Reviews

Noble Audio Vanguard review

Right out of the box, the Noble Audio Vanguard look and feel unlike any other in-ear monitors (IEMs) that I've tried before. Their medieval-like outer casework, their shield-shaped ear tip case, and their ink-black cable all caught my eye in a way that few rivals have in my years testing audio gear.

The striking visuals are undeniable. But what of their sound? Well, Noble Audio says that the Vanguard are “designed for control, clarity, and balance,” aiming to deliver excellent clarity across the frequency range through their triple driver configuration.

But are the Vanguard actually able to compete with the very best wired earbuds around? Here’s my verdict after extensive testing and many an hour of listening.

Let’s start by taking a look under the hood. The Noble Audio Vanguard make use of three drivers — all of which are focused on specific roles. For the low frequencies, there’s a 10mm dynamic driver, but there are also two custom balanced armature drivers on board — one for the mid-high frequencies, and another for the ultra-high domain. You can connect to an audio device with the standard 4.4mm connector, although there’s also a USB-C adapter included if you want to listen to tracks on your phone or desktop PC, for instance. Unfortunately, there’s no 3.5mm option out of the box, so you’ll need to use an adapter if you need access to that.

The Vanguard also come with a shield-shaped case filled with an outrageous number of extra ear tips, including gel and foam options. And with the right seal, the Vanguard are able to offer very solid noise isolation, with sounds such as typing and chatter in my office subdued to great effect. As well as the shield case for ear tips, you also get a fabric pouch for the IEMs. It's a neat addition, although it's incredibly susceptible to picking up fibers from a pocket or bag.

One thing that I have to discuss is the actual shape of the IEMs. They’re very chunky, and stuck out from my ears a fair bit, creating a slightly odd feel in-use. Their broad construction meant that they weren’t the most comfortable wired in-ears I’ve ever used, but I still felt that they were secure and fine to keep in for an hour or so at a time.

From a purely aesthetic perspective, the Vanguard fare a bit better in my eyes. They appear to be inspired by medieval-style fantasy, with a shield on each bud containing a splash of gold deep black outer casing. The buds are also constructed from aluminium and a “precision-machined shell,” and they feel highly premium — perhaps even more than their price would suggest. The black, intertwined wire is also a thing of beauty, and I was never subjected to distracting cable noise.

(Image credit: Future)

But you want to know how they sound now, don’t you? Well, I’ve kept you waiting long enough. And it’s good news, because for the price you pay, these IEMs sound exceptional.

In All'Acqua Ghiacciata by Marco Castello, the Vanguard performed brilliantly across the board. Acoustic guitars occupied a distinct pocket, and came through with gorgeous tonality. They were well separated from the vocals, which sounded textured and natural. The real highlight, though, was the energetic drums, which came through with incredible clarity and precision, and sounded tastefully prominent without feeling overly bright. Smooth bass was also perfectly balanced in the mix, communicated with impact and warmth without overstepping.

More generally, bass is well-balanced on the Vanguard — though it can hit hard if needed. For instance, on First Night by Vitess, the kick came through with tremendous impact and power, really immersing me in the cosmic house banger. And this was never at the expense of spacey synths or animated drums, which were perfectly weighted in the mix.

As you may expect from the driver configuration — with one specifically tailored for upper treble, and another for mids-highs — the higher frequencies sound excellent on the Vanguard. I’d say they sound a little forward, but tastefully so, emphasizing excitement and detail in the upper echelons of the frequency range. This may not be ideal for those who want the most neutral monitoring solution, but for sheer music-listening enjoyment it’s a welcome decision.

While the Vanguard perhaps don’t provide the enveloping, super-expansive soundstage that some listeners may like, I personally love their dynamic, tight, and detailed approach. And they still provide impressive instrument separation, enabling each component of your favorite tracks to breathe. The dynamic drivers provide weighty yet controlled bass, and the duo of balanced armature drivers are fantastic at supplying textured vocals and clear mids, and especially talented in plating up expressive highs. So the Vanguard are a hit as far as sound quality is concerned.

At $325 / £299 / AU$467, the Noble Audio Vanguard feel well worth the outlay. Sure, they’re a bit chunky, and could be a bit more snug in-use. But the level of detail and precision they supply is spectacular at this price-point. With high build quality and multiple connectivity options, the Vanguard are an excellent affordable-to-mid-range option that audiophiles are sure to love.

(Image credit: Future)Noble Audio Vanguard review: price & release date

• Priced at $325 / £299 / AU$467
• Released in July 2026

At $325 / £299 / AU$467, the Noble Audio Vanguard sit in the affordable-to-mid-range section of the IEM market. They were released in July 2026, as something of a successor to 2025’s Noble Audio Knight IEMs.

For this money, their closest competition might be the Activo Q1, at $349 / £299 (about AU$600), from audiophile staple Astell & Kern's affordable sub-brand. And while the ethereal aesthetic of those wired buds is very different to that of the Noble, the star-rating is just as competitive.

One thing: they may be a little hard to find online, with no planned availability on Amazon or other big third party retailers. But that does not mean I encourage you to stop searching — in fact, the opposite is true.

Noble Audio Vanguard review: specs

Drivers

1x 10mm dynamic; 2x custom balanced armature

Weight

8g (per bud)

Frequency range

Not stated

Connectivity

4.4mm, USB-C

(Image credit: Future)Should I buy the Noble Audio Vanguard?

Attribute

Notes

Score

Features

Good noise isolation, handy USB-C adapter, multiple eartips, no 3.5mm option out of the box.

4.5/5

Performance

Excellent sound with controlled yet impactful bass, textured mids, and expressive highs.

5/5

Design

Unique aesthetic, high-quality build, but a bit chunky in-ear.

4/5

Value

Affordable for the sonic qualities they offer up.

4.5/5

Buy them if…

You want audiophile-grade sound at a modest price-point
Although cheaper IEMs exist, I still think the Noble Audio Vanguard come in at a modest price-point given the quality they supply. With their triple-driver configuration, the Vanguard supply beautifully balanced bass, intricate mids, and insightful treble, making them an awesome option for audiophiles who don’t want to totally break the bank.

You’re looking for IEMs with a stand-out look
Of course, when it comes to IEMs, you’re mainly looking for insightful, detailed sound, but the Vanguard pair match that with a brilliant design that really caught my eye. They’re also built to a fantastic standard, and come with a whole lot of eartips to help you find the perfect seal.

Don’t buy them if…

You want the most neutral studio monitors possible
I love the way that the Vanguard sound, but they’re perhaps not the most neutral sounding, with slightly forward treble that adds a bit more bite up top.

You want a more low-key in-ear feel
My main complaint with the Vanguard would be that they’re a bit chunky, and their sheer breadth won’t suit all audiophiles. More low-key options like the Meze Audio Alba below are worth checking out if you’re a fan of something more discreet.

Noble Audio Vanguard review: also consider

Noble Audio Vanguard

Activo Q1

Meze Audio Alba

Price

$325 / £299 / AU$467

$349 / £299 (about AU$600)

$159 / £139 / AU$239

Drivers

1x 10mm dynamic; 2x custom balanced armature

1x 9.8mm dynamic; 1x balanced armature

10.8mm dynamic

Weight

8g (per bud)

Not stated

14g

Frequency range

Not stated

20Hz-20kHz

15Hz-25kHz

Connectivity

4.4mm, USB-C

3.5mm; 4.4mm

3.5mm; 4.4mm, USB-C

Activo Q1
We had a great time with the Activo Q1 when we tested them in 2025. They offer excellent clarity and impressive instrument separation, with intricate detailing and excellent mid-range performance. We found them to be slightly light in the bass department, but at a similar price-point to the Vanguard, they’re well worth the investment. Read our Activo Q1 review.

Meze Audio Alba
If you want to go even more affordable, then the Meze Audio Alba feel like a natural recommendation for me to make. Treble is relatively forward, but you also hear great low-end impact, and plenty of detail right across the frequency range. They’re more diminutive than the Vanguard, and are comfier in-ear, but they have a more basic driver configuration. Read our full Meze Audio Alba review.

How I tested the Noble Audio Vanguard

(Image credit: Future)

• Tested over the course of multiple days
• Mainly tested using Tidal
• Paired with Astell & Kern A&ultima SP4000

I tested the Noble Audio Vanguard across multiple days and spent hours upon hours listening to music. Typically, I had the Vanguard hooked up to the Astell & Kern A&ultima SP4000 media player, though I did also try them out with my Windows laptop and Xiaomi 17 phone.

To begin with, I sifted through tracks in the TechRadar reference playlist, which features tunes from a wide variety of genres, but I also bumped a bunch of songs from my personal library. I also made sure to compare the Vanguard to affordable IEM rivals like the Sennheiser IE 200.

More generally, I’ve spent years testing audio gear here at TechRadar, where I serve as an in-house Senior Reviews Writer. I’ve covered everything from portable DACs through to premium wireless headphones such as the Sony WH-1000XM6, and have reviewed a number of IEMs, meaning I know exactly what it takes for a model to stand out in a competitive market.

• Read TechRadar’s reviews guarantee
• First reviewed: August 2026

Razer Naga V3 Pro two-minute review

The Razer Naga V3 Pro is marketed as a mouse for MMO players, but it’s also something else: a mouse for the undecided, for the uncommitted. That’s because it comes with swappable side plates that let you adjust the number of buttons you get, with each made to suit a different game type.

There’s the 12-button plate, which is designed for MMOs, alongside a six-button option for MOBAs and battle royales. If you prefer FPS titles — or just general computing — there’s a two-button panel. Switching these plates is pleasingly simple thanks to the magnetic attachment system: just snap a new one on and you’re good to go.

Not only are these side panels a genius idea, but they work impressively well in use. Compared to the previous version, the buttons have been redesigned to be easier to find by touch, and I had no trouble discerning them in-game. This is especially true of the six-button side plate, whose buttons are so pronounced you could probably open a can of beans with them.

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There's a bewildering array of buttons on this mouse, even if you’re not using the maxed-out 12-button plate. There are two in the top corner of the left-click button, while a large one rests on the chassis’ lower-right-hand side. Another two are nestled behind the scroll wheel — one to change the scroll mode and another to activate the AI Prompt Master (no, I don’t know why it’s on a gaming mouse either).

However, there are other neat tricks up the Naga’s sleeve. It’s got Razer’s second-generation HyperScroll Tilt Wheel, which lets you change its spinning mode on the fly. Move it slowly, and it ratchets one notch at a time; flick it quickly, and it spins freely. There’s also a ‘precision tactile’ mode for more control. It’s a brilliant addition that adapts to your needs, whether you’re changing weapons or flying through spreadsheets. It’s a dark horse contender for the mouse’s best feature. I even like the satisfying haptic clunk when it resets from free-spin to ratcheting mode.

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The battery is another highlight, whether you disable the RGB lights or leave them on. In Bluetooth mode with RGB off, the Naga V3 Pro’s battery dropped a mere 4% after 20 hours of use. After testing for another 20 hours with the lights on, the battery dropped a further 7%. That’s pretty crazy longevity. Razer says you’ll get up to 280 hours in Bluetooth mode, and I can easily believe that based on my experience.

There are other improvements compared to the Naga V2 Pro, including sideways tilt support in the scroll wheel and next-generation updates to the button switches and optical sensor, which has jumped from 30,000 DPI to 50,000. The side buttons are now double-injection molded instead of printed (so they won’t wear off), the polling rate has increased from 1,000Hz to 8,000Hz (with the included dongle), and the weight has dropped from 134g to 117g.

Speaking of the weight, it’s still very noticeable — this is a sizeable, heavy mouse that’s best suited to palm grips and large hands. Compared to my 60g Logitech Pro X Superlight 2, the Naga V3 Pro weighs twice as much. The extra heft was very noticeable in use, with the pointer feeling weighty, lethargic and inaccurate, especially in fast-paced FPS games. If you’re used to lightweight mice, it’ll require some adaptation.

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It’s also extremely expensive. At $179.99 / £179.99 / $299.95 AUD, it costs more than any other Razer mouse, including the Viper V4 Pro and the DeathAdder V4 Pro. The Naga can do the job of several mice, which might mitigate the cost somewhat, but there’s no denying it’s a luxury many gamers won’t be able to afford.

There are a couple of other gripes. While the 12-button panel is backlit, the six-button plate is not. The HyperScroll wheel, meanwhile, would benefit from being able to switch modes a little quicker — sometimes it remained in the wrong mode because I moved it before it was ready.

I'm also not a huge fan of Razer’s Synapse software. You can use it to map custom controls to the mouse’s buttons — important stuff when you’ve got as many as the Naga V3 Pro does — but it often forgot what we’d programmed, leaving us with dead buttons that did nothing until Synapse was restarted. Not exactly what you want during a closely fought boss battle.

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Judging the Naga V3 Pro is tricky. A confluence of factors make it feel incredibly niche: its high price, its heavy weight, its button positioning that really only works best for palm grips, its mass of buttons. Not everyone needs some of those features and even fewer need all of them in one mouse.

But there’s no denying it’s good at what it does, and if you’re an MMO fiend or find yourself swapping between mice to suit your gaming needs, there’s a whole lot to like about it. It’s hard to wholeheartedly recommend to all gamers, but those who fall within its narrow niche will love it.

Razer Naga V3 Pro review: Price & release date

• Available to buy now
• Priced at $179.99 / £179.99 / $299.95 AUD
• Optional extras, including Razer Mouse Dock Pro and Razer HyperFlux V2 Wireless Charging System

The Razer Naga V3 Pro is available now from Razer’s website or from third-party retailers. It’s priced at $179.99 / £179.99 / $299.95 AUD.

It’s Razer’s most expensive mouse, excluding special editions (such as the Boomslang 20th Anniversary Edition that costs a ridiculous $1,337), but in return you get a highly customizable pointer that can be adapted to three different use cases. One way of looking at it is that you’re paying a premium so you don’t need to purchase multiple mice. Just make sure you actually need it before shelling out all that cash.

Razer also offers it as part of a bundle alongside its Mouse Dock Pro, Wireless Charging Puck or the HyperFlux V2 Wireless Charging System (which comes in two different flavors).

Razer Naga V3 Pro review: Specs

Connectivity

Razer HyperSpeed Wireless, Bluetooth, wired

Battery life

Up to 155 hours (HyperSpeed Wireless), up to 280 hours (Bluetooth)

Sensor

Focus Pro 50K Optical Sensor Gen-3

Polling rate

8,000Hz (with Mouse Dock Pro or HyperPolling dongle), 1,000Hz otherwise

Maximum sensitivity (DPI)

50,000

Programmable buttons

23 / 17 / 13 (depending on side plate)

Dimensions

119.5mm x 75.5mm x 43.5mm

Weight

117g (with 12-button panel), 97g (with side panel removed)

Should I buy the Razer Naga V3 Pro?Razer Naga V3 Pro Scorecard

Attribute

Notes

Score

Features

Well-considered features that exude quality. The scroll wheel and swappable side plates are highlights

5/5

Performance

Heavy in the hand and takes some getting used to, although the side panels perform admirably

3/5

Design

Sturdy, polished and well made, but only really optimized for palm grip

4/5

Value

A niche, expensive mouse that nonetheless has a lot to offer its target audience

4/5

Buy it if…

You play a lot of MMOs and MOBAs
With up to 23 programmable buttons, there’s plenty of room to map all your skills, buffs and potions.View Deal

You play a variety of game types
The quick-swapping side plates make it easy to adjust the Naga V3 Pro to whichever game you’re playing.View Deal

You have large hands or play palm grip
This is a wide, heavy mouse that’s best suited to palm grip players or those with larger hands.View Deal

Don’t buy it if…

You prefer lightweight mice
This is a heavy pointer. If you’re used to featherweight mice, you’ll notice the difference straight away, and it can take a while before your gaming performance adapts.View Deal

You’re on a budget
At $179.99 / £179.99 / $299.95 AUD, you’ll be shelling out a lot for this mouse. Budget friendly, it ain’t.View Deal

You have small hands or play fingertip grip
I personally play with a fingertip grip and struggled to reach some of the extra buttons on the mouse.View Deal

Also consider

Razer DeathAdder V4 Pro
Our pick for the best gaming mouse money can buy, the Razer DeathAdder V4 Pro will be a brilliant pick for most gamers. It offers flawless performance, supremely comfortable ergonomics, plus battery life that goes on and on and on. It’s expensive and doesn’t have as many buttons as the Naga V3 Pro, but unless you need that much control, it’s a superb pick.View Deal

Corsair Nightsword V2 Wireless
If Razer’s Naga V3 Pro isn’t quite to your taste, the Corsair Nightsword V2 Wireless is worth a look. With 11 programmable buttons, it’s a decent option for MMO and MOBA players, while its comfortable shape is in the same mold as the Naga V3 Pro. We lamented the loss of its adjustable weight feature in our review, though.View Deal

How I tested the Razer Naga V3 Pro

• I tested the Naga V3 Pro over the course of a week in a variety of applications
• It was put through its paces in different game types and in day-to-day work
• I assessed it with its RGB lights both on and off to measure its battery performance

I spent around 10 days putting the Razer Naga V3 Pro through its paces. I used it in different game types and for everyday work tasks, assuming its different face plates and customization options in the Razer Synapse app. Its battery life was also assessed with the RGB lighting both enabled and disabled.

• Read TechRadar’s reviews guarantee
• First reviewed: August 2026

Ninja CrushBOSS: one-minute review

The Ninja CrushBOSS is an impressive three-in-one kitchen system. The largest container, a 72-ounce pitcher blender is made for blending big batches of whatever foods and beverages you like. The medium-sized 64-ounce container is a food processor, to which you can attach a handful of different blades that slice, dice, and shred various foods. The food processor bowl also has a tower blade for blending and a dough blade for making breads. The smallest vessel is a 26-ounce tumbler is perfect for single-serve smoothies, iced coffees, and slushies. It comes with a sipping lid and straw so you can just blend and go.

I put the whole system through its paces and was impressed with the results. If you're in the market for both a blender and a food processor, especially if you want both large and single-serve blenders, you can save money by just buying the Ninja CrushBOSS.

I have to admit that unboxing this system felt a bit intimidating. There are a lot of parts. That is the point of it, of course — to be everything for everyone — but be prepared to take some time to learn how all of the parts fit together and how it all works. You'll be washing a lot of dishes. Plus, some of the pieces do nest, but you're still looking at a lot of storage space for all the bits and bobs.

(Image credit: Karen Freeman / Future)Ninja CrushBOSS: price and availability

• List price: $319.99 / £239.99 (about AU$450)
• Available direct from Ninja, and from third-party retailers including Amazon

The Ninja CrushBOSS is being sold on Ninja's own website and third-party retailers in the US and UK, with a list price of $319.99 / £239.99 for the unit with all attachments. That's about AU$450, but we don't yet have a release date for the CrushBOSS in Australia. Colorways include Midnight Blue, Black & Copper, Stone & Gold, Mocha & Gold, Bone & White Gold, and Onyx — with more colors coming by the end of 2026.

• Value score: 4.5/5

Ninja CrushBOSS: specifications

Price

$319

Vessel sizes

72-ounce, 64-ounce, 26-ounce

Control panel programs

SmoothSense, PrepIQ, Custom

Vessels material

BPA-free plastic

Maximum power

1,200 watts

Multiblade disk attachments available

Thin slice, thick slice, shred, crinkle cut, french fry, julienne

Ninja CrushBOSS: design and features

• Three blending/processing vessels
• Three blending programs
• 1,200-watt motor

The Ninja CrushBOSS base suctions to your counter for stability. It comes with three different containers: a 72-ounce blending pitcher, a 64-ounce processing bowl, and a 26-ounce tumbler. Clean each of these containers by filling partway with water, adding a couple drops of dish soap, and blending.

The 72-ounce blending pitcher comes with a tower blade. There is a pour spout in the lid; for thinner liquids you can pop up the spout cap and pour from the pitcher. For thicker ones, you'll remove the whole lid and the blade before pouring out and scraping with a spatula if needed.

The 36-ounce processing bowl comes with a chopping blade, dough blade, and multiblade disc. There are optional attachments that fit into the multiblade disc, including thin slice, thick slide, shred, crinkle cut, french fry, and julienne. This bowl's lid includes a feed chute and pusher.

Finally, the 26-ounce single-serve tumbler comes with a sipping lid and a straw, so you can just blend your favorite frozen beverage and go.

The base suctions onto your counter for stability. It's sleek and classy-looking. The containers slide and lock into place securely.

• Design score: 4.5/5

Ninja CrushBOSS: performanceFull-sized blender

Using the 72-ounce blender container, I made a smoothie using frozen fruit and juice in roughly equal proportions. I used the SmoothSense setting, which automatically detects the amount of solids and liquids in the vessel. The motor will stop and start, using the appropriate speeds to deliver smooth results. This turned out great.

Karen Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / Future

I also tried make a simple frozen yogurt with just frozen fruit and yogurt, this didn't blend up all that smoothly. If I had used any liquid, or possessed more patience, I could have easily made this a lot smoother. At the very least, I should have scraped down the sides and blended it once more. It's pretty chunky-looking but it still tasted great.

Karen Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / FutureFood processor

The first thing I did with the 64-ounce food processor container was to crinkle-cut some carrots. It took me a little time to assemble the blades properly and peel the carrots. But once I dropped them into the food chute, it took only a second or two to totally cut up three carrots.

Karen Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / Future

Next I diced a sweet potato. Ninja's instructions say that you need to soften fibrous foods like sweet potatoes before processing. This is not necessary for regular white potatoes. I followed the instructions and air-fried the sweet potato whole for 10 minutes first and allowed it to cool. Again, once my sweet potato and the blades were ready to go, the Ninja CrushBOSS took only a couple of seconds to dice the entire sweet potato. Once diced, a quick air-fry (yes, quicker than I expected, I over-cooked it a bit) and it was ready to eat.

Karen Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / Future

I shredded some hard parmesan cheese, using the shredding multiblade attachment. Like the other blades, it's super fast. However, a rather large chunk of parmesan got caught between the blade and the lid and wouldn't shred, as you can see in my photos below.

Karen Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / Future

Then I tried a slightly softer cheese, a Swiss. This one also shredded in just a few seconds, and the chunks left after shredding were much smaller.

Karen Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / Future

Next I tried the blade tower, which is centered inside the food processor bowl, just like a blender blade (as opposed to the multiblade system, which sits just under the lid). I made some coarse oat flour. Again, this was super fast. I probably could have run it again if I wanted the flour to be finer, but this was fine for me.

Karen Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / Future

Next I blended some protein pancake batter in the food processor bowl. Of course, the Ninja CrushBOSS made quick work of this. The batter came out pretty smooth and cooked up beautifully.

Karen Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / Future

I made some hummus, which made me question why I ever bought pre-made hummus from the store! It's so quick and easy with a blender/food processor like the Ninja CrushBOSS. And it's much tastier. I did scrape down the sides after the initial processing session and process it again. It was worth the extra cycle to get a totally uniform result, though if you like it chunky, that's not necessary.

Karen Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / FutureTumbler cup

The single-serve tumbler cup assembly is just like the Ninja BlendBOSS. Just put in your ingredients, screw on the blade lid, and twist it into place on the power base. You do need to have a bit of liquid in order to blend properly, but as long as you do, everything comes out great. Even ice is totally obliterated. I made this banana peanut butter smoothie which came out totally smooth.

Karen Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / Future

I made a very similar smoothie, this one was banana chocolate. It was also amazing.

Karen Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / Future

I made a simple lemonade slushie, just ice, water, lemon juice, and vanilla syrup. This was a quick and tasty treat. Though the ice was thoroughly crushed, the mixture wasn't totally homogenous. The icy part and the liquid part tended to separate as I drank it.

Karen Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / Future

I also used this smaller blender cup to prepare some frozen treats in the Ninja Creami Swirl. I started with a pistachio-flavored healthier ice cream, which included whole pistachios and dates. These can be challenging to blend, but the resulting mixture was smooth. There was a bit of "dust" at the bottom (I probably could have run it twice), but once frozen in the Creami pint, you couldn't tell. This turned out amazing.

Karen Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / Future

I also made a healthier version of Dole whip for the Ninja Creami Swirl. This blended up perfectly and turned out fantastic.

Karen Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / Future

• Performance score: 4.5/5

Should you buy the Ninja CrushBOSS?Ninja CrushBOSS report card

Attributes

Notes

Rating

Value

While not cheap, the Ninja CrushBOSS replaces three different kitchen tools.

4.5/5

Design

It's well-designed to do the work of three appliances in one.

4.5/5

Performance

The Ninja CrushBOSS performs as expected, making quick work of a variety of foods.

4.5/5

Overall

The Ninja CrushBOSS is an excellent 3-in-1 food processor, blender, and mini blender.

4.5/5

Buy it if

You need multiple blending/processing appliances

If you're in the market for even two of the three: full-sized blender, mini blender, or food processor, then you'll find this a worthwhile purchase. Any two of the three would likely cost at least as much and take up more space. Need all three? This is a no-brainer.

You just need a powerful tool

Frankly, even if you just need one, you still might consider the Ninja CrushBOSS. Its 1200-watt motor made lightning quick work of everything I tried, from ice to nuts to sticky dates. You might just find some use for the other functions once you have this in your kitchen.

You want some automation

The Ninja CrushBOSS has some automated features that take the guesswork out of how long to run and how much power to use. SmoothSense automatically senses ingredients and PrepIQ has individual programs for specific functions. Of course, you can just use manual settings if you prefer.

Don't buy it if

You are on a tight budget

There are certainly cheaper blenders and food processors on the market, though they won't have some of the advanced features that the Ninja CrushBOSS does.

You hate to unbox new appliances

If you are easily intimidated by new appliances and tend to leave them sitting in the box for a while, this isn't the appliance for you. You'll have a lot to unpack, and you'll actually need to read the manual to learn how to assemble and use the Ninja CrushBOSS.

You have limited counter and storage space

While he Ninja CrushBOSS has just one base, it has so many parts and pieces. You'll have to find space in your kitchen to store them all.

Ninja CrushBOSS: also consider

If the Ninja CrushBOSS isn't exactly what you're looking for, you might consider the following:

Vitamix A3500

My go-to blender for decades has been a Vitamix. There's a reason you see these in bars and restaurants so often. It's "just" a blender, but it does the job well.

Read our review of the Vitamix A3500

Breville the All in One

Here is another blender/food processor you might consider if the Ninja CrushBOSS seems like too much. While not as fully-featured, it's certainly more simple and compact.

Check out our review of the Breville the All in OneView Deal

Ninja BlendBOSS

You really just want that single-serve blender and to-go tumbler? Ninja's BlendBOSS is what you want. It takes up minimal space in your kitchen and yet it's surprisingly powerful and fast for making smoothies, slushies, iced coffee, and more. It comes with that sipping lid and straw so you can just blend and go.

Read my review of the Ninja BlendBOSSView Deal

How I tested the Ninja Power CrushBOSS

• I tested all three containers and various multiblade attachments
• I used SmoothSense, PrepIQ, and Custom settings
• I cleaned it after every use

I used the food processor bowl to crinkle-cut carrots, dice a sweet potato, shred both parmesan and Swiss cheeses, make oatmeal flour, blend up hummus, and blend pancake batter. I used the large blender to make frozen yogurt and a fruit smoothie. In the small tumbler blender, I blended two different mixtures to make frozen treats in the Ninja Creami (Dole whip and pistachio ice cream), two different yogurt/frozen fruit smoothies (banana peanut butter and banana chocolate), and a lemonade slushie.

Read more about how we test.

Soundcore Nebula P1: One-minute review

The Soundcore Nebula P1 is a fun product. It takes some of the cool ideas the brand had with the Nebula X1 and boils them down into a much cheaper projector.

The result is a $799 / £699.99 / AU$1,299.99 1080p projector with a modest 650-lumen output. This makes it a bit limited, as you’ll need a dark space and can’t shine too big an image. But for pop-up movie nights and fun little setups in the backyard, it’s up to the task. It even has slight waterproofing to protect against unforeseen weather.

Its wireless satellite speakers are the Nebula P1’s big party trick, giving it a nice, wide soundstage that most of its competitors simply can’t match. That said, anyone who already owns a pair of Bluetooth speakers with a stereo mode probably can work something out themselves.

The Nebula P1 is a good package, but it relies on the whole package to drive home that value. It’s not far off from the Hisense M2 Pro, and the JMGO N1S Pro 4K has seen some sales that put it dangerously close in price to the P1, and both of those have far superior projection. But where portability and outdoor-worthiness count, the P1 still has an advantage.

(Image credit: Future)Soundcore Nebula P1 review: Price & release date

• Release date: October 2025
• Price: $799 / £699 / AU$1,299

The Soundcore Nebula P1 launched in late 2025 with an initial price of $799 / £699 / AU$1,299. Since then it has seen occasional discounts, which are fairly common for products in this category. These have lowered it to around $700 several times and gone as low as $639. Deals like these are worth watching out for, as they’ll save you a considerable amount and help the Nebula P1 stand clear of some of its tougher competition.

Soundcore Nebula P1 review: Specs

Screen sizes supported

<180 inches

Brightness (specified)

650 Lumens

Optical technology

3 Laser DLP

Smart TV

Google TV

Connections

1x USB-A, 1x 3.5mm audio out, 1x HDMI 2.1 (with eARC), 1x USB-C power

Dimensions

4.9 x 5.1 x 11.2 inches / 124 x 130 x 284mm

Weight

5.3 lbs / 2.4kg

(Image credit: Future)Soundcore Nebula P1 review: Design & features

• Integrated gimbal stand
• Detachable Bluetooth speakers
• USB-C power

The Soundcore Nebula P1 takes some of the lessons the company learned with the Nebula X1 and pairs it with some of the tricks designed for the Nebula X1 Pro. But it's shrunk all of this down and simplified it to fit in a smaller, more portable, and (chiefly) more affordable package.

