PC gaming has never quite been affordable, but you could always save money—and get a surprising amount of value and power—if you knew how to build your own desktop. That advice has held true through thick and thin for the last few decades, but the RAM crunch is ruining things. I conducted a little experiment and picked a number: one thousand US dollars. In my mind, that’s a mid-range gaming desktop that shades a bit into budget territory (depending on your own tolerance for spending greenbacks on entertainment). It’s definitely a step up from console gaming, which currently ranges from $400 for the Xbox Series S to $750 for the PlayStation 5 Pro. On top of that one grand, I thought about the minimum specs I’d be willing to accept for a new gaming PC that was meant to play at least most new triple-A 3D games. Rémy / Unsplash It’s an arbitrary distinction and entirely subjective, but I did get some input from my colleague Alaina Yee, an expert on PC gaming and budget builds in particular. Here’s where I landed: 6-core CPU that’s no more than one generation behind. 32GB of RAM. (Yes, I can see you wincing.) I consider 16GB to be the bare minimum for a current Windows 11 machine. But for gaming I want some extra breathing room, especially since I often have something else running on a secondary monitor. 1TB of Gen4 SSD storage. Current PC games are BIG. Recent-ish GPU with 8GB VRAM. Valve says this much should handle the vast majority of recent games, and they happen to be looking into this area at the moment. Adequate power supply that can get all that done. One from a reputable brand, at the very least. I can compromise on a lot of other things. A motherboard without all the extra trimmings like Wi-Fi. A generic PC case. No official Windows license. (Microsoft doesn’t seem to care if you never register, so why should I?) But those are the bare minimums I would need to hit before I could consider this $1,000 PC acceptable, if not exactly a good buy. So, I let my fingers do the walking over to PCPartPicker. Here’s how I fared, with prices and availability as of February 2nd, 2026: CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 7600X — $176.99 GPU: Gigabyte Eagle OC GeForce RTX 5060 8GB — $329.99 Motherboard: ASRock B650M Pro RS Micro ATX — $99.99 CPU cooler: Be Quiet BK047 — $24.88 RAM: Crucial Pro 32GB (16GBx2) DDR5-5600 — $312.99 SSD: Patriot P400 Lite 1TB — $134.99 Case: Zalman T6 Mini Micro ATX — $28.99 Power supply: Corsair CX750M — $59.99 Add in $10 for shipping the case from Newegg and that brings me to a subtotal of… drum roll please… $1,178.80. Sales tax for my home in Pennsylvania takes me to a grand total of just under $1,250. Yeah, no. $1,250 is too damn much to pay for a gaming PC with that many compromises—especially that case, which can just barely fit the GPU (208mm), can’t be upgraded with standard ATX motherboards, and includes just one 80mm fan. Also, fun fact: when I went back to grab some screenshots the day after doing this experiment, that $330 RAM was out of stock and the price of the GPU and the SSD had already risen. Woo. PC Part Picker Alaina suggested a switch to a Ryzen 5500X CPU, which she admits is a pretty big step down from a Ryzen 7000-series chip, but has access to cheaper DDR4 RAM. Combined with a Gigabyte A520M motherboard, this got the price to squeak in at $1,003.62 including taxes and shipping. But again, that doesn’t include Windows (maybe you’re okay with Bazzite?) and it needs some more cooling. It’s also making some pretty big compromises on my initial requirements. So, the center can’t hold… and my experiment ends with a failure. Of course, my theoretical budget-minded PC gamer has more options. Maybe they have some parts they can scrounge from a previous build, as I’ve been doing for almost 20 years. Maybe they’re okay with refurbished or used. Maybe they’ve got graded Pokémon cards sitting around. But for my imaginary money, I’d give up at this point. Though it would hurt my PC gamer soul, I’d recommend a PS5 or Switch 2 instead, especially since Microsoft has now dug its publishing hole deep enough to put its biggest franchises on PlayStation. There are alternatives for playing PC games, if you insist. Xbox Game Pass—though not as good a value as it used to be—can still get you tons of games and some brand new titles for (sigh) yet another streaming subscription. Nvidia’s GeForce Now is a better alternative if you already have a huge library of Steam games… though I’m loathe to give money to a company that’s at least complacent and at worst actively contributing to the problem. Neither of these options is great if you don’t have access to an excellent internet connection. You can get a Steam Deck, which is also less of a deal than it used to be, but still a great way to experience PC gaming with optional portability. Alternatives like the Asus ROG Ally and Lenovo Legion series are out there, too… though you should look for a sale and give up on securing the latest and greatest hardware. At $1,000 retail, the ROG Xbox Ally X is almost as expensive as the imaginary desktop I specced out, and it won’t be anywhere near as powerful. Chris Hoffman / Foundry The hows and whys of this abysmal situation are well-documented elsewhere, but the quick answer is “AI.” The prices for consumer-packaged RAM are the most visible issue, with DDR5 and even DDR4 absolutely skyrocketing in the last few months… and seemingly unlikely to improve within a year or two. That will affect the prices of all finished electronics, but consumers get the short end of this particular memory stick, getting the knock-on effects of output for everything except industrial RAM slowing to a crawl. The same thing is affecting consumer graphics cards, with Nvidia reportedly slashing production in favor of industrial “AI” cards, and even the cards we can get keep rising in price because of their expensive memory. The immutable forces of supply and demand are hammering PC gamers from every direction. But it does create a strange situation: this is one of the very few market conditions in which a pre-built PC makes sense, even if you have the skills and inclination to build a PC yourself. Let’s take my list of necessary components as an example. For around the same price as my sad $1,250 build, I found this Thermaltake pre-built on Amazon with almost identical specs except the RTX 5060 is traded out for an RTX 4060. Not bad, considering it also includes Windows 11 and a much more flexible ATX case. Another example is this ABS pre-built with a Core i7-14700F and an RTX 5060 on Newegg for $1,179.99. MicroCenter If you have a Micro Center near you, well glory be, you can get a toned-down Dell Tower Plus with a brand-new Core Ultra 7 265 processor and 32GB of DDR5 RAM. It even has an RTX 5060 Ti, though it is the less powerful 8GB version of that card. You also get a few creature comforts like Wi-Fi and an SD card reader. With a miraculous $800 discount and a complete lack of RGB or tempered glass, that Dell desktop is going for just $999.99. Damn, this must be what Gimli felt like. Warner Bros. There’s no two ways about it: PC gaming in 2026 kinda sucks. If you don’t already have a gaming PC, you’re looking at some big compromises—in price, in capability, possibly even in format. I’m looking for a positive note to end this article on… and I can’t find one. Why? Because prices for RAM and other PC components will remain high for another year or two at least, possibly much longer. And if they don’t, it’s because the “AI” bubble will have burst. At which point a stick of DDR5 might once again be affordable, but it’ll be worth less in trade when you’re trying to afford groceries. Hooray. Read...

The eagerly awaited (and repeatedly delayed) release of Grand Theft Auto VI now has an official-for-real-this-time date of November 19th, 2026. Take-Two Interactive announced this via IGN, confirming the most recent release date. Publisher Rockstar Games, owned by Take-Two, plans to begin marketing the game in the summer of 2026. GTA 6 was originally scheduled for release in fall 2025, but the publisher postponed that date. Later, it was considered for a launch on May 26th, 2026, then later pushed back even further to November 19th, 2026. Now, Strauss Zelnick, CEO of Take-Two, is optimistic that this final launch date is truly the final launch date. Zelnick said: “Our execution throughout Fiscal 2026 has been extraordinary and we are highly confident as we approach Fiscal 2027—which promises to be groundbreaking for Take-Two and the entire entertainment industry—led by the November 19th release of Grand Theft Auto VI with Rockstar’s launch marketing set to begin this Summer.” GTA 6 is the successor to GTA 5 and continues the popular game franchise, returning to Vice City. The game world will significantly surpass the game worlds of its predecessors. Lucia will be the series’ first female protagonist, while the male lead will be named Jason. A gangster couple, so to speak. GTA 6 will initially only be released for the Sony PlayStation 5 and the Microsoft Xbox Series X and S. However, a PC version is expected at a later date, perhaps in 2027. Read...

