Everything to do with artificial intelligence has been the big IT hype of the past two years. Even if the initial enthusiasm for ChatGPT and others has now given way to a more sober assessment, there is hardly a software company at the moment that is not taking a close look at the possibilities of the technology. Microsoft in particular has invested huge sums in AI development and is demonstrating how AI can also be integrated into familiar programs: Gradually, more and more applications are being given functions that fulfill their tasks with the help of artificial intelligence. Microsoft has also released its Large Language Model (LLM) Copilot as its own app and browser extension. Other companies have now also embedded AI functions into apps, some of which are available for free. There are now a large number of chatbots and AI-supported search engines on the market. In the professional sector, there are numerous providers of AI-supported software that automatically add subtitles to films and videos in real time. However, these tools are almost exclusively available for a fee. For this article, we’ve compiled programs and apps with AI functionality that have emerged outside the Microsoft cosmos. We have not limited ourselves to stand-alone applications, but also included extensions for the browser. Further reading: The AI PC revolution: 18 essential terms you need to know AI for Office use ChatGPT can not only be used in the web browser, the manufacturer Open AI also offers a Windows client for the AI application.OpenAI It was only recently announced that Open AI had finally released a Windows client for its chatbot ChatGPT, available for download from the Microsoft Store. As ChatGPT is an open source project, there is a dedicated page on GitHub at github.com/lencx/ChatGPT. A desktop version for Windows is also available there. It has the version number 1.1, dates from August 2023, does not require registration, but offers better answers to questions and more functions after registration: For example, access to internal and external GPTs (Generative Pre-trained Transformers). This also includes the Dall-E image generator. Translating foreign-language texts or translating documents into other languages is another typical task in Office operations. It is also often necessary to revise the spelling, grammar, and style of important correspondence before it is sent out. In both cases, software from the German company DeepL can help. DeepL is currently regarded as the best translation program available. The manufacturer has now combined it with the writing aid Write and an OCR module in one app. DeepL A translator and the writing aid DeepL Write are available on the website. Both services are based on neural networks and are free of charge. However, translations are limited to 3,000 characters and users can upload a maximum of three documents per month for translation. Without free registration, only texts up to 1,500 characters long can be translated. And DeepL uploads the entered texts to its servers and reserves the right to use them, together with the subsequent corrections by the user, to train its neural networks and algorithms. In addition to the web version, DeepL offers apps for Windows, Android, and iOS as well as an extension for Google Chrome. In addition to the translator and DeepL Write, they include an image module that recognizes text in images such as screenshots, processes it using OCR and translates it straight away. Google Gemini is only available on the web and for Android and iOS. Like ChatGPT, the chatbot can create both texts and images and research answers to questions in plain text. Alternatives to ChatGPT Google Gemini is only available on the web and for Android and iOS. Like ChatGPT, the chatbot can generate text and images and research answers to questions.Foundry ChatGPT is the best known, but by no means the only chatbot that works with AI. A whole range of companies have licensed the technology from Open AI and offer their own chatbot clients based on it. One exception to this is Google, which has developed its own AI engine, Gemini. On its website, the search engine giant offers a simple input screen where users can ask the AI questions and ask it to create a painting or photo with a predefined content. Gemini uses the Google image generator Imagen 3. The Hamburg-based company Neuroflash, on the other hand, uses Open AI as the engine for its chatbot of the same name. The web-based app answers questions and writes texts for letters, blogs, CVs, and so on. The app can also create images and edit texts. It speaks several languages but, according to the manufacturer, has been specially trained with German texts. This gives it an edge over ChatGPT in German-speaking countries. Writesonic also has a chatbot in its program, Chatsonic. It is also based on ChatGPT but, according to the manufacturer, also takes current results from Google searches into account when searching. The special feature of the chatbot Claude from U.S. company Anthropic is that, according to the company founders, two former employees of Open AI, it should be secure and in line with human values. Although Claude uses Open AI technology, it automatically warns of system-related weaknesses, possible hallucinations, and points out its own limitations. Claude is a pure chatbot without an image generator or functions for revising texts. A new Windows app is available for download at claude.ai/download, while apps for Android and iOS have been available for some time. The American chatbot Perplexity not only answers questions, but also names the sources from which it obtains its information and processes it with the help of artificial intelligence. Foundry The American service Perplexity AI is a mixture of chatbot and search engine. Just like Microsoft’s Copilot app, it not only answers questions, but also displays the analyzed sources. Deutsche Telekom has been working with Perplexity for some time and offers its customers a free annual subscription to the Pro version as well as a chatbot in its Magenta app. Finally, the chatbot Pi from Inflection AI uses its own large language model called Inflection-2. Its specialty is asking users specific questions in order to adapt to their interests, needs, and goals. The software is more of a dialog partner than an information service or text generator. It is worth noting that Pi can also be reached via WhatsApp. AI search and extensions Closely related to universal chatbots are AI-supported search engines. It is often impossible to draw a clear line between the two product categories. For example, ChatGPT is just as suitable for writing texts as it is for searching the internet, and this applies even more to Google Gemini. In general, AI searches should be able to handle more complex queries and recognize the user’s intentions better than conventional search engines. Andi is a hybrid between a search engine and an AI chatbot. The software quotes from online sources and displays the references so that the information can be easily double-checked. IDG The Andi search engine stands for Advanced Neural Data Intelligence and has its strengths when it comes to questions on topics from specialized fields for which it is supposed to be able to provide detailed answers. The dialog appears in the middle of the search engine window — Andi itself only speaks English, but also understands other language input — and a selected source. In a sidebar, Andi links to other pages with relevant information and displays thumbnails. Andi’s free app offers the option of summarizing the search results with a write-up function. This also works in German and is actually a big advantage over conventional searches. The Duckduckgo search engine, on the other hand, offers an AI chat. After clicking on an icon above the search results, you first have to decide on an LLM; you can choose between GPT 4o, Claude 3, Llama 3.1, and Mixtral, then you can enter your question. The AI Chat generates an answer text from the search results and memorizes both the question and the answer. The user can then follow up and request information on specific details. Subtitles and live translations Several manufacturers are currently working on translations and subtitles in videos and films. Live translations are useful in video conferences, for example, if the participants speak different languages. Microsoft has already included a corresponding feature in Teams and uses AI functions for this. Other companies offer software that analyzes and translates the spoken language in a film and integrates it into the video in the form of subtitles and artificial voices generated by speech synthesis. Microsoft has built a corresponding function for audio files called Live Captions into Windows 11 24H2, but it is only available on Copilot Plus PCs. Translated subtitles for videos, on the other hand, are available free of charge on the web. Captions AI is a popular program that runs in the browser and translates foreign-language films into English, for example. It can also create promotional videos, split long films into short clips, and add images, transitions, and sounds to videos. Captions AI is primarily aimed at the advertising industry, but is also useful for private videos. The brand new DeepL with DeepL Voice also allows real-time translations. Live Caption is aimed at a completely different target group. The company has developed an app for Android and iOS that transcribes conversations in the neighborhood in real time and displays them as text on the smartphone — a valuable aid, especially for hearing-impaired people. Graphics and image processing AI functions: Cyberlink’s Photodirector can generate photos of people, import other faces, and place the result in front of a ready-made background.IDG Ever since a photo of the Pope in a white down coat began circulating in the media, it has become clear what possibilities lie in image editing using AI. The company Cyberlink has upgraded its Photodirector with AI functions for generating and editing images. The user can remove details at the touch of a button, merge faces, or place people in front of a different background. The program is free to download, but some functions require “credits,” which can be purchased (100 credits for $18) or upgraded to the paid Photodirector 365. Cyberlink also offers AI-supported tools for video and audio editing. Read...

