Reviews

Blackmagic Pyxis 6K: two-minute review

The Blackmagic Pyxis is the company's first venture into box-style cameras, and at its core lies a proven full-frame sensor, delivering up to 6K resolution and 13 stops of dynamic range. The key benefit of this high resolution is that you can use the full width and height of the 3:2 surface area of the sensor, allowing for much greater flexibility when you need to produce content for multiple platforms.

The camera’s UI is generally a triumph, with large touch controls, clear navigation, and sensible menu structures. However, when you turn the camera to film vertically, the UI stays fixed; on the older Pocket 6K, the UI rotates to suit the new orientation, so it’s clear that Blackmagic had thought about this problem and had come up with a simple solution, and it’s odd that they’ve yet to implement it on the Pyxis, which lends itself even more to shooting in different orientations. That said, even during my brief time with the camera the company released significant updates to both the camera and the Blackmagic Camera App that delivered functionality and performance improvements, so I’m confident that it will address smaller issues like this in time.

(Image credit: Jon Devo)

In terms of hardware, the camera's standout feature is its machined aluminum construction, which offers professional-grade modularity and heat dissipation. However, the positioning of its cooling mechanism draws air from the base of the camera and forces it out through the top, and while it’s great for warming your hands on a chilly day, it does leave the camera feeling particularly exposed to inclement weather.

It features a multitude of mounting points on its bottom, top and side, where you’ll find its modular accessory plate, which can be used to install a rosette plate for a grip or an SSD holder for example. While the $2,995 / £2,645 / AU$4,899 (approx) starting price is competitive, buyers should factor in additional costs for essential accessories like an EVF, monitor, handle, and other rigging solutions, although many people buying this camera are likely to already have some compatible accessories.

(Image credit: Jon Devo)

The camera excels in its versatility with its comprehensive I/O (input / output) options, including BP-U battery compatibility, a nice common standard, as well as a 12G-SDI port and USB-C connectivity. The USB-C port on the front of the camera can transmit a video signal out to an HDMI source (without visual assist tools like false color), and the one on the rear can be used to tether the camera to a mobile device for remote wireless control, monitoring and synced recording across multiple connected Blackmagic cameras. Other professional features like timecode sync, Ethernet connectivity, SSD recording, and cloud workflow integration are also included.

The Pyxis delivers impressive image quality with Blackmagic's highly regarded color science, though it lacks some features that mirrorless shooters will be used to, like advanced autofocus and optical image stabilization. Some form of internal ND filter system would have been a big bonus, but nothing in this price range or class offers that, so expecting it would be unreasonable. While its few limitations are worth consideration, if you’re in the market for a true workhorse camera that can be adapted to a wide range of shooting scenarios the Blackmagic Pyxis makes a strong case for itself, especially when you consider that the purchase of a Blackmagic camera includes a full license for the DaVinci Resolve Studio editing suite, worth $295 / £235 / AU$440.

Blackmagic Pyxis 6K: price and release date

• Body-only price: $2,995 / £2,645 / AU$4,899 (approx)
• Available now in three lens mount versions; EF-mount, L-mount of PL-mount (the latter costs $100 / £100 / AU$180 extra
• You'll want additional accessories

The Blackmagic Pyxis 6K was announced at NAB Show Las Vegas in April 2024 and is available to order now. It can be picked up for a list price of $2,995 / £2,645 / AU$4,899 body-only in EF or L-mount, while the PL mount version costs $100 / £100 / AU$180 (approx) extra.

That price represents five star value given how the camera handles and what it is capable of for filmmaking. However, you will also need to factor in multiple accessories to improve the shooting experience, including an optional monitor, viewfinder, top handle and more.

• Price score: 4.5/5

(Image credit: Jon Devo) Blackmagic Pyxis 6K: specs Blackmagic Pyxis 6K: design and handling

• Excellent build quality with machined aluminum construction
• Modular design, requires accessories to maximize its potential
• UI doesn’t rotate as on the Pocket 6K

The Blackmagic Pyxis 6K is a relatively compact camera given what it's capable of, but it still weighs in at a hefty 3.3lbs / 1,500g, which is roughly the weight of two Lumix S5 IIX mirrorless cameras. Measuring 119 x 106 x 151mm (H x W x D), and with a fixed LCD display on its left side, the Pyxis feels like it needs an additional accessory for monitoring. If you want to stay on brand, your options include the Blackmagic URSA Cine EVF, the specially designed Blackmagic Pyxis Monitor, or a Blackmagic Video Assist. I had the chance to pair the camera with the Pyxis monitor, and it was ideal for run-and-gun-style shooting without being overly conspicuous, and its built-in pop-up hood is a nice touch. It’s a solid addition to the camera's accessory lineup, and provides full camera control via its touchscreen and the three customizable function buttons on its rear.

I also got to use the URSA Cine EVF, and it would be a great option for filming Electronic News Gathering (ENG) / documentary-style work, as it immerses you in the frame by blocking out off-camera distractions. The setup is highly flexible, with the EVF being easy to position. It comes with an extension arm, as well as USB-C to USB-C cables of various lengths, so that you can place the EVF in the most comfortable orientation possible for your style of shooting. A nice detail sees the EVF’s USB-C cables come with screw fixtures so that they can’t be easily pulled out, and I also like that the EVF has a tally light built into it.

Image 1 of 4

(Image credit: Jon Devo)Image 2 of 4

(Image credit: Jon Devo)Image 3 of 4

(Image credit: Jon Devo)Image 4 of 4

(Image credit: Jon Devo)

Returning to the side of the camera, the Pyxis has physical controls for all key functions, and offers three customizable function buttons so that you can save your most commonly used tools – I set mine to focus assist, false color and LUT view. If you use the EVF, it also has physical buttons, three of which can be independently customized from the ones you’ve assigned on the body. I found that the buttons and control dial click and scroll responsively, and while I would have preferred an additional record button on the front or right side of the camera, the placement of the physical controls is generally logical, and will be swiftly committed to muscle memory with regular use.

People who are new to cinema-style box cameras may be in for a slight shock when they realize just how much additional kit they need to buy in order to make their camera functional – while its starting price seems competitive, the camera doesn’t even come with a battery in the box. So you will want to factor in additional costs, as they can stack up quite quickly. As well as power, the optional £165 / $199 (around AU$325) top handle feels like a necessity too, not least because it's critical for working with the EVF or Pyxis monitor. I’d most likely purchase the Pyxis monitor first, but the EVF is a nicely designed piece of kit; for me, as somebody who often shoots handheld outside, it definitely elevates the functionality of the camera.

Image 1 of 6

(Image credit: Jon Devo)Image 2 of 6

(Image credit: Jon Devo)Image 3 of 6

(Image credit: Jon Devo)Image 4 of 6

(Image credit: Jon Devo)Image 5 of 6

(Image credit: Jon Devo)Image 6 of 6

(Image credit: Jon Devo)

The camera's layout is professional and purposeful, although the built-in screen’s position on the left side of the camera body forces you to touch it while holding it, quite a lot, which will undoubtedly jar some people. Helpfully, in the latest update (9.2) you’re able to lock the screen while still having full access to the camera’s physical controls, which is a welcome improvement in functionality. For audio, the camera offers a 3.5mm stereo input on the front, as well as a mini XLR input, which will give you phantom power. You can run the camera directly from mains power via its +12V 2-pin Lemo connector, which is handy for me, as someone who predominantly shoots in studios and controlled indoor environments. Its dual CF Express Type B card slots are protected by a rubber cover, and the locking USB-C ports add security for monitor connections. The overall build quality is excellent, especially given the camera’s competitive pricing, although the rubber media door could be more robust, and the lack of weather sealing is notable, albeit typical for this style of camera body.

• Design score: 4/5

Blackmagic Pyxis 6K: features and performance

• Internal 12-bit Raw video, but no ProRes
• Filmic quality to footage
• Versatile rigging options
• Professional I/O
• No in-body image stabilization
• No continuous AF

The Blackmagic Pyxis 6K offers impressive connectivity options, including 12G-SDI output, USB-C, and Ethernet. The dual native ISO provides flexibility in various lighting conditions, while the dual card slots offer redundancy and extended recording times. Its best-in-class menu system is intuitive for newbies and familiar to Blackmagic users, offering logical functionality and decent customization options.

Professional features include built-in timecode, streaming capabilities, and cloud workflow integration. It also comes with a range of exposure tools that will ensure you’re gathering as much usable Raw imaging data as possible while recording. Typically, I would rely on false color, which I assigned to one of the camera’s three customizable function buttons. But it was great to see the addition of the RGB traffic light indicator system, which has possibly been borrowed from RED’s Komodo cameras. When any one of the camera’s pixel channels are beginning to clip, that light will stay illuminated, indicating that you need to lower your exposure. It’s a great at-a-glance exposure tool that’s been seamlessly integrated into the general display UI. Although it doesn’t work for underexposure, there are plenty of other tools, like false color, histogram, and zebra patterns available to help here.

(Image credit: Jon Devo)

During my review window Blackmagic released a couple of relatively major updates, one for the Blackmagic Camera App (iOS v2.2) and the other for the Pyxis 6K. The improvements introduced with Firmware 9.2 included some handy connectivity features. If its running the latest firmware, the Pyxis can now use a compatible iPhone as a monitor when acting as a personal wireless hotspot and tethered via the rear USB-C port (the Pyxis itself has no Wi-Fi transmission module), and when functioning like this, you can use your iPhone to control multiple cameras and even initiate synchronized recording, which is a great solution for people who often rely on multi-camera setups. The new firmware also provided a significant boost to the camera’s power efficiency, adding roughly 30-40% more operating time in my experience. Of course, your mileage may vary, but before the update I was already able to get about 35 minutes out of a BP-U-30 (28Wh) battery, and after the update I was getting another 20-30 minutes or so extra. Battery life monitoring was also improved by the update, so the camera will now go all the way down to 1% before eventually shutting off.

Some may be disappointed to learn that the Pyxis 6K has no stabilization whatsoever, but it does record gyro data to offer reasonable stabilization in post. There’s also noticeable wobble caused by rolling shutter when you’re moving with the camera, particularly when shooting in 6K open gate mode; it’s not horrendous, but it would encourage me to shoot more static-style shots when using this camera in particular. The visible effects of rolling shutter diminish as you reduce the sensor area used for recording, and are barely noticeable when shooting at 4K/60p in 17:9 aspect ratio, so I’d say it’s worth being conscious of what your output may be. Shooting for your end output instead of belligerently spamming open gate may be the wiser choice – you can save open gate for shots with less camera movement that need the flexibility of the sensor’s full readout. It’s worth mentioning that Davinci Resolve is also able to use the camera’s gyro data to mitigate some of the warping that you may see when moving the camera around while recording.

(Image credit: Jon Devo)

Wrapping up my niggles, the autofocus system is basic and offers no continuous AF, but it does have some handy focusing tools, which can be adjusted to suit your preferences. You can also use the dedicated push-to-focus button at the top-left side of the camera, and there’s an Iris button above that, which can help you nail exposure in a pinch. The camera also works well with external focus solutions like the DJI Focus Pro, which would be a typical approach for working with a camera like this.

A final, positive operating observation is just how quickly the camera powers up. Within five seconds of switching it on, the camera is up and ready to record. If you’re not familiar with cinema cameras, this may seem like a long amount of time, but in this realm, the Pyxis is relatively speedy, and it’s refreshing.

• Features and performance score: 4/5

Blackmagic Pyxis 6K: image and video quality

• Excellent image quality in most conditions
• Better noise-handling than the Z50 at the same ISO
• 4K/60p video with a 1.5x crop

The Pyxis captures images that are typically attractive for Blackmagic cameras, if it’s a look you’re familiar with. By this, I mean that the footage looks detailed, without looking sharp, and highlights roll off softly, delivering a cinematic look that needs very little work to get it ready to publish. The quoted 13 stops of dynamic range provides good flexibility in post-production, especially if you expose for the highlights and utilize DaVinci Resolve’s highlight recovery in post, when needed. Color reproduction is excellent thanks to Generation 5 color science, and the OLPF effectively controls moiré, which is great for shooting buildings, or clothing like silk and denim.

Low-light performance is good within the camera’s limitations, though not class-leading. However, Resolve is armed with comprehensive tools for reducing the impact of sensor noise. If you have the time and the aptitude, Blackmagic RAW files are really easy to work with, and can be honed to deliver an attractive look in most situations. While it’s not a no-light camera, the Pyxis would be perfectly capable of delivering attractive video in bar/club lighting scenarios or other low-ambient-lighting scenarios. The ability to shoot up to 6K resolution with a full-frame sensor with frames for various aspect ratios provides excellent flexibility for different delivery formats.

• Image and video quality score: 4.5/5

Blackmagic Pyxis 6K: testing scorecard

(Image credit: Jon Devo) Should I buy the Blackmagic Pyxis 6K? Buy it if...

You’re a solo filmmaker or a small production unit that needs a professional solution
The Blackmagic Pyxis 6K is clearly built with pro work in mind, and is incredibly versatile.

You value image quality and want RAW video
Blackmagic RAW is one of the easiest pro video formats to work with, and even at its lowest bitrate settings the Pyxis delivers sumptuous video when exposed well.

You have a higher-end cinema camera and need a B-cam
The combination of the Pyxis 6K’s sensor and Blackmagic’s color science provide an excellent starting point for delivering cinematic video. However, the camera produces an image that is robust and flexible. If you or your colorist has a basic understanding of grading, matching your clips with footage from another high-end camera should be straightforward enough.

Don't buy it if...

You need a compact all-in-one solution
The Pyxis is designed to be rigged up and utilized in a wide variety of ways. For this reason, it’s relatively stripped back, but provides users with plenty of options for customizing its form and functionality to suit their needs.

You don’t need RAW video
If color grading your footage is not something your work (or pleasure) typically requires, there’s no need to pick up a camera that offers no compressed recording formats. You’ll be adding an unnecessary step to your workflow, which will cost you time and may cost you enthusiasm.

You need high-frame-rate, high-resolution video
The Pyxis 6K can shoot 6K at up to 50/60fps in the 17:9 and 2:4:1 aspect ratio respectively. It also shoots 2K at up to 100fps. However, if high-frame-rate video is a must for you, there are other cameras to consider that are more specialized for this type of filmmaking

Blackmagic Pyxis 6K: also consider Canon EOS C70

Canon's smallest cinema camera, the EOS C70 can be had for a similar price seccondhand to the Pyxis 6K. It's a Super 35 format camera (a smaller crop-sensor) with 4K video up to 120fps in 10-bit 4:2:2 plus 12-bit RAW recording. It boasts up to 16 stops dynamic range and utilizes Canon's RF-mount and features autofocus, while it features most of the I/O options demanded by serious filmmakers. Both the Pyxis 6K and EOS C70 put forward unique strengths.

Z CAM E2-F6 Mark II

Another cinema camera with modular box design iz Z CAM'S E2-F6 Mark II. Like the Pyxis 6K, it features a full-frame sensor and is able to record 6K video, but up to 60fps, plus it supports ProRes RAW and 10-bit color, with 15 stops dynamic range. There's SDI and full-size HDMI ports, plus a BNC timecode port and genlock. There's also the E2-S6 Mark II version which is largely the same, only it has a smaller Super 35 sensor. At $3,499, Z CAM's box camera is pricier than the Pyxis 6K

How I tested the Blackmagic Pyxis 6K

(Image credit: Jon Devo)

• I had a briefing and sneak peak of the camera before its unveiling at NAB in 2024
• I paired the camera with a variety of L-Mount lenses, and a IRIX T1.5 via a Viltrox PL-L adapter
• I connected the camera to the Blackmagic Camera app

I was sent the Blackmagic Pyxis for review to test for a couple of weeks, due to a firmware update being released during my review window. The kit that came with the camera included the Blackmagic URSA Cine Handle, the Blackmagic URSA Cine viewfinder, a 1TB Angel Bird memory card and reader, as well as a Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 lens.

The first thing I did after receiving the camera was to conduct my endurance tests, which include battery run-downs and heat management. I set the camera up on a tripod in an ambient temperature environment of 70F / 21C, and left it filming continuously while connected to mains power and on battery power alone.

I then took the camera out with me on some street walks, and to a couple of family and evening events. I performed sound-quality tests in a small studio environment.

First reviewed January 2025

The original incarnation of Quicken personal finance software has been around for many years, but it was joined a while ago by this, Quick Simplifi. With so many people using apps to get their personal finances in order on the go, Quicken Simplifi is a great option. This is an affordable package, which works really well on mobile devices meaning that it’s also super convenient to use.

There are personal finance app rivals, of course, especially from the likes of Rocket Money and YNAB, both of which offer a similar array of features and functions while staying reasonably affordable into the bargain. However, Quicken Simplifi is still one of the cheapest ways to get those personal finances into better shape and keep them that way.

The great thing about Quicken Simplifi, aside from its competitive price point, is the way that it lets users control all aspects of the personal finance landscape and can help manage money much more effectively. And, just like the best budgeting apps, there are tools and user options that will allow you to keep on top of personal finances and help plan for the future too. It’s one of the handiest personal finance apps you can have on a mobile device.

• Want to try Quicken Simplifi? Check out the website here

Quicken Simplifi is one of the most affordable of all the personal finance apps (Image credit: Quicken Simplifi) Quicken Simplifi: Pricing

One very appealing aspect of Quicken Simplifi is its price point. Quicken is often available by way of an offer and currently the same applies to Quicken Simplifi thanks to a 50 percent off deal, which takes the monthly cost from $5.99 down to a hugely affordable $2.99 a month, billed annually. This was correct at the time of writing, but could obviously always be subject to change. There’s a 30-day money-back guarantee too, which is handy if you’re not sure quite how well Quicken Simplifi will suit your needs.

