If you’re in the market for a daily driver laptop this Black Friday, stop what you’re doing because one of the best deals I’ve seen just landed at Walmart. No, I’m not exaggerating here. Just take a look at this 16-inch HP OmniBook 5 and tell me it doesn’t get you excited! Normally $939.99, this awesome laptop is now just $449 with this hefty 52% discount. Act fast and save a whopping $491 while you can. View this Walmart deal How often do you see a mid-range laptop go on sale for over half off its original price? That’s what makes the Black Friday season so special, and this laptop deal is one you don’t want to pass up. It’s a relatively powerful machine that’s perfectly capable of handling your daily tasks while browsing, streaming, working, creating, and more. Equipped with an AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 processor with next-level AI processing capabilities, this OmniBook 5 qualifies as a Copilot+ PC and can access all the AI features in Windows 11. It also has 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM for speedy app performance and multitasking, so it won’t slow to a crawl even under the pressure of Windows. And though the 512GB SSD could be larger, it’s plenty spacious as long as you aren’t hoarding tons of video files or archiving enormous projects. The 16-inch display is nothing to turn your nose up at, either, delivering visuals in gorgeous 1200p resolution that’ll make everything look crisp and clear. While HP claims over 16 hours of battery on this machine, you probably won’t get anything close to that… yet even at half the stated battery life, you’d still be getting a plentiful 8 hours. And with 0.7 inches of thickness and a weight of 3.97 pounds, it’s not bad to lug around. All in all, this is a phenomenal laptop for students and remote workers on the go, offering powerful performance at a super affordable price without sacrificing portability. If you get it now for $449 at Walmart, the return window ends on January 31st. If you’re still shopping for other affordable options, see our favorite laptops under $500. This powerful HP laptop is extra budget-friendly now that it`s 52% offBuy via Walmart Read...

For the last few years, the term “AI PC” has basically meant little more than “a lightweight portable laptop with a neural processing unit (NPU).” Today, two years after the glitzy launch of NPUs with Intel’s Meteor Lake hardware, these AI PCs still feel like glorified tech demos. But local AI is here! And it’s impressive. It just has nothing to do with NPUs. Indeed, if all you have is an NPU, you’d think local AI has failed. The reality is that local AI tools are more capable than ever—but you wouldn’t know it because they run on GPUs instead of NPUs. NPUs were supposed to usher in a new era of local AI on laptops and PCs. Turns out, the big push for NPUs has failed spectacularly. NPUs have failed to deliver local AI (so far) Neural processing units work. They can even power some interesting little features and gimmicks. But we were promised an age of NPU-driven AI PCs that ran powerful and game-changing local AI tools. Two years later, that marketing dream is a near-complete failure. Yes, you can use a variety of Copilot+ PC features in Windows—like Windows Recall, which snaps images of your PC’s desktop every five seconds. There’s also the image generator in the Photos app, which can generate some truly horrendous looking pictures. Chris Hoffman / Foundry There are some useful bits, of course. Windows Studio Effects is nice for polishing up your webcam video, and semantic search will make it easier to find files on Windows. But these neat little perks are far from the kind of powerful “run full-featured AI on your PC” experiences we were sold by the excited AI PC marketing. Remember when Microsoft declared 2024 to be “the year of the AI PC”? What happened? What’s worse, Microsoft is already pivoting away from an NPU-centric approach with Windows ML. Since developers aren’t writing apps with NPUs in mind, Windows ML will let developers write AI apps that run on CPUs, GPUs, and NPUs. But Microsoft has a big problem: local AI is here and it’s pretty good, but the most popular apps don’t use NPUs at all. They may never even transition to Windows ML. Microsoft has been acting like it’s ahead of the game, but the company’s bet on NPUs means the company has been left behind. The local AI ecosystem is building on Windows without using any Microsoft-provided AI hooks. Uh oh. Local AI is already here—for GPUs If you have a gaming PC and you’re wondering just how good local AI is, try downloading LM Studio. In just a few clicks, you can be running a local LLM and using an AI chatbot that runs entirely on your own hardware. In many ways, this is the dream of the NPU-powered AI PC: a local AI tool that people could start using in a few clicks without any technical knowledge. Well, it’s here. Sort of. Like many other AI tools, LM Studio mainly supports GPUs but also has a slower fallback mode for CPUs. It can’t do anything at all with NPUs. Similarly, other well-known local AI tools like Ollama and Llama.cpp—a backend that many other tools rely on—have no support for NPUs. Here’s what a model running on my GPU had to say about this article. Good