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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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There are countless reasons why we love Black Friday, but this deal right here is a fantastic example. The powerful Lenovo Legion 5i is only $1,199 right now at B&H, which is a massive $500 discount from its MSRP. Imagine that! You’re basically shaving off the price of an entire budget laptop with this steaming hot Black Friday deal. View this deal When I say this thing is a beast, I mean it. That Intel Core Ultra 7 255HX processor and 32GB of DDR5 RAM is a hefty combo, able to breeze through any task you’d want to do on it. From work to hobbies to gaming to creative endeavors, this machine won’t complain or crawl. And the 1TB SSD is both spacious and speedy, providing lots of storage while booting your system and apps at the snap of your fingers. But you aren’t just here for general tasks and such, are you? You’re here for the gaming prowess! And let me tell you, this Lenovo Legion 5i (15IAX10) delivers in spades with its current-gen RTX 5060 GPU. You’ll be able to enjoy all the benefits of ray tracing, upscaling, and multi-frame generation with DLSS 4 to crank out smooth frame rates on triple-A 3D games. It’s what you need if you want to play modern titles and it’ll stay relevant for years to come. And those games will look absolutely fresh on this laptop’s 15-inch OLED display with its 2560×1600 resolution and 165Hz refresh rate. Anything you work on, anything you watch, anything you play will look gorgeous, vivid, smooth, and vibrant. The port setup isn’t too bad, either, with Thunderbolt 4, HDMI, USB-C, and triple USB-A. It ain’t the most portable in size or battery life, but c’mon, it’s a gaming laptop first. So what are you waiting for? Grab this Lenovo Legion 5i gaming laptop for $1,199 at B&H ahead of Black Friday and save a whopping $500. Oh, and you’ll also get a free 6 months of Bitdefender Total Security and a free game to pick between Battlefield 6, Dying Light: The Beast, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, and Sid Meier’s Civilization VII. Save huge on this RTX 5060 laptop and get a free game with itScore this deal via B&H Read...

Black Friday may be a time of rampant consumerism. But I treat it as an opportunity for savvy consumerism—if this period of sales is baked into the system, we may as well take advantage of it. I try to shop smart. Unfortunately for me (and everyone else), the definition of “smart” is a lot harder to figure out this year. Memory prices have risen, for starters. In the past few weeks, the cost of DDR5 RAM shot up by 100 percent or more, depending on the kit. DDR4 trailed not far behind. (Yet one more thing AI is ruining.) Module vendors won’t be increasing supply much either, which is apparently causing PC manufacturers to buy up as much as they can. Also, delays in the release of new RAM kits. Meanwhile, the full effect of the U.S. tariffs looms in the background, too. After the holiday retail rush, experts anticipate that businesses will have run out of goods stockpiled at lower prices. Which means come 2026, building a PC (or buy any tech gadget) may become financially rough. Painfully expensive RAM is the start. Next will be higher prices for graphics cards, followed by even slower release of new mid-range GPUs. I could see next year and beyond feeling worse than 2021’s dark combo of pandemic shortages and cryptomining. So I keep asking myself what tech I should buy this month.  Not just PC parts, but everything. I’m weighing what else could quickly change in availability or cost—and how fast it could change. I’m thinking over my small inventory of goods and their ages, and how much life they have left. I’m racking my brain for items I never think about but would hate to replace at exorbitant cost. Storage is also going up in price, though not as fast as memory. I’m very likely picking up a drive or two during this Black Friday.Foundry And I’m asking myself what I think would hold up, especially if tech starts to slow or even stagnate with its releases, due to high production costs. Components usually aren’t cost effective to buy and hold, for example—you lose money for the privilege of holding them in storage. But if they become more expensive and scarce, and their performance holds? That changes the calculus. So extra RAM and SSDs? With how I operate, I’ll need them down the line. But my Ryzen 5000-series build that I only use periodically for encodes? I can make that stretch. As for my laptop situation, where I squeak by with a few old ones ranging from 8 to 11 years old, I’m resigned to eventually moving to Linux until the hardware finally feels too slow. Honestly, shopping this Black Friday feels like a grocery store run—juggling what I want, what’s good for me, and