For a USB flash drive to stand out, there are several aspects that need to come together, including speed, capacity, size, and price. If there’s one that checks all the boxes, it’s the Samsung Type-C USB Drive—especially now that it’s on sale for just $21.49 on Amazon. That’s the cheapest it’s been in a year and very close to the lowest it’s ever been, period. The Samsung Type-C USB Drive features a USB-C connector, something that’s still (surprisingly) uncommon when it comes to flash drives. With USB-C, you can plug this drive into any modern phone, laptop, tablet, etc. And it’s fast too, with transfer speeds of up to 400 MB/s, so you can move apps, games, photos, and videos in a flash (har har). Not to mention how small this drive is, with a convenient lanyard hole so you can carry it around without risk of losing it. Between the robust body and cap, it’s also water-resistant, dustproof, shockproof, magnet-proof, and built to withstand X-rays and extreme temperatures. Rest assured that your data will be kept safe and sound. If you aren’t convinced that this is a deal, look at the 128GB model that’s currently going for $18. Why settle for that when you can double the capacity for just a few bucks more? Get the 256GB Samsung Type-C USB Drive for $21.49 before this limited-time deal ends! Samsung`s fast 256GB USB-C flash drive is a no-brainer at 35% offBuy now at Amazon Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Attractive and premium design Great display quality with optional OLED touchscreen Plenty of fast Thunderbolt 4 connectivity Strong performance, particularly in CPU tasks Cons Capacitive keyboard function row is a miss No USB-A, HDMI, other legacy ports (besides 3.5mm audio) Touchpad is smaller than some competitors Modest battery life Our Verdict The Dell 14 Premium might have a 14-inch display, but it’s focused more on premium design and performance than on portability. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Dell 14 Premium Retailer Price Check Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Best Prices Today: Check today’s prices The Dell 14 Premium isn’t what I expected. With the XPS line-up rebranded to Premium, the Dell 14 Premium is now the most portable laptop in Dell’s flagship line-up. Because of that, I expected it might be more like the old Dell XPS 13, or a MacBook Air, or the Lenovo Yoga 9i. In reality, this 14.5-inch laptop is more like a compact Windows workstation than an ultraportable. Whether that’s good or bad depends on your needs. Dell 14 Premium: Specs and features The Dell 14 Premium has an Intel Core Ultra 7 255H processor with a total of 16 cores—six performance, and eight efficient. The model I reviewed also had 32GB of memory and 1TB of solid state storage. Dell also provides the option to upgrade to Nvidia RTX 4050 graphics, though the model I tested had Intel’s Arc 140T. CPU: Intel Core Ultra 7 255H Memory: 32GB LPDDR5X Graphics/GPU: Intel Arc 140T NPU: Intel AI Boost up to 13 TOPS Display: 1x 14.5-inch 3200×2000 OLED 120Hz Storage: 1TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD Webcam: 1080p 30 FPS Connectivity: 3x Thunderbolt 4 / USB-C, 3.5mm audio jack, MicroSD card reader Networking: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 Biometrics: Facial recognition Battery capacity: 69.5 watt-hours Dimensions: 12.6 x 8.5 x 0.71 inches Weight: 3.79 pounds Operating System: Windows 11 Home Price: $2,049.99 MSRP, $1,899.99 typical retail Pricing starts at $1,649.99 MSRP for a model with the same Intel processor but just 16GB of RAM, 512GB of storage, and a 2560×1440 non-touch display. The model Dell sent me had not only the upgraded RAM and storage mentioned above but also a 3200×2000 OLED display, which increases the price to $2,049.99. Models with the RTX 4050 start at $2,249.99 (with 32GB/1TB and the 2560×1440 non-touch display). You likely won’t pay MSRP, though, as Dell frequently places laptops on sale. All models are currently $150 off, which puts the price of the model I reviewed at $1,899.99. Contrary to what you might expect at a glance, the 14 Premium is clearly built to deliver strong performance, with portability taking a back seat to that goal. Dell 14 Premium: Design and build quality IDG / Matthew Smith The Dell 14 Premium’s design is sleek, refined, and a bit controversial, though not for reasons that are immediately apparent. Left closed, the 14 Premium is elegant but not distinct. The model I tested had a “graphite” finish that looks professional and refined though, like most laptops of similar color, it tends to show fingerprints. The laptop is also available in “platinum,” which is a silver-white finish. Pick it up, though, and