Music streaming service YouTube Music appears to have a new trick to nudge free users toward a YouTube Premium subscription. Android Authority reports that the music service now locks song lyrics behind a paywall. Free users report on Reddit that they can now see only a limited number of lyrics. To view more, they’re prompted to upgrade to a Premium subscription. This isn’t the first time a music streaming platform has tried this approach. Spotify, YouTube Music’s rival, tried something like this last year but quickly backed off after users (rightfully!) complained. The people of Reddit are pretty annoyed too, saying they use lyrics for karaoke, sing-alongs, or just learning new songs. They feel the change is a frustrating way to monetize features that were previously free. YouTube Music has over 125 million users, and this little lyrics paywall might push some folks to go Premium. But it could also anger folks who just want to see the words without feeling forced to cough up the cash. Whether other services like Apple Music or Amazon Music follows suit, or if enough people complain to make YouTube back off, only time will tell. Read...

I don’t know how your tech drawers look, but mine are filled with wires I’ll likely never use again because technology has advanced quite a bit. Thankfully, USB-C seems to be here to stay since there is no wrong way to plug these things in. It’s not just smartphones, tablets, and laptops that use these, however, but also a long list of gadgets. We’ve scoured the market for hidden gems: 12 gadgets that will make you think “Wow, I didn’t know I needed that, but it will make my life so much easier!” Let’s dive in and see what cool devices you’ll be able to use your type-C cables and ports with. Wowstick 1F+ mini electric screwdriver Wowstick If you often have to fiddle around with your computer or other gadgets, this Wowstick mini electric screwdriver may be just what you need. This pen-shaped screwdriver features three LED lights so it’s easier to see what you’re working on and rotates 200 times per minute so you can finish the job faster. The screwdriver has a stylish base so you can hold it on your desk, and a whole collection of 56 aluminum alloy bits. The screwdriver can be charged via USB-C and it can last for hours. This super fun electric screwdriver usually goes for $41. Anker Nano Power Bank Anker One thing you need to have in you bag/pocket/backpack is a power bank because you never really know when your phone will fail you and cry for a recharge. Well, the Anker Nano power bank is tiny enough to fit just about anywhere. It comes with a foldable USB-C connector and a port on the side so you can charge two devices at once if you need to. The 5,000mAh capacity is just about enough for a full phone recharge, so it will be great in a pinch. It’s also only $30, but we’ve seen it as low as $16. Endoscope camera with light Ennovor Although it’s not something you’ll use every day, this Ennover endoscope camera can definitely come in handy. You just plug it in your phone, install and app, and see everything your camera does. Our team swears by it, using it for finding whatever they dropped behind the desk, while working on the car, or looking for pipe leaks. Since it has an IP67 rating, you can even plop it in your aquarium. The camera comes with a 16.4ft semi-rigid cable and several accessories, including a hook, magnet, and a mirror. You can get this one for $23 right now. Blukar flashlight Blukar I don’t care who you are—you need a flashlight. The smaller, the better, because you get to shove it into any pocket. This model from Blukar comes with a built-in 1800mAh battery that you’ll recharge with one of those many type-C cables you have in that tech drawer we were talking about. It can work for up to 16 hours on a single charge, which is pretty decent. There are four different lightning modes to cycle through, including one that will help you signal for help. Plus, one of these is only $10, so no excuse to pass on this one. Heat It insect bite healer Anyone plagued by mosquitoes in the summer will be particularly pleased with this ingenious gadget. This tiny device, which can be easily connected to your smartphone via USB-C, can significantly reduce the itching of bites and stings with targeted heat. You simply charge the small Heat It bite healer via the app and then hold it on the bite. The heat then does the rest, breaking down the proteins in the mosquito bite that cause the area to swell, itch, and hurt. A true must-have for summer, and it costs only $20. A tiny air pump Also perfect for summer is this small air pump from Cycplus, which fits in any bag while on the go. Not only can it inflate a bicycle tire in two minutes at the touch of a button, but it’s also USB-charged. According to the manufacturer, it’s suitable for mountain bikes, road bikes, motorcycles, and even cars! In addition to being an air pump, this practical gadget can also be used as a flashlight or power bank for on-the-go use — all things that come in very handy on a bike ride. And at just $57, it’s highly recommended if you need quick help with a flat tire. USB-C mini fan These little fans are also pretty ingenious; you can easily carry them in your pocket in the summer and quickly