At a glanceExpert`s Rating ProsAlluring ceramic-aluminum finishLarge touchpadGood battery lifeConsCeramic-aluminum only applies to display lidMulti-core CPU performance fails to impressIntegrated GPU doesn’t stand outExternal temperatures peak at uncomfortable levelsOur VerdictThe Asus Zenbook S 16 is an attractive laptop, but the Ryzen AI 9 delivers mediocre performance and external temperatures peak at 130 degrees under load. In recent years, Windows laptops have suffered one noticeable disadvantage compared to MacBooks: with Windows, you can have incredible performance or excellent portability, but you can’t have both. The Asus Zenbook S 16 is one of several new AMD-powered laptops looking to challenge that status quo. It features a Ryzen AI 9 365 processor, 32GB of RAM, and Radeon 880M integrated graphics. It’s a beautiful system but suffers several flaws. Further reading: Best laptops 2024: Premium, budget, gaming, 2-in-1s, and more Asus Zenbook S 16: Let’s talk about the elephant in the room Before we even dive into the nitty-gritty of this review, let’s talk about the elephant in the room: The heat. The Asus Zenbook S 16 reaches unreasonable levels of warmth. It’s a major issue that drastically lowered our overall opinion of an otherwise attractive laptop. I measured a maximum external temperature of 130.6 degrees Fahrenheit. This was near the center of the laptop towards the rear, beside (but not on) the fan vents. This peak temperature appeared only during CPU benchmarks, but the laptop was at times uncomfortable in less demanding situations. For example, syncing many large files on OneDrive can require more processor overhead than you might expect, and make the laptop warm significantly. And I’m apparently not alone in making this observation, as consumer reviews also complain the laptop can at times become too warm. IDG / Matthew Smith IDG / Matthew Smith IDG / Matthew Smith The only thing I can say to mitigate this problem is that it doesn’t always happen. In many situations, when browsing the web or watching a movie, the laptop is rather cool. But let’s be real: a temperature of 130 degrees is not acceptable under any workload for a laptop sold to consumers. We reached out to Asus about this and it are now aware of the temperature problem, having validated our results with its own hardware. Asus engineers are currently working on adjusting the thermal policy, but weren’t able to provide us with an ETA just yet. Since this laptop is already on sale, however, we decided to publish this review now so consumers are aware of this crucial caveat with the Zenbook S 16’s default settings. Although PCWorld doesn’t typically update reviews, this particular review warrants one, as we’d like to reflect a potentially monumental change once the new thermal settings land. But heat aside, how does the Zenbook S 16 stack up? Let’s dig in. Asus Zenbook S 16: Specs and features The Zenbook’s most important feature is undoubtedly AMD’s Ryzen AI 9 365. It packs a 10-core CPU composed of four standard Zen 5 cores and six less power-hungry Zen 5c cores, a Radeon 880M integrated GPU with 12 compute units, and an integrated AI neural processing unit capable of performing up to 50 trillion operations per second. CPU: AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 2.0GHz Memory: 32GB LPDDR5X Graphics/GPU: AMD Radeon 880M (12 CUs) NPU: AMD XDNA NPU up to 50 TOPS Display: 16-inch OLED touchscreen 2880×1800 at up to 120Hz, 16:10 aspect ratio Storage: 1TB M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 solid state drive Webcam: 1080p webcam with Windows Hello support Connectivity: 2x USB-C 4.0 Gen 3 with DisplayPort Alternate Mode and Power Delivery, 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x 3.5mm combo audio, 1x SDcard reader Networking: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 Biometrics: Windows Hello facial recognition  Battery capacity: 78 watt-hours Dimensions: 13.92 x 9.57 x .51 inches Weight: 3.31 pounds MSRP: $1,699.99 However, Asus doesn’t cut back elsewhere, as the laptop also features a 16-inch OLED display, 32 GB of memory, two USB 4.0 ports, Wi-Fi 7, and a terabyte of solid-state storage. Although not inexpensive at roughly $1,700, on paper it looks like decent value for money. It’s an elegant, thin machine—too thin, apparently, to handle the Ryzen AI 9 365. Asus Zenbook S 16: Design and build quality The Asus Zenbook S 16 is one of several recent Asus laptops to use what the company calls a “ceraluminum” finish. It fuses ceramic to an aluminum surface to create a unique matte texture. I like it, especially in the Scandinavian White finish of the Zenbook S 16 I received. I’ve criticized some Asus laptops for their dull and generic look, but the Zenbook S 16’s alluring finish helps it stand out from the crowd. Oddly, the white colorway is only available on the less expensive model I reviewed. Those with quicker Ryzen AI processors have a less ambitious gray colorway. It’s not all good news when it comes to design, though. The ceraluminum coat applies to the lid, but not the interior, so the surface you’ll be touching most often looks and feels unremarkable. I also noticed a portion of the ceraluminum had worn away on the edge of the laptop, despite the fact that I haven’t dropped it or treated it roughly in any way, so that’s concerning. Looks aside, the Zenbook S 16’s design focuses on pairing portability with performance. Despite its powerful chip and strong integrated graphics, the machine is only half an inch thick, and with thin bezels on all sides, it measures under 14 inches wide. It’s also light at about 3.3 pounds. This is close to as portable as it gets for a 16-inch machine, though a few outliers like LG’s Gram laptops, are noticeably lighter.  Asus Zenbook S 16: Keyboard, trackpad IDG / Matthew Smith IDG / Matthew Smith IDG / Matthew Smith The Asus Zenbook S 16 has a spacious, center-aligned keyboard that lacks a numpad. I prefer this keyboard design over those that include a numpad, but your preference may vary depending on your needs. In any case, the keys are large across the entire keyboard surface, so it feels comfortable and intuitive. A keyboard backlight is standard and does the job, though it offers just a few brightness options. Key feel is just ok. Individual keys have good travel, but the keyboard’s bottoming action is soft and quiet. That’s good news if you’re worried about disturbing a coworker, but I’d prefer a bit more tactile feedback. Even so, the keyboard is functional, and I was able to type at high speed without issues. The laptop is graced with a huge touchpad that measures almost 6 inches wide and nearly four inches deep. Touchpads of similar size can be found on competitors like the Dell XPS 16 or Razer Blade 16, but those are more expensive laptops, so it’s great to see a large touchpad on an upper mid-range laptop. The touchpad’s surface was responsive, yet I didn’t have any issues with unintended inputs. Asus Zenbook S 16: Display, audio IDG / Matthew Smith IDG / Matthew Smith IDG / Matthew Smith Every Asus Zenbook S 16 ships with a 2880×1880 resolution OLED touchscreen, which is gorgeous in all the ways modern OLED displays usually are. It has an effectively infinite contrast ratio, a wide and vibrant color gamut, and better HDR performance than past OLEDs, as it can now reach up to 500 nits of brightness in HDR highlights. It’s an excellent display for most tasks. It’s a glossy display, though, so glare is an issue and this is worsened by the display’s relatively low SDR brightness of up to 344 nits. OLED is still superior to an IPS-LCD display in most situations, but the display can prove hard to use in bright rooms.  The display is a touchscreen which, although of limited use in a clamshell laptop, is still nice to have and provides a useful alternative to the touchpad. The display also boasts a refresh rate of up to 120 Hz, which can provide great motion clarity in 3D games. Additionally, it supports AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, which helps with motion fluidity in games. An upward-firing speaker system is placed above the keyboard. Audio quality is clear and crisp at lower volumes but worsens as the volume is increased. At higher volumes, bass hits take on an abrupt, punchy quality while the highs become grating. It’s ok for podcasts, but music, movies, and other entertainment become grating to listen to. Asus Zenbook S 16: Webcam, microphone, biometrics A 1080p webcam is squeezed in the Asus Zenbook S 16’s top bezel. It delivered good video quality with attractive color reproduction and reasonable sharpness though, like most webcams, it will look grainy without proper lighting. The microphone array captured crisp, clear audio and I didn’t need to speak loudly to record at an acceptable volume.  