TechRadar Reviews

The Goal Zero powerstation lineup is impressive, especially since their merger with BioLite. According to Goal Zero, the Yeti Pro 4000 is their most remarkable power station yet. It boasts a high output, high capacity, high weight, and a high price to match.

There are several different setups that this power station can support. First, there are Haven Setups that provide additional capacity and a home connection point, allowing a home to function as a battery backup. Second, there is an option to integrate solar power, enabling recharging from the sun. Lastly, there is an escape system that can either convert a towable RV into a system powered by the Goal Zero Yeti Pro 4000 or a drivable kit that transforms an adventure vehicle into a system backed by the Yeti Pro 4000.

No matter what the use case is, if you need a large amount of reliable power, high output, and you're willing to pay for quality gear, this system could be the right fit for you. Goal Zero's goal with the Yeti Pro 4000 was to replace noisy and messy traditional gas generators - and they've done it.

I will note here that I have seen some notes about reliability issues that some have had with this unit, though I have not experienced that myself. So far, I haven't had any problems.

(Image credit: Collin Probst // TechRadar Pro)Goal Zero Yeti Pro 4000: Pricing & Availability

The Goal Zero Yeti Pro 4000 is available on Goal Zero's website for just under $4000. There are other retailers selling, including Amazon.com.

You can pick up an expansion battery to extend the capacity for another $2000, and there are other accessories to outfit this even further.

Worth noting that I'm seeing limited availability outside the US right now.

(Image credit: Collin Probst // TechRadar Pro)Goal Zero Yeti Pro 4000: Design & build qualitySpecs

Battery: ~3,994 Wh (LiFePO₄), 4,000+ cycles
Power: 3,600 W continuous; 7,200 W surge
Recharge: 1,800 W AC inlet; up to 3,000 W solar

The Goal Zero Yeti Pro 4000 is not a compact device. It's pretty cumbersome, so it has a wheeled base that comes with the standard purchase to facilitate more effortless movement.

However, what it misses in ease of mobility, it makes up for in pure power. The output is phenomenal for this size, and the choice in port layout makes sense. All of the inputs are on the back of the unit, plus the inverter you would use if you are plugging into the Haven system, for example.

All of the output ports are on the front, making it super simple if you want to set this unit up and leave it somewhere for an extended period. You can set it and forget it, and still you're able to plug in everything you may need to without moving the unit around, unless you are changing primary inputs, which is less familiar to change around than outputs.

(Image credit: Collin Probst // TechRadar Pro)Goal Zero Yeti Pro 4000: In use

The Yeti Pro 4000 by Goal Zero is designed to carry a heavy load, all without any issue. It's intended to be a home backup, a primary power system on the road, or even a primary system for an off-grid building.

It's rated to run a residential fridge for 1-2 days, while also running a Wi-Fi Setup, basic lighting, and other essentials. If you connect to solar, depending on the sun, you can keep things running for longer. You recharge with the sun and then run off the battery when the sun is not out, and recharge via the solar panels.

For home use, this is an easy option. Set it, forget it, keep it tucked away, hooked up to your house with a Haven backup system. If your home requires more power, you can add more tanks, which adds capacity to run off-grid for longer.

For those who are looking for an RV/Van Life/Off-Grid Camper solution, you can have this unit in the corner of your setup, or tucked away and have it plugged in with the Escape system to have an integrated screen and complete system, meaning you'll never even have to touch this unit, or if you don't want to do that, you can plug anything and everything you need into the front of this unit, have any solar input plugged into the back, and then you can run things that way.

If you do choose to add the Escape System, you can then add an integrated screen wherever you want in the vehicle or trailer to control all aspects of the Yeti Pro 4000 while the unit itself is tucked away. Add this to a system where you have outlets placed where you want them throughout your off-grid home on wheels, and it will feel like you're in a standard home when it comes to power convenience.

Some people don't need a semi-permanent setup, and they want something that can be brought out for job sites, one-off jobs, or similar projects. The Yeti Pro 4000 can be great for this, too, as long as you have a good way to transport it there. But, if you work at a job site and you want to be able to swap out the traditional generator for a portable power station to recharge tools, run a table saw, or similar tasks, this is a great solution.

Goal Zero Yeti Pro 4000: Final verdict

No matter your potential solution, this power station is a serious one worth considering. It could power you for days on the road if used reasonably, and it could back up essentials in your home in the case of a power outage. The Yeti Pro 4000 has a great set of offerings for expansion, and it is built to last. If you're looking for a high-powered, high-capacity, and highly reliable power station, the Yeti Pro 4000 is one worth considering - keep in mind that it's not easy to move.

Attributes

Notes

Rating

Design

Hefty, robust.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Ease of use

Easy to use

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Practicality

Practical for heavy users

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Price

Expensive

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

For more power solutions, we've tested and reviewed the best portable power stations.

Panasonic Z95B: Two-minute review

The Panasonic Z95B is the latest flagship TV to enter what is turning out to be a very competitive OLED TV market in 2025. Whereas some of those models – specifically those from Samsung and LG – are making a bet on high brightness to distinguish themselves among the best TVs, Panasonic is pushing accuracy with the Z95B, and the effort can be seen in its refined, natural, and finely detailed picture.

For the Panasonic Z95B, the company opted to use the same Primary RGB Tandem panel OLED display found in the LG G5. This new panel tech has a ‘four-stack’ structure, with separate red and green OLED layers sandwiched between two blue layers, and it accounts for the Z95B’s rich color display and high brightness capability – I recorded brightness measurements as high as 2,107 nits, though brightness is considerably more limited in several of the TV’s picture presets such as Filmmaker Mode, which is a quirk I'll dig into later in the review.

The Z95B’s predecessor, the Panasonic Z95A, distinguished itself as one of the best TVs for sound with its powerful 5.1.2-channel built-in speaker array. This same '360 Soundscape Pro tuned by Technics’ system carries over to the Z95B, though Panasonic has made improvements to the speaker drivers, speaker layout, and woofer output. The result is one of the best built-in TV speaker systems you can buy, with sound that’s clear, powerful, and immersive enough that you could easily get away with not using an external soundbar.

Those speakers on the Z95B are concealed behind a gray mesh fabric that runs along the TV’s top, bottom, and sides, and gives it a solid, dignified appearance. A pedestal stand that swivels in either direction to accommodate a range of seating positions is a bonus, though the included, basic remote control seems at odds with the TV’s premium design.

Panasonic uses Amazon Fire TV as its smart TV system, and it's a serviceable, but ad-driven platform that really would like you to be a Prime Video subscriber and devotee of other Amazon services and products. Fire TV’s Live TV portal is particularly friendly to users of the best indoor antennas, though, and the Z95B supports ATSC 3.0 broadcasts for viewers in the US.

Gaming is well supported on the Z95B, with 4K at 144Hz, Dolby Vision gaming, and variable refresh rate, including AMD FreeSync Premium and Nvidia G-Sync, all accounted for. HDMI 2.1 ports supporting those features are limited to two, rather than the four HDMI 2.1 ports we look for on the best gaming TVs, but the Z95B’s powerful built-in speaker system makes that less of an issue than it normally would be.

Panasonic OLED TVs are typically priced higher than their Samsung and LG counterparts, particularly in the UK, but the Z95B was priced around the same as its competition at launch, and has already seen discounts. Given its impressive picture and sound quality, it’s one of 2025's best OLED TVs, and a very good overall value among premium TVs.

Panasonic Z95B review: Price and release date

The Fire TV Ambient Experience lets you choose images and artworks to display when the TV is in standby mode (Image credit: Future)

• Release date: June 2025
• 55-inch: $2,599 / £2,499
• 65-inch: $3,399 / £2,999
• 77-inch: $4,699 / £3,999
  

The Panasonic Z95B is available in 55-, 65-, and 77-inch screen sizes, with that last option an expansion on last year’s Z95A series, which was only available in 55- and 65-inch sizes. Prices for all Z95B series TVs have dropped since launch, with all screen sizes now selling for several hundred less in both the US and the UK.

At the reduced price, the Z95B series is now priced in line with its premium OLED competition from LG, Samsung, and Sony. For example, the 65-inch Panasonic is now selling for around $3,000 in the US. In that same screen size, you’ll find both the LG G5 and the Sony Bravia 8 II priced around $3,000, and the Samsung S95F at $3,299.

Panasonic Z95B review: Specs

Screen type:

Primary Tandem RGB OLED

Refresh rate:

144Hz

HDR support:

Dolby Vision, HDR10+, HLG

Audio support:

Dolby Atmos

Smart TV:

Fire TV

HDMI ports:

4 (2x HDMI 2.1)

Built-in tuner:

ATSC 3.0 (US)

Panasonic Z95B review: Benchmark resultsPanasonic Z95B review: Features

The Z95B's four HDMI ports, including two inputs with 4K 144Hz support (Image credit: Future)

• Primary RGB Tandem panel OLED display
• Dolby Vision and HDR10+ support
• 360 Soundscape Pro tuned by Technics speaker array

The Panasonic Z95B uses a new Primary RGB Tandem panel OLED display with a notably higher brightness capability than the Master OLED Ultimate panel with micro lens array tech used in its Panasonic Z95A predecessor. Panasonic additionally uses a ThermalFlow aerodynamic cooling system that helps to maximize peak brightness by improving airflow through the TV.

Panasonic has carried over the same HCX Pro AI Processor MK II from the Z95A to the Z95B. This advanced picture processor uses dynamic 3D LUTs (Look-Up Tables) to ensure accurate colors across a range of picture brightness levels and provides 4K Fine Remaster and Smooth Motion Drive Pro features to improve detail and motion handling.

Panasonic models continue to be the only OLED TVs in the US to support both the Dolby Vision and HDR10+ high dynamic range formats (Philips OLEDs in the UK have the same capability), and in the Z95B, that’s supplemented by Dolby Vision IQ and HDR10+ Adaptive for automatic picture brightness adjustments across a range of lighting conditions. Picture presets include Filmmaker Mode and Panasonic’s True Cinema and True Game modes, along with Netflix and Prime Video Calibrated modes for automatic picture optimization when streaming from those services.

The Panasonic Z95A quickly earned a spot as the best option for built-in sound quality in multiple TechRadar best TVs lists, and the new Z95B also features a '360 Soundscape Pro tuned by Technics' built-in 5.1.2-channel 160W speaker system – this time with redesigned speaker drivers and speaker layout, and higher bass output. This differs from the built-in speaker arrays found on most other TVs in providing a dedicated center channel speaker, along with side-firing and upfiring speaker drivers for enhanced immersion.

As with picture settings, the Z95B features a wide range of sound settings. Key among these is Space Tune, for automatically tuning the TV’s sound output using the remote control’s built-in mic, and Sound Focus, which lets you adjust the directionality of the TV’s sound using beam-forming to accommodate off-center seating positions.

Panasonic switched to the Amazon Fire TV smart TV interface back in 2024, and Fire TV on the Z95B features optimized voice control features for content discovery and navigation, a hands-free control option, and an interface that can be personalized for multiple users. Live TV channels, including ones pulled in by the TV’s ATSC 3.0 tuner, can be integrated into the smart interface for browsing and also customized for a ‘personalized Live-TV Experience.’

Gaming features on the Z95B include a True Game mode with latency reduction, a Game sound mode, and a Game Board onscreen menu for making quick adjustments while gaming. Two of the TV’s four HDMI ports also support HDMI 2.1 features such as 4K 144Hz and VRR, including AMD FreeSync Premium and Nvidia G-Sync.

• Features Score: 4.5 / 5

Panasonic Z95B review: Picture quality

Ambient Experience options include full-motion and AI-generated images plus information widgets (Image credit: Future)

• High brightness capability for an OLED TV
• Brightness is limited in Filmmaker and other picture modes
• Rich color and excellent detail

The first thing to say about the Panasonic Z95B’s picture is that, while the TV is capable of high brightness, it’s not as bright as its premium OLED TV competition when its most accurate picture presets – Filmmaker Mode, True Cinema, and Cinema – are used and left at their default settings.

That’s because Panasonic is prioritizing picture accuracy over brightness here, and those modes limit peak brightness based on the maximum mastered brightness level of the source – typically 1,000 nits for most content.

Correspondingly, I measured Z95B’s peak HDR brightness in Filmmaker Mode at 992 nits, while its fullscreen brightness in that mode was 347 nits. After bumping up the luminance level of my test pattern source, peak HDR brightness in Filmmaker Mode jumped to 2,107 nits, and the TV’s EOTF (the equivalent gamma for HDR) also remained accurate at that brightness level.

Viewers not wanting to deal with any brightness limitations could instead opt for the Standard picture preset, which had a measured peak HDR brightness of 1,835 nits, and 327 nits fullscreen brightness. Panasonic also provides settings in the TV’s HDR submenu that let you manually set HDR tonemapping and luminance clipping levels, and these can be used to help optimize brightness. Needless to say, this is great news for tweakers, but a potential source of annoyance for others who don’t like to sift through menu settings.

As for other numbers, the Z95B’s coverage of the UHDA-P3 and BT.2020 color spaces in Filmmaker Mode measured 99.9% and 79.1%, respectively – both impressive results. The average Delta-E value (the margin of error between the test pattern source and what’s shown on-screen, with a result lower than 3 being undetectable by the human eye) for color point accuracy was 2.6, and it was 3.2 for grayscale accuracy.

The Z95B has high peak brightness capability, but brightness is limited by default in specific picture modes, such as Filmmaker Mode (Image credit: Future)

For most of my Z95B evaluation, I viewed it in dimmed lighting, and such conditions allowed the Panasonic’s picture to fully shine. The set does use an anti-reflection screen, and while this works to a degree, I could still see mirror-like reflections from lamps and overhead lights, and picture contrast was also lessened with my room lights on.

After watching the recent movie Weapons in the theater, I was motivated to stream the director’s earlier movie, Barbarian (on Netflix in 4K), and the Z95B did an excellent job of displaying the deep black of the house’s basement and fleshing out shadows in the corridors of the creepy, dungeon-like space. For this movie, I used Netflix Calibrated Mode, which by default made it too dark, but the TV’s multiple black level adjustments allowed me to tweak the picture for a more balanced look.

Wild Robot was up next, and I streamed it in 4K with Dolby Vision using the TV’s Dolby Vision Dark preset – one that I’m happy to report turned off motion smoothing by default. The jungle and creatures in this animated movie were displayed with rich, vivid color. The picture also looked fantastically detailed and clean, with the textures in the computer-generated images giving the picture a near-3D quality.

I like to use the Netflix series Ripley in TV evaluations because of its sumptuous cinematography (by frequent Paul Thomas Anderson collaborator Robert Elswit). The Z95B certainly did not disappoint here, displaying the wide range of fine gray tones in the black and white images of Italian villages and villas with an impressive level of subtlety.

Dolby Vision Dark mode proved to be a good match for Ripley, but in this case, when I switched to Netflix Calibrated mode, the picture retained both its subtle grayscale and contrast punch.

No Time to Die is one of my go-to reference 4K Blu-rays, and when I watched the scene where James Bond walks across a craggy hillside cemetery, the Z95B’s picture looked impressively solid, with only a minimal level of judder. I often find myself applying some level of motion adjustment to TVs after checking this scene, but the Z95B’s motion handling was good enough that I didn’t feel any need to.

• Picture quality score: 5 / 5

Panasonic Z95B review: Sound quality

The Z95B features a rear-mounted subwoofer with dual passive radiators (Image credit: Future)

• 5.1.2-channel, 160W speaker array
• 360 Soundscape Pro tuned by Technics
• Sound Focus feature adjusts for off-center seating

The Z95B features a built-in 5.1.2-channel, 160W speaker array, with the front-facing left, center, and right-channel speakers contained in a soundbar-like enclosure at the screen’s bottom. Along with these, there are newly designed line-array speakers positioned at the sides and top surface of the TV, along with a subwoofer and dual passive bass radiators located around the back.

This ‘360 Soundscape Pro tuned by Technics’ Dolby Atmos sound system is more elaborate than what you’ll find on most TVs, and its performance is good enough that you can easily use it in place of one of the best soundbars. Panasonic has also introduced enhanced two-channel and 5.1-channel upmixing on the Z95B which it says can “deliver immersive rear sound without rear speakers,” though the TV’s virtual processing comes short of delivering on that claim.

As with the picture, there are extensive sound presets on the Z95B, along with settings for customizing the sound. After using Space Tune, a feature that uses the remote control’s built-in mic to calibrate the TV’s sound output for your viewing environment, I found that many of the presets sounded too bright for my taste and opted for the User preset, which provides Sound Field and Bass Boost settings to customize the sound, along with an eight-band EQ adjustment.

Once adjusted, dialogue projected clearly and sounded natural, and even music sounded good, as I confirmed when watching Queens of the Stone Age Alive in the Catacombs, an acoustic performance by the band recorded in the catacombs beneath Paris. The sound effects in action movies like Mad Max: Fury Road had a high level of spatial precision, and the TV’s powerful speaker array delivered a strong impact on engine roars and crashes during the movie’s many vehicle chase scenes.

Another key Z95B feature is Sound Focus, which uses beam-forming processing to change the direction of the speaker output to accommodate off-center seating positions. You can choose Pinpoint, Area, Spot, or Ambient settings, each of which provides a different level of soundfield width. Testing this, I used the Pinpoint setting to aim the sound at the far end of my sofa, and the TV’s soundstage clearly shifted 30 degrees off from center.

• Sound quality score: 5 / 5

Panasonic Z95B review: DesignImage 1 of 2

The Z95B's swiveling pedestal stand (Image credit: Future)Image 2 of 2

The mesh fabric grille covering the TV's top- and side-mounted speakers (Image credit: Future)

• Swiveling stand
• Wide range of input and control ports
• Flimsy remote control
  

With its two-inch depth, the Z95B, while slimmer than its Z95A predecessor, is still on the bulky side for an OLED TV. That girth is a necessity given the TV’s substantial built-in speakers, however, and the Z95B still manages to maintain a sleek look when viewed straight on.

An attractive dark gray fabric mesh covers both the front-facing and side- and top-firing speakers, and the TV’s sturdy aluminum pedestal stand can be swiveled – a useful feature to accommodate a range of viewing positions.

The Z95B’s extensive connections include four HDMI ports (with two HDMI 2.1) and both optical digital audio and a 3.5mm headphone output that can also be configured for connecting an external subwoofer. An ATSC 3.0 tuner connection can be used for viewing ‘NextGen’ digital TV broadcasts in the US, and there are also powered USB and Ethernet ports, and an IR blaster output.

Panasonic hasn’t changed the flimsy remote control that previously shipped with the Z95A for the Z95B. And while that’s disappointing given this TV’s premium price, it mostly does the job and features a built-in mic for Alexa voice commands.

There’s no input select button on the US remote for changing inputs – one of my pet peeves with TV remotes – but you can configure one of the controls to switch to a specific input on the TV, along with a range of other options such as selecting a specific streaming app.

• Design score: 4 / 5

Panasonic Z95B review: Smart TV and menusImage 1 of 2

The main Fire TV home screen (Image credit: Future)Image 2 of 2

The Live TV guide screen on Fire TV (Image credit: Future)

• Amazon Fire TV smart TV platform
• Live program grid with broadcast channels customization
• Extensive array of picture and sound adjustments

Panasonic TVs use Amazon Fire TV for a smart TV system, and the version you’ll see on the Z95B is essentially the same as what’s found on Amazon’s own Fire TV lineup. The top half is occupied by ads, many for Amazon streaming and VOD offerings, while a horizontal bar cutting across the center contains input selection, My Stuff, search, and Live TV tabs, along with a customizable row of streaming apps and a gear icon for advanced menus.

The bottom section contains a grid of recommended program options culled from free TV and subscription apps, and if you scroll down, you’ll see a seemingly endless range of these, with everything from political news to the latest cooking videos.

Fire TV’s Live TV portal features a grid guide option that lets you browse channels grouped in a range of categories such as Antenna Channels, Sports, News by Fire TV, and more. Digital broadcast stations can be arranged into lists, with the option to favorite your regularly watched channels, and to hide ones like home shopping networks that you’d prefer to shut out.

Fire TV provides a greater range of customization for browsing both free broadcast and streamed TV channels than most other smart interfaces, so it’s a good option for antenna users.

The Fire TV Ambient Experience provides a wide assortment of still and motion images that can be displayed when the TV is in standby mode. (It can also be accessed at any time by pressing and holding the power on/off button on the remote.) Along with the supplied content library, you can access personal photos (you’ll first need to upload these using the Amazon Photos app on your phone).

You can also use Alexa voice commands to create AI-generated images for your Ambient Experience library, though, as I found when experimenting with this feature, political content is not permitted.

Panasonic provides a much wider range of picture and sound adjustment options in the setup menus than most other TVs. I hit the high points for sound in the Sound Quality section above, but the Z95B’s picture menus include an almost over-the-top array of advanced adjustments.

To list just a few, the Brightness menu has multiple advanced settings for configuring black levels, and there’s an HDR submenu that lets you set EOTF type, HDR tonemapping, and luminance clipping levels. For color, you can switch between Rec. 2020, DCI-P3, Adobe, and Rec. 709 color gamuts.

The reason for all these adjustments is that Panasonic’s OLED TVs are used in post-production facilities as reference monitors, but in the majority of instances, you’ll want to leave things set to Auto.

• Smart TV & menus score: 4 / 5

Panasonic Z95B review: Gaming

The Z95B's Game Bar menu overlay (Image credit: Future)

• Two HDMI 2.1 ports with 4K 144Hz support
• FreeSync Premium and Nvidia G-Sync VRR
• 12.7ms input lag is average

The Z95B’s gaming features include two HDMI ports with 4K at 144Hz, FreeSync Premium, and Nvidia G-Sync VRR support, and Dolby Vision gaming. There’s a True Game picture and a Game sound mode, and Panasonic’s Game Board onscreen menu can be called up to make quick and easy adjustments to parameters like dark visibility, sound mode, and variable refresh rate.

Input lag measured with a Bodnar 4K meter was 12.7ms, which is an average level for a TV. The best gaming TVs can hit the 9ms range, but the Z95B’s input lag is minimal enough that the vast majority of gamers will find it more than acceptable.

• Gaming score: 4 / 5

Panasonic Z95B review: Value

The Z95B's remote control is flimsy and lacks backlighting and an input select button (Image credit: Future)

• Priced the same as top OLED competition
• Built-in sound enhances value
• Less extensive gaming features than competition

The Panasonic Z95B is currently priced on par with, or even less than, its premium OLED competition from LG, Samsung, and Sony. Choosing between this year’s top OLED TVs is tougher than ever, but I can’t imagine anyone being disappointed with the Z95B’s picture, though the Samsung S95F and LG G5 may be better options for those wanting to view in bright rooms.

One thing that enhances the Z95B’s value is its powerful sound. For that reason, you could consider using this TV without a soundbar, though the built-in speakers aren’t necessarily a match for the best Dolby Atmos soundbar systems with separate rear-channel speakers and a subwoofer.

An argument could be made that the Z95B is a lesser gaming TV than the Samsung S95F and LG G5, both of which feature four HDMI 2.1 ports, lower input lag, and cloud-based gaming from apps including Xbox. But the Z95B’s lower HDMI 2.1 port count won’t be an issue if you're using its built-in speakers, and as a Fire TV, there is Amazon’s Luna cloud gaming app, which features popular games like Fortnite.

• Value score: 4.5 / 5

Should I buy the Panasonic Z95B?

(Image credit: Future)Panasonic Z95B

Attributes

Notes

Rating

Features

A fine selection of features led by sound processing modes for room tuning and off-center seating accommodation

4.5 / 5

Picture quality

Capable of high brightness for an OLED, but many of the TV’s preset picture modes favor a more subtle, balanced, and accurate images

5 / 5

Sound quality

Powerful built-in 5.1.2-channel speakers distinguish the Z95B from other TVs and is good enough that a soundbar isn’t exactly needed

5 / 5

Design

A slightly bulky form factor due to its built-in speakers, but otherwise a sleek design with a swiveling pedestal stand. Remote control could use work

4 / 5

Smart TV and menus

Amazon Fire TV isn’t the best smart TV platform, but it does the job for streaming and Amazon subscribers and Alexa users will find it useful

4 / 5

Gaming

A good set of gaming features and solid overall gaming performance

4 / 5

Value

A very good value compared to other premium OLED TVs, and its value is enhanced by its excellent built-in sound

4.5 / 5

Buy it if...

You want the best TV for movies
With its refined, colorful, and accurate picture, the Z95B is an excellent choice for those who want movies on Blu-ray and streaming services to look their best.

You don’t want to use a soundbar
The Z95B’s 5.1.2-channel built-in speaker array is powerful and immersive enough that you could easily get away with not using a soundbar.

You’re an Amazon fan
The Z95B’s Fire TV smart TV platform is very much aimed at Prime Video subscribers, and its built-in Alexa support makes it a perfect match for viewers who live in the Amazon Alexa ecosystem.

Don't buy it if…

You don’t want to dim the lights
While the Z95B is capable of putting out a bright enough picture to compete with daylight, many of its picture modes are tuned for viewing in dimmed lighting conditions, and its anti-reflection screen isn’t the most effective one we’ve seen.

You don’t like to tweak settings
The Z95B is a tweaker's delight, with an exhaustive list of advanced settings for configuring its picture and sound. You can ignore these, but in some cases, tweaking is necessary to get the best performance.View Deal

You already own a good soundbar
The Z95B’s built-in 5.1.2-channel is meant to replace a soundbar. If you already own a good Dolby Atmos soundbar, especially one with a subwoofer and rear speakers, this TV’s sound capabilities are overkill.

Panasonic Z95B: Also consider...

Panasonic Z95B

LG G5

Samsung S95F

Sony Bravia 8 II

List price (65-inch)

$3,399 / £2,999

$3,399 / £3,299 / AU$5,299

$2,699 / £2,699 / AU$4,299

$3,499 / £2,999 / AU$4,999

Screen type

Primary Tandem RGB OLED

Primary Tandem RGB OLED

QD-OLED

QD-OLED

Refresh rate

144Hz

165Hz

165Hz

120Hz

HDR support

Dolby Vision/HDR10+/HLG

Dolby Vision/HDR10/HLG

HDR10+/HDR10/HLG

DolbyVision/HDR10/HLG

Smart TV

Fire TV

webOS

Tizen

Google TV

HDMI ports

4 (2 x HDMI 2.1)

4x HDMI 2.1

4 x HDMI 2.1

4 (2x HDMI 2.1)

LG G5
The LG G5 also has ‘four-stack’ display panel and delivers exceptional brightness levels for an OLED TV. It has superior gaming features and a better smart TV platform, though its built-in sound isn’t nearly as good

Here’s our LG G5 review

Samsung S95F
Samsung’s flagship OLED TV also delivers high brightness levels, and its Glare Free screen does quick work of eliminating screen reflections when viewing in bright rooms. Similar to the LG G5, it has superior gaming features and a more advanced smart TV platform.

Here’s our Samsung S95F review

Sony Bravia 8 II
Sony’s flagship OLED TV offers up a refined picture with very good brightness and also has powerful built-in sound. Gaming features are about the same, and it has a somewhat better smart TV platform in Google TV.

Here’s our Sony Bravia 8 II review

How I tested the Panasonic Z95B

Measuring a 10% HDR white window pattern during testing (Image credit: Future)

• I spent about 15 viewing hours in total, measuring and evaluating
• Measurements were made using Calman color calibration software
• A full calibration was made before proceeding with subjective tests

When I test TVs, I first spend a few days or even weeks using it for casual viewing to assess the out-of-the-box picture presets and get familiar with its smart TV menu and picture adjustments. I next select the most accurate preset (usually Filmmaker Mode, Movie or Cinema) and measure grayscale and color accuracy using Portrait Displays’ Calman color calibration software. The resulting measurements provide Delta-E values (the margin of error between the test pattern source and what’s shown on-screen) for each category, and allow for an assessment of the TV’s overall accuracy.

Along with those tests, I make measurements of peak and fullscreen light output (recorded in nits) for both standard high-definition and 4K high dynamic range using 10% and 100% white window patterns. Coverage of UHDA-P3 and BT.2020 color space is also measured, with the results providing a sense of how faithfully the TV can render the extended color range in ultra high-definition sources.

For the Panasonic Z95B, I used the Calman ISF workflow, along with the TV’s advanced picture menu settings, to calibrate the image for best accuracy. I also watched a range of reference scenes on 4K Blu-ray discs to assess the TV’s performance, along with 4K HDR shows streamed from HBO Max, Netflix, Apple TV+, and other services.

• First reviewed: August 2025
• Read TechRadar's reviews guarantee

Noble FoKus Amadeus: Two-minute review

(Image credit: Future / James Grimshaw)

Can earbuds make you feel like royalty? Well, Noble Audio are here to give it a good old college try with their Noble FoKus Amadeus earbuds; the latest and cheapest in the FoKus series, but which benefit from some posh new engineering in both soft- and hardware. Specs-wise, these true wireless ‘buds knock it out of the park with LDAC and aptX Adaptive Bluetooth connectivity (other codecs are available), customizable sound profiles and an extensive battery capacity I actively struggled to exhaust during review.

Sound is the primary reason to buy something like the FoKus Amadeus – and these do sound great, with a cushy low-end and plucky transient response that makes for a playful listening experience straight out of the box. But these earbuds’ ergonomics are almost more noteworthy than their fidelity. Noble’s expertise in custom IEMs shows, with an asymmetrical design that follows the contours of the average ear canal better than any other generic-fit ear-thing I’ve tried. A glut of spare and swappable ear tips seals the deal with a thoughtful kiss.

These earbuds are only really let down by a lacklustre ANC, which is far from best-in-class – though their stock sound profile could be a little divisive, too, depending on your taste. That said, this writer found them to auditorily succeed exactly where they promise to, and even exceed expectations in other areas. If you’re looking to put some serious money behind a serious set of the best high-fidelity earbuds out there, these are very likely the earbuds you seek.

Noble FoKus Amadeus: Price and release date

• Release date: June, 2025
• Price: $320 / £299.99 / approx. AU$615

Noble sits pretty at the cutting edge of the in-ear monitor (IEM) market, with a suite of four-figure products that are as much to look at as they are to listen to. Noble’s custom IEMs are rightfully lauded for the incredible attention to detail they possess in practically every sense. With the recent FoKus series, Noble offers that rarefied approach to quality audio at a (slightly) more palatable price.

