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Updated: 2 hours 42 min ago

The new Asus ROG NUC might actually be the best compact gaming PC I've ever seen - and it's smaller than a PS5, too

Wed, 10/22/2025 - 11:56

Asus ROG NUC (2025): Two-minute review

I'll start this review off by simply saying this: the Asus ROG NUC absolutely belongs on our list of the best mini PCs, and perhaps indeed the best computers overall - expect to see it make an appearance on those pages in the near future.

Asus has been hard at work on the NUC series, which was originally conceived by Intel as a new breed of compact desktop PCs before being sold off to Asus in 2023; amidst Intel's multitude of troubles at the time, it was deemed a necessary move to streamline the company and focus on chipmaking rather than PC production. The NUCs were historically pretty good devices, but it's clear that Asus has taken them to an entirely new level.

The new-for-2025 ROG NUC is a wonder; an ultra-compact desktop system packed with some of the most powerful cutting-edge gaming components, including a 2nd-gen Intel Core Ultra processor and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5000 GPU (the one in my review unit is an RTX 5080), plus 32GB of RAM and a 2TB SSD.

(Image credit: Future)

The whole system is essentially constructed around that graphics card, which is technically a laptop GPU - one can only assume that a full-scale desktop 5080 would be too chunky, even though Nvidia worked hard to scale down the comically gigantic cards of the RTX 3000 and 4000 eras. As you might expect, performance is excellent; expect high framerates and smooth gameplay at 1440p and even 4K, though the sorry state of modern PC game optimization means you'll probably need to turn on DLSS in some titles at 4K.

Those powerful components mean the ROG NUC is also a competent workstation system, which could prove to be a boon for professional creatives who need a powerful PC but have limited desk real estate to work with (and don't want to jump ship to macOS with the admittedly excellent M4 Mac mini).

(Image credit: Future)

Of course, a spec sheet like that does mean that the Asus ROG NUC is far from cheap. I'll get into the details in the pricing section below, but my review unit will set you back $3,199 / £2,599 (around AU$4,925) - no small sum for anybody, and a lot more than Apple's signature mini computer will cost you. Of course, any pre-built RTX 5080 desktop from a reputable manufacturer is going to cost you at least somewhere in the range of $2,800 / £2,000 / AU$5,000, so it's not an entirely ludicrous proposition even if it does place the ROG NUC beyond the budgets of many PC gamers.

Despite this, I loved using the new Asus ROG NUC, and having tested NUC devices in the past, I can comfortably say that it's one of the best iterations on the formula yet. If you've got the money to spend and want something that delivers a lot of power in a small package, this device is the way to go.

Asus ROG NUC (2025) review: Price & Availability

Starts from $2,599 / £2,129 (about AU$4,000)
Available now in the US and UK
Both RTX 5070 Ti and 5080 models available

Starting at $2,599 / £2,129 (about AU$4,000) for the base configuration, which sports an RTX 5070 Ti rather than the 5080 in my review unit, along with less storage and RAM as you can see in the spec table below, the new ROG NUC isn't exactly what I'd call affordable. Meanwhile, the 5080 model featured in this review - which is externally identical - will run you a hefty $3,199 / £2,599 (around $4,925).

Still, it's not absurdly priced for what it offers; considering the sheer lack of powerful compact PCs on the market, the best option for many potential users will be to build your own ITX system, and having spent plenty of time mucking about with compact PC cases in my years as a computer hardware journalist, I can say with certainty that it'll be a lot harder than simply buying a ROG NUC. Oh, and it most likely won't be as small, and will potentially end up being more expensive too!

(Image credit: Future)

So while the NUC is undeniably a pretty expensive piece of kit, I can't mark it down too much for that; if a powerful but ultra-compact PC for serious gaming or content creation work is what you want, this might be the single best option out there right now. Of course, a PS5 Pro will cost you a lot less... but it also doesn't fill the role of a fully capable desktop PC.

The Asus ROG NUC (2025) is already available to purchase direct from Asus and partner retailers in the US and UK, but it seems our Aussie friends will have to wait a little longer - though Asus did confirm that the new model will indeed be coming to Australia. Regional pricing for Australia is currently unconfirmed (the figures listed above are only conversions).

Value: 4 / 5

Asus ROG NUC (2025) review: SpecsAsus ROG NUC (2025) Intel Specs

Asus ROG NUC (2025) Base Config

Asus ROG NUC (2025) Review Config

Price

$2,599 / £2,129 (about AU$4,000)

$3,199 / £2,599 (around AU$4,925)

CPU

Intel Core i5-13420H (8 cores, 2.10GHz)

Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX (2.70GHz)

GPU

Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti 16GB Laptop GPU

Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 16GB Laptop GPU

RAM

16GB DDR5

32GB DDR5

Storage

1TB PCIe NVMe 4.0 M.2 SSD

2TB PCIe NVMe 4.0 M.2 SSD

Ports and Connectivity

6x USB-A 3.2 Gen 1, 2x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 (Thunderbolt 4), 2x HDMI 2.1, 2x DisplayPort 2.1, 1x RJ-45, 1x 3.5mm combi audio jack, Kensington Lock

Dimensions

11.1 x 7.4 x 2.2in / 28.2cm x 18.8cm x 5.7cm

Weight

6.79lbs / 3.12kg

Asus ROG NUC (2025) review: Design

Amazingly compact design
Surprisingly good amount of ports
Limited upgrade potential for a desktop PC

Making a compact PC chassis can take designers in a lot of different directions. Do you aim for a low, flat design like Apple's Mac mini, or build upwards with a small footprint like the fantastic Corsair One i500?

As you can no doubt tell from the pictures, Asus has gone for the latter approach, with a thin tower design that produces a footprint of less than eight-by-six inches (full dimensions in the spec sheet above). It can technically also be laid on its side with the stand removed - ideal for putting it in a TV stand as a console-style living room PC - but after disassembling it, I can say that I wouldn't particularly recommend that unless you're willing to prop it up on something to ensure that the exhaust fans have enough breathing room to vent properly.

Speaking of disassembly: I don't always dig around in the guts of pre-built systems, but this was one case where I felt obliged to. See, the NUC series (standing for 'Next Unit of Computing') was originally founded by Intel in 2013 with the goal of creating a small-form-factor barebones PC with customization and upgrade potential.

Asus has clearly moved away from this ethos somewhat, as the ROG NUC is not only a fully-fledged system, but also has relatively little upgradability.

(Image credit: Future)

Upgrade options here are effectively limited to the RAM and SSD, and you'll need to discard the old RAM if you want more, since there are only two DIMM slots and they're both already occupied. There is, however, a spare M.2 slot for fitting a second SSD, should you want to expand your storage.

Really, this level of upgradability might be a slight step down from the more classic barebones NUCs Intel used to make, but it's pretty par for the course as far as modern mini PCs go.

The case is also easy enough to open up for any upgrade work, which is nice to see; I've dealt with mini PC cases that seemed determined not to let me get at the goodies inside.

Thermal management is handled by multiple fans, with vents on both flat sides and the top. It's quite effective at keeping the whole unit cool (even at the peak of my benchmarking process, the ROG NUC didn't get particularly warm to the touch), although I would note that the fans can get rather loud when running resource-intensive games; if you're planning to play in 4K, I'd recommend a headset or one of the best computer speakers.

Overall, I like the design; it's a bit less visually busy than last year's model, while still managing to fit in a good range of physical ports for connecting your devices. In addition to two HDMI and DisplayPort video outputs for connecting multiple monitors, you also get two Thunderbolt USB-C ports, six USB-A ports, an RJ-45 Ethernet slot, and the good ol' 3.5mm headphone jack. As mini PCs go, this NUC has it all.

Design: 5 / 5

Asus ROG NUC (2025) review: Performance

(Image credit: Future)

Runs AAA games at high settings
Strong performance in creative and AI workloads
Fans do get rather noisy

Asus ROG NUC (2025) Benchmarks

Here's how the Asus ROG NUC (2025) performed in our suite of benchmark tests:

Geekbench 6 (Multi Core): 19,683; (Single Core): 2,977
Geekbench AI (Single Precision): 28,951; (Half Precision): 50,926; (Quantized): 22,406
Cinebench R23 (Multi Core): 34,413; (Single Core): 2,188
Cinebench R24 (Multi Core): 2,011; (Single Core): 132
Crossmark Overall: 2,338
3DMark Fire Strike: 39,680; Steel Nomad: 5,309; Solar Bay: 106,741; Speed Way: 5,809; Port Royal: 14,233
BlackMagicDisk Read: 4,333MB/s; Write: 4,928MB/s
25GB Copy Test: 1,493MB/s
Shadow of the Tomb Raider (1080p, Medium): 225 FPS; (1080p, Highest): 219 FPS; (Balanced Upscaling, 1080p, Highest): 224 FPS
Total War: Warhammer III (1080p, Medium): 319 FPS; (1080p, Ultra): 176 FPS
Cyberpunk 2077 (1080p, Medium): 178 FPS; (1080p, Ultra): 148 FPS; (Balanced Upscaling, 1080p, Ultra): 157 FPS
Metro: Exodus (1080p, Medium): 239 FPS; (1080p, Extreme, No RT): 102 FPS; (Balanced Upscaling, 1080p, Extreme RT): 137 FPS

As you'd hope from a system with an Nvidia RTX 5080 - even the trimmed-down laptop version inside the ROG NUC - the gaming performance on offer here is undeniably strong.

Our standard benchmarking process uses games tested at 1080p (primarily without any upscaling tools, like Nvidia's DLSS) to provide a realistic comparison point between systems. Needless to say, the ROG NUC absolutely blasted through these, offering stellar performance with triple-digit framerates in literally every test I ran.

Bump things up to 1440p and you'll get similarly great performance, especially if you do turn on DLSS (no need for frame-generation here, honestly). At 4K, I found most games could still clear that prized 60fps mark, with only Cyberpunk 2077 and Metro Exodus requiring DLSS to maintain a stable framerate when turning on maximum ray-traced graphics. It's worth bearing in mind that upscaling has more of an impact at higher resolutions; at 1080p, DLSS in Balanced mode only gained me an extra nine frames per second in Cyberpunk at the Ultra graphical preset, while at 4K that differential increased to a whopping 38.

I'd also like to address some of the concerns many gamers clearly have about DLSS (yes, I spend too much time on Reddit, I see those posts too). It literally works great. That's all I have to say; the tech is four generations in at this point, and it's been refined enough that I noticed no discernible difference in gameplay at 4K.

Frame-generation is a different story, of course - 4x Multi Frame Generation from Nvidia is frankly still wonky even if it does boost your FPS - but at this stage, we should all be using upscaling for playing games at any resolution above 1080p.

(Image credit: Future)

Outside of raw gaming performance, the ROG NUC performed admirably in synthetic tests across graphical, AI, and creative workloads.

The 3DMark graphic benchmark suite brought back results that were broadly what I anticipated: strong, but not quite on par with the 'true' desktop RTX 5080, so don't buy this if you're expecting a fully-fledged 5080 desktop experience squeezed into a compact chassis. At a fundamental level, this is more like a 5080 laptop in a desktop form factor.

Still, the results were good; the Intel Core Ultra 9 CPU also delivered solid numbers, with great performance in the Geekbench and Crossmark benchmarks, placing it comfortably on par with laptops equipped with the same processor. AI performance was also good, since the presence of a discrete GPU easily outweighs anything the Intel chip's built-in NPU brings to the table.

Lastly, the SSD that comes with the ROG NUC is fast. With read and write speeds in excess of 4GB/s, the only thing that'll constrain you in terms of file transfers is your internet connection. Games load up fast, and Windows 11 boots up faster.

Performance: 4.5 / 5

Should I buy the Asus ROG NUC?Asus ROG NUC (2025)Scorecard

Attributes

Notes

Rating

Value

Although it's far from cheap, the pricing doesn't place it ludicrously higher than similarly-specced systems, and the compact chassis is quite unique.

4 / 5

Design

A fantastically compact design that somehow manages to cram in a ton of physical ports, the ROG NUC is one of the best-crafted mini PCs I've ever seen.

5 / 5

Performance

Great gaming performance at any resolution, along with strong performance in creative and AI workloads - just bear in mind that this isn't a full-fat desktop GPU.

4.5 / 5

Total

The ROG NUC is, simply put, one of the best compact gaming PCs I've ever seen. I do wish it wasn't quite so expensive, but Asus has really made something special here.

4.5 / 5

Buy the Asus ROG NUC (2025) if...

You want something powerful but compact
On a fundamental level, there are very few systems out there that can match the gaming capabilities of the ROG NUC while still offering such a tiny form factor.

You want to connect lots of peripherals
If you're a power-user (or just a bit gadget-crazed), the ROG NUC has enough ports to support a whole bunch of monitors, mice, keyboards, webcams, speakers, stream decks... you get the idea.

Don't buy it if...

You're on a tight budget
Yeah, this thing is pretty dang expensive. If you just want an RTX 5080 system and don't care about size, you'll be able to spend less for the same (or even better) performance.

You want a silent system
Although the ROG NUC's cooling is surprisingly effective at keeping the system at a suitable temperature, those fans can get pretty noisy when running demanding software like games.

Asus ROG NUC (2025) review: Also Consider

NZXT Player PC
One of the best desktop PCs we've reviewed this year, the 'Player PC' from NZXT might have an awful name, but it delivers strong gaming performance in a well-constructed case - plus, as a 5070 system, it'll cost you a bit less than the NUC too.

Read our full NZXT Player PC review

Mac mini (M4, 2024)
If you’re looking for more of a creative workstation than specifically a gaming PC, but were drawn to the ROG NUC's powerful specs and compact design, then the M4 Mac mini is the device for you. We called it 'the best Mac ever' in our review, and it lives up to that epithet with stellar productivity and creativity performance in a truly tiny chassis.

Read our full Mac mini (M4, 2024) review

How I tested the Asus ROG NUC (2025)

Tested for a week
Used for work and general web browsing
Replaced my usual desktop for gaming in the evenings

I tested the Asus ROG NUC for a week, including the weekend, during which time it took the place of my usual home office desktop system - a far chunkier PC. I used it daily for work and assorted other online activities; I'm currently rewatching The X Files, and I also used it to host a virtual TTRPG session.

I also spent plenty of time in my off hours using the ROG NUC for gaming, which is a regular hobby of mine. I mostly tested triple-A titles (in addition to our regular suite of game benchmarks), including Avowed and Remnant II, plus a cheeky bit of Stardew Valley, which was unsurprisingly not very taxing on the system.

I've been reviewing PC hardware for more than seven years and have been a PC gamer for more than twice that time, with so many laptop and desktop reviews under my belt at various publications that I sincerely can't even count them. This was my first time reviewing a NUC unit since Intel sold the brand off to Asus, and needless to say, I'm very pleased with the work Asus has done.

First reviewed: October 2025
Read more about how we test

Categories: Reviews

Garmin Venu 4 review: Your do-it-all companion, from meetings to mountain biking

Wed, 10/22/2025 - 11:02

One-minute review

The Garmin Venu 4 is a gem, and one that should satisfy moderate-to-serious exercise enthusiasts that want a great smartwatch with a generously sized battery and heavy focus on fitness. While it isn’t as rugged as the Forerunner, Instinct or Fenix range, this is a watch better-suited to people who want an unobtrusive, premium-looking watch for the office and a powerhouse for runs and rides, something between a Samsung Galaxy Watch and a regular Garmin.

The Venu 4 delivers on this promise, packing a suite of features from the best Garmin watches into its sleek-looking stainless steel body and bright screen. It’s missing a few features that you might expect to find on an Apple or Samsung smartwatch, such as LTE connectivity and full-color maps – and at this price tag, you might miss at least one of them.

The operating system, as slick as it is, also has a few cumbersome quirks: I’m so used to Google and Apple’s raise-to-speak voice assistants that to use the upper button and touchscreen to get to Garmin’s voice assistant functionality, which I use to set kitchen timers and the like, seems almost archaic and counter-intuitive.

However, these are small niggles: generally speaking, the watch performs admirably. While the lack of full-color directional maps is disappointing, the interface works just fine when following courses during runs, and the voice assistant is as responsive as Siri, if not as sophisticated as on-device AI such as Gemini. The battery, said to be up to 12 days of use in smartwatch mode, is an accurate measurement: I wore the watch for around 10 days before needing to charge it, with quite a bit of working out. The heart rate readings from Garmin’s Elevate V5 sensor are accurate enough for all but elite athletes, but I’ll touch on that more in the Performance section of the review.

New health tools such as Lifestyle Logging and Health Status are useful, especially the self-reporting Lifestyle Logging structure, which allows you to assign tags to your day (caffeine, alcohol, healthy meals, heavy meals and so on) to show the effects of different stimuli on your metrics.

Garmin’s usual suite of outstanding metrics are present and correct: as a regular runner, I find stride length, cadence and so on useful for tweaking my technique, and Garmin’s Race Calendar and Primary Race widgets are second to none. It’s a worthy buy for anyone who wants a Garmin, but doesn’t like the outdoorsy look so many of them share.

Garmin Venu 4: Price and availability

(Image credit: Future)

$549.99 in the US
£469.99 in the UK
AU$949 in Australia

The Garmin Venu 4 costs $549.99 / £469.99 / AU$949, and this is true for both the 41mm and 45mm sizes. You get the choice of Silver, Slate and Lunar Gold colors – I have the Slate option, and it looks great – and you can pay an additional $50 / £50 /AU$69 for other bands. I’m seriously considering splashing out on a brown leather band, which would really set off the look of the Slate.

Value-wise, this is around the price of a more expensive Apple or Samsung Galaxy Watch8 Classic, and I’d say that’s about right for where this sits in the market; what it lacks in smart communication credentials, it makes up for in battery life and fitness features. There’s no getting around this is a price rise over the older Venu 3, but the premium metal body and additional features make it worth the tradeoff.

Value score: 4/5

Garmin Venu 4: Specifications

Component

Garmin Venu 4 (41mm)

Garmin Venu 4 (45mm)

Price

$549.99 / £469.99 / AU$949

Dimensions

41 x 41 x 12 mm

45 x 45 x 12 mm

Weight

46g with band

56g with band

Case/bezel

Stainless steel/Polymer

Display

390 x 390px 1.2-in AMOLED display

454 x 454px 1.4-in AMOLED display

GPS

GPS, Galileo, GLONASS, Beidou, QZSS, SatIQ

Battery life

Up to 10 days

Up to 12 days

Connection

Bluetooth, Wi-Fi

Water resistant

Yes, 5ATM

Garmin Venu 4: Design

(Image credit: Future)

Stainless steel body upgrade
Redesigned UI
Brighter screen – but bezels are thick

If you’ve got this far in our review, you’ll know I like the look of the Garmin Venu 4. Whereas the stainless steel element of the 3 was confined to the bezel, with the case itself made of plastic, Garmin has expanded its use of steel to include the case as well, and it looks all the better for it. The dark metal of my Slate model is understated and classy, and I can’t wait to pair it with a leather strap. The screen is bright, but the bezels could be slightly thinner for my taste. Still, it’s hard to complain about the looks of this watch.

As opposed to its more outdoor-oriented watches such as the Fenix, Forerunner and Instinct series, the Garmin Venu 4 has two buttons instead of five. Its snappy and responsive touchscreen does most of the heavy-lifting when it comes to navigating, although you can configure the buttons to operate on long and short presses. A long press on my “back” button ignites the LED torch (a great addition on all the best Garmin watches now), while a long press on my upper “start” button summons the Controls tab, through which I can activate the Voice Assistant, Find my Phone, DND and other functionalities quickly. It’s a nice system.

The redesigned UI isn’t quite as smooth and seamless as watchOS or Wear OS, but it isn’t far off. Garmin used to look downright basic in comparison (which I think had a charm all by itself to be honest, and part of me misses it), but it looks great and works well in practice when you’re swiping through widgets or teeing up a workout. Garmin users who choose to upgrade will find the new setup intuitive to use, as will first-timers.

Design score: 5/5

Garmin Venu 4: Features

(Image credit: Future)

New Health Status and Lifestyle Logging
Usual suite of excellent fitness tracking features
Speaker, microphone and LED torch

Tons of great features abound here. The new Health Status feature looks at five key metrics during sleep: heart rate, HRV, respiration, pulse ox and skin temperature. It details whether all of your metrics are in their normal range, and if one or more is out of whack, something is afoot.

Often, this can be combined with the Lifestyle Logging feature to self-diagnose potential issues. Lifestyle Logging allows you to tag your day with the amount of caffeinated drinks, meditation, alcohol, healthy meals, heavy meals, cold showers, or other custom tags you might care to add. If your skin temperature is outside your healthy range and you logged some alcoholic drinks at a party the day before, or your HRV is off after a day of too much caffeine, you’ll know what to change to bring yourself back in line. Still, it will be a cold day in hell before Garmin makes me give up my morning coffee.

The usual suite of wellness and fitness features are present, with the Venu 4 – like the rest of the best Garmin watches – excelling at running and cycling, in particular. Training plans from Garmin Coach, local courses generated in the Garmin Connect app and upcoming races can be loaded onto your watch to turn it into a training powerhouse. Advanced metrics such as power for cyclists, and ground contact time or vertical oscillation for runners really empower the watch to be particularly helpful for connoisseurs. I also use it to time my rest periods in the gym between sets – a useful feature in the Strength workout profile to keep my mind on my workout. I’m missing full-color maps here, but the basic follow-along directional arrow for longer courses will be good enough for most.

Smarts-wise, the Controls tab features the Find my Phone and Voice Assistant functionalities, which are serviceable and useful but pretty basic. There are no on-device AI smarts here, but I can set a timer easily enough. The LED torch is eminently useful in three tiers of powerful white light and a less aggressive red option for night runs. A speaker and microphone allow you to take calls on-wrist, which is useful in a pinch. However, without the option to connect the watch to your network without a phone via LTE, it’s a convenience rather than a necessity.

Features score: 4.5/5

Garmin Venu 4: Performance

(Image credit: Future)

Elevate V5 sensor is accurate compared to industry-standard heart rate monitor
Battery life performs as described
The watch was comfortable and useful throughout the testing process

I compared the Garmin Venu 4’s Elevate V5 heart rate sensor to a chest strap – the Polar H10, described as the most accurate heart rate monitor available to most people, and used by professional and amateur athletes alike – during a couple of workouts.

During my tests, after a brief bit of initial variation, the Garmin Venu 4 tightened up and matched the Polar H10’s readings very closely. After a 30-minute run, the Polar H10’s average beats-per-minute for my heart rate registered as 156bpm. The Garmin Venu 4 registered 151bpm.

For training purposes, that’s certainly close enough for most – it isn’t really a serious statistical outlier – although I suppose it could be closer. The Apple Watch Ultra 3, which I also wore during this run, registered 155bpm. Still, 5bpm out across the entirety of the workout isn’t anything to worry about, and a good enough estimation to indicate the Elevate V5’s accuracy.

Battery life performs as described, too: the watch lasted a full 10 days with multiple workouts before needing a top-up. The Venu 4 was comfortable to use and better to sleep in than a lumpy Fenix – I hardly took it off all week.

Performance score: 4.5/5

Garmin Venu 4: Scorecard

Attribute

Comments

Score

Value

About right for its place in the lineup, but not a huge bargain

Design

Looks great and is intuitive to use. Top marks

Features

I would have loved LTE and full-color maps, but they’re my only quibbles

4.5

Performance

Accurate, long-lasting and looks great on wrist in the office. Enough smarts for most.

4.5

Garmin Venu 4: Should I buy?Buy it if...

You’re looking for an all-rounder

This smartwatch can be worn looking smart to social occasions, dressed up with a change of strap, and out on the trail.View Deal

You want battery life

Forty-two hours for the Apple Watch Ultra 3? Try 10 days with the Venu 4. View Deal

You’re a keen outdoor exerciser

While this will work fine for the gym, it’s a bit of a waste for gym-bunnies: it really shines on runs, hikes and rides. View Deal

Don't buy it if...

You’re a rugged adventurer

Those who spend their lives in the wild might prefer an Instinct or Fenix instead. View Deal

You want the smartest watch

If you’re looking for LTE connectivity, an AI voice assistant and seamless phone connectivity, you might be better off with a Wear OS or Apple Watch. View Deal

Also consider

Component

Garmin Venu 4 (41mm)

Apple Watch Series 11 (42mm)

Samsung Galaxy Watch8 (40mm)

Price

$549.99 / £469.99 / AU$949

From $399 / £369 / AU$679

From $349.99 / £319 / AU$649

Dimensions

41 x 41 x 12 mm

42mm x 36mm x 9.7mm

42.7 x 40.4 x 8.6mm

Weight

46g with band

30.3g (42mm)

30g

Case/bezel

Stainless steel/Polymer

Aluminum with a metal back or Titanium (100% recycled)

Armor Aluminum

Display

390 x 390px 1.2-in AMOLED display

Always-on Retina LTPO3 display Wide-angle OLED at 374 by 446 (42mm)

1.3-in super AMOLED

GPS

GPS, Galileo, GLONASS, Beidou, QZSS, SatIQ

L1 GPS, GNSS, Galileo, and BeiDou

GPS, Glonass, Beidou, Galileo

Battery life

Up to 10 days

24 hours, 38 hours in Low Power Mode

Up to 30 hours

Connection

Bluetooth, Wi-Fi

Bluetooth 5.3, Wi-Fi, second-generation ultra-wideband chip, and 5G (Optional)

Wi-Fi, NFC, Bluetooth 5.3

Water resistant

Yes, 5ATM

WR50 and IP7X

Yes, 5ATM

Apple Watch Series 11

The best all-around smartwatch for iPhone users, and a solid Venu 4 alternative.

Read our full Apple Watch Series 11 review

Samsung Galaxy Watch8

A terrific smartwatch and the best for Samsung users. Great run tracking, although again, battery life suffers compared to the Venu 4.

Read our full Samsung Galaxy Watch8 review

How I tested

I wore the Garmin Venu 4 for two weeks, drained the battery down while completing gym, running and hiking workouts. I used features such as Lifestyle Logging, tested the Voice Assistant, ECG functionality, ran at night with the torch enabled, and conducted an accuracy test against the Polar H10 heart rate monitor and Apple Watch Ultra 3.

Categories: Reviews

Netgear Orbi 373: affordable and easy-to-use mesh Wi-Fi system for larger homes

Wed, 10/22/2025 - 07:07

Netgear Orbi 373: One-minute review

Netgear’s new management continues its quest to provide more affordable options for home users who want to upgrade their Wi-Fi. The company has recently launched a number of affordable Wi-Fi 7 routers, and it’s now bringing that approach to its Orbi range of mesh Wi-Fi systems too.

Like many of the more affordable Wi-Fi 7 routers and mesh systems that we’ve seen recently, the Orbi 370 series keeps its price down by providing basic dual-band Wi-Fi 7 that uses just the 2.4GHz and 5.0GHz frequency bands, and omits the faster 6.0GHz band that is available with both Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7.

However, Wi-Fi doesn’t just focus on speed alone, and is also designed to be more reliable when connecting to lots of devices within your home all at the same time.

This means that a dual-band Wi-Fi 7 system such as the Orbi 370 series can still provide a useful upgrade for owners of older routers and mesh systems - especially for people who live in larger homes that need a far-reaching Wi-Fi network that can cover their entire home.

(Image credit: Future)

This also ensures that the Orbi 370 remains fully compatible with older computers and other devices that use the 2.4GHz and 5.0GHz bands. However, owners of shiny new PCs or mobile devices that do have Wi-Fi 7 might prefer to opt for a more expensive router or mesh system that provides full support for the high-speed 6.0GHz band.

Netgear Orbi 373: Price & availability

How much does it cost? $349.99/£299.99/AU$349.99
When is it available? Available now
Where can you get it? Available in the US, UK, and Australia

Most mesh Wi-Fi systems consist of two or more routers that are identical in terms of both design and features.

However, Netgear’s Orbi range takes a different approach, with each system consisting of a primary router along with one or more ‘satellite’ units. The Orbi 370 series can be bought as a two-pack mesh system (Orbi 372) that consists of the main router and one satellite for $249.99/£209.99/AU$249.99.

For this review, we tested the three-pack option (Orbi 373) that includes one router and two satellites, priced at $349.99/£299.99/AU$349.99. Netgear states that this should cover an area of up to 6,000 sq.ft – although that figure may vary due to differences in regional regulations, so check Netgear’s local web site in your own country before buying.

There’s also a four-pack available in the US and Australia, which adds a third satellite for $449.99/AU$449.99. However, that option doesn’t seem to be available for the quaint little hovels in the tiny island state of Great Britain.

Value: 4 / 5

Netgear Orbi 373: Specs

Wi-Fi:

Dual-band Wi-Fi 7 (2.4GHz, 5.0GHz)

Speed:

US/AU - 5Gbps, UK – 3.6Gbps

Connectivity:

1x 2.5Gb WAN, 1x 2.5Gb LAN; Satellite - 1x 2.5Gb LAN

Processor:

Quad-core CPU, 1.25GHz

Memory

1GB

Storage:

512MB

Dimensions:

204 x 75 x 120mm, 0.35kg

Netgear Orbi 373: Design

Slimline, compact design
Router provides 2.5Gb ports for broadband and wired connections
Satellites only have one Ethernet port

The Orbi 373 follows the upright mini-tower design that Netgear introduced last year, with each slimline unit standing just 204mm high, 75mm wide and 120mm deep.

