TL;DR: For a little while longer, you can score a Deal Days discount on this Surface Laptop 3, now under $400. If you’re looking to boost your productivity without draining your bank account, this Deal Days offer hits the sweet spot. For a limited time, you can get a refurbished Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 for only $399.99 (reg. $1,099). That’s an over 60% discount on a sleek, high-performance machine. This 2019 model is no slouch—it’s powered by a 10th Gen Intel Core i7 processor and comes packed with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD, making it more than capable of multitasking, streaming, creative work, or light gaming. Whether you’re handling large spreadsheets, running code, or editing media, this laptop keeps up. It also features a 13.5-inch PixelSense touchscreen with a 2256×1504 resolution, offering sharp visuals and smooth interaction. Its ultra-slim aluminum chassis, weighing just under three pounds, makes it an ideal pick for students, professionals, or anyone who needs a portable, stylish daily driver. This refurbished unit comes with a Grade “A” rating, meaning it may show minimal signs of wear, but it functions like new and arrives with a minimum of 80% battery health. At this price, it’s hard to beat the value. Act fast on this Deal Days price drop—this near-mint Surface Laptop 3 deal won’t last long at just $399.99 (reg. $1,099), and quantities are limited. Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 (2019) i7, 1.3GHz Touchscreen 16GB RAM 512GB SSD (Refurbished) See Deal StackSocial prices subject to change. Read...

If you’re on the hunt for a new graphics card, you’re likely looking at clock rates, how many shader cores, and how much VRAM it’s packing. But don’t underestimate memory bandwidth when shopping around as it can result in sneaky performance impacts. There is a data bus connection between the GPU and the graphics memory which is responsible for data transport, this is known as a GPU’s memory bandwidth. If the bandwidth is insufficient, a bottleneck occurs: the GPU cannot work efficiently because data is provided too slowly. great 1440p card, great bandwidth Radeon RX 9070 XT Read our review The memory bandwidth is specified in gigabits or gigabytes per second. It depends on the memory type (such as GDDR6 or GDDR7), the clock rate, and the width of the data bus. A higher bandwidth improves the performance of the card, as data flows faster between the graphics chip and memory. A high bandwidth is particularly important for high resolutions such as 4K, which represent four times more pixels than 1080p. Even at lower resolutions, high-resolution textures or graphics-intensive features such as ray tracing can still make heavy demands on the memory bandwidth. Furthermore, the numerous processors and cores on modern GPUs must be continuously supplied with data. A bottleneck in data transfer therefore affects the overall performance of the graphics card. Limited bandwidth often manifests itself in stuttering and fluctuating frame rates. Data transfer quickly reaches its limits, especially at high frame rates of 120 or 240 frames per second. A frame limiter can help by adapting the frame rate to the available bandwidth though. Virtual reality applications also require a high memory bandwidth because the GPU has to calculate a separate, high-resolution image with at least 90 frames per second for each eye. Ray tracing further increases the bandwidth requirement. In this case, additional brightness data has to be transferred for real-time calculation. Compared to the graphics memory of the GDDR6 generation, the 7 series – here from Micron – is designed for significantly higher memory bandwidths. Micron Graphics cards are often optimized for specific target resolutions and detail levels. For example, models from Nvidia’s XX60 series are aimed at 1080p gamers, while higher-class cards are designed for 1440p or Ultra HD. Within a series, the available bandwidth differs mainly in the width of the memory bus. Entry-level cards often use a 128-bit bus, while high-end models are equipped with 256 or more bits. If you are aiming for higher resolutions or frame rates, you should opt for a graphics card with a high memory bandwidth. The definition of what is considered “high” changes with technological progress. A few years ago, 1080p was still considered the premium standard, whereas it is now usually regarded as the entry level. Benchmark tests provide a valuable guide to compare the performance of different graphics cards at different settings. They help to recognize potential bandwidth bottlenecks and select the right card for your needs. Next time you’re in the market for a new GPU, make sure you pay close attention to the memory bandwidth on top of everything else. It’ll help you avoid potential buyer’s remorse to pay attention to this kind of technical data when buying a graphics card, or test it yourself if possible. Read...

There’s a certain peace of mind that comes from being able to see who’s outside your door before you even get up from your seat. If you haven’t yet made the jump, or you want an upgrade, the Ring Battery Doorbell Pro is on sale for its very best price of $150 ahead of Prime Day. The Ring Battery Doorbell Pro is usually available for $230 and, unlike other similar products, it’s not constantly on sale, making this 35% discount even more enticing. The video doorbell captures head-to-toe images in 1536p, which means you’ll get a full view of who’s outside your door, what’s on the porch, and well beyond that. There are many useful features you’ll end up loving. For instance, it doesn’t even matter if there’s very little light outside, because the doorbell comes with sensors that help it enhance the video so everything remains perfectly visible and clear. When friends are picking you up, you can use the two-way audio feature to tell them you’ll be right there. Oh, and you’ll get alerts on your phone when packages are delivered if you get the Ring Protect subscription. Don’t miss out on the chance to get the Ring Battery Doorbell Plus for its best price of $150. This is a Prime deal, so you’ll need to have a subscription to access it. You can start a 30-day free trial at any point or just take the plunge and subscribe for $14.99/month or $139/year. Now’s the perfect time to do it since Prime Day starts July 8th. Make sure to also check out the best early Prime Day deals on video doorbells and our main Prime Day hub. One of the best video doorbell for its best price.Buy now at Amazon Read...

