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I've used the Dreame U20 for months and it still surprises me how well this affordable cordless vacuum cleans pet hair

TechRadar Reviews - Tue, 09/09/2025 - 00:20

Dreame U20 cordless vacuum: two-minute review

Hailing from parent company, Xiaomi, Dreame is fast becoming a popular sub-brand with an extensive product lineup. Ranging from wet-dry vacuums, air purifiers, robot vacuums (including a robot lawnmower), cordless stick vacuums and hair dryers, Dreame has it all, and across different budgets, too.

While its high-end robovacs are items to dream about (pun intended), as you can see in our Dreame X50 Ultra review, I’m in love with a much cheaper product that helps me clean up after my pets. The affordable Dreame U20 has become my lifesaver, combining Dyson-like tech with the signature Dreame style. It’s a versatile and lightweight cordless vacuum that delivers great performance for an exceptionally low cost, as it’s very frequently discounted.

Its color scheme belies its budget price point – available in a gorgeous gold and beige colourway, the Dreame U20 looks far more premium than its $249.99 / £250 / AU$399.99 price point suggests.

What I found even more impressive is its suction. For the price, its 120AW power isn’t bad at all, which isn’t too far off the Shark Cordless Detect Pro’s 123AW of suction, and yet it was more than enough to clean my pup’s fur off my sofa and carpets well. Needless to say, it handles hard floors very easily, making it a candidate for being one of the best cordless vacuum cleaners.

It comes with the standard attachments, including a multi-surface brush head with LED blue lights to illuminate dark areas, a mini motorized brush for cleaning upholstery, a crevice tool and a removable battery that's rated for up to 60 minutes.

Realistically, though, you'll get no more 37-40 minutes when using the two motorized attachments on the lowest suction, but that's fine for smaller homes – I can easily vacuum my living area, two bedrooms and two bathrooms within that time. However, if you mostly have carpets, I found it can take longer to get it clean as you may need to go back and forth a few times, thus consuming more battery. The only battery indicator on the U20 is a tiny light on the end cap, which is hard to see while in use, and it blinks when it’s running low. There’s also no quick charging here, and the vacuum can take up to 3.5 hours to fully recharge.

The only other downside to this otherwise great buy is that the dustbin capacity is only 0.5L, meaning you might need to empty it frequently if you have a large home with pets. If you don't need any more bells and whistles, the Dreame U20 is easy to recommend as a top-notch budget cordless vacuum cleaner.

(Image credit: TechRadar)Dreame U20 review: price & availability

List price: $249.99 / £250 / AU$399
Availability: Sold in the US, UK and Australia at third-party retailers

The Dreame U20 can be picked up in the US at Target for a list price of $249.99. It’s also available on Instacart, with supplies stocked at Costco and other smaller retailers. It is currently not available on Dreame's US store.

In the UK, the list price is £250, and you can pick it up from Amazon UK or Curry's, but again, the vacuum is currently unavailable at the brand's UK store.

For customers living in Australia, Amazon AU lists it for AU$399.99, but it's typically discounted to AU$199.99. Even in Australia, the U20 isn't available on the Dreame website.

The Dreame website lists 27 countries where its devices are available, including the U20. If you're having trouble finding the product, check their website to see if it's available where you live.

Even at full price, the Dreame U20 represents superb value for money, particularly if you can find it at a discounted price. Admittedly it's a very basic model, so if you want a touch more suction, Dreame has other mid-range models, with the Dreame R20 review scoring very well for balancing price and performance.

Value for money score: 5 out of 5

Dreame U20 review: specs

Type:

Cordless stick vacuum

Bagless:

Yes

Weight:

7.27 lbs / 3.3kg

Bin size:

0.5 liters / 500ml

Max runtime:

60 mins

Charge time:

3.5 hours

Tools:

Multi-surface brush head, motorized mini brush head, wide combination crevice tool and extension rod

Power:

120AW

Dreame U20 review: design

Compact cordless stick vacuum in a lovely color scheme
Five attachments, including LED multi-surface brush, mini motorized brush and combination tool
Can be used as a stick vacuum or a small handheld vacuum

I’m new to the world of vacuum testing, with just one other for sister site Tom’s Guide under my belt. Needless to say, the Dreame U20 has been quite the dream, especially when it came to design. For me, the gold and beige colorway was a winner, a stray away from the typical grey or black of other competitors. It lends the affordable vacuum a classy look.

Other than that, the Dreame U20 has a stock-standard design which allows it to become a handheld unit quickly for cleaning cars, sofas, mattresses and, hey, even dog beds. To pair with the handheld unit, there’s a motorized mini brush in the box that would be handy for said dog bed and the sofa. It could even be used on carpeted stairs.

(Image credit: TechRadar)

It has a trigger, like most Dyson models, but you don’t need to keep this pressed at all times to run the machine – you just need to click it on and off. There’s just one other control button on the motor’s end cap to change suction modes and that should be easy to reach for most users with the thumb when holding the U20.

The main floor-cleaning attachment is called the Multi-Surface Brush, which features LED blue lights that help illuminate the floor in front of the brush head but don’t highlight miniscule dust particles like Dyson’s Fluffy tool does. And that’s OK because it still helps you see in dark areas – for example, I was able to see scattered kitty litter in an unlit bathroom.

The other attachment in the box is a combination crevice tool, but a wall-mount kit also ships with the vacuum in case you want to stow it away in a convenient place without compromising floor space.

Weighing 3.3kg / 7.27lbs, the Dreame U20 isn't exactly lightweight (in comparison, the Shark Cordless Detect Pro weighs 2.7kg / 5.9lbs), but it's still very easy to push around. It measures 16cm x 30cm x 68cm with the extension rod attached.

(Image credit: TechRadar)

The 120AW motor is capable of running at three different speed modes, indicated by three lights on the end cap of the motor. You can switch between the speed settings (low, medium and high) by tapping the button directly below the lights and switching it on by using the trigger. For most cleans, I found I tended to flick between medium and high, especially when cleaning carpets.

According to Dreame, the U20 motor has a multi-layer filtration system that captures up to 99.9% of fine dust and particles. Its HEPA filter also keeps debris out of the air and inside the bin while vacuuming, which is pretty standard for any cordless vacuum cleaner these days.

For its price point, the 0.5L bin is quite standard, but it'll likely fill up fast if you have, say, a two-bedroom or larger home with pets, meaning you'll need to make more trips to empty it. The bin has a handy sticker on the front (which I did refer back to many times) that indicates how to insert or remove it to empty, and its as simple as pushing the button on the base and twisting the canister clockwise. After detaching, all you have to do is unscrew the filter from the container to remove the debris – finer dust or crumbs fall out easily, but you may need to get your fingers inside to remove clumps of hair from the bin.

(Image credit: TechRadar)

The detachable battery pack could be handy for some users as you can clip it into the wall-mount attachment and begin charging it while you’re emptying the vacuum for example. However, if you’re a renter who can't drill holes into your wall – like me – you can leave the battery attached to the U20 and keep the vacuum propped up against a wall or in a cupboard for topping up.

It lacks an LCD screen to show suction modes or time remaining before the next charge. Instead, the battery life is displayed by a small vertical light on the pack itself, which flashes when it needs charging. It's unfortunate that it faces forward, so it’s not visible to the user, and neither is it a very noticeable light – and this is my biggest complaint with the Dreame U20 as there were a few instances where the machine shut down mid-clean during my testing.

(Image credit: TechRadar)

The U20’s multi-surface brush head is quite similar to many floor-cleaning attachments from other brands, but it features blue LED lights on the front that illuminate two small triangular sections of the floor immediately in front of the brush head. While it looks similar to Dyson’s green dust-illuminating light on the Fluffy Optic, this blue light doesn’t highlight invisible dust on the floor, but I found it’s bright and vivid enough to help walk around in a dark room without bumping into things. Case in point: it perfectly showed scattered kitty litter in an unlit bathroom that was, at the time, pitch dark.

The brush also has V-shaped bristles with comb-like teeth – in my experience, this not only prevents tangles effectively, but can pick up human hair and pet fur from low-pile carpets just as well.

This brush head is quite flexible, rotating 90º around chair legs and furniture. It’s also not as large as you’d find on other (more expensive) vacuum cleaners and I found it can get into corners, which is particularly helpful in my pet hair-filled home.

My favorite attachment, however, is the motorized mini brush, which clips in just under the bin for handheld use. It’s just right for sucking up fur from my couch and cushions – it’s both maneuvrable and anti-tangle.

If it wasn’t for the missing display to check battery life, I’d say that Dreame would deserve top marks for the U20’s design.

Design score: 4 out of 5

Dreame U20 review: performance

Excellent maneuverability
Impressive performance on hard floors and low-pile carpets
Lower suction than competitors but still tackles pet hair well

I've spent a few months with the Dreame U20 (as of publishing this review) and I still can’t get over how impressive its maneuverability is. The 90º rotating main brush head makes it very easy to clean around chair legs and furniture and I had no trouble handling the 3.3kg / 7.2lbs vacuum. That said, if you are using the extension tube to clean ceiling corners, the U20 could begin to feel heavy for some users quickly.

The controls are well placed, which are as simple as pushing the end cap button to select the speed and hitting the trigger underneath. And as I’ve mentioned previously, there’s no need to keep the latter depressed continuously for power like a Dyson.

Speaking of power: sure, we could ask for higher suction than its 120AW, but given its price point, it’s hard to argue with what it has. If you do need better performance, you could consider the Dreame R20 (if it’s available where you live), but I found the U20 does an admirable job nonetheless. It can struggle on some carpets as you will need to go over a particular spot multiple times to get a deeper clean, and I've found myself needing to push with full shoulder force on occasion.

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Throughout my testing, the Dreame U20 impressed in more ways than one. I performed TechRadar’s standard tests for vacuum cleaners, sprinkling a smattering of oats and tea from a bag on both my hardwood and carpeted floors. As an extra measure, I also made sure the floors had extra pet debris – i.e. kitty litter and fur – which were my two motivations for purchasing the U20 in the first place.

During the hardwood mess test, the U20 performed remarkably well on the lowest speed setting in picking up most of the oats. I needed to boost the speed to the second (or medium) setting to do another pass to pick up every last speck of oats, though, but that left the hard floor entirely clean.

As for the tea, the U20 did a better job, sucking it all up in one go on the low setting, so it handles lighter and smaller dirt better than larger debris. It was the same for pet hair on hardwood – all strands got sucked up in one pass on the low setting. The vacuum struggled a touch with kitty litter, leaving a few specks behind on hard floors in a single pass, but it was cleaned up in the second go.

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I wasn’t expecting as impressive a performance on carpets, but the U20 did better than I had anticipated on a low-pile carpet in my tests, quickly removing the oats and tea dust from a bag in one pass on the low suction setting. It will, however, struggle with medium and high-pile carpets, particularly if the dust and debris is deep-seated, although loose dirt will come away if you give the area a few gos with the U20.

In terms of pet hair on carpet, the U20 did indeed struggle at the lowest setting, leaving more than a few strands behind after the first pass. The U20 performed the best with pet hair on the same low-pile carpet at maximum suction, and didn't require several passes to get the job done. The kitty litter yielded a similar result to the hardwood floor test, but I needed to boost suction again to pick up every last piece.

While it can tackle low-pile carpets with ease, pet hair embedded in medium- or high-pile carpets will remain even after several passes – you can expect about 80% off the fur to be sucked up from these kinds of flooring.

As a pet mum, it was important to me to own a vacuum cleaner with a tangle-free brush, as I’ve often painstakingly cleaned out wads of hair from cleaning attachments of older machines. I was thrilled to find that the U20's V-shaped bristles were especially impressive at leaving no evidence of entanglements. That's made ongoing maintenance of the vacuum easier.

This sentiment also rang true for the mini motor brush when cleaning my couch and cushions. It does, however, require several passes when using the handheld motor and mini brush to clean up pet hair due to its smaller footprint, but it still worked a treat.

The U20 collects a nice volume of hair in its 0.5L bin, and I have particularly enjoyed how easy it is to empty the bin with a twist of the base. If you are a pet owner with a shedding furry friend, then I would recommend the U20 for a quick, daily tidy-up, but you might want to consider other pet-focused vacuum cleaners, like the Shark Stratos Pet Pro (IZ400), as they usually have a larger-capacity bin and boast more suction power.

Despite its relatively lower suction and smaller bin, the U20 performs very well, given its budget price – it's very easy to recommend for quick clean-ups.

Performance score: 4.5 out of 5

(Image credit: TechRadar)Dreame U20 review: battery life

Average battery life for an affordable cordless vacuum
3.5-hour charging time
Expect shorter runtimes if the floor is dirty

According to Dreame, the U20 has a battery life of up to 60 minutes on a full charge, and takes around 3.5 hours to top up from practically empty. Take that number with a pinch of salt, as it indicates runtime when using non-motorized tools, which in this case is the combination crevice attachment only.

With a motorized head like the main floor cleaner and the mini brush, I found that it lasts a maximum of 37 minutes on its lowest setting – and there’s no dynamic suction here to drain the battery faster. At TechRadar, we've tested over a hundred vacuum cleaners over the last decade, and we've found that the average battery life for a budget cordless vacuum is around 40 minutes, which puts the U20 on par with others, including the Dyson V8 .

Higher the suction, the faster the battery will drain, of course and, in testing, I got about 17 minutes of runtime on a full charge when set to maximum. That’s not bad, considering some premium models like the Dyson V15 Detect can give you lesser runtime on Boost mode (about 8 minutes on a dirty mid-pile carpet), although it automatically adjusts suction power to suit the amount of dirt it detects.

So while the U20 has average battery runtime, I’d recommend it for smaller homes or something for the shed, perhaps.

Battery life score: 4 out of 5

Should you buy the Dreame U20?

Attribute

Notes

Rating

Value

Often on sale, the U20 is an excellent budget option with great performance.

5/5

Design

The color combination makes it look premium, and its attachments are useful. It would have been good if there was a better way to gauge battery life.

4/5

Performance

Great for everyday, quick cleaning, even of pet hair, on hard floors and low-pile carpets, but it may struggle on particularly dirty mid- and high-pile carpets.

4.5/5

Battery

Rated for up to 60 minutes, but expect about 35 minutes in real-world use on low power.

4/5

Buy it if...

You need something to quickly clean up after your pet

The U20 handled masses of pet hair quite well, thanks to its V-shaped multi-surface brush head.

You want something easy to maneuver

It might be heavier than the likes of the Shark Cordless Detect Pro (which weighs around 2.7kg / 5.9lbs), but its swivelling main brush head makes it very easy to move around, particularly on hard floors.

Don't buy it if...

You live in a large home

With average battery life for its price point, the U20 is better suited for smaller areas or homes that don't require extensive vacuuming.

You want the latest vacuuming tech

The U20 doesn't house the most advanced features, it even misses out on an LED screen to display battery life. If you don’t want something this basic, you’ll need to look elsewhere and spend more money.

Dreame U20: alternatives to consider

Product:

Dreame U20 (reviewed)

Shark Cordless Detect Pro

Dyson V8

Weight:

7.27lbs / 3.3kg

6lbs / 2.7kg

3.48lbs / 1.58kg

Bin volume:

0.5L

0.4L

0.54L

Max runtime:

60 mins

40 mins

Accessories:

Multi-surface brush head, motorized mini brush head, wide combination crevice tool and extension rod

Duster, crevice tool, optional auto-empty dock (costs extra)

2 x floorheads, Hair screw tool, Combination tool, Crevice tool

Shark Cordless Detect Pro

The Shark Cordless Detect Pro costs a lot more than the U20, but it has better suction and, you can opt for the additional auto-emptying dock, which is handy as the onboard bin canister here is very small. However, it's often discounted and, until it was displaced by the Shark PowerDetect, it used to be our pick of the best cordless vacuum for most people.

Read our full Shark Cordless Detect Pro review

Dyson V8

Despite receiving a newer upgrade in September 2025, the older Dyson V8 is still a strong choice, especially since this too can be had for a good discount. It boast good performance and suction, with up to 40 minutes of runtime on its standard setting. It's extremely lightweight at 1.58kg / 3.48lbs, but it lacks some of the useful features of newer Dyson models, and it might not always represent the best value for everyone.

Read our full Dyson V8 review

How I tested the Dreame U20 cordless vacuum

TechRadar adopts a strict testing regime for all its products so potential buyers know exactly what they're getting. To comply with the testing, I used the machine for a few months before putting it through some rigorous carpet and hard-floor tests using common pantry items, such as tea and raw oats. I also took into account the device's ergonomics, design and overall experience to determine my final verdict.

Read more about how we test vacuum cleaners

First reviewed September 2025

Categories: Reviews

I've spent 2 days with Dyson’s new flagship stick vacuum – it's a cleaning wizard but this one 'upgrade' is starting to annoy me

TechRadar Reviews - Mon, 09/08/2025 - 18:05

Dyson V16 Piston Animal: two-minute review

The V16 Piston Animal is Dyson's brand-new flagship stick vacuum, and it boasts a number of upgrades over its predecessors. Based on specs, this is the best Dyson vacuum on the market – and it should be one of the best cordless vacuums from any brand. I've been testing it out for a couple of days now, and I have lots of thoughts.

Based on my first impressions – I'll be writing a full review when I've had more time with it – the V16 Piston Animal an incredibly good vacuum, but with one particular issue that could be a deal breaker for some potential buyers.

Let's start with the good bits. The dust compactor works extremely well and is a logical, solidly useful addition. It gives you more cleaning time without having to empty the bin so often, and when you do come to empty the bin, the same mechanism expels the contents easily, with no need for fingers to get involved.

Dyson has redesigned the attachment mechanism so that you can connect and release attachments on the end of the wand without having to bend down. This seems like an effort-saver, and should also help those with mobility issues.

It almost goes without saying that the suction is excellent, and the battery gives you ample cleaning time without having to stop to recharge. Like its predecessors, the Gen5detect and V15 Detect, there's an Auto mode that offers intelligent adjustment based on floor type and dirt levels. On the V16, though, it'll adjust not just suction but also roller speed, for the most effective, battery-efficient clean.

Dyson has also given the floorhead an entirely different design – and this is where my main issue lies. The conical rollers do work well to prevent hair tangles, but the tapered shape means the floorhead comes to a slight point on the front side, which is a pain when you're trying to clean along the straight edge of a room.

Read on for more information about the new Dyson flagship and my experiences with it so far, and check back in a week or two for my full and in-depth verdict.

(Image credit: Future)Dyson V16 Piston Animal review: price & availability

List price: £749.99 / AU$1,349 (US TBC)
Launched: September 2025
Available: UK and AU now, US sometime in 2026

The V16 Piston Animal was unveiled at the start of September, and is on sale now in territories including the UK and Australia. It will be available in the US, but not until sometime in 2026.

The regular version has a list price of £749.99 / AU$1,349 (the US list price will be released closer to the launch date). A Submarine version is also available, with an extra mopping floorhead, at a list price of £899.99 / AU$1,599.

For comparison, this model's predecessor, the Gen5detect, is £769.99 / AU$1,549. The model down from that, the V15 Detect, is £649.99 / AU$1,449.

Those prices position the V16 firmly in the premium price bracket, and make it one of the most expensive vacuums on the market. It's interesting to note that it's actually slightly cheaper than the Gen5detect in the UK (although that older model will attract more discounts).

I'll make a final call on value for money once I've had more time to test the V16 out, but on first impressions, it looks and feels premium. It has been meticulously designed and is packed with features – including some you can't find anywhere else on the market. I'm not going to pretend it's not an awful lot to spend on a vacuum, though.

Dyson V16 Piston Animal specs

Weight:

7.5 lbs / 3.4kg

Bin size:

1.3L

Max runtime:

70 mins

Charge time:

3hrs 30

Dimensions (H x L x W):

10.2 x 51.1 x 9.8 inches / 25.9 x 129.8 x 25cm

Filter:

99.9% to 0.1 microns

Max suction:

315 AW

Dyson V16 Piston Animal review: design

Redesigned anti-tangle floorhead with conical rollers
Manual compression lever on bin
Automatic power and roller speed adjustment based on floor type

The V16 Piston is a premium cordless stick vacuum with a number of useful features, many of which are brand new to this machine.

Key amongst these – and the reason for the 'Piston' of the name, is a compression lever on the dust cup. This can be pushed down to squish dust and hair and increase dustbin capacity, and is also designed to wipe fine debris off the inside of the cup, and to be helpful in efficient emptying.

(Image credit: Future)

A second addition is the red cuff at the top of the vacuum's wand. This can be pushed down to release the floorhead without having to bend down. The docking section of the floorhead is designed to sit upright at an angle, so you can also snap it on the wand from a standing position.

(Image credit: Future)

Speaking of the floorhead: this looks very different to anything I've seen before. Rather than being tube-shaped, the rollers here are conical. The idea is that the tapering shape shifts long hair down to the narrow end where it can be sucked up, rather than leaving it to tangle. This floorhead is designed for both hard floors and carpet, and is kitted out with a laser to illuminate dirt that might otherwise be missed.

(Image credit: Future)

The main body of the vacuum has a matte finish, and Dyson has added a padded section above the hand grip for added comfort. It switches on with a button rather than a trigger, and the battery is removable and swappable.

This is the first Dyson vacuum to be properly 'connected', with the companion app providing cleaning summaries and offering advanced setting options. There's a screen on the machine itself to deliver information, including how long you have left on the battery.

The screen will also provide you with real-time reports on the size and number of particles you're sucking up, as you clean. This works with the V16's 'Auto' mode, where the vacuum will automatically adjust suction and (newly) brushroll speed based on the kind of floor it's on and how dirty it is.

(Image credit: Future)

Detail tools will vary slightly depending on which model you opt for, but there are a couple of notable upgrades. The Hair screw tool now has a rubberized band across the front to help loosen hair that's 'stuck' to upholstery fabric. Hidden inside the wand are two stubby Crevice tools – one at the top, attached to the main part of the vacuum, and the other at the bottom of the wand, revealed if you remove the floorhead. Because of the redesigned docking mechanism, none of the tools are compatible with other Dyson stick vacuums.

Dyson V16 Piston Animal review: performance

Dust compaction is great, and design makes emptying super-easy
Suction excellent, but not notably different to previous models in practice
Angled floorhead is a pain for vacuuming the edges of rooms

After one whole-house clean with the V16, I'm impressed in some ways but less so in others. I'll start with the general suction performance. As I expected, this is excellent. I tested the vacuum in a four-floor house with hard floor, plenty of carpets, and a black Spaniel, and it had no trouble sucking up impressive volumes of dust, dirt and hair.

In Auto mode, I could hear the power and brushroll ramping up and down as I moved into different areas and onto different floor types. I found the on-screen dust reports as mesmerizing as ever, although I'm still not sure they're that useful.

Officially, the V16 has the most suction of any Dyson stick vacuum, but on first impressions, I didn't really notice a difference in cleaning power compared to cleaning using the V15 (this house's usual vacuum, and two models down from the V16 – despite what the number might suggest, the Gen5detect sits in the middle). I'll run some side-by-side suction tests with all three to see if there is a difference I'm not seeing.

(Image credit: Future)

The V16 feels a little weighty in the hand, but the padded section above the hand-hold is a welcome addition and does help boost comfort. I'm in two minds about the button operation. For longer cleaning sessions, it's nice not to have to continually compress the trigger, but for quick cleanups, it's a bit cumbersome to have to keep a hand free to turn the machine on and off (you can't reach the button with your gripping hand).

I'm also not entirely sold on the new floorhead. While it does work well to siphon off hair, the new design requires the front long side of the floorhead to come to a slight point rather than being in a straight line. This means you can't approach the edges of rooms front-on – instead, you have to go in from the side. That quickly becomes very annoying.

