The food is fine, the entertainment and cabin service solid, but one part of the flight was outstanding … thanks to Elon Musk. Read...

For better or worse, the number of ways to watch NFL and college football games has exploded in 2025. While you once need a bloated pay TV bundle just to stream your local teams, this year brings new standalone options from ESPN and Fox, skinnier channel bundles from pay TV providers, and shorter-term subscription plans from Sling. Slice and dice things the right way, and you’ll save a bunch of money compared to what you might have spent in previous years. But with so many potential paths for football coverage, it’s hard to keep track of what’s even available, let alone what the best option is. Here is my best attempt to point you in the right direction. First, know which channels you need The scenarios below are focused on channels rather than specific teams. If you’re not sure which channels you need to watch your favorite college or NFL teams, I suggest using ESPN’s Where to Watch tool. Enter your team into the search box, and you’ll see a schedule of upcoming games and their corresponding TV channels. Make a list of necessary channels and keep them in mind as we go through the options. If you can use an antenna Figure out which channels you can get over the air, and then buy an antenna that suits your needs What’ll you get: ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC If you’re blessed with good enough reception, an over-the-air antenna is still the best way to access a huge amount of football coverage for free, including all the NFL’s Sunday day games and the biggest college football matchups. You’ll miss some games that air on cable, but that’s where some of the following alternatives come into play. If you only need ESPN Subscribe to ESPN for $30 per month (or $36 per month with the addition of Disney+ and Hulu) What you get: ESPN, ESPN on ABC, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNEWS, ESPN Deportes, SEC Network, ACC Network, ESPN+, ESPN3, SECN+, and ACCNX ESPN isn’t a great deal on a purely standalone basis, but it could pair well with an antenna and might cater to college football fans whose teams air exclusively on ABC and ESPN channels. If you only need Fox’s sports channels Subscribe to Fox One for $20 per month What you get: Fox, FS1, FS2, Big Ten Network, Fox News, and Fox Business Much like ESPN’s service, Fox One will have narrow appeal as a standalone option, but it could work for folks whose NFL team airs primarily on Fox. It might also appeal to antenna users who otherwise have no reasonably-priced way to watch FS1, FS2, and the Big Ten Network. If you want ESPN and Fox, but not much else Subscribe to the ESPN and Fox One bundle from October 2 onward What you get: All of ESPN’s channels, and all of Fox’s channels These two services will cover a good-sized chunk of college and NFL games, especially for teams whose day games don’t air primarily on CBS. For the cheapest path to local games, ESPN, and Fox’s cable channels Subscribe to Paramount+ ($8 per month), Peacock ($11 per month), ESPN ($30 per month), and Fox One ($20 per month). Bundle the latter two for $40 per month after October 2 What you’ll get: All of ESPN’s channels, ABC’s sports coverage, all of Fox’s channels, sports and entertainment from NBC and CBS For $69 per month (dropping to $59 per month once the ESPN-Fox One bundle becomes available), you get a wide swath of broadcast and cable football coverage, including all Sunday NFL games and Monday Night Football. If you don’t care about ESPN, but want football on local channels Subscribe to DirecTV MyNews for $40 per month What you get: ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, and a bunch of cable news channels Don’t be misled by the name. DirecTV’s MyNews package is sneakily the cheapest way to stream local channels, including football coverage on the four major broadcast networks. Just note that DirecTV MyNews doesn’t carry all four major networks in every market. To check availability, click the “See 10+ channels” link. If your NFL team airs on Fox and you live in a major city Look into Sling Select, which ranges from $20 to $30 per month depending on local channel availability. What you get: A combination of ABC, NBC, and Fox that varies by city, plus NFL Network and a handful of other channels. Sling Select’s local channel availability is limited, but there are some markets where it makes sense for football coverage. New Yorkers, for instance, can use Sling Select to get every Giants game on Fox, plus Sunday Night Football and any Monday Night Football games that air on ABC. Sling Select costs $20 per month in markets with one or fewer local channels, $25 per month in markets with two local channels, and $30 per month in markets with three. See Sling’s local channel chart too see what’s available in each market. If you’d rather have everything in one app, plus NFL Network Subscribe to DirecTV MySports for $70 per month What you get: ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, all of ESPN’s channels, all of Fox’s sports channels, NFL Network, Golf Channel, MLB Network, NBA TV, NHL Network, TBS, TNT, TruTV, USA, major cable news networks. This option will still be cheaper than standard pay TV packages, and you’ll get more overall sports coverage than the standalone options mentioned earlier. You’ll just have to do without cable’s entertainment channels. As with DirecTV’s MyNews package, local channel availability varies by market. Head to DirecTV’s MySports page, then click the “See 20+ channels” link to see what’s covered in your area. For occasional ESPN coverage only Sign up for a $5 Sling Day Pass, $10 weekend pass, or $15 week pass What you’ll get: ESPN, TNT, and a bunch of other basic cable channels Sling’s newly launched day passes could come in handy if you get local channels with an antenna or via DirecTV MyNews. Instead of paying for an entire month of ESPN’s service just to watch one or two Monday Night Football games, you could buy a day pass for a fraction of the price. If you just want a regular pay TV package Consider YouTube TV ($83 per month), Hulu + Live TV ($83 per month), Fubo (starting at $98 per month), or DirecTV’s signature packages (starting at $90 per month) What you’ll get: A broad mix of local, sports, news, and entertainment channels While they’re not as flexible or inexpensive as the other options I mentioned, a standard live TV streaming service will give you a package of channels that more closely resembles cable. If your favorite team plays at home in a different city from where you live And you absolutely must watch live: Subscribe to NFL Sunday Ticket ($480 per season) And only need to see the big moments or don’t mind catching up on games after they’re over: Subscribe to NFL+ Premium ($15 per month or $100 per year) YouTube has the exclusive rights to out-of-market games via Sunday Ticket, but you might be able to eke by with NFL+ Premium’s partial coverage. If you’re balking at the price, NFL+ Premium gets you NFL Redzone’s whiparound coverage (so you’ll at least see your team’s scoring drives) along with full game replays after they’re over. More to come This is a quickly-evolving situation, with new bundles arriving at a rapid clip ahead of football season. Fubo, for instance, plans to launch its own cheaper sports bundle soon, and we may see more attempts to bundle standalone services together at a discount. Stay tuned for more updates. Sign up for Jared’s Cord Cutter Weekly newsletter to get more in-depth streaming research and analysis every week. Read...