Indeed, the Noble FoKus Amadeus (the brand's latest offering) are clearly designed to evoke a different form of rarefied quality, often ascribed to classical music. If the presence of “Amadeus” in the name (for Falco Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, no less) wasn’t enough, look instead to that regal red finish on the earbuds. It's at once a refined finish in its own right, as well as a subtler nod to the firebrand composer via his oft-painted tailcoat. These surface-level signifiers are here to guide your thinking on the Noble FoKus Amadeus’ guts, too, where Noble has aimed to “[blend] classical artistry with contemporary engineering”. Rich stuff indeed.

The FoKus Amadeus wireless earbuds retail for $320 / £299.99 / approx. AU$615, putting them firmly above the peloton as far as the average earbud is concerned. That retail price does, however, make these the cheaper earbuds in Noble’s FoKus range, and hence the most accessible in Noble’s entire premium-quality oeuvre. Still, for your money, you’re buying a rarefied piece of portable kit, with multiple modes of Bluetooth connectivity, 42 hours of out-and-about-iness and a considered approach to conveying your faves ear-ward.

Given the highly competitive entry-level price band some dozens of dollars below, this price could be a bit rich for some consumers’ blood – but Noble Audio does an excellent job of justifying their expense, in theory and in execution.

Noble FoKus Amadeus: Specs

Type:

True wireless ANC in-ear

Dimensions:

17 x 25 x 25mm (WHD)

Weight:

8.6g (earbuds); 55.5g (charging case)

Drivers:

8.3mm, triple-layer

Frequency range:

20 Hz - 20 kHz

Battery life:

Up to 12 hours (earbuds, ANC off); 42 hours (charging case)

Control:

Capacitive touch controls; native voice assistant; Noble FoKus control app

Bluetooth:

5.4 with SBC, AAC, LDAC and aptX Adaptive compatibility, USB-C charging

Noble FoKus Amadeus: Features

(Image credit: Future / James Grimshaw)

• Excellent Bluetooth connectivity
• Exceedingly decent battery life
• Shame the ANC isn’t great

The key audiophilic selling point for Noble’s latest buds is the new driver design. The Amadeus sport a single triple-layer diaphragm driver per earbud, utilizing three skins of different materials – ceramic, titanium and PEEK – for enhanced frequency control. This commitment to single-driver superiority is backed-up by a holistic approach to audio excellence; there’s multifarious Bluetooth 5.4 connectivity, with support for SBC, AAC, LDAC and aptX Adaptive codecs.

While this driver's sound profile is great out of the box (more on which later), there are extensive EQ-fiddling opportunities in the Noble FoKus app, which is a pretty sweet one-stop shop for controls and customization. As well as graphic EQ bands, curves and presets, you’ll find a nifty Personal EQ algorithm, courtesy of algorithmic boffins Audiodo. Complete a short hearing calibration process, and you get a fully personalized sound profile with which to enjoy your investment all the more.

The Amadeus purport to provide three different listening modes: standard listening, ANC, and an Ambient mode which boosts the sound of the outside world for safer public groovin’. These features can be accessed and toggled via the aforementioned Noble FoKus app, or more readily via the Amadeus’ dual-bud capacitive-touch control capabilities.

Unfortunately, the latter two modes leave a little to be desired. I was willing to make concessions for the ANC mode when testing it on a loud rush-hour bus, but even in my quiet living room, it did little to quell incidental sounds from elsewhere. The Ambient mode possesses quite a high noise floor, too, which naturally proved a little distracting at times.

All that said, these earbuds do an excellent job of passive sound isolation anyway, so I didn’t really feel additional noise cancellation to be necessary. For the Ambient mode, sharp and loud sounds cut through any music with remarkable fidelity – fundamentally, I’d rather suffer a hissy soundtrack and not get hit by a car, than the opposite.

Lastly but no less importantly, the Amadeus offer up to 12 hours' continuous battery life in one sitting – and up to 42 hours using the charging case (thus outliving mayflies, but that's only part of the story, as I'll explain). It’s never easy to estimate what on-paper battery-life specs mean for real-life usage, so let me say this: outside of early days review-related stress-testing, these earbuds made it through six weeks of casual everyday usage on a single full carry-case charge. If that’s not enough for you, a 10-minute charge will gift you two hours of playback. You’ll never be caught short with these.

• Feature quality score: 4.5/5

Noble FoKus Amadeus: Sound quality

(Image credit: Future / James Grimshaw)

• Broad, comfy, forgiving low-end
• Transients and dynamics handled marvellously
• Customizable sound profiles

For the majority of my time with the Noble FoKus Amadeus, I elected to listen at their stock, undoctored best, reserving the ‘calibrated’ experience for after I’d gotten a feel for what exactly they’re aiming for. In a nutshell, I can describe what they aim for as ‘presence’.

They lean warm and cushy, giving you a real solid base of bass to lean on; that warmth is a great foil for the pluckier high-end, which shines when handling percussive brilliance. Gelli Haha’s Bounce House is a catchy piece of slant-pop ear candy and all the more, er, moreish for the combination of speedy transient response and supple low-end on display. It's a great primer for these earbuds' capabilities out of the box.

The Amadeus landed on my desk around the same time I discovered the discography of 1970s American soul underdog Leroy Hutson, who replaced Curtis Mayfield in The Impressions. As such, quintessential DJ-fodder albums like the eponymous Hutson were frequent listens through the Amadeus’ smoooth-with-three-‘o’s drivers. Standout fave and stone-cold banger Lucky Fellow is resplendent in its tactile width. Hard-panned percussive guitars, leaping dynamic drums and fulsome, reedy vocals-in-harmony are all presented at their level best

Moving on to less-novel territory, one of my more common tester albums is Queens of the Stone Age’s Songs for the Deaf. This is a record I have known inside-out and back-to-front since its 2002 release, and which hasn’t lost a speck of luster in all 13 intervening years (because it is absolutely 2015 right now, Bowie’s absolutely still alive, and I am absolutely NOT an ancient fossil of a tech reviewer).

I’m pleased as punch to report that, through the FoKus Amadeus earbuds, this benchmark album still very much punches me in the face with urgent snares, sausage-fat guitars, growling bass and Mark Lanegan’s gruesome gravel-words. Again, the Amadeus' transient capabilities shine – spiky but not sharp, sudden but controlled, and in possession of a unique tactile clarity. It’s actually a bit addictive.

Nevertheless, there are some minor criticisms to be made –sometimes, energy can be a little misplaced. That plush, supple low-end can allow kick drums to take up a little too much real estate on occasion and, otherwise, can serve to cover for an occasional lack of width in the upper ranges.

Also, I did briefly test Audiodo’s sound profile calibration via the Noble FoKus app, and will say that I’m personally not a fan. The test is fun, using different volumes of tones at different pitches in each ear to develop a picture of your hearing sensitivity across the spectrum, but I found the results a little disarming first time round.

I won’t be knocking the Amadeus for featuring this algorithmic tech. I do think it’s a great thing to have – particularly as a way for people with gig-battered ears to improve the audibility of spoken voices in podcasts or phone calls. For music, though, my personalized EQ curve only served to put an uncanny mid-scooped sheen over sounds I was already familiar with and mentally compensating for. The great thing about these EQ options is exactly that: they’re optional.

• Sound quality score: 4.5/5

Noble FoKus Amadeus: Design

(Image credit: Future / James Grimshaw)

• Satisfying satin-red carry case
• Absurdly comfortable in-ear fit
• Touch controls are great, but finicky to start

You don’t design a set of wireless earbuds to look like this without wanting someone to talk about it. The FoKus Amadeus are waggling their figurative eyebrows at you, and trying not to drop a monocle in the process – an image befitting something non-ironically named for a classical composer.

There’s the glossy red finish on each earbud that recalls at once a luxury guitar plectrum and a Rover 800 dashboard (a lesser-spotted Sterling 800 if you're in the U.S.) – it serves to turn your head into an oddly proportioned executive sandwich accordingly. There’s also the delicious satin-red charging case lid, which incidentally possesses one of the more satisfying clasps I ever did feel. I could open and close this little box all day long.

The Amadeus earbuds are presented so lushly that you daren’t simply drop the case in your tote bag, among your keys and other scratchy effects – and Noble thought of that too. To prevent the marring of that pleasing finish, you can slip the case into a tiny velour drawstring pouch, and feel delightfully dainty in retrieving your earbuds from within.

Striking as these are as objects d’art, it’s my view that comfort is really where these buds stand above the rest. It’s not an easy job to make something relatively substantial fit so comfortably, and yet Noble’s achieved it with more success than any other brand I’ve tried.

For one, I’m a big fan of the different eartip options, handily provided by Noble in a little plastic case for your perusal. There are three sizes of single- and double-flanged eartips respectively; I personally got on best with the mid-sized double-flanged eartips, which delivered a security of fit hitherto unexperienced in other wireless earbuds.

This level of security is aided all the more by some clever topology. These earbuds share the same design principles as moulded in-ears, with angled drivers that seek to nestle close by the second bend in your ear canal. This, coupled with a clever balance of weight above the drivers, makes for a supremely snug and happy fit.

The capacitive touch functionality on the Noble FoKus Amadeus earbuds is great, by virtue of being very difficult to engage accidentally. The control scheme, though, is a little difficult for the sheer amount of functionality there is.

Noble has tried to make this as intuitive as possible, dividing tasks between earbuds – double- and triple-tapping the left earbud controls volume, while the same actions on the right move between tracks – but this isn’t the easiest to internalize without frequent revision. Even after a month of daily use, it’s still 50-50 whether I switch ANC mode on or activate my phone’s voice assistant.

Mercifully, the Noble FoKus app enables you to customize these controls to your own liking; a small but crucial gesture, that soothes the old-man-yelling-at-cloud in me. That something so insignificant (and readily rectified) commands so much of my attention is, in fact, proof that these earbuds are probably doing something right.

• Design quality score: 5/5

Noble FoKus Amadeus: Value

(Image credit: Future / James Grimshaw)

• Great feature-set
• Outstrips competition
• Worth it if you’ve got it

That $320 / £299.99 / approx. AU$615 price point isn’t one to be sniffed at. The vast majority of wireless earbuds come in well below this price, as do the vast majority of soundbars, consumer-grade monitor speakers and even integrated hi-fi systems. If you’re willing to spend this much, you obviously care a great deal about your mobile listening experience and understand that spending a little over the odds is the only way to get clear of that entry-level quality trap.

With an extensive battery life and some excellent Bluetooth connectivity, the FoKus Amadeus meet the basics well. With a great build quality and reassuring carry case, there are no qualms to be had about their design either. With an incredible set of newly engineered drivers, capable of providing all the oomph and splat you could ever want on the move, their sound fidelity is quite simply excellent.

All together, these facts make for a very compelling argument as to the Noble FoKus Amadeus’ value. Still, it’s a lot to drop on some earbuds. Which is exactly why you might have noticed some heightened scrutiny, with respect to the miniature frustrations I experienced during my testing.

This higher standard is an unfortunate function of pricing something in that difficult “middle” range (which looks indistinguishable to the top shelf, from the point of view of the average, budget-conscious buyer). Such frustrations would be somewhat forgiven in cheaper earbuds, and absolutely unforgivable in a set that dared to ask for more.

Even with this nitpicky frame of review, the Noble FoKus Amadeus earbuds absolutely pass muster. And that’s without noting the various ways in which Noble have outstripped the competition at this same price range – with longer battery life, better sound and better connectivity besides. If you’re spending this much on earbuds, you’re buying these, their twee, reverential branding notwithstanding.

• Value score: 4.5/5

Should you buy the Noble FoKus Amadeus?

Features

Bluetooth 5.4 with LDAC and aptX Adaptive; extensive battery capacity; lots of EQs and listening modes; but ANC not up to scratch.

4.5 / 5

Sound quality

Truly excellent warmth and pluck from single-driver earbuds, but a little overwarm sometimes.

4.5 / 5

Design

Visually arresting, ergonomically delightful and highly customizable inside and out.

5 / 5

Value

Competitive features and addictive sound profile justify the inflated price point.

4.5 / 5

Buy them if...

You need earbuds that go the distance
These are the least-fatiguing in-ears I’ve ever tested, thanks to both their excellent fidelity and impeccable ergonomic design. Throw in some astonishing battery longevity, and you’ve a pair of quality wireless earbuds built for endurance – be it a long-haul flight, or a long and drudging week.

Tech-bro earbuds bore you
Everything’s a soulless white, grey or greige nowadays – and this includes earbuds, which often fall prey to the grosser minimalist instincts of their manufacturers’ head honchos. Look upon these deep-red, wood-finished wonderbuds, and rejoice in the return of romantic design!

Don't buy them if...

You can’t afford them
A pithy suggestion, sure, but one that bears repeating; if you have to stretch to reach the asking price, you probably shouldn’t invest in them. Outside of their incredible comfort and unique sound profile, there’s nothing here you can’t find in some form at a cheaper price (albeit, with some concessions).

You’re looking for peerless ANC
It’s a small shame that the Noble FoKus Amadeus don’t sport especially effective ANC, though I do think ANC and earbuds are a difficult marriage. The Amadeus’ passive attenuation is more-than good enough by itself. Still, if you want the blissful silence only technology can provide, you may be better off with a pair of ANC-equipped headphones.

Noble FoKus Amadeus: Also consider

Noble FoKus Amadeus

Sony WF-1000XM5

Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds

Price

$320 / £299.99 / AU$615 (approx.)

$229.99 / £175 / AU$331

$220 / £199 / AU$399

Drivers

8.3mm triple-layer

8.4mm Dynamic driver X

10mm

Active noise cancellation

Yes

Yes

Yes

Quoted battery life

12 hours (earbuds, ANC off); 42 hours (charging case)

8hr earbuds, 24hrs total with the case

6 hours (buds) 24 hours total with the case

Weight

8.6g (earbuds); 55.5g (charging case)

4.2g per earbud

6.24g per earbud

Connectivity

Bluetooth 5.4 with SBC, AAC, LDAC and aptX Adaptive compatibility, USB-C charging

Bluetooth 5.3, USB-C, Sony 360 Reality Audio, DSEE Extreme upscaling

Bluetooth 5.3, USB-C, aptX Adaptive, Snapdragon Sound

Frequency range

20Hz - 20kHz

Not stated

Not stated

Other features

Noble FoKus app, capacitive touch, ambient sound

Sony Headphones Connect companion app, ambient sound, wind-reduction bone conduction mics

Immersive Audio, sound 'modes'

Sony WF-1000XM5
Sony’s a popular name for all things head- and ear-phone-y. These earbuds take after their over-ear siblings with some sweet design and a decent tackling of noise-cancelling tech. They might be a little more clinical than Noble’s FoKus Amadeus in some senses, but they could be more practical in others. Read our full Sony WF-1000XM5 review.

Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds
Bose’s top-flight QuietComfort Ultra earbuds are pretty darn solid, with aptX Adaptive compatibility and some fun head-tracking capabilities. They sound pretty nifty, too. Read our full Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds review.

How I tested the Noble FoKus Amadeus

(Image credit: Future / James Grimshaw)

• Tested for six weeks
• Used at home and on the go
• Predominantly tested using streaming services Bandcamp and Spotify, on a Samsung Galaxy S23 smartphone

The Noble FoKus Amadeus became my daily-driver earbuds, taking up a permanent space in my tote bag for daily usage on public transport and while gallivanting about town. I streamed music from Spotify and Bandcamp mostly, via my Samsung Galaxy S23; I occasionally used them at home, too, using my HP Pavilion laptop and the same services.

First reviewed August 2025

Plugable has been in the computer accessory game for quite some time. I used to think of them as another option, then as a great option, and now, with their Thunderbolt 5 offerings, they might become one of the better options.

This unit boasts quite a few features I have yet to see as neatly packaged with even some of the best docking stations. Thunderbolt 5 support offers up faster file transfers than TB3 and TB4, and means there's also up to dual 8K outputs, depending on your laptop's capabilities. And it even allows 140W charging to your host laptop, and then direct more power output to accessories.

The dock itself feels sturdy and rugged, reminding me of the ever-popular CalDigit docks. Further, the port offering is fantastic, granting users 11 ports that they can utilize from their machine, including Thunderbolt Share integrated into the dock, which is something I have not seen as a mainstream offering yet.

(Image credit: Collin Probst // Future )Plugable's Thunderbolt 5 Dock: Pricing & Availability

The Plugable's Thunderbolt 5 Dock is currently on sale for $300.

It's available from the official website by clicking here and you can grab it from other online retailers like Amazon.com.

However, I am seeing less availability outside the US.

Plugable's Thunderbolt 5 Dock: Unboxing & first impressions

The Plugable 11-in-1 Thunderbolt 5 Docking Station arrived in a very clean and simple box, just as I would expect from Plugable. Nothing fancy, just basic packaging. Within the box are the dock itself, a Thunderbolt 5 cable, the power brick, a stand, and some basic documentation.

The dock feels very good in the hand, and the aluminum chassis feels durable and rugged, while at the same time, the added touches like the rubber feet show that Plugable is thinking ahead and doesn't want their dock to scuff up your desk or workspace. Depending on your setup, this dock may fit under a desk shelf, or you could mount it with adhesive, a 3D printed mount, or another mounting method to the underside of your desk.

Alternatively, you can use the base that the dock comes with to stand the dock up vertically if you so choose. At my setup for testing, I decided to slide it under my desk shelf as it fits perfectly.

Once I got the power supply plugged in, I connected my monitor, an ethernet line, and the Thunderbolt 5 cable to my laptop, and then I got to work.

(Image credit: Collin Probst // Future )Plugable's Thunderbolt 5 Dock: Design & build qualitySpecs

Ports: 2× TB5/USB4, 2× HDMI 2.1, 1× DP 2.1, 3× USB-A (10Gbps), 1× USB-C (10Gbps), 1× 2.5GbE, 1× UHS-II SD, 1× 3.5mm audio
Power: 240W total (140W host, 100W peripherals)
Display: Dual 8K60 or triple 4K144 (Mac limited to dual 6K)
Bandwidth: 120Gbps TB5 (split lanes for display + data)
Compatibility: Windows, macOS, Linux (TB5 or TB4 laptops)

As I mentioned, the aluminum is a nice touch. It makes this dock feel premium without adding a ton of unnecessary weight or flair. The aluminum also helps with heat, as this dock can get warm when pumping out up to 240W of power. One of the things I always pay attention to with laptop docks is the port layout and how easy it is to use it in a day-to-day scenario.

From what I can tell, even after just setting this up, the dock has a great port layout. I don't feel like, after setup, I'll need to go digging behind the dock to plug things in repeatedly, and if I do, it will be understandable. Plugable has put the more permanent, or set-it-and-forget-it ports on the back, so if you tuck this under a desk shelf, or if you mount this under your desk, you won't feel like you are constantly having to reach around or re-adjust.

Another thing I noticed off the bat was the size of the power brick. Granted, I see a lot of Thunderbolt 4 bricks, but this one still surprised me. It's got to be larger due to the demand for this power output and the draw of Thunderbolt 5, but still, it's pretty extensive.

(Image credit: Collin Probst // Future )Plugable's Thunderbolt 5 Dock: In use

This dock has been fantastic. I've been able to try it out with both macOS and Windows OS, I even tried it with a Chromebook that I have too. All around, it works great. The charging is fast, the monitors were stable, and didn't feel like they had any issues.

Plugable has made it so that both macOS and Windows can push to the computer's maximum video output, capping Mac-based systems on the chip's abilities, and the same with Windows.

The power delivery was impressive, too. My primary machine is a 14-inch M4 Pro MacBook Pro that draws a good amount of power, but my secondary machine, the Dell Precision 5690, draws even more power.

So far, the Plugable Thunderbolt 5 dock has handled both without a problem. I can even charge at full speed while running multiple displays, powering an SSD, and transferring terabytes of information over a network link to my Synology DiskStation. That's impressive.

(Image credit: Collin Probst // Future )

The ports are plentiful, but the best port is the second Thunderbolt 5 port. On a Thunderbolt 5 dock, with a Thunderbolt 5 laptop, I would want to be able to also connect to other devices at Thunderbolt 5 speeds. Part of the reason this port is so incredible is not just the TB5 specs, but the fact that this is how Plugable allows Thunderbolt Sharing through this dock.

Now, I can connect two Windows Laptops and take advantage of Thunderbolt Sharing, transferring files at lightning TB5 speeds, controlling one laptop with the other, and so on.

All around, this dock is incredibly powerful, and I have found the only fundamental limitations to be computer-based, and not docking station-based, which says a lot about the quality and abilities of this docking station.

Plugable's Thunderbolt 5 Dock: Final verdict

The Plugable Thunderbolt 5, 11-in-1 dock is not only a powerful docking station, but it brings the power of Thunderbolt 5 to your laptop, providing high-quality display, fantastic power delivery, and a plethora of perfectly placed ports.

Thanks to the design of both the dock and the power brick, it's not the most portable device. Couple that with its thoughtful port placement (where lesser users ports are tucked around the rear), it's probably best left in a single-space set-up.

If you are looking for a docking station for your Thunderbolt 5 machine, this one is worth considering. But if you are looking for a dock that will work great for your Thunderbolt 4 or earlier machine, you'll get more bang for your buck with other docks.

Attributes

Notes

Rating

Design

Simple, Powerful, Durable

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Ease of use

Easy to use

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Practicality

Practical for anyone with Thunderbolt 5

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Price

Understandable Price

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Logitech G Heavy Equipment Bundle: One-minute review

The Farming Simulator crowd is a pretty diehard one, but unlike the sim racing community they aren’t blessed with a world of choice when it comes to dedicated peripherals and accessories. The Logitech G Heavy Equipment Bundle is one of the few options available with a combination of a wheel, pedals, and input-rich side panel.

The wheel and pedals are pretty stock standard, bordering on being a little underwhelming. Both are made entirely of plastic with a real hollow feeling and no reassuring weight to them. There’s no force feedback on offer here either, instead the wheel relies on a tightly sprung return mechanism to recentre the wheel in a pretty aggressive and haphazard way. The pedals also lack any kind of resistance, both the accelerator and brake feel the same under foot with an identical size and travel. It all has a very arcade vibe but at least it gets the job done.

The control panel is a different story altogether, so much so it almost feels at odds with the rest of the Logitech G Heavy Equipment Bundle. Once again it’s all plastic, but it’s much more solid and each of the 24 buttons are snappy and responsive. The front loader joystick is the highlight on the entire bundle, it feels premium and offers a great level of control.

I fired up Farming Simulator 25 and was delighted to see how well the Logitech G Heavy Equipment Bundle was pre-mapped. Not only was the entire setup recognized immediately, it was truly plug and play with every in-game control for every machine I tried already configured out of the box. It made the experience far more welcoming than the Thrustmaster FarmStick X which required almost entirely manual setup before I could begin working the fields.

The lack of force feedback meant it wasn’t exactly a realistic experience, the entire time I spent behind the wheel I was fully aware it was essentially a toy, but it made me enjoy my farming a trailer-load more than when I’ve played with a controller or keyboard and mouse.

(Image credit: Future)Logitech G Heavy Equipment Bundle: Price and availability

• List price: $329.99 / £229.99 / €289.99
• Side panel also available separately as a standalone device
• Previously sold as the Saitek Heavy Equipment Bundle

Just like a scarecrow standing alone in a field, the Logitech G Heavy Equipment Bundle seems to cast a pretty lonely figure in the category of farming simulation gear.

Racers are blessed with an abundant range of wheels but it's rare to see such a focused piece of tech. Much like that experienced, old scarecrow, the Logitech G Heavy Equipment Bundle is somewhat of a veteran at this stage too. Celebrating its 10th birthday in 2025, this wheel and button box combo was originally released by sim hardware manufacturer Saitek shortly before its acquisition by Logitech back in 2016.

Logi then rebadged and re-released the Heavy Equipment Bundle under its Logitech G brand a couple of years later and it remains as one of the only dedicated farming sim rigs in the market. Little has changed since the original, you’ll still get a three-piece bundle of a wheel, pedals and side panel, and the price remains close to what it was at a reasonably steep $329.99 / £229.99 / €289.99. If you’ve already got a wheel and pedals, the side panel is available on its own for $169.99 / £139.99 / €169.99.

This sees the Logitech G Heavy Equipment bundle come in a chunk cheaper than its only major competitor, the Hori Farming Vehicle Control System, which will set you back just shy of $400. It also keeps it in-line with the sim racing staple Logitech G920, which does away with the side panel in favor of a higher-quality wheel. If you play more than just Farming Simulator it may be worth looking at that standalone option and spending a little more to pick up a higher quality wheel.

(Image credit: Future)Logitech G Heavy Equipment Bundle: Specs

Dimensions

Wheel: 13.98 x 10.83 x 12.60in / 355 x 275 x 320mm (HxWxD)

Pedals: 5.43 x 9.17 x 7.09in / 138 x 233 x 180mm (HxWxD)

Side Panel: 7.56 x 6.61 x 13.27in / 192 x 168 x 337mm (HxWxD)

Weight

Wheel: 4.19lb / 1902g

Pedals: 1.26lb / 572g

Side Panel: 2.56lb / 1160g

Mappable Buttons

Wheel: 10

Side Panel: 24

Sticks

Wheel: 2

Side Panel: 1

Pedals

2

Throttle Controls

1

Platform Compatibility

PC (Windows 11/10, MacOS)

Box Contents

Heavy equipment wheel with 6.6ft/2m USB connector cable, Gas and brake pedal set with 6ft/1.8m USB connector cable, Side panel control deck with 6.6ft/2m USB connector cable

(Image credit: Future)Logitech G Heavy Equipment Bundle: Design and features

• 900° rotating steering wheel with spinner knob
• More than 30 mappable buttons plus throttle control wheel
• Dual-mode joystick

While it may have arrived in a large box featuring Logitech’s slick, modern G branding, the Heavy Equipment Bundle itself is distinctly old school. This combo is now a decade old and it shows every bit of that age. There’s an instant giveaway too, the product photo on the box is noticeably low resolution and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the same one that Saitek was using all those years ago. First impressions certainly weren’t excellent.

This experience wasn’t quickly improved when opening the box either. Call me a packaging snob but I’m a sucker for a slick unboxing experience and I wasn’t granted that here. There’s not much going on in there and it was all flanked by basic, thin brown cardboard. I know Logitech isn’t pitching this as a premium device but if I’d invested more than $300 on it I’d feel a little short changed.

It’s a simple bundle but has everything you need to get going, no extra gear required. You’ll also often find it bundled with a copy of Farming Simulator too which is a nice touch. In the box is an 11” wheel with an integrated table clamp, built-in USB-A cable and a fixed spinner knob.

A two-pedal accelerator and brake pedal set connects to the wheelbase with an included cable, while the side panel also includes an attached clamp and its own USB-A cable. It means needing to offer up two ports on your PC, though also allows the side panel to be used independently from the wheel as your PC will see them as two entirely separate devices. That’s mainly a blessing but also a slight curse, more on why later.

Build quality is disappointingly average across most of the Heavy Equipment Bundle. For something with ‘heavy’ in its name the whole thing is unbelievably light and rather cheap feeling. It’s plastic everywhere you look and I constantly found myself wanting for the smallest smidgen of rubberisation, upholstery or even just a little embossed texture.

The Logitech G Heavy Equipment Bundle wheel features a mirrored layout with four buttons and two thumb sticks on each side. These are nicely positioned and reasonably sized and I had no problem reaching and accurately using them while working the farm. Around the back of the wheel are two further buttons that while well placed, are irritatingly loose and loud. I streamed my Farming Simulator 25 gameplay on Twitch and had multiple comments from viewers about just how intrusive those rear button clacks were.

The side panel is much better in this regard and almost feels at odds with the wheel and pedal set. While not mechanical, each button is much more solid with no rattle or wobble, and they’re nearly arranged with plenty of space between each. Presses are firm but responsive with a gentle tactile bump and audible click. It’s all very pleasant. The dual-mode joystick is a nice size and has enough resistance to offer fine control without feeling like a workout. I’d have liked a little more strength to the resistance of the throttle wheel, but for how often it’s used it’s perfectly passable too.

(Image credit: Future)Logitech G Heavy Equipment Bundle: Performance

• Plug and play for Farming Simulator titles
• Centre-sprung wheel has no force feedback
• Loads of customization potential

It may not actually mention farming anywhere in its official title, but the Logitech G Heavy Equipment Bundle’s intentions are clear—all it really wants to do is help you plough, sow, and harvest. This is a dedicated farming wheel in all but name.

You’ll need to be establishing your homestead on a computer though because the Logitech G Heavy Equipment Bundle offers no console support whatsoever. The good news is there’s compatibility with both Windows and MacOS, somewhat of a rarity in the gaming world. It’s also impressively plug and play, so much so it wasn’t even recognized by Logitech’s G Hub, so there isn’t even an app to install before you can hop in the game.

Logitech has worked in partnership with developer Giants Software on the Heavy Equipment Bundle so it’s in the natively supported Farming Simulator 25 where I spent most of my time behind the wheel. Firing the game up for the first time I was delighted to immediately be greeted by not only a fully–pre-configured wheel and side panel, but the game also showing me correctly labelled inputs alongside menu items.

I was able to navigate straight through menus and into a new save without ever touching my keyboard or mouse, relying mainly on the thumb stick and button set on the wheel itself.

Arriving on the farm I jumped straight into the nearest truck to test out the most basic driving controls. They worked just fine, but as someone used to using pretty high-spec sim racing gear I found the Logitech G Heavy Equipment Bundle wheel to be incredibly toylike.

There’s no force feedback or even basic rumble effect, just an overly keen centre spring that offers a tiny amount of resistance when steering but sends the wheel rubber-banding back to a default position like a cartoon saloon door. It’s not exactly immersive but I’ll concede it’s far more fun than using a controller or keyboard and I’d still rather use this wheel than no wheel at all.

(Image credit: Future)

Jumping over to some more complicated agricultural machinery is where things got more confusing. Every button was bound and they were all labelled in game, that was good, but the problem was both the Heavy Equipment Bundle wheel and side panel use the same input numbers and the game rarely told me which it was referring to. It seemed as if it only wanted to show me wheel labels rather than side panel numbers, a slight problem given it has some three times more inputs to remember. It meant blindly pressing just about every button to work out what did what and then needing to memorize them.

