According to SteamDB, there were 18,838 new games released in 2024, an increase of approximately a third over the year before. With the growth of digital distribution, other game stores, consoles, and mobile are seeing the same explosive growth. You probably heard about Balatro and Dragon’s Dogma 2, but what about a mashup of old-school Zelda and a shoot-em-up? It’s becoming impossible to parse all but the biggest triple-A releases (many of which aren’t exactly stellar) and the most virulent of social media hits. How do you search and find new games in a landscape where you simply can’t hope to see everything? That’s the problem that We Love Every Game (or We HEART Every Game as its logo goes) aims to solve. A product of a teeny-tiny Boston startup called Totally Human Media, I fell in love with the tool during a recent Steam sale and wrote it up here on PCWorld. The company reached out to me to ask if I wanted to go deeper, and I couldn’t say “yes” fast enough. I wanted to find out the root problems of current game discoverability on the PC and other platforms, and what we as gamers can do about it, how developers can get their games out, and all that jazz. Totally Human Media CEO Ichiro Lambe and head of marketing Matt Martindale joined me over a video call to chat. Ichiro Lambre Michael Crider, PCWorld: Ichiro, on the website for Totally Human Media, it says that you have a background in game development. Can you tell me about that? Ichiro Lambre: So I’ve been in the industry for about thirty years. I founded a couple of companies, one became Sony Online [Entertainment] Denver, the next was an indie studio called Dejobaan Games. We created award-winning stuff with a Guinness World Record for breaking Steam…and over the years I’ve consulted for a number of companies, and helped launch umpteen games. And in 2018 Valve approached me to help them with games discovery. So I co-founded something called Steam Labs over at Valve. I was an external consultant, random moonlighting dude, and for a few years we just sort of did a bunch of stuff around games discovery. And early last year I closed down my indie studio, because it’s fashionable, right? And I founded Totally Human Media and We Love Every Game to solve the discovery problem. PCWorld: And was it specifically your experience with that indie studio and over many years that told you, “This is a problem that we need to address?” Lambre: Oh, absolutely. So I’ve been doing discovery-related stuff for about ten years. I had a Twitter bot back in the day called Microtrailers where every time a Steam game launched, it would cut a six-second micro-trailer and put that on Twitter. May Twitter rest in peace! I knew the Valve/Steam team over the years and that’s part of why they brought me on to help them. But bluntly, the only reason why I had to close my indie studio was because the games launched there were generally, you know, thumbs up, but they sank without a trace. Guards II: Chaos in Hell is a turn-based tactics game where you swap heroes to attack, heal, and use abilities, featuring unique stances, deep strategy, and diverse upgrade paths.?? 99% of 79 reviews?? See it on Steam ($14.39)#steam #pcgaming #gaming #steamgame— We ? Every Game (@weloveeverygame.bsky.social) 2025-06-23T13:12:15.744198Z PCWorld: So for We Love Every Game, what is your standard for what constitutes a good game, one that the tool can recommend, if you’re prepared to share that? From what I can tell it seems to require at least an 80 percent or higher positive review on Steam. Can you share any other parameters, green flags or red flags that developers should be aiming for? Lambre: We’re trying a really simple heuristic right now, which is 80 percent are positive player reviews or higher, and I think it’s 30 reviews or more. And for something like the Steam Summer Sale, obviously a game has to be greater than $0 or it’s not really on sale. However, I think our greater mission is to make sure that every gamer finds their next favorite game, and also that every game is able to find an audience of people who would want it. So there are lots of games out there that don’t fit a concrete criterion, but it has many people who love it. I don’t like it when recommendation engines try to be personalized, because algorithms get it wrong, but we don’t necessarily want a review score to stand in the way of [a game] finding you. Matt Martindale: I think in the future we’ll be trying to find ways that people can say, you know, I like certain genres. I’m an RTS kid myself. But there are things within that genre, what is that thing that they enjoy about it, and how do we then link games together? For example, my classic line [to demonstrate this] is, like, Pokemon and Elden Ring are very similar. They have difficulty gates, you’ve got to train up and beat that. So how do you serve that as a need? Unless there’s someone who’s written an article or a video on YouTube saying, “Is it that thing from that game,” there’s no way. And there’s so many misconnections for gamers, I find. Like, how many Fortnite players have the perfect game that they’ve just not migrated across to? So that’s the foundation, how to help people find those little connections and move across. For example, I’m fairly certain that base building, which is what I enjoy in real-time strategies, is why I enjoy Factorio and Satisfactory. Platforms don’t really have the space or the time to be building that kind of interconnection. We Love Every Game PCWorld: Your “About” page on We Heart Every Game says you want to figure out a way to cover “every single bloody video game on the web” in videos, newsletters, and so forth. Tell me what that looks like for you. Lambre: The way that people find and buy games typically follows the sales funnel model, where you have to first become aware of a game. I see it somewhere. Then they are in the interest phase where they learn about a game. It’s like your favorite journalist writes about it, “Ah, yes, I trust Michael.” And then you get to the bottom of the sales funnel, can I buy it, is it the right price? I think the bottom of the funnel is solved. Steam, Nintendo eShop, you know, you can buy a game, you can play it, that’s no problem, perfect. The middle of the funnel, is hurting, but there’s a lot of good content. Once you know about a game, you can learn about it…what I think is missing for most games is that initial awareness. So if we can say, “Hey, here are games that, based on your Steam library or these categories [you selected], and you signed up for a newsletter, we can tell you sort of very lightly what might be interesting to you. Why might it be interesting. And here’s how you can find out about it more in a more substantial fashion. PCWorld: I’m gonna be honest, the task that you’ve set for yourself seems overwhelming, dare I say impossible. How do you scale that up to, say, 20 or 30,000 new games to hit Steam in a year? Lambre: So automation has gotten better over the years, and it’s gotten worse. So we have like generative AI can spit out a bunch of shit about everything. But I think that we can also use these tools to sort of summarize what’s interesting or relevant to you about a game. If we go to ChatGPT and we’re just like, look, encapsulate this game in a few sentences and then I’ll link to the Steam store page, or we’ll try to find articles and in-depth streams, so forth and so on, we can automate that at scale and use that existing information about the games, what’s largely out there already. PCWorld: So you would trust generative AI to summarize human-generated content about games, and then present that to people as a way of informing them? Lambre: I don’t trust it at all! I think it does a highly variable job of accuracy. Do I want glue on my pizza? No. However, I do think it’s currently good enough so that it can sort of tease you, and say, “Look, this game might be good for you. Here are a few reasons why.” Martindale: We’re at the top of that [sales] funnel, we’re using it as a way to help people find little snippets of that game…we’re building sort of framework templates for the content that goes out there, so that there’s a structure in what we produce using it. If it makes a mistake, it’s more likely something we’ve done wrong with the template, not something in [the content]. These are smaller bite-sized bits of content, we’re not trying to eat an entire Wikipedia article and spit that out…So it’s always quite focused, and not like trying to matter too many things into a very small box that that when AI is going to trip over and, yeah, start inventing its own realities. Lambre: What we have upcoming is, we try to convey what’s relevant to you about a game in multiple ways. So for instance, if you were looking at it [like], I play Deep Rock Galactic. How are these games like Deep Rock Galactic? And it might be able to pick out, like, it’s for four player, Co Op, PvE, right? PCWorld: So if you’re building a tool from the ground up, based on all these goals, would you say that you are hoping to expose all of the buttons and all the levers that you can to a user to say, “This is why we’re making these recommendations. Please tweak these to your to your liking to make it better”? Lambre: It’s sort of scary to give people all of the controls, because I think we can overwhelm them. But wouldn’t it be really neat if you you’re a casual user, and you can just say, “Algorithm, I’m going to surf with whatever you recommend.” Or maybe you’re a little bit more of a mid-core gamer, and you go in and you pull out genres and pull in genres. Or maybe you’re an incredible prosumer, and you can go in and say, “Look, I explicitly want only games that are hidden object, and cats,” tag, and and do that. We Love Every Game PCWorld: Do you think you can build that for all of those disparate users? Lambre: The tech behind that part is pretty straightforward. Like you can go to SteamDB right now, and you can just say, it must have a hidden object tag and a cat tag. I think the tricky thing will be to figure out how to co-construct this with gamers, so as not to overwhelm them. We will tell you in a few months whether that works or not. PCWorld: User interface is not easy. Martindale: On user interface, like, TikTok. Have they got the best option for this? Or do we need something where it’s a bit more speedy and quicker to get through things? We’re still probably an early stage to share anything, but we are working on a single view where you would go as if you were to scroll, say, a Reddit or Twitter feed, and you can just work your way through in one view. PCWorld: On the Totally Human page, you said you want to do something similar for all entertainment media. Yes. Do you think that’s possible? Lambre: I think we’re doing it…on a Friday night when I’m sort of relaxing with my wife and we put the kids into their beds. Kind of want to be let’s just watch something and to enjoy it like right? And so I have a need for we have the need for just being able to scroll through a bunch of stuff and say, “ah, that let’s try it” without having to go through the Netflix interface and to play the first 15 minutes of an episode. The way we’re approaching it, is to give users that top of funnel stuff where it’s just like you walk into a farmer’s market, and you see all these wonderful things, and you can just taste them really, really quickly. And we give you that sort of literally, you know, this one-second hint of what Veronica Mars is all about. And then you can make an informed decision as to whether you want to investigate that. So, you know, can we do it? I don’t know. Talk to me in 2027 [when we’re] expanding to books, music, movies and television. But the how is, we’re learning a bunch of lessons from games. PCWorld: This is a very broad question, and I would understand if you would just decline it. Can this be profitable? And is that a goal for you? Lambre: The answer is that we are investor-backed, and therefore it has to be. I think there are a number of platforms that demonstrate how you can do something like that. Any consumer-facing platform has the ability to monetize, and hopefully in a not-enshittified way. PCWorld: That’s very gratifying to hear! Lambre: Oh my gosh. It breaks my heart every time something wonderful that I use turns into this weird dystopian thing. Martindale: I guess for the developers, the option to be able to target people based on their interests has never been really bad. Even platforms like Steam, they don’t necessarily do that themselves as part of their system, but they’re not necessarily set up for “I’m after people who play this very specific pattern.” And I think when we’ve talked to a lot of marketing teams and studios in the space, the problem is they have to use very generic tools to target a very sort of a niche audience. Google doesn’t tell if you’re a real-time strategy player, like that’s not an option…Not necessarily like a long-term campaign, but just have that loud thunder clap moment on their launch, focus it around a specific time. And it instead of it being this invisible space where they put their money in and then they just hope that they see the fallout. We’ll just make it visible, because we’re hopefully bringing joy to the users through this as well. Lambre: I think that if we do it [monetization] by saying, “Look, this user has said specifically that they want, gladiatorial management RPGs, and your game is a gladiatorial management RPG. We don’t have to guess. We don’t have to do any weird fingerprinting, nothing invasive. Just put a sponsorship thing in the feed! And that seems harmonious rather than weird. We Love Every Game does plenty to spread awareness for games outside of its primary tool, from social media profiles to YouTube videos, to newsletters, to dedicated sub-sites for Steam sales. The next one should be active for the Steam Summer Sale right now. Read...

