At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Based on the latest Z-Wave 800 chipset Supports incandescent, CFL, LED, and MLV lighting Very easy to install Cons Requires a neutral wire Companion switch required for 3-way installations Our Verdict Leviton, one of the biggest electrical component manufacturers in the world, makes high-quality products and offers a comprehensive collection of Z-Wave-compatible devices in addition to this Z-Wave 800 dimmer and switch. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Leviton Decora Smart Z-Wave 800 Dimmer (model ZW6HD) Retailer Price $46.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Smart lighting controls that operate over Wi-Fi are great, because they don’t require a hub; they connect directly to your router. The downside is that they must compete with all the other clients on your home network: Your computers, gaming consoles, media streamers, smart speakers, home security cameras, smart plugs, and many, many more. I live in a very small home—less than 800 square feet—but there are still more than 80 devices connected to the Eero 6 router in my Ring Alarm Pro. Given that the Eero 6’s practical limit is 128 clients, there just isn’t a lot of room for light switches and dimmers. Hence, my affinity for Z-Wave, the connected home technology at the heart of Leviton’s Decora Smart Z-Wave product line. I first embraced Z-Wave when I built a smart home from the ground up back in 2007. A Z-Wave hub will take just one slot on your router’s client list while managing up to 232 Z-Wave clients. And unlike Wi-Fi and Zigbee, which both operate in the 2.4GHz radio spectrum, Z-Wave devices use spectrum in the 900MHz frequency range, which is not only a lot less-crowded, but also renders Z-Wave signals less susceptible to being absorbed by a home’s building materials. For the in-wall Leviton Decora Smart Z-Wave dimmer and on/off switch reviewed here, Leviton specifies a range of 50 feet from any other Z-Wave device or your home’s Z-Wave hub. If you’ve settled on Z-Wave as your smart home ecosystem of choice, no one makes better lighting controls than Leviton. Unlike Zigbee, Z-Wave is not part of the Matter ecosystem—and I honestly don’t care. I’m not throwing shade at Matter here; I just haven’t found that standard to be critical to how my smart home operates. I’m an iPhone user, and it would be great to have all my smart home devices incorporated into my Apple Home app, but I’m also an Alexa user and I use voice commands spoken to my Echo smart speakers far more often than I pull out my smartphone and tap on its screen—or summon Siri—to operate my smart home devices. Both the Decora Smart Z-800-series dimmer (left) and switch have locator LEDs beneath their toggles. The dimmer also has a stacked set of LEDs to indicate the current brightness level. All the LEDs go dark when the connected load is powered on.Michael Brown/Foundry Given that the various generations of Z-Wave comprise an installed base of more than 100 million devices, according to Silicon Labs, it’s just a matter of time before someone comes out with a Z-Wave-to-Matter bridge. I’m not only willing to wait for a Z-Wave-to-Matter bridge, but I’m also not convinced I’ll ever really need one. Specifications Both the Decora Smart Z-Wave Dimmer 800 Series (model ZW6HD) and the Decora Smart Z-Wave Switch (model ZW15S) use the latest-generation Z-Wave 800 chipset, which is backward-compatible with every previous version of Z-Wave, and the Z-Wave Plus protocol. As for the Z-Wave hub I use, I chose a Vivint Smart Home panel as the foundation for my first smart home in 2007, and I had it installed in my new home when I moved from California to the Pacific Northwest in the fall of 2023. Leviton Decora Smart Z-Wave 800 switch (model ZW15S) Best Prices Today: $43.99 at Amazon You don’t need a professionally installed smart home system to use Z-Wave devices, of course; there are many, many DIY alternatives, including Ring Alarm Pro, LG’s Homey line, Home Assistant, Samsung SmartThings (Samsung’s earlier hub and Aeotec’s version that is; the newer Samsung SmartThings Station doesn’t have a Z-Wave radio). Perhaps the most important thing you need to know about these Decora Smart products is that they depend on the presence of a neutral wire in the box where they’ll be installed. If you don’t have that and can’t bring a neutral wire to the box, you might want to consider one of Lutron’s Caséta or Diva Smart products. They also depend on a hub—Lutron’s own, which isn’t compatible with a Vivint system—but they don’t depend on neutral wires. Both the dimmer (left) and toggle switch have pigtails for connecting to your home’s electrical wiring: black for line, red for load, white for neutral, green for ground, and a striped red/yellow wire for 3-way installations.Michael Brown/Foundry Both the dimmer and the switch can handle incandescent loads up to 600 watts, LED and CFL (compact fluorescent) loads up to 300 watts, and MLV (magnetic low voltage) loads up to 600VA (volt amps). These are both paddle-style switches that come with white paddles mounted on the device that you can swap out with an ivory paddle that comes in the box. If you want something other than white or ivory, you can buy color-change kits in light almond, gray, brown, or black for about $4 each. The industrial designs of the dimmer and switch are necessarily slightly different. Both have a small green LED centered beneath their paddles that glows when the device is receiving power. These make the switches easy to find in the dark. The Dimmer has a stack of seven green LEDs to the left of the paddle that light up in sequence when the switch is turned on (lighting up from bottom to top), turned off (from top to bottom), or when the dimming level is changed (the LED representing the brightness level glows brighter than the other six). Dimming the connected load is accomplished by pressing and holding the bottom of a narrow toggle on the right-hand side of the paddle; doing the same to the top of the toggle increases the light output. The vertical orientation of the dimmer mechanism is an improvement over the horizontal toggle on earlier-generation Z-Wave dimmers. Installation and setup I installed both switches as single-pole devices, but both can also operate in 3-way scenarios where the connected load can be controlled by a switch—or switches—at other locations in the room. In a 3-way installation, however, you’ll need to purchase one of Leviton’s “companion” switches: the Leviton DD00R Wired Dimmer Companion or the DD0SR Wired Switch Companion (street priced at about $23 and $17 respectively). The Decora Smart Z-Wave dimmer and switch both have pigtails (line, load, neutral, traveler, and ground) that you’ll connect to the electrical wiring in your home using the provided wire nuts. While both devices are considerably bulkier than their dumb counterparts, I had no problem stuffing them side by side back into box after I’d made the required connections. These are Z-Wave lighting controls, so you’ll need a Z-Wave hub to connect them to your home network. I connected them to my Vivint Smart Home system. Michael Brown/Foundry Both switches come with two-piece wall plates that hide the screws that attach them to the switches (you screw one piece to the switch and then snap on the second piece that’s exposed to the room), but I couldn’t use them because I installed both switches in the same box. I made a run to the hardware store to buy a conventional 2-gang wall plate, which cost less than $3. I could have opted for one of Leviton’s “screwless” wall plates, but the store didn’t stock them and one would have cost more than twice as much as the conventional plate, even on Amazon. The next step is to enroll the devices to your Z-Wave smart home hub of choice. Doing so with a Vivint smart home panel requires contacting customer support, which I did via online chat, and asking them to provide access to the installer’s menu on the control panel. Once you’ve provided your verbal password, they’ll unlock the panel and provide the installer password needed for the next step. You won’t need to involve anyone else if you have your own Z-Wave hub. In either scenario, you’ll initiate pairing on the hub, then push a button on the switch to add the device to the hub’s Z-Wave routing table. Rinse, lather, repeat for each new Z-Wave device you wish to add to your system. Performance There’s not a lot to say about the performance of the Leviton Decora Z-Wave switch, other than it works. I connected it to pair of dumb BR30 LED ceiling lights in my hallway, and it dutifully turned them on and off: at the switch itself, with the Vivint app and at the physical Vivint control panel, and with Alexa voice commands (I need to say “Alexa, tell Vivint to turn on—or off—the hallway,” but that’s a Vivint thing). You can do the same with a “Hey Google” command if your smart home revolves around Google Home. Once you’ve enrolled the switches into your smart home hub of choice, you can control them with that device’s app or with voice commands spoken to Amazon Alexa or Google Home voice assistants. These screenshots are of the Vivint Smart Home app.Michael Brown/Foundry The same is true of the dimmer, except that I can specify in the Vivint app, control panel, or as part of my voice command the percentage of brightness at which I want the twin LEDs in the connected ceiling fixture to glow). More importantly, the dimmer control to the right of the primary paddle smoothly dimmed and brightened the connected LED bulbs and the corresponding green LEDs to the left of the paddle accurately displayed the brightness level. Tapping the paddle to turn the bulbs does so instantly but tapping it to turn them off gradually dims them until they’re off—after a little more than 2 seconds. At no point did any of the LED bulbs flicker or behave erratically. This review is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best smart lighting controls. Should you buy the Leviton Decora Smart Z-Wave 800-series? If you’ve settled on Z-Wave as your smart home ecosystem of choice, no one makes better lighting controls than Leviton. The Leviton Decora Smart Z-Wave Dimmer 800 Series (model ZW6HD) and the Decora Smart Z-Wave Switch (model ZW15S) feature the latest generation of Z-Wave 800 chips, and they’re robustly built, easy to install, and compatible with a wide range of smart home and home security hubs. While Leviton doesn’t offer Z-Wave 800 in-wall outlets or fan-speed controllers, or plug-in dimmers and smart plugs with the latest generation of Z-Wave silicon, it does offer those device types with previous generations of Z-Wave technology, and those products are fully interoperable with these new ones. Leviton is one of the largest manufacturers of smart lighting controls, and it was one of the earliest adopters of Z-Wave technology. You can buy its Z-Wave 800 smart dimmer and switch with confidence. Read...

