The best way to watch Monday Night Football without paying for a full TV package or ESPN subscription could be short-lived if Disney gets its way. Disney is suing Sling TV over its Day Passes, which provide access to Sling’s Orange bundle (including Disney-owned ESPN and more than 30 other channels) for $5, with weekend and weeklong passes also available for $10 and $15 respectively. By comparison, a full month of Sling Orange costs $46, and ESPN’s new streaming service costs $30 per month on its own. With Day Passes, Sling is solving a real problem with sports streaming: Even if you’re only interested in a single game, you must pay for an entire month of service. Programmers like Disney should be embracing this approach to reach audiences who otherwise might not pay anything, but they’re too short-sighted to realize it. Why Sling is right While we all want more flexible options, new standalone offerings from the likes of Fox and Disney’s ESPN are insufficient. Both companies have intentionally set prices high—$30 per month for ESPN, $20 per month for Fox One—hoping to prolong the pay TV model that’s collapsing under them. The appeal will likely be limited. We’ve already seen this play out with regional sports networks, most of which now offer their own standalone services in the $20 to $30 per month range. Despite offering more local team games than ESPN and Fox combined, these offerings aren’t gaining much traction because they’re just too expensive. The networks themselves have admitted it. Meanwhile, younger viewers are tuning out. According to Front Office Sports, the average primetime NFL viewer is 62.5 years old, and ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro acknowledged that executives at the company worry about resonating with young audiences. A recent survey of sports executives found that 65 percent are concerned about maintaining live sports’ relevance. So here’s a wild idea: Maybe make it easier for people to get in the door. Let them buy access to a game, or a weekend, or a week, and maybe they’ll come back for more. If not, at least they’ll have paid something instead of turning back to piracy. The old TV business model is falling apart regardless, so now is the time to try new things. Disney: Sling didn’t ask us As we’re learning now, Disney isn’t the one willing to experiment. While Sling previously indicated that it briefed its programming partners on the Day Passes, it never explicitly said that they were on board. Disney, meanwhile, says it didn’t even get the memo. “Sling TV’s new offerings, which they made available without our knowledge or consent, violate the terms of our existing license agreement,” the company said in a statement to media outlets. It wants the court to make Sling remove Disney’s channels from the Day Passes. Keep in mind that in the pay TV world, distributors like Sling typically pay a per-month, per-subscriber “carriage fee” to programmers like Disney in exchange for their channels. The per-subscriber fee for ESPN alone was reportedly around $10 per month a couple of years ago, and that cost gets passed onto customers. The fact that Sling launched its day passes without Disney’s blessing raises some knotty questions, like: How much does Sling pay Disney when someone only signs up for a day? Is it counting per-subscriber carriage fees in a different way, or eating the month’s fee in hopes that day pass holders become regular subscribers? Were any other programmers on board with the idea, or was this all just a gambit to bring them to the bargaining table? Sling’s PR department didn’t answer those questions, but said it plans to fight the lawsuit, which it called meritless. “We will vigorously defend our right to bring customers a viewing experience that fits their lives, on their schedule and on their terms,” the company said. A long history of short-sightedness Unfortunately, this kind of hardball hasn’t ended well for TV distributors in the past. Back in 2015, Verizon tried to offer a flexible TV package for Fios customers, with a base channel lineup and a selection of “Channel Packs” for things like sports and news. Disney sued over it, and while Verizon initially claimed it was within its rights, it eventually watered down the offering and settled the lawsuit. Then, in 2020, T-Mobile tried to launch a new TV service with two distinct packages—one with broadcast, news, and sports channels, and one focused on entertainment. Programmers flipped out, claiming that T-Mobile tricked them into splitting up their channels, and T-Mobile wound up exiting the TV business entirely. With the bottom dropping out on the pay TV business, programmers have only now started embracing a modicum of flexibility, with companies like DirecTV offering “Genre Packs” for less than a typical pay TV package. But even that only happened because DirecTV was wiling to wage a PR war against Disney and subject its customers to extended blackouts. These kinds of changes shouldn’t have taken a decade, and deep down, programmers know it. They’ve quietly bemoaned the destruction of the pay TV bundle, yet they did nothing to avert it. With day passes, programmers like Disney have another chance to innovate on a tired business model and reach folks who might not otherwise even pay for their services. While it’s no surprise that they’re against it, hopefully Sling can force the issue. Sign up for Jared’s Cord Cutter Weekly newsletter to get more streaming TV insights every Friday. Read...

