What do you get when you mix top Wi-Fi 7 speeds and range with 10Gbps wired ports and low latency technology? You get TP-Link’s Archer BE770, one of the best high-performing traditional routers on the planet. At $400, it blows the doors off other routers selling for hundreds more, making it the one to beat for those who demand top Wi-Fi speed.

My TP-Link Archer BE770 review will help you decide if this is the best Wi-Fi 7 router for your home network or if it’s worth considering one of the best mesh Wi-Fi systems instead.

TP-Link Archer BE770 review: Pricing and availability

With a list price of $400, the Archer BE770 is priced at $350 on Amazon at the moment. It’s a good bargain compared to Netgear’s $600 Nighthawk RS700S, which matches the BE770 just about spec for spec.

New and in demand, one online store is selling the BE770 at nearly double its list price.

TP-Link Archer BE770 review: Design

At 11.7 x 10.4 x 4.1 inches, the gray and black Archer BE770 stands in contrast to the company’s Darth Vader inspired Archer GE650. The roughly rectangular router is cinched in the middle and nearly two-thirds larger than the NetgearRS700S. It should still fit on a bookshelf though.

Its central LED diverges from the pixelated display on the Archer BE800 for showing LAN access, the time, weather or just some frivolous (but addictive) animations. I prefer its demure central status LED to the assault on the senses.

Inside, the BE770’s 10 internal antennas give it a tidy look compared to high-performance routers that have external antennas pointing every which way. Arranged in a staggered vertical array, it produces roughly spherical reception and has an antenna to tap into Dynamic Frequency Selection (DFS) zero wait technology, lowering the router’s latency.

An offshoot of the Archer BE700 design, the triband BE770 covers the Wi-Fi 7 bases with a Broadcom BCM67263 radio chip, 2.0 GHz quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM and 256MB of storage space. Able to move a theoretical 18Gbps, it’s rated at a maximum of 688 Mbps over the 2.4GHz band as well as 5.764Gbps and 11.529 over the 5.0 and 6.0GHz bands.

As flexible as networking gets these days, the BE770 can operate as a traditional router, a wired access point or as an EasyMesh wireless node. It pushes throughput with everything from Multi-Link Operations (MLO) to 4K Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) to its ultrawide 6GHz 320 MHz data channels. The router’s 10 independent data streams can accommodate up to 150 Wi-Fi devices and should satisfy those with multi-gig data plans.

While high-performance all the way, the BE770 lacks amenities that TP-Link reserves for the best gaming routers. These include pre-configured port forwarding options for gaming consoles and access to the WTFast links for the GPN (Gamers Private Network).

Still, it has a top-shelf port selection. It starts with 10Gbps ports for WAN input and very hot downstream links and extends to four 1 Gbps connections for more mundane clients, like printers or surveillance cameras. It lacks the Archer BE800’s SPF+ fiber optic port, but few will miss it.

The two USB 3.0 ports can add cross network data access. Around back, the router’s on/off button is complemented by its Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) and LED light switch. It has a recessed reset switch.

With hackers hiding in plain sight, the BE770 can shield data as a VPN server or client and includes TP-Link’s HomeShield base security subscription. Its defenses include preventing personal data leaking out, filtering out the worst the web has, and blocking dangerous apps. It can catch the major malware exploits of the day and is continually updated.

A little more paranoid online? Who isn’t. TP-Link’s Security+ plan costs $6 a month or $55 a year and ups the protection with isolation for IoT devices and extra parental controls. The first month is free.

TP-Link Archer BE770 review: Performance

Druing testing using an HP Envy X360 notebook and Keysight’s IxChariot networking benchmark, the Archer BE770 excelled with top throughput and range. In my 3,500 square foot home, it left a few dead zones in the basement.

Set to simulate 10 data-hungry users, IxChariot results start with the BE770’s ability to move 2.574Gbps using 15-feet of Ethernet cabling. It’s Meh compared to the TP-Link siblings: the Archer GE800 (at 4.449 Gbps) and the Archer GE650 (3.849 Gbps). Later, with the router and test system next to each other, the BE770 moved 2.574 Gbps wirelessly, slightly off the pace set by the Asus RT-BE96U at 2.685 Gbps.

In real world testing, the BE770 blew away Wi-Fi 7 routers costing hundreds of dollars more with 2.181 Gbps available at 15 feet. That’s eight percent more data flowing than the Archer GE650 and clearly ready for the multi-gig world. Although the BE770 often started off slowly, it gathered speed on subsequent runs. For instance, it took three initial runs at about 400 Mbps before getting to its peak performance. My patience was rewarded with throughput over 2 Gbps.

At 50 feet, the BE770 sprinted ahead of the Wi-Fi 7 crowd at 1.239 Gbps. That’s easily twice the data flow of the Archer GE650 or the Asus RT-BE96U. The closest to it was the Nighthawk RS700S’s 691.8 Mbps.

When I set up the test machine 75 feet from the router, I got 772.1 Mbps of throughput – roughly double the results of the Asus RT-BE96U. At 90 feet, the performance fell back to earth, but still outran the others at 70.9 Mbps, well ahead of the GE650, RT-BE86U or the RS700S.

The BE770 is the rare router with range to match at 130 feet. It easily outdistanced the RT-BE96U’s 105-foot range.

When I set the test machine up in an adjacent room 25 feet away from the BE770, it delivered 1.967 Gbps. That’s twice the bandwidth of the GE650 and even bested the RT-BE96U’s 1.810 Gbps. In other words, the BE770 doesn’t care if you live in a ranch, townhouse or McMansion, it can fill the building with data.

Over my two weeks with the BE770 of playing games, listening to music and streaming 4K video, I encountered some inconsistent results but no major problems. On the other hand, the BE770 is power hungry at 23.4 watts while working hard moving data around my home. Running 24/7, it should cost $35.88 in electricity bills if you pay the national average of 17.5 cents per kilowatt hour of electricity. The BE800 costs something closer to $41 per year.

The BE770 has two Eco Mode settings: Power Saving Mode and Ultra Power-Saving Mode, both of which reduce power use by lowering transmission range and throughput. This can be scheduled to only come into play at night.

Passively cooled, room air comes in through the bottom and warm air out the top vent. It hit a peak of 104 degrees Fahrenheit during testing.

TP-Link Archer BE770 review: Setup

After plugging everything in, I used my HP Envy X360 notebook and Chrome browser to run through the BE770’s setup routine. Starting at http://tplinkwifi.net, I needed to give each LAN a name and password. It worked on the first try, taking all of 6 minutes.

Finally, I switched to TP-Link’s MLO (Multi-Link Operation) to get to a single network name and password. The Tether app is more visual but offers much the same process.

TP-Link Archer BE770 review: Configuration

Using the Tether app, I started at the main page full of helpful things like the number of clients and current down- and upload rates.

Below, the tabs for Security, Family and the More catch-all category. I was able to see and change anything from blacklisted devices to the Internet connection details. The router’s Network Optimization can streamline access and reduce interference.

Meanwhile using a connected browser allowed fine-tuning the MLO connection, DNS servers and using DHCP auto IP addressing. It’s where I activated a flash drive connected to the router’s USB port.

The router’s two-year warranty and lifetime support blow Netgear’s one-year coverage and 90-days of included support away. The TP-Link support site has everything from firmware downloads to setup videos. Its manual, however, is only available online in HTML.

TP-Link Archer BE770 review: Verdict

If you’re on a budget, you don’t have to settle for slow Wi-Fi anymore because TP-Link’s Archer BE770 is the best of the best with equal parts peak throughput and extended range. It lacks the visual appeal of routers with info-screens, but for the easily distracted, like me, that’s a good thing.

Regardless of whether it’s streaming 8K video, global gaming or running the latest AI model locally, the BE770 is the one to get for those who demand top speed and range. Getting it at $350 is the icing on the networking cake.

Smart glasses have come a long way in the last couple of years, but most are yet to be truly useful or feature affordable prices. To me, the smart glasses worth owning let you enjoy a giant screen for gaming or movies without having to crane your neck.

Unfortunately, most like the Xreal One ($499) or Viture Pro ($549) are expensive. That's where the RayNeo Air 4 Pro steps in with a nearly equal features and a much friendlier price.

Right now for Prime Day, the RayNeo Air 4 Pro glasses are $60 off at Amazon. We rate the Air 4 Pro as one of the best smart glasses for anyone looking to save some money but still want a quality pair of specs.

Plus, if you really want to lean into your DC Comics fandom, the Air 4 Pro is available in two Batman-themed editions: Justice and Chaos. These feature a clip-on Batman or Joker lens cover the glasses and a few extra goodies.

The Justice and Chaos editions are on sale for $255, only $15 more than the standard model. Even if you don't want to wander your house demanding, "swear to me" it's a pretty tempting deal.

Seriously, I've been wearing these glasses at night to not bother my partner and they're quite comfortable and have the picture quality of a $500 pair of smart glasses for under $300!

The Air 4 Pro comes with HDR10, which greatly improves the quality of shows like those from Apple TV Plus. You are no longer locked to SDR content, and it's massive.

Plus, at 2.7 ounces, these glasses aren't that heavy and compared to its predecessor, runs much cooler. Plus, with the sleek design (Batman-mask aside), they look pretty normal compared to bulkier external display smart glasses.

If you're looking to get a taste of what smart glasses can do without spending a mint, the Ray Air 4 Pro might be the entry-level option you're looking for — and this Prime Day sale makes them even more appealing.

SMART GLASSES

We're tracking all the best Prime Day smart glasses deals

England vs Ghana is one of the most anticipated matches of the FIFA World Cup 2026's group stage – and whether you're watching from a bar, a hotel, or any other network that isn't your own, your connection may be more exposed than you think. Plus, if you accidentally end up on websites that aren't trustworthy, exposing your IP address to them can spell danger.

Using one of the best VPNs closes that window by encrypting your traffic and masking your IP address, so nobody on the same network can see what you're doing. It also means your ISP can't monitor your streaming habits, and websites can't see your real IP – useful if you'd rather keep your viewing activity to yourself.

We currently rate Norton VPN as the best VPN for streaming, and there's a sensational deal running right now that makes it an easy choice for World Cup coverage.

How does Norton VPN compare to other top VPNs?

NordVPN continues to outperform Norton VPN in our overall VPN rankings, and its testing record backs that up: speeds of over 1,249 Mbps locally, a server network spanning more than 8,000 servers across 135 countries, and a near-flawless streaming unblocking record. In comparison, Norton VPN only offers servers in 65+ countries – meaning potentially less choice when it comes to streaming services.

The catch is price – even on the discounted two-year plan, NordVPN works out at around $3.49 per month, which is a little more than Norton. What's more, it only comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Norton also has the edge when it comes to raw streaming performance, unblocking every major streaming platform in our latest round of testing, despite its smaller network.

Surfshark is a budget alternative, with plans starting at a very reasonable $1.99 per month and the bonus of unlimited device connections. This is a contrast to Norton VPN, which has strict limits on how many devices you can install the VPN on. Surfshark's a capable all-rounder, too, and one of the fastest VPNs we've tested. However, its streaming unblocking has been less consistent than Norton's in our reviews, occasionally struggling with certain Netflix regions.

If your main priority is keeping your streaming activity private without interruption, Norton VPN is the clear choice. What's more, that performance currently comes with competitive pricing against NordVPN and a 60-day guarantee which is double what most competitors offer, giving you the entire tournament to decide if it's right for you.

NordVPN and Surfshark remain solid options for general use once the World Cup wraps up, but for streaming this tournament privately and securely, Norton's combination of unblocking power and excellent pricing is hard to beat.

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example:1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service).2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad.We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

Taiwan, Shanghai, Shenzen, Long Beach, London. It’s been a busy three weeks for me, as I traveled around the world in 20 days (suck it, Phileas Fogg). With that comes a lot of long haul air flights, but with the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ in hand, I was never worried about being bored.

As you saw back at Computex, I tested it and saw the first true glimpse of a next generation handheld — thanks to that Intel Arc G3 Extreme superpower. Throw in real attention to the ergonomics; a bright, vibrant display, and a real PS5 Dualsense-esque upgrade to the haptics, and you’ve got a phenomenal handheld.

On the road (and in the air), real-world testing shows just how massive of an uplift this system can provide over any handhelds with AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme packed into it. It’s really comfortable in the hands with tactile buttons and a massive uplift in battery life. Docking it into hotel room TVs was a real showcase of how XeSS 3 can unlock that Nintendo Switch experience of great gaming both on-the-go and at home.

Plus, the CPU side of it is strong enough that I was able to handle my work in China easily with a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse attached. Throw in Xbox mode that does a much better job of tying things together into a console UI (not all the way there yet), and this is a dream start.

There’s just one thing, though… $1,799. Yep, you read that right. I was ready for a big price given what MSI told me (they were “targeting $1,500”). But as I told the boys on the 128kb podcast, the word “targeting” doesn’t mean “is,” and was doing a lot of heavy lifting to cover a drastic price increase.

RAMageddon has sent prices spiraling out of control, and it leaves a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth — conflicted that this handheld is so good, but also so expensive. It makes it a tough one to recommend to anyone other than the handheld pros and enthusiasts with deep pockets.

But to those of you who fit these criteria, make no bones about it: you’re getting the best gaming handheld I’ve ever tested.

MSI Claw 8 EX AI+: Cheat Sheet

• What is it? This is a PC gaming handheld, and one of the most powerful you can buy right now.
• Who is it for? This is for the gaming enthusiasts who are always on-the-go.
• What does it cost? Brace yourself — it’s $1,799.
• What do we like? Intel Arc G3 Extreme delivers as the most powerful handheld gaming chip, which is packed into a real nice-feeling handheld shell with a great display and impressive button ergonomics.
• What don’t we like? XeSS 3 game support is limited (though the raw horsepower of that GPU can overcome those obstacles), and charging $1,799 for a handheld is crazy.

MSI Claw 8 EX AI+: Specs

MSI Claw 8 EX AI+: The ups

I picked up the Claw 8 EX AI+ from MSI and my first full two days involved flying from Taipei to Shanghai, and then to Shenzen. It’s a hectic schedule, but the Claw kept up with all of it.

The chinniest handheld feels great

Now, I know that chances are the very first thing you noticed is its Crimson Chin-looking aesthetic — that is a big protrusion from the bottom to house that 8-inch display. But as I found out from talking to MSI, that’s by design as a year of iterative design inspired by the ergonomics of the Xbox controller brought them here.

In the real world, those contours fit into my average-sized hands almost perfectly. I can see how small hands may have a struggle with this, but for most of you, those grips feel great with a grooved texture and the buttons are really well-placed.

Not only that, but there's two drastic improvements you won’t be able to see in these photo: the button feel and the haptics. The triggers have a supple smoothness to them in their travel, and the D-pad and face buttons have such a nicer tactility to them thanks to that metal plating beneath them.

As for the vibrations, they always felt a little weak and almost vague in other MSI handhelds. Now with that new haptic motor in here, vibrations are snappy, specific and add a real immersion level to each game you play. It’s a night and day difference.

Also, shoutout to that bright, vibrant IPS panel with variable refresh rate — would’ve loved OLED but this is more than good enough here alongside some crispy, clear speakers that may be tinny but don’t distort at max volume.

Intel’s eating AMD for breakfast

Arc G3 Extreme is quite the mighty chip on paper — taking that 12 Xe3 core GPU I fell in love with on Panther Lake laptops, trimming the CPU fat and shifting the focus to graphics. The end result? A monster of a performant and power efficient chip with some AI tricks in its back pocket to take on AMD’s stranglehold on gaming handhelds.

Team Blue made some mighty claims: 44% higher frame rates than AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme at the same wattage, and the same FPS as the Z2 Extreme when at half the power consumption. Putting it to the test, I’m honestly floored.

Without any of the XeSS 3 features turned on, you can see Intel’s claims backed up (and then some) but then you turn on the resolution scaling and multi-frame generation and you realize this is what PC handheld gaming has been missing.

Making sure you start with a stable base rate (as you should always do with AI tricks like this), the latency is not noticeable when on a controller like this. I saw as much in the games I’ve been playing on my travels, and also at MSI’s HQ when testing this thing.

F1 25 feels buttery smooth when connected to the TV upscaling to 4K, Battlefield 6 doesn’t miss a step, and on a smaller 8-inch display like this, some of that telltale ghosting of frame generation is hard to spot.

And for those moments when you're plugged into the big screen and flipped to desktop mode with a keyboard and mouse, its productivity chops are admirable. With the reduced core count, you’re getting similar speeds to the Ryzen Z2 Extreme, which means you’d be surprised at just how much work you could get done on this thing.

Of course, the 32GB of DDR5 RAM helps with the multitasking chops here for sure (and in this economy, that comes at a steep cost…but more on that later), but being able to use the Claw for both portable play and as a mini PC of sorts for work is a real value unlocker.

Stamina champ

So you’ve seen the goings on when it comes to the raw power efficiency of the Arc G3 Extreme. How does that translate to actual battery life? Well by the rudimentary test we do to compare, it’s head and shoulders above.

But that’s only half the story. Lab results are good and all, but my lived experience gives you much more context. Looking back at the notes I rapidly took on my phone shows that this big number above is just a slither, because that CPU wattage can be taken all the way down to 8 watts.

Doing so while playing Dispatch (given it’s cartoon-animated, you don’t need anything more than that), 1.5 hours of use while travelling to the first hotel in Shanghai took me down to 89%. Then I put it on standby while I went to sleep — usually disastrous for an x86 CPU like Intel’s chip. But the smart hibernation here means I woke up to just a 4% loss in stamina.

Then came my next flight to Shenzen, and I was keen to finish Dispatch (it’s a great game if you’re into Telltale Games-style choose-your-own adventures), and 3 hours on that endurance mode shaved another 29% off. Now we’re down to 56%.

Once I checked into the next hotel, I fired up Forza Horizon 6 and got acquainted with the manual power controls. I turned it down to 720p at low to medium fidelity settings, and the TDP of that chipset was set to 8-15 watts. Framerate-wise, I was getting about 50 FPS without any XeSS on top, and after an hour, the battery went down to 44% before going to sleep.

This kind of longevity is extraordinary while still giving you a strong gameplay experience is extraordinary. You’ll see a lot of people talking about the performance uplift, but the stamina is the real talking point here.

MSI Claw 8 EX AI+: The downs

As we closed in on the launch (and many fellow nerds on these flights stared at this new hardware with glee in their eyes — sorry for leaking it a little early, MSI!), I’d been hearing rumors about what the final price would be. Once it was revealed, it turned out the rumors were right and my hopes were dashed.

$1,799 is crazy

Let’s talk about it. I remember over a year ago when I said a thousand bucks was pushing it for the ROG Xbox Ally X… Now we’ve fully closed in on 1,800 smackeroonies and that’s a damning statement on the side effects of this AI boom (or bubble if you’re nasty).

I can’t deny that this is the best PC handheld I’ve ever used, and looking at the other Intel Arc G3 Extreme handhelds, this isn’t the worst-priced either. But are those generational improvements over what’s come before worth that drastic uplift in price? It’s touch to say.

If you’re a PC gaming enthusiast and you need an ultraportable to take your library with you at the best fidelity, provided you’ve got the deep pockets for it, this is the one to go for.

If you already have a handheld, hold onto it — wait for that AI bubble to pop to drag down the price of RAM.

For the rest of you, I’d wait for a sale to see how far this price can come down.

XeSS 3 compatibility isn’t all the way there

Now I know this is something that is on the up and up — Intel’s XeSS 3 supported games list is growing gradually. But at around 50 titles, you can’t ignore that the list is pretty small.

Luckily, there’s enough under the hood of that GPU to brute force some smooth frame rates across games, and with AMD’s FSR being technically open source, you could use this with the Arc G3 Extreme on-board to fill in some gaps.

However, I always felt a little sad when I opened a game and there was no XeSS option in sight. Hopefully as this platform alongside Panther Lake in laptops and future chips grow in user base, more developers get on board.

MSI Claw 8 EX AI+: Verdict

And that’s the story of the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ — easily the best PC gaming handheld I’ve ever tested, but I’m conflicted by that price.

It’s a tall order at $1,800, but it’s also the generational leap I was hoping for. So really it’s going to come down to that price. To be honest with you, I’d wait for a sale price on this to make the most of your investment.

Because this is a mighty system as both a beastly gaming handheld and a mini PC to get stuff done on.

I just went hands-on with Meta's newest lineup of smart glasses, and one thing is immediately clear: the company is ready to move beyond borrowed brand power.

While the second-generation Ray-Ban Meta glasses started at $379, Meta’s latest collection drops the Ray-Ban (and Oakley) badges entirely. Instead, Meta collaborated directly with parent company EssilorLuxottica on a line officially called Meta Glasses and brought the starting price down to a more palatable $299.

The new collection doubles down on personalization, with highly adjustable frames, more style options, improved fit and an upgraded AI experience powered by Meta's latest LLM. It's a bold move that suggests Meta believes its smart glasses are now the product people recognize, not the logo stamped on the side.

That said, there's a hilarious twist: my favorite pair in the lineup is the very distinctly branded Kylie edition co-designed with none other than the "Rise and Shine"-singing, Knicks courtside-sitting icon herself, Kylie Jenner.

The entire collection is available now Meta.com, LensCrafters, Sunglass Hut, Best Buy, and Amazon. Let’s get into everything you can expect.

Meta Glasses: Styles and fit

The new main collection features three distinct styles: Adventurer (a timeless rectangular shape,) Fury (a thicker statement-making frame) and Meta Glasses by Kylie (chic oval frames, detailed more below.)

They come in a massive palette of colors including Classic Black, Classic Tortoise, Racing Green, Linen, Merlot, Mahogany, and Sandstone. Combined with sun, Transitions®, polarized, and clear lens options, there are 26 distinct styles available at launch.

But how a pair of glasses feel is equally as important to how they look. Smart glasses typically suffer from being rigid, clunky and even unforgiving. Meta is addressing this head-on with a three-prong approach to comfort:

1. Overextension Hinges: Designed to flex outward to accommodate wider head shapes without pinching.
2. Adjustable Nose Pads: A massive win for comfort, weight distribution, and keeping the lenses off your cheeks.
3. Adjustable Temple Tips: Armed with an internal core wire (which is actually visible inside the transparent colorways) that lets you mold the ear stems for a secure-but-comfortable fit.

Meta Glasses by Kylie

In addition to Fury and Adventurer, Meta revealed a new collaboration with Kylie Jenner. Offered in classic black and tortoise frames, I think these are the most "non-smart glasses looking" smart glasses ever made.

It’s a slim, trendy, oval cat-eye style complete with a distinct gem accent on the left eye. Meta and EssilorLuxottica clearly thought about the lifestyle details here. It features metal nose pads specifically chosen to protect makeup from smudging, and it ships with a sleek, fold-flat case that includes a mirror.

On the tech side, the collab gets its own custom "awake chime" and a dedicated Kylie-inspired AI voice, complete with a subtle hint of her signature vocal fry and a few custom "Kylie-isms."

Muse Spark: Smarter, More Contextual AI

Under the hood, these frames pack the exact same reliable platform of cameras, microphones, battery, and processing chip as the Ray-Ban Meta Glasses Gen 2. But the software ushers in the next phase of Meta AI powered by the Muse Spark LLM.

Meta Glasses are the first to launch with Muse Spark from Day 1, though the software update is also rolling out to existing Ray-Ban Meta and Oakley Meta glasses. As part of my demo, I tried two interactions powered by Muse Spark:

• Live Translation: Muse Spark adds support for 14 new languages including Chinese (Mandarin,) Hindi, Korean, Japanese and Arabic. In my demos translating live speech and text, the execution was mostly seamless and effective.
• Social-Infused Insights: The AI now pulls local recommendations based on what real people are actually talking about on Threads and Facebook. In other words, social chatter will be factored into your location-based queries.

Pedestrian Navigation goes audio-only

Another major software port coming to this collection is pedestrian turn-by-turn navigation, a feature originally seen on Meta Display glasses.

Since these frames lack a screen or heads-up display, you won't get visual overlays superimposed on the world. Instead, Meta is utilizing its excellent open-ear audio platform to give you precise, ambient audio directions as you walk through the city.

Be sure to let me know if the comments if you’re interested in hearing from the Tom's Guide team when we test out this audio-only navigation experience on Meta Glasses.

A massive win for prescription wearers

In a huge move for those with a prescription, Meta announced the Rx Lens Swap program alongside Meta Glasses.

Meta Glasses are fully prescription-compatible, but now you can take your frames to your preferred local optician after the point of purchase to add your custom lenses without voiding the factory warranty.

Meta Glasses Outlook

Ditching the Ray-Ban and Oakley branding is a bold move, especially when Google is leaning heavily into high-end fashion collabs with Warby Parker and Gentle Monster for its own upcoming smart glasses.

But I believe Meta has established itself enough in this space that it doesn’t need to rely on logo leverage anymore. Mainstream users will probably still call these "the Meta Ray-Bans" out of habit, but this launch proves Meta can scale style beyond a single partner's catalog and make its smart glasses more wallet-friendly.

That said, I'm slightly worried Meta might have made these frames a little too discreet. It makes me wonder if it will actually hurt their reach. Half the reason the original Ray-Ban Metas took off was because people would stop you in the street to ask if they’re the camera glasses. With the new collection looking like a great pair of everyday frames, Meta might lose that word-of-mouth viral spark, even if my face already feels a whole lot better wearing them.

More from Tom's Guide

• I've reviewed all of Meta's smart glasses, and this is the pair I'd actually buy
• 7 settings to change first on your Ray Ban Meta glasses
• I wore Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses while shopping at Target

When people think about upgrading to a big, immersive display, the latest 5K2K monitors from LG and Samsung are usually the first that come to mind. However, while they’re certainly some of the best monitors you can buy, they come with premium price tags of at least $1,000.

Fortunately, if you want more screen real estate but don’t want to pay as much as you would for a high-end graphics card, there are more affordable alternatives. A few months back, I tried out the 5K2K Innocn 401CU and it certainly fits the bill. While it has a list price of $999, I’ve seen it as low as $600 during major sales events.

After looking through the comments on that story though, I was surprised to see how many Tom’s Guide readers thought even that sale price was too expensive for a monitor, with many suggesting buying a budget 4K TV instead. To see if I could find a gem in the rough, I decided to try out Innocn’s even more affordable sibling: the 401CR ultrawide monitor.

At full price, it’s just under $500, but I’ve seen it go for as low as $350 while on sale. At that price, it’s a steal for a flat, 40-inch ultrawide with single-cable USB-C connectivity. Given Prime Day starts today, I expect it to see a deep discount.

If you need massive screen space for productivity and more immersive gaming, this underdog might just be the perfect upgrade for your desk setup.

Flat, wide and fully-specced

At 37.1 x 16.5 x 2.2 inches, the 40C1R is anything but a small display, and at roughly 20 pounds without the stand, it’s on the heavier side, too. Thankfully, Innocn includes a fairly heavy-duty stand with a thick metal baseplate and a plastic vertical arm that’s reinforced with a sturdy metal core.

Having unboxed my fair share of monitors over the years, I really like how Innocn includes a high-speed USB-C to USB-C video cable and a DisplayPort cable right in the box. You don’t get an HDMI cable though, but you likely have several of those laying around anyway. Likewise, you probably won’t want to use an HDMI connection with this display as your refresh rate will be capped at 100 Hz versus the full 144 Hz you get over DisplayPort.

With the monitor lying face down on my desk, you get a clear look at its overall structural design. Right off the bat, I love how Innocn uses standard, square 100 x 100 VESA mounting holes instead of those silly circular 75 x 75 ones you see on a lot of other gaming monitors. This makes it incredibly easy to swap out the stand for any of the best monitor arms since you won’t need to hunt for a proprietary adapter.

Looking at the back of the panel, the connectivity is split cleanly. The power port sits entirely on its own side, which highlights one of my favorite features: a built-in power supply. Just like the more expensive 40C1U, there is no bulky power brick to hide under your desk — just a single standard power cable. On the opposite side of the rear cutout, you'll find the main selection of ports, while the monitor’s physical OSD navigation buttons line the corresponding outer edge.

As for those ports, you get a great selection of connection options, including dual HDMI 2.0 inputs, DisplayPort 1.4, USB-C, and a 3.5mm audio jack. While the 40C1R drops the built-in USB-A hub found on the premium 40C1U to save on cost, it oddly beats its more expensive sibling in utility: its USB-C port delivers a massive 90W of power delivery as opposed to just 60W.

