Reviews

DJI Flip: one-minute review

In true DJI fashion, the world's leading drone manufacturer has surprised us by announcing a new kind of drone that also feels somewhat familiar: the DJI Flip is an all-in-one camera and vlogging drone with a unique, first-of-its-kind folding design that features four built-in propeller guards rather than propeller arms. This is part of a safety-first approach that ties in perfectly with the vlogging aspect of the drone, but there's no getting away from the fact it also looks, well, quite odd.

Folded, the Flip looks like a spacecraft from Star Wars, and when unfolded, it looks like a mashup between a cinewhoop FPV drone and a camera drone. From my point of view, in terms of design, functionality and performance, it sits somewhere between the DJI Neo and the DJI Mini 4 Pro, although the Mini 4 Pro is a far superior drone for photo and video capture as well as for overall flight performance.

(Image credit: James Abbott)

That said, the Flip is ultimately a beginner drone that comes in at a beginner-friendly price, and the Flip and Mini 4 Pro are completely different propositions – it's the camera drone functionality with the ability to capture photos in JPEG and raw, alongside up to 60fps 4K video capture in both Standard and D-Log M profiles, that led me to make the vague comparison. The Flip is certainly also a much more versatile drone than the Neo, but incorporates the same subject-tracking capabilities and some of the Neo's varied control options.

DJI Flip: release date and price

• Released January 14 2025
• The DJI RC-N3 base kit costs $439 / £369 / AU$699
• The DJI RC 2 Fly More Bundle costs $779 / £659 / AU$1,159

The DJI Flip was announced on 14 January 2025 and is available in three kit options: the standard DJI Flip kit includes the drone, DJI RC-N3 controller, one battery, a pair of spare propellers and other basic accessories and costs $439 / £369 / AU$699, while the kit with the DJI RC 2 (smart) controller is $639 / £549 / AU$949.

At release, there isn't a Fly More Bundle that incorporates the simpler DJI RC-N3 controller, just one with the DJI RC 2 controller that costs $779 / £659 / AU$1,159. This more comprehensive kit includes all of the above plus two additional batteries, a four-battery charging hub, a shoulder bag and two additional pairs of spare propellers. The Fly More Combo is decent value when you consider the advantages it delivers when compared to the base kit.

(Image credit: James Abbott) DJI Flip: specs DJI Flip: design and handling

• Unique folding design
• Enclosed propellers
• Regulator-friendly sub-250g weight

DJI's folding drone design has followed a linear path until now, and why not? It's tried and tested, and works exceptionally well. But with a drone that incorporates propeller guards into the design rather than propeller arms, something was always going to be different.

The Flip has four propeller guards that fold out from beneath the airframe, front propellers first and then the rear. The front guards also have fixed short legs attached to raise the front of the drone when it's on the ground.

So, despite the regulator-friendly sub-250g weight, the Flip is larger than DJI Mini models when folded, and has a much larger footprint when unfolded. Unfolding the Flip also brings it to life and powers it up, so it's best to remove the gimbal protector before unfolding the drone from its 5.35 x 2.44 x 6.5 inches / 136 x 62 x 165mm folded size to its 9.17 x 11 x 3.11 inches / 233 x 280 x 79mm unfolded dimensions.

The propeller guards are made of polycarbonate around the edges, with lightweight and strong carbon fiber string top and bottom. This makes the drone safer for flight close to people – yourself rather than others – and also allows for palm take-off and landing, which is useful as it negates the need for a landing mat, and means you can take off and land almost anywhere that's safe and legal.

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The airframe is tall for a drone in this weight category. There's a 3D infrared sensor at the front of the drone above the gimbal, and the black plastic panel also shows which intelligent shooting mode is currently active.

This is particularly useful when using the drone independently without the DJI Fly app or a controller, although the drone does 'tell' you which mode is active when you press the mode button on the side to switch.

Like the DJI Neo, the Flip can be flown using the intelligent flight modes app-free, with the app and using voice control, or with either the DJI RC-N3 controller or the DJI RC 2 smart controller.

Both controllers are great, although the DJI RC 2 is the most convenient option because it has a bright and clear built-in 5.5-inch display, so there's no need to connect your smartphone.

DJI Flip: features and performance

• Not great in wind
• Intelligent flight modes
• AI subject tracking

The Flip specs available before launch didn’t specify a maximum wind resistance, but even in a moderate headwind the drone was severely slowed down. This could be a result of the size and shape of the propellers as well as the propeller guards themselves, but the Flip can still fly at a reasonable maximum speed of 27mph in Sport Mode, with Cine and Normal providing slower flight speeds.

In terms of flight, when using the Flip like a camera drone using one of the two traditional controller options, the drone flies well except for the aforementioned wind issue. It's certainly not as agile as a Mini 3 or Mini 4 Pro, but the controls are the same, and the ability to take off and land from the ground or the palm of your hand is extremely useful.

Just like the DJI Neo, the Flip is a selfie drone, but is marketed as a vlogging drone. This is because audio can be captured via the DJI Fly app when enabled, so you can record your voice while capturing video, or with the DJI Mic connected to your smartphone for improved sound quality. Propeller noise is filtered out or reduced in both situations.

(Image credit: James Abbott)

Just like the Neo, the Flip's Intelligent flight modes include Follow, Dronie, Circle, Rocket, Spotlight, and Helix. Within the app there's also Manual Control, which allows you to fly the Flip using on-screen controls, and when using a standard controller you can also access Quickshots, which include Dronie, Circle, Rocket, Spotlight, Helix, and Boomerang.

AI subject tracking aims to keep the subject in the centre of the frame during photo and video capture using the intelligent flight modes, which utilize ActiveTrack 4.0, Spotlight 2.0, and Point of Interest 3.0; this is highly effective, and cannot be faulted. What's more, when tracking, the Flip was able to navigate complex environments successfully thanks to the 3D Infrared Sensing System.

The Flip is as feature-packed as any other DJI drone, and the 3D Infrared Sensing System appears to work well, with forward-facing sensors that enable limited collision avoidance. This can be seen in action on the controller screen when using Return to Home, where the planned direction and route of the drone are shown as a green overlay. DJI also claims that this system makes flight safer at night.

Other features include Hyperlapse with Free, Circle, Course Lock and Waypoint options that can capture hyperlapse videos at up to 4K horizontally or 2.7K vertically. There's also Panorama photo capture, but this is fairly basic panorama functionality, and manual panos typically produce superior results.

More useful additional features include fast charging, with the charging hub able to charge two batteries simultaneously, and data transfer speeds of up to 30MB/s via the DJI Fly app to move photos and videos captured with the Flip to your phone. The Flip can also be plugged into a computer via USB-C, and you can transfer data from the 2GB internal storage and / or microSD card without having to switch the drone on.

DJI Flip: image and video quality

• 1/1.3-inch sensor
• Up to 4K 60fps video
• 12MP / 48MP raw and JPEG photos

(Image credit: James Abbott)

The Flip features a 3-axis mechanical gimbal for smooth footage, while the camera offers a 24mm equivalent focal length with a fixed aperture and focus from 1m to infinity. The 12MP / 48MP 1/1.3-inch Quad Bayer 4-in-1 sensor features large pixels and Dual Native ISO Integration for improved low-light capture. Then there's up to a 4x digital zoom, depending on the shooting mode and capture resolution.

Image quality is good, but it's not anywhere near as good as what you'll get from the DJI Mini 3 or Mini 4 Pro. The photos and videos you can see here were captured with a prerelease version of the DJI Fly app and prerelease firmware, so this has to be considered, but it's unlikely that post-release software will make a dramatic difference in this area. Photos and videos exhibit a slight murkiness, with images captured being sharpest in the center of the frame, and softer at the edges.

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The Flip is a beginner model, so this level of image quality is to be expected. And as always, deficiencies in image quality are less visible in video, when the drone is moving. Despite the drone's beginner nature, it's also aimed at vlogging, so video can be captured in 4K at up to 60fps, 4K at 100fps in Slow Motion mode and 1080p up to 100fps, and vertical video can be captured at 1080p and 2.7K at 30fps.

The latter is cropped from the horizontal camera / sensor rather than you having the ability to rotate the camera into portrait orientation, as with the DJI Mini 3 and Mini 4 Pro. This capability would be a fantastic feature, as would it allow for not only 4K vertical capture, but also for portrait-format photos. With social media video content so heavily focused on vertical video, however, the cropped upright video is still a useful feature for a drone aimed at vlogging.

For beginners, and those aiming for straight out-of-camera footage, you can capture video in the Normal color profile. More advanced users can capture in the 10-bit D-Log M flat profile for greater control and the ability to color-grade footage.

With this profile, the maximum bitrate is 150Mbps. Photos can be captured in both JPEG and raw, so in terms of photo and video capture the Flip offers more impressive options than the Neo, despite its flight mode and control similarities.

DJI Flip 4K 30fps video DJI Flip: testing scorecard Should I buy the DJI Flip? Buy it if...

You'd like multiple control options
With the ability to fly the drone app-free, with the app, or with one of two controller options, the Flip can be used as both a vlogging / selfie drone and a camera drone.

You’re a drone beginner
The intelligent flight modes for easy and effective subject tracking, alongside the Flip's capabilities as a camera drone, make it a compelling option for beginners.

You'd like palm take-off and landing
Thanks to the overall design of the Flip, including the propeller guards, the drone can take off from and land in the palm of your hand, which is incredibly useful in tricky or muddy locations.

Don't buy it if...

You'd like superior image quality
The Flip's image quality is good but not outstanding, so if you're looking for great image quality on a budget the DJI Mini 3 is far superior, and offers additional features such as a rotating camera.

You don’t require subject tracking
If you don’t intend to use the intelligent flight modes, there are much better DJI drones available for a similar price or lower, and overall flight performance is typically better than the Flip.

You'd prefer a first-person view
The Flip may look like an FPV drone, but it's not. If you'd prefer to capture immersive FPV video, the DJI Avata 2 is a beginner and expert-friendly FPV drone.

DJI Flip: also consider DJI Neo

The DJI Neo is a selfie drone that features the same intelligent flight modes as the DJI Flip, alongside propeller guards for safety. It can also be controlled in multiple ways, but exceeds the Flip in this department with DJI FPV accessory compatibility. The camera functionality is limited in comparison, but the Neo can capture 4K video, and costs less than the Flip.

Read our in-depth DJI Neo review

How I tested the DJI Flip

• All features and functions tested
• Flown app-free, with the DJI Fly app, and the DJI RC 2 Controller
• Tested in different conditions

I tested the DJI Flip using all of the control methods available to see how it performed as both a vlogging and selfie drone, as well as a camera drone.

Photos and videos were captured in a range of conditions including overcast, sunny, and windy to see how well it performed in these situations.

All features and functions that were available in the pre-release app and firmware, including flight, photo and video capture, were also tested to assess their effectiveness in real-world situations.

First reviewed January 2025

Making a splash in the eSIM marketplace, Sim Local offers various plans for travelers who don’t wish to encumber themselves with physical SIM cards or pricey roaming fees. With coverage in over 150 countries, 5G-ready connectivity, and kiosks at major airports, this eSIM for international travel promises convenience and cost-effectiveness. But does it deliver? Let’s check out the deets.

Sim Local: Plans and pricing

(Image credit: Sim Local)

Sim Local’s worldwide presence comes with numerous plan options. You may choose local options for all of the supported countries, and even some specific territories within them (e.g. Azores). Then, there are regional eSIM packages that include Europe and the Caribbean, as well as the two global plans.

For instance, the United Kingdom-specific eSIM options range from 3 GB of data for 30 days (but no calls or texts included) via Smartroam (VN) at the cost of a mere $8.75, to the Unlimited plan that covers 30 days of unlimited data, texts, and local calls, and up to 180 minutes of international calls at the price of $50.50 via Everything Everywhere UK.

If you’re seeking coverage for the European Union, then the cheapest option, which will get you 12 GB of data, 200 texts, 30 international minutes, and unlimited local calls for 14 days via Orange FR, is available at the price of $21.50. On the other side of the pricing spectrum is the ‘Europe 50 GB’ plan via Smartroam (VN) at $56.75 which, in addition to the mentioned data, supplies you with unlimited texts and local minutes for the duration of two weeks.

Planning to spend more time traveling across Europe? That is no problem, as Sim Local has an option for you as well. With its ‘Europe 70 GB’ plan via Orange FR, you’re getting more time (28 days) and GBs, in addition to unlimited local minutes and up to 120 minutes for international calls. However, the texts are limited to 1,000 units, hence the price tag of $53.50, which is lower than the 50 GB plan.

Need coverage for both the UK and the EU? Then the combined plan via LycaMobile UK will do the trick. It costs $12.50 and gets you 20 GB of data, unlimited texts and local calls, and up to 100 international minutes, during 15 days. The other option is to pay $25.25 for 100 GB of data under the same conditions as the 20 GB subscription option.

Of course, there are quite a few global options that are good for both regions, ranging from a very limited $3.75 plan (500 MB, 1 day, 99 countries) via Smartroam to the more generous $32 package (10 GB, 14 days, 155 countries) courtesy of Orange FR. Both of these are data-only.

Sim Local also offers a full money-back guarantee if you change your mind or cancel the trip, but under the condition that you haven’t yet activated your plan.

• Also, take a look at our pick of the best eSIM for Europe.

Sim Local: Features

(Image credit: Sim Local)

Let’s take a look at what makes Sim Local eSIM a go-to solution for travelers, both occasional and frequent:

5G coverage

As long as your device supports 5G and you’re in an area where Sim Local offers 5G coverage, you’ll be able to take advantage of the technology and its high speeds, low latency, and ultra-connectivity. If 5G isn’t active by default on your phone, you can enable it in ‘Settings’.

Hotspot-ready

Supporting the same features as physical SIM cards, the Sim Local eSIM includes the ability to set up mobile hotspots and data tethering, allowing you to share your connection without any restrictions. For example, if two people are traveling together, they can purchase one eSIM and share data through tethering.

Kiosks in over 100 airports

Sim Local has physical stores and kiosks at more than 100 airports around the world, including at London’s Heathrow, Gatwick, and WHSmith, as well as in Glasgow, Madrid, Copenhagen, Athens, Dublin, Vienna, Brussels, multiple airports across the United States, and more. This way, their employees can help you on the go.

• Also, take a look at our pick of the best eSIM for Turkey.

Sim Local: Installation

(Image credit: Sim Local)

From the get-go, Sim Local is very straightforward and intuitive. Just head over to the website, browse through the options on offer and, once you’ve made a selection, tick the box to confirm your device “is unlocked and eSIM-enabled” on the order summary page.

You’ll find the list of supported devices and models, organized in categories, on the Sim Local website. If you don’t see your phone or tablet listed here, you can ask the team directly through email or web chat. This is crucial because you don’t want to end up buying an eSIM that doesn’t work on your device.

Hitting the ‘Continue to Payment’ button will take you to the payment page, where you can select to pay via card or PayPal (whichever you feel more comfortable with). Sim Local also allows payments through Apple Pay and Google Pay if buying via phone. Enter your payment information and click on ‘Place Order.’

After your order is confirmed, it’s time to download and set up your eSIM. You can do this by scanning the QR code from the Sim Local website via the camera app on your phone. As the prompt appears on your screen, tap it and follow the instructions to install the eSIM.

Another option is to visit your device’s ‘Settings', select ‘Network & Internet’ (for Android devices), and tap the plus sign (+) next to ‘Mobile Network’ (also known as ‘SIMs’). Select ‘Connect to mobile network’ and then ‘Download a SIM instead?’. Tap ‘Use a different network’ and scan your QR code.

Alternatively, after tapping ‘Download a SIM instead?,’ select ‘Use Activation Code’ to copy and paste the provided codes. That said, just scanning the QR code is arguably the easiest option.

For iOS, the process is similar, with the exception of the particular setting called ‘Cellular or Mobile Data’ where you’ll select ‘Add eSIM’ (or ‘Add Cellular Plan’ or ‘Add Data Plan’) and ‘Use QR Code.’ If you’re installing manually, you’ll copy and paste the ‘SM-DP+ Address’ and ‘Activation Code’ sent to you with your plan details.

Regardless of which method or device you used to install your eSIM, the next step is to make sure your mobile data is using the eSIM and not your primary line (and that ‘Allow Data Switching’ is off for iOS). The aim is to avoid accidentally roaming on your existing plan and incurring massive charges.

Sim Local: Support

(Image credit: Sim Local)

Sim Local’s website has a pretty solid collection of instructions and helpful articles that cover nearly every aspect of installing and using its eSIM. If you can’t find what you’re looking for in the Help Center, then your next stop is to contact the team.

This can be done in multiple ways: by submitting a request via the website form, using live chat, messaging the team on WhatsApp, sending them an email inquiry, or calling them directly on the phone. It doesn’t matter which way you contact them - the customer support agents are available 24/7.

• Also, take a look at our pick of the best eSIM for Asia.

Sim Local: Final verdict

Sim Local delivers a compelling eSIM solution for international travelers, combining affordability, ease of use, and robust customer service. Its broad coverage and regional plans cater to various travel needs, from quick trips to extended stays. Features like 5G readiness and hotspot support add value, while the ability to buy plans in a few clicks ensures a hassle-free experience.

FAQs Is Sim Local eSIM data-only?

Yes and no. Sim Local offers multiple plans depending on your needs and preferences. Some are data-only while others support texting and calling - much like your home provider’s physical SIM but without robbing you blind with exorbitant roaming charges.

Can I install Sim Local eSIM using a QR code?

Of course! Installing Sim Local eSIM using a QR code is supported and straightforward. However, if for any reason the QR method isn’t working for you, manual installation is described step-by-step on the website.

Which countries/regions are covered by Sim Local eSIM?

Thanks to a wide array of packages with different features, Sim Local eSIM covers over 150 countries around the world. That said, it also offers bundled plans, like the UK + Europe, and individual locations like the Azores.

Homekane Handheld Vacuum Cleaner Cordless: two-minute review

The Homekane Handheld Vacuum Cleaner Cordless is a rechargeable and bagless portable vacuum cleaner that is designed to be suitable for use in the home and the car. It's affordably priced, although on test I found it lacked the power to tackle anything but the simplest vacuuming tasks.

The design is pleasantly lightweight and easy to use. There's a washable HEPA filter, and the dust cup has a capacity of 2.3 cups / 550ml – enough for a few small cleaning sessions. However, there are a few slightly annoying design features. In use, care needs to be taken not to absent-mindedly hit the dust cup release button that sits a little way up the handle from the sliding power switch. Emptying the dust cup requires removing the whole front of the vacuum, including the filter. That's not unusual for a low-cost mini vacuum, but it is a little fiddly. On the plus side, it did mean that I regularly shook off the debris that had collected on the filter.

The accessories that come with the Homekane Handheld Vacuum Cleaner Cordless look a little cheap, but I found them to be useful. There’s an extension hose, a flat nozzle, and a small brush nozzle, which proved particularly helpful when vacuuming fabric surfaces.

Moving on to cleaning performance, and the Homekane Handheld Vacuum Cleaner Cordless was regretfully underwhelming. While it did an adequate job of picking up larger pieces of debris, such as biscuit crumbs and oats, it struggled to suck up finer debris like smaller crumb particles and flour, to the point where I needed to enlist the help of the Shark UltraCyclone Pet Pro (which sits at the top of TechRadar's best handheld vacuum guide), to finish the job to a good standard.

(Image credit: Cesci Angell / Future)

In terms of value for money, things are a little complicated. Comparing current Amazon list prices (which, it should be highlighted, can often change), it's significantly cheaper in the US than the UK. At the US price, it's perhaps worth considering if you just need something very basic for small cleanup jobs. However, in the UK, there are better affordable alternatives in our best car vacuum roundup.

That's the short version – read on for my full Homekane Handheld Vacuum Cleaner Cordless.

Homekane Handheld Vacuum Cleaner Cordless review: price & availability

• Different configurations available in US and UK
• More expensive in the UK, and not good value for money
• Far cheaper in the US, where it's better value

The Homekane Handheld Vacuum Cleaner Cordless is listed for £37.99 at Amazon UK, and this price includes the accessories and charging dock. It’s also possible to purchase the handheld vacuum and accessories without the dock (there’s a USB-C charging port on the end of the handle), for a list price of £29.99. While the price is relatively budget-friendly, it's not particularly good value for money when you consider the price and performance of other mini vacuums on the market.

In the US, the Homekane Handheld Vacuum Cleaner Cordless is significantly cheaper. The model with a charging dock is no longer available at Amazon US, but it’s still possible to purchase the standard version, for an extremely affordable $15.99. At that price, it's a much more compelling prospect, and might be worth buying.

You will need to factor in the ongoing cost of replacement HEPA filters. These aren't currently available at Amazon US, although you can pick them up at Amazon UK, where a pack of two costs £15.88. That's almost half the cost of the vacuum itself, but as they’re washable they should last a while, providing you aren’t frequently vacuuming areas that are excessively dirty.

• Value score: 2.5 out of 5

Homekane Handheld Vacuum Cleaner Cordless specs Homekane Handheld Vacuum Cleaner Cordless review: design & features

• Small and lightweight
• Cheap materials
• Washable HEPA filter

Satisfyingly small and lightweight, the Homekane Handheld Vacuum Cleaner Cordless is easy to carry between locations, making it perfect for quick couch cleans after a biscuit binge, or for taking out to the car for a mini-valet. It has compact dimensions of 13.4 x 3.2 x 3.5 inches / 33.4 x 8 x 9cm and weighs just 1.2 lbs / 560g, so I found it easy to maneuver to vacuum high and low surfaces.

As expected for the price, the material quality of the isn’t outstanding on the Homekane Handheld Vacuum Cleaner Cordless or its charging dock. The majority of the plastic is a cheap-looking black plastic with a matte finish, and the material of the accessories isn’t the best either, but they did the job. The business end of the vacuum itself looks a little better, in a glossy translucent black plastic. This is pretty common among handheld vacs, as it still provides visibility of the remaining dust cup capacity, but helps to minimize the eyesore of the contents that were vacuumed up.

To power on the vacuum, there’s a teal-colored upward-sliding switch that I found a little more fiddly than a simple power button, but it wasn’t much of a hindrance. Further down the handle, toward the dust cup, there’s a pressable button with a subtle trash can icon that acts as the release trigger for the dust cup.

The detachable dust cup has a 2.3 cup / 550ml capacity, which is roughly a half cup more than the highly-rated Shark UltraCyclone Pet Pro Plus. Please be warned: the release button is so easy to press accidentally if you’re not paying attention. Fortunately for me, I only did this at the beginning of the testing process, so I didn’t end up emptying flour and oats over my car interior, but it could easily have happened.

This compact vacuum has a washable HEPA filter that sits on top of the dust cup. This meant that I had to remove it every time I needed to empty the cup contents, which is a small inconvenience, but did serve as a good opportunity to check the state of the filter each time and a reminder to wash it regularly to maintain efficient suction. I found it easy to release and remove the dust cup thanks to the button on the vacuum body. The filter was a little fiddly to remove as a type of rubber material surrounds it, but overall it was simple to pull out and replace.

(Image credit: Cesci Angell / Future)

There are some convenient attachments included with the Homekane Handheld Vacuum Cleaner Cordless, including an extension hose that I found useful for reaching further into tighter spaces when connected to the flat nozzle, plus a brush nozzle for keyboards, to hoover up pet hair, and other tasks. All the accessories attached to the vac easily enough, and they stayed firmly in place during use.

The cheaply-made hose attachment wasn’t the most flexible, but it was adequate for the job. The flimsy nature of the connecting ends gives me a little concern, though, as I’m not sure they’ll stand the test of time, and look like they could easily split. They performed well during testing however, so I could be being overly cautious.

Homekane claims that the Handheld Vacuum Cleaner Cordless has a runtime of 25-30 minutes, and supposedly takes three hours to recharge via USB-C. It was a simple case of popping the vacuum into the dock, although I wasn’t a fan of the configuration. I understand that storing the vacuum handle first in the dock allows the dock to be smaller, therefore saving space, but it’s a little inconvenient.

In addition to this, the design means that the charging indicator light faces backward, so when the dock is placed against a wall, it’s not possible to see when the vacuum is fully charged. This may not be an issue for people who are happy to leave the dock powered at all times, but it's not ideal for the more energy-conscious among us.

The stated noise level of the Homekane Handheld Vacuum Cleaner Cordless is 80 dB, which is equivalent to the sound of busy traffic. Testing the noise of the vacuum with a decibel meter on my phone confirmed that this statement is accurate, and while it’s unpleasant for someone like myself who suffers from tinnitus, it’s no louder than one would expect from a compact vacuum cleaner.

