Svetlana Dali allegedly made the new travel attempt by bus after cutting off an ankle monitor. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Large display Spacious keyboard Solid productivity performance Cons Flimsy plastic build No support for Copilot+ features Poor battery life Our Verdict The bargain-priced Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 has enough oomph to knock out spreadsheets and video meetings, but it may not hold up to the rigors of travel. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Today’s most capable laptops have the powerful AI-accelerated chipsets, pixel-perfect OLED screens, and incredible graphics processors—the Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 doesn’t have any of those things, but there’s one more thing it doesn’t have: a high price. It runs a last-gen Intel Core Ultra 5 125U and a 16-inch IPS display with up to 32GB of RAM. You even get some unexpected extras in this price range, like Thunderbolt 4 and an IR webcam for biometric logins. This business-oriented machine starts under $800, and while I don’t suggest the cheapest version of the ThinkBook 16, this laptop can be a great value. The Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 definitely cut some corners to keep the price that low, but does it cut the right ones? Further reading: Best laptops 2024: Premium, budget, gaming, 2-in-1s, and more Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7: Specs and features Lenovo has released several different models of the ThinkBook 16 Gen 7, but you should ignore the base model. Priced under $800, this machine only has 8GB of RAM and 256GB of SSD storage. For about $100 more (when not on sale), you can get the version I’ve been testing, with 16GB of RAM, 512GB of space, and a Core Ultra 5 CPU. The two cheaper models run the Core Ultra 5 125U, but you can upgrade to the Core Ultra 7 155U for $200 more. The ThinkBook is also available in an AMD flavor. The laptop is available with up to 1TB of storage and 32GB of RAM. Even fully decked out, the ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 costs just over $1,000. CPU: Intel Core Ultra 5 125U Memory: 16GB LPDDR5 Graphics: Intel Arc Display: 16-inch 1920 x 1080 LCD Storage: 512GB PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSD Webcam: 1080p IR Webcam Connectivity: 1x USB-C (Thunderbolt 4, 40Gbps), 1x USB-C (10Gbps) 2x USB-A (5Gbps), 3.5mm audio jack, HDMI 2.1, Ethernet, SD card reader Networking: Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2 Battery capacity: 45Whr Dimensions: 356 x 253.5 x 17.5 mm (14.01 x 9.98 x 0.69 inches) Weight: 1.7 kg (3.75 lbs) MSRP as tested: $829 Lenovo’s ThinkBook lineup isn’t supposed to blow you away with raw power—these machines target value, and the ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 is the truest expression of that tradition. Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7: Design and build quality IDG / Ryan Whitwam The ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 makes a good first impression with its sleek metal lid, featuring the trademark two-tone finish of most current ThinkBooks. This line sits below Lenovo’s ThinkPad computers. So, the rest of the materials aren’t as impressive. Most of the body is composed of plastic, but the lid does add some much needed rigidity when the machine is closed. You’ll find most of the ports on the left edge, including both USB-C ports, one of which supports Thunderbolt 4. There’s also a USB-A, HDMI, and the 3.5mm jack. Opposite, the ThinkBook has another USB-A, Ethernet, the SD card slot, and a Kensington lock. The bezel around the display is relatively narrow but not what you’d see on a high-end laptop. There’s plenty of room at the top for a webcam that doesn’t extend too far into the trademark Lenovo lid handle. The 1080p camera has solid video quality for meetings, and it supports IR for Windows Hello biometric login. I also appreciate the inclusion of a privacy shutter for the camera. At 16 inches, this is the largest footprint you’ll see for a ThinkBook. That means you get an expansive display and plenty of room for the keyboard. The hinge is a bit on the stiff side, which makes it hard to open the Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 with one hand. However, the screen stays in place even if you move the machine around during use. The bottom half of the ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 is plastic, and there’s not a lot of internal structure to support it. The case flexes noticeably when you push on the plastic chassis, and it sags when you pick it up by one side. That said, there are no creaks or cracks, and the body should hold up fine as long as you’re not wedging it into a cluttered bag all day. The construction seems about right for a computer that comes in significantly under $1,000. In spite of all that plastic, the ThinkBook is no lightweight. It clocks in at 3.75 pounds, which is around the same as more premium laptops in the same size range. Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7: Display and speakers IDG / Ryan Whitwam Having a 16-inch screen on a laptop can be refreshing if you’re used to a smaller device. The ThinkBook 16’s touchscreen is expansive enough that you can split-screen apps without feeling too cramped. Those with visual impairments can also increase the text size and still have plenty of screen real estate. The display is only 1080p, which is on the low end for a 16-inch laptop. However, it won’t consume as much power as a higher resolution display, and the sharpness is acceptable at normal viewing distances. The brightness is similarly unimpressive, topping out at 300 nits. That’s bright enough for most indoor conditions, aided by the screen’s matte finish. Reflections won’t be a major issue, but bright ambient light in some offices or outdoors will make the screen hard to read. However, you will notice uneven dimming if looking at the LCD from an angle. The Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 has speakers tucked under the left and right edge of the laptop, similar to most other 2024 notebooks. Some machines manage solid audio despite firing sound downward, but the ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 is on one of them. It’s fine for the occasional YouTube video, but music gets muddy before you even hit 50 percent volume. It also causes the plastic enclosure to vibrate even at lower volumes. Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7: Keyboard and trackpad IDG / Ryan Whitwam Some 16-inch laptops leave wide swaths of potential keyboard space unused, but the ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 doesn’t leave anything on the table. It sports a full keyboard layout, featuring bit arrows, page up/down keys, and a number pad. The number pad is squeezed in off to the right, with keys that are roughly half as wide as the rest of the keyboard. Still, it’s nice to have that on a laptop at all. The keyboard itself gets the job done, but the keys aren’t very tactile, and there’s a lot of mushiness at the bottom of each press. You can feel and see the laptop’s plastic deck flexing as you type, making for a mediocre typing experience despite the good layout. The trackpad is shifted to the left to be aligned with the keyboard’s spacebar. I prefer trackpads to be centered on the laptop’s frame, but that’s a minor quibble. The trackpad is plastic, offering average sensitivity and responsiveness. The click mechanism is rather loud, almost echoey, and the trackpad could stand to be larger, considering the ample real estate on a 16-inch notebook. Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7: Performance IDG / Ryan Whitwam PCMark 10 is designed to test a machine across a variety of metrics like web browsing, video chat, and photo editing. The ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 brings up the rear in this test but not by much. Its general productivity performance is solid, even though machines with newer chips can manage much higher scores in this test. IDG / Ryan Whitwam Cinebench is a CPU-focused test that shows how a PC handles heavy but brief multi-core workloads. More CPU cores grant higher scores in Cinebench and cooling doesn’t matter very much. Cinebench shows another trailing score for the ThinkBook 16 Gen 7. This is a result that would have been in the middle of the pack just a year ago, but the latest Intel and AMD designs have emphasized multi-threaded performance. IDG / Ryan Whitwam The Handbrake test is similar to Cinebench in that it shows how a computer handles multithreaded tasks, but this is a longer-duration test where thermals matter more. Here, the ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 picks up a little steam, besting several machines with similar specs. Lenovo’s cooling setup seems to work well, keeping the Core 5 Ultra chip running faster under load. IDG / Ryan Whitwam Our first gaming test is 3DMark Time Spy, a graphical benchmark that focuses on GPU performance. This is not a gaming machine by any means, and this benchmark proves it. AMD processors, as well as newer Intel chips, have much more capable integrated GPUs. Intel’s latest CPUs are getting close to the performance of discrete GPUs from a few generations ago. The Core 5 Ultra, however, struggles even with simple games. The laptop is fast enough for the tasks you’re likely to ask of it in a work setting. However, it’s not great for creating and editing content or gaming. A faster machine will pay off if you plan for heavier workloads. Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7: Battery life The ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 has two USB-C ports, and either one can be used to charge the laptop. The machine comes with a bulky 65W charger, but you don’t have to use that one. It also charges at full speed with any third-party USB-PD charger with a 65W or higher capacity. IDG / Ryan Whitwam With a 45Whr cell, this machine was never going to set any longevity records. Our battery rundown test consists of playing a 4K video on a loop at set brightness until the machine dies. The ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 managed almost nine hours (532 minutes) in this test, which is not an impressive showing. However, it makes a lot of sense given the meager 45Whr battery—that’s tiny by 2024 standards. Actually, this makes a bit more sense with the plastic build. This laptop is intended to remain plugged in stationary on a desk most of the time. Sure, you can take it to a meeting, but it won’t withstand as much abuse as a more sturdy and expensive laptop. Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7: Conclusion Lenovo’s ThinkBook lineup isn’t supposed to blow you away with raw power—these machines target value, and the ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 is the truest expression of that tradition. It would be easy to dismiss Lenovo’s new ThinkBook on the basis of its middling performance and build quality, but the price makes this notebook worth thinking about. This is a solid productivity machine for well under a grand. You should keep its shortcomings in mind, though. It’s running a last-gen processor, and the base model doesn’t have enough RAM. The small battery and iffy build quality are also sticking points. Lenovo’s pricing is constantly changing, and its “estimated value” discounts are plainly misleading. However, the pricing is still aggressive, especially if you’re buying in bulk for enterprise. I don’t recommend the base model or the fully specced out version. With 8GB of RAM, the cheapest ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 isn’t powerful enough outside of basic office work. The version with 16GB of RAM is currently on sale for $749, which is a fantastic deal. Meanwhile, the upgraded version still has the same middling display and build quality—there are better options if you’re going to spend $1,000 on a laptop. The middle tier I’ve tested is the sweet spot. Read...

