As any parent will no doubt confirm, one of the things that comes with having children is the need to spend a lot more of your time cleaning. Kids make a lot of mess, and I've found myself spending a bunch more time washing clothes, cleaning floors and sterilizing baby bottles.

You would not believe how much time and effort goes into cleaning those bottles. Like kids themselves, it's shocking to see just how dirty they actually get — and I'm not just talking about the leftover formula they contain. After 9 months of deep cleaning milk bottles, inside and out, I finally caved and got hold of an appliance to do the job for me.

The machine in question is the MomCozy DeepClean Baby Bottle Washer (D8), and it's been such a help that I can't believe I was too cheap to buy something like this a year ago.

How the DeepClean Bottle Cleaner works

The Momcozy DeepClean Baby Bottle Cleaner is exactly what the name suggests. It's a countertop appliance that washes used baby bottles, removing all traces of leftover milk or formula, and then sterilizes them ready to be used later on. It retails for $359, and comes bundles with 60 detergent blocks and four limescale removal tablets.

The appliance has room for up to eight bottles at a time, with a two-tier rack system that lets you wash bottles and nipples simultaneously — aided by 64 water jets capable of spraying 154.4ºF water to help break through whatever leftovers are left on your baby's bottles after use.

The DeepClean also has a built-in 212º F sterilization mode, a 55-minute bottle drying cycle and an integrated fan (complete with HEPA filter) to keep the newly cleaned bottles sterile for up to 72 hours. The general idea is that you slot the bottles in, and let the appliance do all the hard work for you — something that I have grown incredibly grateful for.

Oh, and you don't have to worry about keeping the DeepClean itself clean, since it has a dedicated self-cleaning mode. This 30-minute process can even reduce any built-up limescale — provided that you use one of Momcozy's limescale removal tablets.

Oh, and you don't need to use Momcozy bottles to take advantage of the DeepClean, either. All my baby bottles come from different brands, and they fit into the cleaning rack without issue. However, some of the weird and wonderful shaped bottles you can buy may not slide in quite so smoothly.

It's not just for cleaning bottles

The main benefit is that the DeepClean is not just for washing and sterilizing milk bottles. It's also suitable for all kinds of baby accessories, including gravity bottles and breast pump parts. While Momcozy doesn't specifically approve this, I've also used the machine to clean things like pacifiers and those syringes you use to feed babies medicine without ill effect.

We don't use breast pumps anymore, but there was a point where my wife was using them pretty regularly — and a machine like the DeepClean could have saved us a lot of trouble.

The thing about breast pump parts is that you're not supposed to sterilize them in a microwave, as you can with milk bottles. That's in the manual, but the sleep deprived state new parents find themselves in may gloss over this fact and leave you with a bunch of melted chunks of plastic. That happened to us, and sourcing the appropriate replacement parts was a pretty miserable experience.

Worse is the fact that we had to source a very large pot that was big enough to boil the replacement parts over the stove. Oh and you need to continuously stir the part to stop the plastic melting against the hot metal. The process technically only takes five minutes, but the sheer size of those plastic pieces meant we had to repeat the process multiple times.

Or you can just stick them into a cleaner like the DeepClean and leave them for half an hour as a machine does all the hard work for you. It certainly would have saved us a lot of headaches during one of the most exhaustive periods of our lives.

You're saving more than just time too

The thing about using appliances is that they generally help save you time by doing all the hard work for you. The DeepClean Bottle Cleaner is effectively a miniature dishwasher, or something very close to it, which means it has slashed the amount of time it takes to actually clean my used milk bottles.

The old system of cleaning by hand meant that I had to rinse the bottles, clean them with (fragrance free) dish soap and a brush, rinsing out the suds and then sterilizing them in my 700W microwave for at least seven minutes. The DeepClean does all of that for you; the only thing I need to do to the bottles before cleaning is empty out any leftover formula. In fact, the most time-consuming part of the whole process is filling up the 96-ounce water tank.

The actual cleaning cycle takes at least 28 minutes for the low-powered mode, or 38 minutes for the more intensive clean. That's a lot longer than my old system of hand-washing bottles, but unless you need a clean bottle ASAP, it's not really a big deal. It's not as though you have to stand there and watch the entire cleaning cycle unfold.

Time is only part of the equation, and the 96-oz. water tank is a perfect example of this.

96 ounces feels like a lot of water, and I was admittedly shocked when I saw that almost the entire tank was used in the DeepClean's washing cycle — with the rest being saved to make sterilizing steam. But after that initial outrage, I started to wonder whether it was actually a lot of water.

Frankly, I had no idea how much water I use hand washing baby bottles, and had to find out. It turns out, even if I wash super-conservatively, I could use up around 35oz of water washing a single bottle. So, in the same way that running a full dishwasher might save more water than hand washing, it seems as though the DeepClean might actually reduce your water consumption. More so when you remember that it can clean up to eight bottles (and their respective nipples) at a time without any change in water consumption.

Energy is a little more complicated. Momcozy says that the DeepClean uses 500W of power during the water heating and sterilizing parts of the cycle, which seemed accurate when I tracked by energy usage. Meanwhile the actual cleaning takes up about 55W, and the dryer uses 200W. Meanwhile, my microwave uses around 1,600W, but also only runs for a third of the time.

I'm not good at physics or math, so I know I will mess up the calculations if I try and figure it out. Needless to say, the DeepClean is far from the biggest power draw in your kitchen, and it shouldn't affect your energy bills too much.

It's also worth noting that you should be using the DeepClean with Momcozy's detergent blocks. They cost $20 for 120, working out at around 16.7 cents per cycle. How much that compares to handwashing with dish soap is going to depend on what brand you buy and how much you actually use, but I'd wager that even the fanciest dish soap is going to come in cheaper.

There are some downsides

The first thing I actually noticed about the DeepClean unit is that it's big. 10.6 x 13.78 x 15.35 inches, to be exact, which means it takes up roughly 1.3 cubic feet of space on whichever counter top you've set aside. The only thing I have that comes close is my vertical air fryer, which is so tall it has to be tucked away in the corner.

Placement on the counter matters a lot as well, since the DeepClean doesn't have a tank to store used water. There's a hose at the back of the unit, and that means you need to make sure it drains somewhere appropriate — such as the sink or a bucket. Otherwise you're just going to end up with a very wet floor.

The $359 price tag is also a lot to take in, especially when a microwave bottle sterilizer can be bought for as little as $20. But I have to tell myself that you're buying convenience, and potentially lower bills, which could make that investment worth it — especially if you're still expecting or have a newborn. But if your kid is already moving onto solid food, it's a much tougher sell.

I have found a few other downsides to using the DeepClean at home, though some of these are more about what's going on in my brain than a flaw with the product itself. The big one is that I find it kind of gross to imagine dirty bottles left lying around, waiting for enough of their comrades to justify switching the DeepClean on.

Leftover milk in the height of the hottest summer most people can remember is not a very good mix, after all. Though I will be the first to admit that this is just something I personally need to wrap my head around, and retrain myself to think slightly differently in the face of new technology.

The fact you need to buy extra detergent tablets is also worth bearing in mind, since the DeepClean is not compatible with the usual soaps or detergents you'd use to hand wash dishes. They're not expensive, and you get 60 included with the DeepClean, but it means you will be on the hook to keep buying those blocks for the duration of the appliance's lifespan.

I'll admit I forgot to use the detergent blocks on more than one occasion with no apparent ill effect. But obviously you'll want to make sure your baby's bottles are actually clean, and the detergent is the best way to ensure that.

Limescale is also going to be an issue with any machine that requires water, especially if your local water is as hard as it is in my area. I can't think of a single part of my bathroom or kitchen sink that isn't coated with that pesky layer of white deposit. Momcozy recommends using distilled water, rather than tap water, but to that I say "who has the time for that?"

I've taken to using filtered water instead, and while not perfectly free of excess minerals, it generally extends the amount of time my water-based appliances have between descaling cycles. Momcozy does include descaling tablets in the box, which are compatible with the DeepClean's self-cleaning mode.

Finally, the system that keeps clean bottles sterile for up to 72 hours is all down to a built-in air circulation system. This requires power to run, around 190-200W based on my energy meter, and turning it off means Momcozy can't guarantee the bottles will remain sterile. Such a feature could potentially be useful, especially if you need to clean bottles before going away for the weekend, but it does feel a little like overkill. So if you're anything like me, you'll have the bottles out and packed away safely pretty soon after the cleaning cycle is over.

Verdict

I like using the Momcozy DeepClean Baby Bottle Washer, for the simple fact that it takes all the extra stress and hassle out of the whole bottle-cleaning process. All you need to do is fill the tank, slot the bottles in and turn the machine on. It's an extremely convenient tool to have, and it's something I wish I had back before my son started eating solid food and needed a bottle every couple of hours.

Having handwashed bottles for 9 months does mean that switching to an appliance does take an adjustment. My wife in particular is finding it hard to get out of the habit of washing milk bottles as soon as they're finished. Asking her not to clean up is like asking her not to breathe, so I'm not sure if she's actually used the DeepClean yet.

As for me, I'm coming around to the idea of being much lazier, and not scrubbing used bottles clean. Even if my math is totally wrong, and the DeepClean doesn't end up saving me money on my water or energy bills, I'm at least regaining a little bit more of my time — which is a luxury when you have young kids.

I just wish it wasn't quite so big, because it does take up a lot of space. But I guess that's the price you pay for cleaning up to eight bottles at once.

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We’re in a boom period for video game handhelds. From the Nintendo Switch 2 to handheld PCs, like the Steam Deck OLED and ROG Xbox Ally X20, there’s never been more (and in my opinion, better) ways to take your games on the go. But while these devices focus on the new, the upcoming Evercade Nexus is carving out its own niche by focusing on the past.

The first Evercade hardware launched in May 2020, and six years on, the range has expanded to include home consoles and handhelds. The Evercade Nexus, due for release in October, is the company's latest portable device, and a reminder that sometimes you just can’t beat the classics.

I got the chance to go hands-on with the Evercade Nexus and speak to Sean Cleaver, Head of Marketing at Blaze Entertainment (the company behind the Evercade range), at Gamescom 2026. I came away from this session convinced this little handheld could be a retro fan's dream device.

Into the Nexus

The Nexus marks several firsts for Evercade. It’s the company's first portable with dual analogue sticks, and packs the largest screen of any Evercade handheld, with a 5.89-inch IPS display. Other features include wireless headphone support, dual stereo speakers, Wi-Fi 6 support, and an estimated five hours of battery life, which comfortably beats the Switch 2.

While some previous Evercade handhelds, like the $59 Super Pocket, have gone for a more kid-friendly aesthetic, with brightly colored plastic, the Nexus takes a more unassuming approach. Its slick, black look wouldn’t stand out in a crowd, but I don’t think that’s a flaw. Plus, if you do want to add some color, the Nexus logo underneath the screen lights up and can be customized — though the default red option contrasts quite nicely.

When I first picked up the Evercade Nexus, it felt nice in the hand, and the “Ultra Bright” screen certainly lived up to its name. The device comes bundled with a Banjo-Kazooie Double Pack (a firm childhood favorite of mine, and what brought the Evercade Nexus to my attention), and the lush greens of the game’s first level, Spiral Mountain, looked particularly sharp.

The D-pad is also tactile, which is vital for a retro device with many games originally designed for systems that didn’t offer analog sticks. So this is an area that Evercade really needed to nail.

On the flipside, the triggers felt quite sluggish, but this was really my only sticking point (pun intended). For the most part, the Evercade Nexus seems a well-designed handheld. And it’s clear it’s been created with retro gaming at the forefront; it even offers a “Tate Mode,” which at the touch of a button lets you play vertical screen games the way they were designed.

For cartridge collectors

In a gaming landscape where Sony has announced plans to stop producing physical game discs, the conversation around actually owning your collection has never burned brighter. This gives the Evercade Nexus another big advantage, because it’s a handheld rooted in the good old days, where you got a box, a thick manual, and a physical cartridge that you own.

The system is compatible with Evercade’s entire range of existing cartridge-based software, and this library is impressive. There’s the usual assortment of compilations that include titles from Atari, Interplay, Namco and more, as well as collections dedicated to franchises like Tomb Raider, Doom and Duke Nukem. And it’s not all favorites from yesteryear either. Evercade has released retro-inspired modern indies like Full Void on cartridges as well.

If you take your retro gaming seriously or just want to get lost in a sea of childhood nostalgia, Evercade’s library is a treasure trove of games that shaped the industry as we know it. And while it is still a handheld released in 2026, meaning it has Wi-Fi connectivity and some online features, every cartridge is playable out of the box with no need for digital downloads.

If you buy an Evercade cartridge, the whole game is on the cart. It’s yours to treasure for years to come (or loan to a friend, or sell on, if you wish). You’re not buying a digital license; you’re buying full games, like the old days.

My verdict on Evercade Nexus (for now)

Launching in October for $199 / £169, the Evercade Nexus really could be the ultimate retro games handheld. It’s certainly not trying to compete with the Switch 2 or the ROG Ally by offering a AAA experience on a portable. Instead, it’s a nostalgia device that harkens back to a simpler time for gaming. Before always-online requirements and mandatory downloads.

Maybe that succinct pitch won’t appeal to the next generation of gamers, but for a certain type of player, it’s a message that will resonate. If you appreciate the classics and want a well-designed handheld device that successfully highlights the best of what video games used to be, the Evercade Nexus might be the portable console you’ve always wanted.

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So Ikea and Xbox just dropped the 9-piece YXSTABY collection at Gamescom, and I’ll be real — it might just be the smartest gaming furniture we’ve seen in years.

Normally, “gaming furniture” means angular plastic monstrosities, aggressive neon accents and enough RGB lighting to signal passing aircraft. But Ikea tied up with Xbox to take a completely different direction — focusing on muted tones and light wood finishes, and simple functionality.

All of it tucks subtle splashes of Xbox green away, and it’s all designed to let you transform a living space into a gaming setup, while cleaning and hiding it all away.

The star of the show: The thumbstick stool

Xbox and Ikea actually used the original 3D design files for the Xbox controller’s analog stick to get the proportions and seating curve just right for the $50 thumb stick stool. But the most fascinating part to a fidgety person like me is that it actually moves.

The base is curved so it tilts in all directions while you sit on it — perfectly mimicking the movement of a real thumbstick. That being said, there is a legitimate benefit to this in being the ideal chair to lean into the on-screen action when you’re locking in.

And that textured grip around the edge of the joystick actually helps stop you from falling off. I’d be nervous if Xbox had gone for convex joystick heads at this moment!

Lounging around: The lounge chair and the d-pad cushion

If you’ve ever tried to fit a massive, racing-style gaming chair into a dorm room or shared apartment, you know it instantly takes over the entire space. Instead, Ikea has focused on low-profile comfort and stealthy utility.

The lounge chair ($120) uses a cantilevered bouncy frame that’s designed to flex with you — just the right angle to lean back during comfy gaming sessions, while not leaning you back too much so you can lean forward and lock-in to that high-stakes multiplayer match.

On top of that, there’s a hidden storage pocket right underneath the seat to stash your controllers, and the fabric cover is completely removable and machine washable.

Then there’s the D-pad cushion completing the setup ($18). This plush throw is molded directly after the faceted Xbox directional buttons, and the perfect companion piece to the lounge chair… But not for the way you think.

You see, it’s definitely sneaking a subtle “if you know, you know” piece of gaming iconography into your decor, but the X shape is pretty ideal for resting on your lap for an ergonomic elbow stand for playing on a controller.

Stealth storage and clever upgrades

And for anyone dealing with a cramped space, the stealthy storage options here are brilliant.

Whether it’s the rolling TV stand mounted on casters to moving your gear around ($150), the sleek wooden $35 toolbox that neatly stores all controllers and cables (but doubles as a laptop stand too), or the $18 D-pad platter — a stainless steel serving tray molded perfectly into the sunken cross shape of the directional buttons — you’ve got all you need to make the most of any space.

But in particular, shout-out to the neat coffee table organizer that is also on wheels, but has a nice homely feel to it to hide away your gaming peripherals.

Verdict & availability

But the best part about this drop (as you’ve probably seen throughout my piece) is that the pricing remains remarkably down to earth. The YXSTABY collection hits Ikea stores and online starting October 1.

If you’re tired of sacrificing your living room to an RGB gaming den, this is the exact compromise you’ve been waiting for.

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Before I switched to majoring in Communications, I dreamed of entering the world of video game development by picking up a college degree in Computer Science.

That initial dream of mine quickly turned into something I know I wasn’t built for once I was left utterly confused after reading up on the topics of C++ and C# for game engines and system logic. To be completely honest and blunt, I just knew I wasn’t smart enough to grasp everything that goes into creating the types of games me and my friends wanted to play.

But as I sit here and type out this article, I feel like I finally get to achieve that lofty goal of mine in the strangest way possible — through a vibe coding app that’s accessible from the comfort of my iPhone. Meta recently launched a free app called Pocket for iOS and Android devices that lets you get as creative as you’d like as a mobile game maker and prompt your concept into something that’s actually playable.

I figured it was time to show the world my creative genius as a game designer by vibe coding (which is simply describing what you want to an AI instead of manually writing out code) my own playable experiences. And honestly, this little experiment ended up being more than I thought it would.

Slashing unicorns, shooting bubbles and bouncing on clouds with trampolines

During my first go-round with Pocket, I was treated to the Pocket app’s default game, which told me to tilt my phone to move a gumball machine full of sweet, multicolored contraptions. It was a decent little interactive experience, but I yearned for something a bit more complex and satisfying to play.

For my first game, I had the inkling to get into some medieval fantasy action suitable for younger players. Once I put in my prompt, the app went to work for a few seconds as it turned my words into a playable game. Imagine my amazement when the finished product came out as something that would have kept me busy during my days as a toddler who had no siblings to annoy.

All I had to drag my pint-sized warrior across the screen warrior across the screen and tap it whenever I wanted to swing my blade to vanquish some no-good unicorns. After spending far too much time cutting down evil creatures falling out of the sky, I started my next game project.

This time, I felt like honoring a classic match-three puzzler that got far too many quarters out of me back in the day. Bust-A-Move (better known as Puzzle Bobble in Japan) is simple, cute and straight to the point — attach three bubbles of the same color to make them pop so you can clear them all out. This type of game has gotten a million and one copycats across consoles and mobile gaming storefronts.

My prompt explained that game’s concept quite clearly and, thankfully, the Pocket app knew exactly what I was trying to make. 15 seconds later and BOOM…my own match-three bubble puzzle game was born. Tapping to shoot my bubble into other ones became my dosage of fun for about 45 minutes before I had another lightbulb moment for my next game creation.

For my third and final vibe coding exercise, I wanted to play something that’s all about staying in the air and not falling to my doom.

With visions of Jetpack Joyride circling my brain, I entered my prompt and ended up producing a wholesome game I’d let my younger cousins play all day and night. All I had to do to keep my miniature avatar alive was tilt/drag the screen to move them from left to right and have them bounce on trampolines encased within clouds. The blue and white ones gave me a decently sized jump, while the grey and white ones disappeared after bouncing on them once and the pink and yellow ones threw me even higher into the sky.

This game ended up being my most complex since it featured some challenging elements that kept it from getting stale after a minute or two.

Once I was done making my games, I took a trip to my “Playlists” tab to see if I could find other people’s games. All I had to do was scroll down and find the “Discover” section full of curated picks to find even more interesting ideas. Plus, every time I opened the Pocket app after a few hours, a whole new game would pop up on my home screen (shout out to “josh” for introducing me to his highly entertaining “pocket space copter” game).

Final thoughts

Meta’s Pocket app is such a fun way to familiarize yourself with vibe coding and turn your video game concepts into something that’s actually tangible. To keep my creative juices flowing, I went to ChatGPT to see if it could generate some game-making prompts (one of them gave me the perfect Flappy Bird copycat!), so feel free to use these for yourself and add your own details to make them all your own:

• Flappy Bird-style: Create a simple one-button arcade game where I control a tiny UFO flying through a constantly changing alien city. Tap to rise and release to fall. Add increasingly difficult obstacles, a score counter, high-score tracking, and funny sound effects.
• Angry office printer: Create a game where I'm an office worker trying to defeat an evil printer. The printer randomly jams, spits out paper, launches ink cartridges, and summons error messages. Give me different attacks and make the boss progressively more ridiculous.
• Don't press the button: Create a game centered around a giant red button labeled "DO NOT PRESS." Every time I press it, something different and increasingly absurd happens. Track how many times I've pressed it and create at least 20 different outcomes.
• Choose-your-own-adventure RPG: Create a visual RPG where every decision I make changes the story. Give me health, inventory, money, and reputation stats. Include at least 10 different endings and make some endings only accessible through specific combinations of choices.
• Let Pocket make something on its own: Build me a simple playable arcade game based on a concept you invent. Keep the controls extremely simple and make the first version playable within 30 seconds. After building it, add three mechanics that make the game more addictive without making it significantly more complicated.

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I’ll be real. When I saw the ROG Xbox Ally X20 at Computex 2026, and saw how Asus was dodging the questions of price like an Elden Ring player panic-rolling through a boss fight, I braced myself for the worst.

But then the news broke here at Gamescom — you can pre-order one now for $1,299 standalone, and it’s set to launch on October 15th. Now, after seeing how the supreme MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ with Intel Arc G3 Extreme came in at nearly two thousand dollars, this actually is not that bad.

Yes, it’s $300 more. But after getting more hands-on time with this “Edition 20” transparent facelift (which looks seriously slick to a nerd like me) and its glorious OLED panel, dare I say I’m starting to feel this could be kind of a worthwhile premium handheld.

Performance and Power

Well, from the start, it’s the same core performance specs: AMD Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme, 24GB of LPDDR5X RAM and a 1TB SSD, which is all fueled by an 80Wh battery inside.

Don’t get me wrong — Intel well and truly has AMD’s number in this area. We’re still waiting for an upgraded FSR to come to the Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme, while Team Blue steams ahead with XeSS 3 multi-frame generation.

But every frame counts and with that higher sustained TDP thanks to the evolved internal cooling system to combat the OLED panel’s heat sensitivity, you’re getting noticeably more bang for your buck. 1080p 60 FPS at medium settings on Forza Horizon 6 is absolutely possible for example.

OLED perfection (no more glare)

A gaming handheld is just as much about its screen as it is about everything else, and that 7.4-inch ROG Nebula HDR OLED 120Hz VRR panel is quite the canvas for your games. With a dazzling 1,400-nit peak brightness, picture quality survived even under the harsh spotlights of the demo room I was in.

All the games I played are a pure flash flood of color — whizzing on by with an excellent contrast ratio to really provide some inky blacks and really bring a title to life in a way that your standard IPS panels can’t match.

Curing the drift

Then there’s the ergonomic uplifts too. My thoughts are already clear on the record that the ROG Xbox Ally is the most comfortable handheld I’ve ever used with the contoured controller arms making it a joy to play on.

But with the X20, Asus has upgraded a few things across the board — including magnetic TMR joysticks that track magnets instead of physical contacts (effectively eliminating joystick wear and tear). On top of that, the bumpers have been reshaped for better grip, the ABXY buttons are subtly more domed than before and there are rubberized grips on the controller arms.

Then, there’s the transforming D-Pad. Rotate it 90 degrees and you can swap from an 8-way input for fighting games to a simpler 4-way cross for retro or indie titles. It’s one of those small things that I took for granted at first, but once I used it and eliminated any unread inputs in a platformer, it was a small but significant tweak that I ultimately appreciated!

