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Historically, you’ve had two options to expand the port capabilities of your laptop: an inexpensive USB-C dongle or a more powerful, pricey Thunderbolt docking station. A third option is quietly emerging, trying to split the difference. A DisplayLink docking station (sometimes called a USB-C dock) uses data compression to offer the capabilities of a Thunderbolt dock over a standard USB-C or Thunderbolt cable. Why buy one? DisplayLink docking stations work great for normal day-to-day productivity, and historically the docks are cheaper and more stable than older Thunderbolt 3 desktop docks. They’re an upgrade over our picks for the best USB-C hubs dongles, and less expensive than the best Thunderbolt docking stations for your laptop. They can even support more displays than a native Thunderbolt dock. They’re just not suited for gaming. If you need a fuller explanation of how DisplayLink works and what it offers, you’ll find that directly under our two recommended DisplayLink docks, below. You’ll also find a FAQ with answers to questions you might have. I base my recommendations on hands-on testing of the DisplayLink docking stations. Why you should trust me: I’ve worked as a technology journalist for about 30 years, and at PCWorld for the last decade. I’ve tested dozens of USB-C hubs, Thunderbolt docks, and DisplayLink docking stations. I use a docking station in my daily work, connected to multiple 4K displays, and I typically review a handful of new products each month. Updated Nov. 24, 2025 with some additional details from Synaptics. Look for the DisplayLink logo to identify it as a DisplayLink dock.Mark Hachman / IDG The best DisplayLink docking stations Though I’ve tested a number of DisplayLink docking stations for laptops, I have two recommended docks. They’re the same picks that appear on PCWorld’s list of the best Thunderbolt desktop docks for your laptop. Ugreen 9-in-1 USB-C (Revodok) Docking Station CM615 – Best USB-C DisplayLink dock Pros Terrific price and value Excellent stability Great display port flexibility Support for two 4K60 displays Cons Have to provide your own power supply Can warm to somewhat alarming temperatures A lack of naming consistency Best Prices Today: Retailer Price $109.98 View Deal eBay $129 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Who should buy the Ugreen 9-in-1 USB-C (Revodok) Docking Station CM615 Like some of the premium Thunderbolt docks, Ugreen’s DisplayLink dock provides options to use either HDMI or DisplayPort to connect a display, allowing you to use your existing display cables and save some money. Like most DisplayLink docks, this dock was unusually stable, with no flickering between displays — one of the reasons I like DisplayLink docks. Some other Thunderbolt docks offer the same flexibility to shift between monitors, but not many. Ugreen’s dock does so affordably. Ugreen 9-in-1 USB-C (Revodok) Docking Station CM615: other considerations If you’re not worried about hunting down the proper software driver (because Ugreen, bless them, does not make it apparent that it needs one) than I would recommend that you buy this dock. It offers many of the features of more expensive Thunderbolt docks at an affordable price. Read our full Ugreen 9-in-1 USB-C (Revodok) Docking Station CM615 review Plugable USB-C Dual 4K Display Horizontal Docking Station (UD-6950PDH) – Best USB-C DisplayLink dock runner-up Pros Terrific value for office workers Great display flexibility Plenty of USB-A ports SD/microSD card slots, too 100W of charging power Cons No USB-C ports No dedicated charging ports Best Prices Today: Retailer Price $179.95 View Deal B&H $199 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Who should buy the Plugable USB-C Dual 4K Display Horizontal Docking Station If you’re a home office worker who doesn’t want or need to game, this dock will suit you just fine. Plugable’s USB-C Dual 4K Display dock takes Plugable’s traditional approach: provide dedicated display interfaces, and let the user choose between which cables they’ll need to connect to their display. The dock is a pretty simple affair, with a pair of legacy USB-A ports and standard gigabit Ethernet connection. Interestingly, Plugable has recast this dock as a Mac-dedicated device, with a grayish tint to boot. (That’s what you’ll see on the Amazon page.) It’s really not — it will work on Macs and Windows PCs just fine, though you’ll need the Windows driver for it instead. Plugable USB-C Dual 4K Display Horizontal Docking Station: further considerations For whatever reason (maybe the bandwidth that a 10Gbps port consumes?) USB-C ports aren’t common on DisplayLink docks. (The Ugreen dock that we’ve picked as our favorite has one; this dock does not.) This is going to sound redundant, but just keep in mind that these docks are terrific for video playback or office work, but gaming is beyond them. Read our full Plugable USB-C Dual 4K Display Horizontal Docking Station (UD-6950PDH) review Other DisplayLink reviews and features Laptop docking stations may evolve into “AI Docks”: Synaptics believes its high-speed signaling finesse can give it a leg up in future devices. DisplayLink goes ‘Pro’ to highlight even faster speeds: Synaptics’ DL-7000 chip will be rolling out in new DisplayLink docks. Plugable Thunderbolt Docking Station with DisplayLink (TBT-6950PD) review: Add up to four external displays and fast ports with this quality DisplayLink Thunderbolt 4 dock. It’s time to start docking phones again, DisplayLink says: Modern smartphones are powerful enough to try out this technology again, DisplayLink thinks. DisplayLink USB-C docks: How DisplayLink works USB-C hubs, Thunderbolt desktop docks, and now DisplayLink docking stations have emerged because of two factors: the growing ubiquity of do-anything USB-C ports, and the realization by laptop makers that they can use these ports to eliminate all the dedicated HDMI, microUSB, SD card slots, and USB-A ports that can clutter up their notebook PCs. DisplayLink docks provide some of the native functions of a Thunderbolt dock, namely the ability to drive multiple high-resolution displays. Because of the inherent bandwidth limitations, DisplayLink docking stations offer a good choice for office workers, who can use those extra displays for static applications like email, chat, spreadsheets, or office work. A USB-C port typically provides 10Gbps of bandwidth. Thunderbolt 3/4, which runs over the same physical USB-C port, supplies 40Gbps. In the real world, that typically means that a USB-C dongle can connect to a single 4K display (at 30Hz) while Thunderbolt can connect to two 4K displays, at 60Hz. DisplayLink can you give the advantages of a 40Gbps Thunderbolt connection via just a 10Gbps USB-C interface. How? Data compression. A DisplayLink dock can either use a “traditional” 10Gbps USB-C connection, or take advantage of the extra bandwidth provided by an existing Thunderbolt 3 or 4 port. Either way, it uses data compression to squeeze more data throughput over the port. We use data compression every day, in photos and streamed video from YouTube and Netflix, and never notice. It’s the same here; your Windows desktop and applications will look the same. Two similar products with different characteristics: a Lention USB-C hub (left), which has been previously featured among PCWorld’s u003ca href=`https://www.pcworld.com/article/402858/the-best-usb-c-hubs-for-your-laptop-tablet-or-2-in-1.html`u003erecommended USB-C hubsu003c/au003e, and the u003ca href=`` data-product=`699911` data-manufacturer=`10079` class=`product-link`u003eHP Thunderbolt G4 Docku003c/au003e, part of PCWorld’s recommended u003ca href=`https://www.pcworld.com/article/393714/best-thunderbolt-docks-for-a-laptop-pc.html`u003ebest Thunderbolt docksu003c/au003e. DisplayLink is a technology owned by Synaptics, meaning it’s a proprietary standard. Each DisplayLink dock has a special DisplayLink chip built inside of it. (DisplayLink docks rarely, if ever, publish which Synaptics chip they use, so a DisplayLink dock’s capabilities may vary by product.) DisplayLink USB-C docks: Pros and cons DisplayLink’s data compression means there are two negatives to the technology, which we’ll get out of the way. While USB-C and Thunderbolt work out of the box, DisplayLink requires a software driver. Without it, it will function as a generic USB-C dock. I’ve never seen any DisplayLink docks use their own unique drivers (though they may). In any case, you can use Synaptics’ official DisplayLink drivers. Most dock makers publish this information right up front, but not all do. (Be sure to reboot after installing it.) DisplayLink works perfectly well for email, Word, Excel, and anything static, like a web page. But it does have limitations: 10Gbps is a nice chunk of bandwidth. But pushing a ton of data across it will cause images to stutter and hitch. In practice, this means that PC gaming on a DisplayLink dock is iffy: A slow-paced game like Baldur’s Gate 3 should be fine, but a frantic shooter like Battlefield or Helldivers 2 probably won’t give you a good experience at all. Playing 4K video from Netflix or YouTube? It shouldn’t be a problem. Playing 4K video while copying files from a hard drive and downloading a file? Everything will work, albeit slowly. The big advantage for me is that DisplayLink tends to be really stable. Older Thunderbolt 3 hardware can be a little glitchy when connecting to multiple displays. In my experience, DisplayLink docks aren’t. That matters to some people. DisplayLink (often with a DisplayLink 4K logo on it) can also connect to multiple displays, even more than Thunderbolt. I don’t have room to neatly show off a photo of three or even four displays, but trust me — I’ve tried it on multiple occasions, and it works. The hitch is that your laptop has to be capable of rendering on four displays, and you’ll typically need to close your laptop to do so. That may mean adjusting the Windows Control Panel to tell your laptop to leave it up and running. This is only necessary if you are running four 4K displays with a DisplayLink dock. Mark Hachman / IDG Can I get a bit nerdy for a second? When you use a DisplayLink dock to connect to more than two displays, there’s even more magic going on behind the scenes. Take a DisplayLink dock like the Plugable UD-6950PDZ, which supports three 4K displays at 60Hz. It uses Synaptics’ most advanced chip, the DL-6950. But the DL-6950 only supports a pair of displays. To enable a third external display, the dock is using DisplayLink for two displays, and your laptop’s own “normal” DisplayPort connection (called DisplayPort Alt Mode) to