At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Attractive design and high build quality Gigantic 52-inch ultrawide display Lots of connectivity across Thunderbolt, USB-C, USB-A, and Ethernet Crisp 6144×2560 resolution Cons No HDR support Limited contrast ratio Very high MSRP Our Verdict The Dell Ultrasharp 52 Thunderbolt Hub Monitor is a uniquely gigantic display aimed at multitaskers who work across multiple computers. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Dell Ultrasharp 52 Thunderbolt Hub Monitor Retailer Price Check Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Best Prices Today: Check today’s prices Back in my day, a 21-inch CRT display was considered gigantic. These days, computer monitors can frequently reach TV-like dimensions—and the Dell Ultrasharp 52 Thunderbolt Hub Monitor is among the largest monitors yet. This 52-inch behemoth tips the scales at 40 pounds and ships in a box roughly as large as most 65-inch HDTVs. It also has an enormous $2,899.99 MSRP. So, is it worth the price? Read on to learn more, then see our roundup of the best monitors for comparison. Dell Ultrasharp 52 Thunderbolt Hub Monitor U5226KW specs and features The star of the show is certainly the Dell Ultrasharp 52’s display panel. It’s not only large at 51.5 inches diagonally but also pixel dense with a resolution of 6144×2560. It’s an IPS Black panel and offers refresh rates up to 120Hz. Display size: 51.5-inch, 21:9 aspect ratio Native resolution: 6144x,2560 Panel type: IPS Black LCD Refresh rate: 120Hz Adaptive sync: VRR compatible HDR: None Ports: 2x HDMI 2.1, 2x DisplayPort 1.4, 4x USB Type-A 10Gbps downstream ports, 3x USB-C 10Gbps upstream port, 1x Thunderbolt 4 40Gbps upstream ports with DisplayPort 1.4 and 140 watts of Power Delivery, 1x RJ45 2.5GbE Ethernet, 1x USB Type-A 10Gbps downstream, 2x USB-C 10Gbps downstream with 27 watts of Power Delivery Audio: 2x 9-watt speakers Extra Features: Light sensor, VESA mount Software support: Windows 11, MacOS later Price: $2,899.99 MSRP There’s a lot more to the story than the display panel, though. The Ultrasharp 52 has a focus on connectivity that spans a Thunderbolt 4 port, five USB-A ports, five USB-C ports, and Ethernet. It also provides 140 watts of Power Delivery over Thunderbolt 4, a serious upgrade over the more typical 65 to 90 watts. None of this comes cheaply, however. The monitor has an MSRP of $2,899.99 and is currently sold at that price. Dell Ultrasharp 52 Thunderbolt Hub Monitor design The Dell Ultrasharp 52 Thunderbolt Hub Monitor is big. Really big. The 52-inch ultrawide display provides roughly the same total display area as a 48-inch widescreen television though, due to its 21:9 aspect ratio, the Dell Ultrasharp 52 is a few inches shorter and about 5 inches narrower. It measures about 52 inches wide from side to side—that’s over 4 feet! It’s the widest monitor that I’ve ever reviewed, as it’s a few tenths of an inch wider than a 49-inch super-ultrawide like the Philips Evnia 8000 or Dell Ultrasharp U4924DW. Of course, that means you’ll need a large space to comfortably place the display. My desk has room at over 6-feet wide, but it’s not that deep at 26 inches, so I often felt I was too close to the monitor. You’ll probably want a desk with 30 inches of depth or more. The Ultrasharp 52 is also much heavier than usual. The panel alone weighs 28.5 pounds and the total weight with stand attached is over 40 pounds. By comparison, my 48-inch LG B4 television weighs less than 25 pounds. None of this is a downside, really, but it’s something you should know before you buy. Despite its size and ultrawide aspect ratio, the Ultrasharp 52 sticks to a subtle 4200R curvature. A lower number means a more dramatic curve, and many super-ultrawide monitors have a curve of 1800R or 1500R. The Ultrasharp 52 seems flat at a glance though the curve is easy to notice on closer inspection. While the subtle curve might not be preferable for gaming, I prefer it for productivity and creative work. A dramatic curve can slightly skew how content looks on a display. Matthew Smith / Foundry A beefy stand keeps the Ultrasharp 52’s bulk in check and provides some ergonomic adjustment for height, tilt, and swivel, as well as a couple degrees of slant (meaning the display can rotate a couple degrees in each direction). The amount of ergonomic adjustment is less than normal for a monitor at this price point, though that’s a consequence of the display’s size and aspect ratio. Rotating into a portrait orientation would be comical. Even swivel is restrained to just 40 degrees overall, as the display is so wide that it’s likely to start knocking things off your desk when you move it. Because of its size, the Ultrasharp 52 has not only a 100x100mm VESA mount but also a 200x100mm and 200x200mm mount option, which is extremely unusual for a computer monitor. You can even order the Ultrasharp 52 without a stand if you want to go straight for a heavy-duty monitor arm or a wall-mount, but this will only save $100. Build quality is outstanding. Large ultrawide monitors can sometimes feel a bit flimsy, but the Ultrasharp feels rigid and hefty. While I still wouldn’t want to drop it, the plastics didn’t noticeably creak or warp as I handled the display—something that can happen with monitors in this category. That’s good, because the monitor’s high MSRP would make build quality issues difficult to forgive. The Dell Ultrasharp 52 Thunderbolt Hub Monitor targeted at people who want to replace several smaller monitors with a single display… Dell Ultrasharp 52 Thunderbolt Hub Monitor connectivity The Dell Ultrasharp 52 Thunderbolt Hub Monitor is, well, a hub monitor. What does that mean? Put simply, it means it has a boat-load of connectivity. However, contrary to what you might think, it’s actually not all about Thunderbolt 4. Still, let’s talk about Thunderbolt first. The Ultrasharp 52 has a Thunderbolt 4 port with a 40Gbps data rate. This port also of course supports DisplayPort, so it can be used as a video input (and will work with USB-C sources that support DisplayPort). It also has up to 140 watts of Power Delivery, which is enough to power many Windows laptops and all current MacBook models. That makes for easy single-cable connections to a laptop. However, the real focus is not on the Thunderbolt input but, rather, what that Thunderbolt port connects to. This is where the hub comes in. Matthew Smith / Foundry The Ultrasharp 52 has a total of five USB-A downstream ports and two USB-C downstream ports. Most of these are on the rear of the display, but two USB-C ports and one USB-A port are in a pop-out module on the lower bezel. The USB-C ports on the front can deliver up to 27 watts of power, which is handy if you want to quickly charge a phone or tablet. The display can drive up to 150 watts of power overall. In addition to the Thunderbolt 4, these ports can also be driven by three USB-C upstream ports on the rear of the display. That means you can connect the monitor’s ports to up to four devices. A KVM switch is used to switch between them. A 2.5Gbps Ethernet port can also be found lurking around the rear. This is an unusual, if not entirely unique, feature for a monitor. The inclusion of an Ethernet port means you can bring high-speed wired Internet connectivity to a laptop or other device connected to the monitor. While the Thunderbolt 4 is really the star of the show in terms of video connectivity, as it also provides connections to the