There is a chance of travel disruption on Monday with a Met Office yellow warning for England and Wales but this is not a named storm. Read...

The NRL has arranged special travel conditions for the Sydney team that plays the Broncos. Read...

Listen, we love Apple as much as anyone else, but those chargers are expensiiiiive; especially those high-power ones you need for your laptop. Well, Woot has Apple’s 140W USB-C power adapter down to $50, a 50 percent discount and lower than we’ve ever seen it at Amazon. With a 140W output, this charger is just what Apple recommends to fast-charge the large 16-inch MacBook Pro (2021 or later), so it will work with any device you have at home. With the right high-speed cable, it can take your laptop from 0 to 50 percent in just half an hour, so you can keep on working. Keep in mind, however, that there’s no cable included in this purchase, so you’ll need to get your own. Might we suggest this uber-long 240W Anker USB-C cable that’s only $12 (24% off) at Amazon right now? It’s not small, but the foldable prongs will make it easier to protect them while you’re packing up the charger into your backpack, for instance, making it more travel-friendly. And there’s only one USB-C port on this charger, so you’re only going to use it for one device at a time, but at these speeds you won’t be waiting long. Woot’s deals are fleeting, as the company only offers them for a set number of days or until sold out, whichever moment comes first. This Apple power adapter deal technically has an expiration date set 22 days from now, but we’ve seen Apple gear vanish fast in the past, so we’d hurry if we were you. Your Amazon Prime perks transfer to Woot, so you can get free shipping on your order. So go ahead and snag this 140W Apple charger for $50 before time runs out! This speedy Apple charger is half-offBuy now at Woot Read...

Greetings from Maryland, where I’m currently visiting family and using one of the best impulse buys I’ve made in recent memory. I’m taking about those cheap portable monitors that go on sale for about $50 on Amazon, available under a variety of unrecognizable brand names. The one I got is made by BIGASUO (a name I can’t stop saying), but you can find seemingly identical models from the likes of FANGOR and MNN. They all serve the same basic purpose as a travel-friendly way to add an extra screen to your laptop, and they all have the same basic features: 15.6-inch 1080p display USB-C or Mini HDMI input Built-in speakers Audio jack for headphones or external speakers A detachable folio stand Some variants, such as this one by the unfortunately named Dopesplay, have actual built-in kickstands instead of folio cases that double as makeshift stands, but otherwise appear identical. Are these monitors great quality-wise? Of course not. But they’re cheap, light, and versatile. They’re also refreshingly free from a lot of modern tech baggage. I’ve had a great time finding ways to use mine. Allow me to convince you why you should get one of these, too. This column first appeared in Advisorator, Jared’s weekly tech advice newsletter. Sign up to get tech advice like this every Tuesday. How does a portable monitor work? These portable screens work a little differently than full-sized monitors, mainly because they don’t have regular HDMI, DisplayPort, or VGA inputs. To connect these monitors, you have a couple options: USB-C to USB-C data cable. This provides power and video to the portable monitor through a single cable, but requires your computer to support video output through a USB-C port. (Modern Macs can do this, and many recent Windows laptops are catching up.) Mini HDMI to HDMI. For computers with HDMI outputs, you can send video to the portable monitor via Mini HDMI, but you’ll need a separate USB-C cable to power the monitor as well. A single USB-C data cable can provide video and power, or you can use the Mini HDMI and USB-C power ports instead.Jared Newman / Foundry Note that these travel-friendly displays don’t have built-in batteries, so they must draw power from either your laptop or an outlet. The lack of a battery makes the monitor lighter, but if you’re using the USB-C to USB-C connector, you’ll likely want to keep your laptop plugged into its own power source for lengthy computing sessions. My BIGASUO monitor included all the necessary cables, but they’re on the short side. To lengthen the connection distance, you’ll either need an HDMI extender or a USB-C to USB-C cable with 10 Gbps transfer speeds. (A basic USB-C charging cable won’t suffice for video connections.) What is a portable monitor good for? The most obvious use for a portable monitor is the main one: while using a laptop on the go, you can attach the portable monitor, prop it up with a stand, and have two screens instead of one. If you’ve never used a dual monitor setup before, this can be a revelation in itself. It’s nice being able to reference a document on one screen while writing on the other, or use one screen just for things like email and Slack while freeing up the main screen for more important tasks. I’ve also managed to prop up my BIGASUO monitor in portrait mode, which can be a bit precarious at times but does make my mobile workspace a bit more compact. (You can rotate the monitor orientation in system settings on both Windows PC and Mac.) Beyond the dual-screen setup, I’ve also experimented with: Turning a phone into a computer: Paired with a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard, your phone can become a makeshift portable desktop. Samsung’s Galaxy phones are especially well-suited with Samsung DeX, which launches a desktop-like environment when the phone connects to an external display. (You can even use the phone screen as a touchpad.) Plugging a separate USB-C charging cable into the monitor will send a charge back to the phone so you don’t waste battery life. A Samsung Galaxy Fold7 running DeX mode on the monitor, with the phone as a touchpad.Jared Newman / Foundry An extra (or alternate) desktop display: You don’t have to use a portable monitor on the road. I’ve been plugging mine into my desktop gaming PC in the basement while my son occupies the TV with the PlayStation 5. (We have plans to play Fortnite together this way but haven’t gotten around to it yet.) A bigger portable video screen: I’ve connected the portable monitor to my Steam Deck for a bigger view of the action, and I can envision plugging it into a phone or tablet to watch movies in bed or on a plane. A portable monitor just works In the past, I’ve written about using a tablet as an external monitor—and that’s still a viable option. Portable monitors are larger than most tablets, though, and they’re also less finnicky to set up. Not to get overly philosophical here, but portable monitors also remind me why I get excited about technology to begin with. Unlike so many other tech products today, a portable monitor is a no-fuss device that just works when you plug it in, asking nothing of you in exchange. There’s no pairing process, no login procedure, and no privacy policy to accept. I often hear folks pining for a dumb alternative to modern smart TVs—if you ask me, that idea is alive and well in portable monitors. But the biggest endorsement I can offer is this: my wife, after borrowing my portable monitor a couple days ago, now wants one of her own. This column first appeared in Advisorator, Jared’s weekly tech advice newsletter. Sign up to get tech advice like this every Tuesday. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Terrific performance Synapse utility app is fantastic Smartly designed, comfortable keyboard Thunderbolt 5 Light and quiet (for a gaming notebook, anyway) Cons Battery life is abysmal Windows doesn’t accommodate dual-mode screen well Boot sequence could be more responsive Ports could and should be labeled Our Verdict Razer’s Blade 18 outperforms basically everything else out there, with an exception or two. This relatively quiet gaming notebook does suffer from the short battery life of its rivals, and the default 4K screen is so good that the cool dual-resolution mode will probably go underused. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Razer Blade 18 (2025) Retailer Price Razer $4599.99 View Deal Check Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Best Prices Today: Check today’s prices Razer’s Blade 18 is the limo you take to the airport: probably way too much laptop for your daily needs, sure. But why not simply enjoy it? Someone who buys an 18-inch laptop simply wants the best and biggest laptop around, a desktop replacement capable of playing any game at maximum frame rates. That’s fine for most people. Smart buyers, however, will consider the Blade 18 since its aesthetics have a purpose. For 2025, the laptop brings several notable updates: Intel’s latest Arrow Lake architecture, Nvidia GeForce GPUs up to the RTX 5090, and a new dual-mode screen that combines a 4K creator-class display with a high-resolution esports monitor. Fantastic performance, smart design, even weight that won’t burn out your biceps. There’s very little I didn’t like about the Razer Blade 18. Overall, the Razer Blade 18 excels where performance matters most, combining thoughtful design and powerhouse hardware, though its battery life and minor quirks remind you this is a premium desktop replacement, not a portable workhorse. Razer Blade 18: Configuration options Razer’s 2025 update of the Razer Blade 18 steps up to Intel’s Arrow Lake Core Ultra 9 275HX, whose mobile performance impressed me. But there’s also Razer’s first use of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5000 lineup, memory that jumps to 64GB, and up to 4 TB of storage. Razer has returned to using a dual-mode screen, first seen on the 2023 version of the Blade 16. That model offered a less robust version of what’s in the 2025 Blade 18. During the day, you can edit on its 4K, 240Hz display. By evening, switch to a 1080p, 480Hz mode for esports gaming. Razer’s RGB logo adorns the back of the Razer Blade 18.Mark Hachman / Foundry Razer used to sell its Blade laptops on Amazon as well as its own site. At the moment, however, most models have been pulled from Amazon. The only place to buy the Blade 18 appears to be Razer’s website. If the Blade 18 is simply too much, Razer also ships the Blade 16 and Blade 14, though the components step down a bit. A larger notebook allows for more cooling, which means more power can go through the CPU and GPU. Both the Blade 16 and Blade 18 offer an RTX 5090 option, but the Blade 18 supports 175W of GPU power versus 160W on the Blade 16. That usually translates to higher performance. At Razer, your choices are limited: every version ships with an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX. Otherwise, you can downgrade the GPU from an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 with 24GB of VRAM to an RTX 5080 (16GB VRAM) or to a 5070 Ti option. The way Razer phrases it seems like simply dropping down to an RTX 5080 will save you $1,100, period. But Razer ties your GPU selection to other RAM and storage options, so that there are essentially four versions of the Blade 18 to choose from: Razer Blade 18 with RTX 5090, 4 TB (2TB + 2TB) SSD, 64GB RAM: $4,599.99 (as tested) Razer Blade 18 with RTX 5090, 2TB SSD, and 32GB RAM: $4,199.99 Razer Blade 18 with RTX 5080, 1TB SSD, 32GB RAM: $3,499.99 Razer Blade 18 with RTX 5070 TI, 1 TB SSD, 32GB RAM: $2,999.99 Razer also tosses in some “gifts” — at press time, Borderlands 4, Battlefield 6, and a month’s worth of Game Pass Ultimate PC — with the purchase of the Blade 18, as well. Mark Hachman / Foundry Razer Blade 18: Specifications Display: 18-Inch dual-mode IPS display: 3840×2400, 240Hz; 1920×1200, 440Hz (non-touch) Processor: Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX (5.4GHz turbo, 24 cores/24 threads) Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, 12GB GDDR7 VRAM/RTX 5080, 16GB GDDR7 VRAM/RTX 5090 (150W + 25W dynamic boost), 24GB GDDR7 VRAM (5090 as tested) NPU: No Memory: 32GB-64GB DDR5-5600 (64GB as tested) Storage: 1TB-2TB M.2. NVMe PCI 4.0; 4TB (both M.2. slots filled) (4TB as tested) Ports: Thunderbolt 5 (DP 2.1, 100W charging), Thunderbolt 4 (DP 2.1, 100W charging), HDMI 2.1, RJ45 (2.5Gbps Ethernet), UHS-II SD, 3.5mm headphone jack Security: Windows Hello (camera) Camera: 1440p, 30 Hz (user facing) Battery: 99Wh Wireless: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 Operating system: Windows 11 Home 24H2 Dimensions: 15.74 x 10.84 x 0.86-1.1in. Weight: 7.06 pounds Color: Anodized black Price: $$2,999.99 – $4,599.99 ($4,599.99 as tested) Razer Blade 18: Out of the box Most ultra-premium gaming laptops that I’ve seen tend to prioritize the internal components over the external chassis: throw in a bit of RGB bling and spend the rest of your engineering talent worrying about keeping the components cool. Take the rival Maingear Ultima 18: it’s just a big black slab. Stick it on its end, and you can imagine a tribe of apes worshiping it while “Also sprach Zarathustra” plays. Razer’s Blade 18 is different. Instead of extending the laptop’s underside the length of the laptop, there’s a “bump” that protrudes from the underside, housing the cooling module. A small cutout “exposes” some of the components behind a clear Mylar plastic window, lit by user-adjustable RGB lighting. Mark Hachman / Foundry Add to that the existing RGB-lit Razer logo that’s already mounted on the top/rear of the laptop itself, and that’s a healthy dose of RGB right there. Fortunately, it’s out of sight, and at least the vapor chamber lighting can be disabled, if necessary. All this isn’t totally unique; the Alienware 16 Area 51 includes a similar cooling bump and light-up logo. But it’s still an interesting twist that attracts the eye. (Note to Razer: if you’re going to leave the logo lighting on at all times, an Ambilight mode might be a neat addition.) Unlike other gaming laptops I’ve tried, the Blade 18 doesn’t feel ungainly. At 7.06 pounds, it’s surprisingly manageable. The chassis is made from CNC-milled aluminum and features a fingerprint-resistant coating. (That’s technically true. Fingerprints might not stick, but the chassis will pick up oil and dust, and I had to spend a few minutes polishing the chassis for photos.) You’ll find a couple of fun quirks right off the bat: the first is the dual-mode display, which we’ll talk about in a bit. The second is