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This review first appeared in issue 349 of PC Pro.

Where TP-Link’s Deco XE200 opposite takes a maximalist approach, the Asus ZenWiFi XD5 goes in the other direction. Rather than the fastest possible performance, it offers a decent Wi-Fi 6 network at an attractive price, via two or three boxy little stations that are small enough to hide away around your home.

That’s not to say the XD5 units are unpleasant to look at. The rounded cuboid design is clean and modern, with a subtle spiral pattern on top. The base of each station houses a multicolored status LED, although this can’t be seen from all angles as it’s unhelpfully tucked away below the main body.

Internally, the XD5 is a simple dual-band mesh, with a single 5GHz radio connection for both client and backhaul communications. It’s rated at a reasonable 2.4Gbits/sec, however, with 2x2 MIMO and support for 160MHz channels, so there’s a decent amount of bandwidth on hand. The 2.4GHz radio is rated at 574Mbits/sec, which should be fine for the types of device that still use the slower band.

I set up one station in the study of my home and the other in the adjoining bedroom. Asus suggests that two XD5 units will cover an area of up to 325m2, while adding a third extends claimed coverage to 465m2 – although performance will naturally depend on the layout and build of your home.

The stylish design gives the XD5 units a clean, modern look (Image credit: Future)

With my units in place, I took a laptop to various locations around the house, copied a selection of files to and from a NAS appliance connected to the primary XD5 unit via Ethernet, and measured the effective speeds. Despite the XD5’s small size and modest hardware, two stations proved ample to provide strong, consistent performance all around my home, with download rates between 34 and 40MB/sec. That’s nowhere near the speeds you’ll see from the most expensive meshes, but more than enough to handle Zoom calls, Disney Plus, web browsing and whatever else you’re likely to want to do, whether you’re relaxing on the sofa or running a business from home.

On the software side of things there’s no compromise at all: the ZenWiFi XD5 system uses the same full-fat firmware as found on Asus’ most expensive meshes and routers, with management via either the Asus Router mobile app or the traditional web portal. The two interfaces are completely different, which can be a little disorienting if you hop back and forth between them, but they’re both clear and accessible, considering the range of settings and features on offer. Those include not only extensive control over the basic configuration of your network, but a whole slew of advanced features, such as extensive traffic-management and QoS options, plus a configurable built-in firewall.

As if that weren’t enough, the XD5 also offers per-device parental controls, with customizable web filtering for kids’ devices, plus network security scanning powered by Trend Micro. These tools are all free to use forever – a great bonus, as most competing meshes demand an annual fee to fully unlock such capabilities.

(Image credit: Future)

Finally, it’s always good to see Asus’ trademark VPN module. As well as permitting secure inbound connections over the internet, this lets you configure up to 16 third-party outbound VPN servers and bind each one to any number of MAC addresses – enabling you to route your traffic all over the world, if you so desire.

The only thing that’s notably missing is USB support. Older, chunkier ZenWiFi models offered the ability to share USB storage devices and printers over the network, and even to plug in a 4G or 5G mobile internet adapter should your main broadband line go down. The smaller XD5 units don’t have USB ports, so all that’s off the table.

There are only two Ethernet sockets, and no USB ports (Image credit: Future)

It’s also worth mentioning that each ZenWiFi unit has only two Ethernet sockets, both limited to gigabit speeds. It’s a serviceable minimum, but if your network uses a mixture of wireless and wired connections you might prefer a mesh with a few more ports, and perhaps a multi-gigabit option. While the ZenWiFi XD5 is reasonably priced, there are certainly cheaper mesh options. The Huawei Mesh 3 can currently be had for £180 inc VAT, while the Mercusys Halo H80X costs only £135 for three units, or £95 for two. That’s an excellent deal, as the Mercusys mesh provides overall similar performance to the ZenWiFi XD5, with an extra boost for same-room connections. However, it’s a far more basic system, with none of the XD5’s sophisticated software features.

If you want more hands-on control, then, the Asus ZenWiFi XD5 is one of the most appealing meshes around. It doesn’t max out the performance of Wi-Fi 6, but it’s speedy enough that very few people will need to pay more – and its sheer versatility and configurability put cheaper systems to shame.

