Reviews

LincPlus LincStation E1: 30-second review

In this review, I’ve taken a look at a Pre-Launch model of the LincStation E1, and the hardware impresses right away, especially given the price. Inside is a 2+2 storage layout, dual-band Wi-Fi, and 4K HDMI output, and the feature set and newly developed LincOS are aimed at the entry-level.

The LincStation E1 hardware features a compact chassis, which, despite being entry-level, is exceptionally well finished and designed. The drive installation is quick, with a combination of two SATA bays and two M.2 NVMe slots accessed through a plate on the bottom of the drive.

In the early stages of the review, it was obvious that LincOS was in the early stages of development with limited features; however, with the latest update, the true potential of the NAS started to develop with an uplift in local performance and the ability to start setting up the personal cloud storage, although it still failed at the login.

The initial setup can be done completely using the mobile app, or on the PC, you can use the desktop client. On a Mac, however, the web interface is currently limited. Again, a firmware update during the review period resolved the most significant remote access issues, which is reassuring, but if accessing through the mobile or desktop App locally and then switching to remote, the software is still glitchy.

For a Windows-first-time NAS user who wants private local cloud storage, file backup, and remote access, it might not be the absolute best NAS device I've tested, but I found the E1 is a great choice given its price, especially once the software issues have been resolved. For Mac users who need frequent remote access, I would wait until the LincOS issues have been resolved.

LincPlus LincStation E1: Price and availability

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

• How much does it cost? TBA
• When is it out? Pre-Order
• Where can you get it? Directly from Kickstarter

At present, the LincStation E1 is part of a Kickstarter campaign. If you're interested in taking a closer look and getting involved, head over to the Kickstarter page.

However, I am seeing it on Amazon.com for $219, with a very long shipping time.

Although you can't buy it, you can check out all the details at the official LincPlus site here.

• Value: 4/5

LincPlus LincStation E1: Specs

CPU: Rockchip RK3568, quad-core Cortex-A55, up to 2.0GHz
RAM: 4GB DDR4
Internal flash: 64GB eMMC ROM
SATA bays: 2 × 3.5-inch/2.5-inch SATA
NVMe slots: 2 × M.2 NVMe
Network: 1 × Gigabit Ethernet (GbE); dual-band Wi-Fi
Video output: 1 × HDMI
USB: Included
Fan: Single fan; Silent / Auto / Full Speed modes
OS: LincOS
Dimensions: 218.5 × 88 × 140mm
Weight: 907g

LincPlus LincStation E1: Design

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

The first impression of the LincStation E1 is instantly better than many other entry-level NAS systems; it feels solid and well-built, even before the drives are installed.

When it comes to size, the compact chassis measures in at 218.5 × 88 × 140mm and weighs just 907g empty; this weight will obviously increase depending on the drive you install. This size and weight make it nice and compact, so it will easily sit on a shelf or behind a monitor without taking up too much space. During this test, it sat on the office sideboard next to the printers.

Getting started, the first step is installing the drives, which is easy enough; LincStation has provided clear instructions. The two SATA bays use tool-free trays, so essentially you just slide the drive in, then click the tray back into place, with the process taking less than a minute per drive.

The two M.2 NVMe slots are accessed via a small hatch on the base, which requires a screwdriver but is still quick to use. Slot the M.2 drive in, screw down the retaining bolt, close the hatch, and the storage configuration is done. Boot it up and run the initial setup from there; thankfully, it's all guided.

On the front of the box is a small array of status LEDs; while these are minimal, they’re enough to indicate the drives' health and when they’re being accessed. These LEDs flicker to indicate drive and network activity, and the power button shifts from orange to white when the system is running.

This is an entry-level machine, so there’s no detailed status feedback beyond that, no per-drive health indicators or detailed network throughput LEDs; essentially, anything beyond basic activity, you need to access the software interface.

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

Inside, a single cooling fan keeps everything cool in three selectable modes. These modes are selected through the software and offer Silent, Auto, and Full Speed. By default, the E1 is set to Silent, and throughout most of the test, the Auto mode was used without issue.

In Silent mode, the unit sits quietly, with occasional noise from the discs as they spin up. The only time you hear the NAS is when it’s under load, and the fan kicks in. Again, it is quiet and not really distracting, unlike other drives of this type.

Networking and connectivity are a little disappointing, with a single Gigabit Ethernet port. While this specification is standard for this level of NAS, I would have expected a more up-to-date 2.5GbE, especially given the inclusion of the two M.2 NVMe drives, which can be installed and will far exceed 1Gbps.

The built-in dual-band Wi-Fi is the more interesting addition and must be enabled in the settings before use, as I found it was switched off by default. This allows the E1 to be positioned anywhere in a home or studio without needing a cable run to the router, which will be a real benefit for many new to NAS.

• Design: 4 / 5

LincPlus LincStation E1: Features

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

The LincStation E1 is a NAS designed for those looking to take their first steps with Network Attached Storage, and, from that angle, the potential of this small box and all its features make it a very interesting option.

It’s worth highlighting now that the feature set is entry-level, with the box and OS designed to do all the heavy lifting, so all you, as the user, have to do after the initial setup is use it to back up, store, and access your files. There’s a little more to it, with the usual range of Apps that can run directly, so it can be used as a media server. What really differentiates this from others, aside from the 2+2 storage option, is that it can be set up to provide remote access.

This means that once you’ve configured and set things up, you can use it as your very own cloud storage, and you can grant others access, or at least that’s the idea.

This whole NAS utilises LincOS, LincPlus's proprietary operating system, and I couldn’t help but notice how early this seems in the development cycle, with some features inaccessible and others simply not working, though firmware updates progressively offered more access and stability.

Initial setup on macOS was not possible via a desktop client; however, using the iOS setup for the LincStation was possible with my device, which handled the first connection and basic configuration. Once the drive is on the network, browser-based access is available, but the web interface in its current state is limited in the features; again, updates unlocked more as the review progressed.

The full LincOS experience, including reliable remote access, cloud-sharing configuration, and the complete administrative feature set, seemed to require a Windows machine, so I opted for the New Asus PX13 2026.

On this Windows 11 machine, accessing the NAS through the client app, once the drive was configured and set up as a RAID 0 pool, the system was easy to use, and file management and sharing features worked flawlessly across the local network. The interface e has more than a few quirks, with the Apps acting more like filters, but still, it shows potential. On macOS, the experience is more restricted, and on iOS, the remote access features in particular proved temperamental throughout the test.

Remote access via LincAccess is positioned as not requiring manual port forwarding, and in principle, this works. In practice, the test unit did not have reliable remote access until a firmware update was applied mid-review. After that update, remote access worked on Windows and, to a lesser degree, on Android. While iOS worked, the connection wasn’t reliable for remote browsing. The main issue was Password rejection: the correct credentials were rejected for no apparent reason.

Remote access is probably the key feature, but at present, unless you’re Windows-based, the reliability just isn’t there through the software.

Looking at the local options and the Smart Album, which automatically sorts uploaded files by type, photos, videos, documents, music and gives those files to you in browsable categories on the left sidebar of the interface. This actually works well and is one of the more finished-feeling features of LincOS.

As I’ve seen on other NAS systems, there will be AI-powered photo tagging with face and scene recognition, but again, these are listed as a planned feature, but, at present, aren’t featured. What does work, however, is that uploaded images are recognised as image files and sorted accordingly. This is about as basic as you get, but at present, there’s no deeper AI categorisation.

The 4K HDMI output is a nice addition, and to be honest, it is common on NAS devices at this level, which don’t generally include it. Connecting the E1 directly to a 4K monitor via HDMI enables playback of video files stored on the NAS without needing a streaming device or a PC.

If you’re thinking of running a video or music stream in the office, this is a perfect NAS for a media and file server. What I liked about the connection design is that it works alongside Wi-Fi connectivity, enabling the E1 to be positioned behind a monitor and connected to both the display and the network without a cable running to a network hub.

The local account system works well, and you can set up different users if you work in a small office. This means their data is on the drive, but can only be accessed by them.

Essentially, all data stays on the device and the local network, but if you need to share files locally, it’s easy enough to invite others. What marks this NAS out is that you can also set up remote access, a feature you only usually see on more expensive systems. The trade-off is that setting up remote access requires more manual involvement than plug-and-play cloud NAS alternatives, and in the current state of LincOS, that process is hit-or-miss.

• Features: 3 / 5 (*As reviewed - may change once features are available)

LincPlus LincStation E1: Performance

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

Getting started with the LincStation E1 is, as I said earlier in the review, straightforward, and anyone new to NAS shouldn’t find anything from the hardware and storage installation to the setup with the App exceptionally easy.

The only real issue comes later with connecting to the local cloud from a remote location, but as I discovered through the review, LincOS is evolving, and while many features have been unlocked, the OS feels far from a final release.

However, while the OS feels like an early beta, with many features as yet unreleased, it does show potential, and when used as a basic NAS on a local network for storing and retrieving files, backing up documents and image libraries, and making shared folders accessible across connected machines and mobile devices, the performance was pretty decent.

If this is your first NAS, the ease of use will definitely appeal, and in any home office or small studio, the E1 essentially does what it is designed to do: it stores your files, keeps them accessible, and requires little to no additional input.

If you’re already using a NAS, the hardware design and potential features will also make this appealing, especially the headline personal cloud option. That may warrant an additional mention in an update to this review, as this still doesn’t appear to be working even with the latest update.

Another point for anyone who already owns a NAS is that it only features a 1 Gby network connection, so while you can add ultrafast storage, with that connection type, the access speeds will be limited.

In real-world testing with this stick, I saw about 80-115 MB/s for reads over a wired network, and image and video file transfers were noticeably slower than on my 2.5 GB-equipped NAS.

Again, the fact that there are two M.2 NVMe slots is great and shows an embrace of the latest storage technology; however, any benefit beyond size is offset by the connection speed.

During the test, I used two Lexar PCIe 3.0 M.2 drives, configured as fast storage tiers alongside the SATA drives. Again, while the internal speed is there, the network limits its use.

Another feature I particularly liked was the Wireless connection, which is switched off by default. Switching it on is done through the App, and once activated, you can disconnect the NAS from the wired network, freeing you to place it anywhere you want rather than needing to find a spot near the router or hub.

Wifi performance is lower than wired and with slower transfer rates; however, if you’re working on a small scale, just having that can be easily achieved by all machines in the house or building, is incredibly useful.

While network-attached storage potential is the main focus, another feature that will appeal is 4K video playback via the HDMI output. This works for most standard video file formats through the onboard My Videos App. Unlike other NAS systems, there’s no way to install media servers such as PLEX through the interface.

Inside the NAS is an RK3568 ARM processor, which is essentially entry-level and ideal for file storage and handling small network tasks.

In the test, the processor's power was insufficient for video decoding or other demanding processes, such as running a web server.

However, there are some good built-in feature apps, such as Smart Album photo, that help you filter through your images. Again, this takes time to run through the indexing process, so it's fine for small businesses, but at a scale, you may get tired of the wait.

With several thousand images, the initial indexing process is slow enough that I would suggest starting it and returning later rather than expecting quick results. The system remains usable during indexing, but responsiveness in the LincOS interface can become a little slow.

LincOS system during normal use is fast enough on Windows and other platforms, and typing in the IP on the LAN will enable you to access the Web UI, which again offers plenty of options, but as yet, many just don’t feel complete and act as filters to stored content rather than an app in the traditional sense.

At present, the hardware for this product is solid and perfectly pitched at the entry level; however, the LincOS, while it shows potential, isn’t ready and most disappointing is the lead feature, the personal cloud, just doesn’t work.

• Performance: 3 / 5

LincPlus LincStation E1: Final verdict

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

The LincStation E1, as an entry-level NAS, works well, and if that were all it were, it would be a great investment for any home or small office new to NAS systems. The fact that it has a 2+2 storage layout, SATA and SSD, dual-band Wi-Fi, 4K HDMI output, and a really compact design, paired with decent build quality, initially shows lots of promise for a box at this price.

Even with the somewhat still-in-development OS, the box works well locally, enabling you to store and access files across a local network, and the built-in apps offer a little more so that you can quickly find and view your content.

However, while this box has so much potential, the OS isn’t finished, and the main feature that would make this a five-star product just didn’t work, though a firmware update will inevitably fix it soon. The private cloud storage and file backup on a box at this price is exciting and will make this a very useful product. But at present, while the box is designed to do that, that feature is unreliable and just doesn’t work.

Then you have the UI, which is slightly different across systems, but again, that consistency seems to improve with each update. So hopefully by the time this NAS finally hits the shelves, it will reach the full potential that it promises.

At the moment, given the price, it’s a decent enough local-area NAS, and once remote access works reliably, it will be fantastic.

The wired network connection is a performance limiter, but again, this is designed to be entry-level, easy to use, and affordable.

Should I buy the LincPlus LincStation E1?

Value

Decent and well-balanced hardware at an entry-level price, but the software still needs development.

4/5

Design

Compact, well-designed box with a better finish than the price suggests.

4/5

Features

Decent hardware feature, aside from the slower choice for the ethernet port, and let down by an unfinished OS. This result will change once all is accessable

3/5

Performance

Fine for basic NAS tasks, network speed limits the full potential of the NVMe storage, and remote connection just doesn’t work at present

3/5

Overall

Interesting hardware in need of software development; worth watching closely

3/5

Buy it if...

You’re new to NAS

If the E1 is your first NAS and your primary machine is Windows, LincOS delivers decent performance for file backup, shared storage, and, in the future, basic private cloud access.

You want private cloud storage.

Not available yet, but when it is, this will make it one of the cheapest solutions for privately sharing files, without paying subscriptions.

Don't buy it if...

You primarily use a Mac or iOS.

Mac support is limited in the current LincOS release, remote access from iOS is unavailable, and full feature access requires a Windows machine.

You need polished, stable software.

LincOS is a first-generation platform with glitches. If you want something out of the box and ready to go, this will offer the basics, but you’ll need to wait for that stability.

For more network-attached storage, we've rounded up the best NAS hard drives.

HoverAir Aqua: One-minute review

The HoverAir Aqua is a drone unlike anything else on the market right now, and for once that's not marketing hyperbole. Manufacturer Zero Zero Robotics has built the world's first truly waterproof self-flying camera — one that can take off from and land on the surface of the water and follow you through waves and spray that would destroy most consumer drones. If you're a solo watersports enthusiast who's ever wished you could capture good quality aerial footage of yourself without hiring a drone operator, the Aqua is literally the only game in town.

That monopoly on novelty is both the Aqua's greatest strength, but also the lens through which you need to evaluate it. Because while the concept itself is undeniably thrilling, my real-world testing revealed a product that feels very much like a v1.0: innovative and impressive in the right conditions, but rough around the edges in ways that its steep asking price makes harder to forgive.

The Aqua is the first waterproof consumer camera drone, and an impressive feat of design. (Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)

Perhaps the most important thing to understand before buying is how the Aqua's tracking works. Unlike DJI drones that use computer vision to lock onto and frame a subject, the Aqua tracks the Lighthouse, a wearable device you strap to your arm. While this is an eminently sensible solution for an environment where reflections, spray and constantly moving surfaces would confound visual tracking, it has real consequences for your footage: in Orbit mode, for instance, I found my head was consistently cropped out of frame, because the drone is circling the Lighthouse, not me.

There are other niggles too. My review sample suffered from persistent Lighthouse connection drops — reconnecting almost immediately each time, but loudly announcing every single event via an intrusive, irritating voice alert. And one of my best video clips was ruined by a water droplet on the supposedly hydrophobic lens, which feels like a major concern for a drone built around water compatibility.

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)

It's also worth noting that the Aqua's maintenance demands are higher than any non-aquatic drone I've tested: after saltwater sessions, you'll be rinsing, patting dry and checking battery compartments as soon as you get home.

That being said, take it out on a calm sea on a bright morning with your paddleboard, and it does something no other drone can do. For the right user — the solo surfer, kayaker or SUP rider who wants hands-free aerial footage without risking a wrecked drone — the Aqua is really the only viable option on the market.

HoverAir Aqua: Price and release date

• Launched globally on May 28 2026 — except in US
• Priced from $1,299 / £1,129 / AU$1,999
• Fly More Combo available online only

The HoverAir Aqua has had a long road to market, being initially teased in August 2025 ahead of a successful Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign. Nearly a year on, it's now available globally — except in the United States, where it's apparently falling foul of the same regulatory issues that have kept DJI's recent launches off the shelves. So while I've been given US pricing, it's not yet available in buy in the States.

Three bundles are available at launch. The Standard Combo ($1,299 / £1,129 / AU$1,999) covers the basics: the Aqua itself with one battery, a USB-C cable, the Lighthouse wearable with armband, a repair kit, and a single waterproof battery bag. The Basic Combo ($1,399 / £1,219 / AU$2,199) adds a second waterproof bag, an extra smart battery, and a charging hub. Step up to the Fly More Combo ($1,499 / £1,299 / AU$2,986, online only) and you get two additional smart batteries, three waterproof battery bags, a maintenance kit, and the charging hub — the most complete package for anyone planning longer sessions on the water.

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Given that the Aqua's 23-minute battery life is on the shorter side for a drone at this price point, those extra batteries in the higher-tier bundles are well worth considering. A single charge isn't going to last a through even a modest paddle session, so building a battery collection from day one makes sense.

At $1,299 / £1,129 / AU$1,999 for the entry-level bundle, the Aqua is a significant investment. It's substantially more expensive than the HoverAir X1 Pro and well above most entry-level drones from DJI. Zero Zero Robotics is clearly pitching this as a premium, specialized product for water sports enthusiasts rather than a mass-market flyer, and the pricing reflects that.

• Price score: 3.5/5

HoverAir Aqua: SpecsHoverAir Aqua specs

Camera:

12MP 1/1.28-inch CMOS sensor

Video resolution:

4K, 2.7K (vertical only), 1080p

Frame rates:

100, 60, 50, 48, 30, 25, 24fps

Flight modes:

15+ specialized modes

Beacon range:

Up to 1km

Wind resistance:

Level 7 (up to 33 knots / 38mph)

Waterproof rating:

IP67

Storage:

128GB internal (no microSD slot)

Battery:

2013mAh, up to 23 minutes flight time

Charger type:

USB-C / charging hub

Weight:

249g / 8.8oz (approx.)

Dimensions:

202 x 206 x 64mm

HoverAir Aqua: Design and build quality

• Non-foldable quadcopter body weighing 249g
• Striking hot orange finish
• No carrying case included in any bundle

The Aqua cuts a distinctive figure on the beach. Where most consumer drones play it safe with black, grey or white, HoverAir has gone for a vivid hot orange color finish. The color makes the drone easy to spot both in the air and on the water, as well as conjuring up images of life jackets and buoys. It feels entirely appropriate for a water-focused drone.

While folding drones dominate the market, the Aqua is a rigid, non-foldable quadcopter — a deliberate decision by HoverAir to preserve structural integrity and waterproofing. At 202 x 206 x 64mm and 249g, it's lightweight and compact but certainly not pocketable; the non-folding body means it takes up noticeably more bag space than a DJI Lito or Mini would.

Which brings me to the Aqua's most glaring accessory omission: there's no carrying case or pouch included with any of the three bundles. The higher-tier combos include waterproof bags for the batteries, but nothing to protect the drone itself. That leaves the lens and propellers exposed to whatever else is rattling around in your backpack. For a drone pitched at outdoor adventurers, I felt this was a pretty major oversight.

The drone works best when paired with the Lighthouse beacon unit, which can attach to the user's arm.Future | Sam KieldsenThe Lighthouse has some basic controls on board, but generally acts as a beacon for the drone to autonomously follow.Future | Sam KieldsenDrones and water don't usually mix, but the Aqua is happiest when floating.Future | Sam KieldsenAt under 250g with a 0 class rating, it can be flown close to people and buildings too.Future | Sam Kieldsen

With minimal clearance between the propellers and the underside of the body, the Aqua needs either a flat, hard surface or a dedicated landing pad for land-based launches — I'd strongly recommend picking one up if you ever plan to use it away from the water. You can hand-launch and catch it in the air instead, which is what I did throughout testing, but that's not something I would necessarily recommend to anyone new to drones.

On the front of the drone sits a 1.6-inch AMOLED screen, which lets you switch flight modes and review settings without reaching for your phone. In bright sunlight it's big and bright enough to be legible, and when you're balanced on a paddleboard in the middle of the sea, not having to fumble with a smartphone is a welcome convenience. The Lighthouse wearable is similarly straightforward: a chunky, rubberized device designed to be worn and forgotten while you focus on whatever you're riding.

As mentioned above, the Aqua's maintenance demands are quite extensive. After flying in salt water, the drone needs a thorough rinse in fresh water and a careful pat-down with a clean cloth before its next flight. The battery compartment features a color-coded indicator strip that flags the presence of any moisture before you insert a battery, which is a clever touch, but you'll also need to remember to fully dry your hands before swapping cells on the water. So, owning the Aqua comes with an ongoing upkeep commitment that goes well beyond what you'd expect from a conventional drone.

• Design score: 4/5

HoverAir Aqua: Features and flight performance

• Up to 23 minutes of battery life
• Tracks using Lighthouse unit rather than camera
• No object avoidance tech

The most important thing to understand about how the Aqua flies is also the thing that most sets it apart from conventional follow-me drones. Rather than using computer vision to identify and frame a human subject — the approach DJI takes with its excellent ActiveTrack tech — the Aqua locks onto the Lighthouse wearable.

In a watery environment, where reflective surfaces, spray and constant movement would make visual tracking unreliable, this makes sound engineering sense. In practice, however, it produces some frustrating results. During an Orbit flight — where the drone circles you at a set distance — my head was consistently cropped out of frame, because the drone is orbiting the Lighthouse on my arm rather than centering me as a subject. Anyone who cares about precise, well-composed shots should know that the Aqua will keep you in the frame most of the time, but it won't always frame you the way a human operator would.

So planning your shots is key – and because you can adjust tracking distance and height, you should be able to get the angles and framing you're looking for. It might just take a couple of attempts.

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)

That said, the SUP mode I tested (designed specifically for stand-up paddleboarding) performed very well. With a calm sea, minimal wind and good visibility during a rare UK May heatwave, the Aqua tracked my position reliably and kept pace with me comfortably. The drone can theoretically fly as close as 50cm above the waves, and in calm water it did so confidently.

I'd be keen to test it in choppier conditions, where the claimed Level 7 wind resistance and wave-skimming abilities might face a stiffer challenge, but those aren't the conditions I had available. For now, consider the flight performance assessment here a fair-weather one.

One highlight that absolutely does deliver as promised is the turtle flip: should the Aqua end up upside down on the water, it can right itself and take off again without any intervention. I tested this, and it works exactly as advertised. A small thing perhaps, but a reassuring one.

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)

Less reassuring was the persistent connection instability between the drone and the Lighthouse. On every single flight I conducted, the two devices repeatedly lost and immediately re-established their link. Each dropout triggers an audible robotic voice announcement — both for the disconnect and the reconnect — which quickly becomes maddening. Whether this is a hardware defect specific to my review sample or a wider software issue remains to be seen, but it's something HoverAir will need to address urgently. A drone that narrates its own technical difficulties every few minutes is not a relaxing filming companion.

The Aqua offers three control methods beyond the automated flight modes. The Lighthouse itself handles single-button launches and returns; the HoverAir app provides touchscreen manual control, though with a short effective range and imprecise joystick inputs that make smooth maneuvers difficult; and HOVERAir's Beacon twin-stick controller offers what could well be the most satisfying manual flying experience of the three — but without one, I wasn't able to test it during this review.

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)

Battery life came in slightly under the claimed 23 minutes during real-world use, which is par for the course with drone manufacturers' quoted figures. The more meaningful battery consideration is simply having enough of them: 23 minutes goes quickly when you're mid-session, and the Fly More Combo's three-battery setup feels sensible.

It's also worth noting that, like all HoverAir drones, the Aqua uses ShadowTrack positioning rather than active obstacle avoidance — meaning it won't autonomously fly around objects in its path. On open water that's rarely going to be an issue, but it's worth bearing in mind if you plan to fly it on narrower waterways or on land. Thankfully, the sturdiness of the design and the protected propellers means that minor, lowish speed collisions with trees or fences shouldn't result in a wrecked drone.

• Flight performance score: 4/5

HoverAir Aqua: Image and video quality

• 1/1.28-inch CMOS sensor offering 4K up to 100fps
• H-Log (10-bit) support for post-production grading
• Hydrophobic lens

The camera features a hydrophobic, self-heating anti-fog lens and single-axis gimbal. (Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)

Let's start with the elephant (or should that be whale?) in the room. The Aqua's lens is treated with a hydrophobic coating designed to repel water droplets, which seems to me a vital feature for a drone that launches directly off the surface of the sea. During my testing, a single water droplet on said lens ruined several minutes of otherwise usable footage. For a drone whose entire identity is built around being in and around water, a wet lens is inevitable. This issue alone has the potential to leave users seriously frustrated — even if, as with me, it only happens the one time.

When the lens is clear, the results are encouraging. With a maximum bitrate of 160Mbps (double that of the DJI Neo 2) the Aqua produces clean, detailed 4K footage in good lighting conditions. There are two main shooting options to choose between: the default color profile delivers vibrant, punchy footage at up to 60fps, and is perfectly usable straight out of the drone; the flat H-Log profile, which tops out at 30fps, gives you more latitude in post-production. I graded some H-Log footage and was able to dial back the slightly over-saturated tendencies of the default color science to arrive at something more true-to-life and cinematic. For anyone planning to edit their water sports footage seriously, shooting H-Log is probably the way to go.

The hardware has its limits, though. The 1/1.28-inch sensor, f/2.55 aperture and single-axis mechanical gimbal mean the Aqua can't compete with the best camera drones on pure image quality — the DJI Air 3S, for instance, produces far superior footage, and costs less.

But that comparison only tells part of the story: the Air 3S would not survive the conditions the Aqua was built for. Judged purely as a water-capable camera, the Aqua has no rivals. Judged as a camera drone in general, it sits firmly in the average tier for its price bracket. The 2x digital zoom is soft, as it tends to be on small sensors, and low-light performance isn't a strong suit given the narrow aperture.

Stills come in at 12MPwith HDR support, plus the ability to shoot in RAW DNG, and are competent if unspectacular — serviceable for social media use, but not the Aqua's primary selling point.

• Image and video quality score: 4/5

HoverAir Aqua: Testing scorecardDJI Lito X1

Attributes

Notes

Rating

Price

Expensive for its tracking and camera performance.

3.5/5

Design

A robust aquatic design let down by the lack of an included carrying case.

4/5

Features and flight

The Lighthouse tracking system is an ingenious solution to the challenges of flying over water.

4/5

Image and video quality

Solid 4K footage with useful H-Log support, but a water droplet on the supposedly hydrophobic lens ruined one of my best clips.

4/5

Should I buy the HoverAir Aqua?Buy it if...

You're a solo watersports enthusiast
If you surf, SUP, kayak, wakeboard or foil and you've ever wanted aerial footage of yourself without a dedicated camera operator, the Aqua is the only drone that can safely go where you go.

You already own a conventional drone
The Aqua makes the most sense as a specialist companion to a regular land-based flyer rather than as your only drone. Pair it with a DJI Lito X1 or Mini 5 Pro and you have a capable all-conditions setup.

Don't buy it if...

You want a general-purpose drone
On land, the Aqua is a below-average performer for its price. The DJI Lito X1 delivers better image quality for a fraction of the cost, and handles everyday aerial photography and videography far more capably.

Precise framing matters to you
The Aqua tracks the Lighthouse wearable, not you as a subject. If you need a drone that keeps you centered in the frame the way a human camera operator would, the Aqua isn't the best choice.

HoverAir Aqua: also consider

DJI Air 3S

If your priority is camera performance rather than water compatibility, the Air 3S is where to look. It costs a similar amount to the Aqua's Standard Combo yet delivers near-professional image and video quality that the Aqua simply can't match. For anyone who primarily shoots over land, the Air 3S is the stronger all-round investment. Just don't expect it to survive a touchdown on the surface of the sea.

Read our in-depth DJI Air 3S review

DJI Neo 2

The Neo 2 is the closest thing in concept to the Aqua among conventional drones — a compact, lightweight selfie-style flyer that tracks and films you autonomously without needing a controller. It's considerably smaller and lighter than the Aqua, and a fraction of the price, making it the obvious starting point for anyone drawn to hands-free aerial filming. Just don't take it into the water...

Read our in-depth DJI Neo 2 review

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)How I tested the HoverAir Aqua

• Tested during SUP session and from dry land
• I tested various control methods and flight modes
• I captured both videos and photos

I was provided with a review sample of the Aqua well ahead of its global launch, which gave me time to test it over several sessions on the UK coast, mainly in hot, sunny conditions that were ideal for getting out on the water, if not entirely representative of the rougher seas and stronger winds that the Aqua may face in the hands of real-world buyers.

My primary test was a SUP session at the beach, during which I flew the Aqua using the SUP automated flight mode and assessed its tracking performance, framing and reliability in a real watersports context. I also flew it over dry land to evaluate its capabilities as a general-purpose drone. I tested the app-based manual controls, though I wasn't able to assess the Beacon twin-stick controller during the review period.

On the camera side, I captured footage using both the default color profile and the flat H-Log setting, grading the latter in post-production using DaVinci Resolve. I also ran through the Aqua's post-flight maintenance routine — including a fresh water rinse and dry-down after saltwater use — to evaluate the ownership demands of an aquatic drone.

• First reviewed: May 2026
• Read more about how we test

Xiaomi 17T Pro: Two-minute review

It has only been about seven months since the Xiaomi 15T Pro launched, and already, its successor has landed. The 15T Pro was my favorite better-than-mid-range-but-not-quite-flagship phone of 2025, so I had high hopes for this newer model.

On the surface, though, it would seem that not much has changed. The Xiaomi 17T Pro has a very familiar look, and it shares a lot of specifications with last year's model, too.

So, what's new? The 17T Pro boasts a significantly larger battery (it's now 7,000mAh, up from 5,500mAh on the 15T Pro), and it charges more quickly (it can be juiced up at 100W with a wire and 50W wirelessly). It also has a newer and faster processor inside, and comes in some lovely new colors.

Otherwise, it's a very familiar phone, with the same screen specs, the same camera hardware, and similar software features to its predecessor. That's not a bad thing; it just means the Xiaomi 17T Pro is not particularly exciting, especially if you already invested in the 15T Pro.

(Image credit: Future)

Despite the lack of hardware changes, the camera system still stands out as one of the most accomplished in this price bracket. The Leica-backed color science is as impressive as ever, and there are more pro-level features than you'll find in similarly-priced phones, like the ability to shoot in 4K 60fps with Log.

Just like last year, though, the ultra-wide camera fails to impress. It has a much lower resolution than the other cameras, and it lacks autofocus, which limits its usefulness.

As for the performance, I have no complaints. This 17T Pro has a proper flagship-grade chip inside, and it's excellent for productivity and gaming alike. The experience is enhanced by some strong haptic motors, a lovely screen, and very decent speakers.

The battery tends to last me just under a day and a half on a charge. It's very easy to live with, but with such a high-capacity cell inside, I was expecting more. Perhaps we'll see improvements as updates roll out. On the plus side, it charges very quickly, either wired or wirelessly.

The Xiaomi 17T Pro is very easy to recommend overall. It might not be a revolutionary update, and 15T Pro owners shouldn't rush out to buy one, but this phone still stands out as one of the best in its price range (which, following a price increase, is now firmly at the top of the mid-range spectrum). The cameras are among the best you'll find on any non-flagship phone, the performance is hard to fault, and it looks and feels premium throughout.

