Ray Hadley paid the ultimate tribute to friend David Morrow after it was announced he would be inducted into the NRL Hall of Fame. Read...

Led by the tennis superstar, The ESPYS celebrated a landmark year for women’s sports. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating ProsGood performance for productivitySolid aluminum buildTactile, spacious keyboardConvertible form factorLong battery lifeIncludes stylusConsMiddling display brightnessOnly 8GB of RAM in base modelNo Trackpoint on keyboardOur VerdictThe Lenovo ThinkBook 14 2-in-1 Gen 4 offers solid performance and a great value for anyone who needs a laptop to get work done. To many, Lenovo’s ThinkPad laptops are the gold standard for Windows productivity, but they can be pretty spendy. The ThinkBook lineup offers almost every luxury you’ve come to expect from Lenovo’s serious business laptops with a much lower price point. The Lenovo ThinkBook 14 2-in-1 Gen 4 starts at just over $1,000 with solid but not amazing specs and fantastic build quality. It won’t scratch your gaming itch, but if you need to get work done, it’s hard to go wrong with the ThinkBook 14.  Looking for more options? Check out PCWorld’s roundup of the best laptops available right now. Lenovo ThinkBook 14 2-in-1 Gen 4: Specs and features The Lenovo ThinkBook 14 2-in-1 Gen 4 is a “budget-premium” business laptop—the base configuration has a Core Ultra 5 and just 8GB of RAM, and the 14-inch LCD touchscreen is only 1920×1200 and 60Hz. On the other hand, the aluminum chassis is robust and durable, which is necessary if you’re going to haul a laptop to meetings and toss it in your bag. The 2-in-1 design also makes this notebook useful in more situations than your average productivity machine.  Lenovo also offers this laptop with a more powerful Core Ultra 7 CPU and 16 or 32GB of RAM, which will make the ThinkBook 14 2-in-1 better for multitasking and working with large files. These upgrades don’t add too much to the price, either. Fully decked out, the ThinkBook 14 2-in-1 clocks in around $1,400. The Meteor Lake chip in this machine does have AI acceleration, but it’s not fast enough to qualify for Microsoft’s Copilot+ features. Here are the specs of the laptop I tested.  CPU: Intel Core Ultra 5 125U Memory: 16GB DDR5 Graphics/GPU: Intel Arc iGPU Display: 14-inch 1920 x 1200 IPS LCD touchscreen, 60Hz Storage: 512GB M.2 SSD PCIe Gen 4 Webcam: 1080p, IR for Windows Hello Connectivity: 1x USB-C Thunderbolt 4 (40Gbps), 1x USB-C (10 Gbps), 2 x USB-A (5 Gbps), 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x microSD card reader, 1x 3.5mm audio jack Networking: WiFi 6 802.11AX, Bluetooth 5.2 Battery capacity: 60Whr, 65W charging Dimensions: 12.32 x 8.81 x 0.66 inches Weight: 3.61lbs MSRP as tested: $1,149.99 Lenovo ThinkBook 14 2-in-1 Gen 4: Design and build quality IDG / Ryan Whitwam IDG / Ryan Whitwam IDG / Ryan Whitwam The ThinkBook 14 2-in-1 has a mature, elegant design. If you walk into a room with this machine, no one will think you grabbed a gaming notebook off your desk. The underside tapers to present a slimmer side profile, which also makes the machine very easy to pick up from almost any angle.  The chassis is fully aluminum, with a slick dual-texture finish on the lid. It comes with a Lenovo Slim Pen, which is about as good a stylus as you’ll find bundled with a Windows laptop. It attaches magnetically to the right edge of the laptop for quick access. There’s a robust settings application, and the pen is comfortable to hold. Sadly, Windows 11 still isn’t very good for stylus input, but that’s not Lenovo’s fault.  Lenovo’s latest ThinkBook is sleek, sturdy, and a delight to carry around. Next to the stylus attachment, you’ll find the ThinkBook’s power button with integrated fingerprint scanner. It’s a bit slow if you’re accustomed to using a fingerprint sensor on a phone, and I don’t like how close it is to the pen. You have to sneak your finger in right next to the stylus tip to reach the button. That said, the accuracy is good if you can reach it. This edge also sports a microSD card slot, a USB-A port, and a Kensington lock. On the opposite side, the ThinkBook 14 2-in-1 has both of its USB-C ports, another USB-A, an HDMI port, and a 3.5mm audio jack.  The 3.61-pound weight is slightly heavy for a 14-inch laptop, but the compact footprint makes it easily portable. The size also helps when you utilize the convertible 360-degree hinge to prop the machine up like a tent or fold the keyboard back. The hinge is on the stiff side, which is preferable for a 2-in-1, so it’ll stay put when you move between postures. You’ll probably need two hands to open the notebook, though.  