At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Transcendent battery life A purposeful use of space Lovely, surprisingly large OLED screen Lighter than a MacBook Air Great audio Cons Keyboard needs more key travel Performance needs improvement, especially on battery Our Verdict If it weren’t for the keyboard, the Asus Zenbook S 14 (UX5406) would be my go-to productivity laptop. It’s a potent lightweight package that allows you to work over a day without a charge. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Asus Zenbook S 14 (UX5406SA) Retailer Price Asus $1499.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket You might approach buying the Asus Zenbook S 14 (UX5406) for a variety of reasons such as its status as an AI-infused Copilot+ PC and its lovely OLED screen. But it’s the long-lasting battery — 21 hours in our tests! — that will change your life. I don’t mean this lightly. I’m used to packing a charger in my bag because I know instinctively that the laptop will run out of battery. This, the launch platform for Intel’s Core Ultra Series 2 (Lunar Lake) mobile chip, simply does not. I’m not overly impressed with the performance, especially when run on battery alone. I would also prefer a springier, more responsive keyboard. But this laptop simply makes battery anxiety a thing of the past. “Tight” is a word that has come to connote an efficiency of space and effort. This laptop feels tight in that very little is without purpose. My review score reflects a less-than-ideal keyboard. Intel’s Lunar Lake certainly could improve in terms of performance, and that’s reflected here too. But otherwise, this laptop is close to perfect in my eyes. Further reading: Best laptops 2024: Premium, budget, gaming, 2-in-1s, and more Asus Zenbook S 14: Buying options Asus sells a single version of the Zenbook S 14 (UX5406) for $1,499, with an Intel Core Ultra 7 Processor 258V as well as 32GB of memory. Our review unit was the UX5406SA, which shipped with a 512GB SSD instead. Remember, Intel’s Core Ultra Series 2 chips (Lunar Lake) package the system memory directly on the package. That limits the available configurations and prevents you from upgrading the memory later. Best Buy and Walmart are selling versions with a Core Ultra 7 processor, but only 16GB of RAM for slightly cheaper. Otherwise, Asus offers this laptop in a pair of colors: Scandinavian White and a blackish tint formally called Zumaia Gray. Asus also offers the Vivobook, which is aimed more at budget buyers. Best Buy just announced the related Asus Vivobook S 14 Q423, with a Core Ultra 5, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and a 1200p screen for $949. Mark Hachman / IDG Asus Zenbook S 14: Specifications Display: 14-inch (2880×1800) touchscreen OLED up to 120Hz Processor: Intel Core Ultra 7 258V (eight cores, eight threads) Graphics: Intel Arc NPU: Yes, 47 TOPS Memory: 32GB LPDDR5X, integrated Storage: 1 TB NVMe PCI 4.0 SSD (512GB as tested) Ports: 2 USB-C (Thunderbolt 4), 1 10Gbps USB-A, HDMI 2.1, 3.5mm audio jack Security: Windows Hello (camera) Camera: 1080p30 Battery: 72Wh (design), (71.9Wh (full, as tested) Wireless: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 Operating system: Windows 11 Home 24H2 Dimensions: 12.22 x 8.45 x 0.47 inches Weight: 2.65 pounds Color: Scandinavian White, Zumaia Gray Price: $1,499 as tested Asus Zenbook S 14: Build quality and first impressions The Asus Zenbook S 14 was Intel’s launch laptop for its latest Core Ultra Series 2 (Lunar Lake) processors, so most of my early experience with this clamshell laptop was quickly installing and running benchmarks for our review of the Lunar Lake chip. (While I’ll reproduce some of my benchmarks there, the Lunar Lake review dives much deeper into the laptop’s performance while on battery and on maximum performance settings). For this review, I treat the laptop much more holistically. Asus and Intel sent us the Zumaia Gray version for review. The Zenbook S 14 is constructed of what Asus calls Ceraluminum, a portmanteau of “ceramic aluminum.” While it does have a bit of a ceramic feel to it, your fingers will probably take away a somewhat plasticky feel from it all. Asus etched silvery lines on to the chassis on the back of the display, giving it the unfortunate look that a few cracks appeared. Overall, the laptop has a prestigious look to it, but nothing especially luxurious. Mark Hachman / IDG Structurally, it’s sound, too. I noticed just a minimal amount of flex when pressing hard upon the center of the keyboard and the display doesn’t demonstrate meaningful wobble. My overall impression of the Zenbook S 14 is of a compact little productivity powerhouse, and picking up and opening this notebook reinforces this idea rather quickly. The Zenbook weighs just 2.65 pounds, with a screen-to-body ratio of 90 percent — with a 14-inch screen that pushes up right against the borders of the chassis, in other words. Did you know that the 13-inch MacBook Air weighs 2.7 pounds? The left side of the Zenbook S 1 4 boats two Thunderbolt 4 ports as well as an HDMI connection.Mark Hachman / IDG There isn’t too much room between the left and right sides of the keyboard and the edges of the keyboard tray, and the touchpad feels like they had to lean hard against it to squeeze it — as well as the integrated functions it controls — in. The downside is that the keyboard looks and feels a mite cramped. Still, all of these things contribute to the impression that this little laptop is jam-packed with features. This new Asus Zenbook is extremely quiet. I tested it in a variety of modes, accessible via the MyAsus app, and forgot I had left it in “performance” mode. Normally, that means a loud, noisy fan blowing hard to keep the laptop cool. At least while performing office tasks, “Performance” is basically as loud as many laptops’ standard or “quiet” modes. There’s no real need to run the laptop in a high-performance mode, but rest assured that if you do, you probably won’t even notice. Even “full speed” mode, the laptop’s highest performance setting, declined to actually run the fan at high speed when it wasn’t needed. The Zenbook S 14 sucks air via vents on the bottom of the chassis and blows it out through the hinge. Is that a properly labeled USB-A port? It is!Mark Hachman / IDG Asus has added a pair of Thunderbolt 4 ports to the left side of the chassis, next to an HDMI 2.1 port. Asus has also included a single USB-A port on the right side, with a 3.5mm audio jack. It’s a nice mix of ports, able to accommodate an external display and mouse without the need for an optional Thunderbolt dock or USB-C hub. Inside, Asus has added an up-to-date Wi-Fi 7 radio, paired with Bluetooth 5.4. Asus Zenbook S 14: Display Asus chose a 14.0-inch, 3K (2880 x 1800) touch OLED panel with refresh rates up to 120Hz for use with the Zenbook S 14. The display is rated for 500 nits HDR peak brightness, which isn’t that much. At maximum brightness, the display produces 358 nits by my measurements, which is good for indoor use but not direct sun. Lenovo’s rival Lunar Lake platform, the Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition, uses a traditional IPS panel instead. The difference is one of image quality and a power tradeoff. An IPS panel typically uses a single, uniform backlight, which brightens and dims the entire screen depending upon the demands of the image it’s rendering. That can cause a bit of backlight “glow” in darker scenes, which OLED displays don’t have. OLEDs regulate brightness on a per-pixel basis, which gives darker scenes richer, deeper blacks. But they have a reputation for consuming more power than an IPS display if rendering a bright scene, such as you might use for apps like Microsoft Word or Outlook. It’s likely, given the stellar battery life this notebook already has, that chips like the Intel Core 200 series found inside will allow for visually richer OLED displays to be more common than in the past. Mark Hachman / IDG We’ve thankfully begun to move from a standard 1080p, 60Hz display to higher-resolution displays like the 1800p display here. That allows for a crisper image, and the dynamic 120Hz screen should feel more comfortable to look at for longer periods of time. (It will dip down to 60Hz when it thinks it can to save power, though you can fix it at 120Hz using the MyAsus settings app). An 120Hz screen refresh rate also allows for smoother inking and mousing, which isn’t so much of an issue because of the lack of an integrated stylus. (The laptop does boast stylus support). The Zenbook reclines to an approximate 30-40 degrees off the horizontal, which is fine for office work — reclining flat would allow for easier inking, however. In the real