Samsung says its Galaxy Book6 Ultra gets “up to 30 hours” of battery life thanks to Intel’s Panther Lake hardware. But that’s a pretty bold claim. Laptop battery life is slippery, after all. Promises from manufacturers that push above 24 hours of battery life are becoming increasingly untethered from real-world computer usage. If you were to use the Galaxy Book6 Ultra, you’d reach nowhere near that. I tested it out myself and it didn’t get all the way there. But I’m still impressed by Core Ultra Series 3 hardware! Despite falling short of the claim, this laptop has amazing battery life for this level of performance and an Nvidia RTX GPU. Here’s why that’s exciting. No, you’re not getting 30 hours I ran PCWorld’s standard laptop battery life rundown test on Samsung’s Galaxy Book6 Ultra with an Intel Core Ultra 7 356H. I put the laptop into airplane mode, set the screen to around 250 nits of brightness, plug in some earbuds, and play a 4K copy of Tears of Steel on loop. Then, I see how long it runs before the laptop suspends itself. I run this at least twice to ensure the results are consistent. On average, the Galaxy Book6 Ultra lasted 1,543 minutes (about 25.7 hours). That’s darn impressive, especially for a high-performance x86 machine with Nvidia RTX graphics hardware. But it’s also nowhere near the stated “up to 30 hours” of battery life. A lot of factors can affect a laptop’s battery life, but the chart below shows representative examples across Intel Meteor Lake, Arrow Lake, Lunar Lake, and Panther Lake laptops. (This one’s battery life actually exceeds Qualcomm’s original Snapdragon X hardware!) Chris Hoffman / Foundry Compared to other laptop CPUs, it’s a big leap. This Panther Lake laptop runs cool and quiet, sipping power when you’re just on the desktop. It’s like Lunar Lake before it, except with stronger performance and better power efficiency, all on the traditional x86 platform for maximum software compatibility. It’s great! But is it 30 hours? No. Our battery life rundown test gives us a good way to compare battery life between laptops. One that comes in at 25 hours won’t get you 25 hours of real-world use, but it’ll certainly last much longer than one that comes in at 14 hours. That’s how these battery life benchmarks should be used: as a comparison between machines. That’s all. Psst. If you want to see which laptops blew away the competition, see our roundup of the laptops we tested with longest battery life. What to expect with real-world usage Laptop battery life benchmarks are becoming increasingly untethered from real-world computer usage. In real life, no one is getting anywhere near 30 hours of usage yet. But how much under 30 hours will you personally get? Well, that depends on your workflow, the apps you use, and how high you set your screen brightness. A laptop that benchmarks at 24 to 30 hours may have more like 9 to 15 hours of actual battery life. It varies a lot depending on how you actually use your computer. You can see this in action on any Windows PC. Just mouse over the battery icon on the Windows taskbar, which gives you an “estimated time remaining” based on usage. This estimate fluctuates: Chris Hoffman / Foundry That’s why the Samsung Galaxy Book6 Ultra’s real-world numbers are still impressive to me. With a laptop like this, I don’t experience “battery life anxiety.” It’s a full workday—and then some—away from an outlet. That’s a huge difference from most Intel-powered laptops I’ve used. It’s great only plugging in to charge once per day! And we’re of the opinion that long-battery-life laptops can save you serious cash. Battery life anxiety is even less relevant now that PC manufacturers have sped up charging. Samsung promises “super-fast charging” on the Galaxy Book6 Ultra, restoring up to 63% of battery life in 30 minutes of charging. This laptop definitely charged very quickly. So, don’t expect 30 hours, but expect good results nonetheless. If you want to get anywhere close to Samsung’s 30-hour figure, you’d have to set Windows 11’s power plan to “Best Power Efficiency” instead of “Balanced,” effectively trading performance for battery life. You’ll also have to reduce the laptop’s screen brightness as much as possible, and you’ll have to avoid doing anything besides watching a local video file on loop. (Of course, that’s not how people use PCs!) Panther Lake is still impressive Forget the 30 hours of battery life claim. Panther Lake is a huge upgrade even if you ignore all of that. Again, Intel’s previous Lunar Lake also delivered impressive battery life, but it had to run underpowered with poor multi-threaded CPU performance to make it happen. Meanwhile, Arrow Lake had serious power but it wasn’t power-efficient—it ran hotter and drained batteries faster. Chris Hoffman / Foundry With Core Ultra Series 3, Intel serves up the best of both worlds—and it’s a traditional x86 chip, so you don’t even have to switch to Arm (which comes with its own problems). I’m impressed with how well Qualcomm Snapdragon X chips work, but software compatibility is still lacking, especially with older hardware drivers and PC games. The Samsung Galaxy Book6 Ultra is a serious laptop with an Nvidia GPU and still manages to score over 25 hours of battery life in our laptop rundown test. That’s exciting! And it’s something that deserves the hype. Keep your expectations in check Panther Lake delivers. While the Samsung Galaxy Book6 Ultra and its Core Ultra 7 356H didn’t last 30 hours in my testing, I did get most of the way to 26 hours. That’s incredible for a powerful PC. But, again, you won’t get 26 hours in the real world either. Real-world usage is not the same as a sterile test environment. Here’s what you can expect from the Samsung Galaxy Book6 Ultra and other laptops like it: comfortable all-day battery life, plus the ability to recharge it very quickly, without sacrificing key performance. That right there is reason to be excited about Panther Lake. Further reading: I tested Panther Lake. You’re gonna want it Read...