monitor’s many USB ports, you have a lot of other options. The monitor has two HDMI 2.1 ports and two DisplayPort 1.4 ports. Dell Ultrasharp 52 Thunderbolt Hub Monitor menus and features Although it’s meant for work, the Ultrasharp 52 is designed more for day traders than digital artists. Still, it does have a respectable range of image quality adjustments including gamma, color temperature, and color saturation calibration. Though it lacks a built-in or included colorimeter, the range of image quality adjustment available here will be enough to satisfy creatives who work with clients that don’t demand exacting color accuracy and tight conformance to particular color standards. The Ultrasharp 52 is compatible with Dell’s Display and Peripheral Manager software, which makes it possible to change monitor settings through a desktop software interface on Windows 11 and MacOS machines. The monitor is also compatible with remote management software that allows IT departments to remotely manage options across a fleet of displays. As mentioned, a KVM switch is included. That’s not at all unusual for a modern monitor, but the Ultrasharp 52 also has an Ethernet Switch Mode, which can be used to switch the Ethernet port’s connectivity along with the rest of the monitor’s connectivity. Matthew Smith / Foundry The monitor also supports automatic brightness and color temperature adjustment. However, I found that these features didn’t work well. The speed of adjustment between different levels of brightness, or different color temperature modes, was rapid and distracting. I also found the auto-brightness mode was often too bright, and while there is an auto-brightness range setting that seems intended to provide some adjustment, I was never happy with how auto-brightness worked and ultimately turned it off. Given its many features, you might need to read the Ultrasharp 52’s manual. Fortunately, Dell provides better documentation than most companies. This includes not only the user manual but also a service manual and teardown document with extensive detail, including photographs, that shows how to tear down and repair the display. Dell Ultrasharp 52 Thunderbolt Hub Monitor audio The Dell Ultrasharp 52 has two 9-watt speakers. They provide great volume and a robust sound with good clarity at most volume levels, though distortion can become an issue at the highest volumes. Audiophiles will definitely still want to use external speakers or headphones, but less discerning listeners are likely to be satisfied by the built-in speakers. That gives the Ultrasharp 52 an edge, as many monitors designed for productivity or business have weak speakers. Dell Ultrasharp 52 Thunderbolt Hub Monitor SDR image quality Like many recent Dell Ultrasharp monitors, the Ultrasharp 52 has an IPS Black display. This type of display panel, which is relatively new, boosts contrast when compared to other IPS panel types and retains the technology’s strengths in color performance and brightness. This is mostly good news for the Ultrasharp 52, though contrast remains a concern. Matthew Smith / Foundry The Ultrasharp 52 achieved a maximum sustained SDR brightness of 336 nits. As the graph shows, this is not all that bright for a display in this category, though it’s not dim either. Even so, 336 nits is more than enough for most situations. It will only seem dim if you’re in a room that lacks light control and has sunlit windows or a lot of artificial light. In addition, the Ultrasharp 52 has an effective anti-glare coat and matte finish. It does not readily show reflections, which are diffused across the display surface. Also, the display’s subtle curve doesn’t suffer the light-focusing effect that can increase glare on more dramatically curved displays. All in all, it looks bright and readable in most situations. Matthew Smith / Foundry Contrast is where the Ultrasharp 52 falls short in spite of the IPS Black panel’s improved contrast performance. A measured contrast ratio of 1960:1 is solid for an IPS monitor, and it looks immersive in brighter rooms. However, using the monitor in a dark room will still reveal the “IPS glow” which is caused by the monitor backlight. The effect is obvious and not uniform across the display, so it can be distracting. To be fair, the Ultrasharp 52’s overall uniformity is better than many ultrawide LCD monitors, but I still noticed a very slight increase in brightness in the lower right side of the display as compared to the left. My colorimeter confirmed this with a maximum brightness variance of 18.2 percent.You’ll need to ask yourself how you intend to use the monitor. If you want to use it for office and business productivity, or even for less color-critical creative work, the contrast offered here is fine. But if you want to game, or watch movies, you should consider a 45-inch OLED ultrawide like the LG Ultragear 45GX950A-B. Matthew Smith / Foundry While the Ultrasharp 52’s contrast is just okay, it does better in color gamut. I found the monitor can display 98 percent of the DCI-P3 and 90 percent of the AdobeRGB color gamut. These figures are slightly behind QD-OLED monitors, which tend to achieve similar results in DCI-P3 and 93 to 95 percent in AdobeRGB. However, the Ultrasharp 52’s color gamut is still extremely broad and provides a vivid, saturated image. Matthew Smith / Foundry The Ultrasharp 52’s color accuracy results are more middle-of-the-road. This level of color error is by no means a problem, but as the graph shows, it’s not at the top of the class. I noticed that a large amount of the monitor’s average color error came from the grayscale results, so I was not too surprised to find the monitor produced a gamma curve of 2.1, which is slightly off the target gamma 2.2. This indicates that the image seems a bit brighter and more luminescent than it should. It’s tough to notice though, so this isn’t a show stopper. The color temperature was also just a tad off target with a measured default color temperature of 6700K, off the target of 6500K. However, the monitor does have settings for both color temperature and gamma, so it’s possible to come closer to these targets—or whichever setting you prefer. Sharpness is an interesting conversation. The Ultrasharp 52 has a native resolution of 6144×2560. That’s more than 15 million pixels overall and almost twice as many pixels as a 4K display and results in a pixel density of 129 pixels per inch. While it’s definitely not as sharp as a 27-inch 4K display, the Ultrasharp 52’s pixel density beats the LG 45GX950A-B (123 ppi) and far exceeds most 49-inch super-ultrawide monitors (which typically pack in 109 ppi). Dell Ultrasharp 52 Thunderbolt Hub Monitor HDR image quality You might be surprised to hear that the Dell Ultrasharp 52 doesn’t support HDR. Most monitors in this price range do, of course, so the lack of HDR is a mark against the monitor. On the other hand, I respect that Dell didn’t try to stuff HDR into the monitor by ramping up the backlight and calling it a day—a tactic that is common among IPS monitors that claim HDR support. Still, if you want HDR, you’ll need to look elsewhere. Dell Ultrasharp 52 Thunderbolt Hub Monitor motion performance While the Dell Ultrasharp 52 lacks HDR, it does manage to provide a refresh rate of 120Hz. That’s a bit surprising given the monitor’s size and high resolution and it’s certainly good news for motion clarity and fluidity in games. Still, you shouldn’t get too excited. While it can handle a