Reviews

Namecheap has been in the domain name business since 2000 and is a generally reliable brand. Besides domain names, it also provides web hosting, email hosting, marketing tools, and server hosting. In 2023, it launched its sister brand, Spaceship, which aims to be a simpler and more straightforward means in which to buy domains and build websites.

I’m focusing on Namecheap as the bigger brand. I’ve bought domain names for over 20 years and I’ve been writing about them for a decade. In this review, I’ve evaluated how easy it is to sign up to Namecheap, how straightforward it is to manage domains, and I also looked at whether Namecheap’s services are competitively priced.

For more options, take a look at our list of the best domain registration services.

Namecheap: My experience

(Image credit: Namecheap)

Finding a domain on Namecheap is simple enough. Type in your idea and you’re provided with all the most popular TLDs. If you need more inspiration, you can tap the generator tab for Namecheap to suggest domains for you. There’s also beast mode if you plan on buying multiple domains at once.

Predictably, once you add something to your basket, Namecheap tries to upsell you on web hosting, an SSL certificate, email hosting, and marketing to boost your social media. Nothing paid is added on by default though. Instead, you get domain privacy for free for the length of your domain name. As with pretty much all domain name registrars, the first year is a lot cheaper than subsequent years. However, Namecheap.com doesn’t penalise you if you only want the domain name for one year.

Namecheap: Features

(Image credit: Namecheap)

Namecheap has one of the clearest dashboards around, making it very easy to do mostly anything. At a glance, you can easily toggle auto-renew off as well as add additional years if you’d rather pay now than at renewal time. Tap manage, and a range of practical options open up. You can add PremiumDNS which promises 100% DNS uptime and DDoS protection at the DNS level. You can also change nameservers or simply set up a redirect.

It’s also possible to toggle the parking page on or off if you want an easy landing page, and there’s the option to sell your domain. A SSL certificate costs extra, but I can’t really fault Namecheap otherwise. It’s easily one of the better ways to stockpile domain names and manage them too. Its suggestions for new domains are generally useful too.

Namecheap: User experience

Thanks to the aforementioned dashboard, Namecheap is one of the better domain registrars for even the most inexperienced user. Clearly laid out, it’s simple to see what each option does with a tooltip to further assist you along the way.

The UI has been designed well so you can always find what you’re looking for. That goes for whether you’re changing the nameserver or sharing ownership with a business partner. Very little takes long to do here. Namecheap isn’t too pushy with upselling once you’re signed up either, although it is a little overly keen during purchase.

Namecheap: Customer support

Namecheap customer support is pretty good. The help center offers up a vast knowledgebase for most queries. It also lists some popular questions that many people have about their domain so you'll usually find a quick solution here.

If you need more, there are help videos and a live chat bot. The latter can switch to a human being if needed but often, you won’t need more than the AI bot assisting you. For further insight such as to help you develop your plans, there’s also Namecheap’s Guru guides which aim to develop your skillset, as well as a series of blogs.

Namecheap: Pricing

Domain

Price from

.xyz

$1

.com

$11.28

.eu

$6.98

.net

$12.48

.org

$8.98

Domain names with Namecheap may seem ever so slightly more expensive than the competition, but it often works out better value. That’s thanks to things like domain privacy being included as standard but also the fact that you get good customer service and an effective dashboard.

As always, prices will vary depending on the TLD you need but Namecheap’s generator tool helps you play the system a little and potentially find something that works better for your budget.

Namecheap: Specs

Spec

Details

Lowest price from

$1 (.xyz)

Highest price from

$18,500

Search tools

Standard search, AI, bulk/beast, premium, generator, auction

Other services

Web hosting, WordPress hosting, email hosting, VPS, dedicated server, reseller hosting

Namecheap: Should I buy?

Attribute

Notes

Score

Features

Namecheap offers all you need in an accessible form

4.5/5

User experience

My dashboard of choice, Namecheap is very simple to use and make changes through

4.5/5

Value

A few blips doesn’t stop this being mostly good value for money

4.5/5

Buy it if...

• You want the best UI around. Namecheap has a highly accessible UI that’s easy to use even if you’re not used to domain management.
• You want a simple first year. There’s a little upselling but Namecheap keeps it mostly straightforward with useful features as standard and competitively priced for the first year.
• You have big plans. Namecheap offers some useful marketing advice if you need some guidance with what to do next.

Don't buy it if...

• You want the cheapest price every year. Namecheap’s renewal prices can ramp up so be aware the best renewals may not be here.
• Phone support is a dealbreaker. There’s no phone support here which won’t bother everyone but could be vital for some users.
• You want to buy hosting at the same time. Namecheap offers hosting but there are better solutions out there which work out cheaper and more useful.

Namecheap: The competition

• Porkbun: Cheaper than Namecheap albeit with a very plain UI in comparison, Porkbun is ideal if you just want to save as much as possible.
• GoDaddy: For hosting and domain management, GoDaddy has you covered, even if its renewals can get expensive.
• Name: For more niche TLDs, Name is a strong choice and easy to work through, if a little expensive.

How I tested Namecheap

• Bought two domains
• Evaluated domain management services
• Compared prices with competition

I searched for domain names using Namecheap’s standard search before looking at beast mode and its generator model. I then purchased two domain names and evaluated its domain management dashboard. That included searching through its settings and making some changes. I also looked at how easy it was to cancel any renewals and compared the experience to other domain hosting registrars.

Ionos is a familiar name in the web hosting industry having been around since the early days. The company launched as 1&1 in 1988 and has gone through a number of rebrands over the years. Since then, it’s established a strong reputation for web hosting and other online services.

In the case of this review, I’m focusing on the domain name buying experience with Ionos. I’ve bought a lot of domain names over the past 25 years and I’ve written about them and reviewed them extensively. This Ionos review comes from my hands-on testing while checking out the service. I also looked at official support and documentation, and evaluated verified user reviews to see if my experience was unique or not.

You can see more options in our list of the best domain registration services.

Ionos: My experience

(Image credit: Ionos)

Ionos is simple enough to use. I entered an idea for a domain and it quickly came back with the most logical suggestion for me as well as a list to scroll through below. Prices are all for the first year so count on renewals to be pricier. A mixture of premium domains and cheaper suggestions cover all budgets.

Hit the buy button and predictably, Ionos tries to upsell you on email hosting, web hosting, and website building. Pricing is a little vague, as when you actually go through the purchase process you discover the price is actually for a 2-year term which can work out pricier. The first domain I chose ended up costing $2 for the first year because I didn’t tie into the 2-year plan to get the introductory rate. Domain Guard adds extra security but also costs an additional $1 for the first year, so if you want to keep things at their cheapest you need to remove this from your basket.

Other than that, it’s a simple process and takes moments. Just keep an eye on what you’re signing up for.

Ionos: Features

(Image credit: Ionos)

Ionos bundles in a strong number of features as standard. A free Wildcard SSL certificate is included, Domain Connect makes it easy to set up your DNS, and there’s also a free WordPress account with .co.uk domains. It’s particularly useful to be able to connect your domain to over 100 3rd party services or your social media, all with one click. It’s also simple to implement up to 10,000 subdomains if needed. Domain transfer lock is included for free as well which isn’t always guaranteed with other domain hosts.

Using any of these features or performing simple tasks from changing nameservers to turning off auto-renewal is pretty easy.

Ionos: User experience

From the outset, Ionos is simple to use. That includes its AI powered suggestions while you’re considering what domain to buy. From there, the Ionos dashboard continues the simplicity trend. It’s not the most attractive of layouts and feels more geared towards projects than stockpiling many domains, but it works well. It’s simple to browse through all your settings, even if you’re not an experienced hand at domain management.

Some tooltips are available along the way and if you scroll down, you always find relevant help topics which will guide you through whatever your plans are. There are also toggles as needed.

Ionos: Customer support

Hit the support button and Ionos immediately dishes out recommended help articles which should save you a lot of time. It goes much further than that though. At all times, in the bottom right hand corner, you can talk to the Ionos chat bot before being transferred to a human agent if needed.

It’s also possible to submit a support ticket if your issue doesn’t need to be resolved urgently. A final option is to phone Ionos for support. To save a little effort, the contact support area gives you your account number and a temporary phone PIN to get you straight to discussing your query. It’s a well rounded set of support options.

Ionos: Pricing

Domain

Price from

.xyz

$0.96

.com

$10

.eu

N/A

.net

$1

.org

$1

Ionos has a huge wealth of domain names although the US site doesn’t offer .eu TLDs. Most TLDs can be acquired very cheaply in theory but there’s a caveat. Usually, prices go up dramatically for more than one year and sometimes the introductory price is only available if you commit to multiple years.

To offset this, there are some good bundle deals if you just want to invest in a handful of TLDs relating to your brand name. It’s worth experimenting and keeping an eye on how prices differ. While you’re likely to want a domain for more than one year, you still want to know what you’re tied into.

Ionos: Specs

Spec

Details

Lowest price from

$0.96 (.xyz)

Highest price from

$42,000 (.com)

Search tools

Standard search, AI, bulk, marketplace, auction

Other services

Web hosting, WordPress hosting, email hosting, AI receptionist, eCommerce, VPS server, dedicated server

Should I buy Ionos?

Attribute

Notes

Score

Features

Ionos has all the features you need clearly labelled.

4.5/5

User experience

Easy to browse if a little plain, and with good support.

4.5/5

Value

Prices hide a few fees which makes it slightly less great value.

3.5/5

Buy it if...

• You want an all-in-one solution. Ionos isn’t just a place for domains but it easily ties in hosting, servers, email hosting, and even AI receptionist tools.
• You want all the core features. Ionos doesn’t tend to charge extra for core features you need. It’s a simpler thing to sign up than others.
• You have long term plans. Ionos rewards those who need a domain name for a long time by making it easy to commit for long time periods.

Don't buy it if...

• You want the cheapest deals. Ionos is rarely the cheapest option once you factor in renewal fees which ramp up the costs for more than a year.
• You want a simple domain management interface. Competitors are better at laying out multiple domains to manage at speed.
• You just want a domain for one year. The prices for one year aren’t entirely accurate as they assume you’re signing up for multiple years. It’s something to be aware of.

Ionos: The competition

• GoDaddy: A great all-in-one solution that offers a similar experience to Ionos, GoDaddy can get expensive but works well.
• Porkbun: If you just need a domain name, check out Porkbun. It’s one of the cheapest options around with its no-frills approach.
• Namecheap: My preferred dashboard, Namecheap has a much simpler domain management interface for multiple domains.

How I tested Ionos

• Signed up and purchased two domain names
• Evaluated domain management dashboard
• Looked at pricing compared to competitors

I searched for new domain names on Ionos before buying two. From there, I evaluated the sign up process and looked at how easy it was to use domain management tools as well as looked at what features were available.

BosGame VTI-490: 30-second review

The BosGame VTI-490 angled top panel, bright orange power button and the slightly cyberpunk styling suggest a machine aimed primarily at gamers, and for the first few days of testing, I kept that in mind as I started the application installs and connection to the network. By the end of a month, it had become one of the most impressive mini PCs I’ve tested, and while the integrated graphics will impress gamers, creative professionals should also take note.

What sets this machine apart is the new Intel Core Ultra X7 358H, built on Intel's 18A process. This is the company's first 2nm-class node, and the performance reflects what was promised by this new technology and release.

Using all standard applications in Windows 11 Pro is fluid; applications open quickly, and the full Adobe Creative Suite, Microsoft Office, and a browser full of tabs run without any issues. This was effectively reflected in the Windows Experience score of 8.9, which is among the highest I’ve seen in a Mini PC of this size.

As part of the new CPU, there's the integrated Intel Arc B390 GPU, and checking out the benchmarks, the results were impressive with Fire Strike Graphics at 17,443, Time Spy at 7,717, and Wild Life at 43,790, which, to put it into context, is well above the usual Radeon 890M integrated GPU scores I’m used to seeing.

Before starting some serious work, I tested running Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and Hogwarts Legacy. Both ran smoothly at medium-to-high settings at 1080p, and at lower settings, 4K is also possible.

If you’re looking for a compact mini PC for creative use, for example to run Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve or Lightroom the machine was able to handle 4K footage from the Canon EOS R5 C and Sony a7 IV without issue, no dropped frames during productions lasting up to and beyond 15 minutes, although an external storage solution was needed as the 1TB internal drive is lacking on capacity.

This is where the most impressive feature came into play, the 10GbE LAN port on the rear. Connecting directly to a Ugreen DXP4800 GT NAS at 10Gbps delivered network transfer speeds approaching 800 MB/s, the equivalent of working from a directly attached drive while accessing multi-terabyte NAS capacity.

For video and photo professionals who run a high-speed NAS, this entirely eliminates the need for a separate 10GbE switch or adapter, enabling a neat, tidy workspace with plenty of upgrade potential if needed. Whether or not it's the best mini PC out there will depend entirely on whether you need that level of functionality and power.

BosGame VTI-490: Price and availability

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

• How much does it cost? $1699
• When is it out? Now
• Where can you get it? Directly from BosGame

The Bosgame VTI-490 is available direct from Bosgame's website priced at $1,699 / £1,284.

The review unit that I’ve tested here shipped with Intel Core Ultra X7 358H processor, a 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD, and 64GB LPDDR5X RAM.

• Value: 4/5

BosGame VTI-490: Specs

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

CPU: Intel Core Ultra X7 358H, 16C/16T, up to 4.8GHz
GPU: Intel Arc B390
NPU: Intel NPU 5
AI performance: 180 TOPS combined
RAM: 64GB LPDDR5X 9600 MT/s, soldered, dual-channel
Storage: 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD (Plus one M.2 slot available for upgrade)
Front ports: 3.5mm jack, 2 × USB 3.2 Gen2 (10Gbps), 1 × USB 2.0, 1 × Thunderbolt 4 (8K 60Hz), power button
Rear ports: HDMI 2.1 (8K 60Hz), DisplayPort 1.4 (8K 60Hz), Thunderbolt 4 (8K 60Hz), 1 × 2.5GbE LAN, 1 × 10GbE LAN, 2 × USB 2.0, OCuLink
Wireless: Wi-Fi (Intel AX201, Wi-Fi 6), Bluetooth
OS: Windows 11 Pro
Dimensions: 5.98 x 5.98 x 2.05in (152 x 152 x 52mm) (including rubber feet)
Weight: 1.62lb (736g)

Bosgame VTI-490: Design

The VTI-490's design is slightly different from the understated boxes that dominate the mini PC market. Firstly, there’s the angled top section, made from sheet metal with plenty of venting slots, complemented by quality plastic for the remainder of the chassis. The cyberpunk aesthetic, essentially angular lines, is minimalistic, and the bright orange power button sets off the front nicely. I personally like that it’s easy to find, which isn’t always the case.

While I say it has a slight cyberpunk style, it could equally be a piece of broadcast equipment, looking like a little smaller hardware encoder box. Either way, it sits neatly on the desk, taking up far less space than a workstation with comparable power.

At 5.98 x 5.98 x 2.05in (152 x 152 x 52mm) and 1.62lb (736g), it’s compact and light by mini PC standards, especially with this specification. It’s also worth noting that, unlike most mini PCs at this price, the VTI-490 does not include a VESA mount. It’s designed to sit on a desk rather than be mounted behind a monitor. If you rely on VESA mounting to keep the workspace clear, or to fix it to the inside of a van or cabinet, then this is something to think about.

I’m not a great fan of the design. However, the port layout is well thought through, and the front panel offers a good selection of ports. These ports are set off by the bright orange power button, which is easy to find, and it sounds minor, but it matters in a busy studio environment. This power button is joined by two USB 3.2 Gen2 10 Gbps ports, one USB 2.0 port, a Thunderbolt 4 port capable of 8K output at 60Hz, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

The rear panel offers an HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 1.4, both supporting 8K at 60Hz, alongside a second Thunderbolt 4 port, two USB 2.0 ports and the OCuLink port for future eGPU expansion.

The standout rear feature for creative professionals is the dual LAN: one 2.5GbE port for standard network connection and a dedicated 10GbE port, something no competing mini PC at this price that I’ve tested currently offers. This high-speed port enables direct NAS connection without additional switching hardware, which, for 10GbE, can be expensive.

The Core Ultra X7 358H and Arc B390 draw significant power for a mini PC, and the thermal design works well, though not silently.

• Design: 4 / 5

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)BosGame VTI-490: Features

At the heart of the machine is an Intel Core Ultra X7 358H with integrated Arc B390 GPU. In the test, this GPU delivered impressive performance, as was seen in the benchmark scores across the board. These controlled tests and the high scores that resulted were reflected in the real-world tests.

Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve handled 4K video editing with files from the Canon EOS R5 C more like a desktop machine than a mini PC. I was personally impressed that I could edit productions up to 15 minutes long and beyond without the performance drop-off that usually limits these small PCs. AI-accelerated features in Photoshop, such as generative fill and timeline expansion in Premiere Pro, all worked well.

As is now standard, the CPU and GPU are joined by a dedicated NPU, in this case the Intel NPU 5, which offers 50 TOPS of AI processing, and sits alongside the CPU and GPU rather than sharing resources with either. Using older Mini PCs without the NPU acceleration, it’s obvious the benefit you get, especially when using Copilot+ features, and then there’s the ability to run your own local language models via LM Studio.

During the test, LM Studio was used to set up a local AI agent capable of organising files within the home network, a workflow that picks up on a project that I had started with a high-speed NAS. Connecting the VTI-490 to the UGREEN iDX6011 Pro NAS creates a powerful local AI hub. It’s an ongoing project, and the potential is growing.

Looking at the more traditional hardware, 64GB of LPDDR5X at 9600 MT/s runs in a dual-channel configuration across all eight soldered memory chips, providing the bandwidth creative applications need.

Checking out Adobe Bridge, and it was able to render thumbnail catalogues from Sony A7 IV and Canon EOS R5 C shoots. Lightroom Classic batch editing, Photoshop file handling and Premiere Pro timeline management and rendering are all boosted by the higher RAM.

Checking out the stability of the machine by keeping everything open, including all of Microsoft Office, the full Creative Suite (including InDesign), and a well-loaded browser, didn’t noticeably affect the speed or stability.

During the test, the one feature that really stood out to me was the 10GbE LAN port, especially since I’ve been looking at the Ugreen DXP4800 GT NAS, and this compact partner proved to be a great solution for creative applications.

Connecting the mini PC and 16TB NAS directly via the 10GbE network ports enabled transfer speeds of around 800 MB/s, comparable to a directly attached storage device of this capacity.

What was good about this partnership was that I could make the connection without needing a separate 10GbE switch or a USB4-to-10GbE adapter. For videographers and photographers working from a NAS, this changes the economics of a simple desktop setup; a 10GbE switch will set you back around £250 and an adapter £80+. The second 2.5GbE port handles the standard network connection, leaving the 10GbE port free for the NAS direct link.

On arrival, the machine has Windows 11 Pro installed, and, as ever, the final steps of the installation are required: complete the Windows setup, register accounts, and the machine is ready to use.

On the back, you also have the OCuLink port; unfortunately, I don’t at present have an OCuLink eGPU to test this part of the machine.

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

• Features: 4.5 / 5

BosGame VTI-490: Performance

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

The machine arrived almost set to go with the final stages of the Windows 11 setup process needing to be completed before the tests could begin.

After running updates and ensuring all settings had been switched to performance, I started out with the main benchmark tests. Here, the machine instantly started to show its potential with a PCMark 10 score of 9,378, which is high. I then double checked this by running the Windows Experience Index, which, with a score of 8.9, is amongst the highest I have recorded for a mini PC.

This performance essentially reflected my experience with the day-to-day use. Microsoft Office applications open swiftly, and working across Word, Excel and PowerPoint with copy-paste between all three produces no notable lag. That new Intel CPU delivers plenty of speed for Windows 11.

I’m always interested in the disk speed as this is essential for video editing, although speeds are now reaching a point where, for the moment at least, they’re fast enough. Sure enough, CrystalDiskMark results of 6,052 MB/s read and 5,271 MB/s write showed that the PCIe 4.0 SSD is performing well.

Benchmark results

CrystalDiskMark Read: 6,052.4 MB/s
CrystalDiskMark Write: 5,271.62 MB/s
Geekbench 6 CPU Multi-Core: 15,615
Geekbench 6 CPU Single-Core: 2,869
Geekbench 6 GPU: 56,442
PCMark 10 Overall: 9,378
Cinebench CPU Multi: 4,297
Cinebench CPU Single: 511
3DMark Fire Strike Overall: 14,593
3DMark Fire Strike Graphics: 17,443
3DMark Fire Strike Physics: 28,356
3DMark Fire Strike Combined: 4,941
3DMark Time Spy Overall: 7,717
3DMark Time Spy Graphics: 7,163
3DMark Time Spy CPU: 13,742
3DMark Wild Life Overall: 43,790
3DMark Steel Nomad Overall: 1,645
Windows Experience Index: 8.9

In practice, Premiere Pro cache operations, Lightroom catalogue loading and project file access all benefit from this speed. The limitation, however, is capacity.

1TB isn’t a great deal and fills quickly with 4K footage from the Canon EOS R5 C, for this test and due to that high-demand workflow, an external SSD or, more aptly, connecting to the NAS via the 10GbE port and editing directly from network storage would be the solution. There are, however, two M.2 slots in the chassis, which makes a 4TB upgrade straightforward when needed.

The Arc B390 is a GPU that I haven’t tested before, and the performance was exceptional. The first real example of this was the Fire Strike Graphics score at 17,443, then Time Spy Graphics at 7,163 and Wild Life at 43,790. This is a significant boost for integrated graphics.

What this meant was that in Premiere Pro, the GPU handles 4K Canon EOS R5 C footage through colour grading and effects without the slowdown that I’m used to seeing with productions over five minutes. Productions up to 15 minutes and beyond were handled well.

Loading up DaVinci Resolve for the colour grading, and this was equally impressive. For anything beyond 15 minutes at professional-quality settings, an OCuLink eGPU would provide that welcome additional boost in power.

For RAW image editing, the combination of 64GB LPDDR5X and the Arc B390 makes Lightroom Classic and Adobe Bridge work extremely well, and for the most part, both applications were surprisingly stable.

As I went through the images from a museum brochure shoot, the Adobe Bridge selection, Lightroom Classic batch edit, and Photoshop output all worked without having to wait for thumbnails to render. Photoshop generative fill and AI-enhanced adjustments also appeared to benefit from both the Arc B390's hardware acceleration and the NPU 5.

Of course, while the creative applications are good to push the system, I was also interested in the gaming performance, especially with the Arc B390 and the new ARC GPUT.

Starting with Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and then Hogwarts Legacy, I found that both ran at medium-to-high settings at 1080p with smooth frame rates. Pushing to 4K at lower-to-mid settings remained playable, with image breakup appearing at the higher end of the 4K quality options.

While I was unable to test it, I liked the fact that there’s the OCuLink port to upgrade if you need to edit higher-resolution video or play games that would otherwise require a full desktop.

Through the test, the feature that impressed me the most was the 10GbE LAN port that was able to deliver network editing speeds of up to 800 MB/s when connected directly to a DXP4800 GT NAS using the 10 Gbps port.

In Premiere Pro, editing 4K footage directly from the NAS over this connection was effectively the same as editing from a locally attached SSD, with little if any difference. If you are a photographer or videographer running a high-speed NAS, this feature alone makes it a great choice.

The final feature that I looked at was the Intel NPU 5 with 50 TOPS of dedicated AI processing. This enabled far faster use of Copilot+ and enabled me to set up a local LLM inference via LM Studio. Running a local language model to assist with file organisation within a home network showed the machine's potential as a local AI node, particularly when paired with a NAS system.

