Microsoft will release the last update for Windows 10 with the Patchday on October 14, 2025, after which this version of Windows will no longer receive any updates. What does this mean for users? Windows 10 is not immediately insecure or no longer usable First of all, there is no need to panic about this date. Windows 10 will theoretically continue to run indefinitely, as Microsoft is not discontinuing the functionality of the operating system, there will “only” be no more updates from November. This means that you can continue to use Windows 10 in principle, but no more security gaps will be closed, for example. Chris Hoffman / IDG Of course, given that cyber attacks on companies and private individuals continue to increase, this can be a problem for Windows 10 users in the long term. This is because newly discovered security gaps in the operating system can give attackers access to the computer, its data, and the network. PCs connected to the internet in particular are then fundamentally less protected. However, the security functions of the operating system remain active, including malware protection. As a precaution, you can disconnect your PC from the internet completely, but this reduces the usefulness of the computer, especially in a private environment. In principle, there is nothing to be said against Windows 11, especially as Microsoft still allows you to update for free. Windows 10 upgrade to Windows 11 Ralf Liebhold/Shutterstock.com These are the real dangers for Windows 10 without support New security vulnerabilities are regularly discovered in the various versions of Windows — even years later. From October 2025, Microsoft will no longer close these in Windows 10, so the likelihood of malware gaining access to a PC increases with each passing day. As most PCs are connected to the internet via a router with a firewall, there is often no danger to be expected via this route. However, there are numerous websites that are contaminated with malware. MacPaw Moonlock Lab There are also emails that you receive or programs that you download. These can contain malware that spreads on your PC if the malware scanner does not recognize it. If you actively use your PC with the internet, especially in sensitive areas such as online banking, you should always update the operating system or switch to Linux, for example. In this case, using Windows 10 is too high a risk. As soon as Windows 10 is no longer supported, the developers of third-party software will also stop releasing updates for Windows 10 at some point. Microsoft’s own Office 365 subscription loses compatibility with Windows 10 in October, for example. This will also make these programs less secure and in some cases no longer usable. This will not happen immediately, but it is an inevitable development. It therefore also makes sense to update your software for reasons of compatibility and security. Cyber criminals will focus heavily on Windows 10 According to Statcounter, Windows 10 still has a large market share of over 60 percent compared to just over 30 percent for Windows 11. The security company ESET estimates that 32 milion PCs are still running Windows 10 in Germany alone. This means that cyber criminals will increasingly focus on Windows 10 security vulnerabilities after the end of support because it will be worth it. As soon as these gaps are publicly known, tools and programs will appear that exploit them. From this moment on, users of the outdated operating system risk losing their data. Windows 10 blue screen Mashka/Shutterstock.com At the end of support for Windows 7 in 2020, the operating system only had a market share of 20 percent. It is therefore to be expected that many criminals are already working on attacks on Windows 10, if only because of the enormous spread of the operating system. If malware has infiltrated a PC in the home network, all data is at risk, including that on internal network storage such as NAS devices.“It’s five to twelve to avoid a security fiasco in 2025. We strongly advise all users not to wait until October, but to switch to Windows 11 immediately or choose an alternative operating system if their device cannot be updated to the latest Windows operating system. Otherwise, users expose themselves to considerable security risks and make themselves vulnerable to dangerous cyber attacks and data loss,” explains IT security expert Thorsten Urbanski from ESET. Can you continue to use Windows 10 safely? Of course, it is not advisable to panic and immediately disconnect your PC from the internet or network in October. If you want to continue using Windows 10, you can book the Extended Security Updates program from Microsoft. This costs around $60 for the first year until October 2026. In this case, you will continue to receive updates from Microsoft. This extension runs a total of three times until October 2028, after which updates will also stop. An alternative that you can already use now is the 0Patch security solution. This is a company that provides security updates for Windows 10 until 2030. However, the company’s cloud-based software does not update the Windows 10 system files, but activates the patches in the computer’s RAM. This means they have to be reloaded every time the computer is started. The software is even free to use. If you want more comprehensive protection, you can book the paid version for a little more than $25 per year (25 euros). Thomas Joos There are many tips on the internet about using the Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2021 operating system. This basically corresponds to Windows 10 Enterprise with all functions and will receive updates until 2032, but its use as an office PC is not permitted under licence law. Technically, however, you can safely use the operating system after purchase until 2032. There are also enough solutions for protection against malware that you can use in parallel, some of which are completely free of charge. For most people, updating to Windows 11 is the easiest option Of course, not all hardware supports Windows 11, but where installation is not a problem, you should carry out the free update. The operation of Windows 11 is still very similar to that of Windows 10 and you will continue to receive security updates and new functions. Before updating, check that all the applications and tools you use are compatible with Windows 11. Get Windows 11 pro for cheap Windows 11 Pro In general, it is also very useful to make a complete backup of the operating system on an external hard drive and create a rescue disc beforehand. This can be done free of charge in Windows 10 and Windows 11 with on-board tools. The data snooping of Windows 11 can be deactivated with on-board resources and free tools, for example with ShutUp10 . Run “tpm.msc” to check whether your PC has a TPM module. This is necessary for the update. If the tool does not display the TPM, check the BIOS to see if it is switched off. If your PC’s hardware has problems with Windows 11, it may be time to buy a new PC. Read...

Despite being the new hotness in online multiplayer, I haven’t been especially grabbed by Marvel Rivals. Maybe it’s my lack of excitement for Marvel properties post-Endgame, maybe I’m wary of a free-to-play game from NetEase getting its pernicious hooks in me. Maybe I was just so betrayed by Overwatch 2 that I’m off the idea of a team-based shooter altogether. But I’ll tell you what Marvel Rivals can do to get my attention: Give me that rug that Overwatch 2 pulled out from under me. And a new rumor says it might do just that. Blizzard’s bait-and-switch A quick bit of context before we begin. I was a rabid Overwatch fan when the game originally came out, bewitched by Blizzard’s slick presentation, a roster of fascinating heroes, and gameplay that felt just familiar enough after a few thousand hours of Team Fortress. But the game stalled, over-correcting to cater to the competitive set as Activision-Blizzard bet the farm on a pro eSports league and people were already soured on the loot box setup that had become endemic to the gaming world as a whole. I was still onboard to learn more about these wonderful characters and the setting, but by the time Overwatch 2 came out, I had resolved not to spend any more money hunting down rare skins. I didn’t play it when it first came out, seeing the free-to-play game pass setup that aped Fortnite as a lateral monetization move at best. I sat there and waited for what was promised, what was going to make it worth it to upgrade to the sequel and at the same time basically erase the original game: A fully fleshed-out Player-versus-Environment mode. Blizzard The original Overwatch had a handful of these missions, sprinkled out to players as special events. They were little treats, games where you’d team up with other players in specific and highly-tuned roles taking down hordes of AI enemies and bosses. And, crucially, they gave us a deeper look at the characters and setting, giving us tasty little bits of lore and character insights that weren’t available in the game’s chaotic primary mode. They were my favorite part of the game, and I couldn’t wait for a fully dedicated set of “Hero Mode” missions in the sequel. These were to come with leveled progress and branching skill trees, allowing players to explore aspects of the gameplay that just wouldn’t fit in a balanced team shooter. They never arrived. Despite showing them off to games media and hyping them up as the big selling point for Overwatch 2‘s upgrade, they were canceled months before the game’s launch and Blizzard didn’t bother to tell anyone until half a year after the game came out. In 2017 I made this custom Overwatch keycap set, using WASDKeyboards’ art tool, Adobe illustrator, and a blatant disregard for intellectual property.  