Biometric login is available through Microsoft’s Windows Hello facial recognition. It provides a quick, easy way to log in to the laptop without typing a passcode or PIN. The laptop also supports presence detection, so it can lock the laptop and/or turn off the screen when you step away from it. This feature can save battery life if you sometimes step away from your laptop when it’s on battery power. Asus Zenbook S 16: Connectivity IDG / Matthew Smith IDG / Matthew Smith IDG / Matthew Smith A pair of USB-C 4.0 ports can be found on the Asus Zenbook S 16’s left side. Both support DisplayPort alternate mode and power delivery, meaning either port can be used to charge the laptop or drive an external display. The laptop’s included 65W charger can charge the device through either of these ports. The USB-C ports are accompanied by just one USB-A port, which is a minor disappointment. I would have liked a second USB-A port, as is available with the Acer Swift Edge 16, but some competitors don’t include any USB-A ports at all. There’s also an HDMI 2.1 port, an SDcard reader, and a 3.5mm audio jack, which provides a good range of connectivity options. Wireless connectivity is good, too. The laptop supports Wi-Fi 7, the latest version of the Wi-Fi standard, and Bluetooth 5.4, the latest version of Bluetooth. This should make the laptop future-proof for wireless connectivity, as I expect these versions of each standard to remain relevant for five to 10 years. Asus Zenbook S 16: Performance The AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 is the least performant of the Ryzen AI 9 chips, but it still looks good on paper. It has a total of ten cores, four of which are conventional Zen 5 cores and six of which are more miserly Zen 5c cores. It also has AMD Radeon 880M integrated graphics with 12 compute units.  IDG / Matthew Smith IDG / Matthew Smith IDG / Matthew Smith AMD’s new chip and the Asus Zenbook S 16 get off to a rough start in PCMark 10, a synthetic multi-workload test. Here, the Zenbook lags the pack with a score that’s notably lower than most of its peers and falls behind Intel Core Ultra 7 and only slightly beats the Intel Core Ultra 5 125H in the Lenovo Yoga 7i 16-inch. The Ryzen AI 9 branding implies the laptop should deliver top-tier performance, but that’s not the case here. IDG / Matthew Smith IDG / Matthew Smith IDG / Matthew Smith The result isn’t much better in Cinebench R23, where the Zenbook’s multi-core score lands way behind competitors like the Dell Inspiron 16 Plus, though it does manage to beat the Intel Core Ultra 5 125H. That perhaps isn’t a surprise, because the 10-core Ryzen AI 365 finds itself at a core count deficient when compared to the 16-core Intel Core Ultra 7 155H. Still, Intel’s margin of victory here is notable.  IDG / Matthew Smith IDG / Matthew Smith IDG / Matthew Smith Handbrake delivers more bad news, as once again the Zenbook ends up achieving modest results when compared to other 16-inch laptops. It’s difficult to say anything positive about this result: there’s just not enough power on tap. Taken as a whole, the AMD Ryzen AI 9 365’s processor performance doesn’t look great. Don’t get me wrong: it’s certainly still fine for most tasks and feels snappy in day-to-day use. However, the Zenbook S 16 doesn’t impress in multi-core tests and seems generally slower than other laptops available at this price. This might seem strange, because the AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 is a new chip. However, its performance appears to be a sideways step from the AMD Ryzen 7 8840U. That makes AMD’s decision to brand this as a “Ryzen AI 9” chip look a bit misleading. This is a far cry from flagship performance, but it gets flagship branding.  IDG / Matthew Smith IDG / Matthew Smith IDG / Matthew Smith The AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 has an AMD Radeon 880M integrated graphics solution with 12 compute units. It’s rather similar to the preceding Radeon 780M, and that comes across in its performance, though is updated to AMD’s RDNA 3.5 graphics architecture.  The Asus Zenbook S 16’s integrated graphics performance is good, but a long way from setting records, and not noticeably better than the prior generation. Intel Arc integrated graphics often falls behind (though we have seen it perform better in some other laptops). But the Acer Swift Edge 16, which had AMD’s prior Radeon 780M, effectively tied the AMD Radeon 880M. It’s another sideways step. That doesn’t mean you can’t play PC games: on the contrary, many older titles run without issue. Even triple-A games like Cyberpunk 2077 are playable, but only at minimum image detail. I fired up 2077 at 1080p resolution and Low detail with FSR turned on and saw an average of 34 frames per second in the game’s benchmark with some dips below 30 frames per second. It’s definitely not the best experience, but it’s playable.  So, the Zenbook’s overall performance results weren’t great. Asus Zenbook S 16: Battery life Asus stuffs a modest 78 watt-hour battery in the Zenbook S 16. That’s not huge for a 16-inch laptop, but the efficient Ryzen AI processor seems to make the most of the power on tap. IDG / Matthew Smith IDG / Matthew Smith IDG / Matthew Smith We recorded about 13 and a half hours of battery life from the Zenbook S 16 in our standard battery test, which loops a 4K file of the short film Tears of Steel.  That’s a solid result for a 16-inch laptop and defeats many competitors we’ve tested recently, including the Acer Swift Edge 16 and Dell Inspiron 16 Plus. It shows that consumers in this price bracket have a choice between performance and battery life. However, the new wave of Copilot Plus PCs with Qualcomm chips, such as the Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge, have a notable lead in battery life. Many Qualcomm-powered laptops come close to, or exceed, 20 hours of endurance in our test. Asus Zenbook S 16: Conclusion The Asus Zenbook S 16 is a mediocre debut of AMD’s Ryzen AI 9 365 in a mid-range laptop. Performance isn’t bad, but it also fails to move the needle—and I find it more than a little strange that AMD brands this processor with the Ryzen AI 9 label despite the fact that, at least in this laptop, it delivers performance hardly different from the AMD Ryzen 7 8840U.What’s even less pleasant, however, is the laptop’s extremely high external temperatures under load, which make the laptop exceptionally uncomfortable to use. This makes the laptop’s performance results look even worse.  That’s a shame, because the Zenbook S 16 is otherwise a good mid-range laptop. I like the ceraluminum finish, the huge touchpad, and the gorgeous OLED display, all of which make the laptop pleasant to use day-to-day. It’s an elegant, thin machine—too thin, apparently, to handle the Ryzen AI 9 365. Read...

The school year is sneaking up on us and, believe me, you don’t want to be caught under-geared when the first day of class hits. Whether you’re a wide-eyed freshman who’s entering college for the first time or you’re a seasoned student who has one final year to knock out, you’re going to need a solid laptop that offers reliable performance and long battery life. That’s just the facts. That’s why Samsung’s current back-to-school sale is worth checking out. I’ve hand-selected the best Samsung laptop deals going on so you can save up to 30 percent on a laptop that fits your needs. Best deals on productivity laptops Samsung Galaxy Book4, Intel Core 7 CPU/15.6-inch touch display/16GB RAM/512GB SSD storage, $549.99 ($350 off) The Samsung Galaxy Book4 is a well-rounded laptop and a great option for most people. It comes loaded with an Intel Core 7 CPU, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of SSD storage — zippy enough for work, assignments, surfing the web, sending last-minute emails to your professor, and more. The Galaxy Book4 also has a number of positive reviews on Samsung’s website. Buyers claim this laptop runs fast and the huge display makes “entertainment and gaming a lot of fun.” Best deals on premium laptops Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge, Snapdragon X Elite CPU/14-inch AMOLED touch display/16GB RAM/512GB eUFS storage, $999.99 ($350 off) Samsung Galaxy Book4 360, 2-in-1 form factor/Intel Core 7 CPU/15.6-inch touch display/16GB RAM/512GB SSD storage, $999.99 ($350 off) Samsung Galaxy Book4 Pro 360, Intel Core Ultra 7 CPU/16-inch AMOLED touch display/16GB RAM/1TB SSD storage/S Pen included, $1,299.99 ($600 off) Samsung Galaxy Book4 Ultra, Intel Core Ultra 7 CPU/Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 GPU/16-inch touch display/16GB RAM/1TB SSD storage, $1,799.99 ($774.99 off) The Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge offers a lightweight form factor, a beautiful touchscreen display, and a super power-efficient Snapdragon X Elite processor. When PCWorld reviewed a slightly different configuration of this laptop, we were floored by the 21+ hour battery life. We expect this model that’s on sale to have similar battery life results, which is why I feel it’s a fantastic option for anyone who travels often. The Galaxy Book4 Edge also weighs just 2.62 pounds, which is so light it may float up into the clouds if you aren’t careful. Other cool features include a 14-inch AMOLED touchscreen display with a 120Hz refresh rate, 512GB of SSD storage, and two USB 4.0 ports. Further reading: Our daily roundup of the best current laptop deals Read...

