TechRadar Reviews

Heipi 3-in-1 Travel Tripod W28S: two-minute review

Ask around, and most enthusiast photographers and creators are familiar with the accessory maker Peak Design, but newcomer Heipi? Nope.

Well, I have a welcome surprise – Heipi's carbon fiber 3-in-1 Travel Tripod W28S beats the Peak Design Travel Tripod in just about every regard, plus it's cheaper too. Three-Legged Thing's Punks Brian 2.0, however, provides stiffer competition for standard use – I explain why, below.

The W28S replaces the W28 – which I described as one of the most relevant and best travel tripods today in my in-depth review – delivering several refinements for a virtually complete and highly versatile three-legged support, in three ways.

Its 3-in-1 credentials cover regular tripod support for camera gear, the ability to support a phone instead via a clamp that's hidden in the integrated ball head, plus a generously-sized removable mini tripod, which is nestled inside the main legs, and which doubles up as a center column – the novelty of this feature hasn't worn off in this second-gen model.

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Given that the main legs can tuck inside the mini tripod legs when you're done, there's no wasted space and the Heipi 3-in-1 is able to pack away more compact than most, plus it comes supplied with a snug-fit carry case.

There are limitations though. I'd hesitate to mount particularly large and heavy gear – although that's true of all travel tripods – and the Heipi tripod's maximum height is bettered elsewhere. Also, despite its 3-in-1 party tricks, there's no monopod built into one of the legs. Nor can you swap out the supplied ball head for a fluid head, which would provide smooth panning movements for video.

If none of the above are dealbreakers, though, then Heipi's latest travel tripod is the complete package, with some unique features.

It's carbon fiber build quality is top-drawer, while improved leg locks are easier to lock-off and unlock than before. Also, they lock-off with even distribution on the leg sections (rather than a clamping lock), which reduces lateral movement between sections.

The addition of a bubble-level in the base is a neat touch, even if you can't see it properly when the center column is tucked away.

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Heipi also offers handy extras for accessory-laden users, such as clamp arms, which easily screw into the mini tripod legs via a 3/8-inch screw. The arms Heipi supplied to me for this review can support accessories such as an external monitor, and can even work with Heipi's optional phone clamp, so you can support a camera and phone simultaneously.

I've been able to switch between using a phone and a mid-range mirrorless camera with moderate size lens, with ease. Panning movement? No problem, unlike the Peak Design which is locked off.

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Even the design of the mini tripod, which easily rests on a table top for vlogging and is impressively sturdy with a 11 lbs / 5kg max payload, has been improved. The last version felt like it sacrificed ease of use for versatility, because it was stiff to extend and put away compared to a regular center column.

Now the mini tripod slides up and down much more easily, and when fully removed it even offers multiple leg angles to work from for a variety of shooting angles, including close to the ground.

It can also be reversed and locked-off upside down in the main legs in order to shoot from lower angles. Put simply, the mini tripod is one of the most sophisticated of its kind.

With camera gear generally getting smaller and lighter, and many creators using their phones as much as 'proper' camera gear, the case for the travel tripod grows as the case for bulkier supports diminishes.

And of all the many travel tripods I've reviewed, the Heipi 3-in-1 Travel Tripod W28S is the one I come back to most often – I reckon this is the best tripod for most people.

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Is Heipi's travel tripod perfect? No. There were times that I wished it could work from a higher level than its 59in / 150cm maximum reach (with the center column fully raised).

However, given it packs away with a tighter diameter than most and to just 17.7in / 45cm in length, while it weighs just 3lbs / 1.35kg (with ball head included), I'm happy to sacrifice any extra reach.

And one party trick it lacks, which you can find in many alternatives, is the ability to remove one of its legs for used as a monopod.

If you can live with the few limitations mentioned above, then the Heipi 3-in-1 Travel Tripod W28S will be the most versatile tripod you've ever used, complete with a high-quality and lightweight carbon fiber build, plus tiny pack-away proportions.

If you want a lightweight support for a variety of camera gear, Heipi would be my first recommendation.

You can discover more about the W28S's design and features in my W28 in-depth review, the two share much in common besides some of the design tweaks mentioned above.

Heipi 3-in-1 Travel Tripod W28S: key specs

Total weight

3.04lbs / 1.38kg (including ball head and mini tripod)

Max height

59.8in / 152cm (with center column fully raised, or 47in / 119cm without)

Legs sections

5

Packed length

17.7in / 45cm

Max capacity

Up to 44lbs / 20kg

Heipi 3-in-1 Travel Tripod W28 price and availability

The Heipi 3-in-1 Travel Tripod W28S with ball head is available now, from $399 / £325 on the Heipi website and from $399 on Amazon US.

There are also optional accessories such as a QR plate, and a different type of ball head in a pricer bundle. Heipi also sells clamp arms, an add-on phone clamp, plus a hammock for stowing accessories or even a weight to increase stability.

Heipi 3-in-1 Travel Tripod W28: Also consider

Peak Design Travel Tripod
For the look and compact fold-away design, the Peak Design Travel Tripod is a leading alternative. However, Heipi's tripod is a compelling newcomer – its ball head has a panning motion, which Peak Design's tripod doesn't, plus the mini tripod and integrated phone clamp. Did I mention Heipi's is much cheaper, too?

Read our Peak Design Travel Tripod review

3 Legged Thing Punks Brian 2.0
The 3 Legged Thing Punks Brian 2.0 sits in top spot in our best travel tripod guide and with good reason; it's the most versatile tripod for regular use – being easier to use and make fine adjustments, and with a better max height. However, Heipi's tripod is versatile in a different way for users that switch between types of gear and uses cases. Both are excellent supports.

Read our 3 Legged Thing Punks Brian 2.0 review

Should I buy the Heipi 3-in-1 Travel Tripod W28S?

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

You shoot with a variety of gear in a variety of ways
The phone clamp is a neat trick, while the tripod plate gives a secure hold for camera gear. The mini tripod impresses too.

You want a lighter-than-most tripod
I'm struggling to think of a tripod with a ball head that packs away as compactly as the Heipi 3-in-1. If you need a small package, this is the real deal.

Don't buy it if...

You need a tall working height
It's maximum height of 59.8in / 152cm with the center column fully raised is bettered elsewhere.

You'd like an integrated monopod
It offers features no other tripods do, but what Heipi lacks is a built-in monopod. Perhaps that'll come with a future Heipi 4-in1?

How I tested the Heipi 3-in-1 Travel Tripod W28S

• I've used it over several months
• I've extensively used its 3-in-1 features
• I've attached various mirrorless cameras and smartphones

I've had the Heipi 3-in-1 Travel Tripod W28S for months and it has been my go-to camera gear support during this period.

It has ably supported beginner, mid-range and pro mirrorless cameras, although I've drawn a line at the larger sports-focused bodies and bulky telephoto lenses.

I've also used the phone clamp, attached a variety of smartphones the largest of which was an iPhone 15 Pro Max, plus tried out optional extras including clamp arms for an external monitor.

The mini tripod has had equally thorough testing as the main tripod legs. Generally I've used the gear in fair weather, but it has also withstood moderate rain and use on sandy beaches.

First reviewed June 2025

In my twenty years as a professional writer, I don’t think I’ve ever looked forward to using a keyboard before. Some are good, some are bad, some, like the ones on modern ThinkPads, are easily the best you can get on a laptop and offer very comfortable typing experiences.

In fact, I’ve always hated changing to a new keyboard, with the inevitable typos and finger-slips as muscle memory goes right out the window and the brain tries to relearn the new key placement.

But never, ever, have I wanted to find excuses to type something, anything on a keyboard, or just pressed a few keys as I passed the desk for the thrill of it all.

Until, that is, I got my hands on the Keychron V6 Max mechanical keyboard. And if I could, I’d sit at my desk all day and all night just to feel that pleasing feedback, listening to the satisfying clackety-clack as my fingers depress the keys. It might just be the best office keyboard I’ve ever used.

Keychron V6 Max: Price & availability

This is no budget keyboard - but that’s expected with this sort of design and the features packed in here. It’s a definite ‘investment’ product for those who will be using it day in and day out.

It’s available via the official US Keychron site for $120, while at time of review, it’s currently discounted from £124 to £112 over on the Keychron UK site. In Australia, it’s priced at AU$159 via Keychron.

You can also pick up from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk and other online retailers, where it’s going for the RRP.

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This little beast is beautifully designed, with its carbon black frame and light and dark blue keys. To me, it really looks the business, eye-catching but professional.

Unlike some Keychron keyboards, like the Q6 Max we reviewed, this model is built from a hardened ABS plastic rather than dense aluminum. It’s still pretty heavy, though, and not suited to portability. On the other hand, the weight also made it very stable, refusing to whizz across the desk under the slightest provocation while I used it. So, pros and cons.

The V6 Max comes in a range of configurations - first off, you can select between a barebones version and one that’s fully assembled.

In the US, you’ll get the double-shot OSA PBT keycaps, while in the UK, you can choose between PBT and ABS keys, with the latter allowing the backlight to shine through.

You can also choose between a few different mechanical switches (Gateron Jupiter Red, Brown, and Yellow), which will subtly adjust your experience (you can see the full differences between each by clicking here). In this review, I’m looking at the PBT version with Gateron Jupiter Red linear switches.

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Along the top row, nestled between F12 and Print Screen, is a sturdy volume knob that can be clicked to mute/unmute. It’s really useful if you want easy access to volume controls, and easily ignored if you don’t.

Around the back are two switches for changing compatibility between Windows, Mac, and Android devices, and alternating connectivity (2.4GHz, cable, and Bluetooth). Over to the right is a nub which houses both the USB and USB-C receivers.

In the box, you’ll also find a wealth of tools - a charging cable, keycap and switch puller, screwdriver, screws, hex (Allen) key, extension adapter for the receiver, and eleven replacement keys.

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One of the big highlights of the Keychron V6 Max is its near-total customizability, both physically and while using the app at launcher.keychron.com. You’ll need to run Chrome, Edge, or Opera, and connect the keyboard with the wire. I found the app found the keyboard pretty quickly - not instant, but quick enough. And I was pleasantly surprised by the host of options on offer here.

Arguably the most useful here is the keymap, where you can alter what each key does when pressed. It’s very straightforward to use. Then, alongside this, there’s a key test to make sure everything’s running smoothly, an option to create macros, which will be essential for coders, firmware updates and bug reporting, and backlight selection.

To my mind, this backlight tab is where every user should head first. To manually change the keyboard’s backlight, you’ll need to turn it on with Fn + Tab, then cycle through each option using Fn + Q. There’s loads of presets here, but let me tell you, it takes ages to find the one that’s right for you - and one wrong press and you’ll need to cycle through them all over again. In the app, on the other hand, you can quickly find your preferred style, and adjust the color using the palette. Job done.

All in all, I thought the app was a nice extra that gives you much more control over layout and style to fit how you want the keyboard to perform.

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This keyboard is an absolute delight to use. Typing feels natural, comfortable, I used it for hours and hours at a time and never once had any issues. Every keystroke registered quickly and accurately, and there’s a pleasing softness to each one. What more could you want from a mechanical keyboard?

Of course, it helps that it’s incredibly customizable to suit your work, and the desk boasts a gasket mount design with sound-proofing foam under the hood. Saying that, it’s in no way silent during use. As a mechanical keyboard, it has a muted clack that will remind readers of a certain age of busy offices and typist pools.

Personally, I quite enjoy the sound it makes when in full writing flow- it’s somehow soothing. However, it won’t be ideal for those looking for a super low-profile keyboard, where a scissor-switch or rubber-dome keyboard will offer a quieter experience.

Keychron also claims the V6 Max has a polling rate of 1000Hz, which has a theoretical latency of 1ms. So, while it should easily handle competitive gaming, it isn’t strictly designed for this.

For me, it’s one of the best keyboards around, perfectly positioned for productivity-minded professionals, students, programmers - effectively anyone who’s going to be spending a lot of time at their desk. On that score, it delivers an awesome experience.

Should I buy the Keychron V6 Max?Buy it if...

✅ You want comfort when typing
I can’t fault the overall performance of the V6 Max when it comes to general typing, even at speed.

✅ You want to customize your set-up
This keyboard can basically be configured any way you want, from switching out keycaps to redefining the key map using the app.

Don't buy it if...

❌ You don’t type much
For the price and the specs here, it’s going to be overkill for sending the occasional email or replying on Teams - although it’ll feel good while you’re doing so, at least.

❌ You want a silent keyboard
As a mechanical keyboard, this isn’t exactly quiet in use, which you may want in shared workspaces.

Xreal One Pro: One-minute review

After testing the Xreal One glasses I declared them the best smart glasses you could buy, and as you’d hope from an upgraded model, the Xreal One Pro glasses have just bested them.

Overall the specs are more similar than different, but the ways in which they do differ make a world of difference.

The larger 57-degree field of view allows for a bigger image – perfect for a private movie night – and the image quality is better too, thanks not only to the Pro model using the latest Sony micro-OLED displays, but also to a new optic engine which allows the specs to achieve a higher 700-nit perceived brightness, and reduces distracting reflections and blurriness.

On top of the upgrades you can also look forward to the same solid audio tuned by Bose engineers, 120Hz 1080p visuals, an electrochromically dimmable lens backdrop, and a sleek design which helps make the Xreal Ones and now the Xreal One Pros excellent.

There are just two downsides. For one, the Xreal One Pro glasses are 3g heavier than the Xreal Ones at 87g, which is admittedly a fairly minor difference. The bigger issue is that they’re pricer – these glasses will set you back $649 / £579.

The Xreal Eye (Image credit: Future / Hamish Hector)

Factor in add-on costs like the $199 / £189 Xreal Beam Pro, prescription lenses (if you need them) and extra adapters (like an HDMI to USB-C cable), and the complete Xreal One Pro package can get very expensive. You don’t need these add-ons, as the Xreal One Pro glasses come with enough in their box to use them with a wide range of compatible devices, but they're a lot better with add-ons like the Beam Pro.

That said, the Xreal One Pro are meant to be a high-end offering, and you can absolutely see what you’re paying extra for. That's why they've cemented themselves as one of the best smart glasses of 2025.

If you have the cash to splash you’ll be delighted by what the Xreal One Pro offer as an entertainment and productivity device. If, however, you’re on a budget there are more affordable options that offer excellent value for money, even if they’re not able to match the Pro’s highs.

Xreal One Pro: Price and Availability

• Costs $649 / £579
• On the pricier side of things, but boast high-end specs

A pair of Xreal One Pro glasses cost $649 / £579 which puts them on the higher end of the smart glasses spectrum. For that you’ll get the glasses, a USB-C to USB-C cable, a cleaning cloth, and a hard carry case.

If you’re looking to improve them you can grab the Xreal Beam Pro for $199 / £189. It’s a phone-like Android device with nifty features like a camera setup for 3d spatial photography, easy access to a suite of apps for downloading and watching shows, and two ports so you can use your glasses and charge the Beam Pro at the same time.

There’s also the Xreal Eye for $99 / £99. Right now it is just a camera for snapping some simple photos, but it slots into the glasses comfortably and might allow for some other exclusive features in the future.

• Value: 4/5

Xreal One Pro: Design

• New optical design is best yet
• Comfortable to wear for hours
• Offer electrochromic dimming

At a quick glance the Xreal One Pro glasses look almost identical to the base Xreal One specs.

They both resemble typical sunglasses with a few noticeably technological features. For a start one arm has a USB-C port at the end so you can use a cable to tether the spaces to a compatible USB-C device (like a phone, computer, or console).

They have the same button layout – a button on the top of the right arm to quickly swap into transparency mode, as well as a brightness control button (which adjusts the electronic dimming, and the brightness of the image) and a red menu control button on the bottom.

There’s even the same interchangeable nose clips and hard carry case, though their cleaning cloths are different colors (the Pro uses a gray cloth while the regular model uses black).

But one obvious change is the optical setup.

(Image credit: Future / Hamish Hector)

Smart glasses like this use lenses to reflect an OLED screen into your eyes so you can see the screen and what’s going on behind it. The Xreal One Pro glasses have a new shape of lens which is flat and thinner, rather than being chunky and more triangular in shape.

This means the resulting image is disrupted by fewer reflections caused by light from the world around you, and it’s able to boast a wider field of view to boot (giving you a larger virtual image, more on that below).

It’s also easier to look through these lenses when the screen isn’t in use than with the Xreal One glasses. Previously transparency mode was good for simply quickly checking your surroundings, whereas now I’m comfortable moving around while wearing the Xreal One Pro glasses in this mode.

• Design: 5/5

Xreal One Pro: Performance

• 700-nit bright 120Hz full-HD image
• Bose tuned audio from in-built speakers
• 57-degree field of view provides a giant virtual screen

The Xreal One Pro glasses deliver a truly superb performance that’s a Pro-worthy upgrade over the base Xreal One glasses.

This is thanks to the new optical engine I touched on above as well as new Sony OLED panels which combine to deliver some top-notch stats.

You’re getting 700 nits of perceived brightness (100 more than the Xreal One) which helps to further improve contrast and make bright scenes dazzle – qualities which are further aided by the black backdrop provided by the outer lenses with electrochromic dimming.

The field of view is now larger too, at 57-degrees. This makes the virtual screen much larger at a max size of 171-inches – for comparison the 50-degree Xreal One boasted a max screen size of 147-inch.

It’s further enhanced by the optical engine’s reduced blurriness and lack of reflections. The old shape of lens used by other smart glasses can reflect light from the outside world into your eyes distorting the image. Thanks to its new design the Xreal One Pro has far fewer reflections which makes for a far superior viewing experience.

If I’m ever travelling with a pair of smart glasses again, it’ll be these – no doubt about it.

(Image credit: Future / Hamish Hector)

As for the audio the Bose tuned sound is just as impressive as it was with the Xreal One glasses.

That is to say at home you’ll be fine just relying on the glasses’ in-built speakers but while travelling you’ll want a pair of headphones – not only to reduce the noise from the outside world, but reduce the noise your glasses cause.

Headphones are still an upgrade when using the smart specs at home, but with the Xreal One Pro glasses (as with the Xreal Ones) they don’t feel like a necessity for a good sonic experience.

Thanks to its plethora of upgrades the only remaining gripe is still that the image quality is still only 1,080p (full-HD) rather than 4K. 4K is a barrier other smart glasses have yet to cross, and frankly the image looks pretty darn good even at this lower resolution and runs at 120Hz which is nothing to sniff at.

• Performance: 5/5

Should you buy the Xreal One Pro?Xreal One Pro scorecard

Attribute

Notes

Score

Design

The Xreal One Pro glasses don’t mix up the formula much, but there was already a lot to love and their new optical design has only elevated the experience.

5/5

Performance

With a bright 700-nit 120Hz full-HD display, Bose tuned audio, and reduced reflections which make combine into first-class performance.

5/5

Value

The Xreal One Pro glasses are expensive but they’re also an excellent pair of smart specs which makes them solid value for money.

4/5

Buy it if...

You demand peak performance
The Xreal One Pro glasses are very very good. If you’re after the best pair money can buy for entertainment, that’s these glasses.

You want a (near) complete package
Ignoring the need for a device to connect them to, thanks to their great visuals and solid sound the Xreal One Pro glasses feel like a complete package rather than necessitating add-ons like headphones to make up for their sonic deficiencies (something which can’t be said of many of their predecessors).

You appreciate privacy
With the glasses on you can put your phone in your pocket or adjust your laptop settings to ensure only you can see your screen even in public places.

Don't buy it if...

You’re on a budget
The Xreal One Pro glasses are great, but very pricey. You can spend less on alternatives like the base Xreal One glasses or non-Xreal alternatives such as the RayNeo Air 3S and still get something good (albeit not as good).

You don’t plan to get a Beam Pro
You don’t need a Beam Pro to use the Xreal One Pro, but it’s easily the best Xreal glasses add-on out there and runs right up to the line of being a must-buy for Xreal’s specs.

You want Android XR
The Beam Pro, even with the Xreal Eye, doesn’t seem like it’ll support Android XR – if you want Xreal’s Android XR glasses you’ll need to wait a little longer for Project Aura to launch.

Also consider

Xreal One
The Xreal One AR smart glasses cost less at $499 / £449, and offer a solid HD image and Bose audio, but their overall picture quality isn't as impressive.
Read our Xreal One review

RayNeo Air 3S
These budget smart glasses punch well above their weight. Their overall quality doesn't match that of the Xreal One Pro, but if you're after the bets value pair you can find it's these.

Read our: RayNeo Air 3S reviewView Deal

Meta Quest 3
While not a direct competitor to the Xreal One Pro glasses, the Quest 3 is an XR product that you should consider if you want to experience what VR and MR have to offer – it’s simply superb.
Read our Meta Quest 3 reviewView Deal

How I tested the Xreal One Pro

I tested the Xreal One pro glasses over a couple of weeks and predominantly used them with the Xreal Beam Pro, my Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6, and my computer.

I would also frequently use noise cancelling headphones with them as I love to wear them when travelling, but I made sure to test their in-built speakers in a range of environments to judge their performance.

I also directly compared them with the Xreal One glasses to get a sense of the upgrades the One Pros deliver.

• First reviewed: June 2025

Review information

Platform reviewed: PC
Available on: PC
Release date: June 10, 2025

Early on, while sprinting between rocky islands in Dune: Awakening’s desolate sandy seas, I began to wonder why it's taken so long for Frank Herbert’s fascinating world to be translated into a survival MMO PC game of this scale.

Making the most of the mythic beasts, warring factions, and an unforgiving setting, Funcom’s latest offering reimagines the core material, providing players the opportunity to step beyond the existing lore and carve out their own place amongst the stars. With so much to see and die as a result of, I still feel like I’m only scratching the surface of this monstrously sized expedition into the desert. But, despite the sizable journey ahead, one thing is for sure – I’m thoroughly enjoying the grind.

Dune: Awakening doesn’t take place in the Dune world you know from Herbert’s cult book, Denis Villeneuve’s cinematic duology, or David Lynch’s 1984 space opera. Instead, it’s set in an alternate timeline where Lady Jessica has a daughter instead of a son, and Duke Leto Atreides survives the assault on Arrakis, leading to an all-out war with the opposing Harkonnen dynasty. Without Paul Atreides and his Lisan al Gaib status, the Fremen are missing in action. Naturally, with all this drama, Arrakis has become a battleground over the most important resource in the galaxy – Spice.

(Image credit: Funcom)

Players enter this conflict as a prisoner, whose job is to find the Fremen people and awaken ‘the sleeper’. But before you dive into the many processes needed to uncover them, you first need to make some decisions about your character, namely what they look like and how they fit into the political landscape.

You’ll first get the chance to tweak the physical form of your character. There’s a decent variety of choices, from hairstyles to stature and tattoos, too. Naturally, I opted for a pre-distressed look, picking out murky blue eye makeup and some messy lipstick. Visual identity chosen, you’ll then pick some personality building blocks: your homeworld, social caste, and mentor.

Each option will provide you with alternative starting abilities and emotes. As someone who’s always wanted to use the Voice, I opted for a Bene Gesserit mentor and based myself in the frosty peaks of IX as a Bondsman. Sadly, it’s mainly your Mentor that factors into gameplay, with the other decisions acting more as role-playing flavor. Regardless, I was ready to feel the sand on my digital feet and test my survival mettle.

Fear is the grind killer

Needless to say, this planet is not exactly hospitable. (Image credit: Funcom)

You aren’t just dropped into Dune: Awakening without a clue, and are run through a pint-sized tutorial sequence first. Here, you learn the basics of combat and survival, which amounts to scavenging morsels of water drops from plants and swiping at enemies with a glorified box cutter, before witnessing a sandworm gobble up the remains of your ship.

Emerging into the open sand, your workload is split between maintaining your hydration and shelter while branching out into the surrounding areas of the map in search of story missions. Much of my first hour was spent cowering in the shade, fearing for my life as I followed my objectives to earn some scrappy sun protection and a ranged weapon. Suddenly, I wasn’t so afraid, and I began assaulting enemy camps with my newfound confidence.

As you run between pockets of shade, scavenging for resources and completing objectives, you’ll naturally start to earn Skill Points and Intel Points that fuel your skills, research, and crafting abilities. Soon, instead of scrounging around for a morsel of water and clipping enemies with a pea shooter, you’ll be drinking the blood of your enemies and hammering targets with the improved arsenal at your fingertips. Dune: Awakening has all the hallmarks of a classic survival MMO. However, it’s the clever grapple between feeling brave and weak that kept me interested beyond the climactic opening.

Best bit

(Image credit: Funcom)

To complete quests and rise up the ranks, you’ll eventually need to cross large portions of the desert. And, despite the isolation you might feel in the arid landscape, you’re never truly alone. In Dune: Awakening, Sandworms, otherwise known as the Shai-Hulud, are more terrifying than raiders or dehydration. If you’re unlucky, or simply not paying attention to your vibration meter, they can fleece you of all your precious items and leave you in the dust, literally, with nothing but your underwear. Regardless of how terrifying a prospect, the addition of these iconic creatures only makes the world of Dune: Awakening more immersive and entertaining to explore.

It’s not all desert roses, though, and unfortunately, as I sought out more enemies, I ran into issues with the rudimentary combat. You can block and parry, as well as deliver quick, slow, and ranged attacks, which is fine, if not a little underwhelming. Your limited toolbelt, early on, isn’t complemented by the limited enemy variation, and many of the baddies you face look much the same, and frankly, don’t seem too smart either.

On one occasion, while taking out a duo of scavengers, the firing stopped abruptly mid-fight. As I sheepishly wandered around the corner, I noticed that the second scavenger was standing frozen, as if they’d forgotten I was there. As you push into more difficult districts on the map, there are complicating factors like shields, and your opponents have more diverse combat skills, though that does little to make the combat more enticing, and as of right now, it feels like fighting still needs some fine-tuning.

Thankfully, when the combat excursions start to get old, you can tackle story missions called the Trials of AQL, which arrive as alternate challenges that test your dexterity while explaining the history of the Fremen. Hidden amongst the craggy horizons, the trials felt like a carefully constructed extension of the lore, rewarding your attention with gear essential to survival long term. It’s clear Funcom cares about the material that the studio is adapting, and the involved and thoughtful Trials feel like proof of that.

Hope clouds observational skills

See that weird glowing stuff? That's Rapidium - and Jan's going to need a lot of it to make more alters. (Image credit: Funcom)

While exploration will take up the lion’s share of your time, base building is another important aspect to your survival in Dune: Awakening. Say a sandstorm warning pops up on your screen, and you need to quickly assemble a dwelling. All you have to do is craft a useful 3D printing gun and pick a safe spot to place your cover.