what will help me use up what I’ve already got on hand. Deal hunting is less entertaining as a result, but I prefer that to the prospect of paying 50, 100, 140 percent more (or even greater) for items I’ll need in the future. In this episode of The Full Nerd  In this episode of The Full Nerd, Adam Patrick Murray, Brad Chacos, Alaina Yee, and Will Smith answer everyone’s questions during a Q&A blitz. Well, not everyone, since we can’t podcast for the entire day (sadly). But we did tackle the Steam Machine (again), Windows subscriptions, AI making us stupider, and a heck of a lot more. A lot of Xbox talk more. I may have also dug deep into my thoughts on the Steam Machine. (I’m still so bummed to have missed the discussion last week when Steve and Sean were around.) Also, we dunked on the idea of Windows as an agentic OS. As is proper. Willis Lai / Foundry Missed our live show? Subscribe now to The Full Nerd Network YouTube channel, and activate notifications. We also answer viewer questions in real-time! Don’t miss out on our NEW shows too—you can catch episodes of Dual Boot Diaries and The Full Nerd: Extra Edition now! And if you need more hardware talk during the rest of the week, come join our Discord community—it’s full of cool, laid-back nerds.  This week’s pocketful of nerd news After last week’s Steam Machine announcement, the news feels comparatively quiet—but no less interesting. I definitely uttered a phrase I can’t repeat here after seeing the bit about the tape storage standard and the 100TB of compressed data it will hold. hito_hiro7265/Twitter Silverstone is now serving up a smaller dose of nostalgia: I’m still not as sold on this retro case’s looks as the rest of the PCWorld staff—though that’s definitely not Silverstone’s fault. (Some things I just wish to leave in the past.) But if I were to do a sleeper build, it’d be in this littler mATX box. Respect to an OG: Tape storage isn’t just still alive and kicking, it’s thriving. A new standard that can hold 100TB of compressed data on a 40TB cartridge? Daaaaaaamn. File under ‘Don’t need it, but want it’: Mike Crider reviewed another nifty Raspberry Pi-powered writer’s gadget. I don’t need it, since I use my phone with a Bluetooth keyboard for distraction-free writing. (Don’t know why it works for me, but it does.) But gosh, this looks so neat. The internet went spotty because of one file: I’m glad that for once, a major internet outage (this time, it was Cloudflare’s servers that barfed) is due to good old-fashioned, simple human error. I needed a break from all the security attacks this year. Are NPUs already dead in the water? PCWorld contributor Chris Hoffman neatly dissects the state of “AI PCs” and how GPUs still eclipse NPUs for local AI computing. “It’s not a matter of if the capacitors will fail, simply when”: Still own a Voodoo 2 card? You may want to perform some elective surgery on it to help preserve its longevity. Tyler Keillor / Fossil Lab ‘Dinosaur mummies’ would make a great band name: I think it’s metal as heck that living creatures can die and leave impressions in the environment so detailed, you can see the texture of their skin in clay millennia later. Don’t get scammed during Black Friday! Worried about your loved ones and scams during this holiday shopping period? I got you. You can just pass along these tips on how to stay safe during this chaotic time of year. Love that efficiency: As someone who watches her utility bills like a hawk, I dig this concept out of the UK: Build a server shed in a person’s yard, then take the heat generated and repurpose it to warm up homes. I’m all about that repurposing. Heck yeah, I want Firefox custom shortcuts: I love Firefox, and I advocate its usage to anyone who’ll bother listening to me. (Its reader mode is A+.) I also love custom keyboard shortcuts, so I’m looking forward to the marriage of these two things. Redstone Redstone Redstone: Part of AMD’s new FSR Redstone technology already launched with Call of Duty 7, but more is still to come on December 10. I expect The Full Nerd crew will chew hard on whatever info comes to light. Uh, guess I’m getting my flu shot ASAP: Chalk this up as a general PSA. In case you were thinking of delaying this year due to previous milder flu seasons (or even outright skipping), perhaps reconsider. As I am. Catch you all next week—I’ll be in the thick of covering Black Friday sales on PCWorld, in addition to whatever deals we chat about on the show. That includes a live blog on Black Friday proper (November 28) helmed by yours truly, from about 9am to 12pm Pacific (and Brad before that).  