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The company’s new Paper Pro digital notepad features color E Ink technology on a larger, more responsive display.

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reMarkable Paper Pro: Two-minute review

You don’t own the reMarkable Paper Pro, it owns you. This is a tablet with a single purpose – to capture your ideas. It does that almost perfectly. There are other things you can do with the reMarkable Paper Pro, but it won’t do anything as well as keeping your thoughts and ideas organized and flowing.

It does this by doing almost nothing else. The reMarkable Paper Pro is the follow-up to the reMarkable 2, a monochrome writing tablet with an E Ink display and a Wacom-licensed EMR stylus. The earlier reMarkable earned fans by offering simplicity and a distraction-free environment. It's so well designed and pleasant to use that it becomes addictive, and that’s why I keep using it. 

I bring my reMarkable 2, and now my reMarkable Paper Pro, to every event I cover as a journalist. It’s not just because I love flashing the most pretentious, manicured, single-minded tablet you can own; it’s because the reMarkable feels free and easy in a way my laptop cannot. 

When I have to type notes on a keyboard, I feel constrained. I need to sit. I need to follow the rules of the document app. I can’t easily create and organize notes in the way I want, not without fighting the app.

When I use my reMarkable, I can put my ideas to paper the way I like, and I still get to save everything to Google Drive. In fact, reMarkable has finally relented, and you can now edit documents from the reMarkable app, away from the tablet. That’s been a long-requested feature from reMarkable’s devoted fan base.

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

The Paper Pro finally gives the most-requested features to reMarkable fans, including a front light for reading in the dark (seriously, you can’t read the reMarkable 2 in the dark), and – drum roll please – a color E Ink display!

I wasn’t expecting a color reMarkable this year, because the color E Ink tablets I’ve seen haven’t been spectacular. reMarkable has incredibly high standards, and the company seemed in no hurry to launch a new, sub-par product.

The reMarkable Paper Pro is a different color E Ink panel from anything I’ve seen before – I’ll talk later about the technology that brought reMarkable out of Kansas to the Land of Oz.

The reMarkable Paper Pro is electronic paper (ePaper), pure and simple, and it’s best not to expect too much from this tablet. It’s the best ePaper you’ve ever used. Since the reMarkable 2 launched in 2020, the company has spent a great deal of its effort improving the writing experience beyond all expectations. There's no perceptible lag between the pen and the ePaper. Writing feels like writing, as it should.

If that doesn’t appeal to you, you may be outside of reMarkable’s target audience, because the reMarkable Paper Pro is truly a luxury device for people who want the feeling of writing on paper, with the convenience of digital storage. This is not a versatile tablet. The list of things the reMarkable cannot do is longer and more surprising than the list of what it can.

There's no web browser on the reMarkable Paper Pro, because the company says the primary goal of the Paper Pro is to help you avoid distractions. To that end, not only can you not browse the web, you can’t even check the time. There's no visible clock on the Paper Pro. No web windows, no clocks – it’s like a Las Vegas casino, if Vegas was about creativity instead of gambling.

Why is there no clock? Because reMarkable knows this won’t be your only screen, or even your second screen. This is the device you buy after your iPhone and MacBook, instead of a distractingly bright and colorful iPad.

The reMarkable Paper Pro is the anti-iPad (Image credit: Future)

The company is unapologetic about its spartan attitude. It takes pride in rejecting far, far more feature requests than it grants: around 95% of the features that users request are rejected, according to reMarkable reps.

If you want a tablet that does a lot more, get an iPad. If you want an E Ink tablet that does a lot more, like running apps and a browser, get an Onyx Boox Note Air 3. If you want an E Ink tablet that's good for reading books, buy an Amazon Kindle Scribe.

The reMarkable Paper Pro will have none of that silliness. This tablet is not for reading, and it’s not for apps, and if you want those things in an ePaper tablet, it’s not for you, either.

reMarkable Paper Pro review: price and availability

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

• Starts at $579 / £559 / AU $929 with a Marker
• New Type Folio available at launch for $229 / £180 / AU $330 extra

The reMarkable Paper Pro is very expensive, especially considering how much this tablet doesn’t do. An Apple iPad costs from $449 / £499 / AU$749, without an Apple Pencil of course, and Apple’s tablet can do just about everything. The reMarkable Paper Pro, on the other hand, seems positively archaic by comparison. 

That’s entirely the point, and the design and materials are deceptively advanced, as I’ll discuss below in the Design section. This is an ultra-premium, luxury device, even though it lacks features we normally associate with luxury tablets. 