The entertainment giant says the terms of a free trial prevent it from being sued for wrongful death. Read...

Some flyers are giving up in-flight entertainment and even drinking water but experts warn it could be dangerous. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating ProsSolid antivirus protectionComprehensive protection against online threatsConsNotable performance impact on some PCsUser interface is a little scatteredMany of the tools and services feel a bit underbakedPassword manager is difficult to useOur VerdictMcAfee+ Ultimate offers strong antivirus protection and a vast array of online protections, but its apps, services, and tools could use more polish. Its scans also can tangibly decrease performance on mid-range and budget PCs. As attractive as this comprehensive all-in-one package is, it’s currently a hard sell. Among the top-tier antivirus software plans, McAfee’s version is an especially loaded offering—and less common in how it bundles together an extraordinary number of online protections. Many rivals have a premium antivirus suite, then offer services like a VPN, password manager, and identity protection and recovery as separate subscriptions. McAfee instead stuffs everything into one package. This simplifies how much you have to think about, of course, but there’s just one problem—this security suite lacks the polish you’d expect of such a premium product. Further reading: See our roundup of the best antivirus software for Windows PCs to learn about competing products. What does McAfee+ Ultimate include? The full list of features in McAfee’s flagship subscription is exhaustive. Antivirus, link screening, and firewall protection are just the start. You get other major online protections as well—password manager, VPN, web link screening, identity monitoring on the dark web, tracker removal, and if you’re signed up for a family plan, parental controls. McAfee next throws in its Social Privacy Manager, which offers privacy settings suggestions for social media services; Scam Protection, an AI-powered tool to help screen for risky links in text messages; Online Account Cleanup, which helps you find and delete unused accounts; Personal Data Cleanup, which scans data broker sites and helps you remove yourself from them; and live assistance in setting up your plan’s privacy and identity protections. McAfee+ Ultimate’s list of online protections is exhaustive. McAfee+ Ultimate’s list of online protections is exhaustive. McAfee+ Ultimate’s list of online protections is exhaustive. Finally, on top of all that are financial protections. McAfee+ Ultimate will keep tabs on your bank and credit card transactions, investment and loan account activity, potential bank takeovers, possible payday loans taken in your name, and your credit reports and score. It also offers a centralized interface for locking your credit and placing security freezes on credit, banking, and utilities. And the company provides direct assistance with identity theft restoration, as well as up to $25,000 of coverage for losses related to ransomware and up to $2 million related to identity theft losses and restoration efforts. McAfee even helps with replacing identification, credit, and debit cards for a lost wallet. Family plans allow you to share these benefits among a maximum of six people—two adult accounts and four child accounts. Each adult account gets its own loss coverage, for a total of $50K ransomware and $4 million for identity theft.) And only adult accounts have access to the data broker and financial protections. How much does McAfee+ Ultimate cost? When you buy McAfee+ Ultimate through the McAfee website, an individual subscription is $200 for the first year, then goes up to a full price of $280 afterward. A family plan costs $250 for the first year, and then reverts to $425 per year thereafter. Plans come with a 30-day money back guarantee. Be aware that McAfee enrolls users into auto-renewal by default—and charges for the next year a whole 30 days before your current subscription ends. McAfee+ Ultimate (Unlimited devices) $200 for the first year (Individual plan) $280 per year thereafter (Individual plan) $250 for the first year (Family plan) $425 per year thereafter (Family plan) All McAfee+ Ultimate plans let you protect an unlimited number of devices, with software support for Windows, Windows for Arm, macOS, ChromeOS, iOS, and Android. (Not all features are multiplatform, however.) Family subscriptions offer up to six seats, split between two adult and four child accounts. Unfortunately, you can’t bring down the cost of a McAfee+ Ultimate plan further by purchasing it from an online retailer. You can only get it through McAfee. Key features of McAfee+ Ultimate Installation and user interface The McAfee app has a clean and modern look, but it feels oddly disorganized despite its simple aesthetic. On the home screen, you get just four shortcuts to main features—antivirus, VPN, Tracker Remover, and Personal Data Cleanup. A fifth helps you add McAfee to more devices, and the sixth leads off to McAfee’s protection score, which rates how completely you’ve set up your plan’s protections. The main menu for accessing most of McAfee+ Ultimate’s features. The main menu for accessing most of McAfee+ Ultimate’s features. The main menu for accessing most of McAfee+ Ultimate’s features. To access all of McAfee’s major features, you must use the left navigation bar. Clicking on the icon with four squares opens a slide-out menu with scanning and web protection options; access to the VPN; firewall info; shortcuts to tools; and links to identity and privacy monitoring, as well as the password manager. The bottom-most icon in the left navigation bar leads to subscription info, general settings, app updates, help, and privacy and legal terms. These are very simple, and there’s not much you can configure. Frustratingly, the most premium parts of the McAfee+ Ultimate subscription are nowhere to be found within the app. Instead, you must to head to the McAfee Protection Center portal site (protection.mcafee.com). There you’ll find the links to financial transaction and credit monitoring, parental controls (if you have a family plan), and the Social Privacy Manager browser extension. The McAfee Protection Center website. The McAfee Protection Center website. The McAfee Protection Center website. Until you’ve poked around thoroughly, remembering if a feature is located in the McAfee app, a separate app, one of three McAfee websites, or a web browser extension can take a while. The apps and the websites don’t always behave quite as expected, either. When I set up Identity Monitoring, adding a second email address triggered new findings (alas), but those results wouldn’t show until I’d refreshed the website. Nothing was wrong, per se, but the experience lacked the kind of polish I expected from an expensive, top-tier security suite. Unfortunately, this vibe extends through much of McAfee+ Ultimate’s features—not just the methods that you access them through. Virus, malware, and threat protection Real-time protection As you use your computer, McAfee+ Ultimate continually evaluates the files you open and also monitors apps for unusual behavior. While the program does a good job on this front (it earns high marks in independent testing—more info on that below), you’re largely removed from the process, as you never get to see behind the curtain. Unlike with major rivals, you can’t do things like specifically select folders to protect from ransomware, change settings related to email attachment and script scanning, choose which apps have access to your webcam, or see how external drives are handled. The interface is so simplified that you only have the choice of leaving real-time scanning on, or turning it off. (Presumably only for troubleshooting purposes—otherwise, you lose much of the software’s point.) For protection while surfing the web, you must install the McAfee WebAdvisor browser extension, which scans for dangerous links and content as you browse online. It gives search engine results safety ratings, warns you about clicking on a possible bad site, and blocks malicious content on compromised but legitimate sites. It works well enough, but oddly, Bing is not on the list of supported search engines. (Sorry, Bing fans.) The McAfee WebAdvisor extension in action—those green checkmarks are its safety ratings. The McAfee WebAdvisor extension in action—those green checkmarks are its safety ratings. The McAfee WebAdvisor extension in action—those green checkmarks are its safety ratings. Scheduled and manual scans By default, McAfee+ Ultimate scans your system once a month, during the wee hours of the morning. You can change the day to another of the three presets, or create your own custom schedule that runs weekly, every other week, or the first week of the month. If you want to run a manual scan, you get just two options: Quick and Full. Quick focuses just on PC locations typically targeted by threats, while Full examines all the drives and folders on the PC (except for network drives). You can also scan individual files and folders by right-clicking on them and choosing Scan in the context menu that appears. Firewall Rather than replace Windows’ built-in firewall, the Advanced Firewall feature works alongside it. It lets Windows screen incoming connections, while McAfee evaluates outgoing connections. If an app tries to connect to what McAfee believes is a bad site, it’ll put it on the block list—at which point you can leave it there, or choose to allow the connection. Scam Protection McAfee recently launched a new AI-based tool to help screen text messages for fraudulent links. For it to work, you have to install the McAfee Security & Wi-Fi Privacy app (iOS) or the McAfee Security: VPN Antivirus app (Android). Afterward, it runs in the background, screening messages. To see any that are flagged as dangerous, you’ll have to go to your filtered messages for iOS. On Android, you can see reports about questionable text messages within McAfee’s app. Scam Text Protection in the Android app. Scam Text Protection in the Android app. Scam Text Protection in the Android app. VPN On PC, you can access McAfee’s VPN in two ways—through the McAfee app, or by separately downloading and installing McAfee Safe Connect. The main difference between them is their interfaces. In the McAfee app, the controls are consolidated onto one screen. You can turn the VPN on or off, select or change your location, choose auto-connect settings, and turn on the safe reconnect feature (aka kill switch—it automatically shuts off the internet if your VPN connection is disrupted). If you instead use the McAfee Safe Connect app, it separates VPN use from the settings, putting them on different screens. You can view usage