Yet another smart product is headed for the scrapheap, and this time it’s an Amazon Fire TV device that lets you control your home entertainment components with voice commands—or at least, that’s what it used to do.  First announced back in 2019, the Amazon Fire TV Blaster will “stop working” in the “coming weeks,” according to an Amazon customer support email shared by AFTVnews.  Amazon is offering an “exclusive” $60 discount to Fire TV Blaster owners for the Fire TV Cube, a more powerful version of the Blaster that comes with built-in Alexa and a $139.99 price tag, making its final price $79.99 for those who take Amazon up on the offer.  Another option for Fire TV Blaster owners is to get a new Fire TV streaming player—albeit one without hand-free Alexa functionality—for half-off.  As the Fire TV Blaster originally retailed for just $35, out-of-luck owners are now left in the position of either paying more than double for a new Fire TV Cube that’s capable of the Blaster’s hands-free Alexa functionality, or opting for a less expensive Fire TV stick that isn’t.  We’ve reached out to Amazon for comment.  The Fire TV Blaster gets its name from its ability to blast IR commands to such common living-room components as TVs, soundbars, A/V receivers, and similar home entertainment devices.  With the Fire TV Blaster connected to an Echo speaker, you could say things like “Alexa, switch to HDMI 1 on TV,” and the Blaster would beam the appropriate IR command to your TV set.  At just $35, the Fire TV Blaster made for a nifty and inexpensive way to add smarts and voice capabilities to your dumb home theater components.   But like too many other smart devices we’ve seen, the Fire TV Blaster is about to become a paperweight, with the Amazon email including instructions on how to recycle the soon-to-be-useless gadget, along with a link to a free shipping label.  Of course, there is the Fire TV Cube, a supercharged version of the Fire TV Blaster with built-in Alexa—including Alexa+ support—along with HDMI passthrough and much more powerful internal hardware.  Besides being way more expensive, though, the Fire TV Cube also comes saddled with the Fire TV interface, which our reviewer deemed to be “too cumbersome, with too many sponsored listings, banner ads, and extraneous menu items getting in the way.”  This story is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best media streaming devices. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Unique aspect ratio for extra vertical space Useful extra features Higher resolution than 4K, excellent sharpness Now has a 120Hz refresh rate Cons HDR is supported, but not great MSRP is expensive for the display size Our Verdict The BenQ RD280UG is an outstanding coding display, with a unique 3:2 aspect ratio, an ambient light sensor that can automatically adjust display brightness, and an ultra-high resolution superior to a typical 4K monitor. All of this makes for an outstanding coding display. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: BenQ RD280UG Retailer Price $699.99 View Deal BenQ $699.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Best Prices Today: Check today’s prices The BenQ RD280UG is a monitor designed from scratch for coding. Of course, just about any display can be used for coding—but the BenQ RD280UG goes much further than most. It has a unique 3:2 aspect ratio, an ambient light sensor that can automatically adjust display brightness, and an ultra-high resolution superior to a typical 4K monitor. All of this makes for an outstanding coding display. Read on to learn more, then see our roundup of the best monitors for comparison. BenQ RD280UG specs and features It’s hard to miss the BenQ RD280UG’s headline feature. The 28.2-inch display, which has a 3:2 aspect ratio, is instantly set apart from most monitors. It’s a sharp display, too, with a native resolution of 3840×2560. That’s a higher pixel count than a 27-inch 4K monitor, but due to the BenQ RD280UG’s larger physical display size, the pixel density is almost identical. Display size: 28.2-inch 3:2 aspect ratio Native resolution: 3840×2560 Panel type: IPS-LCD with LED edge lit backlight Refresh rate: 120Hz Adaptive sync: VRR HDR: Yes, VESA DisplayHDR 400 Certified Ports: 1x HDMI 2.0, 1x DisplayPort 1.4, 1x USB-C with DisplayPort Alternate Mode and 90 watts USB Power Delivery, 1x USB-C downstream with DisplayPort MST and up to 15 watts of Power Delivery, 2x USB-A downstream, 1 USB-C downstream with 7.5 watts of Power Delivery, 1x USB-B upstream Audio: Yes, 2x 3-watt speakers Extra features: Moonhalo ambient light, KVM switch, ambient light sensor Price: $759.99 MSRP The BenQ RD280UG makes several improvements over its predecessor, the BenQ RD280U. The refresh rate has increased from 60Hz to 120Hz and VRR is now supported, though BenQ stops short of