search on desktop and mobile, “currently rolling out globally.”

I don’t see the new interface on my own desktop or phone when I use Google Search yet, but even as an admitted Google curmudgeon as of late, I think it’s a step in the right direction. The fact that the biggest chunk of Google’s initial results is advertising that seems (in my entirely subjective opinion) designed to fool you at a casual glance is a big problem. The new look doesn’t totally reverse the trend—it’s still a list of blue links, and you’re still going to have to either click or scroll to get to the results you actually searched for—but it’s an improvement, and you don’t even have to swear at it.

That said, it’ll take a lot more to win me back from DuckDuckGo. The fact that “AI Mode” and LLM-generated results are still the very first tab in Google Search’s interface, even while they tell you that the information they provide might be wrong, doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence. I also wonder what spurred this change that seems less than totally aligned with Google’s advertising trends… possibly some increased regulatory scrutiny on Google ads in the United States and Europe.

One of the main concerns I have whenever I toss a cable into a bag is that it’s going to get damaged by whatever else is in there. Well, with this Baseus retractable USB-C cable, I don’t have to worry about that! And now that it’s on sale for $15.19 on Amazon (20% off), it’s an excellent time to stock up on a few. Don’t worry, these are future-proof!

Let’s start with the coolest thing about this cable: it’s retractable. That’s right. It’s tiny and compact when you aren’t using it, then stretches out to a maximum length of 6.6 feet. Or you can use it at one of its many preset lengths: 1.9 feet, 3.1 feet, 4.1 feet, 4.9 feet, 5.7 feet, and 6.2 feet. Just tug on it when you’re done and it rolls back onto itself.

It’s fast, too, providing up to 100W of power. With a proper 100W charging block, you can fast-charge your phone, tablet, laptop, earbuds, or whatever else in mere minutes rather than hours. That makes it perfectly versatile for so many device types and it’ll serve you well for many years to come.

What’s not to love about this nifty little accessory? Grab this retractable 100W Baseus USB-C cable for $15.19 before this deal goes away! This is, by the way, the cheapest price it’s ever been. Nice!

It's fast, it's retractable, and it's never been cheaper before

A VPN, or virtual private network, is one of the best tools you can use to boost your online privacy and security. But in the vast ocean of available services, it can be exhausting trying to find the best VPN for your needs. Thankfully, we here at PCWorld are VPN experts and we’re sharing decades of our expert knowledge to aid you in your search.

When looking for the best VPN, you’ll want to consider a few things: First and foremost, does it have a good privacy record; how are its average connection speeds; is it able to effectively and consistently unblock streaming services; and finally, does it have a large enough server network for your location needs? All of my curated picks below deliver these essentials and more.

Why you should trust PCWorld for VPN reviews and buying advice: Here at PCWorld we’ve been testing computer hardware, software, and services since the 1980s. As reviewers and users of PC hardware and software, we put every product through its paces using rigorous benchmarking and hands-on evaluation. We’d never recommend something we wouldn’t want for ourselves.

Other VPNs we liked

While we believe that the above VPNs are currently the best money can buy, there are a few other noteworthy services that deserve attention: PrivadoVPN is a strong overall service, but the free version of the VPN really stands out and is second only to Proton VPN. Windscribe Pro offers great security, with both a Windows client and browser extension that work in tandem to block ads while keeping your browsing private and its free version is a good option for everyday activities. Hide.me is a well-rounded service that ticks almost every box and the fantastic array of configurable settings make it a power-user’s dream. U.S.-based IPVanish nails all of the basics: decent speeds, a large global server network, and privacy promises backed up with independent audits. TunnelBear is an undeniably charming VPN that is extremely easy to use, and doesn’t overwhelm with too many features or country options, which makes it ideal for VPN novices or those who aren’t the most tech-savvy.

I’m continuously evaluating new VPNs and reevaluating services I’ve already tested on a regular basis, so be sure to come back for more recommendations and to see what else we’ve put through their paces.

Can I get a better VPN deal?

Here at PCWorld, we are regularly hunting down the best VPN deals to help you get the most bang for your buck. VPN services are frequently running deals throughout the year, so you should have a few chances to snag your favorite VPN on a steep discount if you can time it right.

While the prices for all VPNs on this list are updated daily, they do not account for special deals or offers. It’s best to keep checking our deals article to see what new limited-time discounts are on offer each week. Additionally, sales events such as Amazon Prime Day in mid-July and Black Friday at the end of November provide excellent opportunities to find even cheaper VPN deals.

How to choose the best VPN

One of the first things you should look for when shopping around for a VPN is the number of servers and locations. It’s difficult to judge any VPN by just one feature, but a semi-reliable way to tell if a VPN is even worth your time is to look at the server network. Anything with 1,000 or more servers and 30 or more country locations will do.

Speed

The next thing to consider is a VPN’s speed. This may be tricky to do since you aren’t likely to be able to test connection speeds without paying to use the service. Reading reviews online will give you a general estimate. Look for reviews, like ours, that give you a relative average of connection speeds rather than direct Mbps speed comparisons, for a more accurate picture.

Privacy

You’ll also want to read up on a VPN’s privacy protections. Does it have a no-logs policy? Has it undergone any independent audits of its servers? Where is the VPN company located? All of these will give you an idea of whether or not a VPN is transparent with its data collection policies and if it’s subject to government data sharing requirements.

Price

As with all subscription services, you’ll want to review the price of a VPN service. Do you want a monthly or yearly subscription? Some top VPNs might be pricey month-to-month, but actually become quite affordable with long-term plans.

Additional features

Other factors you’ll want to take into consideration are the overall ease-of-use, user experience, and any additional features. Some of these features, such as split-tunneling and kill switches, can be extremely useful for certain purposes and might sway your subscription decision one way or the other.

There are a lot of people looking to upgrade to Windows 11 right now… and apparently a lot of them are having trouble doing so. Because one of the most popular methods for moving from Windows 10 to the new operating system—Microsoft’s official Media Creation Tool—has a debilitating bug in its latest release. Whoops!

If you’re unaware, the Media Creation Tool is a super-simple way to download a small program from Microsoft and bake it onto a USB drive that can then be used to install a copy of Windows on a PC. It’s an excellent method for installing fresh and starting from scratch, especially if you need to do so for another computer, say, in aid of family tech support. The Media Creation Tool has been around in various flavors for years, and it’s periodically updated as a separate piece of software… and the latest update has broken it for some users on Windows 10.

That’s according to Microsoft itself, who filed it as a bug on October 10th (that’s 11 days after the tool was updated). According to the official “Known Issues” page for Windows (spotted by Windows Latest), Windows 10 machines on the 22H2 release are seeing the tool “close unexpectedly, displaying no error message.”

The fact that this was an update to the tool that immediately preceded the self-imposed deadline that Microsoft set for a Windows 11 upgrade is unfortunate (or hilarious, depending on your point of view). Oh, and despite being nominally the “second half of 2022” release according to the name, 22H2 is, in fact, the latest full version of Windows 10. It’s the one that you need to be on if you want to be eligible for that extra year of security updates from Microsoft.

It seems unlikely that this issue is affecting the majority of Windows 10 users who are downloading the Media Creation Tool, if only because it took more than a week for Microsoft to officially comment on the situation. And there are plenty of other ways to upgrade if that’s what you want to do, not least of which is to just borrow a Windows 11 machine, where the tool seems to be working fine. You could also just download the ISO and create a bootable flash drive the old-fashioned way.

But yeah, it’s not a great look in a situation that was already looking pretty not-great. Since the problem has been documented on the Known Issues page, I imagine someone at Microsoft is scrambling to resolve it as you read these words.

Apple TV+ is now plain-old Apple TV, Apple told us yesterday. Confusing? Not for most. Indeed, Apple TV+’s dropping of the “+” was as inevitable as Max getting the “HBO” back.

First, the news: In its announcement that the Brad Pitt blockbuster F1: The Movie will make its debut on Apple TV+ in December, Apple casually noted that as of now, Apple TV+ isn’t Apple TV+ anymore. 

“Apple TV+ is now simply Apple TV, with a vibrant new identity,” Apple’s press release reads. What’s the new identity, you ask? Aside from a new and multicolor Apple TV logo, that’s hard to say. 

Those of us who follow the streaming industry greeted the news with furrowed brows. So Apple TV the streaming service is now on Apple TV, the streaming box? Isn’t that kind of confusing? Yes, the Apple TV streaming player is officially known as “Apple TV 4K,” but still. 

Well, it’s details like the “+” and the “4K” that cause headaches when it comes to clear and consistent branding, and the truth is most folks haven’t bothered with the “plus” for a long time. Severance, The Studio, The Morning Show, Ted Lasso—those are all Apple TV shows, according to everyday streamers. 

Sometimes, simplicity and familiarity are best. Take HBO Max, which went through a three-year-old rebranding drama that saw the service renamed as “Max,” a change that was mainly driven by the now-unraveling alliance between the former WarnerMedia and Discovery. 

Warner Bros. Discovery likely spent a fortune trying to get the Max branding to stick, but most subscribers just kept calling it HBO Max. Finally, the entertainment giant stopped swimming against the tide and restored the old name. 

Same goes with Paramount, which yanked the “Showtime” branding from its Paramount+ streaming tiers back in June. Starting in 2022 with Paramount’s plan to blend Showtime content into its Paramount+ service, the streaming had a number of different “with Showtime” tiers, leading to confusion and some very ungainly streaming plan names.  

Ultimately, Paramount relented, ditching the “Showtime” branding for the streaming version of Paramount+ (there’s still a linear Paramount+ with Showtime channel). Now it’s just Paramount+ Essential and Paramount+ Premium, which (incidentally) both include Showtime shows. Again, it’s a change that only the suits and industry watchers cared about. 

So yes, Apple TV+ is now just Apple TV, although for most it’s always been Apple TV. But what about Apple TV—you know, the streaming box? 

Well, there’s an interesting theory making the rounds that a new—and renamed—Apple TV will clear up any lingering confusion. The Apple TV Max, maybe? Apple TV Pro? Or maybe a name that ditches the “TV” altogether, like the Apple Streamer or the Apple Hub (a smart home hub plus video streamer). 

It’s not clear exactly when a new Apple TV—or a new Apple Streaming Whatever—will arrive (it’s reportedly coming soonish, if not this week), but when it does, the whole “Apple TV+ is now Apple TV” issue might become moot. 

Today, October 14th, officially marks the end of full support for Windows 10, a whopping decade after Microsoft debuted the operating system. You’re probably aware of this already, as Microsoft has been begging, pleading, cajoling, and not-quite-demanding that Windows 10 users switch over to Windows 11 by upgrading to a new device or updating their operating system (if their hardware supports it).

But if you haven’t done anything about it yet, you probably should. Here’s a quick summary of what you need to know and what to do about it.

Price When Reviewed

$52.56

Best Prices Today: IPVanish VPN

IPVanish in brief:

• P2P allowed: Yes
• Unlimited device connections: Yes
• Business location: United States
• Number of servers: 3,100+
• Number of country locations: 148
• Cost: $12.99 per month, $33.99 for 1-year, or $52.56 for a 2-year subscription

Very few VPN services actually own their own server networks and that’s where IPVanish stands out. Instead of relying on commercial server farms, U.S.-based IPVanish prides itself on running its own hardware and servers. It’s not just this that helps it stand out though; IPVanish has a lot going for it and continues to improve upon itself with each passing year.