On February 2nd, 2025, computer scientist and OpenAI co-founder Andrej Karpathy made a flippant tweet that launched a new phrase into the internet’s collective consciousness. He posted that he’d “fully given into the vibes” when programming with AI assistance. There`s a new kind of coding I call `vibe coding`, where you fully give in to the vibes, embrace exponentials, and forget that the code even exists. It`s possible because the LLMs (e.g. Cursor Composer w Sonnet) are getting too good. Also I just talk to Composer with SuperWhisper…— Andrej Karpathy (@karpathy) February 2, 2025 The tweet of course kicked off a flame war, because that’s how X works, especially under the current management. But for me, the tweet hit home—because it perfectly describes how I use AI to code. My experience with vibe coding I’ve always had an interest in programming, because I’ve always had an interest in computers. I put together websites in HTML as a teenager (which, yes, were hosted on GeoCities) and have been occasionally dabbling in Python since. Yet none of my projects got very far and, apart from my early websites, I never made anything useful. My efforts all followed a familiar pattern: I’d fixate on a particular resource—like an O’Reilly book or an online course—and get started with great enthusiasm, but as I’d realize I was months or years away from creating anything remotely useful, I’d give up. I’ve used Claude AI to quickly generate a simple dice roller web app.Matt Smith / Foundry That changed in late 2024 when my general frustration with WordPress, which I was using for my personal website, got the better of me. In a fit, I threw my website’s content plus a screenshot of it into Claude 3.5 Sonnet and asked the AI to replicate my site with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. To my amazement, Claude 3.5 generated a functional website. It wasn’t perfect, but after a couple hours of working with Claude, I wound up with a website I liked even better than its WordPress predecessor. My approach was exactly what Karpathy described. I didn’t read the code, nor did I really try to understand it (though I did have to think a bit about how the featured articles carousel works). That aside, I just told Claude what to do, copy-and-pasted the results in VSCode, saved the file, and reloaded my browser to see what changed. And it worked. A work-in-progress screenshot of my Pico-8 puzzle game and the vibe-coded source.Matt Smith / Foundry But the most important part? It was fun! Fun enough that I’ve since tried my hand at several other coding projects. I made an online tool to track initiative and roll dice when DMing tabletop roleplaying games, I made another tool to simplify rolling dice in Battletech, and I’m currently making a puzzle game for the Pico-8 virtual game console. I also used AI to guide me through setting up tools that require a bit of fussing, like OpenAI’s Whisper speech-to-text model. Notably, all three projects were in different programming languages—HTML/JavaScript, Python, and Lua—none of which I’m even remotely proficient with. I’ve also dabbled in some C#, as I started to make the puzzle game in Unity before deciding it was overbuilt for my needs and swapping to Pico-8. I also toyed with turning my tabletop RPG tool into a Windows app before deciding that wasn’t helpful. The risks and pitfalls of vibe coding So, yeah, I’m vibing. But is it all good vibes? Or does vibe coding herald the same kind of AI slop-driven era for software as we’re seeing for blogs, forums, artwork, video, and music? That’s the big fear of critics, and it’s easy to understand those fears. Karpathy’s “vibe coding” is fast, fun, and approachable, but it isn’t rigorous, detail-oriented, or careful. The code written by AI will often work, but it can contain flaws that aren’t immediately obvious—and that raises an obvious question: how does a know-nothing programmer spot bugs and security flaws in AI-generated code? The simple answer is… they can’t. Take the case of Leonel Acevedo—better known as just “leo”—who posted about his experience vibe coding a SaaS startup, only to find himself dealing with major issues like unsecured API keys. It led to hundreds of videos and social media posts dunking on Leo’s naïveté: guys, i`m under attackever since I started to share how I built my SaaS using Cursorrandom thing are happening, maxed out usage on api keys, people bypassing the subscription, creating random shit on dbas you know, I`m not technical so this is taking me longer that usual to…— leo (@leojr94_) March 17, 2025 To be clear, I don’t have much sympathy for Leo. He used social media to promote his business with posts clearly built to drive engagement. And, well, that’s how chasing influence on social media works. Sometimes you’re the hero and sometimes you’re the villain. (Predictably, Leo is already making content about “rebuilding my SaaS in 30 days.”) Yet, I question what his problems are supposed to prove. Is vibe coding a SaaS and going straight into production dumb? Sure. But are most people vibe coding a SaaS startup and flinging it into the world like the baby in an Xbox commercial? Of course not. The reality is a lot more practical. Some people, like me, see vibe coding as a fun way to tackle simple projects that were previously out of reach. Others, including many software engineers, will use it as way to build prototypes, demonstrate proofs of concept, and—yes!—learn. It’s the blogging revolution… for code In a strange way, vibe coding reminds me of the circumstances from decades ago that paved the way for me to become a tech journalist. I grew up in a small midwestern town. My high school was so small, we didn’t even have a school newspaper. Then I went to college and got a degree… in English Literature. Not journalism or communications. I never wrote for the college paper, either. I then graduated college with no useful contacts or work experience. But I lucked out. I graduated right when the blogsphere exploded and social media took over the internet. Suddenly, formal credentials and an industry-specific degree, though helpful, weren’t necessary. So, I started writing—and eventually publications started paying me for it. I’ve been doing this now for 17 years. To me, vibe coding looks like it will do something similar for future software engineers and the programming landscape. Forget formal training. With AI assistance, people who are interested in programming don’t even need informal training. Anyone who knows their way around a laptop can ask ChatGPT about the tools they need to get started, how to install them and get them working, and generate the very code they need to get the first version of their project up and running. These people will make mistakes. A lot of the code generated will be bad, or at least inelegant. People will lose projects because they encounter a bug they can’t fix. The AI-generated code in my own projects is enough to make a senior software engineer go blind, I’m sure. But if it opens programming a bit wider to people (like me) who otherwise lack the patience to spend six months reading an O’Reilly tome just to spin up a halfway decent Python program, well, that seems like a win. Further reading: I spent $200/mo on ChatGPT Pro so you don’t have to. Here’s what I found and whether it’s worth it Read...