drive the third. That brings up the final point that I always have to make: Recent hardware is best. A standard DisplayLink docks works best on, say, a 10th- or 11th-gen Core processor or a complementary AMD Ryzen laptop. With anything more advanced — 12th-, 13th-, and 14th-gen — you should have a pretty ideal experience. To be fair, Synaptics feels that you should be able to use older hardware with DisplayPort, and it should just work. “Regardless of your PC’s specs or age, DisplayLink docks will efficiently allocate bandwidth to handle your network connection and other peripherals, ensuring optimal performance,” a Synaptics representative says. That’s a fair objection. But I’m still more comfortable recommending more modern hardware, perhaps because I’m a little gun-shy after using other USB-C hardware. Unlike other Thunderbolt docks we’ve tested, Plugable’s UD-ULTC4K highlights not only which port is which but which I/O protocol each port is associated with. Note the “Alt Mode” label on the bottom ports.Mark Hachman / IDG How I test DisplayLink docking stations I use the same methodology to test DisplayLink docks as I do to test Thunderbolt docking stations. Here’s a synopsis. First, I take the dock from its packaging and evaluate its construction. I measure the cord length and check the dock’s physical dimensions with a ruler. I’ll then read the manual: Does the dock need any drivers? (Yes it will.) Are there links? What does the manual say about the dock’s capabilities, in terms of power and speed? Next, I take a USB key or two and connect them to the available USB ports to determine if they have enough space to allow several to be connected at the same time. I then examine the display ports, find the appropriate cables, and then connect the dock to the laptop. I use a series of laptops with various generations of AMD and Intel hardware, and check to see if the experience is the same on each one. If it isn’t, I make notes. I then measure the power output of the ports, using a USB multimeter, a smartphone, and a laptop to measure how much power the dock delivers to a laptop. Finally, I check to see how well the dock performs under load. I use a specific test laptop for this purpose for repeatable results. I stream a 4K60 YouTube video using the Ethernet port on the dock (if it has one) and note any dropped frames. I usually check with a pre-recorded 4K60 video running from an SSD. I then run PCMark 10’s SSD storage benchmark off of a test SSD, connected to the dock. I measure the score, then measure the score again while streaming a video. I then copy a large, multigigabyte folder of various files from my laptop across the bus and measure the time it takes to do so. I repeat the test while streaming video. Finally, I check the operation and performance of any SD card slots the dock has and listen to audio through the audio jack, to make sure it works. FAQ 1. Should you buy a DisplayLink USB-C dock? Not all DisplayLink docks are created equal, which is why we test them. But for office workers on Windows, absolutely. For gamers, give it a pass. DisplayLink docking station offers a chance to expand your PC’s I/O capabilities, even with hardware that doesn’t support Thunderbolt. If you aren’t comfortable with this, feel free to return to the relative safety of a either a generic USB-C dongle or a powerful Thunderbolt dock: Both offer simplicity and a known experience. 2. How do I know if my dock is a DisplayLink dock? It should prominently feature a DisplayLink logo, which we include a photo of earlier in the story. Not always, though. Shopping for a DisplayLink dock can be a bit confusing, too, since the term “DisplayLink dock” isn’t really in vogue. Instead, vendors will sometimes use “USB-C dock” instead. Just read the documentation closely and look for the label. 3. How much should a DisplayLink docking station cost? DisplayLink was a much cheaper alternative to Thunderbolt docks during the height of the work-from-home years. Then, a Thunderbolt dock would cost about $300, and a DisplayLink dock about $150 to $200 or so. Prices for both have come down some, with DisplayLink docks starting for as low as $125. 4. How many devices can a DisplayLink dock support? You’ll usually see close to as many ports on a DisplayLink dock as you will on a Thunderbolt dock, and maybe more. In general, DisplayLink is just fine for connecting multiple devices simultaneously. It’s when they’re all in use, transferring data, that the bus may get clogged and transfer rates may slow down. 5. What’s better, a DisplayLink dock or a Thunderbolt dock? For now, there’s a case to be made that a DisplayLink dock is a better value: They’re generally cheaper, more stable, and offer the potential for more displays. But if you’re a gamer, the answer is not the same. Gamers should buy a Thunderbolt dock instead. The game changes, though, when Thunderbolt 5 debuts later in 2024. Then, Thunderbolt 5 bandwidth will shoot up to 80Gbps in both directions, allowing those docks to connect to four 4K displays at 144Hz refresh rates and offer improved charging. Again, Synaptics is competitive; its most recent DL-7000 chip allows four 4K displays to be connected at 120Hz. 6. Can a DisplayLink dock charge your laptop and your smartphone? If the DisplayLink docking station ships with its own external power brick, it should be able to, yes. Most DisplayLink docks supply the same amount of power as a Thunderbolt dock (a maximum of 90 to 95W to your laptop, and hopefully enough power to fast-charge a smartphone.) 7. Is a DisplayLink docking station plug and play? Not really. You’ll need a driver from Synaptics or the dock maker to enable the dock’s full functionality. 8. What’s DSC and HBR3? I’ve heard that those are a competitor to DisplayLink. Display Stream Compression with High Bandwidth Rate 3 (DSC with HBR3) is a more open version of DisplayLink. It doesn’t require a software driver, but you won’t see this technology advertised at all. However, you will find it in products like the Kensington SD5800T, which uses Thunderbolt 4 and DSC to enable four external 4K displays. Basically, the same rules apply. If you own a recent, modern laptop, you may have one with DSC inside: It’s found within laptops with an Nvidia GeForce RTX graphics chip, or as part of Intel’s “Tiger Lake” platform, aka the 11th-gen Core chips. But this is absolutely not a feature that laptop makers advertise, either. 9. Are DisplayLink and DisplayPort the same thing? No, they’re not, though the names are confusingly similar. DisplayPort is a physical display connector as well as a display protocol. Your laptop can route DisplayPort display protocols over Thunderbolt without ever using the connector itself. DisplayPort can also be routed over a USB-C connection encoded with DisplayLink, too. 10. Is a DisplayLink dock good for gaming? Not especially. It’s best for productivity, which uses a number of windows with static applications. Any time you push gobs and gobs of data over the DisplayLink bus, as you would with gaming, you risk the connection being saturated and your game reduced to a stuttery mess. You may be able to “game” with a slow-paced game or one that doesn’t use a lot of fast-paced motion or detailed graphics, but it’s risky. Buy a Thunderbolt dock instead. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Excellent display Great CPU performance and modest GPU performance Not too heavy Cons Disappointing battery life Unfortunately bulky dimensions Uncomfortable keyboard Unimpressive design Our Verdict The Predator Helios Neo 14 AI aims for compact gaming, but ends up neither small nor powerful enough, stuck awkwardly between lightweight and full-size laptops. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Acer Predator Helios Neo 14 AI Retailer Price $1,699.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Best Prices Today: Check today’s prices The Acer Predator Helios Neo 14 AI (PHN14-71-939W) is Acer’s latest stab at a compact gaming laptop. It’s a formula that may have started with Razer but has caught on with many laptop makers, seeing some especially impressive models hit the scene like the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14.  While this trend is generally centered around excellence in design met with respectable performance that you wouldn’t expect from such a machine, Acer didn’t seem to fully commit to the bit. This results in the Acer Predator Helios Neo 14 AI being a bit too big and heavy in the name of performance while still lagging behind the typical gaming laptops that don’t worry as much about their weight. There’s still a lot of good about the Acer Predator Helios Neo 14 AI, but in the end it just doesn’t stand out.  Acer Predator Helios Neo 14 AI: Specs and features Model number: PHN14-71-939W CPU: Intel Core Ultra 9 processor 285H Memory: 16GB LPDDR5X-7467 Graphics/GPU: Nvidia RTX 5060 115W Display: 14.5-inch 2880×1800 120Hz OLED, Glossy, G-Sync Storage: 1TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD Webcam: 1080p IR Connectivity: 1x Thunderbolt 4 with Power Delivery and DisplayPort Alternate Mode, 1x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 with Power Delivery and DisplayPort Alternate Mode, 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x microSD card reader, 1x 3.5mm combo audio Networking: WiFi 6E, Bluetooth 5.4 Biometrics: Windows Hello facial recognition Battery capacity: 76 watt-hours Dimensions: 12.77 x 10.07 x 1.02 inches Weight: 4.14 pounds MSRP: $1,699 as-tested ($1,699 base) We tested the base model, which comes priced at $1,699. For $1,899, you can upgrade to a configuration with an RTX 5070 and get double the system memory — a very sensible upgrade, especially considering you can’t upgrade the memory after purchase.  Against its rivals, the Predator Helios Neo 14 AI consistently proves to be good, but just not good enough.   Acer Predator Helios Neo 14 AI: Design and build quality Foundry / Mark Knapp Acer doesn’t appear to have changed too much about the outward appearance of its laptop with this generation. There are a few tweaks here and there such as a different keyboard deck and a larger cutout above the display to house an IR-backed webcam. But the Predator Helios Neo 14 AI appears to follow up on the prior Helios Neo 14 model with largely under-the-hood upgrades.  