• Performance: 4.5 / 5

BosGame VTI-490: Final verdict

The Bosgame VTI-490 is a machine that really did surprise me, first with its aesthetics, which suggest a gaming focus, and then with the performance and features it actually delivers. After a month, the fact that it had some mild cyberpunk styling was forgotten, and what remained was a mini PC that handled every creative and productivity task thrown at it with ease and far exceeded expectations.

The Arc B390 is impressive and far outpaces other integrated GPUs. It’s fast and works well with all apps and games tested. The benchmark scores essentially translate directly to real-world performance that easily competes with entry-level discrete GPU workstations, just at a fraction of the size and cost.

What impressed me most about the machine was the 10GbE LAN, and this is a feature that will appeal to video and photo professionals. A direct 10 Gbps NAS connection, without a switch or adapter, that’s capable of delivering network speeds suitable for video editing is not a common feature on mini PCs or desktops, so it’s impressive to see here.

There are a few areas where I would have expected a little more, and for starters, the 1TB SSD is just too small, and the fact that there’s no VESA mount is annoying. Then there’s the fan noise under load, which isn’t bad but is notable, will annoy some, but most should be able to live with it.

It’s also worth considering that there are plenty of upgrade options; an additional SSD can be added, and the OCuLink port on the back enables even more power.

While there is a definite gamer theme to the aesthetics, in reality, this is equally suited to the creative sector.

Should I buy the BosGame VTI-490?

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

Value

It's expensive, but Arc B390, 10GbE LAN, dual Thunderbolt 4 and OCuLink potential justify the cost.

4/5

Design

The design is balanced, and the cyberpunk aesthetics may be of an acquired taste, however, decent port layout.

4/5

Features

10GbE LAN, dual Thunderbolt 4, OCuLink, Intel NPU 5, clean Windows 11 Pro, this is alot in a small case. 

4.5/5

Performance

4K video editing and gaming performance exceeds anything previously seen in a mini PC at this size

4.5/5

Overall

This is essentially a mini PC workstation, and impressive not only for it’s size but price. 

4.5/5

Buy it if...

You edit video or process RAW in a NAS workflow.

The 10GbE LAN enables direct NAS connection at 800MB/s with the Arc B390 handles 4K editing in Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve without the performance issues of typical mini PCs.

You want a compact workstation you can grow with

The OCuLink port, dual M.2 slots and 10GbE LAN give the VTI-490 plenty of upgrade options. Start with the base specification, add storage when needed, add an eGPU when projects demand it and money allows.

Don't buy it if...

You need to VESA mount

No VESA mount is included or supported. The VTI-490 is designed for desktop positioning. If monitor mounting is important for your setup, most other mini PCs at this price include a VESA plate.

You need large internal storage

The 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD fills quickly with 4K video. An external drive, NAS connection or M.2 upgrade is an easy additional purchase.

For more productivity machines, we've tested the best business computers.

Lexar TouchLock Portable SSD: 30-second review

The popularity of compact portable SSDs has made them a mainstay of storage options; after all, they’re relatively inexpensive, easy to use, and for the most part, simply plug-in ready for use. With the latest design evolution, many models now feature a MagSafe connector, enabling you to attach them directly to the back of your mobile device.

However, this ultraportable and compact design means that whilst you can always carry them with you, and they’re robust enough to do so, they are far easier to lose than more traditional desktop solutions.

There are, of course, software encryption options which, off the shelf, will stop your general user from accessing the contents of your drives. But with a little time and some freely downloadable software from the internet, most software encryption is easy enough to overcome. However, if you do want more security for your portable SSD, for your work files, videos and other content, then the likes of the Lexar Touch Portable SSD, which includes 128-bit AES hardware encryption, are a great option.

Whilst there are many portable SSDs that offer similar levels of file security, this portable SSD differs by featuring an NFC chip that lets you quickly unlock the drive without entering any PIN codes or passwords.

It works through an initial setup: download the Lexar app, connect to the SSD via the included USB-C cable, and set up the simple NFC touch, which will later enable you to quickly unlock the device once it’s connected to either a mobile phone or a computer.

There are a few things to consider: unlike some other secure portable SSDs, this one can only be unlocked by the phone with the app installed. Whilst you do have a recovery process during the setup process, it makes it far more secure than many other options on the market. The fact is, this is hardware encryption, so without unlocking the drive, any machine you plug it into won’t recognise that it is even attached. It’s only once that connection has been made with a tap of the phone that you’ll be able to see and access the contents of the drive.

The hardware encryption is exceptional, and none of my off-the-shelf software could access the contents of the drive.

One downside about secure drives is that speed, and sure enough, speeds are relatively limited; whilst we’ve come to expect SSDs with transfer rates of 1000MB/s+, here you’re lucky to hit 400MB/s for read and far less for write, which also limits how you can use this as a working SSD.

Used alongside all newer iPhones and Android devices, you’ll be able to record video in log video quality perfectly well. But if you switch over to the iPhone 17 Pro, then not all of those log frame rates will be available to you due to those limited transfer rates. Likewise, if you’re thinking this would be a great solution to use in combination with your video cameras when shooting productions, just for an added level of security, then the transfer rate lags a little too much.

It's not the best portable SSD on the market - but it is one of the simplest and cheapest encrypted drives I've ever used. As long as you’re not trying to push what you’re doing with this portable SSD and are just using it to transfer secure files for work, then it is an exceptionally good drive. If you’re looking at it as a portable, secure working drive, those speeds will be limiting.

Lexar TouchLock Portable SSD: Price and availability

• How much does it cost? From $100 / £100
• When is it out? Available now
• Where can you get it? Available from retailers including Amazon

The Lexar TouchLock is in 512GB and 1TB capacity models from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk, with prices started at $100 / £100.

There's also a 2TB model listed on Lexar's site.

• Value: 5 / 5

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)Lexar TouchLock Portable SSD: Specs

Capacity options: 512GB / 1TB / 2TB
Connectivity: USB 3.2 Gen 1, NFC phone authentication
Encryption: 128-bit AES hardware encryption
Size: 1.4oz (40g)
Weight: 3.37 x 2.09 x 0.28in (85.6mm x 53mm x 7mm)

Lexar TouchLock Portable SSD: Design

The Lexar TouchLock Portable SSD is a premium storage device designed for use with both your mobile phone and your laptop. The design features a high-quality metal-effect casing that gives the device a good, solid feel, and includes a MagSafe connector on the back that enables it to quickly attach to the back of your mobile phone. Due to the device's slim design, it’s extremely comfortable to hold even with the drive in place.

When it comes to the size and dimensions, it’s extremely light. The unit weighs 1.4oz (40g) for the drive itself (for the one-terabyte version reviewed), and the USB-C cable weighs 7g, bringing the grand total to 47g. In terms of size, it’s obviously been designed to fit neatly on the back of your mobile phone, and it measures 3.37 x 2.09 x 0.28in (85.6mm x 53mm x 7mm).

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

The drive, as well as being usable with your mobile phone, is compatible with any laptop or, for that matter, desktop PC. It features a standard USB-C connector, and Lexar includes a USB-C-to-USB-A adapter in the box.

What marks this portable SSD out from most others is its NFC security TouchLock, which requires your mobile phone and the Lexar app to be installed to unlock the drive and recognise it by your mobile phone or the computer it’s attached to.

• Design: 4 / 5

Lexar TouchLock Portable SSD: Features

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

As a compact, rugged, lightweight portable storage device, the Lexar TouchLock Portable SSD stands out from the majority of others with features such as dual-layer encryption and fortified data protection.
What this means is that when you connect the portable SSD to your computer or mobile device, unlike most others, it isn’t instantly recognised. Even if you go into Disk Utility to search for connected devices, this portable SSD won’t appear. It is completely locked until you unlock it using the dedicated Lexar app.

Activating NFC and AES encryption for the drive is all handled during the initial setup process, which enables the NFC chip in the portable SSD and your mobile phone to communicate when they’re tapped together, acting as a key to access the drive's contents.

Lexar has ensured that the drive has wide compatibility, so whilst it features a MagSafe connector on the back that enables you to connect it directly to an iPhone, a metal ring is included in the box to attach it to an Android phone. It’s also widely compatible with other mobile phones, tablets and even desktop PCs.

The overall quality is good and solid. Whilst it might not be waterproof, it has been tested to withstand a two-metre drop and, through the test, proved durable enough for everyday use, being carried around in a camera backpack.

Taking a closer look at the lead feature, multilevel encryption, this is essentially 128-bit AES hardware encryption, which gives you far greater security than standard software encryption methods on most drives.

The Lexar Touch Portable SSD pairs an NFC chip with AES hardware encryption, so you can access the drive only after that connection is made. If, for whatever reason, you try to access the drive using another device, like other hardware-encrypted devices that require passwords, without that NFC tap (as with a password), there’s no access to the contents of the drive.

Lexar highlights that the level of encryption makes it ideal for business professionals, government and enterprise users, or everyday users seeking a higher level of security.

One of the things I like about the feature set is that, like other Lexar storage devices compatible with the Lexar app, it offers all the usual backup options that can be configured. So if you want a secure way to back up your mobile phone, it is perfectly possible. All you need to do is set up the process, connect the drive via USB to your mobile phone, tap to unlock with the NFC chip, and then, through the app, select ‘backup’ and the rest will be handled automatically.

One final point here is that, unlike most portable SSDs, security is the key attraction of this drive. Whilst it is relatively fast at around 400MB/s, it’s slower than the likes of the Lexar ES5 Magnetic Portable SSD, which means that whilst it’s great for archiving and backing up your data, it’s not a great option if you’re looking for a working drive.

• Features: 3.5 / 5

Lexar TouchLock Portable SSD: Performance

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)Benchmark scores

AmorphousDiskMark Read: 391.10MB/s
AmorphousDiskMark Write: 221.94MB/s
AJA System Test Lite Read: 266MB/s
AJA System Test Lite Write: 229MB/s
ATTO Disk Benchmark Read: 383.10MB/s
ATTO Disk Benchmark Write: 397.49MB/s

Most portable SSDs require little in the way of setup; just plug them in, and the storage will appear, ready for use on your laptop, desktop, or mobile phone. However, with the Lexar TouchLock Portable SSD, it’s not quite as straightforward because you have to set up the drive's security before you can actually mount the storage on the system you’re using. To do this, first connect it to your mobile phone via the USB-C cable, and make sure your mobile phone has an NFC chip; otherwise, you won’t have the key to unlock the drive.

The next step is to download the Lexar app. Then, as long as the SSD is connected, the app will detect the drive when you start it. You then run through the setup process, including the final step: saving your recovery key, a long string of words used if you need to set up the SSD on another device.

Once everything is done, in place and registered, the drive is ready to use. On your mobile phone, you simply plug it in, tap where the NFC chip is, and the SSD will then be ready for use, to back up your files or record video footage if you're using an iPhone with a Lightning port, although there are limitations for the latest iPhone model due to the video file size and data rates.

If, however, you’re connecting it to your laptop or desktop machine, once it’s connected, tap the unlock pad on the drive with your mobile phone's NFC and the drive will unlock and mount.

One thing I noticed right away: for the NFC chip to work and unlock the SSD, you need the Lexar app installed and open. You can’t just pick up your mobile phone and tap the NFC area on the SSD for it to unlock; you need to unlock the phone, access the Lexar app, select the Lexar TouchLock SSD option, and then tap the lock. It’s not a long process, but it’s not the one-touch I was hoping for. However, once the SSD is unlocked, essentially, it’s like any other portable SSD.

As I ran through a series of tests, I noted that the speed, whilst good at around 400MB/s for read speeds, the write speeds on the Mac averaged around 200MB/s, lagging well behind most other recent portable SSDs, and this is no doubt due to the level of security in place. This means it's a great portable SSD for storing and archiving sensitive data. However, if you’re looking at this as a secure working drive, then those transfer rates will be a bit limiting. If you were thinking of using this with one of the many cameras that can utilise external storage, then for many cameras, those transfer rates are below the minimum requirements needed to capture the latest video.

Once I copied some content to the review sample's 1 TB of storage, I unplugged and plugged it into a PC and tried to access the files with a variety of software. Unlike software-encrypted devices that still mount and appear in the drive listings, here the drive wouldn’t be recognised by the computer until the NFC lock was tapped. This made it far more secure than all software-encrypted drives, and a great option.

After giving the drive a good test, there was one big question I had to answer: what if I needed to post my secure files to my accountant, or if I was working on a project that required sending them securely? It seemed the drive itself could be transported, and the contents would be nice and secure, but my main question was: could it be unlocked at the other end without using my phone, which had the NFC key set up?

The simple answer is: while you can set up the Lexar app on another device, you’ll need the recovery key to do so. It does take a little time to select all the options, but as long as you have the recovery key you saved at the outset, you can send it to another party. When they receive the drive, they can install the app, use the recovery key to set it up, and then unlock the drive.

The pure simplicity of the Lexar Touch Portable SSD makes it exceptionally straightforward, and, from my point of view, it’s very much a personal device rather than one to be used by a business. The reason is that you set it up for a single user, and if you are thinking about posting it, then the process is a little convoluted. Other secure drives have a far more fluid system, enabling admin users and user accounts to be set up with different passwords and access levels, whereas here, through the Lexar app device management, you only really get the option to change the name of the drive and the password, so from that perspective, things are rather limited.

However, if you’re looking for a good, solid, very secure portable SSD for everyday use, then the Lexar Touch Portable SSD is a good, lightweight and secure option.

• Performance: 4 / 5

Lexar TouchLock Portable SSD: Final verdict

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

The Lexar Touch Portable SSD is a neat and stylish secure drive that will suit individuals, small businesses, and anyone looking to secure their files. Throughout this review, it was clear that this is more of a personal secure drive than one used by enterprises or larger businesses. There’s no mass management, admin user access, or access rights for different sections of the drive. It’s more just a hardware-encrypted drive, you plug it in and use NFC to lock and unlock.

Once you start to look at it from this perspective, it’s a very solid choice. Considering the cost of secure drives, it’s exceptionally well priced, with a good range of capacities from 512GB to 2TB, which, for most documentation, will be absolutely fine. However, if you are looking to store multimedia and larger files, then that 2TB top capacity might be a little limiting.

Likewise, whilst this is a secure drive, the transfer rates, fast compared with traditional HDDs, are around 400MB/s, slower than a standard SSD. So if you are looking to use this as a working drive, then again, it might be a little limiting.

The MagSafe connector on the back makes it usable with mobile devices. Whilst it’s very good for backing up your mobile phone data and for recording some log video, again, with the latest iPhone 17, those transfer rates are a little limiting.

However, for everyday users looking for a portable SSD that offers far more protection than your average storage device, this is a very compact, lightweight, and secure option.

Should I buy the Lexar TouchLock Portable SSD?

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

Value

Compared to the competition, this hardware-encrypted portable SSD is excellent value

5

Design

Stylish, slimline design that makes it ultra-portable and useful with mobile devices

4

Features

A limited range of features focused on simple, easy-to-use security 

3.5

Performance

Excellent hardware encryption security, decent build quality, and okay transfer speed 

4

Overall

An exceptionally well-priced hardware-encrypted drive, great for secure backups

4

Buy it if...

Password-free security
You want your drive locked by default, without having to type in passwords or use complex encryption apps.

iPhone-friendly setup
You like the idea of a MagSafe-style drive that can sit neatly on a phone for securely transporting and storing content.

Don't buy it if...

You capture the Log video.
The latest mobile phones require higher transfer rates than this portable SSD can deliver to capture the latest log video.

No advanced options
If you're looking to equip staff with a secure portable SSD, then the lack of administration management will be an issue.

For more storage solutions, we've tested out the best external hard drives and the best rugged drives.

If you’ve used Wix in the past, any domain name you’ve bought through it has come from Name.com. Name.com has been around since 2003 and is a reliable name in the field. Based in Denver, Colorado, it continues to be a popular hit for anyone looking to buy a domain name quickly. Its services extend to web hosting, WordPress hosting, and email hosting.

I’ve been buying and using domain names for over 20 years. I’ve also been reviewing hosting products for more than 10 years, so I know what to look out for. This Name.com review evaluates the sign up process, prices compared to the competition, and how well it all works for the average consumer.

For more options, why not take a look at our rundown of the best domain registrars?

Name.com: My experience

(Image credit: Name.com)

Signing up with Name.com doesn’t take long at all. I entered the domain idea and within a second, I was given a list of TLDs all with different prices. There’s no way to arrange that list by price, but it didn’t take long to browse through. From there, you can add multiple domains to your basket at the same time. Premium domains are tagged and renewal prices are offered up too.

There’s a little upselling when you add a domain, with the option to add on email hosting, Gmail, or Wix hosting, but you can skip past that quickly. Whois privacy, domain lock, and an SSL certificate also cost an additional fee, unlike some competitors. The original price doesn’t include the ICANN fee either.

Name.com: Features

(Image credit: Name.com)

Name.com has a clear and simple domain management page. At a glance, you can see all the domains you own. It’s simple to add Whois privacy, renew them, manage the nameservers and DNS records, and everything else you might need to do.

Head to the domain actions and video tutorials and FAQs guide you through what to do. Renewal is a simple toggle so you can switch it off easily enough. The bulk of the features comes from the My Products part of the dashboard which offers up a lot of free trials to tempt you in. You can tie your Name.com domain into a custom email service, Wix account, Google Workspace, or other hosting accounts. Name.com doesn’t have the best hosting services, but Wix is useful if you just want pure simplicity for your setup.

Name.com: User experience

Name.com is a simple to use service. It’s relatively basic looking, but it uses color to highlight key elements like renewal statuses and to help divide things up well. Management options are all contained in the same area with short guides on what each option means.

The site is also keen to help you establish your business through adding on hosting or even setting up an LLC if you’re in the US. While there are potentially easier hosting packages for beginners, Name.com builds fairly well on its strongest reputation as a domain provider. It’s just unfortunate you have to pay extras for basics like WHOIS privacy.

Name.com: Customer support

Name.com lacks phone support but otherwise, it has good support options. As mentioned, you get videos and guides scattered throughout the domain management page. It also has a knowledge base for step-by-step guides.

Another option is its 24/7 chat bot which converts to human support if needed. There’s also a support ticket service, which I found wasn’t the fastest but was useful when dealing with a non-time sensitive query.

Name.com: Pricing

Domain

Price from

.xyz

£0.76

.com

£9.97

.eu

£8.44

.net

£12.66

.org

£7.67

With over 600 TLDs to choose from, Name.com isn’t short of options. Its cheapest domains are under £1 in the UK for the first year with .coms working out as quite affordable too. This will vary depending on the domain you want, so the thing to look out for is the renewal fee.

Also, Name.com does throw in additional fees. If you want WHOIS privacy and advanced domain lock protection, you’ll need to pay a little extra. That’s worth thinking about when comparing domain name prices.

Name.com: Specs

Spec

Details

Lowest price from

£0.76 (.xyz)

Highest price from

£1,280

Search tools

Standard search, bulk, by TLD groups

Other services

Web hosting, WordPress hosting, email hosting, Wix

Name.com: Should I buy?

Attribute

Notes

Score

Features

Name.com has all the management tools you need as well as some hosting options.

4.5/5

User experience

Fairly easy to use with some convenient tutorials along the way.

4/5

Value

Slightly hidden fees make it not quite as cheap as its competitors.

3.5/5

Buy it if...

• You want the professional touch. Name.com looks a little more professional than others. That isn’t a dealbreaker but it does make it very easy to look through your domain name portfolio.
• You want domain suggestions. One feature allows Name.com to suggest groups of TLDs based on your intentions. It’s a valuable time saving tool.
• You want to add extra features. Want to try out Wix for less or check out free trials? Name.com is great at dishing these out to give you a good commitment-free taster.

Don't buy it if...

• You want the cheapest price. Name.com slips in extra fees for fairly important features. Be aware.
• You want the best hosting. Name.com’s hosting is good but not great. If you want an all-in-one solution, go elsewhere.
• You want phone support. No phone support won’t bother everyone but if that’s you, dodge Name.com.

Name.com: The competition

• GoDaddy: If you want professionalism with slightly better prices, GoDaddy offers that in abundance while making things pretty simple.
• Porkbun: Few domain registrars are cheaper than Porkbun even if it isn’t the most stylish or appealing option out there. It’s ideal for establishing a portfolio.
• Namecheap: Easy to use with reasonable prices across the board, Namecheap is perfect for many needs if you don’t mind the lack of phone support.

How I tested Name.com

• Set up an account and bought two domain names
• Searched for other domains
• Compared prices and services to other companies

I searched for a domain name through Name.com before signing up for an account. I bought two domain names while evaluating other options. I went through the sign up process when purchasing and looked out for any additional fees or any caveats that needed to be acknowledged.

Once purchased, I looked at the domain management tools available to me as well as how I could expand my portfolio, either through new domains or by adding a hosting package.

Network Solutions has been around longer than I’ve been alive. Set up in 1979 as a technology consulting company, it later became the first operator of the DNS registry in 1991 under a sub-contract with the US DISA. It’s been a core part of what we’re used to seeing every day online now.

It’s also a domain registrar which anyone can sign up for with a wealth of TLDs available. I’ve been purchasing domain names for about 25 years and I’ve been reviewing web hosting and domain services for the past 10 years. When evaluating Network Solutions, I’ve used that experience as well as conducted hands-on testing, looked at its features, and investigated other verified reviews of the services available.

You can also take a look at our list of the best domain registrar services.

Network Solutions: My Experience

(Image credit: Network Solutions)

Network Solutions is very easy to sign up to and very keen to upsell. I searched for domains, found a very cheap one at 99c and then stared in awe as the price increased massively. That’s because you’re given the price for the first year, but Network Solutions immediately suggests tying yourself in for five years. Only the first year is particularly cheap. It also adds a free trial for domain privacy and starter hosting, and suggests a lot of other add-ons as well.

Be careful while you look through the basket so you only pay for what you actually want. Once you’ve bought a domain, you’re taken to a dashboard that looks identical to the Domain.com one because Network Solutions has acquired Domain.com.

Network Solutions: Features

(Image credit: Network Solutions)

Predictably, Network Solutions follows a similar path to Domain. That means you’re paying extra for every service you might need. There’s a domain lock, but other than that you need to pay for Whois privacy protection—something that tends to come for free with other domain registrars.

Its dashboard is also like Domain’s, which means it’s simple but fairly unattractive. You can easily connect your domain here to a website or email hosting, with Network Solutions keen for you to sign up to its own services. There are free trials available but generally, there are better hosting options out there. You can also connect your social media with separate guides for each type of account. Other than that, expect to pay. Even domain forwarding costs extra here.

Network Solutions: User experience

Like Domain, Network Solutions is very focused on upselling. You can ignore all this, but at times you do need to be aware of what has been added to your basket before tapping the buy button. That makes Network Solutions feels a little cynically designed.

The trend continues when looking around the dashboard, applying domain privacy, adding marketing tools, and so forth. But it is simple to find and change nameservers at least and if you want an all-in-one solution, Network Solutions is exceptionally keen to provide that.

Network Solutions: Customer support

Network Solutions has the usual suspects for support. There’s an AI chat bot which helps with a lot of commonly asked queries. At the time of writing, it also offered me a 20% discount on SSL certificates so it’s worth consulting once in a while. If you need to talk to a person, you can switch over by asking to do so.

Elsewhere, there’s the knowledge base which provides a lot of how-to guides for many situations. The knowledge base and chat bot should solve most of your problems, but if not, you can call Network Solutions with phone support being a neat bonus that not every domain registrar offers. There’s also a ticketing system.