use them whenever you need them. Anyone who’s ever sat on a crowded subway train in 30-degree heat and wished for at least a little fresh air will love this gadget. The mini fan, which costs just $20, has a USB-C port and can be easily powered by power banks, computers, laptops, or USB chargers. There are even smaller and cheaper fans available that can be connected directly to your phone, costing under $10 each. But these also provide less powerful airflow, so we recommend the standalone version. Reading light with a book clamp Anyone who enjoys reading a lot, sometimes late into the night, will appreciate this little gadget: a reading lamp that you can simply clip onto your book. It may not be groundbreaking, but with a total of three color temperatures and five different light modes, you can individually adjust how much light you need for reading. The Gritin reading lamp costs just $15 on Amazon and features a 1200 mAh battery that lasts up to 80 hours depending on usage. Afterward, you can easily recharge it via USB. You can swivel the neck of the lamp back and forth as desired, and there’s even a small charging indicator. What more could you want? External DVD Drive Amicool If your laptop is like mine and lacks a DVD drive, then this little gadget will come in handy for you. This Amicool external DVD drive uses a USB-C (or USB-A) to connect to your laptop and give yout he optical drive you sometimes need. It can read and burn DVDs and CDs with ease, allowing you to install software, copy files, back up data, play games, and so on. You won’t even need to install drives as this thing is plug and play. While this thing’s usually $29, you can often get it for around $20, which is an absolute bargain. Samsung flash drive Samsung The vast majority of flash drives have a USB-A connector, but this one from Samsung has a Type-C connector. With transfer speeds of up to 400MB/s, you’ll move files around in no time. The beauty of this thumb drive is that you can even pop it in your smartphone to record 4K vids directly on it. The Samsung Type-C flash drive comes in multiple storage options, starting at 64GB and up to 512GB and they start at $14. The 256GB version, for instance, is $27 at the time of writing. Type-C microSD card reader Ugreen Most laptops nowadays don’t come with a card reader anymore (I know mine doesn’t), so finding other ways to get data off those little buggers is a must. Whether you need to pull data off your dashcam’s card or if it’s from your camera, this tiny Ugreen USB-C microSD reader will work just fine. This reader is tiny enough that you should probably put it on a keychain of some kind. If you’d rather a slightly more versatile version, Ugreen has a model that also works with SD cards and features both USB-C and USB-A connectors. Any of these will cost you less than $10, so they’re worthwhile investments. USB-C to HDMI adapter Anker If your laptop has a USB-C port but you haven’t updated your monitor in ages, your display won’t feature a Type-C port. This Anker adapter fixes this problem for you, enabling you to connect the regular HDMI cable you plug in your monitor with this gadget. The adapter supports resolutions of up to 4K at 60Hz, which is pretty awesome. This is also a nifty way to connect your phone or tablet to your monitor or TV. This thing’s $20, but we’ve seen it as low as $12. Editor’s note: This article was originally published on May 16, but was updated to include additional devices. Read...

I firmly believe that every home—especially if you’re in a single-family house—should have at least one outdoor security camera. It offers untold peace of mind when you’re away at work, on vacation, or even chilling in your bed. And if you don’t have one yet, this deal is for you: Tapo’s C320WS 2K security cam is now just $34.98 (was $44.99) on Amazon. This is a wired camera, so you’ll need to run a power cable to it—make sure you pick a mounting spot that’s close enough to a power outlet so you can get it plugged in. That’s all the “support” this camera needs. Once it’s going, it connects to your home Wi-Fi network and you can manage everything from your phone. Plus, how cute are those little antennas that improve its Wi-Fi connectivity? Cuteness aside, this is a heck of a camera that captures video footage in crystal-clear 2560×1440 resolution (also known as 2K), allowing you to see even more details than most cameras in this price range. At night, it uses a Starlight night sensor to capture high-quality images in any lighting condition. It’s also weatherproof with an IP66 rating, so it’ll survive outdoors just fine. The two-way audio is nice for speaking to whoever’s outside, and the built-in siren can help scare away unwanted guests. The Tapo C320WS is fully compatible with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, so you can pull up and check out your security footage at any time using a voice command. It supports both microSD storage (not included) and cloud storage (requires paid subscription), with the latter providing 30 days of history and extra features. Add a high-quality security camera to your home with the Tapo C320WS, and get it now while it’s 22% off! Get this awesome Wi-Fi security cam for just $35 while you canBuy now at Amazon Read...