This leaves you with a reasonably compact and lightweight gaming laptop, though not one that’s pushing the boundaries. The Predator Helios Neo 14 AI is still 4.14 pounds, and though it has a slim profile, its thickest point is a hair over an inch thick (rubber feet included). Acer also made the unfortunate choice of really jutting out at the rear for exhaust, giving the system a 10.07-inch depth that made it hard to fit into a laptop sleeve. The shame of it is that rear exhaust port appears to be largely superfluous. Acer didn’t load it up with a beefy radiator stack — the last half-inch or so of the space is mostly empty. The rest of the laptop’s build is a mix of good and meh. The Predator Helios Neo 14 AI gets an aluminum display lid and base, but the keyboard deck is plastic. The display is also flanked by plastic bezels. Though the laptop feels reasonably sturdy, there’s just a little more flex to the display and light creaking to the base than I like. The hinges hold the display firmly in place and don’t wiggle much after moving the screen. The base of the laptop is also heavy enough to stay in place and make it possible to open the laptop with one hand.  Acer has set the Predator Helios Neo 14 AI to pull in air from the bottom and top of the system, with a large grille above the keyboard hiding what are actually rather small intakes for the job. The exhaust occupies almost the entire rear half of the base, with vents on the sides and rear of the laptop. Acer sits the laptop on four rubber feet that do a good job keeping it in place while also providing some clearance for the bottom vents. Acer has a lot to say about the cooling architecture inside the system, but all that matters at the end of the day is how effective and loud (or quiet, ideally) it is. Fortunately, all the airflow proved sufficient to let the Predator Helios Neo 14 AI run consistently under load, passing 3DMark’s Steel Nomad Light Stress Test. The fans are a little noisy when the system is under a heavy load (even more so in the Turbo mode), but generally not a bother. The Predator Helios Neo 14 AI is a decent enough looking laptop, but it’s hard not to view in direct comparison to the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 — not just because I just reviewed that laptop but also because they are aiming for the same niche. And in that matchup, Acer’s laptop comes away looking and feeling like a disappointing also-ran. It’s bulkier, heavier, less elegant, and feels cheaper. To be fair, it is cheaper, but not by much. At least it has a Kensington lock slot.  Acer Predator Helios Neo 14 AI: Keyboard, trackpad Foundry / Mark Knapp Like just about every Acer laptop I’ve tested (which is many), the Predator Helios Neo 14 AI has a keyboard that’s hard to love. Rather than having helpful contours to direct my fingers to the center of each keycap, the keycaps bulge slightly, tending to push me to the edges. And without good stability, I can end up rolling off the edges a bit. There’s also inconsistent tactility as the edges and centers of keys depress differently. It’s only thanks to this consistent design on Acer keyboard that I have been able to get so well acquainted with the quirks of these keyboards to be able to reach a typing speed over 110 words per minute in Monkeytype with a decent degree of accuracy, but this speed is never comfortable or confident.  To squeeze in full-size arrow keys, Acer shrunk the right shift key, which can make using it more tedious. Acer has also included a column of extra media control keys at the right edge of the laptop. The result is that the main keyboard is shifted slightly left of the laptop’s centerline, which just may not be an issue for gaming but makes the laptop that little bit more annoying to use for typing.  The Predator Helios Neo 14 AI’s keyboard includes fun, RGB lighting that effectively illuminates the full legends on the keys. It is just three-zone lighting, though, not offering per-key customization. By default, Windows controls this lighting and PredatorSense indicated as much. But this awkwardly made the built-in keyboard shortcuts for adjusting lighting levels not work consistently, and there was no shortcut to the Windows settings for keyboard lighting.  The trackpad on the Predator Helios Neo 14 AI is fine, but not impressive. It’s smooth and responsive. The physical click is a bit stiff and has an unsatisfying thunk. While it’s big enough, it feels almost tiny coming from the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14. Acer Predator Helios Neo 14 AI: Display, audio Foundry / Mark Knapp The Predator Helios Neo 14 AI offers about as good a display as you’re likely to find in a gaming laptop of this class. That is to say, it offers an excellent one that leaves little more to be desired. It achieves 100 percent coverage of the DCI-P3 color space and manages that with excellent color accuracy, hitting a max dE1976 of just 1.93 and an average of 0.88. It can reach 431 nits for a full white screen in HDR and 10 percent windows can reach 635 nits. Pair that brightness with the infinite contrast of OLED, and you’ve got a screen that really pops. It also zips along at a fast 120Hz for smooth visuals in games and everyday operation while G-Sync helps avoid tearing. If there’s anything to knock, it’s the glossy finish’s reflectivity, which can cause some glare at lower brightness levels. The screen also isn’t perfectly flat, with subtle warping that leads to some funhouse mirror-style reflections. The Predator Helios Neo 14 AI’s speakers put out a good deal of volume, but they lean into the mids and treble too much giving them a harsh quality at high listening levels. While you can rely on them in lieu of headphones from time to time, I’d avoid gaming or listening to music on them, as that harsh quality can be headache inducing after a while.  Acer Predator Helios Neo 14 AI: Webcam, microphone, biometrics The webcam and microphone on the Predator Helios Neo 14 AI feel like a bit of an afterthought. It’s nice that the webcam supports Windows Hello facial recognition for quick sign-ins, but it would have been even nicer if the webcam looked good in use. The camera struggles with noise even in well-lit scenarios, and the graininess of the footage can end up looking very offputting and reduce clarity in spite of the 1080p resolution.  The mics don’t help much either, as they capture audio at very low level. They don’t seem to struggle with background noise, but that may just be the result of failing to pick up much sound at all. After making a test recording, it was hard to hear myself clearly in anything but a silent room even with the laptop’s speakers maxed out. Acer Predator Helios Neo 14 AI: Connectivity Foundry / Mark Knapp Acer has done a good job with the port selection on the system. It offers USB-A and USB-C ports on both sides, and both USB-C ports support 90W PD power input and DisplayPort Alt Mode for video output. Only the left USB-C port provides Thunderbolt 4 speeds, but the remaining USB ports are all 10Gbps ports. There’s an HDMI 2.1 (48Gbps) port on the right side along with a microSD card slot. Acer rounds out the selection with a 3.5mm headphone jack on the left. The left edge also includes a barrel power adapter for use with the included power brick. Having the option to leave the heavy power brick at home and use a lightweight USB-C charger on the go is always lovely to see on lighter gaming laptops.  The positioning of these ports is less fortunate. Since the rear of the laptop is largely occupied with exhaust vents, all of the ports are pushed forward to the front edge of the front half of the system. This can make using the laptop with peripherals plugged in a little wonky.  The wireless connectivity is solid with fast and stable Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.4, which have worked reliably in my testing.  Acer Predator Helios Neo 14 AI: Performance All it takes is a quick look at the specs list to see that the Predator Helios Neo 14 AI is primed to be a solid-performing machine with ample CPU performance and respectable, if not mind-blowing GPU performance. That Predator Helios Neo 14 AI largely hits the mark, though there are some areas where it falls a little short.  PCMark 10 shows off the Predator Helios Neo 14 AI’s strong general performance, with it delivering a highly satisfactory score. Some gaming laptops push higher thanks to even more potent GPUs than the RTX 5060, but anything above 5,000 points is quite good. he Predator Helios Neo 14 AI might have gone even higher if it weren’t held back by its storage. Though the SSD included in the system hit over 7,100MB/s sequential reads and 6,100MB/s writes in CrystalDiskMark 9, its random read and write speeds were on the slow side at around 380MB/s, which even some old SATA SSDs can muster.  The Intel Core Ultra 9 285H proves a strong inclusion for the Predator Helios Neo 14 AI. It carries the system to a solid lead over most of its competitors, with its 16 cores providing excellent multi-core performance that the AMD competition can’t quite match. Its single-core performance is also excellent, though more readily rivaled by the Razer Blade 14 (2025)’s AMD Ryzen AI 9 365. Newer isn’t always better though, as we see the Predator Helios Neo 14 AI consistently lag behind the Intel Core i7-14700HX in the Lenovo Legion 5i 15IRX10 on both single-core and multi-core tests, likely thanks to that earlier chip’s 8P+12E configuration, which skips Low Power Efficient-cores entirely and hits a higher max turbo frequency. Still, it’s a close enough matchup, with the Predator Helios Neo 14 AI even pulling off a win in our Handbrake encoding test. A strong CPU is a great partner for a GPU, though power and cooling can often be the bigger factors in laptops. While the Predator Helios Neo 14 AI shows solid performance in 3DMark’s Port Royal test, edging out the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 GA403UM that wields the same GPU (but with a 100W power limit), Acer still falls behind both of Lenovo’s systems. Even with its Turbo power setting boosting its score to 7,337 points, it lags behind those two and fails to catch up to the Razer Blade 14’s RTX 5070. That Turbo power setting tends to only offer a small uptick in performance while coming with a big noise penalty, seeing the fan noise go from reasonable to annoying.  While Port Royal is very demanding of the GPU, Shadow of the Tomb Raider is a good showcase for how 1080p gaming can benefit from stronger CPU performance. Here we see the Predator Helios Neo 14 AI once again take the lead over Asus and the Lenovo LOQ 15, both of which trailed it in CPU performance. That lead isn’t quite as great as in pure CPU tests, but it’s a lead nonetheless. We also see the Predator Helios Neo 14 AI not only lag behind the Lenovo Legion 5i 15IRX10, but also close the gap with the Razer Blade 14 thanks to its CPU performance. A demanding game like Metro Exodus shifts the load back over to the GPU, so performance plays out again much like it did in the Port Royal benchmark. Here, the Predator Helios Neo 14 AI again fails to quite keep up with Lenovo’s system, but remains ahead of the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14.  