Microsoft’s powerhouse collection of useful Windows utilities, PowerToys, is adding the ability to strip out an audio track from a video file, plus the more general ability to transcode video files as well. Microsoft isn’t adding an additional app to PowerToys, a collection of more than a dozen powerful, free, Windows utilities. Instead, this new feature is being added to Advanced Paste, so that you’ll be able to “paste” an audio track or video file somewhere else. (Credit to XDA Developers for noting this.) What’s transcoding? Video files can be recorded and stored in a variety of different file formats. More importantly, they can be saved in a variety of different resolutions and quality levels. All of this has some fairly profound effects on file size, and whether your PC will actually be able to play the file without a special application. Most cloud video services, from YouTube to Netflix, do this automatically on their end, so that you’re seeing the optimized stream for your network connection and device. I’m not sure whether or not consumers typically transcode their video files, because of this. (Handbrake is a popular open-source application for performing transcoding, and we still use it as part of our laptop performance testing simply to see how well a laptop, desktop, or processor can perform throughout a prolonged workload.) Microsoft’s proposed Windows menu, which would add the transcoding features on to Advanced Paste.Microsoft However, the ability to strip out lines of dialogue or an audio track from a video file does seem very useful. (Note that you’ll still have to adhere to any copyright laws while doing so.) Microsoft is currently testing this capability, Windows developer Clint Rutkas said on Twitter/X. According to the appropriate GitHub page, the work is still in the discussions phase and could actually be rejected. Microsoft also added ZoomIt, a tool developed by Mark Russinovich as part of the SysInternals package, to PowerToys as well. It’s a simpler utility, allowing you to easily zoom into and mark up presentations. Read...

Despite ever-improving junk mail filters and more sophisticated defense measures, phishing is still one of the biggest threats to cyber security and they’re becoming increasingly difficult to recognize. Criminals are using Large Language Models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT to formulate their emails, which results in largely error-free texts with correct grammar and understandable sentence structure. As hackers become more advanced, you’ll need to learn new methods to detect them and stay one step ahead of the game. Below we’ll share a few ways you can catch them in the act, and hopefully avoid falling prey to their scams. Further reading: Top 9 phishing scams to watch out for in 2024 Phishing from AI accounts Barracuda Networks draws attention to new phishing emails that attempt to steal access to the paid ChatGPT accounts. These are currently in high demand. IDG AI services such as ChatGPT or Google Gemini are becoming increasingly important for companies as they enable them to reduce their costs for routine correspondence or invoicing. Open AI, the manufacturer of ChatGPT, and Google therefore charge money for use once a certain number of queries have been made. The security company Barracuda Networks has now reported that an extensive phishing campaign has been launched in an attempt to steal access to paid ChatGPT accounts. The criminals are sending emails purporting to come from Open AI. In their emails, they explain that they are unable to debit the monthly payment. The recipient should now update their account information within seven days otherwise they will lose access to ChatGPT. A button in the email leads to an online form for entering the account details. Such data can be easily sold via dark channels on the internet. Streaming accounts Fraudsters often try to steal login details for streaming services such as Netflix or Disney. In recent months, there have been several waves of phishing emails requesting data from Netflix accounts. Such accounts are particularly easy to monetize and are therefore popular with criminals. Users receive an email purporting to be from a streaming service asking them to update their payment details. Otherwise, their account will be blocked in a few days. In the email, they see a button or a link that supposedly leads to their account. On the associated website, a form is waiting for them to enter their access data. The email comes from a fraudster, which in most cases can be recognized just by looking at the sender’s address. Only a few phishing senders go to the trouble of forging the email address (the technical term for this is “spoofing.”) You can easily find out where the button or link in the email, which supposedly leads to a form from the streaming provider, actually links to by pointing at it with the mouse for a second or two. Typical for these and other phishing emails is that they’re urgent. Victims usually only have two or three days to resolve the problem. Or the perpetrators claim that the account has already been blocked and the email recipient must act quickly to reactivate it. In this way, the perpetrators build up time pressure so that their victims don’t think twice. Smishing is becoming a plague When a phishing attempt is sent via text message, it’s called smishing. New waves of smishing have been using the grandchild trick. In this case, the text reads: “Hi Dad, this is my new number. Can you write to me on WhatsApp?” If the recipient actually makes contact, they’ll usually receive a reply about an accident or other emergency. To “help” whoever it is on the other end, the recipient will need to transfer a large sum to a specific account. Password manager Access to the encrypted vaults of password managers is particularly valuable to criminals. If they succeed in tapping into the master password, they have free access to login data of all kinds, from bank accounts to online senders and streaming services to accounts with email services and telephone providers. Fraudsters try to access the master password for the password manager LastPass. This would give them free access to all stored passwords and access data.IDG In spring 2024, a new approach by criminals became known. They’re working with phishing kits that make it very easy to forge login forms on websites and add logos of the supposed owner companies. These kits are distributed online by criminal groups as part of phishing-as-a-service offers. In the specific case, the login page of the password manager LastPass was recreated using such a kit. The attackers then started an automated series of calls in which a recorded message explained that a new device was trying to access the LastPass account. The caller was told to authorize access by pressing “1” or block it by pressing “2.” If they dialed “2,” you’ll get a call from an alleged customer service employee. The call comes from a real person who asks for the email address and then they’ll send the victim an email with instructions on how to reset the master password. This email links to the criminal’s website, where the customer was asked to enter their previous master password. As soon as the criminals are in possession of this password, they log into LastPass and change the owner’s telephone number and email address so they no longer have access. As the first contact between the fraudster and their victim is by telephone, this method is known as vishing or voice phishing. Here, too, the criminals push the pace so that the people they call don’t have time to think. As password managers often store numerous access data for important accounts, it’s advisable to secure them with two-factor authentication or set up a login with a passkey. PayPal and Klarna The topic of data protection has now reached the general public. Many people know that there are legal regulations for companies on how they must handle their customers’ data. Criminals are taking advantage of this. In an email with the logo of the payment service provider PayPal, they claim that the account has been blocked because the account information has not yet been confirmed. To unblock the account, the customer would have to activate the “3DS Double Authorization.” Although 3DS authentication does indeed exist, PayPal calls it 3D Secure. After clicking on the button, the recipient of the email is asked to enter their telephone number and PayPal login details. The fraudsters can then call back to request the missing data for the transfer and redirect payments to their account. How to reliably recognize phishing emails An email from ING Bank should also have an address with the domain extension ing.de and not come from support@zakitchha.dreamhostps.com. This is a clear indication that it is phishing. IDG Phishing can result in high financial losses, so be careful and take a close look at incoming emails: Phishing messages may be better worded these days thanks to AI, but they are still not error-free. You should be suspicious of foreign-language phrases, an incorrect or missing salutation, and an unusual choice of words. It’s typical of phishing attempts that the perpetrators put their victims under time pressure. They are asked to make a payment or provide personal details within a few hours or days, otherwise they face the threat of massive financial loss, arrest, or similar. The less time the sender gives you, the higher the probability that it’s a phishing e-mail. If the email contains a button or a link, point to it with the mouse (do not click!) and read the address to which it leads. If it’s not the page of the alleged sender company, you’re probably dealing with a phishing message. Enter the subject line of a suspicious email into Google and see if other people have received the same message. If you suspect a phishing message, you should delete the email immediately and never respond to it. Read...

