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These sit-to-stand desks are comfortable, easy to use, good for your health and tested by our CNET experts.

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In an age of hybrid work environments, having a reliable docking station can significantly enhance productivity. The Plugable USB-C Dual 4K Display HDMI or DisplayPort Docking Station is designed for professionals who need multi-monitor support, excellent connectivity, and powerful charging options, all with DisplayLink baked in. That's what this Plugable dock has to offer.

It may be tailored to Mac, but with the design language and the use of DisplayLink, it can be used with any operating system. Having reviewed many of the best laptop docking stations, I have tried it with Windows, iPadOS, and MacOS. While the latter two have limitations on-screen usage, it's good to know that you are set to go with multiple displays in one way or another.

Plugable USB-C Dual 4K HDMI or DisplayPort Dock: Price and Availability

The Plugable USB-C Dual 4K HDMI or DisplayPort Dock is available for $200 directly from Plugable's website or Amazon and is backed by a two-year warranty with lifetime support from the Plugable team.

(Image credit: Collin Probst // Future) Plugable USB-C Dual 4K HDMI or DisplayPort Dock: Unboxing and First Impressions

The Plugable USB-C Dual 4K HDMI or DisplayPort Dock is a very simple-looking dock overall. The packaging is simple, the labels are clear, and the inclusion of DisplayLink is prominent. What’s great, though, is that while this dock is relatively wide, it has clean lines, flat sides (not rounded or protruding), and is pretty thin. This makes it a perfect candidate to be mounted, in my opinion, and that’s precisely what I did.

The only thing that sets this apart from a simple plug-and-play is if you will use the DisplayLink feature. If you are not using this with a MacBook or only plan on using one monitor, you can run this dock as a plug-and-play solution. I run my desk this way about 70% of the time. The other 30% of the time, I add another monitor or swap out monitors to test at this desk. When I do that, I need to run the DisplayLink driver and software on my MacBook Pro, which is super easy to download and relatively lightweight.

(Image credit: Collin Probst // Future) Plugable USB-C Dual 4K HDMI or DisplayPort Dock: Design and Build Quality Specs

Video Output: Dual 4K @ 60Hz via 2x HDMI or 2x DisplayPort.
Ports: 2x HDMI, 2x DisplayPort, 2x USB-C, 4x USB 3.0, SD/microSD readers, Ethernet, 3.5mm jack.
Power Delivery: 100W charging for laptops.
Compatibility: macOS, Windows, ChromeOS (driver installation required for macOS).

The port arrangement on this dock is laid out with desk organization in mind. The front-facing quick-access ports are easily accessible, and the backports are nicely arranged and easy to work with, even when facing away from the desk. All the monitor connections and devices that generally stay connected (rather than get unplugged and plugged in frequently) are also neatly organized.

The USB-C on the side runs to the laptop cable tucked away so I can route it around my desk shelf or directly to my laptop. In my case, I used one of my new favorite accessories, the right-angle 40Gbps USB-C adapter, to help keep everything tucked away and tidy.

I could see this dock used at home and in traditional office workspaces. However, I would not want this to be a portable dock to take with me from place to place, as it is designed to stay on a desk or workstation.

Plugable USB-C Dual 4K HDMI or DisplayPort Dock: In use

So far, my experience with this dock has been smooth sailing. It easily handles my monitor usage, and since it has both HDMI and DisplayPort, it has made running my vast array of monitors quite effortless -- no adapters necessary. The USB-A ports are great, and for some setups, that might be all you need; however, if you are working with large files or a lot of newer generation tech that is USB-C or even Thunderbolt, you may want to check out a different model of Plugable docks.

The best part of this dock is that it has built-in DisplayLink, allowing me to run multiple monitors on my otherwise limited MacBook Pro. It's annoying, but I'm thankful for companies like Plugable that put DisplayLink in their docks so that I can circumvent this limitation on my setup.

