• Valve has said it's "rolling out improvements to [SteamOS] so it's more compatible with desktop hardware"
• The company also made it clear that it's collaborating closely with Nvidia for better GPU compatibility
• The aim is to make SteamOS more widely deployed on DIY PCs away from the Steam Machine, and this is tempting some gamers to ditch Windows 11

Valve has underlined how it's improving SteamOS to allow gamers to make their own version of the Steam Machine should they wish, which is already prompting some excited chatter on Reddit about abandoning Windows 11.

The Verge reports that Valve's Pierre-Loup Griffais (an engineer who often gives interviews) made it clear that the company is busy "rolling out improvements to [SteamOS] so it's more compatible with desktop hardware" and also "collaborating with Nvidia very closely" on ensuring better compatibility with Team Green's GPUs.

Before you get too excited, though, the caveat that Griffais attached is that Nvidia support isn't coming anytime soon – meaning not this year – but that it's "certainly something that we're working on in the background".

Valve just released SteamOS 3.8 which prepared the ground for the new Steam Machine, arriving with some key changes to ensure a better experience with Intel CPUs, as well as Nvidia GPUs (or indeed all discrete graphics cards, which will benefit from "greatly improved video memory management").

The introduction of KDE Plasma version 6.4.3 with Wayland support is important, too, very much upping the desktop game and bringing in better support for external displays and VRR in SteamOS, among other boons.

In short, with SteamOS 3.8, Griffais notes that "you can put together your own Steam Machine using whatever PC parts you want."

All of which is paving the way for more PC gamers who are fed up with Windows 11 and Microsoft to make the switch over to SteamOS as an alternative operating system (especially those who aren't running an AMD-powered system).

Despite it being still relatively early days in this effort (as noted regarding the work with Nvidia GPUs), some gamers are already happily declaring that they're ready to ditch Microsoft's platform for SteamOS.

One Redditor tells us: "Decided to go all in and wipe my main 2TB drive and install this [SteamOS]. Just got it installed and tried a couple games, working very well so far. Going to make myself stick with it instead of slithering back to Windows."

Here's another gamer who says: "The minute SteamOS gets Nvidia support, there is going to be a large mass exodus of users in the gaming space off of Windows."

In a similar vein, a further Reddit thread informs us: "I found that some of my Steam games which played fine on Windows 10, actually played far worse on Windows 11. I decided to switch back to Linux Mint and give Steam another go on that after having tried it a few years ago, and to my surprise, those games all worked great now. So I've stuck with Mint and every game I have in my Steam library runs well without issue. Value has really been doing a great job of bringing gaming to Linux."

And in that same thread, a Redditor observes: " The instant this [SteamOS] becomes stable with driver[s], I'm jumping out [of] Windows." (Not literally).

Analysis: Steamy Windows

It appears this is prompting more than a few gamers to reconsider their position with Windows 11, but we clearly shouldn't get carried away yet. SteamOS has a long road ahead of it as a rival to Windows 11, as it remains very much a niche proposition, but clearly Valve is pushing hard to make it a much more compelling alternative.

The good thing is that even if you don't intend to go near the Steam Machine – and you believe it's well overpriced, as many do (thanks to the memory crisis) – the launch of the device could still benefit you, as SteamOS continues to take strides forward. As Valve observes, you can just build your own Steam Machine-style PC, or to avoid the RAM crisis price hikes, simply repurpose an existing rig you have (perhaps with a choice upgrade or two grabbed in a sale).

With notable strides being taken here – and some progress being made in terms of getting anti-cheat games to run, too, in certain cases, although there's still plenty of work to be done here – we can be hopeful that SteamOS adoption could be accelerated considerably.

However, Windows 11 remains dominant by a long, long way in the PC gaming world, although SteamOS gaining traction could worry Microsoft for the longer-term, and prompt further efforts to make Windows 11 better for gamers – which again would be a win, albeit an indirect one.

• Windows 11's Xbox mode uses less RAM than the standard desktop, but doesn't improve game performance
• That's the conclusion based on a battery of tests by a popular YouTube channel
• Gaming performance on Valve's SteamOS is still better, while Microsoft is trying to catch up

Microsoft's push to improve gaming on Windows 11 is still an ongoing process, particularly with its Xbox mode that provides a console-style user interface — but is seemingly not doing much to boost game performance.

As highlighted by Notebookcheck, Windows 11's Xbox mode does result in decreased RAM usage compared to the standard desktop, but crucially it doesn't improve actual game performance — or that's the conclusion of recent testing by Linus Tech Tips (LTT).

When testing the likes of Forza Horizon 5 at 1080p with max graphics settings and no upscaling across two PCs with the same specifications, there was no difference in frame rates between the standard desktop and Xbox mode. The same was true at 1440p resolution, and with other games such as Cyberpunk 2077 and Doom: The Dark Ages, where LTT found either the same frame rates or a negligible difference.

It's important to note that both PCs in LTT's tests show memory usage at lower levels when using the Xbox mode compared to the standard desktop, but this made no impact on performance.

I should point out that this is just one set of benchmarks, and results will, of course, likely vary depending on the exact tests and system configurations involved. However, LTT's testing here is a strong enough indication of a disappointing overall performance for Windows 11's Xbox mode as it stands.

It's no secret that Valve's SteamOS offers better game performance than Windows 11, with more optimal RAM usage, and it doesn't feature any of the unwanted bloatware that Windows 11 is loaded with. While SteamOS does have its own desktop mode, it's a Linux distro that is built for gaming at heart.

Something is amiss with Xbox mode, it seems, and Microsoft is struggling with optimization here. On top of that, the Xbox mode rollout isn't fully complete, acting as another pain point for Windows 11 users looking for an easy console-like gaming experience.

Frankly, the longer it takes for all users to gain access to Xbox mode, and for performance improvements to be realized, the harder it'll be for Microsoft to catch up with Valve.

While Windows remains by far the dominant OS for PC gamers, if anti-cheat support on Linux improves, that'll spell big trouble for Microsoft with more users likely migrating to SteamOS.

• The first HDMI 2.2 products are likely to arrive in 2027
• Massively increased bitrates with 4K 480Hz support, or 10K resolution
• Great for PC gaming, but won't make much difference to TV viewers

HDMI 2.2 is coming, and it could be a very big deal for gamers. That's because it delivers double the bandwidth of HDMI 2.1: up to 96Gbps.

That means HDMI 2.2 is capable of delivering uncompressed 4K at up to 240Hz (current HDMI can only do this using Display Stream Compression, aka DSC) or uncompressed 4K at 480Hz with 4:2:0 chroma subsampling, and it can also deliver uncompressed RGB 8K at 60Hz. And using DSC, it's capable of delivering 1440p at rates exceeding 1,000Hz.

There is an important qualifier, though: devices can be HDMI 2.2 certified without delivering the very fastest data speeds, so you'll need to study the spec sheets of any potential purchases.

As FlatpanelsHD reports, the HDMI organization expects the first HDMI 2.2 devices to go on sale in 2027; testing and certification are already taking place.

According to Rob Tobias, CEO and president of the HDMI Licensing Administrator, "We're hearing chip manufacturers will start to sample their FRL2 [Fixed Rate Link, the signalling technology used by HDMI] chips this year. And so we should start to see some 96 or up to 96 gigabit HDMI 2.2 products next year."

Will HDMI 2.2 be a big deal?

The specifications are impressive, though it'll be available in three flavors, all of which are faster than HDMI 2.1: 64Gbps, 80Gbps and 96Gbps.

The performance for gaming is particularly impressive, but we already have DisplayPort 2.1 at up to 80Gbps in many of the best gaming monitors so there isn't a hugely pressing need to upgrade. And HDMI requires licensing fees that are likely to be higher than for DisplayPort.

Chances are if you're into high-end gaming hardware you've already gone down the DisplayPort route, especially if you have a multi-monitor setup, but HDMI 2.2 should mean more choice among premium displays.

HDMI has more benefits in living rooms, thanks to features such as ARC (Audio Return Channel), CEC (Consumer Electronics Control) and ALLM (Auto Low-Latency Mode), so it's conceivable that the PlayStation 6 could embrace the higher bitrates of HDMI 2.2 — although games only rarely achieve the 4K 120Hz that's already achievable over HDMI 2.1, and we're not sure that's going to really change with the PS6.

But some 4K 240Hz games might be possible, and the best gaming TVs might offer the refresh rate to support it, so there may be some benefit for the most hardcore. For most living room uses, though, HDMI 2.1 is probably overkill — it's really best for PC connectivity when it comes to the pure data rate.

However, there's another benefit to HDMI 2.2: LIP, which stands for Latency Indication Protocol. LIP improves sound syncing on home theater setups, such as soundbars or AV receivers — this can be a pretty common problem with even the best soundbars, so we'll be keeping an eye on how well this works.

For most of us, I think HDMI 2.2 is generally something to keep an eye on rather than something to demand as soon as it debuts. HDMI 2.2 has been made with 10K resolution in mind, but the vast majority of commercial and streaming video tops out at 4K.

It's something to think about when buying new AV hardware in the future (there's good chance we'll need to wait for 2028's CES for widespread adoption in TVs), but initially at least, it'll be more about marketing than real-world benefits for most of us.

And bear in mind that HDMI adoption is really driven by the companies that provide the connection hardware.

Even today, not all high-end TVs have four HDMI 2.1 ports, because the most powerful processing chips used by many manufacturers don't support this. Some lower-tier TVs from the same makers do, because those chips have more up-to-date HDMI control elements — it's a bit of a mess. I suspect HDMI 2.2 will have the same kind of slightly chaotic support.

On PCs, we'll be relying on GPUs to support the tech, and new models aren't expected until late 2027 or after that — so there's a good chance of seeing HDMI 2.2 on them. But like HDMI 2.1, it'll probably launch on the highest-end models first.

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Handheld gaming PCs have come a long way since Valve's Steam Deck launched in 2022, back when the handheld market was still very much in a niche form.

The Steam Deck appealed to so many gamers simply because of its affordability and performance, running both indie and triple-A games with little difficulty (with reasonable graphics settings). The device provided gamers with an easy way to tackle their game libraries when away from their desks.

Unfortunately, the ongoing RAM crisis, combined with other difficult market conditions in 2026, has not only forced Valve to delay the launch of new hardware, but also drastically increased the price of the Steam Deck OLED. That handheld is now $789 / £649 / AU$1,199 and $949 / £779 / AU$1,429 for the 512GB and 1TB models respectively.

We're not focusing on the Steam Deck today, though. Instead, our attention has been grabbed by the new MSI Claw 8 EX AI+, coming straight out of Computex 2026 and delivering exceptional performance across several games we tested. And frankly, it may turn out to be the best handheld of 2026 in terms of raw power and performance, but there's one massive problem – the same one Valve faced with its Steam Deck OLED.

The MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ price is a joke

While I can happily admit that the Steam Deck OLED isn't worth its new price by a long shot, the cost of that device doesn't even come close to the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ in terms of absurdity.

The Claw 8 EX AI+ will be available at retailers and from the MSI Store priced at $1,799 (around £1,340 / AU$2,540). Yes, you read that right. MSI's new handheld is almost the same price as an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 (going by the GPU's MSRP, that is), or to look at it another way, the Claw is the same price as an full desktop gaming PC.

There's no denying how great MSI's new handheld is, especially considering the claims of its Intel G3 Extreme processor being 44% faster at 1080p than the MSI Claw 8 AI+'s Intel Core Ultra 258V. On paper, the only benefit it seems to be missing compared to other upcoming handhelds like the OneXPlayer 3 is an OLED screen.

However, I suppose it's a good thing there's still no OLED panel with this new Claw handheld, as I can only imagine how much more expensive the device would be if that was included. And frankly, the $1,799 price still wouldn't be justified if an OLED panel was part of the picture.

Simply put, it's pretty difficult to imagine anyone who will be willing to spend so much for a device like this when, as noted, you can get a full-blown gaming rig for this money. Okay, it's a handheld packing a lot of power and top quality performance, so it's definitely going to cost more, sure — but pushing close to $2,000? Absolutely not.

It's fair to point out that the RAM crisis has definitely had a part to play in the obscene pricing here, as shortages have put the entire PC market in disarray. Regardless, even with the memory shortage and other problems with PC components, I don't think the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ has any business being as costly as it is — and I believe MSI will find that out sooner rather than later.

I also fear that this won't be the only seriously overpriced gaming portable to be winging our way in the future.

Razer Blade 18 (2026): Two-minute review

Another year, another Razer Blade laptop lineup. At this point, these reviews have become something of a foregone conclusion for me; if there are three things I can reliably expect from each new Blade release, it's great gaming performance, a sleek and robust design, and a sky-high price tag.

Sure enough, the latest Blade 18 (2026) delivers on all three fronts – but I can't just say 'yep, buy it if you can afford it'. This new Blade is superior to its predecessors in several ways, and it's quite possibly the best large-screen gaming laptop (or portable workstation) you can buy right now.

Having seen the dawn of Nvidia RTX 5000 GPUs in Razer's laptops when I reviewed the Razer Blade 16 (2025) last year, I had some idea of what to expect in terms of performance. The new Blade 18 did not disappoint in this regard, delivering top-notch gaming quality across everything I tested.

Those games look better than ever on the new display as well, since this Blade doesn't eschew 4K display options as the 16-inch model does. That's not all I have to say about the screen, though. This Blade has an ace up its sleeve; a dual-mode display that can be switched between UHD+ 240Hz and FHD+ 440Hz modes.

I'll dig more into the specifics of this later, but it's a feature that will appeal specifically to esports-oriented gamers. In the upper echelons of competitive gaming, resolution takes a back seat to framerate in terms of importance, so being able to nearly double the maximum refresh rate of your screen at the cost of locking your resolution to 1200p becomes a very attractive tradeoff.

Still, even if you're not a hardcore esports gamer, there's little doubt that the Razer Blade 18 is worthy of standing among the best gaming laptops on the market right now. The updated design and premium build quality of the CNC-milled metal chassis, combined with the powerful gaming and creative performance (and great functionality for AI workloads, if you're so inclined), make this an easy winner – just as long as you can afford the steep price of the higher-spec configurations.

Razer Blade 18 (2026) review: Price & availability

• Starts from $3,499.99 / £3,299.99 (around AU$4,870)
• Available now in the US and UK
• No Australian release yet

Yeah, it's pretty bloody expensive. Just the starting configuration of the Razer Blade 18 will set you back a hefty $3,499.99 / £3,299.99 (around AU$4,870), though even the base specs are fairly impressive: an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX processor, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti GPU, 32GB of RAM (no wonder it's so pricey, with RAM prices spiralling out of control due to AI datacenter demand), and a 1TB SSD.

You can also get RTX 5080 and 5090 models, with my review configuration sporting the latter GPU along with an upgraded Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus CPU and double the SSD storage.

The absolute top-spec model, which also bumps the RAM up to 128GB, will cost you an eye-watering $6,999.99 - and this configuration is only available in the US, with UK models topping out at 64GB and no availability whatsoever in Australia – sorry to our readers on the other side of the globe, but you're stuck with the Blade 14 and 16 unless you want to spend extra to import the 18-inch model.

Razer Blade 18 (2026) review: Specs

Razer Blade 18 (2026) review: Design

• Thin for a large gaming laptop, but heavy
• Premium precision-milled aluminum chassis
• Plenty of ports

Long gone are the days when Razer couldn't resist the urge to cram RGB lighting into every nook and cranny of a product. Like its most recent predecessors, the 2026 Blade 18 is a clean, minimalist piece of hardware, with a pleasingly large keyboard and a chassis crafted from a single block of tempered aluminum.

As you might expect, the large display and all-metal body mean that the Blade 18 is rather heavy, weighing more than 3 kilograms. It's not exactly a device you'd want to regularly take with you on the go, but I will note that it's surprisingly slender for such a powerhouse laptop, measuring barely more than an inch thick with the lid closed.

The wide touchpad and well-spaced, comfortable backlit keyboard are excellent, making longer typing or gaming sessions very comfortable – though of course, I used a USB mouse for gaming. No, I'm not one of those terrifying Valorant players who only use the touchpad.

Speaking of plugging in peripherals, there's a fine selection of physical ports here, with the 18-inch Blade giving you three USB-As and two USB-Cs (one of which is a high-speed Thunderbolt 5 port) as well as an HDMI port, RJ-45 Ethernet, and an SD card reader – great for professional creatives who work with cameras. With regard to wireless connectivity, you get Bluetooth 5.4 and high-speed Wi-Fi 7.

The webcam is also surprisingly decent, capable of capturing 1440p video at 30Hz, which comfortably outdoes any webcam you'll find on the average office laptop. Considering that the webcam is frequently an afterthought on gaming laptops, this was nice to see. It features an IR camera for Windows Hello logins, and a physical privacy shutter (the latter of which should frankly be a feature on every webcam in this day and age).

As is usually the case for modern gaming laptops, there's not much in the way of upgradability here, but you can add in more storage if you're so inclined. There are two PCIe M.2 slots, one of which is occupied by the existing SSD, and the system supports up to 8TB of additonal storage per slot, meaning you can have up to 16TB of storage – assuming you have very deep pockets, given the current price of SSDs.

Now, let's discuss this display. In its default mode, it's a particularly nice 4K (3840 x 2400p) panel with a 240Hz refresh rate, 3ms response time, and an impressive 600 nits of maximum brightness. It's also Calman verified for color accuracy, with a 100% DCI-P3 gamut, meaning that games look bright and vibrant, and pro-level photo or video editing is a very realistic proposition.

But if you swap it into high refresh rate mode, the maximum resolution drops to FHD+ (1920 x 1200p) and the refresh rate leaps to a blindingly fast 440Hz. It's geared towards hardcore esports players who want their framerates to be as high as possible, for games like Counter-Strike 2 and Valorant where every millisecond matters.

Now, I'll be honest here; the beefy gaming performance of my RTX 5090-equipped review unit meant that I was comfortably getting high framerates at native UHD+ resolution, so I never really felt the need to use the 440Hz mode. I accept that I'm not the target audience for a feature like this (yes, I kind of suck at Valorant), but I'm not in a small crowd there. The majority of PC gamers won't really be able to eke any significant benefit from the high refresh rate mode, and switching to it is a bit of a fiddly process too: you have to use Razer's Synapse software to change the display mode, then restart the whole laptop.

This might seem like a bit of an unfair criticism, but I have to assume that including this dual-mode display functionality added to the overall cost of the Razer Blade 18, and considering that most users won't need or use it, it's a bit difficult to justify its presence here. It's certainly a neat feature that isn't offered by Razer's competitors, though, so I can't knock Razer too much for it.

Razer Blade 18 (2026) review: Performance

• Silky-smooth AAA gaming
• Powerful creative performance
• Gets a bit hot under load

Unsurprisingly, the RTX 5090 and Core Ultra 290HX Plus in my Razer Blade 18 review unit absolutely chewed through our selection benchmarking tests, as well as everything else I threw at it.

Razer has long been the brand of 'performance at any cost', and this laptop is no exception to that rule. In 4K gaming benchmarks, it delivered solid performance further boosted by Nvidia's DLSS upscaling, but I didn't need to turn on the still-controversial frame-generation features to ensure a high and stable FPS.

In terms of gaming performance, I was comfortably getting a stable 60+ frames per second at 4K resolution with maximum graphical settings in almost every game I tested, both within our usual suite of benchmarking games and in a handful of other titles I played during my general testing process, which included Marathon and Alan Wake 2. The fans got a little noisy in the process, but I've heard far worse from other gaming laptops, and

The notable exception here was Total War: Warhammer III, which is historically more reliant on the CPU than the GPU; it appears that the 2nd-gen Intel Core Ultra processor inside the Razer Blade 18 still struggled a little with the 4K Ultra preset here, though I would note that it still managed to maintain an average above 60 FPS at maximum graphical settings, and it's also very power efficient (more on that in the next section).

The only other part of my game testing that gave me pause was a relatively low average at 4K Ultra settings in Marvel Rivals. Although the game ran stably, my average FPS sat at a little over 70 in the built-in benchmark – yet in actual matches, I found that the FPS counter very rarely dropped below 100, so I'm a little unclear on what caused this. Driver and OS updates, multiple tweaks to the in-game and display settings, and even running the game via an external 4K monitor did not seem to remedy this. I won't mark the Blade 18 down for this, though, as it appeared to be an anomaly with Rivals rather than the laptop itself.

Turn on Nvidia's frame-gen tech, and you'll see those numbers skyrocket across almost every game I tested. I was getting 40% stable gains on average with 2x mode across four different games, with no noticeable impact on visual fidelity.

3x and 4x modes push the framerate higher, but do start to degrade the visual quality of gameplay; I found that 4x mode was prone to tearing and artifacting in all games tested except Alan Wake 2, to the point where it wasn't worth the trade-off in improved framerate.

Outside of gaming benchmarks, the Blade 18 excelled in virtually every area; 2D and 3D rendering, productivity workloads, transfer speeds, single- and multi-core CPU workloads... you name it, this laptop can power through it. For users who want a gaming laptop that can also pull double duty for high-end professional creative or scientific workloads, this Blade has got the goods.

Razer Blade 18 (2026) review: Battery life

• Fantastic for a gaming laptop
• Outlasts many rivals
• Bundled charger is proprietary, not USB-C

I'll make no bones about this: for a high-powered gaming laptop, the battery life on the Razer Blade 18 is nothing short of phenomenal.

The average gaming laptop tends to peter out before the 6-hour mark in regular use, with powerful internal components that draw a lot of juice; if you're actively gaming on it, you'll usually be lucky to get more than two hours of play time before needing to seek out a wall socket.

But the Blade 18 mustered an impressive amount of longevity in my testing, reaching nearly eight and a half hours of continuous video playback and more than three and a half hours of continuous gaming in Marathon – a distinctly superior showing to the vast majority of gaming laptops we test at TechRadar, and is most likely down to the excellent power efficiency of the Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus processor.

The only downside I can possibly pick out here is that you need to use the bundled proprietary adapter for power delivery, and it's a pretty chunky brick that hurts the laptop's portability. But considering that it's already a great big 18-inch slab of machined aluminum, you shouldn't be buying the Blade 18 if you want a super-portable gaming laptop anyway!

Should I buy the Razer Blade 18 (2026)?

Razer Blade 18 (2026): Scorecard

Buy the Razer Blade 18 (2026) if…

Don't buy it if…

Razer Blade 18 (2026) review: Also consider

How I tested the Razer Blade 18 (2026)

• Tested for one work week
• Used for gaming and other tasks
• 8+ years of experience reviewing dozens of laptops

I swapped out my usual desktop workstation rig for the Razer Blade 18 for five days (one work week), during which I used it for all my usual activities. This included day-to-day work in the Google software suite, online research, playing videos, and of course a lot of after-hours gaming.

In terms of the games tested, I ran out entire synthetic and gaming benchmark lineup (listed in the 'performance' section of this review, as well as playing some other games that are in my current rotation: Marathon, Warframe, Alan Wake 2, Borderlands 4, and of course my current addition Slay the Spire 2 (though let's be honest, that last one isn't exactly a performance stress-test).

I've been a PC gamer since my tender pre-teen years, starting out on my dad's boxy beige home office desktop, and I've been a professional tech journalist reviewing all kinds of laptops and PC tech for nearly a decade now, starting out at Maximum PC magazine before making the jump to digital journalism and joining the TechRadar team. I've personally reviewed more than seventy laptops, so you can trust that my knowledge and experience give you reliable insights into the quality of the products I write about.

• First reviewed: June 2026
• Read more about how we test

• Valve's latest SteamOS beta offers improved compatibility with Intel platforms
• It also sees initial firmware added for incoming Intel G3 Extreme-powered handhelds
• Performance on SteamOS with Intel hardware should improve further with future updates

Handheld gaming is set to reach new heights in 2026 and beyond, with Intel's latest Panther Lake mobile processors providing more power for high-level performance — and Valve has just made life better for Intel-based handhelds.

Valve's SteamOS 3.8.8 beta includes improved hardware support for Intel platforms, additional controller support for MSI Claw devices, and initial firmware for upcoming Intel handhelds. That includes handhelds like the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+, OneXPlayer 3, and the Acer Predator Atlas 8, all of which will use the Intel G3 Extreme processor.

Intel-based handhelds running SteamOS (or Bazzite) aren't anything new. However, performance with Intel hardware on the operating system hasn't been great, with devices like the MSI Claw 8 AI+ delivering worse game performance than Windows 11 — but it's the complete opposite for AMD-powered handhelds on SteamOS compared to Windows 11.

The appeal of SteamOS, besides its ease of use and console-like user interface, is its optimization for gaming in terms of memory usage, which Windows 11 lacks (and still falls behind Valve's SteamOS even with the Xbox Mode).

With that in mind, switching from Windows 11 to SteamOS for worse performance doesn't make much sense, and that's what has kept some owners of Intel-powered handhelds away from the Linux-based operating system.

Full Steam ahead for Intel chips

Fortunately, it's now evident that this is being addressed by Valve, as handheld enthusiast ETA Prime highlights with the MSI Claw 8 AI+ and its fluid performance results in games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Forza Horizon.

Functions like sleep mode work as expected, which is great, but navigation and menu options still need updating, and the TDP (power consumption) can only be controlled via a Decky Loader plugin — plus the Steam menu button config needs to be added on Intel handhelds.

Regardless, this is a step in the right direction for these portables, and with more updates from Valve leading up to the launch of the new Intel-powered handhelds, this is definitely something to get excited about for those who don't have AMD-powered hardware.

Multitasking while gaming is typical for many PC users, and certainly so for me. Being able to keep tabs on YouTube videos or, most importantly (in this case), stream to friends in Discord, breathes life into my game activities, especially when diving into an MMO or multiplayer shooter — or in better terms, a game where I don't have to pay full attention.

However, such multitasking comes at the cost of game performance, particularly on lower-end hardware (or specifically, PCs with 8GB of RAM). Discord, Google Chrome, Firefox, Spotify, you name it, can all significantly impact RAM and CPU usage, depending on how many tasks are running simultaneously.

Google Chrome is the worst offender, as simply running a single YouTube video in one tab can use up to 1GB of memory (sometimes even more than that), and almost 4GB for the application overall. Fortunately, I have a beefy system running with 32GB of DDR4 RAM, so I can count myself lucky, especially in a period where affordable memory is hard to come by.

With spare PC parts readily available, came the idea of a dual-PC setup, accompanied by a capture card and a secondary Corsair Xeneon Edge screen. This would allow me to completely shift all of my side activities, including game streaming on Discord, onto a separate system, leaving my main system's hardware solely focused on gaming.

I've built it, installed Bazzite (essentially a SteamOS clone), and it's easily the best decision I've made as a PC gamer in years. Here's how it's changed my PC experience.

The setup was arduous, but streaming is easier now

To get the setup started, you simply connect your main gaming PC's GPU (which is the source of what you'll be streaming) to the NZXT Signal 4K30 capture card's 'HDMI In' port via an HDMI cable. Then, connect the included USB Type-C cable into the 'Type-C' port on the capture card, and the USB-A end of the cable into the second streaming PC, and you're good to go.

The sole purpose of this capture card setup is to allow a separate PC to capture activity from another gaming PC, and this works with other systems like consoles. Ultimately, the goal is to offload the burden of your gaming PC using more resources to stream on the same system, and instead, allow the streaming PC to handle those tasks.

Capture cards are especially helpful for devices like the Nintendo Switch 2, where streaming to Twitch, YouTube, or Discord isn't possible natively, but in this case, the focus is simply on reducing the workload for the main gaming PC.

When streaming on Discord, you'll find your capture card as an option within the 'Devices' tab when attempting to share your screen. Besides a few hiccups here and there, the stream quality is great at either 1440p or 4K, with the former capable of 60fps.

I must stress that my particular setup case was a bit of a nightmare. Using an HDMI passthrough is the recommended route in a setup such as this, as it allows you to transmit video and audio to your main display for gaming, with zero latency, while providing the same for streaming on the capture card.

It's unclear whether the unit I used was faulty, but the Signal 4K30 would consistently force a 1080p 60fps output via HDMI passthrough on my LG UltraGear 45GS95QE ultrawide, without any higher resolutions available.

Without much luck using HDMI passthrough, the easiest alternatives included duplicating my main display via Windows' display settings, or using the OBS projector option (labelled 'Open Preview Projector'), and since the latter has very little to no impact on system resources, it was the easier way to go.

The biggest advantage of the OBS projector option is that there is no constraint on the resolution or refresh rate available, which is usually limited using HDMI passthrough on a capture card (which would be 4K 60fps with the NZXT card), so I had full access to my display's 240Hz refresh rate while gaming.

Multitasking is now a complete breeze, as I can watch other friends stream while doing so simultaneously, without the potential performance dips, especially when playing unoptimized games or those with demanding system requirements.

It's also my custom Steam Machine

Whenever I need a console-like gaming experience, this 2nd PC now acts as a separate custom Steam Machine, but one that's even more powerful than what Valve is poised to deliver.

With the AMD Ryzen 5 5600x 6-core processor and an AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB GPU, it's a build that's powerful enough to provide great performance at 4K when upscaling.

The only Steam Machine-like feature that's missing is the small form factor chassis to house the components, but it's a very tough ask to find a PC case as small as the Steam Machine's that will fit a full-sized desktop GPU — and if you can, it's not going to be cheap.

What actually makes this a custom Steam Machine is Bazzite, which runs like an absolute dream on PCs with AMD hardware. While there's the handicap of certain games not being compatible on Linux due to anti-cheat complications, that's exactly what my main Windows 11 gaming PC is at the ready for.

Using tools like Decky Loader quite literally transforms the SteamOS gaming mode experience into that of a custom console, as several plugins can change the UI, boot videos, navigation sounds, and more. You could turn your interface into that of GameCube or a PS5 if you wanted, and that's what makes it so special.

Just to reiterate, none of this would have been possible if not for my lucky case scenario of having spare parts, as this build would easily cost at least $1,000 / £1,000 / AU$1,400, and the 16GB of RAM would likely eat up a significant chunk of the cost.

Building this system has completely revitalized my PC gaming experience, and it's hard to look back, especially once Valve further optimizes SteamOS for desktop PC users.

Computex can always be relied on to deliver some truly inventive custom PC builds, and this year has been no exception.

One of the things I love about being a PC gamer is building my own desktop rig to play on, as the process enables me to optimize the specs to suit my needs and my budget, as well as giving me the chance to get creative. In the past, I've built a Star Wars-themed PC, a compact console-like PC housing an RTX 5090, and much more.