Recently, IPVanish has made a big push to add features and services that help it compete with the very best in the VPN market. In my latest testing, I took IPVanish for another spin to see if its worth your money.

Read on to learn more, then see our roundup of the best VPN services for comparison.

What are IPVanish’s features and services?

What’s new with IPVanish?

Since my last review, IPVanish has been busy implementing sweeping upgrades across nearly every facet of its service. 

It has added 700 new servers and begun transitioning many of its servers to RAM-only servers. Currently, it has switched 500 of its servers—roughly one-sixth—to RAM-only and plans to continue this in the future.

Additionally, IPVanish has expanded its membership options by adding an “Advanced” tier with access to 1TB of cloud storage and its latest secure browser. IPVanish has also added double-hop (or multi-hop) connections for all members to its Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android apps. 

The service has also gone through an additional independent no-log audit in February 2025 and has begun quarterly transparency reports.

IPVanish hands-on

At first blush, IPVanish has a clean, if rather dark interface—dark mode is enabled by default. The initial home screen you’re presented with is a split-screen dashboard showing a world map with server location pins to the right and connection info to the left. 

The connection info box displays basic information about your connection including the server location, IP address, connection status, protocol used, and data up and down. While it may not have any fancy design flair, the interface is intuitive and easy to parse.

There is a toolbar on the left of the application’s interface with options for Locations, Secure Browser, Link Checker, Settings, Info, and Account. Under the Locations tab, you’re able to access more detailed information about each server including its ping, load (amount of server utilization from current user connections), and number of servers available in that location. It also has a helpful filtering mechanism that allows you to find the servers with the least ping or load. For those who want the optimum connection this is great info to have and I wish more VPNs would have the courage to display it.

IPVanish recently upgraded its network to now include over 3,100 servers all over the world to choose from on IPVanish—nearly a 30 percent increase from last year. It has added new server locations as well and the company has begun the process of switching its entire network to RAM-only servers. RAM-only servers enhance user privacy and security by erasing all data with each server reboot meaning there is no persistent data for malicious actors to retrieve.

In fact, IPVanish has continued to make great strides in recent years to update and optimize its services. From rolling out apps for more platforms to adding features such as a secure browser and double-hop; the service is obviously working hard to not only keep up with the rest of the market, but innovate as well.

Other notable improvements include broader kill-switch and split-tunneling support for all major platforms. Split tunneling is a useful feature that allows you to pick and choose which apps you wish to run through the encrypted VPN connection and which to exclude. This can allow you to optimize app connections for both speed (outside the VPN) and privacy (inside the VPN).

IPVanish also rolled out a browser extension for Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Opera, Brave, and Vivaldi in the last year—something that was sorely needed. 

The VPN service now comes with the ability to establish double-hop (also known as multi-hop) connections. This allows you greater privacy by routing your connection through more than one VPN server thereby increasing obfuscation of your home IP address. 

While more and more VPNs are offering this feature, not many allow you to pick and choose your entry and exit servers like IPVanish does. This flexibility is really nice to have, and I must admit they went above and beyond what I was expecting when I recommended that they add this feature in my last review.

IPVanish does come with an antivirus program called VIPRE which will block malware and other threats on your computer. While this is helpful, I personally recommend that you elect for standalone antivirus software instead as it will provide more comprehensive security and protection.

IPVanish is obviously working hard to not only keep up with the rest of the market, but innovate as well.

The recent release of IPVanish’s Secure Browser feature struck me a bit by surprise. Not that I don’t like it—the idea is actually really cool—I just didn’t expect that this type of thing would be produced by a VPN company.

The Secure Browser runs a browser in a sandbox environment in the cloud, enabling users to interact via a video feed. The benefit here is that it stops viruses, digital fingerprinting, and other forms of snooping as no data reaches your device. IPVanish states that all activity is deleted from its servers as soon as you close the session. While the latest successful independent audit would seemingly verify this claim, there is nothing that I could find specific in the audit that distinguishes the Secure Browser data from that of the rest of the VPN’s user data; so take from that what you will. 

IPVanish is available Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, Linux, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, certain routers, and most major browsers.

How much does IPVanish cost?

IPVanish offers two membership tiers, Essential and Advanced, in monthly, 1-year, or 2-year plans. The month-to-month rate for the Essential tier is $12.99 per month and the Advanced Tier is $14.99 per month. This is undeniably on the high side and comparable to ExpressVPN and NordVPN, two of our favorite services here at PCWorld. Considering all of the extra features you get with these competitor services, it seems hard to justify paying for IPVanish based on its monthly rate.

The 1-year rate is a much more reasonable $39.99 ($2.79 per month) for Essential and $53.88 ($4.49 per month) for Advanced. It will then renew at $89.99 per year after that. The 2-year plan will run you an even cheaper $52.56 ($2.19 per month) for Essential and $78.96 ($3.29 per month) for Advanced. After the initial term for either the 1-year or 2-year plans, it will renew at $89.99 per year for Essential or $109.99 per year for Advanced.

Thankfully, the prices for these longer-term plans are much more reasonable and end up being cheaper than many competitors.

For Android and iOS users, IPVanish offers a 7-day free trial. This is unfortunately not available for Windows users. However, it does offer a 30-day money back guarantee for those who opt for the yearly or 2-year plans no matter your operating system.

IPVanish accepts payments with credit card, PayPal, and Google Pay.

How is IPVanish’s performance?

In the past, IPVanish connections have been pretty fast, so how do they hold up in speed tests now? Pretty well, actually. Comparing speeds across different countries’ VPN server connections all over the world, IPVanish scored an impressive average of 60 percent of the base download speed and 58 percent of the base upload speed. That might not make it the speed champ, but it still puts it firmly in the top 10 speediest VPNs I’ve tested.

Those relatively good download speeds should be plenty fast enough to stream all of the high-resolution video or do all of your gaming across most country connections. Please note, however, that this is a single experience on a limited number of machines, and your experience may vary depending upon your own situation.

As for streaming, IPVanish successfully unblocked most of the streaming services that I tested including Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, and Amazon Prime. While in the past I found blocking issues with certain IPVanish servers that is seemingly no longer the case and streaming should work just fine with all connections. 

Overall, it’s a good VPN for streaming, but if it’s your main use case for a VPN then you may consider any of the other options on my list of best VPNs for Netflix.

How is IPVanish’s security and privacy?

While using its service, everything is encrypted with AES 256-bit encryption and the Windows client comes with IPv6 and DNS leak protection. My testing verified this to be true with no DNS or WebRTC leaks to be found anywhere.

IPVanish supports a number of protocols such as WireGuard, IKEv2, and OpenVPN (UDP and TCP). It offers the additional option to customize the port options for OpenVPN connections allowing you to further tweak and optimize your connection setup. Currently, IPVanish does not have post-quantum encryption support for any protocols—something that other top VPNs are implementing. This isn’t a deal-breaker by any means, but it would be nice to have.

Being based in the U.S., IPVanish could potentially lead to privacy problems as certain domestic laws require VPN companies to log and store client information in the event that law enforcement needs it. But IPVanish promises to keep your data totally private by not logging or sharing client information at all. 

This is clearly stated in the company’s no-logs policy which has now been validated via independent audit multiple times. The latest audit was conducted in February 2025 by Schellman Compliance, LLC. and confirmed the claims that IPVanish does not keep logs of client data whatsoever. 

These audits go a long way toward establishing and maintaining user trust. So, despite the U.S.-based operations, no-logs means there is nothing for IPVanish to provide the government even if requested. 

Is IPVanish worth it?

IPVanish is a very appealing VPN based in the United States. The service is bolstered by solid overall speeds and a respectable global server network. The desktop app is easy enough to use and recent updates have made it even better. Plus, another third-party security audit is a reassuring sign that the service is committed to user privacy and willing to prove it. 

The monthly pricing is admittedly expensive for what you get, but at just a little over $30 for a yearly subscription the longer-term pricing becomes hard to beat. IPVanish has solid speeds, a large server network, and nice extra features, but some competitors may edge it out in one (or more) of these categories. Still, while many people might seek out other VPN providers with more name recognition and larger marketing budgets, IPVanish shouldn’t be overlooked. It already does the basics well and at the rate it’s adding new features, IPVanish is becoming a force to be reckoned with.

Editor’s note: Because online services are often iterative, gaining new features and performance improvements over time, this review is subject to change in order to accurately reflect the current state of the service. Any changes to text or our final review verdict will be noted at the top of this article.

Listen up! If you dream of a decked-out multi-monitor setup, or if you have one already but they’re all mounted on the stands they came with, then you can easily level up your workspace with a proper triple-monitor arm for maximum flexibility and ergonomics. Right now, this Huanuo triple monitor mount is $119.98 on Amazon, down from its original $149.99 and now available at its best price all year.

A good monitor arm is one of the best home office upgrades you can make, and gas spring monitor arms offer easier and smoother adjustments than coil spring monitor arms. This one has a central pole plus a gas spring arm on either side, so tiny adjustments will be darn easy to make and you’ll be able to position your displays exactly where you need them (with one centered in front of you).

This triple-monitor arm fits monitors between 17 to 32 inches and can hold monitors weighing between 4.4 to 17.6 pounds. Most modern monitors fall into those ranges, so nothing to worry about there. The arms are also compatible with both VESA 75×75 and 100×100 mounts, which are pretty standard for most VESA-compatible monitors. The arm itself can mount to your desk via C-clamp or grommet.

It ain’t cheap, but it’s certainly a deal with this discount—and there’s no better way to run a triple-monitor setup than with a triple-monitor arm. Get this Huanuo triple monitor arm for $119.98 while you can!

A triple-mounting arm with gas springs for 20% off? Yes, please!

Windows licenses cost a lot—painfully so. Paying $139 for Windows 11 Home or $200 for Windows 11 Pro feels expensive when Linux is free. That much money can easily swallow a third of a budget PC build. Yet with less developer support for Linux, Windows is a necessity for most people.

What’s not a given is paying full retail price. Yep, you can snag discounts on Windows 11. How much you’ll save depends on your circumstances (and your stomach for hassle), but if you’re lucky, you could technically get it for free. Legitimately for free, since installing Windows without ever activating it doesn’t count as a full, sanctioned copy of the software. (Ahem.)

Here’s how, in several different ways. These strategies often apply for Windows 10 licenses too, but that operating system got the axe on October 14. Your better bet will be Windows 11, as it’ll get feature updates.

Simple upgrade: Trade up from Windows 10 to Windows 11

• Price: Free

If you want to switch to Windows 11, you don’t need to pay to upgrade from Windows 10. You can make the jump for free.

You can only trade up to the same kind of edition, however. So if your license is for Windows 10 Home, you’ll move up to Windows 11 Home. Likewise if you have a Pro license.

Our Windows 11 upgrade checklist breaks down the steps for an easy transition, but in a nutshell:

1. Verify that your PC meets Windows 11’s requirements.
2. Run either the Windows 11 installation assistant or create Windows 11 installation media for a clean install.
3. If performing a clean install of Windows 11, match your edition type (Home or Pro) to what you had in Windows 10.