Here, external walls and flooring all snap together nicely, while the inside of your home requires a bit more finicky work to get things to fit just right. If you do run into problems, the system itself is quite forgiving, and it’s easy enough to modify your floor plan to fit more appliances if things get a little tight. You can technically build a shelter almost anywhere you’d like, and with the speed at which items respawn, plopping down your possessions in open sand is an obvious no-go.

This brings me to the real antagonist of Dune: Awakening. Beyond the periodic sandstorms, trigger-happy enemies, or unwavering thirst, are the more terrifying and possession-destroying sand worms or Shai-Hulud. Hidden underground in the open sands, the worms are attracted to your movements, which you can track via a friendly vibrations bar that appears at the center of your screen.

Laying out your base smartly (as I have very much not done in this screenshot) is key to making the most of your limited resources. (Image credit: Funcom)

Simply put, the more you move in open sand, the more likely it is you’ll attract a sandworm. Once the bar turns red, it means your luck has run out and you need to sprint away to higher ground or risk losing everything you’ve worked so hard for. Short distances start to feel large, and I felt genuine pangs of fear as I tiptoed between the stone monuments that broke up this seemingly endless world.

Dune: Awakening looks solid in motion, but it isn’t always visually seamless, and there are plenty of frustrating bugs and bouts of texture pop-in that get in the way of the fun. Still, Dune’s desert landscape more than makes up for those small squabbles, and it's easy to get swept up in the carefully constructed details Funcom has embedded on Arrakis.

Visual accents like the billow of a water seal as you cut through it, or the sand particle texture on your windows, help to build the fantasy and commit your exploits to memory. Yet considering how large Dune: Awakening is, I’m sure there’s even more to uncover on my journey to ultimate power, and I’m excited to keep digging and discover more of these details.

Should I buy Dune: Awakening?Buy it if...

You want a challenging survival MMO that’s connected to its setting
Between sunstroke, thirst and the constant threat of sand (worms and storms), Dune Awakening’s survival mechanics do well to complement its sci-fi setting.

You’re looking for a game to sink a lot of time into
The world of Dune: Awakening is sizable, and so it’ll take more than a few hours to grow your reach and power.

You think you’d make a better Lisan Al Gaib than Paul Atreides
Do you think of yourself more as a Timothée Chalamet Paul or a Kyle MacLachlan Paul? Well, Dune: Awakening provides you with all the necessary tools to see if you can out-Lisan Al Gaib both versions of Paul Atreides to prove yourself the superior sandy survivor.

Don't buy it if...

You prefer a more forgiving survival game
In Dune: Awakening, when you die to a sandworm, you lose everything, and I mean everything. As such, it might not be ideal for casual players looking to relax as they mine.

You like complex combat systems
While there is a decent diversity in skills and upgrades, Dune: Awakening’s combat can feel repetitive as you continue to face the same few enemy variants to harvest loot.

Accessibility

You can access the settings from the pause menu while in-game, or at the bottom left of the main menu before you join a server. From the accessibility menu, you can toggle on and off camera shakes, controller rumble, and motion blur.

From this menu, you can also toggle on and off subtitles, choose the font size, as well as select an option to have previous subtitles on screen for a longer period of time. You can also tweak the gamma setting from this menu, too. Dune: Awakening allows you to rebind all your keys from the dedicated Keybinds menu.

Where audio is concerned, you can use a slider in the Audio submenu to tweak individual streams of sound (Master Volume, Music Volume in-game, Sound Effects Volume, Cutscenes Volume, Dialogue Volume, and Radio Volume).

How I reviewed Dune: Awakening

I played Dune: Awakening on Steam, using an Acer Predator XB271HU gaming monitor, a Logitech MX Master 3S mouse, and a Logitech G915 TKL gaming keyboard.

I used my external Creative Pebble V2 computer speakers and Audio Technica ATH-MX50X headphones plugged into a Scarlett 2i2 interface for sound. My gaming PC is powered by an RTX 3080 and an AMD Ryzen 9 3950X.

First reviewed June 2025

Nexar One: One-minute review

The Nexar One is a 4K dash cam that employs a clever modular design and an always-on LTE data connection to offer automatic cloud uploads with unlimited storage, wireless video transfer, and remote streaming. It can be bought with either 128GB or 256GB of internal storage, but there's no microSD card support. Rear and internal cameras are also available.

Unlimited cloud storage and live streaming for as little as $71.90 a year feels like good value, but the One is reliant on a strong cellular signal to work properly; if you have patchy 4G at home, this might not be the dash cam for you.

(Image credit: Future / Alistair Charlton)Nexar One: price & availability

The Nexar One is priced from $329.95 for the 128GB model (which can hold up to 37 hours of recordings), or from $379.95 for the 256GB model (which has space for up to 78 hours). Adding the interior camera featured in this review increases those prices to $379.95 and $429.95 respectively.

Nexar’s LTE Protection Plan costs $9.99 a month or $71.90 a year. This includes the ability to live stream from the dash cam to your phone, plus unlimited cloud storage, a 24/7 parking mode, real-time GPS tracking, emergency alerts, and rear camera compatibility.

Nexar says the One will be available in the UK soon, but hadn’t announced prices at the time of review in June 2025. The cost of the LTE Protection Plan is also unknown for now, and the One is not available in Australia.

Nexar One: specsNexar One specs

Video

4K resolution at 25 to 30 frames per second

Field of view (FoV)

140 degrees (forwards), 160 degrees (interior)

Storage

Internal (128GB or 256GB), cloud (unlimited, fees apply)

GPS

Yes

Parking Mode

Yes, with remote streaming

App support

Nexar Connect app

Dimensions

3.5 x 2.75 x 1.2 inches / 88.9 x 69.8 x 30.5mm

Weight

7.4oz / 210g

Battery

Yes, used to record parking events

Nexar One: Design

The Nexar One is a clever piece of design, as far as dash cams go. It doesn’t have a screen, so there’s no chance of being distracted while you’re driving, and the unit itself is relatively slim, but with the LTE data module and interior camera connected, it’s quite large.

The clever bit is how the Nexar One uses magnets. Firstly, it connects to its windshield mount with a very strong magnet. You then stick the mount to your windshield with an adhesive strip, and a power cable runs from the mount to your car’s OBD2 port for a constant power supply, even when it’s parked and turned off. Power is then sent to the dash cam itself as soon as the magnets snap it into place.

(Image credit: Future / Alistair Charlton)

There are more magnets on either side of the main unit. You can remove a cover from one end to attach what Nexar calls the connectivity add-on, which is basically an LTE (4G) antenna that gives the dash cam a cellular data connection for live streaming to your phone and cloud video storage – more on that later.

Removing the cover from the other end enables you connect the optional interior camera, which sold separately but was also provided by Nexar for this review. Overall, it’s a clever design that's been nicely executed, and I especially like how Nexar includes an OBD2 cable in the box, rather than a USB cable and a 12-volt socket adapter.

As mentioned, there’s no microSD card slot, with the One relying entirely on internal storage.

(Image credit: Future / Alistair Charlton)Nexar One: Performance

The setup process requires the Nexar Connect smartphone app and, for the dash cam, a decent 4G connection. Although I live in London, my street has awful cellular coverage, so it wasn’t a surprise to see the One fail to get itself online. I drove about half a mile, parked up, and the dash cam then quickly connected to Nexar’s cloud service and completed the setup process.

While video quality is the most important aspect of any dash cam, there’s more to this model than video recording. You can use either the Nexar Connect app or Nexar’s online dashboard to view every journey completed with the One installed. Your driving route is shown on a map, along with the distance and duration of your journey. It’s then easy to either view a low-resolution timelapse of a journey, or download a high-resolution portion.

(Image credit: Future / Alistair Charlton)

If you’re away from your car (and therefore not connected directly to the dash cam via Wi-Fi), you can view the mapped routes and timelapses. And, while you can request to download a high-res portion of between 30 seconds and five minutes, the download won’t happen until the next time you turn your car on. Instead, it’s best to get in your car, connect directly to the dash cam over Wi-Fi, and transfer high-res recordings to your phone.

Another feature is live streaming, where the Nexar One’s LTE connection lets you view a live feed from the dash cam on your phone. This takes about 30 seconds to start and when using LTE (instead of a direct Wi-Fi connection) you’re limited to three minutes of live viewing at a time. This is understandable, given how much data would be swallowed up by longer streams. It’s a handy way to check up on your car, and means you can view a live feed right after the dash cam detects a collision while parked, as it will automatically start recording.

Since I live in an area with patchy cellular coverage, some driving routes and timelapses failed to upload right away. This process happens after you park up, while the dash cam is powering down, but a poor data connection can stop the upload from happening. The downloads are then unavailable until the next time you turn your car on and drive to an area with better signal.

(Image credit: Future / Alistair Charlton)

If you live and mostly drive in an area with strong LTE coverage you’ll be fine, but if not – and you want to regularly use the Nexar One’s connected features – you’ll need to think twice about buying it. The Nexar One is designed to connect to a range of networks, instead of just one, so it should always hunt out the best signal. But I found it sometimes failed to connect, especially in known blackspots.

Incidents – where the dash cam detects a collision, either while parked or driving – are sorted into their own section of the app and dashboard, making them easy to find.

The app lets you pick from three video quality options, but frustratingly these use names – Basic, Standard and Premium – instead of recognizable numbers, like 1080p or 4K. Tapping on 'Learn more' opens Nexar’s website and explains that Basic is 720p (and 540p for the interior view), Standard is 1080p (and 720p for the interior), and Premium is 4K (plus 720p again for the interior).

Standard is the default option. These Full HD recordings look great on the phone app, but quality takes a dip when blown up onto a larger computer screen. Footage is okay, but details like the license plates of oncoming vehicles, even at just 20mph in bright daylight, are often difficult to read.

(Image credit: Future / Alistair Charlton)

Bump the Nexar One up to Premium and the 4K videos are noticeably sharper, with more legible license plates and street signs. Files are also larger, with a five-minute clip weighing in at 1.5GB from the front-facing camera and 360MB from the lower-spec interior view.

The larger size of 4K files highlights the Nexar One’s slow Wi-Fi transfer speeds. Moving those five-minute, 1.5GB and 360MB clips to my iPhone, over a direct Wi-Fi connection, took a full five minutes.

The interior camera is of a lower spec, but still provides a decent view of the driver and front-seat passenger. Since I drive a small two-seater (a Mazda Miata, or MX-5 for non-US readers), this camera manages to capture an acceptable view out of the rear windshield too. However, due to my car’s tiny front windshield, I’ve had to partially hide the Nexar One behind the mirror, which blocks some of the camera’s interior view.

If I bought the Nexar One myself, and still owned a car tight on space, I’d likely do without the interior camera. That said, if you’re a taxi or ride-share driver, having recordings of your interior (and a sign telling your passengers as much) could be useful.

Lastly, there’s a parking mode. This works when the Nexar One is connected either with the included OBD II cable, or the optional hardwiring cable that powers it from the fuse box. When a collision is detected, the camera springs into life and starts recording. These videos appear in chronological order in the app, but can only be downloaded when you next switch your car on – and so long as the camera has a good cellular connection.

(Image credit: Future / Alistair Charlton)

Parking mode, unlimited cloud storage, live streaming and other functions – including emergency alerts, GPS tracking and rear camera compatibility – are all part of a subscription plan. This is priced at $9.99 a month or $71.90 for a full year. Although the Nexar One works like any other offline dash cam without this fee, storing footage locally, not subscribing removes much of its functionality. If you don’t want to pay for a subscription, you’d be better off buying a different dash cam.

That said, I can see the value here – especially if you live in an area with solid cellular coverage. Having videos available online, through the app or any computer browser, takes away the usual dash cam pain point of having to eject the microSD card and transfer footage manually. I also like the idea of being able to check in on my car while I'm away from home, but my local cellular coverage made that tricky.

The dash cam occasionally sent phone notifications, promising more information when tapped. But doing so simply opened the app and showed me the home screen. It also sometimes told me a recording was in process (while the car was parked and switched off), then saved a five-minute journey in the Activity page of the app. Tapping on this brought up a page full of error messages, a map with no indication of where the car was, and the promise of a timelapse and high-res clip being “available shortly”.

Nexar told me it has had some issues with a recent firmware update, but after reinstalling the latest firmware I still experienced connectivity problems. The One connects to multiple phone networks, but it seems that none could provide the coverage it needed to function where I live. It worked fine elsewhere, but poor signal at home takes away a chunk of the One's functionality.

I asked Nexar if it can be connect to home Wi-Fi for video uploads and firmware updates but, and was told that while this is on the roadmap, there's no timeline for launch.

(Image credit: Future / Alistair Charlton)Nexar One: Sample videosFront cameraInterior cameraShould you buy the Nexar One?

(Image credit: Future / Alistair Charlton)Buy it if...

You need lots of cloud storage
Nexar’s subscription fee generously includes unlimited cloud storage for your recordings. Low-res timelapses and location data are automatically uploaded after every journey, while high-resolution clips can be requested manually and are uploaded when the dash cam is next switched on. Incidents, like collisions, are uploaded in full.View Deal

You want 4K footage
The Nexar One can record at 4K resolution, which captures a good amount of detail in your videos. The interior camera is limited to 720p HD.View Deal

You want live streaming
Its LTE connection makes the Nexar One function like a security camera. You can view a live video stream on your phone or computer, so long as the dash cam is in an area with cellular coverage, which is handy for keeping an eye on your parked car.View Deal

Don't buy it if...

You live in an area with poor LTE coverage
Since the Nexar One is so reliant on the cellular phone network, it struggles to function properly in areas with poor signal. Clips fail to upload, and even the setup process will fail without a decent connection.View Deal

You’re on a budget
At over $300 for even the simplest model, the Nexar One is an expensive dash cam – especially when you factor in the ongoing cost of a data subscription. There are plenty of other dash cams that offer high-quality video recordings for less money, but go without the bells and whistles of the Nexar One.View Deal

You want a compact dash cam
If you drive a car with a particularly small and/or shallow windshield, you should pass on the Nexar One. With the LTE module and interior camera attached, it’s a big dash cam that takes up plenty of space. You can tuck it behind the mirror, but that’s likely to partially block the view of the interior camera.View Deal

How I tested the Nexar One

• I installed the Nexar One in my own car
• I used the dash cam during multiple journeys over the course of a week
• I downloaded footage, adjusted settings and experimented with the live streaming function.

I installed the Nexar One in my car and used it as my dash cam for about a week. I used it on numerous journeys, and recorded footage every time I used my car. I then downloaded (and uploaded) footage from the dash cam to check its recording quality, and used the live streaming function to see how well that worked.

• First reviewed June 2025

Viltrox AF 50mm F2 Air: one-minute review

This isn’t my first Viltrox lens review, and nor it will it be my last, because the Chinese lens maker is on a roll, producing a string of excellent optics for users of all skill levels and budgets. Coming in at the opposite end of a recent cinema lens that could cost up to $200,000, the 50mm f/2 Air costs less than $200 / £200 / AU$320, and offers excellent value for money.

It’s a tiny and lightweight prime that's available for Sony E and Nikon Z mounts – I had the latter for this review – with a decent maximum f/2 aperture for defocusing backgrounds. You don’t get the sharpest detail or creamiest bokeh I’ve ever seen – for those you'll want to check out the excellent Viltrox 135mm f/1.8 LAB – but the Viltrox 50mm f/2 is an excellent casual lens for enthusiasts, especially for portrait photography, and an ideal foil to a standard zoom.

I’d have preferred the lens’s minimum focus distance to be a little closer, which would bolster its everyday photography credentials, while a couple of external controls to speed up changing settings, such as an AF / MF switch, would be welcome. However, the Viltrox AF 50mm F2 Air delivers performance and image quality that belie its price – and the fact it squeezes proprietary camera-brand alternatives with its aggressive pricing is the cherry on the cake.

(Image credit: Tim Coleman)Viltrox AF 50mm F2 Air specsViltrox AF 50mm F2 Air specs

Type:

Standard prime

Mount:

Nikon Z-mount / Sony E-mount

Sensor:

Full-frame

Focal length:

50mm

Max aperture:

f/2

Minimum focus:

1.67ft / 0.51m

Filter size:

58mm

Dimensions:

Φ68 x 58.6mm

Weight:

7.8oz / 220g

Viltrox AF 50mm f/2 Air: Price and availability

• Available for Sony E and Nikon Z mounts
• $199 / £229 / AU$319 list price, but it usually can be found for less

Hovering around the $200 / £200 / AU$320 mark and often available for a little less, the Viltrox AF 50mm f/2 Air is an excellent value prime lens, especially when you considering its build quality and optical performance.

Price-wise, it reminds me of the old Canon EF and Nikon F-mount cheap nifty fifties for DSLRs, being an affordable first prime for enthusiasts. There's bad news for some though – Viltrox's lens is only available for Sony E and Nikon Z lens mounts.

Viltrox AF 50mm f/2 Air: Design

• Weighs just 7.8oz / 220g
• No external buttons or controls
• Available for Sony E and Nikon Z mounts

The 50mm f/2 Air lens is, as the name suggests, designed with an emphasis on light weight over absolute performance – it’s positively featherweight, especially compared to alternatives such as Nikon’s own Z 50mm f/1.4.

It’s a small lens, too. I paired the 50mm f/2 Air with a Nikon Z6 II, and I could barely feel the lens. It's not often that I'd describe a camera / lens pairing as rear-heavy, but that's the case here.

This is also excellent value, with a sale price often dipping under $200 / £200 /AU$319, and the list price only a little more. For context, the Nikon-own f/1.4 lens is double the price (and double the weight), while Nikon's Z 50mm f/1.8 is four times the price.

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Viltrox’s lens well made too – a rugged metal barrel and rear mount instil confidence, even though there’s no proper weather-sealing to speak of (such are the compromises with such a low-cost lens).

There's a generously sized focus ring with smooth and easy rotation, and that’s it for controls. No AF / MF switch, no optical stabilization, no focus distance limiter – this is a simple bit of gear.

The lack of controls could, depending on which camera you pair the lens with, make changes to camera settings a little fussy. My camera doesn’t have an AF / MF switch, and because the lens doesn’t either I need to dive into a menu to switch between the two focusing methods, which can be frustrating.

Otherwise, there's little to talk about regarding design – this is a simple and lightweight optic that accepts 58mm threaded filters and comes supplied with a decent lens hood.

(Image credit: Tim Coleman)Viltrox AF 50mm f/2 Air: Performance

• Bright maximum f/2 aperture ideal for portraiture
• Fairly limited close-focusing capabilities
• Snappy autofocus speed

This is no pro-quality lens, but for beginners and enthusiasts the optical quality and performance of the Viltrox 50mm f/2 Air are perfectly sufficient.

The bright, zoom lens-beating maximum f/2 aperture ensures plenty of light intake and makes this lens great for low-light photography, as well as for defocusing backgrounds for dreamy portraits. Bokeh is smooth enough – I didn’t really spot the ugly ‘onion ring’ effect that can be evident in cheap optics.

(Image credit: Tim Coleman)

Optical clarity is perfectly acceptable, even if this isn't the sharpest 50mm lens I’ve used. With a little extra sharpening in post, most users should be perfectly happy with the results.

I shot all images in JPEG and uncompressed raw, and with lens corrections switched off there are slight signs of chromatic aberration, but the Viltrox has a reasonable handle on such distortions.

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Note the minor lens flare in the bottom middle of the frame when shooting straight towards sunlight (Image credit: Tim Coleman)Image 2 of 3

For head and should portraits, bokeh is generally big, smooth and round, with a little cat's eye shaping the corners (Image credit: Tim Coleman)Image 3 of 3

There's little sign of bokeh fringing either (technically known as longitudinal chromatic aberration) (Image credit: Tim Coleman)

I found the 1.67ft / 0.51m minimum focus distance a little limiting for close-up shots – the maximum magnification is a modest 0.11x. This isn't really a macro lens in any way, and perhaps even less of an everyday lens, with portraiture being its strongest suit.

With such a small and lightweight collection of ashperical (ASPH), ED and IF lens elements, the 50mm f/2’s STM autofocus motor has an easy job – those lens elements are moved with ease for quick and precise autofocus. Not once did I perceive sluggish autofocus on account of the lens rather than the camera.

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Shot using the maximum f/2 aperture, vignetting is evident in this bright scene (Image credit: Tim Coleman)Image 2 of 4

I stopped the aperture down to f/5 at which point vignetting is pretty much gone (Image credit: Tim Coleman)Image 3 of 4

Using the f/2 aperture helped to isolate the tree in the foreground. Chromatic aberration is well controlled, but vignetted means the corners are a little dark. (Image credit: Tim Coleman)Image 4 of 4

Stopped down to f/5, brightness is more consistent throughout the frame. (Image credit: Tim Coleman)

Overall, the Viltrox AF 50mm F2 Air is a capable performer, especially when you consider its compact size, low price and bright maximum aperture. For users on a budget who are looking to step up from a standard-zoom kit lens, this is an ideal choice.

Viltrox AF 50mm F2 Air sample galleryImage 1 of 6

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(Image credit: Tim Coleman)Should you buy the Viltrox AF 50mm F2 Air?Buy it if...

You want a low-cost fast prime

Mirrorless lenses can get pretty pricey, but the Viltrox 50mm f/2 Air is a true nifty fifty – it’s that cheap second lens you can pick up after a kit lens.

You have a small full-frame or APS-C camera

Mirrorless lenses can get pretty big and heavy, and aren't always the best fit with a number of today’s compact, rangefinder-style mirrorless cameras. Not so the Viltrox 50mm f/2 – its light, small, and pairs wonderfully.

Don't buy it if...

You’d like quick access to manual controls

There’s only one external control on the lens, and that's a focus ring. All other changes need to be made in-camera, which, depending on your camera’s external controls, could prove to be a menu-diving time sink.

You shoot a lot in adverse conditions

The Viltrox 50mm f/2 lens isn’t weather sealed. Its build quality is solid enough, but you’ll want to think twice about shooting with it in poor weather.

(Image credit: Tim Coleman)How I tested the Viltrox AF 50mm F2 Air

• I've used it over a loan period of several months
• I paired the lens with a Nikon Z6 II
• I've used it in a range of scenarios, generally in fair weather, and checked image quality at the various aperture settings

I paired a Z-mount version of the Viltrox AF 50mm F2 Air with a Nikon Z6 II for several months, during which time it has seen moderate use, generally in fair weather. Size-wise, the camera and lens are perfectly balanced, with no hint of wrist strain due to front-heaviness.

To test optical quality I’ve snapped portraits with the aperture wide open at f/2, and also taken series of images at each aperture setting to compare sharpness and check for lens distortions.

• First reviewed June 2025

Launching alongside the Nintendo Switch 2, Fortnite Nintendo Switch 2 Edition is quite simply the same game, but better. Bless developer and publisher Epic Games for trying, but Fortnite on the original Nintendo Switch is hardly the most elegant way to play and feels like you’re at a significant disadvantage thanks to the decreased graphical fidelity, framerate, and draw distance. It’s forgivable on handheld, but with TV mode, it looks rough and feels rougher. But I’m glad to say the Nintendo Switch 2 edition is a great way to play, no matter where you are.

Review info

Platform reviewed: Nintendo Switch 2
Available on: Nintendo Switch 2; Non-Switch 2 version available on Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, PS5, PC, Android, iOS (in some regions)
Release date: June 5, 2025

I mean, what can you even say about Fortnite at this point? Epic Games’ 100-person Battle Royale game has taken over the world over the last eight years, and it’s only grown larger in the time since. In the vein of something like Roblox, Fortnite is both a battle royale and a user-generated game platform where you can find an endless amount of custom maps to play with your friends on.

But let's get into why the Fortnite Nintendo Switch 2 Edition is such a great way to play.

Chug jug with you

(Image credit: Epic Games)

To really hammer that “you can play Fortnite without even touching its main mode” point home, I don’t like Battle Royale – the marquee mode – thanks to the game's building mechanics. However, when it comes to the Zero Build mode, it’s undoubtedly the best Battle Royale game on the market right now. Over the years, Epic has augmented the core mechanics of the game with a host of new movement options like wall kicking and roll landing that keep things fluid in what used to be the jankiest of movement systems.

Of course, the problem with any ‘evolving game’ is that it’s tough to give a review of the main mode because of how it changes. Fortnite Chapter 5 Season 1 was peak, while Chapter 4 and Chapter 5’s third seasons were two of the absolute worst seasons of a live service game I’ve played. This means there could be three-month stretches where you just simply don’t like the game. And considering Epic Games has been experimenting with seasons based around media franchises like Marvel, Star Wars, and a rumored upcoming Simpsons season, if you don’t like those, that’s all you get for months.

Thanks to the use of the Nintendo Switch 2’s feature set and specs, it's one of the best ways to play the game on console and by far the best handheld version.

Outside of that, there are the Epic Games-created modes. There’s Fortnite OG, which brings back the original Chapter 1 map (which can also be played in Zero Build, thankfully); Reload, which is a faster-paced 40-player battle; and Ballistic, a first-person mode that is a take on Counter-Strike. While none of these stand up to the core mode, they offer different ways to take on the mechanics of Fortnite and are solid games in their own right.

Then there are non-shooting modes like the Minecraft-inspired Lego Fortnite, Rocket Racing, and the best side mode, Fortnite Festival, which is a rhythm game mode and the closest thing we’ll get to a new Rock Band game, considering it was developed by Guitar Hero and Rock Band creator Harmonix. This mode gets constantly updated with songs and artists, with a new singer taking center stage with a skin and big song drop every few months or so (with the likes of Sabrina Carpenter, Metallica, and Hatsune Miku showing up).

And despite having so many options, the player base for each main mode is really healthy, meaning you’ll never wait too long to find a game of anything, with some custom games even having dedicated player bases. A few of these Epic-made modes have their own seasons and battle passes, too, which does add up if you don’t subscribe to the Fortnite Crew. However, Epic recently changed it so XP earned in any mode goes towards every single pass, which is a massive step up.

Mouse trap

(Image credit: Epic Games)

Fortnite Nintendo Switch 2 Edition is the same game as it is everywhere else; there are no exclusive modes or anything of the sort. However, thanks to the use of the Nintendo Switch 2’s feature set and specs, it's one of the best ways to play the game on console and by far the best handheld version of Fortnite.