The lid has Lenovo’s trademark reverse display notch, which gives you an ergonomically friendly lip to grasp when opening the laptop. This area houses the 1080p webcam (with Windows Hello support), but the rest of the bezel is extremely narrow—it’s almost all screen. The privacy-minded will also be happy to hear there is a physical camera shutter for the webcam.  Lenovo ThinkBook 14 2-in-1 Gen 4: Keyboard and trackpad IDG / Ryan Whitwam IDG / Ryan Whitwam IDG / Ryan Whitwam Lenovo’s laptops consistently offer good keyboards, but some are better than good. The ThinkBook 14 2-in-1 Gen 4 is in the latter camp—it’s got an excellent keyboard. There’s no room for a number pad, but the compact layout fills most of the available space with full-sized keys that feel tactile and sturdy. The keys have reasonable travel, and the bottom out is firm without being harsh.  The ThinkBook has a small cutout that gives the arrow cluster a bit more space. These keys are not quite full size, but they’re not split in half like many of today’s mainstream laptops. Not only are these keys easy to find by touch, the layout is super-smart. I adore having the page up and down keys right next to the arrows.  If you do a lot of typing on the go, this is a fantastic machine to use. There’s even a Windows Copilot key, in case you want to consult a robot. The only thing you’re missing from the more expensive ThinkPad line is Trackpoint, but most people don’t need that additional pointer. It’s one of the few features you lose with the ThinkBook 14 versus the ThinkPad X1 convertible.  The trackpad isn’t the largest, but neither is this laptop. At 120 x 75mm, the trackpad occupies a sizable chunk of the space below the keyboard. It’s extremely responsive, and the smoothness is incredible. Lenovo opted to cover the surface of the trackpad with mylar. It gives the trackpad a silky texture that embodies the “premium” feel you’d expect from a high-end notebook.  Lenovo ThinkBook 14 2-in-1 Gen 4: Display and audio IDG / Ryan Whitwam IDG / Ryan Whitwam IDG / Ryan Whitwam The display on the ThinkBook 14 2-in-1 Gen 4 is not a show-stopper, but it is entirely serviceable for its intended use case. The resolution clocks in at 1920 x 1200, which is lower than many similarly priced laptops in 2024. The refresh rate is also stuck at 60Hz, and the brightness tops out at 300 nits. Again, there are 14-inch notebooks that offer more capable displays with OLED technology, higher brightness, faster refresh rates, and a lot more pixels. Those machines are much more expensive, though.  The screen is plenty sharp for productivity work, and a higher resolution at this size wouldn’t make apps or videos look any better. It’s a nice overall visual experience that won’t drain too much power. The brightness might be annoying if you need to use the ThinkBook in a brightly lit office, or, heaven forbid, outdoors. I’d like to see at least 400 nits of brightness on a laptop in this price range.  The ThinkBook has stereo speakers tucked into the bottom of the chassis. The sound is typical of laptop speakers. They’re fine for movies and TV, anything where the audio is mostly spoken words. Music sounds acceptable at lower volumes, provided you’re not too picky. There’s next to no bass in the sound profile, and the speakers will distort if you crank them too high.  Lenovo ThinkBook 14 2-in-1 Gen 4: Performance and benchmarks The ThinkBook 14 2-in-1 is designed for efficiency and portability, which means it’s not the fastest machine out there. However, it makes up for that with its long battery life, and it does still compete well with other laptops in its price range.  IDG / Ryan Whitwam IDG / Ryan Whitwam IDG / Ryan Whitwam PCMark 10 is designed to test a machine across a variety of metrics like web browsing, video chat, and photo editing. With Lenovo’s default adaptive power setting, the ThinkBook competes well with Core Ultra 5 and Core Ultra 7 chips. It only loses about 10 percent compared to the more expensive ThinkPad X1 convertible.  IDG / Ryan Whitwam IDG / Ryan Whitwam IDG / Ryan Whitwam Cinebench is a CPU-focused test that shows how a PC handles heavy but brief multi-core workloads. The ThinkBook 14 2-in-1 catches up to the ThinkPad X1 here, scoring in the middle of the pack among similarly priced Windows laptops. The Ryzen in the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED and Core Ultra 7 155H in the Dell XPS 14 are well out in the lead, though.  