A pair of Kembla-based two-year-old fillies, both on debut, can steal the show when they travel south to tackle the older horses at Monday’s Moruya meeting. Read...

TL;DR: You can score a rugged, travel-ready Lenovo Chromebook for just $54.99 (reg. $328.99) — and yes, shipping is free. If you’ve been waiting for the universe to drop a no-nonsense, take-anywhere laptop into your lap for under $60, today’s your day. For just $54.99, you can grab a Grade A refurbished Lenovo 100e Chromebook (2nd Gen) — a drop-resistant, lightweight, Chrome-powered machine that’s perfect for students, casual users, or anyone who wants a reliable second laptop without the price tag of a new one. And yes, shipping is free. Despite the low price, this compact 11.6? Chromebook delivers where it counts. It’s built to survive life in backpacks, coffee shops, or wherever you decide to bring it. Powered by a MediaTek quad-core processor with 10-hour battery life, this device handles docs, web browsing, and video calls like a pro. You’ll even get perks like a spill-resistant keyboard, anti-glare screen, and dual USB ports for easy plug-and-play. Whether you need a family-friendly device, a backup for travel, or just a no-fuss everyday laptop, this is a deal deal. Get the near-mint Lenovo 100e Chromebook while it’s just $54.99 (reg. $328.99) with free shipping. Lenovo 11.6? 100e Chromebook 2nd Gen (2019) MediaTek MT8173C 4GB RAM 16GB eMMC (Refurbished)See Deal StackSocial prices subject to change. Read...

Most of us are wise to money-saving travel tips from replacing expensive hold luggage with cheaper carry-on cabin bags to buying your foreign currency online rather than at the airport. There’s another wise travel tip that could save you a bundle, and it’s much easier than stuffing all your clothes into a tiny backpack. One of travel’s hidden expenses is expensive foreign data roaming charges when away from your home country, which can rack up significantly for those of us reliant on our phones every day for news, socials and streaming. Getting an eSIM is the way to beat away unwanted hefty data charges via a dedicated digital mobile data plan. GigSky How eSIM’s make everything easy An eSIM is a virtual version of the tiny SIM cards our phone carrier has us install in our phones. Just like the physical SIM, an eSIM controls our calls, texts and data—just 100% digitally. You don’t need to change your phone number to take advantage of the much cheaper data while away, so you needn’t fear about being disconnected when you least expect it in an unusual foreign clime. Safer than Wi-Fi Of course, you could just rely on Wi-Fi, but outside of your hotel you must find a hotspot and then hope it’s a safe one where you won’t run the very real risk of exposing all your otherwise secure details to hackers. An eSIM is the safe, inexpensive and convenient solution to travelling with your phone while abroad. Buying a local SIM requires a physical purchase and activation, whereas an eSIM can be as simple as a download and speedy setup. You just leave your domestic SIM card in place, ready to swap back to when you get home. One of the simplest eSIM implementations we’ve tried is from GigSky, where you control everything simply through a free app—from choosing your destination and setting up your eSIM to activating it when you arrive at your destination and then topping it up with extra data if you need it. It couldn’t be easier. GigSky Who are eSIMs for? Combined with the app, international eSIMs are great for both casual holidayers and frequent business travelers, with fixed data plans range from 500MB to 50GB and in duration from just a three-day city break or business trip to over two weeks in the sun, on the slopes and even on a cruise ship. GigSky provides an unmatched service in 200 countries, including Cuba (which almost no other provider covers. It even works on cruise ships with over 200 of the biggest names such as Carnival, Disney, Celebrity and Princess included. This is bundled with a regular land service so that a single plan works on the entire vacation—as well as inflight on over 20 different airlines. Aside from the simple app that you need download only one, we like US-based GigSky as it is a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) that owns much of its core network elements, offering more flexibility and control compared to most eSIM providers that are just resellers. This means that its customer service can much better diagnose any network or installation issues, and you don’t need to buy a new eSIM for every plan. As a network operator, the app will always be accessible, even if you run out of data. Free trial Better yet, GigSky offers a free 500MB plan for Europe or 100MB everywhere else (no credit card required), for those who want to test this convenient and money-saving eSIM solution. Get 500MB of free mobile dataVisit GigSky Visa customers can take advantage of special promotional offers that allow them to redeem complimentary mobile plans. