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• Some users have complained about how videos are displayed in iOS 18
• Apple has adjusted video layouts in the third beta of iOS 18.2
• Bezels have been removed and videos automatically fill the screen

Apple made major design changes to the Photos app in iOS 18, with a new layout and new navigation system. But the redesign hasn’t been universally praised, and Apple has had to backtrack on a number of the changes it introduced – and now it's altered the Photos app again to reverse a change to the way it handles videos.

Previously, when you opened a video in Photos it would be displayed with thick bezels around the top, bottom and sides, with the video squashed down slightly in order to fit within these borders. When you tapped the video, the playback controls would disappear and the video would expand to fill the screen.

That’s all done differently in the third beta of iOS 18.2, as videos now fill the screen automatically when you open them. The playback controls – including the play and mute buttons, as well as the video timeline – are still visible and overlaid on top of the video. When you tap the screen, the playback controls disappear but the video retains its regular dimensions.

It’s a similar situation to how the Photos app worked before iOS 18, and should be good news to people who weren’t fond of Apple’s alterations to video layouts.

On the left is the video playback layout in iOS 18. The iPhone on the right shows how the video playback design has changed in the third beta of iOS 18.2 (Image credit: Future)

It’s not the first time that Apple has had to revert changes it’s made to the Photos app. One of the headline features of the Photos app was a carousel of highlighted images and videos, but Apple ditched it in iOS 18 beta 5. The app is highly customizable, which means you can tweak its layout if you don’t appreciate its default arrangement.

The Photos app is very different in iOS 18 compared to earlier versions of the iPhone operating system, with most of the app’s various categories, features and highlights placed in a single page. Apple says this is to “help users easily find and relive special moments.”

To get the latest update, you’ll need to enroll your device into Apple’s beta software program on the company’s website, then open the Settings app on your iPhone and head to General > Software Update > Beta Updates and enable the iOS 18 developer beta.

Note that you shouldn’t install the beta on your main device, as it could come with bugs and issues that may cause problems for your phone. We’ve got a full guide on installing the iOS 18 developer beta if you need more details.

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• Apple Music's 100 best albums are now available in book form
• Strictly limited to 1,500 hand numbered copies
• Yours for just $450

If you've moved from buying music in a physical format (CD, vinyl, cassette tapes… 8-tracks?) to streaming it, you've probably encountered an important issue: what do you do with all the shelf space you previously needed for music? The answer, it seems, is "spend $450 on a big book".

This is no ordinary book, though. Apple Music: 100 Best Albums is a hand numbered limited edition and very fancy guide to – yes! – the 100 best albums on Apple Music, as chosen by – yes! – Apple Music. And it features the same liner notes you'll find on – wait for it! – Apple Music. The foreword is by Zane Lowe and the book promises insights from the likes of Pharrell Williams, Mark Hoppus and Charli XCX.

Apple Music is believed to pay artists $0.01 per stream, so if an artist wanted to earn enough to buy a copy of the book, they'd need their music streamed 45,000 times.

Apple Music: 100 Best Albums – the details

So what do you get for your $450 compared to reading Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, which is free and has 400 more things for you to listen to?

The book is a strictly limited edition of 1,500 copies, each one housed in a transparent acrylic slipcase etched with the Apple Music logo. The linen hardcover is embossed with the same logo, and the book edges are gilded with a gold finish that mirrors the title on the spine.

Inside, you'll find coverage of records from 1959 to the present day, with 208 pages and 97 illustrations. The book weighs a whopping 8lbs and is 16 inches by 11 inches and 2.5 inches thick. The sub-editor of this piece checked though, and an IKEA Billy bookcase shelf has a depth of just over 11 inches and maximum load limit of 66lbs, so you're good.

You can probably tell by the snark that this book isn't going to be in my letter to Santa. But then, it's not really aimed at the average Joe or Jane. It's part of the Assouline Legends Collection, which includes expensive tomes dedicated to fine watches, famous artists, designer brands and similarly refined subjects. So if you see it casually slung on a Le Maé coffee table soon, next to your flat white, consider yourself fortunate.