IDG / Ryan Whitwam IDG / Ryan Whitwam IDG / Ryan Whitwam The Handbrake test is similar to Cinebench in that it shows how a computer handles multithreaded tasks, but this is a longer-duration test where thermals matter more. Scores in this test are consistent across the U-series Intel Core processors, so the ThinkBook, ThinkPad X1, and performance-tuned Lenovo Yoga 7i score around the same. Dell’s XPS 14 with a Core Ultra 7 155H steals the show, though.  IDG / Ryan Whitwam IDG / Ryan Whitwam IDG / Ryan Whitwam While the ThinkBook 14 2-in-1 is not a gaming machine, it can be helpful to know what the integrated GPU is capable of doing. The unfortunate answer is: not much. It runs neck and neck with other Meteor Lake chips with their modest Intel graphics. The Dell XPS 14 leads the way, showing what’s possible with a real GPU. It’s followed by the Asus Zenbook 14, which has strong AMD integrated graphics. The ThinkBook 14 is not the best laptop if you intend to play anything more complex than Vampire Survivors.  Benchmarks only tell part of the story. Using the ThinkBook day-to-day is a good experience. Apps open quickly, and you can multitask without noticeable slowdowns. Even 16GB of RAM can feel a bit claustrophobic in 2024, particularly if you like to keep a lot of browser tabs open. I’d recommend staying away from the base model with 8GB of RAM. That’s not enough, even for productivity use. The 16GB of RAM version I tested was good enough for what you can realistically do on a 14-inch laptop.  If your use case involves transferring large files over Wi-Fi, you may want to look elsewhere. While the Wi-Fi 6 radio is fine for browsing the web, it has lower maximum throughput than Wi-Fi 6e and 7, which are available on competing laptops. You will need a compatible network, though.  Lenovo doesn’t add too much software on top of the standard Windows loadout. There’s the Vantage settings app, which I like much more than the configuration utilities offered by other OEMs. There is also, however, a trial of McAfee on the machine that pops up alarming warnings trying to get you to upgrade. You can uninstall it, though.  Lenovo ThinkBook 14 2-in-1 Gen 4: Battery life The ThinkBook 14 2-in-1 Gen 4 has a 60Wh battery, which is a bit small compared to other laptops of this size. Lenovo’s performance tuning is efficient, though, offering healthy longevity on par with some computers with larger batteries.  IDG / Ryan Whitwam IDG / Ryan Whitwam IDG / Ryan Whitwam Our battery test consists of playing a 4K copy of Tears of Steel on repeat in the Movies & TV app (in airplane mode) until the laptop runs out of juice. The ThinkBook lands in the middle of the pack, but all these laptops have overall good battery life. It ran for more than 14 hours in our test. There’s no doubt you can make it through a work day with this notebook, even if you have to crank up the display brightness.  Charging is accomplished via the USB-C ports. The ThinkBook comes with a 65W charger, which is much more compact than most laptop power supplies, but you can get smaller USB-C chargers. I tested the ThinkBook with a third-party USB-PD charger, and it worked just as well as the OEM model. It’s nice to have that option.  Lenovo ThinkBook 14 2-in-1 Gen 4: Conclusion Lenovo’s latest ThinkBook is sleek, sturdy, and a delight to carry around. The 2-in-1 design lets you reorient the machine to make better use of the touchscreen display, and I appreciate that Lenovo includes the Slim Pen even if Windows 11 isn’t always great at stylus input. It’s not the fastest computer you can buy, but it’s more than good enough for browsing, writing, spreadsheets, video, and anything else you’re likely to do at work.  You should have no problem getting in a full workday with the Lenovo ThinkBook 14 2-in-1 Gen 4, even if you forget the charger at home. If you do somehow manage to drain the battery, you can recharge with almost any USB-C plug, possibly even the one you use for your phone if it supplies enough power. That can help reduce the clutter you have to haul around.  While I don’t recommend the base model with 8GB of RAM, the 16GB upgrade isn’t much more spendy. Lenovo always juggles its pricing frequently, so sales on this configuration or the upmarket Core Ultra 7 version are likely. If you do pick up the ThinkBook 14 2-in-1 Gen 4, you’ll get a fantastic little productivity laptop at a good price. Laptops Read...

