Feed aggregator

Leaders from both political parties have been working to bring back manufacturing. But American manufacturers say they are struggling to fill the manufacturing jobs we already have.

• Windows 10 loses support, but M365 apps on Windows 10 don't... yet
• Support is limited, and users may experience performance issues
• Windows 11 adoption will soon surpass Windows 10

Although Windows 10 is set to lose support on October 14, 2025, Microsoft has confirmed it will carry on providing security updates for Microsoft 365 apps on Windows 10 for a further three years.

However, even though the company will continue to support its productivity apps, it's warning users of potential performance and reliability issues if they insist on using the outgoing OS, urging them instead to consider upgrading.

Moreover, no bug reports or feature requests will be accepted for issues exclusive to Windows 10, marking the demise of the OS.

Microsoft 365 apps on Windows 10 get three years of extra support

"To help maintain security while you transition to Windows 11, Microsoft will continue providing security updates for Microsoft 365 Apps on Windows 10 for three years after Windows 10 reaches end of support," Microsoft shared.

Only customers will a valid M365 subscription will be able to open new cases, but three limitations will be in place once Microsoft pulls the plug on Windows 10 this October.

Firstly, if the issue is exclusive to Windows 10, users will be asked to upgrade to Windows 11. Secondly, if the customer is unable to upgrade to Windows 11, maybe due to hardware restrictions, the technical assistance team may only be able to offer troubleshooting and workarounds. Finally, there will be no option to log a bug or other feature requests.

Industry analysts from Canalys have already indicated that 2025 could be the year when remaining users end up upgrading their devices for support for Windows 11 and future operating systems, however trade war-induced tariffs could flip that idea on its head. "Subsequent quarters this year are likely to see a slowdown as inventory levels normalize and customers face higher prices," Principal Analyst Ishan Dutt stated.

Despite a 9% year-over-year growth in PC shipments globally during the first three months of 2025, Canalys predicts just a 2% rise for 2025 as a whole for the US market.

Although it took many months for Windows 11 to pick up widespread popularity, the OS now accounts for 43.7% of all Windows installs (via Statcounter). Windows 10 still leads, with a 52.9% market share.

You might also like

• In need of an upgrade? Check out the best business laptops
• For something a bit more powerful, why not consider the best mobile workstations?
• Microsoft Teams to add 'Prevent Screen Capture' meeting mode to secure sensitive data

• The LG B5 is available to order now in the UK and US
• UK retailers are listing the 55, 65 and 77-inch versions
• US options are just the 77 and 83-inch at the time of writing

The LG B5 is LG's most affordable 2025 OLED, and it's now available to buy – but some models are still to turn up on US retailers' virtual and actual shelves.

In the UK, retailers are offering the LG B5 in 48-inch, 55-inch, 65-inch and 77-inch versions for £1,399, £1,699, £2,499 and £3,499 respectively.

However in the US, LG US and Best Buy are only currently offering the 77-inch and 83-inch models. They're $2,999 and $4,499. LG has officially said that the 55-inch and 65-inch should also be available, but we're not seeing any sign of them so far in the US (though they're available in Canada).

But we can probably assume the other sizes are coming imminently to the US – just not quite as imminently as the big sizes.

One of the key differences between the B5 and the C5 (pictured) is that the C5 has a better OLED panel. (Image credit: Future) Is the LG B5 a good budget OLED to buy?

The LG B5 is the entry-level model in LG's 2025 OLED TV range, and there are some important differences between it and the mid-range LG C5 (which we gave five stars to in our LG C5 review).

First of all, there are no 42-inch or 48-inch models in the US, though the UK gets a 48-inch model; if you want those sizes in the US, you'll need the C5 (or the 48-inch LG B4 is still around for now).

The most important difference is in the panels. The C5 has LG's Evo panel, which is solidly bright for a mid-range OLED; the B5 makes do with a more basic which we'd expect to be less eye-popping. We're not expecting much of a brightness boost over the B4 (if any), and we measured as being nearly half as bright as the LG C5.