Otherwise, it pivots well but feels a little harder to push than previous Dysons (and other vacuums I've tested). I did find the laser useful for highlighting dust in dingy corners, though.

(Image credit: Future)

The quick-release works well and is an effort-saver, but the joints in general are a little stiffer than on other Dyson stick vacuums I've used. It's also a shame that existing attachments won't work with the V16.

More of a success is the dust compactor. This is a solid win; the mechanism works a treat, and means you can fit in more cleaning without having to make so many trips to the trash. It also makes it far easier to empty than most cordless vacuums I've used.

Those are my thoughts so far – check back for the full review, including the results of TechRadar's official suction tests, when I've had more time to put the V16 Piston Animal through its paces.

Categories: Reviews

This cooling pad makes a good first impression – but my tests revealed something that might cool your enthusiasm

TechRadar Reviews - Mon, 09/08/2025 - 17:05

Aimiuzi F2 Plus Laptop Cooling Pad: review

The Aimiuzi F2 Plus Laptop Cooling Pad is a relatively affordable cooling pad designed to prevent your laptop from overheating during serious gaming sessions or heavy creative workflows. Topping out at 1500RPM, its fans aren’t the fastest we’ve ever seen, but with four large fans and one small one, it should still be capable of reliable cooling.

While it doesn’t have the most premium build quality – there's a reasonable amount of give at the back, especially with my chunky 16-inch laptop on it – it has nice enough aesthetics. There are none of the razor-sharp angles that tend to dog gaming peripherals and the lighting is nicely understated, with just some blue lighting around the fans.

The Aimiuzi F2 Plus Laptop Cooling Pad is also pretty comfortable to use, with well-balanced ergonomics. It offers five adjustable height settings – far more than most of the best laptop cooling pads – meaning that finding a comfortable angle for your wrists is a breeze. Another detail I appreciated is the fact that its single laptop rest sits in the middle, rather than there being one on each side, meaning it side-steps the trap so many cooling pads fall into where the rests dig into your wrists when your arms are placed in a default typing position.

There are some odd design quirks on show here though. First, those height settings reach some pretty extreme angles. The top, 64-degree setting was just ludicrous – not only could I not rest my wrists at that angle, but even if I was just using my laptop as a second screen with an external mouse and keyboard, the angle was so steep that the screen hinge wouldn’t open far enough for the display to sit vertically.

I’m also not a huge fan of the fold-out phone stand. Yes, it’s a point of difference that few competitors offer, but there’s probably a reason for that: it feels like an unnecessary gimmick, and wasn’t sturdy enough to stop my phone rocking as I typed. Frankly, if you want a stand that’s stable and actually serves a purpose, you’re probably better off picking up one of the best wireless chargers instead.

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Ultimately, though, when it comes to cooling pads, aesthetics are just window dressing – what matters most is how well they cool. So how did the Aimiuzi fare on this front?

If I were to sum it up in a single word, that word would be ‘unexceptional’. I ran a 3DMark Steel Nomad stress test on our Acer Predator Helios 300 testing laptop with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 GPU for 15 minutes, measuring the temperature before and after with a thermal camera. The laptop’s temperature rose 33.1F / 18.4C – that’s significantly better than the laptop’s baseline rise of 57.4F (31.9C) without additional cooling, but it’s also worse than quite a few of the cooling pads I’ve tested. Only the Klim Wind and the TopMate C12 Laptop Cooling Pad performed worse, seeing a temperature rise of 35.1F (19.5C) and 41F (22.8C) respectively.

(Image credit: Future)

When it comes to the noise it kicks out, the F2 Plus also doesn’t really stand clear of the crowd. Using a sound level meter to measure the combined output of the cooling pad and the laptop’s fans, I recorded it as 61dB from a few inches away and 44dB from my head height, which is reasonably quiet. While the sound level up close and personal to the device was a few dB louder than many of the budget pads I’ve tested, that’s really not enough to register much of a difference – the Center for Hearing and Communication puts that at roughly the same level as a sewing machine, which should be tolerable in most contexts.

My lasting impression of the Aimiuzi F2 Plus Laptop Cooling Pad is that it’s merely so-so – it’s not the worst cooling pad I’ve tested, but it’s not the best by any means. And then there's its price: at a list price of $23.39 / £29.99, its more expensive than superior performers like the Liangstar Laptop Cooling Pad, which kept our laptop from warming any more than 27.5F (15.3C) and yet retails for just $19.99 / £23.69. Even factoring in a limited-time deal on Amazon – which at the time of writing reduces it down to $15.29 / £22.99 – I just don’t think the Aimiuzi F2 Plus offers enough value to be worth your while.

(Image credit: Future)Aimiuzi F2 Plus Laptop Cooling Pad review: price & availability

Released on October 27, 2023
List price: $23.39 / £29.99
Can be found on sale for less, but that doesn't necessarily make it better value

Launched on October 27, 2023, the Aimiuzi F2 Plus Laptop Cooling Pad is available now. Its list price is $23.39 / £29.99 but you'll likely be able to get it cheaper – for example, at the time of writing, you can pick up its blue colorway from Amazon for $15.29 / £22.99. And if blue's not your bag, you can get it with red lighting instead, although this will set you back $17.99 / £25.79.

While this is a reasonable price, it doesn't necessarily translate to value. With its so-so performance, the F2 Plus doesn't exactly lead in its price category – in fact, there are several options that cost less yet offer superior performance, like the Liangstar Laptop Cooling Pad. In light of this, it's definitely worth shopping around and checking out our guide to the best laptop cooling pads to make sure you're getting the best breeze for your buck.

(Image credit: Future)Should I buy the Aimiuzi F2 Plus Laptop Cooling Pad?Buy it if…

You’re not a fan of gamer aesthetics
If you’re not a fan of sharp angles and technicolor lighting, you’ll likely be happy with the F2 Plus’s more subtle design – some blue lighting around the fans is about its only concession to the gamer style.

You’re sensitive about noise
Unlike more premium laptop cooling pads, the F2 Plus is still relatively quiet, even if it is a few dB louder than a few of the other budget pads out there.

Don’t buy it if…

You want the best cooling available
Unfortunately, while the Aimiuzi isn’t the weakest performing cooling pad we’ve tested, its chilling is pretty mediocre. You can cool your laptop more effectively for less money.

You’re put off by odd design choices
Some elements of the F2 Plus feel frankly unnecessary, like the fold-out phone stand and height settings that raise your laptop to an impractical angle.

Aimiuzi F2 Plus Laptop Cooling Pad review: Also consider

Liangstar Laptop Cooling Pad
Despite the fact that it has a lower list price of $19.99 / £23.69, the Liangstar still offers superior cooling to the F2 Plus. It kept our laptop’s heat rise to just 27.5F (15.3C) during stress testing, which is a solid 5.4F (3C) cooler than the F2 Plus, making it a bit of a no-brainer if you’re trying to choose between the two.

Llano RGB Laptop Cooling Pad
If money’s simply not an object, then this is the laptop cooling pad you should buy. Absolutely the best cooling pad I’ve ever tested, it ensured our testing laptop only rose 14.4F (8C) during our stress test – which is positively arctic cooling. You will pay for the privilege though: at a list price of $139.99 / £129.99, it’s firmly at the premium end of the market.

How I tested the Aimiuzi F2 Plus Laptop Cooling Pad

I tested it over the course of several days
I used a thermal camera to track heat rise during a stress test
I recorded its noise output with a sound level meter

I spent several days testing the Aimiuzi F2 Plus Laptop Cooling Pad, using the standardized process I use to test all laptop cooling pads for TechRadar. First off, to test out its cooling performance, I used it to cool our testing laptop – an Acer Predator Helios 300 with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 GPU – while I ran a 15-minute 3DMark Steel Nomad stress test. Using a thermal camera, I recorded the laptop’s peak temperature both before and after the test to assess how much it had risen compared to its baseline, and compared those results with those of other cooling pads.

To test the amount of noise the cooling pad generates I used a sound level meter to check the volume of the pad and the laptop’s combined fan output once the test had been underway for 10 minutes. To get a sense of how loud it was in both absolute terms as well as a subjective level, I recorded the noise level from a few inches away, as well as from my head height (approximately 21 inches from the surface of the laptop).

Finally, I wanted to test out the ergonomics and overall design of the laptop cooling pad in a real environment, so I used it while playing several games as well as during my typical working day to feel how comfortable it was during sustained use. Having been a laptop gamer for several decades, and being no stranger to creative workflows in my day job, I have a strong appreciation of the importance of keeping my CPU cool.

First reviewed: September 2025
Read more about how we test

Categories: Reviews

I want to love Daemon X Machina: Titanic Scion, but its empty world and listless combat scupper a promising mech action game

TechRadar Reviews - Mon, 09/08/2025 - 17:00

I think mecha action role-playing game (RPG) Daemon X Machina: Titanic Scion is worth checking out. While clearly taking inspiration from the Xenoblade Chronicles series - particularly Xenoblade Chronicles X Definitive Edition - it nonetheless boasts excellent customization options and some very neat ideas all its own.

Review information

Platform reviewed: PS5
Available on: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, PC
Release date: September 5, 2025

If you like fine-tuning mech builds and applying your own stamp of visual flair, a la Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon, then Titanic Scion will definitely scratch that itch. Parts, weapons, and auxiliary equipment are all individual pieces of gear, allowing you to build a loadout to suit your specific play style and preferences. You can then also apply distinct color schemes and decals for a more personal touch.

The game’s fusion system is similarly brilliant, altering your character’s appearance in alarmingly eldritch fashion and unlocking new abilities for your mech suit and its various weapon types. For me, this was Titanic Scion’s coolest feature, and it was always fun to see what kinds of crazy combinations would come as a result of the fusion system.

It’s a shame that everything else surrounding these great elements feels half-baked. Its story, characters, and voice acting range from nonsensical at best to downright annoying at worst. Those big explorable open areas are also shockingly lifeless, with little to do outside of setting up supply outposts, finding the odd bit of loot, or mining for resources. Interior locations are even worse, with bland corridor-like design and endlessly respawning enemies to deal with.

It’s all capped off with combat that feels rather listless. There’s little impact on your attacks, and some of the slower, heavier weapon types are rendered useless thanks to the game’s relatively fast pace.

Ultimately, Daemon X Machina: Titanic Scion is a game I want to love, and it’s got plenty going for it. There are just far too many frustrations present to wholeheartedly recommend it to a wider audience. But if you love mech suits and strong customization elements, it’s definitely worth a look, especially as it has a playable demo.

Against the world

(Image credit: Marvelous)

Take out your notebook, because Daemon X Machina: Titanic Scion’s plot involves a lot of quirky terminology that can be quite difficult to parse in its initial hours. Essentially, the plot revolves around a planetary conflict between humans and a race known as ‘Outers’. Outers are capable of turning themselves and humans into Immortals, monstrous creatures that vary in size and power. Both sides also make use of a substance called Femto - crystallized Immortal remains - to power both themselves and their ‘Arsenal’ mech suits.

It’s a lot at first, but the story really boils down to ‘humanity rises up to fight a genetically enhanced, technologically superior evil empire’. The main cast of villains, then, is a group known as the Neun; nine high-ranking Outer generals, each with their own specialties.

I’m not really a fan of the story for various reasons. It’s fairly cookie-cutter, and its cast of characters range from bland to insufferable, with few that are actually outright likable or well-written. But one aspect I do like is that our player character - whom you customize via a character creator at the start of the game - is an Outer that reluctantly sides with the humans to get revenge against their masters.

It’s certainly the most interesting part of the plot. Many members of the Reclaimers (that’s the resistance outfit we ally ourselves with) are understandably wary and slow to trust our character. And we also don’t do ourselves any favors by being brash and rude towards human characters. However, we are the Reclaimers’ wild card, so it’s usually down to us to sort things out and pull its other members out of the various fires they find themselves in.

Built to last

(Image credit: Marvelous)

So the story’s not much to write home about, but it thankfully does not get in the way of what Daemon X Machina: Titanic Scion does really, really well. And that’s customization. Being a game where you’re spending 99% of your time in a mech suit, you want to make sure it’s a place you can call home. Titanic Scion delivers that feeling in spades.

Best bit

(Image credit: Marvelous)

I absolutely love the fusion system in Daemon X Machina: Titanic Scion. Effectively a way to unlock new active and passive abilities for your suit and weapons, it also biologically alters your character in unpredictable ways. From sprouting veiny wings and stony shoulders to glowing tattoo-like marks, it always felt fun to jump into the goo chamber to see what horrifying mutations would happen to my character next.

Firstly, your Arsenal suit is broken down into various parts: head, torso, legs, and left and right vambraces. These usually come in light, medium, and heavyweight flavors, though some parts offer additional perks like better laser weapon defence or increased stamina or Femto reserves.

Then there are the weapons, of which there are loads of different types. One and two-handed swords, maces, mauls, laser blades, bows, Gatling guns, and even fist-type weapons that quite literally pack a punch. You can equip up to four weapons on your suit, and you also have space for a shoulder-mounted weapon and auxiliary unit like homing missiles, shields, or an ammunition pack.

Your character and their Arsenal suit can also be customized aesthetically, using a wide range of color palettes, text, decals, clothing, and facial features. At your home base, you can change your look at any time entirely for free, so Titanic Scion does a great job of encouraging you to mix things up from time to time.

Build variety feels truly limitless, and while the breakneck pace of combat renders some options borderline useless, I still can’t help but appreciate the sheer variety of equipment on offer. You’ll have plenty of opportunities to try out different styles, too, as enemies out in the field routinely drop Arsenal parts and the like on death.

That leads me into the loot system, which I wasn’t sure of at first, but did grow to like quite a bit. Basically, fallen enemies and bosses often house multiple pieces of loot, but you can only choose one before the wreckage dissolves. Often, this means you’ll have to think carefully about which items you want to pick up. A stat-boosting vambrace might be the way to go, but if you’ve run low on healing items, grabbing a healing spray from the corpse might not be a bad idea, either.

Fusion frenzy

(Image credit: Marvelous)

Customizing your character and Arsenal doesn’t stop there. Partway through the game, you’ll be introduced to fusion, which your character, as an Outer, can make liberal use of. While you’re out exploring, you can occasionally pick up DNA from fallen enemies as loot, and certain combinations of DNA can unlock various weapon skills and ancillary abilities, such as providing you with an auto-dodge or cloaking.

Take this DNA to the fusion chamber at home base, and it’ll be integrated into your character, permanently unlocking these abilities. The trade-off is that fusion can drastically alter your character’s physical appearance, too, turning them into a bit of a monstrosity - and that’s awesome.

Seeing your character grow increasingly more eldritch as you pile up fusions is a clever method of visual progression and storytelling. And while you can reset to your default appearance for a hefty credits fee, you likely won’t have such funds until near the end of the game.

Fusion is where your build really comes alive. The abilities you unlock can be set to each weapon type so long as they’re compatible with that weapon. Examples include an overhead strike with blades or a Matrix-style spin-and-shoot technique with various firearms. Some are certainly more powerful than others, but the ceiling for player expression here is impressively high.

Don't stop to smell the roses

(Image credit: Marvelous)

With such a strong showing on the customization and build variety fronts, Daemon X Machina: Titanic Scion would be well on its way to a glowing review. Unfortunately, many of its other aspects fall well short of providing a decently enjoyable experience.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment is the game’s large, open maps, one area where it takes clear inspiration from developer Monolith Soft’s much-praised RPG series. In Titanic Scion, however, these areas are visually bland and really don’t offer much in the way of rewarding exploration.

At best, you’ll come across a cave network or underground bunker to check out for additional loot, but I couldn’t stomach doing more than a handful of these. They have largely identical layouts and rely on a very boxy, corridor-like design that’s just a slog to get through.

Despite the size of the world, it immediately feels rather small, as your Arsenal suit has the ability to fly at great speeds. While this in itself is cool and can feel quite liberating, being given such a function right at the start of the game disincentivizes exploring these areas properly. But even then, you’re largely running into simple things like setting up supply outposts, small pockets of enemies, and the odd emergent quest.

Speaking of quests, side missions are especially dull. Often boiling down to simple fetch quests or taking out a pack of baddies, they rarely offer anything rewarding or narratively compelling. And that’s a shame, as you’ll need to spend much of the early game ticking off these missions to build up funds and materials for Arsenal parts and home base improvements.

Should you play Daemon x Machina: Titanic Scion?Play it if...

You want heaps of mecha customization
This is what the game does best. Tons of build variety mixed with the excellent fusion system offers players plenty of ways to find a playstyle and aesthetic that suits them. I absolutely loved this aspect of the game.

You enjoy simple, straightforward combat
While I lament its rather shallow combat, Titanic Scion keeps things straightforward and easy to learn, an advantage of which is that it makes builds you may not have considered using fairly easy to grasp.

Don't buy it if...

You were hoping for rich exploration
It’s not a world you can really get lost in for hours on end, as we see with the Xenoblade series. It’s unfortunately bland and lacking in meaningful activities or striking vistas.

Accessibility

There’s a good amount of accessibility options in Daemon X Machina: Titanic Scion.

Protanopia, deuteranopia, and tritanopia colorblind settings are available, and you can adjust the filter intensity of them. Controls are fully customizable, and you can even adjust the size and position of all HUD elements.

Further tweaks, like individual vibration values for various actions, are also welcome.

How I reviewed Daemon X Machina: Titanic Scion

I put in around 25 hours into Daemon X Machina: Titanic Scion for this review. I played the game on PlayStation 5, primarily using the DualSense Wireless Controller, on an LG CX OLED TV.

Those 25 hours were enough to see the game to its conclusion, as well as tick off a handful of side missions, some exploration of the world, and the optional one-on-one colosseum battles at the home base.

First reviewed September 2025

Categories: Reviews

I tested this cheaper rival to Bose and Shokz' cuff-style open earbuds and other brands could learn a lot from it

TechRadar Reviews - Mon, 09/08/2025 - 15:30

Baseus Inspire XC1: Two minute review

In every headphone niche there are going to be the big-name players, and there are going to be the little-known challengers offering a more affordable or even more novel take on the form factor, and it’s no different with clip-on, cuff-style sets, which still count among the best open earbuds we've tested.

Open earbuds are a type of headphone which intentionally doesn’t block out surrounding sound, letting you hear what’s going on when you’re working out, going on a run outdoors or are on your commute, and clip-ons are one style which clips onto your ear, in a kind of cuff style, rather than a hook style that snakes behind the curve of your ear.

While this form factor is dominated by names like the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds and, more recently, the Shokz OpenDots One, a few other brands offer something different, and Baseus is now one of them.

The Baseus Inspire XC1 are the third 'clipping' headphone from Baseus, so you’d hope the brand has some expertise it can bring. Their pitch is that they fix open-ears’ common sound quality problems by bringing Bose-tuned audio, support for Hi-Res Audio and LDAC availability, all for a relatively modest price.

To that end it was claimed at launch that the XC1 were the first open earbuds with two drivers per bud, an assertion which the aforementioned Shokz OpenDots One might take issue with, but that certainly shows a focus on sound quality.

It’s ironic, then, that the sound quality was a weaker point for these open earbuds. The sonic profile is warm yet ill-defined, so bass lacks punch and trebles and mids are missing something themselves. While some fitness users might enjoy this kind of indistinct wall of noise (something to tune out with, while focusing on your workout), audiophiles aren’t going to be impressed.

I also found that the buds’ bridge could pinch over long listening periods, which isn’t ideal, but I do mean long – I could listen for several hours before noticing the issue, so it won’t be a problem everyone faces. And the fit is reliable beyond that.

I’m starting this synopsis with two negatives, but there’s a lot to like about the Inspire XC1 beyond these pitfalls. The battery life is longer than on many rivals, for one thing, and the equalizer is advanced with several presets and plenty of customization. Also, the touch controls are easy-to-use and convenient.

That last point in particular is something I want to emphasize. The vast majority of headphones and earbuds do touch controls terribly but Baseus' solution was simple and easy – other brands could learn a thing or two here.

As mentioned above, the Baseus also undercuts both Bose's and Shokz’ alternatives, and offers good value for money when you compare their feature sets and audio qualities. If you don’t want to stretch your budget to reach for those pricier options, the Baseus Inspire XC1 option could be a good compromise.

Baseus Inspire XC1 review: Specifications

Component

Value

Water resistant

IP66

Battery life

8 hours (earbuds), 40 hours (total)

Bluetooth type

Bluetooth 5.4

Weight

5.5g / Charging case: 55g

Driver

1x 10.8mm, 1x tweeter

Baseus Inspire XC1 review: Price and availability

(Image credit: Future)

Announced in September 2025
Priced at $129 (roughly £100, AU$200)
Undercuts many rivals

The Baseus Inspire XC1 were released at the annual tech conference IFA in September 2025, alongside the XH1 over-ear headphones and XP1 in-ear buds.

At retail price, the Inspire XC1 cost $129 (roughly £100 or AU$200 but TechRadar wasn’t provided international release information prior to launch).

That price is in the ballpark of rivals, confirming that the Baseus product undercuts lots of its competition to a greater or lesser degree; the Huawei FreeClip, Shokz OpenDots and Bose Ultra Open earbuds all cost increasingly more.

But there are some well-respected options for cheaper still, including the JLab Flex Open and Anker Soundcore C40i. And let's not forget, Baseus itself has two other alternatives that undercut this, in the MC1 and BC1.

Baseus Inspire XC1 review: Design

(Image credit: Future)

Bud and counterweight connected by small hook
Lightweight but can pinch after extended use
Easy-to-use touch controls

For those of you who skipped the intro, the Baseus Inspire XC1 is a clip-style (or cuff-style, if you prefer) open-ear earbud. The latter hyphenation indicates that these are earbuds which don’t block your ear, so you can hear your surroundings, and the former signifies that instead of using a sports loop to hover over your ear, they clip onto your auricle, using a small earbud which nestles into your ear and a counterweight behind the ear which are linked by a plastic bridge.

Clipping earbuds always look frightfully unreliable but that’s rarely the case, and it’s not true for the XC1 either: the buds’ hold is reliable and I went on many hours of runs without any slipping or falling. However, it does pinch a little which, although only noticeable after sustained use, means they can stop being comfortable if you’re listening for long amounts of time. I also found myself knocking the behind-the-ear counterweight with my shoulder on occasion when I was stretching or rolling my head, but those were rare cases.

Each bud weighs roughly 5.5g, so they tip the scales to a similar degree as rivals, and they have an IP66 rating which certifies them against any kind of solid particles like dust, as well as high-pressure water jets… I think. Elsewhere in the information Baseus provided to TechRadar, it referred to the buds as having an IPX7 rating, which offers no proofing against dust but increased water resistance.

The counterweight has a small physical button, and you can customize what this does using the app – but by default, it pauses music. I found it pretty easy to pinch this to control my music once I got used to the position, and I’m glad Baseus isn’t trying to do anything more complex with its controls like some other brands.

The case weighs 54g and it’s fairly small, although that’s not saying much given that most clip-on earbuds have tiny cases. It opens horizontally and accepts either earbud in either hole, saving a lot of faff when you want to put the buds away.

Design score: 4/5

Baseus Inspire XC1 review: Features

(Image credit: Future)

Not as many features as rivals
Battery life is 8 hours, 40 hours with case
EQ with lots of useful presets

The Baseus Inspire XC1 will offer you 8 hours of listening time in one go, according to the brand’s figures – my own testing didn’t raise any reasons to doubt this. That just a hair on the long side compared to lots of other rivals using this form factor.

Using the case, you can get an extra 32 hours of listening time, for 40 hours in total, and again lots of the Baseus’ rivals fall a little short.

Due to the form factor, there’s no noise cancellation – it’s not unheard of in open-ears, but it’s incredibly rare and so we don’t expect it.