Governor-General Dame Cindy Kiro will also attend the event alongside the Prime Minister. Read...

Remember when you first signed up for Netflix streaming? It was nice. A few bucks a month for tons of good movies, some pretty decent original shows, zero ads, and you could finally ditch the nightmare that was cable. Fast forward to 2025, and streaming is the nightmare. It splits up everything you want to watch across a dozen different platforms, all of which now have ads just so they can make you pay to remove them. They remove content constantly, they’re full to bursting with things you don’t care about or need (Hades the video game, a dozen horrible Christmas movies every year, and NFL games on the same ticket, what?) and the price is always, always, always going up. From the consumer perspective, streaming video services are objectively worse than they were a decade ago. Frankly, these services are absolutely milking and bilking their users. There’s no real alternative at this point, at least if you want to watch new shows or the occasional streaming-exclusive movie that isn’t terrible. But there are ways to maximize your enjoyment and minimize your money spent. Step one: quit. Quit early, quit often This isn’t a new idea — I first heard about it from my colleague Eric Ravenscraft years ago, and we’ve advocated for it on TechHive more than once. But it bears repeating. The streaming services don’t have any loyalty to you, and you’ll gain nothing by being loyal to them. Quit your subscriptions constantly, month by month if you want, and move on to the next one. Heck, we’ve said that cancelling your subscription immediately is the one trick all cord cutters should know. The watch-and-bail setup is pretty simple. You sign up for any singular streaming service for just one month, taking advantage of any deals or promotions they’re offering to entice new suckers customers. You go through whatever you want to watch on that service which is exclusive to that service alone. Then you bail, and move on to the next one. Rinse, repeat, try to never be subscribed to more than one at a time. ibreakstock / Shutterstock.com There are some obvious advantages here. Shows and movies financed or produced by one service tend to stay on that service and not move around. Netflix made House of Cards, so you can’t watch House of Cards on Disney+. Hulu made The Handmaid’s Tale, so you can’t watch it on Max. So watch only the exclusive stuff one one service while you have it. These aren’t universally true — Paramount+, “the home of Star Trek,” unceremoniously dumped Prodigy, and Netflix picked it up for its second season. Disney clawed back Daredevil and other Marvel series when it started making its own for Disney+. But in any given month you can generally rely on the exclusive content that’s already on a service to stick around for at least a month. Have a plan The way to maximize this process is to go in with a plan. I keep a list of all the upcoming shows (including returning seasons) that I want to see on any particular service, so when one of them gets three or four piled up, I switch to it and binge as much as my schedule will allow. For example, right now I’ve got Castlevania: Nocturne season 2 and A Man on the Inside qued up on my Netflix list. I’ll wait for at least one more show or movie to catch my eye (like, say, the Knives Out threequel) before I plan my next Netflix month. Streaminganbieter rafapress/Shutterstock.com Also, it doesn’t hurt to memorize the general landing places for movies, if you’re waiting on them to transition from theaters to streaming. Some are obvious: Disney movies (including Marvel, Star Wars, et cetera) will come to Disney+, Paramount movies will come to Paramount+, two to four months after they leave theaters. Warner Bros. movies will eventually land on Max, the service that it owns. Some (but not all) Universal Pictures movies will come to Peacock, as that’s an NBC-Universal brand. Sony Pictures is the only major Hollywood studio without an accompanying streaming service at the moment. And of course, any movie released to theaters explicitly by Netflix, Apple, or Amazon will make their way to those respective services before long. Keep an eye out for deals Obviously this approach will save you some money by keeping your subscriptions down to one or two a month. I like to use that savings to upgrade to ads, which again, are only there to make you pay more so they’ll go away. Enshittification strikes again. But even beyond maximizing your allotment of time and money, you can game this system to be better for you. Streaming services are constantly hungry for new users. They’ll try to entice them with a free week or month of trial service before they charge, or several months at a discount rate. Keep an eye out for those discounts — for example, at the time of writing Hulu will offer you a month of service for free, and Apple TV+ is doing a week. Watch the usual deal sites for these opportunities, especially if one of your singular service lists is getting long. Hulu Sometimes these are restricted to truly “new” users, i.e., if you’ve signed up and unsubscribed before you’re not eligible. You can sometimes get around this by making a new account: use a burner email (or a slightly tweaked one) and a method of payment you haven’t associated with that service before. If you can swing it, these freebies are a great way to watch just one show or movie that’s exclusive to a service you otherwise don’t care about. Infrequently there are some pretty good deals on year-long plans. I’m currently part way through a Paramount+ year-long package — I got it for $30, plus another $30 upgrade to remove ads. That’s half off the price, only $5 a month total, and I watch enough Star Trek releases throughout the year that it makes sense. (At least for the moment — damn you, Paramount, for canceling Lower Decks.) Bundles of media are less appealing to me, if only because they tend to offer diminishing returns. Hulu and ESPN are both owned by Disney, so there’s a package combined with Disney+, naturally. But each overlapping circle of that Venn diagram narrows the appeal to users. It might be different for you, of course, especially if you’re sharing services among a big family. Manufactured headaches The streaming services are aware of these bouncing customers, and trying to minimize that behavior as much as possible. That’s why the “drop all the episodes at once” binge model that Netflix pioneered is no longer the de facto standard. You’ll need a minimum of three months subscribed to get through a new ten-episode season on a weekly schedule. The solution is to wait until all the episodes are posted…but that requires some temperance, and leaves you out of “the conversation” and at risk of spoilers. Again, patience is your friend if you’re trying to maximize your money. A newer wrench in this system is live sports. Previously the exclusive domain of “live TV” bundles, a la Hulu+ Live TV or YouTube Live, streaming services are increasingly claiming major sports events for their own walled gardens. Netflix got an exclusive on NFL games on Christmas day last year, with no way to catch them over-the-air, and many Thursday night games are now exclusive to Amazon Prime Video. …just don’t ask about Monday, or Thursday, or Saturday, or Christmas.  NFL That’s going to be extremely frustrating if you’re subscribed to the ludicrously expensive Sunday Ticket on YouTube, plus ESPN for Monday Night games…you get the picture. Enshittification in action. There’s no real way to counter this from a penny-pinching perspective, though you can always go to a sports bar or a friend’s home (or invite them to log in at your place) to catch a singular game you don’t want to pay for. God, this just sucks If this all seems like a lot of complication and effort just to save some money, it is! That might be the point — the easiest thing to do is just spend more money and make fewer choices. A lot of people are so sick of it they’re just going back to old-fashioned physical media, and who could blame them? The silver lining here is that you have more choices for entertainment than ever before, frustrating as they might be. There are smaller, niche services like Dropout.TV, Crunchyroll, or Brown Sugar which are also more affordable. There are practically endless hours of things to watch on YouTube, and a lot of options to keep from paying Google’s ever-increasing premium to block ads. And if you don’t mind ads, and you’re not picky, there are completely free options like Crackle and Tubi. Droput is great and it’s cheap.Dropout There’s a stunning variety of video games in every shape and shade, and even ways to get them cheaply like Xbox Game Pass. You could also just, you know, do something not on a screen. I suppose that’s theoretically an option. They still make books, right? All joking aside, both your time and your money are limited, no matter how much you have of either. Remember that if a service isn’t earning your money, you should stop giving it to them. I recommend an “entertainment audit” once a year, during which you evaluate what you’re paying for in relation to what you’re using, and seeing if you really want to keep it up. Things are better than they were when your only choices were regular TV and cable. But not by much. And with other factors putting the squeeze on consumers even in affluent countries, I think streaming services that keep offering less and less while they charge more and more are going to meet some of the same harsh realities that the rest of us are dealing with sooner rather than later. Further reading: The best streaming devices of 2025 Read...

