BitLocker is a crucial Windows feature that helps secure the data on your PC. The full version of BitLocker is only available on Windows 11 Pro, but you can still use it to a lesser degree on Windows 11 Home. (In fact, it’s one of the best reasons to choose Windows 11 Pro over Home.) So, whether you’re on Windows 11 Pro or Home, if you aren’t using BitLocker yet, you should definitely start. Here’s everything you need to know about BitLocker and how to get it set up right now. What is BitLocker? BitLocker is a secure disk encryption solution that’s built into Windows 11. When your PC uses BitLocker encryption, it stores all the files on its internal storage device in encrypted form. Modern Windows PCs normally save the necessary decryption key to the PC’s Trusted Platform Module (TPM) for safe keeping. When you log in and authenticate, the TPM releases the decryption key and you’re able to use your computer like normal. The TPM also checks that your PC hasn’t been tampered with before it releases the decryption key. Since your files are stored in encrypted form, a thief who steals your laptop won’t be able to access them without logging in as you. No one can open up your laptop, take the drive out, and pry into your data — your files would appear scrambled without the decryption key. Why you need BitLocker on your PC BitLocker ensures that only you (or someone with whom you’ve shared your BitLocker recovery key) can access the files on your PC. It’s a huge deal for businesses who want to make sure that confidential data on company systems can’t easily be viewed by anyone. But it’s also useful security for home PC users — especially laptop users — just in case someone happens to get their hands on your PC. The full version of BitLocker lets you use encryption without signing into a Microsoft account, lets you store your recovery key in the way of your choosing, and allows BitLocker to be used on a wider range of PCs. None of these are available via BitLocker on Windows 11 Home PCs. BitLocker Drive Encryption vs. Windows Device Encryption I’ve hinted at this a few times already, but there are essentially two versions of BitLocker. There’s the “full” BitLocker experience that we’re focusing on here, which is called BitLocker Drive Encryption and is one of biggest reasons to upgrade to Windows 11 Professional. Next to that, there’s also something called Windows Device Encryption, which uses a lot of the same technology to encrypt your PC’s storage in a simplified way — at least, in some circumstances. Windows Device Encryption is designed to be totally transparent. If you’re using a modern Windows 11 PC and you sign in with a Microsoft account, then Windows 11 automatically enables Device Encryption to protect your PC’s internal storage and upload the recovery key to your Microsoft account. Your PC’s storage will be protected with BitLocker and automatically unlocked whenever you sign in. If you ever can’t sign in to your PC and lose access to your files, you can get your recovery key from your Microsoft account online to regain access. (It also works if you sign in to a workplace-managed PC. In this case, the recovery key will instead be stored by your organization.) Get Windows 11 Pro for cheap Windows 11 Pro BitLocker Drive Encryption is more powerful and flexible. You can encrypt your PC’s storage without signing in with a Microsoft account, and you don’t have to store your recovery key with Microsoft at all — you can print it out and store it somewhere in your office, all without it ever leaving your PC’s storage. You can also encrypt other drives (including removable USB drives) with a feature named BitLocker To Go. You also have access to lots of extra settings to customize the way the encryption works. For the average PC user, Device Encryption is great — it’s what’s keeping most Windows 11 Home PCs encrypted. The Microsoft account and recovery key upload requirements ensure that you can’t accidentally lose access to your PC’s files, and even if you lose your recovery key, you can always access it online via your Microsoft account. A caveat for Windows Device Encryption At this point, I want to note that some older Windows 11 PCs may not support Device Encryption. It’s up to manufacturers to configure their PCs to work with Device Encryption out of the box. Want to check if your Windows 11 PC supports Device Encryption? Open the Settings app, select Privacy & security in the left pane, and click Device encryption under Security: Chris Hoffman / IDG If you don’t see this option, your PC doesn’t have it. If you want it, you’ll have to upgrade to Windows 11 Professional to unlock the full BitLocker experience instead. Requirements for using BitLocker For the most powerful and configurable BitLocker experience on Windows 11, you’ll need Windows 11 Professional or one of the other non-consumer editions of Windows 11 (meaning Enterprise, Education, or Workstation). The only edition it’s limited on is Home. For optimal security, BitLocker also requires a computer with TPM 1.2 hardware or newer. (Remember, BitLocker stores its decryption key in the TPM.) Since one of the most important system requirements for Windows 11 is TPM 2.0, all Windows 11 PCs should support this. Microsoft spells out a few other obscure requirements, like how your hard disk must be partitioned with two drives, including a small system partition designed to boot Windows before decrypting the drive. Windows 11 automatically creates these partitions when it’s installed though, so it’s nothing you really have to worry about. And that’s it. If you’re on Windows 11 Home and want to unlock the full potential of BitLocker, see our guide on upgrading to Windows 11 Pro without reinstalling the operating system. What to know before using BitLocker BitLocker can make data recovery a bit more complicated. If your PC dies and you have to pull the storage device from it and plug it into a separate PC to recover your data, you won’t be able to view the files on it — until you provide your BitLocker recovery key, which is stored in your Microsoft account online (with Device Encryption) or wherever you chose to personally save it (with BitLocker Drive Encryption). Naturally, this is also what prevents thieves from accessing your files. No one is getting access to them without your recovery key. Your BitLocker recovery key is crucial. Let’s say you use BitLocker Drive Encryption to store your files and you later experience a problem with your PC and need that recovery key. If you don’t have it anymore, you’re toast. Those files are irretrievable. If you don’t have a copy of the recovery key, hopefully you at least have backups of those files! Chris Hoffman / IDG BitLocker may also reduce your PC’s storage performance. You’ll see the claim that “BitLocker slows SSDs by up to 45 percent” online, but that isn’t the full story — that’s just the result from one particular synthetic benchmark on one particular PC configuration. The precise performance impact will depend on your PC’s hardware, the workload you’re putting your storage through, and your BitLocker settings. If you have a desktop gaming PC or high-end workstation that sits in a room in your home and you’re more worried about getting maximum performance than someone stealing it and snooping on your files, you may want to leave BitLocker disabled. On the other hand, if you use a laptop for work — or even just personal tasks — then a potential small slowdown is a reasonable price to pay to ensure your sensitive files are protected in case you ever find your laptop lost or stolen. Modern laptops are pretty fast, and you almost certainly won’t notice a difference in productivity applications and web browsing performance when you have BitLocker enabled. Setting up BitLocker on a Windows 11 PC To activate BitLocker Drive Encryption on your Windows 11 PC, you’ll first need to upgrade to Windows 11 Professional if you haven’t already done so. Then, you can open the classic Control Panel and search for “BitLocker” to find the BitLocker settings. From here, you can activate (or deactivate) BitLocker for any drive: Chris Hoffman / IDG Want to use Windows Device Encryption instead? Head to Settings > Privacy & security > Device encryption to find the settings for it. (If you don’t see Device Encryption as an option on this page, your PC doesn’t support Device Encryption.) Chris Hoffman / IDG Device Encryption should be enabled by default if you sign in with a Microsoft account. But to ensure it’s enabled, visit this settings page, check that it’s toggled to On, and be sure to sign in to Windows with a Microsoft account (not a local user account). Keep in mind when using BitLocker… When using BitLocker, the most important thing is that you need to keep tabs on your recovery key. If you lose it, you’ll lose access to all the files on your PC — and so you should store it with your Microsoft account online unless you have a good reason not to. If you choose not to store your BitLocker recovery key with your Microsoft account online, you’ll want to store it somewhere else safe and secure. You may want to print it on a piece of paper and store it in a physical safe, for example. It’s also a good idea to have up-to-date backups of your files, whether in the cloud or on a local storage device. Read...