Samsung has launched the Galaxy Watch7 and Galaxy Watch Ultra, featuring advanced AI health monitoring and durable designs. Read...

People hate printers. They have tons of breakable moving parts and they require expensive ink refills. But it was even worse when HP started making printers that required 24/7 online connectivity and blocked third-party ink cartridges via DRM. It was so bad that consumers started suing HP—and HP has finally decided that discretion is the better part of valor and will now discontinue its HP+ e-series printers. According to statements provided to German site Drucker Channel (spotted by Tom’s Hardware), HP has discontinued the HP+ LaserJet series effective immediately. This includes around a dozen printer models across several series, all nearly identical to other designs but with an “e” added to the end of their model numbers. Here’s a list of affected models. Again, all of these have similar models without the “e” on the end, which will presumably still be sold: HP Laserjet M110we HP Laserjet M209dwe HP Laserjet MFP M140we HP Laserjet MFP M234sdne HP Laserjet MFP M234sdwe HP Laserjet Pro 3002dwe HP Laserjet Pro 4002dne HP Laserjet Pro 4002dwe HP Laserjet Pro MFP 3102fdwe HP Laserjet Pro MFP 4102dwe HP Laserjet Pro MFP 4102fdwe All of these models require an active internet connection to HP servers in order to print, and they feature even stricter DRM security to try and force users to use expensive HP ink instead of third-party refills. You probably already know that manufacturers sell cheap printers in order to get you to spend tons on ink, but HP went a step further by turning said ink into a subscription model. The “HP+ Instant Ink upgrade” automatically ordered new toner when a printer showed its reservoir as low—which certainly wasn’t an incentive to make toner packages smaller or to not trigger that “order” button even when the current cartridge wasn’t quite empty. Nope, not at all. Well, HP also said that the Instant Ink program is kaput. It’ll shut down later this year, though people currently using the service may be able to continue doing so. Ditto for the always-connected e-series printers, too—they’ll disappear from store shelves but existing ones won’t shut down. But HP’s statement (machine translated since I don’t speak German) didn’t say that the always-connected printers currently in service would be updated or altered to remove this dependency. So, if you have one of the printers marketed through the HP+ program, you might still have to keep it online 24/7 to print… for as long as HP keeps those servers up. The attempt to turn printing into a subscription service was met with instant revulsion from a huge number of consumers. While it makes sense for businesses to create a supply chain for their printing needs, home users are relying less on printing altogether—and that’s by design. Today, you can ship packages, get into concerts and sports events, and hop onto trains and busses with just your phone. Plenty of people don’t have a printer anymore, opting for FedEx-like stores or the library whenever they need to print anything. And HP’s attempt to lock users into its ecosystem of artificially inflated ink wasn’t any more popular. Earlier this year, a class-action lawsuit was brought against the company by US customers who found they couldn’t use third-party cartridges after a printer software update. It wasn’t the first time HP pulled this move, nor the first time they were sued by their own customers for it. While HP’s comments on the end of their always-on printers and subscription service didn’t mention these legal issues, it seems likely that it was in the back of someone’s mind when the call was made. As a former printshop worker, I can appreciate both the necessity of printing and the hatred it gets from the average user. I bought a cheap-as-dirt Brother laser printer years ago, and I recommend it to anyone who only needs the occasional black-and-white shipping label or paperwork. It works over Wi-Fi, starts up without a hitch after months of inactivity, and it’s more than happy to take cheap third-party toner. Printers Read...