Compared to the Nintendo Switch version, which ran at 880p docked and 660p in handheld mode, Fortnite Nintendo Switch 2 Edition runs at 1224p docked and 900p in handheld, so it still isn’t 4K / 1080p, but it is a significant boost. However, the resolution isn’t where the upgrade matters; the improved textures as well as a far greater draw distance, which was one of the original console’s biggest hindrances – especially with how big the Fortnite map is. Most importantly, Fortnite Nintendo Switch 2 Edition runs at a solid 60fps as opposed to the 30fps of the Nintendo Switch – which in an online shooter that has cross-play with more powerful platforms – makes a world of difference.

Gyro aiming returns from the Nintendo Switch edition of Fortnite, but new to the Switch 2 version is support for mouse controls via the Joy-Con 2 controllers. Effectively, this allows you to use a mouse setup for aiming with the movement capabilities of an analogue stick, and is a wonderful combination.

Best bit

(Image credit: Epic Games)

As I was writing this review, Epic released a Hank Hill skin alongside an emote recreating the King of the Hill intro: my best bit can only be that and even how it looked on the Switch 2, which was excellent.

However, the mouse implementation is a touch awkward. Due to the lack of buttons available, you’ll still need to access the face buttons on your Joy-Con to jump and reload, which creates some uncomfortable moments as you crane your hand. Plus, the mouse controls need to be activated from the in-game menu, as opposed to just sticking the Joy-Con in mouse position like in other games. This isn’t the biggest pain in the world, but it doesn’t revert back once you use a controller that doesn’t support mouse controls (such as attaching your Joy-Con 2 to the Switch 2 itself), which means you’ll need to get the controller off and go through the menu with the mouse to deactivate it.

Fortnite is a phenomenon for a reason; if you let yourself get by the “popular game bad” noise that you often see with this and the likes of Call of Duty, you’ll find what is probably the best Battle Royale game in the genre. And even outside of that, it’s a massive game platform that has an endless supply of whatever you like, from racing, rhythm games, and even custom Fall Guys games.

However, the risks of an ongoing game persist because you’ll occasionally be hit with a season that makes the game bad for months, and there’s not much you can do to help it.

Having said that, Fortnite Nintendo Switch 2 Edition is easily the best way to play on the go or on a handheld device, and while it’s outclassed in power by the PS5 and Xbox versions when it comes to TV mode, it’s still solid to look at, and the mouse controls give it an edge that those consoles don’t have.

Should you play Fortnite Nintendo Switch 2 Edition?Play it if...

You want to play Fortnite on a handheld
Fortnite Nintendo Switch 2 Edition outclasses the version on the original Switch in every way, taking what is a means to an end and making it a fantastic way to play in its own right. Plus, the mouse controls make tabletop mode a great way to play, too.

You want something free to play on Switch 2
Fortnite has a seemingly endless amount of modes and content, and is being updated constantly. And unless you want to pick up a skin of John Cena or Raiden from Metal Gear Solid, you don’t have to pay a single penny to play all of the game’s modes.

Don't play it if...

You need the best graphics and performance from Fortnite
While the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition of Fortnite has a perfectly fine resolution and – in my experience – sticks at a solid 60fps, that’s where you cap out. The current-gen console versions and PC ultimately look better and support higher framerates.

Accessibility

Fortnite has a ton of accessibility options, including multiple color blindness filters, the ability to remap controls however you like, alongside multiple control options like gyro aiming and mouse controls.

A standout feature is the visual sound effects toggle, which displays a ring around your character to indicate the source of sound effects and their corresponding representations (footsteps, loot, gunfire, etc.). This is particularly beneficial for those with hearing difficulties or when playing the game with the sound muted.

How I reviewed Fortnite Nintendo Switch 2 Edition

I played around eight hours of Fortnite Nintendo Switch 2 Edition on top of a good 300-400 hours played across PlayStation, PC, and Nintendo Switch. During my time with the Nintendo Switch 2 edition, I tested Zero Build mode, Fortnite Festival and a number of custom games.

I played this in a mixture of handheld mode on the Nintendo Switch 2 itself and on a Samsung Q60D TV and a Samsung HW-T450 soundbar using the Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller and the Joy-Con 2 controllers when using mouse mode.

First reviewed June 2025

Peak Design Pro Tripod: two-minute review

Peak Design’s tripods have a couple of unique design features. One is the leg design, which is not tubular but has a six-sided cross section with an inner edge that fits straight up against the center column, with no gaps. The center column is thinner than most but also has a six-sided cross section for the legs to fit neatly against the legs when folded. This non-tubular construction does seem to give both the legs and the center column unusual stiffness.

The Peak Design Pro Tripods don't use tubular carbon fiber legs. They have a more complex six-sided cross-section designed to fold up tight against a flat-sided center column. (Image credit: Rod Lawton)

Peak Design's clever leg and column design means these new Pro tripods fold down to a very small diameter compared to regular tripods. (Image credit: Rod Lawton)

The other unique feature is a low-profile ball head with no protruding locking nut. Instead, it’s clamped with a rotating collar, and another, just above locks and releases the compact Arca Swiss compatible camera plate.

This low profile head design means that the original Peak Design travel tripod does not have to have its legs rotated 180 degrees from their folded position before you can use it. The low height of the ball head means that you can simply fold the legs in and pack it away without any complicated manoeuvers.

The new Pro Tripods also come with a new Pro Head. It still uses rotating collars to release the ball and the QR plate but it's bigger and more substantial than the original. (Image credit: Rod Lawton)

The Pro head takes regular Arca Swiss compatible plates and also accepts Peak Design's clever new Tilt Mod specifically for video work. (Image credit: Rod Lawton)

These design features made the original Peak Design Travel tripod very different to anything else. Now Peak Design has taken those same design concepts and scaled them up into a Pro version designed for serious professional use.

In fact, there’s not one Pro tripod but three. The regular Pro tripod is the one I spent most time with for this review, but I also got to try out the Pro Lite and Pro Tall variants. The Pro Lite is almost the same height and folded length of the regular Pro Tripod, but has a lighter construction for easier portability. The Tall version has longer leg sections and can even reach eye level for tall people without any center column extension – it exceeded my eye level!

The new Pro tripods aren’t just bigger and more substantial than the original Travel Tripod – they have a new Pro ball head that’s larger and more substantial than the original, plus it has a neat ‘inverted’ design so that the pan axis is above the ball not below it. This means that you can level the pan axis for panning shots and panoramas without having to fiddle around with the leg lengths. It’s not a huge range of adjustment but it might be all you need.

For more extreme pan axis adjustments, or if a lot of your work is video, Peak Design has you covered. There are two new ‘mods’ to go with these tripods: one tilt head for video work, and the other a leveling bowl which you swap out with the standard center column, and which has a regular head attachment screw so that you can use your favorite video head if you want to.

This is Peak Design's new Tilt Mod, which attaches directly to the Pro head to offer a smooth tilt movement for video. (Image credit: Rod Lawton)

Here you can see the Tilt Mod fitted. It clamps straight into the Pro head's Arca Swiss mount so it takes just a few seconds. (Image credit: Rod Lawton)

The Tilt Mod and the Pro head feel as if they were made to go together... but there's another clever touch. The Pro head uses an 'inverted' design so that the pan axis is above the ball. This means that it also acts as a basic but effective levelling head for video work. (Image credit: Rod Lawton)

I love the original Peak Design Travel Tripod, so do the new Pro tripods leave me just as impressed? Yes! It is, literally, just like using scaled up versions of the Travel Tripod. The carbon fiber legs feel just as smooth and warm to the touch, the leg clamps are just as quick and positive, and because these Pro tripods have four leg sections rather than five, they’re a little quicker to set up.

The new Pro ball head is terrific. It’s big and chunky, it locks tight and it doesn’t add a whole lot to the tripod’s height when you’re packing away. As before, there are no protruding knobs or levers to get in the way either.

Peak Design’s use of a rotating collar to lock the QR plate does take a little getting used to. The head has two collars in close proximity and at first it can be a struggle to remember which does what and how they work.

The new Pro head, though, feels absolutely rock solid, and it’s with the pan and tilt mod that it gets really clever. All you need to do is take out the regular Arca Swiss plate and slot in the pan and tilt add-on for a proper fluid pan and tilt action.

There’s an extending panning handle which is stowed against the side of the head via a magnet (Peak Design loves magnets) and can be quickly screwed into the head ready for use. It sounds like a kludge, with one head mounted on top of another, but it absolutely isn’t. It looks like it was made to work this way, and feels like it too. The tilt axis is sprung, by the way, so if you use a longer camera plate you should be able to balance it up fairly well for light and controlled tilt movements.

If you're into more serious video work, you might want to take a look at the Pro Leveling Base. This replaces the center column with a shorter 'stub' column incorporating a leveling bowl. This also has a regular head fitting, so you can still use your favorite video head – it doesn't have to be Peak Design's. (Image credit: Rod Lawton)

The center columns on these tripods are longer than the one in the original Travel Tripod, which is useful, but even though they’re fixed with a small-looking locking knob, they lock down really tight and with no flex.

You can also get spiked feet but these are an optional extra, nor does it seem like Peak Design includes a phone clamp with these tripods, so that will be a paid extra too. It kind of makes sense because these Pro tripods are overengineered for phone use anyway. If you do get the phone mount, it will still slide up into the base of the center column for storage. Here, Peak Design has stuck with its slightly complicated pull-and-twist hook release which is easy when you’ve learned how it works but can be annoying at first.

So that’s a quick tour of the Peak Design Pro Tripods, but which is the best one to get? That’s quite tricky because they are somewhat similar, both in size and price. The standard Pro tripod is expected to sell for $899.95 when it goes fully on sale in November 2025, the lighter Pro Lite will be $799.95 and the Pro Tall will be $999.95. I haven't seen prices for the UK or Australia yet.

Personally, I wouldn’t go for the Pro Lite. I can understand the reasoning – it’s a slightly lighter, slightly cheaper alternative to the regular Pro model – but it’s not a lot smaller and I think I’d rather just pay the extra for the thicker legs of the Pro model. The Pro Tall is interesting, though. If I was 6ft tall and didn’t like using center columns, I would go for this one. It’s definitely longer when packed away, but all of these tripods are too long to fit inside a backpack anyway and would end up strapped to the outside. Besides, for those times when you didn’t need the extra height you could just extend three leg sections not four, for even more stability.

Peak Design Pro Tripods: key specs

Pro Lite

Pro

Pro Tall

Packed length

48.8cm

50.1cm

58.1cm

Packed diameter

8.5cm

9.3cm

9.3cm

Max height, center column down

133.2cm

138.0cm

162.0cm

Max height, center column up

162.5cm

168.4cm

197.4cm

Min height (low mode)

15.8cm

15.9cm

17.3cm

Weight

3.74lbs / 1.7kg

4.19lbs / 1.9kg

4.4lbs / 2.0kg

Max payload

15.9kg

18.1kg

18.1kg

Head

Integrated Pro Ball Head

Integrated Pro Ball Head

Integrated Pro Ball Head

Material

Carbon fiber

Carbon fiber

Carbon fiber

Leg sections

4

4

4

Peak Design Pro Tripods price and availability

The Peak Design Pro Tripods launch on Kickstarter on July 17 2025 but are expected to go on general sale in November 2025. The Pro Lite tripod has an expected price of $799.95, the Pro tripod will be $899.99 and the Pro Tall will sell for $999.99.

The Tilt Mod and Pro Leveling Base will be sold separately and we’re currently waiting for price information on these, but we are told the option spiked feet will sell for $49.95.

Peak Design Pro Tripods: Also consider

Gitzo Traveler Series 1

If you like a tripod with style and quality but in a more traditional form, the Gitzo Traveler Series 1 could be a great choice. It has a straightforward, classic design with no frills or gadgets, just superb materials and construction. It doesn’t go quite as tall as the Peak Design Pro models nor fold so neatly, but it’s a classic design that’s stood the test of time.

Read our Gitzo Traveler Series 1 review

3 Legged Thing Punks Brian 2.0
If you want a full height carbon fiber tripod, you don’t need to pay Peak Design money to get it. The Punks Brian 2.0 is from 3 Legged Thing’s more cost-conscious Punks line, but is both well-made and typically colorful and stylish. There is some flex at full height, though, and when it’s folded up the Punks Brian 2.0 is nowhere near as neat as Peak Design’s tripods. This is still a great value choice, though.

Read our 3 Legged Thing Punks Brian 2.0 review

Should I buy a Peak Design Pro Tripod?

(Image credit: Rod Lawton)Buy it if...

You already love the Peak Design Travel Tripod
Good as it is, the Travel Tripod is not really set up for heavier gear or taller working heights, but the new Pro tripods have all the same design finesse but scaled up for pro use.

You’re more concerned with design quality than price
Heaven knows the new Peak Design Pro tripods aren’t cheap, but they are beautifully designed, exceptionally compact and, based on our samples, very rigid

Don't buy it if...

You’re trying to save money!
If all you need is rock-steady everyday value from your tripod, then you don’t need to pay these prices. There are plenty of cheaper carbon fiber or aluminum alternatives

You need flexible angle/boom options
If you shoot nature close-ups in the wild or you’re working with flat-lays or table-top setups then you need the flexibility of a boom arm, and that’s no an option here

How I tested the Peak Design Pro Tripods

• Operational speed and efficiency
• Stiffness and rigidity
• Ball head operation
• Effectiveness of add-ons

I had just two weeks to try out the Peak Design Pro tripods because loan stocks were in short supply and shared between many different reviewers. However, I know the original Peak Design Travel Tripod very well and I review tripods as part of my work, so I already had a list of what I was looking for and expected from these new Pro tripods.

I particularly wanted to test the speed and ease of deployment and was pleased to find it was just as slick as with the original Travel Tripod but quicker, thanks to the 4-section legs and larger leg clamps. I also wanted to check if the excellent stiffness of the original Travel Tripod had scaled up to these new, bigger sizes, and it has. I don’t remember any other tripods I’ve tested with more torsional rigidity and lack of leg flex than these.

I was also keen to check how the new Pro Ball Head worked. The original was good but quite small and fiddly. This one is much better. Not only does it clamp tighter and hold heavier loads better, the inverted ball design makes levelling the camera for panning shots so much easier.

Lastly, I spent some time trying out the Tilt Mod and Pro Leveling Base and came away impressed. The Tilt Mod fixes so well to the Pro Ball Head that they feel like a single (very smooth) unit and the Pro Leveling Base took a minute or so to swap out with the regular column but lets you use your own tripod head.

First reviewed June 2025

Acer Predator Connect W6x: One-Minute Review

Like most manufacturers, Acer has been focusing on the latest Wi-Fi 7 technology in its best routers and mesh systems.

One advantage of Wi-Fi 7 is its use of the high-speed 6.0GHz frequency band, which provides far higher speeds than previous versions of Wi-Fi. However, there are millions of people who are still using older computers and mobile devices that only support the 2.4GHz and 5.0GHz bands used by the previous generations of Wi-Fi 5 and Wi-Fi 6.

To provide a more affordable option for those users, Acer has also released the Predator Connect W6x, which provides basic dual-band Wi-Fi 6 support using the 2.4GHz and 5.0GHz bands with a top speed of 6.0Gbps (and is also backwards-compatible with older devices that use Wi-Fi 5).

Acer uses the Predator name for its range of gaming PCs and accessories, and while the Predator Connect W6x certainly isn’t the fastest router around it can still provide a fast, affordable option for gaming, streaming and other tasks at a very competitive price.

The only problem is finding the right router with the right model number on Acer’s perpetually unhelpful website.

(Image credit: Future)Acer Predator Connect W6x: Price And Availability

• How much does it cost? $169 / £99 / AU$299
• When is it available? Now
• Where can you get it? Available in the US, UK, and Australia

Your first task is to make sure you find the correct model on Acer’s website, as the company sells a number of routers in the Predator Connect range that look almost identical and have very similar model numbers.

We tested the Predator Connect W6x, which you can spot by counting its array of six external antennae. However, there are also models called the Predator Connect W6 (eight antenna) and W6d (four antenna), which have very similar designs, although they do have slightly different technical specifications.

And Acer’s Australian website carelessly manages to refer to the W6x as being both a tri-band and dual-band router, depending on which web page you look at, so you really do need to take care when ordering online.

Assuming you manage to find the correct model, then the Predator Connect W6x is available directly from Acer in the US and Australia, priced at $169 / AU$299.

That’s a fairly competitive price when compared to similar Wi-Fi 6 routers, but it’s customers in the UK who seem to get the best deal, as the W6x costs just £99. It’s not sold on the Acer website in the UK, though, so you’ll need to shop around online.

• Value: 4.5/5

Acer Predator Connect W6x: Design

(Image credit: Future)

• Low-profile design
• Eight external antennae
• Four Ethernet ports for wired connections

The Acer Predator Connect W6x certainly looks like a gaming router, with a sombre black, low-profile design and an intimidating array of dagger-like antennae (that’s six antennae - count ‘em, not four or eight).

The body of the router stands just 50mm high, 270mm wide and 187mm deep, but the adjustable, rotating antennae are 170mm long so you’ll need plenty of room when you’re setting it up to make sure that the antennae can spread out and zap the Wi-Fi signal far and wide.

The affordable W6x doesn’t have the array of glowing lights that you find on some gaming routers, but Acer hasn’t cut too many corners in order to keep the price down.

The back panel of the router provides a 2.5Gb Ethernet port for a high-speed Internet connection, and there are four Gigabit Ethernet ports available for a gaming PC or console if you prefer a lag-free wired connection for your online gaming sessions.

There’s even a USB port for adding a network storage drive as well. This uses a USB-A (3.0) connector, rather than the faster USB-C, but that’s hardly a criticism at this price.

• Design: 4/5

Image 1 of 3

(Image credit: Future)Image 2 of 3

(Image credit: Future)Image 3 of 3

(Image credit: Future)Acer Predator Connect W6x: Features

• Free security from Trend Micro
• Free parental controls
• QoS for gaming and streaming

The Predator Connect app provides a number of useful features, but it’s not as user-friendly as it could be.

The apps provided with many routers keep things simple by automatically combining the different frequency bands to create a single network, while others prefer to create a separate network for each frequency band.

The Predator app does neither of these things – it starts by simply filling the screen with the various network settings and leaves it up to the user to decide which options to choose.

That’s fine for more experienced users, but home users who aren’t familiar with terms such as ‘band-steering’ and ‘SSID’ may be a bit confused at this point.

Once that’s done, the app provides features such as the ability to create a guest network, or to block Internet access for individual devices. There’s also a QoS option – quality of service – that allows you to give priority to devices, such as a gaming PC or console, that require maximum performance.

Some features are made unnecessarily complicated, though. The app does include a number of security features and parental controls, and we were pleased to find that these are provided free of charge, with no need to pay an additional monthly subscription – as is the case with some of Acer’s rivals.

But, it’s strange that these are initially turned off within the Predator app, which simply tells you to leave the app and connect to the router using a web browser interface in order to activate these features.

Again, this is something that will appeal to more experienced users, but it could be confusing for people who have never used a browser interface to connect to their router before.

• Features: 4/5

Acer Predator Connect W6x: Performance

(Image credit: Future)

• Dual-band Wi-Fi 6
• Top speed of 6Gbps
• 2.5Gb Ethernet for broadband connection

Acer Predator Connect W6x: Benchmarks

Ookla Speed Test – 2.4GHz (download/upload)

Within 5ft, no obstructions: 150Mbps/150Mbps
Within 30ft, three partition walls: 70Mbps/70bps

20GB Steam Download – 2.4GHz

Within 5ft, no obstructions: 150Mbps
Within 30ft, three partition walls: 70Mbps

Ookla Speed Test – 5.0GHz (download/upload)

Within 5ft, no obstructions: 150Mbps/150Mbps
Within 30ft, three partition walls: 150Mbps/150Mbps

20GB Steam Download - 5.0GHz

Within 5ft, no obstructions: 150Mbps
Within 30ft, three partition walls: 150Mbps

The Predator Connect W6x isn’t a top-of-the-range router by any means, as it’s based on older Wi-Fi 6 technology.

Even so, its top speed of 6Gbps should be more than fast enough for most home broadband services. Our normal office router can only manage a top speed of around 80Mbps on the 2.4GHz band when running the Ookla speed test with devices in the same room.

That’s far short of the maximum 150Mbps available with our office Internet connection. Steam downloads struggle even more, at around 40Mbps. Switching to 5.0GHz on our office router provides some improvement, with the Ookla test rising to 120Mbp, and 100Mbps for Steam.

But, when connecting to devices that are nearby, the W6x breezed along at the maximum 150Mbps for both tests on both 2.4GHz and 5.0Ghz bands.

I also have an office at the back of my building that suffers from an annoying Wi-Fi ‘deadspot’ as my normal office router can’t provide a reliable signal in that location at all.

The W6x was able to reach that office, although its 2.4GHz band struggled a bit and dipped to 70Mbps for both Ookla and Steam.

Fortunately, the router’s 5.0GHz band stepped up to the plate and quickly boosted both Steam and Ookla tests up to the full 150Mbps once more.

So while the Acer Predator Connect W6x might not be the fastest router around, it does perform pretty well for an affordable Wi-Fi 6 router and could be a good upgrade for owners of older Wi-Fi 5 routers (especially for £99 in the UK).

Should you buy the Acer Predator Connect W6x?

Category

Verdict

Score

Value

It’s not going to break any speed records, but the W6x is a good, affordable upgrade for people who are still using an old router provided by their ISP.

4.5/5

Design

It doesn’t have any flashing lights for gamers, but the low-profile design looks smart, and the array of eight antenna provides good Wi-Fi coverage.

4/5

Features

The Predator app has some rough edges, but the W6x provides good wired connectivity, along with security features and parental controls that don’t require an extra monthly subscription.

4/5

Performance

The Predator app has some rough edges, but the W6x provides good wired connectivity, along with security features and parental controls that don’t require an extra monthly subscription.

4/5

Overall

It’s certainly not state-of-the-art, but if you just want to replace an old Wi-Fi 5 router then the W6x does the job at a very competitive price.

4/5

Buy it if...

You’re on a budget
The latest Wi-Fi 7 routers are still fairly expensive, but a good Wi-Fi 6 router such as the Predator Connect W6x will be fast enough for most home broadband services.

Your devices are a few years old
Millions of people are still using computers and mobile devices that only support Wi-Fi 5 or 6, so they really don’t need to splash the cash on a cutting-edge Wi-Fi 7 router.

Don't buy it if...

You’ve got a brand-new PC
If you’ve bought a new PC that does support Wi-Fi 7 – especially a gaming rig – then it’s worth spending a bit extra to get a Wi-Fi 7 router that provides maximum performance.

You're a network newbie
The Predator app has a few rough edges, and it might be a bit confusing for people who don’t know much about networking.View Deal

Acer Predator Connect W6x: Also consider

Netgear Nighthawk RS200

A kind of halfway house between Wi-Fi 6 and full Wi-Fi 7, the RS200 supports Wi-Fi running at 6.5GBps. However, it limits itself to just the 2.4GHz and 5.0GHz bands to keep the price down.

Acer Predator Connect T7

If you want to go all-in on Wi-Fi 7, then the T7 is Acer’s high-end option, with tri-band support and blistering speeds of up to 11Gbps for gaming.

Acer Predator Connect W6x vs its competition

Router

Acer Predator Connect W6x

Acer Predator Connect T7

Netgear Nighthawk RS200

Price (as reviewed)

$169/£99/AU$299

$329.99/£236.22/AU$699.00

$229.99/£199.99/AU$449

Wi-Fi Type

Dual-band Wi-Fi 6

Tri-band Wi-Fi 7

Dual-band Wi-Fi 7

Wi-Fi Speed

6Gbps

11Gbps

6.5Gbps

Connectivity

1x 2.5Gb Ethernet (WAN), 4x Gigabit Ethernet (LAN), 1x USB-A (3.0)

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

1x 2.5Gb Ethernet (WAN), 1x 2.5Gb Ethernet (LAN), 3x Gigabit Ethernet (LAN), 1x USB-A (3.0)

Processor

Quad-core 2.0GHz

Quad-core 1.5GHz

Quad-core 2.0GHz

Memory

1GB RAM

1GB RAM

2GB RAM

Storage

256MB Flash

512MB Flash

512MB Flash

Dimensions

49.5 x 270 x 187mm

212 x 109 x 109mm

249 x 150 x 102mm

• First reviewed: June 2025

I wasn't quite sure what to expect from The Alters, the latest game from developer and publisher 11 Bit Studios. From the trailers I'd watched, it seemed almost like parts of several different games were grabbed and hastily cobbled together into something that shouldn't work - and yet, much like my hastily-cobbled-together base in-game, it does.

Review information

Platform reviewed: PC
Available on: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S
Release date: June 13, 2025

Following Jan Dolski, a construction specialist on a space mission to find the ultra-rare element Unobtaini- sorry, ‘Rapidium’, The Alters meshes together survival, management sim, third-person action adventure, and decision-based narrative elements with apparent grace and ease. There's a well-struck balance here, never tipping too far in any one direction, keeping you constantly engaged and on your toes. Less than two hours in, I was already having a blast.

Predictably, things go wrong almost immediately for poor Jan, and despite finding an abundance of Rapidium, he's left stranded on a hostile planet with an approaching sunrise that will scorch him and his base to an irradiated crisp. Alone, desperate, and running out of options, he follows the highly questionable directions of a crackly voice on the base comms to utilize Rapidium’s mysterious qualities and create a duplicate of himself: an ‘alter’. After all, many hands make light work - and the rest of the original crew are too dead to help out.

Seeing double

Needless to say, this planet is not exactly hospitable. (Image credit: 11 Bit Studios)

The thing is, Jan’s duplicates aren't exactly that. The core premise of The Alters is right there in the name, with each alternate Jan Dolski having a distinct - though familiar - personality and memories of a life that went a different direction at one pivotal moment or another. It's an excellent central conceit for both a story and a game. Need a miner to help gather the resources required to survive on this desolate planet? Good news: in another life, Jan chose to pursue his father’s mining career. Bad news: Miner Jan has a substance abuse problem and crippling self-esteem issues, and you're going to have to deal with that now.

This is where the narrative segment of the game comes in, with a wide variety of both one-on-one chats and group interactions to be had with Jan’s parallel selves. It's reminiscent of chatting to your crew aboard the Normandy between missions in the Mass Effect series; although instead of a sleek spaceship, your base of operations in The Alters is a thin, blocky structure housed on a gyro inside a gigantic tire. It gives the story a sort of twisted road trip vibe, which I loved - check out Overland and Get In The Car, Loser! If you’re interested in some other very weird virtual road trips.

Best bit

(Image credit: 11 Bit Studios)

Jan's rolling base is certainly unique - just don't question the physical logistics of how such a vehicle would remain upright.