The ruling marks a significant moment in the long running battle over how to regulate internet providers. Read...

It seems like every new laptop lately is a “Windows Copilot+ PC.” With Intel’s Lunar Lake and AMD’s Ryzen AI 300 CPUs, AI-infused Copilot+ PCs have finally expanded into traditional x86 laptop territory. They aren’t limited to just Arm-powered laptops with Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite hardware anymore. That’s good news for everyone. Along with speedy neural processing units (NPU) that are capable of at least 40 trillion operations per second (TOPS), Copilot+ PCs must have at least 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. If that’s the new baseline for Windows PCs, that’s awesome. It will benefit you even if you don’t care about AI. So, your next laptop might just be a Copilot+ PC. But if you ask me, Copilot+ PCs still leave a lot to be desired. While those min specs are great, there’s more to a great laptop experience than hardware. If Microsoft wants people to truly care about Copilot+ PCs, there are some serious improvements that need to happen sooner than later. Related: PC makers say tomorrow’s AI PCs need to just keep it simple Windows needs to integrate AI better Chris Hoffman / IDG Copilot+ PCs should feel more revolutionary than they currently do. At launch, we got a collection of small little features in apps like Paint and Photos, some webcam effects, and a few other goodies. It’s just not a transformative AI experience the way those Copilot+ PC ads promised. When I hear about transformative AI integration in Windows, I imagine Windows rewriting text in any application, or summarizing anything that’s on the screen, or noticing that I’m performing a repetitive task and offering to automate it for me. What if Windows AI truly understood what you were doing on your PC and could help you get those things done? That would be interesting, but it isn’t happening on Copilot+ PCs. Privacy and choice need to be a priority Microsoft’s Windows Recall feature was supposed to be the impressive new thing that sold everyone on the power of AI PCs, and it was the centerpiece of Microsoft’s original Copilot+ PC announcement back in May 2024. Recall takes screenshots of your PC activity every five seconds, then lets you search through it all using plain-language AI queries. Of course, it was immediately controversial. While Microsoft insisted it was private and secure, there was severe backlash over privacy concerns — so severe, in fact, that the company backed down, pulled the feature, and promised to make changes to address criticism. As we reach the end of 2024, Recall continues to see delay after delay. For people to trust Copilot+ PCs, privacy, control, and user choice needs to be at the forefront. Recall was actually designed in a more private way than the controversy implied — for example, those snapshots are stored entirely on your computer and nothing is ever shared with Microsoft. But concerns are still concerns, and it’s clear that Microsoft didn’t take those concerns seriously when originally designing Recall. Future Copilot+ PC features need to be designed in a way that garners user trust from day one, without repeated delays while the company scrambles to rework features after the fact. It’s just a bad look. Copilot needs to work offline (somehow) Chris Hoffman / IDG The name “Copilot+ PC” implies that you’ll be able to do more with Microsoft’s Copilot AI chatbot assistant on such PCs. Unfortunately, that isn’t true at all. While these PCs do have a Copilot key on the keyboard, that key also exists on many non-Copilot+ PCs, too. You don’t actually get any bonus Copilot features. Want Copilot AI features in Microsoft Word and other Office apps? You won’t get it with a Copilot+ PC. Instead, you need to shell out for a Copilot Pro subscription. Not the clearest naming scheme! To deliver on the promise of the name, Microsoft should make Copilot work offline in some form, perhaps on Copilot+ PCs to provide speedy AI answers even without an internet connection — and without sending any data to Microsoft, which would be a big boon for businesses that want to maintain control over internal data. Ideally, Copilot should still be able to access Microsoft’s cloud servers for more information when necessary. But all of this really just points to an even bigger problem: Copilot itself might need a big rethink. In my experience, the new Copilot is more focused on friendly chatter than real productivity. I don’t want my laptop to be my friend — I want it to be a productivity tool! AI image features need to work offline, too The generative image features on Copilot+ PCs are a little sad. For example, Cocreator in Paint can “upgrade” something you draw, and you can also generate images in Photos. But that’s… it? On a Copilot+ PC, these features use the system’s NPU to perform AI image generation. But they require you sign in with a Microsoft account, and they send your generated image to Microsoft’s servers for safety checks before showing them to you. In other words, you have to be connected to the internet — they don’t work offline. What’s the point of using the system’s NPU to do image generation locally if it doesn’t work offline, requires a Microsoft account, and sends the image to Microsoft’s servers? You might as well just use cloud-based AI image solutions that do all the work on a cloud server somewhere. Image generation models need to catch up Chris Hoffman / IDG The argument for using cloud-based AI image tools is especially strong because the image generation models on Copilot+ PCs just aren’t great. Yes, they technically work… but they’re far behind the latest AI image generation models you can find elsewhere. Cloud-powered models like OpenAI’s DALL-E 3, which is used by Copilot and Microsoft Designer, generate much higher-quality images. Copilot+ PCs need to be more competitive with the latest cloud-powered AI image models that can be used on any device, even phones. Otherwise, what’s the point? AI features should support NPUs and GPUs Gaming PCs are being left out of the Copilot+ PC push. That’s a shame because a powerful GPU isn’t just for gaming — it’s also the best way to run local AI models with the fastest possible performance. Indeed, while NPUs are getting all the hype, GPUs are still the fastest way to run many local AI applications that do the work on your own PC. NPUs are useful for AI tasks because they provide better performance than a CPU and less energy usage than a GPU. And with Copilot+ PCs being all about long battery life and power efficiency, it’s clear why NPUs are in the spotlight. But what about when battery life and power efficiency aren’t so important? GPUs are still the best for that, and that means gaming laptops shouldn’t be overlooked for AI tasks. When designing Copilot+ PCs and Windows AI features, Microsoft has ignored GPUs — if your computer doesn’t have an NPU, it simply can’t use those AI features. That’s a mistake. Related: The best gaming laptops that perform well Desktop PCs and gaming laptops should also be Copilot+ PCs Orva Studio / Unsplash Copilot+ PCs are currently limited to thin-and-light laptops. Do you have a desktop? Too bad. It can’t yet be a Copilot+ PC. Do you want a gaming laptop with a powerful CPU like Intel’s Raptor Lake refresh? Also too bad. That can’t be a Copilot+ PC either. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite hardware is only for laptops, and the company canceled its planned Snapdragon mini PC. Intel’s Arrow Lake Core Ultra desktop chips include an NPU that’s too slow for Copilot+ PC features, and AMD’s Ryzen 9000 desktop CPUs don’t have an NPU at all. Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm need to release processors for other form factors, not just the thin-and-light laptops that are in vogue. Of course, this will likely happen in time: Qualcomm has said it plans to release its Snapdragon X processors for PC desktops, and Intel and AMD will surely bring faster NPUs to desktops in the future, too. Apps need to use that Copilot runtime Microsoft’s Copilot+ PC specification isn’t just about getting new AI features built into Windows. It’s about establishing an entirely new type of app that requires AI-related hardware and a minimum hardware level for developers to target. When Microsoft first announced Copilot+ PCs, it also announced the Windows Copilot Runtime, which is a collection of AI models that are built directly into Windows. Windows applications can take advantage of these AI models… but only if you’re on a qualified Copilot+ PC. Some companies have told me about how their Windows applications can take advantage of NPUs for AI tasks, but I’ve yet to hear about a single application that uses the Windows Copilot Runtime for AI. If the industry wants to sell Copilot+ PCs for their unique features, Windows app devs will need to ship apps that take advantage of that Copilot Runtime. That’s a tall order, though. Most AI applications are being built in a cross-platform way using cloud-based AI processing so they can run on any platform, whether a Windows PC or a Chromebook or an