If you see nothing but “Yo, get this HDMI cable for $4,” “Hey, this very decent office chair is $130,” and “This insanely badass router dropped to $280,” well, you already know the reason behind my laser focus on boring stuff. Alaina Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Large touchpad compared to alternatives 16-inch 1200p display at a low price Lots of physical connectivity Good battery life for a budget gaming laptop Cons Sub-par CPU performance Terrible audio quality from built-in speakers Wireless connectivity stuck on the Wi-Fi 6 standards Slightly more expensive laptops offer better value Our Verdict  The Acer Nitro V 16 AI is a budget gaming laptop with ok game performance and good battery life (for a gaming laptop). Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Acer Nitro V 16 AI Retailer Price Check Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Best Prices Today: Check today’s prices Shoppers looking to buy a laptop with Nvidia RTX 50-series graphics for around $800 or less have few options—one of which is the Acer Nitro V 16 AI, which retails for about $799 online. Although it provides acceptable performance for a budget machine, its day-to-day usability and battery life are what sets it apart from the pack. Acer Nitro V 16 AI: Specs and features as-tested The Acer Nitro V 16 AI’s specifications make the laptop feel like a vessel for the RTX 5050 8GB GPU. The AMD Ryzen 5 240 CPU is among the least capable in AMD’s line-up, and the laptop makes do with only 16GB of RAM as well as a 512GB solid state drive. Model: ANV16-42 CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 240 Memory: 16GB LPDDR5-5600 Graphics/GPU: Nvidia RTX 5050 8GB NPU: Up to 16 TOPS Display: 16-inch 1920×1200 180Hz IPS-LCD display Storage: 512GB M.2 PCIe 4.0 solid state drive Webcam and microphone: 720p webcam with dual-array microphone Connectivity: 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x USB-C with DisplayPort and Power Delivery, 2x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2, 1x USB-A 3.1 Gen 1, 1x microSD card reader, 1x Gigabit Ethernet (RJ-45), 1x 3.5mm combo audio Networking: Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.3 Biometrics: None Battery capacity: 76 watt-hours Dimensions: 14.2 x 10.9 x 0.92 inches Weight: 5.38 pounds Operating System: Windows 11 Home Price: $899 MSRP / $629 to $799 typical retail This is a common strategy for a budget gaming laptop. Most competitors, from the Asus ROG TUF line to the Lenovo LOQ 15 and Dell G15, also rely on entry-level CPUs and have 16GB of RAM alongside a 512GB solid state drive. You’ll usually need to pay about $1,000 if you want 1TB of storage (in a laptop with an Nvidia RTX 50-series GPU, at least). The Acer Nitro V 16 AI is a respectable budget gaming laptop that provides decent game performance and surprisingly good battery life. Acer Nitro V 16 AI: Design and build quality Foundry / Matthew Smith The Acer Nitro V 16 AI doesn’t make much of an impression. It’s a black laptop with a subtle metallic luster adorned only with a chrome “N” on the lid, which is the logo for Acer’s Nitro sub-brand. Besides that, there’s not much to say about the laptop’s style. It’s simple but inoffensive. Opening the laptop will reveal a couple subtle touches, though none are all that attractive. The Nitro logo is engraved into the palm rest, along with the phrase “Victory starts here” engraved just below the numpad. Build quality is acceptable. Quickly opening the laptop’s lid reveals obvious display flex, but the lower chassis is solid when the laptop is picked up from a corner or edge. Keyboard flex can be found if you try but it’s not a problem in normal use. As with most budget gaming laptops, the Nitro V 16 AI isn’t small. It measures over 14 inches wide, nearly 11 inches deep, and almost an inch thick at its thickest point. It also weighs 5.38 pounds. With that said, most gaming laptops of this size are at least this heavy (over six pounds is not uncommon). Acer Nitro V 16 AI: Keyboard, trackpad, mouse Foundry / Matthew Smith I found the Acer Nitro V 16 AI’s keyboard to be merely functional. The laptop’s size provides a good amount of room, which Acer uses to squeeze in a numpad. However, the spaces between each key are large, which in turn means the keys are smaller than you might expect. This is most noticeable for the right side Shift key, and left-side Tab and Control keys, which are tiny. Annoyingly, the Microsoft Copilot key is one of the largest keys on the keyboard. This is odd because, despite its name, the Acer Nitro V 16 AI doesn’t qualify as a Microsoft Copilot+ PC. Though the key layout does the keyboard no favors, it’s balanced by the fundamental advantages of a larger, thicker laptop. Keys have a good amount of key travel, the overall size of the keyboard is spacious, and the palm rest offers a good amount of room. I was able to hammer out a few thousand words in comfort. The touchpad is an advantage. It measures about five inches wide and a little more than three inches deep. Alternatives like the Lenovo LOQ 15 and Dell G15 have noticeably smaller