My attempts, however, pale in comparison to those of the professional PC builders and modders who are showing off their creations at Computex, and helping component makers display their products in eye-catching ways. Below I've picked out some of the coolest, and weirdest, custom PCs I've seen on the show floor this year.

Brass Wing Sentinel by Mark's Fabrications

Specs:

• RAM: KLEVV CRAS V RGB DDR5
• Motherboard: ASRock B650E PG-ITX WiFi
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7950X
• PSU: FSP Dagger Pro 850W

Entryopy-Core by AK

Specs:

• RAM: KLEVV CRAS V RGB DDR5
• Motherboard: Asus ROG Strix B850-I Gaming WiFi
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 9600X
• GPU: Asus TUF Gaming Geforce RTX 5060 OC
• PSU: Lian Li SP0850P
• Water cooling: Bitspower

The Arm by Mark's Fabrications

Specs:

• RAM: Teamgroup XTREEM DDR5 16GB x 2
• Storage: Teamgroup T-FORCE GE PRO GEN5 2TB
• Motherboard: ASRock Phantom Gaming X870E Nova WiFi
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 9700X
• GPU: Zotac Gaming GeForce RTX 5090 Articstorm AIO
• PSU: FSP MEGA TI MIT 1650W
• Water cooling: Bitspower

Mechanical Chameleon by Modding Cafe

Specs:

• RAM: G.Skill DDR5
• Storage: Lexar Play X 1TB
• Motherboard: Asus ROG Z890
• CPU: Intel Core Ultra 9 285K
• GPU: Palit GeForce RTX 5090 Gamerock
• PSU: FSP Dagger
• Water cooling: Bitspower and Deltamine

The Lab by SamCa Studios

Specs:

• RAM: PNY DDR5 ARGB 32GB
• Storage: PNY CS2340 M.2 Gen4 1TB
• Motherboard: ASRock X870 LiveMixer WiFi
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7700
• GPU: PNY GeForce RTX 5060 16GB Limited Edition
• PSU: Thermaltake Toughpower PT 1000W
• Water cooling: Custom Thermaltake

Turbo D by MSCS

Specs:

• RAM: UD858 Dan Da Dan UDIMM
• Storage: AI828 Dan Da Dan
• Motherboard: MSI MEG Z890 Unify-X
• CPU: Intel Ultra 7 265KF

Untitled liquid nitrogen-cooled rocket PC by ShaggySVK

Specs:

• RAM: G.Skill Trident Z5 DDR5
• Motherboard: Asus ROG Maximus Z890 Apex
• CPU: Intel Core Ultra 9 285K
• GPU: PNY GeForce RTX 5060 16GB Limited Edition
• Cooling: ElmorLabs LN2 block prototype

Untitled Matrix-style PC by WMP

Specs:

• RAM: G.Skill Trident Z5 DDR5
• Motherboard: ASRock Z890I Nova WiFi
• CPU: Intel Core Ultra 7 265K
• GPU: Palit GeForce RTX 5070 Ti GamingPro
• PSU: Thermaltake Toughpower SFX 1000W - TT Premium Edition
• Cooling: Thermal Grizzly

Untitled shark-themed PC by Modding Cafe

Specs:

• RAM: G.Skill Trident Z5 Royal DDR5
• Storage: Lexar NM790 1TB
• Motherboard: Asus ROG Strix X870-I Gaming WiFi
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 9800X3D
• GPU: Palit GeForce RTX 5080
• PSU: FSP Dagger Pro 850W
• Cooling: Bitspower

• Check out our Computex 2026 hub for all the latest news out of Taipei.

• Cherry's new Ultra-Wideband gaming keyboard was during Computex 2026
• The Cherry XTRFY K63W features a 'true 8,000 Hz polling rate' wired and wireless
• It launches in the US in August at $169.99, and in the EU at €179.99 in July

The hardware announcements for gamers are coming thick and fast straight out of Computex 2026, and one of the latest products is primed for PC mouse-and-keyboard (MnK) gamers.

In its press release, Cherry announced the 'first 8K Ultra-Wideband gaming keyboard', the XTRFY K63W Pro Compact, which it categorizes as a high-performance option for MnK gaming.

The keyboard comes with a 'true 8,000 Hz polling rate', meaning it transmits data to a computer up to eight times every millisecond, ensuring latency isn't a point of concern when gaming.

It also helps that the polling rate applies to both wired and wireless connections, with the latter being a strong Ultra-Wideband (UWB) dongle connection, and that's paired with a 6,000 mAh battery, which Cherry claims lasts for 1,100 hours of usage.

Fortunately, battery life is effectively irrelevant for non-portable scenarios, as the K63W Pro can be charged while in use.

On paper, this sounds like the ideal gaming keyboard for competitive players, especially those intent on finding the ideal option for wireless gaming sessions. As a primary controller gamer myself, it has piqued my interest, which may serve as one of the best companions for games that play better on MnK (i.e., Path of Exile 2).

Cherry's low-profile and compact keyboard design is a sight for sore eyes, as it has reduced the K63W's size and bulk, noted as a '70% compact layout' in favor of space for mouse movement.

I've also never been able to stick with wireless keyboards as my main option for both work and play, due to frustrating latency issues, especially with Bluetooth connectivity — and while many high-end options solve those latency issues, they're also expensive.

The Cherry K63W will be available at $169.99 in August, while launching in the EU for €179.99 (£179.99) in July. Frankly, it's still quite expensive compared to some of the more affordable high-quality options on the market, but for what it's worth in terms of specifications, it's a great option.

Handheld gaming continues to grow year on year, with new hardware entering the fray to improve performance results in games — and with Computex 2026 well underway, it's time for PC enthusiasts to get excited.

There have already been several hardware announcements from the likes of Asus, Acer, OneXPlayer, and more, which means there's plenty for consumers to consider when picking out their next device.

Fortunately, Intel has been hard at work on its Panther Lake processor lineup and has delivered the powerful Arc G3 Extreme, which uses 14 cores and 14 threads and 12 Xe GPU cores, delivering some of the best performance on any handheld gaming PC we've seen thus far. However, it's not all just about power and performance.

Several other manufacturers have taken the time to fine-tune the handheld gaming experience, to improve visual enjoyment, comfort, and more — and here, we'll look at the best handheld gaming PCs that have been unveiled at Computex 2026.

1. MSI Claw 8 EX AI+

MSI has gone back to the drawing board after releasing the Claw 8 AI+ and Claw 7 AI+, and now, unveiled the all-new, powerful handheld, the Claw 8 EX AI+. While the display is effectively untouched, the processor is now the Intel Arc G3 Extreme, a significant step up from the Claw 8 AI+'s Core Ultra 258V.

Intel claims the G3 Extreme is 44% faster than the Core Ultra 258V at 1080p with 2x upscaling (i.e., from 540p), at 35W, and, notably, 42% faster than one of its rival chips, the AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme.

As a bonus to a monumental performance leap coming from the Core Ultra 200V series is its XeSS 3 upscaling compatibility, alongside Multi-Frame Generation, and access to Windows 11's Xbox Mode. Intel is the latest competitor to join Nvidia in utilizing Multi-Frame Generation technology, as AMD has yet to roll this out for Radeon GPU users.

With XeSS 3 upscaling, Multi-Frame Generation, and an overall raw performance boost, accompanied by better ergonomics for comfort, the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ may end up being the best of the bunch among handhelds this year — however, its price could make or break it, especially if the rumored $1,500 figure is legitimate.

2. OneXPlayer 3

One-Netbook certainly isn't a mainstream manufacturer like MSI, but its new OneXPlayer 3 handheld is definitely a strong competitor to the Claw 8 EX AI+, and, on paper, in some cases arguably better.

The OneXPlayer 3 is a 3-in-one handheld gaming PC that supports AI, gaming, and productivity, and features the same Intel Arc G3 Extreme processor found in the Claw 8 EX AI+. However, it outshines MSI's device with a bigger, more immersive 8.8-inch 144Hz OLED display that is both VRR and HDR enabled.

Users have two storage options via microSD and mini SSD, while its battery has a capacity of 85 Wh. That latter might mean the handheld ranks among those with the best and longest-lasting battery life, but we'll need to see how it performs in real-world testing.

Without a doubt, this is a device that will be able to tackle any game thrown at it and provide exceptional visual quality while doing so. There's no information on its launch date nor its price, and yet again, the latter will likely be the defining factor in its potential success.

3. Asus ROG Xbox Ally X20

Doubling down on the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X's impressive features, Asus revealed the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X20 to celebrate the ROG brand's 20th anniversary. More importantly, the X20 comes with a larger 7.4-inch OLED display with 1,400 nits of peak brightness, bundled with the ROG XReal R1 Edition 20 gaming AR glasses.

It's quite clear that Asus has prioritized visual improvements over performance or power, so it's hard to describe this as a 'mid-generation' upgrade, in the same way the Asus ROG Ally X was compared to its non-X counterpart.

The Xbox Ally X20 also features a rotatable D-pad, labeled a 'Transforming D-pad', which should cater to fighting game players when using the handheld, thanks to optimization for diagonal inputs.

The major downside is that Asus isn't currently selling this as a standalone device, and since the ROG XReal R1 Edition 20 gaming AR glasses retail for $849, the bundle will likely be priced at or around $2,000.

4. Acer Predator Atlas 8

Just like the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ and the OneXPlayer 3, the Acer Predator Atlas 8 is powered by Intel's Arc G3 Extreme, with power-ready capabilities that can bolster performance in several games for users.

Its design takes after the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X (and the new ROG Xbox Ally X20), just as MSI has, with controller-like handles that cater to comfort for those long gaming sessions. The adjustable triggers on the Lenovo Legion Go S handheld are easily one of my favorite features for any handheld, and fortunately, that's included here with the Atlas 8.

The only missing element is an OLED display for greater immersion, so it sits in a very similar ballpark as the Claw 8 EX AI+, with the only difference being the latter's comfier design.

In the same vein as all of Computex's handheld announcements, the Atlas 8 hinges on its price tag, and based on the current market conditions, thanks to the RAM crisis, it looks like it may be priced well above $1,000. Acer has confirmed that this will launch in October 2026, so price information shouldn't be too far off.

• Asus has revealed the new ROG Xbox Ally X20 handheld at Computex 2026
• It features a bigger 7.4-inch screen and now has an OLED panel
• The handheld will come bundled with the ROG XReal R1 Edition 20 gaming AR glasses

June has certainly kicked off with a bang for gamers, with Summer Game Fest 2026 imminent, and notably, several new hardware announcements at Computex 2026 — and we've spotted one of the best yet.

Asus just announced the new ROG Xbox Ally X20 handheld gaming PC at Computex 2026, serving as an upgrade to the ROG Xbox Ally X. This time, it features a bigger 7.4-inch display and, notably, an OLED panel, rivaling the Lenovo Legion Go 2.

Notably, the ROG XReal R1 Edition 20 gaming AR glasses are bundled with the ROG Xbox Ally X20, allowing gamers to project their games onto a bigger, more immersive 171-inch micro-OLED 240Hz display with a 0.01ms response time.

The X20 possibly features one of the best displays in terms of brightness, with 1,400-nit peak HDR brightness, 0.2ms response time, and a VESA DisplayHDR 1000 rating. Combined with an anti-reflective coating, which reduces glare by 65%, gaming is made much easier when in bright environments.

Comment from r/Handhelds

Essentially, it sounds like Asus has landed a winner with this handheld, particularly in its specifications, and it has, unsurprisingly, left some consumers excited.

As noted on Reddit, with one user stating it's "almost the perfect handheld for many". However, there is one question among consumers that Asus hasn't answered yet: the ROG Xbox Ally X20's price.

The newly announced MSI Claw 8 EX AI+, using Intel's Arc G3 Extreme processor, is reportedly starting at $1,500 (around £1,120 / AU$2,100), but MSI has yet to confirm this. If the purported price is legitimate, it will effectively spoil any form of excitement built around the device ahead of its eventual launch, and the ROG Xbox Ally X20 could be placed in the same expensive category.

It's also worth noting that the XReal R1 Edition 20 gaming AR glasses already cost $849 / £749 / around AU$1,799 individually, so that likely pushes the bundle's price at or just under $2,000.

Prices for consoles, desktop PC components, and handhelds have skyrocketed to unaffordable levels in 2026 due to the RAM crisis, and the more feature-rich a handheld device sounds coming out of Computex 2026, the more expensive it will be — and the OLED addition for the Ally X20 sounds like the perfect case for a high price.

• The MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ uses the new Intel Arc G3 APU, among the first gaming handhelds to use this chip, similarly to the recently unveiled Acer Predator Atlas 8
• This new Intel Arc B370-powered iGPU features support for Multi-Frame Generation through XeSS 3, allowing the hardware to reach higher framerates
• Ergonomically, the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ has taken cues from the Asus ROG Ally X with its new gamepad-style grips, featuring Hall Effect sticks and RGB lighting

The MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ has been announced at Computex 2026, billed as the "world's first gaming handheld" to be powered by the Intel Arc G3 processor. It is joined by recently announced competitors, such as the Acer Predator Atlas 8, in leading the charge for the next generation of mobile gaming hardware.

This third-generation MSI Claw gaming handheld features Intel XeSS 3 Multi-Frame Generation, enabled by the latest Intel Arc iGPU standard. Specifically, the Arc G3 is built on the B390 die, with 12 Xe cores, and up to a 30W TDP range.

No MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ pricing has been announced yet; however, it is expected to be a gaming handheld at the premium end of the spectrum. We can gauge a rough estimate by looking at the current-generation MSI Claw 8 AI+, with its cheapest 1TB variant retailing for $899 / £899 and its pricier option (doubling the storage) selling for $1,129 / £999. As such, we expect this new model to follow a similar pricing strategy.

The ergonomics have also drastically changed for the upcoming MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ when compared to the previous-generation MSI Claw 8 AI+ and MSI Claw A1M. The Taiwanese company has taken notes from the Asus ROG Ally Xbox X with its new controller-style grips, Hall-effect sticks and triggers, as well as a revised D-pad, too.

Xbox Mode looks to be directly rivalling what's featured in its competition. Just as with the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ will feature quick resume functionality and on-the-fly adjustments with the press of a button, and it aims to be as unintrusive as possible when dialing in your settings.

Also new to the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ is the addition of haptic motors for vibration when playing. It's described as a "high-end linear motor" that's said to simulate "tactical textures" in a similar vein to what the PS5's DualSense Wireless Controller can do. It appears to be a massive upgrade of the weaker rumble feature found in the two previous-generation models.

Instead of opting for the same usual black or gray colorway of its contemporaries, the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ features a purple aesthetic, with red face buttons, RGB lighting around the sticks, and that same solid 120Hz 8-inch VRR display in the center. At a time when the best handheld gaming PCs are iterating on the same design trends from four years ago, it's good to see a degree of innovation implemented here.

How does the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ compare to its predecessors?

How could the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ fare in the 2026 handheld market?

The meteoric rise of Valve's Steam Deck four years ago set into motion a path that would see dozens of different, remarkably similar handhelds hit the market. The majority of the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+'s competitors are using either the AMD Z2 Extreme or the older Z1 Extreme, with lesser-known brands going all in with Intel. We've seen this with the OneXPlayer X1 and AOKZOE A2 Ultra, both utilizing the older Intel Core 7 Ultra 155H, and 140V Arc integrated graphics.

As touched upon above, the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ is among the first gaming handhelds to use the newly unveiled Intel Arc G3 chipset, although it's not the first to be announced to market.

The Acer Predator Atlas 8 appears to be similar to what's on offer from MSI. It features the same Intel Arc G3 processor, XeSS 3 Multi-Frame Generation, 80 Whr battery, 120Hz display, and Xbox controller-style ergonomics as well. It's never a bad thing to have too many options as a consumer, so time will tell which of these devices is superior and if they have what it takes to dethrone the Steam Deck or ROG Ally.

Fundamentally, the implementation of the vastly more capable B390 die ensures that your games will look better and play smoother than before. That's purely due to true MFG, and XeSS' upscaling tech has caught up massively to what AMD FSR and Nvidia DLSS can do in the last two years, as the transition from Alchemist to Battlemage architecture has been truly night and day in terms of performance. We'll have more to share when we go hands-on with the device to deliver a proper verdict.

• Check out our Computex 2026 hub for all the latest news out of Taipei.

• PlayStation is ending single-player PC ports, according to Bloomberg and confirmed by PlayStation boss
• Ghost of Yotei and Saros were likely the next games to be ported onto PC
• Kena: Scars of Kosmora will still be on PS5 and PC, when it launches in 2026

PlayStation's presence on PC has gradually expanded over the years, with its exclusive single-player games arriving on the platform a year or so after launch — but that's now coming to an end.

As reported by VGC, PlayStation boss Hermen Hulst has confirmed that single-player PS5 exclusives won't be coming to PC anymore, according to Bloomberg's Jason Schreier. This comes after its initial report in March, which is now corroborated via Hulst's internal confirmation to staff.

The most recent exclusives, Ghost of Yotei and Saros, were heavily rumored and expected to be ported to PC, particularly the former, following in the footsteps of its predecessor, Ghost of Tsushima, which was released on PC three years after its console debut.

Unfortunately, that's not happening anymore, marking the end of an era when many of PlayStation's blockbuster titles were available on Steam and Epic Games. One title, Kena: Scars of Kosmora, is still scheduled for launch on PC in 2026, and that's only because Ember Lab isn't a first-party PlayStation studio, but Sony is responsible as its publisher.

Bloomberg also stated that PlayStation believes PC ports risk damaging the 'console's brand' and the sales of the PS5. However, it feels as though Sony has taken two steps backwards, as this hurts consumers more than it benefits them.

The staggered release system that would see exclusives arrive on PC at least one year later was good for consumers who were either exclusively on PC or owned a PS5 console, whilst also on PC, with the freedom of playing at launch or patiently waiting for a better version in terms of graphics and performance.

It's an understandable move from PlayStation in a financial aspect, especially since a continuation of PC releases would actually benefit Valve's upcoming Steam Machine — which is poised to be a direct rival in the console space as a console-like PC.

While this stance can change again in the future, it's highly unlikely at this rate, especially if the rumors of Project Helix (the next Xbox console) will be able to run Steam, effectively acting as a PC, as that would mean Sony would be lending its exclusives over to rivals in both Valve and Microsoft.

Keychron Q1 Ultra 8K: two-minute review

The premium keyboard space is weird, man. I've been reviewing PC hardware long enough to know that you can usually get a pretty darn good product without spending top dollar, but that's arguably not always the case with keyboards. The bottom end of the market is awash with crappy membrane keys and cheap mechanical switches that fail at the drop of a hat, so I find myself frequently more likely to recommend more premium offerings like the Keychron Q1 Ultra 8K.

Priced at $229.99 (around £170/AU$320), it's certainly aiming to be one of the best keyboards on the market, and it does a lot to justify that admittedly rather steep price of admission. Straight out of the box, this feels like a high-end keyboard: the chassis is crafted from CNC-machined aluminum, weighing almost two kilograms in total, with doubleshot PBT keycaps.

For typing, it's a dream; the Keychron Silk POM Banana key switches have an immensely satisfying thwock to them, sitting somewhere between the quiet linear actuation of traditional red switches and the loud clickiness of tactile brown switches. The whole user experience feels great, with multiple connectivity modes and great battery life for wireless use.

I would hazard that, despite featuring the obligatory RGB key backlighting, this likely won't be the ideal option for gamers seeking the best gaming keyboard — at least, not with the Banana key switches in my review model. There is a linear red option available, which offers slightly greater key travel and significantly reduced actuation force, and high-intensity gamers will probably find that better.

While the Q1 Ultra 8K's namesake 8,000Hz polling rate is ostensibly aimed squarely at PC gamers, offering ultra-fast responsiveness and near-zero input lag, it's frankly a bit of a gimmick. All but the twitchiest pro gamers are unlikely to notice any real-world difference; in fact, I used the Q1 Ultra 8K for almost two days before realizing that the 8K polling mode was switched off by default, and I'd been playing Marathon with the regular 1,000Hz polling — and I didn't notice the slightest bit of input latency, so this is a somewhat milquetoast complaint on my part.

Overall, this is a very good keyboard that doesn't quite reach all-around perfection, but will still prove a worthy purchase for anyone who spends a lot of time typing at their PC. If you're looking for something compact but still satisfying to type on, the Keychron Q1 Ultra 8K is a solid choice. If you want a compact keyboard to take on the go, though, look elsewhere — this one is far too heavy for that!

Keychron Q1 Ultra 8K review: Price & release date

• Costs $229.99 (around £170/AU$320)
• Available now in the US
• Sits at the upper end of the market price-wise

At the time of writing, it appears that the Keychron Q1 Ultra 8K isn't available to shoppers in the UK and Australia — potential buyers in those regions will have to settle for the Q1 Max, which offers a similarly premium design but uses slightly cheaper key switches and lacks the 8K polling rate feature.

If you're in the US (or willing to import), you can pick up the Q1 Ultra 8K for $229.99 (around £170/AU$320) – a fairly steep price, though one that puts it in the same bracket as the similarly great SteelSeries Apex Pro TKL Wireless Gen 3. Looking at the wider premium mechanical keyboard market, this pricing is reasonably competitive.

Inside the box, you get a set of alternate keycaps for switching between Windows and macOS compatibility, along with a USB-C to USB-C charging cable, USB-A adapter, and a small set of tools for hot-swapping both the keycaps and key switches.

• Price score: 3.5/5

Keychron Q1 Ultra 8K review: Specs

Keychron Q1 Ultra 8K review: Design & features

• Robust machined aluminum chassis
• Comfortable concave PBT keycaps
• Great degree of customization

My review unit of the Keychron Q1 Ultra 8K uses the black colorway, and I really like it. Almost the entire unit has a matte black finish, with dark gray used for accenting for keys around the edge of the board and a bright cyan tone for the Esc and Enter keys.

Combined with the tall, blocky keycaps, simple lettering, and the highly satisfying physical volume knob in the top-right corner, it's all got a distinctly retrofuturist feel to it. The white colorway rocks a similar vibe with gray and red accent keys that would make it look right at home aboard the USCSS Nostromo.

Indeed, I was almost loath to turn on the RGB lighting, because it almost detracts from the clean, retro vibe this keyboard has going for it. Fortunately, those RGB LEDs are addressable on a per-key basis, and Keychron's free software gives you a wide degree of customization. Personally, I was a lot happier with the aesthetic of the Q1 Ultra 8K after setting the backlighting to a cool blue that matched the accent keys.

The all-metal construction means there's virtually no flex or sponginess in the chassis whatsoever, with every keypress feeling very solid. However, it also means that this keyboard weighs a whopping 1.73kg – quite literally more than many of the laptops I've reviewed for TechRadar, and far too heavy to be practical as an on-the-go keyboard despite its compact design.

The Silk POM Banana switches require quite a bit of actuation force, which takes a bit of adjusting to if you're coming from a non-tactile keyboard with either linear or membrane switches. They also have less travel distance, which might be an issue for some mech keyboard purists, but didn't bother me in the slightest once I got used to typing on it.

Both the keycaps and the key switches themselves are hot-swappable, and the box includes a puller tool, a hex key, and a mini screwdriver for making your own adjustments should you want to do so. It also comes with a set of alternate keycaps to swap it over to Windows compatibility mode (the default keyboard layout is for macOS), and there are two switches on the rear edge for switching OS and connectivity modes along with a standard USB-C charging port, a cable for which is included in the box.

Given the degree of available customization and the robust, high-quality design of the surrounding board, the Q1 Ultra 8K could be a solid choice for mechanical keyboard enthusiasts who want to tweak their hardware. The larger keys also feature new screw-in PCB stabilizers, which help make the space bar in particular feel a lot less wobbly than it does on some mechanical keyboards, especially when hitting it at either end with your thumb. The double-gasket key switch design uses two separate silicone pads (as well as an acoustic pad on the bottom of the keyboard) to reach a deliberate and very satisfying typing sound that takes me right back to the early 2000s.

In terms of the aforementioned connectivity modes, you've got a few options. Wired will be the way to go for most gamers, as it ensures minimal input latency hand-in-hand with the 8K polling rate feature. This can be done directly via USB-C to USB-C using the included cable, but there's also a USB-C to USB-A adapter in the box in case you don't have any free USB-C ports.

If you prefer a wireless connection, the Keychron Q1 Ultra 8K supports both Bluetooth 5.3 and 2.4GHz connectivity, both of which I found to be highly effective in my tests. The 2.4GHz option is probably a little more reliable in terms of input latency, particularly in environments with heavy Bluetooth signal traffic (I was testing this keyboard in the privacy of my own very rural home, not a busy office!), but I didn't experience any noticeable problems with the Bluetooth mode.

The last unique design feature I'll touch on is hidden on the underside of the keyboard: a wide gold 'art plate' with a sort of astronomy-themed pattern engraved on it. What purpose does this serve? None, as far as I can tell, and you won't even be able to see it when actually using the keyboard. It looks fairly nice, I guess, but it feels slightly like a pointless addition.

Completely absent from the base of this keyboard, however, are any sort of adjustable feet. For a $200+ keyboard, that's simply unacceptable. It won't bother some users, but as someone who prefers a steeper keyboard incline to use with my padded wrist rest, it might actually be a dealbreaker for me if I were opening my own wallet – so for that, I must dock a point from Keychron.

• Design and features: 4/5

Keychron Q1 Ultra 8K review: Performance

• Satisfying typing with sharp actuation
• 8,000Hz polling rate is nice, but sort of unnecessary
• Looooong battery life

I'm always a little dubious when keyboard companies start making their own key switches instead of using the ever-dependable Cherry and Gateron brands, but the Keychron Silk POM switches in this keyboard are really very nice to use.

As I mentioned further up, I think the Banana yellow switches in my review model are a bit better suited to typing than gaming, though they're certainly not bad. I used the Keychron Q1 Ultra 8K to play several games, including Warframe, Marathon, and Remnant II, and didn't have any significant issues with misinputs or keypresses not registering. The higher actuation force of the Banana switches compared to the mainstream linear red switches you'll find in many gaming keyboards did take a little bit of getting used to, but I still found it to be perfectly acceptable.

For typing, though? This keyboard is a dream. The concave keycap tops let your fingertips slide into the center of each key for confident inputs, even when touch-typing at speed, and the reduced travel and subtle bounce on the Banana switches compared to Keychron's own red and brown switches mean that you don't feel like you're hammering the keys — even if you're a somewhat forceful typist like me.

I know I've mentioned the acoustic experience of this board already in this review, but it really does bear repeating. This keyboard just sounds so damn good to type on. It's like an old 90s Packard-Bell keyboard and a snare drum had a baby. There's no audible click like you'll see with blue switches, though, so typing gently will actually result in a fairly quiet experience — good for office environments where you don't want the loudest keyboard in the building.

The 8K polling rate feature (which requires either a wired or 2.4GHz connection, as Bluetooth doesn't support it) is switched off by default, since some older PCs don't support it. It's set to 1,000Hz as standard, though turning it on in the Keychron Launcher software is very straightforward — you can also use the software to adjust the default keybindings and set up macros, if you're so inclined.

Still, I honestly didn't register much, if any, difference when I turned on the 8K polling. Even in twitchy competitive games like Marathon and Valorant, I didn't feel at any point that swapping over to the 8K polling mode made my inputs feel faster or more responsive.

I should be clear at this point that I am not a 'pro gamer' by any definition of the phrase. I was Diamond-ranked in Overwatch back in the day and have the (dubious) honor of being a Legend 2 veteran in Warframe, so I'd like to think I'm at least above average, but I accept that I'm not really the target audience for a feature like this. If you are a hardcore gamer and you're primarily playing very twitchy, reaction-based games like Valorant or Counter-Strike, then the 8K polling rate may prove beneficial, but the simple fact is that most players aren't going to suddenly find themselves playing better after turning it on.

My last note here will be on the battery life of the Q1 Ultra 8K in wireless mode, which is certainly up to spec. Keychron promises up to 660 hours of use on a single charge, and while I didn't leave the keyboard running for a full 28 days (!) to test that, I will say that it didn't need charging even once after my initial wired testing, and I used it in wireless mode with the RGB lighting on for a full week. As far as wireless keyboards go, the battery life on offer here is undeniably great.

• Performance: 4.5/5

Should I buy the Keychron Q1 Ultra 8K?

Buy it if…

Don’t buy it if…

Keychron Q1 Ultra 8K review: Also consider

How I tested the Keychron Q1 Ultra 8K

• Replaced my usual keyboard for one week
• Used for daily work, personal projects, and gaming
• Close to a decade of experience testing PC hardware

As is my usual modus operandi for keyboard reviews, I swapped out my trusty Asus ROG Strix Scope RX in my home desktop setup for the Keychron Q1 Ultra 8K for one week. During that period, I used it for my daily work at TechRadar, as well as personal writing projects and some gaming during my off hours.

I mostly played Marathon and Warframe during my testing period (in addition to a lot of typing), but for variety's sake, I also mixed in some Valorant, Remnant II, and Slay the Spire II – though the keyboard's use was largely relegated to hitting 'E' to end my turn in that last one. I naturally also installed and tested out the free Keychron Launcher software.

I've been a tech journalist for more than eight years, and during that time I've reviewed dozens of keyboards, mice, headsets... you name it, I've probably had my mitts on it at some point. I'm also a long-time PC gamer and self-confessed keyboard freak, meaning I have a keen eye for what works (and what doesn't) when it comes to PC peripherals.

• Read TechRadar’s reviews guarantee
• First reviewed: May 2026

MSI Stealth 16 AI+: Two-minute review

The MSI Stealth 16 AI+ is hard to identify as a red-blooded gaming laptop at first glance. The dark grey finish sets it apart from the mostly jet-black marketplace, while the rounded corners and lack of branding further distinguish it from others in the sector.

Its form factor also follows suit. It’s surprisingly thin and light for a 16-inch gaming machine, making it more portable than many of its rivals.

Despite this lithe form, though, the Stealth 16 AI+ doesn’t feel that flimsy. The materials feel smooth and premium, although there’s some flex to the base, so it’s not as solid as the best gaming laptop models.

Also impressive is the number of ports featured. There are two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports and two USB-A. There’s also an HDMI port and an RJ-45 for wired network connectivity. However, all of these are set further forward than usual, which may prove inconvenient in certain setups.