Both the B5 and the C5 run webOS 25, with all the obligatory apps. But the C5 has a more powerful processor – the Alpha 9 Gen 8 – while the B5 has the Alpha 8 Gen 2.

It runs at up to 120Hz compared to the C5's 144Hz, which will only make a difference if you're a PC gamer. Better news for gamers, though, is that the B5 has four HDMI 2.1 inputs all supporting 4K 120Hz with variable refresh rate.

We'll be assessing the LG B5 for inclusion in our list of the best OLED TVs with a full review soon.

You might also like

• Read our in-depth LG C5 review: is it worth paying extra over the LG B5?
• I tested the LG C5 OLED TV - here are 3 upgrades I'd like to see
• 5 things I learned when I tested the LG C5 OLED TV

A French court on Tuesday found Gérard Depardieu guilty of sexually assaulting two women on a film set, sentencing the French film icon to an 18-month suspended prison term.

(Image credit: Aurelien Morissard)

• The Nintendo Switch 2 Home Menu can be navigated using Joy-Con 2 mouse controls
• Nintendo released a new demonstration video showing how it works
• Users can simply detach a Joy-Con 2 and place it on a flat surface to automatically bring up the mouse function

Nintendo has confirmed that the Nintendo Switch 2 Joy-Con 2 controllers can be used for Home Menu navigation.

The new feature was revealed on the Nintendo Today app alongside a demonstration video that showed the Joy-Con 2's mouse controls being used on the handheld like a PC mouse.

Users will be able to detach a Joy-Con 2, place it on a flat surface, and move it around like a wireless mouse.

According to the on-screen instructions, the cursor will automatically appear when placed sideways with the attachment side facing down, and the analog sticks can be used to scroll through menus.

To return to regular controls, users will only need to pick the Joy-Con 2 up again, as demonstrated in the video.

"To display the cursor, set the Joy-Con 2 on a table or flat surface and move it as shown," the post explained. "While using mouse controls, you can tilt the control stick to scroll through menus."

It also states that players can "use mouse controls on the Home Menu and in compatible software", like Metroid Prime 4: Beyond.

Nintendo Today showed how the mouse controls will work on the Switch 2 home screen. pic.twitter.com/qpyCsxbGBMMay 11, 2025

A ton of third-party titles are coming to the Nintendo Switch 2, including Cyberpunk 2077. Last week, CD Projekt Red confirmed that the game will also offer mouse functionality, allowing players to detach a Joy-Con 2 to wield a katana to attack enemies and deflect incoming attacks.

If you're not caught up, the Nintendo Switch 2 launches on June 5, 2025, for $449.99 / £395.99 or $499.99 / £429.99 for the Mario Kart World bundle.

UK pre-orders and US pre-orders are now live.

You might also like...

• Nintendo Switch 2 pre-orders live: latest UK stock updates as My Nintendo Store's pre-order date arrives, while US pre-orders remain delayed
• Here are the Nintendo Switch 2 launch games that you'll be able to pick up and play on June 5
• Rockstar confirms the latest Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer was all 'gameplay and cutscenes' captured 'entirely in-game' on the PS5

Last night was Amazon 2025 Upfront, a star-studded showcase for the streamer's best Prime Video shows.

The event featured EDM from DJ Steve Aoki and appearances by Lizzo, Jason Momoa and Dave Bautista, Travis and Jason Kelce as well as a chorus line of showgirls to announce the renewal of Fallout season 3 alongside Walton Goggins, Ella Purnell and Aaron Moten. Other celebs lighting up the night included Michael B Jordan and Jamie Lee Curtism.

But of course the shows are the real stars, and there were seven announcements in particular that I think are really interesting. From Nic Cage in a noir to hot people in hot pants, here are the Amazon Upfront announcements to be excited about.

1. A first look at Spider-Noir

(Image credit: Amazon)

It's just an image. But what an image it is. The image above is the first look at Spider-Noir, starring Nicolas Cage as the titular web-slinger. There's no premiere date as yet so this is the teasiest of teasers, but given its star and the people behind it this is enormously exciting.