Network Solutions: Pricing

Domain

Price from

.xyz

$14.99

.com

$11.99

.eu

$34.99

.net

$14.99

.org

$14.99

One year fees for most TLDs with Network Solutions are fairly competitive, but they don’t tell the full story. Sometimes, you only get this discount if you commit to a longer period of time and in all cases, renewals end up much more expensive than the enticing first year offer.

There are also many hidden fees with domain privacy, SSL certificates, and even domain forwarding all costing extra. Even ICANN fees are added on in the basket so that initial fees seem cheaper than they truly are.

Network Solutions: Specs

Spec

Details

Lowest price from

$0.99 (.online)

Highest price from

$2,488 (.org)

Search tools

Standard search, bulk, AI search, by TLD grouping

Other services

Web hosting, WordPress hosting, email hosting

Should I buy Network Solutions?

Attribute

Notes

Score

Features

Network Solutions has all you need, but you’ll pay for it.

4/5

User experience

Easy enough but far from visually appealing.

3.5/5

Value

A little sneaky with hidden fees and pricey renewals makes it poor value.

2/5

Buy it if...

• You want something reliable. With so much experience in the field, you’re in safe if expensive hands with Network Solutions. For some users, that’s worth the price.
• You want an all-in-one solution. Everything from domains to hosting to email is available here which simplifies your decision making somewhat.
• You want to add features individually. By requiring payment for so many services, you only pay for what you need. That could work well for some users.

Don't buy it if...

• You want the cheapest domains. Network Solutions rarely works out cheapest so if price is everything, go elsewhere.
• You hate upselling. At every turn, Network Solutions tries to upsell you on its products. This can get annoying.
• You want a stylish onboarding experience. Network Solutions lacks good looks even if it does get the job done.

Network Solutions: The Competition

• GoDaddy: If you need web hosting as well as a domain, GoDaddy is the superior choice. It’s more visually appealing and a better price, even with upselling.
• Porkbun: For cheap domains and a no-frills experience, Porkbun is the place to go. It requires a little more knowledge at times, but its prices are great.
• Dynadot: Another good option for value, Dynadot misses a few TLDs but it’s otherwise great for stockpiling domains over time.

How I tested Network Solutions

• Searched for two domain names and bought them
• Investigated the Network Solutions dashboard
• Looked at features and support options

I signed up for an account with Network Solutions and purchased two domain names. I then looked through the dashboard to see what was available for free and how easy it was to make adjustments. I also looked at how simple it was to get advice from the help center, and I looked at other details like how to cancel auto-renew.

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Domain or domain.com has been a significant name in the domain registrar world since 1999. One of the oldest brands out there, it’s been through a few acquisitions and is now part of Network Solutions. Over the years, it has expanded its domain services to also bundle in hosting accounts, and email hosting.

I’ve been purchasing and using domain names for over 20 years, while reviewing hosting products for more than 10 years. I’ve used that experience to evaluate Domain. That includes looking to see how simple signing up is, how competitive its prices are, and whether it’s worth recommending to people.

Domain: My experience

(Image credit: Domain.com)

As with most domain services, Domain is easy enough to search through. Head to the site, type in the domain you’re considering and you get a bunch of domain results. The results are a little different from others, focusing on what Domain thinks will be your best options. That meant a search for Jenjea initially provided some related results like jenjho.net rather than TLDs connected to Jenjea. You need to toggle ‘View all TLDs’ to see the more traditional results.

There are filtering options but no way to organize by price. Each domain suggestion also includes explanations as to why they might be a good purchase. Hit Add to Cart and you’re given one month of domain privacy and protection for free, along with professional email. Further upselling comes from the domain switching to 3 years when you’re initially told the price for just one year. Make sure to check what you’re paying for. A lot of extras are automatically added to your basket that you need to opt out from.

Domain: Features

(Image credit: Domain.com)

Domain is a service immediately keen on selling you more features. Without paying additional fees, you don’t really get any extras bundled in. It’s possible to add Whois privacy but that comes at a cost. At least a domain lock is included, so there’s no risk of unauthorized transfers.

Via the domain management page, you can easily connect your domain to a website or email hosting service, with Domain offering both if you need them. I’d recommend going elsewhere for the best value—why not consider our list of the best free web hosting services? Even domain forwarding isn’t free so potentially, your very cheap domain could end up much more expensive than other options.

All the core features are here. It’s just unfortunate that very few are freely available and many are focused on upselling. Even the dashboard promotes all the other similar domain names you may wish to purchase.

Domain: User experience

As soon as you purchase a domain, Domain offers suggestions such as setting up coming soon pages, creating a logo, forwarding the domain, and much more. It’s a little muddled, and not everything is free.

That trend continues with the rest of the Domain dashboard. There’s a strong focus on promoting additional services — whether that’s domain privacy or something much pricier. It’s still pretty simple to find the things you need like nameservers, but there’s a cynicism to how things are laid out at times.

Domain review: Customer support

Domain offers reasonable support options. There’s phone support based in the US, a comprehensive knowledge base, and live chat. The latter is AI-based starting out, but if you simply ask to talk to a human, you get connected pretty quickly.

There’s no ticket system though which is an annoying omission if you’d prefer to leave a ticket and come back later. Still, live chat is reasonably effective at solving queries quickly.

Domain: Pricing

Domain

Price from

.xyz

$14.99

.com

$5

.eu

$34.99

.net

$14.99

.org

$14.99

Domain is an interesting one for pricing. Sometimes it’s very cheap, with some popular TLDs like .com .org and .net costing just $5 — but when it comes to more unusual options like .xyz, it can get much more expensive than competitors.

There’s also the matter of everything having an additional fee. Prices exclude the ICANN fees but also domain privacy protection, a SSL certificate, domain expiration protection, and anything else you can think of that’s adjacent to actually just buying the domain.

Domain: Specs

Spec

Details

Lowest price from

$1.99 (.xyz)

Highest price from

$5,000 (.com

Search tools

Standard search, bulk, by TLD groups, AI search

Other services

Web hosting, WordPress hosting, email hosting

Should I buy Domain?

Attribute

Notes

Score

Features

Domain has all the features you need. For a price.

4/5

User experience

Simple to use and buy multiple domains if a little cluttered.

3.5/5

Value

Expensive first years followed by many additional fees and pricey renewals makes this poor value.

2/5

Buy it if...

• You want a large domain portfolio. Domain makes it very easy to buy multiple domains quickly. If you want to flip domains or protect your brand, this is a simple option.
• You need guidance. Domain is keen to promote its other services and help you set up a landing page, create a logo, and more, so it’s a reliable, straightforward solution (for a price).
• You want to add features as you go. By charging individually for many of the features, you could potentially get a bargain if you’re shrewd.

Don't buy it if...

• You want straightforward pricing. Domain is a little sneaky, suggesting prices are low till you bear in mind how many extras you ideally need.
• You want ticket support. If you don’t want to sit around on live chat, Domain’s support isn’t ideal.
• You want the cheapest domains. Domain is far from the cheapest in most cases even if it looks it at first.

Domain: The Competition

• Dynadot: If you’re looking for cheap domains and common TLDs, Dynadot is a better solution. It’s fairly basic but perfect for a quick few purchases.
• GoDaddy: For an all-in-one solution that works well despite getting a little pricey, GoDaddy is a good option. It’s appealing, easy to figure out, and an ideal choice for long-term commitments.
• NameCheap: Namecheap offers fairly cheap domains depending on your plans, and is very easy to use. It’s an easy recommendation to make.

How I tested Domain

• Created account and purchased two domain names
• Searched for other domains
• Evaluated how easy management services are

I searched for domain names using Domain and then purchased two of them. Along the way, I compared prices with competitors and also looked at how simple the process was. This included investigating the many extra fees for services that would have been useful if they’d been included, and looking at how pushy Domain was at promoting extra services. I also looked at how easy it was to change or cancel services.

Lovable is a relatively new entrant in the rapidly expanding field of no-code platforms that help businesses spin up all kinds of apps without writing a single line of code.

To learn more about this tool, we developed a prompt to generate a web app with Lovable, enabling us to fully explore its features and see how it stands in comparison to its competition. You can also take a look at our other picks for the best no-code platforms.

Lovable: Features

One of the main reasons for Lovable’s growing popularity is its AI app builder.

You describe your app idea in natural language, which the platform will use to create a fully functional app for you. The AI prompt can be as simple as “Create a login page” to something more complex like “Can you build me a CRM app and hook it up to a database, along with an authentication system that allows users to sign up, and log in.”

Once you enter the prompt, Lovable’s AI builder will generate the app’s user interface (UI), along with the backend, complete with the necessary database tables, forms to input customer details, and even set up functionality for viewing, editing, and deleting customer records.

(Image credit: Lovable)

Going one step ahead, you can also use the AI to further edit and refine your app by describing changes to the AI.

Templates and databases

Besides AI, Lovable also offers an array of pre-built templates that you can use as starting points to speed up the development process. These templates cover a wide range of application types, such as marketplaces, CRMs, analytics, cryptocurrency trading, and more.

This is especially helpful if you are new to development and don’t have a clear idea for the app, or you’re someone who wants to roll out apps quickly.

On the backend, Lovable uses Lovable Cloud, a Postgres based database running via Supabase (an open source alternative to Google’s Firebase platform). Zero setup is required for this as adding databases, authentication services, and other backend functionalities is all handled automatically for you.

If you need them, external databases – Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks, and Airtable – are also supported, as are Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel. Databases that support REST/HTTP API can also be used with Lovable.

You can also hook Lovable to your GitHub, and it will transfer your project's code to your GitHub repository for two-way sync of edits. This means the platform will be aware of any manual commits you make in the repo, and roll them into the app on its own. This functionality is somewhat unique, as most other no-code platforms just hold on to the code.

If you don’t have a GitHub repo, you can view and even edit the code in Lovable itself.

Lovable: Interface and ease of use

Lovable has a simple dashboard with a textbox smack in the middle of the screen where you can describe your app idea.

If you’re new to building apps, Lovable suggests leveraging pre-built styles to improve your app’s appearance. Lovable points to 21st.dev where you can browse pre-built designs, and then copy its prompt into Lovable.

After you’ve described the project, Lovable will tell you how it plans to go about building the initial version of the app, describing its features and design elements.

When it’s done spinning up the first iteration, it will open it up for preview. You can then tweak the layout, and other aspects of the app via more prompts. For more control, you can even make edits to the different elements inside the app using Lovable’s Figma-like visual editor.

You can also attach images to guide the AI. For instance, you can browse the designs at Dribble, screenshot the relevant section, upload it to Lovable, and ask it to redesign the relevant section of the app based on the uploaded design.

(Image credit: Lovable)

Templates for a quick start

The dashboard also gives you access to various templates for a quick start. The intuitive interface makes it fairly simple to navigate through the different pages in your app. You can also easily switch between the manual edit mode, and the AI mode.

Lovable ensures the UI of your app is responsive, and works well on both desktops and mobile devices. You can easily toggle between web, and mobile views to visualize how your app looks across different screen sizes.

Very helpfully the platform also lets you define global styles by adding a system prompt in the project settings’ Knowledge field, such as “make sure all buttons have rounded corners.” From then on, every time you ask Lovable to add a button, the AI builder will ensure it adheres to this predefined style.

If you’re struck by an idea for a web app while away from your computer, Lovable available as a mobile app for both Android and iPhone. While the user interface is stripped-back, it has largely the same menu options, and supports not just fresh and revised prompts, but restoring earlier builds of your project and even publishing/deploying. You can also manage connectors and review the generated code in the app, and run the preview project.

Lovable: Integration and extensibility

Lovable leverages popular tools and frameworks such as React, Tailwind CSS, and the Vite JavaScript build tool to optimize frontend performance. This helps ensure your app adheres to industry best practices.

One way to extend your app is to ask Lovable AI to modify the database to connect the frontend UI to the backend, for instance, to create and save login details. Based on this information, Lovable will then automatically create the appropriate tables as required, and it’ll write the SQL for you.

(Image credit: Lovable)

You can instruct Lovable to integrate payment gateways, social media APIs, or data analytics tools directly into your project. Simply ask the AI to "help me integrate Stripe into my app," and then follow its instructions to implement the integration, which basically involves handing it your API keys. Paddle is also supported.

However, it's important to note that Stripe integration doesn’t work in the preview. To test the integration, make sure to first deploy your app. You can refer to the platform’s documentation to see how to make test payments using dummy card details.

Besides Stripe, Supabase, and GitHub, Lovable also has a list of over a dozen verified integrations that work well with the platform. These include OpenAI, Anthropic, Replicate, Highcharts, p5.js, Clerk, and more.

Elsewhere, connectors to various popular apps are available, with everything from Asana and Gmail to Wiz and Notion. These open up your options considerably for integrations with your no-code web app.

(Image credit: Lovable)Lovable: Deployment and maintenance

Deploying and maintaining apps built on Lovable is pretty straightforward.

Once you’re happy with the way the project looks, you can deploy it. Various deployment options are available. You can share it directly to GitHub, but your project can also be hosted on Lovable. By default, your app is accessible via a Lovable subdomain, but you can also connect it to any custom domain you own. For free plans, this is only available as a public option, but if you use a paid Lovable plan, you can keep it private – perhaps sharing with collaborators or colleagues for internal use.

You can maintain, and debug your apps using the Lovable AI. For most issues, the platform will give you a “Try to fix” button that will automatically solve many issues for you. If that doesn’t work, you can describe the error in detail to the AI, and ask it for directions.

Lovable: Creating a crypto price calculator

Lovable can build web apps from quite basic prompts. (Image credit: Lovable)

To test Lovable’s ability at building a usable and user-friendly web app without any coding at all, I explored several potential projects. Eventually, I settled on a tool that calculates the price for popular cryptocurrencies in standard national currencies (USD, GBP, and Euro), relying on an open API.

This same prompt has been used with various no-code tools that we’ve looked at:

Build a tool that compares the price of a specific asset (like Bitcoin) against multiple fiat currencies simultaneously.

Functional requirements

API Integration: Connect to a free API (like CoinGecko or ExchangeRate-API).

Input Handling: A field where the user enters a "Budget" (e.g., $1,000$).

Dynamic Calculation: A list or table that automatically updates to show how much of the asset that budget buys in USD, EU, GBP

--

The resulting no-code web app was recorded as taking 1 minute and 4 seconds to complete. Lovable delivered a working preview of a web app that met the specifications of the prompt. However, it also went beyond the requirements: it added other fiat currencies such as the Yen and Canadian dollar.

Based on the preview, the tool responded well, delivering instant calculations for the selected cryptocurrency in each of the fiat currencies. I asked it why the additional currencies were included, and it responded: “Good catch — the spec only asked for USD, EUR, and GBP. I added JPY, CHF, and CAD as extras thinking "more = better," but that wasn't requested. Want me to trim the list back to just the three?”

I agreed; the revision was completed in just 27 seconds.

Note that none of this processing had any impact on my PC or browser. Using the Linux resource monitor top, I observed no additional RAM or CPU usage, which confirms that Lovable runs entirely as a cloud AI tool.

(Image credit: Lovable)

Revising your project

If you’re not happy with the no-code creation, some amendments can be made.

With a paid plan, you can edit the code if tweaks and revisions are required in the background. Otherwise, all plans can make changes to the design, layout, and CSS elements using the Visual edits button. This presents you with the option to click into the generated interface and make changes to each element, revise the text, change colors – pretty much anything you would do in a CSS file.

Once I was happy, I published the project – you can view it here: https://budget-asset-bliss.lovable.app/

One of the best things about Lovable is that it actively monitors your code, and might recommend refactoring your code to make it more scalable, and easier to maintain.

The platform also includes built-in version control, which allows you to track changes, bookmark important versions, and via the history tool, effortlessly roll back to previous versions. This makes it easier to track, and review your progress, and undo any mistakes.

Lovable: Pricing and documentation

Lovable has a tiered pricing plan, starting with a free tier with limited functionality, followed by several paid plans that offer more features and higher usage limits.

For instance, on the free plan, you can prompt the AI five times/day, with a total limit of 30 messages/month.

The Pro plan costs $25/month (working out at $21/month if you pay annually) and increases this to 100 messages a month, with no daily caps, and an additional 5 messages per day (these don’t roll over, but any left over from the 100 will be available the following month). If this isn’t enough, you can increase the number of messages/AI credits.

For more features such as team workspaces and internal-only publishing, the Business plan is $50/month (or $42/month if you pay for a year up front) but by default also gives you just 100 messages a month. Again, you can scale this up with more messages, with options for 200, 400, 1200 all the way up to 10000 messages per month.

Lovable handholds you through a series of illustrated introductory documentation, quick start guides, and video tutorials. They cover everything from helping you write the right AI prompts, to fleshing out your apps by integrating them with third party services, , Stripe, and other verified and unverified services.

You can take your queries to Lovable’s Discord community, while paid users also get access to premium support options.

Lovable: The competition

Lovable shares the space with other AI-assisted no-code app builders.

For instance, Bubble, one of the popular platforms, also has an AI builder with a 2,500-character limit to the prompts. Bubble is often touted as a good option for building complex apps, as it offers greater flexibility, but has a steeper learning curve.

Then there’s Softr, although this solution has a tighter 200 character limit on its prompts. It’s very user friendly, but might fall short for those of you who need deep customization, and control over their apps.

(Image credit: Lovable)

Hostinger Horizons is a strong alternative. Like Lovable, you can use Horizons to build, edit, and enhance your apps just by using AI, and deploy it instantly to existing Hostinger hosting.

Lovable: Final verdict

Lovable’s extensive use of AI for everything from creating the app, to adding new functionality, and debugging, makes it one of the best no-code platforms for anyone who’s new to building apps.

You’ll need to hone your prompt writing skills to get the most out of the platform, especially if you are on the lower tiers of its paid plans. Based on the list of featured projects, it appears the platform can manage rather complex workflows, which is a definite plus.

Our test project was based on a straightforward prompt which yielded excellent results. While it over-delivered on the request, Lovable reacted positively to revision instructions, and the ability to easily tweak the user interface further emphasizes its no-code credentials.

All things considered, Lovable’s user-friendly interface, integration capabilities, and extensibility, make it a compelling option for anyone looking to build apps in record time.

Garmin Forerunner 70: One minute review

The Garmin Forerunner 70 is a Garmin watch that we’ve waited a long time for. This is the natural successor to the Forerunner 55, the watch that was pitched at beginner runners or runners who like to stick to the basics (and can even run a marathon in under two hours, as it was worn by record-breaker Sebastian Sawe).

With such a large time gap between the two watches, it’s hardly surprising to see Garmin make some big changes, not only with the hardware but the software too.

It’s clearly been a task of bringing the 70 in line with other new Forerunner watches, which includes adding an AMOLED display and touchscreen while keeping the full array of physical buttons to give it that traditional running watch feel. While keeping the AMOLED on at all times does dent the battery much quicker, it elevates the software and what it’s like to use the 70 as a smartwatch.

There’s some upgrades to the sensors, and while you don’t get Garmin’s latest multi-band GPS or Gen 5 Elevate optical sensor, the improved GNSS sensor and move from Gen 3 to Gen 4 sensors does deliver strong GPS and heart rate tracking performance still.

The additions made in the training and smartwatch departments also make this feel like a more advanced watch than the Forerunner 55. You now have a watch that has full access to Garmin’s Connect IQ store and brings in some of Garmin’s nicest smartwatch features like morning and evening reports. No you don’t get payments, Bluetooth calls or a music player, but if you’re looking for the basics that go beyond what the 55 offered, the 70’s got you well covered.

It’s also great to see some of Garmin’s best training features. Training Readiness now features on a cheaper Garmin to help you decide when to train and rest. You can now use the 70 to navigate your way. You don’t get full maps, but the breadcrumb navigation still makes it useful to have on your wrist when exploring new surroundings or struggling to get back home after a run.

Those added features do, unsurprisingly, come at an added cost. A cost that does push the Forerunner 70 out of that entry level category into more of a mid-range one. That does mean you can find cheaper alternatives like the Suunto Run or can pay a bit more for the Coros Pace 4 and get newer sensors including dual-band GPS. If you’re sold on Garmin’s software, still want that strong tracking performance and like the idea of having an AMOLED screen and the best smartwatch experience you’ll find on a running watch at this price, those are going to be the biggest reasons to grab the Forerunner 70.

Garmin Forerunner 70: Specifications

Component

Garmin Forerunner 70

Price

$249.99 USD / £219.99 UK / $399 AUS

Dimensions

42.6mm wide, 11.9mm thick

Weight

40g

Case/bezel

polymer case, polymer bezel

Display

1.2-inch AMOLED Screen, 390 x 390 px resolution

GPS

GNSS, 6 satellite systems

Battery life

Up to 5 days of heavy use, or 13 days typical

Connection

Bluetooth, ANT+

Water resistance

5 ATM

Garmin Forerunner 70: Price and availability

(Image credit: Future / Mike Sawh)

• $249.99 / £219.99 / AU$399
• More expensive than the Forerunner 55
• Cheaper than the Forerunner 170

The Garmin Forerunner 70 has a launch price of $249.99 USD / £219.99 UK / $399 AUS, which puts it firmly in the mid-range running smartwatch category. That’s in contrast to its predecessor the Forerunner 55, which launched with a sub-$200 price tag when it landed back in 2021.

Given there’s been some pretty sizable upgrades with the hardware and software, including adding an AMOLED display and richer smartwatch features, it’s not surprising that the price has leapt up a bit. It does feel like it’s lost a bit of the beginner-friendly appeal of the Forerunner 55 in the process.

The Forerunner 70 was launched alongside the Forerunner 170, which at $299 / £259.99 / AU$479 gives you additional features like contactless payments and a music player, longer battery life and additional sensors like an altimeter.

• Value score: 4/5

Garmin Forerunner 70: Design

• One case size option
• Added AMOLED screen
• Combination of touchscreen and physical buttons

Like the Garmin Forerunner 55, the Forerunner 70 remains a watch that sits pretty small on your wrist. That might be an issue for fans of bigger watches like a Fenix. For runners, typically smaller and lighter is better and that is what you get here.

Garmin has moved up slightly from a 42mm sized-polymer case to a 42.6mm one. It’s just the one case size that’s light to hold and comes in four different colors. Whether you want something plain or like a splash of color, you’re catered for here. The strap attached to the case is pretty typical of the ones you find partnered up to most Garmin Forerunners. It’s a 20mm silicone one that uses a pin mechanism, so you can remove it when the strap included gets sweaty or dirty or you just fancy switching to another color.

Garmin sticks to including five physical buttons for that classic running watch navigation experience. That’s now matched up with a 1.2-inch, 390 x 390 resolution AMOLED touchscreen. That sees Garmin move away from the memory pixel display on another watch line, sacrificing the longer battery life and more impressive viewing angles in brighter outdoor light for that added colour, vibrancy and to be more in keeping with other smartwatches. It’s still going to be a screen you can view comfortably outside when it’s really sunny. You just might need to crank up the brightness to do that, which will have an impact on battery life.

Like the Forerunner 50 and most other more affordable Garmin watches, the Forerunner 70 carries a 5ATM waterproof rating. That makes it safe for swimming and showering with it. There’s only a pool swimming tracking mode as Garmin leaves out open water and triathlon modes. That’ll be disappointing for anyone hoping they could pick this up as an affordable triathlon watch.

• Design score: 4/5

Garmin Forerunner 70: Features

(Image credit: Future / Mike Sawh)

• Upgraded Gen 4 Elevate sensor from Forerunner 55
• Includes latest training insights like Training Readiness
• Offers breadcrumb-style navigation

Garmin is pitching the Forerunner 70 as an entry-level running smartwatch, so it’s giving you some running features, but not all that it has to offer.