OPPO New Zealand has just released the new OPPO Pad SE, a reliable and versatile tablet designed for family life, learning and entertainment. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Matte display is bright and easy to see Build feels great Good everyday battery life and performance Cons Expensive for what you get Thermal throttles Lags behind competition Our Verdict I had high hopes for the Intel ThinkPad T14s Gen 6, but its performance is held back by poor cooling and significantly reduced battery life. It might have been worth recommending if it weren’t nearly twice the price of the Snapdragon model. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 Retailer Price Check Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Best Prices Today: Check today’s prices Qualcomm really shook things up in 2024 when it introduced its Snapdragon X Elite chips alongside Windows for ARM. The promise was performance and efficiency. While that performance was occasionally hard to see because of compatibility issues, the efficiency made itself apparent when I tested the Snapdragon-powered Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 and saw it run for almost 24 hours in our battery test. When I saw that Lenovo was introducing an Intel version, the potential was exciting: more consistent performance and compatibility alongside that amazing battery life. Unfortunately, potential is hard to realize, and the Intel-powered ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 struggled. It may be faster, but it ran as long, and somehow it earned an almost doubled price tag. When competitors like the HP EliteBook X G1a and Asus Vivobook S 14 offer more for less, the ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 ends up feeling like it has very little merit. Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6: Specs CPU: Intel Core Ultra 7 258V Memory: 32GB LPDDR5x Graphics/GPU: Intel Arc 140V Display: 14-inch 1200p IPS, Anti-glare Storage: 512GB PCIe Gen4 SSD Webcam: 5MP + IR Connectivity: 2x Thunderbolt 4 / USB4, 2x USB-A 5Gbps, 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x 3.5mm combo audio, 1x Kensington Nano  Networking: WiFi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 Biometrics: Windows Hello fingerprint, facial recognition Battery capacity: 58 watt-hours Dimensions: 12.3 x 8.6 x 0.66 inches Weight: 2.79 pounds MSRP: $3,079 as-tested ($3,079 base) At the time of writing, Lenovo only lists a pair of different configurations for the Intel-powered ThinkPad T14s Gen 6. Our test configuration actually isn’t among them, as it features just 512GB of storage while the available models both include 1TB PCIe Gen 5 SSDs. If it were configured with 1TB of storage, the unit tested here would cost $3,079 and otherwise have all the above specifications. Lenovo also offers a $3,429 model with a largely similar configuration except it bumps up to an Intel Core Ultra 7 268V chip while swapping out the display for a touchscreen model with a far lower color gamut and lower brightness. While these are the configurations available now, Lenovo appears to have more planned. A product specification reference sheet mentions 10 different CPU options, memory ranging from 16GB to 64GB, additional IPS displays and a sharper OLED display, and even an alternate gray color.  Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6: Design and build quality IDG / Mark Knapp Familiarity is the name of the game for this version of the ThinkPad T14s Gen 6. It bears the same name as the model I tested late last year for a reason — almost nothing has changed externally (or internally for that matter), save a crucial CPU switch. This model comes in the same blacked out, coated aluminum chassis that’s become such a staple of the ThinkPad line. Like its Snapdragon-powered counterpart, this model weighs little at just 2.79 pounds. It’s not as thin as can be, but it’s still compact and feels fairly sturdy, exhibiting a good deal less flex in the display than some thin-and-light laptops. It stands with two small rubber feet at the front and a wide rubber foot at the back. These should provide more than adequate clearance for air to reach the single intake fan on the underside of the laptop, which is tucked away underneath a small section of grille. The rest of the base is otherwise flat, solid, and unadorned.  The top surface of the keyboard deck is a little busier. It features the ThinkPad logo engraved into one corner. Speaker grilles flank either side of the keyboard, with the right grille a little smaller than the left as the power button cuts into its space. That power button also doubles as a fingerprint scanner.  The display has a wide hinge that holds the display firmly in place. There’s an extra lip built onto the display lid for opening the laptop up, but the hinge is just firm enough and the base of the laptop just light enough that one-handed doesn’t work out. The little lip at the top of the display has the webcam and IR system for Windows Hello facial recognition built into it, and there’s a hardware camera shutter as well. When slid into place, this covers the camera with a bit of plastic that has a red dot on it, so it’s easy to see when the camera is covered and disabled. The lid of the ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 also features little adornment, but it includes a ThinkPad logo in one corner with a red, illuminated dot in the “i” of “ThinkPad,” and a silver Lenovo badge along one edge. Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6: Keyboard, trackpad IDG / Mark Knapp Like its Snapdragon-counterpart, the keyboard on this laptop is good but not excellent. The keys aren’t firmly stabilized, so they can wiggle at the edges, leading to a mushier feel that stands in the way of consistency. They still benefit from a slight contour and good spacing, making it all the easier to feel them out and remain centered for quick touch-typing, but I struggled to go much beyond 100 words per minute without seeing my typing accuracy sink as I dealt with missed taps.  Beyond typing, there are positive aspects to the keyboard. Its white backlights effectively illuminate both the primary and secondary legends on the keys. The function row has distinctly grouped clusters, so you can readily feel out the keys you want instead of having to peek down at the keyboard. And because these function keys are compact, Lenovo was able to squeeze in Home, End, Insert, and Delete into an additional cluster at the top-right corner of the keyboard. The arrow keys are also compact and offset. While their size can make them feel a little cramped, the offset makes it easier to access them and helps avoid mistaken presses, as they don’t take up space that would otherwise have belonged to the right Shift key.  The trackpad is wonderfully smooth and respectably wide. The physical buttons for use with the TrackPoint nib cut into the touchpad’s vertical space, but they provide a useful role if you prefer the nib for navigation. Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6: Display, audio IDG / Mark Knapp You don’t get the most gorgeous, vivid display in the world from the ThinkPad T14s Gen 6, but you get an almost ideal screen for productivity. I measured it reaching exactly the 500-nit brightness level advertised. Combine that brightness with the incredible anti-glare finish, and you’ve got a display that’s easy to see even in some pretty heinous conditions.  The screen isn’t crazy sharp, but 1920×1200 on a 14-inch screen still provides clarity even for tiny text. The strong contrast, which I measured at 1,900:1 also helps with clarity. Though color may not be as precious for productivity, this display achieved 100 percent coverage of the sRGB color space and has a reasonable degree of accuracy, so you shouldn’t run into issues of web content not appearing as intended.  The speakers put out a good bit of volume, more than enough to listen to speech in videos in a quiet room. But the audio sounds a little resonant in the chassis at full volume. The speakers sound a bit cleaner at 50 percent volume, and the audio is still loud enough at this level.  This ultimately isn’t a great entertainment package, but the combination of serviceable speakers and a high-visibility display offer excellent utility. The screen isn’t crazy sharp, but 1920×1200 on a 14-inch screen still provides clarity even for tiny text. Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6: Webcam, microphone, biometrics IDG / Mark Knapp As tested, the ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 comes with a 5MP webcam that also supports Windows Hello facial recognition. This is a quick and convenient way of logging in. The camera can also play some extra security roles, serving to dim the display if you look away or lock the system if you walk away through Windows settings. The camera itself is good, offering a sharp picture with natural exposure even in slightly dimmer environments.  