Xiaomi 17T Pro: Price and availability

(Image credit: Future)

• 256GB model costs £799
• 512GB and 1TB versions also available
• Not available in the US or Australia

The Xiaomi 17T Pro starts at £799 in the UK. That's for the model with 256GB of storage and 12GB of RAM, though 512GB and 1TB variants are also available, costing £849 and £999, respectively. The phone isn't available in the US or Australia at the time of writing.

Frustratingly, those prices represent substantial increases on the Xiaomi 15T Pro, which started at £649 only six months ago. Increases seem to be plaguing all phone manufacturers at the moment — the similarly-specced Honor 600 Pro costs an eye-watering £899.99, which also marks a £200 increase over its predecessor — and a £799 price tag puts the Xiaomi 17T Pro at the sharp end of the mid-range spectrum (it's probably better described as an entry-level flagship).

Thankfully, Xiaomi's T-series phones often come with enticing bundle deals or early discounts, so we're expecting to see the same here, but details haven't surfaced yet.

The 17T Pro also stands out among its similarly priced rivals through its super-sized battery and 5X telephoto camera, which neither the Honor 600 Pro nor Vivo X300 FE match.

• Value score: 4 / 5

Xiaomi 17T Pro: Specs

Here’s a look at the Xiaomi 17T Pro’s key specs:

Xiaomi 17T Pro

Dimensions:

162.2 x 77.5 x 8.25mm

Weight:

219g

OS:

Hyper OS 3, based on Android 16

Display:

6.9-inch OLED, 144Hz

Resolution:

1280 x 2772 pixels

Chipset:

MediaTek Dimensity 9500

RAM:

12GB

Storage:

256GB / 512GB / 1TB

Battery:

7,000mAh

Rear cameras:

50MP (f/1.7) main, 12MP (f/2.2) ultra-wide, 50MP 5x telephoto (f/3)

Front camera:

32MP (f/2.2)

Xiaomi 17T Pro review: Design

(Image credit: Future)

• Aluminum frame and glass-fibre rear
• Black, Violet, Deep Blue options
• IP68 dust and water-resistant

The Xiaomi 17T Pro looks almost identical to last year's 15T Pro. The only notable change with the design is that the bevelled edge around the camera module has been removed. The camera bump appears smaller on the newer model, but in reality, the thickness is about the same.

That said, we do get some new colors to choose from. The 17T Pro is available in Black, Violet, or Deep Blue, and I have the latter in for testing. The colors are a bit livelier this time around, and I'm all for it. The blue model reminds me of the Galaxy Z Fold 7; it's a very similar shade. I loved it on that phone, and I love it here, too.

It's a pretty large phone, around the same size as an iPhone 17 Pro Max, and it feels very premium. The sides are made from aluminum, and the rear looks and feels like glass, but it's actually a reinforced plastic and glass-fibre panel.

The rear doesn't smudge easily, so it's easy to keep it looking nice, and you also get a matte black TPU case included in the box.

It has an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance, matching last year's model, so you needn't worry about using it in the rain or at the beach. The screen is covered with Corning Gorilla Glass, which should do a decent job of warding off scratches, and there's a basic plastic screen protector installed as standard.

• Design score: 4 / 5

Xiaomi 17T Pro review: Display

(Image credit: Future)

• 6.9-inch 144Hz OLED display
• 3,840Hz PWM dimming
• 3,500 nits peak brightness

The Xiaomi 17T Pro has a large, fully flat screen with slim symmetrical bezels on all sides. The specs match the previous model, but the 15T Pro already had a great screen, so that's not a bad thing.

It has a blisteringly fast 144Hz refresh rate, but applications that will actually utilize such speeds are few and far between. Still, it's super smooth, and it'll dynamically switch down to 60 or 30Hz to conserve battery life.

The phone also supports DC dimming. This means you shouldn't see any flicker, even while using low brightness levels. I'm not sensitive to flicker, so I'd be lying if I said I could tell the difference, but it's supposed to be easier on your eyes.

It's also a very bright panel, and I never had trouble seeing it outdoors, even in direct sunlight. Xiaomi says it can output 3,500 nits at peak, but these measurements should always be taken with a grain of salt.

Regardless, the 17T Pro's display is more than bright enough for most people's needs. And perhaps more importantly, it can dim as low as 1 nit, perfect for late-night scrolling sessions

Otherwise, the screen delivers exactly what you'd expect from a high-end OLED panel. The black levels are impeccable, the colors are vivid, and HDR content looks superb on this screen.

• Display score: 5 / 5

Xiaomi 17T Pro review: Cameras

(Image credit: Future)

• 50MP main (f/1.7)
• 12MP ultra-wide (f/2.2)
• 50MP 5x telephoto (f/3)
• 32MP selfie camera (f/2.45)

Last year, I felt that the Xiaomi 15T Pro had the most impressive cameras in the upper mid-range/sub-flagship category. The new model comes with the exact same set of snappers, so while I would have loved to see some hardware innovation, these lenses were already ahead of the pack.

The main camera has a sizable 1/1.3-inch sensor, roughly matching the main sensor of the iPhone 17 Pro. You also get an impressive 5x telephoto with OIS and the ability to focus from just 30cm away.

What's less impressive is the ultra-wide camera. It only has a 12MP resolution, a relatively tiny 1/3.06-inch sensor, and it's fixed focus, so you can't use it for close-ups.

The ultra-wide gave me some uninspiring results, and it's pretty useless in low-light conditions, but if you stick to the main and telephoto cameras, you can expect some great shots.

(Image credit: Future)

The 17T Pro benefits from Xiaomi's partnership with Leica, just like its flagship phones. This means you get the same excellent picture profiles and lens simulations as the much more costly Xiaomi 17 Ultra.

There's also a new addition to the roster called Leica Live Moment, which is similar to Apple's Live Photos feature, but comes complete with the Leica color science you know and love.

The feature works across all of the rear lenses, and it works in Portrait mode, too. Just like Apple's version, it captures a second or so of video before you press the shutter, and you can extract different frames to use as your photo, or share it as a short looping video. The main difference is that you can use all of the excellent Leica-backed picture styles and some unique watermarks to make your live photos stand out from the crowd.

Around the front, you'll find a 32MP punch-hole selfie camera. Again, this shares the same specs as the previous generation. It provides decent results, but unlike Xiaomi's mainline flagships, this selfie camera doesn't have autofocus — so group shots won't always look as sharp as they could.

(Image credit: Future)

Overall, it's a pretty versatile setup, and the standout is the telephoto. The reach of the 5x lens sets it apart from the competition and provides some lovely compression when used for close-ups. I'd recommend turning off automatic lens switching in the settings if you want to do so, as it has a tendency to jump to the main camera sooner than it needs to.

Xiaomi's default image tuning has very appealing color reproduction, and the slightly higher level of contrast makes images pop. If you're not feeling the default flavor, though, that's no issue, as there are loads of styles to choose from, and they can all be customized in Pro mode.

The Xiaomi 17T Pro is equally impressive for video shooting. It supports Xiaomi's excellent Log profile at up to 4K 60fps, and you can even shoot 4K 120fps on the main lens, albeit without much stabilization.

• Cameras score: 4 / 5

Xiaomi 17 review: Camera samplesFutureFutureFutureFutureFutureFutureFutureFutureFutureFutureFutureFutureFutureFutureFutureFutureFutureFutureFutureXiaomi 17T Pro review: PerformanceFutureFuture

• MediaTek Dimensity 9500 chipset
• 12GB RAM
• 512GB / 1TB storage

The Xiaomi 17T Pro is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 9500 SoC, the same flagship chipset that we've seen in phones like the Oppo Find X9 Pro and Vivo X300 Pro. It comes with 12GB of RAM and either 512GB or 1TB of storage. I have the 512GB version.

Having used the Oppo Find X9 Pro as my main phone for several months, I'm already very familiar with the capabilities of this chip. It's super powerful, and while Qualcomm's latest might have the edge in certain games, the Dimensity 9500 is never going to hold you back.

The phone feels speedy, no matter what you ask of it. I've been sinking some hours into Neverness to Everness, the latest graphically demanding gatcha game that makes even the most expensive phones on the market sweat. While it struggled at the highest settings, the Xiaomi 17T Pro had no trouble running it at 60fps on the 'balanced' preset, which still looks stunning.

The frame of the phone gets pretty toasty after a while, but that's just the cooling system doing its job, and I didn't notice much of a performance hit. If you use the included case, it'll keep your fingers comfortable, and of course, it's even better with a clamp-on controller like the GameSir X5 Lite.

It's also worth mentioning the haptics, as they also enhance the gaming experience. The vibration motors in this phone are stronger than most and are able to provide very precise feedback, which is great for typing.

The speakers are also very impressive. They can get pretty loud, produce detailed highs, and have better bass response than most phone speakers in this price range.

• Performance score: 5 / 5

Xiaomi 17T Pro review: SoftwareFutureFutureFuture

• Hyper OS 3, based on Android 16
• iOS-inspired design
• 5 years of updates, 6 years of security patches

The Xiaomi 17T Pro runs Hyper OS 3, Xiaomi's custom software built on top of Android 16. I haven't noticed any major changes with this release; it's essentially the same experience that I had with Xiaomi's recent flagships and the latest Poco devices.

The difference here, compared to Xiaomi's pricier phones, is that there's a bit of bloatware to clean up when you first set it up. It's nothing major — just a handful of random preinstalled apps — but having to remove them detracts from an otherwise premium experience.

Aside from that, I have no real complaints about the software experience. Hyper OS 3 has been consistently smooth and responsive, and it's easy to customize the look if you don't like the default vibes.

As we've seen with most Chinese Android skins lately, there's some Apple influence to the styling. Xiaomi has its own version of Dynamic Island, and some of the lock screen options look quite iPhone-like, with oversized clocks and depth effects. Most importantly, though, they look good and work well.

Xiaomi is promising five generations of updates and six years of security patches for European customers. It's a decent showing, if slightly behind the commitments offered by Samsung and Google. This means the 17T Pro should get the latest version of Android until at least 2031.

• Software score: 4 / 5

Xiaomi 17T Pro review: Battery

(Image credit: Future)

• 6,330mAh silicon-carbon battery
• 100W wired charging
• 50W wireless charging

The Xiaomi 17T Pro has the largest battery of any Xiaomi phone to date, besting the brand's mainline flagships with a whopping 7,000 mAh capacity.

With such a large cell on board, I had high hopes for the battery life, but the reality was a little underwhelming. Don't get me wrong, the battery life is very good — it always gets me through the day, and usually through a second morning. But I was expecting a little more.

To be fair, though, I received the phone well before the launch, and it was running pre-release software. There's every chance the battery life will improve further as the software becomes more optimized.

In any case, charging the 17T Pro is barely a hassle. It supports up to 100W speeds with a wire, and the powerful wall adapter comes included in the box. I found it was enough to take the phone from fully dead to well over 50% charged in half an hour, which is impressive considering the capacious battery pack.

The wireless charging speeds are impressive, too. The Xiaomi 17T Pro can be juiced up at up to 50W with Xiaomi's official wireless charger, but don't expect those speeds with any old charging pad; everything I had to hand topped out at a measly 15W.

• Battery score: 4 / 5

Should you buy the Xiaomi 17T Pro?

Attributes

Notes

Rating

Value

The 17T Pro is not an outright bargain, and it costs substantially more than its predecessor. But it's in line with the competition, and boasts more impressive overall specifications.

4 / 5

Design

The Xiaomi 17T Pro looks and feels premium, and it comes in some very fetching colours — but it's basically the same as the old one.

4 / 5

Display

The display is large, crisp, and bright with plenty of eye-care features.

5 / 5

Cameras

The main and telephoto cameras are excellent, but the ultra-wide could be improved.

4 / 5

Performance

The Xiaomi 17T Pro will handle just about anything you can throw at it. The haptics and speakers are very good, too.

5 / 5

Software

Xiaomi's Hyper OS is feature-packed and smooth, but a bit of bloatware sours an otherwise premium experience.

4 / 5

Battery

The 17T Pro packs a massive 7,000mAh battery that charges very quickly. I expected it to last longer, though, so perhaps more software optimization is required.

4 / 5

Buy it if...

You want an excellent camera phone at an affordable price

The Xiaomi 17T Pro has a lot of the same camera features as the brand's more expensive flagship phones, but it won't hurt your wallet quite so much.

You're looking for speedy performance and solid battery life

With a full-fledged flagship SoC and a mammoth 7,000mAh battery on board, the Xiaomi 17T Pro offers a great experience for gaming and productivity.

Don't buy it if...

You already have the Xiaomi 15T Pro

There aren't too many changes from last year's model, so if you already have that phone, this won't feel like much of an upgrade.

You love ultra-wide photos

While the cameras on the Xiaomi 17T Pro are impressive overall, the ultra-wide is much weaker than the other lenses, especially at night.

Xiaomi 17T Pro review: Also consider

The Xiaomi 17T Pro is a great sub-flagship option, but it's important to look at the competition, too. Here are a couple of competitors that are worth checking out.

Honor 600 Pro

Honor's recently released 600 Pro is a similarly priced phone with a focus on cameras and gaming performance. It offers autofocus on the ultra-wide camera, but the Xiaomi has better video capabilities and a nicer telephoto camera.

Read our full Honor 600 Pro review

Vivo X300 FE

Vivo's latest sub-flagship is another strong contender. It also has excellent cameras, but it's not quite as powerful, and the ultra-wide camera is even worse. Limited global availability may limit its appeal, too (note that we haven't yet reviewed this device).

Xiaomi 17T Pro

Honor 600 Pro

Vivo X300 FE

Price:

TBA

£899

€999

Display:

6.83-inch OLED

6.57-inch OLED

6.3-inch OLED

Cameras:

50MP main; 12MP ultra-wide; 50MP telephoto

200MP main; 12MP ultra-wide; 50MP telephoto

50MP main; 8MP ultra-wide; 50MP telephoto

Processor:

MediaTek Dimensity 9500

Snapdragon 8 Elite

Snapdragon 8 Gen 5

Battery:

7,000mAh

6,400mAh

6,500mAh

How I tested the Xiaomi 17

• Review test period: One week
• Testing included: Everyday use, including web browsing, social media, photography, video calling, gaming, streaming video, music playback
• Tools used: Geekbench 6, 3DMark, native Android stats

I popped my SIM into the Xiaomi 17T Pro and used it as my main phone for just over a week. I used it as I would use any other phone, taking lots of photos and videos, gaming, messaging, working, streaming video, and navigating with Google Maps.

I also compared the experience of playing graphically demanding games like Neverness to Everness to my experience on other Android flagships like the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra and Oppo Find X9 Ultra. I ran plenty of benchmarks on the phone, including 3DMark and Geekbench, to confirm my performance findings.

I assessed the battery performance based on my real-world usage, and charging times were measured using the included wall adapter and USB-C cable.

First tested May 2026

OSCAL Pilot 6: 30-second review

The Oscal Pilot 6 is a rugged Android phone designed for anyone working outdoors who needs a phone that can withstand far more than a standard commercial model. The design is rugged and, whilst it’s slightly larger than a standard phone, its plastic reinforced casing keeps it from being overly large, and it will just about slip into a pocket.

The bulk and weight, while more than your average consumer phone, is still less than many other larger rugged smartphones. Still, it’s nicely designed with the usual industrial design aesthetic synonymous with rugged smartphones. It’s comfortable to hold and use, and when it comes to that ruggedness, it offers IP68/IP69 and MIL-STD-810H ratings, highlighting that it can withstand significant abuse.

What makes this phone stand out against many of the other rugged smartphones is that it not only features all the usual camera specifications, including a massive 108-million-pixel camera, but also a thermal camera, which makes it great for trade, and a large 10,000mAh battery, which ensures that it can last for days in between charging. This battery can also be wirelessly charged at 15W and supports reverse charging for topping up other devices.

When used to navigate productivity apps, the handset's speed is okay, just held back a little by the MediaTek Helio G100, which is really a mid-range CPU, backed again by a mid-range Mali-G57 MC2 GPU. So, whilst it’s usable for updating documents and browsing the internet, it’s not the fastest on the market. What is nice, though, is that it’s all fronted by a 6.78-inch 120Hz screen, which is perfectly viewable in all conditions.

Also, what I really liked was that it has a built-in 98dB speaker that produces relatively decent audio quality. If you’re working on-site and want to listen to music, then this could be the perfect option.

For the consumer market, this phone is a little large for the general user. However, in trade, engineering, and surveying, the features, build quality, and size make it one of the best rugged phones I've tested. It’s just a little bit of a shame that it’s limited to 4G.

OSCAL Pilot 6: Price and availability

• How much does it cost? £330/$294
• When is it out? Now
• Where can you get it? Directly from Oscal or Amazon

At present, the Pilot 6 is available on Blackview's fficial website, with the 12GB/256GB model priced at $558.99 / £319. But keep an eye on the website as the price does change.

• Value: 4/5

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)OSCAL Pilot 6: Specs

CPU: MediaTek Helio G100, octa-core, up to 2.2GHz
Graphics: Mali-G57
RAM: 12GB LPDDR4X, expandable virtually up to 36GB
Storage: 256GB UFS 2.1, microSD/TF expansion up to 2TB
Ports: USB-C
Connectivity: 4G, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 5.2, NFC, GPS/GLONASS/Galileo/Beidou/QZSS
Audio: 4.5W 98dB Smart-PA BOX speaker, USB-C earphone support
Camera: 108MP Samsung ISOCELL HM6 rear, 50MP Samsung ISOCELL JN1 front, 160×120 thermal camera
Size: 182.8 × 82 × 18.1mm; 410.8g
OS Installed: DokeOS 5.0 based on Android 16
Accessories: Manual, USB cable, SIM ejector pin, and lanyard

OSCAL Pilot 6: Design

As I removed the Pilot 6 from the packaging, it was unmistakably a rugged smartphone with the usual industrial design, with credentials, including IP68, IP69K, and MIL-STD-810H. Sure enough, in the hand it feels good and rugged, and whilst it’s larger than most consumer-model smartphones, it’s not overly cumbersome, and it’s easy enough to handle, measuring 182.8 x 82 x 18.1mm and weighing 410.8g.

Whilst the size and weight do make it a little bit more bulky than a consumer phone, such as an iPhone, it’s still not overly large. If you do need to put it in a jacket or pocket, then whilst it’s going to be relatively bulky, it’s possible.

Checking through some of the build materials, it does look like OSCAL has really put a lot of thought into the rugged design, with an Al-Ti alloy used for the metal frame bracket, aluminium side strips, and the shockproof plastic base, which thankfully stays in one piece if dropped from a height.

It’s also good to see that the large 6.78-inch screen uses Gorilla Glass 5, and throughout the test, it withstood being dropped and submerged in water with no damage other than a little grime on the body, which was easily wiped away.

That screen offers a decent brightness of 750 nits, which makes it more than viewable in almost all sunny conditions, and throughout the test, which was conducted in the late spring in the UK, that brightness was made it easy to read documents and website content easily enough.

Alongside the impressive 108-million-pixel camera, which is backed by a Samsung sensor, is an infrared camera that enables you to pick up heat signatures, which will be especially of interest to anybody working in trades. This feature, along with the torch that sits at the top of the handset, is activated through dedicated apps that are all pre-installed.

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

The torch offers 93 lumens of brightness, and being mounted at the top of the handset rather than the back makes it very easy to use. There’s no ability to focus it, so whilst it’s relatively bright and great for looking into crevices, it isn’t a replacement for a standard flashlight that has a focused beam.

Another feature I liked was the 98dB speaker on the back, which you can see clearly on the phone. This produces very loud audio, which is great for listening to music whilst you’re busy at work.

And ensuring it runs all day, even if you can’t charge up, there’s that huge 10,000mAh battery, which charges relatively quickly but has more than enough capacity to last all day without a charge.

• Design: 3.5 / 5

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)OSCAL Pilot 6: Features

The Oscal Pilot 6 is packed with features, with the main headline being the 160 x 120 thermal imaging camera that can detect heat signatures between -15°C and 550°C. Whilst that resolution might not seem that great, when it comes to detecting everything from wildlife hiding in the bushes if you’re out shooting photographs to detecting where piping and wiring might be if you work in the trade, a thermal camera like this on your smartphone can be a real use.

The camera is activated through the thermal app, with a 25Hz frame rate that provides a relatively smooth live view, and it offers under 50 mK thermal sensitivity alongside measurement and reporting tools, giving you a complete suite in this one relatively small mobile phone.

Alongside the headline thermal camera is a 108-million-pixel HM6 main camera, capable of capturing high-resolution images perfect for surveys and site visits, as well as for video conferencing. There’s a 50-million-pixel Samsung JN1 front camera that also offers decent resolution and frame rate.

The mobile phone is powered by a 10,000 mAh battery. This offers plenty of usage time and features 27W fast charging, 15W wireless charging, and 10W reverse charging, if you need to top up other devices.

Interestingly, another main feature of the smartphone is the 98dB loudspeaker, which is visible on the back of the phone near the camera array, and it is perfectly good for listening to music on-site. As long as you’re not too bothered about high-fidelity music, it is perfectly good, but where it really comes into its own is through speakerphone calls, because that speaker makes it far easier to hear if there’s a group of you on a conference call, utilising the phone.

When it comes to rugged credentials, they’re pretty impressive, with IP68 and IP69K ratings alongside MIL-STD-810H, meaning it can survive being underwater for a period of time, as well as being dropped and generally not looked after quite as carefully as you would with a standard consumer-level mobile phone.

When it comes to connectivity, this phone is only 4G; however, it offers NFC, Wi-Fi 802.11, 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz, and Bluetooth 5.2. When it comes to network connectivity, whilst it doesn’t offer 5G, it is backwards-compatible with 2G and 3G.

Inside, powering the smartphone is a MediaTek octa-core Helio G100, 6nm, up to 2.2GHz, paired with a Mali-G57 MC2 GPU and 12GB of LPDDR4X RAM and 256GB of UFS 2.1 ROM. Whilst built-in storage is quite limited, as is the RAM, the RAM can be expanded to 36GB using virtual RAM, and, with a TF card or microSD card, you can expand the internal storage up to a huge 2TB.

The 6.78-inch 2.4K 120Hz screen is nice and bright, reaching 750 nits. That 1080 x 2460 resolution lets you see plenty on the screen, so if you do need to update documents, it’s a good resolution and brightness for doing so, even out in the field.

Checking through the specifications and features, it is quite obvious that this phone has been designed primarily for field use, by trade and industry, rather than consumer phone users. Still, with those loudspeakers, which, used in moderation, are pretty good, and with that large bright screen and decent resolution, it is equally good for watching back media and taking pictures if needed.

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

• Features: 4.5 / 5

OSCAL Pilot 6: Performance

The first thing you notice about the phone compared to my phone is its size and bulk. Whilst it is smaller than many rugged smartphones, it is considerably bigger than a standard iPhone, in my case, an iPhone 15 Pro. Still, it is of a decent size, and you can easily hold it in one hand with no issue.

It’s not as bulky and cumbersome as some rugged smartphones, so if you do want to use it as an everyday phone, then it is a good size. Likewise, the bulk is bigger than most consumer-level smartphones, mainly due to the reinforcement that makes it rugged, and whilst it will fit into a jacket or trouser pocket, it is worth considering that it is that much larger than a standard phone.

For everyday use, making calls, even though it is restricted to 4G connectivity, that connectivity is good and strong, and actually, in many situations, was better than my iPhone 15 Pro when it came to making standard calls. Obviously, the internet connectivity wasn’t as good, limited by that 4G connection.

As I’ve seen with other Oscal and Blackview phones, the Android 16 version that is used on the device is DokeOS 5.0, a slightly customised version for this brand of phone, and to be honest, it works exceptionally well for most uses, including many bespoke apps that enable a lot of functionality, including the torch, thermal camera and that speaker system. Alongside the custom apps, you also have all the usual Android applications, so if you want to download Google Docs, it's already installed on the phone.

Once you get up and running, accessing my standard applications, say Google Chrome for browsing and Google Docs, the phone can handle that quite well, and that larger-resolution screen enables everything to fit on quite nicely. This is quite an upgrade from many of the standard HD phones on the market, and whilst limited by the 4G connectivity, that screen resolution is absolutely ideal, giving plenty of real estate when you do need to edit or read documents.

The screen speed is also relatively good, although not quite as responsive as some other rugged smartphones. What I did note in the feature set is that there is a glove mode, so if you’re wearing gloves for work and still need to use that connectivity, you can activate it and still use the phone. This can be really handy both at work and when you’re out cycling and need to use a phone without removing your gloves.

In use, switching between apps, the phone was more than able to handle it, and whilst there were a few slight pauses, the overall workflow was quite smooth. What impressed me was the camera app; whilst it isn’t fully featured, it does offer a pro mode and plenty of flexibility over the images you take. That image quality, whilst not high-end, is also pretty good, and if you want to use it for something other than taking detailed site photos, then it’s actually far better than I had anticipated.

On the phone, there are a variety of apps, including AI Chat, AI Video, AI Photos and AI Music. All of these are pre-installed but require you to sign up for relatively expensive subscription plans. Likewise, some of the other applications that are pre-installed offer wallpaper options, but there’s advertising always integrated that wants to take you over to Temu, and there were several occasions when, for no reason whatsoever, an advert for a game would suddenly pop up on the screen, which I found incredibly annoying.

As the initial review went on, I actually went through and deleted a huge volume of the pre-installed apps, just because I kept getting notifications about products and Temu, or about games I didn't want to play when I was least expecting them.

One of the app options that was quite good was AI Photo, which lets you use a bit for free before you need to pay. You can enhance several pictures for free before any cost is involved, and I would’ve preferred a non-AI app pre-installed that let me play around with some images, rather than almost every single option on this phone trying to get me into some other subscription model.

Once I had settled all the apps on the phone and gone through and deleted a lot of them, the phone itself was actually pretty good, very much aimed at the mid-range, with a Helio G100 being perfectly good for all of the standard Android apps, navigation, messaging, watching media and quite a lot of other work apps, even able to download CapCut and utilise that to edit short video clips without any issue.

I also really like the headline features. The thermal imaging camera is really good and easy to use, and whilst the resolution is pretty low, with all the different colour overlays that you can use, it’s really good for spotting animals and creatures hiding in the bushes, and if you do want to detect pipes and electronics that are hidden behind walls and plaster, then it’s perfectly possible to do that as well. More of a guide than anything else, but it’s nice to have that feature built into the phone.

The small torch on the top of the phone was also good. Whilst it isn’t focused, the brightness is sufficient to be able to look inside cavities or the back of cupboards to discover things in the same way that you would with a standard flashlight. It’s a bit of a shame that it’s not focusable, but the brightness is there and is pretty decent.

The battery life is also superb, and it’s only after this first week of testing that I realised I still hadn’t charged the phone and just how good having such a large battery is. Essentially, you just keep the phone in your bag on standby, and you know that it’s going to be there, ready to go when you need it.

Overall, as a business phone, the Pilot 6 is a great option. It is slightly larger than a consumer-level phone, with a thermal camera, a high-resolution main camera, and that torch, and it all comes together with the ability to make calls, making it a useful addition for anyone working out in the field.

• Performance: 3.5 / 5

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)OSCAL Pilot 6: Final verdict

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

The Oscal Pilot 6 is a great smartphone option for anyone working in industry or trade. The thermal camera and high-resolution main camera let you detect piping, wiring, and other heat-related objects that other cameras can’t, and, as it’s built into a smartphone, it is a good, quick indicator for on-site visits.

Backing up the thermal camera is a very decent 108-million-pixel main camera, which is good for taking detailed site images that are first-rate in tone and, compared with some other high-resolution cameras, maintain quality. I was just impressed with the overall tone, detail and clarity this small camera was able to produce.

The torch is a nice addition, but it’s not the best smartphone torch I’ve seen. The fact that it is mounted at the top of the smartphone does make it a little more useful and versatile, but with no ability to focus and, to be honest, limited brightness, it’s great for looking in cupboards and other things that are close. But if you’re thinking of using it as a flashlight, then its power just isn’t quite up to it.

As a slightly left-field feature, the speakers are actually pretty decent. If you’re on a conference call with people on site, this phone is well-suited to that use, and you can hear things above the ambient sounds of a building site, which could be exceptionally useful.

But then you come onto some of the downsides of this phone, and primarily that is the fact that many of the apps require a subscription or take you to some advertising randomly when you least expect it, and after a day of testing, I decided to sit down and delete all of the apps on the phone that would automatically take me elsewhere.

Once the OS was cleaned, it’s a relatively decent system, and DokeOS, as ever, is nice and stable and proved fast enough, even with a 4G network connection.

The CPU and GPU are mid-range. Whilst they’re good for productivity, they’re not ideal for multimedia editing or gaming. Still, if you want to do a bit of light gaming or multimedia editing, to be honest, most phones are powerful enough these days.

By the end of the test, it was clear that if you’re working in the trade or industry and looking for a rugged, thermal-cameras smartphone, this is a great option. If you’re into outdoor activities, then whilst this is a good mid-range phone, it probably won’t fully meet your needs. Whilst that camera is good, there are better options out there.

Should I buy the OSCAL Pilot 6?

Value

Great value for a phone, with high-resolution and thermal cameras in one relatively compact unit.

4/5

Design

Usual tough, rugged design with industrial aesthetics that enable this phone to stand up to more than most. 

3.5/5

Features

A very decent set of features for a smartphone, with the added interest of that thermal camera.

4/5

Performance

Very capable mid-range smartphone, just limited by 4G connectivity and slightly intrusive apps.

3.5/5

Overall

With the apps cleaned, this is a decent rugged smartphone that can withstand more than most and offers decent performance.

4/5

Buy it if...

Need thermal vision
If you need a phone with a built-in thermal imaging camera, this is a great option, backed by a high-resolution main camera for detailed site images.

Work away often
That 10,000mAh battery just kept going, needing just one charge per week despite heavy testing, making it good not only for trade but also for camping or as a backup phone for emergencies.

Don't buy it if...

Want slim comfort
While a smartphone might be appealing, at just over 400g and considerably larger than a consumer-level model, it can be more cumbersome to carry daily.

Need 5G speeds
It’s surprising that there are still phones without 5G connectivity, but for its use, 4G is more than adequate. If you do need a faster connection, 5G rugged smartphones are available.

For more durable devices, we've tested the best rugged tablets and the best rugged laptops.

Samsung HW-Q990H review: Two minute review

The Samsung HW-Q990H continues the high standard set by its predecessors, which are reliably among the best soundbars on the market, delivering a full, multi-box Dolby Atmos experience for one of the most competitive prices around. While it doesn’t offer that many changes from its predecessor, it’s still a fantastic system.

An 11.1.4 channel soundbar system, the Q990H is packed with superb sound-enhancing features such as SpaceFit Sound Pro and Q-Symphony, which add more layers to its already excellent sound. Sound Elevation (where sound is raised to the height of the TV itself) is one of two new features introduced, and while I didn’t use it for much of my testing, it could be useful depending on your circumstances.

It supports both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X enhanced audio formats, and there’s even support for 4K 120Hz and VRR passthrough in the soundbar’s two HDMI 2.1 In ports — perfect for those who don’t own one of the best gaming TVs.

The Q990H’s performance is phenomenal. It delivers an immersive, powerful sound with bass that’s both meaty and controlled, aided by the returning small-sized, dual-driver subwoofer introduced in last year's Q990F. Sound mapping is accurate, with details placed precisely to the correct channels and connected with the action on screen. Speech is consistently clear, and Dolby Atmos effects are re-created faithfully with real clarity. While it doesn’t innovate much on last year’s Samsung HW-Q990F, it’s still a superb soundbar.