Let’s talk about the $2,499 Anniversary Bundle

Now, let’s talk about the Pelican-cased elephant in the room. There is a monster $2,499 bundle here. Alongside that case, you get the ROG Xreal R1 Edition 20 AR glasses and a dBrand Killswitch case complete with a motherboard-patterned skin.

That’s a crazy price in and of itself, but I want to go deeper on the Xreal R1s here because while I was initially not too happy with the desktop PC connectivity in my review, the software tweaks in here with Asus DisplayWidget Center really unlock some interesting use cases.

For starters, there’s the 360-degree wallpapers — essentially giving you that floating screen in a VR-esque space rather than seeing the world around your glasses. But most intriguingly is FreeLook.

Basically think of this as a replacement for your right joystick. Instead of using that to look around, the tie-up between Asus and Xreal means you can use the 3DoF tracking on the glasses to just look around a game with your head. That’s going to be huge for games where spatial awareness is key like flight sims.

Value for money?

Now, now. I wouldn’t go that far. It’s still a $1,300 device and for those who want to get into PC gaming on the go, the lower end ROG Xbox Ally is actually becoming the value for money option (with everything else shooting up in price around it).

But while the X20 has a steep entry fee, that combination of the 1,400-nit OLED, Z2 Extreme and drift-proof sticks makes that price increase a little easier to swallow.

Maybe I was a little too hard on this thing before.

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When you enable full path tracing in a modern game, the lighting looks stunning — but the illusion is often broken by visual artifacts like smudged reflections, ghosting details, light trails that fade weirdly and dark corners that “boil” with digital noise.

Nvidia is attempting to eradicate those issues for good with DLSS 4.5 Ray Reconstruction, and I’ve spent a few days with this tech to see if the company’s new gaming AI model can finally clean up path tracing’s messy edges.

The truth of it is the same as I’ve felt about ray tracing and path tracing at large. If you stop to pixel-peep, the visual upgrade is undeniable. But if you’re expecting a massive paradigm shift in the middle of a frantic firefight, you need to temper your expectations.

Sorry for the reality check, and credit to Team Green for managing to make trash bags shinier and more reflective in Alan Wake 2, but this is definitely an iterative upgrade.

How to activate DLSS 4.5 Ray Reconstruction

Just like a lot of Nvidia’s gaming features, you’ve got to go into the overrides. Pop into the specific game that supports DLSS 4.5 Ray Reconstruction, open the DLSS overrides window, click the dropdown on Ray Reconstruction and select “Model F.”

At that point, you’re off to the races. The only game I noticed any weird glitching on with the override turned on is Portal RTX, which I’m sure will be ironed over with an update. But everything else worked without a hitch.

What is Ray Reconstruction?

Well, the demands of path tracing are starting to outstrip the raw hardware capabilities of consumer GPUs. Calculating the real physical light paths for millions of pixels every second is just too much to do.

Instead of painting every single pixel, the game flings a handful of dots of paint across the canvas — just enough to capture rough reflections, colors and shadows. The end result is a noisy, static-filled mess of dots. Something is needed to join the dots.

The old fix was a technique graphics cards used called “denoisers.” I can go into the specifics about these hand-tuned technologies, but think of it like taking a wet sponge and smudging those paint dots together. It does the job in filling the gaps, but fine details get blurred out and subtle lighting can flicker and “boil.”

So instead, Nvidia’s DLSS Ray Reconstruction hands that unfinished canvas to an AI network trained on supercomputers with millions of flawless images. Think of it like an expert art restorer with a photographic memory — looking at the scattered dots of light, recognizing the 3D geometry of the scene, and predicting how the light naturally behaves.

The end result (as you’ll see) is crispier puddle reflections, detailed textures without blurring or ghosting and shinier, less smudged light bounces. It takes this taxing work off the GPU, so it can focus on rendering the game, while AI pattern recognition does the heavy lifting of calculating the true light data.

The faster, smarter engine in DLSS 4.5

To understand what DLSS 4.5 Ray Reconstruction is actually doing, you have to look at the math. Nvidia has replaced its own on-board denoiser with a new 2nd generation transformer model. This AI brain processes 20% more parameters and delivers a massive 35% boost in compute capability.

That means this hypothetical art restorer is now able to more deeply analyze the space, and intelligently use game engine pixel sampling and motion data to improve the accuracy and stability of lighting — doing so millions of times a second.

And the best part? Nvidia claims this massive increase in AI compute comes with a negligible performance impact.

Testing that claim, my RTX 5080 setup saw no frame rate penalty whatsoever, and for lower-end hardware in Nvidia’s 50-series family (like the RTX 5060 Ti (16GB) and the RTX 5070 Ti-armed Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 that I’m testing), the frame drops are negligible (average drop of 2 FPS).

Of course, that should extend to the RTX 40 and 50 series GPUs. But if you are running an older RTX 20 or 30 series card with the older architecture, limitations mean you may see a more noticeable performance penalty.

The pixel-peeping test

So since this is one for those that just want to scrutinize the specifics of a frame, let’s dip into this with a few games on my RTX 5080 monster rig — putting DLSS 4 and DLSS 4.5’s Ray Reconstruction head-to-head. And I’m not going to lie, when you stop to take a beat and look around, the differences in still frames are striking.

In Cyberpunk 2077, the bright red glow from the “Livepunch Booze” neon sign washes over the floor in a softer, blurrier spread with DLSS 4. Enabling 4.5 shows off the tighter light bounce and higher-contrast, which casts sharper, concentrated red and cyan reflections on those polished floor panels.

Throw in much sharper, more cohesive specular highlights and a deeper contrast in darker areas without that fuzzy noise that plagued the older denoiser, and the tweaks are small, but significant.

Moving over to Pragmata, the moving neon makes DLSS 4.5 Ray Reconstruction much more noticeable. There’s a moving laser jumping puzzle that makes it so much more obvious — seeing the lasers just fizzle away on the older model vs immediately snapping away.

Finally, in Alan Wake 2, Nvidia showed me a demo of shinier trash bags. But if anything, they’re doing the tech a bit of a disservice. This has always been a showcase game for Team Green, and something as simple as walking around a safe room shows off small detail improvements that come together to make quite a difference.

Saga’s hair, coat and surrounding surfaces are much better defined with smoother, natural lighting bouncing off them. The grain of the wood paneling goes from slightly blurred to no blur whatsoever, lighting sources bounce more tightly off surfaces, and mirror reflections are a lot sharper.

My verdict

Full credit to Nvidia here — improving image fidelity by running an AI model with 20% more parameters without tanking frame rates on modern hardware is a genuine engineering triumph.

Of course, I say that specifically about the RTX 50-series gear I tested this on. Nvidia told me that it’s not expected to meaningfully impact performance on older GPUs. I can’t test that, but we’ll find out soon enough as some of my friends in the industry dish their thoughts.

But DLSS 4.5 Ray Reconstruction is an iterative polish. It cleans up the edge cases and makes your photo mode captures look absolutely spectacular. But during actual, fast-paced gameplay, the difference between DLSS 4 and DLSS 4.5 effectively blends into the background.

That being said, for the average gamer in motion, you’ll be hard pressed to notice the differences in the midst of gameplay. For the players, this is just a nice, quiet cleanup job. A small upgrade that will become more significant as we head into a world of path traced games.

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I’ve tested a few esports-tier gaming monitors over the past couple of years — all touting refresh rates comfortably in the hundreds of hertz and offering smoothness unlike anything I’ve seen before.

But all of them have been based on TN IPS panels that may be super fast, but don’t necessarily have the motion clarity to match. Enter the $1,099 Asus ROG Swift OLED PG259QWS ACE (baffling name, I know), the world’s fastest OLED esports monitor with a 720Hz refresh rate.

As it turns out, that shift to OLED is utterly groundbreaking for motion clarity, and it actually helped me play better at Counter-Strike… Crazy, I know, but let me explain.

Supercharged clarity

I know the main allure of OLED has always been the color and contrast ratio — that’s always been my thought process anyway. But by moving away from the flickering of IPS display technology and drastically upping OLED's pixel response time, it is almost like watching a picture move rather than a screen.

The PG259QWS features a staggeringly low 0.02ms response time, which preserves motion clarity as I’d never seen before. Even my fastest flick-shots didn’t make the game smear.

That is all thanks to this TrueBlack Glossy Tandem 1080p WOLED panel that solves the compromise between raw speed and visual fidelity. It delivers a flash flood of color with a 99.5% DCI-P3 color gamut and deep, inky blacks, plus a peak 1,700-nit brightness, while staying sharply detailed in every challenging situation.

Popping shots off at distance got a whole lot easier with the AWP without using the scope, thanks to this panel!

The cheat code — Position Sensor

Now, when it comes to playing competitively wherever you are, one of the biggest friction points isn’t just frame drops or picture smearing — it’s the ergonomics. When a player sits down at a tournament desk, whipping out a tape measure to recreate the exact millimeter-perfect monitor angle of a home setup is rather stressful.

But this is where Asus’ clever work comes in: the Position Sensor. Basically, using real-time monitoring, you can get a readout of the exact height, angle, and your distance to the screen. It’s one of those small features that’s incredibly critical to getting the best performance in-game.

A gamer’s verdict

For the casual player, 720Hz is absolute overkill. But for the top 1% of competitive players chasing motion perfection, Asus has just set a new gold standard.

For the rest of you, there are cheaper OLED options, including the ROG Strix OLED XG259QWPG for $699, which reduces the refresh rate and cuts the cost. But to this player’s eyes, I have to applaud Asus here — this is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.

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I’ve been exploring the AI tool market and have a better understanding of the biggest strengths and weaknesses of the big three.

ChatGPT’s response time is amazingly fast, and it's great for creative brainstorming, but it's more prone to hallucinations. Claude is great for lengthy document analysis, and its writing reads more human-like, but its usage limits are pretty tight for free users and cap out pretty quickly. As for Google’s signature chatbot, Gemini’s reliance on real-time web research that cites the most up-to-date information and its Google Workspace integration are top-notch. But it’s also prone to hallucinations and isn’t all that great at handling complex prompts.

With all those pros and cons in mind, I’ve been engaging in the practice of starting my research-themed chats in ChatGPT, moving them over to Claude and then doing a final transfer of them over to Gemini. I’ve done a whole lot of copying and pasting text to make that happen, just so I can get a second and third opinion on what Claude and Gemini’s interpretation of my initial questions and each preceding chatbot’s responses.

Thankfully, my editor made me aware of a Chrome extension that makes my whole “chat transfer” practice a whole lot simpler. And it’s given me a better way to retain context between chats and stronger follow-up responses to my research queries.

Shifting my conversations with just a few clicks

The Chrome extension that’s now a central part of my chatbot research sessions is ThreadPort, which goes beyond just summarizing a conversation from another AI tool in a separate one.

After attaching it to my Chrome browser, I made it more easily accessible by clicking on the extension icon at the top right of my screen next to my Google profile pic and clicking on the pin icon to make the ThreadPort extension visible as a purple icon that’s visible in the same area.

ThreadPort actually moves the full transcript of a conversation, makes sure the subsequent AI that gets access to that information reads everything that was previously said and picks up exactly where I left off when trying to move the conversation forward. You can move your chats from ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini, plus you can do that in reverse order at the start of a new chat if need be.

It truly doesn’t matter how long your initial conversation may end up being—ThreadPort is capable of handling the transcript transcription action with ease, as it does a good job of retaining a chat’s defined task. On the digital safety front, the developer of this Chrome extension eased my fears by stating that my transferred chats will never be contained with their servers (they’re nonexistent, after all).

During one of my recent research sessions, I ended up using ThreadPort to get a wider range of opinions on the subject at hand. I started with ChatGPT by asking about the biggest development in the video game industry that will have a major impact on the next generation of home consoles.

The chatbot gave me its take on the eight major developments I need to pay attention to and the bigger-picture statement surrounding the next generation of gaming (The really interesting story isn't “PS6 vs. next Xbox.” It's whether Sony and Microsoft can convince people that buying a dedicated console still makes sense in a world where gaming is increasingly available on PCs, handhelds, phones, and the cloud).

With all that in mind, I clicked on the ThreadPort icon to take all of the information ChatGPT laid out, move it over to Claude and continue my conversation over there by asking for its thoughts on the current most positive gaming trends it foresees becoming the norm for the future of the industry itself.

To make its intention clear, ThreadPort pasted the transcript from ChatGPT into Claude by stating the following: You are continuing a conversation that started on ChatGPT. Below is the transcript so far. Absorb it as context and continue the conversation naturally — do not summarize it back to me, just pick up where it left off. If the transcript ends with a question from me, answer it.

Claude read through the entire transcript it was given and acknowledged it with this statement: Good context to draw from. Now let me continue the conversation naturally, focusing on the genuinely positive side rather than just repeating the same industry-shift framing.

Once I was finished reading through Claude’s optimistic take on the conversation I started with ChatGPT, I decided to transfer both chatbots’ combined bits of dialogue from Claude to Gemini. Google’s chatbot took the hint as to what I was talking about beforehand and used it to answer my follow-up-question about the negative trends in the gaming industry that it predicts will happen during the next console cycle.

Gemini initially responded to me in the same manner that Claude did, as it pointed out what was already said in my previous conversation: The structural cracks in the business model point to a console cycle that could be harsher on developers and consumers alike. While the previous points highlight shifts in technology and ecosystems, these are the negative, high-impact developments heading into the next hardware generation.

The takeaway

Putting ThreadPort through its paces with my gaming industry-focused research session became a lot more comprehensive with all that chatbot switching and info-retaining transcripts that helped ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini pick up where the other one left off.

Utilizing ChatGPT’s fast response time, getting the most out of Claude’s ability to analyze longer text threads and tapping into Gemini’s use of Google’s real-time information across the internet came together to paint a clear picture of what I was looking for. I’ll be sure to use ThreadPort for my future chatbot research sessions to get as much complete data and predictive takeaways on the topic at hand.

Here’s hoping Perplexity and Kimi become a part of ThreadPort’s chat-switching chatbot family at some point.

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It's time to clear a space on your nightstand — the new Hatch Sleep Clock is here and I'm already won over. Combining contactless sleep tracking with a circadian-friendly sunrise alarm clock, the Hatch Sleep Clock, now $249.99 at Hatch, promises to be the smartest thing next to your bed.

Adding a sleep tracker to a Hatch sunrise alarm clock is, in my opinion, an excellent idea. It takes the sleep-friendly tech of the best sunrise alarm clocks and adds the data to see the benefits at play. All without needing a watch, ring, or headband. I was eager to get my hands on it.

But can the reality of the Hatch Sleep Clock live up to the promise? I've been taking it for a spin — placing it delicately on my nightstand, in other words — to see we should throw away the wearables.

What is the Hatch Sleep Clock?

The Hatch Sleep Clock is a sunrise alarm clock and sleep tracker, rolled up in one neat package. (It's also a white noise machine, making it a true triple threat.)

As a white noise machine and sunrise alarm clock, the Hatch Sleep Clock will gradually ease you into sleep and gently waking you up in the morning.

As a sleep tracker, the Sleep Clock observes your rest throughout the night. It then delivers insight into your sleep cycle and routine.

And it does all this from a position on your nightstand. No wearable required.

How does the Hatch Sleep Clock work?

As a sunrise alarm clock, the Hatch Sleep Clock isn't exactly breaking new ground. At least, nothing that hasn't already been covered by the Hatch Restore 3. It slowly floods the room with light to naturally trigger your circadian response and wake you up. I'll dive into all that later.

The sleep tracking is the real story of the Hatch Sleep Clock. Contactless trackers are driving the next generation of sleep tech, offering a way to observe your sleep without the intrusion of a health wearable.

While wearables typically use a combination of metrics to measure sleep, the Hatch Sleep Clock relies on "ultra-low-power radio signals" to observe movement. From this, it determines which sleep stage you're in.

At the end of the the night it collates this data into an attractive chart — honestly, it's a work of minimalist art — but no sleep score.

The more you use the Hatch Sleep Clock, the more it learns your sleep. Including how the Hatch fits into your routine. So if you sleep better on nights with gentle rainstorms or drift off faster when enjoying a podcast, it can let you know. Then it's up to you to adjust your routine.

A contactless device that tracks your sleep... Well, most of it

Through 'low power sensors', the Sleep Clock tracks your rest from your nightstand with what Hatch claims is 97% accuracy (based on a third-party study.)

Movement tracking is the kind of thing you find in free sleep tracking apps. The Sleep Clock costs $249. Needless to say, I was wary.

But even compared to my Oura Ring 5, the best sleep tracker we've tested, the Sleep Clock is pulling in good results. It's great at identifying when I've gotten in and out of bed, and it has the general outline of my sleep nailed. If you want an overview of your night, the Hatch will provide it.

There's one notable problem, however. While the Oura Ring detected just 56 minutes of deep sleep, the Hatch thought I managed over 2 hours. Based on my energy levels today, I'm inclined to trust the Oura.

It's still early days (early nights?) for the Hatch Sleep Clock, so I'll keep an eye on how my data compares. For now, I'll say it's good at the picture but struggles with the finer details.

Bookend your day with a stress-busting sunrise alarm clock

Of course, the Sleep Clock still offers Hatch's signature sunrise alarm clock. You set a wake up time and in the 30 minutes beforehand the Hatch gradually floods the room with light.

This sunrise mimicking effect is intended to kickstart your circadian cycle. (Light triggers the cortisol awakening response.) By the time your (gentle) alarm goes off, you should be primed to wake up.

It's summer, so my sunrise alarm clock is facing some stiff competition from the actual sun. But the Sleep Clock did as it promised, brightening in the half hour before my alarm was set to go off. I know, because I was already awake in my sunlit room.

Right now, it's the pre-bed programs that have caught my eye. The Hatch Restore 3 also offers a turn down service, featuring curated lights and sound.

I've only experienced a hotel turn down service once in my life and the Hatch can't quite compare — no chocolate on the pillow, for a start — but it's still pretty luxurious. My room was bathed in relaxing light while soothing sound emanated from my Hatch. For a brief moment, my bedroom was a spa.

Final thoughts so far

The Hatch Sleep Clock still delivers as a sunrise alarm clock and the turn down service made even my messy bedroom feel luxurious. But so far, none of this justifies paying the extra $80 to upgrade from the Restore 3.

So is the sleep tracking worth the extra? Based on my early testing, I'll say yes... with a but. For sleep tracking aficionados who want precise, in-depth data, you're better off sticking with your wearable.

If you want an overview of your sleep from a non-invasive tracker, the Sleep Clock is a smart pick. And while the upgrade from Restore 3 to Sleep Clock might seem like a price jump, $80 is on the cheap side for a decent sleep tracker.

The Honor Robot Phone is no longer just a concept. We went hands-on with the final version of the Honor Robot Phone, and it's officially going on sale in China starting August 20 for RMB 9,999 (around $1,480), putting it roughly in the same price bracket as the iPhone 17 Pro Max in the country.

While I compared the Honor Robot Phone with the iPhone 17 Pro Max, one question has been on my mind ever since I first used the device: Is it actually better than a dedicated pocket gimbal camera?

I tested the Honor Robot Phone alongside the Insta360 Luna Ultra to find out, and the answer surprised me. The dedicated gimbal is still better overall, but Honor has gotten so close that you might not need to carry one anymore.

Honor got surprisingly close to a dedicated gimbal on its first try

The most impressive thing about the Robot Phone is just how similar the shooting experience feels to using an actual pocket gimbal camera. Honor has mounted a 200MP f/1.6 camera on a physical arm that can move around to stabilize footage and follow subjects.

Of course, the form factors are completely different. The Luna Ultra is designed specifically to be held as a camera, so it's naturally more comfortable when you're recording for longer durations.

But the core idea is pretty much the same on both. Even on the Robot Phone, you're getting pretty much the same moving gimbal setup as the Luna Ultra, except it's built into a standard slab smartphone that doesn't feel ridiculously thick.

There are a few small differences, though. In my testing, I found the Luna Ultra slightly faster to get up and running. You can pull it out and start recording almost immediately, whereas getting into the Robot Phone's gimbal camera takes an extra second or two.

Interestingly, both devices also share the same limitation when it comes to vertical video. Neither physically rotates its main sensor when you switch to portrait recording. Instead, both crop into the horizontally oriented sensor, meaning vertical footage tops out at roughly 2.8K rather than native 4K.

Even the software experience is remarkably similar

Speaking of similarities, the software experience on both devices is surprisingly close as well. Both offer subject tracking, letting you lock onto a person and have the gimbal automatically follow them to keep them in the frame.

In my testing, I expected the Luna Ultra to have an advantage here, but it really doesn't. I tried tracking a person in a busy Shenzhen bay area while walking alongside them, and the Honor Robot Phone easily matched the Luna Ultra at keeping the subject in frame.

The difference only really becomes noticeable when the subject moves quickly toward the edge. During normal movement, though, the Robot Phone had no trouble staying locked on, even with other people moving around the scene.

The Robot Phone also offers a Super Steady mode that adds another layer of stabilization on top of the physical gimbal, something the Luna Ultra doesn't offer. That said, I don't think you're missing much without it. Footage from both devices already comes out incredibly stable.

One software advantage the Robot Phone does have is Honor's partnership with ARRI. If you're into filmmaking or more serious content creation, you can use ARRI's cinematic color science while shooting video, which isn't something you get on the Luna Ultra.

On the other hand, newer pocket gimbals like the Luna Ultra and DJI Osmo Pocket 4P have dedicated zoom hardware. Honor doesn't have that on its gimbal-mounted camera, but the 200MP sensor gives it plenty of room to crop in, offering up to around 4x zoom. So you're not completely missing out there either.

I'd still buy the dedicated gimbal, but Honor got incredibly close

On the whole, if I had to spend my money, I'd still probably go with the Luna Ultra. There are a few small things it simply does better. It's quicker to launch, more comfortable to hold for longer shoots, has dedicated zoom hardware, and I found the subject tracking to be ever so slightly better.

Plus, you can actually buy it in the U.S., whereas the Robot Phone remains limited to China for now.

But then again, the Robot Phone isn't just a camera. For the same money, you're getting the gimbal hardware inside a full-fledged flagship phone with a 7,060mAh battery, Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, 512GB of storage, and a flagship display.

And I think that's where Honor has really surprised me. I went into this comparison expecting the Luna Ultra to easily come out on top because, well, that's literally what it's built for. It still does, just not by the margin I expected.

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The Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 was unveiled at the Galaxy Unpacked event alongside the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2.

To read the full lowdown on what you can do with the latest Galaxy Watch model, my wearables expert colleague Dan Bracaglia discusses the 5 things you need to know about the Galaxy Watch 9 in more detail. However, as a trainer and fitness editor, I'm more concerned about whether it's the type of watch I want strapped to my wrist during workouts.

Recently, I attended BXR to get first-hand experience with the watch on behalf of Samsung; we hit the treadmills, did some strength training and even stretched it out in a 20-minute yoga class. But for me, that wasn't enough. Thankfully, I got to spend more time with the model, training at home, in the gym and in my yoga classes, to really see what it's about.

Here are three things I like so far, and three that I'm really not a fan of if you're looking to purchase one of the best smartwatches in 2026.

Like 1: Aesthetics

Retailing at $379 for 40mm (no LTE, which is $50 extra) or $409 for 44mm (no LTE) compared to $349 for the Galaxy Watch 8, the 9 is no doubt a good-looking smartwatch-fitness tracker with a premium price tag.

I like how easy it is to set up and pair with the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8, and the sleek sports strap and screen design are right up my alley; I don't like having garish fitness trackers or fussy smartwatches on my wrist, especially when lifting weights. 40mm is available in Cream or Graphite; 44mm comes in Graphite or Silver.