The Nebula P1 weighs 5.3 lbs / 2.4kg compared to the Nebula X1 Pro $4,000+ behemoth, takes up less than 300 cubic inches / five liters of space, and still combines a projector with a wireless sound system, albeit only a 2.0-channel one.

It’s a funky little projector. The whole unit comes together in a little column just about five inches / 127mm wide and deep and under a foot / 300mm tall. The actual projection unit sits within a frame and swivels vertically to untuck, revealing its lens in the front and its HDMI, USB-A, and 3.5mm ports on the rear. It keeps power separate, coming through a USB-C port at the base of the frame via an included Anker power brick (it can also work with separate power adapters of high enough wattage).

(Image credit: Future)

The top of the projector holds two small speaker units. These are rather loosely secured with small clasps at each corner controlled by a small switch on the back of the unit. They haven’t fallen loose during testing, but they might if you tried to carry the projector by the speakers. Fortunately, with its built-in carrying strap, the Nebula P1 is easy to tote.

Once you've plunked the Nebula P1 down, you just aim the projection where you want it, and then grab the wireless speakers and set them in ideal positions for quality stereo audio — something that's sorely lacking in this kind of projector despite claims otherwise.

The projector has Google TV built in, so it doesn’t need to rely on an external HDMI source. And the 20-hour battery life of the speakers should get you through some epic binge watching. With IP33 protection on the projector and IP54 on the speakers, you can even set up outdoors without worrying about a few stray raindrops ruining the show, though you’ll still want to guard your power source.

When you’re done watching, the projector can fold back up. The speakers can plop back onto the top where they’ll charge via pogo pins, and you’re good to go. Also, as the speakers automatically sleep when the projector shuts down, they won't just die if you ever forget to put them back on the charging pad. They also have USB-C charging ports as a backup. And, yes, they still work if they’re on top of the projector.

Unfortunately, they do slowly drain over time and the pogo pins aren't perfectly reliable. After letting them sit for a longer time on top of the projector, I came back to watch something and found that one of the speakers had not recharged and was dead.

(Image credit: Future)

There are a few small gripes with the design of this system. For one, it makes a common mistake of gimbal-mounted projectors: ignoring other necessary corrections. It’s easy to aim the projector vertically, but if it’s sitting on a sideways slant, however subtle, there are no feet to adjust and correct this.

The frame also stands in the way of being able to point the projector straight up at ceilings. Putting the HDMI port on the back of the projection unit rather than the frame, while likely done to simplify internal circuitry, means the cable can push on the unit and shift its angle. The speakers also don’t clearly indicate when they’ve securely latched back into place.

Aside from the gimbal and focus, the Nebula P1 relies on digital image adjustments. That is to say, if you need to make corrections like keystone, zoom, or rotation, you’ll be forced to crop the projection.

The Nebula P1 supports fairly extensive adjustments, but since they reduce usable pixels, it’s best to find a setup that requires as little adjustment as possible. While a lot of projectors will try to do extensive correction and framing automatically with a front-facing camera, the Nebula P1 only does keystone and focus, relying on a user’s phone camera and app connection for any further automatic correction.

A compact little unit, the Nebula P1’s remote control offers standard Google TV controls and shortcuts to YouTube, Netflix, and Prime Video. Conveniently, it has a motion sensor that illuminates many of its face buttons automatically, which really helps in the kind of dark environment you'll be using a projector.

• Design & features score: 3.5/5

(Image credit: Future)Soundcore Nebula P1 review: Picture quality & performance

• Decent picture with the right setting
• Intelligible audio with a (potentially) wide soundstage

The Soundcore Nebula P1 may not have the specs to compete with the movie theaters, but it serves up a respectable picture for some fun at-home watching or outdoor movie night setups.

It’s not super bright, so it really calls for dim or completely dark spaces for the best experience, but you can get by watching bright and colorful content even with some ambient light in the room. HDR content can even pop in a dark environment. The projector’s color is solid and most things look lifelike without oversaturation. It doesn’t match the range covered by triple-laser projectors, but it’s not altogether disappointing. For a projector of its price, the Nebula P1 performs pretty well.

Perhaps its biggest setback is its 1080p resolution, which is exceedingly common in projectors under $1,000. If you go too large, much past about a hundred-inch image, you can start to see the gaps between the pixels with a screen door effect that is all the more prominent on bright pictures. But as long as you don’t project too big an image or sit too close, that’s also a setback that’s easily avoided.

(Image credit: Future)

By default, the projector has a few regrettable behaviors, but these can be tamed. Firstly, almost every picture profile has poor-looking motion interpolation enabled. While this usually looks bad enough, it’s especially bad here because the processing isn’t quite up to the task of quality interpolation. Films and animation immediately look better with this disabled.

The projector also shows a tendency to over-sharpen to make up for its 1080p resolution. This isn’t always apparent, but when the projector displays scenes with lots of fine details — building textures, hair strands, and the like — there’s a lot of visible and distracting aliasing. Dialing down the sharpening to level ‘4’ thoroughly improved this without creating too soft a picture.

The NebulaMaster picture preset might seem like it should be the ideal one, but it has a knack for taking the issues I found and wrapping them all into one. The projector performs much better in the Movie setting.

Unfortunately, the contrast isn't stunning. Black levels don't sink to a pitch black or even close to it. You'll just see a hazy gray in large black areas, which makes dark, night scenes look a fair bit poorer than brighter ones. That’s not uncommon for budget projectors, and even premium models can struggle with black levels.

(Image credit: Future)

Gaming performance is also mixed. Using the projector’s special gaming picture mode, input latency is very low, making it easy enough to play fast-paced games like Hades without issue. That said, the game mode doesn’t allow for digital image correction, and thus undoes any keystone and zoom. In any other picture mode, correction is allowed, but input lag is plain as day and won’t make for a good experience outside of games that don’t require quick reaction.

Moving onto sound, the speakers focus highly on the mids, which helps ensure speech is intelligible. But explosive bass depth is off the cards, and music lacks fullness, while the sound profile can be a bit harsh sometimes with a little extra sibilance. On the plus side, thanks to the ability to spread the speakers out as much as you want, it’s possible to get a very wide soundstage. The speakers can also operate sitting atop the projector, but then you’ll miss out entirely on decent stereo.

• Picture quality & performance score: 4/5

Soundcore Nebula P1 review: Value

While the Nebula P1 serves as something of a small analog to the Nebula X1 Pro, it doesn’t quite break the bank in the same way at just $799 / £699 / AU$1,299. This puts it on the affordable side of the market, and it does a fair bit for a model in this range. With serviceable brightness, a neat audio trick that avoids being gimmicky, and useful portability, it brings plenty to the table for the money.

Ultimately, the portability and sound are what help pull it away from other competitors that can do more in delivering a solid picture without costing much more.

JMGO has a fleet of projectors that have been enjoying steep discounts, making a projector with 4K visuals, the wide color gamut of RGB lasers, and substantial brightness all attainable for $1,000. But the easy portability, ability to run on USB power, and wide soundstage possible from wireless satellite speakers set the Nebula P1 apart.

• Value score: 4/5

(Image credit: Future)Should I buy the Soundcore Nebula P1?Soundcore Nebula P1 Scorecard

Attributes

Notes

Rating

Design and features

The Nebula P1 is nifty with the way it integrates all its little elements. It’s not too sparing on features, and it’s conveniently portable. A little sleeve to carry the charger and remote and to better protect the whole unit on the move would have been a plus, as would a strong clamp for the wireless speaker.

3.5/5

Picture quality and performance

The Nebula P1 offers a good level of brightness, satisfying color, and a sharp enough picture for casual viewing at up to 100 inches. For the money, it’s quite respectable. The picture benefits from some quick adjustments, as the defaults have glaring issues, but there’s not too much fuss.

4/5

Value

The Nebula P1 brings a lot to the table for $799 / £699 / AU$1,299, and even more when considering frequent discounts. With decent visuals, useful satellite speakers, and portability, it’s a nice little bundle.

4/5

Buy it if...

You want wide stereo everywhere you go
The wireless speakers of the Nebula P1 are more than a gimmick. They really make shows and movies more immersive than typical projector speakers. Plenty of projectors offer portability, but few have this trick for quality stereo sound.

You want an on-the-go system with flexibility
With its carrying handle, wireless speaker system, and the ability to run on various USB-C power sources, the Nebula P1 is a more compelling on-the-go projector than a lot of its competition.

You might get caught in the rain
While there are a lot of projectors that can compete with the Nebula P1’s visuals, not a lot of them are as ready to risk a few raindrops. The Nebula P1 has enough water protection to let you relax a little bit while watching outside even when the forecast calls for a chance of rain.

Don't buy it if...

You want a massive, stunning picture
With limited brightness and 1080p resolution, the Nebula P1 just isn’t ready to drop jaws displaying a large picture. For that, you’ll likely want more than double the brightness and 4K resolution.

You already have decent speakers
A lot of Bluetooth speakers will let you link them into a stereo pair, and if you’ve already got a good set, there’s a good chance they’ll be competitive with the P1’s speakers. In that case, you can put your money toward a projector that’s more focused on quality visuals and less on sound.

You’re planning on a permanent, indoor setup
The Nebula P1 has put a lot of effort into its portability and outdoor worthiness. If you’re not looking to take advantage of that, your money can go further with a different projector.

Soundcore Nebula P1 review: Also considerComparison: projectors

Soundcore Nebula P1

JMGO N1S

Samsung The Freestyle 2nd Gen

JMGO N1S Ultra 4K

Price

$799 / £699 / AU$1,299

$999 / £799 (around AU$1,130)

$799 / £649 / AU$1,302.85

$1,999 / £1,478.70 / AU$2,999

Screen sizes supported

Up to 180 inches

40 to 180 inches

30 to 130 inches

85 to 180 inches

Brightness (specified)

650 lumens

900 lumens

230 ANSI lumens

2,400 ANSI lumens

HDR support

HDR10

HDR10

HDR10+, HLG

HDR10, HLG

Optical technology

4-LED DLP

3 Laser DLP

LED DLP

RGB Laser DLP

Smart TV

Google TV

Google TV

Tizen

Google TV

Connections

1x HDMI 2.1 ( with eARC), 1x USB-A , 1x 3.5mm

HDMI 2.1 ( with eARC), 1x 3.5mm

Micro-HDMI, USB-C (power)

HDMI x2 (x1 eARC), USB-A (power), 3.5mm

JMGO N1S
If you already have speakers you like (or a pair of stereo-capable Bluetooth speakers), you can get a more exciting picture from the JMGO N1S. It’s a bit brighter and looks all the more gorgeous thanks to its RGB laser projection, even if it's still just 1080p. That said, finding one is hard, and a 4K version with a bunch of other enhancements is also available for under $1,000 (see below).

Samsung The Freestyle 2nd Gen
Samsung has shown a knack for flexibility, and The Freestyle 2nd Gen is good in that regard. But the Nebula P1 takes the lead on brightness, sound, and easy-of-use, even if it won’t be so easy to power off a battery. Read our full Samsung The Freestyle 2nd Gen review

JMGO N1S Ultra 4K projector
This is the real threat to the Nebula P1. While the JMGO N1S Pro had a $1,999 price when it launched, it has seen that price drop by over 50%. At that price, it’s wild to see bright, RGB laser projection and a 4K picture. It’s not as portable since it requires AC power, but it does include a carrying case. And for image quality, it’s leagues better. Read our full JMGO N1S Ultra 4K projector review.

(Image credit: Future)How I tested the Soundcore Nebula P1

• Tested at home in multiple, real-world viewing conditions
• Presented the display with a variety of media and formats
• I have tested numerous projectors and displays over the last half-decade

I tested the Soundcore Nebula P1 at home, in real-world conditions. This saw it faced with ambient light coming in from numerous windows, in-room lighting, as well as ambient noise that both the projector and speaker systems had to overcome.

The projector was tested both against a bare, white wall and an Akia Screens CineWhite screen. It was presented with streamed content, HDR and non-HDR, and PC gameplay.

My testing evaluates the projector’s performance with respect to its price and competition from other models colleagues at TechRadar and I have tested.

I have been testing projectors since 2021 and displays for even longer.

• First reviewed: August 2026
• Read TechRadar's review guarantee

Several hours into Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy, my protagonist confidently strides into a battle arena and soaks in the cheers of an adoring audience. Wielding a sizable blade and sporting gleaming gold armor, the hero then unleashes a devastating, tornado-like attack, making short work of dozens of aggressive gladiators.

Needless to say, this third installment in Asobo Studio's A Plague Tale series is a far cry from the franchise's previous stealth-focused, rodent-infested entries. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Review info

Platform reviewed: PS5
Available on: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC
Release date: August 27, 2026

Resonance is the latest chapter in the decidedly dark, Black Death-inspired series that previously put players behind the stealthy skills of siblings Amicia and Hugo as they faced relentless Inquisition soldiers and swarms of plague-spreading rats. But Resonance is also a prequel, set 15 years before the events of A Plague Tale: Requiem and starring Sophia, a returning, fan-favorite supporting character from that same entry.

Sophia's a smuggler and skilled swordsman, far more capable in battle than the franchise's previous brother and sister duo. As such, Resonance is a completely different type of game, a third-person action-adventure – with some light role-playing game (RPG) elements – that favors slitting throats and spilling entrails over sneaking in the shadows. It's a pretty drastic pivot, one that might be initially off-putting to longtime A Plague Tale players, but it generally works, allowing Asobo's beloved universe to successfully branch off into a different genre.

Like Assassin's Creed…condensed

(Image credit: Asobo Studio)

What Resonance recalls most, especially in its first few chapters, is a more streamlined, story-driven Assassin's Creed game. Like Ubisoft's sprawling action-RPG series, it sports stunning environmental visuals and plenty of crunchy, dynamic combat – complemented by lots of brutal finishers – as well as a good deal of exploration, parkour, and stealth. Heck, the latter even allows you to deliver death from above à la Assassin's Creed's hidden-blade executions.

There's also a combat-enhancing skill tree to progress through, passive perk-granting relics to equip, and enough lore-expanding collectibles to make any member of the Assassin's Brotherhood envious. But on the plus side – especially for those burnt out on Ubisoft's bloated open-worlds – Resonance layers all these familiar elements into a far more straightforward, cinematic adventure that respects your time.

Borrowing from the best

(Image credit: Asobo Studio)

But while it delivers, arguably, some of the AC series' best bits in a more digestible package, it also borrows inspiration from some other favorite franchises. Its prevalence of engaging spelunking and clever puzzle-solving gameplay, for example, recalls Lara Croft's greatest adventures, while its adrenaline-pumping set pieces could give Nathan Drake and Indiana Jones a run for their fortune and glory.

None of this is to say that Asobo is merely mimicking successful series' formulas that have come before. While its inspirations are obvious, they're also incredibly well realized and organically remixed into a much wider experience that feels fresh, allowing the A Plague Tale franchise to reinvent itself for this prequel installment.

And while you won't find hordes of plague-ridden rats waiting around every corner of Resonance's breathtaking Venice and Crete locations, its story is still very much embedded in the series' overarching narrative. Without spoiling too much, Sophia – it turns out – lived quite a life before taking to the high seas and helping out Amicia and Hugo in Requiem.

And like Hugo, she too is affected by something quite curious, supernatural even, that informs and shapes not just the storytelling, but the gameplay. Her mysterious ties to something quite ancient touch nearly everything in the game, from her puzzle-cracking prowess to that aforementioned gladiatorial arena battle.

But also like Hugo's blood curse, her affliction comes with more than its fair share of terrors. Sophia spends most of her time cracking skulls and conundrums in equal measure, but her swashbuckling sometimes gives way to the sort of nightmare-conjuring stretches that'd set the previous games' sibling duo desperately running for their lives.

Thankfully, Sophia also has some friends to lean on. In fact, Resonance does a fantastic job leveraging side characters to organically flesh out the world and Sophia. Rather than relying on forced exposition, the exchanges between the protagonist and her friends – and sometimes foes – flow naturally to deliver both fun banter and integral information.

Less plague rats, more plundering

(Image credit: Asobo Studio)

Whether with a buddy or on her own, Sophia does indeed occasionally find herself in frightening situations evocative of the first two games' more nail-biting moments. These scarier, often survival-focused moments are some of the game's best, but they also take a backseat to what more often feels like a lighter, blade-clashing, plundering romp.

Again, this isn't so much a knock against the game, as Resonance does a brilliant job blending inspirations from the aforementioned properties while also layering in plenty of its own personality. But passionate fans of the previous A Plague Tale titles, craving more of their suffocating atmosphere and killer rodents, may find Resonance a tad too lighthearted, familiar, and formulaic. While it's not without its scares, surprise betrayals, and emotional gut punches, it's still very much a spirited action-adventure that draws more from Black Flag than the Black Plague.

Best bit

While Resonance's combat starts out simple enough, with a couple of death-dealing combos delivered via Sophia's sword and dagger, it quickly ramps up. The game's at its thumb-blistering best when you're leveraging everything in her growing arsenal – from unlocked offensive and defensive maneuvers to devastating special attacks, throwable environmental items, and even her trusty grappling hook – to clear a room full of goons with style to spare.

Beyond that gripe specific to those hoping for a return to rat-infested Middle Ages France, Resonance's battle camera could have benefited from a bit more fine-tuning. Sophia's sword- and dagger-based melees are generally quite rewarding, especially once new weapons, moves, specials, and perks are unlocked and layered into her blood-spilling repertoire; there’s also some welcome nuance and depth, like stun-inflicting parries and a risk-reward system that sees you replenish a health segment with each henchman slain. But the camera can have some difficulty keeping up with all this lightning-quick action. Toss in the lack of a target lock-on, and you're occasionally left wondering what cool thing just happened off-screen.

Nitpicks aside, Resonance makes a compelling case for expanding the A Plague Tale universe, while also serving up 15 or so hours of solid third-person action-adventuring. You'll likely complete Sophia's campaign wondering what exactly the future holds for the series' other characters and narrative threads, but you also won't hold any regrets having conquered a swashbuckling romp as rewarding as a treasure chest brimming with shiny trinkets.

Should you play Resonance: A Plague Tale?Play it if...

You're a fan of the previous A Plague Tale stories
Resonance significantly changes up the gameplay of the previous two series' installments, but its narrative unfolds within the same universe. Protagonist Sophia is a supporting character from A Plague Tale: Requiem, and her prequel yarn is still connected to the larger series' story, albeit loosely, as well as to its existing characters, Amicia and Hugo.

You're craving a swashbucking action-adventure in the vein of Assassin's Creed and Tomb Raider
Resonance trades much of the moody atmosphere and stealth- and survival-fueled gameplay of the franchise's first two games for a more traditional third-person action-adventure. Expect quick, dynamic combat, plenty of puzzle-solving gameplay, a bit of exploration, and some epic set-piece moments that favor cinematic style over slow-burn storytelling.

Don't play it if...

You're expecting an experience similar to the series' previous installments
As an original prequel story, Resonance doesn't just introduce a new protagonist in Sophia, but also significantly switches up the series' gameplay and atmosphere. The former feels far more like familiar action-adventure fare, while its world, characters, and storytelling all support a lighter, less foreboding tone.

Accessibility features

Resonance significantly expands on the accessibility options of the series' previous two installments, offering a number of visual assistance options, including UI, HUD, and subtitle customizations, as well as high contrast and colorblind modes.

Blood effects can be toggled on and off, and five different difficulty settings allow you to tailor the experience to your playstyle and skill level. These options range from a story-focused mode – that puts parrying and dodging on auto – to a deep difficulty mode for those craving the steepest challenge. Difficulty options can also be changed at any time.

How I reviewed Resonance: A Plague Tale

I completed Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy's campaign in about 15 hours, but clocked in another 5 or so revisiting chapters to gather missed collectibles.

I ran the game on a PS5 Pro using my budget TCL 4K 65" TV, with HDR enabled. For audio, I tested with both the display's onboard stereo speakers and Sony's PlayStation Pulse Elite headset.

First reviewed August 2026

What a difference a year makes. Back when the Nintendo Switch 2 was first being shown off in 2025, Elden Ring Tarnished Edition looked like a disaster.

Review info

Platform reviewed: Nintendo Switch 2
Available on: Nintendo Switch 2
Release date: August 28, 2026

Preview events allowed journalists to play a horribly compromised game with a flipbook framerate, then tellingly wouldn’t let them share any footage of it. This seemed destined to be an embarrassment of a port that would have Mario hanging his head in shame, if not outright giving up.

I don’t know what deal with the Devil the developers made to get this port in its current state, but it’s made a Satanist out of me. Elden Ring on Switch 2 is a revelation, the new gold standard that third-party ports should be judged by. It’s perfectly playable and smooth in handheld mode, with only the most minimal and unobstructive pop-in.

Even the included Shadow of the Eldtree expansion, with its increased level of visual detail and colossal wicker men enemies stomping about, runs like a dream. It’s the kind of port that restores your faith in the Switch 2. Perhaps anything really is possible on this little machine.

Arise now, ye tarnished

(Image credit: Bandai Namco)

For the uninitiated, Elden Ring is essentially open-world Dark Souls, the brutal action-RPG that every other action-RPG has annoyingly been ripping off ever since.

So combat rewards perseverance while also punishing even the slightest mistake. Every time you die, you lose all your levelling-up currency and have just one chance to get it back. And it’s all set in a dark medieval fantasy world that’s so grim it makes House of the Dragon look like an episode of Peppa Pig.

Elden Ring takes that winning formula and blows up the scale dramatically. It’s the most confident and successful leap a series has taken to going open-world since Nintendo’s own The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. This is a game all about charging through gorgeous fields on horseback, because a) you’ve spotted an epic castle on the horizon you want to explore, and b) a giant is shooting arrows at you, and you desperately need to find some cover.

The Lands Between, Elden Ring’s absurdly large setting, is beautiful and deadly in equal measure. And it’s really deadly. Birds with swords strapped to their legs swoop in for the kill. Knights on horseback roar to the Heavens and are rewarded with lightning storms cascading down upon you.

Even a lowly zombie tossing a rock at you can be lethal if you’re not paying attention. Few games demand you lock in to succeed like this and fewer still reward you so immensely if you do.

Slice, spell, scream or smack?

(Image credit: Bandai Namco)

You’re spoilt for choice on how you take it on, too. There are swords, axes, hammers, magic, curses, hand-to-hand combat (surprisingly effective, that), roaring (ditto), horseback jousting, and far more to be covered here. Stick with one weapon, and you’ll still have fun, but keep swapping out your loadout for new toys and you might just find your favourite gaming weapon ever.

The variety here is ridiculous, every dud weapon offset by another dozen inspired ones. Impressed with the last attack the latest boss fight used on you? Chances are, you can find the weapon they used on you and learn how to execute its special attack yourself.

Best bit

(Image credit: Bandai Namco)

Engaging in an epic jousting battle with a dragon in one of the more visually intense areas, and not experiencing a single dropped frame in handheld mode. Good thing I wasn’t playing on the bus, given how many times I yelled “HOW!?” at the screen.

Its world starts with traditional green fields and foreboding castles designed by architects who clearly never visited a cosy cafe once in their horrible lives. Gradually it gets more delightfully surreal, like a golden city drenched in ashes where the music is actually being performed by the enemies you’re fighting. Or a village full of dancing, giggly oddballs who’ve watched Midsommar a few too many times.

The city hidden beneath the map is easily one of the most incredible-looking environments I’ve ever visited in a videogame. Oh, and died in. Repeatedly.

Every inch of The Lands Between is occupied by monsters, warriors, dragons, and enemies who really look like giant sentient sperm, and all of them want to say a very violent hello. It should get repetitive.

Outside of the occasional puzzle, this game is basically all-combat all the time. But the sheer variety and depth to its combat system practically dares you to get bored. Each enemy is almost a puzzle in itself, as you slowly learn their attack patterns, weaknesses, and how effective they are at outrunning a horse. Not at all? Perfect, bye then!

That open-world structure helps stave off repetition too. There’s plenty of brick wall boss fights that you’ll spend hours bashing your head against. But whenever you’re stuck, you can just hop aboard your magical double-jumping horse and gallop somewhere else. It means you can be swordfighting with poison-spitting bug men one moment, and then in an epic joust with a dragon barely ten minutes later.

Barbie’s Horse Adventure 2?

(Image credit: Bandai Namco)

You can also find alternate outfits for your horse now, presumably to finally get the My Little Pony crowd aboard the Soulslike train.

Gameplay benefits? None whatsoever, but it’s a cute novelty. I liked being able to dress Torrent up as the golden steed of one of the more irritating enemies, even if it does make them a little noisier. So if you’ve been on the fence about Elden Ring because you worried the horse wasn’t noisy enough, this is definitely the time to jump in.

The story? At first it’s about as impenetrable as Xbox’s gaming strategy. Your only hope of figuring out its mysteries is to examine every item you find, most of which contain a line of lore. There’s now a ‘recent items’ tab that shows everything you’ve recently picked up, which makes this far easier. This is my third time playing Elden Ring, and I believe I understood a whole 23% of the plot this time - a new personal best.

Two new starter classes have also been added. Heavy Knight, who’s a thickly-armored chunky boy who can tank a fair few hits. Obviously incredibly useful, but I opted for the other new starter, Idus Knight, who wields a sword that delivers a superbly satisfying double-strike.

There’s some new armor sets and weapons out there, too. These are nice touches for returning players, but hardly a reason to buy the game again if you already own it on another format.

No, the justification for that double dip has to go to handheld mode. I played this port for a solid week in handheld before remembering that I should probably see how it looks on my TV for this review. That’s how impressive it is, even if not every area is an unequivocal success. Liurnia of the Lakes probably takes the biggest hit, with a lot of foliage and scenery constantly fading in.

But vitally, none of the monsters suffer from any of that pop-in nonsense. It’s a smart trade-off to ensure that, even when the game is mildly struggling, it never puts you at a gameplay disadvantage. The fade-in is lessened docked, but naturally a little more noticeable on the bigger screen. Very occasionally when a lot of enemies are on-screen - a dragon and its dozen skeleton minions, for instance - some of the monster animation gets a little jerky. But it’s minor, rare, and even then has a certain Ray Harryhausen stop-motion charm.

I got two and a half hours of battery life out of my Switch 2 consistently while playing it, making it ideal for short flights or long train journeys (don’t start fighting a boss if your stop is coming up).

I can’t wait to stop typing these words so I can sink more hours into it. This is a major technical achievement on basically every level, resulting in an outstanding port of one of the best games ever. Essential.

Should you play Elden Ring Tarnished Edition?Play it if...

You’ve never played it before
What the heck have you been doing for the last four years? Elden Ring is the biggest and possibly best game FromSoftware has ever made. An action-RPG of mind-boggling scope and ambition that’s easily one of the most rewarding open-world games ever.

You want to play Elden Ring on the go
Tragically, a Steam Deck is now much more expensive than it was just a few years ago so this is probably now the best way to play Elden Ring on a handheld.

You want to give your horsey a golden makeover
Admittedly, there’s not a huge amount of new content here. Two new starter classes, horse dress-up, and a few new weapons and armor sets. Mildly disappointing, but the game and its expansion are already massive.

Don't play it if...

You don’t enjoy hard games
There’s no option to lower the difficulty, and this is a harsh, uncompromising experience. I still blame some of the late game bosses for why I’ve lost a lot of my hair.

You want to play the most technically impressive version possible

It’s smoother on PS5 and Xbox Series X, and on PC if your rig is good enough. Still, I was constantly impressed by how rarely the Switch 2 version feels like a downgrade

You don’t care about playing in handheld mode
This is the only real advantage the Switch 2 version has over the PS5/Series X versions. But if you don’t care about this feature, then why did you buy a Switch 2?

Accessibility features

Controls can be remapped, and gestures are tied to motion controls (this can be switched off).

Subtitles are on by default, and the image quality can be adjusted when HDR is enabled, which is only available when docked, naturally.

The tutorial is still laughably bad, but help screens can at least be reviewed at any time.

How I reviewed Elden Ring Tarnished Edition

I played about sixty hours, mainly in handheld mode. Not enough time to defeat every optional boss - yikes - but I made sure to explore all the major areas, Shadow of the Erdtree expansion, and anywhere I suspected might suffer from a performance dip. I was constantly pleasantly surprised.

First reviewed August 2026

GoPro Mission 1 Pro ILS: Two-Minute Review

GoPro has built its name on cameras you can strap to anything and forget about. The Mission 1 Pro ILS is pretty much the opposite, requiring you to slow down, think about your settings and focus, and work much harder for the shot you want.

It's the third and quirkiest member of the new Mission 1 family, swapping the fixed lens of its siblings for a Micro Four Thirds mount. It's a major change that drastically reshapes the nature of this camera. Instead of a rugged companion for your next surf session or mountain bike run, it's a creative tool that opens GoPro's superb 1-inch sensor up to hundreds of lenses, from cheap vintage primes to specialist optics that would never fit inside a traditional action cam body.

The Mission 1 Pro ILS with a Laowa 7.5mm F/2.0 lens and GoPro's Point-and-Shoot Grip. (Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)

I spent a week shooting with it, mostly paired with a manual Laowa prime, and found it to be a camera that's as rewarding as it is demanding. There's a real skill curve here that longtime GoPro shooters may not be comfortable with, and the payoff — sharper, more considered footage and stills — only arrives once you've put the work in.

Where the ILS earns its keep is its sheer versatility. Want to shoot extreme close-ups a regular GoPro physically can't manage? Fit a close-focusing lens. Chasing a specific look? There's a lens for that too. It's arguably the most flexible camera GoPro has ever made.

That flexibility incurs trade-offs, though — not only is the ILS expensive, it's also less rugged than other GoPro's and lacks autofocus and horizon lock. GoPro's Quik app doesn't make life easier either, constantly nudging you toward a subscription rather than just getting out of the way and letting you shoot. None of that stops the ILS from being a compelling and genuinely different kind of GoPro; it's just one that asks a lot more of you than the ones that came before it.