stats and help files related to Safe Connect as well. The Safe Connect VPN works on PC, Chromebooks, and smartphones, with a limit of five devices connected simultaneously. When using the Safe Connect app, I ran into some bugs. After I installed it and connected to a server for the first time, I couldn’t disconnect afterward—it was only fixed after a reboot. Safe Connect also behaved erratically if I tried starting it before my Wi-Fi finished connecting. A pop-up notification appeared saying I had to upgrade, and then wouldn’t clear. I had to force-quit the program and restart to resolve the issue. The VPN interface within the McAfee app is cleaner and more modern. The VPN interface within the McAfee app is cleaner and more modern. The VPN interface within the McAfee app is cleaner and more modern. This VPN offers servers in 47 countries, which span Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mexico, Moldova, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and the United States. Password Manager McAfee’s password manager, True Key, covers the basics and not much more. Presumably, the company kept things simple on purpose, but it’s at the expense of better security. For example, your two-factor authentication methods are limited—there’s no way to use OTP software codes, much less a hardware key. More damningly, True Key’s login protections are flawed. New devices require verification through an emailed link before you can log in. However, McAfee doesn’t always send that email before the login request expires, which happens after about a minute. Sometimes the email wouldn’t hit my inbox until ten minutes after the login attempt. I almost gave up at one point, and then the system worked for a brief moment and I managed to successfully complete the process. This isn’t a new issue, either—look at McAfee’s forums and you’ll see complaints about this dating back years. McAfee True Key is a simple, basic password manager, but its weaknesses make it feel unreliable. McAfee True Key is a simple, basic password manager, but its weaknesses make it feel unreliable.PCWorld McAfee True Key is a simple, basic password manager, but its weaknesses make it feel unreliable.PCWorld PCWorld You’re also only able to use True Key through a web browser extension or a mobile app (iOS and Android). If you’re ever in a position where you can only log into a website for access, you’re out of luck. Plus, when you first setup the service, you have to manually enter an activation code—and if you can’t find the email with that information, you’ll have to dig into McAfee’s account portal (head to Downloads & devices) or McAfee’s Protection Center (My protection) to find it. All this to say, True Key doesn’t feel like a reliable feature. You’re better off using a standalone service—even a good free password manager outperforms McAfee’s offering by a lot. Parental controls  Parental controls are managed through a separate piece of software called Safe Family. You install it on the device(s) used by the child, but also on a device managed by the guardian—no web interface exists for monitoring your kid’s usage. Each child gets their own profile, so you can tailor your restrictions based on age and needs. Safe Family automatically applies default rules based on the stated age of the kid—for example, the app automatically blocked my (imaginary) 13-year old from viewing dating, gambling, and sexually explicit sites, but let them use search engines and view streaming, entertainment, and shopping sites. You can further refine (or overhaul) the default settings, though. McAfee’s parental controls may look a bit outdated, but they’re easy enough to navigate. McAfee’s parental controls may look a bit outdated, but they’re easy enough to navigate. McAfee’s parental controls may look a bit outdated, but they’re easy enough to navigate. App rules can be created as well, which let you allow or block specific apps on Windows, Android, and iOS. (These are the only devices compatible with Safe Family.) Screen time limits can also be put in place, though you only get two different rules. One’s meant for the weekdays and the other for the weekends, but you can adjust as you see fit. You can track device location for phones as well, including visits to known places (as set in the app), though I had trouble getting it to work consistently on Android. Identity and financial protections McAfee+ Ultimate’s premium features—that is, the reason you pay so much more for this plan compared to the others below it—lie in its identity and financial protections, and they cover quite a bit of ground. Identity Monitoring scans data from breaches and leaks for your personal information. You have to provide your details to McAfee, which allows you to add credit cards, bank accounts, email addresses, usernames, and phone numbers (up to 10 each); tax IDs, passports, driver’s licenses, and health IDs (up to two each); and your social security number (SSN) and date of birth. The results aren’t always as helpful as they could be; for one email address, several of the listed breaches didn’t give the name of the breach or circumstances, making it harder to know what specific follow-up steps to take. McAfee only gives general advice on how to protect yourself, which is helpful for security newbies but less so for more seasoned internet users. Personal Data Cleanup helps you find which data brokers have you in their system, and assists with removing you from those sites. Data brokers comb public records and other databases to collect info like your name, current and past addresses, birthdate, phone number, and the names of your relatives. In order for the scan to work, you’ll have to provide your name, birthdate, and full physical address. (You can also optionally add an email address and up to three phone numbers.) McAfee will send removal requests on your behalf, too, but the results can take anywhere from 30 to 45 days. However, for some data brokers, you may have to still follow up on your own. McAfee’s identity monitoring helps keep track of your leaked personal data on the web. McAfee’s identity monitoring helps keep track of your leaked personal data on the web. McAfee’s identity monitoring helps keep track of your leaked personal data on the web. Investment, 401(K), bank, and credit card transaction tracking is done through Envestnet Yodlee, which handles this monitoring for McAfee. It centralizes the types of alerts you may already be receiving (provided you set them up) from your financial institutions. You must log into your accounts via McAfee’s Protection Center portal to link them to Yodlee. Credit monitoring keeps track of changes to your credit reports at the three major bureaus (TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax). McAfee also gives you access to your daily credit score, lets you lock and unlock your credit, and helps set up security freezes for credit, banking, and utilities as desired. Identity theft coverage includes the previously mentioned $2 million to cover losses and restoration expenses, as well as $25,000 for losses related to ransomware. (Again, the family plan offers this coverage to each adult account, for a total of $4 million identity theft coverage and $50,000 ransomware coverage.) Identity theft assistance includes access to “identity restoration experts,” or agents who help clean up the aftermath of identity theft. (Note: You must grant a limited power of attorney to McAfee in order for agents to act on your behalf and handle the bulk of the work.) McAfee also offers lost wallet protection, where the company helps cancel and replace identification, credit, and debit cards that are lost or stolen with your wallet. Additional features Browser extensions McAfee+ Ultimate isn’t complete if you don’t install its affiliated browser extensions—though arguably, only one of them is vital. As mentioned above, McAfee WebAdvisor scans for risky links and content while you browse online, though it won’t evaluate Bing search results. You won’t see a safety rating for any of the links, the way you would for a search through Google. (Yahoo and AOL are still supported, though.) You also won’t immediately see them for the Chrome extension—I had to go into the extension’s settings, scroll down to Secure Search, and choose Tell me if a search result is safe in any search engine. In Chrome, I had to manually change the extension settings to show the safety ratings for search engine results. In Chrome, I had to manually change the extension settings to show the safety ratings for search engine results. In Chrome, I had to manually change the extension settings to show the safety ratings for search engine results. Meanwhile, McAfee True Key—the password manager in the security suite—won’t work on PC unless you install the extension. You can’t log via a website, as you might another service. That said, True Key isn’t my pick for a good password manager, as explained above. I recommend going with a different password manager and installing its browser extension instead. (It makes using a password manager less cumbersome.) For strengthening your online privacy, you can also install McAfee’s Social Privacy Manager extension. It screens the privacy settings for Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, X/Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google accounts, then suggests improvements. McAfee’s findings are pretty decent—but asking the extension to apply the changes doesn’t always work. File shredder To prevent someone from recovering a deleted file, McAfee offers a built-in tool called File Shredder, which overwrites the data using the Department of Defense (DoD) standard. You can use the tool to blanket-erase whole batches of files at once (Recycling Bin contents, temporary internet files, or a custom folder of your choosing), or individual files. However, this tool comes with one big caveat—you should only use it for files and folders stored on a hard-disk drive. This method of secure erasing doesn’t work as well on solid-state drives (SSDs), which are found in most modern laptops and desktops. It can also shorten their lifespans. You’re better off using other methods for securely wiping an SSD. Online Account Cleanup Unused online accounts can hold data you might not want to leave on file—like your credit card details or home address. Data breaches are just too common these days, and when they happen, you could end up losing sensitive data. It can be hard to keep track of the riskiest sites to leave unattended, though. McAfee tries to speed up the process of cleaning up dormant accounts with its Online Account Cleanup tool, which you’ll use through the McAfee Protection Center portal. It scans one email address from Microsoft, Google, or Yahoo for associated online