Apple’s MacBooks are icons of the creative arts, and are beloved by creatives for their performance and streamlined design. But as capable as they are, they don’t offer the same kind of power and versatility as the latest RTX AI PCs equipped with NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 50 Series graphics cards. If you’re considering a laptop upgrade this year, GeForce RTX 50 Series laptops, backed by the latest Blackwell architecture, are specifically designed to handle the most demanding creative projects, outperforming the competition in both speed and visual precision. Not to mention the latest AI features and some well deserved off-hours gaming. Explore NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Powered Windows gaming laptopsLearn more Accelerated creativity, elevated fun If you’re editing video, native 4:2:2 support delivers professional color grading tools to the masses  with twice the color information of standard 4:2:0 formats for high-fidelity editing while maintaining manageable file sizes. Equipped with the 9th-gen NVENC, the RTX 5070 is 2x faster than the Apple MacBook Pro with M4 Pro when encoding in popular applications like CapCut and DaVinci Resolve with HEVC. The latest encoders deliver 5% better quality in AV1 and HEVC. An additional AV1 Ultra High Quality mode further boosts quality by another 5%. The 6th-gen NVDEC enables 2x faster H.264 decoding. It also introduces hardware-accelerated mJPEG decode support. Plus AI effects in DaVinci Resolve run up to 2.1x faster on an RTX 5070 than on a MacBook Pro with M4 Pro and perform 15% faster than the previous generation of RTX cards. Aspiring livestreamers can tap into 9th-gen NVENC hardware encoding for superior streaming quality without impacting your gaming or app performance, allowing for high frame rates while simultaneously encoding a high-quality stream. Native AV1 encoding enables higher quality streams at lower bitrates, providing up to 40% better compression efficiency than traditional H.264. Then there’s the exclusive NVIDIA Broadcast app, ideal for podcasters and streamers who require high production value without a room full of gear. This AI-powered tool enables background noise removal and virtual backgrounds to keep your focus on the content. With features like Studio Voice, which uses AI to enhance microphone quality to professional studio standards, and Virtual Key Light, which intelligently brightens your face in poorly lit environments. For 3D artists, the RTX 5070 transforms the creative process from a series of “wait-and-see” moments into a real-time interactive experience. DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation technology dramatically improves real-time viewport speeds during modeling and animation so you can iterate on complex scenes without the painful wait for your PC to catch up. NVIDIA OptiX Denoising uses AI to remove “noise” from preview renders with the RTX 5070 clocking in 3x faster than the Apple MacBook Pro with M4 in Chaos V-Ray. And hey, if you want to do a little gaming when you’re finished for the day, RTX 5070 supports DLSS 4 and Multi Frame Generation for the highest frame rates possible in modern gaming. For an even more chill but equally impressive entertainment experience, check out RTX Video that automatically enhances videos in Chrome, Firefox, Edge browsers and VLC to crystal-clear 4K HDR. Future proof AI The RTX 5070 is built to be the fastest platform for creators who use generative AI to speed up their workflows. Gen AI models and tools run natively on RTX 5070 GPUs through CUDA meaning everything works on Day 0. TensorRT-optimized models, available only on RTX GPUs, run up to 2x faster than native PyTorch models, providing the fastest performance for those who need it. In Stability AI’s latest image generation model, Stable Diffusion 3.5, the RTX 5070 laptop runs 12x faster than a MacBook Pro with M4 Pro. Out-of-the-box performance in ComfyUI, the visual platform for generative AI that enables easy branching, remixing, and customization of workflows, has been accelerated even further on RTX GPUs by up to 40%. RTX 5070 hardware also enables FP4 support, which is essential for fitting larger, more complex models on your device while ensuring they run as fast as possible. While Apple doesn’t disclose the raw capabilities of its neural processors, onboard NPUs tend to operate in the 10s of TOPS (Trillions of operations per second) range. That’s impressive, but RTX 5070s with dedicated 5th-gen Tensor Cores (AI chips) can offer hundreds of TOPS. Onboard NPUs are great for completing simple upscaling or webcam beautifying tasks, but for running large language models, or developing your own chatbots, having a dedicated RTX 5070 GPU with its own VRAM makes a big difference. Explore Windows and RTX If you’re been a MacBook user for a while, we get it: The idea of switching to Windows feels alien. And it probably will feel odd for a while, but it’s not like you’ll miss out on much in the way of applications. Many of the native macOS apps, like Apple Music, iCloud, Safari, run just fine on Windows, and there are equivalents of all the most popular apps that don’t. If you’re thinking about upgrading, or are curious about what a new laptop might help you do, then it’s well worth considering a switch to a new Windows laptop with a RTX 5070 Series GPU. They’re fast for all kinds of creative tasks, support the most capable of applications, and offer impressive battery life in their own right. Windows laptops with GeForce RTX graphics aren’t MacBooks, and that’s their real strength. Explore NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Powered Windows gaming laptopsLearn more Read...

Dr Amandine Sabadel said tracking technology has helped find the first clues as to how and where eels spawn but there is still more to do. Read...