GoPro Mission 1 Pro ILS: Price and release date

• $699 / £599.99 / AU$1,099.95 (non-member price)
• $599 / £509.99 / AU$949.95 (member price)
• Other models in the series are the Mission 1 and Mission 1 Pro

The GoPro Mission 1 Pro ILS is priced at $699.99 / £599.99 / AU$1,099.95, or $599.99 / £509.99 / AU$949.95 if you're already a GoPro subscriber. That's body-only pricing, of course — you'll need to budget separately for a Micro Four Thirds lens (GoPro doesn't sell any of its own). It's a big chunk of money to spend on a little camera, but at the same time there's not much out there to compare it to, and no direct competitors to undercut it.

It officially launches on September 2 2026, alongside a companion iOS app called Mission Monitor.

Interestingly, the ILS costs exactly what the standard Mission 1 Pro did at launch. But at the time of writing, GoPro has quietly dropped the Mission 1 Pro's price by $100, down to $599.99. That means (for now at least) that you're paying a $100 premium for the ILS's interchangeable lens mount over the Mission 1 Pro that also gets you 20m waterproofing, autofocus and a built-in lens — features the ILS lacks. It's worth considering this trade-off carefully, depending on what you actually plan to shoot.

• Price score: 4/5

GoPro Mission 1 Pro ILS: Specs

Type:

Action camera

Sensor:

50MP 1-inch type CMOS

Lens mount:

Micro Four Thirds

Displays:

Front: 1.4-inch LCD

Rear: 2.59-inch OLED touchscreen

Memory:

No internal storage; supports V30 and Class A2 rated microSD cards

Video:

8K Open Gate up to 30fps (no crop) / 8K/60p (cropped)

ISO range:

Video: 25-6400

Photo: 100-3200

Burst shooting

60fps

Processor:

GP3 SoC

Connectivity:

BlueTooth, USB-C, 5GHz Wi-Fi 6

Dimensions:

89.6 x 58.7 x 46.1mm

Weight:

197g / 6.94oz (inc. battery but excluding lens)

GoPro Mission 1 Pro ILS: Design

• Same compact, dual-screened GoPro body, but with a Micro Four Thirds mount up front
• Weatherproof only — loses the standard Mission 1 Pro's 20m waterproofing
• Weighs under 200g before adding a lens

In many ways, you'd struggle to tell the Mission 1 Pro ILS apart from the standard Mission 1 Pro. They have largely the same boxy, dual-screened body, the same 2.59-inch rear OLED touchscreen and 1.4-inch front display, the same big, chunky buttons, the same tripod thread, magnetic clips and mounting fingers on the base (that'll fit any GoPro accessory you already own). GoPro hasn't reinvented the shell here, and given how well the Mission 1 Pro works, that's no bad thing.

What has changed sits right at the front. Instead of the Mission 1 Pro's fixed 14mm lens, the ILS carries a native Micro Four Thirds mount, opening the door to hundreds of compatible lenses — GoPro maintains an official compatibility list if you want to check before you buy, and it already spans everything from fisheyes to vintage manual primes with the right adapter. If you've got a drawer full of old glass, this is the first GoPro that can accommodate it.

Future | Sam KieldsenFuture | Sam KieldsenFuture | Sam KieldsenFuture | Sam KieldsenFuture | Sam Kieldsen

That flexibility comes at a cost to GoPro's trademark ruggedness, though: the ILS is weatherproof rather than waterproof. Unlike the standard Mission 1 Pro's 20m dive-ready housing-free design, you shouldn't be dunking this one in the sea. For a company that made its name letting you bolt or strap a camera to anything and dive into the deep blue, it's quite a shift.

Despite the added complexity of a lens mount, GoPro has kept things impressively compact; at 89.6 x 58.7 x 46.1mm and 197g, it's slightly lighter than the fixed-lens Mission 1 Pro. Of course, you'll have the weight of a lens to add to that. It's a world away from my everyday MFT camera, the lumpen — if lovable — Panasonic Lumix GH6. If you need to wedge an interchangeable lens into a tight spot, the ILS is hard to beat.

• Design score: 4/5

GoPro Mission 1 Pro ILS: Performance

• Manual focus only, with no subject tracking or horizon lock
• Can focus far closer than the standard Mission 1 Pro's 60cm minimum
• Battery life of up to 96 minutes with 8K 4:3 recording

Losing autofocus is the single biggest adjustment coming from a standard Mission 1 Pro. GoPro has equipped the ILS with focus peaking to help you nail manual focus, but on the ILS's small screens I found it a real challenge — my shots weren't always in focus when I thought they were, and I lost a handful of otherwise good clips to softness as a result. Frustratingly, focus peaking doesn't work at all on the front-facing screen, which stings if you're trying to frame up a selfie or vlog shot. I'd like to see GoPro patch that in with a firmware update, since I can't see a technical reason why it wouldn't be possible.

There are better ways to nail focus than squinting at the rear screen, though. GoPro's Quik app offers a focus peaking preview, and there's also the new Mission Monitor app (sadly iOS-only at launch) for a bigger, clearer view. That one requires a wired connection between the camera and your iPhone or iPad, and since I don't own a USB-C to Lightning data cable, I wasn't able to put it through its paces myself. What I could do was hook the ILS up to an external monitor via a USB-C to HDMI adapter, and that worked well as a live-preview solution.

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)

I tested the ILS with two lenses: a Laowa 7.5mm f/2.0 that GoPro loaned to me alongside my review sample, and my own Panasonic 12-60mm zoom. The Laowa — a manual focus, manual aperture prime — is how this camera wants to be used. I couldn't get the Panasonic zoom to focus properly at all. If you've got a stash of vintage manual glass and a MFT adapter, you're in for a good time.

It's important to note that, despite the MFT lens mount, the ILS isn't an MFT camera. Its 1-inch sensor is smaller than an MFT's, which results in a larger crop factor. For example, if you fitted the Laowa 7.5mm lens to a standard MFT camera, MFT's 2x crop means its effective 35mm equivalent focal length is 15mm. The ILS has a 2.7x crop factor, rising to 3x with HyperSmooth stabilization on. So that means the same lens will have a 20.5mm focal length, or 22.5mm with stabilization. Consequently, you'll need a very wide fisheye lens to get the sort of ultra-wide focal length offered by most GoPros, but conversely it's easier to achieve tighter framing for portraits and so on.

I was pleased to discover that the ILS, at least paired with that Laowa lens, could focus far closer than the standard Mission 1 Pro is capable of. The regular Mission 1 Pro has an almost comically long 60cm / 24-inch minimum focus distance that rules out close-up work entirely. The ILS has no such limitation, opening the door to macro-style shots and detail work that's simply off the table on GoPro's fixed-lens model. It's not enough to make me recommend the ILS to vloggers, mind you — the lack of autofocus and subject tracking still counts heavily against it there. The Hero 13 Black with macro Lens Mod is a decent alternative for such uses.

In addition to subject tracking, horizon lock is also unavailable here. Both are present on the standard Mission 1 Pro, and so if you're relying on GoPro's software smarts to keep you level and in frame, you'll need to look at the fixed-lens models instead of the ILS.

Audio quality is solid, if unremarkable — echoing what my colleague Hamish Hector found when testing the Mission 1 Pro's built-in mics, the ILS captures voices and everyday sound clearly, with wind noise capably filtered out of the mix (up to a point).

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)

Battery life is very respectable. GoPro rates the included Enduro 2 battery at 96 minutes for 8K Open Gate at 30fps, or 74 minutes for 16:9 8K at 60fps, and my own real-world testing lined up closely with those figures. Thermal management is similarly solid — I only ran into overheating issues when shooting at the top end of the spec sheet (50/60fps in 8K or 200/240fps in 4K), and with decent airflow around the camera you may not experience overheating at all.

There's no built-in storage, as with virtually every GoPro. You'll need a fast V30, Class A2-rated microSD card, and you'll want it to have lots of space too — those 8K Open Gate files are huge.

• Performance score: 4/5

GoPro Mission 1 Pro ILS: Image quality

• Supports 8K video up to 30fps (Open Gate) and 60fps (16:9), plus slo-mo up to 960fps in burst mode
• Maximum bitrate of 300Mbps when using experimental GoPro Labs firmware
• Photos in JPEG and RAW up to 50MP resolution

When I actually managed to nail focus, the results were exactly what you'd hope for from that 1-inch sensor. For video, I shot most of my test footage with the Laowa 7.5mm lens, which plays nicely with GoPro's HyperSmooth stabilization. For anyone planning to color grade their own footage, I'd recommend GoPro's suggested settings — GP-Log2 color profile, 10-bit color depth, and the maximum bitrate available (240Mbps on regular firmware, or 300Mbps if you install the experimental GoPro Labs firmware — less stable than standard firmware but intended for enthusiasts who want to push performance to its limits) — shooting in 16:9 8K at 60fps.

I also tried Open Gate, which is one of the headline features shared with the standard Mission 1 Pro, but found the combination of huge file sizes and a 30fps ceiling too restrictive for how I like to shoot. It's a useful option to have, especially if you want maximum reframing flexibility in post, but it's not where I ended up spending most of my time.

For my main test clip, I mounted the ILS to my car using a single SmallRig suction cup — the camera's light weight meant I didn't need the full triple-cup rig I'd normally reach for, which kept setup quick. I edited the footage by applying one of GoPro's official LUTs before fine-tuning the color in DaVinci Resolve, and I'm really pleased with how it turned out. I'm no post-production expert, but anyone who is will have a field day pairing this sensor with the right glass.

Stills tell a similarly promising story, with caveats. I took the ILS out with the Laowa lens and GoPro's Point-and-Shoot Grip for a photo walk along the coast, shooting in RAW format at 50MP and, in lower light, 12MP. Editing in Adobe Lightroom afterward, the RAW files gave me a huge amount of latitude to shape the final look — much more than I'm used to getting out of an action camera. The Laowa itself let the side down slightly, with softness and a tendency to flare, but that's a lens characteristic rather than anything to do with the camera; pair the ILS with sharper glass and I'd expect noticeably cleaner results.

Future | Sam KieldsenFuture | Sam KieldsenFuture | Sam KieldsenFuture | Sam KieldsenFuture | Sam KieldsenFuture | Sam KieldsenFuture | Sam KieldsenFuture | Sam KieldsenFuture | Sam Kieldsen

Low-light performance carries over the big step up we saw on the standard Mission 1 Pro, the 1-inch sensor being a huge differentiator over GoPro's Hero Black range. As ever with an interchangeable-lens setup, the lens you choose plays a big part in how far that advantage stretches: wide-aperture glass will get you noticeably further after dark than anything narrower.

• Image quality score: 5/5

Testing Scorecard

Attribute

Notes

Score

Price

A premium over the standard Mission 1 Pro, but there's nothing else like this on the market.

4/5

Design

Familiar, compact GoPro build with a Micro Four Thirds mount bolted on, but weatherproof rather than waterproof.

4/5

Performance

Manual focus is a genuine hurdle, but closer focusing than the Pro is a strong compensation. Battery life is excellent.

4/5

Image quality

Superb once in focus, with the 1-inch sensor delivering strong video and raw stills, though results depend heavily on the lens you pair it with.

5/5

Should I buy the GoPro Mission 1 Pro ILS?

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

You want to pair MFT glass with GoPro's best-ever sensor
The Mission 1 Pro ILS finally lets you put real lenses in front of GoPro's excellent 1-inch sensor, opening up creative options that no fixed-lens GoPro can match.

You need close-up focusing an action camera normally can't do
Where the standard Mission 1 Pro tops out at an awkward 60cm minimum focus distance, the right lens on the ILS lets you get close to your subject, opening the door to macro-style shooting.

You're a cinematographer who wants manual control over convenience
If you're used to pulling focus and dialing in aperture by hand, the ILS's manual approach will feel like a feature rather than a limitation. It rewards that kind of deliberate, considered shooting.

Don’t buy it if…

You want an underwater-ready action camera
The ILS loses the standard Mission 1 Pro's 20m waterproofing. If diving or watersports are on the agenda, the regular Mission 1 Pro is the one to get.

You want simple point-and-shoot ease
There's no autofocus, no horizon lock, and no subject tracking here — all things the standard Mission 1 Pro handles automatically. The ILS demands more effort for every shot.View Deal

You're budget-conscious
At $699.99, the ILS costs $100 more than the standard Mission 1 Pro, before you've even bought a lens. If you're watching your spending, GoPro's Hero13 Black remains a far cheaper way into the ecosystem.View Deal

Also consider

Nikon ZR
If you want a "real" compact cinema camera rather than an action cam with a lens mount bolted on, the Nikon ZR is a strong alternative. It packs a full-frame sensor, 6K RAW recording, and RED color profiles into a body that's still remarkably compact and weather-resistant, undercutting most of its rivals on price in the process. It lacks the ILS's tiny size and mounting versatility, but for serious filmmaking it's a far more complete, if pricier, cinema tool.

Read our Nikon ZR review

GoPro Mission 1 Pro
If you want everything the ILS offers minus the lens-swapping hassle, the standard Mission 1 Pro is worth a close look. You get the same 50MP 1-inch sensor and GP3 processor, plus 20m of housing-free waterproofing, autofocus and horizon lock, all wrapped around a fixed ultra-wide lens. It's the easier camera to live with day to day, but you're trading away the ILS's lens flexibility.

Read our GoPro Mission 1 Pro review

How I tested the GoPro Mission 1 Pro ILS

• One week of testing with a Laowa 7.5mm F/2.0 C-Dreamer prime lens
• Real-world video shot mounted to a car, plus a coastal stills photo walk
• Battery life and thermal performance checked across the camera's most demanding modes

The Mission 1 Pro ILS mounted on my car using a suction cup. (Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)

I spent a week with the Mission 1 Pro ILS, shooting with a Laowa 7.5mm f/2.0 lens that GoPro loaned me for the review.

Video testing included mounting the ILS to my car for real-world stabilization footage, shot largely in 16:9 8K at 60fps using GoPro's recommended color-grading settings, plus a run through Open Gate to see how it held up for reframing flexibility. I edited footage in DaVinci Resolve, applying an official GoPro LUT before making my own color adjustments.

For stills, I took the ILS out on a Sunday photo walk along the coast near where I live, shooting raw at both 50MP and 12MP resolutions with GoPro's Point-and-Shoot Grip attached, and edited the results in Adobe Lightroom.

I also tested the camera's monitoring options, connecting it to an external monitor via a USB-C to HDMI adapter, though I wasn't able to test the iOS-only Mission Monitor app myself, lacking the necessary USB-C to Lightning data cable. Battery life and thermal performance were assessed through everyday use across a range of resolutions and frame rates, including the highest-demand 8K/60fps and 4K/240fps modes.

First reviewed: August 2026

It's almost midnight, and I'm still playing Bit Reactor's turn-based tactics (TBT) strategy game, Star Wars Zero Company. I'm nearing the end of a tense battle that's lasted longer than I've realized, but I'm so close to success. Only a few enemies remain, and Hawks is out of med packs; Tricks, Tel, and Luco are all low on health, and I don't want to risk any more injuries that could lead to my favorite Operators' permanent death. One mistake will cause a domino effect that ends in defeat, but I have to make a move.

I have Luco and Trick fire their blasters at a single enemy, taking them down with a lucky critical hit, before positioning them behind cover alongside Hawks. I lay a trap; with Overwatch enabled and monitoring the area where the boss and the final enemy are located, I have Tel rush ahead into position. Using all the Advantage I've accrued through the last few tactical turns, the Jedi Padawan executes her special Force action, knocking back both enemies into the zone of my team's line of sight. Even though they have no Action Points (AP) left, thanks to my planning, Luco, Trick, and Hawks fire off three more shots each, and together, we achieve victory.

Review info

Platform reviewed: PC
Available on: PS5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PC
Release date: August 27, 2026

Before playing Zero Company, Bit Reactor's debut game made by a studio founded by former Firaxis Games and XCOM veterans, I was concerned my lack of experience with XCOM would hinder my enjoyment of this new Star Wars story. But after just a few hours of taking on mercs and clankers, jumping to various planets via hyperspace, and getting to know my fellow Operators, I quickly fell in love.

Learn from the past, but live for the future

(Image credit: Bit Reactor)

What I love about Star Wars, besides the lightsabers, the expansive lore, and dark side baddies, is the seemingly unlimited opportunity for new stories within the vast galaxy, far, far away.

While Zero Company is set 20BBY during the twilight of the Clone Wars, a frequently revisited era in the franchise, this story chooses to tell a story from the perspective of someone no longer tied directly to the conflict, but has been affected by it. The fact that the player character, Hawks, is a former captain in the Grand Army of the Republic is a unique premise that initially piqued my interest; they commanded the 100th Clone Company and led a campaign that led to a Trooper massacre, Trick being declared unfit for duty due to an injury, and Hawks' dismissal.

Hawks now leads the titular covert squad on a mission to take down the paramilitary cult known as The Infinite Coil and its leader, Kundri Fathom, who are all diseased by the mysterious Shadow Plague and are slowly building their forces across the galaxy.

As Hawks and Zero Company tackle this growing threat against the backdrop of the Clone Wars, the team is also dealing with their own personal issues and the consequences of warfare, whether at the hands of the Republic or the Separatists, with the story exploring themes of justice, revenge, belonging, grief, and guilt.

It's a compelling approach with surprising twists and turns that takes the story in an unexpected direction and had my Star Wars-loving heart pounding thanks to the brilliant way Bit Reactor seamlessly blends cinematic storytelling and a brilliantly formulated combat system.

Best Bit

(Image credit: Bit Reactor)

Star Wars Zero Company's turn-based tactics gameplay is its best feature, offering an incredible amount of character customization that allows players to experiment with different loadouts and specializations for some immensely fun missions.

This is a spoiler-free review, and I won't get into the details, but Hawks' history has interesting implications for the narrative in ways I wasn't anticipating; they're a smart, funny, sarcastic, but decisive individual, navigating being a leader who is, once again, caught up in a galactic threat. And while they're a customizable character, they feel like they belong in this universe as much as any other protagonist we've had before.

Fathom herself, as the primary antagonist, however, separate from Coil members you run into plenty of times, feels a bit underutilized throughout the story, and I was left with a desire to know more about her.

The majority of the campaign finds Zero Company trying to track Fathom down while she continuously eludes them and works from the shadows, which means there aren't many opportunities for the antagonist to shine on screen; it feels like wasted potential as she's a very interesting villain with a unique motivation that compliments the broader narrative, but without that extra character exploration, especially in parallel to Hawks and their development, I was left with some unanswered questions and ultimately unsatisfied.

Wars are not won with superior weapons, but with superior strategy

(Image credit: Bit Reactor)

I stand by what I wrote in my preview: Star Wars fans with no knowledge of TBT games like XCOM can absolutely enjoy this game. Bit Reactor has done an excellent job making a beginner-friendly, not to mention incredibly rewarding, experience when you get accustomed to strategizing on the fly and go on to achieve win after win.

Squad appearances, tailored loudouts, and the numerous specializations on offer, be it Medic, Scoundrel, Heavy, or Scout, present an unbelievable amount of player freedom, which allows for some impressive customization, as well as what seems like an opportunity for limitless playthroughs.

This is especially true when the secondary specializations are unlocked for Zero Company; I gave my Hawks the Medic spec, which allowed an extra sense of security for playing on permadeath mode, and I was amazed by how my second spec, Gunslinger, completely refreshed battles and provided new and imaginative strategies on the battlefield.

(Image credit: Bit Reactor)

My squad for Tactical Missions typically included Tel because of her ranged Force abilities, and Trick, who can withstand getting Downed and can automatically revive during the next turn in battle; their Hero Talents came in handy when the mission was on the verge of failure, and their fully upgraded skill trees made them a must-have, especially for higher difficulty battles that featured a variety of enemies that are tougher than others.

Kabb also has a sick uppercut ability that lets him wollop enemies, while Luco has a sniper skill that guarantees a 100% hit; learning how these talents work, strategizing how best to spend my squad's limited three AP should have been stressful, but the process was just awesome.

Continuously maneuvering across ever-shifting and lovingly crafted isometric maps wrapped in an authentic Star Wars atmosphere, outplaying a contingent of droids, deadly Coil soldiers, and syndicate members with just wit, and mixing and matching team builds to your preference with a ton of options to experiment with; all of this offers an immensely rewarding gameplay experience that continuously delivers.

No Tactical Mission feels the same, and even when they take longer to complete because of their difficulty level—and believe me, they can take a while—it doesn't matter, because the sense of accomplishment I felt after every mission was worth the time.

Courage makes heroes, but trust builds friendship

(Image credit: Bit Reactor)

The campaign is also strengthened by Zero Company's interpersonal relationships, consisting of multiple colorful characters, including a loyal ex-Clone Trooper, a Mandalorian turned bounty hunter, a sharp-tongued Umbaran sniper, a Jedi Padawan without a Master, and more.

The game leans into role-playing game (RPG) systems by melding TBT gameplay and Bonds, a relationship approval system vital for unlocking features like new talents, focus points, and stat bonuses. Similar to Bioware's dynamic relationship system found in Dragon Age and Mass Effect, minus the romance and branching dialogue trees, Bonds are deepened by completing each character's personal questline, how you approach Operations, or how you respond in conversations.

Zero Company's Bond system is great, and I know it's primarily a TBT strategy game; however, I can't help but think it would have benefited even more if it went harder with the RPG mechanics, like additional dialogue choices, to really reinforce and shape those Bonds.

Characters may also have negative opinions of each other, and it's pretty fun, and essentially the key to success, to purposefully pair them together during missions to make them grow closer with the benefit of improving their loadout and unlocking new combat synergies.

(Image credit: Bit Reactor)

Outside of missions, it's pretty neat how Operators, even the ones you can create and recruit yourself, can be found around The Den having conversations and revealing a bit more behind the curtain; the switch to a third-person perspective here also brings a personal touch to these relationships, making them feel alive in their environment.

Alongside other characters like Runa and Bennic, authored Operators have so much personality with their own motivations and perspectives, with stellar performances from the ensemble cast; they're not just soldiers along for the ride, and while some pairings have more fleshed-out Bonds that are more ingrained in the main campaign than others, like Trick and Luco, they're equally memorable.

Whether it's Tel, Jae, Kabb, or particularly Trick, they feel like the backbone of the narrative and are as authentic to the Star Wars world they occupy, which is why when/if a character is killed in permadeath mode, the loss is truly felt.

This feature is a must if you want to up the risk factor during missions and truly heightens the stakes as you build these meaningful relationships, even if it means you'll be locked out of some pretty amazing missions if Operators die.

(Image credit: Bit Reactor)

Bit Reactor seamlessly blends cinematic storytelling and a brilliantly formulated combat system.

I had some issues during my preview session, mostly frame rate problems that took me out of the experience, but I'm happy to say performance has been vastly improved with my review copy on PC. With my mid-to-high range build, which consists of an Nvidia RTX 3060Ti graphics card and Ryzen 7 5700X 8-Core processor, the gorgeous cinematics and gameplay frame rates were consistently high, hitting 60fps the majority of the time, with the odd dip to the upper 40fp to lower 50fps range occasionally depending on how visually busy the scene is.

I also didn't encounter any significant performance snags, either. Bugs are almost non-existent, aside from a few encounters during conversations and cinematics where audio didn't sync correctly and tactical turns sometimes took a little longer to load from the enemies' side; otherwise, I had a pretty smooth experience.

Should you play Star Wars Zero Company?Play it if...

You're a Star Wars fan
You'll have a great experience if you've been itching for more Clone Wars-era stories, and Star Wars Zero Company presents a unique premise that takes you on an adventure.

You enjoy turn-based combat
If you like the process of strategizing and adapting on a continuously shifting battlefield, you'll love Star Wars Zero Company and its addictive turn-based tactics gameplay.

You're looking for a cinematic story
While Star Wars Zero Company's core gameplay is turn-based tactics, the game also offers gorgeous cinematic visuals with heart-pounding missions

Don't play it if...

You don't like turn-based gameplay
If you know you're looking for something more fast-paced and want to just experience the story, Star Wars Zero Company may not be for you

You're looking for a shorter experience
Star Wars Zero Company takes between 30 and 40 hours to beat, depending on the difficulty level, and some higher-risk missions can take some time to beat

Accessibility features

Star Wars Zero Company is a bit short on accessibility features, having only standard vision settings like text size and color blind mode, as well as a motion reduction setting for on-screen action.

How I reviewed Star Wars Zero Company

I spent just over 40 hours playing Star Wars Zero Company on my gaming PC with my Logitech G G715 wireless gaming keyboard and Logitech G703 wireless gaming mouse. I used a Gigabyte M32U gaming monitor and my Sony WH-CH520 wireless headphones for audio.

First reviewed August 2026.

Is Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls one of the best fighting games of recent times? Yes, I would say so. Given its developer is Arc System Works — creators of Guilty Gear, Blazblue, and the excellent Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising — it was a pretty safe bet that we'd be served a high quality fighting game with mountainous respect and reverence for Marvel and its roster of supers, mutants, and weirdos.

Review info

Platform reviewed: PC
Available on: PS5, PC
Release date: August 6, 2026

I love fighting games, but I'm not usually one for tag fighters — often because I find learning more than one character intimidating and time-consuming. So, when Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls was first revealed last year as a 4v4 tag fighter, I'd already resigned myself to thinking: 'well, that's probably not for me.'

Not two, not three, but four? You're having a laugh.

I needn't have worried so much. Arc System Works has designed Fighting Souls such that learning a quartet of fighters inside and out is absolutely not necessary. It's possible to play that way at a higher level, of course. But as your team only has a single health bar, you can rock one character as your main, while relying on the remaining three as assist moves to help you out in a pinch.

It helps, too, that Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls has a fantastic onboarding process for new players. The game's story mode is broken into five episodes — each focused on a group of heroes (the Avengers, X-Men, etc.) or the villainous Knights of Doom. Episode chapters are structured to introduce you to fighters and their strengths, or otherwise various important system mechanics. Training tools are similarly great, with a fully-featured training mode, combo trials, and an ingenious 'level-up missions' category that tasks you with creating your own combos to reach a damage threshold.

All good so far, but I unfortunately have to stress that Tokon's immediate future looks perilous. The PC version of the game is currently facing myriad issues, many of which seem to be a direct result of corporate interference.

At the time of writing, Arc System Works is hard at work deploying patches to improve PC matchmaking and performance, but I'm not sure there's a fix for intrusive anti-cheat bloatware and forcing PlayStation Network account creation to access its online features.

Absolutely champion

(Image credit: Sony / Marvel)

Enough doom and gloom for now. I'd rather chat about all the elements that I feel make Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls such a wonderful game for a bit. For me, it started with its single-player story mode.

Titled 'Episodes', Tokon's story is broken into five distinct, well, episodes. Each is centered around one of the game's five main teams. The Fighting Avengers, for example, are your stalwart heroes like Captain America and Black Panther.

The Samurai Outriders are made up of anti-heroes and tricksters like Deadpool and Loki. Meanwhile, the Knights of Doom bring a more villainous flavor, stacked with evildoers like Doctor Doom, Green Goblin, and Carnage.

Best bit

(Image credit: Sony / Marvel)

I'm in love with Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls' eclectic moment-to-moment tag bouts, but a special shoutout has to go to the game's wicked cel-shaded presentation. Marvel icons have been given a distinctly Arc System Works flavor — their appearance, animation, and super move cut-ins are all top-tier stuff.

The premise is simple. An intergalactic fighter called the Champion is holding Earth hostage, and the aforementioned five teams have been selected to participate in a tournament to decide the planet's future. Each episode culminates in a fight with the Champion, and individual chapters are bookended with stunning comic book cutscenes, with each episode even featuring a unique artist and colorist.

This lends all of them a unique sense of identity, and helps to keep things feeling fresh as you progress. Each episode is about an hour long, and all are worth playing through as you'll not only get a feel for each individual character, you will also unlock colors for a bit of added flair for your faves. Oh, and as a bonus, you'll also unlock the Champion as a playable character upon clearing your first episode.

There are a lot of fun character moments, too. Ms. Marvel is often adorably starstruck by the heroes she encounters. The X-Men are flabberghasted that Magneto would team up with an egotistical maniac like Doctor Doom. There's a cute running gag between episodes where everyone gives Loki the side eye, despite a seeming earnestness from the God of Lies to genuinely turn over a new leaf in the search for his brother Thor (who is currently mysteriously absent from the game's playable roster).

Overall, Episodes are a great way to kick off your Tokon journey. It'll help you find characters you enjoy playing, and present a charming story that's well worth playing through just to experience its wonderful artwork and voiced performances.

Assist me

(Image credit: Sony / Marvel)

Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is remarkably easy to just pick up and play, and I reckon you'll have a blast in local play with friends for casual couch bouts. Movement, special moves, assists, and supers are all straightforward to execute. For specials in particular, you have options for simple or motion inputs with the d-pad. Motion-inputted special moves (such as quarter-circle-forward) do around 10% more damage on average, so you'll have a bit of an edge if you can master weaving them into your gameplan.

The 4v4 setup can be wonderfully chaotic; there's no limit to the number of characters that can appear on-screen, so it's very possible to spam the assist button to throw the kitchen sink at your opponent in a pinch.

Characters you place in your assist slots are highly versatile, and can be individually called upon by pressing the assist button and the corresponding direction on the d-pad. One assist slot is for projectile, for example, while another is a vertical for anti-airs. This is universal across the cast, so you don't have to be precious about which characters you choose if you're only planning on maining one or two.