The ‘mobile base’ is just one part of the fantastic and occasionally goofy world-building on display here. True to 11 Bit Studios’ Polish heritage, the life Jan left behind to join this mission is a corporate sci-fi dystopia with a distinctly Eastern European flavor. Janky Europop plays from a jukebox in the social room you can build for the Alters to relax in; Jan’s childhood home is a nondescript mining town with brutalist concrete architecture; two Jan Dolskis bond over their shared love of pierogi. While the planetary backdrop of Jan’s current predicament might be a bit more par for the course, the injection of a little cultural identity helps massively in creating a more unique, interesting setting. The soundtrack is pretty good too, an appropriate blend of synthy overtures and foreboding background music.

I won’t delve too much into the plot to avoid spoilers (this is a story best experienced as blind as possible), but I will say as a lifelong sci-fi lover that the story is solid. The writing and voice acting are both excellent, with some interesting supporting characters and plenty of dialogue that serves to flesh out the characters and move the story along. Particular props go to Alex Jordan, who voices not just Jan but also all of his titular alters - and make no mistake, despite sharing the same origins, this is a greatly varied group of characters who don't always get along. Listen up, Geoff Keighley, because I fully expect to see him nominated for Best Performance at the next Game Awards.

Too many cooks

See that weird glowing stuff? That's Rapidium - and Jan's going to need a lot of it to make more alters. (Image credit: 11 Bit Studios)

Speaking of not getting along, though: we're all going to need to get along, or we're all going to die.

Befriending Jan’s alters isn't enough to survive with the radioactive sunrise mere days away. You need to put them to work, whether that's producing food or equipment aboard the mobile base or gathering resources in the dangerous environment outside.

This is mostly done through a series of menu screens, which have clean, well-designed UIs, and managing your alters takes up a decent portion of your time in-game. They're quite proactive; for example, if an alter in the workshop finishes building all the tools you've queued up for manufacturing, they'll suggest moving to a different assignment, prioritizing stations aboard the base with unfinished workflows and no assigned staff.

It's not the deepest management sim system I've ever seen - 11 Bit Studios previously developed Frostpunk and Frostpunk 2, which offers great complexity for hardcore fans of the genre - but it works well as one component of a broader story-driven survival game and keeps the focus on the micro rather than the macro. You can only have a maximum of six alters out of a possible nine (although two of them, Technician Jan and Scientist Jan, are mandatory for the plot - so it's more like picking four out of seven).

Laying out your base smartly (as I have very much not done in this screenshot) is key to making the most of your limited resources. (Image credit: 11 Bit Studios)

You're also responsible for the base itself, meaning that you'll need an alter - or yourself - on hand to carry out repair work when needed, and you'll need to modify and expand the base to match the evolving demands of your journey across the planet's surface to a promised rescue rendezvous. Thanks to the two-dimensional nature of your base-in-a-giant-tire, rooms are laid out in a grid and can be moved and slotted together Tetris-style to make the most of your available space.

This is another balancing act; everything needs to be correctly connected to function, and every new room added increases the total weight of your base and thus the amount of resources you'll need to travel to the next area. There's always a tradeoff; should you build the alters private cabins to help improve their mood, or make them bunk together in a far more space-efficient dorm room? Do you really need that greenhouse for manually producing proper food, when you could all survive perfectly well on processed organic mush?

Venturing forth

Scanning for mining deposits as you explore each new area is a vital task if you want to stay alive. (Image credit: 11 Bit Studios)

Of course, even with your alters hard at work, this is a team effort. Real boy Jan doesn't get to sit on his hands while his clones do all the heavy lifting, no, sir. You need to make use of every precious hour before sunrise comes, because every single job your alters can do is also something you could also be doing yourself.

This is where the third-person exploration and action elements of the game come into play - though I use the word ‘action’ quite generously here, since The Alters doesn't really have traditional combat. When I said ‘hostile planet’ earlier on, I wasn't talking about angry local megafauna or marauding aliens. The areas outside the base are populated by strange, pulsating anomalies, which can deliver a potentially lethal dose of radiation on contact. Luckily, you can research and build the Luminator: a magic UV flashlight that can be used to target the floating cores of the anomalies and shrink them into a stable ball of useful resources with an admittedly rather satisfying vwoosh.

It's perhaps the weakest component in The Alters’ otherwise flawless assembly of disparate parts, but it's far from a deal-breaker. The anomalies just aren't a particularly engaging threat, although later on, some more interesting variants do show up. One variety has two cores and rhythmically grows and shrinks in size; another warps spacetime in close proximity, causing you to lose hours in seconds while you remain within its radius.

I like the design of the Ally Corp spacesuits Jan and his alters wear - and even their standard-issue on-base clothes have little variations to help keep the alters distinct. (Image credit: 11 Bit Studios)

The rest of the off-base gameplay is a bit more appealing; you explore, gather resources, and map out locations for fixed mining stations, which must then be connected to the base by setting up pylons before being operated by yourself or one of the alters. Your rolling base only makes pit stops at a handful of locations throughout the game, and the maps aren't that large, but they do feel densely populated and hand-crafted - no sprawling procedurally-generated wilderness here. Sometimes, you'll stumble across wreckage from your original crashed ship, and can recover personal effects that certain alters might appreciate, improving their mood.

Brothers in arms

Keeping those alters happy is no laughing matter, however. They can go hungry or become depressed, get injured on the job, or fall sick from radiation poisoning if you force them to work outside for too long. Sometimes you'll find two or more of them in disagreement, at which point you'll need to find a solution - and it's not always possible to stay on everyone’s good side.

Some of these disputes are key to the overarching plot, while others are merely for character development and establishing personal conflicts - but I really appreciate how The Alters makes you stand on your decisions, even the smaller ones. A lesser game would have you pick a side and mete out judgment, with corresponding mood shifts based on your choice, but here you have to back up your words with actions or deal with the consequences. When one alter argues that we need more protection from radiation, while another insists that we should stop gathering irradiated metals altogether, you're expected to follow through on your decision. Fail to build that radiation shield quickly enough after choosing to support that plan? Tough, now both alters have lost some respect for you.

I probably spent more time playing the beer pong minigame than I needed to. But I needed Jan's alters to understand that he's the king, and there's no beating him. (Image credit: 11 Bit Studios)

Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to boost your alters' mental states. Assigning them to work that fits their specialism is a good start, but you can also prepare better food, play beer pong (which has its own minigame), build a gym or a therapy room, or even settle in for a movie night with all of your alternate selves. Hilariously, the ‘movies’ you can uncover from the ship’s scattered wreckage are all live-action shorts made by YouTube comedy duo Chris & Jack, which can be viewed in their entirety while the Jans provide occasional commentary. It's weird, but great. Hell, the only thing you can't do is exactly what I would do in this situation, which is a sloppy make-out session with my clones.

Whatever your methods, ensuring that your self-made crew is healthy in body and mind is of paramount importance. An unhappy or rebellious alter will work fewer hours; an injured one can't work at all. It all plays into the core idea that Jan - perhaps every version of him, in fact - simply wasn't cut out for this job, and you're constantly flying from one near-catastrophe to another. I opted to pick Doctor Jan as my final alter quite late in the game, and I'm glad I did: Miner Jan decided to overwork himself not long after, and kept coming back to base with increasingly severe radiation sickness.

The human touch

It's nice to find your alters gathered to relax in their off-time during the (rare) periods when everyone seems to be getting along. (Image credit: 11 Bit Studios)

In short, The Alters is nothing short of an artistic triumph. It's a cheerfully strange game with a lot of heart, using its premise to ask genuine philosophical questions about the nature of memories and identity, but also managing to remain grounded in a story about people just trying to survive a terrible situation. At one point, Jan leads the alters in a (shockingly good) impromptu musical number. It's silly, but it's hard not to like how downright earnest it all is. It feels like something that was created with genuine love and care, an increasing rarity in today’s game industry landscape.

I wouldn't call it an extremely challenging game overall, so if you're expecting a gritty, difficult survival experience, you might be disappointed - although I've been a fan of management sims for a while, so players less familiar with the genre may find it a bit tougher to stay on top of each new crisis. There are separate difficulty settings for the anomaly combat and the resource economy, which is a nice touch.

Lastly, as a PC game, I found it ran well both on my RTX 4080 gaming PC and an older RTX 3060 gaming laptop, at 1440p and 1080p, respectively.

The game isn't particularly long, either - my first playthrough clocked in at just shy of 20 hours, and I felt was taking my time with it - but there's certainly some room for replayability based on the different available alters and multiple endings. After getting what I'd like to call a ‘good’ ending, I'm already itching to start over and say all the mean things I avoided saying the first time around. Watch out, space: here comes Asshole Jan.

Should I buy The Alters?Buy it if...

You want a meaningful story
The Alters delivers emotional beat after beat across its whole plot, taking the time to muse on human nature while keeping its focus on Jan's struggle for survival.

You like base-building
From fitting together rooms in your mobile base to laying out connected pylons and power lines to support your fast-travel mining outposts, The Alters has a little something for everyone who likes to build stuff.

Don't buy it if...

You want an intense survival experience
Simply put, the various elements of The Alters all work to serve the central narrative - if you want a game that's all hardcore survival or management sim, look elsewhere.

You want fast-paced action
This isn't exactly a slow-paced game - seeing 'SUNRISE IN 3 DAYS' will certainly get you galvanized - but the infrequent combat sections are fairly basic.

Accessibility

There are a small number of accessibility features available in The Alters, primarily focused on reducing some intrusive visual effects (like those caused by certain anomalies, or when Jan is drunk after too much beer pong). There's also the option to adjust the font size of the subtitles and change the entire HUD scale - potentially useful for anyone who struggles to read small text.

A notable omission is a colorblind mode, although this might be a game where it wouldn't actually make much difference; most of the management menu screens are fairly monochrome, and the game broadly manages to avoid overlapping UI elements.

How I reviewed Mario Kart World

I played through the majority of The Alters on a gaming PC equipped with an RTX 4080 GPU and Ryzen 9 5950X CPU, at 1440p resolution, and got a consistent 60+ fps at max settings. I also played a short segment of the game on my laptop, which has an RTX 3060, and found similarly reliable performance at 1080p once I'd tweaked the graphical settings a little.

It took me about 20 hours to complete a full playthrough of the game, which I spread out over the course of a week. I played with a mouse and keyboard, but you can use a controller too if that's your preference. The game is also available on PS5 and Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S.

First reviewed June 2025

Platform reviewed: Nintendo Switch 2
Available on: Nintendo Switch 2
Release date: June 05, 2025

Nintendo is bringing enhanced versions of Nintendo Switch games to the Nintendo Switch 2 and has decided to introduce the new system with the original console’s most iconic launch game: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

I was unsure how it would feel going back to this game after playing the vastly expanded sequel Tears of the Kingdom (which also got a Nintendo Switch 2 Edition release), but even without the mechanical depth of its sequel, Breath of the Wild is still one of the finest games ever made.

Free bird

(Image credit: Nintendo)

Despite being the series’ first time tackling a true 3D open world format, Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is nonetheless exceptionally impressive. Outside of a very brief introduction, the player is given complete freedom to explore Hyrule at their own pace and leisure. You’re able to go have a scrap with Ganon right away after making it out of the starting area, or you can explore every inch of the world, befriending the various people of Hyrule.

This freedom extends to the game mechanics, too. Right away you’re given a set of tools, and from there you can do as you please. It’s the type of game where you have a really daft idea – like cutting down a tree to have it roll down and take out the enemy camp, throwing your metal sword at an enemy during a thunderstorm to have lightning strike them down, or picking up a laser turret to use as a makeshift weapon of your own – and it’ll (usually) work.

One of the game’s most derided mechanics is weapon durability, which means every single item you use can - and eventually will - break on you. But in many ways it’s a perfect encapsulation of what makes Breath of the Wild so brilliant, as that spark of experimentation is forced out of you as you have to think on your feet once your best weapon breaks. Even eight years on, there aren’t many open-world games that can stand up to this.

Switch it up

(Image credit: Nintendo)

Of course, this is The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Nintendo Switch 2 Edition. Unlike other Nintendo Switch 2 editions of games, like the upcoming Mario Party Jamboree + Jamboree TV and Kirby and the Forgotten Land, there’s not actually any new content being added to the game this time around. You don’t even get the pre-existing DLC for Breath of the Wild by buying the full version of the game. Both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom are purely technical upgrades on Switch 2, which is somewhat remedied by the fact they are included with Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscription tier.

Best bit

(Image credit: Nintendo)

For anyone who played the game on Switch or Wii U, you’ll know just how choppy the framerate in Korok Forest was. Going there and seeing it stick at a solid 60fps was the moment I knew there was no turning back.

However, even if there’s nothing new, Breath of the Wild Nintendo Switch 2 Edition is well worth the upgrade. The game now runs at 1080p in handheld mode and supports 4K in docked mode, paired with HDR that makes the already wonderfully colorful game pop even more. Both modes run at a solid 60fps throughout too. Booting up Breath of the Wild and seeing it run at double the framerate almost felt wrong because of how used to it I am, but it's an incredibly welcome upgrade.

And of course, the first thing I did as soon as I went into my old save (there are two whole save slots now, which is both a godsend and underwhelming) was go to the infamous Korok Forest – which would absolutely tank the framerate in the original release. Lo and behold, it ran perfectly. Sure, that's the type of thing you might expect on more powerful hardware, but when you’ve suffered through that original Korok Forest on Wii U or Switch, it really puts things into perspective.

Note it down

(Image credit: Nintendo)

I said that Breath of the Wild Nintendo Switch 2 Edition doesn’t have anything new in-game, but that’s not the case for the Nintendo Switch Online app, which has added the Zelda Notes feature. This is a companion app that allows you to do a bunch of stuff in-game, such as finding the locations of remaining shrines with a GPS navigation voice telling you where to go and a daily bonus wheel that will give you a roulette wheel that includes prizes like free meals, full health, or even the ability to repair your weapons.

However, the most impactful part of Zelda Notes are the ‘Voice Memories’. These are scattered all across the map, and when you walk in the vicinity of one (of which there are over 100), you’ll hear a voice memo from Princess Zelda set 100 years before the events of the game while preparing for the first calamity. These are wonderful little lore dumps that made the experience of exploring Hyrule again a total joy. It goes without saying that actually having these added to the game as opposed to needing to keep my phone on would be a far more preferable option.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Nintendo Switch 2 Edition is a great – if barebones – update to what was already one of the greatest games of all time. However, the framerate and resolution updates alone make this one worth checking out, especially if you’ve never played it before. Though, if the technical side of things isn't a priority for you, you’ll probably be let down by the lack of new content – unless you fancy having your phone out the whole time for that Zelda Notes functionality.

Should you buy The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Nintendo Switch 2 Edition?Buy it if...

You’ve never played Breath of the Wild before or are looking to replay it
There is literally no reason to go back to the original Nintendo Switch or Wii U version of Breath of the Wild if you have access to the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition. The enhanced framerate and visuals make this the number one version of the game easily.

You’re into Zelda lore
I can’t believe it either, but the Zelda Notes mobile app is actually a fantastic addition. The Voice Memories are a great addition to the game that give you narrated lore dumps as you explore the map and hear Zelda talk about areas of the map from before Link was put into a slumber.

Don't buy it if...

You don’t have a Switch 2
While it is the definitive version of the game, it’s not so transformative an experience that you need to rush out and buy a Nintendo Switch 2 right away to play it.

Accessibility

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Nintendo Switch 2 Edition doesn’t have much going on with it accessibility wise. While you still have access to gyro aiming and the ability to rebind your controls from the Switch 2 menu (which won’t translate to the correct button prompts in-game), there’s nothing much to write home about.

How I reviewed The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Nintendo Switch 2 Edition

I played 10 hours of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Nintendo Switch 2 Edition on top of the 140 hours I played of the game on the original Nintendo Switch. During this time I first played the opening hours of the game again on a fresh save, got myself off the great plateau and explored the world. I then jumped into my old save to test out the Zelda Notes app by finding Shrines I missed the first time around and Voice Memories.

I played this in a mixture of handheld mode on the Nintendo Switch 2 itself and on a Samsung Q60D TV and a Samsung HW-T450 soundbar using the Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller.

First reviewed June 2025

Samsung HW-QS700F: Two-minute review

The Samsung HW-QS-700F is one of the company's latest soundbars. It combines the performance of Samsung’s Q series models with a stylish lifestyle-friendly design usually found in Samsung’s S series soundbars. Does this mean this crossover soundbar is twice as nice, though, or has becoming a jack of all trades made it a master of none?

At first glance, you might be forgiven for not understanding why the Samsung QS700F might be considered a designer ‘lifestyle’ example of the best soundbars. With its long, angular, hard-finished main soundbar and compact, roughly cubic subwoofer, it looks mighty similar to the components of Samsung’s latest performance-led Q series models.

That’s not to say it’s ugly; it’s slender enough to fit beneath most TV screens, long and deep enough to promise some potent sound, and robustly finished enough to feel like a premium product. And the new subwoofer design Samsung has adopted across most of its soundbar range this year might even be called cute thanks to its relatively small footprint, rounded edges, crisp black finish and jauntily large circular drivers.

In the end, though, despite unfortunately not joining most of Samsung’s performance-oriented Q series models in carrying a proper built-in LED display, it shares more immediate DNA with the Q series than the usually sleeker, smaller S Series.

The S part of the QS700F deal heaves into view with its so-called Convertible Fit feature. This “dynamic dual set-up” system means that, unlike the vast majority of other soundbars, the QS700F can be configured to truly work in either a wall hanging or stand placement.

Of course, many other soundbars out there can either be attached to a wall or placed on a bit of furniture. Practically none of those other soundbars, though, do what the QS700F does and actually adjust their speaker configuration to optimise their performance for their separate wall-hanging or stand placement options.

What happens with the QS700F, essentially, is that the front and up-firing height speakers in play when the soundbar is sat on a TV stand can reverse their functionality if you tip the soundbar up into a vertical position and turn it upside down to place it flat on a wall. There’s even a gyro system built into the QS700F’s main bar component that can automatically tell if the soundbar is being used flat or vertically, adjusting the sound channel configuration accordingly.

Pictures are worth a thousand words when it comes to explaining this extremely rare feature, so I suggest you take a moment to peruse the below images if you’re still struggling to figure out how it does what it does – and why the result is so different to simply sticking a regular soundbar on a wall bracket.

Image 1 of 2

A gyro system built into the QS700F reverses the front and the up-firing height speakers when the soundbar is tipped up into a vertical position to place it flat on a wall for a wall-mount installation (see next slide). (Image credit: Future)Image 2 of 2

(Image credit: Future)

The QS700F isn’t the first soundbar that’s been expressly designed to look good and work well when mounted on a wall. Most wall-based soundbar designs, however, can’t also be used in a stand set-up. And soundbars that can do what the QS700F does and completely reconfigure their driver array to support both horizontal and vertical setups are very rare indeed. The main current model I can think of is the Devialet Dione, with its ‘rotating ball’ centre channel speaker, but that will currently set you back £1,800 / around $2,440 – two and a half times what the QS700F costs.

Delivering genuine wall or stand placement flexibility isn’t the QS700F’s only attraction, though. Its 3.1.2 channel count is also more numerous than might have been expected with such an affordable and customisable soundbar – especially given that the .2 bit indicates the presence of two up-firing speakers for Dolby Atmos height effects that are available in either of the soundbar’s two orientation options, and the .1 bass channel bit is delivered by an external subwoofer.

This subwoofer manages to combine likeable, compact aesthetics, too, with two startlingly large drivers on two of its opposing sides. One of these is an active 8-inch driver, while the other is a smaller, passive unit, with the dual-sided approach intended to make it possible to underpin music and, especially, film soundtracks with smoother and less directional bass than Samsung’s previous sub designs did.

The Dolby Atmos playback support (for music as well as movies) mentioned earlier is joined by support for DTS:X soundtracks too, while music lovers can enjoy their favourite tunes streamed in via direct Chromecast, Spotify Connect, Airplay and Tidal Connect support. Supported music file formats are expansive, too, including MP3, AAC, OGG, FLAC, WAV, ALAC and AIFF.

Stereo music can be played in its basic two-channel format by the QS700F, as you would expect, but its sound presets also include a couple of options that can upmix two-channel music to take advantage of all of the system’s available channels. The Surround mode is the most straightforward of these two options, while an Adaptive option brings AI into play, with a particular focus on optimising volume and enhancing detailing and clarity.

A Game preset, meanwhile, emphasises the multi-channel directionality of the surround sound (often Dolby Atmos) audio tracks modern games typically use, to both make the game world feel more immediate and intense, and to give you a better idea of exactly where approaching or attacking enemies are relative to your own position.

The QS700F's compact remote control (Image credit: Future)

While the QS700F doesn’t carry nearly as many channels as you get with Samsung’s flagship soundbars for 2025, there’s still enough going on to potentially present you with a bit of a setup headache. Happily, though, Samsung has equipped the QS700F with a so-called SpaceFit Sound Pro system that automatically and constantly works to optimise the tone and impact of the bass to keep it in line with the rest of the soundstage, as well as keeping dialogue and effects in balance.

If you decide you want to make the QS700F a full surround system, you can either add a pair of Samsung’s SWA-9500S speakers for £249 / $299, or a pair of Samsung’s Music Frame speakers for a £800 / $600. As well as being much cheaper, I’d suggest the SWA-9500Ses would be the much better option for adding to the QS700F because they include extra up-firing speakers as well as the main forward-facing drivers, enhancing Dolby Atmos’s hemisphere of sound effect.

The QS700F is decently connected considering how affordable it is for such an innovative design, with an HDMI pass-through being joined by an optical digital audio input and the now expected Bluetooth and Wi-Fi streaming options. The Wi-Fi functionality even extends to support for Samsung’s Wireless Dolby Atmos streaming, where the soundbar can receive Dolby Atmos soundtracks from compatible Samsung TVs without the need for any cables.

The QS700F supports Samsung’s Q Symphony system, too, where the speakers in the TV can work alongside those in the soundbar to create a more detailed and well-staged soundscape, rather than the soundbar just taking over all sound duties by itself.

The one disappointment with the QS700F’s connections is that the HDMI pass-through doesn’t join the HDMI ports on Samsung’s Q990F flagship soundbar in supporting 4K 120Hz gaming feeds. So if you have a console or PC capable of outputting graphics to that format, you’ll have to connect your gaming device directly to your TV and use eARC functionality to send game sound from the TV to the soundbar. That approach can sometimes, though thankfully not that often these days, cause a loss of synchronisation between the pictures on your TV and the sound coming from the soundbar.

The QS700F's top surface control buttons (Image credit: Future)

The QS700F’s performance turns out to be startlingly uncompromised by its innovative multi-placement design. There are some mild differences in how it sounds in its two usage configurations, but overall, it sounds excellent whichever way round you use it, and better, in fact, than most ‘standard’ soundbars at the same sort of price point.

Looking first at performance features that remain consistent regardless of whether you’re using the QS700F in its vertical or horizontal stance, the most immediate thing you notice is how powerful it is. Despite its fairly compact two-piece design, it’s capable of both getting seriously loud and projecting its sound far beyond the boundaries of its physical form. The result is a sound that’s capable of filling at least the front half of even quite a substantial room with a really potent soundstage.

There’s much more to the QS700F’s power and projection than just brute force and loudness, though. Its speakers are also sensitive enough to deliver impressive amounts of detail, be it a mild background ambient sound or a more specific, placed effect. Yet it does so with an excellent sense of balance, where no sound stands out artificially brightly from the mix.

Spot effects are accurately placed in the three-dimensional sound space the QS700F creates in either of its vertical or horizontal placement configurations, too, and sound transitions as noisy objects move around the three-dimensional space are tracked with strong and involving accuracy, clarity and consistency, even if there are multiple moving objects to track at the same time.

Impact sounds are delivered with a degree of venom and projection that’s rare indeed at the QS700F’s price point, while the subwoofer performs well beyond its size, underpinning action scenes with seriously deep and distortion-free rumbles. These also, crucially, feel like natural extensions of the dynamic range delivered by the main bar, with no sense of bagginess or dislocation in the way the subwoofer’s sound ‘attaches to’ it.

Treble effects, finally, also emerge without sounding distorted or overly shrill, especially as the subwoofer’s contributions at the other end of the spectrum provide such a potent counterpoint.

While the QS700F is at its absolute best as an ultra-flexible movie soundbar, it’s also a strong music performer. In either of its vertical or horizontal configurations, music enjoys good staging, with effective but not over-stated stereo separation, nicely positioned vocals that sit at the centre of and slightly above the rest of the mix, and some tight and typically well-timed and consistent bass from the subwoofer.

They might not be to everybody’s taste, but the surround sound upmixing options the QS700F provides for stereo sources work unusually well, too. There’s a level of intelligence and naturalism about the way elements in a stereo mix are separated out and redirected around the system’s 3.1.2 channels that you don’t get with arguably any other soundbar brand bar except, perhaps, Sony. Add a pair of the optional rear speakers and the upmixing becomes even more effective, sounding at times more like a professional surround mix than something that’s being essentially made up on the fly by Samsung’s processing.

The QS700F's rear ports include HDMI pass-through for connecting an external source like a Blu-ray player (Image credit: Future)

Looking at the differences in the way the QS700F sounds in its vertical and horizontal configurations coincides for the most part with the weaker aspects of the soundbar’s performance.

Due I think to its rather unusual configuration, where it sits tucked up into the upper edge of the soundbar when it’s placed on a desktop so that it can also work when the soundbar has been turned upside down and placed vertically on a wall, the centre channel speaker isn’t a total success. It can sound a touch muffled at times when using the soundbar in its TV stand set up, and in the wall-hanging configuration, while dialogue sounds clearer, it can also sound like it’s coming from slightly below the onscreen action. (Simply overriding the auto-calibration system and turning the centre channel volume output up a couple of notches helps the stand set up centre channel issue, mind you.)

With the QS700F used vertically, for wall hanging, height and ambient effects in a Dolby Atmos mix aren’t spread quite as far and wide or with quite as much authority and polish as they are when the soundbar is in its desktop position. Finally, stereo music sounds slightly more open, rich and detailed with the QS700F in its vertical stance. In stand mode, stereo music sounds a bit hemmed in, not quite escaping from the soundbar’s bodywork as cleanly and effectively as movie soundtracks do.

In the end, I’d suggest sticking with Standard mode for stereo music playback if the soundbar’s hanging on a wall, but at least giving an extended trial to the Surround mode for two-channel music if the soundbar’s sat on a surface.