We also ranked the best cloud storage services.

This review first appeared in issue 349 of PC Pro.

When you think of Asus’ Vivobook range, cheap laptops probably spring to mind. So you may wonder what’s going on here: a Vivobook costing £2,500? Surely that’s more Asus ROG gaming laptop territory? Dig into the specs and it sounds like a gaming machine, too, with a turbo-fueled Core i9 matched with 32GB of DDR5 RAM and Nvidia RTX 4070 graphics.

Here, though, Asus has creators in its sights rather than gamers. It comes loaded with Nvidia’s Studio drivers, a Pantone-validated OLED screen and even a clever dial built into the touchpad. But let’s start with the fundamentals: power.

Top guns, part one

It’s easy to get blasé about such things, but I still find it remarkable to say that there are 24 cores inside this laptop. That’s because Asus has opted for a Core i9-13980HX processor, which is as boy racer as it sounds. The 13980 indicates that it’s right at the top end of Intel’s family, a fact reinforced by the H suffix (which stands for high performance). The X is the overclocking cherry on top.

All this would be for naught if Asus had skimped on cooling, but a double fan and meaty heatsinks mean that the CPU should keep running at its peak speeds – 5.6GHz for the eight performance P-cores – even under duress. No wonder it can gobble up to 105W.

It’s also why this laptop returned such stonking speeds in our CPU-torture tests. A result of 16,581 in Geekbench 6.1 multicore is as fast as we’ve seen from a laptop, making me nervous that our new graphs should have a higher peak than 20,000. This supreme speed was repeated in Cinebench R23’s multicore section, where it scorched its way to 25,660.

Asus has packed plenty of powerful parts inside the Vivobook Pro 16X (Image credit: Future) Top guns, part two

The RTX 4070 doesn’t sit at the top of Nvidia’s mobile range, but it’s still a potent chip. Its main weapons are the 4,608 CUDA cores, which sounds like a huge number when compared to the RTX 4060 (3,072) but surprisingly few next to the 7,424 of the RTX 4080 and 9,728 of the RTX 4090 (to be clear, these numbers refer to the laptop versions of Nvidia’s chips).

How many CUDA cores you have matters in professional applications such as 3ds Max, Catia and Maya – while there isn’t a linear relationship, it’s a great indicator of how long tasks will take – so there are reasons to opt for an RTX 4080 or 4090. Especially as those products come with far superior memory setups: the RTX 4070 includes 8GB of GDDR6 RAM with a 128-bit interface width, but switch to the 4080 and you get 12GB/192-bit, while a 4090 offers 16GB/256-bit. That’s a huge jump.

However, the RTX 4070 has power efficiency in its favor, getting by on up to 115W (35W minimum) compared to 150W for its siblings. It’s also the reason why this laptop costs £2,500 rather than £3,000 or £3,500.

The good news is that with a Core i9 and 32GB of RAM as the backing cast, the RTX 4070 here is given every chance to excel. I first saw this in our suite of gaming tests. Taking the 1080p High results first, the Vivobook returned 225fps in F1 2022, 93fps in Metro Exodus Enhanced, 183fps in Shadow of the Tomb Raider and 86fps in Dirt 5.

Switching to the panel’s native resolution of 3,200 x 2,000, those results dropped to 116fps (F1 2022), 49fps (Metro), 95fps (Tomb Raider) and 49fps (Dirt 5). In our toughest test, Metro Exodus Enhanced at Extreme settings, the Vivobook returned 48fps at 1080p and 25fps at native resolution. In other words, its only unplayable frame rates came in that final, brutal test.

(Image credit: Future) Creative spin

All those results were with Nvidia’s Studio drivers, as supplied; if you know you’ll be using this machine only for gaming then switch to the Game Ready drivers for the latest optimizations. Asus clearly expects people to use this laptop for creativity, however, so I also put it through its paces in Specviewperf R20.