world, what this means is that you’ll be able to work in either light or dark mode, while enjoying a lovely screen for enjoying streamed video after hours. I’m an unabashed fan of OLED displays, and the Zenbook’s choice of an OLED display is probably a good thing. Inside the MyAsus app you’ll find various controls to tweak the display, from adjusting the color gamut to tweaking how the OLED displays visible pixels at low brightness. Probably the most important control from a visual sense is whether you enable a screensaver to kick in at about 30 minutes; OLEDs can suffer from “burn in,” but the issue is less of a concern now than it once was. Peer in closely, however, and you may notice the “speckling” that affected the Surface Pro 11th Edition’s OLED screen as well. Think of it as a very light coat of dust upon the “inside” of the screen. It’s extremely faint, not distracting at all, but it’s there. Asus Zenbook S 14: Keyboard and touchpad I’ve never found Asus keyboards particularly appealing, and that still holds with Zenbook S 14. The keys themselves aren’t any smaller than other notebooks I’ve tried, but the pitch — the space between the keys — is less than some competitors, contributing to a cramped feel. Mark Hachman / IDG Key travel is only 1.1mm, too, which is at the minimum end of the spectrum. Again, I prefer keyboards with at least 1.25mm of travel. You might think, does just 0.15mm make a difference? I believe it does and you’ll notice it. I typed this review on the Zenbook itself and I don’t feel like my fingers were as comfortable as on an Acer, Microsoft, or HP keyboard. The keyboard includes three levels of backlighting, which feels pretty necessary given the rather poor contrast between the key markings and the “gray” background. The backlighting will turn off after one minute on battery, a configurable setting. It remains on constantly while on wall power, unless disabled or unless the MyAsus setting disables it when the notebook detects bright light. If it weren’t for the keyboard, the Asus Zenbook S 14 (UX5406) would be my go-to productivity laptop. It’s a potent lightweight package that allows you to work over a day without a charge. Asus places a row of function keys atop the keyboard, which can be triggered either by tapping the Windows key or just the function key itself. There’s a dedicated emoji key, as well as one (F11) which is surprisingly without purpose. There are camera and mic control on the Asus Zenbook S 14, but no physical covers or slides.Mark Hachman / IDG The Zenbook S 14 is not the first Asus notebook to use its configurable touchpad, which incorporates the standard Windows touchpad gestures as well as its own: A swipe along the left edge to raise or lower the volume, along the right edge for brightness, and along the top to scrub back and forth within a video. They’re all surprisingly useful little tweaks. Otherwise, the mammoth touchpad is clickable just two-thirds or so up the screen. That’s acceptable, though not stellar. Asus Zenbook S 14: Audio, mic, and webcam The Zenbook S 14 has stellar audio, boosted by four integrated Harmon Kardon speakers and augmented by Dolby Atmos audio. Dolby’s “dynamic” setting is on by default, which will carry you across the finish line as far as audio quality is concerned. (The “music” setting sounds a bit better, but not by much). Again, the MyAsus app hides a few settings that may be of interest. Using AI to adjust the speakers didn’t do much, but the volume booster control nudges the volume up a bit. The AI mic control, though, continues to be really impressive. I’ve written before how Asus essentially filters out background noises, even music, almost perfectly from apps like Zoom or Teams using the NPU’s AI powers. If you do buy this notebook, try this out with a friend — it’s really remarkable. About the only knock on it is that it does cause your voice to sound somewhat hollow, and unless you start speaking immediately the tech might briefly and incorrectly “focus” on the background music instead. The bottom of the Zenbook, with a vent grille and speakers to the far left.Mark Hachman / IDG The Zenbook’s integrated 1080p, 30Hz webcam is decent. The video quality is sharp enough that you’ll come across pretty well on a video-conferencing app. The color balance, though, is hit or miss: my skin tone looked pretty normal, but my green shirt appeared brown. There are no physical slides or covers for the webcam, though Asus dedicated two function keys to turning off the webcam and mic. The webcam does have a depth camera attached, which is configured during setup to recognize your face. It worked flawlessly in my experience. Asus Zenbook S 14: Performance Whenever we test something, we try to minimize any potential conflicts or sources of trouble. In certain situations, though, that’s unavoidable. In this case, I tested the Asus Zenbook S 14, one of the first laptops out the door with Intel’s latest chip, together with one of the first Thunderbolt 5 docks in existence, the Kensington S5000T5. The Zenbook only has a Thunderbolt 4 port inside, not a Thunderbolt 5. But the dock played well with other laptops I own with a TB4 port. That wasn’t the case with the Zenbook S 14 — every hour or so, it would drop the connection to a monitor for a second or two. The displays wouldn’t disconnect, but the screen would blank. Also, I conducted a Web video chat with a vendor, using a Web-based “white box” video client that featured the vendor’s name — not Zoom or Teams. The laptop locked up completely, becoming totally unresponsive until I held down the power button to reboot it. I can’t say for certain what the cause was, but my time using this Asus notebook was not without issue. This review, though, will run through our standard benchmarks, plugged in on wall power. Qualcomm has been vehement that this generation of laptop testing should be performed on wall power as well as on battery, to show how sharply the Lunar Lake chip’s performance drops while on battery power. I absolutely agree, and conducted numerous tests on wall power and battery power — on this laptop, no less — to test the chip itself. Basically, expect that this laptop’s performance, unplugged, will drop to about 50 to 70 percent of what our test results show here. Office work and web browsing are just fine on battery, but if you plan to do something like intensive editing work, I’d plug in. A close competitor: the Surface Laptop, powered by Qualcomm.Chris Hoffman / IDG Should you buy a Lunar Lake laptop like this one over one powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite chip, such as the 2024 version of the Microsoft Surface Laptop? I don’t think it’s a conclusive win for either side. Qualcomm, like it or not, still has some lingering, minor compatibility issues, but the Snapdragon is a more power-efficient chip than the Core Ultra Series 200 / Lunar Lake chip found within this Asus Zenbook S 14. For comparison’s sake, I’ve chosen the 13.8-inch, $1,999 Microsoft Surface Laptop 7th Edition (aka the Surface Laptop 7) with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite chip, the 15.3-inch, $1,379 Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition with another Lunar Lake processor, the 14-inch $1,689 HP OmniBook Ultra 14 with AMD’s latest Ryzen AI 300 chip inside, plus Acer’s 14-inch, $1,329 TravelMate P4 Spin 14 with a Core Ultra Series 1 chip inside. I’ve also added a budget 14-inch $849 Asus Zenbook 14 from earlier this year as well as the surprisingly inexpensive $769 16-inch HP Pavilion Laptop 16 with a Core Ultra 7 155U inside, just to demonstrate what an extra $1,000 or so supposedly buys you. We use four major tests to determine the laptop’s performance, beginning with PCMark 10. This benchmark puts the laptop through a number of tasks, from videoconferencing to web browsing, to general Office tasks, and even some mildly intensive CAD work. It’s a good approximation of many daily tasks in a variety of applications, and a good score here means that this laptop will be able to hold up over a day’s work. Mark Hachman / IDG You would expect this laptop to hold up, however, and it does. There’s one thing I noticed, however, that stands out. If you drill down inside the PCMark scores (which we don’t usually break out), the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i falls just below the Zenbook in the total score, which includes a variety of factors. In a single category, spreadsheet performance, the Yoga far exceeds the Zenbook, with a score of 14,646 to 10,855, a whopping 35 percent difference. I don’t know why that is, but it’s noteworthy. Cinebench is a synthetic benchmark that pushes all of the laptop’s CPU cores to their