Michael Crider/IDG I still consider this to be a lie of omission Blizzard’s part and it absolutely killed any desire I ever have to engage with Overwatch as a game or a property. It was a betrayal, and if that sounds dramatic for a free-to-play game, so be it. Despite having a full collection of every LEGO Overwatch set, despite designing my own Overwatch keyboard, I couldn’t even tell you the names of the last several heroes released by the game. Marvel Rivals is the new hotness So, I haven’t touched Overwatch in about two years. And I have to admit that hearing there’s a new Marvel-branded game that’s very much going for the same vibe had me interested… until I heard it was from NetEase. If you’re unaware, NetEase is a Chinese developer mostly known for an endless torrent of free-to-play mobile games, and I developed the habit of instantly dismissing any of its titles when I covered Android for years. They seemed to inevitably devolve into endless grinding that made it impossible to progress or compete without going into debt to do so. But perhaps I was being too hasty. For one, Marvel Rivals looks good. Really good. Definitely leaning into a more anime-inspired aesthetic than either Overwatch (already anime-adjacent) or Marvel’s own animation and games. There are some really interesting choices going on in a deep character roster. In addition to heavy hitters like Hulk, Wolverine, and Spider-Man, you’ve also got B-tier heroes that don’t get enough play on the big screen like Iron Fist, Psylocke, and Moon Knight, and some total left-field choices like Cloak and Dagger or Jeff the Land Shark. Who is a shark that walks on land. Named Jeff. It’s entirely coincidental that Jeff shares a name with Overwatch’s former and much-loved game director, Jeff Kaplan. Turns out, NetEase has been making a visible and apparently successful effort to break out of the mobile landscape and into more traditional “gamer” territory. Rivals is definitely its biggest-profile game for PC and consoles to date. But it’s been releasing some interesting stuff as of late like Blood Strike, a PUBG-style battle royale with some fantasy elements currently sitting on a “Very Positive” Steam rating. Wikipedia says that NetEase recently launched an American game studio with some big industry veterans attached, at a time when every other publisher seems to be culling as many developers as possible. Intriguing. Give me that PvE goodness So all of that got my curiosity. Now here’s what’s got my attention: Marvel Rivals might get a serious PvE mode. The one that Overwatch 2 promised and abandoned, instead chasing the white rabbit of infinite money. What? According to a series of leaks, it very much looks like there’s a new mode coming that asks players to team up to take on an environmental challenge with a big boss at the end. Like my favorite Overwatch PvE missions. It looks like a giant squid, at least in the limited pre-release assets that have been peeked at. I’m under no illusion that Marvel Rivals is on the cusp of delivering the PvE game I’ve been waiting on for five years. The game does come with its own backstory and canon, leaning heavily into the multiverse that a lot of people are kinda sick of at this point, but that’s more an excuse to get a bunch of recognizable heroes and villains together with vaguely defined stakes. Marvel has put some resources into other media to flesh out the game’s story… but that’s kind of Marvel’s bread and butter. And Blizzard did the same thing with Overwatch, only to let it spin its wheels for the better part of a decade. But hope springs eternal. Based on the coverage I’ve seen of Marvel Rivals so far, it seems like the developers are extremely aware of how Blizzard mismanaged its game, tweaking and tuning to favor balanced competition over wild and ridiculous fun. And if anything is already primed for stupid fun, it’s superheroes, especially the poppy and colorful versions seen in Rivals. It doesn’t hurt that Rivals unlocked all its playable characters from day one, sidestepping Overwatch 2‘s biggest and most annoying monetization push. And it borrows some of the better parts of Fortnite‘s setup, wherein you can only buy cosmetics that give no gameplay advantage. Though I’ll point out that Rivals doesn’t give you all the currency you need to purchase the next battle pass by completing the last one. I never thought I’d be saying this back when I banished your mobile shovelware from my Android game roundups, but I’m rooting for you, NetEase. You have a rare opportunity to kick the legs out from under one of the biggest game publishers on the planet — hell, one of the biggest companies on the planet period, if you extend it to Activision-Blizzard’s corporate daddy Microsoft. Good luck. Read...

A smart speaker makes an easy first step into smart home technology. Before you kit out your house with thousands of dollars of lighting and security upgrades, you can familiarize yourself with voice-assistant technology while enjoying music, podcasts, and news in a hands-free home environment. Here are our top picks in several categories. If you want information about smart speakers in addition to our top recommendations, scroll down the page to read our in-depth buyers’ guide. Why you should trust us TechHive’s editors and writers have been testing smart speakers since the early days of Alexa Siri, and Google Assistant, giving us more than a decade of experience with these devices and their accompanying mobile apps. Michael Brown has been evaluating home audio gear for just as long. He designed his own custom-built smart home in 2007 and has tested nearly ever smart speaker that’s come to market since then. James Barber has worked in music and technology for more than three decades as a music producer, A&R executive, entrepreneur, and reviewer of both audio gear and recorded music. We’ve evaluated basic smart speakers, models designed for audiophiles, portable speakers, and smart displays with built-in audio. You can trust TechHive to recommend the best smart speaker for you. Our top picks in smart speakers Amazon Echo Spot (2024) — Best smart speaker for most people Pros No camera Fabulous smart alarm clock features Ultrasonic motion detection can trigger Alexa routines Bright, easy-to-read display Can be used as a home intercom (with other Echo speakers) Cons No camera Can’t stream video, photos, or security camera feeds Can’t be used as Wi-Fi extender with Eero mesh routers Not great for music listening Best Prices Today: Retailer Price $69.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket $69.99 at Amazon Why we like Amazon Echo Spot (2024) Alexa is the most popular voice assistant, and the 2024 edition of the Echo Pop is the best value in Amazon’s smart speaker lineup. While it’s not a true smart display, it is equipped with a touchscreen that can display the time, date and date, weather conditions, and other information. It can also show album art while streaming music (not that we recommend this speaker for that task). It’s also the smartest alarm clock you could hope for, capable of controlling your entire smart home. Who should buy the Amazon Echo Spot (2024) There are less-expensive Echo smart speakers in Amazon’s stable, but you’ll be well rewarded for spending a little more to step up to the 2024 edition of the Echo Pop. Read our full Amazon Echo Spot (2024) review Google Nest Mini — Best smart speaker for most people, runner-up Pros Improved sound quality Google Assistant rarely gets stumped Works great with other Nest devices Inexpensive Cons Capacitive buttons are easy to miss Sound quality still isn’t that great No cable management to go with the new mounting hole No analog audio output Best Prices Today: Retailer Price Google $49 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket $49 at Google Why we like the Google Nest Mini The Google Nest Mini has an attractively low profile. In addition to supporting all Google apps, the speaker gives a user voice control for YouTube Music, Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, iHeart Radio, Deezer, and SiriusXM. Who should buy the Google Nest Mini If you want the most diminutive smart speaker, you’ll find the Google Nest Mini easier to hide away than the spherical Echo Dot series. Google Assistant also offers better answers to general questions than Amazon’s Alexa, and Android users who depend on Google Assistant on their smartphones will appreciate being able to use the same commands with the Nest Mini. Read our full Google Nest Mini review Apple HomePod mini — Best smart speaker in the Apple HomeKit ecosystem Pros Impressive audio quality for its size Easy setup Works as a Thread border router for Matter “Intercom” feature lets you broadcast messages to family members Temperature and humidity sensor was recently added, along with sound recognition for smoke alarms Cons No physical mic mute control Intercom doesn’t support two-way calls Supports third-party music services, but only a few are on board We’ve heard better-sounding smart speakers in the Mini’s price range Still pricey Best Prices Today: Retailer Price $99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket $99 at Apple Why we like the Apple HomePod mini The Apple HomePod mini offers the best audio quality in the small smart speaker category, a feature that goes a long way to justifying its higher price when compared to the Amazon Echo Dot and Google Nest Mini. Apple has significantly polished the smart home experience for users who own devices that support its HomeKit ecosystem. Who should buy the Apple HomePod mini The Apple HomePod mini offers native support for Apple Music, Apple Podcasts, and Deezer, making it a solid choice for audio playback, especially when creating a stereo pair with a second HomePod mini. AirPlay 2 support allows you to stream Spotify, Tidal or Qobuz from another Apple devices. Apple users who have invested in HomeKit-compatible smart home devices will appreciate the HomePod mini’s ability to control their home setup. As for the larger HomePod (2nd Gen), that Apple shipped in 2023, we think it’s still too expensive for what it has to offer. Read our full Apple HomePod Mini review Amazon Echo Dot (5th gen) — Best budget-priced smart speaker Pros A very inexpensive voice-powered smart home controller Very good audio reproduction Pretty industrial design Cons Still not recommended for critical music listening Google Nest Mini offers tighter integration with Android smartphones Best Prices Today: Retailer Price $39.99 View Deal $49.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket $39.99 at Amazon$49.99 at Best Buy Why we like the Amazon Echo Dot (5th gen) The Amazon Echo Dot (5th gen) offers all the same features as our top pick, minus the display, at a lower price. Who should buy the Amazon Echo Dot (5th gen) If you’re looking for a solid smart speaker at the lowest possible price, the Amazon Echo Dot (5th gen) lists for $15 less than the Amazon Echo Dot (5th gen) with clock. If you’re looking to put multiple Alexa-compatible speakers around your house, the savings can add up when deploying speakers in locations where you don’t care about seeing the time or temperature. Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin — Best smart speaker for music Pros Best-in-class stereo performance from a tabletop speaker Impeccable industrial design Streams high-res audio Cons Alexa is the only supported digital assistant Control buttons are difficult to see Best Prices Today: Retailer Price $799 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket $799 at Amazon Why we like the Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin The Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin justifies its high price with its arresting design and spectacular true stereo sound. The Zeppelin supports AirPlay 2 and Spotify Connect, while the B&W app offers support for Tidal, Deezer, and Qobuz, with access to 24-bit/96 kHz streams where supported. Who should buy the Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin The current Zeppelin supports Amazon Alexa, making this model B&W’s first smart speaker. If you’ve got the cash and want a music-first speaker with interactive support, the Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin will be your most impressive choice. And if you have other B&W audio gear—such as the magnificent Formation Duo—you can set up a multi-room audio system using the Formation app. Read our full Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin review Sonos Era 100 — Best smart speaker for music, runner-up Pros Honest, full bodied, stress-free sound Unusually well carved bass, natural-sounding mids, and whistle-clean highs A great smart speaker with either Amazon Alexa or Sonos Voice No one does multi-room audio better than Sonos Cons No support for Google Assistant You might need two to fill your listening space Lacks the channel preset buttons found on some competing speakers Optional accessory required to get line-level input and/or hardwired ethernet connectivity Best Prices Today: Retailer Price $199 View Deal Sonos $199 View Deal $199.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket $199 at Adorama$199 at Sonos$199.99 at Best Buy Why we like the Sonos Era 100 The Sonos Era 100 delivers spectacular audio with a very small footprint, and the speaker supports both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connections. You get access to the manufacturer’s own Sonos Voice digital assistant but can use Amazon Alexa if you prefer. Like all Sonos speakers, you can control playback with the company’s outstanding mobile app. Who should buy the Sonos Era 100 One Sonos Era 100 speaker offers outstanding sound, but invest in a pair and you’ll get outstanding stereo sound at a significantly lower cost than the B&W Zeppelin. If you want to create a multi-room audio setup, Sonos delivers an unparalleled experience. The platform that popularized seamless home audio has yet to be matched. Read our full Sonos Era 100 review Sonos Era 300 — Best smart speaker for spatial audio Pros Dramatic, embracing, and exotic sound from a shockingly small package A great smart speaker with Amazon Alexa and Sonos Voice Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity Cons Doesn’t support Google Assistant Trueplay Advanced Tuning depends on an iOS device; cross-platform Quick Tune isn’t as effective Best Prices Today: Retailer Price $449 View Deal $449 View Deal Sonos $449 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket $449 at Adorama$449 at Best Buy$449 at Sonos Why we like the Sonos Era 300 Sonos adds support for Dolby Atmos surround sound for users who want a more immersive experience. It still delivers the same excellent smart speaker experience as the Sonos Era 100 and similarly outstanding two-channel sound in a stereo pair. Who should buy the Sonos Era 300 To appreciate the Sonos Era 300’s immersive audio, you’ll need to subscribe to a streaming service that supports Dolby Atmos. Apple Music, Amazon Music HD, and Tidal subscribers will be able to enjoy these speakers, but Spotify users may want to opt for the less-expensive Sonos Era 100. Movie lovers can also use the Sonos Era 300 as surround speakers with a Sonos soundbar. Read our full Sonos Era 300 review Amazon Echo Studio — Best smart speaker for spatial audio, runner-up Pros Great audio performance for the money Supports 3D audio (Dolby Atmos and Sony 360 Reality Audio) Can be paired with Amazon’s inexpensive subwoofer and/or a second Studio for stereo Cons Lack of Z-Wave support weakens its abilities as a smart home hub You must subscribe to Amazon Music to get 3D audio Speaker enclosure is insufficently isolated from the surface it’s placed on Best Prices Today: Retailer Price $199.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket $199.99 at Amazon Why we like the Amazon Echo Studio The Amazon Echo Studio speaker offers excellent spatial audio support for Amazon Music HD and sounds even better with a second speaker for a stereo pair. The speaker can do double duty as a Zigbee smart home hub. Two can be paired for stereo, and if you crave deep bass, you can add Amazon’s beefy Echo Sub to the mix (actually, you can add an Echo Sub to many Amazon Echo models). Who should buy the Amazon Echo Studio Amazon has limited immersive audio support to its Amazon Music HD service, so you’ll need to have a full commitment to the Amazon ecosystem to take full advantage of the Echo Studio. Amazon Music HD competes with Tidal, Qobuz, and Apple Music on the top tier of music streaming services (and costs less!), so the service is worth a look if you’re already an Alexa user and want a higher-quality speaker option. Read our full Amazon Echo Studio review Sonos Roam — Most convenient portable smart speaker Pros Exceptional sound for its size Auto Trueplay now works over Bluetooth Sound Swap feature lets you “swap” music with other Sonos speakers Small and light, with a waterproof design Cons Slow wireless charging (at least with third-party chargers) Sound Swap doesn’t work across Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and AirPlay 2 modes Best Prices Today: Retailer Price Sonos $169 View Deal $179 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket $169 at Sonos$179 at Adorama Why we like the Sonos Roam A portable speaker should be, you know, portable. The Sonos Roam is the perfect size to stuff in a backpack while delivering the excellent audio experience you’ll get from the company’s larger speakers. Who should buy the Sonos Roam There’s a lot of competition in the portable speaker category, with plenty of excellent options priced less than $100. It’s the smart speaker features that justify the extra cash for a Sonos Roam. If you’ve integrated voice assistants into your daily routine and regularly ask Alexa for intel, you’ll appreciate being able to take that convenience with you (connect it to a mobile hot spot if you’re out of Wi-Fi range). Read our full Sonos Roam review Sonos Move 2 — Best-sounding portable smart speaker Pros Excellent audio performance—in stereo!   Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity—simultaneously! Very wide sound stage Incredibly long battery life Cons Still no support for hi-res Bluetooth codecs Still best described as luggable $50 more expensive than the already pricey original Best Prices Today: Retailer Price $359 View Deal Sonos $359 View Deal $449 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket $359 at Adorama$359 at Sonos$449 at Best Buy Why we like the Sonos Move 2 The Sonos Move 2 offers true stereo audio and exceptional battery life, but that comes at a cost. The speaker weighs more than 6 pounds and won’t really fit into a small bag. That said, the impressive sound stage and support for simultaneous Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connections make this heavy speaker worth the extra effort. Who should buy the Sonos Move 2 If you’re looking for a speaker to use in the backyard or something you can pack in the car for a trip to a vacation spot, then the superior audio quality makes the luggable Sonos Move 2 worth the upgrade over the truly portable Sonos Roam. If you use Apple Music, Amazon Music, or Deezer to stream your tunes, you’ll appreciate the ability to use those services with either Alexa or Sonos Voice Control. Read our full Sonos Move 2 review JBL Authentics 300 — best-sounding portable smart speaker, runner-up Pros Works interchangeably with Alexa and Google Assistant Makes a large and lively sonic impression Stand-out styling Competitively priced Cons Placement is critical for best sound performance Heavier than rival Wi-Fi portables JBL hasn’t published an IP code for protection from the elements Best Prices Today: Retailer Price $379.95 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket $379.95 at Amazon Why we like the JBL Authentics 300 We dig the JBL Authentics 300’s retro design aesthetic as much as we appreciate its dynamic, toasty-warm musicality. But the factor that sets it apart from other smart speakers is its ability to respond to both the “Alexa” and “Hey Google” wake words interchangeably. Who should buy the JBL Authentics 300 Anyone who loves JBL’s characteristic “West Coast sound” will feel right at home with the JBL Authentics 300. The same goes for smart home dwellers who don’t want to choose between the Alexa and Google Assistant ecosystems. Read our full JBL Authentics 300 review Amazon Echo Show 10 (3rd Gen) — Best smart display Pros Display can automatically rotate so it’s always facing you Significant improvements in display brightness and image quality Strong home security features, including Alexa Guard and the subscription-based Alexa Guard Plus Very good audio performance Cons You might find the tracking feature to be creepy (it can be disabled) Wi-Fi and Zigbee radios onboard, but there’s no Z-Wave or Thread support Needs at least 5 inches of clearance all the way around if it’s to fully rotate Best Prices Today: Retailer Price $249.99 View Deal $249.