accounts, then flags the ones it thinks are vulnerable. If you no longer need the account, you can have McAfee delete it for you—or at least, try to. I found that, like McAfee’s other privacy tools, Online Account Cleanup is helpful for pointing you in the right direction, but doesn’t always eliminate as much work as it’s supposed to. Social Privacy Manager The Social Privacy Manager actually suggests useful changes to privacy settings. The Social Privacy Manager actually suggests useful changes to privacy settings. The Social Privacy Manager actually suggests useful changes to privacy settings. If you need help locking down your social media accounts—that is, keeping your private life out of the hands of advertisers and random snoops—McAfee offers a browser extension that scans five different services (Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, X/Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google), then suggests privacy changes. The proposed changes are generally good, but the issue I ran into was having the extension automatically make them. I also had some problems manually finding the settings in order to do the updates myself. Customer support If you need help with McAfee+ Ultimate, you can find it on McAfee’s support website (either through the knowledge database or the virtual assistant), community forums, social media (Facebook, X/Twitter, and YouTube), or by contacting the company though chat or phone. You can reach out to McAfee at any time of day, though the support pages are generally an easy place to start. However, one problem with McAfee’s support is that their help files can be out of date—some don’t accurately reflect how the interface looks and behaves now, making it harder to figure out what’s a currently available feature (and how to access it). Updates and maintenance  By default, updates run automatically in the background. For best protection, it’s best to leave this setting as-is. However, if for some reason you’re on a limited internet connection, you can also choose to tweak the settings so that updates are downloaded automatically but not installed automatically, or only be notified when updates are available. You can also perform a manual check for updates by heading to Help and then Update App.  Performance For online protection, McAfee performs well in tests performed by leading security research institutes. In AV-Test’s zero-day attack and malware tests for March and April 2024 (the most current results released by the organization), McAfee’s engine caught 99.3 percent of the 316 zero-day malware samples in March, and 100 percent in April. For widespread and prevalent malware, it caught 100 percent of the 19,228 samples. In AV-Comparatives’ real-world protection test for February through May 2024, McAfee detected 98.8 percent of the 498 test cases, with four false positives. (A false positive is when the antivirus software blocks a legitimate website or download.) The samples cover exploits like drive-by downloads, malicious web addresses, and URLs linking directly to malware. The software performs similarly in AV-Comparatives’ March 2024 malware protection test, which tests the ability to detect and block malware locally on a PC. When connected to the internet, McAfee does a good job of on both fronts, with a 98.7 percent online detection and 99.91 percent online protection rate of the 10,053 samples. AV-Comparatives’ real-world test results for February through May 2024. AV-Comparatives’ real-world test results for February through May 2024. PCWorld AV-Comparatives’ real-world test results for February through May 2024. PCWorld PCWorld However, McAfee’s weakness is its offline detection rate in the same malware protection test—it caught threats only 58.7 percent of the time. It also had a higher false positive rate, with 19 false alarms. Put another way, McAfee won’t protect your system well without an active internet connection, and it has a slightly higher chance of mistakenly detecting a threat. For comparison, Microsoft’s Windows Defender (which is free) has an offline detection rate of 63.1 percent, while the top performers clock in at 95 percent and above. McAfee did not take part in AV-Comparatives’ November 2023 Advanced Threat Protection Test. It evaluates an antivirus program’s resistance to targeted threats like fileless attacks and malicious scripts. AV-Comparatives’ malware test results for March 2024. AV-Comparatives’ malware test results for March 2024. PCWorld AV-Comparatives’ malware test results for March 2024. PCWorld PCWorld When running heavy scans, McAfee can notably affect performance on mid-range and budget PCs. Running a continuous full scan during PCMark 10’s benchmark, which simulates web browsing, video chatting, gaming, and editing in open-souce programs like GIMP and LibreOffice for images and documents, dropped the test scores by about 21 percent. More dramatically, our UL Procyon scores dropped by 41 percent. This particular benchmark simulates using Microsoft Office apps—constantly working in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, with a fair amount of editing and updating multiple documents. Meanwhile, in Handbrake, the time it took to encode a large video into a smaller 1080p30 file increased by almost 29 percent. That’s not the whole picture, though. McAfee isn’t a complete killer of performance. When the app was quietly hanging out in the background, watching for threats, benchmark scores in PCMark, Procyon, and Handbrake were virtually the same as before McAfee was installed. And these numbers don’t show how McAfee usually handles full scans. After an initial thorough examination of all files on a PC and any attached external drives, subsequent ones look for new or altered files, which speeds up the scan time considerably. (That then reduces the impact on system resources.) All this to say, if you don’t transfer or update a ton of files on your system often, you won’t see as much of an effect. But if you do, and you’re running mid-range to budget hardware, then you could feel the impact of a scan while working. McAfee does schedule its full scans for off-hours by default, though. This error window popped up randomly and frequently enough to be irritating. This error window popped up randomly and frequently enough to be irritating. This error window popped up randomly and frequently enough to be irritating. Instead, I’d say McAfee’s biggest performance issue is a bit different right now—and relates to how it behaves in Windows. After completing my hardware benchmarks, a Windows error notification began to pop up periodically (“mc-wns-client.exe – This application could not be started”) while I evaluated the software features. The steps suggested by McAfee’s help forums—updating the Windows App SDK, uninstalling and reinstalling McAfee+ Ultimate, and manually downloading and installing the latest Windows App Runtime package—did not solve the problem, either. When I spoke to the company about the issue, McAfee said it was still working with Microsoft, and that a resolution was expected in “early 2024.” That’s a long time to wait for a pretty annoying issue to go away. How private is my data when using McAfee? With the amount of sensitive details McAfee asks for—social security number, addresses, birthdate, etc—you might wonder how safe it is to hand over the whole set to one entity. McAfee outlines how it handles your info in its privacy and legal terms, but I also asked the company who specifically sees the data and the protocols used to safeguard it. McAfee says that it partners with Transunion (one of the three major US credit bureaus) for matters related to identity theft and power of attorney, and Yodlee for transaction monitoring. As for the data itself, McAfee says AES-256 encryption is used, and the engine that monitors for threats keeps only a hash of the values. (That is, it stores the result of encrypting your social security number or full name, etc, rather than the details themselves.) It’s only decrypted when a user views reports related to these sensitive pieces of information. McAfee says those unencrypted, plaintext versions of the data is only ever kept on the backend server, and “never exposed to the front end.” While this methodology is reasonable enough, you’ll have to decide for yourself how comfortable you are with it—as well as the general principle of having your most sensitive info so centralized. Conclusion With more polish, McAfee+ Ultimate would be an ideal security suite for someone who wants an easy-to-understand yet still comprehensive set of online protections. Its interface has a look and feel that’s friendly toward people less familiar with online security; the antivirus protection is solid; and its features span everything you’d want to safeguard. But until its tools and services can nail their promises, and the performance glitches are resolved, McAfee+ Ultimate is a hard sell right now—especially at full price. Editor’s note: Because online services are often iterative, gaining new features and performance improvements over time, this review is subject to change in order to accurately reflect the current state of the service. Any changes to text or our final review verdict will be noted at the top of this article. Read...

I never really thought you could have too many power outlets or USB ports — but then I saw today’s deal. Amazon is selling this SUPERDANNY Surge Protector for just $25.99, a 28 percent discount off its normal price, and this glorious behemoth of a power strip verges on overkill… in the best way possible. The SUPERDANNY (we don’t normally capitalize full brand names, but SUPERDANNY!) offers up a heaping helping of not one, not two, but 22 grounded three-prong outlets for all your heavy-duty electrical demands. What, that’s not enough? There are also six USB charge ports on tap — one Type-C, the rest Type-A — so you can plug in your phones and other USB-powered devices, bringing the total number of charging sockets up to a whopping 28. Wild! This heavy-duty surge protector comes with a thick 6.5-foot cord (longer lengths are available for more money) and four keyholes on its flat rear, making it easy to mount almost anywhere. SUPERDANNY can deliver up to 1,875W/15A of total power to the devices you connect to it. Amazon buyers go nuts for this thing: It averages a 4.8-star rating across nearly 10,000 reviews, and Amazon says SUPERDANNY “has fewer returns than average compared to similar products.” Bottom line? SUPERDANNY offers over two dozen additional power options, people love it, and it’s selling with a spectacular discount today. If your office or entertainment center needs more juice, don’t miss out — Amazon says this is a limited time deal. Get this SUPERDANNY Surge Protector for $26Buy now on Amazon Read...