(Image credit: Collin Probst // Future)

(Image credit: Collin Probst // Future) Plugable USB-C Dual 4K HDMI or DisplayPort Dock: Final verdict

The Plugable USB-C Docking Station offers exceptional functionality for power users who demand high-resolution multi-monitor setups and robust connectivity. While its reliance on drivers and lack of USB-C/Thunderbolt may deter some, its performance and built-in DisplayLink make it a worthwhile investment for many.

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COSORI Smart Nutrition Scale: Two-minute review

(Image credit: Future)

New for 2025 in the world of health and fitness technology is the enticing COSORI Smart Nutrition Scale. I actually first encountered it on TikTok where I've seen a couple of viral posts about it, and now COSORI has officially launched the Smart Kitchen Scale in the UK. See the Price and Availability section for full details.

As a fitness enthusiast with an interest in food and nutrition, but as someone who often struggles to track food and count calories, the COSORI seemed right up my street, and after my initial go at using the scale I have to say I'm really impressed. It's not perfect, and the methodology has a couple of obvious flaws I'll get to, but this is a nifty little kitchen gadget that will catch the eye of guests and make a great sub-£50/$50 gift for the gym enthusiast in your life.

Out of the box, 6he COSORI feels premium and well-built, which you'd hope for a scale that costs nearly 50 bucks. The plastic base houses three AAA batteries, while the platform is made up of food-grade 304 stainless steel that's designed to be easy to clean. The sizing is pretty generous, it's a lot larger than my bog-standard kitchen scale and feels more useful as a result, without being unwieldy.

(Image credit: Future)

The COSORI Smart Kitchen Scale is designed to provide you with accurate information about the food you eat, revealing the exact amount of calories, protein, fat, carbs, and micronutrients like fiber based on weight. Naturally, it requires a companion app where you'll access the database of food, scanning barcodes (or searching for food) as you go.

The scale arrives ready to use, with a QR code included for the VeSync app, I'd say installation, registration, and pairing all took less than a minute. The process to set up the scale was extremely easy and straightforward, with zero hiccups. So far, so good.

(Image credit: Future)

The COSORI Smart Kitchen Scale is so easy to use that there's very little to explain when it comes to its functionality. The VeSync app, which syncs with Apple Health and Fitbit, includes a daily food-tracking platform. You enter your target calories and your desired breakdown of protein, carbs, and fat, the big three 'macronutrients' essential to balancing a diet, shedding weight, or building muscle.

Once your numbers are locked in, you log food just as you would in apps like MyFitnessPal. The most convenient way to do this is by scanning barcodes. The process is super snappy, but has an obvious flaw. The food data comes from Nutritionix, which boasts nearly one million food items. However, if your food isn't listed, you'll need to enter the details manually or pick a substitute.

I did a quick go-around of my fridge and was surprised to find eggs and Greek yogurt from one household UK supermarket didn't show up. However, eggs from another large supermarket showed up just fine, as did some frozen berries from my freezer, and a body-building mainstay: Pringles potato crisps. Your mileage will definitely vary when it comes to what foods are supported, and might even depend on where you live and shop.

Manually entering the information isn't the end of the world, but it's certainly frustrating when the barcode scanner doesn't throw up results.

(Image credit: Future)

Once you've successfully identified your food, you simply pop it on the scale and the COSORI will automatically weigh it and provide you with a breakdown of all the nutrients in the food. Once you're happy with your amount, you simply tap 'Save and Add More', and you're done. Congrats, you've successfully logged the exact weight and calorific breakdown of the food you're about to eat.

In principle, you can use the COSORI Smart Kitchen Scale to track an entire day's worth of eating, with calorie tracking accuracy down to the nearest gram.

So who would benefit? While the COSORI can be used to simply weigh something, this is a lot of money to spend on a scale that you use purely for weight. The COSORI really needs to be used to its full potential to justify the outlay. I'd say that gym-goers, bodybuilders, and anyone trying to build a food regime to complement their fitness plan would absolutely love the COSORI.

It would especially lend itself to people who like to try new foods, mix up recipes, and experiment. By contrast, if you meal prep seven days of boiled chicken, rice, and broccoli every Sunday afternoon, you might be better off with a regular scale.