the keyboard, which not only offers a number of adjustable RGB lighting effects, but also assigns two RGB LEDs to selected keys. Put another way, when you hit the SHIFT key, the RGB lighting will illuminate only the “%,” “^,” and “&” keys, not the numbers themselves. Notice how when the SHIFT button is depressed, only the punctuation lights up, not the numbers. And yes, the chassis attracts fingerprints.Mark Hachman / Foundry One of the few things I didn’t like about this laptop is that the relatively uninspired boot sequence. Hit the power button, and the Blade just sits there — or seems to. While there’s a small green light on the front of the keyboard tray that lights green during the boot sequence, the rest of the laptop seemingly doesn’t respond. Only after the Windows boot sequence appears on the screen does the laptop respond with a “ripple” of RGB lighting across the keyboard, a visual signal that you’re ready to go. The power cord might be a bit polarizing, too. I’ve used Maingear laptops and bemoaned the jiggly, rear-mounted power cord. Razer uses a side-mounted power cord (connected to a 400W charger) and it’s quite stiff to work it in and out of the charging port. Some of you might like that (how often do you remove a gaming laptop’s power cord, anyway?) but I found it slightly annoying. Note that while this laptop does include a Thunderbolt 5 port, that port doesn’t support the full 240W charging spec — just 100W instead. Of course, even TB5 couldn’t supply the nearly 400W that the Blade 18 demands under full load. The fan noise on the Razer Blade 18 certainly does get loud under load, as expected from a gaming notebook. It’s not overwhelming, just a bit unpleasant. There’s minimal coil whine, but it’s there. Razer says that it’s expanded the vapor chamber to its largest ever, combining triple fan blades and 0.075mm exhaust fins to generate 280W across the package. Our thermal tests (more in the performance section, below) detected no thermal throttling under prolonged CPU and GPU testing. That’s the result Razer was designing for. I like to put my laptops on my desk’s keyboard drawer, and the Blade 18 is a bit too big for that. You’ll need a flat desk, or risk the laptop supporting itself on its cooling bump. That’s probably fine, but still. (I did all my testing on a flat surface.) One note on the ports, which are listed above: this is the first laptop I’ve seen with both a Thunderbolt 5 and a Thunderbolt 4 port on it, neither of which are labeled. The TB5 port is on the right, and the TB4 port is on the left. The left side of the Razer Blade 18 includes a Thunderbolt 5 port, which is unlabeled, as well as the HDMI and USB port.Mark Hachman / Foundry I found myself repeatedly returning to the hyper-detailed Razer Synapse application, which contains controls for adjusting the lighting, laptop performance, and display. Razer includes several performance profiles, (Balanced, Silent, Performance, and Turbo), which I bounced in and out of depending on the application. Unfortunately, the “Silent” mode wasn’t entirely silent, even when simply writing this review, and I would have liked it to shut down the fan entirely. Synapse also failed to launch the “Razer” module for adjusting the performance when I rebooted the laptop without an internet connection. Turning on the Wi-Fi reinstated the module and the performance settings, which were still there after turning off the Wi-Fi. I don’t know if it was a glitch or not, but I wasn’t impressed. That’s one of the few things I didn’t like about Synapse, which is about as well-thought-out as utility software goes these days. I’m a little surprised that Razer shipped the laptop with Windows 11 Home, not Pro, but PCWorld’s software store features some killer Windows 11 Pro deals — at press time, a Windows 11 Pro license is just $13. On this side, there’s a Thunderbolt 4 port as well as Ethernet, more USB-A, and the power port and 3.5mm jack.Mark Hachman / Foundry Razer Blade 18: Display A major change for the 2025 Blade 18 is the display. Previous models offered either a QHD+ mini LED panel (2560×1600) at 300Hz or a 4K screen at 300Hz, both stretched to 18 inches diagonally. That’s the traditional way of buying a laptop; you choose one or the other. With the 2025 version of the Razer Blade 18, you get a dual-mode display — both for the price of one, basically. The price, if there is one, is that there’s no touchscreen. You can use the incredibly handy Razer Synapse application to switch between display modes.Mark Hachman / Foundry Specifically, the Blade 18 offers a 3840×2400 240Hz display, switchable to a 1920×1200, 440Hz option after rebooting the laptop. The idea is that creators will spend all day designing using the 4K option, then swap to the super-high-refresh-rate option for after-hours fun. In reality, I actually never wanted to switch to the 1200p mode, since playing games at 4K+ resolutions at 240Hz is pretty damn cool all by itself. Since the Consumer Electronics Association considers 4K to be 3840×2160, you’re getting a bit better than a 4K screen just to begin with. Ditto for the 1080p-ish 1200p mode, too. The drawback is that both share the same IPS panel, which some might consider a downgrade compared to the miniLED panel of yesteryear. The Razer Blade 18 (2024)’s miniLED panel boasted 2,000 “dimming zones” that can be turned off and on to approximate the elite contrast of an OLED panel. IPS doesn’t really offer the same visual contrast. Another issue is that Windows didn’t automatically adjust the scaling when switching from 4K to 1200p resolution. The scaling became enormous, and in some applications, I couldn’t access menu items at the bottom of the window without connecting to an external display. Windows, unfortunately, thought that the new resolution was a minimum, so that the only adjustment to be made would be to make the text and windows even larger. The Razer Blade 18 color gamut, as measured under the 4K (left) and 1080p) settings (right). That only seemed to happen with the laptop display, however, under Windows. The games I tried adjusted for the new settings. And when connected to an external display the text on that display rendered normally. Still, if you’re going to buy a laptop with a premium display, it should work correctly. Otherwise, the color gamut on the Blade 18’s display wasn’t quite as good as a creator-class notebook, but it put out a hefty 532 nits of luminance whether it was in the 4K or 1080p mode. That’s enough for working outside, though the abysmal battery life of this laptop will mean that you won’t be working long before you hunt down a power outlet. Razer Blade 18: Keyboard and trackpad Razer’s purchasing department obviously bought the Blade 18’s trackpad at the warehouse store, with an enormous touchpad that’s nearly 6-inches wide and 3.75-inches long, reaching nearly from the edge of the keyboard tray to the spacebar. Unfortunately, only about half was easily clickable, with an additional quarter or so clickable after applying substantial pressure. That gives the trackpad a bit of a vestigial feel. After all, Razer would be happy to sell you one of its branded mice. Mark Hachman / Foundry The keyboard, however, is far better. The