• Design and features score: 3 out of 5

Homekane Handheld Vacuum Cleaner Cordless review: performance

• Struggles to vacuum up fine particles
• Tackles larger pieces of debris adequately
• Emptying process could be easier

Unfortunately, there’s only one power setting of 9,500Pa available on the Homekane Handheld Vacuum Cleaner Cordless, which is considerably less than the Temola Handheld Vacuum Cleaner, which offers 15,000PA on its highest setting. Even its eco mode is more powerful than the Homekane, at 10,000Pa.

Nonetheless, it had no issue when vacuuming up crumbs, but the real test was to come when I put it through its paces against our TechRadar vacuum testing process. Unfortunately for me, this involved decanting flour, biscuit crumbs, and oats into my car's interior.

I tested three car vacs together for a direct comparison, our best handheld vacuum and best car vacuum, the Shark UltraCyclone Pet Pro Plus, and the Temola TS20BS. The Homekane was lightweight and easy to wield, a nice contrast from the noticeably heavier handheld Shark vac. But, while it may have been more pleasant to hold, I quickly found myself wishing that I hadn’t left the Homekane till the last to test.

The lower suction level of 9,500Pa was evident, with the finer particles refusing to budge from within the pile of my car mat. Worse still, the back-positioned air outlet meant that I had to change the order of my testing process, as, to my horror, it blew the oats I’d spread for the next test everywhere – under my seats and deeper under the glove compartment area. I was not amused, to say the least. I didn’t experience these issues with the Shark or Temola, as their air outlets are helpfully located on the sides, making for minimal blowback.

(Image credit: Cesci Angell / Future)

I decided to test the small floor brush attached to the crevice nozzle to see how much this would help, and I’m pleased to say that it did a great job at picking up the elusive particles, making an incredible difference to the results I got from using the vac alone, so that’s one saving grace for the Homekane.

The results weren’t 100 per cent perfect, and I certainly wouldn’t use it for a full-on car valet, but overall the carpet looked clean enough. It did an okay job with the larger oats, which were collected fairly easily, but it was much slower than the other two car vacs. And again, there just wasn’t enough suction to pick up those smaller particles.

The crevice tool did a good job, presumably because the limited suction was restricted to a smaller area. It picked up lots of loose leaves and stones in the nooks and crannies of my car’s footwell and vacuumed the dust from the small gaps around my door’s armrest with ease. The flexible extension hose proved useful when vacuuming the crevices around my car’s center console, providing a little extra reach when the crevice tool on the Homekane Handheld Vac alone wouldn’t have fitted as far into the space.

I also used the Homekane Handheld Vacuum Cleaner Cordless with the crevice and brush nozzle attachments to vacuum my desk and keyboard in our busy TechRadar reviews office. It did a satisfactory job of making them look cleaner, but it left behind some of the finer dust and fibers. This result was lacking in comparison to the Temola TS20BS, which did a better job of picking up most of the debris thanks to its higher suction setting.

(Image credit: Cesci Angell / Future)

When attempting to empty the dust cup, I found the washable HEPA filter tricky to remove, finding I had to put my fingers within the filter itself to get enough purchase to wiggle it out. After testing with the flour, biscuit crumbs, and oats, I found I needed to spend some time bashing the filter to remove as much as I could before washing it.

• Performance score: 2.5 out of 5

Should you buy the Homekane Handheld Vacuum Cleaner Cordless? Buy it if...

You're in the US and you want a super-cheap vac
While I wouldn't recommend this handheld vac to fellow Brits, at the current price of $15.99 it wouldn't make a bad purchase for spontaneous clean-ups.

You want something lightweight
One thing this small vac has going for it is that it's satisfyingly small and light to wield, so it could make a good choice for someone who struggles with larger vacuums.

Don't buy it if...

You want good suction
There are plenty of other high-suction and better-performing alternatives out there for a similar price. I kept an open mind about the limited suction power, but after testing other vacs at the same price point that did a far better job.

You want high-quality materials
From the packaging to the vacuum and accessories, the low price point is clear. Don't get me wrong, nothing fell apart or broke when I was using it, but if you like to own products that look good quality, this isn't one of them.

Homekane Handheld Vacuum Cleaner Cordless review: also consider

Temola TS20BS
This lightweight vac is only slightly more expensive than the cost of the Homekane in the UK, but you get an awful lot for that little extra investment. It has two suction levels, 10,000PA, and 15,000PA, with the latter doing a fantastic job of picking up the finer dust from testing, especially when the dust brush was used. One important caveat, however, is that I've been unable to source replacement filters so far, so this is something to keep in mind.

Shark UltraCyclone Pet Pro Plus
A firm favorite here at TechRadar, this Shark handheld vac offers great vacuuming performance and versatile tools. No wonder it's our top choice for the best handheld and car vacuums. Check out the full review to learn more.

How I tested the Homekane Handheld Vacuum Cleaner Cordless

• I tested the Homekane Handheld Vacuum Cleaner Cordless against two other handheld vacs
• I assessed its ability to vacuum both large and fine debris
• I made use of the included accessories

I took a close look at the design and materials used for the Homekane Handheld Vacuum Cleaner Cordless. I used it to vacuum my sofa and my desk and put it through its paces against the TechRadar vacuum testing process in my car. This involves testing a vacuum's ability to pick up fine and coarse particles, namely oats, and a mixture of flour and fine biscuit crumbs.

I assessed the fit of the accessories and used each of them to see how effective they were. I also looked at how easy and efficient the dust cup emptying process was.

Read more about how we test vacuum cleaners

First reviewed December 2024

Smeg Mini Pro Espresso Coffee Machine: two-minute review

The Smeg Mini Pro Espresso Coffee Machine is a manual coffee maker that gives you a taste of the barista experience, giving you the option of pulling an espresso shot with a pleasingly smooth and tactile lever, or simply twisting the filter handle into place and pressing a button to let the machine do the work for you.

After trying the Smeg Mini Pro last year, one of my colleagues at TechRadar concluded that although lovely, it was "probably overkill for me and most coffee drinkers" – but having used it for several weeks in place of my usual espresso machine, I'm inclined to disagree. Although it has the looks of a professional coffee maker, it's not only one of the best espresso machines I've used when it comes to brewing consistently good coffee, it's also one of the easiest to use, and makes achieving a good shot refreshingly simple.

The Smeg Mini pro will help you achieve consistent results, and its steam wand was a particular highlight for me (Image credit: Future)

It's a relatively compact (small enough not to dominate a tiny kitchen) and thoughtfully designed, with features including a bright LED display, a pressure gauge that gives you an indication of how well extracted your espresso is likely to be, and customizable temperature and volume settings – the latter of which are very handy if you'll be using the single and double shot presets regularly.

However, although it's not overkill in terms of features, the Smeg Mini Pro Espresso Coffee Machine is certainly expensive. I'd expect to pay a premium for one of the best bean-to-cup coffee machines, but it's rare to see a manual consumer espresso machine at this price point. This is approaching the price of a commercial machine (with pressure profiling and flow control, which the Mini Pro lacks), so you'll have to really fall in love with it to justify the cost.

If you like the idea of a lever coffee machine and don't have that much cash to spend, it's worth taking a look at the range of fully manual machines from La Pavoni (a company now owned by Smeg), which includes several more affordable models.

The Mini Pro has a smart 60s-inspired look that's become one of Smeg's signatures (Image credit: Future) Smeg Mini Pro Espresso Coffee Machine: Specs Smeg Mini Pro Espresso Coffee Machine: price and availability

• Launched in the UK in June 2024
• List price £1,399.95 (about $1,700 / AU$2,800)
• Not yet available to buy elsewhere

The Smeg Mini Pro Espresso Machine launched in the UK in June 2024, priced at £1,399.95 (about $1,700 / AU$2,800). At the time of writing (January 2025) it's not yet available in other territories.

That's a serious price tag for a home espresso machine, and much pricier than even premium bean-to-cup coffee makers like the Breville Barista Touch Impress.

• Value score: 3/5

Smeg Mini Pro Espresso Coffee Machine: Design

• Sleek 1960s-inspired aesthetic
• Choice of lever or button controls
• No flow control or pressure profiling

The Smeg Mini Pro is a lovely looking coffee maker, with the same brushed metal and smooth curves as the fully automatic BCC13 bean-to-cup espresso machine I reviewed last year. It comes in a choice of three colors: white (shown here), black, or emerald green.

It's also relatively compact, measuring 14.2 x 8.7 x 17in / 360 x 220 x 433mm. This meant it didn't look out of place in my small kitchen, and fitted easily underneath my wall cabinets.

As its name suggests the Smeg Mini pro is quite compact and won't look out of place in a small kitchen (Image credit: Future)

Although it might look a little intimidating if you're used to more basic machines, the Mini Pro is refreshingly simple to use. Reach behind the machine and you'll find a power button on the left-hand side, which turns it on with a reassuring click. Once that's done, the machine will begin to heat. It's set to 92C as standard, which in my experience gave good results, but you can delve into the settings to change it if you prefer something higher or lower.

A round LED display at the top right shows key information, such as whether the water is up to temperature, time elapsed if you're using the machine to pull a shot of espresso in manual mode, maintenance status, and the various customizable options. It's bright, and although simple, the icons in the interface are unambiguous.

There's also a pressure gauge at the bottom left of the machine's face, which gives you an idea of how well extracted your finished shot is going to be. It's a shame that there's no flow control or pressure profiling though, particularly for a machine at this price.

You can use either the manual lever or the preset buttons to pull a shot (Image credit: Future)

The Mini Pro is supplied with four filter baskets: two pressurized ones, which Smeg says are best for experimenting with grinding, dosing, and tamping, and two non-pressurized ones that are best when some of those factors are out of your control (if you're using ready-ground coffee, for example). Which one you should choose depends on whether you're brewing one or two cups.

You also get a blank filter to be used when cleaning the water tank – not something I've seen included with many espresso machines – plus a brush and two different sized needles. One of these is for cleaning the steam wand, and the other is for the holes of the filters.

The machine comes with a choice of pressurized and non-pressurized filter baskets (Image credit: Future)

The 1L water tank is located at the back, and has a sturdy handle that makes it easy to remove. There's no water filter supplied, but if you have hard water (identified using the testing strip included with the coffee machine) you can buy them separately and simply screw one into the bottom of the tank. When the tank needs refilling, you'll be notified by an icon on the display.

There's a cup-heater on top, which has a bumpy surface that keeps your stoneware from slipping off, and the drip tray is easy to slide out and empty without spillage. My only criticism of the design (and it's a very minor one) is that there's nothing really securing the cover that sits over the water tank, so you could knock it off when you're pulling the machine forward to access it.

The machine has a convenient cup-warmer on top (Image credit: Future)

Most of the components (including the filters and filter holder) can be cleaned by rinsing in water. You can use mild dish soap to clean the drip tray if necessary, but avoid anything abrasive on any part of the machine.

You'll receive an alert when it's time to descale the Mini Pro. The pros at Smeg use Oust brand descaler, but when I checked, they told me any food-safe liquid descaler would be fine. They also provided a video demonstrating how to descale the machine.

• Design score: 5/5

Smeg Mini Pro Espresso Coffee Machine: performance

• Produces consistently well extracted coffee
• Fast heating and quiet pump
• Lacks pressure profiling and flow control

The machine heats fast, with separate thermoblocks for coffee and steam, plus an independently heated group head to keep a consistent temperature while your coffee is extracted. During my tests it reached the target temperature of 92C within a minute, and was ready to brew shortly afterwards (the LED display will show when it's ready to go).

I really appreciated having a choice of ways to brew an espresso – either by tapping one of the buttons to pull a single or double shot, or by pulling the lever up manually so you can keep an eye on the volume of coffee and the timer yourself.

The accessories supplied with the Smeg Mini Pro are excellent quality (Image credit: Future)

The action of the lever is smooth and satisfying, but it's very nice having the choice of the two customizable buttons if you don't want to spend time measuring out a shot yourself. The single and double shot presets are easy to customize; just press and hold either button to configure it.

The pressure gauge gave a good idea of whether the my coffee was likely to be under- or over-extracted, helping me avoid wasting milk on a poor quality espresso. Although the Mini Pro can achieve 15 bars of pressure, it's optimized for 9-10 bars, which is generally considered ideal for brewing espresso.

During my tests, the machine brewed consistently excellent shots using both the manual lever and the presets. The only disappointing shot I had came when the water tank was starting to run low, but not low enough to generate a refill alert. The Mini Pro brewed a shot, but the gauge showed that it hadn't generated enough pressure, and the resulting coffee tasted dry and under-extracted. It was very useful to have an early warning that it was a bad shot before I added milk, so I could refill the tank and try again.

I was also surprised just how quiet the Smeg Mini Pro was in use, with the pump reaching only 33dB while pulling a shot – similar to the murmuring of a quiet library.

You'll receive an alert when the 1-liter water tank needs refilling (Image credit: Future)

The steam wand is excellent, and is the thing I'll miss most now that I've finished testing the Smeg Mini Pro. Its dial allows you to increase the pressure smoothly so you don't end up with milk sprayed onto your kitchen counters (something that sometimes happens with my Gaggia Classic). The large capacity of the water tank means you can also keep steaming for much longer than you can with the little Gaggia, giving you plenty of time to achieve your preferred milk texture and temperature. The dial is large and tactile, with a super smooth motion as you adjust the intensity of the steam.

Smeg hasn't skimped with the accessories either. The 2.3in / 58mm diameter tamper is nicely weighted, and even the dishwasher-safe milk pitcher is excellent. with a shape that makes it easy to achieve a good whirlpool.

Overall, making coffee with the Smeg Mini Pro Espresso Machine is a real pleasure. I'd just expect a little more customization from a product costing almost as much as a commercial model.

• Performance score: 4.5/5

Should you buy the Smeg Mini Pro Espresso Coffee Machine? Buy it if

You love Smeg's style

This is a gorgeous espresso machine, and the design accounts for a lot of its high asking price.

You value choice

It's up to you whether you use the two preset buttons or the Smeg Mini Pro's lever to pull a shot, and you can use whichever you're in the mood for.

Don't buy it if

Value is key

This is a very expensive espresso machine, even by Smeg's premium standards. If your budget is more modest, take a look at the excellent Breville Bambino Plus – a compact model that's a fraction if the price and earned four and a half stars in our review.

Smeg Mini Pro Espresso Coffee Machine: also consider

Not sure about the Smeg Mini Pro Espresso Machine? Here are two other options to consider

Smeg BCC13

This fully automatic bean-to-cup coffee machine is in the same family as the Mini Pro, and gives excellent results if you want a decent cup of coffee with minimal hassle. Unlike the BCC12, this model also has an auto milk frother - no manual steaming necessary.

Read our full Smeg BCC13 review

Seattle Coffee Gear Diletta Bello+

This is a step closer to being a commercial-grade espresso machine, and offers some features you don't get with the Smeg Mini Pro, such as a heat exchange boiler so you can brew and steam simultaneously.

Read our full Seattle Coffee Gear Diletta Bello+ review

How I tested the Smeg Mini Pro Espresso Coffee Machine

I used the Smeg Mini Pro Espresso Machine instead of my usual Gaggia Classic for four weeks, typically using it two or three times a day. I usually brewed standard 60ml double-shot espressos at 92C.

I used fresh coffee beans from Clifton Coffee Roasters, ground using a Dualit burr grinder, and filtered tap water. I tested the steam wand using chilled whole dairy milk and oat milk.

For more details, take a look at how we test, review, and rate at TechRadar.

First reviewed January 2025

SteelSeries Apex Pro TKL Wireless Gen 3: one-minute review

The SteelSeries Apex Pro TKL Wireless Gen 3 is the latest incarnation in the brand’s line of elite gaming keyboards, with various improvements for even better gaming performance.

The looks downplay its gaming prowess, with the RGB lighting and floating keycaps being the only signals in this regard. Still, it looks smart and sophisticated, and the build quality is excellent.

It’s quite thick yet not as heavy as you might expect. Every aspect of its built feels premium, right down to the included wrist pad, which is soft yet durable; it’s easily on a par with the best gaming keyboard out there. The double shot PBT keycaps also feel great, with a pleasantly grainy texture.

There are various keyboard shortcuts available by default, accessible via SteelSeries’ Meta modifier key (essentially a function key). These include altering the global actuation point, toggling rapid trigger, changing profiles, recording macros, and switching between three Bluetooth devices.

Similar functions can also be found on the OLED screen in the top right corner of the Apex Pro, with navigation achieved via a dedicated button and the volume wheel. This screen can also be customized in SteelSeries’ GG software, letting you upload images and GIFs to display, and can be used to view system and in-game information.

Overall GG is easy to use and offers plenty of other customizations to sink your teeth into. There are various keyboard shortcuts to configure, although the system-level functions are lacking somewhat. There are also default profiles for certain games, including Counter-Strike 2, DOTA 2, Minecraft and League of Legends. You can set binds to activate on press or release, and the dual actuation mode lets you assign two binds to a single key, each one activated depending on how hard you press, which works effectively. It’s a shame, though, that there’s no visual feedback to show how your actuation settings work in practice.

When it comes to gaming, the Apex Pro really shines: the clack of key presses is very satisfying, the indented keycaps provide a planted finger position, and the bottom row is easy to access thanks to the slope of the keycaps. The layout is quite compact, but I still found it manageable. The switches offer fast yet smooth performance, and hitting certain actuation points is easy thanks to their feel. It is a shame, however, there aren’t more settings available to emulate the analog control of a gamepad.

Also, the wrist rest also cuts off abruptly with no downwards slope, so my palm hung off the edge awkwardly while in the WASD position. Without it, though, I found the keys were raised too high to reach without adopting a more fingertip-oriented position. Typing with the Apex Pro isn’t the best experience either. I personally prefer shallower keycaps, and I found gliding around on the Apex Pro awkward.

There’s no doubt the Apex Pro is a premium piece of hardware, and it commands a premium price tag. It may not be as expensive as some of its rivals, such as the Razer BlackWidow V4 Pro 75%, but it runs close. There are cheaper gaming keyboards with analog switches, such as the Turtle Beach Vulcan 2 TKL Pro, although this is wired only and can’t quite match the Apex Pro for performance. So if you’ve got the money to spend, the Apex Pro is hard to top for an analog keyboard.

(Image credit: Future) SteelSeries Apex Pro TKL Wireless Gen 3 review: price and availability

• $269 / £259 (about AU$456)
• Available now
• Top-end of the market

The Apex Pro costs $269 / £259 (about AU$456) and is available now in black only. It comes with a wrist pad and replacement keycaps can be purchased from SteelSeries’ website. A mini version is also available which loses the OLED screen, and a full-size variant adds a number pad as well as a larger scroll wheel and screen button.

The Apex Pro sits atop the market in terms of price, eclipsing some of Razer’s best offerings, for instance. Although not quite as pricey as the BlackWidow V4 Pro 75%, it’s more expensive than the Huntsman V2 Analog, our pick as the best gaming keyboard. What sets that board apart is the 360-degree motion of the switches keys, letting you mimic an analog stick on a gamepad even more closely. It’s wired only, though.

If you’re looking for another analog keyboard, then the Turtle Beach Vulcan 2 TKL Pro is considerably less expensive than the Apex Pro. Although it’s wired only and has some issues with its analog implementation, the Vulcan 2 is still a worthy contender in the sector.

Value: 3 / 5

(Image credit: Future) SteelSeries Apex Pro TKL Wireless Gen 3 review: specs

(Image credit: Future) SteelSeries Apex Pro TKL Wireless Gen 3 review: design and features

• Premium design
• Useful OLED screen
• Intuitive software

The Apex Pro looks understated for a gaming keyboard. The totally black design is bereft of the brash trappings common in the sector, so at first glance you’ll struggle to identify its intended audience. The floating keycaps, though, are a giveaway, as is the opulent RGB lighting.

There’s no denying the Apex Pro has a premium aura, though. It’s also substantial, with a thick, two-tiered chassis, but fortunately it isn’t as heavy as it looks. The build quality is impeccable, with every material, join and key feeling smooth and sturdy.

The double-shot PBT keycaps are lightly textured and feel great under your fingers. They’re quite thick and sit high above the board, allowing for deep presses. If they aren’t to your liking, though, they can be swapped out, and a puller is included. The layout is also quite compact, which I had to get used to, but it didn’t take long to adapt.

The wrist pad is similarly well-built yet pleasingly light, with a smooth rubberized layer that’s both durable and comfortable. It connects magnetically to the board itself, and although the connection is quite weak, it suffices.

There are several default hotkeys on the Apex Pro, accessible with SteelSeries’ own modifier key, called the Meta key. These include global adjustments for the actuation point and rapid trigger function, as well changing profiles, recording macros, and switching between three Bluetooth devices.

However, more detailed settings and customizations are available via the Engine tool within the GG software. All keys can be remapped, and can be set to trigger on press or release. There’s a good selection of actions, including profile switching, keyboard setting adjustments and app launching. There are also OS shortcuts that can be mapped, including a selection of media keys and copy and paste, but there aren’t many more than this; those in other peripheral software are more numerous.

(Image credit: Future)

GG also allows you to set actuation points ranging from 0.1mm to 4mm for all main keys. You can also toggle rapid trigger for each individual key, which, as GG explains, dynamically alters the actuation point when spamming, allowing for rapid-twitch movements. It even has a dual binding mode, allowing a single key to have two different binds, depending on the primary and secondary actuation points of your choosing.

For the most part, GG is easy to use with a clear layout and some explanations for various settings. However, it would’ve been nice to see some visual feedback when adjusting actuation points and rapid trigger modes, as some of the Apex Pro’s rivals offer with their own software.

Nestled in the top right corner of the Apex Pro is a small monotone OLED screen, called the Smart Screen. It displays battery life by default, but can be customized in GG to display anything from your own images and GIFs, to system and in-game information.

The options available for the latter are quite in depth. For instance, you can choose to display certain information at certain increments, and choose various screens to cycle through, each displaying their own unique information at various points. Supported games include Counter-Strike 2, DOTA 2, Minecraft, and League of Legends.

There’s also a button on the screen that can be used to control media playback, such as play / pause and next / previous functions. You can enter a menu by holding this button down for a few seconds, from which more settings and functions are available: you can change the brightness of the RGB illumination, toggle between three of your connected Bluetooth devices, and change the global actuation point and rapid trigger functions. Navigation in this menu is achieved with the volume wheel acting as a scroller, and it’s responsive and effective.

Design & features: 4 / 5

SteelSeries Apex Pro TKL Wireless Gen 3 review: performance

• Superb gaming performance
• Analog keys actually usable
• Typing not the best

The gaming performance of the Apex Pro is excellent. The stock keycaps are nicely indented, allowing you to maintain a secure position, and presses are weighted just right, allowing for easy actuation that provides pleasant feedback. Reaching the CTRL key and spacebar is also easy, thanks to the slight incline of the keycaps.

The switches are silky smooth and well lubed, offering plenty of clack without being too loud. I also found it relatively easy to hit certain actuation points, as the Hall-effect magnetic switches have more feel and resistance than others I’ve tried, such as those on the Turtle Beach Vulcan 2 TKL Pro. This makes the Apex Pro ideal for rapid trigger functionality or dual binding.

SteelSeries has also implemented a new Protection mode, which prevents keys adjacent to the intended one from accidentally triggering by reducing their sensitivity momentarily, which is a useful feature.

Where it does miss a trick, however, is the ability to map the keys to an analog stick. This would make for smoother character movements and vehicle control, and is something that can be done with the aforementioned Turtle Beach Vulcan 2 TKL Pro, as well as the Razer Huntsman V2 Analog.

(Image credit: Future)

As someone who prefers shallow keycaps for typing, I didn’t find the Apex Pro well suited for productivity purposes. Although adjusting the actuation point can help to prevent typos, the relatively thick keycaps and their deep indentations aren’t conducive to gliding around the board.

The included wrist pad is pretty much essential for typing comfortably, as the thick body forces your wrists to bend awkwardly without one. Thankfully, the one included offers enough support and padding to make both typing and gaming more comfortable.

The wrist pad can be more cumbersome when gaming, though. As the backend tails off abruptly with no slope, the area where your wrist meets your palm tends to overhang when in the WASD position, which is a strange and not entirely comfortable sensation. I did find that I could game without the pad, but I had to adapt my fingers so they were more perpendicular to the key caps, emphasizing more contact with the fingertips. If this is your preferred playing style anyway, then you shouldn’t have a problem.

Steelseries claims a battery life of up 40 hours over Bluetooth, or 37.5 hours via the 2.4GHz dongle. During my tests I found this to be accurate, as I was able to get several days use out of it.

Performance: 4.5 / 5

Should I buy the SteelSeries Apex Pro TKL Wireless Gen 3? Buy it if…

You want analog keys
Analog keys aren’t all that common, so if you want changeable sensitivity and rapid trigger functionality, this could be the board for you.

You want top-tier performance
Gaming with the Apex Pro is sublime, thanks to its smooth and fast performance. Actuation points are easy to hit and the rapid trigger works well.

Don’t buy it if…

You’re on a budget
You’ll be hard pressed to find many gaming keyboards that perform better than this, but it’ll cost you.