There is an incredible amount of customisation potential here though and even just using the default button maps I had a blast. I can imagine experienced digital farmers getting a huge amount of value from the Logitech G Heavy Equipment Bundle side panel, particularly if you took the time to refine the input layout to something a little more memorable.

In my testing it was the dual-mode joystick that proved the standout addition. Controlling the intricate movements of an excavator arm felt natural, and more importantly, incredibly fun. I did need to go in and rebind a couple of movements here to gain full control, but once I did you’d have a hard time dragging me out of the driver’s seat.

The fundamental gameplay improvements brought about by the joystick made me long for a little more input variety because beyond this (and the basic throttle wheel) the Heavy Equipment Bundle side panel is just an array of simple buttons. There are four of what appear initially to be two-state switches, but are actually just buttons in costume with a switch-style keycap.

Given how many farming systems are two-state, think raising and lowering a harvester head or extending and retracting an auger, this functionality would have been very welcome as it’s not always immediately obvious in game whether you’ve got your gear in the right position and having some real world visual feedback would have helped.

While a majority of my time with the Logitech G Heavy Equipment Bundle was spent in Farming Simulator 25, I also tried jumping over to a couple of other similar titles to see how it fared. Results were mixed. In Euro Truck Simulator 2 I had to manually configure every input, even down to simple left and right turn controls, though this was simple enough and the game recognized each input.

Motorway driving is rather dull without any level of force feedback however, so I probably wouldn’t recommend it. Roadcraft offered no functionality at all, though this is true of a lot of wheels so I’m inclined to lay blame more on the software side than the wheel itself.

(Image credit: Future)Should you buy the Logitech G Heavy Equipment Bundle?Buy it if...

You’re playing Farming Simulator with a controller or Keyboard
It may not be the best wheel and pedal set going, but I found the game considerably more enjoyable to play than with the Logitech G Heavy Equipment Bundle than without it.

You’re willing to dial it in
While there is plug-and-play button mapping for Farming Simulator titles, you’ll have a better overall experience if you take the time to manually configure button layouts to your liking. And more importantly, keep track of what’s bound to what.

Don't buy it if...

You’re looking for true realism
With its rather mediocre build quality and no force feedback whatsoever, I didn’t find the Heavy Equipment Bundle particularly immersive. It’s a good arcade toy but it’s far from a detailed piece of simulation hardware.

You’re looking to play more than just Farming Simulator
Some other titles will recognize the different components of the Heavy Simulator Bundle but plug-and-play compatible with other games is lacking and I found some wouldn’t work with the wheel at all.

Also consider...

Not sure if the Logitech G Heavy Equipment Bundle is the right choice?

Here are a couple of other flight stick options you might consider instead.

Logitech G Heavy Equipment Bundle

Thrustmaster SimTask FarmStick X

Thrustmaster Sol-R Flight Stick

Dimensions (HxWxD)

Wheel: 13.98 x 10.83 x 12.60in / 355 x 275 x 320mm

Pedals: 5.43 x 9.17 x 7.09in / 138 x 233 x 180mm

Side Panel: 7.56 x 6.61 x 13.27in / 192 x 168 x 337mm

9.1 x 7.5 x 7.3in / 230 x 190 x 185mm

9.72 x 7.71 x 7.71in / 247 x 196 x 196mm

Weight

Wheel: 4.19lb / 1902g

Pedals: 1.26lb / 572g

Side Panel: 2.56lb / 1160g

1.9 lb / 858g

2.79lb / 1270g

Mappable Buttons

25

33

21

Joystick Axis

3

3

6

Triggers

0

2

2

Throttle Controls

2

1

1

Platform Compatibility

PC

Xbox and PC (limited games on console)

PC

Box Contents

Heavy equipment wheel with 6.6ft/2m USB connector cable, Gas and brake pedal set with 6ft/1.8m USB connector cable, Side panel control deck with 6.6ft/2m USB connector cable

FarmStick X, Warranty flyer, USB-C to USB-A cable, Additional trigger cap

Sol-R base, Sol-R grip, Removable wrist rest, Thumb rest (+ 1 cover) for left-handed configuration, Stability supports, Detachable USB-C cable, Warranty information

Also consider Thrustmaster SimTask FarmStick X
If it’s the extra functionality of the side panel that interests you most, the Thrustmaster SimTask FarmStick X might be worth a look. Taking its cues from flight simulators, it compresses all those extra buttons into a tighter layout and wraps them around a large joystick. This grants efficiency at the expense of more traditional farm styling, and you’ll still need to grab a separate wheel, but we had a blast using it in Farming Simulator 25.

For more information, check out our full Thrumaster SimTask FarmStick X review

Also consider Thrustmaster Sol-R Flight Stick

Designed primarily for flying games, the Thrustmaster Sol-R flight stick can still do a handy job on the farm. It offers a range of programmable buttons around a large hall effect joystick and is available in a dual pack too. It could be a good choice if you’re looking to play more than just Farming Simulator 25, but you’ll still need to source a wheel and pedals.

For more information, check out our full Thrumaster Sol-R Flight Stick review.

(Image credit: Future)How I tested the Logitech G Heavy Equipment Bundle

• I clamped the bundle to my desk and spent hours playing Farming Simulator 25 on PC
• I tried a range of farmyard machinery and general controls
• I also checked performance in other, non-officially supported games

I added the Logitech G Heavy Equipment Bundle to my PC gaming setup featuring an Intel Core i9 14900k CPU and AMD Radeon 9070XT graphics card.

Setup was simple with integrated screw clamp mounts on both the wheel and side panel attaching firmly to my desk, with the pedals just resting on the floor. Both the wheel and side panel need their own USB connection, though both performed just fine when connected to either a USB hub or directly into my motherboard.

Most of my testing was focused on Farming Simulator 25 through Xbox GamePass where I tested the out-of-the-box button mappings of a range of vehicles for the first couple of hours. I then jumped into the in-game menus and made a few manual tweaks to check how simple things were to re-configure to my personal preference.

After ploughing a few fields I swapped over to RoadCraft and Euro Truck Simulator 2 to check performance in titles it’s not officially designed for.

First reviewed April 2025

Read more about how we test

Konami’s 2004 stealth classic Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is one of the best games ever made. Yet the idea of a remake didn’t exactly conjure the joy that one would usually get from hearing their favourite game is getting remade. After the fallout between Konami and series creator Hideo Kojima and the 10-year series hiatus that ensued (not counting the dreadful Metal Gear Survive), I had my doubts.

Review info

Platform reviewed: PS5 Pro
Available on: Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PS5, PC
Release date: August 29, 2025

And yet, Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is fantastic; there are no awkward changes to the story or pacing like the Silent Hill 2 remake, or really any attempts to touch the game I love so much… because it is still that game.

Metal Gear Solid Delta is firmly in the Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster or The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening camp of remakes as it is so beholden to the source material that it struggles to find an identity of its own outside of the fact that it looks pretty now.

Remember the Alamo

(Image credit: Konami)

Snake Eater represents the earliest point in the Metal Gear timeline, in which you play as Naked Snake before he goes on to become the legendary soldier Big Boss in the midst of the Cold War. A rescue mission gone wrong means he has to battle his mentor, The Boss, destroy the not-quite-a-Metal-Gear, Shagohod robot, and prevent the Cold War from becoming a hot one.

Naked Snake is by far the most compelling protagonist in the series, by the sheer virtue of being the most relatable. Both Solid Snake and Raiden were bred to be the greatest possible soldiers, while Naked Snake is just a guy.

Early on you see him pull a stupid grin because he realises he can drop a beehive on someone; he completely blanks out sleeper agent Eva’s advances because he’s so enamoured with the cool gun she gave him. These little touches make him a far more compelling character and allow for the finale to deliver an absolute gut punch at its emotional climax.

(Image credit: Konami)

Your main adversaries this time are the Cobra unit, a group of legendary soldiers like one who shoots bees out of his mouth or the sniper who is 100 years old and can die of old age if you save the game during his fight and come back later.

Then there’s the main antagonistic trio of Snake’s mentor, The Boss; series staple Revolver Ocelot in his awkward early years; and Volgin, a sadistic colonel who is as filled with pomp as he is an abhorrent human being.

There really isn’t a character in Snake Eater that feels underdeveloped. I’m not typically a big audio log person, but I found myself returning to the codec call screen to chat with Snake’s allies – even after beating the game many times before now – just because I love the banter between them.

There are even characters who appear for literally one scene – like the Soviet scientist Aleksandr Granin – and are unforgettable thanks to Kojima’s signature monologue and exposition sequences.

The mission, or your beliefs?

(Image credit: Konami)

Snake Eater moved the series away from its then-standard military base infiltrations – where stealth was more straightforward – and moved into the Russian jungles. Now that you’re dealing with foliage, caves, mountains, and the odd encampment, stealth is very freeform.

In Metal Gear Solid Delta, it’s all pretty much how you remember it, the only difference being that the game’s control scheme has been updated to be more in line with later entries in the series. It introduces the over-the-shoulder camera and crouch-walk from Metal Gear Solid 4 (which was implemented into the 3DS version of Snake Eater) and makes the controls more in line with a standard third-person shooter (triggers to aim and shoot, circle to crouch etc.). But you shouldn’t expect something revolutionary.

Snake Eater’s other major addition was that of survival mechanics. You could change camo to help you blend into environments, eat food (including snakes, funnily enough) to keep your stamina up, and heal various injuries and ailments. In the original these were accessed through the pause menu, but while that’s still the case, this time it’s been streamlined somewhat.

Holding up on the d-pad will open up a camo menu for you, showing some combinations that you can switch to in an instant; when you’re injured, pressing up will take you straight to the cure screen too. Again, it’s nothing transformative, but it’s a nice quality of life update. You also get an autosave every time you enter a new area, which makes doing the hardest challenge run – Foxhound rank – less obnoxious.

Best bit

(Image credit: Konami)

Snake Eater is a game filled to the brim with memorable moments, but the updated visual fidelity and foliage really add to the intensity of the sniper battle with The End. What was already one of the best boss battles in the series gets a boost from it being even harder to find your opponent.

But Metal Gear Solid Delta isn’t really doing anything new. All of the level layouts, enemy placement and items are the exact same as they were on the PS2. It’s so strictly beholden to the original that you can interrogate guards, and they will still give you codes to use in the PSP’s Metal Gear Acid, which isn’t even a game you can buy officially anymore. Plus the opening and closing credits are ripped straight from the original (a lot of Hideo Kojima name drops), with you having to go into the extras menu to actually see the new development team.

Granted, it does bring back some of the things I would not expect, including things that were taken out of later re-releases like the Snake Vs Monkey mode, which isn’t as fantastic as the other half of that Metal Gear x Ape Escape crossover, but it’s a fun little distraction.

Plus, there’s a “Legacy Mode” option that lets you revert to the original control scheme complete with fixed cameras, a visual filter, and the old versions of the opening theme and main menu.

Kuwabara kuwabara

(Image credit: Konami)

The other major change with Metal Gear Solid Delta is how it looks, with the Russian jungle rendered beautifully in Unreal Engine 5, and I really can’t fault it on that front. The character models do present an issue, though. On paper they look great, and some characters really take to the new style – like Volgin, whose facial scarring looks much better and more identifiable with the new tech. But others like Ocelot and The Boss, look somewhat uncanny at points, with their faces feeling off at certain angles.

This is paired with Metal Gear Solid Delta using the original voice recordings from Metal Gear Solid 3 with only minor new lines recorded to cover for the different control scheme and a couple of easter eggs during codec calls. Metal Gear voice acting is always quite over the top, and as such feels a little weird coming out of the mouths of these hyper realistic character models.

Metal Gear Solid Delta is in a weird spot. I don’t think a massive overhaul like the Resident Evil remakes would have gone down well in a post-Kojima release, so I get why Konami remade it this way (and frankly it’s probably the way I wanted to see it remade). But, at the same time, I don’t really get a sense of what the series looks like going forward like I could with the Silent Hill 2 remake because it is so faithful.

But regardless, it’s still a remake that feels great to play and (mostly) looks fantastic. It doesn't do much to carve out its own unique identity, but as an entire package Metal Gear Solid Delta is as much of a masterpiece as the original Snake Eater was in 2004.

Should you play Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater?Play it if...

You haven’t played Snake Eater in a while
While Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater doesn’t have a whole lot to actually update the game, it’s a nice way to return to it. The updated controls – while not transformative – do streamline things somewhat, and the game looks fantastic.

You haven’t played a Metal Gear game
As much as the purist in me shudders at not starting with Metal Gear Solid (which you can get in the Master Collection), some just don’t vibe with older games. So out of the modern Metal Gear games available, it’s the best starting point for the story compared to 5.

You like a game with a good story
The original Metal Gear Solid 3 is one of my favourite stories in gaming, and it’s untouched here, and even after playing through it god knows how many times, the story still hits. It’s a far more personal story than your typical spy thriller but has the usual world-ending threat and camp silliness of your average Bond film.

Don't play it if...

You want a new experience from Snake Eater
Ultimately this is an incredibly faithful remake. Outside of updated visuals and the controls from the 3DS version, it’s almost literally the exact same game down to the smallest details. So if you don’t enjoy remakes akin to Link’s Awakening and Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster and prefer something transformative like the Resident Evil remakes, you’re not going to get your money’s worth.

Accessibility

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater features a number of accessibility options.

The majority of these are control-based allowing you to swap held inputs into tap. For example, when dragging an enemy, you typically would have to hold the button the entire time, but you have the option now to tap once to grab and tap again to let go.

There are also in-depth subtitle options allowing you to choose sizes, backgrounds, and speaker names with separate options for gameplay and cutscenes. There are colourblind filters present, but these are specifically for the UI and don’t seem to have any effect in-game.

(Image credit: Konami)How I reviewed Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater

I played 30 hours of Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater on PS5 Pro on a Samsung Q60D TV and a Samsung HW-T450 soundbar.

During this time I completed a 16 hour run of the game on Normal in the New Style with the majority of hidden items and weapons collected, defeated every enemy and boss non-lethally, attained the Tsuchinoko rank, and learnt the parry timing of the final boss the hard way.

I also completed the Virtuous Mission in Legacy mode on Hard and completed the New Game+ on Extreme, attaining the Foxhound Rank which is the toughest challenge in the game - made a bit less extreme thanks to autosaves.

First reviewed August 2025

While it's one of, if not the oldest professions, herdsmen aren't often represented in video game format, and after playing Okomotive's Herdling, I struggle to understand why. Sure, if you asked me to come up with my dream game tomorrow, I probably wouldn't start with "herding cattle", but Herdling takes the idea and expands it into a mystical, uncanny world filled with fantastic beasts and terrifying foes.

Your role is simple: finding, taming, caring for, and guiding a herd of great calico-patterned horned beasts called Calicorns and ushering them to the mountain's peak. Along the way, you'll encounter various puzzles, obstacles, and foes.

Review info

Platform reviewed: Nintendo Switch 2
Available on: Nintendo Switch 2, PC, Xbox, and PS5
Release date: August 21, 2025

From its painterly art style to its rich, emotive music, the world of Herdling is vivid and expansive, and delightful to explore thanks to a decent variety of mechanics in each level and plenty to discover and explore.

You'll traverse verdant fields, discover abandoned man-made structures, both modern and mystical, and cross treacherous woods and mountain climes to reach the summit. While it's not terribly long, offering 4-6 hours of gameplay, Herdling is littered with collectibles and discoverable content, making for a good amount of replayability.

Seen, but not herd

The game opens in a seemingly deserted city, as the protagonist awakens on the streets with a seemingly singular purpose: to find and herd Calicorns. This slightly claustrophobic cityscape acts as your tutorial ground, though there's little to no instruction.

Things aren't all as they seem, though; the presence of human life is tangible everywhere in the early stages of the game, whether that's in trains hurtling past the open fields, lights flickering in buildings, or cars crossing open highways. Still, the manufactured world seems at odds with your new companions, so you dust off the concrete and head out into the open plains on your quest to reach the mountain's peak, gathering more fluffy friends along the way.

It's unclear why, bar the Calicorns, you seem to be so alone in this slightly uncanny world; Herdling asks not why, but how you'll navigate the treacherous path to the summit. And that "how" is largely dictated by your herd.

You'll find a host of Calicorns along your journey, which you can tame with a good old-fashioned head scratch and name. By standing behind them and facing in the direction you want to travel in and waving your shepherd's crook, you can steer your Calicorns and command them to stop, go, or slow down.

(Image credit: Okomotive)

You can also activate stampede mode for a speed boost, which is refuelled by guiding your herd over blue flowers and increases the more Calicorns you have tamed. Performance drops are fairly frequent during stampede mode, and as you'd expect, it becomes more challenging to guide your flock at high speeds.

In narrower portions of the map, navigation can be frustrating, especially as you collect more Calicorns, and there were more than a few moments where I feared I'd never safely negotiate the herd out of some slightly jammy corners. On the one hand, that could be by design, but I'm never a fan of chance taking the reins.

You'll find yourself inventing all kinds of methods to keep your herd compact and controlled, but sometimes even pausing their motion can't stop the scamps from going on walkabouts. After all, they are wild animals.

Your Calicorns aren't your wards; they're your companions, and help you as much as you do them! (Image credit: Okomotive)Until you find your dream

The game is largely linear, but that doesn't make your journey easy; you'll have to decide on the best paths to take, navigate in and out of some tight spots with your growing, occasionally mischievous herd, and care for them to ensure they survive their passage – and yes, that does mean they can die.

Upon taking damage, the Calicorns' vibrant coat, often dusted with petals from running amidst the flower fields and storing up stampede powers, will become slick with blood, a wound you can only heal by scrambling about the map level in search of berries to feed your friends. There is also an Immortal mode for the faint of heart; thankfully, in my first playthrough, I didn't need it.

Nobody wants to ruin a perfect run with a herd member's passing, but it's doubly heartbreaking when you factor in how personable and cute these creatures are. Each has a unique design, with different horn shapes, sizes, and ages, expressed through their quizzical and expressive wide red eyes.

Some even have personality traits that play out as you rest in camp between levels. Needy Calicorns will follow you around camp until they receive affection, while playful ones will try to engage you in a game of fetch. It's incredibly charming and raises the stakes in the game overall.

Image 1 of 4

(Image credit: Okomotive)Image 2 of 4

(Image credit: Okomotive)Image 3 of 4

(Image credit: Okomotive)Image 4 of 4

(Image credit: Okomotive)

As the game progresses, the world expands to include more mysticism. Ancient monuments and grand structures become the backdrop for your quest, and the farther you climb, the more enchanting the world becomes; and the farther you feel from the vaguely post-apocalyptic vibes in the earlier game levels as your protagonist becomes increasingly enmeshed with their herd.

There are environmental threats at different levels, including spiky surfaces and even ice calving beneath your Calicorn's feet (or hooves? You can't really see them...), but the real fear factor comes from the cryptid-esque giant owls that seem to have a real taste for Calicorn.

These are the primary antagonists in Herdling, but their menace takes various forms. From high-stakes stealth navigation through the birds' nest to high-speed chases as they snipe at you from the air, these great beasts pose a genuinely terrifying threat to your herd.

(Image credit: Okomotive)

You can really appreciate the calmer moments in the game in contrast to the terror, though. The great, sprawling landscapes are gorgeous, and the soft-touch sound design wonderfully captures the emotion of every moment. Activating stampede mode launches a tremendous Galop-esque burst of sound and color, where more peaceful moments feature little more than the sounds of nature and the sprinkling of keys.

Of course, as Herdling is an indie title, it does lack polish in areas; animations are occasionally a bit awkward, especially as Calicorns descend slopes, and tight or enclosed spaces can be challenging to navigate. That's especially true as your herd grows, which may well be by design, but if you're playing using a controller like I did on my Switch 2, you might find yourself in peril (or just fiddling with herd positioning) more often than you'd like, which can impact the pace of the game.

Still, I really enjoyed my time as a Calicorn shepherd. The game hints at themes of homeship, nature, found family, death, and rebirth, giving the player ample perspectives through which to enjoy its wordless narrative. Herdling cleverly implements its key herding mechanic but offers enough ways to play and explore that players of all ages and skillsets can enjoy this minimalist yet profound odyssey to find a new home.

(Image credit: Okomotive)Should I play Herdling?Play it if…

You love a creative indie title
Blending a rare (if not original) herding concept with its beautiful art style, Herdling is a truly creative indie gem.View Deal

You want something atmospheric and cozy
With a gorgeous soundscape, music, and fantastic visuals, Herdling certainly delivers on atmosphere, but it's surprisingly cozy too with its Calicorn care mechanics. View Deal

Don’t play it if…

You want a long play
With just 4-6 hours of gameplay per save, it's not one that will keep you going for days, though there's a good amount of replayability.View Deal

You want a story-driven narrative
Herdling leaves you to connect the dots, and if you aren't prepared to do some thinking, you might not appreciate this one. View Deal

Accessibility features

Herdling has a handful of dedicated accessibility settings. You can toggle controller vibration, sprint, auto-run, display HUD, herding direction indicator, Calicorn immortality, and button holds. There are no dialogue lines, but there are various language settings for the menus and tutorial.

How I reviewed Herdling

I played through Herdling twice (10 hours) on Nintendo Switch 2 using both the Pro Controller, Joy-Con 2, and handheld mode.

During my time with the game, I compared my experience with other indie titles, especially those launched on Switch 2, making certain to note any issues with performance or game quality.

First reviewed August 2025

Insta360 GO Ultra: two-minute review

Get drawn in by the fun magnetic system and tiny size, and be genuinely impressed by the quality of the 4K footage. That’s what happened when I tested the Insta360 GO Ultra, a product that takes the advancements made with Insta360's Ace Pro 2 and GO 3S and turns them into another (really) compact, pocket-sized camera system for adventurous creators.

I've been into action cameras since the first GoPros came out (terrifyingly, almost 20 years ago). But until recently, I've always found their bulky housings less than ideal in adventure-type scenarios (running up a mountain peak, or learning to surf, for example). The whole point of the GO Ultra is to unlock more creative opportunities without sacrificing portability.

Insta360 might be best known for its innovative 360-degree cameras, but it's a brand that’s becoming synonymous with challenging the norms of action cams, too. The GO Ultra is a frankly tiny, pocketable camera (at 1.9 oz / 53g), about the same size as an Apple Watch. It's a natural successor to the GO 3S (released in 2024), but not a replacement. At the time of writing, Insta360 told me that both cameras will remain on sale.

(Image credit: Lauren Scott)

Like its predecessor, the magic of the Go Ultra is its modular design that combines a standalone camera and an Action Pod, giving you unique ways to shoot, charge and play. On the surface, the camera simply looks like a square version of the GO Ultra 3S, and powerful magnets on its base mount to the Action Pod (where the screen and buttons are) or numerous accessories and attachments. I even mounted the camera to our car, but that’s a story for another day.

However, inside its dark gray exterior are some notable improvements. The sensor is 221% bigger for better low-light capture, and a new 5nm AI chip delivers benefits to video quality using algorithms. The GO Ultra can shoot 4K60fps video, where the GO 3S was limited to 4K 30fps. And I found the PureVideo mode – that uses said AI algorithms to cut down on noise in low light – delivered good results at sundown, where my previous action cams struggled. The maximum wide 156-degree POV is great for group shots and selfies, vlogs and immersive action alike, and the view can be tailored to avoid a warped perspective.

This is a content companion for people with an active lifestyle rather than professional athletes. I found myself shooting more with the camera overall, simply because in one snap, I could have hands-free recording.

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Like the GO 3S, the standalone camera is more rugged than the Action Pod. You can use it in freezing conditions and depths of 33 feet (10 meters) underwater, while the pod is only splashproof, which is a shame. Other rugged points for the camera include a replacement lens cap (helpful if you scratch it during activities) and a push-up cover to keep the memory card slot inside dry.

I love the simplicity of the GO Ultra’s design. Like the Insta360 Ace Pro 2, the flip-up touchscreen on the action pod is an alternative to the front-and-back solution on GoPro, and I found it more intuitive for vlogging. Handling is a three-button operation, with intuitive swipes for key menus on the touchscreen, and the magnetic mounting system is always satisfying and feels secure.

(Image credit: Lauren Scott)

The GO Ultra's battery life was a sore point for me, and not as impressive as all-in-one rivals. I got around an hour of 1080p video recording from the standalone camera, but more than double when combined with the Action Pod. USB-C charging takes you from 0 - 80% in around 12 minutes, though, making up for the fact that the battery doesn’t last as long as Insta360 suggests based on their lab tests.

There's no built-in storage for content like the GO 3S has, but microSD cards up to 2TB are compatible, and it's so quick and easy to get footage off the camera using the Insta360 app on a smartphone. I don't think this is a problem (just an extra cost to bear in mind).

• Check out our Insta360 Go Ultra vs Insta360 Go 3S write up to see how the tiny action cams compare

Image quality is better than the GO 3S, with photos capped at 50MP instead of 9MP. And you get HDR video mode, too, with the option to apply 'Dolby Vision' to shot footage to give it more contrast and color. The usual video modes like Timelapse and Slow Motion work as expected, while new Toddler Titan mode adds fresh, immersive POVs. There are several new features aimed at families, including AI Family Moments to pull content of loved ones into a virtual album.

The camera's audio quality was surprisingly crisp in most scenarios, and voice-specific modes picked up my rambling very clearly, while a wind-reduction mode helped while running in a breeze. Although I haven't tested them, GO Ultra is also compatible with several external microphones designed for high-quality sound, including Insta360's Mic Air, and third-party Bluetooth mics like the DJI Mic Mini and AirPods Pro 2.

The Insta360 GO Ultra is hugely versatile, and I filmed in so many places, with so many perspectives, that wouldn't have been safe or possible with my iPhone alone. If you're a family wanting more creative holiday snaps, a creator feeling stuck with what you can shoot with a smartphone, or just someone with an active lifestyle, the GO Ultra feels like the ultimate lightweight and fun solution.

Insta360 GO Ultra: specsInsta360 GO Ultra specs

Sensor

1/1.28-inch

Max Resolution

50MP (8192x6144) photos
4K, 60fps

Weight

1.87oz / 53g (camera) 3.8oz / 109g (action pod)

Dimensions

1.8x 1.8 x 0.7 inches / 46 x 46 x18mm (camera)
2.8 x 1.9 x 1.3 inches / 70 x 49 x 33mm (Action Pod)

Gyroscope

6-axis

ISO Range

100–6400

Aperture

f/2.85

Connectivity

Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, USB-C 2.0

Storage

microSD card, up to 2TB

Waterproofing

33ft (10m)

(Image credit: Lauren Scott)Insta360 GO Ultra: Price and availability

• Launched worldwide on August 21 2025
• Standard bundle costs $449.99 / £369 / AU$759
• Creator bundle costs $499.99 / £409 / AU$839

The Insta360 GO Ultra was announced on August 21 2025 (after being teased on August 18) and is available to order now from DJI’s online store and major retailers like Amazon.

It comes with two different bundle options. The Standard Combo includes the camera, quick-release cord, magnet pendant, magnetic clip and a USB-C charging cable. It costs $449.99 / £369 / AU$759.

The Creator Combo bags you all of the above, plus a Mini 2-in-1 Tripod 2.0, Quick Release Mount and Pivot Stand. It costs $499.99 / £409 / AU$839. Although a lens cap is provided, you'll need to buy a separate pouch or case, as neither bundle includes one – and this feels a bit mean.

The pricing puts the GO Ultra at just a fraction more than the Іnѕtа360 X3 in the US and UK (when it's not on offer), which is now three years old, but that does offer 5.7K 360-degree capture over the GO Ultra's 4K. It's roughly the same price as the Insta360 Go 3S, but you get double the frame rate with 60fps video capabilities.

I think the GO Ultra is fairly priced. The GoPro Hero 13 Black is a strong competitor at around $359.99/£305, particularly if you want a traditional action camera and don't mind a bulkier design. There's no built-in storage, so factor in the cost of buying a microSD card before you can start filming.

• Price score: 4.5/5

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(Image credit: Lauren Scott)Insta360 GO Ultra: Design

• Standalone camera is waterproof, operates down to -20C / -4F
• Strong magnetic base connects to Action Pod and range of handy mounts
• The camera weighs 1.87oz / 53g and is similar in size to Apple Watch

The Insta360 GO Ultra resembles a square version of its former self, the GO 3S (its only real rival). Where its predecessor was pill-shaped and about the size of a thumb, the GO Ultra is square and more than half as deep as it is wide, sitting neatly between your forefinger and thumb for quick handheld shots. That’s only half of the product, though. Without the Action Pod, the GO Ultra is one of the lightest action cameras you can buy at 1.87oz / 53g (14g heavier than the GO 3S). Using the Action Pod turns the GO Ultra into more of a traditional GoPro-style action camera.

The main difference is that there’s one flip-up LCD touchscreen, rather than a screen at the front and back. As an owner of the GoPro Hero 12 Black, this flip-up screen was a revelation to me, and I found it so helpful when filming walking shots and talking to the camera, or to see how a shot was framed when shooting with the standalone camera remotely.

No doubt it contributes to the Action Pod’s lack of waterproofing, though. The IPX8-rated camera can be fully submerged underwater, but the Pod is only resistant to splashes, limiting where you can take it. On this, I was always careful to dry the camera before popping it back into the Pod.

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As far as durability goes, the camera is also freeze-proof down to -4 degrees °F (-20°C), so it’s ripe for snowsports. And a screw-on lens protector added peace of mind for me against lens scratches, given that a replacement is around $20/£20. I’ve known so many action cameras in the past to fog up when filming underwater or changing temperatures quickly, but the lens guard has an anti-fog coating that avoided this particular pain point well.

I found the operation of the camera simple, which is a great thing because it lets you focus on the fun part of creating. The Action Pod has just three buttons: red up top for recording, a power button and a Q button to quickly switch modes on the right. There’s a raised button to release the standalone camera from its magnetic mount on the left (above a USB-C charging point), and I never found myself pressing this accidentally.

You really have to tug the standalone camera to release it from the Pod's magnets, which avoids unwanted drops. Underneath the Action Pod, there are two holes to fit the GO Ultra’s specific Quick Release Mount (sold separately, but very solid), for a secure fit to accessories like the brand’s Pet Harness. Attaching the camera to a pet harness was decidedly old school, with an action mount and screw system. But this kept it firmly in place, even after a lot of doggo rolling.

