TechHive Editors Choice At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Outstanding cleaning quality Epic battery life Best-in-class remote control Cons Easily gets stuck on steps Both retrieval and cleanup can be tricky Snaking cable makes for less tidy storage and appearance Our Verdict The Fanttik Aero X robotic pool cleaner runs fast and runs long: With six hours of running time and top-notch cleaning power, the device makes short work of underwater debris. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Fanttik Aero X Retailer Price $999.99 View Deal $1,199.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket In a world dominated by bulbous black-and-blue hardware, the Fanttik Aero X pool robot immediately caught my eye. It’s not just that it’s black and yellow, it’s that the industrial design looks more like a lawn mower than any pool robot I’ve tested. It has much smaller front wheels than usual, and an exposed rubber drive belt that connects them to its motor. The forward-center brush cylinder is even reminiscent of the front of a lawn mower. And I suppose it makes sense: A robotic pool cleaner performs about the same function, only underwater. The Fanttik Aero X is a demon on wheels underwater. As a company, Fanttik markets an eclectic collection of electronic tools, including tire inflators, vacuum cleaners, and electric screwdrivers. The Aero X is its only pool robot and the only device it sells that is even remotely connected to swimming pools. Given all that, I didn’t have the highest of hopes that the product would make much of an impact in an increasingly crowded market. The Fanttik Aero X comes with a remote control and a floating antenna that avoids the common problem of water blocking a Wi-Fi connection. Christopher Null/Foundry Well, it goes to show that first impressions aren’t always correct: After a week of testing, the Fanttik Aero X proved itself as one of my favorite pool robots—and one of the most capable models I’ve tested to date. Specifications Weighing 20.7 pounds, the Aero X is reasonably maneuverable, with handles on both the rear and both sides of the device to make it easier to grab when it’s at the waterline. Three cleaning modes cover floor only; floor and waterline; or “all,” which adds walls to the mix. The mode can be selected either via switches on the rear of the robot or via the Fanttik app, which I’ll cover in more detail in a bit. This remote control, complete with joystick, makes it easy to manually drive the Aero X around your pool.Christopher Null/Foundry The Aero X has a very large (6 liters) center-mounted filter basket that can be optionally enhanced with the addition of a mesh bag for collecting extremely fine-grained sand and dirt. It’s powered by a massive 16,000mAh battery, which Fanttik says can provide a whopping six hours of running time. I was sure this was hyperbole, but repeated testing proved that the robot can truly deliver on that claim, as I was regularly able to get a full quarter of a day of cleaning on a single day. Officially, Fanttik specifies a maximum coverage area of a massive 5,382 square feet, or about 40 percent the size of an Olympic swimming pool. The Aero X is equipped with a very large (6 liters) center-mounted filter basket.Christopher Null/Foundry One additional hardware feature of note is a long cord that snakes out the back of the Aero X, with a Styrofoam float connected to the tail end. This cord doesn’t connect to anything else, but it does keep a small electronic element floating at the waterline. Effectively, the cord works as an antenna that allows you to remotely control the robot via Bluetooth, either via the app on your smartphone or with the physical remote control that comes with it. That would be impossible otherwise, because it’s difficult for wireless signals travel through water. Some other remote-controlled robotic pool cleaners I’ve tested use pulsed-light signals for this purpose. Performance The Aero X is a demon on wheels underwater. Drop it into the pool and it tears across the floor like an underwater remote-controlled car, so fast the front end sometimes pops up off the bottom of the pool. Again, I can’t recall seeing another pool robot with this much speed—and that’s normally not a good thing. I’ve found that fast robots frequently miss debris, simply zooming over it and failing to suction it up. If you’re concerned about cleaning your pool of fine grit, you can choose to install this mesh filter bag in its debris basket, but be aware that it can be very difficult to clean throroughly.Christopher Null/Foundry Not so with the Aero X: It’s not only good at collecting debris on the first pass, but its extended run time also means it has plenty of time to go over the pool time and time again; so, anything it missed the first time around eventually gets scooped up. In both organic and synthetic tests, Fanttik’s machine delivered exemplary performances, missing only 2 of the 100 test leaves in my silk leaf test. Like many pool robots, however, the Aero X struggles with steps, and it even got stuck diagonally on the steps at one point, unable to free itself without my help. This might be its only major failing. The Aero X works just fine on its own, but the remote control is something else; it’s hands down the best remote I’ve encountered on a pool robot. Powered by three AA batterie, the remote is fairly simple, with only a power button, a mode button (to switch between auto and manual mode), and a third button for changing the bot’s speed. Steps are the Aero X’s Kryptonite; the robot could not free itself from this predicament.Christopher Null/Foundry The centerpiece is a joystick that gives you full, real-time, responsive control over the robot. Again, the analogy to a remote-controlled car is apt. Driving the Aero X around the pool is fun and nothing like the halting, buggy experience you must suffer through with traditional pool robot remotes. Fanttik’s app is simple but effective, providing basic control over the device, including another joystick-like control system, simple logs, and a scheduling system that lets you direct the robot to periodically clean the pool on a weekly basis, if you prefer to leave your robot in the pool instead of drying it out after each run. There’s also a “lift” function in the remote that directs the robot to climb to the waterline and wait for retrieval, but this is one of the few issues I had with the Aero X, as I was never able to get it to successfully dock itself at the edge of the pool unless I controlled it manually with the joystick. Fanttik’s app will keep you informed about the robot’s operational status, provided you’re in Bluetooth range.Christopher Null/Foundry Although Fanttik’s manual says otherwise, I found that by default the Aero X will run until its battery is fully dead, leaving no battery power remaining for directing the robot to manually climb the walls for retrieval. I solved this after a firmware update by dialing down the default running time to five hours, leaving enough juice behind for retrieval. In a pinch, I found I could simply pull it out of the water by grabbing the cable, though my suspicion is that this is not officially sanctioned (although it isn’t prohibited in the manual). No retrieval hook is included in the box. The lengthy cable that snakes out the back of the Fanttik Aero X serves as antenna, allowing for remote control even underwater.Christopher Null/Foundry Clean-up can be time consuming, as that filter basket is enormous and difficult to get fully clean, even with extended time with a hose. The added mesh bag is even tougher to properly clean out, and it’s also worth noting that Fanttik provides no instructions at all about how the mesh bag is supposed to be used. This review is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best robotic pool cleaners. I guessed at its placement (directly attached to the suction intake inside the filter basket), but found it difficult to wrangle into place. Fortunately, the basket does such a solid enough job on its own that I expect most users won’t need to use the bag at all. Should you buy the Fanttik Aero X? The only other hiccup I encountered with the Aero X was a stray error message in its app alerting me to a clogged filter and instructing me to immediately retrieve the robot for cleaning. The robot kept running normally despite the error, however; and when I retrieved it, I found that there was no clog. That’s a pretty minor complaint, all things considered. Despite a few operational issues—namely its trouble with steps—the Fanttik Aero X is a uniquely fantastic robot that merits consideration for use in any pool—even larger commercial or public pools. Read...