Dr Amandine Sabadel said tracking technology has helped find the first clues as to how and where eels spawn but there is still more to do. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Extremely bright, with excellent color presentation Remote control is good for quick adjustments, and saves you from the app Ample customizability if you invest the time Cons App is a bit of a mess Preloaded themes are too similar Quite expensive Our Verdict If you really need the extra brightness, Lumary’s Permanent Outdoor Lights Max live up to their name, but the app that comes with them isn’t nearly as robust as that of the competition. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Lumary Permanent Outdoor Lights Max Retailer Price Check Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Best Prices Today: Check today’s prices Lumary is a newish smart home company focused heavily on lighting products, and its latest offering is a high-end (or at least high-priced) permanent outdoor strip lighting solution. The company makes three permanent lighting products, with the Lumary Max, reviewed here, being its most expensive solution Price, however, is hardly always the best signal of quality. Specifications The Lumary Permanent Outdoor Lights Max product features a familiar set of LEDs daisy chained along a sturdy wire, all clad in white and ready to attach to your eaves. The system comes in three length options: 40 LEDs/53 feet, 80 LEDs/105 feet, or 120 LEDs/158 feet. Prices are $300, $450, and $650 respectively. I received the 120-LED version for review. From the moment the Lumary Permanent Outdoor Lights Max are powered on, it’s evident they are much brighter than the competition. Lumary bills its LED technology as RGBAICW, with 16 million colors supported in each LED and programmable white temperatures ranging from 2200 Kelvin to 6500K. The lights are very bright, maxing out at 60 lumens each, a significant upgrade over most other permanent lights I’ve tested. Maximum power draw is specified at 96 watts. The lighting modules and wiring are rated IP67 for weatherproofing, while the inline control box is IP65. Read TechHive’s IP code guide for a better understanding of how products are protected from the elements. We reviewed Lumary’s longest offering: 158 feet with 120 LEDs. Its Permanent Outdoor Lights Max are also available in a 53-foot length with 40 LEDs and a 105-foot length with 80 LEDs.Christopher Null/Foundry Lumary says that product lifespan varies based on production batch, with early batches specified at 15,000 hours and the latest jumping to 50,000 hours. (It’s not clear if there’s any way to tell which batch you’re purchasing.) LEDs are separated by a distance of 16.5 inches and come with 20 LEDs in each segment, which are connected to one another with waterproof seals. Extension cables of both 4- and 12 feet are included that you can use at any point in the chain of lights. Only about 3 feet of extra cabling appears at the A/C adapter side of the lights along with the control box; you’ll probably need to use one of the in-line extension cables or a standard electrical extension cable to reach an electrical outlet. Lights can be mounted with either preaffixed adhesive or screw hardware; both options are included, as are additional clips to help keep wiring in place, a handy bonus. All necessary hardware is included, as is a remote control powered by two AAA batteries (not included). Lumary’s lights connect to its mobile app via 2.4GHz Wi-Fi. Third-party support for Alexa and Google Home infrastructures is also included. Installation and setup Each light puck can glow in your choice of 16 millions colors or produce various temperatures of white light (from a warm 2200 Kelvin to an ice-cold 6500K).Christopher Null/Foundry Setup of the Lumary Permanent Outdoor Lights Max is a familiar process, and as with most permanent lights, you’ll spend the bulk of your time planning exactly where they should go and where to use the included extension cords before breaking out a ladder and painstakingly attaching the lights to your eaves. After installing the Lumary app, the system is designed to auto-discover new Lumary hardware via Bluetooth. I had to turn the lights on and off a few times via the single button on the control box to complete the task, but otherwise the process was quick, after which I tapped in my Wi-Fi credentials and started a firmware update to complete the onboarding. Using the Lumary Permanent Outdoor Lights Max From the moment they’re powered on, it becomes evident that the Lumary Max lights are much brighter than typical string lights or permanent lights. The 60-lumen LEDs sear the retinas at close range and full brightness, even though the beam is fairly wide and diffuse. The Lumary app, however, is a real oddity that is far from intuitive and is clearly a work in progress. The apparent problem is that is a clone of the Smart Life app, a multivendor application that ranks as one of the worst user experiences on the market. Lumary’s app takes Smart Life and seemingly makes it even more scattered. Lumary provides a handy remote control that saves you from needing to pull out your smartphone when you want to make changes.Christopher Null/Foundry Like Smart Life, the Lumary app first drops you into a view of all your Lumary gear. Tap the Permanent Lights Max icon to drill down and access detailed management features. The first page of device management is a bulb-by-bulb editor that lets you paint your chosen color directly to each LED. This mode however only supports static colors and white bulb—no visual effects—and bizarrely, these scenes can’t be permanently saved after you’ve painstakingly created them. One tab over you’ll find Lumary’s pre-created scenes, divided into “Scenery” (like “Lotus Reflecting the Sun”), “Life” (“Holiday,” “Working”), “Festival” (“Christmas,” “Forest Day”), and “Mood” (“Love and Fantasy,” “Spring Fishing”). There are some 55 scene modes available, and they’re all a lot alike, with few seemingly seasonally appropriate. I’m not sure why, but the Christmas theme features a variety of flashing colors instead of red and green hues, and they come off like cheap party lights. The colors and animations in the app also don’t match up well to what the lighting looks like in real life. You won’t get any kind of sense of what these themes look like unless you try them out one by one. Fortunately, the themes are adjustable—within reason—and these adjustments can be saved for future use. But again, so much trial and error is needed to make your theme look good that it really doesn’t matter which one you use as a starting point. Lastly, various music modes (which can work with either a microphone on the control box or your phone’s mic) are included. Lumary’s app leaves much to be desired.Christopher Null/Foundry The app has a basic countdown timer and scheduling system that can turn the lights on or off and set a theme from your collection, but this all needs to be done when you’re drilled down into the lights’ detail screen. You can make quick adjustments to brightness, color temperature, and the countdown clock from the Lumary home screen, but the countdown clock here is only displayed in seconds, which is awfully unintuitive for a multi-hour timer. The included remote control is fortunately a thoughtful touch, letting you cycle through scenes and adjust scene speed and brightness, in addition to cycling power. Five additional preset buttons let you turn the lights to all red, green, or blue or set them to warm white or cool white. Should you buy the Lumary Permanent Outdoor Lights Max? Lumary’s lights are very bright, the colors are vivid, and its remote is useful, but I really dreaded having to deal with the app. The $546 street price for the longest kit, 158 feet in length, is another potential stumbling block. For my money, Govee’s Permanent Outdoor Lights 2 is a more well-rounded offering that’s easier to use, even if it’s not as bright. If you truly need something that will make your house the brightest in the neighborhood, on the other hand, Lumary’s kit might be worth a look. This review is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best smart lighting. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Attractive and unique design Good SDR brightness for OLED, great contrast Very wide color gamut Great HDR performance Sets a new high mark for motion performance Cons Only 1440p resolution No USB-C or speakers Stand is a bit large for 27-inch display Our Verdict The Asus ROG Swift OLED PG27AQWP-W pulls out all the stops to deliver best-in-class motion performance and a long list of bonus features. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Asus ROG Swift Oled PG27AQWP-W Retailer Price Check Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Best Prices Today: Check today’s prices The refresh rate wars have accelerated in 2025, resulting in new records and high marks every few months. Asus’ ROG Swift OLED PG27AQWP-W continues this trend with a tandem OLED design that delivers both excellent image quality and ultra-high refresh rates—up to 540Hz at 1440p or 720Hz at 720p. Read on to learn more, then see roundup of the best gaming monitors for comparison. Asus ROG Swift OLED PG27AQWP-W specs and features At its core the Asus ROG Swift OLED PG27AQWP-W is yet another 26.5-inch OLED monitor with 1440p resolution. However, this particular OLED monitor has a trick up its sleeve: a tandem OLED display. Much like Apple’s iPad Pro, it offers not one, but two OLED layers. Asus claims this provides superior brightness and color saturation, a claim I’ll test later in this review. Display size: 26.5-inch 16:9 aspect ratio Native resolution: 2560×1440 Panel type: Tandem OLED Refresh rate: 540Hz at 1440p / 720Hz at 720p Adaptive sync: Yes, Adaptive Sync, AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, G-Sync Compatible HDR: Yes, VESA DisplayHDR 500 True Black Ports: 1x DisplayPort 2.1, 2x HDMI 2.1, 3x USB-A 3.2 Gen 1, 1x 3.5mm earphone jack Audio: None Extra features: Ergonomic stand, tripod screw mount, RGB-LED lighting with Asus Aura Sync Price: $1099.99 retail And that’s not all. The PG27AQWP-W is also a dual refresh monitor that can achieve up to 540Hz at 1440p resolution or 720Hz at 720p resolution. Yes, that’s 720p, as in 1280×720 resolution. The Asus ROG Swift OLED PG27AQWP-W is set to release at $1,099.99. That’s a lot for a 1440p monitor but, given the extra tech stuffed inside, it’s not a surprise. Asus ROG Swift OLED PG27AQWP-W design Asus monitors typically look and feel great, but the ROG Swift OLED PG27AQWP-W goes the extra mile to deliver a unique, stand-out design. It’s mostly clad in silver but includes a transparent section on the rear of the monitor for extra flair. The internals of a monitor are actually rather dull, so you’ll mostly spy internal cladding with Asus branding. Still, I think it looks great. Matthew Smith / Foundry The monitor has a tripod-style stand with three legs, two of which are broad. I’m not usually a fan of these stands, as they take up extra room on a desk. That problem is still present here, but I can understand why Asus went for the tripod stand in this case. It helps complete the monitor’s design and becomes the centerpiece of your desktop gaming setup. You’ll find that the stand offers a decent range of ergonomic adjustment. This includes 110mm of height adjustment, 60 degrees of swivel, 25 degrees of tilt, and 90 degrees of pivot for use in portrait orientation. I would like to see 130mm or even 150mm of height, but the range of adjustment available here is solid. A 100x100mm VESA mount is included for use with third-party monitor arms. Asus packs several extra features in the PG27AQWP-W. It has an attractive RGB-LED logo that can be customized and synced with other Asus devices using Asus Aura Sync. There’s also a tripod mount on the stand, which can be used to attach a camera, ring light, or anything else compatible with a 1/4-inch tripod screw mount. Asus ROG Swift OLED PG27AQWP-W connectivity A total of three video inputs are found on the Asus ROG Swift OLED PG27AQWP-W: two HDMI 2.1 ports and one DisplayPort 2.1 (with up to 80Gbps of bandwidth). All three ports can handle the monitor’s maximum refresh rate (720Hz at 720p and 540Hz at 1440p). USB connectivity includes three USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports, which are driven by a USB-B upstream port. A USB-C port is not available, unfortunately. Asus ROG Swift OLED PG27AQWP-W menus The Asus ROG Swift OLED PG27AQWP-W has a great menu system that’s controlled by a joystick tucked behind the center lower bezel. It opens an excellent menu system with easy-to-understand labels and many image quality options. The font size could perhaps be larger, but there’s decent contrast between the font and background. This includes precise color temperature and gamma settings (i.e. a color temperature of 6500K instead of “neutral” or “standard”) and six-axis color calibration. This is an advantage over competitors such as the Alienware AW2725D and Samsung Odyssey G90F, which don’t offer as much fine-grain image quality adjustment. Matthew Smith / Foundry There are also a ton of gaming features stuffed into the menu system. This includes not only the usual crosshair, FPS count, and timer modes, but also features like dynamic shadow boost, which can automatically enhance the brightness of dim areas in a scene to make foes easier to see. This is superior to the more typical static shadow boost mode, which enhances brightness across the entire image, including dark areas. I also like the aspect-ratio reduction modes, which include a 24.5-inch monitor equivalent, a 4:3 mode, and a square mode. The first is useful for some esports games, while the latter two are good options for retro games. Most monitor options can be adjusted using the Asus DisplayWidget software, which is available for both Windows and MacOS. DisplayWidget is among the best monitor management software currently available. Some competitors, like Samsung, don’t even have a monitor management software with the same set of features. The monitor management software is generally more convenient to use than the on-screen menus controlled by the joystick. Asus ROG Swift OLED PG27AQWP-W audio The Asus ROG Swift OLED PG27AQWP-W does not include speakers. That’s only a minor disappointment, as many gaming monitors omit this feature. A 3.5mm audio jack is available