Depending on your region, reMarkable might try to sell you a tablet without a Marker, but don’t buy it – or rather, buy the Marker. You need it. The reMarkable Paper Pro isn’t a very good reading device. Also, unlike the reMarkable 2, the new Paper Pro doesn’t use Wacom’s EMR technology for its pen. The Marker is now proprietary reMarkable technology, so you can’t just get the tablet and then buy your own cheaper pen. A Samsung S Pen will not work with the reMarkable Paper Pro, as it will with a reMarkable 2.

You really should use a case or folio with this tablet, and the reMarkable Book Folios are very nice, whether you choose the recycled fabric or the leather. The newer Book Folios have a strap to hold the Marker in place. If you don’t like these covers, just wait a bit, because I’d expect a robust market for third-party covers will pop up on Etsy, just as it did for the reMarkable 2.

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

If you want to type on the reMarkable Paper Pro, in addition to writing with the Marker, reMarkable is offering a Type Folio keyboard for $229. Just like the tablet itself, the Type Folio keyboard is incredibly thin. With the Type Folio attached, the reMarkable is about as thick as most tablets with a basic folio cover. The Paper Pro is a larger tablet than the reMarkable 2, so the older Type Folio will not work with the new reMarkable.

The reMarkable 2 will still be available, now for even less. A bundle starts at $379, which is a drop from the previous $399 / £399 / AU$679 pricing, though still more than the Kindle Scribe, which sells for $339 / £329 / AU$549.

Unfortunately, reMarkable will not be accepting any older tablets as a trade-in for the new reMarkable Paper Pro. This is a big mistake, but for a company that started on Kickstarter, I get it. It’s not like reMarkable makes a new tablet every year and encourages regular upgrading. If you have the reMarkable 2, just keep it, it’s still great.

• Value score: 4/5

reMarkable Paper Pro review: specs

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future) reMarkable Paper Pro review: display

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

• New E Ink Gallery 3 display isn't being used in other tablets
• Color is built into the pixels, not a separate layer

If you’re not familiar with E Ink, you should know about ePaper first. Unlike an LCD or OLED computer monitor, ePaper is a category of display that is designed to emulate paper. You can read an ePaper display outdoors in bright sunlight because it reflects light. An ePaper display also usually looks the same whether it's powered on or off. 

There are a few different types of ePaper technology, and reMarkable uses an ePaper display from a company called E Ink – the screen tech is also called E Ink. Amazon’s Kindle e-reader tablets all use E Ink displays, and so do the reading and writing tablets from Kobo and Onyx. 

E Ink is an amazing technology. Where your phone screen lights up and makes a picture when electricity passes through it, E Ink doesn’t light up at all. It makes a picture with tiny, almost microscopic balls. These balls sit in tiny little wells, and when electricity is applied, they rise to the top so you can see them. 

The benefit of E Ink displays is that they can consume less power, because the screen will draw a page of words and then… do nothing. It sits still while you read, and it doesn’t require any juice. The screen only uses power when you have to turn the page, or scroll down. This makes it ideal for applications like reading and writing, where there isn’t a lot of page-turning and scrolling.

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

E Ink is very bad at displaying video and any task that requires a lot of movement on-screen. The screen cannot refresh nearly as quickly as a phone screen. Your phone's display can update at up to 120 times per second, while the fastest E Ink screen can barely top 10-15 frames per second – and even then, it’s drawing a lot more power than an E Ink screen was intended to use.

The reMarkable Paper Pro is a brand new E Ink screen, at least for tablets. The E Ink Gallery 3 technology has been used in digital signage commercially, but it hasn’t been used in a successful writing tablet. reMarkable is calling its brand of Gallery 3 E Ink the Canvas display.

There are other E Ink color tablets, like the Onyx Boox Tab Ultra C and the Kobo Libra Colour. Those tablets use an E Ink Kaleido screen. The difference is where the color sits. On the Kaleido display, you have a black-and-white E Ink layer, just like any e-reader. Then you have a layer of color that sits just above the black-and-white layer.

The Kaleido display can refresh quickly, but the color has to allow the black and white layer to be visible beneath, so it uses a lower color resolution. The color does not look very saturated. If you see one of these screens in person, they almost have a layered effect to the color that seems off compared to color print or a similar medium.

Macro close-up of the reMarkable Paper Pro's E Ink display (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

The new Gallery 3 E Ink panel on the reMarkable Paper Pro, on the other hand, puts the color in the same layer as the black-and-white. This gives you better color resolution and a sharper image, but it takes the display longer to draw and update color. In fact, E Ink told me that while the black ink can refresh in 350 milliseconds (ms), the color ink can take anywhere from 500ms to 1.5 seconds to finish drawing, for the most accurate color.

