Standing out in the world of gaming monitors is no easy task – at a time when OLED panels are finally coming down in price, refresh rates are pushing up past the 1000Hz threshold, and people are connecting consoles as well as their PCs to their displays.

Still, when big new tech like Nvidia G-Sync Pulsar comes along, it's an opportunity for monitor-makers to push for further upgrades. It's the latest in display tech, helping to eliminate levels of motion blur you might not have even really been worried about.

If you're a competitive gamer, however, it's therefore big news – but is it enough to make you buy a whole new monitor? I used the Asus ROG Strix Pulsar XG27AQGNV for a week for this review to find out how it stacks up.

Price and Availability

The XG27AQGNV was unveiled at the very start of this year, in the halls at CES 2026, and trickled out for sale in various regions, starting roughly back in May. That means it's been around for a good few months, but it's the first Pulsar monitor I've had in for detailed testing.

It's priced at £629 here in the UK, $599 in the US, and €599,99 in the EU, which makes it objectively pretty expensive for a 27-inch, 1440p gaming monitor at this point. Whether it's worth that cash will be what I explore below, but it'll also come down to your priorities, as always when it comes to gaming hardware.

Design and Specs

You might think there's not a huge amount to talk about when it comes to the design of a 27-inch monitor, and on some level you'd be right. Asus has kept things pretty simple here, too, with a panel that has pretty even bezels on the right, left and top – but with a bit more of a chin on the bottom.

On the back of the monitor on the right-hand side, you'll find controls in the form of a control knob that you can use to navigate through the monitor's settings menus, as well as a few shortcut buttons to make things like turning it on and off, or swapping inputs, a little faster.

Then, at the back of the monitor, you'll find its I/O options: one DisplayPort 1.4 port, two HDMI 2.1 ports, and three USB-A ports for accessories and charging. That makes it relatively light on the connectivity front, to be honest – I'll always advocate for more HDMI ports where possible.

These ports can be hidden behind a removable cover that makes the back of the monitor nice and clean, with one large ornament in the form of a ROG logo that lights up with RGB (which you can control).

I don't love the aesthetics of it, but if there's one bit of tech where the back panel doesn't really matter, it's a monitor. There's more cable tidying using a gap in the stand, which has a modest footprint, making this easy to get on a smaller desk.

That brings us to the actual specs of this display. It's a 27-inch, 16:9 aspect ratio IPS panel, at 2560x1440 resolution, with an anti-glare matte finish to help make it impressively resistant to reflections. It has HDR 10 compatibility and a refresh rate cap of 360Hz.

That refresh rate is made far more impressive, though, by the inclusion of not just AMD FreeSync and Nvidia G-Sync, but also the far newer G-Sync Pulsar, which basically eliminates a huge amount of motion blur when gaming. It's really quite hard to describe, but it's a big step up compared to standard G-Sync if you're gaming at high frame rates.

Another of the most impressive specs, on paper, is the 500 nits of peak brightness – a long way beyond much of the competition. This means that if you crank this monitor to its maximum value, you'll have a bit of a beacon of a display on your hands. While this will be uncomfortable for many home gaming scenarios, it makes the monitor very adaptable to harsher conditions.

Of course, given the price tag attached, it's probably worth clarifying some of the things you don't get with the XG27AQGNV, too. It's not an OLED panel, to be clear, so you won't get quite the same inkiness in its blacks.

It's also not 4K. That 1440p resolution cap is really no issue for most sensible PC gamers, but it does mean that a console like the PS5 Pro can't output its maximum resolution to the monitor, which may well matter to you.

Performance

I've said it before, and I'll say it again – with a monitor, more than perhaps any other form of tech that I've reviewed, it's really all about the performance, and barely about the design.

So, turning the XG27AQGNV on, how's it been to actually game on? Well, in a word: smooooth. I last tried G-Sync Pulsar more than six months ago at an Nvidia event, and had limited time one-on-one with the feature. Now, using it for a whole week at my leisure, it's made quite an impact.

I don't play too many games competitively on PC, to be frank, but dipping into the likes of Counter-Strike 2 to get a feel for where the feature's impact could really be felt, the amount of clarity I was able to perceive was quite striking.

To be clear, Pulsar isn't making your game smoother – it's just making it clearer in motion, and the magic behind that is really quite something.

That's a huge plus point in favour of the XG27AQGNV, then, but it's also impressive in other areas. It's really crisp at 1440p, without text fringing that I could perceive, and while it can't quite match an OLED for blacks or vivid colour, it's one of the best IPS panels I've seen in ages on both counts.

It's also wildly bright. That 500 nits of peak brightness is hard to describe in a monitor, but it meant that when I cranked it up to its maximum value I was pretty much instantly in discomfort, and brought it back down quickly. That's something I've never encountered before, and means those with bright rooms will find a real ally in this hardware.

Of course, the way I test monitors doesn't just involve PC gaming. I also connect my MacBook Pro for my daily working routine, and my PS5 Pro for a lot of my social multiplayer gaming. In both cases, the XG27AQGNV is a very solid performer, although when a PlayStation 5 is connected it obviously can't offer the full 4K experience.

That's most likely not an issue for you, if you're a PC user first and foremost, but at a time when makers like Alienware are catering to both PC and console, it's worth bearing in mind.

Verdict

The XG27AQGNV is a niche monitor, but a highly impressive one. If you're on the lookout for an IPS panel featuring G-Sync Pulsar, it's your only real option right now (all the others are OLED). That makes its fairly steep price far more understandable, since it sits on the cutting edge.

That said, Pulsar really isn't something that many of us need, and that means plenty of people might be better off spending less on their 1440p monitor, or getting a more adaptable screen for the cash. If you care about clarity above all, though, what a legendary option this is from Asus.

Also consider

I've tested some highly impressive monitors in recent months, and one of the best has been from Dell – the Alienware AW3226Q. This is a huge, 32-inch OLED, so it's not quite the same proposition as Asus' offering, but it comes in at a similar price. Crucially, it's 4K and more reliable for switching between PC and console.

A more direct comparison could be made to the LG UltraGear OLED 27GX790B-B, which is a stunning 27-inch OLED. It lacks the Pulsar tech that Asus packs into this panel, but is a bit more impactful in terms of colour, making it something of a dealer's choice.

After many months of speculation, Apple has finally lifted the lid on its touchscreen MacBook.

Retaining the MacBook Pro name instead of adoption "MacBook Ultra", the new model comes with 14- and 16-inch sizes, with each featuring when Apple calls a PROLED XDR display.

This uses Tandem OLED technology and boasts a claimed 2,000 nits of HDR and SDR brightness. It is also said to have a contrast ratio of 10 million to one, 120Hz refresh rate, and sports more accurate pro-level colour presentation and deeper blacks than ever before (on a MacBook).

It is also touch-enabled, of course, allowing users to manipulate macOS manually for the first time.

Another first is the Dynamic Island, which replaces the notch on the conventional models around the 12-megapixel Center Stage camera. This can therefore double as an extra utility for notifications and the like, much as it does on iPhone 18 Pro.

The new Mac can be spec'ed with either an M5 Pro or M5 Max chip, and up to 128GB of unified memory. Storage options run up to 16TB.

A lighter, thinner design has been implemented with both MacBook Pro sizes, with the 14-inch version weighing just 1.3kg and the 16-inch just 1.8kg. These are lighter than their standard equivalents.

The bezel around the display is slimmer too, resulting in a 14.2-inch screen for the smaller variant, 16.3-inch for the larger.

Apple also claim that the sound system on the new MacBook Pro is "industry-leading". It features a six-speaker array with deeper bass and new tweeters for greater clarity and dispersion. Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos is supported.

Battery life is claimed to last up to 24 hours, and the lid sees the return of the glowing Apple logo.

The new MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display and Touch, to give it its full name, is available to pre-order now starting at £2,899 / $2,899 for the 14-inch model, £3,399 / $3,399 for the 16-inch. Shipping starts next week, on 6 November 2026.

Apple is planning to update the MacBook Neo – its cheapest laptop – in the first half of 2027, meaning that those shopping for a cheaper Mac experience won't be left behind.

The MacBook Neo was announced in March 2026, launching at £/$599, but then seeing the price revised upwards to £/$699. Still, even with the price increase, it's the most affordable MacBook that Apple has released for a long time.

No details are known about the new model, but it's expected to continue with a run of bright colours. While the other models in the Mac family are expected to move to the M7 chip in 2027, it's likely that the MacBook Neo will get updated to the A19 Pro chip.

The details come from Bloomberg, where Mark Gurman has a good track record of sharing future Apple plans.

Apple is in the middle of a major refresh of its Mac line-up. That's seen the Neo introduced in 2026, but is expected to announce MacBook Pro model with an OLED display and supporting touchscreen – a first for the MacBook family.

To clear space for the big announcement, Apple has already unveiled the M6 MacBook Pro update, bringing performance updates to Apple's Pro workhorse, while also updating the iMac.

The announcement of the new iMac might give us a clue to Apple's plans for the MacBook Neo, because like the Neo, the iMac comes in a full range of colours.

However, Apple decided not to change these colours, but update it to the M6 chip and enhance the connectivity with the N1 chip. So, while it's an update, the design remains exactly the same.

Alongside the launch of the new MacBook Neo in 2027, we're expecting the MacBook Air to get an update and this is likely to be more meaningful, with a move to the M7 chip, although that's not confirmed.

Sitting behind these updates, there has previously been the rumour that Apple will introduce a new design with the OLED MacBook Pro, something that will filter down to refreshed M7 MacBook Pro models in 2027 too.

There's so much happening on the hardware side at Apple it's hard to keep up. We've had the iPhone Duo announced with the regular iPhone 18 expected in early 2027; we've had the move into smart home with the HomeView; and now we're looking at a real shake-up for MacBooks too.

The latest MacBook Pro 14-inch model now has a new chip inside. Today's announcement sees the new M6 chip with a 12-core CPU and 12-core GPU to deliver breathtaking speeds for everything from gaming to AI engines.

This is the smaller of the two MacBook Pro models, and there's something big expected for the larger model tomorrow. However, for those who want an extremely powerful machine that you can take anywhere, this model could be a winner.

Apple's new M6 chip also features in the new iMac released today, but this looks to be the more powerful version. It promises 30% faster graphics performance than the M5 model and 25% faster on-device AI performance.

The MacBook Pro 14-inch offers up to 24 hours of battery life and a Liquid Retina XDR display with 1600 nits peak brightness and a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio. There's the option for a nano-texture display here too, to remove reflections.

This new model uses the latest generation of Apple N1 communications chips too, so it offers WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 6 connectivity, in addition to 3x Thunderbolt 4 ports, HDMI, MagSafe power port and SDXC card slot.

The 14-inch MacBook Pro M6 starts from £1999 in the UK, $1999 in the US and A$3199 in Australia.

It's been two years since the last update, but now the iMac is back with a new chip. The 2026 version now features an M6 chip inside, either with a 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU, or an upgraded model with 12 cores of each.

Once again coming in a choice of seven colours, the iMac features a 24-inch 4.5 K Retina display with 500-nit brightness and a 12MP Centre Stage camera.

Other notable upgrades include a move to WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 6, thanks to the Apple N1 chip onboard, as well as a 2.5 Gb Ethernet port option.

The new M6 chip also offers a dual 16-core neural engine, making the iMac up to 5x faster for on-device AI performance. This is something that we're seeing on all of Apple's latest chips, and it means that whether you're vibe coding or running local AI models, there's more than enough power without having to use remote servers. It also means that Apple's own Siri AI can work effortlessly across the device.

Storage has also had an upgrade here, with up to 2x faster read and write performance. There are four options, starting from the base 256GB, going up to 1TB or 2TB for the higher-spec chip model.

The iMac can also be purchased with a desk stand or on a VESA mount adapter, allowing you to place it on an adjustable arm or mount it to a wall.

Keyboards for the seven versions of the iMac are all colour-matched and include Touch ID. These and a Magic Mouse come included with the device, though you can upgrade to a trackpad or larger Magic Keyboard with a numeric pad before purchasing.

Prices for the new iMac M6 start from £1499 in the UK, $1499 in the US and A$2399 in Australia. Pre orders open tomorrow (28 October) with availability from 6 November 2026.

It's a little hard to really get a grip on the Nvidia Spark N1X's importance. From some people's points of view, this is a real revolution in the world of the PC, bringing in a new generation of ARM-based machines running Windows.

On the flip side, the launch prices of said machines make them niche prospects. The Asus ProArt P14 is one of the more approachable laptops in the range of new options, but is still a pricey beast, especially in the configuration I've just spent a week using.

This is a laptop that can really sing when it's used the right way, but I'm not quite sold on Nvidia's new chip being a silver bullet against the dominance of the MacBook Pro and its own M-series silicon.

Price and Availability

Nvidia unveiled the RTX Spark back in May, at Computex in Taiwan, but machines featuring the chip are very fresh. They largely went on sale in mid-October, and you can generally buy either directly from their makers or from retailers in your area.

In the case of the Asus ProArt P14, the starting price is set at £2,699.99 here in the UK for a version with 24GB of RAM. That's instead $2,599.99 in the US.

If you raise that to 32GB of RAM (like the version I've been using), you'll instead need to pay £3,199.99 / $3,099.99. That's quite a chunky hike just for another 8GB of RAM, it must be said, especially given that there's no change in SSD capacity here in the UK, which stands at 1TB in both versions.

In the US, the SSD appears to be capped at 512GB in both versions, even more perplexingly. All of this applies to the 5120-core GPU and 18-core CPU version – there's a more powerful version that pushes prices well past the $5,000 mark if you want it.

Design and Specs

I'll start with the design of the ProArt P14, because it's quite frankly a considerably more straightforward part of assessing this laptop. Asus has fairly transparently built a competitor for the MacBook Pro here, and that aim has led it to a pretty darned lovely design.

I've been using the silver version, although it also comes in a matte black that looks extremely fetching. Each one is finished in a beautiful metallic material that leaves a far more premium impression than the Ceraluminum that Asus prefers for its slightly more accessible everyday laptops.

Closed, and from the back, the laptop looks so much like a MacBook Pro, in fact, that it's only really the ProArt logo that gives it away – and that logo is quite cool, since it's a bit more vague than a full-on brand logo.

Opening the ProArt P14 up, you'll find a gorgeous 3K OLED touch display topped by a webcam and with slim bezels.

Below that, there's a generously spaced keyboard with a good amount of key travel. It has a power button with a fingerprint reader above it for biometric security, and a huge trackpad below. This is a full haptic pad, and it's quite something to use, with an extremely glossy finish.

To the right and left of the keyboard are stereo speakers, with an interesting cut-out design that makes them catch the eye a little more than in some of the competition. That brings us to the ports; on the left edge of the laptop you'll find an HDMI port, two USB-C ports for display and power delivery, and a 3.5mm audio jack.

The right-hand edge houses another of these same USB-C ports, a USB-A port and a full-sized SD card reader. That's a good amount of I/O for a creator-focused laptop, with that SD card reader in particular being the sort of thing that can get missed off lower-cost laptops (albeit the MacBook Pro very much has one).

Back to that display for some more spec: it's a 2880×1800 OLED panel at 16:10 aspect and with 120Hz refresh, offering 100% of the DCI-P3 colour gamut – all of which should make it a great pick for colour-accurate work in creative fields, whether that's photography, video or something else.

Meanwhile, the whole thing runs (of course) on the RTX Spark N1X, Nvidia's latest and greatest. As I've already covered, the variations in the specs that you can find for the ProArt P14 are pretty wide, and I'm surprised that Nvidia is making two versions of its chip available without giving them a proper named differentiator (like the M5 and M5 Max, for instance). That can't help with potential customer confusion.

Here in the UK, the basic spec will come with the N1X packing a 5120-core GPU and 18-core CPU, along with 24GB of RAM, but I've been using the version with a 6144-core GPU and 20-core CPU with 32GB of RAM. Whether that uplift is worth it to you will come down to a few factors, but I strongly suspect that most people will end up going with the more affordable version.

The crucial thing to know is that, much like a laptop powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon chips, these laptops run Windows on ARM. That means some benefits (most generally in the form of power consumption and battery life), but also the occasional spectre of compatibility issues, which have become rarer and rarer over time.

Performance and Display

The ProArt P14 is a beautiful bit of hardware, but when you're paying this sort of money, you're likely to be far more concerned with how it performs than how it looks (at least above a certain baseline that it clears).

Using the P14 as my daily driver for a week was an interesting process, not least because the vast majority of my work encountered absolutely no issues. It sort of goes without saying that a chipset Nvidia's touting as the future of computing can handle general productivity without any hitches or issues, but there we are.

The N1X, in all its glory, had no problem whatsoever when it came to my daily workflow, across a Chrome browser stuffed to the brim with tabs, high-resolution YouTube videos, and Photoshop instances. That's really just about the limit of what I work with most of the time, and on my personal M3 MacBook Pro it's never been an issue, either.

Performance was pretty smooth throughout my week using the laptop, although there have been odd hitches now and then, often the first time I've opened or used an application. That might be a familiar tune for those with Qualcomm-based laptops, but the landscape is miles better now than it was a couple of years ago.

That said, the trap here is that every so often you might just stumble upon an app, game or programme that doesn't want to run well on ARM, and it can be pretty hard to know when that might happen.

Speaking of gaming, with Nvidia's hands all over the RTX Spark, you might assume that it would be a doozy of a mobile gaming chip. Well, not really. It's competent enough, and with the right tuning (especially lowering your resolution) you can get solid results, but it's nothing to ruffle major feathers at Intel or AMD.

On Cyberpunk 2077, I found the Steam Deck preset was the most reliable choice at 2880x1800 resolution, but even with Frame Generation turned to Dynamic, I still topped out at 60fps on the dot.

That's solid, as I've said, but nothing to make you drop your jaw, although it's also running at a pretty high native resolution. Dropping this will clearly get you some sizeable performance gains.

Finally, it's also worth noting that the amount of fan noise you get with high-stress tasks like gaming is pretty significant, to keep all that new hardware cool under the laptop's hood.

Reassuringly, though, the display that you'll do this work and gaming on is a genuine beauty. Asus has a long history of putting stunning screens on its laptops, and this OLED is no different. It's pin-sharp, super bright, lovely to use as a touchscreen, and basically doesn't have any flaws that I discovered.

Verdict

Much like with the recent arrival of the first Googlebook laptops, it's a bit complicated to separate out the laptop from the tech underpinning it. In this case, Nvidia's new RTX Spark N1X is a major new arrival, but in the Asus ProArt P14 it doesn't necessarily feel that groundbreaking.

This is partly a good thing – using the ProArt P14 is much like using any other high-end creative productivity machine, and that's a testament to the power on offer in Nvidia's chip. On the flip side, it's not exactly an experience that's blown me away, and the price being asked for these machines might mean you'd want more from them.

In particular, the fact that its gaming performance is middle-of-the-road, rather than class-leading, feels like a missed opportunity from a computing brand so strongly associated with GPU performance.

I think most people won't find that this ProArt P14 is the best choice for them in 2026, frankly, especially with Apple having established such a clear position when it comes to high-end laptops. Still, it's a very solid start from Nvidia, and it's fascinating to speculate where things could end up in a few years' time.

Also Consider

For those who want oodles of power in a sleek, metallic frame, but don't fancy dicing with Windows on ARM, there's an obvious pick – the latest MacBook Pro. Sure, you could upgrade the M5 to one of its fancier variants if you have the cash, but for the vast majority of professionals, the standard M5 will be brilliant, and it looks like good value compared to Asus' offering.

If you do want Windows, though, with a 14-inch screen and a lovely design, then I'd point you at the 2026 version of the Dell XPS 14. It's a seriously gorgeous laptop, with pricing being its only real flaw, but it still looks like solid value when put next to an RTX Spark machine. Power comparisons might be worth delving into, but again, for most people this will be a simpler, winning pick.