They’re small enough to sit easily on any convenient table or shelf, although the white plastic casing feels a little flimsy, so it’s probably a good idea for parents to keep them out of reach of eager young hands.

There are some other compromises required to keep the price down too. The main satellite just has two Ethernet ports – one each for your broadband connection (WAN), and for providing a wired connection (LAN) for a PC or other devices.

(Image credit: Future)

The satellite units are even more basic, with just a single Ethernet port to provide a wired connection. Thankfully, though, the ports on both router and satellites all support 2.5Gb speeds so you can still use the Orbi 370 series with high-speed broadband services. However, if you do need additional Ethernet ports – perhaps for an office network – then you might prefer to look for an alternative that provides additional ports.

Design: 3 / 5

Netgear Orbi 373: Features

Easy to set up and use
Parental controls require a subscription
Provides Guest and IoT networks

One feature that helps to justify the price of Netgear products is that they’re very easy to use, and setting up the Orbi 373 proved to be a piece of cake (albeit a piece of cake that moves at a rather leisurely pace).

All you have to do is scan the QR code that’s printed on the main router and then download the Orbi app. This guides you through the set-up process automatically, connecting you to the new network created by the main router, and then linking the satellites to the router in order to complete your new mesh network.

It takes a little while – the Orbi app warns that it can take up to 20 minutes to connect the satellites to the main router – but the process is completely automatic. And, to keep things simple, the app merges the 2.4GHz and 5.0GHz bands into a single network. The only thing that you need to think about is whether you want to use the default log-in details for the Orbi network, or assign a new name and password that you can choose yourself.

The app isn’t exactly overflowing with additional features though, because – even with its lower pricing – Netgear always wants to sell you some additional subscriptions.

(Image credit: Netgear)

You can view a network map that lists all the devices connected to the network, and block any device that you don’t trust (or if you just want to get the kids to put their phones down at dinner time).

You can also create a guest network for visitors, and an IoT network (Internet Of Things) for any smart devices in your home. However, additional security features and parental controls will require a subscription to Netgear’s Armor security or Smart Parental Controls services.

You do get a 30-day trial for both services when you buy the Orbi, but after that you’ll need to pay for a subscription. The Smart Parental Controls subscription costs $7.99 per month (around £6/AU$12) or $69.99 per year (around £50/AU$110). The Armor security service offers a discount for the first year, costing $33.33 per year (around £25/AU$50), rising to $99.99 (around £75/AU$150) after one year.

Features: 3 / 5

Netgear Orbi 373: Performance

Dual-band Wi-Fi 7
5Gbps Wi-Fi speed (3.6Gbps in UK)
2.5Gb Ethernet ports

There’s one minor oddity here, as Netgear states that the Orbi 370 series provides a Wi-Fi speed of 5Gbps in the US and Australia, but only 3.6Gbps in the UK.

That’s the first time we’ve come across a regional difference like that but, in any event, 3.6Gbps should still be more than adequate to handle most domestic broadband services.

Netgear Orbi 373: Benchmarks

Ookla Speed Test (download/upload)
Within 5ft, no obstructions: 150/150Mbps
Within 30ft, three partition walls: 150/150Mbps

20GB Steam download
Within 5ft, no obstructions: 150Mbps
Within 30ft, three partition walls: 150Mbps

The Orbi 373 that we tested certainly gave my office Wi-Fi a welcome boost. It runs at 150Mbps, but my aging router can only manage a top speed of 120Mbps even for devices that are in the same room.

I also have an office towards the back of the building that my old office router can’t reach at all, leaving me with an annoying Wi-Fi deadspot that means I have to use powerline adaptors to provide a wired connection instead.

The Orbi 373 immediately kicked my office Wi-Fi up a gear, hitting the maximum 150Mbps for devices in the same room for both the Ookla Speed Test and file downloads on Steam.

To reach the back office, I placed one of the satellites inside that office and the second satellite in a hallway, roughly halfway between the main router and the other satellite.

And, as I wandered along the corridor to the back office with my laptop still downloading files from Steam, I was pleased to find that the Orbi held steady at 150Mbps the whole time.

Netgear’s fondness for selling add-on subscriptions remains irksome, but at least you can ignore that if you want to. Some people might also prefer a router or mesh system that provides additional Ethernet ports.

But, if you simply want a reliable and easy-to-use mesh Wi-Fi system that can cover larger homes or offices, then the Orbi 370 series fits the bill at a competitive price.

Performance: 4 / 5

Should you buy the Netgear Orbi 373?

Value

Its dual-band Wi-Fi 7 means that the Orbi 373 is very much an entry-level option, but it’s competitively priced and should be fast enough for most domestic broadband services.

4 / 5

Design

The lightweight plastic casing could be a little sturdier, and it doesn’t offer too much in the way of wired connectivity either. However, 2.5Gb Ethernet ports still provide good performance for high-speed broadband services.

3.5 / 5

Features

The Orbi’s well-designed app is certainly easy to ease. However, its modest price is matched by a fairly modest selection of features, and Netgear really wants you to pay a subscription fee for parental controls.

3 / 5

Performance

Lack of support for the 6.0GHz band means that the Orbi 373 is no speed demon (especially for UK users). Even so, it should still be a good upgrade for people that are using an older router with Wi-Fi 5 or 6.

3.5 / 5

Final Score

Gamers or power users who want maximum performance should look elsewhere. However, the Orbi 373 is an affordable upgrade for people who need more reliable Wi-Fi for larger homes.

4 / 5

Buy it if...

You have lots of bedrooms
There are faster routers available, but the Orbi 370 series is a good option for larger homes that need far-reaching Wi-Fi coverage.

You’re on a budget
Wi-Fi 7 routers and mesh systems are still fairly expensive, so the Orbi 370 series provides a worthwhile upgrade without breaking the bank.

Don't buy it if...

You’re a gamer
Dual-band Wi-Fi 7 is very much an entry-level option, so gamers who need lighting response times should look at a faster tri-band option.

You want parental controls
The Orbi 370 series is affordable, but it skimps on extra features and tries to sell you subscriptions for parental controls and other features.

Netgear Orbi 373: Also consider

Netgear Orbi 373

Netgear Nighthawk RS100

Acer Predator Connect T7

Price:

$349.99/£299.99/AU$349.99

$129.99/£129.99/AU$259

$329.99/£236.22/AU$699

Wi-Fi:

Dual-band Wi-Fi 7

Tri-band Wi-Fi 7

Speed:

5 Gbps (UK – 3.6 Gbps)

3.6 Gbps

11 Gbps

Connectivity:

Router – 1x 2.5Gb Ethernet (WAN), 1x 2.5Gb Ethernet (LAN); Satellites - 1x 2.5Gb Ethernet (LAN)

1x 2.5Gb Ethernet (WAN), 4x Gigabit Ethernet (LAN)

1x 2.5Gb Ethernet (WAN), 2x Gigabit Ethernet (LAN), 1x USB-C (2.0)

Processor:

Quad-core, 1.5GHz

Quad-core, 2GHz

Quad-core, 1.5GHz

Memory:

1GB

Storage:

512MB

Dimensions:

204 x 75 x 120mm

184 x 66 x 122mm

212 x 109 x 109mm

Netgear Nighthawk RS100
Smaller homes with one or two bedrooms can probably get by with a single, conventional router. The RS100 is one of Netgear’s most affordable Wi-Fi 7 routers, with a top speed of 3.6Gbps and price of just $129.99/£129.99/ AU$259.

Read our full Netgear Nighthawk RS100 review

Acer Predator Connect T7
If it’s speed you’re after then Acer’s T7 is a high-end gaming router that provides tri-band Wi-Fi 7 with a top speed of 11Gbps. It can be used as part of a mesh system in larger homes too.

Read our full Acer Predator Connect T7 review

How I tested the Netgear Orbi 373

Tested it for 3-4 days
Used it as my main office router
Used the Ookla Speed Test app and tested game download speeds

We pride ourselves on our independence and our rigorous review-testing process, offering up long-term attention to the products we review and making sure our reviews are updated and maintained - regardless of when a device was released, if you can still buy it, it's on our radar.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed October 2025

Categories: Reviews

I tested them, and Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) are the absolute best active noise cancelling cans for the money

Wed, 10/22/2025 - 05:30

Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen): two-minute review

The original QuietComfort Ultra Headphones from 2023 are still a competitive product, so for this second generation Bose has wisely left a lot unchanged. Even more wisely, the changes it has made turn out to be judicious and useful, and serve to make the QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) even more competitive than the model they replace – a shoo-in for our best noise-cancelling headphones guide and honestly, they're some of the comfiest and best over-ear headphones in general.

Battery life, at 30 hours with ANC switched on, is improved. The ability to switch ANC off, in order to eke out as much as 45 hours of action from a single charge, is worthwhile too. Adding a ‘cinema’ mode to the ‘Immersive’ audio offering is a smart move. And being able to hard-wire the headphones to a source of music in order to enjoy truly hi-res audio quality can’t be sniffed at either.

These improvements just enhance what is class-leading noise cancellation, a sky-high comfort quotient, excellent portability thanks to the degree of articulation in the frame, and vigorous, entertaining sound quality.

In truth, similarly priced alternatives from other brands will give you a slightly fuller sonic picture. But these alternatives are heavier, not quite as comfortable over the long haul – and in ultimate terms they can’t lay a glove on the immaculate noise-cancellation these headphones offer.

(Image credit: Future)Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) review: Price and release date

Released on September 10, 2025
Price: $449 / £449 / AU$699

The Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) launched in September 2025 and in the United Kingdom they’re priced at £449. In the United States they cost $449, and in Australia they go for AU$699.

In the UK this is the same money at which the original QuietComfort Ultra Headphones launched back in 2023, while in the US and Australia it’s nudged upwards a little. In any event, though, this price indicates the QC Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) are up against some capable and credible opposition…

Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) review: Specs

Weight:

250g

Drivers:

TBC

Battery life:

30 hours

Control:

App; voice; physical

Bluetooth:

5.4

(Image credit: Future)Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) review: Features

Bluetooth 5.4 with aptX Adaptive codec compatibility
‘Immersive’ audio
30 hours of battery life (ANC on)

There are some aspects of specification that Bose has never been all that keen on divulging, and it seems never will be. So as to the drivers fitted to the QC Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen), their size and material and frequency response, well, your guess is as good as mine. Quite why this run-of-the-mill information should be considered so sensitive is anyone’s guess, but here we are…

Still, there are things about which Bose is happily forthcoming. So we know these headphones use Bluetooth 5.4 for wireless connectivity, and are compatible with the aptX Adaptive codec as well as the less glamorous SBC and AAC alternatives. And in a notable upgrade for the model they replace, the QC Ultra II can be hard-wired to a source of music using their USB-C slot – connected this way, they can deal with audio content up to 24bit/48kHz resolution.

The company’s ‘Immersive’ take on the whole spatial audio thing is on board, too – the system can be switched off altogether, or set to either ‘still’ or ‘motion’, and this new model also features a ‘cinema’ mode that seeks to offer a more – hey! – cinematic presentation for that content that might benefit from it.

Active noise-cancellation, the area in which Bose has historically been the front-runner, is back in its ‘ActiveSense’ guise – the headphones can automatically adjust ANC levels to respond to environmental changes. There’s a slider in the control app to adjust the intensity of the ANC and also to dictate the amount of external sounds you hear while in ‘Aware’ mode – and unlike the original model, the ANC in the QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) can be turned off altogether.

Battery life is improved for this new model, too. You can now expect 45 hours between charges with ANC off, 30 hours or so if you switch it on, and around 23 hours if you’re enjoying ‘Immersive’ audio at the same time. The thick end of three hours of playback can be liberated from a 15-minute connection to mains power.

There are a total of 10 mics in and around the ear cups, and no matter what you’re using them for – ANC, telephony, voice-assistant interaction – they prove sharp and rapid in their response.

Features score: 5 / 5

(Image credit: Future)Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) review: Sound quality

Energetic and engaging sound quality
Not, perhaps, the last word in fine-detail retrieval
Absolutely superb ANC

I’ll start with the least surprising thing about these headphones: they're fitted with the best active noise-cancellation you can buy at anything like this kind of money. In fact, they have better ANC than plenty of wireless over-ear headphones costing two or three times this amount. Somehow Bose has worked out how to banish external sounds almost entirely from the experience of wearing a pair of QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen). And it’s done so without altering the sonic character of the headphones in the slightest, and without introducing any sensation of noise-floor disruption or that weird ear-sucky-vacuum thing that less accomplished companies deal in. It’s remarkable, really.

That eerie silence outside leaves you free to enjoy sound quality that’s upfront, entertaining and thoroughly vigorous. There’s a very agreeable up-and-at-’em attitude to the way the Bose go about delivering a 16bit/44.1kHz FLAC file of Never Stop by Echo & The Bunnymen – momentum levels never dip, there’s confidence in the way the rhythm is expressed, and the broad dynamic shifts in volume and intensity are dispatched with something approaching relish.

The overall frequency response, from the very bottom of the range to the very top, is nicely even. The bottom end hits hard and digs deep, but is controlled enough to stop bass sounds dragging at the sound, while at the opposite end there’s just about substance to treble sounds to keep the bite and shine in check. In between, the midrange communicates in a forward and direct manner, and voices feel the benefit of this positivity no end.

(Image credit: Future)

The soundstage the QC Ultra (2nd Gen) create is large and quite convincingly defined, and even in a fairly hectic mix like this one the Bose can create enough space for each element of the recording to express itself fully. The headphones tie everything together pretty well, too, so even though there’s plenty of separation to the sound the recording is still presented as a singular event rather than a collection of individual occurrences.

A switch to Nina Simone’s version of Isn’t It a Pity? establishes that the Bose can do ‘stripped back’ and ‘slow burning’ just as readily as they can sink their teeth into the uptempo stuff. The balance and poise they exhibit here is the mark of an accomplished product – but the relatively spare recording also exposes the fact that the QC Ultra II are not, in ultimate terms, the most detailed headphones around.

They’re not a blunt instrument by any means, you understand, and they have some insight into harmonic variation and transient details. But the more minor, more fleeting episodes in this recording are rather glossed over. As a shortcoming it’s hardly the end of the world – and, in fact, it’s a testament to just how good the ANC is here that the listeners can enjoy enough isolation to be able to identify this little deficiency in the first place.

Sound quality score: 4.5 / 5

Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) review: Design

Choice of five finishes
250g
Folding design

What’s most immediately striking about the design of the Bose QC Ultra II – and, to be fair, striking for quite a long while afterwards too – is how light and comfortable they are. At just 250g they’re usefully lighter than pretty much every price-comparable rival, and the combination of carefully judged padding in the headband and earpads, along with well-judged clamping force, means they’re a comfortable proposition even after you’ve been wearing them for hours. The pleather that covers the earpads and inner part of the headband stays cool for a good long while, too.

There’s plenty of articulation in the frame of the headphones, so they fold in on themselves to the point that the semi-hard travel case Bose supplies is helpfully smaller than the majority of alternatives. Despite the amount of movement available in the frame, though, the headphones don’t feel flimsy or vague in their construction.

The QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (Gen 2) are available in five finishes. My review sample is in a rather insipid medicine color that Bose optimistically describes as ‘white smoke’ – the alternatives (‘black’, ‘midnight violet’, ‘driftwood sand’ and ‘desert gold’) are all more agreeable. For several of these colourways, including mine, the brightwork at the yokes and headband adjustment mechanism are much brighter than previously.

Design score: 5 / 5

(Image credit: Future)Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) review: Usability and setup

Physical and touch controls
Control app for iOS and Android
‘Immersive’ audio calibration

When it comes to set-up, the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) are no more tricksy than any other wireless headphones. Power them up, put them in ‘pairing’ mode and your source device will locate them in no time. And it’s no more difficult to pair to two devices at a time as it is one.

There is a combination of physical and touch controls on the right earcup. The physical stuff consists of a button taking care of power on/off and Bluetooth pairing, and a second slightly larger button that can deal with play/pause, skip forwards/backwards and cycling through your ANC options. The ‘touch’ part consists of a slider that controls volume – a ‘touch and hold’ can act as a ‘shortcut’ to either hearing the battery level, cycling through ‘Immersive’ audio options, summoning a voice assistant, or waking Spotify. You can decide which of these shortcuts you’d like in the control app.

The app itself is useful as far as it goes, though it’s far from the most visually exciting example of the type around – it’s just that when compared to the alternatives from the likes of, say, Bowers & Wilkins, it doesn’t go all that far. Volume control, EQ adjustment, ANC and ‘Immersive’ audio settings, as well as that ‘shortcut’ nomination, are all catered for, and here’s where you can check on software updates and what-have-you too. For all its stability and ease of navigation, though, it lacks the ability to integrate music streaming services or access to internet radio that many price-comparable rivals provide.

Usability and setup score: 4 / 5

Image 1 of 2

(Image credit: Future)Image 2 of 2

(Image credit: Future)Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) review: Value

Some rivals are better-value
Top sound quality, ANC and comfort

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the way the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) are constructed or finished, and the quality of the materials is unarguable too.

Somehow, though, the perceived value is not as high as it is with some rival models – perhaps that’s to do with the color of my sample, perhaps it’s the slightly hard- and thin-feeling plastics that make up the bulk of the earcups.

What can’t be argued with, though, is the experience – and in every respect, from sound quality and active nose-cancellation to extended comfort and portability, these headphones are right up there.

Value score: 4 / 5

(Image credit: Future)Should I buy the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen)?

(Image credit: Future)

Section

Notes

Score

Features

Lots of features like spatial audio and support for various codecs.

5 / 5

Sound quality

Energetic and engaging sound with top ANC.

4.5 / 5

Design

Light and comfortable, available in five finishes.

5 / 5

Usability and setup

A range of controls with the app bringing a few extras.

4 / 5

Value

A few rough finishes but otherwise, top value.

4 / 5

Buy them if…

You’re in this for the long haul
Between the battery life and the comfort quotient, the Bose are excellent travel companions.

Your long haul is noisy
One day, Bose will fail to produce class-leading active noise-cancellation – but today is not that day.

You enjoy energetic and entertaining sound
They’re not the absolutely final word in outright fidelity, but these headphones know how to have a good time.

Don't buy them if…

You want everyone to see where your money has gone
A similar spend with alternative brands will buy you a little more tactility and perceived value

You want all the control app whistles and bells
What the Bose app does, it does properly – but alternative apps from other brands go further in their functionality.

Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) review: Also consider

Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3
If it’s perceived value as well as great sound you’re after, the Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3 make a whole lot of sense – even if, just like everyone else, they have to bow to the noise-cancellation Bose deals in.
Read our full Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3 review

Sony WH-1000XM6
If you’re after something that does really well in every single department without ever quite being the best at any one thing, the Sony WH-1000XM6 are consummate all-rounders.
Read our full Sony WH-1000XM6 review

Apple AirPods Max
The stalwart point of comparison, Apple's top-tier over-ear headphones cost a tiny bit more and get you cans that are part of the AirPods ecosystem... if that's what you want.
Read the full Apple AirPods Max review

How I tested Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen)

Wireless connections to an iPhone 14 Pro, FiiO M15S digital audio player and MacBook Pro
A variety of music, a variety of file types and sizes
Connections wirelessly but also via USB-C cable

I connected the QC Ultra II wirelessly to an Apple MacBook Pro, an iPhone 14 Pro and a FiiO M15S digital audio player, in order to get as wide an experience of codecs and audio content as possible.

I also connected the headphones to the laptop using USB-C in order to get a little flavour of their high-resolution credentials. Lots of styles of music came through them, of lots of different file-types and -sizes… and I did plenty of listening outdoors as well as at home, too.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed: October 2025

Categories: Reviews

Xiaomi Smart Band 10 review: few upgrades over the best cheap fitness tracker around

Tue, 10/21/2025 - 12:01

Xiaomi Smart Band 10: One-minute review

Another year brings another cheap fitness tracker from Chinese tech company Xiaomi, but its Smart Band 10 is its first such gadget in a while that isn’t an instant must-buy for people looking for an affordable way to track their runs, steps or sleep.

The follow-up to the Smart Band 9, and perhaps the ‘original’ model to a potential 10 Pro and cheaper 10 Active version according to precedent, this 2025 wearable enjoys the same lack of competition that the last few generations of Xiaomi Smart Band have seen. Gone are the days in which every tech company is releasing a cheap fitness band, and Xiaomi is now one of the few companies giving Apple Watches, Garmins, or Fitbits a run for their money in this arena.

This lack of competition seemingly isn’t such a good thing, though, because Xiaomi hasn’t changed all that much with the Smart Band 10 from its predecessor. The new model has a slightly larger display and a higher price than the 2024 model but not a whole lot else.

So if you’re looking for a fitness tracker on a budget, the Xiaomi Smart Band 9, with a lower starting price and a year of price cuts over the Band 10, is a much more tempting prospect than this newer and slightly larger model.

Family rivalry aside, the Xiaomi Smart Band 10 has all the strengths and pitfalls of previous members of the family, but that’s no bad thing as the last-gen model is currently our top-ranked cheap fitness tracker.

There are over 150 fitness tracking modes, which record a varying degree of metrics but will sometimes surprise you in collecting more than just time and heart rate, and a selection of pre-programmed running workouts are quite useful to save you from carefully timing your 'couch to 5K' style walk-run workouts. You can also measure your sleep, stress and calories burned, with GPS collected from your connected smartphone.

The Band also has options for weather reports, notification handling, music control and calendar reminders; there’s a short but useful list of features which help you outside your workout hours.

You can keep using the Xiaomi Smart Band 10 for three weeks without needing to charge it, which is a really competitive stat that’ll let you take it travelling, or on holiday, without needing to bring a charger.

Like previous Xiaomi wearables, the software can be a little buggy at times (both the tracker and its tie-in Mi Fitness app), but the problem that plagued my experience with the Band 10 most was its strap.

The default fluororubber band’s tentative clasp kept coming undone at the slightest provocation, sometimes causing it to fall off during a workout or run. Xiaomi sells extra bands, many of which have real clasps, but it’s a shame that the default one is so unreliable.

(Image credit: Future)Xiaomi Smart Band 10: Specifications

Component

Value

Price

$73.99 / £39.99 / AU$133

Dimensions

46.57×22.54×10.95 (mm)

Display

1.72-in AMOLED display

GPS?

Battery life

21 days

Xiaomi Smart Band 10: Price and availability

(Image credit: Future)

Released in June 2025
Costs $73.99 / £39.99 / AU$133
Premium Ceramic Edition also on sale

The Xiaomi Smart Band was released globally in June 2025, just a few days after its announcement in China.

You can pick up the wearable for $73.99 / £39.99 / AU$133, which is somewhat of a price increase over the $60 / £34.99 / AU$79.99 asking price of the previous-gen model.

It’s still a fair way off the RRP of the Xiaomi Smart Band 9 Pro though, so it’s not ventured into premium territory just yet.

In some regions there’s also a premium model called the Ceramic Edition, which is the model I tested. I’ll get to the differences later but it’s also more expensive at £54.99 (roughly $70 / AU$110, although I couldn’t see it on sale in the US or Australia).

Depending on where you live, Xiaomi also sells a collection of alternative wrist straps, using different materials and designs to the default one. These range in price from doppelgangers of that sold-in-the-box model to fancy silk or leather straps.

Value score: 4/5

Xiaomi Smart Band 10: Design

(Image credit: Future)

Larger 1.72-inch AMOLED screen
Unreliable band clasp, but other options on sale
CE comes with premium body and different color option

Xiaomi has slowly been increasing the screen size of its cheap fitness tracker, which is how we get here. The Smart Band 10 has a 1.72-inch display with a 212 x 520 resolution and 1500 nits max brightness. All those specs are incremental upgrades over the Band 9.

I don’t imagine many people will complain about this boost; I didn’t find the previous-gen band hard to use and I again found it easy to control the watch, finding workouts to start or reading from menus or changing tunes (well, most of the time, more on that below). The brightness increase in particular helps make the screen easier to see on a sunny day.

A bigger screen doesn’t mean a bigger band body, with the 46.5 x 22.5 x 10.9 dimensions and 15.95g weight marking a size increase only in width, and of a tiny amount. The band is super lightweight, easy to forget about on your wrist. The Ceramic Edition adds an extra millimeter to the height and width and 8g to the weight.

Perhaps it’s time to touch on the Ceramic Edition, because design is the only area (beyond price) where it’s different. This model has a body that’s clad in Ceramic, not aluminium alloy as the standard model, which feels much more expensive to the touch.

The Ceramic Edition also comes in a pale white model called Pearl White, while the standard is sold in black, silver and pink.

(Image credit: Future)

The Ceramic Edition also has a fluororubber strap, while the standard model’s is made of TPU, and it could be a reason not to upgrade.

Like the last-gen band, the Band 10’s strap is a simple fare with one band full of adjustment holes and the other using a small tongue which you press into the hole to lock it in place. And it was anything but reliable: the tongue would fall out and cause the band to drop off with very little provocation, sometimes none at all. Throughout testing it’d constantly drop off at inopportune moments, and once I didn’t notice and would have left it on the floor had someone not pointed it out to me.

I never had this issue with the Band 9 and so have to assume it’s something to do with the fluororubber material used here, though possibly reports from buyers of the standard Band 10 will concur. The natural solution would be to buy one of the alternative straps which Xiaomi sells, though that’s an extra expense that you’ll need to consider carefully.

Design score: 3.5/5

Xiaomi Smart Band 10: Performance

(Image credit: Future)

Over 150 fitness modes
Battery life lasts for three weeks
No GPS, but heart rate tracker

Any battery size increase in the Xiaomi Smart Band 10 only compensates for its larger display size, and its official battery life estimate remains the same, at 21 days or 3 weeks. That’s a competitive stat, especially when you compare the band to daily-recharge smartwatches.

In my own testing, the smart band didn’t last quite that long, usually getting to 18 or 19, but that could well be because I did more exercise than normal in order to test the thing. Under average use, I can see it lasting three weeks.

One thing keeping the battery life low is the lack of GPS, with the band instead relying on your connected smartphone’s positioning when tracking movement activities. This means you have to work out with your phone to get a reasonable estimate of distance, but at least it’s pretty accurate.

The Xiaomi Smart Band 10 has just over 150 sports modes, which is the same stat as the last few generations of this wearable. They range from popular modes like running and cycling to dances, water sports, ball sports, winter activities and even various board games (you can track your game of bridge, if you like…).

(Image credit: Future)

The stats you get from these activities vary quite a bit, with most just tracking time and heart rate – you find yourself measuring these activities so that your app log will have a complete list of everything you’ve done, not because you’re getting an in-depth analysis of your hockey performance.

However I was sometimes caught out by modes offering more information than I thought; I tracked an indoor rowing session and the wearable tracked the number of strokes, giving me details on my average and maximum strokes per minute.

You get most information from a mode like running or cycling where you can see pace, steps, heart rate, cadence, stride and more, with averages and graphs of your workout. The app also displays the effect of your training with various metrics.

It’s not as in-depth as something one of the best Garmin watches would give you, but the low cost makes the band handy for runners on a budget, and there’s also a list of preset running courses: useful if you don’t know what you want to run.

One thing to note in the Performance section is that once during testing, the Smart Band 10 overheated and turned off. Admittedly, I was out in the sun on a fairly warm day but it completely turned off the band mid-workout, and I could only turn it back on by going home and plugging in the charger (which is the only way to turn it on at all, as far as I could tell). It’s something to bear in mind if you live somewhere warm.

Performance score: 3.5/5

Xiaomi Smart Band 10: Features

(Image credit: Future)

Mi Fitness app used on phone
Music playback, notification handling and more
Some bugs with app and watch

The way to make the most of the Xiaomi Smart Band 10 is by connecting it to a phone or tablet with the Mi Fitness app installed. This can sometimes be a bit fiddling, and I’ve had trouble multiple times connecting a Xiaomi wearable to the app, but this wasn’t the case for the Band 10.

The app lets you see loads more information about your workouts but it’s also useful in letting you change your band display, with a huge selection of options (seemingly many of which are from third-party makers, not Xiaomi).

While the focus of a cheap fitness tracker like the Smart Band 10 is, well, fitness, the Xiaomi does offer a few lifestyle features too, none of which are actually new to this generation of band.

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(Image credit: Future)Image 2 of 3

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(Image credit: Future)

For example you can set up weather reports, calendar memos, alarms and music controls. The latter of which raises an odd concern because the increased screen size hasn’t been matched by an increase in forward or back button sizes, meaning they’re small and squished to the top and bottom of the screen; I found them a little hard to reliably press at times.

You can set up notification alerts to be sent to your Smart Band though, as in all Xiaomi wearables, it can spent some time fiddling around with your phone’s permissions settings (and some good luck) in order to get it to work. Raise-to-wake doesn’t work flawlessly here either, and sometimes I needed to repeat an exaggerated wrist-lift gesture to get the band’s screen to turn on.

I mentioned sports tracking before but you can also use the band to measure sleep, SpO2 and stress, and like Apple there’s also a three-band daily counter which makes sure you’ve burned enough calories, done enough steps and worked enough active minutes per day – if I wasn’t set to do a workout on a specific day, these were still a useful reminder to do enough activity.

Performance score: 3.5/5

Xiaomi Smart Band 10: Scorecard

I reviewed the Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch (M5, 2025), and its focus on AI has left me confused

Tue, 10/21/2025 - 12:00

Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch (M5, 2025): Two-minute review

With the release of the MacBook Pro 14-inch (M5, 2025), Apple seems to have settled into a reliable pattern. Coming pretty much exactly a year after the MacBook Pro 14-inch (M4, 2024), very few people were surprised by the reveal of the M5 chip and 14-inch MacBook Pro.