(Image credit: Future)

The COSORI is particularly helpful for giving you insight into calories and ingredients which don't have an obvious calorie makeup, like a spoonful of peanut butter. I distinctly recall one TikToker being mortified at just how many calories were to be found in a fairly meager serving of peanut butter, for instance. If you take an interest in your diet, calories, and portions, the COSORI could take you from a portion enthusiast to a culinary Rain Man.

While you could in theory use the COSORI alongside something like MyFitnessPal to track your food, you'd lose out on the snappy, automatic tracking and instant results that make the COSORI an attractive package. Therefore, anyone who's already heavily invested in a different food or fitness app might not want to make the switch. The COSORI app even features recipes, including recipes you can use with the best air fryers (some of which, coincidentally, are also made by COSORI).

COSORI Smart Nutrition Scale: Price and availability

(Image credit: Future)

• $39.99 / £47.42
• No AUS availability
• Different brand name in the US

The COSORI Smart Kitchen Scale is available now in the UK from Amazon at the cost of £47.42. In the U.S, you can buy one under the brand name Etekcity, also from Amazon, at the cost of $39.99. Both COSORI and Etekcity are subsidiaries of the VeSync brand, and these are the same product. Unfortunately, the product is not currently available in Australia.

COSORI Smart Nutrition Scale: Specifications COSORI Smart Nutrition Scale: Scorecard COSORI Smart Nutrition Scale: Should I buy?

(Image credit: Future) Buy if it...

You care deeply about food and nutrition

This scale is the perfect companion for anyone tracking calories or trying to hit a fitness goal.

You want an easy way to track your calories

It doesn't get easier than scanning your food and then weighing it.

You tend to eat lots of different foods and create new recipes

This scale is particularly useful for tracking a varied diet and for people who like to mix it up a bit. View Deal

Don't buy it if...

You just want a scale to weigh food

If you don't care about the app or the tracking insights, this is too expensive as a normal scale.

There's not a lot of variation in your diet

While still useful, the COSORI will be less valuable to people who tend to eat the same foods over and over again.

Also consider

(Image credit: Future)

The Renpho Kitchen Scales are an obvious alternative to the COSORI, and a lot cheaper. However, you won't get that epic LCD display the nutritional information, and it's a bit smaller too.

How I tested

I paired the COSORI Smart Kitchen Scale with my iPhone, exploring all of the features of the app. I used the scale to weigh a number of household foods to determine accuracy, as well as the barcode scanner to test the food library function.

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(Image credit: Andy Wong)

As someone who takes a fairly laissez-faire approach to skincare despite having storied difficulties with acne and oiliness, I’m excited to see that beauty tech is on the rise. This year at CES 2025, I saw everything from LED face masks to smart mirrors making debut appearances alongside the latest and greatest gadgetry, however, one of the most exciting arrivals was L'Oréal’s new skin testing device, the Cell Bioprint.

Made in collaboration with Korean start-up Nanoentek, this tabletop device uses advanced proteomics (the study of how protein composition affects skin aging) to determine the past, present and future of your skin health, all in a five-minute test.

I had the opportunity to try it out on-site, and I learned a lot about my skin, including some surprising insights I’ll be taking heed of in my new skincare regime.

Want a quick run-down? Check out the timestamped video below.

Lab on a chip

So, how does the Cell BioPrint actually work? The test itself is deceptively simple, but the science behind the scenes is truly impressive.

The test begins by dabbing stickers on the apple of your cheeks 15 times, before inserting them into a solution. The sticker lifts dead skin cells from your cheek, which the solution then strips, leaving behind only the tell-tale proteins identified by L'Oréal as biomarkers for various signs of skin aging.

Next up, you’ll need one of L'Oréal’s “lab on a chip” testing cartridges, on which you’ll dot a few drops of the solution. Much like the lateral flow tests we were so familiar with during the pandemic, this cartridge sucks up the solution; and this is where the actual Cell BioPrint machine comes into play. It features an ATM-esque slot, into which you slide the testing cartridge so it can be measured and analyzed.