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Buying a Microsoft Surface Pro tablet without a pen or keyboard is like buying a Mercedes without wheels. The engine runs just fine, and the seats are as luxurious as you could imagine. But wouldn’t you feel cheated if you couldn’t go anywhere? Most of the 16 iterations of the Surface Pro adopt the same double standard: the Surface Pro is a laptop, except when Microsoft starts talking price. Then, poof! It’s a tablet. Only as you move step by step through the buying process does Microsoft reveal that, yes, the pen and keyboard — and now the charger! — all cost extra. Ridiculous. Unfortunately, we’ve come to accept this behavior. Microsoft seems to think that after deciding upon a $2,000 Surface laptop, you might shrug your shoulders and accept a few hundred dollars more. Why not? You’re already hooked. But Microsoft’s new 12-inch, $799 Surface Pro changes things. We’re not talking about a premium device. Instead, Microsoft’s Surface Pro page walks you through the experience: typing, inking, doing everything a clamshell laptop can do — all with the pen and keyboard shown prominently throughout. And if you want a charger? All those extras total over $300, which on a $799 device feels insane, sleazy, and borderline illegal. Surface Pro, with keyboard and pen: $799.99? Right? Right?Foundry Visually, the Surface Pro keyboard and pen are everywhere On Microsoft’s Surface Pro page, the top illustration shows two Surface Pros, each with a keyboard and pen. Scroll down: Yep, there’s another. Keep going and you’ll see more photos of Microsoft’s Surface Pro with a keyboard and/or a pen than as a stand-alone tablet. At no time do I see any indication that the keyboard or pen are optional. The language implies that they’re all part of the same holistic solution. Looks pretty clear to me: A Surface Pro equals a tablet plus a pen plus a keyboard.Foundry “Reimagined with a smooth-matte palm rest, sturdy wedge design, and dynamic hinge, Surface Pro is great for typing anywhere, even on your lap,” Microsoft says. Underneath a description of the “incredible typing experience,” Microsoft says: “Work anywhere with better typing and 360° rotation. The new 12-inch Surface Pro is durable, easy to clean, and ideal for travel or the coffee shop.” Sounds great. How much is it? “Starting from $799.99,” Microsoft says. Want to buy a Surface Pro? This is what you’ll see when you begin.Foundry Buying a Surface Pro means selecting a size, configuration, and color. It’s here that you first learn that no, no charger is included. That’s $70 extra. (Microsoft’s lawyers may hold up their hands and say that the first photo you see on the 12-inch Surface Pro page is of just the tablet itself. But at the bottom of the column of images is, yes, a Surface Pro with a keyboard and pen attached.) On the second page? Time to buy a Microsoft 365 subscription. Only on the third page do you learn that a keyboard is $150, and a keyboard and pen bundled together is $250. Then it’s time to check out, feeling at least a little irritated that Microsoft didn’t tell you about all of this at the beginning. Buying an “accessory” like the pen and keyboard is left until the end.Foundry Does this feel fair to you? It just feels like Microsoft is trying to have it both ways. Every laptop ships with an integrated keyboard. Microsoft’s Surface Pro is advertised on Microsoft’s page as having “tablet-to-laptop flexibility,” whatever that means. Visually, Microsoft is telling you: Yes, you’ll want a keyboard and pen. Then there’s the name. Should Microsoft refer to these as “Pro” tablets, without the accessories that professionals use? I don’t think so. Calling just the tablet a “Surface,” with an upgrade to a “Surface Pro” that adds a pen and keyboard, feels closer to what the reality should be. Even the Trump Administration — which most Americans would consider “business friendly” — has actually implemented a new FTC rule prohibiting bait-and-switch pricing. That’s predicated upon an executive order, signed by Trump himself. The review version of the Surface Pro Microsoft sent includes a keyboard and pen. And it should!Mattias Inghe As the FTC puts it: “[the order] requires that businesses that advertise prices tell consumers the whole truth up-front about total prices and fees.” A supplementary page describes how the order protects general “business-to-business transactions” beyond just tickets and short-term lodging. To me, tacking on additional charges for a pen and keyboard feels like a hotel’s $100 daily “resort fee,” or the discovery that you’ll have to pay extra for an airline meal or to pick your seat. Nothing about any of this feels “up front.” The point isn’t that Microsoft is actually violating FTC regulations. But the company is certainly pushing up against the bounds of good behavior. Just not acceptable in a low- to mid-range device To be fair, other Windows tablets don’t consistently include their accessories, either. Lenovo’s ThinkPad X12 Gen 2 bundles the keyboard and pen. Dell’s Latitude 7350 Detachable does not. The Asus ProArt PZ13 includes a a keyboard, but no pen. Heck, many all-in-one desktops toss in a mouse and keyboard. Note that the photos of the Dell Latitude 7350 don’t include the keyboard, which feels more authentic. But give Dell credit: its Latitude 7350 Detachable product page doesn’t even show a keyboard, which it calls “optional.” That feels more like an honest sale. Microsoft’s stance feels especially pernicious because there are already extra back-end tariff fees tacked on to the purchase price — or not, depending upon the whims of the President. You still really don’t know under what tariff regulation anything you buy will fall under, which already makes consumers cautious. That’s what makes a $799 Surface Pro appealing. Finally, a reasonable price tag! Only it’s not. When you add up all of the additional “options” — a $69.99 charger, plus $250 for a bundled keyboard and pen — that’s an additional $319.99 surcharge, or 40 percent of the purchase price right there. And that’s even without the $129.99 per year that Microsoft charges for a Microsoft 365 Family subscription. That’s outrageous, unfair, and maybe illegal. This isn’t nickel-and-diming you. That’s a big fat pile of money that could be put toward other things. You would think that Microsoft would at least explain its actions. So far, my questions have been ignored. I don’t think they should be ignored. I think Microsoft’s Surface Pro pricing strategy should be explained, reconsidered, and ultimately changed. Read...