support for any particular standard (such as AMD FreeSync or Nvidia G-Sync). The new model also lists slightly more powerful speakers, up to 3 watts from 2W before, replaces one USB-A downstream port with USB-C, and lists a better contrast ratio of 2000:1, up from 1200:1. BenQ RD280UG design The BenQ RD280UG’s design is dominated by its highly unusual 3:2 aspect ratio. While there are now a couple other 3:2 monitors available, it remains extremely rare. The aspect ratio results in a display that’s almost exactly as wide as a 27-inch widescreen monitor, yet nearly as tall as a 32-inch widescreen monitor. Because of that, the RD280UG’s 3:2 aspect ratio can provide a tad more than two extra inches of vertical display space (compared to a 27-inch widescreen). This is useful not only for coding but also for writing or editing all sorts of documents. Put simply, you can see more on the display at once. The display’s size is also a great fit for viewing two vertical windows side-by-side. Matthew Smith / Foundry The 3:2 display is housed in a robust chassis with a distinct ridged design on the rear of the monitor. It sets the monitor apart from other brands, yet still looks professional. This is also where you’ll find the MoonHalo, an ambient light that can create a pleasant glow around the display in a bright environment. While the MoonHalo is meant to reduce eye strain, I like it for a more basic reason: It just looks nice. The ambient glow cast by the MoonHalo is pleasant and bright enough to be a genuinely useful light source in a dimly lit room. BenQ mounts the monitor to a hefty stand with a flat base that doesn’t cause too much disruption on your desk. The stand can adjust for height, tilt, and swivel. It can also pivot, which is an upgrade from the BenQ RD280U. A 100x100mm VESA mount is used, so the monitor can be attached to third-party monitor arms and stands. BenQ RD280UG connectivity Around back the BenQ RD280UG provides three video inputs: one HDMI, one DisplayPort, and one USB-C with DisplayPort. The USB-C port also provides up to 90 watts of Power Delivery for powering a connected laptop or tablet. The monitor also has a USB-C downstream port with 15 watts of Power Delivery and DisplayPort multi-stream transport. This feature lets you connect a second display to the BenQ RD280UG and “daisy-chain” the video signal to it. That’s useful if you have a laptop with just one video output, or if you want to reduce cable clutter on your desk. The USB-C port extends USB connectivity to two USB-A ports and one USB-C port. These ports can also be driven by a USB-B upstream connection. This makes the RD280UG a fairly useful USB hub, though it lacks some more extravagant features that can be found on some competitors. The Dell U3225QE, for example, has 2.5Gbps Ethernet. KVM switch functionality is included, too. That means you can connect multiple devices and use the monitor to switch between which has access to the monitor’s USB ports. It’s a good way to quickly swap between two connected PCs, though also included by most of the BenQ RD280UG’s competitors. BenQ RD280UG menus and features The BenQ RD280UG has several extra features aimed at programmers. My favorite is the ambient light sensor. An ambient light sensor can automatically adjust the brightness of a display throughout the day to keep the brightness at a comfortable level. That’s handy, as manually adjusting brightness is annoying and easy to forget. Most monitors in the BenQ RD280UG’s price range don’t have this feature, though a few do, including some Dell Ultrasharp, Asus ProArt, and BenQ P-Series displays. BenQ doubles down on comfort with several display modes, such as E-Paper and a Coding Dark Theme, which drastically change the image presentation. These modes are not technically “accurate” but might ease eye strain due to reduced brightness and enhanced contrast. Keep in mind, however, that the usefulness of these features can vary from person to person. The BenQ RD280UG also has a “Function Bar” on the front of the display. This is a touch-sensitive control that can be used to quickly engage or change monitor settings. The idea is that coders may want to frequently move from a coding-specific image quality mode to another, more typical mode. I would have preferred a remote or physical button for this, but the Function Bar is better than nothing. The monitor’s settings can otherwise be changed in one of two ways. You can use a joystick behind the lower bezel to control the on-screen menus or use BenQ’s DisplayPilot software. The DisplayPilot software supports Windows, Mac, and Linux, which is notable. Most competitors don’t support Linux. Whichever method you choose, you’ll find a lot of options. The monitor has many color modes and gamma modes that target precise gamma values. It also has color temperature