Cyberpunk 2077 again shows how GPU power and cooling can be crucial in graphically demanding games. The Lenovo Legion 5i 15IRX10 once again leads the Predator Helios Neo 14 AI. Performance is still respectable, with the system managing well above 60 FPS, but if pure performance is what you’re after, the Lenovo has the edge for a better price. Acer Predator Helios Neo 14 AI: Battery life Performance and battery life are a fine balancing act, and though the Predator Helios Neo 14 AI doesn’t do horribly, it also doesn’t impress. It ran our 4K local video playback test for just over five hours before its 76Wh battery was drained. That gives it a much-needed win over the Lenovo Legion 5i 15IRX10, which dogged it in performance benchmarks. But that leaves it below even the lifespan offered by the small 60Wh battery in the Lenovo LOQ 15 15AHP10, never mind how far it falls behind the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14, which managed almost 13 hours on a 72Wh battery. Real-world battery use tends to see the Predator Helios Neo 14 AI fall more in the range of 4-5 hours, and even that can entail some conservative use of the display’s brightness.  Acer Predator Helios Neo 14 AI: Conclusion The Predator Helios Neo 14 AI is a competent machine, but not quite the one I’d recommend. While it tries to join the fray of thinner and lighter gaming laptops, it doesn’t quite hit its mark with a weight of over four pounds and awkward dimensions that can make it hard to fit into laptop sleeves. The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 fulfills that promise much more effectively, has a better design, an equally excellent display, much longer battery life to go alongside the portability, and it offers close enough performance (that even sometimes catches up in its Turbo mode) while costing a similar amount. And where raw performance is more of a concern than portability, the Lenovo Legion 5i 15IRX10 showed that it can beat the Predator Helios Neo 14 AI while costing far less. Against its rivals, the Predator Helios Neo 14 AI consistently proves to be good, but just not good enough. Read...

If a mail account is compromised, hackers can not only read messages, but also reset passwords and take over other accounts. This makes it all the more important to take an immediate and structured approach in an emergency. Below we show you what immediate measures you should take and what help pages and support channels the major providers have available for affected users. General measures in the event of a hacked email account Case 1: You can still log in If you can still access your mailbox, you have the best chance of securing your account immediately. It’s important that you close all possible backdoors step by step: Change your password: Log in directly via your provider’s official login page. Avoid links from emails, as these can lead to phishing sites. Choose a new, strong password that you only use for this account and that consists of upper and lower case letters, numbers and special characters. Log out all devices and sessions: Many providers offer an overview of the devices and sessions currently logged in in the security settings. End all active sessions or use the “Log off all devices” function. In this way, attackers who still have access will immediately lose their connection to the account. Check recovery options: Check which phone numbers and alternative email addresses are stored for account recovery. Attackers often enter their own data here in order to take over the account permanently. Remove unknown entries immediately and only enter your own current data. Delete filters and redirects: Take a look at the mailbox rules in the settings. Attackers often set up automatic forwarding or filters so that emails are forwarded to a different address or certain messages are made invisible. Delete all rules that you have not created yourself. Activate two-factor authentication: If your provider supports it, be sure to activate two-factor authentication. When logging in, you must enter a second factor in addition to your password, for example a code via text message or confirmation in an authenticator app. Even if your password falls into the wrong hands again, you are better protected this way. Case 2: You can no longer log in If you are locked out, everything runs via the support of the respective provider. In this case, use the respective recovery form or the account wizard, which will guide you through the recovery process. Microsoft Outlook / Hotmail Microsoft provides a recovery wizard for hacked accounts. After entering your e-mail address and—if stored—your telephone number, the system checks whether any suspicious logins have occurred. It then guides you through the process step by step: from resetting your password and confirming security information to checking for suspicious activity. If you can still log in, you should immediately change the password in your account and check all stored security data (alternative e-mail, telephone number). If access is already blocked, use the account recovery form. Microsoft offers toll-free numbers in the U.S.: 1-855 270 0615 (or 1-800 865 9408 or 1-800 642 7676). However, Microsoft usually refers hacked or blocked accounts to the recovery wizard and the online support forms, as the identity check is structured there. However, the hotline can support you if you get stuck with the online forms or have any queries. Google / Gmail With Gmail, it’s particularly important to call up the device and security overview. There you can see which devices have recently accessed your account. Unknown entries can be cancelled with just a few clicks. You can find clear instructions in our guide article “Is a hacker logged into your Google account? Here’s how to find out“. Google also provides a detailed guide for a complete recovery: Secure a hacked or compromised Google Account. There you will learn step by step how to reset your password, check recovery options and stop suspicious activity. If you can no longer log in at all, go to the account recovery page linked in the above site and follow the steps provided there. Google does not provide a hotline for free Gmail accounts. The entire process runs via the online help pages and the recovery form. Only paying Google Workspace or Business customers are entitled to telephone support. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Great design Excellent display and speakers Long battery life Capable gaming performance Cons Soldered memory Default profile leaves performance on the table Our Verdict The Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 isn’t the beefiest gaming laptop, but it’s a lean, mean machine with stable performance, largely silent cooling, and an overall great package. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 Retailer Price $2,489 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Best Prices Today: Check today’s prices Asus already had a great laptop on its hands with 2024’s ROG Zephyrus G16, and the 2025 Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 doesn’t change too much. The outward appearance of the laptop is largely the same, continuing to offer a thin and light gaming laptop with an elegant metal build and great display. Asus seems to have taken some of the criticism to heart, though, as it proves a largely quiet running device even when it’s cranked to Turbo settings. And though it has a premium price and trails beefier machines in performance, it remains conveniently portable and even undercuts other design-focused laptops. Asus ROG Zephyrus G16: Specs and features CPU: Intel Core Ultra 9 285H Memory: 16GB LPDDR5X-7467 Graphics/GPU: Nvidia RTX 5070 8GB 115W Display: 16-inch 2560×1600 240Hz OLED, Glossy, G-Sync Storage: 1TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD Webcam: 1080p IR Connectivity: 1x Thunderbolt 4 with Power Delivery and DisplayPort Alternate Mode, 1x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 with Power Delivery and DisplayPort Alternate Mode, 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x SD card reader, 1x 3.5mm combo audio Networking: WiFi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 Biometrics: Windows Hello facial recognition Battery capacity: 90 watt-hours Dimensions: 13.97 x 9.72 x 0.66 inches Weight: 4.01 pounds MSRP: $2,149 as-tested ($2,149 base) This test unit is a special Best Buy model with lower base specifications than Asus’s own store offerings. It has a $2,149 starting price. To get the Zephyrus G16 from Asus directly, you’ll pay $2,799, but you’ll also get bumped up to an RTX 5070 Ti, 32GB of memory, and 2TB of storage. Additionally, Asus offers two even higher configurations. Bumping up to an RTX 5080 and 64GB of memory raises the price to $3,599. For an RTX 5090 and otherwise identical specs, that raises further to $4,599.  The Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 is an impressive machine. It offers an excellent build, great speakers, a gorgeous display, and fits potent hardware all into a laptop that’s surprisingly thin and light. Asus ROG Zephyrus G16: Design and build quality Foundry / Mark Knapp The Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 is wonderfully built and far sleeker than you’d expect from a gaming laptop, even with the impressively slim models that have been coming out in recent years. It boasts a largely aluminum design with the keyboard deck, base, and display lid all made of metal. The display also has an all glass cover — no plastic bezels. It would be more impressive if it weren’t essentially the same hardware as last year’s Zephyrus G16, but there’s no need to fix what isn’t broken, and the internal components haven’t changed enough to justify a major redesign. All the metal here makes for a firm construction that doesn’t flex much. And even though this is a 16-inch gaming laptop, it weighs only a hair over four pounds. The chassis itself is also just 0.66 inches thick, though its rubber feet add to its overall height. The slim design still has plenty of air intake underneath with a large grille on the bottom panel, but there’s very little exhaust along the back edge, which aims all the exhaust downward. Fortunately, the long rubber foot at the rear of the base prevents any of the exhaust from feeding directly back into the intake fans.  