Here, it performed in line with expectations for an RTX 4070 laptop. Highlights included 91 in the 3ds Max viewset, 335 in Maya and 238 in SolidWorks; to put those scores in perspective, the Lenovo P620 Tower scored 147, 439 and 278 respectively. Those results are significantly higher, but so they should be for a desktop workstation with a Threadripper Pro 5945WX and Nvidia’s RTX A4000 graphics.

Asus loves to add little extras to its touchpads, and here that’s a DialPad. This is a dotted circle, with an inch diameter, that sits at the top left of the touchpad, but you need to activate it: press and hold the tiny symbol at the top right of the pad, then swipe in. It’s a clunky mechanism, but this stops you accidentally switching the dial on and off.

Once active, a white circle within the dotted lines lights up. Press it, and the Asus dial overlay appears on-screen, with different options depending on context. In Photoshop, for instance, it offers the chance to cycle through brush sizes, switch between documents, zoom in and out of layers and quickly undo changes. It’s no substitute for a physical dial, but creatives with dexterous fingers may grow fond of it.

The chunky chassis and poor battery life mean it’s not very portable (Image credit: Future) Getting physical

I ended up leaving the dial on most of the time, as the touchpad is large enough (130 x 83mm) that it didn’t interfere with navigation. With a glass coating it ticks the usual smooth and responsive boxes, although I occasionally found myself reaching for the F6 key to deactivate the whole thing as palm rejection didn’t always work.

Nor will those people who type for a living love this keyboard, which offers surprisingly little travel for a laptop that measures 21mm thick. The keys themselves offer little “feel”, with a lifeless action, but once you move past this and the single-height Enter key (oddly jammed next to the hash key and finished in the same dark grey) the keyboard fades into the inoffensive background.

And there are a couple of positives. All the keys are a generous size and have a sensible gap between them, helping to minimize typos, the spacebar is huge and, while the cursor keys are shortened, they’re also separated from the main buttons. Plus, a dedicated number pad makes sense in a laptop this width.

The keys are a decent size, and the large touchpad is smooth and responsive (Image credit: Future) Super size

This machine is no ultraportable.

Whichever dimension you measure, it’s chunky. A 356 x 249mm footprint means you’ll need a good-sized rucksack to carry it with you, and while Asus officially states the weight as 1.9kg that’s for the more basic spec: I weighed it at 2.1kg. The 21mm thickness refers to the front of the chassis; once you factor in the orange “foot” – a U-shape strip that lifts the Vivobook from a surface to aid airflow – it’s closer to 2.5mm.

I like the brash orange color (echoed in the Esc key) as it lifts what is otherwise quite a boring-looking design. Asus also makes this Vivobook in black, but the silver version I tested is unlikely to gain any lustful glances from passersby. Its only other flash of styling is a raised area on the lid – almost like a melded-on business card – that reveals the laptop’s name.

Rather than style, then, this laptop is designed for practicality. Head to the left and you’ll find a gigabit Ethernet port, full-size SD card reader, USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 (5Gbits/sec) port and the power connector. Over on the right, a 3.5mm jack and HDMI 2.1 output are kept company by two Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) ports and a second USB-A port. That’s a strong connectivity offering, backed up by Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3.

A top-quality OLED panel makes films look great (Image credit: Future) Power down

To get the most out of this laptop, though, you’ll need to keep it plugged in. I found that battery life varied considerably during my tests, but set your expectations at around four hours – hardly a full working day. And in PCMark’s Gaming test, which pushes the graphics chip in the same way creative graphics tasks will, it lasted only 1hr 41mins.

You can trickle-charge it using the Thunderbolt ports, but I can’t imagine travelling without the 540g power supply. Considering its 240W output, it’s surprisingly compact, and it takes the laptop from empty to 80% in an hour, reaching full capacity in less than two hours.

You’ll probably keep it plugged in much of the time, in which case I recommend you fully investigate the MyAsus app. From here you can switch on the battery care mode, adjust the fan profile (we tested with Performance mode, and the fans get noisy when you’re pushing this machine), and play around with “TaskFirst”, which allows you to set network connectivity priorities – to game streaming, say, or communication apps.