adjustment, but those adjustments do not target precise values. The monitor provides many options for controlling special features, such as the MoonHalo, ambient light sensor, and function bar. On the whole, I think the BenQ RD280UG provides a good range of features and options for the price. My favorite feature is the automatic brightness adjustment of the ambient light sensor — manually adjusting brightness is annoying. BenQ RD280UG audio The BenQ RD280UG includes a pair of 3-watt speakers. According to the specification sheet, these are an upgrade over the RD280U, which used 2-watt speakers. And many similar monitors lack speakers at all. Still, the RD280UG’s audio isn’t great, lacking volume and depth. The speakers are okay for listening to a podcast but that’s about it. BenQ RD280UG SDR image quality I think it’s fair to say the BenQ RD280UG’s image quality is not important to the monitor’s core use case. Coding does not require a high contrast ratio or, in most cases, a wide color gamut. The BenQ RD280UG’s image quality reflects this, though it’s still decent. Matthew Smith / Foundry I measured a maximum sustained SDR brightness of 340 nits. That is a small upgrade from the older RD280U, which hit about 325 nits.As the graph shows, most competing monitors can be brighter, and some are significantly brighter. However, the RD280UG is bright enough to be comfortable in most interior rooms. It’s also clearly skewed towards use in dim rooms, as many of the monitor’s features are designed to make it comfortable when viewed in such a room. So, while the RD280UG is not that bright, it’s bright enough, and I can’t say it’s a problem for how the monitor is meant to be used. Matthew Smith / Foundry The BenQ RD280UG promises improved contrast over its predecessor, and it delivers. I measured a contrast ratio of 1980:1, which is a significant improvement over the prior monitor’s contrast ratio of 1310:1. It also compares well to similar monitors, many of which have a contrast ratio around 1000:1 to 1500:1. In practice, this means the BenQ RD280UG has a reasonably deep, rich, and immersive look. However, some backlight glow will still be visible when viewing dark images in a very dark room. Matthew Smith / Foundry Next up is color gamut, which is the range of colors the monitor can display. Here, we see a weakness of the BenQ RD280UG, and an area where the BenQ RD280UG doesn’t perform as well as its predecessor. The new RD280UG was able to display 88 percent of DCI-P3 and 82 percent of AdobeRGB, while the old model displayed 93 percent and 87 percent, respectively. This is not a major issue, as the BenQ RD280UG’s color gamut is still enough that it appears vivid at a glance. However, when compared to better monitors, it looks less saturated and alluring. You won’t notice it when coding or working with documents, but it can be noticeable in photos and videos. Matthew Smith / Foundry Color accuracy is also so-so, as the RD280UG has an average color error that’s higher than many competitive monitors—particularly those from Dell. The average color error is expressed across many colors, rather than any single color. The RD280UG is not meant to be a monitor for creative professionals, and for the price, would not be a good pick for that use. The RD280UG’s color temperature came in at 6700K, slightly off our target of 6500K. That means the image is a bit cooler than ideal, and it’s a noticeable difference, but not punch-you-in-the-face obvious. Gamma, meanwhile, was good with an on-target gamma curve of 2.2. The monitor provides a range of gamma presets in case you feel the need to change to another gamma setting. Together, these results contribute to a well-balanced presentation of the RD280UG’s image. Sharpness is a perk. The RD280UG provides 3840×2560 resolution, which is a higher total pixel count than a 4K widescreen monitor. However, because the monitor is also physically larger, this still works out to a pixel density of about 164 pixels per inch. Most 27-inch 4K monitors have a similar pixel density. Still, this is an excellent level of sharpness for a computer monitor. Small text looks crisp and detailed, which is important, since coders often view small text.The RD280UG’s overall image quality is not exceptional but seems well-suited for the monitor’s intended purpose. Programmers care most of all about sharpness when viewing small fonts and a well-balanced, reasonably accurate image. The RD280UG provides that. BenQ RD280UG HDR image quality The BenQ RD280UG is capable of HDR and is VESA DisplayHDR 400 certified, but I wouldn’t recommend it for viewing HDR. The monitor lacks the brightness and contrast to truly do HDR justice and generally won’t look much better than SDR—just different. On top of that, the monitor lacks the sort of HDR brightness and image adjustment features