I've called the release of Google's new laptops, Googlebooks, a bit of a revolution – and I stand by that, since this clearly signals a big change in how Google approaches the laptop market.

Still, after having worked with Acer's launch Googlebook for a week to review the first past the post, it's fair to say that moving into a different machine, this time from Asus, sort of takes some of the shine off.

After all, once you're over the shock and awe of the new, the fact that Google has set minimum standards for the internals for all these machines means that they're pretty similar in terms of components and power.

So, the difference between the various models comes down to design and the extra features that each maker might squeeze in. How, therefore, does the Asus Googlebook 14 stack up? It took me another week of use to answer just that.

Price and Availability

The Asus Googlebook 14 is available now, with Google having launched the whole ecosystem in recent weeks, and you can order it from local retailers or directly from Asus if it's going to come to your region at all.

Here in the UK, it starts from £1,199.99 with an Intel Core Ultra 5 325 chip; in the US, you can grab it from $1299 for the same spec. Since I've done so with previous Googlebook reviews, I'll just politely point out that the US price actually translates to £973 by conversion at the time of writing – so the UK is getting its usual raw deal.

Design and Specs

If you put Asus' Googlebook 14 next to one of its Zenbook 14 models from earlier this year, I think you might struggle to notice the difference at first glance – unless your eye is drawn straight to the Glow Bar on this new Google-flavoured machine.

The Googlebook laptop very much hews to the same design principles that Asus has been working with for a few years now, and the biggest tip on that front is its main material – ceraluminium, the ceramic-aluminium compound that Asus so loves. It remains a really impressive material, too, since it's nice and durable, with a soft-touch finish, but crucially is extremely lightweight compared to simpler metal options.

It seems like each manufacturer got some freedom when it came to the placement of the Glow Bar, but Asus played it pretty straight – it's right at the top of the lid, near where you open the laptop. Like in every other model, it does very little beyond some waking and sleeping animations, but showing your charging progress is its neatest trick.

Opening the laptop up, you're greeted by a 14-inch 3K OLED panel that's really quite gorgeous to look at, and possibly the single best display in any of the launch Googlebook models, thanks partly to its excellent anti-reflective coating. This is a properly matte screen, but it's still a proper touchscreen, too, just with less fingerprinting than some rivals.

Above it, there's a webcam with a privacy shutter, while the other half of the laptop houses a generously sized keyboard, complete with the fingerprint reader that Google insists on (to make Googlebook grade). Below that is the large touchpad, and in this case it is indeed haptic, whereas Acer's feels mechanical.

That keyboard is flanked by speakers, while each edge of the laptop houses some ports. On the left, you get a USB-C port with power delivery, a full HDMI port, a USB-A port, and a 3.5mm jack. The right edge holds another USB-A port and a USB-C port, making this one of the more fulsome I/O offerings in the lineup – although the lack of an SD card reader limits its creative utility.

Under the hood, the Asus Googlebook 14 runs on an Intel Core Ultra 5 325 chip, but you can upgrade to a Core Ultra 7 355 if you want a boost in power. With 16GB of RAM as standard, though, I don't think most people need that, or would find it cost-effective. The base spec is rounded out by a 512GB NVMe M.2 SSD (I'd hoped for 1TB at this price, but accept that those days might be gone).

Of course, the whole laptop is interesting from the point of view of its features, because Googlebooks are still a very new thing. It's going to be your first Googlebook, should you buy one, and the experience is meaningfully different from that offered up by a Chromebook, for instance, as I'll get into in the next section of this review.

Performance

From the off, that Intel chip and 16GB of RAM mean that the Asus Googlebook 14 runs very snappily, but the real utility of its OS will be something that Android phone users will have to probe and test over time. Some of its features, like having access to your phone's storage without any screen mirroring, are really slick, and it's great being able to pick up tasks from one device to the other seamlessly.

Apps open really promptly and run fluently, and in my normal workflow – which involves a whole heap of Chrome tabs open at once, something that can cripple a weak Windows laptop – I never really encountered any hitching or issues multitasking. One tiny hitch there is that Asus' laptop did get a little warm when running some tasks, but not to the point of any discomfort.

That said, how useful you find Googlebook OS will be a pretty personal question, one that's hard to assess until you've tried your own productivity on one properly. In my case, it's a good showcase of the good and the bad. Much of my work is browser-based, and all of this is extremely responsive, with built-in AI features that can be genuinely useful if you want them. I don't, really, but trying some Gemini queries never really let me down in terms of responses.

However, I process my own images for reviews like this one, and doing so was a bit of a pain on the Asus Googlebook 14, just like it was on Acer's. The Android version of Photoshop is a lightweight one, and even though Google seems to be trumpeting a partnership with Adobe, it just can't really compete with the proper laptop experience on Windows or Mac – right now, anyway.

That's a limitation that can be fairly hard to get past, but I do think that Googlebook OS can be really slick when you're in the zone and not demanding such levels from it. The touchscreen interface is quite dreamy (especially on Asus' matte display), and while the screen can wobble when tapping on it, it still works quickly and as desired pretty much the whole time.

The keyboard is very solid, the trackpad's actually pretty great, and the whole laptop has a lightweight design that makes it feel really quite futuristic when paired with this all-new OS (the first of its kind in a long while).

It leaves me with basically no complaints about how Asus has approached the Googlebook challenge, but the same reservations about how ready Google's laptop rewrite is for the big time.

If you're sticking to simple productivity, then it might just be a slick and quick option for you, but those with more involved workflows are unlikely to find it all that adaptable right now.

Verdict

Asus' Googlebook is a tidy little laptop – and while it can't match the 2-in-1 situation offered by the Acer Googlebook 14, it feels a little more premium in some other ways. Better ports, a gorgeous matte display, and a really lightweight build make it potentially the more straightforward laptop to integrate into your workflow.

That said, it's also really pricey, and with thinner software support than Windows and Mac right now, there's no doubt that it currently feels like early adopters will be making some compromises. This could be a superb laptop once more apps are properly adapted to the OS, but for now it's probably quite hard to justify over a more established alternative.

Also Consider

Speaking of alternatives, if you're really into the Googlebook concept, then the other one we've reviewed so far is the Acer Googlebook 14, which is just as impressive in different ways. It's more affordable to start with, and has a more adaptable hinge (a true 2-in-1). Still, it has all the same software drawbacks.

For those who decide a more established OS is probably the safer move (as I would echo), I still think the latest MacBook Air is the way to go for most. It's not as affordable as it was before the memory crisis, but it'll last for absolutely years and is a gorgeous slice of machine for a very similar price to what Asus wants for its Googlebook.

Apple keeps punching through the gears in 2026. Since the appointment of its new CEO, we've had the iPhone Duo foldable revealed, followed by the latest HomePod innovations just last week.

Now, it's the turn of MacBook – and before the month is even over – with the official 'Show and tell.' invites having just dropped. There's a clear Mac logo, which almost appears to have a multi-layered surface – just as a touch panel would.

That's the big rumour of this impending reveal: that Apple will finally bite the bullet and put out a MacBook with a touch display. Something that the Cupertino company has been staunchly against for many years – so why the change now?

Well, it's a new era of Apple. While Ternus' appointment as the boss coincides with all these launches, the Apple product teams will have been working tirelessly over the years to get these new launches ready. It's not been an overnight process.

This Apple event is due to take place in Los Angeles on 28 October. Apple has deviated from its Cupertino base once again, with New York being the site for the HomePod reveal and LA being the base for this supposed MacBook reveal. Again: it's a new era for the tech giant.

The event's 10am PDT kick-off will mean 5pm here in the UK (as daylight saving time will have occurred, but not in the USA), 6pm in Europe, with some media invited to attend in person to see the latest products. Don't expect a livestream launch, though, it's likely to be a video drop of all the latest hardware.

It's not expected that only one product will be part of the launch either. The touchscreen MacBook is purported to have an OLED panel – also a MacBook first – and may even be called the 'MacBook Ultra', to really turn things up a notch. And in the home of Hollywood, where digital effects are prime, that's a good fit.

Turning from MacBook, however, there's also expected to be a new iPad with OLED display and a new, more powerful iMac – with M6 at its core. Given the volume of releases in recent weeks, it makes sense that these have been kept together in one 'Mac' group.

So mark your calendars for Wednesday 28 October. Apple's invites are officially out. And the MacBook could be about to change forever – whether you like the idea of a touchscreen or not!

So, the age of the Googlebook begins. It's been a hugely busy period in the tech world, and Google isn't making things any easier by debuting what it seems to think is the future of the laptop – a new OS hybridising the desktop experience with Android.

There are five launch Googlebook models – I tried them all out ahead of launch schedules to identify the best – and while I'll fully test and rate each of them individually (all in good time), Acer was quickest with a loan unit for this very review.

That means I've spent a little over a week using the Acer Googlebook 14, trying to get a grip on what this slick machine is like if you make it your main laptop.

To be clear, though: while I will obviously discuss the nature of Googlebook OS as it pertains to the laptop's performance, this isn't a review of the operating system – I'm seeing how Acer's laptop holds up to scrutiny, rather than Google's big new idea.

Price and Availability

The Googlebook rollout has been pretty sudden, so you should find that the Acer Googlebook 14 is available now, depending on your region. Here in the UK, the laptop starts at £999, while the US market gets it for $899, and Europe sees it from €1,199.

This does mean that, once again in 2026, the US is by far the best place to be shopping for the laptop – if you actually convert $899 to GBP right now, it comes out to about £680 at the time of writing.

Design and Features

The Acer Googlebook 14 is a lovely exemplification of what Google wants its Googlebook lineup to feel like in the hand. It made a point of this when I was briefed for T3 about these laptops: to talk about them in premium terms, not just in pricing, but in build quality and features, too – and that's how this model feels.

Acer is the only one of the launch makers to offer a two-in-one design, despite the fact that every single Googlebook has to have a touchscreen to pass Google's requirements and earn the label. This means that, in some ways, it makes the most sense out of the launch options, and being the more affordable of the lot further helps on that front.

First in the list of factors that make the laptop feel premium is the fact it has a metallic body, cool to the touch and with a matte finish – that somehow still manages to pick up skin oils like nobody's business. It's impressively lightweight despite this, though, and features a nice robust hinge that's easy to open to whatever extent you like.

The outside case features the all-important (but not very key) Glow Bar – in this case off in one corner, rather than front and centre. It's Google's way of denoting a Googlebook at a glance, but is fairly free of functional use, beyond when you're charging, where it shows your progress in bar form. It doesn't detract from anything, but isn't much more than a little design note.

Once open, the laptop reveals a nice, large keyboard with an equally generous touchpad (another Google non-negotiable is apparently haptics here, but this one seems mechanical), and its large, very bright OLED display – which is a highlight of the build.

The I/O situation is where we hit our first stumble, in my view – one side of the laptop has a Thunderbolt 4 USB-C port and a 3.5mm jack, while the other has two further 3.2 USB-C ports. I think there should be more.

These choices do ensure that you don't need another proprietary charger clogging up your life, but it's disappointing that Google wants these laptops to be productivity monsters, yet leaves them all but guaranteed to require a dongle for most professional uses, be it for HDMI connections, SD cards or more.

Still, in terms of specs, it's back to rosier territory. The Acer Chromebook 14 can be picked up with either an Intel Core Ultra 5 325 or a Core Ultra 7 355, and while I tested the more powerful of the two, both are extremely capable. This is shored up by being paired with 16GB or 32GBof RAM, the minimum again being one that Google has mandated to make the Googlebook cut.

You also get a 512GB SSD, which makes this laptop look pretty well-equipped to handle the sort of Chrome and Chromium-heavy tasks you're likely to be doing on it. That brings us to the operating system, which is all-new and much shinier than ChromeOS. It's pretty easy to see how it'll end up being miles better, although right now it's a little rough in places.

While the AI integration is slick – and easy to access in a few different ways, as the laptop's setup guide explains – ensuring that Gemini is indeed at your fingertips at all times, there are still huge limitations here. Principally, while you can install almost literally any Android app under the sun and use it natively, that still leaves big gaps.

While the Android versions of some 'big' apps are clearly going to get more love to cater to this new OS, it still means that sometimes you'll only have access to a mobile-flavoured version of an app. In a world where Mac and Windows users both have access to a far wider range of programmes, it'll take time (and a lot of investment) for Google to catch up in this area.

That's acceptable in the world of affordable Chromebooks, but it's harder to swallow in a Googlebook that costs a grand or more depending on spec. Adobe always seems front and centre in these discussions, and Photoshop is a great example (because I use it multiple times a day); put bluntly, its Android app is a pale shadow of the full desktop experience, and that makes the Googlebook feel hamstrung right now.

Still, at least battery life is impressive, eh? Google's quoted figures didn't blow me away (up to 14 hours of streaming video playback at 50% brightness) – but in practice the laptop never let me down in getting through a whole day.

Performance and Display

If the drawbacks of Googlebook OS mean that there are plenty of hiccups to get past while trying to work on the machine, there's more good news in the form of how its actual performance bears out.

Intel's new chips are workhorses, in my experience, and that's been proven again by the Acer Googlebook 14, which basically never chugged when I threw jobs at it. Given the scope of Chrome's RAM guzzling, a multitude of tabs is the starting point there, but multitasking was always really sprightly and zippy.

Some of the hardware varied a little, though. The webcam in place here is decent but not to the level I hoped for, and the fingerprint reader (another Google requisite) was quite slow, and took an age to set up in the first instance.

The best of the Googlebook experience comes when you have an Android phone connected to it, though. This lets you sort of pair the machines, then access your phone (and its storage) as if it were just an extension of your laptop.

It's a seriously slick feature that feels great when you need it, and is an example of Google doing something better than Apple (which may doubtless now move to one-up it on macOS). This only works with Android 17, though, which may be quite a limitation for some users.

The display that I mentioned when discussing the laptop's design is also really quite terrific. With a 120Hz refresh rate and HDR accounted for, and running at a resolution of 2880×1800, this OLED is a real looker (and a toucher, too). It's great for media viewing of all descriptions (even if gaming is limited by the OS, another sore point), and also works nicely as a touch interface.

The speakers included here are nothing more than decent, but that's a fair enough result in any type of laptop at this point, and I had no complaints about them.

Still, this all means that performance basically lives up to exactly what I expected from a new-gen Intel chip with 16GB of RAM to call on, plus a great screen to stare at. The more lasting question is really whether the software this machine is running will make sense for you.

Verdict

The first Googlebook I've been given the chance to actually live with has left me thinking just what I suspected I would after seeing the whole initial lineup earlier this year: Acer has built a really slick 2-in-1 that feels great to use, provided you're happy to stick to Chrome and some Android tabs.

If you need to go a little deeper, or your workflow relies on some particularly customised or powerful desktop apps, then it's almost certainly not going to be smart to try to move into this laptop anytime soon. It needs robust software support from not just Google but third-party app developers to adapt apps to its screen size and power, and there's no real telling how and when that might come in a given app's case.

Acer has little to do with that, of course, and I'll finish with the same clarification that I used to open this review – this isn't a review of Googlebook OS. Taken on its own merits, the Acer Googlebook 14 seems like a great introduction to Google's laptop future, but it's not quite value-driven enough to win me straight over to the new wave.

Also consider

Until I've tested more of the forthcoming Googlebooks, I can't really point you at others in the launch lineup confidently, although I'll be putting Asus' laptop through its paces very soon.

Instead, I'd say the smart money is on similar-cost laptops from the world of Windows and Mac. So, for the latter, the M5 MacBook Air is an obviously superb choice that basically demonstrates everything good about Apple's laptop decisions in recent years.

For Windows, if you have the budget, the XPS 13 might suit. It's pricey, sure, but cheaper than this Acer and is impressively tiny. While it's a tad underpowered, at least you're dealing with Windows and all the freedom that comes with it.

The world of gaming hardware might feel like it's in a death spiral where pricing is concerned (and you only really have to do a little shopping around for one of the best laptops or a PC gaming handheld to feel pessimistic), but monitors are a bit of a light in the dark at the moment.

Some arcane combination of component prices and market realities means there have been some genuinely exciting launches this year, at prices that are actually persuasive not just for the elite, but for the rest of us too. A good chunk of credit here should go to Alienware, which has had a tremendous year on the display front – and now has another to check out in the AW3226Q.

Price and Availability

The Alienware AW3226Q is rolling out over the course of October 2026, depending on where you live. If you're in the USA then you should be able to buy it now directly from Dell, priced at $699.99.

In the UK, we're going to have to wait a couple of weeks, but from 27 October it should go live at £649, while the EU will have that same date at a €749 list price.

That makes this a pretty darn competitive monitor for the specs that it brings (more on that later). It's a 32-inch OLED, so it doesn't have that much competition, but a few years ago you'd have expected to pay well over a grand for something like this.

Design and Spec

• Dimensions: 70.7cm wide, 41.9cm tall
• 4K WOLED panel

The Alienware AW3226Q is a funny old monitor to receive on your doorstep, because the box it comes in very much screams "ultrawide". That's a way of saying that it's massive, at the sort of scale that normally doesn't accompany a traditional, flat display.

Of course, that makes sense – at 32 inches, this display is as big as plenty of people's main TVs, and that makes it a bit of a monster on the desktop if you haven't done your measurements (as it's almost 71cm wide and 42cm tall). It's a full 4K display, too, so you get the maximum resolution of 3840 x 2160, as you'd expect.

The panel itself is an RGB Stripe tandem OLED, and its use of four stacks and three sub-pixel layers makes it relatively uncommon on the market right now (Asus has a rival in the PG32UCWM).

This means you get all of the benefits of OLED, including those deep blacks and vivid colours, along with the one remaining risk – burn-in, which is drastically less of a problem than it used to be, but still can happen.

As far as specifications go, beyond those headlines above, you get VESA DisplayHDR True Black 400, Dolby Vision and standard HDR – so you should be able to set it up to look great, depending on the conditions in your room of choice. Its refresh rate tops out at 165Hz, too, and supports the big motion standards: Nvidia G-Sync, AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, and VESA AdaptiveSync.

Design-wise, the monitor is refreshingly simple, with a square stand that's easy to assemble and impressively sturdy. It allows height adjustment, tilt and swivel, so you get the full range of motion that you'd hope for.

In terms of I/O, you get the expected two HDMI 2.1 FRL (Fixed Rate Link) ports, along with a DisplayPort 1.4 alternative. There's also a USB-C port with 15W charging for your devices, and a 3.5mm headphone jack for audio. That means there are no built-in speakers, though, which might be worth considering for some.

It's an extremely solid list of specs, and it ensures that the machine is genuinely competitive with monitors from a couple of years back that might have cost significantly more. That said, its 32-inch form factor obviously means it won't make sense in every setup.

Controls are straightforward and the same as every other Alienware monitor launched this year. You get a power button on the bottom right of the monitor, while the back features a control knob in the middle that's easy to reach. This lets you navigate through menus to toggle modes, tweak settings, and adjust whatever you like.

Performance

Dell has made great strides when it comes to ease of use on its Alienware monitors in the last few years, and that isn't any different on the AW3226Q, which I've found a real pleasure to get to grips with.

The monitor is a treat right out of the box, with a huge flat panel and a glossy coating that's impressive when it comes to reflectiveness – meaning it really isn't an issue in my experience, despite the gloss. The bezels on all four sides are pretty slim, too.

That 32-inch WOLED panel is a real looker, too, and ensures that this monitor's upper-mid-range pricing feels like a pretty great bargain once you start gaming. Even before then, in my daily work, I've found it a superb panel to use for my whole daily routine.

This sort of display has historically had issues with text clarity and fringing, but that one bugbear has been banished by progress in the last couple of years, meaning the AW3226Q is a workhorse for productivity as well as gaming.

I've done hours of both on it, though, and found that gaming is, of course, its heartland. Playing Ace Combat 8 in its entirety on the display, I was super impressed by its clarity and brightness (which isn't industry-leading, but is more than good enough in my view).