Also, if you choose a clean install, ensure you have your Windows 10 license key on hand, in case your hardware isn’t automatically recognized and you need to manually activate Windows. Not sure what your key is? Run a program like Magical Jelly Bean Product KeyFinder in Windows 10. (Our step-by-step guide explains how it works.)

Wondering what happened to the free upgrades from Windows 7 or 8/8.1 to Windows 10? Unfortunately, Microsoft finally shut that down in September 2023.

Easiest discount: An OEM license

• Price: $120 (Windows 11 Home), $160 (Windows 11 Pro)

Our next suggestion is a method available to everyone and has the least amount of hassle: Purchasing an OEM license.

License types are different than operating system versions. They dictate what you can do with the software, while OS versions are distinguished by the features available. Multiple Windows license types exist, but the two commonly available to a home user are the retail and OEM varieties.

Buying Windows 11 from Microsoft’s website or from a brick-and-mortar store gets you the retail license. If you visit an online retailer like Amazon or Newegg, you can find both retail and OEM licenses for sale. You can usually spot an OEM license by its price, which tend to go for $120 for a Windows 11 Home license and $160 for a Windows 11 Pro license—though you can grab them for less during periodic sales.

All the features of the operating system version are the same for both license types. The difference is that with a retail license, you can transfer the license key to a different PC later on.

You can’t do that with an OEM license. In exchange for a lower price, you get to use the license key on only one PC, period. If you build a system, and then put together a replacement one four years later, you can’t transfer the license to the new machine.

Also, if the hardware used to identify your system fails—namely, the motherboard—Microsoft’s registration servers won’t recognize your license as valid after you replace the dead part. Microsoft has historically been kind about such situations, however. You can usually call to reactivate the license after replacing a fried mobo. But it is an extra hassle.

For further savings through a retailer, you’ll have to wait for a sale (like Black Friday), when you can get an OEM license in the neighborhood of $85 (Windows Home) to $120 (Windows Pro).

Otherwise, you can pick up a cheaper license through PCWorld’s very own software store. (Yes, that’s really us, and yes, the licenses are legit.) We’re currently selling Windows 11 Home licenses for $60, and Windows 11 Pro licenses for $80. Sometimes we even put them on sale!

Deepest savings: The education discount

• Price: $0 (Windows 11 Education)

Not all student discounts are reserved for the under-24 set. Your local community college might be a source for a free or extremely discounted copy of Windows—and nearly the equivalent of Windows Enterprise, to boot. You’ll just have to put in some legwork (perhaps literally) to get it.

As mentioned above, license types determine what you can do with Windows—and who can use it, as well. Through the Academic Volume Licensing agreements, schools can purchase access to Windows 11 Education for their students, faculty, and staff. Some make it available only on campus machines. Others will grant a license for use on a home machine.

In that latter camp are a number of community colleges, and they often make the Windows license free. The catch: You have to sign up for at least one course to qualify for campus discounts.

To get access to the software, you should register for your class first. Afterward, find the download information for your campus’s download method. Verification of student status is typically required before the installation file becomes available.

A one-unit class usually counts though, and depending on your state, it can cost as little as $80 including administrative fees. You’ll often find one-unit classes offered by the physical education or dance departments (swim, ballet, jazz, boot camp workouts, etc.), but you can also find the occasional class on topics like Beginning Drawing, Intro to HTML & CSS, and Video for the Web.

If you were already planning on taking a class in one of these subjects, you’re getting an amazing deal. The Education edition of Windows, which is similar to the Enterprise edition, includes popular Windows Pro features like Bitlocker encryption and the Sandbox feature. You’re essentially getting Windows Pro (and then some) for as much as 60 percent off—and you get to learn something new.

Even if you aren’t interested in the classes, you’re still paying considerably less than what you would for even a Windows Pro OEM license. We don’t encourage truancy, but there’s nothing saying you have to show up for class, so long as you’re comfortable with a failing grade on your record.

Obviously, if your local community college doesn’t have an agreement with Microsoft in place, this strategy won’t work. Also, if the total cost of the class, administrative fees, and license fee adds up to more than the retail cost of a Windows Pro license, and you wouldn’t have otherwise taken the class, that negates this deal, too. In those cases, your main options are the OEM license (outlined above) or buying through a reseller (detailed below).

Note: If you use this method, also keep an eye out for other software deals through your school. For example, your school might offer a free Microsoft 365 account, or a heavily discounted Adobe Creative Cloud account (usually $20 per month, but we’ve seen it for as little as $100 per year).

Low prices with a big caveat: Resellers

• Price: Under $30 (Windows 11 Home and Pro)

Scoring Windows 11 at an 85-percent discount (or more) is possible, and it’s not even difficult. But this approach comes with a salt mine of caution.

Platforms like eBay and Kinguin allow buyers to purchase product keys from third-party sellers. Some sites, like Kinguin, specialize in digital software sales—to buy Windows, you’ll find the listings for Windows 11 Home (or Windows 11 Pro), pick a seller from the list, then add their product to your cart and check out.

What makes the license keys so cheap is that they’re gray market at best. In other words, the keys aren’t illegal, but they’re likely extras from a volume licensing agreement and not meant to be sold individually to home users. So they come with risk. Critics of this method rightly point out that you can buy keys that don’t work, or eventually lose their activation status because of their unknown origins. And that has happened to some people. Customer service is often poor for these kinds of sites, too, leaving you high and dry.

Fans of this method say many people never run into issues, and in fact urge you to find the keys as cheap as possible (usually through eBay) to minimize problems. You can also buy with a credit card for some added protection. If you go this route, you should get Windows Pro keys. The cost difference is often negligible from Home and you get better features like Bitlocker encryption and other Pro features.

But what we actually recommend is to buy through reputable sources of cheaper keys instead. For example, some professional organizations are able to negotiate deals for their members—we suggest starting there. You can also check to see if your favorite media sites have special pricing for readers. PCWorld’s own software store is a good source—it offers Windows Home and Pro keys at sizable discounts (often it’s regularly as low as $60 for Home and $80 for Pro), and the keys are guaranteed to work.

One thing you absolutely need but probably don’t even think about is a new power strip—something better and more modern than that clunky traditional six-outlet mess you’ve probably been using for over a decade. This 10-in-1 Anker power strip is such a great upgrade option because it’s way more organized and versatile, and it’s down to just $19.99 right now on Amazon (was $25.99).

Conventional power strips suck because they have lined-up outlets, meaning your chunkier plugs and adapters get in the way of each other and sometimes even cover up neighboring outlets. But with this one, the six AC outlets are spaced out and oriented away from each so your plugs never collide or overlap. That’s plenty for all your devices, monitors, PCs, accessories, and whatever else needs tethered power.

But what takes this power strip a step further is the inclusion of two USB-A and two USB-C ports along the bottom edge, allowing you to charge your phones, tablets, laptops, earbuds, etc. without taking up valuable AC outlet vacancies. (The USB-C ports deliver up to 20W and the USB-A ports up to 12W, so they aren’t blazingly fast but fast enough.)

Other nice details include the 5-foot power cable so you can position this almost anywhere, the flat profile plug that easily reaches behind furniture, and a built-in 8-point safety system to protect your devices from surges, short circuits, excess heat, overloads, fires, and more.

This is a pretty crazy get for just $19.99, allowing you to streamline your charging station setup for years to come. Get this 10-in-1 Anker power strip on sale while you can before this deal expires!

Save on Anker's 10-in-1 power strip with USB ports, now just $19.99

Support for Windows 10 ends today, but that doesn’t have to be the final curtain for the operating system. With Extended Security Updates, you can keep receiving support for up to 10 PCs for one year at no cost. It’s worth signing up if you plan to keep using Windows 10.

However, experts—including former Microsoft employee David Plummer—recommend taking a further step: grab the Windows 10 ISO file before Microsoft removes it from the website.

What’s a Windows 10 ISO file? And why do I need to download it?

An ISO file contains all the data, files, folders, and structures of a particular program. It’s usually kept on hand for archiving purposes. It’s essentially the digital equivalent of what you’d get if you bought a software CD, for example, Windows 10.

You can use the Windows 10 ISO file to completely reinstall Windows 10 if problems arise on your current system. If you burn the ISO file to a bootable CD or drive, you can use it at any time to run Windows.

If you think you’ll ever want to run or install Windows 10 again, it’s a good idea to download the Windows 10 ISO file ASAP. We don’t know how much longer it’ll be made available by Microsoft.

How to download the Windows 10 ISO file

There are two ways to obtain the Windows 10 ISO: either via Microsoft’s download page or via the Media Creation Tool.

Method 1: Download the ISO directly

This method is a bit cumbersome and was explained step by step on the Windows Latest page. Here is the abridged version:

1. Open your web browser and go to the settings.
2. Navigate to the Developer Tools section (usually found under “More” in Microsoft Edge). You’ll now see a developer window. This must remain open at all times.
3. Open the Microsoft Download Center for Windows 10.
4. The “Network Conditions” option will now be displayed in your browser. If not, go to “More tools” and click “Network Conditions.”
5. Change the user agent here by removing the tick next to “Use Browser Default.” Then select a different one from the drop-down menu, for example, “Android Mobile.” This will make the download page believe that you’re accessing it with a device that doesn’t yet have Windows installed.
6. Refresh the download page. You should now see the Windows 10 ISO download page.
7. Scroll down and click on “Select Edition” under “Windows 10 2023 Update | Version 22H2.” Next, click “Windows 10 (Multi-Edition ISO).”
8. Confirm and wait until the check is complete.
9. Select the desired language and then “Confirm.”
10. Select the 32-bit or 64-bit version and click on “Save” to start the download.
11. In the developer window, switch back to “Use default browser option” and then close it.

Method 2: Use the Media Creation Tool

The second method is somewhat simpler, but requires you to install another program. The Media Creation Tool is offered by Microsoft itself to create ISO files. This is how you proceed:

1. Open the Microsoft website to get the Media Creation Tool for Windows 10 via the “Download Now” button.
2. Wait until the download is complete and open the EXE file.
3. Once opened, the tool can either be used to update your existing operating system or to create an ISO file.
4. Double-click on the file to open it. Click “Yes.” The Windows 10 setup page is now displayed.
5. Accept the terms of use.
6. You will then be asked whether you want to update your PC or create installation media. Select the second option.
7. Select the language, edition, and architecture according to your requirements. This option is hidden by default. Uncheck the “Use Recommended Options for this PC” box to select the desired options. Then click “Next.”
8. Select the “ISO file” option in the media selection field or, if you want to create a bootable flash memory, the “USB Flash Drive” option. Click “Next” to continue.
9. The download will now start in the Media Creation Tool.
10. When the download is complete, you can either burn the file to a DVD or click the “Finish” button to close the Media Creation Tool.

Once you have your ISO file, it’s a good idea to update with the latest patches. You can do this easily by opening the ISO and clicking on “Update this PC.” It’s best to keep the ISO updated until support ends in October, so you’ll have all the important improvements before then.

The robotic vacuum market is crowded with devices that promise automation but often fall short when it comes to true adaptability and long-term hygiene. Dreame’s Aqua10 Ultra Roller stands out by addressing both challenges head-on: smarter navigation powered by NVIDIA’s AI stack and a re-engineered mop system designed to keep itself as clean as the floors it scrubs. Looking at its features in depth, it’s clear this isn’t just an incremental update but one of the most ambitious robotic cleaners yet.

