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Anker Solix showed off its wearable charging prototype at Mobile World Congress, and I just had to try it on.

Hints and answers for The New York Times' Connections puzzle for Monday, March 3.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledged more military aid, as well as the possibility of weapons and boots on the ground, to secure peace in Ukraine.

(Image credit: WPA Pool)

Here are hints and answers for the New York Times Strands puzzle No. 365 for Monday, March 3.

Hints and answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, No. 161, for March 3.

Find the best internet plan for you in the art-filled city of Kalamazoo. These are CNET’s top picks for you to consider.

The EcoFlow River 3 is the latest entry-level portable power station from EcoFlow's River series. It offers a compact design, fast charging, and app integration utilizing Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. The River 3 is an ideal travel-friendly power solution for campers, digital nomads, emergency backup needs, and power on the go.

Unlike some of the best portable power stations I've tested, the EcoFlow River 3 offers advanced GaN technology and a compact form with an integrated handle, standard IEC cable charging, and all of the output ports on the front of the unit for ease of use. A digital screen also shows key information that pairs beautifully with the companion app.

(Image credit: Collin Probst // Future) EcoFlow River 3: Price and Availability

The EcoFlow River 3 has a base price of $239 (currently discounted to $179 at time of review) and is available in a couple of bundle options. You can grab just the power station or the River 3 with a 45W Solar panel for $219. While you can find the EcoFlow River 3 on the EcoFlow website, you can also find it at major retailers like Walmart, BestBuy, Amazon, Home Depot, and more.

(Image credit: Collin Probst // Future) EcoFlow River 3: Unboxing & first impressions

The EcoFlow River 3 is not my first EcoFlow Power station. I've reviewed quite a bit from EcoFlow over the years. I just reviewed one of my all-time favorite power stations from EcoFlow, the Delta 3 Plus. However, what's incredible about the River line-up is the portability, lightweight design, and charging speeds.

(Image credit: Collin Probst // Future)

Even at first unboxing, I was shocked at how light this power station is, especially while it still has 245Wh and a solid port offering. The River 3 is 10 x 8.3 x 4.4 inches and just under 8 lbs. With its comfortable integrated handle and great shape, this power station is easy to move around and work with. It's so easy and comfortable to carry around; my 5-year-old son helped me with some of my testing and moving it around. Further, River 3 is also IP54-rated dust and water-resistant; it has a fire-retardant casing and a drop resistance of up to 1.5 meters.

In the box are the River 3 Portable Power Station, an AC power cable, a car charger cable, and the user guide. I opted for the basic unit without the solar panel bundle, though you could add those quickly.

(Image credit: Collin Probst // Future) EcoFlow River 3: Design & build quality Specs

Capacity: 245Wh

Battery: LiFePO4 (LFP), 3000+ cycles to 80%

Output:

AC: 300W (600W X-Boost)

USB: 2 x USB-A (12W), 1 x USB-C (100W)

DC: 12V Car Port (126W max)

Charging Options:

AC (320W): 0-100% in 60 minutes

Solar (110W): 3 hours in full sun

Car (100W): 2.8 hours full charge

UPS Mode: <20ms switch time

As mentioned, the EcoFlow River 3 is highly compact and portable, especially compared to similarly rated and spec'd power stations. EcoFlow boasts that this unit is 30% smaller than the industry average and has put great focus on ensuring that this is very easy to carry around, so much so that they built an easy-carry handle.

To see how compact this unit is, I tested some spots where I could put it. It fits in the back tray on the rear of my Jeep Cherokee, it fits in the bottom of a standard backpack, it fits in the cabinet of my storage space, it can fit in the storage space in a boat, in a carrier on a four-wheeler, or even in a portable tech cart like I currently have mine -- but more on this later.

On the front of the River 3 is an LED display, two AC outlets (one three-prong, one two-prong), a USB-C with 100W PD charging, two USB-A ports, and a DC car port. The two power-in ports are on the right side.