Welcome to this week’s issue of The Full Nerd newsletter—your weekly dose of hardcore hardware talk from the enthusiasts at PCWorld. In it, we dive into the hottest topics from our YouTube show, plus hot news from across the web. This week, Adam and Will have a couple of revelations: AMD and Sony’s upscaling partnership, and a startling challenge to a long-held belief about Windows. Oh, and it’s time to expand our gaming backlogs via a Steam sale again. Want this newsletter to come directly to your inbox? Sign up on our website! In this episode of The Full Nerd… Willis is pumped about our new intern, Glenn Mah.Willis Lai / Foundry In this episode of The Full Nerd, Adam Patrick Murray, Brad Chacos, Alaina Yee, Will Smith, Willis Lai, and guest intern Glenn Mah discuss new details about AMD and Sony’s Project Amethyst, the discovery that a clean install of Windows doesn’t have performance benefits, and our favorites in this year’s Steam Summer Sale. I have to admit, Project Amethyst shocks me a bit. But that has more to do with the open approach to machine learning-based frame generation and ray regeneration—historically, Sony loved proprietary tech. So this new collab with AMD to work on machine learning-based features like FSR 4 signals a different world in tech, one where Microsoft (who is not part of this effort) could benefit from the upscaling improvements. As our crew discusses, this reflects the whole industry’s understanding that gaming performance improvements won’t be purely in GPU hardware advances, as we’re used to seeing, but through software optimization, too.Adam of course sees this as a win for handhelds, but for me, it makes me wonder what long-held expectations and assumptions we’ve had around tech will become upended by this decade’s end. Speaking of completely overturned wisdom—Will’s been busy revolutionizing our understanding of long held cherished norms. If your PC’s feeling wonky and sluggish, it may not be because you haven’t refreshed your OS. He actually pitted a clean install vs a one-year Windows 11 install, and the performance results put them still equal. In fact, by the numbers, the older install came out slightly ahead. A lot of questions remain (I for one want to know if an in-place reinstall of Windows has the same results), and viewers on our YouTube video that dives into this also had bones to pick over optimizations on the “dirty” install. But still, maybe this once-relevant piece of advice is now outdated. I have to confess, I didn’t mark the passing of the seasons until the Steam Summer Sale popped up in my notifications. To celebrate the arrival of BBQ days, each of us on the show give our top recommendations from among the deep discounts. (You can find the full list of game titles in a pinned YouTube comment for this week’s episode.) Turns out Will knows all the best indie games, Adam leans into mashups of horror + random other genres, Brad loves 80s cyberpunky vibes, and I’m into testing (stressing) friendships. Missed our live show? Subscribe now to The Full Nerd YouTube channel, and activate notifications. We also answer viewer questions in real-time!  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 best nerd news The Atari 2600 brought the pain upon another AI model adversary.Foundry Tech journalists may seem like a touchy bunch, but we want what’s best for consumers—so this week’s news out of Nvidia and Comcast’s corners was disappointing. But it’s not all gloom, thankfully. Fast SSDs, retro audio gear, and awesome thrift store finds still put a smile on my face. Nvidia’s RTX 5050’s benchmarks are in, and they’re not great: I was hoping for better news for budget gamers, but Intel’s B580 can beat this new GPU in raw performance at the same MSRP. (Plus, Intel’s card comes with much more memory.) Yeah, you can turn on frame generation to boost your FPS, but that’s not the win I was hoping for. I want this modern Walkman: Count on Japan to keep nostalgia (and old tech) alive. Sure, Bluetooth, USB-C, and a rechargeable battery all sound nice, but I’m jazzed for that 3.5mm aux jack. I never digitized a few cassettes with special radio edits of favorite songs, and this is easy to store in my tiny SF apartment. (Plus, no one’s going to mug me for this if I ever take with me on a walk.) 3D V-Cache war incoming? Rumor has it that Nova Lake, Intel’s next-gen LGA1954 desktop chips, will sport low-latency L3 cache. That addition could put Team Blue’s CPUs on equal footing with AMD’s X3D gaming chips—we’ll have to see what happens next year. So apparently, the Atari 2600 is OP as heck: At least, it is when it comes to putting the beatdown on AI models in chess right now. First it was ChatGPT, and now it’s Microsoft Copilot. Rekt. Comcast finally lifts data caps on plans…sorta: Most of us hate Comcast for a reason—and its paltry 1.2TB of included data use per month is one of them. The company is now promising to offer unlimited data, but naturally there’s a catch. Only new subscribers automatically get the perk. If you’re an existing subscriber, you’ll have to contact customer service to negotiate, which you definitely should do, because it could save you hundreds of bucks per year. (Pro tip: Try the Xfinity customer care team on Reddit, rather than calling.) Nvidia’s GTX 10-series graphics cards may be facing the end of line soon. Respect to the GOAT.Thiago Trevisan/IDG Pour one out for the GOAT: Retirement is likely coming for Nvidia’s GTX 1080 Ti, if the Unix support schedule is any indicator. If the reaper comes for all platforms, it’ll happen with the 580 release of Nvidia’s graphics driver package. A somber thought, but I guess I can finally secure it a rightful spot in TFN’s Hardware Hall of Fame. SK Hynix’s new Platinum P51 goes zoom zoom: Feel the need for speed? SK Hynix is about to drop its first PCIe 5.0 SSDs, with sequential read speeds of up to 14,700MB/s. Nice. Check your Anker power banks again: Six more Anker models were recalled for the risk of melting, smoke, and fire. Time to squint at teeny print to verify my model numbers again. (Aging sucks.) Lucky Goodwill shopper pays $30 for a RTX 3080 Ti gaming PC: This Redditor’s dad is definitely better at thrift shopping than me. Here I am, thinking a $7 Anthropologie dress was a pretty decent score. User accidentally ejects graphics card in Windows, breaks PC for over an hour: I remember poking around in Windows as a young’un, confident in my ability to figure out what I could and couldn’t mess with. So while I can empathize with this French PC user’s impulse to see what ejecting a GPU like a USB drive would do, I can’t say I didn’t still wince. (Shout out to Mark Tyson at Tom’s Hardware for this gem of a quote: “The tragedy is made all the more poignant by the user’s faint cries of ‘Oh merde,’ which broadly translates as French for ‘Oh bother.’”) That does it for this week—for all my fellow Americans, happy 4th of July. May your BBQs stay sizzling and your fingers intact. ’Murica. Alaina Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Great CPU performance Often record-setting GPU performance Fast SSD and AI performance, too 4K 120Hz display with Mini-LED backlight Lots of connectivity Cons Heavy and bulky So-so keyboard and touchpad RTX 5090 price premium is hard to justify Minimal battery life Our Verdict The MSI Raider A18 HX A9W pairs AMD’s new Ryzen 9 9955HX3D CPU with Nvidia’s top-tier RTX 5090 mobile GPU. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the combo delivers record-setting performance. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: MSI Raider A18 HX A9W Retailer Price $6,714.89 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Best Prices Today: Check today’s prices 2025 is shaping up to be a good year if your laptop buying tastes skew towards the equivalent of a family-sized meat-and-cheese platter. The launch of new Nvidia RTX mobile graphics—including the top-tier RTX 5090 with 24GB of VRAM—has the potential for chart-topping performance. Now it’s joined by AMD’s Ryzen 9 9955HX3D, a 16-core CPU with the company’s vaunted 3D V-Cache, an extra stack of L3 cache that can prove useful in games. The MSI Raider A18 HX A9W brings both new chips into one chassis. And, as a bonus, it tosses in 64GB of memory and a 2TB PCIe 5.0 solid state drive. That’s incredible hardware, but the laptop retails for an equally incredible MSRP of $5,099.99. So, is it worth it? MSI Raider A18 HX A9W: Specs and features The highlight of the MSI Raider A18 HX A9W is undoubtedly the combination of AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX3D processor and Nvidia RTX 5090 graphics. Each is an undisputed heavyweight in its category and should deliver a killer one-two punch of CPU and GPU performance. With that said, however, this MSI Raider A18 HX A9W still must deal with the power and thermal constraints faced by every laptop—and it will be interesting to see the results. The MSI Raider A18 HX A9W delivers additional technical highlights, too, like the PCIe 5.0 solid state drive and the 4K Mini-LED display. Model number: A18?HX?A9WIG-082US CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX3D Memory: 64GB DDR5-5600 Graphics/GPU: Nvidia RTX 5090 (Max 175W with Dynamic Boost) NPU: None Display: 18-inch 3840×2400 120Hz Mini-LED with HDR Storage: 1x 2TB