Navigation: NVIDIA-powered AstroVision™

Most robots rely on simple LiDAR or front cameras for navigation. The Aqua10 Ultra Roller upgrades this with AstroVision™ obstacle intelligence, combining dual HD AI cameras with NVIDIA Isaac Sim training. The cameras capture depth to form 3D maps with 1mm precision, and reinforcement learning helps the robot recognize and adapt to dynamic environments.

In practice, this translates into fewer collisions and smoother routing around furniture. Dreame highlights support for 240+ object categories, with features like Active Pet Avoidance and Chaos-Proof Routing—ideal in homes where toys, pet bowls, and clutter shift constantly.

The Dreame Aqua10 Ultra Roller MSRP is $1,599.99. From October 13 to October 31, U.S. and Canadian consumers can get an extra 5% off with code DMPWAQUANA on Amazon and the Dreame website.

Carpet strategy: flexible and customizable

Vacuum-mop hybrids typically struggle with carpets. Dreame addresses this with a multi-layered carpet strategy that feels more like a system than a patch:

Carpet identification: Users can mark all carpeted zones—even irregular ones—in the app for accurate detection.

Suction boost: The main brush, roller mop, and side brush all lift when crossing carpets, while suction power intensifies for a deeper clean.

Carpet cleaning first: A scheduling option lets the robot vacuum carpets before moving to wet cleaning tasks.

The combination works well for mixed-floor homes, especially those with both wall-to-wall carpets and small rugs. Dreame’s AutoSeal™ Roller Guard also prevents mop water from seeping into carpet fibers—a rare feature that directly solves a common frustration.

Low-space cleaning: VersaLift™ LDS sensor

One standout innovation is VersaLift™, a retractable LiDAR system that allows the robot to maintain spatial awareness in both open and low-clearance environments. Raised, it scans wide areas efficiently. Retracted, it relies on its dual AI cameras with LED lighting to continue mapping under beds and sofas.

This approach makes the Aqua10 Ultra Roller one of the few robots that can reliably clean under low furniture without losing its bearings. Dreame claims 100% accuracy in positioning and obstacle avoidance in these scenarios, which, based on early testing, isn’t far-fetched.

Mop technology: clean mop, clean floor

Where Dreame really differentiates itself is mop hygiene. Many hybrid robots simply drag a damp cloth until it’s dirty, effectively spreading grime. The Aqua10 Ultra Roller introduces a real-time fresh water circulation system combined with industry-first mop technologies.

Continuous fresh water: A 12-nozzle system sprays clean water onto the roller while a scraper removes dirty water, which is pumped into a separate tank.

FluffRoll™ module: A counter-rotating roller running at 1000rpm keeps mop fibers loose and effective at lifting dried-on dirt.

ThermoHub™ 212°F self-cleaning: At the dock, the mop undergoes high-temperature washing to dissolve grease and sanitize fibers, followed by 158°F hot-air drying to prevent mildew. This is safe for everyone as after cleaning the washboard’s PTC system temperature automatically drops to a safe level before the robot leaves the base station.

AutoSeal™ Roller Guard: Automatically prevents dripping when moving onto carpets.

In effect, the robot is always mopping with a clean surface. This not only improves stain removal but also reduces odors and contamination—a major upgrade for hygiene-focused users.

Mixed-flooring and mobility: AgiLift™ and ProLeap™

Mobility is another area where Dreame has gone further than most competitors. The Triple-Wheel AgiLift™ chassis dynamically adjusts wheel height for smoother transitions between tiles, hardwood, and rugs. For more complex terrain like door sills, the ProLeap™ retractable leg system lifts the chassis, with sensors calculating the safest ascent and descent angles.

These systems reduce the chances of the robot getting stuck mid-task, a frequent frustration with lower-end models. The integration of shock absorption also helps it run more quietly despite its 30,000Pa Vormax™ suction, which is near the top of the industry.

Edge and corner cleaning

Corners and edges remain tricky for many robotic vacuums, but Dreame takes a two-pronged approach:

MopExtend™: Extends the roller mop by 40mm to cover wall edges.

SideReach™ Brush: Extends and retracts over 10mm to sweep into corners while avoiding contamination of freshly mopped areas.

Combined with StereoEdge™ obstacle recognition, the robot is noticeably better at navigating cables, books, or pens that often derail less capable bots.

Lifestyle and ecosystem features

On top of cleaning, Dreame has layered in features that reflect modern smart-home expectations. Matter protocol support ensures compatibility across ecosystems, while direct voice control simplifies operation. Pet owners also benefit from real-time monitoring, automatic pet activity hotspot cleaning, and even pet vlogs, which use the robot’s cameras to capture and compile clips.

Intelligent home cleaning

The Dreame Aqua10 Ultra Roller isn’t just an iterative update—it rethinks the fundamentals of robotic vacuum-mop design. AstroVision™ AI navigation handles cluttered and dynamic environments with precision, while its multi-stage mop self-cleaning system sets a new standard for hygiene. Add in intelligent carpet care, under-furniture cleaning, and obstacle-crossing agility, and you get one of the most comprehensive solutions available.

The Aqua10 Ultra Roller delivers genuine value where it matters: true adaptability and consistently clean results. For homes with mixed flooring, pets, or high traffic, it’s one of the most compelling robot cleaners on the market today.

Nvidia’s DLSS has become the secret sauce that keeps gamers hooked on the company’s GPUs. Sure, Nvidia’s GPUs are solid even without DLSS, but the company’s own marketing claims DLSS with multi-frame generation can boost the frame rate of Cyberpunk 2077 from 28 FPS to 242 FPS. That’s an eight-fold improvement! Who wouldn’t want that?

But as some reviewers have noted, the boosts from DLSS aren’t always as impressive in real life as they are in marketing materials. And it’s often less powerful systems—like gaming laptops—that see the most modest benefits. So, I decided to test it out myself.

Here are my Nvidia DLSS 4 results on a gaming laptop. Keep reading for the exact laptop I used and the various gains (or lack thereof) I saw in a handful of different high-profile games.

If you’re into MMOs, then you need a proper mouse to fire all your skills and spell combos with ease. The Razer Naga V2 HyperSpeed is the mouse for that, and right now it’s available for 38% off. That means you can grab it for just $62.49, considerably less than its original $99.99 and close to its cheapest sale price of all time.

The Razer Naga V2 HyperSpeed isn’t just uber-fast with a 30K optical sensor, but it also comes with an insanely high number of programmable buttons. I’m talking a total of 19 buttons that you can set up to do whatever you need, with 12 of them being on the side of the mouse. Just imagine playing World of Warcraft and cycling through your action rotation without touching your keyboard. Fantastic!

The Naga V2 HyperSpeed also features Razer’s HyperScroll technology, which allows you to quickly scroll through all the content you need at blazing speed, even entering free-spin mode. It’s totally wireless—with both 2.4GHz and Bluetooth options—also has excellent battery life, with a single AA battery providing almost 400 hours of usage, which is pretty great because you won’t be spending a fortune on batteries.

If you’re into MMOs, you’ll love the convenience of a button-loaded wireless mouse like this. Get the Razer Naga V2 HyperSpeed for $62.49 while you still can and level up your MMO experience!

The Razer Naga V2 HyperSpeed is a dream for all MMO gamers

Further reading: Every Microsoft Windows operating system, ranked

Windows 10’s end of support date finally lands today. Microsoft is making sure the still-large number of active Windows 10 users are aware of their options to keep their PC secure.

Last month, the company published a “30-day reminder” that Windows 10 version 22H2 (including Enterprise and Education Editions) will reach the end of its support period on October 14th, 2025:

30-Day Reminder: Windows 10, version 22H2 will reach end of servicing on October 14, 2025

On October 14, 2025, Windows 10, version 22H2 (Home, Pro, Enterprise, Education, and IoT Enterprise editions) will reach end of servicing. October 14, 2025 will also mark the end of support for Windows 10 2015 LTSB and Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSB 2015. The October 2025 monthly security update will be the last update available for these versions. After this date, devices running these versions will no longer receive monthly security and preview updates containing protections from the latest security threats.

However, Microsoft also wants Windows home users to know that there’s the opportunity to receive extended support for another 12 months with Microsoft’s Extended Security Update (ESU) program.

All in all, if you’re still actively using Windows 10, the deadline is almost here. What should you do? Here are all your options:

It’s easy to get nostalgic when things change. When a new version of Windows comes out, for example, many people declare how much better its predecessor was, and now that Windows 10 is going the way of the dodo, a wave of nostalgia is washing over the tech world.

The question is: Is Windows 10 really better than 11? I myself switched to Windows 11 when it launched back in 2021. So to find out the difference, I pulled out my old Windows 10 computer and ran it for a week.

The test made me realize how much better Windows has actually become—and going back to Windows 10 was unexpectedly painful. Here are my key lessons learned.

Also read: Windows 10 is coming to an end – here are your options

Things you’ll love

Windows Explorer

The tool we use to manage files and folders on the computer is much better in Windows 11. In particular, I appreciate that Explorer now has tabs, just like in the browser. The overview is clearer and it’s easier to copy and move files. Going back to the old Explorer is driving me crazy.

The settings menu

The settings menu in Windows 11 is also much faster and smoother than in 10. It’s both easier to find and navigate.

Windows screen recorder

As a journalist, I often take screenshots, and the Screen Capture tool is much better in Windows 11. In particular, it’s handy to be able to film what’s on the screen. Doing the same thing in Windows 10 is much more complicated.

OCR

Sometimes the text displayed on the screen cannot be selected and copied. In Windows 11 this is not a problem, just open the Snipping Tool and press Text Actions and the text becomes editable—without any complicated extra programs. OCR (Optical Character Recognition), the feature that automatically converts images to text, is built into Windows 11 in much better way than Windows 10.

The apps

Windows 11 includes powerful free tools like Clipchamp (video), Copilot (AI) and Photos (pictures). While you can currently install them on your own on Windows 10, as the apps continue to evolve for Windows 11, we’ll see more differences between versions.

The speed

You can’t blame Windows 10 for my old computer feeling very slow, but if Microsoft’s own figures are to be believed, Windows 11 is up to 2.3 times faster than 10.

Windows Security

I didn’t notice the biggest advantage of Windows 11 during my test, but it’s still an important reason to switch. The system is much more secure and better protects both your private information and the computer system.

Things you’ll hate

Of course, there are things that have become worse too. This also became clear during my test. Fortunately, PCWorld has guides available that fix our worst Windows 11 gripes.

Surveillance

The big downside is that Microsoft is getting more and more aggressive about surveillance and personalized advertising—right in Windows. It has also become increasingly difficult to run Windows without logging in with your Microsoft account.

Further reading: Stop Windows 11’s most intrusive ads with these 9 easy tweaks

The Start menu

Microsoft’s move of the Start button from the bottom left corner to floating around definitely doesn’t sit well with me—but fortunately it’s easy to change.

The right-click context menu

Even Explorer’s right-click menu has become extremely cluttered since Microsoft split it into two parts in Windows 11, with power options nestled deep into sub-menus within the sub-menu. Ugh. Unlike much else in the interface, this feels anything but well thought out.

The death of Windows 10

There is also reason to criticize the move to Windows 11 itself. It’s simply outrageous that Microsoft is removing security updates to Windows 10 when it’s still used on almost half of all computers.