USB Type-C is the most flexible connection for notebooks and smartphones. The most important of its many capabilities is as a charging socket for battery-powered devices. USB-C should finally make everything simple: One socket, one cable, one power supply for all devices – from computers to smartphones and tablets to headphones and other peripherals. So much for the theory, which always sounds simple with USB. The reality is much more confusing. Not every USB-C power supply is suitable for every device. Not all Type-C ports can be used to charge devices quickly or at all. And not every Type-C cable ensures reliable power transmission. This guide will give you an overview of the technical possibilities of Type-C charging and recommends suitable power supply units for all devices. If you’d like to avoid all the background and simply know which cords as worth your hard-earned money, be sure to check out our roundup of the best USB-C cables. We perform hands-on tests that go far deeper than most other sources on the web. Further reading: Buying a USB-C cable? Look out for these 6 gotchas! USB Type-C: The standard connection for charging There are many symbols that identify a USB-C port on a laptop as a charging port. In practice, however, you will usually only find the Thunderbolt lightning bolt (at the bottom) on the housing. IDG Almost all mobile devices can now be charged via USB Type-C: For smartphones, Apple was the last major manufacturer to switch from the proprietary Lightning connector to USB-C last year with the iPhone 15. Apart from that, there are only very cheap bargain smartphones that still rely on micro USB as a charging port. The situation is similar for tablets, where market leader Apple already favored USB-C over Lightning three years ago with the iPad 9. You will also hardly find any devices without USB-C for headphones, ebook, readers, and mobile speakers. Only laptops still have numerous models that do not use Type-C to charge the battery: These are often older model series from the entry-level range. More frequently, however, USB-C is not the main connection for charging. Although powerful gaming and multimedia laptops have USB-C, they also have a dedicated power connection with a higher charging capacity that fits the power supply unit supplied. Business laptops with a USB-C port and power supply unit often still have the hollow plug connection so that companies can continue to use power supply units from decommissioned models. A Type-C connection on a laptop also does not always handle power delivery. The only way to find out whether a Type C socket is capable of power delivery is to look at the technical data. A Type-C port with Thunderbolt supports charging in any case. Further reading: We tested 43 old USB-C to USB-A cables. 1 was great. 10 were dangerous Advantages of power delivery via USB-C The triumph of Type-C is easy to explain, as the connection offers numerous advantages for users and manufacturers: Cables can be connected quickly and easily because the symmetrical plug is twist-proof. The socket takes up little space so that devices can be made lighter and flatter. And as Type-C can handle data and video transmission as well as charging, ideally a single cable is all that is needed between the computer and peripherals, which keeps the desk tidy. Whether a mobile device supports USB-C Power Delivery is usually stated in the technical data for the connections. If so, you can use a suitable power adapter for charging. IDG Devices can also be charged faster with USB-C: Power supply units for micro USB only deliver up to 10 watts, while chargers with a Type A connection usually deliver 15 to 18 watts. Type-C, on the other hand, supports the improved USB Power Delivery (PD) transmission protocol, which usually allows charging capacities of up to 100 watts and even up to 240 watts in the current version. our favorite Usb-c Charging cable Belkin BoostCharge 240-watt charging cable Best Prices Today: $15.99 at Amazon However, this does not apply to all Type-C connections, devices, and cables: Although everything fits together mechanically, not every combination has to provide the optimum charging power — for example, because different levels of the Power Delivery standard are supported or devices and power supply units do not implement the standard correctly. USB-C and Power Delivery: How the charging technology works The technical basis for charging via USB-C is the USB Power Delivery (USB PD) standard. It specifies voltage levels of 5 to 48 volts and currents of 3 or 5 amps in so-called “power profiles” or “power rules.” Depending on the power supply unit, power cable, and device, charging capacities of between 10 and 240 watts are possible. A typical smartphone power supply unit with 30 watts, for example, offers power profiles for a charging capacity of 15, 27, and 30 watts, while a laptop power supply unit also offers power profiles for 45, 60, 65, or 100 watts. Before transmission begins, the power supply unit (source) and consumer (sink) agree on the required voltage and current: The power supply unit first checks the cable to see whether it can transmit up to 3 or 5 amps and provides a basic voltage of 5 volts. It then tells the consumer what other voltages it can supply. The consumer answers which one it needs so that both can agree on a suitable power profile. Some multiple power supply units, such as this one from Ugreen, use the semiconductor material gallium nitride (GaN): this allows them to be built very compactly despite their high charging power. Ugreen Ideally, any USB-C power supply will charge the device with a Type-C charging socket with optimum performance and as quickly as possible. Even if the power supply does not completely fulfil the requirements of the device, it should provide a minimum charging power, even if the charging process then takes longer. Conversely, it does not speed up the charging process to use a power supply unit that offers a higher output than the device requires because the consumer cannot call it up. Since version 3 of USB PD, the power supply unit and consumer can adjust the voltage and current more dynamically. To do this, both must support the optional standard extension PPS (Programmable Power Supply Protocol). Best 3-port usb-C wall charger Ugreen Nexode Pro 65W 3-Port GaN Fast Charger Best Prices Today: $47.59 at Amazon Prime | $55.99 at Amazon The device can then request voltage and current from the power supply unit that deviate minimally from the prescribed power profiles: This speeds up the charging process, but can also ensure that the battery is less stressed during charging or that a smartphone or notebook receives the appropriate charging power in real time depending on the current system load. Labels such as Fast Charge or Super Fast Charge 2.0 on Samsung smartphones and power supply units, for example, indicate support for PPS. Further reading: Best USB-C PD laptop chargers 2024: More portable power How to find out whether a power adapter fits the device The easiest way to do this is to use the power adapter recommended by the manufacturer for charging. This is common for laptops, as new devices are supplied with a suitable power supply unit. Smartphones and tablets now often do not come with a power adapter in the sales box: You can buy the right charger from the device manufacturer. USB-C should make this investment superfluous and put an end to the confusion of power adapters that only fit one device. A power supply unit that can charge all your devices without any problems is therefore ideal. To do this, the power supply and device must have a USB-C connection and support USB Power Delivery: You should be able to find this information in the technical data, often as an abbreviation such as “PD” or “PPS.” If the power supply unit or device does not support USB PD despite Type-C, charging can start, but only at 15 watts. So that you can charge all devices with one power supply unit, it should have sufficient charging power for the most powerful device and suitable power profiles for devices with lower energy requirements. A laptop is usually the device that requires the highest charging power: Ultra-mobile laptops usually need a power supply unit with 45 watts, standard laptops require 60 watts, and particularly powerful laptops 100 watts. For smartphones, tablets, and portable speakers or headphones, on the other hand, 30 watts or less is sufficient. Further reading: Don’t buy these dangerous USB-C accessories To ensure that a USB-C power supply for the laptop charges other mobile devices, it should support power profiles for 15 and 27 watts via USB-PD. With third-party power supplies, you will often find a list of other devices that can be charged with it in the technical data of a laptop power supply. If tablets such as Apple iPad Pro and smartphones — for example Samsung Galaxy S24 — are listed, the power supply is also suitable for smaller mobile devices. If you want to use the power adapter that came with your laptop, check the manufacturer’s website for information on its output power: If you find information such as “9 volts – 3 amps,” the power adapter is suitable for smartphones and tablets. These values are usually also printed on the power supply unit under “Output.” Conversely, notebooks can also be charged with a smartphone power supply unit: This is helpful when travelling if you only want to take the lighter mobile phone charger with you. The power supply unit should offer at least 27 watts of charging power and a voltage of 9 volts. This is sufficient for small and light laptops. It is best to switch off the notebook when charging, because if it consumes more power during operation than the mains adapter supplies, the battery will be drained even when the charger is connected. However, many notebooks require 15 volts and most require 20 volts as the charging voltage. If your smartphone power supply delivers this, the notebook can also be charged with it – but usually only slowly. The best cable for charging via USB-C A good USB-C cable is crucial to ensure that the charging power from the power supply unit to the device is stable. The cables transmit a current of up to 3 amps as standard. This is sufficient for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Notebooks can also be charged with up to 60 watts using such cables – this is sufficient for small and lightweight laptops. For larger and more powerful laptops, however, charging will take longer depending on the battery size and operating load. To charge these laptops at optimum speed via USB-C, you need a cable that can transfer 5 amps. The fast charging functions of some smartphones and tablets