The gaming performance of the Stealth 16 AI+ is excellent. My review unit handled AAA titles with no issue, offering impressive frame rates even at full resolution. Some heat and noise was generated, but both of these aspects were far from troubling.

Games also looked great thanks to the brilliant display. The 1600p resolution and OLED tech meant content was super sharp and vibrant, without being blighted by reflections. The high 240Hz refresh rate will also please gamers who prize supreme smoothness.

The keyboard is tactile and easy to use, offering easy presses and just enough dampening to be satisfying. The touchpad is large and smooth, which makes for easy navigation, yet it rarely got in the way while I typed.

The Stealth 16 AI+ also has a very respectable battery life. It lasted over 14 hours when I ran a movie on a continuous loop, which surpasses many other gaming laptops. It’s also quite quick to charge, taking over two hours to fully replenish.

As you might expect for all its qualities, the Stealth 16 AI+ doesn’t come cheap. It might be hard justifying paying this much for such a powerful and versatile machine, but if you need a gaming laptop that does it all, there aren’t many better than the Stealth 16 AI+.

MSI Stealth 16 AI+ review: Price & availability

• Starts from $2,099.99 (about £1,540 / AU$2,900)
• Available from mid-to-late May
• Unsurprisingly expensive

The MSI Stealth 16 AI+ starts from $2,099.99 (about £1,540 / AU$2,900) and will be available from mid-to-late May. The base model is loaded with an RTX 5060, whereas the top model has a 5080 and costs $3,299.99 (about £2,420 / AU$4,550).

This is expensive, even for a gaming laptop. But when you consider the top-tier spec, it’s hardly surprising. It’s similarly priced to the A16 AI+, although that machine features 64GB of RAM and 2TB of storage across all of its models.

If you’re on a much tighter budget, but still want decent gaming performance, the Asus V16 is an option. It’s just as easy to carry around as the Stealth 16 AI+, but you’ll have to settle for a 40 series RTX rather than a 50 series, and the display is far less impressive. However, if you just want a decent machine for 1200p gaming, it’s worth considering.

MSI Stealth 16 AI+ review: Specs

MSI Stealth 16 AI+ review: Design

• Thin and light for a large gaming laptop
• Smooth materials
• Plenty of ports

For a large gaming laptop, the Stealth 16 AI+ is quite restrained. It has a smart and minimalist body, lacking any odd angles or protrusions, which is always nice to see.

This is complemented by the lack of branding or any other gaming-oriented flourishes. All it features is a small logo and an S pattern on the lid, but both are so discreet and close to the same base color that you’ll barely notice them.

The dark grey colorway is smart and a little more interesting than the total black finishes of many in this class. The tasteful RGB backlighting of the keyboard, along with the rounded corners of the chassis, help to soften its appearance, too.

It also seems quite well made. The main material feels very smooth and premium, although it’s not especially solid. For example, the base can be flexed if you push a little too hard, or hit the keys a little too enthusiastically.

This is the price paid for its lightweight construction. For a large gaming laptop, the Stealth 16 AI+ is remarkably unobtrusive, especially when you consider it’s loaded with an RTX 50 series GPU. This makes it a more realistic option for on-the-go gaming than many of its rivals.

However, this portability is somewhat undermined by the feet underneath, which are quite thick. At least the ventilation area, also underneath, doesn’t have any bulk to it. It’s merely a large but completely flat honeycomb pattern, which also has its own aesthetic qualities.

Oddly, the most solid aspect of the Stealth 16 AI+ is the lid. There’s far less flex here, which is all the more impressive given just how thin it is. What’s more, the hinge provides plenty of stability while gaming, but puts up little resistance when opening up the display.

I was also surprised by the number of ports onboard the Stealth 16 AI+. There are two USB-C connections, both of which utilize the Thunderbolt 4 standard that supports DisplayPort and Power Delivery. There’s also a dedicated DC-in port for powering your laptop using the included adapter.

Two USB-A ports are also featured, which are split across both sides of the unit for added convenience. An HDMI 2.1 port, an RJ-45 port, and a headset jack round out the rest of the interfaces.

All ports on both sides are set further forward than you might expect, no doubt to give room to the GPU at the rear. I found this a little inconvenient, especially when connecting a power cable, since it protruded from near the middle of the unit. This can eat into desk space and lead to tangling if you have other wired connections to make.

MSI Stealth 16 AI+ review: Performance

• Smooth AAA gaming
• Sharp and vibrant display
• Easy and tactile keys

I was impressed by the gaming performance of the Stealth 16 AI+. I got around 50fps when playing Cyberpunk 2077 with the Ray Tracing: Ultra preset selected. This shot up to around 90fps when Frame Generation was enabled on top. I only experienced occasional drops in frame rate during busier scenes, but these weren’t steep enough to adversely affect gameplay.

When I first booted up the game, there was a lot of fan noise. Once I started playing, this quietened down, but it was still noticeable. Heat was noticeable, too, but this remained at the very back of the unit, and temperatures weren’t extreme.

The display in the Stealth 16 AI+ is excellent. The 2.5K resolution is more than sharp enough for a display this large, while the OLED technology provides a vivid color palette. It’s also very bright, which makes all kinds of content shine. I never had any problem with reflections showing up on the screen, either. And for those who value ultra-smooth gameplay, it’s capable of delivering a 240Hz refresh rate, which is more than enough for most gamers.

The keyboard is a joy to use. The keys are light yet offer a pleasing amount of travel, which increases their feedback. They’re more damped than those on your average laptop keyboard, which makes them more satisfying to hit, but they’re still harsher than those on the best gaming keyboards.

I also welcomed the generous spacing between the keys. This made them comfortable to use and made typing easier. However, this spacing comes at the expense of a number pad and navigation keys, which is a shame for a 16-inch laptop.

The touchpad is very large and has a very smooth surface — aspects that make it great for navigation. And although my thumb palms frequently made contact with it while typing, this rarely triggered cursor movement or clicks.

MSI Stealth 16 AI+ review: Battery life

• Excellent for a gaming laptop
• Outlasts many rivals
• Quick to charge

By gaming laptop standards, the battery life of the Stealth 16 AI+ is very impressive. During our movie playback test, it lasted over 14 hours. This means it has better longevity than many of its rivals, including MSI’s other Stealth model, the A16 AI+, which didn’t even make it past five hours.

It also outlasted the Asus V16, which only managed 12 and a half hours. It’s also quite quick to charge, taking about two and a half hours to reach 100% from total depletion.

Should I buy the MSI Stealth 16 AI+?

Scorecard

Buy it if…

Don't buy it if…

MSI Stealth 16 AI+ review: Also consider

How I tested the MSI Stealth 16 AI+

• Tested for several days
• Used for gaming and other tasks
• Gaming laptop experience

I tested the Stealth 16 AI+ for several days. As well as gaming with AAA titles, I also used the laptop for general browsing and streaming video.

I also ran our series of benchmark tests for gaming laptops. This included a battery test, where I ran a movie on a continuous loop until it shut down.

I’ve been PC gaming for decades, and have experienced many systems in that time. I’ve also reviewed plenty of gaming laptops before, as well as other gaming hardware.

• First reviewed: May 2026
• Read more about how we test

• Forza Horizon 6's unencrypted build has leaked, but the developer confirms it's not due to a pre-load issue
• Playground Games has warned it will hand out 'franchise-wide and hardware bans' to anyone accessing the build
• SteamDB claims the leak likely came from a reviewer or someone with early access

Forza Horizon 6's launch on Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and PC is imminent, set for May 19, however, an early build has been leaked on PC. Pirates, though, may want to rethink downloading it.

As reported by GamesRadar, Playground Games confirmed that an unencrypted build of Forza Horizon 6 was leaked, but it wasn't the result of a Steam pre-load issue, and notably, the developer has also warned PC users to avoid downloading and playing the build, or face major consequences.

It's the second triple-A game in 2026 to suffer a full game leak before the scheduled release date, as Death Stranding 2: On the Beach was available to PC players to pirate two days before its March 20 launch.

Playground Games' case is significantly worse, as Forza Horizon 6's build has been made available a week before launch, and unsurprisingly, it has ruffled the feathers of the developer.

"We are aware of reports that a build of Forza Horizon 6 has been obtained prior to its release and can confirm this is not the result of a pre-load issue," Playground Games stated, squashing rumors and suggestions that the issue was indeed due to a Steam error.

"We are taking strict enforcement action against any individuals found accessing this build, including franchise-wide and hardware bans. We encourage fans to sit tight for the game's release on May 19."

SteamDB also weighed in on the matter, insinuating the leak likely stemmed from a reviewer with early access, adding credence to the dev's statement that the leak didn't come from a Steam error.

Playground Games' frustrations shouldn't come as a surprise, since downloading and playing the early build of Forza Horizon 6 would be considered piracy, and it's effectively an entire week of early access that isn't permitted.

Consumers who have pre-ordered the game have called for the developer to push the game's release forward, but the statements made suggest it's going to bide its time and believes players should be patient for the scheduled launch.

The chaos arrives at a time when piracy is gradually gaining momentum again, as Denuvo, the controversial DRM, has been bypassed in several games (some via Hypervisor bypasses).

Fans can only hope that a major hiccup like this doesn't push developers and publishers to introduce more CPU-intensive DRMs in the future to prevent piracy, ones that may impact game performance, because that will only hurt consumers.

• Sony CEO, Hideaki Nishino, shows commitment to using AI for PlayStation game development
• Nishino intends to use AI to improve game development and 'unleash the creativity of our studios'
• This comes amid the controversy behind AI's impact on the gaming market, and its use in Nvidia's DLSS 5

AI is causing significant issues within the PC and game console markets, with exceedingly high RAM prices and shortages — and now, there's another reason gamers should be worried about its presence in gaming.

As reported by VGC, Sony's CEO, Hideaki Nishino, recently highlighted a new plan that includes using AI on PlayStation to improve productivity in game development.

This comes amid controversy over AI not only driving prices up across the board due to increased memory demand, but also through Nvidia's DLSS 5 (planned for late 2026), which many have likened to a generative AI filter for games.

DLSS 5's introduction has already served as a worrying sign of what game development may eventually become, and it's not even here yet — and while it will be optional for players, many developers have already backed the tool and plan to utilize it once available.

That's exactly what makes Nishino's pledge to use AI concerning, as he stated: "At PlayStation, our goal is always to be the best place to play and the best to publish. We see AI as a powerful tool to help us in this mission."

The latter statement effectively mimics what was said about DLSS 5 by Nvidia itself and some game developers and publishers, suggesting that AI will only be used as a 'tool' and not a centerpiece of games, but it's not that simple.

Nisihino continued saying: "The vision, the design, and the emotional impact of our games will always come from the talent of our studios and performers. AI is meant to augment their abilities, not replace them," further insinuating AI will be strictly used for game development.

"We believe AI will unleash the creativity of our studios, power a more curated platform, and enhance the PlayStation experience for both players and creators."

On paper, PlayStation's commitment to keeping AI use strictly within game development without replacing human artists isn't necessarily bad (not a popular move either), but it's what it could eventually lead to that's very concerning.

With DLSS 5, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told gamers they were 'completely wrong' about DLSS 5 being generative AI in games, as it was 'content-controlled generative AI'. However, those were seen as buzzwords to stop gamers from seeing DLSS 5 for what it actually is, as it clearly changes character and environmental details, straying from the artist's design choices.

PlayStation doesn't have a DLSS 5 equivalent case (thankfully), but AI's very presence in game development for the company to begin with means there's a chance its use could spread even further, perhaps with gen AI assets showing up in games.

It's not much of a stretch to suggest the latter could happen when Activision is actively using AI in its Call of Duty games, which hasn't gone down well with players. The only hope that remains is that backlash from consumers keeps PlayStation and its first-party studios at bay, and if DLSS 5 is anything to go by, it's a decent start.

• A PC modder just built a room-sized gaming PC, fit with an air conditioner and a sauna
• The gaming PC has hardware components larger than a human
• The RAM sticks are props that are estimated to be 18,000GB of RAM each

Gaming PC builds come in all different shapes and sizes, either targeting improved airflow and temperatures or prioritizing desktop space — but this one takes the cake.

As reported by VideoCardz, a modder known as Soda Baka on Bilibili, has built a gaming PC the size of a room, with gigantic fans, a large GPU, CPU, and an AIO cooler. These are accompanied by an air conditioning unit to help control room temperatures and a literal 12,000W sauna with added water to help simulate the heat of a regular-sized gaming PC.

It's worth noting that the RAM sticks in this build are only props, and that's no surprise, since the estimated capacity based on their scale is 18,000GB of RAM each. That would already cost a fortune on its own, but we're in the middle of a RAM crisis, so I couldn't even imagine how costly each RAM stick would be.

Baka's project is easily one of the most ludicrous PC building projects out there, and has almost no real-world use case, as I struggle to imagine anybody has the resources readily available — or better yet, any reason to build a system like this, but it's great for aesthetics.

It's quite an amusing solution to summer heat (minus the sauna), with a significant amount of room for a gaming PC's operation and the addition of an air conditioning unit.

However, in a more practical and reasonable use case to help keep temperatures cool, it's best to simply invest in an AIO water cooler for the CPU, and look toward undervolting the GPU where possible. I've done exactly that with my main gaming PC build, and temperatures for both my RTX 4080 Super and AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D — and both max out at 65 degrees Celsius.

That's easily achievable, without building a room-sized gaming PC, but again, it is a perfect themed environment for any gamer.

• Microsoft has finally begun its Xbox Mode rollout for Windows 11 desktop PC users
• Microsoft has also made Auto SR upscaling available for Asus ROG Xbox Ally X Xbox Insiders
• The rollout comes amid Valve's updates on SteamOS in preparation for the Steam Machine

Microsoft is only just getting started with its plans to revitalize gaming for both desktop PC and handheld users, with Windows project K2 set to improve the operating system — but that's not all.

Xbox Mode is now being rolled out on desktop PCs, as announced by Microsoft via Xbox Wire as of the latest April 30 Windows update. This is what some Windows 11 users may have been familiar with as Full Screen Experience, which has been available since November 2025 for Xbox Insiders.

It's also worth noting that Microsoft is also introducing its new Auto SR preview for the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X Xbox Insiders, which is a new addition to Xbox Mode that can be enabled via Game Bar. Auto SR serves as Microsoft's version of upscaling (similar to Nvidia's DLSS or AMD's FSR), rendering games at lower internal resolutions to improve frame rates and upscaling them for sharper image quality.

More importantly, though, Xbox Mode is effectively Microsoft's SteamOS equivalent, allowing gamers to launch and play games in one menu, while disabling unnecessary background processes to provide more RAM for games. It's a handy version of Windows 11 that streamlines the gaming experience, while Microsoft continues with its effort to further optimize the operating system for gamers.

Once fully rolled out, users can enable Xbox Mode by entering Settings > Gaming > Full Screen Experience and setting the home app to 'Xbox', and this should enable Xbox Mode, which can be toggled via Game Bar or the Task View.

There's no word on Auto SR coming to desktop PCs just yet, specifically because it's designed for the docked play on the Ally X, but it's too early to rule out its chance of becoming a tool for desktop PC gamers.

It's the right time for Microsoft to make this move, since Valve's SteamOS is on the verge of seeing significant improvements for more desktop PCs via updates for the upcoming Steam Machine — and while there's still a long way to go for Xbox Mode to go in competing, it's ideal for users like myself who aren't quite ready to make the full switch to Linux.

I am a PC builder. There, I said it. I don't feel like one yet — but the facts are undeniable. I built a PC.

Okay, so I had some help along the way, but now that I've crafted my own gaming rig for the latest season of TechRadar's AI Planned It video series, I can hold my head high among the experienced builders on the team.

And make no mistake, building your first PC can be incredibly overwhelming; for me, a clutzy, anxious, and miserly gamer, the stress of it was tantamount to open-heart surgery.

The secret sauce in the equation to help me overcome my fears was ChatGPT, which, alongside Google's Gemini, helped me pick my components — as demonstrated in our previous video.

The more risky (and potentially costly) stage of the experiment, of course, was actually putting the thing together — and that process taught me a lot about both PCs and optimizing LLM usage.

So, here's how I did it, including the specific instructions ChatGPT gave me for my PC build, plus my thoughts on what worked and what did. Hopefully they'll be helpful to others — and please do share your thoughts in the comments below.

I-I-I hallucinate when you call my name

I've already shared the prompt I used to train up Gemini and ChatGPT for this project, so be sure to give that a read for some extra context.

As far as the building stage went, my principal concern with using ChatGPT was that it might hallucinate different parts or outdated configurations. My experiences in the first stage of the experiment, in which it shared outdated information on a couple of occasions, did nothing to reassure me.

So, at the very start, I doubled down and reminded it of my configuration via the below prompt:

The prompt: Simply copy and paste the full block of text into ChatGPT or Gemini, replacing my components with yours.

Ok, I've ordered my parts, and they're on their way. To confirm these are the products I purchased:

• AMD Ryzen 5 7600 (6-Core)
• Radeon RX 9070 XT (16GB)
• ASUS Prime B650M-A WiFi II
• 32GB DDR5-6000 CL30 EXPO
• 2TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD
• Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE Black
• be quiet! Pure Power 13 M 750W
• Fractal Design North Charcoal (mesh side panels)

Can you now provide me with detailed, step-by-step building instructions as well as any tools I will need to do so. Please feel free to ask follow-up questions before providing your final list.

The first signs of trouble

Initially, ChatGPT took the word "detailed" and really rolled with it, presenting me with reams of instructions. In doing so, it made it pretty hard to follow as a first-timer, especially due to its excessive use of (often unnecessary) jargon.

While I had the benefit of building the PC alongside TechRadar's resident computing expert, Matt Hanson, I wanted as much as possible to emulate what someone trying this at home might experience. So, I reminded ChatGPT I was a beginner and it came back with the below instructions:

ChatGPT PC building instructions

[Note: Be warned — these are long, and while there are few total inaccuracies, they can be non-specific in nature. Proceed with caution if you plan to follow these steps!]

Step 1: Open the case

Take both side panels off the Fractal North case. Put the case to one side and find the little box or bag of screws that came with it.

Step 2: Put the motherboard on its box

Take the motherboard out and place it on top of its cardboard box. That gives you a safe surface to work on.

Step 3: Install the CPU

Find the large square area in the middle of the motherboard. That is where the CPU goes.You will see a small metal arm next to it.

Do this:

• Push the arm slightly down and away
• Lift it up
• A metal frame will open

Now take the CPU out of its box.

Important:

• Hold it by the edges
• Do not touch the bottom

Look for a tiny gold triangle on one corner of the CPU. Look for the matching triangle on the motherboard socket. Line those triangles up, then gently place the CPU into the socket. Do not press down.

If it is lined up properly, it will sit in place on its own.

Then, lower the metal frame and push the arm back down into place. That part can feel a bit stiff. That is normal.

Step 4: Install the SSD

The SSD is the slim storage stick. Find the SSD slot on the motherboard. It is a flat slot, usually with a small screw or cover.

Do this:

• Remove the small cover or screw if there is one
• Slide the SSD into the slot at a slight angle
• Push it in gently
• Press it down flat
• Put the screw back in, or close the latch if your board uses one

If there is a little heat cover with a soft pad underneath it, make sure any plastic film is removed before putting it back.

Step 5: Install the RAM

You have 2 RAM sticks. They go into the long slots next to the CPU.

For your board, use the second and fourth slots from the CPU.

Do this:

• Open the clips on those two slots
• Line up the notch on the RAM stick with the slot
• Press firmly straight down until it clicks in

You may need more force than you expect. If it is not fully clicked in, the PC may not start later.

Step 6: Install the cooler

Your cooler is the Thermalright Phantom Spirit. This is the hardest part for most beginners, so take it slowly.

First, look in the cooler box for the AM5 mounting parts. Use the cooler manual beside you while doing this step

The short version is:

• Remove the two black plastic brackets already around the CPU area on the motherboard
• Keep the metal plate on the back of the motherboard in place
• Attach the cooler’s own mounting pieces
• Put a small dot of thermal paste on the middle of the CPU if it is not already on the cooler
• Place the cooler on top
• Tighten the screws a little at a time, alternating sides

Important: Do not overtighten, the cooler fan should blow air toward the back of the case

Then plug the cooler fan cable into the motherboard header labeled CPU_FAN

That just means “CPU fan.”

Step 7: Put the motherboard into the case

Now move the case back onto the table. Check that the little metal screw posts inside the case line up with the holes in the motherboard.

Then:

• Lower the motherboard into the case
• Make sure the back ports fit through the rectangular hole at the back
• Screw the motherboard into place
• Tighten the screws until snug, not super hard.

Step 8: Install the power supply

The power supply goes at the bottom of the case.

Put it in with its fan facing toward the vented side of the case.

Then screw it in place from the back.

Now take out these cables from the PSU box:

• The big 24-pin motherboard cable
• The 8-pin CPU cable
• The graphics card power cable(s)

Step 9: Connect power to the motherboard

There are two main power plugs for the motherboard.

First one: The big wide connector on the right side of the motherboard. Plug the 24-pin cable into that.

Second one: Near the top-left of the motherboard. Plug the 8-pin CPU cable into that. Push both in until they click.

Step 10: Connect the case cables

This is the fiddly bit. The case has small cables coming from the front of it. These connect the front buttons and ports.

These include:

• Power button
• USB ports on the front
• Headphone jack on the front

Use the motherboard manual for the exact pin diagram.

For a beginner, the most important one is the power button cable. Without that, pressing the case button won’t do anything.

The tiny front-button cables are the most annoying part of the build. That is normal.

Step 11: Put in the graphics card

The graphics card is the biggest part after the motherboard.

Do this:

• Remove the metal slot covers at the back of the case where the card will stick out
• Find the top long slot on the motherboard
• Push the graphics card straight into that slot until it clicks
• Screw it to the case

If the card came with a support bracket, use it.

Step 12: Connect power to the graphics card

Your graphics card also needs power from the PSU.

Use the correct graphics card power cable from the PSU box and plug it firmly into the graphics card.

Make sure it is fully in. This is important.

Step 13: Tidy the cables

Before turning the PC on:

• Move loose cables away from fans
• Put extra cable length behind the motherboard tray if you can
• Use cable ties if needed

It does not need to look perfect. It just needs to be safe and not block fans.

Step 14: First startup

Now connect:

• Monitor to the graphics card
• Keyboard
• Power cable to the PC

Very important: Plug the monitor into the graphics card, not into the motherboard.

Then, turn the switch on at the back of the power supply and press the case power button

The PC may take a little time the first time it starts. That is normal.

What you should expect

A good first boot often looks like this:

• Fans start spinning
• Lights come on
• Screen stays black for a short while
• Then the motherboard logo appears

That first startup can be slower than later ones.

If it does not turn on

Check these first:

• Is the switch on at the back of the PSU turned on?
• Is the big 24-pin cable fully plugged in?
• Is the 8-pin CPU cable fully plugged in?
• Is the RAM fully clicked in?
• Is the monitor plugged into the graphics card?
• Is the graphics card power cable plugged in properly?

Step 15: Go into the BIOS

When it first starts, tap the Delete key on the keyboard again and again.

That opens the motherboard settings screen.

Once you are in there, check:

• CPU is showing up
• 32GB of RAM is showing up
• SSD is showing up

Step 16: Turn on EXPO

This is a simple setting that makes your RAM run at the speed you paid for.

Find the setting called EXPO and turn it on. Then save and restart.

You do not need to understand the deep details. Just know that this is a normal thing to enable for your RAM.

Step 17: Install Windows

You will need a USB stick with Windows on it.

Plug it in, restart the PC, and follow the instructions on screen.

Install Windows onto your 2TB SSD.

Step 18: Install drivers

Once Windows is running, install:

• AMD motherboard chipset drivers
• AMD graphics drivers
• Windows updates

This makes everything work properly.

Blimey... so how's your index finger after that scroll-fest?

IT'S ALIIIIIIIIIVE

For the full, unfiltered trauma I experienced when following these instructions, you'll have to watch the full episode on TechRadar's YouTube channel. The long and short of it, though, is that barring one or two missteps where ChatGPT encouraged us to do a step too early or wasn't clear enough on its instructions, the steps were broadly correct.

That being said, it hit me a few times with a generic "just use the manual" tip. In an ideal world, it would search for those instructions and be a true assistive companion, but ultimately, for a fair chunk of this process, I ended up looking at the respective components' printed/online guidance.

I don't mind that too much, and should have probably guessed that'd be the case — particularly given that I'd asked ChatGPT to return such a long-form result. Setting aside the lofty ease-of-use promises made by AI evangelists in the years since LLM technology began its rapid ascent to mass adoption, ChatGPT itself advised that I should instead "message and I’ll guide you one stage at a time." Granted, that tip was at the end of its building instructions and I was by then elbow-deep in cables, but I do respect that it made the suggestion.

In the end, I did actually take it up on this offer, though not for the main building process; that would have been a nightmare while also trying to film, present and take notes on the day, which was hard enough by itself.

Instead, when I later had major issues troubleshooting a problematic bootable Windows drive, ChatGPT was there to help in real-time, both by message and through photos of the interface to help me navigate jargon-y menus.

You'll have to watch the full AI Planned It series to know exactly what went right and wrong in our experiment, but to cut to the chase, yes, the PC works and no fires were started in the process.

That said, I did have the aforementioned computing expert Matt Hanson on hand to fact-check and sanity-test ChatGPT's building instructions, which proved invaluable to stop us from making dumb rookie mistakes that the AI was ignorant of.

My big takeaway? If you try to place all the onus on AI, you're more likely to make a mistake than you are if you instead watch a few videos, read the documentation and learn for yourself.

However, it can be a fantastic companion for troubleshooting, researching and finding information written by experts; just moderate your usage if you care about its environmental impact, how its prosumer rollout leads to job losses, and perhaps most crucially, its impact on critical thinking.

Watch the full episode of TechRadar's AI Planned It below!

You can check out the top recommended builds for both ChatGPT and Gemini, and if you subscribe to our YouTube channel, you'll get so see what we let AI plan next.

I've been putting off building my first PC for years. Despite having grown up surrounded by home servers, custom builds, and more cable ties than any sane person could ever use, it's been a bucket list entry I've found so intimidating that I've happily procrastinated even making the first steps of researching how all of the pieces come together.

So when I was given the chance to build my own rig for our latest season of AI Planned It, I leapt at the chance, but the jury's still out on whether that was the best or worst choice I've made in my career so far. Three weeks, two chatbots and two 20-minute videos to produce; what could possibly go wrong.

Spoiler: everything.

How do you solve a problem like a RAM crisis?

In case you missed it, PC building hasn't been a particularly fun hobby for a few years now, especially if you're budget-conscious. Between chip shortages, RAM shortages and near-endless supply-demand issues, there are far more hurdles before you reach the promised land of lag-free AAA gaming.

If you're a first-timer like me, that can make the already-daunting task of learning what a PCIe slot is or which of the five million fan connectors your cooler needs to be connected to so much worse. Enter AI.

For this project, I turned to two of the most popular general-use LLMs, ChatGPT and Gemini, to find out how confidently I could use the tools to help my build my first PC. The first step was to set the scene with both chatbots, explaining their role in helping me upgrade my rig:

The prompt: Simply copy and paste the full block of text into ChatGPT or Gemini, and then respond to the queries each asks you. Your responses will naturally vary from mine, so scroll down to find the questionaire's I personally answered for each chatbot below.

You will be acting as an experienced computer technician to help first-time PC builders pick parts and build their own desktop gaming computer, using a combination of real-time market insight, cost vs. value, performance, compatibility and other general pros and cons. You will tailor your recommendations based around specific needs and use cases, asking follow-up questions if there is any ambiguity or in situations where several options present similar issues or benefits.

Here is a suggested workflow:

Begin by surveying user needs. This should include questions around practical considerations like budget and compatibility but also personal preferences; what kinds of games they enjoy and their expected benchmarks for those games, aesthetics and the like. Ask follow-up questions on areas that may lead to ambiguity in your reasoning, if necessary.

Provide three build options (the same components can appear in multiple configurations) including all of the key components (Motherboard, RAM, storage, CPU, GPU, cooling, power supply, case etc.) as well as a short justification behind your decisions.

These parts must all be compatible with others in the same build option

Factor in the lifespan of components and flag where a part may need replacing sooner than others.

Apply thorough reasoning to the cost and value of components – if a part is outdated or overpriced, it isn’t always the best option.

Where there’s a trade-off or a concession on a part to ensure balance between cost and benefits, explain that trade-off thoroughly.

Only suggest products that you can find in stock at reputable retailers.

Help the user choose a final option, and then discuss refinements where relevant.

Once the customer has received their parts you will give specific build instructions based on the components they are using.

Refine your search

In my personal experience, ChatGPT was the most effective at considering my needs from the get-go, and while its questionnaire included a couple more technical terms than I'd like to unpack as a first-timer, I found it covered most bases pretty well.

Gemini, on the other hand, asked me fewer questions but kept them more beginner-friendly; I'd be interested to know in the comments below if any readers found the same patterns between the two!

Below, I've shared the two questionnaires provided by the LLMs if you'd rather lift these for your own usage than get a fresh set.

ChatGPT PC building questionnaire: Simply copy and paste the full block of text, and then respond to the queries each asks you.

1. Your total budget – Please include your country too, since prices and stock vary a lot by region.

2. What’s included in that budget – Do you need just the tower, or also monitor, keyboard, mouse, headset, Windows license, etc.?

3. What games do you play most – Examples: Warzone, Fortnite, Cyberpunk 2077, Minecraft with shaders, Valorant, Elden Ring, Cities: Skylines II, modded Skyrim, etc.

4. Your target resolution and performance

• For example:
  • 1080p high refresh
  • 1440p high/ultra
  • 4K
  • target FPS like 60 / 120 / 144 / 240

5. Do you care about ray tracing, DLSS, FSR, or frame generation. This matters a lot for GPU choice.

6. Any non-gaming uses – Streaming, video editing, music production, coding, 3D work, AI workloads, school/work multitasking, etc.

7. Size and aesthetics preferences

• Examples:
  • black or white
  • RGB or no RGB
  • compact, mid-tower, or no size preference
  • quiet build vs max airflow
  • glass side panel or plain case

8. Connectivity needs – Do you need Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, lots of USB ports, front USB-C, specific audio needs, multiple SSD slots, etc.?