You want controller emulation
Although the switches are analog, you can’t emulate a gamepad’s triggers or analog sticks as you can with some other analog boards.

SteelSeries Apex Pro TKL Wireless Gen 3 review: also consider

Razer Huntsman V2 Analog
If you must have an analog keyboard, then the Huntsman V2 Analog is another fine example in this category. Razer claims that the analog inputs can work with any controller-based game, allowing for ultra-smooth inputs. Uniquely, the keys also feature 360-degree movement, emulating a joystick more closely. The Huntsman V2 Analog can be had for slightly less than the Apex Pro, although if you hunt around you may be able to find a better deal. Read our Razer Huntsman V2 Analog review.

Turtle Beach Vulcan 2 TKL Pro
If you still want analog switches but want to save even more cash, then the Vulcan 2 TKL Pro could fit the bill. It also lets you emulate the triggers and analog sticks of a gamepad, although the implementation isn’t as seamless as you might imagine. Still, it can have its uses. Read our Turtle Beach Vulcan 2 TKL Pro review.

How I tested the SteelSeries Apex Pro TKL Wireless Gen 3

• Tested for about a week
• Used for gaming, productivity and general use
• 10+ years PC gaming experience

I tested the Apex Pro for about a week. During that time I used it for gaming, productivity and general use.

I played various games, including Counter-Strike 2 and I Am Your Beast, which were useful for testing the actuation points and rapid trigger functionality. I also made sure to make use of every feature and function available via the GG software where possible.

I have been PC gaming for over 10 years, and have experienced numerous keyboards during that time, spanning various switch types, key profiles, and form factors. I have also reviewed multiple gaming keyboards from a mixture of brands.

• First reviewed November 2024
• Read more about how we test

Review info

Platforms reviewed: PS5
Available on: PS5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PC
Release date: January 17, 2024

In many ways, I couldn’t be happier with Dynasty Warriors Origins. The revitalization of what had become a very tired franchise is mostly a successful one, modernizing its gameplay elements while retaining what made it so special in the first place. You just can’t get that immense ‘1 vs. 1,000’ power fantasy anywhere else, and Dynasty Warriors Origins does it better than ever.

Rest assured that for the most part, this is still a Dynasty Warriors game through and through. You’ll rampage across massive battlefields, taking out key positions and removing enemy officers from play to gain the advantage - often laying waste to thousands of soldiers unlucky enough to be on your path from A to B.

But the gameplay loop has evolved in so many ways. For one, weapon types aren’t just different ways to hit the same normal / strong attack combos in sequence, instead offering unique mechanics that set them apart from each other. New elements like grand tactics and ambush charges also add a wonderfully cinematic feeling to battles when they happen, ensuring that something monumentally exciting happens on almost every map.

Then there’s the story, which has also seen a pretty major shift, and it’s one I have mixed feelings about. The move to a sole playable protagonist is a pretty bold change on developer Omega Force’s part, and while other officers are playable (and extremely powerful) in a limited capacity, this’ll probably be a letdown for long-time series fans hoping to get stuck in with a returning favorite.

Return to the Three Kingdoms

(Image credit: Koei Tecmo)

As ever, Dynasty Warriors Origins’ narrative is based on that of Luo Guanzhong’s Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Three distinct factions are locked in a power struggle as each attempts to unify China under one banner as the influence of the Han dynasty begins to wane.

Origins’ story presents things a little differently. While still featuring the era’s major events such as the Yellow Turban Rebellion, Dong Zhuo’s tyrannical reign, and the pivotal Battle of Red Cliffs, we do it all through the eyes of an original protagonist.

Best bit

(Image credit: Koei Tecmo)

When you’re on the verge of gaining the upper hand, you’ll often have the chance to join up with a large force and charge head-on at the enemy. These moments always feel brilliantly cinematic. The camera pans back to give you a wider view of the battlefield, a subtle screen shake is applied and the thunderous roar of your troops echoes through the air. This moment is the highlight of any map in the game, especially as the music intensifies to take the whole experience up a notch.

This approach comes with its own set of successes and drawbacks. You’re given a lot of agency in the officers you wish to get to know better via bonding events and optional battles, especially later in the game where you need to decide on which of the three factions you’ll join. This, in turn, can change the latter half of Origins greatly, with you fighting different battles and armies based on your choices. That naturally makes for a healthy amount of replay value as you can go back and explore other routes via New Game Plus.

On the other hand, the shift to a single playable protagonist has plenty of faults. For one, the hero is aggressively bland. He barely registers any kind of expression during cutscenes and has no voice lines of his own outside of flavor text in battle. Plus, his story just isn’t very interesting with an amnesiac narrative that culminates in a pretty predictable payoff.

It just ultimately doesn’t add much value to the timeless and still very engaging Three Kingdoms plot. I do feel that having the option to create your own character - like in other Koei Tecmo games such as Nioh 2, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, and Rise of the Ronin - could’ve remedied this problem to a degree. At least then, we’d be able to apply some kind of identity to our protagonist especially as you won’t have much opportunity to play as other iconic officers - but more on that later.

Army of one

(Image credit: Koei Tecmo)

So while Dynasty Warriors Origins’ narrative changes end up feeling a little flat for me, I won’t be saying the same for its gameplay. Origins is the best-feeling Warriors game ever made, even when accounting for some of the excellent spin-offs like Hyrule Warriors and Dragon Quest Heroes 2. Origins boasts a level of AAA quality that the series has simply never had before, and it brings plenty of changes and additions that help keep the experience from feeling stale.

For starters, each of the game’s nine weapon types all feel distinct and are a far cry from the usual normal-to-strong attack combos we typically get from the series. That style is retained on the basic sword weapon type, but I found pretty much every other weapon to be vastly more interesting.

The twin pikes, for example, dish out more damaging blows when your strong attack inputs are hit at the right time. Meanwhile, the lance lets you absorb blows by holding down the strong attack button leading to a devastating attack at full strength. A favorite of mine is the gauntlets which let you adopt various stances for a wide variety of different attacks suited to both crowd control and single-target damage.

(Image credit: Koei Tecmo)

Weapon types will also rank up the more you use them, unlocking even more moves and abilities for each. Higher ranks will in turn unlock new sets of nodes on your skill tree, further bolstering your power when you redeem skill points earned through battle and by ticking off optional training objectives assigned to you by other officers. Furthermore, Bravery skills and Tactics offer an even wider pool of abilities, including powerful guard-breaking attacks and volleys of arrows to reign down on the opposing army.

There may be fewer weapon types overall when compared to older Warriors entries, then, but this has allowed Omega Force to really flesh out their move sets for a more fulfilling experience overall. It’s great that the game incentivizes you to try out all weapon types, too, via those aforementioned training objectives and evolving move sets as they rank up.

It’s not just the protagonist that can be controlled during battle, though. You also have the ability to partner up with another iconic officer as a companion. When their meter is full, you’re able to temporarily switch to them. These officers, including series favorites like Xiahou Dun, Guan Yu, and Sun Shangxiang, are deliberately overpowered and are able to turn the tides of a battle in an instant.

Companion officers do feel superb to play as, with their own abilities and Bravery arts to make use of. I am pretty mixed on the mechanic as a whole, though, as I definitely would’ve preferred an option to just play as them outright in addition to the protagonist. It probably won’t be such a huge deal if Origins is your first Warriors game, but, as a long-time fan, I can’t help but miss being able to play as a wider variety of Three Kingdoms heroes freely.

A truly modern Musou

(Image credit: Koei Tecmo)

I think it’s fair to say that Dynasty Warriors Origins absolutely achieves what it sets out to do in revitalizing the Musou experience for a modern audience. It gave me that same “there is simply nothing else like this” feeling that I had with Dynasty Warriors 5 back in my teens. Nowhere is this more apparent than with Origins’ electrifying large-scale battles.

The general gameplay loop largely remains unchanged if you’re familiar with the Musou format. Most maps will have you eliminating enemy officers, taking over key bases, or escorting units to a particular location. With the power of current-generation gaming systems, however, Omega Force is finally able to make these battles feel truly large and cinematic.

That’s driven home by one major new feature: charges. When prompted to do so, you can head to a location on the map where your army has gathered to initiate a forward charge. This, for me, is the high point of any battle, as the camera pans back to give a wide view of the battlefield as you charge head-on towards the opposing army. A subtle screen shake and the courageous screams of your infantry further sell the moment as hundreds of troops clash into each other for an ultimate confrontation. It’s a moment that feels immensely rewarding and satisfying, and again, is unlike anything I’ve seen in any other action game, let alone any other Warriors title.

This incredible presentation is backed up by some pretty impressive visuals and yes, that trademark Dynasty Warriors brand of hard rock for the soundtrack. Perhaps most surprising of all, though, Origins is able to maintain a steady 60 frames per second (fps) in the default performance mode. There are also options for 30fps and 120fps modes, but the trade-offs here are either choppier performance or too big of a loss in visual clarity, respectively. The 60fps mode provides a pretty nice sweet spot and is the mode I would recommend for players without a high-end PC or PS5 Pro.

Should I play Dynasty Warriors Origins?

(Image credit: Koei Tecmo) Play it if…

You’re after a very unique action game experience
There’s simply nothing quite like Dynasty Warriors Origins’ brand of 1 vs. 1,000 combat. It’s endlessly satisfying, and the incredibly gratifying combat feedback prevents things from growing stale.

You want diverse weapon types and play styles
Each of Origins’ weapon types offers a wide variety of play styles and you’re regularly encouraged to try them all. This system is perfectly suited to completionists who want to rank up their weapons and get the most out of each.

Don’t play it if…

You want a more interesting storyline
While Origins does an impressive job of fleshing out the story of the Three Kingdoms, the new narrative focused on the amnesiac protagonist leaves much to be desired and is fairly uninteresting overall.

Accessibility

Dynasty Warriors Origins has a handful of helpful accessibility options, led by three ‘color perception’ settings aimed at colorblind players These are unhelpfully labeled as settings ‘1, 2 and 3’ so you’ll need to switch between each to find which one best suits your needs. You can also adjust subtitle size, and choose to have a boxed backdrop for subtitles for easier reading.

Beyond this, there’s not much to speak of beyond the usual camera sensitivity and rumble adjustment settings. It is worth noting, though, that the three difficulty levels can be swapped between during the campaign itself, so there’s no need to commit if things are getting too easy or too hard as you progress.

How I reviewed Dynasty Warriors Origins

I played Dynasty Warriors Origins for 30 hours on PS5, taking me to the end of the main campaign. This playtime is expected to increase, though, as I head back into New Game Plus to try out other routes on the way to unlocking the game’s ‘true’ ending.

I played the game on a 4K LG CX OLED TV, primarily using the DualSense Wireless Controller to experience Origins’ fairly light usage of its haptic feedback. I often paired this with a JBL Quantum 910P gaming headset for a rich audio experience.

First reviewed January 2025

Bowers & Wilkins Pi6: Two-minute review

The Bowers & Wilkins Pi6 are a more 'budget' alternative to B&W’s big flagship pair for 2024, the Bowers & Wilkins Pi8. I put budget in quotation marks, because despite undercutting their siblings, the Pi6 are still a premium pair of buds in their own right when you consider that rivals come in at almost half the price – and some of those offer hearing tests, proprietary spatial audio solutions and personalised sound profiles.

Bowers & Wilkins is a name revered for top-tier audio, even if you’re getting the company's ‘budget’ option, and that’s emphatically the case with the Pi6. As soon as you start listening to them you’ll be serenaded with a detailed soundstage, a zealous sound and smart ANC that’ll strip away any distractions.

If you're all about audio and can't quite stretch to the premium B&W Pi8, these earbuds are still a viable option. But to start with the sound quality might be getting ahead of ourselves, because you certainly won’t start there – like me, you’ll probably begin by hitting your shins on the harsh edges that B&W has left about the place. These buds have a surprising number of cut corners for earbuds that cost this much.

Sadly, I found pairing with the Pi6 a torturous and ongoing process. I realise it's one person's experience, but nonetheless I reviewed over 30 pairs of wireless headphones and earbuds last year and I'm not slouch on this. It was difficult. For me, the initial set-up was a time-consuming struggle, which I went through on multiple devices to check whether it was just my phone being problematic. And sadly, the connection wasn’t 100% reliable even once the buds were paired, because Bower & Wilkins’ app would reliably fail to recognize the buds if I put them in my ears once the app was already open.

The app doesn’t offer any scope for Spatial Audio or otoacoustic hearing profile curation, which is fair enough, but there are one or two standard quality-of-life perks missing, such as ‘find my headphones’.

Fortunately, the Pi6 are nice and light to wear, making them comfortable to wear and reliable to place in your ear. Honestly, the great audio quality here could very well offset the omission of a few personalisation perks and my connectivity issues, and this review was initially meant to have a 4.5-star score. However, near the end of the testing I was having trouble getting the Pi6 to work before leaving home, once again, and so despite the fact I was meant to be testing the Pi6 I had to leave the house with another pair of buds. And if I choose not to use the Pi6, despite the great-sounding audio, then it makes it hard to wholeheartedly recommend them to someone else.

Bowers & Wilkins Pi6 review: Price and release date

(Image credit: Future)

• Released in September 2024, after Pi8
• Costs $199 / £219 / AU$449

You can buy the Bowers & Wilkins Pi6 for $199 / £219 / AU$449, so they’re mid-range buds that act as cheaper – though not ‘cheap’ – alternatives to the Pi8.

The Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 sell for $399 / £349 / AU$599, which is a big step up, and so people who don’t need the very best and want to save a few pennies will find it a tempting option, and they are absolutely worthy of consideration.

Both earbuds were announced at the same time in August 2024. The Pi8 were put on sale straight away while the Pi6 were released in September.

Bowers & Wilkins Pi6 review: Specs Bowers & Wilkins Pi6 review: Features

(Image credit: Future)

• App doesn't offer the plethora of features others can
• Persistent connectivity issues
• Quoted battery life is 8 hours, but didn't reach that

The Bowers & Wilkins Pi6 easily takes a top-three spot in my all-time ranking of the most troublesome earbuds to pair with.

Devices just refused to recognize the Pi6. That’s plural devices – I tried to connect to a smartphone, a laptop and an iPad during testing. On all occasions, the device stalwartly refused to ‘see’ the buds via Bluetooth, and I’d have to keep turning Bluetooth on and off before the planets aligned and the device found the Pi6. Mercury must have been in retrograde or something when I was trying to connect the buds to my iPad, because I simply never managed it – not once.

When I first paired the Pi6 to my smartphone, the right bud wouldn’t work, a process which was only fixed when I went through the entire process all over again and re-paired them to my mobile. And when it did work, the connection wasn’t always reliable, with the app not always recognizing the buds and the left earbud continuing to give up the ghost from time to time. Again, it's important to note this is my personal experience (and it's very different to the one Becky Scarrott had when testing the flagship Pi8) but still, it's valid: I'm a regular TechRadar audio tester and in this particular area, the B&W Pi6 were unusually troublesome.

(Image credit: Future)

Another weak link is the battery life. Bowers & Wilkins quotes the Pi6 as having an 8-hour battery life but from my testing, it fell an hour or so short each time. Seven hours is still just above average, but the case was the real issue. The charging case is meant to provide 24 hours of listening time but I found that the power on this would be much less than that.

I’d sometimes put the earbuds in after a few days of not using them, to find that the battery had fully drained, even if it was powered up before. I’d need to charge the buds back up again before using them.

There’s a smartphone app to provide some extra controls over the buds. However, this was chock-full of adverts for things like streaming service free trials and podcasts that B&W sponsors, and so the actual features feel somewhat hidden. You can turn on ANC or ANC pass-through, play with a simple equalizer (you can increase or decrease treble or bass), turn off or on the wearer detection and customize the touch controls.

Most of these are listed under the ‘Discover More’ section of the app’s home page, as though they’re optional extras instead of the main reason you’d download said app. That’s only if you have the buds paired though and remember, several times in my testing the app wouldn’t recognize that the buds were connected.

• Features score: 3.5/5

Bowers & Wilkins Pi6 review: Design

(Image credit: Future)

• Premium-feel, compact case
• Handy touch controls
• Four color options to pick from

The Bowers & Wilkins Pi6 come in a small pebble-like charging case. It measures 6.5 x 2.9 x 5.2 cm and weighs 46g so it’s nice and small. I had no issue popping it in a trouser pocket and forgetting about it for a day. The case doesn’t seem to have an IP rating.

The buds themselves are fairly light in weight, tipping the scales at 7g each. I found the fit to be comfortable and reliable, staying in my ears during a gym session amongst other activities, but several different ear tip sizes come in the box with the Pi6.

Each bud has a sensor on the top plate that you can use to control your music. Using these took a little bit of getting used-to (to figure out where to tap and how firm to be) but after a while it became a convenient way to handle the playback of my music. Using the app you can choose for the hold options to be to change the volume, or to handle ANC and summon your voice assistant.

You can pick up the buds in four colors. I used Cloud Gray but there’s also Glacier Blue (pale blue), Storm Gray (black) and Forest Green (olive).

I mentioned that the case doesn’t have an IP rating, but the buds do: they’re certified at IP54, which is a good dust-resistant and water-resistant rating – but I hope it goes without saying that you shouldn’t submerge them in water.

• Design score: 4.5/5

Bowers & Wilkins Pi6 review: Sound quality

(Image credit: Future)

• 12mm driver, but misses the Pi8's custom one
• Hearty bass and mid, treble falls a little short
• Support for a range of codecs

Bowers and Wilkins has managed to get a 12mm dynamic driver into each of the Pi6 buds, and they support SBC, AAC, aptX Adaptive and aptX Classic codecs.

The Pi6 sound great for their price, which is just as well given the lack of a hugely meaningful equalizer to let you fix any issues. I really enjoyed listening to music with them, when the buds worked.

The buds took a zealous approach to my music, with a meaty but not overwhelming bass and full-bodied mids, and a detailed soundstage helps you appreciate these elements. For certain kinds of music, the Pi6 were some of the best buds I’ve tested in some time.

(Image credit: Future)

If there’s an Achilles’ Heel, it’s the treble, which I found to lack an extra ounce of sparkle as well as prevalence in the mix. I found myself wishing female vocals and harmonising instruments were a little more prominent, and even maxing out the treble in the equalizer only went so far towards fixing the issue.

At least for the music I listen to, however, the treble was never a huge issue, but it’s something worth flagging to prospective buyers. A few features are missing in the Pi6 that show up in the Pi8, including aptX Lossless support, an advanced DAC and bespoke drivers, but those are pretty niche features that only certain audiophile-grade fans will really need.

• Sound quality: 4.5/5

Bowers & Wilkins Pi6 review: Value

(Image credit: Future)

• Don't offer fantastic value for money
• Hunt around for sales to save

The B&W Pi6 have great audio for the price and a nice light case design, but the value proposition is knocked by the limited feature set.

I’ve tested plenty of earbuds that cost a third of the price of the Pi6 and have more impressive feature sets, more detailed equalizers and apps that don’t attack you with advertising for music services, playlists or podcasts.

You’re paying a fairly high price for the audio tech here and even non-audiophiles will enjoy the sound quality. But you can definitely find earbuds that sound almost as good for around $120 / £120 / AU$300 if you shop around. You can even find the Pi6 for a lot less in sales, despite writing this review only a few months after their release, so shop around.

• Value: 3.5/5

Should I buy the Bowers & Wilkins Pi6?

(Image credit: Future) Buy them if…

You're on a middling budget
If you're okay with spending a fair amount of money, but not loads of it, then the Pi6 might be the nice middle ground you need instead of going for expensive buds.

You need a slender carry case
Some wireless earbuds come with charging cases that you need to clear by customs, they're so big; if you want something nice and easy to tote about, then the Pi6 will be great for you.

Don’t buy them if…

You like customizing your audio
You can tweak bass and audio by a little bit, but even cheap earbuds have much more detailed equalizers (or preset options) than the Pi6 does..

You're a technophobe
If you struggle with any techy issues, the constant pairing problems of the Pi6 may well cause you to lose all your hair.

Bowers & Wilkins Pi6 review: Also consider

Bowers & Wilkins Pi8
Not an imaginative comparison, but this is the Pi6's big sibling. A higher price tag gets you better audio, some extra features and the flagship driver, but (mostly) the same design.

See our full Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 review

Sony WF-1000XM5
Sony's recent top-end earbuds cost similar amounts to the Pi6. They get you great audio, comfortable fits and a much better selection of Sony features to enjoy.

See our full Sony WF-1000XM5 review

How I tested the Bowers & Wilkins Pi6

• Tested for over three weeks
• Tested at home, in the office and at the gym

(Image credit: Future)

I tested the Bowers & Wilkins Pi6 (when they weren't testing me...) for roughly three weeks, due to the testing period falling over the Christmas break.

I've detailed lots of my testing process above; I used them alongside my phone, an iPad and a laptop, in a range of environments including my home, the office, public transport and the gym. I streamed music, played games and watched some TV too.

I've been testing gadgets for TechRadar for almost six years now, and in that time have tested a huge range of headphones and earbuds, so I'm used to troubleshooting and fixing faulty tech.

• First reviewed in January 2025

• Read TechRadar's reviews guarantee

Hori Fighting Stick Alpha: one-minute review

The Hori Fighting Stick Alpha is a very solid option for those on the hunt for a new fight stick, but only if you’ve already got some familiarity with this type of controller and prefer them for fighting games over regular gamepads. At $200 / £200, I certainly wouldn’t recommend it to players transitioning to fight sticks for the first time. Especially as many of the best fight sticks come in cheaper while still offering a fantastic onboarding experience.

But that doesn’t mean the Hori Fighting Stick Alpha isn’t worth buying. For one, it’s impressively light for its size, meaning it’ll rest on your lap easily. There’s plenty of space on its surface, too, making for a roomy and comfortable stick to use for quick sessions online.

As we see with similarly priced sticks like the Nacon Daija, the Alpha is fully customizable. Its clamshell design allows you to easily open it up and swap out Hori’s components for alternatives should you desire. That goes for the faceplate, too, if you’re keen to add some of your own unique flair to the rather bland default design.

Circling back to comfort, one other dealbreaker here might be the Alpha’s usage of the Noir layout for its buttons. This means the buttons are slightly more offset than what you’d find with the more modern Vewlix layout - where the buttons are gathered closer together. Your preference may vary here, and I certainly found the Noir layout well-suited for four-button games like Tekken 8 (Noir is a layout popularized by Namco, after all), but when swapping over to Street Fighter 6, I found myself wanting the more uniform layout of a Vewlix stick.

(Image credit: Future) Hori Fighting Stick Alpha: Price and availability

• $200 / £200
• Priced similarly to the Nacon Daija
• Newcomers may wish to consider cheaper sticks like the 8BitDo Arcade Stick

The Hori Fighting Stick Alpha is not cheap, and while it is significantly easier on the wallet than premium sticks like the Victrix Pro FS, it’d be understandable if its $200 / £200 price tag turned newcomers away. It’s definitely a workhorse fight stick thanks to its good build quality and customizability, and well worth the investment if you know you’re going to get plenty of use out of it.

However, those dipping a toe in for the first time may want to consider some of the cheaper fight stick options out there. The excellent 8BitDo Arcade Stick comes to mind here. The Xbox/PC version can be had for $119.99 / £99, and the original Switch model often comes in even cheaper than that (and it also works with PC).

Hori Fighting Stick Alpha: specs

(Image credit: Future) Hori Fighting Stick Alpha: design and features

• Solid build quality and impressively lightweight
• Features Hori’s Hayabusa modules by default
• Fully customizable modules and faceplate

While not the absolute tip-top premium in this regard, there is a good build quality all around on the Hori Fighting Stick Alpha. It’s entirely plastic and rather lightweight compared to many of its peers, but this does mean it sits easily in your lap without feeling like it’s weighing you down. Two rubberized grips on the underside mean it can easily be placed on a desk or similar flat surface without slipping around.

Hori’s own Hayabusa modules are in play here, including eight buttons and a square gate joystick. The top of the board features a line of ancillary function buttons, including Home and sharing buttons as well as options to mute your headset should one be connected via the 3.5mm jack on the left side of the unit. A couple of switches here also let you toggle between Xbox and PC compatibility, as well as a lock switch to prevent pausing or accessing your console’s dashboard for tournament play.

If you’re not keen on those Hayabusa modules, or simply want to swap in other parts like the gold standard Sanwa-Denshi buttons and sticks, you can do so here. The Alpha features a clamshell design that can be opened up via a sturdy latch at the rear side of the unit. I tested swapping out parts myself and found the process to be straightforward. But if you’re new to this kind of thing, you may wish to look up a separate guide as some cable management is involved.

The transparent pane on the surface of the Alpha can also be removed, allowing you to swap in custom faceplates. All in all, it’s a highly customizable stick. You should expect that, given the cost, but it’s nice that you can change up the stick to such a degree based on your preferences nonetheless.