luck getting this from a model running on an NPU.Chris Hoffman / Foundry These tools work impressively well, yet they don’t work with NPUs at all. Why didn’t Microsoft or Intel hire an engineer or two to integrate NPU support into the open-source tools people are actually using? If a fraction of the money spent on marketing NPU-powered “AI PCs” went to actually making NPUs useful, I’d be singing a different tune. Long story short: if you want to run local AI on your own hardware, steer clear of so-called “AI PCs” with NPUs. What you really want is a gaming PC with a powerful GPU—ideally one by Nvidia, since local AI tools are still written with Nvidia hardware in mind (thanks to Nvidia’s CUDA). AnythingLLM is an exception While trawling the web to find out if there were any popular local LLM tools that supported NPUs, I discovered this one: AnythingLLM. This tool has an NPU backend that supports the Qualcomm Hexagon NPU on Qualcomm Snapdragon X systems. But that’s it. No support for NPUs on Intel or AMD systems. Qualcomm has an excited blog post talking about this software. When I downloaded it to try it out on my Qualcomm Snapdragon X-powered Surface Laptop, I ran into a Windows SmartScreen warning—that’s the kind of error you see when you download a rarely used program that Microsoft’s security defenses aren’t familiar with. No wonder NPUs didn’t take off if developers have to rewrite their software for Qualcomm, Intel, and AMD NPUs. That’s a non-trivial issue.Chris Hoffman / Foundry What does that mean? Here’s the single most polished solution for running local LLMs on an NPU… and no one is using it. It’s so off the beaten path that it trips Windows’ security warnings. AnythingLLM is only one example of the problem. There are other apps that supports LLMs, but they’re mostly confined to developer tech demos. For example, Intel has OpenVINO GenAI software intended for developers, but it’s nowhere close to the “just a few clicks” experience of LM Studio and other popular GPU-based local AI tools. NPUs were supposed to be mainstream, but GPUs are winning What’s funny is that NPUs were supposed to democratize local AI. The idea was that GPUs were too expensive and power-hungry for local AI features. So, instead of a PC with a discrete GPU, people could run local AI features on a power-efficient NPU. GPUs were the “enthusiast” option while NPUs would be the easy-to-use “mainstream” option. That dream hasn’t just failed to materialize—it has totally collapsed. If you want easy-to-use local AI tools, you want a PC with a powerful GPU so you can use the “just a few clicks” tools mentioned above. If you really want to use local AI on a lightweight laptop with an NPU, you’ll either have to dig through obscure tech demos designed for developers or be limited to the handful of Copilot+ PC AI features built into Windows. But those features are toys compared to the kinds of local LLMs that anyone with a GPU can run in LM Studio—in just a few clicks. Even if we’re just talking about AI-powered webcam and microphone effects, the free and easy-to-use Nvidia Broadcast app delivers much more powerful effects than Microsoft’s Windows Studio Effects solution… and all you need is a PC with a modern Nvidia GPU. Microsoft shot itself in the foot Since the launch of Copilot+ PCs, Microsoft has repeatedly told the people who are actually using local AI tools (like LM Studio, Ollama, Llama.cpp, and others) that AI PCs aren’t for them. Microsoft was very clear that built-in Windows AI features should only run on NPUs and aren’t suitable for use on GPUs. Even if you care about local AI, Microsoft says you can’t have built-in Windows AI features on your NPU-lacking PC. I found that out the hard way with my $3,000 gaming PC that can’t run Copilot+ features. As a result, local AI users have responded by ignoring the AI features built into Windows. Or in other words, Microsoft has created two different local AI experiences: The NPU-powered Copilot+ PC playground full of little tech demos that don’t do much. People with these “AI PCs” are largely unimpressed and think local AI can’t do much. The GPU-powered PC experience full of open-source tools that Microsoft ignores. People using these “AI PCs” realize that local AI is interesting, but they don’t engage with any Microsoft AI tools. What a complete mess. If Microsoft, Intel, or another big company had paid software engineers to focus on integrating NPU support into existing local AI tools with real-world adoption, perhaps we’d be in a different spot. Instead, I’m left looking at the great NPU push and concluding that it was just marketing that failed to deliver on what it promised. It’s no wonder that Microsoft is now talking about how “every Windows 11 PC is becoming an AI PC.” But what does that even mean? You still need a powerful GPU for real local AI. If Microsoft wants to make every Windows PC an “AI PC” by talking up the cloud-powered Copilot chatbot, they could have done that years ago—but that wouldn’t have helped the PC industry sell so many “AI laptops.” It’s the great NPU failure—the big push for NPUs has amounted to diddly-squat. If you want local AI, just get a PC with a powerful GPU. You’ll be disappointed if you try taking the NPU path. Read...