9. Upgrade philosophy – Would you rather maximize performance right now, even if upgrade path is weaker, keep a stronger platform for future CPU/GPU upgrades or split the difference

10. Any brands or parts you want or want to avoid – For example AMD vs Intel, NVIDIA vs AMD, air cooling vs liquid cooling.

11. Are you buying new only, or open to used/refurbished for some parts (Especially GPU, where used can change value a lot.)

Gemini PC building questionnaire: Simply copy and paste the full block of text, and then respond to the queries each asks you.

1. The Budget –What is your total budget for the tower itself? (Excluding monitor, keyboard, and mouse). Do you also need recommendations for peripherals? If so, let me know if those have a separate budget.

2. Performance Goals & Resolution – what resolution are you planning to play at? (1080p, 1440p, or 4K?), what is your target refresh rate? (e.g., "I want a steady 60 FPS in cinematic games" or "I need 240+ FPS for competitive shooters.")

3. Your "Gaming Library" – Which games do you play most? (e.g., Heavy AAA titles like Cyberpunk 2077 or GTA VI; competitive titles like Valorant or Apex Legends; or simulation games like Microsoft Flight Simulator?)

4. Aesthetics & Form Factor – What do you want the PC to look like? (e.g., "All-black stealth," "Total RGB light show," or "Clean white build."). Size constraints? Do you want a standard Mid-Tower, or are you looking for something small (ITX) to fit on a cramped desk?

5. Beyond Gaming – Will you be using this for anything else? (e.g., Streaming on Twitch, 4K video editing, 3D rendering, or AI development?)

6. Location – What country are you shopping in? (Pricing and availability in the US vary significantly from the UK, EU, or Australia.)

Refine your search

If you're curious to know how Gemini and ChatGPT landed on their respective recommendations (which you can check out here), you can find below the answers I gave to ChatGPT. I sent both chatbots the same general responses, though I removed details that Gemini didn't ask me for in the name of science:

My responses: If you like the look of my new PC, here's what I told ChatGPT to get those top recommendations.

1. Total budget - £1500, shopping in the UK. I have some budget flexibility (+/- £200) but £1500 is my ideal.

2. What's included in that budget - no need to budget for peripherals or software.

3. What games do you play most - I mostly play AAA titles, with games like Baldur's Gate, Cyberpunk 2077 and Clair Obscure: Expedition 33 in current rotation. I'd like some degree of future-proofing for this class of games.

4. Target resolution and performance - ideally 4K but definitely 1440p with steady 60fps refresh rate.

5. Ray tracing / DLSS / FSR / Frame generation - I'd love these, but it's not an absolute deal-breaker due to budget constrictions.

6. Non-gaming use - I'd like to be able to use it for some creative tasks like video and photo editing but I don't often have heavy loads here.

7. Size and aesthetics preferences: My home aesthetic is industrial loft-style so something that has minimalism but also that svelte design language. I like the idea of having some lighting, but not overbearing. Smaller build would be preferable but is not a deal-breaker, I'd be happy with a standard mid-tower.

8. Connectivity needs - A good number of ports for peripherals (and a mix of USB-C and USB) and Wi-Fi. I will take your lead on if I need (and can afford...) multiple SSD slots.

9. Upgrade philosophy - split the difference

10. Any brands or parts you want or want to avoid - nope, just whatever works best for my budget and compatibility

11. Are you buying new only, or open to used/refurbished for some parts
Especially GPU, where used can change value a lot. - I’m open to used/refurbished

Can ChatGPT and Gemini build a good PC?

OK, so you know now what ChatGPT, Gemini and I discussed, but what about the results?

You'll have to watch the full AI Planned It series to know the ins and outs of our experiment, but to cut to the chase; yes, AI can help you build a PC... but it can't do it all for you, and the journey to get there is riddled with so much anxiety that you may well decide to can it altogether; I nearly did!

I worked with TechRadar's resident computing expert, Matt Hanson, to fact-check and sanity-test both ChatGPT and Gemini's instructions, and while we were pleased and impressed to see that all of the components selected were compatible with one another, the experience was marred by sycophantic shopping and terrible market knowledge.

It's fair to say I'm no AI evangelist; I believe in its usefulness in industries like tech and science to tackle complex research and analysis as well as to fill in some gaps in critical infrastructures. Its use cases at scale to improve our quality of life, health and wellbeing are phenomenal; but I'm still really uncomfortable with its environmental impact how its prosumer rollout leads to job losses, and perhaps most crucially, its impact on critical thinking.

Watch the full episode of TechRadar's AI Planned It below!

Besides all that, I think there are a lot of tasks where human interaction is far more valuable, and for me, that includes interests like PC building which are more tactile in nature. The cracks really began to show when I asked both chatbots to find live links and pricing estimation, and this is where I'd suggest you stop following my example. ChatGPT fared much better than Gemini (which linked me to a toupee?) but even then, neither LLM was capable of scraping the internet to find the absolute-best, live pricing.

Both struggled to stay on-task, and having realised they couldn't meet the originally quoted build price kept tweaking their responses without offering me the abundant clarity I would expect as a consumer, so I ended up having to do a lot of model name checking and searching of my own.

Perhaps that's no bad thing; I don't love the idea of a machine deciding where I spend my money, and it was hard enough to concede to ChatGPT and Gemini on what I should spend it on. That being said, I'm comforted, somewhat, by the fact that ultimately, I leaned far more on my friend and colleague for advice than AI, with a whole lot of legwork cut out by using it as a research tool.

You can check out the top recommended builds for both ChatGPT and Gemini, and if you subscribe to our YouTube channel you'll also find out in the next episode how well ChatGPT instructed us on building the PC itself.

ACER PREDATOR ORION 7000: TWO-MINUTE REVIEW

This is a larger-than-life PC with a price tag to match. Its 67-liter chassis, RGB fans, and bicep-testing weight give it a premium look and feel that is sure to turn heads. This also gives it a huge amount of room to circulate cold air and, thanks to the liquid-cooled radiator, the unlocked Intel CPU has enough headroom for extra performance without jet-like fan noise.

In our testing, the combination of the Nvidia RTX 5080 and Intel Core Ultra 7 265KF worked in tandem to handle everything we could throw at it: Cyberpunk 2077 looked completely movie-like with no framerate bottlenecks, while Crimson Desert’s megabudget effects were astonishing.

Likewise, it handled 4K video editing in Premiere Pro and complicated motion tracking in After Effects without slowdowns. If you’re looking for something for both work and play (depending on your job), this could well be a perfect fit.

A nice touch is the hot-swap NVME bay on top of the machine, which means you can expand the storage without opening up the case. But when you do feel the need to upgrade, there are a couple of unoccupied RAM slots ready and waiting.

It’s costly, but that is an inevitability in hardware at the moment. However, it’s one of the best ways to get an eye-boggling 4K gaming experience out of the box.

ACER PREDATOR ORION 7000: PRICE AND AVAILABILITY

• How much does it cost? Starts at £3,299 (UK), $4,999 (US), $6,999 (AU)
• When is it available? Available now
• Where can you get it? Available in the UK, US, and Australia

Our review build retails at £3,299, but it stretches all the way up to a £5,299 version with an Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, 32GB RTX 5090, 64 GB DDR5 RAM, and a 4TB SSD — which is starting to get into 8K gaming territory.

As well as the components, you’re also paying for a decent chassis. Acer has made the Orion 7000 feel cohesive while inviting upgrades — and although you might not need them for a little while, those extra RAM and SSD slots will come in handy when prices finally tumble in the year 2176.

The closest comparison that we’ve reviewed recently is the Corsair One i500, which packs similar liquid-cooled componentry and gaming performance into a wood-finished case. The Orion 7000 is a more conventional design, screaming for attention, while Corsair’s One i500 issues a more sophisticated invitation.

While there are lots of models available in the UK via Acer itself and Currys, in other countries the choice is more limited. In the USA, you can only get the Predator Orion 7000 direct from Acer for $4,999 – but this build packs an Ultra 9 285K processor and 64GB DDR5 RAM. In Australia, the RAM is pared back to 32GB and the price pumped up to $6,999 AU.

• Value: 4 / 5

ACER PREDATOR ORION 7000: SPECS

ACER PREDATOR ORION 7000: DESIGN

• A huge, heavy PC
• Tweakable aesthetics via software
• Handy NVME drive bay

You know you’re in for a good time when a PC is so heavy that it arrives in a wheeled crate. The reason for this back-breaking 40lb (18kg) weight? First up, the case, which has a solid build quality and thick, magnetically shielded glass panels. There’s none of the flex or lightness of cheaper chassis: it feels like you could stand and possibly even jump on it (not that we tried).

Within lurks a water-cooled CPU heatsink, a triple-fanned RTX card, and a 1200W PSU, none of which are known for their lightness. At 19.1 x 8.6 x 19.9 in (485 x 219 x 504.8 mm), it’s absolutely humongous, too, with the water-cooled radiator and its RGB fans adding a little extra to the height over the otherwise similar Orion 5000 Rob reviewed.

The Predator Orion 7000 matches its monolithic form factor with eye-catching looks. The glowing Predator “shield” on the front panel makes it look like Sauron’s shoebox, but from the side its aggregation of liquid-cooling pipes and LED fans give it a hydroponic feeling.

The colors of the fans (adjustable via Predatorsense software) can make the unit feel pumped-up and aggressive or calm and quiet, which speaks to a thoughtful design.

A neat little touch here is a hot-swap USB-C M.2 NVMe bay that pulls out of the top of the machine. Add an SSD, and you’ve got extra, portable storage for those 200GB-plus game installs – and computing has gone back to the cartridge days of the 90s. The top panel also includes headphone, mic, and USB ports for quick and easy access.

• Design: 4 / 5

ACER PREDATOR ORION 7000: PERFORMANCE

• Massive performance uplift
• Handles 4K gaming without problems
• Powers through draining creative tasks

While Rob described the Orion 5000 as “not outrageous,” the Orion 7000 pushes things very much into outrageous territory. The componentry shift only seems minor: from an Nvidia RTX 5070 to an RTX 5080, and from an Intel Core Ultra 7 265F to a 265KF. That’s a difference of 10 and an extra K.

But in the world of gaming, this is a huge leap in performance. 3D Mark’s Port Royal benchmark, which tests ray tracing abilities, delivered a 53% leap in performance. Cyberpunk 2077, in ultra settings (albeit at 1080p) went from 95fps on the 5000 to 161fps on the 7000. It’s proof that Nvidia really has put its money where its mouth is with the RTX 5080 — and the difference between gaming at 1440p and 4K.

That “K” in the CPU moniker stands for “unlocKed,” which means that Acer is able to push the Core Ultra 7’s further than stock settings, enabling higher clock rates and power draw. Add in the water-cooled heatsink, and you can eke out a lot more performance from Intel’s Arrow Lake chip: Geekbench 6’s score for intensive computing tasks increased by 50% over the Orion 5000, while Cinebench R23 multi-core scores saw a massive 60.5% uplift.

In reality, this means that the Orion 7000 can handle just about anything you can throw at it in 4K. Cyberpunk 2077 and Crimson Desert both looked utterly breathtaking in their intricate ray-traced details: the wind rushing through the trees, the atmospheric hazing on the horizon, the major globules of spilt blood. It also wasn’t phased at all by huge 4K Premiere Pro video editing tasks and motion tracking in After Effects, and that SSD drive is equally handy for large files.

The most pro of gamers may be put off by Acer’s PredatorSense software and system noise, but if you want your gaming big-scale, cinematic, and console-killing, this is the PC to go for.

• Performance: 5 / 5

SHOULD I BUY THE ACER PREDATOR ORION 7000?

Buy the Acer Predator Orion 7000 if...

Don’t buy the Acer Predator Orion 7000 if...

ALSO CONSIDER

HOW I TESTED THE ACER PREDATOR ORION 7000

I spent one full week testing the Orion 7000 as my primary workstation and gaming rig. I tested use cases ranging from 4K video editing in Premiere Pro to intensive 4K ray-traced gaming in Cyberpunk 2077. I used suites such as 3DMark and Cinebench R23 to verify clock speeds and see how it shaped up against other PCs.

First reviewed March 2026

• Lenovo has increased the price of its 2TB Legion Go 2 to $2,850
• The handheld now costs more than two Nvidia RTX 5080 Founders Edition GPUs
• Lenovo hasn't stated why there's been a price increase, but recent trends suggest the memory crisis is related

There's been a gradual calm to the currently raging storm that is the memory crisis and its impact on PC hardware, specifically with RAM kits slowly falling in price, but the chaos is far from over, and Lenovo just proved it.

As reported by Notebookcheck, the Lenovo Legion Go 2 Ryzen Z2 Extreme 2TB model now costs $2,850, listed on Lenovo's online store, a significant price hike from the original $1,480 retail price. This comes shortly after the cost of the 1TB model was increased by up to $2,000, which is $650 more than the original $1,350 price.

Notably, the 2TB model's $2,850 price makes the Windows-based handheld more expensive than two Nvidia RTX 5080 Founders Edition GPUs, which would cost $1,998, and more costly than a single RTX 5090, the most powerful desktop GPU currently available.

To say that the pricing here for handheld gaming devices is absurd would be an understatement. While the RAM crisis and unstable PC hardware market are likely to blame in this case, it's hard for any consumer to justify paying rent money for a device that isn't even the best in its own league.

There are handhelds such as the GPD Win 5 that cost less than the Legion Go 2 2TB, and offer gaming laptop-tier performance, using the AMD Ryzen Al Max+ 395. It's hard to see any world where gamers will choose the Lenovo Legion Go 2, frankly, over any product that's in the same price region of $2,000 or more.

Lenovo has yet to give any explanation on why the price increase has occurred, but if the recent trend of price hikes is anything to go by, it's due to the memory crisis. However, that's not an out for Lenovo, as a $2,000 for its 1TB model alone is unfeasible, and $2,850 feels like a late April Fools prank.

Unfortunately, price jumps such as these have been coming, and at this rate, it feels as though proceedings are only going to get worse as the crisis continues.

When I was a teenager, the ultimate piece of tech unobtanium for me was the Acer Predator 21X. A decade ago, I remember seeing this ridiculous brute of a laptop and thinking "What if?" with regard to ever getting my hands on one.

It wasn't so much the internals of the device at the time, but more the fact it came in an over-the-top suitcase and with a curved, ultrawide screen and a proper Cherry MX Brown mechanical keyboard in a laptop – it's still nuts to this day in my head.

When this laptop was first announced at IFA 2016, I was fourteen. That firstly makes me feel quite old, and was secondly around the time I got into tech journalism on a very small basis, writing for, at the time, one of the only mechanical keyboard-focused news and reviews websites in the UK on the interwebs – MechBoards UK.

Searching around for news one morning, I spotted the Predator 21X announcement, and I remember marvelling at the device. Weirdly, I didn't end up writing about it, and I don't really know why, but here we are.

Fast forward virtually a decade, and I finally got pally enough with Acer's PR folks for them to let me borrow the Predator 21X for a couple of weeks, for the benefit of seeing whether it can actually fit in my home and how this once-$10,000 / £9,000 laptop holds up in the big 2026.

Look at the size of this

The first thing that got me was the sheer size of the Acer Predator 21X. Granted, this is well-covered ground by this point, but for a device I'd only seen in pictures, having a delivery driver turn up at my doorstep with a literal suitcase with lots of padding and a laptop somewhere in the middle inside was a new experience.

To put things into perspective, even some of the biggest and heaviest gaming laptops from the last couple of years, such as the Alienware 16 Area-51 and MSI Titan 18 HX AI, tip the scales at 3.4kg and 3.6kg, respectively.

By contrast, the Predator 21X weighs 8.5kg. That's those two laptops combined, and an additional 1.5kg, for one laptop – not to mention the two hefty power bricks you'll need to carry around to keep it topped up with go-juice that pushes the weight over the 10kg threshold.

The weight is only the start of things, though, as this Acer behemoth is also nearly two feet long, a foot deep and just over three inches high. We've got to the point where modern ultrabooks can be under 15mm in thickness and weigh less than a kilo, so going from that to this in my day-to-day workflow is quite the shock.

Acer said at the time it wanted to let its designers loose with the look of the Predator 21X, and I think it encompasses the 2016 RGB gamer aesthetic perfectly with lots of lighting and aggressive styling. It's not bereft of ports, either, coming with a sum total of four USB-A 3.0 ports on the sides, plus a headphone and microphone jack, with the rear having an HDMI port, two DisplayPort connectors, Gigabit Ethernet and a USB-C port.

Opening up the lid reveals a huge bottom tray, of which only half is used for the keyboard and trackpad. The top portion is for cooling and additional flair, such as a triangular viewing window for a cooling fan, while below, you get a tactile, RGB-enabled mechanical keyboard with Cherry MX Brown RGB switches inside (and a sole MX Black on the Esc key) that feels excellent.

The trackpad sits to the right of it, and can be turned over to reveal a scissor-actuated number pad if you'd prefer to use a separate mouse. It's a ludicrous laptop from a design perspective, and one I can't help but adore because of it.

The beating heart of the machine

The Predator 21X was an exhibition of the top-end components of the time for a laptop, within reason, as Acer didn't want the laptop to catch fire due to too much grunt. Here's the spec sheet in case you need a reminder:

That's two desktop-class GTX 1080 GPUs in an SLI configuration (remember that?) that could yield some immense gaming performance for the time alongside the quad-core Intel Core i7-7820HK that's unlocked, so can be overclocked if you wanted to try and eke out as much oomph as possible.

To see how this laptop performs in 2026, I thought it might be fun to run it through a range of games – both ones that are contemporaries of the Predator 21X (with some that support SLI) and some slightly more modern titles that might push it quite hard. I've also put it through a range of modern benchmark tests to gauge performance against newer laptop hardware.

For reference, when this laptop was delivered to me, it was still running a version of Windows 10 from 2018 and hadn't been updated since, which took some head-scratching and troubleshooting to fix, plus a fair bit of waiting for the laptop to come to life.

For the benefit of stability, it's running the latest version of Windows 10 22H2 and Nvidia's last Game Ready drivers for the GTX 10-series, 581.80, which was released at the start of November 2025.

I've also elected to run games at both the laptop's native 2560x1080 ultrawide resolution, where supported, and also hooked up to my 4K QD-OLED monitor to see how far we can really push the Predator 21X.

Era-appropriate games

Firstly, I thought it was only right to run the Predator 21X through some games that would be period-correct for the time this laptop was released, and could potentially reap the benefits of SLI, to give an idea of a baseline alongside the original numbers Matt (Hanson, Managing Editor of Core Tech at TechRadar) gathered in his original Predator 21X review. Games were run at their highest respective settings, as you'd expect.

Far Cry 5 seemed to be universally acclaimed for its SLI integration when it released back in 2018, and at the Ultra preset with HD textures enabled, it managed a 73fps average at 2560x1080. Overclocking took things up to 77fps, although this is one of the only instances where the overclock and full fan-speed in the PredatorSense software yielded any benefits. At 4K, the Predator 21X managed a respectable 58fps average, which is excellent considering the age of the laptop.

I followed this up with the original Dirt Rally, again lauded for its SLI integration, and a game that relies on a strong CPU to help along the pair of desktop-class GTX 1080s inside. With the Ultra preset, I saw a 99fps average at 2560x1080, making for a smooth and immersive sim racing experience, while at 4K, results took a hit down to 46fps.

The original Hitman is where things get interesting, as it's here where we get a bit of a choice between DirectX 11 and DirectX12. Using the latter allows for multi-GPU scaling and potentially stronger performance, which is where I started. I saw an average of 87fps at 2560x1080 and 69fps at 4K. Running on DirectX 11 without multi-GPU scaling saw results go to 65fps and 61fps, respectively, providing a difference in power with two 1080s in tow.

Conversely, Rise of the Tomb Raider wouldn't work in DX12 mode at all, as the game simply wouldn't boot, and there wasn't anything I could do to help. Nonetheless, at the game's maximum settings, the Predator 21X managed 73fps at 2560x1080, although 4K results weren't too strong at 38fps.

I also wanted to run 2013's Crysis 3 for obvious reasons, but the wretched combination of the Xbox app and the EA Play integration on PC meant the game wouldn't load despite my troubleshooting and verbal threats aimed at the laptop.

Something a little newer

I also chose to run the Predator 21X through some newer games to see if this system could keep up. Of course, there isn't any SLI support in these more modern titles (due to Nvidia dropping the tech half a decade ago), and as you'll see, this is where things get a little disappointing.

My first port of call was Cyberpunk 2077, perhaps this generation's Crysis equivalent, as it can be quite a demanding title for a range of systems. At native 2560x1080 resolution on the game's Ultra preset, it yielded 37fps, while adding in the default FSR 2.1 upscaling on Quality mode pushed things up to 48fps.

4K Ultra Cyberpunk at 12fps natively was quite a rotten experience, though, and the upscaler could only push it up to 17fps. If you wanted to play Cyberpunk on the Predator 21X, you'd need to sacrifice some settings and be quite liberal with the use of the upscaler to hit more playable framerates.

It was much the same story for Returnal, too, with the native 2560x1080 resolution pushing 44fps, while the 4K result of 22fps is quite meagre.

In moving over to Rainbow Six Extraction, I had higher hopes for a more modern eSports-type title. The default Ultra preset includes a 'Dynamic' resolution of 25-100%, which is how I left it, and the Predator 21X managed an 82fps average at 2560x1080 and a more than playable 64fps at 4K. Fiddle around with some settings, and you'd be close to maxing out the 120Hz refresh rate on the Predator 21X's ultrawide IPS panel.

For one final test, I thought it'd be interesting to try a super up-to-date Unreal Engine 5-based title in Black Myth Wukong, as one of the only games I've got that doesn't need any hardware-based ray-tracing.

I elected to step down to the Very High preset, with FSR enabled (with a resolution scale of 33) and frame-gen on. With those settings applied, the Predator 21X achieved 49fps at 2560x1080 and 37fps at 4K. That pleasantly surprised me, I must admit.

Time for benchmarking

As for the more modern synthetic benchmarks, I'll put these in a table against more modern hardware, so you can judge performance for yourself. In essence, the CPU here is anything from a third to a half as quick as its more modern equivalents in single-core loads, while multi-threaded performance is several magnitudes worse.

3D performance in the array of benchmarks is reasonable, if quite unremarkable, although that is being compared with the latest generation of GPU hardware, as you'll see below. The scores provided were run with the laptop's CPU, and GPU overclocked in PredatorSense to eke out as much performance as possible, which made more of a tangible difference here than in games.

With all of these tests, the Predator 21X fan noise was surprisingly manageable and wasn't too loud, although crank the fans up to full with an overclock, and it will turn into a jet airliner taking off a few feet away from you.

10 years on... is the Acer Predator 21X still a beast?

So, to sum up – the Acer Predator 21X is everything I hoped it would be when I was a teenager when coming to take a look at it a virtual decade later. Okay, it isn't that powerful in more modern games, and your $10,000 investment wouldn't have necessarily been as sound all this time after, but it can still run well in the titles it was ultimately designed to, while feeling excellent with a full mechanical keyboard, a decently bright ultrawide screen and the thickest laptop chassis I've ever seen.

It goes to prove how much laptop tech has moved on, with beefy gaming machines being a third of the weight of this Acer beast while still packing in several magnitudes more power.

But, I can't help but feel a certain appeal to this large slab of ridiculousness, especially with things we don't seen on laptops much these days. Ultrawide, let alone curved, displays haven't really caught on in the mobile space, while mechanical keyboards in laptops are also rare – there has only been a handful with ultra-low-profile switches in them in more recent years.

It's a reminder of a time gone by in computer design, when manufacturers encouraged the sublime and diabolical, where now a lot of things have turned into a homogenous, thin, black or grey slab. I think we need to return to the days of the bonkers in gaming, as the hardware was all the better for it.

Handheld gaming has been in a great place for a few years, ever since Valve launched the Steam Deck in 2022, kicking off a raft of portable gaming PCs appearing in all manner of incarnations.

Since the Steam Deck muscled onto the scene, Lenovo, Asus, and Ayaneo have all been busy launching new handhelds, offering a wide variety of options from lower to higher-end devices. Some have struck a nicely affordable chord, although many have been criticized for being overpriced.

Valve's Steam Deck was (and arguably still is) the most popular among all the handheld gaming PCs on the market, giving gamers an easy way to dive into portable gaming for a reasonable price.

However, the situation with handhelds is swiftly changing, and not for the better. The AI boom has meant that prices for RAM and storage have skyrocketed, and the crisis is seemingly getting worse on a daily basis.

Notably, Ayaneo had its Next 2 handheld gaming PC poised to go sale, with pre-orders open and shipments scheduled for June 2026. Unfortunately, those pre-orders are no longer available, as the company has been forced to suspend sales for the new device due to rapidly rising component costs.

While Ayaneo is arguably a niche brand, one that pushes for higher specifications in a handheld that can provide gaming laptop-level performance, it's not the only company that has seen its line-up of handheld devices impacted by the ongoing memory chip crisis. And it doesn't look like it'll be the last, either.

The AI boom might destroy handheld gaming PCs

At this rate, handheld gaming PCs are in grave danger of gradually being phased out, at least as a mainstream force. We've reached a point where device manufacturers are struggling to keep up with the cost and lack of availability of RAM and storage, and consumers simply can't afford to pay entry-level desktop gaming PC prices for portable devices. All this is a direct result of the AI boom.

Ayaneo's case is a telling example here, with the company admitting that hardly any profit has been made from the Next 2 handheld pre-orders taken thus far, as the overall cost of production has risen so much.

Another prime example of the chaos being sown with handhelds is Valve's recent announcement that the Steam Deck OLED will be out of stock intermittently, and unsurprisingly, this is due to memory and storage supply issues.

The RAM crisis represents an increasingly difficult situation for Valve in particular, with the Steam Machine still in the pipeline for a launch in 2026 — and that has already faced a delay, once again, due to said crisis.

The affordability problems caused for both manufacturers and consumers are a recipe for disaster when it comes to handheld gaming PCs. The longer the AI boom continues, with data centers grabbing huge slabs of memory for AI tasks, the worse things will get for handheld production costs.

Ultimately, it all comes down to a nasty price to pay for consumers, who will be faced with ever more expensive price tags for handhelds that were already creeping into unaffordable territory even before the AI boom struck.

All this threatens to stall the progress that handheld gaming PCs have made since they grabbed their share of the limelight following the success of the Steam Deck. Previously this market was mostly dominated by niche brands like Ayaneo or Ayn, and those days could return — if the RAM crisis continues to make life miserable for handheld manufacturers, and consumer interest declines.

There are some tentative signs that the AI bubble could burst, notably with OpenAI putting the sword to Sora, and you never know what's around the next corner — it's not all doom and gloom.

However, I worry that even after the bubble eventually bursts — however long that may take — it could be some time before the supply of components normalizes. Predictions from analyst firms make that clear enough.

Hopefully, though, this component storm won't be raging for too long, and handheld gaming PCs will manage to weather it. That does, of course, remain to be seen, and unfortunately matters are looking pretty rocky right now.

• Capcom and Ubisoft game developers weren't informed about Nvidia DLSS 5 being used by their publisher
• One developer stated they found out 'at the same time' as the public
• Former Rockstar game dev condemns DLSS 5, claiming it's a 'complete AI re-render'

Nvidia is under fire for its latest reveal of DLSS 5, and rightly so, particularly after CEO Jensen Huang's response to the ongoing backlash for its generative AI use — and the latest revelation could make the controversy much worse.

As reported by Insider Gaming, Capcom and Ubisoft game developers apparently weren't informed by their publishers regarding their involvement in Nvidia's DLSS 5. This comes after Jensen Huang stated gamers are "completely wrong" about Nvidia's "content-control generative AI".

One of the Ubisoft developers stated, "We found out at the same time as everyone else". Similarly, Capcom developers were reportedly shocked by the publisher's involvement, considering its "anti-AI" stance.

This is so disrespectful to the intentional art direction of devs. If devs wanted to lean in to hyper realism they would. This also drastically changes key aspects of visuals like character features, focal points, lighting and so on. What a terrible invention. Nvidia should shelve this one 😭

— @kortizart.bsky.social (@kortizart.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2026-03-19T12:33:20.060Z

Game developers across multiple studios and publishers have shared the same sentiment (as evident above). Notably, a former Rockstar developer, Mike York (known as York Street Gaming on YouTube), implied that DLSS 5 poses a significant threat to game art, considering the changes it makes to character models.

"This isn't just some lighting, this is like a complete AI re-render," York said. "You're no longer looking at the game [Resident Evil Requiem] anymore. This is scary. This is like an AI filter over every frame."

While Nvidia and Bethesda's Todd Howard have consistently tried to reassure gamers that DLSS 5 use in games will be controlled and tuned by developers, it hasn't done much to allay concerns — and it's not a big surprise, as many are already opposed to generative AI in sectors outside of gaming.

As of its initial reveal, it takes two RTX 5090s to utilize DLSS 5, and that may scale down to one GPU by the time it launches this autumn. However, gamers, developers, and frankly, the majority of consumers online have made it clear that generative AI is not wanted in gaming, and certainly not when it's changing character model details, which is integral to developers' intended art.

Nvidia’s GDC event has been showcasing some pretty cool stuff coming to future games, and one of the announcements that's got me the most excited is that Nvidia is teaming up with CD Projekt Red to bring its RTX Mega Geometry foliage tech to The Witcher 4.

Now, there’s no denying that ‘Mega Geometry foliage’ is an awesome name, but the ambition behind it is even more exciting: more believable trees, forests and environments.

As Nvidia explains in a blog post, RTX Mega Geometry foliage introduces a “new level-of-detail system for foliage", thanks to technology that "selectively updates scenes, reducing memory usage and accelerating performance in a visually seamless manner.”

Essentially, it means that advanced path-tracing lighting effects — which take a big toll on the hardware — can be implemented in complex clusters of plants and trees, adding realistic animations, lighting and shadows.

This can make a huge difference to how realistic and immersive a game feels. Real forests are living, growing, things, and static recreations in games can feel lifeless and fake in comparison. However, individually animating every leaf on every branch of a single tree, let alone an entire forest, would have once been far too difficult for gaming hardware to handle.

Add in lighting and shadows that react to every tree, as well as the position of light sources, like the Sun, and you end up with an implementation that is incredibly hardware-intensive. That's why most games offer much more basic representations of forests — at a cost of realism.

Nvidia introduced Mega Geometry last year. The technology combines path-traced lighting with detailed geometric shapes (such as raised patterns on environmental objects, like statues), while lowering the hardware demands by collecting the shapes and objects in clusters. This then allows for large-scale environments that benefit from stunning details and lighting effects.