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Thin, light, and compact Solid gaming performance Beautiful OLED display Premium quality all around Cons Expensive Bulkier gaming laptops will perform better Our Verdict The Razer Blade 14 delivers high gaming performance in cool, quiet, compact package with premium build quality. Its OLED display is beautiful, too. But it’s expensive. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Razer Blade 14 (2025) Retailer Price Check Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Best Prices Today: Check today’s prices The Razer Blade 14 is a 14-inch gaming laptop that’s not much larger, thicker, or heavier than the average laptop. From the snappy keyboard to the quiet fans to the beautiful display, everything works as well as I hoped it would. This machine delivers exactly what it promises. Best of all, you don’t have to choose between power and portability. Razer Blade 14: Specs The Razer Blade 14 is a premium 14-inch gaming laptop that comes with an AMD Ryzen AI HX 365 CPU, based on AMD’s Zen 5 architecture. Our review unit was a $2,699 model that comes with Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 graphics, 32GB of LPDDR5X RAM, and a 1TB SSD. (It also has AMD Radeon 880M graphics, to save power when the beefy Nvidia GPU isn’t needed.) Razer also offers a lower-end $2,299 model that comes with RTX 5060 graphics and 16 GB of RAM along with a $2,999 model that includes 64 GB of RAM and a 2 TB SSD. AMD’s Ryzen AI hardware comes with an NPU, so you get access to Copilot+ PC AI features on this laptop. Model number: Razer Blade 14 (2025) CPU: AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 Memory: 32GB LPDDR5X RAM Graphics/GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 and AMD Radeon 880M NPU: AMD NPU (up to 50 TOPS) Display: 2880×1800 OLED display with 120Hz refresh rate Storage: 1TB PCIe Gen4 SSD Webcam: 1080p webcam Connectivity: 2x USB Type-C (USB4), 2x USB Type-A (USB 3.2 Gen 2), 1x combo audio jack, 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x microSD slot, 1x power port, 1x Kensington lock slot Networking: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 Biometrics: IR camera for Windows Hello Battery capacity: 72 Watt-hours Dimensions: 12.23 x 8.83 x 0.62 inches Weight: 3.59 pounds MSRP: $2,699 as tested The Razer Blade 14 is an excellent gaming laptop in a small package. If you want premium build quality, great gaming performance, and a beautiful display in a compact 14-inch laptop package, it’s a great option. Razer Blade 14: Design and build quality IDG / Chris Hoffman The 14-inch Razer Blade 14 is the most compact gaming laptop Razer offers, alongside the larger Razer Blade 16 and Razer Blade 18. Razer says this is the thinnest Blade 14 it’s ever created, and at 0.62 inches thick and 3.59 pounds, it’s unusually portable for a gaming laptop with Nvidia GeForce graphics. The build quality is excellent — the chassis is made of solid aluminum, the hinge is smooth and easy to open with one hand, and it keeps the display solidly in place without any jostling during gaming sessions. Our review model, with its silver-toned “Mercury White” color has a surprisingly understated design for a gaming laptop. It’s all silver and black with a very restrained Razer logo on the lid. There are no blinking LEDs here — aside from the keyboard backlighting. With per-key LED lighting, you can create animated rainbow LED effects on the keyboard — or just switch it to pure white light for stealth mode. It looks professional and will blend in as a “normal” laptop to anyone who doesn’t recognize the Razer logo on the lid. Razer Blade 14: Keyboard and trackpad IDG / Chris Hoffman The Razer Blade 14 has an awesome keyboard that feels great to use. On paper, the 1mm key travel isn’t a lot. But Razer also says the keys have 63g actuation force. That combination translates to a snappy keyboard experience without a lot of travel. The keyboard here also supports per-key backlighting, so you can customize the color of each key in the Razer Chroma app — or activate complex animations. It’s the kind of thing that makes the laptop feel even more premium, and it lets you activate that rainbow LED “gamer” aesthetic — but only if you want it, and without blinking LEDs elsewhere on the laptop. The Razer Blade 14’s trackpad is great. It’s extremely wide and comes right up to the lip of the laptop, and it’s smooth and responsive. Palm rejection is very good, so I didn’t have a problem with it getting in the way while playing games, despite its size. I’d prefer a haptic trackpad, but it’s fine. The click-down action feels great — and it’s quiet, which is underrated when many laptop trackpads make loud clicking sounds — but a haptic trackpad means that the top part of the trackpad would be clickable, too. Razer Blade 14: Display and speakers IDG / Chris Hoffman The Razer Blade 14 has an absolutely beautiful 14-inch