refresh rate of 120Hz, the monitor quotes gray-to-gray response times no lower than 5 milliseconds. By comparison, the quickest IPS gaming monitors have response times below one millisecond and OLED monitors have response times as low as 0.03 milliseconds. In practice, that means the Ultrasharp 52 will show more motion blur than a display with a lower pixel response time. The monitor also doesn’t have official support for VESA Adaptive Sync, AMD FreeSync, or G-Sync, though my AMD video card did detect it as an AMD FreeSync display. Should you buy the Dell Ultrasharp 52 Thunderbolt Hub Monitor? The Dell Ultrasharp 52 Thunderbolt Hub Monitor has a specific audience in mind. It’s targeted at people who want to replace several smaller monitors with a single display or want to expand their overall display real estate. That functionality is combined with lots of connectivity, which is handy if you want to work across multiple devices or need to connect a lot of peripherals. Those who want a monitor for entertainment will find the Ultrasharp 52 less appealing. It’s not bad in this role, as it at least provides a 120Hz refresh rate and a sharp, color-rich image. However, the monitor’s limited contrast and lack of HDR support are notable downsides. The monitor is also more expensive than OLED ultrawides which, though smaller, have even better image quality. It’s definitely not for everyone, but if you’re looking for a gigantic display with well-rounded performance and top-tier connectivity, the Ultrasharp 52 is large and in charge. Read...

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After months of build-up, YouTube TV’s new Sports and genre plans feel underwhelming. YouTube started hyping up these plans in December, promising cheaper bundles with fewer channels you don’t care about. Sports fans, for instance, can get a package without news or entertainment channels, while sports haters can finally stop subsidizing expensive channels like ESPN. But while the new plans could save you some money, they’re not much different from other skinny bundles that DirecTV and Fubo offer already. In some cases, they might even be worse. False start First, a disclaimer: You probably can’t sign up for YouTube TV’s new plans yet. While they technically launched last week, YouTube says it’s “rolling these plans out slowly to ensure the best possible experience.” They may not be broadly available for several weeks. In the meantime, YouTube TV is still withholding some basic information. While it’s promising more than 10 genre plans in total, so far it’s only announced five of them: Sports Plan ($65/mo.): Local broadcast channels and national sports channels such as ESPN, FS1/FS2, TBS/TNT, NBC (including regional NBC Sports in select markets), Golf, NFL Network, and NBA TV, with ESPN Unlimited to be added in the fall. Sports + News Plan ($72/mo.): The above plan, plus CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, CSPAN, and business news channels. Entertainment Plan ($55/mo.): Local broadcast channels and general entertainment channels such as Hallmark, Comedy Central, HGTV, and Bravo. News + Entertainment + Family Plan ($70/mo.): Basically everything except sports, including kids channels such as Disney and Nickelodeon. Sports + News + Entertainment ($78 per month): Nearly the full YouTube TV package, but without kids channels. YouTube TV’s base plan, with more channels than any of the above options, remains available for $83 per month. Note that YouTube hasn’t released full channel lists for most of these packages (though Deadline got a channel list for the Sports package). It’s also unclear whether we’ll see any additional genre packages, or if the remaining five-plus options will just be different combinations of the Sports, News, Entertainment, and Family plans that YouTube has announced already. How YouTube TV’s Sports package compares Even with incomplete information, we can start to compare YouTube TV’s genre plans with the competition. The Sports plan, for instance, will be the cheapest way to combine local broadcasts and national sports channels if that’s all you want from a live TV service. At $65 per month, it’s $5 per month cheaper than DirecTV’s MySports plan, which launched last year, and $18 per month cheaper than YouTube TV’s standard plan. YouTube’s case gets stronger in the handful of markets that carry regional NBC Sports Networks. They’re included with YouTube TV’s Sports plan, but not DirecTV’s MySports package. (YouTube’s plans don’t include any other regional sports networks, while DirecTV offers a $20 per month MyHome Team add-on in select markets.) But if you want cable news, DirecTV’s MySports plan has an edge at $70 per month, versus $72 per month for YouTube TV’s Sports + News option. It also includes MLB Network and NHL TV, which YouTube’s bundle lacks. Jared Newman / Foundry (Click to enlarge or view on Google Sheets) YouTube TV’s Sports + News + Entertainment plan is interesting, in that it cuts out kids channels such as Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, and Cartoon Network. It’s only $5 per month cheaper than YouTube TV’s standard package, but that’s better than nothing for channels you might never watch. Those who want more price flexibility could look to Fubo Sports instead. At $56 per month, it’s cheaper than YouTube TV’s Sports plan, but it does not include NBC, TNT, TBS, or any regional sports channels. These bundles aren’t the only way to slice and dice sports coverage. You could also opt for some combination of ESPN Unlimited, Fox One, Peacock for NBC, Paramount+ for CBS, and HBO Max for TNT/TBS. But if you’re going to pay for all of those at the same time, you’re better off picking a bundle that includes all of their corresponding TV channels. YouTube TV’s non-sports plans YouTube TV’s other genre plans are a bit different from what DirecTV offers, at least from what we’ve seen so far. The $55 per month Entertainment plan, for instance, caters to folks who have no interest in sports but don’t want to give up local broadcast stations or general entertainment channels. Same goes for the $70 per month News + Entertainment + Family Plan. No other streaming TV packages like these exist on the market today. But as more kids tune into Netflix and YouTube, and as cable’s entertainment channels become bereft of original programming, the appeal may be limited. With its new genre plans, YouTube TV missed an opportunity to start bundling streaming services alongside traditional cable channels. That’s what DirecTV is doing with its $35 per month MyEntertainment package, which offers many of the same channels as YouTube’s Entertainment plan along with Disney+, Hulu, and HBO Max. And while DirecTV’s MyEntertainment doesn’t carry local channels, you can combine it with DirecTV MyNews for $75 per month total. That gets you local channels, cable news, entertainment, and a trio of streaming services. It’s a more compelling package than any of YouTube’s non-sports offerings. Slice and dice Given YouTube TV’s status as the largest live TV streaming service—one that might become bigger than major companies soon—I thought its bargaining power would result in packages that are clearly better than the competition. The reality is more nuanced. The new YouTube TV genre plans can save you money, but you’ll still have to carefully consider the alternatives and choose wisely. Sign up for Jared’s Cord Cutter Weekly newsletter for more streaming TV advice. Read...