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Navigating the camera’s menus is easy, too. When you first turn on the GO Ultra, you get a walkthrough of what gestures bring up which settings. It took me a few hours to remember which did which (old dogs), but it soon became second nature. A right swipe brings up playback for footage, and a right swipe lets you dial in more settings and switch between Auto and Manual Mode.

The touchscreen is bright, colorful and responsive, which makes changing settings – even with wet or cold fingers – straightforward. You can buy the Insta360 GO Ultra in either Midnight Black (model tested here) or Arctic White, but either way, the construction is from a rigid, matte plastic that seems scratch-resistant, and like it could take a few knocks and drops. It’s sensible action camera fodder.

• Design score: 4.5/5

Insta360 GO Ultra: Performance and features

• Quick AI-edited videos via the Insta360 app
• Standalone camera charges 80% in 12 mins
• Compatible with microSD cards up to 2TB

The GO Ultra is designed to work alongside the free Insta360 app, which pairs to the camera via its own WiFi network for remote operation. From here, you can also download, preview and edit videos on your smartphone. Other than installing some new firmware (released just before the camera), I was paired and ready to shoot from the app in under 10 minutes.

The standalone camera and Action Pod pair via Bluetooth when they're apart. I found the connection seamless, with no lag when changing settings or in the real-time view on the screen. Range can be an issue, though, both from the camera to the phone and from the camera to the pod. More than about five meters away, or underwater, the connection would dip out, and the camera would stop recording. It's not a dealbreaker, but it might limit more complex setups, especially if you're shooting somewhere wet.

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The GO Ultra has a 6-axis gyroscope to measure the camera's movement and rotation, and through an algorithm, makes the video more stable and gives you a more even horizon. Image stabilization isn’t bad, but I found fast-moving objects needed a bit of extra help. When trail running, I got my best results by activating the Jitter Blur Reduction mode, plus Tilt Fix, which corrects uneven mounting by up to 10 degrees. It took me a while to discover both of these, and my first clips with the camera clipped to a hat (including this swimming clip below) were fairly wonky. Once activated, though, the results evened out nicely, and even clips of my dog lolloping at full speed looked stable.

The camera has a built-in microphone, and four modes for picking up sound – Stereo, Voice Enhancement, strong and weak wind reduction. I found the audio quality really impressive while walking in good conditions. My voice was picked up clearly when talking to the camera, and even in a busy city, the camera was able to isolate the sounds nearby rather than heavy traffic noises. If you use the camera in water, the audio will drop out, and the camera will need to dry enough before the clarity returns.

Like most action camera mics, there's an issue with wind noise disrupting the clarity (especially when running in breezy conditions), but the wind reduction setting did noticeably reduce this. It's a big advantage for serious creators to be able to boost the sound quality with an external mic like the Insta360 Mic Air, DJI Mic 2 and AirPods 4. Although without testing, it's hard to comment on the performance this would bring specifically.

I found all the camera's shooting modes and presets easy to get good footage with, partly because the camera does such a good job of explaining what each one does, without the advice feeling intrusive on the screen. It was also easy to control the camera with voice commands, "turn the camera off", "mark that" and hand gestures like making a peace sign to trigger a photo. I found that the standalone camera gets very hot after filming. Even after low-resolution clips, I felt it burning a hole in my shorts pocket, but this didn't cause any interruption in recording, so I don't think it's a major issue.

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Once my clips were captured, I was ready to start editing my videos. Much like GoPro and DJI's accompanying editing apps, Insta360's version also features AI-assisted editing tools to pick out clip highlights. There are tonnes of presets to choose from – with funky names like Vibe City and Tunes and Travel – which do a fair job of creating quick, shareable clips by adding transitions and music.

There are helpful default export settings for platforms like WhatsApp, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, although you can customize export parameters. I enjoy editing manually, but the Insta360 app is so intuitive that I can see even total beginners getting creative right away. Some of these end up being a bit cheesy, but you can tailor the music and effects to suit your tastes. I've included an example of an AI-edited video below, with clips of my dog wearing the pet harness on walkies.

The GO Ultra's biggest downfall – and something we struggled with while testing the GO 3S – is battery life. The standalone camera has a 500mAh capacity, and the action pod 1,450mAh capacity – noticeably smaller than the 2,400mAh capacity on the Insta360 X5, but an improvement on the GO 3S' 310mAh and its 38-minute life. Also, unlike action cams with replaceable batteries, when you run out of juice, that means content creating is on hold until you can find a way to recharge.

Insta360 says you can get 70 minutes of footage out of the standalone camera. Adding the Action Pod gives you 200 minutes. But that's with Endurance Mode on, the LCD and Wi-Fi off, and for 1080 24fps video – conditions I don't think most normal shooters are going to replicate. When I tried shooting a video in 1080 30fps from full power, without all the caveats on the specs sheet, I got around 150 minutes with the pod and 45 minutes without. I don't think that's dreadful for a camera this small, and it's worth noting that a 10-minute charge took me from about 0-75% so I was ready to shoot again. But it's something to consider if you're away from power for long periods, or looking to shoot continuous cycles, runs and hikes for longer.

• Performance score: 4/5

Insta360 GO Ultra: Image quality

• New 1/1.28-inch sensor with AI chip
• Captures 4K video up to 50fps and 50MP photos
• Low-light video mode with PureView

Insta360 has given the GO Ultra a bigger 1/1.28-inch sensor than the GO 3S, the idea being that this is capable of capturing more detail in low light. The GO Ultra also supports video capture up to 4K 60fps and 1080 240fps for slow-motion, plus new HDR that can be applied to clips and stills. Unsurprisingly (because this is a super user-friendly camera), there's no option to shoot in a flat profile for more color grading scope during post-production. But that's no problem, as I think most users will stick to editing in the Insta360 app anyway. Beyond the specs, what do the results look like in real life?

Going into testing the GO Ultra, I think my expectations were too low for a camera of this size. I found video quality to be brilliant in all 10 modes, but footage was sharpest and most vibrant in abundant sunshine. In the camera's Standard color preset (there are 8 in total, including Vibrant and Urban) videos were still colorful and had decent detail in the shadow and highlight areas, although the contrast ratio wasn't good enough to expose a very bright sky like a sunset, and a dark foreground, in one shot.

It's easy to switch the GO Ultra to Manual exposure mode, where you can take control of the shutter speed, ISO (100–6400) and white balance yourself. I found this most helpful for stationary shots, but wouldn't recommend it to beginners. In short – and unlike my mirrorelss camera – Auto mode saw me through all shooting scenarios, and I rarely felt the urge to take over. The joy of this camera is in its simple opration.

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The camera adapts quickly to rapid changes in light, such as coming out of a shady forest into an open field. And I found that useful when I was running in the countryside, moving quickly, where i didn't want the picture to be shrouded in darkness for a few seconds. Being summer, I did a lot of shooting in direct and dappled sun, and found that lens flare was handled well, too.

Big talking points of the GO Ultra’s video capabilities are the new additions of Active HDR and PureVideo. Like SuperNight on the DJI Osmo 360, it's designed to enhance the quality and sensitivity of low-light shooting. It's somewhat limited to automatic settings and 4K 30fps, but you can shift the exposure up and down in increments. Walking around a city at night, I was able to pick up plenty of detail in the buildings, street lights and the sky, although I think there's some aggressive denoising AI going on inside the camera, as the footage did look a bit muddy at times.

Photos from the camera have a seemingly high megapixel count (the maximum resolution is 50MP or 37MP with a 16:9 aspect ratio), which is a big bump up from the GO 3S' 12MP in 4:3 (9MP in 16:9). In practice, I'd say that's more than adequate for slotting into videos, or uploading to social platforms, but I wouldn't want to make big prints from them. At the camera's widest field of view, you get a 14.27mm equivalent in 35mm terms – expansive enough to get groups in the frame, or to shoot yourself while walking. If you're not a fan of the warped action camera look, a Linear POV does a great job at giving you a more natural wide-angle, good for vloggers.

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Overall, I'm impressed by the quality of GO Ultra's footage. It's in line with an action cam that's this portable, and the addition of HDR to video as well as photos (with Dolby Vision for an extra boost) delivers polished videos you can safely deliver to friends, family and your social channels.

If I were a professional creator, I wouldn't rely on this camera to cover all my video needs. But it excels at what it's designed for – being small, getting places other cams can't, and remaining user-friendly for beginners. The battery life is lacking for extended shooting durations, and night footage is still overcooked with PureVideo mode. But GO Ultra's video is good in most areas, and does appear to be an improvement over the 3S in low light (I haven't tested them side by side, so can't say for sure). With its kid and pet-friendly design, I think Insta360 has found the right balance for casual creators with an active lifestyle.

• Image quality score: 4/5

Insta360 GO Ultra: testing scorecard Insta360 GO Ultra

Attributes

Notes

Rating

Price

Similar cost to the Insta360 Ace Pro 2 and Insta360 Go 3S, but the quality of the package is worth it.

4.5/5

Design

A nearly seamless experience with the Action Pod, plus waterproofing and a protective lens on the standalone camera.

4.5/5

Performance & features

Gets hot, and the battery drains quickly. The Insta360 app makes light work of image transfers and AI edits and there are plenty of tricks and modes.

4/5

Image quality

HDR is a great addition, but it's still not a class-leader in low light. You sacrifice some quality for portability.

4/5

Should I buy the Insta360 GO Ultra?Buy it if...

You want to balance performance with portability
Video quality is high, but not the best of all action cameras out there. But the GO Ultra can also go places other action cameras can't, at least without tonnes of extra mounts.

You don't mind shorter battery life
I spent time shooting shorter clips on the GO Ultra, and recharging it little and often. If you plan to capture all-day events or sustained activities like rides or hikes, the battery life might be a limiting factor.

Don't buy it if...

You want the smallest action camera
The Insta360 Go Ultra is small, but not quite as tiny as the GO 3S. At almost 15g less, the Go 3S might unlock even more possibilities.

You want a fully waterproof solution
The Action Pod is only splashproof, a fact that made me uncomfortable while shooting. If you shoot a lot of wet content, I'd go for a fully waterproofed model.

Also consider

Insta360 Ace Pro 2

The Insta360 Ace Pro 2 is co-engineered with Leica and gives pros something more advanced. A dedicated Leica color profile, bigger sensor with better low-light performance and image quality, and up to 8K resolution make it better for advanced videography and content creation. You still get a vlogger-friendly screen.

Read our full Insta360 Ace Pro 2 review

DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro

Cheaper than the GO Ultra, the DJI Osmo Action 5 offers excellent features. It doesn't have the advantage of a tiny standalone camera, but the all-in-one design provides better battery life, waterproofing (to 20 meters), and 47GB of internal storage. The maximum frame rate maxes out higher, too, at 4K/120p.

Read our full DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro review

How I tested the Insta360 GO Ultra

• I tested a full production model for three weeks
• I mounted the camera on my hat, handlebars, and even my dog
• I recorded videos during the day, sunset and after dark

Insta360 sent me a review sample of the GO Ultra Standard Bundle about three weeks before the official release date. This gave me enough time to test all the camera's modes and mounting options, including those with and without the Action Pod, as well as with the magnetic clip on my hat and the magnetic pendant on hikes in the countryside.

Insta360 also supplied a large version of their pet harness, and I attached the camera to my dog out on walkies to see what footage looked like from the POV of a bouncy Flatcoated Retriever.

I used the GO Ultra wild swimming in a local river to test the waterproofing, tried it running, and even attached it to our car as we drove along a country lane. I shot in bright sunshine, at sunset and night – essentially, in all the lighting conditions I could think of for creators. I edited content straight from the camera to the Insta360 mobile app on my iPhone 15 Pro, as well as manually taking footage from the built-in SD card and editing it on my iMac.

• First reviewed August 2025

Intermapper stands out in our best network monitoring tools roundup as a veteran solution that's been serving IT teams for years. This network monitoring platform from Fortra focuses on visual network mapping and real-time status monitoring across Windows, Mac, and Linux environments.

TechRadar reviewers spend several weeks researching each major IT platform in the market, testing features and comparing pricing models. We found Intermapper offers solid fundamentals but struggles to compete with advanced solutions like LogicMonitor, our pick for the best network monitoring tool of 2025.

Still, Intermapper's device-based pricing model makes it accessible for growing businesses. While it lacks the bells and whistles of modern competitors, Intermapper's straightforward approach appeals to teams seeking a reliable and no-nonsense monitoring solution.

Intermapper: Features

Intermapper offers a comprehensive but somewhat dated feature set that works well for small to mid-sized networks. The platform excels at automatic network discovery and visual mapping, providing color-coded status indicators that make problem identification straightforward.

While these core features are well-executed and reliable, we noticed gaps in advanced analytics, AI-powered insights, and cloud-native integrations that competitors like Dynatrace and LogicMonitor provide. The pricing feels reasonable for basic monitoring needs, but organizations requiring sophisticated analytics might find better value elsewhere.

Automatic network mapping

Intermapper's standout feature automatically discovers and maps your network infrastructure within minutes. You'll see every IP-enabled device displayed with customizable icons and color-coded statuses that update in real-time. The platform supports hierarchical maps and sub-maps, letting you drill down into specific network segments like building floors or server closets.

Proactive monitoring and alerting

The platform monitors devices 24/7 using SNMP and other protocols, sending alerts via email, SMS, or sound when thresholds are exceeded. Smart alerting capabilities let you customize schedules, assign alerts to specific teams, and set up escalation procedures. Interface-level monitoring allows granular control over what gets monitored and alerted on.

Performance analysis and reporting

Intermapper tracks network performance metrics and generates reports for capacity planning. The platform now supports 64-bit data storage, improving scalability for high-speed network monitoring. Chart data retention policies help manage storage while preserving historical performance data.

PowerShell integration

Recent updates added PowerShell probe and notifier support, enabling automated responses to network events. This feature lets you restart services, run scripts, or perform other remediation tasks automatically when alerts trigger. The integration works particularly well with Windows applications like SQL Server and SharePoint.

(Image credit: Intermapper)Intermapper: Ease of use

Intermapper's interface feels functional but dated compared to modern network monitoring tools. New users face a learning curve during initial setup and configuration, though the visual nature of network maps makes ongoing monitoring intuitive. But the platform lacks accessibility features found in newer solutions. And some users report that recovering from power outages can be challenging without reliable UPS systems.

The software runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms with consistent functionality across operating systems. Once configured, daily monitoring becomes straightforward thanks to color-coded visual indicators and centralized dashboards. However, we noticed that customizing advanced features requires more technical expertise than user-friendly competitors demand.

Intermapper: Pricing

Plan

Starting price (paid annually)

What's included

Intermapper (25 devices)

$1,650/year ($137.50/month)

Network mapping, monitoring, alerting, web reporting, 24/7 support

Intermapper + Flows (25 devices)

$1,930/year ($160.83/month)

Base features plus network traffic analysis

Intermapper + Flows + Analytics (25 devices)

$2,230/year ($185.83/month)

Full suite with automated analytics and advanced reporting

Intermapper's device-based pricing model offers predictable costs that scale with your network size. This approach contrasts favorably with per-element pricing used by some competitors, making budget planning straightforward. However, the entry price of $1,650 annually for 25 devices positions Intermapper in the mid-range market, not as the budget option some reviews suggest. Volume discounts are available for larger deployments, though enterprise-grade features remain limited compared to premium alternatives.

Intermapper: Customer support

Fortra provides 24/7 human support to all Intermapper customers, which sets it apart from vendors offering tiered support models. You can reach the support team via phone, live chat, or email through the Fortra Community Portal. The company also provides technical bulletins, updates, and program fixes to keep your installation current.

Support quality appears solid based on user feedback, though some customers note that complex configuration issues may require escalation to higher-tier technicians. Documentation is comprehensive, covering installation, configuration, and troubleshooting scenarios. The company maintains active release cycles with regular updates and bug fixes, demonstrating ongoing commitment to the product.

Intermapper: Alternatives

Intermapper occupies a middle ground in the network monitoring market, serving organizations that need more than basic monitoring but don't require enterprise-grade analytics. It competes primarily with tools like PRTG Network Monitor and ManageEngine OpManager in the small-to-medium business segment. For larger enterprises, solutions like SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor, Dynatrace, and LogicMonitor offer more advanced features and scalability.

The platform works best for IT teams managing 100-1000 devices who prioritize visual network mapping and straightforward alerting. Organizations requiring advanced analytics, AI-powered insights, or extensive cloud integrations should consider more modern alternatives. Intermapper's strength lies in its reliability and simplicity rather than cutting-edge features, making it suitable for teams that value stability over innovation.

Intermapper: Final verdict

Intermapper remains a solid choice for organizations seeking reliable network monitoring without complexity. Its visual mapping capabilities and device-based pricing model offer clear value for small to mid-sized networks. The platform delivers on its core promises of network discovery, monitoring, and alerting with minimal fuss.

However, Intermapper shows its age when compared to modern competitors offering AI-powered analytics, cloud-native architectures, and advanced automation features. While it serves its target market adequately, organizations planning significant growth or requiring sophisticated monitoring capabilities should consider more scalable alternatives like LogicMonitor or Dynatrace.

Intermapper: FAQs

What's the minimum number of devices I can monitor with Intermapper?

Intermapper's entry-level license covers 25 devices for $1,650 annually. There's no smaller licensing tier available, making this the minimum investment required. However, you can monitor unlimited components on those 25 devices without additional licensing fees.

Does Intermapper support cloud environments?

Intermapper can monitor cloud-based infrastructure as long as devices are IP-addressable and support SNMP or other monitoring protocols. However, it lacks native cloud service integrations found in modern solutions and works best with traditional on-premises or hybrid environments.

How does Intermapper's pricing compare to competitors?

Intermapper uses device-based pricing rather than per-element pricing, which can be more cost-effective for organizations monitoring many components per device. Compared to enterprise solutions like SolarWinds or LogicMonitor, it's less expensive but offers fewer advanced features.

What happens if my Intermapper server loses power?

Intermapper requires a reliable power source and UPS system to maintain continuous monitoring. Power outages can corrupt network maps, requiring recovery from automated backups. This makes proper power protection essential for reliable operation.

Can Intermapper integrate with automation tools?

Yes, Intermapper's most recent versions include PowerShell integration for automated responses to network events. The platform can also integrate with Fortra's Automate tool for network self-healing capabilities, though this requires additional licensing and installation.

We've listed the best website monitoring software.

Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni: Two-minute review

I'll say one thing about Ecovacs Robotics: the brand might make too many robot vacuums that I, as a reviewer, can’t keep up with, but they all seem well thought out and catering to different needs and budgets. In 2024, it released a good-value robovac that I really liked in my Ecovacs Deebot T30 Omni review, and it’s impressed again with a higher-end model in the Deebot X8 Pro Omni reviewed here.

The X8 has plenty of smarts on board, with Ecovacs’ voice assistant Yiko now better at understanding commands and having a more conversational interaction than its previous iterations on older Deebots. Even if you don't interact with Yiko, the X8 has plenty of automated voice prompts that I very quickly found to be annoying – there's only so many times you can hear it say "don't worry" when its auto-emptying. While you can't switch these off, you can mute the volume entirely and depend on the app notifications to find out if the robot needs help at any time (like if it's stuck somewhere).

There's Google Assistant and Alexa support as well, but Yiko can handle a few extra commands that I found the other two voice assistants couldn't handle. To futureproof your smart home, the X8 Pro Omni also has Matter support, so you can control several smart devices via a single hub.

There's a camera on board that the bot uses to ‘see’ its surroundings for better navigation and obstacle avoidance, but it also provides a live feed that requires a passcode to be set up for access. There’s a Patrol mode here that turns the X8 Pro Omni bot into a security unit and it saves a bunch of photos for you to view whenever you like. You can also speak to your pets or kids if you need to check in on them (spy?) while you're at work. I’ve asked Ecovacs for clarification on how secure the camera is from hackers and will update this review as soon as I hear back.

These smart bells and whistles are all great, but this robot vacuum shines at its most important function: cleaning. It’s arguably one of the best automated cleaners I’ve tested in 2025, with edge cleaning its biggest asset thanks to an extending side brush and wet roller while vacuuming and mopping respectively. In fact, I’ve seen the X8 Pro Omni travel far closer to walls and furniture than many of its competitors, thus allowing its extendable parts to do their job effectively.

The Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni can get very close to walls and furniture to clean, much closer than other bots I've tested previously (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)

It puts its 18,000Pa of suction power to good use, with my carpets looking fresh and clean after a single run on its highest suction setting. It did a better job than what I saw in my Roborock Qrevo Edge review despite 18,500Pa of suction. And its roller mop was quite impressive compared to the mops pads I’d gotten used to previously, and that’s despite Ecovacs saying there’s no pressure applied by the roller on the floor.

There’s also a detergent dispenser on board and use of the soap is automatic provided you toggle it on in the app – Ecovacs says there’s always a ratio of 200:1 detergent and water mix in the pipeline to ensure the correct usage. Even without detergent I found my floors were left stain-free after every mop – in fact, it was better than I experienced in my Narwal Freo Z10 review that, at the time, I said had excellent mopping skills.

In four weeks of testing, the X8 Pro Omni got entangled in a cable just once because the side brush pulled a low-hanging wire towards the bumper, but otherwise its obstacle avoidance is very good. Even more impressive is its overall navigation – it invariably took the path of least resistance in my apartment, which meant it got its tasks done relatively quickly and, importantly, without consuming too much battery life.

Even the base station performance is top notch, with the onboard bin getting cleaned quite well each time it empties, and the wet-roller cleaning is impeccable. Water consumption is also lower than any other robovac I’ve tested before – I’ve previously had to refill the clean water after every full cleaning cycle in my small inner-city apartment, but this time I’ve had to do so once every four or five sessions (depending on its routine).

All in all, this was excellent performance from not just the robot vacuum, but I commend Ecovacs for streamlining its app experience as well. It’s much nicer to use, with plenty of customization options to suit your personal cleaning needs. Importantly, these custom routines are now very easy to access.

It's relatively noisier than some of its newer competitors, and it can't perform the climbing feats of the more expensive Dreame X50 Ultra, but if you value excellent cleaning performance above all else, I'd find it very easy to recommend the Deebot X8 Pro Omni – and it's often discounted.

It doesn't necessarily stand out visually, but the gold accents lend the Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni some class (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni review: price & availability

• Available since March 2025
• List price: $1,099 / £1,099 / AU$2,499
• Incurs ongoing costs for dust bags and detergent

There are quite a few all-in-one robot vacuum cleaners at the same price point that Ecovacs Robotics is selling the X8 Pro Omni, but I think the Deebot can justify its premium cost on its feature set and performance.

It’s listed for $1,099 / £1,099 / AU$2,499 at full price but, at the time of writing, US and UK customers could pick it up for $899.99 / £999 respectively directly from the Ecovacs website. In Australia, it has dropped to AU$2,199 previously, but I suspect there’ll be better discounts around the world during major shopping events like Black Friday sales. It’s also available from select third-party retailers, including Amazon.

This price gets you not just excellent performance (explained below in detail), but you also get an impressive set of features, including voice assistant and Matter integration for a smarter home setup. With that in mind, I think the X8 Pro Omni is well priced compared to some of the other robovacs on the market, although Ecovacs has cheaper models that clean really well, as proved by the Deebot T30 Omni.

As an example of competitor pricing, the Narwal Freo Z Ultra cost $1,499/ AU$2,499 (unavailable in the UK) and is a good machine, but has 12,000Pa of suction compared to the Deebot’s 18,000Pa. Matching the suction power at 18,500Pa is the Roborock Qrevo Edge, but I found it hard to recommend at its list price of $1,599.99 / AU$2,799 (unavailable in the UK) based on its performance alone. On the other hand, Ecovacs' own Deebot T50 Max Pro Omni has 18,500Pa suction, the Yiko voice assistant and promises good cleaning at a lower price point of $799.99 / £799 / AU$1,799.

If you want more suction power, you’ll have to pay a lot more. For example, the Roborock Saros 10 with its whopping 22,000Pa of power will set you back $1,599.99 / £1,499.99 / AU$2,999 at full price, but is often discounted to match the X8's retail cost. The Dreame X50 Ultra Complete with 20,000Pa of suction is also expensive compared to the X8 Pro Omni, coming in at a list price of $1,699.99 / £1,299 / AU$2,999, but it can climb low steps that many of the newer machines can't.

As with any other hybrid robot vacuum, there is the ongoing cost of purchasing dust bags and detergent to take into consideration, although the latter is an optional add-on but I can see the need for it in homes with toddlers and pets. Unlike other brands, though, Ecovacs doesn’t supply a bottle of detergent in the box – at least not in Australia, where the testing for this review was conducted, due to “customs issues with international shipments” – so that’s $49.98 / £44 right off the bat for two 1L bottles in the US and UK (frequently discounted), but the same two-pack isn't available in Australia where a 1L bottle retails for AU$37.50.

The antibacterial dust bags come in packs of three and are available directly from Ecovacs Robotics for $24.99 / £17.99 / AU$29.90 at the time of writing.

Despite the ongoing cost, I think the Deebot X8 Pro Omni balances its feature set, performance and price well, but I’d recommend picking it up during a sale as it’s frequently discounted.

• Value score: 4 / 5

The three-prong button on the Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni doesn't look functional, but it has three tasks it can perform when needed (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni review: specs

Suction power:

18,000Pa

Onboard bin capacity:

220ml

Dust bag capacity:

3L

Clean water tank capacity:

4L

Dirty water tank capacity:

4L

Reservoir capacity:

110ml clean; 95ml dirty

Mop lift:

10mm

Noise level:

up to 75dB

Battery capacity:

6,400mAh

Runtime:

up to 228 minutes / up to 240sqm (2,580 sq ft)

Charging time:

4.6 hours

Dimensions:

Robot = 353 x 351.5 x 98 mm; base station = 350 x 477 x 533 mm

Weight:

Robot = 5.3kg; base station = 7.6kg

Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni review: Design

• Gold accents give it a classy look
• Extending side brush and wet roller mop
• Taller than the average robot but lacks a turret; tall but slim base station

I only had to take the robot out to see that Deebot X8 Pro Omni exudes class, thanks to some gold-colored accents on the otherwise black machine. Unlike the Narwal Freo Z10 that I reviewed prior to the X8 (which was a 11kg weight straight out of the box), the Deebot comes packed in layers, which makes it very easy to set up.

Robot design

Once you remove the wash tray from the top of the box, the next item to emerge is the X8 robot. The first thing that distinguishes it from many other robovacs is the lack of a top turret that typically houses the navigation tech. In the X8 Pro Omni, though, all the necessary sensors are on the front and the sides.

The lack of a turret means the X8 can roll under many low-lying pieces of furniture, although it's doesn't have the slimline form factor of the Roborock Saros 10R – it's a little taller, standing at 9.8cm/3.8in compared to the Saros at 8cm/3in, so there needs to be a minimum clearance of 10cm/4in for the Deebot to clean where many other robovacs can't.

A black plastic disc with the Ecovacs logo in gold covers the top of the robot, with a cutout to show off a gold three-pronged button. There's a tiny power icon in the center of the button to indicate that it's functional, but it's easy to miss and can appear purely decorative, although it lights up when in use and charging. Its functionality is listed on a large piece of cardboard inside the packaging: a short press to start or pause, a double press to extend or retract the wet roller, and a three-second long press to send the bot back to its dock. In the four weeks I spent with the machine, I never found the need to use the button – the robot does everything seamlessly.

Also under the top cover is a removable 220ml/7.4oz dustbin whose filter can be taken out for regular cleaning, plus a toggle switch for power, a Wi-Fi indicator light and a QR code to begin your app setup.

Image 1 of 3

After four weeks of use, there was barely any hair tangled anywhere (just one strand around a large wheel) (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)Image 2 of 3

The V-shaped bristles of the central brush are very effective at avoiding entanglements (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)Image 3 of 3

The wet roller was a lot more effective at streak-free mopping than circular mop pads (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)

On the front of the robot are LiDAR sensors that it uses for mapping your home, while a camera also peeping through the same front window adds visual information that’s paired with artificial intelligence (AIVI) to navigate around obstacles. Along the sides are edge sensors that prevent it from banging into a wall or furniture, yet allowing the bot to get really close for effective cleaning. A mic and speaker are also housed within the front window.

The back of the robot has two charging points, but there’s also a water compartment inside with a clean capacity of 110ml and 95ml for dirty mop water. While you never have to worry about the water reservoir after setup, it can be released using an inset lever.

The side brush extends, but given the Deebot X8 Pro Omni travels very close to obstacles, it even managed to clean corners (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)

As with nearly every other Deebot I’ve tested (and many other brands besides), the underside of the robot houses the central bar brush that sports bristles arranged in a V shape to help it gather hair and fur without itself getting entangled. A single side brush towards the front of the bot rotates at varying speeds automatically depending on the size of the debris it senses – it slows down for larger pieces, similar to some of the high-end Roborocks. It can also extend out to reach into corners and clean along edges – both of which it manages to do better than many of its competitors because the robot itself gets really close to walls.

The rear of the undercarriage is dominated by a wet roller rather than circular mop pads which, according to Ecovacs, spins at a speed of 200rpm and has a scraper in its holder that constantly cleans out the dirty water as it rotates. 16 nozzles keep it supplied with clean water (and detergent if you’re using any).

The main wheels are quite large and, for the first time in any robot vacuum I’ve tested, I found them to be quite noisy when traveling over the tiles in my home. The sound was akin to very hard or brittle plastic moving over a rough surface, but in my time testing the X8 Pro Omni, I didn’t notice too much wear and tear on the wheels to account for the sound. A small omnidirectional caster wheel completes the robot’s physical setup.

It's easy to remove the onboard bin in the Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni to clean out the filter regularly (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)Base station design

The base station itself isn’t much to write home about and is quite similar to several other models on the market. However, the gold accents on the lids of the two water tanks and branding on the front of the dock makes it look quite smart. The tanks have a 4L capacity each and are very easy to lift up, refill or clean out, then replace back on the dock.