TechHive Editors Choice At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Sleek new design Impressive audio performance Packs Zigbee, Matter, and Amazon Sidewalk hubs Focuses on video chat participants Cons No privacy shutter Alexa+ is still a work in progress Spotty streaming video support Our Verdict Provided you’ve settled on the Alexa ecosystem, the 4th-gen Echo Show 8 is the smart display to get. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Amazon Echo Show 8 (fourth-generation, 2025) Retailer Price $149.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Amazon has a new crop of Echo devices designed specifically for its big AI revamp of Alexa, including a couple of new Echo speakers, the Echo Dot Max (which we’ve previously reviewed) and the Echo Studio (our review is in the works). Also in the mix are two Echo Show displays: the Echo Show 11 and the Echo Show 8, the latter of which we’re reviewing here.  With both of the new Echo Show displays, Amazon has served up sleek new spheroid designs for the base that make their displays appear to float in mid-air, and their sonics got makeovers as well. Under the hood, the Echo Show 8 ($179.99) has a new processor designed to make Alexa+ respond more quickly and accurately to the “Alexa” wake word, while new ambient sensor technologies help Alexa detect when someone’s in the room, and even who they are.  In terms of a mainstream smart display that you place in your kitchen or living room, the Amazon Echo Show 8 hits the sweet spot. The Echo Show 8 is also an entertainment and communication device, capable of streaming movies and shows on Amazon Prime Video and Netflix, cranking tunes, and letting you connect with far-flung friends and loved ones, either on voice calls or video chat.  But the 4th-gen Echo Show 8 isn’t perfect, and it drops a key feature that might give privacy-minded users pause.  Design  The most striking thing about the new Echo Show 8 (8.2 x 5 x 5.9 inches, WxDxH) is its design; quite simply, it’s gorgeous, and a massive improvement compared to its chunky-looking predecessor. Gone is the wedge-shaped design of older Echo Show displays (the third-gen Echo Show 8 at least adopted an edge-to-edge screen and rounded corners). The new Echo Show 8’s screen is now mounted on a spheroid base that makes the slim panel appear to float in space.  The spheroid design of the Echo Show 8 makes the screen look like it’s floating in space.Ben Patterson/Foundry This display itself measures 8.7 inches diagonally, with slimmer bezels than the previous Echo Show 8 and its 8-inch screen. The volume buttons are on the right edge of the display, right below a privacy button that mutes the microphone array and electronically deactivates the camera lens (which sits in the top bezel). Nice, but the fourth-gen Echo Show 8 loses a key privacy feature of the third-gen version: a physical for blocking the camera lens, meaning you might want to think twice before putting the display in your bedroom.  The 4th-gen Echo Show 8 looks great on its own, but it looks even better when paired with Amazon’s optional stand, a premium-looking metal accessory that magnetically snaps onto the bottom of the display’s base. The Echo Show 8 attaches to Amazon’s optional stand with the help of a strong magnet.Ben Patterson/Foundry The stand feels reassuringly heavy and solid, and it allows you to tilt the Echo Show 8 up to 40 degrees or spin it a full 360 degrees—and yes, you can spin the display without having to hold the stand down with your other hand. Even though it tacks an additional $40 to the Echo Show 8’s price tag, the optional stand is well worth the added expense.  Inside the Echo Show 8’s fabric-covered spheroid base is a custom AZ3 Pro processor that’s been specifically designed for Alexa+, along with a revamped speaker array that includes a pair of full-range drivers and a 2.8-inch woofer, an upgrade from the two drivers and the passive bass radiator in the previous generation. I’ll delve further into the Echo Show 8’s Alexa+ and audio performance in a bit.  You can tilt the Echo Show 8’s display up to 40 degrees and swivel it up to 360 degrees when the device is sitting on its optional stand.Ben Patterson/Foundry Setup  I’ve complained in the past about the process of setting up an Echo Show display—namely, you had to type in your Amazon email address and your password using the on-screen keyboard, a process that’s easy to screw up if you have a strong password. For a regular Echo speaker like the Echo Dot, the process is much more seamless, as the Alexa app will simply detect the speaker and connect it. Why couldn’t the same thing happen with an Echo Show display?  Well, I’m happy to report that since my review of the previous Echo Show 8 (circa 2023), Amazon has given the Echo Show connection process a serious upgrade. Now you simply scan a QR code on the Echo Show display using your phone, and the Alexa app handles the rest.   There are some privacy disclosures and EULAs you’ll need to check off, and you also must designate which room the Echo Show 8 will reside in. You’ll also need to enroll your face if you want Alexa to recognize you via the Echo Show’s camera; the process is similar to setting up Face ID on an iPhone and takes only a few minutes. (Because I had previously enrolled my face for the 3rd-gen Echo Show 8, I didn’t need to do it again for the new model.)  Say goodbye to the wedge-shaped design of earlier Echo Show displays, like the 3rd-gen Echo Show 8 (left).Ben Patterson/Foundry Overall, the Echo Show 8 setup process was a smooth one, and I had the display up and running in roughly five minutes.  Customizing the home screen  The Echo Show 8’s home screen can show a plethora of content, from slideshows of your snapshots and breaking news headlines to popular recipes, smart home controls, sports scores, and shopping recommendations—including sponsored products; i.e., advertisements.  The presence of ads on a device you’ve paid good money for is a vexing one, and in my early days with the Echo Show 8, I grew tired of seeing shopping ads pop up that were clearly based on my Amazon searches. For example, after an afternoon of shopping for VESA mounts on Amazon, I woke to find VESA mount ads on the Echo Show’s home screen.   Luckily, it’s easy to customize what you see on the home screen—and just as importantly, what you don’t want. Under the Settings menu you’ll find a Home Screen Categories section where you can toggle various home screen elements on or off. Disabling the Shopping category nixed the suggested products, for example, and you can also choose whether you want to see local or national news, sports headlines, stock market updates, weather reports, and so on. You can still ask Alexa for shopping recommendations after disabling the Shopping home screen category, but the shopping ads won’t be pushed at you anymore.  You can also add widgets to the home screen for a dashboard-style view of your calendar, weather updates, recently played music, and—perhaps best of all—smart home controls, perfect for giving you touch controls for your various lights, smart plugs, and other smart devices. Alexa is also willing and able to control your smart home, a topic we’ll get to in a moment.  Finally, the Echo Show can display slideshows of either curated images and artwork from Amazon or snapshots from your Amazon Photos library. You can change the speed at which the Show rotates through the images (anywhere from 6 to 24 seconds per slide) and whether your photos should be cropped, “smart” cropped (meaning the display picks the most “interesting” parts of your images to focus on), or shown in their entirety.   Personally, I don’t love the Echo Show in its digital photo frame mode as it tends to sandwich portrait-style images between thick bars, no matter what crop setting you pick. Google’s Nest Hubs have a better solution: they intelligently pair portrait photos side-by-side, thus avoiding the whole window-boxing issue.  I don’t love the window-boxing effect for portrait images on the Echo Show 8’s slideshow mode.Ben Patterson/Foundry Smart hub connectivity  The 4th-gen Echo Show 8’s smart home connectivity options are unchanged compared to the previous version. For starters, the display will act as a Zigbee smart home hub, ideal for connecting Zigbee-enabled devices such as smart bulbs, smart plugs, remotes, water leak sensors, and similar smart gadgets. The Echo Show 8 also packs a Thread border router, meaning it can connect Matter-enabled smart devices to the internet and to each other. And it’s also a bridge for Sidewalk, the Amazon-backed “neighborhood network” protocol that leverages nearby Echo speakers and Ring cameras to connect low-power and far-flung smart sensors and devices (including the new series of Sidewalk-enabled sensors that Ring announced at CES in January).  That’s a fairly comprehensive array of smart connectivity options, but it’s worth noting that the Echo Show 8 doesn’t support Z-Wave, a wireless smart home and security protocol with its own rich ecosystem of devices. (No other Echo devices offer a Z-Wave hub either, although Amazon’s Ring Alarm and Ring Alarm Pro home security systems do.) Also, unlike several other Echo speakers, including the Dot and the new Dot Max, the Echo Show 8 can’t be configured to operate as a network node when connected to one of Amazon’s Eero mesh Wi-Fi routers.  