We'll get on to size (one of my dislikes) below, but in terms of design, you get pretty much the same aesthetics, screen brightness and size options as the 8. However, the 9 boasts a faster processor and up to 20% better battery life. You can also customize your sports bands with various color options, too.

I highly recommend leaving the always-on option enabled so you can glance during workouts. I didn't do this at first and it caused me some very high cortisol levels and extra faff.

But let's focus on the real MVP: new health and fitness tracking tools.

Like 2: Swipeable health features upgraded

Samsung Health offers a wealth of fitness and health tracking and insights, without locking it all behind a paywall. There are plenty of sports and activities to choose from, and an array of sensors means you can pick up pretty detailed data.

Some of the latest upgrades include a Vitals dashboard with metrics for heart rate, HRV, sp02, body temperature, breathing, and Heart Health Score. Alongside this, you get fitness features such as Cardio Load and Fitness Index (a score out of 100 based on activity levels, VO2 max, recovery time and more).

The idea is to be preventative, which means more of a holistic focus on wellbeing and useful insights. The Vitals dashboard features one easy-to-view panel with information on heart rate, blood pressure and ECG. It's handy to swipe left and right to catch a quick glance while on the go. You can also swipe to use quick features such as Running Coach, Body Composition and Sleep.

By swiping twice to my left, I could quickly access the Fitness section, where I could select from a list of activities or add my own via my Samsung Galaxy phone or on the watch itself. You can set up your watch to suit your preferences, but note that you'll need to sleep with it on to access some of the longer-term trends and vitals, particularly sleep, of course.

I’ve worn the Coros Pace 4 alongside the Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 on several occasions. Not because it's a totally fair comparison, but if I'm exploring what I like and don't like about a watch during exercise, I'm doing it with my favorite one on my wrist, too.

The Coros Pace 4 has proved reliable for workouts for me and my colleague Nick Harris-Fry, who runs regularly wearing it alongside other wearables because of dual-band GPS tracking and top sports features.

Throughout testing, the Galaxy Watch 9 has been fairly consistent with my trusty Coros Pace 4, though the Watch 9 tends to track more time spent in heart rate zones 1, 2, and 3 during my running efforts than the Pace 4. The Watch 9 also tends to overestimate calorie burn, but I don't pay too much attention to calorie burn on fitness trackers anyway, as so many variables impact how many active calories you can burn.

That aside, distances and paces have been around the same, and the Galaxy Watch 9 is intuitive at picking up workouts through auto-detection. And it's useful to remember that the Pace 4 is a sports watch, after all, not a smart one, so those who are most likely to purchase this smartwatch-come-fitness tracker will be looking at a lot more than just workouts.

Like 3: Auto activity detection

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 can automatically track exercises, including walking, running, cycling, swimming, rowing, and elliptical, using its BioActive Sensor and accelerometer. That means you don't need to rely on manually starting some activities, which I found really handy.

The watch automatically picked up when I walked and paused when it detected I was stationary. I found this to be pretty accurate for time and distance, and it's good to know that this data feeds into my overall activity levels, trends and insights. I'd like this feature to roll out across more activities, but it's great that the basics are there.

I could view duration, pace, distance and time of day at a glance, and I found the watch particularly good for tracking running data. That said, if you take your running seriously, you'd be looking more at the best running watch anyway.

Dislike 1: Hard to use on the go

I recently became emotionally dependent on my Coros Pace 4 sports watch, which is easy to wear, tight-fitting, rugged, very easy to use on the go and tracks everything I need during exercise. It also has excellent battery life without overwhelming me.

While this is not a head-to-head comparison, using both watches has given me a strong sense of what works and doesn't work for me personally during exercise.

I've worn both watches for yoga, Pilates, strength training and running, and I find the Galaxy Watch 9 "faffy" to use. The screen is extremely sensitive (but yes, it is fast), and I find it hard to navigate the tiles and swipe left-to-right quickly while running and walking.

I'm a button girlie, and while the swipeable screen is handy, I will always prefer navigating settings primarily with buttons. There are two on the watch on the right side, but I couldn't use them as much as I wanted to.

I'm also not a fan of overcomplicated screens and having to swipe this way and that to see a handful of the metrics I find most important. I recommend spending some time setting up your Galaxy Watch 9 by configuring the layout and features you need most, plus choosing a clean watch face via the Galaxy Wearable app, if you're a bit like me with tech overwhelm.

You'll also need to go into the Samsung Health app to enable various health and fitness tracking features, which aren't automatically set up; be warned, there are many, and it takes a little time.

Dislike 2: Sizing

As a female with small wrists, I have this issue with sports and smartwatches all the time. It's one of the areas where my colleague Jane McGuire says fitness trackers still fall short for women.

I don't need bulk on my wrists when I lift weights or run; it is distracting and creates more weight and fuss when I'm trying to position weights along my forearms for exercises like front rack squats or cleans.

For me, the Galaxy Watch 9 feels heavy, even with the aluminum casing, which is supposed to help make the watch lightweight. I was given a M/L wrist strap, so I highly recommend picking a S/M strap if you have small wrists like mine, as the watch slid around even on the tightest strap setting.

For those who get sweaty during workouts, I'd also consider the fabric band instead of the sports band that came with my watch.

While I do like how the watch looks and I enjoy the understated design, I'm not a fan of the sizing overall, even for the smaller 40mm model. I still think brands need to think more about their female customers when designing smartwatches and sports watches in general.

For that reason, I wouldn't want to wear this watch to bed. But that said, I generally don't like having anything on my wrist at night and rely on my Oura Ring 5 to track sleep instead. If this is a problem for you, note that some features rely on you sleeping in your watch.

Dislike 3: Battery life

Both the 40mm and 44mm Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 models feature modest battery capacity increases. For the smaller model, that's a jump from 325 mAh for the Galaxy Watch 8 to 390 mAh for the Galaxy Watch 9. For the bigger model, the capacity has increased from 435 mAh on the Galaxy Watch 8 to 445 mAh for the Galaxy Watch 9.

This, coupled with up to 15% more efficient processing, should mean that the Galaxy Watch 9 lasts longer than the average of roughly 30 hours per charge (for the 8) with the always-on enabled.

I'd say I'm very active, and mine has lasted roughly 24 hours on a charge. Compare that with watches like the Pixel Watch 5, which should last around two days, and the Coros Pace 4, which I usually wear and can last me about a week, and the battery life could be better.

I'm a little disappointed, as battery life is one of the features most celebrated with the Galaxy Watch 9. if I were taking it away on a trip, I'd need to charge it every day, though it does charge quickly when you do juice it up.

Verdict

For me, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 looks great, is fast, offers a wealth of health and fitness features and pretty accurate tracking across the activities I tested, but would I switch out other trusty watches in favor of it for exercise alone? No, I wouldn't.

That said, I will be spending some more time wearing it, and I plan to update you here with more long-term feedback.

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For those of us who came of age firing off emails on a BlackBerry, the tactile click-clack of physical buttons is the holy grail of mobile productivity. So, when Clicks released the Power Keyboard — a MagSafe-compatible slide-out QWERTY keyboard — I was instantly on board.

I slapped it onto the back of my phone for a week, ready to watch my words-per-minute (WPM) soar. And then…I actually ran a typing speed test to find out that I am significantly faster on a flat pane of glass than I am on a keyboard.

Turns out that strapping a chunky $99 plastic brick to my phone didn’t magically resurrect my 2010 typing skills; it just ruins the modern ergonomics of your phone. But while I do have plenty of problems to talk about on the Power Keyboard, there are some small saving graces here.

This accessory is a bit problematic, from its tiny battery for charging your phone to the hinge feeling all kinds of loose. But for the very particular niche I fall into, I couldn’t help but develop a bit of a soft spot for it.

The typing test reality check

Let me get straight into the typing experience. The keys themselves are objectively well-made, and a good omen for the upcoming Clicks Communicator. They’re ergonomically well shaped with just the right amount of travel and an oh-so satisfying click. Sliding it out to get going took me back to my Palm Pre days!

But when I put the Clicks Power Keyboard head-to-head against my on-screen keyboard, the glass screen won effortlessly.

Why? Well probably the most obvious reason here is time invested in these devices. I may have spent years with Blackberrys and my Pre in the past, but the last decade and a half has been nothing but capacitive touchscreens. But it’s more than that.

Our thumbs have been trained to glide across screens, relying heavily on aggressive autocorrect and predictive text algorithms. Moving back to physical, separated keys requires deliberate, forceful presses. You have to actively hunt for punctuation on that backlit keyboard and travel between letters.

It feels more intentional and satisfying for sure, but the raw numbers don’t lie: my thumb-typing muscle memory has moved on.

An ergonomic nightmare

But trust me when I say you have to suffer for that satisfying feeling. Modern pro smartphones are already pretty chunky, and the Clicks adds another 15.2mm of junk in the trunk.

With that bulk comes the weight distribution. Because the keyboard slides down from the bottom, typing makes your phone severely top-heavy. I constantly felt like it was going to somersault backward out of my hands.

Combine that awkward balancing act with a cheap-feeling plastic back and a slide-out hinge that feels almost distressingly loose, and the overall build quality doesn’t feel like it hits the mark for an accessory that costs over a hundred bucks.

The saving grace

There is one superpower that did save it a little for me, and it’s not the power bank element. A 2,300 mAh battery with slow 5W Qi wireless charging is basically life support for a dying phone, not a true battery pack.

No, it’s actually the fact that this isn’t just about the phone. With Bluetooth 5.4 and multi-point support for up to nine devices, this became quite the phenomenal universal remote to all my devices.

I found myself hot-swapping the bluetooth connection over to my smart TV to bypass the abysmal on-screen keyboard, and then switching over to my PS5 to fire off a quick message in the team chat. It’s real versatility that made this fit real nicely into my multi-device home.

Reclaiming my phone screen space is nice, but using this as a tactile hub for your living room is where the real magic happens.

Not for everyone

So this left me confused. The Clicks Power Keyboard is a fascinating, flawed experiment in nostalgia. It proved to me that while I miss the feeling of physical keys, I certainly don’t miss the speed.

If you’re in my niche of wanting a pocketable Bluetooth keyboard to hot-swap between your TV and console, it is undeniably useful. Also, shout-out to using it with Samsung Dex and my Viture Pro 2 glasses. The touchscreen of my Galaxy Z Fold 8 becomes a nice touchpad complemented by the physical keys.

But as just a daily driver for your phone, you’ve got to be committed to the throwback feels. You have to be willing to sacrifice your typing speed, your premium aesthetics and your ergonomic comfort. Will you?

More from Tom's Guide

• I put Honor's crazy Robot Phone up against the iPhone 17 Pro Max — I'm both impressed and confused
• The tech world hyped up the Galaxy Z Fold 8's 'crease-free' display — here's a reality check after 7 days
• I just tried the thinnest phone grip Popsockets has created — and now there's no reason to not get a grip for your phone

If you've been paying attention to the news, you've probably heard about GrapheneOS. The Android-based mobile OS hit the news a few weeks back over a dispute at the U.S. border, in which a traveller is alleged to have wiped their GrapheneOS-powered phone using a "duress" password — and now faces charges of destroying evidence.

You may have heard about GrapheneOS but never gave it much thought for one reason or another. I know that was the case with me, and while I knew it was based on Android I hadn't ever done much digging into exactly how it differed from the Google-provided Android experience.

But this news got me curious, and I realized that it was about time I got to grips with what Graphene actually has to offer.

What is GrapheneOS?

GrapheneOS is an open source mobile operating system that emphasizes both security and privacy. It's completely free to install, and the project is supported by donations.

The software is built with the Android Open Source Project, and is focused on one of the biggest issues many people have with Google's mobile OS — the fact that it's severely lacking when it comes to protecting user privacy.

GrapheneOS also strips out most Google systems and bloatware, which means you won't set up your phone and find that it's filled with a bunch of apps that you can't remove. The software also features a bunch of dedicated privacy features that you won't find on most Android phones.

GrapheneOS device support: Which phones does it work with?

GrapheneOS is currently only officially compatible with Pixel phones, with the site listing all Google-made phones up to (and including) the Google Pixel 6 and 6 Pro. The Pixel Tablet is also supported.

The software's official support pages confirm that other devices do support GrapheneOS "at a source level," but without official support it means that more work is needed to actually install the software — which makes everything a lot more complicated.

Earlier this year Motorola confirmed it had partnered with GrapheneOS, with the aim to "strengthen smartphone security and collaborate on future devices engineered with GrapheneOS compatibility. " In other words, future Motorola devices will eventually support GrapheneOS as well. But we don't know which devices will offer it, or when they will be released.

How do you actually install it?

I've never really been one for tinkering with software, and it's never really been something that interested me. I did try my hand at rooting one of my Android phones about ten years ago, to see what I might be missing out on, but never made much progress.

The phones I had at the time came from companies that weren't very big on letting people mess with their phones' software, and trying to root them proved to be a task worthy of Sisyphus himself. Obviously, being the quitter that I am, I gave up and never bothered to try that sort of thing ever again.

That's partly why I never gave GrapheneOS a second thought. I wasn't sure what to expect when I finally decided to try and install it on one of my older phones.

GrapheneOS has a full guide on how to install the software on a compatible phone, and at first glance looks a little intimidating. It has its own table of contents, and that's never something you want to see when you don't really know what you're doing. Fortunately, the whole process is actually pretty simple, and based on my experience it's quite difficult to screw up.

I'll admit that I did screw up a couple of times because I wasn't reading the instructions carefully, and the worst thing that happened was that I had to wait for my phone to restart — at which point I ended up exactly where I left off.

All the actual hard work is done by GrapheneOS's Web Installer, which makes the process more or less idiotproof. Best of all, you don't even need to root your phone.

Reverting back is proving to be a little trickier for me, simply because I couldn't get GrapheneOS's web installer to recognize that my phone is available and needs its bootloader unlocked. That's going to require some troubleshooting on my end.

What is GrapheneOS actually like?

The first thing I noticed about GrapheneOS is just how sparse the software selection actually is from a design point of view. This is a version of Android software that is effectively free of all Google influence, and that means the number of pre-installed apps is at its bare minimum.

After years of using smartphones running Android and iOS, this is actually quite refreshing. It's like finding yourself in a quiet, minimally-furnished room after walking off a crowded city street. The lower emphasis on Google products also makes the setup process a lot smoother, since you don't have to link to Google accounts or deal with setting up features like Gemini.

It's a similar story with the built-in App Store. Since there are no Google apps pre-installed, this is the place that lets you install certain Android features like Android Auto, the Thermometer app (if you have a compatible Pixel) and other app stores — including Google Play. There are only 14 apps available, and anything else you need has to be acquired from a different source.

The distinct lack of color when GrapheneOS loads up for the first time is rather jarring, if I'm being totally honest. But that's a non-issue that quickly solves itself once you actually start using the phone.

If you're familiar with stock Android or Google's Pixel Launcher skin, then GrapheneOS isn't going to be that much of a surprise. The developers haven't taken many, if any, liberties with the general feel of the software. This means navigating and accessing the various settings menus is pretty simple, and doesn't require having to relearn where everything is. You can't say that for other smartphone brands.

It's not exactly the same under the hood, though, and there are some extra optional features that are designed for security and privacy reasons. This includes the duress password, PIN scrambling, and a bunch more things I don't have room to list here. There's a lot to come to grips with, and so far I haven't actually made a huge dent.

Sadly, there is one catch I've found so far, and that's the fact my phone always warns me that I'm loading up a different operating system. It doesn't require you to confirm you want this to happen, but it is a little annoying that you don't seem to be able to switch this off.

The Google Play conundrum

You may wonder what the point of having GrapheneOS is if you're just going to install Google Play? The sad thing about Android is that some apps won't work without Google Play Services installed, which means sideloading or using a third-party app store won't work.

Banking apps are the one that caught me off guard, and it meant that I would either have to rely on browser-based banking (which is not ideal) or bite the bullet and install Google Play.

Thankfully, GrapheneOS does have a compromise, and sandboxes Google Play Services so that it doesn't have the same level of privileged access you'll see with a typical Android OS. This effectively means you can still enjoy access to apps that are only compatible with Google Play, but without handing over unfiltered access to the software.

As this thread on Reddit put it, the idea behind Graphene isn't to deGoogle. The software comes with a Chromium-based browser after all, albeit with more security-focused features than the stock Chrome app. You can deGoogle if you like, but that's not something that is forced upon you.

Sideloading is possible, since Graphene is an Android-based operating system, but it's up to you to decide which app-installation option is the right one for you.

Bottom line

The switch over to GrapheneOS wasn't as drastic as I expected it would be. Not only was the installation an absolute cinch, the fact it looks and feels so close to stock Android means that there isn't much of a learning curve when it comes to getting started. All you really need to do is figure out where all the extra privacy and security features are.

The switch rom Google services is certainly very appealing. While I wouldn't go completely cold turkey (I need my banking apps), the fact that Google Play is available in a sandbox means that you don't appear to be missing out on much by ditching the Pixels' particular brand of Android. It's rather like having the most important parts of the Android ecosystem, but without compromising your own personal privacy in the process.

Switching back to the Pixel's Android OS has proved a little difficult, and I'm not entirely sure where the problem lies. So for now, I recommend that anyone hoping to try GrapheneOS for themselves either knows more than I do about installing Android software, or tests it out on an older device first to make sure they like it.

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Honor's new Robot Phone is finally official. After first teasing the device last year and then showing it off at MWC, the company has finally taken the wraps off its ambitious new smartphone at a launch event in China. The Honor Robot Phone goes on sale starting August 20, priced at RMB 9,999 (around $1,480). Sadly, there's no word on a global launch just yet.

The big highlight, of course, is the gimbal-mounted camera on the back. It promises much better stabilization and many of the features you'd expect from a dedicated handheld gimbal camera, while still giving you all the hardware and features of a flagship smartphone.

But does having a dedicated gimbal built into your phone actually make it better at shooting video than the iPhone 17 Pro Max? I put the two against each other to find out.

Honor has a hardware advantage the iPhone simply can't match

Right off the bat, the Honor Robot Phone has one pretty obvious advantage: it has an actual three-axis gimbal built into the back of the phone.

The 200MP f/1.6 camera sits on a motorized gimbal that can physically move around, and using it almost feels like having something like a DJI Osmo Pocket 4 built right into your phone.

The difference in stabilization isn't night and day. The iPhone 17 Pro Max already records incredibly stable video out of the box. Plus, you can also switch to Action mode if you need even more stabilization.

But put footage from the two phones side by side while walking, and you can definitely notice the difference. The Honor Robot Phone handles movement better, with the physical gimbal helping smooth out those little movements as you walk.

But stabilization is only part of the advantage. The bigger difference for me is subject tracking. The Honor Robot Phone lets you lock onto a person while recording, and the gimbal physically moves to keep that subject in the frame. Of course, there's only so far it can rotate before your subject moves completely out of view, but within that range, it keeps track of the subject pretty well in my testing.

And that's something you simply can't do on the iPhone 17 Pro Max. There's no option to lock onto a subject and have the camera follow them as they move.

I can already think of plenty of situations where this would be useful. If you're recording yourself during a gym session, for example, you could leave the Robot Phone in one place, lock the camera onto yourself, and let the gimbal follow you as you move around. The same applies when you're recording yourself outdoors or simply filming someone else without constantly having to reposition the phone.

But the iPhone still wins in a few important areas

The Honor Robot Phone works great in most camera-related scenarios, but there are still a few areas where the iPhone 17 Pro Max came out ahead during my testing, particularly in low light. The Robot Phone introduced noticeably more noise in darker conditions, while the iPhone handled the same conditions much better.

There's also a noticeable difference when shooting vertical video. Yes, the Robot Phone can record vertically, but the 200MP sensor itself remains horizontally oriented. The sensor physically doesn't rotate, which means the phone crops into the landscape image to create a vertical frame.

As a result, you're getting roughly 2.8K resolution rather than true 4K vertical footage. The iPhone 17 Pro Max doesn't have that limitation and can shoot vertical video at up to 4K 120fps.

For someone who shoots a lot of short-form content, that's not a small compromise. And probably the biggest reason I wouldn't say Honor has outright beaten the iPhone for video just yet.

But apart from somehow fitting an entire gimbal camera into a smartphone, what impressed me most about the Robot Phone is that Honor hasn't sacrificed the rest of the flagship experience to make room for it.

You still get a 200MP periscope telephoto camera with 2.7x optical zoom and a 50MP ultrawide alongside the gimbal-mounted main camera. Honor has also somehow squeezed in a massive 7,060mAh battery, despite the phone being smaller than the iPhone 17 Pro Max in terms of overall dimensions. And you also get the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 under the hood, which means the performance shouldn't be an issue either.

I still can't say whether the Honor Robot Phone is a better overall video-recording device than the iPhone 17 Pro Max. That's something that will require a lot more testing. But when it comes to things like stabilization and subject tracking, the Robot Phone can do things the iPhone physically can't.

Overall, at $1,480, the Robot Phone seems like a seriously impressive package. It's just a shame you won't officially be able to buy one in the U.S.

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Samsung has packed a bunch of upgrades into the new Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, but the one noticeable absence is the lack of any sort of active cooling system. The Galaxy S26 Ultra has a built-in vapor chamber to prevent heat build-up, and similar features have existed in non-folding flagships for over a decade.

The question isn't why hasn't Samsung added a vapor chamber to its foldables yet, it's whether that actually matters. The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra has the same super-powered Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy chip as the S26 Ultra, and I was curious how much heat would actually build up in both phones — and more importantly, where it ends up.

So I grabbed my trusty thermal camera, the Flir One Pro, and set up the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra alongside the Galaxy S26 Ultra, Galaxy Z Fold 7 and the iPhone 17 Pro Max side by side. Then, by running 3DMark's Solar Bay Extreme Stress Test, I recorded just how much heat all four phones produced.

Is it getting hot in here?

If you look at the video of all four phones, you can see that the Galaxy S26 Ultra starts heating up the fastest, hitting around 30C/86F in around a minute. The iPhone 17 Pro Max isn't that far behind, though the Z Fold 8 Ultra and Z Fold 7 both seem to be heating up a lot more slowly in their folded state.

The S26 Ultra seems to concentrate most of its heat in the top left corner, on the opposite side of the phone to the vertical camera bar. Meanwhile, the iPhone 17 Pro Max has a large section of heat across its top half, where the raised plateau camera bar is — which makes sense considering Apple designed the camera bar to help dissipate heat.

As the videos approach the 4-minute mark, the S26 Ultra starts to approach 40C/104F, while the two foldables only just hit 30C/86F. The iPhone isn't that far behind Samsung, and in the case of all four phones the heat seems to be mainly concentrated in the top half of each device.

By the time the 10-minute run is almost complete, parts of the S26 Ultra and iPhone have exceeded 40C/104F, while the foldables both seem to be hovering between 35C/95F and 37C/99F. At this stage the heat seems to have covered the entirety of the four phones, though only the iPhone and S26 Ultra have such high concentrations.

When I picked up the phones after closing 3DMark, I found that the S26 Ultra definitely felt the hottest, especially around the camera bar. Not quite enough to instantly burn yourself, but hot enough that you don't want prolonged exposure to it. The iPhone was similar, though didn't feel quite as hot, while the two foldables didn't feel that much different from normal.

Unfolding the heat

Of course these readings were taken from the front of the phone, while the two foldables were all closed up. How much of a difference would unfolding them make? As it turns out, quite a lot.

As soon as the benchmarking test started, heat bloomed out of both phones in the top right — right where the camera bar is. Unsurprisingly given its more powerful hardware, the temperature climbed much higher on the Z Fold 8 Ultra, though the Z Fold 7 wasn't that far behind.