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If you’re looking for some fun websites you’ve come to the right place. We’ve got you covered to keep boredom at bay. TV Garden If you go to the TV Garden site you can choose a country from the world map by clicking on it and then get free TV channels from that location. There are tens of countries to try and dozens of channels available to watch. I found a really great news channel from the US that does round-the-clock news, but there’s also entertainment content available too. Dominic Bayley / Foundry Make my drive fun If you’ve ever planned a long road trip but not sure what sights you can see along the way, then you’re going to love this website. Make my drive fun, lets you plan a road trip and shows you fun stops along the way. No matter whether you want to stop at a museum or just gawk at oversized novelty landmarks this website has you covered on your next long road trip. Dominic Bayley / Foundry That’s all we have for this Try This. For more website recommendations be sure to subscribe to our PCWorld Try This newsletter. Read...

Although many PC manufacturers market their systems as great for gaming, work, entertainment, and everything else, most of them are only really good at one thing—possibly two. Indeed, unless a PC is built specifically for gaming or specifically for a certain professional workload, it’s unlikely to be ideal. A gaming PC can probably perform some of your work tasks, but not all of them. A standard office PC is almost certainly going to suck for gaming. If you want a PC that can truly do everything, you need to build one that’s designed for it—you need a hybrid PC. Keep reading for several tips on how to build a hybrid PC that’ll be everything you need it to be. Why can’t you use a work PC for gaming? Let’s get one thing straight: you absolutely can use a work PC for gaming, but you’ll be severely limited in the games you can play and the settings you can play them at. Most work PCs don’t have dedicated graphics cards (which keeps their costs down), so playing games means leaning on the CPU’s integrated GPU. Ryan Whitwam/IDG The latest versions of these integrated GPUs are capable of entry-level gaming, and they’re getting better than ever. (Intel’s newest Panther Lake integrated Arc graphics show stunning results.) But most work PCs aren’t using the best and most recent processors—and even if you are, you’ll still be limited to 1080p at medium settings in the latest 3D games. If you’re just looking to play lightweight indie games like Stardew Valley or older esports titles like League of Legends, you can likely play them on a work PC without much difficulty at adequate frame rates. But if you want to play anything more demanding, more modern, or more detailed, you’ll need to build a hybrid PC with that in mind. Why can’t you use a gaming PC for work? Since gaming PCs tend to be more powerful than basic work PCs, you can usually handle most workloads on gaming PCs without difficulty. If you’re just answering emails when you’re out of the office, any gaming PC will be more than sufficient. Pexels: Ron Lach But if you’re performing more demanding work tasks—like processing large data sets, transcoding video, any kind of 3D CAD work, or working with artificial intelligence models—you’ll need extra hardware that’s more capable than your average gaming PC. If you want to enjoy a singular PC for both work and play, you need to take the demands of both use cases into account. Tip 1: More CPU cores Most gamers are still playing on PCs that have just four or six CPU cores. While those PCs are perfectly fine for gaming and lightweight office tasks, if you need to get some serious work done, you’ll want more. Adam Patrick Murray / Foundry For a hybrid work-and-gaming PC that’ll be doing lots of multitasking day to day and perhaps a good chunk of demanding photo or video editing, you should pick a CPU with at least eight cores. Not only will it improve gaming performance, but it’ll give you more headroom for tasks that demand more multithread performance. That said, if you’re working with large data sets, doing 3D design work, or developing and testing AI, then you might consider even better CPUs if you have the budget. The latest ones with 16 or even 24 cores can make a real difference in such professional applications. Tip 2: 32GB RAM or more With the ongoing memory shortage, the last thing anyone wants to be buying in 2026 is more memory. Hardware prices are going up everywhere and we don’t know when the pain will stop. But if you want a high-performance PC for work and gaming, then you can’t skimp on RAM. The latest triple-A games demand 32GB of RAM as a recommended minimum, suggesting that more is even better—especially if you’re running other applications in the background, or streaming your games online while you play them. Nor Gal / Shutterstock.com For professional workloads, all that extra memory will help. Video editing, working with large databases, and 3D design work can all benefit from 64GB of memory. For particularly large data sets or running large AI models, you may even want 128GB of memory. Again, RAM is extremely expensive right now… but there are ways around it. Don’t underestimate the power of buying (or building) an older DDR4-based system with a Ryzen 5000 or Intel 12th/13th/14th-generation CPU. They aren’t cutting edge, but you can still get strong performance in gaming and work-related tasks while saving a good amount of money by buying older hardware designed for DDR4 RAM. Tip 3: A decent graphics card Although you can get by with an integrated GPU for lightweight indie games and older esports games, if you want to play anything modern at anything above 1080p and low graphics settings, you’ll want a dedicated graphics card. Ideally, a mid-range one. The Nvidia RTX 5060 and AMD RX 9060 XT are strong starting points, but if you want to play at 1440p resolution or even 4K, you’ll want something more powerful—like the AMD RX 9070 XT or even a Nvidia RTX 5080 if your budget can stretch that far. Adam Patrick Murray / Foundry GPUs like this typically aren’t needed for office work, but it’ll save your bacon if you’re going to be handling any 3D effects work or