limit. In this case, we’re trying to understand how well the laptop to respond to an application’s demands for the full capabilities of the PC, whatever that application may be. Don’t expect Lunar Lake laptops to be especially powerful; battery life is now the focus. Still, this laptop can hold its own. We use an older version of the test, Cinebench R20, as the version we test here. On the latest iterations, Cinebench R23 and Cinebench 2024, the laptop scored 1,855 and 589, respectively. You can find more context in our Lunar Lake review, which used this laptop as a test bed. Mark Hachman / IDG Handbrake is a similar test, though with prolonged exertion in mind. Handbrake takes an approximately 90-minute video file and transcodes it into a more compact format. It’s a practical task, one that people still perform for copying videos onto a tablet for a plane flight. But it’s really a test of how well the laptop can deal with a prolonged workload. After a while, running at full speed can cause the laptop to dial back its performance to prevent it from overheating. What this test evaluates is how well the laptop can cool itself and modulate its own power to prevent that from happening. Cutting back the performance increases the time it takes to complete the transcoding test, and we don’t want that. Mark Hachman / IDG While I wouldn’t look at the Asus Zenbook S 14 as a gaming laptop, we use the 3DMark test suite to evaluate the laptop’s 3D performance. UL, the developer behind the benchmark, has a variety of different benchmarks, which have slowly become more complex throughout the years. Time Spy is the test we use to compare laptops both past and present. Intel’s promised that the GPU inside this generation of Core Ultra chips has been significantly improved, and that’s true. Still, this isn’t a gaming laptop. Mark Hachman / IDG Our final test is of battery life, and it’s here that the competition between Intel and Qualcomm has been especially fervent. We take a 4K video and loop it over and over until the battery expires — which it does, hours and hours later. The laptop lasts so long that we even ran tests using UL’s Procyon battery life tests, which simulates someone “working” in the Microsoft Office apps for hours on end. That’s a long workday, for in this environment the laptop lasted for 17 hours, seven minutes instead of the 21 hours it persisted on our video rundown test. Basically, you can argue that this laptop will last about two workdays without a charge. Granted, Lunar Lake is not the absolute most efficient chip. The Surface Laptop 7th Edition with its Snapdragon X Elite chip is paired with a 54Wh battery. Asus includes a 73Wh battery inside, and the two laptops are neck and neck in overall battery life. That’s where I’m impressed with Asus. Yes, it stuffs more battery inside to keep up with Qualcomm and Microsoft, but it does so without the penalty of substantial extra weight. Mark Hachman / IDG There’s really no conclusion to draw here but the obvious one: This laptop will just keep going and going and going. Asus Zenbook S 14: Conclusion I typically prefer a laptop with a 15-inch screen, in part because I prefer as much information as possible to be on the screen at any one time. Seated at my desk, I’d prefer something a bit larger. Small and light is for on the go. On the last few trips I’ve made this year, however, I’ve found that for whatever reason, the charging ports that are now ubiquitous on most airlines aren’t as common in conference rooms. Teachers tell me that they simply don’t always have a charger at their podium or desk. If you arrive at a city for work, you may be shuttled around from appointment to appointment. You’d rather think about other things besides where your laptop can get a sip of juice. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite and the laptops it appears in are excellent. I have only tested one, the most recent Surface Laptop, and I would take that along on a trip, too. I already have. Some people, like me, are a bit nervous about the lingering compatibility issues Windows on Arm still have — though they’re minor, and Qualcomm and Microsoft are doggedly working to eliminate them. But the battery life, like Intel’s Lunar Lake laptops offer, is superb. If this new way of working appeals to you, I’d recommend you take a hard look at Asus Zenbook S 14. We’re headed into a new era of computing, and this laptop is on the cutting edge. Read...

You might think that simply having upgraded from Windows 10 to Windows 11 means you’re getting the latest and greatest Windows experience. But the fact is there are many hidden features within Windows 11 that can boost your experience even further, if you know how and where to find them. Whether it’s speeding up performance or improving efficiency or recoverying from a crash, the following tips can help you optimize Windows 11 like a power user. Tip 1: Use Windows 11 without a Microsoft account Microsoft is making it increasingly difficult for users to use the operating system without a Microsoft account. This also applies to the new version 24H2. We have already dealt with this topic in a separate article. get windows 11 pro for cheap Windows 11 Pro With Windows 11, it’s possible to start a command line with the key combination SHIFT F10. By entering oobe\bypassnro Windows 11 bypasses the online constraint. After entering the command, the installation restarts. If this does not work, try the Rufus tool to create an installation disc that allows local user accounts. Another trick, which does not work with all installation files, is to enter a nonexistent email address. Windows 11 Pro and Enterprise are somewhat more flexible than Windows 11 Home when using local accounts. Here, the message “Set up for work or school/university” appears during installation. You can then select the option “Logon options” and finally “Join the domain instead.” You can then use a local user account in Windows 11 Pro/Enterprise; a Windows domain/active directory is not necessary. Tip 2: Dev Drive can speed up access to storage drives If you are a little more experienced and want to speed up access to your drives significantly, you can set up a dev drive in Windows 11. The ReFS file system is used for this. A dev drive can significantly increase access to data through internal system settings, depending on the respective environment. To set up a dev drive in Windows 11, at least 8GB RAM (preferably 16GB RAM) and 50GB free storage space are required. Whether the installed version of Windows 11 already supports the Dev Drive can be checked in the settings under System > Storage > Advanced storage settings. Here you will see the option “Create a developer drive” under “Disks & volumes.” Foundry Developer drives are particularly interesting for advanced users and not just for developers. Tip 3: Simply install Windows 11 over the network using PXE and iVentoy With the small and free tool iVentoy, you can easily install Windows 11 on several PCs via the network. To do this, boot the relevant PC in network mode and use PXE. PXE (Preboot Execution Environment) enables private users and small offices to install operating systems such as Windows 11 directly on a PC via the network without the need for a physical installation medium such as a USB stick or DVD. To do this, a PXE server is set up on the home network, which provides the client computer with the Windows 11 installation image when it is started via the network. This is done using iVentoy, which simply needs to be started on a Windows computer. This method saves time if several computers are to be installed simultaneously and simplifies the process as no physical media needs to be distributed. PXE offers an efficient solution for the centralized management of operating system installations, particularly for small offices with multiple devices. The PC searches the network for a suitable server and finds iVentoy when the tool is started. You can then transfer the installation files to the new PCs via the network and install Windows 11. The tool also supports the installation of Linux over the network via PXE. Thomas Joos You can also experiment with iVentoy at home. The tool is not very complex to use, but does require some familiarization. Tip 4: Quit programs that hang more easily It happens from time to time that a program stops responding. In most cases, you then switch to the Task Manager, but this does not always work. The Task Manager is not always easy to access, especially when games or other programs are in full-screen mode. Normally, you use the context menu of the taskbar or the key combination Shift + Ctrl + Esc. In Windows 11, it is even easier to activate the “End task” option