I’ve decided to test a radical change to my living room streaming setup. For years, I’ve used an Apple TV 4K for streaming, and while it’s been a great device overall, I’ve always wanted to try swapping it for a home theater PC. In my early cord-cutting years (circa 2010), I used a cheap Intel Atom-powered Lenovo nettop (now obsolete) to access Hulu’s website (still free at the time) and avoid its subscription fees on connected TV devices. Plugging a cheap mini PC into your TV today could yield similar advantages. This experiment could fail for a variety of reasons, and I’ve already hit some snags in my initial setup. But if it works, it could offer a lot more control over the streaming experience along with some potential cost savings over time. The case for a home theater PC (in 2025) I’m going into this mini PC experiment with a bunch of use cases in mind: Ad-skipping powers: With a desktop web browser, I can use MultiSkipper to fast-forward through commercials on Hulu, Peacock, Tubi, and other ad-supported streaming services, and I can use uBlock Origin to avoid ads on YouTube. This could save a lot of money as ad-free streaming subscriptions get more expensive. The MultiSkipper browser extension.Jared Newman / Foundry Password sharing: Netflix’s crackdown on password sharing doesn’t apply to website or mobile app use, presumably because it’d be tricky to block out-of-home use on portable devices. Watching on a PC could make account-splitting easier, especially as more services follow Netflix’s lead. Unrestricted multiview: Picture-in-picture is a mess on streaming platforms, with inconsistent support across apps and devices. That’s not an issue on PCs, where you can just open up more browser windows or use the handy picture-in-picture Chrome extension. This could really come in handy during March Madness. Watching two videos at a time is no problem on desktop web browsers.Jared Newman / Foundry Unlocked playback speeds: Some videos just don’t need to be watched at regular speed, but with the exception of YouTube, most video services don’t let you speed up playback on smart TVs and streaming devices. By contrast, Netflix’s web version has built-in speed controls, while the Video Speed Controller extension works across a broad range of sites. Streaming guides galore: While most streaming platforms offer guide features for tracking shows and finding new things to watch, they don’t work with every streaming service and they tend to be loaded with ads and upsells. On a PC, you can take your pick of streaming guide sites such as Reelgood, JustWatch, Trakt, and Plex Discover. More entertainment options: With a mini PC setup, I’m looking forward to using some apps that aren’t available on an Apple TV, such as Nvidia GeForce Now and Plexamp. The hardware The Beelink Mini S12 Pro’s HDMI outputs connect direclty to the TV.Jared Newman / Foundry I didn’t want to spend a lot on this endeavor, nor did I want a noisy desktop PC that takes up a lot of space. That led me to Beelink’s Mini S12 Pro, whose $169 street price is only a little higher than the nicest streaming players, and its footprint isn’t much larger either. While its Intel N100 processor is lightweight, it supports 4K HDR video, comes with Windows 11, and includes a fairly generous 16GB of RAM and 500GB of storage. Similar products abound from other mini PC vendors, but I’ve had a positive experience using a slightly pricier Beelink SER5 Ryzen-based PC as my everyday computer and decided to stick with a brand that I know. One caveat: The Mini S12 Pro doesn’t support HDCP 2.2, which Netflix requires for 4K HDR video. The SER5 doesn’t have that limitation, but I stuck with the cheaper model for reasons I’ll explain below. The trade-offs While I’ve barely started using this new setup, I’ve already encountered a few issues. The biggest problem is inconsistent 4K HDR video support on streaming sites. Netflix technically supports 4K HDR in Microsoft’s Edge browser, but even on Beelink’s higher-end SER5, it refused to budge beyond 1080p. Amazon Prime and Max don’t support 4K or HDR on PCs at all. That said, I only upgraded to Netflix’s Premium tier with 4K HDR (which costs $25 per month, instead of $18) for testing purposes. Max charges extra for 4K HDR as well, and vast swaths of other streamers’ catalogs are limited to 1080p anyway. Surround sound can also be an issue on streaming sites, but my living room setup is stereo-only anyway. Using an air mouse may be as close to the remote control experience as it gets.Wechip The other obvious issue is usability. Keeping a mouse and keyboard in the living room is out of the question, and while I’m looking into air mouses with small built-in keyboards, like this one, navigating a desktop interface will be less ideal than clicking around on a real remote. This will take some finagling, and the rest of my family will likely need to switch over to the Apple TV or the Google TV software built into our television. Follow up! I solved my TV streaming problems with this $30 keyboard In other words, this won’t be an ideal solution for everyone, and it might not even work out in the Newman household. If this whole TV experiment fails, I’ll likely repurpose the little Beelink PC as a cheap way to play with some Linux distributions; if it succeeds, it could be much a more liberating way to access streaming content. I plan to report back soon with new tips and findings either way. Sign up for Jared’s Cord Cutter Weekly newsletter for more streaming TV advice. Read...