The microphones come together nicely with the camera, offering clear vocals when recording. They don’t pick up too much echo and they do a decent job eliminating background noise.  Beyond the camera, the ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 includes a fingerprint scanner built into the power button. This works with Windows Hello, but Synaptics’s software also allows you to set whether it will provide authentication “through all security levels.” Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6: Connectivity IDG / Mark Knapp Like the Snapdragon model, this Intel-powered system has respectable connectivity. It’s essentially the same with two USB-C ports, an HDMI 2.1 port, and a 3.5mm combo jack on the left of the laptop and two USB-A ports and a lock slot on the right. The only difference is that the USB-C ports here support Thunderbolt 4 while the other model supported USB4 (though both protocols offer 40Gbps speeds) The laptop offers Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4, and both have proven quick-to-connect and stable in my testing.  Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6: Performance This version of the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 has a lot of promise for general users worried about the limitations of the ARM-based model. The Intel-powered version supports x86-coded software natively, and that can mean better performance than the other system when it relies on translation. That said, neither version of the ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 is alone in the market. The HP EliteBook X G1a offers a similarly professional-oriented system and has a competitive price at $2,749 as tested. And there’s no ignoring the consumer-focused models out there that don’t come with the same kind of prosumer premiums. This lets models that can compete on performance come in at considerably lower prices, like the $1,199 Asus VivoBook S 14 and $1,499 MSI Summit 13 AI + Evo.  IDG / Mark Knapp Overall performance is solid. The ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 lines up nicely against its competition here, with about the performance I’d expect out of a high-end, thin-and-light laptop. Hitting 5,000 points in PCMark 10 is generally a good sign for everyday performance, and higher scores only suggest faster, snappier experiences and a bit more muscle for workloads like photo and video editing and design work. Much higher scores in 8000s and 9000s tend to be the exclusive domain of powerful workstations and gaming laptops, not models running efficient processors like these.  While overall performance was good, it’s not too surprising to see the ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 lagging behind in brute force. Our HandBrake encoding test works the system hard, and the longer the test goes, the more heat builds up, and the slower the system gets. Very few thin-and-lights can zip through this test, but with strong thermal management and a decent processor, they can do a decent job. The ThinkPad has neither here. Its processor is neither extremely fast nor is its modest cooling system very robust. As a result, we see the ThinkPad get the worst result here, and the cooling seems the culprit. The ThinkPad uses a low-power processor that didn’t have much chance keeping pace with the HP EliteBook’s high-power processor (the tides turn in battery life, though). But The Asus VivoBook and MSI Summit both use the same processor as the ThinkPad. Their leads here show the benefit of better thermals. IDG / Mark Knapp The performance gap is further borne out in Cinebench. Earlier versions of Cinebench ran quick CPU tasks, and that let the ThinkPad actually come close to the VivoBook in single- and multi-core performance, and it even saw the ThinkPad consistently beating the Summit in those tests. But Cinebench R23 pushed it harder and hotter, and its ability to keep pace sank it back behind the Vivobook. With Cinebench R24 running the test for a minimum of 10-minute, heat is guaranteed, and the ThinkPad’s weaker cooling continues to drag it behind. Interestingly, it’s in Cinebench that we also see the difference between native x86 and ARM translation, as the Intel-based ThinkPad outperforms the Qualcomm-based in Cinebench R15, R20, and R23. But the tides turn in Cinebench R24, which can run on ARM natively. There, the Qualcomm-powered ThinkPad took the lead in multi-core performance, even if the Intel model still had superior single-core speeds.  That single-core performance is also Intel’s strength. All three Intel machines led with 122-123 points in single-core performance in Cinebench R24. So even though the HP EliteBook’s powerful AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 sped away in multi-core performance, it may not promise better responsiveness in everyday tasks.  IDG / Mark Knapp The graphics performance of all of these systems is middling. While you can do some light 3D work or gaming on the integrated graphics these come with, the performance is still night and day between all of these systems and a laptop running even a low-tier discrete GPU like the RTX 4050. At least the ThinkPad regains some ground on the EliteBook thanks to its more capable Intel Arc 140V graphics and on the MSI Summit, presumably because it’s managing power to the CPU and iGPU better. Still, the VivoBook’s performance lead (yet again) can’t be ignored.  Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6: Battery life When I tested the Qualcomm-powered ThinkPad T14s Gen 6, I was amazed to see it offer the best battery life I’d ever seen from a laptop. It ran for almost 24 hours. That was almost enough to make up for its performance deficits. So the prospect of having almost the same machine but running on an Intel chip with broader compatibility sounded great. Alas, the Snapdragon chipset was key to the efficiency. IDG / Mark Knapp In our video playback test, the Intel-powered ThinkPad doesn’t even come close to the Snapdragon model. It’s still a very worthy machine, reaching over 19 hours of runtime in our test. And in day-to-day use, it also proved capable of lasting through the workday. It also proved more efficient than the HP EliteBook, which fell just short of 11 hours. Unfortunately, the Asus VivoBook and MSI Summit that have posed so much trouble for the ThinkPad in performance also pose a threat in longevity, as both lasted just over 21 hours. It’s not that they’re more efficient, though. The Vivobook has a larger 75Wh battery and the Summit has a 70-watt hour battery.   Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6: Conclusion The ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 ends up in an awkward position where 1. If you care about the quality of the hardware, you’re better off elsewhere. 2. You care about the performance, you’re better off elsewhere. 3. You care about the battery life, you’re better off elsewhere. Or 4. If you care about all of those things, you’re better off elsewhere. Plenty of machines beat it in more than one respect there. The Asus VivoBook S 14 may not be as well built, for instance, but it has the lead in performance and battery life (plus an OLED display for what it’s worth). Meanwhile, the HP EliteBook XG1a may lag behind in battery life, but it has a nice build, great display, and largely superior performance.  And all of the laptops I’ve compared here have the advantage of being much cheaper — including the EliteBook. At over $3,000 for this configuration, this ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 has an undeniably premium tacked on. Some of that may be chalked up to enterprise features, but if you’re not in desperate need of those, it’s hard to see the worth, especially next to these rivals. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this ThinkPad get some massive discounts (the Snapdragon model has, as have plenty of other Lenovo laptops), but unless and until it does, it’s going to be hard to recommend for much more than its useful matte display. Read...