PCIe 5.0 SSD Webcam: 1080p 30fps camera with Windows Hello support Connectivity: 2x Thunderbolt 5 / USB-C 4 with DisplayPort and Power Delivery 3.1, 3x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2, 1x SD card reader, 1x HDMI 2.1 (up to 4K @ 120Hz), 1x 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet (RJ45) Networking: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 Biometrics: Facial recognition, fingerprint reader Battery capacity: 99 watt-hours Dimensions: 15.91 x 12.11 x 1.26 inches Weight: 7.94 pounds Operating System: Windows 11 Pro Price: $5,099.99 MSRP Features like these don’t come cheap, of course, so the Raider A18 HX A9W rings up at $5,099.99. That’s a lot of money! However, it’s not unusually expensive for a top-tier gaming laptop. A variety of high-end laptops retail at higher prices, from fully configured Apple MacBook Pro 16 configurations to top-end Razer Blade, Alienware, and MSI Titan laptops. If $5,099.99 is a bit rich for your blood, MSI provides a configuration with Nvidia’s RTX 5080 for $4,099.99. It’s otherwise identical to the model reviewed here and a good bet for gamers who don’t plan to use the laptop’s GPU for creative or AI workloads. The MSI Raider A18 HX A9W is a CPU, GPU, and storage performance powerhouse. It delivers across the board with strong results in every benchmark, from multi-core sustained CPU workloads to ray-traced gaming and even AI large language models. MSI Raider A18 HX A9W: Design and build quality IDG / Matthew Smith The MSI Raider A18 HX A9W shares a chassis with its Intel-powered sibling, and it’s a substantial piece of hardware. It tips the scales at nearly 8 pounds and measures 1.25 inches thick, as well as close to 16 inches wide. It won’t even fit in a typical backpack or messenger bag meant to carry a laptop. You’ll need a special bag designed for the purpose (and MSI has a bag to sell you). Beyond its imposing size, the Raider 18 provides a functional yet unremarkable aesthetic. The black plastic construction is punctuated by red detailing, creating a decent visual appearance that falls short of the premium feel found in more professionally oriented machines like Razer’s Blade 18. It also lacks the dramatic flair of MSI’s own Titan laptop, which serves more as a statement piece (at an even higher price). The most notable visual quirk is the LED lighting at the front of the laptop, but that trick is emulated by other high-end machines. Still, the Raider 18 feels dependable. There’s not much flex to be found, even in traditional weak spots like the center of the keyboard, and the laptop doesn’t creak or groan when handled. Machines in this category can feel a bit rickety due to their size, bulk, and the numerous chassis components and internal PCBs they’re constructed from. The Raider 18 isn’t as solid as the Razer Blade 18, but it feels more robust than most laptops in its category. MSI Raider A18 HX A9W: Keyboard, trackpad IDG / Matthew Smith MSI stretches a spacious keyboard with numpad across the Raider 18 HX AI’s deck. Most keys feel generously sized though a few, like Caps Lock, remain slightly smaller than standard. The numpad keys match the size of the main alphanumeric keys, which is a welcome change from laptops with undersized numpads. Despite the SteelSeries branding, the keyboard’s feel disappoints. I didn’t notice a difference between this keyboard and typical competitors, including alternatives that are much less expensive, like the Asus TUF series. The large chassis provides ample room for key travel, but the bottoming action is lacking in tactile feedback. The keyboard is still fine, but the Raider’s price tag sets expectations the keyboard doesn’t deliver. RGB backlighting saves the keyboard from complete mediocrity. Owners can customize each key individually through the Steelseries GG app, which handles both lighting profiles and macro configurations. I appreciate this software—it looks polished, works intuitively, and lets you save multiple setups. While these features aren’t groundbreaking, SteelSeries outpaces competitors like Gigabyte and Acer, which lag in software quality. The touchpad is more of a mix. It measures roughly 5 inches wide by 3 inches deep, which isn’t large for an 18-inch gaming laptop. The surface is responsive, but unremarkable, and the physical button action produces a springy yet hollow click. Competitors like the Razer Blade 18 and Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 offer a noticeably larger touchpad. MSI Raider A18 HX A9W: Display, audio IDG / Matthew Smith The MSI Raider A18 HX A9W has the same 18-inch Mini-LED display found in the Intel-powered Raider 18 HX AI. It provides 3840×2400 resolution, which is a bit higher than a typical 4K display (4K is usually 3840×2160), alongside a 120Hz refresh rate. A Mini-LED backlight lights the display with numerous individual LEDs positioned directly behind the LCD panel. Those LEDs can turn on and off individually, which greatly improves contrast. In my testing, the Raider A18 HX can hit a minimum luminance of zero nits, which means its contrast is technically on par with OLED. However, Mini-LED displays suffer a “blooming” issue where bright halos (or inverse shadows) appear around or inside small, high-contrast objects. The MSI Raider A18 HX does a good job of minimizing that issue, and I personally didn’t find it distracting, but it’s something to keep in mind. The Raider A18 HX has a matte panel, rather than a glossy panel, so it doesn’t “pop” in quite the same way. Despite that, the display still provides an incredible color gamut. It’s also ultra-bright and ultra-sharp; the pixel density works out to 252 pixels per inch, which is higher than even a 27-inch 5K monitor (which has 218 pixels per inch). HDR support is great, too, and this is an area where many gamers will prefer the Mini-LED over OLED, because OLED can’t match Mini-LED in HDR brightness. The Raider 18 also provides solid audio performance, though it’s ultimately less impressive. The built-in speakers have plenty of volume, and the laptop includes woofers for low-end bass, but I found the audio presentation was a tad metallic, grating, and muddy as I cranked the volume up. Still, the sound system is good for a Windows laptop. MSI Raider A18 HX A9W: Webcam, microphone, biometrics A decent 1080p webcam is found in the Raider A18 HX A9W. It boasts 1080p resolution and provides good video quality in rooms with moderate to great lighting. Though not suitable for YouTube or other more serious work, the 1080p webcam is ideal for video calls. It also has a physical privacy shutter. The microphone is respectable, too. It picked up my voice without issue and had decent noise cancellation. Notably, the MSI Raider A18 HX A9W doesn’t support Windows’ built-in Studio Effects filters, which use AI for effects like background blur. That feature is supported on the Intel-powered Raider 18 HX AI. The Raider A18 HX A9W supports biometric login with a fingerprint reader and an IR camera for facial recognition. Both biometric login options worked well in my testing. MSI Raider A18 HX A9W: Connectivity IDG / Matthew Smith The MSI Raider A18 HX A9W provides top-tier connectivity. We’re talking two Thunderbolt 5 ports, each with USB-C, DisplayPort, and Power Delivery. Thunderbolt 5 can provide data rates up to 80 Gbps bi-directional which, frankly, is way beyond what most use cases require. They’re particularly useful for people who want to use the laptop with a Thunderbolt 5 dock that has numerous downstream ports. The Thunderbolt 5 ports are joined by three USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports, HDMI 2.1, a 2.5G Ethernet port, and a 3.5mm combo audio jack. There’s an SD card reader, too. Overall, the laptop’s ports offer a great range of physical connectivity that can handle both the latest Thunderbolt and USB peripherals and older USB-A devices. However, as with the Intel-powered MSI Raider 18 HX AI, I have a small nitpick. Both Thunderbolt 5 ports are on the right flank, and at roughly the mid-point between the front and rear of the laptop. That can lead to more cable clutter on your desk, since it’s difficult to neatly hide and route cables connected to these ports. Wireless connectivity is great, as well, with support for Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4—the latest version of each standard. MSI Raider A18 HX A9W: CPU Performance The MSI Raider A18 HX A9W is, on paper, one of the most expensive, exotic, and powerful laptops ever sold. It provides two heavy hitters. The first is AMD’s Ryzen 9 9955HX3D, a 16-core and 32-thread chip with AMD’s 3D V-Cache, which could improve performance in games. It’s joined by Nvidia’s RTX 5090 mobile, the most powerful RTX-series mobile GPU in Nvidia’s line-up which, by extension, makes it the most capable mobile gaming GPU available right now. As mentioned earlier, PC World also reviewed an MSI Raider 18 laptop with Intel’s Core Ultra 9 285HX and Nvidia’s RTX 5080. It was a bit less expensive at $4,499. So, does the Ryzen 9 9955HX3D and RTX 5090 provide a useful upgrade? IDG / Matthew Smith PCMark 10, a holistic system benchmark, spat out a result of 8,581 on the MSI Raider A18 HX A9W. That’s highly competitive with other laptops in this category, though it doesn’t quite