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Water tanks are easy to access and fill or clean (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)Image 2 of 3

There are plenty of parts you can wash out if you want to, including the soap dispenser (on top of the tanks) and the wash trays (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)Image 3 of 3

Even the robot's onboard water compartment comes off easily of you want to give it a quick rinse (the inside filter can get grimy) (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)

Below the tanks is a covered nook that houses the detergent dispenser and a 3L dust bag. The dispenser is very easy to slide out and refill, while changing the dust bag is also very intuitive. It’s the cover for this nook that takes a little effort to remove each time you need access to either of its two inmates – it clips in very tightly indeed and you'll need to pull it with some force from the bottom of the panel.

Under the covered nook is the cavity for the robot, which sits on a washing tray. Inside the cavity, on the rear wall of the base station, you'll notice nozzles and charging points that keep the robot doing what it needs to do.

The base station is about as tall as many other brands offer, but it’s a little slimmer than, say, a Narwal dock. It will still need a decent amount of space to house, with enough clearance on the top to allow you to remove and replace the tanks.

• Design score: 4.5 / 5

Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni review: Performance

• Excellent vacuuming on high suction; top-notch mopping at most waterflow levels
• Arguably one of the best edge cleaners in the business
• Very good navigation and obstacle avoidance

The X8 Pro Omni for this review was tested in a 40sqm/430sqft inner-city apartment in Sydney, Australia, with the single bedroom fully carpeted, but the rest of the rooms featuring matte-finish tiles. The bathroom, however, has smoother tiles than the rest of the hard floors and it was part of the full map that the X8 had to clean. There are no stairs in the apartment to test cliff sensors, but there are a couple of low thresholds that were useful to test the X8 Pro Omni’s ability to clear some obstacles.

It’s also important for me to mention that I have no pets, but I’ve always found my bedroom carpet covered in my own (long) hair within 3-4 days of cleaning it, and is usually a very good test for any vacuum cleaner that I review.

Before starting the first cleaning session, I not only set up some custom routines (called Scenario Cleans in the Ecovacs Home app), but I also went through the advanced settings to toggle on some key features, including the carpet-first option as I have mixed flooring. This ensured that no matter what custom cleaning routine I might use, carpets were always vacuumed first to minimize the risk of them getting wet (more on the app experience later).

Overall performance of the X8 Pro Omni was excellent, but it’s important to note that it’s best used for the regular maintenance cleaning sessions that you might need on a daily or a weekly basis. It can’t replace the best cordless vacuum cleaners, but it definitely reduces the human effort and time spent on keeping your floors spick and span.

Water usage in the Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni is not a lot compared to other models I've tested (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)Vacuuming

Let’s start the performance section with the most basic function: vacuuming. I’ve already mentioned earlier in this review that the X8 Pro Omni was one of the best cleaning machines I’ve tested recently, exceeding the vacuuming performance I got from a Roborock and a Narwal that I tested prior to the Deebot. It really does put the 18,000Pa – which is in no way class-leading now – to very good use, particularly at its higher suction settings.

I usually have to set most robovacs to their maximum suction setting to get a decent clean on the bedroom carpet which, as I’ve described above, can get covered in my own hair within days. It’s been rare for me to see that carpet completely hair free after a single session even using the highest power level on other robovacs, but the X8 Pro Omni was been able to do just that each and every time it’s done a bedroom clean on its Max setting.

The Deebot’s got four suction settings and while I wasn’t particularly keen on the Quiet option which reduces the power significantly, I found the Standard and Strong settings to be perfect for hard floors, not once needing to step it up to Max on tiles.

The Deebot X8 Pro Omni repeatedly does 360º rotations around furniture legs to ensure good cleaning (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)

The X8 Pro Omni has a suction-boost option which, as the name suggests, automatically increases power when it detects carpets, but I wasn’t able to notice the dynamic suction from sound alone when it went from hard floor to the mid-pile rug in my living room, although it seemed to do a very good job anyway. The audible change in suction was heard when it was vacuuming tiles in my kitchen, just under a cabinet – go figure.

To check its vacuuming abilities further, I conducted TechRadar’s standard tests of sprinkling tea dust and oats (representing two different-sized debris) on both hard floors and carpets. Doing a Zone clean and set at Strong suction, you can see from the video clip below that the X8 Pro Omni did a fantastic job on the tiles, even sucking up the tea dust from along the edge of the room.

If you look closely, you’ll also notice that the side brush slows down when it detects larger debris (oats) to make sure they all get pulled towards the bar brush.

On the carpet, which was also just a Zone clean done as a separate test, I set the robot to Max suction and found it cleared up the oats very well indeed, although tea dust that went deep into the fibers remained, and is visible in the video clip as a dark patch. I used my finger to loosen the carpet fibers and let the X8 run over it again, and voila, it was all cleaned up.

For both tests, I had the X8 Pro Omni set at moving in the Deep Clean pattern, which covers maximum floor space but time consuming, and I didn’t find the need to go over either of the spots with my Dyson V15s Detect Submarine.

Mopping

This is the first robot vacuum I’ve tested that features a wet roller rather than a pair of rotating mop pads and I really wasn’t sure what to expect. Needless to say, the X8 Pro Omni exceeded my expectations and then some with the way it tackled my hard floors. I will go so far as to say this was arguably the best mopping I’ve seen in a while by a robot vacuum.

From shaved Toblerone on the kitchen floor (I was making Toblerone cheesecake at the time) to a partially dried dollop of coriander-mint chutney, I was very impressed with how well it mopped up different (dry) spills.

I specify dry because you really don’t want a robot vacuum to clean a wet spill like cereal milk or curry sauce as everything in the undercarriage will get wet with the sticky liquid or the sauce, including the wheels and side brush. Cleaning the bot after that will be a chore in itself.

It's fun to watch the wet roller slide in and out from under the Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni bot (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)

As with many other robot vacuums like itself, the X8 Pro Omni has three waterflow settings (Low, Medium and High) with a total of 50 levels. The lowest settings would be good for sensitive wood floors but, for me, I’ve always found higher waterflow rates better for my tiles, so I had the Deebot set at level 40 most of the time as I found 45 and 50 made my tiles very wet indeed, while 30 and lower barely left a damp streak.

My kitchen floors, in particular, need regular mopping and, given it’s right beside the dining room, this area of my apartment was a good test for the X8 Pro Omni. I found that in its Deep Cleaning speed and water level set to 45 but no detergent, there was a visible difference on my floor after its first run compared to what the Dyson V15s Detect Submarine had done prior to switching to the Deebot.

In fact, I’m not sure how much difference adding the detergent has done to my floors because it mopped up dusty footprints and dried, dusty water stains very well without any soap, and it did just as good a job with.

The stress test I put the X8 under was mopping up a partially dried dollop of coriander and mint chutney – it took a couple of passes at water level 40 with detergent in the dispenser to mop it up entirely, no stain left on the floor. The issue here was that the rotating side brush scattered a tiny bit of dry chutney away, but given it was set to Deep Clean, the bot moved over the entire zone twice (more on this below in the navigation section), running perpendicular to its initial path, which meant that scattered bit got mopped up later.

I enjoyed watching the extendable roller sneak in and out of the robot as soon as it sensed something on its side. This could be a wall or a furniture leg, but I found that it hardly left a dry spot.

On the product listing page on the Ecovacs website, the brand says there's no pressure applied by the wet roller on the floor, but given how well I saw it mop, I'd be surprised if this spec listing is correct. There's surely some pressure being applied for such effective mopping.

Another thing I love about the roller is that it's streak-free, particularly on the lower or mid waterflow rates. The only time I saw streaks (and not dirty ones, mind, just marks to show a mop has passed) was when the roller was saturated with clean water.

Navigation & obstacle avoidance

With the sole exception of one Zone cleaning session when it took the wrong path out of its dock to get to where it needed to in a different room, the Deebot X8 Pro Omni never once strayed from the path of least resistance.

It’s impressive navigation extends to doing full 360º rotations around furniture legs, and while the side brush didn’t always extend when I expected it to, the robot itself got so close to walls and furniture that I never had cause for complaint when it came to its navigation just millimeters from what is essentially an obstacle.

It’s three different “cleaning speeds” (or its movement pattern in a given space) are a little hit and miss if you really want a thorough job done. The best movement pattern I found was the Deep Cleaning, which means the robot cleans a space twice, first running in parallel lines just centimeters apart, then traveling perpendicular to ensure no spot is missed.

The other two cleaning speeds – Standard and Quick – aren’t bad, but because the parallel pathways are slightly more spread out compared to Deep Cleaning, I found that the occasional hair strand or speck of debris got missed. That said, “cleaning speed” as Ecovacs calls it is apt as these determine how quickly the X8 Pro Omni finishes its cleaning task.

Obstacle avoidance is also fantastic, as you can see from the video above when I conducted TechRadar’s standard test – creating an obstacle course of a slipper, shoe, a cable, socks and a tissue box. It avoided every single one of them without a hiccup, a feat I’ve not yet seen from any robot vacuum I’ve tested to date.

The only time the Deebot X8 Pro Omni got entangled with a cable, it was the side brush that pulled it into the bumper (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)

However, during one vacuum-only session in my bedroom, it got entangled in a USB-C cable that had one end dangling close to the floor and the side brush pulled it lower (see above image). I could hear Yiko complaining and a notification popped up on my phone that the X8 Pro Omni needed help. I disentangled it and it carried on with its work after I used a voice command to “restart cleaning”.

During a full-house clean, I shut a door to one room to see how it would react to its map not quite being accurate and it had no issues. It got close to the door, pivoted a little on an axis to see if it could spot an opening, but carried on doing what it needed to in the rest of the apartment without any complaints.

Base station performance

Whether it’s sucking out all the dirt and debris from the onboard dustbin or cleaning the wet roller, the X8 Pro Omni base station performance is so good that it justifies the high price tag this machine demands.

Only the tiniest amount of dirt remains inside the onboard dustbin after each vacuuming run that you, honestly, never have to worry about. The only time you’ll need to remove the small onboard bin is when the filter needs cleaning or replacing, or if something gets stuck inside that requires manual removal (never once happened during my testing).

The dustbag inside the base station has a 3L capacity, so it will last you a long while, albeit that will depend on how often you clean, how large your home is and whether you have pets.

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Using the detergent dispenser is optional, and the 3L dust bag could last a while (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)Image 2 of 2

With use, the inside of the base station can begin to look a little worse for wear, but it doesn't hamper performace (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)

Dispensing detergent happened as required, as did filling up the robot’s onboard 110ml clean water compartment. Even pumping out dirty water from the 90ml partition worked well during my testing – you can remove this compartment to clean out the filter inside.

The washing of the roller was impeccable. It looked nearly new after my running it a few times a week for four weeks and the shortest two-hour hot-air drying is more than enough to ensure there’s no trace of dampness that could encourage bacterial or fungal growth. In fact, at the end of my four-week trial period, I found the roller soft to the touch as it was on day one.

The wash tray can also be cleaned out automatically by the machine from time to time, so the only hands-on task you’ll have to do regularly is clean out the dirty water and refill the fresh water. Every couple of months or so, you’ll also need to swap out the dust bag or refill the detergent dispenser if you’ve been using soap for mopping. The ‘health’ of all the accessories and parts is listed in the app, so you’ll know when to do what anyway.

Battery life

Ecovacs says there’s a 6,400mAh battery pack powering the X8 Pro Omni robot, which is rated for up to 228 minutes or a maximum area coverage of 240sqm / 2,580sq ft. In my testing – which admittedly was done in a much smaller space – I found that a number like that is nigh impossible to achieve unless you run the robot at the lowest settings possible, which I doubt anyone will want to do.

In Standard suction and medium waterflow levels during a full 40sqm clean doing a single vacuum-and-mop pass, the X8’s battery dropped to 20%. Bumping it up to Max suction and high waterflow rates, I found the robot needed to go back for a top up at the mains after completing five out of the six rooms in its map – about 78 minutes. Both these tests were conducted at the Deep Clean speed, so more time consuming.

Extrapolating that for Standard or Quiet cleans, you will be able to run the X8 Pro Omni for around 150 minutes, but keep in mind that it boasts dynamic suction as well, so total battery life will depend on how many carpets it encounters or how tough the cleaning job is.

That’s not bad battery life, but it’s not class-leading as models like the Narwal Freo Z10 and Dreame X40 Ultra can outdo the X8. Larger homes will find that a full cleaning task may well require recharging to complete. That said, the X8 is smart enough to learn how much battery it needs to finish a job, so a full-home clean may not necessarily take all day.

• Performance score: 4.5 / 5

No matter the cleaning task, the Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni performs it well (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni review: app control

• Improved Ecovacs Home app
• More streamlined setup for robot and base station settings
• Map might need extensive editing, but is easy to do

I’ve previously not been very impressed with the Ecovacs Home app as it wasn’t as streamlined as I would have liked, but that’s changed now – the updated version of the app that I used with the X8 Pro Omni is a significant improvement.

It’s now easier to access the custom cleaning routines – renamed Scenario Cleans from just plain ol’ Scenarios – as they're listed on the homepage of the device, and each of these are also very easy to customize and set up.

To access more settings options, the Ecovacs Home app has always allowed you to ‘Enter’ a more detailed page with your home’s map laid out, but now the robot and base station advanced settings are right there on that same screen – the robot stuff is right at the bottom while switching tabs gives you the base station setup. This is a much better app experience than I encountered only a few months ago from the time of publication of this review.

Mapping with the Deebot X8 Pro Omni is quick and it's remarkably easy to edit the final map (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)

As I’ve already mentioned, there’s the Yiko voice assistant on board and, in all honesty, I really don’t see the need for verbal communication with the device, but my inner lazy self took a shine to it for a very short time. All routines and settings work so well, that Yiko doesn’t need to be there, but it was nice to see that it can understand commands better than before.

During my testing, it didn’t comprehend its own name (see the screenshot below where it hears its name as "you go"), but that didn’t stop it from performing the task I asked it to do (pause cleaning). I immediately asked it to restart again – no problem whatsoever.

You can give Yiko back-to-back commands and you'll hear its voice prompts very often, so much so that it can get annoying (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)

You’ll also hear a lot of oral prompts every time the robot has to perform a task. This can quickly get very annoying, particularly when the self-empty of the bin takes place because it’s a long, drawn-out message telling you “don’t worry” about the loud noises. There’s sadly no way to turn these off, but you can drop the volume right down to ‘mute’, but this also means you won’t hear when the bot needs help. Thankfully there are app notifications to help with that. The volume is also associated with a ‘ding’ sound the robot makes every time you adjust a setting – these too will be muted if you turn the volume slider right down.

There's plenty of control via the Ecovacs Home app, which has evolved to become more streamlined than before (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)

Every setting on the app is well explained and easy to understand in case you want to use it, but I would advise that you take some time to go through all options before you begin using the X8 Pro Omni so that you get the best results possible.

For example, you can set and forget the cleaning sequence for the whole house and, no matter which rooms you choose for whatever custom routine you might have, the X8 Pro Omni will follow that. This can be edited at any time too. As I’ve mentioned before, you can also toggle on carpet-first cleaning in the robot settings, set how you want the auto-empty to take place or how often you want the wet roller washed. You even get control over how long you want the base station to spend drying it with hot air. You’ll also need to toggle on auto detergent use, otherwise the base station won’t use soap even if you’ve filled the dispenser.

There is a lot of control here, although it would be nice to see Ecovacs allow the user to choose how many passes the X8 will do when on an automatic AI-powered cleaning run (it’s always just one in this mode).

• App score: 4 / 5

Should I buy the Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni?

Attribute

Notes

Score

Value

Compared to other similarly specced models, the X8 Pro Omni is very competitively priced, balancing feature set, power, performance and cost quite well – plus it's often discounted.

4 / 5

Design

It’s a very low-maintenance design with several parts that can be taken out to wash if necessary. And it exudes class. The lack of a turret means it can even roll under some low-lying furniture.

4.5 / 5

Performance

As long as you avoid using the X8 to clean wet spills, it will handle your regular cleaning with aplomb. It will even maintain itself well without too much intervention from you.

4.5 / 5

App control

The updated Ecovacs Home app is a lot more streamlined now and easier to use.

4 / 5

You prioritize good cleaning above all else

Considering the X8 Pro Omni passed all my tests with flying colors, it's arguably the best robot vacuum I've tested to date.

You want as much of a hands-off cleaning experience as possible

While you don't really need the voice assistant, Yiko gives you even more opportunity to not have to lift a finger – literally! Just open the app and ask it to start a cleaning routine (even a custom one) and it will do so.

You have wood floors

There are plenty of waterflow levels here to choose from and I think the lower settings will look after wood floors well. Moreover, the roller minimizes streaks on floors that I've previously seen mop pads leave behind in their wake.

You have low-lying furniture

It's a little taller than the Roborock Saros 10, but even then, the lack of a turret allows it to roll under furniture that has a clearing of at least 10cm.

Don't buy it if...

You don't want to spend too much money

The X8 Pro Omni might be a fantastic robovac but it's a premium one. If you can forgo some of the smart home features like Matter integration and voice assistant, and aren't too fussed about mop pads doing the wet cleaning, you can get similar performance from a cheaper model – in fact, the Ecovacs Deebot T50 Max Pro Omni has slightly higher suction and the same Yiko support, but a lower price point.

You want a quiet robot vacuum

On its higher suction settings, the X8 Pro Omni is louder than similar models from Narwal and Roborock. Moreover, the wheels, when moving over the tiles in my test space, were quite rattly too.

Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni review: Also consider

Roborock Saros 10R

Our reviewer called it the "perfect hybrid robot vacuum cleaner even for the most cluttered of homes". Improved navigation and a low profile means it can get to places other robovacs will typically avoid. It's also quiet, has excellent vacuum and mop skills, and it's pretty much a master of its trade. It costs more than the X8 Pro Omni, but it might be a worthwhile investment for some homes.
Read our in-depth Roborock Saros 10R review for more details.

Dreame X50 Ultra

Going by the additional moniker of "Complete" in some markets, the Dreame X50 Ultra is a premium model that not only gives you way more suction than the X8 Pro Omni (a max of 20,000Pa), but it can also tackle some short steps in your home and roll under furniture by retracting its turret.
Find out more in our detailed Dreame X50 Ultra Complete review.

How I tested the Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni

• Used three to four times a week for four weeks
• Tried various suction and waterflow levels in a 40sqm test space with mixed flooring
• Experimented with the Yiko voice assistant and tweaked various advanced settings

It's very easy to recommend the Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni, despite its higher price tag (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)

I received my review unit of the Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni in the third of week of July 2025 and spent the next four weeks running it on various settings and custom routines mostly three times a week, but it has done more sessions during the last week when I conducted my obstacle course test.

I found that once all the settings were as I'd want them, the X8 Pro Omni just did what it needed to do without any fuss. During that time, I found it didn't use as much clean water as other robot vacuums (especially compared to the Narwal Freo Z10 I tested prior to it) and, hence, found I didn't need to keep refilling the clean-water tank as much. Of course, that's also because the test space is small (just 40sqm/430sqft) and has mixed flooring with carpet in the bedroom and a large rug in the living room.

I set up four different custom routines, or Shortcut Cleans as the app labels them, and tested each one 2-3 times over the course of the four-week testing period. I also ran single-room and zone cleaning sessions to see how the X8 Pro Omni performs in its auto-cleaning mode.

While I began testing the X8 without any detergent for the first week, I added a small quantity to the dispenser on week 2 of testing.

I put it through TechRadar's usual tests for vacuuming and mopping (using oats and tea from a bag for the former, and a dollop of chutney for the latter). I also conducted our standard obstacle avoidance test, but threw in two types of socks and a tissue box for good measure.

As you've probably already read, the X8 Pro Omni passed all its tests with flying colors, with only the one hiccup when it got entangled in a low-hanging cable during a vacuum-only session.

Read more about how we test vacuum cleaners

[First reviewed August 2025]

Hostage is now streaming on Netflix, and if you don't binge watch its pithy five episodes over the next few days, then you're weekending wrong. In fact, I'd go stronger than that: if you don't watch it this weekend, you'd be missing out on the streamable television event of the year (just behind Adolescence).

The millisecond I heard that Suranne Jones was on board to play fictional British Prime Minister Abigail Dalton, I knew the new Netflix series could do no wrong. Fortunately, I love being proved right, and this is one of those times.

Let's set the scene; Dalton has just won the country's general election, with her husband Alex (Bashy) deployed to French Guiana with Médecins Sans Frontières (a.k.a Doctors Without Borders). Soon after, he's kidnapped by a group of unknown terrorists, who demand Dalton resigns in order to release the hostages safely. In the meantime, she's dealing with a huge crisis in the National Health Service (NHS) as medicine supplies run out, while French President Toussaint (Julie Delpy) is in the city for a scheduled visit to work out a deal to help.

Netflix obviously isn't a stranger to hit political dramas, with shows like The Diplomat, House of Cards and The Night Agent in its back pocket. But not only is Hostage offering a fresh perspective by focusing on the relationship between Britain and France, but it's giving us a political problem we've never seen before: two female leaders of Western states, in power at the same time, both being blackmailed by a system intent on setting them up for harm. For me, that's the most exciting part of the entire show, as well as the most honest.

Hostage on Netflix is an explosion of tension from start to finish

If you're not a UK native, you're probably unaware of what a national powerhouse Suranne Jones is over here. From Doctor Foster and Gentleman Jack to classics like Scott & Bailey and her humble beginnings on soap opera Coronation Street, there's not a single role she's not knocked out of the park. Her craft really comes into its own when she's playing someone in a position of power, but usually this only extends to doctors and detectives.

The only way up is to play the leader of a country, and frankly it's a role she was born for. Jones takes the careful political intricacies of Hostage in her stride, deftly portraying a political leader who wants to put her country first as well as a mother trying to keep her family intact. It's not a dilemma we've seen from a world leader explored on TV because the women just haven't been represented deeply enough in this way... but here, there are two.

Julie Delpy's Toussaint is everything Dalton is not. Caring more about her upcoming re-election campaign than anything else, she comes across as cold, conniving, and uncaring to any problems that aren't immediately her own. We get to understand her personality and predicament more as the five episodes go on, but her natural acidity towards Dalton makes for some delicious back and forth sparring sessions. This only gets better when the pair realize that in order to cull this threat they must work together, beautifully blending in a level of raw vulnerability scarcely seen in the political coalface. They're a dynamic leading duo, and make for faultless casting.

If you asked me, I'd say the big baddie here was actually the patriarchy (yay, feminism!). Sure, the patriarchy isn't directly holding a gun to Alex's head, but it is the ultimate threat to both Dalton and Toussaint. It's assumed they will both crumble and give into the demands of the masked men trying to call the shots, but when neither leaders backs down, the game changes. They're both able to juggle the extreme surge of demands on their plates with tact and strategy, even when they're at breaking point behind closed doors.

The broader story is just as exceptional as the people bringing it to life

Netflix’s incredible new political drama Hostage had me so hooked, I never saw the final shocking twist coming. (Image credit: Netflix)

Performances aside, what I'm most impressed with in Hostage is its astonishing grasp on its storytelling. Most have us have sat through enough crime procedurals or bog standard thrillers to anticipate exactly what twists are coming when, but Hostage kept me on my toes the entire time. In fact, the only shock moment I saw coming was thanks to an episode blurb on the platform (here's your reminder to take each of these with a pinch of salt), and you could easily argue that episode 5 is a little too fluffy around the edges, though it worked for me. Trust me, there are more than enough moments to leave you gasping out loud and scrambling to figure out what's going to come next.

The intersection of social and political issues at play – the NHS and immigration crises, disgruntled politicians and underfunded national defense – are all things we're experiencing the effects of in real time, which only makes watching Hostage that much more visceral. Almost all of what we see could actually happen in the blink of an eye, shrewdly exposing the problems that lie underneath if push came to shove. It's quite a feat to blend fact and fiction so well that you don't quite know where the seams join up, and its a testament to the team behind it.

Do I feel better about the post-Hostage world? Absolutely not, but we probably all need a reality check of this convincing magnitude. If this could open up the same international conversations as Adolescence (and as far as TV show quality is concerned, it should do), imagine how much more proactive we could all be.

You might also like

• Steven Knight’s House of Guinness looks nothing like Peaky Blinders, and another hit Netflix series already proves it
• Netflix confirms November release for Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein –here's how I plan on watching it sooner
• Night Always Comes has just hit Netflix, and Julia Fox is unironically the best part of Vanessa Kirby’s complex caper

Shokz OpenDots One: Two minute review

Shokz is one of the best-known names in the fitness headphone space and finally it has turned its attention to a burgeoning new market and thus challenge a big rival: clip-on open earbuds (and Bose).

Clip-ons are a kind of the best open earbuds that don’t loop all the way around your ear, but ‘clip’ onto your auricle to take up less space and hold the sound drivers further into your ear itself. Companies haven’t taken to the design quite as readily as the now-standard sports loop open-ears (production of that design is through the roof in 2025), but perhaps Shokz’ attention is about to change that.

So meet the Shokz OpenDots One, new clip-style (cuff style?) headphones which are here to challenge the big name on the market, the Bose Ultra Open. They’re Shokz’ first readily-available bud in this form factor, not counting a limited-run beta product. And due to a few smart decisions, they are a big success.

The OpenDots aren’t cheap headphones but they do undercut the Bose by a significant margin, releasing at a competitive price point that sees them match Shokz’ sports-loop and bone conduction options. In fact they also beat the recent Shokz OpenFit 2+ which may push some prospective buyers of those open-ears into the clip instead.

Shokz has given the OpenDots a more natural curved, ergonomic look than certain rivals, both ensuring that they look a little more understated and classy, and helping them fit the shape of an ear for a reliable hook and comfortable fit. And it totally works, with these Shokz some of the most pleasant open-ears I’ve ever used. I could easily forget I was wearing them when I wasn’t listening to music.

The sound profile is pleasing too, which may sound like a muted word if not for how low expectations for open earbuds can be. Shokz has fine-tuned the sound to ensure there’s hearty but well-defined bass, which sits in harmony with treble instead of blowing it out. Audiophiles who need open-ears will find these some of the best picks on the market.

Even when you’re not using the Shokz OpenDots One, you’ll find them easy to tote around with a tiny carry case that totally disappears in pockets. Banish the thought of the giant carry cases sports-loop open-ears come in.

I’ve avoided prolific comparisons to the Bose in this intro because you may come to the Shokz without having ever heard of their competition; and the OpenDots One stand apart for being significantly cheaper than the Ultra Open. They ask you why you need to pay extra, even if Bose offers some advanced audio modes.

The OpenDots One might be a harder sell for people who’ve not used a clip-on earbud before, especially with many other options on the market that are a cheaper option to experiment with. But if you’re going to try a new form factor, why not buy an option that nails it?

Shokz OpenDots One review: Specifications

Component

Value

Water resistant

IP54

Battery life

10 hours (earbuds), 40 hours (total)

Bluetooth type

Bluetooth 5.4

Weight

5.6g / Charging case: 52g

Driver

2x 11.8mm

Shokz OpenDots One review: Price and availability

(Image credit: Future)

• Announced in May 2025 (available in many markets August 2025)
• Priced at $199 / £179 / AU$339
• Undercuts Bose, but pricier than many other rivals

The Shokz OpenDots One were announced in May 2025 and went on sale in the US immediately, though they took a few months to release globally (the UK is only just seeing them now, at the time of writing: August 21, 2025).

You can pick up the OpenDots for $199 / £179 / AU$339. While they’re more expensive than many other types of clip-on earbud like the Huawei FreeClip, JLab Flex Open or Soundcore C40i, they undercut their big rivals.

The Bose Ultra Open Earbuds sell for $299 / £299 / AU$449 so the Shokz aren’t just a hair cheaper, but a fair way more affordable.

Shokz OpenDots One review: Design

(Image credit: Future)

• Small charging case which is easy to use
• Lightweight buds that cling to the ear well
• Handy touch controls

The Shokz OpenDots One come in two color options: Black or the curiously-named Gray, which is actually beige with silver highlights. The latter is what my tester units were.

The case is pretty small and lightweight, as you’d imagine for micro-headphones like these, tipping the scales to 52g. It’s rather featureless, bearing only a small pairing button and USB-C charging port, but there’s elegance in simplicity. It opens with a horizontal divide; in a neat twist you can put either earbud in either gap, cutting down on all the faff headphone users can face (or, at least, I can face) when trying to work out which bud to put on which side.

Now onto the buds. They consist of a cylindrical counterweight and spherical bud which sits in your ear, all joined by a band made of titanium alloy according to Shokz. This middle is lovely and flexible and I never felt at risk of accidentally snapping it or bending it too far.

It’s hard to believe for any open earbuds, especially clip-style ones, but the OpenDots fit like a dream. I barely felt them during many hours of testing and, although I ran, cycled, rowed and did various gym workouts with them in, they never fell out or moved around enough to affect my listening experience.

Evidence of how easily-bendable the hook is. (Image credit: Future)

Another benefit over Bose’s alternatives is that they don’t look like a cyborg accoutrement, with the nice flowing design making them appear more like jewelry than a piece of robotic equipment.

Following on from my praise about the versatile any-bud-in-any-case-side compliment, you can actually also put either bud in either ear with no issue. The Shokz will automatically detect which ear they’re in to deliver music.

Like most earbuds, the OpenDots One have touch controls: you can double- or triple-tap the connective band, double-pinch the spherical counterweight or pinch and hold, for four triggers in all (it doesn’t matter which side you use, both do the same). You can customize what each control does and I found each relatively easy to trigger (which isn’t saying much compared to the competition) though I did take a while to remember that single-tapping or single-pressing didn’t do anything: double or nothing!

Shokz has certified the OpenDots One at an IP54 rating, which means the buds are protected from dust and limited water splashes but not full immersion or even beams of water. Basically, don’t take them swimming.

• Design score: 4.5/5

Shokz OpenDots One review: Features

(Image credit: Future)

• Battery life is 10 hours, 40 hours with case
• App brings EQ but not that much else
• No connectivity problems in testing

If you thought it was time to start finding something to criticize the Shokz OpenDots One about, it’s not yet. The battery life is above average and you can even charge the case via wireless powering.

According to Shokz, the OpenDots last for 10 hours of listening on a single charge, and while I didn’t listen for that long in one burst, the power drain for the periods I did listen for suggests it’d hit that figure almost dead on. The charging case brings three extra charges, for a full listening total of 40 hours, which is better than lots of open-ear options on the market.