touchpads that feel cramped by comparison. Acer Nitro V 16 AI: Display, audio Foundry / Matthew Smith The Acer Nitro V 16 AI ships with a 1920×1200 resolution IPS-LCD display that can achieve a refresh rate up to 180Hz. The 16-inch 1200p display is worth special mention. Most budget gaming laptops still use a 15.6-inch 1080p display. Compared to these, the Nitro V 16 AI provides a slightly taller display with more usable space. It’s not a big deal in games but it makes the laptop more enjoyable for web browsing and work. IPS-LCD displays tend to have lackluster contrast and color when compared to OLED alternatives. That translates to relatively dull, flat image quality. With that said, the IPS display is good enough in most situations. The contrast issue only becomes obvious when the laptop is used in a dark room, as darker scenes appear gray and hazy. The image is sharp and bright and the display has a semi-gloss coat that resists reflections. You may still find the display difficult to see if you sit near a large sunlit window, however, and outdoors use isn’t comfortable even with the display at its maximum brightness. The same is true for other budget gaming laptops. Motion performance is decent. The 180Hz refresh rate provides fluid, responsive motion when games render at a frame rate close to the panel’s maximum refresh rate. Motion clarity is decent with good detail across a scene, but small elements like fonts or HP bars can still be difficult to make out. G-Sync is absent, unfortunately, which means you’ll need to use a game’s V-Sync setting or risk unsightly screen tearing. Audio quality is a problem. The built-in speakers aren’t loud even at maximum volume. Despite that, I often noticed an unpleasant rattling sound caused by vibrations in the laptop chassis when the speakers were at high volumes. Acer Nitro V 16 AI: Webcam, microphone, biometrics You’re not going to want to take video calls on the Acer Nitro V 16 AI. The laptop has a barebones 720p webcam with a soft, grainy image. It’s a basic experience excused only by the fact most competitive budget gaming laptops also have a 720p webcam. The dual-array microphone is a bit more usable, but not by much. It picks up audio that’s crisp, clear, and loud enough to be usable on Zoom or Google Meet. But, once again, this is a minimalist experience. Biometric login is not supported. This, once again, is typical for a budget gaming laptop. Very few offer a fingerprint reader or IR camera for facial recognition. Acer Nitro V 16 AI: Connectivity You’ll find plenty of ports lining the Acer Nitro V 16 AI’s flanks. The left side provides Gigabit Ethernet, a USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 port, 3.5mm audio, and a microSD card reader, while the right side offers two more USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 ports. The rear includes HDMI 2.1, USB-C with Power Delivery and DisplayPort, and a barrel plug connector for the bundled 135-watt power brick. The USB-C port can be used to charge the laptop, though it doesn’t provide as much power as the 135-watt power brick. While the Nitro V 16 AI’s physical connectivity is solid, it’s not unusual for the category. Most budget gaming laptops have a similar number and configuration of ports. The microSD card reader is the only physical connectivity option that’s unexpected. Wireless connectivity is disappointing, as the Acer Nitro V 16 AI only supports Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3. This puts it two generations behind the latest Wi-Fi standard and a generation behind the latest Bluetooth standard. I wouldn’t call it an immediate problem, as Wi-Fi 6 is still rather quick and new standards are backwards-compatible, but this could make the laptop’s Wi-Fi connectivity feel outdated more quickly as new standards emerge (Wi-Fi 8 is already announced). Acer Nitro V 16 AI: Performance The Acer Nitro V 16 AI that I received for review had an AMD Ryzen 5 240 CPU. It’s a low-end CPU in AMD’s current line-up. It has the AMD Zen 4 architecture (a step behind the latest Zen 5) and a total of six CPU cores with hyper-threading for a total of 12 threads. The maximum boost clock is 5GHz. That’s paired with the Nvidia RTX 5050 with 8GB of VRAM and a maximum graphics power of only 95 watts—fairly low for a modern Nvidia mobile GPU in a dedicated gaming laptop. 