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At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Impressively svelte for a 16-inch gaming laptop Surprising battery life Gorgeous display Cons Huge trackpad fumbles palm rejection More sluggish on battery power Trails cheaper competitors at every turn Our Verdict The Razer Blade 16 is sleek but sacrifices performance, with its RTX 5090 model often trailing RTX 5080 laptops despite a higher price. Lower-end configurations may offer better value. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today The 2025 Razer Blade 16 continues the shaky tradition of packing some top-of-the-line PC gaming hardware into a laptop chassis that can almost be considered thin and light. For a 16-inch laptop, the Razer Blade 16 impresses at well under five pounds and under 0.7 inches thick, and yet it’s still rocking a solid aluminum design, a fantastic display, and more ports than you’d expect.  There are always some downsides to this formula, as the new Blade 16 ranges in price from $2,399 to $4,499 as tested here in a high-end configuration and yet lags behind some cheaper competitors where performance is concerned. It’s that awkward balance of performance, price, and design that sees the Blade 16 struggle with value. Those who want the most performance can get it from something like the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i 16 Gen 10 instead. But where slimness, weight, and battery life for a gaming laptop are concerned, this new Blade 16 still has something to offer.  Razer Blade 16 2025: Specs and features Model number: RZ09-05289EN9-R3U1 CPU: AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 Memory: 32GB LPDDR5 Graphics/GPU: Nvidia RTX 5090 (175-watt TGP) Display: 16-inch 2560×1600 240Hz OLED Storage: 2TB PCIe Gen4 SSD Webcam: 1080p + IR Connectivity: 2x USB 4 with DisplayPort 1.4 (from iGPU only) and 100W PD input, 3x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2, 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x SDcard reader, 1x 3.5mm combo audio Networking: WiFi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 Biometrics: Windows Hello facial recognition Battery capacity: 90 watt-hours Dimensions: 13.98 x 9.86 x 0.69 inches Weight: 4.65 pounds MSRP: $4,499 as-tested ($2,399 base) At the time of testing, the 2025 Razer Blade 16 started out at $2,799 to get you a configuration with an AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 CPU, 32GB of memory, 1TB of storage, and an RTX 5070 8GB GPU. Since then, Razer introduced an even lower configuration for $2,399 that drops to an RTX 5060 and 16GB of memory. Razer allows some different customization options but links many of them with other adjustments. So even though you have the option to select a different GPU up to the RTX 5090, can swap for a Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, and can increase storage to 4TB and memory to 64GB, you may not get to mix and match these elements as you please.  For instance, the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 is tied to the RTX 5090. If you want one, you’re also getting the other. Some of the other adjustments are perplexing. For instance, if you choose 64GB of memory, you must also select 4TB of storage unless you opt for an RTX 5080. If you want 2TB of storage, you have to select at least an RTX 5080. If you want 4TB of storage, you have to get a max-spec system. Just about every option you select in the configuration tool will change other options, making it a mad game of guess-and-check to see if you can get the specific configuration you want. On the bright side, the high-speed OLED display comes standard on all models.  Every time I’ve tested a high-end Razer Blade, I’ve seen it sacrifice performance in its pursuit of a slimmer, lighter design. That’s true again here, putting it at odds with the kind of high-performance parts you can configure the 2025 Blade 16 to include. Razer Blade 16 2025: Design and build quality The 2025 Razer Blade 16 maintains the minimalist, understated design that has been a hallmark of Razer’s laptops. It’s truly a hunk of deep black aluminum with very tightly rounded corners and edges and almost perfectly flat surfaces. The big tells that it’s a gaming laptop are the illuminated three-snake Razer logo on the lid and the per-key RGB keyboard. While prior models we’ve tested have had only slight flex in the chassis, the 2025 model has some more noticeable bending in the display and flex on the keyboard deck. It’s still quite firm, and I’ve never been concerned while holding the laptop up at one corner.  IDG / Mark Knapp The difference is perhaps stemming from how much is packed into this model. The 2024 Razer Blade 16 measured in at 5.4 pounds and 0.87 inches thick, but this model has trimmed that way down to just 4.65 pounds and 0.69 inches thick. While both models feature the highest-end mobile GPU available to them at the time (and both at 175 watts), this new model uses a lower-wattage CPU than the Intel Core i9-14900HX found in the 2024. Therefore, it may have gotten away with lighter cooling. As thin as the Blade 16 manages to be for the most part, there is a raised area on the underside to provide more room for the motherboard and cooling components. While the prior model had impressively thin bezels around the display, the 2025 unit mostly does as well; the bezel below the screen is considerably thicker. The all-black design helps it blend in at least. The display sits on a firm, wide, smooth-moving hinge that stretches most of the width of the laptop. It only has a little wiggle to it, and it opens easily using a single hand.  The surface of the laptop is largely occupied by the keyboard, which has been slightly expanded to include an extra column of shortcut keys along the right edge. Rather than go for a number pad, which would have been squished anyway, the Razer Blade 16 has a pair of speaker grilles at each side of the keyboard. The grilles are the same height as the keyboard, though they’re only packing a pair of tweeters inside. A second set of speakers sits on the underside of the laptop.  The system pulls air in through grilles on the bottom of the laptop and vents it out of a heatsink fin stack at the back. That fin stack is not only quite small but also only has a small amount of clearance between it and the display hinge. Moving as much heat as this system can produce makes for fans that are a little noisy while running at full blast, but they’re not shrill or annoying. They blow with more of a calm, breezy tone to them.  