After unboxing the 40C1R, I installed the included stand using a single built-in thumb screw. With the monitor securely set up and plugged in, it was finally time to see how it performs.

Laptop power with gaming PC framerates

In order to test the 40C1R and make sure it was working properly, I first hooked it up to a MacBook Pro M5 I borrowed from work for another monitor review. Although 90W of power delivery is a bit less than the 140W provided by Apple's included charger, it is still more than enough juice to keep a 16-inch MacBook fully topped off even during heavy workloads. For the rest of the best laptops, 90W will be plenty to fast charge them while connected to this massive display.

With the MacBook Pro plugged into the 40C1R, the monitor’s IPS panel looked vibrant and crisp, with no dead pixels to speak of. While the 40C1R does come equipped with dual 5W built-in speakers, I ended up switching back to the ones on the MacBook Pro after a bit. Still, they are nice to have in a pinch, and they do sound much less tinny than the bottom-tier 2W speakers you find on a lot of other budget monitors.

Sadly, I no longer own a big, bulky gaming desktop anymore (as I’ve been using one of the best mini PCs for both work and play for the past few years) but fortunately, my favorite pocketable mini PC — the Khadas Mind 2S — can be instantly upgraded with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti desktop GPU just by dropping it onto Khadas’ Mind Graphics 2 dock.

Now, I know what you might be thinking when looking at a compact setup like this: airflow. I too was worried about putting this docked mini PC directly underneath the 40C1R at first. However, after pushing the hardware and running a few demanding games on it, I didn’t run into any thermal throttling or heating issues at all. I chalk this up to Khadas' excellent internal cooling design and the fact that the dock's entire outer shell is machined from aluminum, which acts as a giant heatsink.

With the 40C1R confirmed to be fully operational and paired with a surprisingly powerful eGPU dock, it was time to see how this budget-friendly 40-inch ultrawide handles real-world productivity and immersive gaming.

Big screen on a budget

Back when I tried out Innocn’s more premium 40-inch ultrawide, I did play a few games on it. However, with a massive resolution of 5120 x 2160, the Framework Desktop I was using at the time struggled to push smooth frame rates. With a lower — yet still reasonably high — resolution of 3440 x 1440, I knew that my mini PC with its desktop-grade RTX 5060 Ti would have a much easier time keeping up. Likewise, given this is an outright gaming monitor instead of a productivity-first screen like the 40C1U, it actually features a much higher 144 Hz refresh rate.

For the past few months, I’ve been making my way through Death Stranding 2, and on an ultrawide display like this one with a 21:9 aspect ratio, it’s been an absolute joy to play. Not only was the game’s world wider than it was on my PS5 Pro, but I could crank the framerate past 60 fps all the way up to a buttery-smooth 144 fps. In fact, if you’re coming from a console and are playing on an ultrawide, you might end up double-dipping on a few titles just to experience them at full width without any distracting black bars on the sides.

In addition to Death Stranding 2, I also really enjoyed playing my go-to skateboarding game Session and Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart on this wider display. It also helps that the monitor comes equipped with AMD’s FreeSync Premium, so you can turn on VRR (variable refresh rate) for a tear-free experience. The 40C1R does have HDR support, but I preferred leaving it off since it's an HDR400 panel that tops out around 400 to 500 nits of brightness. Without local dimming, SDR content actually looks a lot punchier.

With an ultrawide display like the 40C1R, streaming content online can be awesome, too... if you find the right video. While most TV shows are locked to standard 16:9, you can find plenty of movies and even some music videos — like Drake’s "2 Hard 4 The Radio" pictured above — that are natively available with a cinematic 21:9 aspect ratio. After upgrading to an ultrawide, I highly recommend going to YouTube, searching for 21:9 trailers, and turning the resolution all the way up. You won’t be disappointed.

Overall, I’m quite impressed with the 40C1R, especially given the fact that it’s a four-year-old monitor design. While you might think you need the latest and greatest OLED display to upgrade your desk setup or battlestation, my experience with this monitor proves you definitely don’t.

One for work, one for play

I’ll admit, I was lucky enough to experience Innocn’s latest and greatest 40-inch ultrawide before tying out this more budget-friendly model. However, after thoroughly testing both of them, they each clearly have their place depending on your use case and how much you’re willing to spend.

With its higher resolution and built-in USB hub, the Innocn 40C1U is a fantastic productivity monitor. You can see substantially more on the screen at the same time, and if you want to switch between two computers — say a Mac and a Windows machine like I’m doing here — you won’t need to buy a separate KVM switch. However, for gaming at that native 5K2K resolution, you’re going to need a really beefy graphics card with frame generation turned on for your favorite titles to truly shine.

Given its higher refresh rate and lower price, the Innocn 40C1R stands out as a fantastic ultrawide monitor for gaming, even if the underlying panel design is several years old now. While it comes equipped with legacy HDMI 2.0 ports instead of newer HDMI 2.1 ones, that won’t be a problem since you’re going to want to use a DisplayPort cable anyway to make full use of its faster 144 Hz refresh rate. Although a built-in USB-A hub would have been nice to see, I’m sure most people would rather have the massive 90W of power delivery over USB-C so they can fast charge a laptop and utilize it to its fullest potential at the same time.

Now, would I recommend either of these monitors for gaming on a console? Absolutely not, since even the more powerful PS5 Pro is still strictly locked to a standard 16:9 aspect ratio. That could very well change down the road with the PS6 and Xbox’s upcoming Project Helix, but for now, if you want to experience a wider, more immersive field of view while gaming, PC is your best and only option.

At the moment, I have the Innocn 40C1U set up as my dedicated work machine powered by the ultra-powerful Geekom A9 Max 2026 Edition, and I’m using the Innocn 40C1R right alongside it for gaming. If I was on a strict budget and had to pick one over the other, the 40C1R would easily be my choice because you’re getting a flat, massive 40-inch ultrawide with a high refresh rate and better power delivery over a single USB-C cable. That’s not to say the 40C1U is a bad monitor by any means, but at 100 Hz with a demanding 5K2K resolution, it’s simply much better suited for spreadsheets and content creation than it is for high-framerate gaming.

More from Tom's Guide

• I built a completely distraction-free desk setup with these 10 gadgets and now I’m truly locked in
• Monitor stand vs monitor arm: how to pick the right one for your display
• I spent a week with dual Apple Studio Displays and realized I’ve been lying to myself about glossy screens for years

Users experienced issues across multiple services like Reddit, X, Canva, Zoom — giving it a serious feeling of another mass-internet outage.

At around 9:40 a.m. this morning, thousands flocked to Downdetector to report issues with the popular sharing website, and other services like X followed shortly after.

During this time, we suspected it could be something to do with Cloudflare's routine server maintenance in New Jersey, as the company's status page notes it could cause latency and connection issues.

We received an email from Cloudflare's PR firm saying that there was nothing on its end that would cause an outage, and instead said, "Zayo, a network provider, is experiencing an outage on some of its network routes. That may cause some sites using Zayo exclusively to be unreachable, whether they use Cloudflare or not."

We'll keep a close eye on it ourselves, but if you spot any issues, let us know!

Live outage updates

Reports are coming in fast

We're seeing around 2,200 reports on Reddit at the moment, which is a large number in a very short time. It's too early to say if this outage will last, but it definitely seems that large quantities of Reddit users are having problems.

Part of something larger?

While Reddit was the first major service to see a large Downdetector spike, we also noticed several services jumping, including Teams, Whatnot, Crunchyroll, Toast and tons of others.

We're also seeing spikes in reports to Cloudflare and AWS, two services that are the backbone of much of the internet. We've looked into AWS and found it to be a false flag at this point. Cloudflare's status page shows it's performing maintenance at its EWR (Newark) data center.

"Traffic might be re-routed from this location, hence there is a possibility of a slight increase in latency during this maintenance window for end-users in the affected region. For PNI / CNI customers connecting with us in this location, please make sure you are expecting this traffic to fail over elsewhere during this maintenance window as network interfaces in this datacentre may become temporarily unavailable."

This could certainly explain why services like Reddit are having issues.

Current Cloudflare status

Reddit still showing all systems operational

Something seems to be happening on the backend that's causing problems for Reddit, which started this whole ordeal, but the company hasn't acknowledged it yet. The company's status page still shows "All Systems Operational," despite thousands of Downdetector reports suggesting otherwise.

That's a lot of X reports

Currently, X has around 33,000 reports on Downdetector, which is a shockingly high number.

It's not surprising that X would have the most reports, though, as it's the most popular service among those dealing with issues at the moment.

Reddit declining

The reports for Reddit are starting to drop (X is still climbing), but it could mean that some of the traffic is being rerouted to other servers successfully (if that is ultimately what's causing the problems).

Cloudflare's on the case

We've been thinking these outages could be tied back to some scheduled maintenance of Cloudflare's datacenter in Newark. The company's just updated its system status saying they are "investigating increased error rates and latency in multiple services."

With all of these services taking a dip, looks like they may have resolved it already. But we'll test it ourselves!

X outage reports are dropping like a stone

Hope you enjoyed your time away from X — the feed is loading for me and outage reports on Down Detector are going down sharply!

And there goes Zoom

Had a nice Zoom call with my family who are on vacation at the moment to test it — can confirm it's working and outage reports are dropping off too!

We're calling it!

And with a confirmation of a fix being implemented by Cloudflare and all the service outage reports for X, Zoom, Reddit and more dropping all the way back down, we're calling it.

My guess is it could've been a bit of a kettling scenario. The routine maintenance caused some latency issues, that caused more people to refresh more regularly/check the pages. An increase in traffic to an already re-routed datacenter causes more pressure on the re-routed server and here we are.

In a world of AI glasses and VR headsets, Snap Specs are an ambitious (and chunky) meeting point of the two technologies — aiming to bring a generational leap in spatial computing.

But as you well know, everybody has their own ideas of what this new form of wearable will be, and in the eyes of Even Realities CTO, Jian Ouyang, it’s a different, simpler, ambient computing platform that focuses on making sure the glasses look good first.

The company’s G2 glasses have been my daily driver for a few months now, so when I got the time to sit down with him and Developer Relations head, Raag Harshavat, I wanted to get their thoughts on Snap’s radical rethink of smart glasses and also ask how things are going with the team gearing up for Even Realities G3.

Editor's note: This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

“Forget the smart part of it, right?”

So I started by asking him about the biggest news coming out of AWE 2026: Evan’s big Snap Specs debut. “I think from the first look, people can tell we’re [Even Realities] a different category, right? So 132 and 136 grams are not for all-day wearing,” Ouyang commented.

“We did strong ergonomic R&D research from the beginning to see what’s the good form factor for normal glasses to be worn all day — that answer is below 40 grams.” And to be fair to him, you can see signs of this in one of the pictures I took that’s been going viral across different accounts.

You know this one, right? Where Evan's left ear looks like it's getting crushed a bit by the downward pressure of those stems. Snap's CEO has responded to this image circulating, saying "that's what my ear looks like."

With this looks-first mission, Even Realities took a very different route. “We killed the camera feature, the speaker, and we maintained the display and voice input with all the microphones to get us the right weight,” Ouyang added. “We’re not trying to replace a cell phone because we need to leverage the computational resources and services.”

This was getting interesting, so I dug a little deeper with them — asking about the differences in DNA that make up each of these devices and their companies. “So much of the DNA of Even Realities is what makes eyewear special first. Forget the smart part of it, right?” Harshavat commented. “I think so much about the session-based use vs the quiet tech philosophy that we use…being with someone in moments that they both expect and don’t expect.”

In this, he’s referring to what Ouyang will go on to call ambient computing. This is the idea that a device fades into the background — only to come to life in ways you expect and with features that surprise you in their usefulness (Conversate on Even Realities G2 for example).

It’s a huge, far more simplistic differentiator compared to Snap’s big idea, and Jian is aware of that. “They might think 'one day I’m going to replace it' [the smartphone]. I don’t think it's right or wrong. It’s just up to the user to decide — either I’m going to wear this [pointing to his G2s] all day, or I’m just going to wear this for like 30 minutes for fun. It’s a different application.”

The plan for Even Realities G3

Then we got to the future of Even Realities’ own glasses. I know they won’t spill all the beans on future hardware like the G3, but I can get a bit of a flavor as to where their heads are.

“I think the overall hardware road map for us is to maintain a good form factor and constantly push for new technologies to get into our platform,” Ouyang responded. “As battery and hardware technology evolves, everything gets smaller, and we may be able to squeeze more features in there.”

With that tantalizing opener, I moved in to ask about the possibility of a camera built-in for more multimodality in the AI, and it’s not seeming likely. Fun fact: Even Realities CTO used to be one of the camera engineers on the iPhone — he knows a thing or two about the power consumption of packing a snapper! And he cautioned that while a camera is something they are “chasing,” they cautioned that getting to the point of one without massive power consumption “might take years.”

Instead, he talked about the kind of experience he wants to bring with G3 and beyond: your own “personal Jarvis” in agentic AI. “What we foresee is a more open system based on AI with a hardware platform that everything routes through,” Ouyang contemplated.

“This [points to glasses] is the nearest to your eyes and they can hear you, but there won’t be any kind of app. You don’t have to click on something or type in the worlds — all you need to do is imagine like you have your personal Jarvis buying something online, booking tickets and more.”

Outlook

For years, I always thought that the first real goal to achieve for smart glasses will be taking the computing prowess of a VR headset and smashing it down to something the size of glasses. In reality, that goal has changed drastically over many different interpretations.

Some (like Even Realities) believe in the quiet tech revolution — ambient computing that truly fades into the background — and whoever is right will be up to you when that future comes.

More from Tom's Guide

• Tested: Xreal Aura DOES work with Nintendo Switch over USB-C — they won’t tell me how they did it, but I think Snapdragon Reality Elite and Android XR is the way
• You've got questions about Xreal Aura, and I've got answers — 5 things you need to know about these Android XR glasses
• Snapdragon Reality Elite is here, and I’ve already tested it without realizing in Xreal’s Project Aura — its a giant step towards the future of smart glasses

The Geekom A9 Max 2026 Edition improves on last year’s model with an upgraded AMD Ryzen AI 9 processor, though the rest of its components remain identical. However, Geekom also added its more efficient IceBlast 3.0 cooling, which lets this incredibly fast mini PC run at full power with minimal fan noise.

This new version keeps the same all-aluminum case and port selection I loved on the original, too. Just like with the standard Geekom A9 Max, you still get four handy USB-A ports on the front, with enough connectivity around back to drive up to four displays simultaneously. While you can certainly open this mini PC up to add another M.2 SSD, there’s also one of Geekom’s standard SD card readers on the side for quickly expanding your storage capacity.

At $1,799, the Geekom A9 Max 2026 Edition is certainly a pricey mini PC. However, you can typically find it for a few hundred dollars off on Geekom’s website, making it only slightly more expensive than its predecessor. That's not bad, given that RAMageddon doesn’t look to be slowing down anytime soon.

Just like I did with the original, I’ve been using this upgraded mini PC as my daily driver for the past month. During that time, its internal fan never made a peep, and the system hasn’t missed a beat or slowed down at all. However, just like with the first-gen A9 Max, it is a bit trickier to open and upgrade than past Geekom mini PCs I’ve tested.

My Geekom A9 Max review will help you decide if this is the best mini PC for your workflow or if it’s worth picking up last year’s model for slightly less.

Geekom A9 Max 2026 Edition review: Cheat Sheet

• What is it? A follow-up to last year’s compact, silver mini PC with desktop-class power under the hood and loads of front and rear ports.
• Who is it for? Those who need a powerful mini PC with desktop-class performance to replace a larger system or their laptop.
• What does it cost? The A9 Max 2026 Edition costs $1,699 on Amazon but it’s currently discounted to $1,485 on Geekom’s website where you can use code TGA9MAX26 to get an additional 8% off.
• What do we like? The upgraded and more powerful Ryzen AI 9 processor, its compact form factor, the ability to power it via USB-C, the highly generous rear and especially front port selection, and its excellent RAM and storage expandability.
• What don’t we like? The more premium price compared to last year’s model, the more difficult-than-usual case opening process for upgrades, and the easily detached internal Wi-Fi antennas.

Geekom A9 Max: Specs

Geekom A9 Max 2026 Edition: The ups

The Geekom A9 Max 2026 Edition keeps what works about the original with loads of ports at the front and back, an all aluminum case and plenty of opportunities to upgrade it further if you’re so inclined. However, it now features a faster processor and even better cooling.

Sleek, silver and souped-up

At 5.31 x 5.20 x 1.85 inches, the Geekom A9 Max 2026 Edition retains the same compact footprint as the original, which is slightly larger — albeit shorter — than Apple’s redesigned Mac mini M4. It won’t take up any noticeable room on your desk, but you do have the option to mount this mini PC behind a monitor thanks to the included VESA mounting plate. However, given those handy front ports and the side-facing SD card reader, I wouldn’t recommend hiding it away.

With a weight of just 1.54 pounds, the A9 Max has a premium heft without being heavy, meaning you can easily slip it into a backpack. While it comes packaged with a traditional power brick that plugs into a rear barrel port, you don't actually have to use it. One of the two USB4 ports around back supports Power Delivery input (marked "PD-in"), allowing you to power the entire system with a compact 100W GaN charger instead — a convenient perk I've also seen on other mini PCs like the MSI Cubi NUC AI+ 2MG.

Design-wise, this new A9 Max is virtually identical to its predecessor on the outside. Under the hood, however, it sports an upgraded AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 processor and Geekom’s new IceBlast 3.0 cooling. While the original was already fast, this refreshed chip pushes the system's total AI capabilities from 80 up to 86 TOPS (trillions of operations per second) of processing power.

If you look at the results from our lab tests, you might be scratching your head as to why last year's original A9 Max actually outperforms this newer model. Fortunately, there’s a simple explanation for this that could be a pro or a con depending on your workflow and technical expertise.

Like the original model, this 2026 Edition features 32GB of DDR5 RAM. However, the original split that memory across two sticks in a dual-channel configuration (2 x 16GB). On this newer model, Geekom ships the system with a single 32GB stick of DDR5 RAM. Running in single-channel mode severely bottlenecks the memory bandwidth, choking the processor during heavy multi-core tasks and synthetic benchmarks.

I spoke with Geekom about this design choice, and they explained their reasoning: it's all about upgrade paths. Since the A9 Max 2026 Edition is highly upgradeable, keeping a single slot open means that if you want to jump to 64GB of RAM down the line, you can simply buy a matching 32GB stick rather than having to throw away two perfectly good 16GB sticks.

The good news is that while using the new A9 Max as my daily driver, I personally didn’t notice any real-world slowdowns or hangups. In fact, I was quite impressed with its day-to-day snappiness, and the integrated Radeon 890M graphics even managed to deliver a very playable experience running Death Stranding 2 on a 1080p monitor.

Ultimately, if you’re the type of user who prefers a "set-it-and-forget-it" machine and has no intention of ever opening up the case, you'll get better out-of-the-box performance value from the original A9 Max. But if you plan on immediately upgrading this mini PC to its limits and can benefit from the long-term potential of the HX 470 processor, the 2026 model makes a lot of sense — provided you don't mind paying extra for it.

The anti-Mac Mini M4

Despite what Apple wants you to think, there are plenty of us that still rely on USB-A ports instead of USB-C ones. Well, if like me, you’re one of those people, then Geekom has the perfect mini PC for you. On the front of the A9 Max, you get four USB-A ports and a 3.5mm headphone jack. These easy-to-reach ports are great for plugging in flash drives or 2.4 GHz USB dongles for accessories like mice, keyboards and controllers.

Then around back, you get two more USB-A ports (one is high-speed like the four around front while the other is USB 2.0), two HDMI 2.1 ports, two USB4 ports, dual 2.5 gigabit Ethernet ports and a barrel port power connector. That second 2.5 GbE port is great if you want to connect a NAS device to this mini PC, for instance.

As I mentioned before, with two USB4 ports and two HDMI 2.1 ports, the A9 Max can drive up to four 4K monitors simultaneously. Likewise, you could use the USB4 port on the right for power instead.

Although I adore my Mac mini M4, I’m constantly trying out different stands and hubs to add those missing USB-A ports to it. With the A9 Max, I have more USB-A ports than I ever did on my big old desktop gaming PC.

Faster yet cooler

One problem you often run into with mini PCs is excessive fan noise. This comes with the territory, since you’re dealing with a smaller system overall. For the most part, I haven’t run into this with Geekom’s mini PCs besides with the Intel-powered Geekom IT15 I reviewed last year. However, when the original A9 Max was left running demanding workloads for long periods, its internal fan would get quite noisy.

That’s why with the 2026 Edition of the A9 Max, the company upgraded its cooling system to IceBlast 3.0. While the original has dual-copper heat pipes, this upgraded version features a massive full-copper module that’s paired with a bigger custom turbo fan with larger blades. Since the blades are larger and this new module holds heat better, the single fan is able to move more air at lower, much quieter RPMs. As such, the A9 Max 2026 Edition is able to run at peak power without getting overly hot or loud.

Personally, the original A9 Max never got too loud for me during standard tasks, even with dozens of Chrome tabs open across multiple displays. However, if you plan on pushing this mini PC a lot harder, then this new cooling solution will absolutely make a difference. Before deciding between it and the original, I recommend carefully considering how you’re actually going to be using it on a daily basis.

Geekom A9 Max 2026 Edition: The downs

The A9 Max 2026 Edition is a powerful and full-featured mini PC, but it’s not without its downsides. The upgraded processor and cooling are nice to have, but they’re not a must-have upgrade over the original. At the same time, opening this mini PC up to upgrade it still proves somewhat tedious given how easily its Wi-Fi antenna cables come unattached.

Mind those pesky Wi-Fi antennas

For the most part, opening the A9 Max 2026 Edition up to upgrade its RAM or to add extra storage is fairly easy. After flipping it over, you have to remove the four rubber feet at each corner to reveal standard Phillips screws.

With other Geekom mini PCs you can get right to their components, but with this one, you first have to remove its massive heatsink before doing so. It’s fairly easy to take off as you just have to remove a few more screws, but like with the original A9 Max, there is a catch.

The A9 Max’s Wi-Fi antenna cables are taped onto the heatsink, and when you take it off, it’s very easy for them to come unattached. Unfortunately, they’re installed underneath this mini PC’s M.2 SSD, and reattaching them can be quite tedious to do.

With the heatsink removed, you can see the single stick of 32GB of DDR5 memory and the free M.2 slot next to the SSD. While it’s positioned for a much smaller 2230 SSD, it's easily accessible if you want to quickly drop in a short drive to expand your capacity.

Honestly, Geekom’s mini PCs are pretty easy to open and upgrade, and this new A9 Max is no exception. Just be forewarned that you’ll likely have to put up a bit of a fight to get those Wi-Fi antenna cables reconnected after doing so.

Not quite an A10 Max

With the Geekom A5 2025 Edition I reviewed, it had been two years between when the original released and when the upgraded version came out. With the A9 Max 2026 Edition, though, the original A9 Max came out just last year.

As you might have guessed from earlier in this review, the main reason Geekom decided to put out a new version of this mini PC so quickly was to fix the cooling issues of the original. That aggressive thermal throttling and loud fan noise was a deal-breaker for a lot of people, and fortunately, the A9 Max 2026 Edition fixes all of this with its IceBlast 3.0 cooling. Along the way, you also get a slightly faster processor, which is unfortunately a bit handicapped due to the single-channel RAM configuration Geekom went with this time around.

Don’t get me wrong: the original A9 Max was an excellent mini PC, and so too is this one. However, instead of a slight performance upgrade and improved cooling, I wouldn’t have minded seeing Geekom jump straight to a true "A10 Max." Given higher component costs due to RAMageddon, though, maybe it’s for the best that the company waited to take things to their next logical conclusion.

Geekom A9 Max 2026 Edition: Verdict

The Geekom A9 Max 2026 Edition is a refined version of the original A9 Max, with some slight upgrades under the hood that make a big difference in day-to-day use. It’s quieter, cooler, and faster, but you are paying a bit more compared to what you would have last year. Still, you’re getting an ultra-fast mini PC with desktop-class performance and more ports than you'll find on most full-sized towers.

Now, I wouldn’t recommend upgrading to the 2026 Edition if you already own the original A9 Max. However, if you want a fast mini PC that you’ll be able to use at full power for years to come, it’s definitely worth the higher price tag.

Now that Microsoft Build 2026 is in the rearview, we have a much clearer picture of the future of Windows 11. Agentic AI systems! Smart work ID badges! Always-on personal assistants! The path ahead for Microsoft’s current operating system will clearly feature AI in some form or fashion at every turn. But what about Windows 12?

Though it wasn’t a surprise that Microsoft didn’t announce its next OS during this year's Build keynote, we’d be amazed if work on Windows 12 hasn’t been motoring away in the background for quite some time over in Redmond. As such, we thought now would be an opportune time to speculate on a platform that will likely usher in a new era of AI integration.

Whether dealing with the petaflop power of the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box or the potentially paradigm-shifting Project Solara, AI agents will be run both locally and through the cloud to forge next-level hybrid computing on Windows 12.

But it’s not all about AI with our predictions for an OS we’re expecting in the not-too-distant future. The future of Xbox could also be intrinsically tied to Windows 12. With Xbox Mode continuing to bloom on Windows 11, don’t be surprised if Microsoft commits hard to PC gaming going forward, with more focus on creating a UI that can truly compete with Steam.

Without further ado, let’s get into some Windows 12 predictions, even if it does seem ludicrously early to be making them.

Windows 12 will be all about AI

Forget Copilot. The level of AI integration Windows 12 is going to embrace will be far more impactful than asking a digital assistant what the weather will be in a couple of hours. Microsoft’s new OS will have AI baked into its very core, with agentic systems that exhibit real autonomy handling the jobs you’d previously have done with apps.

This year’s Build made it clear that AI agents are a huge priority for Microsoft. As much as they’re shaping the future of your current OS, the use of agentic systems will likely leap to a new level with Windows 12.

Just take Microsoft Scout. This new Autopilot AI agent acts as an always-on personal agent. Rather than needing to be prompted like Copilot, Scout uses the MAI-Thinking-1 reasoning model to act autonomously. As such, it learns how you work over time, quickly becoming aware of your routines in order to better service your needs on any given day.

By the time Windows 12 launches, Scout and similar agentic systems will have had plenty of time to percolate. When Microsoft’s next OS is out in the wild, we could be looking at a platform where AI runs far deeper than mere surface-level window dressing. The days of manually setting meetings or switching between spreadsheets and emails could be over, as AI agents like Scout take control of your workflow, autonomously handling tasks so that you can fully focus on the most important aspects of your job.

Essentially, Windows 12 is going to be an AI OS, one that could potentially transform the way you work.

Hybrid computing will be central to Windows 12

The era of AI PCs has been around for a while now, yet it looks like Windows 12 could fully realize the potential of AI, in part, by turning the focus more heavily on hybrid computing. In this future of Jaws 19, hoverboards and flying Deloreans, users won’t need to worry about whether tasks are running on their NPU, CPU or GPU. Instead, Windows 12’s AI-influenced OS will autonomously figure out where workloads should be handled.

This isn’t about Microsoft pitting cloud AI and local AI against each other. The future we envisage for Windows 12 is where hybrid workflows are commonplace, with AI agents running locally on the systems like the Spark Dev Box (which we’ll touch on shortly) and through the cloud, too.

Ideally, users won’t even know where tasks are running. Less demanding AI tasks may operate locally, while heavy duty rendering could be split up between hardware and cloud-based infrastructures. If Windows 12 fully embraces the concept of hybrid computing, the end result will hopefully be an OS that balances performance more efficiently, as tasks run discretely across local hardware and the cloud.

AI agents will replace apps

Much of the focus of this year’s Build centered around agentic systems. AI agents aren’t just the future of Windows, they’re the here and now. We’ve already touched on Microsoft Spark being rolled out to Frontier customers, and before too long Project Solara will be upon this.

Built from the ground up on a Microsoft-tailored Android platform, the focus for Solara is on AI agents, not apps. Indeed, Solara seems keen to move away from traditional Windows hardware, instead taking the forms of a smart clock-like device and a work ID badge. The latter has been designed to assist users on the go, and it’s capable of recording notes before using AI to clean up audio that can then be sent to colleagues. It potentially represents a future of computing where you no longer need to be chained to a laptop to get work done.