display. It’s a 2880×1800 OLED display, and it produces incredibly vivid colors. At a 120Hz refresh rate, it’s also nice and smooth. I do wish it supported HDR — and you can get higher refresh rate displays if you choose a laptop with an IPS display instead — but this display looks amazing. I’m a big fan of OLED displays, and this is a great one. The Razer Blade 14’s speakers sound great for a laptop. The weapon-firing sounds in DOOM: The Dark Ages sounded nice and punchy. In music, there’s surprisingly crisp instrument separation in Steely Dan’s Aja for laptop speakers. Playing Daft Punk’s Get Lucky, there’s a fun sound with a bit of bass. The volume level is good, although I’ve heard much louder laptop speakers; it’s good but doesn’t have the loudest top-end volume I hear on other laptops. Bass is the one thing that’s lacking compared to a good pair of headphones or external speakers, but there’s enough bass to make the speakers usable. (Still, a good pair of headphones or external speakers will be a big upgrade to your gaming or multimedia experience.) Razer Blade 14: Webcam, microphone, biometrics The 1080p webcam included here is surprisingly good. It delivers a clear picture with good color reproduction — nothing grainy or washed out. And, because this is a Copilot+ PC, you get access to the AI webcam tweaks in Windows Studio Effects. The microphone sounds clear and has good noise reduction, but the audio could be a bit clearer. It’s no big deal. But, while I’d be happy using the built-in webcam for video meetings, I’d definitely prefer to use an external mic for gaming sessions. The Razer Blade 14 has an IR camera for Windows Hello, and it works well. I prefer these to fingerprint readers: It’s nice to open your laptop and have it automatically sign in when it sees your face. Razer Blade 14: Connectivity IDG / Chris Hoffman The Razer Blade 14 has a compelling selection of ports for a 14-inch laptop — including two USB Type-C ports (USB4 speeds) and two USB Type-A ports (USB 3.2 Gen 2 speeds). On the left, you’ve got a power port along with a USB Type-C port, USB Type-A port, and combo audio jack. On the right, you’ll see a microSD card reader, a second USB Type-C port, a second USB Type-A port, an HDMI 2.1 out port, and a Kensington lock slot. That’s about all you could want here — the only thing you could ask for is an Ethernet port, and I doubt one would physically fit here given the size of the laptop! This laptop also has Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 support, making it nice and future proof for the latest standards. I had no problem with the Wi-Fi. Razer Blade 14: Performance The Razer Blade 14 performed great in both gaming and real-world desktop use — naturally. The cooling system works well and blasts the hot air out of the back of the machine, not out of the sides where it would blow on your mouse hand. The keyboard stays surprisingly cool for a gaming laptop. The metal above the F key row can become rather hot while gaming, so that’s where so much of the heat is being redirected to. It ran DOOM: The Dark Ages great, with smooth gameplay even on high graphical detail settings. And the fans stayed surprisingly quiet for a compact gaming laptop that needs to vent a lot of heat, too — no loud whirring jet engine noise, as with some gaming laptops. As always, we ran the Razer Blade 14 through our standard benchmarks to see how it performs compared to competing laptops. IDG / Chris Hoffman First, we run PCMark 10 to get an idea of overall system performance. With an overall PCMark 10 score of 7,994, this machine delivered similar overall performance to the 16-inch Razer Blade 16 on this benchmark and only fell a bit short of the HP Omen Max 16 with its higher-end and more power-hungry Intel Core Ultra 9 CPU. IDG / Chris Hoffman Next, we run Cinebench R20. This is a heavily multithreaded benchmark that focuses on overall CPU performance. Since it’s heavily multithreaded, CPUs with more cores have a huge advantage. With a multithreaded score of 7,800, this system delivered good numbers — falling short of systems with more cores, naturally. The AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 chip here has 10 cores, while the 370 chip in the Razer Blade 16 has 12 cores. The Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX has a whopping 24 cores. You can see how that affects performance in multithreaded CPU benchmarks, but the difference in real-world gaming performance can be marginal. IDG / Chris Hoffman We also run an encode with Handbrake. This is another heavily multithreaded benchmark, but it runs over an extended period. This demands the laptop’s cooling kick in, and many laptops will throttle and slow down under load. The Razer Blade 14 completed the encode process in 789 seconds — that’s just over 13 minutes. Once again, only laptops with CPUs that have more cores performed better. IDG / Chris Hoffman Next, we benchmark the laptop’s GPU. We start with 