also require an appropriate cable – for example, Super Fast Charging from Samsung. Many smartphones can be charged faster: However, you need the right power adapter and the right USB-C cable for this, both of which support the PPS standard or a higher current transfer of 5 amps. IDG These cables contain a chip, the so-called e-marker: It contains information about the capabilities of the cable, such as the maximum power supply capacity, voltage, and current values and supported charging protocols. It outputs this information when the power supply unit and consumer negotiate the optimum charging power via USB-PD to ensure that the charger delivers the appropriate voltage and current values for the cable and the connected device. Further reading: Samsung Galaxy owners: Buy this GAN charger for the fastest charges Most manufacturers usually describe the corresponding cables as “100 watt cables.” You will also often find a reference to the e-marker chip in the technical data. In addition to power transfer, USB-C also supports data and image transfer — if you want to use a cable for all applications, you must pay attention to this in its description: These multifunction cables are usually slightly more expensive than pure charging cables. Cables for Thunderbolt are guaranteed to support all USB-C transmission types. Good value Usb-c charging cables Anker New Nylon Series 3 USB-C to USB-C 2-pack Best Prices Today: $9.99 at Amazon You can‘t tell how well a charging cable transmits data: In theory, longer cables are more susceptible to voltage loss and limit the flow of current due to a higher resistance. Thicker cables are supposed to ensure more stable transmission. In practice, however, you cannot use this as a rule of thumb: The quality of a cable depends on its internal workmanship. A basic tip: Buy cables for higher charging capacities from well-known suppliers such as Anker, Belkin, or Ugreen. They are reliable and usually cheaper than the corresponding offerings from the laptop or smartphone manufacturer. Chargers with multiple ports: One power supply for all devices A single power supply unit is usually not enough for a large number of devices: You often want to charge different devices at the same time via USB-C. This is why there are power supply units with several USB-C and USB-A ports, which can be used to charge a notebook, smartphone, and headphones in parallel, for example. This is also useful when travelling if you only have one socket available on the train, for example. When making your choice, you should first consider how many devices you want to charge at the same time and on which ports: Multiple power supply units are available with numerous connection combinations, so you should always be able to find a suitable model. Devices with two USB-C ports cost from around $20, while prices with three Type-C ports start at around $40. In most cases, the power supply units also have a charging port with a Type A connection in addition to the USB-C outputs. You also need to decide what maximum charging power the multi power supply should have: Up to 45 watts is sufficient for a smartphone and headphones. If you also want to charge a laptop, at least 60 watts is recommended. USB power supply units with multiple connections: ManufacturerManufacturer ProductPrice (Euro)max. charging power (watts)Number of type CNumber of type AAnkerPrime (GaN)8010021Armature735 (Nano II)356521Armature735 Prime (GaN)506521Armature323203211BelkinBoost Charge Pro40652–UgreenNexode Pro Mini (GaN)10016031UgreenNexode (GaN)306521UgreenNexode (GaN)5510031UgreenNexode Pro Mini (GaN)456521 It is important to know how the power is distributed over the individual ports: The maximum charging power specified by the manufacturer usually applies to all ports together, only for the combination of certain ports or only if only one port is occupied. For example, if you choose a 65-watt power supply because you also want to charge your laptop, it will usually only deliver this charging power if a single USB-C port is occupied. If you charge another device on the second Type-C port, the power is then divided between 45 watts on one port and 20 watts on the other – the laptop will then charge more slowly. If all the ports on a three-port power supply are occupied by consumers, the power on a single port can drop even further. In addition, not all type C connections on the power supply unit have to deliver the same charging power: for example, the laptop may only receive up to 65 watts at port 1. If you connect it to port 2, it will only receive up to 45 watts. best single-port usb-C charger Anker 713 Nano II 45W Charger Best Prices Today: $27.99 at Amazon | $27.99 at Best Buy You should therefore look for the technical data for a model on the power supply provider’s website before buying: Well-known manufacturers such as Anker or Belkin list the charging power that the individual ports offer with single or multiple connections. The desired power supply should definitely support USB-C Power Delivery and preferably also PPS! Many manufacturers advertise more expensive models with the abbreviation “GaN”: This stands for the semiconductor material gallium nitride, from which, for example, the voltage converters in corresponding power supplies are made: They work very efficiently without overheating, which enables small power supply units with a high charging capacity. This article was translated from German to English and originally appeared on pcwelt.de. Read...

The deadline for Windows 10’s end of support is rapidly approaching, but companies and small businesses have good reason not to rush the switch over to Windows 11 just yet. That’s why many use Microsoft Intune, a cloud-based solution that allows administrators to manage multiple devices and define policies for things like updates. However, a bug in Intune is causing devices to upgrade to Windows 11 despite the update being blocked. Microsoft confirms this in a post in the Microsoft 365 admin center (spotted by BleepingComputer). The problem has apparently existed since April 12, but it only affects organizational devices managed by Intune. What to do if you’re using Intune With Microsoft Intune, system administrators who manage dozens or huundreds of computers for companies and organizations can determine which software updates are available for installation. That includes upgrades to new Windows versions. It isn’t entirely clear why this error is causing Intune settings to be ignored, nor is it known how many systems are affected. However, Microsoft is working on a solution and, for now, the company recommends completely pausing Windows feature updates via Intune. What to do if you’ve been upgraded If you’re managing devices with Intune and those devices were upgraded to Windows 11 despite a policy that should’ve blocked the update, you either have to bite the bullet and move forward with Windows 11 or manually roll back each system to Windows 10. Microsoft doesn’t offer an automated solution to roll back from Windows 11 to Windows 10, and the manual process can be difficult and time-consuming. It mainly involves the creation of Windows 10 bootable device and performing a fresh installation. Learn more in our quick guide to downgrading Windows 11 to Windows 10. Read...

Upgrading to a new SSD can significantly enhance your computer’s performance, whether upgrading to a larger SSD drive, a faster NVMe or M.2 SSD, or replacing an old SSD. For this reason, many users want to clone HDD to SSD for a better user experience. How do I transfer data from one SSD to another? Is it possible to transfer data from one SSD to another without losing data? This post covers three methods to copy data from an old SSD to a new SSD: Use professional disk cloning software to migrate a whole SSD to another Use Windows Explorer to manually copy and paste files between SSDs Use Windows Backup and Restore to create a backup image and then restore  How to prepare for a successful SSD data transfer Before diving into the methods, let’s see what you will need to do to enable a smooth and successful SSD-to-SSD data transfer: Ensure SSD compatibility. Confirm both SSDs use the same interface (e.g., SATA, PCIe, NVMe, M.2) and ensure the destination SSD fits the form factor of your device, such as 2.5-inch, M.2 2280, or M.2 2230. Ensure target SSD has enough space. When purchasing a new SSD, be sure to consider its storage capacity. It is acceptable if the target SSD is smaller than the source disk, but you must ensure it can accommodate all the data from the original disk. The target SSD disk should be larger than the used space on the source SSD drive. Clean up source SSD drive. The source SSD drive may contain numerous unnecessary or junk files, including temporary data, rarely used programs, duplicate files, caches, and corrupted files. The fewer files on the source drive, the shorter the time it will take for the data transfer. Connect destination SSD. You need to connect the target SSD drive to your computer for transferring data from one SSD to another. On a desktop, directly install the SSD alongside your old SSD. On a laptop, buy a SATA to USB cable or external hard drive enclosure to connect the target SSD via the USB port. Verify drive recognition. After connecting your new or larger SSD to your computer, ensure your PC can recognize it. To verify the recognition, go to Disk Management to confirm both SSDs are visible. Method 1. Clone one SSD to another without losing data Cloning is the best way to transfer all data, including Windows, programs, settings, and personal files, from one SSD to another. Some SSDs come with software to help transfer your data, such as those from Samsung, Seagate, WD, and Intel, which can assist in transferring data and Windows from one hard drive to another. For SSDs without a cloning solution, you must use third-party SSD cloning software to enjoy a safe and secure cloning process because Windows lacks built-in cloning features. Clonezilla can help you clone SSD to a larger SSD for data or Windows transfer, but you must run it on a USB drive, which requires a high learning curve and is thus unsuitable for beginners. Fortunately, this is no longer the case with EaseUS Disk Copy, a dedicated and professional disk cloning program with a highly streamlined interface for Windows computers. EaseUS SSD cloning software can move all data from one SSD to another without losing data or reinstalling Windows. EaseUS cloning software can migrate the OS from the first SSD to the new one, transfer C drive to a new SSD, and transfer data from one SSD to another with only one slot on a laptop or PC. Step-by-step guide on how to clone SSD to another SSD using EaseUS Disk Copy: Step 1. Connect the target SSD to your PC. Install the SSD on your desktop or connect it to your laptop via the USB-to-SATA cable. Step 2. Download and install EaseUS Disk Copy. Launch EaseUS SSD cloning software and click Disk Mode. Step 3. Select the source and target SSD drive. EaseUS Step 4. Adjust disk layout (optional). EaseUS “Autofit the disk” will change the target disk layout by default to optimize its performance. “Copy as the source” does not modify the target disk, and the disk layout remains the same as the source disk. “Edit disk layout” allows you to manually resize and move the partition layout on the destination disk. Step 5. Start the cloning process. Click “Proceed” to start cloning. The time required depends on the data size and SSD speeds. Step 6. Boot from the cloned SSD. To use the new SSD as your boot drive: shut down your PC, replace the old SSD, restart your PC, enter BIOS or UEFI settings (press F1/F2/DEL/Esc during startup), and set the SSD as the boot drive. Method 2. Manual copying and pasting files (for specific files) If you just want to move basic files–not system files or program files–from one SSD to another, the cut/paste or copy/paste method is the simplest and most direct way to transfer files from one SSD to another SSD. Use your mouse to select the files, right-click, and copy from C to D disk or from one disk to another in Windows File Explorer. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to transfer data from one SSD to another on PC: Step 1. Connect the SSD. Connect the target SSD via USB-to-SATA cable to your laptop or install it internally on your desktop. Step 2. Copy and paste files Open Explorer and access the source SSD. Choose the files or folders you want to transfer. Copy (Ctrl + C) files. Go to the destination SSD. Paste (Ctrl + V ) files. Method 3. Back up and Restore data from SSD to another SSD If you prefer a built-in solution for transferring data, Backup and Restore (Windows 7) allows you to create a system image backup and restore it to a new SSD. This method is suitable for users with specific computer skills. However, you can’t restore individual files; only the entire image can be restored. You must also regularly recreate the image to ensure you have the latest version of your Windows environment and data. Here is how to use Backup and Restore to copy data from one SSD to another: Step 1. Create a system image backup on one external disk Connect the external disk via USB-to-SATA cable to your laptop or install it internally on your desktop. Go to Control Panel and select Backup and Restore (Windows 7). Click Create a system image and select the target SSD to save the system image backup. Choose which drive to back up, confirm your backup settings, and press Start backup. If Windows cannot boot on its own, you may also need to create a system repair disc or a recovery USB drive. Step 2. Restore the system image to the new SSD Ensure your backup media (external disk where the system backup is stored) and the new SSD are plugged in or inserted. In Windows 10, go to Settings > Update and Security > Recovery and click Restart now under Advanced startup. In Windows 11, go to Settings > System > Recovery and click Restart now near Advanced startup. When your PC reboots, you will enter Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE). Go to: Troubleshoot > Advanced options > See more recovery options > System Image Recovery > Select a system image > Use the latest available system image (recommended) > Select Format and repartition disks (for restoring to a new disk, you’d better enable this option) > Click Finish. Then, follow the steps to restore your PC with the system image. If your PC won’t boot at all, boot it with the system repair disc. You will be taken to the Choose an option window, and you can follow the same steps to restore Windows and your data to the previous state. If you don’t want to replace your old SSD or use the target SSD as your boot drive, directly back up data/files from the old SSD to the new one. What to do after transfering files/data from one SSD to another After you migrate data from one SSD to another, perform a thorough verification to ensure everything is working correctly. Verify that all files are transferred correctly and accurately. Confirm that all file types can be opened without issues. Verify whether the data is integrated correctly with your migration goals. Verify whether user experience and computer performance are enhanced. Run some apps to test system features or network connections. Verify whether the system’s functionality and usability are satisfactory. Format the old SSD in Disk Management for reuse. Troubleshoot common SSD data transfer issues 1. Drive not detected Ensure cables/connections are secure. Update SATA/NVMe drivers. 2. Cloning errors Close background apps to free up resources. 3. Cloned hard drive won’t boot Verify boot partition flags. Update BIOS/UEFI. Check BIOS boot order. Rebuild BCD. 4. Slow PC performance Update necessary drivers. Verify connection type (USB/SATA). Conclusion This article covers three methods to transfer data from one SSD to another, including performing SSD cloning, manually copying and pasting, and using Windows Backup and Restore. If you try the Backup and Restore, you must reinstall drivers and apps. Manual methods work for small data transfer sizes, but cloning is the best way to transfer everything from one SSD to another without reinstalling or losing data. If you want a hassle-free solution, try SSD cloning with EaseUS Disk Copy. It lets you migrate all the data from one SSD to another without losing data or reinstalling anything. EaseUS SSD clone software enables you to move data from one SSD to another with the time of a cup of coffee. Try it now! Read...

Mechanical keyboard nuts generally love old vintage keyboard designs—and so does Severance, Apple TV’s smash-hit, high-concept sci-fi series set in a dystopian office. Atomic Keyboard decided to combine these inspirations when it made the MDR Dasher, a revival of a classic design from the Data General Corporation in the 1970s. The Data General’s Dasher terminal series is iconic, with many classic keyboard fans loving its chunky blue keys and huge layout in particular. The Lumon employee cubicle setups in Severance are heavily inspired by—possibly even salvaged from—terminals like the Dasher 6053 from 1977, though they have an altered layout and a trackball mouse area. As DesignBoom notes, the keyboards seen on the show have no Escape, no Control, and no Option keys. It is a dystopia, after all. Atomic Keyboard Atomic Keyboard’s recreation of the massive design element keeps the blue and beige hues and the big black optical trackball on the right side, with two oversized mouse keys. The current design features a 73-key layout in a unique 70% design, an aluminum case, and a USB-C connection, in case you actually want to use it on something manufactured in this century. It’s in pre-production now. When will you be able to buy one? Who knows. Atomic Keyboard is accepting email signups and has a preliminary price of $400, which isn’t unreasonable in the space of big, custom, small-batch keyboard designs. But with the chaos surrounding international trade at the moment, who knows how much it’ll cost when it’s finally ready to head out to buyers? Atomic Keyboard Retro tech is all the rage now, as seen in Severance and the computers from Marvel’s Time Variance Authority in Loki. It’s a retro-futurist style that the Fallout games have been playing with for decades, and some observers are calling it “Cassette Futurism.” You can even see it in the trailer for Naughty Dog’s new game Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, with a bounty hunter’s Porsche spaceship filled with a CD-based jukebox, chunky keyboards, printers, and CRT screens that look like they fell off the original Alien set. Read...

Virtual PCs have important uses, such as providing a dedicated environment for testing new applications or enabling the parallel operation of multiple operating systems. But the virtualization environment can only demonstrate its strengths in such scenarios if the virtual machine has sufficient hardware resources. The power required essentially depends on two factors: the purpose of the virtual PC and the hypervisor, or virtualization software, used. This is because the three virtualization environments: Microsoft Hyper-V, VMWare Workstation and Oracle VirtualBox differ in terms of their basic requirements. You will therefore find examples of VMs and the optimum configuration for your guest computer in the article. Which is better: Dual boot vs. Virtualization: Which is best for running multiple operating systems? The hardware requirements for virtualization programs On the websites of VMWare, Oracle, and Microsoft you will find the hardware requirements for the smooth running of the virtualization programs. In its online documentation, VirtualBox provides a rough rule of thumb for the main memory: According to this, you should populate your RAM so that the requirements for both the guest system and the host PC are met. In the case of Windows 11, this means at least 2GB of main memory for a 64-bit version, but 4GB is better. If you also want to install the operating system in the virtual environment, you will need an additional 4GB. The optimum amount of memory is therefore at least 8GB. For a powerful virtual PC, you need a CPU with four to six cores. Together with a graphics card with at least 4GB of memory, even more demanding virtualization is possible.IDG In the instructions, you will also find a principle that generally applies to all performance parameters: “The more the better.” If you follow the VM maker’s recommendations on hardware, you have met the basic requirements for operating the environment software and thus covered one side of the equation for smooth virtualization. Then there is the specific application, whereby there might be further requirements for the host hardware depending on the scenario. Crash course: How do virtual PCs actually work? Scenario 1: Standard PC for surfing or online banking We use Windows 11 as the host and guest system for the virtual PC. Microsoft recommends the following for the installation of a Windows 11 computer: a processor with at least 1GHz clock speed, 2GB RAM for the 64-bit version, and around 32GB hard drive space. With a PC equipped in this way, you can surf the internet virtually without any problems. However, if you notice slight limitations with more complex websites or when playing videos, you should also use a separate virtual graphics card to which you allocate