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• Flock’s CEO has defended his company’s products in the face of criticism
• He said "we shouldn’t pause progress" in the name of privacy
• His comments at times contradicted those on Flock’s website

Flock has repeatedly found itself in hot water over the past few months, with the automated license plate recognition cameras causing controversy amid privacy concerns and widespread public backlash. But speaking on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, Flock’s CEO dismissed such concerns as being the price of “progress.”

“If we want to live in a society where, if you commit a crime, you have a higher probability of being held accountable, we shouldn’t pause progress,” declared Flock’s Garrett Langley. TechCrunch noted that Langley’s argument positioned Flock as a technology that is “somewhat inevitable” and that the CEO stressed that living in a safer society required citizens giving up their privacy in return.

As noted by TechCrunch, the CEO, “deflected hard questions about the criticism Flock now faces” and presented “tales of the supposed numerous crimes Flock has solved, rather than offer tangible solutions to people’s concerns.”

When asked whether Flock had ended any contracts with law enforcement agencies over abuse of its products, Langley said the company had not “fired” any customers. However, he argued that it “If a customer knowingly broke the law, we would fire them immediately.”

The question of whether Flock has ended its work with any police departments is a pertinent one due to multiple reports of Flock reinstalling its cameras even after local authorities had removed them. Those actions have at times led to people covering Flock cameras in a bid to stop them recording local people.

Recording more than just gunshots

(Image credit: Flock Safety)

At the event, Langley was also asked about another controversial Flock technology: its cameras’ ability to record and process ambient audio. Privacy advocates have argued that Flock’s initial plans to detect screaming meant its devices would constantly collect human voices and that this amounted to mass surveillance of the public.

Langley pushed back against that idea, saying that the Gunshot Detection feature records “just gunshots” and nothing else. However, Flock’s website paints a very different picture, saying the tool can “detect street takeovers early to stop chaos before it escalates” and has the capability to “expand awareness beyond gunfire with alerts for car crashes, fireworks, and sideshows.”

And in a message to TechCrunch, Flock spokesperson Paris Lewbel said “Flock’s gunshot detection technology is primarily used to detect gunfire but is also capable of detecting fireworks, sideshows, and potential car crashes. CEO Garrett Langley’s remarks were intended to emphasize that Flock’s Audio Detection technology is not designed to monitor conversations or analyze speech and does not currently detect human screaming or distress.”

Despite being given a chance to respond to public worries about Flock’s cameras and their potential for abuse, Langley instead insisted that the devices were a sign of “progress” in society.

It therefore seems likely that Langley’s defiant tone will do little to assuage privacy and surveillance concerns surrounding his company’s products — and that we’ll continue to see them make headlines for all the wrong reasons.

We live in very weird times, where AI suddenly sent consumer tech back at least a decade. Here I am casting my gaze on a laptop that wouldn’t have been out of place in 2016.

This HP laptop is a Walmart exclusive, has no name and costs only $199, down from $259. It is the cheapest new Windows laptop in the US (and possibly in the whole world, I looked almost everywhere).

What you get for your hard earned money is a reasonably fast laptop CPU. The Intel N150 is roughly equivalent to some 10th generation Core i3 CPU, which is to say that it is not bad at all. It is superior to the absolute travesty that is the Athlon Silver 10 which powers (for lack of a better word) so many budget laptops.

14-inch Windows Laptop: was $259 now $199
This Walmart-exclusive Windows 11 Home laptop comes in waterfall blue and tranquil pink. Alongside the 12-month Microsoft 365 Personal subscription, Walmart also offers five free extras on Apple TV, Apple Fitness+, Apple Music, Apple Arcade, and Apple News+.

Note: Stocks are running low right now.View Deal

Corners have been cut to reach the sticker price. There’s only 4GB of RAM (albeit the faster, more expensive LPDDR5 version), 128GB UFS storage (rather than an SSD), a 14-inch HD display (not full HD, so expect blockier/less sharp graphics) and a HD webcam. These are major pitfalls (especially the first two) but I dare say, acceptable at this price.

There are some noteworthy bits: 1-year subscription to Microsoft 365 (formerly know as Microsoft Office), worth $70 (Personal Classic Edition), more than “11 hours of video playback battery life” according to the marketing literature (no mention of battery size though) and 2x more ports than on the Apple MacBook Neo (power port, HDMI, USB Type-C, audio and two USB Type-A).

I also like that this laptop features Windows 11 Home rather than the inferior 11 Home S version. I never quite understood the appeal of this lockdown version of Windows. Surprisingly, the laptop is available in ‘tranquil pink’ and ‘waterfall blue’ rather than the usual silver or charcoal black. All in all, the laptop looks rather nice, at least on the stock photos. Just remember that this is a $199 laptop and you’re most likely getting a plastic - rather than a metal - chassis.

Nobody has reviewed this laptop yet and the nearest equivalent product from HP is this Chromebook which is more expensive and has less storage. 202 user reviews from Walmart gave it an overall rating of 82%. Critics panned its limited responsiveness (not a surprise here!) and poor sound (can’t expect miracles at this price point).

My take? Honestly, it could have been much worse. I had a look at previous versions that had 64GB eMMC storage and an even slower CPU and they sold for $179. In 2025. Now in 2026, with a far faster CPU, a slightly increased price and twice the storage capacity, I’d stay it is a relatively good bargain. Just don’t expect it to play AAA games at high resolutions.

• See all laptop deals at Walmart

The Trump administration provided few details about its process for canceling hundreds of thousands of Affordable Care Act enrollments — even as the next stage of the anti-fraud effort is underway.

(Image credit: Stefani Reynolds)

With Nvidia's October Studio Driver bringing optimizations for Adobe Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve, I've been looking for video editing laptops that can take full advantage of GPU acceleration. Right now, the Gigabyte Gaming A16 Pro is my standout pick.

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Laptop GPU is the main draw here for real-time effects, but the 32GB of DDR5 RAM gives the machine breathing room for scrubbing through 4K timelines, managing multi-layer compositions, and running multiple creative apps simultaneously.

• Best for: Video editors, content creators, graphic designers, and 3D artists who want a powerful laptop without paying a premium for a dedicated creative workstation.

• The deal: The Gigabyte A16 Pro 16-inch laptop is now $1,449 (was $2,149.99) at Walmart, saving you $700.99.

Today's best Gigabyte A16 Pro laptop deal

A16 Pro 16" Laptop: was $2149.99 now $1449
Gigabyte's laptop features an Intel Core 7 240H processor, Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti graphics, 32GB DDR5 RAM, 1TB SSD, 16-inch 1600p IPS display, 165Hz refresh rate, and Wi-Fi 6E.View Deal

Why we recommend it

In his four-star review, our expert Lindsay said the A16 Pro offers "creator-level CPU performance, plus a big 16-inch 165 Hz display that can lay flat. A 115W cap on the RTX 5080 means mid-range performance, but it's well ahead of similar priced 5070-equipped rivals."

He declared it to also be "a very capable workstation and we measured up to 90W charging via USB-C, so it can provide decent productivity performance without having to lug the larger power brick around."

The Intel Core 7 240H processor handles editing and multitasking, while a 1TB PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD provides fast storage. The 16-inch IPS display offers 2560 x 1600 resolution, a 16:10 aspect ratio, 100% sRGB coverage, and 400-nit brightness.

Connectivity includes HDMI 2.1, USB-C with DisplayPort and Power Delivery, USB-A, Gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2, Dolby Atmos audio, and a headphone jack.

Price context & historical value

Walmart has reduced the Gigabyte Gaming A16 Pro from $2,149.99 to $1,449, saving you $700.99. That's a discount of approximately 33%. I couldn't find evidence of a lower price for this exact configuration, so I'd definitely recommend it.

Should you buy it?

✅ Buy the Gigabyte A16 Pro laptop if...

You edit videos, create digital content, or work with applications that benefit from Nvidia GPU acceleration. The RTX 5070 Ti and 32GB RAM make this a terrific option for demanding projects, and the 1600p display provides a useful workspace for editing and multitasking.