Android phone. Microsoft will have to convince app developers to build AI features that work only on a certain subset of Windows 11 PCs — and without proper incentives, it’s unlikely for any to take them up on that. Bonus: The prices need to come down IDG One final but obvious point: Copilot+ PCs need to come down in price to achieve widespread adoption — and they do need to achieve widespread adoption if app developers are going to take them seriously enough to develop specialized software for them. If Copilot+ PCs stay as high-end niche products used only by PC enthusiasts, then they’re going to be easy to ignore. They won’t get the software they need to be interesting, and Microsoft won’t be moved to release interesting Windows features that only a few can use. Right now, we’re nearing the end of 2024 and it’s still hard to get a Copilot+ PC for much less than $1,000. You may be able to save a couple hundred bucks if you catch a Qualcomm Snapdragon X laptop on sale, otherwise you’re out of luck. That’s no surprise, though, as those laptops just came out (and Intel Lunar Lake and AMD Ryzen AI 300-powered laptops just started to trickle out at the end of 2024). We’re going to need to see the price come way down in the future so that people will happily buy Copilot+ PCs instead of getting last year’s laptops at half the price. A premium pricing strategy is a good way for hardware manufacturers to make money on their hardware, but a bad way to build an application platform. Fortunately, we’ve seen some first moves on this, like Qualcomm talking about a cheaper Snapdragon X Plus chip that’ll pave the way for $700 Copilot+ laptops. And, of course, if prices do drop, that’ll be good for everyone. Whether the AI features are useful or not, I look forward to more affordable laptops with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage as the minimum! Further reading: The best laptop deals (updated daily) Read...

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Virtual private networks, or VPNs, are one of the most effective ways to keep your data private and secure while online. They encrypt and hide our confidential web activity and are a key component in helping us to navigate safely while connected to the internet. As VPN usage continues to increase globally these apps are quickly becoming a cornerstone of our online security. Due to this importance, it’s worth looking at what’s in store for the next-gen VPNs to see how they’ll continue to provide us privacy and security into the future. From VPNs utilizing blockchain to new encryption standards even quantum computers can’t break—and maybe even anonymity for your smart appliances—here are the coming advancements in VPN tech I’m most excited for. Further reading: Best VPN services 2024: Top picks for speed, price, privacy, and more Blockchain technology is coming to VPNs The decentralized node structure of a dVPN may be the way of the future.NordVPN Decentralized VPNs, or dVPNs, offer a new twist on VPN technology and they are quickly growing in popularity. By distributing network functions across many nodes rather than routing traffic through one company’s centralized servers, they can theoretically afford better privacy and security to users. A dVPN runs on a peer-to-peer network that leverages blockchain technology. Decentralized nodes, operated by volunteer hosts, eliminate single points of failure and ensure that no single entity has control over every user’s data. Due to a dVPN’s more democratic functioning, they are also seen as being more resistant to censorship and government data sharing. Just over the last year or two, decentralized VPNs have started to gain traction in the global market. So does this mean crypto bros are about to take over your VPNs? Not likely. While dVPNs certainly seem like an attractive offer, more so with all of the hype surrounding everything crypto and blockchain nowadays, this decentralization doesn’t inherently mean a better experience.  With a traditional VPN, you have to put your trust in just one company. But this company, assuming you choose wisely, will run regular audits to prove it’s trustworthy, has a vested interest in keeping its network secure, and has the financial backing to continually make improvements to its applications. Using a dVPN on the other hand means that you have to trust each volunteer node host. Depending on how the dVPN company operates, these hosts may not be required to prove their trustworthiness or the privacy of their nodes.  So, while dVPNs are sure to become a popular choice for those seeking decentralized privacy, there will still be a place for traditional VPNs in the future. What is most likely is that you’ll see two separate markets develop, one for dVPN services and another for traditional centralized VPN services. It will then be up to you as the user to choose which you believe is best suited to protect your data. The post-quantum encryption revolution is upon us Post-quantum encryption will become the new standard for VPNs in the near future.Pixabay In August of this year, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) made history by releasing the first quantum-resistant encryption standards. Outside of a few overly enthusiastic cryptographers, this news might not have made a splash but it’s set to have huge implications for the future of online privacy and security. Researchers and tech companies are racing to build quantum computers that will have the capability to crush the encryption standards of today’s machines in mere minutes—something currently impossible. So, how does this relate to VPNs? Well, VPNs are heavily reliant on cryptographic protocols for securing communication on their networks. When you connect to a VPN, it encrypts your traffic by scrambling the data into an unreadable form, thereby preventing third parties from viewing and understanding that data. If a quantum computer with vastly greater computational power were to get ahold of this same encrypted data, it could decipher it with ease. These new ‘post-quantum’ encryption standards will not only set the bar for VPN providers in the coming years, but also provide a roadmap to help them become more secure. “Post-quantum” encryption will become a selling point that VPNs will advertise and market to consumers. For users, it might seem like a boutique feature now, but once quantum computers are up and running—most experts believe it could be within the next decade—you’ll absolutely want your VPN to be using these new standards. We’re already seeing some VPN providers offer ‘post-quantum’ encryption. Just recently NordVPN took the initiative and launched an app with post-quantum support. Others such as ExpressVPN and Surfshark have also implemented their own versions as well. It’s only a matter of time before this becomes the new norm for all VPNs.  VPNs will soon protect your refrigerator, too The all encompassing internet of things, or IoT, refers to a network of connected devices that communicate and share data with each other. For most people, this takes the form of smart home devices such as thermostats, TVs, lights, refrigerators, and home security systems. Thanks to IoT devices we now have more control over our environment than ever before. When it comes to cybersecurity however, smart devices are generally some of the most vulnerable and least protected pieces on your home network. Cybercriminals love to exploit IoT devices and in many cases, simply hacking one device will give them access to everything else. VPNs are out to change this in the near future. By providing fully integrated home network security, a VPN can encrypt and protect communications for all of your devices. Unlike the typical personal VPN that requires you to connect each individual device, IoT VPNs extend across an entire network to safeguard all devices. At home this can already be done via a router VPN.  Unfortunately, there are still a few drawbacks to using a router method. Many VPN providers still impose simultaneous device connection limits that can be taken up quickly by all of your IoT devices. Router VPNs also create a single point of failure meaning you need to make sure failsafes, such as an automatic killswitch, are set up correctly. This all requires a bit of technical know-how which the average layperson may not have. Routers with built-in VPNs, like Aircove from ExpressVPN, are just one of the ways that next-gen VPNs will protect all of the devices on your home network. ExpressVPN VPN companies are working on new and innovative solutions for at-home IoT coverage. More and more services are switching over to unlimited device connection models. Others such as ExpressVPN have even started selling their own routers, ready to go right out of the box, with the VPN built into them. VPNs are likely to begin offering configurable IoT options in their mobile apps as well. This will allow users to easily control which devices on their home network are connected through the VPN, all in a centralized hub. So in the future, even the AI-generated grocery list from your smart fridge will be encrypted and secure from prying eyes. Read...