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket $249.99 at Amazon$249.99 at Best Buy Why we like the Amazon Echo Show 10 (3rd Gen) The Amazon Echo Show 10 (3rd Gen) adds a screen and cameras to the smart speaker experience. If you’re using it for video calls, it’s 10.1-inch display can track your movement and rotate so that it always faces you as you move around a room. The audio output is excellent, and there’s an integrated Zigbee smart home hub. Who should buy the Amazon Echo Show 10 (3rd Gen) The Amazon Echo Show 10 (3rd Gen) doesn’t offer a best-in-class audio, video, or smart hub experience, but all of those features are good and no other device does as good a job of providing an all-in-one Alexa experience. If you want an even bigger display, consider the Echo Show 15, but read our Echo Show 15 review to understand why we didn’t pick that model in this category. Read our full Amazon Echo Show 10 (3rd Gen) review Google Nest Hub Max — Best smart display, runner-up Pros Impressive audio quality Excels as a digital photo frame Built-in Nest camera Google Assistant is one of the smartest assistants we’ve tried Cons No physical camera shutter No analog audio output Google Assistant’s smart home compatibility still lags Alexa Best Prices Today: Retailer Price Google $229 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket $229 at Google Why we like the Google Nest Hub Max Android users know that Google Assistant has been closing the gap with Alexa, and it’s now a formidable competitor to Amazon’s smart assistant. The Google Next Hub Max offers surprisingly robust sound. Its smart home capabilities don’t quite match what’s on offer with the Echo Show 10, but it’s perfect for homes that are using Nest thermostats and security cameras. In fact, the Next Hub Max even does double duty as a Nest camera. Who should buy the Google Nest Hub Max If you’re a committed YouTube user, the Google Nest Hub Max offers an integrated app and the best viewing experience (Amazon Echo Show users must use the Silk browser to access YouTube). Read our full Google Nest Hub Max review What can smart speakers do? Digital assistants–including Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri–are mostly cloud-based software that understands natural language voice commands to perform tasks and fetch information for you. As smart speakers have become more sophisticated, some of that processing has moved down to the chips inside smart speakers and displays. Still, digital assistants aren’t quite sophisticated enough for truly seamless operation. While you don’t need to talk like a robot to them—e.g., “Alexa, set timer, 20 minutes”—they can all become easily confused, and you’ll hear a fair number of responses like “Sorry, I don’t know that one” (that’s an Alexa phrase, incidentally) when you trip them up. The good news is that the algorithms powering digital assistants learn over time and become better at predicting what you need. Here are just a few of the things that most smart speakers can do (you can add “and more!” to the end of each item on this list): Entertain Stream music over Wi-Fi Stream music over Bluetooth (most models) Work with Chromecast devices (Google Home models) Control your TV  Stream music to multiple speakers (multi-room audio) Play games Stream videos (models with displays) Retrieve news and information  News headlines Weather forecasts Traffic reports Date and time Wikipedia entries Manage your schedule Set appointments Provide reminders Serve as an alarm clock Maintain to-do lists Help in the kitchen Recite recipes (and show steps on models with displays) Set multiple timers Get measurement conversions (“How many cups are in one quart?”) Maintain shopping lists Set the temperature for a sous vide cooker Get basic nutrition information (“How many calories are in an apple?”) Contact friends and family Make and receive phone calls (video calls on models with displays) Serve as an in-home intercom Send text messages  Control your smart home * Turn your lights on and off (and dim them) Adjust your smart thermostat Manage your smart sprinkler controller Close your garage door Lock your smart deadbolt Arm your home security system Stream video from your home security camera (models with displays) Work with IFTTT * There are caveats when it comes to using a smart speaker for home control. Smart home devices that can be controlled via Wi-Fi don’t require any other hardware. Products that use the Zigbee or Z-Wave protocols depend on the presence of a smart-home hub, such as a Samsung SmartThings. Amazon’s higher-priced Echo models are exceptions to that rule, because they have an integrated smart home controller (although it’s limited to Zigbee). How to choose the right smart speaker Some soundbars can double as smart speakers. The Sonos Beam (Gen 2), for example, can be configured with Sonos’s own voice assistant, Amazon Alexa, or Google Assistant. Michael Brown/Foundry In a perfect world, smart speakers and smart displays would be interoperable, so you could buy one brand because it’s better for music, another brand because it’s the best for smart home control, and a third because it’s superior for retrieving general information from the internet. That’s not how it works in the real world. Once you commit to one platform, you’ll want to stick with it. There is one exception to this rule: The new JBL Authentics series of smart speakers can handle Alexa and Google Assistant voice commands interchangeably. That said, if you’re wedded to YouTube Music, streaming music from your account to an Amazon Echo is not perfectly seamless (the same goes for streaming music from Amazon Music Unlimited to a Google Home speakers). There are also some other major coexistence exceptions: Google blocks YouTube from appearing on the Echo Show devices, for instance (although you can get there using a web browser on an Echo Show). And Apple’s HomePod speakers are more or less locked to Apple Music. While tthere’s a recent workaround for Spotify, and you can use AirPlay to stream music from other services—provided both devices are on the same Wi-Fi network–stumbling blocks like that shouldn’t exist. Bottom line on this point: If you plan to mix and match third-party products with your smart speaker or display, do a little research to make sure they’ll work together. How we evaluate smart speakers How does the speaker sound? Most of the testing happens at moderate volume in home environments, but we’re also checking to see if the speaker distorts at higher volumes. The most important features are clarity and how natural the instruments sound. Especially with smaller speakers, we want to find out how much bass the speaker can deliver. Equally important for wireless speakers is how easily they can connect with an audio source and how stable that connection is during music playback. How far can you move the signal source from the speaker and still get an unbroken signal? Does the speaker support Bluetooth as well as Wi-Fi? Does it include an auxiliary input for wired playback? We also look at any smartphone app designed to work with the speaker. Does the app allow the user to adjust the sound to their preferences? Does the app allow a user to adjust the speaker’s smart capabilities? For smart speakers, we evaluate how well the speaker processes voice commands. A large part of the performance depends on the capabilities of Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, or Apple’s Siri. . Read...

Intel’s Core 285H chip, the first member of its Core Ultra 200 or “Arrow Lake-H” family for laptops, has a big crater to fill. Yes, crater: This processor essentially bombed on the desktop. In laptops, however, Intel’s Core 285H chip helps redeem Intel’s reputation, starring in the otherwise pedestrian MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo (B2HMG) laptop. Consider this to be two reviews for the price of one: I’ll take a look at the MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo itself, a sample of a laptop that has yet to begin officially shipping. But most of the performance tests I’ll run are for the purpose of comparing Intel’s Core Ultra 285H and the Arrow Lake-H architecture to the best that AMD and Qualcomm have to offer, plus Intel’s older mobile chips. The short answer: Intel blows away its previous “Lunar Lake” chips, the Core Ultra 200V. The new Core Ultra 200H chips essentially double the performance in general applications thanks to a ton of additional cores. But, hampered by its lack of a modern NPU, Intel is forced to mumble and kick the ground when it comes to talking about AI. At press time, I couldn’t find any retailers that advertised the Prestige 16 AI Evo (B2HMG) for sale, and MSI’s own listing for the laptop just references a number of overseas suppliers. MSI charges about $1,620 for the Prestige 16 AI EVO B1MG, which was the debut laptop for our tests of the Core Ultra 100-series chips, or Meteor Lake, in Feb. 2024. Mark Hachman / IDG MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo (B2HMG): Specs and features Display: 16-inch 3840×2400 OLED @60Hz Processor: “Up to” Core 7 200H, Core 9 285H as tested Graphics: Intel Arc 140T NPU: Yes, 13 TOPS Memory: 32GB LPDDR5x-7500 Storage: 1TB (2x M.2 SSD slots, NVMe PCIe Gen 4) Ports: 2 USB-C (Thunderbolt 4, DisplayPort/Power Delivery 3.0); 1 HDMI 2.1, 1 USB-A 10Gbps, 1 SD (XC/HC card reader), Gigabit Ethernet, Kensington lock Camera: 1080p, 30 fps (user-facing) Battery: 99.9Wh Wireless: Intel Killer BE Wi-Fi 7/ Bluetooth 5.4 Operating system: Windows 11 Home/Pro (Windows 11 Home as tested) Dimensions (inches): 14.11 x 10.02 x 0.75 in. (16.9-19.0mm) Weight: 3.31 lbs. Color: Stellar Gray Price: Unknown MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo (B2HMG): Design, build quality, display and ports Intel sent us an engineering sample of the MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo (B2HMG) for review, as a test bed for the Core Ultra 9 285H (Arrow Lake-H) chip inside. You’re not going to find too many differences between the Prestige 16 AI Evo B2HMG and earlier models like the 2024 MSI Prestige 16 B1MG, which housed the Core Ultra 7 155H, Intel’s first entrant into its mobile Core Ultra family. As reviewer Matt Smith noted of the B1MG, this B2HMG is a thoroughly mainstream, rather nondescript, plasticky laptop most notable for what’s inside. It’s not a huge surprise that the model is used as a showcase for Intel’s new chips. Structurally, the magnesium-aluminum laptop doesn’t quite have the robustness you’d expect from a purely aluminum chassis, though I really didn’t notice any keyboard flex. I didn’t notice any display flex either, although opening and closing the device feels a bit flimsy. I wouldn’t mind if MSI shaved a few tenths of a pound off of the weight, but 3.3 pounds isn’t egregious for a mainstream laptop. I’ve stopped worrying about laptop thicknesses, mostly, but the chassis is thick enough to accommodate an Ethernet port, which is always a nice touch. About the only thing that feels off to me are the rear-mounted ports. I know there’s an argument to be made that snaking the power cable (which takes up one of the two USB-C/Thunderbolt ports on the rear of the machine) from behind can save space. The same holds for placing the HDMI port on the rear. But it feels weird in my own setup, in which the laptop sits on my desk’s keyboard drawer, with its screen nestled just under a desktop display. I always worry about crimping the cords or bending the USB-C port itself. I have mixed feeling about the choice to put the two Thunderbolt 4 ports and the HDMI port on the back of the MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo (B2HMG).Mark Hachman / IDG Aside from the SD slot, Ethernet, and headphone jack on the right side of the chassis, the Prestige 16 AI Evo B2HMG uses the left side for venting hot air that’s pulled in from a grille underneath the laptop itself. I rarely heard the fans spin up to peak levels. Most of the time, if the laptop needed to cool itself, the fans ran at just a light hiss. The fan response time seems