for passing audio to a headset, at least. Asus ROG Swift OLED PG27AQWP-W SDR image quality The star of the show here is undoubtedly the Asus ROG Swift OLED PG27AQWP-W’s tandem OLED display. Specifically, it has two LG WOLED layers which work together to boost brightness and color volume. Contrary to what you might expect, adding a second layer doesn’t immediately double brightness or color performance, but it does provide noticeable improvements. Matthew Smith / Foundry First up is SDR brightness, where the PG27AQWP-W provides a maximum sustained SDR brightness of 316 nits. That is an excellent level of SDR brightness for an OLED monitor and generally bright enough for use in most rooms. Just keep in mind that the monitor is glossy, so reflections will be an issue if you have windows or bright lights near the display. Samsung’s Odyssey OLED G60SF, which has a matte display finish and a slightly higher maximum SDR brightness, is a better OLED for use in a bright room. Matthew Smith / Foundry One area that tandem OLED can’t much improve is contrast, as modern OLED displays typically provide an effectively infinite contrast ratio. This occurs because they achieve a perfect minimum luminance of zero nits which, because contrast ratio is a ratio, sends the ratio into infinity. However, perceived contrast is also worth mention. Asus takes pride in the TrueBlack Glossy finish which provides a “zero-haze surface” for maximum perceived contrast. This is a nuanced but important point. While the OLED panel provides a minimum luminance of zero nits, ambient light that scatters across the display can reduce the perceived contrast. As a result, a matte display like the Samsung Odyssey OLED G60SF will not look as dark and contrast-rich as the PG27AQWP-W. Personally, I prefer a matte display because I find glare distracting and I do have windows in my room that, during the day, allow enough light to cause serious reflections. However, many OLED fans prefer glossy for its superior perceived contrast—and the PG27AQWP-W is as glossy as they come. Matthew Smith / Foundry The PG27AQWP-W’s color gamut is important, as improved color saturation is advertised as an advantage for tandem OLED. So, does that prove true? Yes, though perhaps not quite so much as you’d expect. The PG27AQWP-W displayed 100 percent of sRGB, 99 percent of DCI-P3, and 93 percent of AdobeRGB in my testing. By comparison, the Asus ROG Strix XG27AQDPG, which has a modern Samsung QD-OLED panel, can display 100 percent of sRGB, 98 percent of DCI-P3, and 94 percent of AdobeRGB. Remember, however, that the PG27AQWP-W uses tandem LG WOLED panels, which in the past have not performed as well in color gamut tests as QD-OLED. When compared to a standard LG WOLED monitor, such as the LG Ultragear 27GX790A-B, tandem WOLED is a definite upgrade (see the graph above). While the PG27AQWP-W’s color gamut isn’t a record setter, it’s certainly excellent and up to whatever task you might throw at it. The PG27AQWP-W is as glossy as they come. Matthew Smith / Foundry The same can be said of the monitor’s color accuracy. As the graph shows, the PG27AQWP-W is not the most color accurate OLED monitor we’ve recently tested. But with that said, all the OLED monitors shown in the graph above are so accurate that it’s quite hard to tell the difference. Certainly, all of them—including the PG27AQWP-W—provide a realistic and lifelike image. Color temperature and gamma performance are good on the PG27AQWP-W. It provided a color temperature of 6400K, just off the target of 6500K, and a gamma curve of 2.3, just off the target of 2.2. Both variations are minor and typical for an OLED monitor. The PG27AQWP-W offers a wide range of color temperature and gamma adjustments, so it’s likely you can tune the monitor to your preference in each area. Sharpness is decent. The monitor’s maximum resolution of 2560×1440 works out to about 110 pixels per inch. That’s not an amazing pixel density for 2025—a 27-inch 4K monitor will hit over 160 pixels per inch—but it’s enough to look sharp in PC games. It’s also a good fit for an extreme high-refresh monitor. You can only appreciate the full refresh rate when a game outputs a frame rate up to the maximum refresh rate of a monitor. Sticking to 1440p makes that far more viable than at 4K due to the reduced demand on your video card (though you’re still going to need a beefy GPU). The PG27AQWP-W’s sharpness is also improved by Asus’ Clear Pixel Edge, a feature which can slightly reduce the rough look that 1440p OLED monitors can suffer when they display small, high-contrast text. It’s not a night-and-day improvement, but it helps. The PG27AQWP-W’s overall SDR image quality is excellent. The tandem WOLED display provides strong SDR brightness, stellar contrast, and a broad color gamut. The latest QD-OLED monitors can offer performance in the same ballpark as tandem WOLED, but the tandem WOLED panel has a small edge in DCI-P3 color gamut and SDR brightness. Asus ROG Swift OLED PG27AQWP-W HDR image quality Tandem OLED technology is also meant to help with brightness in HDR. The Asus ROG Swift OLED PG27AQWP-W is VESA DisplayHDR True Black 500 certified and claims a maximum brightness of up to 1500 nits. Matthew Smith / Foundry I wasn’t able to reach that height despite my best efforts, as I engaged the monitor’s adjustable brightness option and turned it up to the maximum. Still, the PG27AQWP-W’s HDR performance is great overall. It measured a maximum brightness of 950 nits in the 3 percent window, which isn’t the best result I’ve seen to date. Shift your focus to the 50 percent and 100 percent windows, though—meaning, situations where a much larger portion of the display is lit—and the PG27AQWP-W creeps ahead of QD-OLED and standard WOLED alternatives. Subjectively, I liked the PG27AQWP-W’s HDR performance. The monitor was very bright in bright scenes but also delivered good luminance detail around bright objects and excellent shadow detail in dark scenes. The color presentation is also great: vivid when it should be but not over-saturated when it shouldn’t be. Also, as mentioned, the monitor provides a HDR brightness adjustment feature, which is not standard but very nice to have. Those less familiar with HDR might be surprised to learn that HDR content is typically given control over display brightness, which means you can’t normally adjust the brightness of your monitor when HDR is engaged. That is quite annoying on a monitor—but Asus lets you override that behavior. Asus ROG Swift OLED PG27AQWP-W motion performance While the tandem OLED panel is awesome, I’d argue that motion performance is at least as important. The Asus ROG Swift OLED PG27AQWP-W has a refresh rate of up to 540Hz at 2560×1440 resolution and up to 720Hz at 1280×720 resolution. Let’s cover the 540Hz/1440p mode first. This is the way most people will use the monitor most of the time, and it looks spectacular. As I’ve mentioned in previous reviews of 480Hz and 500Hz OLED monitors, a refresh rate this high on an OLED panel looks very close to perfect and is obviously better than 240Hz or 360Hz. Nearly everything is readable as it zooms across the display, including small low-contrast text and small ticks in enemy HP bars. Is the 540Hz