running a large language AI model. After all, powerful GPUs with lots of VRAM still outperform NPUs when it comes to local AI tasks. One last bit of advice for GPUs: don’t overspend on a top-end card if you don’t really need it. But don’t skimp, either. If you want to handle high-end gaming and/or professional tasks, you’re going to need it. Tip 4: A high-end monitor A good looking display makes a world of difference. You don’t necessarily need an OLED monitor for dealing with spreadsheets and PDF documents, but a larger 32-inch screen can make reading walls of text a lot easier. If you’re working with photos or videos, good color accuracy is essential. Displays with anti-reflective surfaces can make working in stark office lighting more comfortable on the eyes. Matt Smith / Foundry For gaming, you’ll want to consider higher refresh rates like 144Hz or 240Hz, plus higher resolutions like 1440p or 4K, depending on the graphics setting you’re targeting (based on what your GPU can handle and the games you’re playing). OLED is the reigning king for responsiveness and color vibrancy, but the latest Mini-LED VA and IPS monitors are almost as good (and more affordable). Tip 5: At least 2TB of storage Most PCs sold for work come with just 512GB of storage, which is easily maxed out with just a handful of installed games. For gaming, get at least a 1TB SSD, but ideally 2TB if you plan to install multiple triple-A games. (The latest ones can easily take up over 100GB each.) Adam Patrick Murray / Foundry Most professional workloads don’t need as much storage space—unless you work with photos or video, in which case all that space can fill up in the blink of an eye. Don’t buy more storage than you need, of course. (An 8TB SSD is likely overkill.) But having some extra space for games and apps you might want to install down the line is always useful. Tip 6: Aim for quiet cooling A lot of gamers want maximum performance and so tune their cooling to be maximally efficient, often at the expense of noise levels. That may not be a huge issue if you’re gaming in headphones, but you’ll probably want a more serene experience while working. Abdullah Abid / Unsplash Hybrid work-and-gaming PCs need plentiful cooling for both CPU and GPU, but consider tuning the fan speed curve so you get decent performance without the excessive noise of high-speed fans. You might have to sacrifice a little top-end performance, but the overall experience should mean you aren’t frustrated while trying to focus. Don’t forget your environment The hybrid PC itself is the main thing you need to get right for your work-and-play needs, but don’t overlook your environment. If you’re converting an office space into one designed for gaming, you might want to equip it with lower-key lighting for a more relaxed vibe. Furthermore, think about what your den might look like on a work Zoom call. Your ring light might be fine for conferencing, but the purple LED backlighting might not be the right mood for professionalism. What I’m trying to say is: using the same machine and space for both work and play can make it harder to do one or the other at times, so put in the time and energy to set it up right. It’s well worth the effort. Read...

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At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Enjoyable keyboard with spacious layout Lots of connectivity including Thunderbolt 4, USB-A, Ethernet Can be a good performance value when laptop is on sale Long battery life Cons Boring design Mediocre touchpad Only 512GB of solid state storage Our Verdict The Acer TravelMate X4 14 AI is a competent business notebook with good battery life, but it doesn’t offer much to get excited about. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Acer TravelMate X4 14 AI Retailer Price Check Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Best Prices Today: Check today’s prices If you’re looking for a portable business laptop you’re likely to turn first to something like a Lenovo ThinkPad, HP EliteBook, or Dell Pro… but the price could well scare you off, as business laptops tend to carry a substantial price premium. The Acer TravelMate X4 14 AI is also expensive on paper, but competitive retail pricing makes it more alluring. Which is good, because the laptop’s design won’t get your pulse racing. Acer TravelMate X4 14 AI: Specs and features as-tested The Acer TravelMate X4 14 AI’s basic specifications won’t set your hair on fire. This is a business portable with a focus on battery life and productivity, so it sticks to modest hardware including an Intel Core Ultra 5 processor. It also has 16GB of RAM, a 512GB solid state drive, and a 1200p display. Model number: TMX414-51-579T CPU: Intel Core Ultra 5 Processor 226V Memory: 16GB LPDDR5x-8533 Graphics/GPU: Intel Arc 130V NPU: Intel AI Boost (40 TOPS) Display: 14-inch 1920×1200 IPS-LCD 120Hz Storage: 512GB M.2 PCIe 4.0 solid state drive Webcam and microphone: 1080p FHD IR camera with privacy shutter Connectivity: 2x Thunderbolt 4 / USB-C, 1x USB-A 3.2 Gen 1, 1x USB-A 2.0, 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x Ethernet, 1x 3.5mm audio jack Networking: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 Biometrics: Windows Hello facial recognition Battery capacity: 65 watt-hours Dimensions: 12.28 x 8.89 x 0.64 inches Weight: 2.75 pounds Operating System: Windows 11 Pro Price: $1,199.99 MSRP, $650 to $850 typical retail The TravelMate X4 14 AI lists an MSRP of $1,199.99, which seems like a lot for a laptop with these specifications. However, the laptop tends to sell for less than that, as I saw pricing down to $687.99 on CDW. It’s also $842.99 on Insight. If you’re curious why it’s not sold on Amazon or Best Buy, that has to do with its business focus. CDW and Insight are retailers that focus on business and enterprise customers. Connectivity is the Acer TravelMate X4 14 AI’s greatest strength. Acer TravelMate X4 14 AI: Design and build quality Foundry / Matthew Smith The Acer TravelMate X4 14 AI uses a familiar design language which leans on simple silver or gunmetal colorways, angular features, and a mix of metal and plastic construction. There is nothing necessarily wrong with this approach but Acer’s competitors, most