Like the GPS support, where the Forerunner 70 uses multi-GNSS, as opposed to the latest multi-band GPS included on the Forerunner 570 and above watches. This means you miss out on having improved tracking accuracy when running or moving near tall buildings or locations with a lot of tall trees.

Other hardware improvements include upgrading from the Gen 3 Elevate optical heart rate sensor to the Gen 4 version. That’s actually not the latest version of Garmin’s in-house sensor technology. That’s Gen 5, which gives you added features like ECG heart rate measurements. This will cover continuous monitoring and tracking heart rate during exercise. You can also pair external heart rate monitors to it as well.

In terms of software features, there’s a lot that’s been added to the Forerunner 70 over the Forerunner 55. Along with bringing the UI up to date with other AMOLED-toting Garmins, you’re now getting more smartwatch features. You can set up smart alarms, view morning and evening reports for a summary of your day and recommendations for the following day.

There’s improved notification support for Android users, so now you can view more information being shared in notifications. A big one is the added Connect IQ support: previously, this was restricted to only downloading watch faces. Now you have full access to the storefront to download apps, watch faces and data fields.

There’s plenty that’s been upgraded on the tracking and training front too. You can now follow routes using breadcrumb-style navigation as opposed to the full maps you’ll find on pricier Garmin watches. Garmin has brought in a raft of its latest training metrics and features including Training Readiness, wrist-based running power, more strength-focused training support and this is a watch that’s compatible with Garmin’s Coach. That’s free access to Garmin’s training platform that now comprises running, cycling and strength training plans that can be synced over to the watch.

• Features score: 4/5

Garmin Forerunner 70: Performance

• Good GPS despite lack of dual-band
• Smartwatch features work well across Android and iOS
• Heart rate tracking solid with support for external sensors

In terms of tracking your runs, the Forerunner 70 does a sterling job like most other Garmins and not just for running. When I’ve used it for pool swims, indoor rows, treadmill runs and bike sessions, the tracking has been as solid as other Garmins I’ve tested.

Some will be disappointed that Garmin doesn’t include its latest multi-band GPS technology. As I’ve found when using Garmin’s watches with multi-GNSS setups, they still perform better than a lot of dual-band watches. I’d say it’s the same story for the Forerunner 70. It might get a bit more shaky in places with a lot of tall buildings for the GPS technology to deal with, but I’ve been using it alongside the Forerunner 170 and Garmin’s markedly more expensive Garmin Forerunner 970, and the 70 has more than held its own.

It’s a similar story with heart rate tracking. While you’re getting the older Gen 4 version of Garmin’s Elevate optical heart rate sensor technology, that doesn’t equal a bad performance. For steady paced runs and runs in some significantly hotter running conditions, the 70 held up well against Garmin and MyZone heart rate monitor chest straps. It can take a bit longer to match up when you’re easing off during interval work. Overall though, the 70’s older sensor gets the job done, with the option to pair a Bluetooth heart rate sensor to improve performance.

Where Garmin has really bolstered things on the 70 compared to the 55 is the influx of training insights and bringing it more up to speed in terms of smartwatch features. It’s great to see Training Readiness make the cut where previously Garmin had left this useful insight into your preparedness to tackle a tough session off from its more affordable watches. It’s also about the presentation of these features, which is something Garmin does better than the competition. Like the well integrated daily suggested workouts or helping you keep an eye on your recovery time.

While you’re not getting the best that Garmin has to offer in smartwatch features, the added AMOLED touchscreen and general changes made to the user interface does mean it operates better as a smartwatch than most other running-focused smartwatches. The stream of Glances (widgets) offer a nice snapshot of your data, morning and evening report summaries are great additions, while the music playback controls work well with third party music services like Spotify. Unlike the Forerunner 55, you do now have full access to the Garmin Connect IQ store and that means increasing your ability to personalise the watch software with the features, apps and data fields you care most about.

Sleep tracking has been a bit of a weakness for Garmin. Particularly when overreporting sleep duration and the time it’s taken to recognise when you’d fallen asleep. Things thankfully have gotten better and I count the Forerunner 70 in the 'good' camp of sleep trackers. I’ve been wearing it to bed with an Oura Ring 5 and core sleep stats have largely told a similar story about my night’s sleep. The now added sleep coach and recommendation features brings sleep more into the training equation as well as helping you think more about your recovery time between runs and other workouts.

In terms of battery life, you’re unsurprisingly not getting the best Garmin has to offer on that front. What you are getting is a watch that should hold for a week’s worth of training. If you’re using it with the always-on display mode while tracking outdoor runs, you’re going to get less than a week.

GPS battery numbers give you a good amount to play with as well. I found that an hour's worth of running in the best available GPS mode hit the battery by just shy of 10%. That doesn’t add up to the 16 hours promised.

• Performance score: 4/5

Garmin Forerunner 70: Scorecard

(Image credit: Future / Mike Sawh)

Category

Comment

Score

Value

It’s lost the budget status still attached to the ageing 55, but it offers features in keeping with the closest competition

4/5

Design

A no surprises, sporty-looking Forerunner watch that offers a good AMOLED screen and a full array of physical buttons.

4/5

Features

A running watch capable of tracking more and offering richer training insights than the Forerunner 55

4/5

Performance

Delivers that great Garmin sports tracking with watch software that’s cleaner and more polished than the competition

4/5

Garmin Forerunner 70: Should I buy?Buy it if...

You like a small watch

If you like your smartwatches compact and lightweight, the 70 absolutely fits the bill.

You want a Garmin at a good price

It might not have all the bells and whistles of a Forerunner 570 or 970, but if you want a good-performing running watch and sports watch, that’s what you get with the 70.

Don't buy it if...

You want the best Garmin for smartwatch features

You will have to pay more if you want Garmin smartwatch features like contactless payments, LTE and a built-in music player.

You want an affordable triathlon watch

The Forerunner 70 doesn’t include an open water swimming or dedicated triathlon mode for those interested in using it to train across all three multisport disciplines.

Also consider

Suunto Run

Suunto’s entry-level running watch is cheaper than the Forerunner 70 and while software and smartwatch support isn’t as slick, the core run and sports tracking is very good.

Read our full Suunto Run review

Coros Pace 4

The Pace 4 isn’t that much more expensive than the Forerunner 70 and gives you richer training insights, a triathlon mode and features like dual-band GPS in a similarly compact and lightweight design.

Read our full Coros Pace 4 review

How I tested

I’ve been wearing the Garmin Forerunner 70 for three weeks, tracking my outdoor and treadmill runs. I’ve also used it for pool swimming and indoor cycling, wearing it alongside other running watches to compare GPS performance. I’ve also been using it alongside a heart rate monitor chest strap to compare heart rate tracking during exercise.

First reviewed: June 2026

Hostinger is a pretty well-known name in the web hosting industry, and it has ventured into the no-code space. Hostinger’s no-code platform, Horizons, taps into the demand for web app builders, and uses AI extensively to allow anyone to spin up web apps without writing a single line of code.

In this review, we’ll examine its features, interface, ease of use, target use cases, and how it stands against competitors in the booming no-code space. We’ll also run a test prompt to create a straightforward web app, and judge its performance by how the app responds, as well as the time taken to generate it.

You can also take a look at our run-down of the best no-code platforms.

Hostinger Horizons: Features

Horizons operates through a simple AI chat interface. You just describe your app idea using natural language, and the platform’s AI will translate it into a working web app. Very helpfully, Horizons supports over 80 languages, which allows non-English users to build apps using the platform’s AI.

In addition to written prompts, you can converse with the platform using voice prompts, helping make Horizons more accessible. You can also upload user interface sketches and designs to the AI to ensure it understands your requirements.

Like most platforms, Hostinger allows you to publish your apps on a custom domain as well. In fact, Horizons also takes advantage of Hostinger’s infrastructure to offer web hosting, domain services, professional email, and other tools. This helps Horizons pitch itself as an all-in-one solution, which you don’t get with most other no-code platforms.

(Image credit: Hostinger Horizons)

While credits are required for AI generation, standard questions about the project you’re building are not charged. You can also edit text and images in the project without using AI credits, and if no-code is just something you’re using to save time but you have development skills, you can switch to the code and make manual revisions and tweaks in the visual editor.

Web apps created with Hostinger Horizons are responsive and mobile-friendly, which means they’ll work and look good on desktops, as well as on smartphones. That said, remember that web apps created with the platform can’t be published as native mobile apps on the Google Play Store, or the Apple App Store.

Hostinger Horizons: Interface and ease of use

Horizons has a straightforward interface, with an AI text box in the middle of the screen. Simply enter your prompt, or select from one of the listed example prompts.

It will analyze the prompt, break it down into tasks and tell you how it plans to approach the build before it spins it up. When it’s done, it will also show you a preview of what it will build. You can then make modifications, or just ask it to build the app as per the preview.

Horizons will helpfully suggest ideas to help extend the app. For instance, when I asked it to create an ecommerce web app, it suggested I improve it by connecting it to a database for real product data storage, add a shopping cart, and checkout functionality, implement user authentication, and more.

And you can roll out these features simply by asking the AI.

Whenever you use the AI to add new functionality, Horizons will also tell you how to test it. Some processes like adding social logins require some running around, but the platform does its best to guide you through the process with clear step-by-step instructions.

Hostinger Horizons: Integration and Extensibility

Horizons builds web apps in Node.js, and creates the necessary HTML, CSS, and JSS files.

You can use Horizons to fuse your app with third-party tools, for things like emails, payments, and user authentication. These integrations require varying levels of configuration beyond the Horizons tool itself, but these external features have improved considerably since the platform launched, and where necessary, Horizons does its best to lay out the steps for you.

Hostinger Horizons initially offered Supabase cloud-based database support, but this is no longer required. Instead, the platform stores data in the Horizons integrated backend.

(Image credit: Horizons)

You can also add a payment gateway, for instance, with Stripe or Razorpay. PayPal isn’t currently supported, but Horizons says you’ll be able to integrate any backend services to your app built on the platform, as long as the service has an API, and you provide the integration information Horizons asks for. For example, you can integrate authentication via Google OAuth.

That said, adding certain backend functionality might be easier than others, for the time being, as the platform is still under active development.

Hostinger Horizons: Deployment and maintenance

After your prompt is entered and the web app is ready, you need to deploy it to make it live. As with other no-code platforms, Horizons will publish the app with a random URL. By default, this will be to a Hostinger subdomain.

But, as usual, you can publish the app to your own custom domain as well. Also, you can unpublish your web app, and come back to it to tune it further, and republish it.

If you’d like to look at the code for your web app, you can use the Export function on the platform to download it. This will roll all the HTML, CSS, and other files into a zip file ready to download to your computer.

You can also ask the Horizons AI to help you add your web app to your existing website. It’ll recommend adding the app as an embedded component, but will also offer the option to include the app as an iFrame. As usual, it’ll generate the necessary code for both approaches, along with instructions on how to go about both procedures.

(Image credit: Hostinger)

Horizons also has a version control system, and you can undo a change, or revert to a previous version with a single click. Just like with Lovable, you can use the Horizons AI to help fix any errors.

However, Horizons can’t export your code to code sharing websites like GitHub, which is something you can do with alternatives such as Lovable. Also, while you can edit the code offline, there is no way to import it back to Horizons, and continue refining it with its AI.

If it encounters an error while building the app, the platform will usually give you the Ask to fix button. When pressed, the platform will analyze the error, and try to mend it on its own. You can also copy or describe the error to the AI, and ask it to help you solve it.

Hostinger Horizons: Creating a Crypto Price Comparison App

To understand how Hostinger Horizons can efficiently create a web app with no coding required, I’ve created a specific test prompt.

Using a single prompt that has also been tested on other no-code platforms, I requested the creation of a cryptocurrency price comparison tool. The aim of this is to display the current price of popular cryptocurrencies in USD, GBP, and EUR, when a specific budget is entered, pulling the data from a free API service. A default figure of $1000 should be displayed, and the tool should have a dark mode toggle and a refresh button.

(Image credit: Hostinger Horizons)

The prompt is as follows:

Build a tool that compares the price of a specific asset (like Bitcoin) against multiple fiat currencies simultaneously.

Functional requirements

API Integration: Connect to a free API (like CoinGecko or ExchangeRate-API).

Input Handling: A field where the user enters a "Budget" (e.g., $1,000$).

Dynamic Calculation: A list or table that automatically updates to show how much of the asset that budget buys in USD, EUR, and GBP.

Toggle Switch: A "Dark Mode" or "Refresh" toggle to test UI state management.

--

Running this in Hostinger Horizons demonstrated a few interesting points. First, the process was pretty quick, and generated within 5 minutes. However, the initial attempt crashed, so I retried and this completed within around 10 seconds (presumably just re-running the code, rather than regenerating). Testing the web app, I found it responded well, and delivered the correct information.

Using a task management tool (top on Ubuntu), I kept an eye on the process for my browser (Firefox) and saw that following the running of the prompt, the Resident memory (“res”) used by the process increased by around 300MB. This is within acceptable limits, and does not indicate that the AI used local processing – rather, that the code of the web app is being displayed (local processing would typically show an increase of 2GB or more).

The generated web app can be edited by clicking into the fields. Where a dotted border is applied, the field can be edited, with changes made and confirmed with a click of the OK button. You won’t see the revisions “live” however – instead, the preview needs to be refreshed. If you’re happy with the changes, the web app should be republished to see the revised live page.

Finally, Hostinger Horizons’ integration with the Hostinger hosting platform means that deployment is easy. I simply clicked the Publish button, and selected a domain to point it to. Instant publishing to existing hosting with Horizons is a major advantage over rival no-code tools.

(Image credit: Hostinger Horizons)Hostinger Horizons: Pricing and documentation

Hostinger Horizons was rolled out to a limited audience in February 2025, before its general availability on March 4, 2025.

Since then, all existing users with a Hostinger hosting subscription can use Horizons for free with a limit of five messages/day. This is enough to develop an idea over the course of few days, but if you need more in-depth no-code development, you will need a separate Horizons subscription in addition to the hosting plan (for deployment).

To get started, the Explorer plan is just $9.99 a month and offers 30 AI prompts/month. Next up is the Starter plan at $19.99/month, which comes with 70 AI prompts/month. Then there’s the $55.99/month Hobbyist plan with 200 messages, and the $99.99/month Hustler plan with 400 messages.

The number of messages has been reduced in each plan since launch, but on the positive side Hostinger regularly discounts these plans. If you need more AI messages, top-ups are available. These range from $4.99 for 10 AI credits to $499 for 1000, and again, these are often discounted.

You can publish 50 web apps with all the paid plans, and they all also include one month of free hosting, unlimited bandwidth, and 50 mailboxes with 1GB of storage each.

In terms of documentation, Horizons has several official guides that’ll handhold you from building your first app, to integrating it with other services such as Google AdSense. Besides illustrated text tutorials, Hostinger also has a bunch of instructional videos on YouTube. You also get 24/7 customer support with all the paid plans.

Hostinger Horizons: The competition

Hostinger Horizons is the newest entrant in the no-code web app builder market, and faces stiff competition from several well-established platforms.

For starters, there’s Bubble. While Horizons uses AI to generate web apps based on natural language descriptions, Bubble requires users to manually design and configure their apps. Although Bubble has a steeper learning curve than Horizons, it provides more flexibility for building custom web applications.

Then there’s Adalo, which can build both web, and mobile apps. It has a drag-and-drop UI, as well as a plethora of pre-built components to help you put together your apps. While Adalo does offer some AI capabilities, its strength is its mobile app-building capabilities.

(Image credit: Hostinger)

Horizons closest competition is with Lovable. Both platforms make extensive use of AI to create, edit, and debug web apps. However, Horizons is still very new to the markets, and doesn’t yet offer all the features you get with Lovable, such as the two-way sync with a GitHub repo.

But in Hostinger Horizons’ favor, it offers an integration with hosting that none of the competitors can deliver. It also stands out against other hosting companies, where the aim of no-code is purely to create a website template for a familiar backend like WordPress. Hostinger already offers this as an option, but Horizons puts it on par with Bubble, Lovable, and others.

Hostinger Horizons: Final verdict

Horizons’ use of AI to cover all aspects of app development, from creation, to editing, makes the platform truly democratic for everyone, including those with no coding experience. Our testing found that Horizons was fast, completed the job fully remotely using Hostinger’s cloud AI servers, and produced a web app that perfectly delivered the desired crypto pricing tool.

The platform’s support for multilingual and audio prompts makes it a good option for non-English developers or those with accessibility needs. Also, unlike other platforms it takes advantage of Hostinger’s infrastructure to offer an all-in-one solution to create and deploy your web apps.

Even though Horizons is relatively new, we would definitely suggest all existing Hostinger users to take Horizons for a spin. The platform is evolving rapidly, but since it doesn’t offer a free tier, it might be a good idea to give it some time to refine itself before you jump in to sign up.

Plugable 10-in-1 USB-C Hub: 30-second review

The Plugable USBC-10IN1E is a USB hub that, once plugged into your machine, usually a port-limited laptop, expands the port selection from one or two to 10.

In this test, I plugged the hub into several machines, including the Asus ProArt PZ14 - a tablet PC with only two USB-C ports that with the addition of the hub, turned a machine that required careful port rationing into a full desk setup with monitor output, Ethernet, keyboard, mouse, storage, and charging, and all connected through a single cable. The same result followed with the MacBook Air M3 and Pro M1 Max, for which the design matches perfectly.

The space-grey metal body of the hub gives it a clean aesthetic that matches Apple hardware, and at 109g and 216mm, it slips into any laptop bag neatly, although its length can be a little tricky to accommodate in a standard backpack pocket.

Connecting the hub to your chosen machine is easy enough with a single 17cm USB-C that enables you to tuck the hub neatly behind the machine. As I maxed out the ports during the test, I was also pleased to see that the port spacing along the hub's row of ports, which are all positioned along one side, enabled all ten connections to be used at the same time without the plugs blocking each other.

Through the test, the features that impressed me the most were the 2.5GbE Ethernet port that enabled fast wired network connections in the studio and office and the HDMI 2.1 output that enabled the hub to be used with my 4K monitors without reducing their potential resolution. For that alone, this is one of the best docking stations around.

The one surprise was that the SD card reader is only UHS-I rather than UHS-II, which features on the company's cheaper Plugable 9-in-1. If you’re a photographer offloading files from a Sony A7 IV, the reader works, but it is not the fastest option available; it’s still good if your laptop lacks port connectivity as standard.

Plugable 10-in-1 USB-C Hub: Price and availability

• How much does it cost? From $74
• When is it out? Available now
• Where can you get it? Directly from Plugable or Amazon

The Plugable USBC-10IN1E is priced at $84 USD and is available directly from Plugable's website, as well as retailers including Amazon.com, Best Buy, and Staples.

However, outside the US, I'm not seeing much availability at all.

• Value: 4.5 / 5

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)Plugable 10-in-1 USB-C Hub: Specs

Connection: USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps), 17cm/0.56ft
Video: HDMI 2.1 (4K 144Hz)
Power delivery: USB-C PD 3.1 EPR, 140W input / 125W output to host
Ethernet: 2.5Gbps
USB-C data: 2 × USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps, data only)
USB-A data: USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps, BC 1.2 charging) + 2 × USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5Gbps)
SD card reader: SD UHS-I + microSD UHS-I
Dimensions: 216 × 34 × 15mm
Weight: 109g
OS support: Windows 10/11, macOS 11+, ChromeOS 100+

Plugable 10-in-1 USB-C Hub: Design

When I put the USBC-10IN1E next to most of the USB hubs that I regularly use, the one notable feature aside from the huge array of ports is that it’s noticeably longer, at 216mm; it’s roughly the width of a 14-inch MacBook. This length is able to contain all those ports, an amount that is usually restricted to either a desktop machine or, more commonly, a powered USB dock.

Taking the hub from the box and the styling is instantly recognisable with Apple; the main casing is space-grey metal and gives the hub a premium feel as well as ensuring that it feels good and durable.

Connecting the hub to your chosen machine, Mac, PC or ChromeBook is made through the 17cm cable that’s an integral part of the accessory and and therefore non-removable. I like this design as it means the hub is all together and you won’t lose the cable or mix it with another in transport.

In use, that cable is also long enough to tuck behind either the Asus ProArt PZ14 or MacBook Air M3, keeping the sides of the workspace clear.

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

Port spacing along the hub is well thought through, with all ten connections: two USB-C, three USB-A, HDMI, Ethernet, SD, microSD, and the PD pass-through, all arranged so they can be occupied without the next cable blocking them. This isn’t always the case with compact hubs.

Through the test with SSDs, a monitor, controller, and several other accessories connected to the hub, did run warm under the load, the build of the hub with the aluminium casing was able to dissipate the heat well.

If you regularly plug accessories into your laptop and want more ports, then the Pluggable is a great option, especially with the simple design, plug-and-play nature and the fast wired network potential.

• Design: 4 / 5

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)Plugable 10-in-1 USB-C Hub: Features

The Plugable 10-in-1 USB-C Hub is a USB-C bus-powered hub with a 10Gbps bandwidth. This bandwidth is shared by the 10 ports, so each new accessory that’s plugged in takes a portion of that bandwidth, with the older USB-A 3.2 (Gen1) taking a small amount and the USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps) having the potential to take all of it.

In reality, in use, it all balances out, and the range of ports opens up direct connections for a host of laptops that are notoriously limited on port space, often just offering a couple and one that is usually taken up by the power supply.

This hub offers a staggering 10, which includes an HDMI 2.1 port that supports up to 4K at 144Hz or 8K at 30Hz, though the available resolution and refresh rate depend on the host machine's video output capabilities. The ProArt PZ14 and MacBook Pro M1 Max were both tested at 4K 60Hz via the Lepow TriScreen Pro, which is the display's maximum resolution.

The HDMI 2.1 modes require DP 1.4 with DSC on Windows (12th Gen Intel and later) or macOS 26 with M1 Pro/Max, M3 or newer on Mac. If you need 4K 144Hz, checking that your host hardware meets this specification is a given.

One of the surprises for the hub is the inclusion of the 2.5GbE Ethernet port, which means that when connected to the UGREEN DXP4800 GT NAS during the test, the hub delivered approximately 150 MB/s over the network.

Pass-through charging at up to 125W output worked with the ProArt PZ14's 65W power supply plugged into the hub's PD port. The PZ14 charged normally throughout the test with the hub as the sole connection. The 140W EPR input requires a PD 3.1 EPR-compatible charger and cable to deliver the full 125W; with a standard 65W charger, the output is limited, but matched the laptop I had connected.

The two USB-C 10Gbps ports are data-only, which means that they can’t be used for video output. Video output is catered for by the HDMI.

A nice addition and quite common for a hub is the SD and microSD readers, although these are both UHS-I. When checking the website, I noted that the cheaper Plugable 9-in-1 ($49.95) includes a UHS-II SD reader, which, for photographers shooting on Sony A7 IV UHS-II cards, might be a better option despite the drop in ports.

As you’d expect from a hub of this type, there are no drivers needed on either Mac or PC, and during the test, the ProArt PZ14 (Windows 11 Home) and the MacBook Pro M1 Max (macOS) recognised all ports without issue.

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

• Features: 4.5 / 5

Plugable 10-in-1 USB-C Hub: Performance

As the hub is bus-powered, essentially it draws power from the host machine through the USB-C cable that’s a permanent fixture, there’s no need for any type of external power supply. Therefore, getting started simply involves plugging in, and then the hub is instantly recognised and ready for use,

Once connected, all 10 ports share that single USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) connection, which means that if you use all ports at the same time, then the bandwidth is split between almost all, with two exceptions.

