Reviews

Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Plus: One-minute review

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Plus is the best of both worlds, sitting between a phone and a laptop. It has perks if you prefer writing text, with its included S Pen stylus, and it aces tasks that take advantage of everything the stylus has to offer. But to the casual consumer, these specialized features would likely be a waste, and I'd instead push you in the direction of the Tab A series.

The Galaxy Tab S10 Plus has exceptionally rich sound to match its beautiful AMOLED display, and it's comfortable enough to hold for a while in its landscape form factor. It's no surprise that streaming content and listening to music with the Galaxy Tab S10 Plus is so satisfying.

Close rivals, particularly from Apple, also do this exceptionally well, and the Galaxy Tab S10 Plus's $999.99 / £999 / AU$1,799 price point puts it in heated competition with Apple’s iPad Pro ($999 / £999 / AU$1,699). Still, with the included S Pen stylus, and some retailers offering the Galaxy Tab keyboard as a bundle bonus , the Tab S10 Plus looks like a better deal all-around.

Samsung still sells the Galaxy Tab S9 Plus, and its price is now more accessible, even though that tablet is a generation old. But if you want the best, you'll want the Galaxy Tab S10 Plus, and if you want a bigger screen, then consider the Tab S10 Ultra, which is the same tablet just bigger.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Plus: price and availability

• $999.99 / £999 RRP / AU$1,799 for the 256GB / 12GB RAM model
• 256GB, 12GB RAM and 512GB, 12GB RAM storage options available
• Wi-Fi and 5G options available in Moonstone Gray and Platinum Silver colorways (not all colorways available in all markets)

(Image credit: Zachariah Kelly/TechRadar)

You get what you pay for with the Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus. The large, 12.4-inch screen surpasses most of its competitors (the similarly-priced iPad Pro is 11-inches), and if that is somehow not big enough, there's also the larger S10 Ultra (14.6-inches) to consider. The processing power – underpinned by a Mediatek Dimensity 9300+ SoC – is more than enough for an all-purpose device, but is especially capable when used to be creative.

If you’re more concerned about price, I would encourage you to consider the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Plus, as it has received a price drop now that it's not the cream of the crop. If you're a more casual user that doesn't need an art slate, you should consider something far less powerful, such as the Google Pixel Tablet (it’s still my pick of the bunch for my style of tablet use), or the 10th-generation iPad.

The Tab S10 Plus includes an S Pen as well as Samsung’s Galaxy AI suite of features, though these may eventually cost a premium at the end of 2025. Some retailers are including the Book Cover Keyboard attachment as a bundle, which makes the Tab S10 Plus an even more attractive prospect and maybe a laptop replacement. Samsung has offered this bundle with its tablets before and it’s a wonder they don’t just make it a part of every purchase.

The Galaxy Tab S10 Plus is still admittedly expensive. It costs as must as a 13-inch MacBook Air or a Microsoft Surface Pro 11. It's a brilliant device, but casual users should steer clear – it's more powerful (and more expensive) than you need. Professionals, this is for you.

• Value: 5/5

Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Plus: specs

Though Samsung elected to use the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor in the Galaxy Tab S9 family, the tech giant has surprisingly chosen the Mediatek Dimensity 9300+ for the Galaxy Tab S10 Plus. It’s a confusing move that further separates its high-end smartphones from its high-end tablets. This year's tablet still launches at the same price as last year's.

I never noticed performance lacking. Putting quick images together in Canva, editing photos in Google Photos, and trimming and cutting up clips in CapCut never resulted in any hangups. Comparing performance through benchmarks, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor doesn't have a huge advantage. The Mediatek 9300+ chip performed better than, if not equal to, the Snapdragon on every test.

It’s worth noting that the Tab S10 Plus also comes with a MicroSD card slot in case you want to bump up the storage capacity or if you want to quickly transfer photos over from a camera. Additionally, during my testing over two weeks, I only charged the Tab S10 Plus a handful of times and it never felt like I needed to charge it every night. With such a big battery inside, charging speeds weren’t as quick as a smartphone, and 30 minutes was only enough to bump it up from 20% to 54%.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Plus: display

(Image credit: Zachariah Kelly/TechRadar)

• Huge, bright display with tons of detail
• Great space for multitasking
• Four strong speakers placed around the device

I can’t fault the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Plus on its display – it’s brilliant and easily ranks among the best tablets as far as visuals go (though the Tab S10 Ultra takes the Tab S10 Plus’s 12.4-inch screen and bumps it up to 14.6-inches).

The content I watched on the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Plus included various Twitch streams, YouTube videos, Mad Max: Fury Road and Arcane on Netflix, and Avengers Endgame and Light and Magic on Disney+. At no point did anything look bad, blurry or washed out, with the display more than capable of showing enough color and creating enough light to fill an interesting scene.

Outside of simply describing the display, Samsung’s approach to multitasking is second to none. The freedom you’re given to adjust apps running concurrently, side-by-side on the screen, with easily adjustable boundaries, feels like the real laptop-rivaling feature of the Galaxy Tab S series.

To match the strong display, the four speakers located around the device offer powerful, room-filling sound. Every piece of content I viewed felt like it had the audio to match. While cleaning my house, playing Spotify from the tablet sounded equivalent to using a smart speaker with a screen.

• Display: 5 / 5

Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Plus: design

(Image credit: Zachariah Kelly/TechRadar)

• Slightly slimmer than the Tab S9 Plus
• S Pen attachment is a bit odd on the back
• Feels awkward in portrait orientation

It’s the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Plus’s bread and butter to be big, with a beautiful display to match and powerful performance for any task. But parts of the design feel… Too big. Big is good for a tablet positioned as a powerful laptop rival and artistic tool, but some elements feel like they’re rubbing up against others.

It’s difficult to use the tablet in portrait mode, which I prefer when reading news articles online and taking notes. The back of the tablet looks nice but it isn't easy to hold in portrait orientation. The charging area for the S Pen, located on the back, feels rough against my fingers whether or not the pen is magnetically attached. Trying to get a better grip from the other end caused my hand to come into contact with the cameras, resulting in a similar hand feeling issue.

The pen charging on the back of the device is another issue. When the pen is attached, the tablet won’t sit flat on its back. Though the pen can magnetically attach to the edge of the display, it will not charge there – but at least it's out of the way.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Plus is meant to be used in landscape orientation, with the selfie camera located in the top middle, which is ideal for video calling. This mode feels perfectly comfortable.

• Design: 3/5

Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Plus: software

(Image credit: Zachariah Kelly/TechRadar)

• Brilliant tablet performance
• Operating system is nicely designed
• Not as casual as an iPad or Pixel Tablet

Samsung’s approach to tablets is probably my favorite. Having a persistent app tray at the bottom of the screen just rocks, especially for quickly switching between windows. I could get a lot of work done on the Galaxy Tab S10 Plus, but it still has quirks here and there that make it a bit less user-friendly than its rivals.

My love for the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Plus’ software mostly stems from multitasking. Being able to have two apps open concurrently, for example, having Spotify open on one side and Canva on the other, is brilliant. The Galaxy Tab S10 Plus let me drag windows freely around the screen to be placed wherever I want. I could also connect the tablet to a monitor to enable Samsung DeX, which makes the interface look a bit more like a desktop.

Samsung’s Galaxy AI suite is unimpressive. Circle to Search, which lets me circle something on the screen to instantly search for it with Google is something I use quite a lot, but I can’t think of a single other AI feature that I enjoyed using.

A lot of the features, such as Note Assist and Sketch to Image, are interesting for a moment but are ultimately inconsequential. The AI image generator feels particularly tacked on.

Handwriting Help, exclusive to the Notes app, is a handy feature for character recognition with the S Pen, cleaning up and aligning your pen handwriting and making it easier to read. A simple click in the app and your handwritten notes will convert to text. You can also convert writing to text on the fly, as you write.

As you'd expect, the Galaxy Tab S10 Plus aces its stylus support. It has good palm rejection, so I was more comfortable drawing. Navigating between tools feels simple in Samsung's native drawing and writing apps.

• Software: 4/5

Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Plus: performance

(Image credit: Zachariah Kelly/TechRadar)

• Galaxy S Pen feels great in-hand
• Doesn’t feel slow despite axing the Snapdragon chip

Not once did I have a problem with the performance of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Plus. Capable of smoothly running every application I opened, including Canva, Spotify, Twitter (X), Messenger, Instagram, Samsung Notes, PENUP, Google Photos, Netflix, Disney+ and Crossy Road, the Tab S10 Plus handled everything a power user would want.

That’s a relief, considering Samsung skipped the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, after including the previous Snapdragon in the Galaxy Tab S9 Plus. Instead, this tablet is underpinned by a Mediatek Dimensity 9300+, which doesn’t skip a beat.

Creating and editing images on Canva was an exceptionally fluid experience and the application was responsive and fast the entire time – even with Spotify running in the background. The same can be said for editing pics via Google Photos or writing with Samsung Notes: no hold-ups whatsoever.

• Performance: 5/5

Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Plus: battery

(Image credit: Zachariah Kelly/TechRadar)

• Gigantic all-day battery
• Faster charging would be nice

The mighty 10,090 mAh Li-Po battery in the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Plus is so immense that, during my review, I rarely had to charge it.

You’d obviously expect this from a device with such a large battery, but it comes with the obvious drawback of slower charging. From 0%, the tablet took one hour and 50 minutes to return to 100% charge.

In testing the battery against a fairly long movie, Avengers Endgame, the tablet drained to 59% after three hours of watching. Despite a shift to MediaTek, it doesn’t seem the Galaxy Tab S10 Plus is more power hungry than previous generations.

• Battery: 5/5

Should you buy the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Plus?

(Image credit: Zachariah Kelly/TechRadar) Buy it if…

You’re a professional in search of a tablet

With brilliant character recognition and optimisation for digital artists, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Plus is an attractive device for a professional.View Deal

You want a big, beautiful screen that’s not too big

The 12.4-inch size feels just right, smaller than the Tab S10 Ultra’s gigantic 14.6-inch display.View Deal

You’re team Samsung

iPadOS is brilliant, but this is one of your best options if you want a tablet outside of the Apple camp.View Deal

Don’t buy it if…

You want the easiest to use OS

Samsung’s OneUI is brilliant, but it’s not as intuitive as iPadOS and Google’s version of Android.View Deal

You’re just going to watch videos

It’s a waste to use the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Plus for just streaming content, and if this is what you’d be doing, you could get a serviceable tablet for much cheaper.View Deal

You want to save some money

The high price point of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Plus makes it a tough sell to a casual user or even a professional, especially when differences to the Tab S9 Plus aren’t very dramatic.View Deal

Also consider

Not convinced by the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Plus? Here are a few other options to consider:

Apple iPad Pro 2024

While the entry-level iPad Pro isn’t as large as the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Plus, it is fairly competitive in terms of performance while priced extremely similarly. You’ll just have to buy an Apple Pencil separately.

Read our full Apple iPad Pro review

Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Plus

There are very few differences between the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Plus and the S10 Plus, so if you want to save some cash, there’s no shame in going for the older model.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra

If the Galaxy Tab S10 Plus isn’t big enough for you, the Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra offers a gigantic 14.6-inch display, which may be a bit cumbersome for some, but would also function as an effective laptop or art tablet replacement for professionals.

How I tested the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Plus

From the moment I received the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Plus, I replaced my second monitor, a small 11-inch touchscreen monitor, with it as my companion screen, using it for Spotify, scrolling social media, and streaming content while I worked at my desk.

My time with the Tab S10 Plus didn’t include all-hours use, but I did find time to edit images with it via Google Photos and Canva. I edited a video with it in CapCut and streamed a lot of movies and TV shows with the device. As far as games went, I mostly played Crossy Road.

I brought the Tab S10 Plus with me on a trip to see my family where it functioned as a good distraction for my niece. On this trip, I touched base with friends on Messenger and Instagram and doomscrolled on social media often.

For battery testing, I avoided charging the tablet as much as I could, and ran my standard Avengers Endgame beginning-to-end test closer to the end of my review period. I’d check in on the tablet’s battery now and then on days where I wasn’t using it much, and kept an eye on it on days where I was. I also depleted the battery in its entirety and timed how long it took to charge to 100%.

Most of my performance relied on real-world use relative to how I use tablets in my day-to-day life.

Stormforce Pro Creator 0601: 30-second review Specs

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7700X
Graphics: ASUS ProArt RTX 4060Ti
RAM: 32GB DDR5 5200
Storage: 2 x 1TB M.2 1 x 4TB IronWolf
Rear Ports: 2 x USB 2.0, HDMI, BIOS Flashback button, USB 3.2 Gen 2, 3 of which are Type-A and 1 Type-C, Display Port, USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C with DP, optical S/PDIF out port, 5 x audio jacks, HDMI 2.1a 3 DisplayPort 1.4a and HDCP Support.
Top Ports: 3.5mm audio in, 3.5mm audio in-out, 2 x USB A and a USB Type-C
Connectivity: Dual Band 1200Mbps, Realtek 2.5Gb Ethernet, Realtek 1Gb Ethernet
Audio: Realtek 7.1 Surround Sound High Definition Audio 
Camera: N/A
Size: 435 x 215 x 465mm
OS installed: Windows 11 Pro
Accessories: N/A

Stormforce Gaming is known for making high-end gaming machines. However, they also make some of the most stylish creative machines on the market, including the Stormforce Pro Creator 0601.

This machine is pitched as a workstation for creatives with the hardware and feature set that is perfectly tuned to what designers, illustrators, photographers and even videographers require from a machine. The system is based on an ASUS ProArt B650-Creator motherboard, which is complemented by a powerful AMD Ryzen 7 7700x CPU and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060TI GPU. While this combination sounds incredibly high-end when it comes to power and abilities for a standard desktop, these specifications actually pitch the machine at the entry-level when it comes to professional creative use. I've reviewed plenty of the best video editing computers and best photo editing PCs, and this one of the top machines I've tested. 

What's interesting here is that Stormforce has pulled on the company's years of experience with their high-powered gaming machines and adapted them to suit the needs of high-end enthusiasts and professional creatives. As such, this machine strikes a balance between performance and price and offers a core system that will enable you to get up and running with ample power and capacity to handle most jobs. 

Then, as your demands on the machine grow for additional storage and other expansions, the machine can grow and adapt as needed. This is a full-sized powered workstation that has been designed to grow and adapt to you. 

While the machine itself offers plenty of power from the outset, it's the look and design of the machine that initially stand out. The case from Fractal Design reflects the styling of modern creative spaces. While the casing is larger than your standard desktop machine, the style will make you want this computer on display with the wooden frontage, glass side panels, and matte black finish, not only being functional but also a real statement.

Meanwhile, Stormforce Pro Creator 0601 is powerful when it comes to professional workstations that power sit at the entry-level, with the option to upgrade all components easily around the motherboard. However, the CPU and GPU are powerful mid-range models, as are the RAM and internal SSDs, which will be more than enough for most pro users, with upgrades really only required to the system if you need to edit longer-length 4K and 8K RAW video. As it stands, however, this machine is outstanding at a price and for the features and future potential that it offers. 

Stormforce Pro Creator 0601: Price & availability

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

The Stormforce Pro Creator 0601 is available directly from Stormforce Gaming for £1999 - you can check out the full details by clicking here.

• Price: 4/5

Stormforce Pro Creator 0601: Design & build

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

Like almost all the best workstations tested here, the Stormforce Pro Creator 0601 is essentially designed for professional use or, at the very least, for high-end enthusiasts. Considering what you get for the price, it's extremely well-balanced. When it comes to the base design, it looks like a standard desktop, just a touch larger, which is due to the fact that it has been designed to house a large CPU and GPU, along with all the additional support that those components require. It also means that there's plenty of room for expansion and additional drives and, more importantly, enables lots of airflow around the machine to keep things cool when under load. 

While the Stormforce Pro Creator 0601 is large, the company has been careful to balance style with functionality, and the choice of the Fractal Design North Mid Tower case is striking. The front of the machine features a wooden slatted design reminiscent of the style that is being adopted by many design studios installing soundproof walling panels. 

Otherwise, when it comes to the design and function, the machine is nice and simple, with a few quick access ports along with the power button on the top and the rest of the ports and connectivity at the back. 

If you want to gain access to the inside of the machine to install additional hardware or upgrade the existing, then the side panel is held in place by a few hand-tightened bolts, which are easily removed. Once done, the glass side panel that gives you a view of the inner workings can be removed, and the internals can be accessed. Again, the design is stylish and neat. Colourful LEDs are common in gaming machines, and again, here, there are a few lights. Still, it's all nicely understated and gives the machine an altogether more professional and stylish aesthetic. 

• Design: 5/5

Stormforce Pro Creator 0601: Features

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

The Workstation is larger than your average desktop, so it is really more likely to be placed on the floor rather than on the desk, where it would dominate the surface. As such, the casing has been designed with a range of sockets on top, such as the 3.5mm audio in and out as separate sockets, two USB A and a USB Type-C, enabling you to plug in hard drives and other accessories easily and these all sit alongside the large gold power button.

On one side there's the glass tinted window so that you can see the layout of the inside of the machine's components; then, around the back, you have the full array of ports, including 2 x USB 2.0, HDMI, BIOS Flashback button, USB 3.2 Gen 2, 3 of which are Type-A and 1 Type-C, Display Port, USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C with DP, optical S/PDIF out port, 5 x audio jacks, these are all from the motherboard. In addition to these ports there's also an HDMI 2.1a 3 DisplayPort 1.4a and HDCP Support which are intergrated into the GPU.

As this is a workstation, everything is easily accessible, so if you want to get into the inner workings to swap the SSDs, RAM or otherwise, all you need to do is unscrew the securing knobs, which can be done by hand, and the panel to access the inside can be removed. In our review sample, the machine arrived with 32GB of DDR5 RAM, which can be upgraded to 192 GB. There's also plenty of storage with 3 x M.2 slots and 4 x SATA 6Gb/s ports. As standard, there are 2 x 1TB drives and a 4TB IronWolf Pro, which is an ideal starting point. You then have the option to add more storage in the form of additional SATA drives.

The volume of accessibility options further reinforces the professional level of this machine; there's plenty more to add to the highlights. But at the core its the ASUS ProArt B650-Creator motherboard with AMD Ryzen 7 7700X AMD Wraith Optimised cooling, ASUS ProArt NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060Ti, 32GB DDR5 5200 RAM, 4TB IronWolf Pro SSD alongside two 1TB SSDs that give this machine the power needed for most types of creative use. Essentially, if you put together a no-fuss wish list for a high end entry-level creative machine, then this is it.

• Features: 5/5

Stormforce Pro Creator 0601: Performance

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings) Benchmarks

Crystal Disk Read: 3653.70MB/s
Crystal Disk Write: 2611.94MB/s
GeekBench CPU Single: 2457
GeekBench CPU Multi: 13525
GeekBench Compute: 135702
PC Mark: 8087
CineBench CPU Multi: 17175
CineBench CPU Single: 1616
Fire Strike Overall: 29901
Fire Strike Graphics: 33701
Fire Strike Physics: 30592
Fire Strike Combined: 15909
Time Spy Overall: 13288
Time Spy Graphics: 13464
Time Spy CPU: 12374
Wild Life: 74864
Windows Experience: 8.9

Setup of the Stormforce Pro Creator 0601 is fast enough, and once unboxed and plugged in, it boots into the standard Windows 11 Pro setup process, and you can fly through the options and settings quickly. The Wi-Fi connection is fast, with the dual band wifi card, enabling fast connection to the local network and enabling the applications required for the test to be downloaded and installed quickly. 

Starting a look at the benchmarks and the CrystalDiskMark scores of 3653.70MB/s read and 2611.94MB/s write show a mid-range performance for the SSD, enabling applications to open quickly and for Creative Cloud apps to access and write files to the drive at speed. While the drive is mid-range when it comes to speed, it's more than enough for most tasks, including working with Premiere Pro and reviewing footage prior to editing. Likewise, the speed at which edits are rendered and exported is fast, and for standard 4K and 8K video, the overall performance on this front is impressive. 

Checking out the Geekbench scores and the single-core result shows excellent performance, this result is experienced with smooth, fluid brush strokes in Photoshop and scrubbing through footage in Premiere Pro. There are essentially no glitches, and the workflow is smooth and natural. Reinforcing the CrystalDiskMark scores the Multi-Core score from Geekbench again sees the speed of video renders in the timeline and exported from various apps. handled with ease. Finally, looking at the Compute scores from Geekbench and you can see the impact on applications as visual filters and effects are applied to footage, and again, these are handled well. The only time things do start to slow is when RAW footage is used and effects start to get layered, but again, this is just part of the process of waiting for the timeline to render properly. 

Again, checking the results for Cinebench and 3D Mark further reinforces just how good this machine is for content creation across the board. Its level pitches it at designers, illustrators, and photographers, and in all those cases, this machine has all the power that you need, with the option to expand on the storage if and when you need. Likewise, videographers and content creators using DSLR and Camcorders to shoot standard 4 and 8K footage will be able to edit short-form video without issue; however, as you start to add effects or switch to RAW footage, you'll start to see the system slow a little as rendering takes place. 

When it comes to gaming, Stormforce obviously makes gaming PCs. While this PC is aimed directly at the creative sector, it has the power and ability to handle most games with ease. Through the test, we played Hogwarts Legacy, Cyberpunk 2077 and Red Dead Redemption II, and all played smoothly using the standard settings. Many enabled the options to be pushed to enhance the graphics further.

Looking at the final results from the benchmark tests and the PC Mark and Windows experience scores, we see that the machine takes word processing, spreadsheets, and administrative work in its stride without breaking a sweat. 

• Performance: 4.5/5

Should you buy the Stormforce Pro Creator 0601?