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• The new changes in Windows 11’s settings aim to streamline how users select their default apps, addressing longstanding complaints about the difficulty of switching from Microsoft’s default programs
• Microsoft’s insistence on setting Edge as the default for certain link types, like hyperlinks in Outlook and Teams, has caused frustration among users and app developers. Microsoft claims this was meant to improve workflow, but it has spurred criticism about limiting user choice
• This update, discovered by Windows observer Albacore in a Windows 11 preview build, is still in development. Microsoft’s willingness to adjust the default app settings could signal a shift toward more user-friendly options, though it remains to be seen if the final implementation will fully address user concerns

Microsoft has taken to redesigning Windows 11’s settings for its default apps, bringing changes to how people choose their preferred apps in the operating system (OS). This will affect apps that automatically open certain types of files or web links. It’s suspected to have to do with Microsoft’s reluctance to let users pick an app not made by the company, such as using the Chrome web browser instead of Microsoft Edge, for example.

The tech giant has been fairly forceful in trying to steer users towards its own browser that comes installed on new Windows 10 or 11. It’s become a common point of complaint for users, as lots of us have own own apps that we prefer to use.

Microsoft is also sometimes suspected of making it hard to change what apps you use by default. Neowin found evidence that indicates that Microsoft deliberately added parts to its software to make modifications when users change their default apps. When speaking to Neowin in May 2023, Microsoft expalined that it added a modification that defaulted hyperlinks included in messages in Outlook and Teams to be opened with Edge. Apparently, this was meant to improve users’ workflow.

This position by Microsoft has triggered complaints from other software companies and individual users alike, which Neowin describes in-depth, as some feel the company has an unfair advantage. Luckily, it looks like Microsoft might actually be listening to these complains and making some user interface (UI) changes in the page about default app choices in the Settings app.

(Image credit: Shutterstock/Mojahid Mottakin) We expect to see new default-app related settings soon

The development was discovered and shared by X user and eager Windows observer Albacore, who often shares peeks of the newest additions and changes in Windows 11. This is a part of a recently released Windows 11 version 24H2 preview build (build number KB5045885), which was released in the Dev Channel of the Windows Insider Program.

Configuring default apps is getting an overhaul. It's a mess of placeholders and broken viewmodels at the moment, all very early. pic.twitter.com/C3Pg7Pm9MKNovember 10, 2024

The change is still in development, with the rest of the new page in the Settings app being mostly filled with placeholder labels such as one titled "Set a default for a file type or link type."

If Microsoft fleshes this out, it could be seen as evidence that the company is still thinking about the user experience of its products. People want to be able to customize their user experience, and it can be especially annoying when Microsoft puts artificial blocks to changes to force people to use apps that they might not want to. We’ll have to see if Microsoft’s efforts bear fruit or if they fall by the wayside as the Windows 11 preview build makes its way with testers.

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This year has seen an increase in businesses addressing a wide range of software vulnerabilities. Most recently, the CrowdStrike outage caused thousands of flight cancellations and disruptions for companies relying on devices running Windows 10 and 11 in their daily operations. This highlights the critical need for rigorous, high-quality testing to prevent similar incidents. Software engineers and quality assurance (QA) testers are working diligently to mitigate and keep up with the rise of such events. However, a significant roadblock is exacerbating the problem: shortage of technically skilled, qualified talent to meet the increasing requirements of the modern QA/test engineer.

Job openings for software developers, quality assurance analysts, and testers are projected to grow by a significant 17% between 2023 and 2032. If this gap remains unfilled, the United States economy stands to lose $162 billion in annual revenue. The growing complexity of software, coupled with rapid technological advancements, makes it increasingly difficult for companies to find skilled professionals. This shortage leaves organizations of all sizes vulnerable to escalating defects, delays, and cyberattacks.

Organizations must focus on optimizing their QA processes to mitigate the impact of the QA talent shortage. Testing and QA are essential in safeguarding against these threats. By leveraging the proper tools and software platforms, teams can streamline test planning, execution, and reporting, freeing up valuable time for higher-level and more specialized testing.

The QA talent shortage

Entire enterprises, especially their software development departments, are under immense pressure to ensure that system vulnerabilities are identified and addressed before they potentially escalate into major security breaches. Unfortunately, many development teams struggle to keep pace with increasingly rapid technological advancements. A recent Harvard Business Review article noted that some tech skills become outdated in as little as 2.5 years. This quick turnover is particularly problematic for QA engineers within development teams, where deep expertise in testing and processes is essential to maintaining software quality.

As systems grow more interconnected and the environments in which they operate become more complex, even the most experienced professionals find it difficult to stay ahead of emerging threats. Without adequate personnel, QA professionals are often bogged down with repetitive, low-level tasks—such as manual testing or bug triaging—leaving little time to focus on strategic priorities such as vulnerability management and advanced threat mitigation. This creates bottlenecks that can delay projects, weaken security, and limit the organization's ability to seize market opportunities.