match some Intel-powered laptops we’ve recently tested. Still, the results here are very close, so this benchmark alone isn’t enough to make any firm statements about how the AMD Radeon 9 9955HX3D and Nvidia RTX 5090 perform. IDG / Matthew Smith Next up is Handbrake, a heavily multi-threaded CPU benchmark, where we use the CPU cores (and not any special encoding hardware on the chip) to transcode a feature-length film from .MP4 to .MKV. This benchmark shows a lean towards Intel’s chips. This is perhaps due to their higher number of cores overall. The Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX has 24 total cores (though only eight are performance cores, with the remaining 16 being efficiency cores). This is a trend across all Intel and AMD chips, with the Intel P-core + E-core architecture being a better fit for this benchmark than AMD’s CPUs that only have high-performance cores, but fewer cores overall. IDG / Matthew Smith Next, we jump over to Cinebench 2024, the latest version of the popular benchmark, which again places a heavy load on all CPU cores. In this test, however, the AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX3D provides performance that is more directly competitive with Intel’s best CPUs. In fact, the MSI Raider A18 HX A9W’s score of 2,111 is the second-best PCWorld has recorded from a laptop to date—coming just a hair behind the MSI Raider 18 HX A2XW with Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX. The AMD and Intel CPUs are basically tied here, and both deliver results that rank among the strongest from any laptop ever sold. The results might seem a bit disappointing, however, at least if you’re an AMD fan. The AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX3D is great, but in PCWorld’s tests, it didn’t clobber Intel’s top-tier equivalents. But let’s be clear here. The AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX3D didn’t run away from the pack, but it’s still among the most powerful mobile CPUs we’ve ever tested, and certainly an outstanding pick for CPU-heavy workloads. MSI Raider A18 HX A9W: GPU Performance However, the 9955HX3D is aimed firmly at gamers, as the chip’s 3D V-Cache can often provide an advantage there. The RTX 5090 also deserves time in the spotlight, too. So, let’s move on to the 3D benchmarks. IDG / Matthew Smith 3DMark, the gold standard of 3D gaming benchmarks, produced mixed results that ultimately favor the MSI Raider A18 HX A9W. The AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX3D and Nvidia RTX 5090 didn’t leap ahead in 3DMark Time Spy, which is an older (though demanding) benchmark that doesn’t test ray tracing. But in the Port Royal benchmark, which does test ray tracing, the Raider A18 HX A9W leaped ahead to a score of 16,416. That’s the new high-water mark in PC World’s testing, and by a respectable margin—it’s roughly 11 percent quicker than the quickest Intel/Nvidia RTX 5080 laptop we have tested to date. IDG / Matthew Smith Next up is Shadow of the Tomb Raider, which PCWorld tests at 1080p and on Highest detail, but with ray-tracing off. Here the MSI Raider averaged 230 frames per second, which is an excellent result. It’s not the best we’ve seen, however, so there’s not much benefit to selecting the RTX 5090 over the RTX 5080 in this game. IDG / Matthew Smith Now we move on to Metro: Exodus, which we run at Extreme detail but without raytracing turned on. Here, the Raider A18 managed to reach an average of 99 frames per second, which is an excellent result. It’s only a minor uplift over RTX 5080 laptops, however, so the RTX 5090 isn’t a compelling GPU upgrade for this title under the conditions we tested it. IDG / Matthew Smith We wrap up gaming testing with Cyberpunk 2077, as the graph shows, the MSI Raider 18 was quick in any situation, hitting new high scores. The uplift was often rather substantial, too—20 FPS or more at 1080p and Ultra detail, and 5 FPS or more in the Overdrive ray-raced preset (which is meaningful when most laptops average 30 to 40 FPS).And that’s with Nvidia DLSS turned off. I also tried the game with the DLSS Transformer model in use, with Nvidia DLAA upscaling quality and DLSS Frame Gen 3x turned on. With all those options in use, Cyberpunk 2077 averaged 127 frames per second at 1080p in the Overdrive ray-traced preset. That’s an incredible result, and in general, Cyberpunk 2077 felt incredibly smooth—smoother than on any laptop I’ve tested so far. The MSI Raider A18 HX A9W’s overall GPU performance is outstanding. With that said, the RTX 5090 is a luxury. Choosing the RTX 5090 over the RTX 5080 adds $1,000 to the Raider A18 HX A9W’s price, but provides a performance gain of about 10 percent, at best. That’s tough to justify. MSI Raider A18 HX A9W: AI performance When it comes to AI, however, the RTX 5090 is a bit more appealing—and it mostly comes down to the memory. The RTX 5080 has 16GB of VRAM, which is a healthy figure for gaming, but rather cramped if you want to run AI models on your laptop. The RTX 5090, however, provides 24GB of VRAM. That increase means it’s possible to offload larger models like Google Gemma 3 27B and Qwen3 32B to the GPU. Both weigh in at a tad above 16GB, which is above the VRAM available on the RTX 5080. Google Gemma 3 27B produced an average of 12.67 tokens per second across three prompts and replies, that spanned about 1,000 tokens each. That’s a solid result and more than twice the speed of the Raider 18 HX AI, as that laptop, which was tested with an RTX 5080, didn’t have enough VRAM to execute the model on the GPU. On top of that, models like Google Gemma 3 27B are more intelligent than their smaller siblings. In that way, the RTX 5090 can provide a boost to both model quality and the speed at which responses are generated. MSI Raider A18 HX A9W: SSD performance The MSI Raider A18 HX A9W’s solid state drive performance deserves special mention. Like its Intel-powered sibling, the Raider 18 HX AI, the A18 has a PCIe 5.0 solid state drive. In this case, it’s the 2TB Samsung PM9E1. And, wow, does it deliver on performance. I measured CrystalDiskMark read speeds of 14654MB/s and write speeds of 11046MB/s (in SEQ1M Q8T1). Those are huge figures. If you need storage performance, the MSI Raider has the goods.  MSI Raider A18 HX A9W: Battery life and portability The MSI Raider A18 HX A9W does all it can to provide acceptable battery life. It includes a 99-watt-hour battery, which is the largest found in laptops due to limitations on the size of lithium-ion batteries allowed on flights. It also supports hybrid graphics, meaning the powerful and power-hungry RTX 5090 can switch off, handing graphics responsibilities to the AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX3D’s miserly Radeon 610M integrated graphics. IDG / Matthew Smith Unfortunately, it’s not enough to provide much battery life. The Raider endured a bit under three hours of use in our standard battery test, which loops a 4K file of the short film Tears of Steel. My subjective use seemed to provide slightly better results, but I still found that just a couple of hours of use could leave the battery with just 30 percent of its charge left in the tank. To make matters worse, the Raider ships with a huge 400-watt power brick. To be fair, it’s not that large for a 400-watt unit, but it’s still among the larger power bricks I’ve seen so far in 2025. While the power brick connects over a proprietary connector, the laptop can be powered over USB-C. That won’t deliver enough power to fully handle the laptop in all load situations, however, so you may see the battery discharge while connected to USB-C power. While the Raider A18’s battery life isn’t great, it isn’t much worse than that of other laptops in this segment. In general, you’re going to get four or five hours, at most. The one clear exception is the Razer Blade 16, which stretched battery life to more than 10 hours. That’s thanks to its much less powerful, but much more power-efficient, AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 CPU. MSI Raider A18 HX A9W: Conclusion The MSI Raider A18 HX A9W is a CPU, GPU, and storage performance powerhouse. It delivers across the board with strong results in every benchmark, from multi-core sustained CPU workloads to ray-traced gaming and even AI large language models. Compared to its Intel-powered alternative, the Raider 18 HX AI, the A18 is broadly similar but scores small wins in gaming and storage performance. The A18 also notches a large win in AI performance thanks to the RTX 5090’s 24GB of VRAM. It’s not a perfect laptop. The Raider A18 is thick, heavy, and not much to look at. It also suffers a mediocre keyboard and touchpad and, as you might expect, can be loud under full load. The RTX 5090 version is also quite expensive at $5,099.99; the less expensive RTX 5080 model, priced at $4,099.99, is a better value in many situations, as it has the same AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX3D CPU, and the RTX 5080 only slightly lags the RTX 5090 in games. But at the end of the day, performance matters, and the Raider A18 HX A9W is an obvious choice if you want the best performance you can find in a modern laptop. It set records in multiple benchmarks and was still competitive in benchmarks where it didn’t top the charts. Read...