Elsewhere, you can perform an assist counter while guarding to get your opponent off of you, or even swap to one of your assists to directly control them. There's a ton you can do with assists, and learning to incorporate them in your playstyle is a huge part of the learning process. It sounds like a lot, and it is, and there's much more assists can do, like extending your combos and taking part in a massively damaging last round super. It might take a bit to wrap your head around, but thankfully, the tools are there to help you get to grips with assists and more besides.

Trained to perfection

(Image credit: Sony / Marvel)

Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls has some of the best tutorialization I've ever seen in a fighting game. You of course have a fully fleshed out training mode, where you can freely practice combos and setups against a dummy. There is also a comprehensive tutorial section known as the Battle Guide, that'll walk you through basics like movement all the way to advanced techniques like wakeup options and blocking cross-ups.

Of particular note is Character Lessons, which includes primers on every character playable in the game. These start off with basic move introductions, as well as the properties of each characters' unique button. For example, Storm's Tempest unique lets her control the wind to push herself and her opponent around. Magik's unique has her placing a portal that she can instantly warp to and perform attack out of to surprise the opponent.

Lessons then offer a selection of combos for you to try out for each character, many weaving in assists, special moves, and supers. Finally, the highlight of Character Lessons for me are the Level-Up Missions, which task you with performing a combo to meet a certain amount of damage. These don't hold your hand much, with little guidance outside of telling you which button to start your combo with, or to include a special move at some point. They're great fun to experiment with, and even unlock colors for your characters, too.

Once you feel sufficiently warmed up, I highly recommend jumping into Arena mode for some offline quickplay. This is essentially the game's Arcade mode, in which you play through a series of five matches. You'll get to choose your route as you go through, unlocking some lovely concept art for your efforts.

There's also Survival mode; a 100-match gauntlet with some light roguelite elements. Between matches in Survival mode, you'll get to choose and upgrade Support Souls — cards that offer various benefits like increased movement speed or attack power. Getting through all 100 is no easy task, though, with several significant difficulty spikes on your way to the top. But again, your efforts will be rewarded with unique character colors if you make it to the end.

True believers

(Image credit: Sony / Marvel)

If you're familiar with Arc System Works' back catalog, it should come as no surprise that Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is a mind-bendingly gorgeous fighting game.

The developer is the master of modern cel-shading, and the roster of Marvel icons look even sharper here than characters do in Guilty Gear Strive and Dragonball FighterZ. Not that those games are slouches at all in the visual department, but Tokon by comparison looks impressively pristine at all times.

There aren't a ton of characters or stages at launch (I personally think 21 characters is a bit slim given the 4v4 setup), but when they look and animate as well as they do, I can forgive the base roster being as svelte as it is by tag fighter standards.

Every character is brimming with personality and charming little touches. Doom's cartoonish aptitude for evil is perfectly captured in his intimidating slow walk and thousand-yard stare. Ms. Marvel's attacks feel peppy, snappy, and excitable. And Deadpool? Well, almost every move in his arsenal is a loving reference to other iconic fighting games, and there are some impressively deep cuts therein.

The game's background stages are a real draw, too. The New York City stage is teeming with detail and references to the wider world of Marvel. The X-Mansion tends to populate the further a match progresses, with iconic X-Men like Psylocke, Colossus, and Gambit appearing in the background. If you're a Marvel head, you'll likely love the amount of respect and admiration Arc System Works has for the brand.

Pride before a fall

(Image credit: Sony / Marvel)

Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is another slam-dunk for Arc System Works, then. With it and the recent Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics compilation, I'm ecstatic to see Marvel active again in the realm of fighting games. But every story has its villain, and for Tokon, it's not the Champion. It's Sony.

I hate to admit that I'm concerned for Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls' future. On PC, the game's anti-cheat DRM worsens performance. Furthermore, Linux and mod support are non-starters, and because online play requires a PlayStation Network account, countries where the service isn't supported (there are well over 100 of them) can't access network features at all. Throw in lopsided netcode that discourages crossplay between PS5 and PC, and you have a recipe for an exceptionally messy launch month largely thanks to publisher meddling.

For these reasons, I can't give Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls a glowing recommendation, as much as I would like to. At least if you were planning to pick up the game on PC. I want Tokon to have a long, bright future, but I worry that too much damage has already been done. Now, the state of the game has improved since launch in regards to performance and matchmaking quality, thanks to a small handful of fixes deployed by Arc System Works.

I just can't help but feel anxious about this rocky PC launch. Especially with the recent news that Riot Games is shuttering development on its League of Legends fighting game, 2XKO. It shows that huge companies absolutely aren't afraid to completely tear down a good thing if it isn't generating satisfactory revenue or player count. If folks walk away from Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls because of the issues it's facing on PC, then what's stopping Sony from doing the same?

I hope I'm just overthinking it. Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is one of the most fun and unique fighting games I've played in some time, and I hope its candle won't be snuffed out before it truly gets the chance to shine its brightest.

Should I play Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls?Play it if...

You love the Marvel tag fighters of old
Living up to Marvel vs. Capcom's legacy is no easy task. And while Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is doing its own thing with its own roster, it's nonetheless continued proof that Marvel and tag fighters are a winning combination.

You're completely new to fighting games
Learning fighting games can be daunting, and Tokon certainly has a high skill ceiling with its tagging and various system mechanics. But elements like auto combos, easy special move inputs, and a recognizable roster of Marvel icons make this game incredibly newcomer-friendly.

Don't play it if...

You want the PC version
This hopefully won't be a dealbreaker for long especially with the impressive pace Arc System Works is deploying fixes. But PC performance and matchmaking issues are still ongoing, and it may be worth waiting a few months for the Steam version to catch up with its PS5 counterpart in overall quality.

Accessibility features

At launch, Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls has a small handful of accessibility features, largely utilizing text-to-speech options.

You can enable text-to-speech and adjust its volume and speed. You can also choose to enable or disable subtitles that display during battle entrances and conclusions.

How I reviewed Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls

I played Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls on PC for approximately 15 hours for this review. I completed the episodic story mode in its entirety, cleared most Arcade mode routes, and put a good chunk of hours into training mode, character lesson guides, and casual online play.

I tested the game with the GameSir G7 Pro controller, as well as the leverless Razer Kitsune. I also hooked up my RIG 900 Max HS gaming headset to experience the game's excellent audio and wonderfully upbeat soundtrack.

First reviewed August 2026

Oppo Reno 16 5G: two-minute review

The Oppo Reno 16 5G is a stunning mid-range phone with a lush display, fantastic camera and strong performance. If you’re looking for a phone with “summer looks” and “star vibes,” that’s exactly how Oppo is describing its new mid-range handset, which is aiming to be among the most trendy, flashy looking models on the market.

But it’s not all marketing hype — I really do think that the Oppo Reno 16 5G is a gorgeous phone. It's slim, comes in some beautiful color options, and has a striking 3D holographic design on the reverse side, making it the ideal option for those seeking an aesthetically pleasing and stylish digital companion. It's also lightweight and compact for those who prefer a smaller device.

Don’t be fooled, though, this thing isn’t just a pretty face. Like all of the best phones, the Oppo Reno 16 5G offers solid performance (thanks to its Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 processor), a clean and easy-to-use UI, and a 6,000mAh battery for seamless everyday use.

Another highlight for me, though, was the camera quality on the Reno 16 5G. It has a highly capable system of cameras, featuring a 50MP wide, ultra-wide, and selfie camera, as well as a 50MP telephoto lens. And for a mid-range phone, this thing produces really impressive results. The telephoto lens — which in itself isn’t always a guarantee to get at this price-point — can capture detailed, rich photos with surprisingly little compromise, and the phone is also able to capture 4K 60fps footage with its main or front camera — not bad, eh?

The display, though small, is also vibrant and punchy, and finer intricacies come through nicely when watching movies or YouTube videos in full HD. You won’t get the perfect contrast and detailing that the priciest flagships plate up, sure, but compared to rivals, the Reno 16 5G’s display is very decent indeed.

On the software side, things are pretty good — albeit slightly flawed. ColorOS, which runs on Android 16, runs like a dream the vast majority of the time, and is both well-laid out and easy to customize. Bloatware is relatively limited too, which was a relief for me, even if a handful of the usual offenders (like Temu and AliExpress) are pre-installed.

There are some small oddities, and the default AI-generated background carousel is truly awful, though it can be deactivated if you prefer (and yes, I do indeed prefer). Other AI features are more palatable, and all centralized in the Mind Pilot app, which is fine enough.

In fact, most of my gripes with the Oppo Reno 16 5G are relatively minor. I would’ve liked to have seen wireless charging onboard, and the device can get a little toasty when the processor is hard at work. But overall, this is an excellent phone.

The one thing that I consider a sticking point is the device’s price. At £649 (about $880), it’s more expensive than its recently released predecessor, and is certainly towards the top-end of that mid-range bracket. When rivals like the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro offer similar performance across the board (as well as a stunning design), the high cost could prove to be a turn off for a lot of consumers. Still, the Oppo Reno 16 5G is certainly a highly capable mid-range phone with the substance to back up its style, and I’d recommend it — especially if you spot it on sale!

(Image credit: Future)Oppo Reno 16 5G review: price and availability

• Priced at £649 (about $880)
• Released in July 2026
• Not sold directly in the US, but could conceivably be imported

The Oppo Reno 16 5G was released in July 2026, just half a year after its predecessor. In the UK, the Oppo Reno 16 5G is priced at £649 (about $880), and comes with 512GB of storage and 8GB of RAM. However, some different storage options are available in other markets, such as India. The Reno 16 5G is quite expensive for a mid-range phone, and costs about £50 more than its predecessor did at launch.

The standard Reno 16 5G is not sold in Australia, but a similar model is available called the Oppo Reno 16F 5G. Although Oppo’s phones aren’t directly sold in the US, you could potentially import it. The Reno 16 5G is available in a range of colors across different markets, but in the UK there are two options: Pop White and Purple Black.

Oppo Reno 16 5G review: specs

Dimensions

6 x 2.9 x 0.3 inches / 151.2 x 72.4 x 8.4mm

Weight

6.6oz / 188g

Screen

6.32-inch AMOLED

Resolution

2640 x 1216

Refresh rate

120Hz

Chipset

Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 4

RAM

8GB

Storage

512GB

OS

ColorOS 16.0 (based on Android 16)

Rear cameras

50MP f/1.8 wide; 50MP f/2.0 ultra-wide; 50MP f/2.8 telephoto

Front camera

50MP f/2.0

Battery

6,000mAh

Charging

80W wired, no wireless charging

(Image credit: Future)Oppo Reno 16 5G review: design

• Impressive build quality
• Attractive look with 3D pattern
• Ultimate IP69K dust and waterproof rating

It really feels like a lot of the Oppo Reno 16 5G’s appeal is in its design. Even on Oppo’s website, a substantial amount of attention is placed on its aesthetic, which is meant to radiate “summer looks” and “star vibes”. And I have to say, this is a really great-looking phone.

The Pop White variant I tested is slim, lightweight, and has an excellent standard of build — it's constructed from aerospace-grade aluminum, according to Oppo. The Reno 16 5G is a fairly compact device, with a 6.32-inch display, and it feels incredibly comfortable in-hand. It's worth noting that it's very similar form-wise to my Xiaomi 17, so moving across to the Reno 16 5G felt natural for me, but if you’re accustomed to a larger phone, like the iPhone 17 Pro Max, say, then it may feel a little undersized to you.

Something that’s unique about this device is its use of ‘Holoverse 3D technology’. On the glass back cover of the phone, you’ll see a visual of a floating planet that actually pops out at you, much like graphics on a 3D display but without having to wear the glasses. It looks fantastic, I’ve never seen this on a phone before, and it adds some nice flair to the Reno 16 5G’s aesthetic.

Right, we’ve ascertained that this is an excellent-looking phone, but does the Oppo Reno 16 5G have the practical elements to make it a true design marvel? Well, yes.

It has well-sized buttons, the camera module is pretty low-profile, and perhaps best of all, the device has an IP69K rating. IP69K is the pinnacle of the dust and waterproof rating tree, and means that the phone is fully protected against dust ingress and can survive high-pressure, high-temperature water jets from close range. It will even survive being submerged underwater, meaning it's pretty accident-proof — though I still wouldn’t recommend scrolling in the shower or anything.

• Design score: 5/5

(Image credit: Future)Oppo Reno 16 5G review: display

• 6.32-inch AMOLED display
• 120Hz refresh rate
• Solid peak brightness of 3,600 nits

The Oppo Reno 16 5G has the sort of screen you’d expect from a mid-range device. It has a 6.32-inch AMOLED display, with a 2640 x 1216 — sometimes known as Full HD+ — resolution.

But what does this mean in-use? Well, I found that the Reno 16 5G produced vibrant, punchy colors, solid contrast, and decent detailing. When watching a wildlife video on YouTube in 1080p HDR, I was struck by rich green tones, intense reds, and azure blues that helped every part of the environment pop. When tuning into The Dark Knight Rises on Netflix, black levels weren’t the best I’ve seen, but the picture was still relatively detailed, and finer elements, like lines on faces were still perfectly visible.

As you’d expect from a mid-range model, the Reno 16 5G’s display has a 120Hz refresh rate. That means that keen mobile gamers can enjoy 120fps gameplay, if software supports it that is. More generally, this meant that scrolling and typical use was incredibly smooth and fluid.

In addition, the Reno 16 5G has a commendable peak brightness of 3,600 nits. This meant that I had no issues using the phone outdoors during an incredibly bright (and sweltering) summer in the UK.

All in all, you’re getting good performance for a phone in the mid-range category. Don’t expect flagship quality in terms of detailing and resolution, but when comparing it against rivals, you’ll likely be satisfied with the Reno 16 5G’s display.

• Display score: 4/5

(Image credit: Future)Oppo Reno 16 5G review: software

• Runs ColorOS 16.0, with five years of OS and six years of security updates
• Lots of AI functionality — but some parts are more welcome than others
• Relatively light on bloatware

The software experience on the Oppo Reno 16 5G is pretty good overall, but it isn’t without its flaws.

This phone runs ColorOS 16.0 out of the box, which is running on Android 16. You’ll get five years of OS updates, and six years worth of security updates. This is pretty good for a phone in this price-range, and will likely serve most users across their time with the device.

ColorOS 16.0 provides the kind of user experience that those familiar with Android would expect. The UI is clear and looks pretty stylish, accessing apps and settings is quick and easy, and you can customize the home screen swiftly.

But let’s take a deeper look at what the Reno 16 5G has to offer. Like a lot of rivals, Oppo is going pretty hard on AI functionality. To be honest, I don’t ever use AI functions on my usual phone, but there are a few options worth highlighting.

Most functions sit in the Mind Pilot app, which lets you make use of Gemini, Perplexity, or ChatGPT, or as I like to call them, the three horsemen of the apocalypse. You can insert basic prompts, ask it to remember vocal prompts and store them as memories, or manage your transactions. Essentially, it’s able to record and collect content on-screen, and help you organize it all in one central hub. Does it work? Sure. But I’d rather handle these sorts of tasks manually

The Reno 16 5G also uses AI to generate some wallpaper options for you — at least that’s what it did for me by default. The results are often ugly and unlikable. The prompts are also left on the wallpaper, a decision I find baffling decision. A lowlight was ‘Farmer saves kittens using a broom handle’, which literally just displayed a ginger cat swimming underwater. This is the sort of AI use that leaves a sour taste, and almost no one actually wants it. Thankfully, you can disable this, but Oppo, please just get rid of this feature.

Something that I did appreciate, however, was that the Reno 16 5G was pretty light on bloatware. You’ll see a few unwanted apps — AliExpress, Temu, and Block Blast to name a few. But I wasn’t subjected to a swathe of shoddy mobile games or unwanted AI chatbots — something I got on the Xiaomi Redmi Note 15 Pro 5G — and most of the pre-installed stuff was things you’d expect, like Google and Meta apps, for instance.

And to finish on a high, I want to shout-out the Snap Key. This is a button on the left side of the phone that enables you to instantly trigger one of many functions. Options include: taking a screenshot, turning on the torch, opening the camera, and more. It's fully customizable and works like a dream, and I wish my flagship Xiaomi phone had this.

• Software score: 3.5/5

(Image credit: Future)Oppo Reno 16 5G review: cameras

• Very solid 50MP main camera
• But the telephoto lens is a real highlight
• Solid selfie camera and video performance

I used the Oppo Reno 16 5G to take photos in a wide variety of lighting conditions, both inside and outside — testing all of its cameras and video performance in the process. And after checking the final results, I have to say that the Reno 16 5G is a pretty nifty phone for photography.

The main 50MP camera is really solid, delivering the exact kind of quality I’d expect from a mid-range device. In bright outdoor conditions, the camera is at its best, producing vibrant colors and plenty of detail. I snapped some trees by my office, and the richness of the greens and gorgeous blue sky were captured fantastically well. Taking photos also feels incredibly easy, with image stabilization on board.

On a more overcast day, the main camera maintained impressive color accuracy and delivered great contrast. Some finer details could’ve looked clearer, but the final results were strong overall. The main camera also did great indoors with, or without, artificial lighting. It replicated the striking emerald green color of my strange yet beloved frog ornament, for instance.

Something that truly exceeded my expectations, though, was the Reno 16 5G’s telephoto lens. Usually, budget or mid-range phones struggle to provide clear and detailed images when zooming in too far, but the Reno 16 5G is an exception. Even when taking a photo at 7x zoom, the intricacies of a building in the distance were surprisingly clear, and details of surrounding foliage were captured with relative ease.

You also get a good quality, 50MP selfie camera, which can zoom out to easily fit you and all of your friends in frame. No more weird arm craning needed.

Video is also great on the Reno 16 5G. You can capture footage in 4K at 60fps — either with the main or selfie camera. Advanced stabilization tech and tilt correction help you to get smooth, fluid, and quality footage at all times.

There are a number of editing and processing tools that also help you get impressive results on the Reno 16 5G. These include ProXDR, which shows your photos with enhanced dynamic range, and AI Remix Collage, which includes options like an AI eraser, and Perfect Shot (which detects stuff like closed eyes).

• Camera score: 4.5/5

A church hidden among trees, taken in natural light outdoorsFutureThe same photo, but using 7x zoomFuturePhoto of trees by my officeFutureFrog ornament, taken in low-light indoorsFutureA photo of buildings taken in the eveningFutureA street in Bath, England, taken in the morningFutureOppo Reno 16 5G review: performance

• Smooth everyday performance with Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 processor
• Really good built-in speakers, good codec support
• 8GB of RAM enough for multi-tasking, but gets a little hot with higher-demand stuff

Like a lot of its recently released fellow mid-rangers, the Oppo Reno 16 5G makes use of the Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 chipset. This is a pretty solid option shared by other models we’ve rated highly, like the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro. But how does it perform in practice?

Well, I found the Reno 16 5G to run nicely, and experienced very few performance blips during my intensive testing. Of course, it handles the standard stuff like social media scrolling, menu navigation, and surfing the web with ease. But I also found it up-to-the-task for gaming. I hopped onto Genshin Impact — a relatively demanding, 3D game — and the Reno 16 5G handled it without a hitch. Whether I was dashing around sprawling areas, doing battle with mysterious creatures, or watching cinematics, the phone held its own with frame drops kept pretty minimal.

Even when multi-tasking between a lot of apps at once, then Reno 16 5G seemed to keep things under control. I had one occasion where there was a bit of slow-down on the home screen, but this only lasted for a very brief moment. The model I used has 8GB of RAM, which is the standard for a mid-range handset.

One thing I will say is that when the processor is put to work, the device can get pretty hot to the touch. It’s something I’ve also experienced with my Xiaomi 17, and after I left the phone to cool off for a few minutes, it was fine to use again, but this is an issue that some more powerful phones may not pose.

An area of the phone’s performance that impressed me was its audio capabilities. I review a lot of audio gear here at TechRadar, so it's fair to say that I have high standards. But I found this to be a great lil’ device sound-wise, right across the board. The built-in speakers provide surprisingly clean, articulate sound, and although there’s little in the way of bass, I’d never expect impactful low-end from phone speakers.

There’s also excellent Bluetooth codec support, with both LDAC and aptx (thanks to the Snapdragon chip). That means you can enjoy higher-res wireless streaming on the go, if you have compatible headphones or speakers, like the Sony WH-1000XM6 or Bose SoundLink Max.

• Performance score: 4/5

(Image credit: Future)Oppo Reno 16 5G review: battery life

• 6,000mAh battery is good for a day’s use
• Supports 80W wired charging
• No wireless charging

The Oppo Reno 16 5G has a 6,000mAh battery, and while I’ve tested phones with more than this, that’s still quite large. I found it to be good for a day’s worth of mixed usage — gaming, watching videos, scrolling the web, and general use. Your mileage will vary depending on the applications you use and how intensive they are, but Oppo says you get over 60 hours worth of calling time with the Reno 16 5G. Not bad, is it?

When your phone does run dry, it doesn’t take all too long to bring it back to life, either. It supports very fast 80W wired charging, and I found it could charge to full in around an hour.

Something that I found slightly disappointing, though, is that the Reno 16 5G does not support wireless charging. At this price, it would’ve been a nice feature to have, especially as my wireless charger stand is a staple of my office desk setup.

It’s also worth noting you get the standard battery preservation options, battery saving settings, and a hub where you can view battery use by app.

• Battery life score: 4/5

(Image credit: Future)Should I buy the Oppo Reno 16 5G?

Attribute

Notes

Score

Design

Gorgeous looks, great standard of build, top-tier IP69K dust and waterproofing.

5/5

Display

Solid display at this price-point with 120Hz refresh rate.

4/5

Software

Neat OS with easy-to-use UI, relatively light on bloat, but some small quirks and odd AI functionality.

3.5/5

Cameras

Great quality for a mid-range phone with an especially admirable telephoto lens.

4.5/5

Performance

Steady performance across the board with impressive audio.

4/5

Battery life

Large battery for all-day use, speedy charging, but wired only.

4/5

Buy it if…

You want a super-stylish handset
If there’s one thing Oppo wants you to know about the Reno 16 5G, it's how stylish and trendy it looks. And I’d have to agree, whether it’s the pretty color options, slim build, or 3D holographic design, this phone is very easy on the eye.

You want great camera quality
I was really impressed by the Oppo Reno 16 5G’s camera quality. Its telephoto lens is the real highlight, and even at 7x zoom, my photos had great levels of detail and color accuracy.

Don’t buy it if…

You need wireless charging
Given that the Reno 16 5G is on the pricer side for a mid-ranger, I was hoping that it would have wireless charging. If this is a deal-breaker for you, then I’d recommend the Google Pixel 10, which is often on sale now that its successor has arrived.

You’re on a budget
The Reno 16 5G is pretty pricey, and it faces some red-hot competition from more affordable mid-rangers like the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro, for instance, which you can read about down below. If you’re on a budget, then that might be the better pick.

Oppo Reno 16 5G review: also consider

Oppo Reno 16 5G

Nothing Phone (4a) Pro

iPhone 17

Price

£649 (about $880)

$499 / £499

$799 / £799

Dimensions

6 x 2.9 x 0.3 inches / 151.2 x 72.4 x 8.4mm

6.4 x 3 x 0.3 inches / 163.7 x 76.6 x 8mm

5.9 x 2.8 x 0.3 inches / 149.6 × 71.5 × 8mm

Weight

6.6oz / 188g

7.41oz / 210g

6.2oz / 177g

Cameras

50MP wide, 50MP ultra-wide, 50MP telephoto

50MP wide, 8MP ultra-wide, 50MP periscope

48MP wide, 48MP ultra-wide

Battery

6,000mAh

5,080mAh

3,692mAh

Nothing Phone (4a) Pro
The Nothing Phone (4a) Pro is easily one of our favorite mid-rangers on the market. It’s oozing in style, has a gorgeous 6.8-inch display, offers solid performance, and has a clean software experience too. It's a bit cheaper than the Reno 16 5G, although Oppo’s phone arguably boasts better cameras. Read our full Nothing Phone (4a) Pro review.

iPhone 17
It’s a slight step-up in price from the Oppo Reno 16 5G, but the iPhone 17 is a great phone worth considering if you want a mixture of great design, performance, and a seamless user experience. Though its battery life is nothing special, and it lacks a telephoto lens, it still offers a stylish and simple user experience backed up by the powerful A19 chip. Read our full iPhone 17 review.

How I tested the Oppo Reno 16 5G

• Tested over the course of a week
• Used for gaming, photography, and general productivity
• Made full use of various features and camera settings

I spent a week testing the Oppo Reno 16 5G, during which time I tested out its various features, put it through its paces with mobile games, and snapped a whole lot of photos.

When taking photos, I stuck mainly to the 16:9 aspect ratio, and tried snapping buildings, foliage, household objects and more in a range of lighting conditions. These included: artificial light, low-light indoors, natural light outdoors and indoors, and nighttime outdoors. I also made sure to assess the phone’s battery life across a full day of mixed usage, compare its software to that of my Xiaomi and Nothing phones, and test its display side by side with some rivals.

More generally, I’ve spent years testing gadgets here at TechRadar, where I serve as a Senior Reviews Writer. I’ve reviewed a number of phones including the budget-friendly Xiaomi Redmi Note 15 Pro 5G and the flashy Nothing Phone (4a).

• Read more about how we test
• First reviewed: August 2026

Razer Soma Chroma: One-minute review

I've reviewed a lot of gaming chairs, sat my butt on plenty of seats promising the best of the best comfort, or ergonomic longevity (I'm convinced noblechairs wants my posture to last me until I'm 126 years old), and I've got to say, aside from possibly the AndaSeat Novis, this might be the most comfortable chair I've ever sat in.

At least, part of it is. The seat base. The fabric, the material, lovely; the base width, great. The backrest? Right up my street. But the Soma is a bit of an odd one when it comes to everything else it's trying to do. And an even bigger issue is its launch day price tag.

It's $500/£500 (about $954 AUD), which is a lot, and yes, there's RGB lighting in this, but Razer doesn't include an integrated battery (or even an optional one at checkout), doesn't pack a long enough cable, and doesn't include an adapter. The brand doesn't even include a cushioned headrest (you have to buy that separately). For 500 bones, frankly, that's utter madness.

The RGB itself (two diffused strips that run alongside the upper part of the backrest) is forward-facing only, and you can't really see it when you're sat down. It's not like a keyboard or a mouse, which is at least in your periphery, and needing your machine on with the cable hooked up separately if you opt to go without a battery bank means you'll probably spend about 5-10 seconds every session watching it just light up.

It's great for a streamer, sure, but even then it does feel more like an advert rather than something classy.

I had the lighting on for a day when I first got it for testing, then promptly unhooked the USB cable Razer graciously provided me with and never touched it again. Best gaming chair? Well, it won't be because of its RGB; that's for sure.

(Image credit: Future)Razer Soma Chroma: Price and Availability

• Costs $500/£500 (about $954 AUD)
• Remarkably expensive given what it lacks
• Single colorway and fabric option

Right, now you can grab the Razer Soma Chroma for $500 USD and £500 GBP (about $954 AUD). It sits roughly between the Razer Iskur V2 X (at about $350) and the standard V2 (that's $600 or so).

You can pick one of these up today, although there's little in the way of choice. No different color options, no different materials, you get what you get.

Sold separately, of course, you can also get a male-to-female USB-C extension cable, headrest, and power source (you'll have to source your own on the latter).

On the warranty front, Razer's got you somewhat covered with a 14-day returns policy via the RazerStore, and as standard it comes with a 3-year warranty, which upgrades to 5 if purchased direct and registered.

Razer Soma Chroma: Specs

Price

$500/£500 (about AU$954)

Dimensions

53.1 x 26.4 x 28.1in / 135 x 67 x 71.5cm

Max user weight

331lbs / 150kg

Max seat height

20.1in / 51cm

Seat depth

18.5in / 47cm

Recline angle

Up to 155°

Warranty

3 years (free 5-year upgrade via Razer.com)

Material

Knit fabric, cold-cured foam

AndaSeat Phantom 4 Pro: Design and Aesthetics

• Bold gamer style
• Perforated channels for air (read: debris)
• Green logo on an RGB product

The Soma Chroma is unabashedly gamer. There's just no two ways about it: the sharp lines, jagged polygonal design, the channelling, the RGB, the stitching — it doesn't exactly give off this allure of premium professionalism. That's to say I'm sure 16-year-old Zak would've loved it, but me, sat here in my ‘rustic’ office, dealing with media, clients, and more on the daily, yeah it kinda sticks out like a sore thumb.

Particularly with the striking green Razer logo etched in the backrest right behind my head, in a not-so-obscure glossy green plastic. Which again I have to question. This is an RGB product, right? That means you can set that lighting (hypothetically, if you use it) to any color you like.

That's great, but certain colors clash with green quite aggressively. Bright reds, neon blue, pinks, high-saturation yellows. Basically all off limits, all because the logo's bright neon green. It's 2026, guys; we've had RGB products for a seriously long time now. I thought it was common knowledge that you don't stick colored accents on them.

The lighting is also awkwardly placed. You can't actually see it from the back of the chair, and it's solely positioned behind your head, facing forward, so you literally never see it, outside of the five to ten seconds you go to the toilet and sit back down again. It's diffused, it looks good when you do manage to catch a glimpse of the stuff, and you can easily configure it in Synapse, but honestly it just feels like a bit of a swing and a miss.

(Image credit: Future)

How'd you connect all that? Well, there's a short USB-C cable located in the back of the chair that hooks up to your battery bank, which you can then stow away in a small zip pocket in the seat base. But it's really short; that cable. If you're imagining some retractable 6-foot thing you can pull out when you need it, no, it's not that.

You're not connecting this thing to a wall plug, or anything of the sort. Razer provided me with a seriously long extension cable (two in fact) for it, but that doesn't come by default, annoyingly. And of course, there's no built-in battery, or included power bank, or the option to add one to your order. I used the extension cable to effectively run the entire chair to the back of my PC, and it does run off USB power. That said, you don't have to go that route; you can just use a USB plug, and then let the included wireless dongle handle the RGB side of things.