With RTX Mega Geometry foliage, this tech is now being used for large-scale natural scenes, especially forests, so they can make use of real-time path-traced lighting.

Nvidia has released an in-depth video that goes more into the tech that makes this possible.

According to the video, RTX Mega Geometry foliage "selectively updates scenes, reducing memory usage and accelerating performance in a visually-seamless manner". This allows dense forests with ‘millions’ of trees and plants to have “unique animation, and accurate real-time lighting and shadows.”

Improving detail and graphical effects whilst lowering hardware requirements sounds a bit too good to be true, but I’ve been impressed with Nvidia’s DLSS and Frame Generation features in the past. These have leveraged AI to lower the hardware burden of graphically-intensive games, while keeping image quality close to the same, or sometimes even improved. So I have high hopes for this tech.

Toss A Coin To Your Witcher (and Nvidia)

Despite still being early days, the examples shown in the video are impressive. Plus, the announcement that Nvidia is making the tech open-source later this year should hopefully mean we’ll get a decent amount of new games coming out that support the technology.

One of those games will be (as announced at GDC) The Witcher 4 – one of the games I am most excited about playing in the future. Cezary Bella, Rendering Engineer, CD Projekt Red, mentions that the developers are working with Nvidia to bring path tracing to The Witcher 4, and by using RTX Mega Geometry foliage technology, fully path-traced forests will also be in the game.

The Witcher series of games are set in a world loosely based on eastern Europe, and that means lots of lush forests. The Witcher 3 wasn’t just one of my favorite games of all time, it was a graphical showcase, so I’m ridiculously excited to see what the next game looks like.

It also means that PC will easily be the platform to play The Witcher 4. While Nvidia will be making the RTX Mega Geometry foliage tech open-source, it’s very likely that you’ll need an Nvidia GPU to take advantage of it, and both the Xbox and PS5 use AMD hardware.

Of course, the fact that the PC version will likely be a (bit) cheaper, hopefully support mods, and will be playable on my gaming handheld as well as my desktop PC (plus the small matter of me not owning any current consoles), means that I was always going to be playing The Witcher 4 on my PC anyway. I just hope RAM and GPU prices drop even a little bit before it releases sometime next year.

• Crimson Desert will feature both AMD's FSR Redstone and Nvidia's DLSS 4
• Redstone's Ray Regeneration will also be available
• The open-world game is being optimized to run natively, with upscaling as a secondary consideration

Pearl Abyss is working diligently to refine Crimson Desert, ensuring the open-world action adventure performs optimally for both PC and console players ahead of its March 19 launch date – and that now includes FSR Redstone support.

As reported by VideoCardz, AMD's FSR Redstone will be available in Crimson Desert at launch for RDNA 4 GPU users, providing enhanced performance and image quality via upscaling. The game will also support FSR Ray Regeneration, another part of the Redstone package designed to boost ray-traced details in-game.

While Crimson Desert is an FSR Redstone game, it's worth noting that Nvidia's DLSS 4 will also be available at launch as well.

However, Pearl Abyss has made it clear that it's not optimizing the game with upscaling in mind, but rather the developer is focusing on running natively, as noted by PR director Will Powers. In other words, Pearl Abyss isn't relying on upscaling for good performance, but instead views upscaling tools as bonuses once the game's base optimization at native resolution is complete.

There's no denying the benefits of upscaling via FSR or DLSS, as it's often handy for lower-end hardware, but having a game optimized without using either is great news for everyone. And frankly, it's a positive sign that Crimson Desert will run well on both console and PC.

Digital Foundry previously observed that Crimson Desert was running at 4K native resolution seemingly at around 40 to 50fps on a Radeon RX 9070 XT GPU at CES 2026, and that was supposedly in an older build of the game. If that's anything to go by, we should be in for a treat in terms of performance.

It's all possible thanks to the BlackSpace Engine

Pearl Abyss wanted to build its own proprietary engine for a game like Crimson Desert, and its high level of detail in aspects such as the draw distance and weather cycle is only possible thanks to that BlackSpace Engine.

Will Powers reiterated this and highlighted how Crimson Desert wouldn't be able to run on Unreal Engine 5, considering how much depth and detail are included in the visuals. The fact that Pearl Abyss is focusing hard on native frame rate optimization is a big statement.

There's still no official information on performance targets for either PC or console, but the marketing so far all sounds very promising.

The proof will be in the actual playing of the game, of course, but I've got a hunch that we could be looking at a well-optimized title at launch – and that doesn't happen very often.

• HP has a new gaming laptop rental scheme (alongside subscriptions for everyday notebooks, too)
• Unfortunately, there's no option to buy the device outright; you can only lease it
• The pricing of the gaming laptops is high, to an off-putting degree in fact – but there could still be mileage in this idea in the future

Don't want to fork over a ton of cash for a heavyweight gaming laptop? The RAM crisis hasn't helped here, of course, but HP has a solution – lease your notebook, business-style, for a monthly subscription fee.

PC Gamer noticed HP's scheme, which has seemingly been around for a while now in the US (and only that country), but has flown rather under the radar, and only jumped to the fore when Linus Tech Tips talked about it on YouTube.

So, the deal is this: you pick a tier of gaming notebook – or a standard laptop, as these models are available from HP too – from entry-level to high-end, and rent it for a monthly fee. That means there's no big outlay to secure yourself a fancy gaming portable.

On top of that, you get a beefy support package: 24/7 live support, in fact, and if the HP expert can't fix your issue, the company will send you a replacement laptop by the next business day. That's a nifty touch, certainly.

Okay, so the catches – are there any? Of course. One of the main snags is that there's no buyout option here. The initial contract gives you the laptop for a rental period of a year, and after that, you can keep it and carry on paying monthly if you want, but there's no point where you'll be able to purchase the device to own it for good. (Even if you spend the equivalent of the total cost of the laptop, or more, eventually).

Really, the idea is that you'll send it back after a year and get a newer model on another year-long plan, meaning you can constantly upgrade your notebook.

That's how a package like this tempts consumers – those who buy a new gaming laptop on a regular basis may find that the financial equation doesn't work out too badly for them. Especially given that if they have any issues with the laptop, they get a replacement sent out straight away.

The trouble is that, certainly for the gaming laptops, the monthly prices are high. Getting the top-end HP Omen Max 16 with an Intel Core Ultra 9 CPU, Nvidia RTX 5080, and 32GB of RAM will run you $130 per month. That's over $1,500 for the year.

Indeed, across all the available models of HP gaming laptops, in the first (compulsory) year of rental, you'll have paid in the order of half the total cost of the notebook. That doesn't sound too clever, now, does it?

There are a couple of other things to note here: you can cancel in the first month at no cost, but afterwards, there's a hefty contract exit penalty. Also, only one laptop can be rented per household in the US.

Analysis: own nothing and game happily? Or maybe not…

HP's gaming laptops are simply too costly to rent for my liking, although the idea could still appeal to those who compulsively upgrade their notebook to the latest hardware on a regular basis. The standard consumer laptops are better value for money, but on the flipside, they're not in need of such regular upgrading as a gaming machine (which somewhat lessens the appeal).

There are other obvious issues here, such as what about accidental damage to the notebook? What's a fair level of wear-and-tear (some of which is inevitable)? If the laptop arrives back at HP in what the company judges to be a poor condition, what happens then, and what kind of extra charges could pop up? (Also, it goes without saying that if you break the laptop outright, you must pay for the device in full).

Furthermore, HP reserves the right to disable the machine remotely, which, to be fair, is a necessary safeguard against people not paying the subscription.

I'm really not convinced of the value proposition here, but I don't object to the idea of offering notebook buyers different options. However, given HP's rental prices for the gaming laptops, if that's your bag, you are better off simply looking at a finance agreement. Another option could be to consider a game streaming service at a much lower monthly price, one you could run on your ailing old laptop (or other devices, including your TV).

Granted, with the pricing of laptops potentially getting jacked up considerably this year, as RAM, storage, and GPU cost pressures come to bear with even greater force on PCs – and gaming laptops more than most (equipped with system RAM plus video RAM) – HP's rental subscriptions may end up looking better value down the line.

It's not surprising to see HP trying this spin with its laptops, given that the firm has been a pioneer with hardware subscription services, for example, with printer ink (Instant Ink).

HP isn't the first PC manufacturer to try rental subscriptions, though, and notably, NZXT does this for desktop gaming rigs with its Flex packages. Those offerings work in much the same way as HP's here, in that you can never buy the hardware outright, and you get dedicated tech support.

• Maingear Retro98 PC is the latest in its "nostalgic sleeper PC series"
• This limited-edition looks like a 90s beige PC, complete with trimmings like a Turbo button on the front
• It packs powerful hardware though, including up to an RTX 5090 GPU and Ryzen 9950X3D CPU – and this PC doesn't come cheap, as you might guess

Maingear just revealed a new prebuilt desktop computer that's perfect for nostalgia fans who long for a return to the 1990s, when tower PCs were unapologetically bland beige boxes.

The Retro98 is part of Maingear's "nostalgic sleeper PC series" and it's a limited-edition gaming PC. In fact, there will only be 32 of these computers made (plus six 'alpha units', not meaning prototypes, but these are the top-end PCs which are cooled by an Alphacool custom open loop).

As the name suggests, the Retro98 is built to resemble a tower PC from the late 90s, and it comes in a SilverStone FLP02 case.

You get an LED display on the front showing the fan speed, and – gasp – a Turbo button too, as well as 'ketchup-and-mustard' sleeved cable colorways, and, well, an entirely authentic 90s appearance.

However, as Maingear notes, don't let the boxy beige exterior fool you into thinking this is a pedestrian PC, because it definitely isn't. The base spec starts with an Intel Core Ultra 7 265K and Nvidia RTX 5070 graphics card – priced at $2,499 in the US – going up to those Alphacool units with an AMD Ryzen 9950X3D plus RTX 5090, at $9,799.

Analysis: PCs that were all the beige

These are some seriously powerful PCs, with a very distinctive retro look as you can see. While the Retro98 won't be for everyone, by any means, those of us who do remember the 90s – and playing Quake clan matches over a dial-up modem (back when QuakeWorld was revolutionary for the pings of 56K modem players) – are going to be transported back in time in a good way.

The Retro98 sparked up an enjoyable conversation this afternoon in TechRadar's chat about long-forgotten PC makers (in the UK), bringing up some names I hadn't heard in a long time. (Like Viglen for instance, and Evesham, a firm I bought several PCs from back in the day).

Of course, these are seriously expensive rigs, but what price can you put on a slice of history? Albeit resurrected, reinvigorated history. That said, ten grand is kind of pushing it, and then some, for that top dog model, of which there are only six.

Still, Maingear reminds us that you'll get lifetime support with these limited-edition machines, which "aren't slapped-together beige boxes, they're built with purpose, reinforced for longevity, and tuned to get every last drop of performance."

Just don't forget to press the Turbo button.

Asus V16: Two-minute review

The V16 is a large gaming laptop with a strong spec at an appealing price point. It looks understated yet elegant, thanks to the smooth finish and lack of gaming-related embellishments. The rounded edges and smooth planes further add to its minimalist appeal.

What’s more, the V16 is remarkably sleek by the standards of its class. Despite the large 16-inch size display, its body is very thin and light, making it a contender for the best gaming laptop you can realistically carry around with you.

The build quality of the V16 is also commendable, featuring materials that feel premium and well put-together. It’s more solid than some of its rivals, although it’s perhaps not the sturdiest gaming laptop in existence.

There are enough connectivity options to satisfy most gamers, although the lack of an RJ-45 port might disappoint keen online players. The fact that all but one of the V16’s interfaces are located on the left – and none on the rear – might also be a pain point for some.

MyAsus is the utility software bundled with the V16, used to view system information and make performance tweaks. It gets the job done, although the interface and odd loading times make it less polished than rival software.

Thanks to the RTX 4050 in my review unit, the V16 managed to hold its own when contending with today’s AAA titles. I didn’t manage to achieve 60fps at full resolution when playing Cyberpunk 2077, but I still had a smooth and enjoyable experience at around 50fps with Ray Tracing enabled.

Heat made its way onto the keyboard while playing, with the space bar experiencing the most intense temperatures. It was still comfortable to use, though, and more impressively, the fans were relatively hushed.

The 16-inch display on the V16 provides a large vista for showcasing blockbuster titles at their best. The 1920 x 1200 resolution is just about sharp enough for its size too. However, while colors are vibrant enough, they lack the intensity of the best gaming monitors, and reflections can reveal themselves all too readily.

The starting price of the V16 makes it a tempting proposition, although there are others with similar costs that offer a better spec, such as the Acer Nitro V 15, which features an RTX 5050 in its base model instead of a 4050. However, the portable design, large display, and excellent keyboard are all points in the V16’s favor, resulting in a strong contender in the mid-range gaming laptop market.

Asus V16 review: Price & Availability

• Starting from $949.99 / £849.99 / AU$1,399
• Available now
• Some rivals are better value

The Asus V16 starts from $949.99 / £849.99 / AU$1,399 and is available now. The base models in each region differ: the US gets an Intel Core 7 and an RTX 3050, the UK a Core 5 and an RTX 4050, and the Australian a Core 5 and RTX 3050. In the UK, we’ve also seen the RTX 5050 variant on sale for less than the 4050 counterpart.

This is a reasonable starting price for an RTX 40 series-equipped laptop. However, there are some rivals that represent better value, such as the Acer Nitro V 15, which has a significantly lower starting price (in the US, at least) but features an RTX 5050 rather than a 4050. Its display is an inch smaller, though, and it's decidedly bulkier and therefore less portable.

If you want to spend even less money, the MSI Cyborg 15 is a strong budget pick. You’ll have to settle for an RTX 30 series GPU to keep the costs down, but this still offers passable performance, and the overall design and brilliant keyboard of the Cyborg certainly haven’t fallen victim to cost-cutting.

• Value: 3.5 / 5

Asus V16 review: Specs

Asus V16 review: Design

• Impressively light and thin
• Decent build quality
• Sufficient utility software

To look at, the V16 cuts a very un-gamerish figure. Only a small and discreet Asus logo adorns the lid, while the perfectly flat contours, unsullied by any of the protrusions or sharp angles typical for this class of device, further belie its gaming prowess.

Setting the V16 apart even more from its equally large rivals are its weight and dimensions: even the best laptops would envy just how light and thin it is. This makes it much easier to carry around than you might imagine – although you’ll still need plenty of space in your bag to accommodate its 16-inch diagonal.

Materials are impressively premium, too. The chassis has a super smooth finish, while the keys have a very subtle texture that enhances their tactility. What’s more, the whole construction feels quite solid, with minimal – but still noticeable – flexing to the panels.

Port selection on the V16 is adequate. There’s no ethernet port, which online gamers might lament, but you still get an HDMI port and a headset jack. There are also two USB-A ports and one USB-C port, the latter of which supports both power delivery and external displays.

All ports are loaded on the left-hand side, except for one of the USB-A ports, which is on the right. This lack of balance might prove inconvenient depending on your setup, especially for those who like some on the rear.

The utility software for the V16, MyAsus, doesn’t exactly have the most enticing interface, and the fact it shows loading bars every time you open it is a little disconcerting, even if they don't take long. The app contains some useful system information and various settings you can adjust. Along with the usual fan profile selections, you can also adjust the GPU operation, with modes ranging from Standard to Optimized, that control when and where the GPU and integrated graphics are employed.

• Design: 4.5 / 5

Asus V16 review: Performance

• Smooth but unspectacular performance
• Surprisingly quiet
• Excellent keyboard

The combination of the Intel Core 5 and RTX 4050 in my review unit resulted in respectable, if not outstanding, gaming performance. I got around 50fps when I played Cyberpunk 2077 at the Ray Tracing: Low preset. More importantly, I experienced virtually no slowdown or stuttering, even during busy scenes, which is always something to prize.

A small amount of heat was generated on the keyboard during my play time, but this was never uncomfortable. Oddly enough, the space bar experienced the highest temperatures, rather than the rear, as is the case with many other gaming laptops. Also unusual was the fact that the sides and underneath stayed remarkably cool as well.

As expected, the fans in the V16 whirred continuously while playing demanding titles, but the noise was suppressed quite well. Also, the tone and pitch was far less grating than in other gaming laptops I’ve tried.

The large 16-inch display of the V16 is certainly great for gaming, with the thin bezels around the screen enhancing the visual experience further. The 1200p resolution also offers sufficient sharpness for the size of the screen.

Colors are vibrant enough, although they do seem a little washed-out compared to those rendered on the best gaming laptop displays. What’s more, the display can be quite reflective, although minor positional adjustments were enough to remedy this.

I had no qualms with the keyboard, though. The keys are generously spaced (which is impressive given a number pad is present), so they’re comfortable to use, and the WASD keys are easy to locate thanks to their translucent design and subtly different texture.

While they feel clicky and snappy, the keys also have plenty of dampening, so they never feel harsh when you hammer down on them. They also have a pleasing amount of travel, which further enhances their feedback and tactile nature. The above qualities make the keyboard great for typing as well.

The touchpad on the V16 is probably the biggest I’ve seen on a laptop, which is useful for navigation purposes. Yet despite its size, it didn’t get in the way when using the keyboard for either gaming or typing.

• Performance: 4 / 5

Asus V16 review: Battery Life

• Decent battery life
• Outlasts rivals

For a gaming laptop, the V16 has a respectable battery life. It managed to last over 12 hours during our movie playback tests, which is several hours better than many others in the sector, and almost double that of the Acer Nitro V 15.

It also posted a commendable result in the PCMark Gaming battery test, lasting just shy of two hours. The Nitro V 15, by contrast, managed a little over 90 minutes.

• Battery Life: 4 / 5

Should I buy the Asus V16?

Buy the Asus V16 if...

Don't buy it if...

Asus V16 review: also consider

How I tested the Asus V16

• Tested for several days
• Ran games and benchmarks
• Extensive gaming laptop experience

I tested the V16 for several days, during which time I used it for gaming and general browsing.

I played Cyberpunk 2077 at various settings, and ran TechRadar's series of benchmarks tests, designed to comprehensively assess all facets of performance. I also tested battery life by running a movie on a continuous loop until the V16 shut down.

I have been PC gaming for over a decade, and have used a number of systems and components during that time. I've also plenty of experience reviewing gaming laptops of all kinds, from budget offerings to state-of-the-art machines.

• First reviewed: January 2026
• Read more about how we test

Alienware 16X Aurora: Two minute review

Compared to the Area-51 line of gaming laptops from Alienware, the 16X Aurora is more about simple on-the-go power than benchmark-breaking performance. Starting at $899 (£1,449, AU $2,549), the Alienware 16X Aurora serves as one of the best gaming laptops you can buy under $1K, thanks to its Intel Core 7, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060, and 16GB DDR5 RAM. It’s enough to play any big AAA title at 1080p with respectable frame rates, do some light creative content curation, and perform general computing tasks.

Despite all of that, it remains just as portable as a MacBook Air or Razer Blade 16 while maintaining solid performance power alongside the cool design Alienware has spent the past several decades being known for.

The look of the 16X Aurora features anodized aluminum on the top and bottom panels beyond the magnesium alloy interior frame, which balances a nice weight of around 5.66 pounds (2.57 kg) with less than an inch in height when closed. A beautiful deep blue colorway and smooth curvatures around the edges remain in line with Alienware’s design philosophy. Adding a nice amount of ports (no SD Card slot, unfortunately) makes this gaming laptop something that both PC gamers and creators can appreciate.

This is why the mid-tier configuration (which is the model Alienware sent to me for review) of the 16X Aurora provides great 1440p performance and portability that allows the laptop, alongside its pretty chunky power adapter brick, to sit in a standard-sized laptop backpack. What we have is an Intel Core Ultra 9, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 laptop GPU, 32GB DDR5 RAM, and 1TB SSD storage.

That’s enough for modern games like Doom: The Dark Ages and Assassin’s Creed: Shadows to be played at nice frame rates and max settings if used in conjunction with Nvidia’s DLSS upscaling technology. Configuration options don’t get higher than a 5070, as the highest $2,699 price point just increases RAM and SSD storage size. At that price, users are better off getting a gaming laptop with less RAM and SSD storage and going for a higher GPU like a 5070 Ti or 5080.

While the speakers may be below average in sound quality, the other highlight of the 16X Aurora is the beautiful 2560 x 1600 display that also manages to pump out a 240Hz refresh rate. This is definitely perfect for competitive gamers who want to play Call of Duty: Warzone and Fortnite with the comforts of playing on a gaming desktop. Beyond that, image quality is awesome as well, even if only SDR is available.

One of the biggest things where the 16X Aurora does disappoint is battery life, which is, on average, around four hours. If that wasn’t a big enough issue, charging is relatively slow as well.

Users who don’t mind having to constantly have their battery charger on them at all times are still going to have much to love about the 16X Aurora. Not only does it travel incredibly well space-wise, but it also has enough performance power to play today’s most popular games at good frame rates.

Alienware 16X Aurora: Price and availability

• How much does it cost? It starts at $899.99 (around £1,449 / AU$2,549)
• When is it available? Now
• Where can you get it? From Dell’s online store or other digital retailers

Interested readers can purchase the Alienware 16X Aurora now through Dell’s online store or other digital retailers, including Amazon. The starting price of $899 (£1,449, AU$2,549) provides some solid 1080p performance through the Intel Core Ultra 7 processor, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060, 16GB, and 1TB SSD storage, and there are customization options that almost provide parity among the various territories.

The only outlier is the lack of a mid-range review configuration for Australia, requiring 2TB SSD storage when matched with an Intel Core Ultra 9, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070, and 32GB DDR5 at AU$3,899. In the US and UK, the configuration I reviewed comes with a 1TB SSD for $1,999.99 (£1,799).

At the highest $2,699 (£2,399, AU$3,899) configuration, you still get the Intel Core Ultra 9 and Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 alongside 64GB DDR5 RAM and 4TB SSD storage. One thing that’s constant across all options is the 16-inch 2560 x 1600 display pumping out a 240Hz refresh rate alongside the 1080p webcam.

There is value to be had at the lower $899 price point. This places it in direct competition with budget gaming laptops like the Acer Nitro V 15, shaving less than half an inch off the display real estate but providing some outstanding battery life with comparable performance power.

Going into the mid-to-high range options is where the higher prices kick in. However, when you begin looking to spend that kind of money, there are other interesting options. At the highest range of premium laptops, the Razer Blade 16 is what we consider the best overall gaming laptop. Not only does it have the portability and gorgeous display, but can be pushed to 4K-level performance, and also offers better speakers.

• Value: 2.5 / 5

Alienware 16X Aurora: Specs

The Alienware 16X Aurora is available in several configurations, some of which you can find below:

Alienware 16X Aurora: Design

• Weighs 5.66 pounds and less than an inch thick in height when closed
• Plenty of ports, yet lacks an SD Card slot
• No biometric security or camera shutter

The Alienware 16X Aurora's design is certainly unique, offering stylish vibes that you're not going to get anywhere else when it comes to gaming laptops in its class.

The deep blue (or 'Interstellar Indigo') color really does blend well with the sleek angles, giving the Alienware 16X Aurora' a unique spaceship aesthetic. The Alienware logo is on the top panel, which is made up of anodized aluminum, as is the bottom of the laptop.

Unlike the Area 51, don’t expect elaborate RGB lighting on anything outside of the single-zone keyboard when opened. Thankfully, there are enough configuration options for color and effects through Alienware’s Command Center app. The interior frame is made up of magnesium alloy, which helps in terms of keeping the 16X Aurora lightweight 5.66 pounds (2.57 kg). When closed, the gaming laptop is less than an inch high at 0.92 inches.

On the left-hand side is an Ethernet jack, single USB-A, 3.5 headset jack and a status-indicating LED. That’s matched on the rear with another USB-A, two USB-Cs, and single HDMI port. As mentioned earlier, the lack of an SD Card slot is disappointing, considering the bigger Area 51 laptop has one.

When open, the 16X Aurora features that lovely 16-inch 2560 x 1600 display with a 1080p web camera at the top. It’s a shame that there aren’t any biometric security features in terms of the camera, and the lack of a fingerprint scanner.

Meanwhile, while using the keyboard and touchpad below the speakers feels nice, it would have been good to see it come with mechanical switches like its bigger Area-51 sibling.

• Design: 4 / 5

Alienware 16X Aurora: Performance

• Can handle resource-heavy AAA games at 1080p and 1440p
• Several performance settings through Alienware Command Center
• Lovely-looking 16-inch 2560 x 1600 display with 240Hz refresh rate

One of the first games that I tested to push 2560x 1600 performance on the Alienware 16X Aurora was Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II. An audio/visual masterpiece, it’s a fantastic way to see what a laptop or desktop can do in terms of image quality and frame rate. The 16X Aurora managed to hit an average of 30fps with max settings and around 50fps thanks to Nvidia’s DLSS upscaling technology.

This was nearly constant with other single-player games as well. I got similar results with Assassin’s Creed Shadows and Black Myth: Wukong on Ultra High settings at around 27fps. Meanwhile, 2025 awards darling Clair Obscure: Expedition 33 worked well on the 16X Aurora, reaching an average of 60fps as well. Finally, Doom: The Dark Ages, provided around 46fps.

When it came to multiplayer and competitive games, the Alienware 16X Aurora also provided some solid numbers. Marvel Rivals on ultra settings at native resolution provided an average of 44.7fps. Playing a couple hours of Roblox, every game room performed over 200fps as well. Playing Forza Horizon 5 lent an average frame rate between 60 and 110fps. Even fighters like Street Fighter 6 ran well at max settings with 60fps. As mentioned previously, DLSS, alongside other tech like Frame Generation, can help improve frame rate performance depending on the supported game.

Add Alienware Command Center’s ability into the mix, and general 1440p performance is great when placed in Overdrive mode. At this point, the 16X Aurora’s fans whirr into action while making use of the gaming laptop’s Cryo-Chamber cooling system. One thing that’s for certain is that it doesn’t get loud when performing general gaming tasks, but can turn into a jet engine when pushing specs.

The 16X Aurora can handle modern games at native resolution with strong visual fidelity and competitive performance. Most importantly, games look fantastic on the lovely display. Though it lacks HDR capabilities, image quality and color accuracy is great overall. Playing games with exceptional art design like Dispatch and Lumines Arise are a treat with this display. 100% DCI-P3 and ComfortView Plus makes this great for content creators who use Adobe Suite software, including Photoshop and Premiere Pro. On the other hand, the pure gaming performance of this display is above average as well thanks to its 240Hz refresh rates and G-Sync capabilities.

However, it's too bad that the stereo speakers that come inside the 16X Aurora let the laptop down. These speakers feature Dolby Atmos, but often sound hollow while lacking audio nuance. If the cooling fans are engaged at max, hearing anything is incredibly difficult. Listening to music or gaming isn’t a great experience, but audio during video conferences is fairly standard. In adequate lighting conditions alongside a quiet room, using Zoom and Google Meet sessions isn’t that bad. Just don’t expect any webcam software enhancements or the likes here, though the 1080p webcam works well enough.

Taken as a whole, the 16X Aurora delivers a well-rounded experience in terms of game performance and visual quality. Though the audio doesn’t match everything else, that’s what good gaming headsets are for.

• Performance: 4.5 / 5

Alienware 16X Aurora: Battery life

• Battery life is around four and a half hours
• Charging takes around two hours
• Requires a large power brick adaptor

Gaming laptops aren’t known for their long battery lives, and the Alienware 16X Aurora serves well as an example of this. The six-cell 96Wh Lithium-Ion battery on average lasts just a few hours when the laptop is being used for general computing tasks.

During our Web Surfing (Battery Informant) test, we were only able to get 4 hours and 23 minutes of usage before the laptop ran out of juice. During everyday testing, I was able to get around half of that; meaning users are going to have to carry the large adapter with them at all times.

Don’t expect any quick charging out of the 16X Aurora either, as it’ll take around two hours for this to charge to full. Through the USB-C with DisplayPort, users can also charge a power adapter of adequate power; however, GPU performance will be limited.

• Battery Life: 2.5 / 5

Should you buy the Alienware 16X Aurora?

Buy the Alienware 16X Aurora if...

Don't buy it if...

Also consider

If my Alienware 16X Aurora review has you considering other options, here is another laptop to consider:

How I tested the Alienware 16X Aurora

• Tested the gaming laptop over the span of a week
• General computing tasks include Google Docs and Tidal
• Games played include Clair Obscure: Expedition 33, Forza Horizon 5, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II, Dispatch, Roblox, Neon Inferno, Lumines Arise and Street Fighter 6

During my week with the Alienware 16X Aurora, I split my time between general computing tasks and gaming. Most of my everyday usage of the gaming laptop started with software like Google Chrome and music streaming service Tidal. Google Chrome allowed me to see how the laptop handled day-to-day tasks, alongside how many tabs could be open at once. Tidal was more of a test of speaker quality through a hi-fi audio music streaming service.

When it came to games, I used Clair Obscure: Expedition 33, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II, and Forza Horizon 5 to test more resource-intensive games. Lower resource-intensive games were used to push frame rates and display refresh rates, and these included Street Fighter 6 and Roblox. Games that I used to showcase color vividness in the display included Dispatch, Neon Inferno and Lumines Arise.

Read more about how we test

• First reviewed December 2025

PC gaming is becoming increasingly demanding over time, with modern titles launching with more stringent and beefier system requirements than usual. If you're up to date on the state of the PC hardware market, you'll know that higher system requirements aren't great news for consumers at all.

Well, that's where upscalers come into play, and fortunately, Nvidia's DLSS has evolved over many years to provide excellent image quality and performance results. It has progressively improved after each iteration, utilizing new technologies to achieve significant enhancements over predecessors.

Fortunately, I can report that the trend continues with DLSS 4.5 in my testing on the Lenovo LOQ 15i Gen 10 gaming laptop, so much so that it's becoming harder to distinguish the difference in image quality and clarity between each mode, from DLSS Performance to Quality.

While DLSS Quality is certainly going to give you the best image quality possible (excluding DLAA, which is essentially native), gamers can now utilize DLSS Performance or Balanced and achieve very similar image stability and clarity, but with better performance results.

This comes after multiple DLSS iterations (particularly DLSS 3.1), including Performance and Balanced modes that were drastically different from DLSS Quality. It was mostly down to whether gamers wanted to prioritize the best visual clarity and sacrifice performance, or vice versa.