Have you heard this one before? A scrappy entertainment company launches a small catalog of ad-free streaming movies and TV shows for cheap. It doesn’t seem like a big deal at first, because the content is mostly B-movies and reruns, but it proves popular with consumers and goes on to change television entertainment as we know it. I could be referring to Netflix, which started down that exact path with its “Watch Now” streaming catalog way back in 2007. But I could also be prognosticating about Howdy, the $3-per-month streaming service that Roku launched just last week. The parallels are obvious. Roku is starting with a small catalog, heavy on filler, and claims it’s not trying to compete with incumbents. But it’s also arriving at a time when consumers are increasingly frustrated with the larger streaming services, which are becoming more like the bloated, expensive cable packages they once aimed to displace. Howdy might seem insignificant now, but like Netflix, it could become the start of something bigger. Howdy vs. Netflix Roku People tend to remember Netflix as offering an endless bounty of content in its early years, but in 2007, its catalog was tiny, with just 1,000 titles at the outset. Roku’s Howdy catalog is similarly small, with “thousands of titles,” according to Roku, and less than 10,000 hours of entertainment in total. This isn’t about quality over quantity, either. While Howdy has a handful of standouts, including Mad Max: Fury Road and Apocalpyse Now, it’s also filled with such forgettable TV shows as Nikita and Spartacus: Gods of the Arena. (The catalog has some overlap with The Roku Channel, Roku’s long-running free ad-supported streaming service, but there are unique titles on each.) That’s how it was with Netflix back in the day as well. “[T]he selection is fairly small, at least once you subtract the mind-boggling gigabytes of B movies — more like C or D movies — like Addicted to Murder III: Bloodlust and Witchcraft XI: Sisters in Blood,” David Pogue wrote of Netflix’s streaming launch. Early users created forum threads for recommending quality content—shows like The Office and films like Groundhog Day—from within the cruft. Of course, Netflix’s streaming catalog got better over time. The service struck a deal with Starz in 2008 to get new-release movies onto the service, and it outbid premium networks (including Starz) for Disney’s movie streaming rights in 2012. A series of deals with AMC brought such prestige TV shows as Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, and Mad Men onto the service, where they became more closely associated with Netflix than the cable network that originally aired them. By 2013, it was launching its own buzzy originals with House of Cards and Orange is the New Black. One could imagine Roku scaling up its own service in similar ways. The subscription business requires big hits to encourage sign-ups (something Roku itself has acknowledged in the past), so the company will surely seek flashier content deals for Howdy in the future. Its original programming arm could play a bigger role as well. Not rocking the boat Roku Here’s another parallel to consider: In its early years, Netflix claimed it was not competing with the incumbent cable business. Speaking to Kara Swisher in 2011, Netflix co-founder and (at the time) CEO Reed Hastings noted that cable subscriptions were up even as Netflix grew. “So it appears that to the consumer, Netflix is complementary,” he said. We all know what happened next: While Netflix kept growing, cable began to stagnate. And pretty soon, most major media companies were preparing their own streaming services to take on Netflix directly. Netflix was always going to compete with the incumbents, but it had to insist otherwise because it needed to keep licensing their content. Now, Roku is taking a page from Netflix’s playbook. In a press release, Roku CEO Anthony Wood said Howdy is “designed to complement, not compete with, premium services.” I doubt he actually believes that, but it’s something he’s obligated to say while Roku builds up the Howdy catalog. The next wave Roku I’m drawing these parallels so we can better understand what else is next for streaming, because all we’ve seen from the incumbents looks a lot like cable. Netflix keeps getting more expensive as it pursues more high-dollar sports programming, and services like Peacock and Paramount+ are following suit. The endgame for major streamers now is to push people toward bundles they might not need, with ad-supported tiers that pack in more commercials than were originally promised. I believe a new phase of cord-cutting is inevitable, in which the folks who initially fled cable will start to reevaluate their relationship with major streaming services as well. Free streaming services such as YouTube, Tubi, and even TikTok will play a role in this shift, but there’s also a room for ad-free services that are cheaper than the likes of Netflix, HBO Max, and Disney+. That’s a gap that Howdy could fill. Just as Netflix was able to build its streaming business off the success of its DVD rental program, Roku can build up Howdy on the success of its streaming players and smart TV platform. Before long it could become what Netflix once was: a successful, affordable streaming service that disrupts everything that came before. Sign up for Jared’s Cord Cutter Weekly newsletter to get more streaming TV insights every Friday. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Respectable 1080p performance Excellent OLED display Fans aren’t very loud Not wildly heavy Cons Lenovo’s pricing is all over the place Short battery life Our Verdict The Lenovo Legion 5i 15IRX10 pairs an excellent display with solid internals for a great gaming experience. With a $1,199 price tag on a configuration close to our test unit, the value looks good. Just avoid Lenovo’s unnavigable first-party pricing. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Lenovo Legion 5i Retailer Price $1,599.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Best Prices Today: Check today’s prices Lenovo has a new generation of gaming laptops out, and Legion 5i 15IRX10 sits at the affordable end of the stack without cutting down too much. It features powerful processor options and a few RTX 50-series GPUs to power your games. Though Lenovo makes finding a good value hard with a chaotic pricing system, this Walmart configuration comes closest to our test unit and pegs the system at a solid bargain of $1,199. At that price, things look real peachy for the potent Legion 5i 15IRX10. Lenovo Legion 5i: Specs and features Model number: 15IRX10 CPU: Intel Core i7-14700HX Memory: 32GB DDR5 Graphics/GPU: Nvidia RTX 5060 (40-watt TGP) Display: 15.1-inch 1600p OLED,165Hz, Dolby Vision, VESA Trueblack 600 Storage: 1TB PCIe Gen4 SSD Webcam: 5MP Connectivity: 1x USB-C 10Gbps with Power Delivery and DisplayPort 2.1, 1x USB-C 10Gbps with DisplayPort 1.4, 3x USB-A 5Gbps, 1x RJ45, 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x 3.5mm combo audio Networking: WiFi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 Biometrics: Windows facial recognition Battery capacity: 80 watt-hours Dimensions: 13.58 x 10.05 x 0.85 inches Weight: 4.3 pounds MSRP: Approximately $1,199 as-tested ($1,299 base) Though our test unit has the above configuration, Lenovo does not appear to offer this exact setup to consumers. There is plenty of customization available though. The Legion 5i 15IRX10 can come with 13th or 14th Gen Intel Core processors in this configurator, or even bump up to 2nd Gen Intel Core Ultra processors in a separate configurator. At the low end, you can get an Intel Core i7-13650HX with 16GB of memory, 512GB of storage, and an RTX 5050 for an “Est Value” of $1,634 (but an actual price of $1,299 at the time of writing) using the custom configuration tool. Bumping up to a Core i7-14700HX or Core i9-14900HX is also possible, but entails a swap to the RTX 5070 as well. Arrow Lake configurations have the same memory and storage options, but they start out with an Intel Core Ultra 7 255HX and RTX 5060 for an “Est Value” of $1,704 and actual pricing at $1,309. This can be upgraded to an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX, which also comes with an RTX 5070 instead, and brings the price to $1,559 (though the “Est Value” shows as $1,954). One notable difference of the Core Ultra models is that they upgrade one of the USB-C ports to Thunderbolt 4.  Using Lenovo’s custom configurations, there’s not a huge delta between the Raptor Lake and Arrow Lake options, and the Core Ultra models are likely to have superior single-core performance and battery life. That said, the configurator tends to have significantly higher prices than pre-configured models and therefore doesn’t offer a great value.  For those seeking the best price, Walmart offers the closest configuration to what we’re testing here. It’s available for $1,199 at the time of writing, and includes all of the above specifications except only 16GB of memory. Thankfully, that DDR5 is user-upgradeable, so you can cheaply bump it up to this system’s 32GB if needed. The Lenovo Legion 5i has an excellent display for gaming and entertainment, a sturdy build, solid performance, and surprisingly quiet fans. Lenovo Legion 5i: Design and build quality IDG / Mark Knapp The Legion 5i 15IRX10 isn’t remarkable in its design, but it’s not disappointing either. The system is completely blacked out aside from its Legion logo power button, the white keyboard legend and their RGB lighting, and a little gray Lenovo branding on the rear thermal shelf. All that black looks fine briefly, but it starts to show finger oils quickly.  