The display has uneven bezels, including a slightly larger one at the bottom that doesn’t look terribly modern but is at least not too unsightly. The thicker top bezel fits in the webcam with Windows Hello tech, which makes it easier to excuse given how convenient this is for quick sign-ins. Chamfered edges around the frame provide a good lip for opening the lid with one hand, and the base keeps planted while doing so. The back of the lid has a stylish slash across it that also integrates some flashy lighting, though it’s not colorful like the RGB keyboard lighting. Asus ROG Zephyrus G16: Keyboard, trackpad Foundry / Mark Knapp The Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 packs in a great keyboard and trackpad. The keyboard isn’t quite excellent, as it has only subtle contour to the keycaps that doesn’t help with finger centering, and edge stability could use a little improvement. The RGB backlighting also struggles to evenly illuminate larger key legends and secondary functions. But it’s still quite a pleasant keyboard to type on. I was able to reach a typing speed of 126 words-per-minute at 99 percent accuracy. Given this is a 16-inch laptop, it would have been nice to see a number pad, but at least without it the keyboard ends up nicely centered. Asus has squeezed in a massive trackpad that uses up almost all the vertical space available to it with only a thin strip bordered its top and bottom edges. It also spans an extreme width. Between the abundant space for swiping around, the pleasantly soft physical click, and the smooth glass surface, it’s a joy to use. The trackpad also has proven to offer good palm rejection, an issue that held back the Razer Blade 16 and its massive trackpad. Asus ROG Zephyrus G16: Display, audio Foundry / Mark Knapp The Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 is set up well for media. It combines an excellent display and speaker setup. The sizable 16-inch display offers a 2560×1600 resolution and runs at 240Hz for super-smooth visuals. That’s aided along by the panel’s OLED tech, which has fast pixel response times for crisp gameplay and G-Sync support to ensure clean frames and no screen tearing. The display is also wonderfully bright and colorful. It proved capable of hitting 419 nits in SDR and 444 nits in HDR with smaller highlights going brighter still. A 10 percent window in HDR was able to hit 640 nits, and that comes alongside infinite contrast and 100 percent coverage of the DCI-P3 and sRGB color spaces. Color accuracy was also high with an average dE1976 measured at 0.85 and a max dE of just 2.33. Plenty of high-end gaming laptops have similarly impressive displays, and even some cheaper ones come close. But many laptops skimp on speakers. Asus didn’t. This laptop’s speakers are exceptional. It combines four woofers that balance each other in pairs providing surprising depth for the sound; meanwhile two extra tweeters can deliver crisp high-end. Together, the speakers pump out plenty of volume without distorting or sounding boxed in. Strong sub-bass is still out of the cards, but the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16’s speakers remain impressive for a laptop audio system.  Asus ROG Zephyrus G16: Webcam, microphone, biometrics The webcam’s performance is mixed. On one hand, it handles exposure well, avoiding blown out highlights or sunken dark details. Even though it’s a 1080p sensor, the visual fidelity is a little lacking with grainy detail anything other than bright lighting and then odd sharpening even in bright light. But the visuals look natural at least, and if you’re just appearing as a small window in a group video call, the quality will be sufficient. The webcam also supports Windows Hello facial recognition, providing a quick and easy way to sign in that has proven handy in testing.  The mics also have mixed performance. They capture my voice quite fully, but they don’t seem to have any processing going on to cancel out room noise. This leads to a bit of room echo, and the mics will pick up background noises quite well, so you’ll want to avoid typing or clicking around with your mouse while you’re on calls.  Asus ROG Zephyrus G16: Connectivity Foundry / Mark Knapp The Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 offers decent connectivity. It’s a joy to see a laptop spreading out ports of the same type, and the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 puts one USB-A and one USB-C port on each side. Both USB-A ports are 3.2 Gen 2 ports with 10Gbps speeds. The left USB-C port provides Thunderbolt 4 while the right one is only a USB 3.2 Gen 2, and either can support DisplayPort output, though only the right one runs through the GPU for G-Sync support. Asus rounds out the connections with an HDMI 2.1 port and 3.5mm audio jack on the left edge and a full-size UHS-II SD card slot on the right edge. Since the laptop doesn’t include any side vents, all of the ports are situated toward the back half of the laptop as well.  The Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 includes a dedicated 200W power brick with a proprietary port on the left edge of the laptop. This is key to getting the full power of the system, but may be a lot to lug around everywhere you go. Thankfully, the system’s USB-C ports can also support power input, letting you juice up on the go with something smaller if you have a GaN charger or other USB-C power source. I was able to trickle charge with a compact 65W PD charger I had handy. Wireless connectivity is also strong. The system supports Wi-Fi 7 and has offered high bandwidth and stability connectivity throughout testing. It’s disappointing to see Bluetooth 5.4 still now that 6.0 exists, but the laptop’s Bluetooth connection at least provided reliable, quickly reconnecting to a paired set of headphones whenever I turned them on and never once dropping that connection.  Asus ROG Zephyrus G16: Performance The Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 packs in powerful components, so it stands to reason that it would have plenty of performance. And for the most part, this is the case. We can see in the holistic PCMark 10 benchmark that the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 offers plenty of speed for everyday office tasks and even creative workloads, dramatically exceeding the 5,000-point threshold that tends to mark a machine that’ll readily handle most office tasks. It largely keeps pace with similar systems running Intel and AMD hardware.  While general tasks will be a breeze on the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16, once you start getting into more demanding tasks that put serious strain on the system, you may begin to encounter some of its limitations. The CPU included is simply not as potent as what you can get in some of its competitors. The Intel Core Ultra 9 285H’s single-core performance is excellent, but it’s no match for HX-series CPUs from Intel, which many of its competitors include. Across Cinebench R15, R20, R23, and R24, it falls well behind. This lower performance also sees it take longer in our Handbrake video encoding test. While heat could be a factor for the thin Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 in Cinebench R24’s and Handbrake’s longer tests, the lower performance in Cinebench R15, R20, and R23, which are much quicker, suggests it’s just a limitation of this CPU next to the competition.  Graphical performance is also respectable in the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16, though not necessarily what you’d expect from a system with an RTX 5070 and a price tag over $2,000. In the graphically demanding 3DMark Port Royal test, the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 lags behind RTX 5070-equipped systems like the Alienware 16X Aurora and Asus ProArtP16, but perhaps more embarrassingly, it even falls short of the RTX 5060-powered Lenovo Legion 5i 15IRX10 — a system that costs almost half as much. The same fate befalls the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 in Time Spy as well. The curious thing is that the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 isn’t limited to that performance level, but Asus just defaults to it. In fact, using the laptop’s Turbo profile, its Port Royal score leaps up to 8,552 points. This kind of bump from changing power profiles is fairly common, but the fact Asus’s default Performance profile sees the RTX 5070 nerfed to RTX 5060 levels is an odd choice that its competitors don’t seem to be making.  The shortcoming in graphical performance stemming from Asus’s settings combine with the weaker CPU in the system to leave the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 falling behind the pack in actual games. We see it lag the whole field in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, which tends to lean a bit more heavily on the CPU than some other games, thus giving those systems with more powerful processors an edge. Again, enabling Turbo mode brings the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16’s average frame rate up to 159.  Cyberpunk 2077 is an especially demanding game, enough so that even the power-limited RTX 5070 could at last come out ahead of the Legion’s RTX 5060, likely aided along by the faster single-core performance of the CPU, which tends to improve frame rates. The Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 doesn’t pull ahead of its competitors though, unless Turbo mode is enabled, then its average frame rate jumps to 99.  While the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 tends to fall behind the other systems in its default Performance profile, a perk of the system is that it musters that performance while remaining rather quiet. Even under load in its Performance mode, the fans are hushed and hardly a bother. For some, that may be a worthwhile trade-off, and from time to time, when serious performance isn’t essential, it can certainly be a benefit. The system even remains stable with that light fan operation, with it providing 99.1 percent stable performance in 3DMark’s 20-run Steel Nomad Stress Test. The fans really only kick into high gear in Asus’s Turbo mode, and even then they’re not shrill, just a noisy breeze. They also manage the heat well, with the system again maintaining stable performance in the Steel Nomad Stress Test and the surface of the laptop not even getting hot over the course of the test. It’s great to see that Turbo mode can bring the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 largely back into performance parity with its rivals, though it’s equally likely that those systems would recover a good chunk of their leads if they, too, flipped over to their highest power settings.  