notably Lenovo and Asus, are more aggressive on design with more interesting colorways and more unique finishes. This leaves the TravelMate X4 14 AI feeling a bit too familiar. Build quality, meanwhile, is a bit above average for the price point at which this laptop actually sells, which is usually around the $650-$850 range. There’s very little flex in the chassis, even when it’s handled roughly. The same can be said of the display and the large, smooth hinge provides easy actuation so you can open the laptop with one finger with no trouble at all. Unfortunately, I had one serious quality issue. When I removed the plastic film that protects the camera and other sensors from damage in shipping, the permanent plastic inlay beneath it came along for the ride. It was still a bit tacky, so I was able to slip it back into place, but it didn’t leave a good impression. Acer TravelMate X4 14 AI: Keyboard, trackpad Foundry / Matthew Smith I found the keyboard to be one of the Acer TravelMate X4 14 AI’s better traits. It is a reasonably spacious keyboard that’s nearly edge-to-edge, with large keys in a standard layout. Key travel is good and keys activate with a crisp, clicky feel. Most modern Windows laptops have at least an acceptable keyboard even in this modest price range, but I’d say the TravelMate X4 14 AI keyboard is above average. The touchpad is less impressive, though still OK. It’s reasonably large, measuring about five inches wide and about three inches deep, which is large enough to handle even the more elaborate Windows multitouch gestures. The surface of the touchpad has a rather plastic texture that didn’t please my fingertips. It does the job, but no more. Acer TravelMate X4 14 AI: Display, audio Foundry / Matthew Smith A typical 14-inch IPS-LCD display with a resolution of 1920×1200 is available on the Acer TravelMate X4 14 AI, and aside from the refresh rate of up to 120 Hz, there is not much about the display that is remarkable or stands out from the crowd. It has a maximum brightness of about 350 nits and it does not support HDR, so it is definitely not the easiest display to read and use in bright settings, and it’s not going to be the best choice for games or entertainment. The display is otherwise good enough. It provides vivid color, and while the 1920×1200 resolution is nothing special for a laptop sold in 2026, on a 14-inch display it still results in good sharpness with a pixel density of approximately 162 pixels per inch, which is high enough to look crisp. Audio performance, on the other hand, is a disappointment. The built-in speakers are downward-firing, so they will be muffled by some surfaces depending on what you place the laptop on. The speakers aren’t loud even at their maximum volume, and despite that lack of volume, the speakers still suffer some muddiness and distortion when handling movies and music. You will probably want to have headphones or external speakers handy. Acer TravelMate X4 14 AI: Webcam, microphone, biometrics Like most midrange Windows laptops, the Acer TravelMate X4 14 AI has a built-in webcam with 1080p resolution that can record up to 30 frames per second. It offers decent sharpness but can look grainy in a dim room. In general, it’s fine, but not any better than the competition. I can say the same for the dual microphone array, although compared to the webcam, it’s slightly better overall. The microphones picked up clear, crisp audio when I used them to record. They are still clearly laptop microphones with a hollow, distant sound, but they are well suited for video conferences. Biometric login is supported through Windows Hello facial recognition, made possible by the IR camera on the device, and it works about as expected, providing smooth, quick logins. Also like many modern Windows laptops, the TravelMate X4 14 AI supports presence detection to automatically turn off the display or put the laptop to sleep if the webcam sees that you’ve moved away. A fingerprint reader is not available, so if you prefer that over Windows Hello facial recognition, you’re out of luck. Acer TravelMate X4 14 AI: Connectivity Foundry / Matthew Smith Connectivity is the Acer TravelMate X4 14 AI’s greatest strength. The laptop has two Thunderbolt 4 ports, which of course also support USB-C, as well as two USB-A ports—one of which is USB 3.2 Gen 1 and the other is USB 2.0. The laptop also has an HDMI 2.1 port, a 3.5mm combo audio jack, and a Gigabit Ethernet port. The Ethernet port is unusual for a thin and light business laptop, as many such systems no longer provide it, and the overall combination of Thunderbolt 4/USB-C and USB-A ports provides a lot of options. The Thunderbolt 4 ports can also support DisplayPort output and can handle up to 100W of USB Power Delivery, so they can be used to charge the laptop or to connect to an external USB-C monitor or to HDMI or DisplayPort monitors with the proper adapter. Wireless connectivity is also strong, as the laptop supports Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. A lot of new laptops do support these standards, but I would point out that Wi-Fi 7 is a little less common in laptops that are sold at $1,000 and below, and this laptop indeed does typically sell for quite a bit under $1,000 even though the MSRP is $1,199.99. So it’s good to see Wi-Fi 7 is included. Acer TravelMate X4 14 AI: Performance The Acer TravelMate X4 14 AI that I received for review had an Intel Core Ultra 5 226V chip inside. This chip has an eight-core CPU with four performance cores and four efficiency cores, as well as a maximum turbo boost frequency of 4.5 GHz. The Intel chip is paired with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB PCIe 4.0 solid-state drive. As you might’ve heard, Intel’s Panther Lake chips sold under the Intel Core Ultra Series 3 branding are starting to become available, and as you can see in the graphs below, that puts the older Intel Core Ultra Series 2 powered laptops at a disadvantage. Foundry / Matthew Smith Let’s start things off with PCMark 10, a general system benchmark that runs a variety of tests and strains multiple aspects of the laptop.  