you’ll notice the 14 Premium is a chonk. It weighs 3.79 pounds (with OLED display, or 3.66 pounds without) and measures 0.71 inches thick. The Dell is a bit heavier and thicker than Apple’s MacBook Pro 14, and much heavier than the Microsoft Surface Laptop 13.8-inch or Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i, both of which dip under three pounds. On the plus side, the weight and material quality provide a feel that’s, well, premium. Most high-end Windows laptops have a rigid chassis, but the 14 Premium is the most slate-like I’ve tried this year. Flex is exceptionally difficult to find. Even pressing very hard on the center of the keyboard, which usually does the trick, reveals only slight deflection. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a Windows laptop that’s more luxurious, though some Lenovo Yoga 9i models are in similar territory. Dell 14 Premium: Keyboard, trackpad, mouse, and stylus IDG / Matthew Smith The keyboard is where the Dell 14 Premium’s design goes a bit sideways. Dell has replaced the physical function row with a row of capacitive touch keys. This isn’t a new feature, as it was introduced by the previous XPS 14. Still, it’s controversial. Dell’s marketing suggests it provides a more luxurious look and also has a functional benefit, because pressing the function row causes the backlit icons to change (they change to Function key labels, from F1 to F12, when the Function key is pressed). Personally, though, I’m not convinced. The capacitive touch keys are harder to find by touch. They also seem to take up a lot of physical room, which seems to push the keyboard down a bit. We’re talking a few millimeters, but users with large hands might find the keyboard too shallow. That aside, the keyboard is good. The layout is spacious and provides noticeably larger keys than most laptops in this category, which can be handy. Key travel is fine, if not remarkable, and the keys bottom out with a firm, satisfying action. Function row aside, I think it’s a good keyboard. The touchpad is less impressive. Dell opts for a seamless look where the touchpad’s physical boundaries aren’t visible. You might think, then, that the touchpad is very large—that perhaps it even spans the entire width of the laptop—but the opposite is true. The touchpad’s usable surface is about 5.5 inches wide and three inches deep, which is average for a 14-inch laptop. It does have a haptic click, though, which I enjoy. It feels better than most touchpads with a physical button action and functions no matter where you execute a left or right-button click. Dell 14 Premium: Display, audio IDG / Matthew Smith The base Dell 14 Premium has a IPS-LCD 2560×1440 non-touch display, but the model I received had the upgrade to a 3200×2000 120Hz OLED panel. It’s an outstanding display for all the reasons OLED typically excels. The display’s contrast and color vibrancy are spectacular and provide a deep, immersive, alluring image. Dell does have an edge in display size and resolution. Most competitors have a 14-inch OLED display with 2880×1880 resolution. That’s a bit less pixel-dense: the 14 Premium has about 260 pixels per inch, while competitors pack in about 245 pixels per inch. Dell’s 14.5-inch display is also about 7.25 percent larger (in overall display area) than a 14-inch competitor. These aren’t night-and-day differences but provide a slight advantage. Choosing the OLED display also provides a touchscreen, which isn’t essential but nice to have. The 14 Premium isn’t a 2-in-1 (the display doesn’t even fold back to 180 degrees), but it’s small enough that you can sit it on your chest and use the touchscreen when you’re lounging on a couch or in bed. The Dell 14 Premium’s sound system includes a pair of two-watt main speakers and two-watt tweeters. They provide great volume and a decent sound stage, but there’s not much bass, and that ultimately puts the 14 Premium a step behind audio leaders like the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i and Apple MacBook Pro 14. Still, it’s a fine sound system for most use, particularly at lower volumes where the lack of bass is less noticeable. Dell 14 Premium: Webcam, microphone, biometrics The Dell 14 Premium ships with a 1080p 30 FPS webcam and dual-array microphone. Video from the camera looks sharp and has good color reproduction even in a modestly lit room, and the microphone picks up good audio with great noise cancellation. With that said, a 1080p webcam is to be expected in this price range. Biometric login is supported through a fingerprint sensor and IR cameras for facial recognition. Both work well, though I prefer the speed and reliability of Windows Hello facial