(Image credit: Collin Probst // Future) EcoFlow River 3: In use

As I mentioned, I have tried this power station out with a few use cases. While this has been great in many areas, the use case that I have come to rely on this power station for is in a portable work cart that I utilize several days a week. One of the many roles I fill in my week is as Systems Director at a large church. In this role, I need a plethora of gear when I am on-site, and when I am on-site, I can be in any number of places throughout the campus. So, to solve this issue, I built a cart with all the cables, gear, adapters, and materials I may need for any project. The last missing piece was a way to power it, allowing me to charge my everyday carry gear in my backpack (I fit quite a bit in my Nomatic Backpack) while working throughout the building, all while also being able to power any number of computers or other technology that I may need to plug in at any given time. I solved all of these issues with the EcoFlow River 3.

The 100W USB-C power output has been fantastic for charging any of my gear (especially since 90% of what I carry daily is all USB-C to start with). I have connected two power strips to the two AC ports, granting a ton of ports for when I need to be able to plug whatever gear I need to charge. Plus, since there is then an internal battery with the River 3, I can run this setup without needing to plug in all the time, and then when the battery gets low, I can plug it in quickly and watch it recharge ridiculously fast, even when there is a load on the battery (of course, if I am putting a ton of strain on the battery with a ton of gear, it would take a little longer to recharge). So far, I have noticed that the battery within the River 3 will last for around three recharges for my MacBook Pro while also pushing a portable display from Sotsu (review coming soon).

While I don't utilize solar or car input, I could see grabbing this power station in a moment of need if we had a power outage or if I were going camping simply because of how portable and comfortable it is to use this power station. I'm also aware that my use case for this power station is unique, but I hope it shows just how versatile it is.

EcoFlow River 3: Final verdict

The EcoFlow River 3 is an ultra-portable power station for light-duty use with fast charging, UPS support, and a compact design, making it a perfect choice for travel, backing up a smaller device at home, emergency preparedness, or powering a portable workstation. It won't run high-wattage appliances, nor will it charge a Tesla or keep my house powered for hours. However, its efficiency, reliability, and portability make it a power station worth keeping and stand out in its class.

As you may have already seen, AMD officially showcased its upcoming Radeon RX 9070 and 9070 XT earlier this week, including pricing details that were an extremely welcome sight. Now, I’m starting to wonder about the Radeon RX 9060 - a GPU that, if priced correctly, could be an extremely attractive value proposition for PC gamers.

Naturally, I’m not going to get too excited until we see some real-world performance figures for the new AMD cards. Team Red made some bold claims in its RX 9070 XT performance showcase, placing the GPU just slightly above the Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti in terms of native 4K gaming performance despite it being $150 cheaper (and let’s be honest, you can’t get a 5070 Ti at retail price right now anyway).

I suspect that’s a load of baloney, since AMD used an overclocked RX 9070 XT for their testing and their comparison 5070 Ti was most likely fished out of a crypto miner’s dumpster and then spat on for good measure (AMD: this is a joke, please don’t sue me). AMD also only showcased raw native 4K framerates, while Nvidia is keen to push the effectiveness of its new DLSS 4 and Multi Frame Generation features, which - for all the debate surrounding them - do significantly improve your in-game fps.

Still, it’s very impressive stuff - but at $549 (around £520 / AU$880), even the non-XT version of the RX 9070 can’t exactly be called a budget GPU. It’s more of a midrange card, and while it looks like a great midrange card, I’d still argue that the best choice right now for PC builders on a budget is the Intel Arc B580, which scored a rare five stars in our review for its solid 1440p gaming performance and extremely reasonable $249.99 / £249.99 / AU$449 price tag.

Figuring it out

So, as things stand right now, it looks like AMD might be taking the midrange GPU space by storm, while Intel holds onto the budget market and Nvidia remains the undisputed king of the high-end. But with more RX 9000-series cards yet to come, it’s entirely possible that AMD could descend on Intel with some fiery (but affordable) wrath - after all, AMD made it clear last year that it would no longer be targeting the premium space, with a greater focus on midrange and budget GPUs.

So, the RX 9060. We know very little about it right now, but we can make some reasonable extrapolations about it based on previous leaks and our existing knowledge of the RX 9070 cards.