However, there are a few things that are different this time around. Alongside the launch of the Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch (M5, 2025), Apple also revealed the iPad Pro (M5, 2025), unlike with the M4 generation, when Apple launched the iPad Pro around half a year before any Macs or MacBooks got the M4.

@techradar

♬ original sound - TechRadar

So, it’s good to see the MacBook reclaiming its role as a showcase device for Apple’s M-series chips – but there are a few other odd things about this launch. For a start, there’s no sign of an M5-powered Mac mini or iMac, nor do we get the more powerful M5 Pro and M5 Max variants that are expected to appear at some point.

Because Apple has only announced the base M5 chip at the time of writing, it also means that there’s no new MacBook Pro 16-inch… for now, at least. So, for the first time in a while, if you want the very latest MacBook from Apple, you only have one size to choose from.

(Image credit: Future)

The MacBook Pro 14-inch (M5, 2025) starts at $1,599 / £1,599 / AU$2,499, which gets you the brand-new M5 chip with a 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 16GB of unified memory, and 512GB of SSD storage.

This is the same price as the previous model with the M4 chip, and it’s good to see Apple continues to resist bumping up the price at a time when it feels like everything else is getting more expensive. However, it should be noted that in the UK and EU, the Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch (M5, 2025) doesn’t come with a charger, so if you need one, you’ll have to buy one separately, which diminishes the value somewhat.

Design-wise, the MacBook Pro 14-inch (M5, 2025) is exactly the same as the M4 model… and the M3 model. That’s not particularly an issue, as it remains a fine-looking laptop, and the 14-inch Liquid Retina XDR display is still one of the best on the market. But it’s beginning to feel like Apple isn’t interested in making incremental tweaks to its MacBook designs – instead, it takes an all-or-nothing approach.

You get big design overhauls every few generations, like the one we saw with the M3 model (which replaced the 13-inch M2 MacBook Pro), but then a few years where it seems like Apple doesn’t want to change anything design-wise.

That means some aspects of the MacBook Pro 14-inch (M5, 2025) are in danger of being a bit outdated, especially as Apple’s rivals in the laptop market, especially the likes of Dell and Lenovo, seem to be far more comfortable with shaking up the designs of their products.

So, we’ve ended up with a premium laptop being released in 2025 that doesn’t feature the new Wi-Fi 7 standard, instead sticking with the older Wi-Fi 6E (curiously, the new M5-powered iPad Pro does support Wi-Fi 7, so clearly someone at Apple thinks the tech is worth supporting). The ports are also identical to the base model of the M4 14-inch MacBook Pro, so that means an HDMI port, SDXC card slot, 3.5mm headphone jack, and MagSafe 3 port for charging, plus three USB-C ports.

This remains a decent selection for professionals, allowing you to hook up a TV or projector, connect multiple peripherals, or insert a memory card, all without needing an adapter. However, the USB-C ports remain unchanged, using Thunderbolt 4 and USB 4 technology speeds of up to 40Gb/s. With an increasing number of laptops coming with must faster Thunderbolt 5 speeds of 120Gb/s - most notably including the older M4 Pro and M4 Max versions of the 14-inch MacBook Pro - this is another area where Apple’s reluctance to make even the smallest of changes could see it overtaken by its competitors.

It's a shame the USB-C speeds have remained static, as Apple has updated the SSD, with new technology that gives the M5 MacBook Pro twice the read and write speeds compared to the previous model.

(Image credit: Future)

Performance-wise, the MacBook Pro 14-inch with the M5 chip is pretty much flawless, with macOS Tahoe feeling fast and responsive, and both preinstalled apps and third-party ones, including Adobe Photoshop and Ableton Live 12, working brilliantly. The problem is, the older M4 model was also a fantastic performer, and for many people, it will probably be hard to notice any significant generational boost. This is definitely not an upgrade I'd recommend to anyone who already has an M4 or even M3 MacBook Pro. However, if you have an older Intel MacBook or are coming from a Windows laptop (perhaps prompted by the end of Windows 10 support), then there's a lot to like about the Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch (M5, 2025).

Apple's main focus for this release is improving the on-device AI capabilities, and there are some decent gains made here, but if you have no interest in AI, then you might not appreciate these improvements and may be better served by a soon-to-be-discounted M4 model.

Battery life, meanwhile, continues to be among the best of any laptop, with almost 24 hours of constant video looping, and over 18 hours in our web browsing benchmark. It will easily last multiple work days on a single charge, and performance doesn't dip either.

Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch (M5, 2025) review: Price and availability

How much does it cost? $1,599 / £1,599 / AU$2,499
When is it available? Goes on sale October 22, 2025
No charger for UK/EU customers

The Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch (M5, 2025) goes on sale on October 22, 2025, with the base model starting at $1,599 / £1,599 / AU$2,499, the same price that the M4 model launched at last year.

It’s always nice to see companies not increase prices, especially at the moment, and for that price, you get the Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch (M5, 2025) with a 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 16GB of unified memory, and 512GB SSD storage.

One important thing to note is that in the UK and EU, the Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch (M5, 2025) does not ship with a charger (elsewhere, you’ll get Apple’s 70W USB-C power adapter with the base model).

In the UK, you can add a 70W USB-C power adapter to your order when configuring it for £59, or add a 96W USB-C power adapter for £79, however, rather oddly, it seems that you can only do this if you make other changes, such as adding a Nano-texture display (for £150), or tweaking the amount of memory or storage.

(Image credit: Future)

If you stick with the cheapest base M5 MacBook Pro model in the UK or EU, you have no option to add a charger to your order – you’ll have to buy it entirely separately.

I won’t go into the reasons for this decision (Apple suggests it's pre-empting an EU directive coming in next year, though that doesn’t explain why the UK, no longer in the EU, is also not getting the charger), but it does make an impact on the overall value of the laptop if you do need to buy the charger separately.

The good news, at least, is that you can charge the new MacBook Pro using any USB-C power adaptor, and if it’s powerful enough, the MacBook Pro can utilize fast charging. So, if you already have plenty of power adaptors lying around with USB-C, then you should be able to just use one of those – and it will at least mean you’re not lumbered with yet another charger that you don’t need.

While Apple doesn’t include the actual charger for UK and EU customers, it does at least include the USB-C to MagSafe3 cable, so if you have a wall charger with a USB-C socket, you can make use of the convenient and fast MagSafe 3 port of the MacBook Pro, which holds the charger in place via magnets, making it easy to attach and safe to remove (accidently yanking it out won’t do any damage).

For all customers, you can configure the Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch (M5, 2025) before you purchase it. While there are no variants of the M5, you can add a nano-texture display, which reduces glare and reflections for $150 / £150 / AU$230, boost the memory to either 24GB (for an extra $200 / £200 / AU$300) or 32GB (add $400 / £400 / AU$600), or up the storage to 1TB, 2TB or 4TB (which will cost, respectively, an extra $200 / £200 / AU$300, $600 / £600 / AU$900, and $1,200 / £1,200 / AU$1,800).

Apple faces renewed competition when it comes to premium laptops, with the new Dell 14 Premium launching at a lower price of $1,499.99 / £1,499 / AU$2,598.20, while offering a similar level of performance with an Intel Core Ultra 7 255H processor, 16GB of RAM, 512GB SSD – oh, and Wi-Fi 7.

So, while it’s great that Apple has kept the same price as last year’s model, in an increasingly competitive market that might no longer be enough, and consumers could start looking at alternatives if they want some bolder designs.

Price: 3.5 / 5

Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch (M5, 2025) review: Specs

The Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch (M5, 2025) comes in three pre-configured options, and when buying from Apple you can tweak some of the options (such as storage and memory) to better suit your needs. Below, you’ll find the three initial models:

Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch (M5, 2025) specs

Base model

Mid-range model

High-end model

Price

$1,599 / £1,599 / AU$2,499

$1,799 / £1,799 / AU$2,799

$1,999 / £1,999 / AU$3,099

CPU

M5 10-core

GPU

10-core

RAM

16GB unified memory

24GB unified memory

Storage

512GB SSD

1TB SSD

Display

14-inch Liquid Retina XDR display (3024 x 1964), 120Hz

Ports

3x Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C), HDMI, SDXC card slot, 3.5mm headphone jack, MagSafe 3

Wireless

Wi‑Fi 6E (802.11ax), Bluetooth 5.3

Weight

3.4 lbs (1.55kg)

Dimensions

12.31 x 8.71 x 0.61 inches (31.26 x 22.12 x 1.55cm)

While the release of the MacBook Pro 14-inch (M5, 2025) means that last year’s base model is no longer being sold by Apple, however as there’s no sign (at the moment) of M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, Apple is still selling the 14-inch MacBook Pro with M4 Pro and M4 Max chips, so if you want a more powerful laptop, for the moment you’ll need to go with the previous gen.

Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch (M5, 2025): Design

No new design
Still looks great
No Wi-Fi 7

The Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch (M5, 2025) features an identical design to the M4 model, and the M3 before it. While it’s still a very nice-looking (and very well-built) laptop, and looks a lot more modern than the M2-era 13-inch MacBook Pro, which the 14-inch replaced in 2023, it could disappoint anyone hoping for a freshly designed MacBook Pro.

One rumor that keeps on cropping up is that Apple is working on a MacBook Pro with an OLED screen – and if you’re holding out for that, I’m afraid the Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch (M5, 2025) isn’t the MacBook you’re looking for.

However, the 14-inch Liquid Retina XDR display, with a resolution of 3024 x 1964 and with ProMotion variable refresh rates of up to 120Hz, remains one of the best screens you can find in a laptop. The mini-LED backlit panel still allows for excellent contrast, and colors look life-like and vibrant. HDR content looks particularly good on the screen, and while OLED panels might have the edge when it comes to showing true blacks, the screen of the MacBook Pro 14-inch (M5, 2025) offers deep, inky blacks with no hints of light bleed.

(Image credit: Future)

The high pixel density of the screen at 254 pixels per inch means images look sharp and detailed, and the ProMotion refresh rate means scrolling through websites and documents, watching movies, and even playing games is smooth and responsive.

The model Apple sent me to review comes with the optional nano-texture coating on the display, which minimizes glare and reflections. It leads to a very pleasant matte-like finish, and even under bright studio lights the screen was pleasant to use, without any distracting reflections. Adding the nano-texture coating costs $150 / £150 / AU$230, so you'll need to judge if it's worth the additional cost. I'd say that if you're going to be doing a lot of visual work on the MacBook, and will be using it where there's a lot of ambient light (especially from above or behind you), then it's well worth considering.

The quality of the display means that anyone holding off buying a MacBook Pro until an OLED model is launched is in danger of missing out on an excellent screen. On the other hand, an increasing number of rival laptop makers are kitting out their premium laptops with OLED panels (or at least offering them as an option), so Apple is in danger of getting left behind if it doesn’t update the screen any time soon.

Port-wise, things stay the same as last year’s model, with an HDMI port, SDXC card slot, 3.5mm headphone jack, and MagSafe 3 port for charging. It also comes with three USB-C ports, which use Thunderbolt 4 and USB 4 with speeds of up to 40Gb/s.

These aren’t the fastest ports, and that might disappoint any professionals who need to move lots of large files quickly. The older M4 Pro and M4 Max 14-inch MacBook Pros even offer faster speeds, as their three USB-C ports are Thunderbolt 5 and USB 4, which support speeds of up to 120Gb/s.

This was the same as the base M4 14-inch MacBook Pro, which also had the slower speeds, with Apple clearly positioning it as an entry-level device. Back then, this decision was easier to swallow, as you had the option of the M4 Pro and M4 Max versions if you wanted faster USB speeds.

(Image credit: Future)

Because there aren’t any M5 Pro or M5 Max models (yet), it means professional users looking for a new MacBook could either choose to have Apple’s very latest M5 chip, but with slower transfer speeds, or go for an older generation (which will likely be superseded sometime soon) for faster transfer speeds. It’s an odd situation some people will find themselves in, and while USB transfer speeds might not be the most important consideration for many people, for professionals, especially creatives, who the MacBook Pro line is mainly aimed at, it is important if you’re moving large projects to and from an external drive.

So, the Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch (M5, 2025) is still a sleek-looking professional laptop, available in two colors – Space Black and Silver – with a very good display. I was sent the Space Black version to review, and it really does look lovely. But the lack of any change to the design, no matter how small, makes this release feel particularly incremental (and possibly even inessential if you already have a recent MacBook Pro), so that puts a lot of pressure on the internal upgrades to justify this release.

Design: 3.5 / 5

Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch (M5, 2025): Performance

Very good performance
AI tools work faster
Not a massive leap over the M4 model

While Apple has once again played it safe with the design, the changes to the MacBook Pro 14-inch (M5, 2025)’s internals are much more ambitious.

The M5 chip has debuted in just three devices this time around: the 14-inch MacBook Pro, the new iPad Pro (M5, 2025), and (rather surprisingly) a new version of Apple’s ultra-niche Vision Pro headset. It features a 10-core CPU made up of four high-performance cores and six high-efficiency cores, which the M5 switches between depending on the tasks you’re performing on the laptop, and whether or not you’re using the 14-inch MacBook Pro while plugged in or while on battery.

With more efficiency cores than performance ones, it’s pretty safe to assume that Apple’s priority with the MacBook Pro 14-inch (M5, 2025) is prolonging battery life and maintaining performance when on battery, rather than raw power. It’s a balance that has served Apple well in the past, with its MacBooks, especially the Pro versions, leading the industry when it comes to battery life and sustained on-battery performance.

Despite having the same number of cores as the M4 chip, Apple claims the M5 offers 20% faster multithreaded performance. Combined with the faster memory bandwidth of 153GB/s (compared to the 120GB/s of the M4, this puts the MacBook Pro 14-inch (M5, 2025) in a solid position to outdo its predecessor when it comes to running multiple apps at once.

Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch (M5, 2025): benchmarks

Here's how the Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch (M5, 2025) performed in our suite of industry-standard benchmarks and game tests.

Geekbench 6.5:
Single - 4,288
Multi - 17,926
Blackmagic Disk Speed Test:
Read: 6,619.7 MB/s
Write: 6.517 MB/s
Cinebench R24:
Single-core - 199
Multi-core - 1,141
PugetBench for Adobe CC:
Photoshop: 13,755
Premiere Pro: 69,887
Battery life test (web browsing):
18 hours 14 minutes
Battery life test (video):
21 hours 43 minutes

It certainly felt sprightly as I used it, with multiple apps and web browser windows, including a 1080p video and Apple’s Image Playground generative AI tool, all running seamlessly.

The M5’s 10-core GPU handles graphics tasks, and Apple has included an enhanced shader core and ray tracing engine, which it claims gives the M5 up to 1.6 times faster graphics performance compared to the M4.

If the smaller bump in graphics performance versus the M4 model is a tad disappointing, it seems like Apple has put a lot of effort into the AI capabilities of the M5 chip. The company claims it’s been built from the ground up for AI, and it’s certainly been keen to highlight its AI capabilities in its promotional materials.

Since the launch of the M1 chip, Apple has been including its Neural Engine in its computing chips for on-device AI tasks, and the M5 has an improved Neural Engine, also integrating what Apple calls a ‘Neural Accelerator’ into each core of the GPU to speed up results.

Now, we’re getting dangerously close to impenetrable tech jargon, but as a huge amount of AI tasks are handled by a system’s GPU (Graphics Processing Unit), this approach seems to make sense, and would explain Apple’s bullish claims about the AI performance improvements the M5 benefits from versus the M4. According to Apple’s own numbers (so take it with a pinch of salt, as the company is typically vague about the testing methodology), LLM (Large Language Model) prompt processing is 4.6 times faster than the M4.

(Image credit: Future)

While these numbers might look impressive, the actual real-world benefits of this increase in AI performance are harder to gauge, and really depend on how much you use on-device (as opposed to cloud-based) AI tools.

Apple has continued to add AI tools to macOS Tahoe, the latest version of its operating system, which ships with the MacBook Pro 14-inch (M5, 2025), and while it’s not quite at the level of AI integration as its rival Microsoft’s Windows 11 is, it’s getting easier to use AI without having to install extra apps. These include Genmoji and Image Playground, which generate images and emojis based on your prompts, and are, ultimately, inessential for most people. You might play around with them a few times, but I can’t imagine many professionals who have forked out for the latest MacBook Pro will use it much, so the fact that the M5 can generate images more quickly will likely inspire more of a shrug of the shoulders than a rush to buy the new MacBook.

I got Image Playground to generate several images based on various prompts, and the MacBook Pro 14-inch (M5, 2025) did so speedily, giving me various images in a matter of seconds. However, this never seemed to take too much time on older MacBooks, so any performance improvements here are hard to judge.

More useful is Live Translation, which allows you to talk to other people in different languages, and it makes a great case for on-device AI as it means your conversations remain private. On the whole, however, Apple’s AI tools still don’t compete with its competitors, and their faster performance on the M5 chip will do little to get people to buy the latest MacBook Pro on its own.

Third-party apps do much better jobs at showcasing the potential of artificial intelligence, as well as the M5’s improved performance in this area, especially when it comes to Adobe’s Photoshop and Premiere Pro apps. It’s here that the M5’s AI chops get to shine. However, it should be noted that certain tools, such as Generative Extend (which can generate additional frames to lengthen video clips), run on Adobe's Firefly AI generation service, which isn't on device, and therefore doesn't really benefit from the M5 chip. If Apple really thinks AI capabilities are something people look for when buying a MacBook Pro, I feel it's going to have to do more to justify the hype.

Performance: 4 / 5

Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch (M5, 2025) review: Battery life

Apple promises up to 24 hours
Hits over 18 hours in our web browsing test
Supports fast charging

One of Apple’s biggest successes with modern MacBooks is battery life. Thanks to its dedication to power efficiency that started with the M1 chip, and improved upon with each subsequent generation, the MacBook Pro 14-inch (M5, 2025) is easily one of the longest-lasting laptops you can buy.

This is particularly impressive considering how powerful the M5 MacBook Pro 14-inch is, as usually, the more powerful the components are, the more power-hungry they are as well. The fact that it’s relatively small, and therefore limits the physical size of the battery Apple can fit inside it.

The battery in the MacBook Pro 14-inch (M5, 2025) is 72.4 watt-hours, and Apple is bullish when it comes to potential battery life, claiming up to 24 hours of video streaming and 16 hours of web browsing.

(Image credit: Future)

Big claims indeed, and I’d usually be sceptical if it wasn’t for Apple’s excellent legacy with MacBook battery life, and in our benchmark tests it scored a very respectable 18 hours and 14 seconds for web browsing.

Meanwhile, almost 16 and a half hours into our looped battery life benchmark test, the MacBook Pro 14-inch’s battery was still at 40%. As I used the MacBook Pro 14-inch (M5, 2025) for day-to-day tasks, it became clear that this is again a powerful workstation laptop that can go multiple workdays on a single charge. It’s extremely impressive.

Just as importantly, thanks to Apple’s commitment to power efficiency with its M series chips, there’s no sign of any negative impact on performance when the laptop is unplugged. It’s quite common for laptop makers to reduce the overall performance of a device (a practice known as ‘throttling’) when it’s on battery power to lower power consumption and prolong battery life.

(Image credit: Future)

While this can be useful in some situations, it does mean that if you want to use a laptop for heavy workloads, it’ll need to be plugged in. With the MacBook Pro 14-inch (M5, 2025), Apple has once again avoided this problem, and I was able to run demanding tasks such as video editing and music production while using the MacBook Pro 14-inch (M5, 2025) on battery power, and there were no noticeable knocks to performance compared to plugged-in use. Because of this, the MacBook Pro 14-inch (M5, 2025) is easily one of the best laptops for people looking for a device they can use for heavy workloads while travelling.

Battery: 5 / 5

Should you buy the Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch (M5, 2025)?Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch (M5, 2025): Scorecard

Attributes

Notes

Rating

Price

Launching at the same price as last year's model is good to see, but UK and EU customers no longer get a power adapter included.

3.5 / 5

Design

No new design isn't a huge issue, it still looks great, but it means some things, like its USB-C port speeds and Wi-Fi 6E support are showing their age.

3.5 / 5

Performance

Once again, Apple has made a MacBook Pro that is excellent at all kinds of tasks. However, it's not a huge leap over the M4. Fans of AI tools will like the improvements here, however.

4 / 5

Average rating

If you're new to MacBook Pros, you'll be very happy with this device, but for anyone using a recent MacBook, the lack of any generational leaps will disappoint.

4 / 5

Buy it if...

You’ve not had an M-series MacBook Pro before
The M5 chip’s improvements over the M4 and M3 aren’t big enough to justify upgrading from those devices, but if you’re still on an Intel-powered Mac (or are a Windows user looking to switch), then you’re going to be hugely impressed by this laptop.

You want a portable workstation
The MacBook Pro 14-inch (M5, 2025)’s small and light design makes it easy to carry around, and the huge battery life and lack of throttling mean you can be productive pretty much anywhere.

You use a lot of AI tools
The M5’s biggest improvements over the M4 are when it comes to on-device AI performance, so if you use a lot of artificial intelligence, this could be the ideal laptop for you.

Don't buy it if...

You want the most powerful Mac
Despite coming with the very latest M5 chip, the new MacBook Pro 14-inch isn’t the most powerful device Apple makes – the M4 Pro and M4 Max MacBooks beat it, as does the super-powerful M3 Ultra-powered Mac Studio.

You think AI is a gimmick
As you'd expect, the MacBook Air 15-inch (M4) runs macOS, Apple's own operating system. If you want to stick with Windows 11, look elsewhere.

You want a large-screen laptop
Unusually, a 16-inch MacBook Pro hasn’t launched alongside the 14-inch model, but that will likely come later, so if you prefer large screens, it’ll be a wise idea to hold on for a bit.

Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch (M5, 2025): Also consider

MacBook Pro 14-inch (M5)

MacBook Pro 14-inch (M4 Pro)

MacBook Air 13-inch (M4)

Price

$1,599 / £1,599 / AU$2,499

$1,999 / £1,999 / AU$3,299

$999 / £999 / AU$1,699

CPU

M5 10-core

M4 Pro 12-core

M4 10-core

GPU

10-core

16-core

8-core

RAM

16GB unified memory

24GB unified memory

16GB unified memory

Storage

512GB SSD

256GB SSD

Display

14-inch Liquid Retina XDR display (3024 x 1964), 120Hz

13.6-inch Liquid Retina display (2560 x 1664)

Ports

3x Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C), HDMI, SDXC card slot, 3.5mm headphone jack, MagSafe 3

3x Thunderbolt 5 (USB-C), HDMI, SDXC card slot, 3.5mm headphone jack, MagSafe 3

2x Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C), 3.5mm headphone jack, MagSafe 3

Wireless

Wi‑Fi 6E (802.11ax), Bluetooth 5.3

Weight

3.4 lbs (1.55kg)

3.5 lbs (1.60kg)

2.7 lbs (1.24kg)

Dimensions

12.31 x 8.71 x 0.61 inches (31.26 x 22.12 x 1.55cm)

11.97 x 8.46 x 0.44 inches (304 x 215 x 11.3mm)

Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch M4 Pro / M4 Max
If you're looking for a more powerful MacBook Pro, then Apple is still selling last year's model with the M4 Pro and M4 Max chips, which outperform the standard M5 chip. Because there's no new design this year, you're not missing out on anything by getting the slightly older model.

Read our full Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch (M4) review

Apple MacBook Air 13-inch (M4)
The 13-inch MacBook Air with the M4 chip is an awesome alternative if you don't need the kind of performance the MacBook Pro 14-inch with M5 chip offers, and it's a lot more affordable as well. There's also a 15-inch model if you'd rather have a larger screen.

Read our full MacBook Air 13-inch (M4) review

How I tested the Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch (M5, 2025)

I used the new MacBook Pro solidly for several days
I ran multiple benchmarks
I used it as my daily work laptop

I've used the Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch (M5, 2025) over the past several days as my main work laptop, writing some of this review on it, as well as browsing the web, attending meetings via video call and running our suite of benchmarks. I also played around with video and photo editing during my time with the laptop. I've been reviewing MacBooks for TechRadar for well over a decade, and have extensively used and tested all models of Apple's M-series chips.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed: October 2025

Categories: Reviews

Apple Vision Pro M5 review: faster, clearer, and finally comfortable

Tue, 10/21/2025 - 12:00

Apple Vision Pro M5: Two-minute review

Even now, more than two years since Apple first launched its spatial computing revolution, the Apple Vision Pro remains the most advanced and, in some ways, exciting technology Apple has ever produced. There is simply nothing else like it in Apple's device portfolio – and it borrows a bit from all the other major product lines in that portfolio, from the iPhone and iPad to the Mac, and even the Apple Watch and AirPods Pro.

It's a full-blown computer that you wear on your face and which transports you to immersive inner (VR) and outer (AR) worlds, and even connects you to the world of work in a way that feels boundless.

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The Apple Vision Pro is a mixture of premium materials, from glass to aluminum, tungsten, silicone, and foam and mesh fabrics. There is no way you can wear and experience it and not feel the almost fanatical attention to detail. Not a pixel, a byte, or a speck of silicone is out of place.

Much of what I learned when testing the original device for my Apple Vision Pro review a couple of years ago remains. In fact, the majority of all that premium hardware is unchanged. But in this new model, the powerful R1 chip, which takes all that information from the 12 cameras and creates the spatial experience, is now paired with a far more powerful engine: the Apple M5 processor.

It took me no time to setup the Vision Pro M5, because the interface and control metaphors are now so familiar to me. (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)

This chip improves app-loading speeds, images transformed into a spatial, 3D experience, and widgets, and adds the horsepower necessary to stuff more pixels into the full experience. Apple hasn't updated its OLED stereo displays; it simply has a CPU that's now capable of taking full advantage of the display panels' capabilities. The new silicon is also far more efficient, virtually guaranteeing at least two hours of operation. and possibly three hours if you only watch video.

The other major change might be for many the most significant. There's now an included and fully-redesigned Dual Knit headband that finally spreads out and balances the headset's 600 grams of weight (most of which lives in the goggles) across your whole noggin. I can now wear the Vision Pro for two hours, and, when I remove it, not feel like my face is going to slide off my skull. It's a vast improvement.

The Vision Pro is still good at everything from spatial gaming to entertainment, immersion, blending your real world with the virtual, communication, and work. It's also still $3,499 / £3,199 / AU$5,999. To be honest, I'm shocked that Apple didn't make any sort of adjustment. After all, it's fairly clear that Apple will soon not be the only spatial game in town. Samsung (in partnership with Google and Qualcomm) is preparing Project Moohan.

At the very least, Apple should adjust the price of the new Vision Pro to reflect its age and the competitive landscape. Yes, it has the latest and greatest Apple silicon, but if Apple has any aspirations for the Vision Pro to become a popular consumer product, it needs to do something about the price.

It may also be time to acknowledge that there's a basic, human social barrier to wearing the Vision Pro around other people. No one in my house wants to talk to me when I wear it (the odd EyeSight representation of my eyes on the outside doesn't help), and the last thing we need in our sometimes too distracted and disconnected world is to be cut off from other people who are right there in the room with us.

I'm not necessarily arguing that the Vision Pro is not worth $3,500, but consumers have shown they won't plunk down that much money for something they may, for reasons listed above, only use occasionally.

Looking purely at the updates, though – the M5, visionOS 26, and that headband – this is a strong update for Vision Pro fans.

Apple Vision Pro M5: Price and availability

Still expensive

If you wear glasses you'll pay extra for inserts

The price does include an indispensable new headband

Aside from the M5 chip, you're looking at the biggest upgrade. (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)

Apple unveiled its first major update to the Vision Pro wearable spatial computer on October 15, 2025, with the new model featuring the new M5 chip. Pricing and availability remain the same as for the original model. The headset starts at $3,499 / £3,199 with 256GB of storage. The new adjustable Dual Knit headband is included.

While we're still wowed by the technology, it's become clear in the last two years that consumers are not thrilled about the price of the Vision Pro, and are not purchasing it in droves. So, while we can see the dollars in the build, it's hard to justify that price for most consumers.

Value score: 3.5

Apple Vision Pro M5: What's in the box

The Vision Pro spatial, wearable computer
Battery with an attached cable
USB-C charging cable and adapter
Dual Knit Headband
Two light-seal cushions
A fabric cover
A polishing cloth

Apple Vision Pro M5: Specs

Apple Vision Pro M5

Meta Quest 3

Meta Quest Pro

Dimensions

Est: 152 x 101 x 101mm / 6 x 4 x 4 inches

184 x 160 x 98mm / 7.2 x 6.3 x 3.9 inches

265 x 127 x 196mm / 10.4 x 5 x 7.7 inches

Weight

From 1.3lbs / 600g

1.14lbs / 515g

1.6lbs / 722g

Display

Dual mico-OLED

Two LCD displays

Display resolution

4K per eye (23 million pixels)

2064 x 2208 pixels per eye

1920 x 1080 per eye

FOV

Est 100-degree

110-degree horizontal, 96-degree vertical

120-degree

Refresh rate

90Hz, 96Hz, 120Hz

72Hz, 80Hz, 90Hz, 120Hz

90Hz

Chipset

Apple silicon M5, R1

Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2

Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2+

RAM

16GB

8GB

12GB

Storage

256GB, 512GB, 1TB

128GB or 512GB

256GB

Battery life

3 hours (rated for video)

2 hours 12 minutes

2 hours

Apple Vision Pro M5: Performance

M5 chip
R1 juggles the camera input for a full spatial experience
Everything is a little faster and all imagery is a bit crisper
That price should get you double the base storage

You can't really run benchmarks on the Vision Pro, but if you can imagine giving a sports car a tune-up and then taking it out on the open road you get a little bit of an idea of what it's like to switch from the Apple Vision Pro running the M2 chip to the new Apple Vision Pro M5.