I need to wrap all this up, though, by circling back to the point I made earlier that while there are one or two mostly minor performance differences in how the QS700F sounds in its two different set ups, Samsung’s new soundbar’s unique convertible fit design doesn’t stop it from still sounding much better, especially with movies, in either of its configurations than the vast majority of normal soundbars do.

Samsung HW-QS700F review: Specs

Dimensions (W x H x D)

Main bar: 1160 x 51 x 120mm/45.67 x 2 x 4.725 in, Subwoofer: 249 x 252 x 249mm/9.8 x 9.92 x 9.8 in

Speaker channels

3.1.2

Connections:

HDMI input, HDMI output (eARC), Bluetooth 5.3, Wi-Fi, Airplay, digital optical input, wireless Dolby Atmos

Dolby Atmos/DTS:X

Yes/Yes

Sub included

Yes

Rear speakers included

No

Features

4K 120Hz passthrough, voice assistant support, room calibration

Samsung HW-QS700F review: Price & release date

The QS700F comes with a compact, dual-driver subwoofer (Image credit: Future)

• First available: April 2025
• Price: £749 / $699.99 / AU$999

The QS700F was released globally in April 2025. While the brand launched a slim-design Q700D soundbar in 2024, the QS700F’s unusual convertible fit design means that it stands as a new product category for Samsung rather than just being an evolution of a previous soundbar model.

The HW-QS700F costs £749 in the UK, $699.99 in the US and $999 in Australia. These prices make the QS700F great value for such a flexible but still high-performance model.

Should I buy the Samsung HW-QS700F?

(Image credit: Future)Samsung HW-QS700F soundbar

Attributes

Notes

Rating

Features

3.1.2 channels of sound, Dolby Atmos and DTS support, Bluetooth, and a rare true multi-placement design

4.5 / 5

Performance

Outstanding power, detail and staging that mostly holds up no matter which way round you use it

4 / 5

Design

The way the speakers change their role to suit different setups is genius, and both the main bar and wireless sub are surprisingly compact for such a powerful system

4 .5/ 5

Value

Considering the combination of performance and features it provides, the QS700F looks like a pretty good deal

4.5 / 5

Buy it if...

You want a soundbar that can truly switch between wall and surface use

The QS700F joins the rare breed of soundbar design that can swap speaker duties around depending on whether the soundbar is hung on a wall or sat on a tabletop.

You want much more powerful sound than your TV could ever manage

Worries that the QS700F’s extremely unusual focus on delivering a low-profile design, whether it’s wall- or stand-mounted, would compromise Samsung’s usually powerful soundbar performance proved spectacularly unfounded. No TV sound system can sound anywhere near this good.

Don't buy it if...

You want an out-of-the-box full surround sound experience

While the QS700F creates a large soundstage, it doesn’t include any rear speakers and so can’t extend its sound behind you.

You’re sure you will only ever want to sit your soundbar on a piece of furniture

If you don’t envisage ever wall-hanging your soundbar, then I guess you could get a ‘normal’ soundbar instead. Though the QS700F sounds good enough in its simple desktop mode to stand tall against most of its ‘standard’ mid-range rivals.

Samsung HS-QS700F soundbar: Also consider

Samsung HW-QS700F

Sonos Arc Ultra

Samsung HW-Q800D

Price:

£749/$699/AU$999

£999/$999/AU$1,799

£699/$699/AU$799

Dimensions (w x h x d):

Main bar: 1160 x 51 x 120mm/45.67 x 2 x 4.725 inches, Subwoofer: 249 x 252 x 249mm/9.8 x 9.92 x 9.8 inches

1178 x 75 x 110.6mm/46.38 x 2.95 x 4.35 inches

Main bar - 1110.7 x 60.4 x 120mm/43.73 x 2.38 x 4.73 inches; Subwoofer - 403 x 210 x 403mm/15.87 x 8.27 x 15.87

Speaker Channels:

3.1.2

9.1.4

5.1.2

Connections:

HDMI input, HDMI output (eARC), Bluetooth 5.3, Wi-Fi, Airplay, digital optical input, wireless Dolby Atmos

HDMI input (eARC), Bluetooth, Ethernet port, Wi-Fi, Airplay, Sonos Multiroom

HDMI input, HDMI output (with eARC), Bluetooth 5.2, Wi-Fi, digital optical audio, Airplay, Wireless Dolby Atmos

Dolby Atmos/DTS:X:

Yes/Yes

Yes/No

Yes/Yes

Sub / rear speakers included:

Yes/No

No/No

Yes/No

Sonos Arc Ultra

The Sonos Arc Ultra is one of our current favourite one-box soundbars. The scale and detail of the sound it’s able to produce from its surprisingly compact form is incredible, and while it doesn’t ship with a subwoofer, its integrated low frequency system still delivers startling amounts of rumble and bass. You can add optional rear and subwoofer speakers too. The Sonos Arc Ultra doesn’t support true multi-position placement like the QS700F, though, and it also costs £250 more.

Read our full Sonos Arc Ultra review

Samsung HW-Q800D

The Samsung HW-Q800D was rated by us in our recent best soundbars of 2025 selection as the best soundbar for most people. A position it earns by virtue of being an excellent all-rounder that combines outstanding sound quality, a compact two-piece design, good connectivity and a great value price considering what it offers. It’s a 2024 model, though, so if you want one, you’d best be quick about it – and again, it doesn’t truly support multi-position placement like the QS700F does.

Read our full Samsung HW-Q800D review

How I tested the Samsung HW-QS700F

(Image credit: Future)

• Tested across 9 days
• Used in both a regular living room environment and a dedicated test room, in both its wall-mount and stand mount orientations
• Tested with a mixture of music and video sources

Testing the Samsung QS700F was more complicated than usual, thanks to its Convertible Fit technology, requiring it to be used for half the time in a regular surface-mounted stance, and half the time in a vertical wall-mounted stance. I tested it extensively in both of its configurations with a range of CDs, high-quality audio streams and 4K Blu-ray movie soundtracks.

The 4K Blu-ray soundtracks I used included both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X mixes, since the QS700F supports both, while stereo music was tested both in native two-channel mode and using the soundbar’s multi-channel upmix feature.

First reviewed: June 2025

Read more about how we test

Bravely Default Flying Fairy HD Remaster is a weird Nintendo Switch 2 launch title, something of a time capsule in every manner the phrase could imply. As a game, it’s stubbornly unchanged, and yet by being so familiar, it remains just as enjoyable as it was on its initial Nintendo 3DS release.

Review info

Platform reviewed: Nintendo Switch 2
Available on: Nintendo Switch 2
Release date: June 5, 2025

As the game’s producer Tomoya Asano noted ahead of this remaster’s release, Bravely Default was designed as a throwback to the classic 2D and 16-bit era of RPGs.

Its success both at home and abroad inspired the company to develop its HD-2D titles, such as Octopath Traveler and the Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake. It emulates classic Final Fantasy with a grand globe-trotting adventure to save the world, wonderfully representative of the Nintendo Entertainment System and Super Nintendo Entertainment System eras of the storied franchise.

One day, a great chasm suddenly opens in the earth underneath the village of Norende, with Tiz the sole survivor. The four crystals driving the natural balance of the world have been plunged into darkness. When he runs into one of the Vestals (priestesses of the crystals), Agnes Oblige, he is inspired to protect her and seek a way to reawaken them. Over time, you are joined in your travels by Edea Lee and Ringabel, and these four warriors of light set out to rejuvenate the world.

This is a turn-based RPG, enhanced by a deep job system and much more. The result evolves this basic framework into something highly engaging and, even all these years later, wholly unique. The titular Brave and Default mechanics bring a fascinating risk-reward thrill to difficult combat: you begin with 0 BP in each battle, with any action consuming one point. You can act multiple times in a single term by using Brave, consuming extra BP, but you’ll be unable to act again until you recover to at least zero.

Default is this game’s term for defending: you won’t act, but you’ll gain an extra BP and take less damage, allowing you to act twice next time without skipping a turn. By building up BP across multiple characters and tying it to special moves it allows for some intense all-out attacks if you strategize correctly.

Fairy-ly Strategic

(Image credit: Square Enix)

And strategize you must. Success against bosses hinges on correctly utilizing this system, as well as the jobs. These are the various classes you may already be familiar with, such as mages, thieves, and knights, alongside more exotic jobs like merchants.

Mastery of these classes allows you to inherit some of their abilities to other classes, essentially allowing a character to embody the best of two jobs at once. Battles require not just good strategy but knowing your limits, all while taking advantage of this job system to craft a mage with the speed of a thief, and so on.

One typical frustration when it comes to turn-based RPGs is that combat can soon feel slow or repetitive. These systems combine to avoid that. If you do feel the need to grind to increase your level, earn money, or improve a character’s class proficiency, you can assign actions for characters to take in auto-battles or change encounter rates and battle speed.

Best bit

(Image credit: Square Enix)

After first struggling to beat a boss, stepping back to adjust your jobs and equipment before tackling it with the right balance of offense and defense takes advantage of every aspect of the battle system, and makes victory feel oh-so sweet.

It’s hard to find much to complain about when it comes to Bravely Default Flying Fairy HD Remaster. It was praised in its time for being one of the best RPGs, and that remains true today. The script and characters charm, the battles thrill, just as they did before. Next to nothing has changed.

The character models and world are the same low-polygon 3D models as the 3DS release, bar a few upgraded textures, a fact only more apparent in the models for minor characters or the stiff, limited animations in cutscenes. It’s a testament to the timeless art style of the original game that the towns and select areas remain at times stunning and never feel garish when blown up on a larger screen.

A lingering legacy

(Image credit: Square Enix)

The only real differences in Bravely Default Flying Fairy HD Remaster are more of a necessity than anything else: the old game made heavy use of the network features of the 3DS, encouraging players to send combat support to other players while walking out in the world via StreetPass, or linking the abilities of your party with friends. These have been adapted to the Nintendo Switch Online ecosystem somewhat awkwardly, the joy of encountering strangers while walking outside replaced with much less interesting ghosts in towns.

There are two new minigames, but these feel like they exist primarily as an excuse to justify Nintendo Switch 2 exclusivity. They each use mouse controls, but not very effectively. Luxencheer Rhythm Catch is a rhythm game timed to a few iconic songs from the game’s soundtrack while a character of your choice dances along. It’s serviceable, but doesn't feel as natural as a proper rhythm game should.

Ringabel’s Panic Cruise is easily the more involved and interesting of the pair, putting you behind the controls of an airship as you steer around a course and react to commands by pulling switches and knobs or blowing whistles. I could imagine myself enjoying a full game with this concept and controls, but here it feels like little more than a tech demo. With both hidden in submenus, these will be forgotten almost immediately.

(Image credit: Square Enix)

Take these minimal bonus features away, and this is almost exactly the same game as it was before. Excluding a few quality of life changes and an adaptation from a two-screen handheld to a single-screen hybrid console, this is identical to the original release. Often, titles like Bravely Default may receive a new translation ahead of a new release, but even that remains unchanged here.

This, at least for me, is fine. In retaining as much of this 3DS experience as possible, Bravely Default Flying Fairy HD Remaster stands apart from its contemporaries as something unlike other RPGs on the market right now, faithfully making a classic of the genre accessible to a new generation.

While it’s a tough sell to those who played the original game upon its release due to the unchanged nature of this story and gameplay, I’ve personally enjoyed the excuse to revisit it, exactly as I remember.

For all it isn’t pushing the new hardware to the limits while the limited new features are more of an excuse and obligation to test new hardware than enhance the experience, it’s hard to complain when you have one of the best RPGs of the last 15 years on the largest or smallest screen you could desire.

Should I play Bravely Default Flying Fairy HD Remaster?

(Image credit: Square Enix)Play it if...

You never tried the original game
An adventure inspired by the classics but updated into something singular, Bravely Default is still not only timeless, it’s one of the best RPGs of the past 15 years

You love to strategize
No matter your level or job, an overly offensive or poorly strategized boss fight can leave you vulnerable to defeat in any fight. You’re always on your toes in your journey to save the world.

Characters and story drive your play
Bravely Default has such a charming core cast of characters whose chemistry will leave you laughing from the moment you meet. Their jokes and spirit alone can keep the adventure going.

Don't play it if...

You’re a returning player wanting something new
There’s nothing here you haven’t seen before if you played the original game. While Bravely Default is an enjoyable enough experience worth replaying, don’t come expecting a new perspective on this classic.

You want to push your new Switch 2 to the limits
This is a Nintendo 3DS game at its core, and the title has been given minimal visual upgrades. New content is limited to two minigames. This won’t test the power of the device or push all the new features of Nintendo Switch 2.

Accessibility features

While it’s possible to adjust language and subtitle options in Bravely Default Flying Fairy HD Remaster, and there is hardware-level limited button remapping for those using the Switch 2 Charging Grip or Pro Controller, there are no other accessibility features for those needing features such as colorblind mode.

How I reviewed Bravely Default Flying Fairy HD Remaster

I played 20 hours of Bravely Default Flying Fairy HD Remaster and tried all features, including town rebuilding and bonus minigames.

This brought me partway into the second chapter of the game, although I did complete the game upon its initial release on Nintendo 3DS and compared the experience between the two titles.

Much of the game was played on a Nintendo Switch 2 in handheld or tabletop mode, as well as on an ASUS VG27AQL1A gaming monitor. Audio was utilized in a mix of the system’s internal speakers, Apple AirPods Max connected wirelessly to the device, as well as Denon speakers connected to the monitor via a Yamaha A-S301 Amplifier.

First reviewed June 2025

I’m happy to see Brother boarding the bulk tank bandwagon at last. Given the outrageous profit margins to be had from inkjet cartridges, its reluctance is understandable, but Brother is expecting to catch up with the launch of this compact and competitively priced supertanker.

The Brother DCP-T580DW is the more affordable model in a new refillable range that’s aimed at the home office or micro business. It’s a basic color A4 all-in-one with key features such as auto-duplex printing, hi-res scanning and Wi-Fi with AirPrint compatibility built in. There’s no automatic document feed (ADF), rear paper tray or color display, which are reserved for the slightly more expensive Brother DCP-T780DW, which also performed better on test.

But what puts this modest multifunction printer ahead of the cartridge-bound competition are its four ink tanks and four bundled bottles of ink, enabling you to print up to 7,500 black and white pages and 5,000 color. For comparison, the HP Envy 6530e comes with cartridges containing enough ink for 120 back pages and 75 in color. You can see why consumers are choosing tank printers. But how does this entry-level model from Brother compare to the best ink tank printers? I tested it to find out.

Brother DCP-T580DW: Design and buildImage 1 of 4

(Image credit: Brother // Future)Image 2 of 4

(Image credit: Brother // Future)Image 3 of 4

(Image credit: Brother // Future)Image 4 of 4

(Image credit: Brother // Future)Specs

Type: color tank inkjet printer

Functions: Print, copy, scan

Connectivity: Ethernet, USB, Wi-Fi

Data storage slots: none

Max print speed: 16ipm (mono)

Max paper size: A4/legal

Print quality: 1,200 x 600 dpi

Apple AirPrint: yes

Consumables included: 4 bottles (7,500 black, 5,000 color pages)

Dimensions/Weight: 15.35 x 13.50 x 5.87in (WxDxH) / 17.42lb - 390 x 343 x 149 mm (WxDxH)/7.9kg

The Brother DCP-T580DW is really a second generation tank printer, following the odd-looking Brother DCP-T525W, which was sold exclusively through Amazon. This version sees Brother take its tank printers to the UK for the first time and it looks much more refined, with the four tanks integrated into a commendably compact design that looks no bigger than a cartridge printer.

To achieve this neat form factor, instead than having the ink reservoirs bulging out at the side as before, their capacity has been reduced. At 48.8 milliliters, these tanks are smaller than Epson’s 65ml EcoTanks, or HP’s 70ml Smart Tanks.

In fact, it’s slightly less than some of Brother’s high-capacity INKvestment Tank cartridges. However, it’s still way more than your average cartridge and it allows this printer to be small enough to sit on your desk without stealing too much space.

There’s only one paper input and its cassette, which holds up to 150 sheets of letter, legal or A4 paper, protrudes slightly from the front. There’s a flatbed scanner on top, but no ADF and the display is a very basic single-line affair surrounded by the usual array of buttons on a tilting panel. The two ports for connecting power and USB cables are at the left side, rather than the rear, which might suit your setup, or it might not.

Brother DCP-T580DW: Features & specifications Image 1 of 3

(Image credit: Brother // Future)Image 2 of 3

(Image credit: Brother // Future)Image 3 of 3

(Image credit: Brother // Future)

For an entry-level business inkjet, the Brother DCP-T580DW has a sensible specification. The print speed is quite fast for an inkjet at 16imp in black and white pages or 9ipm in color, while the Wi-Fi is 5GHz with AirPrint compatibility. The print resolution is given as 1,200 x 600dpi, with ink droplets delivered through 420 nozzles. That’s 70 nozzles for each color and 120 for black.

The main paper tray is your only input option and it can hold up to 150 sheets of plain A4, letter or legal paper and the weight limit is 220gsm. It’s worth noting that the step-up model adds a rear multipurpose paper input which is able to take thicker paper weighing up to 300gsm. The DCP-T780DW also has a larger display with a color screen and a 20-sheet ADF that makes the DCP-T580DW look pretty light on features.

Brother DCP-T580DW: Setup and operationImage 1 of 2

(Image credit: Brother // Future)Image 2 of 2

(Image credit: Brother // Future)

The printed quick start guide is very clear, and you probably won’t need it. Simply load your paper, plug in and turn on. The on-screen prompts will tell you to enter the date and time and when to fill the ink reservoirs. I recommend downloading Brother’s accompanying app called Smart Connect, which will help you get your printer connected to your Wi-Fi network.

This iOS/Android app is also great for printing remotely and checking your printer’s status. With such a small black and white display on the printer, your smartphone offers a much better user interface.

Pouring ink into the tanks is a clean and easy process, or at least it should be. The bottles are the same capacity as the tanks and their necks only fit their corresponding tanks, so you can’t make any catastrophic mix-ups. I didn’t spill a drop, until I made the mistake of only part-filling the tanks and replacing the half empty bottles in the box. What a mess!

Unlike Epson, HP and Canon’s bottles, Brother’s bottles don’t re-seal, even when you think you screwed the lids on tight. To be fair to this printer, it did tell me to ‘fill’ the tanks, so I won’t mark it down for human error.

Brother DCP-T580DW: Performance

(Image credit: Brother // Future)

For me, the Brother DCP-T580DW worked well, starting up promptly and printing as quickly as promised. It makes a slightly annoying wining noise when printing, so it’s less quiet than most inkjets, but there were no instances of jamming, creasing or smudging during the test. The ADF managed to pull in multi-page documents and copy them without any problems and the duplicates were faithful enough.

The print quality is acceptable, but somewhat disappointing at this price point. Starting with black text documents on plain paper, it’s evident that Brother is using a dye-based black ink, which is fine, but the characters look slightly less bold than a pigment black. With office oriented printers you often find dye-based C/M/Y and a pigment BK because text looks sharper and is more scratch and fade resistant, but I wouldn’t necessarily expect it at this budget level.

The colored inks look bright enough, so mixed color documents look fine. It’s when you get to printing images and photos on coated paper that you notice a lack of fine detail resolution. The quoted resolution of 1,200 x 600dpi is the same as the more expensive Brother DCP-T780DW, but it’s achieved using exactly half the number of nozzles. The lower-spec printheads on the Brother DCP-T580DW deliver a very noticeable dip in image quality. The overall print performance is probably good enough for most office documents, homework and handouts, but it’s not great for photos.

Brother DCP-T580DW: Consumables Image 1 of 2

(Image credit: Brother // Future)Image 2 of 2

(Image credit: Brother // Future)

Brother comes with three bottles containing 48.8ml of yellow, cyan and magenta and a 108ml bottle of black. This should yield up to 5,000 color pages and 7,500 black and white and a replacement ink set from Brother costs around US$47 or £35, which is a very low cost-per-page. And there’s nothing to stop you using cheaper third party ink.

Brother DCP-T580DW: Maintenance

Being an inkjet printer, the Brother DCP-T580DW is liable to dry out and print badly or not at all if left unused for a length of time. The problem is ink clogging the nozzles and the solution is flushing them through with more ink. At least bottled ink is affordable enough to do that without getting upset. This printer has unusually versatile maintenance options with a choice of three flushing cycles of varying strength depending on the state of your nozzles.

Brother DCP-T580DW: Final verdict

I found much to admire about the Brother DCP-T580DW, from its compact size and fast duplex printing, to its low TCO (total cost of ownership). The features list is rather thin as there’s no ADF, the display is tiny and there’s only one paper input. But at least it ticks all the key boxes, such as auto-duplex printing, A4 scanning, dual-band Wi-Fi and plenty of bottled ink in the box.

It’s a pity the print performance is below average for this price category, with dull dye-based blacks and photos that lack fine detail. For most purposes, it’s probably good enough, but it’s hard to recommend the Brother DCP-T580DW, when the slightly more expensive Brother DCP-T780DW offers all the missing features, more ink and much better print quality.

For more print solutions, I've tested and reviewed the best home printers you can get right now.

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Dyson Purifier Cool Gen1 TP10 Purifying Fan: two-minute review

The Dyson Purifier Cool Gen1 TP10 Purifying Fan is a tower fan and air purifier combo that helps you beat the heat while improving the quality of the surrounding air.

Available in the US, UK, and Australia, you can find the Dyson Purifier Cool Gen1 TP10 Purifying Fan with a list price of $429.99 / £449.99 / AU$799 at Dyson or third-party retailers. As I write this, there are discounts available at Dyson US and Amazon UK, reducing the price to $299.99 / £349.99, so it’s worth checking if there are savings to be made before you buy.

With its bladeless loop amplifier, glossy plastic, and metallic finishes, the Dyson Purifier Cool Gen1 TP10 Purifying Fan has the modern, clean aesthetic we’ve come to expect from the brand. Generally, it’s available in a white and nickel colorway, but there’s a bonus option of black and nickel over in the US.

(Image credit: Future)

Unlike most of the best fans and best air purifiers, the Dyson Purifier Cool Gen1 TP10 Purifying Fan lacks onboard controls and app compatibility, and can only be controlled with the included remote control. While this in itself isn’t an issue, as the remote works well and has a magnetic, curved design that makes it easy to store on the top of the loop amplifier, it does mean that you’d be a bit scuppered if you happened to lose the remote. Not to mention that, at this price point, it’s verging on stingy that Dyson hasn’t given the TP10 the app compatibility that’s included with their more expensive products.

In terms of the fan performance, I got the results I expected when testing the TP10 Purifying Fan; namely that it produced a smooth and cooling flow of air, the strength of which was particularly impressive when running at top speed, as I could still feel the cooling effects 14ft / 4.3m away.

As the Dyson Purifier Cool Gen1 TP10 Purifying Fan’s sensors can only detect particulate matter and not VOCs (volatile organic compounds), it won’t automatically react to all airborne nasties, but it’s still capable of filtering them thanks to the HEPA H13 and activated carbon filter. The LCD screen displays the real-time levels of PM2.5 and PM10 in micrograms per cubic meter, with color coding making it clear how this translates to air quality, ranging from good to very poor. There’s also a 24-hour graph, which offers a basic indication of the changes in air quality over time.

(Image credit: Future)

I was happy with the speedy detection and prompt air clearing I recorded during my time testing the TP10 Purifying Fan, with it detecting and clearing contamination from dry shampoo within a minute of me spraying it, and automatically upping its power when my two fluffy cats paid a visit. It didn’t make a noticeable impact on food odors or the dry shampoo fragrance, however.

The noise levels were also commendable, with the Dyson Purifier Cool Gen1 TP10 Purifying Fan giving whisper-quiet readings as low as 26dB and 33dB in auto mode and on fan speed one, and the highest reading on fan speed ten being just 52dB, which is equivalent to light traffic.

Despite my frustrations around the lack of app support, I’d still recommend the Dyson Purifier Cool Gen1 TP10 Purifying Fan, thanks to the overall good performance from both elements. If you’ve not got your heart set on a Dyson, or don’t want to have a tower fan running in the colder months, I recommend teaming up the Blueair Blue Pure 411i Max with the Shark TurboBlade. Both performed well in our testing, and thanks to regular deals, the two together often work out cheaper than the Dyson Purifier Cool Gen1 TP10 alone.

Dyson Purifier Cool Gen1 TP10 Purifying Fan review: price & availability

• List price: $429.99 / £449.99 / AU$799
• Available now in the US, UK, and Australia

Available from Dyson and other retailers, the Dyson Purifier Cool Gen1 TP10 purifying fan has a list price of $429.99 / £449.99 / AU$799. It’s available in white and silver, with an additional option of black and nickel for shoppers in the US. It’s worth keeping a lookout for potential savings, as at the time of writing, there’s a generous $130 saving on the white model at Dyson US, bringing the cost down to $299.99. Meanwhile, in the UK, there’s a 22% discount in effect, lowering the price to £349.99.

According to Dyson, the 360 Combi Glass HEPA + Carbon air purifier filter used in the TP10 could last around 12 months of 12-hour use. Replacement filters have a list price of $79.99 / £75 / AU$99, so it’s worth considering whether you’re happy to commit to paying this out on a fairly regular basis before making a purchase.

I initially considered the Dyson Purifier Cool Gen1 TP10 Purifying Fan a little overpriced, largely due to the lack of app support for the cost, but the TP10 won me over with its strong airflow, prompt particulate detection, and quick reaction times. Could you get a separate tower fan and air purifier that would do the job just as well for less money? Probably, but if you’re a Dyson fan who wants a Dyson fan, plus an air purifier, I’d recommend this combo.

• Value score: 4 out of 5

Dyson Purifier Cool Gen1 TP10 Purifying Fan review: specs

Type

Purifying tower fan

Fan speeds

10

Oscillation

45, 90, 180, 350 degrees

Timer

Yes

CADR (Clean air delivery rate)

Requested

Filter

HEPA H13 and activated carbon

Particle sizes detected

PM2.5, PM10

Dimensions

8.7 x 8.7 x 41.3 inches / 22 x 22 x 105cm

Weight

10.4 lb / 4.7kg

Control

Onboard power button and remote control

Timer

Only in sleep mode

Additional modes

Sleep mode

Dyson Purifier Cool Gen1 TP10 Purifying Fan review: design and features

• Offers real-time, color-coded PM2.5 and PM10 readings
• No smart features or app compatibility
• HEPA H13 filters are easy to access and replace

Featuring the classic Dyson aesthetic with its bladeless fan and smooth curves, this is a purifying fan I didn’t mind having out on display. That being said, I did find the glossy white plastic was a bit of a dust and lint magnet. The metallic nickel-color plastic was too, but it was barely noticeable compared to the white.