We’ve been waiting four years for a new reMarkable tablet, and the addition of color was highly anticipated by fans, though I was skeptical, as I’ve seen tablets that use color E Ink ‘Kaleido’ panels. I can’t say that the reMarkable color display is perfect, but it definitely looks better than the E Ink competition, and it adds a layer of usefulness.

The colors are still faint, even though reMarkable has added a light to the new Paper Pro tablet. The light is very dim, just barely bright enough power to let you read in the dark. Unlike the Amazon Kindle Scribe, which packs a bevy of LED backlights, the reMarkable Paper Pro gives you a meager candle for reading, and little more.

That said, if you know where to look for the quality, you’ll find it. The reMarkable Paper Pro looks like paper and ink. The display may seem a bit grey, but it looks bone-white compared to other ePaper tablets. The ink color is highly visible and looks like real ink, no matter what color you now choose. The display feels great for writing – not so much like paper, but like expensive stationery. All around, this is a writing tablet for connoisseurs of writing tablets.

• Display score: 4 / 5

reMarkable Paper Pro review: Design

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

• Thinner than an iPad Pro, even with the new lights
• Accessories are a must, not a maybe

The reMarkable Paper Pro is an incredibly well-built device, and it has a premium finish and design that is truly… impeccable. Even though the new reMarkable Paper Pro has a larger battery than the reMarkable 2, a fully-lit display, and new color E Ink technology, it remains one of the thinnest tablets you can buy, if not the thinnest. 

The new iPad Pro that Apple brags is its thinnest product ever? That 5.3mm fatso needs to lose a couple tenths of a millimeter if it wants to brag against the 5.1mm reMarkable Paper Pro, or the even thinner (and still available) 4.7mm reMarkable 2. 

The latest reMarkable is larger than before, so unfortunately the older accessories like the Type Folio won’t work. And you’re definitely going to want a case for this tablet. It feels solid, but it's so thin and light that I’d hate to put its durability to a stress test. The reMarkable folios are all very high-quality, and I expect third party options will appear before long. 

• Design score: 5/5

reMarkable Paper Pro review: Software

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

• Not so much software, more like paper with some features
• No apps, no home screen, just notes

The reMarkable Paper Pro keeps things very simple. You have notes (called Notebooks) and folders. That’s it. You can tag your notes, then search those tags later to jump to a specific notebook or section in a book. 

There is no app store. There is no home screen with widgets and icons. You can see your folders, and you can click on the folders to see the notes inside them. That’s all. I love the simplicity. If you’re tired of saving photos or files on your phone, then having no idea where they went, the reMarkable Paper Pro is a soothing balm. You will never lose anything, because it’s simply right in front of you. 

When you write a note, you can handwrite or type text. There's an onscreen keyboard for typography if you don’t buy the Type Folio. 

The Paper Pro can convert handwriting to typed text, but the feature is very rudimentary. It was able to recognize most of my writing, but when it could not figure out my chicken scratch, it just skipped that word. 

Worst of all, the final product is ugly and hard to correct. In fact, a huge weakness of the reMarkable software is how difficult it can be to edit, change, and move things around, especially typed text. It's very hard to select the right word, or a group of words, because the screen can feel unresponsive. It is almost impossible to create a proper layout using type – you’re better off just drawing what you want. 

Sadly, there are very few helpful drawing tools, either. There is no help making straight lines, and nothing to make shapes. You can’t create stickers to add to your documents, which would be a boon for journaling fans.

Close-up of the highlighter tool on the color reMarkable Paper Pro (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

You can write in color, or paint in color, or highlight in color, but the color features are just as limited as everything else. Don’t expect the reMarkable Paper Pro to be your new drawing tablet. The color options are scant and unalterable. You can’t tap to fill a space with color, for instance.

You can’t even pick your own colors. You get the colors reMarkable has chosen, and that’s all. No color picker, no blending colors. Colors are for organization and ideas, not, well, coloring.

Actually, that’s not true, because I downloaded a PDF with some mindfulness exercises that include coloring, and though my color options are limited, I can still have fun making pretty pictures. You can load any PDF or ePUB document onto the reMarkable Paper Pro, either through the mobile or desktop app, or using a Chrome extension that converts web pages into PDFs. Once you have a document loaded, you can draw and color upon it to your heart’s content.