Design-wise, the Q990H benefits from the compact subwoofer, which is easy to position while still delivering excellent sound. While the soundbar itself feels sturdy and has a nice color to it, the actual grated design doesn’t feel as premium as 2024’s Samsung Q990D, and the alphanumeric display isn’t always the easiest to read, but is a welcome feature. It would be nice to see Samsung mix up the design of the flagship model in future.

The Q990H is incredibly easy to set up and use. Actual installation took a few minutes, and I used the SmartThings app to control EQ and other features, never running into any issues. There is a supplied remote for those who don’t want to use the app, but I suggest you give the app a try.

The Q990H is a premium soundbar system, and while it delivers the performance to back up its asking price of $1,999 / £1,599 / AU$1,999, there aren’t a great many changes over its predecessor the Q990F. The latter is available for $1,599 / £999 / AU$1,599 at the time of writing, so it's the better option in my view. Once it disappears though, the Q990H is a more than worthy successor.

Samsung HW-Q990H review: Price and release date

(Image credit: Future)

• Release date: May 2026
• Price: $1,999 / £1,599 / AU$1,999

The Samsung HW-Q990F is the flagship model in Samsung’s 2026 soundbar lineup. It sits above the Samsung HW-900H, HW-Q800H and the HW-QS90H, the latter of which is a follow-up to the Samsung QS700F from 2025.

The HW-Q990H’s launch prices are pretty consistent with its predecessor, the HW-Q990F, from last year. The Q990H is launching for £100 cheaper in the UK and AU$100 cheaper in Australia, however.

Samsung HW-Q990H review: Specs

Dimensions (W x H x D)

Soundbar: 1232 x 70.8 x 138mm (48.5 x 2.8 x 5.4 inches); Subwoofer: 249 x 251.8 x 249mm (9.8 x 10.0 x 9.8 inches); Rear speaker: 129.5 x 201.3 x140.4mm (5.1 x 8.0 x 5.5 inches)

Speaker channels

11.1.4

Connections:

1x HDMI out (with eARC), 2x HDMI 2.1 in, optical digital audio, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth

Dolby Atmos/DTS:X

Yes/Yes

Sub included

Yes

Rear speakers included

Yes

Features

Q Symphony, SpaceFit Sound Pro, Adaptive Sound, Sound Elevation, Auto Volume, Game Mode Pro, Tap Sound, AirPlay 2, Chromecast, HDMI 2.1 120Hz pass-through, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision pass-through, wireless Dolby Atmos

Samsung HW-Q990H review: Features

The Q990H has two HDMI In ports, both of which support 4K 120Hz passthrough for gaming (Image credit: Future)

• 11.1.4 channel soundbar system
• Dolby Atmos and DTS-X support
• HDMI 2.1 input ports rated for 4K 120Hz gaming

The Q990H doesn’t bring many new features to the table compared to last year’s Q990F, but that’s not a bad thing, as that soundbar's features were pretty impressive. The Q990H is an 11.1.4 channel soundbar system comprising four units: a main soundbar, a subwoofer (the same compact unit introduced with the Q990F), and two rear speakers. It has the same 23-speaker layout as the Q990F.

In terms of audio support, the Q990H supports Dolby Atmos and DTS: X sound formats, and there’s support for Eclipsa Audio, Samsung and Google’s joint foray into the 3D sound world. Wireless Dolby Atmos and DTS:X are also supported.

Connections are the same as last year, with an HDMI eARC port for connection to your chosen display, as well as two HDMI In ports. Both are HDMI 2.1 and rated for 4K 120Hz gaming, and both support HDR10+ HDR. There's also Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity for music streaming.

The Q990H introduces two new sound features. Sound Elevation is designed to direct the sound towards the screen itself in order to create a more natural listening experience, while Auto Volume aims to reduce sudden spikes in volume when changing channels or content.

Returning sound-enhancing features include SpaceFit Sound Pro, which optimizes the sound profile to suit the environment you’re in; Adaptive Sound, which analyzes the content being played and adjusts it in real time; and Active Voice Amplifier Pro, which analyzes voices within a scene and optimizes them. The Q990H also supports Q-Symphony, which enables a compatible connected Samsung TV’s speakers to be employed to enhance the audio further.

There are a number of night-mode listening features as well, such as Private Audio, which directs the sound to the rear speakers, and Moderate Bass, which mutes the subwoofer and directs the bass to come from the soundbar itself.

The Q900H can be controlled by the SmartThings app, where adjustments to the EQ and sound levels for each channel can be made. You can also choose from the soundbar’s four listening modes here: Standard, Surround, AI and Game. The aforementioned sound enhancements can also be controlled via the app.

• Features score: 5 / 5

Samsung HW-Q990H review: Performance

The Q990H's excellent sound positioning and detail mean scenes like the Death Star attack from Star Wars: A New Hope are immersive and cinematic. (Image credit: Disney / Future )

• Detailed expansive sound
• Powerful, controlled bass
• Great Atmos reproduction

Of the Q990H’s four sound presets (Standard, Surround, Game and AI) I chose Surround, as I felt it gave the most consistently immersive sound. I also used the SpaceFit Sound Pro setting to calibrate the soundbar to our testing lab, and this created a more immersive sound profile.

The Q990H’s sound placement and mapping are superb. Watching the Death Star attack run from Star Wars: A New Hope, the whir of the X-Wing’s engines came from the rear speakers, laser fire came from all around, and the flight paths of the various TIE fighters and X-Wings was accurately placed, making me feel like I was in the cockpit.

Watching The Batman, as Penguin fired a spray of bullets towards Catwoman, the sound travelled from the front to the rear channels, following the direction of the action on screen. In the chase sequence itself, the swerving of tires and blaring car horns travelled across the soundbar, again mapped perfectly.

The compact subwoofer first introduced in last year’s Q990F returns here, and I was reminded of how good it was. Despite its smaller stature, the Q990H’s subwoofer packs a mighty punch. As the Batmobile’s engine fires up in The Batman, the subwoofer delivered an almighty rumble that filled the room, accurately delivering the roar and the crunching gear changes during the driving sequences. Crucially however, the bass never got ahead of itself, as the subwoofer demonstrated excellent control, with the same gear changes delivered with great detail.

Speaking of detail, the Q990H delivers it in spades. During the Darkstar test flight in Top Gun: Maverick, subtle sound effects, such as the wind passing through the jet’s outer panels and the tightening of Maverick’s gloves are all well balanced with the bass of the jet engine and the loud beeps of the various displays.

The Q990H benefits from four height channels, meaning Atmos effects are reproduced accurately. As Maverick flies over Admiral Kane in Top Gun: Maverick, the sound of the Darkstar’s flight path went over my head, delivering an expansive sound. The same was true as TIE Fighters flew overhead in Star Wars, with height channels precisely following their iconic howling sound.

The Q990H's subwoofer delivers powerful, controlled bass: perfect for capturing the roar of the Batmobile's engine in The Batman (pictured) (Image credit: Warner Bros. / Future )

Throughout my testing, the Q990H’s front channels delivered crystal-clear speech, even in complicated scenes such as the Batmobile chase, accurately delivering the Penguin’s frantic shouts over the loud explosions and impacts.

As I tested the Q990H with the Samsung S95F, one of 2025’s best OLED TVs, I tried out the Q-Symphony setting. This added extra volume and more power to the front channels by using the S95F’s speakers, giving everything extra punch. If you don’t own a Samsung TV, fear not — this Q990H still sounds fantastic without Q-Symphony.

I tried out the new Sound Elevation feature, and while it did move the height of the sound effectively, it wasn’t necessary for my viewing. This could be a useful feature for those who wall-mount the soundbar, but I’d recommend giving it a try to see if it fits your environment.

The Q990H is also a solid soundbar for music. Listening to a Dolby Atmos version of Bad Bunny’s BAILE INoLVIDABLE, the Q990H delivered tightly controlled low-end from the track’s heavy bass synths and drums later in the song. The piano sounded detailed, and Bunny’s varied vocals were delivered accurately. High notes had plenty of brightness without sounding overbearing, and the horn section sounded punchy and detailed.

Switching to a heavier track, Dir En Grey’s Un Deux, the Q990H did a great job delivering the pounding guitars, crunching drums and Kyo’s soaring vocals, capturing the wide production of the track with its big soundstage. While other soundbars, such as the Sonos Arc Ultra, are better for music overall, the Q990H is still great.

• Performance score: 5 / 5

Samsung HW-Q990H review: Design

While I like the compact subwoofer, the rest of the HW-Q990H could do with a design refresh (Image credit: Future)

• Return of the brilliant compact subwoofer
• Sturdy build quality
• Design becoming familiar

The Q990H is almost identical in appearance to last year’s Q990F, which in turn felt like a cheapened design of the 2024 Samsung HW-Q990D. While the Q990H does have a sturdy, weighty build that feels premium, my criticisms of last year’s design remain.

The highlight is once again the compact subwoofer design. The dual-driver unit is weighty, but has a much more visually appealing cubed design. Due to its more compact size, it’s much easier to conceal than most subwoofers. The main soundbar measures 1232 x 70.8 x 138mm (48.5 x 2.8 x 5.4 inches), which was the exact width of the 55-inch Samsung S95F OLED TV I tested the soundbar with. It’s quite a deep soundbar however, so you may need to consider this when placing it.

The actual look and materials of the Q990H are the main issue. While the metallic grille that’s been used for years remains, the cheaper-looking grated design introduced in the Q990F is still here, and it doesn’t look as appealing as older models. The same is true of the rear speakers, which don’t feel or look as premium.

The alphanumeric display included can still be a challenge to a read, but it’s still welcome. While the Q990H’s overall design is fine, Samsung could stand to learn from other multi-box units, such as the JBL 1300Mk2.

• Design score: 4 / 5

Samsung HW-Q990H review: Setup and usability

You can control the Q990H with the supplied remote (pictured) or the SmartThings or new Samsung Sound app (Image credit: Future)

• Easy, hassle-free setup
• SmartThings app for control as well as remote
• Wireless connection between soundbar and other units

As I’ve found with the last few iterations of Samsung’s flagship soundbar, the Q990H was a breeze to set up. I simply connected the main soundbar to the TV via HDMI eARC, and then paired the subwoofer and rear speakers by holding down a button. At one point during my testing I had to disconnect and re-connect the same units due to a brief Wi-Fi issue, and this again took a matter of minutes.

The Q990H can be controlled by the supplied remote or the SmartThings app. I opted for the latter, and it allowed me to easily make adjustments to the EQ and sound levels as I saw fit, with said changes happening almost instantaneously. It’s worth trying out the app, but the Q990H also sounds great out of the box.

One quick note: Samsung advertises its new Samsung Sound app as the new control, though at the time of writing it doesn’t offer the full compatibility or support all the features of SmartThings, so you’re best sticking with the latter for now.

• Setup & usability score: 4.5 / 5

Samsung HW-Q990H review: ValueSamsung Q990H soundbar FutureSamsung Q990H subwooferFutureSamsung Q990H rear speaker Future

• Great flagship performance and features
• Still a premium price
• Only minor upgrades over predecessor

The Q990H is undoubtedly at the premium end of the soundbar market. Priced at $1,999 / £1,599 / AU$1,999, it’s pricier than a lot of all-in-one options such as the Sonos Arc Ultra and Marshall Heston 120, as well as more budget surround sound models from the likes of JBL, Hisense and Ultimea.

Major rivals such as the JBL 1300MK2 are also available for less, with the 1300MK2 priced at $1,699 / £999 in the US and UK (it’s pricier in Australia at $AU2,299). That said, the 1300MK2 did launch several months ago, so its prices have had time to drop.

Still, the Q990H is a flagship soundbar that delivers phenomenal audio quality and comes with a ton of useful features, most prominently its HDMI 2.1 ports for gaming. Compared to said multi-box rivals, it’s also pretty fairly priced.

There is the small matter, however, of the Q990H’s predecessor, the Q990F, still being available. While the Q990H offers a couple of upgrades, the Q990F is still a fantastic soundbar in its own right, and at $1,599 / £999 / AU$1,599 it’s the better option right now. Once it disappears, though, the Q990H will make a worthy successor — and we’ll have hopefully seen some discounts by then.

• Value score: 4 / 5

Should I buy the Samsung HW-Q990H?

Section

Notes

Score

Features

Great list of sound enhancing features, WI-Fi and Hi-res audio for music and 4K 120Hz for gaming

5 / 5

Performance

Detailed, powerful sound with faithful and accurate Dolby Atmos reproduction

5 / 5

Design

Compact subwoofer returns and feel sturdy, but design feels familiar and could do with a refresh

4 / 5

Setup & usability

Easy setup and usage with easier supplied remote or SmartThings app

4.5 / 5

Value

A premium experience with a price to match. Few upgrades over predecessor

4 / 5

Buy it if...

You want the full Dolby Atmos experience at home
The Q990H delivers a powerful, refined and immersive sound experience with authentic Dolby Atmos, bringing the cinema to your home

You want a soundbar to cover all the bases
With Hi-res audio support, Dolby Atmos and DTS: X and 4K 120Hz for gaming, the Q990H really does cover all the bases.

You want a compact but powerful subwoofer
Some subwoofers prioritise design over sound and vice versa. The Q990H's subwoofer does both: it's small enough to hide but without compromising on sound.

Don't buy it if...

You're on a budget
The Q990H is a fantastic soundbar, but it comes with a premium price tag. There are cheaper Atmos soundbars available.

You want an easy-to-read front display
The Q990H design hasn't been updated for a while, and the LED front display is still tricky to read.

You own the Samsung HW-Q990F
The Q990H introduces a couple of new features and refinements, but it's not dissimilar to last year's Q990F. View Deal

Samsung HW-Q990H review: Also consider

Samsung HW-Q990F

Samsung HW-Q990F

JBL Bar 1300MK2

Sonos Arc Ultra

Price (May 2026)

$1,999 / £1,599 / AU$1,999

$1,599 / £999 / AU$1,599

$1,699 / £999 / AU$2,299

Dimensions

Soundbar: 1232 x 70.8 x 138mm (48.5 x 2.8 x 5.4 inches); Subwoofer: 249 x 251.8 x 249mm (9.8 x 10.0 x 9.8 inches); Rear speaker: 129.5 x 201.3 x140.4mm (5.1 x 8.0 x 5.5 inches)

Soundbar: 1232 x 70.8 x 138mm (48.5 x 2.8 x 5.4 inches); Subwoofer: 249 x 251.8 x 249mm (9.8 x 10.0 x 9.8 inches); Rear speaker: 129.5 x 201.3 x140.4mm (5.1 x 8.0 x 5.5 inches)

Soundbar: 40.6 x 2.3 x 5.4 inches / 1030 x 58 x 136mm; subwoofer: 12.4 x 10.9 x 10.8 inches / 315 x 277 x 275mm; surround speakers: 8 x 2.3 x 5.4 inches / 202 x 58 x 136mm

2.95 x 46.38 x 4.35 inches (75 x 1178 x 110.6mm)

Speaker channels

11.1.4

11.1.4

11.1.4

9.1.4

Connections

Two HDMI 2.1 input, One HDMI output, optical output, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth

Two HDMI 2.1 input, One HDMI output, optical output, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth

1x HDMI eARC, 3x HDMI in, digital optical, USB (playback US-only), Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.3 (surround speakers use 5.4)

1x HDMI with eARC, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth

Dolby Atmos/DTS:X

Yes/Yes

Yes/Yes

Yes / Yes

Yes/No

Sub included

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

Rear speakers included

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

Samsung HW-Q990F (2025)
The Samsung HW-Q990F is the Q990H's predecessor, and was Samsung's first flagship model to use the compact subwoofer featured on the Q990H. It delivers very similar performance and features to the Q990H, and is currently cheaper. This is your best bet until the Q990H's prices start dropping.

Read our full Samsung HW-Q990F review

JBL 1300Mk2
The JBL 1300Mk2 is an 11.1.4 channel Dolby Atmos system, the same as the Q990H. Its rear speakers are detachable from the front soundbar for easy storage, making it a neater system than the Q990H. While it is cheaper, it's lacking the 4K 120Hz passthrough the Q990H has, so if you want gaming features, the Q990H is your better option.

Read our full JBL 1300Mk2View Deal

Sonos Arc Ultra
The Sonos Arc Ultra is an all-in-one Dolby Atmos soundbar that delivers great performance. It's better for music than the Q990H, but the Q990H has rear speakers and a subwoofer included as standard, whereas the Arc Ultra's are optional. If you want the best value, the Q990H is my pick.

Read our full Sonos Arc Ultra review

How I tested the Samsung HW-Q990H

• Tested with the Samsung S95F OLED TV
• Tested using different sources
• Dolby Atmos, 5.1 surround and stereo sound tested

I tested the Samsung HW-Q990H with the Samsung S95F OLED TV, which allowed me to test out the Q-Symphony feature, which employs the Samsung S95F's speakers in conjunction with the soundbar.

To test the Q990H soundbar, I used reference Dolby Atmos scenes that I also use to test TV speakers, namely The Batman and Top Gun: Maverick on 4K Blu-ray, and Star Wars: A New Hope for 4K streaming.

I used the Samsung SmartThings app to test out its sound features, including SpaceFit Sound Pro and Sound Elevation, as well as testing out its different sound presets.

I also tested the Samsung HW-Q990H's music capabilities using Dolby Atmos tracks such as Bad Bunny's BAILLE INoLVIDABLE, as well as stereo tracks such as Dir En Grey's Un Deux.

• First reviewed: May 2026
• Read more about how we test

Huawei Watch Fit 5 Pro review: Specifications

Component

Huawei Watch Fit 5 Pro

Price

£249.99

Dimension

44.5 x 40.8 x 9.5mm

Weight

30.4g without strap

Case/bezel

Titanium

Display

1.92-inch AMOLED, 489 x 408px

GPS

Dual-band L1 + L5, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS

Battery life

Up to 10 days

Connection

Bluetooth

Water resistance

Yes, 5ATM

Huawei Watch Fit 5 Pro: One minute review

(Image credit: Amanda Westberg)

The Huawei Watch Fit 5 Pro looks quite similar to an Apple Watch Ultra 3, only slimmer, and I get the feeling that’s very much the idea. The same raised bump on the titanium shell protects the digital crown, and houses an additional side button. It’s the same shape as the Ultra 3, the screen is bright and colorful, and as you can see from the TikTok video embedded below in which I compare the two, you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s an Apple Watch at first glance.

However, just because Huawei’s stealing Apple’s lunch a little in the design stakes, that doesn’t mean this just a cheaper knockoff. Huawei has been making quality wearables with accurate metrics for ages now, and the Fit 5 Pro is another absolute win in my book.

It’s light and comfortable to wear, with the wide screen and slim design ensuring it sits flush and close to the wrist, like the Garmin Venu X1, making it perfect for more comfortable exercise, and not weighty or cumbersome to wear during sleep tracking. The tough ‘aerospace-grade’ titanium-alloy shell is a great get at this price, with the closest-priced Apple product, the Apple Watch SE 3, using aluminum, plastic and nylon. The whole aerospace thing is a bit of a gimmick, but titanium makes the whole package feel much more premium and stylish, and it looks as good as it feels.

The Huawei Watch Fit 5 Pro battery is claimed to last up to 10 days in smartwatch mode, but with near-constant wear, multiple GPS workouts, and with the always-on display turned off, I got around six days during my testing. The LTPO AMOLED display is powerful, and nearly two inches wide with an adaptive 1-60hz refresh rate. In layman’s terms, it’s bright, smooth and powerful, and in such a thin smartwatch it’s a real battery sucker. Nevertheless, six days is still triple the usage I get from the Apple Watch Ultra 3 on a single charge, even though the latter is triple the price.

Like Apple, Huawei relies on its own walled-garden ecosystem, as a result of being a Chinese company and operating behind the ‘great firewall of China’, preventing its integration with apps like Google Maps, Spotify and others from major US tech companies, although it supports some select integrations like Strava and Komoot via the Huawei Health app. The AppGallery must be accessed from your phone’s internet browser and the apps downloaded from there, with no Play Store or App Store integration.

The Huawei Watch Fit 5 Pro uses Chinese apps for its core functions, like Petal Maps for navigation instead of Google or Apple Maps, so to sync with your phone you’ll also start needing to use Petal as your primary map app. Lately, Huawei has been using the UK-based Curve digital wallet — this is good news, as it’s a feature that’s long eluded Huawei watches outside of China.

However, if you’re an Android or Apple user, your Google and Apple wallets don’t automatically work with your watch, although this is slightly less of a dealbreaker, as Garmin also uses a proprietary wallet system. WhatsApp can only be interacted with via notifications, not a dedicated WhatsApp interface. These pain points are not necessarily a dealbreaker for everyone, but it does make shelling out for the Fit 5 Pro in favour of the best Apple Watches or best Android watches that bit harder to swallow.

There are a bunch of interesting wellness features on the watch. Much was made at launch of the ‘mini-workouts’ feature, and there are 30 in total, for which you follow a cute panda avatar in stretching or light aerobic exercises lasting up to a couple of minutes, many of which you can do at your desk. These are targeted at specific body parts, used to correct posture or stretch your neck, spine, legs, or even face.

(Image credit: Future)

The Huawei Watch Fit 5 Pro is built for fitness tracking, and it’s strong in this field. On a 5K test route around Paris, the Fit 5 Pro cleaved closely to the top-tier Garmin Fenix 8 Pro in terms of distance, pace and heart rate measurements, with just 1bpm between the different ‘average heart rate’ measurements. Having tested the Fenix 8 Pro against a Polar H10 heart rate monitor and being satisfied with its accuracy, I feel good about Huawei’s metrics here when compared to the Fenix 8 Pro, especially for its low price. I also tested it against the new Google Fitbit Air fitness tracker, which again recorded just a 1bpm difference in my average heart rate. Unfortunately, my Polar H10 heart rate monitor malfunctioned during testing, but I’ll update this review if any scores differentiate from a new device.

The Fit 5 Pro packs dual-band L1+L5 GPS, which supposedly means it’s more accurate when you’re among tall buildings. When I tested its GPS credentials against the Garmin, there was 30 meters between the estimations of the Garmin Fenix 8 Pro and Huawei Watch Fit 5 Pro; the Fenix 8 Pro thought I’d run 5.04km, while Huawei calculated 5.01km. A total of 30/5000+ meters is to me a reasonable statistical difference, as it’s a less than a 1% margin of error, and perfectly fine for most amateur athletes. Huawei’s TruSleep sleep-tracking and TruSense heart rate algorithms are industry standard, and there are more sports modes to choose from than you could ever need. It’s a strong fitness tracking choice.

The Huawei Watch Fit 5 Pro offers good battery life, accurate tracking, and lots of nifty features — and those who want Apple Watch Ultra aesthetics and performance at a budget price are going to love it. But if you want a smartwatch that can handle apps, calls, notifications, directions and other convenience features, be prepared to jump through a few extra hoops thanks to Huawei’s walled garden.

Huawei Watch Fit 5 Pro review: Price and availability

• £249.99 in the UK
• AU$249.99 in Australia
• Not available in the US

The Huawei Watch Fit 5 Pro costs £249.99 in the UK and AU$299 in Australia. It’s unavailable in the US due to the ongoing ban on Huawei consumer electronics.

It’s very well- priced considering it’s packed with features and packs a durable, premium build, as watches with titanium bezels and sapphire glass usually tend to retail for a lot more.

If that’s still too dear for you, the Huawei Watch Fit 5 (aka the non-Pro version) starts at £159.99 in the UK from Huawei’s website, and around AU$225 in Australia at third-party outlets. Rather than titanium alloy, its case is made of softer recycled aluminum, and its design is more akin to an Apple Watch SE rather than the Ultra series.

@techradar

♬ original sound - TechRadar Huawei Watch Fit 5 Pro review: Scorecard

(Image credit: Future)

Category

Comment

Score

Value

A really great price for this watch.

5/5

Design

It’s a great-looking and feeling watch, and the Huawei HarmonyOS software is intuitive.

4.5/5

Features

The lack of third-party app support is always a blow, but lots of sport stuff and (finally!) a digital wallet.

3/5

Performance

Fast, accurate tracking compared to the top-flight Fenix 8 Pro. Good battery life and an easy all-day wear.

4.5/5

Huawei Watch Fit 5 Pro review: Should I buy?Buy it if...

You’re on a budget

For the price of an Apple Watch SE 3, you get a far more hard-wearing and powerful fitness tool.

You’re an athlete

Love multi-discipline sports? Bounce between the gym and the pavement? You’ll love this watch.

You need a digital wallet

Huawei’s Curve Pay integration means you can stop for coffee after your run, even without a phone to hand.

Don't buy it if...

You need third-party apps

Want Spotify, WhatsApp, TrainingPeaks and other such integrations on-watch? Huawei’s limited AppGallery will make life more difficult for you.

You’re using an iPhone

Even though the Fit 5 Pro has a ton of great features, it’s hard to recommend for iPhone users — Apple makes setting up and using its watches absolutely seamless, and Huawei makes life harder by operating on a separate ecosystem.

Also consider...

Apple Watch Series 11

If you're on Apple, any of the Apple Watches should be a serious wearable consideration, but the middle-of-the-road Series 11 strikes a balance between premium and affordable.

Read our Apple Watch Series 11 review

Garmin Vivoactive 6

A powerful, affordable Garmin watch with serious staying power and loads of training credentials. If you don't mind the plastic body, this is a winner.

Read our Garmin Vivoactive 6 review

How I tested

I wore the Huawei Watch Fit 5 Pro for around a week, draining the battery, sleeping with it on, and using it for exercise. I tested the micro-workouts feature, used the Emotional Wellbeing tools, and took the watch swimming, walking and running. To test its running metrics I compared it against the Garmin Fenix 8 Pro smartwatch, Google Fitbit Air fitness tracker and Polar H10 heart rate monitor, wearing multiple devices on runs.

Backrooms is A24's new horror movie and one that I had been excited about for a long time. As someone who is obsessed with Kane Parsons' Backrooms YouTube series, I was intrigued to see how it would translate on the big screen. We had the chance to talk about Parsons' "fairly simple" story in an interview.

For me, it worked perfectly, but I do think it's important to acknowledge that I have been a fan of the very idea of Backrooms for a long time, which is why I stand behind my 5-star review. There are a few things that may be frustrating to newcomers, which I'll reference throughout.

First off, we need to talk about the sets. Backrooms is nothing without its iconic, empty, yellow location, and it was so exciting seeing it on this scale. It felt so vast and terrifying even in the early stages of exploration. But our introduction to them is my favorite part of the movie.

The movie wastes no time in throwing us straight in there with some grainy, shaky found footage. I firmly believe that this opening scene will go down in history with other horror greats, because it is the most anxiety-inducing few minutes as we follow a person trying to outrun a mysterious creature.

It's the instability of the found footage camera that makes this so tense. It whips around rapidly, makes jarring movements, and is a nightmare for anyone with motion sickness. Complete with shaky images, great sound design, and bizarre sets, this is an opener that sets the tone of the movie.

And then, it quietens down considerably. Backrooms turns into a slow burn after its tense opening sequence, something that may disappoint fans after it immediately gave us heart palpitations. But this gives us time to introduce us to Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and his therapist, Dr Mary Kline (Renate Reinsve), the movie's excellent central characters. There's also another stellar performance from Creep's Mark Duplass, in a role I won't spoil for you.

We learn about Clark's difficult past, especially with his ex-wife. As a furniture store owner and failed architect, his job perfectly mirrors the strange Backrooms he finds himself in, after he clips through a wall in his store and ends up surrounded by yellow walls and ominous buzzing from the lights above. At first, he finds it fascinating and attempts to map the place out so he can show Mary.

Unfortunately, Mary is skeptical when he shows up to his next session with a crudely drawn map. Clark insists he'll bring back proof, enlisting two of his employees to go into the Backrooms with him with a video camera, giving us enough time to brace ourselves for more creepy found footage.

Indeed, any scenes involving the shaky handheld camera are by far the scariest. I was glad that Backrooms leaned into that grainy, low-quality footage that makes these liminal spaces feel ten times worse. On the flip side, though, I was relieved the movie doesn't entirely rely on found footage, as that may have been too jarring.

This is the movie that long-time fans have been waiting for. It's a beautiful, eerie expansion on Parson's already impressive lore. Much praise has been given to him for his use of the 3D modelling software Blender, and he gets to showcase those talents here. He is currently A24's youngest director, too, but it certainly never feels amateurish.

Backrooms has some well-orchestrated jumps, but if you're expecting loads of them, it won't happen here. Much of the dread and horror comes from the camera either creeping towards something or moving around erratically, both of which are very effective.

The movie also stays true to A24's brand of creepy, slow burns. It works very well here, in my opinion, but there may not be enough to hold the attention of non-Backrooms enthusiasts. In my eyes, though, it was everything I could have hoped for and more.

Chuwi AuBox X 256V: 30-second review

Chuwi has crammed Intel's Lunar Lake platform into one of the smallest and most affordable packages, close in size to the original Intel NUC. The Intel 200 series processor is a serious proposition for anyone chasing efficient local AI compute, a punchy compact desktop replacement, or a whisper-quiet home server.

The 115 TOPS headline figure is not marketing fluff either. With the NPU, GPU, and CPU all pulling together, this machine genuinely handles Copilot+ workloads and lighter local LLM inference without breaking a sweat.

The price is the real story, though. At around $829 direct for the model with the Core Ultra 7 256V silicon, this is slightly more costly than a similar 1TB configuration from GMKtec while maintaining a similar physical footprint. Build quality is impressively high, and it comes with USB 4.0 ports, dual 2.5GbE LAN and dual monitor outputs.

The downsides of this design are that the 16GB of memory is not upgradable, the small size of the system doesn’t allow for a silent cooling system, and using the second USB4 port requires a docking station.

However, most high-end mini systems are transitioning to surface-mounted memory, and there aren’t many other options powerful enough for local LLMs.

Overall, if this system had been launched only a few months ago, it would have been cheaper and probably offered a 32GB option. But its price and specifications increasingly look like the new norm, and by definition, that’s a retrograde step from the systems that came out a year ago.

At a lower price, this might have been featured in our best mini PC guide, but that argument gets less compelling above $800.

(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)Chuwi AuBox X 256V: Price and availability

• How much does it cost? $829/£612.87
• When is it out? Available now
• Where can you get it? Currently, this machine can be obtained directly from Chuwi

Considering the specification, the price of the AuBox X 256V seems reasonable, but hardly a bargain - it's available direct from Chuwi here.

We’ve seen Intel 200 Series systems costing over $1000 on several occasions, so finding this one with the Core Ultra 7 256V chip directly from the makers for $829 is a small revelation.

The UK price is £612.87, and based on the current exchange rate, it is a little more expensive than in the USA. Euro pricing is €707.58, which is probably the most costly option.

At the time of writing, Chuwi has yet to release this hardware via online resellers, but they sell many products via Amazon, so its appearance on that channel is only a matter of time, I suspect.

For those wanting the same system style but at a lower price, Chuwi has a Core Ultra 5 225V model, just called the Chuwi AuBox X, that sells for $699/£516.76/€596.62. That design comes with the same 16GB of memory, but only 512GB of storage.

These are the only SKUs, and the maximum memory is only 16GB in either case.

The only competitor using the same processor series in a mini PC form factor is GMKtec NucBox K13, which is priced at $719.99 for a machine with the Core Ultra 7 256V and 1TB of storage. If you are willing to work with a 512GB drive, that price can be $669.99.

That makes the Chuwi AuBox X 256V seem overpriced, but there are subtle differences between these designs that might make the Chuwi system worth the extra money.