The looks are largely clean with rounded corners and chamfered edges around the base that may not be super ergonomic but are at least more comfortable than sharp 90-degree angles. The base is all plastic with a smooth polycarbonate upper and rougher ABS plastic bottom. The base is fairly sturdy, not exhibiting much flex. The display is surrounded by modest plastic bezels. The back of the display gets the one premium aspect: an aluminum lid with Lenovo’s Legion branding embossed with a smoky mirror finish. The construction is similar to many of Lenovo’s other Legion laptops. The top of the display has an extra-large section to both house the camera and provide a lip for opening the lid easily. The display attaches to the base with two hinges slightly shifted forward from the back edge of the laptop. This creates a little butt (thermal shelf) at the back with extra room for heat sinks. That back edge is largely occupied by exhaust vents. No exhaust goes out the sides.  Underneath, the Legion 5i 15IRX10 sits on three large rubber feet that hold it firmly in place and lift it up a good ways to provide airflow into the two bottom fans. There’s a large grille underneath, though only a small percentage of this is actually grille — mostly right under the fans. In this case, this at least allows sufficient air intake and doesn’t provide any extra opportunity for dust to get in.  All told, the Legion 5i 15IRX10 isn’t particularly inspired or exciting, but it feels decent and is a sturdily built laptop. The choice of a 15.1-inch display provides decent screen space while keeping the laptop small enough to fit into even some tight laptop sleeves. It’s not so heavy either at just 4.3 pounds. And thanks to the very thin display and modest base, the build isn’t very thick for a gaming laptop.  Lenovo Legion 5i: Keyboard, trackpad IDG / Mark Knapp My experience with the Legion 5i 15IRX10’s keyboard has been somewhat mixed. On one hand, the keys are surprisingly well stabilized, and they have a decent dish to help feel out the center and edges. But their travel is kind of rubbery, giving them a somewhat odd feel, like they also push my fingers back when resetting. With some adjustment, I could see this actually turning into a positive, as a quick-resetting key is ready to press that much sooner, but as it stands, it sort of throws my fingers into a funk. I was ultimately able to get up to a typing speed of 114 words-per-minute with a decent 97 percent accuracy, but this still isn’t quite exceptional.  I still love that Lenovo accommodates a full-size set of arrow keys on many of its gaming laptops. This makes navigation so much easier. There’s also a full number pad on the right side of the keyboard, though this has slim keys that end up feeling a little cramped.  Lenovo packed in 24 RGB lighting zones, which ultimately kind of feels like overkill for any system that’s not just going to buckle down and give you per-key lighting. The 24 zones do allow for a slightly smoother wave or lighting that responds to audio playing from the computer. But the zones are all vertical columns, not functionally useful zones. Customization options are rather limited. And the edges of zones blend together when displaying different colors, so you won’t get an impactful and precise customization no matter how you shake it. The keyboard will let you cycle through backlighting presets by pressing Fn+Space, but there’s no key for adjusting backlighting brightness. That must be done through Lenovo’s Legion Space software. On the bright side, the lighting effectively illuminates the key legends.  The trackpad is nothing special. It’s fairly small for a laptop this size, but still spacious enough for four-finger gestures and general navigation. It’s far over to the left side of the computer, though, which can make it awkward to use for right-handed users. It’s mylar surface is also not as smooth as it could be. Lenovo Legion 5i: Display, audio IDG / Mark Knapp The Legion 5i 15IRX10 offers an excellent display. Just about every aspect of it delivers quality, and that’s great to see from a gaming laptop that skews toward the budget side of things. The 2560×1600 panel is plenty sharp at the size. It has the perfect contrast of OLED, not to mention the ultra-fast pixel response times. And with a 165Hz refresh rate, you’ll get smooth visuals both in and out of games. OLEDs weren’t always very bright, but this panel happily hits 523 nits. And to top it off, the panel is accurate. I measured its color accuracy at an average dE1976 of 0.51 with a max dE1976 of just 1.33. If you’ve got to do serious color work or just want to see your games the way they’re meant to look, this screen is up to the task. The audio isn’t quite as impressive, but it’s not bad. The speakers rely on the Nahimic app to provide sufficient sound, and it thankfully helps deliver on that. Playing games and watching movies, it provides plenty of audio generally, though I did find some spoken videos surprisingly quiet while listening with the app set to its default Music mode. There’s not much stereo separation from the little bottom-firing speakers even though they sit at the outer edges of the laptop, so they don’t make for the most engrossing game audio.  Lenovo Legion 5i: Webcam, microphone, biometrics IDG / Mark Knapp You’ll get a decent camera from the Legion 5i 15IRX10. Even though it’s sharp, it will appear a bit soft in modestly lit spaces. Even with several lights on in my small office, footage appeared soft and grainy. That said, it managed a very natural exposure. Though the camera offers a high resolution, it doesn’t have the infrared tech to enable facial recognition. The laptop also lacks a fingerprint scanner, so you’re out of luck for biometrics. The mic array on the Legion 5i 15IRX10 fails to impress. In a busy environment, it struggles thoroughly to capture my voice clearly. It does successfully eliminate background noise to a degree, but fully at the expense of its ability to pick me up. As soon as I talk in that loud environment, the background noise merges with my voice and makes anything I say unintelligible. Even in a quiet environment, my voice sounds rather distant with some room echo noticeable.  Lenovo Legion 5i: Connectivity IDG / Mark Knapp There’s little to get excited about from the Legion 5i 15IRX10’s various connections. It’s not making the most of its size, offering just two USB-C ports on the left side along with a USB-A port and Ethernet. The right side includes two USB-A ports, a 3.5mm jack, and a camera kill switch. The laptop’s charging port is located on the rear along with an HDMI port. The ports on the sides are rather awkwardly spaced with gaps of varying sizes between them. For instance, the USB-A ports on the right have the entire height of the keyboard dividing them. None of the ports are terribly fast either, with the USB-A ports topping out at 5Gbps and the USB-C ports hitting just 10Gbps — no 20 or 40Gbps ports. At least the HDMI port is up to the 2.1 spec. Both USB-C ports can also handle video output with one offering DisplayPort 2.1 and the other DisplayPort 1.4. The wireless connections are managed by a MediaTek card that offers Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. It’s been fast and reliable in my testing, though as with many MediaTek cards I’ve used over the years, there is often a small delay when waking up the laptop from sleep before it will reconnect to known networks.  Lenovo Legion 5i: Performance The Legion 5i 15IRX10 is built with high-performance in mind, even if it isn’t aiming for the highest levels possible on modern hardware. This kind of horsepower generally makes everyday operation and even light creative workloads a breeze. We can see that quite clearly in PCMark 10, which measures holistic performance of the system. The Legion 5i 15IRX10 performs wonderfully. It’s not exceptional in this category, though. Most gaming laptops have plenty to offer in this area, and the Legion 5i 15IRX10 actually ends up looking less impressive next to even older machines. The Dell G15 and Gigabyte G6X both ran on a lower-tier CPU and a prior-gen RTX 4060 GPU, and yet they came out ahead in this test. The previous generation Lenovo Legion 5i also came out well ahead thanks in part to a more potent CPU and faster storage.   IDG / Mark Knapp On the bright side, the Legion 5i 15IRX10 lagging behind those systems in PCMark isn’t the biggest deal, since all of the systems are offering smooth and responsive operation. And when it comes to raw horsepower, the Legion 5i 15IRX10 claws back some ground. Its processor offered substantially higher performance in Cinebench’s multi-core testing, dramatically outstripping all but the earlier Legion 5i’s Core i9-14900HX. This also helps us see why Lenovo opted for an older CPU. The newer Intel Core 7 240H falls well shy of the Core i7-14700HX’s performance, even failing to match its single-core speeds. It means little that the Core 7 240H is newer, though, as it’s actually a Raptor Lake CPU in disguise and not one of the newer Lunar Lake or Arrow Lake architectures.  