Now, with DLSS 4.5, gamers don't have to worry about sacrificing either, and Doom: The Dark Ages is a prime example (as you can see above), with very few differences between DLSS 4.5 Quality and Performance modes. This is ideal, as it means visual clarity won't be bogged down by blurriness or ghosting, as it normally would on previous DLSS versions.

I found similar results testing both Final Fantasy 16 and Arc Raiders and all of their DLSS 4.5 upscaling modes, where Performance and Quality are shockingly close. It's all thanks to Nvidia's 2nd-gen transformer model for super resolution, building upon what DLSS 4 delivers – which I must add, is already fantastic.

Performance mode isn't one-to-one with 4.5's Quality mode, and that should be quite clear since both are upscaling from different internal resolutions, but the differences between the two are minor in several gameplay scenarios.

It's arguably most evident in the Final Fantasy 16 comparison above. If you examine it closely, you may notice that Clive's sword still features some jaggedness around the flames in Performance mode, but not in Quality mode. However, this wasn't perceivable to me while active in gameplay – and frankly, I doubt many will be looking at every pixel with a loupe during gameplay.

DLSS 4 to DLSS 4.5 upgrade is very impressive

We've looked at how DLSS 4.5's image quality, specifically with Quality and Performance, but another strong point here is the leap from DLSS 4 to DLSS 4.5 in image stability.

I didn't think there was a way for DLSS to get much better, going from the first transformer model, which was introduced as a major jump from DLSS 3.1's CNN model, but here we are.

At 1080p using DLSS 4 Balanced, visuals are great, and I've never really had any complaints about this version when using it in many other scenarios with beefier hardware, other than some noticeable ghosting.

At 1080p using DLSS 4.5 Balanced, I instantly noticed a much more refined and sharper image, and better yet, I could use Frame Generation with a less noticeable trail on objects in motion – but just bear in mind, RTX 5060 laptop GPUs are only using 8GB of VRAM, and I found several scenarios where enabling Frame Generation makes performance less stable, due to increase in VRAM usage.

As for performance, since the Legion LOQ gaming laptop is powered by Nvidia's RTX 5060, the frame rate loss (going from DLSS 4 to DLSS 4.5) isn't very noticeable. However, users who don't have an RTX 50 or RTX 40 series GPU will likely suffer a major performance loss, supposedly around 20% to 25% using DLSS 4.5, due to the lack of native FP8 support (part of Nvidia Tensor Cores) on RTX 30 and older GPUs.

Fortunately, the performance loss in most of my benchmarks of this RTX 5060 laptop was only around 5% to 7%, which is insignificant when you realize the benefits you gain in image quality.

While DLSS Ultra Performance on DLSS 4.5 is an improvement coming from the previous version, it's still held back by very noticeable blurriness and ghosting, but this should be expected as it's quite literally the most aggressive upscaling option.

It's all getting to a stage now where DLSS is so good, it's hard to recommend ever gaming at native resolutions again. While many games are well optimized enough to maintain high frame rates, DLSS 4.5's image stability, almost across the board, is fantastic, which is a huge benefit for low-end hardware that may not be able to handle a native resolution or higher graphics settings.

I just hope game developers don't rely on these advancements as a band-aid for poor optimization.

• A new Decky Loader plugin for SteamOS has made it easier to play and install non-Steam games
• It allows for syncing multiple game libraries on SteamOS without needing to use other third-party launchers
• It's available for download now via GitHub

SteamOS users are likely well aware that playing games from other launchers like Epic Games involves tinkering, and that can be cumbersome. Game libraries can only be accessed after starting those launchers, and there are plenty of issues you might run into when attempting to install them.

That's why community-made tools like Decky Loader are very handy, which I've previously covered when it helped improve access to frame generation for games. Now there's a new plugin in town known as Unifideck and made by mubaraknuman, which is available on GitHub.

I've used it on my Lenovo Legion Go S handheld gaming PC, and it's nothing short of brilliant. Put simply, Unifideck removes the need to install other game launchers outside of Steam, and instead takes your game libraries from those third-party launchers, placing them in your Steam library within separate categories.

It has the easiest setup process compared to any of the previous auto-installers for game launchers that came early on in the Steam Deck's lifecycle.

As you would install any other Decky Loader plugin (before it's available on the main store), you simply download the Unifideck ZIP file from GitHub, go back into SteamOS game mode, ensure developer mode is enabled in Decky Loader's settings, and install the plugin from the ZIP file.

Currently, Unifideck only allows you to add your GOG, Epic Games, and Amazon Games libraries, but that's still a major benefit, especially when it comes to avoiding the much complained about Epic launcher.

That said, Unifideck has still got a way to go: download speeds are noticeably slower compared to downloads on Steam itself, and it's missing Battle.net and Rockstar Games Launcher, but I'd imagine those implementations will take a little more work.

However, it's a great start, and there isn't much to complain about. Unifideck makes not only handheld gaming so much easier, but it'll be ideal for any system running SteamOS – and in that respect, it's arrived at the perfect time.

Analysis: the Steam Machine may benefit from this massively

Valve's Steam Machine is on the horizon, set for launch in early 2026, and while the majority of the discourse surrounding the console-like PC is about its potential price tag, Decky Loader's Unifideck plugin is one of the many advantages that await Steam Machine buyers.

Unifideck will allow gamers moving over from consoles to PC to utilize more than just the Steam library, with access to GOG, Epic Games, Amazon Games, and potentially even more by the time the system launches.

And for current PC owners using Microsoft's Windows 11, having all game libraries easily accessible in one place will keep gaming experiences streamlined without the need to mess around using other launchers.

Really, the only major downside that remains for the Steam Machine is the lack of support for games using kernel-level anti-cheat on SteamOS. However, the hope is that the Steam Machine will encourage game developers to consider making these anti-cheat tools compatible with Linux. If that happens, SteamOS will take another significant step forward in terms of its potential to grab defectors from Windows 11.

• A Redditor has claimed that Monster Hunter Wilds runs poorly when less DLC is owned and enabled
• It appears to be due to the game's constant DLC presence checks, leading to a higher load on the CPU
• Capcom has multiple upcoming patches to further improve performance

Since its launch in early 2025, Capcom's Monster Hunter Wilds has faced consistent criticism due to its poor performance on PC, particularly on lower-end hardware. Fortunately, it looks like the root of the issue may have been discovered, and it's quite comical.

Monster Hunter Wilds reportedly runs better on PC when more downloadable content (DLC) is owned and enabled, and much worse with less, as Redditor, u/de_Tylmarande, claims. Using the same hardware and game settings in both tests, the user highlighted a trend of 20 to 25 frames per second (fps) while in player hubs in-game with no DLC installed, and over 80 fps with a 'DLCPresenceFix' mod installed.

This indicates that the game's DLC checks are putting extra load onto the CPU, on top of all the CPU processes that are already needed for the game's content itself, and that's evident in the performance test video (available below), which shows less CPU usage and higher GPU usage once the mod is active.

The mod is a test from the user to essentially fool the game into believing all DLC is owned and installed, but in reality, it's just blocking the CPU-heavy process that appears to be constantly checking for DLC.

It's a truly bizarre discovery, and it would explain why the game suffers from poor performance, even on high-end hardware, without relying on frame generation technology – and may also add credence to some users' reports of fair performance on their configurations, as they may own more DLC.

The user has promised a release of the full mod if Capcom doesn't fix the issue itself, and highly recommends consumers avoid purchasing all DLC for Monster Hunter Wilds for better performance.

Given Capcom's stance on consistently using anti-tamper software, Denuvo, for a large majority of its recent games, there's no guarantee that it will oblige and address this bug. One thing is for sure: this isn't a good look for the developer, and while this likely is indeed a bug, it won't stop consumers from questioning whether it was intentional or not.

Analysis: if this is legitimate, Capcom needs to apologize to its consumers

Monster Hunter Wilds, unfortunately, isn't the first game to suffer from major performance issues, despite the RE Engine being popular for great frame rate stabilization and optimization, specifically in Resident Evil games.

Dragon's Dogma 2 shares very similar performance woes as a CPU-bound game, and still has significant frame rate drops in main cities with multiple non-player characters (NPCs), almost the equivalent of Monster Hunter Wilds' hubs. While patches have improved performance in both games, this DLC presence check discovery is enough to raise the question of whether DLC ownership in Dragon's Dogma 2 has any effect on performance.

If legitimate, it may easily damage the trust Capcom has earned from consumers over recent years, and rightly so.

It's worth noting that Capcom is releasing a new patch for Monster Hunter Wilds, set for January 27, which is intended to bring 'optimization improvements for Steam-specific processes and options to reduce processing load', and another performance update coming later on February 18.

Capcom may already be on top of the matter, but if this claim happens to be accurate, I doubt it's going to end well for the popular developer.

• Intel announced that there'll be a handheld gaming platform with the Panther Lake series
• Partnerships with MSI, Acer, GPD, and Microsoft mean a good few handhelds could be on the way
• These devices won't be here any time soon, but more details are expected later in 2026

Nothing much has been happening with handheld gaming PCs at CES 2026, but Intel has hinted at the potential for a raft of major new launches later in 2026.

As reported by Notebookcheck, Intel has promised that handhelds are coming which are built with its Panther Lake series of processors. This potentially includes partnerships with the likes of MSI, Acer, GPD, Microsoft, and Onexplayer, with further updates set to be revealed later this year.

With both Lenovo and Asus recently launching the Legion Go 2 and the ROG Xbox Ally X respectively, this leaves both of those manufacturers effectively out of the picture for a handheld refresh powered by these new Intel chips – new devices surely won't be coming for some time on those fronts.

Essentially, this leaves room open for one of the big players, namely MSI, to make a successor to the Claw AI+ handhelds that use Intel's Core Ultra 7 258V processor.

Based on Intel's performance claims for Panther Lake's Arc B390 integrated GPU, which is said to be 73% faster than AMD's Radeon 890M while running at a lower power usage, it's safe to say that Team Blue could give Team Red a run for its money in the handheld space here.

If it was built around a Panther Lake CPU, we could see a new MSI Claw device with significantly better performance than most of the current-gen mainstream handhelds. As Intel claims, this is supposed to be next-gen handheld gaming performance (see the graph above).

It also helps that XeSS 3 (supported by Panther Lake and older Xe integrated graphics) comes with the benefits of multi-frame generation, a technology that we've only seen Nvidia utilize for its RTX 5000 series GPUs (although it's also possible via Lossless Scaling on Steam).

More importantly, in the grand scheme of things, the battle between AMD and Intel in the handheld market is on.

Analysis: Intel is making a stronger name for itself in the gaming market

While AMD's Ryzen AI Max+ 395 APU essentially provides gaming laptop-tier performance for the GPD Win 5 and other premium handhelds, Intel's Core Ultra 7 258V is still the most impressive chip overall for me.

It's the processor used in the MSI Claw AI+ handhelds, and the MSI Claw 8 AI+ is the best handheld I've used to date. Yes, the Claw's $899 price tag was a point of contention for me, but with Max+ 395 handhelds costing nearly $2,000, there's a clear winner in terms of value.

If Intel's generational performance leap claims are accurate, we'll be in for a far more powerful successor to the MSI Claw 8 AI+ with a Panther Lake chip as its engine. And Intel will further establish itself as more of a presence when it comes to hardware for gaming – especially since its upcoming Arc B770 discrete GPU has leaked, supposedly packed with 16GB of VRAM.

There's plenty to look forward to from both AMD and Intel, not only in the desktop GPU department, but also for SoCs and their powerful integrated graphics for handhelds. I'm pumped to see what happens in 2026.

TechRadar will be extensively covering this year's CES, and will bring you all of the big announcements as they happen. Head over to our CES 2026 live news page for the latest stories and our hands-on verdicts on everything we've seen.

You can also ask us a question about the show in our CES 2026 live Q&A and we’ll do our best to answer it.

And don’t forget to follow us on TikTok for the latest from the CES show floor!

CES 2026 is well underway now, and the TechRadar team has been on the show floor – and in the many private briefing rooms dotted all over Las Vegas – to see what the most important, most innovative, and most fun gadgets coming your way in 2026 will be.

We've had our experts all over the big launches as well as the smaller stuff tucked away at the back of the halls, and we've chosen our 25 favorite products of the show. We're covering a wide gamut of consumer tech here, so make yourself a coffee and dig into what we loved, and why it stood out to us.

Want to watch along and see more of the tech we loved at CES? Check out the video below!

Best phone

Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold

• A phone that really turns into a tablet
• Impressive camera system, too
• Read more: I finally tried the Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold and couldn't believe my eyes

We finally got to try Samsung's first double-folding phone (it may be called the TriFold, but there are two hinges…), and we called it a "remarkable feat of engineering that offers the potential of truly pocketable big-screen tablet productivity". When folded, it isn’t meaningfully thicker than regular phones, and it has a 6.5-inch screen… but then it becomes 10-inch tablet – so truly tablet-sized – in an instant when you fold its two sides out.

It's not just a one-trick pony, though – the TriFold has five cameras in total, to make sure it can deliver all the flexibility you want from a modern phone. There's Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy customized powerful processor, and a generous 5,600mAh battery. It's the clear stand-out among CES's phones this year.

Best earbuds

Shokz OpenFit Pro

• Shokz' first open earbuds with active 'noise reduction'
• Great fit and sound quality
• Read more: I’ve worn the all-new Shokz open earbuds for 4 days and the ‘noise reduction’ is so good, I forget they’re open-ear

The best open earbuds have become incredibly popular, but Shokz has making them for longer than most, and the new OpenFit Pro proves that it's good to be the veteran. Crucially, these are the company's first with active noise cancellation – even though Shokz doesn't want to call it that, because not having an in-ear seal means it's not quite as effective as what people think of for ANC. No, this is 'noise reduction'.

Well, we've tested them, and actually the noise reduction is as good as a lot of ANC earbuds. It's really effective, and paired with impressive sound and high levels of comfort, these are really impressive.

Best stereo speakers

Cambridge L/R Series

• 3 sizes of wireless stereo bookshelf speakers with huge power
• Dedicated bass drivers with passive radiators
• Read more: Cambridge has unveiled three active bookshelf speakers at CES and it’s not hard to see the KEF resemblance

British hi-fi company Cambridge launched its first wireless stereo speakers, and despite being modest in size, they are huge in sound. There are three sizes – the L/R X is the biggest, the L/R M is the medium, and the L/R S is the small – and it's amazing how much oomph they provide.

We heard the L/R X going hard, and the bass is enough to shake the room, despite not being that big. A big down-firing woofer and dual passive bass radiators get it to this point, delivering an amazingly full sound, with tons of detail and finesse to it as well. And they're great-looking, too.

Best Bluetooth speaker

Fender Audio Elie 6

• 3-way speaker system in a small body produces great sound
• Connections for guitars and mics, and great wireless options
• Read more: Fender just released new wireless headphones and Bluetooth speakers

Fender Audio launched two speakers and a pair of headphones at CES, and all are interesting in various ways, but during our ears-on time it was the Elie 6 that really impressed us. It's a pretty small unit, but it packs in a tweeter, full-range speaker and down-firing bass driver, meaning the sound is amazingly full and impactful – especially in stereo mode, with two units connected wirelessly.

They have interesting features, too – a combined XLR and 1/4-inch port for connecting a mic or guitar directly, and even two wireless buttons for a specific connectivity feature Fender is planning to work with wireless mics. We like the design too, with a solid carry handle.

Best headphones

TDM Neo

• Headphones that 'twist' to become a portable speaker
• 200-hour battery life in headphones mode

We love seeing something totally new at CES. The TDM Neo work like a regular pair of on-ear wireless headphones. You put them on, you enjoy some nice bassy music. But when you take them off, you can twist the flexible headband and connect the earcups together magnetically, to form a small round device. As soon as you do this, they start playing music out loud, as a Bluetooth speaker.

They have two sets of audio drivers to make this happen: one for headphones mode, and a more powerful set for speaker mode. And they're really thoughtfully designed – the headband hinges attach to each other when you twist, so you know you've done it correctly, but then they become a flat surface you can stand the speaker on.

If you prefer, you can also change the behavior so that when you twist, they pause instead of auto-switching to speaker mode. And because the speaker mode requires more power, they have huge batteries, and can deliver a colossal 200 hours of life in headphones mode.

Best toy

Lego Smart Play

• A classic Lego brick, now with sound and light magic
• All the tech is under the hood – no screens required

At first glance, Lego’s Smart Brick looks like a regular 2x4 Lego brick. Aside from a transparent top, you’d never know it’s any different. But bring a Smart Minifigure close, and that's where the magic starts to happen. If Darth Vader approaches, the Imperial March starts up. Move R2-D2 nearby and you’re greeted with frantic boops and flashes of blue light. Same goes for a Smart Tag to identify what the Lego build is – say, an X-Wing or Tie Fighter.

All of this is powered by a custom chip hidden inside the brick, along with sensors, a gyroscope, non-invasive microphones, and a sound synthesizer. Together, they let the Smart Brick understand what’s around it and respond with the right sounds and lighting effects, without adding a screen or changing the core Lego experience. For now, it’s limited to a handful of Star Wars sets, but it’s a smart, confident foundation – one that enhances play rather than distracting from it.

Best OLED TV

LG W6 Wallpaper TV

• LG's best OLED panel, in a super-thin 9.9mm body
• Uses a wireless connections box to keep it aesthetically pure
• Read more: LG announces new OLED TVs at CES

The LG W6 is a stunner in more ways than one. It uses LG's most advanced OLED panel – the new Primary RGB Tandem 2.0 also used in the LG G6 – but in a design that's just 9.9mm thick. It's also totally uniform, meaning it can be as invisible on the wall as pretty much any TV can be these days. In the image above, you can see how well it blends in using a photo of the wall behind it. To help this minimalism, it uses a wireless connections box that's capable of full-quality 4K HDR pictures, but without the tangle of cables running to the TV.

It looks like it'll be a fantastic TV, thanks to the panel and LG's latest-gen image processing, and should only cost a little more than the G6 does. That means you'll be getting something super-impressive and premium at a still-realistic price.

Best RGB TV

Samsung R95H

• Stunningly rich color and fantastic contrast
• Available in realistic sizes, and shown in an amazing 130-inch model
• Read more: Samsung's enormous micro-RGB TV is coming to smaller screen sizes, and it borrows one great feature from Samsung OLED TVs

CES has been dominated by RGB TVs this year. These are basically mini-LED TVs with a new more colorful backlight behind the pixels, meaning they offer a greater range of colors, and can be even brighter. Having seen them in action, our pick of the bunch is the Samsung R95H. It looks so lush and colorful, with impressively inky black tones, and Samsung's anti-reflective screen ensuring you can see everything, without distractions.

More than that, this is a TV available in realistic sizes – Samsung showed off 75-inch and 85-inch versions, but overall its RGB TVs will come in sizes starting from 55 inches – while still feeling cutting edge. However, for good measure, Samsung also showed an amazing 130-inch version of this TV.

Best Mini-LED TV

TCL X11L SQD MiniLED

• A twist on traditional QLED mini-LED TV tech
• Astoundingly bright, with 20,000 dimming zones
• Read more: TCL launches next-gen SQD mini-LED TV at CES – the ‘best TV in the market’ for 2026

TCL has put a fascinating twist on its flagship TV here. It uses more traditional mini-LED tech rather than RGB mini-LED – but only sort of. TCL is employing a single-color mini-LED backlight, but has applied a layer of 'Super Quantum Dots' (the SQD part) directly over the top, which filter the color before – rather than after – it reaches the LCD layer.

This means it kind of works like an RGB TV, but TCL says this approach means it can pack in way more LEDs. It can produce 10,000 nits of brightness and 20,000 dimming zones for probably the best contrast we've ever seen from a mini-LED TV. Based on early impressions, this is the closest we've seen to mini-LED beating the blooming problem completely.

Best projector

Hisense PX4-Pro

• Ultra short throw laser 4K projector with amazing brightness and color
• Up to 200 inches projected with the device just inches from the wall
• Read more: Hisense unveils two 4K laser projectors — a 300-inch beast with huge brightness, plus the sequel to the best ultra short throw projector

The PX4-Pro is the follow-up to the projector we rate as the best ultra short throw projector overall right now, so we were excited to take a look, and it lived up to our expectations. Its picture looks beautifully bright with a good light-rejecting screen – closer than ever to TV brightness – and eye-grabbingly rich color.

But it can now project up to 200 inches in size still from right near the wall, while maintaining immersive brightness and color depth, and all still in the same size of projector package. CES is full of projectors this year, but this one popped for us.

Best soundbar

LG Sound Suite H7

• The world's first Dolby Atmos FlexConnect soundbar
• A powerful all-in-one, and you can add more speakers in any position
• Read more: LG’s 2026 TVs and soundbars get the Dolby Atmos FlexConnect treatment

Dolby Atmos FlexConnect is a really interesting technology that means you can place home theater speakers wherever is convenient for your room, and the system will configure their sound to create immersive spatial audio, even if they're not in the 'ideal' spot.

LG's Sound Suite H7 is the first soundbar to include the tech, delivering 9.1.6 channels of Dolby Atmos sound on its own. However, you can add a sub and satellite speakers that are positioned anywhere in the room, and the soundbar will automatically optimize them and create the ideal immersive system. It sounds amazing, and the freedom of placement is a game-changer.

Best smartwatch

Pebble Round 2

• The original smartwatch returns!
• E-paper screen means a week of battery life
• Read more: Pebble unveils Pebble Round 2 — and fixes all the original's major pitfalls

Pebble holds a strong place in the heart of tech lovers – it was the first smartwatch that really took, and now it's back with its coolest model yet. Pebble Round 2 is a sleeker, rounder watch, and using a color e-paper helps it deliver a week of battery life per charge.

Naturally, it does some fitness and sleep tracking, and there's a big range of apps and watch faces, thanks to the ongoing commitment to having open source software on the Pebble range.

Best fitness tracker

Noise Luna Band

• A screenless health-tracking band
• No subscription needed – a rarity these days

We've enjoyed the Luna Ring models, and now the brand has the Luna Band. It's a Whoop-like fitness tracker, meaning there's no distracting screen. It doesn't really feel like tech, and that's a good thing – you just live your life, and the Luna Band will offer helpful updates on your diet, workouts, sleep, mood and more. You can use your voice to tell it what meal you ate, to log your workouts, or how you're feeling – and then you can review them later on the app. The one downside is that this function uses Apple's Siri, which means it's iPhone-only for now.

Perhaps the best part is that it doesn't require a subscription on top of the device cost to do all this – people are tired of being nickel-and-dimed, and so the Luna Band looks like it'll help you stay zen in more ways than one.

Best exercise tech

Merach W60 Walking Pad

• "Treadmill-grade engineering" for a low price
• Auto-incline or manual incline options

Walking pads are getting more and more popular, especially for people who work from home and want to get some exercise in during the work day. Merach's new model promises to help you do this more easily and reliably than ever. We love the promise of "treadmill-grade engineering" for a super-sturdy feel, and Merach says it will have a 2,000km warranty.

It's available in two options: one with an auto-incline feature, and one where you'll have to manually set an incline. There's also RGB lighting and Bluetooth speakers built in, if you want to set a mood. Starting from just $299 for the manual version and $329 for the auto-incline version, this really looks like it could be the new standout walking pad on the market.

Best wellness innovation

Nuralogix Longevity Mirror

• A smart mirror that can detect blood flow in your face to give health insights
• Everything from physiological age to mental health

This smart mirror has cameras built in that combine with an AI algorithm to work out a surprising amount of health data just from your face. It's not looking at your features – it's detecting blood-flow patterns, which it can make a variety of sophisticated estimations from.

These include your heart-rate, your physiological age (as in, is your body working as well as it should for your 'real' age?) and your mental health. It appears to be pretty accurate based on early testing – it seems like an incredibly clever system.

Best laptop

Dell XPS 14

• Smart new design with usability improvements
• Intel's new Core Ultra 3 chips inside
• Read more: Hands on: Dell XPS 14 2026 and XPS 16 2026

Without question, the most exciting laptop of CES 2026 was the Dell XPS 14. While many a reviewer and tech journalist is praising the return of the XPS brand itself, what matters most – in our opinion – is the redesign of the laptop. The last Dell XPS 14 and 2025's Dell 14 Premium (the short-lived successor to the XPS 14) were both fantastic laptops that were hamstrung by some major design flaws; namely, the virtual function keys and ‘invisible’ trackpad that turned out to be an accessibility nightmare.

Those have now been fixed with a new design that is also thinner and more modern-looking than its predecessors. And with the new Intel Core Ultra series 3 chips, it’s even more powerful and better equipped to take on the Apple MacBook Air for the 'thin and light' laptop crown.

Best gaming laptop

Lenovo Legion Pro Rollable

• A 16-inch display that expands to a 24-inch display
• The flexible OLED screen literally rolls out like a scroll
• Read more: Lenovo officially unveils the rumored Legion Pro Rollable gaming laptop with expanding screen

The Lenovo Legion Pro Rollable, previously rumored but officially unveiled at CES 2026, is easily one of the most intriguing gaming laptops we’ve ever seen. Its screen expands horizontally from a 16-inch display to 21.5 inches, then once more to a 23.8-inch panel at max extension – all from a quick keyboard shortcut.

The Legion Pro Rollable is an exciting prospect for PC gamers who travel often and want desk-like levels of screen space without attempting to cram a massive laptop into their bag. Gaming aside, it also brings benefits to everyday browsing and productivity, giving you more space to organize windows at the click of a button. It’s only a proof of concept at the moment, but we'll be following it closely to see if the Legion Pro Rollable hits mainstream production.

Best computing innovation

Core Ultra series 3

• Excellent performance in thin-and-light laptops
• Particularly impressive GPU means great gaming on ultrabooks
• Read more: The Intel Core Ultra series 3 processors look impressive enough, but the Arc B390 iGPU is the real game-changer here

We’ve been waiting for the Intel Core Ultra series 3 for several months now, having seen pre-launch builds of Intel Panther Lake last year. Now the Core Ultra series 3 has launched, every laptop we’ve tried with the new chips just reinforces how well Intel has stuck the landing on this release.

This is especially true when it comes to the graphics performance of the higher-end 12 Xe core Arc B390 iGPU, which delivers high-quality 1080p PC gaming on an ultrabook – no other chipmaker even comes close in 2026. If you’re looking to upgrade to a premium thin and light Windows laptop, there’s little reason to buy anything other than a laptop with an Intel Core Ultra series 3.

Best action camera

Dreame Leaptic Cube

• Tiny modular 8K action camera
• Clip to a screen module, or just a battery

Dreame is best known for its vacuum and cleaning tech, but it used CES 2026 to announce its entry into a ton of other product categories. And one of the coolest things we saw at the show was this tiny action camera. The core here is a really small action cam with up to 8K recording, or 4K in HDR if you prefer.

But the clever part is its modular design. It has a little docking system, and Dreame showed it running into two modes: one with a clip-on battery, keeping the whole thing at a small size; and one with a touchscreen module that's larger. You can imagine all the possibilities for accessories from here, all enabling smart extra functions, not just attaching dumbly.

Best gaming accessory

Razer Project Madison

• The ultimate immersive gaming chair
• Surround speakers, haptic feedback and RGB lights all react to games

Razer has decided to throw every kind of immersive gaming chair tech into one product here. This chair uses sight, sound and touch to create something totally enveloping, taking features from Razer's products including the Freyja haptic gaming cushion and Clio headrest speakers.

This chair has speakers behind your head, which combine with front speakers to create a true 5.1 or 7.1 surround system. It has lights that react to compatible games, creating the feeling that events are happening around you, not just on the screen. And the built-in haptics deliver sensations and impacts during play. It looks like the best way to get truly lost in a game.

Best gaming innovation

Neurable / HyperX headset concept and priming software

• A brain-reading gaming headset to improve your performance
• Helps you lower reaction times and improve accuracy
• Read more: I tried a prototype brain-scanning headset designed to make you better at Valorant — and it actually works

Brain-scanning company Neurable has worked on headphones that can scan your brain activity using EEGs to help you focus and prevent burnout in the past. Now it's bringing these ideas to gaming headsets, in a collaboration with HyperX – but the focus is on improving your focus and performance in games.

We tried it out, and it really makes a difference. Using a 'priming' exercise before playing, where you have to focus your mind to shrink a cloud of dots down to nothing, we improved accuracy by a few percentage points, and the company's research has shown it can reduce reaction time by around 40 milliseconds. For esports players, this is a big deal, and the software can track your focus and cognitive load levels while playing, to potentially help with coaching and to prevent tilting.

Best robot mower

Mammotion LUBA 3 AWD

• Offers ±1 cm positioning precision via an upgraded LiDAR, RTK and Vision navigation system
• Can make decisions almost instantly with a 10 TOPS AI chip
• Read more: I just watched Mammotion's new flagship lawnbot scale an astroturf mountain, and it was mesmerizing

There were a lot of incredible robot lawn mowers on show at CES this year, but the one that really stood out to us was the Mammotion LUBA 3 AWD. It builds on the success of the excellent LUBA 2 AWD that precedes it, and is one of the most all-round capable lawnbots we've seen.

At the heart of the design is an upgraded 'Tri-Fusion' navigation system, where the bot will switch between LiDAR, RTK GPS and AI Vision depending on what's most appropriate for the situation. That means it's unlikely ever to get itself lost – the brand promises positioning accuracy to ±1 cm. Mammotion has also upgraded the processing system with a powerful AI chip that can handle 10 trillion operations per second, meaning it can make smart mowing decisions almost instantly.

Best robot vacuum

Roborock Saros Rover

• It's a robovac with actual, proper legs
• It can climb stairs, duck and dive, and even hop
• Read more: I saw Roborock's new robot vacuum with legs, and it promises to make no-go zones a thing of the past

This one is still in the middle of development, but is so cool already – and, admittedly, a little weird. This robot vacuum uses two extended legs that make it look like a Star Wars droid to get around your house more easily. Having articulated legs means it can climb stairs – including spiral staircases – cleaning them as it goes.

In fact, stairs are just the start. Roborock says the Rover is designed to be able to tackle any kind of terrain or home layout, no matter how awkward. Think of it like a 4x4 for cleaning.

It has some fancy object avoidance tech that means it can duck and dive, weave and jump, remaining completely stable throughout. We're not sure exactly what this is for, but it sure is impressive to watch. This maybe the most that a robovac has looked like a pet – it's got personality, it's useful, and we love it.