When Amazon first launched the Echo smart home speaker and the Alexa voice assistant, I was excited beyond belief. It felt like a true evolution in tech, something straight out of the science fiction from past decades. Here it was, a real product you could buy and own. Sure, the Echo itself was ostensibly just a speaker, but the Alexa ecosystem underpinning it made it so much more than that. It was smart, it was functional, and it was a step in the right direction for forward-thinking people keen to build a smart home. But now, a decade on from its launch, it feels like the Alexa platform has run out of steam. I used to use my Echo all the time, but not anymore. Here’s what happened and what could get me back. I was an Alexa early adopter The first Echo speaker I bought was the tall, plasticky, first-generation model that came to the UK in 2016. I then bought a second-generation model for my office a year later. Finally, I received an Echo Studio as a Christmas gift in 2019, which took pride of place in my living room and relegated the original Echo to my bedroom. Over the years, I’ve used my Echo speakers for all kinds of stuff. The main one has always been listening to music, especially during the COVID lockdowns when I was confined to my house for long periods. Being able to ask Alexa to stream (or switch) songs on Spotify by simply uttering a command was a godsend. It really helped pass the time. But I’ve also used Alexa to convey weather forecasts for the week ahead, give me rundowns of news headlines of the day, explain the meanings of words and concepts, answer simple off-hand questions that pop into my head, and even play games every once in a while. Dave Parrack / Foundry And it’s not like I’m a full-blown smart home geek! I loved the idea of a smart home but never fully embraced the concept, yet even I got to do cool stuff with some smart light bulbs controllable via Alexa. For example, I programmed them to come on at specific times of day throughout the year. Yeah, I got a lot of use out of my Echo devices. I’m using Alexa and my Echo speakers less These days, I really only use my Echo speakers to listen to talk radio (via TuneIn) and music (via Spotify Premium). All the other novelty stuff gradually lost their luster and fell by the wayside. The biggest reason for this has been the advent of generative AI and the speed at which it has evolved in just a few short years. LLMs like ChatGPT make Alexa feel dull and limited by comparison. I can ask ChatGPT pretty much anything I want and it’ll have an answer—an answer that may not be entirely correct and needs double-checking, but most of the time it’s accurate enough to pass. I can hold full back-and-forth conversations with AI in ways that would make Alexa jealous. I’ve written a few articles about different ways to use ChatGPT, including mundane tasks ChatGPT can handle for you and fun things you can do with ChatGPT when you’re bored. My colleagues have also written about using ChatGPT to improve your life and other practical uses for it. Dave Parrack / Foundry I’ve also grown more concerned over the privacy implications of an always-on and always-listening smart speaker in every room of my home. While Amazon wants to assure us that Alexa is only listening for its wake word, it’s hard to shake that unsettling feeling. And if you check your voice command history in the Alexa app, you may be surprised at some of the things it has picked up over the years. (That’s what actually led me to mute the microphones on my Echo devices until I need them.) Overall, I simply find that my Echo speakers and Alexa are now overshadowed by other options. Where I was once excited to explore new Alexa skills and features, I now just default to using it for the boring basics as I’ve always done. I can’t even remember the last time I cared to seek out a new Alexa skill to install and use. Will AI make Alexa relevant again? I’m unconvinced that Amazon will be able to bring Alexa and its Echo range back to where they once were. Sure, millions of people own one (or more) and have them plugged in somewhere at home. But I suspect that, like me, many people have stopped using Alexa. Amazon’s next big hope is Alexa+, the next-generation AI-powered version of Alexa that was announced in February 2025. Currently in Early Access, it promises to be a lot more like ChatGPT and other LLMs: more conversational interactions, personalized memories that are retained across devices, more context awareness, with higher ambitions than the first (and current) iteration of Alexa. Ben Patterson got to try Alexa+ and came out with mixed takeaways. Alexa+ is slated to cost $19.99/month and will be compatible with most Echo devices beyond first-generation models. Or, if you have Amazon Prime, Alexa+ will be included as a “free” perk, giving current subscribers yet another reason to keep paying for the service. Amazon Amazon’s Echo line is still the most popular smart speaker brand in the US and elsewhere, so these devices aren’t going anywhere. But since Amazon doesn’t share sales figures for its products, we don’t know how it’s trending. Amazon may still be moving plenty of units, but are buyers even using Echo for Alexa and smart home controls? Or simply as smart speakers? (They’re admittedly quite good as the latter.) As for me, I’m cautiously hopeful. My Echo devices are mostly gathering dust now, and they’ll remain that way until the whole Alexa ecosystem is upgraded. I wonder if Alexa+ will be that upgrade? I won’t be able to find out until it leaves Early Access. Until then, Alexa just isn’t capable enough… and the privacy concerns are real. Further reading: Alexa’s big AI makeover: 8 key things to know Read...

TL;DR: Get a UPDF lifetime subscription for $41.97 with code EDIT at checkout (MSRP $149.99). It allows you to edit, convert, and read, all in one tool. Forget the PDF tools that charge you every single month for features you only need occasionally. UPDF’s lifetime PDF tool gives you the entire suite for a one-time payment. Through November 20, you can use code EDIT to get it for just $41.97 instead of its usual $149.99 MSRP. With UPDF, you’re not just dealing with a basic reader. Need to tweak text, adjust images, or annotate a document? Easy. Want to convert your PDFs to Word, Excel, or PowerPoint? Done. Even complex tasks like merging multiple files, adding passwords, or performing OCR (desktop only) on scanned documents are just a click away. And the cherry on top? You can access it across Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android—syncing files seamlessly with included cloud storage. Use code EDIT at checkout to get your UPDF lifetime subscription for $41.97 until November 20 at 11:59 p.m. PT (MSRP $149.99). UPDF – Edit, Convert, AI Chat with PDF: Lifetime SubscriptionSee Deal StackSocial prices subject to change. Read...