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

The Stormforce Pro Creator 0601 has been designed with creatives in mind, and with this machine, you can run any of the Adobe Creative Cloud suite of applications without issue. If you're a designer, illustrator, artist or photographer; you'll be able to get on with your work without issues or slow down from this machine. What Stormforce has done with this machine is perfectly balance quality components with the requirements of the intended user, as such, it doesn't go over the top processing power, graphics, RAM or storage; it just balances it at a point that is slightly above what most people will need and at a great price. 

However, this is more than a machine that will just meet your business's demands for today; the ASUS ProArt B650-Creator motherboard is one of the best out there and utilises the latest technologies for speed as well as upgrade potential and expandability. Essentially, for most professionals, this machine will meet your needs directly from the box; if you do need an extra boost of power for higher-end video editing, then the RAM, storage and all other components can essentially be upgraded as far as your budget allows.

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings) Buy it if...

It would help if you had creative power

Featuring the ASUS ProArt motherboard and Ryzen 7 7700X CPU, the Stormforce Pro Creator 0601 is perfect for artists, designers, and photographers needing strong processing and graphic performance with plenty of upgrade options.

Want a stylish design

The Fractal Design North Mid Tower case with the wooden front panel and tinted glass side provides a modern style and aesthetic, making it a perfect workstation choice for a studio or office.

Don't buy it if...

You prefer compact desktops

While it looks like a desktop, it is larger and better suited for floor placement and may feel intrusive on a smaller desk. If you need more workspace or a compact, minimalist setup, a smaller form factor might be a better fit.

You edit RAW video footage

Even then, this is a great starting point. It's just that on occasion, you will need to wait for some footage to render before making the edits and if you're just editing short-form video, It'll be fine; anything longer than five minutes with effects, and you'll want a power boost.

We've tested the best mobile workstations - and these are our top picks.

Xbox Series S 1TB: two-minute review

If you’re currently debating whether to pick up the Xbox Series S 1TB or the original Xbox Series S model, then the choice is clear.

If you can afford that extra $50 / £50 / AU$50 for the 1TB edition, then it’s absolutely the version to go for and easily the best gaming console for the price. You get more than double the usable storage capacity (more than 800GB out of the box) for a fraction of the cost of any of the best Xbox Series X hard drives and SSDs, finally addressing what was easily the biggest shortcoming of the launch model for most buyers.

A capable current-generation machine for just $349.99 / £299.99 / AU$549 is nothing to sneeze at and, while the performance is definitely behind the fully-fledged Xbox Series X or PlayStation 5, it’s still going to be more than enough for most people. Titles like Microsoft Flight Simulator and Dead Island 2 look absolutely stunning on a 1080p or 1440p display, though those with a 4K TV are much more likely to notice the decreased resolution and lower visual settings.

The lack of a disc drive helps the console maintain such a staggeringly small size, but does restrict your access to physical releases. Still, an Xbox Game Pass subscription will help save a bit of cash if you want to sample some of the best Xbox Series X games for less. Although no additional titles are on the horizon, Xbox’s backwards compatibility efforts are still leagues above those on PlayStation, making this system a great way to experience older games.

I’ve been loving going back to some real Xbox 360 gems like Alice: Madness Returns and Far Cry 2, an experience that is still just impossible to replicate on the far more expensive PS5. Older games can be absolutely breathtaking too, with some boasting enhanced resolutions and frame rates that help them look better than ever.

Some might lament the lack of desirable exclusives, but when it comes to sheer bang for your buck value the Xbox Series S 1TB is the best of the best.

(Image credit: Dashiell Wood / Future) Xbox Series S 1TB: Price and availability

• $349.99 / £299.99 / AU$549
• $50 / £50 / AU£$50 more than launch model
• Absolutely killer value

The Xbox Series S 1TB is fantastic value overall. For just $50 / £50 / AU£$50 more than the launch model, you’re getting more than double the usable storage space. It also works out significantly cheaper than buying the older console and upgrading the storage via a Seagate Xbox Storage Expansion Card or WD Black C50 expansion card, which comes in at roughly $80 / £85 / AU$140 for just 512GB.

This makes it by far the best option if you're shopping for an Xbox Series S as, realistically, the cheaper model will not offer enough storage for anyone bar casual players looking for a low-cost way to play one or two popular games like Fortnite, EA Sports FC 25, or Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.

At its $349.99 / £299.99 / AU$549 price point, the Xbox Series S 1TB still comes in significantly cheaper than any of its major competitors at retail. If you want to get into current-generation gaming on a budget, then this is the way to go.

Xbox Series S 1TB: Specs Xbox Series S 1TB: Design and features

• Compact size is perfect for a desk
• Slick black or white color options
• No shortage of ports, but lacks disc drive

The Xbox Series S really needs to be seen to be believed, as photos don’t really do its compact size justice. It’s significantly smaller than the Xbox Series X and the original Xbox One, making it ideal if you’re short on space and want a console that won’t struggle to fit on your desk or media center.

The console can be oriented both horizontally and vertically, which makes it easy to incorporate into a wide range of setups too. I have quite a small workspace but still found that it could easily squeeze next to my existing monitor, or on the floor right next to a PS5.

The front of the console is rather plain, with a simple illuminated power button (in the shape of the Xbox logo), a small controller pairing button, and a USB port for any wired accessories. The Xbox Series S 1TB can be found in both black and white colorways, though the latter only became available this year and seems to have since become the dominant model. I tested the black model and really appreciated its slick all-black look, though the white model, which has a few contrasting black elements, definitely has its own charm.

In its horizontal orientation, the top of the console is dominated by a large ventilation grille. The bottom is then completely smooth, bar a small ventilation grille and some tiny text that says both “Xbox” and “hello from Seattle” - a cute reference to the location of Microsoft’s campus. On the back of the console are its main ports. This includes an ethernet port, two USB ports, a HDMI output, a storage expansion port, and a two-pronged connector for the console’s power lead.

It’s a great design overall, but the disc reader is a notable omission. This is a digital-only console, which might be a dealbreaker for some. If you have a sizable collection of physical Xbox games, perhaps Xbox One releases, then this is something to bear in mind before you upgrade.

In the box, you get the console, an HDMI cable, the power lead, and an Xbox Wireless Controller in either Carbon Black or Robot White depending on your choice of console colorway plus two AA batteries to use with it.

Even four years after its introduction, the modern Xbox Wireless Controller remains a fantastic easy-to-use gamepad, with a comfortable shape and brilliant build quality that I find often means that they last substantially longer than your average DualSense Wireless Controller for PS5.

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(Image credit: Dashiell Wood / Future) Xbox Series S 1TB: Performance

• Perfect for 1080p gaming
• Unbeatable performance for the price
• Easy to notice some imperfections

It’s simply impossible to fault the performance of the Xbox Series S 1TB given its more affordable price tag. Performance is the same as the base model, which means that it targets a 1440p resolution with the ability to upscale to 4K on compatible displays. Every title that I tested looked good on a 1080p display, though the differences between the Xbox Series S and the more powerful Xbox Series X do become quite apparent on a larger 4K TV. The console can also support frame rates of up to 120 frames per second (fps), though realistically most modern games are going to fall closer to the 60 fps mark.

The bright and vibrant world of Dead Island 2 maintained a solid 60 fps frame rate with no noticeable drops, even when experimenting with its impressive gore effects. It runs at 1080p, though, which did lead to a slightly blurry-looking picture on my TV. Compared to my playthrough on PS5, there were also some cutbacks when it comes to reflection and shadow quality though this was only really noticeable when comparing them side by side.

The differences were more apparent in my hours with Microsoft Flight Simulator, which still looks incredibly impressive but nowhere near as photo-realistic as on a high-power PC when you view environments up close. The frame rate was also quite unstable, sometimes dropping into the low 20s in particularly built-up cities like Tokyo.

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The quality of resolution, characters, and lighting in Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2, another highly demanding game, also takes a hit and can even struggle to consistently maintain its 30 fps frame rate. It’s still perfectly playable, but did detract from the cinematic atmosphere somewhat.

Forza Motorsport offers two distinct visual modes, Performance and Quality, which target 60 fps at 1080p and 30 fps at 1440p respectively. I chose to prioritize frame rates and was pleased by the smoothness of races on my monitor, which was definitely helped by the smart use of dynamic resolution scaling. This is another case where larger displays will suffer, though, as the 1080p resolution and reduced level of overall detail will be significantly easier to spot. I would therefore recommend sticking to smaller 1440p, or even 1080p, screens for the best experience.

It’s just unfair to deduct any points for this, though, as you couldn’t achieve this kind of performance on a $300 PC. Even systems double or triple the price would struggle to replicate it without extensive settings tweaking and optimizations. If you’re shopping on a tight budget, there’s also quite a strong chance that you don't own a sizable 4K TV, which would stop you from getting the most out of the higher resolutions and greater detail of the PS5 or Xbox Series X anyway.

The roughly 800GB of usable storage will also be more than enough for the vast majority of players, particularly those not splashing out on the newest releases. With an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription, I found that it was more than enough to keep a few live-service favorites such as Fortnite and Call of Duty on hand at all times while still having room for a rotating selection of games that I wanted to try.

(Image credit: Dashiell Wood / Future) Should I buy the Xbox Series S 1TB? Buy it if...

You’re after the best value Xbox
If you’re buying an Xbox right now, then this is the model to choose. The extra storage space is worth the added cost compared to base Xbox Series S and could even save you money compared to buying an expensive Seagate Xbox Storage Expansion Card down the line.

You’re on a budget
The Xbox Series S remains unbeatable value almost four years after its original launch. If you want to get into the world of current-gen gaming without breaking the bank, it is by far the best option out there today.

You're content to game in 1080p or 1440p
The visual cutbacks on the Xbox Series S are much less noticeable if you play on a smaller display. Many games run at 1080p or 1440p making it a good fit if you haven’t upgraded to 4K quite yet.

Don't buy it if...

You crave the greatest performance
The Xbox Series S delivers amazing performance for the price, but is still noticeably behind the more expensive Xbox Series X and PS5. Those are better choices if you want higher frame rates and a 4K resolution.

You have an extensive physical game library
The Xbox Series S is still a digital only console. If you have an extensive physical game collection, it will most likely be cheaper to splash out for an Xbox Series X rather than repurchase them all digitally.

Also consider...

If you’re not fully on board with the Xbox Series S 1TB, then consider these two strong alternatives.

Xbox Series X Digital Edition
If you’re set on picking up a digital only console but want even greater performance, then the Xbox Series X Digital Edition could be for you. This clean white console comes in a little cheaper than the full-fat model, potentially a worthwhile saving.

For more information, check out our full Xbox Series X Digital Edition review.

Xbox Series X
If you want to access your physical library of Xbox games on a current generation machine, then the original Xbox Series X is your only choice right now. It boasts better performance than the Xbox Series S with resolutions up to 4K, though does come in significantly more expensive.

For more information, check out our full Xbox Series X review.

How I reviewed the Xbox Series S 1TB

I tested the Xbox Series S 1TB over the course of two weeks, alternating between using it with a Samsung 4K TV and a Lenovo 1080p monitor. Throughout my time with the console, I relied on the included Xbox Wireless Controller, in addition to a few extra peripherals such as a Seagate Game Drive for Xbox external hard drive and the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7 headset for audio.

I played a wide range of games on the console, both from my personal library and an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription. Some of my favorites included Senua’s Saga: Hellblade, Microsoft Flight Simulator, Gears 5, Forza Motorsport, Call of Duty: Warzone, Dead Island 2, Fortnite, Cities Skylines Remastered, Forza Motorsport 7, Starfield, and Minecraft. I also tried plenty of backwards compatible games, such as Alice: Madness Returns, Mirror’s Edge, Skate 3, and Rumble Roses XX.

I constantly compared my experience to my hands-on testing of the original 512GB Xbox Series S, in addition to Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed October/November 2024.

This review first appeared in issue 360 of PC Pro.

WatchGuard’s Firebox M390 shows that high-end security appliances don’t always command a high price. Targeting busy SMBs with up to 250 users, this affordable 1U rack model boasts a top raw firewall throughput of 18Gbits/sec, dropping to a respectable 2.4Gbits/sec with all UTM security services enabled.

A simplified licensing scheme makes it easy to manage costs. We’ve shown the price of a Total Security Suite (TSS) subscription, which enables everything WatchGuard has to offer. This includes gateway antivirus, anti-spam, web content filtering, application controls, intrusion prevention services (IPS) and an advanced persistent threat (APT) blocker with cloud sandboxing.

You also get WatchGuard’s reputation enabled defense (RED) cloud-based URL filtering, ThreatSync XDR for collection, correlation and automated responses to threat events, and DNSWatch to monitor client DNS requests and block access to known malicious domains. It has enough power to run the Cylance AI-based IntelligentAV malware scanning engine; the elderly dual-core Celeron in the M370 has been upgraded to an 8-core NXP LS2084A CPU.

There’s room to grow, as the front expansion bay accepts modules with gigabit, 10GbE or 2.5GbE multi-gigabit ports. Note that the PoE+ services on the multi-gig module will be disabled as the M390 doesn’t support the required 54V power supply, which is only available on the M590 and M690 models.

The appliance is easy to deploy. Its web console wizard sorts out the LAN and WAN network interfaces and applies a base set of firewall policies that include blocking common undesirable web categories. We had already registered the appliance’s serial number with our cloud support account so the wizard grabbed our TSS feature key and applied it.

The Firebox M390 offers plenty of features for the price (Image credit: Future)

The M390 can be managed in standalone mode, but businesses with multiple appliances will prefer WatchGuard’s Cloud portal, which is included in both the Basic Security Suite (BSS) and TSS subscriptions. Two choices are available: you can keep local management and set the appliance to send its logs to the cloud for remote monitoring and reporting or move it all into the cloud.

Full cloud management is activated by allocating the appliance from your account inventory and enabling it from the local console. The portal steps through WAN port setup and applying new admin passwords, after which the appliance disables local management.

Cloud configuration is simple as the portal groups all security settings for the appliance in one page. From the content scanning section you activate antivirus scanning, APT blocking, IntelligentAV and anti-spam policies for incoming SMTP, IMAP or POP3 traffic.

The network blocking section covers botnet detection, IPS, port and site blocks and detection of Tor exit points. WatchGuard’s WebBlocker service is accessed in the content filtering section and offers 166 URL categories that can be allowed, blocked or set to display a warning page to users.

The Firebox M390 can be managed locally or remotely (Image credit: Future)

Each content filter action policy manages both web access and application controls. The latter presents nearly 1,300 predefined app and protocol signatures, with Facebook and X activities getting the lion’s share of the social networking category. They’re easy to apply; when creating firewalls rules, you simply choose the action policy you want to assign.

The portal’s monitoring page provides a wealth of information on all activities. Graphs and charts are provided for live activity, traffic, detected malware and botnets, application usage, blocked websites, top clients and much more.

The Firebox M390 will appeal to SMBs with a large user base. It combines strong performance with an incredible range of security measures all at a competitive price. It’s easy to deploy and WatchGuard’s cloud portal delivers excellent remote management and monitoring features.

We also rated the best anti-virus software for PC.

This review first appeared in issue 360 of PC Pro.

TP-Link’s first Wi-Fi 7 business access point (AP) sets a high standard for the rest to follow, as this slimline discus has a mighty BE19000 rating. The EAP783 achieves this with a claimed 1,376Mbits/sec on the 2.4GHz radio, 5,760Mbits/sec on 5GHz and a speedy 11,520Mbits/sec on 6GHz, with the latter enabling the ultrawide Wi-Fi 7 320MHz channels.

It’s also one of the first APs to support the multi-link operation (MLO) feature, which allows devices to connect to the 2.4GHz, 5GHz and 6GHz bands simultaneously for increased throughput and reduced latency. The only downside is that very few end-user devices currently support MLO, and Windows users will have to wait until Windows 11 24H2 is fully released.

The EAP783 has other appealing credentials. It provides two 10GbE ports, with the first requiring an 802.3bt PoE++ power source; there’s also an input for TP-Link’s optional 12V adapter. The second 10GbE port is designed to be aggregated with the primary network port for a higher network connection speed.

Despite the AP’s 12 internal aerials, TP-Link has kept the size down to a manageable 280mm diameter and a thickness of 47mm. It’s heavy, though, tipping the scales at 1.4kg – around 15g more than Zyxel’s WBE660S.

The AP comes with two 10GbE ports (Image credit: Future)

The EAP783 supports standalone mode, where the web console’s quick start wizard requests a new username and password, after which it removes the default admin account for extra security. Eight SSIDs per radio can be created, and the wizard asks you to configure the first three and provide new encryption keys.

For our real-world Wi-Fi 7 performance tests we connected the AP to the lab’s Zyxel XS1930-12HP 10GbE PoE++ switch and used a Lenovo desktop client running Windows 11 Pro 24H2 Insider Preview and fitted with a TP-Link Archer TBE550S Wi-Fi 7 PCI-E adapter. With Windows reporting a Wi-Fi 7 connection speed of 5,764Mbits/sec, we saw large file copies between the client and a Windows server on our 10GbE LAN averaging close-range speeds of 323MB/sec, dropping to an equally impressive 280MB/sec with the AP placed ten meters away in an adjoining room.

The web console provides a separate section for MLO where you create a new SSID and decide which of the three radios to assign to it. Performance-wise, we saw no benefits from a triple radio MLO SSID as the Windows 11 client reported the same speed as a standard Wi-Fi 7 connection and our copies were no faster.

TP-Link offers plenty of cloud management choices. You can deploy its hardware or free software controller on-site or use its cloud-hosted controller, which has a yearly fee of £165 for 250 devices. We use TP-Link’s OC300 dual-port controller appliance in the lab as its £130 price enables lifetime cloud management of up to 500 Omada APs, switches and routers.

The EAP783 can be cloud-managed from TP-Link’s Omada platform (Image credit: Future)

All controllers are viewed from the Omada portal home page, and selecting the OC300 transported us to its own console. This presents a ribbon across the top showing all cloud-managed devices, and selecting a site below provides options to create multiple dashboards with a wide range of widgets.

The EAP783 initially appears as “pending” in the portal, and all you do is adopt it and assign it to a site. It only takes a minute, after which the AP disables its local web interface for security reasons, takes all its settings from the controller and broadcasts your preconfigured SSIDs.

It’s easy to add more SSIDs, apply a desired personal or enterprise encryption scheme, set client and SSID rate limits and define schedules to determine when they’re active. For the EAP783, we could enable any of all of its three radios, and we noted the portal has an option to create MLO Wi-Fi 7 SSIDs.

The EAP783 will appeal to businesses looking to make an early transition to Wi-Fi 7. It delivers excellent performance and is MLO-ready, and TP-Link’s Omada cloud platform offers great remote management services.

We also rated the best routers for small businesses.

This review first appeared in issue 360 of PC Pro.

The Meeting Owl products from Owl Labs have consistently been among the best video conferencing (VC) solutions on the market, and the Meeting Owl 4+ comes with even more appeal. Previously, the Owl Pro and Owl 3 offered a comparatively low 1080p resolution, but the Owl 4+ sports a new 64MP fish-eye camera that boosts video output to 4K Ultra HD.

There’s more going on inside, as it gets a faster Snapdragon 8250 SoC – the same as used by the 4K Owl Bar. The extra power has been put to good use by the Owl Intelligence System (OIS) software as businesses can pair multiple Owl devices together to provide total in-room coverage.

The Owl 4+ sports the same array of eight microphones as the Owl 3, which it uses to identify speakers. The smart part is the video feed: the Owl 4+ presents a 360-degree panoramic view across the top of the screen, dynamically splits the main display below to show the three most recent speakers and zeros in on the person currently speaking.

The distinctive Owl 4+ boosts video output to 4K (Image credit: Future)

The internal speaker count has been reduced from three to two, but output quality is undiminished. Comparisons with an Owl Pro found that the Owl 4+ was just as loud at maximum volume but delivered a much cleaner sound quality, with its heavier body producing a warmer bass without the shrillness of the Owl Pro.

Other improvements are an integral K-Lock security slot and an option to turn off the white LED “eyes” if they become a distraction. The Owl 4+ comes with an external power supply that can be replaced with an optional Power over Ethernet (PoE) network adapter, which has the part number ACCMTW405-0006 and costs around £75.

Installation is a breeze. After plugging the Owl 4+ into a Windows 11 Pro desktop PC, it loaded all the required drivers and defaulted to the split-screen mode. Management options abound: the free Owl mobile app connects over Bluetooth and provides tools to register the device and connect it to a wireless network for software updates. You can also enable remote management from the Owl Nest cloud portal, and meeting room analytics.

Using the iOS app on an iPad, we could passcode-protect Bluetooth access, choose the central point for the 360-panoramic view or disable it, set the camera to lock and focus on one person or follow a presenter. You can turn off the video feed and control the volume during meetings and use a whiteboard to present notes and diagrams to attendees, replacing the split screen in their session window.

The Owl 4+ can be managed from the cloud or mobile app (Image credit: Future)

The Owl 4+ supports all popular VC platforms, and we had no problems using Teams, Zoom and Skype. You’ll be impressed when you first use it as the video display is quite remarkable and noticeably sharper than the Owl 3.

During meetings, it maintained the full-room panoramic view at the top and swapped effortlessly between active speakers in the split screen below. It’s fast, too, taking around two seconds to swap from one active speaker to another, with the slide animation placing up to three participants in the main view. During small round-table meetings, we found a 50% volume level was quite sufficient and remote participants could hear us clearly, even when three meters away from the table.

The controls on the device are straightforward (Image credit: Future)

Pairing the Owl 4+ with an Owl Bar is easy, as you place them within two-and-a-half meters of each other with their front logos facing off and use the mobile app to pair them, after which they’ll use their tracking algorithms to choose the best view. No more looking at the back of people’s heads if they turn away from the Owl Bar, as the Owl 4+ takes over so they’re always looking directly at you.