It's unsurprisingly sharp at full resolution, but since I've sat so close to it, I've found 1440p more than good enough in most situations. The advantage of the monitor being 4K is in future-proofing, but it's worth benchmarking how much you'll really use that maximum before you decide you need it. On my work Mac, for instance, it was easier to sit at a lower resolution to avoid having to scale all my tabs individually for clarity.

I also found the AW3226Q really easy to tweak to my liking, thanks to that control knob, but it was also a pretty nice pairing with my PS5 Pro, which could flex its muscles fully thanks to those HDMI 2.1 ports. This makes the monitor a great pick if you want one panel that ticks all the boxes for both console and PC play.

Verdict

The AW3226Q is another superb launch from Alienware, in a year that it must have known was going to be one of its strongest ever. It, like the ultrawides before it, offers superb bang for your buck, with a full 4K panel that delivers brilliant image quality and motion clarity.

Whether a 32-inch monitor is right for you is arguably a whole different kettle of fish, but if you think it's the right size (and you've measured up), then you're going to want to consider it. Its price is bang on, and the experience it offers can't be argued with.

Also consider

If you're in the market for a big monitor, then you're probably already wondering whether an ultrawide might be sensible – and rightly so. If you have a bit more to spend, Dell's own Alienware AW3926QW remains the best monitor I've tested this year, with all the benefits of ultrawide and basically none of the downsides.

For those committed to flat panels, check out last year's LG UltraGear OLED 27GX790B-B, which I also loved. It's smaller and more PC-centric at 1440p, but its image quality is second to none, and it's a dream to use for more competitive pursuits (something this Dell can't really be stretched to due to its 165Hz cap).

Google has only just launched Googlebook, its latest move to tempt you away from Mac or Windows and to consolidate the Google ecosystem with a premium laptop.

While the AI features were widely-touted, early reviewers have highlighted shortcomings in the experience that make it feel like another Android tablet experience rather than something new.

Part of that comes down to buggy software, some of it to a lack of real desktop apps, as well as limited compatibility – with a capital S. That's right, Samsung devices weren't compatible with Googlebook's phone features at launch, despite being the biggest brand in the Android space.

Googlebook supports a number of features to encourage a symbiotic relationship with Android handsets including Continue On, Cast My Apps, Quick Access and Notification Sync. These features (called Better Together) are supposed to work on compatible Honor, Lenovo, Motorola, OnePlus, Oppo, Sharp, Sony and Xiaomi phones.

This is meant to allow a seamless experience between phone and laptop, so you don't have to constantly use your phone. Instead, it's all just supposed to be there on your laptop display, with apps a click away, even when not installed.

The good news is that Samsung support is now starting to roll out and considering that Googlebook only launched on 5 October, that's not a bad start.

There's a caveat in that the Samsung device has to be running Android 17 / One UI 9, which narrows the list to just a couple of devices right now. Those with the brand new Galaxy Z Fold 8 should be fine, but while 2026 Samsung models are getting updated to Android 17, some might be left waiting for support.

According to the details from Google (shared as a community update in Reddit) the new compatibility will arrive as Google Play updates and background service updates, so this isn't dependent on Samsung doing anything.

That's great for Samsung phone owners thinking of getting a Googlebook, but the update from Google also hints to some of the first-gen woes.

In addition to the update for Samsung users, Google also says it has addressed a bug where first-time setup would leave users with a QR code on the screen even after setup had finished.

Googlebook is still in the first flourishes of its life but it seems that there's some way to go before it's a viable alternative to rival desktop platforms. It's easy to point at Googlebook and see it as ChromeOS with a load of Gemini dumped in: it's down to Google to change our minds.

Apple is said to be holding an event on 27 October where it will introduce its latest MacBook models. That's thought to include the touchscreen OLED MacBook Pro, known colloquially as the MacBook Ultra.

But that's not the end of Apple's plans. In what seems to be a slightly confusing timeline, we're going to see a number of new MacBook models over the coming months and it's a launch process that differs from previous Apple updates.

According to numerous sources, there is going to be new technology, a new design and new chips introduced, but that isn't going to happen in the way you expect it.

So far in 2026 we've seen the MacBook Pro updated with M5 Pro and M5 Max, but sticking to the existing design. At the event on 27 October, we're expecting to see a change in the design for the MacBook Ultra – the model with the OLED touchscreen.

New design for MacBook Pro OLED in October

That design of the high-end OLED model is said to be thinner and lighter, with a Dynamic Island feature like the iPhone, along with a version of macOS Golden Gate that accommodates touch. It's thought this model will launch on the Apple M5 Pro and M5 Max chips.

At the same event, we're expecting to see an updated MacBook Pro 14-inch with the M6 chip, but sticking to the older design – i.e., it's a replacement for the MacBook Pro M5 that launched in October 2025.

However, this updated model should be approached with caution, because it has been suggested that in spring 2027, Apple will introduce new entry-level MacBook Pro models using the new design as well as the M7 chip.

That might mean that the MacBook Pro M6 is a little short-lived, very much an incremental stop-gap before the new hardware appears.

A shift towards spring 2027

This points to a couple of anomalies. The first is the strategy for the M6 chip. We've so far we've seen it in the Mac mini and it's thought to be coming to the MacBook Pro I mentioned above, an updated iMac and then potentially updated iPad Pro and iPad Air models in 2027.

But the M6 is not thought to get Pro or Max versions. Instead, Apple is going to skip a generation, giving a full selection of M7 chip variants in 2027 instead.

The second anomaly is the speed in which Apple will move lower-level MacBooks over to the new MacBook design. It seems that the company will be using the new design in MacBooks from 2027, making it more accessible, where often we'd expect a delay of a couple of years.

This might be because the MacBook Ultra (or MacBook Pro OLED) is expected to sell for around $3,000, which is well beyond the means of many buyers.

Updating the design for more affordable MacBook models might encourage buyers who would otherwise just stick to their existing model.

We can expect a flurry of announcements, the introduction of a new design and OLED touchscreen to the MacBook in the coming weeks, but it's potentially 2027 that will be more important for everyday MacBook buyers.

I want one. Actually, I'm not sure I do. Google Japan has come up with a genuinely whacky keyboard where the keys move towards your fingers, rather than making you move your fingers towards the keys.

That's where the Gboard Kurukuru Version comes in. Created by Google's Gboard team in Japan, it's a physical keyboard built around four conveyor belts, with 29 keys running along each one.

So, instead of reaching across a normal keyboard to find the letter you want, you wait for it to come to you and press it as it passes underneath your finger.

The idea is to make one-handed typing easier. Google says conventional keyboards are designed around using both hands, which means typing with one hand or a single finger can involve moving your arm and hand around quite a lot. With Kurukuru, the keyboard does the moving for you.

It might actually be useful

There is, admittedly, something ridiculous about waiting for a key to trundle towards you before you can type it. But the basic idea isn't quite as daft as it first sounds.

The four belts contain 116 keys in total, and each one keeps rotating so the characters continually pass beneath your fingers. You can keep your hand in roughly the same position and simply press the key you need when it arrives.

Google says it's looking at possible future versions, too, including a high-speed mode, different colours, a longer version with more characters and a shorter version that's easier to carry around.

The problem is that this is very clearly not a product Google is planning to sell. It's part of Google Japan's long-running tradition of making deliberately strange physical keyboards, with this year's version being the 15th in the series.

The good news is that you can actually build this one yourself. Google has released the designs as an open-source project, including the files needed to 3D-print the parts and build the keyboard.

So, if you have the time, the tools and a slightly worrying amount of enthusiasm for unusual keyboards, there's nothing stopping you from making your own.

Would it actually be faster than a normal keyboard? Almost certainly not. Yet, annoyingly, I quite like the idea.

Apple's October is shaping up to be really busy. The company has now officially confirmed its 13 October Welcome Home launch event, but more details about a second October event have appeared.

While the first event will focus on Apple's new Echo Show rival, the second event is expected to see the birth of the touchscreen MacBook Pro. The date for that event is said to be 27 October.

The details come from Mark Gurman at Bloomberg, saying that the event will take place "on or around Tuesday, Oct. 27".

The event is expected to focus on the new touchscreen MacBook - dubbed the MacBook Ultra by many - while also introducing the new iPad mini.

It's thought that the MacBook Ultra will offer a touchscreen OLED display, have a slimmer and lighter design than previous models and use the M5 Pro and M5 Max chips.

The new models, codenamed K114 and K116, will also feature the Dynamic Island on the screen, like the iPhone.

The new version of the iPad mini is expected to feature an OLED display, a new speaker system and see the front camera switch to the landscape side.

But that's not all that's expected from Apple at the 27 October launch. It's also thought that Apple will update the MacBook Pro and the iMac with the M6 chip, but stick to the existing designs, so they will essentially be like-for-like replacements.

The Apple M6 chip was announced recently, finding its way into the new Mac mini, the company's dinky desktop computer, although it's thought that Apple is only going to offer the base M6 chip, saving the Pro and Max versions for the M7 chip that's thought to launch in early 2027.

It's thought that the MacBook Ultra could cost $3000, but the design of that model is expected to be introduced to other models in the family through 2027. That's going to make the new M6 MacBooks feel a little like a stop gap and might make some pause before investing in a new model.

It's definitely a busy time, but Apple has introduced new products along the way - with the iPhone Duo, the rumoured new home display speaker and then the touchscreen MacBook, there's plenty of new hardware coming from the company.

Microsoft has gone on the offensive, offering its new Surface Laptop Ultra for pre-order, while offering huge incentives for those who trade in their MacBook Pro.

The RTX Spark-equipped Surface Laptop Ultra is the most powerful Surface device and Microsoft is dangling up to $1000 cash back trade-in on a MacBook Pro for those who pre-order the Surface Laptop Ultra.

While the trade-in is highlighted on the Microsoft Store in the US, it isn't explicitly mentioned on the UK store, but you can still trade-in a MacBook Pro to get cash back from Microsoft. Those who pre-order in the UK get a free 140W charger.

That leaves no doubt about what Microsoft sees this device rivalling as it looks to divert power users from macOS and get them onto Windows. The company has already outlined changes coming to Windows to support what it calls "world builders" and this is the hardware that Microsoft thinks you'll use to do it.

Core to the Surface Laptop Ultra is the Nvidia RTX Spark, the next-gen chip that piles in an ARM-based N1X CPU, a Blackwell GPU and has up to 128GB of unified memory onboard. It's the most powerful Surface Laptop ever.

There's a 15-inch display on the Surface Laptop Ultra, with touchscreen support, but also claiming to offer the highest HDR brightness of any laptop. Microsoft says it has 25% higher peak brightness than the MacBook Pro M5, coming in at 2000 nits.

Microsoft has also designed a clever power connector for the Surface Laptop Ultra, with a magnetic USB-C plug. This combines the benefit of MagSafe - it clips right into place and releases if someone walks into the cable - but there's a fully-functional USB-C port at the centre.

That means less compromise, but it's a little larger than most USB-C plugs. Additionally there are two USB-C ports, HDMI, USB-A, SD card reader and a 3.5mm audio socket.

The Surface Laptop Ultra claims to offer 2.5x better thermal capacity than previous Surface Laptop models, with a 18mm thick chassis and weighing 2.05kg.

This is all designed to give you the optimal device for running local AI models or for sustained performance, while RTX Spark will also benefit from wider game support in the future as Windows looks to bolster gaming on ARM devices.

The most powerful Surface Laptop ever comes with a price however, starting at £2,599.00 or $2,599.99 on Microsoft.com, for the 18-core, 24GB, 512GB SSD model. It's worth noting that the SSD is user replacable, so you can make your own upgrades.

At top specifications the Surface Laptop Ultra comes with a 20-core CPU, 128GB and 1TB SSD, all for £5,899.00 or $5,899.99.

Microsoft has outlined how it is changing Windows to accommodate the growth in AI, and to make sure that Windows users, both personal and enterprise, have the tools they need for an AI-powered future.

Announcing its plans for the future of "hybrid intelligence", Microsoft has outlined the steps it is taking on Windows to ensure security, support local and cloud AI model use, changes to Copilot, a new Windows Search experience - and more support for gaming on ARM.

These changes are designed to strengthen existing and future hardware, with Microsoft enhancing Nvidia's RTX Spark support, while announcing the Surface Laptop Ultra, a notebook designed "for builders".

Much of Microsoft's focus is to ensure that Windows remains the best place for development, starting with security that uses Microsoft Execution Containers. This is designed as a sandbox for agentic AI, to ensure that your AI sticks to the files and networks it's allowed to access and doesn't run off and hack something.

There's broad support from big names, like OpenAI and OpenClaw, with Anthropic, Perplexity and more working on future support.

Much of Microsoft's focus is on hybrid intelligence. As AI use expands, token budget is becoming a core concern for many businesses. Hybrid intelligence is designed to get local and cloud services running together so that resources use can be better optimised.

Running local models will also enable more offline tasks, while avoiding sending unnecessary tasks to data centres.

Hybrid intelligence expands to Copilot too. Microsoft recently announced new Copilot modes, with Home, Code and Autopilot, enabling local content, local actions and local models. The aim is to have Copilot understand your PC, be able to take actions on your behalf and use local models. This will be available to Copilot+ PCs in the coming months via an update.

Microsoft is also changing the Windows Search experience, so it won't just be about finding, it will now be about doing. That will see actions that you can take directly from the taskbar, with understanding of natural language.

Where typing a command would previously run a search and return a webpage, now Search will take that direct action. Microsoft's examples include "switch to dark mode", "enable airplane mode", and "minimise all windows".

Finally, support for gaming on ARM is getting a boost, with Microsoft confirming that Call of Duty will come to RTX Spark in 2027, while a number of partners are working on ensuring that ARM-powered PCs get a great gaming experience.

Apple has already had a bumper launch season, introducing the iPhone Duo alongside the iPhone 18 Pro – but still has a lot more to come. First, there's an event said to be scheduled for 13 October where we're expecting to see an Echo Show rival launched.

That same event is expected to give us an updated HomePod mini and an Apple TV 4K, all with the proviso of strengthening Apple's smart home offering.

However, according to MacRumors, there's a second launch later in the final week of the month too. That's likely to be back on the computing side, with the launch of the MacBook Ultra – the touchscreen OLED model – as well as the new iPad mini.

Sandwiched between the two is the availability of the £2,000 iPhone Duo, which neatly bridges two launches and will see Apple dominate the next month of tech headlines.

The flurry of launches neatly aligns with the arrival of Apple's new CEO, John Ternus, although clearly the new devices were in development long before he took the helm.

With a wide selection of new launches, we see Apple making a move into the smart home that's been missing so far: Apple HomeKit struggled to get going while Alexa and Google Home raced away. But with dedicated home hardware – as well as Siri AI – Apple stands a better chance of making its mark on this segment of the market.

While a display-equipped HomePod has been rumoured for a long time, the most interesting thing will be how it interfaces with existing devices. Apple is a member of the Connectivity Standards Alliance, the organisation that manages Matter, which is expected to be core to the Apple's smart home experience.

But it's really the advent of Siri AI that's going to drive the segment along. Just as Alexa became a core component of smart home control over the past decade, Apple is likely looking to Siri to provide a seamless and intelligent smart home experience.

That's not the only change of direction that we're expecting from Apple. The subsequent launch of the MacBook Ultra will see the first touchscreen Mac, something that Apple had previously avoided.

While there will be a lot of new products to get excited about, the current component crisis is expected to push prices higher – especially for the new MacBook and iPad – meaning that some might have to temper their excitement this Christmas and decide exactly which new Apple device to buy.

Apple's anticipated MacBook Pro update could happen in the next couple of weeks, with new details pointing to a significant change in design.

According to Mark Gurman on Bloomberg, the new MacBook Pro – also dubbed the "MacBook Ultra" by many – will be "significantly lighter". This is said to have been achieved by reengineering the laptop's interior and miniaturising parts.

The current 16-inch MacBook Pro weighs 2.14 kg, while the MacBook Air is 1.51 kg for the 15-inch version, so there's plenty of weight to be lost here.

That's as far as the news goes for the future MacBook Pro, although we're previously heard that it's ushering a controversial new feature too – a touchscreen OLED display.

It might come as a surprise that Apple hasn't yet offered the MacBook Pro with an OLED screen, but a shift to the tech should give a richer and higher quality result, albeit paired with a higher price.

But, it's the addition of a touchscreen that's more controversial. Back in 2010, Steve Jobs specifically said that touch didn't work on a laptop, because of the ergonomics. In the meantime, both Windows and Chromebook has offered touchscreen models at a full range of prices.

Subsequently, Craig Federighi doubled down on the position of not offering touch, saying that touching the screen was fatiguing. Adjacent to Apple's anti-touch position, the iPad Pro has repeatedly be positioned as a laptop alternative.

We could be in for a significant shift in position for the MacBook however, with macOS 27 expected to have a number of adaptations to support touch when the new model appears.

It's also thought that the MacBook Ultra will be offered with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, rather than expanding the M6 – with a move in early 2027 to the M7 family instead.

That could see the launch of the new MacBook Ultra as a watershed moment ushering in a new design that's lighter, a new screen technology and a new method of interaction. Over time, it's expected that some trickle down will occur, but given the high price of components, the biggest surprise could be the price.

Currently, it's predicted that there will be a 20% price hike over the existing MacBook Pro model, with prices according to Forbes expected to land in the $3,000 / £3,000 price range.

Standing out among the best laptops in the market isn't the most straightforward thing in 2026 – given the RAM crisis and cost of production, making turning a profit on the machines ever more taxing. MSI knows this as well as any brand, but has continued to push out solid machines in both the gaming and productivity markets.

I just spent a couple of weeks with its latest Prestige 13 AI+ – the naming of which is getting a little confusing, given we've reviewed the Prestige 13 AI+ Evo from last year. It's a laptop that does very little wrong, albeit it won't necessarily catch anyone's eye from across the room or launch all-new competitor strategies. Is that enough in this tricky landscape?

Price and Availability

The MSI Prestige 13 AI+ is available now, and comes in at £1299.98 in the UK and $1,299 in the US, although you'll already find it for slightly less than that with some retailers – check out the widget above for the current best deals. It doesn't have the widest retail presence, though, so you might well end up bagging it from MSI directly, frankly.

That price is an interesting one, at a time when conventional logic about how much people want to spend on laptops is being shredded. It's a chunk of change, and while MSI is far from the only laptop-maker inflating its prices, it's still worth considering what price this might have launched at if the memory crisis had never happened. We can all daydream, eh?

Design and Spec

Laptops tend to look pretty homogeneous right now – they're all broadly silver slabs with the same old hinges and rounded corners. To its credit, that isn't all true of the Prestige 13 AI+ this year. Sure, it's silver, but it has some fun details that do make it stand out a little.

Firstly, this is a really light laptop that's also super compact. It comes in at 899g, which means it's lighter than, for instance, the beautiful 2026 version of the Dell XPS 13 that I tested earlier this summer. MSI's laptop is portable in the most literal sense as a result, and that's immediately an advantage.

Its design is also slightly different. While it does have a largely silver look (made from magnesium-aluminium alloy), its hinge is a fun one. When you open the laptop, you'll actually end up pushing its display slightly into the surface under the laptop. This puts two rubberised feet into play, which wedge the laptop up slightly.

This doubtless has advantages for airflow, and presumably some microscopic ergonomic upsides, too, but I'm just a fan of the design details that make it work. The rest of the laptop is rather more utilitarian, after all.

In terms of I/O, the right edge of the Prestige 13 AI+ houses a USB-A port, and a microSD card reader. The other edge has another USB-A, an HDMI port, two Thunderbolt 4 DisplayPort USB-C ports with power delivery, and a 3.5mm jack for audio.