For organizations looking to thrive in today’s fast-paced tech landscape, addressing the QA talent shortage is no longer just an operational concern—it’s a business imperative.

Software vulnerabilities: the growing concern

Software vulnerabilities pose significant operational and financial challenges for organizations. Unaddressed defects lead to delays in time to market, higher development costs, and missed business opportunities. Software that lacks rigorous testing not only hampers efficiency but also exposes the company to long-term reputational harm. Without experienced and capable QA-focused engineers on development teams, these issues will continue to escalate, stalling the entire development pipeline and driving up costs.

As these operational setbacks compound and technology continues advancing, cybersecurity threats’ growth in both sophistication and complexity makes them increasingly difficult to detect and prevent. Without proper QA processes in place, businesses are exposed and vulnerable to disastrous breaches. According to IBM, the average cost of a data breach is projected to reach $4.88 million by 2024, emphasizing the financial pressure organizations face to prevent these incidents. For industries like finance, healthcare, and e-commerce, the stakes are even higher. Not only do they risk financial and reputational damage, but they also face legal repercussions and regulatory penalties for failing to safeguard sensitive data.

The solution to the QA talent gap

While the QA talent shortage presents a significant challenge, companies can take strategic steps to mitigate its impact. One of the most effective approaches is optimizing QA processes by leveraging advanced test management tools. These tools help alleviate some of the pressure on development teams by creating highly visible and transparent metrics for continuous state of quality monitoring for a product or software development life cycle, and they also significantly enhance overall software quality and speed to market.

Modern test management platforms streamline the entire testing lifecycle—from planning and execution to tracking and reporting. By centralizing these processes, entire development teams can collaborate effortlessly, track progress in real time, and ensure thorough, timely testing. These platforms also strengthen collaboration between departments, supporting a more cohesive and agile software development process that adapts easily to shifting requirements.

QA teams can improve both efficiency and development timelines by leveraging common test management platform features such as templates or various integration options, which can free up their skilled individuals to focus on higher-priority testing, such as vulnerability assessments and complex test scenarios. Test management platforms enable software development teams to scale testing efforts without increasing headcount, risking stability, or compromising on security, a critical advantage in the face of a talent shortage.

The QA talent shortage is a growing concern, and the risks posed by software vulnerabilities and high impact production defects are only becoming more severe. Testing and QA are an essential step in preventing cyber-attacks and defects from having debilitating effects on businesses. Organizations that proactively address the QA talent gap and strengthen their testing capabilities will be well-positioned to tackle future challenges and protect against the rising threat of software vulnerabilities. By investing in innovative technology and tools, organizations can ensure that their software vulnerabilities are minimized and their software testing and quality practices remain strong, even in a challenging talent market.

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This article was produced as part of TechRadarPro's Expert Insights channel where we feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today. The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/news/submit-your-story-to-techradar-pro

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This review first appeared in issue 360 of PC Pro.

Motorola’s latest high-end flip-phone is competitively priced. At £1,000 inc VAT it costs the same as an iPhone 15 Pro, and more importantly £50 less than its direct rival, Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip6. So the question is: has anything been sacrificed?

It’s certainly not style. In fact, I’d argue that the Razr 50 Ultra is the coolest phone you can buy. It comes in four colors that are as striking as the names Motorola gives them, namely Spring Green, Midnight Blue, Peach Fuzz and a Hot Pink that’s a throwback to 2005’s pink Razr V3. Everything about the design is thoughtful and slick, from the soft, suede-effect “vegan leather” (i.e., plastic) back that shows off the paint job nicely, to the humongous cover display – but more about that later.

It feels great in the hand, too. I found the size and weight very comfortable, whether the phone was opened or closed, and the folding mechanism snaps open and shut so satisfyingly that it becomes addictive. An IPX8 rating means it can take a dunk underwater without issue.

The specs are not to be sniffed at, either. The UK model has 12GB of RAM as standard, plus a roomy 512GB of built-in storage, and is powered by Qualcomm’s shiny new Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chipset. It’s a very tempting package with – as we’ll see – only a handful of shortcomings.

Displays outside and in

The most immediately striking thing about the Razr 50 Ultra’s design is its full-face cover display. It’s conspicuously bigger than the outer screen on last year’s Razr 40, and than the display on the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6. As well as offering a decent amount of space for apps, it’s so sharp and bright – it’s rated at a maximum of 2,400cd/m2 – that it’s a joy to use in its own right.