Here the Acer TravelMate X4 14 AI puts in a respectable score of 6,962. Although that’s obviously not the best result included in this graph (the Asus ExpertBook Ultra B9 with new Intel Core Series 3 chip handily beats it), it’s not bad. Indeed, the Acer is competitive with laptops that have Intel chips from a higher performance tier, such as the Lenovo Yoga 7i 2-in-1 and the MSI Summit 13 AI+ Evo. Foundry / Matthew Smith Next up is Cinebench 2024, a heavily multi-threaded CPU benchmark.  This benchmark doesn’t run well on Intel Core Series 2 chips, as shown by their relative performance against the entry-level AMD Ryzen 5 and Qualcomm Snapdragon X.  However, the Acer is once again competitive with laptops that have Intel Core Ultra 7 inside, so this is another decent result for the Acer. Foundry / Matthew Smith Handbrake is another multi-thread CPU benchmark, and one that tends to have a long run duration that stresses a laptop’s cooling system. Here we perhaps see why the Acer performs well, as it increases its advantage over the Lenovo Yoga 7i 2-in-1 and MSI Summit 13 AI+ Evo. Foundry / Matthew Smith Next up is 3DMark. It would be reasonable to expect the Acer to fall behind here because the Intel Core Ultra Series 5 226V only has Intel Arc 130V graphics with seven Xe cores. This is a downgrade from Intel Arc 140V, which has 8 Xe cores. However, the Acer continues to punch above its weight. It nearly matched the Lenovo Yoga 7i 2-in-1 and beat the MSI Summit 13 AI+ Evo, both of which had Intel Arc 140V. Of course, the new Asus Expertbook Ultra B9 with the latest Intel Arc B390 runs away from the pack, but that’s to be expected. On the whole, then, the Acer TravelMate X4 14 AI can prove to be a good performance value depending on the price you pay for it. This level of performance is not impressive if the laptop is sold at MSRP. But if you pick it up for closer to $700 or $800, the Acer TravelMate X4 14 AI is a good all-rounder. With one unfortunate exception: the solid state drive. Acer equips this laptop with a mere 512GB of solid state storage. Many price competitive laptops will offer 1TB of storage, so the 512GB SSD is a bummer. Acer TravelMate X4 14 AI: Battery life and portability A 65-watt-hour battery is found inside the Acer TravelMate X4 14 AI. This is a typical size of battery for a 14-inch business laptop. However, the combination of an Intel Core Ultra Series 5 chip with an IPS display keeps the power draw fairly low, and so the laptop is able to achieve very respectable battery life. Foundry / Matthew Smith I’ve reviewed laptops that were able to last long on a charge, to be sure, but over 20 hours in our standardized test (which loops a 4K file of the short film Tears of Steel with the display at 200 nits of brightness) is nothing to scoff at. Real-world battery life will be less, as is true for most laptops, but anywhere from 14 to 18 hours seems reasonable if you’re working at modest display brightness and running apps like Microsoft Office, an IDE, or a web browser. Excluding battery run-down tests, I only had to charge it three times in my week with the laptop. Acer TravelMate X4 14 AI: Conclusion The Acer TravelMate X4 14 AI is one of the more generic laptops I can remember testing in the last year. It’s not exciting to look at and doesn’t have a particular design trait or feature that stands out. On the upside, however, the laptop has strong performance for the price and delivers lengthy battery life. This laptop is impossible to recommend at its $1,199.99 MSRP, but if you see it at retail for under $800, it can make sense. The TravelMate X4 14 AI is also inexpensive for a laptop with Windows 11 Pro, which can be important if you need the features that operating system provides. Read...

Two months after teasing us with the prospect of skinny bundles, YouTube TV is spilling the beans on its upcoming—and marginally cheaper—genre-specific plans, with a sports-focused bundle among the first on the runway.  Among other details, we’re finally pricing for a quartet of the new “YouTube TV Plans,” with rates ranging from $71.99 a month to $54.99/month for existing YouTube TV subscribers, while new subscribers will get limited-time discounts.  Overall, we can expect more than 10 of these skinnier YouTube TV Plans, which are slated to roll out over the “next several weeks,” YouTube says.  The main offering is the YouTube TV Sports plan, which will include sports networks such as FS1, NBC Sports Network, and all the ESPN networks for $64.99 a month, with new subscribers paying $54.99/month for the first year.  The YouTube TV Sports plan will include local TV affiliates such as ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC, while ESPN Unlimited access will be added this fall.  Also coming soon is a pricier Sports + News Plan, which includes everything in the sports bundle while adding news networks such as CNBC, Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, CSPAN, Bloomberg, and Fox Business. The bundle will cost $71.99 a month, while new subscribers will get a discounted $56.99/month rate for the first three months.  Then there’s the Entertainment Plan, which offers Comedy Central, Bravo, Paramount, Food Network, HGTV, and “many more” entertainment-focused networks for $54.99 a month, or $44.99/month for new subscribers for their first three months. Local TV affiliates will also be included in the package.  Finally, the News + Entertainment + Family plan serves up news and entertainment channels while also adding family-oriented content to the mix, including the Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, National Geographic, Cartoon Network, and PBS Kids. The package will run you $69.99 a month, or $59.99/month.  Meanwhile, the YouTube TV Base plan—now known simply as the “main YouTube TV plan”—will remain $82.99 a month.  All the new YouTube TV skinny bundles will offer unlimited DVR access, as well as multi-view and other standard YouTube TV features. You’ll also be able to opt for add-ons such as NFL Sunday Ticket and RedZone, HBO Max, and 4K Plus.  YouTube TV first announced it was getting into the skinny-bundle business back in December, and it’s joining a crowded field that includes DirecTV, Fubo, and Sling.  This story is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best live TV streaming services. Read...