These days, getting a mini PC makes more sense for a lot of people than investing in a massive desktop PC or a powerful laptop that costs a lot more than it should. With a mini PC, you can pay less and get more. Just look at this Beelink SER8 mini PC, which you can get for just $498.99 (was $629) on Amazon right now. Compare it to any similarly priced laptop to see just how much more you’re getting! This is a super-fast machine is perfect for home offices, with enough power to handle all your work apps, creative apps, media streaming, browser tabs, and more. The Beelink SER8 features a speedy AMD Ryzen 7 8745HS processor and a significant 32GB of fast DDR5 RAM, plus a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD that’s both spacious and zippy. You can also upgrade the RAM (up to 256GB) and SSD (up to 8TB). As long as you aren’t a hardcore gamer, you’ll be good to go for years with this thing. That said, if you only want to do some modest gaming, this PC can handle it thanks to the integrated AMD Radeon 780M graphics. If you’re okay with low graphical settings and 30 FPS, you can actually get by pretty well with this thing. One of my favorite benefits, though, is the multitasking support. The Beelink SER8 can handle up to three 4K@120Hz monitors via the HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 1.4, and USB4 ports. You also get plenty of other connectivity, including a fast USB-C data port, two fast USB-A, two slower USB-A for peripherals, a 2.5G Ethernet, and a 3.5mm audio jack. It also has built-in Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2, so you’re wirelessly covered. The Beelink SER8 is an insane value for $498.99, so take advantage of this limited-time Amazon deal while you still can! Save 21% on this powerhouse mini PC with surprisingly good specsBuy now at Amazon Read...

Ask anyone who’s tried a standing desk and they’ll all say the same thing: it makes your feet hurt. It makes sense since you aren’t used to it yet, especially if you’ve been sitting all day every day for years. It takes more effort to stand than sit, and you have to develop your tissues to withstand the constant pressure of being on your feet. But that pain may not go away on its own. Standing for hours at a time can cause muscle strains and aches and pains that only seem to get worse with time. I struggled with horrendous foot pain during my first few weeks with a standing desk, and it eventually evolved into plantar fasciitis. Fortunately, that wasn’t the end of the story. I’m happy to report that it’s been a few years since my first foray into standing desks and now I can stand all day without any pain—plus the benefits to my back and posture have been enormous. I’m glad I stuck with it. I just had to learn how to take care of my feet while using my standing desk. Here are my three favorite solutions that actually worked. Solution #1: Anti-fatigue mat The most important and most effective recommendation I can make for anyone who’s a long-term standing desk user is to get a proper anti-fatigue standing mat. The keyword there is “proper.” Not all anti-fatigue mats are equal, and getting the wrong one is just a waste of your money. Truth is, there are so many standing mat designs out there, ranging from simple and compact options to expansive mats with all sorts of ridges and bumps. I’ve tried my fair share over the years and I’ve developed my own preferences—but even then, some are objectively better. The Topo Comfort Mat by ErgodrivenJoel Lee / Foundry For starters, simple memory foam is a no-go. While this material is fantastic for your bedtime pillow, it’s next to useless when it comes to standing on it all day long. You exert too much force on it and it will very quickly lose its supportive and cushioning capabilities. If you see an anti-fatigue mat meant for kitchens, skip it. They’re usually made of memory foam and won’t provide the all-day relief you need at a standing desk. I’d also avoid any standing mat that’s totally flat and uninteresting in its design. Not because they’re dull to look at, but because variety in texture and shape can make a real difference to your standing comfort. Again, anti-fatigue mats for kitchens are usually like this, so skip them. Instead, look for contours, bumps, ridges—features that not only encourage different stances but also let you relieve pressure points. The Active Anti-Fatigue Mat E7 by UpliftJon Martindale / Foundry The design I’ve personally settled on is the Uplift Active Anti-Fatigue Mat E7. It’s huge and takes up far too much floor space for something so simple, but it’s really comfortable and effective. The polyurethane is tough but flexible so it contours when I stand on it, but not so much as to provide no resistance. When my feet start to tire or ache, I can use the mat itself to massage them—especially the half-spheres on the sides, which are great for digging into the arches. The prickly section offers points of micro pressure, which feel really nice on tired feet. To be fair, the Uplift E7 mat isn’t the only one that offers these features, and it’s expensive for what it is, but I think it’s worth the money. It works well with bare feet and with shoes, it’s durable and holds its properties, and it comes with a 15-year warranty. Uplift is confident you won’t wear this thing out. (I consider that a challenge!) Solution #2: Balance board Maybe you already have an anti-fatigue standing mat, or maybe you just want more variety to your standing movements. In that