quick as well; over the years I’ve simply expected the fans to ramp up and stay that way through benchmark tests. That wasn’t the case here, with the fans turning off and on as needed. Maybe I’m jaded, but I’ve come to expect high-refresh rate displays. This laptop doesn’t have one — just the default 60Hz — which feels like a step down if you’ve used a faster one. Thankfully, MSI added an OLED display to the Prestige 16 AI Evo, which always adds a certain je ne sais quoi when watching movies, where OLED’s fantastic contrast helps the colors pop. I’m assuming you’ve used an OLED display before; if you haven’t, you’re in for a real treat. The MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo (B2HMG) puts the rest of its ports on the right side, with an SD card slot. but no microSD slot. Mark Hachman / IDG There’s a tradeoff, however, and that’s the display resolution: 2560 x 1600. As the numbers suggest, the display offers more pixels than a 1440p display, but falls short of a true 3840×2160 (4K) display. I couldn’t help but wonder why the earlier B1MG offered a gorgeous 3840×2400 display, and this didn’t. Pushing pixels does affect performance, however. (At the time of my review of Intel’s Core 100 chip, Intel and MSI sent me an engineering sample of the B1MG with the same 1600p display as in the B2HMG, and not the 2400p display that was part of our B1MG review.) The color gamut of the laptop’s display isn’t particularly outstanding, and there weren’t any color modes to choose from.Mark Hachman / IDG As always, some of the most useful functionality hides within the system utility software. MSI calls its app MSI Center, and it allows quick toggles between performance modes as well as access to features like the ability to cap charging at 80 percent to preserve battery life, what happens when the lid is closed, and so on. MSI doesn’t offer nearly as many capabilities as, say, Asus, but it’s still worth a tour to discover noise cancellation technologies and where to find firmware updates that aren’t covered by Windows Update itself. Our engineering sample didn’t come with any bloatware besides Norton 365, which I had to remove because it interfered with my benchmark software. There are a couple of other features worth noting: support for the very latest Wi-Fi 7, which may be faster than your own broadband connection, as well as a neat feature that uses the webcam to put the laptop into sleep mode when you walk away. The latter feature isn’t new, but not every vendor offers it. Venting and more venting on the left of the MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo (B2HMG) .Mark Hachman / IDG MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo (B2HMG): Keyboard and trackpad The MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo (B2HMG) offers a full keyboard plus a trackpad, which is always to be applauded for lefty gamers. A biometric login also hides behind the power button. Windows and Windows Hello prefer that you log in with a depth camera (and yes, there is one) so you might be unaware that it exists. I like logging in with my face, but shaving or just a bad hair day can sometimes mess it up. Set up both and chances are that you’ll never have to use a PIN as a backup again. Everything about the MSI laptop experience is sort of meh, so it’s mildly delightful to discover that the Prestige’s keyboard is comfortable and a pleasure to type upon. The keys are springy, even if they feel a mite small. The number pad is a bit narrower than a full-sized external keyboard, but that’s just a minor nitpick. A row of function keys at the top of the keyboard doesn’t hide any surprises, and includes keys to cut off the mic and camera. (There is also a physical webcam shutter.) There are three levels of backlighting, which can be configured to automatically turn off in 10 seconds via MSI Center. The default mode is “auto off,” which doesn’t really provide any additional explanation. It seems to rely on whether it detects you. I honestly didn’t notice this feature before performing some battery longevity tests that put the laptop near me on occasion. The battery life of this laptop is still amazing, but my results varied by about 90 minutes. This could be why. Mark Hachman / IDG A massive (6×3.5 inches) trackpad at the bottom of the laptop, and slightly offset, is clickable nearly to the top. It doesn’t use haptics, as some laptops now do, to simulate the typing experience. MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo (B2HMG): Webcam, speakers, and biometrics The combination of the fingerprint reader behind the power button and the additional Windows Hello webcam feels like a nice one-two punch of biometric redundancy. Fingerprint sensors can accumulate grime, and biometric cameras don’t always tolerate changes in your appearance. But MSI’s approach worked well during my limited review period. The webcam is pretty lousy. I’d wager that MSI built in a 1080p, 30fps webcam, then tacked Microsoft’s Windows Studio Effects on top of it. One of the features is the ability to do “pan and zoom,” so that the webcam follows your face as it moves around. In reality, the webcam is simply cropping in to find your face, which discards some of the 1080p pixels. In essence, you’re taking a 1080p webcam and cropping down to something akin to a 720p webcam instead. Mark Hachman / IDG My face ended up washed out and fuzzy (no beard jokes, please) when down in my office, and not much better upstairs in more natural light. I review the best webcams for laptops specifically for laptops like this. You can slide the webcam shutter closed with a physical mechanism near the camera module itself. One of the most underrated AI features on laptops is their ability to filter out and enhance audio, via a combination of multiple microphones, the laptop’s spatial awareness of them and what they can capture, and various AI enhancements. Again, this feature hides inside the MSI Center app, and specifically the AI Zone tab. Turning on the “Studio EQ” makes an enormous difference in how your voice sounds, giving it warmth and some timbre, like a professional mic. Enabling the related “Conference Enhancer” audio mode and the “Front” (precise) mode captured my voice well, and absolutely erased the tapping and rattling of a spoon in a bowl just a foot or so to my right. Absolutely spectacular stuff. It’s rather disappointing, then, that the speakers are soft and mushy. Yes, there’s AI filtering here as well, but MSI needs to beef up the basics. Mark Hachman / IDG What you need to know about the Core 200H (Arrow Lake-H) Normally, our laptop reviews focus on a few key benchmarks. But since this is the first chance PCWorld has had to test these new Arrow Lake-H mobile processors, I’m going to devote more space than I normally would to a number of tests. First, a brief recap. Intel announced both the Arrow Lake-H and Arrow Lake-HX processor families at CES in January. The Core Ultra 9 285H is the fastest chip in Intel’s mobile H-series chip at the moment, topping out at 2.90GHz. The Arrow Lake-H family combines “next-gen” Lion Cove performance cores and Skymont efficiency cores, found in Lunar Lake, but with an addition: the ultra-low-power E-cores found in the Meteor Lake architecture. Within the Core Ultra 9 285H, they line up in a 6-8-2 configuration, with 6 performance cores, 8 efficiency cores, and a pair of the low-power E-cores. The chip also includes the second-gen Arc GPU core found within the Arrow Lake desktop processor, whose NPU only provides 13 TOPS of AI power. The MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo may have AI in its name, but it is not a Copilot+-class PC. Intel has positioned the Arrow Lake-H family as “tweener” chip, powering a middle category between Lunar Lake’s long battery life and the gaming power of the Core HX family, which is due by the end of March. It’s a little weird that Intel’s Core Ultra 7 258V (Lunar Lake) and Core Ultra 9 285H (Arrow Lake) are two completely different chip architectures with similar model numbers, but that’s a problem for Intel’s marketing department to solve. In this review, we’re using for comparison Intel’s Core 100 (Meteor Lake) and Core 200V (Lunar Lake) chips, represented by the $1,649 MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo and the $1,499 Asus Zenbook S 14, respectively. I’m also including another $1,699 Asus Zenbook S 16 with a Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 chip inside, as well as a second version with an AI 9 365 chip. I’ve let the $1,999 Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 represent the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite, with the $1,199 Microsoft Surface Pro 11th Edition dropping in where it can. Let’s be honest: Arrow Lake was essentially a disaster on the desktop. Intel promised “parity” performance on the desktop at half the power, but failed to deliver. The Arrow Lake-S desktop chips needed a battery of patches and firmware updates to restore the expected performance, up to an additional 25 percent in some cases. (Those are all accounted for on the mobile platform, Intel says.) Will the increased emphasis on lower power play better in the laptop space? We’ll see. For this review, I’ve focused testing on the three key segments of the Core Ultra 9 285H: the CPU, GPU, and NPU, comparing Intel’s latest to the representative samples of Intel’s prior Core Ultra 100 (Meteor Lake) and Core Ultra 200 (Lunar Lake) chips, as well as AMD’s Ryzen AI 300 and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite processors. I’ve run the tests both on wall power and on battery, as in some cases the performance can drop fairly significantly. Though I leave the laptops on their default power settings, I also ran our test laptop at the “Best Performance” setting just to see if it made any difference. Those are noted by the “MAX” label in the the tests below. MSI’s laptop also has an optional “AI Engine” that’s tucked away in its MSI Center utility, bundled with the laptop. I received it with that option turned off; I left it off. I’d expect that turning it on would put the performance somewhere between the default settings and the maximum performance option, both of which I’ve tested. The results, unfortunately, are a bit patchy. Because of my colleague Gordon Mah Ung’s untimely death, a small number of tests weren’t completed on the Asus Zenbook S 16 and its Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 chip that he had in his possession. Rather than intrude on the family, we asked AMD for a replacement. AMD representatives accidentally sent over a laptop with a slightly slower AI 9 365 chip inside instead. Though the names are similar, the AI HX 370 has 12 cores (4 Zen 5, 8 Zen 5c) and runs at up to 5.1GHz; the AI 9 365 includes 10 cores (4 Zen 5, and 6 Zen 5c) and runs at 5GHz. We’ve tested both, and our results appear below. Some of the early AI tests don’t really accommodate the range of the new Ryzen’s capabilities, so you’ll notice some gaps there, however. Finally, it appears that a recent update to Adobe Photoshop may have broken the Pugetbench benchmark, a test I wanted to use to show off how well the chip runs Photoshop. The benchmark wouldn’t run. Intel Core 200H: CPU benchmarks The traditional metrics of CPU testing are Cinebench and Geekbench, which push the CPU to its limits in a prolonged burst. With gobs of cores, the Core Ultra 9 285H inside the MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo (B2HMG) helps it kick butt in the all-cores, all-threads tests — more than doubling the performance from Lunar Lake! Intel’s Core Ultra 9 285H easily tops the Cinebench benchmark.Mark Hachman / IDG Cinebench R23 and Cinebench 2024 are variations on the same test, with the latter version ramping up its intensity to challenge the more advanced chips. These two tests essentially render a 2D scene, using the codebase that underlies the Maxon Cinema 4D visual FX application. Geekbench performs a number of similar stress tests upon the CPU, but does a lot more behind the scenes. Though the multicore scores show a clear win for Intel’s Arrow Lake-H and the Core Ultra 9 285H, the single-core scores are much closer. Here, I have to note that the power settings make a difference. Again, I leave the power settings at the default levels, and the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 scores 849 in my multicore Cinebench 2024 tests. Gordon’s earlier tests of the chip dialed up the power settings across the board, where the Ryzen scored a 982. The Core Ultra 9 285H outperforms everything else in the older Cinebench R23 benchmark test, too. The Ryzen AI 365’s single-thread (battery) score was accidentally excluded; it is 1,513.)Mark Hachman / IDG AMD, Qualcomm, and Intel are much closer in single-core performance… but again, it’s a clear win for Intel in this round. You’ll notice in a few cases that the “maximum” power setting actually underperforms the standard setting. We also occasionally see cases where the performance on battery even outperforms the chip on wall power. We’ve seen these sorts of anomalies for a few generations now; they’re rare, but they do happen. Geekbench tests the CPU as well as the GPU, so there’s a bit of foreshadowing in the purple bars of the GPU testing here. Geekbench offers CPU (green and blue) as well as GPU (purple) benchmark scores, and the Core Ultra 200H comes out on top, again.Mark Hachman / IDG UL’s PCMark 10 is actually one of my favorite benchmarks, as it encompasses everything from video to CAD work to office testing. The problem is that Windows on Arm machines powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon trip and fall over one of the tests, invalidating the whole run. A similar test using the UL’s Procyon suite asks the laptop to perform various work tasks specifically designed around four Microsoft Office/Microsoft 365 applications: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. Procyon’s office benchmark might not be too intensive, but it’s also a real-world signal of how this laptop and the Core Ultra 200H chip will perform. What interests me about this test is that it uses all real-world application, but performance still drops off sharply on battery — more than other tests I ran. This is one of the benchmarks where the Core Ultra 285H drops sharply while run on battery — a drop of 23 percent.Mark Hachman / IDG Handbrake is a transcoding application, with a real-world, practical punch. In my previous testing of the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite, I downloaded a recent version to give the chip a fair chance to compete, and I’ve done the same with the Core Ultra 200H. (Previously we’ve used an older, unoptimized version for consistency.) Handbrake offers tons of configuration settings. For this test, I used a quick, standardized preset and re-ran our previous results on the new settings. Here, a lower score is better, as it indicates the task completed faster. Again, the Core Ultra 200H wins, but not by that much over the Ryzen. (I’m pretty confident that the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 would have taken this test, but I didn’t have the laptop to prove it.) AMD’s Ryzen AI 300 chip hangs in tight here, and probably only falls short because of the power settings of the representative laptops.Mark Hachman / IDG Again, I would have liked to have tested Pugetbench’s standardized Photoshop test, but it wouldn’t run. Intel Core 200H: GPU and gaming benchmarks Intel has never positioned the Core Ultra 200H platform as a gaming PC, but Intel and its competitors are offering powerful enough integrated graphics that potentially offer the capability to play some older games at low settings. AMD, especially, offers a strong competitor with its integrated 980M GPUs. Does the Arrow Lake-H have enough to keep up? We test graphics using simulated benchmarks: UL’s 3DMark suite. The Time Spy test maintains consistency with our established database of historical benchmarks, while the more advanced Steel Nomad Light test is designed for more modern PCs. Mark Hachman / IDG This is a competitive benchmark, with all three chip vendors performing well here. I’m also impressed that the performance doesn’t drop much when the laptops are disconnected from wall power and run on battery. Still, games are the real test. The popular game Cyberpunk: 2077 scales well across the board, and it’s a good test of everything from frame generation to ray tracing. In this case, Intel has said that XeSS 2.0, which injects AI frames to smooth frame rates, was “backported” to the Core 200H’s GPU. But while more than 150 games reportedly support XeSS 1.0, only Marvel Rivals and F1 2024 currently support XeSS 2.0. That limits the chip’s appeal somewhat. (Though F1 has a “benchmark mode,” it simply tracks the frame rate on an on-screen counter, which makes it tough to gauge.) Although Intel recommends that you try out gaming on the chip at Medium settings, we stuck with Low settings to eke out the best frame rate. After watching the benchmark for Cyberpunk, I’d consider the 40-ish frames per second not too bad, even though my preferred gaming setup can reach much higher. Most gamers prefer at least 60fps for smooth gaming, and the laptop doesn’t quite hit that, even at maximum power. AMD’s Ryzen is the king here. It’s worth noting that the frame rate didn’t seem to move when I enabled XeSS 1.0 on Cyberpunk.Mark Hachman / IDG The same thing occurred with the other game in our test bench, Shadow of the Tomb Raider. On Low settings it came closer to our target of 60fps, but didn’t achieve it. Just out of curiosity, I tried the Highest graphics setting and achieved just 33 frames per second. I don’t think that you can call the MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo (B2HMG) quite capable of gaming by itself. Close, but no cigar.Mark Hachman / IDG Intel Core Ultra 200H: AI benchmarks AI benchmarking is still in a nascent stage. Chip vendors like Intel are hoping for a day when you’ll run local AI applications like AI art and LLM/AI chatbots directly on your PC, and that day is indeed here. However, the quality of the AI output is still heavily dependent on whether your laptop has a powerful graphics card, or a more efficient NPU; and whether the models being used are small enough to fit on a PC. You’ll also need to ensure that the application is coded for your chip’s architecture. That last point is the snare that’s still hampering both Qualcomm and AMD. Although more applications are supporting both chip architectures — Microsoft has developed Copilot+ applications almost exclusively with Snapdragon chips in mind — Intel has leaned hard into capturing AI developers. What this means is that many of the standardized tests either don’t run on AMD or Qualcomm chips, or else don’t take full advantage. On the other hand, some of the apps tap into both the GPU and the NPU on Intel’s processors, a future that Intel has eagerly anticipated. The bottom line is that it’s not easy to find a test that will put all three chip architectures on a level playing field, if the app supports all three chip architectures in the first place. These tests basically just compare generation-over-generation performance with Intel’s own chips. In these tests, I turned on support for each processor where I could. Intel, for example, ran using in a dedicated OpenVINO mode, while Qualcomm used SNPE. AMD’s Ryzen AI only had a NPU available, and it reported that the dedicated NPU driver wasn’t loaded. But that didn’t seem to matter, given its score. Mark Hachman / IDG Remember, Arrow Lake-H is not a Copilot+ chip, and when you can find an application like UL’s Procyon Vision (which looks at how well a laptop processor can inference, or do work on, various machine learning models) Intel doesn’t come out on top. Procyon Image Generation offers image models of different complexities. Here, the laptop is actually creating eight 512×512 images using an 8-bit integer model. (Higher complexity, such as a FP16 model, takes longer but produces better images.) Here, each image takes about 20 seconds to produce. Lunar Lake is dominant here, with its GPU and NPU working together. Since the option to have both work together was there, I turned it on; it felt more realistic. The AMD and Qualcomm chips didn’t run. Mark Hachman / IDG You’re probably familiar with Google Gemini or Microsoft Copilot or ChatGPT; all are what’s known as LLMs, or large language models. Chip vendors hope that you’ll eventually use a compressed, less complex Small Language Model, or SLM, on your own machine. MLCommons developed its own test, using the Llama 2 7B large language model (LLM) from Meta. The test downloads the model and then asks it to perform content generation, creative writing, and two summarization tests. This test doesn’t bother with a score. Instead, it looks at two key, real-world metrics: the time to first token (or how long the AI takes to respond to your query), and the number of tokens per second. If you’re unfamiliar with AI, a “token” is the key unit of measurement. A token is a little less than a word: “some” requires a token, as does “2” or “6”. “Something” would require two tokens, as it’s essentially a compound word. When an AI chatbot responds to a query, it spits out text like a dot-matrix printer: You can see the words crawl across the screen on a locally running LLM. How “fast” the result is really