Quicken Simplifi: Features

If you’ve ever experienced the original incarnation of Quicken you’ll know that it comes packed with features. Quicken Simplifi takes the usability feel of its bigger brother and presents a wealth of features in a much more mobile-friendly environment, which makes it ideal if you like to organise personal finances on the move. There is a desktop edition but Quicken Simplifi works really well when you’re dipping into those features and functions on your phone.

Although there are fewer power tools than the standard issue Quicken, this is a great app especially for anyone with more of a casual interest in staying financially organises. Getting your money into an organized state is central, but there’s also the option to get alerts, create reports and plan for the future too using Spending Watchlists. The great thing about all this is the way that the graphic-drive interface presents the figures.

The Quicken Simplifi interface is slick but features a powerful feature set (Image credit: Quicken Simplifi)

Quicken Simplifi also boasts tools for projected cash flows and investments. There’s a credit score tracker and detailed reporting whenever it’s needed. Better still, the management of all this data can be done very easily, with all manner of options for sorting and organising accounts, payees, bills and transactions. Again, the impressive graphics help drive the experience and make it much less stressful than some more sober personal finance packages.

Quicken Simplifi is great for getting a handle on how your finances are doing (Image credit: Quicken Simplifi) Quicken Simplifi: Performance

Quicken Simplifi speeds along very efficiently in mobile guise, although the iOS  edition does feel slightly more nimble for some reason. Considering the software can be hooked up to over 14,000 financial institutions, it always performs admirably and a lot of that seems to be down to the carefully honed interface. Using Quicken Simplifi in the desktop environment is just as rewarding, plus there’s the added benefit of more screen real estate to get the most from its many features and functions.

Quicken Simplifi has a powerful set of tools that work great in the app (Image credit: Quicken Simplifi) Quicken Simplifi: Ease of use

Much like the rest of Quicken Simplifi, the setup process is wonderfully straightforward. The app can be downloaded for both iOS and Android, with the Apple-focused edition feeling just that little slicker, and that has to be followed by an account setup procedure. Once that’s in place, the app can be connected to your financial accounts, which allows the software to paint a full picture of your financial situation within the software. The more accounts connected, the clearer the overview.

Quicken Simplifi has a very user-friendly interface (Image credit: Quicken Simplifi) Quicken Simplifi: Support

Quicken has been around a long time, so it comes as no surprise to find that the levels of help and support found within Quicken Simplifi are as good as ever. The software is very intuitive and simple to get your head around anyway, but should a question or issue arise there’s a chatbot to get started. If that doesn’t solve a quandary, live help can take its place. However, there are also lots of resources and articles within the setup that tackle pretty much everything contained in Quicken Simplifi.

Quicken Simplifi benefits from comprehensive support if it is needed (Image credit: Quicken Simplifi) Quicken Simplifi: Final verdict

If you’re really not keen on paying anything to keep your personal finances organised then Rocket Money’s free edition might do the trick. However, Quick Simplifi is hard to resist for the small monthly outlay (even less if you can bag one of the frequent Quicken deals) and for that you get a whole bunch of great power tools. Quicken Simplifi is super easy to use too, with a mobile interface that is second to none while the desktop edition isn’t bad either.

• We've also highlighted the best budgeting software  

Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090: Two-minute review

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 is a difficult GPU to approach as a professional reviewer because it is the rare consumer product that is so powerful, and so good at what it does, you have to really examine if it is actually a useful product for people to buy.

Right out the gate, let me just lay it out for you: depending on the workload, this GPU can get you up to 50% better performance versus the GeForce RTX 4090, and that's not even factoring in multi-frame generation when it comes to gaming, though on average the performance is still a respectable improvement of roughly 21% overall.

Simply put, whatever it is you're looking to use it for, whether gaming, creative work, or AI research and development, this is the best graphics card for the job if all you care about is pure performance.

Things get a bit more complicated if you want to bring energy efficiency into the equation. But if we're being honest, if you're considering buying the Nvidia RTX 5090, you don't care about energy efficiency. This simply isn't that kind of card, and so as much as I want to make energy efficiency an issue in this review, I really can't. It's not intended to be efficient, and those who want this card do not care about how much energy this thing is pulling down—in fact, for many, the enormous TDP on this card is part of its appeal.

Likewise, I can't really argue too much with the card's price, which comes in at $1,999 / £1,939 / AU$4,039 for the Founders Edition, and which will likely be much higher for AIB partner cards (and that's before the inevitable scalping begins). I could rage, rage against the inflation of the price of premium GPUs all I want, but honestly, Nvidia wouldn't charge this much for this card if there wasn't a line out the door and around the block full of enthusiasts who are more than willing to pay that kind of money for this thing on day one.

Do they get their money's worth? For the most part, yes, especially if they're not a gamer but a creative professional or AI researcher. If you're in the latter camp, you're going to be very excited about this card.

If you're a gamer, you'll still get impressive gen-on-gen performance improvements over the celebrated RTX 4090, and the Nvidia RTX 5090 is really the first consumer graphics card I've tested that can get you consistent, high-framerate 8K gameplay even before factoring in Multi-Frame Generation. That marks the RTX 5090 as something of an inflection point of things to come, much like the Nvidia RTX 2080 did back in 2018 with its first-of-its-kind hardware ray tracing.

Is it worth it though?

That, ultimately, is up to the enthusiast buyer who is looking to invest in this card. At this point, you probably already know whether or not you want it, and many will likely be reading this review to validate those decisions that have already been made.

In that, rest easy. Even without the bells and whistles of DLSS 4, this card is a hearty upgrade to the RTX 4090, and considering that the actual price of the RTX 4090 has hovered around $2,000 for the better part of two years despite its $1,599 MSRP, if the RTX 5090 sticks close to its launch price, it's well worth the investment. If it gets scalped to hell and sells for much more above that, you'll need to consider your purchase much more carefully to make sure you're getting the most for your money. Make sure to check out our where to buy an RTX 5090 guide to help you find stock when it goes on sale.

Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090: Price & availability

• How much is it? MSRP is $1,999 / £1,939 / AU$4,039
• When can you get it? The RTX 5090 goes on sale January 30, 2025
• Where is it available? The RTX 5090 will be available in the US, UK, and Australia at launch

Where to buy the RTX 5090

Looking to pick up the RTX 5090? Check out our Where to buy RTX 5090 live blog for updates to find stock in the US and UK

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 goes on sale on January 30, 2025, starting at $1,999 / £1,939 / AU$4,039 for the Nvidia Founders Edition and select AIB partner cards. Overclocked (OC) and other similarly tweaked cards and designs will obviously run higher.

It's worth noting that the RTX 5090 is 25% more expensive than the $1,599 launch price of the RTX 4090, but in reality, we can expect the RTX 5090 to sell for much higher than its MSRP in the months ahead, so we're really looking at an asking price closer to the $2,499.99 MSRP of the Turing-era Nvidia Titan RTX (if you're lucky).

Of course, if you're in the market for the Nvidia RTX 5090, you're probably not squabbling too much about the price of the card. You're already expecting to pay the premium, especially the first adopter premium, that comes with this release.

That said, this is still a ridiculously expensive graphics card for anyone other than an AI startup with VC backing, so it's worth asking yourself before you confirm that purchase if this card is truly the right card for your system and setup.

• Value: 3 / 5

Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090: Specs & features

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

• First GPU with GDDR7 VRAM and PCIe 5.0
• Slightly slower clocks
• Obscene 575W TDP

There are a lot of new architectural changes in the Nvidia RTX 50 series GPUs that are worth diving into, especially the move to a transformer AI model for its upscaling, but let's start with the new specs for the RTX 5090.

First and foremost, the flagship Blackwell GPU is the first consumer graphics card to feature next-gen GDDR7 video memory, and it is substantially faster than GDDR6 and GDDR6X (a roughly 33% increase in Gbps over the RTX 4090). Add in the much wider 512-bit memory interface and you have a total memory bandwidth of 1,790GB/s.

This, more than even the increases VRAM pool of 32GB vs 24GB for the RTX 4090, makes this GPU the first really capable 8K graphics card on the market. 8K textures have an enormous footprint in memory, so moving them through the rendering pipelines to generate playable framerates isn't really possible with anything less than this card has.

Yes, you can, maybe, get playable 8K gaming with some RTX 40 or AMD Radeon RX 7000 series cards if you use aggressive upscaling, but you won't really be getting 8K visuals that'll be worth the effort. In reality, the RTX 5090 is what you want if you want to play 8K, but good luck finding an 8K monitor at this point. Those are still years away from really going mainstream (though there are a growing number of 8K TVs).

If you're settling in at 4K though, you're in for a treat, since all that bandwidth means faster 4K texture processing, so you can get very fast native 4K gaming with this card without having to fall back on upscaling tech to get you to 60fps or higher.

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

The clock speeds on the RTX 5090 are slightly slower, which is good, because the other major top-line specs for the RTX 5090 are its gargantuan TDP of 575W and its PCIe 5.0 x16 interface. For the TDP, this thermal challenge, according to Nvidia, required major reengineering of the PCB inside the card, which I'll get to in a bit.

The PCIe 5.0 x16 interface, meanwhile, is the first of its kind in a consumer GPU, though you can expect AMD and Intel to quickly follow suit. Why this matters is because a number of newer motherboards have PCIe 5.0 lanes ready to go, but most people have been using those for PCIe 5.0 m.2 SSDs.

If your motherboard has 20 PCIe 5.0 lanes, the RTX 5090 will take up 16 of those, leaving just four for your SSD. If you have one PCIe 5.0 x4 SSD, you should be fine, but I've seen motherboard configurations that have two or three PCIe 5.0 x4 m.2 slots, so if you've got one of those and you've loaded them up with PCIe 5.0 SSDs, you're likely to see those SSDs drop down to the slower PCIe 4.0 speeds. I don't think it'll be that big of a deal, but it's worth considering if you've invested a lot into your SSD storage.

As for the other specs, they're more or less similar to what you'd find in the RTX 4090, just more of it. The new Blackwell GB202 GPU in the RTX 5090 is built on a TSMC 4nm process, compared to the RTX 4090's TSMC 5nm AD102 GPU. The SM design is the same, so 128 CUDA cores, one ray tracing core, and four tensor cores per SM. At 170 SMs, you've got 21,760 CUDA cores, 170 RT cores, and 680 Tensor cores for the RTX 5090, compared to the RTX 4090's 128 SMs (so 16,384 CUDA, 128 RT, and 512 Tensor cores).

• Specs & features: 4.5 / 5

Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090: Design

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

• Slim, dual-slot form factor
• Better cooling

So there's a significant change to this generation of Nvidia Founders Edition RTX flagship cards in terms of design, and it's not insubstantial.

Holding the RTX 5090 Founders Edition in your hand, you'll immediately notice two things: first, you can comfortably hold it in one hand thanks to it being a dual-slot card rather than a triple-slot, and second, it's significantly lighter than the RTX 4090.

A big part of this is how Nvidia designed the PCB inside the card. Traditionally, graphics cards have been built with a single PCB that extends from the inner edge of the PC case, down through the PCIe slot, and far enough back to accommodate all of the modules needed for the card. On top of this PCB, you'll have a heatsink with piping from the GPU die itself through a couple of dozen aluminum fins to dissipate heat, with some kind of fan or blower system to push or pull cooler air through the heated fins to carry away the heat from the GPU.

The problem with this setup is that if you have a monolithic PCB, you can only really extend the heatsinks and fans off of the PCB to help cool it since a fan blowing air directly into a plastic wall doesn't do much to help move hot air out of the graphics card.

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

Nvidia has a genuinely novel innovation on this account, and that's ditching the monolithic PCB that's been a mainstay of graphics cards for 30 years. Instead, the RTX 5090 (and presumably subsequent RTX 50-series GPUs to come), splits the PCB into three parts: the video output interface at the 'front' of the card facing out from the case, the PCIe interface segment of the card, and the main body of the PCB that houses the GPU itself as well as the VRAM modules and other necessary electronics.

This segmented design allows a gap in the front of the card below the fan, so rather than a fan blowing air into an obstruction, it can fully pass over the fins of the GPU's heatsink, substantially improving the thermals.

As a result, Nvidia is able to shrink the width of the card down considerably, moving from a 2.4-inch width to a 1.9-inch width, or a roughly 20% reduction on paper. That said, it feels substantially smaller than its predecessor, and it's definitely a card that won't completely overwhelm your PC case the way the RTX 4090 does.

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

That said, the obscene power consumption required by this card means that the 8-pin adapter included in the RTX 5090 package is a comical 4-to-1 dongle that pretty much no PSU in anyone's PC case can really accommodate.

Most modular PSUs give you three PCIe 8-pin power connectors at most, so let's just be honest about this setup. You're going to need to get a new ATX 3.0 PSU with at least 1000W to run this card at a minimum (it's officially recommended PSU is 950W, but just round up, you're going to need it), so make sure you factor that into your budget if you pick this card up

Otherwise, the look and feel of the card isn't that different than previous generations, except the front plate of the GPU where the RTX 5090 branding would have gone is now missing, replaced by a finned shroud to allow air to pass through. The RTX 5090 stamp is instead printed on the center panel, similar to how it was done on the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition.

As a final touch, the white back-lit GeForce RTX logo and the X strips on the front of the card, when powered, add a nice RGB-lite touch that doesn't look too guady, but for RGB fans out there, you might think it looks rather plain.

• Design: 4.5 / 5

Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090: Performance

(Image credit: Future)

• Most powerful GPU on the consumer market
• Substantially faster than RTX 4090
• Playable 8K gaming

A note on my data

The charts shown below are the most recent test data I have for the cards tested for this review and may change over time as more card results are added and cards are retested. The 'average of all cards tested' includes cards not shown in these charts for readability purposes.

So how does the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 stack up against its predecessor, as well as the best 4K graphics cards on the market more broadly?

Very damn well, it turns out, managing to improve performance over the RTX 4090 in some workloads by 50% or more, while leaving everything else pretty much in the dust.

Though when looked at from 30,000 feet, the overall performance gains are respectable gen-on-gen but aren't the kind of earth-shattering gains the RTX 4090 made over the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090.

Starting with synthetic workloads, the RTX 5090 scores anywhere from 48.6% faster to about 6.7% slower than the RTX 4090 in various 3DMark tests, depending on the workload. The only poor performance for the RTX 5090 was in 3DMark Night Raid, a test where both cards so completely overwhelm the test that the difference here could be down to CPU bottlenecking or other issues that aren't easily identifiable. On every other 3DMark test, though, the RTX 5090 scores 5.6% better or higher, more often than not by 20-35%. In the most recent;y released test, Steel Nomad, the RTX 5090 is nearly 50% faster than the RTX 4090.

On the compute side of things, the RTX 5090 is up to 34.3% faster in Geekbench 6 OpenGL compute test and 53.9% faster in Vulcan, making it an absolute monster for AI researchers to leverage.

On the creative side, the RTX 5090 is substantially faster in 3D rendering, scoring between 35% and 49.3% faster in my Blender Benchmark 4.30 tests. There's very little difference between the two cards when it comes to video editing though, as they essentially tie in PugetBench for Creators' Adobe Premiere test and in Handbrake 1.7 4K to 1080p encoding.

The latter two results might be down to CPU bottlenecking, as even the RTX 4090 pushes right up against the performance ceiling set by the CPU in a lot of cases.

When it comes to gaming, the RTX 5090 is substantially faster than the RTX 4090, especially at 4K. In non-upscaled 1440p gaming, you're looking at a roughly 18% better average frame rate and a 22.6% better minimum/1% framerate for the RTX 5090. With DLSS 3 upscaling (but no frame generation), you're looking at 23.3% better average and 23% better minimum/1% framerates overall with the RTX 5090 vs the RTX 4090.

With ray tracing turn on without upscaling, you're getting 26.3% better average framerates and about 23% better minimum/1% framerates, and with upscaling turned on to balanced (again, no frame generation), you're looking at about 14% better average fps and about 13% better minimum/1% fps for the RTX 5090 against the RTX 4090.

At 4K, however, the faster memory and wider memory bus really make a difference. Without upscaling and ray tracing turned off, you're getting upwards of 200 fps at 4K for the RTX 5090 on average, compared to the RTX 4090's 154 average fps, a nearly 30% increase. The average minimum/1% fps for the RTX 5090 is about 28% faster than the RTX 4090, as well. With DLSS 3 set to balanced, you're looking at a roughly 22% better average framerate overall compared to the RTX 4090, with an 18% better minimum/1% framerate on average as well.

With ray tracing and no upscaling, the difference is even more pronounced with the RTX 5090 getting just over 34% faster average framerates compared to the RTX 4090 (with a more modest 7% faster average minimum/1% fps). Turn on balanced DLSS 3 with full ray tracing and you're looking at about 22% faster average fps overall for the RTX 5090, but an incredible 66.2% jump in average minimum/1% fps compared to the RTX 4090 at 4K.

Again, none of this even factors in single frame generation, which can already substantially increase framerates in some games (though with the introduction of some input latency). Once Multi-Frame Generation rolls out at launch, you can expect to see these framerates for the RTX 5090 run substantially higher. Pair that with Nvidia Reflex 2 to help mitigate the input latency issues frame generation can introduce, and the playable performance of the RTX 5090 will only get better with time, and it's starting from a substantial lead right out of the gate.

In the end, the overall baseline performance of the RTX 5090 comes in about 21% better than the RTX 4090, which is what you're really looking for when it comes to a gen-on-gen improvement.

That said, you have to ask whether the performance improvement you do get is worth the enormous increase in power consumption. That 575W TDP isn't a joke. I maxed out at 556W of power at 100% utilization, and I hit 100% fairly often in my testing and while gaming.