(Image credit: Future) Hori Fighting Stick Alpha: performance

• Sharply responsive across all fighting games tested
• Better suited to four-button games due to Noir layout
• No option for wireless connectivity

In terms of overall performance, the Hori Fighting Stick Alpha doesn’t really put a foot wrong. You’re getting solid, responsive performance across all of the best fighting games. Hori’s Hayabusa buttons have a very short travel time, allowing you to perform inputs quickly and reliably. Stick motions for special move inputs in games like Street Fighter 6 and Guilty Gear Strive do take some getting used to, but that’s more of a stick thing in general and not really a flaw of the Alpha itself.

The elephant in the room for the Alpha - and whether or not you’re likely to gel with it - is its usage of the Noir button layout which many find to be outdated. As mentioned earlier, Noir has the button column second from the left slightly raised compared to the rest, and the buttons on the far right are slightly lowered, too. This creates an offset that might cause your hand to get uncomfortable during longer play sessions.

Noir is actually excellent for four-button fighting games like Tekken 8 as your fingers will naturally rest over those four leftmost buttons. It can be a little awkward for six-button fighters, however, like Street Fighter 6 and many of the titles featured in Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics. That’s because you’ll more regularly be using the buttons further to the right (by default, for heavy attacks).

You can of course set your own button profiles on the Alpha which may alleviate some of the stress here. But if you’re a Street Fighter player, you may be better served with a stick that adopts the Vewlix layout which has the buttons laid out in more uniform rows.

Lastly, for connectivity on console or PC, you’ll be relying on the included 10ft (3m) USB-C cable. That should be fine for most gaming setups and you can adjust its length via a spool beneath the Alpha’s clamshell. But just know that wireless connectivity isn’t an option here.

(Image credit: Future) Should I buy the Hori Fighting Stick Alpha? Buy it if...

You’re a Tekken player
Four-button fighting games like Tekken 8 or The King of Fighters 15 are well-suited for the Alpha’s Noir button layout.

You’re after a long-lasting, customizable fight stick
The Alpha is customizable in terms of its hardware and software, allowing you to swap out components and set your own button profiles. Its sturdy build quality and lightweight design make it excellent for traveling and taking to tournaments, too.

Don't buy it if...

You’re new to fight sticks
This is a price thing more than anything else. If you’re just looking to dabble in fight sticks for the first time, cheaper options like the 8BitDo Arcade Stick or Mayflash F300 might suit you better.

You play a wide range of fighting games
While you can have success in just about any fighting game with the Alpha, if you juggle a number of fighting games you might find that a Vewlix layout stick is better suited for you, especially for titles like Street Fighter 6.

Also consider...

Still unsure? We’ve reviewed a couple of fight stick alternatives that you may wish to check out instead of the Hori Fighting Stick Alpha. Refer to the table below for a quick rundown of specs.

8BitDo Arcade Stick
An excellent budget-friendly fight stick that’s relatively light and travel-friendly. It’s also got wireless connectivity via an included 2.4GHz dongle if you’d prefer that over a stricter wired connection. You will have to contend with slightly higher input lag if you’re going wireless, though, which is worth keeping in mind.

For more information, read our full 8BitDo Arcade Stick review

Victrix Pro FS
Arguably the cream of the crop when it comes to premium fight sticks, the Victrix Pro FS boasts immaculate build quality and comes fitted with best-in-class Sanwa-Denshi buttons. If money’s no object and you’re going all in on a fight stick, this is the one to go for. Both stick and leverless options are available here, at the same price.

For more information, read our full Victrix Pro FS review

How I tested the Hori Fighting Stick Alpha

• Tested for two weeks
• Platforms tested: Xbox Series X, PC
• Played a wide variety of fighting games across platforms

I tested the Hori Fighting Stick Alpha over a period of two weeks, playing a variety of fighting games including Tekken 8, Street Fighter 6, Guilty Gear Strive, Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising, and Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes.

I’ve been playing fighting games all my life, and while I’m typically a controller player, I’ve owned a number of fight sticks and thus have been able to channel my experience there into this review. Key things I looked out for during my testing included button responsiveness, the durability of the product, its aptitude to differing fighting game button layouts, and its comfort over longer gaming sessions.

I tested the Hori Fighting Stick Alpha primarily on PC but was also able to hook it up to my Xbox Series X Digital Edition for play on an LG CX OLED TV. Whether I was on console or PC, I didn’t notice any serious deviation when it came to input lag or general performance.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed January 2025

• View Yeedi M12 Ultra Plus at Amazon US

Yeedi M12 Ultra Plus: two-minute review Product note

The robot vacuum on review here is the Yeedi M12 Ultra Plus. Elsewhere in the lineup you'll find the Yeedi M12 Pro Plus – this is essentially the same vacuum, but the Ultra Plus has marginally higher suction: 11,800Pa for the Ultra, 11,000Pa for the Pro Plus.

The Yeedi M12 Ultra Plus is a fantastic robot vacuum in terms of cleaning power. The vacuuming is powerful (with suction specs up there with the highest on the market) and reliable, the mopping is efficient – especially thanks to a pad that can shift outwards to enable this robovac to mop right up to the edges of rooms. Reliable object avoidance and very good mapping also help ensure a thorough clean.

In fact, in terms of cleaning alone, it's up there with the best robot vacuums on the market. However, it doesn't quite set itself apart in a way that's much of a game-changer, and it lacks extra features that you will find with other premium models. Perhaps the most notable of those is the lack of voice assistant support (which is surprising at this price point), but you also can't do things like use the bot as a security camera / pet checker. To some, those features will be unnecessary extras, though.

The base station is comprehensive, taking care of much of the maintenance for you, including refilling the bot's water tanks, and washing and drying the mop pads. However, the knock-on of that is that it is quite bulky.

That's the short version; read on for my full Yeedi M12 Ultra Plus robot vacuum review.

(Image credit: Future) Yeedi M12 Ultra Plus review: price & availability

• List price: $1,099 / (about £840 / AU$1,630)
• Available: US
• Launched: September 2024

An asking price of $1,099 / (about £840 / AU$1,630) may seem exorbitant, but it really isn't with flagship models such as the Yeedi M12 Ultra Plus. Top-of-the-line models basically start at around $1,000 / £1,000 so something that's just a hundred bucks more is reasonable. Add on to that the fact that the Yeedi M21 Ultra Plus comes with powerful suction rated at 11,8000 Pa and has an extendable mop pad for mopping edges, along with great object avoidance, and you're getting pretty good value. While I hesitate to call it a deal, it's worth the price.

Compare, for instance, to the Narwal Freo X Ultra. At $1,399.99 / AU$ 2,299 (about £1,110), it's quite a bit more expensive, doesn't have that extendable mop pad, and isn't quite as powerful(it has 8,200 Pa of suction). The Narwal is a bit more aesthetically pleasing, however, and more feature-filled. For instance, you can actually use it as a security video camera drone.

The Ecovacs Deebot T30S Combo is another option that's going to set you back quite a bit with its $1,199.99 / AU$2,299 (about £950) price tag. It's very feature-rich and even comes with a handheld vacuum that self-empties into the base station. While it shouldn't be a huge consideration since all of these robot vacuums frequently return to the base station to wash their mop pads, it does have a 200 minute battery life to the Yeedi M12 Ultra Plus' 290 minutes.

• Value for money score: 4 out of 5

Yeedi M12 Ultra Plus specs Yeedi M12 Ultra Plus review: design

• Spinning mop pads – one of which extends to reach the edges of rooms
• 3D mapping sensors for improved object avoidance
• Large water tanks and dust bag in base station

The Yeedi M12 Ultra Plus, as a flagship robot vacuum, comes with some top tier design choices. For instance, while it comes with just one side brush (some models have two), it does have an anti-tangle brush roll. Plus, it comes with two spinning mop pads, one of which can extend out for edge mopping. Both can also lift off the ground for carpet cleaning as well, though it's not quite high enough for thick, shag carpets.

(Image credit: Future)

As far as its sensors go, it utilizes 3D mapping – you can see the results in the app. When it goes around mapping or cleaning, you can actually see two lasers cross in front of it. This helps with seeing objects more fully to avoid them. (Here's more on how robot vacuums navigate, if you're interested.)

(Image credit: Future)

Moving on to the base station. This is on the bulky side, although that's common for docks that offer comprehensive maintenance features, as this one does. Not only will it empty the bot's dustbin, it can also refill its onboard water tank and clean and dry its mop pads.

The most unusual thing about the dock is the fact that the clean and dirty water tanks are flat and wide, sitting on top of the base station instead of the thinner, deeper tanks of other models that sit inside the base station. I'm not sure there's a real practical difference other than the water tanks here are harder to tip over if you're filling up or emptying them.

They're both sizable, with the clean water tank holding 4L and the dirty water tank 3.5L. The dust bag that the robot vacuum automatically self-empties into is also pretty big at 3.4L. Also on hand are features that I've come to expect in flagship robot vacuums with mopping capability, such as hot mop pad washing and drying.

• Design score: 5 out of 5

Yeedi M12 Ultra Plus review: performance

• Both vacuuming and mopping are great
• Extendable mop pad means edges get mopped
• Object avoidance is very good

As one would expect with a flagship model, the vacuuming and mopping are both very good with the Yeedi M12 Ultra Plus. I tested this robot vacuum on hardwood and marble floors as well as a bath mat to see how it would do with carpeting.

Tackling the vacuuming first, it sucked up all manner of debris very well. For a more controlled test, I used cereal and sugar and it sucked everything right up. That's to be expected for a robovac that boasts 11,800Pa of suction – right up there with the highest on the market.

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(Image credit: Future)

If there's any place to mildly criticize the M12 Ultra Plus, it would be nice to see two side brushes instead of just one, as this would push more dust and debris in front of it to pick up per pass. At least it has a tangle-free brush roll.

While I was impressed with the mopping as well, it's a bit light on how much water it uses so I ended up preferring to use the highest water level when running it. Still, it left floors looking very clean. During that cereal and sugar test, I also tossed some coffee on the floor and it mopped that up fairly quickly.

(Image credit: Future)

Also, one of the mop pads extends out during cleaning so that the Yeedi M12 Ultra Plus is able to get to the edges of rooms. It's a nice feature that not all flagship robot vacuums come with.

Since the mop pads can lift up, when it vacuumed the bath mat that I used to simulate testing on carpet, it left the bath mat dry, meaning you can use this robot vacuum in a hybrid space and it will vacuum and mop hard flooring while just vacuuming carpeted areas.

Since this robot vacuum utilizes its 3D sensors for navigating and mapping, it does a very good job avoiding objects. I saw it go right up to and around chairs that had been moved, without touching (or sometimes barely touching). Just be aware that Yeedi hasn't yet solved cables and cords (no one has, frankly) so you should still pick those up before running the robot vacuum.

Performance-related features also include mop pad washing and drying as well as auto-emptying. They all work very well, though the robot vacuum has a tendency to wash the mop pads before running, which can be annoying if something just spilled and you want to do some spot cleaning.

Battery life

Since the Yeedi M12 Ultra Plus is one of those robot vacuums that regularly returns to its base station to wash its mop pads and empty its onboard dustbin, squeezing every minute of battery life out of it is not going to make a big impact on your experience. Still, its up to 290 minutes of use is fairly remarkable as many robot vacuums, especially with spinning mop pads, have a battery life that's closer to 200 minutes.

• Performance score: 4.5 out of 5

Yeedi M12 Ultra Plus review: app

• Straightforward to use
• Somewhat light on features – no option of voice assistant support
• Mapping is mostly good

The app is straightforward, from setup to use. There are no surprises, though some of that is due to the fact that there aren't a lot of extra features here. You won't find the ability to pair with Alexa or use as a remote video drone (this may seem random but more than a few flagship models have this feature).

But, the more important stuff is here, such as running the Yeedi M12 Ultra Plus in vacuum only, mop only, or vacuum and mop mode and the various settings during its cleaning (vacuuming power, mopping water level, etc.). There's also the ability to schedule cleanings, see a log of previous cleanings, edit the map, and adjust some other settings.

I like to focus specifically on the maps as I typically test robot vacuums in a semi-open floor plan and find many to have issues dividing the mapped space into smaller rooms – typically, the whole space, which comprises four rooms, are registered as one big room.

The Yeedi app does a good job dividing that space into smaller rooms, though I did find one instance where it wouldn't accept a division, so I have to either clean two rooms at once or use the zone setting to clean one of those specific rooms. This is an improvement over what I've experienced in the past, not just from Yeedi but other manufacturers as well.

• App score: 4 out of 5

Should you buy the Yeedi M12 Ultra Plus?

Design

Sizable water tanks and dust bag in the base station, and the robot vacuum has an extendable mop pad.

5 /5

Performance

Vacuuming and mopping performance are both very good.

4.5 /5

Buy it if...

You want great vacuuming and mopping

There's little to fault with its vacuuming and mopping performance. Plus, it can get to the edges with that extendable mop pad.

You have an open or semi-open floor plan

Its mapping and ability to divide the map in app makes creating new rooms easy, though there are still some quirks.

You want good object avoidance

Maybe it's from that 3D mapping, but the object avoidance is very good, without giving too wide a berth to the objects the robot vacuum is avoiding.

Don't buy it if...

You're on a budget

The price is reasonable compared to other flagship models, but you're dropping quite a bit of cash here.

You want all the bells and whistles

It has all the necessities on hand, but there are a few extras that other flagship models offer that you won't find with this Yeedi – lack of voice assistant support being the main one.

Yeedi M12 Ultra Plus: alternatives to consider

Narwal Freo X Ultra

The Narwal Freo X Ultra sets itself apart just by its base station's aesthetics, with its more aerodynamic look. It's feature-filled and good at vacuuming corners, but is very pricey, has some minor issues with mapping (at least with open floor plans), and is not quite as powerful as the Yeedi M12 Ultra Plus.

Read our full Narwal Freo X Ultra review

Ecovacs Deebot T30S Combo

It might be louder and more expensive, but the Ecovacs Deebot T30S Combo is worthy competition to the Yeedi M21 Ultra Plus. Not only does it do a great job vacuuming and mopping – it has that same extendable mop pad to get edges – but it also comes with a handheld vacuum for some extra deep or spot cleaning prowess.

Read our full Ecovacs Deebot T30S Combo review

How I tested the Yeedi M12 Ultra Plus

To test the Yeedi M12 Ultra Plus, I used it for a week to vacuum and mop the hardwood floors and a bath mat (to simulate carpeting) in my house. I also tested all the features listed in the app, particularly its mapping. I took note of how well the vacuum cleaned the edges of a room as well as around obstacles.

Read more about how we test robot vacuum cleaners

• First reviewed October 2024

We’ve seen a wide range of new tech announced and showcased at CES 2025, including everything from gaming handhelds to electric scooters. The star of the show has certainly been AI, and the new Acer Aspire Vero 16 takes full advantage all while being encased in a blend of post-consumer recycled plastic and a brand-new oyster shell material.

Acer has stated that the Acer Aspire Vero 16 is committed to carbon neutrality for its entire life cycle. On top of using bio-based materials, it uses an easy to fix design in order to ensure that repairing is an option before replacing.

Price and availability

(Image credit: Future / Jasmine Mannan)

The Acer Aspire Vero 16 is set to release in April in the US at $799.99 and then later on in Q2 in Europe at €1,199. These are starting prices which will fluctuate based on the specifications you’re looking for.

It’s definitely one of the more affordable options on the market, especially in the US. However, regional pricing puts it at a much higher price point elsewhere.

Design Image 1 of 3

(Image credit: Future / Jasmine Mannan)Image 2 of 3

(Image credit: Future / Jasmine Mannan)Image 3 of 3

(Image credit: Future / Jasmine Mannan)

When first laying-eyes on the Acer Aspire Vero 16, I think its quite clear that it’s made from recycled material due to the color and design. It looks pretty, with a marbled green chassis encasing the entire device including the trackpad. As well as recycled plastic, the chassis is also made from oyster shell material, making it carbon neutral and 100% recyclable.

Unfortunately, when holding and using the Acer Aspire Vero 16, it feels like cheap plastic. The casing has quite a light and fragile feel to it, and I wouldn’t entirely trust the Vero 16 in my backpack without an extra layer of protection like a case or sleeve - and even then, it’s a risk.

Despite being cased in plastic, the Acer Aspire Vero 16 is actually a bit heavier than I was expecting. It weighs in at 3.97 lbs (1.8kg), which isn’t the most lightweight option out there, but isn’t too heavy for you to transport to and from work or keep with you on the go either. Just be sure to pack it up snug and secure.

Image 1 of 2

(Image credit: Future / Jasmine Mannan)Image 2 of 2

(Image credit: Future / Jasmine Mannan)

The Acer Aspire Vero 16 measures in at less than 2cm and despite being so slim, it still comes packed full of ports. You get to take advantage of two Thunderbolt ports, as well as a USB-A port, an HDMI 2.1 port and an audio jack.

You get an LCD display panel on the Vero 16, which is 1920 x 1200 pixels. Despite not being OLED, the screen is actually very bright and vibrant. It looks absolutely stunning but did leave me wanting slightly more in terms of resolution, however at this price point you can’t complain too much.

Specifications Performance

(Image credit: Future / Jasmine Mannan)

Picking up the Acer Aspire Vero 16 allows you to take advantage of up to an Intel Core Ultra 7 255H processor paired with Intel Arc graphics as well as 32GB of RAM. This machine offers absolutely insane performance, especially for its price point. Regardless of what you’re intending to use it for, it offers a high level of performance for a wide range of productivity and creativity tasks.

Of course, having this processor means you get to take advantage of a range of AI features including Copilot+ to help you speed up the process of everyday tasks. But as AI slowly takes over the laptop space, this is becoming more common.

With a 65Wh battery you’ll get a decent battery life out of this laptop. Acer states it’ll run approximately 10.5 hours, allowing you to get through a work day and then some on a full charge.

Early verdict

Overall the Acer Aspire Vero 16 is an amazing laptop, providing you with great performance at a low price point. As if that wasn’t already good enough, you get a clean conscience as the casing is made from 70% recycled materials and is gorgeous.

One downside is the material feels quite cheap, but this can easily be looked past when you consider all of the other benefits which are on offer. It’s somewhat frustrating that the regional pricing of this laptop makes it less affordable outside of the US and I hope Acer can adjust this prior to the laptop’s release in April.

Activo Q1: two-minute review

The Q1 are made to match the Activo P1 player, but you don't need Activo kit to enjoy them. (Image credit: Future / Carrie Marshall)

Activo is the lifestyle sub-brand of audiophile digital audio player specialist, Astell & Kern, delivering high quality hardware for considerably less cash than its parent company. These earbuds are a collaboration with Singaporean IEM firm DITA Audio who, like Astell & Kern, typically focuses on the more affluent audiophile. Are the Q1 set to feature in our best wired earbuds buying guide? It's highly likely.

I tested Activo's debut Activo P1 hi-res audio player last year and found it to be very enjoyable, and as you can see from the colour-matched design the new Q1 hybrid IEMs are clearly intended to be paired with it – although with both 4.4mm balanced and 3.5mm standard connectors included in the package they're compatible with a wide range of the best MP3 players and other music-serving sources.

The Q1 are hybrid IEMs with a Knowles balanced armature and a version of DITA Audio's PM1+ 9.8mm dynamic driver, which is highly regarded for its neutral, transparent sound. The PM1+ driver used in the Q1 has extra windings on the voice coil and uses brass instead of the usual stainless steel housing too. Which sounds good on paper – and it is in the listening too.

The sales pitch here is that these are affordable IEMs for audiophiles on the go, and they're a fraction of the price you'd pay for Astell & Kern-branded headphones. They deliver a very clear and entertaining sound, but if you like heavy bass you may need to adjust your device's EQ to push them just a fraction harder.

The Q1s come with a protective case, five pairs of eartips and two connectors. (Image credit: Future / Carrie Marshall) Activo Q1 review: price and release date

• $349 / £299 / about AU$600
• Launched in December 2024

The Activo Q1 hybrid IEM headphones were launched in December 2024 with a recommended retail price of $349 / £299 / about AU$600.

Although that makes them cheaper than Astell & Kern's typical IEMs, it's hardly cheap when you consider that our current top pick for wired earbuds, the 1More Triple Driver in-ear headphones, launched at $100 / £70 / AU$150 and can now be found for a little less. And even our 'best step-up' option from those, the Sennheiser IE200, will only set you back around $149.95 / £129.99 / AU$239.95.

Then again, higher-end options such as the fantastic FiiO FH19 cost $599 / £549 / AU$999 and, as any audiophile knows, these types of headphones can stretch into the thousands. It's all about sound-per-pound value isn't it? And here, I think the Q1 have a lot going for them.

Activo Q1 review: design and features

• DITA PM1+ 9.8mm dynamic driver and Knowles balanced armature
• 32-strand MOCCA 2 cable from Cardas
• 3.5mm standard and 4.4mm balanced connectors

The Activo Q1 resemble professional musicians' IEMs with their mix of white powder-coated centres and transparent resin outers, and their color scheme matches the Activo P1 digital music player. They come with an Activo + DITA-branded mini Tanos Systainer protective case and five sizes of Type-E eartips in a Final Audio case.

The Q1 are built around a modified version of DITA's PM1+ 9.8mm dynamic driver. Here, it's housed in a brass casing and teamed up with a Knowles 33518 balanced armature driver. The dynamic driver first appeared in DITA's Project M IEMs, and according to Activo the modified version here delivers a "hint of romance and sweetness on the foundation of the Project M's sound" – in other words, a slightly warmer and more resonant tone.

The nozzles are PVD stainless steel and the supplied eartips should cover most ear sizes. The tips are a very tight fit; fiddly to put on, but firmly fixed once installed. I lucked out with my first choice of size, easily achieving a good seal without any adjustment. The Q1 also fit very snugly and are well balanced. You never feel as if you've got large lumps stuck in your ears, even after long listening sessions.

The cable is a 32-strand MOCCA2 ultra-pure copper cable from Cardas and its connectors fit easily and feel strongly anchored to the earbuds. At the other end, you can choose between the 4.4mm balanced and 3.5mm connectors for your audio source, which is a nice addition to have.

Impedance is 31 ohms and the frequency response is 20Hz to 20kHz. Sensitivity is 109 dB/mW @ 1kHz.

• Design and features score: 5/5

The Q1s come with a standard 3.5mm and a balanced 4.4mm connector (Image credit: Future / Carrie Marshall) Activo Q1 review: sound quality

• Excellent instrument separation
• Superb clarity
• A little bass-light for our taste

These are very responsive, transparent headphones, delivering a well separated sound stage and spacious high frequencies that are particularly fun with close-miked acoustic music of the expensively and/or simply recorded variety. They excel with layered vocals; the Taylor Swift and HAIM collaboration No Body No Crime is particularly luminous. And they're enormous fun with live recordings too.

Like many high quality headphones, the Q1s aren't here to flatter poorly recorded music. But give them something shiny and turn them up a bit and they're very good indeed. The dynamic driver and Knowles balanced armature driver are fast, precise and entertaining: the Q1s make classic tracks such as Orange Juice's Rip It Up sound factory-fresh with shimmering guitars and squelching synths, while in more modern pop such as Charli XCX's Brat the vocals are crisp and clear without struggling with the beats or the bass.

The Q1's frequency response goes down to 20Hz, lower than a standard bass guitar, but lower frequencies often need a bit more juice to be properly present and I found some music, particularly heavier rock, sounded a little too polite for my taste. It's not that the Q1s can't handle the lows; it's that they're not tuned to emphasise them.

It doesn't take a dramatic EQ change to give the lows a bit of a boost, although that may be an issue if your preferred audio source doesn't offer EQ adjustment. Activo's P1 music player does, and I found that a relatively small EQ curve adjustment on the P1 added extra fizz to SOPHIE's Lemonade, made the grinding bass of The Cure's Lullaby remix even more spidery and turned Peter Gabriel's live version of Digging In The Dirt into the Godzilla-stomps-the-city soundtrack you'd have experienced from the front row.

Whether you tweak the low end or not, the Q1s are impressively clear – and that clarity is useful not just for relaxed listening but for making or mixing music too. In my own projects I was able to hear detail and mistakes that weren't as apparent on my usual mixing headphones or on my AirPods Pro/Max.

• Sound quality score: 4.5/5

You can have any color you like as long as it's white with transparent resin (Image credit: Activo (Astell & Kern)) Activo Q1 review: value for money

• Very affordable compared to the parent brand
• Half the price of the best rival devices
• Narrower frequency range than some

Activo may be a lifestyle brand, but these in-ears are still aimed at the more premium listener, and that means they're up against some of the very best wired headphones around.

Our current in-ear audiophile pick, the Sennheiser IE 600, has an MSRP of around $800 / £699 and a current street price of $599 / £499; the eight-driver FiiO FH19 has a recommended retail price of $599 / £549 / AU$999. So the Activo Q1s are considerably cheaper than both sets of rivals.