There’s also a bunch of options for the microphone, and unlike many “AI optimizations” I’ve tried, this is worth using. There’s nothing wrong with the plain mode, but the “single presenter conference call” option will bring your voice to the fore. Thanks to the excellent 1080p webcam, which supports Windows Hello and includes a fiddly but effective privacy shutter, you’ll look great on calls, too.

It’s easy to remove the base of the chassis and upgrade the memory and SSD (Image credit: Future) Entertain me

I have mixed feelings about the speakers, but that’s mainly due to the high expectations set elsewhere. If you listen to music in isolation on the Vivobook then you’ll be impressed by its volume and how clearly instruments and voices emerge – the intricate instrumentation of Björk is normally too much for laptops, but the Vivobook handles the mix of strings and vocals well. Where it falls down is bass, pushing the trebles and mids too much to the fore, but I’m being picky.

Certainly you’ll love watching films on this laptop thanks to its sheer volume (with no sign of distortion), and it helps that Asus includes a top-quality OLED panel. It barely needs saying, but a 3,200 x 2,000 resolution ensures sharp edges on text, and black absolutely punches through to make dark scenes in films look fantastic.

It has DisplayHDR 600 Black certification, confirming that it will hit 600cd/m2 in HDR content, while its peak of 389cd/m2 in SDR mode means it’s easy to read in every condition. Except, as it turns out, bright sunshine, where the screen’s reflectivity became obvious.

Inside, though, it’s superb. You can choose from a variety of settings in the MyAsus app, but for testing I stuck to the standard mode and then switched between the preset gamuts: Native, sRGB, DCI-P3 and Display P3. Native makes most sense if you want to enjoy the widest color range (it stretches 19% beyond even the DCI-P3 gamut), but sRGB and DCI-P3 locked the screen down to those gamuts almost perfectly.

Color accuracy is strong – its average Delta-E never went above 0.72, with anything under one considered excellent – and anyone who values true whites will be pleased by a natural color temperature of 6479K, only 21K off the target 6500K.

The Vivobook Pro 16X is a fine choice for gamers and creatives alike (Image credit: Future) Final thoughts

If you’re a demanding user, then, this is almost a perfect laptop. It even has the opportunity to upgrade over time: the 32GB of memory comes supplies as two 16GB SODIMMs, rather than being embedded, and if you’re a nimble hand with a Phillips screwdriver you can whip the bottom off this chassis within a minute.

This will reveal the fact that the 1TB M.2 2280 SSD is also replaceable, and note this isn’t the speediest Gen 4 drive around: 4,061MB/sec reads and 2,971MB/sec writes are strong but not exceptional. I would be tempted to replace it with a faster 2TB drive at some future date; sadly there isn’t a second M.2 slot, despite the amount of space available on the board.

Then again, we need to remember that this isn’t a £3,000+ mobile workstation. While hardly cheap at £2,500, it rewards you with all the power and quality that most creative professionals need. In terms of price, that’s certainly competitive when placed next to an equivalent 16in MacBook Pro. And yes, that laptop offers far superior battery life, minimal fan noise and better performance away from the mains, but it lacks the graphical grunt of Nvidia’s RTX chip along with easy upgrades.

Whether the Vivobook Pro is right for you, then, depends entirely on what you intend to use it for. All I can tell you is that Asus extracts the most from its components, while the supporting cast – particularly the screen – come from the top drawer in terms of quality.

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Payday should be a moment of relief. A time to settle bills and breathe easy, but for customers on February's payday, it was anything but relaxing. Widespread mobile app crashes left millions unable to access their online banking, causing frustration and chaos when they needed their money the most.

For customers relying on these apps to access their salaries, pay bills, and manage finances, the disruption was more than an inconvenience, but a crisis. With only 23% of Brits trusting finance apps, incidents like this only deepen the skepticism. But why did this happen, and how can banks ensure it doesn’t happen again?

Out-of-date legacy systems under pressure

As banking shifts from branches to mobile and internet banking, legacy systems face mounting pressure to interact seamlessly with third-party services, and support a wide range of devices and software versions, from cloud services and APIs to mobile platforms. This intricate web of dependencies massively increases the risk of failure, especially during peak periods like payday. Without a structured approach to change, even minor updates can trigger outages.