case, a balance board can be a great alternative to a static mat. There are several different designs out there, but they mostly boil down to one core idea: a flat board on a half-sphere that forces you to maintain your balance on it. As you shift your weight around, it rocks from side to side with you, engaging a bunch of balance-related muscles, encouraging physical effort, and ensuring your feet are never still for too long. The Yo-Yo Board 360Jon Martindale / Foundry Standing on a balance board burns calories, but that’s not its main purpose. The most important benefit is that it keeps blood pumping freely in your legs, helping to thwart deep vein thrombosis (one of the most common issues that comes with all-day standing). I’ve tried a few different designs over the years, but I really like the Yo-Yo Board 360. It’s short enough that it can be easily rotated in any direction, yet tall enough to allow some deep dips to the side, front, or back depending on how I’m using it. It also has a thick foam pad for extra cushioning for my feet. Other boards with thinner foam seem to wear out over time as the foam compresses, providing less support for my feet even as it retains its cool rocking function. Unfortunately, the Yo-Yo Board 360 is hard to get in the US. If you want something similar, you can find some solid alternatives on Amazon, including the Fezibo Anti-Fatigue Balance Board. The Fezibo Anti-Fatigue Balance BoardFezibo Beyond just helping my feet, though, I’ve found balance boards to be a fun way to fidget while standing to work. I can rock the board onto its side, drop it back down again, do 360-degree spins, and a bunch of flamingo legging to help ease any stress on one leg or the other. All-day static standing isn’t much better than all-day static sitting, so using something like this to increase the variety of your movements can be really useful for managing foot pain and aches. Solution #3: Under-desk treadmill Want to really burn calories while you work and alleviate a lot of your standing desk foot pain? Try an under-desk treadmill! Okay, so this one isn’t something you can use all day long, and it’s definitely something you want to build up to over time. (If you thought standing while working was tricky, walking is a whole other kettle of fish.) But this one is the ultimate in multipurpose productivity. I did a quick 40 minutes on my WalkingPad Z1 foldable treadmill this morning, burning a swift 86 calories, and I barely noticed it. My legs were a bit tired afterwards and I sweated a bit more than I normally do while writing an article, but now that I’m used to walking while writing, I can do it quite easily. Not for long periods of time—so I still need the anti-fatigue mat, balance board, and an ergonomic office chair for breaks—but it’s an excellent addition to my collection of foot-saving accessories. The WalkingPad Z1 Foldable Under-Desk TreadmillJon Martindale / Foundry Since using an under-desk treadmill, I’ve burned a lot of calories—and it’s surprisingly straightforward to type while walking once you’ve gotten over the initial learning curve. The first few days saw me hitting the wrong keys and misclicking a lot, but it didn’t take long before those issues were behind me. My brain soon recalibrated to glide mode. There are some downsides to such extreme movement encouragement, though. It’s undeniably large and takes up a lot of space in my tiny home office—and that’s with the slim-line model that folds up for storage, which is the only reason I could make it work. (My dog complains that it takes up valuable under-desk space where his bed could be.) Treadmills are also noisy, though not obnoxiously so. It’s easy enough to ignore with headphones on, but I probably wouldn’t recommend this if you live in an apartment and have a downstairs neighbor. But if you have a spacious office and you’re on the ground floor or in the basement, I’d say that an under-desk treadmill is a seriously useful bit of kit. Mine will certainly remain in my arsenal of standing-desk-foot-pain-alleviating accessories that I can’t do without. Honorable mention: Comfortable shoes If you can’t get any of the above solutions—or if you just don’t like any of them—then can I at least suggest a decent pair of shoes? Nothing exacerbates my standing desk foot pain more than standing barefoot or in socks. Conventional flooring isn’t padded well enough to be comfortable for unprotected feet for hours every day. But no slippers, no heels, no work boots, and probably not orthotics, either. And instead of wearing just any pair of comfortable sneakers, my recommendation goes one step further—to something more padded and more protective. I have something specific in mind. The Vibram FiveFingers Barefoot Toe ShoeJon Martindale / Foundry I’m talking about minimalist shoes like the Vibram FiveFingers. I know I’m in the minority in thinking these shoes are amazing, but I wear them all day while walking on the treadmill or rocking on the balance board. No foot pain. These shoes have helped strengthen my feet, and my toes have the freedom to spread out comfortably. You don’t need to wear such a fashion-pariah of a shoe, but I’ve found them to be great for standing and they work really well for me. Your opinions may differ. But whatever you do, get a good pair of shoes for your standing desk and make sure it’s comfortable, supportive, and not too restrictive. Your feet will thank you for it. Further reading: Life-changing desk accessories for PC users Read...