A useful combo for the summer months, the Purifier Cool Gen1 TP10 consists of a bladeless tower fan that sits on a purifying unit. This purifying unit houses a HEPA H13 filter, with H13 being considered to be within the highest tier of HEPA air filtration, and is understood to capture 99.95% of particles as small as 0.2 microns. The filter comes in two halves, with one half clipping into the front of the purifying unit, the other at the back. Both halves are easy to get to thanks to the push-down catches on either side of the unit.

(Image credit: Future)

There are ten fan speeds to cycle through, as well as an auto mode, which uses the sensors on the TP10 Purifying Fan to detect and react to the presence of particulate matter with a diameter of up to ten micrometers. It can’t detect VOCs (volatile organic compounds), which can be emitted by paint and cleaning chemicals, among other sources, but the carbon element of the 360 Combi Glass HEPA and Carbon air purifier filter means it’s still capable of clearing them from the air.

One thing that frustrates me with some Dyson devices is the lack of smart features and app compatibility. Considering this functionality is available with the more expensive Dyson products, and far cheaper brands offer remote control and air quality data via their apps, it seems a little unfair for Dyson to hold this feature back unless customers are willing to pay an even higher premium.

Aside from the power button, there’s a distinct lack of onboard controls on the TP10. This isn’t an outright issue, as I’d have used the included remote control nine times out of ten anyway, but with no app compatibility, it does mean I’d find myself in a bit of a pickle if I managed to lose the remote. As with all of the Dyson remotes I’ve used, the one for the TP10 is curved and magnetized, meaning it can be kept on the top of the fan.

(Image credit: Future)

The round LCD screen on the front of the TP10 is bright and large enough to read easily. It was easy to cycle through the multiple different displays using the information button on the remote control. The information I was most interested in was the particle readings, and I was happy to find there were dedicated screens showing the ambient levels of both PM2.5 and PM10. Both readings are independently communicated in numerals and color rating, making them simple to understand. The TP10 has been programmed to classify readings below 35 micrograms per cubic meter as good air quality, with higher readings colored either yellow for fair air quality, orange for poor, or red for very poor.

While the lack of a companion app means it’s not possible to view historical data, or real-time data when away from home, there’s a 24-hour graph on one of the display screens, so I could at least see if there’d been any spikes in contamination throughout the day – though that was as detailed as it got. It’s worth noting that the continuous monitoring needed to support this function isn’t enabled by default, but it’s a simple case of holding the auto button on the remote for five seconds to enable it.

• Design score: 3.5 out of 5

Dyson Purifier Cool Gen1 TP10 Purifying Fan review: performance

• Returned air quality to an acceptable level within a minute of air contamination
• Didn’t reduce or eliminate odors from cooking or fragrances
• Quickly reacted to the presence of cat fluff and dander

All of the fan functions performed as expected during my time testing the Dyson Purifier Cool Gen1 TP10 Purifying Fan. It was good to have a wide range of oscillation options, with four choices from 45 to 350 degrees, and I appreciated that, unlike the Dyson Cool CF1 desk fan, the TP10 remembered the last oscillation setting I’d used, so I didn’t have to cycle through the options each time. I find it curious that the timer on the TP10 Purifying Fan is only available in sleep mode, which dims the display, so I had to use the remote to wake the display if I wanted to view the current air quality reading whenever I used the timer.

The airflow felt smooth, but seemed to fluctuate a little at times. In terms of fan strength, I found I could feel a noticeable, cool breeze around 4ft / 1.2m away from the TP10 Purifying Fan on setting one, 7ft / 2m on setting five, and 14ft / 4.3m on speed 10, which is admirable considering it doesn’t run very loud.

(Image credit: Future)

To test the PM2.5 detection while the fan was on auto mode, I sprayed some dry shampoo around two feet away from the front of the TP10. The sensors picked up the presence of the dry shampoo particles in about 16 seconds, and I saw the levels of PM2.5 per cubic meter rapidly climbing on the LDC screen.

It was interesting to see a numerical representation of the speed at which the Dyson TP10 cleared the air, as not all air purifiers offer this level of data. In this case, the contamination dropped from 89 micrograms per cubic meter to 35 micrograms per cubic meter, which was back within the green range, within a minute of me spraying the dry shampoo. While it made quick work of clearing the particulates in the air, it didn’t have any effect on the odor from the dry shampoo or from the food smells from the minestrone soup I had on my lunch break.

It’s very easy to tell whether the larger-particle sensors on an air purifier are doing their job once I get my two very fluffy cats involved in the testing process, after evicting them from my living room for the initial stages of my testing, so that I can set a baseline. It was clear the particle sensors on the TP10 were sensitive to pet-related particles like fur and dander after both kitties came to investigate, as both the PM2.5 and PM10 readings rose by around eight micrograms, and the fan speed increased slightly to compensate. It stayed at roughly this level, with the occasional ramp-up in speed, for the entire time they were in the room. Once they’d wandered off, it took less than ten minutes for the purifier to bring the reading back down to its usual level.

(Image credit: Future)

The Dyson Purifier Cool Gen1 TP10 Purifying Fan operated really quietly, considering its size, with a lower than whisper-quiet reading of just 26dB when idling on auto mode, rising to 33dB on fan speed one, 38dB on speed 5, and just 52dB on speed ten, which is comparable to light traffic or background music. This is particularly positive when compared to the readings I got from the Molekule Air Pro, which gave an output of 38dB at the lowest fan speed, 51dB on speed three, and a pretty shouty 78dB at speed six, though admittedly the TP10 doesn’t have any where near as many bells and whistles.

As an added testament to the quiet functioning of the TP10 Purifying Fan, my very timid female cat spooks at most things, but was comfortable enough to touch her nose on the display even when the purifier was ramping up in response to her presence. It’s also worth mentioning that it was quiet enough to fall asleep next to, and I could happily watch TV with the TP10 running at level five fan speed nearby.

The quick detection, reaction, and purifying times meant I was pleased with the performance of the Dyson Purifier Cool Gen1 TP10 Purifying Fan overall, though I didn’t find it made the air feel quite as fresh as the GoveeLife Smart Air Purifier Lite.

• Performance score: 4.5 out of 5

Should I buy the Dyson Purifier Cool Gen1 TP10 Purifying Fan?

Section

Notes

Score

Value for money

The TP10’s premium design, pleasant cooling, and powerful purifying performance mean you won’t be disappointed, but you could save money by ditching Dyson and combining a well-performing fan and purifier instead.

4/5

Design & Features

The smooth curves, bladeless design, and nice material finish make the TP10 an attractive purifying solution. It detects and communicates the ambient levels of particulate matter before they’re captured by the HEPA H13 filter. It’s just a shame there’s no smart features.

3.5/5

Performance

I appreciated the satisfyingly strong airflow and prompt purifying performance, with the TP10’s sensors making quick work of detecting and removing particles from the air. Its quiet operation meant it wasn’t disruptive, so much so that it didn’t phase my flighty feline.

4.5/5

Buy it if...

You want something that’ll purify around your pets
The TP10 reacted promptly to my kitties’ presence, yet was still quiet enough that it didn’t unsettle my timid rescue cat.

You want detailed, real-time air quality readings
It’s easy to see the level of contamination with the usefully color-coded PM2.5 and PM10 readings. Plus, once continuous monitoring is enabled, there’s a 24-hour graph to get a view of the changes in air quality over the last day.

You want two functions in one device
If you’ve been tempted by a Dyson tower fan before, and want to make some improvements on your air quality, too, then this purifying fan is a good way to save space.

Don't buy it if...

You want a purifier that’ll detect VOCs
While the carbon element of the 360 combi filter can tackle VOCs (volatile organic compounds), the TP10 doesn’t have the tech to detect and react to raised levels.

You want to use the purifier independently
The 2-in-1 format of the TP10 worked well for me as I tested it in warmer weather, but as the purifier doesn’t work independently from the fan, it’s worth considering whether that’ll prove problematic in the colder months.

You want to keep an eye on your air quality data
As the TP10 isn’t compatible with the MyDyson app, short of registering your purchase and viewing user guides, there’s no way to view the air quality remotely or to keep track of the trends in air quality readings over time.

Dyson Purifier Cool Gen1 TP10 Purifying Fan review: Also consider

Dyson Purifier Cool Gen1 TP10

Blueair Blue Pure 411i Max / Blue Max 3250i

Shark TurboBlade

Type

Purifying tower fan

Air purifier

Multi-directional tower fan

Price

$429.99 / £449.99 / AU$799

$169.99 / £169

$299.99 / £249.99

Fan speeds

10

3

10

Additional modes

Auto, sleep mode

Auto, night mode

Natural Breeze, Sleep Mode, BreezeBoost

Oscillation

Up to 350 degrees

N/A

Up to 180 degrees

Filter

HEPA H13 and activated carbon

HEPASilent and activated carbon

N/A

App support

No

Yes

No

Dimensions

8.7 x 8.7 x 41.3 inches / 220 x 220 x 1,050mm

18.9 x 10.6 x 10.6" / 481 x 269 x 269 mm

11.8 x 31.6 x 44.8" / 300 x 800 x 1,120mm (max)

Weight

10.4 lb / 4.7kg

7.5 lbs / 3.4 kg

15lb / 8.8kg

Blueair Blue Pure 411i Max / Blue Max 3250i
If you’re after a purifier with smart capabilities that won’t cost you an arm and a leg, then this super-lightweight alternative will fit the bill. It’s better suited to smaller rooms, has fewer speed settings, and only detects and reacts to PM2.5, but it can still filter out the same nasties as the TP10. A key detail is the washable fabric prefilter, which helps reduce the amount of dust that reaches the HEPA filter within, and comes in a range of colors. To find out more, have a read of our full Blueair Blue Pure 411i Max / Blue Max 3250i review.

Shark TurboBlade
This tower fan twist offers multi-directional airflow and a range of adjustments to help customize your cooling, and is a fantastic alternative if you happen to like the bladeless aspect of Dyson fans, but not the price. Tower fans don’t typically offer height or vertical angle adjustments, so this clever concept from Shark is a breath of fresh air. If you’d like more information, go ahead and take a look at our full Shark TurboBlade review.

How I tested the Dyson Purifier Cool Gen1 TP10 Purifying Fan

• I used the TP10 purifying fan in the office and at home
• I observed its detection and purification skills
• I evaluated the strength of the airflow and the sound levels

I used the Dyson Purifier Cool Gen1 TP10 Purifying Fan in our photo studio, my home office, and my bedroom for one week. I evaluated how easy it was to operate, along with the build quality and aesthetics, and explored the available functions and features.

I tested the strength of the airflow by determining at what distance I could still feel a cooling breeze. I also observed the TP10 Purifying Fan’s detection and purification skills, both passively and during standardized testing.

I used a decibel meter app on my iPhone to record the noise levels, taking readings from around 2ft / 600mm away, ensuring the fan wasn’t blowing directly into the microphone.

I checked the timer worked as expected, and tested out the sleep mode to see whether the TP10 Purifying Fan was quiet enough for me to be able to sleep well with it running overnight.

• First reviewed: June 2025
• Read TechRadar's Reviews Guarantee

The Nintendo Switch 2 has finally arrived, and along with it, so have a handful of launch games. Some old, some new, and some, well, they land somewhere between those two categories.

Meet Survival Kids, a cooperative platformer, built on the bones of the 1999 Konami Game Boy Color game of the same name, and developed by the minds behind the wildly popular game engine Unity. Its inception is a mouthful, and yet when it comes to the reality of the game itself, it’s very simple – perhaps too simple.

Review info

Platform reviewed: Nintendo Switch 2
Available on: Nintendo Switch 2
Release date: June 6th, 2025

In Survival Kids, you play as a (you guessed it) kid who, after being capsized in a mythic storm, must craft their way across an ancient archipelago in the hopes of escape.

The twist on this classic survival set-up is that the islands themselves aren’t static and are, in fact, living turtles that can cause the islands to flood. While it’s an interesting premise, Survival Kids commits to a more casual play style, and the submerging occurs only when the player is ready. It’s a reasonable choice for a game built for a younger demographic — I only wish there were multiple game modes for players of all ages, or those who may be more adept.

As you progress, you’ll uncover new biomes and take on chaotic environmental hazards like purple-goo firing turrets and body-barrelling wind tunnels, using earnable tools like fishing rods, trampolines, and comically large leaf fans to best them. Much like the premise, the levels are similarly straightforward and offer an occasionally moreish workload of mindless tasks to complete with friends or by yourself.

Rinse and repeat

(Image credit: Konami)

Every level in Survival Kids begins with a capsizing, and players wash up on the shore of a new island. From this point on, the aim of the game is to consolidate resources and move your base camp to the highest point, where you’ll construct a raft and start the cycle all over again.

The parts you need to complete this objective range from easily-accessible vines and stones (which can be harnessed by chopping down trees or mining rocks) to hidden aeroplane wings and half-buried propeller parts. It’s not as complex as something like Astro Bot by any means, but the diversity of islands and the platforming challenges embedded in them were varied enough to keep me entertained as I continued to explore.

In place of any towering challenges or punishing mechanics, the biggest antagonist you’ll face here is your stamina, which dictates how far you can climb on a climbing net and whether you can unearth objects. To increase your stamina, you need to find and cook food, making sure not to burn your precious meal in your camp’s cooking pot by leaving it on the castaway-hob too long. The more food you load into the pot, the better the quality of the meal, providing you with extra precious stamina.

Beyond staying fed, there aren’t really any stakes to speak of. Sure, you can fall off a cliff and lose your items or fail to wrangle a fish. But you can simply go back and pick them up again or just cast your line at the same fish a second time.

(Image credit: Konami)

You’re never really punished for your mistakes in any meaningful way, which has its pros and cons. By keeping the workload accessible and forgiving, Survival Kids feels like a great introductory game for kids who may not be familiar with the Survival genre. Still, at times, it feels as though it’s underestimating what younger players are capable of, especially when you consider the alternatives on the market like Nintendo’s own appropriately challenging Super Mario Odyssey.

Upon completing a level, you’ll earn stars depending on how quickly you escaped the island or how many collectables — called Treasure Stones — you found in the process. Early on, these stars mean very little, and you can breeze through the game - no questions asked. However, as you near the end, there’s a good chance you’ll need to revisit an island to collect a few more to surpass some star-based progress gates.

With little else to latch onto, Survival Kids often feels a bit dry and lacks the personality to really make its mark. It says something that not even a quirky British narrator can lift the tone. In fact, their chatter quickly started to grate.

Play nice

(Image credit: Konami)

Between island hopping, you’ll also get a chance to customise your cartoon avatar with a selection of kitschy castaway garb. There isn’t a great deal of diversity at first, but it’s plenty to set you apart from your co-op collaborators, and it’s good fun to tweak your hair colour, skin tone, and ocular scenario before hopping into a level. Thankfully, this small pool of outfits is just a jumping-off point, and you can unlock more by completing challenges layered throughout the game.

Alongside meeting the essential crafting criteria, you can complete optional tasks like fishing ten times in a row or cooking with a certain number of ingredients in your pot. By achieving these optional objectives, you can unlock themed outfits to jazz up your mini-me. Many will be achieved automatically as you play, but at the very least, I was pleased to have something else to shoot for outside the confines of the repetitive campaign.

Best bit

(Image credit: Konami)

Survival Kids is at its best when played with friends. Between the simple control scheme and the plethora of comfortably mindless processes to complete, I could chat to my heart's content without needing to maintain an intense back-and-forth to complete objectives.

Survival Kids can be played in single-player mode, however, it’s just not nearly as much fun as it is when you’re playing with friends. Aside from helping collect loot, the most fun I had was antagonising, and subsequently being antagonised by, my co-op partner. On one occasion, I led my fellow-survivor into a wind tunnel where they were gust into oblivion.

The repercussion was that after spending ages fishing and cooking up a delicious meal, they threw it off the edge and out of my reach. When playing solo, these kinds of light-hearted interactions aren't possible, and instead, you’re just left with the workload.

It’s clear there’s been an effort to scale things back in solo mode and make the levels more approachable, like reducing the stamina needed to pull up objects. Unfortunately, it still doesn’t make up for the tedious nature of completing the same tasks alone.

When playing through the later levels in the game, I found myself frustrated, not by the turrets shooting me off the map, but rather the boring nature of carting materials back and forth with no help. It’s admirable that the team at Unity wanted to give solo players a chance, but it doesn’t do justice to the obviously communal aspects at the core of Survival Kids' gameplay loop.

Should you play Survival Kids?

(Image credit: Konami)Play it if...

You want a silly co-op game to play with friends
The simple nature of Survival Kids makes it a great backdrop for chatting with friends and cracking jokes, as you don’t need to focus too hard when solving puzzles. View Deal

You want Nintendo Switch 2 features like GameChat and GameShare
Survival Kids makes great use of both GameChat and GameShare, so it's a good game to pick if you want something that uses those console features.View Deal

Don't play it if…

You want a complex platformer
Survival Kids does offer a decent variety of platforming puzzles, though many repeat over time. View Deal

Accessibility features

In Survival Kids, you can access the settings menu from the main menu or anytime in-game by pressing the pause button and selecting the Options button.

From here, you can toggle on and off subtitles and a level timer, as well as level objective arrows and banners. In the Controls submenu, you can toggle between two layout options. Where audio is concerned, you can use incremental notches to tweak Music, SFX and Narration Volume.

How I reviewed Survival Kids

(Image credit: Konami)

I played Survival Kids' main campaign over twelve hours in a mixture of single-player, local co-op, and online co-op.

I used a Switch 2 console in both handheld and docked modes. When docked, I used an LG OLED C2 55-inch TV, with no additional soundbar or external speaker system.

First reviewed June 2025

Earfun Wave Life: two-minute review

To misquote Futurama’s robotic delinquent Bender, you’re in for “Earfun on a bun” if you take the plunge on the Chinese brand’s latest budget cans. Assuming I still have a job to take this review any further [only just – Ed.], I’ve been taken aback by the quality of the Earfun Wave Life. Seeing as they only cost around $50 / £50, these over-ear headphones are far better than I was expecting.

The Earfun Wave Life pack in enough features and sufficiently robust audio performance to make them absolutely worth considering if you’re on the hunt for a new pair of cheap over-ear cans. Sturdily built, extremely easy on the ears thanks to their lush foam cups and sporting an app that’s both intuitive and comprehensive with its EQ options, there’s a lot to like about these competitively priced noise cancelling headphones.

It’s a pity the Wave Life’s ANC features don’t fully convince. For the price Earfun are selling them, I was never expecting these over-ears to rival the best noise-cancelling headphones out there. Still, when it comes to snuffing out distracting ambient noise, ANC performance with these cheap cans is almost aggressively average.

On the flipside, if you’re lucky enough not to have to endure regular noisy commutes, the Earfun Wave Life have more than enough plus points to make them worth recommending if you’re on a tight budget.

Bolstered by stellar software, a dedicated game mode and 40mm drivers that hand in convincingly deep bass levels, Earfun’s affordable headphones are thoroughly enjoyable. They might be cheap, but they certainly don’t feel it.

Not only are the Wave Life some of the most comfortable cheap cans I’ve ever worn, they’re also great for hands-free voice calls. During one of my least glamorous chats in recent memory – one that involved asking a plumber pal of mine about a broken toilet seat – I was reassured my voice was clear during the entire abode-centric chinwag despite me being in a different room than my phone during the call. Thank you very much, Bluetooth 5.4.

Will these cans' soundscape blow you away (even after you tweak frequency settings with Earfun’s fantastic EQ software)? Probably not. Yet for the price, these supremely comfortable headphones, which also boast staying power of up to 60 hours if you switch ANC off, deliver more than they disappoint even they may not quite make it into the best over-ear headphones available.

If you want a pair of budget over-ears that will be comfortable on your cranium while (mostly) delivering satisfying sounds, you could do a whole lot worse than the Earfun Wave Life.

(Image credit: Future / Dave Meikleham)Earfun Wave Life review: Price and release date

• Release date: February, 2025
• Price: $59.99 / £49.99 / AU$105 (approx.)

The Earfun Wave Life are priced super-aggressively at just $59.99 / £49.99 / AU$105 (approx.). They can often be found even cheaper than their official retail price courtesy of Amazon sales, too.

Though they’re obviously not as premium as the $79.99 / £79.99 / AU$167 (where sold) Earfun Wave Pro that impressed us big style early last year, they still deliver a satisfying sonic experience.

Sure, they’re not going to make audiophiles’ socks roll up and down. Yet considering their budget price point, I reckon most folks will be pleasantly surprised by these over-ear headphones’ pleasingly deep bass and relatively convincing trebles. The Earfun Wave Life are also far more comfy than I was expecting from such an affordable pair of cans.

In terms of alternative options, if you’re looking for some of the best cheap headphones for under $/£100, you’ll struggle to do better than the superb 1More Sonoflow Pro HQ51 (catchy moniker, right?). The Sony WH-CH520 are another great option if you’re in the market for a budget pair of noise-cancelling cans.

Earfun Wave Life review: Specs

Weight:

264g

Drivers:

40mm Composite

Battery life:

37 hours (ANC on); up to 60 hours (ANC off)

Control:

app; physical/touch; voice

Connectivity:

Bluetooth 5.4; USB-C

(Image credit: Future / Dave Meikleham)Earfun Wave Life review: Features

• Up to 60 hours' battery life
• Intuitive app improves sound quality
• Two devices can be paired simultaneously

Aside from their stellar battery life – more on which shortly – the Earfun Wave Life feature that impresses me most is their excellent software. The Earfun Audio app is available on both Android and iOS, and I’d consider it an essential download if you want to squeeze the best sound out of these cheap over-ear cans.

Easy to use, sporting an uncluttered design and with intuitive custom EQ calibration tools, the Earfun app can significantly improve the Wave Life’s already decent out-of-the-box audio.

I’m a big fan of the software’s custom equalizer that allows you to adjust the headphones’ soundscape across a variety of frequencies via a set of sliders. It’s a doddle to use, as you simply tweak each frequency until the app’s repeating ‘drip’ sound fades away.

After a couple of minutes of adjustments, I found the customized results to be significantly more satisfying than any of the 30 preset EQ profiles Earfun’s software offers. These span various musical genres, while various bass and treble boost presets are also provided.

The wide variety of profiles the firm serves up may be impressive, but I found the majority to be a little too quiet. And not to be overly nitpicking, but flicking between these presets on both my iPhone 14 Pro and iPad Pro (2024) is painfully sloooooow.

Earfun’s app also lets you switch between the Wave Life’s four ANC modes. First up, there’s ‘normal’, which somewhat confusingly turns noise cancelling off. There’s then ‘ambient sound’, ‘wind noise cancellation’ and ‘noise cancelling’; with the latter two options snuffing out sounds most effectively.

(Image credit: Future / Dave Meikleham)

Sadly, Earfun hasn’t really cracked the ANC code with its cheap cans and I could still easily make out passing traffic when going out for strolls. Next to my Apple AirPods Max, noise cancelling on the Wave Life isn’t up to scratch. That said, comparing $60 headphones to Crew Cupertino’s $500 over-ear cans is like pitting a Morris Minor against a Lamborghini Aventador in a drag race.

Another selling point of the Earfun Wave Life that thankfully proves more effective is their multi-phone connectivity that lets you pair two devices simultaneously. During my testing it proved largely reliable, with the headphones syncing to my tablet and smartphone with little hassle. The only slight hitch I’ve encountered is when I enter the app on my duo of Apple devices, which often requires me to unpair one gizmo before I can tweak software settings on the other.

The Earfun Wave Life are battery beasts. On a full charge, they’ll last for 60 hours, with that number dropping to a still-impressive 37 hours with ANC enabled. During my fortnight of testing these cans, I only had to charge them twice, which is super-commendable considering how kind these headphones are on your change purse.

However, there’s no getting around the fact the bundled-in USB-C charging cable is comically short. I’m talking Smurf short. Still, I’m not going to grumble too much when I can get the Wafe Life to 100% juice in less than 30 minutes on my GaN charger.

As mentioned in the two-minute review, the four-mic, AI-assisted algorithm also makes hands-free calling a breeze. With a 49ft range, you don’t have to worry about being cut off when wandering around your apartment/house, either.

• Features score: 4 / 5

(Image credit: Future / Dave Meikleham)Earfun Wave Life review: Design

• Incredibly comfy to wear
• Easy-to-reach on-cup controls
• Materials feel premium for budget cans

No-frills is the name of the ultra-plain game when it comes to the Earfun Wave Life. With an inoffensive yet entirely forgettable design, these cans won't keep you from hitting the hay and dreaming about how alluring they look.

Crucially, though, they don’t feel cheap. The quality of the plastics used in the construction of these over-ears feels far more premium than I’d expect from $60 headphones. I also appreciate the brushed metal that appears when you extend the Wave Life’s headband.

In terms of comfort, Earfun has absolutely nailed it with its latest budget cans. I wore them on a three-hour walk with my husky on an uncommonly warm Scottish afternoon recently and never once did they cause me any discomfort. That’s mainly due to their super-comfy foam cups which rotate 90 degrees, making them both easy to fold up and an absolute pleasure to wear.

The Earfun Wave Life weigh a relatively breezy 264g, which also means you don’t have to worry about neck strain or earache. Every time I put these cans on, it feels like giving my lobes a big fuzzy hug. I’ll take comfort over style all the livelong day.

The on-cup controls are also enjoyable to interact with. A soft plastic power button is wedged between equally squishy and easy-to-locate volume up/down controls, while I also had no problems switching between noise-cancelling controls thanks to the dedicated ANC button. My only slight beef? You have to hold down the power button a little too long for my liking.

There’s also a USB-C slot for both wired play and charging. As I stated previously, the cable that comes in the box is way too short, so you’d be better off investing in a longer third-party one if you want to go down the wired listening route.

As for colors, you’re limited to a single shade of black. If you like your headphones to be unfussy and not make you stand out on, say, a crowded train or bus, the Wave Life’s bog-standard noir won’t bother you. Personally, I like both white and colored cans, so I would have appreciated more than one hue.

• Design score: 4 / 5

(Image credit: Future / Dave Meikleham)Earfun Wave Life review: Sound quality

• A touch quiet without app tweaks
• Software EQ adjustments save the day
• Well-judged bass levels

Considering how affordable the Wave Life are, I don’t want to overly dunk on their sound shortcomings, and there are few glaring weaknesses with these cheap cans’ audio quality. There are, though, some that warrant mentioning.