Smart sensors  The Echo Show 8 boasts a collection of onboard sensors that are mainly geared towards detecting when people are nearby—and, if you allow the display to do so, it can recognize who is near it, which is ideal for helping Alexa to give you personalized responses.   The Echo Show 8 offers a wide range of smart home connectivity options, along with on-screen smart home controls.Ben Patterson/Foundry Using an Amazon technology called Omnisense, and with the help of its camera and ambient temperature and light sensors, the Echo Show 8 can detect when people are in the room and act accordingly. For example, the Show can change the style of its on-screen interface, boosting the size of graphical elements when you’re further away and shrinking them as you approach, all the better for adding more details when you’re closer.   Omniverse can also help Alexa—and namely, Alexa+—recognize individuals in its vicinity, allowing it to tailor its responses (such as when you ask about upcoming calendar events). The technology can also trigger Alexa routines when people enter or leave the room, perfect for turning lights on and off based on room occupancy or queuing up a playlist when you arrive home from work.  Alexa+ and smart home functionality  Of course, the star of the show when it comes to the Echo Show 8’s smart home abilities is Alexa+, the long-awaited AI revamp for Alexa that’s coming up to its first anniversary.   While it’s been out for nearly a year and is available for anyone Alexa users who ask for it (and some who didn’t), Alexa+ is still in an “early access” phase. As such, Amazon isn’t charging for Alexa+ yet; eventually, Alexa+ access will be free for Amazon Prime members but $20 a month for everyone else.  Alexa+ will work on practically any working Echo speaker (including the earlier puck-shaped Echo Dot models). That said, the Echo Show 8’s AZ3 Pro processor helps the display to respond to the “Alexa” wake work more quickly and accurately, and it also enables the advanced Omnisense presense-detection abilities I mentioned earlier.  Like the “classic” Alexa (which is still around and will remain free), Alexa+ can control your smart lights, take charge of smart plugs, manage your thermostats, and run automated routines at your command. But while the old Alexa demanded the use of somewhat stilted voice commands (“Alexa, set table lamp 3 to 70 percent”), Alexa+ can understand natural language commands. Say “Alexa, it’s dark in here, can you make it brighter,” and Alexa+ can—theoretically—figure out that a) you’re in the living room and b) that you want the brightness of the living room lights dialed up.   When it works, it’s pretty cool, but as I’ve written before, Alexa+ frequently disappoints as much as it impresses, variously mishearing commands or misunderstanding your intent. Sometimes it accurately guesses that it should send over your Roomba when you declare how dirty the carpets are; sometimes it will just give you a speech about the carpet manufacturing industry. Sometimes it’s juggling your streaming music playlists with ease, tossing your tunes from one speaker to another; other times it seems unbelievably dense, like the time it mistook a collection of Taylor Swift 1989 covers for the actual 1989 album and doubled down when I pointed out the mistake.  In short, Alexa+ is very much a work in progress, which is why it remains in an early access period (and why I’m not giving it a full review just yet).  Just like ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and Anthropic’s Claude, Alexa+ is constantly evolving, and hopefully improving as it does so. It’s also worth noting that Alexa+ isn’t alone in having smart-home hiccups; Gemini at Home has its share of foibles, too. Finally, you can always go back to the old Alexa if you want; not so with Gemini, which won’t let you return to Google Assistant.  Video calling and communication  One of the best features of a smart display like the Echo Show 8 is two-way video chat, and in this regard the product shines. The vibrant 8.7-inch, full-HD display can’t swivel on its own like the motorized screen on the 3rd-gen Echo Show 10, but the 13-megapixel camera’s software can nonetheless zoom in and follow you if you choose to roam while you chat.  The Echo Show 8’s camera also offers some limited home-monitoring capabilities, allowing users to take a live look through the lens when away from home. That said, the display’s camera can’t function as a Ring camera in the same way that Google’s camera-equipped Nest Hub Max can double as a Nest camera.   Aside from its video-calling features, the Echo Show 8 can handle voice communication, too. For example, you can call or “drop-in” on any other Echo device by asking Alexa. Even better, you can use Alexa to call any number in the U.S., Canada, or Mexico for free, although there’s a catch: you’re limited to just 10 contacts (at least you can swap new contacts for old whenever you want).  In another handy perk, you can connect Alexa to your AT&T, T-Mobile, or Verizon mobile number. You can then ask Alexa to make hands-free calls, and as a bonus, Alexa can announce your callers, answer the call, or even hang up on an incoming call.  Media playback  It probably won’t be the biggest screen in your home, but the Echo Show 8 still works well for playing videos from the big streaming services, provided you’re subscribed to either Amazon Prime Video (which Prime members get for free, although you’ll need to pay a little more to avoid ads) or Netflix. Both of those services offer native apps for the Echo Show 8, making for much smoother navigation and streaming.  For everything else—Disney+, HBO Max, Hulu, YouTube and other services—you’ll need to use the Echo Show 8’s Silk web browser, which works in a pinch but feels clunkier compared to the native video apps.  If you want a more well-rounded streaming video experience from an Echo Show display, you’ll need to step up to the Echo Show 15 (either the first or second generations) or the Echo Show 21, with those larger displays supporting the full-on Amazon Fire TV app, complete with support for all the big streamers as well as dozens of niche streaming services.  As far as music goes, you can link accounts from such streaming services as Amazon Music, Apple Music, Apple Podcasts, Deezer, Spotify, Tidal, iHeartRadio, Sirius XM, TuneIn, Audacy, and Audible. Missing from the list: YouTube Music and Qobuz.  The Echo Show 8 supports most of the big music streaming services, including Amazon Music, Apple Music, and Spotify.Ben Patterson/Foundry Audio performance  As I wrote earlier, Amazon has given the Echo Show 8 a serious audio upgrade compared to the previous generation, with the newer version swapping its predecessor’s passive bass radiator for a powered 2.8-inch woofer.  The result is much better bass, which became evident when I played Taylor Swift’s 1989 (yes, the same album I was arguing with Alexa+ about) on the 3rd- and 4th-gen Echo Show 8 displays in succession.   The older Show 8 sounded fine, perfectly serviceable for background music in the kitchen. The newer model, on the other hand, delivered audio performance that you could actually focus on and enjoy. We’re not talking Sonos levels of audio quality, mind you, but for a smart display, I thought the revamped Echo Show 8 sounded quite impressive.  Should you buy the Amazon Echo Show 8?  I certainly have my quibbles with the 4th-gen Echo Show 8. The lack of a privacy shutter for the camera is my biggest complaint, while the iffy video streaming support is somewhat ameliorated by the fact that the 8-inch screen isn’t ideal for serious video watching. And yes, Alexa+ is still a work in progress, although you can always stick with the old Alexa if you prefer.  But in terms of a mainstream smart display that you place in your kitchen or living room, the Amazon Echo Show 8 hits the sweet spot. It looks terrific, it sounds great, it offers a galaxy of smart home integrations plus a wide range of connectivity, it’s perfect for video chat and can even place mobile calls for you. Provided you’ve settled on the Alexa ecosystem and given that Google’s Nest Hub displays are getting long in the tooth, the 4th-gen Echo Show 8 is the smart display to get.  Should you upgrade from the 3rd-generation Echo Show 8? It depends. Yes, the 4th-gen Show 8 boasts a much sleeker design, while the newer Echo Show certainly tops the 3rd-gen’s audio performance, particular in terms of bass response. But the older Echo Show 8 does have a privacy shutter, it offers the same smart home hubs and connectivity as the newer version, it supports Alexa+ (albeit with an older Amazon processor), and while its screen is a tad smaller, it still looks just as good as its successor’s.  So, if you’re drawn to the new design of the 4th-generation Echo Show 8 or you demand bleeding-edge audio and processor performance, sure, go ahead and pony up for the newer display. But if you’re mainly concerned about smart home control, you’ll be fine sticking with the 3rd-generation device.  This review is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best smart speakers. Read...