TL;DR: Get Microsoft Office Professional 2021 and Windows 11 Pro together for just $44.97 (MSRP: $418.99) through Sept. 14. If you’ve been putting off upgrading your PC, this bundle makes the decision easier than ever. For just $44.97, you can lock in a lifetime license to Microsoft Office Professional 2021 and Microsoft Windows 11 Pro — two tools that can completely change how your computer performs. Office Pro 2021 includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, OneNote, Publisher, and Access, all redesigned with modern features to help you create documents, crunch data, or put together presentations more efficiently. No subscription fees, no renewals. Pair that with Windows 11 Pro, Microsoft’s sleek, secure, and productivity-focused operating system. With features like snap layouts, enhanced security tools, and Copilot — the built-in AI assistant that helps draft emails, summarize content, or even generate quick code suggestions — it’s a serious upgrade for entrepreneurs, remote workers, and anyone trying to extend the life of their current machine. Pick up this Microsoft Office Professional 2021 and Microsoft Windows 11 Pro bundle while it’s just $44.97 (MSRP: $418.99) through Sept. 14. The Ultimate Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for Windows: Lifetime License + Windows 11 Pro BundleSee Deal StackSocial prices subject to change. Read...

Workiva launches new agentic AI features to automate finance and governance tasks, helping CFOs improve efficiency amid regulatory and economic challenges. Read...

With any luck, Arm’s new Lumex CPU platform may give us a hint at what to expect for upcoming Windows on Arm PCs: four tiers of CPU power, plus an improved ray-tracing engine and graphics upscaling. Arm says that its new Lumex C1-series chips will deliver 25 percent more performance than the Cortex X925 series of processors it launched in May 2024. Like the X925, the latest Lumex C1 cores are being optimized with 3nm process technologies in mind, with physical implementations and foundry collaborations to speed customers to market. (While Arm has hinted at building its own physical cores for years, however, company representatives would say only that it includes “near production-ready physical implementations for partners” and is “not a chip.”) The Lumex platform is Arm’s brand for smartphones. PC-specific Arm chips will be branded as “Niva” under Arm’s new naming scheme, though they will share some common features with the Lumex cores. Qualcomm, which actually makes the Arm processors, uses the “Snapdragon” brand, which will almost certainly continue. Arm chips power the vast majority of the world’s smartphones, as Arm licenses its designs to customers who can choose to bring the Arm cores to market or take an architectural license and design compatible but otherwise brand new designs of their own making. That’s the approach Apple and Qualcomm have taken — who, in addition to designing smartphones, have brought Arm into the Mac OS space as well as Windows on Arm PCs. Though Qualcomm and Arm have had their legal differences over licensing Arm’s cores — which have since been settled — an Arm representative declined to comment when asked if any ongoing legal issues would prevent Qualcomm from taking a license. Arm’s new Lumex CPU cores continue delivering doble-digit performance gains, the company said.Arm And you will, apparently, see the Lumex in more than just PCs. “So the Lumex platform is going to power flagship smartphones through to PCs and tablets,” said James McNiven, the vice president of product management for Arm, in a press briefing. Smartphones, though, have their own demands: low power, which Arm’s RISC architecture was designed for; and maximizing local AI. The Cortex C1 series includes what Arm calls Scalable Matrix Extension 2 (SME2), using the Arm v9.3 instruction set. Arm doesn’t use a dedicated NPU. Instead, it uses a technology called KleidiAI that essentially uses software libraries to address AI-specific functions inside the CPU, no matter which version of the Arm architecture is present. In the C1 CPU cluster, Arm says, you’ll see a 5X uplift in AI performance. Arm says that will increase performance on apps that always have some form of AI technology running, such as audio generation, camera inferencing, or computer vision. Specifically, Arm is claiming over 4.7 times improvement in latency, speech recognition, and classical large language model tasks, and about 2.8 times faster audio generation. The other thing Arm has been known for is that it basically pioneered the concept of performance and efficiency cores, a strategy known as “Big-Little.” But with the Lumex, that’s been taken to a new level