The big difference between these in-ears and the two rivals is the frequency range: the Activo Q1 offers 20Hz to 20kHz but the FiiO delivers 8Hz to 40kHz and the Sennheiser has 4Hz to 46.5kHz. Whether that's worth paying considerably more for will depend very much on personal preference and the quality of your audio sources.

• Value score: 4.5/5

Activo Q1: Should you buy them? Buy them if… 

You want premium sound without the price
The Q1s deliver a very clear, convincing sound stage with lots of air up topView Deal

You've got a player with EQ adjustment
The low-end sometimes needs a bit of extra pushView Deal

You've got multiple sound sources
Balanced 4.4mm and single 3.5mm connectors cover most devicesView Deal

Don't buy them if… 

You're all about that bass
Rival in-ears deliver wider frequency ranges, albeit for more moneyView Deal

You don't like white
The Q1s don't come in multiple color options

View Deal

You mostly commute
Good quality noise cancelling may be better for long bus or train journeysView Deal

Activo Q1 review: also consider

Sennheiser IE 200
These wired earbuds from a truly trusted name in audio don't cost much for what you get. If you're not planning on getting the Activo player to pair them with, they may even be the better option – although do note that the plastic housing won't feel as luxurious as the Activo's headshells.
Read more in our full Sennheiser IE 200 review

Shure AONIC 3
There's such great passive isolation here, it can sometimes feels as if you’re using active noise cancellation. The sound is also elegant, balanced and with excellent separation and layering, although the bass weight is just a shade off well weighted compared to pricier IEMs, including the Activo Q1 you came here to read about.
Read the full scoop in our in-depth Shure AONIC 3 review.

How I tested

• Tested with Activo P1 player, hi-fi and Mac
• Compressed, lossless and hi-res audio
• Tested at home and while traveling

I tested the Q1s with their intended partner, the Activo P1 hi-res audio player, and I also used them with my Marantz CD player, with vinyl through my Onkyo amp and with my own music projects on a Mac with a Komplete Audio interface.

For that latter option I compared the Q1s with my go-to mixing headphones, a set of Beyer-Dynamic DT770 Pros, as well as more casual earbuds from Apple and Bose. And I have to say, the Activo Q1 more than held their own, however I tested them.

Read more about how we test.

• First reviewed: January 2025

Ayaneo Pocket Micro: One-minute review

The Ayaneo Pocket Micro truly needs to be held in your hands to be believed. It’s an incredibly small Android tablet, weighing under 9oz / 250g and coming in at just 6.1 x 2.5 x 0.71in / 156 x 63 x 18mm, with in-built thumbsticks, D-pad, face buttons, and shoulder inputs. It sports a colorful 960 x 640 3.5in IPS touchscreen75, in a 3:2 aspect ratio that is perfect for playing Game Boy Advance games.

It’s no secret that this has been designed as an emulation handheld first and foremost, as it even comes with a custom Android launcher and Ayaneo app suite useful for importing a wide range of retro games - even if it is a bit jagged and unpolished at times. Links to top emulators on the Google Play Store, plus the easy-to-access microSD card slot, make it surprisingly simple to get a library full of games up and running.

Diving into Game Boy Advance classics like The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Pokémon Ruby is a treat, thanks in no small part to the wonderfully responsive controls. If you’ve ever tried your hand at mobile emulation, you’ll know that touchscreen inputs feel nowhere near as good as the real thing. The buttons and D-pad here are pleasantly soft, with a spongy feel reminiscent of the Nintendo 2DS. GBA games run perfectly and look sublimely crisp. This even includes more demanding titles that skirted with 3D visuals, like the open-world crime caper Driver 3.

While Game Boy titles are the focus thanks to the size of the display, the Ayaneo Pocket Micro is also capable of emulating a wide range of other systems. Performance does begin to suffer if you attempt anything more advanced than a PSP, however, which is to be expected given the use of the more budget-oriented Helio G99 chipset.

This is also the story with native Android gaming. Simple 2D experiences like Stardew Valley or the Vampire Survivors-like 20 Minutes Till Dawn run superbly, while complex 3D worlds like those in Genshin Impact or Zenless Zone Zero cause frame rates to tumble. It’s also hard to ignore the quality of the speakers which are pretty poor. It’s reasonable to expect these kinds of cutbacks at this price point, but the muddy audio makes headphones almost a necessity even when you’re gaming at home.

(Image credit: Future) Ayaneo Pocket Micro: Price and availability

• Currently available via IndieGogo
• Prices start at $189 (around £153) via early bird pricing
• Retail prices start at $219 (around £177)

The Ayaneo Pocket Micro is currently only available via IndieGogo.

A basic model with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage will set you back $189 (around £153) via early bird pricing, or $219 (around £177) at retail. You can also grab a more premium version with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage starting at $249 (around £202) via early bird pricing, or $279 (around £226) at retail. IndieGogo will ship to a wide range of regions, but just bear in mind that prices can vary depending on the current exchange rate.

Multiple colors are available for each version. The more affordable variant comes in a cute red or sleek black, while the more premium model is offered in black or a clearly Game & Watch-inspired gold and maroon.

This price is certainly not a huge amount to pay for an Android tablet, let alone one with a specialist design like this. It is roughly the same price as other modern Game Boy successors, like the premium Analogue Pocket which starts at $129.99 (around £174), so a pretty good value proposition on the whole.

Ayaneo Pocket Micro: Specs Ayaneo Pocket Micro: Design and features

• Very robust metal shell
• Pleasant buttons and D-pad
• Full Android functionality

When you take the Ayaneo Pocket Micro out of the box, the first thing you’ll probably notice is that it’s built like a tank. I tested an early production sample, but you wouldn’t know it from the quality of the overall feel. It’s constructed using a CNC aluminum alloy frame, lending the outside of the tablet an incredibly robust feel. It seems considerably more sturdy than the likes of the Nintendo Switch Lite, and could probably go head to head with the brick-like original Game Boy in a drop test - though for obvious reasons I wasn’t too keen to test that.

The back of the tablet is plastic, which helps keep the weight at a manageable 8.21oz / 233g. My model came in the black colorway, so the front is a clean black with a bezel-less 3.5-inch screen. To the left of the screen, you will find the well-sized D-pad and left thumbstick. On the right are the face buttons (in the traditional Nintendo layout) and the right thumbstick. Both thumbsticks are very small but are still capable of more than enough motion for 3D gaming.

Underneath all of that, there are two sets of small rectangular buttons. The first set serves as the start and select button in games, while the others are an ‘Aya Button’ (which calls up a floating settings menu) and a button that returns you to the system’s home screen.

On the top of the console, there are four shoulder buttons, a power button with an integrated fingerprint reader (an excellent feature that saves you from having to enter passwords on the tiny little screen), and a simple volume rocker. That’s not all, though, as the console’s flat right side features a dedicated home button and a mappable ‘RC’ button.

(Image credit: Future)

If you want to expand your storage, there’s a microSD card slot on the left-hand side under a little rubber flap. No microSD card is included, so you will need to source your own. I found that it was incredibly tricky to insert a card on my model, as the flap was difficult to open and the card itself just didn’t seem to click into place properly. Thankfully, Ayaneo states that this is a known issue with pre-production versions of the device and should be ironed out by the time you get your hands on one.

As you might expect, there is your usual USB-C port for charging on the bottom of the system.

In terms of overall features, the Ayaneo Pocket Micro is a fully-fledged Android tablet. You can download apps using the Google Play Store, though the small screen will make it difficult to perform tasks like messaging, document editing, and so on. Gaming is definitely where this device shines, and the custom Ayaneo software is designed to ensure a simple gaming experience. Links to recommended emulators (both paid and free) are easy to access from the AyaSpace app and the system’s in-built controls were immediately recognized by every one that I tried.

(Image credit: Future) Ayaneo Pocket Micro: Performance

• Perfect for Game Boy emulation
• Also plays basic mobile games
• Speakers are poor

The Ayaneo Pocket Micro excels at Game Boy emulation. Every GB, GBC, and GBA game that I tested ran perfectly. Running at 4x the original Game Boy Advance resolution, the picture is incredibly crisp. While not OLED, the colors of the IPS screen are still very vibrant with great viewing angles that are well-suited to portable play. The screen is also bright enough to be used comfortably outdoors without any glare.

You will begin to encounter some performance issues if you attempt more intensive emulation, however. PlayStation 2 titles are hit-and-miss and I found that the screen size actually made it difficult to work out what was going on in detailed environments like the open world of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. PSP games ran acceptably too, but again the screen size made it difficult to read tutorial text in the likes of God of War: Chains of Olympus.

Attempting to emulate more recent consoles results in a stuttery, laggy mess but that’s to be expected given the relatively modest chipset here. This is definitely one to buy if you’re most keen to play Game Boy games.

Unlike a conventional mobile phone, the Ayaneo Pocket Micro has an in-built fan for active air cooling. It can get slightly loud when you crank it up to the maximum power in the settings menu, but it seems very effective at keeping the device cool while you play.

As an Android tablet, the Ayaneo Pocket Micro can also be used for native mobile titles but keep your expectations in check. This is not a high-spec gaming phone, so it’s going to struggle if you don’t stick to the simplest titles. Throughout my testing, I managed to consistently achieve 5-6 hours of battery life which is pretty solid given the tablet’s miniscule size. It should comfortably last for the duration of a commute, where its pocketable nature really shines.

That said, the rectangular shape did start to dig into my palms when I attempted longer sessions. The corners have been rounded off slightly, which definitely helps, but your palms are still going to get sore after a few hours.

There is one bigger problem with the Ayaneo Pocket Micro though: its speakers. They’re very poor, producing a weak, muddy sound that lacks any bass or real clarity. In-game music sounds tinny and sometimes even a little crackly.

It’s not massively noticeable when you’re playing Game Boy titles, as they have relatively limited audio capabilities in the first place, but is incredibly apparent when trying out more modern games. Headphones are an absolute must, which makes the lack of a 3.5mm headphone jack a real shame. Bluetooth is an option, but having to fiddle with headphone pairing is an obstacle every time you want to play.

(Image credit: Future) Should I buy the Ayaneo Pocket Micro? Buy it if...

You want a modern Game Boy
The Ayaneo Pocket Micro is ideal for emulating GB, GBC, and GBA games. They run flawlessly and look absolutely superb on the small 3:2 screen. The physical controls are also a joy to use.

You’re after a cheap tiny gaming tablet
The Ayaneo Pocket Micro might not be the most powerful tablet out there, but it’s incredibly small and easy to stash in your pocket.

Don't buy it if...

You want higher specs
The MediaTek Helio G99 is a modest mobile chipset. Dedicated gaming phones will offer significantly better performance in mobile games, while handheld consoles like the Nintendo Switch Lite will run retro titles more smoothly at a similar price.

Also consider...

After a device like the Ayaneo Pocket Micro? Consider these two alternatives.

Modretro Chromatic
The Modretro Chromatic is capable of playing your favorite GB and GBC cartridges natively. It’s got excellent buttons, superb overall build quality, and a shape incredibly reminiscent of the original handheld.

For more information, check out our full Modretro Chromatic review

Nintendo Switch Lite
Plenty of GB, GBC, and GBC games are available on Nintendo Switch Lite as part of the Nintendo Switch Online subscription services or in various retro collections. It also benefits from a huge library of great exclusive games, plus a compact all-in-one design.

For more information, check out our full Nintendo Switch Lite review

(Image credit: Future) How I tested the Ayaneo Pocket Micro

• Tested for three months
• Played a wide variety of Game Boy games
• Tried at home and out and about

I tested the Ayaneo Pocket Micro over a period of three months. I used the 8GB + 256GB model in its black colorway, accompanied by a case provided by the manufacturer. In addition to the built-in storage, I relied on a SanDisk Extreme microSD card to transfer game files from my PC.

I played a wide variety of Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance games on the Ayaneo Pocket Micro. This included Tetris, Pokemon Red, The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, Wario Land 3, Pokemon Ruby, Driver 3, Metroid Zero Mission, and more. I also tested a small handful of PlayStation, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation Portable games in addition to a few other platforms. I was also careful to evaluate the handheld's performance in native mobile titles, such as the popular Call of Duty: Mobile.

Throughout my time with the handheld, I constantly compared the playing experience to my hands-on testing of gaming smartphones and a wide range of gaming handhelds. For audio, I relied on a pair of Beats Solo Buds.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed January 2024.

OnePlus 13R review: Two-minute review

The OnePlus 13R builds on the winning formula of its predecessor, the OnePlus 12R, by delivering prolonged battery life, a dazzling display, and plenty of power in a slick, premium package.

Its price is not as competitively low as the brand’s earliest ‘flagship killers’, but if you’re after a flagship phone without the quite frankly eye-watering price tags that come with them, the OnePlus 13R delivers plenty while only compromising in a few small areas.

This is only the second time an R-Series handset has launched internationally; the initial ‘R’ branded devices (of series 9, 10, and 11) did not reach European or North American shores.

The OnePlus 13R is a less tricked-out – and thus more affordable – version of the flagship OnePlus 13 which launched alongside it. Think of this phone like Samsung’s ‘FE’ variants of its high-end S series and Google’s ‘A’ line of its Pixel phones.

(Image credit: Future)

The 6.78-inch display is colorful and sufficiently bright, making it easy to use even in direct sunlight. The screen is flat, and flush with the phone’s aluminium frame, which results in a pleasing viewing experience.

Meanwhile, the sizable 6,000mAh battery lasted me two days on a single charge, and even power users will get more than a day’s use from the OnePlus 13R before needing to reach for the charging cable. But reach for the cable you will, as there’s no wireless charging.

There’s plenty of power under the hood, with the previous flagship generation Snapdragon chipset at its heart, ably assisted by 12GB of RAM. It means the 13R can handle pretty much anything you throw at it.

While the trio of cameras on the rear may not have the very latest features of the current-gen flagships, it’s a great point-and-shoot camera that holds its own in most scenarios.

Holding the 13R may be a little tricky for those with smaller hands though, as this is a large phone. And you’ll want to be careful around water, as this handset isn’t protected against submersion. It’s merely splash-proof, which does mean it’ll be okay in the rain.

The OnePlus 13R is an accomplished smartphone that borrows many of the features from the brand's previous flagship phone, while being kept just out of reach of some of the very latest tech which has been reserved for its non-R, numerical twin.

OnePlus 13R review: price and availability

(Image credit: Future)

• OnePlus 13R price is $599 / £679
• Available with 12GB RAM + 256GB ROM in North America and Europe
• India also has the option of a 16GB + 512GB variant

When it comes to buying the OnePlus 13R, things are kept simple with just one storage configuration of 256GB ROM + 12GB RAM available in North America and Europe.

For those in India, there’s a beefier 512GB + 16GB additional configuration, which may have some in Western markets looking enviably over to Asia.

The OnePlus 13R price is $599 / £679, matching the launch price of its predecessor (the OnePlus 12R) in the US, but coming in at £30 more expensive in the UK.

With the same launch price in the US as last year’s 256GB OnePlus 12R, the 13R is well positioned in the market, offering a big screen, big battery, and plenty of performance at a price point that undercuts Apple. Meanwhile, for UK buyers the £30 price increase is a little frustrating, but OnePlus has improved on its predecessor and the 13R still offers a solid all-round experience.

This price point sits the OnePlus 13R towards the top end of the ‘affordable flagship’ market, and unlike the OnePlus 12R, the US only gets the 256GB ROM + 12GB RAM. There’s no cheaper variant with 8GB/128GB of RAM and storage this time round.

That means it’s more expensive than the smaller, more palm-friendly Pixel 8a – Google’s own take on an affordable flagship – yet similarly priced to the AI-loaded Samsung Galaxy S24 FE and alternative Nothing Phone (2), although the latter is now a year and a half old at the time of writing.

One of the big draws of the OnePlus 13R will be its supreme battery life, but if battery life is the most important focus in a big-screened phone for you, then you may want to look at the Honor Magic 7 Lite. It’s a chunk cheaper and boasts an even bigger battery (6,600mAh), although it has less power and storage and isn’t available in North America.

• Value score: 4 / 5

OnePlus 13R review: specs

The OnePlus 13R comes with a trio of headline specs. There’s the big, bright, and bold 6.78-inch display boasting a maximum brightness of 4,500 nits, the huge 6,000mAh battery that can keep you going for two days, and slick performance thanks to the same Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset as the brand’s previous generation flagship, the OnePlus 12.

There’s also a trio of cameras around the back, fast 80W wired charging, and 256GB of storage which will keep all but the most prolific power users happy.

OnePlus 13R review: design Image 1 of 2

(Image credit: Future)Image 2 of 2

(Image credit: Future)

• Wonderfully premium aluminum and glass frame
• A little large for small hands, and can’t be submerged in water

The OnePlus 13R is a slick piece of hardware, with a sleek aluminum frame wrapping around the circumference of the handset, which is sandwiched on either side by glass.

The flat sides are reminiscent of Apple’s iPhone 15 Pro and 16 Pro series, as well as the Oppo Find X8 range – the latter of which shares various design cues with the OnePlus 13 series, as the two brands are part of the same overarching company.

To complete the premium package the screen and rear of the phone are covered in Gorilla Glass 7i, the first OnePlus phone to harness this new glass type, which maker Corning claims is “specifically engineered to address the need for improved drop protection and scratch resistance.”

This means the 13R should be able to resist the odd drop and knock, but during my review time with the phone, I didn’t really put this to the test.

While the aesthetics may not be entirely unique, the OnePlus 13R has a premium look and feel; it’s built solidly and outperforms its price tag.

Those with smaller hands will find the size of the device overbearing – especially for one-handed use – while I’d have liked the power and volume buttons on the right of the 13R placed lower down.

Image 1 of 2

(Image credit: Future)Image 2 of 2

(Image credit: Future)

The volume rocker especially was a stretch for my thumb, resulting in awkward shuffles in the hand to turn the volume up. If OnePlus placed these a few millimeters lower the buttons would fall naturally under the thumb, making for easier manipulation.

OnePlus’ now iconic alert slider is present on the OnePlus 13R, providing an easy way to toggle between silent, vibrate, and ring modes – although it suffers the same placement affliction as the volume and power – it’s placed just a little too high up on the left of the phone for my taste.

While this was a novel addition in the early days of OnePlus, its inclusion now feels a little superfluous as user habits have evolved over the years resulting in fewer people switching regularly between ring states. Former OnePlus co-founder, Carl Pei, even tweeted to say “most people never use it” in regards to the alert slider.

The USB-C port sits centrally on the bottom edge of the phone, flanked by the SIM tray (which supports two cards) and the speaker. On the back, the smooth, minimalist finish of my Nebular Noir-colored device is interrupted only by the enormous circular camera housing.

It’s aligned to one side of the handset – providing a small point of differentiation to the centrally placed camera bump on the Find X8 devices – which does displace the weight slightly, but isn’t an issue during daily use. OnePlus has managed to keep the weight of the 13R to a reasonable 206g, which allows it to sit comfortably in the hand.

One disappointing feature is the handset’s IP65 water resistance rating. It’s an improvement over the IP64 rating of its predecessor and protects against jets of water, but an IP68 rating (water resistance for submersion) is not uncommon in this price bracket.

• Design score: 4 / 5

OnePlus 13R review: display

(Image credit: Future)

• The 6.78-inch display is big, bright and colorful
• A peak brightness of 4,500 nits makes it great for use in the sun

OnePlus makes a big deal about the display on this phone, and the good news is it lives up to the billing. It’s big, bright and colorful.

At 6.78 inches, it’s a sizable offering, much larger than the 6.1-inch screen on the Pixel 8a, a hair bigger than the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE (at 6.7 inches), while it’s the same size as the Honor Magic 7 Lite – another big-battery competitor.

There’s plenty of real estate for apps, and the slender uniform bezels all the way around give it a premium appeal. The only interruption on the screen is the circular cutout at the top of the display for the 16MP front-facing camera.

The 1264 x 2780 (1.5K) resolution – which gives you a pixel density of 450 ppi – is par for the course. OnePlus says the 13R can deliver a maximum brightness of 4,500 nits, but you won’t actually see that level of brightness in real-world use.

In my time with the phone, the OnePlus 13R’s screen performed very well in bright light, whether indoors or outdoors. If you’re fortunate enough to find yourself in a particularly sunny climate, you can be confident you’ll be able to see what’s on-screen in direct sunlight.

(Image credit: Future)

And when the weather turns and rain starts to fall, the OnePlus 13R continues to perform thanks to Aqua Touch 2.0. Taking the phone into the rain, the screen continued to respond well when my use was uninterrupted by the conditions – rain can cause issues on other phones, where the screen is confused by water droplets leading to unregistered taps or erroneous inputs.

Another nice inclusion for the OnePlus 13R is Glove Mode, allowing you to interact with the screen while wearing woolen or sheepskin gloves (up to 0.5cm thick). This mode isn’t on by default, you need to dive into the accessibility menus in the Settings apps (you can search “glove” in Settings to find the mode quicker) to enable it.

Once enabled, I was impressed by just how responsive the screen was when wearing a pair of woolen gloves. With the mode switched off, there was zero response from the screen when wearing gloves, so the difference is stark.

Interactions do require a little more force to be applied compared to non-glove use, but that’s not a surprise. OnePlus does note that glove mode does not support gameplay, so if you’re planning to have a round of PUBG while vacationing in Lapland, Finland, you may want to wait until you’re inside and gloveless before parachuting into battle. Opening and closing apps, moving around the interface, scrolling social, and tapping out messages are all easily done, however.

• Display score: 4.5 / 5

OnePlus 13R review: software

(Image credit: Future)

• OxygenOS 15.0 offers plenty of customization options
• OnePlus guarantees four years of OS updates, but rivals offer more

The OnePlus 13R is an Android 15 smartphone, with the latest version of Google’s mobile operating system underpinning the software you see on the screen.

It’s not pure Android, as OnePlus has applied its OxygenOS 15.0 interface on top, providing the handset with a familiar look and feel for users of the brand’s previous generation of devices.

What this gives you is a slightly different look and feel to the stock Android platform (found on Pixel handsets). My OnePlus 13R also arrived pre-loaded with additional apps on top of the default system offerings.

These included Netflix, Amazon Music, Booking.com, LinkedIn, Facebook, Lyft, and AliExpress. You may find some of these pre-installed apps useful, but if you don’t the good news is they can be uninstalled entirely from the phone – leaving you with more of the apps you want.

I have seen phone manufacturers pre-install many more apps than on the OnePlus 13R, and also forbid users from uninstalling them, so what OnePlus has done isn’t cause for concern.

OnePlus says it has reduced the overall size of OxygenOS 15 by 40%, meaning it takes up less of the 256GB of internal storage space, leaving you more room for apps, games, photos, videos, and more.

OnePlus’ overlay also provides a wide range of customization features, allowing you to make the OnePlus 13R personal to you. From a range of home screen widgets and the ability to tweak the size, shape, and design of app icons, to different options from the drag-down motion to access the notifications bar and quick settings – there’s plenty to explore.

The Open Canvas feature from the OnePlus Open and OnePlus Pad 2 is present here, so I could have two apps side-by-side on screen. A horizontal bar divides the screen, and I could drag it up and down to resize the two apps.

There’s also the option to open an app in a floating window, and I could move around the rest of the phone’s interface while keeping the selected app open in a small area of the screen. Useful if you’re watching a video or part of a busy group chat and want to look up information in other apps.

I could even drag and ‘pin’ up to two of these floating windows to the edge of the screen, minimizing them to a transparent app logo tucked off the side of the display. A quick tap on the logo opened it back up as a floating window.

These multitasking features work well on the OnePlus 13R, and while it’s a little fiddly to enable split screen or floating window (and to pin these), it’s impressive when you get multiple apps all working at once – especially if you have two apps on split screen and then a third in a floating window.

The OnePlus 13R comes future-proofed too, with OnePlus committing to four years of software updates and six years of security updates for the device. While this is a good offering, it’s not industry-leading. Apple has offered five years of updates for some time, while Google and Samsung offer seven years of software and security updates on their latest devices.

And this wouldn’t be a 2025 smartphone without a mention of AI. In the Photos app (the OnePlus version, not Google’s Photos app) you’ll find the AI Editor option with four tools for you to use. More on these in the camera section.

Google’s Gemini AI assistant also comes pre-loaded on the OnePlus 13R, giving you access to features such as Circle to Search and Magic Compose (for help writing text messages).

• Software score: 4 / 5

OnePlus 13R review: cameras

(Image credit: Future)

• A capable all-round camera delivers great images in most conditions
• Plenty of modes and settings for avid photographers

The OnePlus 13R packs a trio of cameras in the sizable, circular camera housing, headlined by a 50MP Sony LYT-700 main sensor alongside a 50MP telephoto sensor, providing support for the 2x zoom. The sensor array is completed by an 8MP ultra-wide sensor with a 112-degree field of view. There’s also an LED flash to help illuminate dark scenes.