16GB of DDR5-5600 memory and a 512GB PCIe 4.0 solid state drive round out the specifications. Foundry / Matthew Smith First up is PCMark 10, a holistic system benchmark. Here the Acer Nitro V 16 AI provides a good result of 7,259. That defeats the Alienware 16 Aurora and older HP Victus 15. On the other hand, there’s still a huge difference between the Acer Nitro V 16 AI and alternatives with a more power-hungry processor, such as the Lenovo Legion 5i with the Intel Core i7-14900HX. Foundry / Matthew Smith Cinebench 2024, a heavily multi-threaded CPU benchmark, reaches a modest score of 685 on the Acer Nitro V 16 AI. That’s not a huge surprise because, as mentioned, the AMD Ryzen 5 240 is towards the lower half of AMD’s product stack. Still, there’s significant gap between the Ryzen 5 240 and other CPUs you might find in budget gaming laptops, such as the AMD Ryzen 7 250 and Intel Core 7 240H. Foundry / Matthew Smith Handbrake is another multi-threaded CPU benchmark, but one with a longer duration. This test once again puts the Acer Nitro V 16 AI towards the bottom of the pack, though the margin of its defeat is smaller than it was in Cinebench 2024. I think it’s clear the AMD Ryzen 5 240 is not a performer in CPU tests. It’s fine, but it’s easy to find a gaming laptop with a faster CPU even in the sub-$1,000 price bracket. The Acer Nitro V 16 AI is aimed at gaming, however, so how does Nvidia’s RTX 5050 8GB perform? Foundry / Matthew Smith 3DMark places the RTX 5050 where I would expect it. The Acer Nitro V 16 AI is a fair bit quicker than the HP Victus 16 that PC World tested with an RTX 4050. However, new laptops with an RTX 5060 prove quicker. The margin of victory for the RTX 5060 is often slim, though, depending on the laptop used for comparison. The Lenovo LOQ 15 leaps ahead, but the Alienware 16 Aurora with RTX 5060 is only about 10 percent quicker in 3DMark benchmarks. Foundry / Matthew Smith Shadow of the Tomb Raider is an older game that just about any modern gaming laptop can handle, and the Acer Nitro V 16 AI is no exception. It achieved an average of 120 frames per second. As the 3DMark test results suggested, the Acer Nitro V 16 AI is not as quick as RTX 5060 laptops, but has an advantage over the older RTX 4050. Foundry / Matthew Smith Metro Exodus, though also an older game, remains extremely demanding if the Extreme preset is used. The Acer Nitro V 16 AI can’t even crack an average of 40 FPS. To be fair, though, most RTX 5060 laptops also barely exceed 40 FPS. And the Nitro V 16 AI once again shows a decent lead over the HP Victus 15 with the older RTX 4050. Foundry / Matthew Smith We round out things with Cyberpunk 2077. While the Nitro V 16 AI is definitely less capable than RTX 5060 machines, the RTX 5050 allows Acer’s budget gaming laptop to hit an average of 72 FPS at 1080p and the Ultra preset. In general, a pleasant 1080p/60 experience is possible on the laptop even without the use of DLSS, which was not active for this test. The Acer Nitro V 16 AI’s overall results are about what I would expect. Nvidia’s RTX 5050 8GB is an entry-level part and, predictably, it doesn’t quite match the performance available from an RTX 5060—though the two are often close. If you’re upgrading from an older RTX 3050 or RTX 4050 laptop you will see a noticeable improvement. Pricing doesn’t work to Acer or Nvidia’s favor, however. Laptops with the RTX 5060 are barely more expensive than the Acer Nitro V 16 AI. Lenovo’s LOQ 15 is a good example of this, as it can retail as low as $809.99. Acer Nitro V 16 AI: Battery life and portability The Acer Nitro V 16 AI has a 76 watt-hour battery. That’s a modest size for a gaming laptop (though typical for one priced below $1,000). You might expect battery life to be awful, but here the Nitro V 16 AI is able to pull off a surprise. Foundry / Matthew Smith Our standard battery rundown test, which loops a 4K file of the short film Tears of Steel, ran for over 12 hours before the Nitro V 16 AI had to call it a day. As the graph shows, that’s a much better result than is typical for a gaming laptop—at any price. Several factors combine to help the Nitro V 16 AI pull this off. It has support for Nvidia Optimus, which turns off the discrete GPU when it’s not needed. This transfers work to the AMD Ryzen 5 240, which is a miserly chip for a gaming laptop. I suspect the 1200p IPS LCD also helps, as it should draw less power than the higher-res OLED display you’d find on a more expensive gaming laptop. While this result is excellent, remember that battery life will vary depending on how the laptop is used. Gaming on the laptop will engage the Nvidia GPU, which in turn can drain the battery in under two hours if you’re playing a demanding game. Real-world use will also tend to be less than the benchmark suggests, depending on what you’re doing. Still, I experienced real-world battery life of roughly eight hours in a mix of web browsing and writing in LibreOffice. That’s not bad for a budget gaming laptop. Acer Nitro V 16 AI: Conclusion The Acer Nitro V 16 AI is a respectable budget gaming laptop that provides decent game performance and surprisingly good battery life. I also like the laptop’s 16-inch display with 1200p resolution, which is a step up from competitors with a 15.6-inch 1080p display. Other advantages include a wide range of physical