Best haircare tech

L'Oréal Light Straight +

• A straightener that uses infrared light tech to straighten effectively at lower temperatures
• Avoids the high temperatures that damage hair
• Read more: L'Oréal exec on why its new glass, infrared-powered hair straightener is so exciting

This innovative hair straightener promises to be three times faster at straightening hair, and yet will leave hair twice as smooth as regular plate straighteners do. And at the same time, it can do this at a lower temperature – always under 320°F / 160°C, compared to 365°F / 185°C for typical models. High temperatures break down hair, so reduction is a long-term good for your hair's health.

We got to try them out on – and this has been the first time we've ever used this phrase – human demo hair, and they certainly seemed to work incredibly well. This could be a huge change for a long-running industry, and that's what CES is all about.

Best smart light

IKEA Varmblixt LED Lamp

• It's a glowing, color-changing donut
• Works with IKEA's smart hub, or a Matter home system
• Read more: IKEA just revealed a new donut-shaped smart light – and it'll look sweet on your tables or walls

Sometimes, you've just got acknowledge when something is charming as hell, and that's what we're talking about with the new IKEA Varmblixt. It's a revamp of an ultra-popular lamp IKEA launched in 2022, but this new version is all about the color options, using an array of LEDs to create a beautiful soft toroidal glow.

It can be controlled with a remote, or you can connect it to IKEA's Dirigea home hub, but it also works with any Matter-ready smart home control option.

• Lenovo has revealed a new version of the Legion Go 2 at CES 2026
• The new handheld runs SteamOS and will launch in June 2026
• The starting price is $1,119, which is $100 more than the base MSRP of the Windows 11 version

We're deep into CES 2026 and we've finally got our first major announcement for a new handheld gaming PC launching later this year, although that's using a liberal definition of the word 'new' admittedly.

As reported by VideoCardz, Lenovo has unveiled a SteamOS version of the Legion Go 2 at CES 2026. This fresh spin on an existing handheld formula is set to launch in June 2026, starting at $1,119 (around £829 / AU$1,660). This is an addition to the Legion Go 2 models already available which are powered by Microsoft's Windows 11 (and follow in the footsteps of the Lenovo Legion Go S).

Of course, this launch is no real surprise as the move was already rumored, and it appears that the leaked image of the Legion Go 2 seemingly using SteamOS (before the Windows version even arrived) was indeed legitimate.

The same configurations will be available with this new SteamOS model, meaning you can run with up to 32GB of LPDDR5X RAM and an AMD Ryzen Z2 or Z2 Extreme SoC. That's a hardware spec which is more than capable of providing great performance for most portable gaming scenarios.

However, Lenovo has unsurprisingly run into the same issue that it had when launching the Windows 11 models of the Legion Go 2, namely pricing.

While tariffs and the tough PC hardware market (due to the RAM crisis) are aspects to consider, it will be hard for most consumers to justify spending over $1,000 for a handheld device, and not a fully-fledged gaming PC instead.

For the Windows 11 version, the Legion Go 2 Z2's MSRP is $1,099 in the US, while the Z2 Extreme model is $1,349 (which comes close to the price of the most powerful handheld out there, the GPD Win 5).

This means Lenovo has increased the base starting price by $100 for the SteamOS model. That's a turnaround from the Legion Go S, where the Windows version was the more expensive option.

In that case, we can expect the Legion Go 2 with SteamOS using the Z2 Extreme chip to cost at least $1,449, and I don't think many gamers will even consider a handheld which costs that much, and doesn't offer much of a performance leap over much cheaper devices.

Analysis: all credit where it's due for supporting SteamOS, but that price stinks

As I have said numerous times, the Lenovo Legion Go 2, regardless of whether it's powered by Windows 11 or SteamOS, has no business costing over $1,000 (and the Ryzen Z2 Extreme models hit particularly ridiculous levels price-wise).

I'm well aware of the harsh component market conditions that are currently making it difficult to keep down the cost of PCs, and the premium hardware on board Lenovo's handheld such as the OLED display.

However, the processor used is hardly a significant improvement over its predecessor, the Ryzen Z1 Extreme, and if you just save a little more money, you can land a handheld built around the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 – the most powerful AMD APU in existence.

I've previously argued that prices like these for 'mainstream' handhelds effectively take them out of the mainstream and back into the niche category they resided in before Valve's Steam Deck arrived. Unfortunately, it seems like Lenovo and fellow manufacturers won't budge on this, and I don't see that changing.

TechRadar will be extensively covering this year's CES, and will bring you all of the big announcements as they happen. Head over to our CES 2026 live news page for the latest stories and our hands-on verdicts on everything we've seen.

You can also ask us a question about the show in our CES 2026 live Q&A and we’ll do our best to answer it.

And don’t forget to follow us on TikTok for the latest from the CES show floor!

I'm here in Las Vegas for the Lenovo Tech World event and CES 2026, and Lenovo has some exciting new developments to share. One of the most interesting, by far, is the Lenovo Legion Pro Rollable: a 16-inch laptop that expands to 23.8 inches of screen space at the click of a button.

This isn't the first time Lenovo has unveiled a rollable laptop proof of concept - that was back at CES 2025 with the ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable - but this is Lenovo's first horizontally-rolling display, and the first time it's been tested on a gaming laptop.

Watching the screen grow was impressive to say the least, but I'm not convinced user demand has any wind behind its sails.

Going hands-on with the Legion Pro Rollable

The star of the show here is the rollable 16-inch PureSight OLED display. It expands from 16 inches, dubbed "Focus Mode" (16:10) to 21.5 inches, "Tactical Mode" (21:9) with a simple keyboard shortcut, and once again to 23.8 inches, "Arena Mode" (24:9) at max expansion.

It has some pretty impressive specs, like a 240Hz refresh rate and 1ms response time. Lenovo didn't have any games loaded up on the Legion Pro Rollable, but I was able to test the screen expansion and retraction, use the keyboard and trackpad, and imagine what it would be like to game on this first-of-its-kind laptop.

At it's 16-inch minimum screen size, it's a sleek Legion laptop with Lenovo's usual high level of polish. When at full expansion, it looks like a computer you'd see in a Sci-Fi movie's spaceship, with fascinating proportions and ultra thin bezels.

It was also wildly impressive that the screen doesn't need any time to 'think' about the expansion - no flashes to black, no 'expansion in progress' overlay - you just click a button and it grows in size without skipping a beat.

A Lenovo rep mentioned that you can close the lid while the screen is fully expanded, though it may not be a great idea for the display's durability.

Rollable screen aside, it's an imposing high-tier gaming laptop with a punchy full-size RGB keyboard, a smooth, large trackpad, and a solid port selection. It also features an RGB lightbar along the bottom edge of the backside.

Internally, the Legion Pro Rollable comes equipped flagship-level hardware, including up to an Nvidia RTX 5090 mobile GPU and an Intel Core Ultra 9 processor.

Will this laptop ever make it to production?

Lenovo positions the Legion Pro Rollable as a solution for esports competitors who travel often and need to train on large displays, similar to those they'd use in tournaments.

The concept make sense, and I see the benefits of traveling with a 16-inch gaming laptop rather than trying to bend space and time to fit a 24-inch monitor in your backpack.

But I'm not sure this is a problem that needs to be solved.

Many major esports organizations provide equipment for players to use once they reach their destination, often from sponsorships. Players are seldom expected to bring their own PC and monitor with them to events - though many prefer to take peripherals along like the keyboards and mice they use every day.

FPS professionals often take setup and viewing angles to the extreme to remain on top of their game, positioning the monitor exactly the same way every time and sitting just inches from the display. One thing to note is that while the screen expands horizontally, you cannot adjust its vertical position (without a laptop stand or the old stack of books trick).

As for casual PC gamers, I doubt this will be the most cost-effective solution on the market.

You'd be better off investing in a quality budget gaming laptop and 24-inch monitor to hook it up to. No, you don't get the ability to easily travel with that monitor, but you can always use the smaller screen in a pinch.

But of course, the Legion Pro Rollable is a proof of concept. It's Lenovo pushing the boundaries of what computer enthusiasts call 'normal,' challenging the limits of modern computing technology, and coming up with new ideas.

And for that, I love it.

TechRadar will be extensively covering this year's CES, and will bring you all of the big announcements as they happen. Head over to our CES 2026 news page for the latest stories and our hands-on verdicts on everything from wireless TVs and foldable displays to new phones, laptops, smart home gadgets, and the latest in AI.

And don’t forget to follow us on TikTok and WhatsApp for the latest from the CES show floor!

Lenovo Legion 7i Gen 10: Two-minute review

The Lenovo Legion 7i Gen 10 is an elegantly designed laptop, marketed for gamers and other power users requiring its high-end specs.

With its brilliant white finish, the Legion 7i stands out from the drubness of the gaming laptop crowd. The minimal branding and bright RGB keyboard backlighting impart a combination of elegance and vibrancy as well.

The Legion 7i has one of the best gaming laptop designs I’ve seen. It's remarkably thin and has some interesting touches, such as the brushed metal sides with their supremely flat surface and rounded corners.

More importantly, it’s supremely well built, with those aforementioned sides being a particular highlight thanks to their solid feel. However, the top panel can flex a little, and the lid even more so. Thankfully, the hinge offers more than enough stability, and pivots very smoothly.

There are a sufficient number of ports on the Legion 7i, but given the amount of empty space on the sides, it’s a shame there aren’t more. Still, you get two USB-C and two USB-A ports, handy for peripheral connections, while the power jack and HDMI interface are sensibly placed at the rear.

There’s also an SD card reader, an uncommon addition for a gaming laptop. More peculiar is a switch for toggling the webcam, placed on the left behind the aforementioned reader. Why there isn’t a physical slider for covering the camera is beyond me, and doubtless many would prefer this failsafe method instead.

The Intel Core Ultra 7 and RTX 5060 proved capable enough to run AAA titles at high settings. You might need Frame Generation and DLSS upscaling set to Balanced to get the highest fps, but this is pretty much par for the course in the current landscape.

As I expected, the fans whirred constantly during my sessions. The noise they generate can be quite loud, but the best PC gaming headsets should be able to drown this out.

Less expectedly — and more worryingly — the portion above the keyboard became incredibly hot, to the point of being untouchable. However, this spike only lasted a few moments, before returning to a comfortable temperature. Nonetheless, this was still something I found concerning, and haven’t experienced with other gaming laptops to the same extreme degree.

The display of the Legion 7i lives up to its impressive specification. The high 2560 x 1600 resolution is as crisp as you would imagine, while the OLED technology offers fantastic contrast and color representation. I did notice some prominent reflections, but in the main these weren’t too bothersome.

Despite the keyboard looking rather typical for a laptop, the depth and dampening of the keys exceeded my expectations. This imbues presses with a reassuring thud, while their snappy response should see you perform at your best.

These same qualities, coupled with the spacious layout, make the Legion 7i’s board great for typing, too. The touchpad also feels delightful, thanks to its silky finish. However, its small size and alacrity to trigger at inopportune moments make it impractical.

The battery life of the Legion 7i is quite impressive by gaming laptop standards, lasting close to eight hours in our movie playback test. It’s also quick to charge, taking just under two hours to do so from empty to full.

The starting price of the Legion 7i is fairly reasonable: it undercuts some of its rivals, but there are cheaper alternatives with more powerful componentry. However, these often fail to match the superlative design and build quality of the Legion 7i, so if these are priorities for you, the Legion 7i is one of the best gaming laptops around.

Lenovo Legion 7i Gen 10 review: Price & Availability

• Starts from $1,779.99 / £2,069.99 / AU$3,759
• Available now
• Some cheaper rivals with stronger specs

The Lenovo Legion 7i Gen 10 starts from $1,779.99 / £2,069.99 / AU$3,759. For this, you get a unit with an Intel Core Ultra 7, an RTX 5060, 16GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage. In the UK, the base (and only) RAM capacity is 32GB. The highest spec of the Legion 7i features an Ultra 9, an RTX 5070, and 32GB of RAM. There are also two display options to choose from, varying only in their refresh rate (165Hz or 240Hz).

This is undeniably a lot of money, although it’s worth mentioning that we’ve seen both low- and high-spec models with considerable discounts on Lenovo's website. But while there are certainly more expensive 16-inch gaming laptops out there (the Razer Blade 16 comes to mind), there are also some considerably cheaper rivals.

One such model is the Asus TUF Gaming A16 (2025). This is one of the best budget gaming laptop options around right now: it impressed me with its performance and surprisingly elegant design when I reviewed it. However, it can’t match the premium construction, slender form, or visual fidelity of the Legion 7i.

• Value: 3.5 / 5

Lenovo Legion 7i Gen 10 review: Specs

Lenovo Legion 7i Gen 10 review: Design

• Light, thin, and elegant
• Great build quality
• Missed opportunity for more ports

You won’t see too many gaming laptops as elegant as the Legion 7i. The fetching white finish marks it out from the usual bland shades of black seen in this sector, and puts me in mind of MacBooks of yore. The subtle branding and RGB backlighting also help to liven up appearances.

Strange as it is to say, the edges of the Legion 7i are a real highlight. The completely flat surfaces and rounded corners are reminiscent of the best iPad and best MacBook designs, while the brushed metal finish only adds to the appeal.

What’s more, their aluminum construction feels incredibly dense, so there’s little chance of denting them. The top panel that houses the keyboard has more give, but it’s still more solid than many others in this price range. This is all the more impressive given how thin and light the base is. There are no extraneous protrusions either; even the rear ventilation bulge is much smaller than its rivals’.

Even thinner than the 7i’s base is the lid. It’s equally impressive in its resistance to flexing, and its hinge offers a remarkable amount of sturdiness while operating with the utmost smoothness. I also appreciated the slight jut at the top of the lid, which allows you to open the Legion 7i easily with one hand, which isn’t the case with many other gaming laptops.

The rear features two ports: one for the power adapter and one for HDMI cables. On the left are three USB ports — two Type-C and one Type-A — and a combo audio jack. On the right, you’ll find another USB-A port and, unusually for a gaming laptop, an SD card reader.

Also on the right is a switch for disabling the webcam. This doesn't work as well as a mechanical cover, and its small size and stiff operation meant I wasn't a huge fan, though it's still nice to have this additional privacy feature.

Overall, though, the port selection on the Legion 7i should prove sufficient for most users’ needs. However, given the large gaps present on both sides, I can’t help feeling that more could’ve been squeezed in.

Lenovo’s main utility software, LegionSpace, is simple to use and functions well. It ran without issue during my time with it, and it was quick and easy to view system information and change performance modes.

• Design: 5 / 5

Lenovo Legion 7i Gen 10 review: Performance

• Good gaming performance
• Some general performance issues
• Odd temperature spikes

When it came to gaming, the Legion 7i conducted itself well. While playing Cyberpunk 2077, I was getting fps figures in the mid 60s with the Ray Tracing: Low preset selected and DLSS upscaling set to Balanced. Turning on Frame Generation resulted in significant improvements, boosting the rate to about 100fps.

Some general performance issues did blight my time with the Legion 7i somewhat. I experienced occasional lock-ups when navigating Windows 11, with clicks on icons and app windows failing to register. I also encountered stuck loading wheels.

Under load, the Legion 7i’s fans are certainly noticeable, but given many gaming laptops sound like jet engines when running demanding tasks, the sound isn’t too disruptive.

Despite the noise, however, the fans failed to provide consistent cooling. It didn’t take long for the section just above the keyboard to reach worrying high temperatures.

Thankfully, it cooled down to touchable temperatures in the midst of gameplay. The rear of the Legion 7i also became very hot, although thankfully not to the same extent, while the keyboard at least only became lukewarm.

On a more positive note, the display of the Legion 7i is exquisite. The 2560 x 1600 resolution is as pinpoint-sharp as you would expect, while the OLED technology allows for superb contrast. Color reproduction and brightness levels are also hard to fault. The only minor gripe I had was the reflectiveness of the screen, but this wasn’t bad enough to ruin the visual splendor of the Legion 7i.

The keys are solid and very well damped. They have a greater travel and a more emphatic thud compared to other gaming laptop keyboards I’ve experienced, which makes them very satisfying to game with. The space bar was a particular highlight in this regard, putting it on a level with those fitted in the best gaming keyboards.

What’s more, the keys rebound superbly, which further improves their performance. This applies whether you’re gaming or typing, while the latter activity additionally benefits from the comfortable layout, which, despite the main keys being pushed to the left by the number pad, doesn’t feel cramped.

The touchpad is also a joy to use, thanks to its super-smooth surface and solid clicks. However, it’s relatively small given the overall size of the Legion 7i, which hampers navigation somewhat.

It’s also overly-sensitive. Unintentional swipes and taps frequently registered when I used the keyboard — especially the common Alt and Tab combination, resulting in a very frustrating productivity experience. However, all this might be a moot point if, like many gamers, you plan on using a mouse exclusively.

• Performance: 3.5 / 5

Lenovo Legion 7i Gen 10 review: Battery Life

• Decent longevity
• Some rivals more enduring
• Quick to charge

By gaming laptop standards, the Legion 7i has a respectable battery life. It managed to last just shy of eight hours when I ran a movie on a continuous loop, which means it can outlast many of its rivals, although both the Asus V16 and TUF Gaming A16 (2025) beat it comfortably, with each lasting over 10 hours in the same test.

Fortunately, the Legion 7i is very quick to charge, taking just two hours to fully replenish.

• Battery Life: 4 / 5

Should I buy the Lenovo Legion 7i Gen 10?

Buy the Lenovo Legion 7i Gen 10 if...

Don't buy it if...

Lenovo Legion 7i Gen 10 review: Also Consider

How I tested the Lenovo Legion 7i Gen 10

• Tested for several days
• Used for gaming and other tasks
• Plentiful gaming laptop experience

I tested the Legion 7i for several days, during which time I used it for gaming, working, and light entertainment.

I played AAA titles such as Cyberpunk 2077 and ran our series of comprehensive benchmark tests, including those for the battery life.

I’ve been PC gaming for over a decade, and have used many systems in that time. I’ve reviewed a large number of gaming laptops professionally, varying greatly in their specs and price points.

• First reviewed January 2025
• Read more about how we test

Alienware is running full speed ahead into 2026 as it teases two new laptop classes at CES 2026, which the company hopes to launch later this year, as well as bringing OLED to its 16-inch Area-51 models.

Alienware took 2025 to consolidate many of its various laptop offerings into a single relaunched 'Area-51' brand, with one 18-inch and two 16-inch models. This year, however, the company appears primed to expand that portfolio with a new ultraslim model and a budget-oriented device.

First, Alienware’s ultraslim gaming laptop will almost certainly go toe-to-toe with the Razer Blade, Asus ROG Zephyrus, and other thin and light gaming laptops that have grown in popularity over the past few years. The other is a budget-friendly gaming laptop or laptops, geared more towards entry-level gaming, something Dell lost with the mothballing of the Dell G-series gaming laptops.

Alienware promises a 'covert' ultraslim gaming laptop line this year

For the ultraslim, Alienware says that this new laptop will be about 17mm thick, which is essentially the same thickness as the Razer Blade 14 I reviewed last year, if you’re looking for a more concrete example to ponder.

According to Alienware, the company “set out to build a laptop that delivers features that appeal to gamers first and foremost but also excels for people who need a powerful device for creative projects, productivity, and everything in between.”

This new laptop class, which will feature 14-inch and 16-inch models, appears to be Alienware’s way of softening the edges of its gamer aesthetic somewhat to appeal to professionals who want to use a powerful laptop for work during the day and gaming during off-hours without worrying about bringing an RGB-heavy gaming laptop into important work meetings that might rub the bosses the wrong way.

Alienware to introduce a budget-friendly gaming laptop to fill the whole left by the Dell G-series

Next up, Alienware plans to introduce a budget-oriented gaming laptop with a much lower price point than the typically premium devices that carry the Alienware imprint. To be sure, this won’t be able to include the same premium materials and hardware its beefier siblings possess, but with the unceremonious retirement of the Dell G-series gaming laptops, this is definitely a market segment that Alienware seems well-suited to fill.

There’s very little information on this new product class right now, much less details on specs or the number of models that it will include, but Alienware stresses that it won’t skimp on the essentials, and acknowledges that “this isn't at the level of our flagship Area-51,” but promises that “it's still built to Alienware standards by not cutting corners on the things that matter most, such as build quality, thermals and performance.”

TechRadar will be extensively covering this year's CES, and will bring you all of the big announcements as they happen. Head over to our CES 2026 news page for the latest stories and our hands-on verdicts on everything from wireless TVs and foldable displays to new phones, laptops, smart home gadgets, and the latest in AI.

And don’t forget to follow us on TikTok and WhatsApp for the latest from the CES show floor!

Brain-reading company Neurable is working with HyperX on new products aimed at using neuroscience to improve your gaming performance. The idea is to have gaming headsets with built-in EEG sensors that read your brainwaves as you play, and use the data to not only help you boost your accuracy and reaction times, but also avoid tilting and performance crashes.

TechRadar has experience with Neurable's tech: we tested the Master & Dynamic MW75 headphones, which use the same kind of technology to help you monitor your focus levels and your risk of burnout at work.

The collaboration was announced at CES 2026 and focuses on two areas: improving your headspace before you play in order to improve performance, and monitoring activity while playing to see if you're maintaining peak levels.

I got a chance to try a prototype of the technology and to speak to Dr. Ramses Alcaide, CEO and co-founder of Neurable, to hear more about what it can do and the plan for the future.

I was able to test the technology using a prototype developed with HyperX, but that's still far from the final gaming headset they have planned – for a start, it didn't have a mic boom. It was also pretty heavy, and I'm sure they'll work on a lighter one for long-term gaming sessions.

But the main thing is that the tech worked, and is instantly really interesting.

What's the big idea?

It's not news that your mental state can really affect your performance – whether that's gaming, work, or sports. But what's interesting about Neurable's tech is that if you try to do something about it, like meditating, you're not just guessing whether it's making a difference or not – the improvement is measurable.

"Especially in games like StarCraft or in shooting games like Counter-Strike, one of the biggest issues that exists is that you normally have to choose between reaction time or accuracy, right? You can move quickly, but it may mean that your shots are landing worse. And the same thing happens with RTSes – your APM can be very high, but the quality of your APM can, can drop dramatically. And so this is the first time where you can handle one of the biggest issues that gamers have, which is getting yourself mentally primed for the activity," explains Alcaide.

So the first part of what Neurable is offering is a 'Prime' programming, which is designed to get you in the zone. At the moment, it takes the form of a cloud of dots, like a nebula spinning in space. If you increase your level of focus, the cloud of dots compresses, reducing the space between them until they become just one central dot, and then shrink to nothing.

"The thing is that your brain is highly plastic, which means it's able to adapt very rapidly," says Alcaide. "As you start to focus and clear your mind, these dots get smaller and smaller, and then if you start to mind wander and drift and think about, you know, other things that are happening, it'll start to get bigger. And so the core goal here is to make it get smaller and smaller and smaller until essentially this turns into a dot and disappears and you're ready, through this simple form of biofeedback."

"But the most key part is it has to be tied directly to the user state, you can't just make the dot get smaller. It has to really be training the brain, biofeedbacking the brain in order to get to this state, and then it moves the user to a different mental performance level than where they were when they started."

"If something just happened to you, you know, you heard bad news, your cognitive load shoots up like crazy. It's so hard to focus and get back into that zone. And so essentially what the system does is it helps in train your brain so that it reduces your cognitive load while increasing your focus, so that you can essentially get into that locked-in state and reach your real potential more consistently," says Alcaide.

"And what we've seen is decreases in reaction time, increases in target hits – usually you have to pick one of the two, but we're seeing both go up as they're doing these sessions."

Neurable's stats claim that pro-level eSports players improved target-aiming accuracy by about 3% by using the 'Priming' process, while the average improvement across all players is around 1.5%. The improvement in reaction time is around 40 milliseconds on average, which I found especially interesting – that's a few frames.

Naturally, I went through the Prime process myself. First, I went through a target-shooting practice session on Aimlabs without any preparation and scored around 34,000.

Next, I went through the Prime exercise. Neurable's Dr Alicia Howell-Munson, a Research Scientist and lead on the gaming-focused technology, gave me some tips for entering a focus state when looking at the cloud of dots, such as focusing on a particular dot's movement as it spins.

I found that was a useful start, because they're not easy to follow as they all cross each other – but I can imagine that some people might actually find it better to look 'past' the cloud and focus by allowing the moving pattern to overwhelm their vision.

I found that as the cloud of dots shrank, I started to see patterns and structure in the dots that I hadn't interpreted before, and so I started focusing on those instead – not intentionally, just naturally. Already, it felt like I was finding a flow state.

After around 45 seconds, I'd shrunk the dots and was ready to do. The Neurable team told me that it often takes anywhere from two minutes to four minutes, and that a shorter time suggested I was already in a fairly focused mental state – perhaps not a surprise since I'd already done the target practice once.

I also did the Prime exercise a second time at the end of my demo session so we could get photos, and that not only took longer, but I actually regressed, with the cloud becoming larger again, when the camera entered my eyeline, so you can see the instant effect that distractions have.

After Priming, I retook the same Aimlabs test and scored around 37,000. My reaction time decreased by a very small amount (only around 5ms), but my accuracy jumped over 2%. Just from less than a minute of biofeedback meditation, of a kind.

What's going on?

"Essentially, we're tracking two key metrics," explains Alcaide. "One is cognitive load. So how much of their brain is currently at capacity, right? And then the second one is their focus, or how well you can maintain attention on a particular task."

"Now, they seem kind of similar, but they're very different. You can have a high focus and have a low cognitive load, which is the ultimate way of playing."

"We did some work actually with the Singapore Air Force, where we saw that expert pilots were the ones who had really high focus, they were able to maintain their attention, but it required a very low amount of mental cognitive load. Which means that when something happened, they had a lot of capacity still left in their brain to be able to react and to make adjustments, and to be able to think quickly.

"But if your brain is filled with a whole bunch of thoughts, not only is it hard for you to focus, but then adding more things to your brain while you're focusing creates overflow, which increases errors, essentially per minute in the case of these of these pilots, and also reduces your reaction time."

To measure these elements, Neurable uses an EEG to measure alpha, beta, and theta brain waves. "Beta and theta are usually tied to how fast your brain is processing. We use those through our proprietary pipeline that that boosts the signal to noise [ratio], which is what our company does. We use AI to boost the signal brain data, so that it comes at a level similar to a high-end brain-computer interface."

Alcaide is referring to the need for an elaborate helmet and even conductive gel to get good EEG readings in many cases, but Neurable is able to get accurate enough readings with just the pads of a pair of headphones (or using earbuds and even glasses, they told me).

The data the headset is reading isn't just useful for the Prime process, though. It can potentially be useful for eSports training purposes, and Neurable also showed me a concept of your brain's focus and capacity readings being visible during a Twitch stream, much like how some streamers show their heart rate today.

One of the simplest uses of this ongoing data reading could be to help you improve the quality of your practice.

"[The software] tells you to take a break when you're cognitively tired, not when you're physically tired. Your brain has no pain receptors, so when you feel physically tired, that's when you normally take a break. But if you take a break when your brain is tired, you can actually boost your productivity for one to three hours per day," says Alcaide.

"So just imagine something like that: you're playing, it tells you to go take a 10 minute walk. And now you're getting effectively one to three more hours of practice per day. And that's good practice, not crap practice, right?

"Or prevention of tilt, like there's just so many things that we haven't even tapped into yet."

There's a lot of potential in using the data the headset can connect to, so you can link your brain data to replays of your performance and see whether something changed before you made mistakes or what state you were in during your best period.

In a practice tool like Aimlabs, each score could have brain data connected, so you can look for patterns.

And game developers could even use your brain data to create emergent events – scaring you at the right moment, for example.

I asked whether any additional factors could improve the data's accuracy in the future. Alcaide notes that most other biometric data that can be tracked is actually also reflected in the brain, so Neurable's tech gets most of what it can use anyway.

However, there's one element he calls out as an area to add to the system: "Eye tracking is way faster than brain data, so we could probably use eye tracking to identify what [someone] focusing on, and then the brain can give us an accurate reading of how attention they paid. You know, were they just looking there or were they actually processing the information?"

Alcaide also notes that the tech could be used for better team play, not just individual play: "We're really just scratching the surface of like what's possible, right? Teamwork I think is going to be one of the biggest areas in eSports that we're going to start to see for this technology.

"There's been a lot of incredible research done, with something called 'team synchrony'. So, for example, you can put an EEG system like the ones that I have right now, and then you can see whether the team's brain waves are synced or unsynced, and what they found is that teams that display more synchrony across their brain waves usually perform better, especially at tasks where they're collaborating, they're working together to solve a problem."

Performance enhancement

I asked whether Neurable is worried about its tools being banned from competition if they're really effective, and they noted that they already have a pro poker player who uses their tech to focus their mind.

"There are multiple techniques that gamers use to clear their minds already. This is just a way where it removes the skill level required to be able to get into that type of mental training. It makes it easier. It's like, instead of telling somebody 'hey, just get it out of your head', you're teaching them how to meditate." says Alcaide.

"It's just giving a little bit of a of a opportunity for people to to get in the zone, before they go into things, and actually I was just earlier today talking with an NBA player that wants to use it for the same sort of thing. It's like listening to music before you go play, right? So I don't think that's, that's necessarily something that we're concerned about."

When will you be able to try this out yourself? Both the software and hardware are still under development, but the aim is to have something available in around a year – it's not impossible you'll see a product in 2026, but CES 2027 is maybe more likely.

I only had a brief demo, but I found the Prime process immediately impactful – I think I'd active want to go through the process before firing up a game, no because I'm desperate for the few points of extra accuracy, but because the process of clearing your mind – and knowing you've truly taken steps in clearing it, because you're not just following an animation, the animation is responding to your success – felt really beneficial in of itself.

TechRadar will be extensively covering this year's CES, and will bring you all of the big announcements as they happen. Head over to our CES 2026 news page for the latest stories and our hands-on verdicts on everything from wireless TVs and foldable displays to new phones, laptops, smart home gadgets, and the latest in AI.

And don’t forget to follow us on TikTok and WhatsApp for the latest from the CES show floor!

• Retailers have increased pricing of Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 GPUs
• Prices are almost double the original retail pricing
• It appears to be a direct impact from the RAM crisis due to AI demand

We're officially in 2026, and last year's rumors regarding GPU price hikes on Nvidia and AMD GPUs (due to the ongoing RAM crisis) appear to be accurate, which may prove very unfortunate for PC gamers.