under System > For developers. The new “End task” command is then available for all programs in the taskbar. This is much quicker to access than the diversions via the Task Manager. Foundry Tip 5: Prevent bloatware during new installations of Windows 11 Unfortunately, Microsoft is increasingly installing bloatware on your computer with Windows 11. Bloatware refers to pre-installed software on devices that is often unnecessary and takes up system resources. With Windows 11, it is noticeable that many new devices are delivered with additional programs that the user did not request. This bloatware can affect system performance, take up memory, and negatively impact the user experience. While some of these programs can be useful, many users find them unnecessary and uninstall them to optimize the system and eliminate unnecessary background processes. When reinstalling Windows 11, select the “English (World)” option for “Time and currency format” on the “Select language settings” page. In this case, Windows 11 will not install any bloatware. Tip 6: Trigger an emergency restart If Windows no longer functions properly, press the key combination Ctrl+Alt+Del. You will find the icon for switching off the PC at the bottom right. If you hold down the Ctrl key when you press the switch-off icon, the option “Immediate restart (for emergencies)” will appear. Restarting is faster and also works if other restart options no longer work. Windows 11 does not wait for any programs or services. Tip 7: Windows no longer responds or only a black screen is visible The key combination Windows+Ctrl+Shift+B restarts the entire display process so that it can rebuild itself. Windows can then be restarted if the display hangs. In some cases, Windows restarts the graphics card driver, but only if there is no other option. Tip 8: Using the sound mixer Use the volume icon and select the small icon to the right of the volume bar to call up the volume mixer. This allows you to specifically adjust the volume of individual programs, for example games. It can also be opened using the Windows+Ctrl+V key combination. Tip 9: Pause the view of processes in Task Manager If you have opened the Task Manager, for example via the context menu of the taskbar or with the key combination Ctrl+Shift+Esc, you can display the view of processes according to CPU consumption, for example. The processes jump back and forth due to the changing resource consumption. Use the Ctrl key to pause the view so that you can end hung processes more quickly. This makes it easier for you to check the utilization of individual programs in Windows 11. Foundry Tip 10: Keyboard shortcuts for opening Office programs and LinkedIn Ctrl+Shift+Alt+Windows+W opens Word if you have Microsoft 365 installed. Press Ctrl+Shift+Alt+Windows+P to open PowerPoint, Ctrl+Shift+Alt+Windows+O to start Outlook and Ctrl+Shift+Alt+Windows+L to open the LinkedIn homepage. You can also open Excel with Ctrl+Shift+Alt+Windows+X. Tip 11: Are there updates for installed programs? You can find out in the command line If you enter the command “winget upgrade” in the command line, Windows displays the versions of the installed programs and at the same time whether there are new versions of the programs. However, this only applies to programs that can also be installed via Winget. However, you do not need to have installed the programs via Winget. If you now want to update all programs, use “winget update -h -all”. Thomas Joos Read...

GitHub has unveiled multi-model support for Copilot, enabling developers to choose from models by Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI. Read...

The latest version of Microsoft Office is here, and you can get it without a recurring subscription payment. Normally, Microsoft charges $150 for the base version of Office Home 2024, which is pretty hefty for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. But the official PCWorld software store has it for 20 percent off, just $119.99. This deal will only last for another two days, so hop on it quick. This digital copy of Office Home works with Windows 10 or 11, or even macOS if that’s your thing. The latest versions of Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint pack in a ton of new features like a refined user interface, better support for OpenDocument Format, improved accessibility tools, and streamlined integration with mobile, like the ability to plop a photo into a document on your desktop right from your phone. This standalone version of Office will be updated for functionality and security, but it won’t be getting constant feature updates. And it doesn’t include the full version of Outlook (though you can get one that does with a $20 discount). But at $120 for a “forever” license that never needs to be renewed, it’s a much better deal than the Microsoft 365 system, which starts at a hefty $99.99 a year. Again, this deal is only available for two more days, ending on Thursday, October 31. Spooky. Get Microsoft Office Home 2024 for $119.99View Deal Read...

New Zealand’s newest Monopoly edition features iconic Dunedin hotspots, and Castle St even makes the cut. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Tons of features for the price Long battery life Hot-swap switches Light weight Cons Screen is almost useless No per-game profiles Imitation style Our Verdict The Immersion A3 is shamelessly cribbing on Logitech’s gaming keyboard style, and its screen is near useless. But its long list of features, light weight, low profile, and great battery life help it stand out as a budget alternative to similar wireless mechanical designs. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Hexgears Immersion A3 keyboard Retailer Price $129 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Can you get all the same features from a $300 keyboard in one that costs less than half the price? Well, no. But you can get pretty close. And if you’re on a budget, that’s more than good enough. So it is with the Hexgears Immersion A3, a keyboard that tries to bring flagship features to a far more attainable price point.  Further reading: Best wireless keyboards 2024: Top Bluetooth and USB models This wireless, hot-swap, RGB, screen-equipped keyboard hits most of the high points for modern name-brand mechanical designs, but starts at $130 (and just $110 with a coupon at the time of writing). It’s weird to say this about a keyboard with a triple-digit price tag, but that makes it a deal.  It’s weird to say this about a keyboard with a triple-digit price tag, but that makes it a deal.  There are a few corners cut here, as you’d probably expect, and it’s clearly using a lot of whitebox hardware. But it’s packed with features at a good price.  Hexgears Immersion A3: Design In terms of looks and layout, the Immersion A3 is obviously, ahem, “inspired” by Logitech’s G915. It’s using the same sleek, low-profile look with black keycaps on brushed metal, the same TKL setup. Hell, it’s even sporting the same separate, circular control buttons on an extra top row. I wouldn’t quite call it shameless…okay, yeah. It’s shameless.  Michael Crider/Foundry The biggest departure from Logitech’s design is that little screen up in the right corner, squishing the volume wheel into a much smaller rocker. Screens on keyboards are a trend at the moment, with examples from SteelSeries, Asus, and Razer, among tons of smaller mechanical manufacturers.  And I’ll say here what I’ve said in every other relevant review: tiny screens on keyboards are dumb. They’re especially unwelcome on wireless boards where battery is at a premium. Little bitty screens on a device you use while looking at another screen are an inherently bad idea, and I can’t wait for this trend to die.  On the Immersion A3 it’s pretty much useless — you can only use the rocker next to it to adjust the lighting, something that’s already very easy to do with the function layer. (In fact those buttons are already right below the screen). The only other thing you can do with this tiny display is change the language of the display. Though it defaults to a clock, you need the desktop software to actually change the time. So dumb!  Michael Crider/Foundry I think that this thing is so limited because it’s a whitebox part that’s being used in dozens of different keyboards that have recently come out. I found five different ones with just a quick Amazon search, all with what looks like an identical or near-identical screen running on the same pre-loaded software, all from different brands.  