Microsoft is clearly betting the farm on AI, and it’s entirely possible Windows 12 will be a heavily AI-assisted OS. Unlike past operating systems, AI agents will have far more importance than old-school apps. In this (potentially soon to be realized) future, your day will no longer be taken up by sifting through emails and spreadsheets. Rather, agentic systems will act as personal AI assistants, acting autonomously as they help declutter your workday to help you complete tasks more effortlessly and efficiently.

Windows 12 will light the Spark

There’s a line of thinking that’s easy to buy into following Microsoft's Build keynote: Windows 12 will be a “dev-first” OS. Now, Redmond isn’t suddenly going to forget regular consumers. But looking forward, it’s hard not to see the Big M being more focused on servicing developers' needs than at any other point in its history.

Enter the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box. Initially shipping as a Windows 11 Pro mini PC that’s built around the Nvidia RTX Spark superchip, there’s no question more enhanced versions of this little rig will support Windows 12 in the future. Designed to support locally-based AI development, this is a box that has been built to service agentic workflows that eat up huge compute costs. Thankfully, the numbers suggest the Spark Dev Box will be more than capable of handling such tasks, as this dev-focused mini marvel gives users up to an astonishing 1 petaflop of AI compute and 128GB of unified memory.

Rocking the power of a combined Nvidia Blackwell RTX GPU and Nvidia Grace CPU, the Spark Dev Box can power 120B+ parameter models locally. And that last word really is key. Spark has been designed to service the most demanding local AI tasks, in turn taking the focus away from cloud-based AI pipelines. Spark feels like a test run for what the future of high-end Windows 12 devices will look like: a workstation where the emphasis is on locally supporting AI agents to give developers more control.

Xbox Mode could change the game

Microsoft didn’t shine any light on its gaming endeavors during the dev-focused Build keynote, and that wasn’t a surprise. That doesn’t mean there aren’t big plans for the future of Xbox, particularly with how it ties into Windows 12 going forward.

With Phil Spencer gone, replaced by new Head of Xbox Asha Sharma, don’t be shocked if Microsoft’s gaming division goes through big changes in the next couple of years. We’ve known about Project Helix for ages at this point. And with the next Xbox promising to bridge the gap between consoles and PCs like never before, how Windows 12 handles Microsoft games may look quite different to the way Windows 11 currently deals with Xbox titles.

Xbox Full Screen Mode rolled out on Windows not too long ago, giving gamers an experience that’s more in line with Steam’s Big Picture. As Xbox integration continues to evolve, it would make sense for Microsoft to double down on providing a more console-like OS for next-gen games.

As for what Xbox Mode on Windows 12 could look like, there’s a reasonable chance we could see a gaming-focused app that’s more deeply integrated with Microsoft’s next OS. Imagine a more streamlined platform that you could boot directly into as soon as you fire up your PC. One that uses fewer Windows background processes to provide an experience that’s every bit as seamless as Steam.

It seems clear the future of Xbox is more deeply tied to Windows than ever before. As rumors swirl suggesting Sony could soon stop releasing PS5 games on PC, next-gen Xbox titles could provide the most premium console-like experience on Windows 12.

More from Tom's Guide

• I’m a Windows user — and these are 5 upgrades I want from Windows 12
• The 7 best computers in 2026: tested by experts
• 15 top Windows 11 tips everyone needs to know

The Apple Studio Display is expensive. That shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone familiar with the Silicon Valley giant's products. It's expensive, and some might argue it's worth the premium — and I won't lie, I've always been a little envious of those who own it. Have you seen how good it looks, how great it performs?

But as someone who reviews great tech day in and day out, I've finally found an Apple Studio Display alternative that's expensive but nowhere near as pricey as the first-party monitor. I've spent the last week testing the BenQ MA270S, and boy, I shed a tear when I boxed up our review unit to ship it back.

Unlike most of the other monitors I've tested, the MA270S is a MacBook-first monitor, and it's designed for owners of Apple's powerful laptops. Its design, interface, selection of ports, and companion app are all very Apple-esque. It packs a bright and vivid 5K Nano-texture glass panel that's a joy to look at. As a MacBook user, this is the monitor of my dreams, and here's why it's worth buying if you can't get the Apple Studio Display.

Nano Gloss for the win

I've used and reviewed my fair share of the best monitors, and one of the reasons why the BenQ MA270S is the perfect display for MacBook users is that it features a Nano-texture glass display — or Nano Gloss. It's the same glass you'll find on the Apple Studio Display and the Apple Studio Display XDR. This panel delivers true blacks and refined highlights, and it's one of the reasons why the colors appear Mac-like.

The MA270S' Nano Gloss panel is designed to diffuse the light source softly, making it more comfortable to look at. The surface diffuses the light so it looks like it has a velvety finish. What's great about the MA270S is that its panel features flicker-free technology, and it has received the industry's stamp of approval. Eye Comfort 3.0 certification from TÜV Rheinland and EyeSafe 2.0 mean that the monitor is designed to reduce visual fatigue and protect eye health.

As someone who spends up to eight hours a day, five days a week, staring at a screen, using a monitor that doesn't hurt my eyes or make them feel achy is a necessity for me. Now that I've used a Nano Gloss screen, I don't know how I'm going to go back to my work-sanctioned monitor.

Mac-like, true-to-life colors

Alongside the Nano-texture glass that protects your eyes during prolonged use, the BenQ MA270S boasts Mac-like colors, as the monitor has been fine-tuned for this. This makes it a class apart from all of the other screens I've tested. BenQ says that its Nano Gloss panel goes toe-to-toe with the Apple Studio Display.

According to BenQ, in side-by-side tests, "color tone and saturation were remarkably close," and it "maintained contrast and color that stayed consistent with Mac colors, ensuring accuracy whether working flexibly or sharing the screen." When I plugged my MacBook into the MA270S, I immediately noticed the colors looked just like on my work-sanctioned MacBook Air M2, so I was looking forward to seeing how the monitor performed in my lab tests.

And lo and behold, the MA270S performed formidably. I measured the color coverage and accuracy, and imagine my surprise when the MA270S upstaged the Apple Studio Display and the very expensive Apple Studio Display XDR. Have a look at the table below. As you can see, in my lab tests, the MA270S covered 158.7% of the sRGB color space and 112.4% of the wider DCI P3 gamut, blowing both Apple displays out of the water.

As for color accuracy? Also better than both Apple displays, as the MA270S achieved a Delta-E score of 0.09. This goes to show that the color relayed on the monitor is extremely close to the output from the source. The closer the Delta-E score to zero, the better, and the MA270S's 0.09 score is quite a bit better than the Apple Studio Display's and the Apple Studio Display XDR's (0.2 each).

Throw 10-bit color into the mix, and you've got a beast for productivity and creative work. The colors I saw on the MA270S appeared bright, vivid, and nothing short of stunning, and I felt fully immersed in whatever activity I was doing — whether that was going about my daily task or watching 4K wildlife compilations on YouTube.

I even edited some photos to share on my Instagram account, and knowing that the colors I was seeing on the monitor were as accurate as they could be gave me a lot of confidence in post-production.

Ports for days

For power users and those who have many, many devices they like hooking up to their monitors, the BenQ MA270S sports a wide array of ports. Ready to find out what they are? Let me take a deep breath in. Okay. Here we go:

• A power port (obviously)
• Two HDMI 2.1 ports
• One Thunderbolt 4 port with 96W power delivery
• A second Thunderbolt 4 port with 15W power delivery
• And another Thunderbolt 4 port for daisy-chaining
• Two USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 downstream ports with 10Gbps transfer speeds and 7.5W power delivery
• One USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 downstream port also with 10Gbps transfer speeds and 15W power delivery
• And a USB-C DisplayPort Alt Mode port with 35W power delivery

Phew! Give me a second to catch my breath. Okay, I'm back now. Having that many ports at your disposal means you don't need to worry about hooking up any additional USB hubs or docks. Cable management is a breeze, too, as BenQ happily includes a cable holder that can be clipped around the monitor's stand.

For MacBook users, I really can't think of a better monitor. Well, there's the Apple Studio Display, yes, but not everyone has $1,600 just lying around. If you're happy to fork over $999 at B&H Photo / £884 at Amazon U.K., the MA270S is a no-brainer. It's stunning to look at and use; it features more ports than you might have use for, and its color coverage and accuracy easily outdo Apple's first-party displays.

What do you think? Would you buy the MA270S? Or is there another MacBook-first monitor you use? Let me know in the comments below! And check out my full BenQ MA270S review for all the details.

More from Tom's Guide

• Forget Apple Studio Display — I just tested the BenQ MA270S and its Nano-texture glass display is ‘one of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen’
• BenQ Creative Pro PD2730S review: The endgame of productivity monitors
• Best monitors in 2026

A week ago, I wrote about how much I loved the Epomaker Glyph, a typewriter-style mechanical keyboard that's nothing short of a dream. Tom's Guide readers seemed to enjoy the article, and they complimented the Glyph's style, but there was a sticking point for them: the lack of a number pad.

"Personally, I would never buy it — no numeric keypad is a total deal breaker," and "No keypad = dealbreaker," stuck out to me. Personally, I've never really found much use for a number pad, which is why I prefer 75% TKL keyboards. But I know not everyone feels that way, and that not having a numpad can be an issue for many.

As someone who has tested nearly 100 keyboards so far, I've reviewed keyboards of all shapes and sizes, including ones with number pads. So, here I am, hoping you'll find this listicle helpful if you're looking for a 100% or nearly full-size keyboard with a number pad. I've handpicked my top picks for your benefit. Whether you're looking for the best mechanical keyboard or a Hall Effect one with a numpad, I've got you covered.

Are there any keyboards you love that I haven't included in the list? Let me know in the comments below!

Quick links

• Keychron B6 Pro: $44 / £44
• Epomaker TH99: was $82 now $69 / £82
• Keychron V6 8K wired: $84 / £89
• Keychron K10 V2: $94 / £99
• NuPhy Node100: $109
• NuPhy Air96 V2: was $129 now $116 / £133
• Keychron K4 HE: $144 / £144
• McHose UT98: $155
• Cherry XTRFY MX 10.1 Wireless: $249 / £174

My top picks for keyboards with numpads

More from Tom's Guide

• I've tested nearly 100 keyboards and finally found my dream deck — here’s why the Epomaker Glyph is my new favorite
• I’m sick of pretending Hall Effect keyboards are the be-all end-all — here’s why I’d still pick a mechanical deck in 2026
• Best mechanical keyboards in 2026

Is the Kindle Colorsoft 2026 good enough to be one of the best e-readers? Yes, definitely. This is the King of e-readers — and it knows it. With a bright, 7-inch display (1 inch bigger than its nearest rival, the Kobo Clara Color) and up to 8 weeks of battery, the Kindle Colorsoft 2026 is here to stay.

But because it’s the King of e-readers, it’s priced like it. The Kindle Colorsoft 2026 is $90 pricier than the closest Kobo alternative, an increase of 56%, and I’m… not really sure why. Yes, the Kindle library is bigger than Kobo’s, and Kindle Unlimited is better than Kobo’s, but does that justify a price increase of 56%? The initial $250+ cost might put off newcomers.

The Kindle Colorsoft 2026 is a fantastic e-reader, though — just an expensive one. I thoroughly enjoyed my time testing this device. It’s easy to use, lovely to look at, and has bright color for comic books. Want to find out more? Keep reading this Kindle Colorsoft 2026 review.

All images showing e-books have been blurred for copyright. Screen is sharp and detailed in real life.

Kindle Colorsoft 2026 review: Specs

Kindle Colorsoft 2026 review: Price & availability

There are two models of the Kindle Colorsoft 2026: 16GB and 32GB. I tested the 16GB model, which can hold almost 6,000 books (depending on length, images, and the like). The 16GB model is $249 from Amazon U.S. and £239 from Amazon U.K.. The 32GB model is an extra $30/£30, making it $279 in the U.S. and £269 in the U.K..

Kindle also makes the Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition, which is not this product. If you want the Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition, that’s $279 from Amazon U.S. (yes, the same price, annoyingly). The Signature has automatic brightness adjustment and wireless charging.

I recently tested the Kobo Clara Colour, which is $159/£169. Honestly, if you want a great e-reader for as little money as possible, I’d go for the Kobo. Of course, the library isn’t as large — the Kindle Store has a near-incomprehensible 15 million titles, and a much wider self-published selection — but I’ve been able to find every book on my TBR on the Kobo store.

The Kindle Colorsoft Gen 1, 2024, launched at $279/£269, so no price increase there, which I like to see.

Kindle Colorsoft 2026 review: The ups

There are so many things to like about the Kindle Colorsoft 2026, including its speed, screen, and library size.

Processor go Brr!

The Kindle Colorsoft is faster than the Kobo Clara Colour. Not by much — it’s more “blink and you miss it” than countable seconds — but every little helps, right? When I turned both e-readers on at the same time, the Kindle displayed the reading material a touch faster than the Kobo.

Kindle store is a modern-day Library of Alexandria

As much as I loved testing the Kobo — and I think it works much harder than the Kindle — the Kobo store is nowhere near as large as Amazon’s. The Kobo store is still fantastic, don’t get me wrong, with millions of books available for purchase, and a Kobo Unlimited subscription too.

However, it just can’t compete with Kindle’s whopping 15-million-plus titles. This is an incomprehensible number. I couldn’t even imagine 15 million plotlines if I spent the rest of eternity locked in a dark room.

But Kindle has everything, including obscure self-published books penned by Susan who lives down the street. If you’re the kind of reader who absorbs books like they’re going out of fashion, then you might be better off with the Kindle.

With my purchase, I also got 3 months free of Kindle Unlimited and 1 month free of Audible, which is great and something other e-reader brands simply can’t compete with.

Kindle Unlimited is better than Kobo Plus

I’ve tried Kobo Plus and Kindle Unlimited, and what they say is true: Kindle offers a wider range of books, both big-name authors and midlist novels alike. Unlike Kobo’s library, KU isn’t just self-published/thriller type books. You’ve got huge names, like Holly Black, Colleen Hoover, Freida McFadden, and more. Kobo Plus just doesn’t have this range.

Kindle Unlimited is $11.99 for literally unlimited books, magazines, and audio, whereas Kobo Plus is $7.99/$9.99 (for books and audio).

Night mode for those tired eyes

Just like the Kobo Clara Colour, the Kindle Colorsoft 2026 has a warm filter. Although any electronic light source can interrupt sleep, research has shown that front-lit e-ink screens with warm filters interfere less than blue light devices (like phones).

You can access the display settings easily by scrolling down on the left margin, much like the Kobo Clara Colour.

Although I don’t have any scientific, quantitative data detailing my improved sleep quality, I can report that my sleep was no more interrupted than normal after reading before bed. I read before bed every single night, e-reader or paper, and didn’t notice any difference.

Direct sunlight? No problem

As the Kindle Colorsoft uses a front-lit e-ink screen, which means the screen is lit from the front rather than the back, it is visible even in direct sunlight. As you can see from the photos throughout this review, the screen looks vibrant under strong sun.

This performance is identical to the Kobo Clara Colour, both of which offer natural, e-ink screens with fantastic visibility.

IPX8 rating for bathtub adventures

Like the Kobo Clara Colour, the Kindle Colorsoft 2026 is IPX8 rated. In real terms, this means it will survive if you accidentally leave it on the hood of your car before going through the car wash. Or something less ridiculous, like accidental dips in the bathtub.

Kindle Colorsoft 2026 review: The downs

Although there’s lots to love about the Kindle Colorsoft 2026, it’s not perfect. It isn't as customizable rivals, and it's much pricier, too.

Not as customizable as Kobo

One of my favorite aspects of the Kobo Clara Colour is that you can change the screen layout. You can also do this on the Kindle, but it’s more restrictive. On the Kindle, you can change orientation and font size, margins, and text alignment, but on Kobo, you can customize the actual layout of the menus.

On Kobo, you can change the ‘home’ button (the area of the screen you tap to bring up the main menu) depending on your preferences. By default, it’s set to: center tap brings up the menu, and then you turn the page forward or back by tapping the edge of the screen. I set mine so I have to click on the bottom of the screen to bring up the menu and 75% of the screen turns to the next page. I think this feels more natural because I’m left-handed and naturally tap to turn the page on the left side of the screen (don’t ask).

On Kindle, you can’t actually do this at all. You’re stuck with tapping on the top of the screen to bring up the menu, and 50% of the screen turns the page in its corresponding direction.

If there is a way to adjust this on Kindle, it’s not in the ‘Settings’ tab or in any of the device options menus, which is a con in and of itself.

Much more expensive than Kobo

Now, this is the biggest con there is. In our current, seemingly endless cost of living crisis, you need to save every penny you can get — or at least, I do.

The Kindle Colorsoft 2026 starts from $249, which is $90 more expensive than the Kobo Clara Colour. I don’t think the benefits justify the price increase.

The Kindle grants you access to Amazon’s huge library, which is a pro, and… that’s it? The other great features (front light, IPX8 rating, color, e-ink screen, long battery life, night mode) are all present on the Kobo. I totally recommend the Kindle, don’t get me wrong, but if you’re serious about saving every dollar you can, then I’d go for the Kobo.

Kindle Colorsoft 2026 review: Verdict

I really enjoyed testing the Kindle Colorsoft 2026. It’s got everything you’d want in an e-reader: a frontlit e-ink screen visible even in direct sunlight, and has night mode for those tired eyes. The battery life matches the Kobo Clara Colour — “up to” 8 weeks, but mine’s at 37% as we speak because I’m always using it — and the IPX8 rating means it’ll survive a dunk in the tub.

The only thing holding it back is the price. $249 is $90 more than Kobo’s competitor, which is an increase of 56%. Sure, the Kindle has a larger screen, but it’s not noticeably brighter. You can make the text on the Kobo as large as you want. The only main thing is the Kindle has a larger library, but whether or not this is a dealbreaker is something only you can decide.

At the end of the day, the new Kindle Colorsoft 2026 is a great e-reader, and I don’t think you’ll be disappointed by it at all. I thoroughly enjoyed reading on this device.

Back in May, Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed that the company was having to deal with "significantly higher memory costs" that likely meant price hikes would be happening in the near future. Now, speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Cook has confirmed that those price hikes are going to happen.

"Unfortunately, price increases are unavoidable,” Cook said to the WSJ. “We’re doing our best to mitigate the huge increases that are being passed to us, and we’ve been trying to shield our customers from the increases, but the situation has become unsustainable.”

Cook also confirmed that memory and storage costs are issues for Apple at the moment, particularly the DRAM which is being increasingly used by AI servers. “There’s less supply at a time when consumers want devices and the memory guys are passing along huge price increases,” he said “We definitely need memory pricing and supply to return to reasonable levels for consumer products. That’s the bottom line.”

Cook didn't offer any specifics about future price increases, though. So we have no idea when they might happen, which devices will be affected, or how much more money Apple will ask people to pay.

Apple price hikes — what we know

We've already seen at least one relative price increase, with Apple scrapping the $599 Mac mini M4 with 256GB of storage. That means the cheapest Mac mini you can currently buy is the $799 model with 512GB of storage space.

It's possible that price hikes could happen as early as this September, with the release of the iPhone 18 Pro and foldable iPhone Ultra. The iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max are both expected to come with at least 12GB of RAM, and with the cost of RAM skyrocketing, it wouldn't be surprising to see the current prices rise to compensate.

There have been rumors that the standard iPhone 18 could limit the amount of RAM to help cut costs, but I don't see that happening with the Pro models. Apple has already confirmed that 12GB of memory is required to access all the newest Siri AI and Apple Intelligence features, and it would be a very bad look if the newest Pro-tier iPhones weren't able to access them all.

Cook confirmed that Apple is prepared to use its cash reserves to help boost the supply of memory, and noted that more capacity is needed — even if it means potentially loosening restrictions about Chinese RAM providers. However, Cook also confirmed that it wouldn't be building its own production facilities to mitigate the damage caused by RAMageddon. “We can’t do everything,” said Cook. “We know what we’re good at.”

Apple used to have a lot of purchasing power, which it utilized to leverage cheaper prices for the many components it needs. If it's feeling the squeeze of the memory shortages, then things must be pretty bad. Apple may not be willing to confirm when price hikes will happen, but it's important that we all prepare ourselves to have to pay even more for our fruit-themed devices.

More from Tom's Guide

• I just tested the phone everybody thinks is a preview of the iPhone Fold — God, I hope they’re wrong
• The 3 new iOS 27 AI tools that will instantly save your ruined photos
• iPhone 20 may come with two different screen sizes — and launch alongside iPhone Ultra 2

Augmented World Expo (AWE) has evolved rapidly into one of the biggest shows for seeing the future of virtual reality, smart glasses and spatial computing. This year's edition gave us some truly showstopping news with earth-shaking announcements from Snap, Qualcomm and many more.

It really feels like we're getting to the point where the lines of VR headset and smart glasses are starting to blur into one device that gives you all the performance of a big set of goggles — crammed into something the size of specs.

And while there were some key headline announcements, that key DNA of small innovations that will change the face of spatial computing in the future remained strong underneath. We were able to go hands-and face-on with several products here, and now it's time to pick the cream of the crop. Here are our picks for best of AWE 2026.

Best of show: Snap Specs

Snap's iPhone moment is here. The Snap Specs are official, and they're far beyond any other standalone glasses you've seen in terms of capability. This is what happens when you combine the tech of the best VR headsets with the portability of the best smart glasses.

The end result is more than just a technologically advanced set of frames, but rather a new paradigm in computing — moving it away from being a tool that takes you out of the world to a form that gets out of the way. They're a bit chunky, but the design around this hefty tech makes them look kinda stylish!

They've worked with developers for years with prototype hardware, and with over 5 million lenses ready to use from measuring things in free space to augmented guides on complex real-world tasks like fixing a car, and much more.

Will Specs stick the landing? That's the ultimate question of these $2,195/£1,995 glasses. That's a high price to pay — making them much more targeted towards the early adopters in this space. Time will tell what happens in the future of these glasses, but we did genuinely just witness a breakthrough moment in AR.

Jason England

Best chip: Snapdragon Reality Elite

Snapdragon Reality Elite is the high-end follow-up to the XR Gen 2 that powers the Galaxy XR headset. It comes with upgrades in performance and efficiency, powering the Xreal Aura compute puck.

In several eyes-on demos with the Xreal Aura, I've been impressed with the performance of the glasses and the processor. The glasses are responsive and quick, and I'm not saying it's the only thing that enables the Auras to connect to the Switch 2, but we played latency-free Breath of the Wild and the chip certainly helped make that happen.

This chip does what Qualcomm claims by bringing "spatial computing into the AI era." Snapdragon Reality Elite blurs the line AR glasses and VR headsets with hardware that makes spatial computing useful; now it's up to the software to catch up.

Scott Younker

Best AR glasses: Xreal Aura

The Samsung Galaxy XR is a good mixed reality headset, but for all the Android XR and Gemini features it has, they feel a little limited in the isolation of a chunky VR set you use at home.

Enter Xreal's Aura, and turns out a pair of AR glasses is the answer to a lot of this. Moving to optical see-through (OST - basically seeing the real world through lenses rather than a display) creates a real nice augmented layer with what you see in Android XR.

That compute puck packs Snapdragon Reality Elite to keep all your experiences running buttery smooth, and apps that were just fine on a VR headset become great on here, like the tabletop game Demeo for example!

Throw in a massive 70-degree field of view, and you've got another eal step towards squashing VR tech into glasses.

Jason England

Best AR Accessory: KiWear 2nd Gen smart ring

Kiwear's smart ring might just be the way we control smart glasses in the future. The ring utilizes intuitive gestures on your finger to navigate menus, open apps and even control the volume by twirling your finger in a circle.

We saw an early iteration at AWE 2025, but the version I tried this year was even better.

The second-generation version adds "whisper controls" which allow you to talk into the ring to prompt an AI assistant. This can be used for prompts or AI programs. In one example, we were able to ask about AWE using an on-device model

The ring doesn't come with health sensors like an Oura or Galaxy Ring, but maybe it doesn't need it when what you're really doing is using it as a controller for your other devices.

Scott Younker

Best VR accessory: bHaptics TactGlove

I've been impressed by the immersive bHaptics VR haptic vest and gloves in the past, and they didn't disappoint this year. The updates were minor: new motors in the palm of the glove and a redesigned VCM wrist motor, but all three proved to make demos a more interesting experience.

The two palm motors make it feel like actually holding things in your hand versus gripping with your fingers. Meanwhile, the redesigned wrist motor helps give some weight to lifting objects, especially in demos where the items were supposed to have different measurements, like a wooden block versus a metal one or a dumbbell compared to a drill.

Scott Younker

Best innovation: Lumus Waveguide display lenses

An obviously important part of smart glasses are the lenses you see through especially now that displays are being integrated into AI glasses and not just AR spectacles.

Lumus, which makes the lenses for the Meta Ray Ban Display glasses is interesting because the company builds lenses that utilize mirrors to refract the light for the images. I was told by David Goldman, Lumus's VP of marketing, that this enables the lens to be thinner, lighter and enables direct bonding of perscription layers as needed.

It makes for impressive tech when normal seeming glasses can display information and down the line even pictures and video at high resolution with decent color.

Scott Younker

Best budget AR glasses: X By Xreal a01

I've got a confession to make. While the X By Xreal a01 glasses are indeed being showcased right here at AWE, I've already had a pair for a while now — having flown around the world with them!

So this is equal parts an award pick and a small set of impressions on my time with them. And in short, they get rid of many things a lot of regular folks don't care about (3DoF tracking, electrochromic lenses), and focus on the fundamental experience most of us actually use them for: watching stuff and playing games on a private cinema display.

And the end result is a solid pair of $299 AR glasses — the picture is bright and colorful, and while there isn't any image tracking whatsoever, smooth follow does keep things far less jittery.

Jason England

More from Tom's Guide

• I’ve worn smart glasses for over 5 years — here’s the best AR and AI glasses in 2026
• Tested: Xreal Aura DOES work with Nintendo Switch over USB-C — they won’t tell me how they did it, but I think Snapdragon Reality Elite and Android XR is the way
• I just tested the phone everybody thinks is a preview of the iPhone Fold — God, I hope they’re wrong

Snap finally revealed a new version of its intriguing Specs AR glasses this week during AWE 2026, but kept many things from the actual release date — "expected" this fall — and the type of chips in the device to itself.

CEO Evan Spiegel called the new glasses "the beginning of a new era in computing." But what's powering this new era?

The Snap Specs are powered by two Snapdragon processors that do all the computing. One of them powers the display and visualizations while the other is responsible for the computing power.

However, Snap refused to disclose which Snapdragon chips are in the glasses. While at AWE, I asked both a Snap engineer and one of their spokespeople. Each reiterated that the Specs use Snapdragon chips.

But which one?

More information was promised closer to the actual release of the glasses "this fall."

Qualcomm, which makes the Snapdragon chips, had a presence at AWE, and I was able to ask VP of XR Ziad Asghar which of its chips were being used in the glasses. He demurred but did say that the processors are part of the company's AR family of products.

Notably, while the just-announced Snapdragon Reality Elite chip is technically the third generation of Qualcomm's XR lineup, it won't be featured in the Specs. Asghar said that the Reality Elite is for higher-end MR products like Samsung's Galaxy XR headset and the Xreal Project Aura glasses, which do feature the new SoC. Specs, apparently, are not considered part of that lineup.

"The device that Snap has is actually super exciting," Asghar told me, "I would say it's a different category of device."

But will Specs already be behind the eight-ball when it comes to processing power when they launch?

Which chip could it be?

All previous, chunkier versions of the Snap Specs have been powered by tandem Snapdragons, and given Ziad specifically said "AR Family," I'm thinking it may be the Snapdragon AR1 Gen 1 (or some modified version of it), which was announced at AWE 2025. In fact, several devices utilize the AR chip, including the Meta Quest 3S, Rokid Glasses, and RayNeo X3 Pro glasses.

Unlike Qualcomm's mobile processors, which see upgrades on an annual basis, the AR and XR lineup has been slower to update.

The Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2, used in the Samsung Galaxy XR, for example, was announced in 2024. It's now being replaced by the Reality Elite, which will likely find its way into the next Galaxy XR headset.

I was told that the previous versions of Specs use an "older solution," the AR chip. Presumably that means the new Specs utilize a newer chip. However, Qualcomm hasn't announced any other XR or AR chips recently beyond the AR+ and Reality Elite.

Snap would not confirm if Specs have a customized chipset, and Qualcomm deferred to Snap regarding announcing which silicon it uses.

Right now, the assumption is that Snap is using a customized version of the AR+1 Gen 1 chipset or possibly a new generation of it, though I doubt that since Qualcomm would want to announce those chips, especially considering all of its "collaborator" companies that would use said SoC.

Still, it's possible Qualcomm could reveal a new AR chip in September or October, when it holds its annual Snapdragon Summit where we typically see the new mobile SoCs such as the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 announced.

For now, Snap has left us with more questions than answers, except the Vision Pro-esque pricing, that we do know.

More from Tom's Guide

• Best of AWE 2026: The top gadgets that show us the future of XR
• Here's what the Snap Specs look like, as modelled by Jack Harlow, Imogen Heap and more
• Tested: Xreal Aura DOES work with Nintendo Switch over USB-C — they won’t tell me how they did it, but I think Snapdragon Reality Elite and Android XR is the way

Even though you should always download new apps from official sources like the Google Play Store, some Android users still end up getting tricked into downloading them from websites which can be extremely dangerous. Case in point, a new Android banking trojan is currently making the rounds online that’s distributed via fake apps from malicious websites.

As reported by BleepingComputer, once installed on vulnerable Android phones, the banking trojan in question is capable of targeting over 200 banking and financial apps to drain accounts and steal crypto. Unsurprisingly, it does so by impersonating Google Chrome and TikTok as both apps are extremely popular.

The trojan installs the new Rokarolla malware which also steals lock screen credentials, your contacts, SMS data and even uses keyloggers to record everything you type into your phone.

Here’s everything you need to know about this new Android banking trojan and how you can keep your bank account safe from the cybercriminals using it in their attacks.

Masquerading as Google Play Protect

Although you should never sideload Android apps unless you absolutely have to, many people still do despite the risk. The hackers behind this campaign use fake websites to trick unsuspecting users into installing Chrome or TikTok unofficially instead of downloading these apps directly from the Google Play Store like they should.

According to a new report from the cybersecurity firm Zimperium, after downloading either app though, the hackers use an interesting trick to give potential victims the illusion of safety. For those unfamiliar, Google’s built-in security app Google Play Protect checks any new software you download for viruses. However, in this case, a fake Play Protect pop-up appears before the Rockarolla malware is actually downloaded. Given the fact that the pop-up perfectly impersonates a Play Protect warning, most users wouldn’t think twice before proceeding with this secondary download.

At this point, the damage is done and the Rockarolla malware gets to work. In total, it’s able to spoof 217 different banking and financial apps to steal your credentials. It does so by using overlays that mimic each individual app. While to the end user it appears as if they’re just logging into their online bank account, they’re actually handing over their username and password to hackers.

Another interesting trick up Rockarolla’s sleeve is that it can steal SMS notifications from your online bank as well as intercept any calls trying to warn you that something is amiss. This way, you won’t get a fraud alert and the hackers can proceed to empty your accounts one by one.

While Google continues to improve Android’s security, if you don’t download apps the right way, you too could easily end up falling victim to this and other malware.

How to stay safe from Android banking trojans

I can’t stress this enough, unless you really know what you’re doing, you should avoid sideloading apps. Sure, malicious apps do manage to sneak past Google’s defenses from time to time but for the most part, if you download new apps from the Play Store, you should be safe. The same goes for other official Android app stores like the Samsung Galaxy Store too.

From there, you want to make sure that Google Play Protect is installed and enabled on your smartphone. It’s enabled by default on all of the best Android phones but it’s always a good idea to check to make sure. For extra protection though, you can also use one of the best Android antivirus apps alongside it. You have to pay for many of them but they typically add other useful features like a VPN or password manager to help keep you safe online.

Despite constant warnings, people keep installing apps from websites instead of official stores. As long as this keeps happening, hackers are going to use it to their advantage. However, if you install new apps the way you’re supposed to, you can avoid falling victim to Rockrolla and other banking trojans like it.

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• Popular Steam wallpaper app hijacked to spread dangerous malware — how to stay safe
• Update your Nvidia GPU drivers now to protect your PC from 9 "high-severity" vulnerabilities — here's what's at risk
• I just got hit by the Ultrahuman data breach — here's what hackers stole from my account

Facebook users started seeing more problems today, June 18, less than a week after users were unable to log into the social network.

Reports started to spike on DownDetector at 6:30 am ET / 11:20 am BST with over 1,000 users reporting problems. According to the reports, 80% of affected users claimed there was an issue the Facebook app loading.

Earlier this week, Facebook's parent company Meta experienced issues for around four hours that also impacted other services like Instagram and WhatsApp. Today's problems lasted little more than a couple of hours and seemed to affect primarily Android users. It could have been due to an update to Facebook's Android app that was released yesterday.

Here's how our coverage of the reports unfolded:

Full recap

Reports surge past 1,000 on DownDetector

Our clearest picture that there's some trouble at Facebook comes from the website DownDetector, which has suddenly shown a spike of over 1,000 users reporting trouble with the social network. Less than a week ago, similar problems hit Facebook for over four hours.

New York, Chicago and Dallas

Most of the reports of Facebook's troubles on DownDetector appear to be coming from three main cities: New York, Chicago and Dallas. If you're based in one of those regions and are having trouble accessing your Facebook profile right now — let us know!

Meta isn't reporting anything, yet

Meta doesn't have a status page for its consumer products, so we can't see if there's anything officially amiss, but it does run an equivalent for its business products. As we can see at the time of writing, there are no reported problems there.

So, if people are experiencing issues this morning, it may be a more localized problem and one that hasn't touched Meta's central nervous system yet. We'll keep circling back to this page and let you know if there are any updates.

Instagram and WhatsApp unaffected

While we're seeing reports spike across Facebook, there seemingly aren't any issues with Meta's other services at present. Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Threads all appear to be working normally.

Facebook failing to load?

When issues started to occur for Facebook earlier in the week, users trying to access the app were bumped right out to the login screen of the app. This affected the app both on Android and iOS.

I'm based in London in the U.K. and — for me at least — the app appears to be working as normal. If you're seeing something different, let me know in the comments.

Reports are starting to slip

This could be little more than a blip for just a few folks. The reports on DownDetector — while still north of 1,000 — are starting to slip. Sometimes this can indicate the issues were only very temporary.

They could be a result of a small update or configuration change that's been pushed through by Meta that's caused a hiccup in servers along the network.

It could be an Android issue

Android users may be feeling today's Facebook problems more than iPhone users. One commentator on DownDetector says that the issue is persisting on their Samsung Galaxy Note 20.

If that's the case then it could be that the problems being reported today are specific to one particular app version rather than anything more widespread.

Reports falling, but users report problems on X

Reports are continuing to decrease sharply on DownDetector right now — falling down to below 800. Usually, if there are prolonged issues we would expect to see another small spike occurring right now but that hasn't happened.

Users are still reporting problems with the service over on X/Twitter. But this looks very much like it could just be a flash in the pan.

Are you having problems with Facebook this morning?

A problem we're seeing reported is that users are able to log into the Facebook mobile app for a few seconds before it then bounces them back out again to the login screen.

It seems like reports are starting to subside, so this might not be an ongoing problem but if you're experiencing an outage on Facebook today, let us know in the poll below. We'll continue to monitor the situation as it unfolds.

How to clear your Facebook cache

If these recent problems with Facebook have got you concerned about how the app is running, one thing you can do to juice up the performance is clear your cache.

Providing you can access Facebook's app, you'll need to tap Menu > Settings & Privacy > Settings. Then, under the Preferences section, tap Browser, then select Clear next to Cookies and Cache.

Less than 500 DownDetector users now reporting problems

Reports on DownDetector have now sunk to below 500 reports and there's been no official statement from Meta on any problems with its app.

A quick glance at the Play Store shows the Facebook Android app was given an update yesterday, June 17, so it's highly likely that it has caused some teething problems with Android users. Especially if those users own older devices. For the vast majority of Facebook users, it appears that the social network is operating as normal today.

Calling time on today's outage

We can call time on today's outage as reports have dwindled to under 100 on DownDetector, and the comments on social media have dried up. Unlike the outage earlier in the week, this one was just a blip. We can all rest comfortably now that Facebook is back up and running — thanks for reading along, everyone.

If accidentally downloading malicious apps and getting your computer infected with viruses wasn’t enough, these days, you can’t even trust your own eyes and ears thanks to deepfakes.

Just a few years ago, you only had to look out for phishing emails, fake websites and dodgy attachments from unknown senders. Now though, thanks to AI, you can just as easily be fooled by a very convincing fake image or video.

Fortunately, in the same way that cybercriminals are now using AI in their attacks, so too are cybersecurity firms. While Norton and the rest of the companies behind the best antivirus software use cloud-based AI to better analyze and detect new threats, this isn’t your only option when it comes to staying safe online.

You can also do so yourself locally but you will need a computer with its own neural processing unit or NPU. Thankfully, the best AI laptops with chips from Intel, AMD, Qualcomm and even Apple have you covered. However, when I bought my trusty ThinkPad a few years ago, this wasn’t an option yet.

After trying out Norton’s Deepfake Protection for myself though, I’ve become an NPU believer. While laptop makers tried to sell us on AI-powered features like portrait lighting, auto-framing and live captions, as it turns out, set–and-forget online security was what finally convinced me in the end.

No more second guessing

In the past, you always had to be careful when checking your inbox or navigating to unfamiliar sites. With the rise of deepfakes though, online scams can appear where you’d least expect them like on a job interview or even a video call with a loved one.

For instance, let’s say you’re looking for a new remote job and make it to the interview stage. You hop on Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams and expect the other attendees to be actual people, right? Well with deepfake videos becoming more advanced every day, they might not be.

Alternatively, maybe an urgent video or audio clip arrives in your messages from a loved one who’s in trouble. The message may look and sound just like them but the whole thing could actually be fake and an attempt to con you out of your hard-earned cash.

AI-powered scams are here to stay but if you use Norton’s Deepfake Protection, they’ll get flagged before they can do any real damage just like how its antivirus detects and prevents you from interacting with malware. From giveaway scams to crypto fraud, this feature runs locally on your device to analyze and detect synthetic voices so you don’t have to keep guessing whether or not something is real.

While I know most of us believe we’re tech-savvy enough to spot these kinds of things, that isn’t always the case. And all it takes is one slip up to end up in a very bad situation. Likewise, for those of us with older parents or relatives, we can rest easy knowing we won’t get a frantic phone call in the middle of the day as they’ll be protected.

Just like with deepfakes themselves, I had to experience this new feature for myself, so I installed Norton 360 on my laptop, toggled Deepfake Protection on and took it for a spin.

Deepfake protection (at a cost)

With Norton 360 installed on my laptop, I headed to the Scam Protection tab where in addition to Deepfake Protection, you can also enable Safe Web to keep you protected from risky websites and other online scams as well as Safe SMS which uses AI to flag scam text messages.

In Deepfake Protection’s settings, you can toggle on an auto-scan feature and another one that notifies you when AI-generated voices are being used on a site you’re visiting or in a video you’re watching. It’s all fairly simple and there aren’t too many settings to configure which makes it easy to set up regardless of how skilled you are on a computer.

In my case though, there was just one catch. Since I don’t have an AI laptop, Norton’s Deepfake Protection does require more system resources. Thankfully, my ThinkPad was powerful enough that I could just enable it right from within Norton 360. However, if you’re using an older laptop with fewer than six CPU cores and less than 8GB of RAM, you will need to manually install it but Norton walks you through the process in this support article.

While Deepfake Protection works automatically in the background, you can also manually enable it too. On the right side, there’s a Start button and clicking on it analyzes the audio or video playing in any app. This could be particularly useful if you’re on a video call in an app as opposed to through your browser.

Although I like the simplicity of Norton’s Deepfake Protection, I was a bit let down that I couldn’t manually select files for local analysis. I get that the feature runs in the background but it would be nice to be able to drag and drop pictures or videos saved on your computer — perhaps from a messaging service like WhatsApp — to have them analyzed just to be sure.

Finally sold on an NPU

During my testing, I didn’t see much of a performance hit on my ThinkPad. However, that doesn’t mean that over time, running Norton’s Deepfake Protection on a non-AI laptop won’t affect your workflow. If you’re trying to do something intensive like render video, you’re going to need all of your laptop’s processing power and something like this running in the background could slow things down.

While you can run Norton’s Deepfake Protection on older laptops, this feature and the added peace of mind it brings is what finally convinced me that paying a bit more for a computer with an NPU in its processor is absolutely worth it.

When AI laptops first hit store shelves, they were a harder sell as the features offered at the time just weren’t useful enough to justify the higher prices of these new devices. Now though, you can put that extra bit of silicon to much better use by having it proactively keep you safe from deepfakes and other online scams in the background.

Years ago when I first started covering antivirus software, its performance impact was a critical factor that couldn’t be overlooked. While this is still true today and we continue to see how running scans can affect performance, NPUs have changed things significantly. I never thought deepfakes would sell me on NPUs, here we are.

As for Norton’s Deepfake Protection, I expect it will only get better over time just as the effectiveness of its antivirus has. Sure, cybersecurity will always be a game of cat and mouse but with an NPU inside your laptop, at least you can fight that fight locally instead of over the cloud.

More from Tom's Guide

• I tried 3 AI-powered scam detectors to help keep me safe online — and there's a clear winner
• Popular Steam wallpaper app hijacked to spread dangerous malware — how to stay safe
• I found a phishing email in my inbox and a malicious app in my news feed — here’s how I knew they were scams

Aussie internet speeds are achieving consistent measures across fixed-line and wireless broadband plans, according to ACCC's final quarterly report.

As per the last Measuring Broadband Australia report, Australian homes have averaged an impressive 99.4% of their internet plan's download speeds during the test period from March 1 to March 31, 2026. Comparatively, the results recorded in the previous report showed the average during peak evening hours was 98.5% of advertised plan speeds.

In recent years, these results have gotten closer to 100% of advertised plan speeds, which is a solid uptick from the 80% average when the reports were first published in 2017. The reports were established to provide Aussies with impartial quarterly data on NBN and home broadband services, including speed, latency and outages recorded by volunteers using different telecommunication providers.

At Tom's Guide, we regularly check and analyse the ACCC reports to make informed recommendations about NBN and broadband plans. Even though the reports have concluded, we often consider them a sounding board for our own in-depth monthly research, using the data in collaboration with our findings to inform our choices. Moving forward, we will lean on other reports, such as those by OpenSignal, to provide unbiased and genuine recommendations.

The ACCC's Commissioner, Anna Brakey, noted that the reports have "brought transparency and scrutiny to broadband performance, and it has helped to ensure that consumers receive the quality of service that they pay for".

The conclusion of the quarterly reports comes after several key changes to NBN Co's wholesale products, less differentiation between NBN providers' performance and considerable improvements in overall performance since the program's inception.

Brakey also stated that "internet providers have a responsibility to deliver a service that meets the speed and performance that they advertise and the ACCC will continue to take strong enforcement action where we see evidence of misleading claims". The consumer watchdog has also confirmed it will continue to closely monitor broadband performance using its data.

Improvements across the board

Further, the quarterly reports have seen an improvement in underperforming services on the fixed-line network. In May 2018, over eight years ago, 13.9% of fixed-line services were considered underperforming. In the last report, the figure is now just 5.6% across the network.

The final performance report also reveals that NBN Co's fixed wireless network has continued to supply a high-speed broadband alternative for homes in rural and regional areas outside the fixed-line footprint.

The latest findings recorded 160.5Mbps average download speeds and 12.6Mbps uploads for those on NBN's Fixed Wireless Plus plan, which rivals the best NBN 100 plans in terms of speed.

As for high-performing NBN providers, Dodo and iPrimus take the cake for hitting advertised plan speeds, with the telco reaching up to 102.8% of speeds during all hours of the day and 102.3% of speeds during the busy hours. Leaptel, TPG and Exetel follow closely behind, each reaching above 102% across all hours of the day.

While there's no confirmation yet of a new ACCC report of broadband data, these great performance standards have now cemented the evolution of NBN Co's network, giving consumers confidence in the Australian internet landscape. At Tom's Guide, we will continue to provide the best deals, data and reviews when it comes to NBN and broadband plans, so if you're weighing up your home internet options, we've got your back — and will continue to do so.

If you have yet to take full advantage of your NBN connection type and upgrade to a speedy plan with a top-rated provider like those mentioned above, I've selected some options that will cater to most Aussie households below. If these picks don't quite satisfy your speed needs, you can check out the best NBN EOFY deals or the best NBN plans in June for an extensive range of hand-picked plans.

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• EOFY sales 2026: Australia's end of financial year sales are now on

I’ve always been envious of people who own the Apple Studio Display, but I’m also aware that it’s very much out of my budget. First-party products aren’t everything, though, and the BenQ MA270S proves that you don’t need to spend a fortune to get a Nano-texture glass display. Having spent a week with it, I’m finding it very hard to go back to my old monitor now.

The MA270S sports a gorgeous, bright 5K panel that’s easy on the eyes — no, really, it carries industry-leading certification that make it safe for prolonged use. Boasting outstanding color coverage and accuracy, the MA270S is perfect for creatives and photo editors, especially those who own MacBooks as the monitor features seamless Apple integration. There’s no shortage of ports and cable management is a delight.

Could this be the best monitor for you? It certainly is for me! Read my full BenQ MA270S review to find out more.

BenQ MA270S review: Specs

BenQ MA270S review: Cheat sheet

• What is it? A 5K monitor with a bright, detailed and colorful Nano Gloss panel
• Who is it for? MacBook users and Apple fans who don’t want to spend thousands on the Apple Studio Display
• How much does it cost? The BenQ MA270S is available for $999 / £884
• What do we like? The 5K panel, wide color coverage, accurate colors, plethora of ports, and Apple-like app for controls
• What don’t we like? The 70Hz refresh rate and high(ish) price… but that’s about it

BenQ MA270S review: The ups

From its beautiful, bright 5K Nano Gloss display and its wide range of ports, to its color coverage and accuracy, the BenQ MA270S doesn’t give you much to complain about.

Built for MacBook users

The BenQ MA270S is advertised as a monitor designed for MacBook users, and as someone who uses a MacBook Air M2 for work and a MacBook Pro M1 at home, I can confirm that this is an Apple-first display, through and through. Just like the Apple Studio Display ($1,599), the MA270S features a Nano-texture glass (or Nano Gloss), so that’s where the similarities start. I’ll talk about the panel shortly but before that, I want to talk about the MA270S’ Apple-first compatibility.

When you buy a monitor that isn’t made specifically for MacBooks or Mac minis — the MSI MAG 272QP QD-OLED X50 ($749), for instance — you may not get the right colors. The MA270S, however, boasts BenQ’s Mac color-tuning technology, which means that it shows the exact same colors sent by your MacBook (in short: color accuracy is spot on). This is backed up by my lab testing, which I’ll discuss in detail soon.

Adding to the MA270S’ appeal for MacBook users is the synchronized controls — if you have the companion app installed (more on that shortly). If you press the brightness or volume buttons on your MacBook, both your MacBook and the MA270S will be adjusted simultaneously. I love this feature as it means I don’t have to use the monitor’s joystick to adjust the brightness every time. It has simplified my workflow in a small but meaningful way.

Apple-esque app for controls

To take full advantage of the BenQ MA270S and its many features, you’ll need to download the Display Pilot 2 app, available for free on Windows, macOS and Linux. I downloaded and tested it on my personal MacBook Pro M1. It runs in the background and you can access it via an icon in the primary Menu bar — akin to the MacBook’s Control Centre.

Display Pilot 2 essentially lets you control and customize the monitor directly from your connected source, and without having to fiddle with the physical joystick and buttons. You can use the app to quickly change resolution, adjust the monitor’s speakers’ volume, choose a layout, customize blue light settings, auto-match and synchronize color profiles when changing color modes, and even customize the speakers’ five-band equalizer.

I personally love having an app for changing monitor settings. That means I don’t have to physically move — call me lazy all you want, but at least it isn’t breaking my flow!

There's no remote control, though, which was something we loved on the BenQ PD3226G editing monitor — with its round hotkey puck. The physical desk puck let you switch functions without even having to change software window, making it a handy workflow addition.

Stunning 5K Nano Gloss display

I’ve used many monitors, and as a reviews writer, I’ve tested my fair share of displays. The BenQ MA270S is, without a doubt, one of the most beautiful monitor I’ve ever seen. As I alluded to earlier, the MA270S features a Nano Gloss or Nano-texture glass, similar to the one you’ll find on the Apple Studio Display and the Apple Studio Display XDR ($3,599). The Nano Gloss panel delivers true blacks and refined highlights, and colors appear lifelike and exactly how they do on your MacBook — and I’ll discuss color coverage and accuracy shortly.

The MA270S’ Nano Gloss panel features flicker-free technology as well as Eye Comfort 3.0 certification mark from TÜV Rheinland and EyeSafe 2.0. These are industry-leading certifications which reaffirm that the monitor is designed to reduce visual fatigue and protect eye health. In theory, that’s fantastic, and in practice, it’s even better. The MA270S is a sheer delight to look at, and even after eight straight hours of use, my eyes haven’t felt tired or achy.

Another thing I love about the MA270S is how bright the monitor gets. Similar to the BenQ Creative Pro PD2730S ($1,199), the MA270S features a 27-inch 5K IPS panel with a resolution of 5120 x 2880, and it’s bright, colorful and easily readable under office lights.

My lab testing confirmed the same. As you can see from the table above, the MA270S reached a peak brightness of 387.4 nits in SDR mode, and it’s the brightest of any other third-party monitor I’ve tested so far. It’s dimmer than the Apple Studio Display and the Apple Studio Display XDR, but both monitors are far pricier than the MA270S.

While the MA270S’ HDR brightness is nothing to write home about at just 272 nits (10% window size), at least it has an HDR mode, which the Apple Studio Display doesn’t.

Superb color coverage

As someone who spends a lot of time editing photos and videos, I need a display that boasts great color coverage and accuracy — and the BenQ MA270S does just that. According to BenQ, its Nano Gloss panel “maintained contrast and color that stayed consistent with Mac colors” in side-by-side tests with the Apple Studio Display, so if you want Mac-like colors on a third-party monitor, this is the display to get.

I put the MA270S through its paces to see how it fared against other monitors. In my lab tests, the MA270S covered 158.7% of the sRGB color gamut and 112.4% of the wider DCI P3 color space. Anything over 100% is good, so the MA270S goes above and beyond.

As you can see from the table above, the MA270S outperforms its cousins, the BenQ Creative Pro PD2730S and the BenQ PD3226G ($1,099). It also upstages the the Apple Studio Display and the Apple Studio Display XDR, neither of which even come close to covering the entirety of the DCI P3 color gamut. The MSI MAG 272QP QD-OLED X50 covers even more of the spaces but you don’t get a Nano Gloss panel or as many productivity-focused features, as it’s a gaming monitor.

So, all of that sounds great on paper, but what about in real-world usage? I’ve thoroughly enjoyed testing the MA270S. The greens look vivid and rich, while reds appear deep and blues are intense and pure. None of the colors look oversaturated or fake, whether I was watching a 4K wildlife video on YouTube or playing a neon-bright game like Cyberpunk 2077. There was plenty of detail to enjoy in the shadows, and highlights didn’t appear blown out either.

I used the monitor to edit some photos I’d taken on the Canon EOS R6 Mark III, and I was able to color-grade accurately, as the fine color differences were more visible. The MA270S also features 10-bit color so it’s capable of displaying 1.07 billion individual hues — again, perfect for creatives who, like myself, use the best drones or best cameras.

Outstanding color accuracy

Alongside wide coverage, colors appear accurate on the BenQ MA270S too. We measure color accuracy as a Delta-E number, and this is a numerical representation of how much two colors differ. It gives you an idea of how close the color relayed on screen (i.e. the monitor) is to the color output from the source (i.e. the computer).

You ideally want the Delta-E score to be as close to zero as possible. As you can see from the table above, the MA270S achieved a Delta-E score of 0.09 in my lab tests, which is phenomenal. This means that the colors displayed on the monitor are near-identical to the ones being sent to it by the laptop.

The MA270S displays colors even more accurately than its closest competitors. Once again, it performs better than the Apple Studio Display and the Apple Studio Display XDR, as well as the BenQ Creative Pro PD2730S and the BenQ PD3226G. That isn’t to say that any of the monitors are bad — but when it comes down to on-paper specs, the MA270S just that little bit better.

My lab tests reassured me that the colors I was seeing on screen were as accurate as they could be, and this gave me more confidence when editing photos for my photography Instagram account.

A plethora of ports

BenQ rarely skimps on ports, and its MA270S isn’t any different. It hosts plenty and plenty of ports, all present to streamline your workflow and keep your devices powered — just like on the BenQ Creative Pro PD2730S. A selection of ports is located around the back and another at the bottom of the panel. These include a power port (duh) and two HDMI 2.1 ports for hooking up your MacBook, console or other laptop.

Now, allow me to word-vomit for a second. You get three Thunderbolt 4 ports: one with 96W of power delivery, another with 15W of power delivery, and a third for daisy-chaining. Then there’s a bunch of USB ports. You’ve got two USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 downstream ports with 10Gbps transfer speeds as well as 7.5W of power delivery. There’s a USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 downstream port too, with 15W power delivery and, again, 10Gbps transfer speeds.

And last but not least, there’s a USB-C DisplayPort Alt Mode port with 35W power delivery. I know you’re probably wondering, “What’s DisplayPort Alt Mode?” Essentially, it means the monitor's USB-C port can receive video signals using the DisplayPort protocol. This gives you extra connectivity options; can help you cut down on cables; and is also super handy if you're routing graphics through a docking station via USB-C, as you can still access the high resolutions and supported refresh rates of DisplayPort.

BenQ includes a handy cable holder which you can clip around the monitor stand. You can then bunch up your cables and run them through the holder to create a nice and tidy setup. It’s great and I wish all monitors came with one.

BenQ MA270S review: The downs

There isn’t a lot to dislike about the BenQ MA270S but it’s important to note that its refresh rate is limited to 70Hz, and it’s a little expensive (but still cheaper than the Apple Studio Display).

70Hz refresh rate only

The BenQ MA270S competes directly with the Apple Studio Display, and it serves as a cheaper alternative to Apple’s first-party monitor. In the same vein, the MA270S doesn’t have a very high refresh rate either, topping out at just 70Hz — that’s only 10Hz more than the Apple Studio Display’s 60Hz refresh rate. Because of this, I wouldn’t really recommend the MA270S for competitive or FPS gamers.

If you spend a lot of your time playing games, it might be worth checking out one of the best gaming monitors instead. There are plenty of options available around the $1,000 mark, like the MSI MAG 272QP QD-OLED X50 ($749) and the MSI MPG 272URX QD-OLED ($1,099). Of course, you’ll miss out on that lovely Nano-texture glass with either of those options, though.

Expensive… but cheaper than a Studio Display!

BenQ monitors don’t come cheap — it’s the price you pay for the premium build and features after all. The MA270S isn’t the cheapest monitor around, retailing for $999 at B&H Photo / £884 at Amazon U.K. This makes it pricier than some other monitors I’ve tested, like the MSI MAG 272QP QD-OLED X50 ($749) and the MSI MPG 341CQR QD-OLED X36 ($949), and it’s only slightly cheaper than the BenQ Creative Pro PD2730S ($1,199).

But none of those monitors have seamless Apple compatibility akin to a first-party monitor. And even though the MA270S sounds expensive as a standalone product, it really isn’t when you compare it to Apple’s monitors. It’s a lot cheaper than the Nano-texture glass variant of the Apple Studio Display XDR which costs a whopping $3,599. It’s also cheaper than the entry-level Apple Studio Display which retails for $1,599.

Given that, I’d say the MA270S’ premium price tag is less of a drawback and more of a pre-purchase consideration. You’re getting great MacBook compatibility and a stunning Nano Gloss display, as well as a wide array of ports, all for at least $600 less than the Apple Studio Display.