AMD's RX 9000 series is a bold step forward for the perpetual underdog of the GPU world. (Image credit: AMD)

For starters, some leaks from back in December proved to be mostly accurate regarding the 9070 and 9070 XT, correctly predicting the name change from RX 8000 and the upgrade to RDNA 4 as well as AMD’s new FSR 4 upscaling tech. Those leaks claimed that pricing for the two new GPUs would be in the $449 to $649 range, which has also proven accurate, although it was admittedly a fairly wide net being cast there. The same leaker claimed that upcoming Navi 44 GPUs (the 9070 cards are Navi 48) would sit in the $179 to $349 price range, presumably with the RX 9060 XT - or perhaps just a plain old RX 9060 - at the top.

This is where I start to doubt the leaks a little; a price of $349 would be a $200 gap between that card and the RX 9060, which feels like a fairly wide spacing when it comes to pricing. $399 feels a bit more reasonable to me, especially if we do get an RX 9060 XT - and as PC Gamer reports, we can apparently expect “multiple RX 9060 products” to land in the second quarter of 2025.

Performance without the price

But if the leaks are accurate and AMD does produce an RX 9060 XT for $349 or less in a few months’ time, I’ll absolutely lose my merde (pardon my French). The Radeon RX 7600 XT was a decent enough GPU, but it failed to measure up to Nvidia’s competing RTX 4060 when it came to bang for your buck.

AMD looks to be making major strides in that department, though. Even if the RX 9070 XT is 10% behind the RTX 5070 Ti in terms of raw performance - and I suspect the average might be a lot closer than that - it’s a full 20% cheaper, and there’s still no sign of a desktop RTX 5060 from Nvidia. While I do imagine that card will eventually surface, AMD has the gloves off in the affordable GPU arena right now - and there’s frankly not a hope in hell we’ll see a desktop RTX 5050, so anything below that performance level that AMD decides to offer could absolutely dominate that price point. Yes, I know Intel’s new budget GPUs are good. No, I don’t think they’ll outclass new Radeon cards.

Look at this thing. It costs less than two hundred bucks. Perfection. (Image credit: XFX)

The fact is that AMD has had skin in the budget game for a long time. My partner, who admittedly mostly plays Stardew Valley, is still rocking a Radeon RX 570 that runs perfectly well for 1080p gaming - a graphics card that retailed at just $179 in the US when it was released back in 2017. I've offered to replace it with something a bit more current, but he says "Why? It still works fine."

The affordable to midrange space is where Team Red excels, and after some small missteps in the previous desktop generation, I reckon it’s ready to take back its crown. With Nvidia focused on AI and ridiculously high performance GPUs, there’s no time like the present.

You might also like...

• The best graphics card in 2025: our picks for all budgets
• New Nvidia drivers should fix a major RTX 50 series GPU issue
• Nvidia's RTX 5090 has already been pushed beyond its limit - ROG Astral model overclock reaches 3.45GHz and 35 Gbps VRAM

Trump adviser Mike Waltz says the U.S. has "a real issue on our hands" if Ukrainian President Zelenskyy doesn't come back to negotiating table in its war with Russia.

(Image credit: Mstyslav Cherno)

Mobile World Congress officially begins on March 3, and TechRadar Pro will be on the ground to bring you all the news, updates, and announcements.

We will be hearing from some of the leading voices in the B2B tech space, so stay tuned for all of the live updates as they happen and detailed write ups with insights from some of the biggest names in tech.

• Framework Desktop is a customizable 4.5-liter, 3.1kg mini PC with AI capabilities
• It has a customizable front panel, modular components, and multiple cooling options
• The device is powered by AMD Ryzen AI Max processors with up to 128GB RAM

Framework is best known for its modular laptops which can be customized to suit your needs and, unlike many of today's computers, are also easily repairable. The company has just unveiled its latest notebook, the Framework Laptop 12, which has us super-excited, but even better than that is the company’s first desktop system.

Called (as you might have guessed) Framework Desktop, the new product is a 96.8mm x 205.5mm x 226.1mm, 4.5-liter, 3.1kg mini PC. If you’re wondering just how small that is, the image above shows it next to a banana for scale.