Baseus offers an app with a few extra features including an equalizer, a low latency mode, the ability to customize touch controls, toggles to high-res audio and a feature I haven’t seen much of on headphones: a battery-saver mode. As someone who gets battery anxiety on long trips, this is certainly a welcome feature.

The equalizer comes with seven presets, including a Bose-designed one, but you can create your own sound mix using an eight-band EQ mode too.

I’ve never written this sentence about an earbud tie-in app before, but the Baseus app felt very slow to use on my powerful Android phone. This shouldn’t dictate your purchase decision but it’s just to say ‘no, your phone isn’t breaking down’.

Features score: 4/5

Baseus Inspire XC1 review: Sound performance

(Image credit: Future)

Two drivers per bud
Muddied sound profile
Support for several standards

Each bud of the Baseus Inspire XC1 gets two drivers: a 10.8mm woofer for low-end sounds and a balanced armature tweeter for high-end ones that we weren’t told the size of.

It’s rare to see a dual-driver open-ear, with most manufacturers opting not to kit out earbuds that will be competing with so many background sounds, but that’s not all. The buds also support higher-resolution audio and the LDAC codec if you switch them on in the app.

Listening to music, it’s clear that the sound is good quality, and that’s especially true if you do opt to make the most of the standards offered. And so you’re probably wondering why I criticized the audio before. Well, that comes down to the tuning.

The Inspire XC1 have a warm sound profile, with the woofer coming up clutch to support lots of bass. However it’s an ill-defined kind of bass, muddy and indistinct, a that’s an issue that plagues music as a whole: treble isn’t sharp, mids are mushy.

The result is that music seems to lack a lot of energy and spark. I don’t know about you, but lifeless tunes are the last thing I want with earbuds designed for exercise.

You’re probably wondering why I didn’t just jump into the equalizer to fix the problem; I tried, and it didn’t really work. Other presets beyond the default (the Bose-tuned one, I must add) maintain the issue to a lesser or greater degree. If you’ve got the buds, I’d recommend opting for the Jazz Rock preset, which was the most energetic to my ears.

Sound performance score: 3.5/5

Baseus Inspire XC1 review: Value

(Image credit: Future)

The Baseus XC1 undercut a decent amount of the competition, including options which don’t offer substantially more for your money, although you can get alternatives that are a lot cheaper if you shop around.

Bearing in mind the cost and what you’re actually getting for your money, they offer a reasonable value set, letting you get all of the features of pricier rivals with a few downgrades to justify the cost.

Value score: 4/5

Baseus Inspire XC1 review: scorecard

Webshare review

TechRadar Reviews - Mon, 09/08/2025 - 12:51

Webshare came into existence in 2018 to meet the fast-growing need for proxies. To achieve this, it provides proxy servers for individual users and organizations, fulfilling over 650 billion proxy requests per month. Its service includes access to 80 million+ static residential proxies, rotating residential proxies, and proxy servers in every country in the world (yes, that’s 195).

In 2024, Webshare officially came under the auspices of Oxylabs, another notable proxy server provider. However, this doesn’t seem to have brought any major changes, as it has continued to operate independently as it did before. It also hasn’t received some of Oxylabs’ advanced features, like web scraping APIs.

Webshare: Plans and Pricing

Webshare charges its service by the type (proxy server, static residential, and rotating residential), number of IPs purchased (for proxy server and static residential), amount of traffic per month (for rotating residential), as well as the duration of the subscription (monthly or yearly).

Proxy server pricing starts at free for up to 10 proxies, which can be used as a free trial, just go get a taste of the service before committing to one of its paid plans with more IPs - but only this particular tier of the service.

The monthly-based proxy server plan with 100 proxies is charged $2.99 each month (that’s $0.0299 per proxy), and the more IPs you choose, the higher the discount, so 60,000 proxies come at a price tag of $0.0179 per IP. Going with the yearly option entails more discounts, so 100 proxies are charged $1.99 per month ($0.0239 per proxy), or $0.0144/proxy if you take 60,000 of them.

Moving onto the static residential proxies ranges from $4 per month for 20 proxies under the yearly plan to $20.01/month for 100 proxies, to $95.05/month for 500 proxies, to $180.09/month for 1,000 IPs, to $1,500.75/month for 10,000 IPs ($0.18 per proxy). There are other options based on the specific number of proxies required. The month-by-month plans are somewhat more expensive.

Finally, rotating residential proxies are cheaper than their static counterparts and are charged per GB. So, a 1 GB plan under the yearly commitment will cost you $2.8/GB/month, 10 GB goes for $2.20/GB or $20.20 per month, 25 GB can be yours at $2.08/GB or $52/month, 100 GB is charged $1.80/GB or $180/month, and 3,000 GB is priced at $1.12/GB or $3,360/month.

That said, Webshare doesn’t offer a free trial for its residential IPs. There’s no money-back guarantee either, but the company does provide a possibility of a refund under certain conditions. These include not having breached 1 GB of bandwidth, having fewer than 1,000 proxies used in the subscription, and making the request not later than 48 hours after the purchase.

Webshare: Features

A user’s adventure with Webshare starts at registration, which can be done via your email address or through an existing Google account. Considering that the platform already caters to more than 60,000 businesses, you know you’re going to be in good hands here. Once the registration is out of the way, you’ll be redirected to a dashboard with access to all of Webshare’s features.

Residential IPs

Webshare’s rotating residential IP addresses are ethically sourced, which means they come from consenting users, something that means a lot in a proxy industry overwhelmed by illegally obtained IP addresses. In other words, Webshare gets its IP addresses from device owners agreeing to join its proxy network in exchange for certain benefits.

Residential IPs are useful in many cases. For example, a hotel comparison site needs to scrape price lists from many hotel websites. However, hotel websites often discourage scraping by placing geo-restrictions and IP restrictions. Suppose a U.S.-based hotel blocks foreign IPs from accessing its website. Webshare lets you bypass it by choosing a proxy U.S. IP address to view the website and scrape pricing information.

Residential proxies are also helpful in e-commerce, wherein price comparison sites scrape data en masse to help people find the best deals. If you run a price comparison site, you can use residential IPs to access localized versions of a retailer’s website and scrape relevant information.

Webshare offers IP addresses in 195 countries around the globe (which means every country in the world as recognized by the United Nations), with the most popular locations including the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, China, Australia, France, and Canada. It has over 80 million IP addresses spread across all of these countries.

Still, Oxylabs has 102 million+ IPs, and Decodo has 125 million, but Webshare is getting there, as it has grown the number of its own proxies from 30 million in 50 countries in December 2024 to the current figure that now includes all the recognized countries in the world.

(Image credit: Webshare )Static Residential IPs

Static IPs are a faster alternative to Webshare's residential IPs. They are technically still residential IPs, albeit sourced directly from internet service providers (ISPs). They’re faster and more reliable because the IP doesn’t change with each session, relying on the unstable Wi-Fi connections of the device owners. Static IPs are issued for long-term use and are harder to detect, helping you stay anonymous while browsing.

Webshare’s static IPs have unlimited bandwidth. That’s why it charges per IP instead of by bandwidth like the standard residential IPs. Webshare sources its static IPs from ISPs like AT&T, Sprint, and Cox Communications. These ISPs have massive networks and offer speeds of up to 1 GB per second. Once you pay for a static IP, it's assigned only to you, and your IP address is fixed as long as your subscription remains valid.

Webshare has over 100,000 static IPs in its pool covering various countries. You can manage your proxies in an intuitive dashboard, utilizing them to bypass geo-restrictions and browse the web without revealing your actual IP address to third parties.

Proxy servers

Webshare offers its proxy servers with 400,000 IPs according to your specific needs. This means you can choose between shared proxy servers (shared with more than two users), private proxy servers (shared with one to two users), or dedicated servers (fully owned by you), with the pricing to match.

A dedicated proxy server offers much faster speed, as you aren't sharing resources with other users. It's similar to running your proxy network but with the features and flexibility that Webshare provides. With a dedicated proxy server, all your activities are only known to Webshare and are not shared with third parties.

You can connect to dedicated proxy servers using the HTTP and SOCKS5 protocols. Webshare’s dedicated servers offer up to 100 Gbps and unlimited bandwidth, which is ideal for massive data scraping. With nearly 100% uptime, which we verified during our test, you shouldn’t worry about reliability when using Webshare’s proxy servers.

Webshare’s dedicated proxy servers start from $26.60 monthly for 20 proxies with 250 GB bandwidth. If you surpass your bandwidth allocation, you can pay extra fees to get as much bandwidth as you need. You can also pay additional fees for unlimited IP authorizations, high concurrency, and a high-priority network (recommended when using proxy servers for time-sensitive data scraping).

Meanwhile, choosing a proxy server that you share with multiple users (more than two) is a budget option that provides the reliability of a standalone, but comes at a more affordable price. You can connect to shared servers with the HTTP and SOCKS5 protocols and choose IPs from over 50 countries.

You have unlimited bandwidth and speeds of up to 100 Gbps, the same as a dedicated server. However, your speed will vary depending on the workload of other users sharing the same server.

A shared proxy server costs $24 monthly for 25 proxies and 250 GB bandwidth, which can be upgraded to as much bandwidth as needed. You can also choose add-ons like unlimited IP authorization, high concurrency, and high-priority network.

The middle road is the private proxy option, where you only share your server with one to two other users, but nonetheless, you have access to all the perks offered by the above services - reliable uptime, HTTP/SOCKS5 support, IPs in 50+ countries, and a lower price.

(Image credit: Webshare )Chrome Extension

Webshare offers a browser extension for Google Chrome that lets users rotate proxies at the click of a button. This extension is ideal for individual users whose primary use case for Webshare is bypassing geo-restrictions. Whenever you encounter a geo-restriction, just choose a proxy IP from the relevant country and refresh the website to view the previously restricted content.

Webshare gives 10 free proxies, which you can access from the browser extension instead of visiting the website whenever you need a new proxy.

Webshare: Ease of Use

Webshare offers an intuitive dashboard that makes all features easy to understand. From your dashboard, you can set up any proxy type that you've paid for. Whether it's a static or rotating residential IP or a dedicated proxy server IP, you can spin one up at the click of a button. You'll see the complete list of all available IPs, which you can change anytime.

(Image credit: Webshare )

The dashboard shows detailed analytics about your proxies, including the error ratio and bandwidth consumption. This analytics lets you monitor your real-time proxy usage and make any needed adjustments. You can switch between dark and light mode depending on what suits you.

Webshare: Customer Support

Webshare offers reasonable support to users, both directly and indirectly. The Help Center contains detailed user guides and manuals for all its features, teaching users how to deploy and manage proxies effectively. Webshare provides extensive technical documentation for its APIs, making it easy to integrate its proxies into external applications. The API documentation guides users in configuring Webshare’s proxies to perform their required tasks.

You have access to a FAQ section with solutions to common problems. The Webshare blog provides numerous tutorials on integrating your proxies with other applications. We found this section very helpful when testing the app and its integrations.

If you need direct help, you can email Webshare’s support team and expect a response within 48 hours. However, there is no live chat or telephone support option, which we consider a drawback. You might need urgent support requiring real-time chat, but Webshare doesn’t provide this option.

Webshare: The Competition

There’s no shortage of competition in the proxy software market. We’d like to single out Decodo (formerly Smartproxy), Bright Data, and PacketStream as the most noteworthy Webshare rivals.

Decodo has a more expansive proxy network than Webshare. It offers 125 million+ IPs, compared to Webshare's 80 million+. Decodo offers search engine, social media, and e-commerce scraping APIs, but Webshare lacks this feature. The tradeoff is that Webshare has more affordable proxies.

PacketStream is a peer-to-peer proxy service, unlike Webshare, which is a centralized service. It is far more affordable and reimburses users who contribute their bandwidth to its network. The drawback is that PacketStream offers only residential proxies: there are no ISP proxies or dedicated proxy servers like Webshare. PacketStream’s peer-to-peer, decentralized nature also makes its IPs less reliable: the platform has no control over the internet speed of the device whose IP you share.

Bright Data offers residential, ISP, and datacenter proxies like WebShare. It also provides web scraping APIs, a Web Unblocker, and ready-made datasets to use instead of scraping from scratch. It has a significantly larger IP pool than Webshare and is overall a better tool. However, expect to pay for Bright Data’s proxies more than you will for Webshare.

Webshare: Final Verdict

Webshare is a reliable proxy provider that does a great job in its field. It’s easy to use, making the management and monitoring of your proxy usage a walk in the proverbial park. That said, it has its drawbacks, like limited customer support and the missing web scraping API feature offered by many proxy providers to let users automatically scrape public data from websites - a common use case for proxy servers.

We've listed the best CDN providers.

Categories: Reviews

I watched Only Murders in the Building season 5 and it’s the best season of the hit Hulu show yet

TechRadar Reviews - Mon, 09/08/2025 - 11:00

You know those shows that feel like a warm hug whenever they return to our screens, even if their subject matter isn't always savory? Only Murders in the Building season 5 is exactly that, and for me, it's by far the best installment of the Hulu show to date.

For anyone that needs a recap, poor Arconia doorman Lester (Teddy Coluca) was bumped off at the end of season 4, leaving our clumsy podcasters Charles (Steve Martin), Oliver (Martin Short) and Mabel (Selena Gomez) to try and solve the crime in new episodes. Pretty much all of our Arconia residents and recurring cast members return for more distant sleuthing, with new guest stars Renée Zellweger, Dianne Wiest and Keegan-Michael Key each having a crucial role to play.

It's rare that a TV show can get me to laugh out loud, resist fast-forwarding through typical filler scenes and try to jump the gun by deciding who the murderer is even if I'm wrong, but the quickly turned-around season 5 has managed that with ease.

It's more of the same, unsurprisingly, but you can't mess with near perfection, can you? We passed the signpost warning us of ridiculous storylines back in season 1... so of course we're all in for this delicious new round of chaos. Can it be more unhinged? Turns out, yes.

Only Murders in the Building season 5 kicks things up another notch

Obviously, I'd be committing the cardinal whodunnit sin if I gave away any spoilers, but I can tell you that I've not enjoyed a season of Only Murders in the Building as much as I have with season 5. Why? Mostly because we've got the perfect balance of old and new. Our main cast have embodied their roles so well that they're essentially symbiotic, while our new players are introduced in ways that continue to surprise and delight.

I started episode 1 thinking season 5 was basically a glorified Disney channel for adults who don't want to age out of their silliness – and then I realized that's exactly what the show's been this entire time. Everything about its composition is incredibly playful, able to manipulate the typical boundaries of genre and structure that we'd normally see our best streaming services rigidly stick to. In a nutshell, it's in its own lane.

The chemistry between Martin, Short and Gomez is obviously what's continuing to drive all of this. I genuinely believe that they're unlikely best friends both on and off camera, and the fact that the podcasters know each other as well as they know themselves only makes the overall story land that much more naturally.

I'm still surprised at how well some of the one-liner zingers land, somehow veering away from cringe-worthy tropes and straight into laughs that register across different generations. This, if nothing else, is the sign that something is well-crafted and knows exactly what it is and what it wants to achieve.

I know Meryl Streep is Meryl Streep, but I need more

Meryl Streep as Loretta in Only Murders in the Building. (Image credit: Hulu)

If I really had to pick Only Murders in the Building season 5 apart – and I wouldn't be a good reviewer if I didn't – there are some small details that could bother me if I let them. We're effectively just getting more of exactly the same without any distinct changes, and what is different is incredibly far-fetched.

Four people have died in The Arconia by the time season 5 kicks off, and street smarts should tell us that every single resident should have moved out by now. Obviously, the fact that more death is now on the horizon requires a belief suspension so big, it's practically floating on the ceiling. But if you've taken anything seriously up until this point, that's on you.

My biggest gripe is that season 5 has the least amount of Meryl Streep screen time since her arrival in season 3. When I was 17, I co-founded a Meryl Streep fan club at school called The Mezralites around the time The Iron Lady came out. There were only two of us, and we got t-shirts made. I've been the equivalent of Cam in Modern Family ever since (who once said: "Meryl Streep could play Batman and be the right choice"), so nothing short of constant exposure is ever going to be enough for me.

Still, you can find her in the latter half of season 5, and it's majorly worth the wait. Loretta (Streep's character) decides to play a Danish clairvoyant for reasons that will become clear when you watch, and my side were splitting watching her. There's no presence, Awards chat or need to be an icon here: The Arconia is her actor's playground, and she's letting rip.

Having said all of this, you don't fix something that isn't broke. Of course Only Murders in the Building was never going to deviate away from a hugely successful format and brand, and we should be thanking our lucky stars that season 5 is just as good as it ever was (nay, better). Shoutout to Zellweger for being the best and campiest guest star we've had on in the last few years, and being the only person to match Oliver's unique brand of unhinged self-delusion.

Stream The Girlfriend on Prime Video at your own risk – I’ve not seen a more messed-up, explicit thriller this year

TechRadar Reviews - Mon, 09/08/2025 - 08:00

Lock up your parents and children, people – The Girlfriend is the new Prime Video thriller you don't want to be caught watching with anybody you get easily embarrassed around. Why? While the scandal and mysteries run deep, the erotic sexiness is off the scale.

Taking the cat-and-mouse hunt we see in shows like Killing Eve to a new extreme, The Girlfriend introduces audiences to a mother called Laura (Robin Wright) when she meets her son's new girlfriend, Cherry (Olivia Cooke). Laura instantly senses that something is amiss and becomes intent on proving that Cherry's involvement in Daniel's (Laurie Davidson) life is more sinister than meets the eye.

As far as new thriller series go, this is pretty damn brilliant. Playing a mother and girlfriend off against each other is dynamic we've rarely seen onscreen in recent years, but add in the dual perspective from each episode (you'll see the same events play out twice from both Laura and Cherry's point of view) and we've got no idea who's truth is the finite truth.

All of this mystery means that if you're anything like me, you'll likely binge the six episodes in the blink of an eye, and even be willing to overlook the slight blunders that pepper the peaks and pits of the drama. If you've read the original novel by Michelle Frances and think you know what's coming, though, think again.

The Girlfriend is hands-down the streamiest stream on Prime Video in 2025

I mean, the trailer says it all. Both Laura and Cherry are playing with fire in The Girlfriend, and I've still got no idea whose side I'm on. We see Laura as both overly-doting (to the point where I'm surprised Daniel hasn't been to therapy) and conniving, while Cherry is an ice-cold manipulator and hapless nobody who's in over her head.

It'll come as no surprise that the intimacy involved (both family and romantic-oriented) is portrayed incredibly well. No matter whether it was a parental argument or a sex scene, I felt as though I should avert my gaze, as it somehow carried the shame of a teenage boy and a worried mother simultaneously. It's rare that such a mainstream limited series could make me feel uncomfortable and intrigued at the same time, and it's a testament to the quality of the series that we're able to sit with moral questions nobody has answers to.

That being said, I promise that each of our mysteries will be answered. There are no loose ends that we'll come away feeling hard-done by, but there's still a dangling 'what if' cliffhanger that leaves us exploring the narrative internally in greater detail.

I wasn't expecting such a level of introspection, nor was I anticipating such precise class commentary from The Girlfriend. Aside from the messed-up love triangle that grabs our attention, the series is also a cutting portrayal of rich vs. poor, and whether we can seamlessly rise from rags to riches like we're told is possible. This is arguably the sub-plot that's done the best of all, and it's genuinely worth watching to have a deeper conversation about this alone.

Robin Wright is an incredible director, but that might be to Laura's detriment

Robin Wright and Laurie Davidson in The Girlfriend. (Image credit: Amazon Prime Video)

For the most part, I cannot stress enough how impeccable our ensemble cast is. Davidson plays a mommy's boy so well that he's fit to feature on Sabrina Carpenter's latest album, with Tanya Moodie's BFF Isabella a comic treat and a slam dunk for Motherland fans. They offer us all the sex, scandal and explicit drama we'd want, but it's not perfect.

Of course, nothing is, but it's Wright herself that bothers me the most. Even after watching episode 1 alone, it's abundantly clear how much of an exquisite director she is. The Girlfriend has some of the best designed episodes of 2025, and she's the creative lynchpin responsible for that.

But while the feat of acting and directing is impressive, I don't completely buy Wright as Laura onscreen. If anything, she feels somewhat miscast in her own role. There's a lack of tenderness and heart underpinning the decisions Wright makes, although perhaps that's just because I've watched too much House of Cards. Her emotional connection with those around her can feel stilted in a way that transcends what's in the script, and I wonder what another actress would have looked like in her replace.

Laura surprisingly has the least amount of chemistry with her ex-girlfriend Lilith (Anna Chancellor), even when she finds herself snogging the face off of the woman she's supposedly never stopped loving. Chancellor's appearances feel haphazardly tacked on, and as a stalwart fictional lesbian (remember Tipping the Velvet in 2002?), she deserved more. As a real-life lesbian, I deserved more. As an audience, we understood Laura's mental anguish without needed to meet Lilith at all.

By the time we get to episode 3, the dual perspective cat-and-mouse verges on the predictable, and it's not until the latter half on episode 4 that The Girlfriend's second engine kicks into touch, driving it home to stick the landing. Still, these are minor issues in the bigger picture. You'd be hard-pressed to find another Amazon show that swings as scandalously (and successfully) big as this.

I tested Site24x7, and found it a solid all-in-one IT monitoring solution

TechRadar Reviews - Mon, 09/08/2025 - 05:34

Site24x7 is a cloud-based platform that delivers end-to-end network monitoring capabilities across websites, servers, networks, applications, and cloud infrastructure. As part of ManageEngine's IT management suite and backed by Zoho's development resources, Site24x7 has evolved into a mature platform that competes directly with industry leaders in our best network monitoring tools roundup.

TechRadar reviewers spend several weeks researching each major IT platform in the market, testing features, evaluating pricing structures, and assessing real-world performance across different use cases. While LogicMonitor remains our pick for the best network monitoring tool of 2025, Site24x7 presents a compelling alternative for organizations seeking comprehensive monitoring at more accessible price points.

Site24x7: Features

Site24x7 has an impressive feature set that positions it as a true all-in-one monitoring platform, well-suited for small to medium-sized businesses and managed service providers who need broad visibility without the complexity of enterprise-grade solutions. It provides out-of-the-box monitoring capabilities across diverse IT components, with users consistently praising its quick deployment and immediate value delivery.

While the feature execution is generally solid, some advanced reporting capabilities lag behind specialized competitors like New Relic or LogicMonitor. Pricing justification varies depending on which features you actually use up, though the flexible add-on structure does help optimize much of the costs.

Website and synthetic monitoring

Site24x7's website monitoring capabilities include uptime tracking from over 130 global locations, synthetic transaction monitoring, and comprehensive performance metrics including web vitals and page load times. It offers both basic uptime checks and advanced synthetic transactions that can simulate complex user journeys, making it suitable for businesses that need to ensure consistent user experiences across different geographic regions.

Infrastructure and server monitoring

The platform provides robust server monitoring for Linux, Windows, macOS, and various Unix variants, with both agent-based and agentless monitoring options available. Infrastructure monitoring extends to containers, Kubernetes environments, databases, and virtualization platforms like VMware and Hyper-V, offering visibility into entire server ecosystems with customizable alerting thresholds.

Network monitoring and management

Site24x7's network monitoring capabilities include SNMP-based device monitoring with support for over 11,000 device templates, network topology mapping, and traffic analysis through NetFlow, sFlow, and other flow protocols. The platform also offers network configuration management features to ensure compliance and security, making it particularly valuable for organizations with complex network infrastructures.

Application performance monitoring

The APM module supports multiple programming languages including Java, .NET, PHP, Node.js, Python, and Ruby, providing code-level insights, transaction tracing, and performance bottleneck identification. Integration with Real User Monitoring (RUM) allows teams to correlate synthetic monitoring data with actual user experiences, providing a complete picture of application performance.