Here's the pitch: "Spider-Noir is a live-action series based on the Marvel comic Spider-Man Noir. The story follows an aging and down-on-his-luck private investigator in 1930s New York, played by Academy Award winner Cage, who is forced to grapple with his past life as the city’s one and only superhero."

Rather brilliantly, the show will be available in both color and black and white when it debuts. And it's been developed in collaboration with the Academy Award-winning team behind Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse.

2. A premiere date for Reese Witherspoon's Legally Blonde prequel

(Image credit: Amazon)

Elle, the Legally Blonde prequel series, has got a premiere date: summer 2026, which is slightly later than we'd hoped. The original movie is one of the most-loved movies of the aughts.

It comes from Reese Witherspoon's company, and of course she was the original Elle in the movie. Lexi Minetree is the star this time around and the show follows Elle during her high school days to show how she became the iconic character we loved in the movie.

3. More Creed is coming

(Image credit: Eli Ade/Warner Bros. Pictures)

Prime Video has ordered the new series Delphi, the very first live-action extension of the Creed universe. It'll focus on young boxers at the Delphi gym, and while there's no premiere date as yet the show has Michael B Jordan as executive producer and it's being made by Outlier Society, whose Creed III attracted stellar reviews and made tons of money in theaters.

4. Barbershop gets a series

The Barbershop movie franchise is coming to a slightly smaller screen: it's getting a series, and it'll feature Jermaine Fowler as Travis 'Trav' Porter. Travis wants to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather, who was a legendary barber at the iconic Chicago barbershop Calvin's.

The show is being written and executive produced by Marshall Todd, who also wrote Barbershop.

5. Beast Games is coming back, and then it's coming back again

(Image credit: Beast Games)

The strangely smiling Mr Beast is coming back twice for more faintly disturbing game show action: Beast Games has been renewed for two more seasons where hundreds more contestants will compete for massive cash prizes.

Despite Mr Beast's unsettling facial expressions and truly terrible reviews – the show is currently sitting at 20% from the critics on Rotten Tomatoes – Beast Games has been a hit with viewers, who've awarded it 88% on the RT popcornometer.

Perhaps we should consider it less of a game show and more of a satire on consumerism: as The Age put it, the show is "a mostly unenjoyable and often disagreeable gamification of late-era capitalism" while The Guardian wrote that "It exists solely to show us the worst of the human condition, as obnoxiously as possible."

6. Oh. What. Fun. Gets. A. Date.

The Michelle Pfeiffer-starring Oh. What. Fun. is coming to screens on December 3, 2025. It's a star-studded affair that also features Denis Leary, Felicity Jones, Chloë Grace Moretz, Dominic Sessa, Devery Jacobs, Havana Rose Liu, Maude Apatow, Danielle Brooks, with Jason Schwartzman, Eva Longoria, and Joan Chen.

7. American Gladiators is coming back

(Image credit: FOUR POINTS ENTERTAINMENT / COURTESY EVERETT COLLECTION)

Sometimes all you need to make life better is to watch beautiful people in peak physical condition knocking lumps out of each other in a safe and respectful way – and if those beautiful people are in spandex, even better.

No doubt inspired by the success of the rebooted UK version of Gladiators, American Gladiators is returning and rebooting with WWE superstar Mike "The Miz" Mizanin hosting. According to Amazon "The featured Gladiators on the upcoming series will range from professional bodybuilders, former D1 Athletes, Pro CrossFit Champions, and Pro Fitness Trainers from around the globe all ecstatic to put their abilities to the test."

You may also like

• The 27 best Prime Video movies to stream in May 2025
• New Prime Video movies: every new film being released in May 2025
• This John Cena and Idris Elba Prime Video action flick looks completely wild going by the first trailer for Heads of State

• Suunto has unveiled a new running watch, fittingly called the Suunto Run
• It's lightweight at just 35g, and costs just $249 / £199 / around AU$400
• Smart features include real-time predicted marathon pacing and a new 'Ghost Runner' mode

Finnish adventure gear maker Suunto has unveiled the Suunto Run, a lightweight, high-performance and – crucially, for these expensive times – cheap running watch, priced at $249 / £199 (around AU$400). Suunto seems to be gunning for top billing in 2025's best cheap running watches list, with AI-powered features and up to 12 days of battery life.