You won’t get noise cancelling here, though surprisingly some open earbuds do offer that (see the Honor Earbuds Open, although granted, they're not the cuff-style type). Throughout my testing period I had no connectivity issues to speak of.

(Image credit: Future)

As with any good headphone, there’s an app you can download to get extra features. In this case it’s just called Shokz, with the company using one platform for all its earbuds.

Perhaps the main reason to download the Shokz app, beyond customizing the touch controls, is for the equalizer it provides access to. There are four modes: Standard, Vocal, Bass and Private (designed to reduce audio bleed, although that basically just muffles your music), but you can also create a custom mode via a five-band equalizer.

A few other features available via the app include the ability to toggle wear detection, find your lost earbuds, customize multipoint pairing and enable Dolby Atmos (though toggling this just seemed to boost the treble when playing music). It’s not the biggest feature-set I’ve ever seen at earbuds at this price, but it offers everything you need or would expect.

• Features score: 4/5

Shokz OpenDots One review: Sound performance

(Image credit: Future)

• Two 11.8mm drivers per bud
• Decent sound, though lack of spacing
• Lots of bass

You’re totally right to assume that an open-ear headphone would sound poor, because that’s generally the case, but the Shokz OpenDots One buck the trend: they’re the rare case that sound good.

A highlight of the buds, which Shokz leans into in its marketing and promotion, is the bass. This is something oft lost by open-ears, but the OpenDots enjoy a well-defined lower-register, giving your music a meaty tone but without ever blowing it out with overwrought thumping or booming. I opted to listen in the bass enhancement mode when working out for that little extra kick, but you’ll enjoy loads of bass even if you don’t.

Unlike some super-bass earbuds, the treble still holds its head high, offering crisp and clear vocal lines and letting you hear the spacing between instruments a little. As sound gets towards the mids they do lose some detail and clarity, but you can still enjoy tunes beyond their bassline.

(Image credit: Future)

Fixing another open-ear problem, the OpenDots have a nice high max volume so they can fight against noisy traffic if you want to hear your tunes.

Shokz uses a lot of home-brewed tech in the OpenDots One. Highlights include Bassphere, which has the effect we’ve already discussed, and DirectPitch designed to stop sound leaking from the buds and everyone around you having to hear your embarrassing music choice.

These are some of the better open earbuds I've used for audio quality, and they compare to your average in-ear headphone, but it's important to be clear: audiophile-grade favorites shouldn't feel any heat from the Shokz.

• Sound performance score: 4.5/5

Shokz OpenDots One review: Value

(Image credit: Future)

Despite not being that expensive in the grand scheme of things (and in a crowded market), it’s still worth considering the Shokz OpenDots One are some of the more premium open or clip-on earbuds out there, simply due to how cheap the rivals are.

With that in mind, the OpenDots have a lot to prove – but they largely succeed. They provide great sound and a flawless design and cost a hearty amount less than their big-name rivals.

Of course you’re paying for their quality with many other similar-form-factor options available for a fraction of the price, so if you want clip-ons and quality doesn’t matter, you can get better value for money with cheaper options. It's just a question of whether you should.

• Value score: 4/5

Shokz OpenDots One review: scorecard

Category

Comment

Score

Value

They're solid earbuds which give you decent value for money, but you're paying for what you get.

4/5

Design

Lightweight, a reliable fit and a slender carry case: what's not to love?

4.5/5

Features

The battery life is good and the existing features are useful, though rivals offer more.

4/5

Sound

The sound may fall short of truly great, but it's very good, especially compared to other open earbuds.

4.5/5

Shokz OpenDots One: Should I buy?

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

You want a lightweight earbud

Banish the thought of having to work out with a large earbud; the Shokz OpenDots One are nice and small, and I could barely feel that I was wearing them while out and about.

You need a small charging case

I loved how the Shokz' small charging case could easily fit in my running shorts' pocket or a small compartment of my bag, with most open-ears having much larger cases.

You wear glasses

Sports-hook earbuds are hard to wear for glasses users due to their hook needing to go where your glasses are. Clip-ons are a great alternative as there's no issue.

Don't buy them if...

You want in-depth equalization

If you’re the kind of person who likes to spend ages tweaking the sound of their headphones, the Shokz’ five-band equalizer might not offer you the versatility you’re looking for.

You're a cyclist

I tried using the buds quite a bit while cycling and, more so than sports-loop buds, their design caught on my helmet's strap. I could see the buds being knocked out by said strap, so perhaps cyclists should avoid.

Also consider

Component

Shokz OpenDots One

Bose Ultra Open Earbuds

Huawei FreeClip

Water resistant

IP54

IPX4

IP54

Battery life

10 hours (earbuds), 40 hours (total)

7.5 hours (earbuds), 27 hours (total)

8 hours (earbuds), 36 hours (total)

Bluetooth type

Bluetooth 5.4

Bluetooth 5.3

Bluetooth 5.3

Weight

5.6g / Charging case: 52g

6g / Charging case: 43g

5.6g / Charging case: 44.5g

Driver

2x 11.8mm

12mm

10.8mm

Bose Ultra Open Earbuds

These pricier clip-on options have some audio chops that the Shokz OpenDot One doesn’t. However the battery life is worse, the IP rating isn’t as high and, at least if you ask me, they don’t look as natural.

Read our full Bose Ultra Open review

Huawei FreeClip

Now a more affordable option: Huawei is a company I trust to make decent-sounding open earbuds due to past attempts, and the FreeClip use a slender-body bud to take up even less space on your ear. The battery life isn’t as good as the Shokz though.

How I tested

(Image credit: Future)

My testing period for the Shokz OpenDots One cover just over two weeks of use, which is our standard review period for headphones.

The buds were paired to an Android phone for the entirety of the testing. I used them at home at work and also on runs, at the gym and while cycling, and I also tried to use them while playing tennis like promotional images show but this felt incredibly rude to my fellow players.

I've been testing products for TechRadar since 2019 and this has included plenty of other workout headphones.

Read more about how we test

• First reviewed: August 2025

The Google Pixel 10 Pro and its larger sibling, the Pixel 10 Pro XL, look like fantastic smartphones – Google hasn’t messed with the winning formula that made the Pixel 9 Pro my phone of the year choice for 2024. The refinements seem minor, but could signal a sea change in Google’s fight against Apple and its friendly competition with Android rival Samsung. I only had a few hours with these phones, but they look like the best Pixel phones yet – and some of the coolest features have yet to reveal themselves.

Google doesn’t compete with Samsung on specs or with Apple on features, so it’s been easy to dismiss past Pixel phones as also-ran devices that offer a nice alternative to the iPhone and Galaxy lines, but are rarely the first choice. That changes with the Pixel 10 Pro.

The new Pixelsnap magnet features may seem like old news to iPhone users, but they open up a world of new accessories and convenience for Android fans. I’m pretty sure that Samsung and OnePlus will follow suit in due course, but for now the Pixel 10 Pro and its three stablemates are the only Android phones that I can snap onto my bedside charging stand (sorry iPhone 16 Pro) and use with my UAG magnetic wallet.

I only had a couple of hours with the Pixel 10 Pro and Pro X, so the most important features remain a mystery right now. Google says it has upgraded the image signal processor in the Tensor G5 chipset, which should result in better photos, and possibly a better camera experience.

The new Camera Coach feature is totally fascinating, but it wasn’t working on the demo units I tried. Some Google reps had it working on their own phones, so the feature seems baked and ready to serve, but I’ll need to spend a lot of time using the cameras in a variety of situations to see if it really makes a difference.

If it does, it could be a turning point for smartphone AI features. So far, AI on smartphones has been a mix of useful tools and frightening oversteps. The Pixel 9 Pro is my favorite AI phone because it does a great job of screening calls, recording meetings, and managing notifications.

Those are genuinely useful AI tools, not image generators that make lousy (or possibly offensive) images, or writing tools that take over the job of sending love notes to my sweetie. The Pixel 10 Pro promises a host of new and similarly useful AI features, but none of them were apparent in my hands-on time.

The new Magic Cue feature will need to get to know me better before it starts bubbling up relevant information during my phone calls. When it does know me, it should do things like showing me my flight information if it hears me talking about my upcoming travel plans. I hope it works well, but so far AI features like this from other phone makers have failed to materialize after launch, or have failed to demonstrate the utility that phone makers claim.

I’m not too concerned. The Pixel 9 Pro was already ahead of the competition on useful AI features, and Google is doing an admirable job of keeping the AI processing – and therefore your private data – on the device instead of relying too much on cloud computing.

I saw a Pixel 10 Pro translate the voice of my colleague on a phone call from his English into a natural-sounding Spanish. Other phones can do the translation bit, but the Spanish voice actually sounded like my colleague would if he spoke Spanish! Most astonishingly, all of the processing happened on the Pixel 10 Pro, not in the cloud. The conversation and the sound of your voice are kept private.

In other words, after spending a couple of hours with the Pixel 10 Pro and Pixel 10 Pro XL, they seem to me like refined devices that marginally improve on the success of last year’s redesign, and that’s enough for me. If the Pixel 10 Pro simply offers camera improvements and better zoom, along with all of the latest Pixel features I already enjoy, I’ll be able to recommend it easily.

If the new AI features really help me take even better photos and do a better job of helping me organize my digital life, I’ll consider that an even bigger win, but I think we’re only seeing the tip of the AI iceberg on these phones. With seven years of Android updates ahead, who knows what the Pixel 10 Pro will be capable of doing in the future.

Pixel 10 Pro and Pro XL hands-on review: Price & availability

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

The Pixel 10 Pro and the Pixel 10 Pro XL both come with 16GB of RAM inside and 256GB of storage to start. Those are very respectable specs, and most people won’t need to spend more for more storage, unless there’s a great discount if you buy more space.

The phone comes in four colors: blue-grey Moonstone, light-green Jade, white Porcelain, and dark-grey Obsidian. The Moonstone is very appealing, but I like all of this year’s colors equally, even the blackish Obsidian. I do wish there were more vibrant color options, but subtle seems to be the new norm for Pro-level phones.

The Pixel 10 Pro and Pixel 10 Pro XL are priced high, but the price is competitive with the top-end iPhone 16 Pro and Galaxy S25 Ultra phones. The new Pixels don’t measure up evenly spec-for-spec, but the overall experience is just as good, and the Pixel 10 Pro and Pro XL are the newest-looking phones of the bunch, with the most recent redesign.

While I expect the base-model Pixel 10 will drop in price throughout the next year, Google has been more stingy with its Pro models recently. Last year’s Pixel 9 Pro saw regular discounts of $150 in the US, but rarely dropped further than that, and discounts were less common on this phone than on the base model. The price is pretty good, though, so if you want a Pixel 10 Pro, buy it now – there probably won’t be a huge deal coming that makes you regret buying early.

Pixel 10 Pro and Pro XL hands-on review: Specifications

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

The Pixel 10 Pro launches with 256GB of storage on the cheapest model, a step up from last year, and the same storage and 16GB of RAM inside both the Pixel 10 Pro and 10 Pro XL. The specs are nearly identical across the two phones, but the differences are significant enough to consider before you buy.

The Pixel 10 Pro XL has a larger display, of course, and that means a larger battery inside as well. It uses a big 5,200mAh cell, compared to the 4,870mAh battery in the Pixel 10 Pro. I’ll need to test these phones thoroughly before I can tell you if the larger battery makes a big difference.

The Pixel 10 Pro XL is also the only Pixel 10 phone that can charge wirelessly up to 25W, which is the full potential of today’s Qi2 wireless standard. The Pixel 10 series is the first phone family with Qi2 certification, including the magnets that make Pixelsnap features possible, but the other two phones charge at 15W, not the full 25W speed.

Otherwise, both of these phones pack the Google Tensor G5 processor inside, which has a new and improved image signal processor that should improve image quality and help you take better pics. Both phones have the same 50MP main camera and two 48MP sensors behind the ultrawide and 5x zoom lenses, as well as the same 42MP selfie camera up front.

Pixel 10 Pro and Pro XL Specifications

Dimensions:

152.8 x 72.0 x 8.6mm

Weight:

204g

Display:

6.3-inch Actua display

Resolution:

1080 x 2424 pixels

Refresh rate:

60-120Hz

Peak brightness:

3,000 nits

Chipset:

Google Tensor G5

RAM:

12GB

Storage:

128GB / 256GB

OS:

Android 16

Wide camera:

48MP; f/1.7; 0.5-inch sensor

Ultrawide camera:

13MP; f/2.2; 0.33-inch sensor

Telephoto camera:

10.8MP; f/3.1; 0.31-inch sensor

Selfie camera:

10.5MP; f/2.2

Battery:

4,970mAh

Charging:

25W wired; 15W wireless Qi2

Colors:

Indigo, Frost, Lemongrass, Obsidian

Pixel 10 Pro and Pro XL hands-on review: Design

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

The Pixel 10 Pro and Pixel 10 Pro XL look nearly identical to last year’s Pixel 9 Pro and Pixel 9 Pro XL, and that’s a good thing. The iPhone and Galaxy lines have been stagnant for years, using the same basic design, while Google made a significant improvement to its Pixel design last year.

The new Pixel look is more durable than before, and Google reiterates that the Pixel 10 Pro is twice as durable as the Pixel 8 Pro, which used the older camera-bar design. The Pixelsnap magnets inside haven’t added any bulk to the latest phones, either, so the devices are just as thin as last year’s models.

For better and worse, the Pixel 10 Pro looks almost identical to the base model Pixel 10 as well. You’d need an expert guide to tell them apart – the Pixel 10 Pro uses a matte finish on the back and glossy sides, while the Pixel 10 flips that script and uses a glossy back with matte side rails.

The easiest difference to spot is the temperature sensor on the Pixel 10 Pro and Pixel 10 Pro XL, which somehow still exists even though it’s one of the more useless hardware additions I’ve seen in recent years.

For color choices, I liked the Moonstone quite a bit, but it was admittedly drab. The green Jade might be my favorite color, but the black and white options are also very appealing, with that nice matte finish making them look more professional.

Pixel 10 Pro and Pro XL hands-on review: Display

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

Google doesn’t brag enough about its Super Actua displays on the Pixel Pro phones, and the Pixel 10 Pro and Pro XL models were incredibly bright and colorful in the time I spent testing them. Seriously, Google’s Pixel displays are quietly the best screens on any smartphone – even better than Samsung’s. They look great in every lighting condition.

In my morning with the Pixel 10 Pro and Pixel 10 Pro XL, I found the displays to be satisfyingly bright and very sharp. Google has great custom wallpapers and themes that match the phone’s color, and this makes the display pop even more when you twirl the device in your hand to get an overall look.

Of course, I’ll need to spend more quality time with these phones to see if the display really holds up in bright sunlight. Google claims these phones can reach 3,300 nits of peak brightness, but I’ll have Future Labs confirm these claims before I give Google the credit.

I’m also curious to see how the Pixelsnap feature makes the Pixel 10 Pro into a bedside clock. I use the Standby feature on my iPhone 16 Pro Max every night, and I intend to use the Pixel 10 Pro XL as my new alarm clock – I hope it provides a better experience than iOS.

Pixel 10 Pro and Pro XL hands-on review: Software

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

Software is the biggest question mark with the Pixel 10 Pro and Pixel 10 Pro XL. With the new Google Tensor G5 chipset, Google is claiming the Pixel 10 Pro does even more AI processing on the phone than any competitor phone I’ve used. I’m curious to see how effective these AI tools will be, and if performance benefits when the Pixel 10 Pro doesn’t need to call the cloud for every request.

With the new Magic Cue features, Google is finally getting into the game of letting the phone know everything about me in order to make useful suggestions. I’m not sure how it will work, but eventually the Pixel 10 Pro will hear what I am saying and offer information from my personal life to help with context, for example flight reservations if it hears me talking to a friend about an upcoming trip.

Apple had a very hesitant launch with this feature on Siri, and eventually delayed the idea entirely. It still hasn’t materialized. Samsung is trying to use data from all of my smart devices and my smart home together, but the results have been disappointing – I haven’t seen any personal suggestions from my Galaxy phone even after months of using those features.

Other phone makers like OnePlus and Nothing tend to rely on the AI reading screenshots and photos, and not your Gmail messages. I’m interested to see if Google has finally cooked up a winning recipe for a useful AI assistant that knows me personally, but doesn’t creep me out with that knowledge.

Pixel 10 Pro and Pro XL hands-on review: Cameras

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

The Pixel 10 Pro and Pixel 10 Pro XL don’t get a camera upgrade this year – Google is sticking with the same 50MP main camera and twin 48MP ultra-wide and zoom cameras that were on last year’s Pixel 9 Pro and Pro XL. Instead, the improvements are software-based, thanks to AI improvements that Google says are possible with the Tensor G5 chipset.

Unlike the Pixel 10, the Pixel 10 Pro and Pro XL models has features like high-resolution portrait shots, and an advanced Video Boost feature that will stabilize your videos even better than before. All of the new Pixel 10 phones get Pro Res zoom powered by AI, but the Pixel 10 Pro and Pro XL will reach up to 100x telephoto range, farther than the 30x Pro Res zoom on the Pixel 10.

Just like last year, the Pro and Pro XL models have the exact same camera specs – no need to buy the bigger phone just because you want more zoom.

The Pixel 10 Pro uses a smaller sensor than Apple or Samsung on its main camera, but Google relies on a lot more computational photography techniques to fix up images after you take the shot.

I tried the Pro Res zoom in my time testing the phone, and I definitely noticed how it could smooth images and reduce the significant noise that occurs at the 100x range. I’ll need to see the final images up close on my big monitor before I decide whether or not this feature makes those long zoom shots worth keeping.

I’m also very curious about the Camera Coach features, which will help you rearrange your shot to get the best composure and lighting. Will it tell me to move my camera around, or turn on a different lamp? Will it suggest I use the flash, or maybe switch to Night mode?

I’ll need to test the feature in a variety of situations, but I’m excited about the possibilities – I prefer AI features that help me improve my picture-taking to features that make the picture for me.

Pixel 10 Pro and Pro XL hands-on review: Performance

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

The Pixel 10 Pro and Pro XL use the same Tensor G5 chipset as the Pixel 10 and Pixel 10 Pro Fold, but the Pro models get 16GB of RAM instead of the 12GB in the base model. That should help with performance, especially when it comes to tackling AI processing on the device itself, without tapping Google’s cloud computers for help.

Google’s Pixel phones have never been performance powerhouses, and I’m not expecting these phones will dominate benchmark tests from Future Labs. I couldn’t download any games in my hands-on time, but in my experience games will run just fine, although hardcore gamers looking to max-out graphics should find a faster phone.

Still, Google’s Tensor chips enable AI features that other phones often can’t match. The Pixel phones are the best at transcribing my voice accurately, for instance, and the Pixel 10 Pro also has some astounding new AI features, like the live translation that mimics the sound of your voice as it translates your speech.

My hope is that Google’s custom chips pay dividends down the road as Google adds more AI features to Android. The Pixel 10 family will all get major Android updates for the next seven years, which should take them from today’s Android 16 to Android 23.

That means today’s AI features are important, but tomorrow’s AI features will be even more advanced, and I’m hoping that Google has a long-term roadmap that keeps the Tensor chipset fresh as it improves Android. I’ve been very impressed by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite chips this year, so Google is going to need to do more to justify using its own designs instead of Qualcomm’s proven winner.

Pixel 10 Pro and Pro XL hands-on review: Battery

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

As I only spent a couple of hours with the Pixel 10 Pro and Pixel 10 Pro XL, battery life remains a question mark, but I’m hoping that it will be easier for most folks to keep these phones topped up and charged throughout the day.

Having Pixelsnap accessories that work with MagSafe charging will be very convenient. The batteries in both the Pixel 10 Pro and Pixel 10 Pro XL are bigger than last year’s models, even though the phones now have magnets inside for Pixelsnap. That’s an impressive design achievement.

Sadly, the Pixel 10 Pro doesn’t take full advantage of the new Qi2 wireless charging standard. The Pixel 10 Pro XL can charge at up to 25W on a wireless, Qi2-certified charger, while the Pixel 10 Pro can only charge wirelessly up to 15W, so it won’t charge faster than previous Pixel phones, but it will still have the convenience of magnets.

The final say on battery life will come after Future Labs tests these phones with our proprietary battery rundown tests. The recent crop of Android phones with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite processor inside have shown remarkable gains in battery life, so I’m hoping that Google has learned some tricks to improve the Pixel 10 Pro’s battery as well.

Google probably won’t get any credit for major leaps in foldable innovation, but the new Pixel 10 Pro Fold does represent a couple of notable firsts in the folding phone space: IP68 protection and Qi Pixel Snap charging, which happens to work almost exactly like Apple’s MagSafe charging and accessory technology.

These are not features that you'd notice at a glance, as Google’s latest folding Android phone looks almost exactly like the Pixel Pro 9 Fold. The dimensions are the same; it’s still just 5.2mm thick when unfolded, which, a year ago, was an eye-opening spec, but now, in the face of the 4.2mm-thick Galaxy Z Fold 7, is just looks nice and slim. The materials, which include multi-alloy steel, aerospace-grade aluminum, and Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2, are unchanged.

This is unquestionably not the same Pixel Fold as last year, though.

Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold preview: design

Google has reengineered the hinge so that it's now gearless and, apparently, fully sealed, protecting it not just from water incursion but dust. This might be the first foldable that’s safe to take to the beach without of a case. The hinge is also incredibly smooth in use; if anything, the magnet holding it closed feels slightly less intense than those on the Galaxy Z Fold 7.

And while the 8-inch Super Actua Flex screen is still eight inches (and almost crease-free), it’s the cover screen that's gotten the more noticeable upgrade. The bezels are now slightly thinner, which makes the Super Actua display larger, at 6.4 inches (up from 6.3).

Interestingly, the Galaxy Z Fold 7’s cover screen is, at 6.5, larger (it’s actually slightly taller), but side by side the Pixel 10 Pro Fold’s cover display is wider, with more pixels (2364 x 1080 vs 2520 x 1080 for the Fold 7), which means the virtual keyboard on the Pixel is more usable.

Design-wise, the Pixel 10 Pro Fold maintains the aesthetic appeal of its predecessor, with the folded device being almost indistinguishable from a standard flagship phone, except that one side features curved corners and the hinge side is more squared off. It still feels good in the hand and not heavy, although at 258 grams it’s not a lightweight when compared directly to the 215g Galaxy Z Fold 7.

Initially, the camera array on the back appeared unchanged to my eye, but then I noticed some subtle differences. The lens openings are slightly larger and are surrounded by a thin, polished chamfer, which gives the array a slightly more upscale look.

Google has also upgraded its logo on the back. It’s larger, and has a reflective finish.

Image 1 of 5

Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold back. Note the new reflective logo. (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)Image 2 of 5

Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold, folded: USB-C charge port, mic, and speakers (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)Image 3 of 5

The redesigned hinge (outside) (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)Image 4 of 5

Back and camera array (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)Image 5 of 5

Unfolded, the Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold is essentially flat. (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold preview: displays

The Pixel 9 Pro Fold (left) cover screen compare to the Pixel 10 Pro Fold (right) (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)

Unfolded, there’s virtually no difference between the Pixel 9 Pro Fold and the Pixel 10 Pro Fold. Last year, I marveled at how the Pixel Fold 9 could unfold completely flat; this year, I simply expect it. Because of the large camera array, though, it still doesn't lie flat on a table, a 'feature' it shares with the Galaxy Z Fold 7.

There’s still a large-ish punch hole in the 8-inch main display for the 10MP camera, and the bezels are about the same thickness as before. The screen, though, features new materials to help it better withstand impact, although, perhaps fortunately, I wasn't able to test their effectiveness, as I managed not to drop the phone during my brief hands-on time.

Both displays are brighter than ever, thanks to their 3000 maximum nits level, which should make the Pixel 10 Pro Fold excellent for outdoor, direct-sunlight use – I’ll let you know when I get the chance to take a review unit outside.

The large 8-inch super Actua flex display is not only bright, it's sharp, clear, and with smooth motion (1Hz-120Hz adaptive). The crease is barely noticeable. It does have a camera punch hole, but I don't imagine that will be very distracting for most activities.

It's a great viewfinder for the camera and also a lovely way to look at the pictures you just took.

Image 1 of 3

Google Pixel 10 Pro main Super Actua Flex display (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)Image 2 of 3

Google Pixel 10 Pro flex screen fully unfolded. (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)Image 3 of 3

The Main screen on the Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold (left) compared to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7's main screen (right). (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold preview: cameras

The triple camera array specs are virtually unchanged from last year. They are:

• Triple Camera Array:
• 48MP main wide-angle
• 10.5MP ultra-wide
• 10.8 telephoto (5x optical)
• Selfie cameras
• 10MP on Cover display
• 10MP on Main display

The three camera array. (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)

There’s also a 10MP selfie camera in the cover screen and another 10MP selfie camera in the main display, which is a slight improvement from the Pixel 9 Pro Fold's 8MP main-screen selfie camera.

While the Galaxy Z Fold 7 appears to have the Pixel 10 Pro Fold beat in most aspects, the latter phone has the upper hand when it comes to optical zoom. The Z Fold 7, much to my dismay, tops out at 3x optical, while the Pixel 10 Pro Fold delivers 5x with, at 10.8MP, a slightly higher pixel count.

Image 1 of 3

Being able to see multiple photos you just took while still having access to the viewfinder is actually excellent. (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)Image 2 of 3

The new images just keep rolling in while pushing the old ones off the screen. (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)Image 3 of 3

The Pixel 9 Pro Fold camera array (gray) compared to the Pixel 10 Pro Fold array (mint) (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)

I took some photos with all these cameras and they looked good. Macro capabilities through the ultra-wide are impressive, as were the few shots I managed to grab with the 5x telephoto camera. It’s way too soon, however, to tell if they meet or exceed last year's cameras or those of any other folding phone.

What I did enjoy was the ability to preview photos on the flex screen (Google calls this 'instant View') as you’re taking them. The 8-inch display can automatically split up into quadrants, with the viewfinder display at the top-right, the camera controls below that, and the last two photos you took appearing on the left side of the screen. As a new photo comes in, the oldest one is pushed off the screen.

Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold preview: Performance

Inside the phone is Google's new Tensor G5 chip, which is more AI-capable than ever. This chip runs the Gemini Nano Model on the phone, meaning the Pixel 10 Pro Fold is capable of supporting multiple generative AI capabilities across speech, information, and imagery. Similar to what I experienced on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, I can now run Gemini Live in full-screen mode on the 8-inch display. I turned on the camera and asked Gemini to identify what it saw on the table, which it did with impressive skill.

There are other features, like Camera Coach and Edit Photos with Ask Photos, that were not yet enabled on the Pixel 10 Pro Fold phones I tried out, but which I did see in action on a Pixel 10 Pro, and I was impressed with how the coach guides you step by step towards, for instance, a better portrait. It advised me, for example, to switch to portrait mode, how to frame my subject, and even how to use the rule of thirds, and the result was better photos.

Another Gemini feature that works locally, thanks to the Tensor G5 chip, is Live Translate. While it wasn’t yet working on the Pixel 10 Pro Fold, I did try it on a Pixel 10 Pro XL, and it is, to be honest, astonishing. I held one phone and spoke in English to a Google rep who was holding a phone on the other side of the room. She was playing the role of a Spanish-only speaker. I talked for a bit in English, but could overhear on her end 'my voice' speaking the same phrases in Spanish. It was wild, and the closest thing I've seen in mobile technology to the Star Trek Universal Translator.

There might be some concerns about what Google is doing with that voice clone, but Google told us it’s all on device, and not persistent. So there’s no accessible record of my Spanish-speaking voice.

(Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold preview: Battery and charging

The Google Pixel 10 Pro on the new Pixel Snap stand. (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)

At 5,015mAh, the Pixel 10 Pro Fold’s battery is significantly larger than last year, and could offer up to 30 hours of video playback (a claim I couldn't test during my brief hands-on session), but that’s not the only power-related upgrade.

This is a Qi2-compatible device (as are all the Pixel 10 phones), which means it will support 15W wireless charging speeds. More exciting, though, is the inclusion of Pixelsnap, a MagSafe-like feature that integrates a ring of magnets, which means the Pixel 10 Pro Fold will work with a variety of first-and third-party Pixelsnap grips, charging devices, and bases.

Google has some gorgeous ones, including a ring stand that folds so flat and thin but is strong enough to hold the Pixel 10 Pro fold even when I held only the ring and dangled the phone in the air.

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The new Pixel Snap ring (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)Image 2 of 2

Yep, Pixel Snap works with third-party accessories. (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)

Pixelsnap also works with Google’s new Pixelsnap charging stand, letting you attach the phone in landscape or portrait mode. I was also able to unfold the phone and still attach it to the stand, which is heavy enough that it didn't wobble or tip over. Naturally, we had to try third-party MagSafe accessories, all of which worked perfectly on the Pixel 10 Pro Fold, even ones from Apple.

This is, naturally, a 5G (Dual Sim, Nano SIM, and eSIM) Android 16 phone that will arrive with support for WiFi 7 and, notably, Bluetooth v6.

The Tensor G5 CPU is backed by a formidable 16GB of RAM and a base of 256GB of storage. That’s unchanged from last year, as is the price, which still sits at $1,799 (UK: £1,749.00 / AUS: $2,699).

The phone is not only designed to last, but will be supported by seven years of OS, security, and Pixel Drop feature updates.

Preorders for the Pixel 10 Pro Fold, available in Jade and Moonstone, kick off on August 20, but you’ll have to wait a bit for the phone to arrive. It’s currently set to ship on October 9.

Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold preview: price and specsGoogle Pixel 10 Pro Fold specs compared

Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold

Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7

Dimensions (folded):

155.2 x 76.3 x 10.8mm

154.94 x 76.2 x 10.16mm

72.8 x 158.4 x 8.9mm

Dimensions (unfolded):

155.2 x 150.4 x 5.2mm

155.2 x 150.2 x 5.1mm (unfolded), 155.2 x 77.1 x 10.5mm (folded)

143.2 x 158.4 x 4.2mm

Weight:

258g

257g

215g

Main display:

8-inch Super Actua Flex display 1
(LTPO) 2076 x 2152 OLED at 373 PPI Adaptive refresh rate (1-120 Hz)

8-inch Super Actua display

2076 x 2152 / 1080 x 2424 pixels

8-inch QXGA+ Dynamic AMOLED

(2184 x 1968), 120Hz adaptive refresh rate (1~120Hz)

Cover display::

6.4-inch Actua display
20:9 aspect ratio 1080 x 2364 OLED 408 PPI
adaptive refresh rate (60-120Hz) 2

6.3-inch Actua display

6.5-inch FHD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X Display(2520 x 1080, 21:9), 120Hz adaptive refresh rate (1~120Hz)

Chipset:

Google Tensor G5

Google Tensor G4

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Mobile Platform for Galaxy

RAM:

16GB

16GB

12GB / 16GB (1TB only)

Storage:

256 GB / 512 GB / 1TB

256GB / 512GB

256GB / 512GB / 1TB

OS:

Android 16

Android 16

Android 16 / One UI 8

Primary camera:

48MP wide

48MP main

200MP f1.7

Ultrawide camera:

10.5MP, 127-degree FoV

10.5MP ultrawide

12MP f2.2

Telephoto

10.8MP, 5X optical

10.8MP 5X zoom

3x 10MP f2.4

Cover Camera:

10MP

10MP

10MP f2.2

Inner Camera:

10MP

8MP f/2.0

10MP f2.2

Battery:

5,015mAh

4,650mAh

4,400mAh

Charging:

Fast charging, 50% in 30 minutes with 30W charger.

Wireless: Qi2 up to 15W

30W (wired)

30 mins with 25W adapter (wired)

Colors:

Jade and Moonstone

Porcelain, Obsidian

Blue Shadow, Silver Shadow and Jetblack [Samsung.com Exclusive] Mint

Google Pixel Watch 4: Two-minute review

Google has released its latest crop of hardware at its Made by Google 2025 event, including phones, earbuds, and its next-generation smartwatch, the Google Pixel Watch 4. Similar to the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 or Apple Watch Series 10, the latest generation of the Pixel Watch 4 is less about earth-shattering changes and more about refinements to a working formula.

Google is sticking with the now-iconic and really quite lovely polished pebble circular build that comes in two sizes – the addition of a 45mm option alongside the 41mm model was the big change last year. That means more choice for you if the Pixel Watch sparks your interest, and ultimately lets you get the one that’s the right size for your wrist.

Google is also mostly sticking with the same prices as last year (there's a small increase for the 45mm version in Australia). And despite the outward similarities there are some significant upgrades here, including a healthy dose of AI smarts powered by some new silicon, a forthcoming AI coach that’s part of a larger Fitbit rollout, replaceable parts, a refreshed user interface, and a new domed display that’s physically raised to the touch.

Google Pixel Watch 4: Specifications

Component

Google Pixel Watch 4

Price

Starting at $399 / £349 / AU$579

Dimensions

41 x 41 x 12.3mm / 45 x 45 x 12.3mm

Weight

31g / 36.7g without straps

Caze/bezel

Recycled aluminum

Display

320ppi always-on display AMOLED with up to 3,000 nits brightness

Operating System

Wear OS 6.0

Processor

Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 Gen 2 processor with an ML coprocessor

Memory

2GB of RAM

Storage

32GB

GPS

GPS (Dual-Frequency), Galileo, GLONASS, Beidou, QZSS

Battery life

Up to 72 hours with battery saver enabled or up to 40 hours with always-on display enabled

Connection

Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, LTE

Water resistance

WR50, IP68

Google Pixel Watch 4: Dome sweet dome

(Image credit: Future/Lance Ulanoff)

The first thing I noticed during my hands-on time with the Pixel Watch 4 was that the display itself is not flat like on the Pixel Watch 3. Sure, we’ve seen smartwatches on which the display slopes down the sides towards the watch case, such as the Apple Watch Series 10, but the glass display here is actually domed to the point where, as you swipe across the screen, you’ll feel the surface rise or lower.

This makes the sides of the display and the graphics appearing on the edges even more sloped, a feature the new Material 3 Expressive interface uses in its animations. However, it also noticeably increases the thickness on your wrist. The domed 360 Actua display still looked rich and vibrant with crisp text or numbers, and it got considerably brighter in the demo room, which wasn't brightly lit. Google says it can hit up to 3,000 nits, a jump of 1,000 nits compared to the Pixel Watch 3.

The third-generation Pixel Watch got a larger display than its predecessor, and the fourth-gen model goes bigger again, with 16% smaller bezels and 10% larger active display area, which Google says is made possible by the domed display.

(Image credit: Future/Lance Ulanoff)

I think the physical touch and interaction with the watch might take some time to get used to, but the new design delivers a theoretically more durable surface – as is the case with some dome shapes – and more space to hit touchpoints or see items presented on your wrist is certainly a win. It’s something I’m eager to spend more time exploring, and it enhances what I described in my Pixel Watch 3 review last year as the 'polished pebble' effect of the Pixel Watch’s looks.

The Pixel Watch 4 still boasts Corning Gorilla Glass to protect against drops or scratches, and the rest of the build here is aerospace-grade aluminum. It’s also water-resistant up to 50 meters. Another major change this year is a redesigned back, which has resulted in the moving of the charging ports in order to make this smartwatch repairable and serviceable.

Yes, you’ll notice several screws, which allow the battery to be replaced for a more sustainable design. This isn’t something that's common for major smartwatch brands, as most devices are sealed units, so it’s a welcome step in the right direction from Google.

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

This also means a pretty significant change in charger design, as you’ll no longer place this on a proprietary puck with prongs as you would the Galaxy Watch, Apple Watch, or any Pixel Watch before this. The Pixel Watch 4 charges on its side in a dock, and if you’re charging it on a nightstand this should make it easier to use the smartwatch as a small alarm clock – it’s even perfectly positioned so that you can tap the crown to snooze.

Google is also taking advantage of these charger and design changes to speed up refueling. You can now charge the Pixel Watch 4 from 0% to 50% in just 15 minutes, and Google is promising longer battery life for both sizes – up to 30 hours for the 41mm and up to 40 hours for the 45mm. Your mileage will, of course, vary depending on usage, but it’s a good step beyond the Pixel Watch 3.

Google Pixel Watch 4: A faster experience

(Image credit: Future/Lance Ulanoff)

While I only spent about half an hour with the Pixel Watch 4, it felt like a modern-day smartwatch that was responsive and zippy fast. Under the hood it’s powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon W5 Gen 2 Wearable Platform and a next-gen ML CoProcessor, both of which ensure that the new Material 3 Expressive interface design runs well here. It was easy enough to swipe between tiles, and I especially liked the more vibrant nature of the colors, which you can, of course, customize. Overall, this watch feels speedy compared to previous years.

Google’s new Smart Replies feature looks like a welcome innovation, especially if you’re tired of suggested replies that often lack context and are unsuited to the conversation. The Pixel Watch 4’s silicon can power an on-device large language model to generate appropriate suggested replies based on what a message says.

I even tested it with a message that referenced delays on my local train service, and the Pixel Watch 4 delivered an appropriate response. It took a few seconds, but it’s much better than the list found on previous Pixel Watches, the Galaxy Watch, or the Apple Watch.

We’ve already seen Gemini arrive on-wrist courtesy of the Galaxy Watch 8, but Google is serving up something special for its watch, and that’s a ‘raise to talk to the AI assistant’ functionality. Simply raise your wrist, and a glowing bar appears at the bottom of the display, which indicates that Gemini is listening and that you can start your request. You don’t need to say ‘Hey Gemini' – Google has us pretty well trained in that department – and it worked well in a short demo, quickly pulling up the weather.

(Image credit: Future/Lance Ulanoff)

While I didn’t get to try any of the health and activity features, Google’s shipping the Pixel Watch 4 with a familiar suite that includes general activity, heart-rate, blood oxygen (SpO2), and sleep tracking. You can also take an ECG or Electrocardiogram, and there’s an improved Skin Temperature sensor for more accurate readings. You can also track over 40 workouts with the Pixel Watch 4.

The real big potential leap, though, is a promised ‘personal AI health coach’ that’s powered by Gemini and set to arrive at some point in October as a preview in the United States at first. It should go beyond ‘Workout Buddy’ on the Apple Watch and some AI features on the Galaxy Watch, but we don’t know exactly what it entails just yet. Google is promising it to be a coach of sorts that bases recommendations on your health data and that you can chat with, maybe something similar to that of Oura Advisor.

It’s shaping up to be a pretty strong smartwatch, and while the Pixel Watch 4 doesn’t usher in a tremendously radical redesign, it’s mostly about polishing and the addition of a healthy dose of AI functionality – something that Google is a big fan of. It’s likely that you don’t need to rush out for it if you already have a Pixel Watch 3, but those with an older model may want to consider an upgrade. We’ll be back with more once we’ve had time to put it through its full paces and see how the changes perform in the real world.

Google Pixel Watch 4: Pricing and Availability

If you’re looking to upgrade from, say, a Pixel Watch 2 or 3, maybe another Android smartwatch, or even getting your first one, there is a wait for when you’ll actually receive a new Pixel Watch.

Google is taking orders right now for the Pixel Watch 4 – it begins on August 20, 2025 – but the smartwatch won’t officially launch until October 9, 2025. That’s when the first shipments should arrive, depending on demand, and when you’ll find it available at retail locations.

Unlike other gadgets that have seen price hikes year over year, the Pixel Watch 4 sticks with the same price as the Pixel Watch 3. Meaning it’s priced at $349 / £349 / AU$579 for the 41mm Pixel Watch 4 with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, or $449 / £449 / AU$749 for cellular connectivity. The larger, 45mm Pixel Watch 4 is $399 / £399 / AU$669 for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, or $499 / £499 / AU$839 for connectivity.

Beyond accessing the internet with the cellular connectivity model, you’ll also need to spend more to get emergency satellite functionality on the Pixel Watch 4. There isn’t an extra monthly or annual cost – at least for two years, that’s what Google provides out of the box – but it needs to make use of the bands found in the cellular version of the watch. That could be a reason alone to get it right there.

The Google Pixel 10 takes a winning formula from last year and adds just enough to make it even more compelling, and make this phone a true competitor to the iPhone 16. In the past, Google's phones have been polished and enjoyable, but never cutting edge. With the Pixel 10 family, Google pushes its way to the front, with features you won't find on either the iPhone or the latest Samsung Galaxy phones. That's new territory for Google, and I'm excited to spend more time with this phone after my morning-lon hands-on session.

What can the Pixel 10 do? It can stick to magnets, for one thing. The new Pixelsnap feature – and extension of the Qi2 wireless charging standard – might seem familiar to iPhone owners who’ve enjoyed MagSafe since the iPhone 12 launched in 2020. The Android world is finally catching up.

Magnets may not seem like a major feature, but Pixelsnap will open a new world of accessories and convenience for Android fans. I keep my iPhone 16 Pro Max charging on a magnet stand, and it's the best bedside clock I've owned. Then I slap a magnetic wallet on the back as I leave my house. I'm always using the iPhone magnets, and I'm relieved that Google and Android are hopping on board.

The Pixel 10 on Google's new Pixelsnap charging stand (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

Besides Pixelsnap, the Pixel 10 features a real, optical 5x zoom camera. The iPhone 16 doesn't give you any optical zoom, and the Galaxy S25 offers only a 3x zoom lens with a smaller image sensor.

That could give the Pixel a huge advantage in photography, especially if the Tensor G5 chipset, with its new image processor, delivers the goods.

Some of the biggest new Pixel features will rely on AI, of course, and I didn't have time to test most of those, while some of the most interesting, like the Camera Coach, weren't available yet on the demo units I tried.

Some of those AI features seem very cool and potentially useful. I saw a live translation feature in action that was like nothing I've seen – it was almost frightening.

I'm also a Pixel user as well as an iPhone user, so I know the Pixel does the best job of screening phone calls and managing notifications. I'm curious to see how the new Magic Cue features will offer more AI functionality, but I always suspect the AI is being overpromised until I see it in action. Will the Pixel 10 really get to know me? Will it really pull up my flight details at the perfect moment? Time will tell.

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

We’ll have a full review of the Pixel 10 coming soon, after the phones have undergone extensive testing in Future Labs. If you have a Pixel 9, I think you can hold off the upgrade for now – the differences are slight, and even Pixelsnap can be mimicked with a case that has MagSafe magnets.

Of course, it’s hard to find a new feature that will stay cutting-edge for long. The Pixel 10 may beat the Galaxy S25 and iPhone 16 when it comes to cameras, but those models are half-a-year to a year old – middle-aged by smartphone standards. The Galaxy S26 will surely have magnets to fit its Qi2 credentials, and who knows what the iPhone 17 will bring.

If you’re coming from an older Android or if you’re a curious iPhone owner, we’ll know soon if the Pixel 10 can hold its own as a camera phone, and whether the new AI features inspire more creativity or existential dread. Has the Google Pixel 10 truly leapt ahead of this year’s best phones, or will it soon fall behind what’s to come? Check out more of my hands-on first impressions below, then come back for our full review.

Google Pixel 10 hands-on review: Price & availability

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

The Pixel 10 costs the same as last year’s Pixel 9, and the base model features the same 128GB of storage and 12GB of RAM inside, which may be falling behind the requirements of the upcoming AI features. I’d certainly like to see more storage, at least.

The phone is available in black (Obsidian), light blue (Frost), green (Lemongrass), and bright blue (Indigo). The Indigo will be Google’s hero color, but I think the Lemongrass also stands out nicely. The Frost color looks closer to the Pixel 10 Pro’s Moonstone shade than the name suggests.

My big caveat with Pixel phones is that Google’s pricing takes a rollercoaster ride throughout the year, with the first drop coming around the US holiday shopping season. Last year’s Pixel 9 launched in August at $799 in the US, and dropped to $649 in November. It spent more than half the year priced at $150 under the original price, and it dropped to an all-time low of $499 around the last Amazon Prime Day in July.

In other words, if you want the Pixel 10, you may want to wait until it’s available for less – although if you wait too long Google might drop a Pixel 10a on us, just to confuse matters.

Google Pixel 10 hands-on review: Specifications

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

The Google Pixel 10 uses Google’s Tensor G5 chipset, just like every other member of the Pixel 10 family. It comes with 12GB of RAM, which was a respectable amount in the days before on-device AI processing, but now is probably only just enough.

The Pixel 10 gains a 10.8MP, 5x zoom camera this year in addition to the 48MP wide camera and the 13MP ultra-wide. That’s not just more zoom than the Galaxy S25, it also comes with a bigger sensor, regardless of the megapixel count.

Oddly enough, the Pixel 10 comes with a slightly larger battery than the Pixel 10 Pro, at 4,970mAh vs 4,870mAh. It charges at 30W, just like the Pixel 10 Pro, with Qi2 wireless charging at up to 15W.

Google Pixel 10 Specifications

Dimensions:

152.8 x 72.0 x 8.6mm

Weight:

204g

Display:

6.3-inch Actua display

Resolution:

1080 x 2424 pixels

Refresh rate:

60-120Hz

Peak brightness:

3,000 nits

Chipset:

Google Tensor G5

RAM:

12GB

Storage:

128GB / 256GB

OS:

Android 16

Wide camera:

48MP; f/1.7; 0.5-inch sensor

Ultrawide camera:

13MP; f/2.2; 0.33-inch sensor

Telephoto camera:

10.8MP; f/3.1; 0.31-inch sensor

Selfie camera:

10.5MP; f/2.2

Battery:

4,970mAh

Charging:

25W wired; 15W wireless Qi2

Colors:

Indigo, Frost, Lemongrass, Obsidian

Google Pixel 10 hands-on review: Design

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

The Pixel 10 looks just like last year’s Pixel 9, aside from some minor changes to the color, materials, and finish. That’s not a bad thing at all – the Pixel 9 was one of my favorite new phone designs, and it was the biggest refresh we saw among all the major flagship phones last year. I’m happy the Pixel 10 isn’t a huge departure.

After all, the Pixel 9a was somehow a butt-ugly cheap relation of the Pixel 9, and I was worried that its flat design foreshadowed this year’s flagship phones. Never fear! The Pixel 10 keeps the same pill-shaped camera bump as last year’s model, with the same improved durability. It’s a great phone design, and it even looks good in a case.

There is still room for improvement. Did Google not see the iPhone 16’s Camera Control button? I suspect future Pixel phones might have a matching button in the future. They already got MagSafe, why not go all the way?

Speaking of magnets, the Pixel 10 with Pixelsnap held a very strong connection to all of the accessories I tried. You couldn’t shake the phone off of the wireless charging puck, which is a hidden part of the new wireless charging stand. I’ll be excited to use Google’s new phones with all of my MagSafe accessories, like my wallet and my magnetic photo tripod.

Google Pixel 10 hands-on review: Display

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

Google quietly makes the best displays you’ll find on any smartphone, and I’m shocked the company doesn’t spend more time bragging about it. The Actua displays on previous Pixels have always been among the most bright and colorful screens I’ve used, and the Pixel 10 seems like another improvement, if only a subtle one.

The Pixel 10 has a variable refresh rate from 60-120Hz, which means things should look nice and smooth when you’re scrolling through long menus or social feeds. Unfortunately, that also means it won’t get the full-color always-on screen you’ll find on LTPO phones like the Pixel 10 Pro.

I’ll need to spend a lot more time with the Pixel 10 to decide if the screen is as great as it seems. I’m hoping the long-term experience will be just as pleasing.

Google Pixel 10 hands-on review: Software

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

Google is, for now, leaving us with more questions than answers when it comes to Pixel software. Gemini works in more places – the onward march of AI progress – but there are many other features that are going to require a deep dive.

I’m very curious about the Magic Cue features available during phone calls. Google says the Pixel 10 will pull up details about your travel plans when somebody mentions AirBnB, for instance. I’m curious how far it will go, and whether this feature will seem like a privacy invasion or a useful sidekick.

There are also new camera features to try, which I’ll discuss below, but Google is moving beyond editing and generating images to offering tips and instructions. I like this direction. I would rather have a phone that can anticipate my needs, and offer helpful suggestions, than a phone that makes nightmare images of copyrighted cartoon characters committing crimes, as past Pixel phones have done.

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

One of the most impressive new features is the live translation. While other phones, like Samsung’s Galaxy S25, can live-translate a foreign language speaker during a conversation, the Pixel 10 family has a new trick: it makes the translation sound like the voice of the speaker.

If I speak to you in English while you speak Hindi back to me, the Pixel 10 will translate my words into Hindi, and it will make the Hindi speaker sound like a version of me. The TechRadar team got a demo of this feature with our Editor-at-Large Lance Ulanoff speaking, and at the other end what we heard was a Spanish-speaking version of Lance sounding like a native-born speaker. It was uncanny.

Google also says this process happens mostly on the device, which should settle some privacy concerns. Still, I’m wary of a computer that can instantly talk in a voice that sounds like mine; even though it only happens in a foreign language, it still gives me pause.

Google Pixel 10 hands-on review: Cameras

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

I’m most excited to try the new camera features on the Pixel 10, because the cameras sees like the biggest improvement on this phone. First of all there’s the new 5x telephoto lens, which is paired with a respectable 0.33-inch image sensor. That’s bigger than the zoom sensor on the Galaxy S25, and is closer to the telephoto camera on the iPhone 16 Pro.

Second, the Tensor G5 chipset has an all-new image signal processor, and that component is often the silent partner in making the best camera phones. A new ISP usually means faster processing – so higher-resolution video recording and better night photography. It could also mean other image enhancements.

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

Google is talking up the Super Zoom features, but we’ve seen AI zoom before. It may save an otherwise useless 30x zoom pic, but it’s not going to help the Pixel 10 create long-distance images you’ll want to hang on the wall.

Google Pixel 10 hands-on review: Performance

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

How will the Tensor G5 perform? Undoubtedly, it won’t be winning any benchmark races, but that’s never been the point of Google’s Tensor chips. Google builds accelerated chips that work better with its own AI and machine-learning features, like the Magic Editor in Google Photos and the AI transcriptions in the Recorder app.

This time around, Google says the Tensor G5 enables features like the aforementioned live translation that sounds like the person speaking, along with a host of new photography features like the Camera Coach.

The good news is that Google processes more of its machine-learning tricks on the phone than most other phone makers. That means you aren’t burning fossil fuels to feed a server farm for those AI features. It also means you have a better chance of protecting your privacy when it comes to your AI demands.

Google Pixel 10 hands-on review: Battery

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

I can almost forgive whatever battery life I get from the Pixel 10 because I’m excited to use the Pixelsnap feature to keep the phone charged. I have MagSafe chargers that I use next to my bed with my iPhone, but Apple’s device will now get the USB-C cord while my Pixel 10 takes over the magnetic stand. It isn’t a fast way to charge, but my phone will be there all night, so I don’t need to hurry.

I’m curious to see if the Tensor G5 chip will offer any battery life improvements. Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset has been a powerhouse not only in terms of performance but also efficiency. Every Snapdragon 8 Elite phone has been able to last much longer than the generation before, and I hope I see the same benefits from the Tensor G5 when I conduct a thorough review.

Kuvings Hands-Free Slow Juicer AUTO10 Plus: One minute review

The Kuvings Hands-Free Slow Juicer AUTO10 Plus is a high-end juicer that tackles a variety of foods and drinks with ease. It definitely compares with some of the top picks on our best juicer guide.

The juicer comes with a hopper extension, so you can make larger batches of juice. There are three different strainers included: juice, smoothie, and blank (for thicker foods like sorbet). These accessories allow you to make so many different kinds of foods and beverages. It also comes with three different cleaning tools, which should give you some idea of what's involved in cleaning the machine after use. None of the parts are dishwasher-safe.

I found using the machine to be pretty easy once I figured out how all the parts go together, and it's even kind of fun watching it do its thing. I enjoying throwing a bunch of whole fruits; peels, seeds, stems, and all into the hopper and having delicious, healthy juice a few minutes later. It's kind of satisfying watching the pulp come out the side as fresh juice pours into your juice cup. Some of the pulps can even be used to make other recipes, which I did when I made oat milk.

Kuvings Hands-Free Slow Juicer AUTO10 Plus: price and availability

• List price: $739.99 (about £550 / AU$1130)

The Kuvings Hands-Free Slow Juicer AUTO10 Plus is currently only available on Kuvings' own website, but should be widely available soon. Other models of Kuvings juicers are available at most of the typical big box stores and high-end kitchen chains.

At $739.99 (about £550 / AU$1130) this isn't a cheap juicer. Additionally, I got the citrus attachment, which allows you to make citrus juice without peeling the fruits or putting them in the hopper whole. The citrus attachment, exclusively for the AUTO10 series, sells for $42 (about £30 / AU$60)

Value score: 3/5

Kuvings Hands-Free Slow Juicer AUTO10 Plus: design

• Various strainers included
• Hopper extension for large batches
• Powerful motor

Kuvings' Hands-Free Slow Juicer AUTO10 Plus is a big boi. It weighs 17.4 pounds (7.9kg) so you won't be sliding it in and out of your cabinet easily. It's also quite tall, at 20 inches (529 mm) and it does not fit under the upper cabinets in my kitchen, even without the hopper extension.

The footprint is 8 inches (209 mm) by 10 inches (256 mm), which is pretty reasonable. Just keep in mind that you'll also need clearance for juicing cups in front of the machine (for juice) and on the side (for the pulp).

Not only will you need adequate counter space for the juicer, but you'll need space to store all of the parts. Some of the parts do nest together, but not all of them, so keep that in mind.

(Image credit: Karen Freeman / Future)

Putting the parts together isn't terribly intuitive, but there are clear instructions in the owner's manual. If that's not enough, Kuvings has a number of instructional videos on their YouTube channel to help you get it all sorted out. Once you have put together the parts a couple of times, muscle memory takes over and it's pretty quick and easy.

The Kuvings Hands-Free Slow Juicer AUTO10 Plus is a low speed compression juicer. The juicer utilizes a juicing screw which nests into one of the three included strainers inside the juicing bowl.

(Image credit: Karen Freeman / Future)

There is a spigot on the front of the juicer, which you can open and close. Use the large plastic juicing cup which is included to capture your juice/beverage/food, or make your items directly into the container of your choice. Place the smaller included juicing cup on the side, underneath the pulp chute, to capture the pulp that is left over after making juices and plant milks. You can discard the pulp, compost it, or even use it to make recipes.

(Image credit: Karen Freeman / Future)

I also got the citrus attachment, which is sold separately. This reamer-style attachment lets you make citrus juices without having to spend time peeling.

Lemons and limes can be tossed into the main juicer whole, but orange and grapefruit juices are better without the peels. If you'll be making orange or grapefruit juice regularly, you'll either need to peel them before dropping into the hopper or buy the citrus attachment to avoid this tedious task.

Design score: 4/5

Kuvings Hands-Free Slow Juicer AUTO10 Plus: performance

• Handles a lot of fruits and veggies fast without removing peels, seeds, or stems
• Doesn't mix thicker items well
• Cleanup is a hassle

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(Image credit: Karen Freeman / Future)

I made a delicious green juice from Kuvings' website called Spring Detox Juice. The recipe consisted of kale, grapes, kiwis, pears, and limes. Conveniently, I only had to remove the stems from the grapes. Everything else I just cleaned and then threw in whole, just as they are pictured above. As recommended, I used the juicing strainer, which has a fine mesh that keeps the pulp out of your juice. Even with all the tart and bitter ingredients, the juice was smooth and sweet without any added sugar or sweeteners.

(Image credit: Karen Freeman / Future)

Using the optional citrus attachment (sold separately), I made orange juice with navel oranges. Four small-to-medium oranges yielded just about 6 ounces of juice. I just washed each orange, sliced it in half and then pressed it onto the citrus attachment. The juice was good but a little bit tart. Obviously the oranges that you use will determine how the juice tastes.

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(Image credit: Karen Freeman / Future)

This juicer lets you make a variety of nut milks and other plant milks. I’d never had oat milk before so I thought I would try making it. I used the recommended juicing strainer. The resulting oat milk did indeed look like milk. I put the oat milk on my cereal; it tasted kind of bland but OK. I also used it in smoothies, chia pudding, and even ranch dressing, and it was totally fine. I had heard that oat milk generally has a slightly slimy mouth feel and I did notice that, but only when drinking it plain.

I used this double recipe from Kuvings' website, Oat Milk & Oat Pulp Cookies. After making the oat milk, I used the pulp to make cookies, which reminded me of healthy cookies that I’ve made before with oats and bananas. They were pretty bland because there was no sweetener in them. If I were making them again, I would definitely add a sweetener or mashed banana. Using the oat pulp instead of whole oats was fine. I also think the oat pulp would be great for making dog treats.

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(Image credit: Karen Freeman / Future)

Next, I wanted to test out the smoothie strainer, which has larger holes than the juicing strainer. Smoothies don't produce any pulp, as everything goes right into your cup. I make Kuvings' Banana Protein Smoothie Recipe, which was just bananas, milk, and nuts. This recipe was pretty disappointing. The taste was fine, since I do like bananas and nuts, but it was a bit liquidy and bland for my taste. I also noticed that the ingredients weren't fully blended together, as they would be if I'd used a blender.

I ended up pouring the results into a blender with some vanilla yogurt and ice to make myself a thicker and more flavorful smoothie.

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(Image credit: Karen Freeman / Future)

To test out the blank strainer, I made Kuving's Dragon Fruit Sorbet. The recipe calls for just two frozen fruit ingredients, dragon fruit and bananas, but I couldn’t find frozen dragon fruit in the stores I checked, so I used cherries instead.

I’ve made fruit-only sorbets many times with other kitchen appliances. The Kuvings juicer does just as good a job as those other appliances and the sorbet is delicious. If you’d like a sweeter sorbet, you would need to add some kind of sweetener, but I like plain old fruit as is. The juicer does not mix the two fruits together. You have to add the two frozen fruits a little bit at a time, alternating between them. The result is a swirled rather than uniform sorbet.

The Kuvings Hands-Free Slow Juicer AUTO10 Plus does a great job making juices and plant milks, which is probably the primary reason anyone would buy it. Making juice is very easy, since you don't have to peel or cut the ingredients before popping them into the big hopper.

It also does a good job making sorbets, as long as you don't mind that the ingredients are somewhat swirled rather than fully mixed. Smoothies came out all right, but I really wouldn't bother making smoothies in this juicer unless you don't have a regular blender.

The hardest part of using this machine is cleanup, for sure. Not only are there a lot of parts to clean, but there are a lot of nooks and crannies. Three different cleaning tools are included in ensure you can get every part clean. None of it is dishwasher-safe, so you'll need to wash it all by hand.

Performance score: 4/5

Kuvings Hands-Free Slow Juicer AUTO10 Plus: Score card

Attribute

Notes

Score

Value

Not yet widely available, though I expect it will be soon since other Kuvings juicer models are. It's quite pricey.

3/5

Design

It's easy enough to put together once you learn how, but it does take up a lot of space.

4/5

Performance

It makes excellent juices and also makes lots of other foods and beverages. Cleanup is a hassle, though.

4/5

Kuvings Hands-Free Slow Juicer AUTO10 Plus: should you buy it?Buy it if...

You’re a hard-core juicer

If you're someone who wants to make a lot of juice, this is the juicer for you. With the included hopper extension, it handles large quantities of whole fruits and veggies at once. No pre-cutting, just pop everything in: peels, stems, seeds, and all. You can also buy a separate citrus attachment for juicing citrus without the peels.

You want to make plant milks at home

Not into dairy milk? Make your own nut milk, seed milk, soy milk, oat milk, or hemp milk in this juicer. The fine mesh juicing strainer makes for a smooth and creamy result.

You want to make smoothies and other blended treats

While these aren't the star features of this juicer, you can also make smoothies, sorbet, hummus, soup, sauces, and more using the smoothie and blank strainers.

Don't buy it if...

You’re on a budget

This is a pricey home appliance, there's no question. It's really only worth it if you're serious about juice and/or plant-based milks.

You have a small kitchen

This juicer is a big commitment of counter and storage space. It's both tall and heavy which makes it a challenge to find a good spot to store and use it. Additionally, there are a lot of parts that need to be stored, not all of which nest together.

You’re hate washing dishes

There's no way around it, you'll be doing a lot of sink work here. Use the three included cleaning tools to get into every nook and cranny. None of it is dishwasher-safe, so you'll wash every part by hand.