The former director of the Wellington-based business must pay liquidators over $1 million, judge rules. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Attractive design and good build quality Great image quality in both SDR and HDR Versatile webOS with smart TV features USB-C input with Power Delivery Cons Not as sharp as most current OLED monitors Speakers are included, but weak Confusing menu system Our Verdict The LG Ultragear 39GX90SA-W is a gigantic 39-inch ultrawide monitor that can double as a smart television, for better and for worse. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: LG Ultragear 39GX90SA-W Retailer Price $1,299.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Blink and you’d miss it, but it’s true. Smart gaming monitors are here. Both LG and Samsung now offer monitors marketed at gamers that include a fully functional TV operating system that works much as it does on each brand’s smart TVs. The LG Ultragear 39GX90SA-W brings this concept to a big, beautiful OLED panel. It looks great, but it’s not perfect. Read on to learn more, then see our roundup of the best gaming monitors for comparison. LG Ultragear 39GX90SA-W specs and features The most notable specification on the LG UltraGear 39GX90SA-W’s spec sheet is its size. It’s a 39-inch ultrawide with a 21:9 aspect ratio, and while a 39-inch display may not sound significantly larger than a 34-inch ultrawide, it results in a 31 percent increase in display area. Put simply, the 39-inch LG feels way bigger than a 34-inch alternative. Display size: 39-inch 21:9 aspect ratio Native resolution: 3440×1440 Panel type: WOLED Refresh rate: Up to 240Hz Adaptive Sync: Yes, Adaptive Sync, AMD FreeSync Premium, Nvidia G-Sync Compatible HDR: HDR 10, VESA DisplayHDR True Black 400 CertifiedHDR Ports: 2x HDMI 2.1, 1x DisplayPort 1.4, 1x USB-C with DisplayPort Alternate Mode and 65 watts of Power Delivery, 1x Ethernet, 2x USB-A (2.0), 1x 3.5mm audio-out Additional features: Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth, remote control, LG webOS Audio: Speakers included Warranty: 2-year parts and labor warranty Price: $1,599.99 MSRP, $1,299.99 retail at time of review The 39GX90SA-W is also notable because it includes LG’s webOS smart television operating system. It works just as it does on an LG Smart TV and provides access to a wide variety of apps, as well as connectivity to many digital content libraries, like movies you might have purchased through YouTube. It even supports cloud gaming services like GeForce Now. Pricing is high, though not more than expected. The retail MSRP is $1,599.99, but a glance at price tracking websites shows the sale price of $1,199.99 is more typical. That’s expensive but expected for a huge, high-end OLED monitor. LG Ultragear 39GX90SA-W design The LG Ultragear 39GX90SA-W is a 39-inch ultrawide monitor with an aggressive 800R curve. Though obviously not as large as 45-inch ultrawide alternatives, it has serious presence and takes up a lot of space on a desk. The aggressive curve stands out immediately and will prove polarizing. If you like a curved monitor, it’s great. If not, you’ll have trouble putting up with it. Size and curved display aside, the 39GX90SA benefits from an alluring ultra-white design. The rear panel and display stand both feature a stark, clean, almost clinical look that will fit in with minimalist desk setups. Most of the monitor’s materials are plastic, but the bottom half of the stand is metal, and the plastics used were sturdy when I picked up the monitor. Matthew Smith / Foundry The stand is huge. It includes a broad neck, a large base, and a deep reach that places the ultrawide display panel relatively close to the user’s face. It can be difficult, or impossible, to find an ideal position if your desk is less than 30 inches deep, or less than 50 inches wide. That’s to be expected given the 39GX90SA’s huge ultrawide screen, but it’s still important to keep in mind. Most people will find a 34-inch ultrawide a better fit for their desk. Even so, LG’s design is a win. It’s at least as premium as Samsung’s Odyssey G8 and G9 monitors, and more attractive than recent alternatives from Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI (among other brands). It works especially well as a mixed-used monitor in a room that serves as a home office during the day and a gaming den at night. The aggressive curve stands out immediately and will prove polarizing. LG Ultragear 39GX90SA-W connectivity Connectivity is mostly a highlight for the LG Ultragear 39GX90SA-W, with a few caveats. On the plus side, the monitor includes a lot of video connectivity. It has two HDMI 2.1 ports, one DisplayPort, and one USB-C with DisplayPort. That’s a total of four video inputs and a good range of options for connecting laptops, desktops, and game consoles. The USB-C port also supports data and up to 65 watts of Power Delivery. I’m happy to see a USB-C port with Power Delivery included, as it reinforces the monitor’s identity as a display for both work and play. Owners can use a single cable to connect and charge a thin-and-light laptop that has USB-C. The monitor’s additional connectivity includes two USB-A ports (both USB 2.0) and Ethernet. The Ethernet port is useful if you plan to make the most of the monitor’s smart connectivity, which I’ll get to shortly. If you don’t have Ethernet handy, however, that’s fine: The monitor also supports Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. A 3.5mm audio jack rounds out the connectivity. LG Ultragear 39GX90SA-W menus and features LG calls the Ultragear 39GX90SA-W a “smart gaming monitor.” What does that mean? It’s basically a smart TV. While it lacks a TV tuner (meaning it can’t accept cable or antenna TV input), it otherwise works much like any LG television that runs LG’s webOS. It provides a huge variety of streaming apps, from Netflix to Crunchyroll, and even supports cloud gaming apps like GeForce Now (which means you can technically game without a PC or console by connecting a Bluetooth game controller to the monitor). WebOS is quick, attractive, and easy to understand. However, the 39GX90SA-W suffers a few problems when it comes to how the monitor interacts with PC inputs. For example, when a new PC input is connected, the monitor will ask if you’d like to switch to that input. The prompt doesn’t stay on-screen for long, though, so I often found it had disappeared by the time I climbed out from under my desk to connect my desktop. I also had small but noticeable issues with the responsiveness of the monitor’s on-screen menu, which occasionally hesitated as I moved through options. I even encountered a loading screen icon while swapping between monitor menus. That’s not something you’ll see on a monitor that lacks a smart TV operating system. This is most obvious when using the Game Optimizer mode. Opening the on-screen menu in this mode opens a Ultragear-branded menu that otherwise doesn’t appear. It doesn’t support adjusting many features, however, and the swap from the Ultragear menu to the standard menu takes a few seconds, during which a loading icon appears. On the other hand, the 39GX90SA-W ships with a compact remote that provides easy access to monitor options. While the menu system’s sometimes slow performance is annoying, it’s less annoying than adjusting monitor menus using a joystick or buttons on the monitor itself (a joystick is still found on the monitor, though, in case you lose the remote). The streaming apps I tested, such as YouTube and Netflix, worked as expected. Matthew Smith / Foundry Speakers are bundled in the 39GX90SA-W, but they’re not loud enough to be useful in most situations. I found them tepid at maximum volume even in my home office, which has no significant noise besides my home HVAC. The 39GX90SA-W’s speakers could hardly compete with that. I’m not sure everyone will find the 39GX90SA-W’s smart features a win, but it’s always interesting to see them on a big, ultrawide monitor. This is effectively a 39-inch ultrawide smart TV—something that doesn’t exist in the traditional HDTV market. It’s unfortunately not large enough for use in most TV dens, but I do think this concept will appeal to shoppers mostly interested in viewing movies or playing PC games. LG Ultragear 39GX90SA-W SDR image quality The LG Ultragear 39GX90SA-W utilizes an LG WOLED panel. These panels have been tested in numerous monitors and are generally slightly less vibrant compared to Samsung’s QD OLED panels, although they still perform well in terms of contrast and brightness. The LG Ultragear 39GX90SA-W remains on-script. Matthew Smith / Foundry I measured a sustained SDR brightness of about 246 nits from the 39GX90SA-W. As the graph shows, that is a typical level of brightness for a modern OLED monitor in SDR. Although it’s not especially bright, it’s enough for use in a room with some light control, like blinds or curtains. If you are sitting near sunlit windows, however, glare can become an issue. The monitor has a semi-gloss coat, but its aggressive curve can have the effect of focusing light sources depending on their angle, which can amplify glare. Matthew Smith / Foundry Contrast is a strength of OLED panels. They can reach a minimum brightness of zero nits, which means they have an effectively infinite contrast ratio. The result is the deep, immersive image that propelled OLED to the top of image quality rankings. The 39GX90SA-W is no exception, but it also doesn’t stand out. All the OLED panels found on modern monitors reach a minimum luminance of zero nits, so there’s no meaningful difference here. Still, contrast is a key reason to select the 39GX90SA-W instead of an ultrawide LCD competitor. Matthew Smith / Foundry The 39GX90SA-W’s color gamut spans 100 percent of sRGB as well as 96 percent of DCI-P3 and 88 percent of Adobe RGB when tested in the standard monitor preset. That’s an excellent result and enough to provide a vibrant, highly saturated image that most people will find pleasing. As the graph shows, QD-OLED monitors like the Alienware AW3425DW tend to have slightly better color saturation. The advantage is subtle, but noticeable, though the LG’s color gamut is still excellent. Matthew Smith / Foundry The 39GX90SA-W has good color accuracy in its standard image preset, although as the graph shows, it’s not the best in its category. The image looks realistic, and I had difficulty noticing any major color issues aside from color temperature. It is important