At just 35g with textile straps, it's got a "brightest in class" (according to Suunto) 1.32-inch Gorilla Glass AMOLED display and is packing some innovative-sounding features, including a real-time marathon race prediction tool.

Most sports watches now have virtual pacers that you can set in advance to keep you on track for your ideal race time, but you usually have to calculate the right pace yourself before you set it on the watch. The Suunto Run's marathon mode will reportedly do those calculations for you, clocking how fast you're running and producing a predictive time that changes during the course of your race. Clever stuff.

A Ghost Runner mode allows you to virtually race your friends along the same route or segment, and the Suunto Run also sports a track mode optimized for speedwork.

The 32 pre-loaded sports modes are customizable, and the Suunto app contains additional training and recovery insights that'll be familiar to you if you've used Coros, Polar or the best Garmin watches.

(Image credit: Suunto)

Hardware-wise, the Suunto Run is primarily plastic with a slim stainless steel bezel offering an iota of additional protection for the display. It sports two buttons and a central rotating crown. Unlike most chunky running watches, its light nature and inclusion of two strap sizes in the box makes it ideal for runners with smaller wrists. Having unboxed and tried it on, it's comfortable to wear.

It packs a dual-frequency GNSS satellite connection for activity tracking and navigation, is swim-friendly (but not dive-friendly) with 5ATM waterproofing, and offers 12 days of battery life in smartwatch mode. In GPS mode, that shortens to around 20 hours of use with multi-band GNSS enabled, or 16 hours with its always-on display enabled as well.

It's very much a sports- and health-specific tool first and foremost. While it does offer simple notification features, don't expect NFC payments, email management, third-party apps or any of the usual 'true' smartwatch features.

At this price (cheaper than a GPS and cellular-enabled Apple Watch SE 2), that's totally fine; the Suunto Run isn't trying to replace an Apple Watch day-to-day. It does, however, seem to be a comprehensive budget running tool, and with gadgets getting ever more expensive (not to mention constantly trying to flog additional subscription fees for premium features) the Suunto Run will likely prove popular. Stay tuned for our full review.

You might also like...

• Top 6 smartwatches still to launch in 2025
• AllTrails is the latest app with an AI-powered subscription tier – but it looks way more useful than the genAI from Garmin and Strava
• Whoop subscribers can now get a free upgrade to the latest devices – after a huge user backlash

The Amazon-owned streamer is here to scratch your sci-fi itch.

A new study estimates that 19 million children in the U.S. have a parent with a substance use disorder and that alcohol is the most commonly used substance by the parents.

(Image credit: Olekcii Mach/Getty Images)

• M&S confirms customer information has been taken following a cyberattack
• The attack has caused significant disruption
• Online orders are still affected weeks later

In a letter to customers, retail giant Marks and Spencer has revealed that personally identifiable information (PII) has been stolen by cybercriminals. This follows the cyberattack that hit M&S which forced the firm to disable online shopping orders, click and collect, and contactless payments in some stores.

A statement, posted on LinkedIn, confirms that “unfortunately, some personal customer information has been taken,” but that "importantly, there is no evidence that the information has been shared and it does not include usable card or payment details, or account passwords, so there is no need for customers to take any action.”

Online orders are still suspended for the shopping site, and some product availability has been affected. The incident, which seems to have been a ransomware attack, took systems offline and caused undeniable disruption to the retailer’s operation.

Save up to 68% on identity theft protection for TechRadar readers!

TechRadar editors praise Aura's upfront pricing and simplicity. Aura also includes a password manager, VPN, and antivirus to make its security solution an even more compelling deal.

Preferred partner (What does this mean?)View Deal

Continued disruption

Returning customers will be prompted to reset their passwords on the M&S online site next time they visit “to give customers an extra piece of mind,” and the firm has assured customers it is “working around the clock to get things back to normal” for its customers.