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LG has rolled out its Gram laptop lineup in advance of CES 2025, confirming Intel’s debut of the Arrow Lake platform in laptops and offering a mix of AI software that can run either locally or in the cloud. LG disclosed two versions of the LG Gram Pro (the 17Z90TR and 16Z90TS), as well as the LG gram Pro 2-in-1. LG is adding a new entry to its lineup as well: the Gram Book, an entry-level lightweight PC with a 1080p display and a cheaper price tag to boot. However, LG isn’t saying what that price tag will be, or when these new devices will ship. LG’s two new Gram Pros offer the choice of either integrated or discrete graphics. In a press release, LG said that the 17Z90TR will offer an Nvidia RTX 4050 alongside Intel’s Arrow Lake mobile processor. After launching on the desktop with mixed reviews, Arrow Lake should debut in laptops from LG and others at CES 2025. Since Arrow Lake (like Lunar Lake before it) emphasized lower power, it may find a more welcoming home within laptops as the latest Core Ultra chip. So far, however, LG hasn’t announced plans for Nvidia’s Blackwell chip, the GeForce 5000 GPU that is expected to debut in desktops and perhaps notebooks as well. Not all of LG’s laptops include Arrow Lake, however, though the company’s skimpy specification don’t indicate which ones. The remainder will use Intel’s older “Lunar Lake” chips instead, with their more powerful AI TOPS specification. (None of the new laptops use processors from AMD or Qualcomm.) Lunar Lake’s AI horsepower will enable two versions of what LG calls “LG Gram AI,” specifically “LG Gram chat.” LG Gram chat On-Device runs locally on the PC without a network connection to preserve the privacy of the user, using a small language model that LG developed as an offshoot of its own EXAONE LLM. (LG didn’t release details of the LG gram chat’s parameters.) “Notable features include Time Travel, allowing users to quickly and easily revisit web pages, documents, videos and audio files,” LG said. LG chat Cloud does require an Internet connection. LG’s cloud model is built upon GPT-4o, one of the latest GPT models, but will require an undisclosed subscription payment to use. (The first year is free.) The service will provide “detailed and comprehensive responses” to a user’s questions, with the advantage that they will connect with the user’s calendar and email services, too. It sounds like you’ll have to give LG permission to integrate your Outlook or Gmail email, however. LG’s new gram laptops: specs and features Otherwise, LG’s new Grams don’t appear to offer too much differentiation from other notebooks at CES. In fact, they’re a bit on the heavy side, with only the simpler Pro model weighing less than 2.73 pounds. The cheap new Book offering, though with a 15.6-inch 1080p LCD display, weighs a rather chunky 3.74 pounds with only a 51Wh battery. Fortunately, the other gram models include premium displays, up to 2560×1600 on both Gram Pro models, with an 1800p OLED option offered on the Pro 2-in-1. Memory and storage options are offered up to 32GB on the three Pro offerings, with up to 2TB of storage. All of the laptops support an upgraded version of “Gram Link,” which sounds like a branded version of Intel’s Unison app for sharing content across Android phones and laptops. A list of the specifications for the new LG Gram laptops is below. (Note that LG’s branding calls these laptops “grams,” with a lowercase “G.”) LG Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Extremely long battery life Snappy desktop productivity performance Cons Lowest-end Snapdragon chip Slow GPU Dim display Our Verdict This budget business laptop delivers mind-blowing battery life and snappy desktop application performance. But the display isn’t great, and this is the lowest-performance Snapdragon X Plus SKU available. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today The Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 is a 16-inch budget business laptop with Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus hardware. It delivers what you’d hope to see from an ARM-powered Windows PC: Nearly 22 hours of battery life in our standard test combined with good desktop application performance. But other parts of the experience scream “budget business laptop” such as the dim and not particularly impressive display. It’s also worth noting that Lenovo has chosen the lowest-end Snapdragon X Plus hardware here. The CPU here is a little slower than the average Snapdragon X-powered laptop, while the GPU is much slower. Still, it’s a fine machine that will get the job done. Further reading: Best laptops 2024: Premium, budget, gaming, 2-in-1s, and more Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7: Specs The Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 QOY laptop we reviewed here is the Qualcomm Snapdragon-powered model. (Lenovo also offers ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 laptops with Intel Core and AMD Ryzen processors). This 16-inch laptop is a first-generation Copilot+ PC with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus processor. That’s an Arm-based processor, which means it runs older Win32 applications that haven’t been recompiled for Arm machines through Microsoft’s Prism emulation layer. Application compatibility is now pretty good, although not perfect. Notably, this is a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus X1P-42-100 processor. It’s the slowest and lowest-end Snapdragon X Plus chip available, with somewhat slower CPU performance and dramatically slower GPU performance than more expensive models. Our review model had 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of solid-state storage, but Lenovo offers this machine with up to 32 GB of RAM and a 1 TB SSD. CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus X1P-42-100 Memory: 16 GB LPDDR5X RAM Graphics/GPU: Qualcomm Adreno NPU: Qualcomm Hexagon NPU (up to 45 TOPS) Display: 16-inch 1920×1200 IPS display Storage: 512 GB PCIe Gen4 SSD Webcam: 1080p webcam with privacy shutter Connectivity: 2x USB Type-C (USB 10Gbps full function with DisplayPort and Power Delivery), 2x USB Type-A (USB 5Gbps), HDMI 2.1, SD card reader, combo audio jack Networking: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.3 Biometrics: Fingerprint reader for Windows Hello Battery capacity: 84 Watt-hours Dimensions: 0.6 x 14.0 x 9.8 inches Weight: 4.02 pounds MSRP: $999 as tested Lenovo pitches the Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 as a budget business laptop. Many people will be thrilled to get this kind of machine from their jobs. Yes, it’s not going to be ideal for gaming or CPU-heavy tasks, but as a 16-inch productivity machine that gets very long battery life with snappy desktop application performance, you could do a lot worse. Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7: Design and build quality IDG / Chris Hoffman The Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 is a solid 16-inch laptop. It comes in a “Luna Gray” design with darker key caps. With so much gray only broken up by the word “ThinkBook” on the lid and small “Lenovo” labels on the keyboard tray and lid, this laptop won’t turn any heads — but it’s not designed to. The build quality is good — there’s no weird flexing when you hold the laptop anywhere on the keyboard tray, you can open the laptop with one hand, and the hinge feels solid. The aluminum chassis of the laptop feels somewhat lightweight in a way, but the laptop on the whole is on the heavy side for a portable business laptop – especially one powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus ARM hardware. It weighs 4.02 pounds. Of course, at 16 inches, this laptop is on the larger side, so it makes sense that it’s heavier. Samsung’s more expensive Galaxy Book5 Pro 360 weighs a little less at 3.73 pounds despite its 360-degree hinge. If you want the lightest laptop, this machine isn’t the right choice. Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7: Keyboard and trackpad IDG / Chris Hoffman The Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 has a full-size keyboard complete with a number pad with a white backlight. I confess: My first impression was not positive. I like a good snappy keyboard with a decent amount of travel. The keyboard here just doesn’t feel anywhere near as crisp and snappy as you might find on a Lenovo ThinkPad laptop, for example. But I got used to it. And now, typing this review on the keyboard, it feels much better than I expected it to. It doesn’t feel mushy. There is a clear activation that is easy to get used to. But it’s not crisp —when you press the key down, it’s somewhat “soft.” Still, as I type the review on this keyboard at high speed and with clear feedback from the keys, I think it’s fine. But it’s something I had to get used to, and people who are fans of crisper key activation (like on ThinkPads) may want to look elsewhere. The trackpad is particularly nice, however. It’s large —but not too large — and positioned a little to the left of the keyboard deck so that it’s easily at hand when your fingers are resting in the usual spot on the keyboard. It’s smooth and the click feels fine. As usual, I wish it was a haptic trackpad, but most laptops still don’t offer that. It’s a good trackpad. Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7: Display and speakers IDG / Chris Hoffman The Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 has a 16-inch 1920×1200 IPS display. While the display is plenty large, it’s not a particularly premium display. The biggest problem is the low brightness — just 300 nits of brightness, according to Lenovo. This display also only has a 60 Hz refresh rate, and the colors aren’t particularly vibrant — even for an IPS display. It’s a fine display, but just fine. For office productivity work, it’ll do the job. But you can get laptops with OLED displays or even just brighter, more colorful, higher refresh rate IPS displays at a similar price point. This laptop’s display does have a matte coating and is reasonably resistant to reflections — which is good to see with such a low brightness level. It’s also worth noting that this is not a touch screen display. This machine has bottom-firing speakers, and they’re about what you’d expect to find on a budget business laptop. They provide more than enough volume for online meetings, watching a few videos, or listening to some music. However, the sound quality isn’t particularly excellent — when it’s time to watch a movie or really enjoy some music, you’ll probably want to plug in a good pair of headphones. The audio can get a little distorted at the 100 percent volume level, and it performs better at lower volume levels. Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7: Webcam, microphone, biometrics The Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 includes a 1080p webcam above its display. There’s a physical privacy shutter, which is always great to see. The webcam’s image quality is passable. It’s somewhat grainy and noisy when you’re looking at a high-resolution video image, and I do feel like it did a significantly better job in daylight than with standard indoor lighting, so performance may vary depending on your lighting. You can get by with this webcam in online meetings. I’ve seen better in many other laptops I’ve used recently. This is a Copilot+ PC with an NPU, so you get access to Windows Studio Effects for AI-powered webcam effects like background blur and fake eye contact in any video-conferencing app you might use. The built-in microphone picked up crisp, clean audio while I spoke, even though there was a noisy fan creating background noise — it did a great job of filtering out that background noise. The microphone will be more than capable for online meetings. The Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 includes a fingerprint reader built into the power button at the top-right corner of the keyboard. It works with Windows Hello to sign you into the laptop. Like the fingerprint readers build into other modern laptops, it works well, and I had no issue using it. There’s no facial recognition hardware here, though. Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7: Connectivity IDG / Chris Hoffman The Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 has a reasonable selection of ports, especially for a Snapdragon X-powered machine. On the left side, this machine has a HDMI 2.1 port, two USB Type-C (USB 10Gbps full function with DisplayPort and power delivery) ports, and a combo audio jack. Bear in mind that this laptop charges via USB-C, so you’ll be plugging the charger into one of those ports. On the right side, the ThinkBook offers a Kensington Nano lock slot, two USB Type-A (USB 5Gbps) ports, and a full-size CD card reader. It’s a reasonable selection of ports, although this is a business laptop so some people may want a Ethernet port for a wired networking connection. For everything else you might want, you can always get a dongle. Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7: Performance The Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 combines a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus processor with a speedy solid-state drive, so it’s no surprise that it provides good, snappy performance in day-to-day tasks. But there was one big surprise: The graphics performance. As always, we ran the Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 through our standard benchmarks to see how it performs. Native benchmark tools are still limited for Windows-on-ARM machines, and running designed-for-x86 benchmarks through the Prism emulation layer isn’t the best way to get a real idea of performance. IDG / Chris Hoffman That’s why we run Cinebench R24, which has a native version available for Windows on ARM. This is a heavily multithreaded benchmark that focuses on overall CPU performance. It’s a quick benchmark, so cooling under extended workloads isn’t a factor. But, since it’s heavily multithreaded, CPUs with more cores have a huge advantage. With a Cinebench R24 multithreaded score of 746, the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus X1P-42-100 hardware in this machine performed a little more slowly than the Snapdragon X Plus hardware in other machines. That’s because the Snapdragon X1P-42-100 hardware here is the lowest-end Snapdragon SKU currently available. It goes up to 3.2 GHz instead of 3.4 GHz — check out the official Snapdragon product chart here for more details. Next, we run a graphical benchmark. This isn’t a gaming laptop, but it’s still good to check how the Adreno GPU performs. That’s especially true since Qualcomm talked up the gaming performance of this hardware, although we don’t think they’re great machines for PC gaming at this point. IDG / Chris Hoffman First, we always run 3Dmark Time Spy, a graphical benchmark that focuses on GPU performance. This benchmark isn’t yet ARM-native, so it’s being run through the Prism emulation layer. It’s no surprise to see a 1,037 score, which is on the low side — but notice that this machine is also much slower than other Qualcomm Snapdragon X systems when it comes to graphics performance. IDG / Chris Hoffman We also run 3Dmark Night Raid. This benchmark is available with an ARM native version as well as an x86 native version, so we can compare apples to apples without any emulation layers getting in the way. With a 3Dmark Night Raid score of 16518, the Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7’s graphics performance is nowhere near as far behind those Intel-powered PCs. But it still is much slower graphics performance than other Snapdragon X Plus-powered systems like the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7. That’s because, again, the Snapdragon X1P-42-100 hardware here is the lowest-end Snapdragon SKU currently available. While most Snapdragon X Plus and Snapdragon X Elite GPUs run at 3.8 TFLOPS, according to Qualcomm, this machine’s Adreno GPU runs at 1.7 TFLOPS. On paper, this is less than half the speed of the average Snapdragon GPU! And the benchmarks show that there’s a serious performance cost to choosing this low-end Qualcomm Adreno GPU. Of course, this is designed as a budget business laptop. Lenovo likely expects that the average budget business laptop user won’t be playing many PC games, and they’re likely correct. But some people may use desktop applications that need solid GPU performance. And there’s also been a lot of talk about the great GPU performance on these machines — so you should be aware that this machine and its Snapdragon X Plus SKU do not deliver the kind of GPU performance people have seen on higher-tier Snapdragon X Plus and Snapdragon X Elite systems. Overall, though, this machine delivers snappy performance in the usual desktop productivity applications: Web browsers like Chrome, workplace chat apps like Slack, productivity tools like Microsoft Office, and so on. If that’s what you plan on doing with this machine, the low GPU performance won’t really affect you — you may not even notice it. Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7: Battery life The Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 pairs a large 84 Watt-hour battery life with a power-sipping Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus chip and a display that shouldn’t be particularly power hungry. We’d expect to see incredible battery life with a hardware configuration like this. And we did! IDG / Chris Hoffman To benchmark the battery life, we play a 4K copy of Tears of Steel on repeat on Windows 11 with airplane mode enabled until the laptop suspends itself. This is a best-case scenario for any laptop since local video playback is so efficient, and real battery life in day-to-day use is always going to be less than this. We set the screen to 250 nits of brightness for this benchmark, which meant cranking the brightness slider way up on this machine. The Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 lasted an average of 1,314 minutes in our standard battery rundown test. That’s just a hair under 22 hours. While you won’t get quite that long in real-world use, this machine delivers better-than-all-day battery life. It’s an excellent score. Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7: Conclusion Lenovo pitches the Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 as a budget business laptop. Many people will be thrilled to get this kind of machine from their jobs. Yes, it’s not going to be ideal for gaming or CPU-heavy tasks, but as a 16-inch productivity machine that gets very long battery life with snappy desktop application performance, you could do a lot worse. If the applications a business needs all run well on Windows on ARM — and most do now — then it’s a fine machine. Lenovo told us that this laptop sells for $999. I’m not aware of any other 16-inch Snapdragon X-powered laptops except the Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge, which is a higher-end machine that starts at a retail price of $1,450. From that perspective, I suppose it’s good value for a 16-inch Snapdragon laptop. But some parts of this machine — like the lower-end CPU, much slower GPU, and dim-and-not-premium display give me pause. You can get a better experience with another Snapdragon laptop if you’re willing to spend a bit more money — especially if you can find that other, more expensive Snapdragon laptop on sale. Do you really need a Snapdragon-powered laptop? With Intel Lunar Lake-powered systems arriving, there’s rapidly becoming a lot more competition in the productivity-laptop-with-extremely-long-battery-life arena. One day, laptops like this one may cost a bit less, and at that price point they’ll be a lot more interesting. Read...

The pace of smart home innovation hasn’t slowed a whit in 2024, with new products such as the Amazon Echo Show 21 being unveiled just this week. The better news is that the smart home is no longer a niche market appealing only to enthusiasts willing to tolerate steep learning curves. In other words, the water’s fine! Come on in! We are, however, still living in a world of smart home silos; namely, Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, and Google Home. The increasingly important Matter standard will unify those ecosystems one day, but that won’t happen until Matter incorporates every smart home category. Today, for example, it doesn’t account for security cameras or video doorbells. Considering that, we’ve picked more than one product in several categories, based primarily on which silo your smart home is in. As in years past, the products we’re awarding best-of-the-year status weren’t necessarily introduced in 2024, they are the best products in their category regardless of when they were first brought to market. As for what’s on the horizon, artificial intelligence is poised to radically change what it means to live in a smart home, but it’s much to early to pick winners on that front. Best video doorbell for Alexa users: Ring Battery Doorbell Plus Best Prices Today: Retailer Price $99.99 View Deal Dell Home $129.99 View Deal $149.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket $99.99 at Best Buy$129.99 at Dell Home$149.99 at Amazon Ring invented the video doorbell business, and Amazon snapped the company up in a $1 billion deal in 2018. The Ring Battery Doorbell Plus isn’t Ring’s absolute best doorbell, but it is the one most Alexa users should buy. It’s reasonably priced–especially when it’s on sale–and it’s loaded with features, including a 150-degree field of view (horizontal and vertical), package detection, and a 1:1 aspect ratio that shows your visitors from head to toe in 1536 x 1536-pixel resolution with high dynamic range (HDR). The camera can discern between the movement of people and other things, such as animals and bushes, ignoring the latter. The Ring Battery Doorbell Plus is very easy to install and set up, and it can operate on either battery or low-voltage power if you’re replacing an old-school doorbell. Stay tuned for our hands-on review of the cheaper Ring Battery Doorbell. which retains that 1:1 aspect ratio, albeit at a slightly lower resolution of 1440 x 1440 pixels, but has a fixed battery that requires the entire assembly to be dismounted for charging. Read our full Ring Battery Doorbell Plus review Best video doorbell for Apple Home users: Aqara Smart Video Doorbell G4 Best Prices Today: Retailer Price $95.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket $95.99 at Amazon If you’ve used other video doorbells, you might find the Aqara Smart Video Doorbell G4 a little quirky. It runs on battery power, but not a rechargeable battery–it comes with half-a-dozen disposable AA cells. Alternatively, you can connect it to a low-voltage power supply. While its camera’s video resolution is a pedestrian 1920 x 1080 pixels and it lacks high dynamic range (HDR), it can be trained to recognize familiar faces. It also comes with plug-in chime with a microSD card slot that can host cards with up to 512GB of memory. But for Apple users, the Aqara Smart Video Doorbell G4’s most attractive feature will be its support for Apple’s HomeKit Secure Video. You’ll need Video privacy is one of the chief benefits of Apple’s Secure Home Video service. You’ll need an Apple HomePod, HomePod mini, or Apple TV on your home network, as well as an iCloud+ subscription, but you’ll be able to store the camera’s recordings in Apple’s cloud with end-to-end encryption. We’re also working on a review of the wired Ecobee Smart Doorbell Camera, so we’ll update this space when that’s finished. Best video doorbell in the Google Home ecosystem: Nest Doorbell (Battery) Best Prices Today: Retailer Price $99.98 View Deal $141.99 View Deal Dell Home $179.99 View Deal Google $179.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket $99.98 at Best Buy$141.99 at Amazon$179.99 at Dell Home Like the Nest Cam, the Nest Doorbell (Battery) came to market way back in 2021. And like that product, this one remains best in its class—provided you define that class as doorbells in Google’s smart home ecosystem. Don’t let its name fool you. Like the Ring product discussed above, the Nest Doorbell (Battery) can run on either its internal battery or the wiring your existing doorbell uses. And like the Nest security cam that came out the same year, Google’s doorbell performs its image processing on the device itself, instead of compromising your privacy by uploading video to the cloud. It can recognize familiar faces, discern between people, animals, and vehicles, and it can alert you to the presence of packages on your doorstep. Read our full Nest Doorbell (Battery) review Best smart display for Alexa users: Amazon Echo Show 8 Best Prices Today: Retailer Price $84.