On the front, you get a 16MP selfie camera, but there’s no wide-angle lens to expand the view to fit more faces. You’ll either have to press cheeks together or live with the fact some people may not make it in the frame.

The OnePlus 13R camera app loads swiftly and comes packed with features, with quick access icons for Google Lens, exposure, retouch (beautification mode), and filters ensuring you’re Instagram-ready in no time.

You can move between different camera modes by swiping horizontally above the shutter button – with smartphone staples ‘Video’ and ‘Portrait’ quickly accessible on either side of the default ‘Photo’ mode.

For those who like to fine-tune their shooting experience, ‘Pro’ mode gives granular controls for ISO, Shutter speed, exposure, focus, and white balance – plus there’s the option to shoot in RAW rather than JPG for greater editing flexibility in programs such as Photoshop.

Dive into the ‘More’ section and you’ll find further modes to choose from including night, panorama, slo-mo video, and time-lapse.

In short, the OnePlus 13R camera app gives you plenty of choice and customization options, but the good news is it takes good photos in the default setting – for those who don’t want to have to mess with settings.

In most conditions, the 13R is a very capable smartphone camera. It’s not at the same level as the best camera phones on the market, but that’s to be expected given it sits a tier below the true premium flagship offerings.

• Camera score: 4 / 5

OnePlus 13R review: camera samples Image 1 of 10

Portrait mode does an excellent job of keeping the cat in focus while blurring the sofa behind (Image credit: Future)Image 2 of 10

Macro mode is automatically enabled when you get close to your subject (Image credit: Future)Image 3 of 10

In bright daylight, the OnePlus 13R is a great point-and-shoot camera (Image credit: Future)Image 4 of 10

The default 1x zoom (Image credit: Future)Image 5 of 10

Tap to the 2x optical zoom and you’ll get closer to your subject while maintaining image quality (Image credit: Future)Image 6 of 10

The 13R can zoom all the way to 20x digitally (Image credit: Future)Image 7 of 10

At night, the OnePlus 13R captures detailed shots (Image credit: Future)Image 8 of 10

And does impressively well close-up in lowlight (default shooting mode) (Image credit: Future)Image 9 of 10

The selfie camera produces bright, clear shots – although they can be a little overexposed (Image credit: Future)Image 10 of 10

Switch to Portrait mode when using the selfie camera and you get a more natural result and decent blurring around the subject (Image credit: Future)

As with its predecessor, the advice for those who want to take their smartphone photography seriously on the OnePlus 13R is to stick to the main 50MP camera. It benefits from both EIS (electronic image stabilization) and OIS (optical image stabilization) to improve results.

You can use the phone as a reliable point-and-shoot to capture outdoor and indoor shots, both during the day and at night. The OnePlus 13R camera particularly impressed me during a nighttime walk through a light trail, with the default settings handling the variable lighting conditions very well.

I was able to take a series of striking low-light images with minimum effort as I walked through the trail, and this is exactly what I want from a smartphone camera. Something that can quickly and easily generate great results for social and group chats.

The OnePlus 13R also offers solid editing tools, allowing you to tinker with pictures way after you’ve taken them. As mentioned earlier in this review, OnePlus has included a number of AI-powered editing tools in its own gallery (the 13R has two photo galleries, the default OnePlus app, and the Google Photos app – the latter of which has its own editing tools as well).

AI Unblur, as the name suggests, can take your blurry photographs and reduce the lack of focus. It can be applied to any image, not just ones taken on the 13R, although I found the difference made – while an improvement – was minimal.

What I found more useful was AI Detail Boost. This enhances busy images to provide better clarity and contrast throughout your shots – again, working on any image.

Then there’s AI Eraser and AI Reflection Eraser. The former you’ll likely be familiar with as it’s a tool most smartphones offer, allowing you to remove people/animals/objects from your shots. It works well here, although it can struggle with busier scenes and complex backgrounds.

Reflection Eraser takes things a step further by, yup you’ve guessed it, attempting to remove reflections on windows, glass, or screens. I tried this on a number of images, with varying success. Generally, improvements were made, but I didn’t manage to completely remove reflections in any of the images I tested it on.

In all, the AI tools are a nice addition to the OnePlus 13R, but they don’t deliver an experience that stands out over similar tools available on other phones.

OnePlus 13R review: performance

(Image credit: Future)

• Powerful chipset provides flagship-grade performance
• Hyperboost performance settings are great for mobile gamers

The OnePlus 13R comes packed with power, ensuring it keeps up with pretty much anything you can toss its way.

While the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset isn’t the latest top-tier Snapdragon 8 Elite offering from Qualcomm, it’s the same flagship chipset that featured in the OnePlus 12. What this means is the 13R still packs a punch, backed up by a capable 12GB of RAM.

The interface flows well, and the performance along with the 120Hz displays makes for slick, smooth scrolling on social media. Apps load quickly, although for more demanding titles the OnePlus 13R doesn’t feel quite as fast under the finger as the true flagships on the market.

That’s not really an issue, and considering the price point of this phone I was more than happy with the performance I was getting, whether that was browsing social, streaming video, checking emails, doing work (including writing parts of this very review) or taking a well-earned gaming break.

I ran a number of benchmark tests from 3DMark, Geekbench, CrossMark, JetStream, and WebXPRT 4 to really push the capabilities of the OnePlus 13R. It performed admirably with flagship-level (or close to flagship) results, reinforcing the fact there’s plenty of power available in this phone.

Fire up a game and you’ll notice the handset’s Hyperboost performance settings are automatically engaged, giving you live data on the phone’s condition during your gaming session.

From the drop-down panel, you can easily keep an eye on your fps (frames per second), latency, and how hot the OnePlus 13R is getting thanks to a temperature sensor embedded under the display.

There are three modes to choose from, with ‘Balanced’ being the default setting. You can alternatively switch to ‘Low power’ which will help extend your gaming session when the battery is running low by reducing screen refresh and lowering touch response.

(Image credit: Future)

Then there’s ‘Pro Gamer’ which channels all power to your game resulting in increased temperature and battery drain. A pop-up even warns you to consider only using this mode during ambient temperatures.

There are even more tools to play around with in the Hyperboost menu, including tweaking the GPU settings, toggling key features on and off, and screen recording controls to capture epic battles. In short, if you’re big into mobile gaming, the OnePlus 13R has plenty to offer.

The OnePlus 13R comfortably handled Genshin Impact at 60fps and its highest graphics setting (at 30fps). Load screens took a beat longer to process compared to the high-end flagship phones, but it didn’t detract from gameplay. While the handset did get warm it never reached an uncomfortable temperature.

Something else that impressed me during testing was the performance of the biometric scanners. Located under the display close to the bottom of the screen, the fingerprint scanner is well placed for your thumb to land on it every time when unlocking.

It performs well too, with great responsiveness and no read failures experienced during my time with the phone.

You can also choose to enable face unlock. It’s quick to register your face, and in daylight, the OnePlus 13R is able to instantly recognize you and unlock, even from awkward angles such as sneakily looking at your phone from under a desk.

• Performance score: 4 / 5

OnePlus 13R review: battery

(Image credit: Future)

• TA huge 6,000mAh battery delivers two-day use on a single charge
• 80W charging sees 1%-100% in 52 minutes, but no wireless charging

One of the biggest selling points for the OnePlus 13R is its huge 6,000mAh battery, providing the handset with excellent longevity and giving you the peace of mind of truly all-day battery life without the need to even consider reaching for a charger.

During our heavy-usage days, we found we’d still be getting into bed at the end of the day with the battery at least 20%, and on days where we curbed our gaming and video watching, we could easily unplug at 7am and then plug in at 11pm with 50% still left in the tank.

With slightly more thoughtful use (i.e. no gaming and videos and limited social media) the OnePlus 13R is capable of delivering two days of battery life from a single charge without the need to switch to a battery-saving mode.

The SUPERVOOC charging speed has been reduced from 100W on the OnePlus 12R to 80W on the new OnePlus 13R, as the firm looks to preserve the overall life of the mammoth power pack inside.

(Image credit: Future)

The 80W charging still delivers a good amount of juice in a short amount of time, and with the right fast-charging plug adapter (you only get a USB-C cable in the box in the UK) the OnePlus 13R can go from 1% to 100% in as little as 52 minutes.

Using a fast 60W charging block, the OnePlus 13R replenished from 15% to 31% in 15 minutes, and the battery got back to 48% after 30 minutes (increasing 33 percentage points in half an hour). Respectable top-up times, especially if you need to swiftly add charge before stepping out of the house.

These charging times will improve if you have an 80W charging block to take advantage of the maximum supported charging speed.

The only blemish in the OnePlus 13R’s battery story is the fact it doesn’t have wireless charging. This feature has been reserved for its pricier sibling – the OnePlus 13, so you’ll need a cable to top up the 13R.

• Battery score: 4.5 /5

Should you buy the OnePlus 13R? Buy it if...

You want a brilliant balance of battery power and performance
With a 6,000mAh battery and punchy Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, the OnePlus 13R delivers excellent battery life along with flagship-level performance (even though the chipset is a year old).

You’re after a big screen that won’t break the bank
Forget the Pro Max and Ultra devices, the OnePlus 13R delivers a big screen experience at a lower price point, and it does it really well. The 6.78-inch display is brilliantly bright and colorful, making whatever you do on it look great.

You want a slick mobile gaming machine
Add together the battery life, performance, and display, and the OnePlus 13R has all the hallmarks of a fantastic gaming device. The Hyperboost performance settings are the icing on the cake.

Don't buy it if...

You’re looking for the best update longevity
OnePlus has made positive strides by announcing its OnePlus 13 series handsets will receive four years of OS updates and six years of security updates, but it still lags behind the competition. Apple, Google, and Samsung all offer more years of OS updates.

You want the biggest battery for your buck
If battery life is your core focus for buying a new phone, the OnePlus 13R and its 6,000mAh power pack certainly makes a good case, but the Honor Magic 7 Lite has a bigger battery (6,600mAh) at a lower price – although it’s not as powerful, and not available in North America.

You’re after proper water resistance
The OnePlus 13R carries an IP65 dust and water resistance rating, which translates to the phone being able to cope with droplets and jets of water (such as rain), but isn’t protected if you were to accidentally drop it in the bath/sink/swimming pool.

OnePlus 13R review: also consider

Samsung Galaxy S24 FE
The Galaxy S24 FE isn’t the cheapest of the rivals, but it comes stuffed to the brim with Galaxy AI features, excellent battery life, and decent performance.

Read our full Samsung Galaxy S24 FE review

Google Pixel 8a
This Galaxy is about to be replaced, but it still hits hard with amazing cameras, the water-resistant S Pen camera remote, and tons of other features.

Read our full Google Pixel 8a review

How I tested the OnePlus 13R

I used the OnePlus 13R as my daily device for more than two weeks, testing it in a wide range of daily scenarios.

From night-time photography walks around illuminated festive trails and trips to live sporting events, to hours spent playing games (including Pokemon Go, Clash Royale, and Genshin Impact) and streaming videos (via Netflix, DAZN, YouTube, and Disney+), the 13R experienced high-usage and demanding applications to push the screen, chipset and battery to their limits. I braved the storms, taking the phone outside during heavy downpours to test the screen resistance, while also chasing the sun to put the 4,500 nits display through its paces.

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There were quieter days too, where I was checking emails, scrolling social media, and listening to music without the demands of gaming or video, to get a true feeling of how the battery and interface work. I even wrote some of this very review on the OnePlus 13R, to see how it coped as a work device – as life isn’t all pleasure. At least, not for me.

Alongside daily use, I ran numerous benchmarking tests from the likes of Geekbench, CrossMark, 3DMark, and more, to find out if the OnePlus 13R lived up to its performance billing – which it certainly did.

First reviewed January 2025

The Technogym Connected Dumbbells are all about smart tech and compact design. Instead of cluttering your space with loads of weights, these adjustable dumbbells give you a range from 2kg to 24kg in a sleek, compact package—ideal if you’re short on space or just starting your fitness journey.

What makes them really stand out, however, is their AI smarts. Built-in sensors track things like your reps, sets, and weights, which sync up with the Technogym App. The app’s AI Coach then uses this data to suggest exercises and tweak your workouts to help you hit your goals—just like having a PT in your pocket.

I loved the twist-handle design for weight adjustments. It’s quick, smooth, and satisfying to use. The build quality is top-notch, too, giving you confidence they’ll handle even your sweatiest sessions. That said, a max weight of 24kg might not be enough for advanced lifters, and the price tag could scare off anyone keeping an eye on their wallet.

After testing these for weeks, including doing full-body workouts and app-guided routines, I’d say they’re a great choice for those who value convenience and tech-driven motivation. If you’re an experienced lifter or on a tight budget, though, you might want to look elsewhere.

Technogym Connected Dumbbells: Price and availability

(Image credit: Future)

• Connected Dumbbells cost £1,410 / $1,740 / AUS$2800
• Dumbbells+ bundle costs £2,530 / $3120 / AUS$5030, which includes a stand, an exercise mat, a foam roller, and resistance bands
• Comes with a two-month free trial of the Technogym Plus membership, which is £8.99/month thereafter
• Available now in UK, launching soon in US and Australia

The Technogym Connected Dumbbells can be purchased directly from the brand’s official website or flagship stores in the UK for £1,410. At that price, they’re definitely not cheap, especially when competitors like Kabata are offering a similar setup for just $999 / £810. Or there are less-smart-but-similar options available, like the Bowflex SelectTech 552, which can be found online for around £350. Then, on top of that, you’ll have to fork out an extra £8.99/month for the Technogym Plus app if you want to take advantage of its full feature set. Gulp.

If you’re opting for the more complete Connected Dumbbells+ bundle, which includes a sturdy stand, exercise mat, foam roller, and resistance bands, this pushes the price up to a whopping £2,530. Sure, it’s a more complete package if you’re building out your home gym, but it’s a massive cost for a stand and some fitness accessories which can be bought separately elsewhere for much less. The price does include installation and setup, though, which is a nice touch for those who’d rather not fuss with assembly.

If you’re outside Europe and in the market for a pair of these babies, you’ll need to wait a bit—a US and Australian launch is coming later in 2025.

• Price score: 3/5

Technogym Connected Dumbbells: Specifications Technogym Connected Dumbbells: Design and build

(Image credit: Future)

• Stylish black and silver finish fits any modern gym space
• Knurled metal handles offer solid grip, even when you’re sweating
• Twist-handle weight adjustment is smooth and precise

When it comes to design, Technogym’s Connected Dumbbells are a masterclass in how to serve style and substance in one neatly finished package. The black and silver finish feels effortlessly modern, meaning these dumbbells won’t look out of place even if they’re just sitting in the corner of your living room. And let’s be honest—no one wants a home gym setup that makes a space look cluttered. Thankfully, the minimalist look is spot-on here.

But it’s not just about aesthetics. I found the knurled metal handles were a delight to hold throughout most workouts. They’re grippy enough to reassure you they won’t slip, even when your palms are on the sweaty side. You won’t be getting that insecure feeling you can find with some cheaper alternatives.

Adjusting the weight is where the magic really happens. The twist-handle mechanism is smooth and intuitive. It’s ridiculously easy to use, and that satisfying click lets you know the weight’s locked and ready to go. Whether you’re grabbing 4kg for bicep curls or cranking up to 20kg for squats, it’s all very seamless-feeling. The weight range itself, 2kg to 24kg, covers most bases for a variety of exercises, although seasoned lifters might find it limiting if they’re used to heavier loads.

One of the standout features has to be the optional Strength Corner stand. It’s not just there to look pretty—although it does. The stand keeps your workout space organized, stores accessories like a foam roller and resistance bands, and even has a tablet (or in my case, phone) holder so you can follow along with the app without constantly looking down. I found it’s compact enough for smaller spaces—like me in my garden room-cum-gym space—and it means you have everything in one place, saving you from rummaging around mid-session.

As you’d expect from the premium gym equipment brand that is Technogym, the build quality of the Connected Dumbbells is top-tier across the board. Everything feels solid and well-made. The weight plates lock in securely, so there’s no wobbling when you’re mid-rep. The only small snag is docking the dumbbells back into their base—it’s a bit fiddly at first, especially if you’re rushing. But once you’ve nailed the technique, it’s not an issue at all.

In short, the design of these dumbbells is as functional as it is good-looking. They’re durable, user-friendly, and stylish enough to show off.

• Design score: 4.5/5

Technogym Connected Dumbbells: Features and performance

(Image credit: Future)

• AI coaching adapts workouts to your progress
• Built-in sensors track reps, sets, and weight use
• App motivates with milestones and progress tracking

These dumbbells aren’t just your bog-standard piece of gym equipment—they’re essentially a workout buddy. Each dumbbell is fitted with smart sensors that track every rep, set, and weight you use. This data syncs to the Technogym App and this is where the clever stuff happens. The app’s AI Coach uses all that info to create personalized workout plans, tweaking them as you progress. It’s like having a PT in your pocket.

The app itself is super easy to navigate. Whether you’re looking to do strength training, active recovery, or something in between, there’s a workout for it. One of my favorite features is the little celebratory ping when you hit a new PB. It’s a small touch, but it genuinely makes you feel like a champ. That said, the app isn’t perfect. It doesn’t track bodyweight exercises like push-ups or planks, which feels like a bit of a letdown if you like mixing things up.

In terms of how they handle workouts, these dumbbells are a dream. Like I said earlier, adjusting the weight on them is quick and fuss-free thanks to the twist-handle mechanism. It’s smooth, precise, and feels really robust. Even at heavier weights, the dumbbells feel perfectly balanced, which makes a huge difference during more intense sessions when you’re rushing around.

Connectivity deserves a mention too. The sensors sip battery, so you’re not constantly worried about them dying on you. During my time with the dumbbells, I also experienced no glitches or lag between the app and the weights; it all worked pretty seamlessly, which is reassuring. Although for nearly £1,500, so they should. The only downside, I’d say, is the 24kg max weight. This could be a sticking point for anyone looking to go heavy. A 32kg max weight would have solved this issue, IMO.

Nevertheless, for anyone just starting out or at an intermediate level, these dumbbells are a great option. They’re smart, efficient, and genuinely make your workouts more engaging. Advanced lifters might find themselves craving more weight, but for most people, they’ll hit the sweet spot.

• Performance score: 4 / 5
  

Technogym Connected Dumbbells: Verdict

(Image credit: Future)

The Technogym Connected Dumbbells hit the mark for anyone wanting stylish, space-saving, and tech-packed gym gear. They’re easy to use, look great and the AI-driven app makes training feel a lot less like guesswork. Beginners and casual users will love the convenience and motivation these dumbbells bring to the table.

That said, they’re not for everyone. The limited weight range means serious lifters will likely need something heftier, and the steep price might put off anyone on a budget. Plus, the app’s inability to track bodyweight exercises is a bit of a head-scratcher. Although, this could always be addressed with a simple update at a later time.

So, if you’ve got the cash and crave the tech-savvy features, these dumbbells could be a game-changer. For the right user—especially those tight on space—they’re a smart, functional, and a downright stylish addition to a home gym.

Technogym Connected Dumbbells: Scorecard Technogym Connected Dumbbells: Should I buy? Buy them if…

You want a tidy home gym. These dumbbells replace 12 sets of weights, making them perfect for small spaces.View Deal

You need tailored workouts. The AI-powered app adapts to your goals and tracks progress effortlessly.View Deal

You’re after sleek, premium gym gear, They look great and work even better—a real statement piece for any home.View Deal

Don’t buy them if…

You’re into heavy lifting. The 24kg max weight won’t cut it for advanced strength training.View Deal

You’re saving the pennies. They’re pricey, especially compared to other adjustable dumbbells.View Deal

You like tracking bodyweight exercises. The app doesn’t log non-dumbbell moves like push-ups or planks, for some reason.View Deal

Also consider

SelectTech 552
A more budget-friendly alternative with a similar 2kg-24kg range. The dial system is smooth and easy to use, but you miss out on the smart features.

Read our full SelectTech 552 reviewView Deal

Kabata Smart Dumbbells
Like Technogym’s offering, these smart dumbbells use AI to automatically adjust to your fitness and strength levels, ensuring you’re lifting the right amount of resistance. And for a much lower cost. However, with a 27kg maximum weight per dumbbell, they are just as limited when compared to other options on the market. View Deal

JaxJox DumbbellConnect (£599)
These smart dumbbells offer app-based tracking like Technogym but they max out at an even lower 22kg. Good for casual users, but limited for heavier training.

Read our full JaxJox DumbbellConnect reviewView Deal

How I tested

I tested the Technogym Connected Dumbbells over a few weeks, throwing them into my regular workout routines. This meant squats, lunges, and chest presses to push the weight range to its limits. I paired them with the Technogym app to see how well the tracking and AI coaching worked, manually comparing the app’s data with my own counts. I also used the optional Strength Corner stand to keep things organized and explored its extra features. Durability and ease of use were put to the test during high-intensity sessions.

• First reviewed: January 2025

GE Cync Lighting Dynamic Effects Smart Bulb: two-minute review

The GE Cync Lighting Dynamic Effects Smart Bulbs are a fantastic addition for anyone looking to add some smart and (per the name) dynamic lighting to their smart homes. While GE offers all sorts of different lighting options, the smart bulbs comes in two versions: A19 and B30. The first, reviewed here, fits into most traditional light fixtures, while the B30 is ideal for recessed lighting.

You don’t need a hub for the GE Cync Lighting Dynamic Effects Smart Bulbs, so adding them into a smart home is pretty straightforward. That said, they are limited to certain ecosystems – a minor travesty in this day and age where Matter certification is becoming more widely adopted.

Overall though, the GE Cync Lighting Dynamic Effects Smart Bulbs belong in the conversation for the best smart lights due to, not only their easy implementation, but the wide range of colors and effects on offer.

The A19 bulbs fit most standard light fixtures (Image credit: James Holland)

Physically, the GE Cync Lighting Dynamic Effects Smart Bulbs look like most smart bulbs in that they keep the same basic shape of the bulb form factor. The outer part of the bulb is an opaque white while the lower portion towards the base is covered in a matte white casing presumably covering the more digital components of the bulb.

The A19 version reviewed here is on par with a 60 watt light bulb ,offering 800 lumens in terms of brightness with a color temperature of 2,700k. Since this is a bulb with a focus on dynamic lighting, there are 16 million colors and white tones available, and the brightness can be fully adjusted.

The GY Cync Lighting Dynamic Effects Smart Bulbs offer 16 million colors to choose from, and different temperatures of white light (Image credit: James Holland)

Likewise, pairing the light bulb is very easy and straightforward, consisting of physically installing the bulb, turning on the lamp, and going through the setup prompts on the Cync app. Having dealt with a number of smart bulbs over the years, I have found that cheaper ones (aka budget brands) can have connectivity issues during pairing and sometimes even during use.

The GE Cync Lighting Dynamic Effects bulb might be a little spendy compared to other models, but its connectivity is rock solid. In fact, the closest I‘ve had to any issue is a second or two of lag when turning off through the app, but that’s only if the light’s been on for a while.

Setting up the bulbs using the mobile app is refreshingly straightforward (Image credit: James Holland)

I also tested it with Alexa The setup took just a few steps, and Alexa responded quickly to my voice commands. Unfortunately, this smart bulb only has access to Google Home and Alexa. While that accounts for a good number of smart home ecosystems, it leaves plenty of people in the cold, something that Matter certification would help with, and which isn't on offer here. What’s surprising is that GE does have some Matter-supported bulbs, such as in the reveal and direct connect models.

The GE Cycle Lighting Dynamic Effects Smart Bulbs work with Alexa and Google Assistant, but not Apple HomeKit (Image credit: James Holland)

Most of the magic for this smart bulb is accessible via the app. Each installed light bulb shows up as its own entry in the app, and shows up as a boxy tile with an on/off toggle and a slider to adjust brightness. Tapping the tile doesn’t open more menu diving as one would expect. Instead, you’ll end up turning the light on or off depending on its current setting.

To dig deeper, there’s a little inward pointing arrow at the edge of the icon that, when pressed, moves the tile to the side to reveal four smaller icons. The first gives access to a color wheel where you can really fine-tune the color you want. If there aren’t 16 million colors available here, then it’s probably close. There are some other options in this section of the app where you can just select some preset lighting including different shades of white and some basic colors.

The app allows you to set a color for the whole bulbs, or divide it into sections (Image credit: James Holland)

I won’t say shame on you if you stick to these settings, but you’re missing out on what this light bulb can do if you don’t go beyond that. The second of the four smaller icons allows you to subdivide the lightbulb into four differently colored sections for when you want to get a little wild, but still want static lighting.

The third icon is probably the most unique to the GE Cync Lighting Dynamic Effects Smart Bulb as this is where the actual dynamic effects are available. First, it should be noted that the dynamic effects are subdivided into two sections of effects, selectable by pressing on ‘light shows’ or ‘music shows’ at the bottom.