3Dmark Time Spy, a graphical benchmark that focuses on GPU performance. With a 3DMark Time Spy score of 13,069, the Razer Blade 14 sits in the middle here. Laptops with Nvidia RTX 5080 or 5090 graphics will of course be faster — but it’s harder to pack a higher-end GPU in a compact machine! Compared to the other 14-inch laptops in our benchmark table, you can see how much faster Razer’s machine is than an older gaming laptop with Nvidia RTX 4060 graphics. After that, we run the benchmarks built into some games. First, we use the benchmark in Shadow of the Tomb Raider to test all the gaming laptops we review. It’s an older game, but it’s a great way to compare GPU performance across different PCs. IDG / Chris Hoffman With an average FPS of 161, the Razer Blade 14 delivered high performance. As you can see, this older game is seeing diminishing returns from higher-end GPUs. Finally, we run the benchmark in Metro Exodus. This is a more demanding game, and we set the benchmark to 1080p resolution at the Extreme detail setting. IDG / Chris Hoffman With an average FPS of 56 in this high-end Metro Exodus benchmark, the Razer Blade 14 delivered playable performance even at these brutal graphical settings.  Of course, it comes in behind larger 16-inch laptops with higher-end GPUs. Overall, the Razer Blade 14 delivered high gaming performance in a compact package with great cooling and quiet fans. This is a great combination of performance and portability if you’re looking for a 14-inch laptop. Razer Blade 14: Battery life The Razer Blade 14 includes a 72 Watt-hour battery. Gaming laptops generally aren’t known for their long battery life, but AMD’s Ryzen AI hardware can be surprisingly power efficient, and that’s what we see here. This isn’t going to put up the kind of numbers you see from low-power Qualcomm Snapdragon X or Intel Lunar Lake laptops, but it’s much more power efficient than you might expect in light usage. IDG / Chris Hoffman To benchmark the battery life, we play a 4K copy of Tears of Steel on repeat on Windows 11 with airplane mode enabled and the keyboard backlight turned off until the laptop suspends itself. 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. We set the screen to 250 nits of brightness for our battery benchmarks, and it’s worth noting that the Razer Blade 14’s OLED display has a bit of an advantage, as OLED screens use less power to display the black bars around the video. The Razer Blade 14 lasted for 680 minutes in our benchmark — that’s over 11 hours. Real-world battery life will vary, but this is a great battery life number to see out of a gaming laptop that’s all about power. Razer Blade 14: Conclusion The Razer Blade 14 is an excellent gaming laptop in a small package. If you want premium build quality, great gaming performance, and a beautiful display in a compact 14-inch laptop package, it’s a great option. Yes, it’s expensive at $2,699. That’s the big downside — although it was on sale for $2,299 on Razer’s online store while I was finishing this review. Compared to high-end Razer Blade 16 variants that pair top-end GPUs with thin designs for a high price, this combination of power, portability, and price makes a lot more sense. It’s an excellent machine, but there are tradeoffs: You can get more gaming performance for less money in other, larger gaming laptops. You can get other 14-inch gaming laptops, too — but they won’t feel all this premium or have fans this quiet. Read...

If you’re always on the go with your laptop by your side but feel hampered by the lack of an extra screen, then what you need is a portable laptop monitor. Well, right now, you can score this 15.6-inch KYY screen on sale for just $70 on Amazon, a massive 46% off its original $130. That’s the cheapest price it’s ever been! This travel-friendly external monitor is both ultra-slim (0.3 inches thick) and lightweight (1.7 pounds), so it slips easily into any bag right alongside your laptop and isn’t a burden. It also comes with a smart cover that you can pop open and use as a kickstand. The cover is scratch-proof with a PU leather exterior, and it’s perfectly capable of protecting the screen from any potential dings or scratches. How does it look? Great! You get a spacious 15.6-inch screen with a crisp 1080p resolution that’s perfect for work and everyday use, with excellent color accuracy and rendering thanks to the IPS panel. This display comes with Mini HDMI and two full-featured USB-C ports (meaning those USB-C ports support data transfer, charging, and video output) as well as built-in speakers, a 3.5mm audio jack, and a volume control wheel. It’s the ultimate budget-friendly travel monitor for your laptop, phone, Nintendo Switch, and more, especially now that it’s 46% off. Get this KYY portable monitor for just $70 while you can! It’s an extremely attractive price for a must-have accessory for laptop users. Save 46% on this 15.6-inch 1080p portable laptop monitorBuy now at Amazon Read...