that you’ll find on a high-end gaming and entertainment monitor, such as the Asus ROG Swift OLED PG27AQWP-W. BenQ RD280UG motion performance BenQ’s RD280UG can reach a refresh rate up to 120Hz. That’s an improvement over the RD280U, which could only achieve 60Hz. It also allows the BenQ to catch up with recent Dell Ultrasharp and Asus ProArt monitors, many of which achieve a refresh rate of at least 120Hz. Whether the 120Hz refresh rate is adequate will depend on your expectations. The quickest monitors can now hit refresh rates up to 1,000Hz, and 240Hz monitors are extremely common, so 120Hz is a long way from cutting edge. However, many monitors meant specifically for coding or productivity are still stuck at 60Hz, and improving the RD280UG’s refresh rate to 120Hz delivers a big improvement. Refresh rate is often thought of as a feature for PC gaming but, in this context, it provides better text clarity when scrolling through code, as well as a more responsive feel when navigating a desktop, apps, or an integrated development environment. The monitor also supports variable refresh rates. It does not state official support for VESA AdaptiveSync, AMD FreeSync, or Nvidia G-Sync. However, in my testing, AMD FreeSync did function with the RD280UG. Should you buy the BenQ RD280UG? The BenQ RD280UG is one of the most unusual monitors on the market right now, yet in many ways, it makes perfect sense. It’s designed for coding and, to that end, it provides more screen real estate, an ultra-sharp image, and multiple modes and features designed to either reduce eye strain or make working in a dark room more enjoyable. The BenQ RD280UG also provides important upgrades from its predecessor, the RD280U, including a leap from a 60Hz to 120Hz refresh rate. The RD280UG’s retail price of $759.99 is expensive, and because you can code well enough on just about any display, it won’t make sense for everyone. However, if you have strong opinions on how a display you use for coding should function and look, the RD280UG will be ideal for you. Read...

The home entertainment industry awoke Tuesday morning to stunning news: Sony is ceding control of its home entertainment business, including its storied Bravia TV brand, to TCL.  It’s the kind of headline that makes you do a double-take: Sony, giving up on TVs? Well, it’s more complicated than that, but in broad strokes it’s true. As detailed in a joint press release, Sony will spin off its home entertainment division—including soundbars and TVs—into a new joint venture, with TCL controlling 51 percent of the new entity while Sony will retain a 49-percent share.  The deal likely won’t be finalized until late March, with the new joint company expected to open its doors in the April 2027 timeframe, so it will be business as usual for Sony TVs and home entertainment products until then. The agreement is also subject to regulatory approval.  Still, does this mean Sony TVs as we know them will eventually go away? Well, yes and no.   On a surface level, there will still be Sony- and Bravia-branded TVs on sale even after the presumed closure of the deal, with the Sony/TCL press release specifying that both “the globally recognized ‘Sony’ name and ‘Bravia’ name” are “expected” to live on.  And while TCL will be supplying the panels for new Sony TVs, Sony will still be contributing its “high-quality picture and audio technology” — in short, the under-the-hood chips and picture-quality enhancements that give Sony TV sets their signature look.  Beyond the actual display panels, TCL will serve up its global supply chain and industrial facilities, including the “end-to-end” logistics required to efficiently churn out millions of TVs per annum.  So no, Sony’s Bravia name isn’t going anywhere, but it’s conceivably at risk of spreading everywhere, going both up and down the TV market and thus diluting the brand.  Put another way, we’re used to Sony’s “Bravia” brand being a mark of high-end quality. You’ve got your Sony TV sets, then you’ve got your Sony Bravia TVs, including OLED sets and higher-end LCD-based models. If we start seeing 43-inch-plus Bravia TVs in the sub-$300 range, the Bravia brand may cease to mean anything.  To be clear, it’s not certain that’s going to happen, and we should also point out that TCL itself is the maker of some mighty fine TVs.   Early this month, TCL took the wraps off a new SQD (super quantum-dot) TV that it claims will “end” the picture-quality debate between OLED and LED, and we’re eager to see it for ourselves. We’ve also praised TCL’s bargain TVs for being among the best values in the market.  But even with Sony’s continued involvement in the joint venture and TCL’s impressive track record with TVs, we can’t help but wonder about the future of the Bravia brand, and what it will stand for with TCL at the helm. Read...