sufficient memory. To virtualize such a computer, you therefore need at least 4GB of RAM and 40GB of free space on the hard drive per operating system — at least 80GB in total. You will notice a significant increase in performance if you make more memory available to the virtual PC. If you initially select a Windows 11 computer as the host for VMWare Workstation, the setup wizard suggests the following parameters as the minimum configuration: 2GB of main memory, two processor cores and 60GB of storage space. If you create a virtual machine for Windows 11 and 64 bit with VMWare Workstation, the wizard suggests a disk size of 64GB. With the option “Split virtual disk into multiple files,” only the space that is currently required is physically occupied.IDG However, the latter is allocated dynamically. This means that the space is only fully utilized when the virtual machine really needs it. Depending on your computer’s graphics card, a 3D accelerator is also available for your virtual machine. However, this function should not be absolutely necessary for normal internet surfing and your banking transactions. Instead, the following minimum configuration is sufficient: Your guest computer should have an Intel Pentium i3 or i5 processor or the comparable AMD model. A main memory of 4GB is sufficient, but with 8GB you will be much more comfortable. No more than 20GB is required for the pure virtualized Windows operating system. Scenario 2: Workstation PC for practical use The minimum configuration for a virtual Windows 11 computer described in scenario 1 is of course not sufficient for every virtualization project. You will need a significantly more powerful virtual PC if you not only want to run Office with high performance, but also want to use the image editing software Gimp or a 3D rendering program such as Blender at the same time, for example. Microsoft defines the following requirements for using Office under Windows in the VM: a processor with a clock speed of at least 1.6GHz, 4GB of RAM, and 4GB of free storage space. There are no hardware requirements for Gimp that are needed to run the software. In general, the program can be run on a PC on which the current Microsoft Office version also runs smoothly. In the Workstation Player you can see how much RAM is theoretically available to you (blue arrowhead). In our example with 64GB RAM, up to 55.9GB can be allocated to the virtual Windows 11 system.IDG The Blender rendering software has the most demanding hardware requirements: on the website you will find three categories for the current version 4.3: minimum, recommended, and optimum configuration. For the minimum configuration, you need a dual-core processor with a clock speed of 2GHz, 4GB RAM, and a graphics card with 1GB RAM that supports OpenGL 3.3. Blender recommends a processor with four cores, 16GB RAM, and a graphics card with 4GB. The application with the greatest hardware requirements therefore determines the configuration of your guest computer. Blender uses the recommended configuration as a basis. As you also need to run the guest system with Windows 11, it is best to use a current Intel i5 or a comparable AMD model as the processor. For the RAM, 16GB should be sufficient for the guest system, with 32GB for the host you are always on the safe side. The same applies to the graphics card: a model with at least 4GB of memory is sufficient for the simultaneous operation of Windows 11, the virtualization environment, and the rendering software. The virtualization environments — in this case Virtualbox — allow you to allocate memory individually for each virtual machine.IDG There is one more point you should bear in mind: Match the requirements of your software to be virtualized with the performance of the virtual environment. VirtualBox, for example, does not support OpenGL 3.3, while Blender cannot do without the graphics library. With VMWare Workstation, you should always install VMWare Tools in order to use a 3D engine. Scenario 3: Two virtual machines in parallel operation Running two virtual PCs in parallel on a guest computer makes sense, for example, if one of the virtual PCs is to function as a Linux server while the other is to run an outdated Windows system that no longer receives updates, such as Windows 7. For such a scenario, you first need the right virtualization software before deciding on the optimum hardware configuration. This is because only VirtualBox and Hyper-V allow multiple computers to run in parallel. This is not possible with Workstation. With three parallel computers — one host PC and two guest PCs — the processor and the number of cores also become more important. You should calculate with at least one core per computer. Processors such as a 14th-generation Intel i5 have eight performance and 16 efficiency cores. For even more parallelism, the i7 and i9 CPUs offer a larger number of cores. For the other components such as RAM, graphics card, and storage, it is best to apply the principles from the previous examples again. We recommend at least 16GB of main memory for three parallel computers, but 32GB is better. A graphics card with at least 4GB of memory and a powerful processor is available at a street price of around $200 such as the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti.IDG In the case of the graphics card, consider which applications should run in parallel on the operating systems. As most cards already come with 8GB, you should not save money here. Inexpensive graphics cards are already available at prices between $200 and $250. Experience in dealing with virtual environments Some applications are difficult or even impossible to virtualize. This applies in particular to games or graphics-heavy programs. They usually require DirectX11 or DirectX12, which, with the exception of Hyper-V, is not possible in virtual environments. On the other hand, Hyper-V is very possessive. If you have installed the virtualization environment under Windows 11, the competitors Oracle VirtualBox and VMWare Workstation can only be operated with a handicap, depending on the version. For example, you have to do without nested VT-x. A processor with at least six cores is recommended for the parallel operation of two virtual machines. IDG In this case, you have two options: Either you uninstall Hyper-V in Windows via Control Panel > Programs and Features > Enable or disable Windows features. Alternatively, you can open a command line as an administrator and enter the following command: bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off After the following restart, VirtualBox and Vmware Workstation will work as desired. Another challenge that you will encounter when using the VMWare Workstation is the 3D support of the graphics card within the virtualization environment. This is not available as standard, but can be added via the free VMWare Tools. The tools must be installed separately for each virtual machine via Player > Manage > Install Virtual Tools and are then available with additional functions within the virtual environment as an additional drive — usually drive D. Call this up and start the installation. Additional 3D graphics settings are then available under “Display” in the virtual machine settings. Compensate for bottlenecks with additional hardware on the host PC If you want to upgrade the existing PC for virtualization, start with the RAM, storage drive, or graphics card. RAM can often be upgraded on a desktop PC or laptop by expanding or replacing it. In the case of the storage drive, 20- to 30GB of free space is usually sufficient to gain initial experience. If you do not have any free capacity on the internal memory, use a faster USB 3.x drive or a correspondingly large USB 3.0 memory stick for initial tests. Alternatively, you can use the portable (and older) version of VirtualBox for initial testing. VirtualBox Portable is actually intended for virtualization on the move. You will need a memory stick with a capacity of at least 64GB. The stick then contains the VirtualBox software itself and your virtual machine. Conclusion: Try out VMs first, then upgrade your PC in a targeted manner Most scenarios can be modelled in a virtual environment with a greater or lesser use of hardware. The requirements depend very much on the applications that are to be run in the virtual environments. In most cases, a virtual PC can be realized on a normal work PC without much additional effort. For all other scenarios, you may need to make selective upgrades or replace individual components. Our advice: Simply try out the environment and optimize the components one by one if necessary. With a new computer, it is best to plan the individual components for a virtual environment a little more generously so that you do not have to replace individual components such as the graphics card after a short time. Virtualization of games Running games within a virtual environment usually fails. Many games require DirectX11 or DirectX12 under Windows. The only virtualization environment that currently offers this is Hyper-V from Microsoft. However, it only works with the Pro and Enterprise versions of Windows 10 and 11. Read...