Altogether, the Blade 16 2025 is an impressively built machine, considering its size and weight alongside the fact it’s packing in an RTX 5090. But the tight confines certainly raise concerns about the performance potential. Razer Blade 16 2025: Keyboard, trackpad The Razer Blade’s keyboard is a mixed bag. On the one hand, Razer has stabilized its keycaps somewhat well, and they have a clean, poppy travel. Unfortunately, Razer has gone the route of the Dell XPS line of late, opting for keycaps that are flat and perfectly square. There’s at least a bit more space between keys to provide a little tactile sense of where one key ends and the next begins, but I still find it hard to type away with my fingers centered. As a result, I find I hang up after a typo and take just enough time to correct my position that I can’t sustain a typing speed much above 100 words per minute in Monkeytype. If I’m lucky and don’t make (or notice) my mistakes, I can hit 110-115 words per minute, but I didn’t feel comfortable going beyond that.  IDG / Mark Knapp The keyboard’s layout is a little curious. Razer took advantage of the laptop’s extra space, but only slightly. It added a single extra column at the right edge of the keyboard with a few shortcut keys. This may be handy for those that use them, but it makes finding the Delete and arrow keys just a little more tedious. Razer also had an opportunity to use full-size arrow keys without needing to shrink the right Shift key too much but didn’t take advantage of that extra space.  And this being a Razer machine, the keyboard naturally has full, per-key RGB backlighting that’s highly customizable in Razer’s software. While the RGB lighting illuminates all of the primary legends on the keycaps, it doesn’t do so for any of the secondary legends. And for the function row, that means you’ll only get the F1-F12 legends lit up and not the helpful shortcuts tied to them.  Razer’s trackpad is properly huge. It takes up almost all of the space available to it on the vertical axis, leaving just a narrow strip above and below. It’s also almost as wide as the alphanumeric keys on the keyboard. This is great for mousing around the system, as I almost never have to deal with repositioning my finger. I have run into a couple small hiccups with multi-finger gestures and even more with very frequent palm rejection failures, with the trackpad registering unintended touches that are hard to avoid due to its size. But overall, its size is a benefit. The trackpad has a short and firm physical click. It’s pleasing to the touch, though it takes just enough force that I find I often fail to get it on the first attempt.  Razer Blade 16 2025: Display, audio The Blade 16 offers an excellent display. It’s exceedingly sharp with a 2560×1600 resolution on a 16-inch panel, and that can spin up to 240Hz for ultra-fast motion. Combine that with the fact that it’s an OLED panel, and you get not only the speed of the refresh but also the quick pixel response time. The display could hit 411 nits of fullscreen brightness, plenty for most environments except bright outdoors. Razer claims this is an anti-glare display. And it is, to a degree. I can clearly see reflections in it, so don’t expect a matte quality. But outside, in the daylight, the glare is slightly subdued. The display’s brightness combines with pitch blacks for infinite contrast, and the screen can deliver 100 percent coverage of the DCI-P3 color space alongside a high degree of color accuracy (average dE1976 of 0.69 and max dE1976 of 1.44). IDG / Mark Knapp The speakers can get pretty loud, but at max volume, they’re overbearing and distort some, especially with strong bass, and they produce a bit of resonance in the laptop chassis. At lower volumes, they put out pretty clean and clear sound with bright treble and pronounced mids. Bass is a little weak, but not entirely absent, as it can be on many laptops. Razer Blade 16 2025: Webcam, microphone, biometrics You’ll get a serviceable webcam and microphone setup on the Blade 16. In good lighting conditions, the camera captures a decently sharp picture and avoids too much noise or poor exposure. If you’re just trying to rely on overhead lights, though, the picture will end up a fair bit grainier.  The mics have somewhat unusual processing, even in a quiet room. This makes for a loud and present voice but has minor artifacts. The flipside of that processing is that background noise is almost obliterated. Even with a fan running at full speed underneath the desk I had the laptop on, the mics captured only my voice. Even more wild, I began snapping my fingers and clapping while I spoke into the mics, and they completely neutralized the snapping and clapping. Good if you want to be sure your voice is captured, but maybe not so good if you want someone to hear your clapping. While the Blade 16 certainly has space for a fingerprint scanner, it doesn’t include one. The webcam does work with Windows Hello for quick facial recognition, though. Razer Blade 16 2025: Connectivity At first glance, the 2025 Razer Blade 16 might appear to have the same ports as its predecessor, albeit with a slight shift to their positioning (the SD card reader is now closer to other ports on the right side). But this model has upgraded ports. While its predecessor had a single Thunderbolt 4 port, the new Blade 16 has two USB4 ports. It keeps one on each side (a plus for flexibility), and they both support DisplayPort 1.4 and can receive 100 watts of PD charging in case you don’t want to bring the 1.77-pound charging brick with you everywhere.  The laptop still has three USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports — two on the left and one on the right — as well as a 3.5mm combo jack, HDMI 2.1 port, and full-size SD card reader. There’s a Kensington security lock slot as well.  IDG / Mark Knapp Interestingly, the USB-C ports may support DisplayPort, but only for video signals coming from the CPU’s integrated GPU. Since you’ll want to game on the discrete GPU, you’ll have to use the HDMI port to get the most out of the system’s performance.  For wireless connections, the Blade 16 still supports Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4, and both have proven reliable in my testing.  Razer Blade 16 2025: Performance This test unit of the Razer Blade 16 is geared up to be an extreme performer. But the chassis thinness doesn’t allow the same sort of heat management you might expect from big and beefy gaming laptops. So even though you’re getting some of the most premium internals you can for a laptop, you shouldn’t necessarily expect them to outpace rivals. While we haven’t yet tested other RTX 5090-powered laptops, the Razer Blade 16 shows itself only worthy of competing with RTX 5080-powered laptops anyway. On many fronts, it struggles to contend with the $3,599 Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Gen 10, $3,299 Asus ROG Strix SCAR 16 (G635LW), $3,769 HP Omen Max 16, and $4,059 Lenovo Legion 9i (Gen 9).  