Asus ROG Zephyrus G16: Battery life Conservative power management tends to have a benefit where battery life is concerned, and that proves the case for the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16. In our offline video playback tests, which run a locally stored 4K video on repeat with the display brightness set between 250 and 260 nits, the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 managed an impressive 12 hours and 46 minutes, showing past Asus’s own ProArt 16 and dramatically outpacing the other systems running on HX-series Intel processors.  As great a result as that is for a gaming PC, you still shouldn’t expect the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 to be an all-day performer for actual use outside of video playback. It’s good for a gaming PC, but real-world office use tends to see the battery drain after five to six hours. That still beats the two to three hours you can expect from a lot of gaming laptops.  Asus ROG Zephyrus G16: Conclusion The Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 is an impressive machine. It offers an excellent build, great speakers, a gorgeous display, and fits potent hardware all into a laptop that’s surprisingly thin and light. All the more surprising is the fact that the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 doesn’t show much of a struggle managing its heat. By default, it doesn’t take full advantage of its hardware, and it remains quiet thanks to that decision, but full performance is just a couple clicks away and helps the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 keep pace with its competition better. While you’ll still likely want a beefier laptop if you want full performance all the time, there’s something to be said for the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16’s ability to deliver solid performance sometimes and good portability the rest of the time. The pricing on the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 also makes it a true threat to the Razer Blade 16, a system that is thicker, heavier, and generally more expensive for like configurations. Read...

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One of the key differentiators between home security cameras and video doorbells has nothing to do with their specifications or even their performance. If you’re considering the long-term cost of ownership of a security camera, you’ll want to know three things: First, what functions are disabled if you don’t pay for a subscription? Second, what functions does a subscription add to the product? And third, how much will a subscription cost on a monthly or annual basis. If you’re wondering why you’d need a subscription plan in the first place, it’s because many–maybe even most–of the manufacturers in this space limit the capabilities of their products unless you pay extra for services. These subscription plans are invariably advertised as “optional,” and many of them are sold in tiers, with varying levels of features. But the bottom line is that you won’t get the full benefit of many brands of camera and doorbell unless you sign up for a plan. Arlo, Ring, and many others, for example, limit you to a real-time view of the scene in front of their cameras and doorbells unless you cough up for a subscription. If you want a recording of an event you weren’t around to watch in real time, you’ll need to pay for a subscription so you can store the recording on the vendor’s server in the cloud. Even cameras that feature local storage on a microSD card or a storage device on your home network might require a subscription to unlock features such as person, pet, and package detection; high-resolution video recording; AI image processing; and more. Let’s compare the plans and services from each of the biggest manufacturers, whose product lines have generally earned positive reviews from us. Our list is sorted alphabetically, but if you’re looking for a particular brand, check the table of contents in the left-hand margin. Arlo Secure Arlo cameras come with three cloud storage options, any of which will unlock crucial camera functions.Michael Ansaldo/Foundry When you buy an Arlo home security camera, video doorbell, or floodlight camera, you’ll get a 30-day free trial to Arlo Secure, which starts automatically after you set up the device. When the free trial ends, you’ll still be able to see a live view from the camera, the two-way talk feature will continue to operate, and you’ll receive notifications when the camera detects motion. The camera will also continue to work with smart speakers and displays, but you won’t be able to record videos and download those clips to share with other people unless you sign up for one of the following paid subscriptions: Arlo Secure Plus Cost: $9.99 per month for a single Arlo camera, doorbell, or floodlight camera (an annual $95.88 subscription effectively discounts that to $7.99/mo). If you have more than one camera, you’ll need to pick which one will be covered. Coverage for an unlimited number of Arlo cameras, doorbells, and floodlight cameras costs $19.99 per month (an annual $215.88 subscription effectively discounts that to $17.99/mo). Features: This plan gives you a 60-day video history along with the ability to define “smart activity zones” that will trigger push notifications when motion is detected. It also adds Arlo Intelligence, a set of AI-powered security features including “smart detection” (the ability to differentiate between people, vehicles, packages, and pets), facial recognition, audio detection, and the ability to receive notifications for events and scenarios you create, such as when you leave your sprinklers on or your garage door open. Your Arlo cameras can also recognize flames and will send you an alert if a fire breaks out in their field of view. Arlo Secure Premium Cost: $29.99 per month for an unlimited number of Arlo cameras, doorbells, and floodlight cameras (an annual subscription of $299.88 effectively discounts that to $24.99/mo. There is no single-camera plan for this tier. Features: Arlo’s top-tier plan includes everything in the Plus plan and adds “event captions” that describe what’s happened in a motion-triggered recording. You also gain access to Arlo Safe, a personal security smartphone app and service that can protect you and members of your family when you’re away from home. If you also own an Arlo Home Security System, this service tier includes professional monitoring that can summon first responders in the event of a police, fire, or medical emergency. You’ll also get cellular backup for your security system in the event your primary broadband connection goes down. sign up for an arlo secure plan Blink Amazon’s Blink cameras come with two cloud subscription options, one that’s priced per camera and one that’s a flat fee for unlimited cameras.Michael Brown/Foundry Amazon’s Blink cameras, doorbells, and floodlight cameras come with your choice of two monthly cloud subscription plans. One is priced per camera and the other is a flat monthly or annual fee for an unlimited number of Blink cameras. Without a paid subscription you will only be able to view your camera’s live feed–and only for a maximum of 5 minutes after receiving a motion-detection alert. Blink Basic Plan Cost: $3.99 per month or $39.99 per year per camera. Features: The Basic plan includes 60 days of rolling storage; Blink Moments, a feature that will stitch together multiple events captured by your Blink cameras into a single seamless video; “smart detection,” which sends a push notification when a person or vehicle is detected versus an object or animal (this feature is available only on certain Blink models); automatic local backups (if you also purchase a $50 Blink Sync Module 2 and a USB storage device to plug into it, or a $70 Blink Sync Module XR and a microSD card to plug into it); video sharing, and periodic photo capture. A paid subscription also extends continuous live viewing time from 5 minutes to 90 minutes. Blink Plus Plan Cost: $12 per month or $120 per year for an unlimited number of Blink cameras. Features: This plan includes everything in the Basic plan and adds the ability to temporarily pause motion alerts for up to 24 hours, entitles you to a 10-percent discount on additional Blink devices and accessories purchased on Amazon, and it extends the warranties on all your Blink devices for as long as you continue your subscription–provided each of those Blink product are under warranty at the time you start your subscription. Sign up for a Blink Subscription plan Eufy Cloud Backup Eufy cameras include local storage options, but they can also use Eufy a subscription plan to back up their video recordings to the cloud.Michael Ansaldo/Foundry Eufy’s indoor and outdoor cameras, floodlight cameras, and video doorbells support local storage either through a small amount of onboard memory, a microSD card, or via Eufy’s HomeBase 3, a NAS-type device you connect to your home network that can host up to 16TB of user-provided storage (a hard disk or solid-state drive). Eufy also offers reasonably priced cloud subscriptions that add convenient access from anywhere you have internet access and are useful as a backup in case your local storage is stolen, damaged, or goes offline. Unlike most of its competitors, you don’t need a subscription to unlock any features of Eufy’s features–those are all included in the price of the product. Not all of Eufy’s security products are subscription eligible, however, so it’s best to check your model before you purchase a plan (which is accomplished in the Eufy app, not on their website). Eufy Basic Plan Cost: $3.99 per month or $39.99 per year for one device; $7.99/mo or $79.99/year for two devices; $11.99 or $119.99/year for three devices. Features: The Eufy Basic plan unlocks rolling 30 days of storage for up to three devices. Eufy Plus Plan Cost: $13.99 a month or $139.99 a year Features: This plan covers all compatible Eufy devices (i.e., cameras, doorbells, and floodlight cameras), providing a rolling 30 days of storage for each camera. Get more information about Eufy Cloud Backup Eufy Professional Monitoring Eufy also offers two professional monitoring plans for its home security systems, but only the more expensive Plus Plan includes the level of service we typically associate with professional monitoring. While both of these services can dispatch first responders in the event of a police, fire, or medical emergency, the cheaper Basic Plan requires you to initiate the dispatch by pressing a panic button in the Eufy home security app. Confusingly, Eufy uses the same names for these service tiers, which are mutually exclusive to the camera services discussed above. In other words, if you want both cloud backup for your