• Software score: 2/5

reMarkable Paper Pro review: Performance

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

• Amazing pen response, with new pen technology
• Screen can feel very sluggish with touch, especially swipes

The reMarkable Paper Pro has a lot more power than before, but for what? The most advanced feature, and maybe the only advanced feature, is handwriting recognition, a technology that predates the earliest iPhone. 

Actually, I’ve talked to developers who work with E Ink who tell me that the screen technology is astonishingly difficult to program, so perhaps the improved performance is driving the more complex color display. 

The problem is that the reMarkable Paper Pro feels very slow. Not when you’re writing. Writing works at light speed. The new Marker uses an active technology, powered by a rechargeable battery, that makes response time even faster, according to reMarkable. Writing feels very fast and fluid, with absolutely no discernible lag. 

Navigating the reMarkable Paper Pro, though, feels like a serious drag. Swiping to the next page often took multiple swipes. Scrolling could be unresponsive on longer documents, and pinch-zooming might not work on the first attempt. 

Once you have your document template set up, everything feels snappy. Writing, drawing, and coloring with the new brushes works with perfect fluidity. It feels like writing on real paper, not writing on a laggy screen. Once you’re done, have some patience, because it could take a while to send your file, or navigate to the next folder. 

• Performance score: 3 / 5

reMarkable Paper Pro review: Battery

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

• Two weeks of battery life, even with the light continually on
• That's because the light is very dim

Before you get impressed by the two weeks of battery life that the reMarkable Paper Pro can offer, remember that an Amazon Kindle with an E Ink display can last more than a month with steady use. The reMarkable is impressive, but it isn’t the best ePaper device for battery life. 

It’s still much better than competing devices from Onyx, like the Onyx Boox Air 3. Onyx pushes its E Ink displays to the limit, and Boox tablets can actually display videos, or browse regular web pages, or even run games, like any other Android tablet (almost). Pushing E Ink faster drains power very quickly, though. E Ink is meant to be slow and steady, not fast. 

The reMarkable Paper Pro charges via USB-C, and it comes with a charging cord. I’m not sure how fast it charges because the battery lasts two weeks, so I didn’t mind a slower charge-up. 

• Battery score: 5 / 5

Should I buy the reMarkable Paper Pro?

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future) Buy it if...

You want a premium digital pen and paper experience
At its heart the reMarkable Paper Pro is simply electronic pen and paper, with all the benefits of the cloud. If you embrace that simplicity, you’ll love it.

You need freedom from distractions
There is no web browser, no games, no app store, not even a clock to tell you how long you’ve been procrastinating.

You’ve been waiting for a color reMarkable with a light
A color screen and a light are by far the two biggest requests I hear from vocal reMarkable fans. Those folks get their wish with the Paper Pro.

Don't buy it if...

You want to read books, or do anything else but write
The reMarkable Paper Pro can read PDF files and ePUB books, but it's better for marking up documents than for reading a novel.

You’re going to complain about what it can’t do
Look, the reMarkable Paper Pro can’t do a lot, that’s the point. It’s time to simplify! If you can’t get with that, buy something complicated.

You lose pens all the time
The Paper Pro Marker pen is proprietary, so there are no cheap third-party options, and it’s easy to lose since it only attaches magnetically.

Also consider

Amazon Kindle Scribe
If you read more than you write, get the Amazon Kindle Scribe, which gives you access to Amazon’s huge Kindle library, without all the distractions of an iPad or Android tablet.

Read our full Amazon Kindle Scribe review

Apple iPad 10.9
If you need a lot of distractions, or a more capable tablet, the Apple iPad is the same price as the reMarkable Paper Pro, and it has a lot more colors. It’s very distracting, indeed, and it works with an Apple Pencil.

Read our full Apple iPad 10.9 review

How I tested the reMarkarble Paper Pro

I received the reMarkable Paper Pro a few weeks before this review was published, and I used it as my primary note-taking and journaling tool, both for work and personal use. I normally use a reMarkable 2 for these tasks, so I'm familiar with the tablet’s capabilities and limitations. 

I charged the reMarkable Paper Pro at the beginning of my review period and then didn't charge it again until I needed to take photos for this review, to ensure that reMarkable’s battery-life claims were accurate. After two weeks, I tested charging again on my standard USB-C charger. 

I connected the reMarkable Paper Pro to my Google Drive account for document synchronization, as well as the Google Chrome browser. I used the reMarkable app on my MacBook, Android phone, and iPhone. 

I gave the reMarkable Paper Pro to folks with more drawing ability and artistic talent than I have and asked them what they think. I did not tell them what tablet they were using. I also downloaded a number of third-party PDF files from Etsy to try them with the reMarkable Paper Pro.