My biggest bugbear is the default sound profile when you first unbox these over-ears. This is subjective, but the Wave Life were a tad too quiet when I first clamped them around my skull. Although initially underwhelmed by their audio, I calibrated a custom EQ via the Earfun Audio app to produce a listening experience that felt far more well-balanced and punchy.

Without software tweaks, vocals during my favorite tunes and dialogue on some of the best Netflix movies on my iPad felt muted and flat, so I definitely recommend downloading Earfun’s app. Considering the firm’s software is both robust yet never feels daunting to interact with, it would be uncharitable to slam the Wave Life’s default soundscape when it’s so simple and quick to make it appreciably better through minor app adjustments.

Within minutes of fiddling about with its frequency sliders, I landed on a custom profile that delivered a soundscape with decently weighty bass that dovetailed well with the treble levels I settled on. Yes, mids on the Wave Life get lost in the sonic shuffle somewhat, but overall, I’ve had far more enjoyable audio sessions with these cans than disappointing ones.

When testing headphones for the first time, I’ve got a small clutch of go-to bangers I always fire up. The almost hymn-like electronic stylings of Death in Vegas’ Girls sounds way more impactful than I was expecting from sub-$100 cans, while the pulsating trance beats of F*ck Buttons nine-minute The Lisbon Maru delivered all the bass my eardrums craved – thank you, Wave Life.

(Image credit: Future / Dave Meikleham)

I was less taken with my favorite live performance ever when listening to The Verve’s astonishing rendition of Sonnet from their spellbinding 1998 home concert from Wigan’s Haigh Hall, though. This classic Cool Britannia tune sounds amazing on my Sony Inzone H9 – surprising, considering it’s a gaming headset first and foremost. But on the Wave Life, Richard Ashcroft’s normally haunting vocals lack the audio oomph my Inzone cans drum up.

Speaking of which, Earfun’s budget over-ears come with a low-latency Game Mode that automatically kicks in if you fire up a title on either your Android or iOS device. Not that I actually noticed much difference when I disabled the feature when playing some of the best iPad games.

That’s not to say the Wave Life don’t do a more than passable job at being a decent gaming headset. Even though gamers aren’t Earfun’s target market, their latest over-ears' ability to pick out subtle sounds during gameplay is admirable. I was particularly impressed (and oh so flustered) by how effectively they conveyed the constant nearby Xenomorph screeches in the nerve-shredding Alien Isolation. The Resident Evil 4 remake’s undead-slaughtering gun battles also popped in an impactful way I wasn’t expecting from such cheap cans.

It’s best to go in with low expectations regarding the Wave Life’s noise cancelling, though. Even the most effective of its modes isn’t great at kiboshing ambient sounds, so if quality ANC is important to you, look elsewhere.

• Sound quality score: 3.5 / 5

(Image credit: Future / Dave Meikleham)Earfun Wave Life review: Value

• Great value for money, given the features
• Sound quality expectations met for the price
• No carry case

Considering the amount of features and general build quality, there’s zero doubt the Earfun Wave Life represent fantastic value for money.

Overall sound quality also surpasses the expectations I’d generally go in with when it comes to reviewing such a cheap set of headphones. Unless you’re a real elitist audiophile, you’ll be pretty smitten with what your $60 / £50 / AU$105 (approx.) outlay serves up sound-wise.

While a carry case would have been appreciated, that’s a bit too much to ask for such affordable cans. Earfun deserves a lot of credit for selling its Wave Life over-ears at such an attractive price point.

• Value score: 4.5 / 5

(Image credit: Future / Dave Meikleham)Should I buy the Earfun Wave Life?

Section

Notes

Score

Features

Bluetooth 5.4; excellent 60-hour battery life; simultaneous device pairing

4 / 5

Design

Incredibly comfy; easy-to-reach on-cup controls; another color would be nice

4 / 5

Sound quality

Optional app essential to overcome limited EQ presets; a touch quiet; ANC could be far better

3.5 / 5

Value

Fantastic value for money; sound quality to be expected at the price point

4.5 / 5

Buy them if…

You want strong sound on a budget
For $60 / £50 / AU$105 (approx.), you’re going to struggle to find a better all-round, feature-packed set of cans than the Earfun Wave Life. They’re awesome value for money.

You value comfort
Reasonably lightweight and with lovely foam earcups, these budget headphones are so comfortable, it’s often easy to forget you’re wearing them.

Don't buy them if…

You need strong ANC
The Wave Life’s noise-cancelling features are merely adequate at best. If you regularly deal with noisy environments, there are far better options out there.

You don’t want to tweak settings
Straight out of the box, these headphones’ audio performance underwhelms. To get the most out of them, tinkering with Earfun’s app settings is essential.

Earfun Wave Life review: Also consider

Earfun Wave Life

1More Sonoflow Pro HQ51

Sony WH-CH520

Drivers:

40mm composite

40mm dynamic

30mm

Active noise cancellation:

Yes

Yes

No

Battery life:

60 hours (37 hours ANC on)

100 hours (65 hours ANC on)

50 hours

Weight:

264g

246g

137g

Connectivity:

Bluetooth 5.4; USB-C

Bluetooth 5.2; 3.5mm

Bluetooth 5.2

Waterproofing:

N/A

N/A

N/A

1More Sonoflow Pro HQ51
The current king of cheap headphones offer granite-strong battery life, effective ANC and a super-sleek design.
See our full 1More Sonoflow Pro HQ51 review

Sony WH-CH520
If noise cancelling isn’t a deal-breaker for you, consider these well-balanced Sony cans that boast a great app.
See our full Sony WH-CH520 review

How I tested Earfun Wave Life

• Tested for nearly three weeks
• Tested at home, on long walks and in ride shares

I tested the Earfun Wave Pro in a variety of conditions spanning songs, streaming content and video games over roughly a three-week period. This gave me the chance to get to know how versatile these over-ears can be.

Most of my time with these budget headphones was spent listening to music and podcasts on my iPhone 14 Pro. Away from revisiting my favourite tunes, I also used the Earfun Wave Life for Netflix and Disney Plus streaming, plus playing several games on my iPad Pro.

While most of my background centres around covering the best TVs and almost 20 years writing about video games, I’ve owned an absurd amount of headphones and earbuds in my life – from $500 Apple Airpods Max to budget buds from brands you’ve probably never heard of.

Currently, I have more sets of cans in my apartment than I do meals in my fridge. I should perhaps adjust my priorities in life, but hey, what can I say? I really love the best headphones.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed: June 2025

Sage Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction: two-minute review

If you want to make sure you’re getting the best possible flavor from your coffee beans, the Sage Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction will help you achieve it with minimum fuss and zero mess. It guides you through the process of dialling in the grinder and preparing exactly the right amount, so that each shot of espresso is extracted in optimum time for a well-rounded flavor. It isn't the quickest way to make coffee (for that, look for a fully automatic espresso machine), but if you want to do justice to your beans, this is a great option.

The Impress Puck System is my favorite feature, letting you pull down a lever to tamp your freshly ground coffee without having to remove the portafilter handle from beneath the grinder. You never have to move a filter basket full of loose coffee and risk spilling it, and the tactile feeling of the lever is very satisfying.

The lever-operated tamping system is satisfying to use, and produces a neat, even bed of ground coffee (Image credit: Future)

Once you’ve got your basic espresso just right, you’ll unlock the whole menu of 14 hot and cold drinks. Some popular coffees are conspicuous by their absence (flat white and macchiato, for example) but everything in the list is easy to customize, so you can tweak a preset to create your own creation quite easily.

Cold brewing involves allowing the bed of ground coffee to infuse in cold water (a process known as blooming) before it’s extracted at high pressure. The result is a smooth-tasting drink that’s a good alternative to traditionally made cold brew, in a fraction of the time.

For me, the only real disappointment was the AutoMilq system, which struggled to create a smooth microfoam with dairy milk. The plant preset worked much better, particularly with oat milk, and using the steam wand manually was a piece of cake. The angle of the wand and shape of the pitcher make it easy to create a good whirlpool, and steam pressure remains consistent.

Sage Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction: price and availability

The Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction is available direct from Sage for £1,199.95 (about $1,600 / AU$2,500). That’s the same price as the original Barista Touch Impress, so you’re essentially getting the cold-brew option thrown in for free.

The Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction is currently only available in the UK. When it does launch internationally, it will be under the "Breville" brand rather than Sage.

If you’re looking for something more affordable, take a look at the Ninja Luxe Café. It's also a semi-automatic espresso machine, meaning it grinds beans directly into the portafilter basket, and guides you through the process of preparing different drinks. Like the Sage machine, the Ninja also has a cold-brew option for chilled drinks. The Ninja Luxe Café is available for $499.99 / £499 (about AU$750).

• Value score: 3.5/5

Sage Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction: specs

Name

Sage Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction

Type

Semi-automatic espresso machine

Dimensions (W x H x D)

14.2 x 13.4 x 16.3 inches / 36 x 34 x 41.5cm

Weight

24.18lbs / 10.97kg

Water reservoir capacity

2.1 quarts / 2 liters

Milk frother

Automatic and manual

Bars of pressure

9

User profiles

a

Sage Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction: design

The Sage Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction comes in four colors: stainless steel (shown here), black stainless steel, black truffle, and sea salt. When it comes to size, it’s one of the biggest home espresso machines I’ve tested to date, measuring 14.2 x 13.4 x 16.3 inches / 36 x 34 x 41.5cm. For comparison, the similarly specced Ninja Luxe Café is 12.99 x 13.39 x 14.57in / 330 x 340 x 370mm.

When you’re measure your work surface to see whether you have enough space, it’s also worth bearing in mind that the water tank slides onto the back of the machine, so you’ll need enough room to pull it away from the wall when it’s time for a refill. The tank is easy to remove thanks to a robust carry handle on the top, and has a hinged lid that snaps into place to keep the water clean.

The machine comes with a full set of cleaning products, plus a brush and needle tool for the steam wand (Image credit: Future)

The machine is supplied with a water filter to remove impurities, which can affect the taste of your coffee. The package also includes a water hardness testing strip, so you can configure it to suit your tap water. If your water is particularly hard, Sage recommends using pre-filtered water instead.

You’ll also need to make sure there’s sufficient space on the left-hand side of the machine to use the manual lever that compresses your freshly ground coffee. The grinder and tamper (together known as the Express Puck System) mean you’re never handling a portafilter handle full of loose coffee grounds, making the process of brewing espresso much less messy.

The Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction has a large power button on the front of the case, but everything else is operated via its bright touchscreen. This feels smooth and responsive – and, unlike the screens on some other coffee machines, it isn’t prone to fingerprints.

A handy drawer behind the drip tray offers a place to store accessories (Image credit: Future)

Something I particularly like about the Sage Barista Touch Impress is the number of accessories included in the box. You get a stainless steel milk pitcher with a fine spout that’s ideal for latte art; the usual set of single-wall and pressurized filter baskets; a cleaning pin tool for the steam wand; a barista towel; a water filter; and a full set of cleaning products. Open the Eco Starter Kit and you’ll find enough descaler, group head cleaner, grinder cleaner, and milk wand cleaner to keep you going for several months.

If you’re wondering where you’ll keep all that, don’t worry – pull out the machine’s drip tray and you’ll find a handy little accessory drawer. It’s a thoughtful touch.

The bean hopper is tinted plastic, helping keep light away from your beans while still allowing you to see how many are left (Image credit: Future)

The bean hopper is tinted, which reduces the amount of light reaching your beans (something that can cause the flavor to degrade) while also letting you see how many are left – a smart compromise. The hopper also has a good rubber seal to help keep unused beans fresh.

The grinder offers 30 settings, and can be adjusted using a dial on the left-hand side of the machine, near the tamping handle. The dial isn’t marked with numbers, but each time you switch between grind sizes you’ll hear a small beep, and the display will show the new setting. This is far easier than having to peer round the side of the coffee maker.

• Design score: 4.5/5

Sage Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction: performance

The Sage Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction guides you through the process of brewing a well-rounded espresso, handling the more complicated tasks for you to turn the usually tedious process of choosing the correct grind size into something fun.

The first time you use the machine, you’ll be guided through the process of configuring it for your particular coffee beans. This involves calibrating both the grind size and the dosage.

Usually this process (known as dialling in) involves brewing several shots of straight espresso, but the designers at Sage have acknowledged that people have different tastes, so you can pick from a short menu of different drinks right from the start: espresso, long black, latte, cappuccino, and flat white. You’ll unlock the more extensive menu of hot and cold beverages once the initial setup is complete.

You don't need to remove the portafilter handle from beneath the grinder for tamping, so there's no risk of spilling loose coffee (Image credit: Future)

Pick a grind size by turning the large dial on the left-hand side of the machine (near the lever), then follow the onscreen instructions to grind the beans into the filter basket. You’ll then be instructed to pull down the tamping lever to create a nicely formed puck. This is the most pleasing part of the process, and the machine recommends doing it twice for the best results. It doesn’t take much pressure, but you get some satisfying resistance with the right dosage.

If you don’t have enough ground coffee in the basket, the machine will offer to grind a little more, then let you try tamping again. If there’s too much coffee, you can use the trimming tool provided in the box to remove a little without creating cracks in the puck.

The tamping lever is extremely satisfying to use (Image credit: Future)

Once the machine has worked out the optimum amount of coffee, it will save it for future use. Don’t worry if you want to use different beans later on, or your coffee’s properties have changed as the beans age – the Barista Touch Impress will check each time you make a drink and make adjustments on the fly.

Once your coffee is nicely tamped, it’s time to insert the handle into the brewing group and start making your first coffee. The Barista Touch Impress will time how long it takes for your shot of coffee to pour, and warn you if it’s taking a long time (and is likely to be over-extracted and sour) or has poured too quickly (making it watery). I like the fact that the machine won’t insist that you discard over- or under-extracted shots, recognizing that some coffee-drinkers have different preferences.

After a little experimentation, you'll be able to brew consistently well-balanced shots of espresso to enjoy alone, or as part of a longer drink (Image credit: Future)

Once the machine is dialled in, you’ll have access to the full menu of 14 hot and cold presets. It’s a pretty impressive list, but some (such as hot chocolate, shakerato, and espresso martini) are recipes rather than drinks you can prepare using the machine alone. It’s also worth noting that unlike the Jura J10 and the De’Longhi Primadonna Aromatic, there’s no way to foam cold milk.

The options are:

• Flat white
• Latte
• Cappuccino
• Espresso
• Long black
• Babyccino
• Café crema
• Hot chocolate
• Tea (ie. hot water)
• Cold brew
• Cold espresso
• Espresso shakerato
• Latte shakerato
• Espresso martini

I was a little surprised that Sage chose to forego some popular coffee drinks (such as caffe latte, flat white and macchiato) while including so many esoteric options such as shakeratos; but all drinks are editable, so you can easily create your favorites by tweaking the presets. The original Barista Touch Impress offered just eight options.

There are recipes for some uncommon drinks in the menu, but a few classics such as the trusty flat white are absent (Image credit: Future)

When you select a cold brew drink, the machine will pulse cold water over the bed of freshly ground coffee in the filter basket and wait a moment to let it bloom before passing cold water through at high pressure.

The result isn’t quite as full-bodied as that from the Jura J10, but it's still noticeably sweeter and smoother than coffee brewed hot, and a very good alternative to traditionally made cold brew when you don’t have hours to spend steeping grounds in the fridge.

The only feature I found lacking was the Sage Barista Touch Impress’s AutoMilq system, which is designed to heat and froth dairy and plant-based milk automatically.

During tests, AutoMilq seemed to struggle, in particular with full-fat dairy milk. This is surprising, because this is usually the top choice for creating a silky microfoam. Rather than creating a fine foam with the texture of emulsion paint when preparing a latte, the steam wand pumped in too much air, creating a lot of large bubbles, which were unstable and burst as it switched to heating the milk. The result was nicely heated milk, but barely any foam.

Image 1 of 3

The AutoMilq system created a lot of large bubbles in dairy milk, and the foam was unstable (Image credit: Future)Image 2 of 3

Even foam created using the thickest setting turned out thin (Image credit: Future)Image 3 of 3

Oat milk produced much better results, with thick and creamy foam (Image credit: Future)

I had more success with oat milk, with the machine creating smooth and pourable microfoam for lattes, or thicker and "dryer" foam for cappuccinos. You can choose between milk texture options when making your drink, and the machine will incorporate different amounts of air to suit.

I had no problem using the machine to steam milk manually, though, and the angle of the raised wand made it easy to position the jug correctly to get a good whirlpool going.

If you want to steam dairy milk, use the wand manually (Image credit: Future)

Cleaning the machine after use proved straightforward. The machine rinses its brew head when powered on, the steam wand purges automatically after each use, and tapping the "settings" button at the top-right of the screen will let you access step-by-step instructions for descaling, using the blank disc and cleaner to refresh the brewing group, and cleaning the milk wand.

However, it won’t explain how to use the grinder cleaner, and the manual only explains how to dismantle the grinder and use the brush to remove debris. There's no explanation about how to use the sachet of milk wand cleaner, either.

• Performance score: 4/5

Should you buy the Sage Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction?Sage Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction score card

Attribute

Notes

Score

Value

Well made and feature packed, but over twice the price of the Ninja Luxe Café, and closer to the price of machines that can also foam cold milk.

3.5/5

Design

Easy to use, with clear instructions on displayed on the bright touchscreen. Lever-operating tamping system is satisfying to use. Large footprint won't fit some kitchens.

4.5/5

Performance

Excellent hot and cold coffee brewing and smart guidance for dialling in grinder, but AutoMilq system seems to struggle with whole dairy milk. Plant milk foams better and wand works fine manually.

4/5

Buy it if

You want optimum flavor from your beans

This machine guides you through the process of dosing coffee and choosing the ideal grind size for a perfectly extracted shot. It might take a while to get it just right, but it’s worth the time, and there’s zero mess involved.

You want tasty cold brew without the wait

The latest version of the Barista Touch Impress does a good job replicating the smooth taste of traditionally made cold brew by allowing the coffee grounds to bloom before pulling a shot.

Don't buy it if

You don’t want to steam dairy milk manually

Sage’s AutoMilq system struggled to create a good texture with fresh whole dairy milk, although it worked much better with oat milk. Raising the wand and using it manually yielded good results.

You just want coffee as fast as possible

The Barista Touch Impress is all about perfecting your espresso, and getting the optimum extraction for the best flavor. If you don’t have time to spend making multiple shots and configuring the grinder, a fully automatic espresso machine might be a better option for you.

Sage Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction: also consider

Ninja Luxe Café

Like the sound of the Barista Touch Impress, but don’t have the space? The Ninja Luxe Café is a more compact alternative, and it can make filter coffee as well. You don’t get the tidy tamping system, though.

Read our full Ninja Luxe Café review

De’Longhi Primadonna Aromatic

If you like cold brew but want more variety, this superb espresso machine not only creates great-tasting coffee, it can also foam cold plant and dairy milk for iced lattes. It works brilliantly; the iced latte macchiato was my personal favorite during testing.

Read our full De'Longhi Primadonna Aromatic review

KitchenAid KF8

If you want a well-extracted coffee but don’t have the time to spend configuring a grinder, this is easily one of the best fully automatic espresso machines I’ve tested. This version has a preset for plant milk, but if you only drink dairy then you can save a little cash by opting for the KF6 instead.

Read our full KitchenAid KF8 review

How I tested the Sage Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction

I used the Sage Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction for two weeks in place of my usual coffee machine, and brewed coffee using a blend of freshly roasted Brazilian and Colombian arabica beans. I spent time dialling in the grinder for the beans to begin with, and followed the directions to tweak the grind size each time I made a new drink.

I went through the whole drinks menu, and tested the steam wand using full-fat dairy and oat milk. I used the AutoMilq system, and steamed milk manually.

Once I’d finished testing, I ran through all of the machine’s cleaning and maintenance programs.

First tested June 2025

Eufy E15 robot lawn mower: two-minute review

To date I've tested quite a few wire-free, autonomous lawn mowers, but of all of them, the Eufy E15 is the easiest to set up and use. Much of that is down to the robot's AI algorithm-rich software, its superb dual camera system and the simplicity and excellent navigability of the Eufy app.

This admittedly odd-looking lawnbot uses Full Self Driving (FSD) technology, which means there's no need to lay a perimeter wire or install an RTK GPS antennae. In fact, setup took all of about 15 minutes – it can automatically map a lawn up to 800 square metres by cleverly distinguishing the textural differences between grass and planted borders. It then goes out and cuts the lawn in pristine parallel stripes before finishing off with an edge cut along the borders.

Like many robot mowers, the E15 is equipped with a small 20cm cutting deck comprising three razor-like blades attached to a spinning disk. These blades are so sharp that they snip grass with the cleanliness of a pair of scissors, leaving the tips of the nitrogen-rich cuttings to fall back to earth, which in turn fertilise the lawn.

There are a few minor niggles – the navigation system means it can't mow at night, and it can't handle gradients over 18-degrees – but overall, this is an extremely impressive lawnbot and a very strong recommendation for technophobes in particular. Aside from an easily-fixed map-making mistake, and one expected issue regarding small obstacle avoidance, the E15 hasn't put a foot wrong during several weeks of testing. It just works out of the box. That's the short version; read on for my full Eufy E15 review.

(Image credit: Future)Eufy E15 review: price & availability

• List price: $1,799.99 / £1,499
• Available: US / UK
• Launched: June 2025

Eufy's first robot mower is available in two variants – the E15 I'm reviewing here, and the E18, which is only available in the US. Both machines are the same size and spec but the E18 has a larger capacity battery which allows it to cut lawns up to 1,200m² / 0.3 acre – that's 400m² more than the E15.

If you live in the UK, you can purchase the E15 direct from Eufy UK for £1,499. Granted, it's an awful lot of money but that's the price one pays for new tech that saves a ton of time and effort. I personally think it's very competitively priced, especially given the fact it comes with a roofed garage to protect it from the elements. It's also exceedingly well built, using highly-quality materials with expert fit and finish.

Stateside dwellers, meanwhile, have a choice of either the E15 or E18. The US Eufy site lists the E15 at $1,799.99 but if you have a lawn larger than 800 square metres (0.2 acre), I would suggest the E18. Eufy sells this model for $1,999.99.

• Value for money score: 4 out of 5

Eufy E15 specs

Max lawn size:

0.2 acres / 800m²

Navigation:

Dual V-FSD cameras

Cutting deck width:

8in / 20.3cm

Cutting height adjustment:

1-3in / 2.5-7.5cm, motorized

Drivetrain:

Rear wheel drive

Maximum zones:

More than two

Maximum climbing ability:

40% / 18 degrees

Obstacle avoidance

3D Perception camera system

Connectivity:

Wi-fi, Bluetooth & 4G (sim optional)

Noise:

56dB

Waterproof:

IPX6

Rain sensor:

Yes

Mow time per charge:

About 100 minutes

Lawnbot size:

23.7 x 15.5 x 12.5 in / 60.3 × 39.4 × 31.8cm

Garage size (L x W x H):

28.6 x 18.9 x 17.8 in / 72.7 x 48 x 45.2cm

Lawnbot weight:

39.7 lbs / 11kg

Eufy E15 robot lawn mower review: design

• Full self driving lawnbot, uses cameras to navigate
• Comes with a charge dock but requires no boundary wires or RTK receiver
• Otherwise relatively standard lawnbot design, with 20cm cutting deck

Eufy (a subsidiary of Chinese electronics manufacturer Anker) has approached the development of its first robot mower with the same set of design principals it has applied to its burgeoning range of excellent robot vacuum cleaners. Hence, the E15 is probably the most robot vacuum-like lawnbot on the market right now. And that's a very good thing for anyone who already owns a robot vacuum cleaner and is familiar with the way it is set up and used from day to day.

Although it's not the prettiest looker on the lawn (at least when compared to the F1-inspired Mammotion LUBA Mini), the E15 feels very high quality. It is also the only robot mower I know of to come with a roof for its charging dock as standard – that can be considered a major benefit because, while the E15 is IPX6 rated for waterproofness (IPX6 means ingress protection against powerful water jets), it's direct summer sunshine rather than rain that could have the biggest affect on batteries and electronics.

Incidentally, like all modern robot mowers, this model is fitted with a rain sensor so if it starts raining while it's out cutting, it will return to base and wait a predetermined number of hours before it heads out again.

(Image credit: Future)

Although size and weight is pretty inconsequential given that, once in situ, the E15 pretty much stays on the lawn until the end of the cutting season around late autumn, for the record the E15 measures 23.7 x 15.5 x 12.5 in / 60.3 × 39.4 × 31.8cm, weighs 39.7 lbs / 11kg and comes with an integral handle on the front so it's easy enough to lift if necessary.

Like all robot lawn mowers, the Eufy E15 is equipped with a cluster of manual control buttons on the top of its outer casing, including a large red Stop button for any unlikely emergencies. These buttons are handy for quickly pausing or cancelling a task, commanding the robot to return to its dock and turning it on and off without the need for the accompanying app. There is also a master on/off switch on the base of the cutting deck, which is only used when putting the robot into storage or transporting it in the car.

(Image credit: Future)

Before we tackle the E15's clever navigation system, let's head below and take a closer look at the business end. This model is good for lawns up to 800m² (0.2 acres) and has an 8in / 20.3cm cutting width – that's the norm for a robot of this size, but still way short of the Mammotion LUBA 2 which has a generous 15.7in / 40cm deck.

Like almost all current robot mowers, the E15 uses an array of small razor-like blades for the cutting process. Put simply, a silent motor spins a circular disc with, in this case, three double-sided 1.5-inch razor blades attached to the disk's outer edge.

Since the blades are attached loosely and are able to spin 360 degrees, the disk's centrifugal force causes the blades to whip round at immense speed so the grass is cut to a much finer degree than any large-bladed rotary mower. Likewise, if they hit something hard like a stone, the easily replaced blades are less likely to be damaged. (Here's more on how robot lawn mowers work, if you're interested.)

(Image credit: Future)

Aside from the whisper-quiet sound the cutting system makes (and believe me this thing is near-silent in operation), the main bonus of a system like this is that the fine nitrogen-rich cuttings the robot leaves in its wake are fed back into the lawn as future fertiliser. This 'mulching' method of grass maintenance is not only good for your lawn, but it also means you don't need to figure out what to do with all the cuttings.

The Eufy E15 is rear-wheel drive and those wheels are an ample 7.9 in / 20cm in diameter, with deep treaded paddles that provide excellent traction without causing any grass damage. The front end is fitted with a robust castor wheel that allows the robot to turn on a sixpence. Eufy states a maximum gradient of 40% (18 degrees) which is a few degrees steeper than much of the competition but still nowhere near the Everest-scaling, all-wheel-drive Mammotion LUBA 2 and LUBA Mini's 80% (38.6 degrees) ability.