Now I'm done wailing on the lighting; the good news is the finish is genuinely lush, it's like a neoprene-feel soft-touch fabric, and it's a delight to sit on. I'm writing this review in the midst of yet another heat wave in the UK, and skin-on-chair contact has been genuinely lovely. Compare that to the number of AndaSeat's chairs I've reviewed recently that leave me begging for AC, and well, it's a nice change that's for sure.

Ok, we've had bad, we've had good, now it's back to bad. There are channels in the chair base, and I get the concept. The idea is that it helps air circulate your, well, back passage, to stop you heating up so quickly, and it kind of works. But it comes with a major caveat, and that's that it also holds onto all manner of dust and debris.

If you own a dog, or cat, or have a habit of sitting at your desk eating from time to time, you're cooked. You'll be getting the blow duster out you use for your PC on the chair base at least once a week.

(Image credit: Future)Razer Soma Chroma: Comfort and adjustability

• Super comfortable, wide seat base
• Generous lumbar support
• Armrests and the castors are letdowns

Fortunately for the Soma, sitting on it is a treat. The cold-foam base is comfortable as all hell, and the seat base is wide enough for the weirdos like me who sit cross-legged to do so in absolute bliss.

The armrests, however, are more basic, two-dimensional affairs. There's no four- or even three-directional setup here like you'd find on almost all of its modern counterparts from competitors at this price.

You can raise them up and down and swivel them, and that's it. They're padded and modestly squishy, but if you'd put them on an Ikea chair, I wouldn't be able to tell that they were Razer-designed and made.

Oh, and it doesn't roll. Well, it does, but it's just so frustratingly stiff it beggars belief. I wrote about this in the AndaSeat Phantom 4 Pro review earlier this year. It's basically, I think, a result of overcompliance with the EU's EN 1335-2 safety measure, which means that in an emergency any unmanned chair shouldn't move easily. I don't quite understand the logic behind that, but here we are.

(Image credit: Future)

And it frustrates me because I can't roll up and down my desk, or if I need to lightly move it to put my shoes on, or I just want to get more comfortable at my setup, it's a minor struggle. And yes, I know that's a first-world problem, but it's $500/£500 for this thing, from a seriously reputable brand.

One final flag from me before I move on. There's no headrest cushion included either. Razer will sell you a headrest, but it's at additional cost. Eugh. No magnetic freebie for you, no sir. Not even a strapped one.

Razer Soma Chroma: Assembly

• Seamless, standard build
• Missing shear bolt on recline
• Massive manual

As far as building the thing goes, the Soma Chroma is genuinely smooth. If you've built one gaming chair before, you'll get along with this one just fine. It's a bit heavy; Razer recommends you'll need two people to build it, but it's more than easy enough to do solo.

Plus the manual is massive, and printed onto a giant sheet of card, which feels a bit overkill (a book would've been fine; I'm not that old, I can read).

The only cause for concern is that you do need to be a touch careful installing the backrest, as there's no safety bolt sitting between you and the tilt angle arm. So if you do hit that lever too aggressively, there's a chance the bracket can snap forward. So do bear that in mind.

(Image credit: Future)Should You Buy The Razer Soma Chroma?Buy it if...

You want a genuinely comfortable chair
Soft-touch upholstery, impressively wide base, generous lumbar support, and that cold-density foam do the bulk of the work here. It's best at the boring bits.

You're a streamer
The one audience that actually sees the Chroma, you know, work, is yours. The RGB syncs with a good 300 games or so, and you can build out to your color scheme if you'd prefer

Don't buy it if...

You expect 500 bucks to cover everything
No head pillow, no cables, no power adapters, no battery. The things that make the Soma Chroma don't light up without an additional investment.

You actually move at your desk
Braked castors and static armrests make this a chair for sitting perfectly still rather than shifting around.

Also consider...

Make sure to consider these alternatives as well.

Razer Soma Chroma

Secretlab Titan Evo 2022

Razer Iskur V2

Price

$500 / £500 (about AU$954)

$519 / £414 / AU$724

$650 / £600 (or around AU$1,128)

Dimensions

53.1 x 26.4 x 28.1in / 135 x 67 x 71.5cm

54.3–58.3 x 27.6 x 27.6in / 138–148 x 70 x 70 cm

51.0–54.7 x 27.2 x 27.2in / 129.5–139 x 69 x 69cm

Max user weight

331lbs / 150kg

285lbs / 130kg

300lbs / 136kg

Max seat height

20.1in / 51cm

21.9in / 55.5cm

21.1in / 53.5cm

Seat depth

18.5in / 47cm

20.9in / 53cm

17.7in / 45cm

Recline angle

Up to 155°

85–165°

85–153.5°

Warranty

3 years (5 direct)

5-Years (extended warranty)

3-Years

Material

Knit fabric, cold-cured foam

NEO Hybrid Leatherette, SoftWeave Plus Fabric, Napa Leather

EPU Leatherette, Fabric

Secretlab Titan Evo 2022
The legendary Titan Evo is a TechRadar Gaming favorite for good reason. With exceptional comfort, removable magnetic lumbar support, and a size range that covers every-shaped human under the sun, it's well worth considering if the Soma just doesn't feel like the right home for your butt.

For more information, check out our full Secretlab Titan Evo 2022 review

Razer Iskur V2
Like the Soma Chroma but better. With dedicated built-in lumbar support, it's a solid trooper in the world of gaming chairs. It's even got the build quality and aesthetic chops to match albeit at a slightly inflated price.

For more information, check out our full Razer Iskur V2 review

How I tested the Razer Soma Chroma

• Used for over a month
• Fully built by hand solo
• Set up in all manner of configurations

I spent well over a month with the Razer Soma Chroma, testing the ins and outs of how it held up under serious usage. Working from home, it endured the hardships of a constant 9-5 "office" job, along with late evening gaming sessions, through normal operating conditions and heatwaves abound.

I've spent years testing gaming chairs from all manner of manufacturers, and I compared this one directly to a slew of products from AndaSeat, Noblechairs, and Secretlab as well. I also fully tested the Synapse and WiFi dongle, and tracked the real-world usage and feel of it throughout the month, documenting any moment where I thought "ahh this is good" or "ahh not so good".

I also got my five-foot-five partner to sit in and provide me with her direct feedback as well, along with a few close friends to get their thoughts and feelings on it, which directly feeds the opinions you see here as well. I questioned them intensely on the comfort, the feel, and the build quality of the Soma Chroma to get a broad picture of opinions on it.

Read more about how we test.

First reviewed August 2026

Poco F8 Pro review: Two-minute review

(Image credit: Nirave Gondhia)

Over the past two decades, I’ve been lucky enough to test hundreds of smartphones from a range of brands around the world. Some of these brands receive the credit they’re due, others are criticized fairly or unfairly, and some fail to get the global recognition they deserve.

Xiaomi's sub-brand, Poco, falls into the latter category, and the Poco F8 Pro is another example of an extraordinary phone that should be talked about more than it is.

While its pricier sibling, the Poco F8 Ultra, packs true flagship specs and a stunning denim material finish, the Poco F8 Pro more closely follows Poco’s model: take the core features that every smartphone user needs, build a great overall experience, and offer it at a truly affordable price.

The Poco F8 Pro marries the first-gen flagship Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset with 12GB of RAM and either 256GB or 512GB of storage. Yes, this is not the second-gen Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 that powers many of the current best Android phones, but you’d be hard-pressed to notice the difference. The Poco F8 Pro flies through day-to-day tasks with flagship-level ease, and its Bose-tuned stereo speakers deliver the same great audio experience as its pricier sibling.

There’s also an excellent 6.59-inch 120Hz OLED display, which is my favorite size for a smartphone screen, and it’s wonderful to use, with a 3,500-nit peak brightness and excellent color reproduction. As is customary with Poco phones, there’s no skimping on battery life, either, with the F8 Pro packing a 6,210mAh battery that can last for multiple days, and 100W charging that’s among the fastest on any phone.

There’s also a 2.5x telephoto camera, a first for Poco’s Pro lineup, although it does lack OIS. That’s indicative of the Poco F8 Pro as a whole; yes, there are compromises — including a lack of wireless charging, occasional slowdowns under heavy gaming loads, sluggish USB speeds, and some bloatware in apps — but if you can live with them, this phone offers the best value-for-money in its price bracket.

Poco F8 Pro review: price and availability

(Image credit: Nirave Gondhia)

• Launched for £549
• The current retail price in the UK is ~£449
• Not available in the US or Australia

In terms of availability, the Poco F8 Pro falls into the "widely available outside the US" category, and if you’re in the UK, you’ll find it’s priced extremely aggressively (the phone can be imported to the US, but its network compatibility will be limited).

At the time of writing in August 2026, the 256GB model is available for just £449. That's £100 cheaper than its already reasonable £599 launch price, and exceptional value for money in 2026 (note that the Poco F9 series is likely to arrive towards the end of the year, though we're expecting to see a sizeable price hike for all models).

This £400-£500 range pits the F8 Pro directly against devices like the Google Pixel 10a, Nothing Phone (4a), and Samsung Galaxy A57. But compared to these phones, it offers the fewest compromises against a £1,000+ flagship. If you want the higher 512GB storage option, that configuration has also been discounted by £100 to £499.

The Poco F8 Pro is available in three colors: Black, Blue, and Titanium Silver. There’s no denim-leather finish, like you'll find on the Poco F8 Ultra, but my Titanium Silver unit did come with a nice silicone case in the box.

• Value score: 5 / 5

Poco F8 Pro review: specsPoco F8 Pro

Dimensions:

163.2 x 78 x 7.5mm

Weight:

194g

Display:

6.83-inch AMOLED (1280 x 2772), 120Hz, 3,200 nits peak brightness

Chipset:

MediaTek Dimensity 8400 Ultra

RAM:

12GB RAM

Storage:

256GB / 512GB

OS:

Android 15, but Android 16 is now available

Primary camera:

50MP, f/1.7
1/1.55-inch sensor
PDAF, OIS

Ultra-wide camera:

12MP, f/2.2, 120°
1/3.06-inch sensor,

Telephoto camera:

50MP, f/1.9, 46mm
1/2.75-inch sensor
2x optical zoom, PDAF

Selfie camera:

32MP, f/2.2
1/3.44-inch sensor

Battery:

5,500mAh

Charging:

67W wired

Colors:

Black, Gray, Rose Gold

Poco F8 Pro review: design

(Image credit: Nirave Gondhia)

• Three colors
• Premium aluminum and glass design
• 6.59-inch display is ergonomically friendly

I mentioned earlier that 6.59 inches is my favorite smartphone screen size, and that’s because it's at the top end of the perfect 6.5-6.6-inch range. With these sizes, I’ve found you get the comfort benefits of a smaller phone like the Pixel 10 Pro while also getting the viewing benefits of larger flagships like the Galaxy 26 Ultra.

The F8 Pro strikes the perfect balance between those two phone sizes, and it pays off: it’s very comfortable to hold. Yes, it lacks the added grip of the denim leather finish on the Poco F8 Ultra, but the F8 Pro's is a more mature approach that appeals to everyone. Instead of a denim back, you get a flat aluminum frame paired with a frosted glass rear panel. It’s adult and functional, but deliberately less interesting than its flashier sibling.

(Image credit: Nirave Gondhia)

What makes this design more comfortable is the overall lack of heft: weighing 199g and measuring 8.1mm thick, this is a phone that’s lighter than most, and that pays dividends in the overall experience. What's more, despite being thinner and lighter than many other phones, the F8 Pro still offers full IP68 dust and water resistance; it's one of only a few devices to do so at this price point.

At the top of the phone, you’ll find the IR blaster, which is a common feature of Chinese-made phones, and it’s brilliant. I think every phone maker should bring back an IR blaster, as it’s a feature you don’t know you need until you lose your TV remote or need to bypass a locked-down hotel TV remote. Yes, the IR blaster has solved both of those problems for me.

• Design score: 4.5 / 5

Poco F8 Pro review: display

(Image credit: Nirave Gondhia)

• 6.59-inch 120Hz OLED display
• Flagship-grade color accuracy

The F8 Pro's 6.59-inch display is not only the perfect size but also an excellent all-around panel. Poco has rightly recognized that the display is arguably the most important part of any phone, and here you get a vibrant, rich, and colorful display that’s a joy to use.

Poco claims the display can reach a peak brightness of 3,500 nits. In day-to-day use, it is apparent that this display isn’t just bright; it’s extremely colorful, with testing showing it covers 99.2% of the sRGB gamut and 96.5% of the DCI-P3 color space. This is flagship-level display performance, and it makes the Poco F8 Pro a champion for consuming content.

(Image credit: Nirave Gondhia)

Beyond that, there’s a 120Hz dynamic refresh rate. While it lacks the expensive LTPO technology found on £1,000+ flagships, the phone's software automatically cycles between 60Hz and 120Hz depending on the content you’re using. The higher refresh rate is perfect for super-smooth scrolling and gaming, but drops to save battery when you’re just reading a book or an article online.

The display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 7i, which offers strong durability against general wear and tear. Across my testing, I have had no concerns about the toughness of the F8 Pro's screen.

• Display score: 4.5 / 5

Poco F8 Pro review: cameras

(Image credit: Nirave Gondhia)

• 50MP main sensor
• First Poco Pro with 2.5x optical telephoto
• 8MP ultra-wide camera

Poco’s rivals should take note of the Poco F8 Pro for several reasons — most of which are positive. Poco has traditionally ignored telephotos on its more affordable devices, but the Poco F8 Pro marks a shift in this area, likely driven by increased competition from triple-camera-toting rivals.

Although Poco has added a 50MP telephoto lens with 2.5x optical zoom, it lacks OIS, and the ultra-wide camera is an 8MP snapper that just about scrapes by. The 50MP Light Fusion 800 main camera sensor, meanwhile, takes excellent daylight photos with dynamic range and natural colors that look fantastic on the Poco F8 Pro screen.

The new telephoto lens does a decent job overall, but it’s nothing to write home about, and somewhat ironically, the 50MP main sensor enables a 2x in-sensor crop that can take better photos than the telephoto lens. The lack of OIS means you’ll get some blurry photos unless your hands are perfectly stable, so while it’s great that a telephoto lens exists, it won’t be as capable as those you'll find on a true flagship smartphone camera.

While the main rear camera can handle up to 4K video at 60 fps (and even 8K at 30 fps), the 20MP selfie camera is noticeably compromised, with Poco limiting selfie video capture to 1080p. These aren’t necessarily dealbreakers, but they are compromises you need to be conscious of.

Poco F8 Pro review: camera samplesNirave GondhioaNirave GondhioaNirave GondhioaNirave GondhioaNirave GondhioaNirave GondhioaNirave GondhioaNirave GondhioaNirave GondhioaNirave GondhioaNirave GondhioaNirave GondhioaNirave GondhioaNirave GondhioaNirave GondhioaNirave Gondhioa

• Camera score: 3.5 / 5

Poco F8 Pro review: performance

(Image credit: Nirave Gondhia)

• Flagship Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset
• 12GB RAM + 256GB/512GB storage
• Excellent in-display fingerprint sensor

If speedy performance is your jam, look no further: the Poco F8 Pro has the best processor you’ll find in a smartphone at this price.

The Poco F8 Pro uses the first-generation Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, which is paired with 12GB of RAM and either 256GB or 512GB of storage. This processor powered many of the best Android phones last year (including the Galaxy S25 Ultra), making it extremely powerful and far superior to the mid-range chipsets used by other phones at this price point.

During day-to-day use, the chipset absolutely shines. It’s fast to respond, shows no signs of slowing down, and often reminds me of the Duracell bunny in that it just keeps on going. If you want a phone that can handle most things you throw at it, this is the best package at this price point. It’s great for everything from everyday multitasking and social media to emulating Nintendo Switch games, though it struggles under the heaviest gaming loads.

(Image credit: Nirave Gondhia)

Many phones aren’t limited by their internals as much as by how effectively phone makers manage thermals, and Poco firmly took the approach of raw power over cool operation in the F8 Pro. This means the aluminum frame and camera island can get a tad warm to the touch, but not to the point where it’s dangerous.

Where Poco does deserve credit is for the excellent in-display fingerprint sensor, which is fantastic even with wet or sweaty fingers. This is among the best in-display fingerprint sensors on any phone, and it’s wonderful that Poco chose not to skimp on this feature like many rivals in this category.

However, the F8 Pro is an exercise in acceptable compromise, so you do have to live with sluggish USB 2.0 wired speeds. Mind you, this is a trade-off I find acceptable, especially since you can use wireless transfer apps like LocalSend to easily send files to other devices or to your Mac or PC.

• Performance score: 4.5 / 5

Poco F8 Pro review: software

(Image credit: Nirave Gondhia)

• HyperOS 3.0 with Android 16
• 4 Android updates and 5 years of security updates
• Bogged down by bloatware and ads

Like all current Xiaomi phones, the Poco F8 Pro runs HyperOS 3.0 on top of Android 16. Depending on what you are used to, HyperOS 3.0 will either be comfortable or polarizing.

All phone makers are now forced to focus on longevity as well as features, especially as phones cost more and customers upgrade less frequently. For Poco, this presents an interesting challenge: it offers a respectable four years of Android version updates and five years of security updates, which provides some longevity, but it is known to be slow in pushing these updates out to users.

Look beyond this (and the final point below), and you’ll find that Xiaomi actually has some neat software features. Take Hyper Island, which looks and feels exactly like Apple’s Dynamic Island. It was inevitable that Xiaomi would be among the first to adopt (read: copy) this feature, and while the UX is unabashedly inspired by Apple, Xiaomi has executed it extremely well. Timers, voice recordings, and music playback all minimize into a dynamic bubble centered around the selfie camera.

Then there’s Hyper Connect, which makes even more sense in light of the above. Like many Android phone makers, Xiaomi is targeting Apple users, and Hyper Connect enables file sharing, clipboard syncing, and interoperability with Apple devices, as well as other Android phones and PCs.

(Image credit: Nirave Gondhia)

Throughout this review, I’ve talked about compromises, and the biggest one comes in the software department. But first, some context: simply put, there isn’t much margin in making affordable smartphones, especially given the current AI-fueled RAM and storage shortage, which has increased the cost of these components by up to 10x.

What this actually means for you is that Poco had to either raise prices or offset higher costs with higher income from alternative revenue sources, such as ads. In native apps like Themes, Files, and Security, you’ll find annoying system-level ads that slow down the experience. There are also many preloaded apps, although you can at least remove these.

All of this serves as a reminder that this phone has compromises, which detract from the overall experience. However, the pragmatist in me also recognizes that companies like Poco already had tight margins before the current RAM crisis, which will have been eroded further, and if ads like these mean it’s possible to keep making phones like these, then this is a trade-off that becomes slightly more acceptable. I’d rather they didn’t exist, but I also recognize that the raw cost of tech has exploded in a very short amount of time.

• Software score: 3.5 / 5

Poco F8 Pro review: battery life

(Image credit: Nirave Gondhia)

• Huge 6,210mAh battery
• 100W charging gets you to full in 42 minutes
• No wireless charging

What happens when you put a humongous battery in a phone with a power-efficient display and flagship performance? You get phenomenal battery life, and when you need to top it up, one of the fastest charging speeds of any smartphone.

The 6,210mAh battery in the Poco F8 Pro is massive, and far larger than batteries offered by the mid-range competition. It features Poco’s latest silicon-carbon technology, which offers much higher energy density, allowing Poco to pack a larger battery into the same size or a smaller phone.

In practical use, it offers around 7 to 9 hours of screen time over up to two days, depending on your settings. This puts the F8 Pro on par with most flagship phones and makes it superior to others in this category.

Then there’s 100W charging, and it’s ridiculously fast, charging your phone to full in around 42 minutes. This gives it a charging rate of around 148mAh per minute (mAh/min), which is considerably faster than its rivals, and almost three times the speed of the 30W charging on the Google Pixel 10a (57 mAh/min).

Again, like any phone at this price, there are compromises, but in this case, it’s the lack of wireless charging or an included charger. The former is a dealbreaker for some, while the latter is common practice among flagship smartphone makers but a shift for Poco, which traditionally included a charger in the box. Regardless, for most people, this is the best battery life you can get at this price.

• Battery score: 4 / 5

Should you buy the Poco F8 Pro?

(Image credit: Nirave Gondhia)Poco F8 Pro scorecard

Attributes

Notes

Rating

Design

Sleek and durable with a premium aluminum frame, IP68 water resistance, and an excellent ultrasonic fingerprint scanner, let down only by sluggish USB 2.0 speeds.

4.5 / 5

Display

The 6.59-inch 120Hz OLED panel is vibrant, exceptionally bright at up to 3,500 nits, and accurate, making it a total treat for gaming and watching content.

4.5 / 5

Performance

Powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite, daily multitasking is blazingly fast and responsive, though thermals can run warm under sustained, high-intensity 3D gaming loads.

4.5 / 5

Camera

A versatile camera array bolstered by a new 2.5x telephoto lens and solid main sensor, though lack of OIS on zoom and mediocre selfie video and ultra-wide cameras hold it back.

3.5 / 5

Battery

The massive 6,210mAh battery easily delivers multi-day endurance, paired with blistering 100W fast charging that eclipses rivals, though it lacks wireless charging.

5 / 5

Software

HyperOS 3.0 offers slick animations, clever Apple connectivity, and Hyper Island, but is held back by system-level ads, preloaded bloatware, and historically sluggish update rollouts.

3.5 / 5

Value

Unbeatable value for money. It undercuts top-tier flagships by roughly 40% while delivering flagship-level core specs, making it the premier choice in its price bracket.

5 / 5

Buy it if...

You want great bang for your buck
This phone offers an incredible flagship-like experience at a price tag that won’t hit your wallet as hard.

You don’t need the best camera
The camera is fine, but it's an area where Poco had to compromise slightly. It’s worth noting that the F8 Pro takes good enough photos for many people.

You want phenomenal battery life and fast charging
The Poco F8 Pro is the Energizer Bunny of smartphones. If battery life is important to you, look no further: it excels in day-to-day use and offers ridiculously fast charging.

Don't buy it if...

You want the best phone that money can buy
The Poco F8 Pro's specs are definitely impressive, but more expensive phones do offer a more complete experience overall.

You need the best camera
If photography is important to you, this camera, especially the zoom, may be a disappointment. The main camera is usually good enough, but the same can’t be said for the ultra-wide, telephoto, or selfie cameras.

You want software longevity
HyperOS has ads, questionable update timeliness, and an inferior integration of AI services like Gemini. This will be a dealbreaker for some, but not for others, and the Poco F8 Pro is definitely for the latter group.

Poco F8 Pro: also consider

There are three real competitors worth considering, but like the Poco F8 Pro, they all have their compromises.

Google Pixel 10a
The Google Pixel 10a starts at £449 or $499 with 128GB of storage. It offers the best of Google's software, and although it has only one camera, it’s proven extremely capable. The problem? It feels like a considerable compromise in flagship specs for the benefit of AI features and better updates.

Read our full Google Pixel 10a review

Samsung Galaxy A57
Then there’s the Galaxy A57, and this phone brings the best of Samsung’s Galaxy S26 to a more affordable price point. It costs $550 (or £450 in the UK) for 8GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, three cameras, an Exynos processor, and a large 5,000 mAh battery. It’s not quite at the same level as the Poco, but it has better updates, wider support, and greater availability.

Read our full Samsung Galaxy A57 review

Nothing Phone (4a) Pro
The other phone that’s definitely worth considering is the Nothing (4a) Pro. Priced at $499 or £499, it’s one of the most unique phones you’ll find, thanks to its Glyph Matrix display on the rear. Key reasons to consider the Nothing 4a Pro? A more unique design and better selfie and telephoto cameras. Both phones are pretty evenly matched, but the Poco F8 Pro has a better display, charging, battery life, and performance.

Read our full Nothing Phone (4a) Pro review

How I tested the Poco F8 Pro

• Review test period = ~2 weeks
• Testing included = Everyday usage, including navigation, web browsing, social media, photography, gaming, streaming video, music playback, and reading e-books.
• Tools used = Geekbench 6, 3DMark, CellMark, native Android stats

Why you can trust TechRadar

☑️ 100s of smartphones reviewed
☑️ 15 years of product testing
☑️ Over 16,000 products reviewed in total
☑️ Nearly 200,000 hours testing tech

I used the Poco F8 Pro for approximately two weeks across two different stints, including over a week of consistent usage before writing this review.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed: May 2026

The xTool M2 is priced at the entry level of the company’s fully enclosed machines, but as ever there’s no mistaking it for anything other than an xTool laser engraver. As I got into using the machine, I could see just how finely tuned it is. Whilst it’s lighter weight than many of its more expensive siblings, the laser engraving power, even from the 10W laser in my review sample, was exceptionally good.

Having reviewed these laser engravers for a few years now, there are several essentials I look for in any laser engraver for TechRadar Pro, and one top priority is that it's fully enclosed. While I might’ve looked at fully open designs earlier on, these days there’s really no excuse for an open-frame design other than cost. When it comes to running a business, safety is obviously paramount, so it makes sense to look for a fully enclosed rather than open-frame design.

Beyond the physical design, I've found a few extras that really help with the review process, simplifying the cutting, engraving, and placement of materials such as cameras. Then there are added features, such as air assist, that are essential for creating clean, crisp lines and reducing scorching.

What’s surprising for a machine of this price is that the M2 ticks all the boxes. It has dual cameras, one that gives you a good view of the entire workspace and a second that gives you a close-up view, air assistance built in, and, as ever, there’s a vent at the back that you can attach to your air filtration system.

But it goes even further by adding more head module options, so you can not only laser cut and engrave but also print and cut. Of course, coming from xTool, it also has a range of accessories that can further expand what you can do with this machine.

I’ve had the M2 for a couple of months and have really been able to give it a more extensive test than I usually would with these machines, partially because I’m interested in getting some of these for use within an educational establishment, and making sure that it’s easy, secure and robust enough is a major focus.

I’ve also been asked by several friends who have been looking at laser engraving machines and which option they should go for. At this price point and with the 610 × 569mm dimensions, it just, on paper at least, looks like a great option.

Sure enough, while I only have the 10W laser model to review in this test, I have looked at previous XTool machines with multiple module heads, and they’ve worked exceptionally well; I will take a look at the print and cutting heads later.

Initial setup was easy, and after I’d run through the unpacking, installing the module head and powering up, it was then just a case of connecting the USB cable directly to my MacBook Pro, installing xTool Studio, waiting for it to connect, allowing the firmware to update, and it was time to start.

The one slight oddity with the modular head is that it installs magnetically, although it requires a connecting cable for data from the head to the machine, which I found a little odd. Why this isn’t wireless or just uses contacts, I have no idea; possibly just to keep costs down, but once that cable is connected, getting into the utilisation of the machine is all pretty fast.

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

What I like is that xTool has now introduced a safety video at the beginning, with a longer version that you can view online, and a really good tutorial which essentially enables you to get started with cutting projects such as placemats. You can see the results of this project in the pictures.

Those initial tutorials are essentially a no-brainer setup guide to using the M2, and when you run through those initial projects, which will take you less than an hour, you’ll be pretty proficient with how the machine works.

As ever, in the software you’re able to assign different parts to different cutting, engraving and scoring methods with a simple click; you highlight a path, enabling you to then assign it to whichever type of cut you want. Again, with xTool’s knowledge in the sector, this is all incredibly well thought out.

Essentially, over my two months with the machine, it sat in the corner of the workshop, attached to one of the xTool air filters, and ran seamlessly for every project I’ve thrown at it.

The workflow, from the ability to recognise the materials through to being able to preview so that you can accurately place your designs, and through to the cutting and extraction, all just works incredibly easily.

At present, if you’re looking for a new, fast, relatively cheap professional-level laser engraver for a small business, then you really can’t go wrong with the superb M2.

xTool M2: Price & availability

At present, the xTool M2 is available for $599 / £599 direct from xTool with the 10W laser. I've also often seen promotional offers on this price, so just keep an eye out.

If you’re looking for the colour print-and-cut bundle, which lets you make stickers and other projects, it's available for $749 / £749. There’s also the deluxe bundle, which includes everything, available for $989 / £989.

The laser cutter and engraver is also widely available from online retailers like Amazon.

xTool M2: DesignSpecs

Connectivity: USB computer connection confirmed; xTool software required.
Audio: Status buzzer
Camera: 5MP close-view camera + 16MP distance-view camera.
Size: 610 × 569 × 180mm
Weight: 12.3kg
Software: xTool software / xTool Studio ecosystem
Accessories: Depending on the bundle: laser module, CMYK inkjet module, RA3 Lite rotary system and other accessories.
Laser: 10W or 20W blue diode; optional 3W infrared module.
Laser work area: 426 × 320mm for 10W/20W modules.
Maximum XY speed: 600mm/s.
Maximum cutting claim: Up to 8mm basswood with 10W; up to 10mm with 20W.
Safety: Class 1 enclosed laser system.

The xTool M2 is instantly recognisable as xTool, with its sleek, simple white body and protective transparent yellow hinged lift-up lid. What’s impressive for a machine at this price is that it measures 610 × 569 × 180mm and weighs 12.3kg, which is handy, as I had to move it around quite a lot over the two months to install and remove other machines.

Part of the reason that this machine has been kept out in the workshop for so long is its manoeuvrability; when I needed it, I could just move it over to my computer desk. It was very easy to lift, carry and place, something that I don’t usually find with most of the laser engravers, other than the designs that I tend to avoid.

The full enclosure means this machine has a Class 1 laser safety classification, making it better suited to domestic small business and educational environments. If you work in a business, check whether your insurance covers this device classification.

The transparent upper cover helps keep everything safe; it's yellow and prevents the laser beams from exiting the machine. It also lets you monitor the laser engraving, and the two internal cameras let you view what’s going on remotely.