But, having complained about how dumb this screen is, it at least doesn’t negatively impact anything else on the keyboard, aside from wasting physical space. Even when it’s on it doesn’t suck down too much battery since it’s mostly static. And you can turn it off and maximize the keyboard’s battery life by pressing the circular power button. Which, confusingly, is neither the power button for the keyboard (that’s a switch on the top edge) or your connected device. See? Dumb.  Hexgears Immersion A3: Features Otherwise, the keyboard is surprisingly straightforward. You get low-profile key switches that are also hot-swap, a hard-to-find combination. These are supplied by Kailh, a good option with a good selection of choices (even though it’s far fewer than with standard Cherry MX-compatible switches). And Amazon is selling this keyboard with linear (white), tactile (black), or clicky (grey) switches pre-installed. It’s great that they’re offering all three without the need to buy extra switches.  The tactile switches included on this review unit are pretty good, similar to the custom ones on the Lofree Edge, though nowhere near as cushioned and quiet. I was able to adjust to typing on them extremely quickly, helped in no small part by the standardized TKL layout. Finding replacement or custom keycaps to swap out for the dull ABS ones here won’t be too difficult thanks to the cross-shaped stems, though full-height Cherry caps probably won’t work.  Michael Crider/Foundry You get RGB lights (a bit on the dim side) with the usual options for animations. You get a nice brushed aluminum top with a blue-black hue. The plastic bottom feels a little cheap, but I appreciate the double keyboard feet for three adjustable angles. The trim on the top near the power switch is a bit chintzy, but hardly unforgivable, and I like that you can stow the 2.4GHz wireless dongle right in the body.  And even for a mid-sized keyboard, you might want to. Despite having a massive 5800mAh battery — bigger than most smartphones! — it’s shockingly light at just a hair over 1.5 pounds (.75 kilograms). Between that and the slim profile, you might be tempted to throw this thing in a laptop bag… but with the sharp floating keycaps, I’d recommend a dedicated carrier first.  Michael Crider/Foundry All in all, it’s a very solid package. Not premium by any means — the cheap plastic on the control buttons and trim gives it away, as does the lack of a wrist rest. But the Immersion A3 is more than acceptable for a budget board with dreams of greatness.  Hexgears Immersion A3: Typing and gaming Actually using this thing for a couple of weeks surprised me. While it lacks the refined feel low-profile boards like the Nuphy Air or Lofree Edge, it’s rock-solid in both dongle-based wireless and Bluetooth mode. I was able to type away for hours, then switch seamlessly into PC games without any hiccups.  Michael Crider/Foundry I should mention gaming, because Hexgears advertises this as a gaming keyboard. And it commits one of my cardinal sins for gaming boards: Omitting an option to bind specific programmed layouts to specific games. Hexgears does offer its own downloadable Windows driver program, which you’ll need to sync and correct the display’s clock, if you care. It’s dull, but serviceable, offering three different profiles and the usual color adjustment and macro programming.  Michael Crider/Foundry But there’s no way to launch profiles with games. For a gaming board that bills itself as premium, even one that’s far cheaper than its competition, I have to ding it. The wired G.Skill KM250, which remains my go-to gaming board budget pick over a year later, can get away with it for under $50. The Immersion A3 cannot.  Hexgears Immersion A3: Conclusion Even after nitpicking the software and the vestigial screen, I have to admit that this board is a good deal at $130 and a great one at $110. If you like Logitech’s low-profile looks but think its gaming boards are overpriced (and they are!), it’s an excellent alternative. If you’re looking to use this as a base for some upgrades, I’d recommend a set of low-profile PBT keycaps and some quiet switches. The Immersion A3 is a good deal at $130 and a great one at $110. The Immersion A3 makes some notable compromises to hit its budget price, but none of them are deal breakers. If you want more flexible programming or you prefer a smaller or larger layout, consider a Nuphy Air or Keychron K series instead. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Chassis feels durable Great wired and wireless connectivity Well-rounded CPU and GPU performance Lengthy battery life  Cons Awkward keyboard and touchpad layout Medicore IPS display GPU performance slightly behind competitors Our Verdict The MSI Stealth A16 AI+ is a jack-of-all-trades that tries to deliver strong CPU and GPU performance in a thin chassis yet also provide lengthy battery life. It mostly succeeds, though its mediocre display is a bummer. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Shoppers looking for a 16-inch laptop have no shortage of choice. The MSI Stealth A16 AI+ is yet another option in this packed arena and, as its name implies, it doesn’t stand out at first glance. However, the MSI Stealth A16 AI+ is worth your attention if you need one laptop that can handle a bit of everything. Further reading: Best laptops 2024: Premium, budget, gaming, 2-in-1s, and more MSI Stealth A16 AI+: Specs and features The MSI Stealth A16 AI+ pairs an AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 processor with an Nvidia RTX 4070 mobile GPU. This is a popular choice for laptops looking to deliver strong performance in a relatively thin and light chassis.  Model number: A3XVEG CPU: AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 Memory: 32GB LPDDR5x-7500 Graphics/GPU: Nvidia RTX 4070 mobile NPU: Integrated NPU (Up to 50 TOPs) Display: 2560×1600 16:10 IPS 240Hz Storage: 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 solid state storage Webcam: 1080p 30fps camera with IR 3D camera for Windows Hello, physical privacy shutter Connectivity: 1x Thunderbolt 4 / USB-C with DisplayPort, USB Power Delivery, 2x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2, 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x 2.5GbE LAN Ethernet Networking: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 Biometrics: Windows Hello facial recognition Battery capacity: 99.9 watt-hours Dimensions: 14.01 x 10.22 x 0.79 inches Weight: 4.63 pounds MSRP: $1,999.99 MSRP  MSI provides a wide range of physical connectivity that includes an Ethernet port (a feature many laptops no longer offer). The Stealth A16 AI+ also has a large battery and supports biometric login through both a fingerprint reader and facial recognition. Alone, none of these features are unusual, but it’s great to see them together in a laptop priced at $2,000. The MSI Stealth A16 AI+ is a well-rounded laptop that’s best for people who need one machine capable of handling many tasks. MSI Stealth A16 AI+: Design and build quality IDG / Matthew Smith The MSI Stealth A16 AI+ looks subtle at a glance. Like most laptops, it’s constructed from aluminum and plastic panels that together strike a handsome, yet unassuming, pose. The laptop’s black colorway, thin (though not super thin) design, and 16-inch display panel make it easy to mistake the laptop for competitors. Acer’s Swift X series and Lenovo’s thinnest Legion laptops look similar, especially when closed. Still, MSI nails the details. The aluminum panels that span the interior and exterior have an attractive metallic luster that catches ambient light, and a subtle glossy accent strip on the laptop’s rear provides a touch of luxury. It’s a tightly bolted laptop, too. I noticed only the slightest display flex when opening the laptop, and the chassis felt robust when I picked it up from one corner.  The Stealth A16 AI+ is portable, but not any more so than the competition. It measures roughly eight-tenths of an inch thick, 14 inches wide, and weighs about 4.6 pounds. That’s certainly light enough that it won’t feel burdensome in a backpack, but there’s a long list of competitors, from the Dell XPS 16 to the Asus ProArt P16, that offer similar or better portability. MSI Stealth A16 AI+: Keyboard, trackpad IDG / Matthew Smith MSI packs a keyboard in numpad in the Stealth A16 AI+ which is a polarizing choice. There’s barely enough space for the numpad, which means the keys are extremely small. The numpad shifts the keyboard towards the left, placing it offset from the touchpad, which remains centered. I got used to it, but I would have preferred a center-aligned keyboard without a numpad. Awkward layout aside, the keyboard has good key travel and a pleasant typing feel. Each key activates with a subtle but noticeable tactile snap. The keyboard has SteelSeries-branded customizable RGB-LED backlighting, as well, which is managed through SteelSeries’ software. This is a good decision, as SteelSeries’ software is attractive and intuitive. The Stealth A16 AI+ has an adequate touchpad that measures about five inches wide and three inches deep. Most competing laptops have a touchpad of similar size, but it’s not as large as class leaders like the Razer Blade 16 and Microsoft Surface Laptop 15. There’s still enough room to use Windows’ multi-touch gestures, though, and the touchpad’s surface felt smooth and responsive MSI Stealth A16 AI+: Display, audio IDG / Matthew Smith There’s a lot to like about the MSI Stealth A16 AI+, but the display is a weakness. The laptop arrived with a 16-inch 2560×1600 resolution display in a 16:10 aspect ratio. It also has a maximum refresh rate of up to 240Hz refresh rate and provides clear, crisp motion in fast-paced games (though Adaptive Sync is unfortunately absent).  