Framework Desktop DIY Edition, which is available to pre-order now with shipping expected in Q3 2025, is aimed at users who want a high-performance, easily upgradable mini PC with AI capabilities, but don’t want to splurge the sort of cash rival systems like Apple’s Mac Studio and Nvidia’s DIGITS cost, with the base model setting you back just $1099.

Highly customizable

(Image credit: Framework)

Because it’s from Framework, the device is highly customizable. The system features two processor options. The AMD Ryzen AI Max 385 has 8 cores, 16 threads, a 3.6GHz base clock, a 5.0GHz boost, and 32MB L3 cache, while the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 increases this to 16 cores, 32 threads, a 3.0GHz base clock, a 5.1GHz boost, and 64MB L3 cache.

Both processors have built-in GPUs, with the AI Max 385 running at up to 2.8GHz with 32 compute units, and the AI Max+ 395 reaching 2.9GHz with 40 compute units. An onboard NPU provides 32 tiles and up to 50 TOPS of performance.

Memory options include 32GB, 64GB, or 128GB LPDDR5x-8000, depending on the processor. Storage is provided through two NVMe PCIe 4.0 M.2 slots, with a maximum capacity of 8TB per slot. The mainboard follows the Mini-ITX form factor, and the system supports up to four displays. Connectivity includes AMD RZ717 Wi-Fi 7, Realtek RTL8126 5Gbit Ethernet, HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 2.1, USB-C with USB4, and USB-A 3.2 Gen 1.

Cooling options include fans from Noctua and Cooler Master. A custom heatsink with six copper heat pipes and aluminum fins is included. The 400W FlexATX power supply meets ATX 3.0 standards and features an efficient cooling fan with a zero-RPM mode.

The case is built with 30% post-consumer recycled plastic and 50% recycled aluminum. One thing we particularly like is the customizable front panel, which has spaces for 21 tiles so you can dress it up how you want, and there’s also a choice of side panels – black or translucent.

You might also like

• These are the best mobile workstations you can buy right now
• I am thrilled by Nvidia’s cute petaflop mini PC wonder
• Someone transformed a Framework 16 laptop into a drone killer

Mobile World Congress runs March 3-6, 2025.

• Honor has launched its first ever open-ear earbuds – and I tried them
• Noise cancellation and AI translation are among the unusual features
• Honor Earbuds Open's 'industry-first virtual bass algorithm' is a big hit

Sometimes when trialling a set of earbuds designed specifically not to enter your ears, I approach them slightly differently. And by 'differently', I mean that I try to get my other half to put them on in the first instance.

This is because he, for whatever reason, finds all of the best earbuds – specifically putting any in-ear design actually into his ears – abhorrent. Even some open-ear options have made this near-phobia kick in as he tried to fit them. The Honor Earbuds Open, however, slipped over his auricles like a dream. These earbuds had him happily listening to the Beatles and Arctic Monkeys for a good hour, a pleased expression never leaving his face as we chatted about the sound.

The set of earbuds is the just-released Honor Earbuds Open, and although this missive should not be considered a full review, early impressions are resoundingly positive – and not just because of the unobtrusive fit.

Reader: he loves them… (Image credit: Future) Haven't considered open-ears? You will

Full disclosure: open earbuds are very hot right now. Readers may remember that according to Huawei (upon launching its IP57-rated new FreeArc earbuds) open ear headphones are the fastest-growing product category in consumer audio, with output of such designs up 600%, year on year. So it would be easy to simply add the Honor Earbuds Open to the pile as just one more set. But I don't do that, reader…

The Honor Earbuds Open have a delightfully svelte and chic case for the category – in fact I don't think I've ever seen one this small and pocketable. How slimline are we talking? It's around half the depth of the Powerbeats Pro 2 (see the image below). Honestly, it feels more like a high-end makeup compact than a set of earbuds in my hand, emphasized by the full grain leather-effect texture on the matte plastic casework.