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At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Dual 14-inch OLED screens, which can be configured in a variety of ways Powerful Intel Core Ultra Series 3 (Panther Lake) processor Elite battery life Cons Average keyboard Slightly on the heavy side Our Verdict This dual-screen laptop is an almost perfect productivity and gaming laptop, save for a keyboard that falls a little short. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Asus Zenbook Duo (UX8407A) Retailer Price Asus $2299.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Best Prices Today: Check today’s prices I’m a huge fan of long-lasting laptops that can hold up as a productivity solution for the road. In this case, the new iteration of the dual-screen Asus Zenbook Duo has everything I want and more. For years, my go-to has been the Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio 2. But the new 2026 edition of the Zenbook Duo arguably does all that in a single laptop. The new Zenbook Duo was the launch vehicle for Intel’s new Core Ultra Series 3 or “Panther Lake” chip, which Intel claims offers the power of an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 with battery life that can last as long as a full day or more. That’s helped by packing the largest allowable battery inside this new iteration of the Duo. Essentially, the Zenbook Duo’s “Panther Lake” iteration improves both as a productivity machine and as an entertainment option over the 2025 Zenbook Duo (Lunar Lake), with more powerful gaming options and smaller screen bezels that improve the look and feel. It’s still a surprisingly chunky laptop, however, pushing near four pounds. Asus Zenbook Duo: Configurations Normally, we’d review a laptop with a price and ship date attached. In this case, Intel sent us the laptop, not Asus. The top-of-the-line model, which we’ve reviewed here, costs $2,299.99, and it will ship later this quarter. Other configurations will be available, as indicated below. Though the Asus Zenbook Duo (UX8407A) is a dual-screen device, it can be used in clamshell mode, where the keyboard covers one screen.Mark Hachman / Foundry Asus Zenbook Duo: Specifications Model number: UX8407A Display: Two 14-inch (2880 x 1800) touch OLED w/stylus support, HDR Processor: Intel Core Ultra 7 355/ Ultra 9 386H / Ultra X9 388H (Ultra X9 388H as tested) Graphics: Intel Arc B390 NPU: Yes, up to 50 TOPS Memory: 32GB LPDDR5X, integrated / non-upgradable Storage: 1-2TB M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD (1TB as tested) Ports: 2 USB-C (Thunderbolt 4), 1 10Gbps USB-A, HDMI 2.1, 3.5mm audio jack Security: Windows Hello (camera) Camera: 1080p30 Battery: 99Wh Wireless: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 Operating system: Windows 11 Home / Pro Dimensions: 12.21 x 8.21 x 0.77 to 0.92 inches Weight: 3.54 pounds Color: Moher Gray Price: $2,299.99 This is a superb productivity machine, one that road warriors, business travelers, and consumers alike should consider for their next laptop. Fun fact: I wasn’t told that I would be reviewing the Asus Zenbook Duo, and I was expecting a more conventional clamshell laptop when I removed it from the box. What’s surprising about this laptop is that it appears to be just that: a slightly thicker clamshell. Only when you remove it from the box do the dual screens and the floating keyboard emerge. Normally, a clamshell laptop has both a screen as well as a keyboard deck. In the case of the Duo, the deck is replaced by an additional, 14-inch screen. A “floating” keyboard can sit above one of them, held down by magnetic pogo pins. The secondary screen can also be supported by a small kickstand. This new Duo replaces the Intel Core Ultra Series 2 (Lunar Lake) version of the Zenbook Duo that we reviewed last year. What makes the Zenbook Duo different is how you can align the screens. You can hide one to create a “traditional” clamshell; orient both screens on top of each other in landscape mode to create an “elevated” screen; align them vertically, one next to another, in portrait mode; or lay both screens flat, which creates a “sharing” mode that flips one screen to face a secondary user. The kickstand is now integrated, and Asus has minimized the individual screen bezels even further to give the displays a more cohesive appearance. Mark Hachman / Foundry There’s a mammoth advantage that the Asus Zenbook Duo offers, which doesn’t immediately stand out: a 99 watt-hour battery, basically the largest that can be put inside a laptop or external battery pack to meet FAA airline regulations. (Part of the battery sits behind one screen, part of it sits behind the other, but Windows treats it as a single whole.) Think of it this way, you’re getting the largest battery available paired up with a processor designed to sip power. Don’t forget to read our performance evaluation below to see if this laptop lives up to these claims, especially the Panther Lake processor’s powerful gaming performance! Physically, this laptop looks somewhat like the earlier Asus Zenbook S 14, itself the launch vehicle for Intel’s Core Ultra Series 2 (Lunar Lake) chip. It’s basically the same dimensions, but a quarter- to a half-inch thicker and almost a pound heavier than a more traditional thin-and-light. The Duo has the heft of an older, chunkier laptop but with the promise that you can leave its 100W charger at home or in your hotel room. All of the Zenbook Duo is made out of “ceraluminum,” which Asus touts as having lightness of aluminum as well as the durability of ceramic. It all feels a bit plasticy, but I don’t really care what a laptop is made out of as long as it holds up. It would be nice if the displays on the Asus Zenbook Duo (UX8407A) could be folded back into a tent mode, but they cannot.Mark Hachman / Foundry I performed most of my testing in a traditional clamshell configuration, with the keyboard perched over one of the displays, which shuts off to save power. In this case, the keyboard and touchpad use the physical connection, even if the laptop is in airplane mode. You certainly can use the Zenbook Duo in its portrait mode, where the paired displays create two vertical columns for reading a column of email and a vertical web page. I think more people will prefer unfolding the kickstand, however, and positioning the two landscape displays one over the other. This feels more like my traditional on-the-go setup, with one primary and an additional secondary screen for reference. The Asus Zenbook Duo (UX8407A), where the displays are extended vertically. A kickstand keeps them secure.Mark Hachman / Foundry In either scenario, both screens are physically separate, which feels a little insecure in a public space, and basically makes working on a plane impossible. Otherwise, this is the first dual-screen laptop I’ve reviewed, and I could see the productivity gains immediately. Well, sort of. Placing the displays one above the other doesn’t pose much of a problem, but in portrait mode the “sides” of the screen on the keyboard deck become the top and bottom. On the left-hand side of the Zenbook Duo are an undisclosed HDMI port, a Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) port, and a headphone jack. On the right is the laptop’s power switch, another Thunderbolt 4 port, as well as a legacy USB-A port, too. In portrait mode, one