IDG / Mark Knapp The combination of a potent CPU and newer RTX 5060 GPU works in the Legion 5i 15IRX10’s favor when it comes to graphics performance. Where it had fallen behind the prior-gen Legion in some cases, it turned the tides back into its favor in 3DMark’s Port Royal test, where it pulled well ahead of the Legion 5i. It also demonstrates how a strong CPU can avoid bottlenecks by thoroughly outpacing the Alienware 16 Aurora despite this machine running the same GPU. IDG / Mark Knapp Its performance in synthetic benchmarks translated well to actual games, too. It churned out an average of 153 fps in Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Here again, it shows the difference a CPU can make, as the RTX 5060-powered Alienware fell behind all the RTX 4060-powered machines because its CPU was holding the GPU back. The Legion 5i 15IRX10 doesn’t have the same issue, and that lets its RTX 5060 show the generational uptick in performance it’s capable of.  IDG / Mark Knapp This performance checks out in Metro Exodus as well, where the Legion 5i 15IRX10 again leads the pack by a decent margin. The balance of a strong CPU and GPU help it stay ahead of these other systems, which appear largely held back by the limitations of the RTX 4060 (or Intel Core 7 240H in Alienware’s case). Of course, this does also highlight the limitations of the Legion 5i 15IRX10. In very demanding games, like Metro Exodus, it can struggle to meet the 60 fps threshold. That said, the system could hit an 82 fps average in Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p Ultra.  IDG / Mark Knapp Performance is consistent, too. Running a string of Steel Nomad benchmarks, the Legion 5i 15IRX10 maintained nearly the same average framerate between runs. CPU and GPU temps also settled in and stopped increasing after just a couple minutes. The fans aren’t even terribly loud to manage the thermals.  Since the Legion 5i 15IRX10 has a 2560×1600 display, you might be tempted to play games at this resolution. In some lighter games, that will be readily doable. The Legion 5i 15IRX10 managed a 98 fps average in Shadow of the Tomb Raider at its native resolution. But in Cyberpunk 2077, it only hit 48 fps. For native resolution gaming, you’ll likely want to tap into DLSS and potentially frame generation technology.  Lenovo Legion 5i: Battery life As we see all too often, performance advantages tend to come at the peril of battery life. And sure enough, the Legion 5i 15IRX10 struggles to offer much longevity where runtime is concerned. In our local video playback test, it fell a little bit shy of four hours. That’s not only a bad result for a gaming PC, but it’s bad among this group, especially compared to the Alienware 16 Aurora’s surprisingly strong 10-hour runtime IDG / Mark Knapp In normal use, the battery life isn’t any better. I was able to stream a two-hour movie with the display at about 50 percent brightness and still have an hour of battery left. Web browsing, research, and writing consumed the battery at a similar rate, with it just scraping by at over three hours. Lenovo Legion 5i: Conclusion The Legion 5i 15IRX10 has plenty going for it as an affordable gaming laptop, assuming you steer clear of Lenovo’s inscrutable pricing and just go with the Walmart model closest to our test configuration. For $1,199, the Legion 5i 15IRX10 is offering a lot. It has an excellent display for gaming and entertainment, a sturdy build, solid performance, and surprisingly quiet fans. Though the design is decently portable, the battery doesn’t last long. So you’ll want to bring the charger if you plan to do much on the go. A lot of the value here hinges on the low price though. With upgraded internals, the price of different configurations can truly soar, and the quality of this laptop doesn’t quite feel like it stacks up against $2,000 systems. But as a low-cost option, it’s great. Read...

Have you heard this one before? A scrappy entertainment company launches a small catalog of ad-free streaming movies and TV shows for cheap. It doesn’t seem like a big deal at first, because the content is mostly B-movies and reruns, but it proves popular with consumers and goes on to change television entertainment as we know it. I could be referring to Netflix, which started down that exact path with its “Watch Now” streaming catalog way back in 2007. But I could also be prognosticating about Howdy, the $3-per-month streaming service that Roku launched just last week. The parallels are obvious. Roku is starting with a small catalog, heavy on filler, and claims it’s not trying to compete with incumbents. But it’s also arriving at a time when consumers are increasingly frustrated with the larger streaming services, which are becoming more like the bloated, expensive cable packages they once aimed to displace. Howdy might seem insignificant now, but like Netflix, it could become the start of something bigger. Howdy vs. Netflix Roku People tend to remember Netflix as offering an endless bounty of content in its early years, but in 2007, its catalog was tiny, with just 1,000 titles at the outset. Roku’s Howdy catalog is similarly small, with “thousands of titles,” according to Roku, and less than 10,000 hours of entertainment in total. This isn’t about quality over quantity, either. While Howdy has a handful of standouts, including Mad Max: Fury Road and Apocalpyse Now, it’s also filled with such forgettable TV shows as Nikita and Spartacus: Gods of the Arena. (The catalog has some overlap with The Roku Channel, Roku’s long-running free ad-supported streaming service, but there are unique titles on each.) That’s how it was with Netflix back in the day as well. “[T]he selection is fairly small, at least once you subtract the mind-boggling gigabytes of B movies — more like C or D movies — like Addicted to Murder III: Bloodlust and Witchcraft XI: Sisters in Blood,” David Pogue wrote of Netflix’s streaming launch. Early users created forum threads for recommending quality content—shows like The Office and films like Groundhog Day—from within the cruft. Of course, Netflix’s streaming catalog got better over time. The service struck a deal with Starz in 2008 to get new-release movies onto the service, and it outbid premium networks (including Starz) for Disney’s movie streaming rights in 2012. A series of deals with AMC brought such prestige TV shows as Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, and Mad Men onto the service, where they became more closely associated with Netflix than the cable network that originally aired them. By 2013, it was launching its own buzzy originals with House of Cards and Orange is the New Black. One could imagine Roku scaling up its own service in similar ways. The subscription business requires big hits to encourage sign-ups (something Roku itself has acknowledged in the past), so the company will surely seek flashier content deals for Howdy in the future. Its original programming arm could play a bigger role as well. Not rocking the boat Roku Here’s another parallel to consider: In its early years, Netflix claimed it was not competing with the incumbent cable business. Speaking to Kara Swisher in 2011, Netflix co-founder and (at the time) CEO Reed Hastings noted that cable subscriptions were up even as Netflix grew. “So it appears that to the consumer, Netflix is complementary,” he said. We all know what happened next: While Netflix kept growing, cable began to stagnate. And pretty soon, most major media companies were preparing their own streaming services to take on Netflix directly. Netflix was always going to compete with the incumbents, but it had to insist otherwise because it needed to keep licensing their content. Now, Roku is taking a page from Netflix’s playbook. In a press release, Roku CEO Anthony Wood said Howdy is “designed to complement, not compete with, premium services.” I doubt he actually believes that, but it’s something he’s obligated to say while Roku builds up the Howdy catalog. The next wave Roku I’m drawing these parallels so we can better understand what else is next for streaming, because all we’ve seen from the incumbents looks a lot like cable. Netflix keeps getting more expensive as it pursues more high-dollar sports programming, and services like Peacock and Paramount+ are following suit. The endgame for major streamers now is to push people toward bundles they might not need, with ad-supported tiers that pack in more commercials than were originally promised. I believe a new phase of cord-cutting is inevitable, in which the folks who initially fled cable will start to reevaluate their relationship with major streaming services as well. Free streaming services such as YouTube, Tubi, and even TikTok will play a role in this shift, but there’s also a room for ad-free services that are cheaper than the likes of Netflix, HBO Max, and Disney+. That’s a gap that Howdy could fill. Just as Netflix was able to build its streaming business off the success of its DVD rental program, Roku can build up Howdy on the success of its streaming players and smart TV platform. Before long it could become what Netflix once was: a successful, affordable streaming service that disrupts everything that came before. Sign up for Jared’s Cord Cutter Weekly newsletter to get more streaming TV insights every Friday. Read...

An inquiry was initiated in 2022 amid concerns the Adelaide establishment had been lax in policing anti-money laundering rules. Read...