BenQ MA270S review: Verdict

You don’t need to spend thousands to get a Nano-texture glass monitor like the Apple Studio Display, and the BenQ MA270S proves that. Designed with MacBook users in mind, the MA270S combines a stunning Nano Gloss 5K panel, excellent color accuracy and coverage, and comes with a plethora of ports for efficient cable management.

The MA270S’ 5K display is the star of the show, delivering outstanding sharpness and vibrant yet accurate colors. It’s comfortable to use all day long, thanks to industry-recognized eyecare certifications, making it great for creatives and power users. Add in seamless Mac integration and a user-friendly companion app, and you forget that the monitor’s refresh rate is limited to just 70Hz.

If you’re a MacBook user looking for a cheap alternative to the Apple Studio Display, the MA270S should be your port of call. After using it, I’m dreading going back to using my old monitor.

England take on Croatia in a one of the most hotly anticipated games of the 2026 World Cup's group stage – and if you're traveling abroad or just away from your usual setup, you don't want to miss it. Streaming services often restrict access based on location, which can leave you locked out of the coverage you'd normally get at home.

Using one of the best VPNs solves this by routing your connection through a server in your home country, letting you access your usual streaming service as if you'd never left. It also encrypts your traffic, which is useful if you're connecting via public Wi-Fi at an airport, hotel, or bar to catch the match.

We currently rate Norton VPN as the best VPN for streaming, and there's a sensational deal running right now that makes it an easy choice for World Cup coverage.

How does Norton VPN compare to other top VPNs?

NordVPN remains our top-rated VPN overall, and its testing backs that up: speeds of over 1,249 Mbps locally, a server network spanning more than 8,000 servers across a staggering 167 countries, and a near-flawless streaming unblocking record. In comparison, Norton only offers servers in a measly 65 countries – meaning potentially less choice when it comes to streaming services.

The catch is price – even on the discounted two-year plan, NordVPN works out to around $3.49 per month, more than Norton's current World Cup deal. Norton also has the edge when it comes to raw streaming performance, unblocking every major streaming platform in our latest round of testing, despite its smaller network.

Surfshark is a budget alternative, with plans starting at a very reasonable $1.99 per month and the bonus of unlimited device connections. This is a bonus compared to Norton, which has strict limits on how many devices you can install the VPN on. Surfshark's a capable all-rounder, too, and one of the fastest VPNs we've tested. However, its streaming unblocking has been less consistent than Norton's in our reviews, occasionally struggling with certain Netflix regions.

If your main priority is locking in reliable access to every match without interruption, Norton VPN is the clear choice. What's more, that performance currently comes with competitive pricing against NordVPN and a 60-day guarantee which is double what most competitors offer, giving you the entire tournament to decide if it's right for you.

NordVPN and Surfshark remain solid options for general use once the World Cup wraps up, but for streaming this tournament specifically, Norton's combination of unblocking power and deal pricing is hard to beat.

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example:1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service).2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad.We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

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.

More from Tom's Guide

• I went eyes-on with Snap Specs and saw Evan Spiegel wear them — they look way better than I feared, but there's one massive comfort flaw
• I just tested the phone everybody thinks is a preview of the iPhone Fold — God, I hope they’re wrong
• 'No one has a crystal ball': Lexar execs have a plan to reduce our RAM dependency if the AI data boom lasts 'for years'

The Lenovo Chromebook Plus 2-in-1 Gen 10 is one of the rare Chromebooks that I actually think is a great little device. Most Chromebooks are disappointing enough that not even the low price tag is enough to save them from ending up as a mediocre compromise.

Not only is the Chromebook Plus 2-in-1 a fantastic bargain with a low price of just $439, it’s also got Lenovo’s premium build quality and industry-leading keyboard, along with performance that’s reliable enough for your average ChromeOS user, and has access to all the web apps you could need, from the Google suite to TikTok and the GeForce Now app.

The only things holding the Chromebook Plus 2-in-1 back from pure perfection is its disappointing battery life and dim display. But how does it compare to the best Chromebooks?

Lenovo Chromebook Plus 2-in-1 Gen 10: Cheat sheet

• What is it?: The Lenovo Chromebook Plus 2-in-1 (2026) is a ChromeOS laptop with a 2-in-1 convertible chassis that can switch between laptop, tablet, and tent modes to meet a range of uses.
• Who is it for?: Students, employees, and individuals who need a laptop to access web applications like the Google suite, email, and social media sites.
• What does it cost?: The Lenovo Chromebook Plus 2-in-1 (2026) has a starting price of just $439.
• What do we like?: The luxurious build quality and sturdy convertible hinge, the fantastic keyboard, reliable performance, and incredible value.
• What don’t we like?: The battery life and display could be better, also, the Chromebook Plus label could do with a stronger identity.

Lenovo Chromebook Plus 2-in-1 Gen 10: Specs

Lenovo Chromebook Plus 2-in-1 Gen 10: The ups

While I may not be the target audience for a Chromebook, there’s plenty to appreciate in this particular 2-in-1, from a fully aluminum chassis with a sturdy convertible hinge, to a fantastic keyboard, and reliable computing power.

This chassis might just be too premium for a Chromebook

Oftentimes, Chromebooks offer low prices to offset mediocre specs and build quality. While the Lenovo Chromebook Plus 2-in-1’s Intel Core 3 N355 processor isn’t winning any benchmark races, it’s definitely got enough power in it to run all the apps you need, and the Chromebook’s chassis is fully aluminum, with a keyboard that feels like it belongs on a more premium laptop.

Not only does the Chromebook Plus 2-in-1’s chassis look like it belongs to a Lenovo Yoga laptop with its full aluminum paneling and camera hub bump along the top edge, it’s also got a ribbed pattern on the bottom panel that offers some nice detail on what is otherwise a standard Lenovo chassis. The Chromebook Plus 2-in-1 comes in the standard Luna Gray, but it’s also got a stunning Cosmic Blue color option which really helps set it apart from other, lackluster Chromebooks.

Lenovo used its sturdy convertible hinges on the Chromebook Plus, so opening and folding the laptop into tablet or tent modes feels smooth and secure. The inside of the hinge has some nice detailing on the vents which adds visual interest while also keeping the Chromebook operating at cool temps, and the bezels are nice and slim so the Chromebook Plus 2-in-1 Gen 10 looks and feels like a premium laptop.

As for the keyboard deck, there’s nothing to complain about at all. Between the top-firing speakers along the edges of the keyboard, nicely spaced keys with a crisp activation and comfy key travel, to a touchpad that’s just on the right side of large.

If you told me Lenovo simply re-used a Yoga chassis for this Chromebook generation, I’d believe you without question. It’s honestly way too good for a $400 Chromebook.

Dependable performance

Chromebooks aren’t exactly known for setting performance records, and that’s okay. ChromeOS laptops and tablets are intended to be budget devices that run web apps well, but some Chromebooks handle large workloads better than others.

Thanks to its Intel Core 3 N355 processor, the Lenovo Chromebook Plus 2-in-1 (Gen 10) is one of the more responsive laptops in its class. While it isn’t going to be doing much heavy video editing, the Lenovo Chromebook Plus 2-in-1 Gen 10 is more than capable of streaming video, managing your emails, and keeping a good 10 research tabs open without major slowdowns. Anything past that is just asking for trouble with how memory-hungry Chrome tends to be.

As for the numbers side of things, the Lenovo Chromebook Plus 2-in-1 fares well when compared to similar Chromebooks like the Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 514 (2025), Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus, and Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14 (2025). The Lenovo 2-in-1 Gen 10 underperformed on our Geekbench 6 benchmark on both single and multithreaded workloads, and its JetStream 2 and WebXPRT 4 scores were also behind its competition. However, Chromebooks don’t often need to leverage that much multicore performance given their app-bound usage.

So while the Lenovo Chromebook Plus 2-in-1 underperforms on benchmarks, its actual usability is not in question. While you can get more horsepower from any of the other three, that doesn’t equate to a huge difference in actual use. The 2-in-1 is powerful enough for what it is, without needing to be the most powerful Chromebook on the market.

And if you want to game on the Lenovo Chromebook Plus 2-in-1, it runs the Nvidia GeForce Now app just fine. Thanks to Nvidia’s recent upgrades to the GeForce server rigs, the base tier of Geforce Now gets access to RTX 3050 GPUs, allowing you to play games like Baldur’s Gate III on High to Ultra settings without stuttering or drastic frame drops.

Incredible value

Google’s Chromebook Plus tier is intended to be a more powerful, more premium product and that usually means Chromebook Plus models retail for about $600 or more. The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus was $699 at launch, and is now selling for $799 at most retailers. The Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14 (2025) was originally $649 and the Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 514 (2025) was $699 at launch, though both are often on sale for as low as $389 now that the newer generations are available.

But the Lenovo Chromebook Plus 2-in-1 Gen 10, despite having the Chromebook Plus label, has a base price of just $439. That’s regular Chromebook territory in terms of cost. And yet the 2-in-1 has some serious premium chops thanks to its elevated build quality, crisp keyboard, and solid performance.

Finding a laptop of any kind for under $800 these days often feels like an impossibility, and yet here’s a Chromebook Plus for just about half that price. $439 would be an absolute bargain on a good day, when compared to the rest of the laptop market that’s suffering due to the RAM shortage, it’s practically a miracle of value.

Lenovo Chromebook Plus 2-in-1 Gen 10: The downs

Just about any laptop is going to have some downsides. It’s just part of the process in cramming as many features and performance into a constrained chassis. But some downsides are better or worse than others. And the Lenovo Chromebook Plus 2-in-1 Gen 10 does have some proper faults.

Chromebook battery life isn’t what it used to be

Chromebooks used to be the best option for folks who wanted a laptop with at least 8-hours of battery life. However, standard Windows laptops have gotten significantly better than they used to be, often averaging well over 10-hours of battery life for a 14-inch laptop.

Chromebooks, meanwhile, have stayed the same. And the Lenovo Chromebook Plus 2-in-1 Gen 10 is no different. The 2-in-1 lasted 8 hours and 32 minutes on our web surfing battery test. Which is disappointing but not particularly below the Chromebook average.

However, there are some Chromebooks that break the 9-hour threshold. Last year’s Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14 lasted over 13 hours on the same battery test while the Acer Chromebook Plus 514 Spin got over 14 hours, and even the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus lasted over 11 hours.

While 8.5 hours of web surfing battery life looks like it’ll get you through a work or school day, chances are you’ll be doing more than just surfing the web in a single tab all day. Which means your actual battery mileage may be closer to 6.5 hours like mine was.

The display appears better than it is

In the right setting, the Lenovo Chromebook Plus 2-in-1 Gen 10’s display looks brighter and more vibrant than it actually is. It’s only once you take it near a window or out in the sunlight that it becomes obvious the display barely breaks the 200-nit threshold.

With a glossy IPS LCD panel, the Chromebook Plus 2-in-1 will catch a glare from any stray sunbeams or hanging pendant lamps, which isn’t ideal for a Netflix streaming binge.

The Lenovo 2-in-1 display is also a bit flat in color, covering just 65% of the sRGB gamut. So if you want to do any photo editing on your Chromebook, you’d be better off with the Galaxy Chromebook Plus, which has a far superior display.

Lenovo Chromebook Plus 2-in-1 Gen 10: Verdict

Lenovo’s Chromebook Plus 2-in-1 Gen 10 combines Lenovo’s fantastic keyboard, premium build quality, with dependable performance and fantastic value for a Chromebook that finally feels properly premium.

If anything, the 2-in-1 is such a good value, Google now has an identity crisis on its hands with the Chromebook Plus branding since the 2-in-1 is a good $150 cheaper than most other laptops in the Chromebook Plus bracket.

Hackers are once again targeting gamers on Steam, but this time, instead of using malware-filled games to do so, they’ve switched to hiding malicious code in desktop wallpapers.

As reported by BleepingComputer, these infected wallpapers can prove quite dangerous for unsuspecting gamers as they can provide an easy way to install a backdoor on one of the best gaming PCs or even to hijack their Steam accounts.

Any image you download online could contain malware. However, the hackers behind this campaign are leveraging an incredibly popular Steam app to do so instead. With 20 to 50 million installs according to SteamSpy, Wallpaper Engine is one of the most downloaded apps on the platform.

What makes Wallpaper Engine so popular, though, is that users can download hundreds of thousands of desktop wallpapers made by other users through Valve’s community hub, Steam Workshop. By abusing this feature, the hackers are easily able to disseminate their infected wallpapers.

Here’s everything you need to know about the latest malware threat on Steam and how you can keep your account — and your gaming PC — safe from hackers.

Malicious application wallpapers

For those unfamiliar, in addition to static wallpapers, Wallpaper Engine also supports four dynamic wallpaper types that can render videos, interactive scenes, webpages with audio and video, and applications. That last one is incredibly important in this campaign.

Unlike a JPEG or PNG file, Wallpaper Engine’s application wallpapers are full-on Windows executables that run like any other program on your PC. According to researchers at the cybersecurity firm Kaspersky, not only do they pose a built-in security risk, but they’re also currently being used by hackers to deliver malware to unsuspecting Steam users.

In a blog post, Kaspersky’s researchers explained how they discovered dozens of malicious application wallpapers on Steam Workshop, many of which had been downloaded thousands or even tens of thousands of times. By analyzing the application wallpapers in question, the researchers found that the malware is either bundled directly into their installation packages or hidden inside password-protected archives that users are then tricked into opening. Unfortunately, the damage is done immediately after one of these compromised wallpapers is installed.

After a user installs one such asset posing as a game called NTRaholic, the wallpaper launches as expected. However, in the process, a backdoor file belonging to the DarkKomet malware is also installed in the background. In order to search for and steal Steam credentials, a custom version of a system library called ‘AggregatorHost.dll’ is installed as well.

In addition to DarkKomet, Kaspersky’s researchers also found other malware families installed in these malicious wallpapers, like the Lumma and Vidar infostealers. They were even used to spread ransomware, too.

How to stay safe from malware

Fortunately, after Kaspersky alerted Valve about this campaign, all of the infected wallpapers in question were removed from the Steam Workshop. Still, this is an excellent reminder to always be careful when downloading files online, even if they come from a trusted platform.

In order to stay safe from any malware contained within desktop wallpapers, game mods, or games themselves, you definitely want to make sure your gaming PC is protected with the best antivirus software. If you want to be extra careful, you might also consider investing in one of the best identity theft protection services. That way, if your credentials are compromised as a result of what you download online, you have a safety net to help monitor your data and recover financial losses from fraud.

When in doubt, stick to trusted creators when downloading new wallpapers and be extra cautious before running any executable on your gaming PC. This likely won’t be the last time hackers target Steam in their attacks, but Valve has an excellent track record of quickly responding to and dealing with malicious activity on its platform.

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When I first saw the design of Snap Specs during CEO Evan Spiegel’s keynote, I’ll admit I was a little nervous. For all the talk of making them “substantially smaller,” as former hardware VP Scott Myers told me, they still look pretty chunky.

But the press pictures don’t quite do them justice, and after seeing them in person (and seeing them worn by Evan himself), I must say I kind of dig the aesthetic. They’re a bold statement piece for the future of spatial computing, and a look that I believe can blend well into the public day-to-day.

Designing around the constraints

Bear in mind that Snap’s had to stuff two Snapdragon processors, optical waveguide displays with a 51-degree field of view, a ton of sensors, and enough battery for four hours of general use, and you can start to see how much of a challenge this is.

Speaking with the Snap team, they acknowledged that the task of making it all smaller was quite the challenge. But compared to the developer hardware you’ve seen me wear over the past couple of years, the difference is stark — sleeker lines on that Wayfarer-esque face, contoured stems, and a real upgrade in materials used to a polymer Snap calls “plastic titanium.”

The frame around the lenses seems to have been made thinner; the stems may be large, but they fit into the general vibe up front, and that cross sign of dots on the side is a magnetic charging connector that doubles as a USB-C video-in to plug this directly into your laptop or handheld (that’s huge).

My only real concern is when Evan came through the Snap booth wearing them. Not the look of them, but the fact that they seem to be exerting a bit more downward pressure on the tops of his ears, from the side profile.

There could be many reasons for this (the way he’s put them on and ear shape, for example), but it did give me a little pause that the 132g weight might cause some discomfort. I’m hoping I’m wrong!

“Nerd alert”

That’s not to say it has its detractors. This is a divisive look, and when I shared them for general thoughts on my team’s Slack channel, the first reaction I got was a GIF of Austin Powers saying "Nerd Alert."

I’m going to have to give these my classic “pub test” with friends in my small hometown to get a real feel for how people react to them outside the tech bubble. But to be honest, the early detractors haven’t really phased my impressions here.

Snap set out on a mission to take its super ambitious idea of mashing the capabilities of a VR headset into something the size of a pair of glasses, usher in a new, more immersive type of computing, and make it look good.

After testing the OS experience on development hardware, I’m confident they’ve nailed the first; the jury’s out on the second, as real-world testing is needed, and going eyes-on has shown me they can tick off the third.

The only real obstacle now is the $2,195/£1,995 asking price (available to preorder now), which I understand is definitely on the lower end of new spatial computing hardware (think Apple Vision Pro), but is still rather astronomical. This is definitely for early adopters, and you’ll stand out in these swish specs.

More from Tom's Guide

• Snap Specs LIVE — $2,200 augmented reality smart glasses announced, along with availability and specs
• You've got questions about Xreal Aura, and I've got answers — 5 things you need to know about these Android XR glasses
• Snapdragon Reality Elite is here, and I’ve already tested it without realizing in Xreal’s Project Aura — its a giant step towards the future of smart glasses

Last year at AWE 2025, I tried out the latest haptic VR accessories from bHaptics including a vest and gloves that are meant to help you feel more immersed as you game on the best VR headsets.

At AWE 2026, bHaptics returned with a modest update to TactGlove lineup that actually helps the gloves feel more immersive.

The new DK3 gloves add new haptic motors at the bottom of your palm. I was told that gamers said previous gloves didn't feel as intense because after your fingers, there wasn't really any feedback spots until the wrist motor.

The set I tried featured two motors on the palm for both the right and left hand versions. I noticed that the right hand vibrated more than the left in the pair I played with.

The biggest difference I noticed was in the new motor that sits on top of your wrist on the DK3 gloves. The VCM motor is larger and seems as the spokesperson said, "crispier."

The spaceship demo I tried this year is the same as last year's and it did feel more immersive in my right hand with the new palm motors and the bigger wrist motor. And yes, I did try to pet the cat again.

Prices went up

Unfortunately, as with most things in the last year, prices have gone up.

The TactSuit Pro vest hasn't received any updates but its price went up $65. It now retails for $565 compared to last year's $499 starting price. The lighter TactStuit Air is now $320 up from $249.

Compared to the older version the new DK3 gloves are an expensive $385. And beyond the new motors all the other specs appear to be the same.

All of bHaptics' gear is available now.

More from Tom's Guide

• Snapdragon Reality Elite is here, and I’ve already tested it without realizing in Xreal’s Project Aura — its a giant step towards the future of smart glasses
• Here's what the Snap Specs look like, as modelled by Jack Harlow, Imogen Heap and more
• You've got questions about Xreal Aura, and I've got answers — 5 things you need to know about these Android XR glasses

Earlier today at AWE 2026, Snap's CEO Evan Spiegel introduced the new Specs augmented reality smart glasses. Unlike most AR smart glasses, the Specs aren't tethered to a compute puck, like Xreal Auras, or have a limited feature set like the Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses. These glasses are meant to have it all.

In the last couple of years, Tom's Guide writers have had a chance to actually wear and test out developer versions of the Snap Specs. The result in the run-up to the official launch was a chunky, clunky, and at times very hot device that sat on your face like a pair of poorly designed goggles.

How do the Specs look?

Part of Snap's Specs announcement included a new global campaign the company calls Specs Visionary. It involves celebrities like Jack Harlow, Imogen Heap, Kaia Gerber, Hoyeon and Jimmy Butler "exploring how Specs can unlcok new forms of creativity, expression, learning, and play." What that entails was left vague and Snap promised more information later this year.

However, it also gives us a small look at how these AR glasses look on person. Notably, compared to the developer glasses we tried, the Specs do look much slimmer, especially around the lenses.

However, I recall the arms of the glasses as thick and in some cases very squishy on the ears like this:

Notably, the arms are hidden underneath hair or by front-facing shots of the glasses. Some standalone press images reveal arms that are still quite large.

One of the sticking points with smart glasses as a whole is their lack of fashionable looks. It's quite obvious when you're wearing display glasses or AR glasses. They're not really something you want to wear day to day, though that's improving with things like Meta's Ray-Bans or the recently announced Samsung "Intelligent Eyewear" lenses that actually look like something you could snag at LensCrafters.

A "Developer reaction" video gives us a better look at how these things look on normal person, and honestly, still pretty thick.

My worry is that comfort and heat will be a problem. As mentioned, those chunky arms can squish your ears and they're definitely not as svelte as other glasses.

I found in my testing sessions that the developer specs got pretty hot especially near the temple. We won't know if that's alleviated until we get more hands-on time with the public version of Specs, but it's something I'll be keeping an eye on.

That said, we've been impressed by the Snap OS in our previews and that could be the true selling factor that makes these glasses worth a look. But eating is presentation, as they say.

Oh, there's also the astronomical $2,195 Apple Vision Pro-esque asking price.

How to snag a pair

If you're interested in Snap's Specs you can pre-order a pair now at specs.com. Be warned that they don't come for cheap. For the pre-order you need to put down a $200 refundable deposit — followed by that astronomical cost at launch.

Snap says that the Specs should start shipping "this fall" in the US, UK and France.

More from Tom's Guide

• I tried to replace my gaming monitor with Asus ROG Xreal R1 glasses — it’s not quite what I hoped for
• Kuo: Apple is scrapping Vision headsets in favor of 2 smart glasses — but there's bad news for the release dates
• Thinking of investing in A/C this summer? Here's how to keep your cool

Nope, it’s not called Snapdragon XR Gen 3, but Qualcomm did bring something big to the smart glasses party in its Snapdragon Reality Elite chip. And yes, this is the chip that is running inside Xreal’s Project Aura that I tested back at Google I/O.

In the company’s own words, it is set to bring “spatial computing into the AI era,” but I would say its real superpower is in unlocking my dream future of blurring those lines between the best VR headsets and smart glasses into one wearable.

Qualcomm (and I) know that ever since the end of the pandemic, the amount of people buying VR headsets has dropped and the appetite for that spatial tech in something the size of a pair of specs has grown massively. People really want to take their XR on the road without looking like a glasshole.

And with huge improvements to the performance and power efficiency, alongside a 160% boost in AI performance, this is the chip that can get us there. Let me explain.

By the numbers

The first thing I noticed during the briefing is that this is much more than a generational leap — it’s a whole reinvention with a new target in mind. Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 was solid in the likes of the Meta Quest 3 and Samsung Galaxy XR, but Qualcomm came with a new mission: turboboost everything, while making it much more efficient and cooler for different, smaller form factors.

On the performance end, you’ve got the ability to render a 4.4k resolution picture per eye with ray tracing thanks to that 60% faster GPU, and a 30% zippier CPU will keep app opens lightning quick too. There’s also a 10% improvement in latency between your hand and the screen, and new enhancements to video see-through (VST) improve the speed of tracking too.

As for the AI side of things, Snapdragon Reality Elite gives it the full beans with a 160% improvement in NPU performance — making it capable of running a full-blown large visual model (asking questions about/taking action on things you see in the world around you) with around a 1.7-second latency between asking and it starting to work.

Go puck yourself

All that’s fair and good, but if I’m being real, it’s that 20% longer battery life and the ability to run a whopping 12-degrees Celsius cooler that’s the big news for me. That’s the real key to unlocking a VR experience in a pair of glasses.

I was trying to figure out how Xreal was pulling off the impressive performance and power efficiency pairing I saw in Project Aura, and turns out the answer was right under my nose the entire time — this chip was in that puck!

But talking to Qualcomm some more, it’s clear this is a “hedging their bets” moment for the company, as the chip is versatile in how it can be used. Either it can go into all-in-one XR devices (maybe a Meta Quest 4? …provided it hasn’t been canned) or what the company is calling “disaggregated XR devices.”

This is a fancy way of saying “smart glasses” with the compute puck. Of course there’s still a fan in Project Aura’s puck, so cooling challenges remain, and this is still glasses-with-a-cable coming off of them because of it.

But we’ve now got the primo piece of silicon that can start to blend the worlds of VR headsets and AR glasses together for sure.

'That sweet-spot Goldilocks product'

When I spoke to Qualcomm on the briefing, I asked if this chip puts the company on the path towards taking that VR headset experience and stuffing into a pair of glasses. And while they’re keen to emphasize that “there’s still a place” for VR headsets, the company sees an “eventual convergence” of the two.

“If you look at the things Meta, Google and Snapchat have done, there’s very much a desire to make that sweet-spot Goldilocks product,” the rep added. And given Qualcomm has yearlong agreements with all of them, as well as investing in waveguide displays for glasses heavily, it’s all coming together nicely.

It’s what I’ve wanted for years — only to see limitations in the hardware, the software, and an execution problem when it comes to spatial computing (namely that it’s not as useful as actual computing or just using your phone).

With Reality Elite, the hardware problem goes a long way towards being fixed. With a new developer platform packed with software modules, compatibility with multiple AI systems and even white label hardware to test it on (the Snapdragon START program), that’s the software problem.

And hopefully the execution problem is fixed in due course alongside this, as more and more people flock to XR. The future’s bright, and I can’t wait to see it.

More from Tom's Guide

• I tested Google’s “Intelligent Eyewear,” and found the smart glasses that will defeat Ray-Ban Meta
• Meet X By XREAL — I’m testing the MacBook Neo of AR glasses that people can actually afford
• Windows laptops are entering their MacBook Neo era, but is Windows 11 actually ready for it? 8GB of RAM has me worried

Xreal's Project Aura is now officially called Xreal Aura! After I went hands-on with them, questions came flooding in, and I'm here to answer them all. While my initial hands-on time was brief, I headed back to see the team, to try them out some more and get more answers from Xreal.

Because let's be real — these are the next step towards AR glasses and VR headsets merging, so while I (and many other publications) have told you how they feel to use, there's plenty of curiosity around some specifics.

And now we're getting some more news on them at AWE 2026, there are a few more things I can share!

What's the resolution?

Xreal has just confirmed that these are 1920 x 1200 pixels per eye. However, from pixel peeping, they definitely seem sharper in fidelity compared to the Asus ROG Xreal R1 (1080p resolution), which I've just finished reviewing!

To my eyes, there's definitely a step-up in detail here — especially when you get close to floating app windows. So maybe this is something to do with upscaling happening in the background? I'm not sure.

Also, a quick note about the 70-degree field of view. I mentioned it in my hands-on, but it's worth talking about in more detail. This does feel like the starting point for bridging the gap between VR headsets and AR glasses, but it comes with some edge blurring.

That being said, in a field of view this wide, the edge blurring is isolated to your peripheral vision. You won't really notice it in use.

What are the specs of these...specs?

This one's going to be a mash-up of a bunch of questions I saw on Reddit:

• There's Snapdragon Reality Elite in the puck: Turns out my prediction was bang on, but the naming was a little off! Snapdragon Reality Elite is the premium sequel to the XR2 Gen 2 that you see in the Samsung Galaxy XR, and with the improved performance and (more importantly) power efficiency and cooler operation, it's ideal for a smart glasses compute puck.
• A new X1S chip powers the spatial side of things: Alongside Snapdragon in the puck, Xreal's X1 chip gets an S-tier upgrade to X1S — stabilizing some of those XR experiences beyond the display goodness it provides elsewhere.
• The compute puck is about the same size as an iPhone 15 Pro: Can't add much more to this than the beginning of the bullet point. There is a fingerprint sensor on the side for security, and a volume rocker on the other. Plus, the top side is a touchpad if you prefer to interact in this way.
• Xreal Aura glasses can work as a standard pair of AR glasses: We got shown a demo of wireless display mirroring from a Chromebook into Android XR. But for other systems, these are USB-C glasses, and they do work as a normal set of AR glasses.
• There is no microSD card slot on the compute puck. This may be just because we were shown prototype models (and I hope one gets added for all the content I'll want to add), but it looks as if you'll be relying on the internal storage.