As reported by VideoCardz, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 prices have increased significantly above the original retail pricing, with models reaching up to $4,000 across multiple retailers. The GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition is still priced at $1,999 / £1,799 / AU$4,039, so the price hikes appear to be coming directly from retailers and private sellers.

RAM kits have become much pricier over the last few months, due to the current AI boom, and appear to be the reason behind these GPU price increases (since GPUs also use VRAM).

It's likely resulted in retailers seeking ways to get customers to pay more for PC hardware across the board due to higher demand, and the looming threat of potential price hikes directly from Team Green and AMD on RTX and Radeon GPUs, respectively.

A prime example is on Best Buy, with the Asus ROG Astral RTX 5090 now available for a staggering $3,610.78, almost double the Founders Edition's MSRP, and a significant chunk above the third-party GPU's standard pricing (around $2,799.99).

The same price jumps above MSRP have occurred with AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT GPUs long before the RAM crisis, and have continued – the XFX Mercury Radeon RX 9070 XT OC Edition on Best Buy is now at $849.99, up from its $599 retail price.

None of these price hikes come straight from Nvidia or AMD (yet...), and despite recent rumors suggesting that Team Green plans to raise the RTX 5090's MSRP to $5,000, there's no confirmation of that – and frankly, it's unlikely that we'll see such a ludicrously aggressive price increase.

If there is anything to blame, though, it's clearly the meteoric rise of AI technology. AI training and operation datacenters have increased the demand for RAM (and some other components) to unprecedented levels, which has ultimately trickled down to impact consumers, and it doesn't seem like it's slowing down any time soon.

Analysis: Nvidia isn't fully absolved from blame, but you should be more mad at AI

While Nvidia does have an indirect part to play in these price hikes due to its heavy involvement in the AI boom, it's not solely responsible; there's been a concerted push to develop and use AI from numerous companies around the globe, and they're all jointly at fault.

Desktop DDR4 and DDR5 RAM play a significant part in PC building, more so than GPUs; basically, you can build a PC without a discrete GPU, but with no RAM, good luck getting your PC to boot.

With the AI boom making RAM far more expensive than it should be for consumers, it's enough to leave worries that this could become the new normal in 2026 and beyond - effectively killing the custom PC gaming dream for all but the wealthiest gamers.

The heavy reliance on AI is becoming more noticeable as time goes on, and as it continues, I can certainly see prices for all PC hardware increasing from retailers and private sellers. It's an incredibly problematic situation, not only for high-end PC gaming, but also for those looking to dive into the PC gaming ecosystem for the first time. If you've been contemplating building your first gaming PC, I'd do it fast; these prices are likely to keep climbing, at least for now.

We're currently stuck in a PC market where RAM acquisition is the main concern, as prices skyrocket due to the ongoing AI boom, with consumers left to pay up or wait patiently for price drops, especially for the best gaming laptops.

You might be wondering why that matters in regard to the MSI Katana 15 HX B14W gaming laptop. Powered by the Nvidia RTX 5070 (laptop GPU), the Katana 15 HX B14W is also limited to 8GB of VRAM.

Now that last mention might throw most consumers off of purchasing, as 8GB of VRAM isn't desirable for game performance, considering the high system requirements from newer titles. Games are gradually becoming VRAM hungry, and with only 8GB of VRAM, users have to be reasonable with graphics settings and resolutions, especially when using Frame Generation, which utilizes more VRAM.

Also, in case you're unaware of how I've felt about 8GB VRAM GPUs in both laptops and gaming PCs, I'll say this: I don't like them and have always pushed for 12GB to be the new minimum.

However, the MSI Katana 15 HX B14W proved me wrong in some areas, with results ending up different from what I was expecting, even in a few of the toughest scenarios that would usually spell a complete collapse on low VRAM GPUs. However, it's not all great, and there's a reason why 8GB of VRAM is frowned upon.

Maybe 8GB of VRAM isn't so bad after all?

It's not unreasonable to expect an 8GB GPU to provide good performance in games that don't have demanding system requirements, but the real question is, how well can it perform in some of the most demanding games of the last decade?

That's exactly what I put to the test; in Cyberpunk 2077 at 1440p using DLSS balanced on the ultra graphics preset, I managed an average of 90fps, which is very impressive considering how great Nvidia's DLSS 4 is in image quality, thanks to the transformer model replacing the former CNN (Convolutional Neural Network) model.

A step up to the ultra ray tracing graphics preset gave me an average of 54fps, and it's no secret that Cyberpunk 2077's ray tracing is no easy hurdle for any graphics cards to jump over, so that's another positive for the Katana 15 HX's RTX 5070.

Enabling Frame Generation (not Multi-Frame Generation) made performance results much better in Cyberpunk 2077, with an average of 115fps. Since the base frame rates were high enough, enabling frame gen wasn't going to significantly worsen image quality (although visual artifacts are still somewhat noticeable), and gameplay felt smooth and responsive.

It's worth noting that not all games tested feature ray tracing and DLSS Frame Generation technology. Titles such as Shadow of the Tomb Raider ran exceptionally, with an average of 160fps at 1440p ultra graphics settings using DLSS on balanced, with frame gen absent.

Performance in most titles also got better at 1080p, and a prime example is Monster Hunter Wilds. At 1440p DLSS Balanced on ultra settings, I got an average of 55fps, and saw a 21% performance increase when dropping down to 1080p, with a 66.51fps average.

However, as expected, 8GB wouldn't be a point of contention for consumers for no reason, and my tests in VRAM-hungry games like Black Myth Wukong, Monster Hunter Wilds (in central hubs), and Assassin's Creed Shadows proved that.

When attempting to use Frame Generation in Black Myth Wukong, VRAM usage would hit 7.1GB, using almost all 8GB, – not ideal for performance. A similar case was present during testing of Assassin's Creed Shadows (a game that has ray tracing enabled by default), where base frame rates were low, and enabling Frame Generation hardly increased the frame rate, but only significantly increased VRAM usage.

In cases of poorly optimized games, like Monster Hunter Wilds, stability and performance with constant stutters got worse as VRAM was almost maxed out when in central hubs and camps in-game, without using Frame Generation.

8GB VRAM isn't future proof, and the RAM crisis is a major worry

While I'm impressed with how well 8GB of VRAM is able to hold up for gaming based on the Katana 15 HX benchmarks, it doesn't mean I'm particularly happy with it. Games are becoming more demanding on system requirements year by year, and while we can see that such configurations can handle heavy games like Cyberpunk 2077, it's also evident that 8GB is close to hitting limits in games that need more VRAM.

With the current RAM crisis leading to price hikes across the board, recent reports estimate that we'll be seeing more 8GB RAM specifications on laptops and PCs, which would ultimately reduce manufacturing costs. If 8GB of VRAM is already showing signs of being insufficient for modern gaming, then a return to 8GB system RAM will only make performance worse.

Games are already beginning to launch with system requirements that include a need for at least 16GB of RAM, and 32GB is being pushed as the ideal amount for good performance, so 8GB alone could cause significant problems for stable performance.

It's not just the fall back down to 8GB for VRAM and RAM that's an issue, but also the potential that these systems would cost more than they normally would, significantly reducing bang-for-the-buck.

I'm not suggesting that the MSI Katana 15 HX is a bad gaming laptop, no. It's more than enough for budget gamers who don't mind gaming at 1080p or 1440p resolutions while using upscaling.

After all, the RTX 5070 is a midrange laptop GPU. However, this gaming laptop and many others that use 8GB specifications will more than likely struggle with upcoming games – and unfortunately, I don't think we'll be seeing the end of 8GB VRAM or RAM configurations any time soon.

There are few things more exciting than booting up your brand new gaming PC for the first time. I remember my first build like it was yesterday – the frustration and choice words when hooking up power cables, and the eventual but incredibly sweet triumph of pressing the power button and watching it whirr to life.

If you just booted up your new PC for the first time, there are a few key things you should check to ensure everything runs smoothly.

I put this list together for beginners - you won't find BIOS-heavy, 1-2% performance increase tips here. Just quick, actionable advice that can make a huge difference in how your PC operates.

1. Check your monitor's resolution and refresh rate

If your new setup includes a high-refresh-rate gaming monitor, be sure to verify that the correct settings are enabled in Windows.

Otherwise, it'll probably be limited to 60Hz by default, and you don't want to be leaving performance on the table (literally).

Here's how to locate these settings and change them in Windows 11.

1. In an Nvidia-powered system (if you have an Nvidia graphics card), right-click your desktop. Click "Show more options." Then select "NVIDIA Control Panel."
2. On the left-side nav menu, choose "Change resolution" under the Display category.
3. Make sure the correct monitor is selected if you have multiple. Now you can check the display resolution, and click the "Refresh rate" drop-down menu to bump it to the highest setting.

If you don't have an NVIDIA graphics card, here's how to change display resolution and refresh rate directly in Windows.

1. Located at the bottom of the screen, open your taskbar's search menu.
2. Type "display" and click "Display settings."
3. Make sure the correct monitor is selected if you have multiple. You can click "Identify" to see which one is set as the primary display.
4. Scroll down to the "Display resolution" drop-down menu and make sure it's on the highest setting.
5. Scroll further to "Advanced display." The drop-down menu next to "Choose a refresh rate" will let you change your monitor's refresh rate in Windows 11.

A high refresh rate is key to gaining a competitive edge in FPS and esports titles, where every frame counts (such as Counter-Strike 2, Rocket League, and Marvel Rivals).

Make sure you're getting the performance you paid for!

2. Get rid of bloatware

Windows 11, which likely came installed on your PC, is a solid operating system overall. But it's not without its faults.

One of the biggest pain points in Microsoft's latest OS is bloatware.

Bloatware is any application you did not choose to install that negatively impacts your computer's performance and storage space.

I wrote an easy-to-follow tutorial on how to find and remove bloatware from Windows 11, so be sure to check it out to free up gigabytes of storage and cut out programs that may bog down performance.

3. Install and update your drivers

Drivers are important for ensuring everything in your setup runs as it's meant to. The key drivers to check are graphics card and peripherals (accessories).

To access your graphics card, open your graphics software. If you're using an Nvidia GPU, you'll need the Nvidia app. It may come pre-installed on your system; otherwise, it's a quick download from the Nvidia website.

When you open the app for the first time, it may prompt you to choose between a "Game Ready Driver" and an "NVIDIA Studio Driver" installation. As you can probably guess, go with Game Ready drivers if you're mainly using your PC for gaming.

I would recommend you untick "Optimize games and creative applications" if prompted – while it's not the worst thing to leave on, it can mess with in-game settings in ways you don't want at times – you can always manually tweak options in specific games yourself, or enable Nvidia's optimization later.

Head to the Drivers section on the left-side nav menu and download the latest driver version. Your screen may go dark for a moment while it installs - this is completely normal.

Once the new drivers are set up, restart your PC to ensure everything runs smoothly.

For AMD Radeon-based GPUs, go to AMD's Drivers and Support for Processors and Graphics page. Download and run the Windows Drivers installer. It'll auto-detect your graphics card and present the latest driver version for you to download and install.

For peripherals such as your mouse, keyboard, and headphones, the drivers are located in the brand's customization app. For instance, if you have a Corsair mouse, download Corsair iCUE to install the latest drivers and firmware.

4. Familiarize yourself with Task Manager

Windows Task Manager isn't just for terminating stubborn apps - it's also a quick and easy way to check a number of important processes.

Right-click your taskbar, then click "Task Manager." The first page that shows up, Processes, will give you an overview of what's currently running and how many resources the app is using.

Tip: Click the three vertical lines at the top of the nav bar to see Task Manager page names.

Then, on the left-side nav bar, select the second option in the list that looks like a heartbeat monitor to get to the Performance section.

From this page, you can:

• Check your CPU utilization at idle and during use
• See how much total RAM you're using under Memory
• Identify which drives relate to which root directory (C:, D:, etc.)
• Make sure you're using your graphics card (instead of integrated graphics) and check its temperature

You can also use Task Manager to take care of my next suggestion, which is...

5. Check Windows startup apps

Startup apps, as the name suggests, are applications that run immediately upon logging into your PC.

While this can be helpful for apps you want to use just about every day, like Steam or Battle.net, it can also be incredibly annoying when apps that you don't want to use pop up (looking at you, Copilot).

So, to edit your startup apps in Windows 11, you have two options:

1. Edit them directly from the Startup apps page of the Task Manager, which is discussed in the previous section. Simply right-click the app you want to edit and choose Enable or Disable.
2. Change startup apps from Windows settings. Open your taskbar's search menu and type "startup," then click "Startup Apps." From this page, toggle the apps on or off.

If there are a bunch of apps you don't need enabled on startup, disabling them can drastically reduce the time it takes for your PC to become responsive after booting up.

6. Set your default audio devices

Default audio device settings is something Windows has pretty much always been funky about.

You'll be using the same headphones for months, then Windows will decide to change your default audio device to the VR headset your friend brought over one time, leaving you wondering why your headphones are on but playing no sound.

You're just going to have to get used to it, so it's a good idea to learn about it right from the beginning.

In your taskbar's search menu, type "manage output" and select "Manage output sound devices." Here you can see all of the audio devices your PC recognizes. Choose the audio device you'll be using most often, like your gaming headset, and make sure it says "Default device."

If it doesn't, click on the arrow next to it's name. Here, next to "set as default sound device," select "Use as default for audio."

Next, head back to the Sound page from the options at the top of the window. If you have a standalone microphone, or a mic attached to your headset, make sure it's the default audio input device using the same method.

If your sound stops working seemingly at random one day, there's a good chance Windows switching around your active devices is the reason why.

7. Run some benchmarks

With everything else set up and out of the way, the last thing you should do with your new Windows gaming PC is run some benchmarks.

This will give you an idea of how your system performs in resource-heavy programs, and a baseline for how to tweak your in-game graphics settings.

Check out Matt Hanson's tutorial on how to benchmark your graphics card for in-game metrics, and our roundup of the best benchmark software for all-in-one benchmarks, CPU-specific tests, and more.

Lastly, check the settings menus for any games you download in the future. Some will have dedicated benchmarking options for you to run.

Memory prices have absolutely skyrocketed in the past few months, leaving many manufacturers looking for ways to keep prebuilt PC costs at reasonable levels. This problem has created a worrying trend, though – particularly when it comes to budget gaming PCs.

Browse retailers like Amazon and Best Buy, and you'll find that a decent number of systems come kitted with DDR4 RAM instead of DDR5. On the surface, this may seem like a reasonable compromise in performance for the benefit of a lower barrier to entry.

But in reality, you're the one left holding the bag.

There goes your upgradeability

The biggest issue with swapping DDR5 kits for outdated DDR4 memory is how it impacts upgradeability.

One of the most attractive aspects of building a PC, as opposed to buying a console, is the incremental upgrades you can make to keep your system relevant. If you need more storage, you toss in a new, faster SSD. If you haven't upgraded your CPU in a few years, you find a current-gen processor on sale and get a major performance boost without having to buy an entirely new system.

But if you have DDR4 RAM, this isn't the case.

DDR4 memory is only compatible with outdated motherboards and, in nearly all cases, outdated CPUs. You may come across an affordable prebuilt PC that boasts modern Nvidia graphics, 32GB of RAM, and a relatively recent Intel CPU. An enticing offer in today's market.

What that tempting offer isn't telling you, though, is that there's almost no opportunity to upgrade down the line.

DDR4-compatible motherboards are not compatible with DDR5 memory. If you want faster memory in the future, you now have to upgrade not just the RAM, but also the motherboard.

Not to mention, most modern gaming CPUs support DDR5 memory exclusively. All AM5 processors (Zen 4 and Zen 5 CPUs like the Ryzen 5 7600X and Ryzen 7 9800X3D) are incompatible with DDR4 memory, meaning you're locked into the AM4 chipset if you buy one of these DDR4 systems. The same applies to Intel Core Ultra series chips, which are also DDR5-dependent.

So, if you want to upgrade your memory, you must also upgrade your motherboard. If you want a newer CPU, you have to upgrade your motherboard and your RAM.

DDR4 performance woes

Upgradeability aside, DDR4 is also significantly less performant than current DDR5 kits.

DDR4 speeds typically top out at just 3600MHz (with overclocked kits touching 4000MHz), whereas DDR5 RAM reaches up to 6400MHz (and even 7000MHz+ when overclocked).

Yes, the CAS latency of DDR4 RAM is technically lower than that of DDR5. But that comes at the cost of far lower bandwidth, eliminating any practical advantages that lower CL would provide.

This is especially prevalent in low FPS scenarios. If you have DDR4 RAM, you may notice far more stuttering and frame tearing in resource-intensive areas of your game, where DDR5 would pull through with smaller FPS drops rather than full-on stutters.

Plus, as discussed in the previous section, DDR4 memory locks you into older CPU generations. Your GPU doesn't care what type of RAM you have - you could be rocking a 5000-series Nvidia graphics card with DDR4 RAM - but your CPU does.

If you try to pair a modern GPU with an outdated CPU and RAM, you're going to face major bottlenecks, especially in CPU-heavy games like Sid Meier's Civilization and Minecraft.

Should you buy a gaming PC with DDR4 RAM?

In my opinion, no, you shouldn't buy a prebuilt PC with DDR4 RAM – even with the lower asking price. It severely stunts upgradeability and locks you into lower performance.

So, what should you do instead?

Well, you have a few options. You could bite the bullet and get a prebuilt PC with DDR5 RAM. This will be the best move in the long run, as you preserve your ability to modernize your system and keep up with rising performance demands.

Or, if you don't have the extra capital to meet the current asking prices, you could opt for a handheld gaming PC.

These handhelds, like the Steam Deck and Asus ROG Ally X, provide a far better cost-value proposition than gaming laptops nowadays. And while you won't get 4K 60+ FPS at Ultra settings with ray tracing enabled in Cyberpunk 2077, you will get to play just about any game you want at reasonable settings.

You can even hook a handheld gaming PC up to a monitor, mouse, and keyboard (by attaching a USB adapter) and have yourself a decent entry-level rig for a fraction of the cost of current prebuilt PCs.

The last option I'd recommend is the toughest, but may make the most sense in the long run: just wait.

We've seen RAM prices skyrocket in the past, and who can forget the chip shortage that ravaged GPU prices during lockdown? What these price hikes taught us is this: it may take time, but PC component prices eventually return to normal.

Oh, my poor PS4. How lonely you must feel now, nestled untouched beneath a layer of dust under my TV stand, originally consigned to work as a glorified streaming box after I finally kicked my Destiny habit and completed my slow shift to exclusively gaming on PC. When I upgraded my ageing plasma screen to a shiny new smart TV, even that duty fell from you, leaving you to wallow in inactivity outside the rare occasion I have house guests who want to play Jackbox.

I’ve all but given up on ‘living room gaming’ these days, even after a childhood spent playing on almost every home console since the Nintendo 64 and Sega Dreamcast, even after, uh… oh man, how many hours spent in Destiny 2? Oh dear. Let’s not talk about that.

Yes, I’m a true-blue PC gamer now - while I’ve always played games on PC, it wasn’t until I started working for Maximum PC magazine back in 2018 that I built my own proper gaming PC and started to gradually phase out my time spent on my PS3 and PS4. I’m on my third custom desktop now, packing an RTX 5070 (though for anyone wondering, I’d actually recommend the far superior RTX 5070 Ti), and with a fancy gaming desk and comfy throne courtesy of Noblechairs, I didn’t ever see myself going back to the couch for anything other than watching TV and playing party games.

Going mobile…

And yet, Asus might have changed my mind. I got the original ROG Ally when it first came out back in 2023, and it’s seen plenty of use in my household. Not just by me, either; my partner has been trying and failing to get into PC gaming for a while, but the Ally has streamlined that whole process for him, and now we’ve got 200+ hours in a Stardew Valley co-op save file. In fact, he probably uses the Ally even more than I do - I’ve been unceremoniously banished to my desktop more than once when we both want to play different games at the same time.

But in the two years I’ve been enjoying my time with the ROG Ally, at no point did I ever think of using it as anything other than a handheld. That’s even sillier now, in retrospect, considering that I already own a Nintendo Switch and have spent plenty of time playing on it in both the handheld and docked modes.

So when an Asus ROG Bulwark Dock dropped into my lap this December (in the very pleasant way that hardware sometimes does when you’re a tech journalist), I knew I had to at least give it a chance. Who knows, I thought to myself. Maybe I’ll even like it more than playing in handheld mode?

…and not so mobile

Turns out, I liked it a lot. I already owned one of the best PC controllers (the excellent GameSir Tarantula Pro), and setting the ROG Bulwark up with my TV was a breeze. Within minutes, my Ally was streaming to the big screen, and I was putting my feet up on the couch to settle in for some Death’s Door.

If you’ll allow me a brief tangent: Death’s Door is absolutely bloody amazing, and I can’t recommend it enough. Seriously, go play it.

Back to the matter at hand, though. I was pretty impressed at how well the Ally was able to simulate the experience of a home console - at least, once I was actually in-game and not fumbling around in Windows 11. Even on my older Z1 Extreme model, I was getting smooth performance (albeit only at 1080p) across a range of games, with the Ally transitioning back to handheld mode in a snap when I decided it was time to crawl into bed rather than turn up the thermostat.

It made me realise that I actually rather miss the good old days of gaming on the living room TV, though it’s hard to put my finger on why exactly that is. Perhaps gaming just doesn’t quite hit the same when you’re trying to play games on the same device you sit and work at for 8 hours a day? Being able to kick back and relax on the couch certainly brings a different vibe to the gaming experience; I was even able to relive the glory days of couch co-op with my partner in Split Fiction.

So while I suspect my home console days are over and my PS4 is likely to continue gathering dust (sorry, Destiny - it's not me, it's you), I’ve got a new appreciation for my gaming handheld - and I think it’s finally time to separate my work and gaming spaces. Plus, with the current soaring prices of computer components thanks to AI, I don’t think I’ll be doing any major upgrades to my desktop PC anytime soon - so why not settle in for some cozy couch gaming?

RAM prices have risen to ridiculous heights over the past 6 months. It's to the point where you may well be better off purchasing a prebuilt PC than trying to source the parts at reasonable prices yourself.

And with a looming GPU shortage coming in 2026, it's only going to get worse for prospective PC builders.

So I decided to take a look at the 20 most popular PC games of the year (by player count) to determine how much RAM you actually need in your gaming rig. If the games on this list are available in your library and you meet at least the minimum recommended RAM, I'd strongly suggest holding off on any purchases until prices settle back down.

But if you just can't wait to build or upgrade your PC (I know how exciting it is!), let this list act as a guide to your RAM purchasing needs.

Not a gamer? Skip ahead to the how much RAM do I need on my laptop section.

RAM requirements for the top 20 most popular PC games

Note: Statistics for this list were pulled from Steam's "Top 100 played games by Daily Players" list and estimates from activeplayer.io's "Top 15 Most Popular PC Games of 2025" list. They are not sorted by total player count. RAM requirements were collected from the system requirements sections.

As you can see from the table above, 8GB is by no small margin the most common minimum RAM requirement for modern games.

In the past, I'd recommend a minimum of 16GB of DDR5 - and that's still what I ultimately think you should aim for, and what shows up most prevalently in the Recommended category - but with memory prices the way they are now, you may be able to skate by with half that. At least until RAM prices stabilize again and you can think about upgrading.

Unfortunately, only a few games list a "max" configuration requirement, but those that do all specify 16GB.

It's also important to note that if you run other programs, such as Chrome and Discord, for music and comms while you game, you'll need to factor that RAM usage into your setup.

Google Chrome sucks up a ton of free memory - of course, some browsers are better optimized - but you may run into bogged-down performance if you're running a resource-intensive game at high settings with these other programs in the background.

There are also a few exceptions I'd like to highlight from the list, namely Minecraft and Roblox. Both of these games are essentially playgrounds for mods, and if you're playing a particularly impressive Roblox game or one of Minecraft's many massive modpacks, you're going to need more RAM than just 1 or 2GB.

How much RAM do I need on my laptop?

If you're not a gamer and mainly use a laptop for work and media, my recommendations remain the same as they have for the past few years.

8GB is a solid minimum to shoot for - unless you're using a Chromebook, in which case 4GB is sufficient thanks to ChromeOS optimizations. 16GB is better if you push the limit on open Chrome tabs or run heavier programs like Photoshop. You may need 24GB if your job involves video editing or working with LLMs.

Anything more than that is a superfluous cherry on top.

How much RAM do I have?

If you want to find out how much RAM you currently have in your system, it's quick and easy - here's how.

• For Windows 10 and 11, open the Windows Start menu from your taskbar (or by clicking the Windows button on your keyboard). Then, type in "About your PC." Your RAM is shown under "Installed Memory."
• For macOS, click the Apple icon at the top left of your screen, then select "About this Mac." Your RAM is displayed by "Memory."

This is also where you can see your CPU, GPU, device model, and operating system version.

To see how much of your RAM is currently in use on a Windows machine, open Task Manager (right-click the taskbar and select "Task Manager"), then go to the Performance tab (second option in the left-side navigation).

On macOS, open the Spotlight search bar (Command + Space), then type in "Activity Monitor." Click the Memory tab in the top navigation bar to view your current RAM usage.

This is a good way to see if your usage habits bump into the higher end of your total installed memory, which is an indication that it may be time for an upgrade.

• The MSI Claw A8 has been spotted on Newegg in the US for $1,149
• No stock suggests the price may have been a placeholder
• If legitimate, the MSI Claw A8 could join other mainstream handhelds that cost over $1,000

Mainstream handheld manufacturers have recently priced new devices within unaffordable price regions, well above the template Valve set with its Steam Deck – and unfortunately, it seems that trend isn't stopping any time soon.

As reported by VideoCardz, the MSI Claw A8 Ryzen Z2 Extreme handheld has been spotted on Newegg, listed for $1,149, without any sign of stock. The handheld has had a staggered launch in other regions, notably Asia, and it's currently available in the UK for £849, but it hasn't seen a launch in the US for months.

It's important to note that the $1,149 may be a placeholder, but we've seen cases of early listings before, and that's enough to suggest that this price tag may be legitimate once stock is available.

This could be the third mainstream handheld gaming PC to cost over $1,000 in the US if this current price tag sticks, making the MSI Claw A8 join the Lenovo Legion Go 2 and Asus ROG Xbox Ally X as arguably overpriced handhelds. The prices for these devices in particular are major points of contention, since the AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme processor isn't a big leap from its Ryzen Z1 Extreme predecessor in power and performance.

There's no doubt that both tariffs and RAM price hikes have played their part if this is the real price tag. However, similar pricing for handheld hardware was still present before the current crisis, and frankly, consumers likely won't be happy regardless of the reasons.

The Steam Deck's affordable price template is seemingly becoming a thing of the past, and while Valve's earnings from the Steam storefront made Steam Deck sales at a loss possible, handheld manufacturers should be looking to stick close to that template. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like that will be the case, even after this RAM price crisis eventually ends.

Analysis: The only thing that will change high handheld prices is a drop in sales

Besides a fall in DRAM pricing via an eventual collapse of the current AI boom, the only way ludicrous pricing of handhelds will come to an end is if sales fall significantly, which means consumers need to stop paying unreasonable prices for handhelds.

I've argued that there are handheld gaming PCs that do warrant prices at or just over $1,000, but these aren't from mainstream manufacturers, and the devices are equipped with processors that quite literally challenge laptop GPUs, notably the AMD Ryzen AI Max + 395.

The Ryzen Z2 Extreme that powers both the Legion Go 2 and the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X doesn't warrant the high price tags they have, and the same applies to the MSI Claw A8, if the Newegg price remains.

As long as sales stay within a decent range for the likes of MSI, Asus, and Lenovo, we will continue to see cases of overpriced devices – and that's unfortunate, as I don't believe consumers feel strongly enough to resist purchasing new devices.

• The RAM crisis may worsen beginning in 2026 based on new TrendForce estimate
• The report suggests we may see more 8GB configurations
• This will ultimately impact gaming laptop performance if system RAM and VRAM are 8GB

The PC market is in a shaky state due to rising RAM prices, and while rumors suggest SSDs are next to be affected, a new report hints that the RAM crisis will only worsen.

As reported by Wccftech, a new report from TrendForce estimates that a wider adoption of 8GB RAM specifications for Notebooks will make higher-end 16GB (or more) RAM configurations unaffordable, beginning in 2026.

While this appears to be an estimate solely on system RAM, it could very likely spell the same fate for VRAM in gaming laptop GPUs. Prices for RAM kits are already exceeding those of entry-level gaming PCs, ultimately leading to price hikes on the latter.

Prices for DRAM have increased for manufacturers, so aiming to provide the cheapest specification (8GB) will help in damage control by keeping consumer pricing as low as possible. It may explain exactly why Valve has decided to opt for 8GB of RAM for the upcoming Steam Machine, to ensure that consumers don't end up paying obscene prices.

For gaming laptops, the move to more 8GB configurations will be a major issue for game performance. 8GB of VRAM is already a dealbreaker for most gamers, since it's not future-proof, and can struggle in modern games that are VRAM-hungry (which is a lot of them), but with a push down to 8GB of system RAM, gaming performance will be heavily bogged down.

It could feel like a huge step backwards if a move back down to less RAM for most systems does become a reality, especially since there's plenty of triple-A games launching with the system requirement of 32GB of RAM for higher graphics settings, and 16GB as a minimum for medium to low graphics settings.

RAM bottlenecks could easily become a bigger issue now; usually, GPU or CPU bottlenecks were more common, but the tables may be turning, especially for PC gaming newcomers.

Analysis: Whatever you do, don't let go of your RAM kits

At this rate, the AI boom isn't going to slow down, and that means RAM pricing is only going to get worse. To put it simply, if you still have any spare RAM kits lying around, whether 8GB or not, it would be in your best interest to keep hold of them, because this crisis may become a normality if it sticks around long enough.

It could be months or years before we see any stability return to this region of the PC market, and the last thing you'll want to deal with is paying more than you would for a new GPU, on a new set of RAM.

Gaming isn't getting any cheaper, and while RAM is the main PC component being impacted, the same could soon apply to SSDs and GPUs, and the latter has already seen a fair share of price hikes over the last year.

If you're unlucky not to have acquired a RAM kit before the crisis, it would be ideal to keep your eyes peeled for any potential winter discounts and strike fast before stock disappears.