“The attack on M&S is another stark reminder that ransomware gangs are evolving faster than traditional defences can cope,” says Camellia Chan, CEO and co-founder of AI cybersecurity firm X-PHY.

“Prevention must be built in from the ground up. Businesses need a multi-layered approach that combines hardware-level security to detect and block attacks early. This should be combined with an AI-driven threat detection layer that automate detection and enforce policies in real time. With human-error contributing to 95% of data breaches, this removes the burden of constant vigilance from employees and constant resilience testing.“

If anyone is concerned their data may have been taken, we recommend using a dark web monitoring service, or using a breach monitor such as Have I Been Pwned to check for potential exposures.

You might also like

• Take a look at our picks for the best malware removal software around
• Check out our choice for best antivirus software
• PowerSchool hit by cyberattack which saw student and teacher data stolen

• Apple is expected to reveal a new AI-powered battery tool as part of iOS 19
• The Apple Intelligence-branded tool could extend battery life on all iPhones running iOS 19
• The new software tool has been built with the upcoming iPhone 17 Air in mind

Apple is expected to unveil a new AI-powered battery tool that will increase your iPhone's battery life in iOS 19.

According to Mark Gurman at Bloomberg, Apple is expected to reveal an "AI-powered battery management mode for iOS 19." iOS 19 will likely be unveiled at WWDC 2025 in June and launch in September alongside the iPhone 17.

Gurman's sources state, "The enhancement will analyze how a person uses their device and make adjustments to conserve energy." Apple will likely bring this AI tool to market as part of Apple Intelligence, which ties back to code in iOS 18.2 referencing Battery Intelligence.

While the iPhone already has some machine-learning capabilities that help improve battery life, such as low-power mode and optimized charging, this new AI feature is expected to continuously analyze how a device is used and make on-the-fly decisions to improve battery.

Gurman says, "The company is using battery data it has collected from users’ devices to understand trends and make predictions for when it should lower the power draw of certain applications or features."

NEW: Apple prepares a new Apple Intelligence feature for iOS 19 coming this fall — an AI-powered battery optimization mode to extend battery life. This will be particularly aimed at the iPhone 17 Air, which will use the feature to offset a smaller battery. https://t.co/tWDZlUClbdMay 12, 2025

Why now?

According to the report, Apple is planning to bring these Apple Intelligence-powered battery features into the fray in order to boost the run time of the rumored iPhone 17 Air.

According to reports, the iPhone 17 Air is expected to be impressively thin, yet due to its thinner design will lack battery capacity. By adding an AI-powered battery tool Apple will be able to offset some of the drawbacks of the thinner design, allowing for extended performance despite a thinner chassis.

Gurman states that the Apple Intelligence tool will be available for "all iPhones that have iOS 19," meaning owners of the iPhone 16 series of devices, as well as some older iPhones will also reap the benefits.

While Gurman has an excellent track record in revealing new Apple products and software early, we'll need to wait until next month at WWDC to get a true representation of iOS 19 and everything it has to offer, including this AI-powered battery tool as well as a complete redesign.

You may also like

• Free Gemini Live update brings better conversation skills and understanding of accents
• You only need to see this screenshot once to realize why Gemini needs to follow ChatGPT in making its AI products less confusing
• I installed iOS 18.4 dev beta and the big Siri intelligence update is nowhere to be found

As many federal governments slow — or reverse — climate action, Austria's capital, Vienna, wants to show how cities can take the lead.

(Image credit: Ryan Kellman)

Police say they're investigating a 21-year-old suspect in connection with three fires over the past week, at properties linked to the British prime minister.

(Image credit: WPA Pool)

Three key committees are putting pen to paper on Trump's "big, beautiful bill." But lawmakers are at odds over policies with far-reaching impacts on Americans' wallets and for many, their healthcare.

(Image credit: Andrew Harnik)

Recently, Mexico began sending more water to the U.S. to uphold its end of a nearly 80-year-old treaty that spells out how two countries share water. But farmers and water experts say the new agreement won't be enough.

(Image credit: Carlos Morales.)

This review first appeared in issue 340 of PC Pro.