depends on how quickly you read. These are real-world tests with real-world results, but it’s the robust NPU in Lunar Lake which takes the crown.Mark Hachman / IDG I used Procyon’s version of a similar test to round out my AI testing. Although this test also provides time-to-first-token and token-per-second benchmarks, I used the overall score instead. This test downloads four models, not one, and compares the performance on all four. Unfortunately, the test wouldn’t run on Arm or AMD Ryzen processors. The output is a bit messy, but Intel’s Lunar Lake wins again. Mark Hachman / IDG Evaluating battery life is a holistic exercise, where the laptop, its chip, display, cooling, and battery all play some role. Of the laptops I’ve tested above, here’s how the battery life shapes up: excellent across the board. I set the display luminance at the same level for all laptops, than used the UL’s battery rundown test that essentially loops its office benchmark over and over until the battery expires — simulating a marathon all-nighter of work. Asus 14 OLED (Intel Lunar Lake): 17 hours, 7 minutes Surface Laptop 7th Edition (Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite): 16 hours, 20 minutes Asus ZenBook S 16 (AMD Ryzen AI 300): 10 hours, 42 minutes Asus ZenBook 14 OLED (Intel Meteor Lake): 10 hours, 35 minutes To that, the MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo (B2HMG) with the Arrow Lake-H chip inside recorded between 15 hours, 10 minutes and 16 hours, 33 minutes of battery life, with an average of about 15 hours, 50 minutes over several runs. That’s outstanding, as is the battery life of virtually all of these laptops. Conclusion: Should you buy a laptop with a Core Ultra 200H chip? I’m convinced that, yes, you should. As a general-purpose PC processor, Intel’s Arrow Lake-H chip soars to the top of the heap in most tests, dramatically outperforming Intel’s Lunar Lake chips — which, to be fair, weren’t specifically designed with as much performance in mind. Instead, the Core Ultra 200V family was designed specifically for long battery life plus AI performance, which is where Intel’s Arrow Lake-H chips still fall short. But basing our battery-life testing on the Procyon Office benchmark, which consistently throws Microsoft Office tasks at the laptop, makes me feel much more confident in saying that you’ll get far more than a typical workday’s workload out of the MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo (B2HMG) and its Arrow Lake-H chip inside of it. (Remember, the MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo (B2HMG) itself is an engineering sample that’s not available for sale. I’m relatively ambivalent toward it right now — it’s good, but doesn’t really make my heart ache to use it.) Mark Hachman / IDG I still think that all three laptop platforms — AMD, Intel, and Qualcomm — are at the top of their game right now, pushing hard. If you want absolutely killer battery life and incredible standby performance, consider a Snapdragon laptop. AMD’s Ryzen platform, meanwhile, excels in most tasks, including gaming. Intel’s Lunar Lake Core Ultra 200V chips are still probably the best choice for both battery life and some AI tasks, with the Core Ultra 200H taking over for general productivity. The Core Ultra 200H doesn’t appear to quite have the chops to serve as a gaming processor, and lacks sufficient NPU TOPS to really run NPU-dependent AI apps. Right now, Intel’s advantage seems to be that everything runs Intel, giving it a sense that it’s the all-around processor you need. Real life bends more towards Qualcomm’s Snapdragon, at least where Windows’ AI apps are concerned. If I had to pick the best laptop chip at the moment, however, I’d still lean toward AMD’s Ryzen AI 300 processor. It’s not the top of the heap in most tests, but it’s quite close in many, and rises to the top in gaming and AI. I don’t think AMD’s challenge right now is silicon, but software: Its ROCm AI development environment doesn’t have the ubiquity Intel is tying to push with OpenVINO, and it shows. If you can’t run the app, it doesn’t matter how good the chip is. I think Intel’s dominance of the laptop market is nearing an end, and instead heading toward an age of relative parity between all three processor platforms. Nerds will still be able to buy the “best” laptop, but it will be important to know what features you’re prioritizing, exactly. Intel’s Core Ultra 200H (Arrow Lake-H) looks exceptionally strong in general productivity and battery life, two key features consumers care deeply about. That will keep Intel’s foes at bay, for now. Read...

Recently, I’ve started to consider my own impact on the environment. As someone who occasionally reviews laptops, there are times when I’ve accumulated a collection of them in my home office. Whenever I gaze upon this backlog, I’m reminded of my own contribution to the omnipresent problem of electronic waste, which is why my next laptop will be an eco-friendly one. Laptops, as you may or may not know, are not great for the environment! They often contain rare earth materials like lithium. Not only does lithium take a lot of resources to mine, but its extraction can also upset natural ecosystems. Plus, when it’s time to dump an old laptop, all or parts of it will end up sitting in landfill and contaminating nearby ground waters.  The impact laptops have on the environment is bigger than you may think. Further reading: Best laptops 2025: Premium, budget, gaming, 2-in-1s, and more  What is a sustainable laptop? Before I dive into the reasons why I’m switching to an eco-friendly laptop, I should first establish what that means. A sustainable laptop is designed to minimize the impact it has on the environment. This is done by using recycled materials and/or a repairable/upgradeable design. Framework laptops, for example, have a modular design that makes it easy to swap out old parts for new ones, thus extending the life of the laptops. Acer Vero laptops, on the other hand, consist of recycled materials like oyster shells and post-consumer recycled plastics. Choosing a refurbished laptop over a new one can help offset the environmental impact, as well. It takes a lot of materials to make a brand-new laptop, so by picking a refurbished one you’re circumventing that process. If you’re going the refurbished route, then I’d recommend buying from an official manufacturer. Getting a warranty with your purchase is always a good idea, too. Upgradability is a must I love the idea of a laptop you can upgrade over time, which is one of the main reasons why I’m making the switch. Most laptops aren’t upgradeable, which means you’re stuck with the internal components until they age out. In this case, the only way to get a laptop with the latest hardware is to buy a new one, which eats up carbon emissions and generates more electronic waste (otherwise known as e-waste). A laptop with a modular design, for example, allows you to easily remove the module components and then slot in new ones. Framework is a company that makes this process so easy it’s ridiculous. If you crack open a Framework laptop, you’ll see that each part is marked with a bar code, which you can then scan with your smartphone. The link that pops up will direct you to the exact part on Framework’s website. You can also get a laptop with a removable chassis. As long as you have access to the internal components, you’ll likely be able to upgrade things like the RAM and storage. Framework Laptop 13 Read our review I love the way the Acer Vero line of laptops look Acer’s Vero laptops are sustainable, which is great, but I’ve always liked the look of them. Just because they’re made of recycled materials doesn’t mean they have to be unsightly. The 2023 Acer Aspire Vero, for example, features a bluish-green colorway with flecks of lighter green embedded throughout the exterior. It’s nothing like I’ve ever seen and it’s more exciting than a boring gray slab. I’m currently eyeballing the 2025 model of the Vero for myself. Not only is it partially made of biomaterial from oyster shells, a first for a sustainable laptop, but it also features the same speckled look that I’m such a fan of. If I’m going to invest in an eco-friendly laptop, I might as well like how it looks, yeah? Acer Aspire Vero 16 Read our review Recyclable packaging makes me happy Nothing sets me off quite like piles of cardboard and bits of packing material flying around the house. Whenever I unbox a new laptop that I’m going to review, I’m always stunned by the amount of packaging I have to go through. I’m not someone who can easily operate in a mess–I don’t like it when a bunch of cardboard just sits around and takes up space. Fortunately, some eco-friendly laptops, like the Acer Aspire Vero 16, come with fully recyclable packaging. So, what does that mean exactly? Well, it’s packaging that can be recycled multiple times and made into different things. In fact, many major laptop manufacturers are sending laptops out with recyclable packaging nowadays. According to Dell’s sustainability brochure, the company promises that “100 percent of [their] packaging and more than 50 percent of [their] product content will be made from recycled or renewable materials” by 2030. Laptop companies are also doing a lot of other cool things to lower their carbon footprint. Dell makes it incredibly easy to recycle your laptop, which helps cut down e-waste. Lenovo even offers a “reduced carbon transport” to their service centers. You can read more about that in their sustainability brochure. The fact is that laptop manufacturers are doing their due diligence to cut down on e-waste and those efforts should definitely be applauded. A laptop with a metal unibody is nice, but I don’t need it I don’t mind a plastic build, I really don’t. I’m very careful when handling my electronic devices whether it’s a laptop, a smartphone, or a handheld gaming device. I’m careful not to place them in precarious positions where they’re in danger of falling, and I don’t travel with my laptops. My lifestyle is relatively low-key and I’m a more cautious person than most, so I don’t need a laptop with a metal chassis. Many sustainable laptops are made of recycled plastics, which might bug some people. I personally don’t mind the look and feel of a plastic build. All I care about is that the hinge that connects the screen to the keyboard feels firm. A metal chassis is more durable, sure. It’s a stronger material, after all. But mining metal (especially aluminum) is definitely more harmful for the environment, as it generates more carbon emissions. I also don’t mind the slight flex of a plastic build, as long as it’s sturdy and holds the components inside like it’s supposed to! Read...