with the addition of a new “premium” core. Now, there are four different tiers of CPU cores: the C1-Ultra, the C1-Premium, the C1-Pro, and the C1-Nano. Arm now has four CPU cores, not just two.Arm Nothing’s really changed all that much: The Ultra and Premium cores are simply two tiers of “performance” cores, while the Pro and Nano deliver different levels of efficiency. Arm executives said that the Premium core could stand in for the Ultra cores on non-flagship, cheaper devices, as it offers similar performance to the Ultra, but in a 35 percent smaller area. The C1 Pro “improves” upon the Cortex A75 in terms of performance and efficiency, McNiven said, while the Nano has the “smallest footprint” and will play a role in both flagship and entry-level devices, he said. Overall, Arm executives said that the on-device AI is three times more power efficient than the previous implementations, and the Pro is 12 percent more power efficient at the same frequency. Arm is also introducing a new GPU, the Mali G1-Ultra, which will promise 20 percent better graphics performance, twice the ray-tracing performance, and 20 percent faster inferencing for AI processing than the earlier Immortalis-G925. The Mali G1-Ultra will also consume less power, as the block is on its own power island with less leakage when idle. Specifically, Arm is claiming that frame rates on ray-traced games will be 40 percent higher than its predecessor, part of moving to a “single-ray” model for improved efficiency and more realistic lighting,” McNiven said. The new Mali core also includes upscaling — quickly rendering at a lower resolution for improved frame rate, then upscaling it for better visual quality — but it does not use the AI-generated frames of some desktop GPUs. Arm’s new Mali core should be the foundation of GPUs on smartphones and Windows on Arm PCs alike.Arm “One of the examples that we have been seeing recently was some of the new ray tracing benchmarks like [UL’s 3DMark] Solar Bay Extreme, and I think that we see there up to a doubling in performance, because it is so ray tracing heavy. So it really does depend on just the amount of ray-tracing content,” McNiven said. One idea behind the Lumex platform, executives said, was to move certain cloud-based AI functions on to the device. Specifically, a large language model in the world of Krafton’s Inzoi (a spiritual successor to The Sims) was run on-device at the GDC conference, they said, as well as a “coach” that watched you play in Tencent’s Honor of Kings and offered advice. A major online payment provider is also working to put agentic AI on device to handle payment processing during peak times, instead of committing to expensive, back-end cloud servers, said Chris Bergey, the senior vice president of the client line of business at Arm. “If your device is capable of running a large language model, you have an extra means of interacting with the game that augments your experience,” McNiven said. “But if you don’t have it, the game is still playable.” Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Handsome heatsink design Priced attractively Decent write performance for its class Cons Slower in many ways than the plain Play 2280 Marketed at Playstations that may not support HMB Our Verdict The attractively heatsinked QLC Lexar Play 2280 — a Costco exclusive — trails its TLC Play 2280 (non-SE) HMB PCIe 4.0 cousin in performance. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Lexar Play 2280 SE Retailer Price Check Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Best Prices Today: Check today’s prices There’s no doubt that the currently Costco-exclusive Lexar Play 2280 SE, which I assume stands for “Special Edition,” is a looker. The included stylized heatsink definitely renders it a cut above the norm in appearance. However, while it’s a good real-world performer for host memory buffer (HMB) PCIe 4.0, it’s slower with random operations than the older (and pricier) Lexar Play 2280 that’s available elsewhere. And that’s in a PC. The Play 2280 SE will work in the PlayStation 5 that it’s marketed for, but that gaming console doesn’t support host memory buffer, which means you’re operating off of secondary cache all the time. In other words, it won’t perform as well as a DRAM design in Sony’s hardware. The same is true for all HMB designs, but Lexar is one of the only companies I know of that markets its HMB as if it’s specially suited for the PlayStation. Come on now… Read on to learn more, then see our roundup of the best PCIe 4.0 SSDs for comparison. What are the Lexar Play 2280 SE’s features? Created in the common 2280 (22mm wide, 80mm long) form factor, the Play 2280 SE is a PCIe 4.0 x4, M.2, NVMe SSD sporting an