side is the top, and the other the bottom, making one of those ports inaccessible. It also makes it a bit awkward to charge the laptop displays, since the cord from the laptop to its 100W charger will sprout from the top of the device. The port selection on the Asus Zenbook Duo (UX8407A) is a little sparse.Mark Hachman / Foundry Asus says that the laptop will ship with a pen (the SA205H) with MPP 2.6 support, but that accessories will vary by country. I don’t think my review unit shipped with one inside. An underappreciated strength of the Duo is its cooling. Though it partially failed my performance stress tests — where it successfully looped a Cinebench CPU benchmark without a significant drop in performance, but failed to do the same in a GPU test — the cooling fans are exceptionally quiet even under load. Air appears to be pulled from the bottom of the Zenbook and is pushed out the sides, but very quietly. It might be noticeable in a quiet office, but just barely. In a normal setting, it’s totally quiet under the Windows “Balanced” power settings, the default. Asus Zenbook Duo: A fantastic, power-saving display OLED screens have become vastly more commonplace over the past few years, especially in laptops, because their inky blacks make for a more visually striking experience. However, OLEDs with high screen refresh rates are a bit less common. And a pair of screens? Well, that’s nearly unique. As a fan of Lenovo’s ThinkBook Plus Rollable and subsequent prototypes, I really like a notebook that can expand to deliver additional screen space on the road. The Rollable, though, is a single screen. The smaller bezels separating the two displays still aren’t as convenient as a foldable, but the smaller gap (less than 10mm) feels cohesive and allows your eyes to “create” a single image when you’re actually looking a pair of screens. OLED screens look great, of course, and the displays are VESA certified as True Black 1000, covering 100 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut. The Asus Lumina Pro LED displays are capable of a nearly perfect DCI-P3 color gamut and with a variable refresh rate than can go to 144Hz and as low as 48Hz. That’s extremely helpful both for smooth refresh rates — including gaming — as well as saving power by lowering the refresh rate, too. Finally, Asus says that the displays can reduce blue light by up to 70 percent, though I lack the ability to test that. According to our instruments, the Zenbook Duo does maintain the 100 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut it promises.Mark Hachman / Foundry (To be fair, I tested this laptop at a fixed refresh rate of 60 Hz, which can be manually adjusted to 144Hz while running on wall power. The laptop includes a setting to dynamically adjust that down to 48 Hz, which I typically don’t do because of the variability. But the incredible battery life that you’ll see below could be even greater with that control enabled.) Asus says that the two displays can put out 1,000 nits apiece in HDR mode; our light meter measured them producing 480 nits apiece in SDR mode. That’s far more than necessary for outdoor use. Unlike the 2025 version of the Zenbook Duo, these screens feature a new anti-reflection coating that can cut light reflection by 65 percent, but they’re still too glossy for my taste. From a structural standpoint, the dual-screen construction feels quite strong. It reminds me of Lenovo’s early tablets, with a metal kickstand that holds the upper display in place, even when tilted forward. I’m not as fond of the display setup in portrait mode; there’s no other way to secure the displays except by using the angle to prop them up. Put another way, the displays will be less prone to be knocked over in portrait mode when folded close to one another, which robs them a bit of their utility. I also don’t like the Asus five-finger gesture where you close all fingers together, and then expand or “explode” them outwards. This takes a window on a single screen and projects it across the entirety of the display, but it’s tough to get right and therefore works intermittently. The Zenbook Duo ships with the MyAsus app, the overarching system utility that offer performance adjustments, and the ability to configure specific aspects of the laptop. I’ve always thought that the MyAsus app is one of the more useful, well-organized collections of laptop utility functions. I ended up mildly hating the ScreenXpert software, which hovers in the bottom right-hand corner of your screen. I would wade through a series of menus to turn it off, inadvertently trigger it again, then have to rediscover the process to banish it once again. Asus Zenbook Duo: Audio improves to superior levels Asus has made additional improvements in the audio subsystem, moving to a total of six speakers, with two firing to the front. It’s a little odd trying to find where the sound originates from while the screens are unfolded, but there’s no doubt that the audio quality is excellent, though a bit flat. The Zenbook Duo offered Dolby Atmos as an audio enhancement, delivering sound that was pretty clear even from the bass on up to the upper end. The speakers delivered enough volume to comfortably fill my office with sound, too. I think some traditional clamshells produce a slightly richer sound, but you won’t be disappointed with how this laptop’s speakers sound at all. Asus Zenbook Duo: On paper, the keyboard is good. Under my fingers… My first reaction when typing on the Asus Zenbook Duo was… I’ve felt this keyboard before. To my fingers, it felt very much like the Microsoft Type Cover keyboards: flat, without an enormous amount of support. Asus says the keyboard has 1.7mm of key travel, which feels right. That’s a tad more than the 1.5 mm travel of a midrange laptop keyboard. The function key row adds custom keys for specific Asus functions.Mark Hachman / Foundry When docked, the keyboard charges itself via the pogo pins. Undocked, it runs off a dedicated battery inside the keyboard itself. Asus rates the keyboard’s battery at over 11 hours by itself, though I didn’t test this specifically. You can also switch off the keyboard while undocked via a small switch. There are three layers of backlighting. Typing on the keyboard itself was moderately comfortable, at least while docked. I wasn’t as happy using it in undocked mode, as the thin flat keyboard rests flat on whatever surface you rest it in. Personally, I like it raised or angled a bit. But even when used in a clamshell mode, my fingers felt a little unfamiliar on the spongy keys — I typed the majority of the review using this laptop, just to gain some added familiarity. It’s not my favorite keyboard. Asus includes dedicated keys to launch its ScreenXpert software, which includes brightness controls for both screens, as well as the ability to sync that brightness level. (The software also lets you know the battery capacity, in percentage, of the keyboard.) There are also dedicated keys to swap content between screens and even disable one entirely. The trackpad is nothing to write home about, but it does the job. Asus Zenbook Duo: The webcam’s not great, but it does the job The Zenbook Duo includes a full HD (1080p) webcam with Windows Hello capabilities, which worked acceptably during the course of the review period, though I had to log in manually occasionally. The webcam didn’t