Opening the laptop, you'll be greeted by its 2.8K 13.3-inch OLED (which MSI is keen to point out has a 16:10 aspect ratio to avoid the problem of a squat screen). It's a 60Hz display, though, so not the smoothest out there.

The laptop comes with a 512GB SSD and 16GB RAM, with the latter reassuring given Windows' struggles on 8GB in the last few years. It also boasts impressive battery life for its size, with MSI quoting up to 19 hours of continuous use in the right circumstances (with a whole heap of networking turned off).

Atop the display (in the admittedly quite chunky bezels), you'll find a webcam complete with the privacy shutter I always like to see. It has Windows Hello compatibility, as you'd expect, and MSI touts various noise-cancelling microphone features for video calls.

All of this runs on the Intel Core Ultra 7 355H (in the machine I tested), a Panther Lake chip that should be more than powerful enough for most productivity tasks. It's firmly from the mid-range of the lineup, and therefore misses out on the all-new Arc graphics, so there's not much to be had in terms of gaming power here.

Performance

Turning the MSI Prestige 13 AI+ on and then using it in detail for a couple of weeks, I was almost surprised by how unsurprising it was. This is a laptop that really just fulfils the brief it sets out for itself – and that's a good thing.

Firstly, that OLED panel is a great one. It has beautiful colours and the deep blacks that you've come to expect, and I frankly didn't feel the 60Hz was much of a limitation at all. It does have slightly more bezel than I'd hope for, but that's no great sin. It also has a very shiny finish which can be quite reflective, but it's become clear over time that this is a matter of taste.

I also found the CPU more than capable enough to carry me through a workday without needing to manage my windows or multitasking. When given a really heavy load, I could hit up against its limits, but I don't think anyone will be coming to this machine expecting (for example) a video-editing powerhouse.

On the more practical side of things, the keyboard that MSI has squeezed onto the body of the Prestige 13 AI+ is something of a mixed bag. Its travel is decent and I didn't have any trouble with the tactility of typing, but its layout is fairly cramped, especially in the bottom-right corner, which can be a little annoying.

The trackpad is completely fine, with nothing about it really standing out for scrutiny, and I continue to like that MSI includes a fingerprint reader in so many of its laptops, for security and quick unlocks.

Battery life was great in my testing, with the laptop never failing to get through a workday with some charge left – especially on lighter days that didn't involve as many programmes being open and actively used. I'd say it's certainly an all-day machine, which not every rival can boast.

Verdict

MSI has kept things simple with the Prestige 13 AI+ – and I have a lot of time for that approach. Ironically, it's resulted in a laptop that doesn't really stand out all that much; one that's therefore harder to write about than many I've tested recently.

The reality is that you might find other laptops in the same price bracket with more striking designs, and potentially some more power to play with, but if keeping things lightweight is your main concern for sake of portability, then few can do better.

Also consider

If you want a Windows laptop that's supremely portable but need to spend less, then the latest XPS 13 from Dell is worth considering. It's a gorgeous bit of design, and while it's not the most powerful at base spec, it's beautiful to work on and is tiny – although heavier than MSI's laptop.

Alternatively, there's always the MacBook Air, which might be in a phase where it's almost taken for granted. It remains the best laptop for the masses, really, even with prices creeping up, and the M5 version is very comparable in price terms. I think it's the better buy, frankly, but it's obviously not a Windows machine.

Gaming mice have become extremely fast, but most still work in much the same way: press the button, hit a physical switch and get a click. Logitech's G Pro X2 Superstrike uses electromagnetic sensing to detect how far the main buttons have moved.

That system, called Haptic Inductive Trigger System (HITS), means you can choose how far each button needs to move before a click registers.

There are 10 actuation points to choose from, along with five rapid-trigger reset points, so the button can register another click without needing to return all the way to its starting position.

It works in a similar way to Rapid Trigger on gaming keyboards, where the point at which a key activates and resets can be adjusted. Logitech says HITS can reduce click latency by between 9ms and 30ms, depending on the settings used.

The HITS system also replaces the physical click mechanism with haptic feedback. Six intensity levels let you change how much feedback you get when a click registers, while the inductive sensors mean the main buttons are almost silent compared with conventional switches.

The rest of the mouse is based around Logitech's existing high-end hardware. It uses the HERO 2 sensor with tracking up to 44,000 DPI, 888 IPS and 88G acceleration, while wireless polling goes up to 8,000Hz.

Independent testing suggests the technology is most useful for games where individual clicks and rapid follow-up shots matter, rather than automatically improving every type of gameplay. The mouse also weighs around 61g and keeps the symmetrical shape of the previous Pro X Superlight design.

The Logitech G Pro X2 Superstrike is available now for £159.99.

Apple might recently have launched one of its most significant new products in years, the iPhone Duo, but it's not finished there. We're fully expecting a series of other devices to arrive before the end of the year, and we should see them unveiled in the next few weeks.

There's the elusive new Apple TV 4K, for starters – a refresh that is long overdue. And a new Siri-powered HomePod should be wending its way to Apple Stores shortly. Oh, and let's not forget the much-rumoured MacBook Ultra.

Here then are four Apple products we think will be launched in October or November, just in time to nestle under the tree for particularly good boys and girls this holiday season.

Some of them have been on the cards for years.

Apple TV 4K (2026)

Considering the current Apple TV 4K is arguably still the best streaming device available today, even though it's four years-old, a new model will undoubtedly be welcomed by most.

We don't think it'll look much different and the software experience will be mostly the same, but the main enhancements will be a faster chipset – possibly the A19 Pro – so it can support Siri AI.

The new chip should also make it more capable for gaming.

Apple HomePod with a screen

Apple has long been rumoured to be introducing a rival to the Amazon Echo Show, with industry experts often referring to an Apple HomePad – a HomePod with an iPad-like display. However, like a new Apple TV 4K, it has remained elusive to date.

Still, we can but hope that it is imminent, considering Siri AI is finally here in full. That was the missing element, surely?

It is also expected to arrive with an all-new operating system, often dubbed homeOS, that will revitalise Apple's smart home ambitions.

Other than that, it has also recently been discovered in code that Siri AI is coming to existing HomePod speakers soon, too.

iPad mini OLED

The current iPad mini (7th gen) came out in 2024 so we're due a refresh, and the next model could bring with it a major upgrade.

It is claimed that the 8th gen device will adopt an OLED display – as found on the likes of the iPad Pro – which greatly improves the colour saturation, contrast and black levels.

It should also come with an improved processor – possible the A19 Pro chip – so it will be faster and more capable with Apple Intelligence and Siri AI functionality. We don't expect the overall design to change, with an 8.3-inch screen size to remain, but it could also feature improved water resistance.

MacBook Ultra

There will undoubtedly be at least one new MacBook launched in October – this is a tradition for Apple. But what MacBook(s)?

The most exciting rumour is that a MacBook Ultra could be on the cards, with an OLED display and possibly even touchscreen support. This would represent a massive shift for Apple considering the late Steve Jobs always believed touch panels should be limited to tablet use, not laptop.

It is also tipped to sport a Dynamic Island on a MacBook for the first time and the latest Apple silicon. And if it does arrive, one thing's for certain, it won't be cheap.

Alternatively, we might just see a mid-range MacBook Pro refresh with M6 processing (as featured on the new Mac mini). Maybe we'll even get both.

MSI is in an interesting place as far as its laptop lineup goes. Earlier this year it finally redesigned some of its most popular machines, with the new, far sleeker Stealth 16 proving a particular hit – I loved that machine.

However, the simple fact is that not everyone wants their gaming laptop to emphasise slimness and portability. A lot of gamers out there seek the most power they can possibly get in a gaming laptop, with little worrying about it being office-appropriate or whether it could pass for a productivity machine.

MSI knows it can't leave that segment behind, so that's doubtless the motivation behind the new Raider 16 Max HX, a beast from whichever angle you peek at. I've put it through its paces to see whether it holds up to its lofty billing.

Price and Availability

The sad reality is that gaming laptop prices are going absolutely mad at the moment. Consoles might be stealing a lot of the headlines and scrutiny, but the fact that my spec of the Raider 16 Max HX comes in at £3550 is frankly a little bananas.

That's not the starting price of the machine, though. It begins from £2249 / $2999, and that version has an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Laptop GPU, which shows you that there's no attempt to be entry-level here.

My review version, though, packs a 5090, paired with an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX processor, both high-end (although you can go even more premium on the processor front).

There's no way around the conclusion that this isn't a "sensible" laptop, even for top-end buyers – it's now extremely difficult to find pricing that feels fair, and if that angers you then you'd be best off pointing the finger at the AI boom.

Design and Spec

As I mentioned in the opening of this review, the MSI Raider 16 Max HX isn't where you should be looking if you're in search of subtlety. This is a gaming laptop that earns the 'Max' in its name, with a maximalist approach to both its design and its spec sheet.

Taking a tour around its hardware, the laptop is a hulking one even at a glance. It weighs in at a serious 2.6kg, and its footprint is actually a bit bigger than I'd typically expect for a 16-incher. It's very much in the same huge bracket as the Alienware 16 Area-51, making sense for those who are happy to take on a much bigger machine than they otherwise could.

Aesthetically, the Raider 16 Max HX has different looks when it's on or off. In the case of the latter it's finished all over in matte black, and is relatively understated; the back of the display has an MSI crest and a large but subtle embossed logo to make it stand out.

Switch it on, though, and the RGB lighting comes into play. That crest lights up and strobes, while there's a whole strip of lighting at the bottom of the keyboard and mousepad's shelf.

That and per-key lighting control means that you have plenty to play with if you're a fan of these effects, although I wonder if some customers might prefer to just turn them all off.

That keyboard is full-size and includes a compact numpad, and a tie-in with SteelSeries makes it easy to set up macros and shortcuts, albeit through more baked-in software. The mousepad is a good enough size but otherwise mediocre, although in this sort of gaming laptop you'll really only be using it in a pinch.

Build quality is solid enough, although it's a very plastic-heavy design (which is no surprise or point of difference with most of its competition). That does mean there's a degree of flex to be found if you search it out, but I had no deeper issues with solidity in regular use.

It almost goes without saying that the size and weight aren't chosen arbitrarily – components are jammed in here, along with huge amounts of ventilation and active cooling. The number of vents for fans is quite striking, but the I/O on offer is relatively typical.

The back edge of the laptop houses the proprietary charging port, for connecting the absolutely massive power brick. It also offers an Ethernet port, an HDMI port and a USB-A port. The right-hand edge has two more USB-A ports and a 3.5mm jack. The left edge gives you a full-size SD card reader and two USB-C ports.

Spec-wise, there aren't many chances to get a 24GB GPU in a gaming laptop, but that's what's on offer here thanks to the inclusion of the RTX 5090 Laptop GPU.

That makes this a bit of an apex predator, but there are grades of processor to pair with it. I tested the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX, but that can be upgraded to a 290HX for a few hundred pounds/dollars if you really want it.

My tested spec comes with a 16-inch WQXGA IPS display at a resolution of 2560x1600, with a refresh rate cap of 240Hz, and it backed up its main specs with 32GB of DDR5 RAM in a 2x16GB configuration. Storage-wise, it has a 1TB SSD – and it's one of the many annoyances of RAMageddon that this sort of pricing doesn't get you more storage than that.

Performance

So, if you're going to make a multi-kilo laptop the size of a small planet, you'd presume that it'll need to have fairly staggering performance to make up for that inconvenience, right? Well, thankfully that's something that MSI has taken care to ensure, and the power on offer in the Raider 16 Max HX is indeed class-leading.

There's no point hanging around – I got straight into benchmarking when I turned my loaner machine on, and it pretty immediately impressed. Cyberpunk 2077 remains the gold standard where benchmarking is concerned thanks to its huge array of presets and almost every graphical integration on Nvidia's side.

Starting off modest, I picked the Ray-Tracing Low preset at native resolution, a preset that I think delivers excellent visuals without necessarily turning on expensive extras that don't add too much. An average frame rate of 120.9fps speaks for itself, frankly, and looks superb. Whacking on frame generation to the 4x mark as an experiment boosted this to a ridiculous 310.9fps.

Clocking that the laptop had more performance headroom than I anticipated, I went straight to the big guns and used the Ray-Tracing Overdrive setting next, maxing out almost every setting. I got back an average of 60.87fps, another staggering result for a portable machine. With 4x frame generation, this leapt to 189.67fps, for outrageous smoothness.

The power draw of this sort of performance is really significant, of course, but I was impressed to see that even playing unplugged (something you really aren't going to intentionally do much at all), I could still get a playable 31fps from the Ray-Tracing Low preset, making it doable in a pinch. The battery wouldn't last long, of course.

The display, meanwhile, is an interesting case. It's a pretty excellent IPS panel, and I don't really have any complaints in isolation. It's sharp, precise and really accurate – but for this price I would like to get an OLED in such a laptop, for the deeper blacks that you get with it. That upgrade is available in some territories and from some retailers, but it's not cheap.

The keyboard is decent in use, I'd say, but there is a little flex underneath it to bring down the impression of quality formed by the performance you'll be enjoying. The same goes for the mousepad, but I used a mouse in my testing, as I'd expect anyone to if they're spending this much on a gaming laptop.

The amount of venting on the Raider 16 Max HX had me a little worried that it would sound like a jet engine under any amount of load, and while I can't say it's whisper-quiet, it's not as loud as I feared.

Of course, you should still pair it with one of the best headsets out there for immersion's sake, but I think the thermal management is done quite well here. That also means the laptop never got uncomfortably hot in my testing.

There is quite a lot of nonsense pre-installed on the machine, though, with Norton's pop-ups proving particularly irksome – so be prepared to do some proper pruning once you're all set up, if you want to enjoy a more peaceful computing future.

Verdict

MSI's beastly laptop feels like a good summary of where gaming hardware is at in a more general sense. It brings unearthly amounts of power in a form factor that can't be called anything less than chunky, and gives you the option of playing the latest games at incredibly high frame-rates – which can't be sniffed at.

However, it demands an absolute wedge of your money to get that performance, and I think there are parts of the package that lag a little. For this price, I want more than 1TB of storage, and I don't want to feel any flex in the build (even if it's plastic). I'd also like an OLED panel without shelling out for an upgrade.

If you're in the market for a gaming laptop with very few compromises, though, the MSI Raider 16 Max HX should definitely figure in your calculations. The question of whether its price is right is ultimately likely to come down to your personal affordability.

Also consider

Of the MSI machines I've tested this year, I think I'd rather have the new Stealth 16 AI+, despite its less powerful starting specs. Its redesign puts it far ahead of the Raider 16 in terms of aesthetics, and I think it's easier to fit into regular life, for when you do just need a regular laptop.

That said, if you're perfectly happy to go with something absolutely massive, and want a different option, then the obvious pointer would be to look at the Alienware 16 Area-51, which is a total monster. It has a different look and feel, which makes it more divisive, but I think it competes pretty directly with what MSI's doing here.

At this year's Qualcomm Snapdragon Summit – where the chip-maker revealed its latest 'Extreme' processor for Android phones – there have also been many hardware reveals.

That includes for PC, with Microsoft showcasing its latest Surface product line-up, revealing the 2026 versions of the Surface Laptop 13-inch and Surface Pro 12-inch. Both feature the Snapdragon X2 Plus chipset.

While those two products are key to Microsoft's portfolio, the tech giant also revealed a new Surface Mouse – which was a welcome surprise, seeing as the previous mouse product was discontinued in 2023, following iterative product releases since its debut in 2016.

Surface Pro 12

The Surface Pro 12 is a fanless Windows machine that follows a familiar presentation: it doesn't look different to the first-gen model, as revealed last year, but upgrades some hardware features.

The Snapdragon X2 Plus processor is what drives the enhanced power available, while Microsoft has also introduced a new touchscreen display that's 25% brighter than its predecessor.

Touch is an important factor for Surface, which is why the brand has introduced Microsoft Ink Canvas – an AI-powered experience optimised for the Slim Pen. This software layer will be pre-installed on device and introduced on other supported Surface and Windows devices from 13 October.

That's the key date when Surface Pro 12-inch will go on sale, with a $1149.99 suggested retail price (other regions TBA). That means it's a pricier machine than the first-gen model, which you can pick up right now for $779.

Surface Laptop 13

The other key launch is the 2026 refresh of the 13-inch Surface Laptop, also using Snapdragon X2 Plus in a fanless form for silent, long-lasting use.

Continuing with its established premium design, the Surface Laptop 13 has an aluminium body, full-size backlit keyboard, and is available in a new Black finish.

The display is a taller-than-average 3:2 aspect ratio, making it ideal for work. This panel, just like the Surface Pro 12, is 25% brighter than its predecessor, ensuring it can compete at the premium level.

Also available from 13 October, the Surface Laptop 13-inch will be priced at $1,199 (other regions TBA) – positioning this edition model at an even lower price than its 12th-generation predecessor.

When Sony ducked out of the laptop market in 2014, it split with Vaio as a brand as Sony refocused away from the PC market.

While Vaio's visibility declined, the company continued as a more selective laptop maker, producing a few specialised models, but never really stepping up to compete with the likes of Dell or HP who dominated the Windows PC market in the 2010s.

But the latest Vaio model looks really interesting. The Vaio T has a screen that you can flip, making it a multi-model device, able to operate in three different modes.

While many will use it as a conventional laptop, it's possible to flip the screen by 180 degrees in presentation mode, or close the lid leaving the display on the outside like a tablet.

Unlike many convertible models, this then means the keyboard is covered, rather than having to put the keyboard face down on the table. That should keep it clean and protected, which other models don't.

The Vaio T puts into place a flip mechanism that was first investigated in 2013, according to Yanko Design, but now returns with Vaio's new owner, Nojima. The price at 374,000 yen, about $2400, is focused on the Japanese market with no indication that it will see wider release.

The Vaio T will be available with Intel Core hardware - up to Ultra 7 - so this is a high-end model to match the price. The chassis is well-equipped with connections, while there's a 13.3-inch LCD touchscreen with 2560 x 1600 pixel resolution with a 16:10 aspect. Storage runs up to 2TB and 64GB RAM.

Ignoring the specs, it's the design that fascinates, with Fine Black and Fine Red colours. The red is especially fetching, leaning on Japanese culture to create a laptop that's as eye-catching as it is unique.

It's unlikely that you'll ever see one outside Japan, but it's an interesting resurgence from a once popular brand in its former years under Sony.

Alienware is one of those storied brands that might sometimes go under the radar, largely because it's been around for so long under Dell that it might not always get its due recognition.

Decades of presence in the gaming laptop market don't happen by coincidence, though, as it's always had something to offer.

In 2026, that offer boils down to "beastly power" when it comes to the Alienware 16 Area-51 – a total monster of a gaming laptop that doesn't even try to disguise its monstrous capabilities.

This is obviously a gaming machine for those who want no compromises on performance, but does it make sense in everyday testing? I've had one for a couple of weeks to find out.

Price and Availability

The Alienware 16 Area-51 is available now, having launched this summer, and comes in at a fairly whacking price, something that's increasingly inevitable in the world of gaming laptops.

Here in the UK, it starts from £2749 with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060, but the version I tested (with a 5080) comes in at a fairly enormous £3799. That gives you a sense of the upward choices on offer. In the US, the machine starts from $3250 and again has the same range of options to upgrade with.

It's worth highlighting, though, that you can still easily buy the older version of the Area-51 (without an OLED, or the newer Intel chips that grace these new editions), for less cash. That remains a valid option given these prices.

Design

Alienware's laptops have never really aimed at being sleek or ultra-portable – it's perhaps sensibly left that part of the market to others. Rather, its machines tend towards utilitarianism. If they're chunky, it's to fit in more componentry, and if they're heavy, it's because those components add weight.

Well, chunky is one way to describe the 2026 Alienware 16 Area-51. It's a bit of a beast, and no mistake. This is one of those 16-inch laptops that feels more like an 18-incher when it's in your bag, not least because its body is actually bigger than its screen.