However, after a week with Windows 10, it feels clear that Windows 11 is both smoother to use and more powerful than its predecessors. Now I’m looking forward to putting my old computer in the closet where it belongs and switching back to a modern operating system.

Further reading: I’m sticking with Windows 10 even after it dies in October. Here’s how

TL;DR: Get a lifetime license to Microsoft Windows 11 Pro for just $14.97 (MSRP: $199).

Still running Windows 10 and pretending everything’s fine? No shame — we’ve all hit “Remind me later” more times than we care to admit. However, if you’re still running Windows 10, your Microsoft support just ended.

With this deal, you can finally make the jump to Windows 11 Pro for just $14.97. That’s a full-fledged, professional-grade operating system for the price of two fancy lattes.

First of all, Windows 11 Pro is smooth. Like, way smoother than its predecessors. The redesigned interface is clean, centered, and customizable, which is great for focus and flow. Plus, it comes with features that make multitasking feel like second nature: snap layouts, virtual desktops, and lightning-fast search tools.

You get enterprise-grade features like BitLocker encryption, Windows Hello biometric login, and TPM 2.0 compatibility — all designed to protect your work, files, and peace of mind.

And Windows Copilot is now baked in, meaning you can ask for help, automate tasks, summarize web pages, or even brainstorm new ideas, all from your desktop.

If you’re a developer, creative, remote worker, or small business owner, Windows 11 Pro is an upgrade that can give you a serious productivity boost.

Don’t miss upgrading to Windows 11 Pro while it’s on sale for just $14.97 (MSRP: $199) through October 19.

Microsoft Windows 11 ProSee Deal

StackSocial prices subject to change.

Broadcom said Tuesday that it has already begun sampling the first Wi-Fi 8 silicon to select partners, as a precursor for rolling out the first Wi-Fi 8 consumer hardware at a future date.

Broadcom actually announced four different designs — the BCM6718 for the residential access point market, the BCM43109 for mobile handsets, plus the BCM43840 and BCM43820 for enterprise APs — that it will sell as chips as well as license as intellectual property. The sampling process has already begun, Broadcom said.

Wi-Fi 7 is already well established in both PCs and handsets across the world. That Wi-Fi 7 technology, launched in 2023, is still being worked on: Intel’s Panther Lake laptop processor, for example, includes Wi-Fi 7 Release 2 support, which works toward better communication between your PC and the access point to reduce latency and increase the overall performance.

That’s the whole point behind Wi-Fi 8, which broke cover in late 2024 and is set to be formally adopted probably by late 2028. That’s never stopped wireless chip vendors, however, which tend to put as much as they know of the specification into silicon as soon as they can to start landing design wins with customers just as soon as possible.

It’s probably not a coincidence that the latest Wi-Fi 7 standards are transitioning into the overarching guidelines behind Wi-Fi 8: To improve the quality and reliability of Wi-Fi 8 wireless connections, rather than just improve performance. Wi-Fi 8 still can transmit data at up to a hypothetical, optimized speed of 23Gbps, according to rival Mediatek, but Wi-Fi 8’s most important technologies are essentially all qualitative, focusing on ultra-high reliability. Broadcom cited key features which included inter-AP coordination, which allows APs to target signal beams at devices to improve connectivity; and multiple ways of avoiding congestion. Wi-Fi 8 is also designed to extend the range of Wi-Fi, though Broadcom didn’t cite specifics.

Broadcom said that the increasing ubiquity of AI, and the constant, high-bandwidth streams of data back and forth between devices and the cloud, necessitate Wi-Fi 8. In an interesting twist, each of Broadcom’s Wi-Fi 8 chips includes a hardware-accelerated telemetry engine, which “collects real-time data on network performance, device behavior, and environmental conditions, serving as a critical input for AI models.”

Broadcom said that the telemetry engine can be used for optimizing the quality of the Wi-Fi expercience, or running “predictive maintenance” or to strengthen security.

Broadcom’s BCM6718 for residential access points includes a 4-stream radio, packet scheduler, and telemetry engine, along with advanced eco modes and digital pre-distortion to reduce power. Broadcom also promises “full compliance” with IEEE 802.11bn and the Wi-Fi Alliance’s Wi-Fi 8 specifications.

The company didn’t announce a radio specifically for PC, though the BCM43109 chip for handsets includes a two-stream Wi-Fi radio instead. It will also include Bluetooth capabilities as well as low-range WPAN, including ZigBee Pro. It, too, promises IEEE 802.11bn and Wi-Fi 8 compliance.

Price When Reviewed

$3,550.00

Best Prices Today: Beatbot AquaSense 2 Ultra

The feature-rich Beatbot AquaSense Pro has been a top seller in the robotic pool cleaner space since its launch, but Beatbot hasn’t been resting on its laurels. The all-new Beatbot AquaSense 2 Ultra reviewed here is, to put it simply, more, and in every dimension.

Is this even more expensive follow-up too much of a good thing? It all depends on how much you’re willing to shell out to escape the tedium of cleaning your pool yourself.

Specifications

The AquaSense 2 Ultra borrows most of its design cues from the AquaSense Pro I reviewed in October 2024 (which is still available for purchase). It’s a cetacean-inspired design, with fat wheels, treads, and two spinning brushes in between. The Ultra is also much larger and has a new, black color scheme.

Weighing 29 pounds, it is also decidedly heavier than the 24-pound Pro, especially when you take it straight out of the pool, when the water-filled bot can hit 45 pounds. It’s bigger, too, in pretty much every way which (spoiler) makes maneuvering it in and out of the pool and onto its charging dock difficult.

All that heft comes in service of some serious firepower (waterpower?), including a boasted 27 sensors that include ultrasonic, infrared, and AI-powered video to map the pool and actively hunt for debris. It’s the first pool robot that, following a standard full-floor sweep, scans for remaining leaves with a camera the way you or I would with our eyes and a net. Beatbot says the machine can recognize 12 types of leaves by tree type, with more to come via over-the-air firmware updates.

The Beatbot AquaSense 2 Ultra is an exceptional robotic pool cleaner with an extremely long-lasting battery.

A 13,400mAh battery powers the unit to up to 6 hours of running time on the pool floor and 10 hours on its surface. A contact-based charging dock similar to the one that shipped with the Pro is included, so you don’t need to physically connect a cable to top up that battery.

Lastly, the Ultra has a dual-band (2.4- and 5GHz) Wi-Fi adapter onboard, so you can control it with Beatbot’s mobile app. But that’s possible only while the robot is on top of the water or out of the pool, as Wi-Fi signals don’t travel far through water.

Installation and setup

While most robotic pool cleaners require very little setup beyond an initial charging, the Beatbot Ultra has a little work for the user to do. The charging stand sets up easily, with two legs that snap into place. The more onerous work is setting up the two side brushes. These are small horizontal wheels with rubber brushes positioned in the upper front corners of the robot. They’re used primarily when it’s operating as a surface skimmer and as bumpers for when the robot hits the wall of the pool.

These wheels are bare out of the box, so it’s up to the user to wrap the two rubber brush strips around them. This is achieved by stretching each strip around the wheel and affixing two loops on either end of the strip to a protrusion on the wheel. This takes a little trial and error and some patience, but I got it done in a matter of minutes.

You’ll also find a retrieval hook in the box (which you shouldn’t need) and a cover for the robot, which is handy for storage. This is the first time I’ve seen this as part of any robotic pool cleaner bundle.

The app sets up quickly over Wi-Fi, being a matter of two button presses on the robot and walking through some basic configuration steps in the app.

Using the Beatbot AquaSense 2 Ultra

Much like the AquaSense Pro, the Ultra can be configured via buttons on the device, via the mobile app, or both. The onboard controls are more basic, with four buttons for cleaning floor-only; floor and walls; floor, walls, and surface; or a custom mode configured in the app. To start the robot, just power it on, pick your mode, set it flat on the pool deck for a few seconds, and then place it into the pool. It will spin to scan the pool from the surface to get its bearings and then sink to the bottom to start its work.

The Ultra’s specific operation depends on the mode you set, but if you’re running the most comprehensive option, the robot will do a full sweep of the floor, clean the walls, and skim the surface. After a full sweep of the floor, the robot’s AI debris detection gets to work. This uses the front-mounted camera to literally look around the pool for leaves it might have missed. And it really does that, scooting around randomly until it catches a glimpse of debris on camera, then it adjusts its course to roll over it, stop, then roll back and forward again to make sure it got it.

The good news is that the Ultra is an exceptional cleaner. The unit specifies battery life of 4.5 hours, although as noted above, I easily got 6 hours with it in the water, and my pool was completely free of debris after just 3 hours (I evaluated it with both organic and synthetic test material). I also tested its AI detection mode by adding additional test leaves after the 3-hour mark, scattering them around the pool to see if the robot could find them. Of the 10 additional test leaves I added, the robot picked up all but one before its battery died—and I witnessed it just miss picking that leaf up when it veered a bit too far to one side of it.

While the robot is excellent on the floor, it is not overly effective on the surface, as was the case with the AquaSense Pro. The robot’s design and its narrow profile (compared to standalone skimmers) means floating debris was often pushed out of the way by the bow wave of water in front of the robot rather than being sucked into its mouth.

The new side brushes on this model are supposed to help prevent debris from escaping to the sides, but they weren’t effective at overcoming the power of the wave the bot pushed in front of it. In fact, my testing of the skimmer feature showed that it only captured about 40 percent of the test debris, with the rest being left behind or sinking to the bottom of the pool. That was about the same result I got with the AquaSense Pro.

The app lets you fine-tune just about everything about how the Ultra runs, specifying 0, 1, or 2 cleanings each of floor, walls, and surface (20 possible combinations in all), or you can pick from a quick AI-only mode (a search-and-destroy as described above), a MultiZone Mode designed for pools with multiple large stepped areas, or an eco mode that cleans the floor every two days. Each of these are configurable in the app, and then selectable by pressing the custom mode button on the robot’s control panel.

Every mode offers the option to dispense a water clarifier during the cleaning process, but I don’t use this type of solution in my pool and did not test it; clarifier solution is not included with the device.

Upon completion of a run, the Ultra returns to the surface and docks against the wall of the pool, where it will float for about 15 minutes. If you don’t retrieve it within that window, the robot will then float freely while remaining on the surface of the pool for easier retrieval. (The Park button on the app will call it back to the wall, provided there’s sufficient battery power.) This waterline retrieval option is one of the best features of both the Ultra and the Pro.

Debris is stored in a two-piece basket similar to the one on the Pro. It’s relatively easy to clean, though having to clean two different chambers adds a small amount of hassle to the process. The bigger issue is the robot’s nearly 30-pound weight, which is considerably more when it’s full of water. This, combined with its gargantuan size, means it’s difficult to maneuver into and out of the pool, and I found it virtually impossible to avoid getting my lower body wet while retrieving it.

After each run, the Beatbot app pushes a mobile notification and then logs the area cleaned and the length of the run. Floor-cleaning runs also include a map of the pool that’s generated as part of the log. The map isn’t all that useful (and it is in a different orientation each time) but it does at least give you some idea of the robot’s level of intelligence. For what it’s worth, the map it generated mostly looks like my actual pool.