Within 20 seconds the temperature had jumped past 30C/89F, and after a minute the Z Fold 8 Ultra had already climbed past 40C/104F. 20 seconds later the Z Fold 7 joined it, and in both cases the heat was concentrated in the top right corner before slowly spreading out over both halves of the phones.

The temperature plateaued pretty quickly, landing a few degrees higher than 40C and hovering around that level. The majority of the heat remained concentrated on the right side of the phone too, with minimal transference over to the left half.

This explains why the heat build-up seemed so slow in the previous test. The majority of the heat will have also been concentrated at the back of the device where the thermal camera couldn't pick it up as easily.

Verdict

The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra can get pretty hot, but so does the Galaxy S26 Ultra and both phones seem to heat up to similar temperatures. Or, at least they did during identical Solar Bay Extreme Stress Tests — different processes will obviously have different effects.

The way the heat spread out was completely different, though. The Galaxy S26 Ultra recorded the highest temperatures in the top left side of the phone, on the opposite side of the phone to the cameras. Teardowns have revealed that this is where the vapor chamber cooling pushes the excess heat, so it's natural that this would see the most extreme temperatures. The same goes for the iPhone 17 Pro Max and its own raised camera bar.

The unfolded stress test showed that the Z Fold 8 Ultra (and Z Fold 7) don't have that advantage. While the heat appears in that top corner by the cameras, it quickly spreads across the entire right side of the phone. Apparently, the heat struggled to bypass the hinge, which is an interesting observation.

In the case of the Z Fold 8 Ultra the heat isn't being actively routed away from core internal components — like the battery or chipset. That means it has no choice but to spread out until it reaches the edge of the phone and radiates away. You can actually see that happening in the thermal video as the heat spreads out from the very top of the phone.

While concentrating the heat in one area seems like a bad thing, if it's a spot with few major components then letting the heat spread across the entire phone is even worse. Because it means the heat isn't actively being siphoned away from the components that are most affected by extreme temperatures. Over extended periods of time, that will lead to degradation and reduced performance and affect the phone's lifespan.

One thing I did notice when I accidentally closed 3DMark on the Z Fold 8 Ultra at the end of the test, is that the temperature started to drop pretty rapidly once the stress test stopped running. Which should mean that short periods of high-performance activity shouldn't pose a long-term problem. As long as you don't do it too often.

If you are doing anything performance heavy, make sure to take the appropriate measures to keep your phone as cool as possible. Our tips for helping your phone survive a heatwave will also apply here, which means avoiding direct sunlight, stop charging and so on. You can speed up the heat removal with things like fans or phone coolers, and you should absolutely avoid forcing your phone to cool down with appliances like the fridge — that's just going to cause even more issues.

More from Tom's Guide

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I’ve been podcasting for the better part of 14 years, and the one piece of gear I’ve invested in more than anything else is one of the best microphones. After all, people will forgive so-so or even boring visuals as long as the audio is solid. I ran a Samson C01U Pro for years before switching to my current Elgato Wave 3, and I’m still happy with it. That said, I’ve been testing a pretty strong rival lately — the Razer Seiren V3 Pro.

Razer’s latest Seiren is a studio-leaning dynamic mic aimed squarely at podcasters and creators who want cleaner sound without a ton of extra gear. It has a solid, Shure-inspired look and comes packed with built-in processing tools that actually help you sound better right out of the box. At $249, it’s not cheap, but you’re getting dual USB-C and XLR connectivity, a 30 mm capsule, and some useful onboard features for the money.

So, will I ditch my beloved Wave 3 for the Seiren V3 Pro? Read on for what this mic is all about and how it held up after a week of real use.

Razer Seiren V3 Pro: What is it?

Before I dig into my experience with the Seiren V3 Pro, here’s a quick look at the features so you know what you’re dealing with.

The Seiren V3 Pro is built to deliver the warm, broadcast-style sound many podcasters and streamers are after. Its cardioid pickup pattern means you speak into the top of the mic, which focuses on your voice while rejecting noise from the sides and rear. That’s especially useful if you’re recording in a regular room rather than a treated studio. It also includes a built-in shock absorber and a removable pop filter to minimize noise and plosives before they reach your recording.

One of the standout features is the dual connectivity. You get USB-C for simple plug-and-play use, plus a full XLR connection when you want to run it through a proper audio interface or mixer. That flexibility means the same mic can sit on a basic streaming desk one day and move into a more serious recording setup the next — no need to buy two different mics!

On the software side, Razer includes onboard DSP tools such as a compressor, expander, limiter, and an AI noise remover. There’s also 32-bit float support in the Razer Synapse app, which gives you more headroom and less chance of clipping when you get loud.

Between the processing and the extra dynamic range, much of the cleanup happens before the audio even reaches your computer. A physical gain dial sits right on the mic for quick adjustments, and the Chroma RGB ring serves as both a status indicator (mute, levels, etc.) and a bit of customizable flair.

Overall, the Seiren V3 Pro feels like the best of both worlds: easy enough for more casual users like me to set up and start using, but with enough depth and customization to keep the more serious audio folks happy.

Razer Seiren V3 Pro: My experience

I was impressed the second I pulled the Razer Seiren V3 Pro out of the box. It’s a slick-looking piece of kit. Objectively, it doesn’t look all that different from other cardioid mics, but it’s a design style I’ve always liked and rarely had the chance to use. Inside the box, you get the mic, its stand, and a long USB cable. One end is USB-A, and Razer includes a USB-A-to-USB-C adapter, a thoughtful little touch.

Once you plug it into your PC and open the Razer Synapse app, it guides you through a quick setup. You speak into the mic at a normal volume, record a bit of ambient noise, tell it what you’re using it for (podcasting, in my case), and how far the mic is from you. That’s it. The whole process takes less than five minutes and does much of the heavy lifting for you.

I’m generally happy with the recording quality. My voice comes through full, and there’s almost no background noise. The only real issue is specific to my setup: the mic sits about two feet away from me, and because I live in a pretty bare studio apartment, it can pick up a bit of that empty-room sound. I don’t have that problem with my Elgato Wave 3 since it’s on an arm and I can pull it right up to my mouth. I can’t do that as easily with the Razer, but even at a less-than-ideal distance, the audio still sounds solid.

I’m not an audiophile, and I don’t like fussing with settings, so the preset options in Synapse work perfectly fine for me. You can dig in and tweak everything if you want, and I’m sure I could squeeze out even better results with some fine-tuning. For most people, though, the out-of-the-box presets are more than good enough.

The one real annoyance I encountered is how easy it is to accidentally mute yourself while adjusting the mic. The mute “button” is a large, sensitive target area, and it’s almost impossible not to graze it when repositioning the mic. A proper physical button that requires a bit of force to press would have solved this easily.

Razer Seiren V3 Pro: Bottom line

This is my first time using a Razer microphone, and I have to say that I’m pretty impressed. Between the clean design and the solid set of features, the Seiren V3 Pro feels like a real step up for anyone looking to take their podcasting or content creation more seriously. Yeah, $249 is a chunk of money, and there are cheaper options out there. But if you decide to spend it, I don’t think you’ll walk away disappointed.

So, back to the question I asked at the start: will I switch from my Elgato Wave 3 to the Razer Seiren V3 Pro? Right now, no. I’d get a lot more out of this mic if I had it on a proper arm so I could keep it closer to my mouth. That said, it’s compact enough that I’ll definitely be tossing it in my bag for podcasting on the road. It’s a fantastic microphone that can make you sound like a pro, and at the end of the day, that’s exactly what I’m after.

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Satellite-based internet is nothing new, but the idea of getting satellite internet on your phone is something that has eluded us for a while. A number of smartphones now offer satellite connectivity of some kind, but that's mostly reserved for emergency situations, but the real question is, when will we be able to ditch cellular service and beam our mobile data from space?

Big tech has already been mulling over this idea for a while now. Elon Musk has talked about making Starlink a direct-to-cell service. And just this week Semafor reported that SpaceX (the parent company of Starlink) may be looking to acquire spectrum at government auction to compete directly with AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile. Or it may decide to acquire another wireless carrier altogether.

Meanwhile, Amazon has filed an application to launch its own satellite-based internet service. Fortunately, we don't have to wait for the to get their act together, because carriers around the world have started offering satellite services to their customers.

Being the curious type, I decided to give one a go and see whether it was actually worth signing up for full time.

How satellite 4G works

Those reading this from the U.S. may be aware that T-Mobile offers a satellite service powered by Starlink. I live in the U.K., and naturally don't have access to T-Mobile, but the carrier O2 offers a similar service as an optional extra. This extra is also powered by Starlink, costs £3/$4 a month, and gives you access to satellite-based 4G should you find yourself without a cell signal or Wi-Fi connection.

That lack of additional connectivity is crucial to the whole process, because of the way modern smartphones connect to satellites. If there is another form of data connection, be it cellular or Wi-Fi, then the phone will refuse to look for a satellite. The satellite is essentially a last port of call to get your device connected.

This has led to some amusing instances of my phone looking for a satellite when there's zero chance of making a connection — such as when I was traveling several feet underground on the London Underground's Central Line. That's because I disconnected from cell service for more than a few seconds.

Finding the right spot

Surprisingly, the connectivity aspect actually caused a problem for me, because O2's outdoor 4G coverage is surprisingly good in my part of the country. There are plenty of areas in the U.K. that don't get any 4G cell signal, let alone 5G, but the official coverage map shows they're mainly in very rural areas — notably mountainous regions of Wales, Scotland and Northern England.

I live in the South East, roughly around 40 miles from central London. Anyone from different parts of England will be well aware that this is the region where most of the money goes. So, even though I live in a village in a fairly rural area, the cell signal is remarkably robust when you're using an O2 SIM card.

That's not to say 4G connectivity is universally available. There are various dead spots scattered around the place, according to both O2's own coverage checked and the independent map from mobile regulator Ofcom.

I just had to find one that intersected with a road, ideally one that had ample space to pull over and let me play on my phone. If you've had any experience with British country roads, you'll know that they're often too narrow to do this safely.

Thankfully, I found a spot roughly 30 minutes away by car. Not only is it a good-size deadspot, it also contains a pub with a sizable parking lot. There are certainly worse places to stop and test some new phone features.

The actual connection is easy and automatic

It took a couple of minutes to drive through the deadspot and park my car, by which point my Galaxy S26 Ultra had already connected to Starlink's satellites. That was rather surprising, considering that satellite connectivity typically needs a direct view of the sky to actually make the connection.

And no, before anyone asks, my car does not have a sun roof. It's totally solid, though I'm unsure of what materials were actually involved in its construction.

Admittedly, the signal wasn't particularly strong inside the car, illustrated as one bar out of three in the S26 Ultra's status bar. This doesn't change the fact that my phone was connected to the satellite through the car roof, and was receiving data from some Starlink satellite in space.

My next move was to stick the phone out of my window and raise it up towards the sky. It took about a minute for the S26 Ultra to register that circumstances had changed, and there were no obstacles in the way — at which point the signal jumped up to two bars.

It never hit three bars, though, despite the fact I was in an open area with relatively clear skies. I should also note that moving inside the pub, a 350-year old building with a thatched roof, cut off all access to the satellite. So while the signal may be able to penetrate my car, it isn't magic.

Accessing Google Maps from inside my car was a slightly drawn out affair. The app warned me that it was connected to the satellite, with lower loading times, and it took between 30 and 60 seconds for the actual map interface to load up fully. Shifting things outside and the load times were significantly reduced, though nowhere near as quick as they are with a 4G connection, let alone 5G.

So you're not going to be tapping your feet staring at your phone waiting for an all-important app to load over the course of several minutes. But your speeds aren't going to be as instantaneous as they might be with full bars of cell signal.

This isn't unrestricted 4G like you're used to

It was a surprisingly effective system, though the main drawback is that there are limitations on the apps you're able to use. These limitations seem to have been coded in at a system level by your phone rather than by the carrier. My personal guess is that this is due to modern phones treating satellite connectivity as an emergency feature, rather than a stable source of data.

This means that you will only be able to use the bare minimum of apps you need to communicate, navigate and potentially allow yourself to be found in an emergency. We're talking about things like Google Maps, Google Find Hub, Messages and the weather.

The latter may seem like an odd choice, but if you're out in the sticks by yourself with no vehicle or shelter, being able to keep tabs on the weather is essential. It could be the difference between you being stuck in a freak storm and finding somewhere to hunker down and ride it out in relative safety.

Your more frivolous apps, like social media and web browsers, are all disconnected and behave as though you don't have any active data connection. So don't expect to be sitting on a mountain somewhere catching up on your favorite Netflix series. That's not what this system is for, and the app straight up won't work if you try it.

Likewise, any third-party apps that could prove useful in precarious situations, such as mapping apps, still behave as though they are offline. The good news for wilderness-enthusiasts is that you can still get GPS with no data, but if assets haven't loaded, or are hilariously out of date, then the lack of data to update could end up being a problem.

A fantastic backup tool, but it's not replacing cell service yet

If you live out in a deadspot, or regularly find yourself in one, then gaining satellite access through your carrier is not going to make up for the fact there's no cell signal. The limitations in what the satellite connection can or can't do means that it's not a true replacement for cell service in the way a full Starlink setup would be for home internet.

But this sure as heck beats being stuck with zero access to the internet. Carrier-supplied 4G may not be able to give you access to web browsers and streaming, but it keeps you hooked into the apps that you might actually need in a pinch. In short, it means that you will always be able to reach the outside world in the event that you desperately need to.

Some may not like the fact that it's getting harder and harder to disconnect, but this means that you won't be stuck in the middle of nowhere without support. The fact that satellite access still worked in my car, and loaded up Google Maps, will easily be a major boon for navigating areas with little to no cell service. Which isn't a bad deal for $4 a month (or $10 a month with T-Mobile).

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Can't afford a Rivian EV? Then how about an e-bike with the same stylings and some of the tech as the luxury carmaker? I had a chance to test ride the Also TM-B, a new electric bike from a company spun out of Rivian.

The bike shares some vestigial DNA with the parent company — just check out it headlights — but also has a drivetrain and features that set it apart from other electric bikes.

The TM-B (which stands for "Transcendent Mobility-Bike") also comes with a pretty steep price tag, especially when compared to the best electric bikes we've tested. Can its performance transcend its price?

Price and configurations

This Rivian-inspired ebike also has a Rivian-size price tag. The base model TM-B, which has a 538Wh battery with a range of 60 miles, air shocks and front coil suspension, costs $3,500. The Performance model, which has an 808Wh battery with a range of 100 miles and air shocks and air coils, costs $4,500.

When configuring your bike online, you can choose either a small or large frame, and can even add a splash of color by picking from a gray, orange, purple, blue, or yellow seatpost.

You can also pick a seatpost with a built-in rear rack for an extra $150, or a larger bench-style seat for $50. Fenders are not included; they're a $125 extra, and if you want all-terrain tires, that will set you back an additional $200.

Also plans to release additional accessories, such as a rear passenger seat, front rack, and panniers in the future.

The company is currently taking preorders, with shipments expected to start in August; that's a bit of a delay from earlier announcements, as it was initially targeting the first half of 2026.

Design

The TM-B stands out for its unique design, which is unlike any other electric bike I've seen, save perhaps for the Infinite Machine Olto (also an eye-watering $3,450). Both scream "futuristic," by the TM-B is a little less dystopian.

At the core of the TM-B is a squarish section that houses the motor and battery. The cover is transparent, so you can see the belt drive as it winds its way around the sprocket. Half of the space is taken up by the battery, which can be removed by turning a small handle, but only after you press a button on the center console to release the electronic lock.

Not only can the battery be recharged away from the bike, but it also has two USB-C ports, so you can use it as an external power source for your devices.

Equally futuristic is the TM-B's center display, a large circular affair that shows everything from your speed and distance to whether or not you're using power from the battery or adding to it via regenerative braking.

The bike has both front and rear turn signals — something I like — but, due to the design of the lights (which look like the headlight on a Rivian), the turn signals are smushed together, so it's not as obvious if you're turning left or right.

Each handlebar has a cluster of controls ; on the right is a throttle, while the left has a scroll wheel and selector button for navigating the on-screen menus. Interestingly, the turn signals are activated by using your index fingers, something I've not seen on any other e-bike or scooter.

The seatpost of the TM-B is also connected electronically, and can only be released using the center control (or the Also app). The bike is designed so that, if you buy a model without a rear rack, but decide you want one later, the company will send you the rack along with a new seat, rather than just the rack itself.

The ride

I (and my rear end) really appreciated the dual suspension of the TM-B as I rode over cobblestoned streets and potholes of lower Manhattan.

Unlike a regular ebike, your pedaling motion doesn't directly translate to moving the rear wheel. Instead, you're basically spinning a generator, which is recharging the battery; a separate, disconnected motor is then doing the work.

This novel setup allows Also to do some pretty interesting things. You can ride it like a traditional e-bike, and adjust the level of motor assist, or you can switch to a mode where selecting a different assist level is more akin to switching gears on a regular bike.

I tried both modes, and could definitely feel the difference between the two; the latter requires you to pedal a bit more, but the bike feels more responsive to your inputs; I would liken it to driving stick vs. automatic.

The TM-B's handlebars are mounted in a aggressive stance, more like a mountain bike than a commuter. I felt the handlebars were set a bit too wide for my tastes, and put a bit of extra pressure on my shoulders as compared to the other ebikes I've ridden. If you're considering buying this bike, I would definitely recommend a test ride first.

The TM-B is rated as a Class 3 e-bike; it has a top assisted speed of 28 miles per hour, and its thumb throttle can accelerate the bike up to 20 MPH where it's permitted. It certainly felt zippy as I was cruising through traffic, with a fast, smooth acceleration curve.

Outlook

There's no doubt that the Also TM-B was a fun ride. Apart from my issues with the handlebar design, I enjoyed riding the bike up and down the west side of Manhattan, even though it was on a day where the skies were filled with smoke from Canadian wildfires.

The issue I suspect many will have with the TM-B is its price. At $4,500 for the top-end model, it's up there with other premium ebikes such as the Gazelle Avignon and Cannondale Mavaro 2, though those models aren't as futuristic-looking, and only have front suspension.

Still, I like that companies such as Also are experimenting with new ebike designs and features, even if they're out of the range for most riders right now.

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• I drove the Rivian R1T and Chevrolet Silverado EV for a week — here’s the winner
• 7 things to consider when shopping for your first e-bike
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The Samsung Galaxy Z 8 series seems mostly focused on hardware upgrades, but there are still some excellent new AI and software features for you to take advantage of. My current favorite is MyFanCam, which edits a video to follow an individual rather than including the entire frame. Unfortunately, having tested the feature, there's one downside I didn't anticipate.

I have two very energetic dogs, and I had hoped MyFanCam would help make videos of them playing a little easier to follow. Unfortunately the AI is only capable of recognizing people, which means my dreams of more stable and easy to follow videos of my dog chasing a ball have been dashed — for now.

What is MyFanCam?

MyFanCam is a new Galaxy AI feature that's been released on the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, Z Fold 8 and Z Flip 8. The idea behind it is that you can reframe existing videos and shift the focus onto individual subjects rather than everything as a whole. Samsung's example videos feature people dancing together and utilizing MyFanCam to focus on a single member of the troupe.

This isn't a dedicated camera mode that follows people in frame, though. That feature has existed for a few years, and it's called Video Auto Framing. Instead, this is an AI editing feature, which takes videos you've already recorded and applies the principles of MyFanCam to the people in shot.

I was able to do it with videos I recorded as far back as 2019 on a non-Samsung phone. That's helpful, because it means you could breathe new life into your old videos, without having to worry about whether they have the right markers for Galaxy AI to do what needs to be done.

The other obvious benefit here is that you don't need to worry about getting the perfect shot while you're busy recording. In the same way that Reframe in iOS 27 will let you tweak the perspective of your photos, MyFanCam lets you change the main focus of the video so that viewers can hone in on what's important.

It's also worth noting that MyFanCam can't focus on more than one subject at a time, because that defeats the whole purpose of the feature. However you can always go back and make another MyFanCam video that focuses on someone else.

So in that group of three dancers, you could potentially end up with three additional takes on the very same video.

It only seems to work on people right now

I like taking photos and shooting videos of my dogs. They're adorable for one, but you never know when they're going to do something stupid and hilarious. The problem is keeping track of them when they're off their leash, and bolting around the local park. They're moving so quickly, and are often so far away, that I just can't keep track of them with my camera.

Sadly, running videos of my dogs playing through MyFanCam did... nothing. The AI didn't register that the dogs were there, which obviously meant that it wasn't able to focus on one of them and edit the video accordingly.

I then went back and checked it against a video of me and one of my dogs clearly in frame, just to see what happened. As expected, it picked me up right away, but was apparently oblivious to my furry companion.

Oddly intrigued, I tried to find some bizarre videos of people, and see how well Galaxy AI was able to pick up people in situations that are a little out of the ordinary. It had no problem focusing on a Berlin street performer that was doing a handstand on a skateboard, but it had trouble recognizing that a mid-performance routine was a human being. Similarly, adolescent gorillas at the zoo straight-up didn't register.

If you want to know something quite funny, MyFanCam was able to focus on certain characters on the parade floats at Disney World, including Pluto and Chip — but it struggled with Goofy. Clearly not even AI is sure what Goofy is supposed to be, because he's sure as heck not a dog.

I can't tell you whether Samsung has done this deliberately or not, but in my experience attempting to use AI camera features, I've noticed that it only really plays along when people are involved. Google's Add me feature is a very good example of this, since it also wouldn't register that my dogs were living, moving creatures that could move in and out of photos as they saw fit.

As for why, I can only assume that it's because the AI utilized by these camera features has only been trained on people. Tech companies likely figured that people would mostly want to photograph or video their friends and family.

Try and get the AI to register something slightly out of the usual parameters and it'll struggle. I guess people are easier for AI models to understand, whereas animals and pets come in all kinds of different shapes and sizes.

Bottom line

Despite that obvious flaw, I feel as though MyFanCam has potential. The idea that you can go back to a video and completely reshape what people see, and without resorting to changing things with generative AI, is quite impressive.

I'm disappointed by the lack of support for pets, though. As anyone with energetic animals in their lives can likely attest, capturing them on camera can be rather difficult. I was so looking forward to getting MyFanCam to get to work on the videos of my dogs, but sadly that wasn't meant to be. Hopefully it's something Samsung can work on, and roll out to Galaxy phones and roll out as a software update in the near future.

In the meantime, just make sure to keep your editing focused on people.

More from Tom's Guide

• I just ditched my iPhone for the Z Fold 8 — Android 17’s new migration tool is pure magic, but there is one painful catch
• I just spent 24 hours with the Galaxy Z fold 8 Ultra — here's what I liked and what I didn't
• Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra doesn't have a crease-free display — but it's the closest Samsung has ever got to one

You may have seen that Samsung showed me all of its canceled prototypes of the Galaxy Z Fold 8. That moment combined with my time flying to China and checking out this future of passport foldables that the iPhone Ultra looks set to adopt made me nervous that this stubbier size isn’t quite right.

But after my first 36 hours with the Z Fold 8, I’m coming around to the idea of this aspect ratio choice. Maybe the weight of my previous experiences clouded my judgement, but now out in the real world, it’s starting to click and make sense.

Throw in a strong camera, good battery life and beasty internals, and this has been a great first day of using Samsung’s new blower. I’ve seen a bunch of questions and thoughts in our comments, so these 24 hours have been more focused on answering these.