The laptop has what's called a "thermal shelf" in some circles – a rear-end that protrudes behind the display when it's open. It's arguably the main feature of the design brings both upsides and downsides.

The biggest downside is that it is indeed huge, and I'll be open and admit that I think it makes the laptop far less attractive. However, an upside is that it make for a very convenient place to house almost all of the machine's I/O.

You'll find the power supply socket, an HDMI port, two Power Delivery USB-C ports, and three USB-A ones. The left-hand edge of the laptop adds a 3.5mm audio jack and an SD card slot, but that's it. This undeniably keeps things organised, so your mileage may vary.

Zooming back out, the laptop is finished in a really quite fetching metallic dark blue that almost looks greenish in the right light – I like it a lot.

The back of the display houses an RGB Alienware logo, while there's also lighting embedded in that thermal shelf.

Turn the laptop upside down, and you'll see a pretty awesome glass panel that gives you a peek at the internals, including more RGB lighting in the twin fans. This serves no purpose but is extremely slick.

There's a huge amount of venting for cooling around the laptop, on basically all sides other than the display, and Dell has done a decent job of slimming down its lines and shapes to make it less enormous with various tapering edges.

Still, it's big, and comes in at a chunky 3.4kg in its heaviest configuration (it'll vary slightly based on your component choices).

Open the laptop up, and you'll be greeted by a 16-inch display, and you'll be able to see the other side of those two RGB-lit cooling fans, along with loads of speaker and cooling vents.

The keyboard is full-sized but tenkeyless, while the trackpad is a good size and is also RGB-lit, which does look quite fly.

At the start of my testing, I wasn't a fan of the Alienware 16 Area-51's design – but it weirdly grew on me with time. There's an unashamedness to it that works on you, and while its fondness for RGB is a little amusing, it's still relatively tasteful compared to some I've tested.

The big caveats here are size and weight, though, which make this a laptop for those who know they don't mind being a pack mule for their gaming power.

Specification

So, all of that bulk must mean quite the specs list, right? Well, yes – but also quite the range of customisation options. As mentioned at the top of this review, the version of the Area-51 I tested is a total beast, but that's not the whole story.

Starting with the CPU, this 2026 revision brings Intel's latest chips to the table, so you get to choose between a couple of Intel Core Ultra 9 processor variants (I had the 290HX Plus), but you can also step down to Ultra 7 options to save some cash.

The same is true of the GPU options. I was using an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080, but the whole range of current laptop GPUs is there to choose from (5060, 5070, 5070 Ti, and 5090 to round it out).

I had 32GB of RAM to call on, in a 2x16GB DDR5 configuration, but it starts at 16GB and goes up to 64GB. Similarly, I had a 1TB NVMe M.2 SSD for storage, but you can upgrade this to 2TB, 4TB, and even 2x2TB, 2x4TB or 3x4TB RAID options if you're made of money.

The new OLED display is one point of consistency, though – all the new models have the same panel. It's a 16-inch WQXGA anti-glare OLED panel with a refresh rate ceiling of 240Hz and HDR on board.

The keyboard is one point of differentiation. If you use a US layout, you can upgrade it to a CherryMX ultra low-profile mechanical keyboard, but this isn't available with the UK layout (which is quite a shame but perhaps not a dealbreaker).

This meant I tested the standard version, which I still think is really quite excellent – it has more travel by far than the average laptop keyboard, and is nice and clicky.

Performance

So, Dell has clearly tuned its development of the Area-51 around leveraging its size and weight to deliver proper power, and I've unsurprisingly put that to the test over the last couple of weeks.

True to expectations, it's been quite a beast, too. I put it through its paces in a fair few games and never found it wanting, with the benchmarking numbers back that up.

In Cyberpunk 2077, which remains power-hungry, I got superb results. Playing the game at its native display resolution of 2560x1600, the default preset was Ray-Tracing Low. That gave me an average of 93.36fps – which is terrific.

Dialling things up to the way tougher Ray-Tracing Ultra, I still got 72.76fps, which is also fantastic. The maxed-out Ray-Tracing Overdrive preset brought me 53.58fps, and I'd call that extremely playable.

Keeping it on Overdrive mode, though, and then activating the first rank of frame generation (2X), that boosted back up to 95.83 fps, confirming that Nvidia's feature remains a fantastic addition to the laptop ecosystem. Latency was minimal, so this is a clear net win.

For curiosity's sake, I left frame generation at 2X and bumped the preset back down to Ray-Tracing Low, and got a stellar 176.08fps result – unbelievable smoothness, in short.

Swapping games, in Ubisoft's new Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Resynced, the High preset, with Ray-Tracing set to "extended" mode, brought me a 91fps average, which is already excellent. Adding that 2X frame generation setting bumped this to 149fps, again making for a massive boost with basically no downside.

An important additional note is that Dell's upgrade to an OLED display also pays dividends – it's a beautiful panel. The benefits of OLED are fairly well-established at this point, but they're worth restating. The colours are brilliantly deep, while the blacks are actually black, so your contrast levels end up being great too. It's a welcome boost and fixes the only real problem with the last generation of Area-51 laptops.

That said, there's also no escaping that its performance and display quality do make the laptop run hot and loud – it has all that venting for a reason. I've long said that no gaming laptop is complete without one of the best gaming headsets to go with it, and that point stands this time around.

Battery life is unsurprisingly not that stellar, either, although I can't imagine many people will be aiming to use this as a genuinely portable productivity option. You might get a couple of hours of non-gaming use if you're lucky, but powered play is the real point here.

Verdict

It's hard to fully decouple the new Area-51 from two main factors – its heft and its price.

The former is really circumstantial; it's not like it'll take you by surprise that it's massive and heavy, but that bulk does impact how you'll use it.

Its price, meanwhile, shows just how damaging the memory crisis is for laptop businesses, since the OLED upgrade only slightly softens the blow of its objectively sky-high starting cost compared to last time out.

Still, if you do have the budget and want a gaming laptop that makes basically no performance compromises, this is certainly one of those. The power being leveraged is quite something, and the gaming performance it delivers won't disappoint.

For the niche it'll serve, the new Area-51 looks like a real phenomenon.

Also Consider

I increasingly feel like the real value in gaming laptops now lies in the class of 2025, which got Nvidia's new frame generation tech on its new GPUs but didn't get smashed by storage prices.

See, for example, the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14, which is the polar opposite of this Alienware. If you want something sleeker, it should be in your reckoning for sure.

If your goal is instead to slice your costs way down, then you might want to look into the Lenovo Legion 5 (Gen 10). It's more affordable than the Area-51, and while it's less powerful, too, the compromises might be worth it for the money.

Google just confirmed what Googlebooks actually are, after months of teasing and years of leaks. Its laptop revolution is in full swing, and it’s powered by a completely new OS that blends Chrome, Android and Linux in pretty interesting ways.

Crucially, the new Googlebooks are launching soon, on 5 October, so they’re no longer distant concepts. At launch, there are models from Asus, Dell, Acer, HP and Lenovo, and each of them seems to aim at a slightly different user.

Their pricing is also incredibly interesting, with the most affordable of the new Googlebooks starting at £999 here in the UK and $899 in the US. That’s not exactly entry-level, and it stands in pretty stark contrast to the entire vibe of the Chromebook product slate. Chromebooks, incidentally, aren’t going away – ChromeOS will remain, and there are more Chromebooks coming this year.

Googlebooks run on Googlebook OS, and if that name sounds a little clumsy, it might be a clue that Google really isn’t all that keen for people to focus on it from that angle. It’s clearly proud of what the new OS can do, but also calls it an “intelligence system” rather than an operating system, a clue that it thinks people don’t actually care that much about what OS they use.

That’s a bold enough play, but someone with a decent Android phone might well just be impressed by the degree of integration that a Googlebook can offer. Its hybrid OS can run literally any Android app, and if it’s optimised for a big-screen experience, then all the better.

The laptops will consequently have access to the entire Play Store, and that also means the many games on offer. Given they run (at launch) on Intel Core Ultra Series 3 processors or on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X chips, they’ll have enough power to manage mobile games nicely. A year’s membership of Nvidia GeForce Now chucked in on purchase should make cloud gaming an obvious option, too.

In fact, Google’s going quite big in terms of freebies when you purchase a Googlebook, since you’ll also get a year of Google AI Pro into the bundle. That’s a tip of the hat to how deeply Gemini is integrated into the Googlebook offering. It’s on tap at any time thanks to new shortcuts accessed by the keyboard or just wiggling the pointer.

Those interested in security questions will doubtless be impressed by a promised 10 years of updates and feature drops, which basically dwarfs most of the competition’s offering. Google said these would be quarterly at least, although it’s an unknown at this stage how the machines will fare a decade down the line.

In terms of specs, though, they’re actually geared up for current AI-powered productivity, which helps to explain that chunky pricing. They all have 16GB of RAM as standard, and decent processors. That said, the battery life figures we were quoted (around 14 hours of video playback, or 16 hours of web browsing) aren’t exactly staggering.

Other things that Google has made standard for the platform include a touchscreen, a backlit keyboard (featuring a G for Google key, instead of a Windows one) and a haptic trackpad rather than a mechanical one.

The final flourish is the unifying design note – a so-called Glowbar on the outside of the laptop. This is lit in solid white when the Googlebook’s in use, and plays flashy rainbow animations when powering up or going to sleep. The only real function I saw was that it can become a charging progress bar when you’re plugged in, but it will be a way to tell what’s a Googlebook at a glance.

All of those features and solid specs mean that these Googlebooks don't come all that cheap. Here's a breakdown of the five models, their chipsets and their US prices:

• HP Googlebook 14: from $1299 (Qualcomm Snapdragon X1 Elite)
• Dell XPS Googlebook: from $1199 (Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite)
• Lenovo Googlebook 15: from $1299 (Intel Core Ultra 3)
• Acer Googlebook 14: from $899 (Intel Core Ultra 3)
• ASUS Googlebook 14: from $1299 (Intel Core Ultra 3)

I was at a behind-closed-doors Google event last week, and got to go hands-on with all five launch models for an extended period of time, so if you want to learn more about what Googlebooks are like to use, be sure to check out my write-up here. Otherwise, sit tight until early October, when we’ll doubtless start to get a more detailed sense of how these machines perform in everyday use.

Google’s making a pretty big splash in the laptop market with the hyped-up arrival of its Googlebook machines. "These aren’t your grandma’s Chromebooks" is basically the subtext, and at a hands-on event in London last week, I got extended time with all five launch models.

Those laptops are coming from Dell, Asus, HP, Lenovo and Acer, and they run the gamut from lightweight 15-inch beauties to impressively compact little 13-inch numbers. After handling all five for a few hours, here’s what I learned.

GooglebookOS leans heavily on AI integrations to stand out

This isn’t really news, but Google’s really leveraging its advantage with Gemini when it comes to the laptop experience it’s built over the last few years.

Its spokespeople were keen to call the new software suite an “intelligence system” rather than an operating system, and that’s a little hard to swallow. Still, Gemini is basically laced right through the OS, and it’s impressively integrated.

Where a Windows laptop has a Windows key, Google now has a G key that launches an app tray slash start menu. Press and hold the G key, then tap the actual “g” key, though, and you’ll bring up Gemini, something that you can also do by wiggling your pointer or pressing an icon on the top-right of the laptop’s taskbar.

This will have you querying on-screen items, making Gemini requests and more within seconds, and it’s slicker than Apple’s Siri equivalent, or indeed Copilot. If you're a big Gemini user, this might just make the OS a great way to cut out the middleman in requests.

The glowbar might just be a snazzy distraction

Google’s presentation and marketing of its Googlebooks is leaning quite hard on the glowbar that adorns each one of them on the outside of their case.

That bar is a nice little touch, and it has one important and actually useful integration – converting into a charging bar when your laptop is plugged in. Beyond that, though, it’s basically just a little RGB light that won’t change your experience with the laptops. There are far more consequential features and changes elsewhere!

Android users will be right at home

For a long time, people have been wondering whether Apple might just merge macOS and iPadOS, as the two have become more and more similar. Well, it feels a little like Google skipped the queue and did just that for Android and ChromeOS, with the result being GooglebookOS.

The OS very much feels like the flagship native Android experience, with proper laptop computing power behind it, scaled up and properly designed to work as a desktop.

There’s a pretty serious limitation in the form of a developer’s approach to optimisation. Take Netflix as an example that Google was keen to point out for demo purposes.

Browsing the “desktop” version of its Android app, much of the interface was still on-screen in vertical mode, with letterboxing on either side, like your phone screen was just being mirrored.

Starting playback, though, resulted in landscape video that took up the whole screen (and went fullscreen). So, that’s a slightly weird journey but one that ends up in a great, laptop-scale viewing experience.

While that might sound like a mixed bag, though, most of the integration with Android was extremely impressive. Once your phone's paired with your laptop, for instance, the Files browser on the machine can access your phone's files as if they were right there on your hard drive – that's hugely handy, and becomes even more useful with AI-powered search.

This lets you search for files not just based on their file name, as is traditionally the way, but also based on subject and text within photos. So, for instance, right there in Files you could search for "cat" and get results featuring cats.

The value proposition is far from open-and-shut

Laptop prices are all out of whack right now. Dell’s the best example, given the almost tragic pricing of the otherwise pretty magic XPS 13 this year.

Google won’t say anything on this front, but it surely would have loved to be able to launch its Googlebook lineup with a minimum price of £700 or even £800. Instead, the most affordable laptop in the lineup will still be £999, and that means the compromises of ditching Windows or macOS.

Now, it’s worth saying that the laptops I handled at the hands-on event felt impressively premium, pretty much as a rule. Still, their prices are eyebrow-raising.

They also raise the question of where Google goes next with Googlebooks, and I think the answer is almost certain to be "cheaper" at some point. It's positioning the laptops as upgrades on a Chromebook, with more functionality and power, but given you can get a Chromebook for a fifth of the price of one of these machines, there's room for a middle ground.

Perhaps the AI features require more RAM than manufacturers can comfortably pack in without pumping the price up, but I'd still feel comfortable making a chunky wager that we see Googlebooks for a couple hundred less than these launch models before too long.

ChromeOS isn’t dead

Speaking of Chromebooks, eh? When Google talked us through the operating system that these new laptops would run on, it took a surprising amount of time to actually mention its name – Googlebook OS. It was keen to talk about its architecture (which is based on Linux blended with Android, basically), but not necessarily to talk about it as a new software product.

When I asked about this, I was told it was basically because consumers don’t, on average, care enough about the OS underpinning a laptop, but rather about what it’s capable of. That might be, but the arrival of a brand new OS like this begs the question – what happens to Google’s existing OS, ChromeOS?

Well, the short answer is apparently “nothing”, at least for now. Chromebooks will continue as their own product category, with a bunch set to launch in the next 12 months.

When I put it to a Google spokesperson that this looked like Chromebooks were the entry-level option, and Googlebooks the more mid- and high-end one, they basically said that was how they look at the situation, too.

Then again, given the huge presence it has in education and other sectors that rely on low-cost machines, is it any wonder that Google wouldn't just arbitrarily move on from ChromeOS like that?

A good monitor can be a complicated thing to pick out from the crowd, not least because we all have slightly different priorities and requirements, even within the gaming monitor market. Are you all about resolution, needing 4K at a minimum? Or is a sky-high refresh rate higher up the wishlist?

Well, I can't say that LG's new GX7 UltraGear monitor fits every single brief on the planet, but for those who know they're happy with 1440p gaming it's extremely hard to fault. Its picture quality is something to behold, and its simple, clean design makes it a graceful addition to any desk, while its refresh rate specification is enviable. Using it on loan from LG for a couple of weeks has been quite the ride.

Price and Availability

This version of the GX7 is a complicated one from the availability side of things. While LG has been selling it for some months now, it has only just made a review sample available, so it's in plenty of people's hands (and in their setups) already.

That also means that pricing is a little flexible. At full price, the monitor costs £899.99 here in the UK, $999.99 in the US and €849.99 in the EU. However, thanks to it being on the market for a while, deals abound now; here it is from LG for £599.98 in the UK, or on Amazon for $679.99 in the US, and for €754.23 in France.

That makes assessing the monitor at this point a little different from what it would have been at launch – it already looks like substantially better value now.

Design and Specs

This GX7 isn't exactly a monitor that rips up the rulebook from LG, and I think there's very little wrong with that. From a design standpoint, it leans on subtlety, at least when you're sat in front of it.

A hexagonal stand has a decent footprint on your desk, but nothing egregious at all, and the monitor's stand is quite slimline compared to others I've tested. That said, it lacks cable management solutions, which does impact the tidiness of a desk setup with multiple inputs connected.

The back of the monitor is a little less minimalistic, with an UltraGear logo and some RGB lighting that you can turn off if you don't fancy it. I think it looks decent enough, though.

I/O is relatively easy to access, too, and comprises one DisplayPort 2.1 port, two HDMI 2.1 ports, one USB Type-C port with passthrough charging power, and one USB 3.0 port to round things out (along with the power delivery port).

Under the display you'll find a single button that toggles between Dual Mode (for higher refresh rates), normal output and powering off. Next to it is a small control nub that acts as a little joystick for navigating the monitor's menus and controls. It works a treat, and those menus are relatively straightforward to get through.

The display itself has slim bezels on all sides and is impressively shallow, so it's not too difficult to fit on your desk. That said, it does sit quite far forward from the back of the stand, so it's not necessarily the easiest to push further back if it's against a wall.

Adjustments are available, including easily changing its height and turning it left and right without moving the stand, along with both tilting and pivoting options. So, you can pretty straightforwardly arrange it exactly as you wish.

On the technical side, this is a 2560 x 1440, 26.5-inch monitor, and it's an OLED panel that brings all the benefits of that tech.

You get a maximum refresh rate of 540Hz at maximum resolution, but you can drop down to 1080p for a boost to 720Hz. Response times sit at 0.02ms, and the monitor has DisplayHDR 500 True Black certification for really inky blacks.

It works with both Nvidia G-Sync and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, but doesn't have any built-in speakers. The volume control that can be easily accessed is for whatever output source you connect to the monitor.

Performance

Of course, not many of us buy a monitor with the aim of sitting back and admiring its design – it's one of the more functional pieces of tech you could shop for, and the real test is how it looks in regular use.

I used the GX7 as my daily monitor for a couple of weeks, and that meant long days at the coalface of online media, but also evenings and lunchtimes gaming. It's been a busy few weeks for gaming releases, too, so I've been able to put quite a lot of variety through the screen.

I played hours of Battlefield 6, as usual, and the monitor's refresh rate came in handy for that, ensuring smooth responsiveness and crystal-clear details, including when playing on my PS5 Pro. Rocket League was even more legible, since it's simpler, and the frame rate limit again was useful and reliable.

I never really felt the urge to get a higher ceiling by going down to 1080p, but it's good to know that option is there for the competitive gamers among us. On PC, meanwhile, I've been enjoying the opening hours of The Blood of Dawnwalker, and its moody landscape looks lush and realistic on the GX7.

That's helped by the OLED panel bringing out really vivid colours and contrast. We all know that this technology makes for deeper blacks, but LG's panel feels really mature and consistent across the colour gamut.

Swapping between inputs isn't always the smoothest, though – the monitor doesn't seem to detect when a connected device powers on, to prompt you with the option of a swap. I've found that feature handy on other monitors, so it would have been nice here.

However, changing between display presets is really easy, and you get some loaded out of the box to help you ensure the monitor is matching its features to the type of game you're playing.

Outside of gaming, I've found the monitor really easy to use for work – it doesn't suffer from fringed text or blurriness, in my experience, and is bright enough to power through even direct sunlight into my study. Its anti-reflective coating is also terrific, making for really muted reflections.

I'm always an advocate for a third HDMI 2.1 slot where possible, since I think there's never any harm in having an extra port, but I should obviously point out that LG is one of many, many monitor makers sticking to just two there.