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket $84.99 at Amazon The third-generation Echo Show 8 was introduced in late 2023, but it remains our top pick in this category by virtue of its ability to perform as a Matter-compatible smart home hub. Equipped with a Zigbee radio and a Thread border router, it can control a wide range of smart home devices and stream video feeds from many brands of home security cameras and video doorbells (remember, Matter has yet to take security cameras into account). It can also make video calls with its integrated camera, and like all Echo Show devices, it can act like a Fire TV device to stream video entertainment, including live TV. Also worthy of mention: The 3rd-gen Echo Show 10, with its pivoting display, and the wall-mountable Echo Show 15. And for those looking for a smaller wall-mountable screen, don’t overlook the Amazon Echo Hub, especially if you’re using a Ring Alarm system. Amazon has also announced a 2nd-generation Echo Show 15 and the gargantuan Echo Show 21. Read our full Amazon Echo Show 8 (3rd Gen, 2023) review Best smart display for Google Home users: Google Nest Hub Max 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 Five years is an eternity as far as the smart home goes, yet 2019’s Nest Hub Max still ranks as the best smart display for Google Home users. Despite its age, the Nest Hub Max still boasts cutting-edge features, including the ability to identify nearby faces as well as answer queries without the wake word when you’re looking at the screen. It’s also kept up with the times, acting as a Thread boarder router for Matter devices, and it will eventually host a more “fluid,” Gemini AI-aided version of Google Assistant.   Read our full Google Nest Hub Max review Best smart speaker for Alexa users: Amazon Echo Spot (2024) Best Prices Today: Retailer Price $44.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket $44.99 at Amazon The second-generation Echo Spot is a fantastic smart speaker with almost the perfect combination of features (it supports Matter over Wi-Fi, but it doesn’t have a Thread radio). It’s a great clock—and an even better alarm clock—and it can also report current weather conditions as well as the day and date on its 2.83-inch touchscreen. You can of course control any Alexa-compatible device with a voice command, but the speaker’s ultrasonic motion detection can trigger an Alexa routine, so you don’t need to utter a word. When we think of smart speakers, we typically value their smart home features much more than their audio performance. Putting both in the same box necessarily increases the price tag. If you want both smart home control and high-fidelity audio, consider something like the JBL Authentics 300 or the Sonos Era 100 instead. Read our full Amazon Echo Spot (2024) review Best smart speaker for Apple Home users: Apple HomePod mini 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 The Apple Home ecosystem feels like it’s on the edge of something big, with word that Apple may be close to unveiling a touchscreen home hub that can be wall-mounted or docked in a speaker stand. At the same time, Apple’s existing HomePods—the full-size, second-generation HomePod, and the more affordable HomePod mini—have been left behind in terms of Apple Intelligence support. Given the uncertainty, those who want to invest in Apple’s smart home hardware now should hedge their bets with the HomePod mini, which offers the same smart home connectivity as the pricier second-gen HomePod—including Thread and Matter support—for a fraction of the price.  Read our full Apple HomePod Mini review Best smart speaker for Google Home users: Google Nest Audio Best Prices Today: Retailer Price $49.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket $49.99 at Best Buy Only a year younger than the aging Nest Hub Max, the Nest Audio remains a swell-sounding smart speaker, complete with great low-frequency response, detailed highs, and an overall smooth, rich sound. You can pair two Nest Audios for stereo sound, and if you’ve grown weary of stilted Google Assistant conversations, don’t worry–a more “fluid” conversational style is coming to the assistant, courtesy of Google’s Gemini. If you want a higher-fidelity smart speaker, consider the exceptional JBL Authentic 300. Best smart lighting ecosystem overall: Philips Hue Best Prices Today: Retailer Price $43.99 View Deal $49.97 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket $43.99 at Best Buy$49.97 at AmazonNot Available at Adorama With its robust ecosystem, which now extends into security cameras, as well as a terrific app, Philips Hue remains the undisputed leader when it comes to smart lighting. Yes, you’ll need to pay a premium for Hue lights, lamps, and other Hue accessories, but the extra cost is worth it—just ask anyone who’s sunk cash into a cheaper smart light only to watch it drop its connectivity for no apparent reason. Best of all, Hue lights work with all the big smart home platforms, including Matter (if you use the optional but highly recommended $60 Hue Bridge). The simple White Ambiance bulb is the natural entry point, but the White and Color Ambiance model adds the fun of color. Read our full Philips Hue White and Color Ambiance A19 (Bluetooth + Zigbee) review Best lighting-control system overall: Lutron Caséta Best Prices Today: Retailer Price $69.95 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket $69.95 at Amazon Smart bulbs are the smart-home entry point for many people, but enthusiasts will tell you that having smart switches and dimmers in your walls is even more convenient. And having one doesn’t preclude having the other. Despite being a member of the consortium behind Matter, Lutron apparently has no plans to make its awesome Caséta smart lighting ecosystem compatible with it. And that’s just fine with us. Devices like the Lutron Diva Smart Dimmer shown here are already so broadly compatible with other smart home products—from the likes of Amazon Alexa, Apple Home, Google Home, Ring Alarm systems and security cameras, to even Sonos multi-room audio systems—that Matter compatibility just doesn’t, uh, matter. Read our full Lutron Diva Smart Dimmer review Best smart thermostat overall: Ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium Best Prices Today: Retailer Price $215 View Deal $249.99 View Deal Dell Home $249.99 View Deal Lowe’s $249.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket $215 at Amazon$249.99 at Best Buy$249.99 at Dell Home If you don’t buy any other smart home product, an investment in a smart thermostat will pay dividends in energy savings, convenience, and sheer comfort when you’re home. The Ecobee Premium is not only the best product in its class, but it can also function as the hub of an entire home security system. Ecobee also has its own excellent indoor camera and a wired video doorbell we’ve been meaning to review for months (both are also Apple Home compatible). But you don’t need to be an Apple user to like this thermostat, it’s compatible with Google Home, Alexa, and Apple Home, too (its onboard smart speaker can answer to either the Alexa or Siri wake words). Best smart thermostat for Google Home users: Nest Learning Thermostat (4th gen) The headline above is probably sells the Nest Learning Thermostat (4th gen) a bit short. Because it’s a Matter-certified device, you can integrate this absolutely beautiful smart thermostat into any smart home ecosystem. Matter compatibility is the biggest advantage it has over Ecobee’s best thermostat, although some would say Nest’s offering is also prettier. Nest has a long tradition of building smart home devices that are supremely easy to install and use on a daily basis, and that’s certainly the case here. Nest’s Dynamic Foresight technology that changes the information displayed on the thermostat based on how close to the thermostat you are is pretty cool, too. And if you’re a dyed-in-the-wool Google Home aficionado, there’s nothing wrong with looking for purity in your smart home life. Best smart lock overall: Level Lock+ Best Prices Today: Retailer Price $349 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket $349 at Amazon If you’ve held off on installing a smart lock on your door because you’re put off by the image of hulking slabs on both sides of your entry door, you need to consider a Level Lock+. We called it “the closest thing to a perfect smart lock” in our review, and it’s only gotten better since then with the activation of its previously dormant Thread radio. In addition to looking no different than an ordinary deadbolt—on either side of your door—it can be opened with a touch, a smartphone app, an iPhone Home Key, or an NFC card—including one you can put on a keychain. Level also offers a numeric keypad accessory you can mount next to your door, so you don’t need to carry anything with you when you go out for a run. If you’d prefer to retrofit the deadbolt you already have, take a look at the Level Bolt, which has all the same features (That lock’s Thread radio will be activated soon.) Read our full Level Lock+ (Level Connect bridge included) review Best home security camera overall: Arlo Pro 5S 2K Best Prices Today: Retailer Price $99.99 View Deal $142.