While you wait for the analysis to be complete, you’ll also take a few scans of your cheeks and forehead with L'Oréal’s Skin Connect device and answer a short questionnaire about your chronological age and skin type before the machine spits back out your testing cartridge and delivers your results on the connected tablet.

By the skin of my skin @techradar

♬ original sound - TechRadar

Now, as I mentioned before, I’m no skincare guru, despite a now-decades-long battle with my own complexion. So, anything that removes the guesswork for me is a huge win in my book.

Suffice it to say, then, that I was delighted by the depth and detail of my skincare report from the Cell BioPrint. Not only did give me some great insight into my skin, but it also told me that my skin’s biological age is actually two years younger than my biological age - a compliment I was not expecting to receive.

In addition to correctly identifying that my skin tends towards larger pores and oiliness, I also learned that my skin barrier function is weak, and that there’s some unevenness to my skin. One of the most useful learnings is that my skin absorbs retinol well, meaning I can confidently join the leagues of TikTok-informed skincare gurus in worshipping the famous form of Vitamin A.

(Image credit: Future)

Better yet, the device can even recommend specific products for your skin composition. Of course, the recommendations made by the Cell BioPrint are solely from L'Oréal’s family of products, so there’s that to consider; but you can always research for yourself any product dupes or alternatives that fall within your price range or preference.

Having spent years hopping from product to product, I’m feeling a lot more confident about my skincare regimen following my demonstration of L'Oréal’s Cell BioPrint device; but that’s not just down to the tech itself. Cell BioPrint is destined more for department stores and retail environments instead of for home use, meaning users will have an expert at-hand to help break down the results; an important element in today’s age of misinformation.

With a pilot due in Asia later this year, it’s hopefully only a matter of time before this technology lands in a store near you; I’ll race you to the front of the line to see if I can maintain my two-year skin age gap.

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TechRadar extensively covered this year's CES, bringing you all of the big announcements as they happened. Head over to our CES 2025 news page for the latest stories and our hands-on verdicts on everything from 8K TVs and foldable displays to new phones, laptops, smart home gadgets, and the latest in AI.

And don’t forget to follow us on TikTok and WhatsApp for the latest from the CES show floor!

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• Chinese reviewer showcases the RTX 5080 FE and its new power connector
• The embargo is expected to be on January 29, a day before its launch
• The new power connector has new wires for a more secure connection

Following Nvidia's RTX 5000 series unveiling at CES 2025, we’re waiting for our first look at the RTX 5090's performance from user benchmarks to find out how well the new Multi Frame Generation feature really works - but for now, we've got our first look at its little brother, the RTX 5080 Founders Edition, and its new power connector.

This comes from a reviewer on the Chinese social media site Bilibili (as reported by VideoCardz), who showcased the RTX 5080 FE along with its new power adapter and stated that the embargo date for reviews will be January 29 (a day before launch) - although this conflicts with a previous VideoCardz report that embargoes will lift on January 24. At the time of writing, the Bilibili post appears to have been taken down - potentially due to a legal notice from Nvidia - but the VideoCardz article is still live, at least for now.

The RTX 4080 and 4090 power connector, called the 12VHPWR connector, wasn't ideal for users - considering it was a potential fire hazard, and its short length left a lack of space and flexibility for side panels on PC cases to close (it also wasn't very pleasant to look at, frankly).

Based on the early image shown in the VideoCardz article (which we’re not posting here because we’d rather not invoke the fury of Nvidia’s legal department), it seems that Nvidia is providing a much longer and more flexible power adapter now - I recently covered the RTX 4080 Super and its performance in the Resident Evil 4 remake, and the only glaring issue I found wasn't with the card's performance itself, but rather the finicky power adapter.

While there's only so much information we can take from a leaked image like this, it looks to be a little more case-friendly if it operates in the same manner as the likes of Seasonic's 12VHPWR power cable - VideoCardz also pointed out the additional sense wires that have been added to ensure a secure 8-pin connection, hopefully preventing any connection issues that caused the connector meltdowns we saw with the previous generation.