The dual flow-through fan design also does a great job of cooling the GPU, but at the expense of turning the card into a space heater. That 575W of heat needs to go somewhere, and that somewhere is inside your PC case. Make sure you have adequate airflow to vent all that hot air, otherwise everything in your case is going to slowly cook.

As far as performance-per-price, this card does slightly better than the RTX 4090 on value for the money, but that's never been a buying factor for this kind of card anyway. You want this card for its performance, plain and simple, and in that regard, it's the best there is.

• Performance: 5 / 5

Should you buy the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090?

(Image credit: Future) Buy the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 if...

You want the best performance possible
From gaming to 3D modeling to AI compute, the RTX 5090 serves up best-in-class performance.

You want to game at 8K
Of all the graphics cards I've tested, the RTX 5090 is so far the only GPU that can realistically game at 8K without compromising on graphics settings.

You really want to flex
This card comes with a lot of bragging rights if you're into the PC gaming scene.

Don't buy it if...

You care about efficiency
At 575W, this card might as well come with a smokestack and a warning from your utility provider about the additional cost of running it.

You're in any way budget-conscious
This card starts off more expensive than most gaming PCs and will only become more so once scalpers get their hands on them. And that's not even factoring in AIB partner cards with extra features that add to the cost.

You have a small form-factor PC
There's been some talk about the new Nvidia GPUs being SSF-friendly, but even though this card is thinner than the RTX 4090, it's just as long, so it'll be hard to fit it into a lot of smaller cases.

Also consider

Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090
I mean, honestly, this is the only other card you can compare the RTX 5090 to in terms of performance, so if you're looking for an alternative to the RTX 5090, the RTX 4090 is pretty much it.

Read the full Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 review

How I tested the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090

• I spent about a week and a half with the RTX 5090
• I used my complete GPU testing suite to analyze the card's performance
• I tested the card in everyday, gaming, creative, and AI workload usage

Test System Specs

Here are the specs on the system I used for testing:

Motherboard: ASRock Z790i Lightning WiFi
CPU: Intel Core i9-14900K
CPU Cooler: Gigabyte Auros Waterforce II 360 ICE
RAM: Corsair Dominator DDR5-6600 (2 x 16GB)
SSD: Crucial T705
PSU: Thermaltake Toughpower PF3 1050W Platinum
Case: Praxis Wetbench

I spent about a week and a half testing the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090, both running synthetic tests as well as using it in my day-to-day PC for both work and gaming.

I used my updated testing suite, which uses industry standard benchmark tools like 3DMark, Geekbench, Pugetbench for Creators, and various built-in gaming benchmarks. I used the same testbench setup listed to the right for the purposes of testing this card, as well as all of the other cards I tested for comparison purposes.

I've tested and retested dozens of graphics cards for the 20+ graphics card reviews I've written for TechRadar over the last few years, and so I know the ins and outs of these PC components. That's why you can trust my review process to help you make the right buying decision for your next GPU, whether it's the RTX 5090 or any of the other graphics cards I review.

• Originally reviewed January 2024

GoveeLife Smart Air Purifier Lite: two-minute review

The GoveeLife Smart Air Purifier Lite is a space-saving air purifier that's easy to use, thanks to simple onboard touchscreen buttons, app, and voice control. It has a list price of $49.99 / £59.99 on the Govee website and is also available to purchase at Amazon. Both Govee and Amazon offer the occasional discount on the GoveeLife Smart Air Purifier Lite, so it's worth checking in to see if there's a deal to be had.

Replacement filters can easily be purchased from the Govee site and Amazon for a price of $19.99 / £19.99. This is an acceptable price for a 3-in-1 HEPA filter; however, this depends on how long the filter life is, which is currently an unknown as Govee doesn't appear to have provided this information

A great size for placing on your desktop or dresser, the GoveeLife Smart Air Purifier Lite measures just 6.2 x 6.2 x 10.75 inches / 158 x 58 x 273mm and is delightfully lightweight at 2.4lb / 1.1kg.

(Image credit: Future)

The GoveeLife Smart Air Purifier Lite purifies using a 3-in-1 HEPA filter, designed to trap particle matter up to 2.5 microns, as well as VOCs (volatile organic compounds). 3-in-1 filters are fairly commonplace in air purifiers, but since testing purifiers such as the Blueair Blue Pure Mini Max and Shark NeverChange, I'd love to see more brands using washable prefilters over disposables built into the filters.

Unsurprisingly for the low cost, the GoveeLife Smart Air Purifier Lite doesn't have an abundance of features, but it does offer app and voice control via the Govee Home app and compatible smart home devices, something many other similarly priced air purifiers don't offer. There's no air quality data available, and it doesn't possess the capability to react to contaminants, so it'll need to be controlled manually to ensure efficiency.

The onboard touchscreen buttons are easy to use, with it simply being a case of pressing the power button to cycle between the sleep, low, high, and custom modes, and there are also Wi-Fi and filter change indicator lights on the control panel. Custom mode is another feature I've not often seen for this price. It enabled me to set up a routine triggered by selecting this setting; for example, I was able to set the purifier to run at high, low, and sleep modes for set increments at a time, making it perfect to set off in the run-up to bedtime.

(Image credit: Future)

The GoveeLife Smart Air Purifier Lite proved satisfyingly efficient when it came to freshening up the air in my living room, with a noticeable improvement when walking into the room. The only failure in terms of performance came from the aromatherapy function, which only produced a light fragrance even when the fragrance pad was saturated with a very intensely fragranced oil.

When it comes to noise levels, the GoveeLife Smart Air Purifier Lite was satisfyingly quiet. Volume ranged from 30dB on sleep mode, to 38dB on low, and 47dB on high. The whisper quietness of sleep mode meant that I found it easy to sleep with the purifier on, even with it next to my side of the bed.

In summary, you'd certainly be getting your moneys worth with the GoveeLife Smart Air Purifier Lite. The aromatherapy aspect was underwhelming, and there's a lack of detection and air quality data, but the latter is forgivable for the price. However, the smart and custom features really set this air purifier apart from competitors, and I was impressed with this Govee air purifier's performance. I'd highly recommend the GoveeLife Smart Air Purifier Lite, but if you'd like to see some other options, I'd suggest checking out our pick of the best air purifiers.

GoveeLife Smart Air Purifier Lite review: price & availability

• List price: $49.99 / £59.99
• Available now in the US and UK

The GoveeLife Smart Air Purifier Lite is a smart yet simple-to-use small-room air purifier available at a list price of $49.99 / £59.99 on the Govee website, which is offering a discount at the time of writing, lowering the price to $34.99 / £47.99. It’s also available to purchase at Amazon and is occasionally included in their limited-time deals, so there’s often a saving to be made.

Replacement filters are easy to purchase on the Govee website for $19.99 / £19.99. That's pretty standard for a replacement HEPA filter of this size, assuming that it will last around six months like the HEPA filters in other air purifiers, as Govee doesn’t appear to have released guidance on the recommended usage period.

• Value for money score: 4.5 out of 5

GoveeLife Smart Air Purifier Lite review: specs GoveeLife Smart Air Purifier Lite review: design and features

• Simple design
• 360-degree air intake
• Smart features

The GoveeLife Smart Air Purifier Lite is pleasantly lightweight, weighing just 2.4lb / 1.1kg, and with dimensions of 6.2 x 6.2 x 10.75 inches / 158 x 58 x 273mm, it’s small enough to sit on a desk or dresser. While Govee hasn’t reinvented the wheel with the aesthetic of the GoveeLife Smart Air Purifier Lite, the materials look and feel good. The bottom of the air purifier comprises of white plastic slats that enable 360-degree air intake. As with many air purifiers, the 3-in-1 HEPA filter is accessed by unlocking the base by twisting the handle on the bottom of the unit, making it easy to remove and replace the filter when required.

The 3-in-1 HEPA filter is made up of three layers, a pre-filter, for hair and fibers, a personal HEPA filter, which aims to capture from PM 2.5 to 0.1-micron particles, and an active carbon filter intended to trap cooking odors, smoke, and VOCs (volatile organic compounds). While the design of the GoveeLife Smart Air Purifier Lite feels suitably robust, in terms of sustainability I prefer the option of a washable pre-filter. Pre-filters built into these 3-in-1 filters have a shorter life span as they can’t be cleaned to restore efficiency or be reused; the Blueair Blue Pure Mini Max is a great example of this being done right.

(Image credit: Future)

The touchscreen control panel was simple to use. All I needed to do was hit the power icon to switch it on, then press again to cycle through to my chosen setting with a choice of sleep, low, high, and custom. There are two light-up icons on the control panel too, consisting of Wi-Fi and filter change indicator lights. While I appreciated the simplicity, I don’t generally like needing to increase to a higher power before switching the purifier off, but the GoveeLife Smart Air Purifier Lite responded far quicker than other purifiers I’ve tested, so it wasn’t a major problem.

If I didn’t have the patience to cycle through the settings, I could easily change the settings from my phone. The GoveeLife Smart Air Purifier Lite has 2.5GHz WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity so can sync with the well-designed Govee Home app, and works with smart home assistants like Google Assistant, Alexa, and Siri.

One feature I was particularly interested in testing out was the built-in aromatherapy function. There’s a small pop-out tray located above the removable power cable at the back. This houses a pad for dropping essential oils onto that’s intended to circulate the fragrance through the air outlet. Unfortunately, this excitement was short-lived – as you'll discover below.

• Design score: 4.5 out of 5

GoveeLife Smart Air Purifier Lite review: performance

• Operated quietly
• Easy to use
• Aromatherapy feature underperformed

The Govee Home app is user-friendly and visually appealing. It was easy to add the GoveeLife Smart Air Purifier Lite and connect it to my Wi-Fi, and the settings were simple to use, plus was no delay between the app and the purifier whenever I switched between different power modes. Although the interface is fairly simple, there were plenty of useful settings I could alter, which I was pleased to find as some lower-priced air purifiers have limited options. The display brightness can be adjusted, it’s set to “always on” by default, but I could change it to only be on within a certain time frame, so it was simple to set it to switch off around bedtime. I also had the option to set schedules, set a timer, and change the name of the device.

(Image credit: Future)

One feature that the GoveeLife Smart Air Purifier Lite lacks is data on the quality of the surrounding air, which is an important thing to note if you’re someone who wants to keep track of these details. This isn’t unusual for a purifier of this price, so while the Smart Air Purifier Lite doesn’t lose any marks for this, it does mean that you’ll need to be proactive in adjusting the settings to suit your environment.

I found the custom mode, which is the final setting in the cycle when using the onboard touchscreen controls, to be a useful feature, as it allowed me to choose a series of three settings, each with their own timer. For example, I could set the GoveeLife Smart Air Purifier Lite to run at high for half an hour, then reduce to low power mode for two hours, before switching to sleep mode continuously. This was great for an evening air purifying routine and was simple to calibrate within the Govee Home app.

(Image credit: Future)

I loved the prospect of purifying and adding fragrance to my living space in one process; in practice, however, the result was lackluster. Due to the intensity of my chosen fragrance oil, I only applied a couple of drops to the aroma pad at first. For context, I only need a maximum of four drops of this fragrance oil in a water diffuser to get an intense aroma, but I needed about twelve drops to be able to detect any hint of it from the GoveeLife Smart Air Purifier Lite.

While this aligns with the advice in the user manual, it was surprising that a fragrance this potent needed this many drops to get just a slight hint of the fragrance even when sitting right next to the purifier. In the end, I used enough drops to saturate the pad, resulting in a light fragrance. Obviously, this isn’t going to be a substitute for a diffuser or wax melt burner, but I can forgive this as it isn’t the product's main function, although I can’t say I wasn’t disappointed.

Aromatherapy aspect aside, I was pleased with the performance of the GoveeLife Smart Air Purifier Lite. It made a noticeable difference to the air quality of my 13 x 16 ft / 4 x 5 meter living room after running for just two hours on the low-speed setting. I found it easy to sleep with the purifier located next to my side of the bed, something that didn’t come as a surprise as I measured a sound level of just 30dB, which is comparable to a soft whisper. When watching TV, I found the low-speed setting wasn’t noticeable with a reading of 38dB, a sound level similar to light rain, and the high-speed setting was 47dB, which is as loud as moderate rainfall. So overall I didn’t find it disruptive.

• Performance score: 4 out of 5

Should I buy the GoveeLife Smart Air Purifier Lite? Buy it if...

You want an air purifier in multiple rooms
Not only is the GoveeLife Smart Air Purifier Lite small and light enough to easily carry between rooms, it's also cheap enough to buy more than one thanks to its low price.

You want smart features
A real bonus at this price, the GoveeLife Smart Air Purifier Lite has smart capabilities making it easy to control via the Govee Home app or with voice control with smart home assistants.

You want to sleep peacefully
Thanks to the sleep mode's 30dB volume, I found it really easy to get a good night's sleep even when the GoveeLife Smart Air Purifier Lite was placed next to my side of the bed.

Don't buy it if...

You want some aromatherapy
Unfortunately, I was left unimpressed by the aromatherapy feature. Even after saturating the fragrance pad with an intense fragrance oil, I was only able to detect a slight hint of fragrance.

You want automated purifying
We can't have it all for this price, so if monitoring the air quality or having your air purifier keep on top of the air quality in your environment is top of your wishlist, this won't be the one for you.

You want washable pre-filters
I'm seeing more air purifiers popping up on the market with eco-conscious features, and I'd have loved it if the GoveeLife Smart Air Purifier Lite offered this too. This change can increase the life of HEPA filters, and reduce the amount of waste.

GoveeLife Smart Air Purifier Lite review: also consider

Blueair Blue Pure Mini Max
I adored this little Blueair purifier when I tested it. As with the Govee purifier, it doesn't have detection or automated response features, but it performed really well. Plus, it's incorporated a washable pre-filter into its design with the fabric outer sleeve, available in a range of colors. Why not take a look at my full Blueair Blue Pure Mini Max review to learn more.

Levoit Core 300S Smart True HEPA
A pricier alternative, this Levoit air purifier offers insight into the air quality in your home. It's larger than the GoveeLife Smart Air Purifier Lite, but with the larger size comes better features with automated detection. To learn how well it performed when we tested it, check out our Levoit Core 300S True HEPA air purifier review.

How I tested the GoveeLife Smart Air Purifier Lite

• I used the GoveeLife Smart Air Purifier Lite for one week
• I tested the usability, app, and smart features
• I tested how much of an impact it had on the surrounding air quality

I assessed how easy it was to get the GoveeLife Smart Air Purifier Lite set up, how easy it was to operate via the touch screen and app, and how portable it was.

I tested it in different rooms in my home and observed how quiet it was at night time and whether it disturbed my sleep.

I looked at its design and structure, paying close attention to quality, and I reviewed the impact it made on the air quality in my environment, and how well the features worked.

• First reviewed: January 2025
• Read TechRadar's Reviews Guarantee

This review first appeared in issue 357 of PC Pro.

Sometimes, numbers can’t do justice to products. In fact, if you judged this monitor by numbers alone then it wouldn’t even win an award, let alone the Labs Winner gong. No matter how well it might perform in technical tests, there was one number that would always rule them all: the price. It’s more than three times as expensive as the award-winning Iiyama ProLite XUB3293UHSN-B5, despite them sharing the same 4K resolution and 31.5in screen diagonal, and scoring similarly in our tests.

We think the Iiyama is great – and stupendous value – but the Eizo will make you go “wow” in a way that no other monitor on test here can. Much of the credit for this must go to the combination of a 2,000:1 contrast ratio and the color characteristics of an IPS panel. Aside from mini-LED panels, we’ve never been hit so forcefully between the eyes when looking at photos or films. Couple that with gorgeous whites and it’s the best all-round image quality we’ve seen in a monitor this size.

(Image credit: Future)

Naturally, you also benefit from the extras offered by Eizo monitors. Let’s start with the OSD, as this is not only incredibly intuitive and speedy – Eizo provides the best OSDs here by some margin – but also offers the ability to tweak colors to fine margins. Head into the Advanced Settings, for instance, and you can control hue, saturation and gain.

However, you’ll probably find it easier to switch between the presets. Those are sRGB, Paper, Movie and DICOM (for medical environments), plus two user-defined slots. The sRGB preset is particularly impressive, locking the panel down to exactly 94% of the gamut, without any spillover, and with an excellent –albeit not exceptional in this month’s company – average Delta E of 0.61. Switch to Movie and it leaps from 66% coverage of the DCI-P3 gamut to 87% – again, with no leakage and strong accuracy.

While you don’t get the high-end color control provided by Eizo’s ColorEdge monitors, nor its ColorNavigator software, Eizo’s InStyle software is worth the 6.6MB download. Connect over USB-C or USB-B and you can save your color preferences (useful if you connect to different Eizo screens in a hotdesking office) and activate the circadian dimming option – this gradually shifts the color temperature over the course of a day. The separate InStyle server tool offers some basic management for IT teams, too, so long as the monitor is connected via the wired network port. Useful if you want to prevent users pushing up the brightness too high or control how quickly its Power Save mode kicks in.

The solid stand offers plenty of adjustment options (Image credit: Future)

There are plenty of ways for users to control how much energy this monitor draws, too. Activate the EcoView mode in the OSD and it will change the brightness based on the ambient light conditions, and if you want to take manual control then it goes all the way from 1cd/m2up to 400cd/m2(despite its official peak of 350cd/m2).

As with the ColorEdge, you also benefit from a generous five-year warranty with the promise of on-site swapouts if something goes wrong. We also love how easy it is to set up Eizo monitors: they come ready assembled, so it’s simply a matter of lifting them into place.

Here, despite what looks like a pair of fixed feet, the stand delivers a huge amount of flexibility. You can rotate through 45° in either direction, tilt it up 35°, adjust the height by an astonishing 195mm and pivot it 90° into portrait mode (imagine having two of these monitors side by side). We love the sleek bezels, too, giving the monitor a more modern look than previous Eizo screens.