Verdict

The 27GX790B-B proves that you don't need a catchy name to make it as a successful gaming monitor – being extremely reliable on every meaningful feature is the best way to do that. The GX7 (to call it by its more obvious nickname) is a great performer that works just as well for productivity as it does for excellent gaming in your downtime.

At full price, it looks like a tall order for a 1440p panel, and that's a fair stick to beat it with. However, now that it's been out for a little while, you can find deals that make it far more approachable, and which might make the competition squirm a little. This is another great OLED panel in a year full of excellent monitors.

Also consider

It's not really in the same bracket in terms of size, but I can't stop thinking about the Alienware AW3926QW that I tested earlier this summer – as that's a genuine blockbuster of an ultrawide monitor. Its RRP is the same as this LG monitor, but it fulfils a very different brief; still, I think people should consider it as an ultrawide that really makes the format more user-friendly.

If you're keen to stick with a flat panel and want something that's in direct competition with LG's monitor, consider the Sony Inzone M10S – which now has a second-gen version. It's another stunning 1440p monitor, but will play slightly nicer with your PS5 if you connect that, too.

Google is preparing to give Googlebook its full launch, having first been announced during The Android Show in May 2026. Prior to launch, comprehensive specifications have leaked for the Lenovo Googlebook 15.

The Googlebook promise is that the best of Chrome and Android will come together in the operating system, while various manufacturers will be making the new models.

From the leak (via MacObserver), we can see that Lenovo will be offering a Googlebook with a 15-inch touchscreen OLED display, Intel Core Ultra 5 power, up to 32GB RAM and 512GB storage and a huge swathe of connections. It appears there will also be a matching mouse.

This outlines that Googlebook isn't a budget replacement for Chromebook, instead offering premium features: the display, especially, is something that's associated with premium models, as is the haptic trackpad and fingerprint sensor.

We also see that "Google facial authentication" is listed, suggesting that it will offer face unlocking and authentication for payments. That makes sense: with the industry encouraging people move to passkeys and biometrics, this makes sense.

Exactly how the facial authentication works is something we don't yet know, but it seems that Googlebook is going to introduce it. It will probably be similar to the seamless experience currently offered on Pixel phones.

The other detail is that the design looks a lot like existing Lenovo laptops, but with the coloured "Pixel Glow" detail on the lid. This, like the HiLight feature on the Pixel 11 Pro, is designed to provide a little more interactivity, perhaps to show when you're talking to Gemini - and something we've seen in previous leaks, as is the dedicated "G" Google key.

Google has previously said that its aim is to bring together Chrome OS and Android elements, specifically calling out the integration of AI in the Android stack - so Gemini will be front and centre in the Googlebook offering.

The launch of Googlebook isn't the end of Chromebook, with Google committed to ongoing support for its existing laptops, while some will have the option to move over to the Googlebook platform.

It does, however, mark the beginning of a new Google platform for laptops and tablets. The focus is likely to be on productivity, with heavily integrated Google services and AI at its core.

That's going to see some unique features, like the Magic Pointer that can instantly tell you what you're pointing at, the ability to quickly create the widgets you want, and seamless connectivity across your laptop and your Android devices.

It's confirmed that Acer, Asus, Dell, HP and Lenovo will provide the first Googlebooks, with a date of Autumn 2026, suggesting it's going to happen imminently.

What we still don't know, however, is the price.

Building a compact laptop in 2026 is a complicated thing. Spikes in component prices have turned overall pricing into a nightmarish gauntlet. Consumers are now more demanding than ever in an age of AI agents that hoover up computing capacity and browsers that chew up RAM like there's no tomorrow.

I've tested a few of the best laptops this year that already feel as though a last-minute price hike killed off their potential, but I think Asus has just about avoided that fate with this Snapdragon-powered Zenbook 14. This is a great laptop that I think stands pretty proud in its entry-level specification, with a design that makes it super easy to cart about too.

Price and Availability

The Zenbook 14 comes in quite a few flavours, which is no surprise based on previous models, but I've had the Qualcomm Snapdragon X version, which is available to order now, with shipping generally estimated for late September 2026.

That version starts nice and competitively at £799 here in the UK and $799 in the US, although it's worth knowing this comes with 8GB of RAM; to up that to 16GB you have to jump to £/$1,199.99, which is quite sizeable. I'll expand more on the specs below.

Design and Specs

The Zenbook 14 is a familiar machine in most main ways – Asus hasn't ripped up the design principles it's been working from for the last few years. In fact, it shouldn't shock anyone to learn that the Zenbook 14 is exactly like a smaller version of the Zenbook A16 that I tested earlier this year.

This means that Ceraluminum takes centre stage again – Asus' in-house branding for ceramic aluminium, the main material on the outside of the laptop's casing. It's a really interesting material that has grown on me over time, and in a weird way I like it better on this smaller laptop than I did on the larger one.

It's miles lighter than most metal finishes, but with a matte, almost dusty finish that I think looks really attractive in the blue colour of the model that I've been testing. It also doesn't attract fingerprints too badly, unlike most other laptops on the market. This also keeps the laptop super light at just 1.15kg by my scale.

In terms of design, once you open up the laptop, you'll be greeted by a 14-inch OLED display running a 1080p resolution – which is a panel type that I'm really pleased to see at this starting price.

It also has a generously proportioned keyboard with decent spacing between the keys, and a big trackpad to go with it.

The left edge of the laptop houses a few ports – an HDMI, two USB-C with power delivery, and a 3.5mm jack for audio. The right edge, meanwhile, has a single USB-A port. I'd have loved to see an SD card slot here, too, but I'm sure there are a whole heap of people who don't mind that omission, either.

The laptop runs on a Snapdragon X (X1-26-100) 8-core chipset, which is far from the newest of Qualcomm's chips, but remains a reliable performer. At this price, I think it's a fair choice from Asus.

To go with that, you'll start with 8GB of RAM, as mentioned, and that's a little stingy, for all that RAM is a particularly sticky subject right now where pricing is concerned. The starting spec also has a 256GB SSD, and upgrading to 16GB of RAM does at least bump this to 512GB, too.

I tested that beefier, specced-up version, so I can't speak directly to the performance of the 8GB variant, but we realistically know that 8GB is starting to feel like a stretch for the AI age on Windows.

Regardless, the Zenbook 14 comes with just about the precise specs that I'd expect at this point in 2026, and a design that I think succeeds in some ways that other more heavyweight rivals don't quite match.

Performance and Display

How does that Snapdragon chipset actually fare when in use, then? Well, with a 16GB configuration, I've found the Zenbook 14 a super zippy performer that's happily coped with everything I've thrown its way as part of my working day.

That's included plenty of image editing, juggling multiple browsers with a dozen or so tabs, streaming video and letting all of these run in the background the whole time. That's a pretty good indication of the multi-tasking potential that this machine harbours.

I've also been impressed by its cooling, which really hasn't been too loud and hasn't stopped the laptop from getting burning hot like some others I've used in the last couple of years.

Perhaps the laptop's biggest strength, especially in that entry-price configuration, is the OLED display. It's a real looker, elevating this laptop nicely into a more premium-feeling bracket. The bezels are impressively slim on the right and left, too.

One slight downside is that it's only a 60Hz panel, but that's not much of a gripe for regular productivity use, even if it's still worth knowing about before you take the plunge on buying.

Battery life is really solid here, too – Asus says it can stretch to 30+ hours, and while I haven't eked out quite that much from it, it's consistently gone through a workday happily enough, which is the most important threshold.

Sound is also impressively solid – the stereo speaker system won't have you writing home, but it's better than it could have been, and ensures you won't be wincing while watching videos, either.

Verdict

It's hard to poke many holes in the Zenbook 14, which does exactly what it says on the tin – and makes a lot of sense as a result.

It's a great little laptop for those who need something to power their productivity and work, with a lightweight design that's a little unlike the majority of alternatives (in a good way).

It's a shame that upping the ante from 8GB base to 16GB RAM requires such a steep jump in price, because that configuration is the more attractive for future-proofing against further Windows performance issues.

Still, the entry asking price of the 8GB variant means that Asus is neither embarrassing any of the competition nor itself – it's basically exactly the price you'd expect to pay right now. Which marks this out as a very viable option for your shopping list.

Also consider

If you want a Windows laptop that's light and sleek, and you have similar money to spend on it, you'd probably better check out the Dell XPS 13 that launched recently. Its starting price has already dipped lower thanks to an early sale, which makes this design marvel even more tempting.

Of course, to spend a little less and jump into the Apple ecosystem, you could also turn to the MacBook Neo, which promised to tear up the market before getting a price hike of its own. Even with that, it's still a very solid buy for a MacBook that should be good for quite some time, at a price that doesn't cause too much stress.

I've been working a lot with mini PCs in the last year, turning them into retro games consoles, Steam Machine alternatives, and generally using them for work and home applications.

There are models for all manner of budgets, from the cheap and cheerful, all the way up to powerhouse workstations, and GMKtec is one of the brands that pops up regularly with new devices.

Such was the case at IFA 2026 in Germany, where the manufacturer launched arguably its most capable mini PC yet (if you can really call it that). Crammed into a compact aluminium case, the EVO-X5 Pro is more than a convenient computer – it's a powerful agentic AI PC that can run LLMs locally and with considerably speed.

That's because it is spec'ed through the nose. You get the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ Pro 495 processor running the show, with its 16 Zen 5 CPU cores and 32 threads. Then there's the integrated Radeon 8065S GPU, featuring 40 compute units and hardware ray tracing support.

There's a dedicated AMD XDNA 2 NPU integrated too, with 55 TOPS of AI performance for local workloads.

On top of this, the PC sports 192GB of unified LPDDR5X RAM, running at 8533MT/s. Up to 160GB of that can be assigned as VRAM too, so this is a monster of a machine.

It's not really designed for gaming – it's a more enterprise-focused machine with an eye on running AI applications and hardware creativity tools. However, those specs are more than capable of playing AAA games at 1440p with very decent frame rates.

To be honest though, while GMKtec is yet to reveal full pricing, I was told that it will not be cheap during my booth visit at the show. Indeed, if you aren't as bothered by the use of high-end AI models, and are looking more for a powerful all-rounder, I'm currently testing the brand's NEO-X1 Pro compact tower which is purposely designed for that purpose and is very much a more suitable option.

As for the EVO-X5 Pro though, the units on show proved so popular at IFA the team found them missing on the last day – the dummy versions had been stolen.

Hopefully they'll turn up. But even if not, it shows that GMKtec has something of a desirable hit on its hands.

Lenovo is a dab hand at creating concept prototypes – which is exactly what the PC-maker was showcasing at its Innovation World event, set in tandem with the IFA technology show in Berlin.

Having already seen the future of laptops in its fanless solid-state cooling concept, the AeroBlade, the brand's other laptop concept was a familiar idea – but impressive nonetheless.

Under the Project Swan Concept moniker, this latest laptop prototype is able to transform from a 14-inch 4:3 aspect ratio into a 17-inch 16:9 panel at the press of a button. Quite literally.

That's down to Lenovo's ongoing work with rollable display types, which use the benefit of OLED's flexible potential to its fullest extent.

Here, the laptop is a little thicker than normal, but even so that expansive screen scale made my 13-inch MacBook Air's1 16:10 aspect screen just seem inferior.

A simple press of the Insert key along the device's F-keys row activates the display's expansion, no other prompting required. It forms the new widescreen format in mere moments (complete, for this demo, with an animated swan ).

I can see why this is still a concept, however, as close-up you can see the flex in the rollable display. And there's always the risk of dust and grime causing damage across the rollers and the display itself.

It's not the first time that Lenovo has shown off expanding displays, of course, with the CES show in Las Vegas earlier this year showcasing the brand's Legion Pro concept – which expands into 16-inch gaming laptop.

Project Swan, however, just seems more feasible. It's better balanced than the Legion Pro concept was, for starters, and while the thickness is more than your average to cater for that roll-back display, it's still portable overall – at 17.9mm total.

With each new step in its rollable concepts, Lenovo is clearly working towards a conclusive, shelf-worthy product that you can actually buy. This one isn't that, but it shows yet more progress towards that goal.

So, who knows, maybe come 2028 we'll be living in a world where you needn't pick the 13-inch or 16-inch model – you might be able to buy a single device that caters for both. And all at the touch of a button.

This year, perhaps more than prior, we've seen the trendy-yet-affordable laptops market really pick up. Apple's MacBook Neo was a major catalyst in that movement, but now there are other viable Windows alternatives incoming.

Case in point: Lenovo's just-revealed IdeaPad Vibe line, which comes in seven largely vibrant colours, each with an affordable $699 starting price attached for the Windows 11 powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon option.

While there's no broader pricing options for the UK and Europe at this time – which you can expect will be higher than the US equivalent – that goes head to head against Apple's proposition, giving Lenovo a viable Windows option for a broad market.

Lenovo isn't pitching the IdeaPad Vibe as a 'just for students' kind of option, though, stating this new release "wasn’t created for one type of user". The base Qualcomm Snapdragon X processors will be joined by step-up AMD Ryzen 400 and, at a later date, Intel chip options.

Choice is a clear factor in the IdeaPad Vibe. With 14- and 15-inch sizes available, you can spec up to 24GB of memory, while an OLED display (with optional touch control for the 15-inch) is available for the 'Lowkey Grey' and 'Moody Blue' colourways.

Style is a major component of this line-up, though, as those Pantone-marketed colours tell you. Joining the above pair is 'Dreamy Violet', 'Spicy Gold', Zen Green', 'Chill Blue', and Radiant Coral – providing an eye-catching something for everyone.

Lenovo and its Motorola mobile division have been working with Pantone for years to deliver defined and different colour options to your norm. Beyond just the chassis colour, the option to purchase customisable keycaps can further hyper-colourise and customise your purchase.

Such configurability could, of course, see the IdeaPad Vibe's entry price swell. But as a starting point there's clear appeal in what Lenovo is delivering here. Especially during a time where supply and demand for memory is at an all-time high, which has created pricing complexity in the market.

While attending the IFA technology show in Berlin, Germany, I visited Lenovo at a behind-closed-doors event to see what the tech brand has got cooking.

Amid the myriad laptop reveals from the company, however, it was one of the prototype concepts that really caught my eye – but rather for what you can't see.

The Lenovo AeroBlade Concept laptop showcases a fanless design. It also showcases a world-first design: debuting Lenovo's Active Flow solid-state cooling, no fans required.

So just what is this new system and how does it work? Using technology from Frore Systems, based out of California, this prototype laptop makes use of the brand's AirJet technology – which was first revealed last year.

The AeroBlade Concept, however, makes it a reality, positioning an AirJet module – which measures just 2.65mm thin – over the processor within the device.

This module has ultrasonic membranes that vibrate – and to such a frequency that it's beyond human hearing – to pull air through it, channelling the heat away from the processor and onto a copper base.

The result is warm air, which is ejected from the laptop, but which doesn't require any large vents as part of the design. All of which makes for a neat and tidy design.

The system functions in both passive and active modes, as and when it's required, and in the AeroBlade Concept can sustain 20W+ workloads. It's quiet, too, with a 31dBa maximum output equating to a library environment.

As the module is so thin, the AeroBlade Concept benefits from a trim design and weight as a result – at just 10mm thick and weighing around 830g in this 14-inch format.

So what does this all mean? I think we're potentially looking at the future of portable computing here. A fanless design that can cater for powerful workloads in ultra-portable designs is a dream.

And in Lenovo's product it's a dream that looks ever so close to reality. It's a fully functional working product, after all. And one that I wouldn't be surprised if we see in a shelf-ready updated form in 2027 or the year after.

Samsung has a new answer to Apple's MacBook Neo, and it's aimed at Windows users who don't fancy making the switch to macOS.

The new 14-inch Galaxy Book6 is the latest addition to Samsung's laptop range, but unlike the more premium models, this one is designed to be more accessible. It starts at £799 in the UK, with 8GB or 16GB of RAM and up to 512GB of storage.

It's also pretty portable, weighing 1.35kg and measuring 15.7mm thick. That makes it a potentially useful option for anyone who wants a laptop for work, study or travel without carrying around something bulky.

The Galaxy Book6 uses an Intel Core 5 processor and has a 14-inch 1920 x 1200 LCD display with a 16:10 aspect ratio. There's also an anti-reflective finish to help reduce glare, which should make it more comfortable to use in brighter surroundings.

Samsung claims up to 25 hours of video playback from a single charge, although as ever, real-world battery life will depend heavily on what you're doing with it.

There's plenty of connectivity, too, including two USB-C ports, USB-A, HDMI 1.4 and a headphone jack. Ideal if you regularly plug in accessories or an external display, and it means you shouldn't need a collection of dongles just to connect your existing kit.

The Galaxy Book6 also gets Samsung's Galaxy AI features, including AI Select, AI Cut Out and Note Assist.

AI Select lets you select things on screen to get information about them, while AI Cut Out can remove backgrounds from images. Note Assist can summarise notes and pull out key information.

If you're already using Galaxy phones or tablets, the laptop has some extra tricks. Quick Share makes it easier to move files between devices, while Multi Control lets you use one keyboard and mouse across compatible Galaxy products.

Samsung is pitching the Galaxy Book6 as an everyday laptop rather than a premium powerhouse.

At £799, it's positioned below many high-end Windows laptops while offering the portability, battery life and connected features you'd expect from a modern machine. And, importantly, you get to keep Windows.

With more conscious purchasing now front of mind, and Europe's Right to Repair act changing how tech companies think about designing and manufacturing their products, Acer is leading the way in repairable laptops.

At the company's global conference, which took place at the IFA show in Berlin, Germany, it unveiled its latest Vero 16 laptop – showcasing a new degree of user-replaceable features.

Key to those is a replaceable battery, SSD slots and I/O port covers, permitting users to switch out an aged battery, a broken USB port, or expand storage (perhaps when the current RAMageddon demand levels out and costs settle somewhat).

To assist with making that easy, the Vero 16 even features a visual guide that's physically engraved onto the laptop's chassis – so you can't lose that manual!

The 2027 Vero 16 will be the fourth generation in the product line, offering a variety of improvements over the previous models. Looking to more sustainable practises, that means using more mindful materials.

The palm rest is "comprised of 50% post-industrial recycled aluminium and 50% low-carbon aluminium", while the bottom cover uses "60% post-consumer recycled plastic, and the display bezels use 30% PCR plastic". All steps towards a circular production line.

As a premium product, the Vero 16 is kitted out with top-tier hardware. There's up to an Intel Core Ultra X9 processor 388H paired with up to 32GB RAM, powering the 16-inch 3K resolution OLED display.

If conscious purchasing is a key issue for your next Windows laptop, then Acer has advanced what's possible with the latest Vero 16. It will be coming to the UK market, too, priced from £1,599 (with other regional pricing to be confirmed).

Portability is a big deal in the world of laptops. It took an age for a sub-1kg product to hit the market, after all.

But now Acer has blown that sort of figure out of the water with its newest laptop, the Swift Blade 14.

This 14-inch laptop somehow beats the 800g marker on the scales, meaning it's less than two tins of Heinz soup.

Most laptops are 50% heavier or more, but this Acer addition to its lineup has a "how's that even possible?" upsell in its favour.

It might be light in weight, but it's not light in specification, with lots of customisation options available to get this Swift Blade to your liking.

Chose up to an Intel Core 7 processor 350, pair that with up to 12GB RAM, and even 1TB storage. But then you can expect the asking price to be somewhat heftier than this laptop's flagship low weight!

The 14-inch panel can be specced out as an OLED with a 3K resolution, too, further adding to the premium credentials. It has just 4.3mm bezels around the screen's 16:9 aspect ratio, too.

Inside, the Swift Blade 14 has a 50Wh battery, which is half of the 99.9Wh maximum that's permitted in laptop products. But that's in keeping with the size and weigh profile of this laptop.