(Image credit: Future)

Inside, the earbuds have an unusual (for this design) spherical driver housing, under which you'll find a "φ16mm toroidal multi-magnetic circuit unit" – ie. a larger passive driver that, aided by its circular symmetry, transfers energy using a magnetic field, thus inducing an electromotive force of sorts. And let me be clear: it works very well indeed. Honor lists a "Crescent Curve, Full Moon Body, Slimline Ear hook, Ultra-thin Design" and what I can tell you is that for me (and for my other half) they slip on very easily.

Are they secure enough for more intense sports? Perhaps not, although I haven't tried that yet. This is not to be considered a full review – I also haven't tested the AI translation capabilities because for that I'd need to get my hands on an Honor Magic7 Pro – but a strong shake of the head didn't move them. What I can tell you is that each 7.9g earbud sports three microphones and a bone conduction mic, and Honor vouches for the call quality against gales of up to 6m/s, following testing under lab conditions.

(Image credit: Future) Stream the Boss? You don't have to ask me twice

Honor tells me you're also getting an "industry-first virtual bass algorithm and dynamic bass compensation" as standard. You can't turn this off in the Honor AI Space companion app, but you can select a 'workout amplifier' in the EQ sound mode tab, if you'd like even more dynamic zeal to cut through the ambient noise at your gym.

Honor suggests you stream Bruce Springsteen's Streets of Philadelphia as a litmus test of the Earbuds Open's delivery of lower frequencies and as a huge fan of the Boss, I don't mind if I do. The initial bassline is more resonant, impactful, circumaural and full-bodied than I've heard in such a design, and I don't say that lightly. It's so unusual in fact that I cue up the track from the beginning again, which is done with a triple-tap of the left earbud (a solution that isn't my favorite where easy-to-misuse capacitive on-ear touch controls are concerned, but it works well here). I go rogue and cue up the grimy Fester Skank by Lethal Bizzle instead and again, for an open-ear fit earbud the sound is remarkably meaty for bass weight. From my initial listen, the toe-tapping sound here is neutral, nuanced and clear, in an opened-out but still cohesive mix.

Noise the noise canceling option…  (Image credit: Honor)

Elsewhere, Bluetooth 5.2 is running the show, IP54 means there's a degree of dust and water ingress protection and the quoted stamina is 6 hours from the buds or up to 22 hours from the case. That is acceptable by today's standards, but remember that in-ear competitors such as the Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 can go for 10 hours alone, plus a total of 45 hours including the charging case.

Oh, and you get noise-cancellation which is highly unusual in such a design and if it proves effective, will certainly add value. I need to test this further to report back on it fully, mind. At the time of writing, official pricing and global availability isn't yet known, but as and when I know this, so shall you.

For now, just know that I'm well into my second hour of wearing the Honor Earbuds Open without issue, and my other half just asked if he could take another listen to them once I've finished this missive. And if that's not high praise, I don't know what we're doing here…

(Image credit: Future) You may also like

• See our pick of the best open ear headphones
• Read our recent Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 review
• Huawei's IP57 open-ear buds could be the bargain of 2025

• Another Sony WH-1000XM6 leak has emerged
• Import documents suggest a launch is close
• The three colors may match the existing model

Our Sony WH-1000XM5 review will tell you that we've been very impressed with Sony's flagship over-ear headphones since they launched in May 2022 – but that's nearly three years ago. Now it seems that a follow-up pair are finally about to launch.

The team at The Walkman Blog (via Notebookcheck) has spotted what seem to be importer filings, listing a couple of the countries the long-awaited Sony WH-1000XM6 headphones are expected to show up in: India and Vietnam.

In addition, there are references to three colors, which are assumed to be black, platinum silver, and midnight blue. The current Sony WH-1000XM5 model is available in those three colors, plus smoky pink, which was added later and doesn't get a mention here.

There's no other information from this particular leak, but it adds to the mounting evidence that the Sony WH-1000XM6 headphones are going to show up very soon now – perhaps before we're half way through the year.

The best new headphones of 2025?

The Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones in black (Image credit: Future)

While there are usually two-year gaps between flagship Sony over-ear headphone launches, the thinking is that the company has waited longer this time to get this series into sync with its earbuds – most recently, the Sony WF-1000XM5.