❌ Skip the Gigabyte A16 Pro laptop if...

You won't need this level of graphics performance if you mainly work with documents, spreadsheets, email, and web applications. A less expensive laptop would be the better choice.

• Shop all laptop deals at Walmart

European consumers continue to bank with traditional institutions, but many are clearly less satisfied with the experience. Earlier this year, a leading digital banking platform provider published the results of a survey of 6,300 online banking users across Europe.

Although 82 percent of respondents used a traditional bank as their main provider, 26 percent had switched banks in the past because of poor digital services, and would not hesitate to do so again. Also, 47 percent said that they would feel more satisfied if their bank improved the quality of digital services. Customers specifically called out personalized recommendations in this context.

What do customers want?

With the digitalization of banking, seamless transaction experiences have become the norm, standardized across banks with little to differentiate them. Digital channels are efficient, but impersonal. For the majority of customers, they are a way to complete quick, functional tasks such as checking account balance. This has gradually emotionally distanced consumers from their banks.

And therein lies the dilemma: The same consumers who are embracing digital banking are demanding more personal interactions with their bank. For instance, 59 percent of European consumers want financial recommendations tailored to their individual needs. Banks that fail to provide this will see customers walking away.

The good news is that artificial intelligence technologies are now enabling banking institutions to meet these seemingly irreconcilable expectations. Where previous digital technologies allowed some – mostly segment-level – personalization, AI is driving hyper-personalization of digital banking experiences, in real-time, at scale.

Personalize everything, from product recommendation to marketing communication

Advanced analytics models analyze customer and transaction data to identify insights into individual needs, preferences and behaviors, based on which intelligent recommendation engines suggest the most suitable products and services. Besides tailoring products using traditional financial metrics – think of loans and investment plans customized according to risk profile and financial goals – AI can personalize banking based on an individual’s data and activity outside the bank.

A great example is the hugely popular Buy Now Pay Later model where ecommerce businesses allow customers to pay for purchases in instalments based on their creditworthiness, assessed using previous transaction history and other variables.

AI-powered tools can also detect cash flow patterns or spending anomalies to offer proactive guidance to help every customer manage their finances better. Gen AI-powered chatbots and virtual tellers can support customers at any time of day or night, conversing in natural language just like a human relationship manager, to answer queries and even resolve complex issues.

Customers can ask specific questions about their portfolios or financial goals, and generative AI will respond independently, or along with a human advisor, with targeted recommendations and guidance.

The ability of generative AI to converse in a highly personal, human-like manner is transforming debt collection. Tapping natural language processing and machine learning, gen AI systems analyze borrower preferences and behaviors and then create personalized messages that improve both engagement and repayment. They also minimize confrontation by showing empathy, and suggesting solutions that are more acceptable to customers.

Revolutionizing communication

Coming to communication, bombarding people with generic messages is inefficient, ineffective and exposes a bank’s lack of in-depth customer understanding. It also annoys consumers who are already flooded with spam and unsolicited calls from various businesses. AI is revolutionizing communication by enabling banks to craft highly relevant messages that resonate with customers.

First, predictive tools identify which customers are likely to respond favorably to different types of messages; then generative AI swings into action, creating highly personalized content and campaigns, in the customers’ chosen language(s). Other AI solutions identify the right channel, format and time for sending the communication, making customers feel valued and truly understood by their bank.

The gaming industry also presents a compelling frontier for banks to engage younger, digitally native audiences with gen AI. With so many gamers interacting in immersive virtual environments, banks can leverage gen AI to create hyper-personalized financial experiences that align with gaming lifestyles and personas.

For example, AI-driven insights can enable banks to offer micro-investment products based on in-game spending behavior, offer dynamic credit options for digital purchases, and design savings plans that reward financial discipline with virtual incentives.

By integrating with gaming platforms and analyzing behavioral data in real time, banks can deliver contextual financial nudges—such as suggesting a budgeting tool or offering crypto-linked rewards for in-game achievements. The integration of gaming and finance, powered by gen AI, not only enhances customer engagement but also positions banks as lifestyle partners in the digital economy.

What’s more, AI models learn from the success and failure of past interactions to modify their own actions, reinforcing strategies and recommendations that invited interest, while dropping those that were met with disengagement. As it continuously learns and adapts, AI gets better and better at hyper-personalizing customer experiences at scale.

Moving forward in Europe

In Europe, next-generation providers are the clear leaders in AI adoption: Dutch neobank, Bunq, is Europe’s first AI-powered bank; Finn, its personal finance assistant, offers personalized, context-aware support through simple conversation, handling up to 40 percent of customer queries independently.

AI analyzes transaction data to offer personalized recommendations within Starling Bank’s mobile app, driving app engagement up by 25 percent. German digital bank, N26, personalizes customer experience through AI-powered multilingual support, conversational AI, and AI-generated next best action recommendations.

But overall, European financial service firms still have a long way to go. In a 2024 survey, although 90 percent of respondents said they had integrated some AI tools, just 9 percent believed they were ahead of the adoption curve. Investments are focused on back-office improvement, while AI adoption in customer-facing applications is clearly lagging.

Respondents named (lack of) understanding, experience and regulatory clarity as their biggest issues when integrating generative AI. Firms can address these concerns and accelerate implementations through training and development, by broadening AI use-cases, and by setting up strong governance and compliance mechanisms.

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• Android devices have started automatically linking your phone number to all signed-in Google accounts
• This is a privacy issue for anyone with multiple accounts who doesn't want their phone number linked to secondary ones
• You can toggle this feature off, but some users claim it reverts back anyway

Google has never exactly been a bastion of privacy, but its reputation has just taken another hit with a controversial new Android default — it's just started automatically linking your phone number(s) to all signed-in Google accounts on your Android device.

As spotted by Reddit user Nanosinx, Google Play Services has started automatically verifying your phone number and linking it across your signed in Google accounts — so if you have secondary accounts on your Android phone, perhaps for work or throwaway ones, these may now have your number linked to them.

As a phone number is quite private and potentially sensitive information, this isn’t ideal — and should obviously be an opt-in feature, as it always used to be.

It does seem that users are at least getting emails from Google alerting them to this change, so if you haven’t received any emails, your number(s) might not have been linked — at least not yet. But it’s still probably worth checking if that's important to you.

Shut it down

(Image credit: Google / TechRadar)

To check if the feature is enabled — and disable it if you don’t want it to be — head to Settings > Google (or Google services and preferences) > All services > Phone number verification. If this screen has a ‘Verify phone numbers automatically’ toggle enabled, then this is happening to your accounts — so disable that to turn off this ‘feature.’

But that won’t remove your phone number from accounts that it has already been linked to. For that, head to your Google account personal info page, then go to Contact info (or Personal info) > Phone, and remove the number from any account you don’t want it linked to.

Remarkably, some users are reporting that the same issue occurs even on the privacy-focused GrapheneOS, though possibly only if you’ve installed Google Play Services. And some users also report the auto verification toggle turning itself back on, so the above may only prove a temporary fix.

Understandably, Android users aren’t happy about any of this, with comments on Reddit including the likes of “I’m so sick of this,” “this feature is absolutely dumb,” and “scummy practices yet again by a mega corp.”

So this isn’t a popular change, but whether Google will care enough to switch it back to an opt-in rather than opt-out process remains to be seen.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has laid out his vision of how OpenClaw will help shape the future of technology - with a particular focus on robotics.

Speaking at a “Build a claw” event in London, Huang explained how OpenClaw and AI agents as a whole can spur on incredible advancements in a range of fields.

However it was the field of humanoid robotics that seemed to catch his fancy, with Huang outlining the need for proper controls to ensure the potential of the technology can be reached.

AI is "becoming useful"

Huang opened by noting how OpenClaw was “one of the most important models” ever seen, helping to further progress across multiple industries.

“We’ve now seen an inflection in artificial intelligence - it’s become useful,” he declared. “The type of things people are doing with it, as simple as software coding, being a marketing agent assistant, research assistant, lab assistant, helping scientists do drug discovery and engineers run experiments - we’ve got agents everywhere.”