I used the reMarkable Paper Pro with reMarkable’s Book Folio and Type Folio cases, typing extensively with the keyboard. 

Read more about how we test.

• First reviewed: September 2024

The Apple Watch Series 9 will soon be replaced meaning you can nab one at a huge discount right now.

One of the biggest selling points of LG's best 2024 OLED TVs is Dolby Vision Filmmaker Mode, a world first – the standard was only recently finalized by the UHD Alliance and LG was the first manufacturer to implement it. Only now, there's a second manufacturer embracing the standard: Philips.

The new feature is in all of Philips' 2024 OLEDs, according to FlatpanelsHD, who asked Philips whether it was in more models than just the Philips OLED809 TV. Philips said that yes, it's been working closely with Dolby and the mode will be available in all 2024 Philips OLED TVs as well as coming to 2023 OLED TVs from the firm.

Why Filmmaker Mode matters (and why it took so long to reach Dolby Vision HDR)

Filmmaker Mode is, as the name suggests, designed to show you movies as the filmmakers intended them to look. It was developed because many movie-makers were pretty unhappy with how their movies looked on smart TVs, especially when they were presented with crappy color accuracy and overly aggressive motion smoothing. Filmmaker mode turns off the toys and focuses – pun fully intended – on the film.

Filmmaker Mode is already a familiar sight in many of the best TVs, because it's been a key selling point for movie buffs since it was launched four years ago. But it wasn't available in Dolby Vision HDR until this year. That's partly because many Dolby Vision IQ presets use the very techniques that Filmmaker Mode was made to fight against. 

That means if you already had your TV set to Filmmaker Mode but switched to a Dolby HDR title, your TV would turn off Filmmaker Mode and go into a Dolby Vision preset such as Dark or Normal instead. Now it's here that won't happen, and it should mean much more accurate reproduction of movies not just from sources such as Blu-Ray but also from the best streaming services that support Dolby Vision HDR. 

We've already tested the HDR Filmmaker Mode in our review of the LG G4 and found it very impressive – it's a key part of what makes the LG G4 one of the best TVs our reviewer had ever laid eyes on. So it's great to see the same option coming to more TVs, and no doubt we'll be hearing similar announcements from more manufacturers soon.

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Ridiculously good battery life keeps this budget Windows laptop going and going and going.

Canadian speaker firm Kanto Audio has revealed its extremely striking new active loudspeakers, the Kanto Audio 100W Ren (stylised to REN) and our love for the product is not wholly tied to our love for the animated TV series Ren & Stimpy – although that helps. 

There are five different colors including the absolutely stunning orange option shown in the promo pic above; your other choices are matte black (boo!), matte gray and matte white (OK) and matt blue (hmm!), so if, like me, you're a bit bored with monochrome audio kit, the orange one will seem like a citrus ray of 'Oh, joy!' sunshine (sorry).

But of course what matters here is the sound, and while the 100W RMS / 200W peak of class D amplification here means they'll go loud, the spec suggests they'll sound good too – as does recent form (see our Kanto Ora review for evidence). They're made from acoustic grade MDF with rear ports, 1-inch silk dome tweeters and 5.25-inch aluminium concave cone drivers, and their frequency response is 50Hz to 22kHz – impressively low for their relatively small size.

Kanto Audio 100W Ren Active Speakers: key features 

For wireless connectivity, there's Bluetooth 5.3, but for the best audio you'll really want a cabled connection – and your options here include HDMI ARC with CEC (a first for Kanto's speakers, so something you won't find in the company's January 2024 ORA4 lineup, for example), USB-C and optical inputs supporting up to 24-bit/96kHz sound sources. There are also RCA and 3.5mm connections, a subwoofer output and a USB port to charge small devices.

The Ren speakers also include a digital signal processor with two special modes: Vocal Boost for better dialog clarity and Night Mode for ensuring harmonious relations with your neighbors or roommates. 

We haven't heard these new speakers yet but, as mentioned above, we reviewed the  firm's Kanto Ora speakers and found them to be very impressive: while they're very loud for their size that's not at the expense of sound quality or clarity. So we're looking forward to getting our ears, and our eyes, on these. 

The new Kanto 100W Ren Active Speakers have recommended pricing of £499 / €579 / $599 / CA$799 (which is around AU$974) and will be available imminently.