Blade 18’s keys depress with 1.5mm of key travel, which is about where I like it. Keep in mind that I typically use a business keyboard, where 1.25mm of key travel is common — I welcomed the additional travel distance. If you’re looking for a truly mechanical keyboard with far more key travel, however, something like the Alienware X16 R2 might be more your style. Each key is configurable via the Synapse key to configure it for a keypress, macro, mouse movement, or more, and there are even four dedicated “memory keys” to store specific configurations. Using the Synapse application, you can adjust each key’s function in eight different ways! As mentioned above, many of the keys have dual RGB LEDs inside them, all configurable from the Synapse application. Depress the SHIFT key, and specific keys light up; that goes for the function (FN) keys as well as the NUMLOCK keys. That’s hella cool, and I was unreasonably happy that Razer included that function. The Razer Blade 18 in a darkened room.Mark Hachman / Foundry When playing a game, the WASD (and R and C) keys light up by default (or at least by a setting that I didn’t recall tweaking). Given that I’m a left-handed gamer and use the keypad instead, that’s actually a little insulting. However, there’s a full 10-digit number pad to the right, an important concession to lefty gamers who use that instead of WASD keys. Razer Blade 18: Webcam, microphone speakers The Razer Blade 18’s webcam is passable. Supposedly it allows for 1440p video captures at 30 Hz, but I suspect that it’s using some of that additional resolution to crop in and “zoom” in on your face using Windows Studio Effects. In any event, the image is somewhat soft, and my face looked a bit too ruddy under artificial light and too washed out under natural lighting. This isn’t necessarily a plug for PCWorld’s recommendations of the best webcams, though if you can afford a $4,000 gaming laptop, what’s an additional $50 or so? What Razer is primarily concerned with, however, is the laptop speakers, especially when playing back movies and playing games. Razer’s speakers are passable, and a bit bass-heavy; that’s not surprising for a laptop with four woofers and a pair of tweeters, all enhanced via THX. Nothing stood out in my mind as something I’d prefer listening to, and that was while the laptop’s fans were set to “Silent.” Mark Hachman / Foundry Typically, gameplay on a gaming laptop is accompanied by roaring fans. While Razer’s Blade 18 doesn’t overwhelm you with noise, the fans are loud enough to drown out the small nuances. A game like Expedition 33, for example, demands headphones to ensure you hear the full range of the score. Put another way, the typical Blade 18 customer will be using headphones anyway. The noise filtering on the two dual- array microphones, though, is nearly perfection — some of the best I’ve (not) heard, ever. I usually hold up my phone and move it behind my head and off to the side, playing back rock music and then some white noise at a loud volume. The Razer Blade 18 filtered it all out — every bit — perfectly. I couldn’t really find any built-in controls for this, so it must have done it by default. Just be sure and adjust the Windows settings for the mic (System > Sound > Properties > Test mode for microphone audio processing) to the Communications drop-down setting, or else your voice will sound somewhat hollow. Razer Blade 18: Is it a Copilot+ PC? No. As we segue into our performance testing, it’s worth pointing out that most of the Intel Core Ultra Series 2 processor family does include an NPU with the requisite 40 TOPS requirement to earn the Copilot+ designation. The Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX does not. But the 275HX does include an NPU with 36 total TOPS. And Nvidia’s 5090 GPU — basically the most powerful mobile GPU on the planet at the moment — will absolutely chew through AI tasks while just falling short of earning Microsoft’s AI badge of honor. Crazy! Razer Blade 18: Performance Spend $4,500 on an 18-inch notebook, and you probably have one requirement: that it play any game you’d like, at full resolution. We can’t say this with certainty, but the Blade 18 will certainly get you almost all of the way there. Note: in the performance tests below, frame generation and upscaling are off. Some gamers call these “fake frames.” The results here are “farm-to-table” frames, rendered directly by the notebook itself. You can turn on these upscaling features for additional performance, though some people notice a small drop in visual quality as a result. In almost all cases, the laptop is good enough to deliver more than playable framerates without any AI enhancements. In the high-end “Turbo” mode, the Blade 18 pulls close to its rated 400W at full load.Mark Hachman / Foundry For a laptop like this, you want to take the best gaming laptops out there, lock them in a room, and don’t let them out until one survives. The only fair thing to do is to put the $4,599 Razer Blade 18 up against other industry heavyweights. We chose the $3,599 Maingear Ultima 18, the $5,099 MSI Raider A18 HX A9W, the $4,199 MSI Stealth 18AI Studio A1V, the $3,700 Gigabyte Aorus 17X, and the $3,349 Alienware 16 Area-51 AW30. All of these except for the last two include 18-inch displays, which gives the chassis more than enough room for sizeable cooling options. We plugged in last year’s $3,549.99 Alienware m18 R2 with a Core i9 14900HX and an RTX 4090; how does that compare with 2025’s newest CPU and GPU? We also added Razer’s own 16-inch, which offers a different CPU but a similar RTX 5090 GPU (at 175W) and at a very comparable $4,499 price. I tested the Razer Blade 18 in both of its “4K” and “1080p” configurations, because I wasn’t sure if the performance would differ. As it turned out, they do not. But it’s a question I didn’t know the answer to with certainty, so it was worth investigating. Likewise, I tested the Razer Blade 18 in both its default “Performance” configuration as well as the top-end “Turbo” mode. Turbo kicks the power consumption up a notch, from a peak of 380W to 392W — close to the rated 400W charger limit. In some cases, performance increases. I tested using this setting as well, and the “Turbo” results are designated using the black outline around the red bar indicating the Razer Blade 18’s score. We can generate a general level of CPU performance using the Cinebench benchmark, which pushes all of the laptop’s CPU threads to their utmost to render a scene. Mark Hachman / Foundry On the desktop, AMD’s Ryzen AI processors have bested Intel’s Arrow Lake architecture. In mobile, it’s much closer, and the Ryzen 9 9955HX3D squeaks by a tiny margin, even above the “Turbo” setting. We’ve used older Cinebench benchmarks in the past; the R2024 test takes longer and works the system harder. In general, however, all of these 18-inch (and even one 16-inch) notebooks are very close where synthetic CPU performance is concerned. Handbrake takes this approach and extends it. This is an open-source conversion tool, originally designed to allow you to shrink down movies to store on a tablet for use on a long airplane flight. It asks the CPU to run at its fastest speeds for a long duration — this test could take over an hour to run on a Celeron a decade ago, but this now requires just minutes to complete (6.78 minutes, for the Razer Blade 18) to convert an entire 90-ish minute movie. We measure the time in seconds it takes Handbrake to complete the job. Mark Hachman / Foundry The one test we were not able to run was UL’s PCMark 10, which according to UL’s support staff has a known issue with Nvidia’s latest GPU driver and the RTX 5090. That’s disappointing, as PCMark still uses a representative swathe of applications, from web browsing to video chats to light gaming and CAD work, and generates a score. While I’d like to include these numbers to provide a complete picture, I think I can safely say that the Razer Blade 18 will handle all of your office tasks with ease. We can move on, then, to the GPU performance. We’ve used the UL 3DMark test to evaluate synthetic 3D performance, specifically the Time Spy test for compatibility’s sake. You’d expect the RTX 5090 inside the Razer Blade 18 to perform well, and it does. Mark Hachman / Foundry Gaming, of course, is a big reason why you’re buying this laptop. We use a representative series of three games as a benchmark across generations of laptops and desktops. Shadow of the Tomb Raider, published by Square Enix, doesn’t feel especially old, yet it was released in 2018. We push the graphics quality to its highest setting and turn off frame-generation, ray tracing, and various effects. You can see the massive generational jump from gaming notebooks that use CPUs and GPUs just a generation old and what the latest laptops like the Razer Blade 18 can achieve. For reference, most gamers may tolerate 30 frames per second in some games, but 60 fps is usually considered the minimum, with 90 fps preferred. All of our gaming benchmarks are expressed in frames per second (fps), and you’ll have no issue here. Remember, this laptop has a dual-mode screen. But while I ran these benchmarks on the 4K as well as the 1080p, high-refresh-rate settings, I saw no difference. Mark Hachman / Foundry Here we see that, well, there are games and settings that will push the Blade 18 to its limits. Deep Silver’s 2019 game, Metro: Exodus, certainly does. Here, we use the game’s “Extreme” settings, which does leave ray tracing off, but turns on other effects to give the game a more dynamic look. While all of our test laptops can play this game, there’s a definite spread between the most powerful devices on the top of this chart, and those below. Mark Hachman / Foundry It’s hard to believe that Cyberpunk: 2077 is almost five years old, too. This game has been a phenomenal benchmark, with a wide variety of available settings. This is a game which would like you to turn on ray tracing. For this test, I do — both the 1080p Ultra settings are tested, as well as the “Ray Tracing Overdrive” setting which really asks everything of the laptop. Remember, we turn off upscaling and frame generation to help generate consistent scores. But after turning on frame generation and upscaling, Cyberpunk delivered 130 fps (minimum 118 fps) on the Ray Tracing Overdrive setting at the native settings of the panel, 3840×2400. In other words, you can push Cyberpunk, at maximum settings, to deliver playable frame rates at the native panel resolution. (At 1080p, the result was 269 fps.) All of this subsample of tests dialed up the laptop to its maximum Turbo settings. Mark Hachman / Foundry Although Razer doesn’t market its Blade 18 as an AI workstation, the fact that it includes an RTX 5090 GPU with a hefty 24GB of VRAM automatically qualifies it for AI use. I recently reviewed the Framework Desktop, which includes AMD’s “Strix Halo” Ryzen AI Max chip, with gobs of memory. That allows it to load large AI LLM and image models, which gives it a leg up in terms of AI capabilities. It’s also much quieter. But the fact remains that most AI apps take full and best advantage of a GPU. These are test workloads, so the models used by UL’s Procyon test are going to be smaller and more outdated than the state of the art. But they’re also standardized. In this context, there’s simply no content between an “AI workstation” and the gobs of GPU compute power than an RTX 5090 can generate: four times the Framework Desktop. The same holds for AI chatbots or LLM text generation, too. Here, I’m much more sympathetic toward AMD’s processors. One of the measures of LLM performance is simply how quickly the response can be generated, in both the time to the first token (or word) and how quickly the entire answer is generated. In my book, speed matters a bit less if you can’t read as quickly as the AI generates its response. The Framework Desktop can allocate up to 96GB of VRAM for AI in our review unit. By comparison, the 5090 GPU in the Blade 18 allows only 24GB. This means the Blade 18 is much faster at calculating AI responses, though you might prefer the quality of results it produces. So there’s a subjective as well as an objective angle to this particular test. The weak spot? Battery life, naturally. For whatever reason, gaming laptops simply don’t last longer than a few hours in terms of battery life unless they’re tweaked. And this is just video playback. Just become accustomed to bringing your charger in case you want to game on the road. And remember, the Thunderbolt port doesn’t supply enough juice to keep the Blade 18 running for long. Mark Hachman / Foundry The chart above ranges from awful to rather good, actually. You might not be impressed with how the Razer Blade 16 performs on all of the gaming benchmarks, but it won’t conk out as quickly as the Razer Blade 18 will, that’s for sure. All told, the Razer Blade 18 delivers 4.9 hours of battery life while playing back video. But it’s a gaming laptop, right? So how long does it last while gaming? On battery, looping the Time Spy gaming benchmark, the laptop’s uptime was just one hour, six minutes. That is really bad. Synapse does come with numerous adjustments and configurations that can be made while on battery, but you’re still trying to draw blood from a stone. Razer Blade 18: Conclusion Of all the gaming laptops we’ve tested, I think that the $3,349 Alienware 16 Area-51 AW30 offers the most bang for your buck, though it’s a smaller 16-inch machine. But aside from the truly abysmal battery life — which, to be fair, is typical of most gaming laptops anyway — the Razer Blade 18 shines. I wondered whether Razer’s goal of a thin, “light” gaming laptop would fall short. A typical 18-inch gaming laptop weighs about eight pounds, while the Blade 18 comes in just above seven pounds. As our performance tests indicate, it certainly doesn’t fall short. My main gripe is that Windows doesn’t smoothly handle shifting between the two screen modes, which means near-constant UI adjustments. The stiff charger and quirky boot sequence add minor annoyances, though Synapse remains an exceptionally well-thought-out piece of software. Overall, the Razer Blade 18 excels where performance is concerned, which certainly is the key metric. But it’s also clear how much thought and care went into the design, and that won me over early on. In all, the Blade 18 easily earns PCWorld’s Editor’s Choice award. Read...