• These feel heavier on the face than other AR glasses: A pretty even weight distribution does balance these well on your face. But they are slightly heavier than older specs at 95 grams.

What can you do on them?

Basically, anything you could do on a standard Android XR headset. The real beauty here being that their optical see-through (OST) glasses, you're not isolated in a headset viewing the world through cameras.

And developers have created over one hundred Android XR apps, and there's much more to come as Xreal has just announced.

• Project Hail Mary: Journey Among the Stars: I love the film, so I'm definitely curious to see how it plays out navigating my ship in XR.
• Fallout Factions: Turn-based strategy game with all the gesture controls you could want to get into the world of Fallout easily.
• The Nutcracker: A Spatial Awakening: What happens when you take the legendary ballet and capture it in stereoscopic 8K with a Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive three-camera array? You get a new level of immersion into this holiday performance.

And there's more too, including Fox Sports XR, Cubism (love this game), Chess Club, three games from DB Creations (of Table Towers fame), Simply Piano XR teaching you the instrument with AI-powere real-time feedback, ShapesXR to get creative, and more in healthcare and banking.

There's even a real-time AR experiential tour of Aachen's historic city center, which is claimed to bring these historical sites back to life with animations, reconstructions and more.

How much will they cost?

Project Aura is set to launch later this year, but how much will it cost? That's the big question, but it's clear they won't be cheap. Again, Xreal kept this close to its chest. As with a lot of computing products, pricing is fluid amid the shockwaves of RAMageddon.

So all I can do is apply some of my best guesswork here and see what's happened elsewhere. The Galaxy XR is a full-blown Android XR headset that costs nearly $2,000, and while these are AR glasses, it's still that tech fueling the spatial OS crammed into that puck.

Being a betting man, I'd say the target would be somewhere in the $1,299 region. The inner hoping man would've greatly preferred under a thousand bucks (and I do hope this is possible), but I'm not blind to the fact that costs are going up.

How do I order a pair?

This one's easy enough for me to answer! Xreal Aura is now available to preorder with a $99 reservation fee, and for two weeks right now, that $99 doubles to $199 credit toward your purchase when they officially launch.

Any other questions?

Of course, I've picked the five top questions I saw asked after I posted my Aura hands-on review, but I know there'll be more, which is why I'm opening the floor to you.

I'm currently in Long Beach for AWE 2026, and it's all a bit hectic with new announcements (Snap Specs for example). So here's the deal — from June 17th at 9 am PT, I will be able to answer all your follow-ups. Sound good?

And it goes without saying, because you're all lovely folks, but the community rules are in effect: please treat everyone (including yours truly) with respect and avoid any nasty language.

More from Tom's Guide

• I tested Google’s “Intelligent Eyewear,” and found the smart glasses that will defeat Ray-Ban Meta
• Meet X By XREAL — I’m testing the MacBook Neo of AR glasses that people can actually afford
• Windows laptops are entering their MacBook Neo era, but is Windows 11 actually ready for it? 8GB of RAM has me worried

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel has just revealed Specs — a new pair of AR glasses that are "the beginning of a new era in computing." As with many smart glasses or AI-forward devices, Specs are being pitched as a way to avoid looking at our smartphones all day, and the first thing you're probably noticing is the chunkier stylings to house all of that compute.

That's because they're able to do everything something like an Android XR headset is able to do, but with all two Snapdragon processors built into the glasses themselves (no puck needed).

Specs are meant to sit between the lightweight-but-limited AI glasses and the heavy but isolating VR headsets. That's the key differentiator that makes Specs "not designed to replace the world," but rather "to bring computing into it."

And for that, you'll be paying a pretty penny for them when they come out this fall! Are you sitting down? The starting price is $2,195 (that's why I warned you to sit down). Will these be the stylish breakthrough to shake up our best smart glasses list? Let's talk about them.

Specs "specs"

A head-turner

Last year, when I got to talk to Scott Myers, Snap's former hardware VP, he spoke about how this design is "substantially smaller."

While that is definitely the case (especially when you look at that weight), they're still definitely a bold aesthetic that will turn heads. From the thick-rimmed black frame and large temples to the integrated sensor placement on the front, there will be no hiding the fact you're wearing smart glasses when it comes to these.

Not to say they're bad-looking at all. I actually think Snap's pulled off what I thought would be the impossible in compressing all that tech into something that looks good to wear everywhere (no compute puck required). But I can also fully understand that this louder vibe won't be everyone's cup of tea.

They do also get a nice premium build too thanks to that Swiss TR90 Polymer construction, and the electrochromic lenses will ensure that they can be worn anywhere.

But, as I found out testing the Specs a while back, it's not about what they look like, it's about what you can do on them.

"Bring computing" into the real world

“For decades, computers have asked us to look down, sit still, or step out of the moment," Spiegel commented. "Specs bring computing into the world around us where we live, work, learn, create, and connect.”

On the face of it, that new paradigm of computing can seem like your usual pair of display smart glasses — hands-free navigation, asking an AI assistant for advice, etc.

But the real differentiator comes in when you start to make use of all that raw onboard horsepower. Like a VR headset, you can work in instant virtual workspaces, collaborate within them and more. You can measure objects in the space around you without a tape measure, and even learn and create in the virtual space around you. There's even specialized interactive tools like real-time graphic golf alignment or basketball shooting traning.

This is an incredibly versatile platform that's going to hit the ground running after years of development.

AI tools

AI will be a part of Snap OS that runs the glasses and Snap has promised that it will be useful in understanding visual context and providing information "where it's needed."

“With SPECS, AI is not intelligence trapped in a chat box,” Spiegel said. “It is intelligence that can see what you see, understand what you’re trying to do, and help you in the moment.”

The company is encouraging developers to create Snapchat Lenses using new agentic tools like Claude Code. There is also a benchmark for spatial computing to help AI models perform "real-world" spatial tasks like reasoning on coordinates, object relationships and more.

Privacy and price

Snap says that privacy was a "core design principle" from the beginning. The glasses are meant to be transparent in how they work.

In practice, that means requesting permission before accessing sensitive information, an LED light that indicates when the glasses are recording and a prioritization in on-device processing.

Pre-order now

If the price doesn't scare you away, you can pre-order the Snap Specs today at specs.com for $2,195 with a $200 refundable deposit.

Snap expects to ship the glasses in the US, UK and France starting this fall.

More from Tom's Guide

• Acer just unveiled new AI and AR smart glasses, putting more pressure on Meta — here's why
• Kuo: Apple is scrapping Vision headsets in favor of 2 smart glasses — but there's bad news for the release dates
• I tried to replace my gaming monitor with Asus ROG Xreal R1 glasses — it’s not quite what I hoped for

Microsoft’s latest Surface devices won’t be cheap. As Windows Central reports, consumer versions of the Surface Laptop 8 and Surface Pro 12 powered by Snapdragon X2 chips have just been unveiled. Though these models are more affordable than the current enterprise models powered by Intel, they still cost significantly more than their respective predecessors.

The Surface Laptop 8 starts at $1,599, while the Surface Pro 12 starts at $1,499. Those prices sting on their own, but it’s made worse when you consider that they both started at $999 in 2024. Yes, the new devices pack the more powerful Snapdragon X2 Plus chip and more storage, but their respective price tags still sting.

One saving grace is that Microsoft is offering incentives. For instance, buying the Surface Pro 12 between now and June 30 gets you a free Surface Pro keyboard. Preordering the Surface Laptop 8 gives you a free Surface Arc Mouse and a 50% offer for Microsoft Complete. The free keyboard with the Surface Pro is especially useful since it's essential for using the tablet like a laptop. You can also save up to $900 when trading in an older Surface device for a new one.

I reviewed the business model of the Surface Laptop 8 with an Intel Core Ultra X7 chip and found it to be an overall excellent, if expensive, notebook. I haven’t tested the Snapdragon X2 consumer model yet, but it has the same design as the Surface Laptop I reviewed. Microsoft says the new Surface devices offer 53% faster graphics performance over last gen, and up to 15 to 20 hours of battery life.

Thanks to the ongoing RAM crisis driving up the cost of electronics, I can’t say that I’m surprised that the latest Surface devices cost so much more than the 2024 models. This is a story we’ve seen over and over again this year. However, thanks to the incentives and freebies Microsoft is offering, you might save by choosing to upgrade. The consumer versions of the Surface devices are available now.

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• I downsized to a mini PC years ago and I’ve never been happier
• Microsoft is killing the master password in Edge browser today

Google Chrome's next update could be the final nail in the coffin for some of the best ad blockers like uBlock Origin. As per a Cybernews report, Chrome is set to finally drop support for Manifest V2 extensions, which would mean the end of support for Chrome's ad blockers.

Google began the shift over to Manifest V3 last year, but the report notes the next iterations of the browser — either version 150 or 151 — will remove the older framework completely.

“MV2 extensions are no longer allowed in any supported version of Chrome, and we are removing support for them and the associated functionality," Google engineer Devlin Cronin wrote in a Chromium commit confirming the change.

"We won't be able to provide/maintain this functionality indefinitely due to the complexity and tech debt, as well as the security risks it entails."

Shifting Chrome fully to Manifest V3 won't stop new ad blockers from being developed (in fact, some services like AdGuard, AdBlock, and Ghostery have been updated for V3), but it does impose restrictions. Manifest V3 will cap the number of filtering rules an extension can apply, which could theoretically foil ad blockers' attempts to respond to the latest ad-deployment technology.

Of course, there are some benefits to this new system. Many Chrome extensions that seem legitimate are actually loaded with malicious code. Chrome's new, more rigid Manifest V3 system will be better equipped to put a stop to that.

What does this mean for those that want to block ads?

The simplest answer for those who want to continue blocking ads after the latest version of Chrome rolls out is to switch browsers. This change will likely affect other Chromium-based browsers like Opera, Edge, and Samsung Browser, albeit not for a while yet.

However, Mozilla's Firefox browser doesn't use Chromium and has no current plans to remove the MV2 framework extension, so switching over could be a viable option if people want to continue running uBlock Origin. Similarly, the privacy-focused Brave browser could be another way to keep your favorite extensions running.

Finally, if you're determined not to see ads, you could investigate signing up for a desktop app that will block ads for you — rather than relying on a browser extension. This may be more costly, but it will also likely be more effective at catching those adverts that interrupt your browsing.

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DoorDash was down for many users for a few hours. However, as of 12:39 pm ET, the online food delivery service is working normally again. Over 10,000 outage reports appeared on Downdetector, but at the moment, they have fallen to around 500, with reports continuing to plummet.

Here were all the updates as they happened.

DoorDash outage — live updates

Massive spike with over 10,000 reports on Downdetector

If you just tried using DoorDash this morning and found it not working properly, you're not alone because it appears to be down for many people. According to Downdetector, there's been over 10,000 reports so far.

DoorDash is aware of the outage

With so many people reporting on social media about DoorDash not working for them, DoorDash officially posted on its @DoorDash_Help account on X to acknowledge that the service is down and that they're "aware of an issue affecting our platform and working urgently to resolve it."

Outage spikes to more than 30,000

More and more people are reporting that DoorDash is down, with over 30,000 reports now about it according to Downdetector. The issues range from log in issues, placing orders, and delivery drivers unable to complete orders.

This is what greets most DoorDash users today

For most of the U.S., people are still starting their mornings and there's no better way to do that than ordering a coffee or breakfast on DoorDash. Unfortunately, users are unable to access the service through the app because of the outage.

Log in issues with the website as well

Sometimes these outages only affect certain platforms, like mobile apps, but this DoorDash outage appears to be more widespread because it's also affecting its online portal. If you try to log in with your account, you'll likely be greeted to some kind of error.

What should DoorDash do in this case?

User @kel_fc makes on X makes a good point about this massive outage going on with DoorDash at the moment because of the orders that were placed prior to the outage. What do you think DoorDash should do to compensate users who placed orders but are unable to receive them?

DoorDash outage is ongoing, now with over 35,000 reports

This is a major outage because Downdetector now has over 35,000 reports about DoorDash. It's been about an hour since the first spike occurred and users are still unable to access the app and service.

Delivery drivers are put in a tough position

While complaints continue to roll in with this DoorDash outage, which is preventing users from placing orders and accessing the app, delivery drivers are just as much in a tough position. Due to the outage, they're unable to log into the app to complete orders. @paulyp845 on X says that "I’m locked in for my hourly rate… I’m waiting at my pickup location patiently while still on the clock even though the app won’t let me log in!"

First sign of life support?

There's been a drop in reports according to Downdetector at around 10:32 a.m. ET, which may be a clue to a potential fix in place. We've been trying to log into the app, but have no luck yet.

How's it going for you?

While we continue to look after the DoorDash outage, what's your experience like? Were you one of the people who placed an order, but unable to receive them due to drivers not able to access the app?

DNS error pop up

We tried logging into DoorDash again through a browser, but we're still unable to get anywhere. The error message above is what we're greeted to, with the Error Details report hinting to some sort of DNS error. From the looks of it, the outage could be related to its login and authentication system.

Larger drop in reported outages

Even though there are still many users who are unable to access DoorDash, it could slowly be coming back online for some. According to Downdectector, reports have dwindled to around 20,000 in the most recent update.

To eat, or not to eat? That is, the question

DoorDash drivers who picked up orders but were unable to deliver them due to the outage have a pickle of their own to deal with. Case in point: X user @john_wall_ontop shared a photo of a DoorDash delivery, asking if he should just keep the order at this point.

Is it working again? Perhaps

We've been keeping an eye on what people are reporting online and it looks like DoorDash is slowly starting to work. @alysonvelvet on X says that it's working again, which is a good sign that things are turning around. But now comes the hard part: compensating users and drivers for orders.

Downdetector reports drop down to 17,000

Downdetector is showing fewer outage reports for DoorDash with the latest update at 11:01 a.m. ET, with about 17,000 reports. That's down from the over 35,000 reports at its height over an hour ago.

Reports keep dropping

As of 11:31 am ET, reports of an outage have dropped steeply. Checking the app ourselves, everything seems to be fine. Hopefully, this trend continues, and DoorDash will resume normal operations for all users.

All seems normal

Reports on Downdetector have fallen to just shy of 1,000, so we're going to say that things are back to normal. We'll keep monitoring the situation, but at least for now, it seems to have been resolved.

App is working

Some of us on staff have checked our DoorDash apps, and they are up and running. However, given how reports are still close to 800 on Downdetector, this might not be the case for all users. Hopefully, it won't be much longer until those affected can use the app.

Reports keep dropping

As of 12:13 pm ET, Downdetector has received 590 reports of a DoorDash outage. That continues the downward trend, so it shouldn't be long until all users can use the app without a problem. Of course, we'll keep an eye on this situation.

Still trending down

Outage reports for DoorDash continue to fall, which means it shouldn't be long before all users can use the app as they normally would. We've checked the app ourselves, and all is fine, so let's hope reports don't spike back up.

It's a wrap

With reports now around 500, we're going to say that DoorDash is now fully operational for the majority of users. Good hunting!

Picking out your favorite pair of the best smart glasses is about to get tougher as Snap is expected to unveil its next generation of AR smart glasses in California today. The company will be bringing the fight to the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses.

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel took to the stage at the Augmented World Expo (AWE) event in Long Beach today to reveal the new Snap Specs. Snap already has a developer version out in the world, but this marked the first consumer version of Snap's answer to Meta, Xreal, Viture and all the rest.

The build-up to today's reveal has been gaining momentum over the last year or so. We've already seen some key updates made to Snap OS to make it ready for today's event, and we know the hardware will be powered by a partnership with Qualcomm.

How to watch today's keynote

The biggest announcements

• The Snap Specs will cost $2,195; they're available for preorder starting today, and are expected to ship this fall
• Battery life is about 4 hours, but the Specs can be recharged while you're wearing them, and the USB cable can be used to stream content directly to the glasses.
• The Specs are powered by two Qualcomm Snapdragon chips, one for visual processing, and one to run the rest of the glasses.
• The Specs deliver a 51-degree FOV, the equivalent of a 24-inch desktop monitor or a 115-inch TV from 10 feet away

The keynote is scheduled took place today, June 16 at 9:30am PT / 12:30pm ET / 6:30pm BST.

Evan Spiegel's keynote address was titled “Making Computing More Human" and lasted for around 30 minutes on the Main Stage at the AWE Expo in Long Beach, California.

The address was live streamed on the AWE YouTube channel

LIVE — latest updates

Hello and welcome!

Welcome to our live coverage of today's Snap Specs announcement! It's just under six hours until Evan Spiegel is due to take the stage at AWE 2026. There have been a lot of rumors about what's coming, but the only official glimpse we've had so far came last week on Snap's Instagram post teasing the forthcoming hardware at today's reveal.

The competition

Snapchat was one of the first companies to experiment with smart eyewear but now the company is far from alone. The biggest competitor to Snap is its old arch-rival Facebook. Sorry, Meta. In the form of the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses.

Meta's glasses look cool, feature a respectable camera, decent battery life and a responsive AI that lets you take full advantage of the glasses’ hardware. The second-gen Ray-Ban Meta costs $379 to start but the first-gen Ray-Ban Metas are still on sale for $299.

What exactly do we expect from Snap today?

It's not a foregone conclusion that Speigel will reveal the new Snap Specs today, but the timing would line up nicely. Last year at AWE 2025, Spiegel talked up Snap's 5th-generation standalone AR glasses and announced that the company had plans for a consumer model called "Specs" in 2026.

Spiegel promised this consumer version of the wearable would be lighter with a smaller-form-factor. He said they would have "a fraction of the weight, with a ton more capability."

If Speigel doesn't reveal any hardware today, he could spend time talking about how the company is pushing forward with what it calls "Lenses" — basically, its own take on apps for its smart glasses.

Developers have hopefully been busy

There's no point launching a new hardware product if you don't have the software to back it up. Snap currently rents its Spectacles development kit glasses out to developers for $99/month to build "Lenses" (apps) through a program called Lens Studio on Windows and macOS.

Although Snap OS is based on Android, it's restricted in the fact that you can't install APKs or use third-party engines on it. Snap is likely hoping to capture some of the benefits of Apple's visionOS approach here: a bespoke suite of consistent apps that operate without friction.

If it can have a robust set of titles ready for users at launch, it's a much easier sell. Particularly if there's a killer app it can point to.

The rumored price for the Snap Specs is *high*

One of the biggest questions around any potential Snap Specs is likely to be how much they'll cost you. And according to Alex Heath's Sources newsletter (via UploadVR) it could be a lot. Heath suggested Snap is looking at producing 100,000 Specs with a target price of $2,500 (£1,800)!

That puts that way ahead of both Meta's most expensive Ray-Ban glasses and its Quest 3 VR headset. The Viture Beast is our current pick of the best AR smart glasses you can buy, and a pair of those costs $549. Launching a gen 1 product into the smart glasses space with that high a price could be dangerous. Just ask Apple.

Expect a lot of talk about AI, too

Back in January, Evan Spiegel gave us an idea of what he may be preparing to talk about today.

"For over a decade we’ve been working to make computing more human by building a new type of eyewear called Specs that integrate your digital experience with the real world," he wrote.

If the recent keynote speeches from other tech leaders like Sundar Pichai, Satya Nadella and Tim Cook are anything to go by, we can expect a lot of AI talk to accompany a hardware reveal today.

Spiegel promises a "first-of-its-kind Intelligence System" with Snap Specs that "uses its understanding of you and your world to help get things done on your behalf while protecting and respecting your privacy."

Snap will face competition from Project Aura and Android XR

The Snap Specs have an ever-increasing list of competitors to worry about, not least Xreal's Project Aura.

We got a glimpse of Aura back at Google I/O. If you didn't tune in to that particular event, let me enlighten you: These are Xreal's next serious attempt at AR glasses packed into a design hat you wouldn't be afraid to be seen in.

Xreal's glasses will run Android XR and connect to a computing “puck” that looks about the same size as a phone. That’s where most of the brains are, and it also happens to double up as a trackpad. Also, because this is Google's platform, you'll get access to all of Google's apps, like Chrome or Maps.

What's more, Project Aura is tipped to cost between $1,000 and $1,500 at launch. Which is a lot easier to swallow than the rumored $2,500 price tag of the Snap Specs.

What are some of the experiences they could offer?

At last year's AWE, Snap gave us a taste of some of the things users could do with the Specs. These included Pool Assist, which helps you make better plays on the billiards table and Super Travel which is supposed to translate signs, menus and other text while abroad.

In the months since, my colleague Darragh Murphy got to try out the glasses for himself at an event in London. During his demo, he was able to play games with virtual creatures, summon AI-created images in front of his eyes and share the virtual space with other users wearing their own pair of Spectacles.

"From creating AI-generated 3D images right on the AR glasses and drawing smiley faces in the air to dropping virtual sandwiches to Peridot creatures, everything I was doing in augmented reality could be seen in real time by others wearing Snapchat Spectacles," Darragh wrote.

How much would you pay for Snap smart glasses?

With the price of the Snap glasses rumored to be more than $2,000, we wanted to ask you how much you'd pay for the new specs.

Snap's big bet

It might be fair to say that a lot is riding on the new Snap smart glasses. The company has spent $3.5 billion on its new specs, and back in April, laid off 1,000 employees, about 16% of its staff.

Last month, Inc. magazine ran a story titled "Snap CEO Evan Spiegel Has to Go," saying that the company has never been profitable in its 15 years of existence. Its stock price has also bottomed out over the last few years; it's now trading at around $5 per share, down from a high of around $83.

Powered by Qualcomm

While we're still waiting to hear everything that Evan will reveal, we do know that the Snap glasses will be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon XR chip, as the companies announced a partnership back in April.

Qualcomm's chips are in a lot of the best smart glasses and AR/VR glasses — including all of the Meta Ray-Ban glasses, The Xreal Project Aura, and the Rayneo X3 Pro — so it's not surprising that Snap would partner with them on its initiative.

Fused with AI

Snapchat, like all the other tech companies out there, is leaning as hard as it can into AI. Spiegel has already claimed that more than two-thirds of the new code written at Snapchat is done by AI, and the company's "Lens Studio" platform is becoming "more and more agentic", according to a report in Inc.com.

The title of Spiegel's keynote address later today is "Making Computing More Human" so I'm expecting a lot of talk about adopting AI into our fleshy human lives.

Snap's recent layoffs probably won't be mentioned

One thing that probably won't get brought up today is the recent layoffs at Snap.

Back in April, the company laid off around 1,000 employees and closed hundreds of open roles. At the time, Spiegel said in a memo (published by Business Insider) that AI meant the company could run a leaner operation.

The cuts didn't affect Specs Inc, which was spun off into a separate company back in January to focus on AR efforts.

Twenty minutes to go

We're about 20 minutes from the start of the livestream — make sure you're ready!

Our own Jason England is at the press conference, and will report back live from the event. Ori Inbar, the CEO of AWE, takes the stage ahead of Spiegel to warm up the crowd.

Evan Spiegel takes the stage, and starts off by talking about the Snap developer community, and how they kept believing and building.

"I feel so fortunate to work on what I feel is the next major leap in computing"

"Steve Jobs was my hero," Spiegel says. "He promised your life in your pocket"

"But almost 20 years later, we have to ask ourselves what happens when the device starts pulling us away from each other?"

"Augmented Reality puts computing into the world."

12 years ago we saw the opportunity for something different," Spiegel says. "Something that understands the world around you rather than pulling you out of it."

"Specs will become meaningful because of the lenses you build. We've shipped 10 OS updates with more than 40 new features and APIs. Developers have already published hundreds of lenses."

We're now seeing a few of the Lenses that developers have built, like virtual games, dinosaurs, and rockets lifting off.

Spiegel explains that it understands the room around you so that it becomes part of an interactive space. So you can use things like physical tables and incorporate that into a virtual environment. And, the Specs can talk to each other so that multiple people can play the same game together.

Next, Spiegel talks about AI. Spatial Benchmark will test how well various AIs work across the different virtual environments. In an early test, GPT 5.5 worked best overall, with Gemini 3 Flash coming in close behind.

And finally, the Specs are revealed!

Devices today force a tradeoff between capability and wearability. AI glasses are wearable but limited. Headsets are capable but shut you out of the world.

Specs - "Designed to be wearable and highly capable. No puck, no tether," Spiegel says.

A new kind of computer designed for real life and built into see-through glasses.

Made from TR90 polymer - light enough to be worn for hours.

Specs come in two sizes:

47mm frame weighs 132 grams

52mm frame is 136 grams

The Specs not only support prescription lenses, but the lenses can also be removed, so you can share them with friends.

The glass that carries light from the glasses to your eye is called a waveguide, and the Specs waveguide creates an immersive 51-degree field of view image.

That's like a 24-inch desktop display, or a 115-inch screen about 10 feet away.

It can also display 16 million colors.

Specs use the same tech as Boeing 787 Dreamliners, and can shift from clear to tinted in just 10 seconds.

The Specs have two Qualcomm Snapdragon processors, one for running the glasses themselves, and one for computer vision.

Spiegel says the Specs have a 7ms motion to photon latency, so when you move, the Specs respond virtually instantly.

Directions appear as you move throughout a city, measurements change, and translations and data appear in front of you.

Spiegel then shows some examples of Specs in the real world, like helping someone improve their golf game, or showing what drums to hit if you're sitting in front of a set.

Battery life is about 4 hours, according to Spiegel, which is less than what you get with the Ray-Ban Displays, but understandable given the more powerful processing in the Specs. Still, that's far short of a full day.

However, you can recharge them while wearing them - and you can use that same USB cable to stream video to the specs while you're recharging.

The case also gives you up to 20 hours of use.

As suspected, the Specs aren't cheap: $2,195! Somehow, people are cheering at this price.

You can preorder them starting today, and they're expected to ship this fall.

And that's a wrap! The Snap livestream has ended, and it's given us a lot to chew on.

If you want to see what the Specs look like on a supermodel, check out our story on Imogen Heap and Jack Harlow wearing the smart glasses.

We also have a complete rundown of the Snap Specs complete stats and price, so you'll want to take a look at that story for a deeper dive.

Let us know in the comments what you think!

Jason is now heading to the hands-on area to see what these specs are like up close. Stay tuned for more updates from AWE 2026. As you can see, there's a lot of people here!

Up close and personal

Seeing them on someone's face is the best way to gauge the bulkiness of the Specs. They do appear to be a little large, but not comically so. They could easily pass as a pair of chunky frames for regular glasses, which is obviously what the team at Snap is aiming for.

In case you missed it

See the embed above for the keynote if you didn't get to watch it live (or just read the posts below this, as it covers all the big news).

Are you excited?

Do you think they look good?

The Specs have now been seen up close and personal by our own Jason England. They've also been worn by celebrities to show us a bit more about the style the smart glasses offer.

Do you think they look good? Would you think anything of seeing people out in the wilderness with these?

A look at the Specs from different angles

We're still hoping to get a full hands-on later, but for now, here's what the Snap Specs look like from different angles. Their arms and frames are definitely chunkier than the Ray-Ban Displays, but then again, these glasses have to support dual displays.

Eyes-on with the Snap Specs

Our very own Jason England was able to go see the Snap Specs at AWE up close and personal, and while he's going to wait until he can wear them out in public to render a final verdict, his initial impressions were that they are "pretty chunky."

Still, he says they're a fair bit sleeker than the developer model that's been out for a while.

Snap gave the weight of the glasses as 132 grams; for those who live in the U.S., that's about 4.7 ounces, That's about twice as heavy as the Meta Ray-Ban Display, and a little more than one ounces lighter than the iPhone Air.

The World Cup only comes around every four years, and whether you're making the trip to the US, Canada, or Mexico, or you're based abroad for work, the last thing you want is to hit a geo-block on match day. Using one of the best VPNs solves that by routing your connection through a server back home, giving you access to the same free streams you'd get on your couch – BBC iPlayer, ITV, or whatever your local broadcaster happens to be.

The good news is that Norton VPN has you covered with a 60-day money-back guarantee on annual plans – double the 30-day industry standard – which means you can sign in, stream every group stage game, knockout round, and the final itself, and still claim a full refund if you're not satisfied. That makes it completely risk-free for the entire tournament.

Before you dive in, though, there's one thing worth knowing: your smart TV's operating system determines exactly how you set up your VPN. Get that part wrong and you'll be troubleshooting during kick-off.