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One of the leading VPN providers, Mullvad, now offers post-quantum protection across all its applications, namely Linux, Windows, macOS, Android, and finally bringing its iPhone VPN apps into the fray. The Swedish provider is one of the very few in the market to have already implemented a mix of quantum-safe and traditional encryption – kicking off its post-quantum strategy back in 2017 on Linux. 

Quantum computers are improving every day, and we may only be a few years away from them breaking traditional RSA encryption altogether. While the wider industry is catching up, the transition to post-quantum VPNs is crucial to secure your privacy.

How Mullvad's post-quantum encryption works

Mullvad's solution works on its WireGuard protocol, harvesting the secret of two quantum-resistant algorithms: Classic McEliece and Kyber. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has just officially included the latter in its first set of quantum-safe encryption standards – now renamed ML-KEM.

As the provider explains in its blog post: "A WireGuard tunnel is established and is used to share a secret in such a way that a quantum computer can’t figure out the secret even if it had access to the network traffic."

Quantum-Resistant Tunnels Now Available on iOS!https://t.co/arWEsu0n3nAugust 30, 2024

Post-quantum encryption doesn't come as default just yet, meaning you have to actively enable it to benefit from PQ encryption. 

To activate the added protection, you need to head to your app's Settings, click on VPN settings, and toggle on the button next to Quantum-resistant tunnel. Once the connection is established, you should see a "QUANTUM SECURE CONNECTION" status in green text on the main view of the app,

"If it turns out to work as well as we hope it will, we will enable this by default on all platforms in the future," added Mullvad.

Why do we need post-quantum VPNs?

A virtual private network (VPN) is a security tool that protects your internet connections to ensure third parties cannot access users' data in transit. To do so, VPNs use encryption to scramble the data into an unreadable form that can be decoded only by using the assigned encrypted key. 

Today's VPN protocols often leverage RSA-based key exchanges to ensure only you and your receiver can encrypt and decrypt the information. Yet, this way of protecting people's online activities is set to become obsolete with the advent of quantum computers.

This is because quantum computers are expected to process computations that today's computers can't handle, within minutes. In the future, attackers could use these machines to crack into today's encryption algorithms and compromise people's data.

Check the explainer from Veritasium below if you want to know the technical details of how these machines can break encryption:

As Mullvad explains: "Although strong enough quantum computers have yet to be demonstrated, having post-quantum secure tunnels today protects against attackers that record encrypted traffic with the hope of decrypting it with a future quantum computer."

Cybercriminals, state hackers, and more are already conducting what's called "store now, decrypt later (SNDL) attacks," in fact. Put simply, they collect vast amounts of encrypted data from the internet so they can crack it in the future when quantum computing is finally up to the task.

As mentioned, Mullvad was among the first in the industry to think about future threats and begin its PQ transition - way before NIST selected the algorithms that would later get standardized. In 2022, the team switched to one of the finalists (Classic McEliece), while continuing to follow the ongoing work at NIST.

"As Kyber (one of the standards) now has been updated (ML-KEM) we are planning to migrate to this in the near future," Jan Jonsson, CEO at Mullvad, told me.

Which VPNs are already quantum-resistant?

While the majority of VPN providers are still figuring out how to correctly implement quantum-resistant algorithms within their products, there are a few services alongside Mullvad that already offer such protection.

• Windscribe is another early adopter of quantum-resistant encryption. The company's aim is not just to meet PQ encryption standards, but rather surpass them to keep offering its users the best protection against future threats. The team is now in the process of boosting their KEM (Key Encapsulation Mechanism) in TLS and OpenVPN protocols. 
• ExpressVPN added quantum-safe encryption based on the Kyber algorithm to its WireGuard-inspired protocol Lightway in October last year. Back in 2020, the in-house built VPN protocol was exactly designed to make the PQ transition easier. "Other VPN protocols would need extensive changes to support post-quantum,"  Pete Membrey, Chief Engineering Officer at ExpressVPN, told me at that time.
• PureVPN partnered with quantum computing company Quantinuum in 2022 to introduce a quantum-resistant feature on its OpenVPN protocol. At the time of writing, you can benefit from this extra protection only when connected to six server locations (US, UK, Australia, Germany, Canada, and the Netherlands).

A new era for VPN security

As mentioned earlier, NIST officially released the first three quantum-resistant encryption standards on August 13, 2024, after over a decade of testing more than 80 algorithms. This move is set to shape the future of cryptography, opening up a new era for VPN security.

These standardized algorithms come, in fact, with instructions on how to implement them and their intended uses. All this is crucial to support VPN providers in their PQ transition, de-facto raising the bar for VPN security standards.