Back in 2019, an indie game launched with a simple tagline: “It’s a lovely morning in the village and you are a horrible goose.” And Untitled Goose Game tells no lies. This one sentence describes its premise accurately. I tell everyone to play it.  I’ve been especially vocal during the past week, when its price on Steam dropped to its all-time low of just $7 for the second time ever. Normally, it’s $20 and already worth the several hours of entertainment it provides. Why is being a jerk to everyone in the most serene, chill, and nonviolent hamlet so delightful? I’m too cheap to pay for the therapy to unpack that. I’d much rather sing the game’s praises. Developer House House calls its creation a “slapstick-stealth-sandbox” game, which is decently accurate (and pretty funny). I’d call it humor masquerading as a low-key puzzle game. With the ability to terrorize everyone with your honking. Assassin’s Creed: Goose (I’d play that game if it were real.)House House / Steam Already have played the game? At $7, it’s cheap to gift a copy to friends who’ve so far missed out. The sale runs until next week, ending September 4 at 10am Pacific, so you can think a bit on who deserves such an act of love. Or self-defense. You learn a lot about people as they inflict psychological warfare on harmless village inhabitants. While also desecrating their belongings. Especially if you’re playing with said loved ones during local co-op mode. Get Untitled Goose Game for $7 on Steam Read...

A large package set for delivery has caused quite a stink for one courier company, causing it to dial in the help of the police. After the box was dropped off at New Zealand Couriers in New Plymouth, an employee noticed it was emitting the “distinctive odour” of cannabis. But the police didn’t have to look far to figure out who was behind the package, with the source having provided his name and contact details on the package receipt. Today, Anthony Ellison, 40, appeared in the New Plymouth District Court charged with possession of cannabis and cultivation of cannabis, to which he pleaded guilty. Judge Gregory Hikaka said Ellison dropped off the “large white box” to the courier on October 24 last year. Inside was 445g of dried cannabis leaf material, intended to make the journey across the Cook Strait to an address in Takaka. But after the employee clocked the smell of cannabis, the police were notified. This led to a search of Ellison’s house in New Plymouth, where police found four “large” cannabis plants growing in pots on his deck. A “jungle grow tent”, grow lights and a set of scales were also found and seized. When speaking with the police, Ellison said he had gone to the couriers to drop the package off for a friend. He admitted the plants growing at his house were his. In court, defence lawyer Emily Forsyth submitted there was no element of commercial gain in Ellison’s offending, and he was in fulltime employment with a recent opportunity to advance his career. She said he undertook random drug-testing at work and had offered to do the same through Corrections. The appropriate sentence was community detention, with a weekend curfew to facilitate the weekday travel Ellison undertook for work, Forsyth submitted. Police prosecutor Lewis Sutton had no issues with the defence’s submissions but asked for a destruction order to be made in respect to the cannabis and equipment. Judge Hikaka said Ellison had “a lot of previous convictions” but none for drug offending. “You could count yourself fortunate. You could have faced different charges on the basis of that quantity, and your posting, as well as your admission that it was to supply someone else.” The judge agreed the appropriate sentence was community detention, with a weekend curfew, imposing the sentence for three months. However, he added six months of supervision and made a destruction order for the cannabis and equipment. Tara Shaskey joined NZME in 2022 and is currently an assistant editor and reporter for the Open Justice team. She has been a reporter since 2014 and previously worked at Stuff covering crime and justice, arts and entertainment, and Maori issues. Read...

New Zealand ticketing and event listing business Eventfinda has sold to Ticketek. Read...