focus exceptionally well, though these examples taken in my office and upstairs in my living room came out fairly well. In general, it’s a softer image than I’d like. But I’m not sure if one of our best webcams would overbalance the displays in their extended mode. The Zenbook’s mics continue to be excellent. I’ve used the Asus Zenbooks as an example of superlative noise filtering, assisted by the NPU’s AI powers. Those controls live within the MyAsus app, a handy collection of utilities to adjust the laptop’s performance and more. Asus Zenbook Duo: Standout performance thanks to Panther Lake I spent the better part of two weeks with the Asus Zenbook Duo, testing it as a representative of the Intel Core Ultra Series 2 “Panther Lake” platform. You’ll find a number of performance tests there that aren’t included here, particular battery performance tests, along with some additional games. At this point, the Asus Zenbook Duo is the only Panther Lake system I have to test, though more reviews will be released soon. For now, I’ll compare it to the earlier Zenbook Duo, as well as some of that laptop’s rivals. Again, my Panther Lake overview compares this laptop to representative laptops that use Intel’s Core Ultra Series 1 and Series 2 chips, AMD’s Ryzen AI 300, and the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite. (The AMD Ryzen AI 400 and Snapdragon X2 Elite have yet to ship.) Intel also claims that the Panther Lake’s performance is as fast as a slightly older gaming notebook with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 inside. That’s a huge claim, and it’s partially true. Again, it’s worth checking out the other article for a deeper explanation. I think it’s worth beginning our look at the Zenbook Duo’s performance, however, by examining a key selling point, which is its battery life. The laptop contains the largest battery allowable for transport on an airplane: 99 watt-hours, which is normally the size you see in a chunky, heavy gaming laptop. In this case, the battery accounts for much of the extra pound, bringing the laptop’s weight to about 3.5 pounds. I’m not a huge fan of our ancient video rundown tests, only because chipmakers now treat video playback as relatively trivial and a task that doesn’t take up much power at all. (This test loops a 4K video file until the battery runs out of juice.) I have a little more respect for tests that simulate work such as UL’s Procyon Office benchmark, which slowly loads tests in Microsoft Office and Outlook, simulating your workday. There’s an additional wrinkle, of course. Do you want to know the results for one screen or two? I’d like to think that PCWorld readers want all the information they can, so I tested all scenarios. Here’s what I found: One screen, video rundown: 22 hours, 15 minutes Two screens, video rundown: 13 hours, 29 minutes One screen, Procyon Office rundown: 13 hours, 56 minutes Two screens, Procyon Office rundown: 8 hours, 49 minutes One screen, video rundown at maximum performance settings: 13 hours, 32 minutes In my earlier review of Intel’s Core Ultra 2 chips, my tests of the other platforms topped out at 17 hours, 17 minutes for the Core Ultra 2 platform and just over 16 hours for Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite. I mistakenly tested the Zenbook Duo using Windows’ maximum battery settings for a video rundown, but it created an extra data point. As you might imagine, even two weeks of testing time didn’t allow for three runs of battery testing like I’d prefer, along with the various performance tests and rundown iterations. However, Intel provided us with an additional single-screen Lenovo laptop that produced 25 to 28 hours of battery life as a check against the Zenbook Duo. I also left the laptop running in a fixed 60Hz refresh rate during all of my tests, which would be directly comparable to other laptops. Since the Zenbook Duo can be set to dynamically drop down to 24 Hz when needed, even more battery life might be possible. For comparison, we’re using the $1,679 HP OmniBook Ultra 14, the $999 Asus VivoBook S 14, the $939 Acer Swift 16 AI, and the $1,999 Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition, together with the $1,699 Asus Zenbook Duo with Intel’s Lunar Lake chip inside as well as the $3,299 ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable. I tested the laptop using our suite of standard benchmarks. I kept the laptop in its traditional clamshell mode during the tests. Additional screens mean additional pixels, and that’s not a direct comparison to its single-screen competition. I first began with the PCMark benchmark, one of my favorites. It measures overall performance across a variety of applications, and it chewed up the CAD exercises with ease. You’ll have no problem with your day-to-day Office work with the Asus Zenbook Duo (UX8407A): .Mark Hachman / Foundry We use the Cinebench benchmark to measure the CPU performance on apps that the PCMark test doesn’t cover. Here, we use the multithreaded portion of the test. CPU-specific tasks include the operating system, file decompression, and some games. Again, the Asus Zenbook Duo flies through it with no problems. However, AMD’s Ryzen is right behind! We’re still awaiting the next-gen Ryzen AI 400 chips, and that’s a positive sign for AMD. Yes, the Asus Zenbook Duo (UX8407A): plows through this test, but AMD’s Ryzen is in the rear-view mirror.Mark Hachman / Foundry We run the Handbrake test as much as a measure of the laptop’s computational ability as a test to see how well it can execute at full load, during a prolonged period. It’s a measure of the laptop’s cooling as much as the performance of the chip. Again, Intel’s Panther Lake is holding on to a narrow lead. Another test goes to Intel and the Asus Asus Zenbook Duo (UX8407A), but just barely.Mark Hachman / Foundry However, as our Intel Core Ultra Series 3 (Panther Lake) evaluation showed, 3D graphics is a killer strength of this chip and, by extension, the Asus Zenbook Duo. If you have work (or play) that demands solid graphics, this notebook could be for you. It’s not even close. Asus Zenbook Duo (UX8407A): blows everything else away.Mark Hachman / Foundry I almost didn’t compile a chart of the battery-life figures of the rival laptops, because 1) there’s too much variability in what the Asus Zenbook Duo offers between the multiple screens and rundown tests and 2) because it’s not particularly close, right? Wrong. While I did see 22 to 25 hours of battery life in a Lenovo laptop Intel provided us, the Zenbook Duo actually squeaked by a little closer than I thought it would over the competition. I’ll be interested to see what notebooks like the Samsung Galaxy Book 6 eventually produce. At CES, Samsung management was talking about 30 hours of battery! Mark Hachman / Foundry Asus Zenbook Duo: Conclusion Nevertheless, if you’re in the market for an innovative, dual-screen laptop, you really can’t go wrong with the Asus Zenbook Duo. It’s simply superb in almost all aspects of the experience, although I’d prefer using another keyboard if I had the chance. Part of that is the Panther Lake chip, certainly, but Asus engineers have still crafted a Zenbook Duo that’s better than the last. This is a superb productivity machine, one that road warriors, business travelers, and consumers alike should consider for their next laptop. Read...