The HDMI output uses a separate DisplayPort Alt Mode channel, and its bandwidth is not limited by USB activity, so even if all other ports are in use, you won't see any effect on the visuals on screen.

The Ethernet port also uses a separate controller channel. But the rest, the five USB data ports, two SD card slots, and PD pass-through, all share the 10 Gbps USB pipeline.

In practice, this means high-speed transfers when you plug several drives, readers and accessories are less than that that headline 10Gbps, but in real terms this isn’t usually an issue. On the MacBook Air, for example, I found that plugging power and a CFExpress Type-B reader into the hub, and then the Crucial X10 into the machine, offered the best performance when it came to transfer rates, compared to having both plugged into the hub.

Checking out the difference in performance, I transferred files to both, then downloaded those files to the internal SSD of the MacBook Air M3. Individually, copy one then the other, the rates were Crucial X10 Read: 868MB/s Write: 792MB/s, and the Lexar 1800x read: 88MB/s and Write: 76MB/s. With both in use, the speed Crucial X10 Read: 782MB/s Write: 771MB/s, and the Lexar 1800x read: 87MB/s and Write: 60MB/s. The actual drop in speed with two storage devices was minimal, and throughout the test, I found that the 1GbE bandwidth was more than sufficient for most day-to-day tasks.

I also discovered that some SSDs, such as the Seagate Five Vault and the LaCie Rugged Pro5b, had too great a power draw from the USB-C 3.2 Gen2 ports to be used and needed to be plugged directly into the machine. It’s also worth noting that even with a power supply connected to the pass-through port, this still did not enable these higher-demand drives to be directly attached.

The best approach is, of course, downloading one device at a time rather than running multiple transfers together, as this avoids that bandwidth bottleneck.

Having recently upgraded my network to 10Gbe, it’s great to see a hub like this use 2.5GbE Ethernet rather than the more standard 1GbE. This means that I can connect directly from the hub into my switch and then to the Ugreen DXP4800 GT.

This connection managed 150 MB/s, which was fast enough for some light network editing, although doing so does warm up the hub more than the other connection types when in use. Still, that heat is well handled and warm rather than hot.

The HDMI output worked as expected and enabled me to connect the hub directly into a Lepow TriScreen Pro monitor, with the visuals seeming stable through the test.

What did stand out was the cross-platform capability of the hub as it seemed to work identically on the MacBook Air M3 Max and the Asus ProArt PZ14.

• Performance: 4 / 5

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)Plugable 10-in-1 USB-C Hub: Final verdict

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

The Plugable USBC-10IN1E is a neat hub that enables port expansion for today's slimline laptops and just adds a convenient and easy way to connect multiple devices and accessories to those machines. The single body design and fixed cable make it easy to pop into a kit bag and take with you, or leave connected to your workstation, and the design is durable in the first instance and aesthetic in the other to be suited to both uses.

It can’t be stated enough how much more convenient it is to have a single cable that connects to the keyboard, mouse, monitor, Ethernet, charging, and storage to your machine, and the fact that it can be moved between the ProArt PZ14 and MacBook Pro M1 Max by unplugging and replugging a single connector just makes working across multiple machines that much easier.

The 2.5GbE Ethernet is a great feature for creative professionals, and if you look for a dedicated 2.5GbE adapter, then the price for a decent option and then for this isn’t too different. Then there's the HDMI 2.1 support for 4K 144Hz displays, which is again a step up from most other hubs of this type.

The UHS-I SD card reader is disappointing, especially as you’re paying more for the premium model, and it features a slower card reader than the cheaper version. Plugable also prove some great software additions for their range of Docks, and it would have been great to see an option that worked with the hub, primarily a one-click ejects all option for Mac users.

For the price, the USBC-10IN1E is a great value if you’re someone who regularly switches between machines or needs to expand a two-port laptop into a full desk setup. While it does have limitations compared with a powered dock, through the test, it proved to be one of the best single-cable hubs I’ve tested.

Should I buy the Plugable 10-in-1 USB-C Hub?

Value

For $84, with 2.5GbE Ethernet, HDMI 2.1 and 125W pass-through, this offers exceptional value

4.5

Design

The space-grey metal build, decent port spacing, and 17cm cable make it a great option in the office or out.

4

Features

The 2.5GbE and HDMI 2.1 are surprising additions at this price; it’s just a shame that the SD slots are UHS-I rather than UHS-II.

4.5

Performance

The hub is able to balance the bandwidth well, and through the test, even when downloading from multiple devices, there was only a marginal drop in speed.

4

Overall

This is the best-spec’d bus-powered USB-C hub I have seen at this price and all at a great price for the volume of ports.

4.5

Buy it if...

You want a single-cable desktop hub.

The ASUS ProArt PZ14 has two USB-C ports. One cable into this hub provides a monitor, Ethernet, keyboard, mouse, storage, charging, and card readers.

You run a 2.5GbE NAS or network.

The 2.5GbE Ethernet specification is one that no other bus-powered hub at this price matches. For photographers and videographers working from a high-speed NAS, the step from 1GbE to 2.5GbE makes a huge difference.

Don't buy it if...

Fast SD card downloads

The UHS-I SD reader is slow compared with UHS-II, so if you use an SD card on a regular basis, you may want to look for an alternative, such as the cheaper Plugable 9-in-1 (approx. $50).

You use high-performance portable SSDs

All USB data ports share a single 10Gbps connection, so firstly, the bandwidth is split between each connected device. There are also limits on the power that can be drawn through the hub, so the likes of the LaCie Rugged Pro5’s power demands are too great for use with this hub.

One-minute review

The Razer Iskur V2 NewGen is a premium gaming chair which Razer cut no corners on when it comes to design.

If you've got the Razer Iskur V2 gaming chair, it might feel like no significant upgrades have been made to the base model, despite the significant price increase, but when you start to look below the surface there's some impressive new features tucked in its build to make it feel like a worthy investment.

It's got all the features you'd expect to see in a premium chair, such as in-built lumbar support, breathable material, 4D armrests, and quite an impressive seat tilt and recline function. You'll also find Gen-2 EPU leather with "CoolTouch" technology which is a game changer, especially for anyone who finds themselves uncomfortable with the standard faux leather so many gaming chairs are built from. All of these elements come together to create a chair that certainly puts comfort first.

However, due to its plethora of features, you are also expected to pay a premium for it. As a result, the Razer Iskur V2 NewGen is not a budget-friendly chair, which is enough to put first time buyers off unless they've already committed to a Razer setup.

That said, I've spent over seven weeks with this chair as my primary seat, and can happily say that it does offer some premium comfort, even when closely compared to my faithful Corsair TC500 Luxe gaming chair.

There's a lot to love about the Iskur V2 NewGen, and no matter how you're using it, it always offers high-quality comfort. This is massively supported by the sheer amount you can tailor to your preferences, but the actual chair itself shows that a lot of care has gone into its design. Particularly in the materials used which help to justify its rather steep price tag.

(Image credit: Future)Price and availability

• Costs $649.99 / £649.99 / AU$999.95
• Available through Razer
• 5-year extended warranty

The Razer Iskur V2 NewGen launched on February 13, 2026, and is by no means a budget-friendly gaming chair with its $650 price tag. Its price point certainly gives the impression that it's more like an investment than a casual purchase, and is bound to get any potential buyers questioning what sets it above the rest of chairs available at the same sort of point.

For this price, you are getting a very sleek, well-built chair that is bound to suit anyone with a Razer-oriented setup already, but there's definitely some comparison to take into account.

Especially when you've got chairs like the Secretlab Titan Evo NanoGen Edition retailing at a similarly high $799 / £669 and the Corsair TC500 Luxe coming in cheaper at $499.99/£499.99. Two fantastic chairs offering the same level of features for a far more reasonable price.

But that's not to say that the Razer Iskur V2 NewGen doesn't feature anything to justify its rather generous price point. It's certainly built to be a more premium gaming chair, offering features like extra durable armrests, new technology lumbar support, an ultra wide seat base, and a breathable fabric that means you never have to awkwardly peel yourself off the chair, so it's the sort of seat you can use all day without feeling it after a few hours.

(Image credit: Future)Specs

Price

$649.99 / £649.99 / AU$999.95

Backrest dimensions

33.5 in / 85 cm (height) x 21.3 in / 54 cm (width)

Max user weight

299 lbs / 136 kgs

Max user height

200cm / 6 ft 6"

Seat width

17.7 in / 45cm (depth) x 15.7 in / 40 cm (width)

Warranty

5 years

Design and features

• A sleek, comfortable chair
• Available in four colourways
• Razer embellishments are embroidered rather than printed

Razer always tends to nail their branding when it comes to hardware, so obviously the Iskur V2 NewGen follows suit. With a sleek black design, and iconic Razer green piping along the edge of both the seat and backrest of the chair, it certainly looks the part. You've also got the addition of embroidered embellishments on the front of the chair with the Razer logo behind where the memory foam cushion sits, and the text Razer logo on the back in the same green.

The main talking point of the chairs design is the snakeskin embroidered backrest and seat, which I really found myself admiring. I'm usually pretty impartial to additional flourishes like this, but had to appreciate the fact it wasn't your standard diamond or crosshatch embroidery we often see on gaming chairs. The Razer Gen-2 EPU leather the entire seat is made out of is worth praising too.

Not only does it feel like a high-quality product rather than the cheap, rustling pleather found on more budget friendly chairs like , but it's surprisingly cooling. Which was fantastic given a week of my testing with this chair was during a heatwave in the UK, so I really put this feature to the test.

This, paired with the dual-density, cold-cured foam seat cushion the product is quick to highlight on its store page, means that you're never stuck feeling a little sweaty in your seat.

(Image credit: Future)

To coincide with the high-quality material the chair is made out of, the armrests need to be highlighted too. My faithful Corsair TC500 Luxe has 4D omni-directional armsets, much like the Iskur, but my biggest pet peeve is that they don't lock into place. So, if you lean at an awkward angle, they'll move.

However, the Iskur V2 NewGen features the same style of armrest with the ability to lock them into place with the handy use of buttons found on the sides of each rest. Plus, the extra durable build means you don't have to worry about peeling or cracking, unlike something I faced with the Secretlab Titan Evo many moons ago.

You also benefit from the first addition of the Razer Hyperflex Lumbar Support system, which gives you a huge range of back support and is perfect for anyone like me who often finds themselves sat with shrimp-like posture when tethered to a desk for hours on end. This can be fully customised to your preferences too, courtesy of its 360 degrees swivel design.

The sculpted memory foam cushion is a nice touch for extra support, but I would've preferred if this was magnetic rather than relying on an elastic strap around the headrest of the chair. For $699, it would've definitely felt more luxurious to have a magnetic cushion, especially as that's what's included in the Corsair chair. It's also a shame to cover the embroidered embellishments on the chair with both the cushion itself and the elastic strap.

The Iskur V2 NewGen is also currently available in four different colourways: white, black, black and green, and a rather attractive Quartz. So, there is some level of flexibility to get a chair that perfectly fits your existing aesthetic. It's not as customisable as the covers you can get for the Secretlab chairs, but at least you don't have to pay any extra to get a colour.

(Image credit: Future)Comfort and performance

• Lots of customisation options to suit how you sit
• Ultra wide seat base lets you sit however you like
• Breathable, cooling fabric actually makes a difference

When it comes to a gaming chair, the main factors that go into deciding whether it's good or not are: how comfortable it is to use for extended periods of time, and how much you can customise it to suit your sitting style and position.

Fortunately, the Razer Iskur V2 NewGen excels in customization. There are so many buttons and dials to make the most of, which is great for someone who constantly fidgets like I do. The back support also encouraged me to sit with generally better posture during all of my testing, which is something most people who work at a desk could benefit from.

One downside to its performance is that the back cushion, where the Razer Hyperflex Lumbar Support System is stored, moves around when you shift in your seat. It's not like those head or neck cushions that conveniently shift themselves into an uncomfortable position the second you decide to adjust how you're sat, but it does move with you when you move in the seat.

I'd rather have a solid backrest, like the Secretlab Evo NanoGen or even the Boulies Master Series gaming chair, but this feels like a pretty insignificant gripe in the grand scheme of things. At least it's not one of those lumbar cushions you just have to hope and pray stays in the same place.

The fabric really deserves a special shoutout too. During my testing, the UK was hit with a sweltering heatwave, so I really could put the breathable and cooling material of the chair to the test while I sat and worked away.

It's safe to say that there is actually a noticeable difference too, and I didn't find myself feeling uncomfortably clammy while sitting. Previously, I'd tested the Boulies Master series gaming chair in a rather hot flat, and definitely didn't find the same level of comfort when the temperature began to increase.

This meant I could quite happily spend hours sitting without feeling it or having to get up and walk around a bit. There's enough cushioning to make the chair comfortable, while still being firm enough to support you in all the right places.

This is definitely supported by the ultra-wide seat base which gives you enough room to sit with either your feet on the floor, or your feet on the chair if you want to embrace the terrible posture which I always tend to. But, I'd say it's safe to assume that you'd expect that level of comfort given the premium price tag.

(Image credit: Future)Assembly

The Razer Iskur V2 NewGen is easy to put together too. It's suggested as a two-person job on the instructions, but you really only need another set of hands to help position the seat base on the piston - the rest is quite easy to achieve solo.

All the tools you need are packaged delightfully, alongside a pair of gloves (or, Gamer Gauntlets as they're labelled in the box) to make sure you don't get any potentially nasty chemicals on your hands while building.

Not that I did. Again, because of its price tag, I'd expected there to be quite a few additional flourishes that would make assembly that little bit more challenging, but it was remarkably straightforward.

Should I buy the Razer Iskur V2 NewGen Gaming Chair?Buy it if...

You're happy to pay more for materials
The cooling features of the Razer chair are what really make it worth paying for. If you run hot, then you'll be familiar with the humbling act of peeling yourself out of your chair after a day at work or a gaming session, whereas this is something you can avoid entirely with the Razer Iskur V2 NewGen.

You have a funky way of sitting which requires more customisation
If you don't sit in the same position all day every day, having a little more support and customisation goes a long way. The Razer Iskur V2 NewGen gives you the freedom to sit however you find comfortable, and gives you the opportunity to customise the seat to support that too.

Don't buy it if...

You rely on the comfort from a neck pillow
The neck pillow is an odd shape, and generally the rectangle cushions you get with gaming chairs are more comfortable. So if you rely on this feature for that added comfort, it might put you off the chair as a whole.

Also consider...

If you're not quite convinced by the Razer Iskur V2 NewGen, we've got some alternatives you might want to check out.

Razer Iskur V2 NewGen

Corsair TC500 Luxe

Secretlab Titan Evo NanoGen XL

Price

$649.99 / £649.99 / AU$999.95

$499.99 / £499.99 / AU$699

$849 / £719 / AU$1,199

Dimensions

33.5 in / 85 cm x 21.3 in / 54 cm

13in x 31.9in x 21.2in / 550mm x 800mm x 590mm

35in x 22in / 89cm x 56 cm

Max user weight

299 lbs / 136 kgs

264 lbs / 120kg

396lb / 180kg

Max user height

200cm / 6 ft 6"

6ft 2in / 188cm

16.5in / 41.9cm

Seat width

17.7 in / 45cm (depth) x 15.7 in / 40 cm (width)

23.22in / 59cm

22.8in / 58cm

Warranty

5 years

2 years

5 years

Corsair TC500 Luxe
The Corsair TC500 Luxe is a more affordable, but equally as lavish gaming chair with a wide seat base and plenty of in-built features to help you tailor your seat to your preferences. Much like the Iskur V2 NewGen, it doesn't have a lot of colour options, but if you're not fussy or you've got a more muted setup colour scheme, then it's a fantastic choice for a smaller price tag.

For more information, check out our full Corsair TC500 Luxe review.

Secretlab Titan Evo NanoGen
The Secretlab Titan Evo NanoGen is a similar price point to the Razer Iskur V2 NewGen, and is praised for its comfort and soft materials. There's a lot you can adjust and play around with, and the XL size in particular is perfect for those who need a little more wiggle room when sitting.

For more information, check out our full Secretlab Titan Evo NanoGen review.

How I tested the Razer Iskur V2 NewGen gaming chair

• Spent a month and a half testing the Razer Iskur V2 NewGen
• Tested as my primary office chair for those two months
• Used when working, gaming, and watching films to test comfort

I tested the Razer Iskur V2 NewGen gaming chair over a month and a half-long period, keeping it as my only chair for work, gaming, and basically anything that required me to sit at my PC. During my testing period, I made use of all its features like the inbuilt lumbar support and adjustable armrests to keep a comfortable position while working, and then a more relaxed position when watching a film.

Regardless of what I was doing at my PC and how I was sitting, whether that was with my legs and feet on the base of the chair, cross-legged, or with my feet on the floor, I never found myself uncomfortable or struggled to sit for long periods of time. I was also able to closely compare it to my standard office chair, the Corsair TC500 Luxe, and it performed incredibly well. I've been struggling to find a competitor for my trusty Corsair TC500 Luxe, but the Iskur V2 NewGen certainly comes close.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed June 2026.

GMKtec NucBox K17 : 30-second review

The GMKtec NucBox K17 is one of those understated Mini PCs that can be summed up as your typical average mid-range machine designed for everyday use. While the grey outer, relatively compact sizing and design are all very run of the mill, GMKTec has actually done something quite special with this small machine; they pushed the technology inside and while this is an everyday machine, the components selected mean that it’s also well future proofed.

Inside is one of the latest Intel CPUs, and this is matched with an integrated GPU and NPU that provides plenty of processing power for both traditional applications and the latest AI models.

Out of the box, the build quality also feels good and solid, verging on premium considering the price. Checking over the body, there are plenty of ports on the front and back with venting slots helping to keep everything cool and running smoothly.

The processor combo is all new generation and sits in the midrange, but joining the latest releases are a few other interesting additions that you just don’t see on this level of mini PC. The first is that the second M.2 slot accepts PCIe 5.0 x4 SSD, and this sits alongside the existing 1TB PCIe 4.0 drive.

Installation for the second drive is straightforward; the drive screws into place, and once it's in place, the machine reboots, and it’s ready to format and use. The other major addition is the 2.5GbE Ethernet port, which was impressive in terms of speed when connected directly to a Ugreen DXP4800 GT NAS. My only reservation here is that the Wi-Fi antenna is easily displaced when removing the lid, and is almost impossible to reinsert.

Out of the box, Windows 11 Pro is installed and feels fast as I navigated around the settings and installed a variety of applications for the test. This performance was reflected with a Windows Experience Index of 8.7, one of the highest I’ve seen.

AI applications and functions are well handled with Copilot+ and local LLM inference via LM Studio, both performing well for a machine at this price. I ran a few questions through the models loaded on photography processes, and it managed to answer with reasonable speed.

Where the K17 started to show its limits was as I started some creative work: 16GB of fixed RAM becomes has limited reach in Premiere Pro and large Lightroom catalogues took a while longer than the more powerful machines I’ve been looking at recently, but still what it could do and the speed is still impressive and surpasses what I would have expected from a PC of this form factor a year ago.

Gaming was also good generally, but the Arc graphics do start to show their limits and premium games such as Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, while very playable, did require settings to be dropped.

Two other points of note are that there is only a single USB4 port, and this is positioned on the front, with nothing equivalent at the rear, which means that you can only ever opt for a fast accessory such as an external SSD or an eGPU rather than connecting both.

The internal Wi-Fi antenna connectors are also very delicate, so when adding a second M.2 drive, disconnecting them even when you’re being careful seems to just happen, and then when it comes to reconnecting them, it’s incredibly difficult.

If you need a fast and reliable office machine, the K17 is one of the best mini PCs out there right now. I found it well specified with a range of features that have been designed to deliver the performance we expect from a work machine now, with plenty of updated extras that you don’t usually expect on a machine of this price, which will help future-proof it for a good few years.

GMKtec NucBox K17 : Price and availability

• How much does it cost? From £469 / $619
• When is it out? Available now
• Where can you get it? Directly from GMKtec or Amazon

The GMKtec NucBox K17 is priced at $619.99 / £469.99 for the 16GB RAM and 1TB SSD configuration that I have tested here.

A 16GB/512GB configuration is also available at $559.99 / £469.99.

The K17 is now available direct from GMKtec, as well as on Amazon.com.

• Value: 5 / 5

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)GMKtec NucBox K17 : Specs

CPU: Intel Core Ultra 5 226V
GPU: Intel Arc 130V
NPU: Intel AI Boost, 40 TOPS
RAM: 16GB LPDDR5X
Storage: 1TB PCIe 4.0 M.2 2280 SSD, second M.2 slot, PCIe 5.0 x4 capable, up to 16TB total
Front Ports: USB3.2 (Gen2) 10Gbps, USB3.2 (Gen1) 5Gbps, USB4, 3.5mm Audio
Rear Ports: 2 x HDMI 2.1, 8K 60Hz and one 4K 60Hz, 2.5GbE RJ-45, 2XUSB3.2 (Gen1) 5Gbps, USB3.2 (Gen1) 5Gbps, USB2.0 480Mbps
VESA Mount: Yes
Dimensions: 5.02 by 5.00 by 1.75 in (127.5 x 127 x 44.5mm)
Weight: 1.01 lb (460g)
Power: 100W external power adapter
Operating System: Windows 11 Pro

GMKtec NucBox M6 Ultra: Design

The K17 adopts the standard Mini PC design aesthetic and sets itself apart from similarly styled Mini PCs by featuring the green GMKTec power button. This button is set alongside a small array of ports, including a mix of USB-A and USB-C, which offer plenty of connection options for most accessories that you might want to quickly attach.

Size-wise, the machine is a touch smaller than some I’ve looked at recently, measuring 5.02 by 5.00 by 1.75 in (127.5 x 127 x 44.5mm) and weighing a relatively light 1.01 lb (460g), which makes it prime for VESA mounting behind a monitor or a dedicated mount to maximise your work surface.

Inside, there’s a powerful combination of CPU, GPU, and NPU, and to ensure there’s plenty of cooling, there are ventilation slots across the body, which are part of the larger cooling system that includes a large superconducting copper turbine fan.

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

What really highlights this as a little more than your usual everyday Mini PC is the range of ports on the front and back of the machine. On the front, there are two USB-A ports, one USB3.2 (Gen2) 10Gbps and the other USB3.2 (Gen1) 5Gbps, then there's the single USB4 port that has DisplayPort support to connect a monitor, then there's a 3.5mm CTIA port for headphones and mic combos.

At the rear, there's the impressive 2.5GbE Ethernet port and two HDMI 2.1 outputs, one supporting 8K at 60Hz and the other 4K at 60Hz. The one design choice I do have to question is the fact that there isn’t a USB4 port on the back; there are two further USB-A, a USB3.2 (Gen1) 5Gbps and a USB 2.0 480Mbps and then two further USB3.2 (Gen1) 5Gbps ports.

Access to the inside of the machine is easy enough once the screws on the base are removed; however, it’s worth noting that the WiFi antenna connectors easily detach from the WiFi card and are really difficult to reconnect. When you take the back off the machine to upgrade the storage, it’s worth taking your time and really making sure that these don’t disconnect.

• Design: 4.5 / 5

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)GMKtec NucBox K17 : Features

The machines' specifications essentially lay out a base level list for mid-range office PC’s for the future. Most of the components, including the Intel Core Ultra 5 226V, utilise next-generation technology, and the uplift in speed that the components offered enabled smooth and fast handling for general Windows navigation, Microsoft Office, and browser-based work.

Writing in Word, building presentations in PowerPoint and recording test results in Excel all felt fast, and with each app being responsive, this overall performance was reflected in the Windows Experience Index of 8.7. Just to put that in context, this is one of the highest scores recorded across recent mini PC testing, and also a reminder of how far this category has advanced in a short time. At the beginning of 2026, a more common score of 8.1 would highlight a decent machine in this respect.