What’s the aspect ratio like?

We’ve been used to taller foldables that open out to a much more squared-off display for years now. Of course, other companies have tried the squished form factor like this, but this is Samsung’s first stab at it.

And honestly? At first I was feeling weird about it. Don’t get me wrong here, the smaller design does feel great to hold, and the one-handed operation feels like a blast from the past when small phones were cool.

That being said, the aspect ratio choice made here is a tough one to make — forming an awkward balance that black bars vertical content on the outside screen, as well as landscape on that 4:3 screen on the inside. Given the way “The Odyssey” is filmed in 70mm IMAX, this phone must be Christopher Nolan’s dream come true.

But compared to the square of the Ultra, the size of content on this phone is much better. Catching up on Netflix is a joy on this screen, though the audio sounds a bit lop-sided when both speakers are on the left side, so headphones are a must.

And when it comes to getting stuff done, of course the Ultra is more angled towards that, but flipping this into a portrait 3:4 ratio is great for this specific job. Samsung worked on the software to optimize the keyboard for typing away, while the extra height does give you a lot of real estate for multi-tasking.

Also, big screen TikTok is fun, web browsing feels much better with this vertical canvas, and I now have a foldable Kindle in my pocket. Pretty sweet!

Is the crease visible?

Samsung made a whole thing about the use of a titanium alloy film atop the inside screen and titanium plate beneath it — with the mission being to improve durability and eliminate the crease.

Now, does it eliminate it? No. It’s a lot better than it has been before, but at certain angles with the light bouncing off it, you can see the outline of it. But you have to be very specific about it to see the thing.

Also, shout-out to that anti-reflective coating. Of course, the naming of it may feel a little misleading when you still see reflections bounce off of it. However, there is a noticeable reduction in the glare, and light sources have been dimmed quite a bit by whatever the coating is doing here.

Zippy and long-lasting

With Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy inside with 12GB RAM does keep things nice and spritely under multitasking pressures for sure. And now that we’ve had these benchmarked in the lab, you can see this reflected in the numbers too.

That single-core speed especially manifests itself in a snappy, responsive UI and opening apps at breakneck speeds, while the multicore comes into effect when I’m hopping between apps running in the background.

Then there’s the battery — a 4,800 mAh cell that embraces silicon carbon battery tech to add a little more juice while keeping it thin and light. In our lab testing, we’ve been able to get 12 hours and 20 minutes out of it on one charge.

In real-life, I’ve been able to get through an entire day of standard use with no real worries. Starting from 100%:

• Two hours at the gym with music playing and regular screen opening to read news between sets: Battery went down to 92%
• Two hours on the phone with my wife — visiting websites on inside screen to finalize wedding celebration plans: Battery went down to 84%
• TikTok wormhole on inside screen for an hour: Battery went down to 79%
• Photography trip around London, multitasking between messaging apps, TikTok on the Underground, a couple phone calls, web browsing, and taking many photos: Battery went down to 64%

By the time I got to the Nvidia afterparty at 10pm, the battery was at around 50%. Of course, if I’m more sparing with my use, you can make this run much longer. But it’s clear you’re getting all-day usage with no problems.

Snap happy

I always have a beef with Samsung about its camera science. The hardware is always good, but coming from being an iPhone user, the focus on vividity always makes me feel like the phones of old have just vomited color all over the screen.

Not anymore. These dual 50MP shooters are impressive. Detail preservation is good and while color balance does lean towards the warmer tones, they’re not as distractingly vivid as before — keeping natural skin tones looking realistic.

And shout-out to night time photography too. I know Samsung made a whole song and dance about Nightography with the Ultra’s 200MP lens, but you’re getting more than enough of that experience with a quarter of the megapixels here.

Outlook

This is the first foldable I’ve properly daily driven. I have tested others in the past of course, but this is my first concerted effort to ditch a candy bar and give folds a chance. And after my first day and a half, I get the attraction to it.

There was a part of me that feared this would be a pure gimmick. And to many of you reading this, chances are it will be. You’ve got to have very specific use cases on lock to make the most of this — the work and content needs for that bigger screen if you’re always on-the-go.

If you have them, this more easily pocketable foldable is a real conversation starter, and a genuinely nice form factor. My only real problem is that $1,899 price tag. It’s massive to say the least! You can feel the premium nature of this phone, but that’s a huge cost to put on people.

More from Tom's Guide

• I just spent 24 hours with the Galaxy Z fold 8 Ultra — here's what I liked and what I didn't
• I just ditched my iPhone for the Z Fold 8 — Android 17’s new migration tool is pure magic, but there is one painful catch
• I'd buy a Galaxy Z Fold 8 over the Z Fold 8 Ultra — and it's all because it steals this Z TriFold feature

It's always exciting to try a brand new phone, and those first 24 hours can be pretty telling. That's especially true when you're making the jump from a regular phone to a foldable, because the fold-out large screen design opens a whole new world of possibilities.

That's certainly how I felt while unpackaging the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra — a phone that has so far been living up to its new designation. But a brief hands-on can only tell you so much about a phone, and it's only after spending several hours (or days) with your device that you can get a much clearer idea of what it has to offer.

The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra could be one of the best foldable phones, pending our full review, thanks to the sheer amount of upgrades Samsung has added this year. But is it really all that? Let's go through my first day with this Ultra foldable, so you can experience the highs (and lows) of picking one up for yourself.

Setting up

The great thing about modern phones is that they've made the set up process an absolute breeze compared to what it used to be like. Samsung is easily one of the best I've used, especially if you're copying data over from another Samsung phone.

In fact my Galaxy S26 Ultra detected the Z Fold 8 Ultra right away, and brought up the QR code scanner to link these two devices together. The most troublesome part of the whole experience was flicking through the many menus asking you to confirm various permissions, and which search engine you'd like set as your default.

The actual transfer process happens in the background, beaming over apps, accounts, default settings and everything else you had sitting on your own phone. Since my S26 Ultra doesn't get a ton of use, that process was pretty quick, and your experience will differ depending on how much you actually need to beam to your new phone.

I also find myself pretty impressed with the way Galaxy foldables set up fingerprint recognition. Samsung phones are usually some of the easiest and fastest devices for setting up biometric security, but with the physical fingerprint scanner all you need to do is wiggle your chosen digit around during the mapping process. None of the tedious lifting and replacing motions that you get with under-display fingerprint scanners.

Adapting to new displays

Switching to a foldable phone means adapting to a brand new set of displays. The 6.5-inch cover display offers a 21:9 aspect ratio, which is noticeably narrower than the 19:5:9 aspect ratio you'd find on most phones.

Having been used to using 6.3-inch non-folding phones for so long, the narrower form factor is taking some getting used to. To the point where I gravitate towards the 8-inch foldable display instead. It seems like a paradox, but I find the larger screen is a lot more comfortable to use — especially considering the doubled-screen is the perfect size for two-handed use.

As Samsung says, it's like having two 6.5-inch phones in a single phone.

One thing I noticed was that the Samsung web browser defaulted to the desktop view on both screens, and to my surprise I actually found it more comfortable to read that way.

Admittedly the text was rather small on the cover display, but the mobile option was too large and squashed together for me to read comfortably. It was almost like I had an accessibility feature that blew up the print for users with visual impairments. That said vertical videos looked perfect on the narrower cover display, with next to no wasted space.

That was not entirely true for horizontal video, but that just gave the foldable screen even more chance to shine. Especially since Flex Mode let me partially fold up the screen and use the Z Fold 8 Ultra as its own stand.

I'll admit, though, it does still feel as though something is missing with the larger screen, and I feel like having some kind of S Pen support would help complete the puzzle. I'm not entirely sure I would be using the stylus all that much, but it would be nice to have the option.

Not quite crease-free

One of the most anticipated upgrades on the Z fold 8 Ultra is the flex titanium display, which was heavily rumored to eliminate the crease down the display. It doesn't take long to spot that this is not really the case, and the crease is still visible in certain conditions.

That being said, the crease is a lot harder to see when compared to the Galaxy Z Fold 7. It mostly shows up when the screen is switched off, or you find yourself in particularly bright conditions. The fact you have to go out of your way to see the crease means Samsung should be commended for what it's managed by adding the Flex Titanium display.

That said, you can still feel the crease when you're scrolling along the large display. It feels almost identical to the Z Fold 7's crease, and I have to admit the more I use the phone the more distracting it is to come across the dip in the middle of the screen. That's definitely something Samsung needs to work on for the Z Fold 9 Ultra.

Galaxy-class performance?

While I haven't done any benchmarking with the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra yet, I have done some gaming to try and take the new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy chipset for a spin. Loading up PUBG Mobile and I found that the settings automatically set the frame rate to the highest level, though it was being a little bit stingy with the graphics until I told it to up the ante.

The performance at the highest possible settings was excellent, as I'd hoped. I didn't notice any frame rate issues while I played, and the graphics were exactly what I expected from PUBG after dabbling with the game over the past few years. Better still I didn't even feel the phone get warm throughout an hour of playthrough, which is always best for the long-term health of the phone.

As for the battery, I found that this play session ate up around 5% of my battery, including the time it took to download the more advanced graphics.

Similarly, I forgot to charge the Z Fold 8 Ultra overnight, but still managed to get to around 3.45 p.m. before it flashed up a battery warning. That bodes well for the actual battery life, but since we haven't tested it I can't say whether Samsung's 27 hour battery life claim is accurate or not.

Cameras are so-far so-Samsung

I haven't had much need to take photos with the Z Fold 8 Ultra so far, but it's not like I need an excuse to snap photos of my dogs — especially when they make such adorable models. Needless to say, I'm impressed with the photos I've taken with the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra so far.

The photos of my dogs and my plants came out looking pretty well, though I will admit that the main lens struggled with close-ups of my Lego minifigures. For some reason it just would not focus on what I wanted, meaning I had to resort to the lower-resolution Ultrawide angle lens to actually get this shot of Captain Jean-Luc Brickard.

You can kind of tell that the resolution isn't really there, though the photo itself still looks rather good. Sadly, the telephoto lens doesn't quite match up, and the quality feels more akin to the 10MP selfie cameras rather than the other two rear lenses. I wouldn't say it's taking bad photos, but they're not quite the caliber I would expect from a $2,100 phone.

As for the selfie camera, I won't say that I dislike the photos it takes, but it falters compared to that main 200MP camera. The selfies feel a little grainier and washed out, and I feel like you'd be better off taking advantage of the rear cameras instead. The very nature of foldables, and the fact you can use the cover display as a viewfinder, means that's a very real option for you.

If anyone is interested in how I got my tomatoes looking so nice after the immense heat and drought we've been having in the U.K., the answer is coffee grounds. Those leftovers mean I haven't had to feed my tomato plant all summer. Sadly, the same can't be said for my pepper plant, which hasn't even flowered yet.

The AI isn't ready this soon

As much as Samsung (and other phone companies) love to hype up AI capabilities, you can't really take full advantage of them on day one. The fact that Galaxy AI already has information on me, transferred over from my Galaxy S26 Ultra, meant that they weren't completely useless. So Now Brief had some basic information from places like my calendar to get me started.

However, I did need to go through a bunch of setup processes, like updating Samsung's Personal Data Intelligence and creating my own custom cards, to start making the most of the feature. On a similar note, the fact that Now Nudge hadn't had time to burrow into the depths of my phone hasn't been able to surface any useful information so far.

I have attempted to utilize MyFanCam, which lets you edit videos in a way that focuses on a single subject rather than an entire group.

I had hoped I would be able to use the feature to video my dogs playing, and help keep the focus on one of the two, instead of having to try and keep their crazy antics in frame all the time. But apparently the AI that powers MyFanCam doesn't recognize dogs, only people. Stay tuned for more.

What a difference a day makes

24 hours is not a lot of time when it comes to getting to grips with a new phone, especially when there are AI features that need time and resources to get themselves working at anything close to operating capacity. Still, it's a good amount of time to start getting to grips with a new device, and for all its potential flaws I am rather happy with the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra so far.

I am not a huge fan of the narrow cover display, and feel like the wider Z Fold 8 might offer a better experience in that regard. I do like the main 8-inch display, though, especially since it makes viewing and scrolling a more comfortable experience than you'd normally get. Though I would have liked the option to use an S Pen, and hope Samsung brings it back sooner rather than later.

Of course, there's still plenty of testing that needs doing before we can publish our full review. While I hope this shapes up to be one of the best foldable phones, 24 hours just isn't enough to make that happen. That means it's time to get testing and see what this phone can really do.

More from Tom's Guide

• I just ditched my iPhone for the Z Fold 8 — Android 17’s new migration tool is pure magic, but there is one painful catch
• ‘We're pretty confident': How Samsung plans to fight the first foldable iPhone
• I'd buy a Galaxy Z Fold 8 over the Z Fold 8 Ultra — and it's all because it steals this Z TriFold feature

Foldable phone makers have declared war on the display crease, and this year could be the year a bunch of them make real progress. Samsung, in particular, has been slowly reducing the visibility of the crease over the past few years, but the recent launch of the Galaxy Z 8 series marks the most significant reduction to date.

Rumors suggested that Samsung had managed to eliminate the crease, but I can promise you that this isn't the case based on my experience with the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra over the past day. Samsung has made a lot of progress in making the crease less visible, but it hasn't managed to hide it from view completely.

I should make it very clear from the get-go that the crease on the Z Fold 8 Ultra is rather difficult to see at a glance. Especially when you compare it to the Galaxy Z Fold 7, which, despite its own screen refinements, still has a rather prominent crease down the middle of its foldable screen.

That being said, the visibility of the crease all depends on what the phone is doing and what the lighting conditions are like. For instance, having the screen switched on makes the crease a lot harder to notice than when it's switched off.

Bright, direct light is the worst offender for this. Which means that even though the Z Fold 8 Ultra has a new anti-reflective coating and a 3,000-nit display to aid performance in bright conditions, there's no hiding the prominent dip and warp running down the center of the screen.

That said, switch your location to a spot without bright and direct light, and the crease practically vanishes before your eyes. So long as the screen is switched on, that is.

Similarly, bright environments really highlight the warping around the center of the phone. However, it's not even close to as bad as the warping visible on the Z Fold 7. That level of warping is enough to visibly ruin whatever is on your screen, and is particularly pronounced in bright environments.

Tilting the screen around ruins the illusion too, but as long as you're avoiding direct light, it's still a bit of a struggle to see the crease on the Fold 8 Ultra.

Looking at the Z Fold 8 Ultra is only one part of the equation when it comes to the crease, though. Samsung doesn't seem to have made any headway in reducing the way the crease feels when you slide over it with your finger.

There's a noticeable bump, followed by a dip and another bump. It's not subtle, and the feeling is almost identical to that of the Galaxy Z Fold 7. That suggests to me that the hinge design hasn't changed since last year, and the Flex titanium display doesn't seem to be doing much, if anything, to cushion everything underneath the display panel.

How this affects you is going to depend on how you use your Z Fold 8 or 8 Ultra. I've been using the larger screen in landscape mode, with the crease running from left to right, and that naturally means my thumb rolls over the crease quite a lot. Obviously, if I held the phone the other way, with the crease running from top to bottom, things would be totally different.

Obviously this is something prospective Galaxy Z Fold 8 owners need to be aware of. Just because Samsung has reduced the visibility of the Z Fold 8's crease by a considerable amount, it doesn't mean that you won't notice it. Whether that's because you're in a bright environment, or because you can't stop sliding over it while doing basic, everyday things on the larger screen.

Still, credit where credit is due, Samsung has done a lot to improve the look of the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra's display. Though now the real question is how it will compare to the upcoming foldable iPhone Ultra.

After all, Apple has reportedly been especially particular about the crease to the point where it apparently delayed the phone until it could be eliminated. But we'll have to wait until mid-to-late September to find out for sure.

More from Tom's Guide

• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 is the first Galaxy phone with a silicon carbon battery — here's why that's such a big deal
• No, the Fold 8 doesn't have an S Pen — but Samsung is ‘exploring’ its return for future Folds
• I held Samsung’s secret, canceled Z Fold 8 prototypes — and they killed the best one

For a decade, Apple has essentially held my digital life hostage with iPhones. Every time I looked at an Android phone, the sheer dread of migrating my passwords, WhatsApp chats, and app layouts kept me firmly trapped in the Walled Garden. But with Android 17 on the new Galaxy Z Fold 8, Google just handed me a pair of bolt cutters.

Enter Google’s new Android Switch iOS migration tool — named Smart Switch in the newly launched Galaxy Z Fold 8, Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra and Galaxy Z Flip 8. And all I’ll say is if switching operating systems is a dealbreaker for you — getting all the right apps, account logins and home screen layouts just right — all of that is gone.

This is a breakthrough for phone switchers, and a real leveler in the iOS vs Android war.

Just scan and go

It all starts with a QR code scan — no additional app required. At that point, I picked what apps and data I sent across, and it just…did it. Mostly.

There is the brutal reality I did face while switching: the software is pure magic, but physics still applies. I was staring down the barrel of a decade's worth of iPhone photos (514GB to be specific), and the Z Fold 8 simply didn't have the storage to swallow it all.

I had to make the agonizing choice to leave my photo library behind in the Apple ether. But once I made peace with that (and started a mass transfer to Amazon Photos with my Prime account)? What happened next was jaw-dropping.

Your Android phone will find its OS equivalents of the apps you have on your iPhone and install them all, all your messages, call logs and contacts, WhatsApp data, account logins and passwords, settings and even the way the apps are laid out on each home screen (as well as wallpaper) all make it over.

The only things you’ll need to do are log back into your apps with the saved details and add the Android equivalent to the widgets, as I saw with these suspicious gaps in my app layouts.

The elimination of basically all friction here is amazing to me — someone who’s seen both sides make it as awkward as possible for platform lock-in.

And even better? It just took me around 25-30 minutes wirelessly. Of course, mileage may vary depending on just how much data you’re sending over, but this was for roughly 55GB of total data.

Stick another five minutes on top for logging back into everything and setting up my bank card with Samsung Pay, and I was using the London Underground again as if nothing had happened.

What’s the catch?

So there is one small frustration that I came across — my first attempt came up with an internet connection problem. Basically, the migration didn’t start because the Android phone wasn’t connected to Wi-Fi. This could be because I was on my hotel’s network, and your home Wi-Fi may behave differently.

If that happens, just start the process as if you were setting up your Android phone from scratch, connect to Wi-Fi, then head back to the migration screen. That fixed it for me!

But beyond that, everything else was shockingly smooth on this transition, and surprisingly fast too. In all my years covering phones, I never expected to see iOS and Android playing nice together like this.

Put simply, the fear of platform lock-in should no longer be part of your purchase decision.

More from Tom's Guide

• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 is the first Galaxy phone with a silicon carbon battery — here's why that's such a big deal
• Samsung just added Automated Tasks and Gemini Notebook to Galaxy Z Fold 8 — here's what these AI features let you do
• I held Samsung’s secret, canceled Z Fold 8 prototypes — and they killed the best one

Are smart glasses too ... smart? Rather than creating a jack-of-all trades pair of specs, the new Halliday G2 smart glasses are aimed at one thing: Making your meetings more focused and productive.

To that end, these glasses don't have a camera, but instead a set of mics and an AI that can act as your assistant to look up data, create action items, and help keep people accountable.

I went hands-on with the Halliday G2 a few weeks back and here's everything they can do, as well as my initial impressions on how they compare to the best smart glasses.

Price and availability

The Halliday G2 will cost $599 (the same price as the Even Realities G2, but $200 less than the Meta Ray-Ban Display), and is expected to ship in September. Preorders begin today (July 21) at www.hallidayglobal.com; those who secure a preorder with a $10 deposit will get $100 off the regular price of the glasses.

The G2s will be available with prescription lenses.

Design and display

While the Halliday G2 has a display, it feels a lot more stripped-down than the Meta Ray-Ban Displays or the Snap Specs, but that's by design.

For one thing, there's no camera. In addition to making the glasses simpler, it was also done to put others at ease, company reps told me. (They can record audio, but still.)

While the G2 has a built-in display, it's much more basic than what you'll find on the Meta Displays, and more like that on the Even Realities G2 or Rokid Glasses: a green, monochrome readout.

Unlike the first-gen Halliday, the G2's display is brighter and clearer, and appears virtually in front of both your eyes, rather than on just the right side. The image appears to hover a few feet in front of you, which made it much more natural to look at when holding a conversation with others.

The G2's feature dual micro-LED projectors with a resolution of 600 x 300 in each eye, and a peak brightness of 1,600 nits.

I wore the G2's for a few minutes during a hands-on session, and found them to be as comfortable as the Ray-Ban Metas, as well as my regular non-smart glasses. The G2's weigh under 50 grams, which put them in the same tier as the Ray-Ban Meta (51 grams), the Rokid Glasses (48 grams), but heavier than the Even Realities G2, which weigh just 35 grams.

A touchpad on the right temple lets you navigate the G2's interface with swipes and taps; it'll take some practice to get the hang of things.

Similar to most smart glasses, the Halliday G2s can also deliver notifications, phone calls, play music, and let you use the Halliday AI Assistant.

Made for meetings

The biggest differentiator between the Halliday G2 and other smart glasses is its focus on making meetings more productive. To that end, its biggest feature is called Meeting Flow, which has several facets:

• Understanding the conversation (literally): The glasses support real-time translation in over 45 languages, and can pick up voices using its 4-mic array, which work in up to a 2-meter radius.
• Quick Summary: If you lose focus or get distracted, the glasses can catch you up on what was just said.
• Quick Research: If you need to look up a fact or information, Meeting Flow can dig up relevant information based on the conversation taking place at the time of your query.
• Thread Tracker: Often, conversations can drift off on tangents; this feature tracks how things evolved, so you can get back to the original subject.
• Decision Confirmation: This helps make sure that if something was decided, it gets remembered, and also prompts the G2 wearer if something was left open-ended.
• Commitment Check: If someone in the meeting says they're going to do something, this feature will prompt the wearer to not only confirm that, but also give the person the information they need to complete the task.
• Open-item tracker: If things are left unresolved, this feature will make note of them, and put them in a checklist.
• Summary and transcript: Like all other AI assistants, Meeting Flow will create a summary and transcript of the meeting.

Outlook

At a time when there's a lot of concern around privacy and smart glasses — just look at the issues around Meta's smart glasses — the idea of having a camera-free set of specs will no doubt be appealing to many.

The idea of having a set of smart glasses hyper-focused around a particular activity could appeal to those who spend a lot of time in meetings, and need a smart way to not only make them more productive, both during and after the fact.

However, I have no doubt that many will look to the broader appeal of the upcoming Samsung smart glasses (and other Android XR devices), which could cost around the same, but offer more functionality.

We'll reserve our final judgment until September, when the Halliday G2 glasses — and Meeting Flow — rolls out.

• I've reviewed all of Meta's smart glasses, and this is the pair I'd actually buy
• Exclusive: Inside Google’s plan to win over your face with AI glasses — and avoid Meta's privacy missteps
• I’ve traveled over 50,000 miles testing smart glasses in 2026 — here are my 3 favorites that have launched this year so far

Watch out, MacBook Neo! The new Dell XPS 13 is here, and it could arguably be the best budget laptop available. With a starting price of $699, it packs many of the features you’d find in higher-end XPS laptops. Given the ongoing RAM crisis, this notebook is seriously worth considering for what it offers.

Unlike most budget Windows laptops, the XPS 13 has a CNC aluminum chassis built to the same standards as its more expensive XPS counterparts. Not only does it look great, but it’s also the thinnest XPS laptop ever. Toss in other features, such as a vivid 2.5K touch display, a backlit keyboard, and fast performance, and you have a winner.