The entertainer becomes the third American act in three years to headline the grand final pre-game entertainment. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Attractive, classy exterior design Broad suite of smart TV features Excellent contrast and color performance 165Hz refresh rate with FreeSync, G-Sync support Includes 4K webcam and dual-mic array Cons Limited ergonomic stand adjustment Confusing options and menu system Downstream USB connectivity is just two USB-A 2.0 ports HDR brightness fails to impress Our Verdict The Samsung Smart Monitor M9 is basically a 32-inch smart OLED TV, with most of the features you would expect a TV to have. That’s great if you want to stream Netflix or a cloud gaming service, but it leads to confusing menus and design quirks. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Samsung Smart Monitor M9 Retailer Price $1,599.99 View Deal $1599.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Best Prices Today: Check today’s prices Want a 32-inch smart television with good image quality? Or a 32-inch OLED monitor that you can use for Netflix and cloud gaming even when your PC is turned off? The Samsung Smart Monitor M9 might be your solution. This smart monitor has Samsung’s Tizen OS and supports all the features and functionality you’d expect of a Samsung television—for better, and sometimes, for worse. Read on to learn more, then see our roundup of the best monitors for comparison. Samsung Smart Monitor M9 specs and features The Samsung Smart Monitor M9’s basic specifications are typical for a 32-inch OLED, though just a tad underwhelming. It offers 4K resolution, but the maximum resolution is 165Hz (some competitors reach 240Hz). The monitor supports HDR10+, but not Dolby Vision. And while it supports USB-C upstream input with 90 watts of power, it has limited downstream USB connectivity. Display size: 31.5-inch 16:9 aspect ratio Native resolution: 3840×2160 Panel type: QD-OLED (matte) Refresh rate: 165Hz Adaptive sync: Yes, AMD FreeSync Premium Pro and Nvidia G-Sync Compatible HDR: Yes, HDR10+ Ports: 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x DisplayPort 1.4, 1x USB-C with 90 watts of Power Delivery, 2x USB-A 2.0 downstream Audio: 2x 10-watt speakers Additional features: Tizen OS, remote control, 4K webcam and dual-microphone array, Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.2 Price: $1599.99 MSRP, $1,299.99 typical retail However, the Smart Monitor M9 has what most 32-inch OLED monitors lack—a smart TV operating system. Specifically, it ships with Samsung’s Tizen OS. To support that, it also has a remote control, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. A webcam with microphone is thrown in for good measure. The Smart Monitor M9 has a retail MSRP of $1,599.99, but it doesn’t appear to retail at that price often. It’s frequently discounted to $1,299.99. That’s a bit expensive for a 32-inch OLED monitor, but in line with premium competitors like the HP Omen Transcend 32 and LG Ultragear 32GS95UE-B (neither of which have smart TV features). Samsung Smart Monitor M9 design The Samsung Smart Monitor M9 leans on a conservative, classy design that doesn’t take risks but should look good in any situation. From the front it’s almost all screen, aside from the top bezel, where a webcam lurks. Around back it’s an expanse of gunmetal materials, mostly plastic, which are understated but look expensive. The panel is quite thin, too, and while it does have a bump-out that contains the ports, it’s small and unobtrusive. Matthew Smith / Foundry The monitor ships with an L-shaped stand that has a compact, flat base that won’t take up much space on a desk. Annoyingly, though, the stand requires a screwdriver to assemble (most monitor stands use a thumb screw). While the stand provides ergonomic adjustment, it’s not great. It adjusts 120mm for height and can also pivot 90 degrees. However, it can’t actually be used in portrait mode because the amount of height adjustment available doesn’t hold the display high enough off a desk to support portrait mode. Instead, the edge of the display will run into your desk at around 60 degrees of rotation. The stand allows tilt but doesn’t swivel, which most 32-inch monitor stands support. The monitor is also compatible with 100x100mm VESA mounts for use with third-party monitor arms and stands. Samsung Smart Monitor M9 connectivity The back of the Samsung Smart Monitor M9 provides three video inputs. One HDMI 2.1, one DisplayPort 1.4, and one USB-C with DisplayPort. All three support the monitor’s maximum refresh rate and resolution, though only in Game Mode (the maximum outside Game Mode is 120Hz). Three video inputs are typical for the category, though some, like the HP Omen Transcend 32, provide four. Connecting to the USB-C port also provides 90 watts of USB Power Delivery, which is enough to power many mid-range Windows laptops, and most MacBooks. The USB-C port provides downstream access to a pair of USB-A ports. They’re only USB-A 2.0, though, so they’re mostly there for a wired keyboard and mouse. That makes the Smart Monitor M9’s connectivity a bit of a mix. On the one hand, it provides a good variety of inputs and USB-C with Power Delivery, which is a must-have on a monitor in this price range. But it’s outclassed by monitors like the HP Omen Transcend 32, which not only has more video inputs, but also has USB-C with 140 watts of power. The LG UltraGear 32GS95UE-B also has a slight advantage, as its USB-A ports are at least USB 3.0, and it has a 3.5mm audio-out, which the Smart Monitor M9 lacks. Samsung Smart Monitor M9 Smart TV features The “Smart” in the Samsung Smart Monitor M9’s name means it ships with Samsung’s Tizen OS, the same operating system found on the company’s smart televisions. And much like on smart televisions, Tizen provides access to a huge range of apps and services. You can watch Netflix or play cloud gaming services like Amazon Luna, among other things. Put simply: The Smart Monitor M9 is a smart TV. In fact, it’s arguably more than that. It can even access some productivity apps, like Microsoft 365, so you can sorta-kinda use the monitor like a computer. You can use the Smart Monitor M9 to control Samsung SmartThings devices, too. Remember, though, that because it lacks a TV tuner, the Smart Monitor M9 can’t natively handle an over-the-air or coaxial cable TV signal. I go back and forth on how Samsung’s Tizen OS compares to LG’s WebOS, found on monitors like the LG MyView Smart Monitor 32SR85U, and Google TV OS, found on monitors like the MSI Modern MD272UPSW. Tizen OS is certainly the busiest of the three, in no small part due to the range of Samsung features that are integrated (you can use some Samsung phones to calibrate the monitor, for example, though you can also use some iPhones). That’s handy if you’re all-in on the Samsung ecosystem. If not, it can prove distracting. Matthew Smith / Foundry Unfortunately, the smart monitor features mean that setup is much more complicated than most monitors. It’s a multi-step process that involves Wi-Fi, Samsung accounts, terms of service, and more. I finished setup in about 5 minutes, but it’s sure to annoy those who just want a monitor to be plug-and-play. Oh—and what about the 4K webcam? It’s an odd inclusion but also a nice bonus. The webcam is available as a plug-and-play camera for any PC connected to the monitor’s USB-C port. That’s handy and, better still, both the camera and microphone array provide better quality than a run-of-the-mill webcam. It’s not perfect; the webcam lacks a physical privacy shutter, and the default field-of-view is strangely wide. Still, it’s nice to have if you regularly use a webcam to take video calls at your desk. Samsung Smart Monitor M9 menus and settings Smart TV features aside, the Samsung Smart Monitor M9 provides a decent range of image quality adjustment. There are options for gamma, color temperature, color calibration, and several preset modes that target specific color space. The menu system is confusing, however. Samsung inexplicably constrains the menu to a small portion of the display, so there’s not enough space to list the full text of some menu items (they instead scroll). I also noticed that many menu options, like fine-grain color temperature adjustments, are locked behind specific modes, while others are listed yet didn’t seem accessible. The monitor’s manual wasn’t helpful, either. Samsung, like LG, also makes the strange decision to summon an alternative menu when Game Mode is turned on. The menu is arranged differently and highlights different options, adding to the confusion. Game Mode is also required to