Eizo provides a generous number of ports, with a pair of HDMI inputs and a DisplayPort alongside USB-C. Two USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports sit at the rear, too, with one more to the side next to a USB-C downstream port for connecting peripherals. This delivers up to 15W of power while the main USB-C connector can feed up to 94W.

Eizo provides a generous number of ports, including RJ45 (Image credit: Future)

There are even a pair of 3.5mm jacks, one for a mic and the second for headphones. You may never need this, though, as a pair of impressive 2W speakers round off the FlexScan’s features. While they don’t offer the miracle of a strong bass response, they’re a surprisingly good choice for listening to music. You may even decide you don’t need a separate pair of speakers.

Admittedly, that £50 saving only fills a small part of the nigh-on £1,500 you’ll need to pay for this monitor. Despite the many advantages offered by the FlexScan EV3240X over Iiyama’s far cheaper rival, that’s tough to justify. But trust us when we say that if you find the extra budget for this monitor, you’ll appreciate the purchase years after the pain of paying the bill has gone.

We've also ranked the best photo-editing PCs.

This review first appeared in issue 357 of PC Pro.

The ColorEdge CG2700X stands out from other monitors in this group test for many reasons. First, this is a monitor absolutely and unapologetically designed for creative professionals. Second, and tied to that, its huge top bezel contains a built-in calibrator (more on that in a moment). Third, its price, which is six times that of the BenQ PD2706U – which is also a 4K 27in monitor with its eye on the creative market.

A 10-bit panel sits at this monitor’s foundation. As we mentioned in the buyer’s guide (in PC Pro), this means it can cover 1.07 billion colors without the use of FRC, and it’s one of the indicators of professional-level quality here. Years ago, you would have needed a pro-quality graphics card to supply a 10-bit signal, but the rising quality of consumer graphics cards (and Nvidia’s Studio driver) means this is no longer the case.

However, the ColorEdge still needs to be part of a color-managed system if you want to maximize your investment. Eizo’s ColorNavigator 7 software is here to help, as it not only helps end users set up an individual monitor but also means a company can ensure all the ColorEdge monitors, in all their offices, will display the same colors.

It enables them to control the brightness, too, and Eizo is keen to promote the sustainability of its ranges. A big part of that is power consumption, and while this monitor can push all the way up to 545cd/m2it still looks great at 200cd/m2(and, unusually, you can push it right down to 40cd/m2, while the OSD even tells you how bright it is). Using the supplied monitor hood helps to control the appearance of colors.

The ColorEdge CG2700X is as color-accurate as you’d expect for the price (Image credit: Future)

Eizo promises that this monitor will be up and running, producing accurate colors, after three minutes rather than the 30 minutes creatives are used to waiting, which will help if you need to set it up on shoots.

Then there’s its most unique feature: the built-in calibration tool.

You can set this to swing down automatically after a set number of hours (50 to 500) or at regular times – this could be daily, weekly, monthly or even annually. You can even keep working as it performs the calibration. The other brilliant feature for designers is that you can so easily jump between pre-calibrated color spaces. These include the expected sRGB, Adobe RGB and DCI-P3 gamuts to those favored by video editors: BT.2020 and BT.709. If you’re using a BT.2020 clip, it can even warn you that it can’t be reproduced in BT.709 and can show you how it will look to audiences who have more standard TVs.

Anyone who needs to edit HDR footage will also appreciate its support for hybrid log-gamma (HLG) and the perceptual quantization (PQ) curve, and you’ll even see a warning if areas of an image – think extreme whites – can’t be accurately displayed as they go beyond the peak brightness of the monitor itself.

Eizo’s monitor is the pinnacle of quality (Image credit: Future)

Eizo is also notorious for its attention to detail, and that extends to its support for 100W when powering devices over the USB-C connection. Power equals heat, and that affects colors unless you dissipate it fast. And that’s why there are two metal grilles at the rear of the monitor: not merely to look good, but to allow any excess heat to be removed without recourse to noisy fans.

We also love the OSD. It’s by far the most informative on test, and it’s packed with options that allow you to switch to different gamuts, gamma settings, ICC profiles and color temperatures within seconds. You can also prioritize contrast deviation.

Alternatively, so long as you have a USB connection, you can use ColorNavigator 7. The rear offers a USB-B port next to the RJ45 connector (vital if you want to manage this monitor across a network), plus DisplayPort 1.2 and HDMI 2.0 inputs. Over on the left-hand side you’ll find four USB-A ports, with two in blue supporting the faster USB 3.2 Gen 1 standard, but note the lack of a second USB-C port. The only other missing feature is a pair of speakers.

Two of the four USB-A ports support USB 3.2 Gen 1 (Image credit: Future)

We’ve covered a lot of technical detail, but ultimately what Eizo is offering is trust. Trust in the colours you see, but also that this monitor will keep on delivering the goods for years. That’s reflected in the build quality of the monitor and in the five-year on-site warranty, where Eizo will come and replace the faulty unit.

Clearly, you’re paying for this in the up-front price, and many creative companies will get more value out of six BenQ PD2706U screens instead. Ultimately, though, the CG2700X is the pinnacle of quality and, so long as you support it with the right hardware and color management system, it’s worth the investment.

We also rated the best graphic design software.

This review first appeared in issue 357 of PC Pro.

There’s a lot to like about this 27in, 1440p monitor. Especially for owners of Apple laptops, as BenQ goes out of its way to color-match its output with MacBook screens via the M-book mode. And that’s just the start: the brilliant OSD, arguably the best here, makes it simple to switch profiles between Coding, Movie, Game and sepia-tinted ePaper.

Those who find their eyes are tired by the end of the day will appreciate the Care mode, which uses an ambient light sensor to keep the screen at sensible brightness and contrast levels. You can also manually adjust low blue light options, with five intensity levels to flick between, while BenQ says its Flicker-Free Technology “eliminates flickering... to reduce eye strain, fatigue and headaches”. It also offers a Color Weakness Mode, where you can tweak the red and green filters.

A 1440p resolution is a great choice on this size of display. That works out at 109ppi, so at normal viewing distances it’s sharp. Sure, you miss out on the 4K detail of the similarly priced Acer Vero CB272K, but we prefer the whites of the BenQ display.

Don’t expect wide color gamuts. Despite all those menu options, its DCI-P3 coverage stayed at around the 70% mark throughout our tests, and in reality this panel is tuned to the sRGB space: it covered 98% out of a 103% volume in its default mode. Color accuracy is excellent, too, with an average Delta E of 0.43. For a 6-bit panel that reaches 16.7 million colors using FRC, we were pleasantly surprised by its quality.

The 1440p resolution looks sharp on this size of display (Image credit: Future)

BenQ also packs in a pair of high-quality speakers; certainly good enough to listen to music to during a working day. There’s no webcam, but oddly there is a microphone – complete with noise reduction – which may well do a better job than a standalone webcam’s. Another minor surprise: this stand swivels. Its slim, square stem looks like it should stay in place, but offers 20° of movement each way. There’s a decent 110mm of height adjustment, too.

Connectivity is mixed. There’s no RJ45 port and no USB-B input, so the three USB-A ports (two crammed into the rear, one at the side) and data-only USB-C port can only be used if you’re connecting via USB-C. Those with power-hungry laptops should note that this only delivers 65W. But, unusually, it offers a DisplayPort out for daisy-chaining a second display, and there’s a 3.5mm input to go along with the normal headphone jack.

Even without these features the BenQ BL2790QT is a great-value choice, but if you’ll take advantage of them then it’s a no-brainer.

We've also rated the best iPhones.

Logitech G309 Lightspeed review

The Logitech G309 Lightspeed is a mid-range wireless gaming mouse, aimed towards the more casual gamer who doesn’t need the elite features or performance of more premium offerings.

In terms of appearance, the G309 Lightspeed keeps things simple. There’s no gaming imagery or designs present (there’s not even any RGB lighting), looking more akin to a productivity mouse than anything else. Only a small Logitech G logo offers any sort of contrast to the monochrome colorway.

The overall shape is sleek, as the bulbous rear thins out towards the front. It’s not as wide or as long as the G502 Lightspeed, one of the best gaming mice around. But the mouse buttons do feel long, and their relatively flat profile means your fingers are more horizontal than you might expect; claw-grippers, therefore, might not find the G309 Lightspeed to their liking.

Build quality is also good. The plastic shell feels reasonably thin but sturdy nonetheless, and thankfully the large lid for the battery compartment feels secure yet easy enough to open when needed. The mouse buttons are snappy and light, but with enough solidity to inspire confidence.

The scroll wheel is notched tightly enough to prevent misfires, yet loose enough for speedy performance. The scroll wheel button puts up too much resistance, though, and is awkward to press at times. The side buttons, however, are light and responsive yet solid.

The PTFE skates are quite thin, making the G309 Lightspeed a mouse I would recommend using on padded surfaces only. There’s no replacement skates included in the box either, as some other gaming mice do.

(Image credit: Future)

Weighing in at 86g, the G309 Lightspeed does make itself felt in the hand. The weight is mostly concentrated in the center-rear, which helps it feel balanced, but those who set a low DPI may struggle to perform big swipes. This isn’t helped by the lack of grip: the sides aren’t indented to allow your thumb and fingers to get a proper hold of the body, and the smooth-textured plastic material fails to offer much traction. However, grip tape is included for both the sides and the mouse buttons, which does help to improve the situation.

If you use the G309 Lightspeed with the Logitech’s Powerplay wireless charging mat, the weight drops to 68g as you shed the AA battery. This makes the G309 Lightspeed much more amenable to large sweeps. However, Powerplay is an additional extra that adds to the overall price of the mouse.

Logitech claims the Lightspeed Hybrid switches feel mechanical despite being optical. I have to say that these claims hold water. They are light enough for ultra-fast clicking, yet provide enough feedback to feel what’s going on, all of which makes the G309 Lightspeed very satisfying to game with.

The G309 Lightspeed is also smooth and precise when gliding and aiming, although the 1K maximum polling rate might not be enough for those after the absolute best FPS performance. However, the G309 Lightspeed still performs on this front.

The Lightspeed Wireless connection also gave me no trouble when gaming. Switching between two devices, one connected via Bluetooth and the other the Lightspeed USB dongle, was also quick and hassle-free.

(Image credit: Future)

Via Logitech’s G Hub software, various tweaks and customizations to the G309 Lightspeed are possible. There are profiles available for a whole host of popular games, and DPI presets for various genres and use cases, including productivity, first-person, MMORPG, simulation and strategy. You can also tweak the sensitivity of each of the five DPI increments yourself, from 100 up to 25,600.

Along with the DPI settings, you can also reassign the mouse buttons. Options include rebinding buttons to other buttons and keys, as well as common shortcuts and system-level functions, such as cycling audio devices, copying and pasting, launching apps, and controlling media playback. There are also configurable actions specific to Discord, Streamlabs, Overwolf and OBS.

You can change the poll rate too, as well as the switch-type from hybrid to mechanical. However, the G309 Lightspeed lacks some of the more advanced tweaks seen on other gaming mice. For instance, there’s no motion sync toggle, or lift-off and debounce time adjustments.

Battery life is quoted as being up to 300 hours when using the Lightspeed wireless connection, or 600 when using Bluetooth. Although I wasn’t able to spend this much time with the G309 Lightspeed, I can say that over almost a week’s worth of use via both Bluetooth and the Lightspeed wireless USB dongle, the battery life dipped by around 5%, so Logitech’s claims do seem reasonably accurate.

At this price point, the G309 Lightspeed represents good value, considering its performance and specs. The multiple wireless connectivity options, as well as the integration with Logitech’s G Hub software, are welcome features and work as intended. However, the 1K poll rate may not be enough for some, and there are other gaming mice out there, such as the Cooler Master MM311 and Logitech’s own G305, that may prove to be better value depending on what you want from a gaming mouse.

Logitech G309 Lightspeed: Price & availability

(Image credit: Future)

• $79 / £79 / AU$149
• Available now
• Cheaper alternatives available

The G309 Lightspeed costs $79 / £79 / AU$149 and is available now. It comes in two colorways, black and white. There’s also a Kamisato Ayaka Special Edition available in certain territories, such as the US.

Despite the AA battery, the G309 Lightspeed can be used with Logitech’s Powerplay wireless charging mat, with the brand currently offering a 30% saving on it in a bundle deal.

The G309 Lightspeed sits somewhere towards the lower end of Logitech’s Lightspeed wireless range of gaming mice. The G502 and G903 sit above it in terms of spec, with their upgraded hardware and additional features. However, the G502 is only marginally more expensive, although it does have an inbuilt battery and many additional buttons.

Meanwhile, the G305 is even cheaper, although this only has one onboard memory profile slot, as opposed to five on the G309 Lightspeed. There’s also no Bluetooth connectivity, but it does have an inbuilt battery and a USB-C port.

If you’re really on a budget, the Cooler Master MM311 is even cheaper and about the best wireless gaming mouse around in terms of value for money. Like the G309 Lightspeed, the MM311 also has a 1K polling rate and requires a AA battery.

Logitech G309 Lightspeed: Specs Should you buy the Logitech G309 Lightspeed? Buy it if...

You want good gaming performance
For the price and spec, the G309 Lightspeed will provide many players with enough precision and snap.

You want good software
G Hub, for the most part, is an easy-to-use and versatile tool, offering numerous customization options for the G309 Lightspeed, although more advanced tweaks aren’t possible.

Don't buy it if...

You want an elite performer
With a weight of 86g / 68g and a maximum polling rate of 1KHz, the G309 Lightspeed might not cut it for pro-level players.

You want to play and charge
There’s no USB port or inbuilt battery, so you can’t just plug in a cable and continue gaming. There’s an optional charging mat available, but it’ll cost you.

Logitech G309 Lightspeed review: Also consider

Cooler Master MM311
Our pick as the best gaming mouse for those on a budget, the MM311 undercuts just about every other wireless gaming mouse on the market, yet still offers top-tier quality. It also requires an AA battery like the G309 Lightspeed, but it’s lighter at 77g.

Read our full Cooler Master MM311 review.

Logitech G305 Lightspeed
For less money than the G309 Lightspeed, you could opt for the G305 Lightspeed. It has an inbuilt battery and a USB-C port, both of which are absent from the G309. It also has the same 1K polling rate, although it does miss out on Bluetooth connectivity and only has 1 profile slot on its onboard memory. If you want to keep things as simple as possible, though, this could be a contender.

Read our full Logitech G305 Lightspeed review.

How I tested the Logitech G309 Lightspeed

• Tested for about a week
• Used for gaming and productivity
• 10+ years gaming experience

I tested the G309 Lightspeed for about a week. During that time, I used the G309 Lightspeed for gaming, as well as for productivity and general use.

I played games that put the G309 Lightspeed through its paces, including Counter-Strike 2 and I Am Your Beast. I also used as many features and made as many tweaks as possible via the G Hub software, in order to test its usability and effectiveness.

I have over 10 years of PC gaming experience, and during that time I have used multiple gaming mice, including those made by Logitech. I have also reviewed numerous gaming mice with varying specs and price points, from budget offerings to esport-grade devices.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed: January 2025

GravaStar Mercury M1 Pro: two-minute review

The GravaStar Mercury M1 Pro is made for pro-level players with its advanced features and looks aimed squarely at the gaming market. But its design will be divisive, to say the least.

The GravaStar Mercury M1 Pro's industrial spiderweb body with its faux scuffs and scratches (on the Battle Worn Edition) would’ve looked dated 20 years ago. The dull gray color of this variant only adds to the dourness. The center of the mouse features a large RGB light, which certainly makes it stand out even more. However, I struggle to imagine anyone who would find the Mercury M1 Pro to their taste.

You might think the pitted design would help keep the weight down, but the metal frame and center mass of the Mercury M1 Pro makes itself felt; at 88g, it’s certainly heavier than the best gaming mouse around.

Its long shape and webbing also make for bad ergonomics. The metallic material doesn’t offer the best grip, and the mouse buttons are quite short and feel like a stretch to reach – those with smaller hands may struggle in particular with this aspect.

The concave side walls also fail to offer much support or grip when lifting off before swipes. Optional grip tape is included for the sides and the mouse buttons, but this didn’t improve matters for me, and the padding material feels cheap and too slippery to be of much use.

On top of this, the mouse buttons feel too weighty to allow for quickfire clicks despite their cheap-feeling plastic construction, and simply don’t feel comfortable under the fingertips. However, the scroll wheel and side buttons do feel solid and secure enough to use.

The thin skates seemed quite scratchy at first, even on padded surfaces, until I realized they were covered by imperceptibly thin peel-away sheets - so make sure to take these off before using the Mercury M1 Pro. Afterward, the scratchiness was gone and gliding felt a lot smoother. Replacement skates are also included, but these don’t offer any additional padding.

(Image credit: Future)

Via the GravaStar software, you can make various customizations and tweaks. All the standard options are present, such as the ability to rebind five of the six buttons on the Mercury M1 Pro (the main left button cannot be altered).

These include some useful system-level shortcuts and functions, including custom keystroke combinations (with or without modifier keys), media playback controls, and both vertical and horizontal scrolling. However, the selection is a little sparse compared to those offered by some other peripheral software.

Other rebinds include a fire mode, which lets you assign a button to rapid-fire left click up to three times (or infinitely until the button is released) in intervals of between 10 and 255 ( I presume milliseconds, as the software doesn’t actually specify the unit). There’s a DPI lock mode to set the sensitivity of the Mercury M1 Pro to a fixed amount rather than cycling through the six available increments (although these increments can be set yourself in the software too).