Spotting a robot built by Nvidia partner Humanoid, Huang noted how OpenClaw is the “first credible” agentic harness, which he likened to LLMs inside an exoskeleton, before extolling the possible benefits to using the technology for robotics.

“When it first came out, we thought wow, what a really terrific digital robotic system,” he said, “kind of like a human robot, that is basically the physical harness of a large language model, essentially - the motors and the articulation and the wheels and the arms, those are just tools that are used by the agent that’s sitting inside the computer.”

“So when we first saw that we said, this is incredibly useful, and we’re going to help make it even better - but the one observation that we made was that these agentic systems, if they were able to be deployed in a safe and secure way, we’re going to have to create some kind of container for you.”

(Image credit: Future / Mike Moore)

Huang noted that the current situation was similar to the birth of the internet, when a browser itself was not isolated from the computer, so when a user interacted with a website, it would download an app which had full control of bare metal - and often delivering what he described as “a special package to your PC”.

“The obvious thing to do is create essentially a container, an isolation layer - essentially another operating system inside the operating system - so we created this thing called OpenShell,” Huang said, highlighting how this creates an isolation system for agentic systems.

“When you’re building an autonomous system, the first thing you should do is assume zero trust. So you give it a policy, you get minimal privileges - so if you’re asking an autonomous system to make you an omelet, you don’t have to give it access to a chainsaw - all you need is a frying pan…so whatever the task you give your agent, you give it minimum rights, minimum privileges, and then you get to monitor it to make sure that it’s compliant with policy”

“Zero trust, minimum policy, continuous monitoring, contained inside an isolation system that is separated from bare metal - that’s how you develop and deploy agents safely.”

But what if unexpected incidents or complications arise? Huang was optimistic that things would not get out of hand.

“We will monitor the autonomous systems continuously, and if that robot were to start to violate or do something that’s inconsistent with the privileges we gave it, it would escalate to us, and we can decide whether we want to shut it up!” he laughed.

“These kind of systems, these escalation systems, these security systems, all have to be built so that we can give all these autonomous machines and autonomous agents and deploy them in a way that is able to do so safely and securely, so we can realise the incredible future potential of the technology that we’re building.”

Ukrainian drones attacked a refinery in Russia's Ryazan region early Thursday, hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that a brief truce spurned by Moscow was over.

(Image credit: Alberto Pezzali)

Enterprise investment in artificial intelligence has, understandably, been concentrated on compute. Access to GPUs, model performance and the cost of inference have become central considerations as organizations move AI workloads from experimentation towards production.

However, an increasing proportion of the economic and operational challenge sits elsewhere in the infrastructure stack. AI depends on data at every stage of its lifecycle: datasets must be collected and prepared, training data must be made available to compute, checkpoints and model artefacts must be retained and information may need to move between infrastructure providers as workloads and commercial priorities change.

As these workloads scale, the storage layer is becoming a strategic component of AI infrastructure with significant implications for the economics of enterprise AI.

AI is changing the role of storage

Traditional storage strategies have generally been built around considerations such as capacity, availability, performance and retention. AI introduces another dimension: the relationship between storage and the changing requirements of the wider infrastructure environment.

Different stages of an AI workflow have different storage requirements. Data being actively processed may require high-performance infrastructure, while historical datasets, checkpoints and model artefacts may place greater emphasis on durability, security, accessibility and cost. Applying the same storage approach across the entire lifecycle can therefore result in inefficient infrastructure utilization.

The challenge is particularly significant because AI data volumes can be substantial and continue to expand as organizations generate additional training data, model versions and associated artefacts.

The objective should not be to minimize storage expenditure in isolation. It should be to ensure that data is held on infrastructure appropriate to its role, while maintaining the performance, security and accessibility required by the business.

This is the foundation of what can be described as AI storagemaxxing: the systematic optimization of storage across the AI lifecycle to ensure that infrastructure investment is aligned with business and workload requirements.

Data mobility is becoming an infrastructure requirement

Organizations are adopting a broader range of infrastructure providers, including hyperscalers, specialized GPU providers and emerging cloud platforms known as neoclouds. The economics and availability of these environments can change rapidly, creating incentives to move workloads between providers. Compute can be relatively straightforward to reallocate. The associated data is considerably less mobile.

Large training datasets and model artefacts can be expensive and operationally complex to transfer. Where significant charges are associated with moving or retrieving data, organizations may find themselves constrained by infrastructure decisions that were made at an earlier stage of their AI program, creating a form of unintended dependency.

The ability to move data should therefore be considered when designing AI infrastructure, rather than treated as a contingency for a future migration. Open standards and interoperable storage can provide an important degree of separation between data and compute, allowing organizations to adapt their infrastructure strategy as market conditions change.

For technology leaders, this creates a broader consideration than simply assessing the cost of storage capacity. The relevant question is the total economic and strategic cost of retaining data within a particular environment.

Storage optimization must include security

Training datasets, proprietary information and model artefacts can represent significant commercial value. At the same time, the number of applications and automated systems interacting with enterprise data is increasing. Storage resilience must therefore form part of the AI security strategy.

Immutable copies, appropriate access controls and robust recovery processes can help organizations protect critical data from ransomware, accidental deletion and unauthorized modification. These capabilities are particularly important for datasets that would be difficult or expensive to recreate.

Security should consequently be considered alongside performance and cost when determining where AI data resides. A storage environment that reduces expenditure but creates unacceptable recovery or security risks does not represent effective optimization.

Predictable economics will become increasingly important

Storage costs can include capacity, access, retrieval and data transfer. Where these costs are difficult to predict, they can complicate infrastructure planning and influence architectural decisions. This becomes particularly problematic when organizations need to move large datasets between storage and compute environments.

Predictable storage economics allow organizations to make infrastructure decisions based on workload requirements rather than uncertainty over the cost of accessing or moving their data. This distinction will become increasingly important as AI workloads mature. During experimentation, infrastructure decisions can be relatively temporary.

Production workloads, by contrast, may persist for years and generate substantial quantities of associated data, so the storage strategy needs to account for the full lifecycle of that data, rather than the requirements of a single workload or infrastructure deployment.

The strategic role of the data layer

The next phase of enterprise AI adoption will require organisations to look beyond compute optimisation. GPUs will remain critical. Model efficiency will remain important. However, neither can be optimized effectively without considering the data on which AI workloads depend.

AI storagemaxxing provides a useful framework for applying the principle: storage should be treated as part of the AI operating model. Assess storage according to several strategic criteria: whether it is appropriate for the workload, does it provide adequate protection and recovery, are the economics predictable, and could data be moved without friction as infrastructure requirements evolve.

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• OpenAI has seen agentic AI usage surge among SMBs following the launch of ChatGPT Work
• EU only accounts for 10% of 'frontier firms' – North America is home to 65%
• More works needs to be done on accessibility, affordability and skills

OpenAI's latest research has revealed just how widespread agentic AI usage is growing across Europe, with AI agents now accounting for more than half (55%) of the output tokens among the company's enterprise and business customers in the EU – leaving more basic generative AI handling the other 45%.

In its report, the company argues European businesses are now in the midst of a major transition, from using AI to simply answer questions to getting AI to complete tasks for them.

The biggest shift OpenAI has seen coincides with the launch of ChatGPT Work, an agentic tool built into the company's 'superapp'.

Agentic AI vs generative AI

Crucially, the metrics are based on output tokens and not the proportion of companies using AI. In other words, the report isn't claiming that more businesses use agentic AI, it's just saying that those who do are producing more output than non-adopters.

But while the European average stands at 55%, there are notable disparities – Slovenia (22%), Austria (26%) and Portugal (29%) fall short, while Lithuania (85%), Cyprus (81%) and Hungary (79%) trend ahead of the curve.

The report also shows how it's the small business' time to shine, while many large enterprises have already invested heavily in artificial intelligence. By making agentic AI more accessible via its "superapp", OpenAI saw European SME AI agent usage increase more than 8x in less than half a year. The biggest spike started around the time that ChatGPT Work went public.