The only catch with the outer display is the two holes punched out for the camera lenses, plus a third smaller one for the flash. I like the way the screen flows around the cameras, but it can cause practical obstacles – for example, some of the buttons on the Roku TV remote app were inaccessible. You can resize apps to fit better, but it’s a chore; this isn’t something that afflicts Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip6.

The foldable inner display is even brighter than the outer one, at 3,000cd/m2. It looks just as good, and it opens out impressively flat: I couldn’t even see the crease unless I held the phone at an angle, and I could barely feel it when I ran my finger across the screen.

The foldable inner display opens out to an almost imperceptible flatness (Image credit: Future)

Software sins

The Razr 50 Ultra runs Motorola’s version of Android, but compared to other manufacturers the company has a light touch with customizations. The whole experience looks and feels a lot like using a Google Pixel, although Motorola only promises three major OS updates, versus five from Google and Samsung.

Motorola does, however, make a number of interesting additions to the Android interface, notably its gesture shortcuts. For example, I love the way you can open the camera app by twisting your wrist a couple of times. This works even when the phone is closed, which means you can grab a selfie by simply applying a quick double twist of your wrist, then holding the phone up in front of you. I also like the way you can “chop” the phone twice in the air to toggle the front light on and off.

Sadly, not everything about Motorola’s Android platform makes such a good impression. The Razr 50 Ultra software includes an AI wallpaper generator, which can in theory generate any background you describe – giving you a much freer hand than you’ll get with Google or Samsung phones.

Unfortunately, the results clearly suffer from the sort of AI bias I thought we’d left behind years ago. If you ask for people you’re certain to get white people, while “friends at the beach” produced images of girls in bikinis, and “a strong person” got me a shirtless muscleman. Such stereotyping leaves a sour taste in the mouth – and you can’t just keep trying until you get results you’re happy with, as there’s a limit to how many wallpapers you can render in a month. There’s not even an option to buy more images; you must wait until the following month to have another go.

Camera tricks

The Motorola Razr 50 Ultra is fun to shoot with in almost every situation. As I’ve mentioned, you can grab selfies without needing to unfold the phone, by just twisting your wrist (or tapping the Camera app). Open the phone up for portraits and the cover display gives the subject a handy view of what the camera’s seeing; it’s great to watch friends smile when they see themselves on the cover screen.

You can also use the phone’s folding design to stand it up on its own, and start a countdown by raising a palm. My favorite feature is the ability to switch into “camcorder mode” by simply opening out the screen halfway and aiming the camera at the action. The Razr Plus starts recording video automatically, and you can stop with a tap anywhere on the bottom half of the screen.

As for image quality, photos and videos captured by the Razr 50 Ultra make a great first impression, with bright, rich colors – but I did hit a few issues in my testing. Focusing didn’t always hit the mark, especially with close-ups, even after I’d tapped on my desired focus point; and while I took care to use the digital level, my landscape photos sometimes came out crooked. I also felt that blurred bokeh backgrounds looked processed and artificial, without the smoothness you’d get from a full-sized camera lens. Still, the overall quality is fine for everyday casual snaps, and I’m inclined to forgive a few foibles when the act of shooting is such a joy.

The superb outer display is extremely bright and highly practical (Image credit: Future)

Performance and battery

The Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chipset inside the Razr 50 Ultra is a middleweight model, delivering similar levels of performance to last year’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 (as in the Galaxy Z Flip5) but with lower power demands.

That means it can’t keep up with the Flip6, which includes the full-fat Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip: it scored 4,848 in Geekbench 6’s multicore test compared to 7,022 for the Flip6. But this remains a fast phone. My apps ran perfectly smoothly and snappily; even fancy tricks such as opening the camera with gestures, or moving an app from the big internal display to the smaller cover screen, worked without delay. The phone also did a great job playing games and movies, including high-resolution multiplayer games such as Call of Duty: Mobile.

The only hiccup I encountered was with Motorola’s AI features. Leaving aside my issues with the wallpaper generator, I found AI-enhanced features such as text editing and photo editing laggy, especially compared to similar features on the Pixel 8 Pro and Galaxy S24 – and sometimes tasks would fail completely.

It’s a clunky experience, but that may be down to first-generation software. Qualcomm claims the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 has a generous amount of on-device AI processing power, and I found Google Gemini ran smoothly on the Razr 50 Ultra’s cover display (something you can’t do on the Galaxy Z Flip6). Motorola says that new AI capabilities will be coming to the phone in future updates, so here’s hoping that overall performance will also be optimized and improved.