Yet another smart product is headed for the scrapheap, and this time it’s an Amazon Fire TV device that lets you control your home entertainment components with voice commands—or at least, that’s what it used to do.  First announced back in 2019, the Amazon Fire TV Blaster will “stop working” in the “coming weeks,” according to an Amazon customer support email shared by AFTVnews.  Amazon is offering an “exclusive” $60 discount to Fire TV Blaster owners for the Fire TV Cube, a more powerful version of the Blaster that comes with built-in Alexa and a $139.99 price tag, making its final price $79.99 for those who take Amazon up on the offer.  Another option for Fire TV Blaster owners is to get a new Fire TV streaming player—albeit one without hand-free Alexa functionality—for half-off.  As the Fire TV Blaster originally retailed for just $35, out-of-luck owners are now left in the position of either paying more than double for a new Fire TV Cube that’s capable of the Blaster’s hands-free Alexa functionality, or opting for a less expensive Fire TV stick that isn’t.  We’ve reached out to Amazon for comment.  The Fire TV Blaster gets its name from its ability to blast IR commands to such common living-room components as TVs, soundbars, A/V receivers, and similar home entertainment devices.  With the Fire TV Blaster connected to an Echo speaker, you could say things like “Alexa, switch to HDMI 1 on TV,” and the Blaster would beam the appropriate IR command to your TV set.  At just $35, the Fire TV Blaster made for a nifty and inexpensive way to add smarts and voice capabilities to your dumb home theater components.   But like too many other smart devices we’ve seen, the Fire TV Blaster is about to become a paperweight, with the Amazon email including instructions on how to recycle the soon-to-be-useless gadget, along with a link to a free shipping label.  Of course, there is the Fire TV Cube, a supercharged version of the Fire TV Blaster with built-in Alexa—including Alexa+ support—along with HDMI passthrough and much more powerful internal hardware.  Besides being way more expensive, though, the Fire TV Cube also comes saddled with the Fire TV interface, which our reviewer deemed to be “too cumbersome, with too many sponsored listings, banner ads, and extraneous menu items getting in the way.”  This story is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best media streaming devices. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Unique aspect ratio for extra vertical space Useful extra features Higher resolution than 4K, excellent sharpness Now has a 120Hz refresh rate Cons HDR is supported, but not great MSRP is expensive for the display size Our Verdict The BenQ RD280UG is an outstanding coding display, with a unique 3:2 aspect ratio, an ambient light sensor that can automatically adjust display brightness, and an ultra-high resolution superior to a typical 4K monitor. All of this makes for an outstanding coding display. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: BenQ RD280UG Retailer Price $699.99 View Deal BenQ $699.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Best Prices Today: Check today’s prices The BenQ RD280UG is a monitor designed from scratch for coding. Of course, just about any display can be used for coding—but the BenQ RD280UG goes much further than most. It has a unique 3:2 aspect ratio, an ambient light sensor that can automatically adjust display brightness, and an ultra-high resolution superior to a typical 4K monitor. All of this makes for an outstanding coding display. Read on to learn more, then see our roundup of the best monitors for comparison. BenQ RD280UG specs and features It’s hard to miss the BenQ RD280UG’s headline feature. The 28.2-inch display, which has a 3:2 aspect ratio, is instantly set apart from most monitors. It’s a sharp display, too, with a native resolution of 3840×2560. That’s a higher pixel count than a 27-inch 4K monitor, but due to the BenQ RD280UG’s larger physical display size, the pixel density is almost identical. Display size: 28.2-inch 3:2 aspect ratio Native resolution: 3840×2560 Panel type: IPS-LCD with LED edge lit backlight Refresh rate: 120Hz Adaptive sync: VRR HDR: Yes, VESA DisplayHDR 400 Certified Ports: 1x HDMI 2.0, 1x DisplayPort 1.4, 1x USB-C with DisplayPort Alternate Mode and 90 watts USB Power Delivery, 1x USB-C downstream with DisplayPort MST and up to 15 watts of Power Delivery, 2x USB-A downstream, 1 USB-C downstream with 7.5 watts of Power Delivery, 1x USB-B upstream Audio: Yes, 2x 3-watt speakers Extra features: Moonhalo ambient light, KVM switch, ambient light sensor Price: $759.99 MSRP The BenQ RD280UG makes several improvements over its predecessor, the BenQ RD280U. The refresh rate has increased from 60Hz to 120Hz and VRR is now supported, though BenQ stops short of support for any particular standard (such as AMD FreeSync or Nvidia G-Sync). The new model also lists slightly more powerful speakers, up to 3 watts from 2W before, replaces one USB-A downstream port with USB-C, and lists a better contrast ratio of 2000:1, up from 1200:1. BenQ RD280UG design The BenQ RD280UG’s design is dominated by its highly unusual 3:2 aspect ratio. While there are now a couple other 3:2 monitors available, it remains extremely rare. The aspect ratio results in a display that’s almost exactly as wide as a 27-inch widescreen monitor, yet nearly as tall as a 32-inch widescreen monitor. Because of that, the RD280UG’s 3:2 aspect ratio can provide a tad more than two extra inches of vertical display space (compared to a 27-inch widescreen). This is useful not only for coding but also for writing or editing all sorts of documents. Put simply, you can see more on the display at once. The display’s size is also a great fit for viewing two vertical windows side-by-side. Matthew Smith / Foundry The 3:2 display is housed in a robust chassis with a distinct ridged design on the rear of the monitor. It sets the monitor apart from other brands, yet still looks professional. This is also where you’ll find the MoonHalo, an ambient light that can create a pleasant glow around the display in a bright environment. While the MoonHalo is meant to reduce eye strain, I like it for a more basic reason: It just looks nice. The ambient glow cast by the MoonHalo is pleasant and bright enough to be a genuinely useful light source in a dimly lit room. BenQ mounts the monitor to a hefty stand with a flat base that doesn’t cause too much disruption on your desk. The stand can adjust for height, tilt, and swivel. It can also pivot, which is an upgrade from the BenQ RD280U. A 100x100mm VESA mount is used, so the monitor can be attached to third-party monitor arms and stands. BenQ RD280UG connectivity Around back the BenQ RD280UG provides three video inputs: one HDMI, one DisplayPort, and one USB-C with DisplayPort. The USB-C port also provides up to 90 watts of Power Delivery for powering a connected laptop or tablet. The monitor also has a USB-C downstream port with 15 watts of Power Delivery and DisplayPort multi-stream transport. This feature lets you connect a second display to the BenQ RD280UG and “daisy-chain” the video signal to it. That’s useful if you have a laptop with just one video output, or if you want to reduce cable clutter on your desk. The USB-C port extends USB connectivity to two USB-A ports and one USB-C port. These ports can also be driven by a USB-B upstream connection. This makes the RD280UG a fairly useful USB hub, though it lacks some more extravagant features that can be found on some competitors. The Dell U3225QE, for example, has 2.5Gbps Ethernet. KVM switch functionality is included, too. That means you can connect multiple devices and use the monitor to switch between which has access to the monitor’s USB ports. It’s a good way to quickly swap between two connected PCs, though also included by most of the BenQ RD280UG’s competitors. BenQ RD280UG menus and features The BenQ RD280UG has several extra features aimed at programmers. My favorite is the ambient light sensor. An ambient light sensor can automatically adjust the brightness of a display throughout the day to keep the brightness at a comfortable level. That’s handy, as manually adjusting brightness is annoying and easy to forget. Most monitors in the BenQ RD280UG’s price range don’t have this feature, though a few do, including some Dell Ultrasharp, Asus ProArt, and BenQ P-Series displays. BenQ doubles down on comfort with several display modes, such as E-Paper and a Coding Dark Theme, which drastically change the image presentation. These modes are not technically “accurate” but might ease eye strain due to reduced brightness and enhanced contrast. Keep in mind, however, that the usefulness of these features can vary from person to person. The BenQ RD280UG also has a “Function Bar” on the front of the display. This is a touch-sensitive control that can be used to quickly engage or change monitor settings. The idea is that coders may want to frequently move from a coding-specific image quality mode to another, more typical mode. I would have preferred a remote or physical button for this, but the Function Bar is better than nothing. The monitor’s settings can otherwise be changed in one of two ways. You can use a joystick behind the lower bezel to control the on-screen menus or use BenQ’s DisplayPilot software. The DisplayPilot software supports Windows, Mac, and Linux, which is notable. Most competitors don’t support Linux. Whichever method you choose, you’ll find a lot of options. The monitor has many color modes and gamma modes that target precise gamma values. It also has color temperature