If you don’t have the right port on your laptop to attach that 4K monitor, or if you want to watch high-def content from your smartphone or tablet on your big-screen TV, then you need this Anker HDMI/USB-C adapter. It’s small, it’s portable, and it’s just $12 right now (was $20). You’ll need Prime for this price, so grab a free 30-day Prime trial while you’re at it. This isn’t a major multi-port hub or bulky docking station. Those might be great for home offices and turning your laptop into a full-blown workstation, but this miniature adapter is way smaller and more portable. You can slip it into your pocket and take it with you anywhere, allowing you to turn your laptop’s USB-C port into a 4K HDMI port on demand. Instead of fiddling around with wireless casting (which may or may not be compatible all the time) or struggling to find a large-enough hub to connect that screen to your laptop, you can just plug this thing in. It’s short and it’s covered with braided nylon, which helps it endure tons of bends and the wear-and-tear of travel in a backpack or pocket. It supports monitors with resolutions up to 4K@60Hz, so it will serve you well with most displays excluding gaming monitors. It’s compatible with Windows laptops, MacBooks, iPads, Galaxy phones, Chromebooks, and supports Thunderbolt 3 connectivity. Snag your own Anker USB-C to HDMI adapter for 40% off before this limited-time deal vanishes into thin air! Remember, this is a Prime-exclusive promo, so if you aren’t a Prime member yet, start a 30-day free trial to take advantage of this excellent deal. Turn your laptop`s USB-C port into 4K HDMI for just $12Buy now at Amazon Read...

Luxury travel retailer Duty Free Shoppers has confirmed it will close all stores in Australia and New Zealand by the end of September. Read...

More than 3000 Central Otago Lakes patients were admitted to Dunedin and Invercargill hospitals last year because of limited local services, the Southern Lakes Health Trust says. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Extremely thin and light Enjoyable keyboard and touchpad Lots of connectivity for a thin laptop Solid integrated graphics performance Good battery life Cons Display isn’t the most immersive or colorful Speakers don’t impress So-so CPU performance for the price Our Verdict The Acer TravelMate P6 14 AI is all work and no play, but a great choice if you want a super-light business laptop.    Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Acer Travelmate P6 14 AI Retailer Price Check Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Best Prices Today: Check today’s prices Buying a business laptop sucks. That’s not because the laptops are bad. On the contrary, they’re often great, with better keyboards, lighter materials, and more ports than mainstream machines. The problem is the price. A “business laptop” will often cost you hundreds, if not thousands, more than mainstream alternatives with the same hardware inside. Enter the Acer TravelMate P6 14 AI. Though still not inexpensive, the TravelMate limbos below $2,000 without sacrificing the portability and connectivity business laptops are known for. Acer TravelMate P6 14 AI: Specs and features The Acer TravelMate P6 14 AI’s specifications are generally typical for a business laptop, though there are a few things to get excited about. The laptop has a 2880×1800 webcam, a much higher resolution than the 1080p webcams most laptops provide. It also has a lot of physical connectivity, and although it lacks a physical Ethernet port, a USB-C to Ethernet adapter is included in the box. Model number: TMP614-54T-79DF CPU: Intel Core Ultra 7 258V Memory: 32GB LPDDR5X Graphics/GPU: Intel Arc 140V NPU: Intel AI Boost up to 47 TOPS Display: 14-inch IPS-LCD 1920×1200 with 60Hz refresh rate Storage: 1TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD Webcam: 2880×1800 webcam with Windows Hello support and physical privacy shutter Connectivity: 2x Thunderbolt 4 / USB-C, 1x HDMI, 2x USB-A 3.2 Gen 1, 1x 3.5mm combo audio jack Networking: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 Biometrics: Facial recognition, fingerprint reader Battery capacity: 65 watt-hours Dimensions: 12.4 x 8.9 x 0.7 inches Weight: 2.29 pounds Operating System: Windows 11 Pro Additional features: USB-C to Ethernet (RJ45) adapter Price: $1,999.99 MSRP, $1,750 typical retail The Acer TravelMate P6 14 AI isn’t inexpensive. It carries an MSRP of $1,999.99, which is discounted to around $1,750 to $1,800 at most online retailers. That’s a high price for the hardware it delivers, but it’s not bad for a business laptop. A similar Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon or HP EliteBook will often cost $2,000 or more. The TravelMate P6 14 AI is targeted at frequent fliers and business travelers. It doesn’t prioritize display quality or maximize