Eufy security cameras and professional monitoring for your Eufy home security system, you’ll need to sign up for two subscriptions. Eufy Basic Plan (professional monitoring) Cost: $4.99 a month or $49.99 a year Features: With this plan, you can summon an emergency dispatch in the event of a police, fire, or medical emergency by tapping a button in the Eufy security app (you’ll need to have one of Eufy’s home security systems, not just a Eufy security camera). Eufy Plus Plan (professional monitoring) Cost: $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year Features: This service tier is more in line with what we think of professional monitoring, because it doesn’t depend on the user to initiate an emergency dispatch. The monitoring service will contact you to verify an emergency if any of the sensors in a Eufy home security system detects an emergency, but if you don’t respond (because you missed the call, for example, or were out of range of cellphone service), the center will dispatch the appropriate response. Eufy’s service is one of the least expensive professional monitoring services we’re aware of, but remember that you’ll need a separate subscription for camera and doorbell coverage. The Plus Plan can also earn you up to a 20-percent discount on your homeowner’s insurance, and you can choose which sensors and cameras you want to enroll in professional monitoring. Sign up for Eufy Professional Monitoring Google Home Premium (formerly Nest Aware) Michael Brown/Foundry Google’s Nest cameras, doorbells, and floodlight cameras include more features than most of the competition before you need to sign up for a subscription. You’ll get the usual motion-detection alerts and on-demand live viewing, but those notifications will also inform you as to the source of the motion: a person, a vehicle, or an animal. You’ll also be notified if a package has been left in the cameras’ field of view. And unlike most vendors, Google also gives you up to six hours of 10-second event video previews for free. Most vendors, including Arlo and Ring, don’t give you any recordings at all unless you pay up. The specific features you get from the two tiers of Google Home Premium vary depending on the device you buy, with the most advanced AI features being limited to Google’s newest hardware. As of October 2025, that would be the Nest Doorbell (wired, 3rd gen) the Nest Cam Outdoor (wired, 2nd gen), and the Nest Cam Indoor (wired, 3rd gen). You can sign up for a 30-day free trial of either tier when you purchase a device. Google Home Premium (Standard) Cost: $10 per month or $100 per year for every Google device in your home. Features: A Google Home Premium (Standard) plan bumps event-based video history up to 30 full days, and it gives you a “whole-home history” detailing all the activity your Google devices have logged in the home. Your cameras can also learn familiar faces, so they can discern between family and friends versus strangers. And if you also have Nest smart speakers and displays, they’ll be able to listen for the sound of breaking glass and the sound of smoke or carbon monoxide detectors going off. You’ll also be able to make calls to emergency services local to your home (versus wherever you’re calling from at the time). Finally, you’ll get access to Gemini for Home, Google’s AI agent (and replacement for Google Assistant). Google Home Premium (Advanced) Cost: $20 per month or $200 per year for every Google device in your home. Features: Everything that’s included in Google Home Premium (Standard), but your event-based history is doubled to 60 days; plus, 10 days of 24/7 continuous recording for each of your Nest cameras and wired doorbells. You’ll also be able to ask Gemini to search your camera and doorbell history for specific events, you’ll get AI-generated event descriptions for events detected by your cameras and doorbells, along with daily recaps of recorded events. Sign up for a Google Home Premium account Ring Home If you want recordings from your Ring cameras and doorbells, you’ll need to sign up for one of the company’s Ring Home plans.Michael Brown/Foundry Ring Home is a three-tiered subscription service for Ring doorbells and security cameras. Various add-on services–including professional monitoring of a Ring Alarm or Ring Alarm Pro home security system–are also available, although not every add-on is available for every service tier. A free 30-day trials is offered when you activate a new Ring product. After the trial period, you’ll need to subscribe to continue using all of the product’s features. Without a Ring Protect Plan, you can only use your Ring device’s free features such as live video (up to 10 minutes at a time), text-only motion-detection push notifications, and two-way audio over a live connection. Ring Home Basic Cost: $4.99 per month or $49.99 per year for one camera. Features: The Basic plan allows you to store 180 days of recorded video events for a single Ring doorbell or camera. It’s also required to enable most of your Ring product’s advanced functions, including person, package, and vehicle alerts; video preview alerts; Home and Away modes; the ability to download up to 50 videos at once to your device; and Snapshot Capture, which allows your camera to capture still images of its view at predetermined intervals so you can a view slideshow of what your camera sees between motion events. Doorbells also get Video Preview Alerts that deliver a short video clip along with the push notification when someone rings. Ring Home Standard Cost: $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year for an unlimited number of Ring cameras and doorbells; plus, one additional feature for Ring Alarm and Ring Alarm Pro systems. Features: The Ring Home Standard plan covers every Ring doorbell and camera at a single location. It offers the same features as the Basic plan, but extends your camera’s live viewing feature from a max of 10 minutes to 30 minutes and adds a new feature called Doorbell Calls. When someone rings your doorbell, it will call your smartphone and give you the option to speak to the person on your porch over a video call. With Live View Picture-in-Picture enabled, you can watch a live stream from any of your Ring cameras on your smartphone even while you’re using other apps. Log into your account at Ring.com and you’ll be able to stream live views from up to four Ring cameras simultaneously (in four windows on your web browser of choice). You can view a daily event summary in the Ring app that catalogs everything that happened that current day (when motion was detected, when people were detected, and so on). You can then drill down to see the recordings linked to those events. Owners of a Ring Alarm or Ring Alarm Pro home security system will get 24/7 backup over a cellular network for the security system only (the more expensive Ring Home Premium plan also includes 24/7 internet backup for the Wi-Fi router that’s integrated with a Ring Alarm Pro). Finally, the Ring Standard plan gives you a lifetime warranty on all of your Ring devices–provided the devices were still covered by Ring’s standard one-year warranty on the date your Ring Home subscription starts. Ring Home Premium Cost: $19.99 per month or $199.99 per year for an unlimited number of Ring cameras; plus, some additional features for Ring Alarm and Ring Alarm Pro home security systems. Features: The Ring Home Premium plan gets you the same features as the Standard plan, but it adds some entirely new features, including 24/7 video recording to the cloud for up to 10 compatible, hardwired or plugged-in Ring cameras and doorbells (Ring lists the 24/7-recording-capable cameras on its website; not every model is capable). The Premium plan also lengthens your live viewing time from the 10 minutes you get with Ring Home Basic and the 30 minutes you get with Ring Home Premium to continuous viewing for as long as you maintain the connection. You’ll also get three AI-powered features, two of which were in beta as of this writing: Smart Video Search helps you find specific events in your cameras’ motion-triggered recordings. Video Descriptions (in beta) attaches text-based descriptions to your video recordings. And with AI Single Event Alerts (also in beta), your cameras will recognize similar motion events and send you a single alert summarizing all of them instead of bombarding you with multiple alerts. The last feature not dependent on your having one of the Ring Alarm systems is SOS Emergency Response. If an emergency arises or you need help, you can push the SOS button in the Ring app to request emergency services. If you own a Ring Alarm Pro home security system, which has an integrated Eero router, the Premium plan includes backup internet service over a cellular network, in case your primary broadband service should fail. Be aware, however, that this comes with a 3GB-per-month data cap and you’ll need to buy more data if you exceed that limit. You’ll also get Ring Edge, which lets you store security camera and doorbell recordings on a local microSD card plugged into the Ring Alarm Pro, and Eero Secure, router-based software that protects your network clients from online threats (an ad-blocker is also included). 