noticeably better than 480Hz or 500Hz? I don’t think so. However, some 500Hz OLED monitors are priced rather close to the PG27AQWP-W. I’d buy a 480Hz or 500Hz alternative if I could save $200, but if the gap is only $100, I might lean towards the PG27AQWP-W and its 540Hz refresh rate. What about the 720Hz/720p mode? Honestly, I’m not sure that I see the point, as I wasn’t able to notice a major motion clarity improvement in this mode. Was it very slightly better? Yes. But it  comes with a big reduction in overall image sharpness. The main argument in favor of 720Hz is latency, because a higher refresh rate means you’ll see the screen update more quickly. A 540Hz display delivers a screen update every 1.85 milliseconds, which 720Hz reduces to 1.39 milliseconds. That’s certainly less, but it’s not something I can appreciate. The PG27AQWP-W also supports Asus’ Extreme Low Motion Blur (ELMB), and while this feature is less headline-worthy than the 720Hz/720p mode, I’d argue it’s more important. ELMB inserts black frames between standard frames which, due to how human vision works, effectively reduces motion blur. And it’s extremely effective. The ELMB feature provides motion clarity similar to 540Hz at a refresh rate of 270Hz, which is useful, because it means you can appreciate better motion clarity in games that can’t achieve an incredibly high frame rate. Asus’ ELMB is also much better than competitive techniques from other monitor makers, with none of the “double image” effect that black frame insertion (BFI) can sometimes cause. It does have a couple downsides, though. ELMB effectively halves the brightness of the display, since some frames will be black. Fortunately, the PG27AQWP-W is bright enough that it maintains a usable level of brightness when ELMB is turned on. ELMB also can’t be used at the same time as Adaptive Sync. Competitive BFI techniques have the same trade-offs. Speaking of Adaptive Sync, the PG27AQWP-W supports the full range of VESA Adaptive Sync, AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, and Nvidia G-Sync. It also has an OLED anti-flicker feature to reduce the flicker that can rarely occur when using adaptive sync technologies alongside OLED monitors, or when viewing particular grayscale scenes. The full range of the PG27AQWP-W’s motion performance can be a lot to take in, because the monitor is absolutely packed with features. What it all boils down to is simple, however: it provides the best motion clarity available from any monitor to date. Should you buy the Asus ROG Swift OLED PG27AQWP-W? Asus’ ROG Swift OLED PG27AQWP-W is a stunning entry into the competitive OLED monitor market. It stands out from the competition with a long list of features that are either unique to the PG27AQWP-W or work better than on competitive monitors. These features include: a tandem OLED display, 540Hz/1440p and 720Hz/720p modes, Aura Sync RGB-LED lighting, a tripod mount, and an ultra-glossy TrueBlack panel finish, among other things. It might seem hard to justify paying $1,100 for a 1440p monitor, and to be clear, most people will be just as happy with a 4K/240Hz QD-OLED purchased at a lower price. However, the PG27AQWP-W’s tandem OLED display offers class-leading performance in several areas and a level of motion clarity that you won’t find elsewhere—not only in the 720Hz/720p mode but also at lower refresh rates. Read...

One of the drawbacks to most AI implementations is that much of the processing is performed in the cloud, which usually means uploading your personal information to servers you have no control over. That raises a host of privacy concerns for many, including yours truly. Is it worse than using the typical online search engine? No, but then again…. Displace TV intends to minimize your exposure to the online powers-that-be by endowing the company’s new Displace Pro TV 2 with local AI. It’s said to often keep your personal information on the TV rather than broadcasting it to mega-corporation that might–but probably won’t–have the proper ethics or your best interests in mind. Onboard processing The “Pro TV 2 features dedicated native Neural Processing Units (NPUs) and Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) that allow for secure, on-device AI processing,” the company says. Quoting the company further, “Displace’s commitment to privacy sets it apart in an industry where many products depend on cloud-based data storage. The Pro TV 2 has a browser-based OS 2.0 that ensures sensitive information remains secure on the device, delivering a personalized experience without compromising user trust. The local processing capabilities provide peace of mind, characteristic of Displace’s effort to stay at the forefront of consumer technology.” Four Displace TVs plus two soundbars. Some of the features that use local AI are pause-to-shop, where products from a scene are presented for you to purchase; a personalized video news agent; live conversational search (for better voice control); and gesture control, where you can wave and make gestures at your TV to control it instead of grabbing a remote. From all that you’d think that Displace aims to be the Duck Duck Go of the TV industry. Sounds good, but there’s still info to track going in and out, even if it doesn’t identify you personally. Your IP address might still be exposed. The Displace Hub promises to make any TV totally wireless Displace TV will also show its new Displace Hub at CES in January. This device promises to bring the whiz-bang features of its Displace TVs–battery power, suction-powered wall mounting that doesn’t require drilling holes in the wall, and more–to almost any TV. Well, any TV with a screen size between 55- and 100 inches and weighing up to 150 pounds. The magic? An Intel N-150 quad-core CPU, 16GB of RAM, 128GB of internal storage, and of course, a 15,000 mAh battery system that should power most TVs without an AC cord for five to 10 hours, according the company. Who is Displace TV? Displace TV is famous (in TV circles at least) for its wireless HDMI connectivity, battery power, and suction-based wall-mounting. You can read more about these fascinating departures from the norm here and here. If Displace TV truly does keep your personal info local, then we like it. We wish more vendors would hop on board the true privacy train. Sadly, it’s left the station–and most of them–behind. Read...

Asus announced that next year it will release a new laptop in collaboration with GoPro, which is mainly known for its action cameras. Judging by a teaser video, the Asus ProArt GoPro edition looks to be designed with an extra focus on rugged portability. The computer will also have a dedicated GoPro button. Exactly what it does is unknown. The ProArt @GoPro edition creator laptop is about to break cover. Join the ASUS CES 2026 Livestream and witness the ultimate creator laptop: ?? https://t.co/xJbeu2uDdC#ASUS #CES2026 #AlwaysIncredible pic.twitter.com/4QrD6Rufd9— ASUS (@ASUS) December 21, 2025 Earlier in October, Asus ProArt and GoPro also announced a collaboration to streamline creative workflows using AI. The Asus ProArt GoPro edition will be unveiled in detail during the CES technology show in Las Vegas, the first week of January 2026. Read...