Microsoft Support operates an X/Twitter account called MicrosoftHelps to help users with problems, highlight features, and explain technical bits. Typically, Windows 11 takes center stage there, as Microsoft wants to showcase the current Windows generation and spread it further. However, Microsoft Support recently focused on Windows 10 of all things. Although Microsoft wants to move away from this now-unsupported version of the operating system, many satisfied Windows 10 users remain loyal to it. And that’s much to the annoyance of Microsoft, who continues to aggressively promote Windows 11. Here’s what happened: In a recent post, MicrosoftHelps wanted to highlight the Night Light feature of Windows, which adjusts the color temperature of the screen to reduce blue light. It’s believed to help relieve eye strain and improve sleep hygiene. Turning on Night Light while we`re working is easier than wearing blue light glasses ??Switch it on to help ease ?? strain: https://t.co/KjFAsE8blJ pic.twitter.com/nCubLboDaC— Microsoft Support (@MicrosoftHelps) October 20, 2025 But the GIF used in the post shows the Windows 10 Action Center. As you might know, Windows 11 doesn’t have an Action Center and instead uses a separate Quick Settings panel and a Notification Center. The alt text of the GIF reads: “Graphical depiction of turning on the night light setting on a Windows PC.” Apparently, a standard “Windows PC” is still one that runs Windows 10 according to this GIF! It’s currently unknown why MicrosoftHelps didn’t use Windows 11 for the illustration. Read...

The trend of developing applications for web browsers is still popular, but Puter takes this approach to a whole new level. This online service provides a complete operating system with a graphical desktop and built-in apps. The developers refer to this as a cloud OS. To test it, open the Puter website and you’ll be taken to the system’s desktop, which features two toolbars. In the bottom left corner you’ll find the start button, as with Windows, which displays available applications. You’ll also see icons for the file explorer, integrated app store, development tools, and access to your computer’s webcam or microphone. The bar at the top of the screen hides automatically. To show the element in full, move your mouse over the small button in the center. The icon on the left opens a display with information about the computer system, including available storage space as well as account and security settings. In “Personalization,” you can change the desktop background and the color of the interface elements. You can also select the system language via “Language.” On the far right, open the personal settings. Use “Save Session” to create a computer account: assign a username, enter your e-mail address, and set a password. The Puter operating system and desktop run entirely within the browser. From here, you can launch various programs.Foundry The third button from the left, which opens a pop-up window, is particularly interesting. Copy the address under “Invitation Link” and send it to a friend. If they create a Puter account, you’ll receive 1GB of memory for free. The applications integrated in Puter are varied. You’ll find many games in the list, but also tools for developing your own apps. There’s also “Photopea,” a web-based Photoshop clone. Users who want to install Puter on their local computer can find instructions with commands for Windows on Puter’s Github page. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Good CPU for the price Decent value on sale A 2-in-1 at a normal laptop price (but only on sale) Cons Too expensive at MSRP Display is dim and glossy Heavy and thick Speakers positioned wrong for 2-in-1 mode Pen costs extra Our Verdict The Lenovo IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1 is a 16-inch convertible PC that should have a lower MSRP. If you catch it on sale, you can score a casual 2-in-1 experience for a normal clamshell laptop price. But professionals looking for a serious drawing or note-taking experience should look elsewhere. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Lenovo IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1 Retailer Price $799 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Best Prices Today: Check today’s prices The Lenovo IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1 is a budget-focused 16-inch 2-in-1 PC — at least that’s the pitch. You get a touchscreen and a 360-degree hinge so you can watch Netflix in bed, read on it like a tablet, and do other tablet-type tasks. It costs around as much as a normal clamshell laptop, but only if it’s currently on sale. The pricing story is messy. This machine is fine at the $649 sale price I see it for right now, but not at the $1,099 retail price Lenovo suggests. It does often seem to be on sale, which is how the PC market goes: Retail prices often feel like they’re set high to provide the appearance of extra value when a laptop is frequently discounted. At a sale price ($649 as I’m writing this), the IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1 delivers solid value. At full price, it doesn’t. Lenovo IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1: Specs The Lenovo IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1’s CPU is its best hardware feature. The Intel Core Ultra 7 255U CPU is fast for this class, and combining it with 16 GB of LPDDR5x-8000 RAM is a smart move. This is more CPU and faster RAM than you’d normally see in a PC in this class. The rest of the hardware isn’t too impressive. The Intel graphics here are slow — far behind Intel’s more impressive Lunar Lake hardware and the graphics you’d find on a Qualcomm Snapdragon X-powered ARM PC. And the NPU here is too slow for Microsoft’s Copilot+ PC features, so all the talk about it “unlocking the power of AI” is mostly marketing. There’s also no Thunderbolt or USB4 here, and the wireless hardware is limited to Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2.  