I suspect the price difference we are seeing is largely due to the dramatic increases in memory and storage costs that are affecting products currently in production. It may be that GMKtec finished making the K13 before these price hikes occurred, allowing them to undercut Chuwi in this instance.

What I don’t have a reason for is why only these two makers have built systems around this mobile silicon, because it seems well-suited to mini PC use.

• Value: 3.5 / 5

(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)Chuwi AuBox X 256V: Specs

Model:

AuBox 256V

CPU:

Intel Core Ultra 7 256V, 8C/8T, P-core up to 4.8GHz, E-core up to 3.7GHz, 12MB cache

Architecture:

Lunar Lake (Series 2), TSMC N3B process

TDP:

8-37W (configurable)

iGPU:

Intel Arc 140V, 8 Xe2 cores, up to 1.95GHz, XeSS / XeSS3 support

NPU:

Intel AI Boost NPU4, 47 TOPS, OpenVINO / DirectML / ONNX / WebNN

Total AI TOPS:

115 TOPS (INT8)

Memory:

16GB LPDDR5X 8533 MT/s, on-package (soldered)

Storage:

1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD ZHITAI Ti600

Storage expansion:

2x M.2 2280 (up to 1x PCIe 5.0 + 1x PCIe 4.0)

Display outputs:

HDMI 2.1 FRL (8K@60Hz / 4K@120Hz), HDMI 2.1 TMDS (4K@60Hz), DP 1.4 via USB-C (4K@120Hz), USB4 (4K@144Hz)

Max resolution:

8K@60Hz

eGPU:

Yes, via USB4 (40Gbps)

USB

1x USB4 40Gbps (PD + DP), 4x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, 1x USB 2.0

Network

2.5GbE RJ45 (Intel), Wi-Fi 6E (up to 2.4Gbps), Bluetooth 5.3

Audio

3.5mm combo jack

Power

100W 20V / 5A USB-C

OS

Windows 11 Pro, multi-language

Dimensions

128.4 x 128.4 x 40.5mm

Weight

580g

Colour

Black

VESA mount

Yes, VESA 100

Chuwi AuBox X 256V: Design

• Mostly metal Mini PC
• USB ports on front and back
• Easy internal access

Mini PCs are not exactly celebrated for bold industrial design, and the AuBox X is no exception. Chuwi has kept things understated. The chassis is a compact black square measuring 128.4 x 128.4 x 40.5mm. That is smaller than the GMKtec NucBox K13, which runs to 186mm in length. The AuBox X is genuinely pocket-sized in the way that very few desktop-class machines manage.

At 580g, it is light enough to mount behind a monitor with the supplied VESA bracket, or it can happily live on the desktop, being so small.

Build quality is the area where Chuwi's budget DNA tends to show itself. The brand has a long history in the affordable tablet and laptop space, and its finish tolerances are better than some might expect.

While it isn’t engineered like an Asus NUC, it’s not cheap and plastic either.

The issue with a NUC this small was always going to be thermal design, and it is a genuine talking point here. Chuwi promises whisper-quiet operation, and the Core Ultra 7 256V is well suited to that ambition. With a configurable TDP range of 8 to 37W, the chip can run extremely cool under light loads.

However, when the processing load kicks in, the fan volume becomes much more noticeable. I noticed this on my desk, but if the system were behind a monitor, I suspect it would be much less apparent.

The port layout is generous, given the limited space on the front and back. Up front, you get two USB-A ports for everyday peripherals, plus one USB4 and the audio jack. On the back is the other USB4 port, but it is used by the external PSU to power the device.

Because of that choice, you will need a docking station to use both USB4 ports.

This might be a worthwhile purchase because each of the USB4 ports is rated at 40 Gbps, enabling them to support external SSDs, DisplayPort video, power delivery, and eGPU enclosures.

(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)

One especially useful feature is that the two M.2 NVMe slots are both 2280-sized, enabling this machine to take the least expensive storage in the most common form factor. By default, one of these slots is already occupied with a 512GB module, and that is connected thermally to the metal case with a silicon thermal pad.

On the rear are four USB-A ports, with three being USB 3.2 Gen 2 and one being USB 2.0.

As it has a total of four Gen 2 ports, that means one on the front is, by definition, a Gen 1 port, although Chuwi failed to label any of the USB ports, and I deduced that by testing them all.

Curiously, all the other ports are labelled, including the dual HDMI and DP and 2.5GbE LAN port on the back. But as the makers used black lettering on a dark grey case, it's not like they are easily readable.

Networking is handled by a 2.5GbE Intel port alongside Wi-Fi 6E. At this price, 2.5GbE is expected, and I was a little surprised that we didn’t get two LAN ports. Users planning to use the AuBox X 256V as a home server or NAS companion will appreciate the faster wired throughput. You could easily add another 5GbE or even 10GbE LAN port using an adapter with a USB4 port.

Internal access is straightforward, requiring only four screws to get inside. Once open, you can access the two PCIe M.2 slots. According to the specification, one of these is Gen4 and the other is Gen5, but it isn’t clearly labelled whether the faster port is SSD1 or SSD2.

I suspect the Gen5 one is SSD1, but I don’t have a Gen5 drive to test that assertion. The default Gen 4 drive was inserted into SSD2 on the review hardware.

My only reservations about using a Gen5 drive in this system, and a larger-capacity Gen4 mechanism, are that no thermal pads are included to transfer heat from the drives to the case, and as a result, there might be a tendency for them to overheat.

• Design: 4 / 5

Chuwi AuBox X 256V: Features

• Intel Core Ultra 7 256V
• 16GB of LPDDR5X
• Local AI platform

,The Intel Core Ultra 7 256V is a Lunar Lake chip. Lunar Lake is Intel's second-generation Core Ultra platform, built on TSMC's 3nm N3B process. It is a genuine SoC design, meaning the CPU cores, iGPU, NPU, and memory all live on the same package. That architecture brings real efficiency gains, but it also brings a fixed memory ceiling. The 256V ships with 16GB LPDDR5X running at 8533 MT/s and there is no way to add more.

The chip packs 8 cores across two architectures. Four Lion Cove P-cores handle the heavy lifting, boosting to 4.8GHz. The remaining four Skymont E-cores top out at 3.7GHz and handle background tasks. In PassMark testing, the 256V scores around 19,500 in multi-core, which puts it ahead of the previous-generation Core Ultra 155U and competitive with AMD's Ryzen 7 8840HS despite drawing significantly less power.

Chuwi quotes the PassMark multi-core score as 19,547 on their product page. That puts it ahead of the Core Ultra 5 226V (Chuwi's own lower configuration) and the Ryzen 7 7840HS. It trails dedicated gaming and workstation chips, as you would expect from a 37W-maximum mobile platform.

The integrated Intel Arc 140V is the graphics story here. This is an Xe2 architecture iGPU with 8 compute units running at up to 1.95GHz. Chuwi positions performance as close to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050, which is a stretch, but the Arc 140V is genuinely the best integrated graphics Intel has shipped.

It supports hardware ray tracing, XeSS upscaling, and XeSS3 Multi Frame Generation. For light gaming at 1080p on medium settings, it is a credible option. For serious gaming, the USB4 port opens the door to an external GPU, which transforms the proposition entirely.

The 16GB LPDDR5X is soldered onto the package. That is the nature of Lunar Lake. There is nothing Chuwi could have done differently. For most everyday tasks and Copilot+ AI workloads, 16GB is workable. For serious local LLM inference, particularly with larger quantised models above 7B parameters, the memory ceiling will bite.

A 7B model in Q4 quantisation sits around 4-5GB. A 13B model in the same format pushes past 8GB. Running either alongside Windows and supporting applications starts to feel cramped.

(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)

Storage is more flexible. The stock 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD gives ample room for the OS, applications, and a reasonable model library. The dual M.2 2280 slots are the important feature. One supports PCIe 5.0, which is genuinely forward-looking in a machine at this price. Users who want to load larger model libraries or run fast storage for video editing will appreciate the room to expand.

The headline AI figure is 115 TOPS combined. That breaks down to 47 TOPS from the dedicated NPU4, 64 TOPS from the Arc 140V GPU, and a small contribution from the CPU. The NPU4 supports OpenVINO, DirectML, ONNX Runtime, and WebNN. That breadth of framework support matters when you want to run models built for different ecosystems without converting them first.

The 47 TOPS NPU comfortably clears Microsoft's 40 TOPS threshold for Copilot+ certification. That means Recall, Cocreator, Click to Do, and real-time Live Captions all run natively on local hardware rather than bouncing to the cloud. For privacy-conscious users, that is a meaningful difference.

Chuwi specifically calls out OpenClaw support on the product page, which is a local AI agent framework for automation and scripting. It does not come pre-installed, but the hardware is fully capable of running it.

But, a short warning before doing that. OpenClaw isn’t classic AI; it’s an Agent, and therefore, to do clever things, it needs to use an AI to help it decide what to do with its problems. Using it with free AI services is extremely challenging, and even with paid-for AI services, it is possible to incur significant cost overruns given how many tokens OpenClaw can chew through.

• Features: 4 / 5

Chuwi AuBox X 256V: Performance

Mini PC

Chuwi AuBox X

GMKtec K13

CPU

Intel Core Ultra 7 256V

Intel Core Ultra 7 256V

Cores/Threads

8C 8T

8C 8T

RAM

16GB LPDDR5X 8533

16GB LPDDR5

SSD

1TB ZHITAI Ti600

1TB Huawei eKitStor Xtreme 200E

Graphics

Intel Arc Graphics 140V

Intel Arc Graphics 140V

3DMark

WildLife

28538

22653

FireStrike

8456

7364

TimeSpy

4012

3413

S.Nomad

2809

1914

Cine24

Single

122

116

Multi

633

508

Ratio

5.17

4.39

GeekBench 6

Single

2796

2731

Multi

10566

9429

OpenCL

30397

25982

Vulkan

34962

26274

CrystalDisk

Read MB/s

6941

7132

Write MB/s

4900

6338

PCMark 10

Office

8657

7781

WEI

Score

8.8

8.6

The only system I could reasonably compare this to is the GMKtec K13, since they use the same underlying platform.

And, it was soon apparent that the one in the Chuwi AuBox X 256V has been tweaked to deliver more than its brother in the GMKtec K13. I should state that I no longer have the K13, and it may be that GMKtec released later firmware that would level this playing field.

On paper, the Core Ultra 7 256V is an impressive mobile chip that comfortably handles everyday productivity workloads. Office applications, browser-based tools, video calling, and light code compilation all run without hesitation. The P-cores deliver strong single-threaded performance for tasks that do not parallelise well.

Where the chip feels its mobile origins is under extended operations with sustained load. The 37W power cap means the machine eventually throttles when pushed hard for long periods. This is not unusual for Lunar Lake in any chassis, but it is worth testing thoroughly with the loan unit, particularly given Chuwi's compact cooling solution.

This is where the Chuwi AuBox X 256V earns a separate conversation. The mini PC market has split into two camps. There are machines built around AMD Strix Halo APUs with up to 128GB of unified memory, purpose-built for serious local LLM inference.

Then there is everything else. The AuBox X 256V sits in the second camp, which is marginally less impressive, but it sits there with more credibility than most.

The 16GB memory ceiling is the critical limitation. Running a 7B model in Q4_K_M quantisation via Ollama or LM Studio is perfectly manageable and produces usable inference speeds. The GPU can handle the computation while the NPU assists with preprocessing and tokenisation, conveniently.

I’ve not started including AI benchmarks yet, but it is clearly something we will be looking to add, since people are making purchasing decisions based on AI performance.

The picture changes if you factor in the USB4 port. Connecting an eGPU enclosure with 16GB or more of discrete VRAM immediately removes the memory constraint for GPU-side inference. An RTX 4060 Ti 16GB in an external enclosure, for example, turns the AuBox X 256V into a genuinely capable local AI server at a fraction of the cost of a dedicated workstation. That is not a common use case, but it is possible, and this hardware supports it natively.

For Copilot+ workloads, the story is straightforward. Windows Recall, Cocreator, and Live Captions all run on the NPU and iGPU without touching the cloud. The 47 TOPS NPU handles the classification and inference tasks that these features rely on. In practice, that means image recognition, real-time transcription, and on-screen summarisation all work locally, with the privacy benefits that implies.

Speech recognition and lightweight embedding models are well within reach. If you are running a local assistant, a RAG pipeline over a personal document library, or a code completion backend via Continue or Tabby, the AuBox X 256V has enough horsepower to make it feel responsive. It will not replace a machine with an RTX 4090 or 5090 for anything serious, but for a small home server running background AI tasks, it punches well above its price point.

• Performance: 4 / 5

(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)Chuwi AuBox X 256V: Final verdict

(Image credit: Chuwi)

It’s been a while since I’ve seen a computer that was so well designed, was built around an excellent platform and had the potential to deliver such a good user experience.

It is a shame, therefore, that Chuwi then took such a solid foundation and let one extremely poor choice take away some of its shine.

Clearly, the person who said that 16GB of memory was plenty had no idea of the implications of that choice, or it was an entirely price-driven decision, where the cost of a 32GB or larger model was considered unworkable.

There is a potential workaround to the memory limits for AI users that involves adding an external GPU using USB4. But that’s an even greater expense to justify, and there are other Intel systems, like the Beelink GTi Ultra Series, that support an external GPU via an exposed PCIe slot.

These do cost a little more, starting at around $869 and requiring a PCIe dock that adds $179, but connecting a graphics card directly rather than via USB4 offers significant benefits. And, those systems come with 32GB of RAM onboard.

In its efforts to capture those with AI interests at the asking price, the Chuwi AuBox X 256V has a relatively narrow use case in that one area. But for more general use, it’s a punchy system that delivers enough performance to compete with traditional desktop systems.

Should you buy a Chuwi AuBox X 256V?

Value

More expensive than the CMKtec K13

3.5 / 5

Design

A small system that uses USB4 for power

4 / 5

Features

Powerful 200 series CPU, Arc GPU and Intel NPU, but only 16GB of RAM

4 / 5

Performance

Up to 25% quicker than the K13

4 / 5

Overall

A neat system that should have cost less or had more RAM options

4 / 5

Buy it if...

You want power in a small package
This is an excellent choice if you want a compact, quiet desktop that handles everyday tasks and Copilot+ AI features without any cloud dependency. But this system is also ideal for a mini server, hardware firewall and a dozen other tasks.

You are dipping your toes into AI
For those experimenting with local LLMs at 7B to 13B parameter scales and want a capable, low-cost starting point, this system ticks those boxes.

Don't buy it if...

You need more than 16GB of RAM
As the memory in this system cannot be replaced, the 16GB of memory you get out of the box is as much as it will ever have. Whether for LLMs, video editing, or heavy virtualisation, the stock RAM is soldered and permanent, which might not fit with larger models. Any plan to run 30B+ parameter LLM models without an eGPU is made impractical with this memory amount.

You need a discrete GPU
If you want an external discrete GPU, then a machine with a PCIe slot, or OCuLink, and an OCuLink box would be a better choice. While it is possible to use USB4 for an eGPU, it doesn’t have the bandwidth that direct PCI Express or OCuLink offers.

Also Consider

GMKtec NucBox K13
A very similar design to the AuBox is built around the same platform, but slightly cheaper. It has a larger enclosure and a 5GbE LAN port. However, it has also been limited to 16GB of RAM with no memory upgrades being possible.

Check out our GMKtec NucBox K13 review

Minisforum UM790 Pro
A powerful AMD system using a Ryzen 9-class processor, supported by the Radeon 780M GPU. Targeted towards creatives and gamers, the expandable memory and dual M.2 PCIe 4.0 SSDs allow you to boost performance according to your requirements, with the standard version already delivering remarkable capabilities.

Check out our Minisforum UM790 Pro review

For more professional hardware, we've reviewed the best business computers.

Keurig K-Mini Mate: one-minute review

Keurig’s range of coffee makers is among the most popular available in the U.S., rivalling the likes of Nespresso and Ninja. Released in 2025, the Keurig K-Mini Mate is the brand’s smallest brewer to date, measuring just nine inches tall and four inches wide, with a modern matte design that’s available in four different colours.

While this coffee maker is the most compact in Keurig’s range, it still offers the same quality we’ve come to expect from the brand, delivering bold, flavorsome single-serve brews between 6oz and 12oz. The machine itself is effortless to use: you simply top up the water reservoir to your desired brew size, insert the K-Cup pod, and press the brew button.

(Image credit: Future)

We found the brewing process for a 12-oz cup took around 1 minute 40 seconds from start to finish, including heating time. Likewise, cleaning the machine requires minimal effort, with its removable parts straightforward to remove, handwash, and re-insert — there’s even a light to indicate when the brewer needs descaling.

Considering the K-Mini Mate’s $89.99 price tag, it offers exceptional value for your money, while its size makes it the perfect coffee-making companion for smaller spaces such as offices, dorm rooms, and kitchens with limited counter space.

(Image credit: Future)

Our only gripes with this brewer are that there is some splashback during the brewing process and some drippage afterwards, but these are more quirks to be aware of than major issues. A slightly more frustrating practical issue is that the 12oz water reservoir needs to be refilled with fresh water after each use.

However, overall, considering the quality of the K-Mini Mate’s design and performance, it offers exceptional value for its $89.99 price tag. Its size and reliability make it the perfect coffee-making companion for smaller spaces such as offices, dorm rooms, and kitchens with limited counter space.

Keurig K-Mini Mate: price and availability

• $89.99 from Keurig
• Regular discounts drop price to between $59.99 and $79.99
• Available at third-party retailers, including Target and Walmart
• Not available in the UK or Australia

Initially available exclusively at Target for $79.99, the Keurig K-Mini Mate is now available from third-party retailers and Keurig directly for between $79.99 and $89.99 (depending on whether a discount is available). However, Target regularly discounts the coffee maker even further, with the price dropping as low as $59.99. Unfortunately, the K-Mini Mate is not currently available in the U.K or Australia.

For that price tag, you’re getting excellent value for money. While this brewer may not offer the wealth of features some of the best coffee makers do, it is considerably more affordable than other top compact coffee makers, such as the De'Longhi Dedica Duo ($299.95 / £279.99) or the Philips Baristina ($449.99 / £299.99 / AU$599).

If you’re after a no-frills capsule (K-Cup pod) machine that won’t break the bank, you can’t go wrong with the K-Mini Mate, though if you want a larger water reservoir and a few more features — while sticking with the Keurig brand — and don’t mind spending a bit more, it’s worth considering the K-Mini Mate Plus ($109.99) or the K-Crema ($219.99). Keurig’s range of products, including the K-Mini Mate, is not currently available in the UK or Australia unless imported.

While the K-Mini Mate is technically a capsule coffee maker, it only uses K-Cup pods, Keurig’s own brand of capsules, which can be purchased directly from its website or third-party retailers like Amazon, with subscription services also available. A box of 24 pods from Keurig costs around $20 (with free delivery available for orders over $35), which works out around 80 cents a pod. However, bigger discounts are available on bigger boxes.

The variety of K-Cup brands and beverage options is pretty impressive, with pods available from Starbucks, Dunkin’, Green Mountain, McDonald's, and more. What’s more, at the time of writing, those who register their new machine with Keurig receive 50% off their next beverage order (valid for up to five boxes of K-Cup pods (conditions apply).

Keurig also offers optional recycling and composting service called K-Cycle, whereby you can purchase a K-Cup pod recovery bin ($139.95 for a small five-pack and $189.95 for a large five-pack), fill it with your used K-Cups, and return it to the company. Keurig then converts 75% of the pod’s weight into compost and 25% into recycled product.

• Value score: 5/5

Keurig K-Mini Mate: specifications

Type

Single-serve coffee maker

Color

Black, Red Rocks, Glamping Green, Pink Sands

Capsules

K-Cup pods

Brew pressure

Two options: Classic or Pressure

Brew sizes

6oz, 8oz, 10oz, 12oz

Water reservoir capacity

12oz

Special features

Energy saver auto off function, high altitude setting, descale indicator, travel mug friendly

Smart control?

No

Dimensions (H x W x D)

9.1 x 3.9 x 10.9 inches / 23.1 x 9.9 x 27.7cm

Dishwasher safe?

No

Keurig K-Mini Mate: design

• Compact and lightweight
• Four matte colors available
• Easy to clean
• Some drips and splashback
• Water reservoir needs refilled after each use

The Keurig K-Mini mate is the brand’s smallest brewer to date, measuring just 9.1 x 3.9 x 10.9 inches (H x W x D). As such, it’s ideal for those with limited kitchen counter space or for those looking for a coffee maker for a smaller space, like a home office. The design is sleek and modern, with four matte colours available: Black, Glamping Green, Pink Sands, and Red Rocks — all of which retail for approximately the same price.

At the top of this slim coffee maker is a simple control panel, featuring a brew button (indicated by the Keurig ‘K’ logo) and a descale indicator light that turns on when your machine needs descaling. The top of the machine lifts open to reveal a removable K-Cup pod holder at the bottom and a single sharp needle at the top that punctures the K-Cup. At the front of the coffee maker, near the bottom, is a slot for the removable drip tray, which can be removed entirely to accommodate travel mugs.

(Image credit: Future)

At the back of the machine is a removable 12oz single-cup water reservoir, with markers for 6oz, 8oz, 10oz, and 12oz. With no specific modes for different cup sizes, before making your beverage, simply fill the water reservoir to the line corresponding to the brew size you want. However, note that the water must be refilled with fresh water after each use due to its smaller capacity.

While the K-Mini Mate isn’t dishwasher-compatible, its removable parts can be easily handwashed, and its body wiped down with a cloth. Just be careful when wiping near the needle inside the machine, as it's extremely sharp. Likewise, there’s a smaller, less noticeable needle inside the K-Cup holder that you should be extra cautious with when hand-washing

(Image credit: Future)

Our only grievances with the K-Mini Mate’s design (which are our only main issues with the machine overall) were some splashback during the brewing process and a little bit of drippage after the process had finished. These are more frustrating quirks than deal breakers, but they’re worth being aware of if you have children in the house.

• Design score: 4.5/5

Keurig K-Mini Mate: performance

• Rich, flavorsome brews
• Brews 12oz cups in around one minute 40 seconds
• Effortless to use
• Not overly loud

Brewing a beverage with the Keurig K-Mate Mini is extremely straightforward. In fact, it’s one of the most accessible coffee makers we’ve ever used. The process simply requires you to fill the water reservoir to your desired capacity, open the top of the machine, insert your K-Cup pod, close the machine, and press the ‘K’ brew button. That’s it.

(Image credit: Future)

We conducted our testing with KPod Italian Decaffeinated pods (medium roast) and found the results impressive. Each brewed coffee was sufficiently hot, without being scalding, and packed with bold, rich flavor. 12oz coffees (the maximum size available) took around one minute and 40 seconds to brew from start to finish, including heating time, with the average sound level during operation registering between 63 and 65 decibels, about the volume of a conversation in a busy cafe, with most of that volume coming from the sound of the coffee hitting the liquid already in the cup.

FutureFutureFutureFuture

During our first test, we used what we thought was a sufficiently sized mug for a 12oz coffee (judging primarily by eye), but in actuality, it was probably a 10oz, which meant the 12oz brew filled it right up to the rim. In future testing, we made sure to use a larger mug size that allowed for the brew and the addition of milk. Our advice, then, is to choose a mug that is around two ounces larger than the brew you plan to make, especially if you plan to add syrups or milk to your beverage.

• Performance score: 5/5

Should you buy the Keurig K-Mini Mate?Keurig K-Mini Mate score card

Attribute

Notes

Score

Value

This compact brewer offers excellent value for money, considering it offers a high quality of performance and design for less than $100.

5/5

Design

Keurig's smallest coffee maker is compact, modern, and available in four colours. It's perfect for smaller spaces, but brews can splash back during operation and the machine drips a bit following use.

4.5/5

Performance

The K-Mini Mate delivers the quality performance we'd expect from a Keurig coffee machine, delivering bold brews in under two minutes with ease.

5/5

Buy it if

You need a coffee maker for a small space

The K-Mini Mate is a compact coffee maker, measuring 9.1 x 3.9 x 10.9 inches (H x W x D). As such, it's an ideal brewer for those with limited kitchen space or for smaller spaces, like dorm rooms or home offices.

You want a high-quality coffee maker for under $100

Finding a quality coffee maker for under $100 can sometimes be a feat, but at $89.99, the Keurig K-Mini Mate is definitely worth considering. It may not have the bells and whistles of other brewers, but it delivers high-quality results and performance. Plus, regular discounts — especially at Target — can see the price dropping to between $59.99 and $79.99.

You want cafe-quality coffee at home

The K-Crema uses K-Cup pods, and the variety of pods available is pretty impressive. Due to Keurig’s many partnerships, beverage pods are available from brands, including Dunkin’, Lipton, Starbucks, McDonald’s, Tim Hortons, Twinings, and more, allowing you to enjoy coffee shop drinks from the comfort of your home — while saving some cash.

Don't buy it if

You want a lot of modes and features

The K-Mini Mate is a no-frills single-use coffee maker. While its water reservoir offers various brew sizes and its Keurig’s K-Cup range includes a variety of beverages, the machine has no specific brewing modes and few special features. While this makes it straightforward to use, it may make it less suited to those who want extra bells and whistles, like milk frothing.

You don't want to refill the water reservoir after each use

Due to its 12oz capacity, the K-Mini Mate’s water reservoir needs to be refilled with fresh water after every brew. This could be frustrating for those who plan to use the machine to make multiple beverages in succession. If that’s you, then we recommend checking out the K-Mini mate Plus, which offers the same quality but with a larger water reservoir.

You don't want to be tied to using K-Cup pods

While Keurig offers a wide range of K-Cups, you may not want to be tied to using the beverage pods, or brands, that are available. If you prefer alternative third-party coffee capsules or are moving from another coffee maker brand, like Nespresso, and hope to continue using the same pods, this may not be the coffee maker for you.View Deal

Keurig K-Mini Mate: also consider

If you're not sure whether the Keurig K-Mini Mate is the right coffee maker for you, here are two other options for you to consider.

Lavazza A Moda Mio Smeg

This stylish capsule coffee maker brews an exceptional espresso using Lavazza's A Moda Mio capsules, which are a lot more affordable than some other brands. The downside is that they're not as easily recyclable as Nespresso capsules or K-Cups.View Deal

Philips Baristina

If you want a coffee maker that's small and easy to use, but you don't want to be tied into using a certain type of capsule, the Baristina is the machine for you. It makes using fresh beans just as easy as pods, without the waste.

Read our full Philips Baristina reviewView Deal

There are bound to be many people reading this review and wondering why something that should have been covered a decade ago has resurfaced on our site.

And, it is true that Seagate launched the IronWolf 8TB model in 2016, hardware that is hardly considered current in 2026.

But this review isn’t covering the mechanism that Seagate launched then, the ST8000VN0022, thankfully. Instead, it is the one that came after that in 2019, the ST8000VN004.

For complete transparency, they released a newer option, the ST8000VN002, in 2021, but during my review, I’ll explain the differences and why you might want one over the other.

OK, I accept that this model has been around for 8 years, almost, but we’re exceptionally busy here at Tech Radar Pro, and we get to things eventually.

The fundamentals of the 8TB IronWolf have been remarkably stable across the past decade. Every generation has used CMR recording, which matters. IronWolf drives feature CMR technology and AgileArray firmware, ensuring smooth RAID performance, reduced vibration, and efficient power management. The 180TB per year workload rating, the RV sensors, the three-year warranty, and the bundled Rescue Data Recovery Services have all persisted as defining features of the consumer tier.

The EHA (European Hardware Awards) named the Seagate IronWolf portfolio Best Hard Drive for 2025, which suggests the brand has maintained its reputation well.

However, there is one significant blot on this landscape, and that’s the price increases that this drive, and others have experienced in the past six months.

An IronWolf 8TB costs about 95% more than it did in 2025, depending on the region it is sourced from, and prices still show an upward trend. Admittedly, this isn’t as bad as the price increases we’ve seen in memory and SSDs, where some items have quadrupled in cost, but it’s a shock to a market that expected cost reductions over time.

Is it the right time to buy Seagate IronWolf drives? That depends on how flexible you are about timescales, and if you believe that the AI crash is just around the corner or that the price pad today will be a fraction of where it might end up going. Whichever side of that line you fall, there was probably a better time that has since passed.

Seagate IronWolf 8TB NAS drive: Price

You can’t get the ST8000VN004 on the Seagate site, but the company still makes it, and it can be found on Amazon (and other online retailers) for $299.99 on Amazon.com, or £283.94 on Amazon.co.uk. The price across the rest of Europe is €317 via Amazon.

To put that in perspective, in October of 2025, the same drive would cost you £145 in the UK, making it 95% more expensive in just a few months.

But Seagate’s competitors have pulled the same rug up under their customers, with the Western Digital 8TB WD Red Plus being $314.99, and the Toshiba N300 8TB NAS is close to $400.

The only cheap alternative I’ve seen is from a brand called MDD or MaxDigitalData, which sells an 8TB drive for $238.95, but I have no experience with this brand.

Excluding that option, Seagate is the cheapest option for 8TB 7200rpm NAS drives.

However, if we break down the current Seagate IronWolf drives, there is an important trend that we need to understand. As a side note, I’ve not included one of the 10TB models, since these don’t seem to be readily available at this time. All these prices are from Amazon, but you might get a better deal elsewhere.

Type

Capacity

Model

Dollar Cost

Per TB

IronWolf

4TB

ST4000VN006

$169.99

$42.50

8TB

ST8000VN004

$299.99

$37.50

10TB

ST10000VN0008

$399.00

$39.90

12TB

ST12000VN0008

$410.87

$34.24

14TB

ST14000VN0008

$541.75

$38.70

16TB

ST16000VN001

$579.99

$36.25

18TB

ST18000VN000

$744.45

$41.36

IronWolf Pro

4TB

ST4000NT001

$259.00

$64.75

8TB

ST8000NT001

$319.99

$40.00

12TB

ST12000NT001

$459.99

$38.33

16TB

ST16000NT001

$579.99

$36.25

20TB

ST20000NT001

$719.99

$36.00

24TB

ST24000NT002

$859.99

$35.83

28TB

ST28000NT000

$1,019.99

$36.43

32TB

ST32000NT000

$1,159.99

$36.25

As you can see, based on cost per TB, the most expensive IronWolf or IronWolf Pro are the 4TB capacities, and the sweet spot is the 12TB IronWolf. The 8TB IronWolf isn’t a bargain, but it's cheaper than the IronWolf Pro 8TB. Counterintuitively, the larger the drives get, up to 24TB, the cost goes down per TB.

Where things get weird is with the larger IronWolf models, as they approach their 18TB zenith. Due to poor availability, the 16TB IronWolf costs the same as the 16TB IronWolf Pro, and the 18TB model is actually more expensive.

(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)Seagate IronWolf 8TB NAS drive: Design

As a reviewer of hard drives for at least the past thirty years or more, one of the critical selling points that makers often highlighted was the number of platters and heads.

And some brands still detail this in their product overviews, but Seagate does not.

Part of this coyness is down to the maker wanting to change the number of platters in existing product lines without generating a user backlash.

However, as storage technology has advanced, which allows for greater data density on each platter, the makers can reduce cost (and increase profit) by reducing the number of platters but retaining the same total drive capacity.

Curiously, the 8TB IronWolf is a classic example of this in action.

(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)

The first version in 2016, the ST8000VN0022, had six platters and twelve heads, at roughly 1.33TB per platter. Then came the ST8000VN004 that replaced it, which I believe had five platters and ten heads, which works out to 1.6TB per platter.

And finally, in 2021, the ST8000VN002 arrived, and it is suspected that it has just four platters, making each 2TB.