To reduce these risks, banks need to introduce changes progressively and in a controlled manner. Uncontrolled deployments can cause widespread outages and damage customer trust which is something no bank can afford to lose. The solution? A DevOps approach designed to stabilize the system and protect the customer experience.

DevOps for banking stability

To prevent major disruptions, and strengthen the resilience of banking applications, DevOps best practices must be integrated into the development and deployment process.

1. Progressive rollouts prevent widespread failure

Deploying new features or updates to all users simultaneously can be a recipe for disaster. Instead, progressive rollouts ensure a controlled, phased introduction of changes, starting with a small segment—perhaps 1%, then increase to 5%, and 10%—moving to the next group only when confident in the stability of the code.

By gradually introducing changes, banks can check performance and detect potential issues before they impact the entire customer base. Controlled rollouts means fewer surprises and happier customers.

2. Automated monitoring and instant rollbacks for reliability

You can’t fix what you can’t see. Automated monitoring tools can track key performance indicators (KPIs), such as response times, error rates, and system load in real time, providing immediate alerts when something goes wrong.

The ability to instantly rollback to a previous version is critical, ideally within 200 milliseconds or less. This keeps banking apps reliable, even during high traffic periods.

3. Rapid adjustments without downtime

Not all changes require a full-scale code deployment. Runtime configuration management allows developers to make real-time adjustments without redeploying the entire application.

This means if an issue arises with a new feature, banks can instantly disable it without taking down the entire application. Such flexibility is crucial for maintaining uptime and ensuring a seamless customer experience, even in unpredictable situations.

4. Targeted segments for customized experience

A one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work in banking. Customers use different devices, operating systems, and network environments, so why treat them all the same.

By segmenting users based on key attributes, banks can tailor updates to specific groups. This allows them to optimize the user experience, mitigate risk, and enhance security, without disrupting the entire customer base.

The future of resilient banking apps

Payday is a crucial, recurring event worldwide, and banking apps have become essential gateway for consumers to manage their finances. In fact in the UK alone, 37% of UK residents check their current account balance daily. This is proof that reliable digital banking is no longer a convenience, but an exception.

Banks cannot afford another payday failure. By embracing DevOps best practices—progressive rollouts, automated monitoring, and real-time configuration management—they can ensure the events of February’s payday aren’t repeated.

DevOps best practices from progressive rollouts to automated monitoring, runtime configuration management, and targeted segmentation, can guide banks through the innovation process without compromising the reliability of their platforms. Reliable apps build confident customers and it’s time for banks to deliver on that promise.

We list the best mobile payment app.

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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By the title alone, I know some of you are questioning my technical knowledge and gaming prowess. But hear me out: wireless peripherals aren't what they used to be. They're much better.

Wireless keyboards, mice, and other accessories like gaming headsets have come a very long way in the last few years. Despite a massive market share in favor of wired hardware, wireless is slowly but surely creeping up to become king of the PC accessory hill.

I used to swear by the benefits of a wired mouse and keyboard - what about the battery life? And that awful latency? But the more I used them, the more I see wireless peripherals for their upsides.

Here's why I trust them to get the job done, and why you should too.

Battery life really isn't that big of a deal

Most peripherals will warn you before they run out of juice nowadays. (Image credit: Future)

Whenever this debate comes up, there are a few main drawbacks of wireless peripherals people tend to point to. Chief among them is usually battery life - and it makes sense, because wired peripherals have literally infinite battery life.

But what if I told you wireless peripherals today have essentially the same thing?

First off, the vast majority of wireless mice and keyboards sync up with customization software like Razer Synapse and Logitech G HUB. These apps have built-in reminder notifications that alert you when it's time to charge up.

And on top of that, many peripherals that have RGB will also give you a visual indication, like red flashing lights, when you're running low on juice. Going one step further, most of the best wireless gaming mice have auto-off functions, which power the mouse down after a certain period of inactivity.