recognition log-in. Once again, these features are typical for a laptop in this price range. Dell 14 Premium: Connectivity The Dell 14 Premium is all-in on Thunderbolt 4 and USB-C connectivity. This is a decision that’s starting to feel like the default for high-end Windows laptops, particularly those with a display size below 14 inches.With that said, Dell executes the idea well. All three ports are Thunderbolt 4 / USB-C, so all three support Power Delivery to charge the laptop and DisplayPort for video output (either to a USB-C monitor or to a standard DisplayPort port with adapter). A 3.5mm combo audio jack and MicroSD card reader round out the options. Many competitive laptops are a step behind here. The Yoga Slim 9i and HP EliteBook X Flip G1i, for example, have just two Thunderbolt 4 / USB-C ports, with the latter including a third USB-C without Thunderbolt. On the other hand, plenty of 14-inch laptops provide USB-A and HDMI (among other ports). Examples include the Razer Blade 14 and Acer Travelmate P6 14 AI. These have fewer Thunderbolt and USB-C ports, though, so you’ll have to decide if high-speed modern connectivity or support for older peripherals ranks higher on your list of priorities. Dell doesn’t miss on wireless connectivity, as the 14 Premium includes Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. These are the latest versions of each wireless standard. However, most competitive laptops also support these standards. Dell 14 Premium: Performance Most Dell 14 Premium laptops  ship with an Intel Core Ultra 7 255H processor. It’s a 16-core chip with six performance cores, eight efficient cores, and a maximum Turbo frequency of 5.1GHz. Though it’s easy to miss, this is an important point. Intel’s H-Series is quite a bit more performant than the Core Ultra V-series, and that comes through in benchmarks. IDG / Matthew Smith Dell gets off to a good start in PCMark, where the 14 Premium turned in a score of 7,453. As the graph shows, that’s an excellent score for a 14-inch laptop. It basically ties the dual-screen Lenovo Yoga Book 9, which also had an Intel Core Ultra 7 255H, and easily outruns Intel Core Ultra V-series laptops. Only the HP OmniBook Ultra 14 takes a notable lead. IDG / Matthew Smith Next up is Handbrake, where we transcode a feature-length film using the CPU. The Dell 14 Premium does extremely well here, tearing through the task in a bit more than 14 minutes. It was only a bit behind the Lenovo Yoga Book 9, which had the same processor, and much quicker than 14-inch laptops and an Intel Core Ultra 7 V-Series. The 14 Premium was also a tad quicker than the HP OmniBook Ultra 14 with AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375. IDG / Matthew Smith Cinebench 2023, a heavily multi-threaded CPU test, again had favorable things to say about the Dell 14 Premium’s performance. It scored better than the Yoga Book 9i, and much better than the thinner, lighter Acer TravelMate P16 14 AI. The OmniBook Ultra 14 with AMD Ryzen AI 9 struck back against Intel, though, taking a lead overall. It’s clear the Dell 14 Premium is a strong contender in CPU tests, and this could be a key reason to buy the Dell over a competitive 14-inch laptop. Contrary to what you might expect at a glance, the 14 Premium is clearly built to deliver strong performance, with portability taking a back seat to that goal. But what about graphics? IDG / Matthew Smith As mentioned, the model I tested had Intel’s Arc 140T. An Nvidia RTX 4050 with 30 watts of graphics power is available as an upgrade. Still, Arc 140T is a decent pick if you have modest 3D needs. The Dell 14 Premium’s score in Night Raid is not the best we’ve seen from Intel Arc integrated graphics, but it represents a major step up from laptops with Intel Arc 130V or AMD’s Radeon 860M. In practice, you can expect to play older 3D games at 60 frames per second at 1080p and medium detail, or 30 FPS at 1080p at higher settings. Newer and more demanding titles can also be enjoyed, but only at low detail settings and with significant image upscaling. The Intel Arc 140T is fine for light-duty 3D work too, like simple models in Blender or using SketchUp. Dell 14 Premium: Battery life and portability The Dell 14 Premium offers solid performance, but that comes with a compromise in battery life. Intel’s Core Ultra 255H beats the pants off the 256V/258V in part because it draws more power, which leads to much shorter runtimes in battery life tests. IDG / Matthew Smith PC World’s battery test, which involves looping a 4K file of the short film Tears of Steel, sucked the Dell’s battery dry in a little over nine hours. That’s not bad, and certainly usable. However, as the graph