As the jousts between PlayStation, Xbox and the Switch disappear, the new frontier looks likely to be a fight for content across all entertainment media. Read...

The pair will host Hanging Out as part of a new entertainment channel they are launching online. Read...

When it comes to selecting a speaker system for your PC audio setup, you’ll often come across the options of 2.0 and 2.1 speaker configurations. Here I discuss the differences and help you decide which setup is best suited for your specific audio requirements. Be sure to also check out our list of the best budget computer speakers for under $100. Understanding 2.0 speaker systems A 2.0 speaker system consists of two main speakers or channels. These are usually referred to as left and right speakers. They’re responsible for reproducing sound in the entire audio spectrum including bass, midrange, and treble frequencies. Because they’ve only got two channels these speakers are valued for their simplicity; they’re straightforward and easy to set up, which makes them ideal for users who prefer a clean and clutter-free audio solution. With only two speakers, 2.0 systems can have a wide stereo soundstage which can enhance the listening experience for movies, music, and games. These speakers are also cost effective, and often more budget friendly than their 2.1 counterparts because they don’t have a subwoofer. See the excellent Creative Pebble, for example, an excellent 2.0 system for just $23.50. The only downside with 2.0 speakers is that they have limited bass. For that reason, they may not provide the kind of listening experience that a lot of users desire, especially for movies and games. Therefore, you should choose a 2.0 system if you mostly listen to music without a deep emphasis on the bass. You should also choose a 2.0 speaker if you prefer a simple and compact audio setup. Or if your space is limited, and you can’t accommodate a subwoofer. mentioned in this article Creative Pebble Read our review Best Prices Today: $23.50 at Amazon | $24.99 at Creative Labs A 2.1 speaker system is all about the bass A 2.1 speaker system consists of two main speakers (left and right) and an additional subwoofer. The subwoofer is responsible for reproducing low frequency bass sounds while the main speakers handle midrange and treble frequencies. Pexels: Fernando Arcos The inclusion of a subwoofer delivers significantly improved bass performance compared to a 2.0 system. That makes 2.1 systems ideal for users that enjoy deep impactful bass in their audio. The sound is also well balanced because the subwoofer and the two main speakers split the frequencies being reproduced. The enhanced bass response makes 2.1 speakers well suited to a wide range of audio content including movies, music, and games. These systems are generally more expensive than 2.0 systems due to the inclusion of a subwoofer. They also require more space than a 2.0 system which may not be ideal for users with limited space or that require a minimalist setup. You should therefore choose a 2.1 system if space allows for a subwoofer and if you enjoy entertainment with deep impactful bass. In the end the decision of whether to go with a 2.1 or 2.0 speaker system comes down to personal audio preference and how you plan to use the speakers with your audio setup. Each configuration has its strengths and choosing the right one will mean you get best from your audio setup. Related content: Best budget computer speakers: PC audio for less than $100 I ditched my PC speakers for a soundbar and never looked back Buying PC speakers? Avoid these 5 common mistakes Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Impressively lightweight Respectably long battery life Gorgeous display with excellent anti-glare Clean, modest looks Cons Slightly subdued performance Unimpressive speakers Subpar mics and camera Our Verdict It’s not without its faults, but the Acer Swift Edge 14 AI otherwise delivers a great all-around experience with extra points going to the gorgeous matte display. If you’re more often on the move than not, the Acer Swift Edge 14 AI will make a great partner. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Acer Swift Edge 14 AI Retailer Price $1,499.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Best Prices Today: Check today’s prices Acer has renewed its Swift line with a new compact model in the Swift Edge 14 AI, which not only boasts the thinness the Swift line has been known for but also an exceptionally low weight at just 2.18 pounds. Meanwhile, it packs in hardware that’s up to snuff for most workers and a display that looks great for entertainment — sharp OLED for the win — and for work from different environments thanks to a potent matte finish I’d love to see more of. For the right folks, this could be a very strong option.  