Lastly, an on-demand remote control is included in the app, though this can only be used when the robot is on the surface, where it’s in Wi-Fi range. You might find this effective when there are a few wayward leaves you want to pick up and the robot is already skimming; but given this robot’s limited debris-skimming abilities, I found it easier to wait for the leaves to sink or to just grab a net instead.

Should you buy the Beatbot AquaSense 2 Ultra?

With an MSRP of $3,550 ($2,779 at Amazon at the time of this review), the Beatbot AquaSense 2 Ultra is easily the most expensive pool robot I’ve tested. Fortunately, Beatbot’s impressive three-year whole-unit replacement warranty takes some of the risk out of a purchase. But to be honest, it’s probably more robot than most pools need. It’s definitely more than I need, and I have a fairly large pool to clean.

And while it’s easy to fixate on that pricey bottom line, don’t underestimate this machine’s significant weight and bulk. Owners of more petite pools might find the Ultra just too large to wrestle with—even though it will do an outstanding job of keeping the pool sparkling clean.

This review is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best robotic pool cleaners.

We don’t write about the Kindle Scribe too often because, let’s be honest, it’s quite expensive with its $420 MSRP. But now that October Prime Day has come and gone, we’re seeing “like-new” Kindle Scribe digital notebooks for $228, which is a much better price.

These discounted Kindle Scribes are refurbished devices that were tested and certified to be in perfect working order. Quite honestly, it’s likely that these are returned items from last week’s sale since “like new” Amazon gear always pops up at a discount after major sale events.

The Kindle Scribe is a solid digital notebook option, enabling you to take notes, sketch, journal, and so on without the distractions you get from a tablet. Since the Scribe can turn your handwritten notes into text, it’s even more useful as you can transfer those to other apps later on. You can even write on books, which is something we know you’d never do in real life (hopefully).

The Kindle Scribe features a 10.2-inch Paperwhite display that’s quite larger than your regular e-reader, so there’s plenty of space to write your notes.

So go ahead and get yourself a Kindle Scribe with 32GB of storage space and a Premium Pen for only $228 while this deal’s still around.

Read and write on this super discounted Kindle Scribe

Dell and HP are two of the biggest laptop brands for good reason. They both make plenty of great PCs, and whether you’re buying a laptop for school, work, gaming, everyday productivity, or all of the above, you’ll find lots of good machines from both brands.

Seriously, no brand is best in all situations! That’s what we’ve seen throughout our laptop reviews. The best brand for you depends on what you’re looking for, the type of laptop you’re buying, and the prices you can afford — and the right laptop sale could change the whole calculus.

You’ll find a mix of both Dell and HP laptops, plus laptops from many other manufacturers, on our best laptop list here at PCWorld. But there’s a lot to be said for comparing these brands. So, let’s take a closer look.

Dell vs. HP laptop product ranges

Both Dell and HP offer a wide range of different laptops for different needs, from budget picks to premium stunners.

Dell offers a variety of laptop lineups. Until recently, it was broken down as XPS laptops for the premium line, with Latitude and Inspiron laptops for business and consumer use, respectively. Starting in 2025, however, Dell scrapped that naming convention ostensibly to be more simplified, but you be the judge. Still, the same range of performance and prices remains.

HP rebranded its laptop lineup in May 2024. Now, it offers OmniBook laptops for consumers and ProBook and EliteBook laptops for business use. You’ll still find older HP laptops with names like Spectre, Dragonfly, and Envy, but HP’s forward naming scheme is greatly simplified.

For gaming laptops, Dell has consolidated all of its offering under the Alienware brand. HP offers gaming laptops under the more premium Omen line as well as the more value-priced Victus branding.

Dell laptops are usually more configurable

Dell laptops tend to be more configurable than HP laptops at the point of sale — at least if you’re buying on Dell’s online store. You’ll often find a much wider variety of options and upgrades, including CPU, RAM, GPU, storage, and other hardware components.

This doesn’t matter if you’re buying a prebuilt laptop, of course, nor does it matter if you’d rather grab sales on Amazon, Best Buy, Newegg, etc. But if you’re buying straight from the manufacturer, there’s no doubt that Dell’s store is more flexible than HP’s online store.

Dell vs. HP laptops for productivity

If you’re shopping for a consumer or business productivity laptop for work, school, or personal use, then rest assured that both Dell and HP offer a wide range of great options.

Whether you’re looking for a Copilot+ PC with special AI features, or a thin-and-light laptop that gets excellent battery life, or a value workstation that provides great performance, both Dell and HP deliver. Both manufacturers offer machines fitted with Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm chips — you’re spoiled for choice here.

As mentioned, Dell’s productivity laptops prior to 2025 were found under the XPS, Inspiron, and Latitude names. Now they are known as Dell, Dell Pro, and Dell Pro Max models, corresponding to a consumer, business, and workstation focus, respectively. You will also find Plus and Premium models within the Dell consumer category, such as the Dell 14 Premium, which would have previously been the XPS 14.

HP, on the other hand, has simplified its offerings into the OmniBook line for consumers and EliteBook and ProBook lines for businesses. You’ll still see older Spectre, Envy, and Dragonfly machines floating around, too.

Each manufacturer offers a wide range of laptops under these names, making it difficult to compare. For example, if you want a 2-in-1 laptop with a 360-degree hinge, check out the HP OmniBook X Flip 14 (at HP) and the Dell Plus 14 2-in-1 (at Dell).

For a classic clamshell laptop experience, we like the Dell 16 Plus (at Amazon) and give it a high score. But I was also impressed with the HP EliteBook 8 G1a (at Amazon) when I went hands-on with it.

Dell vs. HP laptops for businesses

For business users, Dell offers a wide range of laptops, now under the Dell Pro line (previously Inspiron and Latitude). while HP offers a large number of ProBook and EliteBook laptops as well. With a wide variety of prices and hardware configurations, it’s hard to pass judgement on either laptop manufacturer as a whole in this area.

However, it’s worth noting that neither Dell nor HP are considered as premium in the business laptop space as Lenovo’s range of high-end ThinkPad business laptops, which tend to offer better keyboards and other high-end touches — at a higher-end price, of course.

When shopping, be sure to compare laptop to laptop. Neither laptop manufacturer has the best entry in every category, and the winner may vary from year to year and model to model.

Dell vs. HP laptops for gaming

For premium gaming laptops, Dell offers Alienware-branded laptops while HP offers Omen-branded laptops.

I’ve used both Alienware and Omen laptops. Both tend to have premium build quality with lots of metal in their laptop chassis. Some people may even say that Alienware laptops have better build quality than Omen laptops on the whole, but I’m not sure that’s true these days. Based on my hands-on experience, Alienware and Omen laptops with similar hardware at similar price points are pretty comparable.

That said, Alienware does tend to offer more expensive and higher-end options that Omen laptops usually can’t match. For example, you can get a massive 18-incher like the Alienware 18 Area-51 while Omen tops out at 17.3 inches.

High-end Alienware machines like the Alienware 16 Area-51 (at Dell) offer premium features like a mechanical keyboard and lots of high-end touches. And keeping with Dell’s configurability, it’s easier to find an Alienware machine with Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 graphics or upgrade a laptop to an Intel Core i9 CPU if you want to go all-out.

HP’s Omen line has more compact and portability-focused options, with a few 14-inch models. Alienware doesn’t currently offer a 14-inch gaming laptop.

Overall, Alienware is focused on larger and higher-end gaming machines. If money was no object and I was looking at both Alienware and Omen machines, I’d lean towards high-end Alienware machines. But at the “mid-range premium” price point for gaming laptops, both HP Omen and Dell Alienware offer many competitive options.

No laptop is perfect, of course, and every machine has its downsides. When comparing gaming laptops, it’s more important to compare laptop to laptop, looking for reviews of the specific machines you’re interested in. That’s what it will come down to.

Dell vs. HP for budget gaming laptops

For more budget-focused gaming laptops, HP has the edge with its Victus line of laptops, since Dell no longer offers its comparable G series of budget gaming laptops.

Expect more plastic and less metal from Victus. The designs also aren’t as “gamer-focused,” with fewer LEDs and less RGB bling. They may have other trade-offs like shorter-than-usual battery life and a mediocre keyboard, too.

Still, we’ve given machines like the HP Victus 15 (at HP) solid ratings here at PCWorld. It delivered strong gaming performance at a good price in our hands-on tests — and that’s exactly what you’d want from budget gaming laptops like these.

Again, it will come down to the difference between each individual laptop. And sales may muddle things further, possibly making a more premium Alienware or Omen laptop a better deal to snatch.

Dell vs. HP for Chromebooks

When it comes to Chromebooks, HP offers a wider range of options as of this writing. HP offers the mid-range HP Chromebook Plus (at Amazon) with an Intel Core i3 processor, which provides a higher-quality experience if you plan on using your Chromebook as your main laptop.

Dell only has a single Chromebook model currently, focused on providing a low-cost option for education.

Dell vs. HP: Which laptop brand is best?

Both Dell and HP are solid laptop manufacturers that make a variety of good laptops, and both are good choices for your next laptop. Neither manufacturer consistently bests the other in our laptop reviews.

Each has lots of different products though, so take care when shopping. Look at reviews and comparisons for specific laptop models rather than particular brands or product lines. We’ve given high scores and low scores to both, so neither brand is a sure-fire winner.

Still feel like you need some guidance? Dive straight into our recommendations for the best Chromebooks, best laptops under $500, best gaming laptops, and today’s best laptop deals!

One of the things we love most these days is just how affordable gaming laptops have become. This HP Victus, for instance, is only $1,050, which is quite fantastic considering it has a stellar configuration.

Usually available for $1,370 at Best Buy, this $320-off laptop has everything you could need — a gorgeous display, a powerful CPU, plenty of storage space, and a top-notch graphics card. Frankly, you can’t go wrong by getting this laptop.

For starters, the HP Victus has a 15.6-inch IPS display with a decent 1920×1080 resolution and a 144Hz refresh rate. This combo will deliver good visuals no matter if you’re watching movies or playing games. That speedy refresh rate, however, is going to ensure you can’t blame a slow screen on your lack of reaction time during boss fights.

Overall, this laptop was built for speed. With an Intel Core i7 and 16GB DDR5 RAM, this model is ready to tackle your daily workload, gaming, and keeping entirely too many tabs open in your browser. Throw in the RTX 5060 and you get a future-proof laptop — at least for a few years.

Frankly, when you see a laptop with these specs for $1,050 the only possible reaction is to add it to your cart because that’s a purchase you won’t regret.

That's a fantastic price for a great gaming laptop

While my current’s phone battery is still in good health, I developed a habit a few years ago where I’d always have a power bank in my bag when leaving the house. If you’re like me and want to ensure you can still recharge your phone anywhere you may be, you should look at batteries too, including this tiny Iniu model that’s only $11.21 at Amazon right now.

With a $30 MSRP, this Iniu power bank has a 10,000mAh capacity, which means it has enough juice to recharge you phone about twice over, although that depends on what phone you have and if you’re using the device while it’s recharging or not.

The Iniu power bank has a cute strap you can use to carry it around town. The best part is that the strap is actually a short USB-C cable you can use to plug your phone in.

The power bank has a total of three ports, two of which are USB-C and one of which is USB-A, which means you can technically recharge multiple devices at once. With the 45W total output, charging speed would drop considerably if you plug in multiple gadgets.