Note that the N004 is a 7200 rpm drive, whereas the more recent N002 is a 5400 rpm unit. They both use CMR recording technology, have the same 256MB of cache, and have a 3-year warranty. But the N004 uses 7.8W of power in operation, where the N002 uses less than half of that at 3.4W.

The faster rotation speed does translate into some extra transfer speed, 210MB/s versus 202MB/s, but even in an array with up to eight disks, that extra performance still doesn’t justify the extra power consumption for a system running 24/7. And, since power generally turns into heat, a system using the N002 drives might run cooler, too.

Seagate IronWolf 8TB NAS drive: Understanding the price hikes

(Image credit: Seagate)

As I mentioned at the start of this review, prices for all hard drives, not just NAS-specific ones, have increased in the past six months. Why is that?

• AI Data Centre Demands
• Supply Constraints
• Component Shortages
• Production priorities

Clearly, the biggest impact is being felt on those drives and drive types that are used in an AI data centre. Which is slightly odd, because while many companies have laid out ambitious plans to build massive gigawatt-consuming AI facilities, the number of these that have actually been built, or even broken ground, is remarkably small.

So, where did all the hard drives from the channel go? Mostly into warehousing, where they’re being held for the companies with the big plans. Some have gone into data archival solutions created by major cloud suppliers, expecting a huge increase in demand, but most are sitting waiting for AI to call them to action. For the drive makers, the idea that all this pre-sold stock might suddenly end up back in the channel if the AI bubble bursts must be a truly terrifying one.

While it doesn’t impact the 8TB model covered here, drives above this one, 10TB and up, are impacted by shortages in helium supply, which is necessary for high-capacity drives, and has hampered production output.

What has exacerbated the situation is that, wishing to cash in on the AI boom, drive makers have focused more heavily on the larger capacities, all of which need helium to work.

Prior to the AI era, there was a general transition underway from physical hard drives to SSDs. But since SSDs are now stupidly expensive, that has propelled system builders back towards the humble HDD, increasing demand.

Reacting to this, drive makers have focused on data centre, enterprise, and high-capacity consumer drives (IronWolf/EXOS), which are being prioritised, leading to shortages of general consumer models. And, in the context of the wider market, drives like the IronWolf 8TB are considered both business and consumer, further increasing demand for them.

In short, this is a perfect commercial storm in which market forces are aggressively driving prices, and the outlook is uncertain.

If it's ever been the right time to shop around, then this is it. Or, wait out the storm and hope that the AI bubble bursts and releases lots of stock into the market, forcing prices down.

For anyone working on a major NAS or server deployment in the near future, this news is not positive.

Seagate IronWolf 8TB NAS drive: Final verdict

(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)

The IronWolf ST8000VN004 is a mature, well-understood drive at this point. The core technology is not new, but that is not necessarily a weakness. CMR reliability at 8TB is proven, the compatibility list with NAS vendors is extensive, and Seagate's IHM integration is now embedded across most major platforms, including Synology and QNAP.

For home users or small businesses, the IronWolf 8TB is an option, but its 12TB brother offers better value. If you specifically want 8TB drives, then use the 5400rpm ST8000VN002 instead. It’s technically a little slower, but it has half the power consumption, impacting the cost of ownership.

But there might be better alternatives with higher-capacity drives, where the overall spend on drives isn’t substantially different.

Let’s imagine we have a six-bay NAS, and the plan is to use RAID 5 with a hot-swap drive ready to handle any failure. Using 8TB drives that would give 24TB of usable space and would cost approximately $1800 in drive expenditure.

Switching to 12TB drives, getting 24TB of usable capacity under RAID 5 requires only three drives, and even with a hot spare available, you have two free bays and a total outlay of $1644. And, some additional savings could be made on the NAS, getting a four-bay model.

There is an argument that an array with five active drives will perform better than one with three, and it will. But many NAS use SSDs for caching, and unless you use 10GbE networking, the roughly 630MB/s that the 12TB drives can shift won’t seem slower than the 1000MB/s that the 8TB could transfer.

Internally, there might be a difference in transfers, but to LAN-connected users, the performance benefit of having more drives in the array isn’t apparent. There is also good logic that the more drives you have, the greater the statistical chance that one of them will fail, though smaller drives also lead to a faster rebuild in the event of a drive failure.

So would I buy the 8TB IronWolf? Neither model has a compelling argument at these price points. There is a better argument for the 12TB, or the Pro 12TB.

My concern is that because people are spending company money in many cases, they’ll just pay what drive makers are asking, encouraging them to make even fewer drives, forcing prices even higher. Eventually, the businesses currently reaping massive profits (like Samsung and Micron) will cook their golden goose completely, if they haven't already

For more top performers, we've tested out the best NAS drives you can get.

Portable monitors tend to have two problems. They're usually low quality displays and also low resolution. Give it up, therefore, for the new Acer PE160WUT. It's a 16-inch portable monitor with not only 2.8K native resolution, but also OLED panel technology.

That's a pretty good start, but add 120 Hz refresh and touchscreen functionality into the mix and this compact display is a seriously appealing proposition. It promises an external monitor solution that's at least as good, if not better, than the built-in display of most premium laptops.

There's also the tantalising prospect, albeit without official support, of adding touchscreen functionality for Apple MacBook laptops. Apple, of course, doesn't do touchscreen MacBooks. And it's all wrapped up in a fairly slick, slim-bezel chassis that's surprisingly light.

As with the entries in our guide to the best portable monitors, the Acer PE160WUT should also be widely compatible with most modern PC laptops. It connects via USB-C primarily, though it does have HDMI fall-back connectivity, too.

Just note that this is not a battery-powered display. It takes power via USB-C, so when you are away from mains power it will be drawing energy from your laptop's battery.

Acer ProDesigner PE160WUT: Design and featuresFutureFutureFuture

• Compact and light
• 2.8K OLED display
• No integrated battery

Specs

Panel size: 16-inch

Panel type: OLED

Resolution: 2,880 x 1,800

Brightness: 350 nits

Contrast: 1M:1

Pixel response: 1ms

Refresh rate: 120Hz

Color coverage: 100% DCI-P3

HDR: HDR10

VESA: 75mm x 75mm

Connectivity: HDMI 2.1 x1, 2x USB-C

Imagine detaching the display from a 16-inch laptop and you'll get a pretty good idea of the look and feel of the Acer PE160WUT. Just like a lot of laptops, it has slim bezels on three sides of its display, plus a slightly larger chin.

For the most part, it's about as thin as a laptop lid, too. The exception is a thicker section on the bottom third on the rear of the chassis. This houses the electronics, connectivity and hinged kickstand.

The latter allows the Acer PE160WUT to sit pretty comfortably on any flat, firm surface, though it's less useful for, say, propping the display up on your laptop. All told, this portable monitor comes in at just 0.65kg, making it conspicuously light and pretty portable. If you're already carrying a laptop and power supply, this extra monitor is a pretty plausible addition in pure portability terms.

Of course, a big part of the reason why it's so light is the lack of a built-in battery. The display is powered via USB-C and designed to take that directly from a laptop. If that's a boon for portability, it's not so great for battery life away from the mains.

Of course, the main attraction is the 16-inch OLED display. With a native resolution of 2,880 by 1,800 pixels, it offers a pixel density of around 212 DPI. That's a little lower than the 224 DPI of a MacBook Air or 254 DPI of a MacBook Pro. But it's still pretty decent.

What no MacBook can offer, of course, is OLED panel technology or, indeed, touchscreen tech. That's a combination several PC notebooks include, of course. But by any reasonable metric, this is a highly specified portable display.

Acer ProDesigner PE160WUT: PerformanceFutureFutureFutureFuture

• Bright and vivid OLED panel
• Smooth 120 Hz refresh
• Not quite as crisp as you'd hope

The 2.8K native resolution, 120 Hz refresh and OLED panel tech set up some pretty lofty expectations. The Acer PE160WUT doesn't quite nail all of them.

There's a lot to like, starting with the punchiness and vividness of the OLED panel. With a rating of 350 nits full screen, it gets plenty bright enough. But to that it adds OLED's usual advantages of perfect per-pixel lighting and outstanding pixel response speed.

This isn't a gaming panel, but the 120 Hz refresh makes it feel very slick and responsive, too. Those aspects are a real treat. Even LCD panels with full-array local dimming can't come close to matching the lighting precision of OLED.

However, there are some limitations, too. For starters, the brightness isn't adjustable in the otherwise nicely calibrated sRGB or Adobe RGB presets, which is a pity. You might want to ramp it up in some ambient light conditions and the default user mode isn't terribly well calibrated.

Short of DIY calibration, a work around is to run the panel in HDR mode, in which setting SDR content is actually well calibrated. But that brings us to two further snags. First, the HDR performance is underwhelming.

Acer doesn't provide detailed specs, but it very much looks like HDR brightness is capped at the panel's 350 nit full-screen brightness, or thereabouts. What's more, running in HDR mode consumes additional power. And power consumption is a definite issue with this monitor, which again does not have its own integrated battery and takes power over USB-C, typically from a laptop.

By way of example, with this OLED panel connected to an Apple MacBook Air with both the MacBook's screen and this panel set to half brightness, the combination consumed 10% of the MacBook's battery in just 15 minutes.

And the MacBook running on its own? 15 minutes of comparable running eats up 2% of battery life. In other words, there's a heavy battery life penalty of using this display. And that's in SDR mode. HDR would be even worse.

Speaking of connecting a MacBook, the touchscreen functionality only has limited, clunky support to the extent that it's not really usable. Meanwhile, the highest properly DPI-scaled resolution is 1,400 by 900 pixels, which is a little low for a 16-inch panel. It will run at the full 2,880 by 1,800 native, of course, but at that setting fonts and icons are absolutely tiny. For the record, in Windows the touch functionality works pretty well, aided by the nippy 120 Hz refresh.

But the biggest issue is the screen's anti-glare coating. It's matte and quite coarse with some distinctly visible sparkle. It definitely detracts from the crispness and precision of the display. Fonts and text, for instance, look a little soft and blurry as a consequence. It's not a total deal breaker, but this little OLED panel deserves a much better anti-glare coating.

Acer ProDesigner PE160WUT: Final verdictFutureFutureFuture

There's a lot to like about the Acer ProDesigner PE160WUT. It's certainly novel to have an OLED panel in a portable monitor like this. The 2.8K resolution and 120 Hz refresh are likewise exactly what you'd want to see. Too many portable monitors are low resolution and low refresh.

It's also very compact and lightweight. At just 0.65kg, it really is plausible to chuck this thing in your bag with whatever laptop you have. And in terms of image quality, there are plenty of pros. The Acer ProDesigner PE160WUT is pretty punchy, with great colours and generally very good calibration.

OK, the HDR performance disappoints. But for colours and contrast, this display will beat most laptop panels. Add in the touchscreen functionality and you have a compelling proposition, albeit the touchscreen feature really only works well on PC laptops, rather than Apple MacBooks.

The one real issue, then, is the screen's coarse anti-glare coating. It definitely compromises the precision of the image quality and detracts from what is otherwise a very sweet little portable OLED panel. It's also worth bearing in mind that the lack of an integrated battery means that your laptop's battery will take a hammering when using this display away from the mains.

All that said, the Acer ProDesigner PE160WUT retains plenty of appeal. Even with the overly coarse anti-glare coating, it's still one of the best portable monitors we've seen.

FutureFutureFutureFuture

For more displays, we've reviewed the best business monitors and the best 5K and 8K monitors.

BOSGAME P4 Ultra: 30-second review

Mini PCs have never been more crowded. Every few months, a new batch of compact desktops arrives from Chinese brands promising big performance in a small chassis, and the Bosgame P4 Ultra is the latest to land on the desk for evaluation. It slots into the brand's Effizen series, which targets productivity and everyday computing rather than serious gaming.

The headline here is the AMD Ryzen 7 7730U. It is an 8-core, 16-thread processor based on Zen 3 architecture, clocked up to 4.5GHz, and paired with Radeon Vega 8 integrated graphics. That combination is capable, but it is worth being honest from the start: the 7730U is a Barcelo Refresh part, which means it is architecturally identical to the 5825U from 2021. Bosgame has dressed it in a new product number, but the silicon is not new.

What is new, or at least appealing, is the package. The P4 Ultra ships either with Windows 11 or Ubuntu 24.04 LTS pre-installed, making it one of the more accessible Linux mini PCs on the market. It also brings dual 2.5GbE LAN ports, Wi-Fi 6E, and triple 4K display output, all wrapped in a compact chassis with a VESA mount in the box.

The asking price is around $420 from online retailers, which puts it up against stiff competition from Beelink, GMKtec, and even other BOSGAME models.

This isn’t an expensive mini PC system, but it's also not the cheapest given the modest specifications.

As with most of the hardware this brand makes, the P4 Ultra is a well-executed solution that would work for general office computing, but it lacks the performance required by creatives and developers.

And, due mostly to the age of its platform, this isn’t a system we’ll be including as one of our best mini PC entries.

(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)BOSGAME P4 Ultra: Price and availability

• How much does it cost? From $420/£440/€510
• When is it out? Available now
• Where can you get it? Direct from online retailers

At the time of writing, the P4 Ultra doesn’t appear to be listed on the Bosgame website in the Effizen Series mini PCs collection. Hopefully, this will change.

However, if you search for the “P4 Ultra”, you can find a landing page for a Linux version of this machine with Ubuntu installed on it.

The UK asking price for that machine is £379, which seems most reasonable.

Those wanting Windows 11 preinstalled on the same hardware, as there is only one 16GB/1 TB SKU, need to look for this machine from online retailers.

On Amazon.com, it can be found for $419.98, in the UK it is £439, and across Europe it's €509. Given the spec, that looks like an attractive proposition.

One problem for Bosgame is that for almost exactly the same price, GMKtec is selling the M6 Ultra, and that has a better Ryzen 7640HS processor and 16GB of DDR5 RAM.

And another is the Beelink SER 5 MAX, which, for $458.99, offers the AMD Ryzen 7 7735HS CPU, 24GB of DDR5 memory, and a 500GB SSD.

But even Bosgame undercut itself with the P3 Mix, a system they sell for less than $400, that uses the Ryzen 7640HS (up to 5.0 GHz), has 16GB DDR5, and a 512GB PCIe SSD, all in an identical case to the P4 Ultra.

Based on these alternatives, the P4 Ultra should have been closer to $375.

• Value: 3 / 5

(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)BOSGAME P4 Ultra: Specs

Item

Spec

CPU

AMD Ryzen 7 7730U (8C/16T, up to 4.5GHz)

GPU

AMD Radeon Graphics Vega 8 (8 cores, up to 2000MHz)

NPU

None

RAM

16GB DDR4 3200MHz dual-channel (2x SODIMM slots, up to 64GB)

Storage

1TB M.2 NVMe PCIe 3.0 x4

M.2 Expansion

1x additional M.2 2280 PCIe 3.0 x4 (up to 8 TB per slot; 16 TB total)

Display Outputs

1x HDMI 2.0, 1x DisplayPort 1.4, 1x USBC

Front Ports

2x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C, 3.5mm audio, power button

Rear Ports

2x USB 2.0 Type-A, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort, 2x 2.5 GbE RJ-45, DC power

Networking

Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2, 2xl 2.5GbE LAN

OS

Windows 11 Pro (pre-installed); Linux supported

Dimensions

107 x 111 x 56 mm

Weight

Approx. 0.65 kg

Included Accessories

30W USB-C PD adaptor, VESA mount bracket, HDMI cable, power brick, manual

BOSGAME P4 Ultra: Design

• Familiar chassis
• Limited port selection
• Complicated internal access

The P4 Ultra follows the now-familiar NUC-inspired layout: a rectangular aluminium-and-plastic chassis small enough to sit beside a monitor, mount behind one via VESA, or tuck out of sight entirely. The case features precision laser-faceted metal vents along the sides and rounded corners, giving it a reasonably contemporary appearance.

The front panel carries the power button, two USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports, a USB-C port, and a 3.5mm audio jack. There are no ports on the sides, on the back, you will find the two 2.5GbE RJ45 ports, a further two USB 2.0 ports, a single HDMI 2.0 and DisplayPort 1.4, and the DC power input. The layout is logical and functional, though the USB 2.0 ports feel like a cost-cutting measure on an otherwise reasonably specified machine.

That all the better USB ports are on the front is somewhat annoying, and I’ve noticed a few resellers claiming that the USB-C port is USB4, when it isn’t. It is USB 3.2 Gen 2, as are the other USB ports on the front. But it does support video mode, which increases the potential monitor count to three with the HDMI and DP.

Cooling is handled by an active fan system. BOSGAME describes the design as quiet, and at the 15W default TDP, that is credible, though sustained loads will prompt audible fan activity. However, my review machine was delivered in 35W performance mode, which made it slightly noisier. Selection of the Quiet (15W), Balanced (25W) and Performance (35W is via the BIOS. It would be nice if this were changeable in Windows.

(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)

One especially useful feature is that the two M.2 NVMe slots are both 2280-sized, enabling this machine to take the least expensive storage in the most common form factor. By default, one of these slots is already occupied with a 512GB module, and that is connected thermally to the metal case with a silicon thermal pad.

On the rear are four USB-A ports, with three being USB 3.2 Gen 2 and one being USB 2.0.

What I wasn’t keen on was access to the internal memory and storage, which seemed initially easy, and then got progressively more complicated.

Removing the underside is straightforward enough, four screws, and it comes away easily.

However, once inside, there is an additional fan bracket layer, with three screws of two different sizes. The two longer screws aren’t easy to see or access, and they’re even more fun to put back if you don’t have a magnetic screwdriver.

When you do get this layer out, and there is a ribbon cable carrying power to its fan that you need to be careful of, you can then access the memory and storage.

The good news here is that everything is upgradable, and there is a second M.2 2280 slot, and the bad news is that both M.2 slots are only PCIe 3.0. The M.2 slots do at least have a thermal pad to pull heat away from them, although as they’re not PCIe 4.0 spec they are unlikely to overheat.

The chassis in this design is almost identical to that used in a number of other Bosgame products, and it doesn’t stray far from the original NUC concept. I just wish the designers hadn’t put so many hurdles in the way of anyone wanting to add more memory or storage.

(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)

• Design: 3.5 / 5

BOSGAME P4 Ultra: Features

• AMD Ryzen 7 7730U
• Vega 8 GPU
• 16 GB DDR4
• Lacks an NPU

The Ryzen 7 7730U is the centrepiece, and it deserves some context. AMD launched it in late 2022 as part of the Barcelo Refresh line-up. Zen 3 is a proven architecture that delivered a genuine generational leap when it debuted in 2020, and it remains a competent foundation for office and productivity work in 2025. But it sits behind Zen 4 (the 7040 series) and the newer Zen 5 parts in both IPC and integrated graphics performance.

That graphics point matters here. The Vega 8 GPU inside the 7730U has 512 shaders running at up to 2000MHz. It is adequate for 4K video playback, light photo editing, and casual games, but it trails the RDNA 3 graphics in Zen 4 mobile processors by a meaningful margin. For comparison, the Ryzen 7 7840HS found in the higher-spec BOSGAME P3 carries RDNA 3 with considerably better graphics performance.

Memory is 16GB of DDR4 at 3200MHz in a dual-channel configuration, which is the right setup for integrated graphics. Single-channel DDR4 cuts available graphics bandwidth roughly in half, so the dual-channel arrangement here is a sensible default. The SODIMM slots support up to 64GB of memory.

The issue is that many similarly priced systems use DDR5, and its bandwidth boost improves both CPU and GPU performance; in particular, graphics performance is enhanced because the integrated GPU shares the main memory.

(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)

Storage is a 1TB M.2 NVMe drive running on a PCIe 3.0 x4 interface. This is not Gen 4, and sequential read speeds will be capped accordingly, but for day-to-day computing, it is more than fast enough. A second M.2 2280 slot sits unoccupied, which makes life remarkably simple when you wish to clone the original drive to one with a larger capacity.

Connectivity is a genuine highlight of this design, making it potentially useful as a hardware firewall. Dual 2.5GbE ports open up small office routing, NAS aggregation, and network isolation use cases that single-port machines cannot touch. Wi-Fi 6E covers all three bands, including the congestion-free 6GHz spectrum, and Bluetooth 5.2 handles peripherals cleanly.

How you feel about the hardware in this machine comes down to two aspects. And those are how much you use graphics and what types of processing you intend to do.

The CPU and GPU are both outdated, overtaken by new DDR5 designs that offer more performance and greater power efficiency. There is no dedicated NPU for AI work, so this machine is only suitable for general office tasks and not for software development.

It might have a use as an embedded signage system, but it will need ventilation.

• Features: 4 / 5

BOSGAME P4 Ultra: Performance

Mini PC

Bosgame P4 Ultra

GMKtec NucBox K16

CPU

AMD Ryzen 7 7730U

AMD Ryzen 7 7735HS

Cores/Threads

8C 16T

8C 16T

RAM

16GB DDR4 (2x8GB)

32GB LPDDR5 (2x16GB)

SSD

1TB SSD

1TB TWSC TE3420F1TO NVMe

Graphics

Radeon 680M

Radeon 680M

3DMark

WildLife

4961

10320

FireStrike

2368

4508

TimeSpy

1001

1813

S.Nomad

843

1634

Cine24

Single

86

84

Multi

538

595

Ratio

6.23

7.08

GeekBench 6

Single

1965

1957

Multi

6124

7170

OpenCL

13511

24105

Vulkan

11940

22401

CrystalDisk

Read MB/s

3735

3549

Write MB/s

3285

2649

PCMark 10

Office

6257

6785

WEI

Score

6.7

8.1

Some readers will probably think I’m being unfair for comparing the $420 Bosgame P4 Ultra to the $590 GMKtec K16. Yes, the K16 is $170 more, but then look at what a Zen 3+ processor, DDR5 memory, and the Radeon 680 GPU deliver. Almost across the board, the K16 is twice as fast, for only 40% more money. And, if they had the same amount of memory, the cost difference would be less significant.

There are two takeaways from these benchmark results, the first being that anyone who wants to complete their demanding tasks more quickly should invest in a better mini PC that uses DDR5. The other is that for office work, the P4 Ultra is fine.

My view is that systems like this are always being repurposed, because they’re easy to move and reconfigure. What makes one mini PC better than another can often come down to flexibility. The performance envelope of the K16 is much greater than that of the P4 Ultra, making it inherently more flexible and suitable for a wider range of jobs.

If you are convinced that the system you want will only ever do a job for which it is suited, then buying the P4 Ultra might make sense. But if you think that a year from now you might be forced to buy something better, then perhaps it's worth considering that now.

The Bosgame P4 Ultra isn’t a great performer, but what it achieves might be good enough for some customers.

• Performance: 3 / 5

(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)BOSGAME P4 Ultra: Final verdict

(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)

The Bosgame P4 Ultra is a competent compact mini PC that does most things adequately and two things rather well. The dual 2.5GbE networking and the option for a ready-to-run Ubuntu installation are genuine differentiators in a market where most machines ship with Windows and a single Gigabit port.

The honest caveat is the processor. The Ryzen 7 7730U is Zen 3 under a new badge. It is not slow, but it is not modern either. Anyone comparing it against Zen 4 machines at a similar price point will find those alternatives offer better integrated graphics and more up-to-date architecture. The PCIe 3.0 SSD is a similar observation: functional, but not state-of-the-art.

At the right price, those trade-offs are acceptable. The P4 Ultra earns its keep as a quiet, power-efficient desktop for document work, browsing, media playback, and lightweight server duties. Push it harder than that, and you will want to consider the Bosgame P3 Mix or one of the Beelink alternatives with a Hawk Point processor.

Should you buy a BOSGAME P4 Ultra?

Value

Premium price for a Zen 3+ platform

3 / 5

Design

Awkward internals and limited USB ports

3.5 / 5

Features

Dual 2.5 GbE, but an old platform rebranded

3.5 / 5

Performance

Outclassed by DDR5 systems

3 / 5

Overall

A limited use mini PC

3.5 / 5

Buy it if...

You want pre-installed Linux
If you want a capable, compact Linux desktop without building one yourself. The Ubuntu 24.04 LTS pre-installed model means you can be productive within minutes of unboxing. But this hardware will also run Windows 11.

You like upgrades
The second M.2 slot, 2.5-inch bay, and two SODIMM slots give plenty of room to expand. Although this makes for some flexibility, the CPU and memory model aren't cutting-edge.

Don't buy it if...

You need graphics power
This isn't the best integrated graphics available. The Vega 8 GPU in the 7730U is three generations behind RDNA 3, and the performance gap in gaming and GPU compute tasks is real.

You need USB4 or Thunderbolt
Some disappointment will result if you buy this mini PC and need USB4 or Thunderbolt support for high-speed peripherals or an external GPU. These aren't technologies you can add later.

Also Consider

GMKtec NucBox M7 Ultra
Built on the excellent AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 6850U with Zen 3+ architecture and a Radeon 680M GPU, the M7 Ultra Plus offers a more modern platform at a comparable price point. It costs $40 more but gains a more powerful integrated GPU and NPU support.

Check out my GMKtec NucBox M7 Ultra review

Geekom A6
Using the AMD Ryzen 7 6800H platform, the higher specified option costs about $180 more than the P4 Ultra. But for the extra money, you get a Zen 3+ processor, Radeon 680M GPU, 16GB of DDR5 memory, a 512GB SSD and USB 4. The only downside to this design is that the second M.2 slot is only 2242 size.

Check out our Geekom A6 review

For more professional hardware, we've reviewed the best business computers.

Camp Snap CS-Pro: two-minute review

Forget your high-resolution mirrorless camera, your beautiful full-frame sensors — 2026 is the year of the cheap compact camera! Retro-styled, ultra-affordable cameras are back in a big way, following greatly exaggerated rumors of their death at the hands of the smartphone.

The original Camp Snap, released in 2023, was one of the big beneficiaries of this trend. A digital compact costing around $59 / £65, its USP was a feature that it didn't have – a screen. By removing the LCD, the camera evoked the feeling of shooting with an old film disposable — you literally could not see the images you'd taken until you downloaded them onto your computer, just as you couldn't see your images from a disposable until they came back from the development lab.

The Camp Snap CS-Pro, or Camp Snap Pro, is an upgrade of the original, adding a few improvements and gaining a refreshing visual makeover that calls to mind premium compacts like the Fujifilm X100VI. The core concept hasn't changed, though; it's still a screen-free digital compact camera, with a small sensor that's going to produce images that are almost certainly less detailed and high-quality than the ones produced by your phone. But if you're looking for top-notch quality, you are very much missing the point.

The guts of the camera are built around a 1/3.06-inch sensor with 16MP of resolution — double the pixel count of the 8MP original Camp Snap. This sensor is paired with a fixed-focus lens with an equivalent focal length of 22.5mm — nice and wide to fit plenty in the scene — and a fixed aperture of f/2.2. Just as with the original Camp Snap, there's nothing in the way of settings controls; you point, you shoot.

Well, not quite nothing. The CS-Pro adds a dial to its top plate, which provides access to a number of filmic looks. As well as the Standard (STD) look, you also have VTG-1 and VTG-2 ('VTG' meaning 'vintage'), which are stylized color filters that give your image a distinct and decidedly retro-style look. VTG-1 provides an overall warm tone, while VTG-2 pumps up blues and yellows for a hyper-saturated look (think Kodak Ultramax film). Finally, you have the monochrome 'B&W' dial.

(Image credit: Jon Stapley)

So, it's not a reinvention of the Camp Snap wheel. Far from it. Having used the CS-Pro on a few photographic excursions over the past few weeks, I can safely say that if the original Camp Snap wasn't your cup of tea, the CS-Pro won't be either. The resolution upgrade adds a bit of detail and definition, but the small 1/3.06-inch sensor still limits its dynamic range and ability to handle contrasting light situations. It's going to get blown out of the water by even your smartphone, never mind a compact with a proper-sized sensor like the 1-inch chip in the new Panasonic Lumix TZ300 / ZS300.

But again, quality isn't the point. The Camp Snap was a knockabout hit of nostalgic fun for a generation raised on disposable film cameras and cheap digital compacts, and the CS-Pro is all those things too. Once again, the screen-free design serves to create a relaxed shooting experience, and adds a sense of anticipation that recalls the good old days of waiting for your film to come back from the chemist. And if some of your shots turn out to be a bit crap (and they will) — who cares? It's all part of the fun.

I'm glad that Camp Snap didn't let success go to its head and come out with too expensive a camera. By keeping its price to two figures, the CS-Pro sits firmly in the realm of fun, a camera so simple that a child can use it, but with enough retro charm and style to appeal to adults.

(Image credit: Jon Stapley)Camp Snap CS-Pro: price and availability

The CS-Pro is available from Camp Snap's website. Its initial launch price is $99 / £90 (around AU$180), but discounts are frequent — in the UK, at time of writing, it's currently sitting at £68. This is a little more expensive than the original Camp Snap, but not by much – Camp Snap are clearly aware that affordability is a big part of their camera's USP and aren't messing with it. This was the main mistake I felt the firm made with its Super 8-aping CS-8 video camera — at a starting price of $199 / £152, it was just a bit too expensive for a low-quality camera whose main attraction was its novelty factor.

Even with the slight uptick in price, the CS-Pro is one of the most affordable options in the retro-styled digital compact arena. It's cheaper than the more complex and sophisticated RewindPix, which offers a huge range of film-style filters via its app-based digital darkroom.

Camp Snap CS-Pro: design

• Styled after popular premium compacts like the Fujifilm X100
• All-plastic build, lightweight and doesn't feel too robust
• Point-and-shoot operation, with dial for selectable retro filters

As mentioned, the Camp Snap CS-Pro looks at first glance a lot like a premium retro compact in the Fujifilm X100 series, with its black body and silver trim. However, if you were to actually hold both cameras side by side, this illusion would fall apart very quickly. Fujifilm's cameras are gorgeous, all-metal things, their build reflecting their four-figure price tags. The CS-Pro, meanwhile, consists of nothing but plastic and more plastic. It feels cheap, because it is cheap, and doesn't even pull the RewindPix's trick of adding internal metal weights for a bit of extra heft.

Interface-wise, on the top plate you have just the shutter button and the dial with the selectable film filters, the latter of which also functions as the on/off switch. On the rear you have a simple LCD panel that provides a running shot counter — useful if you're a forgetful sort and aren't sure when you last offloaded your pictures.

Beside the screen, you may notice two rows of small holes — amusingly, these are actually for a speaker, which plays recorded stock sounds when the camera is turned off and on and when the shutter is fired. These tinny, generic 'clunks' sound like they were downloaded from a website with a name like 'freemidisoundfx.com', and for all I know they probably were. Unnecessary, but harmless — and you can turn them off.

In the bottom corner is a row of four LEDs which serve as battery indicators — and I must say, I've been shooting with the Camp Snap for weeks without charging it once, and my battery level is still very healthy. Camp Snap rates the battery to 500 shots, and I believe it.

Jon StapleyJon StapleyJon StapleyJon StapleyJon StapleyJon StapleyJon StapleyJon StapleyJon Stapley

In the top-left corner is the optical viewfinder. It's a tiny thing — a far cry from the big, lovely viewfinder on the RewindPix — and the fact that it's both above and to the left of the lens means what you see through it bears only a passing resemblance to what your captured image is going to look like.

On the front, beside the viewfinder, there's a flash. One of the common complaints about the original Camp Snap was the rather weak-beer effort of its piddly LED flash, and the manufacturer has compensated in spades by throwing in a powerful Xenon flash. I'll talk more about this in the next section, but for now it's worth noting that a switch on the front allows you to toggle it between 'Off', 'Auto' and 'Forced'.