Valve has decided to end production of the Steam Deck LCD, the cheapest version of the company’s handheld gaming computer, reports Windows Latest. As part of the Steam Winter Sale, Valve added a note to the Steam Deck page saying that once the last stock of the LCD model are sold, it will no longer be available for purchase — and it’s now sold out. Launched in 2022, the Steam Deck LCD played an important role in establishing Steam Deck as a popular option in the handheld gaming PC market, launching at an affordable $399. Going forward, Steam Deck OLED will be the only version Valve sells. That model has a starting price of $549 and offers, among other things, improved screen technology and longer battery life. Valve has not commented on why production of the LCD model is being discontinued, but one possible explanation could be rising prices for components such as memory and storage. The company recently said a potential Steam Deck 2 remains a long way off. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Great sound for shooters Ultra simple setup No bells and whistles Microphone can be mounted on the left or right Cons Expensive Poor availability Our Verdict Fostex upgrades the T50RP MK4g a microphone and thus the adds the “Plus” title. Reduced to the essentials—the sound and a functional microphone—the Fostex T50RP MK4g is a fantastic gaming headset that shines with its spatial audio, especially in competitive shooters. On the whole, however, it’s not easy to recommend to everyone because it’s very specialized and there are cheaper headsets with more functions. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Fostex T50RP MK4g+ Retailer Price $249.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Fostex is a traditional Japanese manufacturer of high-end audio equipment that is probably only known to enthusiasts. The most expensive headphones, for example, cost well over $2,000. In 2024, the company launched a new edition of one of its most popular studio headphones: the Fostex T50RP MK4. What the manufacturer probably didn’t expect was that these headphones would become an insider tip among Japanese gamers. In order to better appeal to this target group, Fostex printed a second package for the device and simply added a “g” to the product name—for “Gaming”. A few months later, the manufacturer added a “Pro”, enclosed a microphone and then released the third version, the “T50RP MK4g Pro”. So why do Japanese gamers go for a wired headset that costs around $250? Two reasons: Firstly, it’s ideal for shooters and secondly, it does away with extraneous bells and whistles—in fact, it has none at all. So how do the headphones sound? Really quite balanced. Somewhat emphasized in the middle, incredibly detailed, but overall very balanced. Fostex T50RP MK4g: Design It starts with the packaging: The Fostex T50RP MK4g comes in a simple printed cardboard box and lies there wrapped in bubble wrap. The scope of delivery includes a microphone into which the 2-meter-long cable with 3.5mm combo jack plug are integrated. If you want to separate the signal into output (headphones) and input (microphone) because your PC has separate sockets, you will need an appropriate splitter. Most consoles and laptops, however, have a suitable socket. Unboxing the Fostex T50RP MK4g is straightforward, if unexciting.Eugen Wegmann The technical data, including a small connection diagram, is simply printed on the box. A compact instruction manual is included, but the function is actually self-explanatory. It’s a wired headset. Plug goes in, sound comes out and goes in through the microphone. No witchcraft. The simplicity is also reflected in the weight: without the microphone, the model weighs just 330 grams. The headphones themselves are just as simple as the packaging and scope of delivery: They’re completely black, the earpiece shells are made of admittedly somewhat cheap-looking plastic, and the headband and ear pads are covered in artificial leather. The two metal rails for adjusting the length of the headband are probably the most striking feature. Cables protrude between them, connecting the two earpieces and giving the headphones a touch of non-utilitarian industrial design. Probably the most interesting feature of the Fostex T50RP MK4g is that you can connect the microphone to the left or right shell, as both sides have a socket. The microphone can be connected to both the left and right shell.Eugen Wegmann The headset also has a small remote control on the cable, which you can use to mute the microphone and adjust the headphone volume. Fostex has opted for a slider rather than a wheel which is rather unusual, but works well enough. In terms of construction, the Fostex T50RP MK4g are semi-open headphones, which means that they let through more ambient noise than closed headphones, but less than open headphones. This compromise allows for a reasonably natural sound without letting too much outside noise through. The fit is also more comfortable than with most closed headphones, which is certainly helped by the thick, soft ear pads. Eugen Wegmann Inside, Fostex uses magnetostatic drivers, sometimes also called planar-magnetic drivers. In terms of both price and quality, the technology lies somewhere between the most widely used (electro)dynamic drivers and the more expensive and rarer electrostatic drivers. Fostex T50RP MK4g: Sound So how do the headphones sound? Really quite balanced. Somewhat emphasized in the middle, incredibly detailed, but overall very balanced. While balance is often desirable in many other areas, it is rarely the case with audio products. This is because in the most common use case—music in the consumer segment—balanced sound often goes hand in hand with a certain flatness, which is certainly also dependent on current trends. For example, if you look at the current music landscape, you’ll realize that it has, by and large, had a bias towards bass for over 10 years. Balanced headphones like the Fostex T50RP MK4g can’t reproduce this particularly well because they simply don’t have enough oomph in the bass. But that’s hardly surprising, because the Fostex is primarily a studio headphone. People use them for mixing in recording studios, where this characteristic is explicitly desired. It just so happens that this sound profile is also ideal for competitive shooters, where the focus is less on how much power a weapon has and more on where the opponents are located. The emphasized mids are particularly helpful here, while the bass and treble play a subordinate role. What’s more, the headphones offer incredibly good spatial audio, i.e. they can show very well where something is located in the game – without any virtual surround sound or similar technologies that simulate spatiality. It’s really fascinating and the main reason why these headphones have become an insider tip. Eugen Wegmann Fostex T50RP MK4g: Microphone Basically, there is not much to criticize about the microphone of the Fostex T50RP MK4g. It’s largely an ordinary condenser microphone on a flexible arm and with a small foam pop guard. It sounds good—no more, no less. It’s more than adequate for communication via Discord and the like. My only real criticism is its omnidirectional characteristic: this means that the microphone picks up sounds from any direction (more or less) equally loudly, including ambient noise that doesn’t come from the direction of your mouth, such as street noise through an open window. Fostex would probably have done better with a cardioid pattern. Is the Fostex T50RP MK4g worth it? With the upgrade to the headset, Fostex has finally nailed it with the T50RP MK4g, at least for all those who don’t want any unnecessary bells and whistles. The company remedies most of the criticisms in my original conclusion with the microphone alone. What remains is that the Fostex T50RP MK4g is still a rather expensive product for a relatively limited target group. This is because the vast majority of gamers will prefer a wireless headset for its flexibility alone, allowing them to do little things around the house while they wait for the next match without missing it or having to pull the cable out of the socket. The biggest problem for American consumers is availability. Being a bit of a niche Japanese band, Fostex products aren’t sold everywhere and lack of availability is even more pronounced with the T50RP MK4g than with the basic model, as it’s currently only available from a very limited number of suppliers in the U.S. Read...