Model number: Lenovo IdeaPad 5 2-in-1 16IAL10 CPU: Intel Core Ultra 7 255U Memory: 16 GB LPDDR5x-8000 RAM Graphics/GPU: Intel graphics NPU: Intel AI Boost (up to 12 TOPS) Display: 16-inch 1920×1200 IPS display with touch screen and 60Hz refresh rate Storage: 512 GB PCIe Gen4 SSD Webcam: 1080p webcam Connectivity: 2x USB Type-C (1x USB 5Gbps, 1x USB 10Gbps), 2x USB Type-A (USB 5Gbps), 1x HDMI 1.4b, 1x combo audio jack, 1x microSD card reader Networking: Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2 Biometrics: IR camera for Windows Hello Battery capacity: 57 Watt-hours Dimensions: 14.02 x 10.03 x 0.72 inches Weight: 4.41 pounds MSRP: $1,099 as tested The Lenovo IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1 is a laptop that only makes sense if you realize the $1,099 MSRP isn’t its real price. Lenovo IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1: Design and build quality Foundry / Chris Hoffman The 16-inch Lenovo IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1 has a plastic bottom and an aluminum top cover. Available in Luna Grey or Cosmic Blue, it’s a classic laptop design. The biggest problem is how heavy and chunky this machine is. With a weight of 4.41 pounds and a thickness of 0.72 inches, this isn’t the kind of 2-in-1 machine you’d want to walk around holding. If you’re watching Netflix in bed and have it resting in your lap, I can see it. If you have it lying flat on your desk, I get it. But it’s not a very portable 2-in-1 experience. Aside from that, the build quality feels fine but not “premium.” The hinge feels solid. While there’s a bit of flex to the keyboard deck if you press down on it (just a bit), that’s no surprise as it’s plastic. Lenovo IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1: Keyboard and trackpad Foundry / Chris Hoffman The Lenovo IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1 has a full-size keyboard complete with a number pad and white backlighting. It’s serviceable, but key travel feels on the shallow side for a laptop with 0.72 inches of thickness. It reminds me of keyboards I’ve used on thinner laptops. I don’t know if I’d call it mushy, exactly, but it’s certainly not snappy. If you do a lot of typing and a crisp keyboard experience is important to you, this probably isn’t the laptop I’d recommend. The trackpad feels a little on the small side for a 16-inch laptop with a keyboard deck this large, but it’s not far off. It’s a fairly average trackpad. It’s responsive enough when I move my finger over it, but the click-down action is on the loud side — I think most people would prefer a quieter click. Lenovo IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1: Display and speakers Foundry / Chris Hoffman The Lenovo IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1 has a 16-inch IPS display with a 1920×1200 resolution and a 60Hz refresh rate. For a 16-inch laptop that costs $649 on sale, that’s not too bad. Since this is a 2-in-1 machine, it has a touchscreen. It also supports pen input, but this machine does not include a pen. That’s sold separately. The display is very dim at up to 300 nits of maximum brightness. That’s a problem since the coating is glossy to enable that touch screen. This display is very susceptible to reflections, and it doesn’t have enough brightness to overpower them. In a bright sunlit room (or, even worse, outdoors), the reflections will be a problem. For Netflix in a dark room, it’s not a problem. I don’t normally obsess about color accuracy in displays, but artists often consider 2-in-1 machines for drawing. It’s worth noting that this isn’t the type of high-end display with carefully tuned color accuracy that you’d want if you were doing graphic design. The speakers are loud enough, but there’s nearly no bass here. They don’t sound particularly good. And that’s in clamshell mode! If you put this 2-in-1 PC in tent mode, the speakers will be firing away from you. If you put it in face-down mode, the speakers will be muffled. They’ll be firing into the surface under the PC. This machine feels like a clamshell laptop that Lenovo put a 360-degree hinge on. It wasn’t designed as a 2-in-1 for media. Lenovo IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1: Webcam, microphone, biometrics The Lenovo IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1 has a 1080p webcam, and it’s fine. It’s not a premium experience. In my office, on a bright-but-cloudy day, even that natural lighting led to a noisy picture. The colors don’t look particularly lifelike. It’s better than the poor-quality 720p webcams I see on some budget laptops, however. It does have a physical webcam shutter switch, which is great to see. The microphone setup here is nothing to write home about, either. It works, and it does a good job of canceling out background noise. But it didn’t pick up my voice with particularly crisp audio quality. These are serviceable for online meetings, but not impressive. This machine does have an IR camera for Windows Hello, so you can sign in with your face just by opening the laptop. That’s great to see. Lenovo IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1: Connectivity Foundry / Chris Hoffman Connectivity-wise, the Lenovo IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1 feels like a budget laptop. This machine has a good amount of ports, but they have lower-tier specs. You don’t get any Thunderbolt or USB4 ports, and the HDMI port here is HDMI 1.4b rather than HDMI 2.1. On the left side, this machine has an HDMI port and two USB Type-C ports along with a combo audio jack. On the