Based on my nearly constant use over the last few days, it's clear the system is taking advantage of the increased number of cores and more powerful GPU (every GPU core has its own neural accelerator). There's faster memory storage, and the M5 is built on a 3-nanometer process, while the M2 was a 5nm process chip. That last bit is what makes the entire Vision Pro system more efficient and able to operate for over two hours in mixed use, and three hours if you only watch video.

This is a visual system, or rather a wearable visual system, and one of the most noticeable benefits of the new M5 silicon is the upgrade in visual quality in everything from photos and video to the Mac Virtual Display.

When I hooked up the Vision Pro to my MacBook Pro 14-inch I was instantly stunned by the visual quality. Gone was any graininess. My virtual, curved, ultra-wide display looked amazing, and it was a pleasure to work on for two hours and 10 minutes, at which point the battery ran out and my Vision Pro M5 shut down.

Performance score: 5

Apple Vision Pro M5: Design

Still premium materials and a top-notch build
It's still 600g on your face
External battery pack and cable

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(Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)Image 2 of 5

(Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)Image 3 of 5

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(Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)Image 5 of 5

(Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)

By now, most people are familiar with the Vision Pro's mix of premium materials and ski-goggle design. The body is made of aluminum, magnesium, and carbon fiber. There's enough mesh fabric and fiber to make much of headset soft to the touch, and the part that touches your face is a foam-covered light-seal band (there's a slightly thicker spare one for more sensitive faces, and they attach to the headset via magnets). Under the glass front are main, side, and downward-facing cameras, and IR sensors.

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Jutting out of the headset on each side are the thick stems that contain a pair of excellent spatial speakers (you can also use the headset with your AirPods). On one side is the proprietary, bayonet-style power-attachment port where you connect the 3/4-pound battery pack. Again, this is all the same as it was on the original Vision Pro.

There are vents in the body to move air through the system and keep it cool, and two buttons, or rather a button and a digital crown. The button is on the left side, and the digital crown, which can be pressed and turned, is on the right. While you will use these buttons occasionally, they're not entirely integral to the Vision Pro's operation; it's primarily a gaze and gesture-based control system.

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That knob gives me some real precision control (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)Image 2 of 2

This fit is so much better. (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)

The biggest design change comes in the form of the new Dual Knit headband, which replaces the original knit band. Basically, these two bands are like cousins. The old knit band was designed to hug just the back of your head. It never provided enough support for me, so this time around I opted for the strappier dual-band, which provided a stretchy band to go over the top of my head. It uses Velcro, and I found it a bit fiddly to adjust to get the best fit.

The Dual Knit headband is like the old band in that it has a very similar knit design to the first one, but instead of one band, there are two knit bands. The tension of each one is controlled by a single knob. When pressed in, the knob tightens the back band, and when pulled out, it tightens the top. This offers just enough incremental control to deliver a near-perfect fit. It's a shame that Apple didn't figure this out two years ago, but I appreciate the update.

Design score 4.5

Apple Vision Pro M5: Set-up

There isn't too much of a set-up process for the Vision Pro. You have to find the right fit for the headband and, if you wear glasses and not contacts, you'll need to purchase Zeiss inserts (usually $99 / £99).

Since there's no integrated battery, one of the first things you'll do is charge the external battery pack via its USB-C port, and once that's done, you attach the proprietary cable to the headset.

(Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)

As soon as you put it on, the headset powers up (there's no power button). You'll be asked to hold down the crown as this headset measures your pupil distance and adjusts the displays, and it also automatically recognizes the lens inserts if you have them.

There's nothing complicated here, and as someone who's used the Vision Pro for two years, it was all second nature to me.

During set-up, the Vision Pro works with you to ensure that all the gaze and gesture control is as precise as it needs to be. You go through a trio of tasks where you look at a circle of dots, and use your fingers to pinch each one.

The battery pack is a fact of spatial computing life. (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)

Since there are cameras located along the bottom edge of the Vision Pro frame, it can see your hands and their gestures even when they're sitting on your lap. Basically, no wild gestures are needed to control the headset.

Set-up is also where you create your 'persona'. Not only has visionOS 26 radically improved the visual fidelity of these avatars, which now include the front and sides of your face, as well as your shoulders and hands, but the creation of them is now much faster and easier than it was in the early days of the Vision Pro.

As instructed, I took the headset off and pointed the front (and all those cameras) at my face. Because there are also displays embedded in the front of the Vision Pro, I could see a faint representation of my face dead-center on the screen (this helped me guide my framing). I was told to look forward, then left, right, and up and down before smiling with my mouth closed, then with my teeth, raising my eyebrows, and finally closing my eyes.

All of this took maybe 30 seconds, tops, before my shockingly realistic persona was ready for use. Oh, I forgot to say that I had to scan my face without glasses; fortunately, Apple lets you add a pair of frames of your choice to the persona.

Apple Vision Pro M5: Software and experience

Still excellent intuitive OS
visionOS 26 adds widgets, spatial scenes, and new controls
Virtual desktop transforms your workspace

It can be hard to explain just how intuitive the Vision Pro and visionOS 26 platform are to someone who's never worn one, or one of the growing generation of VR headsets and smart glasses.

The headset is designed to see everything around it, and the wearer inside it. It makes a near-perfect marriage between intention and action that can be conveyed with something as small as a glance, or as distinct as typing on a virtual keyboard.

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Look at an interface element and it expands toward you. (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)Image 2 of 2

Yes, there's a virtual keyboard. (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)

The most obvious way of accomplishing gesture-based tasks is invariably the answer in Vision Pro. If at any moment the wraparound interface objects seem out of reach, a long press of the digital crown brings them into frame.

VisionOS 26 also added a new Control Center gesture where I look at my palm, pinch my finger, and turn my hand over. I can then quickly access the full Control Center, Mac virtual display connection, or volume control. Oddly, this is the one gesture I sometimes struggled to remember, maybe because it's just a tiny bit more complicated than 95% of the other gestures on the system.

Siri could not tell me what I was looking at. (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)

Intuitive as the interface is, Siri and artificial intelligence are not necessarily at the heart of it, as AI is promised to be in the upcoming spatial computer competition, Samsung's Project Moohan. That wearable is built around Google Gemini, making it an intrinsic part of the experience.

In the Vision Pro, Siri is an occasionally useful companion which doesn't know what you're looking at but can do some system-level tasks, like opening the home screen with a voice command.

Yes, Apple Intelligence works in the headset, and I did use it in Image Playground to generate silly images. There's also a ChatGPT Vision Pro app that works separately, but the Vision Pro doesn't feel like an AI wearable.

This is not to say that I don't find the Vision Pro incredibly useful and fun.

Another painful loss to, basically, a ping-pong-playing bot. (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)

I had many experiences with it. I played ping pong against a robot on a virtual ping pong table superimposed onto the view of my home office.

I drew, or at least tried to draw, with Sketch Pro. It's a powerful, layer-ready illustration app with many tools and palette options, but I still found it difficult to precisely control the virtual drawing implement with just my fingertips. There is an option to connect an iPad and use the Apple Pencil, but then why not just draw without the headset?

Look down and you can see my "art". (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)

I had tremendous fun, and a real workout, with Beat Punch Fun and Fitness, punching at floating squares while also dodging incoming walls – yes, it'll remind you of Beat Saber if you've ever played that. I played a little golf in the frustrating What the Golf? and drove a cartoon car poorly in What the Car?

I couldn't even drive properly when the car had legs and feet. (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)

Simply Piano was a pretty wild experience. I put a virtual piano on my desk and tried to learn how to play. I love how the system can attach virtual numbers to your fingertips so you know which finger to use for each key. Not having physical feedback of a real keyboard made the effort, at least for me, almost impossible. I hope to try it on a real keyboard in the future.

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This virtual keyboard was wild. (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)Image 2 of 2

Watching a favorite show on the platform. (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)

I watched movies and HBO's Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and thought it looked incredibly crisp. The spatial audio means that, however I turned my head, the audio would always come from the spot where I placed the HBO Max screen.

This is some really good immersive content. (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)

Apple's immersive theater and content efforts hadn't captured my imagination previously, but I think Apple may have finally found the right mix of in-your-face immersion and documentary style with MotoGT Tour de Force. I've never watched a motocross race, but there was something about the French racer's story. Also, the moments when he's in the middle of a throng of fans gave me just a glimpse of what it must be like to face that level of adulation. It's a worthwhile 30-minute watch.

(Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)

I've never been a big fan of widgets on a desktop, but I find them useful in visionOS 26. My virtual space has News, a clock, the remaining Vision Pro Battery Life, and Calendar all stacked on a wall to my left so I can glance at them at any time. On my right are the pinned widgets for Weather and Notes. They all look as if I'd pinned them to the wall.

VisionOS 26's ability to turn any photo into a spatial scene is truly impressive. I used it on my collection of New York Comic Con photos, where it turned the cosplay images into spectacular stereoscopic photos. Sadly, it's not something I can properly convey here on the 2D page.

(Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)

One of my most eye-opening experiences was joining a group FaceTime meeting featuring four other people wearing Vision Pro headsets. We all appeared as our Personas in a group environment, and we could sit in a circle or for a presentation, all facing a floating screen. If someone stood up to present, their persona rose up. As we gestured and pointed, our hands appeared. At one point, we all examined a 3D object in the center, and any one of us could rotate and adjust it. Then one of us grabbed it and we started passing it from one virtual set of hands to another.

For remote workers, this could be a true game-changer.

(Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)

Software and Experience score: 4.5

Should you buy the Apple Vision Pro M5?

Attributes

Notes

Rating

Value

Exquisite build and design, but still far too expensive for most people.

3.5

Performance

The M5 enhances most every aspect of operation, but the upgrades are subtle and not necessarily transformative. The efficiency and longer batter life is very welcome, though.

5/5

Design

Still an excellent design, and the materials are top notch. It's still heavy, but the new and included Dual Knit band finally makes the Vision Pro wearable for long stretches. We're now used to the external battery.

4.5/5

Software and Experience

VisionOS 26 only serves to enhance the already intuitive interface that connected your gestures and gaze with action, and it's a still unmatched window to a world of entertainment, communication, and utility. It's a shame that Siri and Apple Intelligence can't yet play a larger role here.

4.5/5

Buy it if...

Money is no object and you're ready to enter a whole new lane of computing

Yes, the Vision Pro is expensive, but once you use it you may stop arguing with the price. The latest software enhances the fun and utility, and the new headband makes it wearable for two hours or more.

You're an Apple fan who wants a spatial computer

The Vision Pro is deeply integrated into the Apple ecosystem, and brings all your software and services across your Apple products into one gesture and gaze-friendly space.

You want to experience the best of Apple silicon
Apple's best computer may, in fact, be the Vision Pro, which combines spatial computing (gesture and gaze control) with the fastest and best Apple silicon, the M5 chip. It's a fast and smooth experience that makes every operation, from the practical to the frivolous, effortless.

Don’t buy it if…

You're on a budget
The Vision Pro is an ultra-premium product that will cost you (even if you choose the monthly payment plan), and that price is why the majority of consumers are yet to adopt spatial computing.

You want an AI-centric experience
Apple has yet to complete Apple Intelligence, and Siri is just an okay digital companion for the headset. The Vision Pro may have a tough time competing when Project Moohan and its Gemini-centric system arrives.

Also consider

PlayStation VR 2
TechRadar Gaming called the PSVR 2 headset "an experience that’ll be well worth your hard-earned cash." If you have a PS5 already and want a VR headset, this is the headset to check out.

Check out TRG's PSVR 2 review

Meta Quest Pro
An excellent VR headset with great passthrough, mixed reality, and some hand-tracking that's also a fraction of the Vision Pro's price, and is supported by a well-baked ecosystem and a rich collection of apps.

Meta Quest 3
We call this the best VR headset for most people, and considering the far more affordable price and vast number of apps built specifically for the platform, this might be, even with less visual quality, be a more attainable and reasonable option than the Vision Pro.

Nreal Air AR Glasses
The Nreal Air AR Glasses are nothing like the Vision Pro (or any other VR headset, for that matter), but they're nevertheless an intriguing AR gadget that effectively offers you your own private theater viewing of whatever is happening on your connected device's screen. It's pretty neat, and potentially a great pick for commuters.

How we test

For my Apple Vision Pro M5 review I spent four days wearing and using the mixed-reality headset. I watched movies, played games, communicated with friends and co-workers, drew, played games, and did a lot of work on my giant MacBook Pro virtual display.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed October 2025

Categories: Reviews

Suunto Race 2: A brighter and lighter watch makes for a serious Garmin contender

Tue, 10/21/2025 - 10:11

One-minute review

It’s hard to stand out in a crowded field of fantastic fitness trackers, and while the Suunto Race had a lot of great ideas, its execution was ever-so-slightly off.

We awarded it 3.5 stars out of 5, finding issues primarily with heart rate tracking accuracy while noting it’s cheaper than many of its rivals despite feeling premium.

That gives the Suunto Race 2 a lay-up to be one of the best fitness trackers around, right? Fix the minor issues, and it’ll be a winner. Thankfully, Suunto has taken advantage of the legwork done by the first Race, and its successor is better in just about every way.

It looks great, performs well, and is just as intuitive for a fitness tracker newcomer as it is to someone that’s been tracking their body’s rhythms for years. With two and a half weeks of battery life and a relatively lightweight design, it’s comfortable to wear to bed for sleep tracking, too.

That does come at a cost (it’s more expensive than the original), but it’s easily one of our favorite fitness trackers of 2025 so far.

Suunto Race 2: Specifications

Component

Suunto Race 2

Price

£429 / $499 / AU$899 (Stainless Steel) or £529 / $599 / AU$999 (Titanium)

Dimensions

49 x 49 x 12.5 mm / 1.93 x 1.93 x 0.49 "

Weight

65g

Case/bezel

Glass fibre reinforced polyamide

Display

AMOLED display with 466x466 resolution

GPS

GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, QZSS, BEIDOU

Battery life

18 days in Smartwatch mode, 30 days in Standby time mode, up to 200 hours in power saving mode

Connection

Bluetooth

Water resistant?

100M

Suunto Race 2: Price and availability

(Image credit: Future)

Two versions: Stainless Steel and Titanium
Steel starts at £429 / $499 / AU$899
Titanium is £529 / $599 / $999

One of the big draws of the Suunto Race was its price, but the Suunto Race 2 fixes the problems with the original Race at the cost of a higher price tag. The Stainless Steel model is more expensive, while the Titanium model ratchets the price up again.

It’s now around the price of a Garmin Forerunner 570, so hardly beyond the pale even with the increase.

Expect discounts around the usual sale seasons like Black Friday, but it’ll give Suunto Race 1 owners looking to upgrade some ‘sticker shock’, for sure.

Value score: 4/5

Suunto Race 2 review: Design

(Image credit: Future)

1.5-inch display
Feels premium to hold and wear
Straps feel comfortable

As mentioned, there are two versions of Suunto Race 2: Stainless Steel, and Titanium. Our review unit is the former, in the Coral Orange colorway. In all honesty, three out of four of the Stainless Steel models have the same black chassis color but with different straps, while the Feather Gray is a more off-white color.

Titanium models are, again, the same chassis, but with two different color options; outside of the material choice, you’re getting the same general design throughout.

Straps attach with a pin system, which—while a little fiddly—does mean they’re more secure than other rivals. The display is 1.5 inches (slightly larger than the 1.43-inch panel on the Race 1), and is brighter, too, now up to 2,000 nits.

(Image credit: Future)

Two hardware buttons flank a digital crown for scrolling through menus, and the display is touch-sensitive, too, which could give it a leg-up over non-touchscreen rivals that can feel slightly less intuitive.

On the underside, there are the sensors, and the straps have gaps in them, which can make them feel more breathable than fabric-based alternatives.

There’s a pleasing weight to the Suunto Race 2. It doesn’t feel flimsy or too light, but it’s not too light where it feels cheap, either. That’s a tough balance to find, so kudos to the team at Suunto for finding a way to make it feel premium while not being too heavy to wear to bed.

Design score: 4.5 / 5

Suunto Race 2: Features

(Image credit: Future)

Built-in GPS
No music storage

We’re still sad offline music streaming isn’t more common across fitness trackers, as it feels like such an obvious inclusion, but at least if you don’t need a killer playlist, you can take your Suunto Race for a run without your phone safe in the knowledge there’s GPS built in.

It’s accurate, too, doing a good job of identifying my location whether I was in busy London streets or riverside pathways closer to home. It matches up almost perfectly with my Apple Watch Ultra, which is my main tracker of choice. You can download maps for offline usage, too, something Garmin’s Instinct line doesn’t have.

There are over 115 sport modes included, too, running from the usual suspects like running and cycling, to strength training and more bespoke workouts like mountain trail runs.

Battery life is great, too. In smartwatch mode you can expect 16 days, while GPS mode reaches 55 hours - five hours more than the Suunto Run 1.

As you’d expect, it ties into the Suunto Coach app to offer detailed workout metrics beyond what’s available on the watch, and this data can be imported directly into the likes of Strava for ease of tracking and sharing with friends (and rivals).

Features score: 4.5/5

Suunto Race 2: Performance

(Image credit: Future)

Brighter display
Faster processor
Improved heart

We’ve already noted the improved display brightness, and that means it’s much easier to read the Suunto Race 2’s Always-On panel in direct sunlight.

Another of our issues with the last model was its clunky UI, and there’s not a whole host that’s different here aside from the fact that performance is improved thanks to a processor that Suunto reckons is twice as fast as the last generation. That makes moving through widgets much slicker on the device.

While some sleep tracking often feels binary, requiring you to trigger a specific mode (see the Apple Watch lineup), Suunto has done a great job of picking up on the occasional afternoon nap when I was feeling under the weather, as well as offering sleep stages and phase breakdowns.

Still, the elephant in the room is heart rate. Could Suunto fix the biggest issue with the Race 1? As it happens, yes, yes it could, offering similar results to those found on the Apple Watch Ultra 2, which we’ve tested against a highly accurate Polar H10 heart rate monitor and finding it the current gold standard for wrist-based heart rate measurement.

Not only that, but the Race 2 tracks heart rate variability while you’re sleeping. As someone with a heart condition, which means overnight tracking is particularly important, that’s a huge boon. Still, it only provides an average, rather than ad hoc information about your HRV.

Performance score: 4.5/5

Scorecard

Attribute

Comments

Score

Value

Great value at the low-end, but the stainless steel version is a little too pricey

Design

Great, stylish design that’s comfortable to wear all day

4.5

Features

No music storage is a shame but everything else is great

4.5

Performance

Major heart rate improvements

4.5

How we tested the Suunto Race 2

When testing the Suunto Race 2, I took it on some very light running exercises and on rucking excursions in a local, rural area.

To test its GPS, I visited London to assess its accuracy amidst larger buildings and more signal noise, and wore it regularly during the day and at night to judge the heart rate and sleep tracking.

Buy it if...

You want a great fitness tracker

With accurate sensors and GPS, and a ton of workout modes, the Suunto Race 2 is well worth a look for competitive runners and intermediate athletes.

You want long-lasting battery life

The 55 hours on offer in GPS mode is among the best around, and the 16 days in ‘smartwatch’ mode isn’t shabby, either.

Don’t buy it if...

Heart rate isn’t important to you

The Suunto Run’s heart rate accuracy isn’t as good as its younger brother, but it is $100 cheaper, which could sway you in its direction.

You want smartwatch features

There’s no NFC payment features or installable apps here, despite the Titanium model costing more than the Apple Watch Series 10.

Also consider

Garmin Forerunner 570

The best running watch from Garmin right now.

Read our full Garmin Forerunner 570 review

Coros Pace Pro

One of the best non-Garmin alternatives.

Read our full Coros Pace Pro review

First reviewed: October 2025

Categories: Reviews

I tested the 11-inch iPad Pro M5 for five days, and Apple’s Pro tablet is still in a league of its own

Tue, 10/21/2025 - 08:00

Apple iPad Pro 11-inch M5 2025 review: One-minute review

Apple hasn’t changed much with the latest iPad Pro, and with good reason. It has the same sleek, ultra-thin aluminum body, available in either 11-inch or 13-inch sizes, as its predecessor, and like last year’s model it feels effortlessly premium in the hand.

The Ultra Retina XDR display is also unchanged, but it’s still stunning, with vibrant colors, deep blacks, and a peak HDR brightness of 1,600 nits. Whether for daily use, watching a film, gaming, or writing with an Apple Pencil, it felt buttery smooth and visually immersive. It’s certainly still a step up from the screen on the iPad Air.

What is new here is the M5 chip, which makes Apple’s most powerful iPad faster and more capable than ever. While that’s a tall order, Apple has accomplished it, and responsiveness feels virtually instantaneous.

In my time with the iPad Pro, multitasking and creative work felt effortless. I could edit photos in Pixelmator, draw in Procreate, or even cut 4K footage in Final Cut Pro without a hiccup. AI features, like handwriting cleanup and image upscaling, happen almost instantly. Gaming is equally impressive, with smooth frame rates and detailed graphics making even triple-A titles look incredible.

While the Magic Keyboard is an extra cost as an accessory, when the iPad Pro is docked in it it feels closer to a laptop than ever, letting you type, multitask, and navigate iPadOS 26 seamlessly.

This year, Apple also added its N1 wireless chip, bringing Wi-Fi 7, Thread support, and a move to a made-in-house modem for 5G connectivity. This means that when you’re on the go – whether you’re working from a café or traveling – connections feel fast and reliable, with strong download and upload speeds if you opt for a cellular plan. The 12-megapixel Center Stage camera keeps you perfectly framed in video calls, and the rear camera handles casual photography well.

It’s expensive, and the color options remain limited, but for power users who want the ultimate iPad experience, the 11-inch iPad Pro M5 is hard to beat – and I’m happy to report that the starting prices of $999 / £999 / AU$1,699 for the 11-inch, or $1,299 / £1,299 / AU$2,199 for the 13-inch iPad Pro with M5, are the same as last year. That said, the rest of the iPad lineup – the entry-level iPad with A16, the iPad mini, and the iPad Air with M3 – remain especially strong.

The latter, which also comes in 11-inch and 13-inch sizes, will likely be the strongest competition to the iPad Pro, and whether you go for the iPad Pro or the iPad Air will ultimately depend on how much you care about design, display, and long-term performance. But know that, if you’re considering upgrading to the M5 Pro from a previous iPad Pro, you’ll be best served if you’re rocking the M1 model or earlier, as you’ll enjoy tangible speed improvements, the better screen, and the all-new design.

Apple iPad Pro 11-inch M5 2025 review: SpecsiPad Pro M5 (2025) Specs

iPad Pro 11-inch

iPad Pro 13-inch

Starting price

$999 / £999 / AU$1,699

$1,299 / £1,299 / AU$2,199

Operating system

iPadOS 26

Chipset

Memory (RAM)

12GB or 16GB

Storage

256GB / 512GB / 1TB / 2TB

Display

11-inch tandem OLED Ultra Retina XDR (2420 x 1668)

13-inch tandem OLED Ultra Retina XDR (2752 x 2064)

Cameras

12MP wide main, 12MP ultrawidefront

Connectivity

Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6. 5G Sub-6Ghz and Gigabit LTE on Cellular models.

Weight

440g (446g for cellular)

579g (582g for cellular)

Dimensions

249.7 x 177.5 x 5.3mm

281.6 x 215.5 x 5.1mm

Apple iPad Pro 11-inch M5 2025 review: Pricing and Availability

Apple’s 11-inch and 13-inch iPad Pro with M5 officially launches on October 22, 2025, but if you’re already sold, pre-orders are open now. In addition to deciding which size you want you’ll need to pick between two colors, and storage and connectivity options.

In either Space Black or Silver, the 11-inch iPad Pro M5 starts at $999 / £999 / AU$1,699, while the 13-inch iPad Pro with M5 starts at $1,299 / £1,299 / AU$2,199. If you’re keeping track generation over generation, there’s no price increase there. Prices go up from there if you want to add cellular or get more storage. The iPad Pro starts at 256GB, but also comes in 512GB, 1TB, or 2TB configurations; the 256GB and 512GB models come with 12GB of RAM, while the 1TB and 2TB models come with 16GB.

Apple iPad Pro 11-inch M5 2025 review: Design

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

It’s still an ultra-thin, sleek iPad
No design changes compared to the previous generation
The 11-inch might be the perfect size for most

Given that Apple rolled out a radically thinner and overall much sleeker design with its last-generation iPad Pro in 2024, it’s no surprise that the company is sticking with the same build for this generation’s model; as noted the biggest change here is under the hood, and indicated by the ‘M5’ in the name.

Apple’s 11-inch iPad Pro still looks elegant, sleek, and sharp, and I enjoyed testing the smaller variant, given how much more portable it is. As mentioned, there is also a larger 13-inch iPad Pro powered by the same M5 chip.

The design from generation to generation is identical – the 11-inch iPad Pro M5 measures 249.7 x 177.5 x 5.3mm and weighs 444 grams with just Wi-Fi, or 446 grams with cellular connectivity. And it also beats out the 11-inch iPad Air with the M3 chip for both thickness and weight – at 6.1mm and 460 grams the Air is slightly thicker and heavier.

Even held in one hand, the new Pro feels light. I often held it vertically with my left hand while navigating the interface, or scribbling notes with an Apple Pencil – both Pro and USB-C models are supported – with my right. Watching a film, making a FaceTime call, or reading horizontally while holding the tablet with both hands is equally comfortable. This is also the best orientation to get the most out of the great stereo speakers, as these live on the left and right sides. The sound produced is pretty robust and surprisingly loud given how thin the iPad Pro is.

The 11-inch size, paired with the Magic Keyboard, is practically the perfect mini laptop within the iPad lineup. The weight is well balanced, and the screen – thanks to windowed apps – feels surprisingly expansive.

Apple has stuck with an aluminum build all around, which keeps the iPad light while allowing it to be ultra-thin without sacrificing durability. At 5.3mm for the 11-inch and 5.1mm for the 13-inch, the iPad Pro is actually thinner than the iPhone Air, which measures 5.6mm.

The biggest disappointment for me is that despite the new chip, color options remain limited to Space Black or Silver. Both look good, and Pros might prefer subtle tones, but a more vibrant option, like the iPad Air’s purple or an iPhone 17 Pro-style orange, would have been fun.

A color-matched Apple logo sits centered on the back of the Space Black 11-inch iPad Pro; it’s shiny against the matte frame and slightly darker. There are also three silver Smart Connector dots at the bottom, which is how the Magic Keyboard connects without any setup, with the main camera bump at the top left when the slate is held vertically.

The main camera array is unchanged from the previous generation, with the slightly raised bump housing a 12-megapixel wide camera, LiDAR sensor, and adaptive True Tone flash. Beneath the aluminum finish are ample magnets to support cases, including the Magic Keyboard.

When you hold the iPad Pro vertically, the power button is on the top right, with the volume controls nearby. The Apple Pencil Pro magnetically attaches to the right side and charges wirelessly, while the USB-C Pencil attaches but requires a charging cable. The USB-C port sits on the bottom vertically or the right side horizontally.

The volume and power buttons are also easy to locate when you’re using the iPad longways – power moves to the top left, and the volume rocker shifts to the top left. You don’t need to worry about unlocking with the power button either; a simple tap on the screen lights up Face ID, which is built into the front camera, and easily unlocks the iPad. Of course, you can also use it to authenticate purchases and autofill passwords.

It’s a practical design, and overall, this remains Apple’s most premium and luxurious iPad. Like the iPhone Air, its design prioritizes thermals and ergonomic weight, making the iPad Pro comfortable to use and letting the display truly shine.

Design score: 4 / 5

Apple iPad Pro 11-inch M5 2025 review: Display

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

Stunning tandem OLED display with punchy, vibrant colors
It delivers an immersive visual experience

Apple is sticking with its impressive tandem OLED Ultra Retina XDR display, and it’s truly a best-in-class screen. Colors look especially vibrant and accurate, with rich detail and subtle gradations, but it really excels at delivering incredibly strong contrast – something the 11-inch iPad Air with the M3 chip can’t quite match, considering that this is an OLED panel, and a unique one at that.

I thoroughly enjoyed having multiple windows set up within iPadOS 26, viewing them side by side or jumping between Mail, Gmail, Slack, Chrome, Safari, and Messages. Taking in the latest episode of The Morning Show on Apple TV, or films or series from other streamers, was a delight – the iPad Pro really excels at delivering these visuals. Whether you’re watching content, drawing in Procreate, editing photos in Pixelmator, gaming, or using Final Cut Pro or DaVinci Resolve, the display can easily scale to the task depending on your workflow.

Just as with the previous-gen Pro, the tandem OLED is essentially two OLED displays stacked together to produce higher brightness levels for stunning visuals – and it really delivers. The Ultra Retina XDR display offers 1,000 nits of brightness across the full screen, can spike up to 1,600 nits of peak brightness for HDR content, and delivers a 2,000,000:1 contrast ratio. The display resolution comes in at 2420 x 1668 at 264ppi.