to note that the monitor offers a comprehensive range of image quality presets, including expert presets. These presets significantly enhance color accuracy, reducing the average color error to an impressive 0.85. In standard mode, the gamma was 2.3, which is above my target of 2.2, and the color temperature was 7400 K—which is cooler and more sterile than the preferred 6500 K. The expert image quality preset again improved matters dramatically, shifting both gamma and color temperature to our preference. Sharpness, however, is a problem that can’t be mitigated. The 39GX90SA-W has a native resolution of 3440×1440, which is typical of most ultrawide monitors. But most alternatives have a smaller 34-inch panel, and spreading the same number of pixels across a 39-inch panel noticeably degrades sharpness. Small fonts have clear pixelation and color artifacts around them, while small buttons and interface elements can look blocky. It’s tolerable, but the 39GX90SA-W is not for those who want a crystal-clear display. The 39GX90SA-W’s overall image quality is good, but it’s a bit below-average for an OLED monitor. It shares common OLED strengths, including an incredible contrast ratio and wide color gamut. However, LG’s WOLED still doesn’t rival Samsung’s QD-OLED in color volume, and the 39GX90SA-W’s sharpness will be an issue for eagle-eyed buyers. It’s an attractive display but doesn’t stand out from the OLED crowd. LG Ultragear 39GX90SA-W HDR Image Quality LG’s UltraGear 39GX90SA-W supports HDR and is VESA DisplayHDR True Black 400 certified. That’s the typical level of certification for an OLED monitor. However, as the graph below shows, the monitor can reach a higher level of brightness than that certification would suggest, with a maximum sustained HDR brightness of 783.5 nits. Matthew Smith / Foundry When I compare the 39GX90SA-W to its competitors I’m forced to repeat myself, as once again it performs about as well as most other OLED monitors on the market. Its HDR brightness figures are similar to recently tested WOLED monitors. Samsung QD-OLED are currently a better choice for HDR overall, but I wouldn’t call it a night-and-day difference, and it should only sway you if HDR performance is among your top priorities.  Still, I was pleased with the LG’s HDR picture. It’s vivid in most scenes and games, with only scenes that attempt to push brightness across the entire display really challenging the monitor. LG Ultragear 39GX90SA-W motion performance The LG UltraGear 39GX90SA-W has a maximum refresh rate of 240Hz, which provides a buttery-smooth image in PC games that can reach frame rates that high. It also benefits from OLED’s low pixel response time, which drops as low as 0.03 milliseconds. In practice, this further reduces motion blur. As a bonus, it also translates to relatively minor motion blur at lower refresh rates (like 60Hz or 120Hz). There’s more to it than just motion clarity, because the monitor also provides broad adaptive sync support with official support for Adaptive Sync, AMD FreeSync Premium, and Nvidia G-Sync standards. While most monitors that support any of these will also unofficially work with all three, it’s good to see official support to give gamers peace of mind. As with other aspects of the 39GX90SA-W, the monitor’s only downside is that it’s basically the same as other OLEDs on the market. There’s a very wide variety of monitors that have a 240Hz refresh rate or higher, so while the LG looks great in fast-paced games, it doesn’t look better than the competition. Should you buy the LG Ultragear 39GX90SA-W? The Ultragear 39GX90SA-W is another competent entry into LG’s ever-growing line-up of OLED monitors. It delivers an immersive, colorful, contrast-rich image with superb motion clarity, though it suffers from sub-par sharpness. The monitor also provides LG’s webOS smart TV operating system with access to familiar apps including Netflix and GeForce Now, alongside Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity. That means it can serve as an all-in-one gaming and entertainment display even without a PC attached. That makes the 39GX90SA-W alluring if you want an ultrawide monitor that’s larger and more feature-rich than most competitors. If you don’t care about smart features in your monitor, however, a smaller and less expensive alternative like the Alienware AW3425DW will make more sense. Read...

Taking a laptop with you when you travel means you have the convenience of your work or entertainment with you wherever you go. But there’s no doubt that having such an expensive and important device with you can also be a logistical and security challenge. So, here are some tips to help keep you and your laptop safe. 1. Use a VPN and antivirus software Using public Wi-Fi is a necessity for most people travelling with a laptop, unless you have an LTE connection, that is. Unfortunately connecting to public Wi-Fi can compromise your laptop security. These networks are often unsecure, without password protection or encryption, and many have been compromised with malware that malicious actors can use to steal information or passwords. Information breaches via public Wi-Fi happen more often than you might think. A Forbes Advisor survey of 2,000 working Americans that used public Wi-Fi found that four out of every 10 had their information breached while on public Wi-Fi. The survey also found that the most common places that breaches occurred were cafés, airports, and hotels. That’s why you should always use a virtual private network (VPN) and have an antivirus program running when on public Wi-Fi. A VPN acts as an intermediary that encrypts the data you send between your device and the public router, making it a lot harder for cybercriminals to steal your data. If you have to download any files, a good antivirus program can detect and stop malware before it can damage your PC. Pexels: Kevin Paster 2. Have tracker software loaded Tracking software can often be your best bet for getting your laptop back if it goes missing on a trip. Find My Device is one utility that you can use to track a lost laptop. If you have Windows 10 or 11 and a Microsoft account, you have access to this feature and can turn it on in your Microsoft settings. As well as basic tracking of your lost device, it lets you lock your laptop and reset the passwords on it remotely to prevent others from accessing your personal data. The catch is, your Microsoft account has to be an administrator account; you need to have location settings enabled; and the laptop has to be connected to the internet for these features to work. Some savvy travelers prefer to use more sophisticated tracking software than Find My Device. One example is Absolute’s Home and Office software. It gets integrated into the laptop’s BIOS once installed, so even if your laptop’s operating system is changed or the storage drive is replaced, you can still track it down. Chris Hoffman / IDG 3. Label it for easier recovery It may seem like an obvious nugget of advice but having a label on your laptop that specifies your name, phone number, and either your residential or work address can be the one thing that gets you your laptop back when it’s found. The people who found it need to know who it belongs to. Add a sticker on your laptop’s underside as a discrete identification tag. You can buy writable and printable adhesive tags on Amazon for just a few dollars. Otherwise, slip a note into your laptop bag as a less intrusive identification method. You should also record your laptop’s make and model and serial number before you go, in the event it is found, and you need to make a report about it. Also jot down any other distinguishing features that will help you describe your laptop’s appearance, like its color, or any stickers on the chassis. Pexels: Brett Sayles 4. Apply common sense protection strategies The number one protection strategy you can apply is to always keep your laptop in your line of sight wherever you go. But if you do need to travel light and leave it in your hotel when you go out, be sure to store it in your room security safe or have the hotel staff store it in a secure place if you don’t have a safe in your room. Travel insurance is also a must when traveling with a laptop. The right kind of insurance will cover you for the complete cost of the device in the event it’s lost or stolen. If your laptop has a Kensington lock port, you should use a Kensington lock to prevent grab and run theft. Otherwise, buy a cable lock before you go that will work with your laptop’s ports. When it comes to physical protection against damage, ensure your laptop bag is either a hard case or has sufficient padding to protect it in the event it is dropped. Buying a bag made from waterproof material is also a sensible idea. As a rule, you don’t want to leave your laptop in the overhead compartment of an airplane where it can be squashed or battered by other luggage. Instead, keep it with you in your seat. If your laptop bag is deemed to be checkpoint friendly, that can prevent you having to remove it from your bag every time you go through airport security. Pexels: Markus Winkler 5. Bring your own safe laptop accessories Always bring a universal travel adapter and a wall charger to use with your laptop when you travel. The universal travel adapter should have the correct plug shapes for the country or countries you are visiting, if you intend on travelling overseas. The adapter should also support a voltage range of between 100 to 240V. Make sure you have surge protection too, either built into your adapter or as a standalone accessory, because you can never rely on unfamiliar electrical outlets. Unexpected power surges can and will fry your laptop’s circuitry. The reason you want to bring a wall charger and always plug it into a wall socket is so you can avoid using public USB chargers, which are used by hackers for Juice Jacking. This is another cyber-theft tactic used by cybercriminals, whereby they load malware onto public USB ports to infect and maliciously access user devices. If you do ever have to use a public USB port, be sure to use charge-only cables with data blocking functionality. These cables deliver power but prevent any data (and therefore any malicious files) from being downloaded to your computer. Pexels: ready made Related content Best laptops: Our experts pick the top 11 models 23 travel gadgets you need for your next trip How to find lost gadgets (and avoid losing them) Read...