A couple years ago, I finally said goodbye to my old bucket of a car and dove back into debt with a new one. Besides the stability and peace of mind that come with a fresh-out-of-the-factory car, what I really hoped for was that I’d be able to properly enjoy Spotify while driving. And I could… except my entertainment system was a wired model, which meant I had to plug in my phone every time. That got annoying fast. See, while my car technically has Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, it doesn’t do it wirelessly. I have to plug in with a cable and wait for it all to come alive. Sure, it works… but it’s also annoying. Gabriela Vatu / Foundry Fortunately, I searched around and eventually found a little gadget that fixes my issue for me—a wireless adapter that only cost me $50. That might seem like a lot, but I decided it was reasonable after some price comparisons and realizing how much convenience it would afford me on a day-to-day basis. I’m talking about the CarlinKit 5.0, which is small, out of the way, and works with a wide range of cars. I love how easy it was to set up. I just had to plug it into my car’s USB port, turn on my phone’s Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and connect it to the wireless adapter. In a snap, I had instant access to my car’s entertainment system (either Android Auto or Apple CarPlay, depending on what phone you have). It literally took only minutes. Gabriela Vatu / Foundry These days, I forget I even have it—it’s that seamless. I just plop down into my car and my phone automatically connects to the CarlinKit, launching Android Auto with Waze and Spotify. It’s been 2.5 years and it’s still one of the best things I’ve bought for my car. It’s reliable, it’s effective, and it doesn’t overheat (which my phone used to do when I had to plug it in directly). Maybe my phone’s battery drains a bit faster via wireless, but that’s not a big deal since I can always plug it in and charge via my car if necessary. Where to get it CarlinKit 5.0 Wireless Adapter Best Prices Today: $54.48 at Amazon The only issue I’ve had with the CarlinKit? Every few weeks or so, it acts up and I have to give it the good ol’ unplug-and-plug-it-back-in maneuver. There’s also a spot a few miles from my house where there’s enough interference to kill my phone-to-adapter connection until I pass through. These are inconveniences, but minor ones. Neither is enough to ever get me to give up this wireless Android Auto adapter. Gabriela Vatu / Foundry If you have a wired Android Auto or Apple CarPlay setup and you hate plugging in every time, I highly recommend the CarlinKit 5.0. The Motorola Sound MA1 and AAWireless Two were also on my shortlist, but those only work with Android Auto. Ultimately, I picked the CarlinKit since I might get an iPhone one day and wanted to ensure future compatibility. Turn your car`s Android Auto/Apple CarPlay wireless for just $50Buy now at Amazon Read...

The entertainment came from Rory McIlroy, who bladed a bunker shot on the par-5 18th hole over the green and off the grandstands, and then back onto the green. He made an 18-foot putt for a most unlikely birdie. Read...

The food is fine, the entertainment and cabin service solid, but one part of the flight was outstanding … thanks to Elon Musk. Read...

For better or worse, the number of ways to watch NFL and college football games has exploded in 2025. While you once need a bloated pay TV bundle just to stream your local teams, this year brings new standalone options from ESPN and Fox, skinnier channel bundles from pay TV providers, and shorter-term subscription plans from Sling. Slice and dice things the right way, and you’ll save a bunch of money compared to what you might have spent in previous years. But with so many potential paths for football coverage, it’s hard to keep track of what’s even available, let alone what the best option is. Here is my best attempt to point you in the right direction. First, know which channels you need The scenarios below are focused on channels rather than specific teams. If you’re not sure which channels you need to watch your favorite college or NFL teams, I suggest using ESPN’s Where to Watch tool. Enter your team into the search box, and you’ll see a schedule of upcoming games and their corresponding TV channels. Make a list of necessary channels and keep them in mind as we go through the options. If you can use an antenna Figure out which channels you can get over the air, and then buy an antenna that suits your needs What’ll you get: ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC If you’re blessed with good enough reception, an over-the-air antenna is still the best way to access a huge amount of football coverage for free, including all the NFL’s Sunday day games and the biggest college football matchups. You’ll miss some games that air on cable, but that’s where some of the following alternatives come into play. If you only need ESPN Subscribe to ESPN for $30 per month (or $36 per month with the addition of Disney+ and Hulu) What you get: ESPN, ESPN on ABC, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNEWS, ESPN Deportes, SEC Network, ACC Network, ESPN+, ESPN3, SECN+, and ACCNX ESPN isn’t a great deal on a purely standalone basis, but it could pair well with an antenna and might cater to college football fans whose teams air exclusively on ABC and ESPN