That all sounds fine, but the display relies on outdated IPS panel technology. Calling it “outdated” is a bit controversial, I’m sure, but I’m going to go ahead and say it: I think that IPS is outdated, at least on a laptop price above $1,000. This is mostly due to the poor contrast ratio of IPS panels, which lags far behind OLED and Mini-LED alternatives. A low contrast ratio translates to a dull, flat image.  It’s not just about contrast, though. The Stealth A16AI+ isn’t especially bright, with a maximum SDR brightness of 364 nits. It has a wide color gamut, too, and can handle 98 percent of the popular DCI-P3 color gamut. However, it covers only 87 percent of the wider AdobeRGB gamut. Most OLED displays crack 90 percent.  None of this is to say the MSI Stealth A16 AI+ has a terrible display. It looks ok. Good, even, when displaying bright and colorful content. Still, many competitors now use OLED displays, and they’re just…better.  Audio quality, on the other hand, is a strength. The Stealth A16 AI+ has upwards-firing speakers in the palm rest which provide strong, clear audio with good range and a hint of bass. They’re a bit lacking in volume, which places them behind class leaders like the Lenovo Yoga 9i Pro, but I think most people will be pleased by the MSI’s audio performance.  MSI Stealth A16 AI+: Webcam, microphone, biometrics The MSI Stealth A16 AI+ has a typical camera and microphone setup for a high-end Windows laptop. A 1080p webcam with HDR is paired with a dual microphone array. Both are passable. The webcam provides an acceptable image, but can get very grainy in low light, while the microphone captures audio at good volume but suffers the hollow, distant quality common to laptop microphones. Biometric login is available through Windows Hello for both fingerprint and facial recognition. The fingerprint reader is located to the left of the touchpad, which I think is preferable to placing it on the power button (you don’t have to worry you’ll accidentally put the laptop to sleep). I prefer facial recognition, though, because it activates when the display lid is opened and provides touchless login.  MSI Stealth A16 AI+: Connectivity IDG / Matthew Smith Like ports? You’ll like the MSI Stealth A16 AI+. It has one Thunderbolt 4 port with USB-C 4, DisplayPort, and USB Power Delivery (the laptop’s power brick does not use USB-C, however). These are joined by two USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 ports, one HDMI 2.1, and 2.5GbE LAN Ethernet. That’s a good array of ports for a modern laptop. There’s ample connectivity for new Thunderbolt 4 and USB-C devices, yet still plenty of options for connecting to older wired peripherals, a television, or a router. This works to MSI’s advantage, as many competitors lack HDMI, and a majority lack wired Ethernet.  Wireless connectivity is excellent, too, as the laptop supports Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. These are the latest versions of each standard. MSI Stealth A16 AI+: Performance The MSI Stealth A16 AI+ is packing hardware that’s more powerful than its slim form factor lets on. AMD’s Ryzen AI 9 365 delivers CPU grunt, while Nvidia’s RTX 4070 mobile delivers on graphics.  IDG / Matthew Smith PCMark 10, a holistic synthetic benchmark that relies in part on CPU, GPU, and memory performance, reported a favorable score of 7,718 on the MSI Stealth A16 AI+.  This is similar to most competitive laptops with AMD Ryzen AI 9 or Intel Core Ultra 9 chips, but it’s the second best result among the laptops chosen for comparison. That puts the MSI Stealth A16 AI+ off to a great start. IDG / Matthew Smith Next up is Cinebench R23, a heavily multithreaded CPU tests with a short duration. Here, the MSI Stealth A16 AI+ posts a decent but less respectable result. It’s not slow, but it’s beaten by three alternatives with higher-tier examples of AMD and Intel hardware. This suggests that the Stealth A16 AI+, though speedy overall, isn’t the best choice if you’re running software that leans heavily on the CPU yet gains little or nothing from the GPU. IDG / Matthew Smith Handbrake is another heavily multithreaded CPU benchmark, but with a longer duration (between 10 and 30 minutes, usually). The MSI Stealth A16 AI+ did better than expected in this test, as it managed eek out a win over the Asus ProArt P16. This is a good result, and indicates the MSI is a good choice for longer-duration CPU workloads. IDG / Matthew Smith In 3DMark Time Spy, our first graphics test, the MSI Stealth A16 AI+ posted a score of 10,422. That’s typical for a 16-inch laptop that has Nvidia graphics in a reasonably portable chassis, and it effectively ties the Asus ProArt P16. Laptops like the Gigabyte Aorus 16X can achieve better results, even with the same Nvidia RTX 4070 GPU inside. But the Gigabyte is thicker, at up to once inch thick, and weighs a pound more. IDG / Matthew Smith Shadow of the Tomb Raider is now six years old, believe it or not, but it remains a good example of what players can expect from modestly demanding games released in the PlayStation 4 / Xbox One console generation. The MSI Stealth A16 AI+ is no slouch, as it delivered an average frame rate of 129 frames per second. It is a step behind some competitors, however.  IDG / Matthew Smith It’s a similar story in Metro: Exodus, an older but still extremely demanding game that, at its highest detail settings, can really stress Nvidia’s RTX 4070. The MSI Stealth A16 AI+ averaged 43 frames per second, which is respectable, but notably behind the Asus ProArt P16’s score average of 50 frames per second. I wrapped up the graphics tests with Cyberpunk 2077, a notoriously demanding title. The MSI Stealth AI 16 AI+ averaged 73 FPS at 1080p resolution and Ultra detail. It also delivered a barely-playable 31 FPS at 1080p resolution with the OverDrive ray-traced preset. Both numbers are solid figures. Compared to the Asus ProArt P16, the MSI tied at Ultra detail and scored a victory in the OverDrive ray-traced mode.  The MSI Stealth A16 AI+ is a strong but unsurprising performer. It delivered a great result in PCMark 10 and good results across both CPU and GPU-specific benchmarks. With that said, though, it doesn’t leap out in any particular area and often lands behind the comparable Asus ProArt P16. In fairness to the MSI, however, the ProArt P16 is $300 more expensive.  MSI Stealth A16 AI+: Battery life The MSI Stealth A16 AI+ claims to have a 99.9 watt-hour battery. I say “claims” because that is not what Windows reported. It instead placed the battery’s capacity a bit below 97 watt-hours. Either way, it’s close to the largest battery available in a modern laptop.  IDG / Matthew Smith And it pays off.  The MSI Stealth A16 AI+ achieved almost 10 hours of battery life. That’s a great result for a laptop with a powerful mobile GPU. Though it’s still far behind the 20 hours or more that is possible with the longest-lasting portable laptops, the MSI Stealth A16 AI+ is in a different performance category.  MSI Stealth A16 AI+: Conclusion The MSI Stealth A16 AI+ is a well-rounded laptop that’s best for people who need one machine capable of handling many tasks. It’s quick enough to handle demanding content creation, has a GPU that can play modern games at respectable resolutions and detail settings (and accelerate some productivity tasks), and has battery life long enough to make the laptop a good travel companion.  This isn’t the best laptop for any single job. Some alternatives have better battery life, stronger performance, or a superior display. But if you need a laptop that can handle a bit of everything, the Stealth A16 AI+ fits the bill. And, speaking of bills, it’s not especially expensive; the base MSRP of $1999.99 compares well to more luxurious alternatives like the Dell XPS 16, Asus ProArt P16, and Razer Blade 16. Read...