“The victims are real children ... That you are prepared to regard their suffering as a vehicle for your entertainment or titillation is depraved.” Read...

Ubisoft is pushing the boundaries of what a Star Wars game can be, blending storytelling and exploration in an unprecedented way. 9News.com.au caught up with Massive Entertainment`s Julian Gerighty and Lucasfilm`s Steve Blank to talk all about Outlaws. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating ProsSturdy professional design16:10 aspect ratio, 1600p resolutionExcellent color performanceWide range of connectivityCons$480 for 24-inch monitorLow contrast ratioDisappointing motion clarity, no adaptive syncOur VerdictThe BenQ SW242Q’s 16:10 aspect ratio and 2560×1600 resolution help it stand out from the crowd, though unique features translate to a high price. Best Prices Today: BenQ SW242Q Retailer Price B & H Photo $479.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket If you’re looking at a 24-inch monitor, odds are it has a 16:9 aspect ratio, 1080p resolution, and a refresh rate between 120Hz and 240Hz. The BenQ SW242Q defies all of these trends with a laser-like focus on satisfying the needs of photographers, artists, and other creative professionals. It succeeds, but its price will turn some away. BenQ SW242Q specifications The BenQ SW242Q’s specifications stand apart from its competitors. Although it has a 24-inch display, it offers the rare 16:10 aspect ratio, which is a bit taller than the common 16:9 aspect ratio. It also ups the resolution to 2560×1600 and has a wide range of ports including USB-C with DisplayPort and Power Delivery. Display size: 24.1-inch 16:10 aspect ratio Native resolution: 2560×1600 Panel type: IPS with “fine-coated panel” Refresh rate: 60Hz Adaptive sync: None Ports: 1x HDMI 2.0, 1x DisplayPort 1.4, 1x USB-C upstream with DisplayPort Alternate Mode and 90 watts Power Delivery, 2x USB-A 3.1 downstream, 1x USB-B upstream, 1x 3.5mm audio-out, 1x SDcard reader VESA mount: 100x100mm Speakers: None Price: $479.99 MSRP These unusual features come at an unusually high MSRP of $479.99. That’s much more expensive than a typical 24-inch monitor and, for most people, the added cost will be impossible to justify. The BenQ SW242Q targets a specific audience with specific needs. Further reading: See our roundup of the best monitors to learn about competing products. BenQ SW242Q design One thing leapt out at me the moment I unboxed the BenQ SW242Q. This monitor has a 16:10 aspect ratio! The 16:10 aspect ratio, which is closer to square than the more common 16:9 popularized by HDTVs and adopted by most monitors, is extraordinarily rare for a standalone monitor sold in 2024. And it makes a difference. Because 16:10 is closer to square, it provides more vertical display space within the SW242Q’s 24-inch display. It means the SW242Q is nearly as tall as most 27-inch monitors. That’s useful for writers, editors, photographers, and anyone else who often works with content that’s taller than it is wide. Aspect ratio aside, the BenQ SW242Q looks like other monitors in BenQ’s “Photographer Monitor” line. The display panel is framed by a chunky, sturdy charcoal black frame attached to a large, flat stand base. The stand can adjust for height, tilt, swivel, and pivot: It also has a 100x100mm VESA mount for third-party stands and arms. The stand is both deep and wide, which might be an issue on small desks. BenQ compensates for that by making the base extremely flat and covering it in a luxurious, leather-like material with a slightly grippy surface. It’s not a bad place to perch a camera, external drive, or USB dock. Matthew Smith / Foundry Matthew Smith / Foundry Matthew Smith / Foundry BenQ SW242Q connectivity and features The BenQ SW242Q’s video connectivity includes one HDMI, one DisplayPort, and one USB-C upstream port. The USB-C connection includes DisplayPort Alternate Mode (for video input) and up to 90 watts of Power Delivery (for charging a laptop, tablet, or other connected device). This is a good range of connectivity, though expected for a monitor priced above $400. Additional connectivity includes two USB-A ports and, because this is a photography monitor, an SDcard reader that supports a broad range of formats (SD/SDHC/SDXC/MMC). There’s also a 3.5mm audio-out for connecting headphones and a USB-B upstream port, which can be used to drive the USB-A ports if your computer doesn’t have USB-C. The SW242Q is missing a favorite feature found on many other BenQ monitors: a remote-control puck to navigate the monitor’s on-screen menus. The monitor instead relies on a joystick control, and several buttons, hidden on the lower right bezel. They work well, but the control puck is better. The monitor also ships without a hood (though one is available as an option). A hood is standard on some other BenQ photography monitors. BenQ’s on-screen menus are easy to navigate and offer a long list of image quality adjustments. This includes gamma, color temperature, and color calibration controls, all of which target specific numerical values rather than vague presets. Speaking of presets, the monitor has several that target specific color spaces, and they’re useful for photographers and artists that work in different color spaces for various clients or projects. My one complaint about the menus? The menu text is a bit too small. The monitor also supports a range of BenQ software utilities, which includes Palette Master Ultimate and Paper Sync. These help photographers and artists ensure the colors viewed on the monitor look very similar, if not identical, to how they’ll appear in print. Built-in speakers aren’t included, which is a minor disappointment. I expect people using the monitor might benefit from built-in audio, even if only to hear Windows systems sounds or listen to a podcast. BenQ’s fine-coated panel is the monitor’s secret sauce….the panel is remarkably good at mimicking the look and feel of a satin paper finish. Matthew Smith / Foundry Matthew Smith / Foundry Matthew Smith / Foundry BenQ SW242Q SDR image quality The BenQ SW242Q is designed to handle photography, digital art, and documents. Because of that, BenQ opts for a 24.1-inch 16:10 IPS panel with a unique “fine-coated panel” that is meant to minimize reflections and simulate the look and feel of printed material. It’s successful, but it comes with a few trade-offs. Matthew Smith / Foundry Matthew Smith / Foundry Matthew Smith / Foundry First up is brightness, where the BenQ SW242Q delivers an outstanding maximum of 410 nits. It’s important to note this is only available when the “uniformity” mode, which is meant to maintain brightness uniformity across the display’s surface, is turned off. With uniformity on, the display hits a maximum of 198 nits. Still, the SW242Q’s brightness is more than enough to handle most situations. It should appear bright in all but the most intense lighting conditions. Its brightness is less impressive with uniformity turned on, but people who care about uniformity are likely to be using the monitor in a room with good light control (and possibly with a display hood, too), which makes the reduced brightness in that mode less of an issue. Matthew Smith / Foundry Matthew Smith / Foundry Matthew Smith / Foundry Contrast is where the BenQ SW242Q makes its most significant compromise, as it achieved a maximum contrast ratio of only 980:1. That’s low for a modern monitor, and the monitor’s contrast looks even worse than the figures suggest. It struggles to achieve anything close to a deep, inky, and convincing black level. The same is true for other 24-inch IPS monitors, like the Pixio PX248 Wave, but that monitor is $150. “IPS glow,” an issue which causes a gray-silver sheen to appear across the display when viewing dark content, saps the drama and depth from dark images, videos, and games. It’s not a problem on the Windows desktop and in most productivity situations, but it becomes one if you want to watch a movie or play a game on the monitor. Matthew Smith / Foundry Matthew Smith / Foundry Matthew Smith / Foundry The BenQ SW242Q struck back in color gamut, where it achieved excellent results out of the box. The monitor’s color gamut spans most of the DCI-P3 and AdobeRGB color gamut, which means it can display most colors that exist in each color space. That’s critical for accurate photo and image editing, and to ensure the image on the SW242Q looks much like what it will in print or on other displays. Set against the alternatives, it’s clear the SW242Q is ahead of the pack, especially in its coverage of the AdobeRGB color gamut. In fact, even OLED monitors fall short of the color gamut coverage found here. Matthew Smith / Foundry Matthew Smith / Foundry Matthew Smith / Foundry Color accuracy was excellent, too. The monitor’s low color error reinforces the accuracy of its image, and will help photographers and artists create and edit work with confidence that the image they view is accurate to the end result. The monitor’s good color accuracy was reinforced by a default color temperature of 6400K and gamma curve of 2.2. The color temperature is just