24/7 Smoke & CO Professional Monitoring You can add 24/7 smoke and carbon monoxide professional monitoring that will dispatch an emergency response if any of your compatible Ring devices to any of the three Ring Home services for $5 per month. Ring Home add-on services Ring Home with 24/7 professional monitoring Cost: $10 per month in addition to whichever Ring Home plan you subscribe to (Basic, Home, or Premium). Features: This plan is relevant only to Ring Alarm or Ring Alarm Pro home security system users; as such, it’s not directly related to Ring’s home security cameras. With professional monitoring, someone in a central office tracks the status of your home whenever it’s in an armed state. Should the system go into an alarm state, they can either call you to check if everything is OK and summon an emergency response if you suspect a break-in, or immediately call the police (an option you choose when you set up the service). Professional monitoring can also be used for fire and medical emergencies. Ring Home with Virtual Security Guard Cost: $99 per month in addition to whichever Ring Home plan you subscribe to (Basic, Home, or Premium) and Ring professional monitoring. If you own at least one Ring camera, a Ring Alarm security system, subscribe to one of the Ring Home plans, and are enrolled in Ring’s professional monitoring plan, you can sign up for the Virtual Security Guard add-on service at an additional cost of $99 per month. With this plan, professional security guards will monitor the cameras you choose, during the hours you set, looking for suspicious activity. If they spot something, they can use the cameras’ siren and/or two-way audio to deter potential a intruder or vandal in real time. They will also contact you directly, via text message or phone call, and they can summon emergency services if warranted. sign up for a ring home plan Sign up for Ring Virtual Security Gurad SimpliSafe SimpliSafe offers two paid subscription plans; one allows you to monitor your own system, the other includes a professional monitoring service.Christopher Null/Foundry SimpliSafe offers four paid monitoring plans for its home security cameras. You can forgo one to save some money, but you will be limited to viewing your camera’s live video feed and arming/disarming its security system from the SimpliSafe App. SimpliSafe’s least-expensive subscription unlocks critical features such as push notifications and video recording, while its two Pro plans offer professional monitoring of a SimpliSafe security system and live guard monitoring of your outdoor cameras. Self Monitoring with Camera Recordings Cost: Around $10 per month. Features: As the name of this plan indicates, you are still monitoring your system via the SimpliSafe mobile app with this entry-level subscription, but you unlock additional camera features, including unlimited video recording, 30-day cloud storage, and instant alarm alerts pushed to your mobile device. In the event of an emergency, it’s up to you to call first responders. Core Cost: Around $30 per month. Features: This base plan comes with SimpliSafe’s whole-home professional monitoring service, so you probably want to be using your camera with one of the company’s DIY home security systems before you consider it. The crux of the service is 24/7 live guard protection; during an active alarm, professional agents can access your camera’s video feed and microphone and attempt to divert the threat. If they’re unsuccessful, they can dispatch police, and their verified report will likely result in a faster response. Similarly, agents can dispatch fire, or medical help after verifying an emergency. Meanwhile, you can still track camera activity on your own via the features unlocked in the self-monitoring plan; plus, you get a lifetime subscriber warranty on SimpliSafe hardware. Pro Cost: $49.99 a month Features: This plan includes all the features of the Core subscription and adds Overnight SimpliSafe Active Guard Outdoor Protection. This uses a combination of AI and live agents to monitor your outdoor camera(s) between the hours of 8:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. local time to detect and deter threats observed outside your home. Pro Plus Cost: $79.99 a month Features: SimpliSafe’s top-tier plan includes everything in the Pro plan but extends Active Guard Outdoor Protection for your outdoor cameras to a 24/7 basis for users who want round-the-clock protection. Sign up for Simplisafe Self Monitoring with Camera Recordings Sign up for SimpliSafe professionnal monitoring TP-Link and Tapo Neither TP-Link nor its Tapo brand offer a complete home-security system, but its security camera monitoring subscriptions are very inexpensive.Michael Ansaldo/Foundry TP-Link and its Tapo brand of home security cameras are typical in that buyers can choose between a free self-monitoring plan that doesn’t include push notifications or cloud storage, or a paid plan that includes both. Many of its cameras, however, are equipped with microSD card slots that provide local storage for video clips–provided you supply the microSD card. Unlike Arlo, Ring, SimpliSafe, and Wyze Labs, TP-Link does not also offer a complete home security system, so it doesn’t offer a professional monitoring subscription either. Tapocare Cost: $3.49 per month or $34.99 per year for up to 10 cameras. Features: In the U.S., a Tapocare plan provides 30 days of video clip storage in the cloud, push notifications when the cameras detect motion and record video (including a snapshot from the video). Users can tag and sort their cameras’ recordings. Sign up for Tapocare Wyze Labs Wyze Labs is one of the few security camera manufacturers to off a free plan for storing video recordings in the cloud. It also offers two paid tiers that include additional features.Christopher Null/Foundry Wyze Labs offers some of the most inexpensive home security cameras on the market, and the same goes for its subscription plans. It even offers a free plan—the only major security camera brand to do so—that enables more than just your camera’s most basic features. Wyze offers five subscription plans in all: Wyze Cam Plus Lite Cost: Pay-what-you-want (including free). Features: You 12-second, event-based video clips, and 14 days of rolling cloud storage (meaning your oldest recordings get overwritten after two weeks). It also includes general motion and sound detection, AI-powered person detection, and cameras will listen for smoke and CO alarms sounding off and will send you an alert. On the downside, there’s a 5-minute cool-down between recordings, meaning the camera will ignore events in between recordings. The service is also limited to the Wyze Cam v1/v2/v3; Wyze Cam Pan v1/v2; and Wyze Cam Outdoor v1/v2 only. Sign up for Wyze Cam Plus Lite Wyze Cam Plus Cost: $2.99 per month per camera, $19.99 per year per camera. Features: This plan offers unlimited full-length video recordings with no cool-down period. You’ll also get 14 days of cloud storage for event recordings. Additional features include AI-powered detection for people, pets, packages, and vehicles, ensuring you’ll receive more accurate alerts. Sign up for Wyze Cam Plus Cam Plus Unlimited Cost: $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year for all your Wyze Labs cameras. Features: This is the same plan as Cam Plus, but it covers all your Wyze cameras; so, if you have more than three or four, this plan is more economical than paying for each camera separately. Sign up for Wyze Cam Unlimited Our take Arlo’s $7.99-per-month single-camera subscription price is one of most expensive on the market, following a 60-percent price increase in January, 2024, but it doesn’t charge a lot more to cover an unlimited number of cameras–$12.99 per month–at least with its basic plan. Arlo’s unlimited camera plan costs $17.99 per month, but it also adds several features you won’t get with the cheaper plan. Arlo’s $24.99-per-month plan that covers an unlimited number of cameras and includes professional monitoring of the company’s home security system is much more reasonable, given that Ring will soon split its own professional monitoring service as a $10-per-month add-on to its other subscriptions. That said, Arlo’s home security system is much more basic than Ring’s and doesn’t incorporate other smart home elements, such as lighting. Blink has the least expensive per-camera plan, at $3 per month, and you get local video backups if you purchase the Blink Sync Module 2. The unlimited camera plan costs the same as Ring’s service at $10 per month. Unlike Arlo or Ring, Blink does not offer a complete home security system, although it does have a video doorbell and a couple of floodlight cameras. We’ve found that Blink’s product line delivers a lot of value for the money. Eufy has recently introduced several new advanced security cameras–indoor and outdoor models outfitted with both wide-angle and telephoto lenses–and everything in its lineup is affordably priced. The price for its subscription service is comparable to that of the competition, but its 10-camera limit could be an issue if you have a lot of cameras deployed around your home. That said, 10 cameras seems like a lot. It’s also worth noting that Eufy does not currently offer a professional monitoring service, since it doesn’t currently offer a complete home alarm system. A Google Nest Aware subscription for a single camera costs the same as Arlo’s, but since few households end up deploying just one camera or video doorbell, Google’s plan ends up being more affordable than most because it covers all the Google cameras, doorbells, speakers, and displays in your home. But Google no longer builds a home security system, so it doesn’t offer a professional monitoring service either. Ring has retooled its entire subscription plan, which will soon be called Ring Home (the old name was Ring Protect). Ring’s claim of “new features, new name, same price” claim is disingenuous at best. Its basic, single-camera plan retains the same price and does gain a new feature, and its mid-tier unlimited-camera plan gains two new features for the same price, but Ring Alarm and Ring Alarm Pro users will now need to pay $10 per month for professional monitoring on top of whichever other service they choose. That means the price for Ring’s highest service tier will go from $19.99 per month to $29.99 per month. All that said, the Ring Alarm and Ring Alarm Pro home security ecosystems are are more comprehensive than anything else and include indoor and outdoor smart lighting, smart entry locks, smoke detectors, and more, including certified third-party devices. Ring’s new $99-per-month Virtual Security Guard service will probably be of interest only to small business owners, but it’s available to homeowners who want that additional layer of real-time protection. SimpliSafe dispenses with the nonsense of a subscription for a single security camera, charging about $10 per month for full service of any number of its cameras. The company is also innovating with artificial intelligence and combining that with human monitoring of its cameras, although you’ll pay more for that feature (between $50 and $80 per month). If you invest in SimpliSafe’s full security system and want professional monitoring, that will cost between $32 and $80 per month. TP-Link/Tapo has one of the least-expensive subscriptions, but it doesn’t offer a professional monitoring option because the company doesn’t have a complete home security system on the market today; it only offers security cameras and video doorbells. Wyze Labs is another budget brand (Blink being the other), and we’ve had no complaints about the quality of its very well-priced hardware. Its $10-per-month plan for an unlimited number of Wyze cameras is on par with Blink; but unlike that budget manufacturer, Wyze also offers an affordable and complete home security systems with professional monitoring options starting at $10 per month. This story is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best home security cameras and the best video doorbells. Read...

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