performance. Instead, it focuses on portability, productivity, and connectivity. Acer TravelMate P6 14 AI: Design and build quality IDG / Matthew Smith Acer’s TravelMate P6 14 AI looks bland at first glance (and second, and third). It’s a simple, matte black slab with no details or design quirks to speak of. With that said, the laptop’s details hold up on closer inspection. I like the look of the matte black materials, which have pleasing luster. The design also has rounded corners and smooth edges that make the laptop feel nice in the hand. Picking up the TravelMate P6 14 AI reveals why it’s a bit pricey. The laptop tips the scales at just 2.29 pounds. That’s remarkably light for a 14-inch Windows laptop. The TravelMate weighs less than the current LG Gram 14 (which is 2.5 pounds) and the MacBook Air M4 13-inch (which is 2.7 pounds). It’s not the lightest 14-inch laptop around; the Asus ZenBook A14 is 2.16 pounds. But the TravelMate is close. Better still, the light chassis doesn’t come at the cost of luxury. The TravelMate P6 14 AI has a carbon-fiber lid and magnesium-aluminum chassis, both of which prove strong and rigid. The laptop feels solid when typing on the keyboard or pulling it out of a bag, and while it can be forced to slightly flex when abused, I really had to yank on it. That stands in contrast to super-lights like the LG Gram 14 which, in my experience, feels flimsy. Acer TravelMate P6 14 AI: Keyboard, trackpad IDG / Matthew Smith The Acer TravelMate P6 14 AI’s keyboard, much like its design, isn’t much to look at but delivers on functionality. The keyboard offers a spacious layout. Most keys are large with only a few, like Caps Lock and Tab, looking a bit slim. Key feel is good, too, with reasonable travel and a taut bottoming action. I used the keyboard to bang out a few thousand words in an afternoon, and didn’t feel tired or cramped when I was done. A keyboard backlight is standard (as should be expected at this price). It’s a simple white LED backlight with two brightness settings. The key lighting looks uneven and more light leaks around the keys than shines through the keycaps. It does the job, but it’s not a great keyboard backlight. While I like the keyboard, it picked up fingerprints quickly, and they proved difficult to remove. That’s often true for laptop keyboards but it seemed worse here than with most laptops I’ve used. The touchpad is good, though not exceptional. It measures a bit more than five inches wide and roughly three inches deep, which is typical for a 14-inch Windows laptop. The touchpad surface is smooth, responsive, and handles multi-touch gestures well. Tapping the lower half of the touchpad reveals a physical left/right click, but the travel is shallow. I’d prefer a haptic touchpad. Acer TravelMate P6 14 AI: Display, audio IDG / Matthew Smith The Acer TravelMate P6 14 AI’s display may well be the feature that makes you decide to buy, or skip, the laptop. It’s a 1920×1200 IPS-LCD display with a 16:10 aspect ratio. While not unusually sharp, it provides a clear image that’s easy to read. The display also has a semi-gloss coat that diffuses reflections. It’s not as aggressive as a matte display (which is my personal preference) but kept the display usable when I sat near a sunlit window. The display isn’t particularly colorful or immersive, however. Price-competitive laptops with OLED displays, like the Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1, will provide a far more attractive experience when playing a game or watching Netflix. The TravelMate’s display is only 60Hz, too, and the lack of motion clarity is noticeable when scrolling through text. I think the TravelMate’s display is a good fit for its category. This is a laptop for office productivity and business travel, so a bright, clear, low-reflection display is a perk. If you want a display that’s also great for on-the-go entertainment, however, this isn’t it. The speakers keep up the TravelMate’s focus on productivity. They provide good volume and clarity to conversations but can sound shrill when playing music. Acer TravelMate P6 14 AI: Webcam, microphone, biometrics Acer boasts that the TravelMate P6 14 AI has a webcam with 2880×1800 resolution, which is far beyond the 1080p resolution most competitors deliver. However, the webcam doesn’t look as sharp or vibrant as that specification suggests. It’s good enough for video conferences but, like most webcams, the image is often grainy and dull. The webcam provides a physical privacy shutter that fully obstructs the camera. Windows’ AI-powered Studio Effects are supported, too, so you can easily blur the background or use AI framing to keep the camera focused on you. Biometric login is available through a fingerprint sensor on the power button and facial recognition. I prefer facial recognition, which I find