As we’ve previously covered, Microsoft is working on another redesign of the Start Menu in Windows 11, and one of the new features is that apps will be divided into different categories automatically. According to Windows Latest, Microsoft has created a 15 megabyte JSON file with information about which apps should end up in which category. That’s right—pretty much every app on the Microsoft Store has been assigned a number, with 0 indicating Productivity apps, 1 indicating Social apps, 2 indicating Creative apps, and so on. As soon as you have at least three apps that belong to the same category, they will automatically be grouped together in the new Start Menu. The ranking of the apps will depend on how often you use them, so the apps in a category won’t be sorted in an alphabetical order. At the moment, it doesn’t look like Microsoft is going to give us the option to rename categories or add our own, so we’ll just have to accept the company’s categorization method… for better or worse. Read...

What can give you peace of mind while you’re traveling away from home? Or even just making a quick grocery run while leaving your pets behind? A home Wi-Fi security camera with a remote live feed that you can check in on whenever you want, wherever you want! I’m talking about something like this Ring Pan-Tilt Indoor Cam, which is now down to its best price ahead of Prime Day: $40 (was $80). This is an early Prime Day deal, so you’ll need a Prime sub to take advantage—but if you aren’t a Prime member, all you have to do is start a free 30-day Prime trial. With it, you’ll also be able to score Prime Day deals next week! All you need for this security camera is the Ring app. Once you’re connected, you can peek in at any time via the Live View, and you can control the camera’s position with 360 degrees of horizontal panning and 169 degrees of vertical tilting. With 1080p video and color night vision, you’ll get a clear image at all times of day—and you can even talk to whoever’s in the room via Two-Way Talk. This Ring camera also comes with Alexa support, so you can integrate with other Alexa devices (like smart displays) to pull up and watch footage. Worried about what it records when you’re chilling at home? Use the built-in privacy cover to block recording. With a paid Ring Home subscription, you can also unlock extra features like 180 days of event history, person/package/vehicle alerts, and more. Get the Ring Pan-Tilt Indoor Cam for 50% off before this early Prime Day deal expires! If you’d rather still shop around, be sure to check out our roundup of the best early Prime Day deals on security cameras! Save 50% on Ring`s full-featured 360-degree Wi-Fi security camBuy now at Amazon Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Great display Decent connectivity Pleasing build Cons Leaves performance on the table Doesn’t take great advantage of size Big for tablet mode Our Verdict The HP OmniBook X Flip 16 is a large and somewhat pricey 2-in-1 that has a lot to like, but makes a few too many missteps to prove really favorable, especially when there are plenty of good alternatives. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: HP Omnibook X Flip 16 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 HP OmniBook X Flip 16 follows up on the brand’s 2024 re-launch of the OmniBook family, which coincided with the introduction of Windows Co-Pilot+ AI PCs. This new model comes alongside a 14-inch version as well, and both are offered in Intel and AMD flavors. The Omnibook X Flip 16 sits near the high end of the stack, though it isn’t quite the top of the line. That’s left to the OmniBook Ultra. Still, the OmniBook X Flip 16 comes with a metal build, the latest processors, enough RAM for everyday use, and plenty more. This 2-in-1 has a lot to get excited about on paper, but as we’ll see, it can fail to deliver on expectations. It’s not a bad PC, but it doesn’t quite keep up with the Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro 360. HP OmniBook X Flip 16: Specs and features CPU: Intel Core Ultra 7 258V Memory: 32GB LPDDR5X Graphics/GPU: Intel Arc 140V Display: 16-inch 2880×1800 OLED Touchscreen, Glossy Storage: 1TB PCIe Gen4 SSD Webcam: 5MP Connectivity: 1x Thunderbolt 4 with Power Delivery and DisplayPort 2.1, 1x USB-C 10Gbps with Power Delivery and DisplayPort 1.4, 2x USB-A 10Gbps, 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x 3.5mm combo audio Networking: WiFi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 Biometrics: Windows Hello facial recognition Battery capacity: 68 watt-hours Dimensions: 14.02 x 9.67 x 0.61 inches Weight: 4.17 pounds MSRP: $1,659 as-tested ($1,099 base) The HP OmniBook X Flip 16 comes in a variety of configurations, including both Intel- and AMD-powered setups. It has a base price of $899 for an AMD configuration with an AMD Ryzen AI 5 340, 16GB of memory, 512GB of storage, and a 1920×1200 IPS display. Upgrade options include an AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 CPU, 24 or 32GB of memory, 1 or 2TB of storage, and the 2880×1800 OLED display tested here.  We tested an Intel configuration, and while it should be broadly similar to the AMD models, there are enough differences under the hood that you shouldn’t expect the same performance or battery life. The Intel configurations start at $1,099 and include an Intel Core Ultra 5 226V with 16GB of memory, 512GB of storage, and a 1920×1200 IPS display. The Intel models offer the same upgrade options as the AMD models, except they have a Core Ultra 7 256V with 16GB of memory or a 258V with 32GB of memory as options. Our test configuration includes the top CPU and memory specs, 1TB of storage, and the upgraded display. The MSRP is $1,659 as configured.  The HP OmniBook X Flip 16 has a great display — a bright OLED panel with perfect blacks, full DCI-P3 color coverage, and smooth variable refresh rates up to 120Hz. HP OmniBook X Flip 16: Design and build quality IDG / Mark Knapp HP doesn’t appear to be going for style points here. While my first encounter with an OmniBook last year came with a splash of color in the form of a funky keyboard, the OmniBook X Flip 16  is a drab affair. It has clean lines and a pleasing build, but it’s a bit lifeless. The OmniBook X Flip 16  is a big laptop. It doesn’t quite push the boundaries that gaming laptops do, but in order to accommodate a 16-inch display and the hinge design necessary for tablet mode, it ends up quite sizable and a little heavy at 4.17 pounds. Thankfully, it’s still fairly slim.  HP’s design makes for a sleek laptop with lots of subtly rounded edges and corners. This combines with the surprisingly gentle feel of the sandblasted, anodized aluminum chassis for a machine that feels like it considered user comfort some.  The underside of the system is curious. Rather than have big, obvious rubber feet, the OmniBook X Flip 16  sits on long thin strips that you can almost barely tell protrude from the bottom because the underside has a gentle curve to it. This creates a very slim channel for air to pull in at the sides of the OmniBook X Flip 16  and make it to the intake fan. Though the base of the laptop has a huge grille stretching across it, most of that is plugged up. Only two small regions around the fan actually serve as air intakes. The system’s heat is then exhausted through a vent tucked along the back of the base, just below the display. It’s possible HP has some air exhausting out the “speaker” grilles on the top deck, but I find that doubtful.  Rather than situate speakers behind those massive grilles on the top deck, HP has positioned two speakers in little slots along the front lip of the laptop. This may not be ideal for audio in the laptop position, but it helps ensure the speakers are consistent in tent and tablet positions as well. The display lid comes pretty close to flush with the lower deck, which can make it tricky to find a good grip for opening the lid, especially since HP removed the small cutaway seen on the last generation of OmniBook laptops to help open the display. Thankfully, the base of the laptop is heavy enough to stay put, making the OmniBook X Flip 16  much easier to get open than its similarly designed, smaller sibling, the OmniBook X Flip 14. The display hinge is a little wiggly after any movements, but stays put well enough once it comes to rest. It also holds open in the tablet position with the help of some magnets, so it doesn’t flop around.  