The one weaker point for the processing combo of CPU, GPU and NPU is the Intel Arc 130V GPU, which is noticeably less powerful than the Arc B390; however, even with the lower scores that it gained, when you compare it with the last generation of integrated GPU, you can see just how much more powerful these new processors are.

Checking this out by playing Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and Hogwarts Legacy, both ran at 1080p with low-to-medium settings, but graphical breakup appeared more readily than on higher-specified machines, and when switching to some video editing in Premiere Pro, the timeline render times occasionally slowed as video edits rendered out.

As this is using the latest processors, it’s fully equipped to deal with AI processing and requests with the NPU. This enables 40 TOPS, and this means that the combined AI figure with the CPU and GPU is 97 TOPS , impressive for a machine at this price.

In use, this is reflected with Copilot+ handling assistant requests quickly. I then decided to push it by downloading a local LLM, which I ran using LM Studio. After installation and setup, the local chatbot was able to answer a series of photography questions at a decent speed.

I then switched to some of the Adobe applications and again, using the AI-accelerated features in Photoshop, including generative fill, and Premiere Pro's timeline expansion, the small machine was more than powerful enough to handle some impressive alterations.

On the front is the single USB4 port, and in use, this delivered fast transfer speeds when tested with a Thunderbolt 4 device. What was a little disappointing was that this single USB4 was placed on the front, with nothing equivalent at the rear. If you want to use both an eGPU and fast external storage at the same time, then this just isn’t possible without the addition of a hub.

Then, as we look through the features, you start to see what really marks the K17 out against most others. Firstly, there’s the second M.2 slot, which takes a next-generation PCIe Gen 5 x4 SSD. Installing an SSD module is fast, taking a few seconds; simply screw the drive into place and format it after a reboot. If you’re thinking about running local AI workloads, video editing or coding environments, adding a high-speed second drive here is an easy upgrade, if at present a little pricy.

The other big surprise is the 2.5GbE Ethernet port, which offers a speedy connection as I connected the machine through the wired network to the dock and then to a UGREEN DXP4800 GT NAS. At 2.5 GbE, I was able to get decent transfer rates, which was especially useful as I downloaded images and video to the machine and then onto the NAS.

Through the test, I switch between wired and wireless connections and while the Wi-Fi tops out at 6E and the Bluetooth 5.2, they both offer solid performance for network and accessory connections. Bluetooth connected easily to wireless accessories.

Wi-Fi, however, was initially fast even with the slightly older 6E; however, after testing the installation process of the second M.2 slot, the small Wi-Fi antenna connectors became disconnected, and trying to reconnect them was near impossible.

Finally, on the feature front, it's the ability to connect to three displays via the two rear HDMI ports and the front USB4 port works; it’s not the neatest solution as cables poke out from the front and back; it might not be pretty, but it works.

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

• Features: 4.5 / 5

GMKtec NucBox K17: PerformanceBenchmark scores

Crystal Disk Mark Read: 7045.28
Crystal Disk Mark Write: 6182.82
Geekbench CPU Multi: 9469
Geekbench CPU Single: 2619
Geekbench GPU: 25645
PC Mark Overall: 6855
Cinebench CPU Multi (Threads): N/a
Cinebench CPU Single (Threads): N/a
Fire Strike Overall: 7429
Fire Strike Graphics: 8551
Fire Strike Physics: 11509
Fire Strike Combined: 2953
Time Spy Overall: 3631
Time Spy Graphics: 3473
Time Spy CPU: 4897
Wild Life Overall: 24312
Steel Nomad Overall: N/a
Windows Experience Overall: 8.7

Starting out with the K17 requires running through the last few steps of the Windows setup, which, depending on your connection speeds, will take between five and ten minutes. As the machine loads for the first time, the speed of the boot and afterwards installation of applications and basic running all start to highlight the speed of the machine.

One of the features that instantly stood out to me was the number of connectivity ports around the body. I was able to quickly plug in a LaCie Rugged SSD Pro5 and a CFExpress Type-B reader so that I could transfer files quickly.

Around the back, there were also plenty of ports so connecting a wired keyboard and mouse, along with the network and HDMI. I would have liked to have seen an additional USB4 on the back and an additional network port, but in an office situation, the port allocation and positioning actually make a lot of sense.

As I started to run the Microsoft Office suite and then the Adobe applications, it was apparent just how fast that initial load was, and working on large images within Photoshop, brush strokes and general edits were applied quickly. Part of the reason for this is the speed of the internal SSD.

When running the CrystalDiskMark test, it gained results of 7,045 MB/s read and 6,182 MB/s write, showing just how fast the PCIe 4.0 SSD is. What’s quite surprising is that this is not a PCIe 5.0 drive, and if you do need even more speed, then there's an empty second PCIe 5.0 M.2 slot.

If you’re planning serious video editing, local AI workloads, or coding environments, then upgrading to the PCIe 5.0 second slot is a great idea, although performance for these more demanding applications will be limited by the 16GB of RAM.

Checking out the overall performance and the PCMark 10 Overall score of 6,855 sits below both the previously recorded Geekom A9 Max and Bosgame VTI-490, and as the PC is used for more demanding creative applications, the limits of the box do start to appear.

General office work, web browsing and everyday Windows tasks all felt as fast as any machine I have tested recently. However, those limitations started to become apparent when working with batches of images in Lightroom, as well as more complex Photoshop documents, or starting a bit of gaming, where the fixed 16GB of RAM and Arc 130V GPU really started to be put under pressure.

Looking at some of the other results and the Geekbench scores of 9,469 multi-core and 2,619 single-core show a good balance of performance for a mid-range Mini PC. In use, these scores translated into Lightroom and Photoshop when used for normal photographic work, running exceptionally well, and a slowdown in performance was really only noted during longer editing sessions using Premiere Pro.

As the chipset is AI-ready, I also installed a Local LLM inference, and this ran well but was slightly slower than the more premium machines, which wasn’t a huge surprise.

Photo and video editing in Lightroom, Photoshop and Premiere Pro were all well balanced, with occasional pauses during heavier processing in Premiere Pro. Long-form video editing is not what the K17 is designed for, especially with the limit of 16GB and no option to upgrade, but for short edits and social media content in applications like CapCut, particularly once the second M.2 slot is installed, the K17 is a great machine.

Gaming at 1080p with low-to-medium settings was more than playable across Hogwarts Legacy and several other titles tested. The Intel Arc 130V GPU is not as smooth as the higher-end GPUs, but for a machine retailing just above £500, it's still pretty good.

Overall, this is a great machine, but it does have its limitations, especially with the 16GB of RAM. Still, for general Windows use, browsing and office work, 16GB is more than sufficient. For more creative endeavours, Photoshop or Lightroom batch work, or any mid to long Premiere Pro editing sessions, a machine with at least 32GB of RAM would be a better option. For everyday work, this is one of the best mini PCs that I have used.

• Performance: 4 / 5

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)GMKtec NucBox K17: Final verdict

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

The GMKtec NucBox K17 is an easy machine to recommend for office and everyday productivity use, and an impressively future-proofed one, given the combined CPU, GPU, and NPU capabilities on offer at this price. It handles Windows, Microsoft Office, web browsing, and Copilot+ AI features extremely well, and the inclusion of a PCIe 5.0-ready second M.2 slot, alongside 2.5GbE Ethernet, future-proofs the technologies more than many other machines in this price bracket.

For creative work, the picture, while still good, is a little more limited. Lightroom and Photoshop both handle edits and files well, but when switching to video editing in Premiere Pro, the limitations of a fixed 16GB of RAM started to become apparent. If you're planning to use this primarily for creative work, a machine with at least 32GB of RAM would be the better starting point.

The single front-only USB4 port and the delicate Wi-Fi antenna connectors are the two minor issues. Neither are overtly bad, but the USB4 limitation will affect you if you want to attach fast storage and eGPU, and the Wi-Fi antenna issue will only be a problem if you are planning to open the case for an M.2 upgrade.

At $619.99 / £519.99, the K17 is excellent value for money and gets you a reliable, fast, AI-ready everyday mini PC for home or office use. While the RAM is fixed, there’s also plenty of scope for upgrades elsewhere, such as the USB4 for an eGPU. With the 2.5GbE network port, you can connect to fast NAS storage. Making this a great option for any office and those looking for a work-focused machine.

Should I buy the GMKtec NucBox K17?

Value

At $619.99/£519.99, this small work-focused machine balances performance with some of the latest technologies

5

Design

There’s no doubt it has a premium finish, and with the VESA mount and huge array of ports, it can be seen as practical rather than a design classic.

4.5

Features

An impressive list for a mini range Mini PC that includes PCIe 5.0 second M.2 slot, 2.5GbE, capable NPU and Copilot+, although the fixed 16GB RAM and WiFi reliability hold this back

4.5

Performance

Excellent everyday performance and Windows Experience score from PCMark and 3DMark show it’s provides the power where needed

4

Overall

An excellent everyday and lightly creative mini PC at a great price, best suited to office, AI and general use rather than serious video production.

4.5

Buy it if...

You want future-proofing

Fast 2.5GbE networking, a very capable NPU and the option for a PCIe 5.0 upgrade slot give the K17 a good amount of future-proofing for a machine at this price, making it a great option for office, browsing and Copilot+ AI use.

You want some upgradability.

The empty second M.2 slot accepts a PCIe Gen 5 x4 SSD, which will give the machine a huge boost in both SSD performance and capacity. There's also the ability to connect an eGPU, which again will significantly boost its creative potential.

Don't buy it if...

You need this for video editing.

16GB of RAM is a limit for video editing within Premiere Pro and will also limit the speed with large Lightroom catalogues. If you are looking for a dedicated creative machine, then it’s best to look for something with at least 32GB of RAM.

You need fast storage and an eGPU

With only one USB4 port on the front, you need to choose between fast external storage or an eGPU, rather than running both. A mini PC with dual USB4 or Thunderbolt ports will be a better option.

For more professional-grade desktops, we've tested the best business computers.

Keychron M6 8K review

The Keychron M6 8K intrigued me when I first laid eyes on it. The resemblance to Logitech’s MX Master mouse is immediately apparent. I’ve used one iteration or another of Logitech's flagship productivity mouse every day for the last three years; I don’t even want to know how many hours I’ve clocked up with one in hand. Let’s be real, Keychron hasn’t even tried to be sneaky about copying its homework. At $69.99 / £74.99 / AU$129, however, it does set itself apart because that’s nigh-on half the price of an MX Master 4.

For that money you still get the same general ergonomic shape with a sizable thumb rest, a horizontal scroll wheel, and a multi-function scroll wheel. At first glance, the body looks quite sizable, but it isn’t actually quite as chunky as some other ergonomic mice and I found myself shifting from my usual full palm grip into more of a hybrid fingertip-claw arrangement. It’s comfortable, but personally, it wasn’t quite as comfortable over longer work sessions as it would have been if I was able to fully grab the mouse with confidence. But mouse grip is a subjective thing, so I won’t hold it against the M6.

Build quality is generally good. Nothing creaks or flexes across the ABS shell; it just doesn’t quite carry the premium edge of some more expensive competitors. The matte coating across the entire mouse feels pleasant enough and handles fingerprints well, and it’s available in your choice of white or black.

At 86g, the Keychron M6 8K is one of, if not the lightest full-body ergonomic mice you’ll find on the market and this is apparent in general use. For reference, the M6 8K is just over half the weight of the MX Master 4 and felt noticeably hollow and almost insubstantial by comparison. Anyone transitioning from a lighter or gaming mouse will likely find this change less stark, but to me it lacked the reassuring density and planted feel a heavier weight brings.

The Huano Silent Micro switches do keep things quiet and have a noticeably soft feel to them. I found them a little mushy overall though, and on a few occasions I experienced what I think were missed inputs. I’m not entirely sure whether I'd actually physically fired a click that didn’t register on the switch, or that I’d failed to properly trigger the switch at all, but it seemed like I had to go back for another go every now and then.

Visually the upgraded metal scroll wheel is a nice touch and it comes with pleasantly clicky lateral inputs too. As you’d expect for a productivity mouse, there’s a free-scroll mode, which is useful for navigating long documents or pages but the experience isn’t as sleek as the one Logitech offers on the MX Master.

The scroll wheel is surprisingly loud in ratcheted mode, while the toggle button for switching to free-scroll is positioned too far back and requires quite a bit of force to activate. That’s good for preventing accidental switches, but it meant I found myself completely ignoring the free-scroll feature rather than repositioning my entire hand to reach the toggle. The MX Master's automatic switching between modes is a feature I didn't realize I relied on so heavily until it was gone, though that’s also the kind of feature that doubles the price of a product, I guess.

(Image credit: Future)

Within thumb’s reach on the side of the mouse are a horizontal wheel and a pair of additional buttons. This second wheel is really nicely positioned; close enough to need no thought to move your thumb to, but far enough out of the way to avoid accidentally rolling — though I'll admit I'm not much of a side-scroller on any mouse and didn't get much actual use out of it.

That pleasant positioning is also true of the two side buttons, which would usually be forward and back by default, though these don’t register at all in Safari. Both are fine in Edge and this isn't necessarily a Keychron-specific issue, as macOS has long been finicky with third-party mouse inputs. But other brands have cracked the code so it's a shame to see it missing here.

Where the M6 8K genuinely impresses and pulls ahead of more expensive rivals is in sensor performance. The PixArt PAW3950 meant the M6 8K tracked flawlessly across every surface I tested, including a desk mat, solid wood, my leg, the sofa, and even a glass window. Got a funny look from my neighbor checking that one. Keychron claims glass tracking at 4mm minimum thickness, and it delivered so no concerns for glass desk users.

DPI can be adjusted from 100 to 30,000 and polling rate from 125 to 8,000Hz, numbers that extend the Keychron M6 8K from just a productivity mouse into a genuine gaming option. At the higher end of those settings and coupled with the light overall weight, the M6 becomes super responsive and should keep up with every flick during intense gaming sessions. I settled on 1,200 DPI and 1,000Hz polling for daily work, which felt perfectly sharp. Both settings can be adjusted on the fly through customizable presets using physical buttons on the mouse, which is a great touch, or you can use the Keychron Launcher web app for more granular control.

That browser-based configuration software was a surprise highlight for me. It's feature-rich, cleanly laid out, and very familiar if you've used Keychron's keyboards. Personalization features like button remapping, sensor settings, macros, lift-off distance, and scroll acceleration are all accessible without installing a single background process. You can also check battery levels here, though you won’t need to do this often — it seems to sip on its 800mAh battery, so it’ll be weeks between charges at reasonable settings.

As if it’s come straight from certain German supermarket chains, the Keychron M6 8K is a good dupe of a more expensive mouse. It does a lot of things well, but perhaps most importantly, it’s at a price that lets you forgive the things that aren’t quite so good. The scroll wheel lacks the refinement of Logitech's implementation, the clicks can feel a little mushy, and Safari users will miss having a working back button. But the feel is great, the sensor is superb, the battery life is excellent, and the web app is near best-in-class for the segment. If you can't justify the MX Master 4's asking price, this is where you should look instead.

Keychron M6 8K review: Price & release date

• The Keychron M6 8K has a list price of $69.99 / £74.99 / AU$129
• It's often discounted, both directly from Keychron and via retailers
• It's available in black or white

At $69.99 / £74.99 / AU$129, the Keychron M6 8K significantly undercuts the Logitech MX Master 4 ($119.99 / £119.99 / AU$199) that it’s clearly inspired by. You’ll find it both on Keychron’s own web store and from retailers, and it’s worth keeping an eye out for sales as I often saw it discounted while writing this piece. Make sure you’re picking up the right variant too. There’s also an M6 with a less responsive 1K sensor, though if you don't need 8K polling, you could save even more.

(Image credit: Future)Keychron M6 8K review: Specs

Sensor

PixArt PAW3950

DPI

100 - 30,000

Polling Rate

125 - 8,000Hz

Connectivity

Wired, Bluetooth, 2.4GHz Wireless

Switches

Huano Silent Micro

Weight

86g

Battery

800mAh (up to 120 hours at 1KHz)

(Image credit: Future)Should I buy the Keychron M6 8K?

Attribute

Notes

Score

Features

Dual scroll wheels and free-scroll mode, 8K polling, and tri-mode connectivity. The browser-based Launcher software is excellent.

4.5 / 5

Performance

Sensor tracking is flawless across surfaces including glass. Battery life is very strong at sensible settings. Silent switches are slightly mushy with occasional missed clicks.

4 / 5

Design

Ergonomic shape that's comfortable enough, but the lightweight feel and scroll wheel let it down.

3.5 / 5

Value

At roughly half the price of the MX Master 4, the M6 8K offers a remarkable amount of hardware for the money.

4.5 / 5

Buy it if…

You want MX Master features without the MX Master price
The M6 8K replicates most of Logitech's ergonomic productivity formula at nearly half the cost, and throws in 8K polling and a gaming-grade sensor for good measure.

You hate installing mouse software
Keychron Launcher runs entirely in the browser with no background processes. Configure everything you need, close the window, and forget about it.

You work and play on the same machine
The M6 8K’s sensor is equally at home slowly scrolling a spreadsheet as it is ramping up sensitivity for a quick firefight on your lunch break.

Don’t buy it if…

You jump between scroll modes often
The M6 8K's metal wheel is a little wobbly, its ratchet mode is loud, and the manual toggle for free-scroll is awkward to reach. If the scroll wheel is the feature you use most, spend more on the Logitech MX Master as it’s still in a league of its own.

You prefer a heavier, more planted mouse
At 86g, the M6 8K is noticeably light and will catch you off guard if you’re used to something with more heft. If you like your mouse to feel substantial and anchored on the desk, this featherweight approach won't suit you.

Keychron M6 8K review: Also consider

Logitech MX Master 4
The mouse that the M6 8K is clearly duping. It costs significantly more at $119.99 / £119.99, but you get Logitech's class-leading MagSpeed scroll wheel with automatic mode switching, superior build quality, the new haptic touch panel, and deep OS integration through Options+. If budget isn't the primary concern, it's still the productivity mouse to beat. Read our full Logitech MX Master 4 review.

MSI Versa 300 Wireless 8K
If gaming is more your focus, the MSI Versa 300 Wireless 8K ($99.99 / £59.99) offers a similar PixArt sensor and 8K polling in a lighter 66g symmetrical shell that's better suited to competitive play. It lacks the M6 8K's productivity features like the horizontal scroll wheel and thumb rest, but it's a strong pick for users who split their time between work and gaming. Read our full MSI Versa 300 Wireless 8K review.

(Image credit: Future)How I tested the Keychron M6 8K

• I used the M6 8K as a daily productivity mouse over multiple weeks, replacing my Logitech MX Master 4
• I tested across multiple surfaces including a desk mat, solid wood, skin, and glass
• I tested all three connectivity modes and evaluated the Keychron Launcher software on macOS

I used the Keychron M6 8K as my mouse for all tasks for a couple of weeks. It was primarily a direct productivity replacement for my daily-driver Logitech MX Master 4, so I used it across extended work sessions on macOS. My testing covered general workflows, gaming, surface tracking across varied materials, and multi-device connectivity. I evaluated the Keychron Launcher software for configuration depth and usability.

• Read TechRadar’s reviews guarantee
• First reviewed: July 2026

The latest installment in Nintendo’s weird and wacky rhythm game franchise has finally landed with Rhythm Heaven Groove (known as Rhythm Paradise Groove in PAL regions). It’s a game that sticks closely to its foundations: there’s a simplistic control scheme, cartoonish art style, and a set of frankly surreal levels to sift through.

Review info

Platform reviewed: Nintendo Switch
Available on: Nintendo Switch (also playable on Nintendo Switch 2)
Release date: July 2, 2026

That’s not to say that Rhythm Heaven Groove brings nothing new to the table, however. There are plenty of multiplayer minigames available, and there’s a new single player mode called Beatspell, which riffs on the RPG genre.

So, is the mix of classic Rhythm Heaven charm and new content enough to place this entry among the best Nintendo Switch games? Here are my thoughts after hours upon hours of testing my skills.

More of the same — but not in a bad way

(Image credit: Nintendo)

Let me begin by laying my cards on the table. I’m a long-time fan of the Rhythm Heaven series, and have poured a ton of hours into perfecting my timing on Rhythm Heaven (DS) and my personal favorite Rhythm Heaven Fever on the Wii.

I’m a sucker for the zany characters and goofy set of circumstances they find themselves in — whether that be dancing in tandem with a group of shrimp or playing badminton with a dog while piloting an airplane (yes, really).

And I’d argue that Nintendo — alongside codeveloper TNX — has re-created what made the series special effectively in Rhythm Heaven Groove. It’s a lot more of the same stuff we got before, but that’s by no means a bad thing.

A lot of the absurdism has been retained, and whether I was playing as a frog and launching my amphibian brethren off a lily pad or bouncing lemons off by biceps as a hard-core gym bro, I felt that the unorthodox appeal of what came before was still alive and breathing on Nintendo Switch.

Levels are, on the whole, pretty memorable, and while I found some to be less compelling — like using a massive hammer to crush cans, or sweeping the floor as part of a four-piece pop band — there’s plenty of personality, vibrant colors, and eccentric character designs to marvel at.

In the core solo levels, there’s a decent amount of variety too, even with the music, which spans a variety of genres, tempos, and styles. I found myself bopping my head to the tunes in Alien Alphabet — a level where you have to communicate with a chatty extra-terrestrial — as well as Hop N Slide — where you play as a computerised creature that has to jump and duck through hurdles — among many others.

If you want, you can even listen to the tracks in the Sound Studio menu, which fills out as you play through the game’s varying levels.

Best bit

(Image credit: Nintendo)

I loved a lot of the core levels, but my favorite was Ribbit Rocket. I loved blasting other frogs into the stratosphere with my lily pad-launching skills. The vibrant environment, giant frog in the backdrop, and varied tempo of incoming amphibians kept things feeling fresh both visually and rhythmically.

But let’s talk a bit about gameplay, something that there’s understandably little to discuss around. Like its predecessors, Rhythm Heaven Groove keeps things outrageously simple.

Whatever mode you’re playing, you just have to press buttons — sometimes even just one — in time with the beat. Controls are responsive and there are visual and audio cues that help you to nail your timing. You’ll either get your rhythm spot on, a little off, or straight up wrong, and this will determine how well you do in a particular level or minigame.

In the main single player levels, you can earn medals by hitting almost every note faultlessly, and this really brought the perfectionist out of me. I felt almost compelled to get a medal in every level, including the remixes, which combine multiple levels together in one brilliant collage.

You occasionally get the option to go for Perfect in some stages, which can earn you an in-game reward. This can be infuriating — but in a way that’s addictive and oh-so satisfying when you pull off a flawless run.

One minor gripe I have is that there’s no option to restart within a level when going for Perfect. For some reason, you have to jump back to the main menu, re-enter and try again. It’s a minor frustration, sure, but when you’re trying to get in the zone it can feel a tad grating.

Speaking of menus, I was slightly surprised to find that they were quite bland. The main menu is just a list, there’s little visual flair or intrigue about it. Again, this is a nit-pick, but for such a vivid and charismatic title, I expected something a little less rudimentary.

The new stuff: the good, the bad, and everything in between

(Image credit: Nintendo)

Right, so despite a couple of small things, the core single player experience is very enjoyable in Rhythm Heaven Groove. But what new stuff can you sink your teeth into.