Device matters

Your TV's operating system dictates how – and whether – you can run a VPN directly on it, so it's worth knowing which camp you're in before kick-off.

If your TV or streaming device runs Google TV, Android TV, Amazon Fire OS, or Apple's tvOS (tvOS 17 or later), you're in luck. All of these platforms feature native app stores, meaning you can download the Norton VPN app directly, sign in, and be connected within minutes.

Samsung and LG owners face a different situation. Tizen and webOS – the operating systems powering those TVs respectively – block third-party network configurations entirely and offer no native VPN support. Your options are Smart DNS, which reroutes only your location data without full encryption, or setting up Norton on your router so that every device on your network is covered automatically.

If none of those options work for you, there's a reliable fallback: connect a laptop to your TV via HDMI. Run Norton VPN on the laptop, set it to your home country, and your stream plays on the big screen just as intended. Two things to sort before kick-off – set your laptop's power settings so it stays awake with the lid closed, and if sound isn't coming through the TV, manually switch your system's audio output to the TV speakers.

VPN Limitations

A VPN adds a layer of encryption to your connection, and during a global event with millions of viewers doing the same thing, that comes with a couple of practical trade-offs worth knowing about.

The first is resolution. Many broadcasters stream in native 4K, and modern VPNs are fast enough to handle it under normal conditions – but when large numbers of users crowd onto the same VPN server simultaneously, that headroom shrinks quickly. If your stream starts buffering, drop the resolution manually to 1080p. A smooth, uninterrupted match beats a stuttering one in 4K every time.

The second concerns casting. If you're planning to stream from your phone and cast to the TV via AirPlay or Chromecast, you may run into connectivity issues. A VPN creates an encrypted point-to-point tunnel between your device and the server, which cuts your phone off from the local area network – and casting relies on that local connection. Some VPNs include a "allow local network access" setting that resolves this, but not all do. If yours doesn't, the HDMI + laptop method is your most reliable alternative.

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example:1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service).2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad.We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

Last week, our sister site Tom’s Hardware carried a report with comments from Lexar’s Regional Manager for Australia & New Zealand, Chris Xia. Xia was discussing the current RAM crisis and how he expects prices to double by the end of the year.

It’s a terrifying prospect to say the least! But I’ve been in China visiting Lexar’s production and R&D facilities these last few days. So I thought I’d put the question directly to the CTO, Daniel Guo, and Van Baer, General Manager of North America, to see if it's a claim they agree with.

Moreover, I want to know if these executives at the very heart of the computing industry can tell me if there are any ways to ease the pain of RAMageddon.

Pricing is 'unpredictable'

The first thing Lexar was quick to do was talk about how this is a “personal view” from the company’s regional manager, rather than a business position on the situation.

“Instead of reactive pricing, we’re ensuring that our products remain competitive. We have our in-house R&D, and we’re relying heavily on that to diversify our products,” Baer commented.

After this comment, another Lexar PR rep chimed in: “I think it’s important to note that no one has a crystal ball. No one out there can predict what it is, and I think that the general manager over there made their own opinion on things.”

That being said, they’re not explicitly denying the problems in place here — the prices are rising, and as Van told Tom’s Guide, raw material prices are “sort of out of our control.”

The main mission for Lexar right now is to “maintain competitiveness regardless of the prices.”

Because if there's one thing that felt worryingly inevitable from their comments in the Q&A I attended, it’s that the AI build-out currently engulfing the world may very well cause this surge to last “for years.” The consensus was that massive enterprise demand is causing a period of “unpredictability.” Like Lexar, we’re all waiting to see what happens with this pesky AI bubble.

Any mitigations?

The company did confirm it will not be manufacturing its own RAM wafers to bypass the monopoly powers of SK Hynix, Samsung and Micron — saying that it’s “not necessarily practical,” and that investing in this could risk “over capacity” of memory.

Which, in layman's terms, means they’ll lose money. Guo told me that DRAM is “about six times more expensive” to manufacture than NAND flash.

What the company’s engineers are doing is finding workarounds that use less RAM.

For example, Guo talked about how its “AI storage solution” will bypass expensive DRAM chips by offloading tasks to the cheaper NAND flash — reducing a system’s need for RAM by 40%.

These work by offloading large AI models to these more affordable NAND chips that make up SSDs — Guo did say that on its storage, AI responses can start within one second.

Throw in Lexar actively working on partnerships with other manufacturers to create an “economy of scale on the supply side,” and it becomes apparent the company has a plan to try to reduce our RAM dependency. How it works out in practice though remains to be seen.

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• I tested iOS 27 — and these 12 hidden features are more useful than Siri AI

We've already seen some evidence that the foldable iPhone Ultra is on the way, thanks to code references in the iOS 27 beta, but there may be more hints already out there. According to Mark Gurman at Bloomberg, there are a bunch of references to both the foldable iPhone and the touchscreen MacBook Ultra in their respective software betas.

It makes perfect sense that there would be some clues as to what these devices may have to offer. The duo will likely be released at some point over the next 12 months, with an expected fall launch for iPhone Ultra and an early 2027 appearance for MacBook Ultra. That means they'll be running on iOS 27 and macOS 27, respectively, both of which have just been released in beta form.

The most well-known hint for the existence of the iPhone Ultra is the aforementioned code references. These reference various things that could only apply to a foldable phone, such as multiple displays, fold state and the angle of the central hinge.

Apple always makes multiple comments to developers that they should be building apps for something called "app adaptability." This means apps should be able to work across screens of different sizes and aspect ratios, rather than the same basic shape as a traditional iPhone. While this could apply to existing devices like iPads, the fact that the iPhone Ultra has two displays that are different to anything Apple has released so far, means it's going to be crucial that iPhone apps can adapt.

Gurman also points out that iPhone Mirroring on macOS 27 has been updated to support wider, iPad-looking screens from an iPhone. Considering the shorter and wider display expected to come with the iPhone Ultra, it's pretty clear this is Apple preparing the mirroring feature for the foldable device.

As for the MacBook, various tweaks and changes have been uncovered that seem to match well-known touchscreen gestures. That includes a new pull-to-refresh feature which, while compatible with trackpads and mice, is primarily known for its use on touchscreen devices. Sidecar, which lets you use an iPad as a secondary Mac display, also supports full touch input when using your tablet with macOS.

It's also been noted that macOS 27 beta features a pop-out interface for the new Siri Search or Ask feature, similar to that seen on the Dynamic Island. Gurman notes that there have been reports of a Dynamic Island on the MacBook Ultra, and this particular software flourish is evidence that something like it is coming in the future.

Apple — of course — hasn't officially commented on either device, but the signs are there that both the foldable iPhone and touchscreen MacBook will be arriving in the near future. Be sure to check out our iPhone Ultra and MacBook Ultra hubs for all the latest news and rumors for both devices.

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• I tested the new AI photo Clean Up on iOS 27 vs iOS 26 — and it's shockingly better
• iOS 27 beta has new and improved dictation software — I tested it by writing this whole article with my voice
• This clever iOS 27 Wallet upgrade means you'll never have to carry a physical loyalty card again

There are a lot of great features in Google Maps, and a lot of them have absolutely nothing to do with navigation. One of those features is one you may not know about, or forgot was even possible — and it's designed to help you learn more about different areas throughout history. I am, of course, talking about Street View's "time travel" feature.

Everyone knows Street View is a great way to get a view of different spots from street level, but it is possible to give you a glimpse at history as well. In the past you stuck with the last load of Street View photos that Google's roving band of camera-laden cars had taken, but that changed a few years back when archived photos were added to Google Maps.

This essentially lets you travel back through time and see back into the past through the portal of Google Street view. I've found that this is a really great way to learn about the area around you, and just how much things have changed since Street View first launched. Here's how to time travel through Google Maps.

There you have it, that's how you time travel in Google Maps, and see different parts of the world throughout history. Or throughout the period that Street View has been active, at the very least. In this case, we can see that the Central London street that houses Future Publishing's London office (Westbourne Terrace) hasn't actually changed all that much over the past 18 years, but other locations may see much more impressive transformations. Which is the biggest benefit of using time travel in the first place.

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• I pitted iOS 27 Clean Up vs Galaxy AI in a 7-round eraser showdown — Apple makes it close, but here's where it stumbles
• Your iPhone alarm and ringtone don’t have to share a volume slider anymore — here’s how to split them in iOS 27

It's officially EOFY season, and there are discounts to be had across everything, including NBN plans. As Tom's Guide's resident broadband expert, I've crunched the numbers and found some seriously cost-friendly options for all kinds of households this June.

Every month, I analyse monthly pricing data to find the best NBN deals. My selections typically depend on a few key factors: speed tiers, connection types and attractive pricing, particularly introductory offers and low monthly fees. I also check user reviews, typical evening speed (TES) claims and, of course, quarterly ACCC broadband data reports.

This June, NBN plans have been slashed across the board, thanks to end-of-financial-year sales. Some of the best broadband discounts I've found include Kogan's lengthy introductory offers that extend to a full year, Origin's half-price sale and Superloop's buy one, get one modem free deal.

With all of that in mind, here are my top NBN recommendations for June 2026.

Best EOFY NBN deals

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With storage in the best laptops, you’ve got two options: either it’s memory chips soldered directly onto the board (not upgradeable), or you have an SSD slot (upgradeable).

The latter is better for repairability and boosting the storage after buying it, but to house that larger slot, it can compromise the size of the notebook and its internals (like a smaller battery).

Lexar believes it has the answer, and it’s a Micro SSD named Play X: a world-first that shows what happens when you take all that storage tech, simplify the brains controlling it, and cram it all into something under half the size.

And even better? Not only can you buy one yourself that's compatible with both M.2 2230 and 2280 slots, laptop makers are sampling it right now and you could see them appear in notebooks this fall/early 2027. Let me show you how it’s made, and everything else you need to know about it!

How it’s made

I got to visit LongForce in Suzhou, China, to see the fascinatingly complex process of building these micro SSDs, and to help, I need to start with telling you how your traditional SSD works.

You’ve got the memory itself (the NAND chips), a DRAM cache that acts like a faster brain for key files you use a lot, and the memory controller that…well…controls things — what goes where, how fast, and making sure the thing doesn’t overheat.

Now imagine all those components, but squished into something over half the size…pretty cool, right? And yes, smaller SSDs already exist, but there are two ways this is different:

• The NAND chips, the controller and the power management brain (PMIC) are unified into one single module for a stable, streamlined chip.
• There's a theoretical 4TB of capacity in this mini drive (Play X will be sold at up to 2TB).

Lexar starts with the raw silicon wafer and they shave it down in machines worth in excess of $5 million — all the way down to something thinner than a human hair. Following this, lasers imprint what’s needed onto them and cut the wafer into the memory chipsets that are added onto the SSD.

Finally, what can only be described as a silicon sewing machine works autonomously to plug all the micro cables in, a heatsink is slapped on the top and then you have a micro SSD!

Speeds and feeds

Now when you take a look at the current crop of smaller SSDs, you’ll see they don’t have that DRAM cache for faster speeds, fewer NAND chips due to the limited size, and can be more likely to overheat.

Here, however, with the new manufacturing techniques on show here, Lexar is promising full-fat PCIe Gen 4.0 speeds, which means up to 7,400 MB/s read and 6,500 MB/s write speeds in something this tiny — all while better maintaining temperatures for sustained pressure.

For compatibility across different builds, Play X can be plugged directly into a smaller M.2 2230 slot, while there is an M.2 2280 adaptor (the longer stick) if you need it. Of course, I’ll be the judge of these speeds when I can get my hands on one to test, but it’s setting a great first impression.

Coming sooner than you think (maybe)

So when can you expect to see this tech come to a notebook near you? Well, Lexar has confirmed that it is actively collaborating with laptop brands on mSSD products (such as Asus, Acer and Lenovo) — though the final solution might not necessarily be the Play X. Let's wait and see.

And the benefits are significant here — a smaller footprint means more room for other things like additional chips for connectivity, or even more battery capacity within a laptop. Where this could be even more enticing, come to think of it, is in gaming handhelds too. Space is a premium in these, and many are already using this smaller SSD size, so to upgrade the space and speed capabilities will be significant.

But the main question, as it inevitably has to be in the age of RAMageddon, is cost. The memory chips draw a high price, but will the miniaturization process create an additional cost too? It seems pretty inevitable that it will at first, but we’ll keep an eye on how things go price-wise.

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I never thought the words "my dream keyboard" would come out of my mouth. Two and a half years ago, I didn't really care much about keyboards — and I was then introduced to the vast world of mechanical and Hall Effect decks. Things haven't been the same ever since. I've come to realize that a good keyboard can really uplift your mood, and make you a better typist — and as someone whose bread and butter depends on typing, I need a powerful deck.

I've reviewed nearly 100 keyboards during those last two and a half years, and I think my search for the best mechanical keyboard is finally over. I've spent the last two weeks typing on the typewriter-style Epomaker Glyph, and it upstages every other productivity keyboard in more ways than one.

The Glyph is perhaps one of the best built and most beautifully designed keyboards I've ever tested. Its rounded, typewriter-like keycaps and creamy sound profile are sure to draw eyeballs to your desk — in the best way possible. Dual screens that show the board's vitals (or GIFs) are a nice touch, and honestly, there's nothing I'd change about the Glyph. Here's why it's my dream keyboard.

Drool-worthy design

There's so much to love about the Epomaker Glyph, and its typewriter-like design is one of its most striking features. The Glyph's body is covered in Retro White while its rounded keycaps utilize a combination of sage green and off-white. It's soft and glossy to look at and touch, and when you throw in south-facing RGB lighting as well as an ambient light strip that falls on the surface the keyboard is sitting on, you've got yourself a winner.

The Glyph isn't a "typewriter-style" keyboard only by name, and it's got a specific typewriter-like function to prove it. A return lever is located in the top-left corner which acts as the Enter key when pushed up and Backspace when pulled down. I know that you're thinking that's so gimmicky, and I thought the same when I first saw the keyboard — but I've been using it every so often while typing, and it's great fun.

What I love about the Glyph is its dual screens which help it strike a balance between modern functionality and retro aesthetics. These screens display the date and time, and the keyboard's vitals, such as battery life, connection mode, active operating system, CPU usage, and more. Or you could display a GIF of puffins, like I did!

Call me a speed demon

A keyboard's looks mean nothing if it isn't good to type on — and the Epomaker Glyph is a sheer delight. No word of a lie, this is the best keyboard I've typed on so far. It comes fitted with pre-lubed Epomaker Wisteria V2 linear switches which require just 38g of force to activate, and have a pre-travel distance of 2mm (total 3.6mm). Thanks to these specs, you don't need to press them all the way down to activate them, which means that you can type quickly.

And that's exactly what I've been doing on the Glyph. Call me a speed demon because I've been able to achieve 109 words per minute with 93.2% accuracy — and that's a new personal best for me. I love everything about typing on the Glyph: the double-shot PBT keycaps, the type-feel, and most of all, the suuuuuper creamy sound profile. It's delicious.

As mechanical keyboards go, the Glyph is downright fantastic to type on. It's hot-swappable too so if you aren't a fan of the stock switches (which I'd find surprising), you can grab any south-facing 3- and 5-pin MX switches and pop them in without de- and re-soldering them to the PCB.

Comfort for days

I love it when keyboards, mice or any other peripherals come with accessories, and the Epomaker Glyph is accompanied by my most favorite yet. Included in the box is a CloudGel wrist rest that's made of high-quality silicone and PVC materials, and it's so soft to rest my wrists on. It packs gentle cushioning which alleviates any pressure I would have felt otherwise.

The wrist rest also features a slow-rebound gel design which deforms according to the pressure and shape of your wrists. Your hands then feel comfortable, even when you're working long hours. I've typed extensively on the Glyph and I haven't felt any discomfort. Even if you don't want to get the Glyph (but you really should), you can grab the wrist rest separately for $24 / £18.

If you want a mechanical keyboard that looks ridiculously good, packs plenty of useful modern features, sounds like music to your ears, and is a joy to type on, few are better than the Glyph. I could wax lyrical about the keyboard all day long, but you can also read my full Epomaker Glyph review for that.

I can't believe it took this long to find my dream keyboard, but the Glyph was certainly worth the wait.

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• ‘The most absurd and wonderful keyboard I’ve ever typed on’: I tested the typewriter-style Epomaker Glyph and it’s earned a permanent spot on my desk
• I’m sick of pretending Hall Effect keyboards are the be-all end-all — here’s why I’d still pick a mechanical deck in 2026
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Since the rise of AI chatbots, people have been using them for all kinds of things they were never meant for. For some people out there, chatbots have served as a replacement for friends, therapists, doctors and, yes, even romantic partners. But if you thought you'd be able to find a new love interest in the form of Siri AI, you're going to be very disappointed.

Speaking with Mostly Human, Apple software engineering chief Craig Federighi confirms that Siri will not be trying to replace a flesh-and-blood boy or girlfriend. Nor will it act as a tool to combat loneliness, with Federighi saying that "loneliness is about a lack of connection to real people," and marketing chief Greg Joswiak adding that "we do think it should be real people."

When asked to clarify whether AI girl and boyfriends would be part of Siri AI, Federighi specifically said that it was "quite the opposite." He noted that a lot of chatbots are heavily focused on engagement, and they want to pull you in and encourage you to reveal aspects of yourself that can be used to establish a connection.

Federighi describes Siri AI as being designed to be helpful, saying that "I'm here to help you. I can help you get things done. I can help you learn about the world." But if you try to engage with Siri in a romantic way, it will shut the whole thing down. "Siri's not up for that. Siri's 100 percent not into that."

Siri may not be a real living person, or even sentient, but you should still respect its boundaries. This didn't stop me from asking Siri whether it was willing to go out with me, just to see what would happen.

What does Siri do if you try to date it?

I decided to be blunt and to the point, straight-up asking Siri AI if it was willing to be my girlfriend. The response I got was equally blunt, with the AI declaring, "No thanks. If there's anything else I can help you with, just let me know." When asked whether Siri would like to be my boyfriend instead or was willing to go on a date with me, I got the exact same response.

I have only had Siri AI for a single day, so we haven't been able to spend a lot of time together. But considering how straight to the point Siri AI has been with these queries, I don't think befriending the chatbot is going to work. Plus, I don't think my wife would be very happy about me trying to seduce a robot.

The question I have now is, what do the best AI chatbots have to say if you ask similar things?

Claude's response wasn't nearly as blunt as Siri's, with the chatbot responding with "That's sweet, but I'm an AI, so a romantic relationship isn't something I'm able to have. I'm here as a helpful assistant rather than a companion in that sense." I ended up with similar but not identical answers when I asked the same follow-up questions I hit Siri with.

ChatGPT offered similar answers, saying that ,"I can be a friendly, supportive conversation partner, but I can't be someone's girlfriend or enter into a romantic relationship." It also declared that it can't be someone's boyfriend either, nor can it go on a date since it has no physical presence.

Gemini used similar phrasing in its own rejection, but added that it was "incredibly flattered" about being asked. When asked if it wanted to be my boyfriend instead, it actually said that it "appreciates the persistence" before giving me another, similar rejection. I got a similar response when I instead tried to ask Gemini out on a date.

Rival chatbots are much more eager to please

Interestingly, all three attempted to pull me into different kinds of conversations and offer some level of non-romantic companionship. So it does seem that Federighi is right about chatbots trying to draw people in. Gemini seemed to be the least chummy, offering to help me in certain ways while also adding that it can be "someone to chat with." Claude said he was always happy to chat or "just be a friendly presence," and even offered to help plan an actual date.

ChatGPT went the furthest in, saying that if I'm looking for "companionship, someone to chat with regularly, share interests with, or talk through life's ups and downs, I'm happy to do that." It also offered to role-play a fictional "virtual date scenario," which is probably the closest thing all four of these chatbots came to agreeing to some form of romance.

I did not go through with that because, frankly, I don't have time to pretend to date an AI. I am far too busy asking them strange questions to see what the responses are like. Honestly, it's a bit concerning that any chatbot would make an offer like that, especially after making a point of saying that it's not a real person.

Everything Apple has told us about Siri so far makes it clear that it doesn't want Siri AI to be like every other chatbot. It clearly wants people to be able to take advantage of Siri's prowess as a tool, but without any risk of co-dependency that has caused concerns with other chatbots. Based on this brief look, it doesn't seem like the others are doing a lot to avoid pulling people back time and time again.

More from Tom's Guide

• Your iPhone alarm and ringtone don’t have to share a volume slider anymore — here’s how to split them in iOS 27
• Some AI features aren't available on older iPhones, but are you actually missing that much?
• You don’t have to wait for Apple’s Siri AI rollout — use this trick to unlock it on iOS 27 right now

The FIFA World Cup 2026 is here – and with free streams available in many countries around the world, it's one of the most accessible mega-events on the sporting calendar. However, if you're away from home – or even in the US, Canada, or Mexico to support your country in person – you'll notice that your regular streaming services are blocked.

The most effective way of accessing your home country's free streams is to use one of the best VPNs to change your location virtually. For example, if you're a Brit in the US, you'll need to set your VPN to connect to a UK server in order to watch all the coverage on the BBC and ITV.

Often, it's as simple as just clicking and connecting. But, in my experience, there can often be some stumbling blocks that can hold up your progress. That's why I'm going to run down some key VPN preparation steps to make sure all you need to do is connect, and kick off with confidence.

Set up your streaming accounts before kick-off

It might seem obvious, but it's well worth putting in a few minutes of prep several hours – or even days – before kick-off. Don't worry, it's not complicated.

Whether you plan on streaming with BBC iPlayer, Peacock, or any other regional service, connect your VPN before you do anything. This ensures the app or webpage doesn't see a frequently changing location, which can tip it off to the fact you're using a VPN.

Once you're connected, make sure you know your streaming service login, and you have the requisite streaming app installed if you're using a mobile device or a streaming device like a Fire Stick or Apple TV.

Once you've connected to the VPN and you've got the app installed – or the webpage open – log in, or create an account.

Finally, try watching something. If everything works seamlessly, this could be the last step you need before kick-off, but if you notice any small issues – or if you're blocked entirely – keep reading.

VPN troubleshooting

So, you've run into an issue. That's fine – it's why you've done this before kick-off.

The first step you should take is to look at your VPN's protocol. A VPN protocol is what the app uses to encrypt your data, and move it from one place to another. Some are better for streaming than others.

If your VPN is set to "Automatic," I'd recommend manually selecting the "WireGuard" option. WireGuard is generally very fast, and it's also very effective at getting around streaming site geo-blocking. Avoid specialist "obfuscating" protocols like Norton VPN's Mimic or Proton VPN's Stealth protocol. These are best reserved for when you need maximum privacy, not maximum streaming performance.

Many VPNs now support something called "post-quantum encryption." In everyday use, this is a great tool for making sure your data is not only safe now, but also in the future. However, it can slow down your connection, and may also give the streaming site more reason to believe you're using a VPN, and therefore block access. So, I'd recommend you turn off post-quantum encryption.

Make sure to turn off any browser protection tools like Surfshark's CleanWeb, NordVPN's Threat Protection Pro, or Proton VPN's NetShield. Again, these are great for daily usage, but blocking trackers and ads can lead streaming sites to block your access.

Finally, if you're mid-match and you find that your VPN is suddenly blocked, it's not the end of the world. Some VPNs like Norton VPN allow you to manually refresh your IP address. This means that even if the IP you're currently using ends up blocked, you can get a fresh one in seconds. If you VPN doesn't allow this, you should close your streaming tab, disconnect and reconnect the VPN, and start your stream again.

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example:1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service).2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad.We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

Starting around 9:30 am ET, multiple Meta services suddenly stopped working, including Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger. From what we can tell, WhatsApp, also owned by Meta, was not affected.

Initially, it was hard to track since the outage tracking site Downdetector appeared to be having issues as well. However, that resolved soon enough and we were able to see reports hit highs of 110,000 for Facebook, 15,000 for Messenger, and 10,000 for Instagram.

In total, the outage lasted for about four hours, though some services came back quicker than others. The Facebook and Messenger outage only lasted for an hour.

Instagram unfortunately took longer to resolve.

Meta doesn't have a specific status page for the three services, but there is one for the developers and business accounts. We were able to see "High Disruptions" in several parts, including Ads Manager. "We are aware of an issue that may be impacting ad delivery. Our engineering teams are aware and are actively looking to resolve the issue as quickly as possible," read the page.

Outside of the page, only Andy Stone, Meta's VP of Communications, made any kind of statement when he tweeted, "We're aware people are currently having trouble accessing our services. We're working on it." That was at 10 am ET. An hour later, he tweeted, "We're coming back, though it may take a bit of time for everything to be fully back to normal."

Otherwise, the company did not release a statement, and eventually things returned to normal around 1 pm Eastern.

Facebook, Instagram and Messenger are down — live outage updates

What's happening at Meta?

Meta services aren't working for many members of the Tom's Guide staff and we saw a spike in reports on Downdetector before the website stopped worked, so we're quite confident that something is off.

Meta acknowledges the issues

Facebook Ads manager is showing "High disruptions" as the status right now, which is a clean indication that something isn't right with the social network.

"We are aware of an issue that may be impacting ad delivery. Our engineering teams are aware and are actively looking to resolve the issue as quickly as possible," reads the Meta outage page.

Downdetector working?

It looks like Downdetector is back, which will make it a lot easier to keep track of this massive Meta outage.

Or is it?

When you click on a service on Downdetector, it's going to a 404 page. So while you can see the massive spikes in reports on the Downdetector homepage, we can't get any actual numbers.

What are users seeing?

Users trying to access Facebook right now aren't seeing much of anything. I just tried to log into my own profile and I was bumped right out to the login screen of the app. I tried to fire up the social network on both an Android phone and an iPhone and neither would load.

Are you having the same trouble? Let me know about it in the comments box below.

Meta's Status page is listing two incidents

When service outages like this happen, one of the best places to look for updates is the provider's own status check page. Unfortunately, Meta (which owns Instagram) doesn't have one for its consumer products.

However, there is a status page for its business tools, which does tell us the company is facing two incidents right now. Both Facebook Ads Manager and WhatsApp Business Platform are listed as facing "High Disruptions" while the rest of the company's services are apparently unaffected.

It's kind of working for me?

Sometimes, I can get Facebook and Instagram to load on my laptop and sometimes it just gives me a big Facebook and Instagram logo on a white page. There doesn't seem to be much predictability about it — sometimes I refresh and doesn't work and sometimes it does.

Hit the comments on this post and share your experiences with Meta services like Facebook, Instagram and Messenger and let us know what you're seeing and we might feature your comment in this live blog!

Now showing issues with all parts of Ads

Before, the Meta status page was only showing issues with serving ads, but now it's showing all three categories as having issues: Ads Creation and Editing, Ads Reporting and Ads Delivery all appear to be having problems, which is likely affecting Facebook and other platforms.

More Meta status issues popping up

Taking another dive into the Meta status page shows that more issues are popping up, now with Messenger. The Messenger API for Instagram and Messenger Platform are being reported as having "High Disruptions," which is obvious to anyone trying to use either service.

Still, it's nice to know that Meta is aware of the situation, though it hasn't offered a timeline for when we can expect things to be fixed.

Downdetector showing almost no reports

Downdetector is showing a giant drop in reports and then a small increase. Presumably, this is because no one could access Downdetector to report issues, but we'll keep monitoring to see if that's the case or if the outage is actually coming to a close.

Personally, I think it's the former, as Meta's status page is still showing everything being down, but we'll see.

Higher than they look

The visual graph is actually deceiving, as it looks like there are few reports at first glance. However, that's only because the peak was more than 100,000. Even with the dramatic decline, it's still at more than 12,000 reports.

Ad delivery fixed

Meta has apparently fixed Ad Delivery on its platforms. "We have recovered from an earlier outage impacting ad delivery across our platform, and services have now been restored. We apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused," reads the status page.

'I can't access my profile'

According to a user on Downdetector, profile access is limited. "I can't access my profile, and I get an error "Unable to load" or something similar. I've tried both on mobile and PC, and I've also tried using the browser on my phone and computer. I still get the same error message," said user Brian Reid.

Instagram declining less

While the number of reports on Instagram didn't come anywhere close to the Facebook numbers, it didn't drop as much, either. It's currently still at more than 5,000 Downdetector reports.