Above the display, the OmniBook X Flip 16  squeezes in a small webcam and a physical privacy shutter. Unfortunately, HP has continued to use a zebra-stripe pattern on the shutter, which has consistently proven hard to discern from a spot of glare.  HP OmniBook X Flip 16: Keyboard, trackpad IDG / Mark Knapp The HP OmniBook X Flip 16’s keyboard could be much better. On the one hand, the keys have a little bit of travel that makes for quick resetting, and they’re surprisingly well stabilized for how big they are. But the thing is, they’re very big and very flat, borrowing the regrettable design of Dell’s recent XPS laptops. This leaves little room between one key and its neighbors, and doesn’t provide much in the way of tactile guidance. I find my fingers are frequently roaming away from the center of keys, hitting edges (and neighbors), and ending up with typos I would have much more easily avoided with smaller keycaps and a bit of contour to the keys. While I’m not surprised to see no number pad on this style of laptop, it is nevertheless disappointing to see no efforts to use all the extra space available to this size of laptop. It still has cramped arrow keys. It still crams the Delete key right next to the power button — a nuisance for writers — though at least the white backlighting clearly illuminates the keycap legends. The trackpad on the OmniBook X Flip 16  stretches a good way. It’s not nearly as large as it could be with the space available to it, but it provides a sizable, central space to mouse around and perform multi-finger gestures with ease. It has a shallow physical click with a gentle tactility that’s nice to use.  HP OmniBook X Flip 16: Display, audio IDG / Mark Knapp The HP OmniBook X Flip 16 has a great display. It features a bright OLED panel that can reach 406.9 nits right next to perfect black pixels, and it covers 100 percent of the DCI-P3 color space. The display even had a color accurate maximum dE1976 of 2.37. Top all that off with support for variable refresh rates from 48Hz to 120Hz, and you’ve got a solid screen. It is glossy, though, so it can struggle with glare in certain conditions.  The display also works as a touchscreen for easy control and tablet use. On top of that, the OmniBook X Flip 16  comes with a stylus for fine, pressure-sensitive control that proves responsive and accurate. Because of the size of the display, doodling on certain areas without also getting your hand on the screen can be tricky, and I’ve found touch rejection a bit troublesome. When not in use, the stylus can magnetically latch onto the right side of the laptop, though it’s not a firm enough connection that I’d rely on it while storing and transporting the laptop.  The speakers on the OmniBook X Flip 16  pack a punch, pumping out plenty of volume for a small room. They get a little harsh in the mids at max volume, though. Despite the laptop’s size, it doesn’t benefit from any extra-bassy speaker drivers, and therefore comes up lacking in that area. The bass isn’t completely absent, but it’s mellow enough that music doesn’t quite feel full and the most explosive moments of movies will probably fall flat. There’s a decent bit of stereo, though thanks to the wider spacing of the speakers. It is a bit awkward that HP has two huge grilles on either side of the keyboard that look like they’d house speakers, but they don’t.  HP OmniBook X Flip 16: Webcam, microphone, biometrics IDG / Mark Knapp The webcam on the HP OmniBook X Flip 16 captures a nice and sharp picture while also offering support for facial recognition. It can get a little awkward as the camera shifts exposure and white balance levels while recording, seeing big shifts in the color and brightness of parts of the shot, but it still is pretty good for a built-in camera.  The mics paired with the camera also do their job well. They cancelled out the sound of a nearby fan running loudly, and managed to capture my voice loud and clear in the process. They struggled a bit more to cancel out clapping effectively. While they did erase the sound of the claps, they also erased a bit of my voice and made it sound compressed in the process. This was surprising after the laptop’s smaller sibling, the HP OmniBook X Flip 14, performed almost flawlessly in the same test.  The OmniBook X Flip 16  also supports facial recognition for quick and easy sign-in, though Microsoft recently limited this system’s ability to perform in the dark, and the OmniBook X Flip 16  was affected. Thankfully it still works in dim environments.  HP OmniBook X Flip 16: Connectivity IDG / Mark Knapp You’ll get respectable connectivity from the HP OmniBook X Flip 16 , but like many of its contemporaries, it fails to take full advantage of its size. The left side houses a USB-A port, two USB-C ports, an HDMI 2.1 port. The right side, despite having loads of space, only includes a 3.5mm audio jack and a USB-A port. Both USB-A ports offer 10Gbps speeds, which is nice to see. But only one of the USB-C ports gets the Thunderbolt 4 treatment. The other is just another 10Gbps port, though thankfully both USB-C ports support DisplayPort output and charging.  For wireless connections, you get Wi-Fi 7 through an Intel wireless adapter and Bluetooth 5.4. In my testing, both have proven stable and quick to connect.  HP OmniBook X Flip 16: Performance The HP OmniBook X Flip 16 isn’t kitted out to be a performance monster, but it still offers some strong components. At $1,659, its priced like plenty of other machines that also offer strong components, though, and the premium cost of at 2-in-1 actually makes it look a bit worse.  The Acer Swift Go 16 brings along a more powerful processor and an equal amount of storage and RAM for far less at $1,149, but it’s not a 2-in-1. The Lenovo Yoga 7i 2-in-1 16ILL10 has a slightly weaker processor and half the RAM but costs much less at $1,199. Meanwhile, Samsung offers both a 2-in-1 and a traditional version of its Galaxy Book5 Pro. The normal one costs $1,649 and has that same weaker processor found in the Lenovo system alongside just 16GB of memory. Meanwhile, the 2-in-1 version we tested includes the same CPU as and as much memory and RAM as the OmniBook X Flip 16. To make matters a little tricky, the Galaxy Book5 Pro 360 we tested isn’t one Samsung actually sells — rather it has a $1,699 model (currently $1,449) with the same internals as its normal Galaxy Book5 Pro. Almost all of these systems also have a 2880×1800 OLED display except Lenovo’s. IDG / Mark Knapp Even though the OmniBook X Flip 16  is sitting near the top of this group price-wise, it sits at the bottom of the pack in the holistic performance test, PCMark 10. This tests a range of activities, including browsing, opening apps, editing spreadsheets, manipulating photo and video, and having video calls. All of the systems perform great, readily keeping up with these kinds of common tasks, but HP just doesn’t quite do as much. Sometimes, it can just be a slightly slower SSD that will hold a system back against competitors with similar specifications, but the OmniBook X Flip 16  lagged behind across many of the sub-tests. IDG / Mark Knapp Cinebench helps us see one of the culprits of the OmniBook X Flip 16 ’s lower performance in PCMark. Cinebench pushes focused on the CPU specifically. Unsurprisingly, the Acer Swift Go 16 has a strong lead across these tests thanks to its more potent CPU. But the OmniBook X Flip 16  generally showed weaker single-core performance than its other competitors across Cinebench R15, R20, R23, and R24. For multi-core performance, it had a better time leading the Lenovo system and its weaker CPU, but it consistently tailed the two Samsung machines even though one of them also had the same weaker CPU as the Lenovo. That remained consistent even in Cinebench R24, which runs the test longer to show the impacts of thermal throttling more.  