(Image credit: Nvidia) What solutions are available for the RTX 4080 GPU power adapter?

For those sticking with the RTX 4080, depending on your PC's power supply, there are plenty of options on the market that work as viable alternatives to the problematic RTX 4080 power connector. It's important to buy the correct cable that provides a sufficient amount of power and is compatible with your PSU - you don't want to run the risk of buying a cheap, unreliable one either.

It isn't exactly clear from the provided pictures whether the new power adapter for the RTX 5080 (and the RTX 5090) will be compatible with the RTX 4080 or any other RTX 4000 cards, but if it is, that could be the easy solution to this matter.

January 30 is on the horizon, so we'll be seeing more of what Nvidia’s new powerhouse GPUs will have to offer - hopefully, there are no recurring issues concerning potential melting cables on this occasion.

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New AI tools spawn almost hourly these days and companies inundate my email inbox promising the world with tools that can do anything and everything from making my dog speak to editing subjects out of photos. While shiny new products with headline AI features pique my interest, I’ve been quietly waiting for a small, yet significant, ChatGPT update to become available – and now it’s finally here.

An actual AI personal assistant

Since the first AI-powered smartphone tools popped onto the market, I’ve been trying to find the perfect chatbot to become my very own personal assistant, able to learn everything that I tell it and cleverly remind me when I need important information. At the end of last year, I stopped using my trusty task manager apps like Things 3 and Siri to see what OpenAI’s chatbot was truly capable of. After a day without notifications and reminders, I canceled the challenge and returned to my regular workflow, after all, using an app to help take control of my life that can’t remind me of anything was a complete dealbreaker.

Fast forward to 2025, and OpenAI has added one of the biggest, yet subtle, improvements to ChatGPT with tasks and it might honestly be the biggest update we’ve had yet. ChatGPT tasks might not be as headline-stealing as an AI video generator like Sora, or a new model like o3, but it’s the kind of addition that could drastically improve millions of lives around the world and I can’t wait to incorporate it into my workflow.

Why is ChatGPT tasks such a big deal?

Announced on X, ChatGPT tasks is still in beta, rolling out to ChatGPT Plus, Team, and Pro subscribers. The new feature allows ChatGPT to set reminders, becoming your go-to task manager with the added functionality of all the power that OpenAI’s chatbot has to offer. This means you can go about your day updating ChatGPT with information about your life and then ask tasks to suggest alerts and notifications proactively, such as daily weather reports, reminders of what bus to take, and even when bills are due.

When I first attempted to use ChatGPT as my go-to life management tool, I loved its memory feature because it meant I could tell it things that I wanted to remember and then ask the AI at a later date to bring back that information. It was very useful for tracking bus times and routes, as well as remembering key information that I often forget such as the last time I ordered contact lenses, or when I needed to reorder my blood pressure medication. Now with tasks, I can harness the power of ChatGPT’s memory functionality and dump everything that comes to my brain onto the app so I can focus on the things that matter most instead of remembering the mundane.

I have been waiting for ChatGPT to have notifications on iOS with reminders and tasks for a very long time, so much so that I could be tempted to pay the hefty $20 / £16 / $AU 32 monthly subscription fee for a Plus account just to get early access. OpenAI says the task management functionality will be coming to free users at a later date.

One of my most anticipated AI tools of 2025 is the major Apple Intelligence update coming to Siri as part of iOS 18.4 in a few months. That update gives Siri personal context and on-screen awareness so it can function as your on-device AI-powered personal assistant. While not built into iOS in the same way, ChatGPT tasks as part of the ChatGPT app or accessed through Siri integration could make OpenAI’s chatbot your go-to for all your everyday needs. Combined with a souped-up Siri, I’m beyond excited at the prospect of AI taking control of my day-to-day life in 2025 so I can focus on the things that matter most, like drinking coffee and eating pizza.

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