Remember that in order to get the fabulous $11.21 price, you have to redeem the on-page coupon for the extra 40% discount that goes on top of the 38% off that’s already available for the power bank. Stop wasting time because there’s no way to know when this deal will expire.

Take this tiny power bank everywhere you go

Although support for Windows 10 will not end in October 2025 after all, Microsoft’s additional grace period extends its life by only one year. This means that many users will soon not only have to say goodbye to their operating system, but also to their computer in the near future.

Even if its components are powerful enough for Windows 11, it may become electronic waste: This is because Microsoft has strict requirements for the hardware on which the new operating system can run — especially when it comes to the processor.

Most PCs and laptops that are more than eight years old are therefore excluded from the upgrade — even though they work without any problems under Windows 10 and would certainly do the same under Windows 11.

However, you can make your computer officially fit for Windows 11 with small hardware upgrades: Whether this is worthwhile, whether it is even possible, and how much it costs depends on the specific PC or laptop.

Further reading: I’m sticking with Windows 10 even after it dies next week. Here’s how

What your computer needs for Windows 11

The requirements that Microsoft places on a computer for Windows 11 look low at first glance:

• Processor with 64-bit support, two cores and a clock speed of 1GHz
• 4GB RAM
• 64GB storage for the installation

Many old computers fulfill these requirements, which aren’t dissimilar from the requirements for graphics hardware with Direct X 12: Even PCs that are over 10 years old have suitable components.

The same is true of Microsoft’s demand for a motherboard that has UEFI firmware with the Secure Boot function: This was already mandatory for computers with Windows 8, so complete systems should have been equipped with it since 2013.

The requirement for TPM 2.0 is more problematic: Windows stores security keys in the Trusted Platform Module, which also monitors the PC boot process to ensure that no malware is active before Windows loads.

TPM 2.0 was mandatory for complete systems with Windows 10, meaning that computers sold since the end of 2016 should be equipped accordingly. Prior to this, PCs and laptops were usually equipped with TPM 1.2 — which Microsoft believes makes them too insecure for Windows 11.

However, most computers will fail to overcome one hurdle when switching to Windows 11: According to Microsoft, they absolutely need a processor that is on the official compatibility list, which is available for Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm models.

This rules out all computers intended for private users that are equipped with an Intel processor before the 8th Core generation (“Coffee Lake,” “Kaby Lake R,” “Kaby Lake G,” “Amber Lake Y”) or an AMD CPU whose cores are not based at least on the Zen architecture.

Complete systems with a supported CPU were available from spring 2018 — so if your computer is more than seven years old, Windows 11 cannot be installed without detours.

However, the Microsoft list is not consistent: Older processors such as the Intel Core i7-7820HQ from early 2017 or newer ones such as the AMD Athlon 3000G from the end of 2019, which is based on the Zen architecture, are also listed as suitable for Windows 11, although other processors with this architecture are excluded.

Microsoft published new lists for the individual processor manufacturers for the Windows 24H2 update in February: They mainly contain more recent CPU models.

However, some CPUs that were previously listed as supported have also been removed — including individual models from generations that are actually considered compatible with Windows 11.

Whether this was accidental or intentional is unclear. These lists are actually aimed at PC manufacturers (OEMs), not private users.

With older processors in particular, they do not give you any definitive certainty as to whether a particular CPU is supported by Windows 11 — and even if it is now, whether this will also apply to future updates of the operating system.

How to check whether your PC is ready for Windows 11

If your computer is suitable for Windows 11 in its current configuration, you will be prompted at regular intervals to switch to the new system.

Windows 10 also indicates this with a large window in the settings under “Windows Update”.

If this is not the case for you, you can use tools to check how Windows 11-ready your PC is. Microsoft offers the PC Health Check for this purpose. Start the check by clicking the blue “Check now” button.

If the computer fulfills the requirements for Windows 11, the overall result and the results for the individual components are highlighted in green.

A yellow mark means that the tool could not perform the test for a specific requirement because the components or function was not recognized or has not yet been activated — for example, because Secure Boot is switched off.

A cross in a red circle indicates that this component is preventing the upgrade to Windows 11 — in most cases the processor.

Incidentally, you should not trust the age information displayed on the left-hand side of the tool’s start screen — it simply guesses based on certain system information, which has nothing to do with the actual age of the hardware or the Windows installation.

The freeware WhyNotWin11 also checks the Windows 11 compatibility of the individual components and functions: Green means passed, red means failed.

If the check tool reports that Secure Boot could not be detected, it may be because you have not activated this function. First start the Windows system information by running

msinfo32 

in the main window: “UEFI” must be in the “BIOS Mode” line. If “Off” is displayed for “Secure Boot State,” the UEFI supports Secure Boot, but it is not activated.

To switch on Secure Boot, call up the UEFI settings: The most reliable way to do this is to click on “Restart now” in the Windows settings under “Update & Security > Recovery > Advanced Boot.”

After a short time, the blue Windows pre-boot environment will appear: Select “Troubleshooting > Advanced options > UEFI firmware settings > Restart.”

The computer now calls up the UEFI setup: Depending on the manufacturer, you will find the options for Secure Boot in the “Boot” or “Security” section. There, set Secure Boot to “Enabled,” “Switched on,” “UEFI,” or “Windows UEFI Mode.”

After the restart, the “Secure boot state” in the system information should be set to “On.”

Proceed in a similar way to check for TPM: Enter tpm.msc in the Windows search window. If the information for a TPM and “Specification version 2.0” appear, everything is OK, version “1.2” is not sufficient for Windows 11 — you need a new processor here.

If you see “No compatible TPM found,” the TPM may be compatible but not active. Now you need to call up the UEFI again and look for an option such as “Security Device,” “TPM State,” or, on a computer with an Intel CPU, “Intel PTT” or “Intel Platform Trust Technology.”

The corresponding options for an AMD computer are called “AMD fTPM Switch” or “AMD PSP fTPM.” Set them to “On,” “Enabled,” or “Activated.”

You need to replace this hardware for Windows 11

For an older PC, the route to Windows 11 usually involves changing the processor: Older CPUs also fulfill some of Microsoft’s requirements — they usually come with TPM 2.0 and their motherboard offers UEFI firmware with Secure Boot.

However, the models on the compatibility list have additional functions that their predecessors do not have and that cannot be added later via an update: In most cases, these are security precautions against malware attacks on the operating system.

The quickest and cheapest way to make an older PC fit for Windows 11 is to equip it with a processor that Microsoft allows. To do this, you must first clarify whether the CPU in your computer is soldered to the motherboard or sits in a socket — only then can it be replaced at all.

Find out the model designation of the CPU — for example via the Windows Device Manager under “Processors,” in the Windows settings under “System > Info,” or with a hardware analysis tool such as HWinfo 64 or Speccy.

Then research the technical data for this model on the processor manufacturer’s website — for example ark.intel.com. The hardware tools are also helpful — in HWinfo 64, look for “Main processor -> CPU platform.”

If terms such as “Socket,” “PGA,” or “LGA” appear there, it is a socketed processor that can generally be expanded. If, on the other hand, you see the abbreviation “BGA,” also in the form “FC-BGA,” the processor is soldered onto the board — you cannot replace it.

A complete PC with a desktop or tower housing usually has a socketed processor, whereas in many laptops the CPU is soldered.

However, there are exceptions: All-in-one PCs or small mini PCs often use soldered laptop CPUs, while large laptops — for example, gaming and high-end laptops — often have a socketed processor.

Intel: How to choose a suitable processor

If the processor can be changed, the next step is to clarify whether a Windows 11-compatible model can be used instead. The new processor must fit into the existing slot on the motherboard installed in the PC.

For older computers with Intel processors, your chances are slim: The socketed models from the CPU generations that are suitable for Windows 11 — from Coffee Lake onwards — use a different slot than their predecessors.

This is also called LGA1151 — but version 1 differs from version 2 for Coffee Lake in terms of the electrical connections: You can therefore use a newer processor, but it will not work.

When switching to Windows 11, you will therefore need a new processor and a new motherboard for the Intel platform.

Depending on how powerful you want your computer to be after the upgrade, the upgrade will cost you between around $200 and $500.

In addition, you can skip several CPU generations from Intel when buying a new processor and motherboard, as newer models are hardly more expensive than older ones: This not only makes the updated computer fit for Windows 11, but also gives it a generous increase in speed.

If your old PC uses DDR4 RAM, you can even use the RAM on a board for the 14th core generation “Raptor Lake-R” from last year: A suitable motherboard such as the Asus Prime H610M costs around $100, and you can get a solid mid-range processor such as the Core i5-14400 as a boxed version with cooler for around $140.

It will be significantly more expensive if you want to equip your old PC with the latest CPU generation Arrow Lake: Inexpensive processors such as a Core Ultra 5 225 cost around $250, with a suitable motherboard costing just over $100.

You will also need DDR5 RAM, which is around $40 for 16GB capacity. If you only have a tight upgrade budget, you can opt for a board with an LGA1200 slot for an Intel PC:

CPUs up to the 11th-generation Rocket Lake can be used there, such as a Core i5-11400F, which costs around $115 with a fan. In addition, an LGA1200 board such as the Gigabyte H510M v2 costs around $100.

There are no costs for a new drive in any case: All boards for the upgrade options shown have M.2 and SATA connections so that you can continue to use an existing SSD — unless you need a flash memory with a larger capacity.

The cheapest M.2 and SATA SSDs with 512GB are around $30 — an SSD with PCI Express 3.0 is sufficient for M.2 because the recommended boards do not support a higher PCIe version for the drive.

In many cases, you can continue to use your existing power supply unit: Its connections should be suitable for the new board and the new components, unless you are using a powerful graphics card. However, it is generally advisable to replace the power supply unit on a computer that is six years old or older.

Hardware upgrade for an AMD computer

The upgrade path to Windows 11 is more favorable if you have a computer with an AMD processor: The manufacturer continued to use the AM4 socket for the older processors until 2022.

This means, for example, that a Ryzen 7 1700 that does not work with Windows 11 can be replaced with a processor from the Ryzen 5000 series, such as the Ryzen 7 5700 or the Ryzen 7 5800XT.

These models are still readily available and cost between $120 and around $180 with cooler.

Before you buy the new processor, check whether your existing motherboard supports it: The manufacturer must provide a suitable UEFI update, which can be found out on the support pages for the relevant board.

You can continue to use the built-in RAM and an existing SSD.

As with Intel, newer AMD processors support higher clock rates for DDR4: In everyday PC use, however, it is usually hardly noticeable that the existing DDR4 memory in the old computer runs a little slower.

Nowadays, it’s so easy to achieve a minimalist office setup because you don’t need a laptop or a big desktop PC to get your work done. In fact, a mini PC is more than capable of getting everything done, including this Bosgame P4. Even better, you can get this one for 20% off, which means you only pay $320 for it at Amazon.

How can you be sure this mini PC is capable of handling your daily workload, streaming sessions, and everything in between? Well, because its specs are nothing to turn your nose at. Under the hood of this tiny little computer is an AMD Ryzen 7 5825U processor and a sensible 32GB DDR4 RAM. That’s a stellar combo that indicates your system will boot in no time and your apps will load in a blink. The Bosgame P4 also has plenty of storage space since there’s a 1TB SSD on board.