channels. If you only need Fox’s sports channels Subscribe to Fox One for $20 per month What you get: Fox, FS1, FS2, Big Ten Network, Fox News, and Fox Business Much like ESPN’s service, Fox One will have narrow appeal as a standalone option, but it could work for folks whose NFL team airs primarily on Fox. It might also appeal to antenna users who otherwise have no reasonably-priced way to watch FS1, FS2, and the Big Ten Network. If you want ESPN and Fox, but not much else Subscribe to the ESPN and Fox One bundle from October 2 onward What you get: All of ESPN’s channels, and all of Fox’s channels These two services will cover a good-sized chunk of college and NFL games, especially for teams whose day games don’t air primarily on CBS. For the cheapest path to local games, ESPN, and Fox’s cable channels Subscribe to Paramount+ ($8 per month), Peacock ($11 per month), ESPN ($30 per month), and Fox One ($20 per month). Bundle the latter two for $40 per month after October 2 What you’ll get: All of ESPN’s channels, ABC’s sports coverage, all of Fox’s channels, sports and entertainment from NBC and CBS For $69 per month (dropping to $59 per month once the ESPN-Fox One bundle becomes available), you get a wide swath of broadcast and cable football coverage, including all Sunday NFL games and Monday Night Football. If you don’t care about ESPN, but want football on local channels Subscribe to DirecTV MyNews for $40 per month What you get: ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, and a bunch of cable news channels Don’t be misled by the name. DirecTV’s MyNews package is sneakily the cheapest way to stream local channels, including football coverage on the four major broadcast networks. Just note that DirecTV MyNews doesn’t carry all four major networks in every market. To check availability, click the “See 10+ channels” link. If your NFL team airs on Fox and you live in a major city Look into Sling Select, which ranges from $20 to $30 per month depending on local channel availability. What you get: A combination of ABC, NBC, and Fox that varies by city, plus NFL Network and a handful of other channels. Sling Select’s local channel availability is limited, but there are some markets where it makes sense for football coverage. New Yorkers, for instance, can use Sling Select to get every Giants game on Fox, plus Sunday Night Football and any Monday Night Football games that air on ABC. Sling Select costs $20 per month in markets with one or fewer local channels, $25 per month in markets with two local channels, and $30 per month in markets with three. See Sling’s local channel chart too see what’s available in each market. If you’d rather have everything in one app, plus NFL Network Subscribe to DirecTV MySports for $70 per month What you get: ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, all of ESPN’s channels, all of Fox’s sports channels, NFL Network, Golf Channel, MLB Network, NBA TV, NHL Network, TBS, TNT, TruTV, USA, major cable news networks. This option will still be cheaper than standard pay TV packages, and you’ll get more overall sports coverage than the standalone options mentioned earlier. You’ll just have to do without cable’s entertainment channels. As with DirecTV’s MyNews package, local channel availability varies by market. Head to DirecTV’s MySports page, then click the “See 20+ channels” link to see what’s covered in your area. For occasional ESPN coverage only Sign up for a $5 Sling Day Pass, $10 weekend pass, or $15 week pass What you’ll get: ESPN, TNT, and a bunch of other basic cable channels Sling’s newly launched day passes could come in handy if you get local channels with an antenna or via DirecTV MyNews. Instead of paying for an entire month of ESPN’s service just to watch one or two Monday Night Football games, you could buy a day pass for a fraction of the price. If you just want a regular pay TV package Consider YouTube TV ($83 per month), Hulu + Live TV ($83 per month), Fubo (starting at $98 per month), or DirecTV’s signature packages (starting at $90 per month) What you’ll get: A broad mix of local, sports, news, and entertainment channels While they’re not as flexible or inexpensive as the other options I mentioned, a standard live TV streaming service will give you a package of channels that more closely resembles cable. If your favorite team plays at home in a different city from where you live And you absolutely must watch live: Subscribe to NFL Sunday Ticket ($480 per season) And only need to see the big moments or don’t mind catching up on games after they’re over: Subscribe to NFL+ Premium ($15 per month or $100 per year) YouTube has the exclusive rights to out-of-market games via Sunday Ticket, but you might be able to eke by with NFL+ Premium’s partial coverage. If you’re balking at the price, NFL+ Premium gets you NFL Redzone’s whiparound coverage (so you’ll at least see your team’s scoring drives) along with full game replays after they’re over. More to come This is a quickly-evolving situation, with new bundles arriving at a rapid clip ahead of football season. Fubo, for instance, plans to launch its own cheaper sports bundle soon, and we may see more attempts to bundle standalone services together at a discount. Stay tuned for more updates. Sign up for Jared’s Cord Cutter Weekly newsletter to get more in-depth streaming research and analysis every week. Read...