Whichever is selected will show a number of presets already loaded onto the bulb, as well as a section of other presets to explore and preview that can be downloaded as well. All the dynamic effects can be customized, though the level of customization depends on the effect itself. Usually, you can change the brightness and selected colors used (many of the presets cycle through different colors for their effects) at the minimum.

The bulb's 'light shows' are a fun addition, and all dynamic effects are customizable (Image credit: James Holland)

The light shows are fun, but are a bit more static than the music shows, which use the microphone on your smartphone (and you can select the sensitivity) to respond to aural stimulus. It’s really cool to see the smart bulb change color and intensity according to the dynamics of a song. The only minor issue is that it responds much better with the volume up. So, when I have a music show effect loaded and am listening to music at a comfortable level that one could talk over, the effect only seems to respond to the peaks of the audio and is off otherwise. To get the full experience, I have to turn up. While cool, I have to consider my neighbors when choosing to turn it up.

Lastly, the fourth icon is for settings. While I won’t spend too much time on this, it’s worth mentioning that there’s a feature here called ‘Trueimage’ that lets you take a picture to set as the background of the smart bulb tile, and preview changes even if you're not in the same room.

TrueImage is a tool that lets you preview changes to the color of your smart bulbs even when you're in a different room (Image credit: James Holland)

The Cync Lighting Dynamic Effects Smart Bulb looks great, whether on a white light setting – regardless of the warmth (I do like to go warmer) – or one of the dynamic effects with its full color array.

Really, the only shortcomings of this light bulb is the lack of Matter support. While somewhat expensive on a per-bulb basis, it’s not an unreasonable price. And, the dynamic effects are worth the cost.

GE Cync Lighting Dynamic Effects Smart Bulb: specs GE Cync Lighting Dynamic Effects Smart Bulb: price and availability

• Prices start at $19.99 (about £20 / AU$40)
• Available now
• Available in the US and Canada

Getting a two-pack of the A19 size direct from GE will run you $37.99, while a single bulb costs $19.99 MSRP. Their availability is limited to the US and Canada, as they unfortunately do not work in the UK or Australia. The B30 is priced very similarly with a single bulb, though it’s listed at a range from around $17 to $26 depending on the retailer.

Pricewise, the GE Cync Lighting Dynamic Effects Smart Bulbs are a little on the higher end, considering that a two-pack of the Govee Wi-Fi LED Bulb goes for $23.99 / £23.39. Of course, there are some trade-offs, particularly the fact that the Govee’s brightness and the app design could be better.

However, $20 a bulb is not an inappropriate price point. Nanoleaf Matter Essentials costs $19.99 / £19.99 / AU$39.99 for an A19 bulb. While Nanoleaf’s app is a bit buggy compared to the rock-solid setup of the GE Cync, it does come with Matter certification is more universal in application.

Should you buy the GE Cync Lighting Dynamic Effects Smart Bulb? Buy it if

You want dynamic effects

The dynamic effects available here are a treat, especially the ones that respond to audio, and set it apart from the competition. Get enough of these and you could probably throw your own rave.

You want easy connectivity

This smart bulb is incredibly easy to set up and use, not to mention that its connectivity is rock solid.

Don't buy it if

You don’t want to spend too much

At about $20 per bulb, the GE Cync Lighting Dynamic Effects Smart Bulb is on the pricier end. If you’re trying to stretch your budget (maybe you’re trying to get a bunch of bulbs), there are plenty of smart bulbs that are much more affordable.

GE Cync Lighting Dynamic Effects Smart Bulb: also consider

Govee Wi-Fi LED Bulb

If you’re on a budget, the Govee Wi-Fi LED Bulb might be the way to go. Sure, the colors could be a little brighter and the app could be better designed, but you can get two Govee bulbs for almost the price of one GE Cync smart bulb. The Govee likewise supports Google Home and Alexa.

Read our full Govee Wi-Fi LED Bulb review

Nanoleaf Matter Essentials

The Nanoleaf Matter Essentials might need a hub for Apple HomeKit, but it's Matter-certified, meaning that you can use it with any smart home ecosystem. If you have something outside of Google Home or Alexa, that immediately puts it above the GE Cync bulbs. On the flip side, their setup is not quite as rock solid as the GE Cync’s.

Read our full Nanoleaf Matter Essentials review

How I tested the GE Cync Lighting Dynamic Effects Smart Bulbs

• Tested over a couple weeks
• Tested all the different features including multiple dynamic effects
• Used with a voice assistant

I spent a couple weeks using the GE Cync Lighting Dynamic Effects Smart Bulbs to get an idea of how they function against how they’re advertised and to see if they’re worth the price. I tested the various presets, from static colors to various dynamic effects. I even connected it with Alexa to see how it would work with a voice assistant.

After having tested the GE Cync Lighting Dynamic Smart Bulbs, I found them to be ideal for those who want a little extra from smart lighting, particularly those engrossing dynamic effects.

I’ve spent the last few years reviewing all sorts of gadgets from audio equipment and robot vacuums to laptops and more with a detailed eye on whether the product works as advertised and is beneficial to those who might be interested in it. For more details, see how we test, rate, and review at TechRadar.

First reviewed January 2025

Twotrees TTC450 Pro: 30 Second review

Like many CNC machines of this type, the Twotrees TTC450 Pro CNC router comes almost completely built, with only a few finishing touches needed before it's up and running.

However, when it comes to out-of-the-box usability, it's worth noting that CNC machines are not as straightforward as the best 3D printer or best laser engraver I've tried. Calibration must be done manually, but thankfully, Twotrees provides plenty of Wiki guides to walk you through the setup process and more details in the provided paper manual as well as on the USB that ships with the machine. You'll also need different types of software to operate the machine, and in this review, I utilised Easel for the CNC functions and Lightburn for the laser engraving, both paid-for versions.

When first starting, it's not easy if you're unused to CNC machines. Having used a few, I've found this to be the norm. Expect to spend time watching tutorial videos and calibrating the machine with the probe before achieving successful results; one of the key elements here is to note that you have to set the home point for every new material and enter both the height and size. However, once you follow the calibration process step-by-step, things begin to make sense—but do expect to spend some time head-scratching. As long as you secure your materials tightly using the nuts and bolts provided, you shouldn't encounter too many issues.

When it comes to use, the machine supports a good variety of materials and router tool bits, with the two router options and the laser engraving head. While it can handle thin, soft metals such as aluminium, it's not suited for machining tougher materials like steel. Like most home DIY CNC machines, the TTC450 Pro is primarily designed for woodworking and other softer materials.

The CNC's design is distinctly workshop-like, as with most machines of this type sporting an open frame. However, Twotrees has refined the design, adding an easy-to-use touchscreen that lets you access settings, recall previously loaded files, and manage calibration and maintenance. Both router options are high-quality and can be swapped out easily, taking around five minutes with the review sample. Two Trees also supplied the laser engraver head, which further adds to the appeal of the machine. For a normal-sized workshop, having a machine that can act as both types of machines is definitely an advantage, and the fact that it's built so solidly only boosts the laser engraving performance.

The TTC450 Pro, like all CNC machines, takes time to master. Don't expect to become an expert after one sitting. Spending time watching videos and learning how to use the software is essential, as is ensuring every bolt is kept tight. While I have aspirations for more advanced CNC work, my current projects on this machine have still produced some pretty decent results. After several weeks of familiarisation, I've found it to be one of the easier CNC machines to use, and overall, I've been impressed with the quality of the work that I can even produce. If you're looking for a machine for a small business or as a dedicated hobbyist, the TTC450 Pro is an excellent option. It's far easier to use than some DIY alternatives, especially given the price.

Twotrees TTC450 Pro: Price and Availability

The TTC450 Pro is widely available and can be purchased directly from the Twotrees website by clicking here, as well as from many DIY and online retailers.

Twotrees TTC450 Pro: Design

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

The design and build of the TTC450 Pro are simple, with an open-frame design that makes the mechanics of the machine nice and straightforward. When the TTC450 Pro arrives, you can literally just take it out of the box and assemble a few parts—mainly the crossbar, router, and screen—tighten everything up, and off you go. When the box arrived, it took me around 45 minutes to unpack, sort out all the parts, and get the machine into its initial working condition, slightly longer than anticipated but still not bad.

One early point to note about the build is that, while this is a smaller desktop machine, it is by no means small. Considering its footprint, which measures 742 x 689 x 413 mm, you'll need about a metre squared of desktop space to position the machine comfortably. A standard 60 cm width work surface won't suffice. After assembling the machine, I found I had to extend my workspace, which is typically dedicated to 3D printers and laser engravers that fit easily on standard kitchen-width surfaces. Like a few other CNC machines, including my main CNC machine, the TTC450 Pro requires considerably more space.

Additionally, and this is a serious consideration, the mess generated by this machine, particularly sawdust, will require a clear and contained area if you don't want mess spread throughout the room. There is a dust extraction system available for around $99, and I would highly recommend adding this to the purchase.

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

When it comes to weight, these are not light machines. Given that this machine spins at high speeds, its weight is actually an advantage. I've found it's a good idea to bolt CNC machines down to your work surface to reduce vibrations and achieve better results. Although this machine isn't enormous, it still weighs a significant 20.6 kg, so while one person can move it, it is heavy.

The machine is whole well thought out, with a touchscreen positioned on the left-hand side and the main router mounted on top. The workspace, measuring 460 x 460 x 80 mm, is a good size and the work base includes screw holes, making it easy to bolt down materials without needing to create your own.

As mentioned, the machine also supports a range of accessories, including the laser engraver and a cylindrical engraving attachment, along with a host of tool bits for the two different router options. Switching between the routers and the laser is quick, with bolted-in clamps holding the tools in place, so a single Allen key is all that's needed. It's not quite a quick release, but it's fast enough.

As for compatible materials, the TTC450 Pro can engrave plywood, MDF, solid wood, acrylic, carbon fibre, aluminium, copper, and even some thin stainless steel.

For file transfer, you can use USB, Wi-Fi, or a TF/microSD card. It's worth noting the Wi-Fi only supports 2.4 GHz rather than 5 GHz, and there's no Bluetooth, Ethernet, or USB flash drive support.

Twotrees TTC450 Pro: Features

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

When it comes to features, the TTC450 Pro is well-equipped for a CNC machine of this price. First and foremost, when the box arrived, the machine was mostly prebuilt. Assembly was relatively straightforward, and using the instructions provided, Two Trees estimates it will take around 10 minutes to construct. If you have ample space, I would imagine this is just about accurate, but if you're short on space, set aside around 45 minutes to unpack, organise, and clear enough room to lay everything out neatly. It's worth preparing your workspace beforehand.

A nice but also essential touch is that the TTC450 Pro includes features essential for the professional use of CNC as the safety stop feature. If something goes wrong, pressing this button halts all operations immediately.

Although the open-frame design has a somewhat DIY aesthetic, Two Trees has opted for a sleek aluminium frame. While not as refined as modern laser engravers or 3D printers, it's a significant improvement over the industrial-style CNC machines of the past. A 3.5-inch colour touchscreen makes navigating the machine far easier compared to many CNC systems that lack built-in screens or controls and usually solely rely on a connected PC to work.

Specs

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

Frame structure: Sheet Metal + Aluminum Profile + Injection Molding + Stainless Steel
Product size: 742mmX689mm X 413mm
Working range: 460mmX460mmX80mm(18.1in*18.1in*3.14in)
Supported tool diameter: 0.5mm to 7mm(ER11 chuck)
Compatible engraving materials: Plywood/MDF/Solid
Wood/Acrylic/Carbon Brazing/Aluminum/Copper/Stainless Steel
Net weight: 15.45KG
Gross weight: 20.6KG
Touch screen: 3.5-inch IPS capacitive touch color screen (480*320 resolution)
Firmware type: GRBL open source, supports both CNC and laser (no firmware required)
Support: TF storage card | USB port | Wifi-2.4G Hz
Engraving accuracy: 100±0.05mm
Maximum engraving speed: 800mm/min
Maximum acceleration: 1000mm/s²
Programming software: Artcam, Fusion360, EASEL, Carveco Maker, etc.
Support system: MacOS\Windows\Linux
Program support format: .nci\Gcode

Another nice touch is the fact that the tool head is dustproof, helping it stay cleaner for longer, and this could potentially improve its longevity; routers tend to break after a while due to debris entering the venting, so this design aspect is nice to see. As you look over the machine, you also notice that it features larger motors than you usually see on lighter-duty machines like 3D printers or laser engravers, again all helping to improve the longevity of the machine.

While the machine is considered small for a CNC, the build space is still pretty decent at 460 x 460 mm, with enough depth to handle many larger projects. The machine also features large 8mm gantry side plates that help add to the overall strength, and brass calibration nuts are used on the lead screws again to aid with the precision and durability of the machine.

A notable addition is the cylindrical engraving option, which is easy to set up and use, essentially bolting into the surface and plugging in. This works in much the same ways as the rotary options common with laser engravers and offers more creative options. However, as with other aspects of CNC use, there's a steep learning curve, and my attempts so far haven't been that successful. However, this is a user rather than a machine error.

One addition that I would have liked to test with the machine is the dual dust extraction system, which helps maintain a cleaner workspace. Without it, sawdust or metal debris scatters across your workshop. CNC machines are inherently messy, so investing in the dust extraction system is highly recommended if it's not included in your kit.

The TTC450 Pro supports a tool diameter range of 0.5 to 7 mm and uses an ER11-style chuck. It primarily relies on open-source GRBL firmware, which supports both CNC and laser use without requiring additional updates. For engraving, you can expect accuracy within ±0.05 mm, a maximum engraving speed of 800 mm/min, and a maximum acceleration of 1000 mm/s².

In terms of software support, it's compatible with programs like ArtFusion 360, Easel, and Carbide Create, among others that support the mainboard. The system accepts files.NC or G-code formats, depending on your preference.

Twotrees TTC450 Pro: Performance

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

Starting with the Two Trees TTC450 Pro CNC router does take a little time. While it's quick and easy to set up, and Two Trees estimates about 10 minutes for assembly, I found it took quite a bit longer. However, after clearing space and extending one of my work surfaces to accommodate the machine, it took about 45 minutes before I was ready to power on. Initially, I used the Mac system set up in my workshop, but a machine like this would also pair perfectly with a mini PC.

Once everything was connected, I used the Easel software package to control the TTC450 Pro. There are plenty of compatible CNC software options available, and many are open source and free, although these can be a bit more complex to set up and use. Once everything is set and before starting, you need to calibrate the machine to recognise the bit height using the included probe.

With your material placed on the build platform, you attach the probe on top of the material, plug the probe into the socket on the tool head, and connect the crocodile clip to the drill bit. Through the touchscreen interface, you select "Probe," and the machine lowers the tool head until the drill bit touches the probe. Once this is done, you're ready to begin CNC machining.

If you're accustomed to high-end laser engravers or 3D printers, you might expect almost completely automatic calibration. However, most CNCs, including TTC450 Pro, require far more manual input. This machine is more advanced than many others, but you still need the starting point for your CNC file. For example, using Easel, you load your CNC file into the software and connect it to the machine. Then, you run through the software prompts that give step-by-step instructions for what you need to do with the material and machine. Using Easel makes this process relatively straightforward as there are drivers and software presets pre-configured for the TTC450 Pro; using Candle or other applications, you'll need to configure everything from scratch.

Once your design is ready in Easel, you're ready to start the CNC machining. Unlike a 3D printer or laser engraver, where you simply press "print," CNC machining involves additional steps. Within the software, you select "Carve" and follow prompts to specify material thickness, type, and drill bit size, and then move the tool head position over the bottom left corner of the material. After confirming these settings, the machine checks the dimensions to ensure they stay within material boundaries.

The final screen provides a last-minute checklist. The first button lifts the tool head, the second and third buttons start the tool head spinning and confirm functionality, and finally, you press "Carve" to begin machining.

Once the machine starts, the default speed is slow and steady, but there's plenty of flexibility over this speed as you become more familiar with the machine and materials you're working with. While you shouldn't leave the machine unattended, it works exceptionally well and proved to be very reliable. For a CNC machine priced under £1,000, the quality of the output is exceptional. The build quality, high-quality lead screws, and rigid frame ensure precision throughout the test.

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

For projects that cut through materials, I recommend placing an additional sheet underneath to protect the build surface. Although switching to the laser cutter for cutting, most materials will usually do the job, and this is why the machine stands out: that fact that you have that versatility. It includes two different tool heads; the standard router supports a variety of materials, including wood, metal, plastics, and carbon fibre sheets. For larger wood projects, you can mount a more powerful router, which allows for intricate and large-scale work. A laser cutter head is also available for tasks like 2D shapes. Switching heads takes about 5 minutes to unbolt, replace, and recalibrate, which is relatively quick. However, there's the case of updating firmware to make the switch; this takes a further five minutes or so and is definitely an area of the machine that could do with a bit of a tweak, as some technical knowledge is required. It took me a few attempts to get the hand of the process so while it's relatively straight forward it can prove a little perplexing at first.

Having three different tool heads offers significant flexibility. The rotary tool, included in the box, is another accessory with steep learning curves. Although my initial results were underwhelming, this was due to user error rather than machine limitations. The dust extraction vacuum accessory, which I didn't have for this review, is a must-have, and through this test, I've been using an extraction system from a larger machine, you'll see in the image the result of using nothing!

The TTC450 Pro relies on open-source or third-party software. While this allows broad compatibility, there isn't a single, unified software solution like Snapmaker offers, which, for those starting out again, adds to the learning curve. For CNC work, Easel is ideal, while laser engraving requires software like LightBurn. Fortunately, these applications are straightforward, and many users will already be familiar with them, as they are widely used in other CNC and laser engravers.

Twotrees TTC450 Pro: Final verdict

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

When it comes to performance, the Twotrees TTC450 Pro is a surprisingly good multi-use machine at an exceptional price. There are many aspects to like about it. First and foremost is the design. Its open frame makes it very easy to use and manoeuvre. The size is relatively large, and you may need to extend a work surface to accommodate it slightly. However, it's comparable with most larger laser engravers and other small CNC machines.

What sets the TTC450 Pro apart from many other CNC machines of this style and type is its build quality. Two trees have taken it up a notch from the usual extruded aluminium and open-frame designs. While it still follows the same fundamental technology and design principles, Two Trees has ensured that the quality of its parts and components is a step above, and because of this, it has a more professional feel compared to other CNC machines at this price.

When it comes to setup and assembly, Two Trees suggests 10–15 minutes. However, I would recommend allowing 45 minutes to an hour to familiarise yourself with all the components and parts. It's also good to take your time and ensure all bolts and screws are tightened properly, as any looseness will affect the quality of your CNC results.

One slight issue I found during assembly was that, while the instructions lay out exactly where everything goes, some cables are only just long enough to reach their connectors, requiring some fiddling to get everything into place. Additionally, a minor annoyance is that the bolts are of different sizes, meaning frequent changes between Allen keys. It's not a major problem, but it can be a little frustrating during assembly.

Once the machine is built and ready to start a CNC project, there is a steep learning curve, particularly if you've never used a CNC machine before. For those new to CNC, I highly recommend Easel software. It's straightforward to use, and you should get excellent results relatively quickly. The setup process is relatively simple, and the Easel software provides a step-by-step guide to get started, which is incredibly helpful for beginners. There is also a good level of resources available online, written in an accessible way that doesn't assume prior knowledge—unlike many other CNC applications.

The Twotrees TTC450 Pro is an entry-level CNC, but it's also an extremely powerful one considering its price. While it's a great starting point for beginners, it will also appeal to experienced users, such as those in small businesses or looking for a desktop solution. My advice for anyone purchasing this machine is to also invest in the vacuum attachment. As with any CNC machine, a lot of waste is produced, and without a vacuum, that debris will spread throughout the room.

For the money, the TTC450 Pro is a superb option, offering plenty of flexibility with its three tool head options. These allow you to machine a wide variety of materials and use the machine as either a laser engraver or a CNC router. In my opinion, it's one of the best options on the market at present.

Should you buy the Twotrees TTC450 Pro? 

Buy it if...

You need versatile functionality
The TTC450 Pro offers CNC routing, laser engraving, and more, making it ideal for users seeking a flexible, multi-use machine for diverse projects.

You're a beginner or pro
With easy setup and powerful features, this machine suits beginners learning CNC as well as professionals seeking a reliable, compact option if space is limited.

Don't buy it if...

You want plug-and-play
The machine requires manual calibration and setup, making it less suitable for those looking for a completely automatic, out-of-the-box solution.

You lack workspace
Its large footprint demands a decent amount of workspace, so it's not ideal if you only have a limited amount of space.

One-minute review

It looks like a GoPro with its mounting case and front-facing screen, but the Akaso Brave 8 comes at a more modest price, with image quality that will meet the demands of most users. With 2x batteries, a dual charger, a remote control, and a range of mounts, it has everything you need out of the box.

During my review, the small front-facing screen made it easy to vlog adventures, whilst the rear touchscreen was responsive enough to touch to make changing settings easy. However, there are also negatives; the image stabilization in-camera is good, without being great, but the so-called SuperSmooth option, which requires processing in the accompanying camera app, isn't a patch on what GoPro offers; and the improvement over the Brave 8's in-camera stabilization is modest. The app is useable but clunky in places, and the sound recording could also be improved.

Overall, the Akaso Brave 8 is a solid little action camera with all you need to get started; the video quality is good, and the stabilization ok if you aren't hammering the camera on a bike, be it pedal or motorized. The problem is that older generation GoPro Hero cameras can still be purchased new in some places for around the same price, and more recent ones will solve many of the faults of the Akaso Hero 8. So, whilst it is cheaper than the GoPro Hero 13 Black, those thinking about the Akaso Hero 8 may want to step back a GoPro generation or two instead. For ideas of other options check out our best action cameras guide.

That said, Akaso is an emerging brand, and its products regularly seem to be discounted or have extras, such as memory cards, also offered as part of the package. So if the stabilization and audio issues won't affect you significantly, it may be worth keeping your eyes open for an offer.

Akaso Brave 8: price and release date

The Akaso Brave 8 is available via Amazon and, at the time of writing, is priced at $289.99, but there is the option of a promotional $50 money-off voucher. In the UK, the kit also includes at 64GB Micro SD card and is £244.99, not including a £40 off voucher promotion.

Keep an eye out for deals and limited-time offers on Amazon, particularly during sales periods when additional memory cards or money-off vouchers may be applied.

Akaso Brave 8 specs

(Image credit: Future) Akaso Brave 8: design

The Akaso Brave 8 action camera adopts a familiar design: let's be honest, it is a GoPro clone in a market that is already flooded with GoPro competitors. However, even at a glance, you can tell that it is far from a cheap knock-off, with a rear touchscreen, front facing screen, all packaged in a body that is waterproof up to a depth of 33ft / 10m.

Size-wise the Akaso Brave 8 measures 63x45x36.5mm which overall makes it slightly smaller than the GoPro Hero 13 Black, which measures 71.8 x 50.8 x 33.6mm

Behind the 16mm f/2.5 lens sits a 1/2 inch size sensor. As a comparison, the GoPro Hero 13 uses a 1/1.9inch sensor, which means the two sensor sizes are comparable. The sensor can capture images at up to a 48MP resolution, and video can be captured at up to 4K 60fps. If you want to shoot timelapse videos, then these can be captured at 8K resolution, whilst moving timelapses (hyperlapses) can be captured at 4K 30fps.

If slow motion is more your thing, then 2.7k footage can be captured at up to 120fps and Full HD can go to an impressive 200fps.

All of that footage is saved on to Micro SD cards, and the Brave 8 can accept cards with a capacity of up to 512GB. In terms of speed, my review sample of the Akaso Brave 8 was supplied with an Akaso-branded 64GB Micro SD XC UHS I card with U3 rating, meaning the card had a minimum write speed of 30MB/s - which is the same as a V30 card.

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The layout of the camera is straightforward; there is a rear touch-sensitive screen, as well as a smaller square front screen that sits alongside the lens. There are just three buttons on the camera with the power/display button on top and a Recording start/stop button. On the side is the Mode button.

The Micro SD card socket and a USB-C socket are located on the side of the camera, behind a well-sealed waterproof door. The USB-C socket can be used to power the camera or charge the battery.

On the bottom of the camera is an equally well-sealed battery compartment. Akaso supply two batteries, each with a capacity of 1,550mAh, which is a little less than the 1,900mAh batteries of the GoPro Hero 13 Black. However, credit to Akaso for supplying two batteries so that you can always been filming and charging, which, as I found out, is needed with this camera.

The extra battery is just one of a whole host of supplied accessories, including a tiny USB-C dual battery charger, so you can charge both batteries at the same time. A remote control is also included, as well as a camera mounting frame/case, a GoPro style mount, a helmet mount, a handlebar mount, an adhesive pad, a zip tie, a strap, and a lens cloth. It is a very solid set of accessories.