"The strength of a standard lies in the fact that it is open and gets audited and reviewed in a way that makes it secure," Jonsson told me. "This increases trust and usage, which means the world can tackle the risks posed by quantum computers in a better way."

NIST now calls on all developers to start the post-quantum transition as the "full integration will take time."

Last weekend several authors cut ties with National Novel Writing Month after the nonprofit issued a statement seemingly greenlighting the use of AI in writing.

Microsoft has introduced a new PowerToy for Windows users to have a more consistent organized application structure, and it’s called Workspaces.

Described as “a set of utilities for power users to tune and streamline their Windows experience for greater productivity,” Microsoft already offers a number of PowerToys, such as Advanced Paste (for custom formatting), Always On Top and Image Resizer.

Workspaces adds the ability to create, save and launch sets of applications in customized desktop configurations, enabling workers to pick up where they left off.

Windows gains a new PowerToy – Workspaces

With Workspaces, users can save the precise layout and configuration of open applications. Then, when the Workspace is relaunched, all applications will open in the same positions as before.

Users can either open the Workspaces editor from the PowerToys setting or use the Win+Ctrl+` shortcut. A ‘Create Workspace’ option will be available within the editor, where users can then ‘Capture’ their preferred settings.

Microsoft summarized in a support article: “You can capture your desktop state as a new workspace using the editor, add arguments to apps to configure their state on launch, and pin the workspace as a desktop shortcut for quick-launching.”

Redmond also noted that, where a window may already be open prior to initiating the Workspace, it may either be reused or a new instance will open. Settings for this can be configured by using a CLI argument.

PowerToys can be installed via GitHub or Microsoft Store and require Windows 11 or Windows 10 v2004 (19041) or newer using x64 and Arm64 architectures.

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Dell has unveiled a range of new AI PCs, including the XPS 13, powered by Intel Core Ultra Series 2 processors, along with the Inspiron 14 and the Latitude 5455, featuring new Snapdragon X Plus 8-core processors.

The company first announced the series in May 2024, with all of the new devices are available to customers around the world now. Microsoft recently took the wraps of its AI PCs strategy, which includes adding a new Copilot AI button to laptops to help summon AI-powered digital assistants.

Despite some first impressions suggesting that AI PCs aren't all that exciting right now, every new technology has to take first steps, and manufactures like Dell getting on board can only boost the growing segment of Windows laptops. 

Dell XPS 13 

Starting with the Dell XPS 13, the company has added a new Intel Core Ultra Series 2 processors to ensure that the thin and light laptop has the power to match up with other AI PCs as well as the MacBook Pro. Intel has built in a dedicated NPU capable of up to 48 TOPS, ensuring access to top-end AI features. 

Dell has also given the XPS 13 an OLED tandem display, which helps the laptop reach higher brightness while using less battery than its rivals, with the company saying there is a staggering 26 hours of usage on offer. 

The XPS 13 is on sale now, starting at $1,399.99 for the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. 

Snap-dragon, crackle, and pop 

(Image credit: Dell)

Arguably more exciting is the introduction of two new Dell laptops powered by Snapdragon hardware instead of Intel. 

The Inspiron 14, which starts at $899, offers Snapdragon X Plus 8-core and 10-core options, alongside an integrated GPU and NPU delivering 45 TOPS for AI workloads. Running Windows 11 Pro, it also boasts a 14-inch display, 16GB of RAM, and up to 1TB SSD, all of which are thoroughly modern. 

The final laptop that Dell plans to release is the Latitude 5455, which sadly does not yet have pricing details. It's designed for maximum portability, for students and other professionals moving from place to place to work, and includes Snapdragon X Plus 8-core and 10-core options. Dell says the Latitude 5455 can also hit 27 hours of usage. 

Of course, Dell has a fair amount of competition for the best laptop and best business laptop crown, namely from the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 8, the Acer Travelmate P4, and the Microsoft Surface Laptop. 

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The next big mobile product launch from Samsung could well be the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 tablet series – and a freshly leaked rendering has possibly revealed the super-sized 14.6-inch Ultra version of the slate.

This comes from well-known tipster Evan Blass (via Android Authority), and we can see that not much has changed in terms of design from the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra. There's still a notch cut out of the front display for the forward-facing camera, and two cameras around the back.

We get a very brief look at the back of the tablet, enough to tell us that the magnetic charging ports are in the same place as well (an S Pen stylus is shown snapped to the back). It looks as though the bezels around the edges of the display might be slightly smaller this time around, but it's difficult to be sure.