Also, surprisingly, the lens on the front has a 37mm filter thread, meaning you can attach protective UV filters, NDs, polarisers or special-effects filters if you have them in the corresponding size. I'm going to be honest — I think the crossover between 'Camp Snap buyers' and 'lens-based filter enjoyers' is vanishingly small, and I find it hard to imagine many people using this feature. But I'm not complaining.

(Image credit: Jon Stapley)

There are lugs for a strap, but no strap is included in the package — no pouch or case either, though Camp Snap did at least find room to pack in a USB-C cable for charging. The port is located on the bottom of the camera, along with a screw thread for mounting on a tripod, and a screwed-on panel that houses the built-in 4GB micro SD card, which you can unscrew to access directly if needed.

Camp Snap CS-Pro: performance

• Images are bright and punchy, but fine detail is lacking, and it can't handle high lighting contrast
• While fixed-focus lens makes operation easy, it can be creatively limiting, and there's no close-up ability
• Xenon flash is ludicrously overpowered — you can thankfully stick with the sensible 'Auto' setting

I'll say it straight out — I find my images from the CS-Pro to be very likeable. Are they high-quality? Absolutely not. They do not stand up to close scrutiny on a pixel level, and I would not make prints from them. But in good light, the CS-Pro produces images with bright, punchy colors — vivid blue skies, pleasant greens, and rich, golden sun.

The wide lens allows you to reliably fit plenty into the frame. Running a few shots helps you get used to finding the sweet spot of distance from your subject — being too close gets you a blurry mess. As a rule, if you're trying to capture an image of a specific object, animal or person, you want at least a meter's distance. Close-ups are a no-no, and you're not going to get creative effects like shallow depth of field.

The extra megapixels on the sensor has definitely improved matters compared to the original Camp Snap, with landscape-style images in particular looking much better thanks to greater detail for delineating distant subjects. However, the small size of the sensor means that dynamic range is still an Achilles' heel. Contrasty light situations are pretty much a no-go – you're all but guaranteed to get blown-out white highlights, or murky impenetrable shadows, or if you're really up against it, both. There's just a physical limit to the kinds of shooting situations the CS-Pro can handle.

However, one thing that can help matters here is the filter dial. Giving your images a retro glow with VTG-1 or VTG-2 can be a handy way to make a blown-out highlight look like an artistic choice, rather than a technological limitation. Indeed, I am generally a fan of the filter dial, even if I do think offering just three options other than the Standard look is rather tight-fisted.

Filter: STDJon StapleyFilter: VTG-1Jon StapleyFilter: VTG-2Jon StapleyFilter: B&WJon Stapley

VTG-1 is lovely and warm — great for sunny evenings. I can see it getting a lot of use in pub gardens and the like. VTG-2 is bright and saturated, giving your images just a bit more zing; like Kodak Ultramax, I'd take it to a day at the beach. And the B&W filter delivers a nice level of tonal contrast for moody monochrome, ideal for days when the weather is overcast and uninspiring. Dull light makes Camp Snap images very dull indeed, and the B&W filter is an excellent way to get around this.

Filter: STDJon StapleyFilter: STDJon StapleyFilter: VTG1Jon StapleyFilter: STDJon StapleyFilter: VTG1Jon StapleyFilter: STDJon StapleyFilter: STDJon StapleyFilter: B&WJon StapleyFilter: STDJon StapleyFilter: STDJon StapleyFilter: VTG1Jon StapleyFilter: STDJon StapleyFilter: VTG1Jon StapleyFilter: VTG2Jon StapleyFilter: STDJon StapleyFilter: STDJon StapleyFilter: STDJon StapleyFilter: VTG2Jon StapleyFilter: STDJon Stapley

As mentioned, a few more filters would have been nice by default — though there is a library of community-made filters to explore, as well as the option to create your own, so that does have the potential to extend the camera's lease on life. Camp Snap also sells its own downloadable add-on packs of filters, which goes some way to explain why there are so few to begin with.

I was excited by the idea of the Xenon flash, but having tested it out, I feel that a hammer is being used to crack a nut here. It is an incredibly powerful unit, much more powerful than the CS-Pro needs, frankly, and every time I have set it to the full-power 'Forced' mode, I have ended up with a blown-out, overexposed mess of an image. Thankfully, the 'Auto' mode does much better, providing balanced exposures that illuminate the subject well.

Flash off.Jon StapleyFlash set to Auto.Jon StapleyFlash set to Forced. You see the issue.Jon StapleyAgain, flash set to Forced. I just wanted a nice picture of my spider-plant, man.Jon Stapley

It also merits mentioning that the shooting experience of the CS-Pro is nice and brisk. One of the common complaints about the original Camp Snap was that it had some truly deleterious shutter lag. This has been corrected for the CS-Pro thanks to an upgraded processor. While there's no burst mode per se, I was able to fire off successive shots at a rate of about 1 per second — the only feature that fell behind, amusingly, was the artificial free-midi-download shutter-release noise. And I can live with that.

Should I buy the Camp Snap CS-Pro?

(Image credit: Jon Stapley)Buy it if...

You want a break from your screens.
Having no LCD for monitoring or playing back your shots keeps you living in the moment — an analog-like experience without the difficulty and expense.

You want an affordable, lightweight compact camera
Incredibly light and commendably cheap, the CS-Pro is a camera you can take everywhere without a worry.

The first Camp Snap was just too low-quality for you.
Operability improvements and a resolution upgrade make this a markedly better shooting experience.

Don't buy it if...

You want creative versatility
You can't change your settings, you can't focus the lens — despite the 'Pro' moniker, this is a point-and-shoot.

You want a tough camera that can handle a knock
It's not weatherproof at all, and I wouldn't rate that all-plastic body to stand up to much punishment.

How I tested the Camp Snap CS-Pro

(Image credit: Jon Stapley)

• I received a loan unit of the Camp Snap CS-Pro for testing
• I have taken it out on a number of photo excursions in London and on a short rural mini-break
• I’ve shot in variable light conditions throughout April and May, with a mixture of bright and overcast weather

So far, I've used the Camp Snap CS-Pro to capture more than 100 images, over a period of several weeks, during which time I took it on several days out in London as well as on a countryside mini-break in Gloucestershire, UK. The weather was quite variable during my time with the camera, though predominantly bright and sunny. I used the CS-Pro indoors and outdoors, and aimed to capture a broad range of subjects and situations.

First reviewed May 2026

It was somewhere between sprinting to capture a flag, evading instructors and shooting moving targets in a Maltese training course during my playthrough of 007 First Light that I realized IO Interactive has managed to make a third person shooter game that truly feels like you’re playing a James Bond in a movie.

Review info

Platform reviewed: PS5 Pro
Available on: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC and Nintendo Switch 2
Release date: May 27, 2026, (Nintendo Switch 2 TBC)

The sequence plays out like a classic training montage straight out of a Rocky film, quickly switching you from one exercise to the next. One minute you’re learning hand-to-hand combat mechanics like parrying and throwing your opponent into walls, the next you’re driving around a historical fort looking to set a new record for your fastest lap.

That blockbuster energy runs throughout this reboot, which introduces players to a younger version of the spy before he became 007. Meeting Bond as a fresh-faced, 26-year-old Royal Navy air crewman means there’s no Daniel Craig or Pierce Brosnan shadow hanging over him, making this an original take that shows him still learning when to follow orders and when to improvise.

The heart of the matter

While it's been done before, this training montage sequence is the most creatively put together I've ever seen. (Image credit: IO Interactive)

After washing up on an Icelandic shore as the lone survivor of a helicopter crash, Bond quickly finds himself on an M16 mission without any security clearance or training.

Relying solely on quick reflexes and some Montenegrin he picked up during past travels, it doesn’t take long before he’s recruited into M16 and thrown into a conspiracy involving rogue agents, buried secrets and, as is now a permanent plot device of various action movies of the 21st century (think Minority Report crossed with Mission Impossible — The Final Reckoning), dangerous experimental technology.

Patrick Gibson’s version of Bond is cocky, impulsive and occasionally "a bit of a b***end", as Moneypenny, voiced by Kiera Lester, puts it at one poin. I can't say I don't agree with her, either, after hearing all those repetitive smart ass quips about how enemies take their tea while you lob cups and saucers at them during tense combat sequences — it's more eye-roll inducing than funny.

Often the immaturity works in the game’s favour, though, as this is Bond before the polished charm and cold professionalism fully set in. After all, Bond is more than just a generic run-and-gun action hero — and this is where IO Interactive’s expertise in stealth action games comes in.

Much of the game revolves around learning new ways to stealthily approach situations, from disguising yourself as valet to infiltrate a world chess championship competition to pickpocketing an invitation to get into an exclusive gala in Kensington.

These more open world sections of the game allow for the most experimentation outside of the cutscenes and platforming that features throughout the game, creating an undeniable rhythm.

Missions often begin back at M16 with a briefing from Moneypenny before sending Bond downstairs to the brilliant Q (who’s voiced by Alastair Mackenzie) to field test some new gadgets. From there, you’re deployed into luxury hotels, hostile compounds, crowded marketplaces and snowy mountains, where you almost always manage to devise a cunning escape worthy of an IMAX screen.

A matter of considerable delicacy

Every Bond needs a villain, or two... or three... (Image credit: IO Interactive)

Let’s get one thing out of the way, the stealth sandbox gameplay isn’t quite as open-ended or realistic as IO Interactive's Hitman series. Instead, it’s more of a stripped back version of the studio's gaming DNA.

The core suite of mechanics are here, though, letting you quietly infiltrate guarded areas in several different ways by either bluffing out of conversations or creating distractions to reach your objective unnoticed.

Just don’t expect the same unforgiving realism, where if you look or do something suspicious you’ll immediately trigger the NPCs to be cautious of you, stopping you from progressing and making you restart the level. 007 First Light is much more forgiving — even letting you take down enemies in the same room without others reacting (more on this later).

That’s not say that you don’t have the same varied gameplay, though. The standout mission for me was in Mauritania, where Bond infiltrates a dusty shipping graveyard settlement built around the wreckage of a giant cargo ship in the Sahara Desert. In order to enter a criminal auction, you first need to raise enough money through underground brawls, shooting contests and other side activities scattered around a dense marketplace.

It’s one of the missions where the game fully embraces player freedom, and it feels closest to IO Interactive’s work with Hitman as you don't have to complete every side mission available to progress to the next section, making the level varied enough for multiple playthroughs on different difficulties.

Best bit

My favorite part of 007 First Light was an unassuming moment during an action sequence where I was battling mercenaries while trying to escape a building. After flanking two hostile henchmen, I swiftly shot a red fuel canister clearing the path ahead of me to escape with a confidence that only a truly lethal secret agent could have.

In true Bond fashion, gadgets also play a big role. From hacking electronics to disabling lights with your Omega watch, there's a variety of spy tools that you can access through a gadget wheel reminiscent of Batman: Arkham. These mechanics are crucial to the stealth sections of the game, allowing you to create distractions and progress through locked down buildings.

Punctuating every stealth mission are enormous set pieces very clearly inspired by Naughty Dog's Uncharted series of adventure games that see you evading a sniper's fire while running across rooftops, jumping onto airplanes and car chases that feel ripped straight from a Bond finale. There's even that signature platforming and few puzzles thrown in for good measure.

Against the odds

Please let me drive the Aston Martin Valhalla more next time, IO Interactive. (Image credit: IO Interactive)

At times, though, the game's cinematic action pieces can break that sense of immersion with bugs pre-emptively triggering a cutscene that suddenly repositions Bond to a place he was otherwise nowhere near a moment ago. During one sequence, the game forced Bond onto a mobile staircase because a cutscene had been triggered, despite me being in the middle of a shootout on the other side of the tarmac.

The stealth areas occasionally interrupted the realism, too. For instance, when I was given a 'license to kill', which is the game's shoot-em-up mode, I would abandon stealth entirely to fight my way through, bashing enemies into nearby walls and tables, only for nearby NPCs to seemingly ignore the chaos unfolding in the room they're closely guarding.

While I can fully appreciate the certain restrictions IO Interactive has made to make you play the game in a certain way, I can't help but feel slightly cheated by the driving mechanic. It felt tacked on because of the spy franchise's iconic vehicles and not nearly as dynamic as it could've been — this might very well all be stemming from my frustrations around not being able to drive the Aston Martin Valhalla more than two-feet though, so take it with a pinch of salt as I had been excited to get behind the wheel ever since catching a glimpse of it in M16 headquarters.

Thankfully, these frustrations rarely outweigh the sheer expansiveness of what IO Interactive has created here. 007First Light brings to life what makes Bond so thrilling beyond the explosions, weaving together a multi-layered espionage plot, sophisticated spy toys and stunning locations that you don't want to leave.

While it's stealth gameplay isn't quite as polished as Hitman and its cinematic pacing occasionally cuts through the spell, it's easy to see past. IO Interactive has delivered the most immersive Bond game in years.

Should I play 007 First Light?

I can still hear Sampha's '(No One Knows Me) Like The Piano' since finishing 007 First Light. (Image credit: IO Interactive)Play it if...

You love big campaigns
Expect cinematic action sequences similar to Uncharted threading together a linear narrative that's as multilayered as a Bond movie. View Deal

You want to feel like Bond
Forget drinking martinis, 007 First Light lets you experience nearly every facet of what being Bond entails with a hyper-competence you can dream of. View Deal

You love 007's spycraft
Similar to Batman: Arkham's gadget mechanics, 007 First Light brings to life a variety of classic 007 spy tools from the movies.

Don't play it if...

You're expecting the exact same gameplay as Hitman
IO Interactive has stripped back some of the stealth sandbox mastery from Hitman to create a more streamlined tactical experience.

You can't stand a lot of cutscenes
007 First Light blurs the line of playing a game and watching a movie, with lengthy set pieces that you won't want to skip.

Accessibility

Well, this is a bit different — a baby Bond that doesn't have a signature drink. (Image credit: IO Interactive )

007 First Light has most of the usual controls and accessibility features you'd find on a AAA game, including subtitles, adjustable difficulty settings, which you can change anytime throughout, tutorials, as well as motion and sensitivity controls.

Because the game is so linear, you don't have a map to help guide you through the more sandbox-style levels but that doesn't matter too much as it allows for experimentation to occur.

How I reviewed 007 First Light

Alright then, let's see if there's another way I can raise $100,000. (Image credit: IO Interactive)

I played 007 First Light for just under 20 hours on a PlayStation 5 Pro hooked up to a Sky Glass TV and Sonos sound system made up of two speakers, a soundbar and subwoofer.

I completed the story during that time, and even replayed a couple of sections to test out the variations that could occur depending on the way I played the game. However, I did not unlock everything, so I'm sure there's plenty more worth exploring.

GEEKOM A9 Max 2026: 30-second review

The Geekom A9 Max is one of a growing number of premium AI-enhanced mini PCs, perfectly at home as a powerful office machine for content creation or development, especially for low to mid-level AI applications. Inside is a powerful Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 CPU, and this is coupled with a more standard 890M integrated GPU and NPU to handle all graphics and AI processing.

Removing the small machine from the box, the quality is instantly apparent, with a mainly metal case aside from the black plastic back panel. It’s also good to see a decent amount of venting to keep it cool, even under substantial load.

What I instantly liked about the box was that while it arrives with just 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD, it’s perfectly possible to upgrade the machine to 128GB RAM and 8TB storage, and you can even give it a graphics boost by attaching an eGPU. Essentially, this brings the machine close to rivalling many desktops, but at a much smaller size; although the size of the eGPU does have to be taken into account.

The machine also features plenty of connection options, including USB4, for that eGPU or ultra-fast storage, there’s also HDMI 2.1, decent dual 2.5GbE, and Wi-Fi 7. As a photographer and videographer, it's nice to see an SD 4.0 card reader on the side. I'm increasingly using CFexpress Type B and Type A, but since those cards are still quite rare in the mainstream, an SD card reader is still the best option here.

In day-to-day tasks running Windows 11 Pro, this machine is extremely quick, with the full Microsoft Office suite opening and running without issue with the standard configuration. As I moved on, I started using CapCut and installed the Adobe Creative Suite just to see if it could run Adobe Photoshop, Premiere Pro, and a few other advanced applications. Again, it handled 4K video edits without issue with footage from the Canon EOS R5C and quickly enhanced a batch of images shot on the Sony A7 IV in Lightroom. This small machine handled the load with ease.

Through the test I was impressed with the potential power and put this to the test with a video edit. That edit for a 4K production grew in length, and while the machine was able to handle the processing, I could hear the machine being pushed to its limits, and an extra 32GB of RAM would have just helped it over the line for video editing. Still, this performance was impressive. While I did start to see a slowdown in the timeline render times, ultimately, for such a small machine and at this price, this performance is impressive.

One of the big features of this machine is the AI potential. Sure enough, Copilot runs exceptionally well, integrated with Microsoft and Adobe applications, but with a machine like this and with that Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 CPU, which offers up to 86 TOPS of AI performance, with an extra 55 TOPS in the NPU, I was really interested to see how well it would run a local LLM.

Considering the size and the position, I was able to install Qwen 7B, which seemed to run relatively well, I did consider 14B but hit some issues on getting that running. You can tell that Qwen is running on a local machine, and with 32GB of RAM and that limited power from the GPU, there is a slight slowdown.

But it's still impressive, with the chatbot features working well and enabling you to integrate relatively basic tasks, although, at present, that limitation is more down to my knowledge of programming with a local LLM rather than probable potential of what's available here.

I couldn't help feeling that a little more RAM and possibly connecting to an eGPU would have just sped things up a bit, but having this run completely offline does start to show the potential.

Finishing off the test, I wanted just to see how well it would run some of the larger games, including Cyberpunk 2077 and Hogwarts Legacy, and in both cases, the Radeon 890M GPU proved why it's such a popular choice, offering smooth gameplay at HD resolution with mid effects and graphics quality. Again, with the potential to connect an eGPU and boost the RAM, if you do want to use this as a gaming machine, the potential is absolutely here.

While powerful mini PCs have been around for a while, the GEEKOM A9 Max 2026 Edition really shows just how far they've come. This machine really does rival a desktop, and whilst it does get warm under load, it manages to see it through without any notable thermal throttling.

If you are editing video or using any other application or process that really puts a load on the CPU and GPU, those fans are going to kick in. If you like a quiet working environment, this might not be the machine for you.

However, there's no doubting its power and potential, and with a little bit more RAM and connected to an eGPU, this small machine is definitely able to rival many machines far larger, although with those additions, the price is pretty much on a par, and the benefit all comes down to the space you save from the small-form-factor machine. With that in mind, it's likely to feature in our guide to the best mini PCs.

GEEKOM A9 Max 2026: Price and availability

• How much does it cost? £1599 / $1799
• When is it out? Now
• Where can you get it? Directly from GEEKOM

The Geekom A9 Max 2026 Edition is widely available, with the base HX370 configuration starting at $1399 from Geekom's US site and £1299 from Geekom UK.

The mini PC is also available from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.

TechRadar Pro readers can save an extra 8% via Geekom or Amazon when using the code TRA9MAX26.

Note: In the US, to get the discount on the HX470 model, use code TRA9AMZUS.

• Value: 4/5

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)GEEKOM A9 Max 2026: Specs

CPU: AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 470
Graphics: AMD Radeon 890M
RAM: 32GB DDR5, expandable up to 128GB.
Storage: 2TB SSD; supports 1 × M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 NVMe and 1 × M.2 2230 PCIe 4.0 NVMe, up to 8TB total.
Front Ports: Power button, 3.5mm headset jack, USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports, including one always-on port.
Rear Ports: DC input, 2 × HDMI 2.1, 2 × USB4 Type-C, 2 × 2.5GbE RJ45, USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, USB 2.0 Type-A, Kensington lock.
Connectivity: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, dual 2.5GbE LAN.
Audio: HDA codec, 3.5mm front headset jack.
Camera: None.
Size: 135 × 132 × 46.9mm.
OS Installed: Windows 11 Pro

GEEKOM A9 Max 2026: Design

The Geekom A9 Max 2026 Edition is right at the top of the mini PC market, with a premium build and price tag to match. The top and sides are made with a full reinforced metal chassis, which has been made to stand up to 200kg of pressure, essentially meaning that in the studio or office, it will just look like a premium PC, but if, for some reason, you use it in the field, it should be robust enough to withstand a good knock or two.

When it comes to size it measures 135 × 132 × 46.9mm. While the build is premium and the machine is on the larger side of the mini PC form factor, it still features the usual VESA mount options at the back, making it easy to mount behind your monitor.

Around the body of the machine there’s a good amount of ports and with the premium focus, high-speed networking is a priority, featuring dual 2.5GbE LAN ports, Wi-Fi 7, and Bluetooth version 5.4.

Alongside all the usual ports, which I come to in a minute, there are two additional slots. The first is an SD card reader, which will appeal to many creators but is increasingly appealing to office workers who also need to shoot video and take images in their day-to-day tasks. There's also a Kensington lock slot if you do need to make sure the mini PC is secure.

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

When it comes to port layout, there's a good number of ports, though it is a bit of a shame there's no USB-C on the front. Instead, you have three USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports and one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A that is marked as always on. There's also a standard 3.5mm headphone jack and the power button. Switching round the back, you've obviously got the DC power in.

This is an 18V standard plug and HDMI 2.1, a USB Type-C that supports DP Alt Mode and PD-in, which is handy if you're using this out in the field. Then there are 2 × 2.5 GbE RJ45 LAN ports, a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port, a USB 2.0 Type-A port, a USB Type-C DP Alt Mode port, and another HDMI 2.1 port, so a really good selection of ports. It's great to see you've got two USB4 ports at the back, enabling both ultra-fast storage and an eGPU if you need to boost graphics performance.

With those two HDMI and two USB4 ports, if you do want to run a 4x4K display setup or a single 8K monitor, this is perfectly possible with that port selection.

• Design: 4.5 / 5

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)GEEKOM A9 Max 2026: Features

Inside are the mechanics of the machine, with the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 470, 12 cores, 24 threads, up to 5.2GHz boost, and up to 86 TOPS overall AI performance at the heart, along with an integrated Radeon 890M GPU with 16 graphics cores and RDNA 3.5 architecture, and an NPU. This is supported by 32GB DDR5 RAM, upgradable to 128GB, and 8TB NVMe SSD modules.

Like most mini PCs, it comes pre-installed with Windows 11 Pro. When the machine arrives, all you need to do is run the final installation steps to register accounts and customise a few settings to your needs.

A first look at the specifications shows is a quite meagre allocation of RAM and storage: just 32GB of DDR5 RAM and 2TB of M.2 NVMe SSD storage, both of which can be upgraded, but in a machine of this price I would have hoped for a little more.

The RAM, can be upgraded to 128GB with two 64GB modules, providing dual-channel memory and making it ideal for AI models and other applications that require ample RAM. Then, for storage, you have one M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 ×4 NVMe SSD slot and an additional M.2 2230 PCIe 4.0 NVMe, each supporting up to 4TB, so you can boost the internal capacity to a relatively decent 8TB.

It is worth noting that while this machine comes pre-loaded with Windows 11 Pro, you can install Linux or another operating system of your choice; it is perfectly compatible. If you just want to run it as an AI box on Windows 11 Pro, it makes a perfect platform for development.

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

• Features: 4.5 / 5 (Will change once features are available)

GEEKOM A9 Max 2026: Performance

When it comes to day-to-day use, I really felt this machine is at the top of the premium mini PC market, and being powered by the Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 ensures that, when running Windows 11 Pro, everything runs well.

As I started out with Microsoft Office, firstly to write this review but also for a few other tasks, both in Excel and PowerPoint, the machine ran beautifully, smoothly switching between apps as I needed, and handling images with ease with no slowdown or issue. Essentially, this machine is more than powerful enough for any office application and for some pretty heavy-duty lifting in each of the individual apps, which, to be honest, these days is expected.

Whilst checking through the benchmark test results, I was a little bit surprised to see that it only scored a Windows Experience score of 8.1, but what was more reflective was the PCMark score of 8090, showing that, for day-to-day tasks, this machine is absolutely ideally suited.

As I started increasing the pressure on the system, I switched to Lightroom Classic and CapCut, both relatively lightweight applications. Starting with Lightroom Classic and creating a large catalogue containing over 800 images shot on the Sony A7 IV, both JPEG and raw, the machine had absolutely no issue handling the task, and whilst the internal hard drive is only 2TB, the CrystalDiskMark read and write scores of 6190MB per second for read and 5524MB per second for write were more than adequate to quickly render thumbnails and enable speedy adjustments.

Later on, through the test, as I was transferring video files from the Canon EOS R5C, that speed of transfer was really apparent, although that 2TB internal SSD was a bit of an issue, so I installed another 1TB drive just to boost that internal storage for the video editing test.

Aside from the internal SSD being exceptionally quick, what was noticeable was just how fast applications loaded; both Photoshop and Premiere Pro were relatively quick, taking under 10 seconds from double-clicking the application icon to being ready to start work. Likewise, when importing files into Premiere Pro, the media thumbnails rendered nicely and quickly as the timeline progressed or was scrubbed through.

For the most part, the video editing was handled well, and in Premiere Pro, I was able to cut several hours of footage into a five-minute video. However, since the total video file size exceeded 2TB of internal storage, I attached an external SSD via the USB4 port to handle the additional capacity. Here, the USB4 speed was absolutely spot-on for video production, enabling me to work with files on external drives as if they were on the fast internal drive.

During editing, it was apparent there's only 32GB of RAM in the system, and I would definitely think of upgrading to at least 64GB, if not the full 128GB, if I were going to use this for video editing. However, for images processed in Photoshop and Lightroom, that 32GB is actually perfectly adequate, and I'd only really upgrade to 64GB just to give myself a little extra headroom.

If you're just using Lightroom Classic and CapCut, for instance, then that 32GB and 2TB SSD will more than likely suffice. If you're pushing things a little further and using something like a Sony A7 or another high-end mirrorless camera, I’d definitely look at either an external storage solution or upgrading the internal capacity and RAM. However, it's reassuring to know that the CPU and GPU can handle most people's creative needs.

But what's good to know is that because it has USB4, if you do need to push the graphics potential further and you're working on longer productions, say over 15 minutes, then you can attach an external eGPU through that USB4 port, which will give you far more potential.

One of the key features here is the built-in NPU and AI potential of the Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 CPU, which is supported by the lesser 890M GPU. In both Photoshop and Premiere Pro, utilising the AI features such as timeline expands and generative fill, and utilising local resources rather than cloud, the machine was actually able to cope with that AI processing exceptionally well, taking a few seconds to expand timelines and about 10 seconds to generatively fill when cropped on a rotation.

Of course, a popular choice for the built-in AI hardware is so that you can run a local LLM. If you're just looking to start experimentation with localised models such as Qwen 2.5 7B, which I found was a good fit for this 32GB version, then this is a great place to start. You can essentially set up your own localised chatbot that doesn't need to rely on a cloud connection to work, but more interestingly, you can start to use it to develop your own AI applications.

At a base level, you can get the LLM to help you create a website, write code for you, and I was interested to see if it could create a static HTML site. It could be updated by connecting to GitHub and Cloud Pages. What's interesting here is that there was some tweaking, even though I hadn't fully automated the process. The LLM, which was running locally, was able to use a local web server to develop and run the application, and as I worked on the project, I realised it was more my own personal knowledge of the system rather than the abilities of the machine that was the limitation of what I was developing.

However, the upshot is that the AI potential runs locally; it takes a bit of fiddling to set up, as ever. Once running, it gives you a real good insight into this machine’s potential. Once again, as with creative applications, I would definitely upgrade the RAM to handle that AI process and probably attach a GPU just to give it a boost. At present, whilst that 890M GPU is a good standard, it is starting to look a little dated, given the full potential of how we're using our machines.

Checking out the scores in 3DMark and Geekbench, it was interesting to see the GPU score in Geekbench. The GPU came out at 34,145, not a bad result for an integrated GPU and more than enough for playing many games at HD resolution.

Sure enough, when loading Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, I was able to enjoy some pretty smooth gameplay. In some of the games I played, both Indiana Jones and Cyberpunk 2077, the official GPU specifications are actually higher than what is on offer here. However, the gameplay is still exceptionally well handled thanks to that CPU's power.

Benchmark results

CrystalDiskMark Read: 6190.03
CrystalDiskMark Write: 5524.9
Geekbench CPU Multi: 12069
Geekbench CPU Single: 2922
Geekbench GPU: 34145
PCMark Overall: 8090
Cinebench CPU Multi: 4668
Cinebench CPU Single: 495
Fire Strike Overall: 5141
Fire Strike Graphics: 5544
Fire Strike Physics: 30903
Fire Strike Combined: 1839
Time Spy Overall: 2424
Time Spy Graphics: 2149
Time Spy CPU: 8906
Wild Life Overall: 12516
Steel Nomad Overall: 2165
Windows Experience Overall: 8.1

Getting back to work, this time loading DaVinci Resolve to do some colour grading, it was interesting to see how well the machine handled quite intensive grading on video footage before exporting. You can once again see a bit of lag due to the 32GB of RAM, but ultimately, it's impressive for a machine of this size, and if a GPU were connected, this would definitely rival far larger workstation PCs.

Again, when running Blender, I had to create some 3D models for an upcoming 3D print to test the machine. It was more than capable of handling quite sophisticated modelling requirements, and I was impressed with just how easy it was to work within the application compared with what I'm used to on my MacBook Pro M1 Max, which has for years been my chosen option for utilising Blender. Again, there's no doubt that a bit of an eGPU boost would have been appreciated, but this machine is more than useful right out of the box.

At the end of the test, it's obvious why this is a premium mini PC and not just because of the cost. The design is exceptionally well thought out, simple and functional, rather than going for some sleek, stylish design. What impressed me was that, even under load, when the fans kick in, the noise stays at a reasonable level and the machine stays cool. There's no thermal throttling, or at least no notable thermal throttling through the test, especially when using the video editors, which is usually where you can start to see a real slowdown in the timeline as it builds in length.

Whilst I'm relatively new to using these small machines for LLM models, I am slowly getting to grips with running similar systems on network-attached storage. It's great to see the speed boost I'm getting from these mini PCs. At present, the processing speed of that LLM model is far faster on this A9 Max 2026 Edition than I've seen on most other options.

So, overall, from productivity to creativity to running your own localised LLM, at present, the Geekom A9 Max seems like an exceptionally good option.

• Performance: 4.5 / 5

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)GEEKOM A9 Max 2026: Final verdict

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

By the end of this test, there's no doubt that the price reflects the specifications and performance of this mini PC, and it's a great choice if you're a heavy-process Windows user and you just want a small box that sits on your desk behind your monitor rather than a full-blown desktop workstation.

It’s worth pointing out that if you want to see this machine's full potential, connect it to an eGPU, boost the RAM and internal storage, but still, the 32GB, 2TB version that I'm looking at in this review is exceptionally powerful and, for creative use, was able to plough through video editing and image enhancement without issue.

What impressed me most was the localised potential of AI. Being able to download and install a local language model and use it both for chat and for a few more advanced creative options was good to see, as it showed just how well these local language models work and how stable they can be in your own offline environment.

Running a local LLM isn't quite as straightforward as most of the applications, and the download and install process does take a little bit of working out, especially when you want to start connecting it to external resources. But this machine and its processing speed do make that a little easier, and the potential, if you are looking for a local AI development machine, is exceptionally good.

Of course, the reason you go for a mini PC over a full desktop is that it saves a lot of space and is often a lot cheaper. However, here, whilst the size of the mini PC is compact, once you connect an eGPU and external SSD, and upgrade the RAM and internal storage, the pricing really does sit directly alongside a standard workstation, so it's really only if you are strapped for space that you probably want to go for the fully specced-out option.