Running a small business is tough. There are so many tasks that need your attention; campaigns to plan, keeping up to date with your brand messaging, all while ensuring your data is secure. It can feel overwhelming at times, but Google Workspaces has a fully-featured set of tools that can take some of the burdens off your back and let your business flourish. Now, with the latest and improved integration and capabilities of Gemini AI available, there’s never been a better time to upgrade your productivity by working smarter not harder. How Google Workspace and Gemini can help Three of the most important elements of a small business are productivity, communication and security. If any of these three pillars fail, then it can spell disaster. Gemini for Google Workspace can help ensure that doesn’t happen, with powerful features that will speed up work and improve its quality. Productivity Google recently announced that the standalone Gemini app is now part of all Google Workspace Business, Enterprise and Frontline plans. So, you can start experimenting with how this clever technology can make previously time-sapping jobs into ones that take only minutes. Gemini helps with creating task lists, researching subjects, generating images for your presentations, plus much more. Google Thanks to a new Gemini for Google Workspace add-on, those who want the most comprehensive set of AI-tools can get them directly within apps like Google Docs, Gmail, Google Drive, Sheets, and Slides. This makes it even easier to access the features, as you simply click on the Gemini icon to open the side panel and you can use the AI-assistant within a document, presentation, spreadsheet or anything else you’re working on. Say you need blog posts for your website or social media channels, but don’t have time to research and write them. Simply tell Gemini what kind of content you want, how you’d like it laid out and who it’s aimed at. The software will quickly generate ideas and structures which you can look through and ask for adjustments or the inclusion of new ideas or themes. When you’re happy, Gemini can expand the text into full articles that you can use immediately. If you need accompanying images, then Gemini can create those too. There’s also the ability to drag and drop documents you have already created so that Gemini can create presentations or reports using the information. You can add links to YouTube videos that Gemini will then summarise, ask it to research potential new clients, or even help with the planning of a sales campaign for your new services or products. With Gemini for Google Workspace you have an AI-powered assistant that’s always on-hand to make light work of difficult tasks. In fact, recent surveys conducted by Google found that working with built-in Gemini AI across apps such as Gmail, Docs, and Drive, saved users an average of 105 minutes per week, with 75% of daily Gemini for Google Workspace users saying it improved the quality of their work. So, not only were they more productive, they actually created better content. Communication Gemini for Google Workspace can also be a valued addition when it comes to communicating with customers. For example, if you’re approaching a new client and want to get off on the right foot, you can ask Gemini to research the company, products or services, then generate a marketing strategy that explains why you’d be a great fit with them. Google With its Gmail integration, Gemini can also draft introductory letters to new clients, write marketing emails, or create responses to customer service enquiries that avoid you using standard templates that can feel cold and impersonal. With all of these you also have the ability to change the tone and style with just a click. Save the hours that you’ve previously spent dealing with emails and social media duties by handing the bulk of it over to Gemini for Google Workspace. Security Security is at the heart of Gemini for Google Workspace, as Google understands how valuable your data is to your business. To help with the constant pressure of keeping cyberthreats at bay, there’s now a new Security Advisor toolkit that can analyse potential weaknesses in security and offer guidance on how to protect against them. It’s like having a security expert in your organisation that’s always looking for ways to improve the safety of your data. Basically, it’s security made simple. Google You can also use the admin console to decide how Gemini handles your data, with the promise that it will never use the information to train or improve Gemini’s models. Your data is your data, and it always will be. To illustrate this, Gemini for Google Workspace is one of the first generative AI solutions to be awarded SOC 1/2/3, ISO 27001, and ISO 27701 certification, which represent some of the highest industry standards for security and privacy. Make your business more productive with Gemini for Google Workspace today There’s no need to spend any more time struggling under the pressure of running your business, instead head over to the Gemini for Google Workspace page and sign up for a trial today. You’ll instantly have access to powerful tools that can improve productivity, quality and the professionalism of your content. With the new security suite, you’ll also know that your data is safe and how to keep it that way. There’s practically no learning curve either, as Gemini integrates with Google’s hugely popular apps, of which you and your team will already be familiar. Perhaps the best asset that you get with Gemini for Google Workspace though isn’t one you’ll find in the spec sheet, as it’s simply time to think and breathe. Precious stuff. You can try the new Gemini AI tools today, with prices starting at $20 per user per month, and make your business smarter and safer without blowing your budget. Read...

You have probably heard a lot about AI recently. One of the best ways to explore it for yourself is with a GeForce RTX 40 Series AI PC from iBUYPOWER. These PCs have access to NVIDIA’s RTX AI acceleration, which supercharges AI applications and workflows you use every day. The RDY Y60 005 is one of iBUYPOWER’s top NVIDIA RTX-equipped models, and this performance PC is currently selling at a tasty $400 discount, $1,949 from its original $2,349 price. It gets you a smart-looking enclosure with a transparent side wall, the incredibly powerful Intel Core i9-14900KF CPU and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER graphics card with 12GB vRAM. Where Microsoft’s CoPilot Plus laptops promise “40+ TOPs” of AI computing power, an RTX 4070 SUPER commands 836 TOPs thanks to AI-specialized Tensor cores designed for the job. View iBuyPower PC with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 Series GPUs PCs like these are AI powerhouses. But what can you actually do with all that power? Clearer, smoother, sharper gaming NVIDIA DLSS is one of our favorite applications of AI, ever. And it is proof there’s much more to artificial intelligence than chatbots and image generation tools. DLSS is an upscaling and frame generation engine that makes your games appear clearer, smoother and sharper. It lets a PC run games at a lower resolution, and then uses the upscaler to make visuals appear rendered at a much higher resolution. It sounds like witchcraft that shouldn’t work, but the results often look better than if you were to render at the higher resolution in the first place. Are you a game streamer as well as a player? The NVIDIA Broadcast app uses AI to turn any room into a home studio. This includes features like removing distracting background noise in your audio feed, removing or replacing your background, and keeping your eyes on the screen – even if you’re not looking at the camera. iBUYPOWER Upscale and improve video quality For those who just like to watch content rather than make it, there’s NVIDIA RTX Video. This can upscale any video you like and convert it to HDR. Sure, it’s common for TVs to have built-in Auto HDR and upscaling, but NVIDIA’s RTX implementation is so much more effective. Your personal, private chatbot You can also customize your own personal chatbot with NVIDIA ChatRTX. However, unlike ChatGPT, it’s designed to use your own files as its data source, so you get quick, personalized answers. And it runs locally on your RTX AI PC, so your data stays just where it should be — private. Get a taste of future AI today These features are just a taste of what’s to come in the future for AI, and an iBUYPOWER RDY Y60 005 with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER sets you up for that future perfectly. You’ll find quality components throughout an iBUYPOWER PC, and each rig comes with a 2-year parts and 3-year labor warranty. And, as we’ve seen with the iBUYPOWER RDY Y60 005’s current $400 discount, you’ll often find a bargain there too. Save $400 on iBuyPower RDY Y60 005 AI PC View Offer Read...