Cycling NZ`s snub of mountain biker Sammie Maxwell has been overruled by the Sports Tribunal. Read...

The NRL and Fox Sports have been left embarrassed, with the face of Fox League, Matthew Johns, involved in an advertising campaign to promote the game’s great rival. Read...

Any laptop with a GPU could be considered a gaming laptop, but it doesn’t start to feel like a “real” gaming laptop until it starts pushing the limits—and I’m not just talking about performance. Gaming laptops have a reputation for going above and beyond, especially with regard to aesthetics: colorful lights, embellishments, and slick designs that borrow from sci-fi concepts. But all of that is icing on top of the desktop gaming experience in a laptop body. In the history of over-the-top gaming laptops, a handful stand out as particularly iconic and/or innovative. Here are my picks for the best, most amazing, most ridiculous gaming laptops that guarantee gamer cred. Check it out: The best gaming laptops worth your money 1. Acer Predator 21 X Acer Acer Acer The best way to describe the Acer Predator 21 X? A single word: BIG! The screen was big, the chassis was big, and the price was very big. Launching with a price tag of $9,000 in 2017, this laptop was reserved for only the most committed gamers with deep pockets. The 18.7-pound behemoth offered the best hardware available at the time, including an Intel Core i7-7820HK, 64GB of RAM, and two SLI-linked Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 GPUs. All of that hardware delivered the best possible gaming experience on the laptop’s 21-inch curved LCD. Today’s gaming laptops might have more power, but they can’t hold a candle to the Predator 21 X’s bananas form factor. More on this: Our review of the Acer Predator 21 X 2. Asus ROG GX700 Asus Asus Asus The Asus ROG GX700 may look like your average gaming laptop at first glance, but that’s only true if you leave the dock at home. This laptop came with a ludicrous liquid-cooling dock, which kept the internals frosty even when pushed to their limits. The dock plugged into the back of the laptop, linking the dock’s compressor and radiator to tubing inside the laptop chassis. This allowed the Intel Core i7-6820HK and Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 to be overclocked for better performance. It wasn’t cheap—costing $5,000—and without the dock it was pretty boring otherwise. 3. HP Omen X 2S HP HP HP Most gaming laptops have just one screen—that’s all you need to play a game, after all. But the HP Omen X 2S sports a second, built-in display above the keyboard. A 6-inch 1080p touchscreen that can be used like a tiny secondary monitor, the cool thing about it is that you can also monitor system performance, control lighting, and more with it. Is it super useful in practice? At the end of the day, no. But it sure is distinctive. The main 15-inch screen supports 240Hz refresh with Nvidia G-Sync, and the RTX 2080 GPU was the best you could get circa 2019. The $2,900 price tag is pretty hard to swallow, though. More on this: Hands on with the HP Omen X 2S 4. Dell XPS m2010 Dell Dell Dell In the mid-2000s, Dell released what may still be the least practical gaming laptop ever created. The Dell XPS m2010 was an absolutely gargantuan 21-pound desktop replacement, featuring an Intel Core 2 Duo T7200 processor, 1GB of DDR2 RAM, and a 120GB hard drive. On the graphics side, this laptop packed an ATI Radeon X1800, which was good enough to run any game of the day on the laptop’s spacious 20.1-inch display that was fully adjustable. Plus, the keyboard could be removed. It was a portable all-in-one machine. This device only survives today as a weird relic, but some people did spend $3,500 on the XPS m2010 back in 2006. 5. Asus ROG Mothership GZ700GX Asus Asus Asus The Asus ROG Mothership GZ700GX is another extreme laptop that eschews the standard form factor—basically a Surface Pro for gaming. The 17-inch display has chunky bezels because it contains all the core components, including an Intel Core i9 CPU and Nvidia RTX 2080 GPU. The fully detachable keyboard can make it feel like a regular laptop, and it sports a trackpad that doubles as a number pad as well as a hinge that lets you fold it in half. Due to the Mothership GZ700GX’s strange design, the whole thing is only marginally portable. Combine that with the $6,500 retail price tag and it’s just too much for all but the most serious gamers. 