For fully immersive meetings, nobody does it better than Owl Labs. The Owl 4+ delivers excellent video quality plus super-smooth speaker tracking, and pairing it with an Owl Bar covers every meeting room angle.

We've also ranked the best streaming microphones for content creation.

This review first appeared in issue 360 of PC Pro.

One of the biggest challenges for Logitech is that its best webcams are expensive compared to no-name rivals on Amazon that have similar specifications. As a recent example, consider the £219 MX Brio 705 for Business I reviewed four months ago.

Admittedly, that was a top-end device packed with features and capable of 4K streaming at 30fps. The Brio 105 is a more modest offering that’s limited to 1080p and a 58° field of view (the Brio 705 offers a choice of three FoVs). But in practice, how much resolution and flexibility do most people need? If it’s only you, sitting at your desk, attending a meeting, 1080p is absolutely fine, and a 58° FoV will place you large in the frame.

More to the point, image quality is excellent. Not just in strong light, but also when I turned off my office light at night and relied on my screen’s backlight. The Brio 105 still did a fine job, without any amateurish artefacts.

The other plus side of buying from Logitech is that the Brio can be managed from Logitech’s mature software, whether Logi Options+ for individuals or Logi Tune for businesses (you can deploy it using Logitech Sync). There’s also a three-year warranty, while the webcam has been certified for Google Meet and Works with Chromebook -and it will naturally work on Windows and macOS with all the usual conferencing platforms. Logitech takes sustainability seriously, too, promising that the plastic parts are made from 77% post-consumer recycled plastic and that this is a carbon neutral product.

From a practical point of view, it’s good to see a basic but functional plastic shutter that you can slide over the lens when not in use, and while the single mic lacks any advanced features, I found it worked fine in a home office environment. The Brio is light enough to sling into a bag, but the whole assembly will come with you as the 1.5m USB-A cable is captive rather than detachable, as is the basic two-part mechanism to keep it in place atop your screen.

Of course, you can save cash by buying a £15 webcam with the same specs. But it won’t perform as well in low light and definitely won’t be as easy to roll out and manage for businesses.

We also ranked the best budget webcams.

Sihoo has impressed me with their chairs over the last several years. I've had the opportunity to check out several Sihoo chairs recently, and they all look incredible. The Sihoo Doro S300 was the most futuristic chair I had checked out in a long time, and when I opened up the S100, I was giddy because it looked very similar for a fraction of the cost.

Sihoo positions itself as a simple yet ergonomic chair company. The Doro S100 points explicitly towards the budget-friendly side of the lineup -- perfect for those looking for an excellent chair for their home office without spending absurd money out of pocket.

The Doro S100 design aims to minimize strain from prolonged sitting, focusing on providing essential back support and comfort. How does it compare to the best office chairs I've tried? I put it to the test. 

Sihoo Doro S100: Price and Availability

The Sihoo Doro S100 is priced competitively around $150 - $200, depending on retailer and location. It's available through popular online platforms including Amazon, Walmart, and the official website of Sihoo. Though shipping fees may vary depending on where you want to ship this chair, it's widely available in the U.S. and select international markets.

(Image credit: Collin Probst // Future) Sihoo Doro S100: Unboxing and First Impressions

Sihoo's packaging has yet again proven to be very compact and straightforward. I was able to grab the pieces I needed quickly and easily without wondering which screw to use where. This is largely due to the clear and simple instruction manual and simple included tools. However, if I'm honest, I used my HOTO electric screwdriver to assemble since I have bad wrists from arthritis due to failed reconstructive surgeries years ago.

All chair pieces were securely wrapped, ensuring nothing got scratched or damaged in transit. Which, especially since this frame is white, I appreciated.

Assembly took me about 18 minutes from unboxing to sitting in the chair. Granted, I hustled through the assembly as I was familiar with the Sihoo design language. I saw what was going on without studying the assembly instructions too long.

I was immediately impressed by this chair's similarity to the S300 in feel and look. The lightweight frame and breathable mesh stood out and greatly benefited this chair.

(Image credit: Collin Probst // Future) Sihoo Doro S100: Design and Build Quality

Sihoo has done a fantastic job keeping a similar design language across offerings. The Doro S100 has a simple and sleek design, focusing on lower back support. This support is not suffocating nor cumbersome, as the backing is made of mesh that promotes airflow and comfort. The chair is offered in a darker black or the lighter grey I have, and both look great and will last quite a long time.

(Image credit: Collin Probst // Future) Sihoo Doro S100: In use Specs

Material: Mesh backrest, fabric seat cushion
Adjustability: Basic height adjustment, lumbar support, fixed armrests
Weight capacity: Up to 250 lbs
Dimensions: Seat height (16-20 inches), overall width (23 inches)
Warranty: 1-year limited warranty

I've had this chair in my rotations for the last three weeks. At that time, I found myself happy with it overall, and I forgot that it was a cheaper chair because of how comfortable it was. I can comfortably sit in this chair for an entire day of work. However, there is no deep recline option, meaning I can sit up or lean back slightly but not entirely. So, if you want to recline far back, you may not want this chair. Regardless, this chair is an excellent option for those who wish to have some range of motion while working but prefer to stay upright.

The armrests are practical and can be adjusted within a reasonable range. The chair is comfortable for prolonged sitting, although the limited recline may not satisfy those seeking deep reclining functionality. The mesh back provides support for my lower back without feeling constrictive. The cushion is firm, but it isn't excessively thick. Some days, I wish it were a bit thicker with a little more padding, but on most days, it's great.

One thing I appreciate about Sihoo and this chair is that it doesn't have a white base to match the chair. If you're in an office where you wear shoes, the chair frame can quickly get dirty from the bottom of your shoes hitting the chair legs. Thankfully, Sihoo seems to have noticed the same and has put a smooth metal base without a white coating. Further, if you are like me and have kids, I'd be weary of having them around the lighter chair in the worry of spilling something or marking it up somehow. But that's just my OCD speaking. So far, with regular use, I have not seen any color transfer from jeans, seat damage, or wear and tear.

(Image credit: Collin Probst // Future) Sihoo Doro S100: Final verdict

The Sihoo Doro S100 stands out as a competent, budget-friendly ergonomic chair that meets basic needs without overwhelming options or features — all while feeling like it's a nicer chair than it is. The Doro S100 is ideal for home office setups or more traditional workspaces if you bring your own or pick your own chair. It’s a practical choice for users prioritizing cost over customization. However, those needing comprehensive adjustability or premium materials may need to look toward mid-range models.

For more essential office furniture, we reviewed the best standing desks. 

This review first appeared in issue 360 of PC Pro.

While Copilot+ PCs with Qualcomm Arm chips are gaining plenty of attention, there are compelling reasons to stick with the traditional approach. We await the killer app for AI on laptops, and Intel’s Core Ultra chips remain better all-rounders: the x86 architecture is still king on Windows and Intel’s Arc graphics are far more accomplished than anything Qualcomm can offer.

Despite my words of praise for Lenovo’s ThinkPad T14s, there are good reasons for business buyers to remain cautious and stick with a traditional approach. Chief among them is compatibility, as the last thing a business wants to do is a mass roll-out of laptops that are incompatible with key software or the office printer.

For the 11th generation of its x360 2-in-1, HP isn’t ripping up any trees. But what it is doing is packing this laptop with power, with my test system including the excellent Core Ultra 7 155H and 32GB of RAM.

Intel may point to the battery life of this machine as an example of its efficiency, too. In PCMark’s light-use benchmark, which uses a mix of web browsing and office apps, it lasted 17hrs 42mins despite a relatively modest 68Wh battery. Playing video, it almost reached 20 hours.

(Image credit: Future)

The low-energy screen helps, with the 1,920 x 1,200 IPS panel peaking at 60Hz rather than 120Hz. It’s tuned for the sRGB color space, covering 96% of that gamut with an average Delta E of 0.78. For this price, I’d have liked the whites to look whiter, higher peak brightness (365 cd/m2 won’t be enough for use in sunshine) and more pixels wouldn’t go amiss, either, as text lacks sharpness.

Where it wins is support for touch: sometimes, prodding a dialog button is the easiest choice. HP provides a large, glass-coated touchpad for more conventional navigation, and it sits beneath a mixed keyboard. In terms of action, the Elite x360 1040 is up there with the best laptop keyboards around. There’s enough resistance to make typing a pleasure, all the important keys are suitably large, and I love its quiet nature: you’ll need to thwack the keys hard to annoy neighboring workers. But I was repeatedly tripped up by the half-height cursor keys, with Pg Up and Pg Dn immediately above the left and right arrows. It felt that whenever I hit a keyboard shortcut (such as Ctrl + left to go back one word) I hit the wrong button.

HP clearly believes that USB-C rather than USB-A is the future, with three of the former ports and only one of the latter. The right-hand USB-C port peaks at 10Gbits/sec thanks to its support for USB 3.2 Gen 2, but head to the left and you’ll find a pair of even faster USB-C/Thunderbolt 4 ports. HP also sticks a 3.5mm jack and HDMI 2.1 connector here, but no physical Ethernet port. Wi-Fi 6E is your networking friend rather than the more forward-looking Wi-Fi 7.

There are three USB-C ports, two of which are fast Thunderbolt options (Image credit: Future)

While the CPU’s AI abilities are stuck at a modest 34 TOPS – compared to 45 TOPS for the Snapdragons inside Copilot+ PCs – you can draw upon them when using the webcam, with Windows Studio Effects such as eye contact and background blurring at the ready. The 1440p webcam is top notch, other than a tendency to blow out highlights, and if you need to take photos it can snap at up to 2,560 x 1,440.

The mics can use AI to dial down background noise, while the speakers are among the best I’ve heard on a business laptop.

The Elite x360 1040 2-in-1 G11 is a highly practical laptop (Image credit: Future)

When it comes to ease of repair, this laptop is a delight. Remove four crosshead screws, slide a pick into the gap and the rear lifts off to reveal a replaceable Wi-Fi card, battery and SSD, though the memory is embedded onto the motherboard. And while the one-year warranty is to be expected, you can buy a Care Pack at any point during that year to extend it to up to five years of on-site cover. HP also provides its Wolf Security for one year, offering an extra layer of protection baked into the hardware.

With a 1.4kg weight and 14.7mm thickness – both above average for a 14in laptop due to the nature of convertible designs – the HP Elite x360 1040 G11 is not going to set pulses aflame with desire. Nor is its matte silver finish. But this is a well-built 2-in-1 designed for practicality, from its port selection to its battery life to its build quality. It’s not an exciting choice, but it is a safe one – especially if you already manage a fleet of HP laptops.

We also ranked the best business PCs.

The Electric Standing Desk from Mount-It is affordable for anyone looking to enjoy the health and ergonomic benefits of a hybrid sit/stand workspace. With a 55-inch wide desktop and an easy-to-use control panel for height adjustment, this desk is well-suited for home and corporate office settings, making it an excellent fit for various work environments.

Mount-It is known for its wide range of accessories, including TV mounts, and monitor arms. The company is even behind one of the best standing desk converters we've seen. However, what may be less well known is that they also have quality standing desks at a great price. Having tested out all the best standing desks, I was keen to see how the company's offering stacks up. 

Mount-It ESD: Price and Availability

The Electric Standing Desk from Mount-It is priced at $389.99, making it a fantastic budget desk. It has a lifetime warranty and offers free shipping to the contiguous US. The desk has six different finishes, which fit most office décor and styles.

(Image credit: Collin Probst // Future) Mount-It ESD: Unboxing and First Impressions

Upon unboxing, the desk components are neatly packaged and easy to assemble. The assembly process is straightforward, with clear instructions and minimal tools required. Right away, my first impressions were that of a sturdy, well-built desk that feels reliable -- despite its single-motor design. The 55” tabletop is spacious enough for a multi-monitor setup and office essentials, though if you are doing two side-by-side horizontal monitors, they may not leave much space on either end. This desk is perfect for a minimal work setup, perhaps just a laptop or a single monitor.

The model I have features a lightwood top and white legs, a sleek color combination that looks good in almost any room I have tried. I go back and forth between preferring a darker or lighter wood, but this light wood and white leg combination is simple, clean, and refreshing.

(Image credit: Collin Probst // Future) Mount-It ESD: Design and Build Quality Specs

Height Range: 29.3” to 47.5”
Tabletop Dimensions: 55”W x 29”D
Weight Capacity: 154 lbs
Memory Settings: 3
Leg Design: 2-stage
Speed: 0.8” per second
Noise Level: <55dB

The desk features a sleek, minimalist design with a sturdy steel base. The 55” tabletop is made from high-quality materials, offering durability and a smooth surface for writing or using a mouse. The sharp 90-degree edges help make this desk clean and minimal, though it could be dangerous if this is a home office desk and you have kids running around.

The single-motor design supports weight capacities up to 154 lbs, making it suitable for a basic desk setup, though I would only go riding up and down on this desk sometime soon (mainly because I am a good 50lb past the limit.

Sadly, the design lacks some premium features, such as dual motors or more diverse color options. However, that is what you get with a budget desk offering. Yet, the available offerings are not cheap -- they feel more like a bargain.

(Image credit: Collin Probst // Future) Mount-It ESD: In use

The single electric motor adjusts the desk’s height smoothly and quietly, allowing you to switch from sitting to standing with minimal disruption. The intuitive control panel features three programmable memory presets for different heights. However, the speed of 0.8” per second may feel slow to users accustomed to faster adjustment times, primarily if they have used other, more premium electric standing desks. Despite this, the desk’s quiet operation and sturdy design make it a reliable choice for everyday use.

My team and I use this desk as a laptop workstation with minimal things on it, and it's perfect. It's super easy and smooth to press one of the preset buttons, have the desk spring to life, and adjust perfectly to the preset height. This has been super helpful for multiple users of standing heights and seated heights with the chair we have at this desk.

Despite being a budget offering, this desk has been surprisingly stable and has survived some beatings from putting some gear down on it too aggressively. Yet, the wood top has held up nicely.

(Image credit: Collin Probst // Future) Mount-It ESD: Final verdict

The Mount-It Electric Standing Desk is a dependable, budget-friendly option for those looking to enhance their workspace ergonomics. While it lacks some advanced features in higher-end models, its large tabletop, smooth height adjustment, and basic memory settings make it a solid choice for home and office use.

For more workspace essentials, we've tested the best office chairs. 

Apple iMac 24-inch (M4) Review: Two-minute review

The iMac has been the all-in-one computer to beat since the jump to Apple silicon and a well-received redesign. MacOS teamed with an Apple-made processor make for an excellent experience, and with an iMac you get everything you need to get off to the races in the box.

The 2024 iMac doesn’t majorly depart from this working formula – but three changes, err four, if you’re willing to spend a bit more, make one of the best gadgets around even better. First, Apple has dropped the price by $100 / £100 / AU$200, setting it at $1,299 / £1,299 / AU$1,999. For that, you get an M4 chip, 16GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage – that’s better specs than the M3 version, so you're getting good value here.

The design is identical to the previous model from a year ago and the M1 iMac, which arrived in 2021. It’s an excellent-looking machine that can fit in almost any space – be it a proper desk, a kitchen counter, or even a shelf. It still only comes in one size – 24-inch – which might be a deal-breaker for some, but it appears that Apple wants those folks to get a Mac mini and pair it with a display.

Apple’s only big change with the design is new colors, and I love them. These new shades are more vibrant and match Apple’s other products better, and the finishes can vary depending on how the light hits them. You can get the M4 iMac in Purple, Blue, Green, Orange, Yellow, or Silver, and you’ll get color-matched peripherals – a Magic Keyboard with a Magic Mouse or Magic Trackpad – which all finally feature USB-C ports. However, Apple didn’t see fit to redesign the Magic Mouse; the port is still on the bottom.

Under the hood, the M4 chip outpaces the M3, and delivers noticeable improvements over the M1-powered or previous Intel-powered iMacs. Applications open swiftly with no noticeable lag, and you can do much more on this iMac than on an iMac from years ago. MacOS Sequoia, complete with some early Apple Intelligence features, is preloaded.

The built-in FaceTime camera has also been upgraded with a higher megapixel count and Center Stage functionality to automatically keep you in the frame during video calls – you'll still be in the shot if you like to circle while talking.

So between a lower price for the entry model, the arrival of the M4 chip, and a swap in FaceTime cameras, there is a whole lot to like here, especially if you’re after a Mac – or a computer in general – that's ready to go out of the box. Further, though, if you want to ensure that you can use the screen in any lighting conditions, and plan to place it in a room where you can’t really control the lighting, the new nano-texture option does an impressive job of blocking reflections.

Between the new colors and the improved performance, the latest iMac is again the best all-in-one computer, and the complete package. If you have an M3 iMac or even an M1, I don’t think you need to run out and upgrade, unless you’re hitting a performance roadblock (which is unlikely); but if you have an older model you’ll be in for a treat. And, again, the colors are a delight.

Apple iMac 24-inch (M4) Review: Pricing and Availability

• How much does it cost? Starts at $1,299 / £1,299 / AU$1,999
• When is it available? Up for order now, with shipping from November 8

Along with the new Mac mini, 14-inch MacBook Pro, and 16-inch MacBook Pro, the iMac with M4 is up for order now, and begins shipping on November 8. The M4 iMac isn't only a better-specced machine than the M3; it's also cheaper. For $1,299 / £1,299 / AU$1,999, you get the 24-inch M4 iMac with an M4 chip (8-core CPU, 8-core GPU, and 16-core Neural Engine), 16GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage. You also get your pick of color, and you no longer need to spend more to get the shade you want.

The step-up model gives you a better M4 chip with a 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU, and 16-core Neural Engine for $1,499 / £1,499 / AU$2,399. That is paired with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, and a gigabit ethernet port. The top-of-the-line iMac, which we tested, costs $2,699 / £2,699 / AU$4,199 and comes with 32GB of RAM and 2TB of storage. You can opt for the nano-texture display for an extra $200.

Apple iMac 24-inch (M4) Review: Specs Apple iMac 24-inch (M4) Review: Design

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

• The same design as the previous two models
• New colors look great
• Magic Keyboard and Magic Mouse finally get USB-C

When Apple likes a design, it tends to stick with it, and it's done so here. The new iMac with the M4 chip looks nearly identical to the M3 iMac, and even the M1 model that ushered in the all-new look in 2021.

Aside from an ever-so-thin build that will take up minimal space on a desk (it weighs in at under 10lbs / 4.5kg), the main feature here is the 24-inch Retina 5K display. I’ll touch on this a bit more below, but for now know that it’s a vibrant and visually rich viewing experience.

The screen offers a 4480 x 5250 resolution with 218 pixels per inch, and maxes out at 500 nits of brightness. Perhaps the most meaningful addition here is a new Nano Texture option, a coating that enables you to place the iMac in almost any space and be able to see the screen clearly – including a room with massive windows throwing sunlight directly on it. Yes, it’s an extra expense, but it adds to an already rich Retina viewing experience, with support for the Wide Color P3 gamut and Apple’s True Tone technology, which adjusts the brightness to make viewing the screen easy on your eyes.

As on the M3 and M1 models, the 24-inch screen is wrapped in a white border all the way around. On a potentially very colorful all-in-one, this is a sensibly neutral choice that allows you to focus on the screen. Tucked above the display is the most welcome addition, a new 12-megapixel ultrawide camera with support for Center Stage. This not only provides better visual for calls or photos but also offers a wide shot, and thanks to some smart software it will automatically keep you in the frame. That means if you squat down, it pans down, or if you jump up, it pans up, and if another person walks into the shot it will center you both. Very handy.

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

The new iMac still has a chin on the bottom, but I don’t think most folks will mind, especially since it’s color-matched to whatever shade you choose. And it's no longer the case that you might need to pay more to get the color you want, as all seven shades are available in any configuration of the iMac. I’ve been testing the new iMac in Purple, which perfectly matches the latest iPad mini and new AirPods Max – a lovely, light, and airy hue, with a lilac feel on the front and a deeper purple on the back and the accompanying stand. Apple also offers the iMac in Pink – the pink of your dreams, it looks stunning – Green, Blue, Yellow, Orange, and Silver.

As with previous models, a Magic Keyboard and Magic Mouse or a Magic Keyboard and Magic Trackpad color-matched to the iMac are included in the box. The colors are most visible on the keyboard, where the white keys are set on top of the colored aluminum and on the Touch ID rim.

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

The other big change is that Apple’s accessories have finally switched to USB-C. So we can finally say bye-bye to Lightning, at least for the Magic Keyboard, Magic Trackpad, and Magic Mouse. With the latter, you might assume that Apple also swapped the port, but it did not. The USB-C port still lives on the bottom of the Magic Mouse, just as with the previous Lightning port, so when it comes time to charge your mouse, once you've plugged it in you won't be able use the mouse until it’s charged. Maybe next year. A positive is that you get a color-matched braided USB-C to USB-C cable in the box.

Like the M3 iMac and the M1-powered edition, the higher-end iMac I reviewed has four Thunderbolt 4/USB-C ports on the rear right when looking at it from the front. These are great spots to connect peripherals, and the power button is on the other side. The base $1,299 iMac comes with two Thunderbolt 4/USB-C ports, and both models feature a headphone jack on the left-hand side.

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

If you opt for the iMac to have a gigabit Ethernet port, it’s found on the power brick. You’ll connect the iMac to the power center on the back with a proprietary circular connector.

To keep the design here so thin, there isn’t much room for other ports. Many of the actual components live in that chin on the bottom of the iMac. The stand is quite small at just 5.8 inches but it supports the iMac well, and thanks to some articulation you can tilt the display vertically up or down for the perfect viewing angle. The overall dimensions and weight are the same as the previous version as well – 54.7 x 46.1 x 14.7cm (21.5 x 18.1 x 5.8 inches) and 9.74lbs / 4.42kg, or 9.79lbs / 4.44 kg for the more expensive models. Even so, four USB-C ports, even on the base $1,299 configuration, would have been a welcome addition.