Cloud and multi-platform monitoring

Site24x7 offers native monitoring integrations for AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform, with specialized dashboards for cloud-specific metrics and services. It includes cloud cost management features through its ManageEngine CloudSpend integration, helping organizations optimize cloud costs based on actual usage patterns and performance data.

(Image credit: Site24x7)Site24x7: Ease of use

Site24x7 delivers a relatively straightforward onboarding experience that gets most users up and running within minutes, with agent installation and basic monitoring configuration requiring minimal technical expertise. The dashboard provides a unified view of all monitored components, though the interface design feels somewhat dated compared to newer monitoring solutions and can appear cluttered when managing large numbers of monitors.

Many users praise the quick alert setup and the platform's ability to provide immediate value without extensive configuration, though some note that the learning curve becomes steeper when attempting to customize advanced features or create complex monitoring scenarios. Its design prioritizes functional completeness over modern design aesthetics, which can be both a strength and weakness depending on your preferences.

While power users appreciate the comprehensive feature access from the main interface, newer team members may find the abundance of options overwhelming initially. Site24x7's strength lies in its practical approach to monitoring. Most essential features are accessible without deep technical knowledge, though users frequently need to contact support for advanced customizations.

Site24x7: Pricing

Plan

Starting price (paid annually)

What's included

Professional

$42/month

All-in-one monitoring support for 1 application, 5 servers, 20 websites, 4GB log ingestion, and 100K pageviews.

Enterprise

$625/month

Adds anomaly detection, event correlation, compliance features, and premium support.

Site24x7's pricing structure is transparent and flexible, offering clear value propositions at each tier without hidden fees or per-user charges that plague many competitors. The entry-level pricing at $42/month makes it accessible to small businesses, while the scaling structure provides reasonable upgrade paths as monitoring needs grow.

However, organizations that need extensive synthetic monitoring or high-volume log management may find costs escalating quickly through add-on purchases. Plus the feature restrictions between tiers can feel limiting for teams with specific monitoring requirements that span multiple plan levels.

Site24x7: Customer support

Site24x7 provides tiered support based on subscription levels, with standard email support available for all paid plans and enhanced chat and phone support starting from the Pro tier. Most users generally report positive experiences with the support team's technical knowledge and responsiveness, praising their ability to help with complex configuration scenarios and integration challenges.

The platform also maintains comprehensive documentation and video tutorials, though some users note that advanced configuration guidance could be more detailed. Support experience also varies significantly between plan tiers, with enterprise customers receiving dedicated support channels and faster response times. While basic queries are resolved promptly, users on lower-tier plans may experience longer response times for complex technical issues.

Site24x7: Alternatives

Site24x7 occupies a unique position in the monitoring market as an affordably-priced solution that competes effectively against both specialized tools and enterprise platforms. The platform is well-suited for small to medium-sized businesses, managed service providers, and organizations looking to consolidate multiple monitoring tools.

Its main competitors include New Relic for application monitoring, PRTG for network monitoring, and Datadog for comprehensive observability, though Site24x7's pricing advantage becomes significant when comparing feature-equivalent configurations.

Site24x7 is a value-oriented alternative to premium solutions like LogicMonitor, New Relic, and Datadog, while offering more comprehensive features than budget alternatives like Nagios or Zabbix. Organizations choosing Site24x7 typically prioritize cost-effectiveness and breadth of monitoring capabilities over cutting-edge features or advanced analytics.

Site24x7: Final verdict

Site24x7 is an all-in-one monitoring solution that balances functionality with accessible pricing, making it attractive for organizations looking to simplify their monitoring stack. The platform's strengths lie in its broad monitoring coverage, quick deployment, and cost-effective scaling, while its weaknesses center around interface design and customization options.

But for most small to medium-sized businesses and MSPs, these trade-offs are acceptable compromises for the significant cost savings and operational simplification. The platform earns a strong recommendation for organizations prioritizing practical monitoring coverage over cutting-edge features.

While enterprises with complex requirements or teams demanding the latest in AI-powered monitoring may find better fits elsewhere, Site24x7's combination of functionality, reliability, and value makes it a compelling choice for the majority of IT teams seeking comprehensive monitoring capabilities without premium pricing.

FAQs

What types of infrastructure can Site24x7 monitor?

Site24x7 provides comprehensive monitoring across websites, servers (Linux, Windows, macOS, Unix variants), network devices, cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP), applications, databases, containers, and virtualization environments. The platform supports both agent-based and agentless monitoring approaches, with over 11,000 device templates for network equipment and extensive integration capabilities for modern IT infrastructure components.

How does Site24x7's pricing compare to competitors?

Site24x7 offers significantly more affordable pricing than premium competitors like New Relic, Datadog, or LogicMonitor, with plans starting at $9/month and no per-user fees. Its value proposition becomes particularly strong for organizations needing comprehensive monitoring across multiple infrastructure types, as competitors often require separate products or modules that increase total costs substantially.

What support options are available with Site24x7?

Support quality varies by plan tier, with email support for all paid customers and enhanced chat/phone support from the Pro plan onwards. Enterprise customers receive dedicated support channels and priority response times. But the platform provides documentation and video tutorials, though users frequently need direct support for advanced configurations.

Can Site24x7 replace multiple monitoring tools?

Yes, Site24x7's comprehensive feature set is specifically designed to consolidate multiple monitoring tools into a single platform, covering website uptime, server performance, network monitoring, application performance, and cloud infrastructure. Many users successfully replace combinations of specialized tools with Site24x7, achieving both cost savings and operational simplification.

Is Site24x7 suitable for enterprise environments?

While Site24x7 can handle enterprise monitoring requirements, it's best suited for small to medium-sized businesses and organizations prioritizing cost-effectiveness. Enterprises requiring sophisticated AI-driven analytics, extensive customization capabilities, or complex integration scenarios may find better fits with premium alternatives. Still, Site24x7's Enterprise plan does provide enhanced capabilities for larger deployments

We've listed the best website defacement monitoring services.

Categories: Reviews

I tested Belkin’s affordable Switch 2 screen protector – and it’s hard to find fault with

TechRadar Reviews - Sun, 09/07/2025 - 17:00

Belkin Tempered Glass Anti-Reflective Screen Protector for Nintendo Switch 2: review

The Belkin Tempered Glass Anti-Reflective Screen Protector is designed for anyone looking to defend their Nintendo Switch 2 from knocks and scratches.

Made from tempered glass, covered with an anti-reflective surface and treated with an anti-fingerprint coating, it promises to keep your handheld console crack-free, while not diminishing your gameplay experience; a big swing, particularly given its relatively affordable $24.99 / £14.99 / AU$29.95 price.

The process of applying the screen protector to our Switch 2 was easy, thanks in no small part to Belkin’s simple system. Once you’ve popped the supplied frame over the Switch 2’s screen, the screen protector naturally nestles into its exact position on the glass, without the hesitation and second-guessing often experienced when applying screen protectors.

All I then had to do was peel back the top layer of film and coax all of the air pockets to the edge of the display; this took all of about 20 seconds, which is far faster than with some of the best Nintendo Switch 2 accessories.

Admittedly, a few stubborn bubbles remained, but I’ve applied a lot of screen protectors in my time – I’m both an early upgrader and horrendously clumsy – and I’ve always found that these eventually get squeezed out over the first few days of use.

Image 1 of 4

Before applying the Belkin Tempered Glass Anti-Reflective Screen Protector (Image credit: Future)Image 2 of 4

Fitting it within the frame was a piece of cake, easily allowing me to align it precisely. (Image credit: Future)Image 3 of 4

A few bubbles appeared beneath the surface but they were easy enough to chase away. (Image credit: Future)Image 4 of 4

A quick polish with the microfiber cloth and I was done! (Image credit: Future)

As long as you’ve ensured that your Switch 2’s screen is sufficiently clean before applying the protector, it really is hard to imagine how you could go wrong here.

Once it was applied, I was genuinely impressed with the quality of Belkin’s screen protector. Thanks to the tempered glass it’s fashioned from it feels sturdy to the touch – rather than the plasticky feel of some products, you get all of the hardness of standard glass without the brittleness. And its bevelled edges mean it can have a decent thickness to it while not having a pronounced lip around its rim, allowing it to blend seamlessly into the device.

Sometimes this kind of protection can come at a bit of a tradeoff, giving you peace of mind at the cost of increased reflectivity, but Belkin’s anti-reflective treatment seemed to minimize the amount of reflections cast across the screen. It didn’t seem to hurt the pop of the Switch 2’s gloriously vibrant display at all, with Mario Kart World’s colorful palette still looking as hyperreal as ever.

Even under the harsh lighting of our photography studio, I had to spin it to pretty extreme angles for reflections to significantly affect the viewing experience, and you’re unlikely to encounter conditions this unfavorable under real-world use.

(Image credit: Future)

Being this well designed doesn’t mean anything if a screen protector cracks under pressure though. So how did the Belkin Tempered Glass Anti-Reflective Screen Protector perform under testing conditions?

Pretty capably, it turns out.

Out of the gate, I wanted to make sure it was going to actually go the distance – it doesn’t matter how hard your screen protector is if it peels off long before it sees any action. Rubbing the corner didn’t cause any layers to come away and, even when I got my nail in there, it didn’t easily lift away from the screen. My impression is that the Belkin should hang on in there for the long haul.

Simulating multiple years of cumulative wear and tear isn’t all that easy, so it’s important that we subject these screen protectors to a level of abuse I’d hope you wouldn’t subject your own console to.

Image 1 of 2

Scratch testing the Belkin Tempered Glass Anti-Reflective Screen Protector... (Image credit: Future)Image 2 of 2

... And the aftermath, showing little in the way of scratches. (Image credit: Future)

Taking my keys to the screen protector, I started trying to scratch it, gingerly at first and then, when it resisted my efforts, rather less gingerly. No matter how hard I tried to score the glass, the keys in my hand just slipped off it, so while I imagine it will sustain damage from direct blows, you can rest easy knowing that it’ll laugh off regular scuffs and scrapes with ease.

Even though I’ve spent a lot of money on screen protectors over the years, the Belkin Tempered Glass Anti-Reflective Screen Protector for Nintendo Switch 2 still impressed me. It’s easy to apply, well made, and should guard your handheld console against all but the most severe abuse.

Once you factor in the aforementioned price – just $24.99 / £14.99 / AU$29.95 – it becomes a bit of a bargain, especially given that you shouldn’t have to replace it for trivial reasons, like superficial scratches or premature peeling. If you want to safeguard your Switch 2, it’s a very safe bet.

(Image credit: Future)Belkin Tempered Glass Anti-Reflective Screen Protector for Nintendo Switch 2 review: price & availability

Launched June 4, 2025
Retails for $24.99 / £14.99 / AU$29.95

First released on June 4, 2025, the Tempered Glass Anti-Reflective Screen Protector for Nintendo Switch 2 is Belkin’s first foray into the gaming screen protector space. Priced at $24.99 / £14.99 / AU$29.95, it’s a very competitive option – although it is worth noting that some rivals’ offerings include two protectors for the price of one.

Still, I would argue that the value you’re getting here is pretty decent. Two screen protectors over one sounds like a bargain, as long as they don’t last half as long, effectively negating their cheaper price. Based on Belkin’s track record in this space, and how durable its screen protector proved in our testing, this one should last you a decent while, making it still a smart investment for the price.

(Image credit: Future)Should I buy the Belkin Tempered Glass Anti-Reflective Screen Protector for Nintendo Switch 2?

Ease of application

The frame makes it a cinch to fit it in place, and getting an essentially bubble-free seal only takes a few swipes.

4.5 / 5

Design

Bevelled edges allow the protector to have a decent thickness without rough edges, while reflection-reducing and fingerprint-resistant design ensures the screen remains visible even in direct light.

4.5 / 5

Toughness

Thick, robust tempered glass that neither peels nor scratches easily – our testing didn’t leave a single mark on it.

5 / 5

Value

Priced at the cheaper end of the market and designed to last, although some rivals offer two protectors for their higher price.

4 / 5

Buy it if…

You want tough, durable protection
Belkin’s screen protector stood up to all of the abuse I could dream up. It doesn’t easily peel off, it shrugs off fingerprints and, try as I might, I wasn’t able to scratch it.

You struggle to apply most screen protectors
Thanks to its handy frame and effective adhesion, Belkin’s screen protector is very easy to apply. Even if you’re as ham-fisted as I am, you shouldn’t find it too hard to get it on straight.

Don’t buy it if…

You want a backup in case things go wrong
We all make mistakes – especially when it comes to applying screen protectors. So if you want a backup screen protector in case you mess one up, it’s worth picking up one of the options that includes two protectors for the price one.

You also need a bunch of other accessories
If you’re also on the hunt for a case, silicone grips, stick caps and headphones on top of your screen protector, you might find an all-inclusive option like the Snakebyte Starter Kit S2 for Nintendo Switch 2 suits you better.

How I tested the Belkin Tempered Glass Anti-Reflective Screen Protector for Nintendo Switch 2

I applied the screen protector following the instructions
I tested how it affects brightness, shows fingerprints, and how easy it is to damage
I relied on decades of handheld gaming experience

Since TechRadar has started testing Nintendo Switch accessories, it’s been important for me to work out a standardized process for how we test them. First off, we apply the screen protector to a Nintendo Switch 2 to see how easy it is to adhere. Then we test how the screen protector affects the brightness of the screen and viewing angles, before seeing how it copes with smudges and fingerprints.

I also wanted to make sure that we checked how well the screen protectors cope with damage. While I wasn’t quite brave enough to drop a flagstone onto our testing Switch 2 and see whether it survived until the release of Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, I did try several methods to test the hardiness of the Belkin Tempered Glass Anti-Reflective Screen Protector. I tried scuffing the edges of the screen protector and peeling it with my nails to see if it would come loose, before attempting to scratch it vigorously with my keys.

In terms of experience, not only have I been gaming on the go for most of my life – Imma OG Game Boy right here – but I’ve been writing about tech and gadgets on and off for almost 15 years. My reviews team tests a wide array of gaming accessories from controllers to wireless headsets – and perhaps most relevant, I’ve broken more screens than I can count.

First reviewed: September 2025
Read more about how we test

Categories: Reviews

I’ve spent a month rocking with the CRKD Gibson Les Paul Guitar Controller and it's taken me back to the golden era of rhythm games

TechRadar Reviews - Sun, 09/07/2025 - 16:00

CRKD Gibson Les Paul Guitar Controller: one-minute review

The CRKD Gibson Les Paul Guitar Controller is a brand-new guitar controller for use with rhythm games like Fortnite Festival, Rock Band 4, and Clone Hero. CRKD was founded by former Red Octane staff who were responsible for the Guitar Hero series' controllers, and as such this feels very in line with the peripherals for those games, taking on the best elements of each to make one of the best guitar controllers I've ever used.

It comes in two variants, the LP Black Tribal Encore Edition and the LP Blueberry Burst Pro Edition. The Black Tribal edition comes with standard fret buttons and a mechanical click strum bar, with a slightly gaudy tribal design. Meanwhile, the slightly more expensive Blueberry Burst is functionally the same guitar but with mechanical frets, a Hall Effect strum bar with haptic feedback, and a blueberry burst design. If you prefer one set of buttons over another, the necks are interchangeable too.

On top of those two versions, each version has an Xbox edition, which makes it compatible with Rock Band 4. The multi-platform edition does work with Xbox through the KeyJam mode, however, it acts as a keyboard, meaning it is compatible with Fortnite Festival through button mapping but not Rock Band. The multi-platform edition works with Switch, PC, PlayStation 3-5, and Android too.

The guitar itself feels great to hold; it takes on the form of the fan-favorite Gibson Les Paul design that was previously used with Guitar Hero 3, while the strum bar is longer and easier to pinch, like the "Genericaster" design from Guitar Hero: World Tour and Guitar Hero 5 (my personal favorite guitar controller of all time). It lacks the lower fret buttons found on Rock Band guitars and the PDP Riffmaster; however, a separate neck attachment is being released later with this option.

(Image credit: Future)CRKD Gibson Les Paul Guitar Controller: price and availability

Prices range between $114.99 / £109.99 / AU$199 and $134.99 / £129.99 / AU$224
Available in the US via the CRKD website
Available in the UK via CRKD, Argos, and Amazon
Available in Australia via JB Hifi

The CRKD Les Paul launched in June 2025, with the Xbox editions set to release in late September. The price is higher based on whether you have the Xbox-compatible edition, with the Blueberry Burst version being more expensive than the Black Tribal one. However, the Blueberry Burst is only $10 / £10 / AU$25 more expensive, while buying the mechanical frets separately is $39.99 / £39.99, so I would personally go with the Blueberry Burst.

While you may be able to get the PDP Riffmaster on sale now, its regular price is more expensive than the Blueberry Burst, with the CRKD being what I feel is the better guitar (however, this more likely comes down to your preference between Guitar Hero and Rock Band-style instruments).

CRKD Gibson Les Paul Guitar Controller review: Specs

Price

$114.99 / £109.99 / AU$199

Dimensions

9.96 x 29.13 x 1.37in / 253 x 740 x 35mm

Compatibility

Nintendo Switch, PC, Android, Smart TV, PS3, PS4, PS5 (Xbox in Fortnite Festival only)

Connection type

Wired (Type-C), wireless (Bluetooth + 2.4GHz dongle)

Software

CRKD App (iOS, Android)

(Image credit: Future)CRKD Gibson Les Paul Guitar Controller review: design and features

Guitar controller designed for rhythm gaming
Based on the iconic Gibson Les Paul Guitar
A dial allowing you to program different profiles

As the name suggests, the CRKD Gibson Les Paul Guitar Controller is based on the iconic Gibson Les Paul guitar. This design was previously used for the Guitar Hero 3 guitar controller, with this one being roughly the same size.

The two available versions are Black Tribal and Blueberry Burst. Black Tribal is a black plastic base with a glossy black tribal design on top of it. While it's appropriate, as the mid-2000s was the perfect time for guitar controllers and tacky tribal designs (shoutout to the tribal Game Boy Advance SP), I frankly think this design is ugly. Blueberry Burst, on the other hand is fine looking; the actual blue burst design is nice and akin to its namesake guitar, but it's a decal that looks a bit low quality at close inspection.

Meanwhile, since the necks are detachable, both are just regular black plastic with small lights up the neck. These will light up in a color corresponding with which fret button you press.

The guitar features a d-pad on the top of the neck and two sticks. One is a little dial that is clicked in as your start button, and while it's not the end of the world, it can be a little awkward to pause with it. Meanwhile, there's a tone switch-style stick on the upper half of the guitar, which has a ring of buttons around it, allowing you to access the face and trigger buttons.

Under the strum bar is the whammy bar – which allows you to earn extra points when playing sustained notes – and the CTRL button, which is typically bound to Star Power activation. While not as long as the one found on the Genericaster, it's placed well so it's very easy to hit with your wrist and not compromise your strumming.

While not a complete game-changer, the mechanical frets and Hall Effect strum bar found in the Blueberry Burst edition feel fantastic, and given the price isn't significantly higher, I'd recommend going with that version over the Black Tribal.

(Image credit: Future)CRKD Gibson Les Paul Guitar Controller review: Performance

Solid battery life
Works right out the box
Comes with custom profile dial, customisable via the CRKD mobile app

The CRKD Gibson Les Paul Guitar Controller works straight out of the box with either a USB-C cable connection on PC or via a 2.4GHz dongle (both of which are included with the guitar). You can also use Bluetooth to connect to devices that can't support a USB option. From my month of testing, only the Blueberry Burst edition has run out of battery with me using it for at least 15-20 hours without charging it out of the box.

There's a knob that acts as the on switch when pressed and features a dial that allows you to use one of 9 profiles (the first four being preset to default settings and the Fortnite Festival difficulties). These bindings can be changed via the CRKD mobile app, with the Blueberry Burst edition allowing you to alter the level of sensitivity and haptic feedback on the strum bar.

This is essential for Fortnite Festival. While the default mode is usable in the mode, the CTRL button is mapped to the Select button, which opens a menu in Fortnite. You can't remap this in-game, so you'll need to turn the dial to number two to make it work in Fortnite's pro modes.

(Image credit: Future)Should I buy the CRKD Gibson Les Paul Guitar Controller?Buy it if...

You want to play guitar games or Fortnite Festival's Pro Mode
If you want to play these classic rhythm games, then you'll want a guitar controller to go with it. It's wide range of compatibility makes it a solid choice for any game you want to play across PC, PlayStation, and Switch, with the Xbox version working for Rock Band 4 on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.

You were a Guitar Hero diehard
This guitar was made by the people behind the Guitar Hero instruments and feel spot on to the classic instruments. I had my Ratatouille food critic moment playing this for the first time as it took me right back.

Don't buy it if...

You liked the Rock Band guitars better
While both were plastic guitars, Guitar Hero and Rock Band have very different feeling guitar controllers. Ultimately if you preferred the Rock Band guitars, the PDP Riffmaster is the way to go for you.

CRKD Gibson Les Paul Guitar Controller review: Also consider

Still not sold on the CRKD Gibson Les Paul Guitar Controller? Here’s how it compares to the other guitar controllers on the market.

CRKD Gibson Les Paul Guitar Controller

PDP Riffmaster

CKRD NEO S Purple Wave 5-Fret Fortnite Festival Edition

Price

$114.99 / £109.99 / AU$199

$129.99 / £129.99 (around AU$199)

$59.99 / £59.99 / AU$119.95

Dimensions

9.96 x 29.13 x 1.37in / 253 x 740 x 35mm

10.51 x 21.38 x 3.23in / 543 x 267 x 82mm

5.9 x 3.5 x 0.78in / 150 x 88 x 20mm

Compatibility

Multi: Nintendo Switch, PC, Android, Smart TV, PS3, PS4, PS5

Xbox:Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC, Android, Smart TV, iOS

Xbox: Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC

PlayStation: PS5, PS4, PC

Nintendo Switch, PC, Steam Deck, iOS, Android, Smart TV

Connection type

Wired (Type-C), wireless (Bluetooth + 2.4GHz dongle)

Wireless (2.4GHz dongle), wired (Type-C)

Wireless (Bluetooth), wired (Type-C)

Software

CRKD App (iOS, Android)

PDP Control Hub

CRKD App (iOS, Android)

PDP Riffmaster
This is a great alternative because CRKD was founded by former RedOctane staff – who created the original Guitar Hero controllers – as such, CRKD’s model feels in line with those games. If you preferred the feel of the Rock Band controllers back in the day, you're going to want the PDP Riffmaster. However, I personally find Rock Band buttons unsatisfying, so CRKD is my go-to.

For more information, check out our full PDP Riffmaster review

CKRD NEO S Purple Wave 5-Fret Fortnite Festival Edition
This is a great alternative if you're unsure about rhythm games and don't want to drop over $100 on a full-blown guitar controller. The NEO S is a solid controller in its own right, and the guitar attachment allows you to play these games, albeit with a smaller control method. It doesn't stand next to the full-blown ones, but it's a solid entry-level guitar controller.

For more information, check out our full NEO S Purple Wave 5-Fret Fortnite Festival Edition review

How I tested the CRKD Gibson Les Paul Guitar Controller

Tested for around 20-25 hours
Used to play YARG and Fortnite Festival on PC
Used both editions of the guitar

I've been using the CRKD Gibson Les Paul Guitar Controller since I received it in early August 2025 (so around a month). I did play a decent amount of Fortnite Festival (especially when they added the Power Rangers theme song), but I've mainly been playing YARG, which is a fan-made recreation of the Rock Band games, allowing you to import custom songs to the game.