shows, it falls way behind what the most miserly laptops can achieve in 2025. Battery life is where the Intel Core Ultra V-Series parts make their case, with endurance figures that can more than double what the 14 Premium offers. As a result, I wouldn’t recommend the Dell 14 Premium if you often need all-day battery life, and then some. The good news is that Dell ships the laptop with a compact 60-watt charger. It’s roughly 2.5 inches x 2 inches by 0.6 inches and is among the smallest chargers I’ve seen shipped with a Windows laptop. You’ll likely need the charger, but packing it isn’t a hassle. Dell 14 Premium: Conclusion The Dell 14 Premium isn’t a large laptop, but its focus is less on portability than on a premium look and feel and strong performance. That comes at the cost of increased weight and disappointing battery life. If you’re looking for a grab-and-go laptop for daily meetings around town or cross-country flights, though, this isn’t the laptop for you. But shoppers who want a 14-inch Windows laptop that can handle many tasks well, with fast connectivity and a great OLED display, will like the 14 Premium. Read...

TL;DR: Turn complex projects into simple tasks with a lifetime license to Microsoft Project Pro, now only $15. Managing complex projects gets easier when you have the right tools in place. Instead of juggling spreadsheets and calendar reminders, having dedicated software built for planning and execution can save time and reduce mistakes. Microsoft Project Professional 2021 is a desktop app for Windows that helps you map out tasks, assign responsibilities, and track progress in a centralized way, and a lifetime license is only $14.97 on sale (reg. $249.99). Project Pro helps you build out schedules, create timelines, and adjust workloads using built-in tools designed to keep everything organized. It’s useful for people who manage everything from small business projects to large-scale operations and includes automation features that take care of repetitive work like adjusting dates or redistributing resources. There’s no subscription involved. You pay once and own the software for life. The license includes updates and customer support and is compatible with Office 2021 and Office LTSC. Project Pro also supports features like multiple timeline views, pre-built templates, and time tracking, so you can monitor how hours are spent across different types of work. If your team uses Project Online or Project Server, this version can sync with those tools as well. During this limited-time sale, you can get Microsoft Project Pro 2021 for only $14.97. No coupon needed. Microsoft Project 2021 Professional: Lifetime License for WindowsSee Deal StackSocial prices subject to change. Read...

Dell launches ObjectScale XF960 with 4.1 update, boosting AI storage speeds up to 300% and expanding capacity to 23.6PB per rack with enhanced security features. Read...

Built for Galaxy fans, Buds3 FE offer essential features at a great price, now with a smarter, more stylish twist. Read...

Copilot Vision is one of those Windows features that deserves more attention than its receiving — which is quite little. It’s a built-in Windows technology that can “see” what you’re looking at and offer advice. The problem is that Copilot Vision is all over the map. It’s far better than a how-to article or video in using certain apps, because you’re not following instructions, you’re actually working on your PC and asking Copilot Vision for help. At its best, Copilot Vision is the friend or coworker that comes over to your PC and tells you what to do. In trickier applications — Adobe Photoshop, for example — it can walk you through tasks that you might be able to describe, but not do. It can even highlight what you’re supposed to click! In my book, that’s really helpful. At its worst, though, Copilot Vision just can’t do the job. Does Copilot Vision hallucinate a wrong answer? I’m not sure, but in certain applications it can’t read what’s on your screen. Copilot Vision isn’t Windows Recall, which constantly spies over your shoulder and takes snapshots for archiving. (I think that’s quite useful, too, but not in today’s climate.) You have to manually point it at an application you want it to see and then you flip it off when you’re done. I feel perfectly safe using it unlike Recall. What this video review / tutorial shows is what Copilot Vision is, how it works, and in what applications it shines — and stinks. Microsoft has a real advantage here, in that Copilot Vision is already part of Windows. Take a look at how it performs in our video and then try it out for yourself. Since you can launch it literally with a click or two, why not? Read...