While you won’t physically see them, Apple has also built in a six-speaker system with force-canceling woofers that support Spatial Audio, and a three-microphone array – both are unchanged year on year, and audio playback for music and videos sounds rich. I also found the onboard speakers great for video calls, ensuring clear audio and blocking out any reverb when speaking.

As a whole, Apple’s iMac is still the best-looking all-in-one on the market. While it’s similar to two previous editions, the new colors – especially the more vibrant shades – ensure it provides a refreshing experience in use. It also looks simply stunning in any space.

• Design score: 4.5/5

Apple iMac 24-inch (M4) Review: Display

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

• 24 inches is plenty of room for multitasking
• Display gets vibrant, but is only 60Hz
• Nano texture option is impressive at blocking reflections

Just like the new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro with M4 or the iPad Pro with M4, the iMac now comes with the option of a Nano-texture glass finish. It costs an extra $200, but it drastically reduces visible reflections from light or other sources. Apple includes a special ‘polishing cloth’ for the finish in the box.

My apartment’s living room has a lot of windows, and gets direct sunlight for almost the entire day, so it was the perfect spot to put the Nano-texture to the test – I frequently have to move around when using a MacBook Air or Pro to reduce reflections. Thanks to the special coating I was able to keep the iMac on my kitchen counter and sit on a barstool, regardless of whether the light, whether natural or artificial, was reflecting on it. Yes, if it’s super bright you’ll notice it to a degree, but it usually diffuses quite naturally and lets you work in very bright environments.

Basically, it can cut down most glare, be it from natural or environmental sources, and if you’re already investing in a new iMac it will make it that bit more versatile. Regardless of whether you opt for Nano-texture, you still get a Retina 4.5K display with a 4480 x 5250 resolution aat 218 pixels per inch. It’s still only a 60Hz display, which is a bit disappointing, but if you’re not coming from a display with a higher refresh rate I think you’ll be right at home.

The display is excellent for daily web browsing, FaceTime calls, and other productivity use cases. I noticed inky blacks and crisp letters while writing this review and with emails. Streaming movies or TV shows on the display is a real treat, and might be a true use case if you use this in a family room or as the main device in an apartment. I could also easily edit photos in Photos, Pixelmator, or Photoshop, and even tackle video edits in Final Cut Pro.

While not as rich and with fewer contrast points, the iMac can be used to game comfortably compared to a MacBook Pro. The M4 chip does support dynamic caching and ray tracing, so titles like Resident Evil 2 were enjoyable here.

The one issuse I could see carried over from the previous models, and for new folks, is that the iMac only comes in one size – 24 inches. There are no longer 21.5-inch and 27-inch options, as there were when Apple offered Intel iMacs. I recommend getting a Mac mini and the display of your choice if you want a bigger or smaller screen.

• Display score: 4/5

@techradar

♬ original sound - TechRadar Apple iMac 24-inch (M4) Review: Performance

• M4 chip provides plenty of power
• The iMac can handle work and play, including AAA gaming titles
• Apple Intelligence features – like Writing Tools and Image Playground – run well here

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

There are two main configurations of the iMac with M4, depending on the type of M4 chip you want. The entry-level model should be just fine for most folks, thanks to Apple upping the base RAM to 16GB. That configuration includes an M4 chip with an 8-core CPU, 8-core GPU, and 16-core Neural Engine. You can pay a bit more, starting at $1,499, for an M4 Chip with a 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU, and a 16-core Neural Engine – the price will get higher as you up RAM and storage. The base configuration tops out at 24GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, while the higher-end versions go up to 32GB of RAM and 2TB of storage.

I’ve been testing the iMac with the 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU, and 16-core Neural Engine M4, and 32GB of RAM and 2TB of storage. Out of the box the new iMacs come with macOS Sequoia 15.1, and with it you're getting the first Apple Intelligence features like Writing Tools, a redesigned Siri with a rainbow glow, Clean Up in Photos, and Notifications in summaries, as well as general OS improvements like iPhone Mirroring, which is both super-handy and a little addictive.

In my daily testing, I could have Safari and Google Chrome both open with upwards of 20 tabs, as well as Slack, Messages, Pixelmator, Preview, Calendar, a couple more apps, and iPhone Mirroring open without the iMac losing speed. This was on the top configuration for the iMac, so your mileage might vary a bit, but as with most Apple silicon Macs should should find the iMac zippy, and be hard-pressed to get the onboard fan to kick in.

Benchmarks

Here's how the iMac with M4 (2024) performed in our TechRadar and Future Labs benchmarks:

Geekbench 6.3 Single-Core: 3,646

Geekbench 6.3 Multi-Core: 14,724

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

With so much power packed inside a modern, sleek build, this is a versatile machine that will be at home in a range of setups. It might be ideal for a shared computer amongst a family – macOS supports multiple profiles, and you’ll find parental controls. It has more than enough horsepower for casual mail and web browsing, and plenty of power for word processing or creating a PowerPoint. Similarly, it could be used for businesses that can load massive, thousand-row spreadsheets in Excel or Numbers and other more specific applications. You can also power through creative tasks like a large Logic file with several dozens of tracks and AI session players.

Even with AI or ML tasks, the iMac did quite well – I could ask for a summary of a lengthy and messy meeting recap in Notes, see a list of bullets in just a few seconds, and remove unwanted people from a group photo in seconds. I could perform a super-resolution boost to up the quality in Pixelmator Pro, and easily make automatic edits in LightRoom, all without a long wait time.

I also spent a few hours with the latest beta of macOS Sequoia 15.2 and its Apple Intelligence tools on the iMac with M4. Making custom visuals in Image Playground or my creative emojis in Genmoji is a lot of fun on this all-in-one. We can expect these features, alongside other new Apple Intelligence ones, to arrive before the end of 2024.

The iMac with M4 doesn’t disappoint on performance, and while the scores aren’t dramatically better than the M3 variant, those with an M1, especially if it's Intel-powered, will be ripe for an upgrade, and will reap the benefits in terms of speed. And considering the price drop of $100 / £100 / AU$200, it's kind of a steal for a brand-new Apple product.

• Performance score: 4.5/5

Should you buy the Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch M4 (2024)? Buy it if...

You want the best all-in-one computer

With tremendous performance, a vibrant screen, and a modern build, the M4 iMac stands out from other all-in-one computers – and it's cheaper than the previous model.View Deal

You want a colorful and sleek desktop computer

With a sleek and impressively thin build, the iMac has long looked the part, and with the M4 chip inside it offers plenty of power. And the new colors are delightful. View Deal

Don't buy it if...

You want the most powerful Mac

With the Mac mini and MacBook Pro supporting up to M4 Pro and M4 Max chips, you'll want to look to those for maximum power.View Deal

You want a bigger screen

24 inches might not be enough real estate for your needs, and if so you might want to get a Mac mini and pair it with a larger screen.View Deal

How I tested

After receiving the new iMac from Apple for testing, I unboxed it and then set it up as a new machine. I used the M4-powered iMac for seven days as my daily driver for work, general productivity, and play. I ran through all of my daily tasks in myriad applications like Safari, Google Chrome, Slack, and Pixelmator Pro, among others, and I also edited photos and videos, and played some AAA titles.

First reviewed November 2024

Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch M4 (2024) : Two-minute review

Apple's MacBook Pro 14-inch M4 is the full package, a near-perfect blend of price, performance, and utility. The M4 is the base edition of the newest and most powerful generation of Apple silicon (it's the same chip that's already running in the iPad Pro 13-inch) but it's still bursting with power, and more than capable of doing most of the heavy-lifting you want from a pro-level portable machine, as ready to edit raw photos and 4K video as it is to stand in as an able gaming console.

I've long been a fan of the MacBook Pro design, especially since Apple refined it by removing the Touch Bar, a neat innovation that never reached its full potential. My M4 Pro review unit, supplied by Apple, is a sleek-looking Space Black that's both elegant and wonderfully functional. The Magic Keyboard is still a typing gem, and I love the massive trackpad and all that space for resting my hands. And the stereo speakers that straddle the keyboard deliver powerful, crisp, and clear audio that could provide the soundtrack for your party in a pinch.

When I think about the reasons why you'd buy an M4 14-inch Mac Pro over the cheaper M3-running MacBook Air, the list is smaller than when I've compared the Pro and Air options previously, but there are a handful of standout features that make this MacBook Pro 14 M4 (2024) a near-perfect choice.

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

For starters, you have the ports. Where the Air tops out at a Thunderbolt 3 port, you get a trio of speedy Thunderbolt 4 ports with the MacBook Pro (you'll need to upgrade to the M4 Pro model for Thunderbolt 5). You also gain the SD card slot, an instant bonus for photo and video professionals. The larger body and ever-efficient 3-nanometer system-on-a-chip (SoC) means a promised 24 hours of battery life – for a Pro-level system, that's unheard of. Naturally, real-world usage times varied widely in my testing based on activity (AAA gaming can quickly eat up battery).

The biggest difference between Air and Pro might be the display. This Liquid Retina XDR is an inch larger than the MacBook Air's, and it offers a nano-texture option (an extra $150 / £150 / AU$230), something I highly recommend for cutting down on reflections in almost any situation.

With the MacBook Pro 14-inch M4, Apple has created a pro-grade portable that impresses in every respect. It joins Apple's pantheon of outstanding laptops, and is set to take a well-deserved place at or near the top of our best laptops rankings.

Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch M4 (2024) review: Price and availability

• Starts at $1,599 / £2,149 / AU$3,199
• Nano-texture (which you want) will run you another $150 / £150 / AU$230

Apple unveiled the M4 MacBook Pro 14-inch on October 30, along with the new MacBook Pro 16-inch, Mac mini, and iMac. All these new Macs are running variations of Apple's M4 silicon.

Pricing for the M4 MacBook Pro 14-inch starts at $1,599 / £1,599 / AU$2,499 for the base configuration, which comes with the standard M4 chip and 16GB of unified memory. If you want the M4 Pro chip, pricing starts at $1,999 / £1,999 / AU$3,299, while the M4 Max model starts at $2,399 / £2,399 / AU$3,999.

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

My Space Black review unit is the base model (10-core M4, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage) but with one key enhancement: the aforementioned nano-texture Liquid Retina XDR display coating, which costs an extra $150 / £150 / AU$230.

• Value score: 4/5

Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch M4 (2024) review: Specs

The MacBook Pro 14-inch M4 (2024) comes in three main configurations: our test unit, the base M4; a pair featuring the M4 Pro chip with options of 16- or 20-core GPU and up to 1TB storage; and at the high end, the M4 Max model, which offers one configuration with a 14-core CPU, 32-core GPU, 32GB of unified memory, and 1TB of SSD.

Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch M4 (2024) review: Design

• Virtually the same design as the previous model
• All the key ports you need
• Fantastic screen

Over the last few years I've become an unabashed fan of Apple's increasingly iconic laptop design. Where competitors often try different and sometimes odd design flourishes, Apple carefully peeled away all but what matters, leaving a MacBook Pro that looks and feels as if it was carved from a couple of pieces of 100% recycled black aluminum. Nothing feels like, or works like, it was left to chance. That impression starts when you put your finger under the lip of the display and flip open the clamshell to reveal the screen and keyboard. That hinge is as sure as it gets, offering the perfect blend of tension and smooth movement.

At 3.4lbs / 1.55kg. the MacBook Pro 14 M4 is not the lightest laptop or even the lightest MacBook. The excellent MacBook Air holds that distinction, and if you prize portability over power you might be reading the wrong review. On the other hand, the MacBook Pro 14 is by no means heavy (the 16-inch MacBook Pro, by contrast, weighs nearly 5lbs / 2.27kg).

Folded close, the MacBook Pro 14 is just 0.61 inches tall, 12.3 inches wide, and 8.71 inches deep. It slips into my backpack and, even though I'm used to carrying the M3 MacBook Air, I mostly forget it's there.

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Apple hasn't adjusted the ports since the M2 MacBook Pro, which is fine with me. We still have the HDMI-out port if you want to extend your display to a giant, high-resolution screen. Next to that is one of the three Thunderbolt 4 ports and an SD card slot, which I used to transfer some raw images from my DSLR. On the opposite side is the MagSafe charge port, two Thunderbolt 4 (40Gb/s) ports, and the 3.5mm headphone, although I generally connect my AirPods Pros 2 for audio. If you need Thunderbolt 5's 120Gb/s throughput speeds you'll want to upgrade to an M4 Pro chip.

The full-sized backlit Magic Keyboard is a pleasure to use (I'm composing this review on it), with ample travel and a satisfying typing feel. It includes the arrow keys and a full line of function keys. On the right side of that is the Touch ID power and sleep button. During setup, it took me a few moments to register my index finger which I now use to unlock the laptop and log into some online services. Below the keyboard is the massive, nearly 6-inch diagonal, and very responsive Forcetouch trackpad.

One of the benefits of a larger laptop is that Apple can fit a pair of speaker grilles on either side of the keyboard. They provide fantastic sound, especially when playing spatial audio (try Territory on Netflix).

The system features a pair of four-inch vents, one on each side. You usually won't hear the fan until you play AAA games or run benchmarks.

• Design score: 5/5

Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch M4 (2024) review: Display

• It's gorgeous
• Better brightness for SDR
• The coating you want

While it might look like Apple left the Liquid Retina XDR display from the M2 MacBook Pro untouched, there are a couple of noteworthy differences. But let's start with what's the same.

It's still the same mini-LED technology offering a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio and one billion colors with a P3 wide color and ProMotion with up to 120Hz refresh rate. The resolution is still nearly 4K at 3096 x 1964 pixels. However, Apple has boosted the brightness a bit, with SDR content now getting up to 1,000 nits. HDR still gets a peak brightness of 1600. These numbers primarily matter outdoors, where you might be battling back the sunshine, and I found that the display was quite effective at remaining viewable and usable in direct sunlight. I attribute this, however, only in part to the heightened SDR nit capabilities.

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My screen came with the optional nano-texture coating. This adds a fine texture across the entire screen that's meant to diffuse direct sunlight (the MacBook Pro comes with a special cloth for cleaning the screen). It costs an extra $150 / £150 / AU$230, but it's transformative technology. Not only does it effectively kill outdoor reflections, it also transforms how streaming and gaming content looks on the display. No more desk and overhead lamp bulbs peaking into the frame. No more window light killing your gaming groove. I honestly wonder why all laptops, Macs and otherwise, do not come with this texture. It's a game-changer.

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The nano texture helps make the screen viewable in direct sunlight. (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)Image 2 of 2

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

The 14.2-inch screen is big enough for lots of side-by-side app work. It's the perfect canvas for photo editing in Adobe Lightroom and video work in FinalCut Pro. but is also well suited to lighter productivity (like my efforts to write this review), email, and web browsing. It's not a touch screen because Apple refuses to bring that technology to Macs, even as the touch-friendly iPad Pro becomes more and more Mac-like. The trackpad is large enough that I don't miss touching a screen (as I did for years for Microsoft Surface Pro) but I can't help but wonder how a MacBook Pro with a touch, and Apple Pencil-friendly, display would alter the way we use this laptop.

Almost twins. The MacBook Pro 14 M4 is on the left, the MaxBook Pro 14 (2023) in on the right. (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

The other display change relates less to what you'll see on the Liquid Retina XDR panel and more to how others will see you through it. Apple has upgraded the FaceTime camera, which sits at the top of the display in a cutout notch, with a 12MP ultrawide that supports its Center Stage technology. Center Stage takes the full 12MP ultrawide frame and narrows the viewport so that you are always centered in the frame. It doesn't matter if you lean left or right or get up and walk around the room, Center Stage will follow. It's a useful feature in FaceTime – I tested it on a call with my wife who wondered why I kept moving around – and also on Zoom, where it worked well but was not useful in a broadcast video situation, so I turned it off. Center Stage did not work for me in Google Meet, where I conduct most of my video meetings.

The new Center Stage Camera (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

• Display score: 4.5/5

Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch M4 (2024) review: Performance

• M4 has the Pro power most need
• macOS Sequoia is flexible and easy to use
• AAA gaming on a Mac is real

Benchmarks

Here’s how the MacBook Pro 14-inch (2024) performed in our suite of TechRadar and Future Labs benchmark tests:

Cinebench R23 CPU: Single-Core: 2,180 Multi-Core: 13773
Geekbench 6.3 Single-Core: 3,845; Multi-Core: 15,136
Geekbench AI: Single: 4,764 Half Precision: 7,837 ; Quantized Score: 6.357

PugentBench Photoshop: 10,542
PugentBench Premier Pro: 4,618
Blender: Monster: 115.8; Junkshop: 73.17; Classroom: 188.1
Battery Life (web site surfing rundown): 18 hours and 31 minutes

The last time we reviewed a 14-inch MacBook Pro, it was running an M2 Pro. The base M4 inside my test unit has similar but not equal specs. It's still a 10-core CPU, but where the M2 Pro had a 16-core GPU, the M4 starts with 10 cores. However the M2 chips were all built on a 5-nanometer process, and the M4 line is on the more efficient three nanometers, which could lead to a better combination of power and efficiency.

The Neural Engine, which handles a lot of onboard machine learning and AI tasks, still has the same 16 cores.

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Apple is now backing all of its new Macs with at least 16GB of RAM. This pays dividends in AI (Apple Intelligence is on board) and graphically intense operations like ray tracing, which helps make games like Lies of P look incredible on the MacBook Pro 14.

In benchmark testing, I found the numbers in line with the M4 performance I saw from the iPad Pro 13 inch. Geekbench 6.3 numbers measurably exceed those of the M3 in my MacBook Air.

When I played Shadow of the Tomb Radar, Steam's internal frames per second counter showed I got anywhere between 42fps and 62fps. To my eyes, there was no tearing or dropped frames.

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I played games and dited RAW photos on the MacBook Pro. (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)Image 3 of 3

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

Numbers only tell you so much, and what matters most is real-world experience. I did do a fair amount of gaming on this MacBook Pro. As I noted above, the nano-texture screen makes games look amazing. In my Lies of P sessions (I connected an X Box controller via Bluetooth), I took note of the rich atmospherics, from rain to fire, and the level of detail that never descended into unwatchable blurs. Gaming on the MacBook Pro benefits from macOS Sequoia's Game Mode, which prioritizes gaming tasks for truly smooth and responsive performance.

The one time the M4 couldn't handle the task: four 4K 120fps streams playing back through FinalCut Pro. It had no trouble with four 4K 30fps streams. (Image credit: Future)

In FinalCut Pro, I edited four 4K 30fps streams at once, which played back smoothly in full-screen preview. However, when I tried the same thing with four 4K 120fps video clips shot on the iPhone 16 Pro Max, full-screen playback started dropping frames – an on-screen message confirmed this. It was one of the rare times I found the limits of Apple silicon.

Editing raw photos in Adobe Lightroom is a breeze. It's also worth noting that I rarely shut down other apps while I performed these operations, and as I noted earlier, the only times I heard the fans were during console-grade gameplay and Cinebench 23 benchmarking.

Keep in mind that my tests were all with the base M4 Apple silicon; imagine what you can expect from the M4 Pro and M4 Max.

Connectivity is mostly what you would expect, with support for Bluetooth 5.3 and Wi-Fi 6E. I am a bit disappointed, though, that Apple didn't future-proof the laptop a bit with Wi-Fi 7 support.

• Performance score: 5/5

Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch M4 (2024) review: Software

• macOS 15.1
• Some Apple Intelligence

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This is quite the long-form article boil-down. (Image credit: Future)Image 2 of 2

(Image credit: Future)

macOS Sequoia (macOS 15.1) has a lot to offer. There's the new Passwords app, which gives you a full-blown application for managing your passwords, and there's the updated Notes, which can now transcribe recordings. It's not as good as the transcription in Voice Recorder on Android (it doesn't identify multiple speakers) but it's still useful.

There are now Highlights in Safari that can take a 3,000-word-plus New Yorker article and boil it down to a one-paragraph summary. I worry that loses the nuance of such a piece, but if you're in a hurry...

iPhone mirroring is impressive. (Image credit: Future)

There's also iPhone Mirroring, which lets you access and control your iPhone from the MacBook Pro. It's supposed to be useful when you don't have access to your iPhone (maybe it's just in another room), and I found it easy to connect an iPhone 16 Pro and then have a virtual version of the iPhone on my MacBook Pro 14 desktop. What's even wilder is how I can control the phone from the desktop system. I can message, browse the web, and even drag and drop between the desktop and the iPhone interface. I did notice that while I can open the iPhone camera, I cannot use the MacBook Pro 14 to take a picture with the phone.

Apple Intelligence is here within macOS 15.1, in the form of a redesigned Siri that supports Type to Siri and which can be dragged around the desktop. I found that I could ask Siri how to do things with the MacBook Pro, like find my Wi-Fi settings and opening an app like Notes.

Apple Intelligence puts email summaries at the top of email, and the writing tools are embedded throughout the system. In Notes, I asked the Writing Tools to rewrite my lengthy meeting notes. It did a really good job of boiling it all down to a concise bullet list, which I could also easily undo. This could be very useful.

This is not all of Apple Intelligence. There's no Image Playground for instance, but that will show up with macOS 15.2, possibly by early December.

A taste of AI

During my testing, I did install the macOS 15.2 Developer Beta so that I could get a sample of this MacBook Pro 14 M4's Apple Intelligence capabilities. Because this update is not intended for the public, my thoughts on this dev beta were not considered as part of my final software, performance and overall review score.

First, I was excited to see Clean Up now inside of the Photos app. It works just as it does in iOS 18 on the iPhone, and was useful for removing some unwanted items from my photos.