While the Razr 50 Ultra isn’t the fastest phone around, it’s admirably power-efficient. Its 4,000mAh battery is only 7.5% larger than the cell in the Galaxy Z Flip5, yet it achieves almost 50% more battery life. In our tests we regularly enjoyed more than 14 hours of screen time with the Razr 50 Ultra.

The phone supports fast 45W charging too, although there’s no charger included in the box, so if you want speedy top-ups you’ll need to source a suitable power supply separately. You can also recharge via a Qi2 wireless charger, although when I tried this I experienced an odd glitch where the screen woke up every few seconds while charging. Hopefully a future software update will fix this.

The “vegan leather” back adds to the phone’s good looks (Image credit: Future)

An open and shut case

If you’re sick of the same old smartphone designs, the Razr 50 Ultra is the perfect cure. Aside from the inherent appeal of the folding format, it’s bright and colorful inside and out, the king-sized cover display is both attractive and practical, and the hinge snaps open and shut with a terrifically pleasing action.

There are rough edges. The AI-powered image generator should never have been released with its current biases, and the other AI tools aren’t as snappy as they are on other handsets.

Frankly, though, you can ignore the AI gimmicks and still find much to like about the Razr 50 Ultra. Perhaps the best reason to hold off buying this phone is that, historically, Motorola has a habit of offering great discounts on its top-end handsets once the initial launch period has passed – and often also adds new colors to the range, in partnership with Pantone. Even at full price, though, the Razr 50 Ultra is a decent deal in a selection of great-looking finishes. It’s an easy recommendation for anyone looking to take a walk on the flip-side.

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This review first appeared in issue 360 of PC Pro.

If the Razr 50 Ultra is too pricey, Motorola also offers a regular version of its latest flip phone. At only £800 inc VAT it’s the cheapest of the current generation of foldables, yet it manages to match much of the style and appeal of the Ultra.

It too comes in a cool choice of colors, ranging from sober Koala Grey through tasteful Beach Sand to Spritz Orange. The vegan leather casing remains, with its contoured edges and lightweight feel, and the updated folding mechanism opens and closes with a satisfying snap.

The Razr 50 also has a generously sized cover screen, with the same two punched-out holes for the camera lenses. It doesn’t quite cover the entire front of the phone as the Ultra’s does, but it’s big enough to be both useful and attractive, with a 90Hz refresh rate and a sharp 413ppi pixel density. You can happily capture selfies with the rear cameras, use the half-unfolded phone as a desk display and even run full apps without opening up the case. It’s protected by a Gorilla Glass Victus coating, and the whole thing boasts an IPX8 water resistant design.

The 6.9in OLED inner display looks great, too. This has the same sharp density as the outer screen, a smooth 120Hz refresh rate and a maximum brightness of 3,000cd/m2, making it a joy to use even in direct sunlight. The crease is visible, but less so than on older flip phones.

The outer screen has a 90Hz refresh rate and a sharp 413ppi pixel density (Image credit: Future)

One significant difference between the Razr 50 and the Ultra is that this model doesn’t have a telephoto lens, instead pairing a decent 50MP main camera with a 13MP ultrawide. I prefer this arrangement for vlogging, selfies and group photos, as the ultrawide lets you capture more of the scene, while an upgraded photo booth mode works with both the inner and outer displays. In camcorder mode the Razr 50 can capture 4K video at up to 60fps, in either vertical or horizontal positions, although there’s no HDR support.

The Razr 50 also benefits from the AI enhancements to improve photo quality and stabilize your videos, and when I compared image quality between this phone and the pricier Razr 50 Ultra I couldn’t see much difference. The colors are more subdued and dynamic range isn’t as good in the shadows, but the Razr 50 still produces fine photos. The biggest compromise is the all-digital zoom; it works pretty well, but look closely and zoomed-in images are smudgy compared to those taken with the 50 Ultra.

Another noteworthy difference between the Razr 50 and the Ultra is the processor. In place of the Ultra’s Snapdragon chip, the standard Razr uses a MediaTek Dimensity 7300X chip, which is a mid-range performer. It’s also backed up by a more modest 8GB of memory and 256GB of UFS 2.2 storage.

Even so, apps run smoothly, and in everyday use I barely noticed any difference between this phone and the Ultra. While it got a little hung up during intense battle scenes in Age of Origins, gaming is certainly achievable. Indeed, there’s an optional Turbo mode to eke out the best gaming performance possible, at the expense of battery life.