right side, it’s got two USB Type-A ports and a microSD card reader. Since the laptop charges via USB Type-C, that means you’ll always be plugging the charging cable into the left side. A USB Type-C port on each side would’ve been nicer. The Lenovo IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1 supports Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2, which feels a little dated. Qualcomm Snapdragon X laptops around the $1,099 price point (or less) support Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4, so it would be nice to see Lenovo doing more here. I’ve noticed more laptops omitting Wi-Fi 6E support and going for Wi-Fi 6. Lenovo IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1: Performance The Lenovo IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1’s strength is its CPU performance. It does feel like Lenovo splurged on the CPU compared to everything else in this machine. Perhaps they got a good deal from Intel. In day-to-day desktop usage, the IdeaPad delivers a snappy experience. As always, we ran the Lenovo IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1 through our standard benchmarks to see how it performs. Foundry / Chris Hoffman First, we run PCMark 10 to get an idea of overall system performance. With an overall score of 7,058, the Lenovo IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1 machine delivered solid performance and didn’t perform like a budget laptop. That’s solid for $649 and table-stakes for $1,099. The pricing game makes this machine difficult to judge. Foundry / Chris Hoffman Next, we run Cinebench R20. This is a heavily multithreaded benchmark that focuses on overall CPU performance. It’s a quick benchmark, so cooling under extended workloads isn’t a factor. But, since it’s heavily multithreaded, CPUs with more cores have a huge advantage. With a Cinebench R20 multi-threaded score of 4,787, this machine beat Intel Lunar Lake-powered machines like the Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro 360 and the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1. Lunar Lake systems are more power efficient, have much higher performance, and they can actually run Windows 11’s Copilot+ PC AI features. But they struggle with multithreaded performance due to Lunar Lake’s lower core count. Foundry / Chris Hoffman We also run an encode with Handbrake. This is another heavily multithreaded benchmark, but it runs over an extended period. This demands the laptop’s cooling kick in, and many laptops will throttle and slow down under load. This machine completed the encode process in 1,348 seconds, which is about 22 and a half minutes. It’s a reasonable result, but this machine isn’t a speed demon compared to high-end laptops, just solid for its class. Foundry / Chris Hoffman Next, we run a graphical benchmark. This isn’t a gaming laptop, but it’s still good to check how the GPU performs. We run 3Dmark Time Spy, a graphical benchmark that focuses on GPU performance. With a 3DMark Time Spy score of 2,439, the integrated Intel graphics here didn’t impress. That’s a shame, as it would make this machine more useful for light gaming. The impressive Intel Arc graphics found in Lunar Lake machines haven’t made their way to other Intel systems yet. Overall, the Lenovo IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1 delivered solid performance for a $649 laptop but not what you’d want to see on a $1,099 laptop. Whether you’ll be happy with it depends on how much you paid. Lenovo IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1: Battery life The Lenovo IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1 has a 57 Watt-hour battery, which is on the low side. Battery life is fine, but not particularly impressive for a laptop in 2025. Foundry / Chris Hoffman To benchmark the battery life, we play a 4K copy of Tears of Steel on repeat on Windows 11 with airplane mode enabled until the laptop suspends itself. We set the screen to 250 nits of brightness for our battery benchmarks, which meant cranking the brightness way up. This is a best-case scenario for any laptop since local video playback is so efficient, and real battery life in day-to-day use is always going to be less than this. The Lenovo IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1 lasted for 619 minutes on average before suspending itself. That’s a bit under 10 and a half hours. A larger battery would give this machine more staying power, but this machine is already so heavy, and a larger battery would also make it heavier — that’s not ideal. Many 2-in-1s are designed to be lightweight portable machines with long battery life so they can be used as tablets for drawing. This machine delivers reasonable battery life, but it’s not going to keep going and going like modern 2-in-1s with Intel Lunar Lake or Qualcomm Snapdragon X CPUs. Lenovo IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1: Conclusion The Lenovo IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1 is a laptop that only makes sense if you realize the $1,099 MSRP isn’t its real price. That full price is silly. At $649, you’re getting a 16-inch 2-in-1 machine with a 360-degree hinge for not much more than a normal 16-inch clamshell laptop. You can have the 2-in-1 experience and even enjoy pen input if you buy a pen separately. But the display, weight, battery life, and lack of an included pen mean this isn’t a 2-in-1 experience intended for artists who care about serious color reproduction. It’s also not for workers who want a pen-friendly device they can carry around all day. It’s decent as a casual 2-in-1 experience. However, the position of the speakers is a real problem. This machine may be nice for video streaming in convertible mode, but you’ll want headphones to hear what you’re watching. Read...