adjustment, but those adjustments do not target precise values. The monitor provides many options for controlling special features, such as the MoonHalo, ambient light sensor, and function bar. On the whole, I think the BenQ RD280UG provides a good range of features and options for the price. My favorite feature is the automatic brightness adjustment of the ambient light sensor — manually adjusting brightness is annoying. BenQ RD280UG audio The BenQ RD280UG includes a pair of 3-watt speakers. According to the specification sheet, these are an upgrade over the RD280U, which used 2-watt speakers. And many similar monitors lack speakers at all. Still, the RD280UG’s audio isn’t great, lacking volume and depth. The speakers are okay for listening to a podcast but that’s about it. BenQ RD280UG SDR image quality I think it’s fair to say the BenQ RD280UG’s image quality is not important to the monitor’s core use case. Coding does not require a high contrast ratio or, in most cases, a wide color gamut. The BenQ RD280UG’s image quality reflects this, though it’s still decent. Matthew Smith / Foundry I measured a maximum sustained SDR brightness of 340 nits. That is a small upgrade from the older RD280U, which hit about 325 nits.As the graph shows, most competing monitors can be brighter, and some are significantly brighter. However, the RD280UG is bright enough to be comfortable in most interior rooms. It’s also clearly skewed towards use in dim rooms, as many of the monitor’s features are designed to make it comfortable when viewed in such a room. So, while the RD280UG is not that bright, it’s bright enough, and I can’t say it’s a problem for how the monitor is meant to be used. Matthew Smith / Foundry The BenQ RD280UG promises improved contrast over its predecessor, and it delivers. I measured a contrast ratio of 1980:1, which is a significant improvement over the prior monitor’s contrast ratio of 1310:1. It also compares well to similar monitors, many of which have a contrast ratio around 1000:1 to 1500:1. In practice, this means the BenQ RD280UG has a reasonably deep, rich, and immersive look. However, some backlight glow will still be visible when viewing dark images in a very dark room. Matthew Smith / Foundry Next up is color gamut, which is the range of colors the monitor can display. Here, we see a weakness of the BenQ RD280UG, and an area where the BenQ RD280UG doesn’t perform as well as its predecessor. The new RD280UG was able to display 88 percent of DCI-P3 and 82 percent of AdobeRGB, while the old model displayed 93 percent and 87 percent, respectively. This is not a major issue, as the BenQ RD280UG’s color gamut is still enough that it appears vivid at a glance. However, when compared to better monitors, it looks less saturated and alluring. You won’t notice it when coding or working with documents, but it can be noticeable in photos and videos. Matthew Smith / Foundry Color accuracy is also so-so, as the RD280UG has an average color error that’s higher than many competitive monitors—particularly those from Dell. The average color error is expressed across many colors, rather than any single color. The RD280UG is not meant to be a monitor for creative professionals, and for the price, would not be a good pick for that use. The RD280UG’s color temperature came in at 6700K, slightly off our target of 6500K. That means the image is a bit cooler than ideal, and it’s a noticeable difference, but not punch-you-in-the-face obvious. Gamma, meanwhile, was good with an on-target gamma curve of 2.2. The monitor provides a range of gamma presets in case you feel the need to change to another gamma setting. Together, these results contribute to a well-balanced presentation of the RD280UG’s image. Sharpness is a perk. The RD280UG provides 3840×2560 resolution, which is a higher total pixel count than a 4K widescreen monitor. However, because the monitor is also physically larger, this still works out to a pixel density of about 164 pixels per inch. Most 27-inch 4K monitors have a similar pixel density. Still, this is an excellent level of sharpness for a computer monitor. Small text looks crisp and detailed, which is important, since coders often view small text.The RD280UG’s overall image quality is not exceptional but seems well-suited for the monitor’s intended purpose. Programmers care most of all about sharpness when viewing small fonts and a well-balanced, reasonably accurate image. The RD280UG provides that. BenQ RD280UG HDR image quality The BenQ RD280UG is capable of HDR and is VESA DisplayHDR 400 certified, but I wouldn’t recommend it for viewing HDR. The monitor lacks the brightness and contrast to truly do HDR justice and generally won’t look much better than SDR—just different. On top of that, the monitor lacks the sort of HDR brightness and image adjustment features that you’ll find on a high-end gaming and entertainment monitor, such as the Asus ROG Swift OLED PG27AQWP-W. BenQ RD280UG motion performance BenQ’s RD280UG can reach a refresh rate up to 120Hz. That’s an improvement over the RD280U, which could only achieve 60Hz. It also allows the BenQ to catch up with recent Dell Ultrasharp and Asus ProArt monitors, many of which achieve a refresh rate of at least 120Hz. Whether the 120Hz refresh rate is adequate will depend on your expectations. The quickest monitors can now hit refresh rates up to 1,000Hz, and 240Hz monitors are extremely common, so 120Hz is a long way from cutting edge. However, many monitors meant specifically for coding or productivity are still stuck at 60Hz, and improving the RD280UG’s refresh rate to 120Hz delivers a big improvement. Refresh rate is often thought of as a feature for PC gaming but, in this context, it provides better text clarity when scrolling through code, as well as a more responsive feel when navigating a desktop, apps, or an integrated development environment. The monitor also supports variable refresh rates. It does not state official support for VESA AdaptiveSync, AMD FreeSync, or Nvidia G-Sync. However, in my testing, AMD FreeSync did function with the RD280UG. Should you buy the BenQ RD280UG? The BenQ RD280UG is one of the most unusual monitors on the market right now, yet in many ways, it makes perfect sense. It’s designed for coding and, to that end, it provides more screen real estate, an ultra-sharp image, and multiple modes and features designed to either reduce eye strain or make working in a dark room more enjoyable. The BenQ RD280UG also provides important upgrades from its predecessor, the RD280U, including a leap from a 60Hz to 120Hz refresh rate. The RD280UG’s retail price of $759.99 is expensive, and because you can code well enough on just about any display, it won’t make sense for everyone. However, if you have strong opinions on how a display you use for coding should function and look, the RD280UG will be ideal for you. Read...

The home entertainment industry awoke Tuesday morning to stunning news: Sony is ceding control of its home entertainment business, including its storied Bravia TV brand, to TCL.  It’s the kind of headline that makes you do a double-take: Sony, giving up on TVs? Well, it’s more complicated than that, but in broad strokes it’s true. As detailed in a joint press release, Sony will spin off its home entertainment division—including soundbars and TVs—into a new joint venture, with TCL controlling 51 percent of the new entity while Sony will retain a 49-percent share.  The deal likely won’t be finalized until late March, with the new joint company expected to open its doors in the April 2027 timeframe, so it will be business as usual for Sony TVs and home entertainment products until then. The agreement is also subject to regulatory approval.  Still, does this mean Sony TVs as we know them will eventually go away? Well, yes and no.   On a surface level, there will still be Sony- and Bravia-branded TVs on sale even after the presumed closure of the deal, with the Sony/TCL press release specifying that both “the globally recognized ‘Sony’ name and ‘Bravia’ name” are “expected” to live on.  And while TCL will be supplying the panels for new Sony TVs, Sony will still be contributing its “high-quality picture and audio technology” — in short, the under-the-hood chips and picture-quality enhancements that give Sony TV sets their signature look.  Beyond the actual display panels, TCL will serve up its global supply chain and industrial facilities, including the “end-to-end” logistics required to efficiently churn out millions of TVs per annum.  So no, Sony’s Bravia name isn’t going anywhere, but it’s conceivably at risk of spreading everywhere, going both up and down the TV market and thus diluting the brand.  Put another way, we’re used to Sony’s “Bravia” brand being a mark of high-end quality. You’ve got your Sony TV sets, then you’ve got your Sony Bravia TVs, including OLED sets and higher-end LCD-based models. If we start seeing 43-inch-plus Bravia TVs in the sub-$300 range, the Bravia brand may cease to mean anything.  To be clear, it’s not certain that’s going to happen, and we should also point out that TCL itself is the maker of some mighty fine TVs.   Early this month, TCL took the wraps off a new SQD (super quantum-dot) TV that it claims will “end” the picture-quality debate between OLED and LED, and we’re eager to see it for ourselves. We’ve also praised TCL’s bargain TVs for being among the best values in the market.  But even with Sony’s continued involvement in the joint venture and TCL’s impressive track record with TVs, we can’t help but wonder about the future of the Bravia brand, and what it will stand for with TCL at the helm. Read...