6. MSI Titan 18 HX MSI MSI MSI MSI has been making enormous gaming laptops for years, but the MSI Titan 18 HX sets a new standard for desktop replacements. Inside is the fastest 14th Gen Intel Core i9 CPU, plus a Nvidia RTX 4090 GPU to drive the 4K Mini-LED display. The chassis is somewhat understated for a gaming laptop, but the keyboard and trackpad give it all the gaming cred it needs. The keys have Cherry mechanical switches with RGB lighting, and that isn’t the only glow effect—the trackpad also has RGB backlighting, a flashy and unique feature among gaming laptops. The good news? This gaming laptop is still relatively new as of this writing, so you could actually go out and buy one right now if you love RGB and have $5,400 to blow. More on this: Our review of the MSI Titan 18 HX 7. Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 Asus Asus Asus As you may have seen from the Mothership and GX700 above, Asus uses its ROG brand to try a lot of outlandish things. That’s certainly the case with the Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 16. This laptop doesn’t come apart or plug into a liquid cooler, but it does have a second screen—and unlike the aforementioned HP Omen X 2S, this one is actually large enough to be useful. The secondary screen’s 14-inch, 3840×1100 LCD runs edge-to-edge under the main screen, which is a 16-inch Mini-LED panel. The secondary screen is attached to a tilt mechanism, which raises and angles it while the laptop is open, lining it up with the bottom of the main screen. It all looks pretty futuristic, but how useful is a compact ultrawide touchscreen below your monitor really? Well, if you want one, you can still get the Zephyrus Duo 16 for $3,200. More on this: Our review of the Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 8. Alienware m18 R2 Dell Dell Dell Gaming laptops tend to be large, especially ones with 18-inch screens. But the Alienware m18 R2 is gigantic even by those standards! Tipping the scales at nearly 10 pounds, the m18 R2 is only portable in the strictest sense of the word. The display has substantial bezels, and there’s a large cooling shelf hanging off the back of the machine. It’s an imposing laptop, and heaven help you if you have to actually put it on your lap—not only is it heavy, it runs hot with an Intel Core i9 CPU and RTX 4090 GPU. It’s also one of the few gaming laptops you can find with a Cherry mechanical keyboard, which is an optional upgrade. The Alienware m18 R2 launched in 2024, so it’s still available if you don’t mind dropping $3,500 on a laptop. More on this: Our review of the Alienware m18 R2 9. MSI GT80 Titan SLI MSI MSI MSI The MSI GT80 Titan SLI launched in 2015, but it had a profile like a laptop from the 90s. It was a full two inches thick thanks to the SteelSeries mechanical keyboard. Unlike the Alienware m18 R2 or MSI Titan 18 HX, the keycaps were full-height and connected to switches with much more travel. It looked and felt more like a “real” keyboard, sure, but it contributed to making this 10-pound laptop that much harder to transport. The rest of the hardware helped, of course. The GT80 had two GeForce GTX 980M GPUs linked via SLI, making it capable of maxing any game of the era on its 18.4-inch 1080p screen. It also had a Core i7 CPU and a 1TB spinning hard drive in addition to the smaller system SSD. More on this: Our review of the MSI GT80 Titan SLI 10. Acer Predator Helios 300 SpatialLabs Edition Acer Acer Acer Acer has kept the promise of 3D gaming alive longer than anyone. In 2023, the company released the Acer Predator Helios 300 SpatialLabs Edition with SpatialLabs technology, allowing for stereoscopic 3D gaming on its 4K display without glasses. It uses a feature called “TrueGame” to simulate a stereo image in select games, which works better than you’d expect. The machine packs more than a fancy 3D screen, too—there’s also an Intel Core i9 CPU, a GeForce RTX 3080 GPU, and 32GB of RAM. Those are solid specs even a year later, but the $3,500 price tag is a lot to ask for a gimmicky display. That’s just the price you pay to stand out. More on this: Our review of the Acer Predator Helios 300 SpatialLabs Edition Gaming Laptops Read...

She gave Kiwi sports fans one of their best moments of 2023 but now the Football Ferns icon has been left in pain by her shock Olympics omission. Read...

A former Kiwi representative sports star has been charged with posting “nude images” of a woman online without her consent. Read...