Amazon has gone ahead and slashed the price of the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K down to just $29.99 (was $49.99), which is a massive 40 percent off. With this discount, it’s now an incredible value. The Fire TV Stick 4K is a game-changer for any TV, old or new. You just plug it into the TV’s HDMI port and you’ll instantly unlock access to your favorite streaming platforms, shows, and movies. Not only does it support up to glorious 4K playback, it’s faster (less laggy) than previous models. This compact device fits in the palm of your hand, which means it also fits neatly into bags and pockets, making it the perfect travel-friendly gadget to bring with you to hotels and Airbnbs. It’s not just about streaming media content either, as it also lets you play Xbox games without a console (if you have an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription). The Fire TV Stick 4K comes with an Alexa Voice Remote, so it’s easier than ever to find and turn on whatever you want to watch. You can even ask Alexa for all the usual Alexa stuff, like weather forecasts, news reports, answers to random questions, and controlling other smart home devices. Don’t miss out on this chance to get the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K for only $29.99 because this limited-time deal isn’t going to last forever! Save a whopping 40% on Amazon`s excellent Fire TV Stick 4KBuy now at Amazon Read...

When you go camping or hiking, it’s fantastic to get a break from the digital world we’re all connected to through our phones. But the reality is, while phones can be a huge time sink, they’re also extremely useful in case of emergency, or for navigation, or for leisure (like music). You can’t just leave ’em behind. You have to bring ’em with you. And it’s doubly important to make sure your phone doesn’t die while you’re out in nature, away from civilization. That’s easy to do when you have something like this Mregb solar power bank, which is now on sale for just $25.49 (was $39.99) on Amazon. It’s worth every penny. For starters, this thing has a massive 42,800mAh capacity, which is about four times larger than your typical pocket power bank. You can recharge your phone up to eight times with this—and if it draws down to zero and you still need more power, you can recharge this power bank using the sun thanks to its built-in solar panel. That’s extra nifty while camping. Another point in favor of this power bank for camping and hiking: it’s quite rugged. The sturdy build keeps it safe and protected even if you accidentally bump it or drop it or send it flying down a hill. It has IP67 resistance against water and dust, and it’s chunky so you can keep a firm grip on it with lessened risk of slippage. This power bank has a USB-C port and two USB-A ports, so you can charge three devices at once. It also has a built-in LED flashlight, which means you can navigate at night without wasting any juice on your phone or having to carry a separate flashlight in your pocket. If you need a travel-friendly power bank that isn’t enormous but tough enough to withstand damage, and one that can recharge itself in sunlight, and one that won’t cost an arm and a leg, then this is it. Get the Mregb solar power bank for $25.49 while you can on Amazon! Save 36% on this solar-powered power bank with built-in flashlightBuy now at Amazon Read...

The Wallabies were keen to get Will Skelton back to help break the Bledisloe Cup drought. But travel schedules and a 39-year-old hoodoo may scuttle the plans. Read...

TechHive Editors Choice At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Roku’s least expensive 4K HDR player Compact design fits behind a TV and is suitable for travel Better performance and Wi-Fi reception than the cheaper Roku Streaming Stick Cons Increasingly cluttered home screen Some old TVs might require a separate power adapter No Dolby Vision or Dolby Atmos support Our Verdict The middle dongle in Roku’s latest streamer lineup is just right. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Roku Streaming Stick Plus Retailer Price $29 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Best Prices Today: Check today’s prices At a list price of $40—and often on sale for less—the Roku Streaming Stick Plus hits a sweet spot. It’s not the cheapest streaming dongle Roku sells, but it’s the least expensive option with 4K HDR video, and it sports slightly better performance than the $30 Roku Streaming Stick. Its portable design is also an improvement over the Roku Express 4K+, which Roku previously sold at the same price. I still have some misgivings about Roku’s software, which is gradually getting more complicated and bloated. But if you enjoy the Roku experience as it is, the Roku Streaming Stick Plus is a solid option. What’s included with the Roku Streaming Stick Plus The Roku Streaming Stick Plus has the same finger-sized design as the cheaper Roku Streaming Stick I reviewed in July, distinguished only by its embossed black “Roku” logo instead of a painted-on purple one. Its built-in HDMI connector plugs directly into one of your TV’s HDMI ports, and if it doesn’t fit within the spacing of those ports, you can request a free extender cable. Unlike earlier Roku models, the Streaming Stick Plus does not include a power adapter. Instead, you get a five-foot USB-A-to USB-C cable to plug into the USB power port on most modern TVs. The dongle had no trouble drawing enough power this way from the TVs I tested it with, but you might need to go hunting for an outlet adapter for old TVs that don’t provide USB power. For video, the Roku Streaming Stick Plus streams at up to 4K resolution with support for HDR and HDR10+, but not Dolby Vision. You need to step up to the $50 Roku Streaming Stick 4K for that. On the audio side, Dolby Atmos is also missing, as that feature is only available on the $100 Roku Ultra. Jared Newman / Foundry Roku now ships the same basic Voice Remote with all of its lower-end players. Like every other Roku current model, it includes buttons to control your TV’s volume and power, providing a single-remote solution unless you have an external sound system that doesn’t support HDMI-CEC. If that’s the case, you’ll need a separate remote for volume adjustments. (Because the Streaming Stick Plus doesn’t accept IR input, it won’t work with basic universal remotes.) One thing missing from this model is Bluetooth support. You can still connect earbuds to your phone and use Roku’s mobile app for private listening, but the Roku Ultra remains the only player that supports pairing headphones or earbuds directly to the streaming device. Roku Streaming Stick Plus performance and Wi-Fi reception Roku does an admirable job optimizing its software to run on lightweight hardware, so there isn’t a huge performance difference between each of its players. Still, the Roku Streaming Stick Plus does have some noticeable improvements over the cheaper Streaming Stick. In my side-by-side testing, the Streaming Stick Plus typically loaded apps a few seconds faster, and was quicker at filling program guide details as I scrolled through the Pluto TV app. Netflix in particular seemed to benefit, as the Streaming Stick Plus would often would return to where I was in Netflix’s menu system after switching to a different app. (With the cheaper Streaming Stick, Netflix usually needed a full reload.) The Roku Streaming Stick Plus also supports Wi-Fi 5, rather than Wi-Fi 4 as on the Streaming Stick, and I observed better Wi-Fi performance at long range as a