Akaso Brave 8: performance

Overall, the Akaso Brave 8 performed very well, especially considering its price. However, it wasn't without its quirks, and we will discuss those shortly.

Of course, the main thing is the video quality. I did most of my shooting in the 4K / 30fps setting, which produced quite nice footage that is on par with what you would expect for an action with a sensor of this size.

Key to a lot of action cameras is, of course, stabilization performance, and there are three different modes to choose from. The first is no stabilization. Then, there is a Normal, an in-camera stabilization mode with a six-axis gyroscope that applies the EIS 4.0 algorithm to stabilize the footage electronically. Finally, there is a Super Smooth option. This mode records all of the gyroscopic information but doesn't apply any of it in the camera; instead, you upload your clip to the app, where the gyroscopic data is read, and then stabilization is applied.

I found that the difference between the Normal stabilization and the Super Smooth stabilization wasn't as dramatic as I thought it would be. In most circumstances, I believe that users are probably better off just sticking to the Normal option, which softens rather than completely smoothing out any bumps or shakes. The extra step of uploading and applying Super Smooth in the app seems like a significant additional effort for a very little extra reward. Here, the camera falls way behind the stabilization that the latest GoPro cameras offer.

A decent amount of settings allow control of the video image. You can change the exposure metering to any one of several modes, and there is exposure compensation should you wish to make adjustments, which I did.

Generally, the camera produced images with a good exposure. I did tweak it a few times in extreme conditions. For example, filming in a forest could be pretty dark, with the bright light coming through the trees, causing the image to be dark, and then at other times, with no sky in the shot, it lightened the image quite a lot. I found myself making +/-0.3EV changes to the image to balance this out. What it was good at was getting the exposure correct when a face was in the scene, which is great for vlogging and filming your adventures. I advise experimenting with the different metering settings and seeing what suits your needs best.

In addition to exposure compensation, you can also change the ISO sensitivity, sharpness, plus there are two color settings - Normal or Vivid. It may not be the most comprehensive in terms of all the color settings or image styles. Still, it is good enough for the basics, particularly if your goal is capturing memories rather than producing cinematic experiences.

Some lasting memories I captured included filming my children running in and out of the sea on holiday. I put the Brave 8 on a selfie stick and shot low-angle shots of them running and jumping over the waves. The waves sometimes smashed over the camera, completely submerging it in salty Atlantic water. After a few months, the camera still works perfectly fine, with no adverse effects from the sand or saltwater.

The in-camera microphone recorded voices clearly enough, but it should be noted that wind noise was picked up quite significantly, even when it wasn't obviously windy. I wouldn't think of using the audio if I was on a motor or pedal bike. Additional microphones can be attached via USB-C, but sadly, the camera has no mounting points.

The touchscreen worked well and was responsive, with onscreen buttons and navigation presenting no problem. I found it was easy to change settings and navigate the menu.

As well as the included remote control, there is also the option to control the camera via voice commands. Again, I tried this - it is especially useful when you have the camera mounted to a helmet. The real trick is remembering the exact commands that you have to say to start and stop recording and to make sure that you say them clearly.

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I didn't take many images with the camera as the video aspect is more appealing to people, but the photos look okay. There are problems with exposure, which is largely due to the sensor's small size. There didn't seem to be much HDR processing going on in terms of lightening shadow areas or pulling back highlights like you would get with a smartphone these days.

Given it is a wide-angle lens, you probably want to stick to the 48MP resolution just in case you do want to crop in a little bit more as images are very very wide on the camera.

As you would expect, there are further record modes, such as being able to shoot a time-lapse video or a time-lapse photo, that I'll be honest I didn't delve too much into, however, I did have a quick play around with them, and there seems to be quite a long interval between the images taken to create a time-lapse video, so I wouldn't use it for any activities such as mountain biking or running or skiing or anything like that. If you want to create a little clip of a ride, you're better off using the Hyperlapse setting for that, while the timelapse mode is better for things you would traditionally use a timelapse for, such as clouds passing over city scenes.

Overall, I am pretty impressed with the image quality and features that the Akaso Brave 8 offers. However, it lacks the finesse and quality you expect from a GoPro, DJI, or Insta360 action camera. Sadly, the image stabilization will be a letdown for those wanting super steady footage. Similarly, the microphone and audio processing need some tweaking to bring it up to scratch.

However, Akaso will be a budget action camera brand to keep an eye on as they have a solid foundation on which to build, particularly as some of the issues can be updated via firmware or more power processing in a future camera.

Should I buy the Akaso Brave 8?

(Image credit: Future) Buy it if...

You can't afford GoPro
Although GoPro has faced competition from DJI in recent years, they are still the leading action camera brand. However, if you can't stretch to a GoPro the the Akaso Brave 8 provides most of the features at a cheaper price.

You want an all-in-one solution
With so many accessories included in the box, the akaso Brave 8 is great for those who want to get started filming straight away rather than trawling Amazon for the mounts and extra batteries that they need.

You want to stand out from the crowd
If you don't want to go with the usual brands and try something new, Akaso seems to be a brand to keep an eye on in the action camera world.

Don't buy it if...

You want to take photos
Although the Akaso Brave 8 can capture photos, its quality falls way behind that of most contemporary smartphones. If you think you will be taking more pictures than videos, then it is probably best to avoid the Akaso Brave 8.

You don't mind having an older kit

If you don't mind an older action camera, then the GoPro Hero 10 Black has many of the same features, but with with better stabilization, for around the same price new, or significantly cheaper if you go with a used camera.

You won't be getting wet.
If you like to keep your feet dry, then something like the DJI Osmo Pocket 3 offers superior image quality and stabilization but obviously lacks the ability to be used underwater.

(Image credit: Future) How I tested the Akaso Brave 8

• I used the camera for a couple of months in a variety of situations
• I filmed a hike I did in British Columbia
• I tested the waterproof properties by filming on the beach and in the sea

I used the Akaso Brave 8 for several months as a compact camera to film family events and vacations. I even used it a few times to film my kids playing in the sea, which allowed me to test the camera's waterproof qualities.

On a trip to British Columbia, Canada, I turned the camera on myself, using a selfie stick to film myself while hiking and mounting it on a small tripod while swimming in a glacial lake.

Finally, I used one of the included mounts to attach the camera to my bike helmet. With my iPhone mounted to the bike, I could monitor what was being filmed using the Akaso app.

At various points during the camera's use, I connected it to my smartphone to check footage and add stabilization to specific videos. I also used the voice control options and the physical remote control.

First reviewed January 2025

Reebok Nano X5: Two-Minute Review

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Reebok's famed Nano gym shoe is back for 2025, and the company has promised big things for the "Official Shoe of Fitness" this year.

Sporting shades of the legacy design of previous Nanos, the X5 delivers a new DUALRESPONSE Midsole and a Decoupled Metasplit Outsole, designed to give this year's edition greater flexibility and runnability over previous years.

At its heart, though, the X5 is still the brilliant stable lifting platform of its forebears, and after a whole month of using it in the gym, I can heartily recommend it as one of the best gym shoes of 2025.

Out of the box, the X5 silhouette really impresses. The colorway reviewed here is the White/Black/Energy Red version, and I have to say it's a real head-turner. I absolutely love the style and form, as well as the shape. The Energy Red and turquoise blend on the sole is vibrant and striking, and all the small details on the shoe are really impressive.

There's plastic to complement the Flexweave upper, but this feels like a really premium shoe built to last. As a more sturdy lifting shoe, it definitely feels more robust than my current everyday shoe, the Nike Free Metcon 5.

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In terms of fit and comfort, the X5 again really impresses. It definitely doesn't boast the glove/sock-like hug of Nike's Metcon, but it's still extremely comfortable to wear. I've suffered from absolutely no foot fatigue or blisters while wearing them, and they're very comfortable and sturdy underfoot.

There's a huge amount of space in the toe box, so even wearers with wider feet will find them comfortable and roomy. This also lends them to running and more explosive exercises, although for reasons I'll come to, this isn't their primary purpose.

My one reservation about the fit comes from a slightly loose-fitting collar around the ankle. The X5 comes with an extra eyelet alongside the tongue that isn't laced up out of the box. In this configuration, I felt there was a bit too much play around my ankle. You'll definitely want to lace up through the eyelet, which gives the shoe a much more snug fit.

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When it comes to workout performance, I was blown away by the overall stability and sturdiness of the Nano X5. Reebok has really nailed the base with the new midsole, which offers brilliant poise underfoot for strength training. During squats, deadlifts, shoulder presses, and all manner of dumbbell and cable work the X5 offers excellent support with no overcompression or wobble. Despite this, there's enough forgiveness in the sole to give you some responsiveness underfoot during workouts. It's really a perfect blend.

The heel-to-toe-drop is listed as 7mm, which is more pronounced than Nike's Free Metcon 5 and around the same as the newer 6. It feels about right, and I didn't ever get the sense that the shoe was trying to rock me forward onto my forefoot. This is crucial for stability during lifts. That same stability also really lends these shoes to stretching and mobility work, I was again really impressed by how sturdy these shoes were, and these are definitely my new go-to for pliability.

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The Nano X5's sturdiness and stability carry over well into some more explosive moves but are also a limiting factor when it comes to agility and movement. While I can see this being a decent CrossFit shoe, it feels too hefty underfoot to lend itself to plyometrics and running. These will do just fine if you want to do a quick five-minute jog on the treadmill to start a workout, but it's not a running shoe and doesn't perform as well as the Free Metcons over any kind of distance.

While the Nano X5 isn't the beefy weightlifting platform of say, the Adidas Dropset range, it's definitely on the firmer side, which is why it excels for strength training. The Nano X5 would work well for movements like box jumps or pushing a sled up and down your local gym, but I'd have more reservations about any agility work.

Any weak spots I've mentioned here are definitely nitpicks, however. The Reebok Nano X5 is an almost perfect training shoe, as long as you know what you're getting into. There are more forgiving shoes out there, and this definitely isn't a shoe for hybrid training, quick changes of direction, or agility.

Reebok Nano X5: Price and availability

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• $150/£125/ (AUS pricing and availability tbc)
• Unisex and women's options
• Six colors of each

Launching January 24, 2025, the Reebok Nano X5 is available at Reebok.com at the price of $150 in the U.S. and select other retailers. UK customers can expect to pay £125, while Australia pricing and availability is yet to be confirmed by Reebok.

The Nano X5 comes in a unisex and women's option, with a slightly different set of six colors for each. The model reviewed here is the White/Black/Energy Red colorway.

I've found the X5 to fit true-to-size, with plenty of room in the toe box, so I wouldn't worry about sizing up or down.

Reebok Nano X5: Specifications

(Image credit: Future) Reebok Nano X5: Scorecard

(Image credit: Future) Reebok Nano X5: Should I buy?

(Image credit: Future) Buy if it...

You want a brilliant strength shoe

The Reebok Nano X5 is the best strength training shoe I've ever used.

You want excellent stability

The Reebok Nano X5 is sturdy and stable underfoot, perfect for lifting weights.

You want to stand out in style

The Reebok Nano X5 boasts a striking design, especially in its more vibrant colorways.

(Image credit: Future) Don't buy it if...

You want an all-round gym shoe

The Reebok Nano X5 excels for strength and conditioning, at the expense of a more forgiving fit suitable for running and agility.

You want a shoe for cardio, running, and not strength

The Reebok Nano X5 is primarily a strength and weight training shoe, with some pliability for a quick warm-up thrown in.

You're on a budget

At $150 these aren't cheap, and you'll find more generous pricing on Nike's Free Metcon range or an older Nano X4.

Also consider

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Inov-8 F Lite G300

Another outstanding all-rounder shoe that excels in weightlifting.

Read our full review

Nike Free Metcon 5

A more forgiving all-rounder that will provide more comfort and pliability, but less weightlifting performance.

Read our full review

How I tested

I used the Reebok Nano X5 as my primary gym for a whole month between December 2024 and January 2025. I conducted over 20 workouts, mainly strength-based, but also stretching and pliability work, interval training, and some running.

First reviewed: January 2025

Shokz OpenRun Pro 2: Two-minute review

The Shokz OpenRun Pro 2 are particularly excellent for runners, especially long-distance and trail runners. While it won’t quite last the full length of time needed for an Ultra marathon (what can?), they are among the best running headphones out there.

Like the best open earbuds, they allow you to hear your surroundings in a way that even the best wireless earbuds with good ambient / transparency modes can’t. They also are extremely lightweight, stable, and have a nice long battery life. Shokz has also added in air conduction tech to improve the sound quality, as bone conduction headphones typically lag in this area compared to more traditional options.

It’s no surprise, considering how bone conduction headphones work. At louder volumes, these types of headphones tend to create a vibrating sensation that can be unpleasant, even nauseating depending on one’s sensitivity. The Shokz OpenRun Pro 2 doesn’t create this sensation for the most part, with one exception that I’ll mention later.

headset, charging case, regular case, and accessories (Image credit: Future / James Holland)

Before we get to that, we should take a look at the Shokz OpenRun Pro 2’s design. They fit the general mold of bone conduction headphones; there’s the portion containing the drivers that sit in front of the ear connected to the electronics via an over-the-ear loop. Both sides are connected by a wrap-around headband, while the whole thing is covered in silicon to provide some waterproofing. In this case, it’s IP55, surprisingly worse than the lower-tier Shokz OpenRun with their IP67 rating.

Where these headphones differ a little from the competition is the fact that, besides providing four colorways (black, silver, orange, and a Kipchoge-signature white and orange silver-and-orange), you can choose between ‘standard’ and ‘mini’ size headbands, whereas most bone conduction headphones come with a one-size-fits-all one.

This is a nice inclusion. In fact, I might have benefited from the smaller headband, as I could feel the headband move a little if I shook my head. Still, the fit was stable and neither the drivers or section that goes over or behind the ears moved at all. On top of that, it’s very lightweight at just around 30 grams, so you’ll barely feel them – unlike many in-ear buds that start to hurt after being stuck in the ear canals for a while.

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As far as controls go, I was a bit confused at first since two of them, used for power, pairing, and volume controls, sit under the right side behind the ear, while a third button sits on the driver section on the left side used for changing songs. It’s not a big deal (other than highlighting my mistake of not reading the manual right away), but I’m used to having all the controls on one side. Thankfully, they’re fairly responsive to the touch.

There’s one USB-C port on the Shokz OpenRun Pro 2, which might be why the IP rating is a little lower than expected here, even if it does have a silicon covering. On the brightside, using this port allows for faster charging compared to the old magnetic one, as five minutes plugged in will produce two and a half hours of battery life. Of course, it will take a full hour to charge up to 100% or twelve hours of use.

It’s also worth mentioning that the only form of connectivity here is its speedy Bluetooth 5.3. There’s no onboard storage or MP3 player: if that’s a consideration for you, you’ll want to check out our best waterproof headphones guide, many of which come with MP3 storage.

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The feature set on the Shokz OpenRun Pro 2 are a bit limited compared to wireless earbuds. Since these headphones are an open-ear design, there’s no active (or passive) noise cancellation. Any kind of fine-tuning involves mainly playing around with the equalization (EQ), which is available in the app, though you can press and hold the volume up and down buttons simultaneously during play to cycle through the various EQ options.

As far as the different EQ options go, there are six modes already on hand, along with a five-band EQ for a more personalized touch, which you can save as a new EQ mode. Of the ones already available, there’s a standard, vocal, bass boost, treble boost, classic, and volume boost.

The classic mode turns off the air conduction for a purer bone conduction experience, which also reintroduces that vibrating sensation when the volume is too high, something that I (and many) find uncomfortable. Luckily, it’s the only setting where I really experienced that phenomenon.

Multipoint connectivity is also available, though you have to turn it on in the app. While not a dealbreaker, be aware of the fact that there’s no on-ear detection, so music will continue to play when you take the Shokz OpenRun Pro 2 off.

(Image credit: Future / James Holland)

The improvements in the newest generation of bone conduction headphones have been really heartening, namely that the audio quality is better than before and that I don’t experience those disconcerting vibrations at higher volumes (see my review of the H2O Audio Tri 2 Pro Multi-Sport for a similarly improved audio experience).

The audio quality has improved for two reasons. The first is the fact that the OpenRun Pro 2 uses the company’s 10th generation bone conduction technology. The second, and arguably more important, is that these headphones also use air conduction. In essence, these are hybrid headphones as opposed to just bone conduction headphones.

After having listened to all sorts of genres from Indie and Metal to Hip Hop and Folk, I can say that they’re allare enjoyable to listen to. The high-end is fairly present with plenty of clarity, though everything does feel just a tiny bit muted as if the headphones’ natural frequency range rolls off a bit with higher frequencies. The mids are full, almost a little too much, so that any audio I listen to has plenty of body. The bass is a bit pulled back, so bottom-heavy music won’t hit as hard.

Because the highs and lows are not as prominent as the mids, there is a very slight boxy quality to music. They sound very good for the form factor, but aren’t going to replace anyone’s earbuds as go-to listening devices outside of a run or the gym.

Since these are open earbuds, there is some leakage. However, it’s not all that noticeable unless you’re using them in a quiet setting. If you use them on the trail, other presumably headphone-less runners might catch a little bit of what you’re listening to, but only if they’re very close to you.

Lastly, the Shokz OpenRun Pro 2 can used to take and make calls. The call quality is pretty good with plenty of clarity, though the speaker’s voice will sound a little far away compared to speaking on a phone regularly.

Shokz OpenRun Pro 2: Specifications Shokz OpenRun Pro 2: Price and availability

• How much does it cost? $179.95 / £169.00 / AU$319.00
• When is it available? Available now
• Where can you get it? Available in the US, UK, and Australia

You can spend quite a bit less than the Shokz OpenRun Pro 2’s asking price of $179.95 / £169.00 / AU$319.00 for a pair of bone conduction headphones. Shokz’ own more entry-priced OpenRun go for $129.95 / £129.95 / AU$219.00, for instance. And, of course, there are plenty of much cheaper, lesser-known options littering Amazon.

And there aren’t many options out there that go for more, either. Some of the ones that do are a bit more specialized, such as the watersports-friendly H2O Audio Tri 2 Pro Multi-Sport, which go for $199.99 / £155.68 (about AU$310) and include 8GB of storage, an MP3 player, and a special feature to record playlists onto it, so you don’t need your phone.

Still, the Shokz OpenRun Pro 2 are worth the price in my mind for the simple reason that they mix in air conduction tech with bone conduction for a better audio experience as well as to minimize the vibrating sensation that typically accompanies the use of bone conduction headphones.

As a value proposition, the Shokz OpenRun Pro 2 may not be an outstanding deal, but they’re worth the price.

• Value score: 4 / 5

Shokz OpenRun Pro 2: Scorecard Should I buy the Shokz OpenRun Pro 2? Buy it if...

You care about audio quality

Getting good sound out of a bone conduction headset is not easy, yet Shokz has managed to do just that thanks to the inclusion of air conduction.View Deal

You’re a runner

The fit is stable and lightweight and the battery life is more than enough for anyone except Ultra marathon runners. It also has an IP55 rating to handle the elements.View Deal

Don't buy it if...

You want to take it in the water

Not all bone conduction headphones are good for swimming, such as this one. Shokz does have swimming-specific models to check out if you want something that’s more fully waterproof.View Deal

You’re limited on funds

These headphones are on the pricy side for bone conduction headphones. If you’re on a budget, you’re better off considering the slightly inferior non-Pro version.View Deal

Also consider

Shokz OpenRun

The Shokz OpenRun are fantastic for running, and are only slightly behind the OpenRun Pro 2 due to the fact that they employ a slightly older generation driver and don’t include air conduction so you’re still getting some vibration at higher volumes. Still, they sound good, are lightweight, and cost quite a bit less than their more expensive big brother.

Read our full Shokz OpenRun reviewView Deal

H2O Audio Tri 2 Pro Multi-Sport

The H2O Audio Tri 2 Pro Multi-Sport is not cheap, but it’s worth it, especially for anyone also looking for headphones to use during swimming. After all, these are tailored to triathletes. They have a strong battery life, complete waterproofing, and onboard storage as well as a special Playlist+ feature that untethers you from your phone during a run or swim.

Read our full H2O Audio Tri 2 Pro Multi-Sport reviewView Deal

How I tested

• Tested over a couple weeks
• Listened to different kinds of media
• Tested all the different features

I spent a couple weeks using the Shokz OpenRun Pro 2 as my workout headphones. While using them, I listened to all sorts of genres from electronic and hip-hop to rock and acoustic music to get an idea of how they sound. I also tested the various features, most notably the EQ settings.

After testing, it’s clear that these are, per their namesake, flagship headphones for runners. They’re ideal because of the open-ear design from the bone and air conduction, they’re very lightweight, and have good battery life. Plus, they sound pretty good. Check out our guide to how bone conduction headphones work for more details on how headphones like these operate.

I’ve spent the last few years reviewing audio equipment and have spent even longer using my critical ear as a listener and musician to understand what does and doesn’t sound good.

• First reviewed December 2024

CES 2025 has been packed full of innovation, announcements and of course, talk of the town AI has taken center stage for the most part. In comes the ASUS Zenbook Duo (2025), a step up on the company’s flagship dual screen laptop which now features Intel AI Boost.

The Asus Zenbook Duo (2025) is pretty revolutionary device, allowing those who are on the go or don’t want to commit to a full desktop setup to still take advantage of multiple screens. You also get the flexibility to use the device as a normal laptop when two screens might be a bit overkill.

Thanks to Intel AI Boost, delivered by up the latest Intel Core Ultra 9 processor, you get amazing efficiency for AI driven tasks. Pair this with some pretty hefty specifications all packed into a lightweight, slimline design, and you’ve got a powerhouse of a machine which you can easily stick in a backpack and use anywhere.

Price and availability

(Image credit: Future / Jasmine Mannan)

With a starting price of $1,699.99 (UK and AUS pricing yet to be confirmed), the Asus Zenbook Duo isn’t the most expensive piece of kit on the market, but is by no means a budget option either.

Of course, you’re paying a premium for the dual screen option which in turn could save you money down the line as you won’t have to invest in a second monitor.

The ASUS Zenbook Duo will be available for purchase from February 10, 2025.

Design

(Image credit: Future / Jasmine Mannan)

On first inspection, the Asus Zenbook Duo (2025) resembles a normal laptop, but lift the wireless keyboard and underneath is a second screen, which is only activated when the keyboard is removed so you don’t have to worry about power draw.

As well as standard laptop mode, the Asus Zenbook Duo allows you to utilize dual screen mode - as you’d expect - as well as other options like desktop mode and even screen sharing. While it might sound intimidating at first, swapping between different modes is easy and seamless, allowing you to go from laptop mode to dual screen mode within seconds thanks to the built-in kickstand.

You get stunning dual 3K, 120Hz OLED panels which look absolutely breath taking. Visuals are gorgeous on this device, with amazing breadth of color and all the other advantages of OLED screens.

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(Image credit: Future / Jasmine Mannan)Image 2 of 2

(Image credit: Future / Jasmine Mannan)

Both displays are also touch screen and support the Asus Pen 2.0, meaning you could easily use one as a drawing tablet for photo editing or graphic design. Better yet, the Asus Pen 2.0 is included, meaning you don’t have to go out and spend extra cash to utilize the feature.

Weighing in a 2.98 lbs (1.35kg) and just 14.6mm thick, the Asus Zenbook Duo (2025) is heavier than some other lightweight options out there, but is by no means going to put a strain on your back when carried around. These measurements don’t include the keyboard; however it’s essentially paper thin and weighs next to nothing, and the device is still super compact with it thrown in.

On the keyboard, when separate from the device itself, it does feel somewhat flimsy but this isn’t the end of the world.

Despite its slimline design, you still get a whole load of ports, including two Thunderbolt 4 ports, a USB type A port, an audio jack and a HDMI 2.1 out.

Specifications

(Image credit: Future / Jasmine Mannan)

With a 75Wh battery life, you’ll supposedly get 8 hours of usage even when using both screens, which is by no means revolutionary but is made even better thanks to fast charging capabilities (allowing you to charge up to 60% charge in less than 50 mins).

Of course, one of the major benefits of the Asus Zenbook Duo 2025 edition is the (up to) Intel Core Ultra 9 285H processor which utilizes Intel AI Boost. You get a range of AI ready features, as well as a dedicated NPU and graphics making tasks easier with AI enhancement. You get all the benefits of Copilot+ to help save time with day-to-day tasks.

All-in-all, the Asus Zenbook Duo is a stunning and versatile piece of kit. The flexibility the dual screen provides is fantastic and it’s simple to use and set up, allowing you to take advantage of two screens no matter where you are. The screens look stunning and are sure to catch eyes if you’re ever using this laptop on the go.

A downside is the battery life not being as powerful as some other laptops on the market, but its by no means disappointing, easily carrying you through a full workday with two displays in use. The keyboard is also a bit flimsy due to how thin it is but could easily be something I’m able to get used to.