These findings imply that smaller businesses are now experimenting with the tech capabilities that were previously only associated with bigger companies.

"Europe is now in a new era of AI, with tools that can carry out tasks for people," OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar wrote.

Slow growth in Europe compared with other regions

Despite solid growth in adoption, Europe still falls short, OpenAI says. Countries in the EU only account for around 10% of the world's so-called frontier firms – companies that are in the top tenth of businesses ranked by AI output tokens per active user.

That puts the EU behind EMEA (11%), APAC (13%) and North America (65%). Growth also differs per region, with non-EU frontier firms seeing a 12.9x growth between May and September versus just 6.1x for EU firms.

OpenAI doesn't seem too worried about these findings, rather seeing them as an opportunity for the business within Europe. But for companies who feel like they could be getting more out of AI, the ChatGPT maker wants to encourage organizations to move beyond experimentation and trials.

Some priorities highlighted in its blog post include improving accessibility, affordability and workforce skills.

"Giving people the tools, skills and confidence to use AI well will help build stronger businesses and growing economies, with benefits felt across Europe," Friar added.

One plays the bull, the other the bullfighter, as a pair practices a dance of death in a sport that's prohibited in the Mexican capital city.

• The Xbox Nano Controller has been announced and launches on November 4
• Pre-orders are open now for the rechargeable, compact controller at $49.99 / £44.99
• Microsoft says it's designed as a pocketable and approachable controller for the whole family

Microsoft has announced the Xbox Nano Controller, an affordable, rechargeable compact gamepad launching on November 4.

Available for pre-order now at $49.99 / £44.99, the Xbox Nano Controller is Microsoft's "smallest controller," at just over 5 inches, weighing 3.5 ounces, and "lighter and shorter than most modern smartphones."

Designed as a pocketable, approachable controller for the whole family, all 18 standard Xbox gameplay inputs are featured, for games like Minecraft Dungeons 2, Grounded, Forza Horizon 6, and more.

"Designed to fit nearly every pocket and budget," Microsoft said, "Its compact design offers a great option for younger players, smaller hands, or anyone seeking something portable for play on the go."

The Nano Controller also includes a rechargeable battery and a programmable Action Button that players can customize for features like screenshots, gameplay capture, and other shortcuts, as well as Xbox Wireless and Bluetooth support, allowing a connection across a range of compatible devices.

In addition, Microsoft has teamed up with Samsung to introduce a special Xbox Nano Controller and a 2-month Game Pass Ultimate offer for new members in the US who purchase select Samsung TVs this holiday season.

It's also working with Meta on a separate holiday offer in the US that includes an Xbox Nano Controller and a 2-month Game Pass Ultimate subscription for new members with the purchase of a Meta Quest.

Acer Swift Spin 14 AI review: Two Minute Review

The Acer Swift Spin 14 AI is an easy recommendation outside of its price tag. It’s light, slim, and pretty attractive in its one colorway. It also comes with a touchscreen and an incredibly smooth 360-degree hinge that makes putting it in tent or tablet mode very easy outside of swinging around a 14-inch piece of hardware. If you’re looking for one of the best laptops with 2-in-1 capabilities, I think this laptop fits right in.

It’s surprisingly powerful for a laptop that relies on integrated graphics (rather than a discrete GPU) – I was able to do some semi-serious gaming on it, though with some compromises – and it comes with a battery life that competes with the best.

Besides the lacklustre sound quality, which I expect on even the best Ultrabooks since they’re so thin, the main issue I have with the laptop is the price tag. Considering everything I’ve mentioned above, as well as the included AI apps, I don’t think the laptop is overpriced. But at about a grand and a half, it’s not quite the value proposition that I expect from Acer, either. Of course, knowing the company, that price will probably come down before long.

The Acer Swift Spin 14 AI has no issues streaming whatever content you want. (Image credit: Future / James Holland)Acer Swift Spin 14 AI review: Price & Availability

• How much does it cost? $1,499.99 / £1,399 (about AU$2,150)
• When is it available? Available now
• Where can you get it? Available in the US and UK

The Acer Swift Spin 14 AI is available for $1,499.99 / £1,399 (about AU$2,150) in the United States and the United Kingdom. It doesn’t seem to be available in Australia at the time of writing, but Acer does have a landing page for the model, so that might change in the very near future.

If you’re wondering about what kind of upgrades you can make or configurations you can choose from, you’re in for a rude awakening. There’s just one version of this laptop on the market, and it comes with the Snapdragon X2 Elite CPU (with 80 tops), integrated Adreno graphics, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD.

The HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 might be a bit heavier and have issues with its stylus storage, but it comes with a nicer OLED screen for the same price (it’s actually available at a lower price through some retailers at the time of writing). Plus, it has a few different configurations if you want more RAM or SSD.

The Apple 13-inch MacBook Air (M5) might not be a Windows laptop or a 2-in-1, but it is still the standard that we compare most Ultrabooks to. It’s attractive, easy to use, and lightweight, with great battery life. Plus, it starts at a lower price tag of $1,099 / £1,099 / AU$1,799.

• Value score: 4 / 5

Acer Swift Spin 14 AI review: specs

The Acer Swift Spin 14 AI may only come in one configuration, but its Snapdragon X2 Elite X2E78100 with 12 cores (boost up to 4.0GHz) and 80 TOPS NPU (neural processing unit), integrated Qualcomm Adreno graphics, and 16GB of RAM are more than enough power for an on-the-go 2-in-1 laptop like this. The 512GB SSD is good, though it would be nice to be able to upgrade to more storage.

Base

Price

$1,499.99 / £1,399 (about AU$2,150)

CPU

Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite X2E78100

GPU

Qualcomm Adreno

RAM

16GB LPPDDR5X

Storage

512GB PCIe Gen4 SSD

Display

14" diagonal, WUXGA (1920 x 1200) touch display up to 120Hz, 300 nits

Ports and Connectivity

2x USB-4 Type C, 2x USB-3.2 Type A, HDMI 2.1, Aux

Wireless

Realtek Wi-Fi 7 (2x2) and Bluetooth 6

Camera

5M IR HDR Webcam (2880 x 1800) and Privacy Shutter with Blue Glass

Dimensions

2.95 pounds (1.34 kg)

Weight

12.35 x 9.07 x 0.59/0.63 inches /

313.8 x 230.26 x 14.96/15.95 mm

Since there’s only one configuration, there’s no upgrading the screen either, which has a 1920x1200 16:10 ratio touch screen that can support up to 120Hz refresh rate. Likewise, it’s only available in Cobalt Blue.

Acer Swift Spin 14 AI review: Design

• Attractive build
• USB-C port on either side
• Keyboard is good but not great

I say that it’s only available in Cobalt Blue, as if that’s a bad thing. In fact, it’s a very attractive dark-ish metallic blue aluminum chassis that’s accented on the lid with silver etchings, giving it an almost space age feel. I like it.

I also like the fact that not only is the port selection pretty comprehensive but that it spreads the ports pretty evenly. Each side has a USB-C port so you don’t have to worry about your orientation to an outlet when you need to charge up – something that invariably happens when I’m reviewing a laptop that uses USB-C to charge and then puts them all on one side.

Along with the two USB-C ports are two regular USB-A ports, an HDMI 2.1 port, and a headphone jack. There’s also on the right side the stylus and its built-in carriage. I always seem to knock off styli that magnetically clip on the side of a laptop so having it tucked away is pretty nice.

The Acer Swift Spin 14 AI not only has a USB-C port on the right side but storage for the included active stylus. (Image credit: Future / James Holland)

The screen may be just 1920x1200p but it looks pretty sharp nonetheless. Maybe it’s its 300 nits of brightness. The screen is also a touch display and feels responsive to the touch. I find the large touchpad to be just as responsive, not to mention is pleasant to use thanks to Acer using Corning Gorilla Glass.