Whatever the reason for the delay, these headphones are now overdue, making a 2025 launch very likely at this stage. Once the new model is unveiled, it'll no doubt be contending for a space in our best headphones guide.

This is by no means the first leak we've heard around the Sony WH-1000XM6. Last month we saw some regulatory filings related to the device, which is always a sure sign that new hardware is about to become available to consumers.

It seems we could be in line for a Bluetooth tech upgrade with these headphones, while there's also been talk of some tweaks to the design this time around. As soon as anything is made official, we will of course let you know.

You might also like

• Should you buy the Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones in 2025?
• 6 upgrades we want from the Sony WF-1000XM6 wireless earbuds
• Philips reveals new Sony-bothering ANC headphones

The country is hosting a major international cricket tournament for the first time in a generation. It's a much-needed bright spot in a nation that's confronted recent economic and political crises.

(Image credit: Fadel Senna)

At MWC 2025, the Chinese phone-maker outlines plans to ensure its flagship phones live a long and happy life.

Find the fastest home internet speeds and cheapest plans in Amarillo with CNET's top picks for the best ISP in this Texas town.

Honor has announced a commitment to providing seven years of Android OS and security updates to its latest Magic series devices, including the Honor Magic 7 Pro.

The move brings the burgeoning smartphone manufacturer in line with Apple, Samsung, and Google, all of which provide seven years of software and security updates to their respective flagship smartphones (Apple promises at least five years of updates, but the company regularly tends to previous-generation iPhones beyond that period).

Previously, Honor handsets were typically supported with five years of updates. The best honor phones from 2024 – namely the Honor Magic 6 Pro, Honor Magic V3, and Honor 200 Pro – will remain subject to this original commitment, with the recently released Magic 7 Pro becoming the first beneficiary of the company’s new stance.

“By guaranteeing long-term software and security updates, Honor provides Magic Series owners with the confidence that their devices will remain up-to-date, secure, and feature-rich – maximizing the value of their investment and extending the lifespan of the devices,” Honor said in statement accompanying the announcement, which was made at MWC 2025.

It’s clear, then, that the move is as much a display of Honor’s faith in the longevity of its smartphone hardware as it is a commitment to sustainability (it aligns the brand with the EU's Circular Economy and Ecodesign regulations).

Do smartphones need seven years of updates?

The answer to that question has, I think, changed since Apple began offering seven years of updates to its iPhones (Google and Samsung started doing so more recently) – though I suspect that OnePlus would disagree.

In contrast to those brands (and now Honor), OnePlus has committed to offering four years of OS updates and six years of security patches to its latest flagship device, the OnePlus 13, with OnePlus COO Kinder Liu saying in a 2024 interview that longer update policies “miss the point” if the hardware they apply to becomes outdated. Sure, that reads like a self-own (i.e. an admission that OnePlus phones won’t last as long as rival models) but Liu’s point holds water for a certain generation of phones: a six-year-old iPhone XR, for instance, can technically run iOS 18, but that doesn’t mean it’ll do so smoothly.

Of course, an Honor Magic 7 Pro is not an iPhone XR; its Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset and 12GB RAM will undoubtedly give it longevity that phones from yesteryear simply don’t have. That said, I don’t think Honor is expecting anyone to actually hold on to the same phone for seven years – this is more a case of the company aligning itself with the big boys so it can’t be criticized for not doing so.

Still, the more updates, the merrier. Offering as-long-as-possible update support can only be a good thing for consumers, provided that the hardware in question can indeed live up to the billing in seven years' time. Come back to us in 2032.

You might also like

• Honor’s Magic Portal 2.0 brings game-changing updates to one of the best Android software features
• Honor Magic 7 Pro launches with Deepfake Detection and a 200MP ‘Super Zoom’ camera
• Honor Magic 7 RSR launches with more RAM than the iPhone 16 Pro Max and Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra combined (yes, really)

You'll still have to take measures to keep your financial information safe from hackers.

For the vast majority of people, shopping for one of the best TVs means shopping for a 4K TV. But I suspect that for the vast majority of that vast majority, the TV they buy won't be fed many 4K shows or movies. And that's important, because I think you should factor that into your buying decisions.