The outer screen comes into its own when you’re taking photos of friends (Image credit: Future)

I’m pleased to see all of Motorola’s software enhancements here, too. I love the personalisation options for the outer display, and the gestures such as chopping to instantly turn on the torch. The Razr 50 also includes Google Gemini, which can be accessed directly from the external display, but it’s worth noting that this phone won’t get the full set of future Moto AI features that are supposed to be coming to the Ultra. At this point it’s difficult to say how much that matters, but it could become frustrating over the lifetime of the phone. On that point, the Razr 50 also has a comparatively short software support period, with Motorola promising only three years of major Android updates.

One thing the Razr 50 isn’t short of is battery life. In our rundown test it managed an excellent screen-on time of 14hrs 37mins – almost half an hour longer than the Ultra – and in real-world use I’ve found it generally ends the day with a remaining charge of around 35%.

At only 15.9mm thick when closed, the Razr 50 is eminently portable (Image credit: Future)

For recharging, the Razr 50 supports fast 30W charging, which got me from zero to 58% in half an hour, plus 15W wireless charging for cable-free top-ups.

In all, the Razr 50 is an impressive proposition. Sure, it’s not the greatest flip phone in the world: if you want optical zoom, top-tier gaming performance and the full set of AI features you’ll need to pay the extra for the Ultra. Even so, the Razr 50 offers a laundry list of plus points, including a great outer screen, an attractive design with water resistance, decent performance, strong battery life and a pretty positive camera experience. For the price, it’s a fantastic deal.

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This review first appeared in issue 360 of PC Pro.

Timing is everything when buying a gaming PC. You want to squeeze every last morsel out of your budget at the moment of purchase, and right now, CyberPowerPC is backing Intel’s mid-range Core i5-14400F processor due to its bang-per-penny: you have ten cores and 16 threads when you need them, but a single core can push up to 4.7GHz using Intel’s Max Turbo mode. A generous 32GB of DDR5 RAM means that memory will never be a bottleneck.

The Intel chip’s main partner in crime is Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 4060 graphics, which inevitably don’t have the numbers of the RTX 4070 Super in the Palicomp system opposite – their respective scores of 10,518 and 18,932 in 3DMark Time Spy underline the difference in power – but are enough for fluid 1440p gaming.

You may have to compromise on detail settings if you want to hit 100fps, however. At High detail, Cyberpunk 2077 averaged 80fps, Dirt 5 hit 97fps, Shadow of the Tomb Raider broke through to 103fps but Metro Exodus Enhanced managed only 63fps. Moving to Ultra detail dropped those respective results to 53fps, 77fps, 93fps and 59fps. 4K gaming is too ambitious with this set of games, only breaking the 60fps barrier when I activated DLSS in Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

(Image credit: Future)

For this PC’s foundation, CyberPowerPC chooses the MSI Pro Z790-S WiFi, which is part of MSI’s professional series. That means no RGB, with chunky black heatsinks the order of the day. This includes a shield to cover the main M.2 drive, a fast 1TB WD Black SN770, with a second M.2 slot available.

You also get Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 built in, while the rear of the board offers a 2.5GbE LAN port, one USB-C 3.2 Gen 2x2 port (20Gbits/sec) and six USB-A ports. There’s no support for case-mounted USB-C ports, which may be one reason why CyberPowerPC opted for the Eluna 243 chassis. This includes three USB-A ports conveniently located along the front, next to the power button. The button kept sticking in my tests, but when I brought this to the attention of CyberPowerPC it assured me the problem had now been fixed.

That’s a relief, because this is a nice-looking chassis, with a subtle white grille effect on the front that allows the trio of RGB fans to shine through in a subtle haze rather than a blast of color. Naturally, there’s a tempered glass panel on the side to give an unimpeded view, which will be dominated by the 120mm RGB fan atop the Cooler Master air cooler. Having read Lee Grant’s views on liquid coolers this month, I’m more than happy with that choice.

The Eluna 243 chassis provides lots of room for expansion (Image credit: Future)

This provides ample cooling to Intel’s Core i5 processor, which performed to its full in every test: along with the Geekbench 6 scores below, it scored 13,829 in Cinebench R23 multicore, while switching to the newer Cinebench 2024 (the scores aren’t comparable with R23) it hit 837 in the multicore section, 106 for a single CPU core and 9,747 in the GPU-specific test. That compares to 1,028, 110 and 18,785 for the more expensive Palicomp PC opposite.