IDG / Mark Knapp The Razer Blade 16 is a potent machine. Scores upwards of 8,000 points in PCMark 10 don’t come easily, but the Blade 16 managed it well. This holistic benchmark provides an idea of how well the system can handle all sorts of common workloads, and this kind of score leaves little doubt that the Blade 16 can keep up with much of what the average user will throw at it. That said, Razer is trailing the pack here. And as we dig into more targeted performance tests, it’ll become pretty clear why.  In practice, the Blade 16 does manage everyday use well. But this can see the system handing off display management between the dGPU and iGPU, and it’s not seamless. It may be quick, but it tends to happen right in the middle of me doing something, so I frequently feel the momentary freeze of the display as it switches over. IDG / Mark Knapp The Razer Blade 16 may sport a high-end CPU, but it’s not leading the pack by any measure. Across Cinebench R15, R20, R23, and R24, the Razer Blade 16 and its AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 CPU (which has a 4+8 core configuration) lag behind the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX (which has an 8+16 core configuration) found in three of these other laptops. Across the board, it falls short in single-core and multi-core performance. Only against the Legion 9i’s Core i9-14900HX does the Blade 16 score any wins, and even there it’s only in single-core performance. This isn’t to say the Blade 16 is a weak system, but if you’re looking for the most raw power, these other systems generally have it beat. And sure enough, this raw CPU brunt bears out in Handbrake as well, where the Razer Blade 16 takes more than 50 percent longer to complete its encoding tasks next to the Intel Lunar Lake-equipped laptops and even falls over a minute behind the Lenovo Legion 9i Gen 9 with its older (though no slouch) Intel Core i9-14900HX. IDG / Mark Knapp That CPU deficit comes back to bite the Razer Blade 16 again when it comes to less-demanding 1080p gaming. In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the Blade was largely bound by its CPU, so even though it was the only system in this pack with an RTX 5090, it performed at the back of the pack. It was so CPU-bound, in fact, that bumping the resolution from 1080p to 1440p saw performance drop only to an average of 161 FPS. IDG / Mark Knapp Unfortunately, even as more weight is put on the GPU, the Razer Blade 16 doesn’t manage to speed away from the competition. Metro Exodus remains quite demanding even at 1080p. Here, the Razer Blade 16 is offering undeniably excellent performance, but it’s simply no more excellent than the other systems here, and the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Gen 10’s performance is good for an almost eight percent lead.  IDG / Mark Knapp Ray tracing appears to be a big equalizer for these systems. Running Cyberpunk 2077 at its Ultra preset without any ray-tracing effects, the Blade 16 again falls way behind. But with the RT Overdrive preset, all of the systems drop to within a frame or two of 40 FPS (except the Legion 9i, which was not tested with Cyberpunk 2077).  IDG / Mark Knapp 3DMark’s Port Royale benchmark further shows this equalizing effect. Where the Blade 16 had been trailing in other tests, it’s back in the game when heavy ray-tracing effects are called for. It gets a minor lead over the ROG Strix Scar 16 and HP Omen Max 16, but it’s an incredibly marginal improvement over the RTX 4090 seen in the Lenovo Legion 9i. But more crucially, the Blade 16 still lags behind the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Gen 10 and its RTX 5080.  Razer Blade 16 2025: Battery life To the Razer Blade 16’s credit, it at least does a good job managing its battery. Some gaming laptops struggle to wrangle their discrete GPUs when operating on battery power, and that can see them rip right through their battery. In my testing, the Blade 16 generally managed to disable the GPU and lean on the iGPU when it was away from its charger. That paid off in our battery test, running a local 4K video with the display set between 250 and 260 nits and the system in airplane mode, where the Blade 16 managed to run for a bit over 10 and a half hours.  IDG / Mark Knapp That performance saw the Razer Blade 16 almost double the runtimes of its competition here. Only two of these other machines managed to break 5 hours, and neither exceeded 6 hours. The Blade 16 even managed to hold up well in everyday use, generally making it through most of the day. On at least one occasion, I did notice the discrete GPU remaining active on battery power, but I was able to manually end applications that were using it, and then it deactivated.  Despite having some of the most extreme-performance hardware you can find for a laptop today, I found the Razer Blade 16 frequently holding me up while trying to do simple things in Windows while operating on battery power. It frequently stalled out while trying to get into various settings menus, and casually browsing with videos running would occasionally see the video sputter or have the display freeze entirely (a not uncommon experience on laptop iGPUs). Razer Blade 16 2025: Conclusion Every time I’ve tested a high-end Razer Blade, I’ve seen it sacrifice performance in its pursuit of a slimmer, lighter design. That’s true again here, putting it at odds with the kind of high-performance parts you can configure the 2025 Blade 16 to include. The Blade 16’s RTX 5090 falling behind other systems running RTX 5080 and RTX 4090 GPUs is a bad look, especially when the Blade 16 hits such a lofty price to provide that RTX 5090. For those seeking extreme performance, the Blade 16 just doesn’t stand out as sensible.  The lower-tier models of the Blade 16 may actually be where it begins to make sense. The Legion Pro 7i 16 Gen 10 that has harried the Blade 16 so thoroughly through our benchmarking suite has a base price of $2,849 and comes with an RTX 5070 Ti. The Blade 16, meanwhile, comes with an RTX 5070 for $2,799 (though the CPU also drops to a slightly slower Ryzen AI 9 365 CPU), or you can bump it to $2,999 to get an RTX 5070 Ti. With closer-matched internals and prices, the Blade’s slimmer design, lower weight, and longer battery life can help buoy its value next to the Lenovo system. And with any luck, the Blade 16’s thermal and power designs may be better able to cope with the lower-tier internals to actually run them at their full potential. Read...