I’ve spent 48 hours with the Dell XPS 13 and find that it lives up to the hype. To be clear, I tested the model with 16GB of RAM, which retails for $899. I’ll review the model with 8GB of RAM soon, but for now, here’s what I think of the new Dell XPS 13.

Dell XPS 13 (2026): Specs

Dell XPS 13 (2026): Design

“Wow, that’s light,” was the first thing I said when I picked up the XPS 13. And that wasn’t just my brain playing tricks on me. At 2.2 pounds, this laptop is lighter than the 2.7-pound 13-inch MacBook Air and MacBook Neo. This is exactly the kind of laptop I want to travel with since it’s so light — a fact that was very clear when I barely felt it in my backpack when I brought the XPS 13 from the office to my apartment.

The smooth aluminum chassis also ensures that the XPS 13 is plenty sturdy, as it doesn’t easily bend or flex. This is a far cry from the plastic laptops I’m used to in this price range. I’m glad that Dell didn’t sacrifice build quality to drop the price, as the aluminum casing is an important selling point here.

Another big selling point for anyone deciding between the XPS 13 and the MacBook Neo is the former’s backlit keyboard. This is something some folks don’t think about, since many laptops have backlit keyboards, but if you work at night or just need help seeing the keys, it’s a crucial feature.

Dell XPS 13 (2026): Display

The Dell XPS 13 has a 13.4-inch 2.5K-resolution touchscreen display. Though it’s not an OLED panel, everything looks bright and colorful to me. When running a video featuring colorful animals, I was impressed by the color representation and accuracy. Naturally, text-heavy websites are very clear.

As you can see from our display benchmarks, the XPS 13 delivers solid color representation (sRGB and DCI-P3) and color accuracy (Delta-E). While Dell’s notebook has higher resolution and touch support, the MacBook Neo matches the XPS 13 in color representation and accuracy. However, the Neo's display is overall brighter, especially with SDR content.

While the 13-inch MacBook Air has a slightly taller display at 13.6 inches, everything is still clear on the XPS 13’s display. This is a big win, especially since laptops in this price range tend to have duller displays.

Dell XPS 13 (2026): Performance

The XPS 13 features the new Wildcat Lake CPU and gives me my first chance to test a laptop with Intel’s lower-end Series 3 processor. Our review unit also has 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. While these specs aren’t mind-blowing, they get the job done.

Even with 15 Microsoft Edge tabs open and a YouTube video running in the background, the XPS 13 didn’t noticeably slow down. My experience aligns with our CPU benchmarks, which show solid single- and multi-core scores.

Even with its 8GB of RAM, the MacBook Neo has a slight edge in CPU performance, underscoring the incredible efficiency of Apple’s affordable laptop. As for the Handbrake video transcoding test, the MacBook Neo performed the task about 10 seconds faster.

We haven't run our battery life test yet, but Dell claims up to 17 hours of streaming battery life for the XPS 13. We’ll see if the XPS 13 can match the Neo’s 13.5-hour endurance in our lab tests. If Dell can match or exceed that, it would be another big reason to buy.

Dell XPS 13 (2026): Outlook

For what it offers, the Dell XPS 13 is an excellent budget Windows laptop. It’s extremely rare to find such a solid notebook at this price point. I’ll have a full review for you soon, but based on my experience so far, I’m very impressed with what Dell has delivered.

As for the MacBook Neo comparisons, they’re even more relevant now, given Apple’s price hikes, which have put the Neo at the same starting price as the XPS 13. If you’re married to a specific platform (macOS or Windows 11), the decision should be easy. However, if you just want the best value, you now have two strong options.

Stay tuned for my full XPS 13 review, along with a deeper face-off between Dell’s laptop and the MacBook Neo to help you decide which one is best for your needs.

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Minimalism — open spaces, minimal clutter and devices that are designed to be sleek and low-profile — is all the rage, and has been for a while. It sounds great, and in some cases it definitely can be a great aesthetic choice. But there are cases when minimalism, and deliberately trying to take up as little space as possible, just doesn't work. This car mount from Lisen is one very good example.

There are countless different kinds of the best car phone mounts, each capable of supporting your phone in a different way. My personal preference is for suction cups, since they tend to offer more versatility than vent mounts and other options.

The problem is that they're usually quite big and take up a lot of space — not to mention the fact that the suction cup mechanism needs a flat surface, otherwise a single bad pothole could send your mount (and phone) flying towards the back of the car. Trust me, it can happen, and it is not a fun experience.

It certainly has the right look

Lisen's magnetic suction cup mount certainly has the right look. It's sleek, it's compact, and because it has a suction cup mount, you don't need to rely on adhesives that could melt or dry out over time. Plus the actual vacuum suction is controlled by a dial in the center, rather than an ugly lever or some other fold-down mechanism.

The fold-out magnetic ring looks rather nice as well. It folds up neatly, and the magnetic ring is MagSafe compatible, which means it has a really strong grip on your phone. The problem is that the rings are far too small (and short) to be particularly useful, to the point where it makes the mount a pretty useless addition to the dashboard.

The main problem with a suction cup mechanism is that it needs to be attached to a surface that is smooth and relatively flat. Anything else, like curves or textured materials interferes with the vacuum and stops it from gripping to the surface correctly.

Every car's dashboard is different, but you can usually find a few places that are flat enough to securely attach a car mount like this. My general rule of thumb is that a phone needs to be positioned in a way that means it's not blocking your view of the road (for safety reasons), but in a spot that the driver can see should they need their phone for some crucial driving-related app or feature.

If you can't see the screen, you might as well tuck the phone out of sight and make use of in-car alternatives like Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. There's no need to have a phone mount if your phone isn't mounted in a convenient place, after all.

Sadly this is exactly what happened to me with Lisen's MagSafe suction cup mount.

Practical appeal is lacking, for my car at least

My car has a fairly curvy dashboard, with some mild texturing. But there are still a few places where a good suction cup mount can grab onto without any problems. The issue with Lisen's mount is that the magnetic connector is so low down, that it breaks my two main rules about car phone mounts.

Here's the problem. You find a spot and securely attach your mount to the car's dashboard. Then you attempt to attach your phone, and find that the phone is too big. "No matter," you say. You simply tilt the connector backwards until there is room for the phone. Only then, your phone is angled so far back that you can't see what's on the screen.

So you attempt to find a spot that lets you set up the mount where there is room for the phone to stay more or less vertical — giving you an unobstructed view of what's going on. Only then, you find that the only suitable spots are right in the middle of the dash, or so far back that your phone ends up blocking a not-insignificant portion of your windshield. There's no doubt that this is the worse option, and could easily be a hazard to everyone around you.

My go-to phone is a Google Pixel 10 Pro, which has a 6.3-inch display — which is a fairly average-sized phone. In other words, it's nothing out of the ordinary, as far as smartphones are concerned, and it's a form factor that accessory-makers really should account for before finalizing their designs.

My car is slightly to blame

Naturally the shape of my dashboard is partly to blame, as is my preference not to attach suction cup mounts to the windshield — since it blocks my view of the road. But with all the different suction cup mounts I've tried and tested over the years, I've never had one that was too small to secure my phone correctly.

There's always been some part of the design that lets you adjust the mount and adapt it to your own car. It's something that the Lisen MagSafe mount sorely lacks, and despite its handsome design it fails the most important purpose of all: Practicality for everyone, regardless of which car they drive.

Maybe your car has a suitable dashboard design to attach this mount properly. The problem is that, like me, you likely won't know the full situation before you buy one and attempt to install it yourself. Which is less than ideal, to say the least.

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I've tried just about every AI productivity tool you can imagine. From chatbots that help me research to wearables that act like an external brain, I lean into AI for productivity often.

But when it came to AI note-taking devices, I was on the fence. I've tried several, like Otter.ai and Gemini for notetaking, but to be completely honest, nothing could beat my physical notebook and pen. That is, until the Flowtica AI pen caught my attention.

Rather than changing how I work, this real-working pen allowed me to keep writing with pen and paper while quietly recording the conversation, then let AI organize everything afterward. It sounded almost too simple, here are my thoughts after using Flowtica AI pen for a month.

What is the Flowtica AI pen?

At first glance, you'd never guess the Flowtica AI pen was AI hardware at all. It simply looks like a cool metal pen that writes on ordinary paper. But what's great about it is, with a quick tap on the button, it also records conversations while you take notes, syncing everything to a companion app that can generate transcripts, meeting summaries and action items. Talk about a productivity game-changer!

Now as I write, I don't have to worry about catching everything. Flowtica will always pick up the slack. One feature I found especially interesting is something Flowtica calls FlowMark. If someone says something important, you press a button on the pen to create a marker. The idea is that the AI pays extra attention to those moments when it builds your summary later.

There's also a feature called Snap It, which lets you photograph notebook pages or whiteboards so the AI can combine your handwritten notes with the transcript.

What surprised me most

As a journalist, I spend a surprising amount of time juggling three things at once. I'm listening in briefing calls or interviews, asking follow-up questions and writing — all while trying not to forget what someone just said.

Even with years of experience, it's easy to miss a quote or lose track of an important point. I've experimented with AI transcription apps before, but they usually require pulling out another device, opening another app or remembering to hit Record before a conversation starts.

A pen feels...normal. No one thinks twice when you take notes with a pen. Of course, I always let them the person in front of me know when I'm recording — something most have come to expect from a journalist anyway.

But what surprised me most about this unique pen is how little I had to actually think about the technology at all. As someone who has become so used to AI demanding my attention, I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to just tap the button on the side to get started.

Because instead of changing your workflow, Flotica AI adapts to a workflow that's existed for decades.

Where Flotica really impressed me

The obvious audience for this product is people who spend their days in meetings. I also think this would be great for college students who don't want to miss anything during lectures. But the more I use the pen, the more use cases came to mind.

In fact, I now keep it with me whereever I go. With 32GB onboard storage that stores approximately 4,000 hours of audio and a built-in studio-grade MEMS microphone for recording conversations while I write, it's a no-brainer.

One thing to note, unlike similar AI notetakers, no special paper is required. I use it on my own notebook or journal.

Charging is easy and the battery life is incredible. Flowtica AI offers up to 30 hours of continuous recording on a single charge and up to to 100 hours of recording with the optional charging case. Standby time is up to 5,600 hours — that's a whopping 233 days. The charging cable, included, uses USB-C.

The speaker recognition is incredible. It can capture up to 15 speakers in a room, but to be fully transparent, I didn't try it with that many since I work remotely. But it did pick up my voice from about ten feet away. The company promises it works up to 16.4 feet (5 meters).

It also labels people by name after they've been introduced once, which is great for keeping track of who said what in a meeting — even in a conversation between two or three.

The app works on iOS and Android and users get unlimited recording with no subscription required. That's the tier I used, which has been plenty. There is a paid plan, which unlocks even more AI features.

What I didn't like

I think Flowtica is great for many reasons, but it also frustrated me on occassion. For instance, sometimes the pen would stop pairing or syncing recordings. I usually solved this by clicking the pen on and off again and doing the same to my phone. That did the trick, but took time.

The summary accuracy was also something I think the company really needs to improve. The summary was often too short and some details were missed completely at times. Sometimes the Bluetooth pairing would drop off, but for the most it worked as it should and the transcript quality seemed up to par.

The takeaway

Anyone who regularly fills notebooks with pages they'll probably never revisit should check out this pen. Because AI can automatically organize those notes into something searchable and actionable, that's potentially a meaningful time saver that you never even realized you needed. I certainly didn't until now.

This has become my favorite AI note-taker yet because it is easy to use and let's me write by hand, which I don't think I could ever give up.

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Apple is expected to launch iPadOS 27 this Fall, but you can try the upcoming operating system right now via the public beta. While the OS is still a work in progress, it has most of the essential new features coming to the best iPads.

Like iOS 27 and macOS 27, iPadOS 27 is focused on overall system refinements and deeper AI integration. That last bit is especially noteworthy, as there is now a dedicated Siri AI app that functions like a standard chatbot. Beyond answering questions, Siri AI can also take actions on your behalf since it’s integrated into the operating system and works with Apple’s applications.

Though iPadOS 27 isn’t a monumental update, features like the overhauled Siri AI, the Liquid Glass slider, and other quality-of-life improvements make it worthwhile. Here are my impressions of the upcoming iPad operating system and its new features.

iPadOS 27 hands-on preview: Compatible iPads

Here are all the iPads that support iPadOS 27.

• iPad Pro (M4 and later)
• iPad Pro 12.9‑inch (4th generation and later)
• iPad Pro 11‑inch (2nd generation and later)
• iPad Air 13-inch (M2 and later)
• iPad Air 11-inch (M2, M3, and M4)
• iPad Air 11-inch (4th generation and later)
• iPad (A16)
• iPad (9th generation and later)
• iPad mini (A17 Pro)
• iPad mini (6th generation)

iPadOS 27 hands-on preview: New features

Siri AI

Apple Intelligence is finally ready for prime time on the company’s devices. Thanks to the new Siri AI app, you can now interact with Apple’s virtual assistant the same way you would with a chatbot like ChatGPT or Google Gemini. Apple Intelligence runs on both servers and your device to offer better image understanding and more.

There is now a dedicated Siri AI app, which looks and functions like a regular chatbot app. In this window, you can ask Siri questions or have it perform tasks for you. For example, I used Siri to send a message to one of my iMessage group chats, and it did so after my approval. Sure, I could have just done this directly in the group chat, but it’s a good demonstration of what the new Siri can do.

Siri AI also understands what it sees on your screen. When I had the Tom’s Guide homepage open on Google Chrome, it correctly detailed what was on the screen, including all the articles. It couldn’t open the articles or read them out loud (despite saying it could), but given that I’m testing a beta version, I’ll give it an A for effort, even if it failed to complete the task.

Siri is most useful when you’re using Apple’s own apps and programs. It can create events on your calendar, set reminders, play music, and more. For example, when you’re looking at a schedule, you’ll see an “add to calendar” button pop up. When you right-click certain folders, files, or apps, you’ll see an “Ask Siri” option at the bottom. Selecting this will open a window where you can start texting or talking with Siri.

Though Siri can’t yet interact with most third-party applications (such as those from Google), it’s a huge improvement over the old Siri.

Liquid Glass improvements

Liquid Glass hasn’t gone anywhere, as Apple is leaning more into the UI with its latest operating system updates. However, Apple is now giving you greater control over how it looks thanks to a new slider that adjusts the opacity. You can’t eliminate the Liquid Glass look, but you can severely minimize it.

There are other improvements, such as how complex background visuals now appear more diffuse so that text stands out more. You’ll also notice that the edges of icons are more pronounced to help further separate them from the background. The uniform corner radius of all app windows also helps them stand out more.

Even if Liquid Glass hasn’t gone anywhere, even detractors should find the updates tolerable since they do greatly improve overall readability and visibility. The Liquid Glass slider is a nice touch.

I've never had a problem with Liquid Glass because I think it’s an interesting visual effect. That said, I’m glad that folks can now fine-tune it to their liking. The slider is especially neat because it’s easy to use and makes it clear how much of a difference there is when you go from one extreme to the other.

Child safety features

If you’re a parent, you’ll be happy to know that Apple is expanding its parental control features with iPadOS 27. This way, you can let the kiddo use Apple’s tablet without worrying too much about the kind of content they’re watching and for how long they’re using the slate.

Some of these updates include a redesigned and more intuitive Screen Time Dashboard that offers one-tap controls and expanded safeguards. There is also Time Allowances for app categories, Ask to Browsw website approval, Communication Safety that blurs gore or violence, and one-tap access management. You can tailor these features to suit your child.

I don’t have kids but I did find the child safety features simple enough to use and customize. Given how much kids love iPads, it’s smart for Apple to continue making adjustments to these safety features.

iPadOS 27 hands-on preview: Other features

Spatial Reframing: As the name suggests, you can now reframe a photo after it’s been taken thanks to this feature. You can also expand your shots with the Extend Tool and remove objects with the Clean Up tool.

Upgraded Image Playground: Image Playground can now generate higher quality images than before. You can also modify and transform existing images by describing what you want.

Siri in Notes: Siri AI can assist with your handwritten or typed notes in the Notes app by (for example) organizing bullet points into a formatted agenda or turning handwritten lectures into a detailed study guide.

Safari updates: In Safari, tabs can now be automatically grouped by topic to make related pages easier to find. With Safari Notify Me, you can receive an alert if there’s a price change or a restock for an item you’ve been eyeing.

Describe Shortcuts: Instead of manually building complex workflows, you can now describe what you need, and Shortcuts connects actions across multiple apps to make it happen. This is useful if you want to set specific routines, such as launching a specific app when you connect a peripheral.

iPadOS 27 hands-on preview: Outlook

iPadOS 27 won’t set the world on fire with revolutionary new features, but the upgraded Siri AI and deeper Apple Intelligence integrations help make iPads that support the update more useful. This is especially true if you frequently use Apple’s own apps.

Keeping in mind that iPadOS 27 is still a work in progress, I think it’s a smart update that finally sees Apple’s AI ambitions bear fruit. Things could change between now and when the expected Fall launch, but right now, Apple has delivered on its promises for a more helpful and intuitive iPad experience.

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The public beta for macOS 27, also known as macOS Golden Gate, is here! While this update isn’t as monumental as macOS Sequoia, it delivers a slew of AI features and smoother overall performance, making the best MacBooks more personal and streamlined.

I’ve had the developer beta of macOS Golden Gate installed for a month, with the latest version close to what the public beta is offering. While the beta is still very much a work in progress, I’ve had a smooth time using it and testing out its new features.

If you’re signed into the (free) Apple beta software program, you can try the public beta of macOS Golden Gate right now. Here are my thoughts on the beta and the key features worth checking out.

macOS Golden Gate public beta hands-on: Supported Macs

The Intel era is over, as macOS Golden Gate doesn’t run on those older machines. Here is a complete list of Macs that support Golden Gate.

• MacBook Neo (2026)
• MacBook Air with Apple silicon (2020 and later)
• MacBook Pro with Apple silicon (2020 and later)
• iMac with Apple silicon (2021 and later)
• Mac mini with Apple silicon (2020 and later)
• Mac Studio with Apple silicon (2022 and later)
• Mac Pro with Apple silicon (2023 and later)

macOS Golden Gate public beta hands-on: Features

Most of macOS Golden Gate’s new features center around updated versions of Siri and Apple Intelligence. These are the ones that have stood out the most during my testing.

Siri AI

There is now a dedicated Siri AI app for macOS Golden Gate that functions similarly to chatbots like ChatGPT and Google Gemini. This app is also available on iPadOS 27 and iOS 27, and is arguably the biggest new feature for the Apple devices that support it.

You can access the Siri AI app either by clicking it in the Dock or in the Menu bar. You can also bring it up by pulling up Spotlight. Doing this brings up a dedicated chat window where you can ask Siri AI questions or just talk to it about whatever’s on your mind. Again, this functions exactly like the chatbots you’re already familiar with.

And since Siri AI is now baked into the operating system, it can do more than just chat. For example, if you’re looking at a schedule, you’ll see an “add to calendar” button appear. I’ve even had this happen when I suggest a date/time to meet with friends. When you right-click on folders, files, or apps, you’ll often see an “Ask Siri” option at the very top, where you can begin asking questions about whatever you’re highlighting.

You can even create Shortcuts by typing or speaking what you want instead of manually building complications. While I wouldn’t call this vibe coding, it can feel that way since you’re using natural language.

For those in the Apple ecosystem, Siri AI can be more useful than other chatbots because it’s integrated into the system. However, third-party integrations are still a work in progress, so Siri AI’s usability for you might be limited if you use Google apps like Gmail, since Siri AI doesn’t work with them (yet).

Liquid Glass slider

If you’re not a fan of the Liquid Glass UI, you’ll be happy to know there’s now a slider to adjust its opacity. It lets you dial the effect up or down to your liking, and I’m surprised it took this long to implement it this way.

Beyond the slider, you’ll notice that more complex background visuals appear more diffused, which improves text readability (which was a big issue for some). The edges of icons are also more pronounced, so they stand out more from the background. All app windows now have a uniform corner radius to help them pop out as well.

I've never had a problem with Liquid Glass because I think it’s an interesting visual effect. That said, I’m glad that folks can now fine-tune it to their liking. The slider is especially neat because it’s easy to use and makes it clear how much of a difference there is when you go from one extreme to the other.

Spatial Reframing

Spatial Reframing isn’t exclusive to macOS Golden Gate, but since the Reframe tool stole the show at WWDC, it’s a feature worth spotlighting if you take a lot of photos.

As its name suggests, Reframe lets you reframe existing photos and adjust the perspective to your liking. This can be especially handy if you need to take photos in a hurry, as you can come back to them later to fix them.

After you select Reframe in the new Tools option in Photos’ editing mode, Apple Intelligence scans the photo you’ve selected. After that, you can pull your finger across the touchpad to change the perspective. Sliders on the side also give you more precise control over the angle, orientation, or size. When you’re done, the AI shifts things around to fill in any blanks.

This isn’t a feature I use often since I like photos in their original form, even if they’re not perfect. That said, I can’t knock the results, as Reframe does an excellent job of living up to its name. And to be fair, the changes made don’t radically alter the image — you just get a better version of what you’ve already snapped.

macOS Golden Gate public beta hands-on: Outlook

Apple Intelligence didn’t live up to the hype after it was first announced, but it’s now living up to its potential on Macs and the other Apple devices it can run on. If you’re a big AI user already, then macOS Golden Gate could arguably be a significant update. I imagine Siri AI will only improve between now and the OS’ expected fall launch.

Other features such as the more customizable Liquid Glass UI and Spatial Reframing might not be monumental game-changers, but they’re nice additions regardless. Apple also said there’s improved performance on devices using the upcoming operating systems, but during my time with macOS Golden Gate, I haven’t seen any noticeable improvements or hiccups on that front.

Apple’s new operating systems are still being worked on, so things could change before the official launch. I’ll have a full review for you then, but based on my experience with macOS Golden Gate, I’ll say that the new features are a step in the right direction.

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After struggling through a recent sleep-killing heatwave, I've finally managed to get my hands on the CoolNest Memory Foam Mattress, now $399.99 (was $699.99) at SweetNight in the 4th of July sales. The CoolNest Mattress is designed to add cooling comfort to your sleep set-up — but does it deliver on its promise?

The best mattresses on the market typically have some degree of cooling features, as overheating stops you from falling asleep. The CoolNest takes things up a level. A dedicated cooling model, it uses an airflow-boosting cooling cover and heat-dissipating Phase Change Material (PCM) to guarantee a bed that's 8°F cooler than standard memory foam mattresses.

But as mattresses don't always live up to their hefty promises, I decided to give the SweetNight CoolNest Mattress a try ahead of the 4th of July mattress sales (and another heatwave). While a full review is coming soon, here is my first impression of the SweetNight CoolNest Mattress.

Easy to set up

Like the best mattresses in a box, the CoolNest is shipped compressed, rolled up, and wrapped in plastic. This shipping method means the CoolNest needs to be unboxed, unwrapped, and left to expand.

I unboxed the CoolNest with a fellow mattress tester (unboxing a mattress tends to be a two-person job) and we were pleasantly surprised how easy it was to set up. We had previously unboxed a bulky hybrid mattress, so the all-foam CoolNest was a dream in comparison. There was minimal off-gassing, too.

As for the expansion time, there's little to worry about — it was ready in hours. Fresh from the box it did look slightly squished (especially at the corners) and I worried we'd be waiting a while to test it. Plus, SweetNight writes on their website that it takes its mattresses 72 hours to fully expand.