What’s impressive is that the relatively low-profile design accommodates objects up to 100mm thick. This is essentially for direct cylindrical engraving and without the use of any type of riser base.

It’s also great to see that there is built-in air assist, essentially keeping the smoke away from the beam where the laser hits the material, something which is usually done by an external pump. However, you still ideally need an air filter to use with the machine, or you can vent it out a window.

On inspection, it does feel a little more plasticky than the more expensive xTool machines. However, it’s still a great-quality, solid machine; when I moved it around the workshop, it felt robust.

Another point here is that, with such a large transparent upper cover- something that I have had issues with on other manufacturers’ models in the past, especially splitting- the design of that lid is again good on my unit, although the hinges are free and not sprung or cushioned. After what must be hundreds of openings and closings, it’s still in excellent condition.

One of the slight oddities of the design, which seems to be the case with so many of these enclosed laser engravers, is that there’s no honeycomb grid included in the box. Instead, you get four magnetic clamps that clamp onto the corners of any material you place, plus four alignment markers on the base of the machine.

At first, I wasn’t overly impressed with the design of these clamps. I would’ve preferred the honeycomb grid. However, it doesn’t take long before you realise just how useful they are, and not only do they hold offcuts of work nicely and securely, but they’re also extremely easy to use. After a few days of using them, I warmed to them and now see them as a slightly preferred method, to the point where I’ve made a few additional ones on the Prusa Core One to add to the original four.

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)xTool M2: Features

What you get is a feature-packed machine from xTool, and in this review I’m focusing on the 10W laser, so that’s the entry-level version, but there is also a 20W blue laser available as well if you do need a little bit more power or, for that matter, speed.

Other modular heads are available, such as the 3W IR laser, which is designed for metal and plastic engraving. However, that’s not yet available on the market, and there’s an optional full-colour CMYK inkjet system with 1200dpi resolution and 40ml cartridge capacity. This is used alongside a cutter so you can create stickers and other printable objects.

One of the big features for me is the dual camera system. You have a 2-megapixel close-view camera and a 5-megapixel distance-view camera. These are both really useful, especially if you’re trying to refine the positioning of your designs.

From my experience with these machines, especially the F2 Ultra recently, I’d say this close-up camera is especially useful when using the 3W IR module and will probably also come in handy if you’re into printing stickers.

Like any product released today, AI plays a major role through the software. You have the automatic creation system, which is just a point-and-click system: give it a text description, and it will develop something for you.

But more than that, there’s also automatic material detection, which can essentially see what’s put into the workspace, evaluate it, and come up with a close match; through the test, I was really impressed with how well this worked. Essentially, once the material is detected, it adjusts all the settings to optimise for that material, rather than you having to look at a chart or work through trial and error.

Another major feature is the built-in adjustable air assist. You can adjust this in the software, but it essentially blows air across the laser, keeping the site where the laser meets the material clear of smoke. This means you get a much cleaner cut, and it also helps reduce scorching.

When it comes to file support, xTool, as ever, has an increasing library of assets that you can dip into to get straight into producing products. However, if you do want to import your own, then the new software supports SVG, DXF and PDF, and there’s plenty of flexibility, especially with the AI tool, to have a bit of fun with those files as well.

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

One feature I really like, especially when trying to cram as many designs onto one sheet of 3mm basswood as possible, is the new smart nesting and batch filters, which, again, are activated through the software.

These seemed to work really well, optimising the spacing on the sheet of basswood well beyond anything that I could do myself, and once again this helps to cut down on costs.

In the software, when I entered a few materials that weren’t recognised by the system, there is a huge material database. This can be a little daunting, but you can take control of the settings manually if you need to. Just do a quick test chart, and then you should have the settings that you need for engraving, scoring and cutting almost any material.

As ever, being from xTool, there’s a range of accessories, including a rotary engraving system for cylindrical and spherical objects. Still, there’s a full list, and it is extensive on the xTool website.

xTool M2: Performance

As ever with these laser engravers, they’re either quick to set up and calibrate or it takes most of the day; thankfully, because this machine is from the xTool stable, it’s extremely easy to unbox and get up and running. That said, the paper manual inside was a little on the sparse side, even for xTool.

However, two very large QR codes on the packaging link directly to the online setup instructions and manual, which include plenty of pictures and information. The point is that the setup is extremely straightforward: position the M2, remove all the packaging, plug in the power, install the laser module with the connecting cable to the machine, and switch on.

Then, in the software, wait for it to connect, run any updates and follow, firstly, the safety guidance, which is a very quick video of less than two minutes, and then follow the tutorials. After completing it, you should be up and running.

Once I’d created some of the tutorial projects, including the placemats, I moved on to my own projects, creating a few boxes, a small display shelving unit and a few other bits and pieces, including a bracket that I needed for my van, and throughout I was impressed with how quick and easy this machine is to use.

This is, of course, an entry-level machine in the pro market of laser engraving, so whilst the machine is extremely competent, through use you do start to notice a few small design points. These points highlight that this is an enthusiast-level machine rather than a pro-level one.

The first of these is the overall design. Whilst the design is solid and works exceptionally well, there’s no kill switch on the side. If you want to use this in education or most workplaces, you’ll need to add something to kill the power yourself.

But really, other than that, there is very little here that doesn’t impress, even when you’re used to using something like the xTool P2. For me, the workflow from the P2 down to the M2 is similar; it’s just a smaller machine.

While it is obviously slower and less powerful, that 10W laser module will happily cut through basswood up to 8mm thick, as quoted by the company. Although I didn’t have any 8mm basswood available, the 3, 4 and 6mm basswood that I generally use cut through with absolutely no issue whatsoever in a single pass.

The maximum speed for the cutter is 600 mm per minute, which is mid-range, and in the test you obviously reduce that depending on whether it is cutting or engraving. What really impressed me was the engraving resolution. If you want to do some really fine detail work, the M2 is an ideal solution, and converting images into halftone and then bringing those in got some stunning results.

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

As I went through the pack of test materials, including paper, wood and leather, I was just really struck by how easy the M2 is to use. The software is obviously great, but those two cameras do make a real difference to the precision of the laser, enabling you to get a preview of the material and really closely align the design to a fraction of a millimetre, which is far better than I have seen on even a lot of fibre lasers, where pure accuracy is definitely needed.

What strikes me about the xTool M2 is that it makes a lot of the more expensive xTool laser engravers a little bit obsolete. You get a relatively lightweight machine you can shift and move around, take off the work surface, and easily place on a lower shelf when not in use, freeing up loads of space.

You get a 10W laser for general work, and you can purchase the 20W when you need a little extra power or speed, plus a modular head system with the inkjet so you can push it for further projects.

What I liked was that the workspace area inside the machine is pretty decent, and whilst it’s not the largest out there, it’s surprisingly large for a machine of this size and far easier and safer to use than any open-frame laser engraver on the market.

While in this review I’ve looked at the M2 in isolation, it is worth pointing out that alongside the laser engraving machine, I have also added in the extractor filter, which is essential. I will update this review with the print head and cutter and possibly the 20W head at a later date.

xTool M2: Final verdict

The M2 is really easy to recommend. It’s a very well-priced, fully enclosed laser engraving machine.

A few things really make it stand out against much of the competition, including the built-in air assist, so no extra devices are sitting around on the work surface. But for me, what appealed was that I could quickly lift it and stow it away.

It’s a big machine, but at just over 12kg it’s not particularly heavy, and it’s quick and easy to disconnect and then plug back in.

Unlike some machines that require you to disconnect various pedal switches, air assist, and more, the M2 took a couple of minutes to disconnect and stash, then bring out and get up and running again.

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

In the workplace, one major downside is that it doesn’t have that kill switch on the side, which will be an issue. Still, everything else is simple, and if you’re a small business, it makes a lot of sense.

Here you have a high-quality, high-end enthusiast or pro-level machine with a 10W laser. This lets you engrave plenty of materials, and you can also add the inkjet module to create stickers if you want. Plus, with a rotary tool, you can flip the head from vertical to horizontal to engrave cups, mugs, and more.

I’ve looked at plenty of these laser engravers over the last few years, and the xTool machines have always stood out for quality and attention to workflow; the M2 is especially polished for its price point and the audience it’s aimed at.

Should you buy the xTool M2

Value:

One of the most versatile machines that I’ve looked at for the price, making it exceptional value 

5

Design:

Great design; I just wish there was no need for the cable between the head and the machine

4.5

Features

Excellent range of features, and with a modular head and accessories, the possibilities are enormous

4.5

Performance

SSpeed, cutting power, and workflow are well balanced at this price range

4.5

Total

A superb, fully enclosed laser engraver at this price and a perfect option for any small business

5

Buy it if...

You want an all-in-one machine
If you have a small business or you’re a keen laser engraving enthusiast, then the fully enclosed design and flexibility to print, cut and engrave from this one machine make it a superb choice.

You need easier alignment
This is the first machine that I have seen with such accurate alignment for designs over materials, and the dual cameras just work incredibly well compared with other systems.View Deal

Don't buy it if...

You only need powerful engraving.
If you need a fast, dedicated laser engraver, the 20W option will boost power, but it’s nothing compared with larger machines such as the xTool P2.

You’re working in an industrial environment.
While the machine is feature-packed, the lack of a side kill switch could be an issue, so check your safety requirements before purchasing the M2.View Deal

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

L'Atitude 52°N smart glasses: one-minute review

A new smart specs maker has arrived on the scene, and it’s looking to arrive with a bang. The L'Atitude 52°N Smart Glasses are loud and proud, and after L'Atitude dispatched a slightly rocky first batch of review units to tech publications (including ourselves), I’ve been putting the newer, more production-ready glasses through their paces over the past month.

Let’s first unpack the selling points, which I discussed with L'Atitude’s founders (including ex-OnePlus engineer Gary Chen) in the weeks before my review. Made in Europe and unapologetically Euro-coded, with Berlin-inspired and, coming soon, Milan frame designs, these won’t be the glasses for everyone, and that’s okay, the team says; but they are for adventurers.

On board, you’ll find Goya AI (named after the Spanish painter, Francisco Goya), a dulcet-toned Southern California male voice assistant who’s eager to help you explore the world with features like AI Tour Guide, Live Translation, and the usual retinue of camera-laden smart-glasses features.

At least, that’s the pitch. On vacation with my lovely mom on the Greek island of Santorini, I put these supersized specs to the test, and although I can see them shaping up to be terrific travel companions, right now they’re dogged by big problems. From spotty software to an entirely unclear future in terms of how much its AI features will cost when the subscription plan kicks in sometime in the next year, it’s hard to recommend L’Atitude’s bold frames from a value perspective, at least for now.

(Image credit: Future)L'Atitude 52°N review: price and availability

• List price: starts at $465.00 (about £345)
• Availability: US, with UK availability expected soon.

The L’Atitude Berlin glasses start at $465, which converts to about £345, increasing to $520 if you opt for photochromic lenses. At the time of writing, they’re exclusively available in the US and EU, with UK availability to follow soon. You can choose from Obsidian (black) and Dune (greige) frames as well as grey gradient, orange, and photochromic lenses. These prices apply to both the currently available Berlin frames, as well as the upcoming Milan model, which offer a more delicate design.

Already, that’s a lofty list price, especially when compared to the comparatively expensive Meta Ray-Ban (Gen 2), which start at $379 / £379 / AU$689. And it gets worse.

The major dampener here is that these glasses will, at some point, also require you to take out a subscription in order to use the full set of features, but right now we have no confirmed pricing for this. I asked the brand about its plans in this area, and they told me: “Customers who purchase any Departure Collection [a.k.a. Either the Berlin or Milan frames] product by December 31, 2026 and register an account will automatically receive a complimentary 12-month trial of all AI features, requiring no separate purchase or activation.

“The trial starts as soon as the account is activated and grants full access to current and future AI capabilities, including upcoming releases, with a generous daily usage allowance of 60 minutes. After the trial period, users can continue to enjoy AI features with a subscription plan, while essential functions will always remain accessible. AI usage tracking will soon be available in the app for added transparency.”

As for pricing for said plan, various sources cite this as “less than $20” per month, though L’Atitude didn’t confirm this when I asked. So overall, this offers little comfort given that you’re already shelling out for an already expensive pair of specs, and until that final number is confirmed I can’t in good conscience give these glasses a higher value rating.

If you love the designs here, and especially the fact no other pair of smart glasses look quite like them, then you could argue that the value-for-money proposition is improved; personally, I still think it’s a hard sell.

• Value: 2.5/5

(Image credit: Future)L'Atitude 52°N review: specs

L’Atitude 52°N

Weight

50-51g

Camera

12MP Sony sensor, 1080p video recording at 30fps

Chip

Bestechnic BES2800 6nm chipset

AI Assistant

Goya AI, powered by Google Gemini

Battery

200mAh (case offers 8-10 full recharges)

Storage

32GB

(Image credit: Future)L'Atitude 52°N review: design

• Chunky but funky frames
• Lightweight with IP65 rating
• Charging case is a behemoth

Design is where L’Atitude takes its biggest swing, and while other fashion-first and adventurous designs have hit the market in 2026, I do think the brand is carving an exciting niche, especially in the European market.

Do I love how the Berlin frames look on my face? No, but the stylish, rounder new Milan frames weren’t available for me to try when I started my testing. Still, there will be some who find the boxy shape and unapologetically Berlin-esque chunkiness is right up their street.

The nose grips were fine, but overall the glasses were a little too big and loose of a fit for me. While traversing the famous steps of Oia, which are notoriously perilous, having to hold these onto my face while I looked down at the cobbled roads meant I took a bit of a tumble and hobbled home with a sprained finger and a nasty gash; I’d put a fair chunk of responsibility on my choice of shoes and general clumsiness here, though.

They are pretty well designed, though. At just 50-51g, they’re light and comfortable to wear, and though the plasticky frames aren’t quite as svelte as, say, some Ray-Ban Meta frames, they’re far from cheap-looking. They’re IP65 rated for weather and dust resistance, and a scratch-resistant treatment is applied to the lenses, meaning they’re towards the more durable end of the spectrum versus other currently available smart glasses.

As with many smart glasses I've tried, camera placement doesn't work with hair particularly well... (Image credit: Future)

The arms house the Bestechnic BES2800 6nm chipset and 200mAh battery, as well as some pretty punchy speakers for listening to music or podcasts, calls, or chatting with the AI on the go. In day-to-day settings while out and about, I found sound leakage to be pretty minimal unless someone’s very close by and you have the volume turned up; however, in a quiet room you can hear at least some of what’s going on on-device, even at lower volumes, albeit not clearly.

There’s a 12MP camera on the left-hand side of the frame, and a matching dummy camera on the right side. A recording light flashes while you’re filming or taking shots; this is pleasingly bright, so those around you will know you’re recording. If the light is covered, capture is immediately shut down; whether or not lights are enough to alert potentially unconsenting parties is a separate conversation, but for now, this is the privacy bar that’s been set by smart-glasses manufacturers. I tried several times to obstruct this and gladly found it’s pretty darn reliable.

The biggest design fault, for me, is the case. Now, these are bulky frames, but the charging case is a real heifer at 2 x 6.8 x 3.14 inches / 5.2 x 17.5 x 8cm (H x W x D), which somewhat defeats the purpose of branding these glasses as travel-friendly, as it’s going to take up a good chunk of your carry-on luggage space. Speaking of which, I noticed following both my flight to and from Santorini that the case had suctioned shut due to the cabin pressure on board, and I had to prise it open with a pin.

Still, the case is robust and well-made, and with its IP67 rating it’s hardy enough to come along on more adventurous trips, too. Plus, it lights up a nice orange color when the glasses are charging.

• Design: 3.5/5

FutureFutureFutureFutureFutureFutureL'Atitude 52°N review: Performance

• On-device photo transfers are a privacy boon…
• But some shots are lost in the void
• Great photos, decent video

L'Atitude really wants you to treat its glasses, and specifically Goya AI, as a travel companion; the moment you open up the app, the AI Tour guide feature is front and center. But how do they fare on the camera-hardware side?

Fairly well, I’d say. Horizontal and vertical photos captured by the 12MP Sony sensor, and cleaned up by the on-board AI, are comparable to results from my second-generation Meta Ray-bans, and the specs record well-stabilized 1080p video at 30fps (though this pales against the latest Meta Ray-Ban’s 3K capture), with clips from 30 seconds to three minutes.

FutureFuture

Even low-light and night shots came out pretty well, and I found that framing shots broadly felt natural, though some were a little wonky. The five-mic array captured my voice impressively clearly and without too much background noise, and the speakers deliver bright, clear audio.

With 32GB of on-board memory, there’s a decent amount of room to store photos and videos before sharing them from your phone — your content goes straight to your local companion phone app instead of a permanent cloud database, swerving the privacy minefield of your most personal moments living on someone else’s database.

That being said, uploading your content isn’t always easy. I most definitely lost a few shots — especially if my glasses ran out of battery before I had a chance to sync them — and syncing sometimes inexplicably stalls, and you have to wait a while to try again.

Elsewhere, everything works as expected; the touch controls on the arms are responsive and intuitive, and the battery lasts up to six hours — with moderate use, I generally saw four to five hours of usage. The case offers between eight and 10 full charges, and fast-charges the glasses to 70% in 20-25 minutes.

• Performance: 4/5

Goya AI is a lot better than when I tried it earlier this year, but it's prone to cutting you off and mishearing you (Image credit: Future / L'Atitude )L'Atitude 52°N review: AI features

• Goya AI often cuts you off
• Replies are spotty at best
• Tour guide feature is a work in progress

I’d originally tried some beta versions of these frames, and while the current software is far from perfect, it’s impressive to see how many kinks L’Atitude has ironed out in a few short months.

Contrary to earlier reviews you may have read, as well as my own experience, I’m pleased to report that many of Goya AI’s advertised features now work (hooray!), though in my experience it’s still not always quite as advertised.

Some of that may be to do with my main testing location; Santorini is beautiful, but there aren’t a great number of landmarks for which the tour guide feature could come in handy; and Oia, where we stayed, is a labyrinth of winding stairways, private paths and roads less traveled, so navigation — even on more developed software like Google Maps — is a challenge.

That being said, I did get to try the AI tour guide out on the ruins of the Castle of Oia, which it helpfully informed me were the ruins of the Castle of Oia, offering little else beyond a few brief words on its popularity as a sightseeing and photography spot in Santorini. This was all happening while I was fighting for my life not to be pushed off the edge of the castle walls by other tourists, so while it’s accurate, I wouldn’t exactly call it additive.

I tried this feature on a few locations back home in the UK to much the same results; sometimes, the synopses were more detailed, but I couldn’t seem to find any landmarks that offered the full walkthrough experience I’d hoped for when I first read about the “expert-level guidance” offered by the feature.

The five-mic array may help capture great audio for your video, but so much is lost in translation when speaking with Goya AI. Maybe it’s my British accent, but I found that more than half of my questions were entirely misheard, making for some hilarious if not mildly frustrating interactions with the on-board intelligence. It frequently cut me off, answered completely different questions to what I’d asked, and often couldn’t recall previous prompts.

Sometimes Goya AI does seem to understand you, but doesn’t want to execute your commands. When I asked it to take photos, shoot video, tell me what I’m looking at or play music from Spotify, Goya would occasionally spit out a totally random response at best, and at worst behave as though it was about to follow my command before doing big fat nothing. It had good days and bad days, so I have to wonder how much of this stems from connectivity issues. Regardless, spending much of your time yelling at your glasses is not what you want when you’re out travelling or in public places.

Translation to and from Greek isn’t yet available, so when I got home I tested this feature out with my Spanish friend. I wouldn’t quite call spoken-word translation live as advertised; Goya can handle approximately one sentence at a time, will need to think for up to 20 seconds, and will then speak it in your native language through the glasses. When I asked Goya to translate a written book synopsis from Spanish to English, though, it worked much more quickly and fluidly; with both tests, I was impressed with its accuracy, though it’s to be expected with Google’s Gemini under the hood.

• AI: 3.5/5

(Image credit: Future)Should I buy the L'Atitude 52°N?

Attribute

Comment

Score

Design

A bold first stab at the smart glasses market with broadly well thought-out design features, but one with a few small quirks

4/5

Performance

Decent cameras, decent sound, and decent battery. These are pretty good all-rounders, but again, there are quirks.

4/5

AI

Not quite frictionless and not quite as additive as I'd hope with its travel-first features, but these glasses do stick the landing on a lot of standard smart glasses features

3.5/5

Value

A bit pricey as-is, and until there's clarity on AI feature subscription costs, this score sticks.

2.5/5

Buy them if…

You love the Berlin look

I won’t take that away from you, even if it looks so wrong on my face — looks-wise these are a striking and exciting addition to a market that’s been fairly same-y for a long time.

You want locally stored content

While I can’t guarantee that these offer absolute security and privacy, I can say that the direct-to-phone photo transfers offer some peace of mind, given reports of other brands’ privacy minefields.

Don’t buy them if…

(Image credit: Future)

You want to spare yourself a subscription

The great, looming unknown of the upcoming L’Atitude AI subscription fee is off-putting at best, and given many of the features are still works in progress, it’s hard to recommend these glasses to the budget-conscious.

You want top-of-the-range video cameras

Photo quality is competitive with that of smart specs from the big-hitting brands, but on the video front, 1080p at 30fps is a low bar.

How I tested the L'Atitude 52°N

• I took the glasses on my week-long vacation to Santorini, and tested them for around 10 hours in the UK
• I tried all of its advertised software and hardware features
• I used its AI to help enrich my vacation. Well, I tried.

As these are travel-focused smart specs, what better way to test them than to hit the road and take them on vacation? On my trip to Santorini, I tried their travel-focused software features, including the AI tour guide, asking for restaurant recommendations and questions about the island’s history, weather, and the like.

Having recently reviewed the second-generation Meta Ray-bans, I used those specs, which we rate as the best overall smart glasses pick for most people, as my main comparison point, but I’ve also sampled a range of other models at trade shows and in our offices over the past few years.

I ran the L'Atitude app from my iPhone 17 Pro.

• First reviewed: August 2026

Taking a photo and altering it, like you can do with Adobe Photoshop, is old hat these days, as so many apps allow you to do just that. But if you’re an artist who loves to paint, this type of software can’t replicate the feel of watercolours, oils, acrylics, and pastels as they’re applied onto a canvas.

Some developers saw this as a challenge: how to replicate painting on a canvas in the digital world. Escape Motions’ Rebelle is a serious competitor in this field, and have introduced a few new features with their latest 8th version. Let’s take a look at it.

You can check out Rebelle 8 by clicking here.

Rebelle 8: Pricing & plans

• A multi-platform software package
• One-off license at a cost that won’t break the bank
• Free trial available

There’s a lot of good news for people who like to own - actually own - multi-platform software: first of, Rebelle is available for Windows and Mac users (sadly, Linux fans are all too often left out of the loop, as they are here).

Even better, there’s no option to rent the software: you purchase it with a one-time fee of $90. Which is quite reasonable for software of this caliber, especially since you’re allowed to install it on up to three computers.

There is a more advanced version, called Rebelle Pro for $150. Finally, Escape Motions offers a very generous 30-day trial so you can check out the software and see how it works for you.

You will have to create an account with them in order to access it, but all they ask is an email address - you keep your credit card details to yourself.

All in all, this feels like a very good start. Rebelle 8 available to buy from developer Escape Motions by clicking here.

• Pricing & plans: 5 / 5

Rebelle 8: Interface

(Image credit: Escape Motions // Future)

• A well-designed interface
• Familiar enough to ease you in if you’re new to Rebelle
• Different enough that there’s going to be a bit of a learning curve

If this is your first foray into Rebelle, you’ll find the interface very similar to other image editing applications. You have two sidebars, one on either side. The left one focusses on your brushes, while on the right, you have your layers, color selections, and navigational options.

The rest of the screen real estate is devoted to your canvas, but that’s not all there is to it. Hop on over to the Menubar’s Window menu to see other tools, which are available by default as floating windows.

However the interface is highly flexible, enabling you to dock these windows into either sidebar, be it as their own unique dedicated area, or sharing the space with other tools - when that happens, a small series of tabs will appear above that shared section, allowing you to switch between them.

This allows you to create a unique setup to match what you need to see as you digitally paint your projects. You’re also able to export this layout to make it easy to set up Rebelle on another computer with your customized personalised setup.

Overall, the interface is similar enough to not feel intimidating, but different enough that it will take you a few minutes to understand where everything is, and what it does. But the main takeaway is that it’s well designed, and is easy enough to understand that it won’t take you long to get the gist of it.

• Interface: 4 / 5

Rebelle 8: Tools

(Image credit: Escape Motions // Future)

• So many brushes to play with, and so many parameters to explore
• Lots of different types of canvases
• Create truly unique projects… as long as you can handle some of the quirks

The tools available are pretty much all the various brushes you can work with - and there are so many. You start with selecting the type of brush from the top left section of the interface, like an acrylic brush, or one for watercolors, inks, pastels, etc.

Beneath that is another panel, with a handful of parameters to customize how the selected brush will paint on your chosen canvas, and you could easily leave it at that, but that would be ignoring the dozens of options further down the sidebar.

For instance, the Express Oil brushes have sub-categories, such as Round, Glaze, and Flat, and if that’s not enough, a drop down menu allows you to browse through and purchase additional ones.

The options and flexibilities are immense, and it can be a lot of fun to paint digitally in that way. You also have all the advantages of working on a computer, such as having multiple layers, cloning sections, erasing others, the lot.

There were a few things I was disappointed by, the biggest one being that I could only have one project open at a time. As someone who far too often has too many ideas on the go, this felt unnecessarily restrictive to me.

Another had to do with controlling the canvas itself. I work on a laptop and use a multi-touch trackpad for everything, but even with all the options I could find disabled, that canvas would move or suddenly zoom in or out at random moments.

Thankfully there’s a handy and simple keyboard shortcut to bring it all back to the centre, filling the screen, but it got really annoying by the end. I think the lesson here is don’t use the trackpad when doing serious artistic work with Rebelle.

Also, despite using a powerful computer to test this out (a laptop with an M5 chip), I felt like sometimes I had to wait a few seconds for the software to render the stroke I made. This app needs a lot of power.

• Tools: 4 / 5

Rebelle 8: What's new?

(Image credit: Escape Motions // Future)

• No revolutionary ‘wow’ additions
• Relatively small improvements makes creative life much easier

Version 8 brings a few refinements to this software package - nothing earth shattering, but they’re welcome additions nonetheless. Here are some I felt were important to mention.

The Canvas Panel has been streamlined, making it easy to select a new type of paper and see all those you don’t yet have, but are available for purchase - you can even test this new canvas prior to acquiring it (if this constant advertisement is not your thing, use the filter options to remove those as yet un-owned canvases from the list).

On the other side of the interface are your favourite brushes. That’s nothing new. But right next to them is a new tab, featuring all the latest brushes you’ve used in your current session. This is a most welcome way to help you keep track of what you’ve been working with without you having to do anything.

When it comes to painting, there’s always been a limit to how big a brush can be. In the standard sidebar, that’s usually up to 100. Switch to the Creator Brush panel and you can now go up to 3,000 which is almost big enough to cover an entire canvas with one brush stroke.

There’s also a new Symmetry tool which essentially cuts your canvas right down the middle and everything you draw on one side is instantly mirrored on the other.

And last on my list is the ‘Line’ tool which always allowed you to easily draw parallel lines, but now lets you add perpendicular ones as well, which can save you a heck of a lot of time.

Should I buy Rebelle 8?

(Image credit: Escape Motions // Future)Buy it if...

You’re a creative who’s always loved the feel of the brush on your canvas, are looking for a way to reproduce this digitally, and love the fact you only need to pay once to own the software.

Don't buy it if...

Your creative outlet doesn’t extend to replicating how real-life brushes work in a digital environment, and you’d be much happier with the likes of Photoshop or Pixelmator Pro instead.

How I tested Rebelle 8

I fired up my trusty M5 MacBook Pro for this review of Rebelle 8. I sadly couldn’t test the software on my PC laptop - it’s high time I upgraded anyway - although it does show that Rebelle needs more oomph than a lot of other software in its category.

The minimum requirements are an Intel i7 chip with 16GB of RAM, and my PC can’t match that. Considering the computations needed to simulate how real-life paint and brushes behave, I’m not surprised at all that Rebelle 8 would need more power than Photoshop.

But on my Mac, aside from the issues I highlighted in the review, I had no complaints, and the gallery on Escape Motions’ website shows how realistic the paintings done with Rebelle can end up looking.

For more creative tools, we tested the best photo editors and the best digital art and drawing software.

Terra Kaffe Demi: two-minute review

I've reviewed a lot of coffee and espresso machines over the years, and the Terra Kaffe Demi is one of my favorites. It's dead simple to use, and the results are incredible. Before the caffeine from my morning cup of coffee hits my bloodstream, I don't have the wherewithal to weigh and grind beans, put them in a filter, set up the machine to brew, and brew the coffee. I just want my coffee and I want it fast. But I like my coffee black, so it's important that it actually taste good. The Terra Kaffe Demi Compact Fully Automatic Espresso Machine hits all the marks. Plus it looks sleek and gorgeous in my kitchen while taking up very little space.

Pour fresh whole beans into the hopper and fill the water tank. Turn the dial on the side to scroll through your options: espresso, lungo, americano, and drip. Press once to select your pick. The conical burr grinder grinds your beans just right, and then brewing begins. In just seconds, you have your drink.

This lovely slice of tech doesn't come cheap, and it doesn't have the bells and whistles of some other similarly priced machines. If you want a machine that automatically froths your milk, or has a menu with dozens or even hundreds of drink options, this isn't the one for you. You must use whole beans; there's no pre-ground coffee option. But if the four drinks offered are sufficient for you, then keep on reading.