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(Image credit: Lance Ulanoff)

ChatGPT's Siri integration, which I had to enable, is quite smooth, and looks and works as if it's a part of Siri. I used it in the Type to Siri mode, entering my prompt about how to create a goods presentation. The answer I got from ChatGPT through Siri was solid.

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(Image credit: Future)

Image Playground, the generative AI image tool which lives in an adorable kitty app icon in the Dock, is also part of this beta, but it's still gated by an invite and, as I write this, I still await mine.

Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch M4 (2024) review: Battery life

• Rated for 24-hour video streaming
• Lasted more than 18 hours in our tests
• Battery life is dependent on activity

The MacBook Pro 14 M4 is, according to Apple's promises, perhaps the first truly all-day laptop, rated to last up to 24 hours on a charge. Naturally, that's if you do nothing but stream seasons 1 through 3 of Stranger Things. Once you start adding in activities like web browsing, and emailing, Slack, gaming, and photo and video editing, those numbers change.

In our Future Labs tests, we found that we could get 18.5 hours of web browsing, which is two hours more than Apple is promising. Once I started gaming, though, battery life took a fast tumble; the system is clearly hard at work rendering the exquisite detail in Lies of P. I heard the fans going full-blast, and noticed the bottom of the laptop got quite warm. My advice is if you want to use the MacBook Pro 14 M4 as a gaming rig, keep the included 70W charger and woven USB-C to MagSafe cable close by.

Speaking of that charger; when I drained the system to zero, I was able to use it to recharge the MacBook Pro 14 M4 to 43% in 30 minutes. That's a bit less than the 50% I was expecting. To fully recharge, it took more than an hour.

I've had incredible battery experiences with the MacBook Air and its M3 chip. I can already see that, in normal use, the MacBook Pro 14 M4 is a sun-up-to-sun-down kind of system. That's impressive, and a big win for Pro fans.

• Battery score: 4.5 / 5

Should you buy the Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch M4 (2024)? Buy it if...

You want portable power without breaking the bank
The MacBook Pro 14-inch M4 (2024) is a good blend of performance, portability, and reasonable price.

You want sunrise-to-sunset battery life
You can easily get a day of activity with the power-sipping system

You’re Team Apple
There are great benefits to adding a MacBook when you already have an iPhone and an Apple account.

Don't buy it if...

You want the ultimate performance
This is a baseline M4, but the new MacBook Pro comes in M4 flavors that run up to the new M4 Max and a 16-inch display.

You need a touch screen
No MacBook offers it. Try an iPad or a Surface Pro.

You have a 2024 MacBook Pro
Apple hasn't redesigned the MacBook Pro, and the M2 and M4 performance numbers are not that far apart.

MacBook Pro 14-inch M4 (2024) review: Also consider

If our Apple MacBook Pro 14 M4 (2024) review leaves you considering other options, here are two laptops to consider...

Apple MacBook Air (M3, 2022)
The follow-up to one of the best laptops ever released, the 2022 MacBook Air is svelte and sleek, with a larger screen and the same outstanding battery life. If you want a MacBook, but don't need the power of the MacBook Pro 14-inch, this is the one to get.

Check out our Apple MacBook Air (M2, 2022) review

Dell XPS 13 Plus
Its sleek and slim design, combined with a gorgeous OLED screen, great sound quality, and lattice-free keyboard embodies the luxury inherent of an Ultrabook. However, it’s also prone to overheating, and the touch bar is annoyingly inaccessible.

Read more: Dell XPS 13 Plus review

How I tested the Apple MacBook Pro 14 M4 (2024)

Apple MacBook Pro 14 M4 (2024) in studio (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

• I spent more than a week with the MacBook Pro 14 M4 (2024)
• I used it as an everyday productivity, creativity, and entertainment device
• I ran benchmarks

Apple provided me with the base MacBook Pro 14 M4 system, and I used it every day to test and help craft this review. I set it up as a work system, and as one for production and play. I used it indoors and outdoors.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed November 2024

Two-minute review

The new Mac mini (M4, 2024) doesn’t just prove that good things come in small packages – it also confirms the old adage that good things come to those who wait.

That’s because ever since Apple’s rather strange decision to debut the M4 chip in the iPad Pro in early 2024, myself – and I’m sure other Mac fans – have been not-so-patiently waiting for Apple devices that can take full advantage of the M4 chip (as good as the iPad Pro is, you can only run iPadOS apps on it – which by their very nature are not that demanding).

The fact that Apple has launched a new Mac mini that not only comes with the new M4 chip (or the more powerful M4 Pro), but has redesigned it to be smaller than ever – while also keeping the price of entry the same – is incredibly exciting. In my review of the Mac mini (2023), I gave a rare five stars and called it the best mini PC you can buy, and even before the launch I was banging on about how any rumored new Mac mini for 2024 would be more exciting than new MacBooks.

Now that I’ve actually got the Mac mini (M4, 2024) in my hands (and on my desk), I’m pleased to say that I’ve not been disappointed, and once again the Mac mini is the most affordable way to get into the Mac ecosystem, while also proving that if you’re looking for a small form factor desktop PC, there’s not a single Windows 11 PC out there that can even come close.

Perhaps the best news (apart from the mere fact that the M4 Mac mini exists) is that Apple has kept the price of the base model at just $599 / £599 / AU$999, a welcome decision that—combined with the new design and improved specs—means the Mac mini is now better value than ever. If you’ve been keen to join the macOS ecosystem but can’t afford a MacBook or iMac, then the Mac mini remains an excellent choice.

(Image credit: Future)

For people after even more power, there’s an M4 Pro model as well that costs $1,399 / £1,399 / AU$2,199. Both models come with 16GB unified memory as standard (double the amount as the previous model), and will receive Apple Intelligence AI features as they are rolled out.

Not only do you get the latest slice of Apple Silicon with the new Mac mini, but it has also had a major redesign – its biggest in over a decade – making it more compact than ever. It’s seriously impressive how small the new Mac mini is, and it makes placing it in any room of your home (or office) easier than ever. Thanks to two USB-C ports at the front, the Mac mini (M4, 2024) is an ideal mini PC for your front room – especially as gaming is a renewed focus for Apple. This could be the closest we ever come to an Apple games console – and with a price tag below the PS5 Pro, this could be the start of a resurgence for Mac gaming.

From my time with the Mac mini I was incredibly impressed with the performance of this tiny PC. The latest version of macOS, Sequoia, ran smoothly, and even advanced tasks such as video editing were handled with ease – and the Mac mini kept virtually silent throughout. The model I reviewed is the M4 version, and to be honest it performed so well for all the tasks I used it for that I would recommend this model over the far more expensive M4 Pro iteration.

So, Apple has done it again: it’s released the best small form factor PC in the world, and I can’t see Windows 11 or Linux alternatives coming close to the build quality, performance and value for money of the new Mac mini for a long, long time. If ever.

(Image credit: Future) Mac mini (M4, 2024) (M4 Pro, 2024) review: Price and availability

• Starts at $599 / £599 / AU$999
• Same price as M2 model
• M4 Pro model much more expensive at $1,399 / £1,399 / AU$2,199

When the Mac mini (M4, 2024) was announced and pre-orders went live on October 29, 2024, one of the most pleasant surprises was that the base M4 model comes with the same price tag as the M2 model - starting at $599 / £599 / AU$999.

The M2 Mac mini already represented excellent value for money – it would be extremely difficult to find a compact Windows 11 PC at that price range that offered the same level of performance – so the fact that you’re getting an upgrade in both performance and design for no extra cost is something to applaud – though if you recently bought an M2 Mac mini, you might feel a bit aggrieved.

The M4 chip inside the Mac mini is the same as the one in much more expensive devices, including the iPad Pro (starting at $1,299 / £1,299 / AU $2,199), iMac ($1,299 / £1,299 / AU$1,999) and 14-inch MacBook Pro ($1,599 / £1,599 / AU$2,499). Sure, with the Mac mini you don’t get a screen, nor do you have the ability to work on it while traveling, but offering the same amount of power for around half the price still represents incredible value for money.

The M4 chip features up to a 10-core CPU (4 performance cores and 6 efficiency cores) and a 10-core GPU, up from the 8-core CPU and 8-core GPU of the base M3 chip (Apple never released a Mac mini with the M3, it should be noted), and supports up to 38 trillion operations per second (TOPS) in its 16-core neural engine (Apple's version of an NPU) - so when Apple Intelligence, the company’s generative AI (artificial intelligence) feature does come to macOS, the M4 Mac mini will be more than prepared.

It’s not just the M4 chip that brings a performance upgrade, as the base model now comes with 16GB of unified memory, twice that of the M2 Mac mini’s base model. Not only does this mean the new Mac mini is much better at multitasking (as there’s more memory to support multiple apps running at once), but it’s also more future-proof.

(Image credit: Future)

You can also get the new Mac mini with the more powerful M4 Pro chip, which starts at $1,399 / £1,399 / AU$2,199. That’s quite a price jump, and while the M4 Pro is certainly a promising bit of silicon on paper, it’ll have to really outperform the M4 to justify the price difference.

We’ve been sent the M4 version to review, and for the majority of people, that should be more than capable enough for the kind of tasks they’ll need this tiny PC to perform. Having the M4 Pro option is nice, despite the price hike, as you are getting a seriously powerful PC in a tiny and almost silent form factor.

There was also a brief moment between Apple announcing the new Mac mini and it revealing the new MacBook Pros with M4 Pro where the M4 Pro Mac mini was arguably the most powerful Mac device ever. Remarkable.

• Value score: 5/5

Mac mini (M4, 2024): Specs Mac mini (M4, 2024): Design

• Brilliant, smaller design
• Front USB-C ports are welcome
• Power button placement is a bit awkward

The Mac mini (M4, 2024) has received its biggest redesign since arguably 2011, and it’s now what Apple calls its “smallest computer ever”.

Where the previous model had dimensions of 197 x 197 x 35.8 mm (7.75 x 7.75 x 1.41 inches), the new Mac mini (M4, 2024) measures just 127 x 127 mm x 50 mm (5 x 5 x 2 inches). When taking it out of the box, it’s seriously impressive how small it is, easily fitting in the palm of your hand. Placing it on top of the M2 model, the older Mac mini looked big and bulky – something I’d never have imagined, as that was an impressively small bit of kit when it launched.

The new Mac mini is a bit taller than the older models, but if that’s the sacrifice that had to be made in order to shrink the overall footprint of the PC, while packing it with the latest tech, then it’s one I’m happy with. It’ll easily fit behind a monitor, and even in front of a screen, it’s unobtrusive enough that you’ll hardly notice it. Its small size also means you can plug it into your TV and it won’t look out of place in your lounge. For anyone holding out for an Apple games console, the Mac mini (M4, 2024) could end up being as close as you’re going to get.

As if to prove that the new Mac mini can be just as at home in a lounge as in an office or studio, it now comes with two USB-C ports at the front, alongside a headphone jack for easy access.

(Image credit: Future)

At the rear there’s a power port (impressively, despite the tiny size, there’s no bulky external PSU), an Ethernet port and an HDMI that’s capable of up to 8K at 60Hz, or 4K at 240Hz.

There are also three additional USB-C ports. While the front USB-C ports are limited to USB 3 speeds (10Gb/s), the three on the back are much faster. With the M4 model, the rear ports are Thunderbolt 4, with speeds of up to 40Gb/s. If you go for the M4 Pro model, those are upgraded to Thunderbolt 5, with speeds of up to 120Gb/s.

While it’s a shame that the front USB-C ports are slower than the rear ones, if you’re mainly using them for plugging in and charging peripherals, they’ll be fine, leaving the rear ports for tasks that need faster data transfer speeds – such as external hard drives or additional screens.

While the new design is a triumph on the whole, one element of the redesign has caused controversy – the placement of the power button. Rather than being on the rear right-hand corner of the Mac mini, as with previous models, it is now located on the bottom of the Mac mini by the rear left-hand corner. While the Mac mini is raised from the surface you place it on by a circular air vent bottom-center of the PC, you still need to lift it up to reach the button. As the new Mac mini is so small and light, and there are no moving parts inside, this isn’t too much of a problem, though if you’ve placed the Mac mini in a TV cabinet or somewhere where it’s hard to reach, it could be frustrating.

There are workarounds – you could just put the Mac mini to sleep rather than shutting it down, and waking it up by moving the mouse or tapping the keyboard, but even Macs need to be fully powered down every now and again. You could also use the Wake-on-LAN feature of macOS, which allows you to turn on the Mac mini by sending a command over the internet, though again you’ll need the Mac mini to be asleep, not fully turned off.

It’s certainly not the end of the world, but it’s not one of Apple’s better design choices. Placing the power button on the top or front of the Mac mini might ruin the aesthetics, but would have been easier to reach – or even having the power button still on the bottom, but on one of the front corners would have helped.

(Image credit: Future)

The new Mac mini only comes with the device itself and a power cord. Any other cables or peripherals will need to be bought separately (though if you’ve already got, say, an HDMI cable and a mouse and keyboard, then that shouldn’t be too much of a burden).

If you need peripherals to go with the Mac mini you can buy the Magic Keyboard for $99 / £99 / AU$149, the Magic Trackpad for $129 / £129 / AU$209, and the Magic Mouse for $79 / £79 / AU$149. These have had slight design changes as they now use the universal USB-C cable to plug in and charge, rather than Apple’s proprietary Lightning cable, which is good to see.

Sadly, Apple didn’t take the opportunity to move the charging port of the Magic Mouse – it’s still located at the bottom of the mouse, which is a baffling design choice as it means when you plug it in to charge you can’t continue using it.

Of course, you don’t need these new peripherals as any Mac-compatible mouse or keyboard (which is any mouse or keyboard, basically) will work – though there’s no full-size USB A port anymore, so if those peripherals aren’t USB-C or Bluetooth, then you might need to buy an adapter.

• Design score: 4.5/5

Mac mini (M4, 2024) review: Performance

• Excellent performance
• Virtually silent
• Can even play some games

Once upon a time I was rather worried that Apple had fallen out of love with Macs, and especially the Mac mini, as the company seemed far more enamored with its iPhone and iPads, leaving its Macs to make do with incremental hardware updates within increasingly outdated designs.

Then Apple dumped Intel and made its own chips, starting with the M1 in 2020, and my doubts have pretty much vanished, as every major Mac device has not only been upgraded to an M-series chip, but they’ve also had noticeable redesigns as well, proving that Apple is committed to its Mac lineup. So, it’s with some relief that the Mac mini has not just got the latest M4 (and M4 Pro) chips, but also a major redesign as well, as it’s likely to be one of Apple’s more niche products.

It shouldn’t be – since getting M-Series chips, the Mac mini has become the best small form factor PC you can buy. Small PCs with either Windows 11 or Linux simply cannot match the build quality, performance, and price of Apple’s tiny machine, and with the M4 chip, that gap has become even wider.

Along with the 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU of the M4, the chip contains 28 billion transistors, up from 25 billion in the M3, but is still built on the same 3nm process node from TSMC, so a generational leap is out of the question.

In synthetic benchmarks there’s around a 20% increase in CPU performance when using Geekbench 6, though GPU performance upticks are more modest, with between 5% - 14% increases in benchmarks.

(Image credit: Future)

While any increase is always welcome, those kind of numbers mean if you have an M3 Mac mini, you won’t really see any major differences in performance, so upgrading might not be worth it (unless you absolutely have to have the smaller design of the newer Mac mini, which I wouldn’t blame you for).

Where things do get interesting when comparing performance between the M3 and M4 Mac mini is when it comes to AI – both artificial intelligence and Apple Intelligence. With the M4, Apple has included another 16-core Neural Engine dedicated to machine learning and AI tasks, and in AI benchmarks the results are pretty remarkable, with around a 35% increase in performance over the M3. Whether or not Apple Intelligence, or AI in general, will usher in the computing revolution we’ve been promised by many manufacturers has yet to be seen, but at the very least you know that if you buy an M4 Mac mini (or any M4 device), you’ll be in good stead should you wish to use future AI tools.

According to Apple, the M4 chip is capable of 38 TOPS - that's 38,000,000,000,000 operations per second – which is incredibly impressive and means on-device AI tasks should run well. However, the Snapdragon X Elite, like the M4 an ARM-based chip built for Windows 11 devices, offers 45 TOPS. That difference in operations per second isn’t huge, and it might not even be noticeable, especially when comparing Windows 11’s Copilot AI tool to Apple Intelligence, but it’s worth noting.

Apple Intelligence is introduced to Macs in macOS Sequoia 15.1 – and you’ll need to update the new Mac mini to get that version – thankfully, it’s quick and easy process.

The model I review here is the Mac mini with M4 chip, 16GB of unified memory, and a 512GB SSD. For day-to-day tasks, where I used the Mac mini for writing this review, browsing the web and general admin, it worked brilliantly. The operating system – macOS Sequoia – booted quickly, and every app I used loaded speedily and ran smoothly.

We’re now four years on from when Apple made the major move from Intel-based hardware to ARM-based, and that has allowed pretty much every major Mac application to make the move as well. This means it’s now very rare to have to use Apple’s Rosetta 2 tool, which allows apps made for Intel Macs to run on modern Apple Silicon Macs. That tool was essential in the early M1 days, and it meant you could still run your apps with minimal impact to performance.

Now that almost every Mac app, including those from third parties, runs natively on Apple Silicon means they can fully take advantage of the power of the M4 chip (though Steam, the popular store and launcher for PC games, still requires Rosetta to run).

Benchmarks

Here’s how the Mac mini (M4, 2024) performed in our suite of benchmark tests:

Cinebench 2024 CPU: Single-Core: 161; Multi-Core: 833
Geekbench 6.3 Single-Core: 3,838; Multi-Core: 14,838
Blender: Monster: 391; Junkshop: 187.6; Classroom: 185.2

One of the best things about Apple’s M-class chips is that the company has made a big commitment to making them as power-efficient as possible, and while this might benefit MacBooks more, as it means they can enjoy longer battery lives, the Mac mini also benefits, as the more efficient M4 chip runs cooler, which allowed Apple to shrink the body of the Mac mini – and it also means the built-in fans that are used to expel hot air when the components are being used rarely kick in. For almost all of my time using the new Mac mini, it was virtually silent. This is great when using it in an office or studio, and it also makes it an ideal mini PC for the front room.

Even when switching to more intensive tasks, such as editing videos in Adobe Premiere Pro, the Mac mini kept pace brilliantly as I added 4K footage and scrolled between scenes. When it comes to gaming, the Mac mini (M4, 2024) was surprisingly good – on high graphical settings, it ran Shadow of the Tomb Raider at 44fps, well above the 30fps I consider to be minimum for a game to be playable, and with a bit of tweaking I think you’d get to 60fps.

Running Total War: Warhammer 3 at Ultra scored just 22.1fps, however. This game is more strenuous on the CPU rather than the GPU, though when I set the visual settings to low it hit 55.4fps. These are modern and ambitious games, so for a compact PC that’s not designed for gaming at this price, that performance is pretty darn great, and you have access to a huge library of Mac games through Steam and other platforms. Throughout playing, the Mac mini remained completely silent.

While the M4 model isn’t going to trouble the PS5 Pro any time soon when it comes to playing games, the fact that such a small device can still give a decent experience is pretty cool, and I assume the M4 Pro model is an even more competent gaming device, though for the price that is a lot steeper than any console - and even many gaming laptops.

Apple has also made a big deal about the M4 chip and its AI abilities, and from my tests it's... fine. Apple Intelligence is in its infancy, so I could not try out all the features that are coming, but I was able to edit a photo in the included Photos app and use the AI-powered Clean Up feature to remove elements from a photo. It worked as well as you might expect these early AI features to perform - it was quick and easy to do, but the background the AI generates in order for the objects you select (by painting over them with a brush) left mistakes and errors that mean it's far from perfect, and you can easily tell AI has been used.

From the AI tools so far, they are interesting yet not essential - bascially the same problem many AI tools have at the moment. For the Mac mini's part, it performed those AI feats all on-device, and they were done quickly and speedily. This is an area where I can see the Mac mini improving.

• Performance score: 4.5/5

Mac mini (M4, 2024): Should you buy it? Buy it if…

You want an affordable Mac
This is the cheapest way to get into the Mac ecosystem, and it's worth every cent thanks to excellent performance and a gorgeous design.

You're looking for a mini PC
Put simply, if you want a small form factor PC, this is the one to get. No Windows 11 mini PC can come close.

You've been waiting for an Apple console
Thanks to its compact size, you can easily fit this below (or behind) a TV, and it does a decent job of playing games, though the M4 Pro model may offer a better experience with modern titles.

Don’t buy it if…

You want a gaming PC
While you can play a growing library of Mac-compatible games, if you want to play the latest titles at high definitions and graphical settings whacked up to the max, buy a dedicated gaming PC instead.

You like to tinker and upgrade your PCs
Due to the size, and Apple's general disdain for allowing its customers to open up their devices, this is not a PC you can upgrade yourself. A barebones mini PC like a NUC will be much better.

First reviewed November 2024

Two-minute review

Apple’s new MacBook Pro 16-inch isn’t a revolutionary release like the new, smaller, Mac mini (M4, 2024), and instead is more of a specs refresh for the company’s most powerful laptop.

So, you don’t get any new design tweaks with the new model – but you do get the very latest M4-series chips which represent the pinnacle of Apple’s mobile hardware.

This is good news for people who are looking for an incredibly powerful workstation laptop that offers exceptional build quality and the kind of performance that many desktop PCs would struggle to achieve. For those of us who have been waiting for the M4 chip to show up in a device that can take full advantage of its power (this year’s iPad Pro, which debuted the M4 chip, is limited by running iPadOS, an operating system designed for tablets, with rather basic apps to match), the 16-inch MacBook Pro Apple announced in October 2024 could be just what you’ve been waiting for – though there are caveats.