We all know RAM prices have skyrocketed. We all know why—data center demand. We even know that this won’t end any time soon, barring a collapse of the AI sector. You’ve heard these talking points endlessly in the last couple of months. Less hammered on: The possible coming developments from this madness. Sure, we’ve already seen direct consequences like Micron’s deep-sixing of its 30-year-old Crucial consumer brand. But as touched on in this week’s discussion with former Anandtech writer and More Than Moore chief analyst Dr. Ian Cutress, the progression of memory technology appears far less linear than before. Literally. Welcome to The Full Nerd newsletter—your weekly dose of hardware talk from the enthusiasts at PCWorld. Missed the surprising topics on our YouTube show or latest news from across the web? You’re in the right place. Want this newsletter to come directly to your inbox? Sign up on our website!  One tantalizing development that came up during our conversation was stacked DDR memory—think of it as somewhat similar in concept to AMD’s approach with its 3D V-Cache processors. Called “Z-Angle” memory, this new architecture is under development by SoftBank subsidiary Saimemory, in partnership with Intel. As Ian describes it, the effort is to “essentially grow DRAM on top of chips,” where DRAM is built layer by layer on top of a CPU wafer, in order to not just compete with HBM in data center applications, but outperform with higher capacity, greater bandwidth, and lower power consumption. But this approach could find its way to consumer products as well—for example, smartphones. But other, less positive outcomes hover in the air as well. In almost the next breath while discussing Z-Angle memory, Ian mentioned the threat of annihilation for smaller memory makers—those who put memory onto modules. If unable to get enough memory to maintain revenue, they could fold. That would hit us consumers hard, and prolong the rebound on PC building. Also part of our conversation: The greater difficulties of memory production, relative to CPUs.TSMC What’s clear, though, is that pressure continues to mount for greater efficiency in both memory production and memory use in software. In this past decade, consumers benefitted from such intense attention. Now consumers have taken a backseat, and must wait for progress to trickle down to us. In the meanwhile, we may see beloved pet projects die on the vine…like the upcoming Steam Machine. What seemed like such a hopeful announcement last November now looks more grim, with last week’s reveal of further delays for price information and product release. After having lived through the first Steam Machine’s quiet, prolonged, and arguably tortured fight for existence, I wonder if Valve’s initiative may once again fail. But this time, it would be due to economic factors out of their control. And this PC-building winter may stretch on further anticipated, too. When asked how long it will last, Ian thought it could extend into late 2028. Movement toward new technology takes years still. Unfortunately for us. So as Ian himself said to Adam a bit ago, “Just be happy with what you’ve got right now.” And I guess take joy in the fact that while we consumers are shut out from enjoying cutting-edge technology, we can still follow some cool developments from the stands. In this episode of The Full Nerd In this episode of The Full Nerd, Adam Patrick Murray, Alaina Yee, Will Smith, and special guest Dr. Ian Cutress (TechTechPotato himself!) dive deep into the nuances of the RAM crisis, Intel and Nvidia’s partnership, and the yields from Intel’s 18A. If you love technical detail, make time for this packed episode—it’s definitely worth your time. What I wrote about above? Just a fraction of the detail we cover while discussing memory. We also learned that Ian plays games that turn into “spreadsheet simulators,” in his own words. I can’t say I’m surprised by that reveal, only that he seemingly juggles so many. And we said farewell to Willis this week—the show won’t be the same without you, man. Alex Esteves / Foundry Missed our live show? Subscribe now to The Full Nerd Network YouTube channel, and activate notifications. We also answer viewer questions in real-time! Don’t miss out on our NEW shows too—you can catch episodes of Dual Boot Diaries and The Full Nerd: Extra Edition on our channel, too. PLUS: Adam just teased episode zero for his new joint endeavor with Retro Gaming Corps… And if you need more hardware talk during the rest of the week, come join our Discord community—it’s full of cool, laid-back nerds. This week’s bumpy nerd news I may have had an emotional roller coaster sifting through the news over the past several days. Positives include Noctua’s ongoing consumer-friendly support for its coolers, nifty projects that combine old tech and new for funsies, and science helping to further expand our understanding of older civilizations. Less fun: Windows 11’s continuing security vulnerabilities. (Really, Notepad is now something I have to worry about?) Plus more graphics cards going up in flames… Bilibili user ?????? Yikes: A Chinese gamer’s RTX 5090 went up in literal flames. On video. Even if it’s not real, it’s stressful to watch. Arrow Lake in March? Quick, Brad’s not looking. I’m going to slip in a rumor about a possible late March arrival for refreshed Arrow Lake chips. Oh poop: Turns out guano can sustain the rise of whole civilizations—or at least, so says a new paper that studied the economic success of the Chincha, a pre-Inca Peruvian kingdom. AMD ascending: Team Red continues to grow its foothold in desktop PCs, with a double-digit increase in market share percentage over the past year. PCI + NVMe FTW: What happens when you combine 1990s and 2010s era tech? An insane upgrade on the 1990s computing experience. I would have obsessed over speeds this fast back then. (We all would.) No, Discord. No: Discord’s new age-verification requirement sucks. That’s all I have to say. (Not really, I dig into why this won’t fully protect kids while now also exposing adults to risk.) I would like to uninstall: Please, can we stop putting AI into machines before it’s clear that the results are better than human-only options? I do not ever want sinus surgeries to include an accidental skull puncture. First Notepad++, now the OG: Notepad used to be a simple program. Windows 11 made it more complex—which apparently now has left it vulnerable to security attacks. Noctua A company of the people: Noctua just sent out its 500,000th cooler mounting kit upgrade. I can’t speak highly enough of companies that allow you to continue using perfectly serviceable hardware—and helping with the upgrade for free! Kickin’ like it’s 1995: Retro Roadshow’s Huxley Dunsay came back to show us a piece of special computing history—the BeBox, a dual-CPU PC with a custom operating system. And yes, it still works! Bought G.Skill memory? You might be entitled to a cut of a $2.4 million settlement if you purchased G.Skill RAM kits between January 31, 2018 and January 7, 2026.  Not bad: YouTuber Optimum’s torture test of an OLED gaming monitor only showed signs of burn-in after 3,000 hours—500 of which included Overwatch gameplay (and its fixed HUD). $10 for 1,300 games: No, that’s not a typo. If you dislike ICE, this game bundle benefiting immigrants in Minnesota is for you. A good portion of the bundle is physical games, but the subset of video games includes Baba Is You, which Brad still raves about. I’d make this PC: A perfect combo of sleeper build and SFF, hiding inside the shell of an Xbox One S. 10,000 is a lot of hours: Ghost in the Shell director Mamoru Oshii says he’s put over a literal year (about 416 days) into Fallout 4. Without ever doing the main quest. Dang. I saw a video this week where a porcupine took a stroll at the Oregon Zoo and visited a pair of otters. I have no idea why or what happened, and I hope the video is real, because you know what? I needed that. Catch you all next week– Alaina This newsletter is dedicated to the memory of Gordon Mah Ung, founder and host of The Full Nerd, and executive editor of hardware at PCWorld. Read...