Well, perhaps the highest profile addition is the aforementioned Beatspell mode, which takes visual and gameplay inspiration from classic RPGs. By entering varying commands at different rhythms, you’re able to cast a handful of spells, including fire and water attacks, healing, and more. You must use your magic to defeat basic monsters as well as bosses, which have varying weaknesses and attack patterns.

You can level up your spells as you progress through each level, although these are reset at the beginning of each new area. It’s a neat idea, and I personally preferred to pour my points into attacking spells to defeat enemies faster — which helps you earn bonus points for a better star rating at the end of each segment. While beating your enemies is pretty easy, getting a high star rating requires consistently good timing, especially later into the campaign.

However, I wouldn’t say that Beatspell is the strongest mode ever. The levels feel pretty repetitive, and the narrative throughout the campaign failed to capture my interest. It’s very basic, and it doesn’t quite have the same quirky feel that the core levels exude.

Sure, there’s a bit more variation in terms of gameplay — you’re not restricted to one or two basic inputs and can approach levels how you see fit, but the music and enemies I encountered felt less charismatic than what the series typically delivers, making me less enthused about returning to levels and perfecting my score.

(Image credit: Nintendo)

Still, some of the new additions show promise, and when my talented colleague and TechRadar Gaming Editor, Dash Wood, played the multiplayer minigames, he had an absolute blast. We loved everything here, from the catchy tunes through to the charming visuals and competitive feel, and I’m definitely going to be forcing a few friends and family members to duke it out with me.

There are more modes too, including Drum Lesson, the experimental Rhythm Toy Mode, and the Café, where you can take a break and receive tips. All in all, there’s plenty of ways to enjoy the beat-based fun in Rhythm Heaven Groove, and although I didn’t love Beatspell, the core experience alone had enough content to keep me entertained.

I liked most of the new additions overall, then, although I wasn’t a huge fan of the narrator, named Lil’ Miss Reeds. This robotic character uses text-to-speech to read menus aloud, which is a neat touch in terms of accessibility, although the voice, in my view, is pretty annoying.

Luckily, you can turn text-to-speech off in a sub-menu, which I quickly did — but again, in spite of my dislike for the robo voice, it’s a thoughtful touch. Especially given that there’s an option to describe what’s on screen as well as reading text aloud.

One final point before I wrap up, which has been a fairly big topic of discussion for this title. Although the Nintendo Switch 2 has been out for more than a year now, Nintendo decided to release this entry as an exclusive on the original Switch. In my view, this is a very sensible decision: not only is the Nintendo Switch the best-selling console in history, opening one of the more niche Nintendo franchises up to a larger player base, but the game itself is hardly the most technically demanding.

And I found performance to be consistent throughout — there were no framerate hiccups, visuals looked vibrant and relatively sharp, and controls felt responsive too, whether I was playing on my TV or using wired earbuds in handheld mode (though the latter option will be best for perfectionists due to lower latency).

So, what do I make of Rhythm Heaven Groove overall? For me, it's a continuation of everything that made its predecessors tick. With a whimsical visual style, head-bopping tunes, and zany level design, there’s plenty of the oddball rhythmic fun that we’ve come to expect from this series.

Sure, Beatspell wasn’t my favorite, and the simplistic gameplay won’t be to everyone’s taste, but if you want a beat-hitting game that’s entertaining to dip into solo or with friends, this is an easy title to recommend.

Should you play Rhythm Heaven Groove?

(Image credit: Nintendo)Play it if…

You’re a certified rhythm game aficionado
Although Rhythm Heaven Groove is by no means the most challenging rhythm game out there, it takes quite a bit of dedication to perfect each level — and it’s incredibly satisfying when you pull this off. If you’re a fan of the genre, then I strongly suggest trying this one out, you’re sure to have a blast.

You’re a fan of the unorthodox
You could argue that the main draw of Rhythm Heaven Groove isn’t its gameplay or beat-matching, but instead, its bizarre lineup of characters and levels. If you want to blast through some surreal situations with robots, aliens, frogs, cats, and more, then you’ll have a weirdly wonderful time with this Nintendo Switch title.

Don’t play it if…

You want something with a lot of gameplay depth
The gameplay in Rhythm Heaven Groove certainly sits on the basic side, and in some levels you’ll simply have to tap a single button in time to progress. If you want something with a bit more depth, then this may not be for you.

You’re expecting an enthralling single player campaign
The new Beatspell mode acts as the new campaign mode, with a range of levels and an overarching narrative. While it adds a bit of variation into the mix, the mode lacks the charm and addictiveness of the core levels, and the story isn’t very engaging. I think the main solo rhythm games offer enough single player fun in themselves, but if you want something with more depth, then this may not be for you.

Accessibility features

There aren’t all too many ways to customize your experience in Rhythm Heaven Groove, although you can switch between a few Read-Aloud settings.

There’s the option to have the narrator Read words, read and describe what’s on the screen, or deactivate the narrator altogether.

(Image credit: Nintendo)How I reviewed Rhythm Heaven Groove

I spent around 10 hours playing through Rhythm Heaven Groove. During this time, I played through the main solo levels, the Beatspell campaign, and tried out the other side modes.

The majority of the time, I played the game in TV mode, with my Nintendo Switch 2 connected to the Sky Glass Gen 2 TV and my Marshall Heston 120 soundbar. However, I did also dip into handheld mode a fair few times, and connected up the Sennheiser CX 80U wired earbuds to enjoy the in-game music and sounds.

More generally, I’m a long-time fan of the Rhythm Heaven series and have reviewed many video games during my time here at TechRadar. This has included plenty of Nintendo exclusive games, like Kirby Air Riders, Yoshi and the Mysterious Book, and Drag x Drive.

No-code AI tools take a prompt in plain English (and other languages) and create a web app or other tool. Bolt is one such AI powered development platform, which launched in late 2024 and can create a web app based on your instructions without any need for coding tools or environment.

Various no-code development tools are currently available, but is Bolt able to compete with names like Replit and Base44? To find out, we tested its no-code capabilities with a straightforward prompt, assessed its features and pricing, and compared it with the competition.

For more options, you can also take a look at our list of the best no-code platforms.

Bolt: Features

Bolt will generate a web app based on a prompt you enter. This can be an outline you have finessed elsewhere, or something developed within a threaded, iterative conversation with the AI.

Several plans are offered by Bolt, each with an expanding raft of features. The free plan gives you the facility to commence both public and private projects, with 300K tokens each day. These are used with each AI interaction, depending on the scale of the request. 1 million tokens are awarded at the start of each month, and this doesn’t roll over.

Bolt's free plan gives you website hosting (with Bolt branding) for a project and a 10MB file upload limit – useful for sharing UI designs, for example. Also on the free plan, you'll get unlimited databases and support for 333,000 web requests (visitors).

The Pro plan gives you 10 million tokens by default and removes the Bolt branding. You also get custom domain support. Additionally, unused tokens will rollover to the next month.

A Teams plan adds team-level access management, granular administration controls, centralized billing, internal sharing, and support for private NPM registries. The Custom plan for enterprise scale projects adds further features such as SSO, audit logs, compliance, custom workflows, data governance policies and a dedicated account manager for 24/7 support.

Bolt: Interface and ease of use

A cursory look at several no-code tools will reveal a pretty standardized user interface not dissimilar to ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude, with a prompt box awaiting text input. Bolt does boast a far slicker UI than some of its competitors, making it immediately enticing.

You can create an account with your own credentials, with the now-ubiquitous Google sign in, or with GitHub. The latter will make integration with the code collaboration platform slightly more streamlined.

Entering a prompt is simple, and the generation of a project is logged in the left-hand pane. It’s all very straightforward and intuitive, and consequently extremely easy to use. However, there is a potential barrier to getting the most out of Bolt.

This no-code platform requires a specific browser, either Google Chrome (or Chromium) Microsoft Edge, or Brave. It doesn’t work with Firefox, with any attempt greeted by the message “Your current browser doesn’t support key technologies that Bolt relies on.”

Bolt: Integration and extensibility

Creating a web app from scratch with a single prompt is only part of the challenge for no-code tools like Bolt. They also need to be able to offer integration with tools that make the web app work. These might be payment processing services, login authorization, databases, for example, and perhaps even cloud integration.

You might also wish to ensure the project is effectively managed by integrating a suitable tool.

(Image credit: Bolt)

Bolt has a number of options in this area, from database support with Supabase to error tracking with Sentry and AI meeting notes with Granola. Bolt’s creators have aimed to provide a tool for many eventualities, although it should be noted that Bolt doesn’t offer Stripe or Google authorization as connectors or integrations. Instead, these are available at the prompt level, by adding a phrase such as “Add Sign-In with Google to my application.”

Bolt: Deployment and maintenance

In addition to the integrations, Bolt can be synced with GitHub. This adds an important aspect to your project’s reliability, allowing the invitation of collaborators and for the code to be reviewed. Remember, this is a no-code platform, and while the projects it creates should work well, it doesn’t mean that the code is perfect. Having the option for GitHub is useful, as it means you can take what is essentially a bootstrapped web app and polish it with the help of others.

(Image credit: Bolt)

Completed projects can be published via Bolt with two clicks. A subdomain is assigned for the project to run in. The option to host your project on a custom domain can also be configured at this stage.

Creating a crypto calculator with Bolt

To gain some understanding about how effective Bolt is for no code app generation, we conducted a test to see how it handled a clear prompt to create a web app.

The web app was conceived as a cryptocurrency calculator, designed to display live conversion prices for a trio of fiat currencies and whichever cryptocurrencies are provided via the chosen API. Two free API options are presented (CoinGecko and ExchangeRate-API) which the AI should draw information from.

(Image credit: Bolt.new)

Here is the prompt we used:

Build a tool that compares the price of a specific asset (like Bitcoin) against multiple fiat currencies simultaneously.

Functional requirements:

API Integration: Connect to a free API (like CoinGecko or ExchangeRate-API).

Input Handling: A field where the user enters a "Budget" (e.g., $1,000$).

Dynamic Calculation: A list or table that automatically updates to show how much of the asset that budget buys in USD, EUR, and GBP.

Toggle Switch: A "Dark Mode" or "Refresh" toggle to test UI state management.

--

Bolt’s results with this web app were good, but not without some caveats. First and foremost, it took a little over 5 minutes to complete the task. Other tools we’ve seen have been able to generate a web app from the prompt in under 90 seconds.

In addition, Bolt went off-script, over delivering on the physical currencies provided in the web app. The prompt specifies just three: USD, EU, GBP.

Deployment is one-click, however, which means you can have a live no-code web app published in just seconds. You can view the generated web app here: https://multi-currency-asset-sipu.bolt.host/

(Image credit: Bolt)Bolt: Pricing and documentation

You can get started with Bolt for free, but for a more in-depth no-code experience, you will need to consider the Pro plan. This starts from $25/month ($18/month with annual billing) for a plan that gives you 10 million tokens. If that isn’t enough you can increase your bank of tokens, but this has a direct impact on the plan’s price. Options from 26 million to 1200 million tokens are available, with prices that increase along the way, topping out at $2000/month.

In scenarios where a lot of tokens are required, and multiple users require access to Bolt for no-code development or post-generation revision, there is the Teams plan. This is $30/month (working out at $27/month with annual billing), with a similar pricing structure for additional tokens.

Information about pricing or tiers for tokens isn't available for the Custom plan – this is aimed at enterprise-level businesses with more complex requirements.

Details about the plans and tokens can be found (along with other important information about Bolt) in the documentation. These are well written and seem to cover everything from creating a new project, editing it in your browser or opening it to collaboration on GitHub to importing from competing platforms like Lovable.

Bolt: The competition

If you searched for a list of AI no-code platforms, you would invariably come across Bolt. It is a strong option that stands out alongside the alternatives thanks to its striking user interface. However, we found faster and better no-code tools, such as Lovable, Hostinger Horizons, and Vercel v0.

They all deliver faster and/or stay on-script when a single prompt is entered. As that is our benchmark, it is important to highlight that Bolt isn’t hitting it. But Bolt does have strengths compared with the alternatives, not least the swift deployment of a live web and heavy GitHub integration.

However, we were impressed with the depth of Bolt's plans for large-scale teams.

Bolt: Final verdict

(Image credit: Bolt)

Bolt is slow, and has fewer AI tokens than competing tools in free mode. These refresh daily, but are restrictive. The 300K tokens daily limit isn’t enough to explore revisions and there is no trial option where you can enjoy the features of the Pro plan.

On the puls side, Bolt offers an excellent set of documentation, which can prove invaluable in helping you to shape the idea for a web app into a working project with all the necessary authentication, payment, database, and other features.

I’ve enjoyed using Bolt’s intuitive collection of tools, but unfortunately it doesn’t deliver a no-code web app as effortlessly and quickly as many of the alternatives.

Replit has had an interesting development story, launching in 2016 as a platform for running code in a browser window (technology adopted by teaching platforms like Codecademy) and developing in 2018 into an AI coding platform. Unlike many other no-code tools, Replit also opens access to the underlying code, falling back into its evolution as a browser based IDE (Integrated Development Environment).

With this in mind, we looked at how it compares with other no-code platforms, taking into account features and plans, pricing, ease of deployment, and usability (standalone, and with documentation). With the help of a testing prompt, we used Replit to generate a straightforward web app, which helped us to evaluate the tool and rate it.

For more options, take a look at our full list of the best no-code platforms.

Replit: Features

One of the most interesting things about Replit is its dual purpose as both no-code generator and browser-based IDE. This makes it ideal for bootstrapped projects, where you need to get something ready for further development, but don’t have the time to import libraries, define parameters, and so on.

You simply enter the prompt, Replit generates a working project framework, and you can then dig into the code, making the necessary changes. Yes, Replit can create something more developed than a basic framework, but in both cases you can drill down and physically enter files within the browser. Replit also offers a quick redesign tool if you don’t like the way the CSS has been generated.

Daily credits for use with the AI agent, full database access, tools to create slides, videos, and animations, and the ability to publish a single project (with optional password protection) are included with the free plan.

The Replit Core plan adds collaborators, two simultaneous AI agents, unlimited workspaces and removes the “Made with Replit” badge from published projects, while Replit Pro adds 28 day database rollbacks, access to the most powerful AI models, and 10 simultaneous agents.

Replit: Interface and ease of use

Creating a project with Replit is pretty intuitive, requiring a simple prompt, typed or pasted into the box. You will find some template options – websites, animations, slides – that can speed things up if appropriate.

The UI feels a little less flashy than some competing tools, but everything is pretty much where you would expect to find it. All menu controls – settings and projects, for example – can be found on the left of the main screen. The same area is used when you’re in no-code mode, where responses are displayed, and you can ask further questions or tweak the results.

Replit: Integration and extensibility

Competing platforms offer a pretty long list of integrations that they support. It’s a bit trickier to ascertain what can be integrated with Replit, and whether the connection can be both ways, reliant on an API, or agentic. However, a check in the documentation reveals that Stripe integration is possible for payments (but not in the custom plans), as is Google OAuth.

Connectors for “Linear, Jira, Gmail, Slack, Discord” are listed within the Replit documentation.

Remember, you can dig down and edit the generated code with Replit, which means you should be able to manually add the desired integrations if they’re not already offered.

Replit: Deployment and Maintenance

Of all the no-code tools we’ve looked at, Replit is the slowest when it comes to deployment. This is not necessarily a bad thing, however. Usually, when you publish a no-code project with one of these platforms, it seems to take just a few moments before it goes live. With Replit, various checks are made, including a security scan, which are explicitly displayed via a progress screen.

I’m not suggesting rival tools don’t check the security of the web app and its suitability for hosting, but Replit makes this process a lot clearer.

(Image credit: Replit)

As already noted, anything created with Replit can be viewed within the platform’s IDE, and its code edited if necessary. This can save a lot of time when it comes to revising or troubleshooting your project, but if course is intended for developers, not newcomers using no-code to play with code for the first time.

Creating a crypto calculator with Replit

The entire point of a no code platform like Replit is that it can take straightforward instructions in plain English (or another supported language) and produce an application – a software tool of some sort – in a fraction of the time it would take to complete manually.

To explore what can be expected from Replit, we developed a prompt that clearly outlines the requirements for a cryptocurrency calculator web app. It should compare asset prices, connect to an appropriate free API, and support three standard currencies, USD, GBP, and Euro.

(Image credit: Replit)

We used the following prompt with each of the no code tools we’ve reviewed:

Build a tool that compares the price of a specific asset (like Bitcoin) against multiple fiat currencies simultaneously.

Functional requirements:

API Integration: Connect to a free API (like CoinGecko or ExchangeRate-API).

Input Handling: A field where the user enters a "Budget" (e.g., $1,000$).

Dynamic Calculation: A list or table that automatically updates to show how much of the asset that budget buys in USD, EUR, and GBP.

Toggle Switch: A "Dark Mode" or "Refresh" toggle to test UI state management.

--

Replit read the prompt and completed the no code web app in under 3 minutes. Its output along the way was pretty verbose, although geared to developers, relying on displaying command line interface instructions rather than something more suited to non-coders. However, this does usefully communicate the procedure that the tool follows, namely working on the backend first, then the frontend.

Upon completion, Replit also makes suggestions for revision. For example in this case, it offered “support for more assets by letting users search the full CoinGecko coin list.”

In addition, Replit supports various revisions, both to the code and to the user interface. Direct editing of the code is possible, while changes to the UI are limited within the Replit tool – it’s easier to make instructions via the AI assistant. That, of course, uses up credits, so finding the right balance is important.

Deploying the finished web app is slower than the competing platforms, but this is mainly due to a collection of checks that are made by Replit, which include ensuring the code is secure. You can publish with or without these checks. The project can be published to a custom domain, or use the auto-generated Replit subdomain.

(Image credit: Replit)Replit: Pricing and Documentation

The four plans, Standard, Replit Core, Replit Pro, and Enterprise, have their own pricing and features. If you’re just starting with no code tools, the Standard free plan is ideal, giving daily credits and support for one project.

Replit Core is $20/month, or the equivalent of $18/month if you pay upfront for 12-months. This includes $20 of monthly credits for the AI and supports up to 5 collaborators. Meanwhile, Replit Pro is $100/month (paying annually works out at $90/month), and has $100 worth of monthly credits and up to 15 collaborators and 50 viewers. There is the option to upgrade the credits to a different plan, potentially as much as $2,500/month of credits.

If the scale of the Core and Pro plans doesn’t meet your needs, the Enterprise-targeted custom plan is available. As is usual with such plans, a sales person will provide a demo, ascertain your requirements from the no code platform, and shape a quote that suits your budget, team, and scale.

An impressive resource of documentation is available via the docs.replit.com address, clearly explaining the scope, scale, and even the smallest steps about using Replit. This is a searchable resource, one that is split into tutorials and standard knowledge base docs, and aims to provide answers to everything. Anything that cannot be found within the docs can be directly queried with the AI assistant.

Replit: The Competition

The no-code market is getting busier, with tools like Lovable, Bubble, and Hostinger Horizons standing out as popular solutions for anyone who wishes to create an app without learning to code (or paying someone to do it).

In terms of generating a web app from the prompt, Replit didn’t deliver as quickly as most other no-code platforms, but still produced a working tool within 5 minutes. This is in contrast to Emergent, which took more than three times that duration.

Replit: Final Verdict

(Image credit: Replit)

Price-wise, Replit is in the sweet spot, and its features make it a good choice if you’re in the market for a no-code tool. It stands up against comparison with competing tools like Lovable, Hostinger Horizons, and Base44. It’s fast, and the generated web app looked good and was functional.

However, if you're specifically looking for a free tool, I would steer clear of Replit - if you have the need to get to grips with a project, the daily credit limit will slow you down. Instead, opt for Replit Core with an appropriate level of AI credits unless you need something with many more collaborators.

Overall, users shouldn't overlook what Replit really offers: almost instantaneous development bootstrapping with code you can dig into immediately via its native IDE.

Easemate.ai launched in 2025 with a simple pitch: one platform for everything AI.

It doesn't make you choose between a chat assistant, an image generator, or a video tool. You get all three, alongside study utilities, document readers, and image editing features. The range of supported models is equally wide, covering GPT, Gemini, Claude, DeepSeek, Grok, Kimi K2, and Qwen 3 on the chat side alone.

The creative side is where things get particularly ambitious. Easemate integrates image models including Nano Banana, Midjourney, Flux Kontext, GPT-4o, and Seedream, with a video catalogue stretching to Sora 2, Google Veo 3, Kling, Seedance, and Runway. Few platforms at this price point give you that many models in one place.

We've been reviewing B2B software and AI platforms at TechRadar Pro since 2012. Easemate sits in a crowded but useful category of multi-model AI aggregators that we've tracked closely. You can also check out our AI tool roundup for 2026 and deep dives into platforms like OpenClaw or Moltbook.

What is Easemate.ai?

Easemate.ai is a web-based AI platform that consolidates multiple AI models and task-specific tools into a single subscription.

Rather than routing you to one underlying model, it lets you switch between GPT, Gemini, Claude, DeepSeek, and others depending on what you need, without juggling separate accounts.

The platform divides its offering into four main areas: AI Chat, AI Study & Research, AI Photo, and AI Video. Within those, you'll find tools for ChatPDF, document summarization, math and science solvers, flashcard generation, image-to-video conversion, and YouTube transcript extraction.

It targets a broad user base (students, solo creators, freelancers, and small businesses) rather than positioning itself as a developer tool or enterprise solution. If you want a single dashboard that covers daily AI tasks without managing multiple subscriptions, Easemate's pitch is worth considering.

Easemate.ai: At a glance

Attribute

Notes

Underlying model(s)

Multi-model: GPT (various), Gemini, Claude 3 Haiku, DeepSeek, Grok 4, Kimi K2, Qwen 3 for chat; Nano Banana, Midjourney, Flux Kontext, Wan, Kling, Seedream and more for image/video

Best for

Students, solo creators, and small businesses needing all-in-one AI access

Distinguishing functions

Multi-model chat, ChatPDF, image generation, video generation, math/science solvers, AI writing tools, face swap, YouTube summarization

UI features

Browser-based interface, desktop and mobile (iOS and Android); no-login trial available for select tools

Subscription costs

Basic (free), Lite ($8.90/month intro, then $9.90/month), Pro ($19.90/month intro, then $24.90/month)

API pricing

No public API; consumer-facing platform only

Buy it if…

• You want multi-model AI chat without juggling accounts. Easemate puts GPT, Gemini, Claude, DeepSeek, and Grok 4 in one place, which saves real time if you regularly compare outputs across models.
• You need creative tools alongside a chat assistant. The combination of image generators and video models in one subscription is hard to match at Easemate's price point.
• You're a student or researcher on a budget. The free tier includes 30 sign-up credits, daily check-in bonuses, and up to 200K AI chat tokens per day.

Don't buy it if…

• You need consistent professional image or video output. Users report a "prompt drift" issue where the platform ignores specific instructions, alters faces, or changes scenes unexpectedly.
• Reliable customer support matters to you. Support is online-only and has drawn criticism for being slow to resolve credit-related problems.
• You want granular model control. Access to Veo 3 and Sora 2 comes through Easemate's own interface rather than direct API access, which limits parameter customization.

My time with Easemate.ai

Getting started on Easemate.ai is frictionless. The platform lets you try select tools without an account, and signing up takes under a minute. Once logged in, the 30 free credits appeared immediately, and the interface guided me clearly toward the main tool categories. For a platform with this many features, the navigation stayed surprisingly tidy.

Where I hit friction was in creative generation. I ran several image prompts through Nano Banana and Flux Kontext and found outputs solid roughly two-thirds of the time. There were noticeable cases where the platform deviated from my descriptions, and rerunning the same prompt sometimes produced very different results. Video tools showed similar inconsistency.