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

Another key advantage of going Pro with an iPad is ProMotion, which enables an adaptive refresh rate between 10Hz and 120Hz and ensures that games (hardware-accelerated ray tracing is supported here) and other content look buttery smooth. It also helps when writing with Apple Pencil, further reducing latency, and makes scrolling through iPadOS 26 feel noticeably more fluid.

Apple ships the 11-inch iPad Pro with an oleophobic coating that helps reduce reflections and resist fingerprints, and it does an admirable job – if the screen is off, you’ll notice smudges, but when it lights up, the brightness makes them fade away. It still catches some reflections, though, especially outdoors on a sunny day or under harsh indoor lighting. The fix here is to opt for the Nano-Texture Glass display, which works wonders, but it comes at an added cost. My test unit has the standard glass.

Considering the high price of the iPad Pro with M5, a big part of that is down to this display, and I’ll give it to Apple – it’s the best display in the iPad lineup and one of the best I’ve used on any device. Whether I was watching a movie, playing a game, or doing more routine things, it was a visually immersive experience with vibrant, punchy color and deep blacks. You’ll need to decide, though, if you really do need the best display, as the 11-inch iPad Air delivers an excellent mix of performance and features, albeit with a slightly less advanced display.

Display score: 5 / 5

Apple iPad Pro 11-inch M5 2025 review: Cameras

The front-facing camera is again located in the ‘proper’ spot
CenterStage isn’t new, but it still works wonders for video calls
The rear camera is fine for a tablet camera

Tucked into the top bezel, and centered above the screen when the iPad is held or docked horizontally, is a 12-megapixel Center Stage camera. You might recall that Apple made the decision to move it to the ‘proper’ location for a tablet with the last generation, and that placement, along with the same camera specs, carries over to the iPad Pro M5.

It’s basically in the perfect spot, especially when the iPad Pro is docked in a Magic Keyboard or a similar third-party folio, where you’re using the iPad in a similar fashion to a laptop. This makes it ideal for recording videos – maybe a self-tape – but also for video calls through FaceTime, WebEx, and Zoom, and other services.

The main appeal of this camera is in Center Stage, which uses software magic to keep you in the frame when you’re on calls, automatically panning and zooming to keep you centered. This is helpful if you like to walk and talk on calls, but also, more practically, if you’re cooking and hop on a FaceTime call – you can rest the iPad somewhere and freely move around without worrying you’ll be out of the frame. It’s excellent.

There’s also the same camera as last year on the back. If you’re someone who likes to take photos with a tablet, you can certainly do that here, and the 12-megapixel lens is good. I’ll share a gallery of some test shots below, but you’re still better off with your iPhone’s camera, or an actual camera.

Camera score: 4 / 5

Apple iPad Pro 11-inch M5 2025 review: Software

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

iPadOS 26 breathes new life into the iPad Pro
Mainstay features like windowing apps run very well here

While every iPad comes running iPadOS 26 out of the box, the 11-inch and 13-inch iPad Pros with M5 are the first to launch with iPadOS 26. It certainly feels at home on the most expensive iPad in the lineup, and makes the most of the M5 chip inside.

I can freely resize pretty much any number of apps into windows with overlapping, or just set it up as side-by-side split. I have a menu bar up top when tasks call for it, and a dock down below, and I can drag and drop elements between apps as I see fit. That could be to edit a photo in Photoshop or Pixelmator after importing from Photos or Files, save it, and then load it directly into our content management system to build an article, or selecting photos and dropping them into Messages or an email.

This flexibility is definitely the highlight of iPadOS 26, but if you want to focus on one thing at a time you can also go full-screen with apps. I used a wide variety of apps on the iPad Pro with M5, covering my full workload: Safari, Chrome, Gmail, Slack, Google Drive and Docs, and occasionally photo-editing apps like Photoshop or Pixelmator. I routinely kept all of these open, along with Messages, Mail, Music or Spotify, Notes, Calendar, and Photos.

For personal use, I streamed via Apple TV (yes, it’s weird not writing Apple TV+ anymore), Disney+, Netflix, and Peacock, took FaceTime calls, and tried plenty of games, including Mini Metro, RFS+ Pro, Disney Dreamlight Valley, Resident Evil 4, Assassin’s Creed Mirage, and Fortnite. Everything played smoothly for the most part, with barely a slowdown or hiccup.

While the vastly improved, AI-infused Siri (still) isn’t here yet, I got a sense of how Apple’s other AI and machine learning features perform, along with some third-party ones. Clean-Up for photos ran swiftly, performing the expected action after the main model download. I also used summarized notifications, priority notifications, and dabbled with ‘Reduce Interruptions’ in Focus Mode. Live Translation was quick, on a par with competing services, and Logic Pro 2 for iPad’s stem splitter worked very well.

I spent most of my work time with the iPad docked in the Magic Keyboard. This is the slightly more premium ‘for iPad Pro’ version of Apple’s accessory, with 14 rows of function keys, a full QWERTY keyboard, and an expansive trackpad. Typing feels great, with good travel and punchy keystrokes – I wrote this entire review using it.

When docked, the 11-inch iPad Pro feels very laptop-like, slightly floating as it’s locked in with magnets. You can tilt it up or down, and when you need to take notes you can easily snap it off and use the Apple Pencil. It makes the iPad Pro feel like a true workhorse, especially with iPadOS 26 – resizing windows and performing other tasks feels seamless with either touch or the trackpad.

It is an added cost – the Magic Keyboard for the 11-inch iPad Pro costs $299 / £299 / AU$499, or $349 / £349 / AU$579 for the 13-inch version – but it certainly makes the iPad Pro more capable. It’s also compatible with the previous M4 model.

The Apple Pencil Pro remains an excellent tool for note-taking, drawing, sketching, and navigating iPadOS. It magnetically attaches to the side of the iPad Pro and recharges wirelessly. The Apple Pencil USB-C can also attach, but must be plugged in to recharge. Taking notes with an Apple Pencil feels almost the same as writing on paper, and I especially like Scribble to Text for responding to messages without interrupting my workflow. Math Notes is another great feature – you can write an equation and an equals sign, and the iPad does the heavy lifting.

Software score: 4.5 / 5

Apple iPad Pro 11-inch M5 2025 review: Performance

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

The M5 chip makes this iPad Pro blazing fast
It adds in a lot of headroom, leaving me with no concerns about performance for years to come

Arguably, the biggest change with the iPad Pro is the M5 chip under the hood, which powers the entire experience. It drives the display, enables vibrant and immersive visuals, plays back excellent audio from the built-in stereo speakers, and lets you take full advantage of iPadOS 26.

The 2024 iPad Pro was the first Apple device to get the M4, and the M5 chip duly makes its debut in the 11-inch and 13-inch iPad Pro, alongside the new Vision Pro and new 14-inch MacBook Pro. Apple is spreading its latest 3-nanometer silicon across more devices, and it shines on the iPad by making an already fast device even faster.

In the 1TB iPad Pro I’ve been testing, and also in the 2TB model, the M5 chip is configured as follows: a 10-core CPU with four performance cores and six efficiency cores, a 10-core GPU with hardware-accelerated ray tracing and neural accelerators, and a 16-core Neural Engine. It also comes with 16GB of RAM and 153GB/s of memory bandwidth.

This results in incredible performance day in and day out. Like the models before it – or even the 11-inch iPad Air with M3 – it’s a challenge to make this iPad Pro slow down. Apple has made the ultimate iPad even faster, and increased the headroom further.

Many of the improvements in the M5 chip help it perform even better for AI-focused workflows. Pixelmator Pro handled ‘Super Resolution’ faster, and cleaning up handwriting in GoodNotes was lightning quick. The same goes for using Stem Splitter in Logic Pro to separate recordings, or exporting 4K footage in Final Cut Pro. Games – whether smaller titles or full AAA releases – were a blast to play, with the performance and graphics combining to create wonderfully immersive worlds.

The 11-inch iPad Pro with M5 was simply a powerhouse in my testing, to the point that I effectively moved my entire workflow from a 14-inch MacBook Pro with M4 to this iPad paired with the Magic Keyboard. Between the chip and iPadOS 26, everything feels fast, smooth and completely dependable, and the software is finally close to matching the hardware. If you’re after a desktop-like experience, you can plug the iPad Pro into an external display, and it can offer up to a 120Hz refresh rate – that’s more of a surprise addition, and might hint that a new Studio Display from Apple is on the horizon.

I also ran the 11-inch iPad Pro with M5 through Geekbench, a standard benchmarking tool used by TechRadar. The 1TB model scored 4,121 single-core and 16,240 multi-core – outpacing the M4 iPad Pro (3,700 and 14,523, respectively) and the 11-inch iPad Air with M3 (3,023 and 11,716).

While we haven’t tested them, the 256GB and 512GB models come with a slightly less powerful M5 chip: a 9-core CPU (three performance and six efficiency cores), a 10-core GPU with neural accelerators and hardware-accelerated ray tracing, and a 16-core Neural Engine. That’s paired with 12GB of RAM and 153GB/s of memory bandwidth. For most workflows, this shouldn’t affect everyday performance, though export times for creative tasks might be slightly longer.

Simply put, the iPad Pro offers full-throttle performance at nearly every turn. Whether or not you need that much power, the iPad Pro with M5 feels more than capable of taking full advantage of iPadOS 26 – and whatever Apple might be cooking up next. For now, it handles demanding tasks that would push lesser iPads and even some Macs; the performance here is truly next-level.

Performance score: 5 / 5

Apple iPad Pro 11-inch M5 2025 review: Battery and Connectivity

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

Still a very efficient battery, with more than all-day battery life
The iPad Pro now supports fast charging, for 50% in 30 minutes
Apple’s new C1X modem arrives in an iPad for the first time

As with previous iPads and iPhones, Apple is not sharing the exact battery size for the 11-inch or 13-inch iPad Pro; instead, the tech giant likes to share estimates for browsing and playback times. Apple promises that you can get up to 10 hours of surfing the web or watching video on Wi-Fi, or up to nine hours of web surfing with a cellular connection.

Those are the same numbers as for the M4 iPad Pro, so it’s likely Apple didn’t increase the battery size under the hood, but the M5 efficiencies, along with the Apple-made modem, likely help to keep that pace, and it’s actually the same promised battery life as the 13-inch iPad Pro with M5.

In my testing, even when using the iPad Pro for work paired with the Magic Keyboard, I got a full day out of it with close to six hours of screen time, which is very good for an iPad. Battery life isn’t much of a concern with recent generations of iPads, and this year Apple is looking to further alleviate any qualms with the arrival of fast charging.

While the 11-inch Pro ships with a 20-watt USB-C adapter in the box, you can pair this iPad with Apple’s own 40W Dynamic Power Adapter that can push up to 60W, or simply opt for a 60W power adapter to charge this iPad up to 50% in 30 minutes. With Apple’s own 40W adapter, I did meet the 30-minute mark exactly here, but with a higher 65W adapter, I saw it hit 50% in a bit less time.

Aside from the upgrade to M5 from M4 – and more RAM for the 256GB and 512GB models – Apple’s other big hardware change was moving to its N1 wireless chip and C1X modem. The former here delivers Bluetooth 6, Wi-Fi 7 and support for the Thread smart-home connectivity standard, while the latter represents a move to Apple’s own in-house modem.

These upgrades deliver two major perks, according to Apple: up to 30% lower power consumption than on the previous-generation iPad Pro and 50% faster cellular data speeds. As cellular iPads have been for some time, it’s an eSIM-only experience here across the globe.

I’ve been testing Verizon’s network, which is particularly strong in New Jersey and New York, mostly seeing three or four bars with 5G UW showing in the top corner. When working from a coffee shop or simply on the road, it felt just as dependable as using my home network, and at times delivered faster download and upload speeds.

It’s a nice swap for an Apple-made modem, and the M5 Pro has been performing just as well as previous cellular iPads I’ve tested, but the arrival of the N1 chip for modern Wi-Fi and Bluetooth standards is also welcome here.

Battery and Connectivity score: 4 / 5

Apple iPad Pro 11-inch M5 2025 review: Should you buy it?

Attributes

Notes

Rating

Value

There's no getting around the cost at $999 or$1,299, but the iPad Pro delivers excellent performance in a sleek, stunning build with a great display.

4.5 / 5

Design

Apple didn't change much with the design here, in fact it's nearly identical, but the ultra-sleek build makes it one of the best designed tablets.

4 / 5

Display

Just like the design, Apple's sticking with it's impressive tandem OLED screen here which offers an immersive experience led with vibrant colors and stark contrast points.

5 / 5

Cameras

Even though the cameras remain unchanged year over year, and folks coming from an older iPad Pro might miss the ultra-wide camera, the two onboard do get the job done.

4 / 5

Software

iPadOS 26 was a big upgrade that delivered a number of new features including using windowed apps, more Pro tools, and background tasks that all shine on the iPad Pro. Of course, you can still use one app at a time as well.

4.5 / 5

Performance

The M5 chip provides a ton of power for any possible task, and made it really difficult to get the iPad Pro to even slow down.

5 / 5

Battery and Connectivity

Apple didn't increase the battery size internally, but it still offers all-day battery life like the previous generation.

4 /5

Buy it if...

You have an older iPad
The M5 chip in the iPad Pro alleviates any performance concerns for the foreseeable future, delivering blazing-fast speed in daily use. If you have an older iPad Pro with an M1 chip, or an iPad that’s still running an A-Series processor, the performance gains here – paired with the sleek build and excellent display – make this a great upgrade.View Deal

You want an immersive, jaw-dropping display
The Ultra Retina XDR Tandem OLED screen on the iPad Pro is simply stunning, with vibrant colors and excellent contrast. Whether it’s for work, gaming, or watching films, this is the iPad to get if you want the best display experience.View Deal

Don't buy it if...

You don’t want to break the bank
$999 for the 11-inch iPad Pro or $1,299 for the 13-inch is no small investment, and if you can live without the OLED display or ultra-thin build, I’d suggest looking at the iPad Air with M3, which also comes in two sizes and offers excellent performance.View Deal

You’re not looking for a new main device
If you don’t need an iPad that can replace your main computer, you might be better off looking at an entry-level iPad with A16, an iPad mini, or the iPad Air.View Deal

Apple iPad Pro 11-inch M5 2025 review: How I tested

I spent five days thoroughly testing the 11-inch iPad Pro with M5, specifically a Space Black 1TB model with cellular connectivity. I also tested it with a matching Magic Keyboard in black and an Apple Pencil Pro. After unboxing it – you can check out my unboxing video on TechRadar’s TikTok – I quickly got to setting it up, and adding the apps and services that I would normally use on my iPad.

For much of my testing period I aimed to use the iPad Pro M5 as my main work device, which meant sidelining my 14-inch M4 MacBook Pro, and writing, editing, taking meetings, sending Slack messages, and writing emails on the iPad Pro M5. I also played games, sent messages, edited photos, and streamed movies, TV shows, and music, as well as making and taking many video calls.

To test cellular, I used a Verizon eSIM and ran various speed tests and upload tests in different locations to get a feel for performance.

First reviewed October 2025.

Categories: Reviews

Meta and Oakley’s smart glasses for athletes hit the mark... if you have the right Garmin

Tue, 10/21/2025 - 08:00

These Oakley Meta Vanguard smart glasses are undeniably designed for athletes.

This is something of a double-edged sword in the design department as it means you can’t use them for everyday use unless your personal fashion choices include strolling around in a visor. But when you’re on a run, powering down a slope, or pushing yourself on your next bike ride these glasses will be the ideal companion… if you have a compatible Garmin watch.

The biggest benefit these specs have – beyond their Prizm visors, which are tailored to different activities – is their IP67 which allows them to tackle all conditions. I got caught out in a rainstorm with these specs on and the Vanguard glasses weren’t bothered at all.

I had more than enough time to finish up the run I had planned and make my way home, all the while enjoying tunes and assistance from Meta AI which I could hear through the open-ear headphones.

I even successfully made a few calls. Despite the rain, wind, and cars rushing past on the road, everyone I called said I came through crystal clear. Admittedly, I did have to double-check a few times as I was so surprised – with my usual open earbuds, or even using my actual phone in those conditions, I know they’d struggle to hear me.

The footage captured by its camera is good too, thanks to the centralized snapper which can capture video in up to 3K which is perfect for sharing your fitness achievements.

(Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)

That’s helped by the new autocapture tool which uses data from your compatible Garmin watch to automatically record segments of your excursion and overlay fitness data – like your pace, distance travelled and heart rate – to create a nifty video recap you can share.

However, here lies my main concern with these specs. Their health tracking integration is currently reliant on a single company: Garmin. If you don’t have a Garmin smartwatch, or you do have one but it’s not compatible with the Meta AI app, then you lose out on one of the best features of these glasses. I ran into this compatibility problem so created a handy guide you can use to see which Garmin watches are compatible with Meta AI.

Meta does usually take a slow and steady approach with integrations so my fingers are crossed we’ll see Meta play nice with other fitness trackers too. But until then, this limited compatibility makes this device feel a little less mainstream.

That said, if you are an athlete with a compatible Garmin watch then the Oakley Meta Vanguard glasses will be a superb companion. The open ear audio, Meta AI assistance providing real-time fitness data, crystal clear calls, and auto capture video recaps combine into something superb – just be prepared for the high cost.

Oakley Meta Vanguard: price and availability

The Oakley Meta Vanguard glasses are launching on October 21, 2025 and are available to buy in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, and many European countries with plans to expand to more countries like Mexico and Brazil soon.

At the time of writing they cost $499 / £499 / AU$789 no matter which model you get. This makes them pricier than Meta’s Oakley HSTN and Ray-Ban smart glasses – ignoring its new Meta Ray-Ban Display specs.

In exchange you’ll get specs with louder (6dB louder) open-ear speakers, a more durable design (they’re IP67 rated rather than IPX4 for dust and water), and a slightly longer battery life than those two aforementioned models.

The design also feels more sporty, plus there’s the Garmin integration – though that necessitates a compatible device.

Value score: 3/5

(Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)Oakley Meta Vanguard: design

You can pick up the Oakley Meta Vanguard glasses in one of four design variations equipped with a colored Prizm lens – a black frame with a 24K lens, black frame with a Road lens, white frame with a Black lens, or white with a Sapphire lens.

Otherwise the specs of all four are identical. The lens forms a large visor which covers both eyes, there’s a large camera that sits above your nose, and each pair comes with three nose clips sizes so you can adjust the fit to suit your face.

You’ll also find three buttons on the frame; on the left (as you wear them) is the power button, while on the right you have the camera button, and a programmable action button. The latter can activate Meta AI, automatically activate a different capture mode like slow-motion or hyperlapse, or access an accessibility feature (alongside a few other effects).

The Prizm lenses are Oakley’s sports-specific visors with color patterns designed to boost the contrast of your vision during different sports. The red Road visor version I tested are ideal for runners and cyclists because they help you see changes in the road and trail in front of you – like signs, cracks, and terrain changes.

They’re also the least shaded of the lens options available currently, meaning I can use them just fine on overcast days as long as it isn’t nighttime. If you live somewhere with a lot more sun you might prefer the Prizm lenses which provide more shade and similar contrast effects, or the Black lenses if you don’t care about contrast – the Sapphire lens is also good for the sun, but is tailored to water sports and skiing.

If you like the sound of a couple of different lens options you’re in luck. For the first time with its smart specs Meta’s Oakley Vanguards boast swappable lenses – so you can change between these available options, or some soon-to-launch alternatives like a low-light visor, as and when you need. Provided you buy the extra lenses that is – they’ll cost $85 (around £65 / AU$130, exact regional pricing is TBC).

(Image credit: Future)

They’re well suited to different conditions regardless of your lens type. I’ve run in sunnier weather and a rainstorm just fine – I did need to wipe the visor when it was wet, but no more than I would my regular specs, and at least the glasses didn’t fog up.

During the rain I was glad for their improved IP67 rating. This means they can survive harsh outdoor weather (just don’t swim in them), so on my rainy run it meant I didn’t need to rush home because I was worried my tech would get ruined – just because it was cold and miserable.

If they do get wet, however, Meta advises you dry them off before using the charging case.

Speaking of which, the bulky charging case safely stores your specs and boosts their roughly nine hours of battery life – six with continuous music – with up to an additional 36 hours. It can quickly charge your specs to 50% full in two hours.

As I said, it isn't the slimmest case so you’ll get a drawstring bag case, which is ideal for taking on your excursion if you want to put the glasses away during a break or cool down and not scratch the visor.

During all my tests these glasses stayed comfortably and securely on my face.

Design score: 5/5

Oakley Meta Vanguard: Features

If you know much about Meta’s smart glasses already you’ll be familiar with the core features these specs borrow; we’re talking open-ear audio, an in-built camera, and Meta AI assistance. I’ll cover the quality of the camera and speakers in the performance section down below, but here I’ll focus on the AI and the new trick the Vanguards have up their sleeves: Garmin integration.

Meta AI can, provided you have your phone nearby and are connected to the internet, offer real-time answers to your queries. Simply say “Hey Meta” and you can get started.

On my other Meta smart glasses I love the AI when I’m a tourist, but on these Vanguard frames it’s instead my personal fitness coach. I’ve asked for some quick exercise tips so I can try to boost my running performance and endurance, and healthy snack advice so I know what to grab from the convenience store as I jog past to enjoy as a post-workout treat.

It also enables hands-free controls. I like to focus on my runs, and find I can do that more easily if I just call out to the Meta AI to change tracks in my playlist, or give me my fitness data, compared to swiping on the frame or looking down at my wrist.

This fitness data comes from my Garmin watch. For this review I borrowed a Garmin Epix Pro (Gen 2) which is one of a selection of compatible Garmin devices (mostly watches, but a few bike computers too) that can beam real-time data to the Vanguard glasses.

(Image credit: Ziven Anderson)

While in a fitness activity – like a run – I can get real-time updates on my heart rate, my running pace, distance travelled, and how well I’m hitting my goals which is super handy. Plus, for those of you who care just as much about sharing your fitness successes as you do about actually getting fit, you’ll love autocapture.

When enabled, autocapture will take a short video every split (either every lap, kilometer or mile based on your preferences), as well as at key moments like when your heart rate jumps up because you’re pushing hard, or at a new elevation high, to name a couple of examples. The Meta AI app will then process these shots and overlay your Garmin data – like your pace and distance traveled – which you can then share as a montage or sequence of stories.

As you can see in the example above, it also gave my footage an automatic title, and tells you what Garmin watch I was wearing.

I think it’s really neat, it’s just a shame these fitness data integrations – which feel somewhat essential to the glasses’ identity – are locked to some very specific fitness devices.

While a lot of athletes will rely on Garmin tech, some will prefer their Samsung Galaxy or Apple watch (or another option from list of the best fitness trackers). Others simply may not have one of these options – even some recent Garmin launches don’t support on-watch apps (a necessity for this Meta AI integration).

Meta does like to roll out these interconnected app features slowly so we may see other brands join the fray down line, but right now I’m left feeling like a device agnostic system – perhaps one which leans heavily on a phone app rather than a smartwatch app, or a more widely-available smartwatch app – would be a more elegant and better solution.

Features score: 3.5/5

Oakley Meta Vanguard: performance

These glasses performed really well in areas I think athletes will appreciate – that is to say, music and call clarity.

While I can’t test Meta’s claims that you can be heard over 30mph wind – during Meta Connect Mark Zuckerberg said “you can basically be standing in a wind tunnel and still come through clearly on the other side” – I can say that what initially sounded like a vast overpromise now seems like a very real ability of these specs after my tests.

I went out to run in a rain storm (unintentionally, admittedly) and not only could I always hear my music through these open-ear speakers (while also being able to pay full attention to my surroundings as nothing was covering or inserted into my ears) the microphones – by all accounts – picked me up crystal clear.

I never had trouble activating Meta AI, and even when I was jogging alongside a road with cars whizzing past – being buffeted by heavy rain and strong winds – the folks I called all said they couldn’t tell I was in a storm. The noise cancellation was, as one person described, "fantastic."

I know my other open earbuds, and maybe even my phone, wouldn’t have competed with that noise based on my experience with them – so I’m very impressed with the Vanguard’s capabilities.

(Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)

Jumping back to the audio, while not on par with more dedicated earbuds or headphones audio quality-wise, this comfy open-ear, all-in-one solution was excellent at keeping me motivated with music while keeping me aware of my surroundings – as I wasn't blocked off from the outside world in any way, sonically speaking.

I’ll also shout out the camera.

While the single shot photos are more on the ‘okay’ end of the spectrum quality-wise, the first-person videos look great and pick up the audio really well – even if a lot of them simply capture me huffing and puffing into the mics.

Because of this high quality I love the autocapture montage the app creates, and plan to always share it with my Strava posts going forward.

Performance score: 5/5

Oakley Meta Vanguard smart glasses Scorecard

Attribute

Notes

Score

Value

These glasses are good but they’re also Meta’s most expensive smart glasses and you can really only wear them while exercising. You’ll also need a pricey Garmin companion to get the most out of them.

3/5

Design

With improved ruggedness but still a comfy design that sits securely on my face while I run it’s hard to fault the design of these specs.

5/5

Features

These glasses are useful with AI, a first-person camera, and open-ear audio, but it’s frustrating that their best fitness tools are locked to specific Garmin devices rather than having a more agnostic system in place.

3.5/5

Performance

These glasses performed very well with crystal clear call audio, solid open-ear speaker audio, and good-looking 3K video capture in a wide variety of weather conditions.

5/5

Should you buy the Oakley Meta Vanguard smart glasses?Buy them if…

You have a compatible Garmin device
I love the Garmin integrations and found these specs offer a handy boost to your exercise if they have access to your real-time fitness data.

You want reliable audio for music and calls
Thanks to some solid speakers and fantastic noise cancelling microphones, these glasses are a very reliable open-ear audio solution.

You want durable smart glasses
With an IP67 rating these are Meta’s most durable smart glasses, ready to tackle heavy rain and dusty days as you race to get your next PB.

Don’t buy them if…

You’re not an athlete
Given how fitness-focused these smart glasses are in their design and features, I can’t see them being the best pick for people who don’t do much sport.

You want everyday smart glasses
Unless your style suits wearing a visor regularly, these specs are not for use day-to-day. If you want something like that grab the Oakley HSTN or Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses.

You’re on a budget
While these specs do boast some upgrades they are also Meta’s most expensive smart glasses without a display (otherwise, they’re its second most pricey). That means they aren’t the most budget friendly.

Also consider

Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 2) glasses
We’ve yet to review the Gen 2 model, but we loved the Gen 1 Meta glasses and this newer model is just those but with better specs. For everyday use you’ll struggle to beat a pair of transitions Ray-Ban smart glasses.

Oakley Meta HSTN glasses
If you want a pair of smart glasses that land between sporty and leisure, then check out the HSTN smart glasses. They’re comfortable to run in (though not as durable), and look stylish – helping to bridge the gap between Meta’s other specs.

Xreal One Pro
If you are looking for something very, very different from your smart glasses – particularly something you can use for keeping entertained while kicking back on the sofa – you’ll want these Xreal glasses. Plug them into a compatible device and you can enjoy a your own private movie theater as your show, film or game of choice is virtually projected in front of you.

How I tested the Oakley Meta Vanguard smart glasses

To test these smart specs I made sure to run with them a few times. The first few times I used them without a Garmin watch to test their capabilities if you don’t have a compatible fitness device, and then I ran with a Garmin Epix Pro Gen 2 to find out how much of a difference it makes.

I ran in different conditions, though I wasn’t able to run at night as the lenses aren’t well suited to running in the dark.

First reviewed October 2025

Categories: Reviews

Harlan Coben’s Lazarus review: The Silence of the Lambs meets The Sixth Sense but it's not his best TV show

Tue, 10/21/2025 - 08:00

My Lazarus review verdict might make you think I'm being hypocritical about Harlan Coben's new Prime Video show, but I stand by it. Lazarus is at once my favorite TV story in the ever-growing Harlan Coben collection, but it's also the least effective so far.

So, why have I managed to get so much out of it? Two words: ambitious storytelling. It's always much more satisfying to watch something that takes huge swings that don't entirely land than to watch something that stays meek. Lazarus is anything but the latter.

Coben hasn't exactly nailed his first original script (co-written with showrunner Danny Brocklehurst), but you can't say it's not dynamic. The story follows psychiatrist Joel Lazarus (Sam Claflin), who is forced to confront a series of cold cases after the death of his father Dr. Jonathan Lazarus (Bill Nighy) leads him to start having visions of his dad's dead patients.

The best way I can sum up the series is to describe it as a cross between The Silence of the Lambs and The Sixth Sense, but neither the show's synopsis nor nailing it to cultural references as well known as the famous line "I see dead people" does the experience justice.

Alongside The Girlfriend, I'd confidently say Harlan Coben's Lazarus is Prime Video's most fascinating crime or psychological thriller of the year. Given the fact that I'm still thinking about it nearly a month after first seeing it, I'm happy to let it be imperfect in its execution.

Harlan Coben's Lazarus is a daringly ambitious Prime Video thriller, but it's not perfect

There's a lot to like here. Lazarus is visually stunning, thanks to how the creative team has chosen to weave together two contrasting timelines into its production design. Indeed, the 'best fictional psychologist's office' award is firmly won by Dr. Jonathan's astonishing fortress.

It's in his office that the bulk of exciting storytelling takes place. Joel encounters his father's former clients behind closed doors, and that's when reality and delusion begin to converge into one soupy mess. Claflin's performance completely sells Joel's inner turmoil, keeping a firm hand on the tiller when we've got no idea what's going on.