Innogrit IG5236 controller, and layered QLC (Quad-Level Cell/4-Bit) NAND. The older Play 2280 uses a Maxio MAP1602A controller and TLC (Triple-Level Cell/3-bit) NAND — it’s not the same drive. Like the Play 2280, the Play 2280 SE is a host memory buffer design, i.e. it uses your device’s memory for primary caching duties, as opposed to dedicated memory on the SSD itself. HMB designs generally perform on par or better than DRAM designs in Windows Explorer large file transfers, or sustained throughput, but lag in small file, random operations. The latter was especially true in the Play 2280 SE’s case. The warranty for the Play 2280 SE is five years. How much is the Lexar Play 2280 SE? At the time of this writing, the Play 2280 SE was only available in a 4TB capacity, only at Costco, and priced at $225, including the heatsink. On Amazon, the older 4TB Play 2280 is just over $250 at the time of this writing, and also available in 2TB capacity for $188. The SE’s $225 is a good price, but I’ve seen WD’s excellent SN7100 on sale for less than either the Play 2280 SE or Play 2280, albeit with no heatsink. A heatsink is generally a $10 to $15 add on. Again, the Play 2280 SE is currently a Costco exclusive product so you likely won’t find it on sale for a while. Lexar did intimate that the drive might eventually be available from other vendors. How does the Lexar Play 2280 SE perform? While not the fastest PCIe 4.0 host memory buffer design I’ve tested, the 4TB Lexar Play 2280 SE is not far off overall. That said, it was mysteriously slow at single-queue reads in CrystalDiskMark 8 — even compared to the older Play 2280. AS SSD and ATTO did not agree, though the latter had the 2280 SE pegged as a slower writer with its 2MB and 48MB data sets than any of the other size data sets. You can see the story in the charts below. The Play 2280 SE is currently a Costco exclusive product so you likely won’t find it on sale for a while On the pace in most of the tests, the disappointing single-queue read is a bit of a mystery. Longer bars are better. There was also a curious and distinct drop-off in random performance with multiple queues compared to the older 2280 Play. The Play 2280 SE isn’t bad, it’s just not as good with random ops as the older plain Play 2280. Longer bars are better. The 48GB transfer times were essentially a draw, though the WD Black SN7100 just edged out the Play 2280 SE overall. Our real-world 48GB transfers showed not a lot of difference in sustained throughput. Shorter bars are better. Again, there’s not much to distinguish one of these PCIe 4.0 HMB SSDs from the other in the 450GB write test. But again, this is in a Windows PC with support for host memory buffer. The Playstation 5 does not have that support. In the 450GB write the Play 2280 SE was every bit as fast as the older version. Shorter bars are better. Despite the difference in NAND types (QLC vs. TLC) the Play 2280 SE didn’t slump horribly compared to the Play 2280 when secondary cache was exhausted during a 950GB write. The SE dropped at around the 650GB mark to the 300MBps to 500MBps range — roughly SATA SSD speeds. The plain Play 2280 averages about 200MBps faster. Regardless, 500MBps isn’t tragic and a testament to just how far QLC has come in the last couple years. Once upon a time we saw 50- to 75MBps native writing. Yuck. Note that you will see this drop-off sooner with lower-capacity Play 2280 SEs as they have less NAND to treat as secondary cache (writing the NAND as single bit SLC). Another caveat: The Play 2280 SE didn’t like our Highpoint 7604A PCIe 5.0 card at all, turning in a rather haphazard performance in CrystalDiskMark 8. Make sure it’s happy in your system within the item return period. CrystalDiskMark 8, AS SSD 2, ATTO 4 are all good measuring sticks. As to the Playstation. Yes, the 2280 SE will work in that system, and you’ll likely be happy with it. NVMe is extremely fast, even when it’s relying on secondary cache. But DRAM designs will work better in a Playstation, albeit for more money. Should you buy the Lexar Play 2280 SE? Though not the best performer in its class, the Play 2280 SE is good in real-world sustained throughput — and I like the looks. It’s also competitive price-wise. What I don’t like is it being marketed for a system that it’s not ideally suited for. For your PC — 4 stars. For the PlayStation — 3.5 stars. How we test Drive tests currently utilize Windows 11 24H2, 64-bit running off of a PCIe 4.0 Samsung 990 Pro in an Asus Z890-Creator WiFi (PCIe 4.0/5.0) motherboard. The CPU is a Core Ultra i5 225 feeding/fed by two Kingston Fury 32GB DDR5 4800MHz modules (64GB of memory total). Both 20Gbps USB and Thunderbolt 5 are integrated and Intel CPU/GPU graphics