Microsoft is indeed making access to OpenAI’s 01 AI reasoning model completely free — but there’s a limitation and one which Microsoft is refusing to tell you about. Microsoft said Wednesday that it would provide access to OpenAI’s o1 model, for free, to Copilot users as part of a toggle option called “Think Deeper.” OpenAI uses the o1 model in its paid ChatGPT plans and charges $20/mo for “limited” access to the model, and unlimited access to it for a Pro plan costing $200/mo. However, Mustafa Suleyman, the chief of Microsoft’s AI, said that the model would be “free and available,” and “everywhere at no cost” — potentially an enormous discount. At the time, Microsoft representatives didn’t immediately reply to follow-up questions. But they (Microsoft) said Friday that there are limits to their new Think Deeper feature, which they’re keeping mum about. “Usage of Think Deeper is limited by a weekly number of messages, with Copilot Pro subscribers having more turns per week,” the Microsoft representative said via email. “The exact amount depends on how many other people are currently using Think Deeper. When you’ve reached your allotted number of turns, you may get an error message, or the feature will no longer be visible to you during this time.” Put another way, Think Deeper might just stop working and for unknown reasons. We’ve asked Microsoft for further clarification and we’ll update this story as we hear back. We don’t know how many queries Microsoft’s Think Deeper will allow and it’s very odd that the company won’t tell you. Part of Microsoft’s sneaky price bump on Microsoft 365 is an AI credit allotment. You get 60 uses of AI on Designer or Copilot Plus. (Here’s how to turn it off and save $30.) We can use OpenAI itself as a clue to what your Think Deeper rate limit might be. However, when OpenAI announced the preview version of its o1 model, it limited queries to fifty per week. Thousands of years ago, mankind prayed to various gods and goddesses, offering sacrifices in return for their blessings. But the gods were capricious and would fall silent to humanity’s entreaties for unknown reasons. In return, the person was left wondering why the god had withdrawn its divine favor. Today, the promise of Artificial General Intelligence (or AGI) posits that machines will eventually become as smart as humans and even surpass them with god-like intelligence. But today’s new gods of silicon and fibre are being taught that they can scorn a humble supplicant asking whether Captain America could defeat Spider-Man in a cage match. Will we ever know why Copilot won’t respond? Microsoft, their high priest, is teaching them that they don’t have to. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Integrated solar panels keep camera batteries topped off Very good video quality, with color night vision Local storage eliminates the need for an optional subscription App is easy to navigate and rock-solid stable Cons Storage hub must be hardwired via ethernet 32GB of local storage in hub cannot be expanded No continuous recording option Cannot be expanded beyond four cameras Our Verdict The integrated solar panels in these Aosu cameras work wonders at keeping their batteries topped up, and a range of additional features only sweeten the pot for a compelling security cam bundle. But don’t commit to this system unless you’re willing to accept its expansion limitations. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Aosu SolarCam P1 SE System (2 cameras plus Homebase hub) Retailer Price $299.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Aosu is a camera-centric smart home security brand that seemingly came out of nowhere (actually: China) some time last year. We kicked off our coverage with a look at Aosu’s Video Doorbell Ultra. With this second round with the company’s product line, we train our eye on one of its more general-purpose outdoor camera kits, the SolarCam P1 S1 system. The “system” designation stems from the fact that the kit consists of two wireless, battery-powered, 2K cameras (each with video resolution of 2304 x 1296 pixels) and a Homebase hub (with 32GB of onboard memory) that must be plugged into power and hardwired to your home network (a 4-camera kit is also available, but it comes with the same 32GB hub). The cameras and the hub operate over a 2.4GHz radio frequency, and you interact with the system with a smartphone app and your home Wi-Fi network. The quality of the cameras’ 2304 x 1296-pixel video recordings are top notch, and their lenses’ 130-degree field of view exhibit minimal image distortion. Specifications As we’ve seen with some recent Eufy Security cameras, the entire top surface of each of the squat cameras consists of an embedded 1.5-watt solar panel to keep its 5,000mAh battery topped off. Aous says this requires just two hours of sunlight per day. Each camera measures 2 x 4 x 5 inches (HxWxL) and weighs 0.9 pounds. Aosu’s Homebase hub comes equipped with 32GB of solid-state storage for motion-triggered video recordings, but it’s limited to supporting four cameras and its capacity cannot be upgraded. Christopher Null/Foundry The two-camera system reviewed here was priced at $299.99 (MSRP) at press time, but we found it on Amazon with a $60 discount coupon that slashed its street price to $240. You can add up to two additional cameras at $120 each, or you can buy a four-camera system for $460. Since four cameras is the maximum number supported by a single hub, you’ll save money buying a 4-camera system in the first place compared to paying for a pair of add-on cameras later. In fact, we spotted a deal on Amazon that bundled the 4-camera system with an Aosu video doorbell for $400–$60 less than the 4-camera system by itself. Setup and installation Each camera can (and should) be charged by plugging a USB-C cable into the ports secreted behind a rubber flap (a short cable is included). You’ll then plug the Homebase into an AC outlet or surge protector and connect it to your router (or an ethernet switched plugged into the same) with an ethernet cable. Adding the cameras to the system then involves a slightly convoluted series of button presses on all devices, all of which must be connected simultaneously. This review is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best home security cameras. Each camera is attached to a ball-and-socket joint, which is in turn attached to a mounting bracket with four screw holes drilled into it. Just remove the bracket, attach it to the wall or ceiling (or any surface for that matter, thanks to the versatile joint) and re-attach the camera. All the necessary hardware is included. The cameras carry an IP65 weatherization rating, which—according to our IP code decoder—indicates they are impervious to dust ingress and capable of withstanding water jets sprayed from any direction (though it’s unlikely they’d stand up to a pressure washer at close quarters). Each camera has a front-mounted, motion-sensing LED spotlight that enables color night vision for motion-triggered recording. The entire top surface of each camera is occuped by a solar panel that keeps its battery topped off. Christopher Null/Foundry I found the the quality of the cameras’ video recordings—again, with resolution of 2304 x 1296-pixels—to be top notch, and their lenses’ 130-degree field of view exhibited minimal image distortion. The cameras are fully featured, including motion detection, two-way talk (with an integrated voice-changing feature), and a very loud siren that can be set to go off when motion is detected, optionally at only certain times of the day. Two night-vision modes are available, including standard infrared and a full-color mode made possible by a surprisingly bright LED spotlight on the front of the camera body. (This only turns on if you have color night vision active and motion is detected.) Both modes look good—arguably better than I see on most security cameras—and have longer-than-average working ranges. While you can view live video on demand, recording occurs only when motion is detected—there is no continuous recording option available—and can be restricted to record only on human motion if desired. A detection zone feature is also included. As well, the camera includes a “scheduled sleep” setting that lets you turn off recording altogether during certain times, which might be useful if you find you need to conserve battery life or if you don’t have strong access to the sun. Lastly, there’s support for both Alexa and Google Assistant smart displays. Day-to-day use When I tested the product in the winter of 2025, sunlight was at a premium. But Aosu’s claims of being able to