a tad warmer than our target of 6500K, but not enough to be readily noticeable, and the gamma curve was spot-on to our preference. Both can be adjusted in the monitor’s on-screen menus to calibrate the image to your preference or need. Sharpness is a perk. The monitor’s 16:10 aspect ratio leads to a resolution of 2560×1600, which, when spread across a 24.1-inch display, works out to about 125 pixels per inch. That’s much better than a 24-inch 1080p display, which has about 92 pixels per inch. Most 24-inch displays stick to 1080p, so the BenQ SW242Q has an advantage here. BenQ’s fine-coated panel is the monitor’s secret sauce. Designed to mimic the look of paper, it has a matte finish that greatly reduces glare and reflection, though it does so at the cost of contrast. With the monitor’s uniformity mode turned on, the panel is remarkably good at mimicking the look and feel of a satin paper finish; it’s as if you’re looking at a magazine, or perhaps a coffee-table book, rather than a display. The look is desirable not only for photographers, but also when reading documents and PDFs. The BenQ SW242Q’s image quality has perks and flaws, and the verdict depends on how you intend to use the display. Its contrast ratio is a long way from ideal for movies, games, and other entertainment, but the monitor’s excellent color accuracy and wide color gamut makes it a great fit for many creative tasks. BenQ SW242Q HDR image quality The BenQ SW242Q technically supports HDR10, but it’s not VESA DisplayHDR certified and doesn’t deliver an acceptable HDR experience. The monitor is too dim, and its contrast ratio is too low, to do HDR content justice. You might want to flip to the HDR mode for a quick preview of an HDR image or video, but it’s otherwise best to leave the monitor in SDR. While the monitor’s sub-par HDR is unfortunate, it fits with the monitor’s purpose. Most photos don’t use HDR, and creative work that will be going to print isn’t compatible with HDR. BenQ SW242Q motion performance BenQ’s focus on creative work at the expense of entertainment continues with the monitor’s motion clarity and performance. The SW242Q is a 60Hz monitor and lacks any form of Adaptive Sync. That means it lacks the motion clarity available with other displays. This is most noticeable in PC games. I picked up on the SW242Q’s lack of clarity and fluidity right away. Compared to other monitors with high refresh rates, the SW242Q felt clunky, and I often had difficulty picking out the details of objects that move quickly across the screen. Gaming is not the SW242Q’ focus, of course, but I do hope that BenQ can find some way to address this in the future. An enhanced refresh rate is useful not only in games, where the added clarity and fluidity can make a night-and-day difference, but also on the Windows desktop. Windows feels a bit more responsive on a 120Hz display than on a 60Hz display. That’s something I think photographers and artists would appreciate. Should you buy the BenQ SW242Q? The BenQ SW242Q is a display that’s likely to be polarizing. It has several features that are unique to BenQ rarely found elsewhere; a paper-like fine-coated panel, a 16:10 aspect ratio, and a resolution of 2560×1600 in a 24-inch display. These advantages are balanced by the monitor’s low contrast ratio and meager 60Hz refresh rate, flaws that are difficult to excuse given its $480 MSRP. However, the SW242Q’s price is in some ways easier to justify than other BenQ photography monitors, like the SW272U. The company’s larger 27-inch and 32-inch photography monitors face a wide range of competitors that, though they lack the fine-coated panel, achieve similar color performance and sharpness. The SW242Q is more unique: I don’t know of a single 24-inch monitor that matches or beats the BenQ SW242Q on sharpness and color performance. That provides a solid, though niche, reason to buy the SW242Q over less expensive peers. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating ProsExcellent SDR image qualitySuperb motion clarityFour video inputs including one USB-CGood range of image-quality controlsConsSeveral small design problemsMediocre HDR performanceSome OLED competitors are less expensiveOur VerdictThe Gigabyte Aorus FO27Q3 has a gorgeous QD-OLED panel and plenty of connectivity, though tight competition makes it hard for the monitor to stand out. Best Prices Today: Gigabyte Aorus FO27Q3 Retailer Price B & H Photo $799.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket It’s another week and another new monitor, this time from Gigabyte. The Aorus FO27Q3 is a 27-inch QD-OLED monitor that targets gamers but might have broader appeal to content creators and for general use. It is not the least expensive monitor in its category, but also not the most, and offers solid connectivity alongside good picture quality. Gamers who want USB-C should pay particular attention. Gigabyte Aorus FO27Q3 specifications The Gigabyte Aorus FO27Q3’s panel is similar to most of its competitors. It’s a QD-OLED panel from Samsung with a display size of 26.5 inches, a native resolution of 2560×1440 pixels, and a maximum refresh rate of up to 360Hz. Display size: 26.5-inch 16:9 widescreen Native resolution: 2560×1440 Panel type: QD-OLED Refresh rate: Up to 360Hz Adaptive sync: Adaptive Sync, AMD FreeSync Premium Pro Ports: 2x HDMI 2.1, 1x DisplayPort 1.4, 1x USB-C upstream with DisplayPort Alternate Mode and 18 watts of Power Delivery, 1x USB-B upstream, 2x USB-A 3.2, 1x headphone jack, 1x microphone jack VESA mount: 100x100mm Speakers: 2x 5-watt speakers Price: $799.99 MSRP The monitor includes a lot of connectivity with a total of four video inputs, one of which is a USB-C port. The monitor also has a pair of 5W speakers, which is a feature some gaming monitors omit. Further reading: See our roundup of the best gaming monitors to learn about competing products. Gigabyte Aorus FO27Q3 design The Gigabyte Aorus FO27Q3 looks good out of the box, but some details hold up better than others. The monitor uses glossy accents to provide a touch of class and luxury to the display, and they do the job. The monitor clearly looks like a gaming monitor, but it’s not garish or gaudy. However, some of the plastic, especially on the stand base and around the edges of the rear panel, looks a bit cheaper than I would like. It has RGB-LED ambient lighting on the rear of the display panel, but it’s extremely dim and allows only limited customization, which might disappoint gamers wanting their monitor to add flair in the dark. Gigabyte Aorus FO27Q3 backside. Gigabyte Aorus FO27Q3 backside.Matthew Smith / Foundry Gigabyte Aorus FO27Q3 backside.Matthew Smith / Foundry Matthew Smith / Foundry I also noticed two design oddities. First, the display panel’s viewable area wasn’t centered in the monitor’s viewable area. Instead it’s slightly up and to the right, with a visible gap between the true bezel and where the viewable area begins. I didn’t even notice it for several days, but once I did, it was hard not to see it. Also, the cable routing hole in the stand is too small to accommodate the power cord, so you’ll have to settle for the power cord dangling across your desk. The monitor ships with an ergonomic stand that provides adjustment for height, tilt, swivel, and pivots 90 degrees for use in landscape orientation. The stand is sturdy but has a wide base that takes up a little more room than some competing monitors. With that said, the base isn’t overly thick or tall, so the space it consumes on your desk is mostly usable. A 100x100mm VESA mount is included on the back of the display panel, making it easy to attach a third-party monitor arm or stand. Gigabyte Aorus FO27Q3 connectivity and menus Gigabyte packs a lot of connectivity into the FO27Q3. The monitor has two HDMI 2.1 ports and one DisplayPort 1.4 port, which can handle the monitor’s maximum refresh rate and resolution. It also has a USB-C port with DisplayPort Alternate Mode. The USB-C port includes power delivery but only provides up to 18 watts, so it’s not useful for charging a connected laptop. The monitor also has two USB-A 3.2 downstream ports for connecting wired peripherals. These can be driven by the USB-C port or a USB-B port also found on the back of the monitor, which makes the monitor a USB hub, although two ports are nothing to get excited about. It includes two audio jacks, one for headphones and one for a microphone, which could be useful if you have a dedicated microphone. You’ll access the on-screen menus through a joystick that is centered on the back of the lower display bezel. It is responsive and easy to use, as is true of most such controls found on monitors, and Gigabyte’s monitor options are sensibly laid out. The font size for some options is a bit small, and can be more difficult to read than is ideal. Gigabyte Aorus FO27Q3 on-screen menu. Gigabyte Aorus FO27Q3 on-screen menu. Matthew Smith / Foundry Gigabyte Aorus FO27Q3 on-screen menu. Matthew Smith / Foundry Matthew Smith / Foundry Many image quality options are available, including six-axis color customization, a number of gamma presets that target precise gamma