I played a variety of songs and genres with it, from the likes of some of my favorite bands, Ween, They Might Be Giants, and Jellyfish, to harder rock bands like Iron Maiden, Mastodon, and Primus. I also played a selection of game soundtracks (mostly Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance and Guilty Gear Strive) and some outright goofy stuff like Weird Al Yankovic, the South Park movie soundtrack, and the Spider-Man 2 pizza theme.

First reviewed September 2025

Lost Soul Aside is Final Fantasy meets Devil May Cry... and some jank

TechRadar Reviews - Sun, 09/07/2025 - 06:00

Lost Soul Aside has come a long way since its initial promotional video went viral back in 2016, with super slick combat and visuals being enough to catch Sony’s attention. Nine years later, the final product is a PS5 console exclusive that mostly lives up to the exhilarating battles and landscapes that were shown that day.

Still, its shallow story and poor performance on PC makes Lost Soul Aside sometimes feel like a husk of an action adventure game.

Lost Soul Aside follows a young man named Kaser as he joins a resistance group named Glimmer against the empire. It starts off as a potentially intriguing and politically engaged story, but quickly devolves into a generic adventure about saving the world against interdimensional monsters called Voidrax and their commander, Aramon. The plot twists are obvious, so it’s hard to really stay invested, even when the stakes are increased when the Voidrax steal the soul of Kaser’s sister, Louisa.

Along the way, Kaser joins forces with a floating dragon-shaped Voidrax creature named Arena, and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed their banter together as they traveled across different biomes and dimensions. Arena expresses regrets about his past actions and vows to make amends by giving Kaser the ability to fight back against the Voidrax. Learning more about Arena’s backstory kept me engaged with the game outside of the combat even when the story itself was a plodding bore.

DMC meets Final Fantasy

(Image credit: Sony)

The gameplay is where it really shines. Its real-time action combat plays most like Devil May Cry with its heavy emphasis on combos, and you’ll gain access to more weapons as the game progresses. Between Kaser’s four options, a sword, greatsword, spear, and scythe, it’s immensely satisfying to seamlessly switch between each of them during the heat of battle.

While the pace at which the spear and scythe are unlocked later in the game may be a bit slow, there are plenty of combos to execute with the sword and greatsword during the first half. This is due to the excellent upgrade system. Kaser has a skill tree for each of his weapons, and each node provides a stat boost or some sort of follow up attack to his combos. It isn’t necessarily revolutionary, but its straightforward nature gets the job done. This helps to alleviate the pacing gap between unlocking all of Kaser’s weapons.

Lost Soul Aside gets even more of a visual spectacle by giving Kaser his own Voidrax-infused special attacks with Arena. They switch up the gameplay enough so it’s not a constant button mashing affair. Kaser can equip up to three at a time and they vary quite a bit.

My favorite ones include Breath Barrage, which summons two floating smaller Arena-shaped heads that automatically fire like turrets. Lifeforce Bestower summons a tree that slowly heals Kaser as long as he remains within range.

Best bit

(Image credit: Sony)

Lost Soul Aside is at its best when you've unlocked all of Kaser's weapons. The combat is the most refined aspect of the game and being able to switch between weapons on the fly makes battles feel like butter, even with the less than ideal frame rate. The weapon trinkets and accessories that Kaser can equip have a compounding impact on the moment-to-moment action, adding a surprising amount of depth and customization to combat.

These powers also add a more strategic element to the fights. After breaking an enemy’s shield, I’d activate Breath Barrage so that I can maximize my damage output before they can recover, and Lifeforce Bestower lets me reserve my own healing potions as long as I play conservatively for an amount of time. Experimenting with how Arena’s powers could synergize with Kaser’s combos gave the gameplay a new dimension to have fun with.

Kaser can also augment his weapons with accessories found throughout levels in chests or rewards for story progression. They give various effects like simply increasing your damage output by 5% or restoring some amount of HP when landing a critical hit. At first, these don’t really seem to make immediate changes. However, as you accumulate more weapon accessories and even stronger ones, their impact becomes apparent. It really scratches the min-max part of my brain even though there’s no traditional stat upgrade system.

Not so smooth

(Image credit: Sony)

On the graphical side, Lost Soul Aside is impressive. It’s got the hyper-realistic anime style that Final Fantasy is known for. The numerous biomes and environments are breathtaking to look at too. While levels can feel a bit railroaded sometimes, there are instances where you’re encouraged to explore and can find chests containing gold or sometimes even trinkets Kaser could equip on himself for passive effects.

There are also special combat trials called Dispersed Dimensions hidden throughout the levels that provide rewards for beating them under certain conditions like completing under a time limit or Kaser’s health constantly drains. The rewards were definitely worthwhile as the trinkets were rarer and had more powerful effects than the ones you’d find in chests.

However, the experience is mired by poor performance on PC. There are constant stutters and framerate drops everywhere, both in and out of battle. Even opening up the menu causes a bit of lag, and there’s about a second of a delay where the screen turns to black before returning back into the game, which is noticeably annoying. The performance is particularly detrimental considering Lost Soul Aside is a fast-paced action game and every second matters or you risk losing.

(Image credit: Sony)

For example, there’s a specific Dispersed Dimension challenge where enemies can only be damaged by Arena’s attacks. With all of the particle effects activating simultaneously, this caused my game to slow down to a crawl, and even freeze for a few seconds before resuming. This same trial also gives a bonus reward if complete without taking any damage. With performance issues like these, meeting this condition was frustratingly impossible.

The stuttering can also be a huge problem during platforming segments. Missing a platform jump really gets on the nerves, especially when it sends you all the way back to the start of the section. The platforming itself is awkward as well. His jumping range fluctuates too much, causing me to miss more platforms than I’d like to admit. When Kaser’s feet touch the ground, it never feels quite right—the sensory impact feels too soft and doesn’t quite stick with the landing for me.

Lost Soul Aside arguably excels the most where it matters: the frantic and exciting gameplay, along with the pretty visuals. Everything else around it, however, isn’t really up to par. Its story isn’t all that interesting, and the performance issues on PC leave much to be desired. Its influences are certainly apparent, but it's clear that its blade isn’t nearly as sharp.

Should you play Lost Soul Aside?Play it if...

You love character action games
If you’re a fan of Devil May Cry and recent Final Fantasy titles, you’ll enjoy Lost Soul Aside’s combat.

You love character action games
If you’re a fan of Devil May Cry and recent Final Fantasy titles, you’ll enjoy Lost Soul Aside’s combat..

Don't play it if...

You want a deep story
The story here gets the job done, but it's not particularly engaging.

You want a stable experience Right now, the PC version suffers from plenty of stuttering issues, so wait for a patch or update before diving in.

Accessibility features

Lost Soul Aside has disappointingly few accessibility features compared to other Sony-published games.

However, there are options for Colorblind mode (Red, Green, Blue) and a Colorblind intensity slider. There are also sliders for adjusting camera sensitivity and motion blur.

How I reviewed Lost Soul Aside

I played Lost Soul Aside on PC for 23 hours and finished the main campaign, along with doing a majority of the Dispersed Dimensions and finding as many collectibles as I could. I used an Xbox Wireless Controller.

Your first playthrough will also be on Normal difficulty, and both Hard and Nightmare difficulties are unlocked once you beat the campaign for the first time. You also get access to level replay.

My key PC specs include an AMD Ryzen 7 7700X 8-Core Processor CPU, an AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT GPU, and 32 GB of RAM.

First reviewed August 2025.

Categories: Reviews

NBA 2K26 feels like a course correction from last year’s controversial changes

TechRadar Reviews - Sat, 09/06/2025 - 16:00

When five-time NBA champion Dennis Rodman was interviewed during Netflix's Last Dance documentary, he explained how he'd have friends shoot hoops from all angles well into the morning just to more accurately track rebounds and work out where he needed to be to scoop up possession.

Review info

Platform reviewed: PS5 (on PS5 Pro)
Available on: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, PC
Release date: September 5, 2025 (Early access one week prior)

Why do I bring that up when talking about basketball game NBA 2K26? Because, as much as rebounds are less show-stopping than acrobatic dunks, they're the basis on which successful teams build attacks, and every single late-night session predicting angles and flight paths led to Rodman becoming an NBA legend.

While NBA 2K26 may not hit those heights (at least not yet), what's here plasters over some of the cracks in last year's game to offer the best digital basketball experience in years.

No More Bricks

(Image credit: 2K/NBA)

I enjoyed my time with NBA 2K25, but I know I’m in the minority for that. A big reason that the community found itself divided by last year’s game was 2K’s commitment to revamping a core part of the experience, which we’ve been used to over the last decade and change: the shot meter.

While last year put an awful lot of emphasis on the ever-present danger of shooting a brick and fluffing your lines, this year it’s much more forgiving. It’s not quite a walkback to earlier games, but it feels like Visual Concepts has done an awful lot to rework the act of shooting the basketball, or driving to the rim, this time around.

You’ll still throw some absolute honkers if you’re not careful, but you always feel more in control, whereas last year things felt a little too random.

Last year, it took a major shine off of the otherwise stellar animation system that did a better job of making players feel like they were moving more realistically, and in vastly improving offense this year, the whole game feels like it’s faster. It’s not quite arcadey, but it’s a more exciting sim than it’s been in years.

Now, you’re not missing easy layups or having to spam dribbling moves to find a tiny opening, because all players feel much more capable of scoring points from anywhere, and player locomotion feels just a little slicker.

That also ties into the long-running player builds system. Last year, unless you invested a ton of stat points into your player (or real currency), you’d find yourself missing simple shots. This time around, the new ‘MP’ (your in-game avatar in MyPlayer) feels much more like the talented prospect they’re supposed to be at the start of the story.

Rags to Riches (Again)

(Image credit: 2K/NBA)

That brings us nicely to MyPlayer, the mode from which many of NBA 2K26’s others flow. Let’s start with the good: Visual Concepts’ commitment to having a single, central created player remains something I wish rivals would adopt.

It’s awesome to be able to build up your version of MP in one mode before taking them online, and while the story here is pretty predictable, it remains a fun way to build your player’s legend from high school to the NBA.

Cutscenes look better, although they naturally pale in comparison to the on-court action, but what’s here is more of the same.

There’s a downside to that, too, and it’s VC. You’ll earn currency through playing, but as with any NBA 2K instalment, you can spend plenty of real cash to grow your player quickly and into one of the in-game archetypes.

My Small Forward has enjoyed a meteoric rise (at least according to the MyPlayer storyline), but he’s still nowhere near as impressive as anyone who’s thrown their currency of choice at the game.

Elsewhere, MyGM remains one of my favorite ways to play despite not having any major improvements this year after its re-emergence in 2K25. There are fresh long-term goals called Offseason Scenarios, and they feature real-world examples like a Bulls rebuild or weighing up how to follow up the Warriors’ Steph Curry era.

Best Bit

(Image credit: 2K/NBA)

Jettisoning the controversial shooting meter from last year, NBA 2K26 feels like a game full of subtle changes that make scoring points more fun than ever, whether you’re in the paint or shooting from distance.

They’re not the kind of things that you’ll necessarily be entirely drawn into, but they’re a neat addition that gives you something to strive for. Still, for a longstanding NBA fan, the continued support for MyNBA Eras remains something that puts rivals to shame. You can now copy a MyPlayer into a classic era of the NBA, letting you rub shoulders with Larry Bird or Michael Jordan.

Speaking of dream scenarios, MyTeam is back and, as always, it’s very easy to throw VC points at pack openings. I do appreciate that the mode is pretty rewarding when it comes to offline play. I’m decent at 2K, but the game’s fervent community could slap me six ways to Sunday, so it’s nice to be in control of what I play if I want to push for better players for my squad.

This year sees the debut of the WNBA in the mode, which is a huge move that’s been a long time coming. EA FC has seen plenty of success by adding the women’s game into Ultimate Team, but the nature of basketball as a sport where height makes a big difference means that it’s not uncommon for one player to absolutely tower over another.

It perhaps wouldn’t be a huge issue if you could rotate your squad to place smaller, faster players in more attacking roles rather than expecting them to stop a 7ft 7 juggernaut, but that’s at odds with having players with roles and positions assigned to them when they’re fresh out of packs.

Back to the city

(Image credit: 2K/NBA)

Look, I’ll be honest: I’ve never really enjoyed The City. The mode has always felt like a good idea that’s had too much executive input, designed to draw players in to drop their VC to build their player and buy clothing and shoes.

Last year took the smart step of finally shrinking the playspace, and NBA 2K26 goes one step further with interconnected areas that make it much easier to get to where you need to be.

Perhaps the best thing I can say about The City is that performance is vastly improved. Last year’s game got a PS5 Pro update, but it always felt laggy on Sony’s newest system. This year, it’s still not as responsive as playing on the court, but it’s noticeably easier to navigate.

That brings us, finally, to NBA 2K26’s presentation. Put simply, this is the best-looking sports game around, at least on PS5 Pro. When Visual Concepts boasted about being able to see the pores on players' faces ahead of launch, I scoffed. As it turns out, you really can see the pores on player faces, as well as stitching on shoes, and those all-important reflective surfaces like the shiny court.

Should you play NBA 2K26?Play it if...

You sidestepped last year
If you’re a keen basketball fan, NBA 2K26 is the most fun the series has been in literal years. If you fell off with last year’s game, this is a great time to come back.

You want a sports game that shines on console
On PS5 Pro, NBA 2K26 looks staggeringly good, with a whole host of subtle broadcast package effects and lighting tweaks that make it look magnitudes better than NBA 2K25, which was already impressive.

You want the best virtual basketball experience going
NBA 2K26 is the best basketball game in years, even if you’re looking to play it offline in MyGM or tooling around in MyNBA Eras.

Don't play it if...

You’re hoping for a MyTeam overhaul
This year’s MyTeam mode feels mostly the same as it did last year, outside of the long-awaited introduction of the WNBA, which itself causes some balance issues that are diametrically opposed to the way MyTeam operates (and has operated for years).

You don’t want to spend VC
VC still makes the world go round, and if you’re worried about wanting to spend money here and there for a few stat points or some new digital shoes, you might want to consider keeping your payment card out of sight.

Accessibility

NBA 2K26 has a few accessibility features. You can adjust shot timing windows and visual cues, while there are difficulty settings, too. Vibration and DualSense triggers can be tweaked, too.

Perhaps most impressively is that the shot meter, which can be tricky to spot in the chaos of an ongoing match, can be customized with a variety of options. It’s not strictly there for accessibility purposes, but that customization could be a huge boon for those who need extra visual clarity.

(Image credit: 2K/NBA)How I reviewed NBA 2K26

Having reviewed multiple NBA titles across different platforms in recent years, I played this one on my PS5 Pro, with the standard DualSense wireless controller, the Astro A50 X headset, and on a Sky Glass TV.

I’ve most recently played NBA 2K25 in the last couple of months, so I have a good grasp of what’s changed. I built up a decent starting line-up in MyTeam during this current review period and spent some time working my way through the ranks in MyTeam.

I also explored The City, was destroyed by other players in pick-up games, and began the journey to take the Chicago Bulls back to a new era of dominance.

First reviewed August-September 2025

Categories: Reviews

This WiZ smart bulb may not be the brightest, but its colorful LED filament puts a modern twist on a vintage classic

TechRadar Reviews - Sat, 09/06/2025 - 16:00

WiZ Filament Bulb review

The WiZ Filament Bulb Clear 25W ST19 E26 is a color-changing smart bulb that features a coiled LED strip in place of a traditional filament.

It’s available in the US and the UK under slightly different names to reflect the difference in wattage, bulb shape, and fitment, but they have the same feature set and look very similar.

Known as the WiZ Filament Bulb Clear 25W ST19 E26 in the US, or the WiZ Filament Bulb Clear 40 W ST64 E27 in the UK, it has a list price of $32.99 / £27.99, and can be found at WiZ and Amazon.

Image 1 of 2

(Image credit: Future)Image 2 of 2

(Image credit: Future)

I love the Filament Bulb’s classic shape, and was pleased to find that it didn’t feel overly fragile. I have mixed opinions about the coiled LED strip. I found it looked nice in warmer whites and red, but due to the combination of different colored LEDs, it proved a bit of an eyesore when in other colors, with the brightness turned up when using it in my lamp.

If you want a light that can light up a room in addition to providing some nice mood lighting, then this bulb won’t be suitable. It’ll just about do as a reading light if your book is positioned right next to it, but it’s not ideal – although I believe this is often the case due to the nature of filament-style bulbs.

(Image credit: Future)

While it looks pretty on certain settings, the width of the LED strip may prove off-putting if you’re looking for a more authentic-looking filament bulb. If so, you may be better off looking for a non-color filament-style alternative, which you can also find from WiZ, Philips Hue, and various other brands.

The Filament Bulb was pleasingly straightforward to sync with the WiZ V2 app, as it was automatically detected, and it connected to my Wi-Fi quickly and without any fuss.

(Image credit: Future)

Unfortunately, the WiZ V2 app isn’t as intuitive as the Govee and Nanoleaf companion apps – although it would take a lot for an app to compare to the Govee Home app, which you’ll have probably guessed if you’ve already read my review of the Govee Table Lamp 2. Despite this, the WiZ V2 app provides access to a variety of useful functions, such as the control menu, which offers some static presets that include warm and cool options, and night, TV, and relax lighting modes, along with a few others.

I could also choose hues from a color graph, adjust the color temperature using a slider, or choose one of the twenty-five dynamic presets, each offering different color palettes and motions. I could also alter the speed of the color changes, though this adjustment was applied to all of the dynamic presets, rather than individually.

(Image credit: Future)

The brightness was easy to adjust using a slider on the home screen or when adjusting settings in the control menu. Thanks to the rhythm function, which I set to change between different modes based on the local time, I was able to get the brightness and color temperature to adjust automatically throughout the day. There’s also a schedule feature, which I used to get the Filament Bulb to turn off at a set time.

I found the Filament Bulb could be slow to respond when switching between the Dynamic lights. And it was also a bit long-winded applying each one, as it asked me which room I wanted to apply it to each time, despite only having one setup. But I could set four of my preferred light settings on the home screen, up to eighteen in the quick action folder, or save them as scenes, so at least the process was quicker once I’d picked my favorites.

(Image credit: Future)

On the subject of scenes, I found it far more efficient to fine-tune the lighting effect I wanted in the control menu before saving it as a scene. While the same settings are available when creating a new scene, the bulb didn’t immediately reflect any changes I made. Instead I would only get to check the result after creating and enabling the new scene, which wasn’t ideal, meaning it was often better to tweak the lighting settings first.

Connecting the Filament Bulb to my Echo Dot (5th Gen) was nice and simple, as it was automatically detected by my Alexa app. I needed to put the Filament Bulb into pairing mode, which was a case of switching the light off and on until it began to pulse blue, and the syncing process took just moments to complete. I could then use voice commands to get the Filament Bulb to change colors, temperature, and brightness, which was very convenient, especially as my requested changes were applied promptly.

(Image credit: Future)

Despite the disappointing elements of the app, once I’d fine-tuned the lighting effects and set up the automations and voice control, I quite enjoyed testing the Filament Bulb. Overall, I was pleased with the quality for the price. So, if you’re looking for a vintage-style bulb with modern smart features and want to change up the ambience with a little color, it’s worth checking out the WiZ Filament Bulb Clear 25W ST19 E26.

If you love smart lighting as much as I do and want to explore some other fantastic options, then I highly recommend checking out our best smart lights buying guide.

WiZ Filament Bulb review: Price and specs

Price

$32.99 / £27.99

Model

US: Filament Globe Clear 25W ST19 E26

UK: Filament Bulb Clear 40 W ST64 E27

Colors

Multicolor

Lumens

US: 300 / UK: 470

Temperature

US: 1800-2100K / UK: 2200-6500K

Connectivity

2.4GHz WiFi, Bluetooth

App

Yes

Voice control

Yes

Dimmable

Yes, using the app

Additional features

Matter compatible, motion sensor (with 2+ bulbs)

Should I buy the WiZ Filament Bulb?Buy it if...

You want vintage style with modern features
The shape of the bulb is gorgeous, and while the coiled LED isn’t exactly traditional, it has its own charm in the right setting. This, combined with the smart features, makes it an eye-catching choice.

You want automation and voice control
The rhythms and schedules are easy to set up and work well, and controlling the light becomes pretty effortless when synced to smart home devices like Alexa.

Don't buy it if...

You want to light up the room
This bulb’s definitely destined for mood lighting rather than illuminating a space, so it wouldn’t be the brightest choice if you plan to use it as a solo pendant light.

You want a traditional-looking filament
Although the LED strip allows for colorful lighting effects, it has a noticeably different aesthetic compared to white filament-style smart bulbs.

WiZ Filament Bulb review: Also consider

Nanoleaf Matter Essentials smart bulb
If you’re looking for an alternative smart light with a difference, this Nanoleaf bulb may do the trick, thanks to its quirky faceted bulb. It’s cheaper than the WiZ Filament Bulb, yet also Matter compatible, vividly colorful, and can mirror your PC or Mac screen when used with the desktop app. If you’d like the learn more, check out our full Nanoleaf Matter Essentials smart bulb review.

How I tested the WiZ Filament Bulb

I tested the WiZ Filament Bulb for one week
I tested the different features and customizable settings
I observed its performance and brightness levels

I used the WiZ Filament Bulb on my desk in my office and in my living room. I screwed the bulb into a table lamp before powering it on and evaluating the setup process on the WiZ V2 companion app.

I explored the features, testing how different colors and settings looked, and created my own presets and scenes. I also tested how bright the bulb was both in daylight and in a dark room.

I synced the WiZ Filament Bulb with my Alexa app to check how straightforward the process was and to test out voice commands, which I did by altering the brightness, colors, and powering the bulb on and off.

First reviewed: September 2025
Read more about how we test

Categories: Reviews

I tested the AI-enhanced Geekom A9 Max mini PC - and the superb performance makes it a must-have pro-grade office machine

TechRadar Reviews - Sat, 09/06/2025 - 13:02

Geekom A9 Max Mini PC: 30-second review

The Geekom A9 Max is a stylish, premium-styled mini PC that incorporates the latest AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 with NPU and integrated AMD graphics. It is a small, stylish machine that has been designed to handle general office work, AI workloads and applications that utilise an AI, such as CoPilot or Photoshop, are given a generative boost.

As I've seen from this line of mini PCs before, the machine is well equipped, with the review sample arriving with 32 GB of RAM and a 2 TB SSD that backs up the powerful CPU and integrated GPU. Sure enough, through the test, it proved to be an exceptional office-focused machine with more than enough power to handle heavy-duty day-to-day tasks, such as Microsoft Office and more intensive applications to a point.

The speed of handling large files and browsing documents on a 4K monitor all worked well within the processing abilities of this small machine. I also liked the fact that there were plenty of connectivity options, with LAN ports enabling me to plug directly into my NAS as well as the network for increased transfer rates.

Other connectivity options, such as Wi-Fi 7, proved robust, although I did have a few connection issues with the Eero 6 router. Once swapped to an updated Wi-Fi 7 network, the connection transformed in speed and reliability.

In use, the machine handled 1080p video editing in Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve with ease. However, as I started to tackle a couple of 4K video edits, it became apparent that although the CPU was capable, the integrated GPU slightly held it back.

For social media edits, the machine proved superb, offering plenty of power and flexibility, especially in CapCut. One aspect I liked about the design, especially if you need to handle larger files, is the ability to install a secondary M.2 SSD to boost internal storage.

The volume of connection options came in handy, enabling easy integration within an office or studio setup, with four USB ports in a line across the front. Working in the creative sector, it's also always nice to see an SD card slot at the side to quickly offload image and video files.

By the end of the test, I was genuinely impressed with the performance. It handled Windows, Office, and creative applications with relative ease, up to a certain point, where the GPU seemed to hold back its potential.