(Image credit: Karen Freeman / Future)Terra Kaffe Demi: price and availability

• Available on several websites including Amazon
• Retails for $795 (about £590 / AU$1,100)
• Comes in four colorways

The Terra Kaffe Demi is sold on a number of websites, including Amazon, Sur La Table, Nordstrom, Seattle Coffee Gear, and Terra Kaffe's own website. It retails for $795 (about £590 / AU$1,100) or can be rented from Terra Kaffe for $39 (£30 / AU$60) per month. There are four color options: Slate (black), Cloud (pale gray-blue), Forest (dark green), and Dune (tan).

Terra Kaffe Demi: specs

Name

Terra Kaffe Demi Compact Fully Automatic Espresso Machine

Type

Automatic

Dimensions

15.7” / 39.9 cm (D)  x 7.5” / 19.1 cm (W) x 12.8” / 32.5 cm (H)

Weight

17 lbs / 7.7 kg

Brew styles

Espresso, Lungo, Americano, and Drip

Milk frother

No

Connected device

No

Terra Kaffe Demi: design

• Small footprint
• Sleek, minimalist aesthetic
• Four brew styles

(Image credit: Karen Freeman / Future)

The Terra Kaffe Demi is a compact, sleek design with a minimalist aesthetic, perfect for a modern kitchen. A dot matrix style display screen shows on the front of the machine. The left side of the machine has the power button, but you'll use that only rarely. On the right side of the machine is the simple dial that controls everything. You can scroll through the menu by twisting the dial, and select by pressing it. A long press of the dial puts the machine to sleep. On the back of the machine is a 46.5 ounce (1375 ml) water tank. The 4.6-ounce (130-gram) bean hopper sits atop the machine.

Karen Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / Future

The Terra Kaffe Demi's spout can be raised and lowered to accommodate different sizes of cups and mugs. The maximum height is 5.7" (14.5 cm), which is high enough for many travel mugs. You'll want to lower it when you brew into smaller cups in order to minimize coffee spatter.

Karen Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / Future

The menu dial on the right side of the machine controls everything. The display on the front lets you know what's going on, whether the machine is rinsing, heating up, or ready to brew. You can choose your brew: Espresso, Lungo, Americano, or Drip.

Espresso is a concentrated brew, and the default is 1.6 ounces. Lungo is a longer extraction, and the default is 2.8 ounces. Americano is espresso plus water, and the default is a 1.6-ounce espresso shot plus 2.8 ounces of water, totalling 4.4 ounces. Drip is usually made with a drip machine, but the Terra Kaffe Demi makes a brew that tastes like drip coffee by pulsating the water through the grounds rather than applying the consistent high pressure needed to make espresso. The default Drip cup size is 5.6 ounces. There's even a Hot Water option, in case you want to make tea or hot cocoa.

You can turn the dial to dig into the Menu option if you want to change the brew temperature, strength, or amount. You can also adjust the number of espresso shots in your brew. When you're deep into the menu changing the settings, just press and hold the dial for a couple of seconds to bring you back to the drink menu. Or just wait about half a minute, and it will go back by itself.

Karen Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / Future

Cleaning the Terra Kaffe Demi is pretty simple. The machine regularly rinses itself, so it's probably a good idea to keep a cup under the spout when not in use. You'll want to empty the used coffee ground "pucks" from the waste bin, give the bin a rinse, and pour out the water that's collected in the drip tray pretty regularly. I do those simple tasks pretty much every day, but if you don't drink much coffee, you could spread it out to every few days.

Karen Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / Future

Once a week, Terra Kaffe recommends that you remove the brew unit and rinse it thoroughly. That sounds like a hassle, but it's actually quite easy and takes only a few seconds. I like being able to get into a machine and get it really clean. Many automatic coffee machines don't have that option, so I wonder how gunky they are getting over time.

Karen Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / Future

Additionally, you'll need to run cleaning and descaling cycles on occasion, probably once every couple of months, depending on your usage. The machine will prompt you when you need to run those. The Terra Kaffe Demi does come with one packet each of cleaner and descaler. Once you use them, you can buy those products on their website.

There is also an internal clock, though that's not visible from the outside of the machine. It can be accessed in the settings menu. The reason for having a clock is that you can set the machine to automatically wake up, warm up, and be ready to brew at a specific time of your choosing. Warmup is pretty quick anyway, so I don't see much reason to do that, but if you're a rushing-out-the-door-every-morning sort of person, those seconds might count.

Another cool feature is that you can fully drain the machine, in case you won't be using it for a while or plan to put it into storage. Most coffee automatic coffee machines have water just sitting in the machine which ... can't be good.

• Design score: 5/5

Terra Kaffe Demi: performance

• Incredibly easy to use
• Use default brew styles or create your own
• Great results

As mentioned above, the Terra Kaffe Demi makes four different brew styles: Espresso, Americano, Lungo, and Drip. Each of them can be brewed at the default settings if you want to keep it simple. However, if you want to dig into the menu options, you can make all kinds of adjustments to each of those options. You can change the number of shots, the strength of the brew, the shot volume, and the brewing temperature. I used the default settings in my testing unless otherwise noted.

Espresso

I found the espresso quite smooth, strong, and delicious. The Terra Kaffe Demi gives it a lovely crema. I also tried brewing it over ice to make an iced coffee, which turned out great. The default shot volume is 1.6 ounces, or 50ml. The strength is "High" (.39oz/11g) and the brewing temperature is 205°F (96°C). All of those can be adjusted in the settings menu.

Karen Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / FutureLungo

A lungo is made by brewing more water through the coffee grounds than you would for an espresso. While the same amount of coffee is used for a lungo as it would be for an espresso shot, the higher water volume makes a taller, less concentrated drink. The default Lungo is 2.8 ounces, or 83ml. Everything else is the same as the Espresso settings listed above: "High" strength (.39oz/11g) and brewing temperature of 205°F (96°C). Again, those can be adjusted in the settings menu. I thought the Lungo was very good, nice and smooth but still plenty strong. It produces a lovely crema. I also tried this one iced, which diluted it a bit much for my tastes (though it might be perfect for someone else's.)

Karen Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / FutureAmericano

An Americano is a regular espresso shot with water added, which is different from a lungo where the extra water is brewed through the coffee grounds. Coffee connoisseurs will be able to taste a difference between extra water brewed through the grounds and extra water added after. I can't really tell, but both options are offered in case you have a preference.

The default Americano is the same 1.6-ounce (50ml) espresso shot plus 2.8 ounces (83ml) of water, totalling 4.4 ounces (130ml). The espresso is brewed with the same strength and temperature as the above cycles, and again, all of this can be adjusted in the settings menu. Frankly, all this extra water made it a bit weak for my tastes, but it was nice and smooth. Even with all the water added, the crema remained intact.

Karen Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / FutureDrip

Technically, this is an espresso machine, so it can't make "drip coffee" the regular way. However, the Terra Kaffe makes a pretty good impression of a drip coffee by using a slower, pulsating water flow to lower the pump pressure. Continuous high pressure steam is used to make Espresso, Lungo, and Americano, but the Drip setting pauses and restarts the water flow as it brews, increasing the amount of time the water has contact with the coffee grounds.

The results were really quite tasty, though it does take longer to brew than it might with a dedicated drip machine. The default settings are actually the same as the Espresso: 1.6 ounces (50ml) shot volume, "High" (.39oz/11g) strength, and is 205°F (96°C) brewing temperature, all of which can be adjusted in the settings menu. More water is added to make Drip, so the total default volume is 5.6 ounces (166ml). It does produce a crema, which isn't expected in a drip coffee, but it works.

I fiddled around with the settings a bit, increasing the strength to "Max" and it still isn't a super strong cup of coffee. This is down to personal taste, I thought it was just strong enough but my husband thought it tasted weak.

I did put some in the fridge overnight to make iced coffee the next day. It was drinkable, but it did pick up a little bit of bitterness. The better way to make iced coffee is to use the Espresso setting (or Lungo if you like it less strong) and add ice.

Karen Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / FutureHot Water

The Hot Water option is great for making tea or other hot beverages. The default volume is about seven ounces (200ml) and the temperature is 201°F (94°C), but of course they can be adjusted in the settings menu.

Notably, the Terra Kaffe has a separate water nozzle, so it's not pulling (potentially bitter) coffee leftovers on its way through. You won't get stale coffee notes in your tea. It's close enough to the coffee nozzle that you wouldn't notice that there are two unless you look closely.

• Performance score: 4.5/5

Should you buy the Terra Kaffe Demi?Terra Kaffe Demi score card

Attribute

Notes

Score

Value

It's not cheap, but if it means you're not buying pods or hitting the coffee shop, it could save you money in the long run.

4/5

Design

The Terra Kaffe Demi has a stunning design and is super easy to use.

5/5

Performance

While it only makes four drinks, it's simple and flexible and brews tasty beverages. However, the Drip setting doesn't brew a super strong coffee.

4.5/5

Buy it if

You want a fully automatic coffee machine but you have limited space

Go from whole beans to the coffee beverage of choice with just a spin and tap of the dial. No need to do any thinking before your morning caffeine. And yet, it hardly takes up more space than a Mr. Coffee.

You want both espresso and classic drip coffee

You don't need two separate machines. Though the Terra Kaffe Demi is primarily an espresso machine, it makes both espresso and coffee (as well as a lungo or Americano).

You want a stunner on your counter

Choose which of the four colors suits you best, and you'll love the look of this sleek and minimalist machine in your kitchen.

Don't buy it if

It's too pricey for you

This type of machine is never cheap, and this one is no exception. You can factor in your savings from not running to the coffee shop or buying pods, but it's a bit of an initial outlay.

You want one-touch cappuccinos and lattes

There no milk frother included, so milk-based drinks are not on the menu. Of course you can buy a separate milk frother and froth to your heart's content, but that's another item to purchase.

You want a big cup of very strong drip coffee, not espresso

This is primarily an espresso machine, and the Espresso is plenty strong. But even on the Max setting, the Drip function brews just a medium-strength cup of coffee, to my taste. It will be likely be strong enough for most people, but not everyone.View Deal

Terra Kaffe Demi: also consider

Ninja AutoBarista Pro Fully Automatic Espresso Machine

This one is a little bit pricier than the Terra Kaffe Demi, but it does have a built-in milk frother and nearly a dozen drinks on the one-touch beverage menu. And yes, it has several dedicated iced coffee drink settings, including a "cold brew." It comes with two separate hoppers for whole beans that you can easily swap out, plus it has the option for pre-ground coffee.

Check out my Ninja AutoBarista Pro Fully Automatic Espresso Machine reviewView Deal

Terra Kaffe TK-02

Step up to the bigger Terra Kaffe sibling, the TK-02, if you want a super-automated machine with 100,000 drinks on the menu. Connect the milk container and the machine froths the milk for you. The app lets you put your favorites on the touch display screen. You can even brew your coffee with a voice command to Alexa. And there is a chute for pre-ground coffee.

Read my Terra Kaffe TK-02 review.View Deal

How I tested the Terra Kaffe Demi

I brewed and drank every drink on the menu: Espresso, Lungo, Americano, and Drip. I tried the Espresso, Lungo, and the Drip (pre-chilled) over ice. I drank many cups of my favorites, Espresso and Drip. I drank all of them black and lightly sweetened. I tried the iced coffee with frothed skim milk as well. I cleaned and emptied the waste bin and drip tray every day or two. I pulled out the brew unit and cleaned that once as well.

First reviewed July 2026

The Creality Falcon A1C is a compact, fully enclosed desktop laser engraver and a leap forward for affordable laser engraving in a format that's far safer than the open designs I often see at this price.

While it’s more affordable, with the full plastic build, it actually pulls many features from far more expensive machines, including the slightly larger Falcon A1. Designed to sit on your desktop, it measures 336 x 377 x 341 mm, giving it an incredibly compact footprint. Essentially, it's designed to be accessible and usable whenever you need it.

While the design aesthetics might not match that of some rivals' larger machines, the workflow and robust build make it an ideal option for education and small studios where you want to experiment with the technology to create items and even have small production runs.

In this review, I had access to the 10W version, and from unboxing to setup it took no longer than 10 minutes. Activation required a single push of the button on the machine, then a few steps, and it was connected to the mobile app.

On the Mac, it took a few more steps, with the wired connection needed first before you can switch over to Wi-Fi, but in both cases it's one setup, and then you don't have to revisit it later.

When it comes to use, the Falcon Design Space software is once again well laid out, as I saw with the Falcon A1 and Falcon T1, and with a few sample designs I was able to cut directly onto the paper and the basswood supplied.

I was instantly impressed with the results, starting with the basic ruler sample. I laid out five from the outset, and with an 18-minute engraving on the small sheet of 3mm ply, the results were actually incredibly impressive, with little scorching or burning, if any, visible.

After a month of using the machine on small projects, the engraving quality across a wide range of surfaces was consistently good, with the best results coming from wood and paper.

I also had to connect the A1C to the Bambu Lab air filter because I didn't have the Falcon one to use, but it worked perfectly with no issues. So if you already have an air filter, it should work without the dedicated one from Creality.

During the test, I was purely focused on that 10W laser cutting materials on that 150 x 150mm working area. There is a lower-powered option at 5W if you mainly work with paper, and also a 1.2W IR laser module, giving you even more scope for this one small machine.

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

What surprises me is the price, and whilst that is slightly reflected in the design and materials used, when it comes to pure functionality, this is a level of machine for its size that you just wouldn't have had a couple of years ago. It’s far better than any of the open-frame designs still available on the market.

One thing I would watch for if you're thinking about buying the A1C: note that there are two versions, and the cheapest doesn't include the camera, and that is a major part of the ease of use for this machine.

It also cannot be upgraded, so I'd really spend that extra money to make sure you get the version with the AI camera, which is the one I’m looking at here. I'd also push and get that 10W laser. It makes a huge difference, especially if you're going to be working with wood.

Even if you start working with paper, card, and acrylic, taking that upgrade is definitely something you're going to want to do in the future.

If you just want to laser small objects, then this is an absolutely superb option at an incredible price and a really good complement to the Creality Falcon range. It will be interesting to see where the company takes laser engraving technology next.

Creality Falcon A1C: Price & availability

To me, price Creality has set is great for a small-build entry-level engraver. But in my opinion, opt for the 10W model with AI camera for maximum future-proofing.

The basic 5W Falcon AIC is $199 from Creality or $299 for the 10W model. In the UK, it's similarly priced at £199 for the 5W version and £289 for the 10W.

However, there is a version with an AI camera attached, which is definitely the model that I would go for.

The 5W Falcon A1C with AI camera is priced at $259 at Creality's store, or $379 for the 10W model. In the UK, it's £249 for the 5W AI camera version and £369 for the 10W.

I'm also seeing the models with the AI camera on sale at Amazon in the US and UK, where you can get the 5W for $259 and the 10W for $379. It's more expensive there for UK readers, with the 5W retailing for £326 and the 10W at £445 at the time of review.

Creality Falcon A1C: DesignSpecs

Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth/BLE, USB
Camera: integrated camera on AI Camera model
Unit size: 336 x 377 x 341mm
Accessories: Optional rotary kit, air purifier, flexible fixture and related engraving accessories. Laser modules supported: 5W diode / 10W diode / 1.2W IR
Engraving area: 150 x 150mm
Maximum processing height: 148mm
Maximum working speed: 15,000mm/min
Focus: Automatic
Safety: Class 1, flame detection, tilt detection and USB safety lock
Weight: 9.7kg Basic / 9.8kg AI Camera model
Software: Falcon Design Space; LightBurn compatibility
Computer support: Windows 10 or later; macOS 11 or later; mobile app also available.

The Creality Falcon A1C is an extremely compact, fully enclosed laser engraver that comes in a variety of different options. In this review, I've been looking at the 10W version, which I highly recommend because it works with the widest range of materials and is a great starting point for any hobbyist, small business, or educational facility.

Alongside the A1C, I would also recommend getting the air filter, which uses a tube connected to the vent hole at the back. In this review, I haven't got Creality's version, so I've adapted it for use with the Bambu Lab air filter, which is used with the Bambu Lab H2D.

What I really like about the A1C's design is that it’s so compact, with a footprint of only 336mm wide and 377mm deep. Essentially, it fits neatly on the workshop workbench.

While the design is fully plastic and you can really feel where Creality has pulled back on the material use to make this as affordable as it is, it's still of decent quality and, with its visor lid ensuring that you stay fully protected from any laser rays, it's also a great option if you're just getting into laser engraving and definitely a big step up from the open-frame designs.

The machine itself, while light at just under 10kg, is well designed and sturdy, so it sits firmly on the work surface and stays put as you lift and close the lid. It's also worth highlighting that there is a security USB key on the back, so if you are using this at home and don't want the kids to get close to it, or if you have other people in the office, you can remove the key for safety; without it, the machine isn't usable.

Also, on the safety features, it has all the usual knock and tilt kill switches, as well as lid-lifting alerts. It also has a large safety stop button on the side, so if you are using this in education, it essentially has everything needed to pass most safety checks. However, you will need to check with your institution to make sure it is fully in line.

Now, whilst the build is fully plastic, it's all of really decent quality, and that weight helps ensure minimal vibration from the laser as it works away inside. It also has full autofocus, although you do need to activate it through the app software. It's essentially a pin that lowers with the laser head to touch the material's surface, ensuring the laser is perfectly focused, and you get the best possible cut, engraving, or score.

The system is simple and effective, and throughout the month of testing, it was completely faultless on the small work area, as long as I always remembered to hit that autofocus button before processing.

Another major feature of the model that I've looked at is the AI camera. Now, this produces a preview of the material on the platform, and I found the exposure was a little dark; sometimes, if using a darker material, you can only just make out where it’s placed in the work area. The front section, in contrast, is always perfectly visible.

One of the big differences between this machine and many others that I've looked at, especially at this size, is that, like some 3D printers, it has a raising platform. So essentially you put your material onto the platform, and it raises depending on the height and type of object and material that it’s made from.

This means that despite it being really small, you can also get a rotary attachment that fits perfectly inside, so you can do mugs and cups.

The platform is manually adjusted with a knob on the side, letting you raise or lower it depending on what you're putting inside, or it moves automatically when using the autofocus.

As this is also a compact laser engraver with an air system, you can secure paper and other objects to the platform, and for wood and acrylic there's also the grill platform you can pop those on top of.

Whilst this still feels, in many ways, like an entry-level laser engraving platform, I'm surprised by the volume of features it includes. They've been taken from professional laser engravers, so whilst this is relatively cheap, especially with all the present offers, it actually offers a very compact professional option at an incredible price.

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)Creality Falcon A1C: Features

In this test, I've been looking at the Creality Falcon A1C 10W diode laser option, which is good for wood, bamboo, paper, cork, cardboard, leather, glass and fabric. There's also a 5W diode laser option available. This is of lesser power, so any ambitions to cut through materials will have to be reduced.

However, if you just want to score or engrave, then the 5W option is actually a good choice. My personal advice would be to spend that little bit extra and go for the 10W version. That way, you are at least future-proofing yourself.

There's also an optional 1.2W IR module available, which enables even more engraving options. Essentially, the diode lasers let you engrave wood, paper, and soft materials, while the IR laser is designed to engrave and mark metals.

Swapping between the heads is relatively easy and, although I didn't have the IR head to test, the process is very straightforward. A simple securing screw can be undone without tools: drop out the head, pop in the new one, and the system automatically recognises the new head and updates the software, ready for you to get started.

Another feature I really like is full autofocus: you put the material you want to engrave underneath, hit autofocus, the head touches the material, and it focuses the beam. It's a mechanical approach, but it worked incredibly well.

Speed-wise, it can engrave at up to 15,000 mm per minute, which is relatively fast for such a small laser. For most of the test, I reduced this to a more standard 6,000 mm per minute for fill and line engraving, and 450 mm per minute for line cutting. These are the default settings, but after testing above and below, I found the factory defaults were by far the best.

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

One of the things I really liked on the other Falcon machines is that you use the Falcon Design Space software, which is available for Mac, PC, iOS, and Android. It's really easy to use, well thought out and gives you plenty of options.

If you want to use third-party software such as LightBurn, that's also supported, so if you're working with other laser engravers and want everything under one roof, that is possible.

For connectivity, you can connect via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or USB. Mobile workflows are really easy: connect through Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, quickly upload, select your settings, and move on.

On the Mac/PC, using Falcon Design Space, you initially connect through USB and, once set up, you can connect through Wi-Fi, which gives you plenty of options and has proven to be a really solid way of working.

Alongside the machine, there’s a range of accessories, including the rotary engraver, which is a standard accessory for most engravers. It's great to see it here as an upgrade option. There's also the air purification accessory, which I would definitely recommend if you are thinking of buying this or, for that matter, any laser engraver.

Creality Falcon A1C: Performance

Getting started with a Falcon A1C doesn't take long. It's a small machine, so unboxing and setting it up on the desktop takes no more than five minutes. Once the packaging is removed, the power is plugged in, and the cutting surface is installed, you can lower the platform using the dial on the right-hand side of the machine so the cutting platform and material can be slipped into place.

Before I got started, I also just wanted to check the emergency stop: testing this simply involved hitting the red button. Everything shut down, and it was the usual twist to power the machine back on.

Having a stop button on the side of machines is essential. This button enables you to kill the power, so that if one of the materials that you've popped inside catches fire, you can deal with it quickly. Hit stop, and that kills the power, so you're only dealing with the fire and not the laser moving as well.

I then popped in the first piece of 3mm ply, loaded up the iOS app and quickly ran through a couple of test engraves. I was surprised by how easy it was to connect to the app and get started; it took no more than five minutes.

I then moved over to the MacBook Pro and, again, it took a couple of minutes to connect the USB cable, do a quick test card and then disconnect the Mac, at which point I could use it over Wi-Fi back in the house.

Popping in materials was all easy enough, with that dial on the side basically activating the motor so the platform raises or lowers. You can then place your material in, hit autofocus once the lid is down, and it's then primed and ready to go. Back in the Falcon software, you can activate the camera to preview the material and the design you've loaded, move it around, and you're almost ready to go.

If you've downloaded a pre-designed cutting path from the Creality site, it's very easy, as the different cuts and engraves have already been highlighted. However, if you're importing paths from your chosen software, then you'll need to select the path and allocate line cutting or engraving.

Essentially, if you import your logo and want it to be a placemat with the logo engraved, Then you want the placemat to be cut out in a disc obviously, what you need to do is select the logo as your first engraving layer and assign that as a line engrave, and set the speed to 6,000mm a minute at about 60% with a one-time pass for 3mm basswood board.

Then, for the letters, create another layer with the text, select Fill Engraving, set the speed to 6,000 mm/min and power to 60%, and run one pass. Finally, you want your logo cut out of that mat, so select a circle from the shapes, draw it around your logo, select line cutting, set the speed to 450 m/minute and power to 80% with one pass, go to Processing and wait for your placemat to be cut.

Another level of ease is that there are loads of materials present; just select the material type and a preset for that is loaded. Through this test, I used basswood ply or paper for the majority of cuts, and these materials could be selected in the presets. With the AI camera enabling you to line everything up perfectly, it was very quick and straightforward to start getting impressive results from the outset.

During the test, I found that the small 150 x 150mm work surface was a little restrictive. For example, a placemat for a mug measuring 90mm x 90mm means you can only do one at a time. Also, if you want to do anything larger, then you will need a larger machine. However, for small home projects, there’s still plenty of scope.

The camera, while useful, is also limited. Seeing the material at the top left in the preview can be difficult because of its position on the laser head and, unless you have bright lighting in the workshop, the preview can look a little dark. There’s also a stop on using the camera while the laser is in action; this is just to review the material, not to monitor the project's progress.

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

Checking the quality of some engraving, it's exceptionally high, with a good, accurate laser delivering outstanding results considering the size and scale of this machine.

For fine detail, as you'll see on some of the coasters, you have to be very careful about how you convert the image for laser engraving. Still, after a few runs and a little bit of experimentation, you'll settle on the best results for the material that you're using.

Likewise, when it comes to cutting, there's very little, if any, scorching, which means that if you are doing small production runs, you can quickly wipe the wood afterwards and go straight to finishing with a bit of wax, depending on what you're doing.

Overall, the performance and quality this small machine can produce are exceptionally high, and for anyone or a small business looking to get into laser engraving, this is a great starting point and will absolutely show what can be done with this technology.

Creality Falcon A1C: Final verdict

Creality Falcon A1C is an interesting machine. It’s a Class 1 laser, and interchangeable modules enable you to swap between a 5W (optional) or 10W diode laser and a 1.2W IR head (Optional), and there's plenty of flexibility in what you can do with this machine.

My one thing to point out is that there are two versions of the machine. Just make sure you're opting for the slightly more expensive one with the AI camera, which is the version I've looked at in this review. The cheaper version doesn't feature the AI camera, so positioning is a little bit trickier, and you can't preview exactly where things go.

When it comes to use, the studio software makes things easy. Although there’s still a learning process, especially with putting your cutting and engraving paths onto different layers, after a few runs it's relatively easy to work out.

If you are totally new, I highly recommend downloading some pre-made templates and seeing how they are made; it all starts to make sense pretty quickly as you click through those layers.

Whilst the machine itself is cheap, you will have to pay extra if you want to purchase many of the accessories, including the 5W diode or IR heads, but even then they're not usually expensive compared with other laser engravers. One real limitation is the 150 x 150 work area, a size I normally associate with a fibre laser, not a diode like this.

However, that small size also means you can easily sit it on a desktop. It's great for a small workshop or anyone wanting to dabble in laser engraving, as it gives you a superb idea of what larger, more expensive machines can do, and 10W in a small machine like this is still substantial enough to create some pretty impressive products.

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

When it comes to cutting quality, it’s exceptionally good, and the engraving quality is, too; at this level it's well above what you would normally expect.

If you are looking for a small, compact laser engraver, this is a great place to start. I would suggest spending that little extra and buying the air filter at the same time, and if you can afford it, the rotary addition is always a worthwhile accessory.

Should you buy the Creality Falcon A1C

Value:

Excellent functions and features for a machine at this price, giving you a true taste of what laser engraving is all about

4.5

Design:

The full-plastic design has a slightly cheapish feel, but with the small footprint it fits neatly on almost any work surface

4.5

Features

The autofocus feature just makes using this laser engraver exceptionally easy, as does the fact that it's fully enclosed, perfect for beginners

4.5

Performance

A 150 x 150 work area is slightly limiting, but aside from that, if you just want to work on small items, the cutting and engraving quality is superb

4.5

Total

An extremely well-priced and feature-packed compact laser engraver for both beginners and small businesses

4.5

Buy it if...

It's your first laser engraver
If you want your first fully enclosed laser engraver but don't like the idea of an open machine, this is a superb option at this price and surprisingly feature-packed.

You work on small, personalized products
If you focus on gifts, tags, jewellery, and other small products, the 150 x 150mm work area is a huge benefit and very easy to use.View Deal

Don't buy it if...

You need a large work area
If you're making products or multiple parts, the 150 x 150 work area will be a bit small, and if you want to mass-produce, you'll definitely need something bigger.

You may need a camera later
Don't go for the cheaper model without the camera. Whilst it will save you quite a bit of money, it also makes the machine more complicated to use.View Deal

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

Insidious, we meet again. For the sixth time, in fact. It's become one of the world's biggest horror franchises but the new horror movie is making me question whether or not it needs to carry on at all.

I should preface this largely negative review by saying that I was a huge fan of the first Insidious movie, and have been a fan of James Wan's ever since Saw. So it truly does pain me to say I did not have a good time with Insidious: Out of the Further, because I went in hoping to see an intriguing new entry, but what followed was almost entirely predictable.

Recently, we have seen some good horror sequels. Take a look at Saw X for example, which is infinitely better than some of the movies that came before it (I still can't get over how bad Jigsaw is). But Insidious: Out of the Further feels like a way to profit from the popular franchise without really adding much to it.

It's a shame, because it did have potential. Here, Alice Eve plays Gemma, a young mother who is raising her daughter in her childhood home. She lives a normal life until she discovers she can travel into The Further, which is a purgatorial realm of lost souls. Gemma realizes she can bring what lives in The Further back to the real world, which is great news for demonic entities who use Gemma to their full advantage. Cue carnage unfolding in our realm, and plenty of evil round the corner.

I first saw Alice Eve in Netflix's The Haunting of Bly Manor, and she is undoubtedly the best thing about Insidious: Out of the Further. As a new arrival to the Insidious franchise she's front and center of this sequel, and does a great job in the role.

Unfortunately, Eve's strong performance can't make up for the movie's many flaws. Insidious: Out of the Further is the scariest of the franchise due to the sheer number of jump scares, many of which have extremely loud audio to go along with it.

But the fact it was able to make me jump in my seat multiple times does not make it a good movie. The special effects and makeup feel really off, and not at all on the same level as previous movies. A lot of the narrative decisions frustrated me too, and I think it tries to take itself too seriously by stuffing loads of new lore into its runtime, making it feel bloated.

(Image credit: Sony Pictures Releasing)

It's essential to see the other Insidious movies first, which may seem obvious, but I would encourage you to rewatch (or at least read up on them) before you go and see Insidious: Out of the Further, otherwise you might end up feeling lost. This really is for die-hard Insidious fans who know their stuff, so casual fans might be left scratching their heads.

Insidious: Out of the Further does not come close to the quality we've seen in a wave of recent great horror movies. It pales in comparison to fresh horror hits like Obsession and Backrooms, despite the fact the trailer repeatedly reminds us that it's produced by the same people; Blumhouse and Atomic Monster.

Having said that, if you want to go just to be startled by a carousel of jump scares, it's a great choice. I'd recommend this for those who want to test their nerve, and it's best seen with a crowd for this reason. I would advise against buying any popcorn in case you throw it all over yourself, because the scares are certainly in abundance here.