The reason most of your entertainment won't be 4K is because unless you're paying for the most expensive streaming packages, you're likely getting 1080p Full HD (or lower, in some cases: I'm in the UK where streamers such as Now TV delivers 720p as standard).

I'm a cautious buyer, and I grudge paying extra for marginally better streaming resolution – partly on principle but mainly because if you subscribe to multiple of the best streaming services, that extra cash soon adds up, especially as streaming gets more expensive every year. A few years ago, 4K came as standard in many cases, but as ad-based tiers have appeared, it's not guaranteed any more.

And even if you do plump for the Super Awesome Premium Plus packages, not all of the available content is in 4K. For example I watched an Anthony Bourdain show recently on a 4K streaming service; the show was filmed in 2002, apparently using RealVideo, and was so low-res you'd think they'd made it in Minecraft.

We can't travel back in time to make SD shows HD, or HD ones 4K. But with the right TV, we don't have to.

The hidden hero in the best TVs

My Anthony Bourdain show wasn't unwatchable, and my TV deserves all the credit for that: despite being blown up to 65 inches, the picture wasn't too bad. That's because my TV has a good image processor that upscales relatively low-res content well.

Thanks to image processing, Anthony Bourdain's early 2000s tour looks considerably less jaggy on my TV. (Image credit: Prime Video)

As a general rule, the bigger the TV, the more important its upscaling is going to be. Issues that aren't apparent on a 42-inch 4K panel will be terribly obvious on a 65-inch or larger. That's because the smaller panel has a much higher pixel density: both displays are packing 3840x2160 pixels, but the smaller display packs them in much more tightly, so image flaws aren't quite so visible.

We've written a detailed guide to 4K upscaling, which you can find here. But the executive summary is that it works like this: the processor analyzes the signal, applies noise reduction, sharpens anything that needs to be sharpened and, for lower resolution signals, it then converts the signal to 4K resolution (or 8K if you have an 8K TV).

It's far from new technology, but it doesn't get talk about as often as it used too – but it's just as important in the streaming age, especially with some new streaming tiers taking is backwards, as I mentioned above.

Image processing is also important for streaming at any resolution because streaming video isn't lossless: it's optimized for efficient delivery, and that means sacrificing some of the data (which is one reason many movie fans with serious home cinema setups prefer the best 4K Blu-ray players to streaming).

That data optimization can cause visible issues such as noticeable color banding or ugly gradients in darker backgrounds, where instead of a smooth range of colors or near-darkness, you see patches of color with clear dividing lines between them. If you have network congestion, the bitrate can drop and make those issues even more apparent. But with good picture processing your TV can spot those issues and fix them in real time.

How to buy the best TV for upscaling

Price is, inevitably, a big part of this: just like budget phones don't come with the latest and greatest mobile processors, TVs built to a low price aren't likely to have state-of-the-art upscaling.

The very best processing usually turns up in TV makers' flagship models first, especially with household names: the likes of Sony, LG, Samsung, Panasonic and Philips all push their extremely clever image processing systems as key selling points for their latest and greatest televisions.

All TV makers use upscaling tech, but these companies have particularly impressed us, based not only on how well they add sharpness, but in how they manage to reduce color bands – especially Sony, LG and Panasonic when it comes to the latter, though Samsung's 2025 TVs also make a great improvement in this area from our demos so far.

I'm a bit biased, of course, but I'd definitely recommend reading our in-depth reviews of any TVs you're considering: upscaling is one of the key features we look at very carefully, and because we review so many TVs we've got extensive knowledge of what makes upscaling look natural, and what leaves things looking artificial and not making the most of your 4K screen.

But I'd also suggest going to a store, even if you're planning to buy online. That's where you can test different models' upscaling really easily: turn off the retail/demo mode with its over-the-top brightness, contrast and motion smoothing and ask to see something that isn't 4K – and ideally, that isn't even Full HD.

Watching 4K content on a 4K display isn't going to show you how good its image processing system is: it's the lower-res stuff that separates the OK from the awesome.