A 120mm RGB fan sits on top of the air cooler (Image credit: Future)

CyberPowerPC’s choice wins for efficiency, however, consuming 52W at idle and peaking at 309W across our tests. It was a quiet guest in my lab, too, only going above a low hum when playing games. A high-quality 650W, 80 Plus Cooler Master power supply means you have plenty of “power budget” if you decide to upgrade any components, while there is room for internal expansion thanks to three empty PCI-E slots. Technically two DIMM sockets are also free, but you’ll need to switch coolers as its fan overlaps the first slot. Remove the chassis’ left-hand panel and you’ll also find space for three more drives, with one 2.5in drive mounting plate and caddies for two 3.5in disks.

I also appreciate the five-year warranty, with the first two years covering parts, labor and courier costs; the final three years are labor-only, and you’ll need to stump up for shipping to CyberPowerPC UK’s Gateshead base. In fact, I liked everything about this PC apart from the niggles I faced with that power button.

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This review first appeared in issue 360 of PC Pro.

While HP’s Elite x360 2-in-1 laptop would wear a bowler hat if it could, the Yoga 9i is a free spirit. It wants you to make art not presentations, to view films not spreadsheets, to sit in cafés not end-of-quarter sales meetings. That’s not to say it can’t look serious – if anything, the slim, dark blue metal chassis could be a funkier color – but it essentially screams entertainment.

The Yoga 9i is encased in a slim, dark blue metal chassis (Image credit: Future)

Let’s start with the 14in OLED panel. While it peaked at a modest 402cd/m2 in our SDR tests, its VESA TrueBlack 500 certification shows in punchy colors when watching films or playing games. It covers 119% of the DCI-P3 gamut and you can trust its colors, too, with an average Delta E of 0.45. The native color temperature is a fraction warm, so whites aren’t as blazing as I like when typing in Word, but a density of 242ppi thanks to its 2,880 x 1,800 resolution makes the edges of text look razor sharp.

Lenovo includes its Slim Pen stylus, which magnetically attaches to the top of the lid. I love the firmness of the connection, but it doesn’t charge at the same time; there’s a USB-C slot at the top of the pen. As ever when using a plastic tip on a glass surface you can’t expect a paper-like experience, but digital artists will appreciate the minimal 18ms lag, and the Smart Notes app is great for scribbles and sketches. At 1.3kg this isn’t an iPad rival, but I was happy holding it in the crook of my arm while doodling.

The keyboard is no ThinkPad in terms of “feel”, but there’s a generous 1.5mm of travel and the keys are large and easy to hit. Lenovo adds a bunch of shortcut keys on the right-hand side: eye-care mode, mute, a shortcut to its useful Vantage app for controlling settings, and a performance mode switcher.

This is by no means a bad laptop, but others offer better value (Image credit: Future)

During benchmarking I opted for Lenovo’s high-performance mode, but don’t get too excited.

Intel’s Core Ultra 7 155H is a fine processor, but the Geekbench 6 scores printed below won’t concern AMD or Qualcomm, while its PCMark 10 score of 6,392 is strong but not incredible. Likewise a multicore result of 816 in Cinebench 2024.

Where Intel’s chip continues to beat Qualcomm is gaming, and there is potential here: 41fps in Dirt 5 at 1200p is a respectable return, as is 30fps at the screen’s native resolution, but you’ll need to find less demanding titles to benefit from the panel’s 120Hz refresh rate. I thoroughly enjoyed Dirt 5’s pumping soundtrack through the Yoga’s speakers, though, with far more bass than I’m used to from laptops. That’s thanks to a pair of 2W woofers in the base.

(Image credit: Future)

Unlike the ThinkPad T14s (see p56), the Yoga 9i isn’t designed for easy maintenance. The difficulty isn’t so much in getting inside the chassis – four Torx T5 screws offer little resistance – as what you can do once you’re there. It’s good to see QR codes to help identify components, but I would only feel confident replacing the M.2 SSD – a scorching 1TB unit that returned 6,197MB/sec sequential reads – and the 75Wh battery.

Two months ago, I would have been full of praise about this laptop’s battery life: 12hrs 40mins under light use is a fine result. Or it was, until Snapdragon-based chips almost doubled my expectations. Still, that’s enough to mean you don’t need to sling the 65W charger into your bag on the daily commute, and it recharges speedily: 41% in half an hour, 75% after an hour.