It feels like artificial intelligence is in everything these days — TVs, laptops, phones, websites, even PDF editors — and that big boom can be attributed to the wild success of OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Microsoft is doing its best to compete with its own Copilot AI chatbot, and both ChatGPT and Copilot are pretty good at providing answers, generating text and images, and holding conversations. Most importantly, they’re both free to use. Related: Real ways I use ChatGPT to improve my life But ChatGPT and Copilot both offer paid plans in the form of ChatGPT Plus and Copilot Pro, respectively. Why would you pay for them when they’re freely available? Are the extra benefits worth it? Well, if you’re thinking about ponying up some cash on a premium AI chatbot and wondering which one is better for you, here’s what you need to know about ChatGPT Plus versus Copilot Pro, based on what they offer and my own experience using each. The benefits of Copilot Pro Copilot Pro is a $20-per-month subscription that grants “priority access to [Copilot’s] latest AI models, higher usage limits, and early access to new features.” Basically, Copilot Pro is a more advanced and more capable version of the basic Copilot AI chatbot available for free. Copilot Pro first launched in January 2024 and has been updated several times since, integrating new GPTs and adding new features as they’re released. For example, it got support for OpenAI’s GPT-4o model in May 2024, and has since built on top of that with additional training to further differentiate it from ChatGPT’s offerings. Microsoft Signing up for Copilot Pro unlocks priority access to new models, allowing you to take advantage of better generative AI for more useful results; meanwhile, free users are sometimes restricted and don’t have access to the latest AI models, mainly during peak times (e.g., when lots of people are using Copilot). On top of that, Copilot Pro users can use the Copilot Voice feature to speak with the AI chatbot in conversational mode, and they get 100 daily credits for creating images with Copilot (versus 15 for free users). You can also craft your own custom GPTs, which can be great for completing more specific tasks or acting a certain way based on your prompts. The real selling point of Copilot Pro, though, is its integration with Microsoft 365 applications. In Word, Copilot can draft, rewrite, and summarize documents. In Excel, Copilot can generate formulas, analyze data, and create visuals. In PowerPoint, Copilot can generate slides and outlines. In Outlook, Copilot can draft emails according to tone and summarize long email threads. In OneNote, Copilot can summarize notes, create to-do lists, and help you plan for the future. Microsoft is expected to further expand Copilot Pro integration throughout Microsoft 365 apps next year. But you’ll need a Microsoft 365 subscription to make the most of Copilot Pro. Related: Microsoft 365’s new Pages feature makes Copilot Pro crucial for teams The benefits of ChatGPT Plus ChatGPT Plus is a $20-per-month subscription that unlocks a number of additional capabilities in OpenAI’s ChatGPT AI chatbot. For starters, it grants greater access to the latest GPT-4o model and better access to the service overall. If there’s server downtime, free users are likely to be restricted but Plus subscribers aren’t. You can also build custom GPTs for a range of uses. I’ve made a few of my own over the past year, but there are also a number of third-party GPTs that you might find useful for coding, travel planning, working with spreadsheets, teaching you languages, and much more. ChatGPT Plus has an extensive range of third-party custom GPTs to choose from.OpenAI ChatGPT Plus can work with a range of data, too. You can upload documents, images, or PDF files for it to trawl through. It can summarize them, answer questions based on them, and in the case of images, it can edit them or even generate new images based on your prompts. It also understands multiple programming languages and has a Canvas editing tool where you can work on documents and code within a ChatGPT window while discussing it with the AI chatbot. ChatGPT Plus also has Advanced Voice, which lets you converse directly with ChatGPT in fluid conversational style with realistic intonations. You can choose from a range of voice options, both male and female, from different parts of the world. It can also adjust its tone and pacing, and it’s even able to be sarcastic at times. ChatGPT Plus also has its own memory functions, which allow it to remember what you’ve talked about for improved contextual understanding of your prompts. Related: ChatGPT has its own AI search engine now Copilot Pro vs. ChatGPT Plus I’ve used both Copilot Pro and ChatGPT Plus for a range of tasks over the past few months, and I’ve found them both to be effective, capable AI assistants. They each have some unique features, though, and one is sometimes better at certain things than the other. When it comes to software integration and availability, Copilot Pro definitively has an edge. It’s available on mobile devices, on the web, in Windows, in Microsoft Edge, and across Microsoft 365 apps (if you have a Microsoft 365 subscription). Although I personally tend towards open-source software, you might find Copilot Pro to be exceedingly useful if you spend hours per day in Word, Excel, or Outlook. It’s great for finding insights in your data, quickly drafting emails and documents, and summarizing items you’d normally waste a lot of time reading. Related: What can Microsoft 365’s premium AI tool do? ChatGPT Plus comes out ahead as far as math and coding are concerned. I’ve used both tools to help me on game development projects, and though both were useful and both made mistakes at times, I found ChatGPT Plus was just more accurate overall. As a quick test, I asked both premium AI chatbots to help me calculate the odds of a certain outcome from certain dice rolls in a game I was playing. (I play board games with mathematicians and data scientists who can do this in their head. Sue me.) Jon Martindale / IDG In asking: “On four d10s, what are the odds for getting one success, two success, three success, and four success, when trying to roll 3 or higher.” Copilot Pro immediately told me: “When rolling four d10s, and needing a 3 or higher, each die has a 70% chance of success (since 8 out of 10 possible results meet this criterion).” Since there are eight possible successes out of 10, that’s wrong; it’s actually an 80% chance of success. ChatGPT Plus didn’t make the same mistake and actually provided me with a more detailed breakdown of the odds at hand. (See screenshot above.) I then added further complexity in the form of dice being removed on failures, and it managed that, too. Copilot Pro worked fine after I corrected its mistake, but the issue is that I had to correct it in the first place. If I wasn’t knowledgeable enough to spot the error, I’d be in trouble and not even know it. (You can imagine how bad that could be depending on what you’re asking.) When I asked Copilot Pro to perform more advanced tasks, it refused — until I enabled the “Think Deeper” mode, at which point it agreed and completed the task successfully. It was pretty slow, though. Both premium AI chatbots have capable voice modes, but again, ChatGPT Plus feels more fleshed-out and capable. It has a wider range of voices to choose from, and there’s a more natural lilt to the way it speaks. Both services can change their tones and styles of speaking and can handle sarcasm, but Copilot still sounds like a program. ChatGPT Plus feels much more akin to a real person. It interrupts you, jumping in on pauses in your speech, treating them as its own turn to speak — which can be annoying, but is far more realistic. Copilot Pro has a habit of being quite self-referential, so when asking it to roleplay as a dwarf in a tavern, it would say, “As a dwarf: I am [dwarf-name] and I…” rather than simply jumping into character. Related: Ways I used ChatGPT to improve my life this year One plus I will give to Copilot Pro is that it’s definitely faster when not using Think Deeper mode. While ChatGPT Plus has become faster in its responses over the past year, its latest GPT-4o model takes a beat to think through its answers. Copilot Pro is almost instantaneous, despite being based on the same underlying language model. As far as image generation, both tools are effective — and Copilot Pro can even search through free stock images for you when used within Microsoft 365 apps. Again, that’s another point in favor of Copilot Pro for users who rely heavily on Microsoft’s Office products. Which premium AI chatbot is right for you? As capable as Copilot Pro and ChatGPT Plus are, they’re both imperfect tools that need to be used in the right way, for the right purposes, in order to benefit from them. They’re both great for augmenting your work and playing with a little AI assistance. Neither can operate entirely independently without editing or curation, and neither is strictly better than the other. But for my own needs, ChatGPT wins — I readily prefer this one. I’ve found that ChatGPT Plus is generally more accurate and more capable, especially when using its Advanced Voice mode, and I don’t use Microsoft 365 enough to truly mine Copilot for all it’s worth. That said, if you’re heavily into the Office ecosystem, Copilot Pro may be better for you, especially if you’re already paying for M365. Further reading: Practical stuff you can do with ChatGPT Read...