OPPO New Zealand has just released the new OPPO Pad SE, a reliable and versatile tablet designed for family life, learning and entertainment. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Matte display is bright and easy to see Build feels great Good everyday battery life and performance Cons Expensive for what you get Thermal throttles Lags behind competition Our Verdict I had high hopes for the Intel ThinkPad T14s Gen 6, but its performance is held back by poor cooling and significantly reduced battery life. It might have been worth recommending if it weren’t nearly twice the price of the Snapdragon model. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 Retailer Price Check Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Best Prices Today: Check today’s prices Qualcomm really shook things up in 2024 when it introduced its Snapdragon X Elite chips alongside Windows for ARM. The promise was performance and efficiency. While that performance was occasionally hard to see because of compatibility issues, the efficiency made itself apparent when I tested the Snapdragon-powered Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 and saw it run for almost 24 hours in our battery test. When I saw that Lenovo was introducing an Intel version, the potential was exciting: more consistent performance and compatibility alongside that amazing battery life. Unfortunately, potential is hard to realize, and the Intel-powered ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 struggled. It may be faster, but it ran as long, and somehow it earned an almost doubled price tag. When competitors like the HP EliteBook X G1a and Asus Vivobook S 14 offer more for less, the ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 ends up feeling like it has very little merit. Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6: Specs CPU: Intel Core Ultra 7 258V Memory: 32GB LPDDR5x Graphics/GPU: Intel Arc 140V Display: 14-inch 1200p IPS, Anti-glare Storage: 512GB PCIe Gen4 SSD Webcam: 5MP + IR Connectivity: 2x Thunderbolt 4 / USB4, 2x USB-A 5Gbps, 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x 3.5mm combo audio, 1x Kensington Nano  Networking: WiFi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 Biometrics: Windows Hello fingerprint, facial recognition Battery capacity: 58 watt-hours Dimensions: 12.3 x 8.6 x 0.66 inches Weight: 2.79 pounds MSRP: $3,079 as-tested ($3,079 base) At the time of writing, Lenovo only lists a pair of different configurations for the Intel-powered ThinkPad T14s Gen 6. Our test configuration actually isn’t among them, as it features just 512GB of storage while the available models both include 1TB PCIe Gen 5 SSDs. If it were configured with 1TB of storage, the unit tested here would cost $3,079 and otherwise have all the above specifications. Lenovo also offers a $3,429 model with a largely similar configuration except it bumps up to an Intel Core Ultra 7 268V chip while swapping out the display for a touchscreen model with a far lower color gamut and lower brightness. While these are the configurations available now, Lenovo appears to have more planned. A product specification reference sheet mentions 10 different CPU options, memory ranging from 16GB to 64GB, additional IPS displays and a sharper OLED display, and even an alternate gray color.  Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6: Design and build quality IDG / Mark Knapp Familiarity is the name of the game for this version of the ThinkPad T14s Gen 6. It bears the same name as the model I tested late last year for a reason — almost nothing has changed externally (or internally for that matter), save a crucial CPU switch. This model comes in the same blacked out, coated aluminum chassis that’s become such a staple of the ThinkPad line. Like its Snapdragon-powered counterpart, this model weighs little at just 2.79 pounds. It’s not as thin as can be, but it’s still compact and feels fairly sturdy, exhibiting a good deal less flex in the display than some thin-and-light laptops. It stands with two small rubber feet at the front and a wide rubber foot at the back. These should provide more than adequate clearance for air to reach the single intake fan on the underside of the laptop, which is tucked away underneath a small section of grille. The rest of the base is otherwise flat, solid, and unadorned.  The top surface of the keyboard deck is a little busier. It features the ThinkPad logo engraved into one corner. Speaker grilles flank either side of the keyboard, with the right grille a little smaller than the left as the power button cuts into its space. That power button also doubles as a fingerprint scanner.  The display has a wide hinge that holds the display firmly in place. There’s an extra lip built onto the display lid for opening the laptop up, but the hinge is just firm enough and the base of the laptop just light enough that one-handed doesn’t work out. The little lip at the top of the display has the webcam and IR system for Windows Hello facial recognition built into it, and there’s a hardware camera shutter as well. When slid into place, this covers the camera with a bit of plastic that has a red dot on it, so it’s easy to see when the camera is covered and disabled. The lid of the ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 also features little adornment, but it includes a ThinkPad logo in one corner with a red, illuminated dot in the “i” of “ThinkPad,” and a silver Lenovo badge along one edge. Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6: Keyboard, trackpad IDG / Mark Knapp Like its Snapdragon-counterpart, the keyboard on this laptop is good but not excellent. The keys aren’t firmly stabilized, so they can wiggle at the edges, leading to a mushier feel that stands in the way of consistency. They still benefit from a slight contour and good spacing, making it all the easier to feel them out and remain centered for quick touch-typing, but I struggled to go much beyond 100 words per minute without seeing my typing accuracy sink as I dealt with missed taps.  Beyond typing, there are positive aspects to the keyboard. Its white backlights effectively illuminate both the primary and secondary legends on the keys. The function row has distinctly grouped clusters, so you can readily feel out the keys you want instead of having to peek down at the keyboard. And because these function keys are compact, Lenovo was able to squeeze in Home, End, Insert, and Delete into an additional cluster at the top-right corner of the keyboard. The arrow keys are also compact and offset. While their size can make them feel a little cramped, the offset makes it easier to access them and helps avoid mistaken presses, as they don’t take up space that would otherwise have belonged to the right Shift key.  The trackpad is wonderfully smooth and respectably wide. The physical buttons for use with the TrackPoint nib cut into the touchpad’s vertical space, but they provide a useful role if you prefer the nib for navigation. Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6: Display, audio IDG / Mark Knapp You don’t get the most gorgeous, vivid display in the world from the ThinkPad T14s Gen 6, but you get an almost ideal screen for productivity. I measured it reaching exactly the 500-nit brightness level advertised. Combine that brightness with the incredible anti-glare finish, and you’ve got a display that’s easy to see even in some pretty heinous conditions.  The screen isn’t crazy sharp, but 1920×1200 on a 14-inch screen still provides clarity even for tiny text. The strong contrast, which I measured at 1,900:1 also helps with clarity. Though color may not be as precious for productivity, this display achieved 100 percent coverage of the sRGB color space and has a reasonable degree of accuracy, so you shouldn’t run into issues of web content not appearing as intended.  The speakers put out a good bit of volume, more than enough to listen to speech in videos in a quiet room. But the audio sounds a little resonant in the chassis at full volume. The speakers sound a bit cleaner at 50 percent volume, and the audio is still loud enough at this level.  This ultimately isn’t a great entertainment package, but the combination of serviceable speakers and a high-visibility display offer excellent utility. The screen isn’t crazy sharp, but 1920×1200 on a 14-inch screen still provides clarity even for tiny text. Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6: Webcam, microphone, biometrics IDG / Mark Knapp As tested, the ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 comes with a 5MP webcam that also supports Windows Hello facial recognition. This is a quick and convenient way of logging in. The camera can also play some extra security roles, serving to dim the display if you look away or lock the system if you walk away through Windows settings. The camera itself is good, offering a sharp picture with natural exposure even in slightly dimmer environments.  The microphones come together nicely with the camera, offering clear vocals when recording. They don’t pick up too much echo and they do a decent job eliminating background noise.  Beyond the camera, the ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 includes a fingerprint scanner built into the power button. This works with Windows Hello, but Synaptics’s software also allows you to set whether it will provide authentication “through all security levels.” Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6: Connectivity IDG / Mark Knapp Like the Snapdragon model, this Intel-powered system has respectable connectivity. It’s essentially the same with two USB-C ports, an HDMI 2.1 port, and a 3.5mm combo jack on the left of the laptop and two USB-A ports and a lock slot on the right. The only difference is that the USB-C ports here support Thunderbolt 4 while the other model supported USB4 (though both protocols offer 40Gbps speeds) The laptop offers Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4, and both have proven quick-to-connect and stable in my testing.  Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6: Performance This version of the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 has a lot of promise for general users worried about the limitations of the ARM-based model. The Intel-powered version supports x86-coded software natively, and that can mean better performance than the other system when it relies on translation. That said, neither version of the ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 is alone in the market. The HP EliteBook X G1a offers a similarly professional-oriented system and has a competitive price at $2,749 as tested. And there’s no ignoring the consumer-focused models out there that don’t come with the same kind of prosumer premiums. This lets models that can compete on performance come in at considerably lower prices, like the $1,199 Asus VivoBook S 14 and $1,499 MSI Summit 13 AI + Evo.  IDG / Mark Knapp Overall performance is solid. The ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 lines up nicely against its competition here, with about the performance I’d expect out of a high-end, thin-and-light laptop. Hitting 5,000 points in PCMark 10 is generally a good sign for everyday performance, and higher scores only suggest faster, snappier experiences and a bit more muscle for workloads like photo and video editing and design work. Much higher scores in 8000s and 9000s tend to be the exclusive domain of powerful workstations and gaming laptops, not models running efficient processors like these.  