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket $99.99 at Best Buy$142.99 at Amazon No security camera beats the Arlo Pro 5S 2K in terms of performance, quality, and with a 2024 firmware update, its compatibility extends to Apple Home (note that you’ll also need an Arlo Base Station or Arlo SmartHub for that). This camera also works in the Amazon Alexa and Google Home ecosystems, so you can stream its feed to those companies’ smart displays as well as to an Apple TV. This camera captures video in 2K resolution with HDR, and it has an onboard spotlight to capture nighttime scenes in full color. It has a 160-degree field of view, an integrated siren, and it operates on batteries (or solar or AC power, with accessories), so you can install it anywhere within range of your Wi-Fi network. Speaking of networking, where most of its competitors can only join crowded 2.4GHz Wi-Fi networks, the Arlo Pro 5S 2K can also operate on the less crowded 5GHz frequency band. If you want all your security cameras to be in one family, there’s a complete range of other Arlo cameras, including battery- and AC-powered floodlight models. The Arlo Home Security system is pretty great, too. Read our full Arlo Pro 5S 2K (model number VMC4060P) review Best home security camera for Alexa users: Ring Stick Up Cam Pro Best Prices Today: Retailer Price $179.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket $179.99 at Amazon If your smart home revolves around Alexa, the Ring Stick Up Cam Pro remains the best security camera to keep an eye on your property, indoors or out. Available in battery, solar-powered, or plug-in configurations, it can be deployed almost anywhere, but radar motion detection is its biggest selling point. It will trace the path an intruder took as they approached the camera, but the pre-roll feature that captures them even before the camera alerts you to their presence is even better. You’ll also get color night vision, an onboard siren, and dual-band Wi-Fi support. If you also have a Ring Alarm Pro system, you can store video recordings locally on a microSD card. Ring has shipped other security cameras since this one came out–including the Ring Pan-Tilt Indoor Cam–but nothing as excellent as this. Read our full Ring Stick Up Cam Pro review Best home security camera for Google Home users: Nest Cam Best Prices Today: Retailer Price $154.99 View Deal Google Nest $179.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket $154.99 at Amazon$179.99 at Google Nest Google’s Nest Cam (battery) hails from the department of Oldies but Goodies. Yes, this indoor/outdoor camera still rocks despite its coming to market way back in 2021. Everything about the hardware feels designed to make things easy for the homeowner, including the magnetic mounting system makes placement, aiming, and removal a breeze. This was one of first security cameras to be capable of not only distinguishing between people, animals, and vehicles but to recognize familiar faces. And while its 1080p resolution might seem pedestrian now, its support for high dynamic range (HDR) helps it capture clear images even in bright sunlight. Read our full Nest Cam (Battery) review Best floodlight camera overall: Eufy Floodlight Cam E340 Best Prices Today: Retailer Price $219 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket $219 at Amazon The Eufy Floodlight Camera E340 is tops in its class, with dual cameras capturing both high-res wide-angle and telephoto views simultaneously. The cameras are mounted to a motion-tracking pan/tilt motor, so they can track a person’s path through your property. The floodlight element, meanwhile, consists of a pair of dimmable LED light panels that can produce up to 2,000 lumens of white light. Those panels can be programmed to turn on at sunset and off at sunrise. Up to 128GB of video recordings can be stored on an onboard microSD card slot. You can also opt for one of Eufy’s network-attached storage solutions, such as the HomeBase 3, or store video in the cloud with a subscription. Read our full Eufy Floodlight Cam E340 review Best smart home hub overall: Samsung SmartThings Station Yeah, Samsung has integrated its SmartThings into many of its home appliances and smart TVs, but anyone serious about building out a smart home will want a purpose-built device; namely, the Samsung SmartThings Station. And yeah, it doesn’t look like much, but this little box packs everything you need to build out a modern and Matter-compatible smart home, including a Zigbee radio and a Thread border router. And if you don’t know what those things are, it doesn’t matter. Just buy Matter-certified devices when you go shopping and they’re guaranteed to work. When you’re ready to install them, just tap the “add device” button and scan the device’s Matter QR code. The app takes care of the rest, and the device is immediately available for control via SmartThings. Read our full Samsung SmartThings Station review Best DIY home security system overall: Ring Alarm Pro Best Prices Today: Retailer Price $249.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket $249.99 at Amazon We reviewed the Ring Alarm Pro way back in November 2021, and it remains our favorite DIY home security system. It incorporates an Eero Wi-Fi 6 mesh router, with battery and cellular back-up in case of power and internet outages. It’s equipped with a Z-Wave radio to support motion, door/window, water-leak, and other types of sensors, as well as certified third-party Z-Wave smart home products participating in the Works with Ring program. That list includes smart deadbolts, garage door openers, smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, and more. You can add Ring home security cameras and Ring doorbells, of course, with local processing and storage of those cameras’ video recordings on a microSD card. Alternatively, a new feature enables 24/7 camera recording to the cloud for certain wired Ring cameras. Finally, the Ring Alarm Pro also serves as a Wi-Fi bridge for Ring’s smart lighting products. While you can self-monitor a Ring Alarm Pro system, many of its most important features require a subscription. And most people will want professional monitoring that can dispatch first responders to their home in the event of an emergency. Ring recently renamed, restructured, and increased the prices of its subscription services, ultimately resulting in a $10-per-month increase for those who want everything. There are other good home security systems, including the Arlo Home Security System we reviewed earlier this November, but if we had to pick a runner-up in this category, it would be Ring’s simpler Ring Alarm (2nd gen). Read our full Ring Alarm Pro (8-piece kit) review Best smart delivery box: Loxx Boxx Classic Best Prices Today: Retailer Price $294.74 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket $294.74 at Amazon Tired of porch pirates absconding with the goods that were just delivered to your house? A smart delivery box will solve that problem, and the Loxx Boxx Classic is the best one we’ve found yet. Fabricated from steel, the box connects to your home Wi-Fi network and logs every delivery when the driver enters the last four digits of the package’s tracking code. Cloud-to-cloud connections to Amazon, DHL, FedEx, UPS, and USPS help you track, trace, and log every delivery. The box runs on battery power–you can buy a solar panel to keep it topped off–so you don’t need to worry about having an outdoor outlet, and there’s an LTE option if you can’t connect it to your Wi-Fi network. Read...

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