HP’s acquisition of Poly in August 2022 gives it a strong presence in the hybrid working market with access to a fine range of VC products. Poly retains its name for now, and the Studio R30 on review aims to offer SMBs an affordable all-in-one solution for small conference spaces.

At first glance, the R30 looks very similar to Poly’s P15 video bar, but its chassis is slightly larger, the central 4K UHD camera has a much wider diagonal 120° field of view (FoV) and its digital zoom steps up from 4x to 5x. Internally, things remain the same: it has an 8W internal speaker, while a triple-microphone beamforming array provides speaker tracking and automatic framing.

The Studio R30 employs Poly’s NoiseBlockAI and Acoustic Fence technologies to identify and remove annoying background noises such as keyboard heavy hitters. It goes a step further as Poly’s new DirectorAI feature ensures no meeting participant feels left out by providing automated group, people and speaker framing, along with presenter tracking.

The central 4K UHD camera has a wide 120° field of view (Image credit: Future)

Rear-mounted ports include an external PSU connector and a USB Type-C port for host connection, with the kit including a generous five-meter cable. Two USB Type-A ports allow the R30 to function as a USB hub but, unlike the P15’s mechanical privacy shutter on its lens, the R30 gets only a cheap rubber cap.

Installation is swift. We connected the R30 to a Windows 10 PC and watched it load the camera and audio device drivers in a few seconds. You’ll want to add Poly’s free Lens Desktop app as this provides a firmware upgrade tool along with local access for manually adjusting audio and video functions and selecting a framing mode.

Using the app to link up with our Lens cloud account, we could remotely manage the R30, change its settings from the portal and use the inventory service to see its physical location. Use the app to connect the R30 to a wireless network and it will link up with a remote Poly provisioning server for pushing custom settings to it.

Rear ports include a USB-C, two USB-A and an external PSU connector (Image credit: Future)

During meetings, we found Poly’s tracking and framing features worked very well, with the camera snapping to the current speaker, zooming back out when they stopped talking and moving effortlessly to other speakers. In presenter mode, the R30 easily kept track of us as we moved around our meeting room while we spoke, with shift delays of around two to three seconds.

The speaker delivers a clean soundscape, and in our 24m2 room we found a volume level of 75% was sufficient to cover all areas. The integral mics also impressed, with remote meeting participants saying they could hear us clearly at distances of up to three meters.

In a direct comparison with the lab’s Studio P15, we found the R30’s wider FoV clearly provides greater horizontal coverage. It didn’t suffer from the P15’s slightly soft focus and presented a sharper, cleaner picture with a more natural color balance, while its backlight compensation coped better with bright sunlight.

Video quality is good and the Poly Lens service enables remote management (Image credit: Future)

The camera’s digital pan, tilt and zoom (PTZ) functions can be manually controlled from the Lens app but only when auto-tracking is disabled. Although currently in a preview testing phase, you can also select a conversation mode to display two speakers in a split screen, while people framing shows all participants using up to six split screens.

Poly’s Studio R30 offers SMBs an affordable and easy-to-use 4K videoconferencing solution. Video and audio quality are very good and its clever people-tracking and framing features add that all-important professional touch to your meetings.

We've also rated the best webinar software.

This review first appeared in issue 340 of PC Pro.

MSI describes the Summit MS321UP as a business and productivity monitor, as opposed to its huge range of gaming screens and a handful of creative displays. With a peak 60Hz refresh rate it’s obvious that gamers won’t be applying, but MSI still hopes to lure designers here as it includes a monitor hood in the box.

Print designers can’t expect miracles at this price. There is an Adobe RGB mode, but with this selected it covers only 79% of that color space; a huge distance behind the 95% you can expect of an Eizo ColorEdge monitor. But, and it’s a big but, even the 27in ColorEdge CG279X costs twice as much, while the 32in and 4K ColorEdge CG319X retails for almost £4,000. Two more pitfalls for print designers: its color accuracy isn’t great, with an average Delta E of 1.97, and there’s no Pantone certification.