connectivity and a decent touchpad. However, the AMD Ryzen 5 240 doesn’t post great results in CPU tests and the laptop has to make do with just 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. The built-in speakers are a miss, too. I recommend the Acer Nitro V 16 AI over most of the budget gaming laptops I’ve tested or used in 2025. It’s among the more affordable entries in this arena and manages to avoid issues (like short battery life and a sub-par display) that impact competitors including the Lenovo LOQ 15 and HP Victus 15. Also keep a sharp eye on price. Though it has an MSRP of $899, the Acer Nitro V 16 AI is currently $629 on Walmart, compared to $799 on Amazon. The Nitro V is worth an extra half-star when on sale below $700, as it’s a great value at that pricing. Read...

Online security used to be simple. All you needed was a good password and, in the early days, you didn’t need a ton of numbers, letters, and special characters to achieve that goal. No need for antivirus software to verify you were logging into legitimate sites, either. Privacy also wasn’t quite as fragile as it is today. Your email wasn’t constantly being lost to yet another data breach. But AI has helped hackers and criminals become sneakier with their attacks, so now the recommendations for best security practices have become more sophisticated, too. Currently, experts recommend the use of unique, random passwords (and the more characters, the better) plus two-factor authentication as a strong baseline. (Passkeys also work great.) But you can go further—and companies on the frontlines of cybersecurity have made that easier.  the best ANTIVIRUS SUITE Norton 360 Deluxe Read our review One such step is called masked email. (You may also hear it referred to as email masks or email masking.) It formalizes a long-available feature known as email aliases as a privacy and security measure. A randomized email address is created to hide (aka mask) your true email address for an online account. Any correspondence sent to the masked email address gets forwarded to your actual inbox. The sender doesn’t know about the email’s final destination. They’ll only find out if you accidentally reply to a message as your main account. The benefits are twofold. You get better privacy, because the more you use different masked email addresses (ideally, one per online account), the more you limit the potential damage of the information leaking in a data breach. That email address won’t work on other websites as a login ID or for a password reset. Nor can someone take over the address as they could with an actual account. It’s just a forwarding address, and a disposable one at that. Masked email vs email aliases Masked email is a more specific (and automated) take on email aliases. Mozilla / PCWorld If you already filter your incoming email and/or guard against spam by using email aliases, masked email may sound like an empty marketing term for a familiar feature. But there is a slight difference—email masking is a narrower use of email aliases, with a particular style in how the aliases are created. With masked email, the focus is on auto-generated random, unique identifiers. Think 4k9xkeo@emailservice.com or even siftflask.3242@emailservice.com. You don’t need to come up with your own aliases, thus streamlining their use. The suggested aliases also completely obscure your email address, unlike with inserting periods into your username (e.g., random.username@gmail.com) or adding a + sign and an extra phrase (e.g. randomusername+alias@gmail.com) don’t achieve. You should also get streamlined controls to block incoming mail or disable the forwarding address if it gets flooded with unwanted email. The result is a faster, easier way to maintain anonymity in your contact info—and for sites that default to email addresses as usernames, your login info too. With the added benefit of integration with some browsers and password managers, email masking saves time and reduces the hassles of the DIY route. Ways you can start using masked email Some email providers offer masked email as part of their plans. Fastmail takes that one step further by offering integration with password managers like 1Password and Bitwarden for super-simple creation and storing of aliases.PCWorld Two common ways to get email masking is through an email provider or a dedicated service. Email providers offer the feature as an integrated part of the service. Access often requires a subscription, though. Only a few providers offer masked email, typically bundled into paid plans (e.g., Apple iCloud+, Fastmail, Proton Mail). That said, Proton Mail does offer basic hide-my-email aliases for free to all users, and prices otherwise start as low as $0.99 USD per month (iCloud+). a password manager that supports email maskS 1Password Read our review Dedicated services can be used with