With a brain that’s swimming in a cocktail of neurodivergence, one of my most persistent enemies has always been procrastination. I was once told that my attention span is, on a scale of 1 to 10, either 15 or random. But as hard as it is to overcome—a condition that feels more nature than nurture—it’s something I’m learning to manage. Weeks ago, I decided I couldn’t get arbitrary brain chemistry get in the way of productivity, and so I took matters into my own hands. I needed to stop being so distracted and to change some habits, but I wasn’t going to do it alone. I was going to use technology to help me. Now, a couple of weeks on from implementing these tweaks, I feel like it’s been moderately successful. Here’s what I did. Stop procrastination dead in its tracks The first and most impactful change I knew I could make was to cut out a bunch of social media usage. I’m no voracious user, but I’m a sucker for scrolling through subreddits and diving into deep discussions on the minutiae of my various hobbies and interests. As much as I’ve learned doing that over the years, I’ve also developed unhealthy habits of following politics far too closely—and the news cycle is nothing but a doomscroll hole waiting to happen in 2025. So, I took drastic measures. I installed the BlockSite extension on every web browser (except one, in case I need to check Reddit or Twitter for work) and completely blocked the most distracting sites. I did the same on my phone too, as it’s that little black mirror that’s probably to blame for most of my procrastination. I also installed NoScroll on my phone to block shorts and reels. That stuff is crack to an ADHD brain. I use the BlockSite extension to block distracting sites. The block screen is mildly mocking, but I don’t mind it. I probably deserve it.Jon Martindale / Foundry If you’d rather take a less puritanical approach to managing the sites and services that tempt you to procrastinate, extensions like StayFocusd can make it easier to limit your time rather than block entire sites permanently. If you’re like me, though, excising the whole habit cold turkey is an easier change to make than having a lesser drip feed of it. Whatever the case, cutting out distractions leaves me with little to do but focus on the task at hand—and it works to encourage greater focus. The carrot alongside the stick The first time I sat on the toilet after blocking everything, I had a bizarre moment where I was staring at my phone with my mind telling me there’s something interesting there to do. But I’d blocked everything I usually do. What was I even looking at this thing for? That was a prime opportunity to not just hinder my bad habits but to reward the good ones. How am I going to improve my attention span? By doing things that require greater attention. Mozilla So I stocked my bathroom with a cheap e-reader with a few novels I’ve been neglecting. I also installed Pocket on my phone. While Firefox recently announced that it’s discontinuing Pocket, there are similar alternatives and the premise is all the same: save articles and web content to read or watch later when you have time. Now when I have time to kill, it’s with something more mentally nourishing than Reddit or TikTok. At the very least, I come out of it with less brain rot; at best, I’m developing better attention. Boring and silent are friends of focus Modern electronics and software are designed to grab and hold our attention with colors, lights, quick hits of compelling content, snazzy animations, etc. For me, it wasn’t enough to avoid social media and other distracting sites. A part of me was still drawn to the pretty icons and animations on my phone—so I decided to make it boring, too. Enter Minimalist Phone, a paid app (with a free trial) that turns your phone into a boring brick of black, overhauling the entire OS to look as dull and uninteresting as possible. That means no more icons, only text for everything, and it’s all black and white, yet you can still manage apps and services with ease thanks to its intuitive navigation. Check out my minimalist phone. It isn’t pretty, but that’s the point.Jon Martindale / Foundry But Minimalist Phone goes further than that. It also has an app blocker that lets you restrict certain apps to a schedule, or set mindfulness pauses before running certain apps, or even create an entirely separate work profile with different behavior when you’re “in focus mode.” It can also filter unimportant notifications so you aren’t distracted by alerts. I personally made a point of disabling all unnecessary notifications on Teams, Slack, and other work communication tools. For the ones I kept, I made the notifications monochrome and silent. That means I only know if someone sent me a message when I choose to check in—not when the app wants me to know—and that makes it easier for me to stay on task. Speaking of staying on task, I also have ChatGPT send me occasional reminders using its scheduled tasks feature. It’s just little things like a notice in the morning to start my day or a prompt to make sure I get done a certain task by a deadline. Could I use a traditional reminder app? Sure, but ChatGPT’s organic variations make me less likely to skip them. Plus, I’m already paying $20 per month for ChatGPT Plus. Might as well use it! A better way to procrastinate Breaking old habits isn’t easy. Even with blocks in place, I still feel the urge to procrastinate—and even when I’m reminded not to, I still want to find workarounds. For me, it isn’t plausible to never procrastinate. That’s why I allow myself to procrastinate in better ways. Maybe when I complete a task, I fire up my Chess.com account for a quick game. In between writing projects, I might give myself a few minutes with my preferred idle game: Ropuka’s Idle Island. Yes, it’s still a game, but at least it’s designed for drip entertainment. It doesn’t hook me for hours and hours, and the chill lo-fi soundtrack keeps it mellow. Jon Martindale / Foundry On dog walks, I’m making myself listen to audiobooks rather than shorter-form brain-rot content. And don’t underestimate the power of analog activities! I took up a new hobby in knitting. I won’t pretend it doesn’t feel like a whim for now, but I’m giving it a go as a way to detox from tech and procrastinate in a more productive way. Every second away from my phone helps to train away my urges to procrastinate. Jon Martindale / Foundry Overcoming procrastination is a long-term project, one that will probably remain a struggle for the rest of my life. But I already feel some of the positive benefits of these mitigating techniques. I’m less hooked on scrolling and more content overall. I’m a little more focused and a little more effective. We’ll see how long it lasts. Read...

SkyCity Entertainment Group Limited (SkyCity) has today provided notice that it is to file legal proceedings against Fletcher Building Limited and The Fletcher Construction Company Limited (together, Fletchers) Read...

Do you keep any electronics in your bedroom? All the experts say you aren’t supposed to. But my bedroom often doubles as my office, and that means lots of electronics with distracting LED status lights and indicators. In fact, I face the problem of annoyingly bright LEDs all throughout my home, especially in my entertainment center. With my bedroom full of electronics—including a router and modem, which seem to have the brightest LEDs ever made—I rely on LightDims to keep me sane and help me sleep better. It only costs $5 for a sheet of these LED-dimming stickers and it’s well, well worth it. You don’t have to suffer bright LEDs LED status indicators are everywhere—on routers and modems, on laptops while they’re charging, on desktop PC cases, even on wireless chargers. I once kept a wireless charging pad next to my bed, and it had a bright LED on it to let me know that it was indeed charging my phone… while I was sleeping. That’d be fine if it were dim, but it was so annoyingly bright. Some LEDs even blink! The problem isn’t just about the bedroom. It can be annoying in a media center, too, where you want to focus on your TV and not the bright LED on one of the devices connected to it. It’s also not just about your own electronics! I rented a home a few years ago that came with an unbelievably bright home security system control panel in the master bedroom. It lit up the room at night and I couldn’t exactly remove it from the wall since I was a renter. LightDims were the solution I needed, and they were quick to peel off when I moved out. Buy LightDims on Amazon Dim all your annoying LEDs for a few bucks Look, there’s nothing complicated about LightDims. They’re just well-made, elegant, and inexpensive—and they serve an important need because you usually can’t turn off an LED short of cracking open the device and busting out a soldering iron. The best way to deal with an annoying LED indicator light is to use dimming stickers. With LightDims, you get a sheet of custom-cut stickers in multiple sizes and shapes that you can easily peel and stick on top of any annoying LED. When you’re done, they remove cleanly with no sticky residue. And you get about 100 stickers for $5. Actually, they come in two varieties: LightDims Original Strength, which dim an LED light by about 50 to 80 percent in brightness. If an LED isn’t dim enough for you after one sticker, you can stack a second one on top of it. LightDims Black Out Edition, which are designed to block 100 percent of an LED’s light. Great for bedrooms! Can you cover up those annoying LEDs with something else? Yeah, you can. I’ve personally used black painter’s tape in a pinch. But LightDims are convenient, fast, and have a clean look to them. Plus, a sheet is so cheap and lasts long enough that I don’t mind buying it. Buy LightDims on Amazon As is typical on Amazon, you’ll see similar products and knockoffs being sold for a few cents cheaper. But I highly recommend LightDims because they’re the original high-quality product created by a small business. Read...