We’re pretty sure you’ll also love that you can set up the Bosgame P4 with up to three monitors at once. The system supports 4K displays over the HDMI, DisplayPort, and USB-C ports, more than can be said about most laptops these days, which require hubs to make this possible. Of course, connectivity isn’t going to be an issue with these mini PCs because there are plenty of USB-A ports for peripherals, an audio jack, as well as two LAN ports.

Frankly, that’s quite a lot for a $320 computer and you’ll certainly have quite a bit of fun using the Bosgame P4 for your daily tasks. So get one for 20% off at Amazon sooner rather than later.

Small in size but oh so powerful

Owning a laptop is a big responsibility, especially if you have a high-end model. There are a ton of things that can go wrong — from breakage to malware. But with some common sense rather than specialist knowledge those things need not happen to your laptop. Here’s what you need to know to keep your laptop safe and sound.

There’s a reason so many small businesses are running consumer-grade security software: it’s cheap. But it’s not adequate for safeguarding your business’ devices, data, finances and reputation. Skrimp now and it may well cost you more in the long run.

We get it: you’re trying to turn a profit, not blow your budget on business-level security software and an IT team to manage it. Norton Small Business is a competitively priced security suite for small businesses with up to 10 employees, and right now there is a 30% discount on the first year, making it phenomenal value for money and a no-brainer for any small business owner who is serious about their company’s digital security.

Save 30% on Norton Small Business with code PCWNSBP

Norton Small Business comes with real-time antivirus, a firewall, and business support ready to assist you with virus removal. But it does so much more than helping protect your business devices from malware.

Norton Small Business can help you protect your business from financial fraud with Financial Monitoring, preventing the loss of your data due to ransomware, PC theft or hard drive failures with Cloud Backup for Windows, empower your employees to work more securely from anywhere, and enables increased productivity with a suite of Windows PC optimisation tools.

You don’t need to be tech savvy or hire an IT team to manage Norton Small Business–it’s easy to set up and runs in the background, so you can get on with operating your business with peace of mind over its digital security.

Do you need small business cybersecurity?

Yes. It doesn’t matter how tech savvy or up to date with the latest security news you are, the latest digital threats are pretty scary, and could be tricky to avoid, with AI making them smarter and more sophisticated than ever. If you’re running a small business don’t put a target on your back by underestimating the importance of proper protection for your business devices, data and employees’ online activities or thinking cybercriminals only target large companies.

Plus, let’s face it, employees can do a lot of silly things without even realising it, like using devices with outdated software posing the risk of security holes cybercriminals could exploit; using their birthdays as passwords; not securing their connection when working remotely and connecting to insecure Wi-Fi, etc. Someone here needs to be the grown-up in the room.

Take responsibility for digital security

Norton Small Business costs £54.99 for up to three employees, £69.99 for up to five employees, and £99.99 for up to 10 employees. Step up to Norton Small Business Premium to enjoy 24/7 Business Tech Support to assist with common IT issues, Secure VPN, Financial and Social Media Monitoring, Driver Updater and 500GB of secure Cloud Backup online storage for Windows PCs; it costs £149.99 for up to five employees, and £199.99 for up to 10 employees. All prices are for the first year.

Right now, PCWorld readers can take advantage of a rare 30% discount, unlocking Norton Small Business from just £38.50/first year, and Norton Small Business Premium from just £105/first year.

Save 30% on Norton Small Business with code PCWNSBP

UK small business owners have faced mounting pressure in recent years, with challenging global trade conditions making it increasingly difficult to protect their balance sheets. But it’s not just economic uncertainty that endangers small businesses in 2025 – cyberattacks pose an equally serious threat. Thankfully, with the right digital security tools in place the risks can be mitigated.

Could your small business fall victim to one of these threats?

In June, the Home Office released its Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2025 report, detailing the most common cyberattacks experienced by UK small businesses in H2 2024. Here are the most common ways hackers attempted to gain money or data from UK small businesses last year:

• Phishing: 85% of businesses that reported cyberattacks identified phishing as a key threat. These scams trick employees into clicking on fake links – often via email – and inadvertently handing over sensitive data. Now powered by AI, phishing tactics are getting smarter than ever and more difficult to spot.
• Employee impersonation: More than half (51%) of businesses said hackers had posed as company employees to deceive their ‘colleagues’ into handing over information.
• Malware on company devices: While AI-powered scams today grab the headlines, malware is still very much present and very much a threat. Many small businesses reported that viruses and spyware had been installed on company devices, enabling valuable data to be syphoned off.
• Business bank account targeting: Nearly 1 in 10 small businesses that suffered cyberattacks in the second half of 2024 said their online banking accounts had been targeted, directly threatening their finances and financial data.
• Ransomware: A successful ransomware attack can be extremely lucrative for cybercriminals, and devasting for small businesses. Ransomware, which steals sensitive company data and demands payment for its return, is a continued threat for small businesses in 2025.

Don't take the risk: Defend your business data before it's too late

How to stop your small business falling victim to a cyberattack

All the hacking methods outlined in the Home Office report are potentially ruinous to a small business, so it’s vitally important that defences are in place to protect against these attacks. But how? It’s unrealistic to expect employees to be on constant alert against cyberattacks, especially with AI now making the threats much more difficult to spot – and that’s why business-grade security software is a must. 

If you’re going to place the defence of your business in the care of another, it needs to be someone you can trust. Norton is a renowned brand in the security sector, with a long-standing reputation for its powerful antivirus tools and professionalism.

Armed with the Norton Small Business or Small Business Premium security suite, you’ll instantly upgrade your company’s ability to defend itself from today’s scary digital threats.

The always-on Norton antivirus protection means your staff will not be caught with their guard down, while a dedicated firewall helps keeps at bay cyberthreats to your business devices. An encrypted vault for passwords and company credit card details, plus up to 500GB of secure cloud storage, helps you prevent sensitive business data falling into the wrong hands.

Social media monitoring helps you avoid damage to your business reputation, with notifications to suspicious activities like fake posts appearing on your profiles. You’ll also get alerts for suspicious financial transactions, sent out if anything unusual is spotted on your business bank accounts, helping you to protect your company from fraud.

Your employees are able to work safer online, even remotely, with the VPN and a secure browser encrypting data. A dark web monitoring feature scans the nastier regions of the web for compromised personal and company data that could put  your company or employees at risk.

Small businesses may not have their own dedicated IT teams, so 24/7 business tech support from Norton Small Business experts can put your mind at ease should you run into IT issues. The Norton Small Business suite will also ensure automatic software updates for Windows PCs take place to patch possible security vulnerabilities, while optimising business PCs for security and productivity.

Defend your small business with Norton

There are enough things to worry about when you run a small business. With Norton Small Business, online security doesn’t have to be one of them.

The Standard edition costs £54.99 for up to three employees, £69.99 for up to five employees, and £99.99 for up to 10 employees. Step up to Norton Small Business Premium to enjoy 24/7 Business Tech Support, Secure VPN, Financial and Social Media Monitoring, Driver Updater and 500GB of secure Cloud Backup online storage; it costs £149.99 for up to five employees, and £199.99 for up to 10 employees. All prices are for the first year.

Right now, PCWorld readers can take advantage of a rare 30% discount, unlocking Norton Small Business from just £38.50/year, and Norton Small Business Premium from just £105/year. Just enter the code PCWNSBP at checkout to take advantage.

You can also try Norton Small Business before you subscribe, thanks to a 30-day trial.

Mike runs a small marketing agency with six full-time employees who all work remotely. Two weeks ago, Carol – Mike’s graphic designer – connected to a shared project drive. Today the client is screaming at Mike because their business materials have appeared on a competitor’s site. Having broken their trust he faces losing the client’s business altogether, and he now needs to burn unknown hours of team time on disaster recovery rather than billable projects. Worse, he just received a ransom note for £20k in cryptocurrency to unlock his business files.

How did this happen? Unbeknown to Carol, two days earlier her son Jack downloaded a free game infected with malware on her laptop. That was their way in and, once the cybercriminals had infiltrated Carol’s device and her home network, Mike’s unsecured business data became easy prey. While Carol is distraught over the situation, Mike’s the one now facing small business ruin.

This is an illustrative example of just how easily remote workers can cripple your small business when you don’t take adequate security precautions. Are you so sure that remote workers won’t place your small business in peril?

Protect your business devices, data, finances and reputation with cyber security designed and built for small businesses

What small businesses need to know about remote working and security

Five years on from the COVID-19 pandemic, some larger companies are now mandating a return-to-work policy. But, for many small businesses, remote working remains common practice. Beaming claims a staggering 81% of UK small businesses support remote working today.

While the benefits to work-life balance for employees are clear, and remote working can also cut down on office overheads, allowing staff to work from home can be a security nightmare. So, how can a small business ensure its employees, business data, finances and reputation, stay safe in a world of constantly evolving digital threats? Part of the battle is understanding the threats.

How can a small business protect its remote workers from digital threats?

Due to the dispersed nature of remote working, it can be a challenge to enforce the same level of security as you might in the enclosed environment of a workplace. That’s why using a dedicated small business security software suite can be a great way to protect your clients and employees alike, without racking up huge expenses or adding even more stress to your busy day.

Norton Small Business is a complete solution that includes a number of purpose-built security tools to help your business avoid falling victim to the kind of attacks outlined above.

With the standard package you get always-on antivirus and firewall protection that works to continuously guard against viruses, malware and spyware attacks. There’s also a secure browser that employees can use when working on business documents or accessing online banking.

Passwords and sensitive documents can be stored in an encrypted vault to help prevent prying eyes from gaining access, while Norton keeps tabs on the dark web to seek out employee identity or business data that may have been compromised and now presents a threat to the business.

There is also an automatic software updater for Windows PCs, making sure employees don’t neglect to update outdated apps that could contain security vulnerabilities, plus 250GB of secure cloud-backup space for any business-critical files.

If your security needs are greater, the Norton Small Business Premium plan includes everything in the standard plan, plus some useful extras. You get a VPN service that encrypts all data flowing between a device and the web, helping you protect the business from man-in-the-middle attacks. You also get notified in the event of suspicious financial transactions, or fraudulent social media posts that may threaten the company’s reputation.

The premium plan bumps up the secure cloud storage to 500GB, plus you get the peace of mind that comes with 24/7 business tech support should you encounter business IT problems – ideal for small businesses who lack their own IT team.

Choose Norton for small business security

Running a small business is challenging enough, without needing to worry about IT problems and digital threats as well.

The standard plan costs £54.99 for up to three employees, £69.99 for up to five employees, and £99.99 for up to 10 employees. Step up to Norton Small Business Premium to enjoy 24/7 Business Tech Support, Secure VPN, Financial and Social Media Monitoring, Driver Updater and 500GB of secure Cloud Backup online storage; it costs £149.99 for up to five employees, and £199.99 for up to 10 employees. All prices are for the first year.

Right now, PCWorld readers can take advantage of a rare 30% discount, unlocking Norton Small Business from just £38.50/first year, and Norton Small Business Premium from just £105/first year. Just enter the code PCWNSBP at checkout to take advantage.

You don’t have to spend any money to see the benefits of the Norton Small Business plans though, as there’s a 30-day trial that lets you try it before you subscribe.

With Norton Small Business, keeping your business and its employees safer from digital threats is simple, whether that’s in the office, at home or on the road.