Robot mower navigation tech has come on in leaps and bounds since the first models were introduced way back in the mid '90s. These early models required a boundary wire around the perimeter of the lawn and many robot mowers like this are still available to purchase today. However, recent advances in RTK GPS, LiDAR and camera-based navigation technologies are quickly making these types of wired robot mowers obsolete.

Take this model, for instance. The Eufy E15 is equipped with a FSD (Full Self Driving) camera tech that works in a similar way to many autonomous cars. The system itself is comprised of two side-by side cameras that produce a stereoscopic image with some depth to it, rather like a pair of human eyes. This, along with a smorgasbord of AI algorithms and heaven knows what else it has hidden beneath the bonnet, ensures that the robot can not only find its way around a lawn but also differentiate between grass and border plants.

(Image credit: Future)

Like a human, it can spot the textural and height differences between grass and plants and map the lawn accordingly. And for those who love driving RC cars, you can easily do that with this mower, too, and even view a high-definition livestream of what the camera sees.

The downside to a camera-based system like this is that the E15 cannot mow beyond sunset because it won't be able to see where it's going. Eufy might elect to fit a bright headlamp on the next incarnation but for now, your best bet for night mowing is either the Mammotion LUBA 2 or its new smaller sibling, the LUBA Mini.

The upshot of this robot mower's superb navigation system is that it gives it the amazing ability to cut a lawn in a series of perfectly straight parallel stripes that never fail to impress. Granted, they're not bona fide stripes like a cricket ground, but they're the next best thing. I guarantee you'll be blown away by how smart your lawn looks after just one cut.

Finally, a shout out to the E15's security measures. Firstly, it's bonded to the user's account and Wi-Fi system making it useless to any light-fingered thieves. But as an extra precaution it also features GPS tracking over optional 4G while the unit itself will sound an alarm, enter a locked state and send a notification to the user if it's ever taken beyond its working boundary.

• Design score: 4.5 out of 5

Eufy E15 robot lawn mower review: setup

• Charge dock requires power source and good Wi-Fi signal
• - Mapping is fully automated – and no-go zones can be added in-app if required
• - Extremely fast and east to set up

No question, the Eufy E15 is one of the easiest robot mowers I've ever set up; there is no RTK GPS antennae to install and not a perimeter wire in sight. All you need is an electricity source within the eight metres of cable provided and a decent WiFi signal to the robot so you can initiate its setup procedure, update the firmware when required and program weekly schedules and other parameters in the Eufy app.

Once you've created a Eufy account in the app and mounted the charging dock using the provided ground screws, it's simply a case of firing it up and selecting the auto map function. I'd say the whole process took me about 15 minutes and most of the time was spent screwing in the dock's ground screws using the provided Allen key (a cordless driver with an Allen key bit speeds this process up considerably). The E15's excellent mapping ability is fully automatic – the bot can tell the difference between grass and plants, and uses this information to map the lawn.

Click to enlarge (Image credit: Eufy )

However, there may be instances when it treats a scrubby patch on the edge of the lawn as grass and map that too – as was the case in my testing. With some robot mowers you need to physically steer the robot like an RC car to the area in question and modify it by driving the bot on a different trajectory and then saving the map. With this model you simply add a no-go zone or a virtual boundary by drawing a square or line on the app's map. A big high-five to the designers for bringing this robot vac-style editing approach to the table.

While this whole process was very simple, I still hope Eufy will include a manual mapping option in a future update for those who want full hands-on control. Manual mapping – where you drive the robot around the perimeters of a lawn like an RC car – allows the user to fine-tune the map right from the off, with no need to add no-go zones or virtual boundaries.

(Image credit: Future)

Once the mapping has finished, it's time for the robot's first mow. But before you do this, make sure your grass isn't too long or the cuttings it creates could litter the lawn. Instead either opt for the highest cutting height first (these range from 25mm to 75mm in 5mm increments and are set using the app).

Alternatively, use your standard mower with grass catcher to cut the lawn to about 40mm (position 4) and set the robot off on its first cut a day later – I find that 35mm is a perfect height for UK rye grass. Once the grass is ready for the robot, chances are you may never need to use your standard mower again, though you will still need your line trimmer to tidy up some edges every now and then.

If you have a few different lawns separated by pathways and boundaries, that's not a problem. The Eufy E15 can be programmed to cut all of them in succession, even when they're many meters apart. Simply map the lawns individually and set a virtual passageway between them by steering the robot from one lawn to the next. The robot will then follow this set path from lawn A to lawn B and so on and so forth every time it's on a cutting session. Just make sure that there are no gates or stairs in the way and that the passage the robot takes is free of clutter and wide enough for the robot to navigate.

• Setup score: 5 out of 5

Eufy E15 robot lawn mower review: performance

• Neat, methodical cutting performance
• Motorized cutting heights
• Expert navigation and very good obstacle avoidance

In terms of cutting performance, I've been exceedingly impressed by how well this robot mower has navigated and cut my lawn, and in such methodical fashion too. It's a joy to watch the E15 as it trundles up and down the lawn in perfect parallel lines, and I love the pseudo stripes the wheels leave in their wake.

The fact you can easily adjust cutting parameters in the app – cutting height (from 25mm to 75mm), edge spacing (how close it cuts to the edge), path spacing (the amount of overlap between each pass), and travel and blade speed (slow, standard and fast) – is the icing on the cake. And if you're looking for the cherry on top of that, it'll be the Path Direction (cutting angle) setting, which is as simple as placing two fingers on the map of your lawn and swiveling the two arrows to the angle of cut you want, whether it's perfectly vertical, horizontal or any angle in between.

Despite this model only having three cutting blades against the Mammotion LUBA Mini's six, I haven't been able to detect any noticeable differences in cut quality. Yes, I prefer the wider tract of the big 40cm Mammotion LUBA 2 – the width of a small push mower – but I'm nitpicking here.

(Image credit: Future)

Obstacle avoidance on indoor robot vacuum cleaners is essentially for the convenience of not having to untangle a loose sock from under the robot, but a robot mower with fast spinning razor blades is an altogether different kettle of danger. Just as well that all autonomous robots and most wired models have various levels of obstacle avoidance built into their navigation systems.

The Eufy E15's obstacle avoidance is excellent for anything larger than about the size of a tennis ball. I tested it on a number of occasions using some dog toys. Amazingly, the E15 avoided every item including – surprisingly – a small whale-shaped toy with a slim tail. In fact I was especially impressed by how well it managed this last feat because the whale was off-centre to the robot, and yet its camera caught the obstacle in its periphery.

(Image credit: Future)

However, as expected, the E15 didn't spot a table tennis ball on two occasions and rode over it, almost slicing it in half. As a result, I wouldn't trust this model to avoid pet mess unless, perhaps, you have a Great Dane, or a horse. (This has been the case with every robot mower I've tested, and for that matter every robot vac, too.)

I'm pleased to report that everything has run smoothly with this model, from its initial auto mapping to its weekly routine of keeping the lawn looking spick and span. It has never got lost or failed to find its charging base, and it's always remained within the confines of its boundary. And that's not a bad accolade for any manufacturer hitting the market with a first-time product. Well done Eufy.

• Performance score: 5 out of 5

Eufy E15 robot lawn mower review: app

• Easy to navigate
• Excellent interface
• Could do with a couple of extra features

While I'm a huge fan of the Mammotion range of robot mowers, its accompanying app is quite technical and, in some areas, difficult to get a handle on. By contrast, the Eufy app (which also covers Eufy's security cameras) is mostly a joy to use, and mercifully free of any technical jargon. It's as simple as simple can be, but there is room for improvement.

Click to enlarge (Image credit: Eufy)

What I'd like to see is an option to manually map a lawn and an option to mow in a chessboard pattern (i.e. cut vertically and horizontally) in one go. But I'm pretty certain we'll see something like this in a future update. It is, after all, early days for this newcomer.

• App score: 4 out of 5

Should you buy the Eufy E15 robot lawn mower?

Attribute

Notes

Rating

Value

The Eufy E15 isn't cheap but it's in the same ballpark as other similarly-styled models on the market.

4.5/5

Design

Odd looks aside, the E15 is robust and extremely well equipped to deal with most lawn layouts, bar those with steep slopes.

4.5/5

Setup

Setup is also extremely fast and straightforward, thanks to accurate automatic mapping.

5/5

Performance

The E15 is a sterling operator that cuts grass brilliantly well while avoiding almost all obstacles in the process.

5/5

App

There is no simpler mowbot app on the market, though a few tweaks wouldn't go amiss.

4/5

Buy it if...

You're a technophobe

I haven't come across an easier model to set up and operate.

You want lawn stripes

The E15 is a deft lawnsmith that cuts in ruler-straight stripes.

You need simple reliability

This model has proved to be very reliable with great obstacle avoidance.

Don't buy it if...

Your lawn is very large

This lawnbot's smaller battery and cutting tract mean it's not well-suited to extra large lawns.

You want night mowing

Because it relies on cameras to navigate, the Eufy E15 can't mow in the dark. If that's a priority, consider the Mammotion LUBA Mini.

Your lawn has steep gradients

This bot will struggle on steep slopes – it's good up to 18 degrees.

How I tested the Eufy E15 robot lawn mower

I've been using this lawnbot for the past few weeks, and I've been working it hard during that time. It has been out on regularly scheduled mowing tasks, and I've also put it through a range of tests – including assessing its obstacle avoidance using dog toys. I also assessed the ease of setup, how user-friendly the app is, and how the cutting performance compared to other lawnbots I've reviewed.

Read more about how we test

• First reviewed June 2025

Microsoft Surface Laptop 13-inch: Two-minute review

I have been begging Apple to release a purple MacBook for a few years now and have been repeatedly disappointed year after year, so when I found out that the Microsoft Surface Laptop 13-inch was going to sport a pastel purple colorway, it really was Microsoft's game to lose in my eyes.

And while it doesn't quite come close enough to dethroning the Apple MacBook Air 13-inch, performance-wise, it's a very solid everyday laptop that looks undeniably superior to Apple's rather boring MacBook Air design, which has stayed the same over the past couple of years.

The Surface Laptop 13-inch starts at $899.99 / £1,099 / AU$1,699 on Microsoft's website, which is roughly the same price as the MacBook Air 13-inch (which starts at $999 / £999 / AU$1,699), but its performance, at times, is substantially slower than Apple's best laptop, making it an iffy value proposition for those who could go either way as far as operating systems go.

Had the Surface Laptop 13-inch shipped with an Intel Lunar Lake chip rather than the underpowered Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus 8-core SoC, this would be an entirely different review, as I'd be giving this laptop six-out-of-five stars, because in just about every other way than its performance and minor compatibility issues, this is the best ultrabook I've ever put my hands on.

Aesthetically, it's an upgrade over its larger Surface Laptop 7 sibling that launched last year, with a tighter form factor that is exceptionally lightweight and sleek. Its 3:2 display offers plenty of real estate for a laptop this small, and its keyboard and trackpad are a dream to use.

Best of all, it comes in purple (technically 'Violet'), though you will pay slightly more for this color option than the base platinum colorway, as it's only available on the higher capacity configuration.

Meanwhile, the Arm-based Snapdragon X Plus is an incredibly efficient chip, getting just over 17 hours of battery life on a single charge in my testing, which easily translates into two full workdays or more without recharging, outlasting even the latest MacBook Air 13-inch models.

If all you're looking for is a gorgeous-looking laptop that is great for everyday computing tasks, school work, and general productivity—while liberating you from having to keep a constant eye out for power outlets to recharge day after day—then the Microsoft Surface Laptop 13-inch is one of the best Windows laptops you can buy, and one of the best student laptops as well, especially if you get a student discount. It just isn't the knockout blow against the MacBook Air that Windows fans might be hoping for.

Microsoft Surface Laptop 13-inch: Price & availability

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

• How much does it cost? Starts at $899.99 / £1,039 / AU$1,699
• When is it available? It's available now
• Where can you get it? You can buy it in the US, UK, and Australia

The Microsoft Surface Laptop 13-inch is available now, starting at $899.99 / £899 / AU$1,699 directly from Microsoft or at retail partners. It comes in slightly cheaper than the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 in the US and UK, (starting at $1,099.99 and £1,039, respectively). In Australia, however, the larger Surface Laptop 7 13.8-inch starts out cheaper at AU$1,597 (and it comes with more powerful hardware to boot).

The Surface Laptop 7 13.8-inch also features a more powerful Qualcomm chip, a sharper screen, and better port support (though no Violet colorway, you'll have to settle for the equally gorgeous Sapphire option).

The Microsoft Surface Laptop 13-inch starts with an 8-core Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus SoC, 16GB LPDDR5x RAM, 256GB storage, and a Platinum colorway. You can increase the storage by 256GB for an additional $100, which also gives you the option of picking either the Violet or Ocean colorway.View Deal

Similarly, the Surface Laptop 13-inch is also slightly cheaper than the MacBook Air 13-inch with M4 in the US (starting at $999), while being slightly more expensive in the UK (the base MacBook Air 13-inch start at £999), while there's no difference in starting price between the two in Australia.

Compare this, however, with a similar memory-and-storage-specced Dell 14 Plus, starting at $799.99 / £999 / AU$1,298, but which comes with more powerful x86 processors from AMD and Intel, meaning that you get better performance without any compatibility worries that come with Arm-based chips.

Granted, none of these competing laptops look anywhere near as good as the Surface Laptop 13-inch, but if your main interest is performance, there are cheaper options that will get you what you want.

All that said, however, this is the best-looking laptop you're going to find at this price, in my opinion, and yes, that includes the entire MacBook lineup. If you want to look good at a cafe while reading emails, or streaming Netflix in an airport lounge while waiting for a flight, this laptop will turn heads (at least in Violet) without totally breaking the bank.

The only real knock I can point to is that the long-term value of the Surface Laptop 13-inch is lower than a MacBook Air 13-inch with M4. The latter is much more performant, and it will stay 'current' for a few years longer than the Surface Laptop 13-inch, in all likelihood.

• Value: 3.5 / 5

Microsoft Surface Laptop 13-inch: Specs

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

• Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus 8-core SoC
• 16GB LPDDR5x
• The display could be better

There isn't a whole lot of variation in terms of spec configurations for the Surface Laptop 13-inch, with the biggest difference being some extra storage and two additional colorway options.

Microsoft Surface Laptop 13-inch Base Specs

Price:

$899.99 at Microsoft.com | £899 at Microsoft.com| AU$1,699 at Microsoft.com

Colorways:

Platinum

CPU:

Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus 8-core

GPU:

Qualcomm Adreno X1-45

Memory:

16GB LPDDR5X-4300

Storage:

256GB SSD

Screen:

13-inch, 3:2, 1920x1280p 60Hz, 400-nit, Touch PixelSense

Ports:

2 x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 w/ DP and Power Delivery, 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, 1 x combo jack

Battery (WHr):

50WHr

Wireless:

WiFi 7, BT 5.4

Camera:

1080p

Weight:

2.7 lbs (1.22 kg)

Dimensions:

11.25 x 8.43 x 0.61 ins | (285.65 x 214.14 x 15.6mm)

For $100 / £100 / AU$200 more, you can upgrade the storage on the Surface Laptop 13-inch to 512GB and get additional Violet and Ocean colorway options, but otherwise the more expensive configuration (which I tested out for this review) is identical to the base configuration.

Microsoft Surface Laptop 13-inch Max Specs

Price:

$999.99 at Microsoft.com | £999 at Microsoft.com| AU$1,899 at Microsoft.com

Colorways:

Platinum, Violet, Ocean

CPU:

Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus 8-core

GPU:

Qualcomm Adreno X1-45

Memory:

16GB LPDDR5X-4300

Storage:

512GB SSD

Screen:

13-inch, 3:2, 1920x1280p 60Hz, 400-nit, Touch PixelSense display

Ports:

2 x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 w/ DP and Power Delivery, 1 x USB Type-A 3.1, 1 x 3.5mm combo jack

Battery (WHr):

50WHr

Wireless:

WiFi 7, BT 5.4

Camera:

1080p

Weight:

2.7 lbs (1.22 kg)

Dimensions:

11.25 x 8.43 x 0.61 ins | (285.65 x 214.14 x 15.6mm)

There's no option to upgrade the memory or storage on any of these models beyond the configuration options at the time of purchase, which does make the longevity of the Surface Laptop 13-inch's specs more limited than laptops like the Dell 14 Plus, where you can at least upgrade the storage if you'd like.

And while the specs on the MacBook Air 13-inch with M4 might not be upgradable either, they are simply better overall for a relatively small increase in price, meaning the long-term value of the MacBook Air 13-inch (M4) is superior overall.

• Specs: 3.5 / 5

Microsoft Surface Laptop 13-inch: Design

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

• Beautiful color options and fantastic aesthetics
• Light and portable
• Display resolution is only 1280p with no HDR

The design of the Microsoft Surface Laptop 13-inch is simply stunning. There's no other way to describe it.

Starting with the exterior aesthetics, the Surface Laptop 13-inch is as close to a MacBook Air for Windows as you're going to find on the market, and in my opinion, it's even better looking thanks to the additional Violet and Ocean colorways alongside the default Platinum look of the base model.

You pay extra for the splash of color, but it's a worthwhile investment. The machined aluminum finish of the laptop chassis, along with the pastel-ish hue of the chassis and the darker, more matte color of the keycaps and trackpad, really help make this laptop stand out.

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

The display on the Surface Laptop 13-inch is a step down from the larger 13.8-inch Surface Laptop 7 from 2024, which had a maximum resolution of 2304 x 1536 (a PPI of 201, compared to the 1920x1280 Surface Laptop 13-inch's 178 PPI) and 120Hz refresh compared to just 60Hz for the Surface Laptop 13-inch.

It also has a lower contrast ratio of 1,000:1 compared to the larger version's 1,400:1. The Surface Laptop 7's display is also made of Corning Gorilla Glass 5. In contrast, the Surface Laptop 13-inch's display is only "Strengthened glass" according to Microsoft's official spec sheet for the Surface Laptop lineup.

The display does max out at 400-nits, though, which is nice and bright enough for most people and situations, but you might struggle to see the screen properly if you're using the laptop outside on a bright sunny day.

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

I found that carrying the Surface Laptop 13-inch around was very easy, as it fitted in pretty much any laptop bag and was thin and compact enough that I was able to use it sitting in an airplane seat during my 15-hour flight to Computex 2025 with almost no issue.

Speaking of using the laptop, the key switches are quiet and have good travel and responsiveness, and everything is well-spaced, so you don't feel cramped despite the laptop's smaller size.

The trackpad is likewise responsive and smooth, making navigation and clicking around the desktop a breeze.

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

One thing that's not that great is the port selection, which is limited to two USB-C Gen 3.2 ports, a USB-A Gen 3.1 port, and a 3.5mm jack for a headset.

It'd have been nice to get some USB4 ports in there like you get with the larger Surface Laptop 7 models, but both USB-C ports do support power delivery and DP 1.4 output (though if you're trying to connect to more than one monitor, you need one port per monitor, rather than being able to daisy-chain them to just a single port).

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

The webcam, meanwhile, is a 1080p Surface Studio Camera that is crisp enough, but unlike the larger Surface Laptop models from last year, it does not support Windows Hello authentication, and it doesn't have a physical privacy shutter, which in 2025 should be pretty much mandatory, so along with the port and display downgrades, I've got to ding what is otherwise a nearly perfect design.

• Design: 4.5 / 5

Microsoft Surface Laptop 13-inch: Performance

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

• A performance downgrade from last year's Surface Laptop
• Some compatibility issues with ARM architecture still linger
• Gaming is functionally a no-go

What holds the Microsoft Surface Laptop 13-inch from really being the fierce MacBook Air competitor that many of us hoped it would be is the 8-core Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus SoC.

When I reviewed the Microsoft Surface Pro 11 last year, I was genuinely impressed by the performance of the Snapdragon X Elite chip, despite the compatibility challenges that Windows-on-Arm is still working through. That was a much more powerful chip, though, and even the 10-core Snapdragon X Plus SoC offers noticeably better performance than what the Surface Laptop 13-inch is packing.

The 8-core chip isn't awful, to be clear. It's perfectly good for general computing tasks like streaming, school work, and office productivity, and it's probably one of the best student laptops out there for those who want a little bit of style to go along with their studies.

But if you need this laptop to do anything other than writing up papers and reports, streaming movies, or using web-based cloud software, you will likely be unhappy with what you're getting here for the price.

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

The most direct and obvious comparisons I can make with this laptop is the Apple MacBook Air 13-inch with Apple Silicon (starting with the Apple M2), the larger 13.8-inch Surface Laptop 7, the recently released Dell 14 Plus, last year's Dell XPS 13 (with both Intel and Qualcomm SoCs), and the Asus Zenbook A14 with the entry-level Snapdragon X SoC.

Only the M2 MacBook Air 13-inch and Dell 14 Plus are cheaper than the Surface Laptop 13-inch (at least at the time of review), and all of these laptops start around the same price, give or take a hundred bucks or so.

The models I've tested and that TechRadar has reviewed in the past vary by spec, so it's not entirely an apples-to-apples comparison laid out in the charts above, as some of the Dell and Apple notebooks' advantages can be easily chalked up to more expensive processors.

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

If you go with any of those systems at the same price as the Surface Laptop 13-inch I tested, the performance difference might not be nearly as dramatic on paper, and almost certainly won't be all that noticeable.

Still, it's pretty clear that the Surface Laptop 13-inch either lands somewhere in the middle of its competition, or comes in second or third from the bottom. Add to that some performance issues stemming from Microsoft's Prism software layer that translates x86-architecture-designed programs, which is pretty much every Windows program, to be Arm-compatible.

Generally, this works rather well, but it does introduce system overhead that will slow things down. In short, unless you're running a piece of rare Arm-native software, you will almost never get as good an experience with Windows software on Arm as you would with the x86 architecture powering Intel and AMD chips.

The question comes down to whether or not the performance is good enough, and I think that for most people, it will be (unless you want to load up Steam and get into PC gaming. The best gaming laptop, this is not).

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

Much like the MacBook Air 13-inch, the Surface Laptop 13-inch is more geared toward casual computing needs and productivity work, and it excels at these tasks.

So, even though the MacBook Air 13-inch with M4 gets roughly twice as many frames per second as the Surface Laptop 13-inch, the MacBook Air 13-inch still struggles to maintain playable frame rates unless you seriously scale back your graphics settings.

The MacBook's gaming advantage, then, only really looks intimidating as a percentage, but in practice, none of the laptops I tested were suitable for the task of playing, say, Cyberpunk 2077 at max settings and native resolution.

What it really boils down to, then, is whether you're just looking for a new laptop to keep up with friends and family, maybe do some office work, or write that Sci-Fi novel at the local coffee shop that you've been meaning to finally get around to this year.

If those are the boxes that need ticking, any of the laptops listed above will get the job done, but none will look as good as the Violet Surface Laptop 13-inch.

• Performance: 3.5 / 5

Microsoft Surface Laptop 13-inch: Battery Life

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

• How long does it last on a single charge? 17 hours and 14 minutes
• How long to recharge from empty to full? With the included 45W charger, it takes about two and a half hours to charge to full.

One other key area where the Microsoft Surface Laptop 13-inch shines is its stellar battery life. In my testing, it ran about 17 hours and 14 minutes on average in my battery test, thanks to the super-efficient Arm architecture. This puts it in fourth place overall in my top 10 laptop test group, but it does outlast all three MacBook Air 13-inch models in the group by an hour or more.

So even though it's not officially in the battery life winner's circle, you can't ask for much more from a laptop this thin and light.

• Battery Life: 5 / 5

Should you buy the Microsoft Surface Laptop 13-inch?

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)Microsoft Surface Laptop 13 scorecard

Category

Notes

Rating

Value

While not as cheap as something like the Dell 14 Plus, it is on par or cheaper than similar offerings from Dell and Apple.

3.5 / 5

Specs

There aren't a whole lot of configuration options, and the lack of USB4 is unfortunate.

3.5 / 5

Design

It's simply gorgeous and a joy to type on. If it had a physical camera privacy shutter, better ports, and a better display, it'd be a 6 out of 5.

4.5 / 5

Performance

For a casual use notebook, it's in line with similarly specced Windows laptops, but the MacBook Air 13-inch with M4 runs circles around it.

3.5 / 5

Battery Life

At just over 17 hours of battery life in my testing, this is one of the longest lasting Windows laptops around.

5 / 5

Final Score

It's not perfect, and had Microsoft flexed some muscle to get a 10-core chip in this laptop without raising its price, it'd truly be the Windows MacBook Air we've been waiting for, but it'll be more than close enough for most people and looks better than anything Apple has put out in years.

4 / 5

Buy the Microsoft Surface Laptop 13-inch if...

You want a truly eye-catching laptop
This is the look we should have gotten on the M2 MacBook Air redesign, rather than the dull, uninteresting colors we got. Apple's mistep is Microsoft's advantage.

You want an all-day laptop
At 17+ hours of battery life in my testing—including using it throughout an almost 15-hour flight to Taipei—this laptop has the juice.

Don't buy it if...

You want a high-performance laptop
If you want a laptop for serious professional workloads like video editing or for PC gaming, you're going to want to opt for a beefier device.

You want worry-free app compatibility
While most Windows apps will work on this device thanks to Microsoft's Prism compatibility layer, you will still occasionally run into some apps that won't work on ARM devices.

Also consider

If my Microsoft Surface Laptop 13-inch review has you looking at other options, here are three other laptops you should consider instead...

Apple MacBook Air 13-inch (M4)
The most recent Apple MacBook Air 13-inch offers substantially better performance than the Microsoft Surface Laptop 13, making it a much better value.

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

Dell XPS 13 9350
If you don't want to hassle with the quirks of Qualcomm's ARM-based chips, the Intel Lunar Lake-powered XPS 13 is a fantastic alternative.

Read our full Dell XPS 13 9350 review

How I tested the Microsoft Surface Laptop 13-inch

• I spent about a month with the device
• I used our standard suite of benchmarking tools and performance tests
• I used it as my primary work laptop, including taking it on an international work trip

I spent about a month with the Surface Laptop 13-inch, far longer than I usually spend with a device under review. While this was mostly due to circumstance (Computex and WWDC, in particular), this did allow me to do a much deeper dive.

In addition to my normal benchmarking process, I took extra time to retest some competing laptops we had in the office to come up with a more thorough comparison against the Surface Laptop 13-inch's competitors.

• First reviewed June 2025