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Seven people are in hospital in Fiji with suspected poisoning after drinking a cocktail at a five-star resort - and four remain in critical condition. Read...

Seven people are in hospital in Fiji with suspected poisoning from drinking a cocktail at a five-star resort - and four remain in critical condition. Read...

If you have no interest in watching regional sports networks, Fubo no longer requires you to pay for them. This week, the live TV streaming service introduced a new tier called “Fubo Essential.” While it has the same $80-per-month advertised price as the “Fubo Pro” plan, it excludes regional sports channels such as Fanduel Sports Network, and therefore does not have Fubo’s usual regional sports fees. Depending on where you live, those fees would add at least $12 per month to the total price. The regional sports-free option brings Fubo’s pricing more in line with other top live TV streaming services such as YouTube TV ($73 per month) and Hulu + Live TV ($83 per month), but it also cuts out one of Fubo’s defining features. Is the service still worth considering without regional sports? Let’s dig in. This story is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best live TV streaming services. Fubo Essential vs. YouTube TV and Hulu + Live TV All three services are effectively replacements for a large cable TV package, with a wide range of pay TV channels, including local stations, cable news, and national sports channels. But in all cases, there are notable omissions. YouTube TV does not include channels owned by A&E, including Lifetime and History. Hulu + Live TV does not include AMC or WeTV. In Fubo’s case, the gaps in its channel selection are larger. It doesn’t include AMC or any of A&E’s channels, but it’s also missing every channel from Warner Bros. Discovery. That means no TNT, TBS, CNN, TruTV, HGTV, Discovery, Food Network, Travel Channel, Cartoon Network, or TLC. Those are some major omissions, especially given TNT’s coverage of the NBA, NHL, and March Madness. (This channel list from The Streamable is instructive for seeing which popular channels each service carries.) Yes, Fubo does offer Bein Sports, which isn’t available with Hulu + Live TV and requires an $11-per-month Sports Extra add-on with YouTube. But Fubo also charges $8 per month extra for SEC Network and ESPNU, which the other services offer in their base packages. Fubo’s only distinct programming advantage is that it offers NBA TV, MLB Network, and NHL Network as part of the aforementioned $8-per-month add-on. YouTube TV offers NBA TV in its base package, and Hulu + TV includes MLB Network, but neither offer the full trifecta. Compared to Fubo at $80 per month, YouTube TV offers more for your money right now, with more popular cable channels and a lower price of $73 per month. And while Hulu + Live TV is a bit pricier at $83 per month, it also includes Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu’s on-demand catalog at no extra charge. It’s a better value if you plan to pay for any of those services individually. Beyond the lineup Fubo’s Multiview feature lets you combine any four live channels on supported devices.Jared Newman / Foundry In lieu of a superior channel selection, Fubo must compete on the quality of its service. On that note, Fubo’s best feature is Multiview, which lets you watch up to four channels at the same time on Apple TV boxes and the latest Roku Ultra. (Some older Roku models also support Multiview, but only with two simultaneous channels.) While YouTube TV also supports Multiview—and it works on any streaming device—it imposes limits on which channels you can put together. Fubo’s version works with any live TV channel. (Hulu + Live TV doesn’t offer Multiview at all.) Fubo also has a generous limit on simultaneous streams, letting you watch on up to 10 devices at a time at home and three devices remotely. The limits with YouTube TV and Hulu + Live TV are three at a time and two at a time respectively. That said, Fubo does not let you watch remotely on a TV if someone’s already watching at home. YouTube TV doesn’t have that restriction, but requires periodic check-ins at home to discourage password sharing. Hulu + Live TV doesn’t allow out-of-home viewing on TV devices at all. Both Fubo and YouTube TV also offer 4K add-ons, but the number of events that broadcast in 4K are woefully limited, and you can’t add 4K