There’s also a macro recording feature, and – of course – multiple patterns and color options to choose from for the RGB lighting.

Catering to the elite, there are also tweaks for the lift-off distance (between 1 and 2mm) and debounce times (between 4ms and 8ms). You can also toggle motion sync, ripple control, and angle snapping on or off.

However, what won’t suffice for many pro-level gamers is the 4K polling rate. This is achieved using the other USB dongle included in the box of the Battle Worn Edition, which is much larger than the default bundled 1K dongle and looks like something that might birth a xenomorph (though why you'd want that on your desk, I have no idea). Many high-end gaming mice offer an 8K polling rate, which makes for a more noticeable improvement in precision and smoothness. Here, though, I struggled to discern a performance increase between 1K and 4K, which begs the question: if you’re going to include a separate dongle to allow for higher polling rates, then why stop short of 8K?

When it comes to actually playing games, the Mercury M1 Pro fails to impress in this regard either. The aforementioned ergonomic issues make gliding and clicking awkward; there’s just not enough snappiness or ease of movement to make it viable for pro-level play in competitive online games. It’s precise enough for more casual sessions, but the feel in the hand doesn’t make the Mercury M1 Pro much fun to use.

As for battery life, GravaStar's website merely states that it’s “prolonged”, whatever that means. During my tests, in which I used a mixture of power and connectivity modes, it only dropped by 5% after a day's worth of use, which is admittedly solid performance.

The various connectivity methods worked well, although switching between the 1K and 4K dongles isn’t straightforward, requiring re-pairing every time, which only adds to the inconvenience. However, the process is relatively quick and easy, and you likely won’t be switching much between these modes on the same machine anyway.

It’s hard to find much to commend in the Mercury M1 Pro, especially since it commands a high-end price. For the same money, you could have a Cherry XTRFY M68 PRO, which offers a higher 8K polling rate and much better design and performance, though it lacks any tweaking software. Various Razer offerings, such as the DeathAdder V3 Pro, roundly beat it in every regard.

(Image credit: Future) GravaStar Mercury M1 Pro: Price & availability

(Image credit: Future)

• $129 / £101 / AU$198
• Battle Worn Edition includes 4K dongle
• Top end of the market

The Mercury M1 Pro costs $129 / £101 / AU$198 and is available now. It comes in two colorways: Gunmetal Gray and Silver Mist, the latter of which is the Battle Worn Edition. This features the aforementioned faux wearing and comes with the 4K dongle, hence its price hike over the Gunmetal Gray variant, which costs $99 / £78 / AU$152.

It’s cheaper than some of the best wireless gaming mouse options in our view, including the Razer DeathAdder V3 Pro. However, that mouse can achieve an 8K polling rate (albeit requiring an additional adapter to do so). It also integrates with Synapse, Razer’s peripheral software that offers many advanced customizations.

For about the same price as the Mercury M1 Pro, you could also get the Cherry XTRFY M68 Pro. Again, this mouse has an 8K polling rate, which is supported right out of the box. At 55g, it’s also a lot lighter than the Mercury M1 Pro. However, it doesn’t have any peripheral software, so all adjustments must be made via some rather cumbersome button combinations.

GravaStar Mercury M1 Pro: Specs Should you buy the GravaStar Mercury M1 Pro? Buy it if...

You want something brash
There’s no denying you’ll be making a statement with the Mercury M1 Pro, as its bright lights and doom-metal stylings stand out.

You want good software
The accompanying software is easy to use, runs well, and offers the advanced tweaks and customizations pro-level gamers crave.

Don't buy it if...

You want good looks
Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but the Mercury M1 Pro is hard to love, especially the dreary Battle Worn Edition.

You want good ergonomics
That design and long profile makes it hard to use the Mercury M1 Pro comfortably, especially in the heat of simulated battle.

You want the best performance
Offering a 4K polling rate but not 8K is somewhat baffling, and its hefty weight isn’t ideal for speed.

GravaStar Mercury M1 Pro: Also consider

Cherry XTRFY M68 Pro
For the same price as the Battle Worn Edition of the Mercury M1 Pro, you could have the M68 Pro instead. This offers an 8K polling rate as opposed to the 4K maximum of the Mercury M1 Pro, as well as better performance and a superior design.

Razer DeathAdder V3 Pro
It’s more expensive than the Mercury M1 Pro, but as one of the best gaming mice on the market, the DeathAdder V3 Pro has everything a pro gamer needs: a light weight, excellent performance, great customization options, and an 8K polling rate is possible with the optional HyperPolling dongle. Read our full Razer DeathAdder V3 Pro review.

How I tested the GravaStar Mercury M1 Pro

• Tested for several days
• Used for gaming and productivity
• 10+ years PC gaming experience

I tested the Mercury M1 Pro for several days, and used it for gaming, productivity, and general use.

I played titles such as Counter-Strike 2 and I Am Your Beast – fast-paced shooters that are the perfect testing grounds for gaming mice. I also used as many features present in the GravaStar software as possible, and used all connectivity modes, including the 4K dongle.

I have been PC gaming for over 10 years and during that time, I have used a number of gaming mice. I have also reviewed a wide variety of products in this segment, spanning various sizes, feature sets, and prices, from big-name brands and lesser-known manufacturers.

Read more about how we test.

First reviewed: November 2024

Goodbye, all those Note vestiges, and hello to new, or at least more consistent, design language. The all-new Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra finally looks like a part of the Galaxy S Family, sharing the same flat band wrapping around its body.

For this latest flagship, Samsung has recast the Galaxy S25 Ultra in the image of its siblings while maintaining that Ultra flair with premium materials, the largest screen, and, yes, the integrated S Pen.

Like the rest of the line, the S25 Ultra now features Qualcomm’s best mobile CPU, the 3-nanometer Snapdragon Gen 8 Elite for Galaxy, which promises to be faster and more efficient than anything the Galaxy S line has run before. Samsung told us this is actually a custom version of the processor, but didn’t go into detail.

While we’ve not yet had the time to benchmark the new phone – we’ll be doing that for our full review – the company did note that the NPU could be 40% faster, the CPU is, as they measure it, 37% faster than the last Ultra, and the GPU is, they promise, 30% faster. Even ray tracing gets a boost with Samsung’s benchmarks finding it 40% better than the S24 Ultra’s Ray Tracing capabilities. Put another way, this might be a very good gaming smartphone.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra hands-on review: Price and availability

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra was unveiled at Galaxy Unpacked on January 22. It's available to pre-order now in a choice of four colors: Titanium Silver Blue, Titanium White Silver, Titanium Gray, and Titanium Black.

The phone ships in either 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB storage configurations, and every variant comes with 12GB RAM.

The Galaxy S25 Ultra will begin shipping on February 7 for the following prices:

Samsung Galaxy S25 series: $900 instant trade-in credit and up to $300 credit at Samsung
Looking for an unlocked device? This right here is your best option by far. The official Samsung Store is offering an excellent trade-in rebate of up to $900 and $300 of store credit on the house for both carrier and unlocked devices today. The trade-in here is superb and the $300 credit is also a significant bonus that can be used to pick up any number of cheap accessories at the Samsung Store. Overall, a superb opening deal and one that's even better than I anticipated.View Deal

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra hands-on review: Specs

Here's a look at the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra's key specs:

Goodbye, all those Note vestiges, and hello to new, or at least more consistent, design language. The all-new Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra finally looks like a part of the Galaxy S Family, sharing the same flat band wrapping around its body.

For this latest flagship, Samsung has recast the Galaxy S25 Ultra in the image of its siblings while maintaining that Ultra flair with premium materials, the largest screen, and, yes, the integrated S Pen.

Like the rest of the line, the S25 Ultra now features Qualcomm’s best mobile CPU, the 3-nanometer Snapdragon Gen 8 Elite, which promises be faster and more efficient than anything the Galaxy S line has run before. Samsung told us this is actually a custom version of the processor, but didn’t go into detail.

While we’ve not yet had the time to benchmark the new phone – we’ll be doing that for our full review – the company did note that the NPU could be 40% faster, the CPU is, as they measure it, 37% faster than the last Ultra, and the GPU is, they promise, 30% faster. Even ray tracing gets a boost with Samsung’s benchmarks finding it 40% better than the S24 Ultra’s Ray Tracing capabilities. Put another way, this might be a very good gaming smartphone.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra hands-on review: design and display

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra looks and feels good, and while some might prefer the Galaxy S24 Ultra’s more rounded styling, the S25 Ultra is 15% lighter and, as a result, feels better in the hand. It’s also still rated IPX68 for water and dust resistance.

Samsung has mostly chosen to leave the screen technology as it is. Covered in more scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass Armor 2 (the previous model had the first generation of Armor glass), the display still has a sharp and pleasing QHD+ resolution, but it’s slightly larger than the S24 Ultra's at 6.9 inches instead of 6.8 inches diagonally. Samsung did this not by making the phone larger, but by shrinking the bezel by 15%.

It’s still an adaptive refresh screen, moving smoothly from 1Hz to 120Hz on an as-needed basis. New to the screen technology is ProScaler, which actually comes from Samsung's TV line and upscales lower-resolution content. This is a hardware update that will not filter down to previous models.

(Image credit: Future / Jake Krol) Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra hands-on review: cameras

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

While the camera array has been redesigned, and the three rear lenses now almost float above the phone body, two of the three cameras are unchanged from the S24 Ultra: the 50MP 5x zoom and the 200MP wide main camera. New to the trio is the 50MP ultra-wide. Shooting macro images in 12MP binned format, I could already see the quality difference and was especially impressed with the level of close-up detail I could capture. The front-facing portrait camera is unchanged from the S24 Ultra. It's still 12MP, and in my brief hands-on time it did an excellent job of capturing portrait-mode photos.

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

I’m a bit disappointed that Samsung didn’t bring back its optical 10x zoom from the S23 Ultra, but the 10x zoom that crops in on the higher pixel count zoom will probably satisfy most people.

Image 1 of 2

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)Image 2 of 2

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff) Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra: battery and performance

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

Battery size is unchanged from the S24 Ultra, but Samsung says we should expect better battery life from the Galaxy S25 Ultra thanks to the Snapdragon Gen 8 Elite’s 3-nanometer process and the new 40% larger vapor chamber that Samsung has paired with a Thermal Interface Covering (TIM). The TIM sits right on top of the CPU, and the vapor chamber is on top of that to deliver more efficient heat dissipation, which can extend better battery life. Speaking of the battery, Samsung says the phone is “Qi2 compatible”, but that support is not built into the phone; in other words, the phone will work with an external accessory that supports the updated wireless charging system.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra: software

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

Perhaps the biggest upgrade over the S24 Ultra is the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra’s impressive AI capabilities. This is more than just a Galaxy AI upgrade; Samsung has infused AI throughout the system, and given it broader capabilities that span across Samsung and Google apps. The company is calling it Cross Action Apps.

Smart select is, well, smarter now, with the ability to recognize on-screen elements and then make suggestions about what you might want to do, AI-wise, with the image. For instance, it could suggest a straight generative edit or making a GIF.

Circle to Search is now aurally capable, with the ability to identify sounds in a video. It's also adept at naming that tune. I pressed the home button, tapped the new music note icon, and began humming Hot to Go by Chappell Roan. The AI got it right, bringing up the music video from YouTube in Google search. It did similarly well with my terrible hum of Fly Me to the Moon. The recognition isn't instant; you have to know more than a few bars, and the software will prompt you to "keep going" as necessary.

Image 1 of 2

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)Image 2 of 2

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

AI-assisted search is now more agnostic. I long-pressed the home button and asked natural language questions about travel and buying a new vacuum. In each instance, the system used Google Gemini to tap into YouTube and Samsung Notes. It found what I was looking for on Google’s service, dug into videos to find the details that mattered to me, made summaries, and saved them in Samsung Notes.

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

These Gemini Live and Bixby enhancements can access all native Samsung and Google apps. Plus, Samsung plans to release the APK so that other third-party companies can become part of the Galaxy AI ecosystem. At launch, it'll feature built-in Spotify and WhatsApp support.

Samsung has also enhanced many of its generative image tools. I took a photo, and drew a marquee to select and remove all the background people in the shot with a single tap. I could tap another icon to quickly see the original photo. The Galaxy S25 Ultra did a good job, even neatly removing shadows.

Other photography features have also been given a generative-AI sheen. Portraits can now instantly be turned into excellent pencil sketches, and the ones I generated looked as good as any sketch portrait that might appear in The Wall Street Journal. Seeing the quality made me a little sad for the soon-to-be-unemployed sketch artists around the world – although I felt a little better when I took another portrait, but in less dramatic light, and the sketch looked nothing like my subject.

There's also a powerful new AI audio cleanup tool called Audio Eraser, which I used to remove distracting background noises from an interview – I could do it on the fly in the video playback, and tone the background noises down or up to my taste. When I fully removed the background noises, though, the main audio sounded a bit artificial. This is similar to the Audio Mix tools Apple introduced with the iPhone 16 Pro, but with fewer audio presets, and I can’t say for certain yet if it has more limited capabilities until I get to spend more time with it.

Sketch to image, which I used to entertaining effect on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 last summer, is now multi-modal, which means you can start with a photo, draw on that, and have the generative AI do its image magic. You can also use text prompts to adjust the image, although I didn't get to try this feature in my brief hands-on time.

Even Samsung's photo library app, Gallery, has been given a brain transplant, and now lets you search by voice. I asked it to show me pictures of "wine" and quickly got a gallery of photos of wine bottles.

One UI overhaul

One UI 7, a three-year-long project for Samsung, has had a complete makeover. I generally like One UI because it’s long been one of the least overbearing Android overlays, and based on my brief look at it, I think One UI 7 continues this trend.

There’s also a new Now Brief widget, which uses on-system AI to learn about you and give you morning and evening briefs that can help you manage your days and nights. There’s health-related info, upcoming schedules, your energy score, sleep quality, weather, reminders, and more. The connections to some of Samsung’s other devices, like the Galaxy Ring are impressive – if you own all the latest Samsung gear, the S25 Ultra could be an even more worthwhile upgrade.

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

What’s interesting here is how Samsung is managing this private data locally, using something called the Personal Data Engine. Through this the phone sends your data to an onboard core that can use AI to understand and act as AI agents on your behalf. None of your data, which is protected by Samsung's Knox security, is shared with the cloud or with apps. It’s the kind of insight Apple has been promising us with Apple Intelligence but has so far failed to deliver.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra hands-on review: S Pen

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

The S Pen is still there, but Samsung has removed Bluetooth LE support because, it told us, no one was using it. Its main function was to enable you to use the pen as a remote control for shooting photos or controlling presentations. I doubt I will miss it. Otherwise, the S Pen’s operation is unchanged – I drew with it a bit on the S25 Ultra and was impressed with the responsiveness.

Finally, the good news is that the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra costs the same as its predecessor, starting at $1,299 for 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage (you can go up to 1GB). That’s still a hefty price, but you should expect some early promotions to lower the pocket pain, and trade-in deals are typically excellent.

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus is a strange middle child. It's not just a bigger Galaxy S25, because it shares some technology with the Galaxy S25 Ultra. Sadly, not the best Ultra tech, like the 200MP camera sensor, the 5x zoom camera lens, or the titanium frame, let alone the S Pen. Still, the Galaxy S25 Plus isn't too hard to recommend.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy chipset is the same in every Samsung Galaxy S25 phone, and that's a significant upgrade no matter what older phone you're using right now. It's faster than last year's Snapdragon, and if your phone is a couple of years old or more, you're going to be in for a real treat.

The Galaxy S25 Plus also uses a higher-resolution display than the smaller Galaxy S25. With a nearly-4K resolution, Samsung has endowed the Galaxy S25 Plus and S25 Ultra with its new ProScaler technology. It says this tech is borrowed from the Samsung TV group, and it uses AI to upscale lower-resolution content to look better on a 4K screen.

I'll have to compare videos side by side to see if this makes a big difference, but Samsung seems to think it will be worth the upgrade from the standard S25 to the larger Plus model.

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus (left) and Galaxy S25 (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

Because it's bigger, you also get a larger battery inside the Galaxy S25 Plus than in the Galaxy S25: 4,900mAh versus 4,000mAh. I know from my time testing other Snapdragon 8 Elite phones that this chipset can do a great job managing power and sipping battery juice, so hopeful the Galaxy S25 Plus will have winning battery life.

Otherwise, the new features on the Galaxy phones this year are all about Galaxy AI. All of the existing AI features are getting a little bit better. The photo editing is improved, and there are new AI assistant tools to help you with videos, whether you want to summarize them or cut them into GIFs.

The most interesting AI is yet to come. The Galaxy S25 Plus will include Samsung's Personal Data Engine, a secure hardware partition that will gather information about you for the AI to digest. It will read your messages, listen to your calls, see your photos, and mind your calendar.

The Galaxy S25 Plus can also use AI to talk to your Galaxy Ring and Galaxy Watch, and maybe even your Samsung TV and other SmartThings smart home devices. It will keep track of your habits, and look for patterns. Samsung suggested a few things the Galaxy AI might offer, like a better bed time schedule, but I have a feeling that it's waiting to see what sort of information and patterns its AI can put together.

That means the Galaxy S25 Plus, like the Galaxy S25, feels a bit unfinished. It feels like last year's phone with a new engine inside, which is fine, but not very exciting. The exciting Galaxy AI stuff will take a while to build, as the phone gathers more information about you. What will it do with all that info? It will store it securely, for one thing.

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

If you're worried about your phone learning so much about you, Samsung assures us that this personal data will be held securely on a hardware-locked partition protected by Samsung Knox. That's as good as Android protection gets, and it's so good that if you lose your Galaxy S25 Plus, you've lost the data stored in the Personal Data Engine. It doesn't exist in the cloud, and it can't be pulled off the device except during a Smart Switch to a new phone.