If you’re looking for some websites to bust your boredom you’ve come to the right place. Here we give you two websites that are just as educational as they are fun to browse. You’ll want to spend all day on them. Animagraffs On the Animagraffs site you can view cool animated infographics of how things work. If you’ve ever wanted to know how a car engine works or how a fire truck works then you’ll be thrilled with those animated infographics. You can also view animated infographics for how an F1 race car works, how self-driving cars work and how a pair of speakers make sound. Each infographic is presented with intricate detail so you can really work your imagination. My favorite is an animated infographic of the P-51 Mustang fighter plane from WWII. Dominic Bayley / Foundry Interactive simulations The Interactive simulations site from the University of Colorado’s PhET has a whole bunch of simulations that will help you learn complex topics. From math and physics to chemistry and the Earth and space, there are simulations to describe key processes in science. See sound waves in action, or how sunlight warms the Earth. No matter what you want to learn there’s bound to be a simulation for it here. Dominic Bayley / Foundry That’s a wrap for these recommendations. For more recommendations be sure to subscribe to our PCWorld Try This newsletter. Read...

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You’d be insane not to buy your Valentine’s Day flowers—or your next VPN—without taking advantage of Microsoft Cashback, the program that slings bundles of cash at you for using Bing. Case in point: Over the holidays, I invested about $60 in a VPN subscription. Then, last night, Microsoft dropped $28 in my Cashback account, redeemable via PayPal or as an Amazon gift card. Whoa! You might be surprised to learn that Microsoft Cashback has been around for nearly two decades now, off and on. It was once called Bing Rebates, and I’ve complained about it before… mainly because there was always some degree of friction in the process. PayPal wasn’t so ubiquitous back then, plus the rebates weren’t that great. But now that Amazon gift cards are an option, I’m singing a different tune. Microsoft Cashback (aka Bing Deals) is the cousin of Microsoft Rewards, a different program that quietly pays you in points for using Bing, Xbox, and other Microsoft services. Cashback pays you actual cash rebates for purchases you make online. Both Rewards and Cashback require a Microsoft account, which you should already have because Microsoft is basically forcing everyone to use Microsoft accounts now. I avoided Cashback for years because it always required a PayPal account. I always associated PayPal with buying and selling goods over eBay (not my thing) and PayPal seemed to want my bank account information. I didn’t want to deal with that. Fortunately, now I don’t have to—and Cashback is now easier to use than ever. Not every store participates in Microsoft Cashback, but enough of the big ones do to make it worth checking out. You can use Cashback with whatever credit card you’d normally make purchases with—which means if you earn points or cashback with your card, you can essentially double-dip. Cashback automatically works in the background. There’s nothing to click and no codes to enter. (The only thing is that clicking a retailer’s logo on the Cashback site will trigger an animation confirming that Cashback is activated.) The best part? Certain merchants are absolutely ravenous for your business. See the VPN section in the screenshot below. If you sign up for NordVPN (our top-ranked VPN service), NordVPN itself will give you a discount… and your credit card may add another… and then Cashback will also give you back 32 percent of your purchase as a cash rebate. That’s kind of nuts. As I write this, FTD Flowers is offering 16 percent cash back, too. And if you can find discount codes for your purchase, I don’t see anything stopping you from adding those, either. Cashback is available from a ton of merchants, most aligned with smaller retailers. But not always! So while Amazon itself doesn’t participate, Best Buy does—and offers 8 percent back. Walmart? Just 8 bucks back. Instacart? 12 percent back up to $10 for new customers. Some categories of products at retailers earn more than others. How to use Microsoft Cashback The first thing you need to do is sign up with a Microsoft account. Is there a catch? The biggest one seems to be that Microsoft asks for you to be signed in to a personal account, and not a work or school account. You also need to be an “active” member of Microsoft Rewards (it’s not clear what that means). You need to enable cookies, too, in your browser. Cashback also doesn’t happen immediately. It takes Microsoft 30 to 90 days to process, in part to prevent fraudsters from buying something and then returning it to pocket the cash back. If you’re using both Rewards and Cashback, that information should be prominently displayed at the top of your Rewards dashboard. For now, Microsoft doesn’t seem to be advertising Amazon gift cards as a redemption option. But the option showed up in my Cashback dashboard—and it processed successfully last night. What I like about Cashback is the ability to double-dip: to use whatever credit card or platform I want for a purchase, then potentially get more cash back on top. Sure, Microsoft is essentially buying your clicks on Bing and Edge… but your credit card is doing the same thing. Why not use them both to save yourself some extra cash? Read...

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