The quality of the keyboard can make or break laptops like this – remember Apple’s butterfly keyboard? Thankfully, the feel of the Acer Swift Spin 14 AI’s is pretty good. There’s a decent amount of travel so I don’t get that cramped feel from ultraslim keyboards. While writing this very review, I never found the keyboard fatiguing.

I will say that the keycaps are flat, and I wish they had a little form fitting concave shape. The keyboard switches also are linear. Since this isn’t a mechanical keyboard, I would have liked a little softer touch. Still, overall, I think it’s good for a thin portable laptop like this.

The keyboard and touchpad on the Acer Swift Spin 14 AI are pleasant to use. (Image credit: Future / James Holland)

Lastly, the 360 hinge for its 2-in-1 capabilities is smooth, so switching to tablet or tent mode is as quick as it can be, maybe only hampered by the size of the Acer Swift Spin 14 AI, which might be on the smaller side for a laptop but is pretty big for a tablet.

The Acer Swift Spin 14 AI easily folds into tablet mode and can be navigated with your fingers or a stylus. (Image credit: Future / James Holland)

• Design score: 4.5 / 5

Acer Swift Spin 14 AI review: Performance

• More powerful than expected
• Sound quality is thin (no low end)
• Lots of AI apps

Acer Swift Spin 14 AI benchmarks

3DMark: Fire Strike x64: 7,610; Time Spy x64: 2,977; Night Raid (Arm): 36,577; Steel Nomad (Arm): 783
GeekBench 7: 2,836 (single-core); 17,403 (multi-core)
25GB File Copy: 15.04
Handbrake 1.11.1: 3:15
CrossMark: Overall: 1,559 Productivity: 1,421 Creativity: 1,767 Responsiveness: 1,412
Sid Meier's Civilization VI: Gathering Storm (1080p): 49.562 fps; (1920x1200p) 50.223 fps
Far Cry 6 (1080p): 26.087 fps; (1920x1200p) 24.880 fps
Web Surfing (Battery Informant): 16:11:40

The Acer Swift Spin 14 AI is supposed to be a light and portable laptop, not a heavy hitter. Despite that, it has a good deal of power for everyday use. The Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite X2E78100 processor may be the more entry level CPU from the company, but it has plenty of juice. The included 16GB of RAM helps too.

Browsing, streaming, and all the day-to-day work barely pushes this laptop. And if you do want to push the Swift Spin 14 AI, it can keep up to a degree. Since I don’t do 3D design or video editing, my way of pushing a computer is testing with gaming and I did that here.

I ran Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Grand Theft Auto 4, and Little Kitty Big City on this laptop and found that the laptop could mostly keep up. If you look at the benchmarks, you’ll see that a game like Far Cry 6 runs at about 25 fps depending on settings. That’s not great, but it’s playable, and that was the case with Clair Obscur and Grand Theft Auto 4.

I was able to play them without getting so frustrated that I wanted to quit, but they definitely pushed the system to where the framerates were mediocre and there was some screen tearing. Little Kitty Big City had no issues.

Again, this is not a gaming laptop. The point, though, is that this laptop can handle more than one would expect of one with just integrated graphics and a slim form factor.

Where I think the slim form factor has a bigger impact is in the Acer Swift Spin 14 AI’s sound quality. Could you load up a playlist on Spotify and enjoy while browsing holiday shopping? Sure, but there’s not room for big speakers so there’s no low end leaving me listening to pretty thin audio. That said, it doesn’t sound harsh, and the laptop does support DTS:X and spatial audio to external devices.

Acer Swift Spin 14 AI running the game Kathy Rain 2 unplugged. (Image credit: Future / James Holland)

AI is a central part of this laptop if the name didn’t give it away. The Qualcomm CPU comes with 80 TOPS NPU so it can do quite a bit locally (a lot of the laptops I see have around 50). Of course, Copilot is a press away and has hands-free capabilities. It’s not quite as conversational as Google Gemini, but it’s close enough.

There are a number of other Acer-specific apps such as LiveArt for making personalized stickers and Purified View that give even deeper fine-tuning to what you look like during a video call beyond the usual Windows 11 settings including making you look like you came out of an animated Richard Linklater movie.

Of course, you need to download the Acer Quick Panel, which I would have assumed should be preloaded on the laptop, to get access to Purified View. Acer Purified Voice, which can reduce background noise and boost your voice, also need to be downloaded. You can also download a smart phone app to use your phone’s camera called Acer Phone Webcam.

AcerSense is an app that does come preinstalled that functions as the proprietary utility software. But I appreciate it because, beyond changing power and fan settings, I can do wellness checks on the hard drive, RAM, and battery (or all of them at once).

• Performance score: 4.5 / 5

Acer Swift Spin 14 AI review: Battery life

• Very impressive battery life
• Charges quickly if not quite fast charging

The battery life on laptops are getting pretty outrageous (in a good way). We typically see brands like Apple leading the way with models like the MacBook Air 13 (M5), which itself lasts 15 and a half hours. It used to be impressive when you could get eight, just enough to last a full work or school day.

With that in mind, the Acer Swift Spin 14 AI is just plain impressive. In our benchmark, it lasted 16 hours and almost 12 minutes. Take that, Apple. During use, I found the battery life to hold well, so that I could use it and really do some intensive tasks and not worry about it dying on me. Of course, if you plan on gaming or doing some demanding editing, expect to get significantly lower battery life. But still getting eight hours while pushing the laptop is pretty good.

I didn’t notice any fast charging-specific capabilities, but the laptop does charge up relatively quickly at a percent per minute pace. Consider that if you charge the laptop from empty to 20%, you should be able to get an additional four hours of use.

The AcerSense app is the Acer Swift Spin 14 AI's hub for back-end fine-tuning as well as a shortcut for AI apps. (Image credit: Future / James Holland)

• Battery Life score: 5 / 5

Should I buy the Acer Swift Spin 14 AI?

Attributes

Notes

Rating

Value

This laptop is not overpriced, but I wouldn’t consider it a deal either, at its current price.

4 / 5

Design

The Acer Swift Spin 14 AI is a sharp looking laptop that comes with a smooth 360-degree hinge (and touch screen) for 2-in-1 use.

4.5 / 5

Performance

Despite the lacklustre audio quality, the performance is strong for a lightweight laptop. Plus, there are a lot of extra AI apps on offer.

4.5 / 5

Battery Life

The battery life on this laptop is very impressive, matching the longest lasting laptops out there.

5 / 5

Final Score

The price tag and sound quality could be better, but everything else on this laptop is pretty on point.

4.5 / 5

Buy it if…

You want a bunch of AI features
Yes, all Windows laptops these days come with Copilot. But, Acer has included a bunch of additional apps, some of which need to be downloaded (for free) after the fact that take advantage of the CPU’s NPU.View Deal

You need a long battery life
The battery life on this laptop is about as good as it gets on a laptop, making it ideal for those that need a computer to last a whole work day and more without access to power.View Deal

You want an attractive 2-in-1 laptop
This laptop looks good in its aluminum Cobalt Blue styling. Plus, its smooth hinge and touch screen makes 2-in-1 use easy.View Deal

Don't buy it if…

You’re on a budget
At a grand and a half, it’s not exactly cheap. If you’re on a budget, there are cheaper 2-in-1 options. You’ll just have to compromise on performance or AI features.View Deal

You want a good sounding laptop
We really shouldn’t be expecting a lot out of a laptop’s sound quality (just get a good pair of earbuds or headphones), but if that’s important to you, there are (some) options out there that are better.View Deal

Acer Swift Spin 14 AI review: Also Consider

If our Acer Swift Spin 14 AI review has you considering other options, here are two laptops to consider...

HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14

The HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 goes for the same price, but comes with a higher resolution OLED display. It is a little heavier and the stylus just magnetically clips onto the side of the laptop, making it easy to lose.

Read our full HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 review

Apple 13-inch MacBook Air (M5)

The Apple MacBook Air 13-inch (M4) is, like just about every MacBook Air before it, the trendsetter for Ultrabooks, setting the standard in laptops trying to strike a balance between performance and portability. It also has a very long battery life and starts at a lower price point than the Acer Swift Spin 14 AI.