The value case is real at the Lite tier, though. For $8.90 in the first month, rising to $9.90 after that, you get 1,200 credits, access to up to 120 images and 60 videos per month, and multi-model AI chat. That's a fair deal for casual creative work or students managing multiple AI tasks, as long as you aren't expecting the precision of a dedicated tool.

Easemate.ai: Features

The AI Chat section covers GPT (multiple versions), Gemini, Claude 3 Haiku, DeepSeek, Grok 4, Kimi K2, and Qwen 3. For most conversational tasks (drafting, translating, summarizing), having that range in one tab is useful. The daily free token limit of 200K is also more generous than most comparable platforms.

The study and research tools are well-executed and clearly the original backbone of the platform. Math, physics, and chemistry solvers work step-by-step, making them practical for students rather than just returning a final answer. Flashcard and quiz generators, mind maps, and AI Scholar round out a toolkit that serves academic workflows more carefully than most multi-purpose AI platforms do.

On the image side, the model selection is broad: Nano Banana, Midjourney, Flux Kontext, GPT-4o, and Wan 2.5 are all accessible on paid plans. Nano Banana produces good commercial-style images; Flux Kontext handles text-in-image prompts reasonably well. The consistency problem persists, particularly with prompts involving specific faces or complex scenes.

Document tools perform well. ChatPDF, Chat Doc, and Chat PPT let you upload files and query them conversationally, with OCR support for scanned content. The YouTube summarization tool is a genuine highlight: paste a link and get structured notes with timestamps, which worked better than expected in testing.

Easemate.ai: User experience

The interface is clean and well-organized. Tool categories sit in a top navigation bar, each expanding into a dropdown with clearly labeled options. First-time users shouldn't need a tutorial to find their way around, and the browser-based experience works consistently across devices.

The credit system is where the UX gets murky. Different tools consume different credit amounts, and it's not always clear how many you're spending before you generate. A failed generation still costs credits, which user reviews flag repeatedly. Easemate's team has acknowledged this in public responses, but the system itself hasn't changed.

Easemate.ai: Customer support

Easemate offers support via email at support@easemate.ai and through a help portal on the website. There's no live chat, phone line, or priority tier for paid subscribers. Documentation covers pricing and credits at a surface level but doesn't go deep enough for troubleshooting edge cases.

User perception is mixed. As of early 2026, Easemate held an overall rating of 2.0 to 3.0 out of 5 stars with most review aggregators, with positive feedback on ease of use offset by complaints about reliability and support responsiveness. More recent reviewers show a wider range of experiences — solo creators praise the video output quality, while others report credits consumed by failed generations with no satisfying resolution.

(Image credit: Easemate)Easemate.ai: Pricing

• Basic (free): 30 sign-up credits, daily check-in bonuses, up to 200K AI chat tokens per day, limited image and video access
• Lite ($8.90/month intro, then $9.90/month): 1,200 credits, up to 120 images and 60 videos per month, full model access; annual billing drops this to $7.49/month intro, then $8.49/month
• Pro ($19.90/month intro, then $24.90/month): 3,000 credits, up to 300 images and 150 videos; annual billing drops to $16.90/month intro, then $20.9/month

The free tier is actually usable for light AI chat and occasional image generation — it's not a locked demo. Lite is the sweet spot for individuals. Easemate also sells one-time credit packs that never expire, ranging from 500 credits at $4.90 up to 15,000 credits at $104.90, with discounts of 10–30% depending on bundle size. There's no API access or developer-tier pricing.

Easemate.ai alternatives you should consider

• ChatGPT Plus: At $20/month, you get GPT-4o, o4-mini, and DALL-E 3 in a more mature, reliable environment. A better choice if text generation and image creation are your primary needs.
• Perplexity Pro: Covers multi-model chat with web search grounding and document uploads. Weaker on creative generation but more dependable for research-heavy workflows.
• Adobe Firefly: Produces commercially safe, high-consistency image output with better prompt fidelity than Easemate's image tools, though it lacks the platform's broad AI chat and video coverage.

How I tested Easemate.ai

• Tested AI chat tools across GPT, Gemini, Claude, and DeepSeek for writing, summarizing, and translating tasks, comparing output quality and response speed across models.
• Generated images and video clips using Nano Banana, Flux Kontext, Kling, and Veo 3 with a range of prompt types to assess consistency and prompt adherence.
• Used document and study tools, uploading multi-page PDFs and PowerPoint files to test ChatPDF accuracy, and running math and science problems through the step-by-step solvers.

My testing involved hands-on use of Easemate.ai across its four main tool categories over several sessions, combined with a review of third-party user feedback on Trustpilot and review platforms to benchmark real-world reliability against my own observations. Pricing details were verified directly against the official Easemate.ai pricing page.

When I think of Enola Holmes, one word springs to mind: naff. Average, run-of-the-mill, mundane, as our friends across the world might put it instead.

It's been four years since the sequel and six years since the original movie came to Netflix, and I have no bearing on where it sits culturally. As an avid internet user in my pre "I have a job reviewing film and TV" days, the Millie Bobby Brown-led franchise felt like a complete flop. But look at the trilogy from a critic's perspective, and it's been a solid entry into the streamer's canon.

Watching Enola Holmes 3, I finally get it. As Sherlock's little sister takes on her wildest case — Sherlock (Henry Cavill) himself being kidnapped — I understand the brief writer Jack Thorne is trying to fulfil... a harmless one.

Suitable for all the family thanks to its genuinely fun and compelling (though not exactly unexpected) narrative, Enola Holmes 3 has all the hallmarks of a solid three-star movie. In fact, it's the most three-star movie to ever three-star.

Can you guess the ending? Yes. Do you care? Probably not. Will you look at your phone occasionally while streaming it, or maybe get started on those pesky household chores you keep putting off? I'd put money on it. Will you lose the storyline or interest if you suddenly pop out to make a coffee and keep the TV running? Not in the slightest.

It's safe storytelling at its most entertaining, and I felt a little like I imagine a baby does when a sensory YouTube video presents them with dancing fruit. Gripped, unmoving, but ultimately numb to what's actually going on.

Enola Holmes 3 must have been an actor's dream working holiday — like Mamma Mia! without the singing

If you have an account on X/Twitter or Instagram and are into pop culture, you have probably seen the pictures of the cast wrap party for the 2008 movie version of Mamma Mia! — which involved the likes of Meryl Streep and Colin Firth getting drunk and doing karaoke in Croatia.

In my mind's eye, Enola Holmes 3 had the same effect on its cast. Set and filmed in Malta, the exciting action sequences, picturesque heartfelt scenes walking along the coast, and frequent galivanting around the capital Valette likely amounted to a similar jovial spirit (and imagine a wrap party abroad with a Netflix budget).

The cast is just as stoic as they ever have been, with standout Helena Bonham Carter as a vagrant outsider, a veritable thrill. They're having fun, so we're having fun along with them, with the ingenious use of animated title cards to explain Sherlock lore, a shrewd interactive touch.

It's not particularly taxing or sophisticated as far as storytelling is concerned, but the existence of this IP wouldn't work if it tried to be. Let's stick with tried and tested easy-on-the-eye action, please.

Netflix needs to stop casting actors with 'iPhone face' in its period dramas

(Image credit: Netflix)

Before I come to my main gripe, let me make clear that Millie Bobby Brown is a) beautiful and b) absolutely doesn't deserve to have her appearance critiqued by the internet.

Instead, I wish that the costume and make-up departments had paid closer attention to its continuity, particularly around 'iPhone face' (the theory that someone cast in a period drama has clearly seen an iPhone).

As Brown has matured over the last six years, it's understandable that she'd want make-up that matches where she is in life. The result is that, unlike the previous two movies, she's got a full face of easily identifiable foundation, contour, and lip liner, which definitely wouldn't have been the case in the late 1800s.

Add to this that wider shots show Brown wearing gel acrylic nails — whereas close-ups show her slightly dirtied yet authentic natural nailbeds — and the illusion of a genuine period drama is ruined.

Continuity seems to be a wider issue across Enola Holmes 3, such as shots spliced together in a single scene not properly keeping track of whether someone's eyes have just been opened or closed. Much like the harmless safety of the narrative, it's this lack of attention to detail that keeps the franchise cocooned in its middling category, though armchair detectives might enjoy trying to spot said mishaps.

Still, it all adds to the light-hearted spirit of the piece, doesn't it? How likely is it that Sherlock, the Sherlock Holmes, could really be kidnapped anyway? Just roll with it, as the saying goes.

Following up on my review of the Seagate IronWolf 8TB, for balance purposes, it's good to look at what WD is selling into the same retail space.

The WD40EFPX is the model I’ll be looking at in this review, and it has an especially interesting history I’ll dive into in depth. This specific model was first introduced on 14 September 2022, representing one of WD's more recent iterations in the Red Plus line-up. It ships with a significantly upgraded 256MB cache compared to the 64MB of the original WD40EFRX.

The WD40EFPX uses CMR technology rather than SMR, which is particularly significant in RAID environments. CMR drives deliver superior performance during array rebuilds and avoid the write cliff issues that plague SMR drives under sustained workloads.

It runs at 5400 RPM, connects via SATA 6Gb/s, and is rated for NAS systems with up to 8 bays. The workload rating is 180TB per year, suited to backups, file sharing, media streaming, and similar tasks in compact tower NAS units. The 4TB model uses air rather than helium as the internal atmosphere, unlike the higher capacity 12TB and 10TB designs that use helium and not air.

The 4TB model sells for just under $200, whereas its Red Pro brother is closer to $300. That might seem like a good deal, but in December of 2025, it was $150. That said, it’s $20 less than the Seagate IronWolf 4TB.

If you are buying lots of drives, then you would be better off investing in larger capacities that lower the cost per TB, but for a four-bay NAS where 12TB of RAID 5 space is enough, then these might be the smart option.

In performance and durability terms, the WD40EFPX isn’t the best NAS drive we've tested, but it gets the job done.

WD Red Plus 4TB: PriceWD Red Plus drives

Model

Capacity

Cache

Dollar Cost

Cost Per TB

WD40EFPX

4TB

256MB

$194.99

$48.75

WD60EFZX

6TB

128MB

$325.00

$54.17

WD60EFPX

6TB

256MB

$332.50

$55.42

WD80EFPX

8TB

256MB

$303.03

$37.88

WD100EFGX

10TB

512MB

$389.99

$39.00

WD120EFBX

12TB

256MB

$669.99

$55.83

WD120EFGX

12TB

512MB

$509.00

$42.42

This is as complete a list of current Red Plus models as I could assemble. I left out the old 1TB, 2TB, and 3TB models because they’re just old stock, and I also didn’t include the 8TB WD80EFZZ (128MB cache) since it appears to be discontinued.

As is evident from the cost per TB, the best value is the 8TB WD80EFPX, and the worst is the 12TB WD120EFBX, which uses helium where all other drives use air. The 4TB model isn’t a bargain, especially when you consider that only a few months ago it could be found for less than $150.

All the prices quoted here are from Amazon.com, and it may be possible to find these drives cheaper elsewhere.

The typical asking price for the Seagate 4TB IronWolf is $219, or that’s what B&H Video wants for one. This is $1 more than the Toshiba N300 4TB from the same retailer, and it’s a 7200RPM drive.

Overall, the WD Red Plus 4TB seems competitively priced, if that’s something you can actually say about drives in the current economy.

(Image credit: Western Digital)WD Red Plus 4TB: Design

Red Plus drives are available from 1TB up to 14TB. The 4TB WD40EFPX sits at the lower end of the range. With these smaller capacities, air-filled construction is standard. Drives pushing into double figures move to helium-sealed designs and, at higher capacities, step up to 7200 RPM class motors.

The Red Plus sits below the Red Pro in the family hierarchy. Red Pro is rated for up to 24-bay systems and carries a 300TB per year workload rating, while Red Plus covers systems with up to 8 bays.

From an external design perspective, there isn’t much to talk about here – it’s a 3.5-inch SATA mechanism that we’ve seen on computers for over twenty years. Most of the more interesting aspects of this design are inside and have WD buzzwords attached to them.

These include an adaptive compensation system with a shaft fixed on both sides, and three-dimensional balancing minimises the negative effects of vibration, particularly in multi-drive enclosures, called 3D Active Balance Plus. Other drive makers have something similar, but call it something else.

WD Red drives also include a multi-axis shock sensor that automatically detects subtle shock events and dynamic fly-height technology, allowing each read/write function to compensate and protect data. I suspect that was originally designed for laptop drives, but anything that avoids the heads from coming into contact with the recording surface is useful.

But the best feature of these drives isn’t a physical feature; it's software.

NASware 3.0 enables seamless integration, robust data protection, and optimal performance for NAS systems operating under heavy demand. It fine-tunes drive parameters to match NAS system workloads for optimum performance. This firmware also includes NAS-specific time-limited error recovery settings, optimised spin-up timing to reduce array-wide power surges, and adaptive thermal throttling.

So how does this hardware compare to its primary competitor, the Seagate IronWolf 4TB (ST4000VN006)?

These two drives occupy the same market position and share a remarkably similar specification sheet. Both run at 5400 RPM, use a SATA 6Gb/s interface, carry a 256MB cache, and are rated for up to 8-bay NAS systems. Both use CMR recording and carry a 180TB per year workload rating. MTBF on both is rated at 1 million hours, and both carry a 3-year warranty. They are literally brothers from different mothers.

Active power draw is 4.7W for the WD40EFPX and 4.8W for the ST4000VN006. IronWolf idle power is 3.96W, and standby drops to 0.5W. WD does not publish a specific idle figure prominently for the WD40EFPX, though the drives behave comparably in practice.

The difference is negligible in a real-world NAS. Across a four-drive array running 24/7 for a year, the delta between these two drives would amount to pennies on an electricity bill. Power is effectively a tie.

The WD Red Plus is consistently described as quieter than the IronWolf in real-world NAS deployments. Both drives include rotational vibration sensors at the 4TB capacity level. However, my testing consistently placed the Red Plus as being the quieter drive, and this aspect could be extra useful in home and near-desk environments.

But what NAS customers are most interested in is reliability because, as I can attest, having drives fail in a working NAS can be stressful.

(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)

The WD Red Plus carries a non-recoverable read error rate of 1 in 10^14, while the IronWolf quotes 1 in 10^15. The IronWolf's figure is ten times lower, meaning statistically fewer uncorrectable errors per bits read. In practice, this rarely matters at the 4TB capacity level, and real-world failure rates across both brands are broadly comparable.

Real-world failure data from Backblaze between 2022 and 2024 shows WD Red Plus 8TB and above models carrying an annualised failure rate of approximately 1.4 to 1.8%. Comparable IronWolf figures tend to hover in a similar bracket, making reliability broadly comparable across the two brands. I haven’t got data for the 4TB models, but since they are similar enough to the 8TB models, it’s not unreasonable to assume that the hardware has much the same reliability.

There are, however, a few performance differences I’ll mention later, and Seagate has a health management system.

IronWolf drives include IronWolf Health Management, which works with leading NAS systems to provide prevention, intervention, and recovery recommendations to ensure peak system health. It is enabled on Synology, QNAP, Asustor, and other major platforms. It provides drive health telemetry beyond standard S.M.A.R.T. data, giving users early warning of potential issues.

IronWolf also includes three years of complimentary Rescue Data Recovery Services, with an industry-leading recovery rate of 95% in the event of accidental data corruption or drive damage.

WD Red Plus has no equivalent to either of these features. There is no bundled data recovery service and no proprietary NAS health management system beyond standard NASware 3.0 and S.M.A.R.T. compatibility.

In WD’s defence, many NAS makers are introducing their own AI logic to monitor drive health, regardless of brand, but IronWolf Health Management is one of the reasons these drives have been so successful.

To understand more about this drive, let’s cover the lineage that brought us to the WD40EFPX.

WD Red Plus 4TB: History of the Red Plus range

(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)

The WD Red NAS HDD series arrived in 2012. It was a direct response to the growing popularity of home and small business NAS systems. Regular desktop hard drives were designed with single-use deployment in mind, and NAS use demanded something different.

Faster read and write speeds, higher workload tolerance, and suitability for multi-drive, always-on environments.

The WD Red line launched with 1TB, 2TB, and 3TB models. The 4TB variant expanded the range, giving home users and small businesses the full 4TB maximum for up to five-bay NAS units. The original 4TB model carried the model number WD40EFRX.

A unit manufactured in September 2013 used a Marvell 88i9446-NDB2 dual-core drive controller, a Hynix 64MB DDR2 cache IC, and NASware 2.0 firmware. Western Digital described the rotational speed as "IntelliPower" rather than publishing an RPM figure — a marketing term that obscured what was, in practice, a variable-speed 5400 RPM class design.

The drive shipped with TLER (Time Limited Error Recovery) enabled from the factory, which was an important distinction from consumer desktop drives. It made the WD Red family genuinely RAID-compatible, something that mattered greatly in multi-bay arrays where a drive that spins on an error for too long can be rejected by the RAID controller.

Over the following years, WD evolved the NASware firmware, introduced new form factors, and added the WD Red Pro tier for more demanding environments. The original WD Red remained the affordable CMR option for home and SOHO users throughout this period, and the WD40EFRX remained in the lineup for several years.

A key hardware progression during this era was the increase in cache size. Across the Red Plus lineup, cache memory has grown from 64MB in early models to 256MB in current ones. The WD40EFRX shipped with just 64MB, which by today's standards looks overly modest.

Then came the most significant and damaging chapter in WD Red history, and this directly shaped how the Red Plus line came into existence.

Western Digital began shipping SMR (Shingled Magnetic Recording) drives from early 2017, but declined to disclose this to customers, even when directly asked. The EFRX suffix was quietly retired and replaced by the EFAX suffix. What buyers did not know was that the new drives used a fundamentally different recording method.

The larger EFAX drives at 8TB and above remained CMR. The smaller capacities at 6TB and below transitioned to SMR. EFRX drives were removed from production pipelines.

Users began experiencing problems adding the new WD Red NAS drives to RAID arrays. SMR drives were not intended for random write workloads, and NAS rebuild operations like resilvering in ZFS terminology use exactly that kind of sustained random writing.

RAID resilvering tends to overload the cache on SMR drives, sending them into minutes-long pauses. Faulty firmware on the WD40EFAX also caused drives to return IDNF S.M.A.R.T. errors under intensive workloads, which RAID controllers typically interpreted as drive failure.

All my NAS were once populated with these drives, and successively they died like dominoes, until none of them survived. What annoyed me, and others, was that while internally WD knew why the death rate on these drives was high, sales staff were still pushing the line that all WD drives were CMR and that the company would make it "very clear" if SMR technology were used.

In 2020, consumers discovered what was happening. A class action lawsuit followed in the United States. The lawsuit alleged that WD had surreptitiously introduced SMR technology into WD Red NAS drives without disclosure, in an effort to reduce costs while keeping the selling price unchanged.

(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)

In an attempt to mitigate the fallout from this sorry exercise, a structural reorganisation of the entire Red lineup was performed by WD.

The WD Red name was retained for device-managed SMR drives across 2TB, 3TB, 4TB, and 6TB capacities, and it was positioned as suitable only for lighter SOHO workloads. A new WD Red Plus brand was created to cover all CMR drives across all capacities from 1TB to 14TB. WD Red Plus was specifically aimed at more write-intensive workloads, including ZFS.

WD described Red Plus as "the new name for conventional magnetic recording (CMR)-based NAS drives in the WD Red family." Critically, the WD40EFRX model number was retained and repurposed as the WD Red Plus 4TB, allowing existing owners to verify that their older drives were CMR by checking the model-number suffix.

During the transition period, WD Red Plus devices were sometimes delivered with a "WD Red" label, but the model number confirmed the CMR identity. This caused ongoing confusion in the channel.

Following the rebrand, there were two 4TB model numbers for Red Plus drives.

The WD40EFZX appeared as a transitional model, shipping with a 128MB cache and confirmed CMR recording. It was described as a 5400 RPM SATA 6Gb/s CMR drive with NASware 3.0 technology and an MTBF of up to 1 million hours.

Alongside that is the focus of this review, the WD40EFPX. As I’ve already mentioned in the introduction, this drive ships with an upgraded 256MB cache and uses CMR technology rather than SMR and has the same 5400 RPM rotational speed.

These drives closed the chapter on the hidden SMR debacle, and as a result, WD’s standing with those deploying NAS storage has recovered.

WD Red Plus 4TB: Performance

(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)

Testing drives for NAS use is fraught with problems because NASes are configured to hide the actual performance speeds from you, using their memory as a cache.

As an example of this, I connected a single WD40EFPX to a TerraMaster F4-425 Pro, accessed it over a 2.5GbE LAN, and achieved read/write speeds of 296 MB/s.

As this drive is rated by WD at 180 MB/s, those numbers are plainly artificial.

Therefore, ironically, rather than using a NAS to evaluate the speed of this drive, I resorted to testing it on a regular PC.

Here are my results:

Drives

 

WD Red Plus

IronWolf

Part No.

 

WD40EFPX

ST4000VN006

Capacity

 

4TB

4TB

AJA

 

 

 

Read

MB/s

187

190

Write

MB/s

179

185

ATTO

 

 

 

Read

MB/s

206.24

192.35

Write

MB/s

197.35

191.76

CrystalDiskMark Default

 

 

 

Read

MB/s

201.23

200.77

Write

MB/s

208.26

199.33

CrystalDiskMark RealWorld

 

 

Read

MB/s

212.46

200.22

Write

MB/s

204.42

199.11

PCMark

 

 

 

Score

 

801

677

Bandwidth

MB/s

124.49

103.69

MS Winsat

 

 

 

Random 16 Read

MB/s

1.71

1.6

Sequential 64.0 Read

MB/s

168.53

158.16

Sequential 64.0 Write

MB/s

204.65

190.5

Read Time with Sequential Writes

ms

1.385

1.946

Latency:  95th Percentile

ms

12.685

34.685

Latency: Maximum

ms

64.723

62.341

Average Read Time with Random Writes

ms

5.267

9.898

When you ask the sorts of questions that AJA, ATTO and CrystalDiskMark have the answers, then the Red Plus 4TB is remarkably similar to the IronWolf 4TB, with perhaps a tiny edge to the WD drive. That said, those results are all within variance and hardly conclusive.

PCMark and Winsat come down more on the Red Plus side, and it’s especially interesting that read time with sequential writes is lower on that drive than the IronWolf. And, that extends into latency, which is generally better on WD.

With time short for testing, I wouldn’t call these results definitive and on a different PC, they might be entirely reversed.

But they do strongly suggest that the slight price premium that WD is asking might be worth it, although there isn’t any practical way of testing the resilience of the drive over the long run. And that’s specifically where customers have had an issue with this brand previously.

WD Red Plus 4TB: Final verdict

(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)

If Western Digital could move on to Nasware 4.0, or something that brings it closer to the Health Management technology that Seagate already has, then they might see a migration back to the days before they tried to slide SMR drives past their customers.

Because the Red Plus is a bit quicker than the IronWolf equivalent, even if it costs proportionally more.

But frankly, the cost of NAS drives of this capacity is way too high to actually encourage people to buy them, even if the underlying technology seems sound.

To paraphrase Monty Python, if Nvidia and the AI evangelists hadn’t artificially nailed storage to its perch, drives of this capacity would be pushing up the daisies by now.

But instead, we have the indefensible exercise in which Seagate, WD and Toshiba profit massively from phantom demand, and every day is Christmas at their factories.

If you must buy drives for a deployment, then go with the 8TB and 10TB models, as they offer the best value, if that means anything when HDDs are nearly as expensive per TB as you could buy SSDs capacity at one point in the past two years.

For more storage solutions, we've reviewed the best NAS devices.