A key feature of this machine is that it's enhanced for any application that has AI integration, such as Photoshop, Copilot, Zoom, Teams background blur, noise cancellation, and real-time translation. During testing, I used the AI NPU in Photoshop and Lightroom for AI-powered selection, upscaling, and background removal.

The AI CPU also supports running local machine learning models and your own AI test bench, if that's your thing.

I finished the test with a bit of gaming. The limitations of the GPU became more apparent at this point. While gaming at 1080p was OK, once graphics were enhanced and resolution increased, frame drops became noticeable. Lighter games like DiRT Rally ran fine and were playable.

However, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle required all graphics settings to be reduced, and even then, there were still occasional image breakups.

It was clear this stylish machine has been finely tuned for office and creative space use. It's an ideal option with robust connectivity options and enough power for day-to-day office tasks and a bit more. It can handle many standard creative tasks, such as video editing and image enhancement, without many issues. Only when stepping up to high-resolution, high-bitrate 4K video did its limits become clear.

If you're in the market for one of the best mini PC units, with high-quality, high-performance for the home or office, then the Geekom A9 Max is a superb option.

Geekom A9 Max Mini PC: Price & availability

How much does it cost? $999 / £999
When is it out? Now
Where can you get it? Widely available

The GEEKOM A9 Max AI Mini PC is available directly from Geekom US for $999 and Geekom UK for £999 at time of review. This includes 32 GB of RAM and a 2 TB PCIe SSD.

It's also available from most major online retailers, including Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.

Value: 4 / 5

(Image credit: Alastair Jennnings)Geekom A9 Max Mini PC: Design

(Image credit: Alastair Jennnings)Specifications

CPU: AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370
Graphics: AMD Radeon 890M
RAM: 32GB Dual Channel DDR5-5600 SODIMM (128GB MAX)
Storage: 1TB M.2 2280 NVMe PCIe Gen4x4 SSD, 1 x M.2 2230 SSD
Front Ports: 4 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, 3.5mm stereo headphone
Rear Ports: USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, USB 2.0 Type-A, USB 4.0 Type-C DP-Alt mode / PD, USB 4.0 Type-C DP-Alt mode, 2 x RJ45, 2 x HDMI 2.1, DC
Side Ports: SD Card slot
Connectivity: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4
Audio: 3.5mm Audio in
Camera: N/A
Size: 1135 x 132 x 46.9 mm
OS Installed: Windows 11 Pro
Accessories: VESA Mount

The A9 Max is a premium mini PC with a CNC-machined aluminium chassis, offering a durable and sleek aesthetic. Lifting it out of the box, there's no doubt this machine has a distinct premium feel.

It measures 135 x 132 x 46.9 mm, making it fairly average in size for this style of computer, and with a slightly heavier weight, it feels more substantial than many cheaper mini PCs on the market.

The premium build and extensive connectivity pitch this mini PC towards professional and mid-to-high-end home environments. It wouldn't look out of place in any design studio with its minimalistic design.

One feature that's instantly apparent over many other mini PCs is the sheer volume of connectivity options, both wireless and wired. Around the body of the machine, there's a row of four USB-A ports across the front, all of which are USB 3.2 Gen 2. The rest of the front is relatively minimalistic with just a 3.5 mm stereo headphone jack.

On the side, there's an SD card 4.0 slot to quickly download files from your camera or other devices.

Around the back, there's another USB 3.2 Gen 2 alongside a USB-A and USB 2.0. Also present are two USB 4.0 ports, one of which supports PD power. These are joined by two RJ45 networking ports, two HDMI 2.1 FRL ports, and the DC-in socket.

Inside, once opened, both RAM and storage are upgradeable. The RAM is dual-channel DDR5 5600 MHz, upgradeable to 128 GB. Storage includes two M.2 2280 SSD NVMe Gen 4 slots, and our review sample came pre-installed with 2 TB.

The aluminium chassis also contributes to cooling, integrating with a large heatsink, heat pipes, and a fan. While not fanless, the cooling system is necessary for the powerful CPU, NPU, and GPU.

A VESA mount is included, so it can be wall-mounted or attached to the back of a monitor.

Ultimately, the A9 Max offers a stunning minimalistic design that offers plenty of processing power, connectivity and a boost in performance for applications that support AI.

Design: 5 / 5

Geekom A9 Max Mini PC: Features

(Image credit: Alastair Jennnings)

The core highlight of this machine is its AI potential. Alongside the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 CPU, there's an integrated AMD Radeon 890M GPU and NPU powered by the XDNA 2 engine. This offers up to 50 TOPS of NPU performance and a total AI acceleration of 77–80 TOPS, ideal for Copilot, local LLMs, object detection, voice recognition, and any AI-integrated applications such as Windows 11 and Adobe Photoshop with generative features.

On the back, display options include two HDMI and two USB4 ports, supporting up to 8K monitor output.

The machine also offers ample flexibility for upgrades. Dual-channel DDR5 SO-DIMM slots can be upgraded to 128 GB, and the two PCIe Gen 4 M.2 SSD slots support up to 8 TB, which is substantial for a machine of this size.

Network connectivity is also good with Wi-Fi 7 and dual LAN for fast wired and wireless connections, making it suitable for both setups and streaming. The fact that it comes pre-installed with Windows 11 Pro means that it's ready to be used as part of a mid to large scale business, but if you're not a Windows fan it will also support alternative operating systems such as Ubuntu.

Features: 4.5 / 5

Geekom A9 Max Mini PC: Performance

(Image credit: Alastair Jennnings)

CrystalDiskMark Read: 6234.88MB/s
CrystalDiskMark Write: 5371.08MB/s
Geekbench CPU Multi: 15190
Geekbench CPU Single: 2938
Geekbench GPU: 41100
PCMark Overall: 7638
Cinebench CPU Multi: 20802
Cinebench CPU Single: 2026
Fire Strike Overall: 8631
Fire Strike Graphics: 9396
Fire Strike Physics: 30023
Fire Strike Combined: 3222
Time Spy Overall: 3622
Time Spy Graphics: 3284
Time Spy CPU: 10559
Wild Life Overall: 19157
Steel Nomad Overall: 546
Windows Experience Overall: 8.2

Getting started with the Geekom A9 Max is straightforward. Simply run through the Windows 11 Pro setup, which takes around five to ten minutes, then after the updates, it's ready for your choice of applications to be installed.

Windows 11 Pro runs extremely smoothly from the outset, with the only issue I encountered being the wireless connectivity with my Eero 6 router. After switching to a Wi-Fi 7 router, both speed and reliability significantly improved, suggesting a conflict between the A9 Max and the Eero 6, which I've experienced before with Wi-Fi 7-enabled machines.

Running Windows 11 Pro and Microsoft Office applications went without issue. Using Microsoft Word with Copilot was fast and responsive, and that performance was pretty much reflected across all Office applications. In Adobe Photoshop, the generative fill feature processed quickly with good results.

Because applications were able to use the local AI CPU and NPU, there was no reliance on cloud-based AI, essentially helping to speed up the amount of processing time, especially with the Adobe Creative Apps, compared to machines that aren't AI-enhanced.

The performance in Photoshop and Lightroom was impressive and far smoother than I expected for a machine of this size, which led me on to testing higher resolution video. Using CapCut, Adobe Premiere Pro, and DaVinci Resolve, initially for a simple 1080p edit with effects, the A9 Max handled everything smoothly. The 2 TB SSD and fast transfer speeds meant it could manage social media and small-scale video production, making it ideal for small-scale creative work.

However, when working with 4K footage shot on a Sony A7 IV, the GPU began to show its limits. Fans ramped up under load, timeline rendering slowed, and clip import times increased. That said, for a small form factor, performance remained impressive, and fan noise was generally well managed.

In gaming tests, DiRT Rally performed well, though it isn't graphically demanding. Tekken 8 also played well, though effects had to be reduced; however, when it came to Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, the performance was less fluid, with dropped frames and occasional stuttering. The gaming highlighted how the integrated GPU is adequate for light gaming, but not for graphics-intensive titles.

Benchmark results confirmed real-world impressions. Windows 11 Pro and Office are performing well, reflected in a PCMark score of 7638 and a Windows Experience Index of 8.2, both typical for premium mini PCs. Office applications such as Excel and PowerPoint loaded quickly and allowed for fast multitasking, thanks to strong Geekbench CPU single and multi-core scores.

Creative applications also performed well as a whole, with Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom running smoothly, and the Geekbench GPU score of 41100 highlighted the machine's potential for mid-range graphics processing.

SSD speeds were particularly impressive, with a read speed of 6234 MB/s and a write speed of 5371 MB/s. These speeds helped with video editing, especially when handling larger files.

In Premiere Pro, 1080p editing went well, but at 4K, performance dropped as effects were applied. DaVinci Resolve was less stable overall and demanded more from the graphics system. While usable at 1080p, the experience was definitely less fluid as I had to wait for the renders to catch up.

By the end of testing, it was clear that the A9 Max is very capable for Windows 11 Pro, Office, and general productivity tasks. With internal upgrades available, there's good potential. Even the base 32 GB RAM and 2 TB storage are enough for social media editing at 1080p. It's worth noting that, like other Geekom machines of this level, replacing the RAM and SSD is relatively easy; simply take off the base, remove the antenna wires, and then remove the next plate to gain access. While some machines enable you to leave the antenna wires in place, here there isn't quite enough length, and if you do leave them in place, they'll disconnect from the wireless card, and refitting them can be a tedious and painstaking task.

Through the test the speed of the machine generally impressed with the only significant slowdown occurring during editing of high-bitrate 4K footage from a mirrorless camera. Standard 4K from a smartphone was manageable, though it has lower data rates by comparison.

In gaming, performance was average. The machine is clearly designed more for work than play. The extensive connectivity, four front USB-A ports, USB4 at the back, and dual LAN make integration into an office network easy, making it a great office-based solution.

Performance: 4.5 / 5

(Image credit: Alastair Jennnings)Geekom A9 Max Mini PC: Final verdict

(Image credit: Alastair Jennnings)

The Geekom A9 Max is a great mini PC that looks fantastic, with a CNC-machined aluminium chassis that fits perfectly in any office or studio.

Its standout features include build quality and upgradeability, essentially as your needs grow, internal storage and RAM can be increased. For multimedia editing, more RAM would help with higher-bitrate video and effect-heavy workflows. Storage can also be expanded from 2 TB up to 8 TB, reducing the need for external drives.

The dual LAN ports allow high-speed connections to a local network or NAS. For small office setups, this is a real advantage, although it's worth noting that LAN speeds are capped at 2.5 GbE, rather than the 5 or 10 GbE you might expect in a premium system.

If you find yourself regularly plugging and unplugging accessories, the row of front USB-A ports is a big time-saver; however, it's a shame there's no USB-C on the front for faster devices.

I also liked the fact that there's the inclusion of the SD card reader, which makes it easy to quickly offload image and video files to the internal SSD, which offers exceptionally fast read/write speeds and helps significantly in workflows involving large files or media.

By the end of testing, it was clear this is a premium-level office machine. There are some omissions, such as the lack of a front USB4 port or faster LAN, but for its main purpose as an office-based machine, it delivers.

Should I buy a Geekom A9 Max Mini PC?

Value

A great machine that is a perfect solution for office use, though the quality does come with a price premium

Design

The solid CNC-machined aluminium chassis looks fantastic and feels incredibly robust

Features

With AMD's latest CPU, NPU, and GPU all integrated into a single chip, this machine is office-ready

4.5

Performance

With AMD's latest CPU, NPU, and GPU all integrated into a single chip, this machine is office-ready

4.5

Overalls

A great option for any office, especially if you use Copilot or other applications that utilise AI integration

4.5

Buy it if...

You want an AI-ready PC

The latest CPU with NPU enables full use of AI services through local processing, which helps speed up results and improve workflow.

You need a future-proof option.

With the latest CPU, USB4, and Wi-Fi, this system includes new technologies that should remain relevant for years.

Don't buy it if...

You need discrete GPU performance.

The integrated graphics are good, but for high-end creative tasks or gaming, a dedicated GPU is still preferable.

You're on a tight budget.

This is a premium mini PC with premium pricing. Entry-level models may offer better value depending on your needs.

For more professional-level tech, we've tested the best business computers and best business laptops around.

Categories: Reviews

I reviewed the xTool F2 Ultra dual laser engraver and the more I used it, the more I fell in love

TechRadar Reviews - Sat, 09/06/2025 - 09:02

I've tested out a number of xTool laser cutters before, and I've always walked away impressed.

Whether it's the feature-rich, easy-to-use xTool P2 or the precise xTool S1, I've always found the units to be innovative and accurate, ranking them among the best laser engravers and cutters around.

So, I was excited to get my hands on the xTool F2 Ultra. And after some comprehensive testing, let me tell you, this one is in a league of its own.

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

The xTool F2 Ultra follows on from the impressive F1 but boosts speed, power and design to offer one of the most powerful yet easy-to-use desktop laser engravers on the market. While the working area might be relatively small, the fact that it features a 60W MOPA fibre laser enabling you to engrave, emboss and cut various metals is a feature that's rather unique. Then there's the fact that this is coupled with a more standard 20W diode laser for non-metallic materials, such as wood, meaning that if you own a small business, it offers a powerful tool that will enable you to create and customise a wide range of products.

While machines like this have been available in the past, they've often been ultra-complex and required additional software to handle the speed and power of the fibre laser. However, with integrated software and streamlined workflow, it is pretty much unmatched by any other system I've used. I'm pretty confident that even a complete beginner would be able to get up and running with the F2 Ultra.

From the outset, I was impressed not just by the user setup but also by how quick and easy it was to use the xTool software. You just need to select your design, place it over the material in the software, select the material type from the library, then select engrave, cut or emboss before hitting go and watching the design appear within seconds.

The price point of this machine really reflects the quality and speed of what is possible, with the Galvo system enabling speeds of up to 15,000 mm/s and the smart dual-camera setup helping you accurately position items in the machine. It's impressive what you can do and create in very little time.

Many of the more complex manual setup procedures are removed, with the machine essentially taking over everything, such as focusing automatically. There's just a small alignment procedure at the beginning of the setup process, but once that's done, aside from dialling in material and positioning your designs, the machine takes care of everything else.

I've used quite a few dual-fibre and diode laser machines in the last year, and while I'm always impressed with what is achievable, there's usually a bit of tuning and fiddling with calibration and configuring software like LightBurn to accurately mark or engrave. However, here the software aligns everything; you just push the green bar on the control panel, and the machine takes care of the rest.

With the F1, I was impressed by the speed, utility and flexibility of the machine, but the F2 Ultra is in another league, obviously reflected in the price point. Compared with any other system on the market, the F2 Ultra, especially when coupled with the conveyor belt, offers a huge amount of options and possibilities. For any small business dealing with laser engraving and embossing, there's now only one machine, the F2 Ultra.

xTool F2 Ultra: Price & availability

The xTool F2 Ultra is available on xTool's official site - it's priced at $4999 in the US and £6029 in the UK.

I'm also seeing the unit retailing for $5499 on Amazon.com. However, it doesn't appear to be available on Amazon.co.uk at the time of review.

xTool F2 Ultra: DesignSpecs

Laser Technology: Dual-laser: 60W MOPA fibre + 20W blue diode
Work Area: 220 × 220 mm (expandable to 220 × 500 mm with conveyor)
Spot Size: 0.03 × 0.03 mm (fibre); 0.08 × 0.06 mm (diode)
Engraving Speed: Up to 15,000 mm/s
Positioning Accuracy: Up to 0.0001 mm
Camera System: Dual 48 MP with AI recognition
Dimensions: 730 × 320 × 265 mm
Weight: 20 kg
Supported Materials: Metals, wood, acrylic, leather, glass, ceramics, plastic
Safety: Fully enclosed with auto-shutdown and fire detection
Software: xTool Creative Space + LightBurn compatible

One of the standout features of the xTool products is just how well-designed they are. This is from a company that, a few years ago, was producing simple open-frame laser cutting machines with a distinct DIY feel. Those machines are far removed from the F2, which is highly refined and of exceptionally high quality, aimed at small to medium-sized businesses rather than the casual consumer or prosumer.

While the machine itself is relatively compact with a footprint that will sit perfectly on a desktop, it has a high-quality build that reflects not only its price point but also its suitability for years of use.

The machine is relatively simple, with a slide-up enclosure that encloses the working area. If you need to have it open for larger materials, that's possible. There's also the ability to add an air filter to extract fumes, and as you'd expect with a professional-level machine, there's a kill switch and a decent touchscreen display to monitor the process and access many settings.

As with many other laser engravers and CNC machines, most interaction is done through complementary software. xTool provides its own ecosystem, which is one of the best on the market, streamlined and easy to use. Unlike some other fibre lasers, there's no need to purchase expensive extra software or plug-ins. Once you've paid (admittedly a lot) for the F2 Ultra, it should work out of the box and be set up within about 10 to 15 minutes.

The design is also clever in that you can use it as a fully enclosed system with smart safety features like emergency stop, flame detection, and automatic shutdown when open, or bypass some of those for conveyor belt use with larger objects.

In terms of size and weight, it comes in at roughly 20 kg and measures 730 × 320 × 265 mm. This smallish footprint will sit comfortably on your desktop, though you do need to allow for the machine's height and a small side control panel.

If you're using the conveyor belt, you'll need even more space. It's an optional extra, but if you're planning to use it, it's well worth having a full workbench left free to easily operate the machine.

On initial setup, I used the USB connection to sync with my laptop. After initial calibration, I switched to the Wi-Fi connection, which I found strong and reliable, even on my underpowered workshop network.

The overall build is premium and extremely sturdy. The two internal cameras and full autofocus add to the ease of use and high-end feel. However, compared with something like the ComMarker B6, this is a far larger and heavier machine.

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)xTool F2 Ultra: Features

The F2 Ultra is an interesting machine as it combines two laser types in one enclosed engraver. The first is a powerful 60W MOPA fibre laser used for engraving, embossing and cutting thinner metals, the second laser is a 20W diode laser used for cutting and engraving organic materials such as leather and wood.

Not long ago, it was unusual to find both lasers in one machine, but as we saw with the ACMER P3, combining the two is becoming more common. The big difference between the Atomstack P3 and the xTool F2 Ultra, aside from the price, is the build area. The ACMER P3 is designed for far larger objects, while the F2 Ultra features a far more powerful fibre laser and is designed for more intricate work. In terms of product design and finish, the F2 Ultra is in another league.

One of the biggest advantages of having a dual-laser system is that it enables automatic switching between laser types depending on the material. In the past, other machines with dual lasers required you to manually swap out the tool heads, fibre or diode. We've seen this before with older xTool and Creality machines.

The fibre laser not only cuts through thin metals but also enables colourful anodisation of aluminium and steel. The diode laser can cut through relatively thick organic materials, ideal for a 3mm base ply, and in some cases up to 20mm in thickness.

In terms of laser power, the MOPA fibre laser for metals comes in at 60W, which is extremely powerful for this type of machine. The 20W blue diode laser is mid-range but perfectly suited to the small platform and build area the F2 Ultra offers.

When it comes to engraving speed, the fibre laser uses Galvo scanning technology, enabling speeds up to 15,000 mm/s. This sounds fast, and when you see it in action, it is. You can engrave a MacBook Pro in a matter of seconds, although, while the temptation was there to do so in this review, I held off, at least for the moment.

The more I used the machine, the more impressed I became with its features. The dual 48MP cameras enable AI-powered alignment, making a real difference to positioning. The cameras feed into the xTool software, allowing for precise placement on the material. With a positioning accuracy of up to 0.0001 mm, even the finest materials are handled with extreme precision.

While the working area of the F2 Ultra is smaller than many large-scale engravers, it's designed for small businesses looking to engrave and cut smaller items. The base size is 220 × 220 mm, which suits a wide variety of objects. If more space is needed, a conveyor accessory expands this to 220 × 500 mm.

One of the areas that excited me most was the precision; the fibre laser offers a spot size of 0.03 × 0.03 mm and the diode laser 0.08 × 0.06 mm, allowing for extremely fine detail.

Thanks to the dual-laser setup, there's decent material compatibility, most notably stainless steel, aluminium, titanium, gold, and even silver. With very thin materials, it's possible to cut as well as engrave metal, which is rare even among fibre laser engravers, but that additional power boosts that potential.

The machine also handles all the usual materials, acrylic, leather, rubber, ceramics, and glass (though some surfaces may require preparation). It's designed for precision, not bulk processing, and while cheaper machines exist for large-scale cutting, the F2 Ultra excels in high-quality, fine-detail work.

Supporting that precision are smart features like smart focus, autofocus, and automatic Z-axis adjustment. Unlike other engravers, where you manually enter material thickness or use gauges, this machine does it all for you.

The fully enclosed enclosure offers Class 1 safety so that you can be sure to be protected from those high-power lasers, which, if you're using this in a small workshop or shop, is well worth considering. Built-in sensors include flame detection, which triggered several times during testing when pushing the machine's limits of power, and an emergency stop is also available.

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

xTool also supplied a smoke filtration unit, which connects to the machine and keeps fumes to a minimum. This is an optional extra, but if you're spending on the F2 Ultra, it's well worth the investment.

Although the F2 Ultra is well above many machines I've tested in terms of quality, it still supports popular laser engraver accessories, including the rotary tool, conveyor feeder, and air-assist smoke purifier, all of which enhance cut quality and streamline workflow.

As for software, I really like xTool Creative Space. It's fully featured, with helpful tools and instructions, and is very easy to use for laying out designs. If you're a more advanced user, the machine is fully compatible with LightBurn, although you'll need the Galvo plug-in. Once installed, all the cameras and configurations work through that as well.

xTool F2 Ultra: Performance

Starting out with the xTool F2 Ultra, this is one of the easiest machines I've come across to set up and use of its type. While the machine is relatively large, its actual footprint is quite compact, meaning it sits comfortably on your work surface without taking up too much space. It's more vertical than wide or deep.

Once positioned, with the dongle and control panel plugged in, you can switch on the machine, and it runs through its initial checks, ready for calibration. I connected it to my MacBook Air via USB and used the Creative Space software to complete the alignment and calibration process. This involved placing a piece of material inside, clicking 'next', and allowing the software to mark two points, which were used to align everything automatically. Once complete, the machine was ready to go.

In the box with the review sample were a few test materials. Over a three-hour period, I cut, engraved, and embossed various items, from metals to wood and leather, and was impressed by how quick and easy the machine was to use. I liked that the fully enclosed nature meant I could just pull down the lid, hit start in the software, then press the green bar on the control panel and watch the engraving, cut, or emboss process begin.

In almost all cases, the output quality was excellent. Only the first few materials required some adjustment as I got a feel for the machine's power. For example, my first attempt at engraving a 3mm base ply used too much power and burned the material to ash. On the second run, the result was far better. The standard 20W diode laser was very capable, and with the air assist and smoke filter extracting fumes, the quality and precision of the cut were impressive.

One thing I really liked, whether working with metal, wood, or leather, was the camera-assisted positioning. Through xTool Creative Space, you can capture a live image of the material on the work area and place your design directly on top. This allows for near-100% accurate placement.

If you're unsure about positioning, you can also click the 'frame' button, which projects your design outline onto the material inside the machine. This projection is sharp and precise, allowing for fine adjustments before committing to a cut or engraving.

As with any laser engraver, I ran a series of test passes on different materials, especially metals and woods, to get a feel for the required power and speed settings for both diode and fibre lasers. Although the 20W diode laser is mid-range by today's standards, its power and accuracy deliver clean, high-quality cuts through 3mm base ply.

Switching to the fibre laser highlighted just how capable this machine is. The 60W power output provided more engraving depth than I've seen in other fibre lasers I've tested, and the speed and accuracy are unmatched so far.

For the first few engravings, I used sample files included with the software, most of which completed in a few seconds. Even though I know these machines are fast, the speed of the xTool F2 Ultra still surprised me.