Read our full Apple 13-inch MacBook Air (M5) review

How I tested the Acer Swift Spin 14 AI

• Tested for a couple weeks
• Used it for work, gaming, and streaming
• Messed with its AI capabilities

I used the Acer Swift Spin 14 AI for a couple weeks. I used it for work, including typing up this review (along with the requisite online research). I used it to stream video. I even did some semi-serious gaming. I played around with the AI as well.

After spending time with the Acer Swift Spin 14 AI, it’s clear that this is meant for those that want a portable 2-in-1 laptop that prioritizes AI capabilities and battery life.

I’ve spent the last few years reviewing tech gear for gaming and otherwise, where I’ve gotten a feel for what to look for and how to put a piece of kit through its paces to see whether it’s worth the recommendation.

• First reviewed: October 2026

Acer Swift Spin 14 AI review: Two Minute Review

The Acer Swift Spin 14 AI is an easy recommendation outside of its price tag. It’s light, slim, and pretty attractive in its one colorway. It also comes with a touchscreen and an incredibly smooth 360-degree hinge that makes putting it in tent or tablet mode very easy outside of swinging around a 14-inch piece of hardware. If you’re looking for one of the best laptops with 2-in-1 capabilities, I think this laptop fits right in.

It’s surprisingly powerful for a laptop that relies on integrated graphics (rather than a discrete GPU) – I was able to do some semi-serious gaming on it, though with some compromises – and it comes with a battery life that competes with the best.

Besides the lacklustre sound quality, which I expect on even the best Ultrabooks since they’re so thin, the main issue I have with the laptop is the price tag. Considering everything I’ve mentioned above, as well as the included AI apps, I don’t think the laptop is overpriced. But at about a grand and a half, it’s not quite the value proposition that I expect from Acer, either. Of course, knowing the company, that price will probably come down before long.

The Acer Swift Spin 14 AI has no issues streaming whatever content you want. (Image credit: Future / James Holland)Acer Swift Spin 14 AI review: Price & Availability

• How much does it cost? $1,499.99 / £1,399 (about AU$2,150)
• When is it available? Available now
• Where can you get it? Available in the US and UK

The Acer Swift Spin 14 AI is available for $1,499.99 / £1,399 (about AU$2,150) in the United States and the United Kingdom. It doesn’t seem to be available in Australia at the time of writing, but Acer does have a landing page for the model, so that might change in the very near future.

If you’re wondering about what kind of upgrades you can make or configurations you can choose from, you’re in for a rude awakening. There’s just one version of this laptop on the market, and it comes with the Snapdragon X2 Elite CPU (with 80 tops), integrated Adreno graphics, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD.

The HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 might be a bit heavier and have issues with its stylus storage, but it comes with a nicer OLED screen for the same price (it’s actually available at a lower price through some retailers at the time of writing). Plus, it has a few different configurations if you want more RAM or SSD.

The Apple 13-inch MacBook Air (M5) might not be a Windows laptop or a 2-in-1, but it is still the standard that we compare most Ultrabooks to. It’s attractive, easy to use, and lightweight, with great battery life. Plus, it starts at a lower price tag of $1,099 / £1,099 / AU$1,799.

• Value score: 4 / 5

Acer Swift Spin 14 AI review: specs

The Acer Swift Spin 14 AI may only come in one configuration, but its Snapdragon X2 Elite X2E78100 with 12 cores (boost up to 4.0GHz) and 80 TOPS NPU (neural processing unit), integrated Qualcomm Adreno graphics, and 16GB of RAM are more than enough power for an on-the-go 2-in-1 laptop like this. The 512GB SSD is good, though it would be nice to be able to upgrade to more storage.

Base

Price

$1,499.99 / £1,399 (about AU$2,150)

CPU

Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite X2E78100

GPU

Qualcomm Adreno

RAM

16GB LPPDDR5X

Storage

512GB PCIe Gen4 SSD

Display

14" diagonal, WUXGA (1920 x 1200) touch display up to 120Hz, 300 nits

Ports and Connectivity

2x USB-4 Type C, 2x USB-3.2 Type A, HDMI 2.1, Aux

Wireless

Realtek Wi-Fi 7 (2x2) and Bluetooth 6

Camera

5M IR HDR Webcam (2880 x 1800) and Privacy Shutter with Blue Glass

Dimensions

2.95 pounds (1.34 kg)

Weight

12.35 x 9.07 x 0.59/0.63 inches /

313.8 x 230.26 x 14.96/15.95 mm

Since there’s only one configuration, there’s no upgrading the screen either, which has a 1920x1200 16:10 ratio touch screen that can support up to 120Hz refresh rate. Likewise, it’s only available in Cobalt Blue.

Acer Swift Spin 14 AI review: Design

• Attractive build
• USB-C port on either side
• Keyboard is good but not great

I say that it’s only available in Cobalt Blue, as if that’s a bad thing. In fact, it’s a very attractive dark-ish metallic blue aluminum chassis that’s accented on the lid with silver etchings, giving it an almost space age feel. I like it.

I also like the fact that not only is the port selection pretty comprehensive but that it spreads the ports pretty evenly. Each side has a USB-C port so you don’t have to worry about your orientation to an outlet when you need to charge up – something that invariably happens when I’m reviewing a laptop that uses USB-C to charge and then puts them all on one side.

Along with the two USB-C ports are two regular USB-A ports, an HDMI 2.1 port, and a headphone jack. There’s also on the right side the stylus and its built-in carriage. I always seem to knock off styli that magnetically clip on the side of a laptop so having it tucked away is pretty nice.

The Acer Swift Spin 14 AI not only has a USB-C port on the right side but storage for the included active stylus. (Image credit: Future / James Holland)

The screen may be just 1920x1200p but it looks pretty sharp nonetheless. Maybe it’s its 300 nits of brightness. The screen is also a touch display and feels responsive to the touch. I find the large touchpad to be just as responsive, not to mention is pleasant to use thanks to Acer using Corning Gorilla Glass.

The quality of the keyboard can make or break laptops like this – remember Apple’s butterfly keyboard? Thankfully, the feel of the Acer Swift Spin 14 AI’s is pretty good. There’s a decent amount of travel so I don’t get that cramped feel from ultraslim keyboards. While writing this very review, I never found the keyboard fatiguing.

I will say that the keycaps are flat, and I wish they had a little form fitting concave shape. The keyboard switches also are linear. Since this isn’t a mechanical keyboard, I would have liked a little softer touch. Still, overall, I think it’s good for a thin portable laptop like this.

The keyboard and touchpad on the Acer Swift Spin 14 AI are pleasant to use. (Image credit: Future / James Holland)

Lastly, the 360 hinge for its 2-in-1 capabilities is smooth, so switching to tablet or tent mode is as quick as it can be, maybe only hampered by the size of the Acer Swift Spin 14 AI, which might be on the smaller side for a laptop but is pretty big for a tablet.

The Acer Swift Spin 14 AI easily folds into tablet mode and can be navigated with your fingers or a stylus. (Image credit: Future / James Holland)

• Design score: 4.5 / 5

Acer Swift Spin 14 AI review: Performance

• More powerful than expected
• Sound quality is thin (no low end)
• Lots of AI apps

Acer Swift Spin 14 AI benchmarks

3DMark: Fire Strike x64: 7,610; Time Spy x64: 2,977; Night Raid (Arm): 36,577; Steel Nomad (Arm): 783
GeekBench 7: 2,836 (single-core); 17,403 (multi-core)
25GB File Copy: 15.04
Handbrake 1.11.1: 3:15
CrossMark: Overall: 1,559 Productivity: 1,421 Creativity: 1,767 Responsiveness: 1,412
Sid Meier's Civilization VI: Gathering Storm (1080p): 49.562 fps; (1920x1200p) 50.223 fps
Far Cry 6 (1080p): 26.087 fps; (1920x1200p) 24.880 fps
Web Surfing (Battery Informant): 16:11:40

The Acer Swift Spin 14 AI is supposed to be a light and portable laptop, not a heavy hitter. Despite that, it has a good deal of power for everyday use. The Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite X2E78100 processor may be the more entry level CPU from the company, but it has plenty of juice. The included 16GB of RAM helps too.