However, the CoolNest Mattress seemed to plump up to its full size within hours of unboxing, and the brand says their beds are safe to sleep on within 6 hours of opening.

Immediately cool to the touch

Now for what you came for — the CoolNest's cooling properties. Straight from the box I felt the mattress's cover, and the CoolNest was immediately cool to the touch. We unboxed the CoolNest in the same lab as the Plank Firm Luxe, and all I can say is that the Plank's cover felt like a radiator compared to the CoolNest.

It's all well and good for a mattress to feel cool on first touch, but what's the CoolNest like after it's soaked up your body warmth? During our temperature regulation tests, I lay on the CoolNest for 15 minutes. That's ample time for it to warm up but not once did I feel heat building beneath me.

The CoolNest's cooling performance is no surprise, as it uses the heat-dissipating materials found in some of the best cooling mattresses on the market. PCM, for example, is used in the Bear Elite Hybrid Mattress (our favorite cooling mattress) and has been proven to lower skin temperature and improve human heat dissipation up to 25.6% (compared to conventional mattresses).

Ideal for side and back sleeping

My fellow mattress tester (Ruth Jones) and I have different sleep needs and sleep in different positions, so we both tried out the CoolNext to compare thoughts.

I'm a side and back sleeper, and I felt the most comfortable on the SweetNight in these positions. While it isn't the plushest or most cushioning mattress (there's no pillow top), it still hugged my pressure points when side sleeping to distribute weight and prevent soreness. I also felt my hips and spine were properly aligned when sleeping on my back, to reduce tension.

Ruth, who is a stomach sleeper through and through, didn't feel comfortable on her front (her hips dipped into the surface). But she loved sleeping on the mattress in the back and side sleeping positions.

My thoughts on the SweetNight CoolNest mattress so far

Overall, my first impression of the SweetNight Cooling Mattress is that of a mattress that outperforms its budget price tag. It provides the temperature regulation of the best luxury mattresses, using state-of-the-art cooling tech to dissipate heat for a refreshing feel.

As for comfort and support, it has the classic body-hugging feel of the best memory foam mattresses, providing great comfort for side sleepers and support for back sleepers — even if stomach sleepers will need something firmer.

Whenever I get the chance to test out the best gaming laptops, my first port of call is to actually game as a form of benchmarking. For years, Control has long been one of my go-to titles, but that will quickly change once Control Resonant arrives on PC.

Horrifying, bleak and messy — not exactly "positive" words to use for developer Remedy Entertainment's upcoming action-heavy sequel, but I mean these in the most endearing way possible from what I saw when playing Control Resonant on an RTX 5090 gaming PC during a three-hour hands-on session.

Fighting off hordes of The Hiss (the main threat in the game) is thrillingly horrifying with their grotesquely detailed forms, the bleak atmosphere of a warped Manhattan is enthralling and the mind-bending, twisted environments you get to explore are satisfyingly messy. If you thought The Oldest House in Control was a trip, just wait for what Control Resonant has to offer.

With Nvidia's RTX 50-series GPUs lending their power, though, with DLSS turned on and ray tracing set to high, Remedy's follow-up had me immersed. From the expert use of lighting in a chaotic world to the smooth, fast-paced combat, I already see Control Resonant being an all-new PC gaming benchmark.

You can check our Control Resonant preview for how the game plays and our interview with Remedy Entertainment's Creative Director for more on what is now one of my most highly anticipated games of the year. But for how it handles on PC, let's dive in.

Control Resonant PC requirements

While I played Control Resonant on a monster of a gaming PC (the RTX 5090 says it all), I was assured by the team at Remedy Entertainment that PCs that don't reach those heights, like many of the more affordable best gaming PCs, will be able to play the game without trouble.

Take a look at the system requirements for Control Resonant below, along with the PC specs I played on. Spoiler alert: you will need a lot of storage.

Brimming with power

First, a few preliminary points. As with most previews, this isn't the final version of Control Resonant. Not only is lighting and framerate still being worked on, but also audio mixing, hit impacts and more. This is still very much in beta, but honestly, from the time I had playing through the opening act and a mid-game area called The Sinkhole (it's a masterpiece), it's already looking to be in good shape.

I can imagine a lot of that has to do with the RTX 5090 working behind the scenes. With DLSS upscaling (no frame generation) and DLSS Ray Reconstruction (for sharper reflections and accurate lighting), zipping and levitating through a disfigured Manhattan as the all-powerful Dylan Faden (our up-close-and-personal protagonist) was a treat for the eyes.

And that was with graphics and ray tracing presets set to high, only made better by the 4K (3840 x 2160) resolution I was playing on. From the many twisted forms of The Hiss shown in terrifying detail to the deep contrast of red hues streaking across the screen, along with the subtle yet clear reflections in windows of buildings turned upside down, it's all beautifully crafted — and I often found myself taking it all in.

After leaving The Oldest House after the opening act, I was impressed by the visual distortion effect beaming off cars, with The Hiss floating in midair endlessly in the background. That, along with blaring, dangerous red lighting reflecting off the pavement. For those stationary moments, it all hits right.

In combat, with Remedy changing pace from a third-person shooter to pure melee action, things can get chaotic, but unsurprisingly, this rig could handle it all. As in, the copious amounts of rubble Dylan hurls at enemies while quickly dashing to slash through them using his Aberrant weapon (I chose the sword-like Flurry form as my weapon of choice), while the almost faded rainbow oil mist blasts off foes as he hits them.

It's smooth, clean action, which is what you'd want in a fast-moving action game. It's the little nuances, like the aftereffect of dashing being so crystal clear, like a sleek afterimage of static video, that make it work.

Now, I wasn't able to see frame rates or tinker with different settings, as it appeared the game was locked at a rock-solid 60 frames per second (FPS) for beta purposes. But even with the mass of Hiss shooting red beams from every direction during The Sinkhole section, along with the gravity-bending environment Dylan can shift through, it's clear Control Resonant will be taking full advantage of what Nvidia's GPUs have to offer.

And I'm here for it.

Reaching a new PC benchmark

While Remedy is still polishing off Control Resonant, especially the PC version, we can expect plenty of RTX features to be fully on show (just like path tracing in Resident Evil Requiem). That includes DLSS 4.5 and its dynamic multi-frame gen tech (expect frame rates to hit over 200 FPS), DLSS Super Resolution and path tracing for photorealistic lighting, no less.

That's exciting, considering just how well it already looks, and there's still plenty of time for the team at Remedy to cook. During my session, I had a chat with Lead Gameplay Designer Sergey Mohov, and he explained how there's now more to play around with.

"We weren't limited by hardware in terms of gameplay. It's very helpful that computers and consoles these days can actually run games like this, and we're able to put all of these enemies on screen, all of these effects and make it look nice while feeling very satisfying to kill them all.

"The hardest thing was actually making the world, making it bigger and increasing draw distances. But we've invested in improving our in-house engine (Northlight Engine) to handle these things. But, you know, we've done it."

I believe Mohov is spot on, taking the improvements we saw in Alan Wake 2 and pushing it even further. Of course, just like how Control is now available on iOS, there's the aim for Resonant to be flexible enough to be played on, well, anything that isn't just an RTX 5090 while still delivering great visuals and performance.

"We have a lot of people who are really excited about putting all the latest tech in. Nvidia is helping out, and we'll have all the latest Nvidia stuff in [Control Resonant]. So that's going to be pretty cool. But if somebody can run Control on, like, a potato or a fridge, I'll be pretty happy."

Control Resonant is set to launch on September 24, available on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, macOS and cloud streaming via Nvidia GeForce Now. But just from my brief experience, it will be a PC purchase for me.

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When you know players like Virgil Van Dijk swear by recovery tech, you tend to take note, so when I heard he uses the Hyperice x Nike Hyperboot as part of his warm-up and recovery routine before and after games, I wanted to test these sought-after recovery boots for myself.

Of course, it's a Hyperice and Nike collab, so the boots look darn good. But are they really as great as I've been told? I wanted to find out.

Recently, I've been exploring the best massage guns and alternative recovery tools in a bid to ramp up my recovery routine after weightlifting, Pilates, and yoga. I just couldn't say no to this opportunity, and I've already clocked a few things I like and dislike along the way.

Here are three reasons I'm hooked, and two areas I think could use improvement.

What are the Hyperice x Nike Hyperboots?

Like the famous Hyperice Normatec sleeves, the recovery Hyperboots combine heat and compression to boost recovery and reduce soreness; Liverpool FC and Netherlands player Virgil Van Dijk is a huge fan and ambassador.

Using a boot design, the recovery tech can effectively target the ankles, feet and Achilles tendons, helping to improve range of motion, warm the joints and muscles before exercise and aid soreness and recovery post-game or training session.

The Nike x Hyperice Hyperboot is available globally and retails for $799/ £699, including a USB charging cable.

I did a little digging into research on heat application for recovery, as the surge in recovery trends like saunas, contrast therapy, infrared sauna blankets and heat pads continues to gain traction for exercise recovery and boosting athletic performance.

Multiple studies, like this one on local heat therapy, show that heat application can improve blood flow to the area, increasing vasodilation and reducing the onset of Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness, or DOMS, and stiffness.

There's also research showing the benefits of compression, which can mitigate both muscle strength and power decline following exercise-induced muscle fatigue. This can be the case for trained and untrained people; in this piece of research, trained individuals benefited most, making it a promising tool for recovery, particularly when paired with heat therapy.

And what's more, these tools are becoming more accessible for at-home use, although it'll cost you. Here's what I think so far after testing the Nike x Hyperice Hyperboots.

Like 1: They're powerful

These Hyperboots don't mess around. There are three settings to choose from on the sides of the boots, allowing you to tailor the heat and compression to your personal preferences. All you have to do is hit play once you've chosen your settings.

On full whack, I had to reduce the heat because it was so strong, which isn't a bad thing, as I find some heat therapy devices can be tepid, but be warned that they come in hot. I recommend starting on just one bar, then moving up from there.

The compression was also great, covering my feet, ankles and lower leg up to roughly half of my shins and calves. I'm impressed by the coverage and the bang for your buck.

Like 2: They look good and they're easy to use

I had no doubts that any Nike and Hyperice collab would produce a good-looking product, and the Hyperice x Nike Hyperboots don't disappoint. They look a bit like moon boots, but they're super easy to put on and secure, and I personally love the design: chic, understated and a little bit soccer-boot-esque.

I also loved that I could walk about if I needed to, unlike compression leg sleeves, where you're rooted to one spot for the duration of the compression therapy. They're also quite flexible and attach with a wraparound Velcro strap, so you can get in and out easily enough with very little fuss.

Like 3: I can feel them working in real time

Not only is it a relaxing form of recovery, but my ankles feel less stiff after running and the heat is definitely improving the overall range of motion. Plus, it's super relaxing and my ankles and feet feel better prepped for yoga sessions and weightlifting.

I like the versatility of the boots as well, as I can slip them on before or after training, or even as a relaxing bedtime routine at night while I'm winding down (and not scrolling on my phone, promise).

On cooler days, I can see the attraction of getting heat delivered directly to your joints and muscles, helping speed up the warm-up and recovery processes. After all, we never want to approach exercise without warming the joints and muscles first.

Whether or not I will notice any long-term improvements is yet to be seen, and I'll update you once I've been testing for longer. But for short-term effectiveness, I'm loving the Hyperboots so far and the benefits are immediate.

Dislike 1: Heat strength

It's not exactly a dislike, but I found the highest heat setting to be incredibly intense and I didn't have much warning that the Hyperboot heat could be so powerful. I'd rather be looking at too much heat so I can reduce it than not enough, but I just encourage anyone trying them for the first time to be mindful of the setting options, as, combined with the compression, that heat is pressing directly into your lower limbs.

Dislike 2: Sizing

I'm a UK size 3 foot and found the boots hard to secure close to my feet. That said, the compression was still strong enough for me on the highest setting, so it didn't matter too much.

I suggest taking note of the sizing options, which range from S (UK size 5) to XXL (UK size 15). I could have done with a little extra compression around the mid and forefoot, as I'm a fan of intense sports massages and love nothing more than feeling the pressure release along my arches, but this is a minor gripe for an otherwise pretty powerful recovery product, making it well worth the price tag, in my opinion.

Verdict

All in all, I'm so impressed by the Hyperboots and I can see why even the most elite soccer players are using them. Powerful compression, even more powerful heat therapy, and you've got yourself a wonder boot that is quick, easy and effective, whether you're on the go, competing at a high level, or just sitting at home (like me) needing some TLC.

Follow Tom's Guide fitness on Instagram for more workouts, routines, tips, and tricks.

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So, as the smart glasses guy on the Tom’s Guide team, my main beef has always been with the Nintendo Switch just making things awkward with its video out on the USB-C connector.

With literally any other gaming handheld, it’s a seamless dream — plug your AR glasses in, and see the picture in front of your eyes. The Switch (and Switch 2) requires jumping through hoops of tricking your console into thinking it's in docked mode to bypass the complicated encryption.

Well, when I tested Xreal Aura some more here at AWE 2026, the team literally mentioned in a passing conversation that they’d cracked Switch compatibility in Android XR. Before they could say another word about local AI, I stopped the talk in its tracks and asked for a demo.

And hot dang, they did the thing! Not only is there full Switch support over USB-C, but with no real noticeable latency, and you can use Gemini to ask questions about the games you’re playing!

Fixing the problem with brute force

So the problem is one of compatibility and protocols (boring, I know). 99% of the market uses DisplayPort Alt Mode through that USB-C socket, which natively supports just plugging the glasses straight in. Meanwhile, Nintendo is using Mobility DisplayPort (MyDP) — a standard that was typically used with micro-USB ports back in the day. Why? God knows.

For years now, the fix has been something like the Viture Switch Dock: trick the Switch into thinking it’s in docked mode via a big battery pack to keep it alive at higher wattages and simulate an HDMI connection.

And now, a simple USB-C connection into the Aura’s compute puck does the trick… “HOW!?” I excitedly asked Qualcomm’s team, to which they couldn’t help but chuckle and give me cheeky grins.

Truth is, they can’t tell me exactly how they did it, so all I can do is theorize. You’ve got a strong, open, and versatile development platform like Android XR, paired with a monster spatial computing chip in Snapdragon Reality Elite. I think it’s not too much of a stretch to assume that this high-performance chip is able to transcode that signal in real-time in a well-written Android XR app.

What does it feel like to play?

One common issue with this workaround for the current Switch docks for AR glasses is latency. It’s not terrible, but it can be noticeable in faster titles. None of that exists here, and in my time playing Zelda, it all felt nicely responsive.

On top of that, given it’s a floating window within Android XR, there’s the Gemini Live edge too! Fire it up, look at your screen, and ask away — Gemini was quick to let me know where to go next in the forest.

That is a real value-unlocker vs going to GameFAQs for the answer I need to get ahead in my gameplay whenever I’m stuck.

Take that, Nintendo!

Yes, I know the Switch 2 is great and everything, but this whole USB-C compatibility issue is a pet peeve I’ve been super vocal about for a long time now! Whether it’s so that Nintendo can make its own AR glasses, I don’t know. But the fact that I can’t save myself from neck pain playing the damn thing on long-haul flights seems crazy to me when it’s literally the easier (and better) standard to support.

However, with some brute force of Snapdragon Reality Elite and some coding know-how in Android XR, that’s no longer a problem, and not only that, it’s latency-free compared to the other workarounds we’ve seen.

Low key, this is the biggest winning feature I’ve seen for Xreal Aura. I know there’s so much more to talk about here in what Android XR can do in an optical see-through (OST) environment vs a VR headset, and Gemini’s capabilities in spatial computing. But to 1-UP Nintendo’s limitations? You just love to see it.

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It’s looking inevitable that a foldable iPhone Ultra is coming later this year. Looking at what the iOS 27 beta code reveals, Apple’s teeing us up for a new form factor.

So, while I was in Shenzen, I nipped into a Huawei store and went hands-on with the Pura X Max… You know the one, right? That one everybody reported was a close match to the leaks of the fabled foldable iPhone.

And…well…all I can say is while the smaller, stubbier foldable is definitely a little more pocketable, it reminds me of one of my Dad’s life lessons that resonated with me: “just because something looks different doesn't mean it’s better."

The screen aspect ratio feels off here in both that small cover screen and trying to type on the keyboard folded open, the lack of verticality can be felt in productivity, and I just hope the rumors are wrong.

Weird dimensions

Now to be clear, this isn’t a diss of the phone hardware fundamentals. This is a premium sandwich of metal and glass that feels impressively upmarket — using a wide-format panel that when unfolded packs a 7.7-inch diagonal screen.

On first impressions of holding it in the hand, you’ve got a nice solid grip around it’s shorter stature. But then, you start to use it, and things fall apart quickly. Not to say it’s a bad experience, but in my own personal experience, I noticed three key issues.

First, that front panel lacks height to really get stuff done on. Your messages timeline gets drastically cut down and the screen becomes like 65% keyboard when you summon it.

Second, I unfolded it for the full keyboard and I can see some struggles reaching the keys in the middle near the crease with shorter thumbs and that wider display aspect ratio. And third, the lack of verticality does hit the Pura Max’s productivity credentials here.

Yes, I know we already have sorta similar passport-style foldable like the Pixel 10 Pro Fold, but this is shorter and fatter. Already with Google’s option, I thought this felt weird, so to go even harder in this direction doesn’t help the situation!

In between a rock and a hard place

You know the feeling (I know it all too well). It doesn’t matter which path your take, someone is always going to get annoyed. That is the situation foldable phones find themselves in right now.

Thanks to Samsung being in this game for years now, the world expects a tall phone with an inner panel that’s closer to a square in aspect ratio. It’s the form factor I personally prefer for browsing/getting stuff done, but will fully admit it’s not good for entertainment (especially watching letter-boxed films).

Meanwhile, if this iPhone Fold wannabe is indeed a sign of what’s to come, Apple’s device will more effectively nail the entertainment side of it, but not be so great for getting stuff done on.

The point I’m trying to make is there isn’t really such a thing as a “right answer” to this question — at least not yet anyway. It’s going to come down to personal preference, and for me, I prefer to keep my fingers crossed that what I just handled was not an early glimpse of the iPhone Ultra.

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I currently have a seven-month-old who is remarkably clingy. There are times when I’m the only one around to watch (and hold) him, which makes typing a very awkward and clumsy affair. While I generally try to avoid using speech-to-text if I can help it, the tool is just about the only way I can stay slightly productive during certain periods of dad time. The big problem is that the words often come out in such a jumbled mess that the extended editing process needed to make it legible defeats the point.

Apple hopes to fix a lot of those problems with the release of iOS 27 and the upgraded version of Apple Intelligence. The most advanced AI models Apple has feature a new and improved dictation feature that is exclusive to iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone Air. Apple claims that this new system will let you “speak naturally and trust the words will appear clearly, accurately and as intended.“

So to test this claim, I’m writing this entire article with dictation software. Part of it will be dictated on an iPhone 17 Pro Max running the first iOS 27 developer beta, but I will be comparing to a couple of alternatives. Specifically, an iPhone 17 Pro running iOS 26 and a Google Pixel 10 Pro running Android 16 with Google's speech-to-text feature.

What dictation feels like in iOS 27 developer beta 1

I’m currently only a few paragraphs into this article, and it is clear that dictation on iOS 27 developer beta is far from perfect.

The entire process of initiating speech-to-text is relatively simple. You need to make sure dictation is switched on in iOS's keyboard settings and make sure that the Apple keyboard is open in your app of choice. Once there, all you need to do is tap the microphone button in the bottom right-hand corner of the keyboard. This enables dictation mode, which transforms your spoken words into digital text regardless of the app you are using. I've used it in a Word document, Apple Notes, and even to craft text messages that are sent to my friends and family.

The most obvious issue is one that is commonly shared across all dictation software I've used. The actual formatting of your text after it’s been “typed out” is impossible to do using your voice on its own.

Apple's dictation software does understand basic punctuation such as periods, commas and quotation marks, but it struggles with other things. Something as simple as hitting return on a keyboard and starting a brand-new paragraph isn't actually doable without tapping your screen.

Perhaps there's some kind of special command I could have used that actually lets me add a page break, and not see the word "return" appear on my screen. But if it exists, I couldn't figure out what it was. "Page break" didn't work either, for whatever that's worth.

Another issue is the fact that Apple promised its improved dictation software would be able to automatically punctuate your speech as it’s converted into text. Apple’s press release specifically mentions capitalization, punctuation and formatting, but my experience with the developer beta so far is that this implementation of this is remarkably inconsistent.

If I had let Apple software have its way, the previous two paragraphs would’ve been one big, long block of text with only a single period in the middle. It’s almost as though iOS 27 just didn’t think that my continuing spiel needed to have text breaks and other grammatical flourishes that actually make it possible to read.

Likely, this is simply a by-product of the fact that I am running beta software rather than the final version of Apple's improved systemwide dictation, so here’s hoping that future updates improve this before iOS 27 is released to the general public

Another point of note is that my iPhone does seem to struggle to understand my accent at times. I wouldn’t say that I have a particularly strong accent, but there are some cases where the dictation software doesn’t fully understand what I'm saying. Often this is as innocent as "improved" for "improve," but there was at least one instance where it decided that "one-handed" was actually 100.

While that is a little bit funny, I hope this is down to the fact that this is beta software that isn’t finalized yet, along with the fact that Siri probably doesn’t have the best grasp of my own personal voice right now.

How does it compare to dictation on iOS 26?

This next section was written with an iPhone 17 Pro running iOS 26.5.1 to get a general feel of how Apple’s dictation software appears to have changed between different versions of iOS. The old Apple dictation software has a reputation for being kinda crappy, which is why iOS 27's AI overhaul is supposed to be making such sweeping changes to speech-to-text on iPhones.

It's important to mention that the older dictation software isn't being ditched with the release of iOS 27 later this year. Apple has confirmed that systemwide dictation is one of two features that is only available on iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max and iPhone Air. So iPhone 17 and older will still use the less advanced dictation software.

The first thing I noticed is that the actual dictation is slightly slower than what is available with the iOS 27 beta. There is a noticeable lag between saying words and having them appear on screen. It's subtle, and there isn't an enormous difference a lot of the time, but there's an extra jerkyness to the way the text appears on screen when you're dictating using iOS 26.

I have also noticed iOS 26 seems to make more mistakes, some of which get corrected by the software and others that do not. One prominent example I spotted while dictating this was seeing "iOS 27's AI" written down as "iOS 20 7AI". It’s almost as though the speech to text software isn’t quite sure of what I’m saying, so it ends up second-guessing itself at various points.

At the same time, it certainly feels a little bit less refined with the kind of mistakes that are actually being made and the way the dictation software interprets what it thinks I'm saying. Not to mention the fact that it ends up picking up various filler words (erms and arrs) and translates them into real words like "where." There were also occasions where it struggled with homophones, and mistook words "whether" and "write" for "weather" and "right."

Overall it certainly feels like Apple has made a bunch of significant improvements to dictation in iOS 27 in terms of speed, accuracy and general understanding of what the user is actually saying.

What about Google's dictation?

One thing I should add is that Google actually updated its own dictation software with Gemini support less than a month ago. For that reason, it feels as though this version of Google speech to text is a little bit more polished than what I remember using in the past. It's not remarkably different, but some of the automatic formatting features are a little bit more refined than I remember.

Google says that Gemini will be able to remove those dreaded filler words automatically, while also adapting for any mid-sentence corrections you make. Sadly, I'm not having a great deal of luck with the latter. The dictation software knows to skip over the various uhs and ars that I subconsciously make while talking, but it was still picking up other filler words and seemed incapable of correcting those mid-sentence mistakes.