It’s easy to spend a lot of money on a laptop, but you don’t have to. In fact, most people don’t need to spend much at all. Whether you’re on a budget or you’re buying for a student or child, sometimes the best laptop is the one that’s most affordable. But just because you’re spending less doesn’t mean you should settle for less. To make sure your laptop won’t leave you frustrated and pulling your hair out, there are a few key specs that you shouldn’t compromise on—or else you’ll probably regret your purchase. What counts as a budget laptop? In this case, we’re aiming for a price around $500 and we’re using PCWorld’s best budget laptop picks to get a sense of what’s possible, what’s reasonable, and what’s non-negotiable. Just be aware that you’ll give up some luxuries (like a dedicated graphics card) at this price point, but you’ll end up with a great daily driver laptop for work, school, and everyday activities. That said, let’s dive into the most important specs for a budget laptop and the absolute minimum acceptable for each one. Further reading: Buying a laptop before China tariffs kick in? Don’t fall for these tricks Operating system Asus, Samsung, Lenovo The very first choice you must make is the operating system. And if you’re on a budget, you really only have two options: Windows or ChromeOS. (You could also run Linux if you’re tech-savvy enough, but if you know enough to run Linux, you likely don’t need this article.) Windows is the de facto choice because it’s used everywhere, everyone is familiar with it, and most apps “just work” on Windows computers. But it has a lot of system overhead so it doesn’t run as well on low-end hardware and you might experience subpar performance. ChromeOS, which is the operating system for Chromebooks, is far more restricted in what apps it can run. If it isn’t available in the Chrome Web Store, you’re pretty much out of luck. (Sure, you can use workarounds like remote desktop-ing into a separate Windows machine, but that kind of defeats the point of buying a budget laptop!) That said, there are plenty of good reasons to buy a Chromebook over a laptop, like the bang-for-your-buck on performance and price, so don’t be turned off. Chromebooks are quite good these days. Note: If you’re buying a laptop for a student, you should definitely check with their school first because some schools have mandatory OS requirements. Even if they don’t, they might have specific software needs—and if that software isn’t available on ChromeOS, you’ll have to go with Windows. What about MacBooks? While it’s possible to buy a MacBook on a budget, you’ll have to give up a lot in the process—or stretch your definition of “budget.” Even the cheapest MacBooks far exceed $500, and they tend to be older discounted models. Generally speaking, Macs aren’t great for getting the best specs for your money. RAM Framework You can think of RAM like the amount of workspace you have on your desk: more RAM means more space to concurrently run apps and keep numerous files open, allowing you to jump between and multitask without having to close and re-open stuff all the time. That’s why RAM is key to laptop performance, and it’s important to get a laptop that has enough RAM to run smoothly. I recommend a minimum 8GB of RAM, but bump it up to 16GB if you want to “future proof” against growing needs in the future. The good news is, finding solid laptops with at least 8GB of RAM isn’t difficult—but if your budget is limited to around $300, you’re likely to be stuck with 4GB options at best. If you can afford it, it’s definitely worth the extra cash to hit 8GB, even on Chromebooks. Otherwise, you’ll find that your laptop’s sluggishness will affect your enjoyment of it. CPU BLKstudio / Shutterstock.com When it comes to CPUs on budget laptops, you have to temper your expectations. You won’t be able to get anything truly powerful, but you will be able to find something that suits your needs and gets you through non-intensive tasks like office work, studying, and watching videos. Among the more affordable Windows laptops, Intel i3 and i5 processors are the most common options. Ideally you should opt for the i5, but you can settle for an i3 if you’re on a tight budget; it should keep up with regular tasks as long as you pair it with at least 8GB of RAM. AMD Ryzen 3 and Ryzen 5 processors are also frequently seen in budget-tier laptops, and they can save you a little more money than their Intel alternatives. In Chromebooks, you’ll mostly find Intel i3 and i5 processors along with MediaTek options. MediaTek processors are typically found in budget phones because they have better battery life, but they have the disadvantage of being less powerful. Either way, opt for Intel or AMD if you care about performance. Just don’t expect any high-end gaming! You’d need a dedicated GPU for that, and that’s not happening in a budget laptop. Battery life Panos Sakalakis / Unsplash You have lots of options when it comes to battery life, even in the affordable laptop territory. Not only do weaker processors give you longer staying power, but larger batteries can help too—if you’re willing to sacrifice weight and portability. And here, too, is an area where your choice of OS matters. Generally speaking, Chromebooks usually last longer on a single charge than an equivalent Windows laptop. If you travel frequently or simply prefer to use your laptop unplugged, then aim for one that promises 10 to 12 hours of battery life. Most manufacturers overpromise and under deliver, so it’s quite possible you’ll only get around 8 hours despite their claims. Still, 8 hours of battery life on a laptop should be enough to last a workday or a school day, all while letting you live comfortably untethered. If in doubt about a particular laptop, check if PCWorld has reviewed it—we run battery tests to confirm if laptops live up to their promises. Storage capacity Jon L. Jacobi Sticking to a budget means cutting some corners, and storage space is usually among the first areas hit by compromise. That can be a problem if you aren’t careful, though. For the best laptop experience, you’ll want ample storage and you’ll want it to be fast. A slow hard drive with inadequate capacity will leave you micromanaging your files and apps as well as waiting inordinately long for files and apps to load. Among good budget options, you’ll find storage options ranging from 64GB to 256GB. Obviously, more is better, but if you’re on Windows, you shouldn’t dip below 128GB at the very least. (The operating system alone will take up around 30GB, and modern apps are space hogs on top.) Anything less than 128GB and you’ll find yourself running out of space so often that you’ll be tearing out your hair. Chromebooks, on the other hand, can survive pretty well on 64GB of storage for several reasons: the OS doesn’t take up as much space, Chromebook apps are typically smaller, and ChromeOS relies more on cloud storage than local storage. The downside is that you basically need 24/7 internet access for day-to-day use. Note: If you have to settle for a laptop with inadequate storage space, you can always add an external drive to expand capacity. Just make sure the laptop you get has enough ports for it (addressed later in this article), and stick to our picks for best external drives. Storage types Maxx-Studio / Shutterstock.com Modern Windows laptops come with two primary options: SSD or eMMC. Don’t settle for anything less than an SSD. Some cheaper laptops may offer eMMC drives, but eMMC drives run very slow and fill up faster due to their smaller capacities. You’ll be frustrated, trust me. Chromebooks, however, tend to come with three options: SSD, eMMC, and UFS. Again, I don’t recommend eMMC drives for the same reasons, but UFS is worth considering. Universal Flash Storage is “newer” and more typically found on mobile devices, but since ChromeOS is a mobile-like operating system, it’s well-suited to run on UFS. In general, UFS is faster than eMMC but slower than an SSD. If you want the best speeds, an SSD is still the best (but most expensive) option. If your goal is to save money, you’ll do fine with a UFS drive. Display resolution guteksk7 / Shutterstock.com At cheaper tiers, laptops mainly come with 720p or 1080p resolutions. I only saw one laptop featuring a higher resolution, but that came at the expense of cutting other corners. So, when buying a budget laptop, you’ll want to stick to 1080p unless you’re particularly strapped for cash. Going with 720p can save money, but the experience is subpar: text is harder to read, video content suffers, and you have less screen real estate for apps and files. Stepping up to 1080p solves all of that, and you’ll appreciate the improved resolution if you end up using your laptop to watch Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, etc. Laptop size Thiago Trevisan / IDG The ideal laptop size really depends on your needs. On the larger end, you have 15-inch and 17-inch laptops that provide bigger screens and wider keyboards, but laptops at this size tend to be heavy and detract from portability. And be aware that larger laptop screens may sometimes have lower resolutions, which can affect crispness of image and the actual amount of usable screen real estate. On the flip side, you have smaller 13-inch laptops that are lighter and more portable but generally more cramped with tighter keyboards. I find that the sweet spot for portable productivity is with a 13-inch laptop that has a 1080p resolution. You get ample screen real estate and crisp images, a lightweight body that doesn’t take up much space in a bag, and the price is usually quite affordable. Ports and connectivity Immo Wegmann / Unsplash Ports are important on budget laptops, especially if you’re sacrificing storage space and screen size. With the right ports, you have the flexibility to connect external drives and external monitors. Thankfully, unless you go very low on price, you have good options. If possible, aim for at least one USB-C port and one USB-A port. USB-C has taken over as the dominant connector, but plenty of storage devices and other accessories still rely on USB-A. If you can find a budget laptop with an HDMI port as well, you should consider it because it’ll make it easy to connect an external monitor. USB-C can theoretically handle monitors as well, but not every USB-C port is built the same and capable of supporting the same devices. Note: If you have to settle for a laptop with inadequate ports, you can always add extra ports separately with a USB-C hub or docking station. See our picks for best USB-C hubs and best Thunderbolt docks. Min specs for budget laptops in a nutshell Phew, that’s a lot to digest, so here’s a quick summary of my recommended minimum specs for budget laptops without all the contextual explanations and rationale: RAM: 8GB minimum, 16GB if you can afford it. CPU: Intel i3 or AMD Ryzen 3 minimum, Intel i5 or AMD Ryzen 5 if you can afford it. Battery life: At least 10 to 12 hours of claimed battery life (which is likely closer to 8 hours in real-world usage). Storage capacity: 128GB minimum for Windows, 64GB minimum for Chromebooks. If you need more space, you can always expand with an external storage drive. Storage types: SSD is what you want. For Chromebooks, you can get away with UFS. Avoid eMMC at all cost. Display resolution: 1080p minimum. Laptop size: 13-inch for portability, 15-inch for screen space (as long as you don’t sacrifice resolution to get there). Ports: At least one USB-C and one USB-A port, plus an HDMI port if you plan to use an external monitor. Alternatively, buy a separate USB-C hub or docking station to expand connectivity. All of this can be had for under $500 if you shop around, especially if you can be patient and wait for deals. I’ve seen laptops—both conventional and 2-in-1 laptops—that meet all these minimum specs, so you definitely don’t have to spend a lot for a decent laptop. As long as you aren’t expecting a powerhouse gaming machine that can rip videos in no time flat, you’ll be fine. For more tips, check out our guide to buying a budget laptop without getting screwed, or head over to our guide on the best laptops under $500 if you want explicit recommendations. Read...