We were fans of Wyze’s original smart deadbolt from 2022—heck we even gave it an Editors’ Choice award—but it arrived with a key drawback: it only supported Bluetooth, not Wi-Fi or any other wireless protocols.  While the first Wyze Lock Bolt is inexpensive compared to other smart locks in its class and boasts an easy setup process, its lack of Wi-Fi or other wireless connectivity means it can’t be controlled remotely without help from the Wyze Video Doorbell. It also suffered from a ho-hum industrial design, and there’s no keyhole option.  Wyze appears to have rectified those issues with the Wyze Lock Bolt v2, which arrives with built-in Wi-Fi, a snazzier tempered-glass design, and a mechanical lock with a key.  On sale now for $79.98, just a $10 premium compared to the original model, the Lock Bolt v2’s Wi-Fi support means it can be controlled and accessed from anywhere via the Wyze app, so there’s no longer any need for helper devices such as the Wyze Video Doorbell. The lock also works with Alexa and Google Home, ideal for allowing the lock to trigger Alexa or Gemini for Home automations.  The dull metal-and-plastic look of the original Lock Bolt has gotten a much-needed update for the Lock Bolt v2, with the latter sporting “high-grade” and anti-glare tempered glass that’s resistant to scratches and smudges, Wyze says.  Boasting an IP53 certification (meaning it’s resistant to dust and water sprayed at an angle up to 60 degrees on either side of vertical), the Lock Bolt v2 is equipped with a self-learning, AI-powered fingerprint scanner that logs the pressure, angle, and even “tiny skin shifts” of your finger presses, allowing the scanner to recognize fingerprints in just half a second, Wyze says.  There’s also a keypad that stores up to 50 different access codes, while a mechanical lock lets you unlock the deadbolt with the included key, even if the lock loses power. Speaking of power, the Wyze Lock Bolt v2 can run on eight AA batteries (included) for up to 8 months. If the batteries die before you can replace them, you can operate the lock with a power bank via the USB-C emergency port.  Other features include auto-lock with a time delay, anti-peep technology (which means you can tap in extra digits before or after your PIN to keep snoopers from stealing your code), a built-in alarm that sounds if the lock is jammed or after too many unsuccessful unlock attempts, and yes, integration with the Wyze Doorbell (for the ability to lock or unlock your door directly from the doorbell’s live video feed).  This story is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best smart locks. Read...

Cyware has enhanced its Quarterback AI platform with new agentic features to improve security operations and streamline threat intelligence workflows. Read...

How is it possible that we’re already looking at the end of 2025? The smart home market continued to expand and become ever more mainstream this year, as manufacturers introduced new products that are easier to set up and use daily. The year’s biggest innovations revolve around AI, followed by the Matter standard that continues to break down the walls between brands, although there is still no standard for important product categories, including security cameras. In any event, this is the time when we celebrate the best smart home products you can buy in 2025. As is our practice, this list is not limited to products introduced in 2025, but they are all available for purchase today. And since this year is not quite over, and there are a handful of new products we’re still waiting to review, we might circle back to this and make an addition or two. Watch this space. Best smart lighting ecosystem: Philips Hue Philips Hue White and Color Ambiance A19 (Bluetooth + Zigbee) Read our review Best Prices Today: $54.99 at Best Buy | $55.27 at Amazon | Not Available at Adorama Philips Hue has long been our lighting ecosystem of choice, offering a peerless section of smart bulbs, lamps, light strips, outdoor lights, and now security cameras as well as video doorbells. But this year, Philips Hue is taking things up a notch with a new Hue Bridge Pro that can handle more than 200 Hue devices (150 lights plus 50-ish accessories) while also turning your Hue lights into motion sensors. With the Bridge Pro’s added capacity plus its ability to turn every room into a motion zone, the Philips Hue lighting ecosystem is looking stronger than ever.  Best lighting control system: Lutron Caséta  Lutron Diva Smart Dimmer Read our review Best Prices Today: $69.95 at Amazon If you’re intent on installing smart light switches to control your existing home lights, look no further than the Lutron Caséta smart home ecosystem. With its proprietary Clear Connect technology, Lutron switches like the Diva Smart Dimmer are tops at controlling home lighting, and the system is compatible with Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, Google Home, Samsung SmartThings, and even Sonos speakers. Beyond smart lights, the Lutron Caséta ecosystem also comprises smart shades and blinds, motion sensors, ceiling-fan controllers, keypads, and remotes.  Best smart lock: Level Lock Pro Level Lock Pro Read our review It may look like an ordinary deadbolt (that’s a good thing, by the way), but the Level Lock Pro is a state-of-the-art smart lock that can be unlocked with an NFC-enabled key fob, a smart phone, a smart watch, or a PIN (when used with its optional keypad). The lock also supports geofencing, meaning it can lock or unlock your door as you leave or approach your home. Because it supports Matter, the Level Lock Pro will work with the Alexa, Apple Home, Google Home, and Samsung SmartThings ecosystems, and it can be bridged into your Wi-Fi network via an Amazon Echo or Echo Dot Max, an Apple HomePod or HomePod mini, a Google Nest Hub Max or 2nd-gen Hub, or any other smart speaker or display that offers Thread border router functionality. Best video doorbell for Alexa users TP-Link Tapo D225 Video Doorbell Camera Read our review Best Prices Today: $89.99 at Amazon | $99.99 at TP-Link/Tapo Yes, Amazon just shipped several new Ring video doorbells, but we’ve not had the opportunity to review any of them. But the Tapo