Browsing, streaming, and all the day-to-day work barely pushes this laptop. And if you do want to push the Swift Spin 14 AI, it can keep up to a degree. Since I don’t do 3D design or video editing, my way of pushing a computer is testing with gaming and I did that here.

I ran Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Grand Theft Auto 4, and Little Kitty Big City on this laptop and found that the laptop could mostly keep up. If you look at the benchmarks, you’ll see that a game like Far Cry 6 runs at about 25 fps depending on settings. That’s not great, but it’s playable, and that was the case with Clair Obscur and Grand Theft Auto 4.

I was able to play them without getting so frustrated that I wanted to quit, but they definitely pushed the system to where the framerates were mediocre and there was some screen tearing. Little Kitty Big City had no issues.

Again, this is not a gaming laptop. The point, though, is that this laptop can handle more than one would expect of one with just integrated graphics and a slim form factor.

Where I think the slim form factor has a bigger impact is in the Acer Swift Spin 14 AI’s sound quality. Could you load up a playlist on Spotify and enjoy while browsing holiday shopping? Sure, but there’s not room for big speakers so there’s no low end leaving me listening to pretty thin audio. That said, it doesn’t sound harsh, and the laptop does support DTS:X and spatial audio to external devices.

Acer Swift Spin 14 AI running the game Kathy Rain 2 unplugged. (Image credit: Future / James Holland)

AI is a central part of this laptop if the name didn’t give it away. The Qualcomm CPU comes with 80 TOPS NPU so it can do quite a bit locally (a lot of the laptops I see have around 50). Of course, Copilot is a press away and has hands-free capabilities. It’s not quite as conversational as Google Gemini, but it’s close enough.

There are a number of other Acer-specific apps such as LiveArt for making personalized stickers and Purified View that give even deeper fine-tuning to what you look like during a video call beyond the usual Windows 11 settings including making you look like you came out of an animated Richard Linklater movie.

Of course, you need to download the Acer Quick Panel, which I would have assumed should be preloaded on the laptop, to get access to Purified View. Acer Purified Voice, which can reduce background noise and boost your voice, also need to be downloaded. You can also download a smart phone app to use your phone’s camera called Acer Phone Webcam.

AcerSense is an app that does come preinstalled that functions as the proprietary utility software. But I appreciate it because, beyond changing power and fan settings, I can do wellness checks on the hard drive, RAM, and battery (or all of them at once).

• Performance score: 4.5 / 5

Acer Swift Spin 14 AI review: Battery life

• Very impressive battery life
• Charges quickly if not quite fast charging

The battery life on laptops are getting pretty outrageous (in a good way). We typically see brands like Apple leading the way with models like the MacBook Air 13 (M5), which itself lasts 15 and a half hours. It used to be impressive when you could get eight, just enough to last a full work or school day.

With that in mind, the Acer Swift Spin 14 AI is just plain impressive. In our benchmark, it lasted 16 hours and almost 12 minutes. Take that, Apple. During use, I found the battery life to hold well, so that I could use it and really do some intensive tasks and not worry about it dying on me. Of course, if you plan on gaming or doing some demanding editing, expect to get significantly lower battery life. But still getting eight hours while pushing the laptop is pretty good.

I didn’t notice any fast charging-specific capabilities, but the laptop does charge up relatively quickly at a percent per minute pace. Consider that if you charge the laptop from empty to 20%, you should be able to get an additional four hours of use.

The AcerSense app is the Acer Swift Spin 14 AI's hub for back-end fine-tuning as well as a shortcut for AI apps. (Image credit: Future / James Holland)

• Battery Life score: 5 / 5

Should I buy the Acer Swift Spin 14 AI?

Attributes

Notes

Rating

Value

This laptop is not overpriced, but I wouldn’t consider it a deal either, at its current price.

4 / 5

Design

The Acer Swift Spin 14 AI is a sharp looking laptop that comes with a smooth 360-degree hinge (and touch screen) for 2-in-1 use.

4.5 / 5

Performance

Despite the lacklustre audio quality, the performance is strong for a lightweight laptop. Plus, there are a lot of extra AI apps on offer.

4.5 / 5

Battery Life

The battery life on this laptop is very impressive, matching the longest lasting laptops out there.

5 / 5

Final Score

The price tag and sound quality could be better, but everything else on this laptop is pretty on point.

4.5 / 5

Buy it if…

You want a bunch of AI features
Yes, all Windows laptops these days come with Copilot. But, Acer has included a bunch of additional apps, some of which need to be downloaded (for free) after the fact that take advantage of the CPU’s NPU.View Deal

You need a long battery life
The battery life on this laptop is about as good as it gets on a laptop, making it ideal for those that need a computer to last a whole work day and more without access to power.View Deal

You want an attractive 2-in-1 laptop
This laptop looks good in its aluminum Cobalt Blue styling. Plus, its smooth hinge and touch screen makes 2-in-1 use easy.View Deal

Don't buy it if…

You’re on a budget
At a grand and a half, it’s not exactly cheap. If you’re on a budget, there are cheaper 2-in-1 options. You’ll just have to compromise on performance or AI features.View Deal

You want a good sounding laptop
We really shouldn’t be expecting a lot out of a laptop’s sound quality (just get a good pair of earbuds or headphones), but if that’s important to you, there are (some) options out there that are better.View Deal

Acer Swift Spin 14 AI review: Also Consider

If our Acer Swift Spin 14 AI review has you considering other options, here are two laptops to consider...

HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14

The HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 goes for the same price, but comes with a higher resolution OLED display. It is a little heavier and the stylus just magnetically clips onto the side of the laptop, making it easy to lose.

Read our full HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 review

Apple 13-inch MacBook Air (M5)

The Apple MacBook Air 13-inch (M4) is, like just about every MacBook Air before it, the trendsetter for Ultrabooks, setting the standard in laptops trying to strike a balance between performance and portability. It also has a very long battery life and starts at a lower price point than the Acer Swift Spin 14 AI.

Read our full Apple 13-inch MacBook Air (M5) review

How I tested the Acer Swift Spin 14 AI

• Tested for a couple weeks
• Used it for work, gaming, and streaming
• Messed with its AI capabilities

I used the Acer Swift Spin 14 AI for a couple weeks. I used it for work, including typing up this review (along with the requisite online research). I used it to stream video. I even did some semi-serious gaming. I played around with the AI as well.

After spending time with the Acer Swift Spin 14 AI, it’s clear that this is meant for those that want a portable 2-in-1 laptop that prioritizes AI capabilities and battery life.

I’ve spent the last few years reviewing tech gear for gaming and otherwise, where I’ve gotten a feel for what to look for and how to put a piece of kit through its paces to see whether it’s worth the recommendation.

• First reviewed: October 2026

By now, most enterprise executives have heard plenty of generic claims that AI will transform the way work gets done. But in many cases, their initial AI investments haven’t delivered the level of transformation they were promised.

An LLM can summarize information, answer questions, and suggest next steps. But on its own, it can’t take action on that information. In fact, without connections to key business systems, an LLM is essentially a chatbot with a polished writing style.

Consider a finance team processing invoices. An isolated LLM might accurately summarize a supplier invoice. But it can’t match the invoice to a PO, determine whether it’s been paid, or see if it’s coded to the correct GL account. It needs more information to make those decisions, and that information exists outside of the AI tool.

For AI to take an active role in business processes, it needs access to the systems where context lives. The Model Context Protocol (MCP) can provide the infrastructure for secure connections. This shift is already taking shape in accounts payable.

What MCP actually changes

The impact of an LLM depends on what it has access to. If the information it needs to make a reliable decision lives in an ERP, vendor database, or other business system, the model needs a way to access it.