The advantage of being kept in the dark is that we've got an abundance of twists and turns that genuinely shock us. Each episode is capped off with a mysterious question that made me want watch the next one, unable to tear myself away from the screen until I got some answer, any answer.

They do come, as well. The door has slyly been left open for a second season to be possible, but for the most part, our mysteries are wrapped up. This in itself is a rarity for 2020s television, which is often desperate to keep things open-ended in the hopes it'll be picked up for more episodes. That's not the way Coben has ever worked, and it's to our advantage.

Being imperfect isn't a sign of failure, actually

Sam Claflin and Bill Nighy in Harlan Coben's Lazarus. (Image credit: Amazon Prime Video)

There is a big downside to the show, though – Harlan Coben's Lazarus is a slew of conflicting storylines that don't sit well together as a whole. There's everything going on with Joel inside his dad's office, alongside a present-day mystery surrounding how Dr. Johnathan actually died and whether it was more nefarious than first thought.

It goes without saying that both storylines are indeed linked, but it took me at least three to four episodes to figure out what was actually happening, bearing in mind Lazarus has six episodes in total. There are no clear markers for whether we're in the past or present in any given moment, and so much happens at once that you need a breather (or a whiteboard thought mapping session) to digest what you've seen.

For me, that payoff comes a little too late, and it's information overload up until that point. I can see viewers tuning out before the reveal, feeling as though they're putting in a second shift at work just to watch a TV show in their downtime. It was hard enough for me watching it as my actual job.

On top of that, Prime Video's marketing really oversells how much Nighy is actually in the series. His scenes are pivotal, that's for sure, but blink and you'll miss him. However, the names you'll recognize in its ensemble are as formidable as you'd expect.

As I've said, I don't mind that Coben's first real shot at scriptwriting is chaotic and flawed, and I genuinely do feel enriched by watching Lazarus. In an age where crime procedurals fit a cookie-cutter mould that's ripe for consumption, Coben is taking risks, going bold and giving audiences something he hasn't shown them before.

If this is where Coben's first original script gets him, imagine where the second or third will end up. Ultimately, he still nailed the things his books are renowned for – intelligent reveals, satisfying conclusions and well-thought out character dynamics.

Critically engaging with something that doesn't quite work but leaves us with lots of questions isn't a bad way for us to spend our free time.

All six episodes of Harlan Coben's Lazarus are available to stream on Prime Video from October 22.

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Categories: Reviews

I tested Sennheiser's first wireless headphones that bundle a USB-C dongle for higher-res streaming, and their detail-oriented sound bowled me over

Mon, 10/20/2025 - 18:01

Sennheiser HDB 630: two-minute review

What happens when you cut the wires off your audiophile-grade headphones and fit a Bluetooth module inside, then add a USB-C dongle to the box so people can hear them at their best? You get the Sennheiser HDB 630. These wireless headphones are intended to deliver ‘hi-res’ Bluetooth audio to anyone, no matter which smartphone you’re using – yes, even an iPhone.

To achieve this, Sennheiser has bundled in its BTD 700 dongle, which opens up access to the aptX, aptX HD and aptX Adaptive codecs, and up to 24-bit / 96kHz streaming quality. Just plug the USB-C dongle into your phone, pair it to the Sennheiser HDB 630, mkae sure your file quality is of the desired standard and you’re good to go.

Of course, some data is lost when streaming over Bluetooth, but still, the audio quality here is exceptional and deserving of Sennheiser's HD (ie. reference grade) lineup. I was very impressed by the beautifully balanced, textured, and well-separated performance of the HDB 630, which outperformed even some of the best headphones I’ve tested in this price-range.

They have a neutral tuning out of the box, which a lot of audiophiles will appreciate – the bass is far from overbearing, though it remains punchy and responsive. A bump in the upper midrange often gives vocals a little bit of extra room to express themselves too, while treble is controlled and never too intense.

With parametric EQ and crossfade functions, you can also adapt the sound to your specific tastes – there’s so much customizability to access with the Sennheiser SmartControlPlus companion app.

And that applies to more than just sound. There’s customizable active noise cancellation, including a transparency mode, and a standalone adaptive configuration. These all work effectively, and although you won’t get absolute top-tier noise-crushing abilities here, the HDB 630 were able to keep me pretty focused on my music during a flight and when working at my office.

One thing that I wish was a little more tweakable, though, is the touch controls. Some of these function decently, but a couple feel a little clumsy to use, like volume adjustment and a single-touch play/pause option. Similarly, the On-head Detection is very sensitive, and the cans sometimes turn on even with a small knock. All of this can be switched off, but rivals like the Sony WH-1000XM6 offer much more intuitive controls.

Back to the positives though. Something that really wowed me about the HDB 630 was their excellent battery life. Considering a lot of high-level rivals in this range only offer around 30 hours of playtime, the 60 hours you get here – with ANC on, by the way – is absolutely exceptional. I barely ever had to charge these cans during my month of testing, and that in itself is a massive benefit.

In fact, other than the slightly unrefined touch controls, most of my criticisms are minor. I experienced a few inconsistencies with mic quality when using the BTD 700 dongle, and I would say that these aren’t quite the comfiest cans ever. But still, they’re snug enough to keep on for longer listening sessions, and without the dongle, the mic quality is very good.

Overall, these cans make a spectacular wireless debut into Sennheiser’s beloved HD6XX line. They supply revealing, immersive audio, buckets of playtime, and a rich set of features. Sure, there are a few imperfections here and there, but if we’re talking sound for pound (or dollar, etc.) value, then the Sennheiser HDB 630 are a tempting option, and easy to recommend.

(Image credit: Future)Sennheiser HDB 630 review: price & release date

$499 / £399 / AU$999
Launched in October 2025

The Sennheiser HDB 630 were revealed at the beginning of October 2025, and are available to order now. They're the first wireless pair of headphones to join Sennheiser’s beloved 6XX range, rather than slotting into the Momentum or Accentum family, but they feel like a natural upgrade over the Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless, sonically speaking.

As a premium pair of wireless headphones, these come with a fairly high price tag. They'll set you back $499 / £399 / AU$999, which is in a similar ballpark to top-tier wireless options like the Sony WH-1000XM6 and Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3 – more on both of those later.

(Image credit: Future)Sennheiser HDB 630 review: specs

Drivers

42mm dynamic

Active noise cancellation

Yes

Battery life

60 hours (ANC on)

Weight

311g

Connectivity

Bluetooth 5.2, 3.5mm, USB-C

Frequency range

6Hz-22kHz

Sennheiser HDB 630 review: features

Well-engineered adaptive ANC and passthrough modes
Fleshed-out companion app with parametric EQ and crossfeed
Comes with Sennheiser BTD 700 transmitter for better Bluetooth audio

When it comes to features, Sennheiser has put a lot of care into delivering just about everything you could want from wireless headphones.

Let’s start with some of the flashy inclusions that you’re not going to find from most rivals. First up, we’ve got parametric EQ. This grants users with granular control over the frequency they want to change, along with gain and Q-factor. So, if you’ve got a very precise sound in mind, you’ll easily be able to adapt the headphones to it.

In my experience, parametric EQ worked very nicely, and there are clear instructions in the Sennheiser SmartControlPlus app for how to get the best out of it. I generally stuck with the default sound, but tried making an altered tuning with a slight low-end bump, which was fun to configure.

Next, let’s talk about crossfeed – something I’d never used on a rival pair of the best over-ear headphones. Essentially, this can be used to blend the left and right audio channels for a more balanced presentation – especially useful if a recording has extreme channel separation and most of the bass only plays from the right side, say.

I tried this feature out with Purple Haze by Jimi Hendrix – a man who loved to move sound across the stereo field for a unique listening experience. When cranking crossfade up to high, vocals – which initially were focused into the right channel – were significantly more balanced. Personally, I had no issue with the original sound, so I rarely used crossfeed, but it does work well, and I’m sure some will enjoy using it.

Perhaps the star feature of the HDB 630 is their higher-res Bluetooth audio support. To make use of this, you can plug in the included BTD 700 dongle, which opens up access to aptX, aptX HD, and aptX Adaptive codecs – even if you’re on iPhone.

Anyway, the BTD 700 will let you stream audio in higher-than CD quality – 24-bit / 96kHz (albeit with some loss incurred by Bluetooth transmission itself). That means that great quality music becomes available to just about any modern device – more on the actual audio performance later, though.

Another one of the HDB 630’s major features is active noise cancellation. I was very pleased with the overall performance here, even if it won’t compare to leading players in this field, like the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones Gen 2. One small thing: the HDB 630 set the ANC level to 60% by default, perhaps for the ideal balance sonically, but for testing purposes I cranked this up to 100%.

On a flight to Copenhagen, the low rumble of the jet engine was massively subdued, while discussions around me were basically inaudible. And that was when listening to music at about 60% volume, by the way. Some higher pitched sounds – like the click of seatbelts – did creep through, but I was still impressed with the HDB 630’s noise nixing talents.

Adaptive mode is dynamic and effective too, but you can also access a transparency mode with the custom settings. This is an ideal selection if you’re someone that prefers to have a good measure of your surroundings. There’s also an option to turn on anti-wind noise, or simply turn noise cancelling off entirely.

Sound zones is another interesting feature that enables you to set an EQ preset and ANC level depending on your location. You can save a number of locations, and the headphones will seamlessly slip into your chosen settings, so long as you’re within a certain radius of the relevant area.

A quick word on battery life too. You get an outstanding 60 hours of playtime from the HDB 630, even with ANC on. That’s very impressive indeed, and matches the battery life of the five-star-rated Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless.

One key issue I ran into during my time with the HDB 630, was that call and recording quality would suffer significantly if I was using the BTD 700 dongle. Similarly, if I ended a call, when my music continued to play it sometimes sounded fuzzy. The SoundConnectPlus app would also sometimes fail to work when I had the dongle inserted, though this wasn’t always the case. These issues may well be solvable with updates and such – but the call quality issue was especially unfortunate, as without the dongle, call quality on the HDB 630 is strong.

All in all, though, there’s just so much to sink your teeth into on the HDB 630, and if you want highly customizable listening experiences, it doesn’t get much better than this.

Features score: 4.5/5

(Image credit: Future)Sennheiser HDB 630 review: sound quality

Immersive, detailed audio performance
Audiophiles will likely appreciate more neutral default tuning
Hi-res audio sounds fantastic with BTD 700 transmitter

Now, for anyone familiar with Sennheiser’s name, you’ll know that the company is known for knocking out stellar sounding audio gear time after time. And the HDB 630 continue that trend. I was very impressed with the clarity, detail, and width of the audio these headphones conjure up — and at this price, you’re not going to find a lot of rivals that do better.

The HDB 630 have a pretty neutral sound out of the box. Bass is punchy, but not overly assertive, with a significant dip in the sub-100Hz range compared to the Momentum 4. Mids never get drowned out, with vocals often given a lift thanks to a slight bump in the upper mid-range. Meanwhile, treble is perhaps a little more tempered than I’m used to on a lot of wireless headphones, but this results in a controlled presentation, with sounds in the upper-range never coming across as over-eager or tinny.

When listening to Black Eye by Allie X, I was impressed with the brilliantly defined, assertive vocals, which were carefully separated from the pumping low-end and electronica in the background. Finer details like light percussion came through clearly, while electric guitars in the lower mid-range – which can sometimes sound muddied with middling or poor quality cans – were given a fair amount of room to play.

Rains again by Solji – a softer ballad – was the exact kind of track the HDB 630 could excel with. The higher-pitched vocals floated were beautifully emotive and well-positioned in the mix, with soft acoustic guitars, as well as soft strings and keys all replicated in a tonally accurate, expressive manner.

Turning to a deeper track like Spaceship by Marsolo, this is where things may require some tweaking. The ambient sounds and almost otherworldly effects that enter into the track were exceptionally clear and well-positioned, though the bass itself – despite being rapid and responsive – lacked a little bit of bite for my personal taste.

Thankfully, this wasn’t too much of an issue, though. There is a bass boost toggle for moments where you want a low-end lift in a pinch, and extensive EQ presets and custom options if you want a deeper tuning.

I tried my own custom tuning, using parametric EQ, and Left And Right by D’Angelo sounded incredibly immersive, thanks to the controlled, texture bass, expertly layered vocals, and impactful yet disciplined percussion in the treble range. The wide soundstage created an almost three-dimensional listening experience, and that’s something that a fair few rivals in this price range can’t offer.

For reference, I spent the majority of my time listening with the BTD 700 dongle and the aptX Adaptive codec – this genuinely makes a difference with the HDB 630, opening up a more full-sounding, revealing listen. I also tried wired listening, and was again delighted with the responsive, elegantly balanced performance of the HDB 630. These are an excellent-sounding pair of headphones for the cost – they deliver exactly what they aim to: audiophile-friendly sound, without the cable.

Sound quality score: 5/5

(Image credit: Future)Sennheiser HDB 630 review: design

Wired headphone vibe, wireless design
Could look a little more premium, in my view
Touch controls and auto-on feel a little clumsy

It's been an almost perfect start for the HDB 630 so far, but the design department is where the picture is a little bit more mixed.

First up, let’s talk about looks. The HDB 630 have an appearance that's befitting of their purpose. Visually, they’re almost more like closed-back wired headphones, minus the wires – and I’m a fan of that synchronicity.

However, for me, they just don’t look quite as premium as I’d hope for headphones in this price range. The silver sections that connect the headband to the earcups have an almost plasticky look, which contrasts the luxurious-looking headband and leatherette earcups. They still look pretty good overall, and this is largely a matter of personal preference – but I think some rivals, like the Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3 have a sleeker overall aesthetic.

Something that’s less subjective, however, is the quality of touch controls on the HDB 630. Personally, I’m a touch controls guy – controversial, I know. But I didn’t always find them to be intuitive here. When flicking up, volume would occasionally rise too drastically, and the single touch requirement to pause music meant that it was too easy to accidentally play or pause my tunes.

Unfortunately, touch controls can’t be customized – it's either on, or off – which is a bit of a shame, as I would’ve liked to try tailoring them to my preferences. To give the HDB 630 their flowers, some functions, like skipping or returning to the previous track, worked great. Call controls functioned well too.

It was a similar story with On-head Detection, which seemed a little clumsy. On a couple of occasions, I’d give the headphones a knock when they were on my desk, and they’d auto power-on, connect to my phone, and start playing my music out. That was a little frustrating, and led to me later turning the feature off, even though the smart pause function worked really nicely when removing or re-wearing the headphones.

On the positive side, these headphones are fairly comfortable for longer listening sessions. I definitely think that my day-to-day headphones, the Sony WH-1000XM6 feel lighter and comfier in-use, but the HDB 630 didn’t feel tight on my head or harsh on my ears. They also offered a secure fit during my flight and whenever I was out and about.

Unlike headphones such as the Sony WH-1000XM4, the HDB 630 don't fold up. That means they're not the most compact around. But when you need to take them out and about, you can make use of the included carry case, which is built to a high standard. It feels very durable, and is well protected against scuffs or scratches. It's a little large and uses a zip rather than my preference of magnets, but it's still a very welcome inclusion.

Design score: 3.5/5

(Image credit: Future)Sennheiser HDB 630 review: value

Fairly priced for the sound quality on offer…
…even if you can get better ANC and comfort from some rivals
Incredible feature-set, even against competitors

When it comes to value for money, the Sennheiser HDB 630 score nicely – yes, even though they’re not the cheapest headphones out there.

For the money you pay, you get absolutely wonderful sound quality, and the inclusion of the BTD 700 dongle opens up higher-res Bluetooth listening to anyone – even iPhone listeners, who are frequently left behind in that domain.

Even in a side-by-side comparison with my similarly priced Sony WH-1000XM6, I felt that the HDB 630 performed exceptionally, offering a slightly more open, revealing sound. The XM6 arguably have a more ‘exciting’ profile out of the box, but with a little tuning, there’s not much the HDB 630 can’t do.

Looks-wise and comfortability-wise, the HDB 630 are solid – not the best in class but certainly not bad. But they sure do stand out when it comes to features. Parametric EQ, crossfade, adaptable ANC, and a ton of battery life. All of that combined with the sound you get? That’s plenty of bang for your buck.

Value score: 4.5/5

(Image credit: Future)Should I buy the Sennheiser HDB 630?

Attributes

Notes

Rating

Features

Wide feature-set, detailed-oriented sound options, dongle opens up great audio quality, though can cause some functionality issues.

4.5/5

Sound quality

Beautifully balanced, textured, detailed, and personalizable sound.

5/5

Design

Touch controls and auto-pause can be clumsy, good-looking and comfortable overall, but some rivals have nicer appearance and feel

3.5/5

Value

Incredible sound and feature-set for the price you pay.

4.5/5

Buy them if…

You want audiophile-friendly headphones, minus the wires
If you’re looking for audiophile-grade sound from some wireless headphones, then look no further than the HDB 630. With the included Sennheiser BTD 700 transmitter, you can access ‘hi-res’ Bluetooth audio on your phone – yes, even a modern iPhone! Of course, you’ll lose some quality over Bluetooth regardless, but wired listening is available here too, either via the USB-C or 3.5mm ports.

You regularly use public transport or fly
These headphones are awesome for anyone who regularly uses public transport or flies due to their effective, customizable active noise cancellation capabilities. I even found them pretty strong against external noise on a flight – pretty impressive! Oh, they also have solid-performing inbuilt mics, making them perfect for taking business or personal calls on the go.

Don’t buy them if…

You want great touch controls
I just couldn’t get along with the touch controls of the Sennheiser HDB 630. I found them to be a little clumsy, and the lack of customizability is a bit of a shame. Having said that, I love headphones that do touch control correctly, such as the Sony WH-1000XM5, or even better, XM6.

You’re looking for ultimate comfort
Now don’t get me wrong, the HDB 630 aren’t uncomfortable, per se, I’ve just tested models that felt a little more plush on my head. The aforementioned XM6, Sonos Ace, and Anker Soundcore Space One Pro are just a few examples of comfy over-ears that I’d prefer purely in terms of comfort.

Sennheiser HDB 630 review: also consider

Sennheiser HDB 630

Sony WH-100XM6

Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3

Price

$499 / £399 / AU$999

$449 / £399 / AU$699

$479 / £399 / AU$699

Drivers

42mm dynamic

30mm dynamic

40mm dynamic

Active noise cancellation

Yes

Battery life

60 hours (ANC on)

30 hours (ANC on)

Weight

311g

254g

300g

Connectivity

Bluetooth 5.2, 3.5mm, USB-C

Bluetooth 5.3, 3.5mm

Bluetooth 5.3, USB-C, 3.5mm (via USB-C to 3.5mm cable)

Frequency range

6Hz-22kHz

20Hz-20kHz

10Hz-20kHz

Sony WH-1000XM6
The Sony WH-1000XM6 are some of the best headphones to release in 2025, with class-leading noise cancelling abilities, beautifully balanced yet exciting audio, and the most intuitive touch controls I’ve ever used. They’re lighter, and comfier than the HDB 630, and surpass them in terms of ANC and compactness. But they’re no match in terms of battery life, and Sennheiser’s cans offer a touch more detail, sonically. Read our full Sony WH-1000XM6 review.

Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3
Even though the Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 have landed, they’re a significant step-up, price-wise. The Px7 S3 are more of a match for the HDB 630 when it comes to cost, and they’re an incredible pair of wireless headphones. With expansive sound, stunning looks, and an evolving feature-set, they’re well worth considering. Read our full Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3 review.

How I tested the Sennheiser HDB 630

Tested for one month
Used in the office and on a flight
Predominantly tested using Tidal

I spent one month testing the Sennheiser HDB 630, taking them just about everywhere I went. Of course, I used them at the office during standard work hours, but I also used them at home, while out on walks, and even on a flight.

While listening to music, I predominantly made use of Tidal in order to enjoy the 24 bit / 96 kHz quality audio – something that Spotify lossless isn’t capable of. I tuned into the TechRadar testing playlist, which features tracks from a wide range of genres, but also bumped a range of songs from my personal music library.

On top of that, I exhausted the various features on the HDB 630, like crossfeed, parametric EQ, and ANC. Where appropriate, I compared the headphones against my trusty Sony WH-1000XM6, which helped to assess aspects like sound quality and design.

First reviewed: October 2025
Read more about how we test

Categories: Reviews

Ninja Gaiden 4 isn’t just great; it’s the best game Team Ninja and PlatinumGames have made in years

Mon, 10/20/2025 - 18:00

Ninja Gaiden 4 is, without a shred of doubt in my mind, the best action game of 2025. It’s co-developers Team Ninja and PlatinumGames doing what they do best; firing on all cylinders to provide a wicked hard combat experience that puts priority on learning effective combo routes and enemy behavior - as well as spatial awareness - over bloated health bars or other cheap difficulty tricks.

Review info

Platform reviewed: Xbox Series X, PC
Available on: PS5, Xbox Series X, Series S, PC
Release date: October 21, 2025

Like the best of its peers, such as Devil May Cry 5 or the Bayonetta games, Ninja Gaiden 4 gives you all the tools you need to make quick work of almost any foe in the game. But getting to that point is a skill that demands utmost mastery at its higher difficulty levels. And embarking on that journey here manages to recapture that satisfaction of the best the character action subgenre has to offer.

(Image credit: Team Ninja)

If you’re already a Ninja Gaiden head, you’ll be pleased to know that all the staples are here. Multiple weapon types with expandable move sets, dismemberment for instant-kill obliteration attacks, and the need for a careful balance of offense and defense to get the better of the armies of enemy soldiers and daemons standing in your way.

It’s not without its faults. Environments can be quite dull, often lacking in the gorgeous vistas and arena variety of its predecessors - while prior games often had you fighting for your life in claustrophobic spaces, combat areas in Ninja Gaiden 4 are decidedly more open and boxy. There’s also an over-reliance on on-rails platforming sections that are largely scripted. They can look cool, but certainly lack the challenge and thrills of the main combat loop.

These slight hitches aside, Ninja Gaiden 4 provides an exhilarating combat experience with strong enemy variety and tremendous chapter-ending boss fights. And as a bonus, while the main plot isn’t spectacular, series fans can expect plenty of callbacks to Ninja Gaiden’s universe - albeit none that I will explicitly spoil for you in this review.

Raven's call

(Image credit: Team Ninja)

In Ninja Gaiden 4, the corpse of the colossal Dark Dragon continues to loom over Tokyo, emitting a rain of death and decay that threatens to destroy the city. Our newcomer protagonist, Yakumo, is a ninja of the Raven Clan that forms an uneasy alliance with a priestess named Seori. The goal of the partnership is to actively resurrect the Dark Dragon in order to slay it - body, soul, and all - for good.

Returning series legend Ryu Hayabusa, meanwhile, is none too happy at the prospect of bringing such a great evil back to life. He allies himself with the Divine Dragon Order (D.D.O. for short) - one of the game’s main enemy factions - in order to combat the Raven Clan’s plan.

This doesn’t so much set up Hayabusa as the villain as it does provide conflicting ways to solve the problem at hand. It’s the most interesting aspect of Ninja Gaiden 4’s plot, but don’t expect Nier Automata levels of storytelling here. Like other games in the series, the story serves a simple backdrop to the action, not the core focus.

Yakumo himself begins as a fairly one-note entity. I do love his design, emulating a painfully 2010s level of edginess; clad entirely in black and sporting a haircut that threatens to cover his line of sight entirely. But he’s an effective contrast to the more traditional, arguably sensible look of Hayabusa. Something much more rebellious and unpredictable in nature.

Steeped in blood

(Image credit: Team Ninja)

That chaotic nature plays strongly into Yakumo’s weapons and abilities. While he has access to iconic Hayabusa-brand moves like the gap-closing Flying Swallow and cranium-obliterating Izuna Drop, Yakumo’s very much his own beast with his signature Bloodraven form.

At any time during combat, assuming you have a sufficient amount of gauge, Yakumo can enter Bloodraven stance by holding the left trigger. This powers up his light and heavy attacks, but is also able to break through guarding enemies and interrupt unblockable attacks noted by a handy exclamation point icon.

Best bit

(Image credit: Team Ninja)

What I find most striking about Ninja Gaiden 4 is the unique imprint Team Ninja and PlatinumGames have left on the game through its two heroes. Yakumo is very much a Platinum-style acrobat, with flashy and nimble combat. Meanwhile, Hayabusa’s weightier style plays a lot like he did in prior titles. It’s a fascinating blend that serves to keep the campaign feeling fresh throughout.

Shifting between Yakumo’s base and Bloodraven forms is a skill unto itself. It’s certainly fun to rip enemies to shreds with it at first. But as the game progresses, you’ll be pressured to use it only when necessary. Running out of Bloodraven gauge means you won’t be able to effectively deal with blocking enemies or punish charged attacks, and can leave you wide open to heavy damage.

Even without Bloodraven form, you’re still powerful. Hitting enemies with basic combos enough can dismember their limbs, leaving them vulnerable to an instant-kill Obliteration attack. Furthermore, holding the heavy attack button charges up your ‘Ultimate’ technique, which zips you to the nearest enemy for enormous damage and outright killing weaker foes.

Hayabusa, meanwhile, feels suitably distinct. You’ll get control of him around the second half of the game, and he’s a lot weightier and grounded than his edgy acrobatic counterpart. His sections feel a lot more like classic Ninja Gaiden, and feel noticeably harder as a result.

On the defensive side, both Yakumo and Hayabusa are able to block, dodge, and parry incoming attacks. Parries are ultra-satisfying here, creating a flashing glint that lets you immediately hit back with an attack of your own. Dodging is also incredibly useful; when done at the last moment, it creates a Bayonetta-esque ‘Witch Time’ slowdown effect that helps you effectively reposition and get some free hits in.

Slice and dice

(Image credit: Team Ninja)

You’ll be doing all of this at breakneck speeds in the average combat encounter. When the game starts mixing in multiple enemy types - and even some elites - knowing when to both attack and defend becomes a high priority, and it’s a skill that’s heavily rewarded. Better performance leads to higher stage ranks, resulting in more currency and weapon experience to spend on life-saving consumables and additional weapon techniques respectively.

It’s not all combat, though. Ninja Gaiden 4 occasionally breaks up the pace with avenues for exploration. These often let you tick off specific side missions, or gather hidden collectibles or take part in optional challenges for additional currency and weapon experience.

These are nice distractions, allowing you to momentarily take a breather in between ruthless bouts of combat. Platforming sections achieve this, too, but these do grow stale rather quickly. There’s a good variety, often making use of traversal items like a grappling hook, glider wings, and a surfboard (Joe Musashi would like a word here, I think). However, these often run a bit long and ultimately only serve to pad out any given stage’s run time. I often found myself just wanting to have them over with to get stuck into the next batch of bads.

Level design in general isn’t a particular strength of Ninja Gaiden 4, either. It certainly serves its basic purpose, but there isn’t a strong variety here. Most arenas are large and square-shaped. Some have differing levels of verticality and let you zip about with the grappling hook.

(Image credit: Team Ninja)

But most arenas feel designed to your advantage. In prior Ninja Gaiden games, you’d often struggle for space in smaller rooms and hallways, or have enemies charge you from either side or via hidden passageways. There’s little in the way of the element of surprise in Ninja Gaiden 4 - nothing to especially catch you off guard during most encounters. The core combat loop remains incredibly strong, but a bit more variety in level design would definitely have been nice.

Thankfully, the game’s incredible boss fights are always worth trudging through the most uninspired levels to get to. Bosses are massive and all feel distinct. They feel like unique challenges in and of themselves, often requiring you to figure out which weapon types are most effective, and having you deal with unpredictable attacks. They’re incredibly thrilling and almost always backed by a superb blood-pumping soundtrack.

While the overall look of levels are a bit dull, I can’t fault the game for its visual fidelity. Characters and weather effects especially look stunning. And as you might expect from these developers, animation and combat feedback are satisfyingly on point.

It’s a winner in the performance department, too. For me, Ninja Gaiden 4 ran at a near-immaculate 60 frames per second on both Xbox Series X Digital Edition and PC via the Xbox app. It’s worth noting that this is a ‘Play Anywhere’ title, too. Meaning if you buy on Xbox, you’re free to play your copy on PC, too, and vice versa (so long as your purchase was done via the Microsoft Store). It’s also available day one on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, so it’s definitely worth checking out and downloading if you’re subscribed.

Should you play Ninja Gaiden 4?

(Image credit: Team Ninja)Play it if...

You’re up for a challenge
Ninja Gaiden 4 is hard. Really hard. Multiple difficulty options do exist, including an easier ‘Hero’ mode, but to be eligible for stage rankings and some unlocks you’ll need to be playing on Normal or above. But it’s here where the game’s combat and punishing difficulty come alive in such a satisfying way.

You miss classic character action
Ninja Gaiden 4 hearkens back to a time before soulslikes became the de facto action game archetype. Countless combos, character upgrades, and lightning-fast combat are the order of the day here.

You love PlatinumGames’ brand of thrillingly fast combat
I haven’t enjoyed a PlatinumGames-developed title this much since 2019’s Astral Chain on the original Nintendo Switch. What’s here in Ninja Gaiden 4 is a stylish, expertly-paced combat loop that seriously rewards mastery of its many layering systems and combos. It’s brilliant stuff.

You want to witness two legendary developers at their best
Team Ninja and PlatinumGames is a match made in heaven. The former’s calculated approach to combat design meshes perfectly with the latter’s prowess for set pieces and style. It’s a wonderful partnership that I hope we get more of in the future.

Don't play it if...