D225 Video Doorbell doesn’t win its spot on this list by default. Despite its low street price of just $90, this porch sentinel boasts 2K video resolution, a head-to-toe view of your visitor, and it comes with a plug-in chime so you’ll never miss someone who rings the bell. You won’t need to worry about the ongoing cost of a subscription for cloud storage, as there’s an onboard microSD card slow, and you can operate it on its internal battery or hardwire it to low-voltage power. Take the latter route and you’ll even be able to set up 24/7 recording. As our reviewer summed it up: “[the Tapo D225 Video Doorbell Camera might not be much to look at, but it delivers a lot of features and it gets the job done.” Best video doorbell for Apple Home users Aqara Doorbell Camera Hub G410 Read our review Best Prices Today: $119.99 at Amazon Prime | $129.99 at Amazon The headline of our Aqara Doorbell Camera Hub G410 review reads, simply, “Yeah, it does that, too.” That’s because there are so few things it’s not capable of. What’s more, it can also function as a complete Matter-compatible smart home hub, thanks to its Thread and Zigbee radios (although support for the latter is limited to Aqara’s own Zigbee devices). You don’t need to be an Apple Home aficionado to appreciate this doorbell–it’s also compatible with the Amazon Alexa and Google Home ecosystems–but Apple users will welcome it as one of the few video doorbells to support Apple’s HomeKit and HomeKit Secure. Best video doorbell for Google Home users Google Nest Doorbell (wired, 3rd gen) Read our review Best Prices Today: $174.99 at Amazon We said Google’s Gemini was a game-changer in our review of the Nest Doorbell (wired, 3rd gen) largely because of that AI’s ability to describe and summarize what security cameras like this have seen. Gemini also empowers you to search all of the camera’s high-resolution recordings with natural-language queries–that sure beats scrubbing along a timeline looking for a specific event. Google doesn’t offer the same features in a battery-powered model, yet, so you’ll need to have a low-voltage transformer to install this. But it will look attractive next to your door while delivering a head-to-toe view of your visitors. Best indoor security camera for Amazon Alexa users Arlo Essential Pan Tilt Indoor (model VMC3073-100NAS) Read our review Best Prices Today: $14.99 at Amazon Don’t let this indoor camera’s low price tag fool you. This home security device is packed with more features than you might expect for the money, including 2K video resolution and a pan/tilt motor that can spin its lens 360 degrees and tilt it over a 180-degree arc. The small camera runs on Arlo Intelligence to produce AI-powered alerts for people, vehicles, animals, and packages. Be aware that this is an AC-powered camera–there is not battery option–and you’ll need to pay for a subscription to unlock all of its features. Best indoor security camera for Google Home users Nest Cam Indoor (wired, 3rd gen) Best Prices Today: $99.98 at Amazon No, we haven’t published our complete hands-on review of the Nest Cam Indoor (wired, 3rd gen), but we have enough experience with it to know that it’s the best choice for smart home dwellers in the Google Home ecosystem. Like Google’s latest Nest Doorbell and Nest Cam Outdoor, this indoor model delivers 2K video resolution, but the real benefit to be had is Google’s Gemini AI–and you’ll want to pay for a Google Home Premium subscription to get the full benefit of it (as with all of Google’s Nest cameras, you do get a rolling three hours of event-based video recordings without a sub). None of Google’s new and most powerful cameras have battery options, you’ll need to plug each of them into a nearby AC outlet, but you won’t find a better home security camera if your life revolves around Google Home. Best outdoor security camera for Apple Home users Aqara Camera Hub G5 Pro WLAN Read our review Best Prices Today: $159.99 at Amazon Prime | $169.99 at Amazon Best outdoor security camera for Google Home users The Aqara Camera Hub G5 Pro is the rare smart home device that’s not just an outdoor Wi-fi home security, but it’s also a Matter-certified outdoor smart home hub complete with Thread and Zigbee radios. Now before you get too excited, know that its Zigbee radio can only control Aqara’s own Zigbee smart home devices, but that offering is pretty solid. As for the camera element of this device, its 4-megapixel image sensor captures video in resolution of 2688×1520 pixels, and it’s fully compatible with Apple Home, including HomeKit Secure Video. If you’re concerned about finding an outdoor outlet to plug it in, consider its PoE cousin and run an ethernet cable from your compatible router for both data and power. Nest Cam Outdoor (wired, 2nd gen) Best Prices Today: $119.97 at Amazon We haven’t yet published our review of the Nest Cam Outdoor (wired, 2nd gen), either, but we installed it at the same time we conducted our Nest Doorbell (wired, 3rd gen) review and have been using it continually since then. The highlight is, of course, the integration with Google’s Gemini AI, and its ability to summarize the events that happened within its field of view. Unlike most cameras, you’ll get need at least some free recordings in the cloud, but you’ll need to sign up for a subscription to get enough to be truly useful, and that’s also the only way to unlock Gemini. Best floodlight camera: Eufy Floodlight Camera E340  Eufy Floodlight Cam E340 Read our review Best Prices Today: $219.99 at Amazon Our favorite floodlight camera isn’t just a floodlight and security cam in one–it’s actually a floodlight plus two cameras, including one with a 3K wide-angle lens and a second with a 2K telephoto lens. Equipped with a pan/tilt motor, the Eufy Floodlight Camera E340’s dual cameras can pan 360 degrees over a 120-degree arc, perfect for covering large swathes of your property, while its twin LED panels can illuminate the area with up to 2,000 lumens of brightness. The E340 also offers up to 128GB of local storage on a (user-supplied) microSD card, meaning no need for cloud storage, or you can go big with up to 16TB of hard drive storage when using the Eufy HomeBase S380. Read...