quicker and more reliable login method, but the fingerprint reader works well too. Acer TravelMate P6 14 AI: Connectivity IDG / Matthew Smith Travelers are likely to be pleased by the connectivity stuffed into the Acer TravelMate P6 14 AI’s flanks. It has two Thunderbolt 4 / USB-C ports, both of which support Power Delivery and Display Port. But it also has two USB-A ports, so you can connect to older peripherals with ease. The laptop also has HDMI-out and a 3.5mm combo audio jack. The laptop doesn’t have a physical Ethernet (RJ45) port, but a USB-C to Ethernet adapter is provided in the box. This is an excellent range of connectivity for a laptop in this category. Mainstream laptops, like the Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 and Asus ZenBook A14, have fewer USB-A ports and sometimes skip HDMI-out. Other business laptops, like Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Carbon, usually have similar ports but tend to be more expensive. The TravelMate also has good wireless connectivity with support for Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. These are the latest versions of each wireless standard. Most new Windows laptops have the same wireless connectivity, but it’s still good to see the latest standards supported. Acer TravelMate P6 14 AI: Performance The Acer TravelMate P6 14 AI I reviewed had an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V processor. It’s an eight-core processor with four performance cores and four efficient cores, as well as a maximum Turbo clock speed of 4.8GHz. It’s paired with 32GB of RAM and a 1TB PCIe NVMe solid state drive. IDG / Matthew Smith PCMark 10, a holistic system benchmark, puts the TravelMate off to a middling start with a score of 6,615. That’s not the least impressive score in this test, but certainly not the best. However, all of these scores are fairly tightly clustered, so we need to tap other benchmarks to have a better picture of the TravelMate’s performance. IDG / Matthew Smith Handbrake adds a disappointing, though not unexpected, chapter to the TravelMate’s tale. It required nearly half an hour to complete our CPU-focused transcoding test of a feature length film. That’s not a great result, but it fits with what I’ve come to expect from Intel Core Ultra chips, which often fall behind in this test due to their lack of CPU performance cores. And while the TravelMate’s score isn’t great, it defeats the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s, which was also tested with an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V inside. IDG / Matthew Smith Our last CPU benchmark is Cinebench R24, another heavily multi-threaded test, though one that tends to be shorter in duration than our Handbrake test. The TravelMate didn’t do well here with a score of 369, which is behind all the competitors including the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s. IDG / Matthew Smith The TravelMate’s Intel Core Ultra 7 258V doesn’t impress in CPU performance, but it strikes back in integrated graphics. Intel’s Arc 140V is a great integrated graphics solution and, in the TravelMate, was able to trade blows with the HP EliteBook X G1a, despite the fact that laptop had AMD’s top-tier Radeon 890M integrated graphics. To summarize, the TravelMate P6 14 AI delivers typical performance for a laptop with Intel’s Core Ultra 7 258V processor and integrated graphics. It’s not the quickest, not the slowest, and provides good enough performance for day-to-day productivity. Even gaming and video editing can be enjoyable if you stick to less lower resolutions and can tolerate an occasional hitch or dip. The TravelMate’s middling performance comes with a bonus. It’s quiet. Though not silent, the laptop’s fans were rarely noticeable in day-to-day use and modest even when I benchmarked the machine. It runs cool, too, warming only during long benchmark runs. Acer TravelMate P6 14 AI: Battery life and portability A 65-watt-hour battery powers the Acer TravelMate P6 14 AI when you’re away from a power outlet. That’s a middling size for a laptop sold in 2025, but it’s not bad considering the laptop’s slim profile and weight. Factor in Intel’s power-sipping Core Ultra 7 chip and you’ve a recipe for great, if not spectacular, battery life. IDG / Matthew Smith The TravelMate endured the PCWorld battery test, which loops a 4K file of the short film Tears of Steel, for nearly 17 hours. Though not a chart-topping result, it’s certainly long enough for most people. My real-world experience closely mirrored the test. Using the laptop for two to three hours in my typical workflow, which includes writing in Word, browsing the web, watching YouTube videos, and editing photos, drained about 20% of a charge. I expect the laptop would endure an eight-hour workday with a couple hours of juice in the tank, and perhaps more, depending on the programs you typically use. Acer TravelMate P6 14 AI: Conclusion Make no mistake: this isn’t a laptop for everyone. The TravelMate P6 14 AI is targeted at frequent fliers and business travelers. It doesn’t prioritize display quality or maximize performance (though the IGP is quite good). Instead, it focuses on portability, productivity, and connectivity. If that’s what you need, though, it’s a great option. Acer even undercuts the competition on price, too, as alternatives like the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s, ThinkPad X1 Carbon, and HP EliteBook Ultra G1i are often at least a few hundred dollars more when similarly equipped. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Compact A good mix of ports Cons A little on the slow side USB-C cable feels a little short for comfort Our Verdict OWC’s USB-C Travel Dock provides a nice, compact, affordable alternative to a traditional USB-C dongle. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: OWC USB-C Travel Dock Retailer Price $34.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket OWC’s USB-C Travel Dock isn’t that different than any other hub or dongle, save for its shape: a small rectangular puck that might appeal more than other dongles. When you take your laptop on the road, I always advise taking along a USB-C hub or dongle, which typically attaches via a short cable. A dongle isn’t the most ergonomically convenient option; it sort of flops around your desk, dragged this way and that by any devices you connect it to. There’s a small cadre of devices that offer a different approach. One of my favorites, the now-discontinued IOGear Thunderbolt 3 Travel Dock, packed Thunderbolt power inside a compact little plastic slab. Another, the still-available $65 Belkin Thunderbolt 3 Dock Core, does this too. OWC’s USB-C Travel Dock doesn’t include Thunderbolt, but it retains that compact little form factor that I find surprisingly appealing. Measuring 3.2 inches to a side (and 0.9 inches thick), the OWC USB-C Travel Dock connects to your laptop via a short USB-C cable that measures a bit more than 6 inches. It stores itself neatly into the base of the Travel Dock itself, a nice touch. On the base of the aluminum chassis are four small shallow pads, used to hold the dock in place. The bottom of the OWC USB-C Travel Dock. The cord feels a bit short, but any longer and it couldn’t be stowed away.Mark Hachman / Foundry Technically, this is a 5-in-1 hub, as the name is a bit misleading. I typically equate “docking station” as a powered device; in this case, OWC’s device includes a USB-C port for input power only, accepting up to 100W. On either side of the dock sit a pair of clearly labeled 5Gbps USB-A ports. Otherwise, there’s an Ethernet port of undisclosed speed, an SD 4.0 card reader, and an HDMI 2.0 port. PCWorld’s roundup of the best USB-C hubs and dongles are based on my recommendations, and a USB-C hub is extremely price-sensitive. (Here’s how we test USB-C hubs at PCWorld.) No one wants to pay $100 when a $30 dongle will offer equivalent features. That’s what I like about OWC’s Travel Dock: At press time, it sits around $30. That’s right smack in the middle of my best picks, which range from $20 to $40. From a stability standpoint, I didn’t notice any problems while working with the OWC USB-C Travel Dock. It connected to various devices and a single display without issue. Ports are divided up among three sides of the OWC USB-C Travel Dock.Mark Hachman / Foundry OWC’s USB-C Travel Dock is a compact, affordable dock that provides tidy alternative to a traditional USB-C dongle. OWC’s USB-C Travel Dock performed flawlessly, streaming a 4K video across a 4K single screen without a hitch, at 60Hz. (It dropped 8 frames in about 72,000 frames overall.) I’ve seen USB-C docks try and output to two 4K displays, and sometimes struggle, so a single display is perfect. The dock didn’t even heat up to temperatures I’d find warm. Since the USB-C connection is 10Gbps from the laptop, the more data you push across the USB-C cable, the more congestion will occur. While simultaneously transferring data from an SSD and while streaming a 4K video, I noticed evidence of congestion in hitches and stuttering. That’s to be expected, however. As the icon indicates, the USB-C port on OWC’s USB-C Travel Dock is for power only.Mark Hachman / Foundry PCMark returned a score of 97.45MB/s while a test SSD was connected. That’s slower than I expected, though I wasn’t sure if OWC’s dock would deliver performance comparable to the Dockcase Smart USB-C Hub 10-in-1 Explorer Edition, which delivered performance of about 130MB/s, accompanied by some stability problems. I have to mark down for that, but otherwise OWC’s USB-C Travel Dock ran smoothly, cooly, and affordably. I recommend it. Read...