result. Testing from the far end of my back yard on a portable monitor, the Roku Streaming Stick Plus maintained speeds around 20Mbps, while the Streaming Stick averaged less than 10Mbps and displayed a weak signal warning. Meanwhile, the $50 Roku Streaming Stick 4K achieved speeds of around 100Mbps in the same test. The improved Wi-Fi won’t matter in areas with solid reception—both models maintained 100Mbps connections in the office where my router is located—but it could make a difference on the fringes. If you want to use wired ethernet, Roku says the Streaming Stick Plus is compatible with USB-C-to-ethernet adapters that supply power, but I was unable to get it connected with several multiport USB-C hubs. The Roku Ultra is a better bet if ethernet is a must. Roku software: Familiar layout, new distractions Jared Newman / Foundry While Roku has traditionally prided itself on simplicity, in recent years that mission has been at odds with the economics of Roku’s business, which calls for ever-more ad revenue and—more recently—a push for more subscriptions. This manifests itself in a bunch of ways: The Home section, which once presented a straightforward list of your installed apps, now includes promotional content tiles and links to various content submenus. The left sidebar menu now has a banner ad at the bottom, which means the default menu options don’t all fit and you must scroll up and down to see them all. The banner ads in both the Home section and sidebar menu now have animations and video. More of Roku’s own apps are now pre-installed, including the recently acquired Frndly TV and the recently launched Howdy. The bottom-left banner covers up some menu options.Jared Newman / Foundry Fundamentally, it’s fine for Roku to try moving past the app grid paradigm and recommending more things to watch from the home screen. People do need help sorting through all their streaming services, and other streaming platforms have been trying to tackle that problem for years. But a lot of what Roku’s doing weighs too heavily on the side of upselling more services instead of helping navigate what you’re already paying for. To wit: Roku has a useful “Continue Watching” feature that tracks all the shows you’re watching across different services, but it’s buried in a “What to Watch” menu that’s all too easy to ignore. Why not put it in the newly-expanded Home section instead? “Continue Watching” is a great feature that’s too hard to reach.Jared Newman / Foundry Roku still deserves credit for nailing a lot of the little things. Many folks appreciate the remote’s dedicated fast-forward, rewind, and play/pause buttons—Google TV and Apple TV devices omit these—as well as the “Replay” button that jumps back in time with closed captions temporarily enabled. Roku also does a great job surfacing free content through its Featured Free menu and Roku Channel app, and support for Apple’s AirPlay comes in handy for sharing content from iPhones and iPads. The experience is overall positive; there’s just so much room for improvement. “Featured Free” is a dedicated menu for free movies and shows (with ads).Jared Newman / Foundry Roku Streaming Stick Plus vs. the rest For most Roku fans, the Streaming Stick Plus is a better option than the $30 Streaming Stick, with speedier app load times, better Wi-Fi connectivity, and 4K HDR video support. It’s also worth considering over the $50 Roku Streaming Stick 4K if you don’t care about Dolby Vision and have a decent Wi-Fi setup. I’d also pick the Roku Streaming Stick Plus over Amazon’s low-cost Fire TV Sticks, because for as cluttered as Roku’s software has become, Amazon’s is still a lot worse. If you prefer a more content-forward interface, consider Walmart’s Onn streaming devices (the $20 Onn box, $30 Onn 4K Plus, or $50 Onn 4K Pro) as alternatives. Otherwise, the middle dongle in Roku’s lineup should be all you need. This review is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best streaming devices. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Big touchpad Large, clear 16-inch display with 120Hz refresh rate Lots of connectivity including USB4, Wi-Fi 7 Good CPU performance for the price Cons Keyboard with numpad can feel a bit cramped Modest integrated graphics performance Battery life is good, but some Snapdragon alternatives last longer Our Verdict The Acer Aspire 16 AI delivers solid CPU performance, a big screen, and a long list of features at a low price. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Acer Aspire 16 AI Retailer Price $799.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Best Prices Today: Check today’s prices Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X chips are often a solid choice for a budget laptop, as they deliver good-enough performance and solid battery life at a low price. Most systems, though, have smaller displays. The Acer Aspire 16 AI adds an appealing big-screen option that is packed with features including USB4, Windows Hello facial recognition, and a plus-sized touchpad, among other things. Acer Aspire 16 AI: Specs and features The Acer Aspire 16 AI has Qualcomm’s entry-level Snapdragon X chip with eight cores and a maximum multi-core speed of 3GHz. It also ships with 16GB of memory and a 512GB solid-state drive. These are typical specifications for an entry-level Snapdragon X laptop. Model number: A16-11MT-X669 CPU: Snapdragon X1P-26-100 Memory: 16GB LPDDR5X-8448 Graphics/GPU: Qualcomm Adreno NPU: Qualcomm NPU up to 45 TOPs Display: 16-inch 1920×1200 120Hz IPS-LCD Storage: 512GB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD Webcam: 1080p 30fps Connectivity: 2x USB-C 4 up to 40Gbps with Power Delivery and DisplayPort, two USB 3.2 Gen 1 (one with charging), 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x 3.5mm combo audio. MicroSD card reader Networking: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.3 Biometrics: Facial recognition Battery capacity: 65 watt-hours Dimensions: 14 x 9.85 x 0.63 inches Weight: 3.42 pounds Operating System: Windows 11 Home Price: $729.99 MSRP The Acer Aspire 16 currently comes in just one configuration and is listed at an MSRP of $729.99. Some retailers actually list it higher at $799.99. The lack of configuration options makes shopping for the laptop simple—just buy from the retailer with the lowest price you can find. The Acer Aspire 16 AI is a solid choice for shoppers looking to buy an inexpensive Windows laptop with a 16-inch display. Acer Aspire 16 AI: Design and build quality IDG / Matthew Smith Acer’s Aspire is among the more affordable Windows laptops, and while that’s obvious in the laptop’s design, it’s less obvious in the build quality. First up, design. There’s not much to remark on. The Aspire 16 AI is a simple silver-gray plastic slab with a low-key Acer badge. It’s thin at just 0.63 inches in profile (though note that number doesn’t appear to include the rubber feet on the bottom). It’s also light at 3.42 pounds, which isn’t much for a laptop with a 16-inch display. What about build quality? The Aspire 16 AI isn’t luxurious, as the laptop uses plastic for both the interior and exterior. However, the materials offered look and feel fine for a budget machine. It’s rigid, too, as the display lid and lower chassis allow only a hint of flex in use. I also noticed the display hinge can rotate up to 180 degrees, meaning it’s possible to open the laptop such that the screen lies entirely flat on a table. That provides some extra possibilities in your setup if you plan to use the laptop as a second screen with an