Both of the new 16-inch and 14-inch MacBook Pros feature, for the first time, the M4 Pro and M4 Max (depending on configuration), which are even more powerful versions of the M4 – which has already proved to be a powerful chip in its own right. The model Apple sent me to review comes with the M4 Pro, a chip with up to a 14-core CPU consisting of up to 10 performance cores and four efficiency cores, and a GPU with up to 20 cores (twice that of the base M4 chip).

While this isn’t the most powerful Apple chip (the M4 Max comes with a CPU with up to 16-cores, featuring 12 performance cores and four efficiency cores, and a GPU with 40 cores), the M4 Pro will likely be more than enough for people who want a laptop that can handle professional tasks such as code compilation, 3D animation and video editing.

For people who just want a laptop for browsing the web, creating documents, and editing home movies and photos, this will be complete overkill. As the core balance of the M4 Pro shows, with more performance cores than efficiency ones, Apple’s focus with the new 16-inch MacBook Pro is all about extreme performance (the chip will switch between cores depending on the kind of task you’re doing – if you want a lot of power, the performance cores are used, for lighter use, the efficiency cores kick in).

(Image credit: Future)

This means unless you’re a creative professional, the 16-inch MacBook Pro (M4 Pro, 2024) really won’t be for you. And, with a starting price of $2,499 / £2,499 / AU$3,999 for the base configuration, which comes with the M4 Pro chip and 24GB of unified memory, this is the kind of investment that you should think very carefully about. That’s even more true of the M4 Max model, which starts at $3,499 / £3,499 / AU$5,699. Sure, you’re getting one of the most powerful laptops in the world for that price, but if you’re not going to need that kind of power, you’ll just be wasting money.

If you’re the kind of person who needs the very latest and most powerful hardware you might also be tempted – but don’t forget that it’s very likely we’ll see an M5 model next year. Should you buy the new MacBook Pro 16-inch, however, you should be confident in the knowledge that you’ll not need to upgrade again for a very long time.

For anyone hoping for a major redesign, then you will be disappointed. One thing I’ll say in Apple’s defense here is that the current design of the MacBook Pro 16-inch is pretty great – there’s not much I’d actually change about it. Even though the screen isn’t OLED (rumors suggest we could see that in 2026), the Liquid Retina XDR screen remains one of the finest you can get in a laptop – and there is at least a new nanotexture coating option that reduces reflections and screen glare, which will be welcome for people looking to use the new MacBook Pro out in daylight, or in brightly lit offices or studios – though this does come at an extra cost.

So, once again Apple has created an absolutely phenomenal laptop… that I can’t really recommend to everyone. If you’re a creative professional who is looking for a portable workstation to chew through some seriously taxing tasks, then this could be an excellent investment that could even save you money in the long run (with projects completing faster, you can take on more clients, and you won't need to buy a new laptop for many, many years).

That said, if you own an M2 Pro or M3 Pro model, the M4 Pro doesn’t offer enough of a performance leap to justify buying a new MacBook Pro just yet. The best move in that case would be to wait a few more years. If the M6 Pro MacBook Pro in 2026 does indeed come with a major redesign, then an upgrade is more justifiable, as the performance improvements should also be more noticeable. This isn’t a knock on the M4 Pro – it’s just that the M2 Pro and M3 Pro are just so good, you really shouldn’t feel like you need to upgrade just yet.

If you don’t need the kind of power that the new MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro, 2024) offers, then I strongly recommend you look at the 15-inch MacBook Air (M3, 2024) instead, which is far more affordable, offers excellent performance and is all wrapped up in Apple’s iconic build quality and design.

(Image credit: Future) MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro, 2024) review: Price and availability

• Starts at $2,499 / £2,499 / AU$3,999
• Same price in US as M3 model
• Cheaper in UK and Australia than M3 model

It should come as no surprise that the new MacBook Pro 16-inch is a very expensive laptop. This is a workstation designed for professional use and packed with some of the most powerful and cutting-edge mobile technology you can get, along with a gorgeous and expansive 16-inch screen.

Still, with a starting price of $2,499 / £2,499 / AU$3,999 for the M4 Pro model with 24GB of unified memory, this is one heck of an investment and one that should be carefully considered.

As with previous MacBook Pros, there’s scope to configure the 16-inch MacBook Pro before you buy by adding more memory and a larger SSD (up to 128GB of memory and 8TB of SSD storage with some models), but the price rises exponentially. You can also get a base model with the more powerful M4 Max chip, which starts at $3,499 / £3,499 / AU$5,699, and again you can up the memory and storage.

You can also add a nano-texture display which reduces reflections and screen glare, which may prove very helpful for people who work in industries where graphics are essential (such as photography, digital arts, and filmmaking), but this is also an additional cost – it’ll add $150 / £150 / AU$230 to an already high price tag.

Interestingly, while the base model of the MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro, 2024) remains the same price as the M3 Pro and M2 Pro models launched at in the US ($2,499), in both the UK and Australia the new M4 Pro base model is actually slightly cheaper by £100 and AU$300.

If you want something more affordable, your options are limited. There’s no 16-inch MacBook Pro with the base M4 chip – you’ll have to go for the 14-inch MacBook Pro for that. The smaller model, which starts at $1,599 / £1,599 / AU$2,499 for a configuration with the M4 chip and 16GB of unified memory now occupies the space the now obsolete 13-inch MacBook Pro used to – a more affordable pro device with more modest specifications for people who want more power than a MacBook Air can provide, but without costing the sort of astronomical figures that high-end MacBook Pros demand.

The 14-inch model with M4 Pro starts at $1,999 / £1,999 / AU$3,299, so if you want to save $500 and don’t mind a smaller screen (the rest of the specs are the same as the 16-inch model), then this is worth considering.

Compared to Windows 11 alternatives, there’s the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 8, which costs around $1,000 / £1,000, and offers some decent specs and a solid build quality, and a gorgeous screen – plus it’s a 2-in-1 laptop which you won’t get with any MacBook.

Other Windows 11 workstations offering similar performance are around the MacBook Pro’s price, such as the Asus Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED, which comes with a second screen built above the keyboard (think the Touch Bar, but much larger). While this could also be dismissed as a gimmick, both Asus and Lenovo show that Windows 11 laptops have a far larger variety of form factors and designs.

• Value score: 3.5/5

MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro, 2024): Specs

(Image credit: Future) MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro, 2024): Design

• No new design
• Screen remains one of the best in a laptop
• Awkward to use when commuting

Once again, Apple has kept the design of the MacBook Pro unchanged – so from first glance you won’t really notice any difference. It’s still got the rather chunky dimensions of 14.01 x 9.77 x 0.66 inches (356 x 248 x 17mm) and a weight of 4.7 lbs and 2.2kg. While it’s a stylish-looking laptop with that unmistakable Apple aesthetic, this is a large laptop that a lot of people might struggle with.

Whilst writing this review on the MacBook Pro 16-inch, I traveled into London on the train, and the sheer size of the laptop made using it on the drop-down desk quite awkward – it certainly made me miss my 13-inch MacBook Pro.

The size of the MacBook Pro 16-inch is understandable, as there are a lot of powerful components that need plenty of airflow to keep cool, and the large screen also means the overall size of the laptop needs to be on the bigger side. But if you’re looking for a portable laptop you can whip out while commuting, you may be better off looking at the 14-inch model, or going with a MacBook Air.

That said, when walking around with the MacBook Pro in my backpack, it didn’t feel uncomfortably heavy – and the 16-inch screen really is a joy to work on.

Superficially, port selection for the 16-inch MacBook Pro seems the same, with a MagSafe 3 port for attaching the power supply, two USB-C ports, and 3.5mm headphone jack on the left-hand side, and a USB-C port, HDMI and SDXC memory card slot on the right.

This is a decent selection of ports, though not mind-blowing. The memory card slot continues to be a welcome inclusion for photographers and videographers, as you won’t need an adaptor, and the HDMI port makes plugging the 16-inch MacBook Pro into a monitor, TV, or projector incredibly easy. The lack of USB-A ports means if you have older peripherals you’ll need an adapter to use them.

(Image credit: Future)

On the surface the ports may seem the same, but Apple’s made quite a drastic change with the USB-C ports, which are now all Thunderbolt 5 compatible. This offers far faster data transfer speeds (up to 120Gb/s) than the Thunderbolt 4 ports included in the previous model (which offered up to 40Gb/s). While Thunderbolt 5 devices are currently few and far between (and quite expensive), it does set the MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro, 2024) up as a future-proof device – and if you work with very large files, this new standard will be very welcome.

On the other hand, if you’re perfectly happy with the speeds your current USB-C SSD offers, then it’ll work just as well with the new MacBook Pro, and Thunderbolt 5 is backward compatible.

The 16-inch 3456 x 2234 Liquid Retina XDR display remains the same (with mini-LED, 1,000 nits sustained brightness, wide color P3 gamut, ProMotion technology) as previous models. The screen offers a sharp image quality thanks to its 7.7 million pixels, resulting in a pixel density of 254ppi (pixels per inch). However, you can now configure the new MacBook Pro 16-inch to come with a nano-texture surface, which gives the screen a matte quality that minimizes reflections and glare.

The model of MacBook Pro that Apple sent me to test came with that nano-texture surface, and in the bright overhead lights of our London office, the effect was subtle yet pleasant – there was no glare or reflections, and I can imagine outside in direct sunlight the MacBook Pro 16-inch is just as comfortable to use (as it’s October and I’m in the UK, direct sunlight isn’t really a thing).

(Image credit: Future)

Whether or not it’s worth the extra $150/£150/AU$230 will really depend on personal taste and professional needs. While the nano-texture isn’t an upgrade that will immediately wow you, it can be useful if you work in bright environments. You might also feel that when spending the kind of money Apple is asking for the new MacBook, an extra $150 isn’t too egregious – and remember, once you’ve bought the MacBook Pro, you won’t be able to add the nano-texture.

This leads to an ongoing complaint about Apple devices. While there’s no doubt they look great, they are very difficult – if not impossible – to open up and repair. Upgrading components is also out of the question. While the fact that the unified memory is part of the M4 chip, so adding additional memory isn’t possible, it’d be nice to be able to add extra internal storage, for example.

Of course, this has never been the way Apple does things, but when even its competitors like Microsoft are getting better at allowing users to upgrade and fix their devices, Apple is increasingly out of touch – and the difficulty fixing a faulty MacBook Pro sits uneasily with Apple’s eco-friendly messaging in other departments.

There’s one final change to the design of the new MacBook Pro 16-inch that people might miss at first – but it’s a doozy. The webcam has been overhauled with a new 12MP ultra-wide sensor. Using the Center Stage feature, the MacBook Pro crops footage and uses machine learning to keep you centered on the screen – even if you move about. This is the first time Center Stage has been added to a MacBook – in the past the feature has been limited to iPads and the Studio Display monitor.

It works well, and while it’s far from essential if you sit still when on video calls, it’s nice to see it included in a MacBook. Even more impressive is the Desk View feature, which allows you to simultaneously record footage of yourself as normal, while also recording footage of your desk.

(Image credit: Future)

For tutorials, unboxing videos, and more it’s a nice feature and it’s very clever how the webcam captures the footage at the same time using a single camera – usually, you’d need to use two separate cameras for the different angles. This solution is easy and elegant, and while the quality of the footage won’t compare to using two external cameras, it’s a cool feature to have.

Overall the MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro, 2024) design doesn’t contain many surprises, but the ones it does are pretty nifty. If you’re after a more innovative laptop design, however, then you may still be disappointed.

• Design score: 4/5

(Image credit: Future) MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro, 2024) review: Performance

• Not a massive leap over M3 Pro
• Still very impressive performance
• Handles even the most intensive tasks well

Unlike the 14-inch model, there’s no base M4 option with the 16-inch MacBook Pro, making the M4 Pro-toting model the ‘entry level’ choice. It features a 14-core CPU with 10 performance cores four efficiency cores, and a 20-core GPU.

The base model also comes with 24GB of unified memory with a bandwidth of 273GB/s, and you can configure it to come with 48GB (though you’ll need to up the M4 Pro chip to the model with a 16-core CPU).

If you go for the M4 Max, that starts at 36GB of memory and can be configured with 48GB, 64GB, and 128GB. Memory bandwidth is also increased to 410GB/s for the 14-core CPU M4 Max and an absolutely huge 546GB/s bandwidth for the 16-core CPU model.

Putting jargon aside, any model of this year’s MacBook Pro 16-inch is going to offer excellent performance for pretty much any task. According to Apple’s own numbers (which should obviously be taken with a degree of salt), you should see around two to three times the performance of an Intel MacBook and double that of the M1 Pro MacBook. The gap between the M3 Pro and M4 Pro is less pronounced, which considering the M3 Pro only came out last year, is not too surprising.

Benchmarks

Here’s how the MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro, 2024) performed in our suite of benchmark tests:

Cinebench 2024 GPU: 9,122
Cinebench 2024 CPU: Single-Core: 175; Multi-Core: 1,688
Geekbench 6.3 Single-Core: 3,956; Multi-Core: 23,030
Blender: Monster: 873.2; Junkshop: 470.9; Classroom: 420.5
Battery Life (TechRadar movie test): 21 hours and 32 minutes

The model of 16-inch MacBook Pro Apple sent me to review is the version with a 14-core CPU, 20-core GPU, and 48GB memory – so essentially the mid-range model.

In our benchmark tests, the M4 Pro MacBook Pro saw a decent bump in numbers compared to an M3 Max model, such as in Geekbench 6, where the multi-core score was 23,030 compared to the M3 Max’s 21,345. Not a groundbreaking difference, admittedly, but it shows a reliable increase in performance between generations. I certainly wouldn’t recommend anyone with an M3 Pro MacBook Pro – or even an M2 Pro – shelling out to upgrade to the M4 Pro model based on these results.

Of course, synthetic benchmarks only tell a part of the story, and in my time using the MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro, 2024), I was extremely impressed with the overall performance. macOS Sequoia ran fast and smooth, and there was no sign of lag or slowdown even when I had several apps open at once (including the Chrome web browser with almost 20 tabs open).

The new MacBook Pro 16-inch, as with previous models, is pretty overkill for day-to-day tasks. Still, it’s good to see those essential tasks performed so effortlessly – and there was not a single crash or error during my time using it – something I can’t always say about similarly-priced Windows 11 devices.

Apple’s complete control over both the software and hardware of MacBooks has again paid dividends, and even if you don’t like the way the company does some things, there’s no denying that it often results in extremely polished and dependable products – like the new MacBook Pro.

(Image credit: Future)

For more demanding tasks such as video editing, the MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro, 2024) again barely broke a sweat as I stitched together 4K footage in Premiere Pro. To be honest, to really make use of the power of the M4 Pro – let alone the much more powerful M4 Max – you’re going to need to be a professional filmmaker or 3D animator working on Pixar-quality productions. Everything I threw at it barely gave the new MacBook Pro pause.

Of course, this is a great thing – it’s a workstation laptop that can rival pretty much any desktop PC and can handle even the hardest workloads. But then, there’s always that nagging feeling that you’re not making the most of it. It’s a strange contradiction that in the end is a testament to what Apple continues to achieve with its M-class chips.

Throughout my time, the fans barely kicked in, so while Apple’s focus with the M4 Pro is more about performance than efficiency, this is still a very efficient machine that is virtually silent when in use.

• Performance score: 5/5

(Image credit: Future) MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro, 2024) review: Battery life

• Over 21 hours in benchmark test
• Slightly shorter than previous model
• M4 Pro focuses on performance over efficiency

Ever since switching from Intel chips to its own M-class silicon, Apple’s MacBooks have benefited from industry-leading battery lives. While Windows 11 laptops are slowly catching up (especially ones with the new Snapdragon X Elite chip, which like the M4 Pro is ARM-based), if you want a laptop that can go through an entire workday without charging (and isn’t a basic Chromebook), then modern MacBooks are the way to go—and the new 16-inch MacBook Pro is no exception.

Thanks to a combination of the efficient M4 Pro chip and a larger body that allows Apple to include a bigger battery, the 16-inch MacBook Pro offers one of the longest battery lives of any MacBook or Windows laptop.

In our tests, it lasted a huge 21 hours and 32 minutes – an absolutely incredible result that suggests you could go multiple workdays on a single charge. However, it didn’t quite match the battery life of the M3 Max 16-inch MacBook that I reviewed last year, which lasted for 24 hours and 35 minutes in similar circumstances, but that could be down to the M4 Pro’s emphasis on performance over efficiency.

Still, it’s an incredible result considering the power on offer. I worked on the M4 Pro model for an entire train journey from Bath to London (around an hour and a half – England really is quite a small country), and the battery levels hardly dipped. It’s a workstation laptop that you can feel confident working on without having to search for a power supply, and when on battery power, it doesn’t feel like performance is sacrificed either.

• Battery life score: 5/5

MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro, 2024): Should you buy it? Buy it if…

You need a powerful workstation for heavy duty creative tasks
The MacBook Pro 16-inch with M4 Pro is one of the most powerful laptops out there, and will make short work of even the most demanding tasks.

You haven’t got an Apple Silicon Mac yet
If you’ve not experienced Apple’s M-series chips the new 16-inch MacBook Pro with M4 Pro is a brilliant showcase of why Apple Silicon has proved to be so revolutionary for not just MacBooks, but laptops as a whole.

You want a laptop that can go multiple days without charging
The battery life of the new MacBook Pro 16-inch can last almost an entire day of constant use - and that means you could work on it for multiple work days on a single charge.

Don’t buy it if…

You don’t need ultra-performance
While it can be tempting to go for the highest of the high-end when buying a laptop, the MacBook Pro 16-inch is a big investment - and it offers a level of performance that most people simply won’t need - go for an M3 MacBook Air or the new Mac mini M4 instead.

You want a compact laptop
The MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro, 2024) is a large laptop, and while that has its benefits (bigger battery, nice large screen to work on), it’s a bit too big to work on when commuting or traveling.

You have an M3 Pro or M2 Pro MacBook
The M4 Pro is an upgrade over its predecessors, but not enough to make owners of the past two generations of MacBook Pro need to upgrade - they remain excellent laptops that continue to perform brilliantly.

MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro) review: Also consider

If our Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro) review has you considering other options, here are two more laptops to consider...

MacBook Pro 14-inch M4 Pro 16GB
If you like the sound of the M4 Pro-powered 16-inch MacBook Pro, but are worried that the screen (and overall size of the laptop) is too large, then check out the 14-inch model, which offers similar performance but in a smaller (and slightly cheaper) package.
Check out our MacBook Pro 14-inch (M4 Pro, 2024) review

MacBook Air 15-inch (M3)
After a large-screen MacBook but don't need the power, and can't afford, the 16-inch MacBook Pro? Then consider the 15-inch MacBook Air. The M3 chip remains a great performer, and it's a lot less expensive, yet still offers that Apple build quality and design.
Check out our MacBook Air 15-inch (M3) review

How I tested the MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro)

• Spent several days testing and using the MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro)
• Ran our suite of benchmark tests
• Used it to work while commuting

Ever since I received the new MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro, 2024), I've been using it as my main laptop for working on. This included day-to-day tasks, such as writing up articles in Microsoft Word and sending emails, as well as browsing the web in both Chrome and Safari (with multiple tabs open) - both at a desk in an office, and on a train travelling between cities.

I’ve been testing MacBooks for many years at TechRadar, including all the previous MacBook Pro 16-inch models, including the Intel-based one, and that experience has helped inform this review.

First reviewed November 2024

Evercade Alpha: one-minute review

If you’re looking for a way to replicate that classic arcade experience at home, then the Evercade Alpha is very easy to recommend. This bite-sized countertop arcade cabinet comes in two flavors, each with its own set of classic Capcom arcade titles. There are also two slots for existing Evercade cartridges - all of which are compatible with the Alpha in addition to the Evercade EXP and Evercade VS consoles.

The cabinet itself is awash with delightful design flourishes, from the swappable marquee cards up top to the official artwork which wraps around the central 8-inch IPS screen. Said screen is simply gorgeous, too; its 8-inch size and 4:3 aspect ratio proved to be perfect for most of the games I tested. Controls are also responsive, whether that be via the onboard arcade stick and buttons or through a third-party controller via the two USB ports on the unit.

It does err on the expensive side, though, making the Evercade Alpha a bit tougher to recommend for folks who aren’t enthusiasts for this kind of thing or don’t already have a decently-sized Evercade cartridge collection. It’s also worth mentioning that most of these games lack any kind of difficulty options, which especially makes fighting games exceptionally hard to clear. You do of course have infinite continues via free play, but this will be irksome to players after a quick, casual arcade session.

Even still, the Evercade Alpha is one of the best retro games console units released this year, and I highly recommend it to anyone chasing a nostalgic arcade experience. Especially with all its quality-of-life additions.

(Image credit: Future) Evercade Alpha: price and availability

• $229.99 / £199.99 pre-order price
• Will be $249.99 / £229.99 after launch
• Available from November 28, 2024

The Evercade Alpha launches on November 28, 2024, coming in at a retail price of $249.99 / £229.99. However, those who pre-order the unit will be able to get it at the discounted price of $229.99 / £199.99. You can purchase one from a variety of big box retailers including Amazon and Best Buy in the US as well as Funstock, Argos, and Game in the UK.

An Evercade Alpha Deluxe Edition will also be available exclusively at Funstock in the UK. Coming in at £249.99, this version features industry-leading Sanwa arcade buttons, an Evercade Alpha controller, and various goodies including a certificate of authenticity, a poster, and five marquee cards.