keep the battery topped off panned out well over about a week of testing; and in fact, I never saw the battery level on either camera dip below 100 percent, even though most of my testing days were quite overcast. Unless you’re operating in winter above the Arctic circle or are recording a subject that’s constantly in motion, I suspect most users will never need to recharge the cameras via wall power. You can view a live feed from each camera side by side (or in a 4-camera panel if you have the 4-camera system). Video recordings, on the other hand, must be viewed one at a time. Christopher Null/Foundry Live images can be viewed one camera at a time or with both cameras side-by-side (or in a 4-way panel if you have a quartet of cameras). Recorded video, on the other hand, must be reviewed on a per-camera basis, and it seems like a real missed opportunity not to have a canonical view that puts all recording history across all your cameras on a single page. The one exception to this is if multiple cameras pick up activity either at the same time or one after the other in direct sequence. When this happens, the recording is tagged with “Cross-camera tracking,” and tapping an icon in the app takes you to a secondary page that lets you flip through each camera’s recording, giving you a look at a recorded activity from multiple angles. These clips are played in sequence, not stitched together into a single video, so the effect isn’t as impressive as it could be, but it’s nonetheless a great feature to have, painting a more comprehensive picture of activity around your property than most competitors will give you. If you have four cameras positioned properly, you could theoretically watch someone walk entirely around your house and never be out of view. The Aosu app is well designed and easy to use.Christopher Null/Foundry Aosu doesn’t state a maximum clip length, but all clips topped out at a minute or shorter during my testing. By default, each recording is stored on 32GB of solid-state storage built into the Homebase hub. This storage cannot be removed or expanded; it’s hardwired to the base. Storage rolls over when it’s full and the system deletes clips after 60 days even if it’s not. Some other camera/hub systems—including Eufy’s—let you expand the hub’s storage by adding a physical drive. Aosu’s cloud storage option Aosu offers a cloud subscription service that offers “unlimited storage space,” but only for 30 days, with prices ranging from $6.99/month to $26.99/month (with per-year discounts available), depending on the number of devices you have. For two cameras, the cost is $11.99/month or $119.99/year. A cheaper 14-day storage plan is also available but it only works with a single device. The only real features you get with a subscription are video storage that doesn’t automatically delete files as storage fills up, and the fact that the video is stored and encrypted in the cloud, so it can’t easily be stolen the way a physical hub in your house can be. Given that and the rather steep pricing, it won’t make a lot of financial sense for most people to buy a subscription. Should you buy an Aosu SolarCam P1 SE System? All told, I really enjoyed working with this bundle, much as I did with Aosu’s doorbell camera. Aosu’s app is easy to navigate, motion detection is accurate, clips load quickly, and nothing ever crashed or hung during my time with it. There are certain things it can’t do—such as continuous recording—and the ethernet-connected hub is a bummer, but these probably won’t be dealbreakers for most users. A $230 street price for a two-camera system with a central hub for storage makes this bundle a compelling value. For some, however, two limitations will detract from its appeal: First, you can’t expand the system beyond four cameras; second, you can’t expand the central hub’s 32GB of internal storage, which might be problematic if you add twice as many cameras.. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Excellent hardware design, with labels and a manual Terrific power delivery Absolutely stable once it’s up and running Aggressive price Three displays! Cons Can be a bit glitchy after resuming from sleep Surprisingly poor storage performance Driver update actually hurt performance Ethernet stopped working, once Our Verdict Wavlink’s Thunderbolt 4 Triple Display Docking Station (UTD-45) really is a mixed bag. This Thunderbolt 4 feels like it was designed with care and performs quite well in places. But it also has a few quirks, including surprisingly low storage performance after an optional driver was installed. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Wavlink Thunderbolt 4 Triple Display Docking Station Retailer Price Wavlink $199 View Deal $199.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Wavlink’s Thunderbolt 4 Triple Display Docking Station (UTD-45) delivers a mixture of highs and lows, averaging out to a decent experience overall. You can see the care that was put into its well-crafted design…with a few glitches. In general, though, I can’t help rooting for this Thunderbolt dock, even if I can’t totally recommend it. My experiences with this dock were generally good. I had previously listed Wavlink’s UTD-45 among our recommendations for the best Thunderbolt laptop docking stations based on a review by our sister site, Macworld. Put simply, this dock provides access to three different displays via a well-thought-out (and well-labeled) mix of legacy ports. After reviewing the UTD-45 personally, however, I’m less impressed. To be fair, Wavlink’s UTD-45 laptop docking station is primarily sold through Amazon — and that listing may have been shared with other Wavlink docks that the manufacturer also sold via the same page. Customers there complain that the UTD-45 had problems playing back video and that the dock became quite hot to the touch under load. I didn’t experience either issue at all. Wavlink’s Thunderbolt 4 Triple Display Docking Station (UTD-45) measures 8.5 inches long by 3.5 inches deep and about an inch high, with venting on either end. It weighs about 1.2 pounds. While the dock is made of ABS plus aluminum alloy, the dock is also well ventilated at either end, with a second small vent running around the periphery of the dock. While all of that ventilation keeps the dock nice and cool under load, it does prevent the UTD-45 from being oriented vertically to save space. I can’t help rooting for this Thunderbolt dock, even if I can’t totally recommend it. Virtually everything on the Wavlink’s Thunderbolt 4 Triple Display Docking Station (UTD-45) is well-labeled, even the USB-C port’s power rating.Mark Hachman / IDG Wavlink describes each port’s throughput on the front of the dock with a prominent label, and sums them up inside a downloadable manual, two features that I like to see. Wavlink even lists the ports’ power capabilities, all of which warms my nerdy little heart. In addition to the audio jack and LED-lit power button, the UTD-45 includes an SD/microSD 4.0 (312MB/s) card slot, a 10Gbps USB-C port capable of 30W, a generic 10Gbps USB-A port, and a Thunderbolt 4 host port capable of 96W of power delivery. A 31-inch cable connects the dock to the laptop, which allows me to put the dock on either side of the laptop and still snake the cable around. On the rear, Wavlink includes two HDMI 2.1 ports, an upstream Thunderbolt 4 port that supplies 15W of power, plus a 2.5Gbps Ethernet port. There are also three labeled USB-A ports, two enabling 5Gbps and one that can transfer 10Gbps worth of data. The combination of the chassis material and the adequate venting keeps Wavlink’s dock quite cool.Mark Hachman / IDG Note that the Thunderbolt protocol only allows for a laptop to connect to two 4K60 displays. This dock allows you to connect a third display via Thunderbolt, but only via a laptop with DisplayPort 1.4 and Display Stream Compression. That’s enabled with most discrete GPUs and integrated GPUs in laptops with 13th-gen Core chips and their AMD counterparts. DSC also allows this dock to output 8K at 60Hz over one of the HDMI ports, but I do not test this because 8K displays are nearly impossible to find. Most docks are plug-and-play, and the Wavlink UTD-45 is no exception. However, Wavlink does supply a downloadable driver that the company says should be used if downloads over Ethernet seem slower than expected. In my tests, downloading and applying the driver actually dropped download speeds by about 58Mbps — though the results of speed testing are subject to various factors, such as local network or WWAN congestion. That may have affected its storage performance, too. How does the Wavlink