PC gaming has never quite been affordable, but you could always save money—and get a surprising amount of value and power—if you knew how to build your own desktop. That advice has held true through thick and thin for the last few decades, but the RAM crunch is ruining things. I conducted a little experiment and picked a number: one thousand US dollars. In my mind, that’s a mid-range gaming desktop that shades a bit into budget territory (depending on your own tolerance for spending greenbacks on entertainment). It’s definitely a step up from console gaming, which currently ranges from $400 for the Xbox Series S to $750 for the PlayStation 5 Pro. On top of that one grand, I thought about the minimum specs I’d be willing to accept for a new gaming PC that was meant to play at least most new triple-A 3D games. Rémy / Unsplash It’s an arbitrary distinction and entirely subjective, but I did get some input from my colleague Alaina Yee, an expert on PC gaming and budget builds in particular. Here’s where I landed: 6-core CPU that’s no more than one generation behind. 32GB of RAM. (Yes, I can see you wincing.) I consider 16GB to be the bare minimum for a current Windows 11 machine. But for gaming I want some extra breathing room, especially since I often have something else running on a secondary monitor. 1TB of Gen4 SSD storage. Current PC games are BIG. Recent-ish GPU with 8GB VRAM. Valve says this much should handle the vast majority of recent games, and they happen to be looking into this area at the moment. Adequate power supply that can get all that done. One from a reputable brand, at the very least. I can compromise on a lot of other things. A motherboard without all the extra trimmings like Wi-Fi. A generic PC case. No official Windows license. (Microsoft doesn’t seem to care if you never register, so why should I?) But those are the bare minimums I would need to hit before I could consider this $1,000 PC acceptable, if not exactly a good buy. So, I let my fingers do the walking over to PCPartPicker. Here’s how I fared, with prices and availability as of February 2nd, 2026: CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 7600X — $176.99 GPU: Gigabyte Eagle OC GeForce RTX 5060 8GB — $329.99 Motherboard: ASRock B650M Pro RS Micro ATX — $99.99 CPU cooler: Be Quiet BK047 — $24.88 RAM: Crucial Pro 32GB (16GBx2) DDR5-5600 — $312.99 SSD: Patriot P400 Lite 1TB — $134.99 Case: Zalman T6 Mini Micro ATX — $28.99 Power supply: Corsair CX750M — $59.99 Add in $10 for shipping the case from Newegg and that brings me to a subtotal of… drum roll please… $1,178.80. Sales tax for my home in Pennsylvania takes me to a grand total of just under $1,250. Yeah, no. $1,250 is too damn much to pay for a gaming PC with that many compromises—especially that case, which can just barely fit the GPU (208mm), can’t be upgraded with standard ATX motherboards, and includes just one 80mm fan. Also, fun fact: when I went back to grab some screenshots the day after doing this experiment, that $330 RAM was out of stock and the price of the GPU and the SSD had already risen. Woo. PC Part Picker Alaina suggested a switch to a Ryzen 5500X CPU, which she admits is a pretty big step down from a Ryzen 7000-series chip, but has access to cheaper DDR4 RAM. Combined with a Gigabyte A520M motherboard, this got the price to squeak in at $1,003.62 including taxes and shipping. But again, that doesn’t include Windows (maybe you’re okay with Bazzite?) and it needs some more cooling. It’s also making some pretty big compromises on my initial requirements. So, the center can’t hold… and my experiment ends with a failure. Of course, my theoretical budget-minded PC gamer has more options. Maybe they have some parts they can scrounge from a previous build, as I’ve been doing for almost 20 years. Maybe they’re okay with refurbished or used. Maybe they’ve got graded Pokémon cards sitting around. But for my imaginary money, I’d give up at this point. Though it would hurt my PC gamer soul, I’d recommend a PS5 or Switch 2 instead, especially since Microsoft has now dug its publishing hole deep enough to put its biggest franchises on PlayStation. There are alternatives for playing PC games, if you insist. Xbox Game Pass—though not as good a value as it used to be—can still get you tons of games and some brand new titles for (sigh) yet another streaming subscription. Nvidia’s GeForce Now is a better alternative if you already have a huge library of Steam games… though I’m loathe to give money to a company that’s at least complacent and at worst actively contributing to the problem. Neither of these options is great if you don’t have access to an excellent internet connection. You can get a Steam Deck, which is also less of a deal than it used to be, but still a great way to experience PC gaming with optional portability. Alternatives like the Asus ROG Ally and Lenovo Legion series are out there, too… though you should look for a sale and give up on securing the latest and greatest hardware. At $1,000 retail, the ROG Xbox Ally X is almost as expensive as the imaginary desktop I specced out, and it won’t be anywhere near as powerful. Chris Hoffman / Foundry The hows and whys of this abysmal situation are well-documented elsewhere, but the quick answer is “AI.” The prices for consumer-packaged RAM are the most visible issue, with DDR5 and even DDR4 absolutely skyrocketing in the last few months… and seemingly unlikely to improve within a year or two. That will affect the prices of all finished electronics, but consumers get the short end of this particular memory stick, getting the knock-on effects of output for everything except industrial RAM slowing to a crawl. The same thing is affecting consumer graphics cards, with Nvidia reportedly slashing production in favor of industrial “AI” cards, and even the cards we can get keep rising in price because of their expensive memory. The immutable forces of supply and demand are hammering PC gamers from every direction. But it does create a strange situation: this is one of the very few market conditions in which a pre-built PC makes sense, even if you have the skills and inclination to build a PC yourself. Let’s take my list of necessary components as an example. For around the same price as my sad $1,250 build, I found this Thermaltake pre-built on Amazon with almost identical specs except the RTX 5060 is traded out for an RTX 4060. Not bad, considering it also includes Windows 11 and a much more flexible ATX case. Another example is this ABS pre-built with a Core i7-14700F and an RTX 5060 on Newegg for $1,179.99. MicroCenter If you have a Micro Center near you, well glory be, you can get a toned-down Dell Tower Plus with a brand-new Core Ultra 7 265 processor and 32GB of DDR5 RAM. It even has an RTX 5060 Ti, though it is the less powerful 8GB version of that card. You also get a few creature comforts like Wi-Fi and an SD card reader. With a miraculous $800 discount and a complete lack of RGB or tempered glass, that Dell desktop is going for just $999.99. Damn, this must be what Gimli felt like. Warner Bros. There’s no two ways about it: PC gaming in 2026 kinda sucks. If you don’t already have a gaming PC, you’re looking at some big compromises—in price, in capability, possibly even in format. I’m looking for a positive note to end this article on… and I can’t find one. Why? Because prices for RAM and other PC components will remain high for another year or two at least, possibly much longer. And if they don’t, it’s because the “AI” bubble will have burst. At which point a stick of DDR5 might once again be affordable, but it’ll be worth less in trade when you’re trying to afford groceries. Hooray. Read...