Connecting AI to business context hasn’t always been straightforward. Different applications may require different integrations for the same systems, which quickly gets complicated as businesses add more AI tools.

The Model Context Protocol provides a standardized way for AI applications to connect with external systems and data sources. When AI needs access to a new source, developers can use MCP, rather than creating a custom connection for every application and system.

MCP changes what AI can actually do. With the right connections, AI agents can pull relevant data, use that information to make decisions, and take action within the boundaries defined by the business. MCP can facilitate bidirectional connections, so AI can also send information back to core business systems. For example, an AI agent might update a record, route something for approval, or trigger another step in a process.

While MCP provides the infrastructure for connecting AI to business systems, it doesn’t mean agents should suddenly be given free rein. The level of autonomy AI agents can reasonably handle today still varies quite considerably by task and implementation. As Meng Liu, Principal Analyst at Forrester, recently said, “agentic branding is widespread, but real autonomy is not.”

That said, AI agents don’t need complete autonomy to take on a more active role in business processes. Accounts payable is a useful example of what connected AI looks like in practice and how it can drive impact for the business, even without total autonomy.

AP shows what connected AI can do

the business needs to confirm that item prices match what they agreed to in the contract, the products were delivered, the invoice hasn’t already been paid, and that each line item is coded to the right account. If those checks don’t happen, there are more opportunities for errors and avoidable losses to sneak their way through.

Traditionally, those checks depended on people. Even today, when automation is widespread, an exception often ends up in a queue, and an AP employee must dig through purchase orders, receiving records, contracts, and past invoices to sort it all out.

That manual work comes at a cost. According to Ardent Partners’ State of ePayables 2025, the average cost of processing an invoice is $9.84, compared to $2.65 for best-in-class organizations.

But consider how things could change if an AI agent had access to the same data sources the AP employee does. Let’s say a restaurant receives an invoice for 20 cases of chicken at $42 per case. The AI agent can compare the invoice to the purchase order and receiving records and determine that only 18 cases were delivered. It can also see that the invoice cost per case is $5 more than the agreed-upon contract price.

When the numbers don’t match, the invoice won’t automatically end up in an exception queue because the AI agent has the context to investigate further and take action.

Depending on the agent’s findings and the business’ policies and guardrails, it could request a credit from the vendor, route the discrepancy to the appropriate employee with recommended next steps and supporting evidence, or clear the invoice for payment if everything checks out.

This same concept can be applied to a whole host of other AP decisions. For example, an agent with access to vendor history data can identify a possible duplicate invoice before payment goes out. One that’s connected to the general ledger and historical coding can determine the appropriate GL codes for a new invoice. A third that has access to approval history and company policies can determine who needs to approve an invoice next.

In each scenario, the agent’s ability to decide and act depends on whether it can access the right information. In AP, there’s an easy way to tell whether those decisions are really working.

AP is good test of AI autonomy

Touchless processing is the goal of implementing AI in AP. This is when an invoice is captured, validated, coded, approved, and paid without a person stepping in. If an AI agent completed all of those steps accurately on its own, the invoice was processed touchlessly. If a person had to step in at some point, it wasn’t. There’s no in between.

That straightforwardness makes AP a great proving ground for connected AI. There’s something concrete to measure, and mistakes can have real consequences. If an invoice isn’t processed correctly by AI agents, it can lead to issues such as manual rework, overpayments, missed discounts, and inaccurate accounting records.

In other areas of the business, AI's success can be harder to measure. For instance, a chatbot can save an employee some time by summarizing information and drafting emails. But that impact is difficult to quantify, and there isn’t always a clear measure of whether the AI did its job successfully.

AP gives businesses that measure. As leaders consider where AI agents can take on more responsibility across the enterprise, AP is a useful place to see what autonomy really looks like.

Look beyond the “AI-powered” label

Today, plenty of enterprise technology vendors throw around the phrase “AI-powered.” Before making any technology investments, business leaders must ask the right questions to understand what this actually means in practice.

There’s a big difference between adding a chatbot to an existing platform and securely connecting AI to the context it needs to make decisions and take an active role in business processes. MCP can help close that gap and move enterprises closer to those promises of business transformation.

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USB hubs and docking stations are two peripheral devices commonly found in workplaces. They perform a similar function of expanding the connectivity options for your PC. However, they have core differences that you should know about before buying either. I’ve written this guide to explain the core differences and help you choose the ideal option for personal or business use.

USB Hub vs. Docking Station: Function

USB hubs are designed to expand USB connectivity for your PC. Suppose your laptop has the standard two USB ports, but you need to connect five devices simultaneously. You can buy a hub with six USB ports and connect all the devices.

The USB hub works like an electrical extension chord. It provides inputs for more devices to be connected to your PC. USB hubs are portable and travel-friendly, so you can take them everywhere.

Docking stations expand connectivity but aren’t limited to USB ports. You can find docking stations with USB, HDMI, Ethernet, and RCA ports. Unlike USB hubs, which only let you connect devices with USB inputs, docking stations provide extra connectivity for different types of devices.

Because of their numerous ports, docking stations are bulkier and heavier. They’re also not as travel—or commute-friendly as USB hubs. Docking stations have dedicated power supplies and must be plugged into sockets, unlike USB hubs, which are powered solely by your PC.

You can use USB hubs to charge connected devices, but they take time because the charging power is drawn from your PC with limited voltage and current. However, docking hubs have separate power supply outlets that draw sufficient voltage and current to charge external devices quickly.

Yet, some USB hubs have external power supply outlets like docking stations. They’re more expensive than USB-powered hubs, but they offer good value if you intend to use them to charge connected devices.

USB Hub vs. Docking Station: Price

Because docking stations are ubiquitous, they are more expensive than USB hubs. They are built with more advanced components, mainly ports, which increases production costs.

You can find good USB hubs for $30 to $50. Some advanced hubs with 10 or more ports cost slightly more ($50 to $80). In contrast, good docking stations cost upwards of $100. This high cost makes docking stations more common for business than individual use.

Our list of the best USB-C hubs can help you choose the right one. We also have a guide on the best docking stations.

USB Hub vs. Docking Station: Speed

Thanks to their sophisticated components, docking stations transfer data faster than USB hubs. The average docking station transfers data at up to 10 GB per second, while USB hubs top out at 5 GB per second. Some docking stations have transfer speeds as high as 40 GB per second.

The speed limitation makes USB hubs less ideal for large files. Suppose you’re a filmmaker seeking to connect more devices to your PC to share files; a docking station is perfect because it handles massive file transfers quickly. A USB hub is more suited for casual use.

Docking stations have dedicated power supplies, enabling them to charge devices speedily. In contrast, USB hubs charge connected devices slowly because they draw power from the main PC. The USB hubs with dedicated power supplies mitigate this drawback, although they don’t still charge devices as fast as docking stations.

USB Hub vs. Docking Station: Screen Expansion

Many people use USB hubs and docking stations to expand their displays to multiple monitors. Picture office desks with multiple PCs, usually in technology and finance companies. USB hubs and docking stations enable employees to connect these displays.

Yet, USB hubs and docking stations differ in this criterion. USB hubs can only expand your display to 2 monitors simultaneously. In other words, you can only add two more monitors to your existing setup, making three total.

Meanwhile, a docking station lets you add up to three monitors to your existing setup, for a total of four. Docking stations also output 8K pictures for external monitors, unlike USB hubs, which are limited to 4 K resolution.

A docking station is the clear winner in this criterion, as it supports more screens and a higher quality resolution.

USB Hub vs. Docking Station: Verdict

USB hubs and docking stations have similar functions but notable differences. Hubs provide extra USB ports to connect external devices, while docking stations offer both USB and other ports, such as HDMI and Ethernet.

Docking stations offer better functionality, including more port types, faster data transfer speeds, and higher screen resolutions. You can add up to three extra screens to your setup with a docking station, but USB hubs are limited to two screens.

USB hubs are more portable and affordable than docking stations. While they’re ideal for casual use, docking stations are the best option for professionals.