So how did Acer do it? Well, the Swift Blade 14's chassis is "a combination of magnesium-aluminium alloy and carbon fibre," ensuring it cuts the mass associated with heavier metals.

The Swift Blade 14 will go on sale at the end of this year, with pricing yet to be confirmed. A larger 16-inch model, the Swift Blade 16, will follow in the first quarter of 2027.

As you'll know if you read my recent review of the beautiful XPS 13 launched this summer, depending on where you live in the world, it's either a direct competitor to the MacBook Neo or miles more expensive than Apple's entry-level computer.

That gap in affordability clearly hasn't come as a major surprise to Dell, though, since it's just used IFA to announce an even more affordable laptop coming soon – the Dell 14S.

As the name suggests, this is a 14-inch laptop that focuses on being lightweight, but it'll still have an aluminium body to ensure it feels moderately premium. The build quality and design of the XPS 13 are both class-leading, and while the 14S looks slightly more generic, it'll hopefully live up to those standards.

Perhaps the clearest hint that this is aimed at the Neo is the fact that it's launching in four colours – silver, pink, blue and green. They all look pretty handsome, frankly, but give you the option of a choice that suits your style.

By default, the Dell 14S will come with a 14-inch FHD display that caps out at 60Hz, but upgrades will let you raise that ceiling if desired. It'll also be powered by Intel Core Series 3 processors, which should mean that it's fairly capable but nothing that will light the world on fire in performance terms.

It'll also start with just 8GB of RAM, something that's increasingly raising red flags in the world of Windows laptops, so it'll be really interesting to see how it feels to use when we eventually get our hands on one. It'll also only have 256GB of SSD storage at the cheapest level.

Thankfully for students and professionals everywhere, though, it will have an HDMI port to go with its two USB-C ones – and a 3.5mm jack, too. At just 1.15kg in its lightest configuration, it should also be super portable for its size.

A launch date isn't yet set beyond vaguely later this year, and nor is pricing, which will be a huge variable. The XPS 13 saw a massive gulf between the US (where it's affordable) and the UK (where it's much less so), so I'm hoping that situation doesn't crop up again this time.

Ultrawide PC monitors have long been something of a status symbol in the gaming world – a sign that you not only have the highest of standards when it comes to your display, but also a budget to go with those standards. Finally, though, we're starting to get some monitors that don't feel egregiously priced.

For all that Dell just fumbled the UK pricing of the XPS 13, the launch price of its latest flagship ultrawide is a reminder of just how punchy its Alienware brand can be with the right setup.

The Alienware AW3926QW on review is the monitor I've been saddest to wave goodbye to in ages after its loan period – and I think it might just thread the needle for almost anyone.

Price and Availability

The Alienware AW3926QW is on sale now in the USA, but in the UK and EU it's going to take a tiny bit more time – with sales commencing from 8 September, to be precise.

In the UK the monitor will cost £999, while the EU will get it for €1149, and customers in the US will pay $1099.

I'll cover the specs of the monitor in greater detail further down, but for this scale of curved OLED that's an extremely competitive price. For those who want an ultrawide and have a cap that sits around a grand, it might just be the new best deal out there.

Design and Features

Look, I can't pretend that there's a vast amount of interesting stuff going on where the design of the AW3926QW is concerned. Other than its size, in fact, you'd be hard-pressed to find many differences compared to the 5-star AW3426DW that I reviewed earlier this summer.

It has the exact same stand and adjustment system, in fact, with a pedestal base that honestly doesn't take up too much space on a desk, and relatively easy adjustment options for height, tilt and rotation. This makes it easy to setup exactly and as ergonomically as you want it.

However, there's no getting around the size of the monitor. At 39-inches diagonally, this is quite a beast, and you will need to be careful with its measurements to make sure it doesn't dwarf whatever surface you're aiming to put it on.

In terms of controls, you get a power button on the bottom-right of the display, while there's an intuitive control nub on the back of it in the middle. This makes it easy to switch between inputs or adjust settings.

The display itself comes in at a whopping 5120 x 2160 (otherwise known as 5K), and Dell is calling it the first RGB stripe tandem OLED in this size. That means you're getting the latest innovations in OLED panel technology, the outcome of which ultimately comes down to brightness, colour vibrancy and accuracy.

In terms of refresh rate, you can get 165Hz at 5K or 330Hz at Full HD; high dynamic range (HDR) is also present and correct here – with DisplayHDR True Black 500 for real oomph in the black levels.

The monitor's curve comes in at 1500R, which I found to be really well-judged. It's enough to give you proper immersion, but not so much that you feel like it's trying to swallow you whole.

The bezels are also impressively small on all sides. A glossy coating on the whole thing still manages decent amounts of anti-reflection, although other more deliberately matte coatings excel more in this area.

There are two USB-C ports, one of which handily offers pass-through 90W charging, while the twin HDMI ports are both HDMI 2.1 with eARC in case you want a soundbar. There are no built-in speakers, though. Crucially, that HDMI 2.1 spec also brings variable refresh rate (VRR) to the table.

You also get a DisplayPort 2.1 port for PC use, two USB-A ports for connections, and a 3.5mm audio jack for connecting speakers or headphones. This makes the AW3926QW pretty fully-featured for the price, and I don't think there are any obvious shortcomings (although a third HDMI port would literally never go amiss on this sort of monitor, in my view).

Performance

I don't think anyone buys an ultrawide for its design, realistically, although its specs are more important. Most crucial, though, is how it performs in regular use, and I made the AW3926QW my main monitor for nearly three weeks to find out.

That meant it was a work monitor all day most days, connected to my MacBook Pro, and a gaming monitor most evenings, both on my gaming PC and connected to my PS5 Pro.

In all three settings, I had a pretty much flawless time with its luscious OLED panel, which resolves the tiny issues I had with the more affordable AW3426DW. That display sometimes saw text fringe a little, but I detected no such foible here, whether because of the upgraded panel or the beefier resolution.

It was a dream to work on, and even more of a pleasure to game on. Connected to my PC, I got through hours of both Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy (which natively supported the monitor's resolution, to outstanding effect) and Star Wars Zero Company (which didn't, but still looked great at a lower resolution).

Both underlined how terrific an ultrawide can be nowadays, and the range of colour and vibrancy displayed really was quite something, particularly in Resonance. Brightness is fabulous, and while I prefer a matte coating on my displays, I didn't find the glossy one here an issue at all – a benefit of the curved nature, in part.

Perhaps most impressive of all, though, was my experience connecting my PS5 Pro. Normally I accept that while testing an ultrawide, my console experience will be degraded a little, since most of them are built with such connections as afterthoughts, since they can't support the right resolutions.

The AW3926QW, though, auto-switched to its cut-down esports mode when I turned on my console, putting black bars on the right and left of the screen. Crucially, though, it was able to output at 4K in this mode, and 120Hz, too, which meant that I was basically playing the console on a 24-inch monitor.

That's the dream experience, in short, and it means that those who (like me) have a PC and a console connected to the same monitor aren't forced to go with a standard panel to avoid weird interactions with an ultrawide. I'm sure this isn't the only monitor managing such a trick, but it's really slick nonetheless, and a great advert for all-in-one usage.

Let's be clear – this is a PC monitor first and foremost. However, the fact that I had as smooth a time as this using a console with it is really quite rare, and I do think there must be others out there raring to get an ultrawide this adaptable.

Verdict

It's a rare thing to find a monitor that can flex in the ways offered by the Alienware AW3926QW. It's an expansive OLED with the latest bells and whistles, but it's the way it can apply those to both the PC and console experience that really makes it shine. I'd keep it as my daily monitor without hesitation, given how smooth I've found it to use in the last few weeks.

Crucially, although its price obviously still makes it a premium choice, it's launching at a really impressive cost compared to the competition (if you go by spec lists). I think it represents a fabulous choice at its full RRP, but I almost can't wait to see what sort of prices it might hit in 2027 once it's had time to bed in – this could be a monitor that rightly garners a proper fanbase over time.

Also Consider

I've mentioned Dell's other recent Alienware launch a couple of times in this review, and it's a really justifiable alternative if you want to save some money and know that you'll only really use it with a PC. The AW3426DW has the added advantage of being smaller, in case you have less space.

If you have more space, though, and want something truly sci-fi, consider the LG UltraGear 45GX950. It remains the maddest monitor I've ever tested, and the sheer scale of it is hard to comprehend. It frankly won't make sense for most people, but for dedicated gamers, there's nothing else quite like it.

How much refresh rate is too much? Well, it increasingly looks like there's basically no limit to how much companies will try to eke out of their displays at this point. LG just struck quite a big blow, at least in marketing terms, by producing the world's first 1,000Hz 24.5-inch display.

That's right, 1,000Hz – so many Hz you're unlikely to realistically be able to tell the difference between it and, say, 360Hz. Still, the LG UltraGear G5 25G590B will give you the peace of mind of knowing that you'll get perfect smoothness in-game, almost literally regardless of the frame rates that you're pushing.

At 24.5 inches and limited to 1080p, though, it's safe to say that this monitor, which is now on sale but is seeing stock roll out extremely quickly, is pretty clearly aimed at the competitive crowd.

If you're aiming to be the absolute best version of yourself possible on Counter-Strike 2, for instance, you're unlikely to give much of a hoot about visual fidelity. That means 1080p on minimum settings for most people, and at that spec, you might get some eye-melting frame rates on a powerful rig.

LG says that keeping the monitor at 1080p the whole time, rather than letting it swap between different resolutions with lower or higher refresh rates attached to them, means more consistency for training and gameplay. That's one way of looking at it, I guess!

It also says that it's included its Motion Blur Reduction Pro tech in the monitor, which does pretty much exactly what it says on the tin and helps to make objects clearer in motion. I've seen it demonstrated in person, and it really is quite effective.

The monitor's panel is an IPS one, meanwhile, so there's no OLED wizardry at play here, and it perhaps won't surprise you to learn that the world's first 1,000Hz monitor of this type doesn't come cheap. It's priced at £899.98 here in the UK, and $999 in the US, so you're paying quite a premium for a 1080p monitor.

If you want the best of the best for 1080p competitive play, though, this really looks like a new contender.

Apple has just announced the new Mac mini and Mac Studio, the start of what promises to be an extensive upgrade to its Mac portfolio. In the midst of these changes, the company also has new Magic Keyboards.

Before you get too excited, only the US is getting the new Magic Keyboard. Is this a case of the rest of the world being left behind and missing out on some new evolution?

Well, as it happens, it isn't - the US version of the Magic Keyboard was lagging behind the rest of the world. So what's going on?

Highlighted by 9to5Mac, the Magic Keyboard, Magic Keyboard with Touch ID and Magic Keyboard with Touch ID and Numeric Keypad all appear as "new" on the Apple Store in the US.

But the only change to these keyboards is dropping many of the text labels on the keys and moving to more universal symbols instead. That was something that had already happened elsewhere, with the US hanging onto the labels for longer.

Some labels remain: control, option and command still dominate the bottom row of keys, but some of the other keyboard clutter has now been removed: home, page up, end, shift, return, tab and caps lock all lose the wording and just use symbols instead.

That reduces the visual clutter on the keyboard and for most users, they'll never even notice the change, especially if they are a daily user of the Magic Keyboard where most of the functionality is committed to muscle memory.

Some infrequent users might find that it's harder to find that pesky button when doing something unusual, but seeing as the rest of the world has managed to survive without them, it's likely that the US will adapt to the change too.

It's worth noting, however, that Apple still offers the older Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad (without Touch ID), so if you really want those labels they are still available. Alternatively, you can still buy the older models from retailers like Amazon, although that will likely change as stock runs out.

Apple has also made this change to keyboards on MacBooks in the US with recent launches, so this is obviously a bigger effort to clean up keyboard clutter across the range.

The new keyboards are available now from the Apple Store.

Apple has announced the launch of updated Mac mini models, with one introducing the new M6 chip. It has also expanded the options with an M5 Pro variant. The new models replace the Mac mini M4 and M4 Pro launched in 2024.

The dinky Mac mini has seen high demand lately, as people have set it to task running AI models and that's one of the things that's highlighted by Apple: the new M6 model is said to have four times the AI performance than the M4 version, to speed up those AI workflows.

The cheaper of the two models is the M6, coming in at £899 / $899, a price that might make some wince – the previous model started at £599. While the new M6 chip has as 12-core CPU and 12-core GPU – boosting the performance compared to the M4 – the 16GB RAM and 256GB storage remain the same as before.

The price bump is also felt for the M5 Pro model, while starts at £1,699 / $1,699, compared to £1,399 for the M4 Pro. That, it seems, is the price that we're all paying for the demands that AI has put on the industry.

We previously reported that there is a wave of new Macs coming, introducing the M6 here in the Mac mini, with an M6-powered iMac expected to follow. The move to a touchscreen OLED display for the MacBook Pro is also expected as Apple shifts up a gear for its Mac models.

These new models are all about performance, with Apple underlining that the Mac mini M6 will run LLM prompts 4.8x faster than the M4 version, crunch through Excel spreadsheet calculations 1.5x faster than the M4 and deliver a better gaming experience too, with better ray tracing, for example.

Elsewhere, the new models support Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 for faster and more reliable wireless connectivity, with two USB 3 ports on the front and four Thunderbolt 4 ports on the back of the M6 model, upgraded to three Thunderbolt 5 ports on the M5 Pro model.

There are options to configure the models up to 32GB RAM for the M6 or 64GB on the M5 Pro, while storage options run up to 2TB and 8TB respectively. Storage and RAM are expensive, however, seeing the top price of the Mac mini M5 Pro topping out at £6,799.

Running macOS 27 and offering Apple Intelligence and Siri AI, pre-orders are open now, but deliveries aren't expected until 22 September.

Apple has opted to skip a generation with its new Mac Studio and go straight to M5 chips. While we had an M4 Max version last year, there was no M4 Ultra – so now we have a considerable upgrade.

The new Mac Studio is available with the M5 Max chip inside, or the M5 Ultra, with the latter capable of more than 10x the AI processing performance of an M1 Max model. It's almost 8x faster than the 2025 flagship version, too.

The mini Mac also features up to 512GB of unified memory, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6 and Thunderbolt 5 connectivity.

It is a true powerhouse that has been designed for professional use – including content creation, development, engineering and AI training. Gaming is even a consideration, with Apple claiming that it can run Cyberpunk 2077 with ray tracing one and a half times more effectively than its predecessor.

The M5 Max chipset features an 18-core CPU, up to 40-core GPU, up to 128GB of unified memory, up to 613GB/s memory bandwidth and a 16-core Neural Engine.

The M5 Ultra, on the other hand, really takes things up a notch. You get up to 36-cores on the CPU, 80-cores on the GPU, 512GB of unified memory, 1.2TB/s bandwidth, and a 32-core Neural Engine.

Naturally, the prices reflect the specs. The Mac Studio M5 Max starts at £2,499 / $2,499, while the Mac Studio M5 Ultra model begins at £5,499 / $5,499.

If you're feeling particularly flush and want the very best, you can expect to pay up to £18,299 / $18,299.

Pre-orders are open on Apple.com now with deliveries starting on 22 September 2026.

Apple has also announced a new Mac mini if you don't need quite so much power. It starts at £899 and runs on the new M6 chip. An M5 Pro variant is also available.

The iMac could be in line for an update soon, with new colours and the Apple M6 chip refreshing the model that was previously announced in 2024.

The iMac doesn't have the same update cadence as other Mac models so this refresh will come at a welcome time, although it's not thought that it will bring any other design changes with it.

The Apple M6 has not yet been released, but with Mark Gurman dedicating part of his Power On newsletter to the updated iMac, we're expecting to see the new model in the next month or so.

According to Gurman, the M6 will only be joined by colour changes and we don't know what those colours are as yet The M4 model offers Blue, Purple, Pink, Orange, Yellow, Green and Silver, but it might be that Apple aligns these with the MacBook Neo, which would see Silver, Blush, Citrus and Indigo.

As for the M6 chip, we don't know much about it, but there's a suspicion that it's going to be used in the new iMac and MacBook Pro in 2026, before we start to see M7 Mac models coming in in 2027 – skipping M6 Pro and M6 Max configurations.

What does Apple offer in the latest iMac?

The Apple iMac that launched in 2024 was exciting because of the fresh new colours and the power inside, but it stuck to the design that was introduced in 2021. That might leave some buyers wanting more, as it has a 24-inch display.

That was a little on the small side in 2021, and while the resolution is high, Apple's previous 27-inch iMac dwarfed it and many have been hoping for a 32-inch model. The problem is likely to be one of cost: while the high resolution is great, it would be expensive on a 32-inch display.

At the moment we have no idea when the new iMac might launch. Before we see a new Mac, we're likely to see the launch of the iPhone 18 Pro and the new folding iPhone in September. It could be that Apple then has a Mac event in October to introduce the new iMac and perhaps the M6 MacBook Pro.

Beyond that, it's likely to be March or April 2027 before we'll see that new MacBook Pro that everyone is waiting for, with the touchscreen OLED display.

With prices generally increasing, many will be watching them closely to see if the new iMac gets more expensive, or matches the price of the model it replaces.

Sometimes even the best tech launch has a sting in the tail. When I saw the new XPS 13 unveiled at Computex in Taiwan this year, I couldn't quite believe my eyes or my hands. This gorgeous little compact laptop was being positioned directly against the MacBook Neo, and had every shot at outstripping it, from what I saw and was told.

Now, a couple of months later, the first version of the XPS 13 is available, and I've tested it over the last week to see if it can match that incredible early impression. While I'm still in love with its design, the harsh reality of the pricing crisis we're all enduring in computing has made the XPS 13 far more complicated to assess than I was hoping it might be. Here's why:

Price and Availability

Dell's new XPS 13 was unveiled earlier this summer, and it's now available to order in most places, with a caveat. Right now, every version of the laptop on offer comes with a Series 3 Intel Core 5-320 processor – which is not a Panther Lake chip; a version is coming down the line with Intel's newer chip, but it's not here yet.

Anyway, here in the UK the XPS 13 starts at £899, a massive chunk more than the $699 being asked in the US (that's about £515 by conversion, just to add to the sting). In the EU, the laptop starts at €1,049, while in Australia it's $1,399.

In the UK, students can get it for £699, while in the US they'll qualify for a $599 price. That ought to quickly mark it out as one of the best laptops for students from the off.

Those spell out some pretty big regional pricing differences, to be honest, and only the US sees a price that comes close to being in the region of what I was hoping for – and, indeed, in a MacBook Neo ballpark. That said, given Dell's proclivity for discounts, it wouldn't surprise me if we see this price come down in sales relatively quickly.

Design and Features

The good stuff is pretty front-loaded in the new XPS 13, in my view, because the moment you unbox it and get your hands on it, I think you're likely to fall in love with its design.

This 13-inch laptop is smaller than the majority of the competition in the same size bracket – it's incredibly compact and skinny, with no major ornamentation or flourishes to catch the eye. It's built entirely out of metal, for a really premium hand-feel.

On the back of the laptop's display, there's an XPS logo, which is nice and subtle, while the bottom of the laptop has a Dell logo, some vents for airflow and some rubberised treads for stability. Opening it up, you'll find a tenkeyless keyboard that runs almost the whole width of the machine, above a nice and wide touchpad.

Above it, there's a 13.4-inch display with impressively tiny bezels. It features a really eye-catching anti-reflective coating that does wonders for the laptop in bright conditions – and is one of the more pronounced versions I can remember seeing in recent years. Above that, there's the webcam setup.

It bears repeating that the new XPS 13 is a seriously gorgeous little laptop – I've found its size almost hard to remind myself of at times when it's been in a backpack or drawer. There have been thinner machines, but I love the decision to avoid a wedge or taper in the design, and it's built really solidly, too.