One of my early projects was engraving a set of dog tags for my dog and a few friends. Usually, this might take a few attempts to get right, but here, the accuracy and speed were such that each tag was engraved in under five seconds.

What's more, by laying out a batch of tags on the surface and applying different text to each through the software, I was able to engrave up to 20 tags in one go and faster than anything I've used before.

The more I used the fibre laser, the more intuitive the software became. Unlike other fibre lasers that take time to learn and have complex configuration steps, with the F2 Ultra, I felt confident within an hour, engraving coins included in the material pack with intricate designs.

The small work area is ideal for this kind of precision engraving. But of course, this is a dual-laser machine, and I wanted to test the diode laser on more materials. I engraved the cover of a book, lowering the laser power to about 5% and increasing the speed. After a few test dots to fine-tune power levels, I ran the full design, which was completed in under a minute with excellent quality.

As I continued engraving tools, creating more coasters and keyrings, the one thing that stood out was the precision of the engravings. When using my own materials, I learned that careful attention to power and speed settings was essential. My first batch of coasters burned quickly, but a test pass and adjustment solved that.

The quality of the lines, especially with air assist and the filter removing fumes, was excellent. That said, the limited work area is noticeable. This machine is built for precision tasks, not large-scale projects. For that, something like the xTool P2 would be more appropriate.

All this use was good and standard, but the point of the F2 Ultra is that it's far more, especially with the ability to emboss metal. How you do this isn't exactly straightforward initially, as there's a little delving into the menu; the same is the case when using the Rotary attachment. Essentially, in the XCS software, you click the Select Processing Mode, then scroll down past the "Roller - Use Rotory attachment", "Use Converyor Large" to the "Emboss" option. Once selected, you can then start to lay out your chosen design.

The next step is to select the material, in this case, a brass coin blank supplied by xTool. This is selected from the material menu; here, you need to select "More Materials", type in Brass and 1.57" (40mm) Blank Commemorative Coins Brass" will appear. From here, you can select the material, select the F2 Ultra, then click "Add to XCS". Then click back onto the material and select the "1.57" (40mm) Blank Commemorative Coins Brass.

Now the coin can be placed into the F2 Ultra, and by clicking "Refresh Background" then "Auto Measure", the coin will appear on the screen, ready for you to position the design.

The design is the next stage of processing, as a straight image won't get you the emboss effect, and a depth map needs to be created.

To do this, you click the "Ai" icon, select "Image Processing", and select "Embossment". You're then given the option to upload your image, select the Emboss type, and then click "Generate" Once the processing is finished, you can drag and drop the coin design onto the workspace and over the preview of the coin. Once you're happy, you can click process, and the embossing will start. For most projects, this process is considerably slower than general engraving and can take well over an hour; however, the end results are incredible, especially once polished and finished off.

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

It's worth noting that the depth map creation isn't an exact science, and there's no way to adjust the map, but after a while and with the 3D preview, you start to get an idea of what works and what doesn't.

By the end of the test, I was genuinely impressed by the fibre laser, which is clearly the core of the F2 Ultra. The inclusion of a powerful diode laser fine-tuned for detailed work adds even more versatility, ideal for small businesses.

It's clear this machine is designed for small to medium-sized businesses that rely on laser engraving, whether to create and customise products or for crafts requiring precision, such as jewellery work. It offers a level of detail and reliability that many other fibre and diode systems cannot match.

xTool F2 Ultra: Final verdict

The xTool F2 Ultra is one of the best fibre laser engravers on the market, with a premium build and a product-designed enclosure that makes it an ideal option for many small to medium-sized businesses. It's perfect for small-scale production, customisation, and any business that needs to laser engrave a wide range of surfaces. What it is not is a large-scale laser engraver for oversized projects. This is focused on absolute precision.

The inclusion of two lasers and the dual cameras for AI alignment onto smaller objects helps ensure ultimate precision. If you need to do batch engraving, it speeds up the entire process, essentially handling much of the setup and configuration for you.

After using it for a month, this is by far the best fibre laser engraver I've tested. The major downside is the cost. The base machine is expensive, and once you add in the conveyor, rotary tool, and smoke filtration units, though combo packs are available from xTool, it still adds up to several thousand pounds, which is a considerable investment for a small business.

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

However, this is a professional machine. It's not just a starting point; it's a system you can build your business around. Its precision and quality are high-end, and if you're looking for a solid, reliable machine to support or expand your business, the F2 Ultra is an obvious choice.

What I also appreciate is how well xTool Creative Space is designed. It's robust, intuitive, and simple to use. While you can use third-party options like LightBurn, which offers more advanced control, you will need the Galvo plug-in and some setup time to get everything calibrated properly.

For experienced users, this opens up even more potential; however, if you're a small business looking for a fast and versatile laser engraver, the F2 Ultra stands out as the best option on the market. Paired with one of xTool's straight diode machines, it gives you a powerful ecosystem capable of handling a huge variety of projects with ease and speed, making it a sound investment.

Should you buy the xTools F2 Ultra

Value:

Premium machine for pro users with deep pockets

Design:

Durable, enclosed, and workbench-friendly layout

4.5

Features

Dual-laser + AI + Galvo = professional flexibility

Performance

Flawless output across materials and batch work

Total

Among the best all-in-one engravers available today

Buy it if...

You want to engrave both metals and wood.

This dual-laser system saves time, money, and space versus owning two machines.

You want a fast engraving machine.

With 15,000 mm/s Galvo scanning and conveyor support, it's built for bulk production.View Deal

Don't buy it if...

You're just starting out or working on a budget.

There are cheaper diode-only options if you only need basic cutting and engraving.

You need portability for on-site work.

At 20kg and a desktop-only format, this isn't made for mobile use or field jobs.View Deal

For more crafting tech, I've tested and reviewed all the best 3D printers.

Categories: Reviews

Sword Of The Sea is a technicolor trip of a game from the makers of Journey

TechRadar Reviews - Sat, 09/06/2025 - 07:00

Matt Nava must have wild dreams. At thatgamecompany, he was art director on 2012’s universally acclaimed Journey, a minimal but deep, near existential exploration of humanity, played out via the widescreen vistas of the worlds within our heads and beyond our minds.

Since he founded Giant Squid Games, the studio released another pair of titles – Abzû and The Pathless – that sought to further depict the immensity of nature as the de facto meaning of life, drawing these settings in a technicolor style and captivating storytelling format that they believe – with some justification – is unreachable via any other medium.

Review info

Platform reviewed: PS5
Available on: PS5 and PC
Release date: August 19, 2025

Sword Of The Sea is Giant Squid’s first game in five years and compounds Neva’s reputation as a figure driven by a fantastical imagination, his vision once again shot through with a vividly absorbing amalgamation of the past, present and future. But despite the otherworldly, psychedelic triggers that ignite this and his other releases, it turns out Nava’s inspirations are rather more prosaic than those salvaged from the far-out dimensions of his psyche.

Because, beneath the ablaze surface – which flickers with activity and adventure – Sword Of The Sea actually has its roots in the everyday. That’s not to say these core inspirations – snowboarding, surfing and skateboarding – are humdrum, pedestrian pleasures, rather the pastimes of the brave and the bold who want to live on the edge of both life and a thick wedge of solid and – ideally – unbreakable matter.

As his previous titles have suggested, Nava is a fan of extreme sports, particularly when they intersect with the ocean and its underwater residents. He believes there is more to these pursuits than a base rush of adrenaline, explaining in a recent interview: “I don't think we can force you to have, like, a spiritual awakening or something. But I do think that we can emulate the kind of environment and conditions that gave me something like that.”

The Wraith's progress

(Image credit: Giant Squid)

You play as the Wraith, a wordless, airborne gladiator who doesn’t need to speak because the blue flames billowing from his skull tell you all there is to know. Something like a Tony Hawk for the Blade Runner generation, he rides a gleaming, indestructible plank that is part board, part sword and is – disappointingly – unlikely to be available in your nearest Supreme stockists anytime soon.

Once more, the premise of the game is simple and the storyline, as such, perfunctory. That said, an allegory for the real world, real time decline of Earth’s ecosystem is apparent as you navigate a vibrantly eye-popping spectrum of locations, solving the rudimentary, repeating puzzles that are built into each region and deliver water to the ravaged land, reawakening a verdant landscape and aquatic cast. However, the mind-bending mechanics and attendant cosmic backdrops are anything but straightforward.

Best bit

(Image credit: Giant Squid)

The interactive settings produce countless breathtaking, poetic moments. But perhaps the game’s most uncanny scenes take place during the Frozen Drifts level, where you can parkour towards the heavens and – to misquote Sir Isaac Newton – stand on the shoulder of giant and mostly buried warrior statues in the middle of a blizzard.

Across Saharan sand dunes, turquoise Maldivian seas and Massif Central whiteouts – frequently embedded with half pipes – you navigate the Wraith on his supersonic ‘Hoversword’, using an expanding but never complex set of controls.

Seemingly informed by both reality and fantasy, he can traverse sun scorched ruins in what could be the last days of the Roman Empire, leave a holographic vapor trail in his wake pulling stunts through the dusty canyons of a reimagined Tatooine and skid to a dashing stop in an eerie, cavernous gothic monastery, illuminated by the primary colors of a stained-glass window. It’s a beautiful experience.

Flow motion

(Image credit: Giant Squid)

In many ways Sword Of The Sea establishes a new high score in video gaming’s ongoing quest to incarnate the hallowed concept of flow. Popularized in the 1975 book Beyond Boredom And Anxiety by Hungarian-American psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, this locked on state of mind has long been associated with the most captivating and immersive titles.

“Our games celebrate fluid movement, avoid hyper violence, and are approachable for kids and adults alike without compromising on depth, stakes, or meaning,” explain Giant Squid of their modus operandi.

In the lead up to release, Nava has spoken of the “meditative” qualities of this game, which is an addictive headspace to many of those who participate in the aforementioned activities, particularly when carving new pathways through water or snow, as you frequently can in Sword Of The Sea. With spectacular graphical fluidity and fidelity, the impossible is made possible in the mountainous (uphill) downhill racing and 300mph ski jumping of the Shadow Tundra level game highlight. Certainly, Ski Sunday never went this far off-piste.

While there are few other participants, the hypnotic aura is underscored by the inclusion of an elegant catalogue of marine life that – at their most heavyweight – provide an additional vehicle to uncover the eight levels spanning the single digit runtime. The awe-inspiring appearance of Megalodon-sized orcas, sting rays and now extinct Elasmosaur reptiles – and the opportunity to climb onboard – has a singular appeal, which amplifies the epic sense of scale framing both them and the graphically abundant environments within which the game is housed.

Behold “the time before time”

(Image credit: Giant Squid)

In its mythical lore – fittingly, the game takes place in “the time before time” – and reconfigurable terrain, there’s something of Zelda here. As the ice cool lead bounces across tangerine terracotta rooftops, you are reminded of the physical urban challenges presented by Stray or the Assassin’s Creed series. Elsewhere, the endless runner, sword attack DNA of Neva is also redolent of this game world. But, really, Sword Of The Sea is unlike anything else you might have played.

Equally, that’s not to say it feels entirely original. Anyone who has picked up a title helmed by Nava will be familiar with many of the atmospheric, recurrent creative design archetypes – Arabic-style scriptures and ancient cave drawings – and the insistently wise and wistful soundtrack, which is once again crafted by Austin Wintory, who remains the only video game composer to be nominated for a Grammy for Journey.

In truth, as the game progresses, the dazzling ambience and rote gameplay become somewhat cloying and repetitive. For example, driving a great white shark through a mountainside, nihilistically smashing icebergs, feels much less like the cited “spiritual awakening” and rather more a curious and deadening task. Moreover, as Sword Of The Sea nears its conclusion, Giant Squid reach for a conventional and overblown final boss dogfight, when so much that comes before indicates a determination not to be hamstrung by such limitations.

Does it matter? A little. But I’d still like to take a bite of the cheese Matt Nava is chomping on before he falls asleep.

Should I play Sword Of The Sea?:Play it if...

You’re a fan of the games made by this design team
Matt Nava and Giant Squid have created another truly distinctive and thoughtful tale contemplating what makes us human.

You want to get lost in a wild and colorful virtual space existing at the ends of your imagination
Not so much the land that time forgot, Sword Of The Sea is the worlds that few imagine and are – arguably – only discoverable via video games.

Don't play it if...

You were bored by Journey
Although the mechanics and movement of Sword Of The Sea are entirely fresh and innovative, the references to this series of games remain enduringly familiar.

You favor plot over experience
The narrative of Sword Of The Sea is propelled by your interactions with its inhabitants rather than other ‘human’ characters. Given the total absence of spoken language, this is perhaps inevitable.

Accessibility features

Accessibility features here are limited.

There are a range of language options for the menus and in-game storytelling content and adjustments can be made to the camera and gameplay presets.

How I reviewed Sword Of The Sea

I played Sword Of The Sea through to the end twice, for a total of approximately 12 hours on PS5 on a LG OLED HDR 4K Ultra HD Smart TV using a DualSense Wireless Controller.

While the game can be completed in three or four, it’s also possible – for completists who want to cover every inch of the experience – to take twice as long.

First reviewed August 2025

Categories: Reviews

I tested this digital audio player and its sound dominates almost any rival, but there's a catch

TechRadar Reviews - Sat, 09/06/2025 - 03:00

Astell & Kern A&ultima SP4000: Two-minute review

The Astell & Kern A&ultima SP4000 is the brand’s newest flagship digital audio player, and it is priced accordingly. If you measure the worth of a product by how relatively heavy and remarkably shiny it is, though, you won’t be able to argue with the $3,999 asking price.

The SP4000 goes a distance towards justifying its cost in the way it’s specified to perform, too. Numerous technological highlights abound, none of them in any way ‘affordable’, and between the sheer heft of the physical item and the lengthy list of technologies Astell & Kern has brought to bear, the SP4000 seems about as purposeful as these things ever get.

And in action, it is an uncomplicated pleasure to listen to, fully befitting a place in the best MP3 players around. In every meaningful way, the SP4000 is an extremely accomplished device, able to combine brute muscularity with deft insight, rhythmic positivity with outright scale. No matter what you choose to listen to, the Astell & Kern seems to enjoy it just as much as you do – and it’s not about to sit in judgement on your choice of headphones either.

Astell & Kern A&ultima SP4000 review: Price and release date

(Image credit: Future / Simon Lucas)

Priced at $3,999 / £3,799 / AU$6,599

The Astell & Kern A&ultima SP4000 is on sale now, and in the United States it sells for $3,999. In the United Kingdom the asking price is £3,799, and in Australia you’ll have to part with AU$6,599.

Not cheap, is it? Anyone who takes an interest in this sort of thing will know Astell & Kern has no problem in pitching its products as uber-high-end propositions, but no matter how many times I see one of its products priced this way, it remains difficult not to do a double-take…

Astell & Kern A&ultima SP4000 review: Features

(Image credit: Future / Simon Lucas)

4 x AKM4191 and 4 x AKM4499EX DACs in 1:1 architecture
4 x opamps per analogue output
Snapdragon 6125 octa-core processor

Something would seem amiss, wouldn’t it, if a digital audio player costing very nearly four thousand of your US dollars wasn’t groaning under the weight of its specification? Well, when you consider the extensive nature of the SP4000, it’s a wonder it’s not even bigger and even heavier than it actually is.

It follows that I should try to be reasonably brief, otherwise we’ll be here all day.

At its most fundamental, the SP4000 is built around ‘octa’ audio architecture. The digital-to-analogue signal processing is in a 1:1 structure, with one AKM4191 digital processor paired with one AKM4499EX DAC. This allows digital signals to be delivered to a single DAC, four times over – this is a true quad-DAC design, with the aim of allowing precise signal transfer with a vanishingly low signal-to-noise ratio. The ability to deal with PCM resolutions of up to 32bit/768kHz and DSD512 means any realistic digital audio file is catered for.

There are eight opamps deployed, four attending to the unbalanced 3.5mm analogue output and four dealing with the 4.4mm balanced equivalent. The intention is to increase dynamic range and enhance detail retrieval – Astell & Kern calls this arrangement ‘high driving mode’ and suggests it provides powerful and stable signal output.

A newly developed LDO (‘low drop-out’) regulator in the power supply stabilizes battery voltage in an effort to suppress noise. Proprietary ESA (‘enhanced signal alignment’) technology is designed to improve the alignment of frequency signals (sometimes opaquely referred to as ‘timing’) to minimize distortion and enhance clarity. The PCB is a high-end ‘Any Layer HDI’ design that allows for extremely complex circuitry to be laid out in a very small space, minimizing signal loss.

(Image credit: Future / Simon Lucas)

What else? The audio block sits behind a 99.9% pure copper shielding can, offering significant shielding from electromagnetic interference. The audio block itself is Astell & Kern’s ‘Teraton X’ design, which incorporates HEXA-Audio circuitry along with power-efficient amplification and considerable power noise cancellation, to deliver what the company suggests is the ‘ultimate sound solution’.

The entire show is run by a Snapdragon 6125 Octa-core processor that features a high-performance CPU and 8GB of DDR4. CPU, memory and wireless comms circuitry are configured as a single module, and with the digital circuit components arranged in the same area it’s effectively a system on a chip.

I could go on. There are six digital filters available to allow the user to, in a small way, design their own sound. The ‘crossfeed’ feature allows a little of the left-channel mix into the right channel (and vice versa) and, in conjunction with some adjustment options, tries to replicate the effect of listening to speakers when listening to headphones. The second generation of Astell & Kern’s DAR (‘digital audio remaster’) technology, dubbed ‘Advanced DAR’, uses a ‘virtual sound extender’ as part of a two-stage upsampling process that can convert PCM signals of up to 48kHz to 385kHz or to DSD128, and signals of greater than 96kHz to DSD256, for playback.

Surely, though, the broad point is made by now. Astell & Kern didn’t leave space for the kitchen sink, but it has thrown pretty much everything else at the A&ultima SP4000.

Features score: 5 / 5

Astell & Kern A&ultima SP4000 review: Sound quality

(Image credit: Future / Simon Lucas)

Epic levels of insight and detail
Rhythmic and dynamic positivity
Sounds simultaneously open and unified

Yes, you can fiddle around the edges of the way the A&ultima SP4000 sounds – investigate filters, fool around with EQs, you name it – but what you can’t do is alter its overarching sonic character. Which is just as well, because this Astell & Kern digital audio player is a staggeringly direct, informative and, ultimately, complete listen. Few are the sources of audio information, of any type and at any price, that can match its powers of communication – and I have heard plenty.

No matter if you’re listening to a 16bit/44.1kHz FLAC file of Ride’s Leave Them All Behind, a 24bit/48kHz FLAC file of James Holden’s Common Land or a DSD64 file of The Band’s I Shall Be Released: it’s all the same to the SP4000. In every circumstance it’s a profoundly detailed, rhythmically positive, articulate and energetic listen. There really isn’t an aspect of music-making at which it doesn’t prove itself masterful.

And it’s not as if I can offer a “yes, but…” or two in the name of balance. The longer I listen to the SP4000, the more beguiled I become.

Tonal balance? It’s basically impeccable. Frequency response? Smooth and even from way down at the low frequencies to the vertiginous top end. The Astell & Kern sounds naturalistic and unforced, and it’s completely even-handed in the way it presents the frequency range. And at every point, it’s absolutely alive with detail both broad and fine. The minutiae of tone, timbre and texture are made absolutely apparent, and the player loads all of this information onto the listener without being in any way showy or uptight about it. This fanatical attention to detail is simply a way of ensuring you get as complete a rendition of your digital audio files as possible.

The presentation is spacious and well-defined at the same time, and no matter if it’s a large ensemble all packing the stage or just one voice with a single guitar as accompaniment, the SP4000 lays it all out in confident and coherent fashion.

It deals with rhythm and tempo with similar authority, keeping momentum levels high and observing the attack and decay of bass sounds (in particular) with obvious care. It can ease back if necessary, though - nothing gets hurried along, but rather is allowed to proceed at its own chosen speed. Dynamic headroom is, to all intents and purposes, limitless. From the smallest, quietest event in a recording to the last almighty crescendo, the SP4000 is on top of things - the distance between these two states is prodigious. And the smaller, but no less crucial, dynamics of harmonic variation, the attention to the over- and undertones that surround the fundamental when listening to a solo instrument, are given very judicious weighting. Context is everything, and the SP4000 seems to almost instinctively understand it.

And the Astell & Kern even has the decency not to be sniffy either about the music you listen to or the headphones via which you access it. Obviously it does better work (or, rather, its potential is best exploited) by hi-res files and high-end headphones - but if you want to connect your bog-standard true wireless in-ear via Bluetooth and listen to Spotify’s free tier the SP4000 won’t judge you. Not too badly, anyway.

Sound quality score: 5 / 5

Astell & Kern A&ultima SP4000 review: Design

(Image credit: Future / Simon Lucas)

Polished 904L stainless steel and PVD-coated ceramic
150 x 85 x 20mm
615g

Ordinarily, a digital audio player is designed to be reasonably compact, and light enough to be slipped into a pocket. Of course, Astell & Kern sets out for its digital audio players to be anything but ordinary.

So the SP4000 is a fairly large (150 x 85 x 20mm) device that weighs a considerable 615g. Too big and heavy, in other words, to be comfortably carried in any pocket smaller and less robust than that of a military greatcoat. This is its naked weight, too. If you add one of the included screen protectors (which is, admittedly, going to make negligible difference to the weight) and slip the player into its supplied Perlinger leather* protective case, it becomes heavier still. At least that case prevents the player’s sharp, pointy corners from digging into hands or pocket linings, mind you.

(*I’m not a vegetarian. I know people who are, though, and some of them are just as interested in high-quality audio as I am. So once again I find myself wondering why companies like Astell & Kern imagine real leather – in this instance, leather made from "the soft, delicate hide of calves under one year old" – to be the untouchable height of luxury. Surely it’s possible to offer a protective case for the SP4000 that looks and feels upmarket but that isn’t going to alienate who knows how many prospective customers? Or is that just me?)

The four sides of the SP4000 are built of 904L stainless steel (the same stuff the likes of Rolex uses, on the basis that it will accept an extremely high polish), and feature some of the angularity and asymmetry that Astell & Kern established as part of its design vocabulary a good while ago. The front is of toughened glass, 152mm on the diagonal, and is almost entirely touchscreen. The rear panel, meanwhile, is finished in PVD-coated ceramic.

It really goes without saying that the standard of build and finish on display here is flawless. With the design of the SP4000, Astell & Kern has set out to deliver a product that blurs the line between ‘electrical hardware’ and ‘luxury accessory’. Or, as the company’s website rather feverishly has it, "a work of art where technology, design, intuition and performance converge". You may feel that Astell & Kern has done exactly what it set out to do, you may find the design rather self-consciously opulent. Taste is a very personal thing, after all.

It’s worth noting the grandeur of SP4000 ownership starts well before you peel the protective covering off the player itself. It arrives in a branded box that’s a similar size to that which contained a pair of size 10 Tricker’s boots I bought the other day. Inside there is another, branded, clasp-fastening box covered in what I strongly suspect is a further quantity of leather.

Inside that you’ll find the SP4000, along with compartments that contain that Perlinger leather cover, a case with a flap covering into which the player (in its cover) can be slipped (more leather, I presume), various guides and warranty documents, a congratulatory note from the company, and a reasonably heavyweight, branded USB-C to USB-C cable. I am pretty sure this all comes under the heading of ‘the experience’.