We already knew that Google Assistant was soon to be replaced by a “new experience powered by Gemini.” Now we know what that new experience will be called, and when it’s arriving.  Gemini for Home is the name of the new Gemini-powered voice assistant for Google smart speakers and displays, including the current Nest Audio, Nest Mini, Nest Hub, and Nest Hub Max.   “Early access” to Gemini for Home kicks off in October, Google announced in a blog post Wednesday, with both free and paid versions available. Google didn’t say how much the paid version of Gemini for Home will cost.  Google had already been experimenting with Gemini on its Nest speakers over the past several months. It’s not clear if the just-announced Gemini for Home is an iteration of that effort or an entirely new assistant, but whatever it is, it’s coming soon.  Among Gemini for Home’s broad capabilities are many of the same features we’ve seen in Alexa+, Amazon’s own take on an advanced AI-powered assistant for the home.  For example, you’ll be able to ask Gemini for Home (you’ll still use the “Hey Google” wake word) to “play the song-of-the-year winner from 1990” or “play that song from this year’s summer blockbuster about race cars,” and the assistant should be able to suss out which track you’re thinking about, Google says—same as what Alexa+ can do (or should do, anyway).  Gemini for Home will also be able to decipher more complex smart home commands, such as “dim the lights, and set the temp to 72 degrees,” as well as manage calendars, lists, and timers from natural-language voice prompts (“add the ingredients to make an authentic Italian lasagna to my shopping list”).  Besides smart home commands, you’ll also be able to launch chats with Gemini via Google Live, which promises “natural back-and-forth discussion” without the need of saying “Hey Google” over and over. For example, you’ll be able to ask for help with a recipe, troubleshoot a busted dishwasher, or request a bedtime story for a youngster.  Again, this should all sound familiar to anyone who’s been following Amazon’s Alexa+, which has been very slowly rolling out over the past several months.   Like Google for Home soon will be, Alexa+ is currently in an early access period, and it allows for more back-and-forth discussion, more natural-language smart home commands (“Alexa, make it brighter in here”), help finding obscure music tracks, and providing assistance in the kitchen.  Alexa+ is free during its early preview, but will eventually cost $20 a month, while Prime members will get Alexa+ included with their various Prime benefits. The “classic” Alexa will remain completely free, Amazon has said.  Again, Google has yet to say how much the paid version of Google at Home will cost, or how it will differ from the free version.  This news story is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best smart speakers. Read...

Microsoft said Wednesday that it’s working to remove one of the frustrating headaches for PC gamers: the need to compile shaders. Microsoft said that it will release an AgilitySDK in September to solve this problem, speeding up your time from downloading a game to playing it by as much as 85 percent. If you play games on the Xbox or other consoles, you probably have no idea what we’re talking about. That’s because shaders — the instructions for rendering pixels as they move through the processing pipeline — are optimized for your specific hardware setup. An Xbox game “knows” what your console contains. Shaders for a PC game have to be optimized for each specific configuration, including the game, the GPU, and the GPU driver. Doing so requires not just downloading the game but compiling the shaders for your hardware, which you might see occurring on the game’s loading screen. While those instructions are then stored on your PC, it’s still time that you have to wait before you can play the game. That’s one of the features Microsoft is adding to the launch of the ROG Xbox Ally and Ally X — since the configurations are fixed, the shaders can be downloaded as part of the game itself. Microsoft calls this “advanced shader delivery.” Microsoft wants to take that convenience and extend it to a “number of devices,” Microsoft said Wednesday, presumably targeting the PC market as a whole. Standardizing shaders saves time What Microsoft is doing is to collect the shader data from a game in a standardized format, known as a State Object Database, or SODB. Microsoft said that it has worked with its key hardware partners to separate the shader compiler from the graphics driver and united the game data in the SODB with the compiler in the cloud to create a Precompiled Shader Database, or PSDB. This database will be downloaded along with the game, so the game will essentially be able to “look up” what shaders it needs in the database and launch them immediately. Microsoft’s diagram of how the Precompiled Shader Database (PSDB) will work. “Now, when a game runs for the first time, it will see all the shaders it needs already available in a cache in Windows and can skip doing that compilation step on the gaming device,” Microsoft said. “If a device takes a driver update, we will detect that and update the shader cache automatically.” Right now, this feature is exclusive to the Xbox gaming store, the Xbox PC app, and AMD processors — which power the two Asus ROG Ally devices. However, Microsoft said that the AgilitySDK will be provided to other storefronts as well as game developers, so they can do the necessary work on the back end. Microsoft said the feature will also be made available to games that have already shipped, but that work is in the future. For now, Microsoft added that it is going to be working with specific devices to add this functionality, and it will share more details in September. Microsoft calls this advanced shader delivery a solution to one of the more frustrating problems that a PC gamer has, and that’s true! Downloading gigabytes and gigabytes on a slow connection can be excruciating…with an additional delay for compiling the shaders itself. One of the best features of a console is how quickly you can power it on and jump into a game. It’s great that Microsoft sees the same future for the PC. Read...