The render matches up rather nicely with other leaked images we saw last month. Apparently, the dimensions of the Ultra tablet are 326.4mm x 208.6mm x 5.45mm – the same as its predecessor, but a little bit thicker.

When will they land?

The smallest tablet in the series could get dropped this year (Image credit: Samsung)

Rumors around the existence of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra and Galaxy Tab S10 Plus have been swirling for months at this point, but it appears there isn't going to be a standard 11-inch version of the Tab S10, which would be a surprise.

If the standard model is indeed left out of the range this year, your screen size choices would be 12.4 inches for the Plus and 14.6 inches for the Ultra. All the indications are that the displays are going to be the same size as they were last year, though we're expecting a bump in terms of the internal components.

What isn't changing, it seems, is the 45W charging speed of the current models. Considering all of these leaks, which have also included what look like marketing images, the launch of these tablets shouldn't be too far off – the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 series was launched in August 2023, so a 2024 refresh should be imminent.

Apple has already updated two of its tablets this year – see our iPad Air 2024 review and iPad Pro 2024 review for details – and a refresh for the entry-level iPad is likely to be on the way, too. Pretty soon we should see some new competition from the Android side.

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Developer Far Out Games and publisher Konami have unveiled Deliver At All Costs, a comedic indie driving game set in a colorful 1950s-inspired world.

The story of the upcoming game follows Winston Green, a down-on-his-luck scientist who takes on a job as a courier at a local delivery company. Missions see you attempting to complete a series of increasingly absurd deliveries, ranging from a giant flopping live Marlin to an actual atomic bomb.

It’s a good premise that is only elevated by the game’s vibrant, larger-than-life world. It features fully destructible environments too, allowing you to plow through nearby buildings and sit back as they satisfyingly collapse into big piles of rubble. You can also explore the world outside of missions, which is the perfect opportunity to track down hidden collectibles or just take some time to mess around at your own pace. 

I went hands-on with an early build of Deliver At All Costs at a recent Konami event and, while there were some obvious rough edges, had quite an enjoyable time. The delivery missions were a great challenge and clearly designed with the destructible environments in mind. 

Driving around with a giant flopping fish is just as fun as it sounds, especially when its every movement can send you hurtling into the side of a nearby family home. As the first title from Far Out Games, a Swedish indie developer, it’s definitely a promising start.

Deliver At All Costs is set to launch on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and PC. There’s no official release date yet, but pre-orders for the physical PS5 and Xbox Series X editions are currently available in Europe. 

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Lenco has unveiled three new belt-driven turntables ranging from budget to mid-range options, and as we've come to expect from the hi-fi brand, they offer a lot of features for the money.

The new turntables are the LBTA165, which is fully automatic and has Bluetooth transmission (not too dissimilar to the Victrola Eastwood II, then – although that model also includes speakers and amplification) ; the LBT-215BK, which has both Bluetooth and USB output; and the L455BK, which also has USB output for digitising your delicate records so you'll never lose the music etched upon them.

Introducing Lenco's trio of new turntables

(Image credit: Lenco)

The most affordable new turntable here is the LBTA-175, which has an RRP of £199 / €219 (so around $260 or AU$389, but the decks have just been unveiled at the annual tech event known as IFA in Berlin, so prices for these regions weren't immediately forthcoming). The LBTA-175 is fully automatic and comes with an Audio-Technica AT3600L moving magnet cartridge and a switchable pre-amp. It's available in a choice of two finishes, wood or black wood, and it'll be available from October.

(Image credit: Lenco)

Also shipping in October, the LBT-215BK also has Bluetooth and a switchable pre-amp; the cartridge this time is an Audio-Technica AT-VM95E moving magnet cartridge on a metal tonearm with fully adjustable counterweight and anti-skating. The platter is metal too. You can have this one in any color you like as long as it's black gloss, and the RRP is £299 / €329 (so roughly $390 or AU$585).

(Image credit: Lenco)

Last but not least there's the most premium model of the three, the L-455BK. Once again it's belt-driven (with a belt external to the platter) with a metal platter, tonearm and adjustable counterweight, but this time the cartridge is the highly rated Ortofon 2M RED moving magnet cartridge. The L-455BK also has automatic rotation speed checking and correction for pitch-perfect playback, and there's a switchable phono stage so you can use it with an amp or with powered speakers, making it a potential rival for the Victrola Hi-Res Onyx at the level. 

The L-455BK will also be available from October, with an RRP of £449 / €499 (which is around $589 or AU$879). The finish is black with a brushed aluminium frame.

Will any of the trio make it to our best turntables buying guide? Watch this space, because we wouldn't be surprised… 

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