to Fubo without also taking regional sports. (Fubo at least has the decency to disclose which events are in 4K.) Beyond that, Fubo’s interface is easy to navigate and it does a nice job highlighting live sports. Like YouTube TV and Hulu + Live TV, it includes a cloud-based DVR service that lets you record an unlimited number of programs for up to nine months. Fubo’s unlimited DVR lets you delete individual episodes.Jared Newman / Foundry The DVR does have one distinct advantage over YouTube TV in particular: You’re allowed to create one-off DVR recordings and delete individual episodes, even for series recordings. YouTube TV takes a different approach, requiring you to add every episode to your DVR library and providing no way to remove them. Some cable converts can’t stand that. Other alternatives Fubo, YouTube TV, and Hulu + Live TV aren’t the only ways to replace a cable bundle. DirecTV Stream offers more channels for more money (starting at $93 per month), while Sling TV, Philo, and Frndly TV provide skinnier lineups for less. Those who are sufficiently fed up with the prices of these live TV streaming services can also consider unbundling entirely. But now that regional sports aren’t mandatory, Fubo is at least a more compelling drop-in replacement for cable than it used to be. Unlike with YouTube TV and Hulu + Live TV, you also have option to add regional sports for a few months of the year without needing to switch services or turn to more expensive standalone options. If you can live without the Warner channels and care more about DVR and Multiview than saving a few bucks over YouTube TV, it’s worth a fresh look. Sign up for Jared’s Cord Cutter Weekly newsletter for more streaming TV advice. Read...

SAP Concur forecasts a transformative 2025 for travel and expense management, emphasising digital investment and evolving business travel demands. Read...

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The Raspberry Pi 400 was a hit when it came out in 2020, harkening back to the days when people would stuff a whole computer under the gigantic keys of an old-fashioned keyboard. If you love that form factor but need something a little more beefy, the new Raspberry Pi 500 is here with the same design but upgraded Pi 5 guts. The Pi 500 is a standalone computer with all the connections you need along its top edge. But if you’re also looking for a matching monitor, you’re in luck because the company just released its first home-grown monitor, a spiffy-looking 15.6-inch model. It can work as a travel display or a small conventional desktop monitor thanks to its VESA mount, and it’s a pretty darn good deal at just $100. It’ll even power up from a Raspberry Pi alone, so long as you have a spare USB-A port to deliver a little extra juice. I really like the look of the monitor, with its red-on-white coloring, a kickstand that doubles as a carry handle, and a stylish cutout on the lower bezel. Normally, I’d be down on its inclusion of a pair of extremely low-power speakers, but considering this is meant to be a companion to extremely flexible, affordable computer designs, I guess it makes sense. Raspberry Pi The 1080p panel isn’t exactly the sharpest in the world, but with a standard HDMI port it can work as a pretty good and affordable monitor for a small space. Just be aware that it doesn’t come with a power supply, so you’ll need to supply 15 watts if you’re not powering it directly from your Pi or another computer. Also note that while the monitor is powered by USB-C, it doesn’t actually get its video signal via USB-C, so it needs more cables than your typical portable monitor. The upgraded Pi 500 keyboard uses the Pi 5 as its base with 8GB of memory and the 2.4GHz quad-core Cortex A76 processor. The top edge has dedicated ports for Ethernet, USB-A (three, at various speeds), USB-C for power, double Micro HDMI for dual 4K output, and a microSD card slot, in addition to the exposed 40-pin GPIO port loved by modders. The Pi 500 flips the port layout versus the original design, and also ditches that red bottom of the case, which is a bit of a bummer. So far, the only place that has the Pi 500 in stock is CanaKit, which is selling just the primary hardware (without the power supply, mouse, and Micro HDMI adapter that’s sometimes bundled with the Pi 400) for $90. It looks like it might not include a microSD card (where the operating system lives) either, so plan accordingly. Read...