You’re easily frustrated by demanding combat
Ninja Gaiden 4 doesn’t pull any punches at its higher difficulties, and even Normal presents a significant challenge for first-time players. The easier Hero mode is a decent way around this, but you do lose much of the game’s appeal here with a watered down combat experience.

Accessibility

There's a very robust amount of accessibility options in Ninja Gaiden 4. For starters, if you're not overly keen on its crushing difficulty, 'Hero' mode offers optional toggles for easier combos and auto dodge and block mechanics. Other game related options such as auto healing and quick-time events can also be enabled here.

For vision-related accessibility settings, players can enable color highlights for both player characters, enemies, and objects in the world, helping them stand out against the background. You can also enable a high-constrast background. On the controls front, options for left-handed and single-handed play are available, too.

How I reviewed Ninja Gaiden 4

I played Ninja Gaiden 4 for around 18 hours across for this review, completing the main campaign once. I went back and forth between playing on Xbox Series X Digital Edition and my gaming PC thanks to Xbox’s Play Anywhere feature. On Xbox, I primarily used the Turtle Beach Stealth Pivot and Razer Wolverine V3 Pro controllers for play, while on PC, I went with the old reliable 8BitDo Ultimate 2.

I also hooked my controllers up with the RIG R5 Spear Pro HS wired gaming headset for more immersive audio, with my LG CX OLED TV for display while playing on Xbox Series X. I also played through a good chunk of Ninja Gaiden 2 Black on via Xbox Game Pass to get a grip on how this new game feels in comparison to the remastered classic.

First reviewed October 2025

Categories: Reviews

I’ve been playing Just Dance for years, and camera controls make 2026 Edition the strongest entry yet

Mon, 10/20/2025 - 11:47

There’s always been one big problem with Ubisoft’s flagship dance party series since it made the jump to modern platforms. Without the motion sensing capabilities of the Kinect, Wii Remote, or PlayStation Move controller, it’s just been a pain to control.

Review info

Platform reviewed: PS5
Available on: PS5, Xbox Series X and Series S, Nintendo Switch
Release date: October 14, 2025

Sure, those playing on Nintendo Switch have benefitted from the option to use a single Joy-Con in one hand, but if you were on PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X and Series S you’d have to rely on awkwardly waving your phone around with the Just Dance Controller mobile app open on screen. The results weren’t particularly accurate or reliable, making chasing high scores far more awkward than it ever should’ve been.

With Just Dance 2026 Edition, however, it feels like the series has once again found its footing. This annual expansion introduces camera scoring letting you simply prop up your phone to record your actions and it’s something of a revelation.

Pair this brilliant feature with a fantastically varied song selection that contains some of the most visually stunning music videos yet, heaps of content, and a neat new mode, and you have by far the best instalment in years.

Break it down

(Image credit: Ubisoft)

If you’ve played a Just Dance game before, then you know the basic thrust here.

You pick a song from a selection and a stylized music video begins on screen. Your goal is simple, match the moves of the on-screen dancers as closely as possible - racking up points for every successful move as you go. Your score is then added to a leaderboard, measured against your previous attempts, or those of other players if you prefer. It’s a simple but effective formula, especially when you factor in the countless cosmetic unlocks awarded for hitting various goals and used to decorate your online profile.

Well-implemented local co-op makes it a great pick for livening up parties for up to four friends, while solo players can use an on-screen calorie counter to turn their dance into a workout. These aren’t entirely new features as Just Dance 2026 Edition is the fourth entry since the series made the transition to more a live service model, releasing as song packs alongside meaty updates rather than entirely new games, but there’s still a lot that’s new and exciting here for returning fans to enjoy.

The big new inclusion is the camera scoring system, which has been added to the existing Just Dance Controller mobile app. Whenever you start a compatible song you’re asked whether you want to play with the old motion scoring, or camera scoring. If you select camera scoring you’re instructed to prop up your phone on a surface a few meters away from your play space and line yourself up with an on-screen silhouette.

(Image credit: Ubisoft)

I normally play in the very compact area around my desk, so I was a little sceptical that I would have enough room but I was thankfully proven wrong. Propping the phone up on my bookshelf, it detected me immediately and never lost track of where I was. Playing without the weight of a phone in your hand is liberating and makes it so much easier to follow the choreography. Worrying about accidentally catapulting your pricey device out the nearest window every time a move has you swing your arms is finally a thing of the past.

Better still, if you already own Just Dance 2025 Edition you’ll be able to play all of those songs with this new control mode, giving you a fantastic excuse to revisit them. The only minor letdown here is that you can only use camera scoring when you’re playing alone. This is presumably some technical limitation and not a huge dealbreaker, but is worth bearing in mind if you were planning to pick up the game just for co-op play.

It can also be a little bit tricky to keep your phone stable. I reliably managed it with some books, but you might want to invest in a cheap phone stand if you intend to set it up directly in front of your screen.

Backing track

(Image credit: Ubisoft)

It wouldn’t be a new Just Dance edition without a heap of fresh songs to play, and this year's entry doesn’t disappoint. Your enjoyment of any line-up is always going to come down to personal preference, but I found the 40 or so tracks this year to be fantastically varied.

Where previous years have been dominated by one or two big artists or themes, 2026 Edition has everything from recent hits like Chappell Roan’s ‘Good Luck, Babe!’ and Sabrina Carpenter’s ‘Feather’ to long-awaited party titans like Smash Mouth’s ‘All Star’.

K-pop fans can feast on Babymonster’s ‘Drip’ while TikTok addicts will have plenty of fun with viral sensations like Doechii’s ‘Anxiety’. Just Dance titles also offer their own original songs which for the last few installments have basically boiled down to generic pop with slightly cringeworthy lyrics. One of this year’s however, the cutesy ‘Sokusu’, is genuinely very catchy with an easy to learn but hard to master dance that has you hopping across the screen.

Best bit

(Image credit: Ubisoft)

It’s hard to pin down a favorite aesthetic in Just Dance 2026 Edition’s strong selection of music videos, but the especially bright primary colors of ‘Sokusu’ look absolutely sublime on a big screen.

Each track is accompanied by a gorgeous music video which all stand apart as some of the most attractive and complex that the series has had yet. They look stunning with a wide range of colorful visuals and themes. Some also break away from the conventional Just Dance aesthetic in innovative and interesting ways. Take this year’s inevitable kids song inclusion, a Bluey-inspired medley that’s animated exactly like the hit children’s TV show or the spooky claymation style of ‘Born to Be Alive (Reborn Version)’.

A few songs have engaging alternate versions too, whether that’s relaxed drag show performances or intense sports routines designed to test your fitness.

If all of this somehow isn’t enough, you can add to your library by picking up previous Edition releases (which are available pretty cheaply now) or subscribing to Just Dance Plus to stream hundreds and hundreds of songs taken from across the series.

All versions of Just Dance 2026 Edition include memberships of varying length (which you can activate at any time from an in-game menu) and it only costs $24.99 / £19.99 to add on a whole year - a very reasonable price for what you get.

Personal highlights for me include the energetic ‘Love Ward’ from Just Dance 2018 and the utterly ridiculous Angry Birds ‘Balkan Blast Remix’. The only thing that could possibly make it better would be if some of the best tracks from the more obscure entries came over.

Where’s Koda Kumi’s ‘Cutie Honey’ from the Japan-exclusive Just Dance Wii, Ubisoft?

Lab rats

(Image credit: Ubisoft)

Just Dance games rarely ship without some kind of new mode, and Just Dance 2026 Edition is no exception. This year you get a new co-op Party Mode themed around a mad scientist’s lab. It lets you play any of your owned songs in short bursts with weird visual effects overlayed on top.

This could involve an animated dinosaur appearing on screen and blocking your dancer from view to being forced to clap for points.

The effects themselves are amusing but not particularly game changing, though the fact that the mode can draw from your entire song library is great. If you’re playing with a Just Dance Plus subscription then there’s a strong chance that you haven't played whatever comes up before, forcing you to adapt not only to the special challenges but an unfamiliar routine.

It’s a great way to find new songs to play, and I've picked up a few new favorites that would have otherwise been completely overlooked given the sheer size of the roster.

It also helps avoid the struggle to pick which song to play when you’re joined by friends, leading to a much more frictionless experience and helping everyone get straight to the dancing rather than faffing around in menus.

I can't think what else you could possibly want from a dance party game.

Should I play Just Dance 2026 Edition?Play it if…

You’re after a brilliant party game
Just Dance has always been a lot of fun at social gatherings, but the quality of this new entry makes it one of the most enjoyable yet. Pick it up if you’re after something to whip out at your next party.

You’re sick of holding your phone
If the awkward mobile phone motion controls of recent Just Dance games have been a big turn off, then you need to pick up Just Dance 2026 Edition. Camera controls are fantastic and make for the easiest to control entry in years.

Don’t play it if…

You're not big on the track list
There’s no point picking up a Just Dance game if the song list just doesn’t appeal to you. I personally love it and think that it will have pretty broad appeal, but still remember to check out what it includes via the Ubisoft website before you buy.

Accessibility features

There is unfortunately no dedicated accessibility menu in Just Dance 2026 Edition. The game supports scoring via both holding your phone in your hands or using its camera but each method requires a substantial range of motion across your whole body. The user interface can be tweaked somewhat, for example disabling visual score feedback or song lyrics.

How I reviewed Just Dance 2026 Edition

I played almost 10 hours of Just Dance 2026 Edition on PlayStation 5. For the controls, I relied on my Porsche Design Honor Magic 7 RSR Android phone using the official Just Dance Controller mobile app.

During that time I played the songs that appealed to me from the overall line-up, chasing high-scores in both motion control and camera control modes. I compared my experience to my hands-on testing of previous Just Dance games on a wide range of platforms including Just Dance VR.

First reviewed October 2025

Categories: Reviews

I reviewed this compact Anker power bank and this one feature makes it unbelievably practical

Mon, 10/20/2025 - 11:42

Anker Nano Power Bank 10K 45W Built-In Retractable USB-C Cable: review

(Image credit: Future)

The Anker Nano Power Bank 10K 45W Built-In Retractable USB-C Cable (don’t worry, I’ll shorten it from here on out), is exactly what it sounds like. It's a small-sized portable charger with a built-in cable for on-the-go charging, and boasts a 10,000mAh capacity and 45W maximum power output.

The real draw of the Anker 10K 45W is its convenience. Firstly, that integrated charging wire is a massive plus. Simply pull it out, and it auto locks to the length that suits you best. To unwind, all you’ve got to do is pull and release – easy as you like. In addition, this model is pretty compact, meaning it can easily slot into a pocket or small bag.

Is its charging performance as efficient as its build? Well, it would be hard to answer that question with a one-word answer. First of all, there are some restrictions worth noting. A 45W maximum power output means that it can’t charge more demanding devices, like laptops, at peak levels – something that a lot of the best power banks are capable of. Its 10,000mAh capacity isn’t the largest either, though it will be plenty to charge most phones and a pair of wireless earbuds a couple of times.

Anyway, I tried charging my Samsung Galaxy S24 FE – which has a 4,700mAh battery capacity – and fast charging was activated, enabling my device to go from 0-100% in around 80 minutes. That’s as fast as I’d expect, so no complaints there.

After a while, though, I wanted to recharge the portable charger, and performance could’ve been a bit better. After about 10 minutes, I realized it was only charging at 19W. This is because the model throttles charging input to keep temperature in check. Still, I got a full charge after approximately two hours, which is still fairly decent.

And let’s go back to that temperature control note. Sure, the charger can get a little warm, especially if you’re also making use of its additional USB-A and USB-C ports and edging towards maximum power use. But it never felt overly hot. You can also check the battery temperature and health of the model using its inbuilt display.

The display itself is behind a translucent exterior, and can also update you on the power output from the integrated cable and additional ports – pretty handy. It's not the brightest display I’ve ever used, but it’s certainly a nice-to-have.

(Image credit: Future)

Something I really like about this model is its well-designed cord, which you can adjust to fit onto a backpack or a belt loop, for instance. The exterior itself also has an attractive metallic, glossy finish, as well as a textured surface, which enhances grip. It can be yours in a range of colors too, specifically: Aurora White; Phantom Black, which is the variant I tested; or Sprout Green.

For the power and build quality on offer, I’d also say that this model is priced pretty well. It has a list price of $59.99 / £49.99 / AU$99.95. We’ve tested cheaper rivals – like the Samsung 25W 10,000mAh Wireless Battery Pack – but that model has a considerably lower wattage.

Combine that with the integrated table and the fact that this model is regularly on sale already, and I’d say the Anker 10K 45W is a strong value pick worth checking out. If you need to charge a laptop or power hungry phone like the the OnePlus 13, for example, something mightier will suit you better. Otherwise, I’m generally a fan of what Anker has to offer here.

Anker Nano Power Bank 10K 45W Built-In Retractable USB-C Cable review: price & specs

Price

$59.99 / £49.99 / AU$99.95

Total power output

45W

Number of ports

2 (excluding 1x inbuilt retractable USB-C cable)

Port type(s)

1x USB-C; 1x USB-A

Dimensions

3.2 x 2 x 1.4 inches / 81 x 50 x 36mm

Should I buy the Anker Nano Power Bank 10K 45W Built-In Retractable USB-C Cable?Buy it if...

You only need to charge your phone
For a lot of modern iPhones and Samsung phones, for instance, this is a powerful enough pick. 45W means you’ll be able to access fast charging, with the 10,000mAh capable of supplying multiple full charges.

You don’t already own a USB-C cable
One of the best things about this power bank is that you don’t need to buy a separate USB-C cable to make use of it. Simply connect your device to the integrated cable, and you’re good to go. Also, Anker says that the cable can survive more than 20,000 bends and retractions, so it should last for quite some time.

Don't buy it if...

You want to charge your laptop
Unfortunately, this model doesn’t have the firepower to charge more demanding devices like laptops or certain phones at maximum capacity. That’s due to its fairly modest 45W power output. I’d recommend a model with around 100W if you want to charge one of the best MacBooks, for example.

You’re looking for a super-cheap option
I’d argue that this model is pretty solid value for money, but there are certainly cheaper options out there if you’re looking to spend a little less. Having said that, you can often find the Anker Nano 10K 45W for less than its $59.99 / £49.99 / AU$99.95 list price, so keep your eyes peeled for a sale.

Anker Nano Power Bank 10K 45W Built-In Retractable USB-C Cable review: also consider

(Image credit: Future)

Anker 20,000mAh 87W Power Bank
Yep, I’ve got another Anker model for you, and this one’s really special. I used this one personally for a couple of weeks, mainly to extend the battery life of my Nintendo Switch 2. However, its 87W power output also means it can charge a lot of the most power-hungry phones at maximum capacity, and even juice up a good portion of laptops. With an integrated cable, additional USB slots, and a handy display, this power bank really has it all. Read our full Anker 20,000mAh 87W Power Bank review.

Categories: Reviews

I reviewed the Xerox C320 - and I finally found a laser that prints like an inkjet

Mon, 10/20/2025 - 08:01

Specs

Type: Color laser printer

Functions: print only

Connectivity: Ethernet, Wi-Fi, USB

Max print speed: 33ppm

Max paper size: A4/letter

Print quality: 600dpi (4,800dpi enhanced)

Apple AirPrint: yes

Consumables included: 4x setup cartridges (1,000 color x 1,500 black)

Dimensions/Weight: 318 x 455 x 421 mm (WxDxH)/21kg

The Xerox C320 is an upper mid-price laser printer packing all the features demanded by a busy workgroup, while also appealing to the home worker with high print demands. It’s built for volume printing with a fairly fast print speed of 35ppm (pages per minute), a paper capacity of 250 sheets and a duty cycle of up to 65,000 pages per month.

It has premium features like a touchscreen interface, USB Host port and is supported by optional components including paper cassettes. There’s also a separate manual feed slot and the strong security I’ve come to expect from Xerox products.

It looks a little clunky to my eye, with the square toner compartment raised up on the right side, rather than inside the body of the printer. However, the more easily accessible toner cartridges promise bright colors and it turns out, I’m not disappointed.

Xerox C320: Design and build

(Image credit: Xerox)

Relocating the four toner cartridges adds some height, making the Xerox C320 larger than the more affordable Xerox C230 in all dimensions. The boxy form factor makes more sense in the multifunction version of this printer, the Xerox C325, where the square toner compartment forms one of the two pillars holding up the scanner section.

I found that the toner compartment opens almost too readily and the toner cartridges disengage at the lightest touch. The front access flap also flops open very easily so the whole thing feels flimsy. It’s the same with the lightweight cartridges. Xerox is using 30% recycled plastic here, which is great, so long as all these moving parts are stronger than they look. It comes with the same one-year warranty as the C230 series.

Xerox C320: Features & specifications

(Image credit: Xerox)

As a step-up model, the Xerox C320 has a higher spec and a few more features than the C230. The small difference in price of around US$27 buys you a 2.8-inch touchscreen with a more intuitive user interface and a USB Host port, so it’s with paying a little more in my view.

It’s significantly faster at 35ppm and has twice the internal memory (1GB). The paper handling is the same, with room for 250 sheets in the main tray and a single sheet in the front-loading manual feed slot. Both inputs are able to print on media up to 216gsm in simplex mode and 105gsm in duplex mode. That’s somewhat limiting, but this is a printer that doesn’t much like heavy paper.

This variant comes with the removable Wi-Fi module included and it has AirPrint and Chromebook compatibility. It’s using a 1 GHz Dual Core processor and unlike the cheaper C230, the C320 is supported by a range of accessories. These include a 100-sheet bypass tray and 550-sheet feeder, which means your printer can grow in step with your print demands.

The only thing missing is NFC, which is often useful in a shared office where staff are able to pull down their own print jobs using NFC enabled ID cards. You’ll find this feature on more expensive models like the Xerox VersaLink B600DN.

Xerox C320: Setup and operation

(Image credit: Xerox)

The responsive 2.8-inch touchscreen, an uncommon luxury on a print-only device, makes the Xerox C320 easy to operate and set up. Once you have loaded some paper in the main tray, plugged in and turned on, the display will prompt you to select a language and print out a test page.

Another prompt advises you to download the free Xerox Easy Assist app onto your iOS or Android device. This excellent app helps you make a wireless connection with the printer and get it onto your Wi-Fi network. It connects to a MacBook or Chromebook just as readily.

Xerox C320: Performance

(Image credit: Xerox)

The Xerox C320 printed quickly and efficiently throughout my tests, and with very little noise. Laser printers are usually louder than inkjets, but this one has a quiet mode that keeps the sound pressure level below 51dB.

However, I did experience two paper jams involving both of the inputs. The first was a case of too many sheets of plain paper feeding from the main tray at the same time and was easily cleared. The second was my fault when I accidentally duplex-printed 210gsm paper, which is too thick for this printer to turn. It was easy enough to open the front flap and remove the offending sheet, but harder to convince the printer the problem was solved. It took some time and multiple rebooting to resume printing.

This glitch could be a one-off event and the strong print performance of the Xerox C320, makes up it. Black text on plain A4 paper looks as clean and crisp as any premium laser printer, with characters legible down to the smallest point sizes. The quoted print speed of 33ppm for consecutive simplex A4 pages (35ppm for slightly smaller letter format pages) is accurate. That’s significantly faster than the Xerox C235, but slower than the HP LaserJet Pro 4002dn. In duplex mode, the pages are turned quickly so overall, this feels like a very efficient print rate.

The speed is the same for printing color documents, at which this printer is especially good, thanks to the bright toner in Xerox’s square cartridges. The mixed color pages in my multipage Word presentation look vibrant with no sign of banding or fading. What really surprised me, was how well the Xerox C320 prints color photographs. In general, lasers are worse than inkjets at photos because they can’t print on the same coated photo papers (laser photo paper is much like regular paper) and their resolution is usually limited to 600x600dpi.

The Xerox C320 has its true 600dpi resolution enhanced to 4,800dpi, which makes images look more detailed and natural. Combined with the boldness of the C/M/Y toner, the result is a pretty satisfying photo. I used specialist laser photo paper for this test, which gives a further subtle uplift in image quality from plain paper.

Xerox C320: Consumables

(Image credit: Xerox)

The square toner cartridges are a departure from the usual elongated shape and they feel suspiciously light. Sure enough, the bundled setup carts contain less toner than standard carts and will only yield 1,000 color pages and 1,500 black pages. Happily, high-capacity carts are available that will give you up to 5,500 color pages and 8,000 monochrome. A set of those will cost around US$670 (£500 ex VAT), which works out at a competitive CPP (cost per page) that would please any business with high print demands.

Xerox C320: Maintenance

(Image credit: Xerox)

The good news is that the maintenance routine for your Xerox C320 is a simple case of dusting the outside and apertures and replacing the imaging unit, which is very easy to access and remove, after 125,000 pages, or when prompted. The bad news is that a new imaging unit costs around US$338 (£480 ex VAT).

But because these imaging units last so long and need replacing so infrequently, the CPP is still low enough to make this printer as efficient, or more so, than many rival lasers and inkjets. You can print out a device report and quality check that will show supply levels at any time, but be warned that this will eat up nine sheets of paper.

Xerox C320: Final verdictImage 1 of 3

(Image credit: Xerox)Image 2 of 3

(Image credit: Xerox)Image 3 of 3

(Image credit: Xerox)

Despite my first impressions being lowered by the paper jam and insubstantial feel of the Xerox C320, I’m completely won over by its vivid print quality. It’s certainly well equipped with two paper inputs, Wi-Fi, USB Host port and helpful touchscreen interface. It prints quickly in duplex mode and text pages always emerge crisp and professional-looking.

Best of all though, are its vivid color prints. Photos in particular benefit from the bright toner and enhanced 4,800dpi print resolution. If you switch to the high-capacity cartridges for this printer, it’s quite economical to run too, making this a solid choice for any shared office with high print demands.

For more top-rated options, I've tested out the best home printers and the best small business printers.

Categories: Reviews

Wondershare HiPDF PDF editor (2025) review

Mon, 10/20/2025 - 07:12

Working with PDFs has become an important facet of working in the digital world, and what better way to do it than working on them online, from any web browser, and any machine?

There’s a plethora of services which do this, including Wondershare’s (mostly free) HiPDF. This review focuses on Wondershare's online service, but a desktop app, PDFElement, is available.

Having tested all the best PDF editors and the best free PDF editors, I wanted to see how Wondershare's offering stacked up against rivals - and just what "free" gets you.

Wondershare HiPDF: Pricing & plans

Most of the tools are free, but the advanced features are also available at an incredibly low price right now. And if you prefer working with a desktop or mobile app, Wondershare has your back with dedicated paid-for versions.

So yes, most of the tools HiPDF offer are free, although free does come with some restrictions. For instance, you have no access to OCR and batch processing. There are also usage limits for file size and page count, ‘Chat with PDF’ allows for a total of 50 questions, and the AI detector tool can detect 5,000 characters in total.

You can remove all those restrictions, by subscribing. HiPDF Advanced will cost you $70. However, there’s currently an amazing deal of $2 for the first year, which is a great incentive to get you to try it out.

On top of that, you also have a 7-day free trial to check out all the features, or just explore the free ones for as long as you please.

If you’re not a fan of working online through a web browser, know that Wondershare also offer a desktop version for Mac and Windows called PDFelement. This app does watermark its output, limits how many pages you can convert, and prevents you from saving an OCR conversion. All these and other restrictions are lifted when you grab a subscription, which ranges from $80 to $130.

There’s also a mobile version for iOS, although its features are locked behind a subscription, from $7 a week, to $30 for the year, or $70 for a perpetual licence.

You can check out HiPDF by clicking here.

Pricing & plans: 4/5

Wondershare HiPDF: Interface

(Image credit: Wondershare // Future)

A simple interface, with a convenient sidebar to the left, with the rest of the page dedicated to listing all available tools, broken down by category.

Login to your Wondershare account (or create a free on for this purpose), and you’ll be graced with HiPDF’s home page. There’s a sidebar to the left, granting access to specific functions such as ‘Annotate’, ‘Edit’, ‘Convert’ and more.

However, should your needs be more specific, the main part of the page is dedicated to all the tools HiPDF offers, organised by categories. You’ll see ‘Most Popular’ first, followed by ‘AI Tools’. All the features you’d come to expect from a PDF service are present and correct: Edit, Convert to and from a PDF format, Organise your file, and Protect it.

Lastly, there are some image manipulation tools, to help you perform basic functions such as rotating an image, converting it to another format, cropping it, or compressing it.

To be frank, all of these Image Tools should be available with an Image library app that comes pre-installed on your computer, but if you like working in Wondershare, this presents you with another reason to stick with that company’s offerings.

Tools: 4.5/5

Wondershare HiPDF: In use

(Image credit: Wondershare // Future)

Working with this service ranges from the supremely easy and useful, to downright convoluted and needlessly annoying, depending on the tool you’re working with. So there’s definitely room for improvement.

Having a good interface is one thing, but a service lives or dies by how its tools are implemented. So I started exploring, looking at some on the popular functions, such as ‘Annotate’, where you have a series of tools to highlight or otherwise make notes on the PDF you’re working on. You’re able to add images and text boxes for instance, along with the odd shape, but I must confess to feel the lack of any kind of freehand option (but that’s likely because I like to doodle on my notes).

Perhaps the most useful tool is the one that allows you to edit the PDF’s existing content. Editing a PDF is always tricky - that format was never really meant to be edited - but it’s ideal when you spot a typo, or find the wrong date, or just need to succinctly clarify something. The PDF is broken down into boxes which you can move around and edit, and it works very well.

(Image credit: Wondershare // Future)

Sadly, I got quite frustrated when trying to make other alterations to a file, like rearranging pages, and deleting others. Take Apple’s Preview for example: you can do both straight from its sidebar - it’s so easy, it’s effortless. Here however, you need to select the ‘Rearrange PDF Pages’ to reorder pages, save it, and then load up your document in the ‘Delete Pages’ tool to delete them… I couldn’t find a way to do both in the same action. HiPDF’s way felt needlessly time consuming.

The same could be said with the conversion tools. Don’t get me wrong, they’re a great addition - when they work (if your PDF has a complex layout the conversion could end up being incredibly messy) - but why do I have to choose ahead of time which format I wish my file to be converted into? Why can’t I select the convert tool, and once I’ve opened a file, choose which format to use? That way, I could save it in multiple formats should I so wish, rather than select the ‘convert to Word’ tool, open the file, convert it, then go to the ‘convert to PPT’ tool, open the same file, convert it, etc? It seems needlessly time consuming - again.

And speaking of time consuming, the free version sets a limit on how many files you can work on each day. To be fair, this might affect me more as a reviewer who needs to explore as many facets of the service as possible, than a user who just wants to fix the odd PDF or two, but still, when other similar services don’t cripple their wares like that, it does make you wonder if HiPDF is the right tool for one’s needs.

In use: 3/5

Wondershare HiPDF: AI tools

(Image credit: Wondershare // Future)

AI is all the rage, so we must have AI in everything. And here, we have a couple of useful tools, one which duplicates the functions of another, and two that, frankly, don’t seem to do much. Your mileage may vary, but I was underwhelmed.

It wouldn’t be a modern service if it didn’t come with AI, and despite my disappointment at some pretty strict restrictions when using HiPDF, they do offer you a few credits to kick their AI’s tires and check what it’s made of.

‘Chat with PDF’ gets AI to analyse a document for you, bringing you a quick summary of its content, and allowing you to ask it questions based on said content, which it will answer. I guess it’s great for those who don’t want to read a document themselves.

‘AI Detector’ will try and analyse your document to see if it was created by an AI - like a robot snitching on other robots (I was quite pleased the articles I wrote myself were deemed to have a probability of 97% to be human generated!)

Contrary to what I thought, ‘AI Read’ doesn’t read a document back to you; it just summarises it and there’s even a text field for you to ask it some questions, which feels totally redundant as that’s exactly what ‘Chat with PDF’ does.

(Image credit: Wondershare // Future)

An AI tool I couldn’t get to work was ‘AI Translator’. Sounds useful, right (as long as you don’t know Google Translate exists), but I couldn’t find any icons, buttons or menus that would allow me to choose the language I’d like HiPDF to translate my article into.

And then there’s ‘AI Proofreader’ which analyses a document, once you’ve told what language it’s in, and then it proceeds to copy the text from it… and that’s it? Now it’s possible the articles I used to test this out were so perfect they didn’t need any fixes (possible, but let’s be frank, somewhat unlikely), but I got zero information out of the process.

Aside from being able to export the text, the AI didn’t tell me anything about it, nor gave me any hint as to what this tool’s purpose genuinely is.

AI tools: 2.5/5

Should I buy Wondershare HiPDF?

(Image credit: Wondershare // Future)

Buy it if...

You’re on the lookout for a simple PDF service which mostly works fine, you don’t need to use it too often, and don’t really care about its clunky AI.

Don't buy it if...

You don’t like the extreme restrictions when it comes to the free account, and don’t want to get yet another subscription, no matter how cheap the first year happens to be, just to edit some PDFs.

For more productivity tools, we tested the best free PDF readers and the best PDF readers on Android.

Categories: Reviews

Xodo PDF Studio desktop PDF editor review

Mon, 10/20/2025 - 06:58

Last year, I reviewed Xodo, an excellent online PDF editor well worth checking out (you can read my review here). But did you know Xodo also offer a desktop version of their service for Macs, Windows and Linux?

After testing some of the best PDF editors and best free PDF editors, I was keen to see how the downloadable Xodo PDF Studio desktop version compares to its online counterpart, as well as other big players in the PDF space like Acrobat.