But it's not a necessary addition to the Insidious franchise at all, and doesn't live up to the 2010 movie that started it all. After 16 years, perhaps it's time to put this franchise to bed for good.

Poco F8 Ultra: Two-minute review

The Poco F8 Ultra demonstrates what’s possible when performance doesn’t come at a premium. Packing a top-end Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, a huge 6,500mAh battery, and a bright 120Hz AMOLED display, it's among the very best phones on paper — but it's Poco's photography chops and unique Bose partnership that set the F8 Ultra apart from other ‘flagship killers’.

A trio of rear cameras steals the show. Poco phones (as well as those made by its parent company, Xiaomi) often sneak under the radar for photographic performance, but having shone in both day and nighttime environments during my testing, there’s rarely been any situation where the F8 Ultra’s cameras haven’t exceeded expectations. What’s more, Xiaomi’s HyperOS 3 seems to finally be fulfilling its AI-centric potential, with genuinely useful photo features that allow beginners to fine-tune their shots to perfection.

The brand's Bose partnership sets an equally high standard. While for many, the addition of a dedicated 1620 subwoofer in the phone's rear panel may seem like a token gesture, partnering it with symmetrical, dual 115F speakers quickly highlights how ‘flat’ other phones sound without external audio devices. Bass is noticeable, and the overall soundscape is more than pleasant enough to enable most to ditch the headphones entirely, so long as the situation suits!

While the F8 Ultra's design may bear a striking resemblance to that of Apple’s iPhone 17 Pro, that’s hardly a bad thing. The phone feels superb to hold and rivals its most premium opposition for style, despite its huge 6.9-inch display. The rounded corners, flat aluminum edges, and impressive thinness (7.9 or 8.3mm, depending on variant) help its size feel manageable, and it’ll quickly feel much like its more premium counterparts in everyday use. The denim-like variant is certainly an acquired taste, but I grew accustomed to it quickly and, frankly, it feels superb to use.

Under the hood, the combination of a huge 6,500mAh battery and Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset is stellar. The F8 Ultra achieves all-day battery life with ease, all while retaining superb performance under strain from gaming or multitasking. The only drawback: it does suffer from the chipset’s trademark overheating problems. While I never found the phone to be fatally hot, this temperature increase is certainly noticeable when gaming for long periods, and it can lead to some performance drops as a result.

The phone's availability is another drawback. It's available in the UK via both carriers and retailers, but only via third-party retailers like Amazon and eBay in the US. Still, the latter is more than can be said for the best Xiaomi phones, so I suppose that's a small win. The Poco F8 Ultra isn't available in Australia at the time of writing.

Poco F8 Ultra review: Price and availability

• Launched for £749 / $729
• But it's now almost always on sale
• US price varies heavily depending on the seller

The Poco F8 Ultra undercuts almost any comparable phone when it comes to price. It launched for $729 / £749 back in November 2025, but is now available for significantly less — especially in the UK — likely due to the imminent release of the Poco F9 Ultra, which is rumored to land towards the end of 2026.

It's a win in itself to see one of Xiaomi’s devices available via Amazon or eBay in the US. It’s not available directly through carriers, though you’ll no longer have an issue using a US SIM with this device.

Even without a discount, the Poco F8 Ultra starts from the best part of $200 / £200 less than you’d normally expect to pay for a device boasting the latest chipset, triple cameras, and a huge battery. It even gets 4 years of major Android OS updates and 6 years of security updates. By which point, Xiaomi will almost certainly have released something of even better value to replace it.

Xiaomi and Poco do sell phones in Australia, but the Poco F8 Ultra isn't currently available in that region.

• Value score: 5 / 5

Poco F8 Ultra review: Specs

Poco F8 Ultra

Dimensions

163.33 x 8.3 x 77.82mm (Black) 163.33 x 7.9 x 77.82mm (Blue)

Weight

217g (Black), 220g (Blue)

OS

Android 16 (HyperOS 3)

Display

6.9-inch 120Hz HyperRGB AMOLED

Resolution

2608 x 1200

Chipset

Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5

RAM

12GB (256GB), 16GB (512GB)

Storage

256GB, 512GB

Battery

6,500mAh

Rear cameras

50MP wide (f/1.7) + 50MP periscope telephoto (f/3.0) + 50-MP (f/2.4) ultrawide

Front cameras

32MP (f/2.2)

Charging

100W wired, 50W wireless, 22.5W reverse wireless

Poco F8 Ultra review: Design

(Image credit: Future // Rob Dunne)

• iPhone-like camera plateau design
• Super comfortable to hold despite huge size
• Denim blue choice may not be to some people’s taste

Poco adopts a reliable yet stylish look for the Poco F8 Ultra. That said, the first thing that needs discussing is its Denim Blue option.

While the material itself isn’t denim — rather, Poco's own nano-tech material — it looks and feels as though you’re texting from a pair of Levi’s. It’s no doubt a strange experience to begin with, but you’ll quickly see the benefits of this new material, namely a complete lack of scratch marks and a nice grippy feel in the hand.

If you’re after a more traditional look, there is also a black variant. It uses Poco’s ‘Glass Fibre’, which gives a feel closer to that of a glass-backed phone. It should feel less slippery to hold and pick up fewer scratches than the competition, though you’re definitely likely to see more fingerprints here than on its denim-look counterpart.

Either variant is also pleasantly comfortable to hold despite the phone's huge 6.9-inch display. The F8 Ultra has a rounded aluminum frame and only weighs 220g at most (or 217g if you choose the black version). That’s over 10g lighter than an iPhone 17 Pro Max, and yet the weight cut doesn’t leave the phone feeling any less premium when you’re holding it, nor does it feel so light that it could be easily dropped or broken.

Where the F8 Ultra and the iPhone are more similar, however, is in their shared camera plateau design. In the case of the F8 Ultra, the plateau houses not only the rear cameras but also the subwoofer that headlines the phone's Bose partnership. Unlike many plateaus, the Poco F8 Ultra’s doesn’t protrude hugely despite its more-than-capable cameras, which we’ll cover later.

Aside from these features, the F8 Ultra's design bears little to shout about, which in many ways, is a win. The denim look is certainly a unique choice should you choose it, but both this and the black variant will soon leave you thinking you possess a phone far more premium than its price tag suggests.

• Design score: 4 / 5

Poco F8 Ultra review: Display

(Image credit: Future // Rob Dunne)

• Bright and easily viewed
• Great refresh rate
• Simple punch-hole front-camera

The Poco F8 Ultra’s display gives the phone a premium feel from the moment you boot it up. This huge 6.9-inch 2608 x 1200 AMOLED screen is capable of a 3500-nit peak brightness, which, while lower than many equivalent phones, does a faultless job of keeping the display punchy and viewable from almost all angles.

You also get a 120Hz refresh rate to play with, meaning scrolling through social media or gaming is smooth enough for even the most serious mobile gamers. This display also offers up to 480Hz touch sampling, which gives the screen a super-responsive feel, no matter if you're gaming or switching between apps.

The Poco F8 Ultra's display is also one of Xiaomi’s ‘eye-care’ displays. These use a combination of hardware and software to reduce eye strain, headaches, and sleep problems caused by phone displays. Technologies such as high-frequency PWM dimming and circadian rhythm adjustments are employed to keep you healthy and have little to no impact on the device’s performance.

All of this technology is housed under ‘Poco Shield’ glass, which is proprietary to Xiaomi and kept for only its most premium devices. In the months of using this phone, I’ve never found reason to doubt Xiaomi’s claims of improved scratch- and impact-resistance compared to industry-standard solutions such as Corning glass. I've been able to confidently use the F8 Ultra in crowded environments without a case, where, frankly, it’s had more than one abrupt meeting with a floor.

That said, the biggest part of why this phone feels so premium to use is just how much display it gives you to play with. It has a huge 94.25% screen-to-body ratio and opts for a simple punch-hole front camera. This, partnered with its huge size, leaves the F8 Ultra's screen feeling nothing short of flagship-worthy while you're streaming, gaming, or browsing. Good job, Xiaomi.

• Display score: 4 / 5

Poco F8 Ultra review: Cameras

(Image credit: Future // Rob Dunne)

• Brilliant levels of detail and vibrancy
• Low-light shooting is top tier
• Selfie camera has room for improvement

The Poco F8 Ultra’s cameras are nothing short of superb — whether you use them at night, for close-ups, or even just regular shooting.

No matter the subject, the Poco F8 Ultra captured a level of vibrancy and detail in each shot that, frankly, it had no right to given its price point. Most noticeably, while shooting in cloudier conditions, shots continued to be detailed and well-balanced, without falling foul of extreme white blowouts in backgrounds.

I did find focusing on the F8 Ultra a touch more fiddly than some might like, especially when looking to shoot in dimmer, indoor environments, but with time, it becomes manageable. That said, the phone was near-flawless in picking up the subject matter and retaining razor-thin focus margins to the rest of the frame.

Each of the three main cameras is 50MP, with the phone even offering a 50MP shooting mode to make full use of these megapixels — though it sacrifices much of the camera's adaptability should you choose to use it.

One of the standout inclusions on the phone's spec sheet is its Light Fusion 950 light sensor. Taking the F8 Ultra out for some night photography proved just how beneficial the device’s 43% improvement in light sensitivity (versus the F7 Ultra) can be. Details remained sharp, backgrounds were rarely a mere abyss of black, and the vibrancy I’d seen in the daytime remained to a surprising degree.

On the front of the phone, there’s a 32MP selfie camera which does a good enough job. It definitely leaves selfies a touch smoother than you’d expect given the quality of the rear cameras, and it's sometimes a touch excessive when adjusting skin tones in bright environments. But it’s still a camera I’d happily use to snap my next night out.

Whether you’re shooting selfies or regular shots, there are also a strong number of preset modes and effects you can use to make the shot your own if you aren’t a seasoned pro. It’s not quite as many as you’d get from something like a Pixel or Galaxy phone, but the Poco F8 Ultra's camera itself proved more than capable of providing strong results no matter the subject matter, even in my amateur hands.

Poco F8 Ultra review: camera samplesFutureFuture // Rob Dunne Future // Rob Dunne Future / Rob Dunne Future // Rob DunneFuture // Rob DunneFuture // Rob Dunne Future // Rob DunneFuture // Rob Dunne Future // Rob DunnePoco F8 Ultra review: Performance

(Image credit: Future // Rob Dunne)

• Flagship-level specs provide the expected power
• Doesn’t struggle with multitasking or intense games
• Brilliant audio capabilities

It’s frustratingly difficult to fault a flagship-killer's performance when it packs a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset and DDR5X memory because, in short, it’s packing the same tech as its premium rivals, with a far smaller price tag. What’s more, there’s nothing to suggest any corners have been cut elsewhere on the F8 Ultra.

For example, I tested it with hugely demanding games such as Call of Duty: Mobile and Genshin Impact, and it never so much as dropped a frame. It’ll get a touch warm, as any phone would (including flagships), but, in fact, the alternative back panel material makes it far more manageable to hold when it does.

Day-to-day use is a doddle. Depending on the storage configuration you choose, you get either 12 or 16GB of DDR5X RAM, and 256GB or 512GB of UFS 4.1 storage. Simply put, nothing is slow to load, and you’ll likely be able to multitask however you choose to without any noticeable slowdown.

What’s more, having now spent well over six months with the device (yes, I've been testing it for a while), these performance levels haven't dropped off whatsoever. The F8 Ultra is backed by a huge 6,500mAh battery, which we’ll cover later, and it's remained a remarkably capable phone for heavy-duty gaming sessions while I'm on the go. This performance is, in part, helped by its ‘Game Turbo’ mode, though, on trying with and without this option turned on, the difference is far less noticeable than you’d expect.

Streaming on the device is something I also came to enjoy thanks in no small part to its unique Bose subwoofer system. It’s well known that regular phone speakers often return flat, unappealing soundscapes, but the F8 Ultra’s Bose partnership quite simply throws this possibility out of the window. The subwoofer allows for a 2.1-channel audio system that restores the punchiness you want while watching intense TV series or horror films (in private, please).

Of course, the F8 Ultra is no match for a proper speaker or sound system, but I’ve certainly found myself more comfortable using the phone to play music aloud or quickly watch videos while at home without connecting to a speaker separately.

• Performance score: 5 / 5

Poco F8 Ultra review: Software

(Image credit: Future // Rob Dunne)

• HyperOS 3 is simple enough for anyone
• AI is becoming increasingly involved in the experience
• Remains beginner-friendly without AI integrations

HyperOS has quickly matured into a clean and easy OS since its launch in late 2023. Yes, the ever-increasing amount of AI features may put off those keen to avoid extreme data collection in the name of convenience, but the software experience, regardless, is smoother than ever.

Navigating menus and finding settings and toggles throughout the device is smooth, and everything is essentially where you’d expect it to be. The functionality of some of the icon-based toggles could be clearer, but this is a problem that’s apparent across most Android OS packages nowadays.

Photo editing is so far the best use of Xiaomi’s increasing AI toolset. Beginners can quickly and easily improve their photos with an ‘AI Beautify’ tool that does a far better job than most auto-adjust photo tools I’ve come across in the past.

There are several more excessive options, such as sky adjustments, image expansion, and portrait adjustments, that may disturb photography purists, but, as yet, these tools aren’t quite as refined as they need to be for everyday use.

Outside of photography, you get several AI-based writing improvement, search, and speech tools that can be toggled to improve the everyday experience. Thankfully, having tested the Poco F8 Ultra both with and without these additions, the user experience remains simple enough if you’re keen to keep AI away from your everyday tasks.

All in all, HyperOS 3 more than matches up to the F8 Ultra’s premium specs; it provides a simple enough experience for casual users, while power users can make the most of its many customization options.

• Software score: 4 / 5

Poco F8 Ultra review: Battery

• Huge multi-day battery life
• Sub-hour charging times are very helpful
• Includes 22.5W reverse wireless charging

It’s no surprise that the Poco F8 Ultra’s battery credentials are flagship-grade. The phone packs a 6,500mAh battery with 100W wired and 50W wireless charging, and in testing, these figures resulted in months of day-long battery life and little worry about the speed of impromptu top-ups.

Slower use days will get you multiple days of battery life, which was a welcome surprise, and in truth you'll probably get beyond a day of endurance even with a reasonable amount of social media scrolling and general browsing.

Gaming and streaming were, understandably, the biggest drainers. But, even so, it would only make an hour or so’s difference to the battery life I’d come to expect. To this day, over six months later, I’m still never remotely worried I’ll run out of battery on the Poco F8 Ultra so long as I'm leaving the house with 40% charge or above.

And the phone's 100W charging makes charging a breeze. Getting back up to 100% is comfortably done in under an hour, though in my experience, it takes a tad longer than the advertised 38 minutes. 22.5W reverse wireless charging is also a handy addition for when friends find themselves in a pinch.

In my experience, you’d scarcely find better battery life at this price point. Only Poco's own Poco X8 Pro Max trumps the F8 Ultra for battery value, though you will get even better endurance from true flagships like the Oppo Find X9 Pro and OnePlus 15.

• Battery score: 5 / 5

Should you buy the Poco F8 Ultra?

Attributes

Notes

Rating

Value

The Poco F8 Ultra brings undoubtedly flagship capabilities to a mid-range price point. It's perfect if you’re keen to save without making huge performance sacrifices.

5 / 5

Design

Despite being a clear iPhone clone, the F8 Ultra lacks no amount of unique style. It’s premium to look at whether you go safe with black or opt for its denim alternative.

4 / 5

Display

Bright and smooth, it’s easy to see the Poco F8 Ultra’s premium intent as soon as you load up its huge display for the first time.

4 / 5

Performance

Nothing seems to stop the F8 Ultra from performing. Gaming and multitasking are a breeze, with little sign of let up no matter how hard you push.

5 / 5

Software

HyperOS is finally becoming the matured, reliable OS it was intended to be. AI is definitely a centrepiece, but it’s easy enough for anyone to use.

4 / 5

Cameras

Vibrant, detailed, and sharp, there’s little to fault about the Poco F8 Ultra’s triple camera array. That said, there’s room for some improvement on the front.

4 / 5

Battery

Multi-day battery life and super-quick charging. Using it makes you forget what worrying about battery life feels like, and it doesn’t stop for months.

5 / 5

Buy it if

You want all-day battery life and more

The Poco F8 Ultra’s battery size, charging speed, and superb processing capabilities make multi-day use the norm — it's perfect if you’re always on the move without access to quick and easy charging.View Deal

You’re a keen mobile gamer

The mix of top-tier processing capabilities and long battery life means you can be set up for hours of high-intensity gaming. No need to turn down the graphics settings, no need to turn on battery saver; just sit down and game as you wish. View Deal

You want an immersive streaming experience

The Poco F8 Ultra’s 2.1-channel audio system and huge 6.9-inch display make for a brilliant mobile streaming experience that simply can’t be matched by any phone of a similar price. View Deal

Don’t buy it if

You want a guaranteed point-and-shoot camera experience

While the camera is superb, in some settings, the focus can be fiddly, which, if you’re after a quick shot, is less than ideal. View Deal

Poco F8 Ultra review: also consider

Oppo Find X9 Pro

Oppo’s Find X9 Pro is a step up in all the things that make the Poco F8 Ultra great. Superb photography, huge battery life, and strong performance. Just be aware that it’s regularly a more expensive choice and lacks US availability.

Read our full Oppo Find X9 Pro review

Samsung Galaxy S26

The S26 is the ideal phone if you’re looking for decent photography, with strong AI integrations and an all-round better user experience. That said, you lose out on battery life and some of the photographic potential.

Read our full Samsung Galaxy S26 review

Poco F8 Ultra

Oppo Find X9 Pro

Samsung Galaxy S26

Price

£749 / $729

£1,099 / AU$2,299

$899 / £879 / AU$1,349

Display

6.9-inch 120Hz HyperRGB AMOLED

6.78-inch 120Hz AMOLED

6.3-inch 120Hz Dynamic AMOLED 2X

Cameras

50 MP wide (f/1.7) + 50 MP periscope telephoto (f/3.0) + 50 MP (f/2.4) ultra-wide

50MP main + 50MP ultra-wide + 200MP telephoto (3x)

50MP main + 10MP telephoto + 12MP ultra-wide

Processor

Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5

MediaTek Dimensity 9500

Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5

Battery

6,500mAh

7,500mAh

4,300mAh

How I tested the Poco F8 Ultra

• Tested over multiple months
• Used as both a daily driver and second phone
• Compared with previous testing

Why you can trust TechRadar

☑️ 100s of smartphones reviewed
☑️ 15 years of product testing
☑️ Over 16,000 products reviewed in total
☑️ Nearly 200,000 hours testing tech

I tested the Poco F8 Ultra over a period exceeding six months, with the phone arriving at the time of its launch.

In that time, it was either my main or secondary phone and was put through several forms of testing. This included extensive usage to test battery life, intensive streaming and gaming testing, as well as regular daily use to spot usability issues, bugs, and other problems consumers may face.

This review was conducted using my own experience of the phones industry alongside other experiences reviewing phones in similar price brackets.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed: July 2026

JBL Live Beam 4 review

JBL is back with its new generation of touchscreen-equipped earbuds, and the JBL Live Beam 4 may just be my favorite of the bunch.

These in-ear wireless earbuds come with a number of improvements over their predecessors, including enhanced active noise cancelling capabilities, new “fidelity drivers” for more advanced audio, and better call quality to boot. That’s not to mention an updated UI for the smart charging case, which is packed with more features than ever before.

But are these changes good enough to cement the JBL Live Beam 4 as some of the best wireless earbuds that money can buy? Here’s what I think after weeks of testing.

Let’s start by talking about the smart charging case, which is the Live series’ unique selling point. Although it certainly borders on gimmicky, the revamped UI is actually pretty responsive, and is packed with plenty of functionality. You can adjust the ANC mode, equalizer, spatial sound settings, and playback settings, for instance, and 'favorite' certain settings for speedier access.

But that’s not all. You can also access tools such as a timer, flashlight, and a Find My Buds application, and also set a background — including a custom photo, which I loved doing. Gaining access to these instruments without needing to remove your phone (or other source device) may be handy in certain situations — like when your device is in a bag or on charge.

As chic as the touchscreen case is, though, I still found myself gravitating towards the JBL Headphones app on my phone — the ease of a larger screen, and the full control available in the companion software made it a more natural choice for me.

The feature-set available is pretty comprehensive just on the case though, and marks a vast improvement on the suite of features to be found in JBL's past screen-toting buds. On top of what I’ve already mentioned, you can activate a smart talk option — similar to Sony’s speak-to-chat feature. You can also customize touch controls, and alter how your voice — and the person on the other side — sounds on phone calls (there’s a natural, powerful, or bright version).

Given that JBL has also included ‘Perfect Calls 2.0’ tech, which harnesses an AI-trained algorithm, you may expect primo call quality here, but unfortunately, I found it to be a touch underwhelming. It was by no means bad, but during a call, my colleague noted how my voice lacked the clarity and definition they’d expected. When making a voice recording I found this to be accurate — my speech was clear enough, but there was a fair bit of sibilance, and background noises were pretty prominent too.

But let’s talk about arguably the most important feature of all — active noise cancellation. You can choose to have this on, off, or use a transparency mode, all of which are easy to cycle through in-app or on the smart charging case.

But just how good is the ANC on these earbuds? Well… it’s decent. We weren’t blown away by noise the cancelling on the JBL Live Beam 3, and despite some improvement, I still found them a little prone to letting external noise creep in. Whether it was passing by traffic, typing in my office, or chatter on buses, I could still hear a fair bit, even when listening at around 70% volume. The Beam 4 still dulled sounds effectively, and kept me focused on my tunes, but if you’re expecting the silence-inducing ANC of the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds Gen 2, for instance, then you may be disappointed.

(Image credit: Future)

Anyway, I think it’s about time I started giving the JBL Beam 4 their flowers, because they impressed me in almost every other area — including what is arguably the most crucial of all: sound quality. These are a fantastic-sounding pair of wireless buds, especially with LDAC activated for higher-resolution Bluetooth streaming.

Right out of the box, the Live Beam 4 offer exciting, impactful, yet detailed audio. As is usually the case with JBL audio gear, the bass is fairly forward, but not to the point that it’s distasteful or ‘boomy’.

For instance, tuning into Soul Mass Transit System’s Feel Da Vibe, I was struck by the deep, hypnotic bassline, which rippled throughout the track effortlessly, never sounding lethargic or unrefined. In addition, synths in the mid-range and drums up high never sounded drowned out or obscured by the hard-hitting bass.

More stripped-back, acoustic tracks sound great on the Live Beam 4 too. For example, in 78 Rotações by Jards Macalé, fingerpicked guitars sounded expressive and vibrant, and the natural tonality of the raw playing was replicated with finesse. Sure, vocals could have been separated in the mix a bit more effectively, but I still really enjoyed the listening experience overall — subtle percussive elements and guitar licks sounded were positioned brilliantly, and the buds’ broad soundstage made for a surprisingly immersive presentation.

All in all, I’d argue that these are some of the best-sounding earbuds in their price range. Treble is controlled yet vivid enough to capture the excitement of more energetic tracks, mids are detailed and clean-sounding, and bass is impactful yet disciplined. One thing, though: keep Spatial Sound off. This setting only made my music sound compressed, and vocals sound artificial and shrill. You also have to turn LDAC off to use it, so I’d steer clear, personally.

(Image credit: Future)

Something else I really liked about the Live Beam 4 is their design. Their stems make them easy to remove from your ears, and the glossy finish on the exterior is pretty enticing. The case itself is pretty neat-looking too and is built to a very high standard. The display itself is fairly bright, and although the case is on the bulky side overall, it’s still small enough to slot into just about any pocket.

In the ear, the buds also feel phenomenally comfortable and secure. I never felt the need to take them out, even when listening to music for hours on end — something I honestly can’t say about a lot of competitors. They’re also IP55 dust and waterproof-rated, meaning I was able to use the Beam 4 even if it was pouring with rain outside.

So are the JBL Live Beam 4 worth their £179.99 / AU$269.95 (about $240) asking price? For me, it’s a resounding yes. They offer genuinely sophisticated sound, a really comfortable in-ear fit, and plenty of features to play around with. The smart case — though admittedly a bit of a gimmick — is responsive and a fun inclusion, and I enjoyed setting a custom background, using the built-in applications, and having swift access to EQ settings, for example.

The battery life — although unchanged from the previous gen — is still plentiful too, 12 hours for the buds, and up to 48 hours with the charging case is better than you’re getting from Apple and Bose’s flagship earbuds.

So, even if the ANC and call quality could be better on the JBL Live Beam 4, they still earn my hearty recommendation, and if you want wireless earbuds that come with a unique twist, they’re well worth checking out.

(Image credit: Future)JBL Live Beam 4 review: price & release date

• List price of £179.99 / AU$269.95 (about $240)
• Revealed in May 2026

The JBL Live Beam 4 were revealed in May 2026, about two years after their predecessor, the JBL Live Beam 3. They come in at £179.99 / AU$269.95 (about $240), meaning they cost the same as the previous gen model did at launch (in the UK). We’re yet to receive any information about pricing or a launch in the US, but we’ll update this review if and when we hear more.

They’re priced competitively, coming in at a lower cost than top-tier rivals like the AirPods Pro 3 and the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds Gen 2.

JBL Live Beam 4 review: specs

Drivers

10mm dynamic

Active noise cancellation

Yes

Battery life

12 hours (buds), 48 hours (with charging case)

Weight

4.9g (per bud)

Connectivity

Bluetooth 6.0

Frequency range

20Hz-40kHz

Waterproofing

IP55

(Image credit: Future)Should I buy the JBL Live Beam 4?

Attribute

Notes

Score

Features

Broad feature-set within the charging case and app, but ANC and call quality could be better.

4/5

Sound quality

Impactful bass, rich mids, and vibrant treble and broad soundstage make for excellent audio.

4.5/5

Design

Ultra-comfortable in-ear fit, IP55-rated, and case is well-built, albeit bulky.

4.5/5

Value

A good price for earbuds that are this feature-rich and sound this good.

4.5/5

Buy them if…

You want the best sound-per-pound audio quality
For a pair of wireless earbuds in this price bracket, the JBL Live Beam 4 are excellent performers. They’re a little bass forward, but that doesn’t come at the expense of rich mids or vibrant treble. And with LDAC on, you can enjoy an even more detailed listen time after time.

You’re drawn in by the screen-fitted charging case
If you’re tempted by the Beam 4’s touchscreen case, then I have good news for you — it works like a dream. With a revamped UI, plenty of customization options, and tools like a timer and flashlight, there’s plenty of functionality to play around with. I also enjoyed selecting a photo from my phone’s library as a custom background — it’s such a thoughtful touch.

Don’t buy them if…

You want top-tier ANC
While the ANC on these earbuds is pretty decent, it’s not exactly class leading. If you want top-of-the-range noise-crushing capabilities, I’d still recommend checking out Bose’s flagship in-ears.

You want spectacular spatial audio
The spatial audio setting on JBL’s new Live Beam earbuds is by no means spectacular — in fact, it’s barely serviceable. Vocals lose clarity and songs will generally have a more compressed quality, meaning they deliver disappointing spatial sound.

JBL Live Beam 4 review: also consider

JBL Live Beam 4

Apple AirPods Pro 3

Cambridge Audio Melomania A100

Price

£179.99 / AU$269.95 (about $240)

$249 / £219 / AU$429

$149 / £119 / AU$199

Drivers

10mm dynamic

Custom high-excursion

10mm dynamic

Active noise cancellation

Yes

Yes

Yes

Battery life

12 hours (buds), 48 hours (with charging case)

8 hours (buds), 24 hours (with charging case)

11 hours (buds), 39 hours (with charging case)

Weight

4.9g (per bud)

5.6g (per bud)

4.7g (per bud)

Connectivity

Bluetooth 6.0

Bluetooth 5.3

Bluetooth 5.4

Frequency range

20Hz-40kHz

20Hz-20kHz

20Hz-20kHz

Waterproofing

IP55

IP57

IPX5

Apple AirPods Pro 3
Apple’s flagship noise-cancelling earbuds are a little pricier than this JBL model, but they’re occasionally on-sale for less than $230 / £200 / AU$350. And they offer excellent quality, with emotive, spacious sound, awesome ANC, and an ultra-comfortable fit. They could have better battery life, but otherwise, they’re a great pair of in-ears. Read our full Apple AirPods Pro 3 review.

Cambridge Audio Melomania A100
We were huge fans of the Cambridge Audio Melomania A100 earbuds when we tested them last year. With impeccable sound quality, impressive noise cancelling, and a tempting low price, they really are the full package. Their bass output is a little less striking than that of the Live Beam 4, but we’d still recommend them without question. Read our full Cambridge Audio Melomania A100 review.

How I tested the JBL Live Beam 4

(Image credit: Future)

• I tested over the course of multiple weeks
• Mainly used Tidal when assessing audio quality
• Took with me on walks, public transport, and to the office

I spent multiple weeks testing the JBL Live Beam 4, and took them with me just about everywhere I went. This meant that I was able to test the buds’ noise cancelling in a wide variety of environments, including buses, the office, and while on walks in my city.

When assessing audio quality, I mainly used the music streaming app, Tidal, which supports higher-resolution streaming. I did also dip into Spotify from time to time, however. During my time with the Beam 4, I made sure to cycle through the TechRadar testing playlist, which features tracks from a wide variety of genres, but I also bumped a ton of tunes from my personal library as well.

More generally, I’ve spent years testing audio gear here at TechRadar, and have reviewed everything from hulking party speakers to audiophile-friendly wired and wireless headphones. I’ve also tested several pairs of wireless earbuds from the likes of LG and Sony, so I know exactly what it takes for a product to stand out in this competitive segment of the market.

• Read TechRadar’s reviews guarantee
• First reviewed: August 2026