external keyboard and mouse. Acer Aspire 16 AI: Keyboard, trackpad, mouse IDG / Matthew Smith The Acer Aspire 16 AI squeezes in both a keyboard and numpad. That, of course. means you have a numpad, which even many 16-inch laptops lack. However, it also means the keyboard layout isn’t as spacious as most 16-inch laptops and shifted towards the left (to make room for the numpad). The touchpad also moves left to keep it centered under the spacebar, which makes the left palm rest area tight. Key feel is fine. There’s fair key travel and each key activates with a defined bottoming action, but it’s not as crisp as I would like. This, however, is definitely a nitpick, and I had no problem typing several thousand words on the laptop. The touchpad is large at roughly six inches wide and 3.5 inches deep. While there are some more expensive laptops with bigger touchpads, like the MacBook Pro 16 and Razer Blade 18, this is an above-average size for a laptop in this price bracket, and the extra space is appreciated. Multi-touch gestures felt responsive and more comfortable than on competitors with smaller touchpad surfaces. Acer Aspire 16 AI: Display, audio IDG / Matthew Smith Acer ships the Aspire 16 AI with a 16-inch 1920×1200 IPS-LCD display. That’s standard for a budget laptop, but the Aspire goes the extra mile and delivers a 120Hz refresh rate. The Aspire isn’t a gaming laptop, so that’s of limited use in entertainment, but it does help Windows feel smoother and snappier than on the typical budget machine. The display is bright and has a semi-gloss finish. Reflections are still noticeable in a very bright room, but the display remains usable. Outdoors use is dicey, though. On the other hand, the display’s contrast and color performance are mediocre. It’s not terrible, but with OLED laptops now often available for well under $1,000, IPS-LCD displays are becoming less attractive even in budget machines. Audio performance is decent. The dual-speaker system is downward firing, so audio presentation will vary depending on where the laptop is placed. Still, it provides respectable volume and decent clarity. I wouldn’t recommend the laptop for movies or for listening to your favorite album, but it’s fine if you want to throw on some chill beats while you study or work. Acer Aspire 16 AI: Webcam, microphone, biometrics IDG / Matthew Smith The Acer Aspire 16 AI has a 1080p webcam that includes a physical privacy shutter. The camera’s sharpness and color reproduction are respectable. It’s a similar story for the dual-array microphone, which picked up my voice with decent volume and clarity. The webcam and microphone are average for the category, but they do the job. Windows Hello facial recognition is supported for logging in to the laptop. It’s generally reliable and provides a quick, easy way to log into the laptop. While this feature has come down in price lately, most budget laptops still don’t include it—so it’s great to see it here. Acer Aspire 16 AI: Connectivity IDG / Matthew Smith Connectivity is definitely a strength for the Acer Aspire 16 AI. It has two USB-C 4 ports, both of which support DisplayPort and Power Delivery, as well as two USB-A ports, a microSD card reader, a full-sized HDMI port, and a 3.5mm combo audio jack. This is a wide range of connectivity for any Windows laptop sold in 2025, so it’s great to see all these ports included in a laptop that costs just $700. The USB-C 4 ports are a particular advantage as budget laptops sometimes stick to USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 speeds. Acer also delivers on wireless connectivity as the Aspire 16 AI supports Wi-Fi 7, the latest version of the standard. It pairs that with Bluetooth 5.3, which is a step behind the latest 5.4 standard. While many Windows laptops now support Wi-Fi 7, it’s still not included with some budget machines (like the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3 and HP OmniBook 5 14), so this is another feature win for the Aspire 16 AI. Acer Aspire 16 AI: Performance The Snapdragon X X1P-26-100 is Qualcomm’s entry-level chip with eight cores and a maximum multi-core speed of 3GHz. It also has a stripped-down version of Qualcomm Adreno. The NPU is the same, however, as it quotes performance at 45 TOPS across all Snapdragon X chips. IDG / Matthew Smith Despite its entry-level Snapdragon X chip, the Acer Aspire 16 AI did well in Cinebench 2024, a heavily multi-threaded CPU test. The laptop did better than several other Qualcomm-powered systems and also beat the Intel-powered Dell 16 Plus. It’s interesting to note, too, that the Snapdragon X doesn’t seem to give up much when compared to the Snapdragon X Plus, which sits a notch above in the product stack. While the latter has a higher maximum clock speed, they have the same core count. Because of that, the two chips trade blows depending on the laptop. IDG / Matthew Smith As mentioned, all Snapdragon X chips have Qualcomm Adreno graphics, but they’re not all created equal. The best Snapdragon X Elite chip quotes IGP performance up to 4.6 TFLOPS, but the version in the Acer Aspire 16 AI only quotes performance up to 1.7 TFLOPS. That leads to barebones performance in graphics tests. With that said—and as the graph shows—this isn’t unexpected for a budget laptop. Most Intel and AMD chips in this price bracket also lack the best versions of each company’s integrated graphics and suffer similarly modest performance. This is also an area where spending a little bit more can snag you a huge gain. The Dell 16 Plus, for example, can be purchased for as little as $750 when on sale. The Dell is a bit heavier and doesn’t last quite as long on a charge, but it’s a superior choice if you need passable 3D graphics performance. Acer Aspire 16 AI: Battery life and portability The Acer Aspire 16 AI ships with a 65 watt-hour battery. It powered the laptop to roughly 15 hours and 30 minutes of battery life in our standard battery test, which loops a 4K trailer of the short film Tears of Steel with the laptop’s display brightness set to roughly 200 nits. IDG / Matthew Smith This is a good result, or a mediocre result, depending on your perspective. Many laptops can achieve similar battery life, and the Snapdragon laptops with the longest battery life leave the Aspire 16 AI in the dust. On the other hand, the Aspire 16 AI is a large laptop, and most large Windows laptops lag a bit in battery life. This is often because they pair the larger display with better performance, but the Aspire 16 AI’s miserly Snapdragon chip isn’t too demanding. Personally, I think 15 hours is a good result for a laptop of this size, and it’s likely to be more than enough for most people who use it. Just be aware that you can have even better battery life if you opt for a smaller, optimized alternative like the HP OmniBook 5 14. The Acer Aspire 16 AI ships with a USB-C charger that provides 65 watts of power. It’s towards the larger side for a 65-watt adapter. Aspire 16 AI owners may want to look into a 65-watt GaN charger to improve portability. The laptop doesn’t have a fast charging mode. Acer Aspire 16 AI: Conclusion The Acer Aspire 16 AI is a solid choice for shoppers looking to buy an inexpensive Windows laptop with a 16-inch display. While it lacks a headline feature that would make it stand out, it has an edge in several areas. It has USB4, Wi-Fi 7, a display with a 120Hz refresh rate, Windows Hello facial recognition, and a large touchpad. Many budget laptops can check off a few of these boxes, but the Aspire 16 AI checks them all. Read...