Kuvings Hands-Free Slow Juicer AUTO10 Plus: also consider

Breville the Juice Fountain Cold

The winner of our best juicers guide, this one makes smooth juice without the mega price tag. Read our Breville the Juice Fountain Cold review for the full rundown.View Deal

Sage 3X Bluicer Pro

If you want a single appliance that both juices and blends, you might consider this one for roughly half the price of the Kuvings. It's not perfect, but it does the job for a lot less. Read our Sage 3X Bluicer Pro review for more information.View Deal

Kuvings Hands-Free Slow Juicer AUTO10 Plus: How I tested

I made orange juice with the citrus attachment (sold separately). I made a green fruit/veggie juice as well as an oat milk with the juicing strainer. I baked cookies from the oat milk's oat pulp. I made a fruit smoothie with the smoothie strainer. I made a frozen fruit sorbet with the blank strainer.

First reviewed: August 2025

Dynatrace positions itself as a leader in the competitive network monitoring space, offering a complete observability platform that extends far beyond basic network metrics. While on the hunt for the best network monitoring tools of 2025, we found it to be particularly strong for enterprise environments with complex and distributed infrastructures.

TechRadar reviewers spend several weeks researching each major IT platform in the market, analyzing everything from core functionality to pricing and customer support quality. When we looked at Dynatrace, we were especially impressed by its AI-powered Davis engine, which automatically detects anomalies and performs root cause analysis across your entire stack.

While our top pick LogicMonitor remains the best overall network monitoring tool of 2025, Dynatrace offers unique strengths for organizations needing comprehensive observability beyond traditional network monitoring. Dynatrace has also been recognized as a leader in G2's Network Monitoring for 2025 and Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Observability Platforms.

Dynatrace: Features

Dynatrace is an exceptionally feature-rich platform that goes well beyond traditional network monitoring to provide observability across applications, infrastructure, and user experience. It's primarily geared toward enterprise organizations with complex environments distributed across multiple cloud and on-premises systems.

Features are generally well-executed, with particular strengths in automated discovery, dependency mapping, and intelligent alerting, though some users note that pure network monitoring capabilities aren't as robust as specialized tools like SolarWinds NPM. While the premium pricing makes it inaccessible for small teams, the feature set justifies the cost for organizations looking for unified observability over point solutions.

Full-stack monitoring

Dynatrace's flagship capability provides end-to-end visibility from user experience down to infrastructure components, automatically discovering and mapping all dependencies across your technology stack. The OneAgent technology deploys with minimal configuration and begins collecting metrics, traces, and logs immediately, supporting automatic instrumentation for hundreds of technologies without manual intervention. This eliminates the blind spots common in traditional monitoring approaches by correlating performance issues across all tiers of your environment.

AI-powered analytics

The Davis AI engine serves as Dynatrace's differentiating factor, continuously analyzing billions of dependencies and metrics to automatically detect anomalies and determine root causes. Rather than simply alerting on threshold breaches, Davis provides context-aware insights that help IT teams understand not just what happened, but why it happened and what should be done about it. It reduces alert noise significantly while ensuring critical issues receive immediate attention with actionable remediation guidance.

Network performance monitoring

While network monitoring isn't Dynatrace's primary strength, the platform provides process-level network visibility that goes beyond traditional host-based monitoring. You can track network performance metrics between specific processes and services, identify connection issues proactively, and understand network topology in dynamic cloud environments. The platform automatically monitors new network interfaces and provides integrated health metrics alongside other key resource indicators.

Real user monitoring

Dynatrace captures actual user interactions across web, mobile, and API channels to provide insights into real-world performance and user experience. It tracks click patterns, page load times, and user journeys while identifying frustration points and performance bottlenecks that impact customer satisfaction. This extends beyond synthetic testing to understand how actual users experience your applications under real-world conditions.

(Image credit: Dynatrace)Dynatrace: Ease of Use

Dynatrace comes with a modern interface that uses its Smartscape data visualization to help users understand complex environment relationships at a glance. Its automatic discovery capabilities significantly reduce initial setup complexity, with deployment typically completing in minutes without extensive configuration.

However, the sheer breadth of features and data available can create a steep learning curve for new users, particularly those transitioning from simpler monitoring tools. That said, the platform includes helpful features like in-product live chat assistance available directly within the interface, allowing users to get immediate help without leaving their monitoring environment.

Dynatrace has invested heavily in user experience improvements, with recent updates focusing on streamlining workflows and reducing the number of clicks required for common tasks. While the learning curve exists, IT teams find the investment in training worthwhile given the platform's capabilities and the reduction in time-to-resolution it provides for complex issues.

Dynatrace: Pricing

Plan

Starting price (paid annually)

What's included

Infrastructure Monitoring

$0.04 per hour per host

Host monitoring for any server size, with basic dashboards and alerting

Kubernetes Platform Monitoring

$0.002 per hour

Complete observability across all Kubernetes clusters, workloads, pods and more

Synthetic Monitoring

$0.001 per request

High throughput monitoring for browser clickpaths, single pages, and APIs

Full-Stack Monitoring

$0.08 per hour per host

Complete APM and observability, AI-powered insights, OneAgent deployment, OpenTelemetry support

Dynatrace employs a usage-based pricing model that scales with your environment size and monitoring requirements. There's no hidden fees, but you'll be making potentially complex cost calculations for larger deployments.

It works well for organizations with predictable infrastructure sizes, plus volume discounts make it more attractive for enterprise deployments. Compared to competitors, Dynatrace sits at the premium end of the market, which reflects its comprehensive feature set but may price out smaller organizations that need simpler network monitoring solutions.

Dynatrace: Customer Support

Dynatrace offers two tiers of support: Standard Support included with all subscriptions and Enterprise Support for customers requiring enhanced service levels.

Standard Support includes in-product live chat assistance available directly within the Dynatrace interface, allowing users to connect with product experts for configuration questions and basic troubleshooting during business hours. The support team has access to product development experts for complex issues, ensuring customers can reach the right level of expertise when needed.

Enterprise Support provides enhanced response times, dedicated support resources, and expanded coverage hours for mission-critical environments. All customers also have access to comprehensive self-help resources including detailed documentation, the Dynatrace Community forum, and Dynatrace University for training and certification.

While support quality generally receives positive feedback from enterprise customers, some smaller organizations report challenges getting rapid responses during peak periods with Standard Support.

Dynatrace: Alternatives

Dynatrace occupies a unique position in the observability market, serving as both a comprehensive monitoring platform and a specialized network monitoring tool, though its strength lies more in the former. It's best suited for enterprises with distributed environments where the AI-driven insights and visibility justify the premium pricing and complexity.

If you're looking for pure network monitoring tools, you might find better value in specialized tools like SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor or PRTG. But for organizations looking for network monitoring and observability, Dynatrace's main competitors include New Relic and Datadog.

Dynatrace: Final Verdict

Dynatrace delivers exceptional value for enterprise organizations requiring comprehensive observability beyond traditional network monitoring, with its AI-powered Davis engine and full-stack visibility providing capabilities that few competitors can match. It excels in complex, distributed environments where automatic discovery, dependency mapping, and intelligent root cause analysis justify the premium pricing and learning curve investment.

While pure network monitoring isn't Dynatrace's strongest suit compared to specialized tools, its ability to correlate network issues with application and infrastructure performance makes it valuable for organizations seeking unified observability. However, smaller organizations or those with simpler network monitoring needs may find Dynatrace overkill in both complexity and cost, making alternatives like LogicMonitor or PRTG more practical choices.

Dynatrace: FAQs

Is Dynatrace primarily a network monitoring tool?

No, Dynatrace is primarily an observability platform that includes network monitoring as one component of its full-stack approach. While it provides process-level network visibility and can monitor network performance between services, its core strength lies in application performance monitoring, infrastructure monitoring, and AI-driven analytics across the entire technology stack. Those looking for dedicated network monitoring tools might find better value in specialized solutions like LogicMonitor or SolarWinds NPM.

How does Dynatrace pricing work for growing organizations?

Dynatrace uses a usage-based pricing model where costs scale with your monitored infrastructure, measured in host-hours or GiB-hours depending on the plan. The platform offers volume discounts for larger commitments and allows organizations to exceed their minimum annual commitment on an on-demand basis without penalties. While this flexibility helps growing organizations, costs can increase significantly as infrastructure scales, making budget planning important for expansion.

What level of expertise is required to implement Dynatrace?

Dynatrace is designed for enterprise IT teams and requires moderate to advanced expertise to fully leverage its capabilities, though initial deployment is relatively straightforward thanks to OneAgent's automatic discovery.

While the platform can begin collecting data within minutes of deployment, maximizing its AI-driven insights, custom dashboards, and advanced alerting typically requires several weeks of learning and configuration.

Dynatrace provides comprehensive training resources through Dynatrace University and offers in-product support to help teams get up to speed.

Can Dynatrace replace multiple monitoring tools?

Yes, Dynatrace is specifically designed to consolidate multiple monitoring functions into a single platform, covering application performance, infrastructure monitoring, network monitoring, real user monitoring, and synthetic testing.

This eliminates data silos and provides correlated insights across the entire technology stack, which is particularly valuable for complex enterprise environments. However, organizations with specialized needs might still require dedicated tools for specific use cases like detailed network flow analysis or specialized database monitoring.

How does Dynatrace compare to other observability platforms?

Dynatrace differentiates itself primarily through its Davis AI engine, which provides automated root cause analysis and intelligent alerting beyond what competitors like New Relic or Datadog typically offer.

It also excels in automatic discovery and dependency mapping, requiring less manual configuration than many alternatives. However, it comes with premium pricing that may exceed competitors, and some users find its comprehensive feature set more complex than needed for simpler monitoring requirements.

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Norton has long been a household name for antivirus software, yet despite launching its first VPN, Norton WiFi Privacy, in 2017, it’s never achieved the same pedigree status in the space. Its original iteration, Norton Secure VPN, offered little to shout about, though a recent revamp seems to have set the service on a much more promising path.

Although not yet rivaling the likes of NordVPN, Norton VPN offers surprisingly quick speeds, a super-friendly interface, and a great array of features you’d expect from a top VPN service. While some gaps in the service remain, it’s clear the Norton VPN team is striving to bring the same security pedigree seen on its antivirus software to its VPN, and pretty quickly, too.

We’ve put this new and improved service to the test. Both in day-to-day scenarios and more rigorous, proprietary tests, we’ve uncovered where the service has made great strides, and where it should look next to ensure it reaches the heights its aiming for, all to help you decide whether Norton VPN is the choice for you.

Features

Norton VPN’s recent revamp has seen a host of expectable but mightily important features arrive across several platforms. Plus, it continues to improve its fundamentals – even if some areas still have some work to do.

As far as VPN protocols go, Norton offers OpenVPN, WireGuard, IPSec, and Mimic, its proprietary protocol designed for obfuscation. iOS and Mac users are limited to only IPSec and Mimic, which is disappointing given OpenVPN and WireGuard’s improved capabilities – although IPSec can be fast, WireGuard offers a faster, less device-intensive experience. Luckily, wider support for these protocols is said to be in the works, though an exact release date is unknown.

Users on iOS and macOS have a limited protocol choice, with only IPSec and Mimic available (Image credit: Future)

As for extra features built into Norton VPN, there aren’t any particularly unique choices, though each is beneficial and often seen among top VPNs. Wi-Fi detection allows you to auto-connect to the VPN when connecting to public Wi-Fi. On macOS, it also auto-connects on “compromised networks”. It’s unclear how Norton decides if a network is compromised, but all wireless networks are considered public by default.

Norton also offers ad and tracker blocking. Tracking is blocked at a DNS level to reduce the risk of your data being used for targeted ads while you browse online, and can be turned on by simply toggling the option. Although the tracker appeared to work, its ‘Trackers Blocked’ counter seems to run on a delay, rather than in real time, so while we know 50 trackers were blocked across a period of our testing time, we don’t have any indication of when each was blocked.

Ad blocking is undertaken by a browser extension. Although this means another download and sign-in process, we did find the ad blocker to be effective – even if not quite as effective as dedicated ad-blocker services. Scoring 77% in our tests, it is definitely worth turning on should you use Norton VPN, though don’t expect a flawless display. NordVPN and Surfshark only achieved 84% in our latest tests, and ExpressVPN only achieved 90%, so there isn’t far for Norton VPN to go before leading VPNs in this field.

A key area of improvement has been in Norton VPN’s security-focused features. Firstly, Norton VPN offers a simple-to-use kill switch, ensuring your internet traffic stops immediately when you lose connection to the VPN, preventing you from broadcasting unencrypted traffic over public Wi-Fi networks. If you’d prefer, you can choose whether you’d like to keep your access to local devices over a LAN even when the kill switch is active. The kill switch isn’t enabled by default and requires you to dig through a few menus to set it up, but if you’re on macOS, Norton gives you an easy set of guidelines to follow so you can quickly set it up.

The new Norton VPN app houses all of its improved features in an easy-to-use design resemblant of other Norton products (Image credit: Future)

Outside the kill switch, Norton VPN has added an array of features. In April 2025 alone, Norton VPN gained Double VPN, IP Rotation, Pause VPN capabilities, and the ad-blocking browser extension mentioned above.

Double VPN is available across 8 servers. While your connection options are fixed, for example, USA via Canada, they are bi-directional, and give you access to Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. While it’s not completely customizable, like Surfshark’s Nexus technology allows, its 8 locations put it only two behind NordVPN, which offers 10.

IP rotation also features, something not even NordVPN can say. Only Surfshark also offers IP rotation among the best VPNs. While Norton’s offering isn’t quite as expansive, it does offer servers in the US, Japan, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Germany to use. What’s more, Norton’s offering is much simpler to access, and connects in almost no time at all, no matter the server you pick. In our testing, our IP seemed to change every few seconds, meaning it should be good enough to give you a new IP for every website you visit.

Pause VPN is the final feature worth mentioning. Overlooked by the likes of PIA and ExpressVPN, pause VPN gives you the choice to temporarily end your VPN connection for a set time, with the VPN reactivating once the time ends. This is a great tool should you briefly wish to search for something or use an app outside of the connection without risking forgetting to turn your VPN back on. Norton VPN’s implementation is extremely simple to use, and is easily accessed, though it’d be great to see a minimum pause time shorter than 15 minutes as, frankly, most times when we’ve needed it we’ve been finished in five minutes rather comfortably.

Server Network

Norton VPN’s server network isn’t up there with the very best VPNs quite yet, but it’s seen massive expansion in recent months. Since our last review, Norton VPN has expanded from servers in 29 countries to servers in 65, with 104 total locations. For comparison, Norton VPN now has more locations than Mullvad, which offers 89, and only a few less than Windscribe, which offers 112.

What’s good is the spread Norton VPN offers. 25 locations in the US are great for streaming enthusiasts, plus 6 countries in South America and 5 countries in Africa is superb given the lack of coverage these areas traditionally recieve. Asian coverage is weaker, with only 12 countries, though the most popular locations are included among these.

Given Norton VPN’s rate of increase, it wouldn’t surprise me if its country spread increased further over the coming months. If so, it’d be good to see the service fill the various gaps left in Asia and, since it already has a strong presence in South America and Africa, bulk out its presence in Europe and the US to account for key sites and services located in currently omitted regions.

Norton VPN's global coverage is especially impressive in South America and Africa, though its Asian coverage could be better (Image credit: Future)Apps

Norton’s VPN app is available for Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS. It’s also available on Apple TV and Android-based smart TVs. For Android TVs, you need version 10 or later, whereas Apple tvOS requires version 17 or later.

Notably, there’s no Fire TV or Linux support, so if you need to cover your Ubuntu or Linux Mint install, Norton won’t cut it quite yet - there’s not even support for a command-line VPN. Norton does not offer configuration files for OpenVPN or WireGuard either, so there’s no way to use Norton with an unsupported device.

It’s worth mentioning that Norton VPN’s apps have several instances of feature disparity. As highlighted already, iOS and macOS users are already limited in protocol choice, but these platforms also lack split tunneling and some auto-connect functionality. The lack of protocol choice is especially disappointing in this instance, given that other providers have offered OpenVPN and WireGuard on these platforms for a while now.

Otherwise, there’s nothing really to dislike about Norton VPN’s apps on any platform. They’re simple to look at, easy to navigate, and look so unapologetically Norton-like that anyone new to VPNs who’s familiar with its antivirus tools will quickly gain the sense of security often felt when using other Norton tools.

Ease of use

Norton VPN is a breeze to install, likely thanks to the years of experience Norton has with its other products in making complex systems simple to introduce.

Once you’re in, the experience is impressively simple, though at the expense of a couple of handy extra tools. The menus aren’t overcomplicated with features, settings, and data – though the option to set favorites or see the best servers at any time would be nice – the settings are all explained in simple enough terms for beginners, and there’s easy access to any extra tools you might have in your plan, or guides you may need to help set up your VPN connection how you’d like it.

In true Norton fashion, the experience you have is as close to identical as possible across any device you might have, too. This makes Norton VPN a superb choice should you be new to VPNs and looking for easy, quick access to the settings you need, without worrying that your usual server, connection type, or setting may be hiding somewhere new.

Even Norton VPN’s Advanced Servers, meaning its P2P-optimized, double VPN, and IP rotation optimized servers, are easily accessed. With dropdown menus giving you the information you need to understand where you’re connecting to, and any additional routing your connection might take.

Speed and performance

Norton’s speeds are its biggest area of improvement since our last round of testing. Starting with the headlines, we recorded an average speed of 909Mbps download using WireGuard from our testing server in the UK, rivalling the likes of NordVPN, ExpressVPN and Proton VPN as a result.

Our connection to the US wasn’t quite as impressive, as we only recorded speeds of 463Mbps, which is around the middle of the pack. It’s still more than enough to watch multiple 4K streams simultaneously, but it’s a pretty big dropoff compared to our initial UK tests.

How we perform speed tests

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

We test from two different virtual PCs, one in the UK and one in the US. We’re expecting big things out of NordVPN, as both of these servers have a 1 Gbs connection. You can find out more in our VPN testing methodology.

As for OpenVPN performance, Norton didn’t do as well. Our average speeds were around 260-275Mbps, whether connecting to the UK or US, which is also more than enough for most internet activities, but pales in comparison to the speeds we’ve seen elsewhere.

Our latency recordings were about what we’d expect for a top-tier VPN connecting to UK servers. In Norton’s case, 3.5ms. Most of the providers we’ve tested clock in around the 2-5ms mark, which is barely perceivable. One or two milliseconds' difference won’t make a difference to most internet apps or online gaming sessions.

As for the US connection, Norton tops our list in terms of low latency at 66.6ms, just barely beating out NordVPN to take the top spot. If you’re gaming or running a video call and want your connection to be as responsive as possible while connected to the US, Norton is the ideal solution.

Unblocking

We’ve tested Norton VPN works with them with loads of your favorite streaming services and it worked with them all! Netflix is cracking down on VPNs, but we were able to watch Netflix US, UK, Australia, Canada, and Japan all from our local testing centers. The same goes for Amazon Prime and Disney Plus, however, we weren’t able to access US Youtube.

As for regional providers, it’s a mixed bag but mostly positive results. We were able to access BBC iPlayer, ITV, Channel 4, 7Plus, and 9Now, but TVNZ+ intermittently failed, and we couldn’t access 10Play at all.

Norton VPN does have P2P capabilities, and our testing showed it works reasonably well. It’s worth mentioning that Norton doesn’t support port forwarding, which means that you won’t get incoming requests for sharing when torrenting, limiting your connectivity.

Norton only has two P2P servers, one in the Netherlands and one in Dallas. It’s a far cry away from the full P2P connectivity of a provider like PIA, but even Avast’s competing SecureLine VPN offers eight P2P servers.

On the plus side, Norton does allow you to connect automatically when you boot up a supported P2P app, but you’ll have to enable this option from the settings menu first.

Privacy and security

Norton is clearly taking the necessary steps to ensuring its VPN is secure and private. Its no-logs policy is extensive yet clear, outlining the data collected by the VPN app at any instance, your browsing data is never stored on their servers, including DNS requests, which are instead served by a private DNS server run by Norton, preventing ISP spying, and it’s had its no-logs policy audited to ensure trust.

In August 2024, VerSprite audited Norton’s policy, noting two issues that could result in sensitive user information being disclosed. Norton took the necessary steps to address these issues, and once remedied, VerSprite agreed the no logs policy was both accurate and implemented correctly.

However, Norton does collect some anonymized information from the VPN client. This includes connection timestamps, platform details such as OS and timezone, and crash logs. They also aggregate overall data transmission for network planning. So, if you’re extremely concerned about your privacy, Norton might collect slightly too much information for comfort. As it stands, Norton’s acceptable for day to day browsing, but you might consider Proton VPN instead if you need rock-solid privacy guarantees.

Norton is clearly taking the necessary steps to ensuring its VPN is secure and private."

Rob Dunne - VPN Editor, TechRadar

Something that may ease some privacy concerns would be if Norton VPN implemented RAM-only servers. These servers wipe when rebooted, meaning you cannot store any data on them, thus eradicating the risk of any user data being available should a data request be submitted by authorities. Not having RAM-only servers isn’t an issue as such, though it adds a layer of trust for users, and is becoming increasingly common among top VPNs.

Given its privacy focus, we wanted to know more about Norton VPN’s proprietary Mimic protocol. In addition to offering obfuscation, Mimic is powered by TLS 1.3 ciphers (AES-256 and ChaCha20), as well as CRYSTAL-Kyber-512 for post-quantum cryptography. It’s good to hear that Norton is already thinking ahead when it comes to quantum security, which puts them significantly in front of most of the VPN industry.

Meanwhile, Norton's standard VPN protocols, OpenVPN and WireGuard, use AES-256-GCM and ChaCha20-Poly1305 encryption, respectively. These are considered the top encryption methods used by all of the best VPNs, a strong demonstration, therefore, of Norton’s intent to found its service on strong privacy staples.

Customer Support

Norton’s customer support staff are very helpful. There’s a community forum where you can post issues you’re having with Norton VPN, where other members and support staff can pitch in with their own advice. From the interactions we’ve had, they’re very knowledgeable and quite prompt in returning with information.

However, the support materials on the site are a different matter. When you search for help topics on Norton’s website, you’re immediately given an AI prompt for your search, which looks like it’s powered by Gemini. It’s not totally useful when you’re trying to find specific help on a topic, and you have to scroll past it to get to the actual results.

As for the knowledge base, it’s not particularly in-depth - most of the articles consist of bullet point lists and some are thinly-disguised marketing material. If you want help with Norton, we’d stick to contacting their customer support directly through the forum or over the phone. There’s also a 24/7 helpdesk upgrade if you need around-the-clock customer service.

Pricing and plans

Norton offers three tiers of pricing. The standard VPN package starts at $39.99 for the first year, which works out at roughly $3.33 per month. After the introductory offer is over, it renews at $79.99 per year. That makes Norton one of the cheapest VPNs we’ve see.

However, there’s one major limitation: you’re only allowed five device connections (or worse, only one if you’re in some regions including the UK), significantly under the 8-10 you’ll find from most other providers. Surfshark and PIA both go even further, offering unlimited device connections on their cheapest subscription plans. It should also be clarified that Norton’s device limit isn’t a traditional simultaneous connections limit. Instead, Norton’s five device limit refers to the number of devices with the VPN installed. Should you wish to install on a sixth device, you’d instead be asked to remove one of the previous five devices, rather than merely disconnecting from the VPN.

Upgrading your subscription costs an extra $10 per year, making your subscription cost $4.17 per month initially and $109.99 every year after that. There’s no meaningful change to the VPN, but you get extra features from Norton’s security suite, including virus protection, password management, dark-web scanning, 10GB encrypted cloud storage, and AI-powered scam detection.

The Ultimate subscription package will set you back an extra $20 per year, making it $5 per month initially and $129.99 per year after the first. In addition to extra family-safety features for monitoring your child’s devices, the device count is bumped up to 10, so you can take full advantage of Norton’s security features on most of your household’s devices, and you get 50GB of secure storage (or 150GB should you activate auto-renewal).

To its credit, Norton offers an above-average 60-day money-back guarantee and a true 7-day free trial when you sign up. We love 7-day free trials as an entry point into VPNs as they offer a ‘try before you buy’ solution, without some of the hassles caused by a 30-day money-back guarantee. Seeing Norton VPN be one of the first to offer this, then, puts it in good stead to be among the best VPNs for beginners in the future.

Switching from its current install-based device limit also seems like an easy win Norton VPN could take advantage of. While increasing the device limit with more premium plans does help this slightly, removing the confusing of registering and removing devices is an easy way to make the service more accessible to newer users and takes away the sting of the small device limit on the standard plan.

Should you use Norton VPN?

Norton VPN is a rapidly improving VPN. In the space of a few months, it’s brought in a spread of features you’d expect to see in a top VPN, alongside some features some top VPNs don’t think to include. Its performance has risen to a point where it can rival top VPNs like Surfshark and NordVPN, it has apps simple enough for anyone to use, and it brings Norton-pedigree security to make anyone trust its privacy guarantees.

That said, there are several areas it still needs to address. Primarily, sorting the device install limit will add to its already high-value package by reducing connection roadblocks for users. Outside of this, expanding the feature pool, adding Linux and Fire TV support, and eradicating the feature disparities for macOS and iOS users will quickly put Norton VPN among the best value VPNs available if done right.

For many, now might not be the right time to pick up Norton VPN due to any one of the limitations mentioned. That said, it’d be wise to keep an eye on Norton VPN over the coming year or so, as, from what we’ve seen already in 2025, it looks as though the provider could quickly become a high-value, high-security VPN from a name renowned for its security capabilities.

Norton VPN alternatives

1. NordVPN – The best VPN overall
NordVPN combines security, speed, and usability in a single VPN package that can’t be beat on value. In addition to lightning-fast servers, NordVPN offers some unique features like Threat Protection Pro, which integrates anti-virus, anti-phishing, and ad-blocking capabilities into a single product. Try it today with a 30-day money-back guarantee.View Deal

2. Surfshark – get the 7-day free trial
When you buy a Surfshark subscription, you get unlimited simultaneous device connections, 100+ countries to connect to, and advanced IP rotation features powered by their own Nexus software-defined network. It's perfect if you need to cover a household full of devices. Try Surfshark risk free with a 30-day money-back guarantee or a 7-day free trial.View Deal

3. ExpressVPN – The best secure VPN
ExpressVPN consistently ranks as our most secure VPN thanks to its forward-thinking security features, like quantum-resistant encryption. It's all thanks to their proprietary Lightway VPN protocol, designed from the ground up for mobile-first support. The ExpressVPN app is perfect for beginners with a simple interface across all platforms, plus 24/7 support on hand to walk you through setting it up. Express also comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee.View Deal

Aukey Spark Mini 20000: review

The Aukey Spark Mini 20000 has simple yet elegant looks, with its soft edges helping to make it more sleek. Aside from grey and silver, there’s also a pink colorway if you want something a little more vibrant.

However, the materials don’t look especially premium, and it’s not as solid as some of the best power banks, with considerable flexing in the front panel, which can even trigger the power button if pressed too hard.

Thankfully, the bottom section is much sturdier, as well as looking more refined thanks to its matte finish and slightly soft texture. This is also the thickest and heaviest part of the unit, but thanks to its overall compactness, the Spark Mini 20000 is quite portable – although carrying it in your pocket might prove a little too onerous.

There’s no real interface, aside from a power button and five small LED dots: four to indicate remaining charge and one to indicate that charging is active. This is quite useful, as it allows you to check whether your device is actually charging with a mere glance.

The Spark Mini 20000 features just two charging ports: one USB-C and one USB-A, the latter of which serves as an output as well as an input for charging the bank itself. This limited selection is a little disappointing, as there are many other 20K power banks with three or four ports to choose from.

At least simultaneous charging is supported, and each port provides enough power for fast charging. The USB-C port supports the PD standard, providing 20W of power for charging the best iPhones and other smartphones quickly, while the USB-A port provides 22.5W of power. A USB-C-to-C cable is included in the box, but it’s quite short, so you’ll need your device close to the bank when charging.

The Spark Mini 20000 managed to charge my Google Pixel 7a from empty to full in about two hours, which isn’t a spectacular performance, but is still within the bounds of what you would expect given its power delivery. However, charging the bank itself from empty to full took over five and a half hours, which is pretty slow going, even for a power bank of this capacity.

About average for a power bank with this size, the Spark Mini 20000 costs $35.99 / £26.37 (about AU$55). However, there are power banks with similar prices that offer more features, such as the INIU Carry P51L-E1 Power Bank 22.5W 20000mAh.

This bank has the same 20,000mAh capacity, but includes an integrated USB-C cable in addition to two ports. It also features a digital display and a flashlight, but still manages to be about the same size as the Spark Mini 20000.

(Image credit: Future)Aukey Spark Mini 20000 review: price & specs

Price

$35.99 / £26.37 (about AU$55)

Capacity

20,000mAh

Total wattage

22.5W

Number of ports

2

USB-C

1

USB-A

1

Wireless charging

No

Weight

11.4oz / 322g

Power-to-weight

62mAh/g

(Image credit: Future)Should I buy the Aukey Spark Mini 20000?Buy it if…

You want something simple
The Spark Mini 20000 is a simple case of plug and go, and the LED to indicate charging is active is a simple but useful touch.

You want something compact
The Spark Mini 20000 makes for a great travel companion thanks to its small dimensions, even if it’s a little thick.

Don't buy it if…

You have more than two devices to charge
With only two ports, the Spark Mini 20000 is limited compared to similarly capacious power banks, which can include three or four ports – and even integrated cables.

You want more features
With no digital display or integrated cables and the like, the Spark Mini 20000 is about as simple as it gets – and similarly priced rivals offer more.

Aukey Spark Mini 20000 review: Also consider

INIU Carry P51L-E1 Power Bank 22.5W 20000mAh
The P51L-E1 has a similar capacity and power output to the Spark Mini 20000, but has an integrated USB-C cable, which also functions as a carrying loop. It also has a flashlight and a digital display, although the latter is a little sparse in the information it provides, but is clear to see. It’s also about the same price as the Spark Mini 20000, so ultimately it makes for better value. Read our full INIU Carry P51L-E1 Power Bank 22.5W 20000mAh review.