Acer Swift Edge 14 AI: Specs and features CPU: Intel Core Ultra 7 258V Memory: 32GB LPDDR5X-8533 Graphics/GPU: Intel Arc 140V Display: 14-inch 2880×1800 OLED touchscreen, 120Hz, Matte Storage: 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD – Kingston OM8PGP4102Q-AA Webcam: 1080p + IR Connectivity: 2x Thunderbolt 4 / USB-C with Power Delivery and DisplayPort Alternate Mode, 2x USB 3.2 Type -A, 1x 3.5mm combo audio, 1x HDMI Networking: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 Biometrics: Windows Hello fingerprint, facial recognition Battery capacity: 65 watt-hours Dimensions: 12.35 x 9.03 x 0.66 inches Weight: 2.18 pounds MSRP: $1,499 as-tested ($1,399 base) The Acer Swift Edge 14 AI comes in a small number of configurations. Our test unit came with the specifications above and a $1,499 price tag. Acer also offers a stepped-down model for $1,399 that swaps to an Intel Core Ultra 7 256V and 16GB of memory, which is sacrificing a bit too much just to shave $100 off. Another configuration bumps up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 288V and raises the price to $1,599.  The Acer Swift Edge 14 AI’s display is perhaps one of the most glorious I’ve seen on a laptop. Acer Swift Edge 14 AI: Design and build quality Foundry / Mark Knapp The Acer Swift Edge 14 AI is a surprise. It comes out of the box feeling a little plasticky and cheap, but its chassis is actually a magnesium-aluminum alloy that proves surprisingly sturdy with little flex. In spite of that, it’s incredibly light at just 2.18 pounds — a precise weight I verified with a scale. It’s also fairly thin with the chassis measuring 0.66 inches thick at its thickest point, though its rubber feet bump that up to 0.82 inches.  It comes with an all white design aside from the black bezels around the display, which gets an appealing matte treatment from Corning. The two display hinges are nice and tight, avoiding any wiggling in use. That comes in clutch for touchscreen use, as tapping on the display and swiping around doesn’t see it start to lean away. The white lid looks nice with little gold accenting, though geometric lines on the lid aren’t quite as engaging as the sort Asus tends to employ. Underneath, the laptop is also simple with two wide rubber feet, a large intake vent, and two small down-firing speaker grilles. The rear edge of the laptop serves as an exhaust.  The Acer Swift Edge 14 AI comes across as fairly simple, and that works for it. It’s delivering on the promise of thin-and-light laptops.  Acer Swift Edge 14 AI: Keyboard, trackpad Foundry / Mark Knapp After testing Acer laptops for years now and consistently being disappointed by their keyboards, I have to admit I didn’t have high hopes for the Acer Swift Edge 14 AI. But it seems like Acer may have turned a corner. The key caps seem just a little bit flatter than prior devices, and that makes a world of difference when it comes to staying centered by feel. Stabilization isn’t impressive, but is sufficient to keep the keys from tilting too much. I found myself much more comfortable typing on this keyboard than just about any other Acer laptop I’ve touched, and I managed a strong 122-word-per-minute typing speed with 122 percent accuracy in Monkeytype — about as fast and accurate as I can get on any given day.  While it’s good to have backlighting on a keyboard, Acer’s implementation isn’t ideal. White keyboards with white backlighting tend to look pretty awful as it turns into a sort of sloppy gray, and the Acer Swift Edge 14 AI is no exception. On top of that, having the backlighting on in a bright room ends up making the keyboard less legible as it reduces the contrast. And Acer opts to turn it on automatically in some cases.  The trackpad is also excellent. It’s sizable, though not monstrously large. It has a smooth and pearly Gorilla Glass surface that’s pleasant to swipe around on. There’s also a little logo in one corner that lights when the computer is doing any AI processing on its NPU.  