This quality does mean that it weighs in at almost exactly 1kg, where we all know that more plastic could bring the weight down further, but I still find it to be hugely portable. In fact, I can't think of many recent laptops that would fit better into a flexible working pattern.

Back to the specs side of things, though. That display is a full multi-touch one, so you can swipe and tap if you like, and it comes with a 2560 x 1600 resolution, so it's extremely sharp given the size of the display. It can pull a refresh rate from 30Hz to 120Hz, so smoothness isn't an issue either.

The system is powered by a Series 3 Intel Core 5 Processor 320, as mentioned before, and this is paired with 8GB of RAM – which many people would agree is a slightly eyebrow-raising spec in 2026 on Windows. In the UK, upgrading that spec to 16GB costs a whopping £200 at the point of purchase, too.

You get a 512GB SSD for your file storage, meanwhile, and there's not even an upgrade path to make this 1TB, for instance, which underlines just how mad the pricing situation is becoming in computing.

Performance and Display

To keep going with the positives, I'm really impressed by the display that Dell has squeezed into such a tiny laptop. It's extremely crisp, and the lack of bezels on the left, right, and bottom really does make it feel expansive for the size of the laptop you're actually using.

Brands sometimes talk about "fitting a 13-inch screen into a 12-inch laptop" in a way that can feel slightly disingenuous, but if Dell used that sort of language for the XPS 13 I'd have no issue. The screen-to-body ratio is so impressive here that it really just underlines how impressively light and small the whole XPS 13 feels overall.

I also like the keyboard Dell chose, which is different from the one in the XPS 14 that I raved about earlier this year. Rather than all the keys being right up against each other, this time they're more spaced out and are basically more traditional rather than being chiclet style. I don't really mind either style, but I certainly have no complaints about the typing feel on the XPS 13.

The trackpad, similarly, didn't give me anything to specifically write home about, but in a good way – it's unremarkable but perfectly effective.

Where things do get a little more iffy, though, is when we turn to the XPS 13's actual power. We knew from the start that there would be non-Panther Lake versions of the laptop before the beefed-up versions arrive, but I didn't anticipate the compromises that have been made to get this XPS 13 version out the door.

There's no two ways around it – the Series 3 Intel Core 5 Processor 320 and 8GB of RAM just don't make for as snappy-feeling a Windows experience as I'd expect. And it's certainly a combination that feels like it should be on a cheaper machine. The market for components is absolutely brutal right now, so this might be another example of it claiming a victim.

It's not that you'll feel the pain while web browsing or word processing, necessarily, which does mean that for the majority of simple tasks the XPS 13 will be more than enough for you. It's more of an issue when you start to multitask with more complex workflows.

So, if you're editing image files and connecting external storage, while also leaving Chrome open with a host of tabs, expect some of the multitasking to occasionally feel sluggish, and for the laptop to be fairly maxed out much of the time.

We know that versions using the Panther Lake Core Ultra 7 355 are on the way, and they should be transformative, given the huge uplift in power that chip brings (although it won't have the game-changing graphics of the most powerful Panther Lake chips). Still, I hesitate to wonder what sort of price they'll bring – it can't possibly be a sensible one.

When Dell first showed me the XPS 13, it openly compared it to the MacBook Neo, and at the time it probably had good reason. Even after the Neo's £100/$100 price hike, though, the XPS 13 still comes in looking pretty suspect when it comes to price, and that makes it an awkward laptop to recommend from a specs perspective.

Verdict

I can't remember rooting for a laptop like I was for the XPS 13 before testing it – the hands-on time I had in Taipei at Computex impressed me so significantly that I thought we could have a true all-time great on our hands. In a world where memory prices weren't spiking because of AI, that might have been the case, too.

The XPS 13 is, undoubtedly, the most attractive compact Windows laptop on the market right now from a design standpoint. It's built sturdily and is incredibly sleek and well considered, with every aspect of the laptop feeling premium and careful.

Simultaneously, though, it's overpriced and underpowered. That's close to kryptonite for a laptop of this sort, and I'm sure Dell still has daydreams about being able to launch it with a genuinely competitive price against the MacBook Neo (which also, awkwardly, had to up its price after just 3 months on the shelf).

That context all comes together to make the XPS 13 difficult to judge, not least because its best version isn't here yet. When the Intel Panther Lake-toting product arrives, I suspect it'll be the best premium compact Windows laptop going – but at what price? Until then, the XPS 13 is a harder sell, but still one that's recommendable and might find a cult fanbase purely on its design merits.

Also consider

If you've even half-read this review, you'll be able to guess the first point of comparison for you to consider – the MacBook Neo. Those who don't need a Windows experience will find it cheaper than the XPS 13, and probably a little better-performing. That said, it's heavier and feels less premium, so it's not a straightforward situation.

For those who need the Windows life but are realising that their budget is perhaps bigger than the XPS 13 warrants, there's an easy alternative in Dell's current lineup. The 2026 version of the XPS 14 is a stunner, and has none of the compromises of its smaller sibling – although that price remains stonking.

We're in a fundamentally pretty rancid era for computer tech. Everything seems to be getting more expensive by the day. But if you haven't yet been priced out then there's some real interesting stuff going on. Case in point: the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7X Gen 11, which still represents a great deal too.

Yes, this is a series some of you may know already. But the latest Lenovo Yoga Slim 7X is among the first laptops that we've tried with a Snapdragon X2 Elite processor. This is what's going to have to do battle with not just Intel's new Series 3 generation, but the Nvidia Spark tech that could potentially rewrite the thin-and-light laptop rulebook.

Price & Availability

The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7X Gen 11 was announced at the CES show in early 2026 as part of the first wave of Snapdragon X2 laptops.

It starts at £1050 / $1099 / AU$2449 retail price (you’ll typically pay a bit less online) with the lower-end Snapdragon X2 Plus, or is £1199 / $1649 / AU$2799 for the Elite CPU family we have.

Our specific review model has 32GB RAM, though, which pushes the price up a bit more. Max out all options in Lenovo’s configurator, including a 2TB SSD, and you can get the “RRP” price up again. But at least it's configurable to your needs and budget!

Design

For years, Lenovo has nailed both the looks and practicality of the Lenovo Yoga Slim family. But the one part we always have to mention is the way this isn't quite as "yoga" a laptop as you may assume.

It's not a hybrid. It doesn't even have a touchscreen – although you can spec it up with one. The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7X Gen 11 is a pure ultraportable laptop, with no funny stuff involved, bar a near-but-not-quite 180-degree hinge.

Lenovo has made some perhaps slightly contentious moves to get the weight down to a trim 1.17kg, though. While the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7X Gen 11 has a lovely all-metal outer casing, the screen has a plastic top layer. It's a dead giveaway when reflections distort a bit, as they do here.

This also means we lose the desirable pure flat screen finish you typically get in a glass screen PC. A biggie? That's up to you to decide.

Display

The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7X Gen 11 has a 14-inch 120Hz OLED screen, one whose 3K resolution looks sharp and clean at this size. Colour depth is fantastic too. And, as usual, OLED gets you those inky and deep blacks that make movie borders disappear completely in a dark room.

This generation gets a big brightness upgrade, although you won't see it in all conditions. In a normal room the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7X Gen 11 will reach around 500 nits brightness with normal content.

Feed it some high dynamic range (HDR) video, though, and the ceiling rises to an impressive 1000 nits. This is far brighter than what we saw in previous generation OLED laptops. It's not going to change your life, though, as there's no obvious way to enable that searing brightness when you're web browsing. It's likely to avoid excessive battery use, and should also help avoid OLED burn-in, too.

Make sure you check before buying, though, as Lenovo sells this PC with at least three different screen types. In the cheapest spec you get a 1200p OLED, which wouldn’t look as sharp. And the mid-tier one has a glass touchscreen, but not the brightness of this review model.

Would we be tempted to upgrade to the top-tier display with glass panel but all the goodies of our review one? Absolutely. But you don’t get these options with any retailer, most likely just Lenovo direct.

Keyboard & Touchpad

New tech and trad vibes combine in the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7X Gen 11. And that continues in the keyboard and touchpad.

This laptop has a more chunky and substantial-feeling keyboard than most of its contemporaries. It’s one of my favourites in this class, and is ideal for long stretches of typing, and for all-day working that doesn’t just involve meetings with middle managers.

You can feel some of the Lenovo ThinkPad heritage here, even if these keys aren’t really as deep as those enthusiast-favourite designs.

The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7X Gen 11 also has a decent white LED key backlight. It’s a standard one-zone affair with two intensity levels and an Auto setting.

This laptop’s touchpad is very familiar too. It’s not a haptic pad, just a classic mechanical one. And that means it does have a slim dead zone at the top, an area that does not click.

It’s old-school, but is still a great pad. It has a quality click response, and a super-smooth textured glass surface. There’s been no scripting to save a gramme/quid or two with a plastic pad.

Performance

The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7X Gen 11 will be many folks’ first exposure to Qualcomm’s true second-generation Snapdragon laptop processors.

The chip-maker's first generation made a splash in 2024, for their unusual architecture, long battery life and fab CPU performance. This generation’s aim is to take things even further while addressing the biggest issues with the first, compatibility with some traditional x86 apps.

The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7X Gen 11’s raw performance is terrific, particularly considering how portable this PC is. Its CPU power beats the rival 3rd Gen Intel Ultra Series according to benchmarks, and represents an up to 30% increase in power. That’s not bad across one generational leap.

GPU performance get a huge upgrade too, with a roughly up to 70% boost over the last generation. This is a healthy generational bump, way more than what we typically see.

It means you can run Cyberpunk 2077 at 60fps with a bit of settings massaging, rather than 30fps, and plenty more besides. Gaming power is roughly equivalent to a low-tier gaming laptop, which isn’t bad going given it’s at most a secondary job for the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7X Gen 11.

The one caveat is there’s a version of the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7X Gen 11’s processor that has masses more graphics power, the X2 Elite Extreme. But it’s not seen in all that many models as, presumably, it costs a packet. Check out Asus’ impressive Zenbook A16 to see that one in action.

What this PC and that one don’t have, though, is access to the best of the tech that can turbo-charge real-world frame rates. There’s no bespoke frame generation or upscaling tech here, as seen in entry-level gaming laptops with Nvidia GPUs.

Lenovo also claims this processor offers up to 80 TOPS of AI power, matching the figures for the recently-announced Nvidia Spark. The real-world benefits of this are a little less clear than the base CPU and GPU power, though, unless you’re a power user already running AI models locally off your PC(s).

The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7X Gen 11 also does have a full-on fan-based cooling system, despite having one of these new super-efficient processors. You should be glad about that, though, as it will mean this laptop can operate at, or close to, its max exertion level for longer without major throttling.

As an ultraportable cooling system, the fan tone is relatively low on decibels and higher on the frequency range. But it’s mostly inoffensive.

We’ve also noticed a significant improvement to app compatibility – some apps that flat-out don’t work with Snapdragon X1 laptops run just fine here. However, there appears to be some support issues with the DirectX 12 graphics framework, which has been an issue in getting some games to run, including Resident Evil 5 and Guardians of the Galaxy.

Compared with the class of 2024, though? A major compatibility glow up.

Battery Life & Features

The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7X Gen 11 has a fairly ordinary 70Wh capacity battery but you can stretch this out to a very long runtime if you don’t push the laptop too hard.

When playing video, the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7X Gen 11 will last around 15-and-a-half hours. That’s towards the higher end of what we’ve seen from the latest generation of portability-first laptops, despite some of them claiming stamina upwards of 30 hours.

Or, at the other end of the spectrum, expect around 92 minutes when maxed out playing games. These processors may be dead efficient, but there’s no getting around that rendering gaming visuals needs power – and a good amount of it.

The speakers are the one area of the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7X Gen 11 that isn’t particularly remarkable. While these are decent-sounding, their bass depth is not close to that of Apple MacBook Air or Pro.

Extra attention has been given to the webcam, though. I has a 9MP sensor, typically enough for 4K stills or video. By default it takes 2560 x 1440 stills and video, but you can bump up the photo resolution to a native 3840 x 2400 pixels if you like.

While this isn’t a clever camera that uses high resolution to offer two fields of view – a normal one and a super-wide view – it is a good league above the laptop webcam norm. And there’s a physical privacy switch on the side for the security aware. You can use it for face recognition logins too.

Unlike a bunch of other Lenovo slim-and-light-laptops, this one absolutely does not bridge the generation gap on connectivity. You get three USB-C ports and that’s it. These are all high-bandwidth USB4.0 ports, though, each offering 40Gbps.

Should you buy the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7X Gen 11?

The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7X Gen 11 is among the best laptops in its class if you’re happy to prioritise practicality and the fundamentals over flashy stuff and extra features.

Highlights include an excellent keyboard, a bright OLED screen (in the top spec), very long battery life, and world-trotting portability.

Our review spec doesn’t have a desirable end-to-end glass screen, nor a touchscreen, but you can spec that. Lenovo offers options in its configurator, leaving the speakers as the only grating issue.

Also Consider

The laptop class of the Snapdragon X2 processor is mostly out there already, and there are some impressive candidates.

If you have more cash to spend, take a look at the Asus Zenbook A16. It costs a chunk more but has an even more powerful processor, a larger screen and yet is basically no heavier at 1.2kg. Its Ceralunium finish doesn’t have the obviously metallic feel of aluminium, though.

For a real hybrid, there’s the latest Microsoft Surface Pro, quietly updated with Snapdragon X2 tech. Its pricing is less aggressive than Lenovo’s, though. You need to spend a few hundred more to match it on specs.

Or there’s Microsoft’s laptop version, the Surface Laptop, which is more a direct rival for the Yoga. A lovely-looking thing that will feel fantastic too, but it “only” has an LCD screen, not an OLED, and again costs hundreds more versus the Lenovo.

There are no two ways around it – the best gaming laptops are super expensive. If you want the sort of performance that can shine on an external monitor at high resolutions, it can be hard to avoid looking at machines that cost thousands (regardless of your currency).

As millions of students around the world head to university or school, whether for the first time or going back after a summer break, though, we know there's a big audience out there who want to save their cash and make astute purchases. So, if you're on the lookout for a cheap (or at least cheaper) gaming laptop for your dorm room, student house or lecture theatre, check out these three options that I think merit a proper look.

T3's Top 3

Best for performance?

Lenovo Legion 5 (Gen 10)

Lenovo's superb laptop isn't exactly cheap – but it's just about as affordable as you can get if you want an Nvidia GeForce RTX 50-series card. This one packs the 5060, the standard card in the lineup, but that crucially means you still get access to newer features like frame-generation and more.

These are total game-changers for laptop gaming, unlocking big boosts to performance with little to no visual cost. That makes this a brilliant option in terms of future-proofing, despite a very fair price, and you can also make a build with lower specs to bring the price down.

That said, the state of the market right now means this still isn't the cheapest option – I'm prioritising quality over sheer pricing.

Best cheap laptop

HP Omen 16 Slim

HP's Omen 16 has been a brilliant budget buy for a good few years now, but this "Slim" version is a much newer idea. It's actually barely slimmer than the standard version, but is the default budget option in the lineup now. The starting point is an RTX 5050 (which isn't much of a step down at all, in truth), and that ensures you'll get some great value for around the £1,000 or $1,000 mark.

This will still play games on great settings, especially if you're not connecting to an external monitor, and while it's hardly the most portable laptop on the market, it's very well-made and durable. That said, don't expect to get much battery life from it – that's simply not its priority.

Best left-field option

Legion Go S SteamOS

Okay, it's not a gaming laptop – but if you want bang for your buck and need to keep the bulkiness to a minimum, I really think most students or canny buyers would do well to look at an affordable portable. The Legion Go S (SteamOS) is my favourite, and its price has held steady, so you're still looking at a brilliant deal compared to most laptops.

The only real limitation it has is that it runs on SteamOS, which uses Linux as its base – that means there will be some non-Steam games that can't run on the machine. Still, the vast majority of PC gaming now does funnel through Steam, giving you a huge amount to explore, and you can even dock it to use it as a genuine mini PC. This is what I'd buy if I was going back to school, frankly.

Verdict

Overall, all three of the options we've laid out make sense depending on your exact budget, and all of them are far more affordable than the machines on our list of the best gaming laptops overall. That said, I do think that the best choice for most people will be a Legion Go S, even with its relatively old central hardware.

The display is great, but really, it's the flexibility that makes it sing. Sure, it won't work great as a productivity machine to study on in the library – but if you're looking for something to game on, it's a special bit of kit that has aged beautifully.

That said, if you do need your choice to be a laptop, with keyboard, trackpad and all, then either the Legion 5 or the Omen 16 Slim should stand you in good stead and enable high-quality gaming sessions between classes.

As we enjoy the summertime, there's that niggling background thought of University or college also looming. "Which MacBook should I buy?" says that voice in your head.

Well, ponder no longer. If you're considering buying a new Apple laptop for your studies, then we're here to help you select the perfect MacBook – specifically for your course.

There are more MacBook options now than in preceding years, but that makes each option a better fit for certain workloads, as we'll get to below. And don't forget: Apple also offers a (typical) 10% discount for students.

So whether you need a lightweight Mac for word processing, or a larger option with extra power for computer modelling, here are the 3 best MacBook options available now:

T3's Top 3

Apple MacBook: Pricing and Discounts

Apple has a dedicated Education Store, where you will find all the Apple products eligible for student discount. Any current or newly accepted higher education students can get these savings, as well as parents buying for higher education students, and teachers and staff working in education.

You will need to verify your eligibility during checkout on the Education Store website, which you do through UNIDAYS in the UK. After that, you'll be able to buy Apple products, including MacBooks and iPads, at a discounted rate.

In terms of pricing, the MacBook Air 13-inch model with the M5 processor starts at £1,199 for students. That's why you might want to seek out an M4 version, which was priced at £999 at launch – and can be had for even less. The MacBook Neo is less again, at £599 for students. But the MacBook Pro is more than both those combined – from £1,899 at its lowest student price.

Apple M4 vs M5 Processors: What's Different?

The M5 is the latest generation of Apple silicon. It's more powerful in terms of compute (CPU), graphics (GPU) and AI (NPU) than the M4 before it – but perhaps by not such a huge amount that you need to buy the latest. Both are 3nm process chips, so are architecturally similar.

Where the bigger shifts come into play are within the variants of chips in the family. The M5 Pro and M5 Max, for example, step things up a margin – just as the M4 equivalents do – with far more graphical nous to make light of specific tasks.

Paying the extra for these step-up chips will mean greater memory, for lighter work in process intensive tasks. You'll have quicker renders, more fluid visuals for 3D models. But you'll also have a lighter bank balance and have to suffer more fan noise – as that extra power needs extra cooling. It's overkill for most basic courses, in short.

Verdict: Which Apple MacBook wins?

Let's try and keep this as simple as possible: for most students, the MacBook Neo is going to be plenty enough – and the savings hugely appreciated to spend on other much-needed materials and life.

That said, if you're studying for an arts or animation or music production or computer modelling course then you might find you need a lot more power. A MacBook Pro will handle demands considerably better – saving you time, which is valuable – despite costing far more. The Pro and Max grade chips reach high professional standards.

In between those two is the sweet spot for many, though, with the MacBook Air a great do-it-all machine. It's got ample power to deal with photo/video editing tasks, for example, surpassing the Neo in this regard – without making as much noise or being as costly as the MacBook Pro.

What about Windows?

This list is for the best student MacBooks, noting, of course, that these run on Apple's MacOS software – not Windows.

It's worth checking whether your course would instead recommend a Windows machine for specific executable files required for certain programmes.

The Windows landscape is complex at present, as there are a multitude of processor options, which present opportunity but, at times, disadvantage with compatibility.

Read our Laptop confusion 101: Should I buy Intel, AMD, Snapdragon or what? feature to help with that conundrum in the Windows space.

Of the current options, however, the HP OmniBook 5 is a great option, per our Cheap Back-To-School Laptops feature.