Great, I get a promise about what Samsung won't do with my personal data, but not a lot of detail about what it will do with all the data it harvests. Once my Galaxy S25 Plus really knows me, after a year or so of use, how will it be different? We don't exactly know, and the answer will probably change over time.

Thankfully, Samsung is giving the Galaxy S25 Plus a full seven years of Android and security updates, which means it will have plenty of room to grow. Whether it's worth buying now is a question of how much you want to invest in your own AI future.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus hands-on review: Price and availability

Galaxy S25 Plus in Mint, Icyblue, and Navy (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus was unveiled at Galaxy Unpacked on January 22. It's available to pre-order now in two storage configurations: 256GB and 512GB. Every variant comes with 12GB RAM.

The phone will begin shipping on February 7 for the following prices:

Samsung Galaxy S25 series: $900 instant trade-in credit and up to $300 credit at Samsung
Looking for an unlocked device? This right here is your best option by far. The official Samsung Store is offering an excellent trade-in rebate of up to $900 and $300 of store credit on the house for both carrier and unlocked devices today. The trade-in here is superb and the $300 credit is also a significant bonus that can be used to pick up any number of cheap accessories at the Samsung Store. Overall, a superb opening deal and one that's even better than I anticipated.View Deal

Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus hands-on review: Specs

Here's a look at the Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus's key specs:

The Galaxy S25 Plus is a respectable phone for the price, though the Galaxy S25 Ultra hangs above its head with truly superlative specs. Every Galaxy S25 model gets the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset for Galaxy, which Samsung tells us Qualcomm has overclocked. Past 'for Galaxy' chips were overclocked 5% in the largest prime core, but we don't know what this year's improvement offers.

One big hardware surprise in the Galaxy S25 Plus is a Samsung ProScaler. Samsung says it’s borrowing technology from its renowned TV group to upscale video content on your Galaxy S25 Plus using AI. This isn’t motion smoothing; it won’t artificially boost the frame rate, just the resolution.

It doesn't seem like the smaller Galaxy S25 will get this feature – it may only come to the larger Galaxy S25 Plus and Galaxy S25 Ultra with QHD+ displays – and late rumors suggested that Samsung would make this a key selling point. I’ll have to take a look at video on the phones side by side to determine if the ProScaler makes a real difference.

Besides ProScaler, the Galaxy S25 Plus has a couple of other key advantages over the standard S25. If you want to use Samsung's SmartTags, you'll need the ultra-wideband (UWB) radio inside the Galaxy S25 Plus and Ultra.

The Galaxy S25 Plus should also charge faster than the Galaxy S25 when connected to a compatible Samsung Fast Charger 2.0 wall plug. We'll test the fastest charging capabilities of each Galaxy S25 model once we get them into our testing labs.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus hands-on review: design and display

Galaxy S25 Plus (left) next to Galaxy S25 (right) (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

The Galaxy S25 Plus doesn't just give you a bigger display; it gives you a better viewing experience, and this year there looks to be a larger gap between the Galaxy S25 and the Plus model than ever before, display-wise.

The Galaxy S25 Plus has the same resolution as the Galaxy S25 Ultra, at nearly 4K QHD+. At the highest resolution you can also use the new ProScaler hardware.

I can't find any ProScaler tech on Samsung's TVs, but I know Samsung's latest sets use AI to upscale lower-resolution content to 4K. Samsung says that all video that's played through the Galaxy S25 Plus (and the S25 Ultra) will get upscaled, but don't worry – this isn't motion smoothing. The frame rate isn't affected, just the resolution, so videos should look sharp but not unnatural.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus hands-on review: cameras

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

If you were hoping for better cameras in this year's Galaxy S25 Plus, your hopes will rest on the Galaxy AI and the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, because the camera specs have gone unchanged again. We haven't seen a big boost in cameras on the Galaxy S lineup, besides the Ultra, since the Galaxy S23.

Since then we've been stuck with the same 50MP main camera, 10MP zoom camera with 3x reach, and 12MP ultra-wide camera. The sensors haven't grown, and neither has the resolution, even though the Galaxy S25 Ultra got a 50MP ultra-wide sensor this year.

Samsung's Ultra phone has been at (or near) the top of our best camera phones list for two years, so Samsung clearly knows how to make a great camera, and it's confounding that only the Ultra gets the good stuff. It makes the other S25 phones feel like mid-range models compared to the Ultra, which is just silly. All of these phones are top-performers – it's only the cameras that are holding the two smaller phones back.

Image 1 of 3

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)Image 2 of 3

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)Image 3 of 3

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

Maybe Samsung wasn't paying attention, but other phone makers have started to respect smaller phones by giving them better camera specs. The iPhone 16 Pro and Google Pixel 9 Pro offer a smaller, less expensive option than the Pro Max and Pro XL models, without sacrificing megapixels or zoom.

I got to try Samsung's new AI Assist tools, which work great for cutting up videos in addition to editing photos. You can basically tap on any video on-screen and create a GIF, or get an AI summary, or create a wallpaper from a still frame. That's in addition to all of the improvements in Samsung's AI photo editing in the Gallery app.

Still, software seems like a poor substitute for better glass and more advanced sensors. With the cameras and in too many other ways, the Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S25 Plus feel like afterthoughts for Samsung this year.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus hands-on review: performance and battery

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

The Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset is the genuine article, and the Galaxy S25 Plus continues Samsung's threepeat obtaining a slightly enhanced version of Qualcomm's top-tier chipset. The previous two Snapdragon for Galaxy chipsets boosted the main core's clock speed by 5%, but this year's benefits are still unclear. It's a negligible gain that primarily affects benchmark results, but someone has to claim the top spot, right?

Beyond the enhanced Snapdragon, this Galaxy includes more intriguing hardware than I expected. The Personal Data Engine is a dedicated hardware partition, managed by on-chip Samsung Knox security, a system powerful enough for many US federal agencies.

The information you let Galaxy AI gather remains on the device, and it can't be removed unless you switch to a new Galaxy phone. Transferring this personal data to a new phone is possible using Samsung Smart Switch. However, losing your phone means losing all that stored data. This is unfortunate, as some of Galaxy AI's future lies in its ability to adapt to your needs as it learns about you. It's fascinating to consider how the Galaxy S25 Plus might evolve with two, three, or even seven years' worth of personal data stored in its engine.

As for charging, Samsung hasn't embraced faster wired or wireless charging speeds. The Galaxy S25 Plus is limited to 45W, which is still a bit faster than the Galaxy S25, but the OnePlus 13 supports 80W, with a 100W adapter coming soon. Samsung needs to hurry up the charging times.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus hands-on review: software

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

The Galaxy S25 Plus will need to learn about you over time, with its most advanced Galaxy AI features awaiting your personal data. Again, this raises the question of what will the S25 do with this data. The specifics remain unclear, but the goal is to move beyond AI party tricks and create an 'agent', like a user interface, that learns your habits and preferences, and even makes new suggestions.

Galaxy AI will gather data not just from your phone, but also from your Galaxy Watch, Galaxy Ring, and SmartThings devices. Samsung suggests this could lead to personalized suggestions, such as optimizing your sleep environment or automating actions like turning off your TV when you fall asleep. This approach to AI feels potentially useful, a step beyond simple gimmicks; but like I said, it will need to gather a lot of data about you from a number of sources.

The Galaxy S25 Plus utilizes both Samsung Bixby and Google Gemini for various tasks, but Samsung wisely avoids emphasizing these names. The focus is on seamless functionality, though it's worth noting that many AI features were not yet working on the pre-production demo units I saw. I'm not sure exactly what will be working at launch, so I'll need to get hands-on with a final device to be sure.

The Samsung Galaxy S25 was left home alone this year. In all the excitement over Galaxy AI, the redesigned Galaxy S25 Ultra, and ProScaler on the bigger phones, I think Samsung forgot something important: it forgot to bring the Galaxy S25 into 2025.

The Galaxy S25 looks a lot like last year's Galaxy S24, and the Galaxy S23 from the year before that. It's a bit thinner and a tad lighter, but not much else has changed.

It uses the same cameras as the Galaxy S23. This year's model comes with 12GB of RAM instead of 8GB, but it still starts at 128GB of storage, a paltry gallery space for all the AI images you'll create, surely.

The battery hasn't grown more than 3% larger over the past two years, though I surmise based on my time testing other Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite phones (like the OnePlus 13) that the Elite chipset inside this phone should prove a boon for battery life. Still, we couldn't have had a bigger cell? Or faster charging? Nope. Same, same.

Why not just sell the Galaxy S23 with a newer processor inside and call it a day? Shhhhh, I think that's pretty much what Samsung has done.

The Galaxy S25 Plus (left) and Galaxy S25 (right) with my favorite web site (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

I jest, and hopefully we'll see a bigger refresh next year, but this year is all about the software inside, and the AI that is totally, assuredly coming soon.

I don't mean the improved photo-editing tools, or the audio eraser AI for videos, or the better Bixby that can find settings using natural language questions. I'm talking about next-generation AI agents, so-called agentic AI.

The Galaxy S25 is going to gather information about you from everywhere. It will use your phone, your Galaxy Ring, your Galaxy Watch, and even your smart home devices, like your lights and your TV. It will learn about you, and keep everything it learns in a secure lockbox on your phone.

It will gather that info so that it can... um, actually I'm not sure. Samsung suggested it might turn off the TV when you fall asleep, or suggest better lighting for bed time, but most of what we heard so far is promises of what's to come. Not quite a preview, just a hint.

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

Look at how Samsung talks about this phone. In its official press release, Samsung MX Business President TM Roh says the Galaxy S25 "opens the door to an AI-integrated OS..." and the release says "It’s the starting point of a shared vision with Google..." This isn't a finished product. It's a start, an empty vessel, and you fill it with data about you.

I like the future that Samsung is building towards. It clearly understands that AI needs to make your phone easier to use and more accessible, and I think the best improvements we'll see in the Galaxy S25 will be Bixby's ability to help parse Samsung's wealth of features.

I like that Samsung is taking personal data so seriously with its Personal Data Engine. I'm very curious about what Samsung and my Galaxy S25 will do with all of my personal data, and if Galaxy AI will truly improve as it learns more about me and my habits. There's a lot of potential, but Samsung has only demonstrated a patchwork of possibilities, not a coherent whole.

I suspect this is a phone with a long, growing tail, so we'll have to review this phone and revisit it as Samsung keeps improving and evolving Galaxy AI.

Samsung Galaxy S25 hands-on review: Price and availability

Every blue shade of Galaxy S25 (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

The Samsung Galaxy S25 was unveiled at Galaxy Unpacked on January 22. It's available to pre-order now in a choice of four colors: Icyblue, Navy, Mint, and Silver Shadow. In normal parlance that's light blue, dark blue, light green, and silver.

The phone ships in either 128GB, 256GB, or 512GB storage configurations, depending on your region, and every variant comes with 12GB RAM.

The Galaxy S25 will begin shipping on February 7 for the following prices:

Samsung Galaxy S25 series: $900 instant trade-in credit and up to $300 credit at Samsung
Looking for an unlocked device? This right here is your best option by far. The official Samsung Store is offering an excellent trade-in rebate of up to $900 and $300 of store credit on the house for both carrier and unlocked devices today. The trade-in here is superb and the $300 credit is also a significant bonus that can be used to pick up any number of cheap accessories at the Samsung Store. Overall, a superb opening deal and one that's even better than I anticipated.View Deal

Samsung Galaxy S25 hands-on review: Specs

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

Here's a look at the Samsung Galaxy S25's key specs:

Samsung Galaxy S25 hands-on review: design and display

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

I’m spending so much time talking about AI developments on the Samsung Galaxy S25 because otherwise this generation of Galaxy S is confoundingly unchanged from last year, and the year before. Except for the Galaxy S25 Ultra, which now simply looks like an even bigger version of the Galaxy S25 Plus, the basic design will be recognizable, and a bit tired.

I don’t fault Samsung for not making huge changes this year. There are expensive new components inside, so a massive redesign would have driven the price higher. Samsung has laudably managed to keep the price stable with last year’s Galaxy S24 launch, which is a feat in itself, considering the rumors I've heard about sky-high prices for Qualcomm’s coveted Snapdragon 8 Elite chips.

More on those later; first the Galaxy S25’s design. To borrow a car analogy, the Galaxy S25 is like the Toyota Camry of the smartphone world, versus Apple’s Honda Accord. In other words, these phones look the same every year, and if you squint they kind of look like each other.

We’re long past the point of expecting a new look every year. We get minor changes, some flourishes and improvements, but most of the improvements happen under the hood.

Samsung Galaxy S25 hands-on review: cameras

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

Nothing to see here so far, at least on paper. I suspect we'll see actual improvements once we've had time to test the new Galaxy S24 cameras, thanks to the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, which includes a new image processing pathway that has shown great results on competing Snapdragon phones.

The specs seem to be exactly the same as we've seen on Galaxy S phones for the last two years, at least the not-Ultra models. While the Ultra this year got a new 50MP camera to replace its old 12MP ultra-wide, the Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S24 Plus both retain the same 50MP main camera, 10MP 3x zoom, and 12MP ultra-wide lens.

Maybe Samsung wasn't paying attention, but phone makers have started to respect smaller phones by giving them better camera specs. The Apple iPhone 16 Pro and Google Pixel 9 Pro offer a smaller, less expensive option than the Pro Max and Pro XL models, without sacrificing megapixels or zoom.

Image 1 of 3

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)Image 2 of 3

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)Image 3 of 3

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

I wish we got the same on a smaller or less expensive Galaxy S25, but instead we get the mighty Ultra, and then the rest. Instead, Samsung has focused on improving photos through AI, both before and after you take the shot.

I got to try Samsung's improved photo-editing tools with generative AI, and they were very impressive. When the Gallery app removed someone from a photo, the wood floor beneath their feet was left unbroken, with clean wood plank lines.

Still, software seems like a poor substitute for better glass and more advanced sensors. With the cameras and in too many other ways, the Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S25 Plus seem like afterthoughts for Samsung this year.

Samsung Galaxy S25 hands-on review: performance and battery

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

The Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset is the real deal, and the Galaxy S25 continues Samsung’s three-year tradition of getting a slightly overclocked version of Qualcomm’s best chip. We’re not sure exactly what that means, but the last two 'Snapdragon for Galaxy' chipsets overclocked the big primary core by 5%. It's a minimal advantage that only matters in benchmarks, but somebody has to be #1, right? So Samsung gets the bragging rights.

Besides the overclocked Snapdragon for Galaxy, there’s more interesting hardware in this Galaxy than I expected to find. The Personal Data Engine is an actual hardware partition, governed by the on-chip Samsung Knox security that is good enough for most three-letter US Government agencies. The info that you feed your Galaxy AI will stay on the phone, keeping your data secure.

If you get a new phone, you can use Samsung Smart Switch to transfer that personal data, but if you lose your phone, all of the data you stored will be lost.

That’s kind of sad, because the promise of AI will be how much it can adapt to your needs as it gets to know you. I wonder if the Galaxy S25 will seem like a whole different animal once it has two, three, or even seven years of my personal data stored within its engine.

For charging, Samsung hasn't stepped into the modern age with faster wired or wireless charging, and the Galaxy S25 is stuck at around 45W while the OnePlus 13 can push 80W, with a 100W adapter on the way. The difference means missing out because you were waiting for your phone to wake up.

Samsung Galaxy S25 hands-on review: software

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

The Galaxy S25 is a phone that will get to know you… eventually. Samsung’s new flagship phone could be one of the best phones of 2025, but it’s hard to get too excited about it… yet. That’s because Samsung is handing us tabla rasa, a blank slate, waiting to be filled with our personal data.

If asking your smartphone to learn everything – from your sleep habits to your photo gallery to your entire messaging history – sounds frightening, Samsung is well aware of that, which is why the most interesting part of the Galaxy S25 is the so-called ‘personal data engine,’ a secure container for all of the personal data that the Galaxy S25 gathers about you.

What will it do with all of that information? It’s hard to say, because we haven't gotten that far. If the last generation of AI features seemed like party tricks, the next generation is going to work hard to get to know you, and then… yada yada, we’ve got AI!

Galaxy AI will gather information from more than just your phone. It will get info from your Galaxy Watch and Galaxy Ring, and it will compare that with data collected from your Samsung SmartThings smart-home devices.

Image 1 of 4

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)Image 2 of 4

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)Image 3 of 4

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)Image 4 of 4

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

Samsung says, for example, that Galaxy AI might notice if you fall asleep better with certain lights turned on or off, and make suggestions. Your Galaxy Ring will notice that you're asleep, and it will tell your phone to tell your Samsung TV to shut down.

We’re still learning about everything that Galaxy AI might do, but this feels like the next step for mobile AI. This isn’t sleight-of-hand; it feels useful.

The Galaxy S25 uses Bixby to control Galaxy apps and smartphone settings, and Google’s Gemini for things like generating text in Messages, and Circle to Search, but Samsung is wisely keeping the names to itself. Users don’t need to know if they're engaging with Bixby or Gemini or Galaxy AI; it will just work, at least according to Samsung.

Unfortunately it doesn’t just work just yet, at least not in my brief hands-on time with the Galaxy S25. Many of the new AI features were not working on the pre-production demo units I got to try. Samsung reps had phones with more features, but I don’t think everything will be ready at launch.

Most of it will need a lot more data from you and me, after all.

Fujifilm Instax Wide Evo: Two-minute review

The Fujifilm Instax Wide Evo is instantly striking with its retro design and ultra-wide body. If you're after the best instant camera for hybrid photography (i.e. the ability to print film images taken directly on the camera or sent from your smartphone) and prefer to shoot on wide format prints, then this really looks like it could be the model for you.