IDG / Mark Knapp Our Handbrake test also pushes the CPU hard and will show how well the system can handle heat to perform the task quickly. After seeing the Cinebench results, it’s clear the OmniBook X Flip 16 can at least make better use of its CPU in longer tasks than the Lenovo Yoga 7i 2-in-1—likely thanks to its more potent CPU and better cooling. But again, both Samsung systems perform noticeably better, suggesting that either their power modes deliver more juice or their cooling allows for higher sustained speeds. IDG / Mark Knapp Since all five systems are running on some form of Intel integrated graphics, it’s not surprising to see them all offering largely similar performance. But yet again, the OmniBook X Flip 16  lags behind. Lenovo has roughly 5 percent better performance in the 3DMark gaming benchmark Time Spy, and the Samsung systems step it up with roughly 10 percent better performance. It’s a similar story for 3DMark’s Night Raid, except the differences are even further in favor of the other systems.  This all puts the OmniBook X Flip 16  into a bad spot. HP simply doesn’t seem to have done enough to make sure its system is running as well as it could. Heat could be better managed, and a custom performance profile might have let the CPU run better than it is here. Considering how often the OmniBook X Flip 16  is getting shown up by a machine with a lower-tier CPU (the Intel Core Ultra 7 256V), it’s clear optimization and settings can matter as much or more than system specifications.  HP OmniBook X Flip 16: Battery life The HP OmniBook X Flip 16 takes some advantage of its size to squeeze in a sizable battery with a 68 watt-hour pack, though it could have gone bigger still. It manages to use that battery relatively efficiently. In our 4K local video playback test, which runs the laptop in airplane mode with the screen at 250-260 nits, the OmniBook X Flip 16  managed to run for almost 18 hours. That’s fairly impressive for a big, sharp display. IDG / Mark Knapp That battery longevity, while good, still isn’t mind blowing. It is far better than some, like the Acer Swift Go 16 2025. But Lenovo’s competing model went even further, and both were leagues behind either of Samsung’s Galaxy Book5 Pro models. Both Samsung laptops topped 23 hours of battery life, despite featuring hardware quite similar to the OmniBook X Flip 16. Those are significant leads that can’t be chalked up to slightly larger batteries alone. What’s more surprising is that both Samsung systems managed this while also outperforming the OmniBook X Flip 16 in nearly every performance test. In everyday use, the OmniBook X Flip 16  also lasts quite a while, generally making it through my workdays without issue.  HP OmniBook X Flip 16: Conclusion The HP OmniBook X Flip 16 is a bit hit and a bit miss, almost in equal measure. On the one hand, it feels well built and has a nice, albeit plain look to it. It has a big, gorgeous display as well. But it also makes confusing choices like having huge grilles that do almost nothing. Its keyboard prioritizes form over function. And a 16-inch tablet over four pounds probably won’t be practical for most people, especially without reliable palm rejection.  Then there’s the performance. It simply doesn’t take full advantage of the hardware, in many cases getting outperformed by lower-tier hardware. Perhaps it would have worked better had HP used all of its grilles to get more airflow and heat dissipation. But it didn’t. And in spite of that, the OmniBook X Flip 16 is on the expensive side. Aside from the fact that Samsung’s Galaxy Book5 Pro 360 doesn’t actually come in the configuration we tested, I can see little reason to choose the OmniBook X Flip 16 over it. Even though the Samsung has less memory and a lower-tier processor, I’d expect it to perform close to its non-flipping sibling, which as we saw in our benchmarks also thoroughly beat up on the OmniBook X Flip 16. Read...

Renting an apartment or house doesn’t mean you must forgo the convenience of a smart home; in fact, you might be surprised by the possibilities for making your home life easier, all of which can be achieved without drilling or making any lease-breaking modifications to your dwelling.  I’ve been a serial renter all my adult life, and I’ve been reviewing smart home devices for more than six years. My Brooklyn rental is decked out with smart lights, a video doorbell, security cameras, smart water leak detectors, and more. Yet, I’m confident that when my family picks up stakes for a new abode, we’ll be able to take our smart devices with us, all without leaving a trace. I’ll be ticking off types of smart devices that are decidedly apartment-friendly, from smart bulbs that you can screw into existing sockets to stick-up video doorbells that don’t require wired power. These smart gadgets are easy to install, and once your lease is up, you can pack them up without putting your security deposit at risk.  Once you’ve perused our guide, click through to see our top picks for each category. Renters unite!  Smart lights  Smart bulbs rank as among the easiest way for renters to begin their smart home journeys. An Edison-style smart bulb can be screwed into a standard light socket, and you can reduce your initial outlay by choosing a bulb that’s controllable via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. Once you’re ready to expand, you can add a smart hub for even greater control (such as a Philips Hue Bridge), while light strips and smart light panels can add atmosphere with simple stick-up installation.  Renter`s pick: Philips Hue White Ambiance A19 (Bluetooth + Zigbee) Pros Having Bluetooth onboard eliminates the need for the $60 (MSRP) Philips Hue Bridge Excellent quality of light and smooth-as-silk dimming Supremely easy to install and later transfer to Philips Hue Bridge control when you’re ready Cons Without the Philips Hue Bridge, you can’t limit scenes to one or a few bulbs; changes affect all the Bluetooth bulbs you’ve installed You can’t assign bulbs to rooms without the Bridge Best Prices Today: $49.97 at Amazon$54.99 at Best BuyNot Available at Adorama No one does smart lighting better than Signify’s Philips Hue, and adding Bluetooth while keeping Zigbee makes it cheaper and a whole lot easier to get started. Read our full Philips Hue White and Color Ambiance A19 (Bluetooth + Zigbee) review Check out TechHive`s favorite smart lights Smart plugs  Want to automate your fans or add smarts to a decorative standing lamp? A smart plug will do the trick. Just plug a smart plug into an existing wall outlet, and you’ll be able to control any connected device using voice commands (assuming you have smart speakers, which we’re getting to in a moment), put it on a schedule, or add it to a smart automation (such as powering on a lamp when you come home). Some smart plugs will also monitor your energy usage, although our renter’s pick below lacks that option. Renter`s pick: TP-Link Tapo P125M Mini Smart Wi-Fi Plug Pros Matter certification guarantees broad compatibility and easy setup We experienced zero operational hiccups Physically small and unobtrusive Cons No Thread radio on board Extremely basic usage history and no energy-consumption monitoring Best Prices Today: Not Available at Amazon This TP-Link Tapo P125M doesn’t do energy monitoring, but the price is right, it’s small, it’s easy to set up, and it’s reliable. Read our full TP-Link Tapo P125M Mini Smart Wi-Fi Plug review Check out TechHive`s favorite smart plugs Smart speakers  The heart of your smart home, a smart speaker can bring Alexa, Google Assistant, or Siri into your apartment, allowing you to control your smart devices, play music, set timers and alarms, and more, all using voice commands. Some smart speakers can even act as smart hubs, connecting your various smart gadgets (including those that work with Matter) together. Best of all, installation is a snap: just set your new smart speaker on a table, shelf, or other flat surface, and then plug it in.  