The Logitech PowerPlay mouse pad charges your wireless mouse while you play.

Here's the real kicker though: almost all wireless mice today can also be used in a 'wired' configuration, because you can simply continue using them while you work or play.

That "battery anxiety" I felt right around the time I switched pretty much disappeared completely once I came to this realization.

If my mouse battery is running low, I take a few seconds to plug it in and keep it pushing. Once the battery is full, I unplug and enjoy the freedom of a wireless setup.

No cable drag making my setup feel "off," no worrying about the wire being the right length or turning into cable cobwebs, just my wireless companion and the task at hand.

Plus, nowadays you can even get a fancy mouse pad that charges your wireless mouse as you use it (like the Logitech PowerPlay), which is honestly just as much of a flex as it is a brilliant idea.

Is wireless latency still a problem in 2025?

You're more likely to feel other types of latency, like render latency, before you'll ever feel input lag from switching to wireless accessories. (Image credit: ASUS)

I would argue that for the vast majority of gamers, and for nearly every productivity user, the latency of modern-day wireless peripherals isn't noticeable.

You won't jump from the bottom of the leaderboard to the top because you went from a 1ms response time on a wired keyboard to 2ms response time on a wireless board.

To put it in perspective, it takes a single frame just under 7ms to render on a 144Hz monitor.

I thought the latency would be a total nonstarter for wireless peripherals, but as I kept testing them, I honestly can't say I felt any hint of difference between mice like the Logitech G Pro X Superlight 2 Lightspeed and wired competitors like the Razer Viper Ultralight (which, while a few years older, was my daily go-to wired option) while playing competitive online titles like Counter-Strike 2.

Connectivity may be more of an issue

Spotty Bluetooth connectivity remains an issue with some peripherals. (Image credit: Pixabay)

OK, if you're looking for a "gotcha," this is where you could get one over on me. Some wireless peripherals are just plain bad in the connectivity department.

Getting a spotty mouse or keyboard can certainly leave a bad first impression. It's no fun dealing with random connection drops while you're trying your best to win.

I find this usually crops up when dealing with Bluetooth or shoddy software (and is sometimes fixed with a simple firmware update, but we shouldn't have to wait around on that after spending our hard-earned money.)

This is almost never a problem with wired mice, and it is something to consider. But if you go with one of our wireless picks for the best gaming keyboards, which we've gone hands-on with and can attest to each of their connectivity reliability, you won't have that problem. Check out our other roundups too, like the best wireless gaming headsets for more ideas.

And where possible, I would use a 2.4GHz receiver over Bluetooth for the best connection. That said, a solid suite of Bluetooth accessories can free up a ton of USB ports, which are stretched thin nowadays on even the best gaming laptops.

The benefits of going wireless

Whether you're after a spiffy setup or better consistency hitting your shots, going cordless can help. (Image credit: Future)

As I've touched on throughout this article, there's a number of upsides to going wireless. Here are the main benefits I've seen:

• A cleaner desk setup (no cable clutter)
• Better freedom of movement
• No cable drag
• Easy portability
• Bluetooth Multipoint functionality
• Access to the latest sensors and switches
• More free USB ports

And there are even a few more niche benefits like long-range capabilities if you like to connect a mouse or keyboard to your console for easy browsing.

The biggest upsides I've seen are definitely the cleaner desk aesthetics and eliminating cable drag (which also goes hand in hand with better freedom of movement). I don't have to tug on my mouse cord to get it to the right length or take my headphones off when I get up to grab a drink.

It's also pretty convenient to just toss your wireless gear straight into a backpack without having to worry about spooling up wires and fretting about the USB connection getting damaged in transit.

Plus, as more companies focus on making wireless gear, the latest sensors, switches, and software are centered around this form factor, meaning some wireless gear is actually more efficient than wired counterparts in the latency and durability departments.

Now, I'm not saying you have to throw your entire setup in the dumpster just because it has a few wires hanging off of it. But if you've been avoiding the switch because "wireless is worse," I think it's time to reevaluate.

The benefits outweigh the few downsides for me, and since making the switch to a cordless cleaner setup, I haven't looked back.

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