Although it doesn't come cheap, the Instax Wide Evo is very much the step-up from Fujifilm's other Instax hybrid, the Mini Evo, that was launched in 2021, offering most of the same great features, including an LCD display screen, 10 lens and 10 film effects that make 100 different creative combinations, and a microSD card slot, along with a few more new additions.

(Image credit: Future)

A wider film print means this instant camera is a bit on the larger side, but it makes use of the extra real-estate by adding more physical buttons that let you quickly change settings. These include a dedicated wide angle button that lets you switch to a more standard field of view (FoV) if you don't want that cinematic look.

Speaking of, you can also switch between six different film styles, one of which puts black bars to give your pictures that IMAX feeling, using a button on top of the camera. There's also a dial on the left side of the camera to cycle through the 10 different lens effects, with another dial on the opposite right side to switch between the 10 different film effects. My favorite, though, is the crank that lets you manually print a picture by winding it, which is a nice design nod to the crank for winding back film on the best film cameras.

It gets five stars for fun for all the creative photo editing options it offers, but what about the image quality? I've only been able to try out the new Instax Evo Wide for an hour on the day of its launch, so I didn't test out that many settings. Although I did print out three photos, two of these were selfies (one unedited, the other cropped and enhanced before printing), which looked soft and rich with great contrast using the monochrome film effect.

The Instax Evo Wide will by no means replace your dedicated digital camera – and if you love the 'magic' of purely analog instant film cameras, then this might not be right for you either as your images will always be digital first – but it is a perfect piece of extra kit if you want to be creative with your photography and experiment with a larger field of view.

Fujifilm Instax Wide Evo: Price and availability

There's a dedicated button at the top of the camera for switching between six different film styles. (Image credit: Future)

The Fujifilm Instax Wide Evo was launched on January 21, 2025 with a price tag of $349.95 in the US and £319.99 in the UK. We don't yet have Australian pricing, but based on these initial figures it might cost around AU$560.

That makes the Fujifilm Instax Wide Evo one of the the priciest instant cameras of its kind, says TechRadar's cameras editor, Timothy Coleman. Indeed, for comparison's sake, the only other Instax camera that takes wide-format instant film prints is the Instax Wide 400 and that sets you back $149.99 / £129.99 / AU$229.99.

The Wide Evo is also almost double the price of Fujifilm's other Instax hybrid, the Fujifilm Instax Mini Evo, which retails for $199.99 / £174.99 / AU$299.99. Does the extra cost account for the more premium, larger features in the step-up model? We'll have to see once I've had a chance to weigh this up against its performance.

There's also optional accessories available for the Evo Wide, including a leather case that costs $49.95 in the US and £37.99 in the UK, but might be a necessary additional cost to make sure to protect the LCD display screen (if this gets too scratched up, then you won't be able to take let alone see your photos).

Fujifilm Instax Wide Evo: Specs Fujifilm Instax Wide Evo: Design

The left dial on the Instax Wide Evo is for switching between the 10 different lens effects. (Image credit: Future)

• A hybrid instant camera that can print directly or from your catalog of shots, stored on Micro SD
• Plenty of dials and switches to select various film effects
• Includes a mirror and switch to take selfies

When rumors started to circle about the Instax Wide Evo, there was talk that it would be "regarded as the best-looking Instax camera ever made" and that caught a lot of enthusiast's attention, including TechRadar's senior news editor Mark Wilson who said off the back of it that the "Instax Wide Evo sounded like my dream instant camera".

Considering that the only wide-format Instax camera alternative is the big and bulky Instax Wide 400, the Wide Evo's textured, minimal black design is definitely a lot more easy on the eye than the plasticky, dull green finish of its larger cousin. (Another alternative if you're set on a wide-format is 2024's Lomo’Instant Wide Glass – an attractive instant camera that we gave 4.5 stars in our in-depth review.) Indeed, I don't think many would be opposed to slinging the Wide Evo over their shoulder for the day.

The leather case that you can buy alongside the Wide Evo makes this very easy to do and might be a crucial accessory – not just for protecting it from nicks and scratches but – to make sure that it has a long life, as the LCD screen could easily get scuffed up over time. That's not great for a camera that doesn't have a viewfinder. Of course, I can't yet say that this will be an issue but it's worth considering.

This is how you would hold the Instax Wide Evo to take a selfie, with your thumb pulling down on the shutter switch button. (Image credit: Future)

It also helps that the Evo Wide is light – it weighs about half a kilo – making it very portable, but don't expect to be able to fit the Wide Evo in any pocket. As you would expect, because it takes wide-format instant prints, it's on the larger side.

The shutter button is a lot different to the Mini Evo, which has a standard push button on top of the camera. Instead of this, the Wide Evo has a rocker style switch (like the ones you would use to turn on a light) that's situated on the front of the camera, beside the lens. I found this placement and style initially cumbersome, especially when taking a selfie as I couldn't immediately engage the auto focus by half pressing it down.

To be clear, this might be just be because it was my first time using it and could become more easier, but I will say it's not initially intuitive. That's also not to say that all the buttons are like this. The spin dials and crank for printing photos, for instance, are extremely tactile and easy to use.

Fujifilm Instax Wide Evo: Performance

This image was shot with the warm film effect and color shift lens effect settings turned on. (Image credit: Future)

• Plenty of scope to try different looks, with 100 creative combinations
• The widest-ever Instax lens and wide-format prints give extra breathing room for your subjects

The Fujifilm Instax Wide Evo's built-in film and lens effects make experimenting with different styles extremely easy. The fact that you can create 100 different creative combinations with these settings means there's plenty of room to play around.

Indeed, there's even an Instax Wide app for even more editing options as well as a 'Discovery Feed' for sharing and seeing fellow creations. While I haven't yet had a chance to test these out properly, I did find these effects to cover a lot of different styles during a brief session with the new camera.

When it comes to the picture quality overall, I'm most interested in testing out how the film prints compare to those taken on an instant camera as the images are digital first on the Evo Wide. This is a big deal for me because I'm split between analog and digital, and this in my opinion takes a bit of the magic away.

For context, I bought my first Instax in 2014 and of course quickly realised how expensive this style of photography is after discarding some duds, which made me even more selective with every picture I took. My boyfriend decided to buy me an Instax printer to solve this issue, but this for me took away what I loved about the style in the first place. I also found that picture quality wasn't on par.

The dial on the right side of the Instax Wide Evo is for switching between the 10 different film effects. (Image credit: Future)

Could a hybrid instant camera offer the perfect middle ground? Or will it be just another printer? I'll be sure to report back as soon as I've had a chance to put the new Instax Wide Evo through its paces properly.

In terms of the wide-angle prints, the larger size makes them feel much more premium than the smaller rectangular formats that mimic your smartphone pictures and is much more akin to the classic square instant prints that were once more popular. The Wide Evo has a dedicated button on the front of it that turns off the wide-angle, but I can't see myself personally using this a lot, but it's a nice feature that nods to its hybrid functionality.

Could this replace the Fujifilm Instax Mini Evo as the best hybrid instant camera? I couldn't possibly say without having tested it, but I'll be sure to report back with more details once I've got a sample in.

How I tested the Fujifilm Instax Wide Evo

• A one hour hands-on session at the UK launch event
• I tried various filters, two lenses and selfie mode

My time with the Fujifilm Instax Wide Evo was very brief – just a one hour session at the UK launch event in London. However, during this time, I had decent chance to get a feel for the camera; how it handles for regular photos and selfies, plus the various filter and film effects possible through the physical controls on the camera.

This review first appeared in issue 357 of PC Pro.

This year’s update to Asus’ Vivobook Pro 15 makes one thing obvious: the days when you had to pay over £2,000 for a powerful mobile workstation are gone. Packed inside this 1.8kg monster you’ll find Intel’s top-end Core Ultra 9 185H processor and GeForce RTX 4060 graphics, and with Nvidia’s Studio software it’s ready to go with a bunch of professional apps.

Asus certainly has its eye on designers here, even building a dial into the top left of the touchpad. If you’re dexterous enough to keep within its 3cm diameter then you can use it to whizz through timelines in Premiere Pro, adjust brush sizes in Photoshop and switch font sizes in PowerPoint. It’s no replacement for a hardware dial, but could be a time-saver on the move.

The huge touchpad includes a dial for use in apps such as Photoshop (Image credit: Future)

The Pantone-validated OLED display is another plus point. Not merely because it’s incredibly sharp, thanks to 2,880 x 1,620 pixels across a 15.6in diagonal, but also because it ships with presets for sRGB, DCI-P3 and Display P3. Or you can stick with its native color gamut, which covers 99% of the DCI-P3 space (with a 115% volume) and reproduces colors with near-perfect accuracy. It hit a respectable 387cd/m2 in SDR mode, and with VESA DisplayHDR True Black 600 certification it should be no surprise that films look incredible.

There’s a fine pair of speakers here, too, with vocals coming through with particular clarity. That quality extends to the 1440p webcam. If you find, as I did, that the captured audio isn’t as clear as you hoped, head into the settings within the MyAsus app and switch off all the AI enhancements.

At 1.8kg this is no lightweight, but in return you get pro levels of power (Image credit: Future)

This app is also where you’ll find the color gamut options and control over the fan settings. I don’t see the point of buying a laptop as powerful as this and not putting those fans into Performance mode; they’re noisier, but you’re rewarded with significantly faster frame rates in games: Metro Exodus Enhanced’s averages went up by over 10%, for instance, moving from 61fps at 1080p High settings to 68fps. And 3DMark Time Spy jumped from 7,969 to 8,605.

If you buy this laptop then you’ll get faster results still, as the system Asus sent me had RTX 4050 graphics rather than RTX 4060. As mentioned in the HP Omen Transcend review, you’ll struggle to get above 120fps to take advantage of the screen’s 120Hz refresh rate in most games – I only breached 100fps in Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p medium and Shadow of the Tomb Raider at 1080p High – but all current AAA games will play fluidly at reduced settings.

(Image credit: Future)

Our test machine came with a Core 7 Ultra, but shipping units include the Core Ultra 9 185H. With Asus providing combined CPU and GPU power of 125W it will never feel sluggish. The thick – by modern standards – chassis also has plenty of room for a chunky heatsink and fans, but the drawback is battery life. It lasted for 8hrs 19mins in PCMark’s video-rundown test, but switching to Modern Office dropped that to 5hrs 59mins. You’ll need to take the meaty 200W power supply with you.

This has its own power socket, which sits on the right-hand side of the chassis along with Thunderbolt 4, USB-C and USB-A ports. And a gigabit Ethernet connector, 3.5mm jack and HDMI 2.1 output. Safe to say it’s crowded. A single USB-A port and SD card reader sit on the left, along with the heat exhaust vents.

Asus includes every port you’ll need on the right-hand side of the chassis (Image credit: Future)

With a crisp keyboard, complete with number pad, this is a laptop computer that has appeal across the spectrum. I can see reasons for writers, gamers, designers and video editors to reach for their wallets.

You’ll notice its bulk and weight when travelling, but sometimes only a powerhouse will do. And that’s exactly what the Asus Vivobook Pro 15 OLED is.

We also ranked the best laptops for animation.

This review first appeared in issue 357 of PC Pro.

We were hoping to review the AOC 27B3CF2 in this Labs, as you can buy it for a similar price to the 27B3CA2 and they’re identical but for one factor: the stand. Where the version with A2 at the end has a lightweight plastic stand that keeps the monitor at a fixed position, with the bottom roughly 110mm above your desk, the F2 offers 110mm of height adjustment.

Both monitors offer the tantalizing prospect of a 27in USB-C docking monitor for around £150, and to hit that price point AOC has had to make some compromises. Let’s start with the features: you only get two USB-A ports (5Gbits/sec), and nothing in the way of extras, unless you count the 3.5mm headphone socket. Aside from this, only an HDMI port graces the rear.

Nor do you get hedonistic features such as a stand with swiveling capabilities, but as this unit weighs a mere 4.4kg it’s easy to maneuver and to carry round an office. At least you get some tilting action, with 5° forward and 23° back.

(Image credit: Future)

Naturally, this is a Full HD monitor rather than 1440p. As with all its Full HD 27in rivals, you lose sharpness around text edges, and there simply isn’t as much room for details, which makes it less useful for workers who like to view two documents side by side, especially if one of those documents is a detail-packed spreadsheet. However, whites look fine, so we were happy to use it for day-to-day tasks, and with 65W power delivery over USB-C it could be rolled out in offices where workers bring in their own laptops.

You shouldn’t expect bags of color; next to the Acer Vero B277 Ebmiprzxv, there’s only one winner. It covers a reasonable 92% of the sRGB gamut, though, and an average Delta E of 1.35 suggests respectable color accuracy. The one area of our testing where it fell down was brightness and contrast uniformity: out of 24 test areas, DisplayCal only gave one the green light.

We would love to end on a complimentary word about speaker or OSD quality, but sadly, no. In “Englishmen in New York”, Sting sounds like he’s singing down a phone line from the 1970s, and AOC’s OSD is looking increasingly dated compared to rivals. It’s okay once you get used to it, but there’s an unnecessary learning curve.

All of which means that there really is only one reason to buy this screen: that you’re desperate for USB-C docking and only have £150 to spend. In which case we recommend you seek out its 27B3CF2 sibling with an adjustable height stand.

We've also ranked the best small business software.

Hohem iSteady M7: two-minute review

Adding yet another premium option to the burgeoning smartphone stabilizer market, the Hohem iSteady M7 is Hohem's latest top-of-the-range gimbal. It’s built to carry almost any smartphone – including heavier or larger models that other gimbals can’t effectively stabilize – and comes with a wide range of features to justify its high price and (compared to some) bulkier proportions.

Hohem supplies the iSteady M7 with a detachable mini tripod (which screws into the standard tripod mounting point at the base of the gimbal handle), a detachable AI tracking module/fill light, and two USB charging cables: one USB-C to USB-C and one USB-C to USB-A. There’s no AC adapter included, so you’ll have to connect this cable to something else to recharge the battery. All of the above fits snugly into a hard-shell zip-up carry case, which also has a net-covered space in the lid to store extras such as manuals or additional cables.

The stabilizer folds flat for storage, with three locks keeping the gimbal arm firmly in place. When it’s time for use, these locks have to be manually disengaged so that the arm can move freely, and the arm also needs some simple manual balancing once the phone has been mounted. For mounting, the phone is placed inside a firm spring-loaded grip, which can be rotated 90º to switch the phone between landscape (16:9) and portrait (9:16) orientation.

Image 1 of 4

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)Image 2 of 4

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)Image 3 of 4

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)Image 4 of 4

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)

The grip and gimbal motor are powerful enough to accommodate smartphones up to 500g in weight, and 12.5mm in thickness. That impressed me, given that the last flagship gimbal I reviewed, the Zhiyun Smooth 5S AI, can only manage phones up to 300g and 10mm. If you own one of the larger smartphone models (including folding phones like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6) or like to have a chunky case or lens accessory fitted to your handset, this extra capacity could make all the difference.

Hohem has designed and built the iSteady M7 very well. The gimbal felt comfortable in my hand, and I found all the major controls – from the front trigger to the customizable zoom/focus/tilt/pan wheel on the left – to be thoughtfully located and easy to access. There’s even a built-in extension rod, which allowed me to add an extra 20cm of distance to the gimbal arm and achieve some otherwise impossible shooting angles.

For my money, though, the best design touch (and one feature that no other stabilizer offers, to my knowledge) is the 1.4-inch touchscreen panel on the handle. Not only does this enable access to a range of settings via swipes and taps, which meant I didn’t need to use the Hohem Joy companion app to delve into some of the stabilizer’s deeper functions, but it also unclips from the handle to work as a remote control unit. This meant I was able to set the iSteady M7 up on a flat surface using its tripod, then use the remote to control gimbal movements and more from a distance of up to about 10m.

Image 1 of 4

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)Image 2 of 4

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)Image 3 of 4

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)Image 4 of 4

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)

It doesn’t stop there. The iSteady M7, like the Zhiyun Smooth 5S AI, comes with a small removable module for AI-assisted subject tracking. This mounts securely onto the gimbal arm (facing either front- or backwards) and, via a tiny camera, enables tracking of human subjects no matter which camera app you’re using on your phone. Some stabilizers will only track when using the manufacturer’s app, but this module meant I could use the native iPhone app, Blackmagic Cam, TikTok, or any other app I preferred. The Hohem Joy app itself is fine, although thanks to some poorly translated text and odd design choices, I would rather use other apps with which I’m more familiar. There’s room for improvement there, then.

The module also sports a really useful LED fill light (which can be customized for brightness and color) but perhaps more impressive is the way it combines really well with the remote unit. Not only was I able to preview the tracking camera’s POV via the remote screen, but I could also double-tap on the screen to track other objects. It’s far beyond what you get with the Zhiyun gimbal’s AI tracking.

Image 1 of 2

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)Image 2 of 2

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)

As for the 3-axis gimbal stabilization itself, I have absolutely no complaints. The usual modes – Pan Follow, Pan Tilt Follow, and POV – are supplemented by a full custom mode that allowed me to tailor movement speeds to my needs, and the ability of the gimbal to rotate through 360º on the pan axis gave me a lot of freedom to get creative with camera movement. The settings menu also features an ultra-wide-angle mode, which moves the gimbal arm out of the way of the camera during ultra-wide shots.

With a solid battery life of up to 12 hours with the gimbal largely static or eight hours with AI tracking enabled, you may want to pack a power bank for long weekend shoots, but I’m quite happy with the capacity. A USB-C socket on the gimbal arm even allows you to charge your phone’s battery while it’s mounted – just another example of the sort of thoughtful design touches that make the Hohem iSteady M7 arguably the best phone gimbal on the market right now.