Acer Swift Edge 14 AI: Display, audio Foundry / Mark Knapp The Acer Swift Edge 14 AI’s display is perhaps one of the most glorious I’ve seen on a laptop. Anti-glare and matte finishes can be contentious, because they lower the perceived contrast when viewing in extremely dark environments. But everywhere else, I find the lack of a reflected image a huge boon for visual clarity. The 14-inch panel has a 2880×1800 resolution that makes for very crisp details made all the better by the infinite contrast of OLED. The display has great motion clarity as well from its 120Hz refresh rate. Factor in the wide color gamut, which covers 100 percent of the DCI-P3 color space and reaches 398.3 nits of peak brightness for a full white screen, and you’ve got something special. The fact that you can enjoy all of that so well with the strong anti-glare properties of the Gorilla Matte Pro surface treatment is just wonderful. Acer even went the extra mile and made it a touchscreen, and it’s very responsive and super-smooth to swipe around on.  Sadly, the speakers on the Acer Swift Edge 14 AI are nothing special. They can put out a good bit of sound, letting you hear them even if you don’t have perfect quiet to listen in. But mids are over-pronounced, leading to a slightly grating sound at high volumes. The speakers also sound a little boxed in, especially at high volumes. For listening to speech, they do the job, but I wouldn’t count on them for music or TV and movies.  Acer Swift Edge 14 AI: Webcam, microphone, biometrics The webcam on the Acer Swift Edge 14 AI captures a decent picture. It’s not stunningly sharp, but it at least has a good exposure. Its support of Windows Hello facial recognition makes for quick sign-ons but also comes alongside a very wide field of view for the camera. This makes me appear very small in the video feed it captures unless I have my face within a foot of the lens. It’s possible to crop in, but that would lower the resolution from the already modest 1080p of the full sensor. Acer’s microphones are disappointing. By default, the system wants to use its AI-enhanced Purified Voice setting, but I found its efforts to cancel out background noise also had a negative impact on actual clarity in what I was saying, sometimes outright cancelling out my voice along with background noise. Disabling the effects resulted in clearer sound, but with more background noise. In either case, my voice wasn’t very full. In addition to facial recognition, the Acer Swift Edge 14 AI supports fingerprint login with a scanner built into the power button. In testing, this worked quickly, easily, and consistently. Acer Swift Edge 14 AI: Connectivity The Acer Swift Edge 14 AI proved strong with its connectivity. It has a respectable array of ports for a thin-and-light, combining two Thunderbolt 4 ports that also handle charging with two USB-A ports, an HDMI 2.1 port, and one audio jack. A microSD slot would have been nice to see. Most of the ports are also on the left side with just one USB-A port and the AUX jack on the right. Splitting up the charging ports to offer one on each side would have been a bonus.  The system can handle fast wireless connections as well with Intel Killer 1750i Wi-Fi 7. It proved fast and stable in my testing. The Bluetooth 5.4 is a little letdown, as Bluetooth 6.0 has already landed, but even without it, the Bluetooth connected easily and remained stable when paired with headphones in testing.  Acer Swift Edge 14 AI: Performance The Acer Swift Edge 14 AI may not be a high-performance machine, but with its Intel Core Ultra 7 258V, it’s no slouch. That chip is powering a lot of thin-and-light laptops, combining responsive speeds and strong efficiency.  It offers a level of performance that’s ample for basic office tasks, as we see it hit a solid score in the holistic PCMark 10 benchmark. Not only does it perform well for browsing, video calls, writing, and spreadsheet work, but thanks to its Intel Arc graphics, it also gets along modestly in content creation workloads — though it isn’t scratching at the capabilities of high-performance workstation.  One area that holds the Acer Swift Edge 14 AI back from more demanding workloads is its cooling. Being thin and light comes with trade-offs. There’s less room for air to flow effectively, and cooling hardware also adds a lot of weight. Some laptops will let their fans kick up a racket to try staying cool, but the Acer Swift Edge 14 AI opts for quieter operation. The result is that in longer, heavy workloads like our Handbrake encoding test, the system can struggle. It took over half an hour to perform this test while the 2.9-pound Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition running on the same CPU managed it in just over 22 minutes. Meanwhile, AMD’s hardware in the HP OmniBook 7 Aero actually proved even more stout despite also being in a light setup at 2.2 pounds, with the OmniBook hitting under 20 minutes by a hair. MSI offered the lightest laptop of the bunch, but its performance also lagged behind the pack. Cinebench can show us a bit more about the Acer Swift Edge 14 AI’s overall CPU performance. As we saw in Handbrake, heat is an issue for sustained performance in the Acer Swift Edge 14 AI. It lagged behind in Cinebench R24, which is also a longer test. But when running shorter, bursty workloads like Cinebench R23 and R15, the Acer Swift Edge 14 AI roughly tied with the Lenovo Yoga 9i. Still, neither were a match for the HP system’s faster CPU.  