But then it’s ultra-portable, so if you're working in the field for video or image production and you need a really powerful machine to take with you, not just a laptop, then this is a superb solution, and plenty of connectivity options on both the front and back make it extremely flexible. I do wish, however, that it had at least one USB-C port on the front, not just tucked away at the back.

The network connection was also pretty good at 2.5 GbE, and with your options, it's easy to connect directly to a NAS box as well as the network, which gives you plenty of user options.

If you're looking for workstation performance in a compact box, then the GEEKOM A9 Max 2026 Edition is a superb option. It's small, fast and has loads of potential, not just for Windows productivity but also for creative and local LLM use.

Whilst there's no doubting the performance of this machine, the price does make me think you are paying a premium for its small size, and for most people who have enough space for a workstation, that's probably going to be a cheaper option. However, if you're strapped for space in your office or workshop, or you need a machine that's fully portable and extremely powerful, then this is a great solution.

If you really want to push this model to the max, max out the capacity and RAM, and attach a decent eGPU, there's no doubt the GEEKOM A9 Max 2026 Edition will match most mid-level workstations without issue.

Should I buy the GEEKOM A9 Max 2026?

Value

Premium build with a good selection of ports, but it is exceptionally expensive for a mini PC

4/5

Design

I love the understated design. It fits easily on your desktop, and with the VESA mount, can be discreetly positioned

4.5/5

Features

A huge range of features for a mini PC and, best of all, plenty of upgrade potential 

4.5/5

Performance

Incredibly fast and perfect for most user workloads, especially if you're looking for AI development or creative use

4.5/5

Overall

Powerful mini PC that rivals the performance of many workstations, but does come with a price premium

4.5/5

Buy it if...

Need compact power

If you need the power of a workstation in a compact, potentially portable form, this is an ideal option.

Use many displays

If you need a mini PC connected to multiple displays, the dual HDMI and USB4 ports let you connect up to 4 4K displays directly from the back of this small machine.

Don't buy it if...

Need a gaming GPU

While you can play games at those lower resolutions and enjoy perfectly smooth performance, if you want the full immersive gaming experience, you'll also need to consider an eGPU, as the Radeon 890M is good but does have its limits.

Only browse casually

For many users, the power and speed of this machine will probably be overkill, and whilst it is nice to know that you've got all that power in the background, there are plenty of cheaper options out there.

For more productivity machines, we've tested the best business computers.

MSI MPG 322UR QD-OLED X24: One-minute review

Exactly two years ago, MSI rolled out its debut 4K OLED gaming monitor. Now here we are with the new MSI MPG 322UR QD-OLED X24, one of the first gaming monitors to get Samsung's newly upgraded 4K QD-OLED panel tech.

Superficially, of course, this 32-inch 4K gaming monitor is a dead ringer for its direct predecessors from MSI, most obviously the MSI MPG 321URX. It sports exactly the same chassis design, for instance, and a mostly similar feature set. But that new QD-OLED panel makes this a rather different proposition.

The resolution and refresh rate actually remain the same. So, that's 3,840 by 2,160 pixels and 240Hz maximum refresh, the latter being plenty for a 4K display. You're not going to be able to drive it beyond that speed in most games. The response times are carried over, too, which is just fine given we're talking about a lightning-quick rating of 0.03ms.

So, what exactly is different? The first hint that you've got Samsung's latest five-layer Tandem QD-OLED tech is in the full-screen brightness rating. That's up from 250 nits for previous 32-inch 4K QD-OLEDs to 300 nits. And while the peak HDR brightness remains pegged at 1,000 nits, the VESA DisplayHDR certification has been bumped up from True Black 400 to True Black 500, indicating more HDR punch.

All of that is enabled by a new third-gen emissive OLED material which Samsung also says is twice as durable as before. That's important because it means this new QD-OLED should be even more resistant to burn-in, a potential if unlikely problem that's also covered by the three-year warranty.

(Image credit: Future)

Another feature of the new panel is a revised surface material that reduces the purple tint in bright ambient light that all QD-OLEDs have thus far exhibited. MSI calls it Dark Armor Film and while it doesn't entirely eradicate the issue, black levels and perceived contrast are definitely improved.

However, there is one new-gen QD-OLED feature missing from this revised 32-inch 4K panel. The true RGB-stripe subpixel structure, as seen in another MSI monitor we reviewed recently, the MSI MPG 341CQR QD-OLED X36, isn't included here. On paper, RGB-stripe is desirable for precision rendering, especially fonts. In practice, this 32-inch 4K monitor has sufficient pixel density to make that a pretty moot point. It's very crisp and precise.

Whatever, the overall result of the upgrades is, if anything, more impressive than the incremental spec improvements imply. This is a gorgeous, vibrant monitor. Importantly, it's much richer and subjectively punchier than similar monitors based on LG's competing WOLED panel tech.

Full-screen SDR brightness is likewise now strong enough for almost all realistic use cases. But the real showbiz stuff is HDR gaming. The combination of 4K pixel density with the speed, contrast, lighting precision and outright pop of Samsung's latest QD-OLED tech, all heightened by the glossy screen coating, is downright fabulous.

Long story short, this new 4K QD-OLED panel really is approaching something akin to the perfect 2D display technology. There are still a few detail weaknesses. But overall, this 4K MSI beauty absolutely wallops any similar LCD display. It's not even close.

MSI MPG 322UR QD-OLED X24: Price & availability

• How much does it cost? $1,099 / £999 / AU$1,799
• When is it available? Available now
• Where can you get it? Available in the US, UK, and Australia

At $1,099, the new MSI MPG 322UR X24 is a touch more expensive than MSI's first 32-inch 4K QD-OLED monitor at launch two years ago. But you do get a much improved panel.

It's also a fair bit cheaper than the likes of the Asus ROG Swift OLED PG32UCDM Gen3, which uses exactly the same Samsung-sourced new-gen QD-OLED panel, but goes for about $1,299.

Of course, this is still a pretty expensive display. That's the reality with OLED technology right now. You have to pay a hefty premium versus LCD-based monitors of the same size and resolution. However, it's worth noting that there's a good chance that MSI will launch a slightly de-featured but cheaper-still variant of this monitor in the near future.

• Value: 3 / 5

MSI MPG 322UR QD-OLED X24: SpecsMSI MPG 322UR QD-OLED X24 Specifications

Screen size

32-inch

Resolution

3840 x 2160

Panel technology

Samsung QD-OLED

Refresh rate

240Hz

Response time

0.03ms

HDR

DisplayHDR 500 True Black

Brightness

300 nits full screen, 1,000 nits peak HDR

Connectivity

HDMI 2.1 x2, DisplayPort 2.1a, USB-C with 98W PD, 2x USB-A hub

MSI MPG 322UR QD-OLED X24: Design

• Familiar looks
• Good connectivity
• Reassuring warranty cover

In terms of styling, little has changed with the new MSI MPG 322UR X24. It looks just like the MSI MPG 321URX did back at launch two years ago.

It's not the most striking monitor design. But it's pretty well built and slick enough thanks to slim bezels and a low-key, all-black design ethic. You also get a good range of adjustment, including tilt, height, swivel, rotate and pivot, albeit the latter doesn't go all the way round into portrait mode.

As for connectivity, that includes a pair of HDMI 2.1 sockets, DisplayPort 2.1, a USB-C interface with 98 watts of power delivery and a two-port USB-A hub. The USB-C connectivity means you can share this monitor between, say, a gaming desktop and a work laptop with particular ease and minimal cable clutter.

(Image credit: Future)

Burn-in, of course, remains somewhat of a worry with OLED display technology, even if several third party long-term tests have shown that it's not a major problem with Samsung's QD-OLED tech. So, it's good to see that MSI has included several burn-in compensating features such as pixel shifting. You also get burn-in cover as part of MSI's three-year warranty. At minimum, you needn't have any concerns during the warranty period.

Finally, fans of glossy screen coatings will be pleased to learn that the MSI MPG 322UR X24 comes so equipped. It certainly heightens the visual impact of QD-OLED panel technology, even if that comes at the cost of increased reflectivity. In short, glossy screen coatings are a preference thing, they have pros and cons.

(Image credit: Future)

• Design: 4 / 5

MSI MPG 322UR QD-OLED X24: Performance

• Fantastic new QD-OLED panel
• Stupendous HDR experience
• Full-screen brightness now "good enough"

Samsung's first effort at a 32-inch 4K QD-OLED panel for PC gaming monitors was pretty stellar but had a few arguable issues, including somewhat limited full-screen brightness and a purple tint that was visible in bright ambient light.

The MSI MPG 322UR X24 upgrades that experience with a new generation of QD-OLED technology that directly addresses those shortcomings. And it really is closing in on QD-OLED perfection.

First up, there's the overall vibrancy and punch. The full-screen SDR experience is now surely good enough for the vast majority of use cases and preferences. It's worth noting that the full-screen experience is, if anything, subjectively better than the official 300 nit rating implies.

The panel contrast still suffers a little in really bright ambient light. (Image credit: Future)

That's because, unlike LG's competing WOLED tech which relies on additional white subpixels to achieve its peak brightness rating, Samsung QD-OLED panels are pure RGB tech. Long story short, QD-OLED panels have better colour brightness and this MSI monitor has some serious SDR zing as a consequence.

Of course, where it really delivers is with HDR content and games. It really is hard to overstate how much better this monitor is than any LCD-based panel, even one with full-array local dimming, when it comes to the HDR experience. This new QD-OLED panel takes the usual advantage of OLED panel tech, which is perfect per-pixel lighting, and adds even more punch and sizzle. It's spectacular.

For this monitor, MSI has also implemented its EOTF boost mode technology. It's designed to combine the best aspects of both the VESA HDR 400 calibrated mode with the HDR Peak 1000 nits mode and give the highest brightness and image detail for both darker and brighter HDR gaming scenes. In short, it does just that and means you can use EOTF boost mode for all HDR content and be confident you're getting a good experience.

Of course, along with all that goodness specific to the latest QD-OLED tech, you're also getting the razor-sharp image detail and pixel density of 4K on a 32-inch panel. It's an incredible combination, and the overall result is genuinely spectacular.

So, is it perfect? Not quite. The new panel film does indeed reduce the purple tint of QD-OLED technology in bright light. But it doesn't entirely remove it. Apart from that, well, you really are into nit-picking territory. The panel's color temperature remains just a touch warm. And the concerns I mentioned around burn-in will remain in the context of really long term use. But this monitor truly is the art of QD-OLED panel tech very nearly perfected.

• Performance: 4.5 / 5

Should you buy the MSI MPG 322UR QD-OLED X24?MSI MPG 322UR QD-OLED X24 scorecard

Value

At $1,099, the MSI MPG 322UR QD-OLED X24 isn't exactly cheap. But then, what 4k 32-inch OLED gaming monitor is? At least this new MSI has Samsung's latest and most impressive 4K QD-OLED tech.

3.5 / 5

Design

MSI hasn't changed much, design-wise, versus the previous model. But that's mostly a good thing and includes excellent connectivity.

4 / 5

Performance

The new-gen Samsung QD-OLED panel is a zinger. It's punchier, the purple tint problem is reduced and all the usual 4K OLED goodness remains.

5 / 5

Final score

This is not a cheap monitor. But it is as close to a flawless 4K OLED experience as you can currently get.

4.5 / 5

Buy the MSI MPG 322UR QD-OLED X24 if...

You want the ultimate 4K OLED experience
The MSI MPG 322UR QD-OLED X24 packs Samsung's new-gen 4K QD-OLED panel and it's definitely closing in on perfection.

You want a true HDR experience
Forget every LCD monitor, ever. This is the way HDR is meant to be experienced.

Don't buy it if...

You're into multi-tasking
While this is a fairly large 32-inch display, there's no doubting ultrawide monitors do multi-tasking better.

You want a real bargain
OLED monitors are generally expensive. The new-gen QD-OLED panel in this one adds a further premium.

• Originally reviewed in May 2026

The Sihoo Doro C300 Pro V2 aims to keep the premium chair styling of some of Sihoo’s other chairs while also being a bit more wallet-friendly. Not everyone has north of $1,000 to drop on an ergonomic chair, and for those who do, they likely don’t want to spend it on just any chair; they want to make sure it’s a good value.

That’s where the C300 Pro V2 comes in. This chair obviously reminds me a lot of the other Sihoo Doro chairs I have tested. But it also reminds me of the Hinomi line of chairs, with a thousand areas to adjust to make it comfortable.

Sihoo Doro C300 Pro V2: Unboxing and First Impressions

(Image credit: Collin Probst // Future )

My unboxing experience for the Sihoo Doro C300 Pro V2 was unique in a few ways. First of all, I had to have two delivered. My first model had a damaged wheel, but when flagging to Sihoo, they sent me a second chair.

Once I got the second chair, I had just assembled one of the fastest and easiest chairs (of the ones I had to actually assemble, some come fully assembled), so my tolerance for building is slightly tweaked. That being said, assembly took a full 30 minutes, with about 8 minutes just for unboxing everything. Sihoo has always been a company with many pieces, and they ensure that every piece is properly packaged individually, resulting in a lot of material to remove from the individual elements before assembly.

While assembling, I noticed that the letters on the included diagram did not match anything on the pieces, but instead matched the diagram. I then had to refer to the diagram to confirm which screw type to use, for example. Also, I was slightly frustrated and slowed down by having to use the included hand tool instead of my Hoto Tools screwdriver.

Once built, the chair feels high-quality, the materials seem likely to last, and there’s no squeaking or creaking. So now the question remains, is the build time worth the comfort of the chair? I think it’s worth consideration.

Sihoo Doro C300 Pro V2: Design & Build Quality

(Image credit: Collin Probst // Future )

The Sihoo Doro C300 Pro V2 is mostly a sleek, elegant white mesh, with a PU-coated armrest and a rigid frame. The chair itself is quite comfortable, all while looking very modern and clean. It’s not your average office chair, nor your average cheap Amazon home office seat. Nay, this is a high-brow, powerful-feeling office chair that feels like it belongs in NASA, not in a home office.

While using this chair, I haven’t noticed any wobble or shake, and I haven't had any concerns about base stability, rolling wheels, or leaning back. While this may not be the look that everyone wants, the comfort is hard to deny. I remember the first round of Sihoo Doro chairs that I tested. I was genuinely impressed by how comfortable the spaceship-like chair felt, even on long days.

The mesh seating provides a good balance of support and comfort. The seat doesn't feel like a hammock, which is always a good sign for more expensive chairs. In general, there aren’t any spots that feel cheap or plasticky. Which could be a bit shocking. Not because Sihoo has a bad rap, but because this chair has a ton of moving parts, and that many moving parts could easily result in squeaks, loose tolerances between parts, and so on. But again, what is fantastic is that this has not been the case with the C300 Pro V2 yet.

Another thing to note is that this is a massive chair. I’ve tested a lot of chairs, and some just feel robust, some feel quaint. This chair feels beyond robust. It feels like the difference between a RAM 1500 and a base Ford F-150, or an iPad Pro 13-inch with a Magic Keyboard vs an iPad Air with a thin folio.

Some of the chairs that I have recently tested and am currently testing, along with the C300 Pro V2, are significantly narrower and less… intense… for lack of a better term. Next to a smaller desk, say a 24-inch or even a 48-inch desk, this chair will look massive. But if you have a larger desk, perhaps in the 60-inch range or beyond, this chair will probably fit right in, depending, of course, on some other variables too.

Sihoo Doro C300 Pro V2: In use

(Image credit: Collin Probst // Future )

I’ve had this chair back for about a week and a half after getting the replacement unit. So far, after several hours a day using this, I haven’t had any discomfort. It took me a little while to dial the chair in; with so many adjustable options, I kept wanting to make sure every setting was dialed in.

Personally, I see the benefit of the multi-functional armrests for some, but since I am not a gamer, I just keep them in the same general spot. But if you want to use this as an after-hours gaming chair or relaxation chair, too, you’ll be set.

The lumbar support is nice, and I do feel a good amount of support in my upper back when seated, too, though it doesn’t hit me at 6’1” exactly where I wish it did. But if you’re a tad shorter, it would probably be perfect for your lower back.

One thing I absolutely love on chairs like this, though, is the breathable mesh. I’ll say it time and time again: I run warm, so sitting in some of these very soft, non-mesh chairs I have, as comfortable as they are, I feel like I am sweating within a few minutes. With the mesh on the C300 Pro V2, though, I feel like my body can breathe even for long working sessions.

I’ve used this chair for intense writing sessions, leaning back a bit during virtual internal meetings with my team, more alert and focused in client meetings, and while working on project management and other tasks. Unless I am 100% locked in, which does happen pretty frequently, I am fairly fidgety. My leg is bouncing, my feet are moving, and I find myself twisting a little in my chair, even. So far, with all my movements, I haven't heard a creak or a squeak.

Sihoo Doro C300 Pro V2: Final verdict

(Image credit: Collin Probst // Future )

At the end of the day, this is a spectacular chair when you sit in it. The hesitations come with the build time, the complexity, and the design language, but primarily because it’s a distinct chair. It doesn't blend in and takes up a lot of space. So, if you’re the kind of person who likes that, this may be a dream come true, but if not, then this may not be the chair for you, and that’s okay.

However, if you do want a more robust chair, if you have the space for it, and you want a chair that you can fiddle with to make fit your every possible position of work play rest and everything in-between, then this may just be exactly what you are looking for.

Collin Probst // Future Collin Probst // Future Collin Probst // Future Collin Probst // Future Collin Probst // Future Collin Probst // Future Collin Probst // Future Collin Probst // Future Collin Probst // Future Collin Probst // Future Collin Probst // Future Collin Probst // Future Collin Probst // Future Collin Probst // Future

For more top-performers, we've tested the best office chairs.

Admit it. It’s okay; we’ve all thought about it: upping sticks, going off grid, and living the vanlife. But the wanderlust usually wears off once we start to consider the impracticalities and its unglamorous aspects. Outbound doesn’t share that sour-faced realism, though. Its vision of leaving the rat race and immersing oneself wholly in nature is purely positive.

Review info

Platform reviewed: PC
Available on: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, PC
Release date: May 11, 2026 (PC, Xbox); May 14, 2026 (PS5, Switch / Switch 2)

This is a ‘survival’ game where surviving is no trouble at all; it’s just you and your camper (and potentially a companion or three), cruising the wilderness with nary a care in the world.

I, for one, have been waiting for a game like this, and judging by its art style and mechanics — not to mention the dog — it looked to be exactly what I was looking for. Having now played it, I can confirm that it succeeds in painting an idyllic picture of vanlife — to an extent.

On the road

(Image credit: Future)

You begin by choosing your van type and creating your character. Of the former, there are three to choose from, varying in their extension capabilities, carrying weight, and handling. You can also choose any base and accent colors you like.

There are a good number of customization options for your character, with face and hair types. There are also various accessories available, including painted fingernails. Oh, and there are shoes that look exactly like Crocs, which is a win in my book (look, they’re the perfect summer shoe, okay, and I won’t hear otherwise). Clothing options are more limited, though.

Once you’ve made your choices, you’re thrust onto the open road for a short drive before pulling up into a scenic parking lot in the middle of what looks like a North American national park. This lot is the site of the Outbound’s mini tutorial, tasking you with downloading a blueprint for a wrench from a nearby signal tower, crafting it, and using it to open the barrier to the map proper.

(Image credit: Future)

There’s no story here. No reason given as to why you’re journeying around in your van, other than a couple of lines of monologue at the start about leaving the city behind. There are various notes strewn about the map written by inhabitants, but these merely serve as gameplay hints rather than expounding some kind of overt narrative.

The whole game is rendered in a cell-shaded style, with a vibrant color palette that complements the tone of the game perfectly. Textures are simple but detailed, just enough to offer some semblance of realism, while landscapes on the horizon adopt a cardboard cutout look. The environment can get surprisingly atmospheric, too, especially as night falls, which really helps to sell the idyll of living deep within nature.

This soft aesthetic extends to the music, which is understated and wholesome, if a little anonymous. It drifts in and out rather than playing constantly, although there are occasions when it cuts off abruptly.

Sound effects are well placed and sufficiently detailed to feel immersive, from the cacophony of birdsong to the crackle of campfires. When rain falls, it sounds great both outside when it hits the ground and inside when it hits the roof of your van. And since your van is electric, all you hear as you drive along is the sound of the tires rustling over rough terrain, which I found oddly relaxing. Occasionally, your character will say something to give hints or after completing an action, but these are a little too generic to inject much personality or color.

The game’s map is large and expansive, mixing dirt roads and open forest with rocky canyons, streams, and waterfalls. There are also various man-made structures, from towers to treehouses, acting as points of progression.

The map screen itself is vibrant and detailed, with a rustic, hand-drawn appearance that’s clear and readable. It also tracks player locations in real time, which, as someone with a shocking sense of direction, I welcome.

Camp n’ craft

(Image credit: Future)

Outbound is upfront about its laid-back nature. There are no time constraints; you’re encouraged to play at your own pace and explore as you see fit. I did find the day/night cycle a little too fast, but thankfully, you can adjust this.

Attending to your needs is easy. In fact, you only have one, and that’s to feed yourself. What’s more, food is plentiful. There aren’t any real fail states, either. If your health reaches zero, as a result of fall damage or standing in a campfire for too long, the screen merely fades to black and declares that “you fainted,” before respawning you to the next day, with a quarter of your health replenished.

Best bit

(Image credit: Future)

That beautiful world. Exploring the varied and picturesque environments while driving or on foot is a meditative and sometimes awe-inspiring experience.

The typical survival gameplay loop is adhered to. You collect resources for crafting and explore the environment, which in Outbound means finding signal towers for downloading crafting blueprints and investigating landmarks for more rewards.

Managing the inventories of your backpack and van storage is easy, thanks to the clear interface of both. You can easily dump everything you’re carrying in the former into the latter with a single input. And if you want to prevent certain items from transferring, you can lock them to your backpack, which is a welcome convenience.

(Image credit: Future)

You can also go around the map lighting campfires, although I failed to see the point of doing so, other than to tick them off your list. They offer no special benefits or features, other than letting you sit down in a chair and gaze into the flames.

Driving is fun and fluid. Your vehicle is easy to control, yet feels weighty enough to feel realistic, and provides a soft challenge to make it feel satisfying. You can also change to a third-person camera angle while driving, which helps when manoeuvring in tight spots.

One annoying aspect of driving, though, is getting in and out. It’s a two-stage process requiring you to first open the door, then sit on the seat. This soon becomes a nuisance as you frequently hop in and out to gather resources on the roadside.

To gather certain resources, you’ll need various tools. Once you’ve acquired their blueprint, you can craft them in your van’s workshop. You’ll have to complete a simple minigame where you click in time with on-screen prompts, but there’s no punishment for getting this wrong. Tools can then be upgraded to tackle different types of rocks, logs, and shrubs.

(Image credit: Future)

The hammer tool gives you access to the base building menu. There are a fair number of options here, letting you build cabinets, shelves, and extensions on top of and outside your van. Cosmetically, many of these assets are quite basic, but they have their own simple charm.

You can also build various bits of machinery in your van to craft more materials. You feed them resources, and they work on churning out their outputs in the background, freeing you up to go about other tasks.

Naturally, these machines — along with the drivechain — require your van’s battery to be sufficiently powered. As you expand your van’s capabilities, you’ll require more and more power, and it’s this aspect that you perhaps need to be most mindful of in Outbound, as you can quickly find yourself out of charge.

Thankfully, you can feed your battery wood and fibre, both of which are fairly easy to come by. You can also build solar panels and other power-giving equipment to keep your van topped up.

There are multiple upgrade trees for your van, too. For example, you can increase the power of its motor so you can climb steeper inclines and increase building space.

Riding shotgun

(Image credit: Future)

Once you’ve got the gist of its central loop, Outbound doesn’t do much beyond it. There are some more interesting things to be found as you explore further afield, but they offer little in the way of interactivity. For all its splendor, the world is just a bit too empty.

I do like Outbound’s pacing, though. Like any good survival game, it holds back on giving you all the toys, requiring some effort to attain them all, which only makes it more rewarding once you do. It takes a while to get a dog, for instance, which is strange given that one features prominently in the game’s promotional material.

There are a few annoyances that spoil the fun slightly. There can be a lot of backtracking to signal towers as new blueprints appear, and while you can look at your map while driving, you can’t move around it or adjust the zoom. You’ll need to be a passenger or on foot to do those.

(Image credit: Future)

I can’t complain about the game’s performance, though. I didn’t encounter any visual bugs or drops in framerate. Online multiplayer was solid, too. Again, there was no lag or other glitches, save for a few instances of misaligned character placements. For example, there were times when I was in the back of the van while my partner drove, but on her screen, I was in the passenger seat.

The bigger issue with multiplayer is the absence of shared saves. This means that if you’re the guest in someone else’s game, you can’t carry on the adventure by yourself.

I’m hoping more content will be added in the future to expand the game’s potential, since there’s a good foundation here for more exploration and van-building opportunities to be added on top. For now, though, Outbound is a fun and good-natured way to while away a few hours, either alone or in good company.

Should you play Outbound?

(Image credit: Future)Play it if…

You want peaceful exploration
This is a no-stakes cozy game, where you can go at your own pace and follow your own path without risk.

You want to see a wholesome and positive representation of vanlife
With its beautiful environments and stress-free gameplay, you won’t find many depictions of the nomadic lifestyle as rosy as this.

Don’t play it if…

You want plenty of gameplay variation
The repetitive nature of collecting and crafting may start to grate after an hour or too.

You want a challenge
Outbound always goes easy on you, and lack of any real stakes can make those small victories feel a little hollow.

Accessibility

There aren’t many accessibility features in Outbound, although there are some I haven’t seen before. For instance, you can disable consumption sounds, which I presume is designed to aid people with misophonia.

You can also disable the mini games and disable the flashing effects from storms. The size of the UI is adjustable, too, although the range isn’t particularly wide. Thankfully, the maximum size should prove large enough for most gamers to see clearly.

You can toggle subtitles for the narration of player characters, but unfortunately there's no option for audio descriptions.

How I reviewed Outbound

(Image credit: Future)

I played Outbound for several hours, which is enough time to see most of what the game has to offer. There’s already a DLC (downloadable content) pack, entitled School Bus Adventures, but I’ve yet to play this.

Most of that time was spent playing cooperatively with my partner, although I also played it solo. We both played on PC: she used an Acer Nitro 14 gaming laptop, which features a AMD Ryzen 7 CPU, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPU, and 16GB of RAM, and I used a desktop with an AMD Ryzen 7, an RTX 5070, and 32GB of RAM. My partner played with the GameSir G7 Pro, which is one of the best PC controllers around, while I used the MSI Versa 300 Wireless 8K gaming mouse and the Corsair Vanguard Air 99 Wireless gaming keyboard.

I’ve been gaming for decades, and I’m a fan of titles with similar mechanics and pacing to Outbound, such as walking sims and adventure games. I’m also experienced in the survival and cozy genres, with Hozy and Subnautica 2 being two of my recent favorites.

First reviewed: May 2026

Honor 600: two-minute review

The Honor 600 is the brand’s latest mid-range phone, offering an iPhone-style design and a whole host of innovative AI features to Android users. Priced from £549.99, it’s a more affordable alternative to the flagship Honor 600 Pro, which was released around the same time for £899.99. But how does it hold up against other mid-range phones?

Let’s kick off with that AMOLED display. Coupled with its 2728 x 1264 resolution, this 6.57-inch screen delivers a pixel density of 458ppi, which means it can produce very crisp images. It’s also capable of ridiculously bright peak brightness, hitting up to 8,000 nits in certain limited circumstances. Colors are generally lush and vibrant, although on occasion, whites run a little blue for my liking.

In terms of design, I’d say the Honor 600 is attractive enough, though it doesn’t do enough to differentiate itself from many of the best phones out there. Honestly, it looks far too similar to the iPhone 17 Pro, even down to the full-width camera module and bright orange colorway. Fortunately, it redeems itself somewhat with its solid build quality and IP68 / IP69 rating, meaning you can count on it to shrug off dust and the occasional dunk in water.

Under the hood, the Honor 600 runs the Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 CPU with 8GB of RAM. While that’s not a top-of-the-range chipset, it’s still very decent for a mid-range handset and offers pretty credible performance. During productivity tasks and everyday use, it always felt smooth and stable. Even when playing Call of Duty: Mobile with its HD packs installed, the Honor 600 was slicker than a frozen lake… although not quite as icy, given it warmed considerably over the course of three matches.

The Honor 600 also puts this performance to good use when it comes to software. MagicOS 10 is not only smooth and intuitive, but it also has great multitasking features, like the ability to multiscreen apps or share files with Honor devices, iPhones, and Macs. The only black mark here is the bloatware it ships with — despite allowing me to deselect some during installation, it still came teeming with unnecessary third-party apps like Temu, leaving a slightly sour taste in my mouth.

Another thing you can’t get away from when trying out the Honor’s software is AI. The Honor 600 is absolutely crammed with generative AI tools. Some of these are genuinely astounding — being able to reanimate still photos or create convincing-looking drone videos from nature photography is awesome. But there’s some inevitable jank here too, with some of the output I generated hallucinating extra cats (there’s relevant context here, I promise) or giving people shifting, changeling-esque faces that saw me nose-dive straight into the uncanny valley. If you’re into generative AI, though, you’ll likely be tempted by the sheer variety of tools on offer.

The camera system on the Honor 600 also makes no bones about its use of AI, although here the results are a lot more subtle. Its 200MP AI main lens can produce impressively crisp images, and all the macro shots I took showed a wonderful level of detail. Generally, colors appeared vibrant, although the Honor does slightly overemphasize blues in some shots. At longer focal distances, though, I found its cameras could sometimes lack a little in HDR pop, which is a real shame given its talents elsewhere.

Perhaps my favorite thing about the Honor 600 is a little more pedestrian: its battery. At 7,000mAh, it’s one of the largest-capacity batteries on any phone I’ve used — only narrowly beaten by the OnePlus 15R and OnePlus 15 — and during my testing, it lasted over 23 hours of constant video streaming. Just as remarkable, its 80W supercharging can fill it all the way up again to 100% in just over 50 minutes, meaning you shouldn’t ever have to be without your phone for long.

All in all, the Honor 600 is an impressive phone that punches above its £549.99 list price. Its screen is crisp and bright, its battery is ludicrously long-lived and, if you’re into AI features, it has a staggering range of presets and effects. Sure, its camera is a little inconsistent, it features too much bloatware, and it gets warm when you really test its CPU. But for a mid-range handset, its peaks are very high indeed, while its low points aren’t as abyssal as they could be.

(Image credit: Future)Honor 600 review: price and availability

• Launched May 7
• List price: £549.99 or £599.99

Launched on May 7, the Honor 600 is available now in the UK — but, as with other Honor devices, you won’t be able to get your hands on it in the US or Australia. It’s available for £549.99 with 256GB of storage or £599.99 if you’d prefer 512GB.

Storage size isn’t your only choice here, though: the Honor 600 comes in three different colorways. There's the Golden White version I tested here, plus Orange and Black. It’s worth noting, though, that Golden White is only available on the £599.99 model.