Arguing over the best hardware of the year is usually fun. That’s as true as ever in 2025, when Brad Chacos, Adam Patrick Murray, Will Smith, and Alaina Yee (hi, it’s me) rolled up our sleeves and got down to the messy business of naming our top hardware picks. This annual tradition on The Full Nerd always involves twists and turns, especially given our individual differences on how we define “best.” But you can see the effect of a multitude of wearying trends—tariffs, AI, increased memory costs—on the debates. In past years, alliances formed faster and positions softened less. More shouting happened, too. But Brad had no reason to invoke journalistic integrity this time around. We all saw the bright spots for hardware clearly; so too with the ugly news in the industry. Instead, we argued more gently. We rallied together to remember Gordon Mah Ung, the creator and long-time host of The Full Nerd, with a new award category in his honor. And we all left feeling satisfied with the winners. Mostly. Here are the results. (Note: This list is separate from PCWorld’s nominees for the best PC hardware and software of 2025. The winners of “Nerdies,” as we like to call these awards, are chosen by The Full Nerd crew alone, and focus more specifically on enthusiast tech. If you’d like to catch our show in real time, be sure to subscribe to the Full Nerd channel on YouTube!) Welcome to The Full Nerd newsletter—your weekly dose of hardware talk from the enthusiasts at PCWorld. Missed the surprising topics on our YouTube show or latest news from across the web? You’re in the right place. Want this newsletter to come directly to your inbox? Sign up on our website! And The Full Nerd 2025 award winners are… As long-time viewers of the show may have expected, we once again slightly retooled the categories for this year. We expanded on “accessory,” choosing to make that slot open to components or accessories. And as mentioned, our team decided to honor Gordon with a brand-new category, meant to embody his love for (and fascination with) any technology that furthered innovation. No restrictions on how niche or widely applicable. The categories we brawled over this year: Best CPU Best GPU Best PC component / accessory Best trend Worst trend Gordon Mah Ung Wild Card Best CPU: AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 (Strix Halo) Will mini-PCs powered by chips like Strix Halo (such as this GMKtec model) become the norm? Time will tell. Christoph Hoffmann If you define “best” as hardware that pushes boundaries, then no other CPU stood out as clearly as AMD’s boundary-shattering Ryzen AI Max+ 395 (aka Strix Halo). Was it only available in select products? Sure. But it showed how CPUs with integrated graphics don’t have to play second fiddle to typical discrete GPU setups.  Strix Halo (and future chips like it) could upend our assumptions about what a good gaming PC looks like. In this mobile processor, AMD packed in a Radeon GPU capable of similar performance to Nvidia’s RTX 4070 or 5070. A maximum of 128GB of embedded memory can fuel it as well. And so devices we saw sporting the AI Max+ 395, like the Framework desktop and the ASUS Rog Flow Z13, weren’t just beasts at gaming. They also represent form factors that haven’t really packed such a strong punch before. For example, the Flow Z13 is a tablet notebook capable of gaming in ways that far exceeds other tablets. So while Adam believes in Strix Halo’s promise for handheld gaming PCs, the overall TFN crew anticipates a big splash across the board. Enough so that Brad thinks that Nvidia’s partnership with Intel came about in part to compete on this front. Best GPU: AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT Adam Patrick Murray / Foundry Despite Will’s valiant attempt to elevate the Tegra T239 (the Switch 2’s SoC) above all other GPUs, our debate rapidly focused on Nvidia and AMD’s major PC graphics card launches this year. In contrast to the muted rivalry on the CPU side, the two largest consumer GPU makers took off their gloves, with Nvidia launching its ferocious 50-series lineup and AMD its own monstrous 9000-series offerings. Ultimately, AMD’s Radeon RX 9070 XT took the top spot, despite back-and-forth over the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090’s sheer insanity and the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti’s mix of performance, value, and availability. Team Red earned this second award for 2025 due to the 9070 XT’s combo of strong raw performance and major strides with its FSR upscaling tech.  True, FSR Redstone can’t quite deliver the same polish as Nvidia’s more seasoned DLSS enhancements. But AMD had another thing going for it that held sway with this judging panel: better support on Linux. You may not yet be able to officially call 2025 the year of Linux, but the operating system sure commands more attention these days. Best PC accessory: MSI MPG 272URX QD-OLED 4K monitor Matthew Smith / Foundry Sometimes when you pair a PC with the right accoutrements, you might not even notice that you lack flagship hardware in your rig. Other times, the right secondary equipment elevates the utter joy of owning blazing-fast parts. Our winner for 2025’s best component or accessory is an example of the latter—and what a beautiful one at that. Despite its unpronounceable name, MSI’s MPG 272URX QD-OLED monitor breaks barriers. It’s among the first 4K OLED displays to sport a refresh rate at 240Hz, blending gorgeous, rich color with buttery-smooth output. You can’t get much better than this for rapid refresh rate 4K monitors—and as our reviewer says, it’s not just a superb 4K gaming monitor, but a fantastic all-around display for office tasks, HDR movies, and creative work, too. Also getting nods as runners-up: The ASUS Rog Falcata, an excellent off-the-shelf option for a luxe ergonomic mechanical keyboard, and SilverStone’s vintage-vibes FLP-02 PC case, which brings back the best of the 90s and all its beige glory. Best trend: Linux gets gud Pexels A long-standing joke has been the awaited rise of Linux. (We even asked “Is this the year of Linux?” while among the nerdiest of nerds at a Micro Center opening earlier this year.) But by the end of this year, the meme felt…real. A confluence of circumstances led to this strange new world. Windows 10’s death sparked interest in alternative operating systems, thanks to Windows 11’s bloat and outright incompatibility with older yet still usable hardware. A greater number of newbie-friendly distros exist. And, perhaps most importantly, demographics have also shifted among the user base, with friendlier voices becoming