Until now, it was always possible to disable automatic app updates in the Microsoft Store permanently and without exception. It was convenient for users who wanted to stay on older versions of apps. However, Microsoft sees things differently and is now switching things up. In the current version of the Microsoft Store, automatic app updates can no longer be disabled, only paused. You can choose between different durations, but only up to a maximum of five weeks. After that, the app updates are automatically enabled again. Even those who had previously deactivated automatic app updates will now be forced to switch to a pause. The change affects systems running Windows 11 as well as Windows 10. Why manual app updates can be useful There are various reasons why it can make sense to disable automatic app updates. If you want to have more control over your installed apps and want to ensure compatibility with other programs, deactivating automatic updates prevents accidentally breaking those compatibilities. In addition, Microsoft itself is constantly making changes to the availability of features in apps, whether by adding new ones that you may not like or by removing existing features that you depend on. Staying on an older app version can help in these situations, too. How to get around forced app updates For the time being, there’s a small workaround you can employ to ensure that automatic app updates aren’t activated. To do this, you need to adjust a group policy in Windows. To do this, enter the command gpedit.msc in the Windows search bar, then navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Store. There you’ll see a policy titled “Turn off Automatic Download and Install of updates.” Double-click the policy, then change its option to “Disabled” and save. Once you’ve done that, restart your PC to apply the group policy. Apparently, it was once possible to make this change via the Windows registry, but that no longer seems to be possible. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Battery power and a magnetic mount provide lots of placement flexibility 2K resolution, double that of previous myQ cameras Powerful onboard LED spotlight Cons Lacks infrared night vision Nighttime motion activates the spotlight, and you can’t disable that behavior Can’t record video without a subscription Our Verdict Chamberlain gives this battery-powered myQ camera a long overdue boost to resolution, along with a bright spotlight to chase away the dark. Unfortunately, you can’t prevent its motion detector from turning those LEDs on at night. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: myQ Outdoor Battery Camera Retailer Price $89 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Best Prices Today: Check today’s prices Just a few months ago, Chamberlain’s myQ brand extended its home security camera lineup with its first outdoor model. Now the brand is back with another iteration, this time one with a built-in battery. The industrial design maintains the long-running overturned-coffee-cup look used for every myQ camera to date. The main departure for the battery-powered model reviewed here is a new base that allows the camera to affix magnetically to its swivel mount. (It can also affix to another metallic surface, though you won’t be able to aim it easily.) Battery power makes setup more convenient, but the boosted resolution is a more compelling reason to spend a little more on this new model. Specifications Chamberlain does not specify the size of the battery—it is not removeable nor replaceable—but suggests it will run for 4 to 6 months before needing a recharge. Charging takes place via a recessed USB-C port on the underside of the device. You can also leave it plugged in 24/7 if you don’t want to take advantage of the battery feature (or if you’re afraid you’ll forget to take it down for charging, potentially missing a crucial event). Chamberlain has carried over its upside-down-coffee-cup design concept to the myQ Outdoor Battery Camera.Chamberlain Group In addition to the battery, the camera offers another upgrade over the wired myQ Outdoor Camera: increased resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels—a significant improvement over the 1080p image sensor in the older camera. An integrated spotlight is another new feature; it’s activated when motion is detected at night or on demand. Note that this spotlight is in lieu of infrared night vision: In the dark, the camera can’t see anything without the spotlight on; the image goes fully black. A 130-degree field of view and two-way audio remain standard. Chamberlain makes no weatherization claims—or at least it doesn’t publish an IP code for the camera—but its USB-C port and its reset button are