are used. PCIe 5.0 SSDs involved in testing are mounted in a Asus ROG PCIe 5.0 M.2 adapter card and a HighPoint 7604A 16x PCIe 5.0 4-port M.2 adapter card. We run the CrystalDiskMark 8 (and 9), AS SSD 2, and ATTO 4 synthetic benchmarks (to keep article length down, we only report one) to find the storage device’s potential performance, then a series of 48GB and 450GB transfers tests using Windows Explorer drag and drop to show what you’ll see under Window, as well as the far faster Xcopy and FastCopy to show what’s possible. A 25GBps two-SSD RAID 0 array on the aforementioned Highpoint 7604A is used as the second drive in our transfer tests. Formerly the 48GB tests were done with a RAM disk. Each test is performed on a NTFS-formatted and newly TRIM’d drive so the results are optimal. Note that in normal use, as a drive fills up, performance may decrease due to less NAND for secondary caching, as well as other factors. This issue has abated somewher with the current crop of SSDs with more mature controllers and far faster late-generation NAND. Caveat: The performance numbers shown apply only to the drive we were shipped and to the capacity tested. SSD performance can and will vary by capacity due to more or fewer chips to shotgun reads/writes across and the amount of NAND available for secondary caching. Vendors also occasionally swap components. If you ever notice a large discrepancy between the performance you experience and that which we report, by all means, let us know. Read...

We always knew that consumers preferred Windows PCs over Macs, but the numbers now back it up. HP topped Apple as the most preferred PC maker in the 2025 iteration of the American Customer Satisfaction Survey — though general consumer satisfaction with PCs fell slightly compared with 2024 sentiments. Big names, like Microsoft, suffered in the eyes of their consumer critics. Customers polled by the survey, however, said that the overall design of computers has improved, and that they marked that aspect as the best of the computing experience. The worst? The agony of calling and then navigating through a call center to receive customer support. ACSI, which runs the study, said that it sent out thousands of email surveys to random customers, and the 16,205 completed surveys it received were used as the foundation for its 2025 report. Customers were asked about their experiences with the largest customers as well as an “all other” category. The ACSI received customer inputs on expectations, quality perceptions, and perceptions of value and used them as inputs to generate a score. The biggest slips in perceived quality were Apple, Microsoft, and Acer, all of which lost three points in the ACSI rankings. Last year, Apple topped the charts with a score of 85. Yet its score of 82 placed Apple second; Dell’s ACSI score also decreased by a point compared to 2024. However, ACSI assigned Dell a score of 83, making it the most popular computer company for 2025. ACSI Household Appliance and Electronics Study 2025 / American Customer Satisfaction Index LLC. The ACSI also included tablets in this category, and added Amazon to its list of manufacturers. Tablet satisfaction scores plunged, from 81 in 2024 to 77 in 2025. In general, computer satisfaction declined across every PC maker save Dell, which saw an increase in the satisfaction score from 2024’s 80 score to its 2025 score of 82. ACSI measured several aspects of the computing experience — design, availability of software, ease of operation, graphics and sound quality, and more — and generally found that customers ranked them essentially the same as in 2024. Customers expressed the least satisfaction with a computer’s ability to prevent crashing, the general state of “features” like the OS or preloaded software, and call-center satisfaction. (They apparently hadn’t moved past our first review of Windows 11.) ACSI Household Appliance and Electronics Study 2025 / American Customer Satisfaction Index LLC. “The service experience may be a factor in the deviating levels of satisfaction between desktops and tablets,” the ACSI found. “Manufacturers continue to expand their repair networks to connect users with convenient outlets for service, but high repair costs and inconsistent parts availability continue to hinder the service experience for some.” Interestingly, customers ranked the desktop experience higher than that using a laptop, though aspects like “website satisfaction” should have been mostly thee same for both. ACSI Household Appliance and Electronics Study 2025 / American Customer Satisfaction Index LLC. Still, the category with the most need for improvement isn’t PCs, but tablets. Amazon clearly has its work cut out for it. Read...