While overall performance was good, it’s not too surprising to see the ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 lagging behind in brute force. Our HandBrake encoding test works the system hard, and the longer the test goes, the more heat builds up, and the slower the system gets. Very few thin-and-lights can zip through this test, but with strong thermal management and a decent processor, they can do a decent job. The ThinkPad has neither here. Its processor is neither extremely fast nor is its modest cooling system very robust. As a result, we see the ThinkPad get the worst result here, and the cooling seems the culprit. The ThinkPad uses a low-power processor that didn’t have much chance keeping pace with the HP EliteBook’s high-power processor (the tides turn in battery life, though). But The Asus VivoBook and MSI Summit both use the same processor as the ThinkPad. Their leads here show the benefit of better thermals. IDG / Mark Knapp The performance gap is further borne out in Cinebench. Earlier versions of Cinebench ran quick CPU tasks, and that let the ThinkPad actually come close to the VivoBook in single- and multi-core performance, and it even saw the ThinkPad consistently beating the Summit in those tests. But Cinebench R23 pushed it harder and hotter, and its ability to keep pace sank it back behind the Vivobook. With Cinebench R24 running the test for a minimum of 10-minute, heat is guaranteed, and the ThinkPad’s weaker cooling continues to drag it behind. Interestingly, it’s in Cinebench that we also see the difference between native x86 and ARM translation, as the Intel-based ThinkPad outperforms the Qualcomm-based in Cinebench R15, R20, and R23. But the tides turn in Cinebench R24, which can run on ARM natively. There, the Qualcomm-powered ThinkPad took the lead in multi-core performance, even if the Intel model still had superior single-core speeds.  That single-core performance is also Intel’s strength. All three Intel machines led with 122-123 points in single-core performance in Cinebench R24. So even though the HP EliteBook’s powerful AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 sped away in multi-core performance, it may not promise better responsiveness in everyday tasks.  IDG / Mark Knapp The graphics performance of all of these systems is middling. While you can do some light 3D work or gaming on the integrated graphics these come with, the performance is still night and day between all of these systems and a laptop running even a low-tier discrete GPU like the RTX 4050. At least the ThinkPad regains some ground on the EliteBook thanks to its more capable Intel Arc 140V graphics and on the MSI Summit, presumably because it’s managing power to the CPU and iGPU better. Still, the VivoBook’s performance lead (yet again) can’t be ignored.  Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6: Battery life When I tested the Qualcomm-powered ThinkPad T14s Gen 6, I was amazed to see it offer the best battery life I’d ever seen from a laptop. It ran for almost 24 hours. That was almost enough to make up for its performance deficits. So the prospect of having almost the same machine but running on an Intel chip with broader compatibility sounded great. Alas, the Snapdragon chipset was key to the efficiency. IDG / Mark Knapp In our video playback test, the Intel-powered ThinkPad doesn’t even come close to the Snapdragon model. It’s still a very worthy machine, reaching over 19 hours of runtime in our test. And in day-to-day use, it also proved capable of lasting through the workday. It also proved more efficient than the HP EliteBook, which fell just short of 11 hours. Unfortunately, the Asus VivoBook and MSI Summit that have posed so much trouble for the ThinkPad in performance also pose a threat in longevity, as both lasted just over 21 hours. It’s not that they’re more efficient, though. The Vivobook has a larger 75Wh battery and the Summit has a 70-watt hour battery.   Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6: Conclusion The ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 ends up in an awkward position where 1. If you care about the quality of the hardware, you’re better off elsewhere. 2. You care about the performance, you’re better off elsewhere. 3. You care about the battery life, you’re better off elsewhere. Or 4. If you care about all of those things, you’re better off elsewhere. Plenty of machines beat it in more than one respect there. The Asus VivoBook S 14 may not be as well built, for instance, but it has the lead in performance and battery life (plus an OLED display for what it’s worth). Meanwhile, the HP EliteBook XG1a may lag behind in battery life, but it has a nice build, great display, and largely superior performance.  And all of the laptops I’ve compared here have the advantage of being much cheaper — including the EliteBook. At over $3,000 for this configuration, this ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 has an undeniably premium tacked on. Some of that may be chalked up to enterprise features, but if you’re not in desperate need of those, it’s hard to see the worth, especially next to these rivals. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this ThinkPad get some massive discounts (the Snapdragon model has, as have plenty of other Lenovo laptops), but unless and until it does, it’s going to be hard to recommend for much more than its useful matte display. Read...