TL;DR: Get Visual Studio Pro and beginner-friendly coding courses for $55.97 (reg. $1,999) if you buy before February 23 at 11:59 p.m. PT.  Learning to code? You’ll want a good place to do it, and it helps to have a few professionally led tutorials showing you the ropes. This bundle comes with Microsoft Visual Studio Pro and the Premium Learn to Code Certification Bundle, and the whole thing is on sale for $55.97 (reg. $1,999).  Visual Studio Pro is used by developers of all skill levels, and there are a few good reasons why. First, it’s a 64-bit Integrated Development Environment, so you can work on complex projects for mobile or desktop apps.  Other IDEs are pretty barebones, but Visual Studio Pro has a lot of tools that make a big difference. That includes IntelliCode, which analyzes your code as you write it and suggests endings for lines or blocks. CodeLens gives you information about your code, including recent changes, authors, tests, and commit history. And you can even collaborate in real time with Live Share.  This bundle also comes with a bunch of courses breaking down the basics of programming in a few different languages. There are courses for Python, C++, MySQL, JavaScript, and more. All course material is yours for life, too.  You have until February 23 at 11:59 p.m. PT to get Visual Studio Pro and the Premium Learn to Code Certification Bundle on sale for $55.97.    Microsoft Visual Studio Professional 2022 + The Premium Learn to Code Certification Bundle – $55.97 See Deal StackSocial prices subject to change. Read...

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Microsoft will release the last update for Windows 10 with the Patchday on October 14, 2025, after which this version of Windows will no longer receive any updates. What does this mean for users? Windows 10 is not immediately insecure or no longer usable First of all, there is no need to panic about this date. Windows 10 will theoretically continue to run indefinitely, as Microsoft is not discontinuing the functionality of the operating system, there will “only” be no more updates from November. This means that you can continue to use Windows 10 in principle, but no more security gaps will be closed, for example. Chris Hoffman / IDG Of course, given that cyber attacks on companies and private individuals continue to increase, this can be a problem for Windows 10 users in the long term. This is because newly discovered security gaps in the operating system can give attackers access to the computer, its data, and the network. PCs connected to the internet in particular are then fundamentally less protected. However, the security functions of the operating system remain active, including malware protection. As a precaution, you can disconnect your PC from the internet completely, but this reduces the usefulness of the computer, especially in a private environment. In principle, there is nothing to be said against Windows 11, especially as Microsoft still allows you to update for free. Windows 10 upgrade to Windows 11 Ralf Liebhold/Shutterstock.com These are the real dangers for Windows 10 without support New security vulnerabilities are regularly discovered in the various versions of Windows — even years later. From October 2025, Microsoft will no longer close these in Windows 10, so the likelihood of malware gaining access to a PC increases with each passing day. As most PCs are connected to the internet via a router with a firewall, there is often no danger to be expected via this route. However, there are numerous websites that are contaminated with malware. MacPaw Moonlock Lab There are also emails that you receive or programs that you download. These can contain malware that spreads on your PC if the malware scanner does not recognize it. If you actively use your PC with the internet, especially in sensitive areas such as online banking, you should always update the operating system or switch to Linux, for example. In this case, using Windows 10 is too high a risk. As soon as Windows 10 is no longer supported, the developers of third-party software will also stop releasing updates for Windows 10 at some point. This will also make these programs less secure and in some cases no longer usable. This will not happen immediately, but it is an inevitable development. It therefore also makes sense to update your software for reasons of compatibility and security. Cyber criminals will focus heavily on Windows 10 According to Statcounter, Windows 10 still has a large market share of over 60 percent compared to just over 30 percent for Windows 11. The security company ESET estimates that 32 milion PCs are still running Windows 10 in Germany alone. This means that cyber criminals will increasingly focus on Windows 10 security vulnerabilities after the end of support because it will be worth it. As soon as these gaps are publicly known, tools and programs will appear that exploit them. From this moment on, users of the outdated operating system risk losing their data. Windows 10 blue screen Mashka/Shutterstock.com At the end of support for Windows 7 in 2020, the operating system only had a market share of 20 percent. It is therefore to be expected that many criminals are already working on attacks on Windows 10, if only because of the enormous spread of the operating system. Get Windows 11 pro for cheap Windows 11 Pro If malware has infiltrated a PC in the home network, all data is at risk, including that on internal network storage such as NAS devices.“It’s five to twelve to avoid a security fiasco in 2025. We strongly advise all users not to wait until October, but to switch to Windows 11 immediately or choose an alternative operating system if their device cannot be updated to the latest Windows operating system. Otherwise, users expose themselves to considerable security risks and make themselves vulnerable to dangerous cyber attacks and data loss,” explains IT security expert Thorsten Urbanski from ESET. Can you continue to use Windows 10 safely? Of course, it is not advisable to panic and immediately disconnect your PC from the internet or network in October. If you want to continue using Windows 10, you can book the Extended Security Updates program from Microsoft. This costs around $60 for the first year until October 2026. In this case, you will continue to receive updates from Microsoft. This extension runs a total of three times until October 2028, after which updates will also stop. An alternative that you can already use now is the 0Patch security solution. This is a company that provides security updates for Windows 10 until 2030. However, the company’s cloud-based software does not update the Windows 10 system files, but activates the patches in the computer’s RAM. This means they have to be reloaded every time the computer is started. The software is even free to use. If you want more comprehensive protection, you can book the paid version for a little more than $25 per year (25 euros). Thomas Joos There are many tips on the internet about using the Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2021 operating system. This basically corresponds to Windows 10 Enterprise with all functions and will receive updates until 2032, but its use as an office PC is not permitted under licence law. Technically, however, you can safely use the operating system after purchase until 2032. There are also enough solutions for protection against malware that you can use in parallel, some of which are completely free of charge. For most people, updating to Windows 11 is the easiest option Of course, not all hardware supports Windows 11, but where installation is not a problem, you should carry out the free update. The operation of Windows 11 is still very similar to that of Windows 10 and you will continue to receive security updates and new functions. Before updating, check that all the applications and tools you use are compatible with Windows 11. In general, it is also very useful to make a complete backup of the operating system on an external hard drive and create a rescue disc beforehand. This can be done free of charge in Windows 10 and Windows 11 with on-board tools. The data snooping of Windows 11 can be deactivated with on-board resources and free tools, for example with ShutUp10 . Run “tpm.msc” to check whether your PC has a TPM module. This is necessary for the update. If the tool does not display the TPM, check the BIOS to see if it is switched off. If your PC’s hardware has problems with Windows 11, it may be time to buy a new PC. Read...

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