Xodo PDF Studio: Pricing & plans

A choice of subscription or perpetual licence is always welcome, and should be praised. The free trial is very short, so run the tests you need quickly to decide if it’s worth paying for

Whether you opt for Xodo’s online service or its desktop version, it’ll cost you the same if you opt for a yearly contract (which would be the equivalent of around $10 a month per license). Choose to pay on a month by month basis, and the value changes to $13 online, and $20 for the desktop version.

If you’re sick to the back teeth of subscriptions, Xodo have you covered, offering you a perpetual licence for the Desktop app, for $240 per seat.

Curious about the service but don’t want to financially commit just yet? Then grab their 3-day free trial. All its features are unlocked and hopefully three days should give you enough time to check out the software, and decide if it’s right for you or not.

You can check it out over on the official Xodo website by clicking here.

Pricing & plans: 4/5

Xodo PDF Studio: Interface

(Image credit: Xodo // Future)

Offering multiple ways of accessing the same tool is a very good thing… only the way the app’s menubar is setup could be given a little more love

Launch Xodo and you’ll find the interface to be… fine. It doesn’t scream ‘modern design’, nor does it bask in unwanted 90s nostalgia. It’s just… ok. All the tools and icons you need are located at the top of the window, in a basic black and blue minimalist style. It’s fine, really. It’s just not… that appealing.

What is a nice touch however, is that the first time you launch the app, it will automatically open a PDF which explains what its interface does. and where to find what you need. Full marks for that.

You’ll find the tools are accessible in multiple ways. For instance, by default, those you see are from the ‘Home’ menu, and pretty much all the ones you need are there, from selecting text, to searching inside the document, adding a comment, highlighting a section, even editing the PDF’s content, and adding shapes, among others.

However, above these large icons is a thin menu bar, which lets you focus on specific categories of tools, even though you can also access most of them from ‘Home’ already. For instance, if you want to add a comment, in ‘Home’, click on the ‘Comment’ icon to reveal a drop down list bearing multiple options. But if you were to click on ‘Comment’ in the thin menu bar instead, those icons are replaced with a new set, showing you all those that were in that drop down list we just saw.

It’s all the same tools, just available in different ways. It can get a tad confusing, especially as the selected menu in that thin menu bar only has a subtle blue line underneath it, which can be easy to miss, which can make you wonder why the icon you’re after isn’t displayed… until you realise you’re in the wrong menu.

Mac users have a third option, through the system’s own menu bar, from which you can also select all the tools you need. Don’t get me wrong: options are good, and being able to access the same tool in different ways is a good design decision… I just wish the app’s selected menu was at least more prominently highlighted to reduce possible confusion.

Interface: 4/5

Xodo PDF Studio: Tools

(Image credit: Xodo // Future)

Numerous tools, all incredibly easy to use, even if their layout at first can feel awkward

To start using the tools, take a quick trip to the ‘File’ menu to open an existing document, either from your computer, or directly through one of various online storage services, such as OneDrive, DropBox, GoogleDrive, or Xodo’s very own XodoDrive. This is also the place where you can create a new document, either from scratch, or by importing various files, like images, a scanned file, collate multiple files into one, or convert docs from MS Office or AutoCAD.

Once you’ve got a document loaded up, you’re free to annotate and alter it to your heart’s content. It’s actually pretty easy to make notes, highlight, draw on the PDF itself, add shapes to mask areas (although redaction is a much better tool for that should the info be sensitive and not to be divulged - Xodo supports this feature too).

Reordering pages and deleting some is a cinch and done through the left sidebar, but perhaps the most exciting option is the ability to edit the very existing content of a PDF.

Some tools, like Extract, do allow versatility, letting you reorder and rotate pages (Image credit: Xodo // Future)

This is not a feature that is available from all PDF applications - in fact, it’s usually seen as one of the most advanced features, and not every app that includes it does a good job of it, making editing more of a chore than it should be.

I’m pleased to report that the Xodo Desktop App excels at editing existing content. When that tool is activated, you’ll see a faint blue rectangle surrounding the various text and image boxes in your document. Click on one to select it and move it around, or once selected, click inside the text box to alter its existing content, using the exact same font and size as the original. Now it doesn’t work like a word processor or a desktop publishing application: you can’t link text boxes together and make your copy flow from one to the next. This is for minor edits, and changes that don’t require having to go back to the original document and make alterations from there instead. But with those limitations in mind, for a PDF editing tool, it works fantastically well.

(Image credit: Xodo // Future)

The only tool I thought was superfluous was the Snapshot, which as its name suggests, allows you to take a screenshot of a selected part of the PDF you’re working on. Sure, you have the option of selecting its format (PNG, JPEG, TIFF or GIF), or send it straight to a printer - which is novel - but every computer has screenshotting capabilities built-in, so why bother using that one? But that’s a minor quibble.

All in all, despite its icon design or tool organisation which could do with a little love, the Xodo Desktop App is an excellent PDF editor which makes it easy to perform even tricky tasks.

Tools: 4.5/5

Should I buy the Xodo PDF Studio desktop app?

(Image credit: Xodo // Future)

Buy it if...

You’re looking for a desktop PDF editor (ideal for increased security over an online service), with a boatload of tools that are easy to use, and includes well implemented, powerful advanced features.

Don't buy it if...

You only need to make a few changes to a PDF, like delete a page, or reorder another, but all the other tools Xodo has is just overkill for your needs.

For more productivity tools, we tested the best free PDF readers, the best PDF reader for Mac, and the best PDF readers on Android.

Categories: Reviews

I spent two weeks with the Ninja Prestige DualBrew System, and espresso and drip coffee don't get easier than this

Sun, 10/19/2025 - 12:00

Ninja Prestige DualBrew System: one-minute review

The Ninja Prestige DualBrew System (which is almost identical to the Ninja Espresso and Coffee Maker Barista System solid in the US) is a Swiss army knife of a coffee maker, with a drip brewer on one side, a single-serve pod machine for espresso on the other, a measuring scoop embedded in one side, and a milk whisk that flips out from the back. Its price is around upper-mid level for a drip coffee maker, but when you consider that you’re getting a Nespresso machine thrown in, too, it’s great value.

It’s a sizeable machine so you’ll need a decent amount of countertop space to accommodate it, but it’s well designed and full of thoughtful little touches. Highlights include a height-adjustable drip tray for the Nespresso pod brewer (with a grippy surface to prevent your cup slipping and avoid scratches), a bin for used capsules that has its own mini-drip tray so they can dry out ready for recycling, and a fold-out platform so you can brew a single portion of drip coffee straight into your favorite cup or travel mug.

The DualBrew System uses a hotplate to keep your fresh drip coffee warm rather than an insulated carafe, which won’t be to everyone’s taste; many people prefer to avoid hotplates for fear of stewing their coffee and spoiling the taste. However, this one is more gentle than most, with a choice of heat settings and times so you don’t overheat your morning brew.

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The drip coffee maker comes with one basket, and a two-ended measuring scoop to help with dosing (Image credit: Future)Image 2 of 2

You can brew drip coffee into a carafe, or directly into a cup or travel mug (Image credit: Future)

Unlike a double-walled carafe, this glass pitcher is dishwasher-safe, as are the machine’s other removable components – and the DualBrew System will alert you when it’s time to run its cleaning program.

Ninja suggests the Prestige DualBrew System is a good option for entertaining, letting you cater to the whims of different guests – and it is, but personally I love it as a way to get coffee into my system as quickly as possible in the morning. Set the timer and wake to a freshly brewed, nicely extracted jug of drip coffee, or pick a pod and have a tasty espresso in your hand within two minutes.

Espresso purists will prefer the Ninja Luxe Café, which combines a drip coffee maker with a semi-automatic espresso machine, and has a proper steam wand rather than a little electric whisk, but for sheer convenience, the DualBrew System is hard to beat.

Ninja Prestige DualBrew System: specifications

Dimensions (H x W x D)

5.5 x 10.8 x 12.8 inches / 41.1 x 27.4 x 32.6cm

Weight

13.6lbs / 6.18kg

Water tank capacity

1.9 quarts / 1.8 liters

Filter baskets

One (cone)

Brewing modes

Drip and espresso (from capsules)

Timer

Yes

Insulated carafe

Hotplate

Yes

Ninja Prestige DualBrew System: price and availability

Sold in the UK, and almost identical model available in US
Not yet sold in Australia
Costs $279.99 / £249.99

The Ninja Prestige DualBrew System is sold in the UK for £249.99, and an almost identical model called the Ninja Espresso and Coffee Maker Barista System is available in the US for $279.99. As far as I can see, the only differences between the two are the style of the display, and the color of the plastic panel on the right-hand side. Their features seem to be exactly the same.

Both variants carry an upper-mid range price tag for a drip coffee maker, but when you factor in the extra single-serve capsule coffee maker, they suddenly become very good value for money. You'll find today's best deals on both versions below.

Neither machine is available in Australia at the time of writing, but the Ninja Luxe Café is a good alternative if you want a two-in-one drip coffee and espresso machine.

Value score: 5/5

Ninja Prestige DualBrew System: design

Thoughtfully designed by people who clearly love coffee
Milk frother isn’t perfect, but it's a nice extra
Dishwasher-safe components

The Ninja Prestige DualBrew System is quite a large unit, measuring 5.5 x 10.8 x 12.8 inches / 41.1 x 27.4 x 32.6cm (H x W x D), but there isn't an inch of wasted space.

Both the drip coffee maker and single-serve pod machine use the same water tank, which slots into the back of the machine. It’s easy to lift out for filling, and measurements are clearly marked on the side, although a handle would have been a nice extra touch for a more secure grip. There’s no water filter supplied with the machine, either.

The water tank is easy to remove, although it has no handle (Image credit: Future)

Both parts of the DualBrew System are controlled using a simple set of physical buttons on the machine’s face, plus a dial that has a pleasingly solid feeling when rotated and pressed. Information is conveyed via a monochrome LCD panel, which is clear and bright, and shows the current time when the machine is in standby mode.

The drip coffee part of the DualBrew (on the left-hand side) features a filter basket assembly that stands taller than the rest of the machine, so you may need to slide it forward to open the lid if you’re planning to keep it on a counter underneath a cabinet. It comes with a single cone-shaped filter basket, and a set of filter papers to get you started.

Choose your brew size and strength, then set the timer or start brewing immediately (Image credit: Future)

Unlike some drip coffee makers (such as the Sage Luxe Thermal Brewer and Fellow Aiden Precision Drip Coffee Maker) there’s no flat-bottomed basket for large, strong brews. However, unlike these two premium machines, the DualBrew System has a handy drip-stop function that prevents coffee leaking out of the basket when the machine has finished brewing.

The carafe itself is a traditional-style glass pitcher rather than the insulated ones used by the Sage and Fellow machines, and unlike them, has a hotplate underneath to keep your freshly brewed coffee warm. A small LED on the bottom left of the machine warns you if it’s hot, for safety.

If you only want to brew a single serving, there’s a small fold-down drip tray behind the carafe, which is just the right size for a coffee mug.

The DualBrew System takes Nespresso Original style capsules (Image credit: Future)

Moving to the right-hand side of the machine, you’ll find a slot in the top that accepts Nespresso Original style capsules (not the dome-shaped Vertuo pods). Nestlé no longer owns the patent to these top-hat-shaped capsules, so there’s a huge range available from big brands and indie coffee roasters alike.

Below this is a drip tray, which you can unhook and reposition to accommodate different-sized cups (anything from a tall mug to a tiny espresso cup). The tray has a rubberized surface to prevent your cup slipping, and although the sets of holes for repositioning it doesn’t look particularly stylish (it feels like a sliding system would look more sleek), it’s understandable that Ninja’s designers have taken a minimalist approach considering the waste bin for used pods is directly behind it.

Adjust the height of the drip tray to suit your cup (Image credit: Future)

That isn't all the DualBrew has hidden away. On the left-hand side you’ll find a two-ended coffee scoop with markings for brewing different quantities of drip coffee. There’s also a fold-out milk frother, which is activated by pressing a button on top. Unlike a steam wand, this doesn’t heat the milk, but it’s a nice addition if you want to use a coffee capsule as the basis for an espresso, and the machine has a sticker on the side providing estimated microwave and whisking times for different drinks.

Design score: 4.5/5

Ninja Prestige DualBrew System: performance

Extremely simple to use and maintain
Drip-stop is a particularly helpful feature
Excellent adjustable hotplate

The Ninja Prestige DualBrew System is a particularly great option if you’re looking for a coffee machine that will help give you a boost in the morning. Its drip machine has a timer so you can wake to a freshly brewed mug or jug of coffee, and its single-serve capsule machine will have you sipping an espresso within a minute. They’re the two most convenient forms of coffee-making rolled into one easy-to-use machine.

Setup is straightforward: just use the dial to set the current time (necessary for scheduling the drip coffee maker), then "prime" the DualBrew System following Ninja’s instructions. For the drip brewer, this means running a brew cycle using a full tank of water, without coffee in the basket, and for the single-serve coffee maker it means running the "lungo" program three times without a capsule.

Your espresso will be ready to drink in about a minute (Image credit: Future)

As you use the DualBrew System, you’ll start to appreciate the various thoughtful touches Ninja’s designers have implemented. For example, used coffee pods drop into a bin with its own mini-drip tray underneath, which catches any mess from used capsules so they’re dry and ready to recycle.

The drip-stop function is particularly handy if you’re in a rush first thing in the morning, since it allows you to remove the carafe as soon as the machine has finished brewing without drips falling onto the hotplate (and making a mess). The machine will also display a warning icon and refuse to start if you try to begin brewing while the drip-stop is closed.

The drip-stop helps avoid mess when you've brewed a carafe or mug of coffee (Image credit: Future)

Another of my favorite features is the hotplate. Sometimes, drip coffee maker hotplates tend to become very warm and stew your freshly brewed coffee. However, this DualBrew System avoids this by offering a choice of temperatures (low, medium, or high), and can keep your coffee warm for up to four hours, which is the same performance you could expect from a coffee maker with an insulated carafe.

The glass carafe has a couple of key advantages: you can see how much coffee is left, and it’s dishwasher-safe, which isn’t true of double-walled pitchers. When you’re loading the dishwasher, you can also add the water reservoir and its lid, the brew basket, the cup tray and its base, and the milk frother, too, so you won’t need to spend time scrubbing by hand.

The milk frother is nice to have, but can't compare with a steam wand (Image credit: Future)

As mentioned above, the frother is just an electric whisk (similar to the hand-held type that can be bought for $10 at Amazon), but it’s a nice extra, and adding a steam wand to the DualBrew System would have been impractical. During testing, the whisk worked better with dairy milk than plant-based alternatives, and I found that it took longer than suggested by the guide to achieve a thick foam. Nevertheless, the recommended heating times for milk were handy as a guide. The whisk tucks away out of sight when not in use.

Performance score: 5/5

Should you buy the Ninja Prestige DualBrew SystemNinja Prestige DualBrew System score card

Attribute

Notes

Score

Value

A reasonable price for a drip coffee maker, and even better when there's also a Nespresso machine attached.

5/5

Design

Large, but thoughtfully designed and easy to maintain. The only weak point is the milk frother, which is nice to have but not amazing.

4.5/5

Performance

Makes brewing great coffee as close to effortless as possible, whether you're entertaining guests or just trying to jump-start your morning.

5/5

Ninja Prestige DualBrew System: also consider

If you're not quite sure whether the Ninja Prestige DualBrew System is the right coffee maker for you, here are two alternatives to consider:

Ninja Luxe Café

Another two-in-one coffee maker, the Luxe Café swaps the single-serve pods for a semi-automatic espresso machine. It also has a steam wand with automatic and manual settings for creating proper cappuccinos and lattes, and is still great value.

Read our full Ninja Luxe Café review

Sage Luxe Brewer Thermal

If you only want to brew drip coffee, the Luxe Thermal Brewer is my number-one pick right now. It has a small footprint, it's easy to use, and its thermal carafe keeps coffee piping hot for an amazingly long time (much longer than any others I've tested).

Read our full Sage Luxe Brewer Thermal review

How I tested the Ninja Prestige DualBrew System

I used the Ninja DualBrew system for two weeks in place of my usual espresso machine and V60 coffee dripper. I used the drip coffee maker with light roasted Honduras Swiss water decaf coffee (freshly ground using my Sage burr grinder). I used the single-serve brewer with the same coffee in alumnium capsules. For more details, see how we test, review, and rate products at TechRadar.

First reviewed October 2025

Categories: Reviews

I review premium headphones for a living – even I was surprised how great this budget gaming headset sounds

Sun, 10/19/2025 - 11:00

Turtle Beach Atlas 200: two-minute review

The Turtle Beach Atlas 200 is a wired gaming headset. Available for $69.99 / £59.99 for the PC version and $59.99 / £49.99 for the PS5 and multiplatform versions, it sits firmly at the affordable end of the market. But don’t let the cheap price fool you: this is a surprisingly capable headset.

I’ll admit that the multiplatform version I tested here is not the most feature-packed headset I’ve ever gotten my hands on. While its 3.5mm jack means you’ll enjoy lossless audio, it can’t offer the hi-res audio its PC-focused stablemate can. Nor does it offer selectable sound profiles, EQ settings, or driver software. It’s an uncomplicated product, in every sense of the word.

When I stuck it on my head, though, any concerns I had about its feature set melted away. That’s because the sound it’s capable of happily rivals any of the best wired gaming headsets at this price range. Trying it out with Hades II, I was impressed with how clear it was, capturing the swish and slash of combat perfectly. Meanwhile, the crack of my rifle while taking out opponents on Counter-Strike 2 felt deeply convincing with plenty of low-end heft.

The Atlas 200’s soundstage also feels well apportioned – the stereo field feels nice and broad, while the separation of different sounds helps sound effects stand clear from atmospheric noise and background music. The only real criticism I have here is around the headset’s claimed spatial audio: while its audio definitely feels immersive, there isn’t quite the same height and rear-firing effects you’ll get from true Dolby Atmos style headphones. However, I imagine the immersive PC Audio enhancements offered by the PC version’s USB Audio Adapter go some way toward rectifying this.

And the Atlas 200’s foldaway mic offers yet more pluses to help compensate for this. Not only is it easy to flip away, but during my testing, this automatically muted any sound reaching our testing laptop. The mic is also crystal clear – thanks to its effective noise gate, I found that clacking keys and even the music I was listening to was very thoroughly quashed, making it far easier for those you’re gaming with to hear your every oath and utterance.

This is only the start of Turtle Beach’s smart design with this headset. Its plush memory foam ear cups and floating headband make it super comfortable to wear, even over longer periods. I often find the clamping force of many cheaper headphones makes my ears ache after not too long, but the Atlas 200 didn’t crush my cartilage.

There is one small misstep for me, though. Given that the headset’s height is adjusted by moving a velcroed strap on the inside of the headband, it’s impossible to adjust its height on the fly. This isn’t helped by the fact that the Atlas 200 seems to be designed with the larger head in mind – while my swollen dome happily fit it on every setting, colleagues of mine with more diminutive noggins did find the earcups sat quite low on even the tightest setting.

Despite this, though, it’s hard for me to argue that the Turtle Beach Atlas 200 is anything but an accomplished budget gaming headset. It sounds very credible for the price, and it’s all kinds of comfortable – at least if you have a capacious cranium. Fundamentally, if you’re looking to only spend around $50 / £50 on a gaming headset, I’d happily urge you to snap it up.

(Image credit: Future)Turtle Beach Atlas 200 review: price & availability

Launched on September 12, 2025
List price: PC – $69.99 / £59.99; PS5 and multiplatform – $59.99 / £49.99

Released on September 12, 2025, the Turtle Beach Atlas 200 is available now. The price you’ll pay is based on which platform you’re buying for: the PC version has a list price of $69.99 / £59.99, while the PS5 and multiplatform versions both have a list price of $59.99 / £49.99. Each version has slightly different specs, so bear in mind everything I’ve said in this review pertains to the multiplatform version.

In terms of additional options, the Atlas 200 PC and multiplatform versions only come in black. However, the PlayStation 5 offers black or white colorways – naturally, the latter is an excellent choice if you’re keen for your console to match your headset.

Turtle Beach Atlas 200 review: specs

Price

$59.99 / £49.99

Weight

9.9oz / 280g

Compatibility

Any device with a 3.5mm jack

Connection type

Wired (3.5mm)

Battery life

N/A

Features

Flip-to-mute mic with noise reduction

Software

N/A

(Image credit: Future)Turtle Beach Atlas 200 review: design and features

Supremely comfortable
Height adjustment not well designed
PC-exclusive version offers far more features

Slipping on the Turtle Beach Atlas 200 for the first time, I was pretty impressed with its build quality. Despite being pretty affordable as gaming headsets go, they’re comfortably, even luxuriously, made. A featherlight 9.9oz / 280g build, floating headband, and memory foam ear cushions meant that they were comfortable even during epic gaming sessions – I often find cheaper headphones can make my ear cartilage ache after an hour or so, but these never outstayed their welcome.

Turtle Beach also claims that their ProSpecs technology means they offer ‘glasses-friendly’ comfort. Despite not being a specs-wearer myself, I asked my colleague Nikita Achanta from Tom’s Guide’s reviews team to give them a go, and she found them perfectly comfortable even with glasses.

One element of their design I find less persuasive, though, is how you adjust the height of that floating headband. As you need to unstick, adjust, then restick the velcro straps on the headset’s inside, it’s basically impossible to change their height while you’re wearing them, meaning I often had to use trial and error to get the right setting.

The headset’s height range is also not great – you can adjust its height by an inch / 2.5cm, max. Exercising some radical self-awareness here, I have a pretty big head, yet the Atlas 200’s entire height span seems to fit me pretty comfortably. This made me suspect that if you’ve got a smaller nut than I, you may struggle to find a cosy fit. And, indeed, when I asked Cesci Angell, my littler-noodled colleague, how she found them, she remarked they did sit a little low for her liking.

(Image credit: Future)

Fortunately, Turtle Beach doesn’t make this mistake elsewhere. The Atlas 200’s foldaway mic, for example, is simple to adjust, clicking firmly into place in three positions – up, out, and halfway between – with a satisfying clonk. It’s also poseable, making it easier to curve it to sit in the perfect position in front of your mouth when it is in use.

When it comes to features, the Turtle Beach Atlas 200 is uncomplicated to the point of being almost no-frills. Its chunky 50mm Nanoclear drivers offer an expansive frequency range of 20Hz - 20kHz and are optimized for spatial audio. Meanwhile, it offers no wireless connectivity, although its wired 3.5mm cable means you can enjoy lossless quality audio and can hook it up to any gaming device.

But that’s largely your lot: unlike its platform-exclusive PC version, the multiplatform version doesn’t offer high-fidelity audio, sound profiles, or driver software for tweaking settings. And on-device controls are limited to a single volume dial, which does at least offer granular control over the loudness of your game audio.

Design & features score: 4 / 5

(Image credit: Future)Turtle Beach Atlas 200 review: performance

Expressive audio and wide soundstage
Mic does great job of isolating voice
Spatial audio not that convincing

But no matter how comfortably a headset is designed or how fully featured it is, that’s all irrelevant if it doesn’t have the aural grit to back it up. So does the Turtle Beach Atlas 200 deliver the goods?

At first, I wasn’t entirely sure. Firing up Hades II, I was impressed with how the wind noises surrounding me were crisp and immediate without being overly bright. Meanwhile, the mids were deftly handled, rendering the background music competently while allowing the slashes and impact of combat to cut through. But there was one element I was unsure of: bass, with it sounding decent but not necessarily booming like that of the Corsair HS55 Stereo.

That is, until I dived into Counter-Strike 2. Not only was the whizzing of the bullets rendered by the treble, but the heft of the low end ensured the combat I was plunged into felt sufficiently visceral. Every time I popped off a headshot, the boom of the sniper rifle in my hands made it feel every bit the instrument of death it should be.

Stereo separation is also impressive on the Atlas 200. During the opening titles of Clair Obscure: Expedition 33, I felt like I was submerged right in the middle of the soundtrack, with the piano sitting slightly to the left, beautifully textured strings to my right, and the vocals right down the middle. Once I’d gotten into the game, this persisted, with the cranking of mills around me in the opening moments perfectly positioned in the space.

(Image credit: Future)

Possibly the only thing I’d question about the Atlas 200’s performance is its ‘optimized for 3D audio’ claims. Yes, elements are well separated, but I’ve plenty of experience testing some of the best headphones for spatial audio, and I did not get the same sense of height or rear-firing audio that you can get from the Epos H3 wired headset, for example. Triangulating would-be assassins in Counter-Strike 2 often took a good half a second of wheeling around, so I would moderate your expectations of how immersive this headset actually is.

Fortunately, that foldaway mic did not disappoint. I tested it out by recording audio while playing some games, and it works perfectly, cutting out all registered noise the second I folded it away, making it great when you need moments of privacy. On top of that, its noise gate works well in minimizing background sounds – even while typing, I couldn’t really discern any of the clack of the keys in my recording.

Keen as ever to try to push things to breaking point, I even tried cranking out some drum & bass while testing, but the Turtle Beach was wise to my tricks. There was naturally a little pump of some trebly beats in the background that coincided with the syllables I spoke, but the gate kept things deathly silent in between, doing an impressive job of maintaining the clarity of my words.

Performance score: 4 / 5

(Image credit: Future)Turtle Beach Atlas 200 review: value

All in all, I was seriously impressed with how the Turtle Beach Atlas 200 performed. Yes, it makes a few promises its specs can’t cash – I’m not totally swayed by its 3D sound credentials, for example – but it also offers excellent comfort and really rather decent sound.

And that’s before you even consider its cost. With a price of $59.99 / £49.99, this wired gaming set is very much at the affordable end of the market, and yet it never feels cheap – to the contrary, what it can do is actually pretty impressive for the price. If sound performance is your big priority in a budget headset, the Atlas 200 should make you very happy indeed.

Value score: 5/5

Should I buy the Turtle Beach Atlas 200?

Attributes

Notes

Rating

Design & features

Although it packs a limited feature set, the Atlas 200 gets high marks for its comfy, well-built design.

4 / 5

Performance

Aside from average 3D performance, the Atlas 200 sounds impressive and has a great quality mic.

4 / 5

Value

Once you view these strengths through the lens of the Atlas 200's price, it's pretty clear: this is a fantastic value headset.

5 / 5

Buy it if…

You want awesome audio for a great-value price
For a headset that costs a mere $59.99 / £49.99, the Atlas 200 offers great audio, with accurate treble, expressive mids, and colossal bass.

You want excellent comfort
If this headset is comfy even on my fussy ears, that should mean you’ll find them soft and forgiving enough to wear for even longer gaming sessions.

Don’t buy it if…

You’ve got a small head
With the Atlas 200’s quite large height only being adjustable by about an inch, it doesn’t leave a lot of wiggle room for those who have smaller heads.

You want loads of features
The Turtle Beach Atlas 200 doesn’t have all that many extra capabilities. If you’re looking for sound profiles, true 3D audio, wireless connectivity, or customizable settings, you’re better off looking elsewhere.

Turtle Beach Atlas 200 review: also consider

Turtle Beach Atlas 200

Corsair HS55 Stereo

Epos H3

Price

$59.99 / £49.99

$55 / £57.82 / AU$104.31

Weight

9.9oz / 280g

9.6oz / 284g

9.5oz / 270g

Compatibility

PC, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, Playstation 4, Nintendo Switch 2, Steam Deck

Connection type

Wired (3.5mm)

Features

Flip-to-mute mic with noise reduction

Flip-to-mute mic

Software

N/A

Corsair HS55 Stereo
Another budget banger, this wired gaming headset has a list price of $59.98 / £49.99 but also offers excellent sound and superb comfort. The only criticism we did find however, is that its low-end can occasionally overplay its hand, so it might be one for pure bass-heads only.

Read our full Corsair HS55 Stereo review.

Epos H3
Slightly pricier than the Atlas 200 but also slightly nice-ier, the Epos H3 is our top pick for the best wired gaming headset for a reason. It sounds fantastic for a headset that costs under $100 / £100 and is super comfortable to boot. However, its 3.5mm cable is proprietary and hard to replace, so if you’re prone to losing things, you might wanna give this one a miss.

For more information, read our full Epos H3 review.

How I tested the Turtle Beach Atlas 200

Used the headset over several days
Tried it out on a variety of devices and games
Tested out the mic by recording while gaming

I tested the Turtle Beach Atlas 200 over the course of several days. First, I used it while playing multiple games on several different platforms, including on PC and Steam Deck. I played Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 to test out its capabilities with soundtracks, Hades II for general effects, and Counter-Strike 2 to try out its surround sound capabilities.

I also tested the foldaway mic by recording myself while gaming. Not only did I test out its general audio quality, but I also tried out its flip-to-mute functionality and assessed how well it filtered out background noise by typing and playing music.

In terms of my expertise, I've been reviewing audio gadgets for over five years and have gotten hands-on with dozens of cutting-edge headphones. I've also been a committed gamer for 35 years, first cutting my teeth on Super Mario Bros. and Alex Kidd in the halcyon days of 8-bit gaming. Now I regularly game on PC, Steam Deck, PlayStation 4 Slim, and Nintendo Switch 2.

First reviewed: October 2025
Read more about how we test

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I spent two weeks with the Ninja Prestige DualBrew System, and espresso and drip coffee don't get easier than this

I review premium headphones for a living – even I was surprised how great this budget gaming headset sounds

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