access the 165Hz refresh rate. In summary: The menu system is a bit of a mess. The same is also true of LG webOS smart monitors, but I think Samsung’s menu system might be even worse. Both Samsung and LG would do well to re-think their menu systems. At the very least, can we get a menu large enough to list the full text of the options on-screen and ditch the weird alternate menu system for Game Mode? The Samsung Smart Monitor M9 isn’t a gaming monitor, but it still provides a respectable maximum refresh rate of 165Hz. Samsung Smart Monitor M9 audio The Samsung Smart Monitor M9 ships with 10-watt speakers that provide adequate audio. They are clear, crisp, and enjoyable at lower levels of volume, but quickly become muddy and harsh as volume levels ramp up. I’m honestly a bit perplexed as to why Samsung even allows the speakers to become as loud as they can, as they’re obviously not up to the task of delivering quality audio at anything above roughly half the speaker’s maximum volume. Despite that, it’s worth mention that many competitors don’t even have built-in speakers, and those that do have them are often worse. The HP Omen Transcend 32 has a pair of 3-watt speakers and the Alienware AW3225QF doesn’t have speakers at all. The Smart Monitor M9’s audio is fine for less demanding situations. For example, they were enjoyable when playing Rimworld and listening to podcasts on YouTube. LG’s Ultragear 32GS95UE-B, which has an innovative “Pixel Sound” system, is the one competitor that puts the Smart Monitor M9’s audio to shame. The LG 32GS95UE-B is not a smart monitor, though, and it’s usually $100 more expensive than the Samsung.   Samsung Smart Monitor M9 SDR image quality The Samsung Smart Monitor M9 of course has a Samsung QD-OLED panel. QD-OLED is a known quantity at this point. It consistently provides great performance, so much so that I’ve argued it doesn’t really matter which OLED monitor you buy—at least, not when it comes to SDR image quality. The Smart Monitor M9 does little to disprove that point, but it looks great. It also has a matte display finish, which is unusual for an OLED and will make or break the display for some. Matthew Smith / Foundry The Samsung Smart Monitor M9 produced a sustained SDR brightness of 252 nits. As the graph shows, that’s typical and mid-pack for an OLED monitor, with most falling between 240 and 260 nits. That level of brightness is fine for indoor use in a room with light control, but it might seem dim in a very brightly lit room, or opposite a sunlit window. With that said, the Smart Monitor M9 has a matte coat, which is unusual. The coat effectively diffuses reflections, which makes it easier to see the monitor in bright rooms, or when a bright light source is opposite the display. On the downside, though, it will make the monitor seem a bit less contrast-rich than a glossy alternative. I prefer a matte coat over glossy, but your opinion may vary, and it’s a key point. The matte display finish might be the reason you choose the Smart Monitor M9, or avoid it, depending on your preference. Matthew Smith / Foundry While the matte coat can reduce apparent contrast due to how it diffuses light across the display, the Smart Monitor M9 still provides the same infinite contrast ratio as other OLED displays. That’s true because it reached a perfect minimum luminance of zero nits. As a result, it provides a rich and immersive image with a good sense of dimensionality. The same is true of all modern OLED monitors, however. The contrast ratio, though obviously excellent, doesn’t set the Smart Monitor M9 apart from the pack. Matthew Smith / Foundry QD-OLED monitors are excellent in color gamut, providing a wide color gamut that displays many colors. As a result, the Smart Monitor M9 can display 100 percent of the sRGB color gamut, 98 percent of DCI-P3, and 94 percent of AdobeRGB. The monitor looks vivid and saturated. However, once again, the Smart Monitor M9’s excellent performance doesn’t separate it from the pack. All QD-OLED monitors have similar color gamut. Monitors with an LG WOLED panel fall a bit behind QD-OLED, though their color gamut is still solid overall. Matthew Smith / Foundry The Smart Monitor M9 also has excellent color accuracy straight out of the box. While keen users with specific needs may want to calibrate it to reach certain standards, the default image is exceptionally accurate for general use. The monitor’s color error is more prominent in grayscale than it is in color, which contributes to a default gamma curve value of 2.3. That means the image is a bit darker than intended. It’s a small difference but might result in some slight loss of shadow detail in uniformly dark scenes. Color temperature, on the other hand, was spot on the target value of 6500K. That means the image doesn’t look too warm or too cool. Sharpness is a perk. The native resolution of 3840×2160 works out to about 140 pixels per inch across the 31.5-inch OLED panel. Though obviously not as sharp as a 27-inch 4K display, it’s still an excellent pixel density that looks sharp in everything from games to Microsoft Word. In summary, the Samsung Smart Monitor M9’s SDR image is exactly as excellent as expected. It performs identically to other QD-OLED monitors. The only major difference is subjective: the matte display finish. Whether you like that, or not, will depend on your own preference. Samsung Smart Monitor M9 HDR image quality The Samsung Smart Monitor M9 is VESA DisplayHDR 400 True Black certified. That’s typical for a QD-OLED monitor. However, it turns out that HDR brightness is a downside for the Smart Monitor M9. Matthew Smith / Foundry I tried the Smart Monitor M9 in all available HDR modes, but it never crept much higher than 450 nits even in peak highlights. Lighting a larger area of the display led to even lower HDR brightness, which is typical for an OLED monitor. That’s not to say the Smart Monitor M9 looks bad in HDR. It still has the contrast and color performance needed to deliver a vibrant, saturated, accurate image. However, the lack of brightness will be noticeable in bright HDR highlights. In the Gargantua scene from Interstellar, for example, I noticed less detail in the bright swirling gasses closest to the black hole. Subtle variations in brightness that are visible on some other OLED monitors weren’t visible on the Smart Monitor M9. On one final note, the Samsung Smart Monitor M9 does allow brightness adjustment in HDR mode. While increasingly common, not all monitors allow this, as HDR typically controls brightness based on content. For a monitor, however, full brightness control is preferable, and I am glad to see the Smart Monitor M9 provides it. Samsung Smart Monitor M9 motion performance The Samsung Smart Monitor M9 isn’t a gaming monitor, but it still provides a respectable maximum refresh rate of 165Hz. That’s not as good as 32-inch OLED gaming monitors, which tend to hit 240Hz, but it still provides a major boost in motion clarity over a 60Hz display. Fast-moving objects look crisp and fast camera pans in 3D games provide respectable detail. The difference between the Smart Monitor M9’s 165Hz refresh rate and a superior 240Hz monitor is most noticeable when viewing small text or UI elements. If you’re trying to track the HP bar or status icons above an enemy, for example, it can be a bit more difficult on the Smart Monitor M9 than on a 240Hz alternative, like the HP Omen Transcend 32 or Alienware AW3225QF. Of course, those alternatives aren’t smart monitors, so you’ll have to make a choice between motion clarity and smart features. Adaptive Sync is supported on the Smart Monitor M9, and it even lists official support for AMD FreeSync Premium Pro and Nvidia G-Sync Compatible. That’s great to see in a monitor that doesn’t bill itself as a gaming display. Should you buy the Samsung Smart Monitor M9? Samsung’s Smart Monitor M9 is a bundle of perks and downsides that make for a confusing recommendation. The monitor has a confusing menu system, limited downstream connectivity, and mediocre HDR brightness. However, it also packs useful smart TV features, complete with remote control, and has a rare (for OLED) matte display finish that reduces glare and makes the monitor more viewable in brighter room. Deciding whether the Smart Monitor M9 works for you requires careful consideration of these perks and problems. It can work as a TV alternative in small spaces, has the color performance for creative work, and a matte coat that looks great when writing in Word or browsing the web. But if you want an OLED monitor largely for PC gaming, or HDR entertainment, you’ll find better performance elsewhere. Read...