covered by thick rubber flaps, suggesting a reasonable level of weatherproofing. Setup isn’t complex, requiring you to press and hold the reset button on the underside of the camera while onboarding it to the app. The location of this button is hard to reach without a pen or other implement, but once that’s resolved, it’s a simple process to connect the camera to your 2.4GHz Wi-Fi network. Performance The myQ Outdoor Battery Camera app has all the settings you’d expect to find in this type of device, but it doesn’t offer a means of preventing nighttime motion detection from activating its bright spotlight.Chamberlain Group Functionally, the camera is identical to every other myQ camera: A live video feed is available on demand, and recordings are made only when motion is detected. These are stored on myQ’s cloud service exclusively (there is no onboard or other means of storage). Video looks good—even better now, thanks to the resolution upgrade—either by day or under the surprisingly strong spotlight, which has a significant range of at least 50 feet. Clips are initiated when motion is detected; as with other myQ gear, there’s no way to manually record video clips or to record 24/7. Clips are limited in length, ranging from a minimum of 10 seconds to an unknown maximum length, though the longest I achieved was 43 seconds across my testing over multiple days. The camera categorizes clips based on the type of motion, including person, animal, package, and vehicle. Faces can also be registered, which lets you tag clips with the names of family members and frequent visitors. Each of these AI-powered modes can be turned off, but there doesn’t seem to be any strong reason to do so. Motion-sensing range can be adjusted (namely as a battery-saving measure) and up to three detection zones are supported if you want to screen out parts of the image, for the sake of neighbor privacy for example. Most of these features work well, although the camera often failed at recognizing my cat and rarely assigned an “animal” designation to those clips—this despite her walking directly through the frame. Motion detection was otherwise on point. Skimming through clips is simple in the monolithic archive of recordings, and a filtering system lets you easily drill down if you’re looking for a certain type of activity. This camera’s 2K resolution is a significant step up from previous cameras in the myQ range, but its onboard AI consistently refused to identify my cat as an animal, no matter how many times I corrected it.Chamberlain Group Because myQ cameras store all their video online, playback can be a bit slow, though things seemed improved in my testing this time around compared to my experience with the wired outdoor camera. I didn’t encounter any crashes or other operational bugs, except that I could not disable the spotlight. You can turn it off after motion detection has turned it on, and you can turn it off after manually turning it on, but there’s no means of preventing motion detection from turning it on. The settings in the myQ app’s Night Vision menu did not do anything: the Automatic, Always, and Never options all made the camera behave the same way, activating the spotlight at night when motion was detected. I imagine there’s a strong possibility that this behavior is not what myQ intended and that it will be fixed or revamped down the road. As with all other myQ devices, you will absolutely need to subscribe to myQ’s video storage service if you want anything beyond a live stream. Pricing hasn’t changed of late: It’s $4/month or $40/year for seven days of storage on a single camera; or $10/month or $100/year for 30 days of storage on multiple cameras. A 30-day trial of the single-device, seven-day plan is included with purchase and automatically activates upon installation. Should you buy the myQ Outdoor Battery Camera? Chamberlain has put a suggested retail price of $100 on this camera, and at the time of this review, its street price was around $89. Compare those prices to the wired myQ Outdoor Camera, with its $80 MSRP and current street price of $75. The addition of battery power makes setup more convenient, but the boost in resolution is an even more compelling reason to spend an extra $15 or $20 to pick up this newer model. If you’re already in the myQ camera ecosystem and are paying for a subscription, adding this model makes excellent sense, since there will be no additional cost to add cameras on the multi-device plan. That said, the absence of infrared night vision and the inability to prevent motion detection from turning on this camera’s spotlight are significant drawbacks. If either of those limitations is even remotely important to you, consider this camera a pass. Read...