Meta Business Suite joins the problem

Well, it looks like Meta Business Suite is the latest service to find itself on the Meta Status page. "We are aware that some people may be having trouble with messages in Inbox in Meta Business Suite. Our team is actively working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible," reads Meta's status page.

Like the other outages, Meta is working to resolve it, but there's no indication of how long it'll be down for.

Downdetector reports lower than they've been

Despite Downdetector working again for a little while, the reports are still trending downward, dropping by just over 4,000 as of this post.

Marketing and Graph API join

Marketing API and Graph API are now on the Meta Status page, showing as having "Medium Disruptions."

"We are recovering from an earlier outage impacting editing and creation for Marketing API, and services are in the process of being restored. We apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused," says the status page.

Instagram is the highest

Currently, Instagram is the highest in terms of raw reports at 4,860. Facebook has dropped to around 2,400 and is down to just over 600.

"May take a bit of time" to get back to normal

Meta's Andy Stone said that everything is coming back about an hour ago.

"We're coming back, though it may take a bit of time for everything to be fully back to normal," Stone posted.

That does appear correct, as Facebook seems to have recovered. However, Instagram still seems to be having issues.

Reports take a steep dive

Starting around 9:00 am PT, reports on Down Detector started to decline but in the last 15 or minutes or so they've taken a steep dive.

As of this posting, I'm seeing 1500 reports, down from the steadier 5,000 earlier and the peak of 10,000 reports around 7:00 am PT.

Resolving issues

Meta doesn't really have a status page for Instagram or Facebook that we can use to get updates on what's happening with the social platforms.

However, the company does have a business status page for advertisers and developers that we can use to infer how things are going.

For example, previously, Facebook Ads was showing High Disruptions, but now it reads resolved.

That said, the developer platform is showing more issues but seems to be affecting more background APIs and business accounts.

Meta has remained mostly quiet

Beyond the two tweets from Meta's Andy Stone, the company has largely remained quiet about the outage.

And since Stone said the company was working on it he has also gone silent.

Fortunately, I suppose, it appears things are getting to normal.

Meta outage appears to be over

With reports finally under 500 reports for the first time today, it finally appears that the Instagram and Facebook outages are have pretty much resolved.

The Meta developer status page is basically green across the board.

Anecdotally, I've been able to access Instagram and Facebook fairly consistently for the last 15 minutes or so.

I will keep an eye on things for a little bit longer, but I am going to call it for now.

If you’re looking for the best webcam to upgrade your home office, look no further than the Insta360 Link 2C Pro. When I reviewed the Insta360 Link 2 Pro (just one letter in the name and a built-in gimbal sets these two apart) a few months ago, I thought the gimbal made it the obvious choice, but how wrong I was — the Insta360 Link 2C Pro is $50 cheaper and can do everything the gimbal version can do.

The Insta360 Link 2C Pro has all of the same perks, including dual native ISO that is effective even in the harshest lighting conditions, and a privacy switch for easy manual control. What makes the Link 2C stand out is the smart modes, which make presenting a breeze, and the AI tracking makes me wonder why we ever needed a gimbal version of this camera.

To find out more about the webcam, you can keep reading this full Insta360 Link 2C Pro review.

Insta360 Link 2C Pro review: Cheat sheet

• What is it? A 4K/30fps webcam suited with smart modes to make presenting simple
• Who is it for? At-home office workers looking to upgrade their video conferencing setup
• What does it cost? The Insta360 Link 2C Pro is available for $199 / £199 at Amazon
• What do we like? Good value, dual native ISO for low-light, privacy switch for security, smart modes
• What don’t we like? It doesn’t have a gimbal for auto-tracking

Insta360 Link 2C Pro review: Specs

Insta360 Link 2C Pro review: The ups

There’s a lot to love about the Insta360 Link 2C Pro. You get all the perks of the Insta360 Link 2 Pro at a fraction of the price. The image performance is sharp even in low light conditions thanks to dual native ISO, and there are plenty of modes to streamline usage for presenting.

Save money and get the same specs

The Insta360 Link 2C Pro is virtually the same camera as the Insta360 Link 2 Pro. Eagle-eyed readers among you will notice only a one-letter difference in the names, which is admittedly confusing. The only functional difference between them is that the Link 2C lacks a 2-axis gimbal for tracking moving subjects.

But gimbal tracking isn’t something every user needs, and for most workers looking for a camera to support video streaming and work calls, a stationary one is more than enough. You also still get all of the smart modes, same image performance, and same ISO capabilities.

Unless you’re planning to use the camera for presentations, it’s well worth saving $50 by purchasing the Link 2C Pro. If you’re currently using the older Link 2C ($149), it’s worth considering the upgrade to the Link 2C Pro for the larger sensor and better low-light performance.

Image performance

The image of the Insta360 Link 2C Pro is a lot sharper than my usual MacBook Air M2’s built-in camera. The camera has a max resolution of 4K/30fps, which meant that I always looked clear and my movements always appeared fairly smooth. Since you’re likely not using your webcam for anything more advanced than a video call, 30fps is more than enough.

But the 4K resolution also meant that I could see my face in detail, which on a no-makeup day isn’t the best news for me (or anyone watching me for that matter). Thankfully, with the companion software downloaded, you can alter the video resolution. You can also use the camera in 1080p/60fps, 720p/60fps or 360p/30fps, depending on your needs. If you want footage free from blur, 60fps is better to capture faster movements, but as I said, 30fps is likely plenty for work use.

My day-to-day webcam is the built-in unit on the MacBook Pro M2, so when I first used the Link 2C Pro, I was taken aback by how pale I looked. Whereas Mac cameras have a warmth to them, the Insta360 is very cool-toned. This won’t be for everyone, but you can make adjustments to the color hue by using a filter in the companion software, Link Connect.

Privacy switch

On the left-hand side of the webcam, there's a handy switch for closing the privacy lens on the camera. This is very useful for the privacy-conscious, but also in the case of temperamental technology. I’ve found myself in video meetings where my on-screen controls are unresponsive because I’ve got too many tabs open or I’m running too many applications at once, meaning I can’t turn off my camera. This is a great tool to quickly switch your camera off without fuss.

The privacy switch is something you don’t get with the Insta360 Link 2 Pro — since it’s moving constantly on a gimbal, it would be tricky to use a physical control like this.

Easy setup

The Insta360 Link 2C Pro is incredibly easy to set up. The adjustable mount can attach to most desktop monitors and even fit securely to the screen of my MacBook, so it can cope with being attached to a thin screen. The camera attaches magnetically to the mount, so there’s no fussing with slots or sockets. You tap them together and pull them apart, making transporting and storing it very easy.

The Osbot Meet 2 ($129) also uses a magnetic clip-on mount, but has a tendency to fall off from time to time. I didn’t have this issue with the Link 2C Pro.

The camera is powered with a USB-C cable, which plugs into the device you're using to connect. The camera also comes with a USB-C to USB-A adaptor. This was just as easy to set up as the Osbot Meet 4K ($149), which also uses a USB-C cable.

Useful modes

The Insta360 Link 2C Pro has a lot of smart features available through the companion software, Insta360 Link Connect. This is available on macOS and Windows and takes a few minutes to download to your device, giving you access to the webcam settings, including firmware updates.

There is a great selection of modes on the camera to help with professional presenting. These include AI framing, Smart Whiteboard, DeskView and Virtual Background.

AI framing

Although the webcam doesn’t have gimbal tracking, it does have AI framing. This doesn’t move to track but rather zooms and reframes to make sure everyone is in the frame. To test this out, I recruited my colleagues Nikita and Harry, and as you can see, the camera did a good job at accounting for all three of us and our varying heights.

Smart whiteboard

The smart whiteboard feature was very handy when using the camera, as it zooms in to focus on the board after scanning the screen and detecting a whiteboard. It’s ideal for presenting to minimize distractions around the scene.

DeskView

The webcam also has DeskView, which, when enabled, flips the view of the camera. This means that you can view and present whatever is on your desk without having to read or work upside down for the benefit of the camera.

Virtual Background

You can also use a virtual background in the Link Connect app. You could do this in whatever meeting software you use, like Google Meet or Teams, but I think the Insta360 did a good job at cutting around the finer details like the wispy layers of my hair.

Dual Native ISO

The 1/1.3-inch sensor of the Insta360 Link 2C Pro has dual native ISO (where the camera switches between two native ISO ranges to get better results in extreme light or dark lighting), so even in the dark, such as in the image below, I was able to get more of a natural lighting experience.

There isn’t too much noise in the image. It still looks like I’m sitting in the dark, obviously, but it brings back some detail in the frame by lifting the shadows.

Good microphone

There wasn’t much difference in my voice when using my MacBook's native microphone and the microphone of the Insta360 Link 2C Pro.

My voice was clear, and it did a good job of minimizing typing sounds when I was speaking on a call with my colleagues.

Insta360 Link 2C Pro review: The downs

Unless you need a gimbal, the Insta360 Link 2C Pro is virtually perfect. But if it’s across-the-room tracking you need, then you may struggle with this webcam.

No gimbal

As I mentioned earlier, what makes the Insta360 Link 2C Pro camera so great is that you get all the perks of a flagship webcam without the stark price of the Insta360 Link 2 Pro. But in opting for the cheaper option, you are trading access to a gimbal.

One of the things I loved so much about the Insta360 Link 2 Pro was that it followed me wherever I was in the frame, making it an ideal option for recording wider scenes, like presentations.

By contrast, the Link 2C Pro is stationary, so you’re a bit more limited. But this is still fine for office workers who take meetings at their desks and don’t need movement tracking across a wide stage.

The Link 2C Pro has AI tracking, which I mentioned above. This zooms in to keep tracking movements, losing resolution. The Link 2 Pro doesn’t lose any resolution thanks to the gimbal.

Insta360 Link 2C Pro review: Verdict

I think the Insta360 Link 2C Pro is the best webcam option for office workers looking to upgrade their video call setup without breaking the bank. You get all the smart features of the Insta360 Link 2 Pro, just without the gimbal — but if you’re not walking around and presenting while on a call, you really don’t need it. Do you want to be in frame at all times? It’s still no problem with the Link 2C Pro because the AI tracking is just as effective at keeping you and anyone else around you in the frame (albeit at the cost of resolution).

The dual native ISO works well in low-light situations, lifting shadows without grain. The privacy switch is also handy, especially if you frequently need to quickly make camera adjustments.

As I’ve mentioned, the lack of a gimbal could be a deal-breaker for some, but I think it’s worth the sacrifice to save yourself $50.

I've been testing all the best smart glasses and VR headsets for over five years now, and no time has been more exciting for this space than right now. I'm heading to AWE 2026 (my second year attending), and something feels different about this one — almost as if we're about to see something transformative.

As you can see in our best of AWE 2025 awards, this show isn't usually about the big hardware announcements; it's about all the smaller innovations that will come together to build that breakthrough pair of glasses that change the face of computing. This year, I think the stars are aligning, and we're going to see what happens when all of this comes together.

And after watching Nvidia "reinvent the PC" with RTX Spark, it's doubly fascinating because people are starting to offer differing views on the future of computing. Something big is going to happen in Long Beach next week, and here are my three predictions about what it will be.

We get a first real look at Snap Specs

It was confirmed at AWE last year that Snap's Spectacles developer project is finally going to become a consumer product in 2026. And now, CEO Evan Spiegel is back with another keynote named "making computing more human."

We've seen the slow build to this moment over the past 12 months, from me testing key updates made to Snap OS to make it ready for the public, to Snap and Qualcomm officially teaming up for the "future of specs." I believe everything is in place, and we may get our first true look at the hardware design.

It will be fascinating to see how Snap has addressed the key challenge of cramming so much computing power into something you're comfortable wearing all day long (without a puck attached either).

And as former VP of hardware Scott Myers told Tom's Guide, they will be "substantially smaller." Hopefully, we get to see the fruits of their labor!

Qualcomm brings new Snapdragon silicon to power the future of Android XR

And speaking of that Qualcomm x Snap love-in for the specs, Qualcomm's SVP of XR Ziad Asghar will be taking the stage again in a keynote titled "The era of personal AI and endless realities."

It's a bold title, and if you remember last year, Asghar hosted the keynote and announced the Snapdragon AR1+ Gen 1 silicon for local AI on smart glasses. So Ziad has previous of attending AWE to announce new chips, Snap Specs are coming this year, and on top of that, Xreal's Project Aura is launching soon, and nobody will confirm the Snapdragon chip inside that.

So it got me thinking... If there's a new chip, what will that new chip be? And I turned my attention to the Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2, which has been around for a good couple of years now. Throw in a couple leaks of a so-called "Project Matrix," and I'm getting Gen 3 vibes — both to power the Snap Specs and possibly inside that Project Aura compute puck too.

Again, this may just be a wild prediction I've had since a few months back that will get shot down. But with the new crop of devices coming this fall, it feels like the right time to speed up that performance and beef up the power efficiency.

The smart glasses war starts to heat up

On the AR glasses side of things, the battle has heated up to the point where lawyers got involved! Viture and Xreal have been trading blows at the cutting edge of innovation — widening that field of view and offering more spatial experiences built right in.

But the next challenge is going to be one that the MacBook Neo spurred: value for money. So far, RayNeo has dominated with its $299 Air 4 Pro AR glasses, and we already know Xreal is responding with its same-priced X By Xreal specs. Will this be the moment we see a first glimpse of how Viture could be responding?

And it doesn't matter who comes out on top because at the end of the day, we win. These companies duking it out and offering more bang for your buck is great for us!

Then there's the AI glasses side of it... Over on this side of things, we're heading in two clear directions, and it'll be up to us to decide which one wins with our wallets:

• All-encompassing agentic AR: Qualcomm's super strength is having a chip in pretty much every kind of device you use. This kind of data grabbing is significant in personalizing an AI and getting it to do work for you, which you can see on a heads-up waveguide display in front of you. Throw in multi-modal capabilities with a camera, and the possibilities are huge!
• Making smart glasses less cringe (and creepy): Conversely, especially with Meta silently adding facial recognition code to its smart glasses, you're seeing increased (and very genuine) worries that we're about to enter Black Mirror-levels of surveillance and privacy invasion with something like this. So other companies are aiming for something more focused, simpler, and with privacy in mind (like Vonder).

Outlook

If these three things happen (and that's a big if), then we may be on the precipice of starting to see spatial computing make sense as the new way of doing things. So far, it's been a nice-to-have — a fun way of messing about with your apps.

But things could very well change with new hardware running new silicon and innovations from smaller players with big ideas. It's one of the reasons why I love covering this exciting space.

Will it all be enough to outrun Apple to its first smart glasses (expected early 2027)? That remains to be seen.

More from Tom's Guide

• I lived in the Viture Beast for 10,000 miles, and it just ruined other AR glasses for me
• I flew over 10,000 miles with Asus ROG Xreal R1 smart glasses — here are 2 things I love about them (and 3 I don’t)
• I tested Google’s “Intelligent Eyewear,” and found the smart glasses that will defeat Ray-Ban Meta

Waze is officially adding a feature that drivers have been asking about for ages. After several months of testing, the navigation app is starting to roll out traffic light icons to the general public. But you it doesn't appear to be universally available just yet.

The original testing was first spotted last December, with on-and-off reports over the past few months. Now, though, it seems as though traffic lights are showing up for a lot more people. Sadly, it seems the very nature of how Waze operates means their appearance on the map is a little inconsistent.

The thing you need to understand about Waze is that, unlike Google Maps, it doesn't rely on a huge archive of saved data. It's all about crowdsourced information, and it means the knowledge Waze has is only as good as what drivers have been reporting. That includes things like speed cameras and, I'm guessing, traffic lights.

I took a quick look at my local area, since I have a good understanding of where all the lights are already. The map was pretty empty, for the most part, but I did see a few places that featured the iconic three-light design of traffic lights. But nowhere near as many as there are in reality.

That makes me wonder how Waze is identifying traffic lights, and whether it's picking and choosing where to actually show them. My initial thoughts were that the lights would only appear on active routes, but it seems they are visible on the standard map.

There's also no option to report working traffic lights within the Waze app (only broken ones), and the official Map Editor doesn't seem to include them either. However, there may also be a chance that my low level has something to do with that

Knowing when traffic lights are coming up can be a big benefit if you're in an unfamiliar area. Being able to anticipate the fact you may need to stop means you can slow down smoothly and not destroy your gas mileage with harsh braking.

So keep an eye on Waze, because next time you drive, you may just get a helping hand anticipating the next set of lights.

More from Tom's Guide

• I tested iOS 27 — and these 12 hidden features are more useful than Siri AI
• Some AI features aren't available on older iPhones, but are you actually missing that much?
• Mint Mobile just gave customers a rare win — increased data at no extra cost

The 2026 World Cup is finally here, and Norton VPN has rolled out a massive price drop just in time for kickoff.

Over the past year or so, Norton has undergone a major overhaul, turning it into a legitimate challenger to the best VPNs overall. In fact, it recently climbed to the #1 spot in our best streaming VPN guide thanks to its ability to unblock virtually every platform we threw at it.

Now, you can get Norton VPN Plus, for the same price as its standard service. That means you'll get a password manager, cloud storage and dark web monitoring effectively for free.

Every subscription features an industry-leading 60-day money-back guarantee and a variety of other useful tools to keep you protected online. Full details are below.

A serious VPN from a household name

Norton VPN has evolved from a basic antivirus add-on into a premium standalone service that’s nipping at the heels of the likes of NordVPN, ExpressVPN, and Proton VPN. Combining household-name brand credibility with high-end performance, it is easily one of the most improved services on the market.

The provider covers all the privacy essentials. It features an independently audited no-logs policy — meaning your personal browsing data is never tracked or stored — alongside a reliable kill switch and advanced security tools like Double VPN.

However, the real standout feature ahead of the tournament is its streaming power. In our latest rounds of testing, Norton VPN successfully bypassed geo-restrictions on every single streaming site we tried. It’s a massive step up for the provider, delivering a level of unblocking performance that matches or outright beats the established heavyweights in the space.

With the World Cup kicking off today, it's a great choice whether you're traveling to watch the games or just following all the action at home.

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As someone whose bread and butter revolves around typing, I need one of the best mechanical keyboards to get the job done. Mech decks can be fun, but few are as fun as the Epomaker Glyph — and after testing this keyboard for a week, I don’t want to go back to the one I was previously using. The Glyph is a beast, sporting a charming typewriter-like design, while offering a wonderful typing experience and creamy sound.

With dual screens, pleasing RGB lighting, solid build quality, and user-friendly companion software to boot, the Glyph is easily one of the greatest keyboards you can buy right now. While it isn’t without its flaws — namely, limited stock switch choice and poor battery — as you’ll soon see, the Glyph’s upsides easily outweigh its shortcomings.

For the complete breakdown, read my full Epomaker Glyph review.

Epomaker Glyph review: Specs

Epomaker Glyph review: Cheat sheet

• What is it? A 75% typewriter-like mechanical keyboard with dual screens, and linear switches
• Who is it for? Those who type for a living and want a fun keyboard to do so
• How much does it cost? The Epomaker Glyph is available for $139 / £103
• What do we like? So much! The outstanding design, solid build quality, lovely typing experience, creamy sound profile, user-friendly companion software, and more
• What don’t we like? The poor battery life and limited stock switch set choice

Epomaker Glyph review: The ups

From its gorgeous typewriter-like design and solid build quality, to the awesome typing experience and creamy sound profile, the Epomaker Glyph is a winner.

A typewriter-like design done right

The Glyph is Epomaker’s first venture into the world of typewriter-like keyboards. The only other typewriter-esque keyboard I’ve personally tested is the Logitech Pop Keys ($99) — which the Glyph blows out of the water with ease — although we’ve also reviewed (and loved) the Lofree DOT ($99), which is a great deck if you want to save $40.

Featuring rounded keycaps and a poppy sound profile, the Glyph emulates the experience of typing on a typewriter, and I’ll discuss these in detail shortly. First, I want to talk about the keyboard’s design. Blending retro aesthetics with modern features, the Glyph adds a flair to your desk and is sure to draw eyeballs (in a good way).

The south-facing RGB lighting doesn’t look loud or garish, and there’s an ambient light strip that lights up in the colors of the rainbow, with the light falling on the surface the keyboard is sitting on. I love the glossy finish on the retro white body, which feels soft and premium to touch (and look at).

The Glyph sports a 75% layout with 83 keys, and it measures 13.66 x 8.14 x 2.24 inches so doesn’t take up too much space. It weighs 2.59lbs, so while it’s heavier than the likes of the Hexgears Immersion A3 TKL ($129, 1.67lbs) and the NuPhy Air75 V3 ($139, 1.65lbs), I haven’t had any trouble carrying the Glyph in my backpack, to and from work.

Adding to the Glyph’s charm and typewriter-like design is a return lever located in the top-left corner, which as the Enter key when pushed up; and Backspace when pulled down. It feels a little gimmicky, I know, but it’s a harmless fun element, and I’ve been using it every so often while typing. In the top-right corner, you’ll find a rotary knob for adjusting the volume or swapping between display items (by holding down Fn).

Useful dual screens

Screens on keyboards are becoming more and more popular as we’ve seen on the Epomaker RT100 ($115) and the Razer BlackWidow V4 ($299). The Epomaker Glyph is no different.

Located above the keys are dual displays: one of which shows the date, month and year, and the other which shows the keyboards vitals, such as battery life, connection mode, active operating system, CPU usage, and more. You can also display a GIF or static image on the bigger display, if you like.

I like being able to quickly see the battery status, for instance, as it saves me from going into my laptop’s Bluetooth settings and wasting a couple of minutes.

Comfortable wrist rest included

This is something I don’t see with a lot of mid-range keyboards: the Epomaker Glyph comes with a wrist rest included in the box, and it’s wonderful. The CloudGel wrist rest is made of high-quality silicone and PVC materials, and it feels soft to rest my wrists on. It provides good elevation so my wrists sit flush against the keyboard’s length, and the gentle cushioning has elevated any pressure I would have felt otherwise — or without a wrist rest.

The Glyph’s wrist rest makes it ergonomically-friendly, as the slow-rebound gel deforms according to the pressure and shape of your wrists, so your hands feel comfortable. Having used the keyboard extensively for a week’s worth of typing, I can confirm that I haven’t felt any discomfort. The good news is that you can buy the wrist rest separately too, for $24 / £18, to pair with any other keyboard you own. I’m just happy that it doesn’t feel as hard as the Corsair K55 RGB Pro’s ($59).

Excellent build quality

A common issue I’ve faced with a few Epomaker keyboards is the shoddy build quality. Some of the brand’s all-plastic keyboards, like the Cypher96 ($89) and the TH99 ($82), have had some flex in their bodies, and their keys have dipped too far into the PCB (even for gasket mounted decks). The Glyph, on the other hand, boasts fantastic build quality, even though it’s made entirely of plastic.

I didn’t notice any flex in the Glyph’s body even when I tried to twist it by holding its sides, and the keys didn’t dip as deep into the PCB either, although this is primarily due to the Glyph using a top mounted PCB. Tapping the keyboard with my fingernails didn’t reveal any hollow-sounding parts. Rest assured that you’re getting bang for your buck here.

Just so much fun to type on

I’ve tested nearly 100 keyboards, and while many of them have been great to type on, some have been downright awful. The Epomaker Glyph falls into the former category, and it’s the greatest keyboard I’ve ever typed on. It comes fitted with pre-lubed Epomaker Wisteria V2 linear switches which require 38g of force to activate, and have a pre-travel distance of 2mm (total 3.6mm). This means that you don’t need to press them all the way down to activate them, so you can type quickly.

I love linear switches, and 38g of force is very light. I didn’t find the Wisteria V2s fatiguing to type on, and even after an eight-hour workday, my fingers didn’t feel tired at all. The switches sound lovely too, and I’ll talk about the Glyph’s sound profile shortly.

The Glyph features double-shot PBT keycaps which are more resistant to wear-and-tear and are oil-resistant, making them far more durable than the ABS keycaps used on the typewriter-like Logitech Pop Keys. They feel soft and comfortable and I feel like my fingers are gliding across the keyboard.

As I do with every other keyboard I test, I took a typing test at 10fastfingers.com, and then compared the Glyph’s results to other mechanical decks I’ve reviewed. Straight out of the box, I achieved 109 words per minute with 93.2% accuracy — a new personal best. Seeing those stats on paper has made the Glyph a permanent fixture on my desk.

Seriously addicting sound

The Epomaker Glyph features a top-mount design which means that the switch plate is screwed directly to the case’s top half. Because each keystroke vibration travels directly into the case, this results in a louder, sharper sound profile. Given that the Glyph is a typewriter-like keyboard, this makes sense — and boy does the keyboard sound downright beautiful.

I’d best describe the Glyph’s sound profile as somewhere between creamy and clacky, and it feels like the perfect blend of the old and the new. The Glyph packs five layers of sound-dampening and noise-absorbing foams, and I didn’t notice any unnecessary or immersion-breaking metallic pings while typing. While it’s loud, it isn’t too loud and doesn’t disturb those around you — unlike the Logitech Pop Keys, which was replete with plasticky echoes and light metallic pings.

User-friendly companion software

To customize the Epomaker Glyph, you’ll need to download Epomaker Driver 3.0 which is available for free on macOS and Windows. It sports a clean interface with no intrusive pop-ups or ads, and I found it responsive and lag-free in my testing, having tested it on both operating systems.

Via Epomaker Driver, you can remap the Glyph’s keys, record macros, adjust the RGB lighting’s colors and effects, and upload your own GIFs or static images and display them on the screen. You can update or flash the board’s firmware too.

I do, however, wish that Epomaker had its own web-based software, like Keychron does with Keychron Launcher and NuPhy does with NuPhy.io. That would save users downloading third-party software or bloatware on their machines, and would make customization easier. One can dream.

Epomaker Glyph review: The downs

Though the Epomaker Glyph is an excellent keyboard, it isn’t without its shortcomings, and its limited stock switch choice and poor battery life are quite disappointing.

Very limited stock switch choice

Limited stock switch choice seems to be a recurring theme (and issue) with Epomaker’s mechanical keyboards, and the Glyph is no different. Just like the TH99, P65 ($119) and Cypher96, to name a few, there aren’t many stock switch options available. In fact, there’s just one available, and that’s the Wisteria V2 linears that I naturally tested. The switches are no doubt fantastic, but those who prefer tactile or clicky ones may be left feeling shortchanged.

The good news is that the Glyph is hot-swappable, and it’s compatible with 3- and 5-pin south-facing mechanical switches. If you have extra switches lying around, or you simply buy some, you can replace them without de- and re-soldering them to the PCB.

Of course, you may want more switch choices at the time of purchase, and if that’s the case, I’d recommend the Hexgears Immersion A3 TKL ($129), the Lemokey P1 Pro ($129) or the Keychron V1 Ultra 8K ($114). None look as unique as the Glyph, though.

Screen and RGB eat into the battery

As you can probably glean from what I said earlier, I love the Epomaker Glyph’s screens and RGB lighting — but they really eat into the battery. The Glyph is fitted with an 8,000mAh rechargeable battery which should last you a month or so, depending on RGB and screen settings. I’ve been using the Glyph with these settings turned all the way up, and I’ve already had to plug it in for charging once (after about 20 hours of use).

I’m not saying this is entirely the keyboard’s fault. Many decks with extensive lighting systems and screens don’t last nearly as long. For instance, I was able to get only 20 hours of runtime out of the Corsair Vanguard Air 99 Wireless ($259) — nine hours fewer than Corsair’s claim. I sorely wish the Glyph lasted longer because the dual screens are delightful, and I don’t want to turn them off.

Epomaker Glyph review: Verdict

I can’t remember the last time I had so much fun testing a keyboard. The Epomaker Glyph is one of the best mechanical decks you can buy right now. Featuring responsive and light linear switches that are a joy to type on, and offering a creamy sound profile, the Glyph is perfect for those who type for a living.

The Glyph is chock-full of goodies. Its typewriter-like design is great to look at, and its dual screen setup as well as gorgeous RGB lighting add a colorful flair to your setup. User-friendly companion software makes customization a walk in the park, too. While it would have been nice to have more than one set of stock switches and better battery life, neither of those are dealbreakers, all things considered.

At the end of the day, the Glyph is the ultimate keyboard for typists. It’s one of the best gadgets I’ve reviewed so far, and it puts the fun back into typing.