I have a confession to make: I don’t always do as I say. I’ve been a tech journalist for 20 years. Over those years, I’ve written countless how-to guides and advice columns, and I’ve made endless recommendations for how you should go about looking after, maintaining, and enhancing your PC. But I’m embarrassed to say, I don’t follow all of the tips and tricks I share, and I sometimes fall into the very traps I warn others against. It’s time to come clean and admit my mistakes. Here are some of my worst tech sins that you should avoid doing yourself. Don’t be like me! I have 38,000 unread emails Jon Martindale / Foundry This is one of those ones that I can get away with pretty easily, mostly because I’m not about to let just anyone take a peek at my email account. But when I’ve occasionally had friends or colleagues glance at my screen while I’m working, they’ve been horrified. “What happens if someone sends you something important?” they ask. “How do you know when you get a new email?” The tech-savvy ones even tell me, “You really should set up some filters.” And they’re all correct. Having tens of thousands of unread emails isn’t just messy. It’s distracting. Impractical. The unread counter is completely arbitrary at this point—I don’t even think about it anymore. Why don’t I deal with it? I suppose I just don’t need to. I get so many emails that if I’d spent all day opening or “reading” them simply so they don’t show up as “unread,” then I’d never get anything done. (I should probably just delete them all!) A quick parse to see if I got anything important, then I’m on to whatever actual task I need to do. My drivers and BIOS aren’t up-to-date I’ve been having some trouble with weird system locks recently. I think it has to do with a misconfigured webcam driver, but it could also be my second monitor, or a faulty HDMI cable. To make sure it wasn’t software-related, I updated my graphics drivers—and apparently I hadn’t updated them since early 2024. Oops. I later went to update my BIOS as another potential fix for my system glitching woes—and apparently I hadn’t flashed that since late 2023. I’ve given myself a well-deserved slap on the wrist for both of these. It’s something I should do more often, but it just keeps slipping my mind and I never find the time to get around to them. I mean, sure, it’s not something you have to do… but it’s a good idea because an outdated BIOS and/or drivers can cause issues. I plug my phone in to transfer files I know there are a bunch of ways to get files off my phone onto my PC. There are apps, network sharing, and cloud storage options that are all pretty straightforward. But for the most part, when I want to back up my photos or transfer documents between phone and PC, I still plug in. I have a USB-C-to-A cable with a USB 3.0 port at best—it isn’t fast, so big data transfers can take time. It’s cable-tied to my desk, though, so it’s always within easy reach. And it does a good enough job for moving data around that I’ve never bothered to investigate a better solution. Lazy? Perhaps. But the time and effort needed to explore better alternatives has always felt better spent elsewhere for me. When I reinstall Windows, I just buy new storage drives Jon Martindale / Foundry This sin is more in the vein of a privileged humblebrag than it is a mistake or bad habit, but it’s a great example of the kind of paranoia I have when moving to a fresh, new Windows install. I’m so concerned that Windows will accidentally delete something I need (or that I’ll forget to back something up) that instead of reinstalling Windows on the same drive (or manually backing up important files and performing an old-school format), I just prefer to buy a new drive altogether and keep the old drive as extra storage. The plus side of this is that I always have a fresh new drive to install new games and apps on, and I have everything else on my older drives. The downside is that my system has grown into a Frankenstein’s monster of drive letters. I still have the 500GB Samsung 850 EVO from three installs ago. It’s also left me with a lot of drives called “Local Disk” and it often takes a few tries for me to find the actual drive I’m looking for. I use a high mouse DPI all the time I’m well aware that many pro PC gamers play at 800 to 1,200 DPI on their gaming mice, with massive mouse pads over which they sweep their arms for pinpoint accuracy. But I’m not about that life. I run my mice at around 2,400 DPI all the time, no matter what I’m doing, and that works well enough for me. I use a fingertip grip style, so my mouse is mostly controlled by my index and ring fingers resting on either side of the mouse, and that means I need a sensitivity level that traverses real distance with minimal movement. At 2,400 DPI, I can perform most of my required mousing in a small space. I don’t play much in the way of high-speed FPS games—where the added accuracy from a lower DPI would be really worth it—but even when I do, I don’t switch it up. I like my mouse sensitivity and I’m not going to kid myself into thinking I can be competitive anyway. I’m just here to score objectives and try not to die more than anyone else on my team. I only reboot my PC when it crawls Mulad Images / Shutterstock.com I quite often finish my work days with tasks still open, projects halfway done, and emails I haven’t gotten to yet, so I usually just minimize those windows, switch to a new desktop view, and come back to them later. And when I’m done for the day, I don’t bother saving everything or bookmarking tabs—I just put the PC to sleep. That means I rarely shut down my computer. Which isn’t a huge deal for the most part, but when I’m several weeks in without a proper reboot, I can usually tell. Network performance drops off a cliff for some reason, videos begin to stutter, browser tabs start lagging… and that’s when I know it’s time to restart. I should do it more often, though. I’ve let my PC pile up with issues I spend most of my days working with and writing about PCs, hardware components, and software, so when it comes to my main work and gaming machine, I just want to use it. Don’t get me wrong: I love fiddling with computers and seeing what I can do with them. But I hate troubleshooting when I need to focus or when I want to relax. That’s resulted in me having a PC with a surprising amount of nagging issues for someone who writes guides on how to fix said issues. For example, I have one odd boot issue where sometimes apps won’t load properly and are only half-responsive. It has something to do with my webcam I’m pretty sure, but I haven’t nailed it down yet. I also have a second monitor that occasionally flickers with weird white bands, but unplugging and replugging it gets it going again. And for a PC running on a 7950X3D and a PCIe 4 SSD, the startup time is awfully sluggish. I really should do something about all of that… but I can’t be bothered. Don’t be like me. Don’t let your problems pile up. I have too many desktop icons Jon Martindale / Foundry This is one that my less-tech-savvy friends rag on me for. It’s not as bad as my 70-year-old mother’s desktop—which is more icon than background at this point—but I’ll admit it’s a bit chaotic. I don’t have any shortcuts there, but I do have far too many folders. They’re often for past projects I haven’t gotten back to in a while, but I swear I will… one day… Honestly, I think this is more aesthetic preference than anything, as functionally there’s little difference between having a folder where I save all my Photoshopped news thumbnails on the desktop or nestled deeper into a drive. Regardless, it doesn’t look super professional. Do as I say, not as I do Writing this article has been an eye opener for me. Not only did I not realize how many tech sins I was committing, but I never knew I was relying on so many stop-gap solutions. A lot of these issues could be solved by just spending a little more time doing things the right way, which I often evangelize in my how-to guides. The truth is, we may share all kinds of advice with you—whether it’s about good digital security habits, extending your SSD’s lifespan, buying a refurbished laptop, or being more productive with Windows 11—even if we aren’t perfect about heeding those very same tips. So, let me make this pledge to you, oh reader who holds yourself to a higher standard than this pontificating tech expert: I will do better. Perhaps I’ll write up another edition of this in a year and we can see how many of my sins I’ve absolved myself of. Read...

This year my laptop turns six–a relatively young age in the grand scheme of things. Sure, it’s gotten slower and the battery life has taken a hit, but since I don’t use it for advanced video editing or gaming, it’s no problem. For lighter workloads like web surfing and emailing, it gets the job done just fine. There’s really only one problem: my laptop is too old for a Windows 11 update. On October 14th, 2025, Windows 10 will reach the end of its life period, which means no new features or security updates. The former is not a big problem. The latter would be a disaster. I’m not alone in this situation. Over 50 percent of users are still running Windows 10, and this figure is gradually dropping. How many will have updated in six months’ time is anyone’s guess, but whatever the percentage, one thing is clear. A large proportion of the world’s 1.6 billion Windows PCs will still be running Windows 10 on October 14th, 2025. What makes this challenging is that Windows 11 is so technically demanding that it’s not possible to update all fully functional computers. Sadly, my six-year-old laptop is one of them. If Microsoft stops updating Windows 10, it would turn into a breeding ground for cybercriminals. A computer without security updates is not only a problem for the user, but it can also spread malware to others. This decision also creates major environmental problems. If a few hundred million fully functional computers are thrown away and users buy new ones, emissions will increase. Manufacturing new computers requires large amounts of energy and the extraction of rare metals. Microsoft has stated that security updates to Windows 10 will still be available for another year, but for a fee. Until now, businesses could subscribe to extended support for old Windows versions and now we consumers can do the same. This is, of course, tempting for Microsoft in the short term, but it’s not a sustainable solution. In such a situation, a large proportion of users would continue to run Windows 10 without paying, thereby compromising security for us all. I personally hope that Microsoft realizes that they should reconsider this decision. The only reasonable thing to do is to send out free security updates to Windows 10 as long as the system is widely used. It’s neither economically nor ecologically sustainable to sell computers with a six-year lifespan. We need to move away from the idea of computers, mobiles, tablets, and other technologies as disposable products. This is a transition from the throwaway society that we all need to make. If Microsoft is serious about being a sustainable company, they should immediately remove the death sentence on my six-year-old laptop and other working Windows 10 computers. Further reading: How to save your older PC when Windows 10 hits end of life Read...