Colors pop when watching films or playing games (Image credit: Future)

Lenovo is throwing in a couple of sweeteners. Use the part code 83AC000FUK and you’ll receive a swanky cover – complete with a loop for the stylus – and a three-in-one USB-C hub that adds USB-A, VGA and HDMI. These complement the three USB-C ports and one USB-A port tucked into the laptop’s narrow base (there’s a 3.5mm headphone jack, too). It’s a shame the hub doesn’t include an RJ45 port, and while I’m wishing it would also have been nice to see Wi-Fi 7 rather than Wi-Fi 6E. You can configure the Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Gen 9 on Lenovo’s website, with options such as 32GB of RAM, a higher-res screen and a grey finish rather than blue. But this pre-configured system is better value, especially as it was on sale for £1,500, a £200 discount, at the time of going to press. Still, I’m not convinced that’s bargain enough. Despite all the quality on show, the price feels like it should be closer to £1,300 to compete with the deluge of laptops currently appearing on shelves.

We also rated the best gaming PCs.

This review first appeared in issue 360 of PC Pro.

SMBs and home offices seeking an affordable all-in-one security router will find Zyxel’s USG Lite 60AX a worthy contender. This diminutive desktop unit teams up a Wi-Fi 6 access point (AP) with an integral multi-gigabit switch, and the price includes a lifetime subscription to Zyxel’s Security Cloud.

This service includes a firewall, ransomware and malware prevention, VPN proxy, intrusion, dark web and ad blockers, application identification, GeoIP country restrictions, and mail fraud and phishing protection. The optional Elite Pack licence enables the Trellix-powered real-time threat intelligence and web category filtering services as well as a Nebula Pro Pack and costs £33 per year.

The router is designed to be desk-mounted, with the small and flimsy base stand rotated round to keep it upright. The switch has two 2.5GbE multi-gigabit ports for WAN and LAN connections and partners them with another four gigabit LAN ports, while the AX6000-rated AP claims speeds of 1,148Mbits/sec on the 2.4GHz radio and 4,804Mbits/sec for the 5GHz one.

The tiny USG Lite 60AX has been designed to sit on a desk (Image credit: Future)

The router’s local web interface provides only a basic status view and, to manage it, you assign it to your Nebula cloud account. This is easy enough to do: we used the Nebula iOS app on an iPad to scan the QR code on its base and add it to our site.

The device appears in the Nebula dashboard as a new security router, and the main view can be easily customized. Dedicated widgets are provided for the router’s uptime and firmware status, threat detection by category and client, the top ten apps discovered by the application identification service and an OS chart of connected clients.

For wireless services, you can create up to eight site SSIDs each with their own WPA2 or WPA3 authentication scheme and decide which radios are active on each one. Setting the guest option on an SSID enables L2 isolation so wireless clients can’t see each other. You can assign custom captive portals with your own logos and greeting messages, a walled garden and clickthrough, voucher, Facebook or Nebula authentication.

Zyxel’s Nebula cloud portal provides remote management (Image credit: Future)

Wireless performance will depend on whether the application identification service is enabled – when testing Zyxel’s SCR 50AXE desktop router, we found it hit wireless speeds by up to 50%. Fortunately, the USG Lite 60AX has a more powerful quad-core 2GHz CPU so its impact was far less concerning.

We tested with a Lenovo Windows 11 Pro 24H2 client equipped with a TP-Link Archer TBE550E Wi-Fi 7 PCI-E adapter. With application identification disabled, we recorded close-range file copy speeds between the client and a server on the 2.5GbE LAN of 164MB/sec, which dropped by 16.5% to 137MB/sec with it turned on.

The six threat management components are accessed from the Nebula security router settings page and can be enabled or disabled using slider bars. Nebula’s threat report provides an activity graph, a map showing the countries they’re coming from and tables of threats by category and client, with the latter allowing you to instantly block systems if their hit rate is excessive.

Application identification provides options to apply custom app blocking lists and traffic shaping rules for selected clients. The Elite Pack licence is well worth considering as its web content filtering presents 103 URL categories and access can also be fine-tuned for clients or IP addresses.

The USG Lite 60AX is a great entry-level security router, and lifetime support for Zyxel’s Security Cloud service means there are no ongoing costs to worry about. Application identification does have a modest impact on performance but it delivers a fine range of security features, and businesses with remote workers will appreciate Zyxel’s Nebula cloud management.

We also compared the best routers for gaming.

Revered abolitionist Harriet Tubman, who was the first woman to oversee an American military action during a time of war, was posthumously awarded the rank of general on Monday.

(Image credit: Julio Cortez)

An estimated 200,000 people, many of them Indigenous Māori, suffered abuse in New Zealand's foster and faith-based care over a period of seven decades

(Image credit: Robert Kitchin)