There’s far more for digital creatives and photographers to cheer, as coverage of the DCI-P3 space is 92% if you switch to the Display P3 profile, while color accuracy improves with an average Delta E of 0.88. You may also want to take advantage of the Design Assistance tools. Alongside print-focused aids such as guides for business cards, A4 and more (these guides appear as rectangular overlays on the screen, so you just slot your artwork within the lines), there’s a bunch of rulers and grids, including a rule-of-thirds grid.

In general, though, I found myself sticking to the sRGB gamut as it locks so well to the 6500K color temperature – I measured 6501K, which is essentially perfect for whites – while again scoring 0.88 for color accuracy. And while a 4K resolution may seem overkill when working in typical business tools such as Word and Excel, you grow to enjoy the sheer crispness of the words and numbers on screen.

A monitor hood is just one of this flexible display’s many attractions (Image credit: Future)

The panel pushes up to 468cd/m2, which is retina-burning high for daily use, and, as its HDR600 certification illustrates, it can push right up to 600cd/m2 in localized areas. I preferred to keep it at around 375cd/m2 (70 in the controls), but this consumes 47W of power. If you’re trying to control your energy outgoings then you can manually drop this yourself or switch to the Eco mode, where brightness dropped to 175cd/m2 – which is still fine in a typical office – and power consumption to 33W. You can also activate auto brightness control, but I found that distracting.

As you can tell from all these options, it’s worth investigating the OSD menu. Tucked away at the bottom of the profile choices are three calibration profiles for your own use, for example, and if you select the User profile a sophisticated array of tools for controlling color temperature, saturation and hue become available. But these are probably overkill for most users, unless they want to fine-tune the color calibration themselves.

You don’t need to head into the main menu to switch between profiles, as pushing the joystick upwards flicks between them. Pushing down activates the Design Assistance tools, while heading right gives you the option of choosing the display input: there are two HDMI ports, one DisplayPort and the increasingly crucial USB-C port.

Connections include two HDMI ports, a DisplayPort and a USB-C port (Image credit: Future)

It’s disappointing that this only delivers 15W of power, so it will trickle-charge laptops at best, but that isn’t such a problem if a laptop will stay connected most of a working day. And because there’s a KVM built into the monitor, if you connect a second PC or laptop (via the monitor’s USB-B input as well as the video input) then you can share a mouse and keyboard between them. Pressing left on the joystick allows you to switch inputs, or you can keep it as automatic – or you can use the Picture-in-Picture (PIP) and Picture-by-Picture (PBP) features.

You can also share any device connected via the three USB-A ports, with one port tucked awkwardly at the rear and the other two on the left-hand side. There are mic and headphone jacks here, too – note the lack of built-in speakers – along with a full-size SD card slot.

I ended up being grateful for the proximity of those ports, as this 9.7kg hunk of a monitor isn’t easy to move. There’s 35° of swivel to the left and right, and a more than adequate 100mm of height adjustment, but with a 32in panel such as this you’d need an even heftier stand to support 90° pivots into portrait mode.

Despite this lack of physical flexibility, this monitor fully deserves to be described as versatile. The ease with which you can switch between color profiles, along with the shedload of features, mean it can fit into almost any workflow. And at £700, with a five-year warranty, it’s great value.

We've rated the best monitors for a dual screen setup.

This review first appeared in issue 340 of PC Pro.

We are entering another exciting phase for PC processors, particularly if you’re a content creator. While the mid-range pendulum swung back to Intel in our workstations Labs, AMD’s Ryzen 7000 series promises huge potential for content creation. Here, I put it through its paces in Armari’s Magnetar M16R7-1300G3.

Armari has, of course, opted for the top Ryzen 9 7950X for its system. Unlike the Intel Core i9-12900K chips that proved so popular in the Labs, the Ryzen 9 has 16 full-speed cores rather than eight, alongside eight low-power ones. And the 7950X provides a base clock of 4.5GHz across all its cores, with an incredible maximum Boost frequency of 5.7GHz, so it should hurtle through any task with a multithreaded bias.