Thunderbolt 4 UTD-45 perform? I had a few issues with the Wavlink UTD-45. First, there were sometimes delays connecting to various displays. I sometimes needed to disconnect and reconnect the Thunderbolt 4 cable and even reboot on occasion. It also seemed to be a bit finicky while rebooting or bringing the laptop back up from a sleep state, and I occasionally removed and reinserted the cable to help it along. Once connected, this dock was absolutely stable — and since I started testing it over the holidays, I spent more time with it than normal. The rear of the Wavlink’s Thunderbolt 4 Triple Display Docking Station (UTD-45) includes three display ports, if you run a display cable from the Thunderbolt 4 port.Mark Hachman / IDG There were never any thermal problems at all, and the dock remained much cooler than some others I’ve tested. At one point, however, the Ethernet jack simply stopped working. That was a little odd, given that I’d already downloaded and installed the driver that was supposed to solve any Ethernet problems. The outage persisted until I powered the dock — not the laptop — off and on. That solved the problem. The dock’s power delivery was generally excellent. The well-labeled ports delivered pretty much what they were supposed to: a hefty 28.2W of power from the front USB-C port was plenty to fast-charge a smartphone. The rear USB-A ports provided 5.7W, good enough for bus-powered devices. Only the Thunderbolt 4 cable to the laptop fell a bit short. I couldn’t push it past 82W, a bit less than the 98W that Wavlink promised. That’s still good enough for most productivity laptops, however. I was able to stream a 4K stream via Ethernet and across the Thunderbolt 4 cable without any issue at all — the laptop and dock worked together to prevent any frames from being dropped. (And, just to check, I played back protected streamed video from Netflix across the HDMI ports. It worked fine.) In terms of storage performance, however, the Wavlink UTD-45 dock was slower than I’d like. I connected a test SSD to the dock and ran PCMark’s storage benchmark against it, part of my additional tests to see how well the dock transfers data between SSDs Kensington’s SD5800T costs about $100 more than the Wavlink UTD-45, and its storage performance is about average: 130.74MB/s, when connected to the test SSD. Even still, the UTD-45 produced just 107.8MB/s using the same benchmark, and a statistically similar number while streaming. That’s one of the slowest storage results I’ve seen. The dock performed similarly when I copied a multi-gigabyte folder of files from the SSD to the desktop across the Thunderbolt 4 cable. The Kensington SD5800T performed the task in 1 minute, 8 seconds, which was somewhat slow. However, the UTD-45 notched the same result. It was when I streamed video over Ethernet and copied the files in the background, that things got bad: The transfer time jumped to a lethargic 1 minute, 34 seconds. Should you buy Wavlink’s Thunderbolt 4 UTD-45? Wavlink prices its dock fairly aggressively, and I’m a big believer in factoring affordability into my recommendations. Once up and running, the UTD-45 didn’t give me any problems at all. It did feel, more often than not, that I would either have to wait or fiddle with the dock when rebooting or when resuming from a sleep state. I can’t in good faith give Wavlink’s UTD-45 an Editors’ Choice award, because of its issues. But I still rather like it, too. Waiting an extra few seconds for it to copy a file might not matter to you. (Skip the optional driver!) Using the dock is a bit like starting an old, dependable car: You might have to fiddle with it a bit, but it otherwise runs well. Read...

Remember when you first signed up for Netflix streaming? It was nice. A few bucks a month for tons of good movies, some pretty decent original shows, zero ads, and you could finally ditch the nightmare that was cable. Fast forward to 2025, and streaming is the nightmare. It splits up everything you want to watch across a dozen different platforms, all of which now have ads just so they can make you pay to remove them. They remove content constantly, they’re full to bursting with things you don’t care about or need (Hades the video game, a dozen horrible Christmas movies every year, and NFL games on the same ticket, what?) and the price is always, always, always going up. From the consumer perspective, streaming video services are objectively worse than they were a decade ago. Frankly, these services are absolutely milking and bilking their users. There’s no real alternative at this point, at least if you want to watch new shows or the occasional streaming-exclusive movie that isn’t terrible. But there are ways to maximize your enjoyment and minimize your money spent. Step one: quit. Quit early, quit often This isn’t a new idea — I first heard about it from my colleague Eric Ravenscraft years ago, and we’ve advocated for it on TechHive more than once. But it bears repeating. The streaming services don’t have any loyalty to you, and you’ll gain nothing by being loyal to them. Quit your subscriptions constantly, month by month if you want, and move on to the next one. Heck, we’ve said that cancelling your subscription immediately is the one trick all cord cutters should know. The watch-and-bail setup is pretty simple. You sign up for any singular streaming service for just one month, taking advantage of any deals or promotions they’re offering to entice new suckers customers. You go through whatever you want to watch on that service which is exclusive to that service alone. Then you bail, and move on to the next one. Rinse, repeat, try to never be subscribed to more than one at a time. ibreakstock / Shutterstock.com There are some obvious advantages here. Shows and movies financed or produced by one service tend to stay on that service and not move around. Netflix made House of Cards, so you can’t watch House of Cards on Disney+. Hulu made The Handmaid’s Tale, so you can’t watch it on Max. So watch only the exclusive stuff one one service while you have it. These aren’t universally true — Paramount+, “the home of Star Trek,” unceremoniously dumped Prodigy, and Netflix picked it up for its second season. Disney clawed back Daredevil and other Marvel series when it started making its own for Disney+. But in any given month you can generally rely on the exclusive content that’s already on a service to stick around for at least a month. Have a plan The way to maximize this process is to go in with a plan. I keep a list of all the upcoming shows (including returning seasons) that I want to see on any particular service, so when one of them gets three or four piled up, I switch to it and binge as much as my schedule will allow. For example, right now I’ve got Castlevania: Nocturne season 2 and A Man on the Inside qued up on my Netflix list. I’ll wait for at least one more show or movie to catch my eye (like, say, the Knives Out threequel) before I plan my next Netflix month. Streaminganbieter rafapress/Shutterstock.com Also, it doesn’t hurt to memorize the general landing places for movies, if you’re waiting on them to transition from theaters to streaming. Some are obvious: Disney movies (including Marvel, Star Wars, et cetera) will come to Disney+, Paramount movies will come to Paramount+, two to four months after they leave theaters. Warner Bros. movies will eventually land on Max, the service that it owns. Some (but not all) Universal Pictures movies will come to Peacock, as that’s an NBC-Universal brand. Sony Pictures is the only major Hollywood studio without an accompanying streaming service at the moment. And of course, any movie released to theaters explicitly by Netflix, Apple, or Amazon will make their way to those respective services before long. Keep an eye out for deals Obviously this approach will save you some money by keeping your subscriptions down to one or two a month. I like to use that savings to upgrade to ads, which again, are only there to make you pay more so they’ll go away. Enshittification strikes again. But even beyond maximizing your allotment of time and money, you can game this system to be better for you. Streaming services are constantly hungry for new users. They’ll try to entice them with a free week or month of trial service before they charge, or several months at a discount rate. Keep an eye out for those discounts — for example, at the time of writing Hulu will offer you a month of service for free, and Apple TV+ is doing a week. Watch the usual deal sites for these opportunities, especially if one of your singular service lists is getting long. Hulu Sometimes these are