Summer vacation seems just around the corner and you have to decide what to pack for the trip. While you may want to limit your tech time, you’ll still need a few things, whether you’re heading on hiking trip or a family vacation by the beach. Here at PCWorld we’re continually testing the latest gadgets to sort the good from the bad. This means we’ve had the opportunity to find the best tech gear and accessories built for travel. From voltage converters to noise-canceling headphones, we’ve curated a list of the very best tech gear to optimize your next travel experience. The items below are worthy of any packing list and will help you prepare for anything you may encounter on the road—or in the sky. Manage electrical needs with a voltage converter BESTEK Universal Travel Adapter 220V to 110V Bestek, Mapambo When you’re traveling from the U.S. to Europe, for instance, you don’t just need a different type of plug for your chargers and gadgets, but also a voltage converter because Europe runs on different settings. The Bestek Universal Travel Adapter will convert 220V outlets to U.S.-standard 110V, thus ensuring that your devices don’t burn out. It’s not only affordable, but it has three AC outlets and four USB ports. Plus, the product comes with a couple of extra plug adapters. If a more compact version is all you need, then the Mapambo converter will work just fine with one AC plug, two type-C, and two type-A ports. Buy the BESTEK Universal Travel Adapter at Amazon Buy the Mapambo 220V to 110V Voltage Converter at Amazon Take control of tangled cords Rolling Square inCharge 6 Portable Keychain Charger Cable Rolling Square If you’re like most travelers, you bring multiple electronics to make the most of your experience—we’re talking camera, phone, laptop, headphones, etc. But along with all of these items, you’ll need to carry all of their charging cables. That can take up space and lead to a tangled web of cords in your bag if you’re not careful. With the Rolling Square inCharge 6 Portable Charger Cable on Amazon, you have the option of USB-C or USB-A inputs and Micro USB or USB-C outputs all in a cable that is small enough for your keychain. Buy the Rolling Square Portable Charger Cable at Amazon Or get a retractable cable Baseus USB-C Retractable Cable Baseus If you’d rather have a simpler cable, then this one from Baseus will do the trick. The retractable design ensures it’s going to be safe in your luggage, preventing any type of tangling issues and considerably lowering the chances of your cable breaking. You can get this one in two length versions—3.3ft and 6.6ft— and you can pay as little as $10 on the shorter one if it’s on sale. Buy the Baseus retractable USB-C cable at Amazon Keep your devices charged with a portable power bank Anker GaN Prime Power Bank 2-in-1 10,000mAh portable power bank with wall charger Anker Traveling is always fun, but ending up with a depleted phone battery in an unknown place can be terrifying. This Anker Prime power bank takes up two roles in one. On one hand, it can plug into a wall outlet and give you the recharge you need while you’re at your hotel, for instance, but it can also act as a power bank when you’re out and about exploring. 10,000mAh is enough to charge your phone twice over (or close to that). There are three ports on this Anker hybrid charger, two of which are type-C that can reach 65W charging. It’s available for $110, but you can often find it closer to $70 when on sale. Buy the Anker GaN Prime Power Bank 2-in-1 Charger at Amazon Make that hotel outlet actually useful Anker Prime 6-in-1 charging station Anker One of the main issues we all have when traveling is that it’s tough to find multiple outlets in your hotel room. You’ll get one by the bedside table and another that’s taken up by the TV. Well, this compact power strip from Anker makes good use of that outlet and turns it into six. You get two AC outlets, two USB-A and two USB-C ports and a maximum output of 140W via those type-C ports. That’s just about perfect for laptops, smartphones and whatever else you have on you. The cool part is that the power strip is flat and the power cord detaches, so it’s ideal for your tight-packed luggage. Buy the Anker Prime 6-in-1 power strip at Amazon Never lose your valuables again Apple AirTag, Tile Pro, Samsung SmartThings, Tile Slim Apple, Tile, Samsung We’ve all been there. You arrive at your destination and you’re waiting for your checked bag to show up on the carousel, but it never does. Baggage handling is at it again. With a Bluetooth tracker you can easily keep tabs on where your bag is and maybe even help TSA locate it, should it be lost. There are quite a few Bluetooth trackers on the market that you can get. Apple users should look into the AirTag, while Android users can choose Samsung’s SmartTag2. Anyone can go for the Tile Pro. If you’re more worried about your wallet, Tile’s Slim tracker will fit inside it neatly. These are all around $30 a piece, but you can quite often get them for less or in bundles, thus lowering the price even more. Buy the Apple AirTag at Amazon Buy the Samsung Galaxy SmartTag2 at Amazon Buy the Tile Pro at Amazon Buy the TIle Slim at Amazon Enjoy an in-flight movie without annoying headphone cables Twelve South AirFly Pro or Ugreen Airplane Bluetooth Transmitter Receiver Ugreen, Twelve South Twelve South’s AirFly Pro Bluetooth wireless audio transmitter for $54.99 on Amazon (although it’s frequently on sale) allows you to turn any audio jack into a wireless Bluetooth transmitter. Simply plug in the device to the headphone jack on the back of the airplane seat and connect your wireless headphones. Then sit back and relax while you enjoy the in-flight entertainment on your sweet noise-canceling headphones. Alternatively, you can also go for the more affordable Ugreen Airplane Bluetooth Transmitter Receiver, which is $36.99 but often drops below $30. Either will allow you to connect up to two earbuds or headphones. Buy the Twelve South AirFly Pro at Amazon Buy the Ugreen Airplane Bluetooth Transmitter Receiver at Amazon Drown out noise with noise-canceling earbuds AirPods Pro (2nd Generation) or Bose QuietComfort Earbuds 2 Apple, Bose Flying on an airplane is loud. Engines roar, babies cry, passengers snore. That’s why you need noise-canceling headphones, which have become essential tools in making your flight as easy as possible. And because you’re traveling and bag space is a premium, your headphones need to be small. Not just for iPhone users, but for anyone who needs good headphones, the AirPods Pro 2 for $225.00 on Amazon continue to be the best choice due to their convenient size and noise-canceling capability. If you’re an Android user, you may want to look into the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds 2, which deliver something our buddies at TechAdvisor have called “astonishing noise cancellation” on top of superb sound quality and a secure fit. Get the AirPods Pro (2nd Generation) at Amazon Buy the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds 2 at Amazon Or get some noise-canceling headphones Sony WH-1000XM5 or Apple AirPods Max Apple, Sony If earbuds aren’t for you, then perhaps a pair of proper headphones will do the trick. The Sony WH-1000XM5 are easily some of the best noise-canceling headphones out there (as our friends at TechAdvisor attested with a 5-star review), delivering phenomenal audio and a comfortable build. Apple fans may want to look into the AirPods Max that are also known for what our friends at MacWorld call “industry leading active noise canceling”. Buy the Sony WH-1000XM5 at Amazon Buy the Apple AirPods Max at Amazon Capture and print your favorite memories Fuji Instax Mini 12 instant camera Fujifilm Sure, you could bring a giant SLR camera with multiple lenses and an extra special carry-on bag to store everything. Or for those who aren’t professionals, you can opt for a small, retro instant camera such as the Fuji Instax Mini 12 for $143.95 on Amazon. Just like an old-school Polaroid, you can take a picture and instantly print it out to capture the moment. Just be aware that you’ll need to purchase and carry the film separately. Buy the Fujifilm Instax Mini 12 at Amazon Keep your wires from getting crossed Bellroy Tech Kit Bellroy Bellroy is known for making great tech cases and kits, and the Bellroy Tech Kit for $59 on Amazon is our favorite. This well-designed, travel-friendly bag allows you to keep all of your cables and small peripherals stored and organized with ease. The folio style means that you can open the entire kit out flat for easy access to everything stored inside. Plus, the fabric is waterproof so you shouldn’t have to worry about a little liquid spilling on your precious gear. Buy the Bellroy Tech Kit at Amazon Game in-route to your destination Steam Deck, Switch OLED, or Backbone One Backbone, Nintendo, Valve The Steam Deck for $399 on the Steam store is a great handheld gaming system that allows you to play your favorite PC games on the go. It wasn’t so long ago that the Steam Deck was sold out everywhere and people were clamoring to get one. Thankfully, Valve has increased its supply and it’s easier than ever to get your hands on this excellent gaming portable. Play games from your Steam library on the go or load up on new titles for your next vacation. Gaming makes those long-haul flights a breeze. If you’d rather go for a different platform, the Switch OLED is an absolutely fantastic gaming console. And yes, we know the Switch 2 is en route, but good luck getting your hands on one of those anytime soon. If you’d rather just play on your phone, but have an upgraded experience, the Backbone One will mold to your phone, whether that’s an Android or iPhone model, and will help you play anything you want, including titles in your Xbox, PlayStation, or Steam libraries. Buy the Steam Deck at Steam Store Buy the Nintedo Switch OLED at Amazon Buy the Backbone One at Amazon Keep your hands and wrists happy while typing Logitech MX Keys Mini Logitech Laptop keyboards are cramped and can lead to some serious wrist pain if you type on them for long enough. Save yourself the carpal tunnel and grab a wireless keyboard like the Logitech MX Keys Mini. This compact keyboard is not only easy to travel with, but offers convenient features such as a semi-customizable layout, multi-device switching, and more. And the most important part is that it offers a great typing experience with comfortable and quiet keys that won’t bother your fellow travelers. The MX Keys Mini is currently $99.99 on Amazon. Buy the Logitech MX Keys Mini at Amazon Carry a library everywhere you go Kindle Paperwhite Amazon Books are a great thing to have around on vacation, but they’re heavy and they take up precious space in your luggage. Instead opt for an e-reader like the Kindle Paperwhite for $159.99 on Amazon and bring an entire