You’ve got the choice of two separate units for the Evercade Alpha. The Street Fighter model includes Street Fighter 2 Champion Edition, Street Fighter 2 Turbo, Street Fighter Alpha, Street Fighter Alpha 2, Street Fighter Alpha 3, and Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo. Meanwhile, the Mega Man model packs in Mega Man: The Power Battle, Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters, Carrier Air Wing, Final Fight, Knights of the Round, and Strider. 

(Image credit: Future) Evercade Alpha: specs Evercade Alpha: design and features

• Exceptional cabinet-like build
• Has options for controller play and a headphone jack
• Small enough to fit on a countertop

If you’ve ever laid eyes on a traditional arcade cabinet at any point in your life, then you roughly know what to expect from the Evercade Alpha. The unit replicates that angular silhouette, albeit small enough to comfortably fit on top of a counter or a decently-sized gaming desk.

There are lots of lovely design flourishes on the Evercade Alpha. The power switch (situated between the two Evercade cartridge slots at the base of the unit) is shaped like an arcade cabinet coin slot. The marquee card at the top can be swapped out with the extra ones included in the package and, when the unit is switched on, a backlight illuminates the marquee. My review unit is the Street Fighter Edition, and it’s great to see classic arcade unit character artwork wrapped around the central IPS display.

Below the screen are the Evercade Alpha’s on-board controls. This is a six-button setup that’s ideal for fighting games alongside an eight-way octagonal gate stick and three buttons used for starting games, inserting coins for play, and accessing the unit’s built-in menu.

Two side-firing speakers are situated on either side of the unit, and at the bottom below those cartridge slots are a pair of USB ports for controllers, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a switch for adjusting volume. All in all, it’s a rich yet no-nonsense feature set that’s cleverly implemented into the bite-sized arcade machine design.

(Image credit: Future) Evercade Alpha: performance

• Accurate and faithful play experience
• No difficulty options means games can be very hard
• Super effective CRT filters included

The overall play experience on Evercade Alpha is pretty strong. Controls were responsive across all games tested here, both with the on-board arcade stick controls and more standard controller options via USB. In that regard, I tested the Xbox Wireless Controller, DualSense Wireless Controller, and the 8BitDo Ultimate with the Evercade Alpha, and all worked with the unit after diving into the settings and mapping the controls for each.

The games themselves are of course the stars of the show. Just like with the Evercade EXP and VS consoles, the games feel decently accurate and responsive in comparison to their arcade counterparts. The arcade stick and buttons did take some getting used to, admittedly, though this isn’t the fault of the Alpha itself. Your mileage may vary here, of course, if you’re used to using some of the best fight sticks on the market. But more casual players may need some time before they can reliably throw out Sonic Booms and Shoryukens in Street Fighter 2 Turbo.

One gripe I do have is that these Evercade versions don’t have options for difficulty, neither within the ROMs themselves nor within Evercade’s own operating system. That’s definitely a bummer - difficulty levels are typically available via arcade machine dip switch menus, and these have been emulated on similar devices. It makes many titles pretty difficult to play at a casual level. Hopefully, this is something Blaze Entertainment can implement in a future firmware update for the Alpha.

On the plus side, I was pleasantly surprised by the CRT filter options available on the Evercade Alpha. You can choose a subtle or a strong filter (or turn it off entirely) via the Evercade Alpha menu. This applies to all games, too, so there’s no need to keep reapplying the filter as you cycle through titles. I found the subtle mode to add a good bit of depth to the scene and avoid feeling intrusive or overdone, as is the case with many a CRT filter in old game compilations.

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

You want an authentic arcade experience at home
Beautiful cabinet design, decently compact size, and a wide selection of games without needing to constantly pop in quarters? The Evercade Alpha is a fantastic and accessible arcade experience from the comfort of your own home.

You already have a decently sized Evercade collection
All of those Evercade cartridges also work on the Evercade Alpha, and they look fantastic on the unit’s phenomenal 8-inch IPS screen.

Don't buy it if...

You don’t have much space
While certainly small compared to a real arcade cabinet, the Evercade Alpha still takes up a good chunk of room in any gaming setup.

You’re on a budget
The Evercade Alpha is expensive, even in its pre-order phase. On top of that, you’ll have to buy any other Evercade cartridges separately and that can add up. I’d only recommend picking one up if you’re planning on starting an Evercade collection.

Also consider...

If the Evercade Alpha doesn’t quite have what you’re looking for, be sure to check out a couple of other Evercade devices that are a bit more budget-friendly. 

Evercade EXP
The Evercade EXP is the brand’s portable console. While it does have some games built-in, it’s also compatible with all Evercade cartridges, making this a cost-effective and portable retro gaming solution.

For more information read our full Evercade EXP review

Evercade VS
The Evercade VS is a dedicated home console for use with your TV at home via HDMI. It’s definitely better suited to smaller screens due to the low-res nature of most Evercade-compatible games, but it’s a solid option if you’re after a cheaper way to build an Evercade collection at home.

For more information read our full Evercade VS review

How I tested the Evercade Alpha

• Tested for two weeks
• Used onboard controls and some controllers via USB
• Played a wide variety of arcade games

I tested the Evercade Alpha Street Fighter Edition over the course of around two weeks. I played games both built-in and via a handful of Evercade cartridges both in my collection and supplied by Blaze Entertainment, including the Toaplan Arcade Collection 3 and the Data East Arcade Collection 2.

While I primarily used the onboard arcade stick controls during testing, I also tried playing games on the Evercade Alpha with a variety of controllers including the DualSense, Xbox Wireless Controller, and the 8BitDo Ultimate.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed November 2024

Yeedi C12 Pro Plus: two-minute review

The Yeedi C12 Pro Plus is great for what it is – a mid-tier robot vacuum that will help keep your floors mostly clean between deep cleanings. If your budget is limited to around $600, it might even be among the best robot vacuums for you. Of course, robot vacuums have come a long way so, if you're able to splurge, it might pale in comparison to some of the competition, though you'll have to pay much more for those other options.

It can't get right up to the edges of rooms, it's limited in the smart home department, and it's a little louder than other options. However, its vacuuming and mopping is good otherwise, and Yeedi seems to finally have cracked the code on mapping open-floor spaces, something I've been harping on since I first reviewed the Yeedi Cube and have continued to have issues with just about every other manufacturer since.

While the eye-catching design of the Yeedi C12 Pro Plus' base station is certainly a plus, the more important factor here is the affordability of this robot vacuum. Even disregarding the fact that it's going to see plenty of deals – as is the nature of Yeedi and Ecovacs products – this is a relatively affordable model. While I consider it mid-tier, it's among the most affordable options out there that include mopping functionality.

So, if you're on a budget but still want that mopping ability and can live with some compromises, then this could be the robovac for you. Read on for my full Yeedi C12 Pro Plus review, where I'll dive deeper into its design and how it performs, so that you can decide for yourself.

My review model, ready to start testing (Image credit: Future) Yeedi C12 Pro Plus review: price & availability

• List price: $599.99 (about £470 / AU$900)
• Available: US
• Launched: July 2024

Even though Yeedi is owned by Ecovacs, this brand (or sub-brand, rather) seems to only be available in the US. At least this model is slightly more accessible than the Yeedi Cube, not to mention much cheaper than many of the Ecovacs robot vacuums out there.

You will have to make a few concessions for that lower price point. There's no clean and dirty water reservoirs in the base station, and the mopping pad is a flat semicircle rather than spinning discs (which are generally more effective).

You'll also live without quality of life features like mop pad washing and drying – although you can easily remove the mop pad and clean it yourself. So, if you're on a little bit of a budget, you might forgo some conveniences, but this robot vacuum is still a strong contender.

The Shark AI Ultra 2-in-1 Robot Vacuum and Mop, which has a similar form factor, will set you back just a little more at $699 (about £559 / AU$1,054). Having reviewed that Shark robot vacuum, I do have to say that it runs a little quieter than the Yeedi C12 Pro Plus. But, it doesn't look quite as cool.

If you want to put the Yeedi C12 Pro Plus' value in context, consider the Ecovacs Deebot T30S Combo, a robot vacuum I gave a nearly perfect score to for its great performance, feature set, and wonderful mapping, not to mention the fact that it comes with a handheld vacuum. While the Yeedi is missing a lot of the features, and isn't quite as good when it comes to performance, it's also about double in price at $1,199.99 (about £9500 / AU$1,800).

• Value for money score: 4.5 out of 5

Yeedi C12 Pro Plus specs Yeedi C12 Pro Plus review: design

• Attractive and unusual looking base station
• Anti-tangling brushroll
• Have to manually switch out backplate for mopping function

Since the Yeedi C12 Pro Plus is mid-tier, it's a bit more stripped down and a little less automated than many brands' newest, flagship models. Despite that, this robot vacuum has some aesthetic appeal.

Available in black or white colorways, the base station's dust bin is actually transparent, showcasing the red metal filter inside that just demands attention. Instead of trying to be discreet, the base station is bold, and that's something I appreciate.

Unusually, the dock dustbin is clear, so you can see the filter and debris (Image credit: Future)

Since it doesn't have water reservoirs, it also doesn't take up a ton of space. There's just a dustbin into which the (small) onboard dust cup self-empties after every use. At 1.5 liters, the dock bin is smaller than many competitors', but should still hold a decent amount of dust and debris. It pops right out with a push of a button, making it easy to empty out every few weeks.

As far as the robot vacuum itself, it has the usual round shape with the protruding center. There's a bumper on the front for when it runs into stuff – I'll talk about object avoidance below, but let's just say it needs the bumper. And there are three buttons on top for basic controls.

There are separate backplates for mopping and vacuuming (Image credit: Future)

There's just one side brush here, but at least the roller underneath is of the anti-tangling variety. There are actually two backplates that come with the Yeedi C12 Pro Plus – one if you just want to vacuum and one to add mopping functionality. The latter adds a 0.4 liter water reservoir and a flat mopping pad that will vibrate and apply downward pressure on the floor as it goes about its business. Since it can't retract this mopping pad, unlike more expensive models that have the spinning mop pads, it will just avoid carpeting when in mopping mode.

• Design score: 4 out of 5

Yeedi C12 Pro Plus review: performance

• Surprisingly good vacuuming, including pet hair
• Solid mopping but doesn't get to the edges of rooms
• Is a bit louder and has mediocre object avoidance

While I did test the Yeedi C12 Pro Plus with various debris to see how it would do, I was surprised to see it pick up a bunch of dust, dander, and pet hair on its first couple runs on what I thought were already clean floors. That's a testament to how well it vacuums up (it boasts 8,000Pa of suction, which is actually higher than you'd usually find on a robovac at this price point).

Beyond that, it did well vacuuming up larger pieces of debris. Just to test that, I threw a bunch of cereal in front of it (a Lucky Charms knock-off, if that's important to you) and it sucked it all right up.

The C12 Pro Plus had no issues sucking up breakfast cereal (Image credit: Future)

On top of that, the brushroll, even after a good number of cleaning runs, was mostly tangle-free. Keeping in mind that this is a full household with a few people with long hair and a couple of dogs, along with a cat, that's impressive.

This anti-tangle brushroll works well (Image credit: Future)

It only has one side brush – not unusual, although you will find some robovacs double up here. Also worth noting is that it's a bit louder than some other robot vacuums, with a volume of around 62db if you're a foot or two away.

The mop pad is a wide semicircle that vibrates, as opposed to the spinning disc variety (which tends to perform better). However, on test I was quite impressed. I found this robovac delivered a nice, even mop that dries quickly and it quickly cleans up small spills – I threw a bit of Diet Coke right in front of it to test, and it was wiped up in one pass.

The robovac did a good job of clearing this diet Coke spillage (Image credit: Future)

Mopping the edges of rooms is a common issue with robovacs. A handful of premium models feature extra side mops or pads that can shift outwards to get close to the edges of rooms; unsurprisingly there's nothing like that here. That means the mopping can't get right up to the edges of rooms.

Also unsurprising at this price point is the fact that there are no mop pad washing and drying capabilities built into the dock. That means you'll have to manually clean the mop pad if it gets dirty, or you risk tracking soy sauce or, worse, mold, across your floors. There is an extra mop pad supplied, so you can swap it in as you leave a dirty one to dry out.

It's worth noting that, as long as you’re not trying to vacuum carpets, you can leave the mopping backplate on and still do a great job vacuuming. As mentioned before, when in mopping mode, it will avoid carpets. I threw a bath mat in front of the Yeedi C12 Pro Plus, and it cleaned right up to the edge and then backed off.

The C12 Pro Plus successfully identified and avoided mopping the bathmat, but ran straight into the bottle (Image credit: Future)

One area where the Yeedi C12 Pro Plus fell down a little was its object avoidance. Now, it didn't get stuck on anything despite there being plenty of dog toys sitting around, though it did bump into them. But, when placing a squirt bottle in front of it, instead of going around, the robot vacuum just pushed it out of the way.

Cliff sensors ensure the robovac doesn't take a tumble down stairs (Image credit: Future)

In terms of battery life, this robot vacuum has 300 minutes of use on a single charge on anything but the most basic of vacuuming operations, you'll still get a lot of use out of this before it needs to charge. On test, I found it could manage 170 minutes when mopping as well as vacuuming, which is pretty impressive. However, like most robot vacuums, it seems to return the base station somewhat frequently (to self-empty usually, so I never saw its battery life dip particularly low.

• Performance score: 4 out of 5

Yeedi C12 Pro Plus review: app

• Easy to use and navigate
• The mapping is very good, even with open floor plans
• Not much in the way of smart home features

Getting the robot vacuum set up in the companion app for testing was clean and straightforward. As with most apps these days, I found the app easy to use and navigate, although it did take a minute of poking around to figure out where everything is – some of the functionality, particularly anything map-related, is tucked behind picture icons in the top right.

There are a number of noteworthy things in the app. Of course, there's the basic ability to set up a schedule and adjust some settings, such as a child lock and 'do not disturb' modes. But what really stands out is the fact that not only does it automatically section off the different rooms when mapping, but it allows you to partition each room into smaller areas as well. Many companion apps that use a line tool can get stuck on this, but even though Yeedi's app uses the same approach, here I had no issues cutting off half or a quarter of a space into a new 'room'.

As great as that is, anyone hoping for smart home features will be sorely disappointed to see that there's no voice assistant or voice assistant support. You'll either need to use the app or the physical buttons on the robot vacuum itself.

• App score: 4 out of 5

Should you buy the Yeedi C12 Pro Plus? Buy it if...

You want a combo robovac without breaking the bank

Even though it's about $600 / £500, you can't really go much cheaper and still get quality mopping performance to go along with good vacuuming in a robot vacuum.

You have pets

This robovac packs a surprising amount of power for the price, and I found it handled pet hair well. The anti-tangle brushroll worked as advertised, too. However, do note my comment below regarding object avoidance.

You have an open-plan space

The mapping ability here fixes many of the frustrations I’ve experienced with other models – namely, it has no issues separating open plan rooms into smaller spaces. It’s easy to use and manipulate so that you can more easily spot clean.

Don't buy it if...

You want voice control

Since this is a more budget model (when compared to other models with the mopping feature), it doesn't have voice assistant support. If you want to use Alexa, Siri, etc. to control your robot vacuum, you'll have to look elsewhere.

You want the very best cleaning performance

Though the Yeedi C12 Pro Plus gets 90 per cent of the way there compared to more expensive models, it struggles with things like getting up to the edges of rooms.

Good object avoidance is important

The Yeedi C12 Pro Plus didn't always identify or avoid objects in its way, which might be an issue if you have a pet that isn't reliably house trained, for instance.

Yeedi C12 Pro Plus review: also consider

Not sold on the Yeedi C12 Pro Plus? Here are some alternatives to consider.

Narwal Freo X Ultra

The Narwal Freo X Ultra is expensive (very expensive) but has, like the C12 Pro Plus, a more striking base station design, looking like it came out of a sci-fi movie. It also is filled to the brim with features, such as the ability to use the robot vacuum as a mobile security cam, not to mention it can reach the corners of a room, though it's strangely not quite as good with the edges.

Read our full Narwal Freo X Ultra review

Yeedi Cube

The Yeedi Cube may be a bit longer in the tooth, but it comes with some features that the C12 Pro Plus doesn't, such as mop pad drying, which helps avoid mold and bacteria. Just be aware that the Cube is going to cost you a little more for the extra features, which does include a voice assistant.

Read our full Yeedi Cube review

How I tested the Yeedi C12 Pro Plus

To test the Yeedi C12 Pro Plus, I used it for a week to vacuum and mop the hardwood floors and carpeting in my house. I focused on how well the vacuum cleaned the edges of a room as well as around obstacles. I also tested the features listed in the app, most notably the mapping.

Read more about how we test

• First reviewed July 2024

Review info

Platform reviewed: PC
Available on: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S
Release date: October 14, 2024

You've seen New World before, sure, but have you seen New World: Aeternum? This soft relaunch of Amazon Game Studio's flagging 2021 MMORPG is what the company is calling a 'spiritual sequel' to the original. In layman's terms, that means next-gen console support, new story campaign cinematics, and a refined controller-friendly combat system that doubles down on the game's action RPG setup.

This is, spoiler alert, mostly the same game as before - but New World: Aeternum already had a solid foundation and the inclusion of console players could potentially breathe fresh life into this game.

Some of the best MMORPGs have been years in the making and Amazon's stubborn dedication to improving its first big MMORPG title is commendable. With a vast game world and diverse array of player versus player (PvP) and player versus environment (PvE) content, there's certainly a lot that New World: Aeternum offers - especially for a fresh player.

(Image credit: Amazon) Getting it right the second time

New World: Aeternum is in some ways an MMO that’s stronger than the sum of its parts. It is, in a nutshell, an extremely competent and refined effort that skates close to excellence in so many areas yet doesn’t always stand out.

It’s a rework that’s a culmination of three years of tweaks and painfully learned lessons from Amazon. It isn’t, however, a radical departure from what was offered before - you’ve got the same weapons, the same art style, and the same world - with a few exceptions like new cutscenes. In some ways, it’s a little awkward reviewing this title as a new player in 2024.

So, if New World doesn’t stand out - then why is it just so damn fun to pick up and play? There is an intangible sense of fun to New World that makes it both an approachable and incredibly cohesive MMORPG experience. There's nothing new here, but there's something about this game that just works.

For example, there’s an intuitiveness to the open world in New World: Aeternum that makes sense right away. The game’s core gameplay loops of questing, PvP, and gathering all integrate seamlessly into a game world that just begs you to get out and explore. The world of Aeternum is full of trees, plants, and ores ready to harvest and if you don’t find yourself wandering off in search of hemp, herbs, or lumber, then you’re simply missing out on one of this game’s strongest aspects.

Even without the superb gathering and crafting, there’s no doubt that New World is one of the most pick-up-and-play MMOs I’ve played in a long time when it comes to the overall experience. There’s a little bit of something for everyone here - dungeons, player-owned housing, and excellent crafting all wrapped up in a well-thought-out and refreshingly simple manner.

(Image credit: Amazon) Your favorite MMO, now with cutscenes

One of the biggest additions to New World: Aeternum is the inclusion of a more cohesive main quest storyline - one that’s now complete with cutscenes, improved world-building, and a streamlined questing experience.

I played through the entire main story quest line for this review and my thoughts are that it’s pretty good but not outstanding. The story isn’t anything mind-blowing but there are decent characters, compelling boss fights with actual mechanics, and a modern quest design that breaks away from the usual MMO tropes of killing ten skeletons and such.

(Image credit: Amazon) Best bit

(Image credit: Amazon)

Exploring the world of Aeternum is constantly entertaining. You'll be questing, fighting enemy players, and gathering any number of players along the way in a vast and interactive game world. Rarely will you be stuck hanging around in camp.

If you really beeline it through the quest, expect it to take you around 30 hours until you hit the final boss fight - which, I have to say, is rather excellent (no spoilers, sorry). It’s an experience you can completely take on solo in the vein of a single-player action RPG but I’d highly recommend taking the time out to engage with the game’s excellent side-quests, crafting, and PvP aspects along the way. You can play solo, sure, but New World’s strong suit remains the extracurricular activities.

The beauty of Aeternum is in the myriad distractions it offers. Plus, I’d note that while the main quest does introduce you to the vast majority of zones and themes within the game, it doesn’t really deep-dive into PvP, group content, or end-game gearing. You'll have to work those out for yourself or ask a member from New World's vibrant community of console and PC players.

(Image credit: Amazon) Jack of all trades

As previously mentioned, there’s a wide range of both PvE and PvP content within this game, ranging all the way from basic dungeons and solo world PvP to 10-man raids and 20 vs 20 player battlegrounds. There is, quite simply, a lot of content in New World: Aeternum and it’s all underpinned by a refreshed console-friendly combat system.

With the new combat - it’s a mixed bag but mostly good. As previously stated, New World has a relatively stripped-down action RPG system that encourages movement and dodging rather than providing a piano-like array of spells and abilities. You’re essentially going to be switching through two weapons, both of which have just three abilities on the bar at once. There’s nothing wrong with this (in fact, it’s perfect for controller support), but don’t expect an incredibly in-depth set of abilities to use as per the traditional MMORPG experience.

I gave all sixteen of New World’s weapons a whirl during my playtime and every single one brings something to the table in regard to class fantasy, mechanics, and abilities. Want to bonk your enemies on the head with a giant hammer? No problem. Conversely, you may want to plink at your enemies at a distance with the musket or bow. All weapons are fine choices and offer a diverse range of builds and play styles. I personally like the musket, although I found hitboxes to be frustratingly inconsistent unless I was using the game’s Dark Souls-style lock-on system to track my enemies.

(Image credit: Amazon)

Fans of action-orientated combat will find a lot to like with New World: Aeternum; especially if you’re the kind of person who likes to try different builds. Not only is changing your character’s attribute points incredibly cheap but you’re never locked into one particular weapon or armor type with New World. Don’t hesitate to try out the various weapons and find the right one.