values, and several color temperature presets. The color temperature presets are vague, however, labeled as “warm” or “cool” rather than a specific color temperature value. Still, this is a good range of quality customization for a monitor and will help people dial in the image to their preference. The monitor includes a typical suite of gaming-centric features like a timer, crosshairs, and picture-in-picture/picture-by-picture modes. There’s a black equalizer to elevate the brightness of games and a night vision mode meant to reveal detail specifically in dark scenes. The monitor can also restrict the visible area to 24 inches at a resolution of 1080p, which might be helpful if you want to squeeze out maximum frames per second in a highly competitive game. These features are useful, but also found in Gigabyte’s competitors. A pair of 5-watt speakers round out the monitor’s features. They provide okay volume but otherwise are nothing special. They’re usable if you just want to listen to a podcast or have a bit of music at low volume in the background, but they’re not going to be adequate for enjoying PC games. The Gigabyte has an especially saturated and colorful image that looks great in movies and games. Gigabyte Aorus FO27Q3 SDR image quality Spoiler alert: The QD-OLED panel in the Gigabyte Aorus FO27Q3 looks very similar to QD-OLED panels in other 27-inch OLED monitors released in 2024. With that said, the FO27Q3 performs well against its peers. Matthew Smith / Foundry Matthew Smith / Foundry Matthew Smith / Foundry The Gigabyte delivered a maximum SDR brightness of 263 nits, which is typical for an OLED monitor of any size and with any panel type. This is fine for most situations, but it could look a bit dim if you intend to use the monitor in a room with many bright sunlit windows or with a lot of overhead lighting. Of course, since other OLED monitors don’t get much brighter in SDR, this is a common limitation. It’s a glossy panel, too, so reflections can be an issue. Matthew Smith / Foundry Matthew Smith / Foundry Matthew Smith / Foundry Contrast is a strength of all OLED monitors, and the Gigabyte is no different. It is capable of achieving a minimum luminance of zero nits, which is perfect, and because of that, it has an effectively infinite contrast ratio. This leads to an immersive image with an excellent sense of depth and realism. It performs especially well in darker scenes or when viewing the display in a dark room, as the OLED display can reveal significant shadow detail that an IPS or VA panel display with an LED backlight would miss. However, this is true of all similar OLED monitors, so Gigabyte has no advantage or disadvantage here. Matthew Smith / Foundry Matthew Smith / Foundry Matthew Smith / Foundry Color gamut is where we start to see separation between OLED monitors. The Gigabyte has a Samsung QD-OLED panel, as is also true of the Asus ROG Swift PG32UCDM and Alienware AW2725DF. These monitors offer an extremely wide color gamut that covers up to 98 percent of DCI-P3 and 95 percent of Adobe RGB. Monitors using an LG WOLED panel, like the ViewSonic Elite XG272-2K-OLED and Asus ROG Strix XG27AQDMG, are at a slight disadvantage with color gamuts that tend to reach 95 percent of DCI-P3. The Gigabyte has an especially saturated and colorful image that looks great in movies and games. It can also be useful for photographers, videographers, and digital artists who want to ensure they can view close to the full range of color present in their content. Matthew Smith / Foundry Matthew Smith / Foundry Matthew Smith / Foundry It’s a similar story in color accuracy. Here again, the QD-OLED monitors, including the Gigabyte, outperform the WOLED monitors. All the monitors listed here have good color accuracy on the whole and will look realistic out of the box, but it is clear that QD-OLED has the edge. The Gigabyte does perform worse than the other QD-OLED monitors we have tested, though. Gigabyte posts respectable gamma and color temperature results. The default gamma curve came in at 2.3, which is slightly off the target of 2.2 and means that the image looks a bit dimmer and darker than ideal out of the box. The default color temperature, meanwhile, came in at 6300K, which is a bit warmer than our target of 6500K. These variances are tight enough that I doubt most people would immediately notice them, and other OLED monitors are similarly off-target at their default settings (though some, like the Viewsonic XG272-2K-OLED, are instead too bright and cool). Sharpness can be an issue for QD-OLED monitors due to the specifics of the subpixel structure, which can cause small fonts and high-contrast edges to look more pixelated than you would expect for a 1440p monitor. This issue is visible on the Gigabyte, but it is usually not overly distracting. It tends to show up far more often in Microsoft Excel than in PC games, so it’s more of a concern for productivity than entertainment. With that said, gamers who want excellent sharpness in an OLED should consider a 32-inch 4K panel (unfortunately, 27-inch 4K OLED panels are not yet available). The Gigabyte’s overall SDR image quality is strong. Like other QD-OLED monitors, the Gigabyte scored well in contrast and color gamut tests. Maximum SDR Brightness is a bit lower than I would like to see, but the same is true for other OLEDs, and it’s still bright enough for most rooms. It’s a great display for SDR gaming that can handle dark, gritty games and cheerful, colorful games with equal ease. Gigabyte Aorus FO27Q3 HDR image quality The Gigabyte FO27Q3 is VESA DisplayHDR True Black 400 certified. That same level of certification is provided to most of the 27-inch monitors on the market today, indicating passable HDR performance, but the monitor’s brightness is usually not high enough to deliver the ideal experience. The default HDR mode measured a maximum brightness of 362 nits in a 10 percent window, meaning that 10 percent of the screen was lit. Sustained full-screen brightness was no different than in SDR. These are not impressive results but fairly typical for a 27-inch QD-OLED monitor. Monitors with LG’s newest WOLED panel, like the Asus ROG Strix XG27AQDMG, tend to be brighter in highlights and a better choice for HDR content. I tried other HDR modes and found that HDR Vivid mode could hit a sustained HDR brightness of 805 nits in a 10 percent window, which is extremely high for an OLED monitor. However, while it was bright, it didn’t necessarily show more detail in bright areas of the screen, and the mode had serious color accuracy issues. I wouldn’t recommend it for games or movies. Gigabyte unlocks image quality controls in several HDR modes. That’s not true of many monitors that support HDR, although some OLED alternatives offer the same functionality. Messing with the image quality settings can lead to a technically less accurate presentation, but it’s often helpful on a monitor where you may need to tailor the brightness or contrast settings to fit the specific situation in which you’re using it and the content that you’re viewing. Gigabyte Aorus FO27Q3 motion performance Motion clarity is a strength for the Gigabyte Aorus FO27Q3. It has a maximum refresh rate of 360Hz along with a pixel response time of 0.03 milliseconds. Together, these numbers mean that the display shows very little ghosting behind fast-moving objects and feels responsive when playing fast-paced games at high frame rates. Motion clarity is better than an IPS or VA panel monitor with a 360Hz refresh rate because OLED has faster pixel response times than those alternatives. Games also look fluid and stable thanks to the inclusion of AMD FreeSync Premium Pro and support for Adaptive Sync. Nvidia G-Sync compatibility is not part of the monitor’s feature set, but it should work since G-Sync is compatible with Adaptive Sync. It would’ve been nice to see Gigabyte obtain official G-Sync certification, though, as competitors like Asus ROG Strix XG27AQDMG take that extra step. On the other hand, the Asus monitor has a maximum refresh rate of 240Hz. That’s enough for most games, but highly competitive players will prefer the Gigabyte’s higher refresh rate. Should you buy the Gigabyte Aorus FO27Q3? The Gigabyte Aorus FO27Q3 is yet another strong OLED monitor with a vibrant and colorful QD-OLED panel. The monitor has an infinite contrast ratio, good color accuracy, and excellent motion clarity thanks to a 360Hz refresh rate. All this adds up to a monitor that looks good straight out of the box and is well-suited for playing PC games. Pricing and availability are obstacles. QD-OLED monitors seem to be having stock issues this summer, and the Gigabyte is out of stock at many retailers and has yet to receive significant price cuts. That makes it hard to recommend over a competitor like the Asus ROG Strix XG27AQDMG, which is currently more widely available at lower prices. The Gigabyte is a good pick if you find it on sale for closer to $750, and its broad range of connectivity, including USB-C, can give it an edge if you intend to connect a lot of video inputs or peripherals to your monitor. Monitors Read...