Design score: 4 / 5

Astell & Kern A&ultima SP4000 review: Usability and setup

(Image credit: Future / Simon Lucas)

2160 x 1080 touchscreen
Supports Full Android OS
Qualcomm QC3.0 fast charging

The SP4000 represents the first time an Astell & Kern product has supported full Android OS. The convenience and all-around common sense of the operating system is intended to help the SP4000 be as flexible and convenient as possible, while some of the Snapdragon 6125 octa-core processor’s responsibilities center around rapidity of the OS response and the smooth, comfortable user interface motion.

Happily, it all works very well. The big 2K (2160 x 1080) touchscreen is responsive and swift, smooth-scrolling and consistent. The operating system will be mercifully familiar to anyone whose smartphone isn’t an iOS device, and it’s just as wide-ranging and usable here as it is in its most successful smartphone applications.

Setting up the SP4000 is no kind of hardship. It’s simply a question of connecting it to your local network (its dual-band Wi-Fi is tenacious when it comes to making and maintaining a connection to your router or tethering to your smartphone if you’re out and about), and from there it’s simple to load the apps you require. The ‘AK File Drop’ function makes transferring files from a PC, smartphone or FTP program on a common network faster and easier than before, too.

The Astell & Kern also supports Qualcomm QC 3.0 fast charging, which means it can be charged more rapidly (and more efficiently) than previous flagship A&ultima models. Mind you, ‘fast’ and ‘rapid’ are definitely relative terms in this instance. From ‘flat’ to ‘full’ takes around five hours, which is about half the time it takes for the SP4000 to flatten its battery if you’re listening to ordinary files at ordinary volume levels.

There are a few physical controls arranged around the edges of the SP4000. As you look at its touchscreen, there’s an elaborate volume control/power on/off on the top-right edge – it’s pleasantly shaped and knurled, and a light behind it glows in one of a variety of different colors to indicate the resolution of the audio file it’s currently playing.

On the opposite side there are three buttons that deal with skip backwards/rewind (accessible via ‘press’ or ‘press and hold’ respectively), skip forwards/fast-forward (same) and play/pause. There’s a ‘button lock’ switch on the top edge, to the right of the 3.5mm hybrid optical/unbalanced analogue and 4.4mm balanced analogue outputs, and on the bottom edge you’ll find a USB-C socket and a microSD card slot, which will accept cards of up to 1.5TB.

Usability and setup score: 4.5 / 5

Astell & Kern A&ultima SP4000 review: Value

(Image credit: Future / Simon Lucas)

First things first: you don’t contemplate ownership of the Astell & Kern A&ultima SP4000 because you’re in any way concerned about value for money. Is it the best-sounding DAP out there? Sure. Is it twice as good as alternatives from the likes of FiiO or Astell & Kern itself that cost comfortably less than $2k? Not a chance.

No, the value in the SP4000 comes from its status as the shiny flagship of the Astell & Kern range. It comes from the knowledge that no one you bump into when in the First Class Lounge has a more expensive DAP than you. It comes from the ability to add ‘DAP’ to the list of ‘madly luxurious accessories I own’.

Should I buy the Astell & Kern A&ultima SP4000?

(Image credit: Future / Simon Lucas)Buy it if...

You want more from your digital audio player than just digital audio
In the same way as there’s more to a Montblanc fountain pen than just the ability to function as a pen…

You admire extremely thorough specification
Astell & Kern has left no stone unturned here.

You take good care of your belongings
That super-shiny stainless steel is quite fingerprint-hungry…

Don't buy it if...

You pay the slightest attention to value for money
It’s it’s true value you’re after, virtually any other Astell & Kern DAP will suit you better than the SP4000.

You’re vegetarian or vegan
Astell & Kern considers leather to be shorthand for ‘sophisticated’.

You don’t own any expensive, high-performance headphones
You’d better be budgeting for some, that’s all I can say.

Astell & Kern A&ultima SP4000 review: Also consider

FiiO M23
The FiiO represents remarkable value at $699 for a DAP with such balanced, eloquent and entertaining sound. And think of what you could do with all the money you’ll have saved...
Read our full FiiO M23 review

Astell & Kern Kann Ultra
Don’t bother looking for like-for-like alternatives to the A&ultima SP4000 – there aren’t any. But there are some extremely capable digital audio players available for a fraction of SP4000 money, many of them well worth considering. The Astell & Kern Kann Ultra, for instance, is a great-sounding and well-specified device that’s yours for $1,759.

How I tested the Astell & Kern A&ultima SP4000

Tested for over a week
Tested with streamed and downloaded content
Tested with wired and wireless headphones

I slotted a microSD card filled with hi-res content (up to 24bit/192kHz and DSD64, anyway) into the SP4000, and I downloaded the Tidal and Presto music streaming apps while I was at it.

I used Sennheiser IE900 IEMs connected via the 4.4mm balanced output, Austrian Audio The Composer over-ears via the 3.5mm unbalanced alternative, and tried out the Technics EAH-AZ100 true wireless in-ears and Bowers & Wilkins Px8 wireless over-ears too.

I listened to lots of different types of music, via lots of different file types and sizes – and I did so indoors and (with some trepidation, I don’t mind telling you) outdoors too.

First reviewed in September 2025

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Categories: Reviews

I reviewed this 25-inch portable monitor - I just wish it lived up to its huge potential

TechRadar Reviews - Sat, 09/06/2025 - 01:47

KTC MegPad A25Q5 monitor: 30-second review

From the outset, the potential of the KTC MegPad A25Q5 is obvious, essentially offering a completely portable touchscreen monitor with the Android 14 operating system that gives you full access to the Play Store and all of the apps that come with it.

Starting out, everything looked positive with a solid build and great design, so I started by looking at some of the usual Android apps that I use when testing other Android devices. The integration proved to be good, especially if you want to watch streaming video from YouTube or your favourite streaming service.

However, while it's great seeing the Android 14 at such a scale, some apps seemed soft in clarity, as if the scale of the display was slightly beyond the limits of the screen size, as there was sometimes a lack of crispness of icons and text in some but not all apps.

The more I started to delve into video and games, the more I started to see the limitations of this monitor that's pushing physical size with the display resolution. It still looks good, but sit too close and you'll notice that the colour lacks tonal graduation and details are smoothed in much of the video content. The HD resolution just starts to make everything look a little bit soft, especially when I'm so used to high-resolution monitors 4K and above.

The ability to plug into a laptop is handy with that 25-inch screen. However, once again, because the pixel depth is reduced, the clarity of the text on screen, whilst perfectly readable, just isn't as crisp and smooth as I've come to expect with the latest laptops, phones and tablets, even at the entry level. And once again, there's the fine detail, and the colour that once again lacks. So if you are thinking of this as a portable monitor for creative or even office use, then it is going to be a little bit limiting.

I really did like the fact that it has an internal battery and gives you a relatively decent amount of usage time, but once again, if you're thinking about using this portable monitor out on site, then that battery life at 5 hours will be a limit. Whilst it's fine for the odd meeting or lengthy presentation, anything ongoing just isn't possible.

The other aspect to consider is if you think this monitor could be useful for gaming, but again, with a 1080p resolution and maximum refresh rate of only 60Hz, games lack the impact of other smaller portable monitors, and that refresh rate does make some games look a little bit jerky, and then there's the actual power of the processor and CPU to contend with.

So, whilst the design and build quality of this monitor is good and I love the concept, it lacks the quality of hardware to enable it to reach its potential.

KTC MegPad A25Q5 monitor: Price & availability

How much does it cost? $399
When is it out? Now
Where can you get it? Widely available

At present, the KTC MegPad A25Q5 is available directly from the KTC US website and is priced at US$399, with the usual regular price of US$599.

In the US, I'm also seeing it on Amazon.com for $390 and on Newegg, where it's priced at $346.

Value: 4 / 5

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)KTC MegPad A25Q5 monitor: Design

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)Specifications

CPU: Qualcomm SM6115 (Snapdragon 662-class)
Graphics: Adreno 610 (integrated)
RAM: 8GB LPDDR4
Storage: 128GB internal (expandable)
Left Ports: USB-C, DC in
Onboard controls: Power button, volume rocker
Connectivity: Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.2
Audio: Dual stereo speakers, 3.5mm jack
Camera: 720p front camera with privacy slider
Size: 568 × 332 × 39 mm
OS Installed: Android 14
Accessories: Remote control, charger,

The aesthetic design of the KTC MegPad A25Q5 is striking, with its matte cream finish giving it a stylish and friendly aesthetic. The body is nicely curved with a textured back and fabric carry handle with a robust fold-out stand that enables you to position the monitor in both landscape and portrait orientation.

When it comes to the size, it measures in at 22.37 in x 13.09 in (568.3 mm x 332.5 mm) with the thickness just 1.54 in (39 mm). Overall, the build quality of the monitor is exceptionally high, not quite premium, but not far off.

Taking a look around the body of the monitor, there are only two ports: the first is for the power, and the second is for the USB-C connection that enables you to plug into a laptop or tablet so that the machine can be used as an external display. Alternatively, you can plug in an external storage device. Otherwise, the only other physical feature is the small webcam with a privacy slider that enables you to slide a physical cover over the camera.

The display itself has a gloss finish that handles reflections well, with bezels that are relatively thick at roughly 10 mm, although, as they're flat to the display, these days, you would expect a slightly thinner design.

The diagonal of the display is essentially 25 inches, which does give you a good viewing area, especially for a portable monitor. And as well as being an IPS, it also offers 10-point touch functionality, which, for the Android operating system,. However, if you're connecting to a laptop with touchscreen functionality, that touchscreen functionality isn't carried across to the monitor for Windows 11 or macOS.

Alongside the monitor comes a very handy remote control that enables you to sit back and actually interact with the monitor without needing to get up and touch the screen. The layout of the remote is intuitive, with physical buttons that make it easy to navigate around the Android screen interface and also adjust volume and the monitor settings, and has a nifty pointer option, which is more intuitive to use when using streaming and TV apps.

As a portable monitor, there is quite a lot on offer here. The fact that it can be used as a touchscreen Android tablet at scale for streaming and watching back web content, and also used as an external monitor for your laptop or tablet, and will playback media from external storage devices does give it plenty of potential, especially with a design and build quality that means it's durable enough to easily be carried around, making it a seemingly ideal solution for many creative and business users.

Design: 4 / 5

KTC MegPad A25Q5 monitor: Features

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

The feature list here is impressive, with the standout feature being the pure portability, thanks to the built-in internal battery that supplies it with a good few hours of use. Unlike other portable monitors, there's also an integrated Android device with full Android 14 OS, including the Play Store, readily accessible once powered up.

The monitor has also been exceptionally well conceived, so it's simple plug and play, so when you plug your laptop or another tablet device into the monitor through the USB-C connection on the side, the monitor instantly recognises that it is being required as an external display and automatically swaps its usage type from tablet to external display.

Going into some of the features and settings within the Android operating system enables you to adjust a lot of the visual settings, including the brightness and screen colour temperature. Through this test, I found that the default screen brightness of 55% was actually a really good balance for everyday use.

Internally powering the Android 14 operating system is 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, which is relatively good for storing apps on the system. While the internal storage isn't huge, there is the option to connect other external storage devices through the side USB-C port, and this supports the ExFat file format, which is quite generic and widely used.

As I mentioned in the build section, there is an 8 million pixel webcam, which is good enough for 720p quality, not as high as you'd find on many premium mobile phones, but decent enough for a bit of web conferencing. One of the things I liked about the webcam is that it has a privacy shutter, so you can be absolutely 100% sure that when the shutter is slid across the lens, you won't be broadcasting.

If you're looking for a portable monitor for use as part of a display, then the touchscreen functionality is obviously quite handy, especially for presentations or interactive displays where you want people to interact with the monitor itself, as long as what you're using is Android-based.

There's also a physical remote control, so if you are using it for media or kiosk use, then you can interact with it using the remote from a distance. Whilst the remote is simple, it does give you lots of control over all of the options and settings, including playing back media.

Again, when it comes to the features, it is a shame that there is no HDMI, DP input, or Bluetooth; there's just that one USB-C port. However, through the test, I did find that the Wi-Fi connection was extremely robust.

Features: 4 / 5

KTC MegPad A25Q5 monitor: Performance

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

Display quality:

GAMUT: 4.5
Tone response: 3.5
White point: 2.5
Contrast: 2.0
Luminance uniformity: 3.5
Colour uniformity: 4.5
Colour accuracy: 3.5
Overall rating: 3.5

Hardware performance:

Disk Speed Test Read 822 MB/s
Disk Speed Test Write 185 MB/s
Geekbench Single 319
Geekbench Multi 948
Geekbench GPU 297
3DMark Wildlife: 504
3DMark Slingshot: 1732

The KTC MegPad A25Q5 has, from the outset, so much potential. The design is elegant, it feels really robust, and with that carry handle on top, it is ultra-portable. So, if you need to carry it around the office or you're at a show and need to use this as a kiosk display, then its portability is a real bonus.

Personally, I also really like the simplicity of the design. The front of the screen is just nice and clean, and although it does have that rather thick bezel going all the way around, it isn't overly distracting.

While the number of input/output ports is relatively meagre, just the power and USB Type-C, they do offer enough to make this an extremely flexible portable monitor in use. With the ability to use it as a large-screen Android tablet, an external monitor for your laptop, or if you plug in external storage, it can be used as a playback device, obviously using the Android 14 operating system.

I started the test by taking a look at the Android functionality. And whilst at 25 inches the screen does push the Android operating system user interface, it still looks nice and clean and is very easy to navigate. In use, with that 8GB of RAM and decent volume of storage, the operating system does seem to run exceptionally smoothly. Loading up web streaming services from Netflix to YouTube, the streaming quality of video does seem exceptionally good. And whilst the screen is limited to 60Hz, for most TV and movies, the smoothness of motion is perfectly adequate.

However, I will say that with the resolution limited to just 1080p, you can really see that downscaling, detail and tonal graduation compared with a laptop or even many other higher resolution portable monitors.

I will say, however, that the two built-in speakers do provide a good depth of audio, which gives a far better audio experience than many other monitors, portable or otherwise.

Flicking through a few of the other Android apps, and for the most part, there is just enough processing power supplied by this Android operating system to plough through most tasks without too much issue.

Applications such as CapCut enable some video editing, although you do need to keep it light, and delving into a few Android games, while nice to see them on the larger screen, the system did struggle. But there again, the resolution is a little bit of an issue, as is the rather low refresh rate for gaming.

Where it did excel was with Google Docs and the Google Suite. That larger screen gave a much larger interface to type up and read documents, and whether it was typing on a document or scrolling through spreadsheets, the large font and space just make things nice and fluid.

Starting to push the processing again, and I loaded Lightroom to edit some photos again, which showed that there was a real issue with the lack of resolution for apps when displayed at this size. Essentially, it felt like the colour depth and the gradient handling just weren't up to scratch, and any issues just seemed to be amplified with this huge screen; however, the actual use and processing were absolutely fine.

As I started to run through the benchmarking tests, they reinforced that this is a mid-level Android device, perfectly good for basic use, browsing the internet, and streaming content. However, at all times, the lower resolution at 1080p on a 25-inch display just highlights those visual issues of lack of colour depth and detail.

Whilst you can weigh up the balance of cost, as this portable monitor does only cost $399, you can excuse some of that visual quality. And if you're looking for a portable display that can be used in meetings or in show kiosks, then it is actually a good option.

Through my test, running a series of benchmarking, streaming, and productivity tests on the monitor, I was able to get 5 hours of use. For me, I feel that's relatively decent. But if you want a monitor that lasts the distance, say half a day to a full day, then you will need to look at some sort of external power source for the monitor.

Performance: 2 / 5

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)KTC MegPad A25Q5 monitor: Final verdict

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

The KTC MegPad A25Q5 has so much potential. It looks great and, on paper, everything about it seems to point at a product that will meet many different criteria, from a sleek portable monitor that you can use at home or in the office to stream back content, do video calls, watch TV and play games. And, of course, you can do all of this.

It also offers a full Android 14 touchscreen tablet experience, so you can utilise all the usual Android apps, and you have full access to the Google Play Store, which does give it plenty more potential.

So, when it comes to a functional smart display, the KTC A25Q5 could have been exceptional. However, it's limited by the quality of the actual display, with all of the innovation seemingly put into its workflow and functionality rather than its main focus, display quality.

From the outset, the quality of the display just seems to lack clarity. The Android 14 operating system, whilst working perfectly and generally giving a smooth experience (aside from gaming, where it's a little bit limited), just looks a little bit soft on this 25-inch screen. And the reason for that is not the size of the screen, but the resolution, which limits its pixel density.

As I started to run through the performance tests with Geekbench and 3DMark, it highlighted the limited processing power of the monitor. Then, as I delved into the more important feature, the qualities of the display, using Datacolor Spyder X2, it really started to highlight the limitations.

Across the board, the results in the Spyder X2 were average, again reinforcing the lack of detail and clarity that I was seeing, either using Android or a direct connection into a laptop, for both Mac and PC. So, whilst this portable monitor has huge potential, it really is limited by that display.

The battery was a highlight and I wasn't expecting much, however, it did seem to last the distance with a decent 5 hours of use. All things considered, especially the price that this monitor offers, is pure flexibility.

The fact that it could be used as a large-scale Android tablet so that you can watch back media at okay quality, that you can plug it into your laptop to give a bigger display when giving a presentation, and the ability to plug in external media so that you can play back content on the larger display using the Android operating system, still makes it extremely useful, just not the high quality that I would've expected.

Essentially, the concept for this monitor is absolutely spot on, and it's very easy to see how useful and how much potential this monitor has. It's just so unfortunate that the quality of the display underdelivers and lacks the sharpness and polish that I wanted.

Should I buy a KTC MegPad A25Q5 monitor?

Value

Great value for money considering that you get a large-scale Android tablet, external display and media playback monitor in one

Design

The build quality, design and aesthetics all look great, and with a simple carry handle, it just finishes off the design nicely

Features

Checking through the features, and on the surface at least it certainly has potential

Performance

While the MegPad shows potential, the lack of processing power and low resolution let it down

Overall

The concept is valid and the design aesthetically pleasing, but it is let down by the real-world performance

Buy it if...

You want a large Android display

Having the Android OS on such a large scale is definitely handy, and native apps run smoothly with good integration into Google's ecosystem.

You want a meeting screen with Android support

Running meetings through the tablet offers a large display with a relatively decent webcam for PC-free conferencing.

Don't buy it if...

You need to watch movies.

For both movies and gaming, the power of the hardware is slightly lacking, and the depth and low resolution really highlight the image issues.

You need to edit creative media.

Again, while the large screen lends itself to use for creative media, the lack of power and low resolution cancel this out as a viable option.

For more top computers, we've tested the best business computers, best business laptops, and the best business tablets.

Categories: Reviews

I reviewed this UGreen charger and it’s phenomenally convenient thanks to this one ingenious feature

TechRadar Reviews - Fri, 09/05/2025 - 16:00

UGreen Nexode 65W Charger with Retractable USB-C Cable review

Want a convenient all-in-one charger for your phone, laptop, tablet, and more? Then the UGreen Nexode 65W Charger with Retractable USB-C Cable might be exactly what you’re looking for! Yes, the model names are almost always this long.

This charging block comes with an integrated USB-C cable, meaning you don’t have to purchase one separately or worry about your charging wire falling out. It can be pulled out gradually to a range of lengths up to 2.3ft (0.69m), and snugly tucked away by gently pulling the cable and returning it to its magnetic cradle. On top of that, the integrated cable is nice and flexible, meaning it can flex to your environment without too much trouble.

And, if that wasn’t enough, there are two additional USB slots on the unit, enabling you to charge three devices simultaneously. One is a USB-C slot and must be used on its own to get the full 65W (the retractable cable is only capable of 60W in single-port mode), and the other is USB-A if you want to make use of an old wire.

All of this flexibility and versatility is great, but how about performance? Well, I charged my Samsung Galaxy S24 FE – which has a 4,700mAh battery – using the retractable cable. I also juiced up my Sony WH-1000XM6 via the USB-C port and LG Tone Free T90S with the USB-A alternative. And even with all ports in use, my phone went from 1% to 100% in well under 80 minutes – which is very speedy indeed.

With that said, there are a couple of performance quirks that are worth pointing too. I already mentioned that the retractable cable can’t hit the max 65W power output, but it also omits support for Samsung Super Charge 2.0 45W. That is, however, admittedly only relevant to a small crop of Samsung devices at the moment.

In addition, multi-port power disruption may not suit all users. If you charge three devices simultaneously, you get 45W from the retractable cable, but just 7.5W out of the other two. I was also perplexed by the fact that when dual-charging with the USB-C and USB-A port only, you’re still capped at 7.5W per port, even without using the integrated wire.

But, regardless, if you just need to charge your phone and say, a pair of earbuds and headphones, the triple-port distribution should still be good enough overall.

Elsewhere, the charger is well built. It’s durable, compact given its 65W maximum power output, and has an attractive silvery finish. The UK model doesn't have foldable prongs, which is a shame, but this isn’t the case over in the US.

The charger also harnesses GaN technology to offer a strong suite of protection against issues like overheating, short-circuiting, overvoltage, and more. I never felt this model get too hot during the testing process, and I didn’t experience any performance dips whatsoever.

So it’s safe to say that I’m a fan of this UGreen charger. I love the convenience of the built-in cable, it can charge my phone in a pinch, and it’s pleasingly compact for when I’m on the go. It's also pretty cost efficient with a list price of $49.99 / £39.99 – though I’ve already seen it on sale for less than $35 / £28, so keep your eyes peeled for a sweet deal.

(Image credit: Future)UGreen Nexode 65W Charger with Retractable USB-C Cable review: price & specs

Price

$49.99 / £39.99

Total power output

65W

Number of ports

2 (excluding 1x inbuilt retractable USB-C cable)

Port type(s)

1x USB-C; 1x USB-A

Dimensions

2.1 x 2 x 2 inches / 53 x 50.9 x 50.4mm (without prongs)

(Image credit: Future)Should I buy the UGreen Nexode 65W Charger with Retractable USB-C Cable?Buy it if…

You want an ultra-convenient phone charger
The inbuilt retractable cable is really useful if you want a secure, hassle-free charging hub. The inclusion of separate USB-C and USB-A ports is also a nice touch if you’re out and about and realize your wireless earbuds or headphones have died, and you need some extra playtime.

You don’t have any USB-C cables lying around
Still stuck with the old USB-A cables? Reluctant to spend your money on… you know, just a wire that juices up your phone? I get it. Thankfully, this model has its own retractable cable built in, so you won’t have to worry about any of that.

Don't buy it if…

You need to charge multiple power-hungry devices at once
If you’re making use of tri-port charging on this model, the separate USB ports can only supply up to 7.5W each. Now, that’s not a lot of power if you want to charge more demanding devices like a second phone or tablet, for example. A model like the UGreen Uno Charger 100W could be better, as it offers 45W in port 1 and 30W in port 2, even when quad charging! Pretty impressive, no?

You need a top-performing laptop charger
Now don’t get me wrong, 65W is a solid amount of power and will be enough to fast-charge a large portion of modern phones. But if you’re looking to charge a newer laptop at peak capacity, this model might be a tad underpowered. Instead, you can check out a model like the Anker Prime 100W GaN Wall Charger (3 Ports).

UGreen Nexode 65W Charger with Retractable USB-C Cable review: also consider

UGreen Nexode Pro 65W Ultra-Slim 3-Port charger
Yep, it's UGreen again, and this model is super unique. The Nexode Pro 65W Ultra-Slim has the same power, and (essentially) number of ports as this retractable cable-equipped alternative. However, it has an unbelievably thin form, meaning it can be placed in tight spaces with ease – very useful if your power plug is close to a desk or bed, for example. It also has interchangeable adapters for US, UK, and EU power sockets. Talk about a handy travel companion! Read our full UGreen Nexode Pro 65W Ultra-Slim 3-Port charger review.

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