Our current favorite smart speaker for most people is the Amazon Echo Dot, but whichever smart ecosystem you choose, we recommend sticking with it for all your other smart speakers–so if you start with Apple’s HomePod mini and you’re ready for more, get another Apple HomePod speaker, not one powered by Alexa or Google Assistant. Renter`s pick: Amazon Echo Dot (5th Gen) Pros A very inexpensive voice-powered smart home controller Very good audio reproduction Pretty industrial design Acts as an extender for Amazon’s Eero mesh routers Cons Audio performance still pales in comparison to a Sonos One 3.5mm analog audio output has been removed Best Prices Today: $31.99 at Amazon Prime$49.99 at Amazon$49.99 at Best Buy Amazon is the strongest player in the smart home market today, and the Echo Dot is a key reason for that position. Check out TechHive`s favorite smart speakers Video doorbell  Just because you’re a renter doesn’t mean you can’t have a video doorbell. We’re seeing more and more smart doorbells that run on battery power and can be attached to your door with adhesive-backed mounting brackets, allowing you to remove them when you’re ready to move out. Even better, our current favorite video doorbell (below, and it’s the one I use) boasts motion and package detection, along with rechargeable batteries that will run for weeks at a time. In case you’re wondering, video doorbells are (in most jurisdictions) perfectly legal for use in apartment buildings, given that there’s no expectation of privacy in a shared hallway. That said, you might want to give neighbors a heads-up before installing a video doorbell on your apartment door. If you’re renting a single-family home, duplex, or the like, take advantage of the doorbell’s privacy features that let you mask your neighbor’s door, window, patio, or other areas where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy. Renter`s pick: Ring Battery Doorbell Plus Pros High-res video: 1,536×1,536 pixels Package detection 1:1 aspect ratio shows visitors from head to toe Operates on either battery or low-voltage power Cons 2.4GHz Wi-Fi connectivity only Color pre-roll video is not supported Ring Protect subscription required to unlock all features, including recording Best Prices Today: $79.99 at Amazon Prime$129.99 at Dell Home$149.99 at Amazon Ring made significant improvements to video resolution and aspect ratio and added package detection to maintain its position as the best video doorbell for most people, including renters. Read our full Ring Battery Doorbell Plus review Check out TechHive`s favorite video doorbells Smart dimmer switches  Nope, you don’t have to tinker with in-wall wiring to install a smart dimmer switch in your apartment. While most of our recommended smart switches do require replacing an existing wall switch (a task that takes from technical know-how, as well as potentially break the terms of your lease), there are stick-up smart switches that you can place—and remove—with ease. Philips Hue, for starters, makes an excellent and handsome smart switch (below) with an adhesive backing, although it requires the Hue Bridge to work.  Renter`s pick: Philips Hue Dimmer Switch (2021) Pros Improved wall plate now has mounting holes New Hue button adds greater functionality Can trigger different light scenes depending on the time of day Fully configurable through HomeKit Cons “Power off” and dimmer buttons aren’t configurable via the Hue app Best Prices Today: $21.88 at Amazon Equipped with a new button, a much improved wall plate, and greater configurability, the new Hue Dimmer Switch is better in every way, and it’s the perfect choice for apartment dwellers who’d rather not deal with drills or in-wall wiring. Check out TechHive`s favorite smart switches and dimmers Robot vacuums  Even a small apartment could do with a robot vacuum sweeping up dirt and debris every so often, especially if you have pets. Until just a few years ago, a budget robot vacuum meant a basic bump-and-run model that you’d turn loose on your floors. Recently, however, affordable robot vacuums have been packing in advanced features such as AI-powered object avoidance, room-mapping capabilities, and more. Renter`s pick: Eufy Clean L60 Pros Affordable Tough on pet hair Accurate room mapping Great battery life Cons Missed larger debris So-so obstacle avoidance Best Prices Today: $199.98 at Amazon If you’re on a budget but still want a robot vacuum that can map your floors, the LiDAR-equipped Eufy Clean L60 makes for a great choice. The vacuum will also please pet lovers with its prowess at picking up pet hair, and it even cleans well in carpeted rooms. Check out TechHive`s favorite robot vacuums Smart thermostats  Unlike most of the smart gadgets in this feature, smart thermostats require some knowledge of in-wall HVAC wiring, and they’re not much good unless your regular thermostat offers control of both heating and cooling. (Some buildings don’t allow their tenants any access to a thermostat, in which case you’re simply out of luck.) Still reading? If so, a smart thermostat isn’t that tough to install (your landlord might even help, or you could always summon a TaskRabbit worker), and it’s a terrific way to save on heating and cooling bills. You should probably get your landlord’s permission before you proceed with this change. Renter`s pick: Nest Thermostat Pros Attractive industrial design, available in four colors Very easy to install, program, and use Monitors your HVAC system for potential problems Energy Star certified Cons No support for remote room sensors Not suited to more complex HVAC systems Backplate for covering holes from previous installations is a $15 option Best Prices Today: It’s hard to beat the Nest team when it comes to attractive industrial design, and the Nest Thermostat is an elegant device if you don’t need to support more sophisticated HVAC systems, which is likely the case for most apartments. Check out TechHive`s favorite smart thermostats Water leak sensors   Water leaks can be trouble even for renters—indeed, as a renter myself, I’ve had to deal with leaky kitchen and bathroom sinks, not to mention a basement that was susceptible to flooding during sudden downpours. To prevent your valuables from getting soaked, a smart water leak sensor makes for a wise investment. Water leak sensors come in different forms. Some are small wireless probes that connect to a hub, while others are plug-in models with lengthy, moisture-detecting sensors. Just leave the sensors under sinks, on basement floors, and other areas where water shouldn’t be, and you’ll get an alert if there’s a water problem.  Renter`s pick: Phyn Smart Water Sensor Pros Sends an immediate warning when water contacts it Industrial design prevents water ingress from the top of the device Operates on two AA batteries Cons Can’t be integrated into a broader smart home ecosystem (including IFTTT) Operates only on 2.4GHz networks Best Prices Today: Deploy Phyn Smart Water Sensors under your sinks, near your washing machine, next to your water heater, and other places where water might show up where it shouldn’t be, and you’ll get an immediate warning if it does. Check out TechHive`s favorite water leak sensors Read...

TL;DR: Deal Days has arrived, and you can now own Microsoft Office 2019 for PC for less than $20—don’t wait since this offer expires July 15. If you’re still juggling free office software or monthly fees, it’s time for an upgrade. And you don’t even need to pay full price for the top productivity suite, Microsoft Office, since our alternative to Prime Day has arrived. During Deal Days, you can score Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2019 for Windows for only $19.97—a one-time payment for a full, lifetime license (reg. $229). This version includes all the essentials: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Publisher, Access, and more. Whether you’re editing spreadsheets, cranking out reports, building presentations, or managing emails, this suite covers the full spectrum of productivity tools—without needing an internet connection or an ongoing subscription. Office 2019 is designed for speed and stability on Windows 10 and 11, with improved performance and new features like better data analysis in Excel, advanced presentation tools in PowerPoint, and refined UI updates across the board. It’s a solid fit whether you’re working from a desktop tower, a gaming laptop doubling as a productivity machine, or a home office setup. The best part? You pay once, and it’s yours for good. No renewal reminders, ever. Plus, updates are included with your purchase so your Office suite works smoothly. Don’t wait to act on this Deal Days discount—grab your Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2019 lifetime license for just $19.97 while supplies last, or before the price goes back up on July 15 at 11:59 p.m. PT. Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2019 for Windows See Deal StackSocial prices subject to change. Read...