So while the Acer Swift Edge 14 AI may not power through heavy tasks well, it can remain responsive and tackle light tasks quickly. That goes double for single-threaded workloads, where its Cinebench scores actually tended to lead the pack, even beating the AMD and Qualcomm machines.  While the Acer Swift Edge 14 AI may not have been a frontrunner for CPU performance, the Intel Arc 140V graphics on the chip is a little secret weapon for the system. Where graphical horsepower is concerned, it turns the tides on AMD’s integrated Radeon graphics (at least until AMD starts bringing its Radeon 8060S graphics to laptops). In 3DMark’s Time Spy test, we see the Acer Swift Edge 14 AI tied with the Lenovo system and both well ahead of the HP OmniBook 7 Aero. That repeats in 3DMark Night Raid as well, and those wins come in large part thanks to huge leads in the Graphics subtests, though they also lead in the CPU sub-tests likely thanks to their stronger single-core performance. Even the MSI Summit 13 AI+ Evo pulls ahead of the OmniBook, though not by as much. This also showcases a perk of the Acer Swift Edge 14 AI over some of the Qualcomm-powered thin-and-lights that it runs against: compatibility. The Asus ZenBook A14 is a reasonably strong machine, but when it has to emulate x86 programs — as in this 3DMark test — it can fall way behind native hardware from Intel and AMD.  Acer Swift Edge 14 AI: Battery life Battery life can just about make or break a thin-and-light laptop. When they sacrifice performance, they need to make up for it in efficiency. And the Acer Swift Edge 14 AI just about nails it. In our 4K video playback test, which runs the laptop in airplane mode with the display set to 250-260 nits, the Acer Swift Edge 14 AI lasted just shy of 18 and a half hours. While that may not be as impressive as some of the other systems, all of which broke the 21-hour mark (except the OmniBoo, which barely broke 10 hours thanks in part to its much smaller battery). That said, the Acer Swift Edge 14 AI still deserves credit. It runs a sharper display than the MSI and Asus laptops and has a smaller battery than everything but the HP system. Our test also allows for the systems to dim their displays when they reach a low enough charge to enable Battery Saver mode, but the Acer Swift Edge 14 AI only dimmed its display to 48 percent brightness, which still sees it produce a comfortably bright 178 nits that is easily viewable with the matte display finish. More typical office and casual use saw no less impressive battery life. The system was typically on track for anywhere from nine to 14 hours of runtime. Three straight hours of active use only drained the battery by 32 percent. Another session of intermittent use that included watching a whole movie, some browsing, and a lot of idling with the screen on saw the laptop lose just 57 percent charge over the course of eight hours and 15 minutes. All of this was with the display still set to its 250-260 nit level, which is more than bright enough for indoor use thanks to the display’s strong anti-glare effect. And all of that was with the display running at 120Hz. More energy savings can be had by dialing that down to 60Hz.  Acer Swift Edge 14 AI: Conclusion The Acer Swift Edge 14 AI doesn’t knock it out of the park at every turn, but if you’re looking for a lightweight, reasonably speedy machine that’s ready to run all day and look lovely doing it, the Acer Swift Edge 14 AI is a homerun. The display is a special highlight for combining excellent visual quality with a rarely used matte finish that may have a minor impact on brilliance but has a huge impact on how easy it is to see the display in more conditions. Even the keyboard finally shifts away, however subtly, the slightly concave-feeling keys Acer has packed in in the past. All this comes together to make the Acer Swift Edge 14 AI a brilliant little partner for working and entertainment on the move, just bring your own headphones. Read...

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