library worth of books in this lightweight tablet. Plus the Paperwhite version comes with an anti-glare screen and adjustable brightness settings, making it perfect for a bright beach or dark airplane. Not sure which Kindle to buy? Check out our handy Kindle buying guide to help you make the right choice. Buy the Kindle Paperwhite at Amazon Grab a mobile hotspot to stay in range of Wi-Fi range Solis Lite 4G LTE WiFi Mobile Hotspot Solis Those who travel a lot know that Wi-Fi is essential. From being able to work online while on the road or just looking up restaurant recommendations in another country, it’s an invaluable tool to get the most out of your travel experience. There are quite a few services nowadays offering pocket Wi-Fi for travelers, but Solis is one of the best with reliable global coverage across 135 countries. Plus, it has flexible plans depending upon your needs. You’ll need to purchase the Solis Lite Mobile Hotspot for $159.99 on Amazon before registering for a Wi-Fi plan, but it’s only a one-time fee and you can then use it on all of your future trips. Buy the Solis Lite Mobile Hotspot at Amazon Safe surfing NordVPN  Pexels: Stefan Coders If you’re going to travel anywhere, connecting to shady Wi-Fi networks, you absolutely need to have a VPN on your device. We’ve tested what feels like a million of them and recommend you go for NordVPN, which we found to be the best overall. There are tons of configuration options if you want to deep-dive, but you can also just take the easy route and press a single button every time. It even comes with a built-in antivirus and password manager, so you have a three 3-in-1 solution. Get NordVPN Never worry about safe tap water again Philips Water GoZero self-cleaning water bottle Philips No matter if you’re traveling to a new city or going camping, making sure that you have access to clean and potable water is a necessity. The Philips Water GoZero bottles bring in some smart technology to ensure the water is safe to drink. Available for $73.89 at Amazon (or lower when on sale), the bottle uses UV technology to eliminate up to 99.999 percent of bacteria and 99.9 percent of viruses in just a few minutes. Even when empty, the cap can disinfect your bottle and remove odors. Made out of stainless steel and double-walled, the bottle won’t just purify your water, it will also keep your drinks hot for up to 12 hours or cold for 24 hours. Buy the Philips Water GoZero water bottle at Amazon Mount your smartphone on anything Universal in-flight airplane phone holder mount Perilogics This Universal in-flight airplane phone holder mount for $13.97 on Amazon allows you to easily clip your phone onto an airplane seat for hands-free convenience. Maybe you loaded up that latest season of your favorite show or have a game to occupy that long-haul flight. Either way, holding your phone with a craned neck for hours and hours is bound to give you a strain. Just hook this bad boy up to the back of the seat in front of you on the airplane then sit back, relax, and enjoy. Buy the Universal in flight phone holder at Amazon Travel with an ultraportable laptop Asus ZenBook S 14 Thomas Rau If you’re going to get a super-light laptop, the Zenbook S 14 is a fantastic pick because it weighs just 2.65 pounds, which makes sit lighter than the 13-inch MacBook Air. We gave this one a 4.5-star rating and our Editors’ Choice award, appreciating the fantastic battery life and lovely large OLED screen. Plus, the laptop has an Ultra 7 processor, 32GB RAM, and a 1TB SSD. You can also check out our other best ultraportables or our best laptop roundup for even more options. Buy the Asus ZenBook S 14 at Best Buy Or opt for a 2-in-1 for even more versatility HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 IDG / Josh Hendrickson If you want a more versatile laptop, then a 2-in-1 model will do, like our very favorite HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14. The 360-degree hinge will make it easy for you to turn this laptop into a tablet and into a Netflix-watching tent in a blink. The 14-inch 2880×1800 OLED touch display is absolutely gorgeous and the 500 nits make it perfect to use everywhere you go. Buy the HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 at Amazon Increase your screen real-estate with a travel monitor Azorpa A1 Gamut Matt Smith Sometimes you just need a second monitor, even when you’re traveling. The extra screen really helps productivity for business travelers and it makes for a great way to play your portable games on a larger screen while on the road. We really like the Azorpa A1 Gamut which delivers good image quality for an extremely budget friendly price—the A1 Gamut is usually about $70 on Amazon. It also comes with useful connectivity options and a solid build quality that will stand up to the rigors of travel.  Buy the Arzopa A1 at Amazon Grab some extra storage Crucial X9 Pro IDG If you plan on taking about a million pictures and videos and you want to have a safe way to back them up without relying on random hotel Wi-Fi, then you can also grab a portable SSD. The Crucial X9 Pro is the best external SSD for most folks because it’s not only affordable but also super fast. We gave the X9 Pro a near-perfect score and our Editors’ Choice award, utterly impressed with the 10Gbps performance and the small form factor. Buy the Crucial X9 Pro at Amazon Stream content in your hotel room Amazon Fire TV Stick HD Amazon If you’re going to travel, you may as well keep up with your shows. The Amazon Fire TV Stick HD makes it super easy to bring all your favorite shows with you anywhere you go. You’ll just need to pop this thing in the TV, connect it to the hotel’s Wi-Fi (or the hotspot you set up), and just have fun. It’s also super affordable, available for $35 (although it’s frequently on sale for $20 or less). Buy now at Amazon Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Long battery life (almost 24 hours in our test) Beautiful OLED screen Great webcam Cons Lunar Lake’s multithreaded performance isn’t ideal for some workloads Glossy screen can be difficult to read in harsh lighting conditions A little expensive Our Verdict The Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition is a sleek 14-inch Lunar Lake laptop with a beautiful display and extreme battery life. It’s a nice machine, and it would be easy to recommend more widely if it was less expensive. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today The Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition is a 14-inch 2-in-1 convertible laptop with an Intel Lunar Lake processor. It combines a touchscreen and 360-degree hinge along with 32GB of RAM, a beautiful OLED screen, and the long battery life Intel’s Lunar Lake hardware is known for. Unlike some other Yoga-branded laptops I’ve reviewed in the last year, this model is a 2-in-1 convertible PC with the 360-degree hinge the Yoga name was once known for. This machine has the same CPU as the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 10, and I reviewed them both at the same time. The Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 is the consumer alternative to the ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 with the same CPU on the inside but a different design and a more entertainment-focused display choice. The battery life is long, the screen looks beautiful, and the machine looks and feels sleek. Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1: Specs The Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition is an upgrade to the previous-generation Lenovo Yoga 9i (Gen 9). This time around, the machine has a Lunar Lake CPU — specifically, the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V. That means it gets much longer battery life and can run Copilot+ PC AI features that Intel’s older NPU just wasn’t powerful enough to run. It also has a more powerful integrated GPU that is surprisingly good for integrated graphics—plus a generous allotment of 32 GB of RAM and a 1 TB SSD. Model: Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition CPU: Intel Core Ultra 7 258V Memory: 32 GB LPDDR5x RAM Graphics/GPU: Intel Arc 140V NPU: Intel AI Boost (up to 47 TOPS) Display: 14-inch 2880×1800 OLED display with variable refresh rate up to 120Hz and HDR Storage: 1 TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD Webcam: 5MP 1440p webcam Connectivity: 2x Thunderbolt 4 (USB Type-C), 1x USB Type-C (USB 20Gbps), 1x USB Type-A (USB 10Gbps), 1x combo audio jack Networking: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 Biometrics: Fingerprint reader, IR camera for facial recognition Battery capacity: 75 Watt-hours Dimensions: 12.44 x 8.66 x 0.63 inches Weight: 2.91 pounds MSRP: $1,749 as tested This is a wonderful laptop for people looking for a sleek, portable 2-in-1 with a vivid display and long battery life. Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1: Design and build quality IDG / Chris Hoffman The Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1’s design feels similar to other Lenovo Yoga machines I’ve used in the past year or so. This Yoga laptop uses “Cosmic Blue,” in contrast to Lenovo’s ThinkPad line, which opts for a business look with more shades of gray. Combined with the rounded edges and glossy high-resolution OLED screen, it’s a sleek experience. The blue is rather dark, though. In real life, it looks a lot closer to black than you might expect while catching light in an intriguing way. The top and bottom are made of aluminum, and the build quality is solid — this is a proven Yoga design, and it’s not Lenovo’s first time putting out a machine in a chassis like this one. It looks very similar to the Lenovo Yoga 9i (Gen 9), for example. The hinge works well. The hinge also has what Lenovo calls a “rotating soundbar” built into it. There’s no flex that shouldn’t be there, no undesired movement of the display as you type, or anything else you wouldn’t want to see on a machine like this. The design just works like it should. At 2.91 pounds, it’s a standard weight for a laptop like this one — not too heavy and not unusually light. The built-in software is a little more cluttered than I’d like: it’s got McAfee antivirus popping up and asking you to subscribe out of the box, for example. Consumer laptops tend to have more bundled offers than business laptops, but it feels a little much for a $1,749 laptop. Still, that doesn’t matter at all when you can quickly uninstall it. Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1: Keyboard, trackpad, pen IDG / Chris Hoffman The keyboard feels fine to type on. Lenovo says it has “soft-landing” switches, which the company describes as having a “snappy” feel, along with 1.5mm of key travel. It’s not mushy, and the switches feel good to type on for a lightweight portable laptop. Once again, I have a criticism to make about a Yoga keyboard’s layout. Lenovo has put the fingerprint reader at the bottom right corner of the laptop. Personally, my fingers naturally gravitate towards the bottom-right corner of the keyboard, anticipating the presence of the right arrow key there, which disrupts my muscle memory! And, on the ThinkPad X1 2-in-1, Lenovo put the fingerprint reader to the left of the arrow keys. So that appears to be a touch reserved for Yoga laptops alone. Sure, you’ll get used to it — and if you like this machine and plan on spending a lot of time with it, perhaps that won’t be an issue for you. The trackpad feels nice and smooth, and it’s plenty large. When you click down, there’s a fine click that isn’t mushy. I would like to see laptops like this one include haptic trackpads — that’s just my preference — but this is a good mechanical trackpad. Lenovo also includes a Yoga Pen, which magnetically attaches to the top of the laptop, on the lid right below the camera bump. It’s an active pen that charges via USB-C. You can use it to draw on the laptop’s display, and it works well if you’re looking for that kind of pen experience on a consumer laptop with a 360-degree hinge. Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1: Display and speakers IDG / Chris Hoffman The Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 has an excellent 14-inch OLED display with a touchscreen. It’s designed to wow — with a 2880×1800 resolution, HDR support, and the vivid colors OLED displays are known for. The screen is glossy, unlike the matte one on the business-focused ThinkPad X1 2-in-1. This machine is more interested in providing the most beautiful screen possible for media consumption, while the ThinkPad’s anti-glare display is more optimized for readability in various lighting conditions. It’s always a trade-off when selecting a laptop. To be clear, the screen glare is not unusual — this is just what happens in harsh lighting conditions when a laptop has a glossy OLED display. IDG / Chris Hoffman The Lenovo Yoga 2-in-1’s display tops out at a refresh rate of 120Hz, but it has a variable refresh rate, which probably helps Lenovo squeeze more battery life from this system. In fact, the most impressive thing about the display is probably that Lenovo has managed to squeeze long battery life out of this system, despite a display that feels like it should be power-hungry. Intel Lunar Lake is necessary, but the variable refresh rate on the display and the larger battery built into the laptop are probably the things that complete the puzzle. Lenovo makes a big deal of the rotating soundbar, saying it “allows the device to project audio independent of the device’s orientation.” The soundbar has two tweeters that rotate with the screen, and the laptop has two woofers on the bottom. The speaker setup sounds quite good. Listening to Steely Dan’s Aja on Spotify—a classic audiophile test track for speakers—the sound was clear and detailed. Swapping over to Daft Punk’s Get Lucky for a more electronic sound with more bass, the audio sounded punchy and fun — but obviously without the kind of bass you’d get from a good pair of headphones or external speakers. Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1: Webcam, microphone, biometrics The Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 has a 5 MP webcam with a 1440p resolution. That sounds great on paper. It looks high-quality, too, with a clear picture. In fact, it’s one of the better webcams I’ve seen on a laptop — even compared to the webcams on some business laptops I’ve reviewed. The quality is more than good enough for video meetings and calls. Lenovo has also included a physical privacy shutter, so you can block the laptop by sliding a switch right above the webcam. These are always good to see. The microphone picks up clean, clear audio and has good noise cancellation in a room with desktop PC fans whirring. To my ears, it may be one of the better microphone setups I’ve tried in a laptop recently. Given that the Yoga line primarily caters to consumers, the webcam and microphone performance is impressive. The Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 has a fingerprint reader at the bottom-right corner of the keyboard and an IR camera built into the camera bar above the display. You can sign in with Windows Hello using either your fingerprint or face. Both work well. Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1: Connectivity IDG / Chris Hoffman The Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 doesn’t have the largest selection of ports, but I’ve seen worse. On the left side, you’ll find a USB Type-C port (USB 20Gbps) and a USB Type-A port (USB 10Gbps.) On the right side, you’ll find two Thunderbolt 4 ports (USB 40Gbps) and a combo audio jack. This laptop charges via USB-C, so you’ll plug the charger into one of those USB Type-C ports. Anyone looking for an HDMI out port, a microSD card reader, or a second USB Type-A port will need to look elsewhere. (For example, the business-focused ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 has a built-in HDMI out port.) But this isn’t too bad for this type of portable laptop, especially if you’re prepared to use a dongle if you ever need more ports. I’m just happy to see Lenovo included a headphone jack on this machine! I’ve reviewed a similarly named Lunar Lake-powered Yoga laptop without a headphone jack, the Yoga Slim 9i. Thanks to Intel’s Lunar Lake, this machine also comes with Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 as standard. It’s imperative that these features become standard for new laptops. Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1: Performance The Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 delivers snappy desktop performance thanks to its Intel Core Ultra 7 258V CPU. Lunar Lake works well for day-to-day productivity applications and delivers extremely long battery life — plus surprisingly good graphics performance for integrated graphics hardware. As always, though, we ran the Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 through our standard benchmarks to see how it performs. IDG / Chris Hoffman First, we run PCMark 10 to get an idea of overall system performance. With an overall PCMark 10 score of 7,719, the Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 seems to squeeze every bit of performance it can out of Lunar Lake’s hardware. We like to test laptops in their default state without tweaking them much — like a normal PC user would experience them — and I imagine recent changes to Windows 11 that put laptops into a higher-performance state automatically when they’re plugged in helped this machine in the benchmarks. IDG / Chris Hoffman Next, we run Cinebench R20. This test is a heavily multithreaded benchmark that focuses on overall CPU performance. It’s a quick benchmark, so cooling under extended workloads isn’t a factor. But, since it’s heavily multithreaded, CPUs with more cores have a huge advantage. With a multithreaded Cinebench R20 score of 4,306, Intel’s Lunar Lake hardware shows its biggest weakness here. With fewer CPU cores, it’s not just substantially slower at multithreaded CPU workloads than AMD’s Ryzen AI 300 series hardware, which also has an NPU and can run Copilot+ PC AI features. It’s also substantially slower than Intel’s own previous-generation Meteor Lake chips. Lunar Lake does provide longer battery life than its competitors, but it comes at a cost. This isn’t representative of real-world productivity application usage, which is good — but it will be an issue for multithreaded CPU-heavy workloads. IDG / Chris Hoffman We also run an encode with Handbrake. This test is another heavily multithreaded benchmark, but it runs over an extended period. It demands the laptop’s cooling kick in, and many laptops will throttle and slow down under load. The Lenovo Yoga 9i completed the encode process in an average of 1,414 minutes, which is about 23 and a half minutes. Again, multithreaded CPU performance is a weakness here. IDG / Chris Hoffman Next, we run a graphical benchmark. This isn’t a gaming laptop, but it’s still good to check how the GPU performs. We run 3DMark Time Spy, a graphical benchmark that focuses on GPU performance. With a 3DMark Time Spy score of 4,716, Lunar Lake delivers great graphics performance for integrated graphics — second only to laptops with discrete Nvidia or AMD graphics hardware. Overall, this machine delivers solid performance. This laptop showcases Lunar Lake at its peak performance. It also struggles with Lunar Lake’s lower-than-ideal multithreaded performance, as Intel included fewer cores on Lunar Lake than on the last-generation Meteor Lake hardware. That’s only a concern if you have workloads that need sustained multithreaded performance, but it’s an important thing to consider on a $1,749 laptop. Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1: Battery life The Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 combined a substantial 75 watt-hour battery with long-lasting Lunar Lake hardware, so we’d hope it would have long battery life. And it does — it’s very impressive. IDG / Chris Hoffman To benchmark the battery life, we play a 4K copy of Tears of Steel on repeat on Windows 11 with airplane mode enabled until the laptop suspends itself. We set the screen to 250 nits of brightness for our battery benchmarks, and it’s worth noting that the Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1’s OLED display has a bit of an advantage, as OLED screens use less power to display the black bars around the video. This is a best-case scenario for any laptop since local video playback is so efficient, and real battery life in day-to-day use is always going to be less than this. The Lenovo Yoga 9i lasted for 1414 minutes before suspending itself — that’s 23 and a half hours. The OLED display almost certainly uses more power, but the choice of a variable refresh rate for the display and the larger battery help this machine achieve extremely long battery life. Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1: Conclusion The Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition is a sleek machine with a beautiful display and long battery life. The 2-in-1 experience is great. It’s as nice as it looks in the photos. The downsides are evident: the glossy screen may not be ideal in certain situations, the low multithreaded CPU performance may disrupt some people’s workflows, and the fingerprint reader located to the right of the arrow keys may not be to everyone’s liking. But the main concern is the price — at $1,749, this is a little on the premium-priced side for a consumer laptop. Still, it is a 2-in-1, and a high-quality one at that. This is a wonderful laptop for people looking for a sleek, portable 2-in-1 with a vivid display and long battery life. If those are your priorities — and the price seems reasonable to you — this machine is great. Read...