any site, main email address, browser, password manager, etc. You create an account using the email address you want to receive the forwarded email, and then create masks through the web interface or a browser extension. Some services also offer premium plans that allow sending and replying from an email mask, support larger file attachments, and generate email masks for multiple email addresses. All email masks are managed through the service, which is less convenient than with an email provider. You won’t have a single spot to control your direct and forwarded email. To really simplify using email masks, choose a service that integrates with a password manager. Once you connect your email account or masking service, you’ll be able to create the email masks directly within the password manager. It eliminates the need to copy and paste the new forwarding address when saving login info. Currently 1Password has a partnership with Fastmail, and Bitwarden has relationships with Fastmail, SimpleLogin, Addy.io, DuckDuckGo, Forward Email, and Firefox Relay. Apple users can use the company’s Hide My Email feature; email masks automatically save to iCloud Keychain if you actively use the latter. Alternatively, you can pick a password manager like NordPass or ProtonPass that directly handles email mask generation. Free email masking services SimpleLogin is the most generous with the features available to free users. SimpleLogin / PCWorld While getting masked email through an email provider usually costs money, dedicated services usually offer a free plan. They’re more limited in scope but still a great start. SimpleLogin offers 10 free forwarding addresses. There are no bandwidth limitations, and forwarded emails can be up to 25MB each. The service also allows you to reply to email from an alias, too. Firefox Relay lets you create just five free forwarding addresses, with a 10MB size limit per email and no bandwidth limitations. You can’t reply to email on the free tier, however. This service makes the list for a couple of reasons: It works across devices, and upgrading to the paid tier with unlimited addresses and the ability to send email from aliases is just $12 per year. (You will need to switch to Firefox if you want to use the browser extension for maximum ease of use, but that’s not a bad thing given Firefox’s greater commitment to privacy.) Addy.io allows you to create unlimited “standard” email masks. These are based on your Addy.io username, however—so if you want more privacy, you can then use one of your 10 free shared domain email masks. You can send and reply from your aliases, too. The catch: You’re limited to 10MB (yes, megabytes) of bandwidth per month. The company estimates that to be roughly 140 emails max. (Start adding in attachments and that drops very, very fast.) Live exclusively in Apple’s ecosystem? Sign in with Apple is a free way to get started with the company’s take on email masking.PCWorld Apple users also have an alternative option called Sign in with Apple. For apps and websites that allow you to sign in with your Apple ID, you get access to a limited form of Hide My Email, the company’s email masking service. Apple will generate a random forwarding email that will pass messages from the site or app to your Apple ID’s linked email address. Unlike the version of Hide My Email that comes with iCloud+, you can’t change the generated aliases or create ones independently. Also, as a general security note, signing in with this method can carry risk, since anyone with access to your Apple account could also then access linked services and apps, too. P.S.—Unique user IDs help online privacy and security, too The general concept behind masked email can be applied to creating user IDs, too. For sites that ask you to create a dedicated username (e.g., randomuser1), going with a new identifier each time makes it harder for people to track you across the web. Unauthorized access to your other accounts is less likely, too, when your username and password are different for every site and app. And you can combine masked email with a unique user ID so that you’re really hard to trace—useful when signing into sites that have yet to implement passkeys, a more secure alternative to passwords. (Or when, in the name of saving your future bacon, you still keep a username/password combo as secondary method of logging into an account with passkeys enabled.) Sounds complicated? This is why a password manager is so handy. It lets you continually level up your security with very little mental burden, especially if you pick one with support for email masking and passkey storage. Choose a paid password manager or a free one—either will make life easy. Read...

OPINION: If I’m guilty of anything, it is having bad general knowledge. And that is better than being a cheat, writes Monty Panesar. Read...