The Ryzen 7000 series is AMD’s first to support DDR5, with Armari providing a generous 64GB complement of 5,600MHz Corsair Vengeance Black DDR5 as two 32GB DIMMs. This runs at 4,800MHz on the system, but enables the processor’s dual-channel memory capability. It also leaves two DIMM slots free on the Asus X670E ProArt-Creator WiFi motherboard, to make an upgrade to 128GB possible – but this will drop the DIMM operating speed to 3,600MHz.

One area where AMD hasn’t had the upper hand for some years is professional graphics. Nevertheless, Armari sticks with AMD here, via a Radeon Pro W6800 graphics card that sports a hefty 3,840 Stream processors and 32GB of GDDR6 frame buffer. The latter operates at 512GB/sec, a little behind Nvidia’s latest and greatest, but there’s no shortage of connectivity, with six mini DisplayPort 1.4 connectors enabling up to two 8K displays or six 5K ones.

Armari hasn’t gone to town with storage, unlike the £16,000 Scan 3XS GWP-ME A1128T. Just a single drive is included, but it’s a potent one. The 2TB WD SN850 Gen4 M.2 SSD SN850 delivered a sustained reading throughput of 7,050MB/sec in CrystalDiskMark 8, with writing at 5,248MB/sec, making this the fastest single NVMe drive we’ve tested.

Armari’s latest workstation is a powerful beast (Image credit: Future)

If you need secondary storage for large media files, the chassis includes four 3.5in/2.5in easy swap backplanes and drive sleds, which you can switch out when the system is powered down and the side panel off. The case is one of Armari’s secrets, as the firm custom-designs its own. The Magnetar M60 Gen3 chassis has loads of cooling, including a side mount for the CPU liquid system, replete with a trio of 120mm fans.

Despite all this, the Magnetar isn’t a power hog. It consumes 90W when idle, pushing up to 370W when rendering a scene in Blender using both the CPU and GPU. If you run the CPU, GPU and memory all at maximum it consumes 530W, which still isn’t terrible considering how much processing power you’re getting in return. And since Armari has included a hefty 1,300W power supply, you can be confident the system will stay stable even under maximum load.

You may want to make full use of that maximum load, too, because this workstation has outrageous power. The Magnetar was a stunningly quick system in every CPU-related test I threw at it. The score of 773 in the PC Pro benchmarks would have beaten every system in the most recent Labs, and even surpasses the excellent Scan 3XS GWP-ME A1128T with its 64-core Threadripper processor.

Underlining the CPU’s potency is a Cinebench R23 multicore result of 37,170, which trounces a pair of 24-core Intel Xeon Gold processors and would even beat a 32-core AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX. The single-core result of 2,093 is on a par with that of the Intel Core i9-13900K in the Scan Vengeance 3XS – except the Ryzen 9 7950X has 16 cores capable of this speed, where the Intel chip only has eight. To further underline the AMD chip’s power, the Blender Gooseberry render only took 293 seconds using the CPU.

The single area of weakness is the graphics acceleration, but only relatively. With 3D modelling and animation, using SPECviewperf 2020 the AMD Radeon Pro W6800 achieved 174 in 3dsmax-07 and 456 in maya-06, which are great results, but Nvidia’s Quadro A4500 will surpass the latter. With CAD/CAM, the scores were 99 in catia-06, 133 in creo-03, 431 in snx-04 and 259 in solidworks-05. All good results, but again the A4500 holds the advantage here.

Nevertheless, the Magnetar is an unquestionably capable workstation that can slice through every kind of content creation task, be it modelling and design or rendering the results out to a file. Armari has delivered the AMD platform in its habitual efficient, solid build. The price is high, but the amount of power you get from this 16-core processor workstation is phenomenal.

We also ranked the best monitors for video-editing.

A broad coalition of addiction experts wants Congress to maintain healthcare funding for the nation's response to fentanyl and other street drugs.

(Image credit: OLIVER CONTRERAS/AFP via Getty Images)

A Kansas City Chiefs superfan known as "ChiefsAholic" was sentenced Monday in an Oklahoma courtroom to serve 32 years in state prison for robbing a Tulsa-area bank.

(Image credit: David Zalubowski)