louder, setting a more pleasant tone for the Linux-curious. We’ve seen this trend up close and personal on The Full Nerd’s own Discord server, with an influx of Linux users who discovered us through our Dual Boot Diaries show. Our newest members have added more depth and dimension to our community, offering a wealth of knowledge (and a wide variety of distro suggestions) to the uninitiated and experienced alike. Worst trend: AI ruins everything RIP affordable tech. Thanks, AI.Zoomik / Shutterstock.com Last year, we voted for “enshittification” (pardon our French) as the worst trend of the year, a phenomenon driven by AI’s growing insertion into, well, everything. You couldn’t turn any direction without running into an app or service that had deteriorated in quality. You could argue that this year, AI models and the insertion of AI-powered features have improved. That’s true to a degree, but not enough to fix the messy output, buggy software, or otherwise worsened quality of the tech we use daily. (Even more aggravating, we’re often now paying companies for subscriptions that use our data to train AI models.) More concerning, AI has contributed to a sudden, rapid decline in affordability and accessibility of consumer PC hardware—most notably memory, which has exploded in price (and is found in just about everything we take for granted in life nowadays). We’re now unsure of the future for the PC as we know it, with all of us feeling some degree of concern about building, upgradability, and affordability in the coming months. The idea that we could return to a time when only the very well-to-do could afford modern technology is unsettling. Gordon Mah Ung Wild Card: “What is a frame?” AMD For decades, enthusiasts only discussed gaming in terms of frames, and simple terms at that: Those rendered natively by a graphics card, and their quantity per second. But more recently, companies and gamers alike have begun to challenge that approach, digging with greater precision into the details. And that matches Gordon’s brand of fine-tuned nerdery. So whether flipping on Nvidia’s multi-frame generation tech or firing up programs that record microstutter in games, rethinking what constitutes high-quality gaming performance is exactly the kind of thing that Gordon would have loved. I think he would have been championing these new approaches himself, even. In this episode of The Full Nerd As you already know, in this episode of The Full Nerd, we duke it out over the best hardware of 2025—but the results detailed above leave out the twists and turns (and random alliances) in our discussions. Plus hilariously choice quotes, courtesy of one Will Smith. For example: Adam: All right, tell us why the 5090 is the best GPU of 2025.Will: It’s real fast, Adam. You should catch the full episode (including the preshow!) for more of these debate hijinks. We may not have forced chat to break any ties (especially in ways that Brad still has not forgiven me for), but we still had lots of fun despite the bummer year. Also, stay tuned for not just one but TWO streams next week! (Details in my sign-off below.) Willis Lai / Foundry Missed our live show? Subscribe now to The Full Nerd Network YouTube channel, and activate notifications. We also answer viewer questions in real-time! Don’t miss out on our NEW shows too—you can catch episodes of Dual Boot Diaries and The Full Nerd: Extra Edition now! And if you need more hardware talk during the rest of the week, come join our Discord community—it’s full of cool, laid-back nerds. This week’s ominous nerd news According to analysts, we’ll soon see laptops reflect the ongoing woes with memory availability and affordability. I am not looking forward to a regression in configuration options. Nor am I happy to hear that RAM pricing hurts so bad that DDR4 compatible processors (like the AMD 5800X3D) now cost a ton, too. Never thought I’d cross my fingers for AMD to start producing more Zen 3 chips soon, but here we are. Thiago Trevisan / IDG Mid-range laptops may return to 8GB RAM as default: I hate it. I also hate that Windows 11’s bloat is the reason budget laptops aren’t yet set to slide back down to 4GB. Also, Kingston says to buy your RAM now: In an interview with our very own Mark Hachman, a company representative warns that prices will only go up. We all knew this to be true, but still. Ouch. &*#% yeah: I’m glad we have science proving the benefits of swearing. I plan to make use of this knowledge when struggling through my push-ups next Tuesday. A $100 Steam Machine with Bazzite? This project sounds absolutely up Will’s alley. I hereby nominate him for giving it a go and reporting back to us on how it went. You can get a Raspberry Pi to train you in chess: Here’s a neat project, courtesy of my German colleagues at PCWelt. But as miraculous as Raspberry Pis can be, I don’t think they can do the impossible. (That is: Train me in chess.) Adam Patrick Murray / IDG Feels like the pandemic again: Never thought I would have sold an old webcam for far more than I paid, but such was 2020. Now apparently 5800X3D owners have the same option. I don’t even have a wall big enough for a 100-inch TV: But you know what, I’d still be interested in seeing one of these OLED competitors up close. Who needs windows or sunlight, right? That’s nuts: Micron said in a recent earnings call that it can only meet about 50 to 66 percent of demand. Makes more sense now why Crucial got axed so abruptly, I guess. Who needs a graphics card, anyway? Each year, Mike Crider updates his handy guide to games that don’t need a graphics card. It’s a perfect thing to keep in your back pocket when helping dole out tech advice during the holidays (as we all inevitably do). What even happened over there: If you can’t handle depressing PC carnage, avoid this story about a man who apparently lost 50 SSDs to a destructive young child. The pictures are brutal. Coming next week… By the way, we have a surprise for you all next Monday—we’re having a tribute stream to Gordon starting at around 11am Pacific! Come hang out for a variety show, set to span several hours. What exactly we’ll be doing? A little building, a little chatting, and more! ?? And of course, on Tuesday, it’s time for us to score how well we did at foreseeing the future. Will has a lot of 2025 predictions on the board. Like double the rest of us. I for one am interested to see how accurate he was. Catch you all soon! ~Alaina This newsletter is dedicated to the memory of Gordon Mah Ung, founder and host of The Full Nerd, and executive editor of hardware at PCWorld. 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