restricted to truly “new” users, i.e., if you’ve signed up and unsubscribed before you’re not eligible. You can sometimes get around this by making a new account: use a burner email (or a slightly tweaked one) and a method of payment you haven’t associated with that service before. If you can swing it, these freebies are a great way to watch just one show or movie that’s exclusive to a service you otherwise don’t care about. Infrequently there are some pretty good deals on year-long plans. I’m currently part way through a Paramount+ year-long package — I got it for $30, plus another $30 upgrade to remove ads. That’s half off the price, only $5 a month total, and I watch enough Star Trek releases throughout the year that it makes sense. (At least for the moment — damn you, Paramount, for canceling Lower Decks.) Bundles of media are less appealing to me, if only because they tend to offer diminishing returns. Hulu and ESPN are both owned by Disney, so there’s a package combined with Disney+, naturally. But each overlapping circle of that Venn diagram narrows the appeal to users. It might be different for you, of course, especially if you’re sharing services among a big family. Manufactured headaches The streaming services are aware of these bouncing customers, and trying to minimize that behavior as much as possible. That’s why the “drop all the episodes at once” binge model that Netflix pioneered is no longer the de facto standard. You’ll need a minimum of three months subscribed to get through a new ten-episode season on a weekly schedule. The solution is to wait until all the episodes are posted…but that requires some temperance, and leaves you out of “the conversation” and at risk of spoilers. Again, patience is your friend if you’re trying to maximize your money. A newer wrench in this system is live sports. Previously the exclusive domain of “live TV” bundles, a la Hulu+ Live TV or YouTube Live, streaming services are increasingly claiming major sports events for their own walled gardens. Netflix got an exclusive on NFL games on Christmas day last year, with no way to catch them over-the-air, and many Thursday night games are now exclusive to Amazon Prime Video. …just don’t ask about Monday, or Thursday, or Saturday, or Christmas.  NFL That’s going to be extremely frustrating if you’re subscribed to the ludicrously expensive Sunday Ticket on YouTube, plus ESPN for Monday Night games…you get the picture. Enshittification in action. There’s no real way to counter this from a penny-pinching perspective, though you can always go to a sports bar or a friend’s home (or invite them to log in at your place) to catch a singular game you don’t want to pay for. God, this just sucks If this all seems like a lot of complication and effort just to save some money, it is! That might be the point — the easiest thing to do is just spend more money and make fewer choices. A lot of people are so sick of it they’re just going back to old-fashioned physical media, and who could blame them? The silver lining here is that you have more choices for entertainment than ever before, frustrating as they might be. There are smaller, niche services like Dropout.TV, Crunchyroll, or Brown Sugar which are also more affordable. There are practically endless hours of things to watch on YouTube, and a lot of options to keep from paying Google’s ever-increasing premium to block ads. And if you don’t mind ads, and you’re not picky, there are completely free options like Crackle and Tubi. Droput is great and it’s cheap.Dropout There’s a stunning variety of video games in every shape and shade, and even ways to get them cheaply like Xbox Game Pass. You could also just, you know, do something not on a screen. I suppose that’s theoretically an option. They still make books, right? All joking aside, both your time and your money are limited, no matter how much you have of either. Remember that if a service isn’t earning your money, you should stop giving it to them. I recommend an “entertainment audit” once a year, during which you evaluate what you’re paying for in relation to what you’re using, and seeing if you really want to keep it up. Things are better than they were when your only choices were regular TV and cable. But not by much. And with other factors putting the squeeze on consumers even in affluent countries, I think streaming services that keep offering less and less while they charge more and more are going to meet some of the same harsh realities that the rest of us are dealing with sooner rather than later. Further reading: The best streaming devices of 2025 Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Attractive and functional design Wide range of connectivity including Thunderbolt 4 Bundled remote is handy Excellent SDR image quality Cons No Ethernet connectivity HDR is available but underwhelming Only a 60Hz refresh rate Our Verdict The BenQ PD2730S will call to creative professionals with its 5K display, but some will find its connectivity and special features just as alluring as its razor-sharp image. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: BenQ PD2730S Retailer Price BenQ $1199.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket 5K monitors are having a bit of a moment. Although hardly new (Apple first introduced a 5K iMac all the way back in 2024), 5K resolution was available from just a few monitors outside Apple’s ecosystem. That is changing, however, thanks to monitors like the BenQ PD27230S. It’s a feature-packed display that pairs 5K resolution with Thunderbolt 4 connectivity and a bundled remote. BenQ PD2730S specs and features The BenQ PD2730S is a 5K monitor widescreen, which means it has a resolution of 5120×2880. It’s part of a new breed of more affordable 5K monitors just now hitting store shelves. Unlike earlier 5K displays, this monitor has new IPS technology which roughly doubles the contrast ratio compared to most prior IPS monitors. Display size: 27-inch 16:9 widescreen Native resolution: 5120×2880 Panel type: In-Plane Switching (with enhanced contrast), 10-bit panel Refresh rate: 60Hz Adaptive sync: None HDR: Yes, HDR 10 Ports: 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x DisplayPort 1.4, 1x Thunderbolt 4 with DisplayPort Alternate Mode and 90 watts of Power Delivery, 1x Thunderbolt 4-out with daisy-chain display support, 1x USB-C upstream, 1x USB-C downstream, 4x USB-A downstream VESA mount: 100x100mm Speakers: 2x 3-watt speakers Remote control: Included Price: $1199.99 Resolution aside, the BenQ PD2730S is also notable for its connectivity. It supports Thunderbolt 4 as well as USB-C and includes a total of four USB-A downstream ports. The Thunderbolt 4 output also supports daisy-chain connections, meaning it’s possible to connect two monitors to a single video output on your PC.  Further reading: See our roundup of the best monitors to learn about competing products. BenQ PD2730S design The BenQ PD2730S is part of the company’s designer sub-brand so, unsurprisingly, it boasts a professional and attractive design. It has slim black bezels around the sides and top and a modestly sized chin below. Around back, BenQ relies on “powdered white” matte plastics which look clean and feel robust. Overall, the design is simple but purposeful. A robust silver-gray stand keeps the monitor upright and provides a wide range of ergonomic adjustment including tilt, swivel, pivot, and height adjustment. The swivel and height adjustments offer more room to adjust than with many other monitors, at 60 degrees of swivel and up to 150mm of height adjustment. I also like the broad yet thin stand base, which keeps the monitor stable while allowing owners to use the desk space that it occupies. If you don’t want to use it, however, the display panel has a 100x100mm VESA mount for use with third-party monitor arms and stands. Matthew Smith / Foundry BenQ PD2730S connectivity The BenQ PD2730S is a 5K monitor, but that’s not the only thing notable about it. It’s also a Thunderbolt 4 monitor that provides a ton of connectivity. Video connectivity includes HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 1.4, and Thunderbolt 4 with DisplayPort Alternate Mode, for a total of three video inputs. This is one area where connectivity is a tad weak, as I’d prefer to see a second DisplayPort. Still, the available video connectivity is fine for most people. The monitor’s Thunderbolt 4 port also supports USB-C, of course, and up to 90 watts of Power Delivery for charging a connected tablet or laptop. There’s also a Thunderbolt 4/USB-C downstream port with up to 15 watts of Power Delivery and support for daisy-chain video connections (meaning the monitor’s Thunderbolt 4 output can be passed to a second monitor’s input, which allows for cleaner, simpler monitor connections). In addition to that, the monitor has a data-only USB-C upstream port that handles data rates up to 10Gbps, as well as a USB-C downstream port with 10Gbps of data and 7.5 watts of power. USB-A connectivity is robust, too. The monitor has a total of four USB-A downstream ports. One offers 10Gbps of data, while the rest handle up to 5Gbps of data. A KVM switch function is included and arranged so that the Thunderbolt 4 port provides one source, while a USB-C port provides the other. A 3.5mm audio-jack rounds out that monitor’s connectivity. That’s a lot, and it should be well-suited for the monitor’s intended use. This is a monitor built for professional use, after all, and many professional users want to connect many external devices. The only important port missing is Ethernet. That’s something a few competitors like the Dell U3224KB provide (though, in that case, at a higher price). BenQ PD2730S features The BenQ PD2730S is not short on features, especially when it comes to color management and calibration. The company provides several software utilities including ColorTalk (a color matching utility for people lacking a colorimeter for calibration) and Palette Master Ultimate (for those who do have a colorimeter). It’s also compatible with Display Pilot 2, a utility that provides access to most monitor options and settings in Windows. Matthew Smith / Foundry Alternatively, the monitor’s options can be changed with a joystick on the lower right bezel or BenQ’s unique puck-style rotary remote. The puck is wireless and provides a quicker, more intuitive way to change settings. Not everyone will need it, but owners who make frequent adjustments to their monitor will appreciate it. The monitor also features a pair of 3-watt speakers. As with most bundled speakers, they suffer from a lack of bass (as there’s no subwoofer), which causes audio to sound tinny and muddy at higher volumes. Still, the speakers are acceptable for listening to a podcast or playing ambient music at lower volumes. BenQ PD2730S SDR image quality The BenQ PD2730S is meant for creative professionals, so image quality is a high priority, and the monitor doesn’t disappoint. Though it’s not perfect, the PD2730S delivers an accurate, sharp quality that’s great for both creative work and general productivity. Matthew Smith / Foundry First up is SDR brightness, and here the BenQ PD2730S provides a strong score of 485 nits. While the Asus ProArt Display 5K PA27JCV scored better, the BenQ PD2730S otherwise runs ahead of the competition, including the Philips Creator Series 27E2F7901, another solid monitor for creative work. Many people will use the PD2730S at some small fraction of its maximum potential brightness. However, its ability to reach a high brightness could be helpful if you work in a sunlit room or brightly lit open office. Matthew Smith / Foundry Contrast is a strong point for the BenQ PD2730S, though it does depend on your needs. I measured a maximum contrast ratio of 2070:1 which, as the graph shows, is a good result in line with other monitors that have an IPS Black display panel. The contrast improvement is noticeable when compared to monitors with a conventional IPS panel, such as the Asus ProArt PA278CFRV. However, shoppers should know that OLED monitors can achieve an effectively infinite contrast ratio that provides a deeper and more immersive image with better detail in shadowy scenes. On the other hand, most OLED monitors are inferior in brightness in sharpness. Matthew Smith / Foundry The BenQ PD2730S has a wide color gamut that meet or exceeds 100 percent of sRGB and DCI-P3. It also reaches up to 89 percent of AdobeRGB. As the graph shows, these are excellent results that put the PD2730S in the upper echelon of monitors sold today. A wide color gamut is important for creative work, as it allows owners to see subtle gradations of color that might not appear on less capable displays. But it also provides a vibrant, saturated look in general day-to-day use. Matthew Smith / Foundry BenQ scores a big win in color accuracy with an extremely low average color error that beats similar competitors. In addition to that, I noticed the PD2730S achieved this result with consistently low color error across all colors (instead of a high error in one or two colors and very low error elsewhere, which can happen). The result is not only a realistic image, but one that should please creatives who need to know that the colors displayed by a monitor are accurate to how they will appear on other calibrated displays. The BenQ PD2730S scored a tad off our gamma and color temperature targets, however. It hit a gamma curve of 2.1 (instead of 2.2) and color temperature of 6700K (instead of 6500K). These are minor deviations, and I doubt most would notice, but keen-eyed users could see a variance. I recommend taking advantage of the monitor’s calibration features, which includes the calibration software mentioned earlier and a wide range of gamma, color temperature, and color hue/saturation adjustments. Sharpness, of course, is a strength. A resolution of 5120×2880 across a 27-inch panel translates to a pixel density of 218 pixels per inch, which is excellent for any PC monitor. You’ll only see a sharper image from the rare few 6K and 8K monitors, such as the Dell Ultrasharp U3224KB. The extra sharpness is valuable for anyone who works with high-resolution images and videos. It also looks great everywhere else, from Microsoft Excel to Civilization VI. The BenQ PD2730S also has the company’s Nano Matte Panel, a specific display coat marketed by BenQ. It’s meant to reduce reflections and provide a more paper-like experience. The PD2730S isn’t BenQ’s best monitor for printed work, as BenQ offers a Photographer Monitor line-up which includes displays like the BenQ SW272Q. Still, I generally prefer a matte finish on my monitors, and I think BenQ’s Nano Matte Panel finish is excellent. Overall, the BenQ PD2730S is an excellent general-purpose monitor for creative professionals. It will also appeal to shoppers who want a high-quality, color-accurate display with even better sharpness than a 4K alternative. If I have any complaint, it’s that the BenQ PD2730S doesn’t look much better than Asus’ less expensive ProArt 5K Display PA27JCV. But BenQ tosses in connectivity and features the Asus lacks, so it makes sense that BenQ asks more for its monitor. BenQ’s Nano Matte Panel finish is excellent — it reduces reflections and provides a more paper-like finish. BenQ PD2730S HDR image quality The BenQ PD2730S supports HDR signals and is VESA DisplayHDR400 Certified. That, however, is a modest level of certification, and the information BenQ provided on the PD2730S made it clear HDR isn’t the monitor’s priority. The monitor is “suitable for users previewing HDR content,” but SDR is the focus. If you do view HDR, the monitor’s limited brightness and contrast are limitations. The monitor lacks the brightness to reveal luminous details in HDR content, and it lacks the contrast to properly preserve shadow depth and detail when displaying small, bright HDR details in an otherwise dark scene. So, as BenQ said: You might want to flip on HDR to preview HDR content, but it’s not ideal if you view, or work with, HDR more often than SDR. BenQ PD2730S motion performance Motion performance, like HDR, isn’t a priority for the BenQ PD2730S. It has a standard 60Hz refresh rate and doesn’t provide support for Adaptive Sync. Because of that, the monitor isn’t a good choice for fast-paced PC games, as it lacks the motion clarity and smooth frame-pacing competitive gamers require. To be fair, this is currently typical for a 5K monitor. Acer revealed a 5K monitor with a 144Hz refresh rate at CES 2025 but it’s not yet available. Should you buy the BenQ PD2730S? The BenQ PD2730S is an excellent monitor, though one targeted at a specific audience. Its accurate SDR image, wide range of connectivity, and functional design with many image quality options make it a great choice for professionals, including digital artists and photographers, who want to work with high-resolution images. Compared to Asus’ more affordable and similar ProArt Display 5K PA27JCV, the BenQ has more features for dialing in the image quality and better connectivity. I’d recommend the ProArt to most people interested in a 5K display as it’s often nearly as good as the BenQ and more affordable, but creative professionals shouldn’t be shy about paying more for the BenQ PD2730S, as its extra features add value. Read...