(Image credit: Future)Honor 600 review: specs

Dimensions

156 x 74.7 x 7.8 mm

Weight

185g (or 190g depending on variant)

Screen

6.57-inch AMOLED

Resolution

1264 x 2728

Refresh rate

120Hz

Chipset

Snapdragon 7 Gen 4

RAM

8GB / 12GB

Storage

128GB / 256GB / 512GB

OS

Android 16 (MagicOS 10)

Rear cameras

200MP wide (f/1.9), 12MP ultrawide (f/2.2)

Front camera

50MP (f/2.0)

Battery

7,000mAh

Charging

80W wired

(Image credit: Future)Honor 600 review: design

• Stylish albeit unremarkable design
• Solidly built
• IP68 rated

Starting with my first impressions, the Honor 600 is attractive enough, if a little anodyne. It’s not shattering norms like Nothing’s phones and its colorways will look eerily familiar to anyone who followed the launch of the iPhone 17 last September. But, on the whole, it looks sleek and inoffensive. The anodised metal trim and smooth glass back feel nice to the touch, and it has just enough weight to feel well-built without seeming unwieldy.

I feel less ambivalent about that full-width camera module if I’m honest, though. I get that it helps with stability, but I still find them pretty unsightly, and I’m not convinced the problem they’re intended to solve is a big enough issue to justify the amount of space they gobble up. Regardless, the Honor 600’s hunchback still looks less awkward than the one now shown off by the iPhone 17, so I’ll give Honor the W here.

In theory, the Honor 600 should also prove pretty sturdy, with the brand claiming it has obtained 5-star SGS Drop & Crush Resistance certification. While I’m not about to try verifying this by chucking it from the top of the Shard or running it over in an SUV, it does seem as robustly built as many phones I’ve tested. Literally the only marks it seemed to gather during my testing were a little scuffing of the metal around the camera lenses, and I’ll admit that was probably more down to me stashing two phones in the same pocket.

It’s not just good at resisting being squashed; the Honor 600 also has some of the best water and dust resistance of any phone I’ve ever used. Confusingly, it’s labeled IP68 and IP69… and IP69K – something that’s apparently to do with differences in international standards for how each rating is tested. At the very least, though, it should survive a dunking in more than 1m of water.

• Design score: 4 / 5

(Image credit: Future)Honor 600 review: display

• Very decent pixel density
• Blazing 8,000 nit peak brightness
• Colors vibrant but occasionally cooler than they should be

No matter how you look at it, the Honor 600’s screen is a serious achievement. At 6.57 inches, it might not be the largest screen on the market — getting absolutely dwarfed by behemoths like the 6.9-inch Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra and iPhone 17 Pro Max — but it still outstrips many flagship screens in terms of scale.

Spreading its 2728 x 1264 pixel AMOLED display across those 6.57 inches gives the Honor 600 a 458ppi pixel density. That’s pretty impressive, falling just a little short of the iPhone 17 Pro’s 460ppi — although neither is anywhere near as impressive as the Samsung Galaxy S26 Plus’s meticulously detailed 513ppi. Trying out the screen on Planet Earth III, I could clearly see every wrinkle of the skin and every eyelash of an elephant matriarch and her calves in exquisite detail.

But where it really impresses is its brightness. I recently raved about how bright the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro was with its 5,000-nit peak, but honestly, the Honor 600 outshines it like a supernova, hitting an absurd peak of 8,000 nits.

OK, real life is never going to be as perfect as lab conditions. But I can certainly say my experiences with the phone revealed what a bright spark the Honor 600 can be. Comparing it side-by-side with my iPhone 16 Pro, the white levels were fantastic — while watching Planet Earth III, each of the fine white hairs on the cowl of a Cape fur seal pup practically glowed.

Colors on the Honor 600’s display are also impressively vibrant, with the beautiful blues and rich yellows of a golden-shouldered parrot looking exquisite and more expressive than my iPhone could manage. In some areas, the Honor loses a little accuracy, though, tending toward cooler hues that help those whites pop — for example, during a wildfire in the South African shrubland, the smoke looked overly blue while some of the reds felt a little lacking in range.

Thanks to its Sunlight Mode, the Honor 600 can maintain these impressively vivid pictures even when in direct sunlight. While that glass definitely shows visible reflections, they never overpower the bright peaks on the screen, although, naturally, they do swamp the darker areas. Despite this, I actually felt like my iPhone 16 Pro did a better job here, conveying more of a sense of color despite its duller screen.

Finally, the Honor 600’s display is capable of seriously fluid and responsive motion, even if it’s not literally the fastest on the market. Topping out at 120Hz, its display offers the same refresh rates as the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra or iPhone 17 Pro, while falling short of the 144Hz offered by the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro or the ludicrous 165Hz offered by the OnePlus 15. Certainly, it felt very slick to me in day-to-day use and when navigating menus. Only serious gamers are likely to spot a difference between this and phones with higher rates.

• Display score: 4.5 / 5

(Image credit: Future)Honor 600 review: camerasFutureFutureFutureFutureFutureFuture

• Great detail, especially in macro shots
• HDR sometimes a little flat
• Unashamedly AI-enhanced

I'm not gonna lie: testing the Honor 600’s cameras has given me slight emotional whiplash. Because every time I’ve found something it doesn’t handle well, I discover another feature that blows me away. As a result, I want to acknowledge its shortcomings, while also emphasizing it’s still an impressive camera system in many ways.

First off, the level of detail it’s capable of is spectacular. Combining a 200MP AI main lens and a 12MP 112-degree ultra-wide lens, it takes some wonderfully crisp images – for example, showing the watchful eyes of two pigeons in sharp detail. I’ll admit, there’s a whole debate to be had about what level of AI enhancement can be laid over the top of photos before they stop being true photos, but I imagine more casual snappers won’t mind having this kind of helping hand in improving their shots.

This level of detail is most apparent when taking macro photos. I’ve been taking macro snaps on several generations of iPhone, and I’ve honestly never seen detail like this from my close-up photos. Shots of lilacs and the leaves of lupines after a heavy rain showed off exquisite details, like the beading of individual drops of water. And while I assume it gets a healthy assist here from its AI algorithm, the results were incredibly true to life, focusing purely on upscaling rather than applying artificial polish.

Color performance on the Honor 600’s camera is vibrant and, for the most part, faithful. For example, the rich pumpkin orange of lady’s purse flowers really jump off the screen. Like some other cameras I’ve used, though, the Honor 600 slightly overplays its hand when it comes to blues — rather than the subtle cornflower blue they should be, it rendered green alkanet flowers a bright azure. It’s not a complete deal-breaker, but if, like me, you value faithful hues over brilliant color, it’s something to bear in mind.

Unfortunately, its HDR images were a bit of a mixed bag. While close and medium-range shots conveyed a good balance of light and dark, I found some scenes with a much longer focal length looked a little washed out, especially on overcast days. And while that might not be an issue if you live in, say, LA, that’s a real issue given it’s on sale in the UK, where we see the sun about as often as we see the dentist.

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The Honor 600's zoom performance is a definite highlight, though. Taking a series of photos of a waterside building in Bath at different levels of magnification, I was impressed by how crisp the fine details of the balcony railings and stonework were, particularly at 4x zoom.

And the AI superzoom is impressive, even if it doesn’t remotely feel as clean as the output of an optical zoom. When shooting distant buildings and rooftops at 8x to 12x zoom, it straightened up wobbly lines and enhanced blurry textures well, though I’m not sure they’re shots I’d be sticking in my photo books.

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Night photography is very decent, showing everything in crisp detail without a hint of grain. Snapping shots of the River Avon running through the center of Bristol, the Honor’s camera accurately conveyed the reflected light shimmering across its surface, while maintaining the deep blacks of the shadows. Unfortunately, it does seem to stumble into one of my personal pet peeves of slightly overbrightening night shots — it often left the sky looking far bluer than it did in reality, losing some of the magic of shooting at dusk.

All things considered, the Honor 600 camera system has some minor shortcomings but also some things I’ll genuinely miss when going back to my flagship phone. And while I’m not totally comfortable claiming the creative polish of AI as my own, I’m sure a lot of people just want shots of their loved ones and their adventures to look their best, which the camera here can absolutely help with.

• Cameras score: 4 / 5

(Image credit: Future)Honor 600 review: software

• AI features seriously powerful
• Decent productivity tools
• Way too much bloatware

The Honor 600 uses MagicOS 10, which is built upon Android 16. When setting up the phone, I was initially pleased with how the OS seemed to let me deselect all the bloat Honor wanted to install… until I actually booted the phone up.

At this point, I found it was still absolutely crammed with third-party apps. There’s a reason I don’t want apps like TikTok and Temu on my phone, and it’s quite irritating that Honor acts like it’s giving you a choice while actively making that choice for you when it comes to some of the worst offenders.

That’s a real shame because, outside of this, MagicOS 10 offers a relatively smooth user experience. Accessing the App Tray, Control Center, notifications, and wallpaper & style settings are all perfectly intuitive. While it’s not quite as versatile as something like NothingOS — with added features like scalable app icons — I generally found it easy to use, even as a diehard iOS user.

It’s hard to discuss software on the Honor 600 without talking about AI. A lot of the hype around this handset has been based around how absolutely crammed with creative AI features it is. And they’re often impressive, periodically janky — and occasionally just a touch unsettling.

One of the first features I used was the Honor 600’s Image to Video function. When looking at a photo in your gallery, all you have to do is hold the AI button, and up pops a dialogue allowing you to convert the image to a short-form video.

Like anyone who grew up perennially online, my immediate instinct was to create cat videos. So I selected a couple of shots of Muffin, my own little bundle of joy sociopathy, licking his paw, and clicked Generate. The results were seriously impressive — not only did the licking look realistic, but it even maintained details like the irregular white patch on his nose.

Occasionally, the results were a little wobbly. When I uploaded a snap of my cat looking worried after he’d clambered too high up the curtains, the generative AI did a good job of animating his movements but got his proportions really wrong. No way is my boi as chonky as the AI made him look.

But the Honor 600’s AI features extend far beyond just adding movement to still photos. You can also add prompts, although these can be far more prone to hallucinations. Using a shot of my cat sitting on the sofa and one of him standing on his hind legs by my French doors, I typed in a prompt asking the AI to make him get up and then start dancing. Weirdly, it made the choice to have Muffin flee the scene and be simultaneously replaced by a dancing doppelkitteh — although, to be fair, his moves were pretty on point.

For those who don’t want to do a whole bunch of prompt wrangling to bring their photos to life, the Honor 600 comes with a bunch of preset effects you can apply instead. Some of these produced truly amazing results. Using the Magic Motion feature on a macro photo of a bee I took nestled among some rhododendrons, the bee convincingly sprang to life and crawled through the blooms. When I used the Drone Pullback effect on a close-up photo I took of a thistle by a Scottish loch, it was utterly convincing in the way it zoomed out, perfectly maintaining the look of the water and mountains in the background.

Other features made me feel slightly queasy, though. One preset generated a video of my partner and me embracing that looked just different enough to us to give me the uncanny feeling that I was watching a stranger wear my skin like an ill-fitting suit. Another video that showed my girlfriend busting moves like a breakdancer struggled to accurately capture her face, making it morph between ersatz Selena Gomez and nigh-on Winona Ryder — watching AI do this to a face you wake up to every day definitely gives you slight body-horror vibes.

There are some strong productivity features. Single tap sharing is available between the Honor 600 and other Honor devices, as well as the iPhone — although if you’re sending from the iPhone, you’ll need to use the Honor Connect app. You can also connect and seamlessly share with Honor and MacOS laptops and desktops, something I couldn’t actually get to work on either of my MacBooks.

On top of this, the Honor 600 offers a lot of AI productivity features. Not only do you have access to Gemini, but you can also share your camera or screen in Gemini Live conversations so you can discuss things you’re looking at.

It also offers some AI security features, such as AI Deepfake Detection and AI Voice Cloning Detection. Short of building my own deepfake bot, I didn’t have much opportunity to test these last couple of features, but assuming they work, I can absolutely see how they’d be useful tools to have.

Fundamentally, this is a phone that goes all in on its AI software. How appealing or off-putting you find that will likely depend on your overall attitude to Generative AI, but either way, it’s hard to deny that the tools it offers are seriously powerful.

• Software score: 4 / 5

(Image credit: Future)Honor 600 review: performance

• Decent mid-range chipset
• Smooth performance for productivity and gaming
• Gets quite warm under heavy loads

Under the hood, the Honor 600 runs the Snapdragon 7 Gen 4, which is a very decent chipset for a mid-market phone. While it’s hardly the bleeding edge of the manufacturer’s chips, it’s the same chip used by the impressive Nothing Phone (4a) Pro and considerably more powerful than the Exynos 1680 packaged with the recent Samsung A57.

In practice, I generally found this combo of the Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 and my testing handset’s 8GB of RAM gamely shouldered pretty much everything I threw at it. Whether I opened multiple games, loaded up myriad tabs in Chrome, or tapped away in Google Docs all while streaming videos in the background, I didn’t notice any real slowdown or stuttering, suggesting you’ll be fine carrying out most productivity tasks on this handset.

And its gaming performance was equally impressive, even if it wasn’t quite top tier. When I tried to set Genshin Impact to the Highest graphics setting, the game warned me that would overclock the CPU. But just one tier down, at High, it was incredibly stable, even when I was soaring through the sky or surrounded on all sides by enemies.

Next, I fired up Call of Duty: Mobile. Even with all of the HD graphics packs installed, it ran smoother than a waxed eel, not betraying any hint of judder or frame rate drops. Even wheeling round in the midst of battle, I could react fast enough to gun down groups of three or four opponents before they even had me in their sights.

But while its mid-range chipset seems to respond with impressive speed, it sure loses its cool easily. After three matches of multiplayer, it was warm enough that my sweaty mitts were slightly losing their grip. It wasn’t so hot that I was worried about the phone being damaged, but it does make me question whether you can game for hours at a time on this handset.

• Performance score: 4 / 5

(Image credit: Future)Honor 600 review: battery life

• Huge 7,000mAh battery
• Lasted 23 hours of constant use
• Incredible 80W supercharging

Given that the Honor 600 banks so heavily on its super-bright screen and AI features, it would be a bit of a disaster if it had a meager battery capacity.

Fortunately, the opposite is true. Honor’s kitted out the 600 with a truly absurd 7,000mAh battery. That’s significantly higher than most flagships, and I think it's only beaten by the OnePlus 15R and OnePlus 15, with their 7,400mAh and 7,300mAh respective capacities.

What does that mean in practice? Well, I set the phone streaming a 2K video from YouTube on a loop and timed how long it took for the battery to drain from full to empty. It finally conked out at just over 23 hours, which is one of the longest results I’ve ever seen. So you should definitely expect well over a full day of normal use.

And even when the Honor 600 does run out, its 80W supercharging tops it u unbelievably fast. When I hooked it up to a power brick rated for 100W, the Honor’s battery seemed thirstier than a middle-aged tech bro cranking out TikTok memes, drinking down enough juice that it went from flat to fully charged in just over 50 minutes. That’s honestly wild with a battery this large.

All in all, the Honor 600’s battery and charging put most phones to shame. It keeps going and going, and even when it finally falters, it needs to be plugged in for less than an hour to get it on its feet again. That’s truly fantastic.

• Battery life score: 5 / 5

(Image credit: Future)Should I buy the Honor 600?

Attributes

Notes

Rating

Design

Sleek design that perhaps plays it too safe; chunky full-width camera module; robustly built with IP68 rating.

4/5

Display

Wonderfully detailed 459ppi resolution; blazing 8,000 nit peak brightness; great color reproduction even if it is a shade cooler than some displays.

4.5/5

Software

Massive variety of generative AI functionality, some of which are fantastic while others can be a little janky, great productivity tools; comes with too much bloatware installed.

4/5

Cameras

Wonderfully crisp detail, especially for macro shots, vibrant color; powerful night photography that brightens scenes a little too much; mixed HDR performance. Built-in AI functionality might not be for everyone.

4/5

Performance

Solid mid-range chipset and 8GB RAM, strong performance during productivity tasks and demanding games; heats up quite quickly during heavy loads.

4/5

Battery life

Stupendous 7,000mAh battery capacity that lasts 23 hours continuous use; 80W supercharging fills entire battery in just 50 minutes.

5/5

Buy it if…

You want superb battery life
Lasting over 23 hours during our battery test, the Honor 600 has one of the most capacious batteries I’ve ever tested in a phone. And its superfast charging means you can juice it up completely in less than an hour.

You love AI tools
The Honor 600 is positively crammed with AI features. If you’ve always wanted to watch your dog body popping or see yourself hug Henry VIII, then you’ll have a blast here.

Don’t buy it if…

You hate AI tools
Given how much the Honor 600 embraces AI, you’ll find it very hard to ignore, as it’s baked into many functions of the phone. Disabling it is possible in most circumstances. But really, why buy an unashamedly AI-focused phone if you don’t want those features?

You’re a serious mobile gamer
The Honor 600 offers very solid gaming performance, but it does get warm relatively quickly. Dedicated gaming phones like the RedMagic 11 Pro offer even more punchy performance.

Honor 600 review: also consider

Category

Honor 600

Nothing Phone (4a) Pro

Google Pixel 10a

Dimensions

156 x 74.7 x 7.8 mm

163.7 x 76.6 x 8 mm

153.9 x 73 x 9 mm

Weight

185g

210g

183g

Screen

6.57-inch AMOLED

6.83-inch AMOLED

6.3-inch Actua pOLED

Resolution

1264 x 2728

2800 x 1260

1080 x 2424

Refresh rate

120Hz

144Hz

60-120Hz

Chipset

Snapdragon 7 Gen 4

Snapdragon 7 Gen 4

Google Tensor G4

RAM

8GB / 12GB

8GB / 12GB

8GB

Storage

128GB / 256GB / 512GB

128GB / 256GB

128GB / 256GB

OS

Android 16 (MagicOS 10)

Android 16 (Nothing OS 4.1)

Android 16

Rear cameras

200MP wide, 12MP ultrawide

50MP wide, 8MP ultrawide, 50MP periscope

48MP wide, 13MP ultrawide

Front camera

50MP

32MP

13MP

Battery

7,000mAh

5,080mAh

5,100mAh

Charging

80W wired

50W wired

45W wired, wireless Qi

Nothing Phone (4a) Pro
While the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro offers slightly less storage at 256GB and has a weaker camera than the Honor 600, it has a whole heap of strengths too. It’s super cool, both in terms of its iconoclastic design and its excellent VC cooling system, which keeps it from heating up even when playing high-end games. It’s also just packed with fun features like its rear glyph matrix display, which offers loads of new ways to interact with your phone.

Read my full Nothing Phone (4a) Pro review

Google Pixel 10a
Coming in just a tiny bit cheaper than the Honor 600, the Google Pixel 10a should be your choice if you still want a phone crammed with AI features but can’t get your hands on the Honor 600. It offers Google’s streamlined take on Android, a flush camera module — no huge lump here — a decent 5,100mAh battery capacity, and seven years of software and security updates.

Read our full Google Pixel 10a review

(Image credit: Future)How I tested the Honor 600

• Tested phone for two weeks
• Assessed a wide range of features
• Six years of handling phone reviews

I tested the Honor 600 over several weeks. To put the display through its paces, I played multiple HDR videos and compared the color and brightness side-by-side with my iPhone 16 Pro. Trying out the camera modules, I made sure to take a range of pictures of people, places, and plant life at a range of zooms and distances.

When testing the Honor 600’s software and performance, I tried it out on a range of productivity tasks, played multiple demanding games and used as many of the AI features as possible. Finally, to assess how well the battery performed, I streamed a 2K video on a loop until the battery ran out and then charged it up using a charger rated for at least 80W to see how long it would take to hit 100% again.

In terms of my personal experience, not only have I been writing about gadgets and tech for over 10 years, but I’ve also been overseeing phone reviews for multiple titles for the past six.

• Read TechRadar’s reviews guarantee
• First reviewed: May 2026

IMOU AOV PT: two-minute review

Founded in 2015 as a spin-off from the Chinese surveillance giant Dahua Technology, Hangzhou-based IMOU has quickly become a major player in the value segment of the smart home market. A few months ago, I looked at the IMOU Cell 3C, another budget outdoor security camera. I liked the model, but it was a lot more basic than this model (and much cheaper, too).

For starters, the AOV PT features a separate, rather than the integrated solar panel found on the Cell 3C. For many set-ups this is an important distinction because often the best place for a camera, such as under an eve or in a porch, is the worst place for a solar panel. Having a separate panel means it can be located up to four metres away in a sun-drenched spot using the long USB-C cable provided.

The IMOU AOV PT features 'smart tracking' to follow subjects (Image credit: Future)

Whereas most battery cameras stay in a deep sleep until a PIR is triggered, this latest IMOU features the company’s Always-On Video (AOV) technology — hence the AOV moniker. It’s like a sort of low-power mode where the camera records a frame every two seconds continuously, creating a low-frame rate timelapse of the entire day. Then, when the AI detects a human or vehicle, it ramps up to full-speed 3K (5MP) recording. Particularly clever is the smart tracking option which means once the pan-and-tilt camera detects movement it will follow the ‘target’ as it moves around. It’s all a bit Big Brother-y maybe, but useful if you want to track certain individuals or vehicles.

Usually, where security cameras manufacturers make their money is in selling you a monthly subscription to store your video footage in the cloud. Not only is this a potential cybersecurity risk, it can also get very expensive (I’m looking at you Ring). Even the average price of a subscription is £5 (about $7 / AU$10) a month, which I think is a bit excessive for basically storing your video clips.

With the IMOU AOV PT not only is a MicroSD card slot provided for storage, but IMOU has even thrown in a 32GB MicroSD card gratis — it’s a really nice touch, especially if you're always scrabbling around for a card to record onto! If you want more storage, though, the device can support up to 512GB. Alternatively, it is possible to sign-up to one of IMOU’s subscription plans (see details below).

The camera has a slot for a MicroSD card, but this can only be accessed with a screwdriver (Image credit: Future)

Usefully, in addition to a MicroSD card, the IMOU also comes with a 4G SIM. This enables you to control the camera via the IMOU Life app without it having to be hooked up to the home’s Wi-Fi. IMOU provides a modest 100Mb of data (with a trial offer for a 6GB plan). However, for those monitoring properties where Wi-Fi connectivity is either non-existent, or at best patchy, it’s a potential game changer.

On the downside, though, the camera only supports the 2.4GHz Wi-Fi frequency rather than the higher 5GHz Wi-Fi frequency which is better for faster data transfer.

The camera features IMOU's Always-On Video (AOV) technology (Image credit: Future)

Designed to be mounted permanently outdoors, the IMOU boasts an IP-66 weatherproof rating for heavy-duty waterproof protection. It also comes with two reasonably powerful spotlights, a built-in microphone and speaker for two-way communication and a siren for warding off intruders (though this isn’t the loudest). There’s also a clever smart night vision feature so that when the camera detects an object, the spotlight is automatically activated, and recordings are displayed in color.

IMOU AOV PT: subscription options

Basic Plan: Covers seven days of event history and basic AI detection, between £2.59-£3.50 ($4-$5 / AU$5-AU$7) per month or approximately £30 ($40 / AU$70) a year.

Plus Plan: Offers 30 days of event history, enhanced AI detection, and sharing with up to 20 users. Costs around £5.99 ($9 / AU$12) per month or £60 ($80 / AU$110) per year.

See https://www.imou.com/uk/imou-protect for more details

IMOU AOV PT: price and availability

How much does it cost? IMOU AOV PT, $170 / £129 / AU$260

When is it available? Since December 2025

Where is it available? UK / US / Australia

Chinese firm IMOU is known for its competitively priced home security products. This one is no exception. OK, it’s quite a bit more expensive than the IMOU Cell 3C we reviewed which also comes with a solar panel. But then the AOV PT offers so much more and is still under £150.

In fact, when you consider the package includes a separate 5W solar panel, a pre-installed 32GB MicroSD card, and a 4G SIM card, the IMOU AOV PT is actually really very good value for money. That’s not to mention other useful features such as 360-degree field of view thanks to the pan-and-tilt camera and smart tracking so you can monitor the movements of intruders!

Compared to 4G rivals from Arlo or Reolink, which often require separate purchases for solar panels or storage, the IMOU really is a cost-effective, all-in-one solution for those needing off-grid security. Best of all is that you don’t need to pay for a monthly subscription — although that option is available from around £3 a month if you want it. Instead, you can store video clips on the MicroSD card provided or upgrade to one holding 512GB (these are now widely available for under £50/$50).

• Value score: 5/5

IMOU AOV PT: design

• Pan-and-tilt design
• Separate solar panel
• IP66 waterproofing

It’s fair to say that the IMOU AOV PT won’t win any security camera beauty competitions. Built for utility rather than stealth, it comprises a not particularly attractive black pan-and-tilt camera inside a large white plastic housing, plus a separate lightweight solar panel designed to tilt up to 45 degrees for maximum solar gain.

Installation isn’t the easiest either. Because of its weight and the way it protrudes from the wall, it requires a very secure mount. It’s not a camera you can casually stick up with a couple of small screws. Instead, you’ll need the full four-screw bracket provided (plus wall plugs if drilling into brick) to prevent it from vibrating in the wind or feeling flimsy.

This camera is quite chunky, and takes more than just a couple of screws to mount (Image credit: Future)

For added protection/security the camera snaps firmly into the mount and can only be released by pressing a button underneath the unit. Here you will also find a rubber flap covering the power on and the USB-C input for connecting to the solar panel and for recharging the camera (it comes with an integrated 1000mAh lithium-ion battery).

For our set-up we installed the camera on a wooden summer house/home office with the solar panel located nearby and angled towards the sun (the app tells you when it is receiving power from the panel). However, 4m of cable is provided if you need to locate the solar panel a bit further away to capture the sun’s rays. Thankfully, the solar panel is much simpler to install than the camera but the two units together do take up quite a lot of space, compared to other designs.

The camera snaps firmly into its mount (Image credit: Future)

Finally, one slightly odd aspect of the design is the panel for the MicroSD card and 4G SIM card slots. Located at the back of the camera lens, this can only be accessed with a Phillips screwdriver. Perhaps it’s to deter casual thieves from easily stealing the MicroSD/SIM cards, or maybe to provide further protection from the elements?

• Design score: 4/5

IMOU AOV PT: performance

• 360-degree field of view
• 3K resolution
• Color night vision

When it comes to performance, the IMOU AV PT is one of the best I’ve reviewed — especially at this price level. When it comes to functionality, it’s difficult to imagine any other cameras matching it. However, what’s impressive is that it combines this functionality with very good performance too. For example, the 3K image quality is crisp enough to identify faces at a distance, and the full-color night vision is excellent, using two bright spotlights to illuminate intruders.

What I particularly like is the pan-and-tilt camera which effectively gives the camera a full 360-degree view, much wider than most cameras which are limited to a maximum of around 150 degrees. Either you can move it around using the left/right, up/down keys on the app or you can use the ‘smart tracking’ option in the menus so that it tracks movement automatically.

In-app controls make it easy to pan and tilt the camera (Image credit: Future)

During testing it was great fun, picking up neighbours on balconies, even family members walking close to the patio doors inside the kitchen. However, I could see it would have a serious function too if ever I was burgled, capturing the culprit as they approached the house and closing in on their physical details.

Any criticisms? Well, a few, but they are minor. Firstly, it is worth bearing in mind that the ‘smart tracking’ option really does drain the 10,000mAh battery. During a day of heavy testing, it dropped 11% in just 24 hours, even with some additional solar power from the panel. For long term use it’s probably best to switch it off completely or limit the use of the camera to certain hours of the day.

Full-color night vision is impressiveFutureThe camera is actually fun to useFutureUsing 4G means you need to be aware of your data allowanceFuture

Using the app, recording times can be set for each day (so the camera only records footage at night) or you can quickly put it into ‘privacy mode’ where the lens turns around completely so you can’t record. It’s also possible to set areas where you don’t want to record, such as a neighbor’s garden or a busy main road using the ‘activity zone’ option.

As with many security cameras, one small bugbear is that the IMOU AV PT is a little too sensitive, creating a few false alarms. Not only can this get a little bit annoying after a while (getting an alert every time a bird flies past), it can further drain the battery. Finally, while the siren works effectively enough, it’s certainly not the loudest we’ve ever heard.

• Performance score: 4.5/5

Should you buy the IMOU AOV PT?IMOU AOV PT score card

Attribute

Notes

Score

Value

Costing around $170 / £129 / AU$260, the IMOU really is excellent value for money especially considering that it comes with a solar panel, a 4G SIM and a MicroSD card.

5/5

Design

Built for the outdoors with IP66 weatherproof rating, the IMOU focuses on rugged practicality rather than stunning good looks. It’s quite bulky too.

4/5

Performance

The IMOU AOV PT combines great functionality with high quality 3K images. We particularly like the smart tracking option though it does wear the battery down.

4.5/5

Overall

Want to protect a property but Wi-Fi is dodgy or non-existent? This outdoor security camera is the perfect solution, combining great performance with 4G connectivity and MicroSD storage.

4.5/5

Buy it if

You are in a rural location

If you don’t have Wi-Fi and access to power is limited, this is probably the best security camera around for keeping an eye on your property or business.

You want total coverage

The 360-degree pan and tilt lens ensures there aren’t any blind spots. Smart tracking means the lens will follow any movement — whether it’s human or a vehicle.

Don't buy it if

You want a discreet solution

The IMOU AOV PT is quite a bulky and slightly tricky to install proposition, comprising a large camera and separate solar panel.

You want a loud siren

The siren on the IMOU AOV PT is one of the quietest I’ve heard.

IMOU AOV PT: also consider

If you're not sure whether the IMOU AOV PT is the right camera for you, here's how it stacks up against two of its rivals.

IMOU AOV PT

Reolink Solar Floodlight Cam

IMOU Cell 3C

Subscription price

None. Optional subscription from £3 (about $5 / AU$6) a month

None. Optional subscription from £2.71 (about $4 / AU$6) a month.

None required. Optional IMOU Protect from from £3 (about $5 / AU$6) a month

Viewing angle

360-degree pan and tilt lens

150-degree ultra-wide diagonal

120-degree horizontal

Network connection

Wi-Fi (2.4GHz)/4G

Wi-Fi (2.4GHz/5GHz)

Wi-Fi (2.4GHz)

Audio

Two-way audio

Two-way audio

Two-way audio

Video

3K (5MP) video resolution

2K (1440p) video resolution

2K (3MP) video resolution

Power

Battery/Solar

Battery/Solar

Battery/Solar

Hardware price

$170 / £129 / AU$260

$99/ £85 / AU$169 (with built in solar panel)

$55 / £49 / AU$129 (with built in solar panel)

Reolink Solar Floodlight Cam

Looking for a decent security camera with powerful spotlights that you don’t have to keep recharging every few months? Then the Reolink Solar Floodlight Cam is a good option, especially given its competitive price tag.

Read our full Reolink Solar Floodlight Cam review

IMOU Cell 3C

A pretty decent outdoor security camera with an integrated solar panel. What it lacks in image quality, the IMOU more than makes up for in functionality and the price is extremely competitive.

Read our full IMOU Cell 3C review

How I tested the IMOU AOV PT

• I used the camera outdoors for seven days
• I set it up myself using the fittings provided by the manufacturer
• The security camera and solar panel was installed on the outside of my summer house/office

I am forever climbing up and down step ladders changing over outdoor security cameras on my summer house, so much so that the neighbours must think I’m paranoid about getting burgled. This is the latest in a long line of solar panel cameras I’ve looked at recently and I think one of the best so far.

I really enjoyed the smart tracking feature, watching the camera following the movement of family members and my dog Poppy, as well as the occasional glimpse of neighbours standing on a balcony. If I had the device for a long time I would probably switch this off as it is a major drain on the battery as well as being overly intrusive (although less so than using the pan-and-tilt camera in the house).

I can also see the benefits of the 4G SIM. While my Wi-Fi is generally OK in the garden, thanks to a Wi-Fi repeater near the back door, there are many homes especially in rural areas where this option could be a game-changer.

First reviewed May 2026