Hohem iSteady M7 review: price and availability

The Hohem iSteady M7 is available now, and priced at around $299 / £269 / A$459. That puts it among the priciest of smartphone stabilizers out there, but given its spec level, I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing – particularly if you own a heavier handset that cheaper stabilizers aren't able to accommodate.

Hohem iSteady M7: specs Hohem iSteady M7 review: Also consider

Insta360 Flow Pro
Insta360’s compact foldable gimbal feels like the pick of the current mobile stabilizer bunch – at least where portability is concerned. With excellent battery life, and the ability to subject track when using third-party iPhone apps (or the native iPhone camera), it’s an impressive all-rounder that’ll fit into a large pocket when not in use.

Read our Insta360 Flow Pro review

Zhiyun Smooth 5S AI
With similar AI-driven app-agnostic tracking skills, Zhiyun’s flagship stabilizer is perhaps the Hohem iSteady M7’s main rival. It falls behind on several features, however, with no removable touchscreen remote and a much lighter maximum phone capacity – which is probably why it’s now substantially cheaper than the M7.

Read our Zhiyun Smooth 5S AI review

Should I buy the Hohem iSteady M7?

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen) Buy it if...

You own a heavy, bulky smartphone
With its 500g weight capacity and ability to grip devices as thick as 12.5mm, this is the go-to stabilizer for anyone owning a large and heavy smartphone. Most rivals don’t come close to its payload limits.

You want a highly flexible gimbal
Thanks to app-agnostic tracking, the built-in extension rod, the touchscreen remote control and its fully customizable pan, tilt and follow settings, the iSteady M7 is probably the most versatile smartphone stabilizer on the market.

Don't buy it if...

You need a compact, portable stabilizer
There are lots of smartphone stabilizers that fold down small enough to fit into a small bag or even a coat pocket. This is not one of them. While it’s not especially large or heavy, you’ll need at least a small backpack or similar to carry the iSteady M7.

You’re on a tight budget
You can pick up effective, well-equipped stabilizers for half the asking price of the iSteady M7, so check if you need all of its features and payload capacity before shelling out your hard-earned cash.

How I tested the Hohem iSteady M7

• One week of use
• Tested with an iPhone 13
• Used for B-roll and vlogs

I used the Hohem iSteady M7 in and around my home for a week, using it to record footage both handheld and with it sat on the ground or a desktop using its tripod. I tested it with my Apple iPhone 13 and several camera apps, including the native iPhone camera app and Hohem Joy, and used the phone’s front and rear cameras to record b-roll and vlog videos.

First reviewed January 2025

This review first appeared in issue 357 of PC Pro.

You can usually be confident of aggressive pricing from Acer, and it doesn’t disappoint here. The next cheapest 4K screen, BenQ’s PD2706U, costs £399, while the BenQ BL2790QT costs £270 and includes a mere 1440p panel. No contest, surely?

In some ways, no. Photographers or film lovers who love detail will appreciate the level of detail on show here, and if you have good eyesight and devour spreadsheets – or tend to work with two windows side by side – the same is true for business use.

Technically, this is a superior panel too, as it’s a true 8-bit display that uses FRC to increase color coverage to 1.07 billion colors. The BenQ BL2790QT, by contrast, is a 6-bit panel with FRC taking its color range to 16.7 million colors. In reality, there’s little between them: the Vero covers 75% of the DCI-P3 space to the 73% peak of the BenQ, and both offer similar levels of (excellent) color accuracy.

Whites look whiter the higher you push the brightness, but this increases power consumption: at 200cd/m2 the Vero wanted 20W, pushing up to 24W at full brightness of around 280cd/m2, though head to the OSD and you can activate Max Brightness to take it to a searing 420cd/m2. That’s 70cd/m2 more than Acer claims.

Switch to HDR mode and the display will boost the contrast between black and white in films and games. And while it offers only a 60Hz refresh rate, the 4ms response time and AMD FreeSync support keeps action looking smooth. With a mediocre set of speakers inside, though, you’ll want to take advantage of the 3.5mm jack sitting next to two HDMI inputs and one DisplayPort at the rear. That’s your lot: there’s no USB-C here, no USB hub and no RJ45 port.

The 4K resolution provides lots of onscreen detail (Image credit: Future)

The stand is nice and solid, with a huge 165mm of height adjustment and a phenomenal amount of movement: up to 35° tilt and very nearly 360° of swivel. We also like the OSD, with a trio of shortcut buttons (two of which can be reassigned) and a mini joystick for speedy control.

One final note on the Vero branding. This marks out Acer’s most environmentally friendly products, and here that boils down to the use of more recycled plastic than a typical monitor. That’s a worthy move, but ideally we’d be looking for an EPEAT Gold rating rather than Silver, and some design tweaks to make it easier to repair and recycle at the end of life.

But let’s not be too critical. Only Eizo is truly leading the way here, and that’s reflected in the price of its monitors. You may not get much in the way of frills, but a good-quality IPS panel with a 4K resolution is hard to argue with at £269.

We also ranked the best monitors for dual set-ups.

This review first appeared in issue 357 of PC Pro.

3CX is the place to go for the best IP PBX services, as its phone system software offers an unbeatable range of call-handling features. Not content to rest on its laurels, 3CX has been working hard on development and the version 20 on review represents the most significant update we’ve seen for many years.

Security takes center stage here, with 3CX hardening its systems against cyberattacks by using a zero trust model across the board for much stricter access control policies. Only allowing the native 3CX softphone app to be deployed from the Microsoft store adds extra security, and it lets 3CX update it as required without having to tinker with the main Phone System build.

One of the biggest changes is with the admin console. Previously, there was a separate management interface, but this has been redesigned and integrated into the client app so admins don’t need separate consoles to use and manage the system.

Admin functions and call handling are all neatly integrated (Image credit: Future)

Phone System is available in four plans, with the 3CX Free cloud–hosted edition aimed at micro businesses with up to ten users. The Small Business edition, also cloud-hosted by 3CX, supports up to 20 users and starts at £175 per year, while the Professional and Enterprise editions increase the number of features hugely and can be run on-site, in a private cloud or hosted by 3CX.

For this early review, Phone System V20 was only available for Debian Linux 12 so we chose to virtualize it on the lab’s Windows Server 2022 Hyper-V system. Deployment was undemanding: we assigned the downloaded ISO file to a new VM, booted it up and followed the brief Debian install wizard, which finished by loading Phone System and providing a link to its web console.

The new client interface will be a big surprise for existing users as the dashboard’s system performance graphs and quick access icons have been removed to make way for far more information about the Phone System status, configuration and event logs. All admin features are still easily accessible from the left menu, and a sidebar next to it provides direct access to calls, chats and voicemail, with icons to the top right provided for one-click links to a dial pad and availability status settings.

The new 3CX portal provides lots of information about your IP PBX (Image credit: Future)

There are some on-premises prerequisites, as you still need to create forwarding rules on your firewall for Phone System’s SIP and RTP port ranges. The system’s fully qualified domain name (FQDN) must now be resolvable internally and externally so your firewall needs to support split DNS, but smaller businesses can make all these issues disappear by opting to let 3CX host Phone System V20 in the cloud.

You’ll need a paid-for SIP trunk to enable VoIP calls; we used the excellent UK-based T4com Ltd, which is on 3CX’s supported provider list. Adding the trunk was simple: after entering the main trunk phone number, account and password, it was ready for action in one minute.

Adding new users and provisioning IP phones is just as easy as with previous versions, while ring groups, call queues and a digital receptionist ensure calls are never missed. Call forwarding allows users to redirect calls when they’re working from home, and 3CX has added 2FA user authentication plus integration with Microsoft 365, Google Workspace and a host of CRM apps.

3CX Phone System V20 is our recommended choice for businesses that want to manage their own VoIP system. Available in a range of affordable plans, it can be hosted in the cloud or on-premises, and this latest version adds an impressive range of new features.

We've also rated the best interactive voice response services.

Cherry XTRFY M68 Pro: two-minute review

At first glance, the Cherry XTRFY M68 Pro is rather restrained in its appearance as gaming mice go. Its straightfoward design is rather inconspicuous, and the white model I've reviewed here is only offset by black side buttons and accents on the scroll wheel. The logo is inconspicuous and there’s no RGB lighting either. So far, so conventional.

However, the design of the Cherry XTRFY M68 Pro's front end is less so. The mouse buttons are raised steeply at the back, and curve down sharply before cutting short, which means the contact point is biased towards your fingertips, more so than I’ve experienced with many other gaming mice.

The M68 Pro weighs just 55g, and there aren’t too many full-size wireless gaming mice lighter than this. It undercuts the Razer DeathAdder V3 Pro, our pick as the best wireless gaming mouse, by eight grams. The Turtle Beach Burst 2 Air is one of the rare few that’s even leaner, tipping the scales at just 47g.

The two primary buttons on the M68 Pro feel solid yet easy to fully depress, and the same is true of the side buttons. The scroll wheel is notched well, making for smooth yet controlled spins, and the rubber layer offers plenty of grip, helping to make clicks feel secure. Overall, the M68 Pro seems to be a well-constructed gaming mouse.

The skates are quite thin, so you do feel hard desktop surfaces a little when maneuvering. Despite this, the M68 Pro doesn’t scratch or bottom out, as other gaming mice with insufficient padding do. This is impressive, especially considering there are only two skates on the top and bottom (although the included spare set features a piece for the sensor too). This is still a mouse I would recommend only using with a mouse pad, though, in order to get the best out of it.

The USB port is also located on the right rear side of the M68 Pro, a placement that will no doubt prove contentious, bucking the typical front-end trend (perhaps the snub-nose design leaves no internal room for this placement).

However, it does have the advantage of eliminating drag, although the included braided cable for wired play is light enough to make this no concern regardless. The port is also deeply recessed, so there’s no fear of accidental disconnection. The one major proviso, though, is that you’re right-handed and have your desktop on the right; if it’s on your left, then the cable is liable to get in the way.

Pressing the bottom button, which toggles between various settings and modes, can be awkward, as it sits flush with the underside surface. This is especially the case when pressing in combination with the two side buttons to toggle between the sensor modes, and I struggled to activate it consistently.

(Image credit: Future)

In fact, altering most of the settings on the M68 Pro is very awkward, since many require various odd button combinations. Worst of all, the buttons still register normal input when you're trying to activate the combinations, which means you have to be very careful about what window you’re on and where the cursor is.

These combinations are a necessary compromise given the lack of buttons and software, but keeping them active when holding them down is a serious misstep. Another gripe I have is that selected parameters are only indicated via different colors displayed on the small side LED, so you’ll likely have to keep referring back to the manual til they’re ingrained in your memory.

Once you get your head around these button combinations, though, there’s a wide selection of adjustments present on the M68 Pro. Despite having no software, there are eight onboard CPI settings to choose from, offering enough scope to dial in levels precise enough for most gamers. There are also four debounce time increments, ranging from 2ms to 12ms, which again should be more than enough to meet individual preferences.

There are only two lift-off distances (1mm and 2mm) to choose from, although this isn’t out of the ordinary, and while there are six polling rates to choose from (or four when wired, topping out at 1K), I can’t see many people wanting more than three for low (125Hz), mid (1K), and high (8K) values. There’s also an option to toggle motion sync on and off.

(Image credit: Future)

Once you start gaming, though, the M68 Pro starts to shine. That aforementioned fingertip emphasis encouraged by sloping mouse buttons makes for a more tactile experience. It meant I could get a better grip when lifting off before swipes, and somehow gave me a greater sense of connection to the on-screen action, especially when aiming. The different sensor modes are also effective, with Pro Gaming mode being remarkably snappy and precise, perfect for FPS titles.

Cherry claims the M68 Pro’s battery can last up to 90 hours on a single charge. Although I wasn’t able to get an exact measurement, I can say that after several days of testing, the LED was still green, indicating a percentage of between 75-100%.

To show the battery level, you have to hold down both side buttons and the left mouse button for three seconds, another inconvenient method if you’re still connected to your machine, since again the buttons will still operate. There are four colors representing the 25% increments, and since there’s no software, there’s no way to get a more accurate assessment than this.

All things considered, the M68 Pro is a high-caliber wireless gaming mouse with a few design quirks that may please some but deter others. It’s not what you’d call cheap, but it does beat perhaps its closest rival, the Razer DeathAdder V3 Pro, when it comes to pricing.

The DeathAdder can be tweaked with Razer’s in-depth Synapse software, though, which is more convenient. And if you can live without an 8K polling rate and an inbuilt battery, the Cooler Master MM311 is a viable alternative with exceptional value, given it’s still wireless.

(Image credit: Future) Cherry XTRFY M68 Pro: price & availability

• $129 / £139 / AU$214
• Black, white, and Team Vitality editions
• Mid-range value

The M68 Pro costs $129 / £139 / AU$214. There’s one white colorway and two black variants: one with gray accents and another with yellow that also sports the logo of esports organization Team Vitality in place of Cherry XTRFY’s.

It’s cheaper than our pick for the best wireless gaming mouse, the Razer DeathAdder V3 Pro, yet still competes with it spec-for-spec, as both have an 8K polling rate and the M68 Pro is even lighter.

However, there are more budget-friendly wireless options around, such as the Cooler Master MM311, which is the best gaming mouse for those on a budget – it’s massively cheaper than the M68 Pro and many other wireless gaming mice for that matter. However, its polling rate tops out at 1K, and it requires a single AA battery. Still, if you’re not after eSport-level performance, this may be a better alternative.

Cherry XTRFY M68 Pro: specs Should I buy the Cherry XTRFY M68 Pro? Buy it if...

You want elite performance
The 8K polling rate will delight many pro-level players, and the overall performance when gaming is terrific.

You want something you can really grip
The short, raking front end makes the M68 Pro a joy to hold in my opinion - although it may not be to every gamer’s taste.

Don't buy it if...

You want multiple connectivity modes
There’s only one way to connect wirelessly, and using the mouse in wired mode may not suit everyone’s setup, considering the USB-C port is on the right.

You’re on a budget
Although it’s slightly cheaper than some big-name rivals, including Razer, there are alternatives offering better value if you don’t need that ultra-high polling rate.

Cherry XTRFY M68 Pro: also consider

Cooler Master MM311
If you can live without that 8K polling rate – which more casual gamers can – then the MM311 is an excellent budget choice. In our review, we found it was still capable enough thanks to its great performance. It doesn’t have an inbuilt battery, requiring an AA battery to power, but that’s a minor inconvenience considering its price tag. Read our full Cooler Master MM311 review.

Razer DeathAdder V3 Pro
Another state-of-the-art gaming mouse with an 8K polling rate, the DeathAdder V3 Pro is only marginally more expensive than the M68 Pro, yet it has the advantage of integrating with Razer’s excellent Synapse software. It’s hard to find fault with this gaming mouse, which is why it currently claims the top spot as the best wireless gaming mouse overall in our view. Read our Razer DeathAdder V3 Pro review.

How I tested the Cherry XTRFY M68 Pro

• Tested for several days
• Played various games
• 10+ years PC gaming experience

I tested the M68 Pro for several days. During this time, I used it for gaming, working, and casual tasking.

I played titles such as Counter-Strike 2, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater - Master Collection Version, and Fear the Spotlight, in order to cover a variety of genres.

I have been PC gaming for over 10 years, and have experienced many mice during that time. I have also reviewed numerous gaming mice, all with various connectivity options, sizes, polling rates, and features.

First reviewed: October 2024

Read more about how we test

This review first appeared in issue 357 of PC Pro.

A letter can make a big difference in a monitor name, and none more so than here. The ViewSonic VG3456 is a highly affordable flat-screen monitor that you can now purchase for around £250, while the VG3456C is curved – exactly like the AOC CU34P3CV and Philips 34B1U5600CH. They also share the same 3,440 x 1,440 resolution, giving you huge amounts of space on which to spread your windows, and VA technology.

The ViewSonic is the most stylish of the three, with slim bezels and a fuzzy speaker-like finish to the bottom edge of the monitor. We only wish the pair of 5W speakers could live up to the billing, but like so many others here they’re better suited to speech radio and web calls than listening to music or enjoying films.

We were also struck by this monitor’s tilting skills: you can push it backwards by 40°, which may well be the killer feature for some situations. While its height adjustment is limited to 110mm, that should be enough for most setups, and we’d give it a firm tick for stand quality overall: you feel like you’re buying a high-quality piece of kit.

(Image credit: Future)

The panel is much more average. Rather than true 8-bit color, this is a 6-bit + FRC affair, and this is one reason why its gamut is more limited than its curved 34in rivals. In native mode, it covers 74% of the DCI-P3 gamut compared to 88% and 85% for the AOC and Philips. But if you’re happy with the sRGB gamut then it’s fine, covering 97% out of a 104% volume. Accuracy is strong, too, with an average Delta E of 0.69.

With a stated peak brightness of 400cd/m2, we were surprised to find the monitor maxed out at 280cd/m2in our initial tests. But then we went into the (excellent) OSD and discovered that ViewSonic ships it with the Energy Saving mode switched on; deactivating this pushed the panel up to 435cd/m2. This also boosts the whiteness of the whites, but the penalty comes in power consumption: 48W compared to 31W at 200cd/m2.

ViewSonic doesn’t load this monitor with extras, so if you’re hoping for a webcam or KVM switch then you’ll be disappointed (there’s no USB-B input, either). But it does cover the docking station basics, with an Ethernet port and a USB-C video input that can deliver 98W of power. All four USB-A ports are 3.2 Gen 1, so 5Gbits/sec, with two sensibly positioned on the left-hand side.

It adds up to a solid curved 34in monitor, even if we prefer the punchier colors from the AOC and Philips. If the price drops it will become a strong choice.

We also rated the best monitors for working from home.