Even as I speak to write this sentence, it's incorrectly formatted a sentence by adding a period and starting a brand new sentence when it wasn't required. So clearly some work needs to be done to get this working correctly

I should point out that iOS 27's speech to text did not pick up any random filler words either, but iOS 26 was very fond of including them. From a performance standpoint, it seems that Android and iOS 27 beta are at a similar level when it comes to understanding what I say — though Apple's automatic formatting currently isn't nearly as impressive as Apple's announcement would have you believe,

You do have to remember that the current version of speech to text in Google keyboard is the finalized public version of the software, which isn't the case with the iOS 27 developer beta. So, by its very nature, there are obviously going to be some discrepancies in iOS 27's performance. We will have to see how much things have changed later this year, once iOS 27 is released to the masses.

As a side note, I noticed that Google keyboard tends to switch off the dictation mode far faster than Apple does. So if you don't continually speak, or stop a little too long to think, you run the risk of having to tap the microphone button multiple times to say what needs to be said. Apple's dictation did automatically switch off eventually, but there is a much longer grace period before it decides that you're finished talking.

Bottom line

Back to iOS 27's dictation to finish things off and it’s clear that Apple has made some pretty noticeable improvements to its dictation software compared to what iOS 26 has accomplished. It’s generally faster, more accurate and easier to use. That said, it's far from perfect and it certainly isn’t going to convince me to ditch typing any time soon. The fact is the system is still very inaccurate and the automatic formatting feels almost non-existent, which means I have to spend a bunch of time editing to produce a coherent article.

Admittedly Google's dictation does have a lot of those same issues, and that isn’t even beta software. The honest truth is that free dictation software from Apple and Google is only really useful in quite small doses. When it comes to writing hundreds of words, in large blocks of text like this, its usefulness is hampered by the mounting inaccuracies and formatting issues that inevitably need correcting. Or, at least, they do if you want to produce something legible and readworthy.

To top it all off, in my case, a bunch of things I've said don't really translate to the page in the same way as typing on a keyboard. A bunch of sections of this article have had rewrites, either because the sentences themselves didn't quite work or because I needed to straight-up rewrite whole paragraphs.

Apple has made some significant improvements already, that much is clear, but it's going to be interesting to see how much changes as iOS 27 moves through the various pre-release stages of beta testing. That includes getting a better handle on what my voice is like, and with potential improvements to the actual dictation software. Regardless, I still have a hard time picturing a future where text-to-speech can fully replace typing or writing. Certainly not for me.

If you're interested in seeing just how much this article changed during the editing process, you can check out the original, unedited transcript right here.

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I'm a restless person, but as someone who exercises often for both personal gains and my job, I also know I need proper recovery, which means active or passive rest (sometimes against my will).

Recently, I've been exploring the best massage guns and alternative recovery tools in a bid to make what can feel mundane for some a little more exciting, when I got the chance to test the Bon Charge Red Light Therapy blanket elite soccer players trust for boosting recovery and sleep.

In fact, British Premier League soccer club Fulham FC have made Bon Charge a key player in the team's recovery process, which convinced me I needed to try it for myself. And given it has been described as a "cozy sleeping bag," I really couldn't say no as I watched the rain pouring down outside in the middle of June.

The question is: Does this red light therapy blanket actually work? I just found out. Here are three reasons I am already utterly hooked.

What is the Bon Charge Red Light Therapy Blanket?

The therapy blanket delivers high-powered red light therapy to your entire body, primarily promoting muscle relaxation, reduced inflammation, better sleep and skin appearance, exercise recovery and boosted energy. Bon Charge makes it clear that this is not an infrared blanket, which is more focused on heating the body.

Bon Charge uses lab-grade red light therapy in the form of two mats that can be used by two people or zipped together to create something similar to a sleeping bag you'd camp with, although this version is far more high-tech. It features high-powered red light LEDs designed to penetrate the body to promote restoration.

If the numbers interest you, the brand uses 660nm red light and 850bm near-infrared light, which, according to Bon Charge, "are the most studied and therapeutic frequencies of red and near-infrared light."

While it's not cheap — the red light therapy blanket retails at $1,999 — you do get a lot of bang for your buck given the quality of the blanket itself and the red light therapy you receive. Each purchase also comes with a user manual, adapters, protective goggles, controllers and a power cord.

You can use the controller to adjust light intensity and timer settings, plus there's a pulse mode that allows for deeper penetration of the light.

Unable to resist, I did a little digging into the research on red light therapy, which indicates there's some emerging solid evidence for skin rejuvenation, collagen production and complexion.

A 2025 meta-analysis published in Sports Health looked at 14 randomized controlled trials examining the effects on high-level soccer and volleyball players, focusing on muscle strength, muscle endurance and biochemical markers of muscle damage.

Researchers found red light therapy didn't really help athletes produce more force (a marker of strength), whereas volleyball players who received therapy before exercise could complete more reps, indicating potential muscle endurance gains. For soccer players, the endurance results were mixed.

When looking at muscle damage, soccer players who had red light therapy indicated less muscle breakdown, whereas volleyball players' results were more mixed. This could mean it's helpful for sports that include high levels of running and eccentric contraction.

Another meta-analysis found evidence to support pre-exercise red light therapy for recovery. It concluded "Significantly improved muscle endurance" while also aiding the recovery of muscle strength and injury markers.

It's worth mentioning that the FDA hasn't evaluated the statements made by Bon Charge about the benefits of the product, and it isn't intended to diagnose, treat, or cure.

3 reasons I'm already hooked on the Bon Charge Red Light Therapy Blanket

Here’s what went down when I cocooned myself in a recovery blanket.

1. It's super warm and cozy

I basically posted myself into this thing like a letter in an envelope, and I was surprised by just how warm and cozy it was. I'd give it a few minutes to warm up if you're trying yours on a cooler day, but there's definitely some heat to the blanket.

That said, it won't get you sweating or burning calories (that's not the point), and it shouldn't be used in place of an Infrared sauna blanket if that's what you're looking for.

10/10 for feeling like I could snooze all afternoon, and the timer gives you generous options so you can stay there for as long as you like. Personally, I find my mind wanders too quickly and I get bored, so I put a mindfulness exercise on YouTube, which helped me relax.

After 45 minutes, I felt like I'd been cuddled and genuinely felt sleepy and tension-free.

2. The pulse mode is my favorite feature

The blanket has a few preset settings you can flick through, and I'm still figuring these out, but I found pulse mode to be super relaxing. If you've ever had Reiki, it's a very similar sensation, but if you haven't, the best way I can describe it is like a gentle tugging at random points on your body, not unlike a very gentle electric shock.

It was quite invigorating and relaxing at the same time, but whether or not it would make a huge difference to results in the long-term is up for debate.

3. It felt powerful

Sometimes I find recovery technology a bit faddy, and you see a lot of products come and go in my job. This red light therapy blanket feels like it's really having an impact on my body, especially my ability to relax.

The light looks and feels strong because it is strong, and it's high quality. I advise your goggles for this reason. And it definitely feels like the light is penetrating the skin and warming your body without cooking you.

I didn’t feel much different physically after a few goes (I plan to report back on muscle recovery and long-term skin appearance), but mentally, I felt calmer and slower, which I liked. I also felt a little energized.

For a first hands-on, I'm super impressed, and I'll be reporting down the line to see how red light therapy impacts recovery and wellbeing as part of my routine going forward.

Follow Tom's Guide fitness on Instagram for more workouts, routines, tips, and tricks.

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The USGA is making some big moves for its GHIN app in 2026, so I recently paid golf's governing body a visit at the absolutely stunning Winged Foot Golf Club to try out the new features, and I was absolutely blown away (by the course and the app).

To me, the coolest change is the new Rules AI feature, which is essentially like ChatGPT for golf rules. But there's also a whole new layout coming to the app, along with a boatload of new features designed to make keeping score and entering your post-round results more streamlined.

Do the best golf apps like Arccos, 18Birdies, and GolfShot need to be worried about the GHIN app replacing them? Time will tell, but the USGA is moving in the right direction towards making its app more useful than just a way to input your scores for your handicap.

Rules AI is exactly what you want it to be

When I arrived at Winged Foot, I had already tried the beta of GHIN's new layout and was impressed, but at the end of the day, it took its relatively barebones scoring app and brought it up to par with competitors like 18 Birdies, The Grint and the other big players in the space. And getting users who already pay for a subscription to those apps to switch will be an uphill climb, no matter how much the USGA shines up its interface.

“Our goal has always been to ensure the Rules are accessible and that golfers can find the information they need to play the game fairly, enjoyably and with confidence,” said USGA CEO Mike Whan.

“By combining our expansive historical data with modern AI technology, we are providing a bridge between tradition and innovation. Rules AI is designed to continue making the Rules of Golf easier to navigate and meet golfers where they are—on the course and on their mobile devices.”

But then they told me about Rules AI, and my entire perception of the situation changed. You mean to tell me that not only is the arbiter of golf rules building a more robust scorekeeping app, but the USGA is also making an AI you can ask rules questions to while on the course? That should put the other apps on notice.

Maybe I'm just an overly excited golfer and tech enthusiast who gets excited about something new.

That's what I thought before I tried it. Once I actually asked it a rules question and received a perfect response that explained the rule and how to deal with the rule, I was truly sold.

I asked what if my ball lands on "Frankenstein's fat foot" as an ode to Shooter McGavin in Happy Gilmore, but it didn't like that question, saying it will only answer questions about golf. So I asked without the Happy reference and got a quick, rules-accurate answer.

The full answer is in the screenshot above, but the summary is that you can move the ball and where to move it depends on the situation.

Which means the rule in "Happy Gilmore" is inaccurate. But it's also a movie, so I suppose it doesn't need to follow the USGA rules to the letter.

App redesign

As mentioned, the actual reason we went to Winged Foot was to see the redesigned GHIN app, which is expected to be made available to the public in late summer of 2026.

It's a lot more streamlined than the original app, with heat maps showing green slopes and improved distances to bunkers and other hazards on the course.

These features exist in other apps, but what makes their coming to GHIN exciting is that in 2025, 2.91 million people posted a score in GHIN. That means they're already using the GHIN app to enter scores, so it seems logical that golfers could condense everything into a single app that does it all. And now that the GHIN app does it well, that could actually work.

Will it convince me to leave Arccos? Highly unlikely. After spending a round with it at Winged Foot, I like what it brings to the table, but for me, nothing will replace the insights and data Arccos offers with minimal effort on my part. Sure, GHIN lets you input how many putts you made and whether you hit the green in regulation or the fairway, but Arccos does that automatically.

Still, if you're on the fence about which golf app to use and you use GHIN for handicap data, it might be worth switching to it for all your golf needs once the update is released.

And if nothing else, you'll want to use the Rules AI feature if you plan to play any sort of competitive golf where rule questions may emerge.

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Apple spent a big chunk of WWDC 2026 talking about the new Siri AI and how Apple Intelligence is set to transform the iPhone experience with iOS 27. The company is (once again) betting heavily on AI, promising a much smarter Siri that can interact with apps and surface information buried deep inside your phone — something that the company believes will become one of the biggest reasons to upgrade to iOS 27.

The thing is, I've been using the iOS 27 beta for the past couple of days, and like many other users, I'm still stuck on the Siri AI waitlist. So while Apple wants Siri to be the star of the show, I haven't actually been able to use most of its new capabilities yet.

What I have been able to use, however, are dozens of smaller changes scattered throughout iOS 27. And after spending some time with the update, I'd argue many of these features are more exciting than Siri AI. Here are some of the small and hidden iOS 27 features that have impressed me the most so far.

Save images from videos directly

Raise your hand if you've ever recorded a video and then wanted to pull out a single frame as a photo. Until now, the usual workaround was taking a screenshot, cropping it, and then sharing it wherever you needed.

Thankfully, iOS 27 makes this much easier. While playing a video, you can tap the three-dot menu in the top-right corner and select Save Video Frame as Photo. iOS will then extract that frame and save it directly to your photo library as a standalone image in full resolution.

More control over iCloud Photos syncing

Not all of us buy iPhones with huge amounts of storage, which is why iCloud ends up being pretty important. One of the long-standing annoyances, though, is that iCloud Photos typically waits until your phone is connected to Wi-Fi and charging before it starts backing everything up.

With iOS 27, Apple is finally giving users more control. You'll now be able to force an immediate sync of your photo library to iCloud. So, for example, if you're traveling and taking lots of photos, you might want those images uploaded immediately in case your phone gets lost or stolen, or accidentally gets dropped in the pool.

And the best part is that you can enable the feature temporarily for a single day, and after that, iOS automatically reverts back to the normal syncing behavior.

View only photos taken with your iPhone

This is something iPhone users have been asking for years, and Apple is finally doing something about it in iOS 27.

Until now, the Photos app has always lumped all images in your library together, whether they came from WhatsApp, Telegram, screenshots, or others. While Apple already separates things like videos and screenshots, there was never an easy way to see only the photos you had actually taken yourself.

With iOS 27, that's finally changing. Apple has added a new section that lets you view only the photos captured using your iPhone's camera. To find it, head to the Collections tab, then Utilities, and finally Captured by Me.

Independent alarm volume controls

Android has had this for years, but Apple is finally bringing independent volume controls to the iPhone with iOS 27.

Until now, alarm volume was tied directly to your ringtone volume, which meant lowering one also affected the other. With iOS 27, you can finally set separate volume levels for alarms, ringtones, timers, and other system sounds. That means you can keep your ringtone volume relatively low while cranking up the alarm volume, or vice versa.

The Clock app now understands holidays

One small (yet useful) feature Apple added to the Clock app in iOS 27 is the ability to detect your days off. The feature uses your calendar and regional holidays to understand when you might not actually need to wake up early.

For example, if you have an alarm set for a weekday morning but the next day happens to be a public holiday, iOS can proactively ask whether you'd like to skip that alarm.

Share a phone number between two iPhones

Another interesting addition in iOS 27 is the ability to use the same phone number across two different iPhones. This should somewhat work like how an Apple Watch with cellular shares your iPhone number. Apple says you'll be able to use a single number across multiple iPhones, making it easier to switch between devices without juggling separate SIMs.

There are still a few unknowns here. It appears to be carrier-dependent, and it isn't known if there will be any additional fees involved. But if you're someone who regularly uses two iPhones at the same time, this could end up being surprisingly useful.

Voice typing is much smarter on iOS 27

Apple is also bringing a much better voice typing to the iPhone with iOS 27. Using on-device AI, the feature can better understand context, recognize complex words, and automatically remove filler words like 'umm' and 'ahh' from your speech, similar to tools like Wispr Flow.

It is worth noting, though, that the feature requires Apple's newer on-device Siri models and is currently limited to the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone Air.

If you own a supported iPhone, you can enable this by going to Settings > General > Keyboard, then turning on Advanced Dictation Preview.

Paste copied content faster

Another small feature I noticed in iOS 27 is that the keyboard can now surface copied text and even screenshots directly in the suggestion bar. When you copy something and switch to another app, you'll see that content appear above the keyboard for quick pasting.

Previously, this mostly worked for one-time passcodes and links, but Apple is now expanding it much more broadly.

Show more wallpaper on your Lock Screen

If you're like me and prefer seeing more of your wallpaper and less clock, iOS 27 now lets you use a smaller Lock Screen clock with the date and time displayed in a single row at the top.

It's a small change, but it helps show off more of your wallpaper. Apple has also finally made playback controls dismissible on the Lock Screen. You can now swipe them away, just like notifications, which is especially useful when streaming content from an Apple TV.

Connectivity Assist

If your Wi-Fi connection is weak or inconsistent, iOS 27 can now automatically use cellular data alongside Wi-Fi to keep things running smoothly. Apple calls this Connectivity Assist. The feature can help maintain faster and more reliable speeds, although it may increase mobile data usage. In my case, it used around 300MB in just 48 hours.

You can enable it by heading to Settings > Wi-Fi > Connectivity Assist.

Add your own passes to Apple Wallet

Apple is finally bringing one of the most requested features to the Wallet app with iOS 27: the ability to create custom passes.

The feature lets you manually add things like event tickets, memberships, and other passes directly to Apple Wallet. For example, if you have a physical ticket but no digital version, you can simply scan it with your iPhone and create a Wallet pass from it.

When creating a pass, Apple gives you a few templates to choose from, including membership and event passes. You can then customize details such as the pass name, location, admission type, membership number, and even the background design.

AirPods Pro 3 gains GymKit support

Finally, one of the most underrated additions in iOS 27, at least in my opinion, is that Apple is expanding GymKit support to the AirPods Pro 3. This means you'll now be able to connect not just your Apple Watch, but also your AirPods directly to supported gym equipment for the first time.

AirPods Pro 3 can already track your heart rate, and with this feature, just as you would tap your Apple Watch against a reader to pair it, you'll now be able to pair your earbuds with compatible cardio equipment, treadmills, ellipticals, and exercise bikes, to keep track of metrics like pace, heart rate, and more.

Bottom line

Having spent a few days with the beta, it's becoming pretty clear that iOS 27 is much more than a Siri AI update.

In fact, in addition to the features mentioned above, Apple says iOS 27 also focuses heavily on the fundamentals. The company claims things like app launches, AirDrop transfers, and general system responsiveness have all been improved.

We'll have to wait and see whether Siri AI lives up to Apple's promises. But even if it doesn't, iOS 27 already feels like a surprisingly substantial update.

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Often when it comes to kid-friendly devices, they’re covered in garish hues usually paired with branded images related to popular cartoons or characters. As kids get older and their tastes “mature,” the colorful look may be deemed “uncool.”

Something like the iClever Auraa is more on the cartoon side of things. If you, or your child, are big on looks, the Puro Sound Labs BT2200-Plus cans offer a premium aesthetic with ear-friendly technology.

As with the iClever headsets, kid (and teen)-friendly headphones must meet a few criteria to be worth letting your kids blast their ears with music or games. They have to have hearing protection built-in, be durable, and be comfortable to wear over long listening sessions.

With that in mind, I spent a few weeks with the Puro Sound Labs BT2200-Plus headphones to see if a premium aesthetic also brings high-end, safe sound. Plus some thoughts from a kid who thinks he’s already a teenager.

What makes headphones ear friendly?

The BT2200 Plus features an 85dB noise level cap. That cap is a constant loudness ceiling recommended by OSHA and the World Health Organization over an eight-hour period. Anything louder or longer and you risk permanent hearing damage.

Most manufacturers of kid-friendly headphones that feature caps will place the volume limit at around 85 dB. It does mean that the sound can feel muted, especially for those of us who've destroyed our ears by standing next to speakers at concerts. However, avoiding that destruction is the whole point.

Premium looks

Out of the box, Puro Labs is not kidding about giving it a more high-end look. Unlike the iClever set, which ships in a cloth bag, the Puro comes with a zip-up pleather semi-hard case. The case also has a little pocket for carrying accessories like the included 3.5mm cord, replacement earmuffs, a USB-C charging cable, and the instruction manual.

The headphones themselves are made of aluminum with comfortable leather ear cups and a squishy but sturdy headband. I wouldn’t describe the included cords as premium, but they aren’t awful.

Durability and battery life

Compared to more colorful headphones, which tend to use heavy plastic, the BT2200 is made of aluminum and feels far sturdier. After a month or more of use, there is no real wear and tear, and I believe it would take some serious errors to really damage these. This is with my son running around the house just wearing them without music.

As for battery life, Puro Labs lists the BT2200 as having 20 hours of battery life. I found that to be fairly accurate when using the Bluetooth mode, even with ANC mode on. Personally, I prefer my headphones wired, so I spent most of my listening using the included 3.5mm wire.

Sound quality

My daily drivers are a set of BeyerDynamic Custom One Pros (discontinued). When I switched to the BT2200, I found the sound a bit more muted in comparison. On my Custom One Pros, the sound is much brighter, with the treble standing out.

The BT2200 felt flat even when listening to podcasts and YouTube videos with more talking. However, it didn’t take long for my ears to adjust, and I found the BT2200 Plus fairly decent. Audio sits squarely in the middle range. You aren’t getting high trebles or deep bass, but it’s not so crushed that you’re losing the total sound stage when listening.

The important thing is that, as an ear-friendly headphone, the volume is capped at 85dB, meaning over long listening sessions, even at high volume, your or your child’s ears are more protected compared to headphones that can go higher.

What the kids are saying

I wasn’t alone in my testing. My seven-year-old son got plenty of time with the BT2200s on three different road trips and day-to-day use when playing Zoombinis on an iPad mini. He said they were good and is a big fan of headphones with 3.5mm cords that can plug into almost anything.

He also liked that they were smaller than the iClever Auraa headphones, which I interpreted as him saying they were more comfortable. He did have an ample amount of praise for the carrying case, a strange ode to Puro Sound Labs, since I don’t believe I ever saw him put the headphones back in the case or use it for anything.

That said, when given the choice in the last few months, he was more inclined to pick the BT2200 cans. Praise enough in my mind.

Verdict

Puro Labs offers both premium aesthetics while still providing ear safety with the volume cap. I’m not worried about hearing damage, and the sound is good enough.

So far, these headphones are durable and can stand up to rowdy kids and more careless teenagers. At $99, you want something that can hold up to the rigours of kid life, and these do.

Compared to other kid-friendly headphones, the price tag is higher and does reflect a more “adult” look and feel. But if you have a teen who needs some cans and you’re looking to protect their ears, BT2200 Plus is a good option.

When it comes to the best gaming chairs, you find they all follow the same rules — bucket seat-esque ergonomics, a sort of stiffer cushion to force a posture, and a head pillow that I always struggle to figure out how to position it just right.

Well, what if you took the full plushness and recline of a La-Z-Boy and paired it with a throne for play? You get the Cougar Arker, which is easily my favorite gaming chair of the past few years and one I can’t wait to complete my setup with when it comes out for a “targeted” price of $270.

Sleep or play? Your choice

Whenever I see a gaming chair fold completely flat, it’s always given me gimmick vibes. It’s a nice-to-have, but I’d never use it fully horizontal. The luxurious cushioning that you just fully sink into on the Arker makes that posture make sense. I could see myself totally taking a nap working while laid back on this thing.

And that Hyper-Dura leatherette upholstery did get me worried at first — thinking that my legs in shorts were going to stick to it. But no, that material doesn’t get uncomfortable, it doesn’t stick to your legs. It’s got the sensation of leather without gluing your skin down to it.

I seriously cannot understate how soft this seat truly is. No hard cushioning, this feels like a hug in chair form with well-placed arms too for a nice ergonomic posture to boot.

Kick back

Then there’s the full recline and that sneaky footrest you can pull out from beneath the chair. With it, you can fully lay back and to be honest, I was so close to napping.

Is this because I’m seriously sleep-deprived after going hard on covering Computex 2026? Maybe. Did Nvidia keep me awake much longer than anticipated with RTX Spark testing? Possibly.

But in a real-world scenario, I can see this slotting ideally under my desk — not just for working by day but playing and resting by night. Turning on some soft RGB and some LoFi to lay back and really vibe in a multi-sensory experience while I grab some Zs.

Outlook

But what shocked me most is when talking to Cougar about the chair, the price target for them is $270, which is crazy good value for money when it comes to gaming chairs. That’s especially true for something like the Arker, which the company has really found a sweet spot with for me.

For too long, I’ve been forced into different postures, and I know it’s for my health and everything, but it’s tricky for me to really get lazy on them. Turns out all your need to do is throw a lot of cushion at it and make the thing feel like your favorite couch from your childhood.

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