In terms of content, this game is chock-full of stuff that’s readily available to both solo and group players. While a chunk of the high-end PvE stuff is locked behind the maximum level of 65, an easy-to-use matchmaking system means it’s easy to get a group without the need to join a guild or clan. New World is one of the most solo-friendly MMOs I’ve played for a while - and one that respects your time if you’re looking for something relatively casual.

(Image credit: Amazon) A bland new world

Earlier in my review I alluded to the fact that New World is a perfectly competent MMO but it doesn’t particularly stand out in one area. The PvE? Well executed. The PvP? Yep, that’s pretty good too. There's not one single aspect of New World that really knocked me off my seat during my initial 40 hours of gameplay, however.

If there’s one area where I think New World falls down on, it’s that it lacks a solid identity. All the boxes are ticked here to make an incredibly engaging MMO but nothing feels special in the way that, say, World of Warcraft circa 2004 did.

Take the overall art style and premise, for example. New World is loosely set in the age of sail but Amazon deemed it fit to stuff in as many generic fantasy and historical tropes as it could into the world of Aeternum. One minute you’re fighting pirates, the next minute you’re fighting Roman Legionaries, the next minute ghosts. There’s a lot of variety in the game world but it feels like Amazon just threw together generic historical Assassin’s Creed-like concepts rather than building something with a really cool and unique angle.

There’s no doubt that the development team can design engaging environments and game mechanics but I never really felt that strong sense of class fantasy that you get with some MMOs. The world is a little bland, unfortunately, and New World doesn’t particularly stand out as either a PvP game par excellence or a PvE powerhouse in the way that modern retail World of Warcraft does save its superb crafting and gathering system. Still, this is a good game with an intangible sense of fun and one that no doubt has a solid future should Amazon continue to commit to content updates.

(Image credit: Amazon) Should I play New World: Aeternum? Play it if...

You want an approachable MMO
New World: Aeternum features an extensive array of content that can be enjoyed both as a solo player and as a group. The barrier to entry for most content is relatively low and the world is also intuitively built around an excellent gathering and crafting system.

You particularly enjoy crafting and professions
There's something just really, really fun about New World: Aeternum's crafting system. Exploring the game world for valuable resources, building a camp, and crafting your own gear. There are plenty of professions to explore in New World and they all work together to create a superb in-game economy that's unaffected by the micro-transactions common in other MMOs.

Don't play it if...

You want to push high-end PvE content
New World: Aeternum has a 10-man raid at max level but it's not as packed as its competitors when it comes to high-level PvE content. It's a jack-of-all-trades game that's suited to players who value variety over one particular end-game content type. Watch this space though, as raids are a relatively new addition to the game and could be expanded upon going forward.

Accessibility

New World: Aeternum has an extensive list of accessibility features, including text-to-speech, font size scaling, and colorblind modes. It also has some superb aim assist options for both controller and mouse and keyboard setups. All these options are easy to find in the 'Accessibility' menu within the games settings menu.

How I reviewed New World: Aeternum

I played New World: Aeternum for 40 hours before writing this review. That was enough time to play through the entire main story quest line, see most of the zones in-game, and test out the game's PvE and PvP content. While the game is incredibly vast, I made sure to sample most of what New World has objectively before making an assessment.

When it comes to reviewing MMORPGs, I draw upon almost two decades of experience to determine how New World: Aeternum stacks up. Just a few of the titles I've played include World of Warcraft, Guild Wars 2, Black Desert Online, Lost Ark, Eve Online, ESO, and most recently Throne and Liberty.

The peripherals I used during this review include the Logitech G Pro wireless gaming mouse, the Logitech Pro Tenkeyless gaming keyboard, and the Logitech G735 wireless gaming headset. I also tested the game using the standard Xbox Wireless controller (2024). My monitor is the 27-inch LG 27GP850-B, which runs at 1440p/185Hz.

First reviewed October 2024.

Features

Built on a zero-trust architecture, it ensures secure access by requiring authentication at each step, minimizing the attack surface. The platform is cloud-native, making it highly scalable and adaptable to modern business needs, which means it's not just a VPN client but a comprehensive security package aimed at businesses and organizations.

Twingate supports device authentication and integrates with single sign-on (SSO) providers like Okta and Azure AD, which simplifies identity management across distributed teams. Besides this, Twingate offers a range of integrations with mobile device management and endpoint protection vendors. You can find the list of their extensive integrations on their site.

Unlike traditional VPNs that rely on a single point of failure, Twingate separates identity, control, and data planes, ensuring higher resilience and security. All user connections are encrypted end-to-end, while user access is granted (or denied) in real-time based on contextual information such as user identity, device security status, time of login, and the user's or device's geolocation. This data is used in conjunction with admin-defined access policies to ensure secure and tailored access control policies.

Speaking of defining policies, all of this is done through the admin console, which is intuitive and features a modern UI. From this web-based management console, admins can get granular, viewing reports and resource usage, and add or remove users. The granularity extends to configuration on a per-use, per-device, and per-resource basis. This allows administrators to enforce strict access controls by applying the principle of least privilege, reducing the risk of unauthorized account access. It also ensures compliance with regulations that mandate higher levels of security for sensitive or privileged accounts.

Twingate tracks all network activity, logging each user's access attempts and providing detailed insights into which resources were targeted. For reporting and logging purposes you can also integrate with logging platforms like DataDog, Elastic, and Splunk for enhanced reporting capabilities. Yet, the platform itself has enough capability for reporting without a need for integrations, unless you have specific needs and requirements.

(Image credit: Twingate) Pricing & Plans

Twingate offers flexible pricing plans with the entry-level Starter plan costing nothing and allowing up to 5 users and 10 remote networks, making it ideal for small teams or those wanting to explore the platform without a financial commitment. For growing teams, the Teams plan is priced at $5 per user per month, supporting up to 100 users and 20 networks, along with a 14-day free trial and a money-back guarantee.

For larger organizations, the Business plan is priced at $10 per user per month, offering support for up to 500 users and 100 networks. It includes more advanced features such as enhanced integrations and management options, making it suitable for companies with more complex security needs. This plan also ensures scalability, with options to expand as the organization grows.

Finally, the Enterprise plan offers tailored pricing and features based on specific business requirements. Companies interested in this plan will need to contact Twingate’s sales team to create a customized package. The Enterprise plan is designed for businesses with extensive remote access needs, offering the highest level of flexibility, support, and integration capabilities.

Note that if you opt to try out Twingate via the free plan, you will be limited in terms of integrations and DNS capabilities, but all of this is covered in paid plans.

Performance

Due to its design, Twingate offers faster average speeds compared to traditional business VPNs. The maximum and minimum speeds users experience primarily depend on their internet connection. Factors influencing performance include the type of traffic generated, with Twingate using split tunneling to route only business-related data through its network, encryption protocols, and overall network conditions. This ensures efficient data flow and minimizes latency for business activities.

Furthermore, the cloud-based admin console worked to perfection during our test, without any hiccups. We did not experience any slowdowns or crashes.

Privacy & Security

Twingate uses AES-256 encryption and SSL/TLS protocols to secure data transmissions, safeguarding business information from cyber threats. Additionally, it integrates multi-factor authentication (MFA) and single sign-on (SSO) capabilities. The aforementioned split tunneling feature routes business traffic through encrypted “tunnels” while keeping non-essential data flowing through the VPN. Moreover, the fact that Twingate utilizes the Zero Trust approach, means that strict verification protocols require verification of every user and device before granting access, ensuring that only verified entities can interact with sensitive resources.

What’s more, it enables companies to implement the necessary security controls to comply with various regulatory standards such as CPRA, GDPR, PCI DSS, and SOC 2.

Support

Twingate provides support through a ticketing system, messaging, and email. While assistance might not always be immediately available, their comprehensive guides and FAQs are particularly useful for addressing common issues. These resources offer detailed instructions, making it easier to troubleshoot independently. Overall, the written materials and support options can be helpful, but availability may vary depending on your needs and the timing of your request for assistance.

Alternatives

An equally attractive offering can be found with NordLayer Business VPN, which also offers a complete security package, complex security protocols, and a ZTNA approach. We enjoy the UI of NordLayer a bit more, but that is more of a personal preference. However, there are no free plans and you will have to pay a bit more per user. With that, you do get a bit more compared to Twingate though. Its proprietary VPN protocol is quick and secure and you can count on speeds of up to 1Gbs regardless of the pricing plan you go for. It is important to point out that additional features like auto-connect, ThreatBlock, and the Cloud Firewall do set a high bar for the competition, which is why you should consider it if you need more complex security.

Another potential alternative is the Check Point VPN Solution, which is geared more toward larger enterprises that are not afraid to break the bank to get premium solutions. Of course, to be fully covered here, we would recommend going with the hardware + software combo offered by Check Point, since this will ensure you get a ZTNA approach and have access to all of the bells and whistles. The admin console is powerful, with granularity extending from the setup into reporting and across all touch points. While it is powerful, for newer entrants into the field it can be a daunting task to set up the entire system. Pricing is not publicly available, as it depends on the size of your company and the specific needs that you have. But be sure it is not the cheapest solution in the market, but with the offering it has, it cannot be.

Final Verdict

With all that has been said, we can conclude that Twingate is an effective and efficient zero-trust network access solution. If you’re an organization or business looking to secure corporate resources, yet you want to have a remote workforce easily and securely access your resources without causing too much user friction, then Twingate may be the right tool for you.

High granularity, will surely expedite and secure work for organizations in highly regulated industries, which is one area that the company is aiming at. Another benefit is that this complexity doesn’t translate into a complex and clunky UI but an easy-to-use and highly intuitive cloud environment.

Sure, it is not the best option in the market, but it does tick most of the boxes while offering easy scaling which will not break the bank. What’s equally important, you can have your IT department spin up the free version, test out the performance, and see whether it is the right fit for you before deciding to scale up.

Features

NordLayer offers a massive list of features including DNS filtering, network segmentation, dedicated IP, browser extension, smart remote access, and a dedicated account manager - making it one of the most comprehensive business VPN solutions. This multi-layered security approach plays nicely with AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure if you’re looking to integrate it into one of these cloud services.

NordLayer's control panel is highly intuitive, featuring sections for organizing teams, managing servers and gateways, remote access settings, downloads, activity tracking, and device security alerts, making it one of the most beginner-friendly business VPN solutions. From this panel, you can also set permissions and allow network segmentation which is important if you’re looking to restrict access to sensitive data. Network segmentation divides the network into subsections for improved security and performance.

Its Cloud Firewall (FWaaS) offering, brings an additional layer of security, functioning as a cloud security service edge element. Unlike a traditional firewall, the maintenance requirements are low, while its scalability and adaptiveness allow you more flexibility in managing your company’s resources.

If you have a remote workforce, NordLayer has got you covered with a site-to-site networking connection, which basically functions like a secure VPN tunnel between two or multiple networks. There is also Smart Remote Access for the creation of a virtual LAN if you need to grant access to devices on an internal network. An additional interesting feature is the browser extension, which functions as a secure web gateway that allows access to resources exclusively via the browser that has the extension installed and enabled. Moreover, there are desktop and mobile, with both apps designed to be simple and intuitive.

Upon opening, the app presents a list of available servers, allowing you to connect with a single click (though more servers would be a welcome addition). Users can choose between OpenVPN and IKEv2 protocols, and customize features like the kill switch, auto-connect, and ThreatBlock based on their preferences. You can also set up a list of trusted Wi-Fi networks that don't require a VPN. The mobile app offers similar functionality, with the added convenience of automatic server connection. The app’s user-friendly layout and customization options make it adaptable for different preferences and needs, ensuring a smooth experience across both desktop and mobile platforms.

Activity Monitoring reports allow you to get granular with user-level connections that pass through gateways giving you details such as names of the members, devices, and source IP addresses, with activity history and date and time of a particular connection. Device Posture Monitoring further enhances security, where administrators can predefine security rules, and all non-compliant devices are then flagged and removed.

ThreatBlock provides an essential layer of protection by automatically blocking access to malicious websites and ads, shielding employees from phishing attempts and malware. It also filters out intrusive pop-ups and autoplay ads, creating a safer and more productive browsing experience for users.

To round out the feature list, Auto-connect is another feature we found useful. It allows you to set up the VPN to automatically activate as soon as an internet connection is activated. This is often found in personal VPNs, but often rare in business environments, but it can reduce the hassle and worry of employees forgetting to use a VPN.

Pricing & Plans

While not the cheapest option in the market, NordLayer does offer reasonable pricing for the amount of functionality and security you end up getting. The pricing plans are based on a per-user model, with the lowest tier Lite going for $8 per user (yearly subscription option), with a minimum requirement of 5 users which is standard across all plans except the Enterprise offer plan. All pricing plans come with a 14-day money-back guarantee which is great if you’re on the fence and just want to test the product.

(Image credit: NordLayer)

The next plan, Core, is $11 per user and comes with a dedicated server with a fixed IP, but also a $40 a month surcharge for this service. The next tier is Premium at $14 per user and also the same offer for the server. Finally, the Enterprise plan starts from $7 per user, but you will have to reach out to NordLayer to get your custom offer, as it depends on your organization’s needs. Core seems to be the best buy plan covering advanced security such as Biometrics, 2MFA, SSO, and enough bandwidth for small to medium organizations.

Performance

NordLynx tunneling protocol allows NordLayer to deliver fast and stable speeds across their VPN service. In terms of VPN protocols, it supports IKEv2, OpenVPN (both UDP and TCP), and the aforementioned NordLynx which is a fork of the open-source Wireguard protocol. Note that all pricing plans offer up to 1Gbs server performance, which of course will vary depending on the server country you’re using. While mostly equal, there can be some drops in Asian countries, at least during our demo test.

Privacy & Security

The logging policy is right up the alley of any corporate VPN, which means that it does not log visited websites but does log each employee's email address, IP address bandwidth usage, and connection timestamps. The platform complies with GDPR and other major privacy regulations, ensuring data security for businesses operating in sensitive industries.

NordLayer secures internet traffic with modern encryption, offers 2FA via SMS or TOTP, and provides SSO options like Azure AD, Google, JumpCloud, Okta, and OneLogin for employee access, enhancing data breach prevention. In terms of encryption, it uses AES 256-bit and ChaCha20 encryption ciphers, which are fairly robust protocols. Most of the protocol settings are set up as default and we would recommend leaving them as is unless you’re an advanced administrator who wishes to set up a more granular policy. Furthermore, there is a kill switch, which acts as a fail-safe mechanism that prevents data leakage in instances where a VPN disconnects.

Support

NordLayer offers 24/7 customer support through both email and live chat on their website. For self-service, users can access a comprehensive knowledge base that includes guides for setup and troubleshooting. These resources are particularly helpful for first-time configurations. Subscribers to the Custom plan with 30 or more active licenses also benefit from a dedicated account manager, providing personalized assistance tailored to their specific needs. This support structure ensures that users have ample help, whether through self-guided resources or direct communication with NordLayer experts.

Alternatives

Twingate is a competitively priced business VPN solution that, like NordLayer, goes beyond basic VPN functionality to include advanced security features. Although its setup process is slightly more complex, Twingate compensates with a free plan for up to 5 users and 1 admin, making it an ideal choice for small teams wanting to test its capabilities before committing to a paid plan.

Perimeter 81, with its Secure Network as a Service model, offers a cloud-based alternative to traditional hardware firewalls and VPNs. It provides robust security features, including network segmentation and zero-trust access, at a comparable price point. This makes it a compelling choice for businesses seeking flexible, scalable security solutions without the need for on-premise hardware.

Final Verdict

NordLayer is quickly becoming a top choice for businesses with remote and hybrid workforces due to its comprehensive security features. The platform offers military-grade encryption, a robust firewall, and a Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) model to minimize risks from malicious actors. We also admire its clean, user-friendly interface, making setup and management intuitive. While it’s not the most budget-friendly option—especially when compared to competitors offering free plans—NordLayer’s pricing is competitive given the advanced security it provides. It's an ideal solution for businesses looking for reliable, scalable protection in a remote-work era, with a robust and secure VPN.

Firewalla’s new Gold Pro is one of the best firewalls money can buy. It vastly improves over the previous generation of firewalls, providing twice as much processing power and memory.

Specifications

CPU: Intel Quad-Core N97 at 3.4GHz

RAM: 8GB of DDR4 3200MHz

FLASH: 32GB eMMC

Display: 1 x HDMI

Ethernet connectivity: Two 2.5GbE, two 10GbE

General connectivity: Two USB3.1, one Type-C console

Power Consumption: About 35W

Size: 218mm x 165mm x 44mm

Weight: 1.1 Kg

Connectivity has also been boosted, shifting to four copper Ethernet with two that support up to 10Gb. The unit consumes over 35W with all ports connected, while a cooling fan makes it less reliable in the long run.

The hardware is really half the story of this user-friendly firewall. The software is as polished as one can ask for, requiring just two steps to activate a feature in most cases. Firewalla is keen on adding new ideas in every software release, with recent features such as Wi-Fi tests. The Gold Pro has become more than a regular firewall; as a router, it greatly demystifies network setup and fine-tuning.

The Gold Pro is available in only one variant: one based on an N97 Intel CPU with 8GB of RAM and 32GB of flash memory. The price is steep, just under $1000 (currently at $899 for a limited time), when looking only at the hardware. Firewalla offers cheaper models, ranging from the lowly ARM-based Purple SE to the Gold Plus based on the J4125. All products carry a one-year limited warranty and unlimited software updates.

Firewalla Gold Pro: Design

The Gold Pro ships in a brown box with a 40W AC adapter and a user guide. The white and yellow metal enclosure measures 218mm x 165mm x 44mm and weighs 1.1 Kg, almost twice as big as the previous flagship device. Four rubber feet prevent the Gold Pro from moving if too much force is applied to Ethernet cables. Air vents and four mounting holes are on each side of the unit, while the back contains one socket for power. The unit becomes warm after a while, but the small internal fan makes no noticeable noise.

The front panel contains four RJ45 sockets, two USB 3.0 Type-A, one USB Type-C connector for the serial console, and one HDMI socket. Two recessed buttons on the right allow users to reset and enter recovery mode or reboot. The front LEDs are for the RJ45, showing linkup speed and activity. The status LED on the right comes alive during the boot process and remains off under regular operation. A USB key, which ships with the unit, acts as a security and Bluetooth dongle and must be plugged at all times.

Under the hood, Firewalla provides an Intel N97 quad-core x86 processor to do all the heavy lifting. It is the only processor available onboard, and all network traffic passes through it. The board includes two 2.5Gb and two 10Gb Ethernet MACs from Intel to connect the CPU to the network. Application memories consist of a single channel 8 GB RAM in SO-DIMM format, which can be expanded to 16GB, and 32GB of flash as an eMMC chip.

The Gold Pro's power consumption varies between 17W and 33W, slightly higher than that of the Gold Plus. The fan turns on when the CPU operates at maximum power and is completely silent, making it great as a desktop unit in an office setting. The unit is entirely RJ45-based, so upgrading to fiber is impossible without an SFP media converter. This somewhat limits the utility of the firewall in a home setting, the software supporting PPPoE while most residential Internet is fiber-to-home and thus cannot be connected directly.

Firewalla Gold Pro: In Use

The Gold Pro turns on with power applied to the box. The Linux boot process takes less than one minute, and an LED on the right lights up to show the progress. The software setup requires scanning a QR code at the bottom of the case into the Firewalla mobile app. An Internet connection is needed on the WAN-dedicated port to complete the setup. The Internet port can achieve speeds of up to 10Gbps, keeping the Gold Pro safe from obsolescence.

The Gold Pro can either work as a standalone firewall or as a router behind a firewall. In the router mode, the unit can assign IPs on demand while inspecting inbound and outbound traffic for threats. VLANs have been included for extra security, allowing different networks to reside on the same physical connection. Applications such as VLANs take full advantage of the CPU upgrade, with the N97 achieving over 100% performance uptick over the previous CPU generation.

Firewalla’s mobile application is polished and avoids intimidating the user with too many technical details. The first panel shows the firewall's health status and warnings about potential threats. The mobile app contains features that can be enabled, such as a Wi-Fi tester, VPN clients and servers, or an Adblocker. The list of add-ons, in addition to the threat list, is updated periodically.

Although not recommended, the Gold Pro's software can be customized by the end user through Docker containers. Commercial applications such as unRaid for NAS or home automation can be installed remotely through SSH.

Firewalla Gold Pro: The competition

A good firewall requires constant updates from a service provider. Firewalla’s propositions are more than just good firewalls with regular updates. They are, in fact, network appliances with features such as VPN and ad blocker. These features bring more responsibility from manufacturers on the testing and prevention side since they have more points of failure and potential vulnerabilities.

Many OEM PCs with two or more 2.5GbE connections require an OS like pfSense to work. They usually have a competitive price since one only pays for the hardware but needs a steep learning curve to build a working system. A mobile app is also non-existent, while the threat database usually depends on the open-source community, which isn’t true for the Firewalla Gold Pro.

Firewalla Gold Pro: Final verdict

The Firewalla Gold Pro outperforms its predecessor in terms of processing power by a factor of two, while its 10G connectivity is beyond what most people have at home. The ecosystem, including the app, cloud and threat update services, and tech support, sets it apart from the competition. The mobile app is one of the best available and will make setting up the unit a breeze. Services such as VPN and Adblocker make life easier at home or in the office.

A price tag of just below $1000 means the unit remains beyond what most people are willing to pay for a prosumer firewall. With four Ethernet LAN ports, the hardware can route packets on four high-speed links at 2.5Gb and over. Finally, the system is user-customizable thanks to Firewalla's willingness to open access to the underlying Linux system through SSH.

Buy the Gold Pro if ... you need 10G speed and a fuss-free mobile app.

Don’t buy if ... you are on a tight budget or if saving power is essential.

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