Aid distribution will be halted on Wednesday, with Gazans warned by the IDF not to travel to collection points. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Robust design with 2-in-1 versatility Enjoyable keyboard Good battery life Plenty of RAM, storage for the price Cons Design doesn’t look appealing at first glance Display could be brighter and more vibrant CPU, GPU performance doesn’t stand out Our Verdict The Dell Plus 14 2-in-1 isn’t exciting, but it’s a well-rounded budget 2-in-1 that offers good bang for your buck. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today If you haven’t heard, Dell dropped a bombshell earlier this year. It announced the company has done away with its well-known Inspiron, XPS, and Precision brands and instead opted for an entirely new hierarchy. At the bottom of this hierarchy, you’ll find laptops like the Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1. Last year, this would’ve been called a Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1, and despite the change in name, it still fills its role of providing an affordable entry point into computing. Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1: Specifications The Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 that PC World received for testing is an entry-level AMD configuration with an AMD Ryzen AI 5 340 processor at its heart. Dell offers many different Ryzen AI processors, as well as Intel models, but this is among the least powerful configurations available. CPU: AMD Ryzen AI 5 340 (6 cores, up to 4.8GHz) Memory: 16GB LPDDR5x Graphics/GPU: AMD Radeon 840M NPU: AMD 50 TOPs Display: 14-inch 1920×1200 60Hz WVA 300-nits touchscreen Storage: 512GB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe solid state drive Webcam: 1080p 30fps camera Connectivity: 2x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 with Power Delivery and DisplayPort, 1x USB-A 3.2 Gen 1, 1x HDMI 1.4, 3.5mm audio jack Networking: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 Biometrics: Fingerprint reader Battery capacity: 64 watt-hours Dimensions: 12.36 inch x 8.9 in x 0.65 in Weight: 3.51 pounds Operating System: Windows 11 Home Price: $849.99 MSRP / $599.99 at time of testing (Best Buy) That’s reflected in the price. Although it technically carries an MSRP of $849.99 on Dell.com, which feels a bit steep, it currently sells on Best Buy for $599.99, which is among the lowest prices you can expect from a Windows laptop that has the most recent generation of AMD or Intel processor inside. While this is a sale price, the laptop was listed just a couple weeks ago—so I’d expect this “sale” to occur frequently. Despite its low sale price, the laptop doesn’t cut corners too closely. It still provides 16GB of RAM and a 512GB solid-state drive. You can expect to pay higher prices if you do decide to go with a Plus 14 2-in-1 from Dell’s website. However, some of the models available on Dell.com offer a 1TB solid-state drive, and there’s also an option for a 2560×1600 resolution display on the Intel variant, which is an upgrade over the entry-level model’s 1920×1200 display. The Dell Plus 14 2-in-1 is a good option for shoppers looking to snag a do-it-all Windows device on a tight budget. Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1: Design and build quality IDG / Matthew Smith Budget Windows 2-in-1s aren’t exactly known for their riveting or dramatic design, and the Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 is no exception. It’s a simple, slim 14-inch machine that measures no greater than 0.65 inches thick, available in a silver or navy-blue colorway, neither of which is remarkable. With that said, it’s a well-executed laptop when it comes to build quality. Opening the laptop lid reveals a bit of display flex, but not enough to raise any concerns. It’s a similar story with the lower chassis, which does slightly creak if handled roughly but doesn’t visibly flex unless truly abused. I also like the materials used. I felt the plastics on the lower chassis had a nice texture to them and didn’t try to fake a metallic finish. The rear of the display panel, meanwhile, seems to be made of aluminum and offers a premium feel. Of course, as the name indicates, the Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 is a 2-in-1 device with a touchscreen, and the hinge allows the display to be rotated back 360 degrees for use like a tablet. It’s too large and heavy to be comfortably used as a tablet for any length of time, but the option is useful if you want to take notes or draw. Dell doesn’t include an Active Pen with the 2-in-1, but one is available for about $40. Owners can also rotate the display partway back to use the keyboard like a kickstand, which can be handy if you want to use the laptop to watch Netflix or YouTube. Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1: Keyboard, trackpad IDG / Matthew Smith The Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1’s keyboard ranks among its best traits. The keys have good travel and a definitive tactile feel with a subtle, clicky bottoming action. I found the keyboard comfortable to use for long typing sessions. The comfort is aided by a good amount of palm rest space below the bottom of the keyboard. Keyboard backlighting is standard, and it does what it says on the tin. The touchpad is less remarkable, but also competent. It measures about 4.5 inches wide and about 3 inches deep. The touchpad felt responsive in my testing and handled multi-touch gestures well. However, some competitors—most notably, Asus—offer budget models with larger touchpads. Of course, since this is a 2-in-1 with a touchscreen, it’s possible to use the touchscreen instead of the touchpad. I personally prefer having the option to touch the screen over not having that option, if it doesn’t add too much to the price, and the Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 is certainly affordable. Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1: Display, audio IDG / Matthew Smith Most Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 configurations have a WVA-LCD touchscreen display with a resolution of 1920×1200 and a refresh rate of 60 Hz. A 2560×1600 upgrade is available on some models from Dell.com, but PC World did not receive that display to test. Display quality is passable. On the plus side, the 14-inch display’s 1920×1200 resolution is quite sharp. However, the display is only rated for 300 nits of brightness, and on top of that it has a glossy coating that shows quite a bit of glare. That is a recipe for problems if you intend to use the laptop in a bright room or outdoors. Color performance is also mediocre. The display looks reasonably saturated and vibrant on its own, but if compared to an OLED display (which can be found on some price-competitive laptops, like the Lenovo IdeaPad 5x and Asus Zenbook 14) the difference is night and day in OLED’s favor. The same is true for contrast, since OLED displays have an effectively infinite contrast ratio that results in a deeper, more immersive image. To put it simply, the display is not among the Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1’s strong points, and it’s the one feature that cuts strongly against a recommendation. If you want a budget laptop with a great display, this isn’t it. Audio quality is better, though still mixed. The speakers deliver good volume and clarity, especially with dialogue, which is more than can be said for many budget laptops. Throw a bit of bass at them, however, and distortion can result. Even the laptop chassis itself can vibrate, creating an annoying rattle. The speakers are good for podcasts and video calls, but not for games or music. Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1: Webcam, microphone, biometrics The Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 comes with a 1080p webcam and a dual array microphone, both of which are common specifications for modern Windows laptops. The webcam is sharp, and the microphone picks up good audio quality with great noise rejection, especially if AI noise rejection features are enabled. The camera includes a physical privacy shutter, which is always nice to see. The one slightly unusual specification for the price point is the inclusion of a fingerprint reader on the power button in the upper left corner of the keyboard. It works well in most situations, although a bit of grime or moisture on your finger can fool it. So, don’t try to log in after taking a swig of Mountain Dew. Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1: Connectivity IDG / Matthew Smith Dell has a reputation for leaning on modern connectivity, and the 14 Plus 2-in-1 is no exception. It provides two USB-C ports, both of which offer power delivery and DisplayPort video connectivity, and both of which can be used to power the laptop with the included USB-C power adapter. They are joined by one USB-A port, an HDMI 1.4 port, and a 3.5mm audio jack. Although I could nitpick about the lack of a second USB-A port, which means you’ll need an adapter if you happen to want to connect a wired keyboard and mouse, this type of connectivity is typical for a modern Windows laptop. When it comes to wireless connectivity, the laptop supports Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4, which are the latest versions of the respective wireless standards. Although this is common for modern Windows laptops, at this price point you might end up looking at some older models from the 2024 or 2023 model years, and it’s likely they would not have Wi-Fi 7 or Bluetooth 5.4. Keep that in mind if wireless performance matters to you. Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1: Performance The Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 that PC World received for testing was an entry-level model with an AMD Ryzen AI 5 340 processor. This APU has a 6-core CPU and AMD Radeon 840M graphics. As you might expect, the entry-level CPU and integrated GPU result in modest overall performance. IDG / Matthew Smith PCMark 10, a holistic system benchmark, didn’t put the Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 off to the best start. While the score of 5,579 isn’t bad for a budget laptop, it’s also a long way from what systems equipped with Ryzen AI 7/9 or Intel Core Ultra Series 2 processors tend to achieve. The AMD Radeon 840M, which is relatively less capable than many IGPs today, doesn’t help matters. IDG / Matthew Smith Handbrake, a heavily multi-threaded long-duration benchmark, is a bit more favorable. The Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 churned through a transcode of a two-hour-long movie in 1,498 seconds using purely the CPU cores (i.e. without special encoding features enabled). That’s not a bad result for the price, and it places the Ryzen AI 5 340 in a similar league to the Intel Core Ultra 5 226V. IDG / Matthew Smith The Ryzen AI 5 340 delivers a respectable but hardly earth-shattering multi-core score of 7,993 in Cinebench R23. Although a long way from the top, this is again a decent result. The main issue here, I think, is the lack of cores. Six isn’t a lot in 2025, and Cinebench R23 does tend to make good use of available cores, whatever they might be. The Ryzen AI 5 340’s Cinebench R23 single-core score was 1,828, which is basically the same as the other processors listed in the graph above (they score between 1,700 to 1,900). This indicates the cores that are available are speedy. IDG / Matthew Smith As mentioned earlier, the AMD Ryzen AI 5 has AMD Radeon 840M graphics, which is much less capable than the more widely known and well-regarded AMD Radeon 880M and AMD Radeon 890M. Specifically, the Radeon 840M has just four graphics cores, a big cut from the 880M (12) and 890M (16). 3DMark Time Spy shows the result with a score of just 1,427. That’s much lower than an AMD Radeon 880M or 890M, as well as Intel’s Arc 140V or even 130V graphics. These solutions tend to score 3,000 to 4,000, as the graphs show. To be fair, you do often need to pay a bit more for them—and laptops with the Intel Core Ultra 7 256V are available for just a couple hundred dollars more. That’s not to say the Dell Plus 14 2-in-1 is hopeless when it comes to graphics and gaming. The 2-in-1 could comfortably play Grim Dawn, an action-RPG released in 2016, at 1080p and medium detail. If you want to play Diablo 4, though, you’re out of luck. It can technically launch and play, but in my experience no amount of fiddling with the settings made it an enjoyable experience. The Dell Plus 14 2-in-1’s overall performance is about what you should expect for the price. It’s worth mention, however, that Dell provides 16GB of RAM and 512GB of solid-state storage. It’s not uncommon for price-competitive 2-in-1s to only provide 8GB of RAM or 256GB of storage, both of which are a significant downgrade. These upgrades don’t necessarily improve benchmark performance, but do make the Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 more usable day-to-day and over time. Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1: Battery life and portability A 64-watt-hour battery powers the Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1. That’s an average size for a laptop in this category, and while the AMD Ryzen AI 5 340 is miserly when it’s not under heavy load, it does struggle to compete with the latest Intel and Qualcomm hardware. IDG / Matthew Smith I measured a tad over 15 hours of battery life in PC World’s standard battery test, which loops a 4K file of the short film Tears of Steel. If 15 hours sounds like a lot, I agree. However, as the graph shows, a lot of modern laptops can achieve 18 to 22 hours on this test. The test result matched my subjective experience. I spent some of my time with the Dell Plus 14 2-in-1 traveling, and I found it could easily endure a day of mixed web browsing and writing, with occasional breaks, with 40 percent of the battery (or more) left once I arrived at a destination. I think the Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1’s battery life is fine, and certainly more than a typical user is likely to need. Still, it appears that AMD’s Ryzen AI 340 is behind Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Plus and Intel’s Core Ultra Series 2 where battery life is concerned.  Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1: Conclusion The Dell Plus 14 2-in-1 is a good option for shoppers looking to snag a do-it-all Windows device on a tight budget. It offers versatile design, a nice keyboard, and well-rounded specifications while avoiding a major issue or downside that would take it out of contention. The Plus 14 2-in-1 is a particularly alluring when on sale for $599.99 at Best Buy, which is less than many comparable Windows 2-in-1s and laptops. While I would prefer to see a better display, or a slightly larger touchpad, I enjoyed my time with the 2-in-1. Read...

Some of the best reasons to use a password manager don’t involve passwords at all. Think of a password manager not just as a tool for storing your login credentials, but as a secure and searchable database for important personal info. No matter which password manager you use, chances are you could be doing a lot more with it. Here are some other types of data you can save in a password manager beyond just passwords. This column first appeared in Advisorator, Jared’s weekly tech advice newsletter. Sign up to get tech advice like this every Tuesday. Credit cards and banking info Your web browser and phone may already be able to auto-fill credit card details when shopping online, but adding credit card info to your password manager lets you access it from any web browser on any device. That’s helpful if you’re a frequent browser switcher like me. You can also use a password manager to store your banking account and routing numbers, so you don’t have to go looking for your checkbook every time a site requires a direct deposit. Standard form info In addition to your logins and passwords, password managers can also store your addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers, allowing you to populate various web forms with just a click or two. As with credit cards, you could always just use your browser’s auto-fill feature for this purpose, but browser auto-fill can easily become infested with garbage data, requiring regular maintenance to get rid of it. Passport numbers Jared Newman / Foundry If you travel abroad, you’ll inevitably have to fill out some kind of embarkation form online. Being able to easily look up and copy your passport number will make that process much easier. Consider saving the passport’s issue and expiration dates as well, so you can quickly look up when you need to renew. You might even expand to other state-issued identification, like your driver’s license. Library and membership cards If your local library supports checking out with an account number and PIN—as mine does here in Cincinnati—you can leave the physical card at home and go completely digital. Storing your library membership details in your password manager is also helpful when signing up for apps like Libby, Hoopla, Kanopy, and Freegal, which offer free digital content with your library membership. Software licenses Jared Newman / Foundry Instead of digging through your email inbox for desktop software licenses, create a login entry for each product and enter the license key where the password would normally be. If you save the download link in your password manager’s URL field, that’ll make re-installing the software easier as well. 1Password even has a dedicated Software License item type. Wi-Fi passwords I used to take pictures of Wi-Fi passwords when visiting a friend’s house or staying at an Airbnb, so I could quickly look it up when connecting additional devices. Saving that info to a password manager is a bit more secure, and it’s much easier to reference on subsequent visits. If you run a home media server or other application that uses a local IP address, consider storing that in your password manager as well. Important instructions A password manager can also help you remember where you (or a loved one) has saved important documents, keys, or other personal items. Create a secure note with the relevant details and/or instructions, then label it in a way that’s easily searchable. If your password manager lets you share logins and notes with others, you can make sure other family members have access to the same info. Knowing what’s saved where Jared Newman / Foundry Here’s a clever idea I spotted on Reddit: for password managers that support tags, you can use them to remember what type of information is saved with each account. For instance, you can tag which accounts collect your mailing address or your credit card, so when that information changes, you can quickly look up all those accounts and update your info. 1Password, Enpass, and KeePass all have tagging support built-in. For password managers that don’t, you can always add your own hashtags to the notes or title field instead. Protect your password manager Obviously, the more kinds of information you store in your password manager, the more you’re putting at risk if access to your vault becomes compromised. Some folks mistakenly believe password managers are dangerous for this reason, but it really just underscores the importance of a strong master password and two-factor authentication. Once you’re feeling confident about the security of a password manager, there’s no limit to what you can store in it. If you aren’t using one yet, it’s time to start—for free! Get started with one of our top picks for password managers that don’t cost anything. This column first appeared in Advisorator, Jared’s weekly tech advice newsletter. Sign up to get tech advice like this every Tuesday. Read...